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  <row Id="1" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="83" CreationDate="2014-06-18T18:41:22.483" Score="15" ViewCount="3397" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodoxy&quot;&gt;Orthodoxy&lt;/a&gt; in Christianity is the holding to the oldest beliefs.  It is of course impossible for the religion not to evolve at all as new questions and there answer have to addressed. The &quot;Orthodox&quot; version is often considered to be the least evolved sect of a religion.  Does the concept of Orthodox apply in Hinduism? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T07:12:21.413" Title="Is there an Orthodox Hinduism?" Tags="|sects|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="802" CreationDate="2014-06-18T18:43:39.863" Score="17" ViewCount="2478" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every major religion has several different belief systems (sects) that have the same general core belief, but have a significant enough different to have be separated from each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the major (3-10) sects of Hinduism?  How are they different from each other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T10:13:03.813" Title="What are the major sects of Hinduism?" Tags="|sects|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="66" CreationDate="2014-06-18T18:44:51.537" Score="24" ViewCount="1736" Body="&lt;p&gt;How is the concept of rebirth or reincarnation handled in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does it occur? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Will everyone be reborn? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are people always reborn as people?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T11:14:20.133" LastActivityDate="2021-04-25T09:26:21.390" Title="Does rebirth or reincarnation occur in Hinduism?" Tags="|rebirth|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:05:08.817" Score="17" ViewCount="1252" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nowadays most of the people are just considering Hinduism or Sanathana Dharma as a religion. But actually Hinduism touches almost every aspect of a human life. It clearly defines what to do in a particular stage of life. Human life is divided into mainly 4 Ashramas and clearly assigning duties to be done in particular stage:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmacharya or the period of studentship &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Grihastha or the stage of the householder &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vanaprastha or the stage of the forest-dweller or hermit &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sannyasa or the life of renunciation or asceticism &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cultural values have equal importance in Hinduism. Also it teaches how to live a perfect life through its vast collection of books like Vedas, Updanishaths, &amp;amp; Puranas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayurveda &amp;amp; Yoga are some of the examples which deals with health. It also includes many scientific subjects. Vedic mathematics, Astrology, Vasthushasthra, &amp;amp; Geography are some examples. It also teachings about protecting nature. Also, Hinduism is hiding many scientific facts in most of its rituals and sacraments. Many discoveries of modern science were previously discovered by Rishis and Yogis. Religions don't handle all these subjects, they typically focus on worshiping Gods or following particular rituals according to the holy books. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another thing to notice is that Hinduism does not have a founder. It does not have a single holy book, but it does have a lot of texts which are considered important and those texts discussing a variety of topics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Christianity - Jesus  - Holy Bible&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Islam        - Allah  - Holy Quran&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Buddhism     - Buddha - Tripitaka&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hinduism     - ?      - ?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism does have the method of worshiping Gods, but we need to keep in mind that every culture naturally covers the religious aspects too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though it includes religious aspects, can it be considered as only a religion? Can it be considered as religion like Christianity, Islam or Buddhism?   Or, is it a culture which was followed in particular region India and then spread across the world as a religion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="10329" LastEditDate="2018-04-13T10:15:50.623" LastActivityDate="2018-07-04T06:05:40.533" Title="Is Hinduism a culture of living more than just a religion?" Tags="|culture|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:06:42.477" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;While there is no single school of thought that is called &quot;Orthodox Hinduism&quot;, there &lt;em&gt;are&lt;/em&gt; six schools of thought that are lowercase-o &quot;orthodox Hinduism&quot;. These are called the &lt;strong&gt;āstika&lt;/strong&gt; schools (the conventional translation is indeed &quot;orthodox&quot;), and they are contrasted with the &quot;unorthodox&quot; nāstika schools. The āstika schools are those that accept the Vedas as authoritative; the nāstika schools are those that do not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the nāstika schools are well-known to the wider world - the term &lt;em&gt;nāstika&lt;/em&gt; is primarily applied to traditions that originated in Hinduism, but that we would not today view as Hindu, e.g. the Buddhists and the Jains. The extinct Charvaka school is also considered nāstika. The āstika schools are not so well-known among non-Hindus: they are Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that this classification is an &lt;em&gt;external&lt;/em&gt; classification - it reflects an outside observer's position on what constitutes orthodoxy and heterodoxy in the context of Hinduism. It does &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; reflect the internal view of Hindu groups on one another - some of the āstika groups will consider other āstika groups to be nāstika, and so forth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in sum, yes - the concept of orthodoxy exists in Hinduism, though it isn't really all that similar to the idea of Orthodox Christianity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-18T22:30:11.773" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T22:30:11.773" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:08:22.360" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is hard to classify Hinduism as Orthodox &amp;amp; Heterodox. Hinduism has always been fluid with many Sampradayas(traditions/philosophical views) existing at the same time and evolving together. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With respect to Christianity, the religion was centrally controlled and codified and what prevailed became Orthodoxy(all sects which subscribe to Nicene Creed are actually orthodox) and other views became Heratical and was sidelined. This was not the case with Hinduism as Hinduism was a highly de-centralized tradition and every view was allowed to grow and flourish. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are historians who incorrectly classify the Āstika darshanas(Nyāyá,Vaiśeṣika, Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Mimāṃsā, Vedanta) as orthodox &amp;amp; Nāstika darshanas(Jain, Buddhist, Cārvāka) as Hetrodox. But this labeling is incorrect since each darshana had a different notion of who was an Āstika and who was a Nāstika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T19:08:22.360" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="42" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:09:48.443" Score="45" ViewCount="20461" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am just curious for what religious reasons there might have been. In certain sects of Hinduism, women are asked to not enter the kitchen, eat and sleep separately from the rest of the family, not enter temples, etc. when they are menstruating. One obvious reason may have been sanitary reasons, but it is still followed in 2014 when it is no longer a reason. Are there any other, religious reasons for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="19" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2021-04-21T14:33:01.257" LastActivityDate="2021-04-21T14:33:01.257" Title="Why are menstruating women (at least in the Brahmin community) asked to be separate from the family for three days?" Tags="|rituals|women|menstruation|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:16:12.110" Score="19" ViewCount="820" Body="&lt;p&gt;While there is a history of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_in_Hinduism&quot;&gt;atheist/agnostic thought within the Hindu philosophical tradition&lt;/a&gt;, have there ever been actual &lt;em&gt;communities&lt;/em&gt; of atheist/agnostic Hindus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="21" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-23T00:53:02.757" LastActivityDate="2022-05-03T14:01:08.377" Title="Have there ever been Hindu atheist/agnostic communities?" Tags="|charvaka|atheism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="41" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:24:49.133" Score="10" ViewCount="2256" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have been told that Aryans were living in the Indian subcontinent and that they started the caste and creed system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true that they started the Hindu belief system?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-26T04:15:12.817" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T04:15:12.817" Title="Were Aryans the forefathers of Hindus?" Tags="|history|arya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:26:04.513" Score="6" ViewCount="442" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are examples of Hindu philosophy or practice being influenced by Christian thought, tradition, or practice (e.g. the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmo_Samaj&quot;&gt;Brahmo Samaj&lt;/a&gt;)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="21" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T22:01:09.267" LastActivityDate="2015-09-02T11:55:37.873" Title="How has Christianity influenced Hindu thought or practice?" Tags="|christianity|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="52" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:27:21.857" Score="10" ViewCount="4134" Body="&lt;p&gt;In India, people do drugs and drink alcohol. This can be interpreted as there being no law in India to stop them from drinking and doing drugs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many Indian people are also Hindu. What does Hinduism say about the use of drugs and alcohol?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="6" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T21:28:07.357" LastActivityDate="2023-02-19T18:00:10.757" Title="Are drugs allowed in Hinduism?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:28:26.380" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T18:57:51.823" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T18:57:51.823" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:28:26.380" Score="0" Body="For questions about particular beliefs held by Hindus, e.g. what happens after death, or why people burn incense during prayer." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T18:57:51.823" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T18:57:51.823" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="28" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:29:22.843" Score="10" ViewCount="11375" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gods and Goddesses have been mentioned in many areas in India as well as many articles written by scholar of hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does Hinduism have a concept similar to angels - not the Gods but lesser heavenly beings that are messengers of the Gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is not about explicitly Judeo-Christian angels like Gabriel, but rather the concept behind angels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-08T06:41:42.963" LastActivityDate="2018-06-22T20:28:33.360" Title="Are there angels in Hinduism?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="77" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:32:31.657" Score="17" ViewCount="10871" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the teachings of Hinduism for dealing with other religions and their followers? To be more precise, what does Hinduism teach its followers about how to treat other people like Muslims and Christians?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T19:46:38.943" LastActivityDate="2022-05-13T08:48:28.443" Title="How should Hindus treat people of other religions?" Tags="|belief|other-religions|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="31" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:34:15.447" Score="11" ViewCount="1976" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are Hindus allowed to marry people of other religions?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If yes, how should they marry someone belonging to a different&#xA;religion?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are the rules different for a man and a woman?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T15:53:34.053" LastActivityDate="2018-04-10T01:40:23.550" Title="Do Hindus intermarry with other religions?" Tags="|scripture|belief|culture|marriage|other-religions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:39:27.590" Score="13" ViewCount="5622" Body="&lt;p&gt;I learned the Devanagari script and couldn't help but notice the similarity of the Om symbol ॐ to the symbols of the Devanagari writing system, like अं (never mind that this is pronounced &lt;code&gt;aṃ&lt;/code&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My teacher, maybe simply as pedagogical eccentricity, was &lt;em&gt;eminent&lt;/em&gt; that the &lt;strong&gt;Om symbol ॐ had nothing to do with the Devanagari script&lt;/strong&gt;. What exactly is the origin of the Om symbol and its connection with the Devanagari script, if any?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="29" LastActivityDate="2018-03-12T11:08:51.170" Title="Om symbol ॐ and Devanagari script" Tags="|history|om|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="25" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:47:20.593" Score="8" ViewCount="470" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the past, Hindu practice and belief were transmitted largely through oral tradition and localized cultural practices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are examples of changes in Hindu practice or belief as a result of the rise of literacy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="21" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-29T13:08:04.143" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T13:08:04.143" Title="How has the rise of literacy changed Hindu practice?" Tags="|belief|history|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="28" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:54:19.767" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are also Gandharvas, Kinnaras, and other subtle beings mentioned in the Vedic literatures, which can likened to the Christian idea of angels. It really depends on what your perspective of &quot;angels&quot;. If you're thinking of subtle beings flying in the sky with heavenly voices, those are Gandharvas. If you're implying beings with higher power who influence the universe and who have God-like powers, those are the demigods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T19:54:19.767" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="29" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="56" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:54:35.200" Score="0" ViewCount="714" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most Indian newspapers write in good English. The only oddity across all papers I've seen lies in the choice of vocabulary talking about the passing away or death of someone. Invariably, people don't seem to die, but to &quot;expire&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What part, if any, of Hindu philosophy concerning death would have people choose &quot;he expired&quot; over &quot;he died&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="29" LastEditorUserId="29" LastEditDate="2014-06-18T20:11:17.360" LastActivityDate="2014-07-15T17:02:19.657" Title="Death vs. expiration in Hindu philosophy" Tags="|rebirth|death|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2014-08-19T06:10:57.713" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="31" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:57:48.673" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism/Sanatan Dharam is much older than any other practicing religion that's why there is no literature to inter-marry other religions. This is more like a culture question. Culturally People who termed Hinduism as a religion abstain to marry into other religion due to cultural differences and various other reasons like sometime they need to convert to other religion after marriage so they don't marry because of it. Hinduism doesn't stop or encourage anyone to marry with different religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="31" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T19:57:48.673" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="32" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-18T19:59:23.903" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In short, yes. Hinduism defines a concept of karma which is loosely the same as karma as it is known in the English speaking world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person's (or being) actions have a direct and indirect effect on their karma. Think of it like a credit score, only more complex. At a high level, there are 3 dimensions or energy levels that count towards your karma - sattwa, rajas and tamas. Based on each action, inaction or behavior you score on these 3 scales. Sattwa is said to be what one should aim for as it includes all the good qualities and powers - good as in good in a general betterment-of-human-life sense. The gunas are not be confused with positive, negative and neutral as sattva which you might think is neutral doesn't count if you remain neutral in some scenarios. (Aka Dante's quote). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(See Bhagavad Gita chapters 14, 17, 18 on understanding the different modes.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As long as you score on rajas and tamas, no matter how you do on sattwa, you are doomed to be reborn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit: As cheenbabes pointed out in the comments, as long as you score on ANY gunas you cannot have Moksha. However, sattwa is the most ideal level for life on Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One's life's purpose is to attain Moksha and escape the world of birth and death. The concept of Moksha itself is deep and involves the Brahman which is a different topic altogether.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Spiritual evolution in the Vedas states that beings begin at lower life forms such as insects and work their way up through reincarnation through the bodies of plants, birds, animals, and finally humans. The belief that &quot;once a human, always a human&quot; is not supported by Vedic philosophy. One reason for this is verse 8.6 of the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This implies that if one receives the next body in order to suit the consciousness at the moment of death. In other words, if your desires can be more easily fulfilled in the body of a dog, you may receive that next body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One example is the story of Jada Bharata in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; . In summary, King Bharata, although very highly advanced in spiritual practice, became attached to a deer, and because of thinking intensely of the deer when he died, he took his next birth in a deer body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="33" LastEditorUserId="39" LastEditDate="2014-06-18T22:23:25.080" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T22:23:25.080" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="33" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="29" CreationDate="2014-06-18T20:01:42.460" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is a vague word, but I'll answer from the Vaishnava perspective.&#xA;In Vaishnavism, the core philosophy states that the eternal living being is the soul and not the body. The soul continues to transmigrate through different bodies until he achieves liberation from the cycle of birth and death. In other words, the soul is eternal, while the body is temporary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita 2.20 — For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, the body expires or dies, but the individual inside, the soul, does not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastEditorUserId="29" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T03:54:17.800" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T03:54:17.800" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="35" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="29" CreationDate="2014-06-18T20:12:33.223" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, end of earthly life is considered not an end but the beginning of another life. The ultimate end is attainment of moksha where a person attains freedom from the cycle of birth and death. So when a person &quot;dies&quot;, he merely &quot;expires&quot; his life on earth or say ceases to exist in human body and becomes one with nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="43" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T20:12:33.223" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="36" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="93" CreationDate="2014-06-18T20:14:31.540" Score="93" ViewCount="33623" Body="&lt;p&gt;The other two major religions, Christianity and Islam both practice burial after death. What factors influence the Hindus to practice cremation instead?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="41" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T15:56:41.857" Title="Why do Hindus believe in cremation instead of burial?" Tags="|belief|death|cremation|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="37" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-18T20:19:20.480" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The misnomer of Hinduism adds to the confusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Hinduism was coined by Muslims coming from the west who could not pronounce the &quot;s&quot; in Sindhu river. Therefore, they called everyone living east of the river as Indus, or Hindus. Therefore, Hinduism could refer to the entire geographical culture of the Indian subcontinent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Within the culture of Hinduism, there are numerous lifestyles that are predominantly based around a particular religion, for example Vaisnavism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T20:19:20.480" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="38" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-18T20:26:28.910" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question can never be answered well enough to satisfy everyone's appetite solely because Hinduism doesn't have any single authority which can pontificate over it's particularities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it is interesting to note that Hinduism was a name given to the practice of Sanatana Dharma. Now dharma, in its modern sense translates to religion indeed, but in the vedic sense dharma means righteousness. Righteousness in the way one leads his life and it's many nuances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one could argue that Hinduism is not a religion in the strictest definition of it, but with time and cultural advances the lines between a religion and a way of life have become blurred so it can also be argued that Hinduism is indeed a religion like the rest of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since there will never be any official document declaring it as either, it would be best to go with what one believes it to be, albeit makes little difference either ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="41" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T20:26:28.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="39" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="36" CreationDate="2014-06-18T20:39:06.420" Score="27" Body="&lt;p&gt;The theological reason for the question is given by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/93/467&quot;&gt;Vineeth Menon&lt;/a&gt;, and as mentioned here mainly pointing on the &lt;strong&gt;sociological and scientific reasons&lt;/strong&gt; which were known to our ancestors before ages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism(Sanathana Dharma) is mainly a &lt;strong&gt;culture than a religion&lt;/strong&gt; which is followed in India. The culture of one region is based on that region's &lt;strong&gt;weather conditions and nature&lt;/strong&gt;. Cremation of bodies is a real example of this fact. &lt;strong&gt;Soil in India is wet type&lt;/strong&gt;(compared gulf countries and European countries) and have more water in it. If dead bodies are buried under soil, the &lt;strong&gt;bio degradation&lt;/strong&gt; take place and body fluids come out. Since the soil is wet enough, it is very much sure that those fluids will mix up with the water in soil and hence the &lt;strong&gt;drinking source&lt;/strong&gt;s like wells and rivers will get polluted. This will lead to &lt;strong&gt;diseases&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also cremation helps in &lt;strong&gt;not wasting the land&lt;/strong&gt;. After cremating the bodies, there is practice in which &lt;strong&gt;some grains(nava danyas,i.e 9 grain seeds)&lt;/strong&gt; are put in the place of cremation(It is still followed in Southern part of India, not sure about other parts). This practice is a straightforward way in pointing out the &lt;strong&gt;importance of agriculture in Hinduism(or in Indian culture)&lt;/strong&gt;. This is practiced to make sure that the &lt;strong&gt;agricultural land is not wasted&lt;/strong&gt;. The same land is again used for agricultural purposes. So in this culture there are no cemeteries, the same land again used for the farming.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these are written in the &lt;strong&gt;Smrithies&lt;/strong&gt;(example for Smriti is Manusmrithi and I don't know in which specific smrithi this practice is mentioned.), which contains the code of conducts to be followed by people following a culture. &lt;strong&gt;Each Smrithi is followed in a region for a particular period according to it's nature and weather conditions&lt;/strong&gt;.. Smrithies are &lt;strong&gt;allowed to edit&lt;/strong&gt; as needed(according to change in weather , living style, etc.) So that means the rituals and habits could be changed according to Hindu culture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also it will be helpful to refer about &lt;strong&gt;16 samskaras&lt;/strong&gt; to be followed in one person's life. From wikipedia: The samskāra (sanskaar) are a series of sacraments, sacrifices and rituals that serve as rites of passage and mark the various stages of the human life and to signify entry to a particular Ashrama (i.e. stage of life). The answer of the question is related to the 16&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; one, &lt;strong&gt;Antyeshti&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83sk%C4%81ra#Antyeshti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;see the link&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So according to Hindu culture, &lt;strong&gt;particular region or country can adopt their way of burying according to the nature and weather conditions&lt;/strong&gt;. This is making a good sense. In Middle East countries/gulf most of the parts are deserts. Hence the religion originated from there, i.e. Islam follows this method of burying which is suitable for their nature. Similar conditions would have affected the practice of burying among Christians. So in conclusion burning of body may not be necessary in other countries based on weather conditions. But as India have it's sets of weather features, our ancestor's made a set of rules which suits for the country. They were also successful in implementing their ideas by forming &lt;strong&gt;particular customs which hides scientific facts&lt;/strong&gt; behind them (As mentioned above, &lt;strong&gt;Antyeshti&lt;/strong&gt; among Shodasa Sansakara is one of them). The burning of dead bodies is one of the best example for this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2015-06-03T18:13:50.660" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="41" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11" CreationDate="2014-06-18T20:43:15.570" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Preface: this answer is hugely lacking in details, which I hope to add later. For more detailed and evidence-based views on the matter, consider consulting the following discussions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/1860/what-are-the-latest-publications-demolishing-the-aryan-invasion-migration-theory&quot;&gt;What are the latest publications demolishing the Aryan invasion/migration theory?&lt;/a&gt; at History.SE (note: there aren't many, aside from some confusion about the genetic evidence as it currently stands)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/1323/why-is-dravidian-history-ignored&quot;&gt;Why is Dravidian history ignored?&lt;/a&gt; at History.SE (tangentially-related)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://history.stackexchange.com/q/5954/2397&quot;&gt;What is the current consensus on the origins of the Brahmi script?&lt;/a&gt; at History.SE (concerning the particular claim, currently thought to be false, that Brahmi derives from the Harappan script)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnthropology/comments/1gyzqq/indians_descendants_of_indoeuropeans_ivc_evacuees/caq0gtl&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indians - Descendants of Indo-Europeans, IVC evacuees, Dravidians, or all of the above?&lt;/a&gt; at /r/AskAnthropology&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/the-aryan-migration-theory-last-word/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;The Aryan Migration Theory: Last Word&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt; on Robert Lindsay's blog (but, in particular, see the two works cited at the bottom of his post)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is obviously an issue that will provoke some heated feelings, so let me just provide a brief overview of what science has to say about the migration of peoples into northern India during the Vedic period. I will update this in more detail later, but for now, this should serve as a reasonable summary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Linguistic evidence&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Much research has been done since the 19th century to firmly establish the classification of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-european_languages&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indo-European languages&lt;/a&gt;. We now know that Vedic Sanskrit (the language of the Rig Veda) is part of the Indo-European family of languages, and, in particular, part of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Aryan_languages&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Indo-Aryan subfamily&lt;/a&gt;. We have strong reason to believe that the Indo-European homeland (the &amp;quot;urheimat&amp;quot;) lies near the Black Sea. This, along with other evidence, strongly suggests that the Indo-Aryan languages were brought to northern India by a migration of peoples from the northwest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Archaeological evidence&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not well-acquainted with the archaeological evidence here, but it is known that there are archaeological traces of a migration towards the Indus Valley, and that at around this same time, the Indus Valley civilization collapsed. This is taken as evidence that the Indus Valley peoples were displaced by a migration of peoples from the northwest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Genetic evidence&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The genetic evidence is less clear than the linguistic evidence. There is some Y-chromosomal evidence that the &amp;quot;North Indians&amp;quot; and the &amp;quot;South Indians&amp;quot; (Dravidians) represent two substantially different populations. This, too, suggests a migration from somewhere into northern India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This evidence generally favors a scenario in which an &amp;quot;Aryan&amp;quot; population migrated into northern India c. 1500 BC. It is clear that when they migrated, they brought with them religious texts - the Vedas. In this sense, the Aryans &amp;quot;started&amp;quot; Hinduism. However, even Vedic Hinduism was not purely the creation of the Aryans - there is some evidence that some practices of the Indus Valley peoples were incorporated into what we know now as the Vedic religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Alternates to the Aryan migration scenario exist, but I don't know much about them, and they don't appear to have much evidence supporting them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T21:13:20.543" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="42" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8" CreationDate="2014-06-18T21:06:02.843" Score="43" Body="&lt;p&gt;Menstruation is considered to be &quot;muci,&quot; or impure. For many brahminical families, temple worship and puja were their primary occupations. One cannot worship the Deity or perform rituals if one is unclean. The concern was that women would contaminate the offerings prepared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manu-smriti&lt;/strong&gt; / &lt;strong&gt;Discourse V - Sources of Evil&lt;/strong&gt; / &lt;strong&gt;Section IX - Other forms of Impurity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200445.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 5.65&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रात्रिभिर्मासतुल्याभिर्गर्भस्रावे विशुध्यति । &lt;br&gt;  रजस्युपरते साध्वी&#xA;  स्नानेन स्त्री रजस्वला ॥ ६५ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rātribhirmāsatulyābhirgarbhasrāve viśudhyati |  &lt;br&gt; rajasyuparate sādhvī&#xA;  snānena strī rajasvalā || 65 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the case of miscarriage, the woman becomes pure in so many days as&#xA;  there have been months; and &lt;strong&gt;the woman in her courses becomes fit by&#xA;  bathing after the ceasing of the menstrual flow&lt;/strong&gt;. — (65)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200464.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 5.84&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दिवाकीर्तिमुदक्यां च पतितं सूतिकां तथा । &lt;br&gt; शवं तत्स्पृष्टिनं चैव&#xA;  स्पृष्ट्वा स्नानेन शुध्यति ॥ ८४ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;divākīrtimudakyāṃ ca patitaṃ sūtikāṃ tathā | &lt;br&gt; śavaṃ tatspṛṣṭinaṃ caiva&#xA;  spṛṣṭvā snānena śudhyati || 84 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After having touched&lt;/strong&gt; the Cāndāla, &lt;strong&gt;the menstruating woman&lt;/strong&gt;, the outcast,&#xA;  the woman in child-bed, the dead body, or toucher thereof — &lt;strong&gt;one&#xA;  becomes pure by bathing.&lt;/strong&gt; — (84).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a different note, women were allowed to fully rest during menstruation and were excused from all household duties. This led to quicker recoveries and happier women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-03-15T16:02:57.100" LastActivityDate="2018-03-15T16:02:57.100" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="43" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11" CreationDate="2014-06-18T21:11:25.267" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Aryan &quot;Invasion&quot; Theory is &lt;em&gt;disputed&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As much as there is proof Aryan invasion, there is as much against it. See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/aryan_invasion_theory_the_final_nail_in_its_coffin.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Aryan Invasion Theory:&#xA;The Final Nail in its Coffin&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The people known as Aryans could as well been sister civilization of the Indus valley people and lived around the Saraswati river, thus many collectively call it Sindhu-Saraswati civilization(above article deals with it).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If at all Aryans came from somewhere else, it could been a &quot;Migration&quot; and not an Invasion&quot; since there is no evidence for a war or conquest. There is evidence that Indus civilization collapsed due to droughts: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/200-year-drought-doomed-indus-valley-civilization/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;200-Year Drought Doomed Indus Valley Civilization&lt;/a&gt;. The dates of Aryan arrival is after this drought. This makes it possible that Saraswati river also suffered drought and thus the Harappan people of the Saraswati moved into Indian mainland. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not easy to trace Hindu practices to one person or a group.&#xA;Indus Valley Civilization which is supposed to be pre-Aryan(considering Aryans arrived into India from somewhere) worshiped Pashupati(Shiva) and used Swastika symbols indicating &lt;strong&gt;indigenous origins of Hindu practices&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a &quot;Out of India&quot; theory/Indigenous Aryans theory which states that, Indo-Europeans languages originated out of India &amp;amp; did not flow into India. Prof.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.omilosmeleton.gr/en/nk_cv_en.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nicholas Kanzanas&lt;/a&gt; did a lot of research on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2016-08-03T17:28:05.323" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T17:28:05.323" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="44" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="57" CreationDate="2014-06-18T21:11:29.217" Score="22" ViewCount="3700" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many religions believe in aliens and all those extra-terrestrial creatures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the Hindu conception of aliens like?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T03:55:57.313" LastActivityDate="2014-07-30T11:57:15.957" Title="What do Hindus believe about extra-terrestrials?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="45" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="178" CreationDate="2014-06-18T21:15:27.920" Score="17" ViewCount="3054" Body="&lt;p&gt;Holi is meant to be a happy ritual, I agree. But what is the historical context behind this whole ritual, and what do the colors represent?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-06T17:36:42.593" LastActivityDate="2021-12-31T17:50:42.497" Title="Why do people celebrate Holi? Why do they throw colored powder at each other?" Tags="|rituals|practice|festivals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="46" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="50" CreationDate="2014-06-18T21:17:32.437" Score="23" ViewCount="2379" Body="&lt;p&gt;Humans (at least Asians) are wheatish-brown in color. Why was Krishna portrayed as blue? Is it just to show his purity, or is there some story background of it (e.g. is it based in reality)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-18T21:21:32.033" LastActivityDate="2018-05-15T15:20:30.890" Title="Why is Krishna portrayed to be blue?" Tags="|krishna|art|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="47" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="51" CreationDate="2014-06-18T21:21:06.797" Score="18" ViewCount="787" Body="&lt;p&gt;In India, I saw many cows roaming freely in the city. They were feasting on plastic bags. Isn't this ironic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On one hand, Hindus seem to accept that humans shouldn't harm cows. &#xA;Does this not imply that humans should also protect cows from harm (e.g. death from not being able to digest plastic)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any sins related to it according to scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nw19A.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;cows and plastic bags&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="29" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T06:23:26.650" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T06:23:26.650" Title="Protection of cows and subsequent sins when failing in it" Tags="|scripture|sin|animals|cows|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="48" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13" CreationDate="2014-06-18T21:23:10.193" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism was not influenced by Christianity, rather it predates it. &#xA;The 2 religions have completely incompatible world view. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There has been lots of effort put on by European Indologists to paint Vivekananda &amp;amp; Ramakrishna Mission to be copying Christian values of service &amp;amp; charity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Book &lt;a href=&quot;http://indrasnetbook.com/&quot;&gt;Indra's Net&lt;/a&gt; proves with philosophical &amp;amp; historical evidence that Vivekanda's ideology of seva originated from the Upanishads &amp;amp; not from Christianity. The basis of Seva(service/charity) is &quot;Tat Tvam Asi&quot; principle which means &quot;you are that&quot;. You are same as your neighbor. The basis for this philosophy predates Christianity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="39" LastEditDate="2014-06-18T23:18:22.727" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T23:18:22.727" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="50" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="46" CreationDate="2014-06-18T21:30:35.973" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna's color is quoted from scripture to be like the hue of newly formed rain clouds. See Brahma Samhita 5.30:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;veṇuṁ kvaṇantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣam-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya-viśeṣa-śobhaṁ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the full word for word translation, &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bs/5/30&quot;&gt;see Bhaktivedanta VedaBase&lt;/a&gt;. An overall translation is below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is adept in playing on His flute, with blooming eyes like lotus petals with head decked with peacock's feather, with the figure of beauty tinged with the hue of blue clouds, and His unique loveliness charming millions of Cupids.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T03:54:57.663" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T03:54:57.663" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="51" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="47" CreationDate="2014-06-18T21:33:13.850" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Correct, the ancient Vedic culture actively advocates and promotes cow protection. &#xA;There are a few reasons for why the cow is considered holy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Traditional Deity worship required &lt;em&gt;pancagavya&lt;/em&gt;, or five ingredients, which are cow dung, cow urine, milk, ghee, and curd. Cow dung has antiseptic properties, cow urine has medicinal properties, milk is nutritious, ghee is required for fire &lt;em&gt;yajnas&lt;/em&gt;, and curd is made into many preparations which are then offered to the Deities as part of worship.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Traditional Vedic culture also lists the cow as one of the seven mothers.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna is worshiped as protector of the cows by Vedic mantras, specifically:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;namo brahmanya devaya&#xA;  go-brahmana hitaya ca&#xA;  jagad-dhitaya krsnaya&#xA;  govindaya no namaha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  Unfortunately, there is little, if any, environmental regulations in India, and cows are often neglected as well. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know in Vrindavana, a prominent holy place, there has been an active campaign to stop the use of all plastic bags within the city, and there are a few organizations which take in stray cows and rehabilitate them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://zeenews.india.com/news/uttar-pradesh/plastic-bags-banned-in-vrindavan_801082.html&quot;&gt;Plastic bags now banned in Vrindavana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.careforcows.org/&quot;&gt;Care for Cows: rescuing abandoned cows in Vrindavana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastEditorUserId="39" LastEditDate="2014-06-18T21:49:34.070" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T21:49:34.070" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="52" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14" CreationDate="2014-06-18T21:34:55.093" Score="20" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is taking alcohol really allowed in Hinduism, or people forgot what&#xA;  were the teachings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no &quot;commandment&quot; regarding use of drugs or alcohol. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is considered bad for socio-cultural reasons than religious reasons in most cases. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many Hindu schools/teachings &quot;recommend&quot; (not mandate) consumption of Sattivic food to maintain Sattva guna. Alcohol and drugs are known to induce Rajas &amp;amp; Tamas Guna and hence are to be avoided if one seeks Sattvik qualities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the gunas have different meaning in different thought systems.&#xA;The notion which is I use is that Satta - purity/clearness, Rajas - restlessness/anger and Tamas - laziness/sloth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2014-06-18T23:54:42.893" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T23:54:42.893" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="53" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9" CreationDate="2014-06-18T21:55:22.677" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. There is a system of philosophy known as Lokayata which supports atheism. The followers of this system are known as Charvakas. Bruhaspati founded this branch of philosophy. Charvakas do not believe in Heaven, Hell, Soul and Karma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="50" LastEditorUserId="50" LastEditDate="2014-06-18T22:02:27.550" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T22:02:27.550" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="54" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-18T22:05:06.520" Score="28" ViewCount="5267" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Christianity, one has the holy Bible and in Islam one has the holy Quran. Which scriptures should a Hindu always follow?  Which scripture can a Hindu look up for references?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="42" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-12-06T04:24:54.800" LastActivityDate="2016-12-31T06:20:35.660" Title="What are the Hindu scriptures which every Hindu should abide by?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="55" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="54" CreationDate="2014-06-18T22:09:20.670" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most common that all sects of Hinduism can agree on would be the Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is commonly accepted to be one of the oldest scriptures in the world, and it concisely describes the philosophy of soul, God, and their relationship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T22:09:20.670" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="56" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="29" CreationDate="2014-06-18T22:11:25.357" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't think that this has anything to do with Hindu conceptions of death. Rather, this is most likely a peculiarity of Indian English. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In many varieties of English, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/expire&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;expire&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is a somewhat archaic, euphemistic synonym for &quot;die&quot;. However, in Indian English, this is merely a euphemistic synonym for &quot;die&quot;, not an archaic one. Some dude has put together an Indian English → British(?) English lexicon &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amritt.com/india-english-dictionary/expire/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; that contains &lt;em&gt;expire&lt;/em&gt; as an entry. While I don't know if the lexicon as a whole is useful, the fact that the creator chose to include &lt;em&gt;expire&lt;/em&gt; further suggests that this is just another idiosyncrasy of Indian English. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indian_English&amp;amp;oldid=521848410&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This old version of the Wikipedia page on Indian English&lt;/a&gt; also lists &quot;expire&quot; as a a dialectal feature of Indian English. While the page is largely unsourced, it mostly jives with my intuitions as someone who has heard and read a fair bit of Indian English.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is possible that the choice to use &quot;expire&quot; rather than a different euphemism like &quot;pass away&quot; is motivated by a conscious understanding of Hindu philosophy, but Occam's razor suggests that just isn't all that likely - this is probably another one of those nigh-inexplicable weird things about language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Amusingly enough, just earlier today, I talked with a not-that-religious Indian person who, completely unprompted, said &quot;Did you hear about [so-and-so]? He expired.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T09:04:29.640" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T09:04:29.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="57" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="44" CreationDate="2014-06-18T22:15:41.527" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are numerous references to beings from other planets throughout the Hindu canon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a Vaishnava perspective, there are mentions of other beings in the Bhagavata Purana, one&#xA;of the 18 main puranas. A few examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Creation of the universe throughout &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3&quot;&gt;Canto 3&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Description of the universe throughout &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/5&quot;&gt;Canto 5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Battles between demigods and demons described in details on other planets in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/8&quot;&gt;Canto 8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also extensive mentions of beings on other planets in the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arjuna goes to the heavenly planets after performing austerities to meet Indra and other demigods&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arjuna and his brothers meet Gandharvas, a type of subtle celestial being, numerous times, once in the beginning of the book, and again in exile&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhima travels underwater to the planet of the snakes&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arjuna and Krsna kill the demons hiding in the water to please the demigods&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Duryodhana goes into trance while committing suicide, travels to the subterranean planets, and meets with demons who convince him to change his mind&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T22:15:41.527" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="58" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-18T22:55:28.953" Score="9" ViewCount="474" Body="&lt;p&gt;In India I observed practically every household washing (or having washed) their entrance in the morning and painting a kolam (a/k/a rangoli and many others) in front of the entrance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand that a kolam is used to bring prosperity to the home. I did always wonder how people feel about stepping on these. I've seen kolam in front of entrances to houses, that were painted right on the sidewalk. Sometimes in a matter of minutes, the kolam would be smudged and hardly recognizable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this not a problem, or is it just that having a kolam is better than having none, even if it is stepped on and smudged?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="29" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T04:30:45.423" Title="Stepping on kolams" Tags="|customs|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="59" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="54" CreationDate="2014-06-18T23:11:36.487" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, every individual has unconditional freedom.  Every person in this culture can live in any manner one finds right.  Hence, there are &lt;strong&gt;no prescribed scriptures&lt;/strong&gt; that every Hindu has to necessarily follow.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However there are thousands of scriptures in Hinduism from which a person can pick and choose anything.  The purpose of these scriptures is to help the individual in one's spiritual evolution and not to serve as a rule book that should be thrust upon one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The oldest known scriptures in Hinduism are the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veda&quot;&gt;Vedas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.  The Vedas are the cumulative work of sages in ancient India as a result of their deep penance.  They were passed on in the form of oral recitals (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Aruti&quot;&gt;śruti&lt;/a&gt;).  Vedas provide information on broadly two major aspects - Philosophy (Highest Knowledge) and rituals.  The philosophy aspect of Veda is also referred to as the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads&quot;&gt;Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mah%C4%81v%C4%81kyas&quot;&gt;Mahavakyas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; are essential phrases (mantras) of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads&quot;&gt;Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;.  It serves as a quick summary of the Vedas.  It consists of 4 phrases (vakya).  Each of the sayings conveys the nature of God (Brahman). The Mahavakyas convey everything that Hinduism tries to convey regarding God.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every individual is unique.  Every individual comes from a varying plane of understanding of God.  Each individual's understanding is dependent on multiple factors such as their experiences in life, upbringing, social environment, intellectual capacity, etc.  In order to help the most people, Hindus in the past created different scriptures to help each individual.  It helps the individual to experience the Mahavakyas by oneself.  So for the purpose of covering a wide variety of people, a wide variety of scriptures were also created in the hope that each individual attains self-realization (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana&quot;&gt;Nirvana&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are thousands of such scriptures in Hinduism for this purpose.  They include the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana&quot;&gt;Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;.  The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavat_Gita&quot;&gt;Gita&lt;/a&gt; is a part of the Mahabharata which deals with the philosophical aspect of the Mahabharata.  (Like the Upanishads are to the Vedas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more scriptures in Hinduism that were created for specific purposes to meet the varying demands of people and social conditions.  This includes the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manu_Smriti&quot;&gt;Manusmriti&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The exhaustive list of prominent scriptures are available at &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hindu_scriptures&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you might have observed Hinduism has &lt;strong&gt;no defined&lt;/strong&gt; sets of rules, principles, scriptures, rituals, divisions, etc.  Yet everything is practiced by many of the Hindus.  The reason for this variety within Hinduism is a result of the freedom which the culture bestowed upon the people.  Hence one might find ample instances/phrases from different scriptures that seem to contradict each other, etc.  But, please keep in mind that each phrase is highly contextual.  So one size (phrase) does &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; fit all (contexts).  Moreover, there is absolutely no confirmation on the authenticity of the scriptures mentioned above.  It is possible that some of the scriptures have been tampered with (eg. Manusmriti).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Inspite of all these short-comings, Hinduism continued to exist because each individual used his/her discrimination in finding, listening/reading, understanding, interpreting, and applying the scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from scriptures, Hinduism also encourages one to seek answers oneself through meditation.  So even if every single scripture is lost/manipulated, a Hindu can always retrace the path and find answers oneself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every scripture in Hinduism is a tool to help find the larger goal of &lt;strong&gt;self-realization&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="42" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T17:36:34.493" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T17:36:34.493" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="60" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-18T23:14:28.447" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-06-18T23:14:28.447" LastActivityDate="2014-06-18T23:14:28.447" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="61" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-18T23:14:28.447" Score="0" Body="For questions regarding the Lokāyata philosophical movement as it relates to Hinduism" OwnerUserId="50" LastEditorUserId="2" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T03:54:05.497" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T03:54:05.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="62" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-18T23:14:59.433" Score="23" ViewCount="1586" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, after Rama kills Ravana and rescues his wife Sita, he tells Sita to walk through fire to (to others) prove that she is still faithful to him.  She walks through the fire and emerges unharmed, demonstrating her purity of heart.  But before she emerges from the fire, the gods come down to the battlefield of Lanka.  The gods, particularly Brahma, tell Rama who he really is, an avataram (incarnation) of Vishnu, and asks him how he can send Sita to the fire when she is an avataram of Vishnu's wife Lakshmi.  In the process, he addresses Rama by using numerous appellations of Vishnu and his various avatarams.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm trying to identify all the avatarams of Vishnu that the gods mention: (This is all taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga117/yuddha_117_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this translation&lt;/a&gt; of the Ramayana, by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao and K.M.K. Murthy)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;They &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga117/yuddhaitrans117.htm#Verse7&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;say&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Among the Vasus (a class of gods, eight in number), you are the Vasu, named Ritadhama (one whose abode is Truth or the Divine Law) who was formerly the self-constituted ruler, the first creator of all the three worlds and the lord of creatures.&quot;  The Vasus are eight gods who are the sons of Kashyap and Aditi, but in Wikipedia's &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasu#Eight_Vasus&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;list&lt;/a&gt; of the Vasus I don't see any name that's close to &quot;Ritadhama&quot;.  Is there a name that Ritadhama is more commonly known by?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;They &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga117/yuddhaitrans117.htm#Verse8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;say&lt;/a&gt; &quot;You are the eighth Rudra among (eleven) Rudras.&quot;  The Rudras are a group of eleven gods associated with Shiva, but &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudras#Birth_and_names&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; gives many different lists of names of these gods, and they're not given in any particular order so it's hard to tell which is the &quot;eighth&quot; Rudra referred to in the verse.  Is there any of the eleven Rudras that is particularly associated with Vishnu?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;They &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga117/yuddhaitrans117.htm#Verse8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;say&lt;/a&gt; &quot;You are ... the fifth (Viryavan by name) among the Sadhyas (a particular class of celestials belonging to Gana Devata).&quot;  First of all, it's hard to find that much information about the Sadhyas (although they may be related to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganas&lt;/a&gt; if they belong to Ganesha).  The Srimad Bhagavatam just &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/2/3/2-7&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;one who wants to be popular with the general mass of population should worship the Sādhyas&quot;.  This &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=zrk0AwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT1010&amp;amp;lpg=PT1010&amp;amp;dq=sadhyas%20viryavan&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=nZRyE15WJr&amp;amp;sig=xm2T5UVAdlqJKPpMD3jU6w3dqhU&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=dQaiU6WWOcyNyASktYDwBA&amp;amp;ved=0CC8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=sadhyas%20viryavan&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;book&lt;/a&gt; provides a few details, such as them being older than creation, being the sons of Daksha and Sadhya, and being asssociated with the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashvamedha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashwameda Yagna&lt;/a&gt;.  And it does list Viryavan as one of the twelve Sadhyas.  But is there any specific information known about who Viryavan is?  (EDIT: I asked a question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6931/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; that may be related.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga117/yuddhaitrans117.htm#Verse13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;You are the Divine Boar with a single tusk.&quot;  This clearly refers to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varaha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha&lt;/a&gt;, although I'm not sure why he's described as one-tusked when he's usually depicted as two-tusked.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga117/yuddhaitrans117.htm#Verse16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;You are ... Upendra the Divine Dwarf&quot;.  This clearly refers to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vamana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga117/yuddhaitrans117.htm#Verse18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;In the form of the Vedas, you are the great Bull with hundred heads (rules) and thousand horns (precepts).&quot; Is there any information known about this bull?  Is it related to the description of Vishnu in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01154.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/a&gt; as &quot;the Bull far-striding, dwelling on the mountains&quot;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So can anyone shed any light on who Ritadhama the Vasu, the eighth Rudra, Viryavan the fifth Sadhya, and &quot;the great bull&quot; are?  Vishnu has had countless avatarams, and most people only know the ten &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da%C5%9B%C4%81vat%C4%81ra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dasa Avatarams&lt;/a&gt; and at most the list of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar#In_the_Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;24 major avatarams&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the Puranas.  These are considerably more obscure than those, but hopefully there is still some information about them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-11-19T14:46:47.290" Title="What are the Avatarams of Vishnu described in the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|avatars|vishnu|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="63" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9" CreationDate="2014-06-18T23:53:21.693" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There have been 4 main non-theistic(nirīśvara-vāda) schools in Hinduism:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sāṃkhya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yoga &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Purva Mīmāṃsā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Cārvāka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cārvāka was a materialistic non-theistic school. I.e they believed in only pratyakṣa(perception) pramāna(valid means to knowledge). This puts them in the material realm. A simplified view of their philosophy would  be : &quot;If you can see something which exists, it must be true or else it is false. I cannot see Brahman, so Brahman does not exist. I can see this tree, so this tree exists.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first 3 are spiritual non-theistic schools. I.e they believe in more than just perception and extend valid means of knowing to meta-physical realms. These are similar to Buddhism &amp;amp; Jainism in rejecting a creator God but not rejecting the meta-physical realms which are beyond human perception(similar only in this aspect). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cārvāka is not usually grouped along with Sāṃkhya, Purva Mīmāṃsā &amp;amp; Yoga despite all the 4 being non-theistic is because Cārvāka doesn't consider śabda pramāna(Śruti or Vedas) to be valid means of knowledge, while the others do. They(the former 3) interpret Vedas non-theistically, mainly as a source of ethics(Karma, Dharma) only and don't believe in creator &amp;amp; sustainer God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2015-05-01T18:47:31.743" LastActivityDate="2015-05-01T18:47:31.743" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="64" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="54" CreationDate="2014-06-19T00:34:12.240" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scripture is made up of two categories, Shruti and Smriti.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shruti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shruti&lt;/a&gt; means &quot;that which is heard&quot; (what Christians would call &quot;revelation&quot;).  Hindus believe that from time immemorial, sages known as Dhrishtas (literally &quot;seers&quot;) have, during a state of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapasya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tapasya&lt;/a&gt; (deep meditation), heard sacred verses directly from the gods.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2771/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Dwapara Yuga (the age before the one we're currently living in), these verses were compiled by a sage named &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyasa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna Dwaipayana Veda Vyasa&lt;/a&gt; (or Vyasa for short) into a set of four books we call &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Vedas&lt;/a&gt;.  (Technically Vyasa only compiled the first three books - Rig, Yajur, and Sama - while the Atharvana Veda is attributed to the sages &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiras_%28sage%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Angiras&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atharvan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharvan&lt;/a&gt;.)  As the words of the Vedas are believed to be divine in origin, they are held to be the foremost authority of the Hindu religion.  As Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga109/ayodhyaitrans109.htm#Verse14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in the Ayodhya Kanda of the Ramayana, the Vedas &quot;have the foundation in Truth [and] one should thoroughly surrender to truth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[EDIT: I should add that each of the four Vedas is divided into four portions: Samhitas, which consist of hymns to various gods; Brahmanas, which provide instructions on the proper conducting of important rituals; Aranyakas, which provide a guide to rituals meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical message of the Vedas.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second category of Hindu scripture is called &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smriti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smriti&lt;/a&gt;, literally &quot;that which is remembered&quot;.  It refers to those sacred texts of Hinduism which were composed by human authors and then passed down by teacher to student via oral tradition.  Note that just because the specific words of these scriptures were composed by humans, that does not mean that they're not divinely inspired.  (It's similar to how in the Bible, the words &quot;I am the Lord thy God who delivered thee from Egypt&quot; are thought to be words that God himself chose, whereas the Torah as a whole is believed to be authored by Moses but inspired by God.)  There are numerous works that are called Smriti, but among the most prominent works are the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Puranas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana&lt;/a&gt; is an epic poem compiled by &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valmiki&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sage Valmiki&lt;/a&gt;, and it deals with the life of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rama&lt;/a&gt;, an incarnation (AKA avataram) of the god Vishnu, who fought the demon Ravana to rescue his wife Sita.  The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; is also an epic poem, one of the longest in the world.  It was composed by Vyasa (the same guy who compiled the Vedas), and it discusses a great war between two factions of the same family, the Pandavas and the Kauravas.  Prominently featured in the Mahabharata is the Pandavas' cousin &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna&lt;/a&gt;, another incarnation of Vishnu.  In the beginning of the war, one of the Pandavas, Arjuna, is reluctant, confused about what the righteous path is, so Krishna gives him a discourse known as the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_gita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/a&gt;, a guide to how to righteously live one's life.  While the Mahabharata as a whole is considered to be of lesser authority than the Vedas, since the words are humanly composed, the Bhagavad Gita is often considered to be a fifth Veda, because it is the words of Krishna and is thus of divine origin.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally there are the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puranas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puranas&lt;/a&gt;, composed by (you guessed it) Vyasa, a collection of 18 major works and hundreds of ancillary works relating the creation of the Universe, the history of Man through the ages, and the stories of the three major gods of Hinduism: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-12-31T06:20:35.660" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="65" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="75" CreationDate="2014-06-19T01:56:56.770" Score="42" ViewCount="9200" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a fact that the term &quot;Hindu&quot; derives from the river &quot;Sindh&quot;. But most of Hinduism's tenets and teachings derive from the Vedas. Why wasn't it named after the Vedas, but it's rather given a name derived from a river?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-09-19T09:01:38.337" LastActivityDate="2024-02-21T17:19:06.463" Title="What is the origin of the word &quot;Hindu&quot;?" Tags="|vedas|history|name|terminology|sindhu|" AnswerCount="9" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="66" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T02:13:30.253" Score="24" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Does it occur?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, it does&lt;/strong&gt;. As per Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;jātasya hi dhruvo mṛtyur dhruvaṁ janma mṛtasya ca&lt;/em&gt; [BG- 2.27]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Death is certain after birth and birth is certain after death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Will everyone be reborn?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, not every one will reborn&lt;/strong&gt;. One who attains liberation (merges in the absolute or attains God) will not reborn. So the Gita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mām upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 8.16]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - But after attaining Me, O son of Kunti, rebirth doesn't take place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Are people always reborn as people?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not necessarily&lt;/strong&gt;. Depending upon &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; a &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; (spirit) may reborn in the body of other animals. As per Shrimad Bhgagavatam: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhūtāni tais tair nija-yoni-karmabhir&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhavanti kāle na bhavanti sarvaśaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 7.2.41]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In course of time every being receives a material body as per his corresponding actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So also says the Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sa viśvarūpastriguṇastrivartmā prāṇādhipaḥ saṃcarati svakarmabhiḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Sve. Up. - 5.7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Taking all forms under the influence of threefold nature (goodness, passion and ignorance) taking threefold paths (&lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;adharma&lt;/em&gt;, knowledge) the self wanders about due to his own actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-01-24T10:56:32.153" LastActivityDate="2015-01-24T10:56:32.153" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="67" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="72" CreationDate="2014-06-19T02:23:43.613" Score="29" ViewCount="9857" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been told many a times that I shouldn't eat beef because I am a Hindu by religion. Even though I have &lt;em&gt;never worshiped a cow in my life&lt;/em&gt; or interacted with any on more than exotic basis, I find it hard to understand the logic behind not eating beef.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My argument against this has been the same as many others who choose to do those things which may or may not be explicitly forbidden in Hinduism. For instance, the consumption of alcohol is a controversial subject in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a country India does not sell beef so I haven't been exposed to it earlier, but traveling often increased my curiosity and now I tend to not mind eating it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any &lt;strong&gt;specific logical or better arguments&lt;/strong&gt; or textual facts which suggest that eating beef is explicitly forbidden in Hinduism &lt;strong&gt;except the idea of worshiping cows&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="58" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-09-12T00:21:39.470" LastActivityDate="2023-06-06T16:04:16.943" Title="Do any texts explicitly forbid Hindus from eating beef?" Tags="|dharma|dharma-shastras|food|non-vegetarian|cows|" AnswerCount="10" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="68" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="70" CreationDate="2014-06-19T02:33:37.903" Score="10" ViewCount="1792" Body="&lt;p&gt;Cārvāka (or charvak), which is a sub-ideology within Hinduism, contains highly conflicting ideals with the core religious views. For example, it's dominantly atheistic (and that sort of defeats the purpose of a religion).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, according to this ideology:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There's no soul.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Metaphysical concepts ― like reincarnation, an extracorporeal soul, the efficacy of religious rites, other worlds (heaven and hell), fate, and accumulation of merit or demerit through the performance of certain actions ― don't exist.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There's no afterlife. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There's nothing wrong in sensual pleasure.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And so on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can this ideology exist within Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="59" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T21:32:03.240" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T21:32:03.240" Title="How can the ideology of Cārvāka exist within Hinduism?" Tags="|philosophy|charvaka|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="69" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="67" CreationDate="2014-06-19T02:52:53.650" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu taboo of eating beef is a cultural and got itself associated with the religion. None of the scriptures impose the restriction. It is a self-imposed ban by Hindus. &lt;a href=&quot;http://kalchiron.blogspot.com/2012/01/seven-prohibitions-self-imposed-by.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; blog post talks about it along with other self-imposed taboos by Hindus. &#xA;An excerpt from that blog post:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..historicity of culture and evolution of certain traditions which&#xA;  sometimes are misconstrued as &quot;roots&quot;. The ultra veneration of cow is&#xA;  one of them. There are many other instances. The fact that fanatic&#xA;  veneration of cow led to other 6 famous &quot;restrictions&quot; on an Indic&#xA;  mind ... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The famous 7 restrictions (Sapta-Bandi) are &#xA;  ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 . Cow veneration - killing of cow and consumption of beef are &quot;Mahaapaatakas&quot; without any prayaschitta.  ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The myth I've heard is that it was done since cattle population was declining steeply and they needed some measure to stop it and hence adopted such a stance. Some also blame the Muslim invaders for indiscriminately killing cattle which made the Hindus adopt such a stance. I don't have sources for these as there are word of mouth folk-lore. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the scriptures do not impose ban on beef consumption, it does not also endorse eating beef. The Rig veda translation of Griffith &amp;amp; many others were mistranslated to mean that Vedic Hindus consumed beef. &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanatansinhnaad.blogspot.in/2013/06/misquoted-verses-of-hindu-scriptures.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; blog post talks about the mistranslations regarding Vedic Hindus eating beef. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Killing a cow causes as much himsa and bad karma as killing any other animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2015-07-27T22:27:08.150" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T22:27:08.150" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="70" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="68" CreationDate="2014-06-19T03:03:14.033" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There will always be two groups of people. One who will believe in afterlife, God, etc. (the theists) and the other who will not believe in afterlife, God, etc. (the atheists). The ideology of Cārvāka fills the atheistic position in Hinduism. However, the thing to note is that this school of thought being faulty has already lost its prominence being refuted by other theist schools of thought hundreds of years back. Hence, the number of people who believe in God, afterlife, etc. are more than the number of people who do not believe in such things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the reason that such school of thought existed was simple, to delude people. Charvak was a &lt;em&gt;rishi&lt;/em&gt; (sage), sometimes even the ideology is attributed to sage Brihaspati. In the ancient time people were doing vedic rituals, sacrifices, etc. with great effort to attain a better afterlife. To drag their attention away from heavily indulging in such kinds of act such faulty ideologies were spread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another reason present in the Maitri Upanishad (7.9) is that, Brihaspati, the Guru of Indra (king of heaven) introduced such a faulty ideology intentionally so that people will not perform Vedic sacrifices such as the &lt;em&gt;aswamedha yanjya&lt;/em&gt; which award the seat of Indra in heaven. The faulty ideology will lure people of demonic nature away into lower level of existence. Hence, by not following vedic rites and sacrifices the position of Indra will remain secured.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bottom line is, the hedonistic Cārvāka philosophy is faulty and serves the purpose of luring people away from the right path. &lt;strong&gt;If there are doctrines that lead people to heaven and salvation, then should not there also be doctrines that lead people to hell and damnation?&lt;/strong&gt; How else do you think the seats in hell will get filled up?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-04-17T14:05:28.470" LastActivityDate="2015-04-17T14:05:28.470" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="71" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T03:42:57.147" Score="18" ViewCount="3243" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Anusasana Parva of the Mahabharata, in the course of recounting to Krishna the boons that Shiva has bestowed upon various people, the sage Upamanyu &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; a certain son of the demon &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiranyakashipu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hiranyakashipu&lt;/a&gt; named Mandara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who was the foremost of all [of Hiranyakashipu's] sons and who was celebrated by the name of Mandara, succeeded, through the boon he had obtained from Mahadeva, in fighting Sakra for a million of years. The terrible discus of Vishnu and the thunderbolt of Indra were both unable to make the slightest impression, O Kesava, in days of yore, upon the body of that great cause of universal affliction....  Even the weapon, O Kesava, failed to make the slightest impression on the body of Hiranyakashipu's son Mandara, that appeared like an evil planet in the three worlds. Hundreds of Chakras like thine and thunderbolts like that of Sakra, could not inflict a scratch on the body of that evil planet endued with great might, who had obtained a boon from Mahadeva. Afflicted by the mighty Mandara, the deities fought hard against him and his associates, all of whom had obtained boons from Mahadeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is there any information known about the story of Mandara?  The Vishnu Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp050.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Hirańyakaśipu was the father of four mighty sons, Anuhláda, Hláda, the wise Prahláda, and the heroic Sanhláda, the augmentor of the Daitya race.&quot;  (The Daityas are a race of demons descended from the sage Kashyap and his wife Diti.) Is Mandara an alternate name for one of these sons?  If so I assume that it would be Sanhlada, because he's said to be &quot;the augmentor of the Daitya race&quot;, so he presumably increased their territory or something.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, where does Mandara's battle with the gods fit in chronologically?  It was my understanding that Hiranyakashipu was succeeded as king of the Asuras (demons) by Prahlada, Prahlada was succeeded by Virochana, and Virochana was succeeded by Mahabali.  So in relation to these kings of the Asuras, when did Mandara fight the gods?  And more importantly, how did the gods ultimately get around Shiva's boon and defeat Mandara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:  I found a passage in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata which &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01066.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that Hiranyakashipu actually had five sons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the illustrious Hiranyakasipu had five sons, all famous throughout the world. The eldest of them all was Prahlada, the next was Sahradha; the third was Anuhrada; and after him were Sivi and Vashkala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is it possible that Sivi or Vashkala is an alternate name for Mandara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T13:04:13.693" LastActivityDate="2018-12-07T11:02:35.553" Title="What is the story of Hiranyakashipu's son Mandara?" Tags="|asuras|shiva|mahabharata|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="72" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="67" CreationDate="2014-06-19T03:47:40.223" Score="50" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not just beef, eating any kind of meat is by default prohibited in Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt;. Consider the following statements from the primary Hindu book of law:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Meat can never be obtained without injury to living creatures, and&#xA;  injury to sentient beings is detrimental to (the attainment of)&#xA;  heavenly bliss; let him therefore shun (the use of) meat. [Manu&#xA;  Smriti - 5.48]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Having well considered the (disgusting) origin of flesh and the&#xA;  (cruelty of) fettering and slaying corporeal beings, let him&#xA;  entirely abstain from eating flesh. [Manu Smriti - 5.49]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who permits (the slaughter of an animal), he who cuts it up, he&#xA;  who kills it, he who buys or sells (meat), he who cooks it, he who&#xA;  serves it up, and he who eats it, (must all be considered as) the&#xA;  slayers (of the animal). [Manu Smriti - 5.51]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There is no greater sinner than that (man) who, though not&#xA;  worshipping the gods or the manes, seeks to increase (the bulk of)&#xA;  his own flesh by the flesh of other (beings). [Manu Smriti - 5.52]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who during a hundred years annually offers a horse-sacrifice, and&#xA;  he who entirely abstains from meat, obtain the same reward for their&#xA;  meritorious (conduct). [Manu Smriti - 5.53]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;By subsisting on pure fruit and roots, and by eating food fit for&#xA;  ascetics (in the forest), one does not gain (so great) a reward as&#xA;  by entirely avoiding (the use of) flesh. [Manu Smriti - 5.54]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these statements convey one and one fact only, abstaining from eating meat as it causes pain and suffering to other animals. Now consider the following two statements:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;One may eat meat when it has been sprinkled with water, while&#xA;  Mantras were recited, when Brahmanas desire (one's doing it), when&#xA;  one is engaged (in the performance of a rite) according to the law,&#xA;  and when one's life is in danger. [Manu Smriti - 5.27]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who eats meat, when he honours the gods and manes, commits no&#xA;  sin, whether he has bought it, or himself has killed (the animal),&#xA;  or has received it as a present from others. [Manu Smriti - 5.32]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this is the thing regarding Hinduism, there is no one strict law. Every thing depends upon the context and intention. Hinduism informs you what to do and not do, but it doesn't command you to do anything in particular. The system of Karma takes care of all. Do whatever you want to do, but be ready to reap the corresponding result. This is the doctrine of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As many hairs as the slain beast has, so often indeed will he who    killed it without a (lawful) reason suffer a violent death in future&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  births. [Manu Smriti - 5.38]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Depending upon the context and intention, Hinduism even allows actions that are generally forbidden. So &lt;strong&gt;the question you should ask yourself is whether you are eating beef out of rigid necessity&lt;/strong&gt;. Is there no other food available for you to eat? Are you eating it because it tastes good? Ask yourself such questions and then decide. Listen to what your heart says, not what logic says. If everyone is doing the wrong things, should you do them as well? Would you like to be killed and eaten by others if you were a cow or any other animal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T11:41:04.323" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T11:41:04.323" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="73" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="36" CreationDate="2014-06-19T03:53:27.350" Score="38" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adding to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/39/467&quot;&gt;@A runnigMind's answer&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cremation of the body reminds that the body is not important but the Atman is. Body perishes but Atman exists eternally. This is in contrast with say Christianity where people would go to kingdom of heaven in their material bodies and hence do burial to 'put the bodies to rest' till judgement day. In Hinduism it's the atman which can attain Moksha and not the body. Body represents ego/ahankar and burning it is like letting go. This is the philosophical basis of Cremation which many sects adhere to. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coincidentally or deliberately, cremation saves space on land. I've heard of cities running out of space to build cemeteries in the west. Ancient Hindus might or might not have had this insight. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-10-13T08:57:11.567" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="75" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="65" CreationDate="2014-06-19T04:02:49.487" Score="46" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindus didn't call themselves Hindu. It was the name given by Islamic invaders. To them, everyone living beyond the river Sindhu were Hindus including Buddhists, Jains &amp;amp; animistic tribals. Sindhu becomes Hindu in Persian and Indus in English. And the land of these people beyond Sindhu was called Hindustan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To the native, i.e ancestors of today's Hindus, their religion was just called Dharma. Dharma came in many flavors like Sanathana Dharma with its various sects, Buddha Dharma &amp;amp; Jain Dharma with their sects. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more detailed analysis refer to Dr. Koenraad Elst's book &lt;a href=&quot;http://voiceofdharma.org/books/wiah/ch2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Who is a Hindu?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="13148" LastEditDate="2019-03-29T23:39:09.890" LastActivityDate="2019-03-29T23:39:09.890" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="76" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="46" CreationDate="2014-06-19T04:18:46.203" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna is not the only avatar/deity to be represented as a blue figure. He's accompanied in this by Rama and Kali to name just two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The blue color is a symbol. Both Rama and Krishna are considered to be shyama varna aka of 'dark color'. According to Amara-kosa: &lt;em&gt;trisu shyamau harit-krishnau&lt;/em&gt; - the word &lt;em&gt;shyama&lt;/em&gt; means &lt;em&gt;harit&lt;/em&gt; (“green”) or &lt;em&gt;krishna&lt;/em&gt; (“black or dark blue”). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in terms of 'actual skin color', these folks were probably supposed to be very dark skinned (also something very very possible in the Indian subcontinent - possibly even more so than the wheatish complexion), with Krishna possibly supposed to have a blue undertone to skin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After all, the &lt;em&gt;Jagganath&lt;/em&gt; representation of Krishna is portrayed as 'black' not 'blue'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be extremely mundane, possibly, blue came to be used as a symbol because it's easier to portray blue skin in visual representations than really dark / black skin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="64" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T04:18:46.203" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="77" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18" CreationDate="2014-06-19T04:19:15.867" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu Dharma is non-exclusive. I.e it does not claim it possesses the exclusive right to grant salvation/liberation. It recognizes that every path can lead to the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;ekam sat viprāḥ bahudhā vadanti&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;-Rig Veda (Book 1, Hymn 164, Verse 46)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means &quot;The Truth is one; the sages talk of it in many ways.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence Hindus should treat others with &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Mutual Respect&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. Note the word &quot;mutual&quot;. Hindus should respect other's belief and their paths and also expect others to do the same to them. But this might not be possible with religions which do not offer &lt;em&gt;mutual&lt;/em&gt; respect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no concepts of False Gods and false prophets in Hinduism. It is more of a self-exploration of the mind(adhyatmik) than an organized religion. Hence the individual's experience(anubhava) is given respect, which again emphasizes respect to other religions. Though that does not prevent Hindus from engaging in philosophical debates with others. Adi Sankara is said to have vigorously debated Mimaamsa-vaadis &amp;amp; Buddhists. The debate is done with respect and not with contempt.        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="2382" LastEditDate="2015-02-18T05:18:59.673" LastActivityDate="2015-02-18T05:18:59.673" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="79" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="58" CreationDate="2014-06-19T04:30:45.423" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The initial idea is to feed insects and other small bodies with rice flour. Rice flour is put to make diff pleasing arts on cow dung(to make welcoming environment for them, as they cant come on to concrete roads) and it is believed that cow dung has many Ayurveda properties and it makes a positive environment around. More over it is believed to bring prosperity as it welcomes Hindu goddess of wealth Lakshmi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T04:30:45.423" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="80" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="25" CreationDate="2014-06-19T04:43:10.330" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sananthana dharma (coined as hindusim by few) is not just a practice but its the way of life for its followers. The rich tradition is spread among youngsters by the means of different festivals and functions where all the family members and well wishers take part of. Elders teach dharma through different short moral stories every day. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can see much of the sacred texts are digitalized and brought to public. But all of these needs to be learnt through a guru who has command over the subject. I can say it has got new wings to spread the dharmic philosophy though the blogs or social networking websites. So, it is doing enough good for new generations  by making them informed and connected. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-08T06:37:00.070" LastActivityDate="2014-10-08T06:37:00.070" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="81" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="797" CreationDate="2014-06-19T04:59:11.867" Score="18" ViewCount="1303" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is river Ganga considered sacred? Why do so many devotees worship her?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: This is not a dup. of &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/285&quot;&gt;Historically, when (and why) did Ganga become a holy river? Is it after Sarasvati dried up?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; as that's about when and how Ganga as a river rose in prominence compared to other rivers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-02-14T16:38:52.343" LastActivityDate="2018-02-15T00:58:19.163" Title="Why is Ganga considered sacred? Why do so many devotees worship this river?" Tags="|worship|culture|ganga|rivers|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="82" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:00:01.110" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is something I blogged a couple of months ago in &lt;a href=&quot;http://politricks.quora.com/Aryan-Invasion-and-Indus-Valley-Civilization&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Quora&lt;/a&gt;. I'm producing it verbatim.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since this is such a long read, &lt;em&gt;TL;DR&lt;/em&gt;, No, Aryans are not the forefathers of Hindus, rather the word 'Aryan' as it's known today is an abused and prostituted word. The meaning of which has been high-jacked by racial supremacists in the 20th century Europe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I wanted to title this post as Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) and the Saraswati Valley Civilization (SVC to distinguish it from Indus Valley Civilization, IVC), but I chose the former because of its popularity. The reasons will be described in the article.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indians for a long time have been given misinformation about their own origin and custom. We have been fed falsified information from both foreign media as well as local media including school text books.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a misconception even among various Indian about the word Aryan. Aryan, which is derived from the word Arya (आर्य) in Sanskrit from which it was later hijacked by German Nationalists for their ulterior motives means 'Noble', and the place where Aryan live Āryāvarta (आर्यावर्त). It was neither a racial word nor a demonym. It was simply a word which the Sanskrit speaking people in ancient India used to call themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It's alleged that lighter skinned, horse riding, barbaric Aryan tribes from Central Asia (around Caucus mountain) invaded the Indus Valley Civilization in the late Harappan Period, which resulted in the Harappan people (Dravidian) to relocate deeper into the sub-continent. The nomads brought their culture (Vedic culture), their language (Sanskrit) into the subcontinent and to socially segregate native Dravidian developed caste system and put the dark skinned Dravidian into lowest Shudra caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let us remember that the idea that the Vedic Aryans came from outside of ancient  India and entered the region to start what became the Vedic civilization is a  foreign idea. There was never any record, either historical, textual or  archeological, that supports this premise for an Aryan invasion. There also is  no record of who would have been the invaders. The fact is that it is a theory  that came from mere linguistic speculation which happened during the nineteenth  century when very little archeological excavation had yet been done around  India. Under the aegis of Lord Macaulay, who later laid the founding stone for modern Indian education system, it was Max Müller who first came up with the AIT. In 1988 after much persuasion he finally stated,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&quot;I have declared again and again that if I say Aryan, I mean neither blood nor  bones, nor skull nor hair; I mean simply those who speak the Aryan language...  To me, an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan blood, Aryan race, Aryan eyes and hair  is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or  of brachycephalic grammar.&lt;a href=&quot;http://politricks.quora.com/Aryan-Invasion-and-Indus-Valley-Civilization&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This was the same Max Muller, who used to praise Indian culture such as,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully  developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered over the  greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of them which  well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant, I should point to India.&lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books/about/In_Search_of_the_Cradle_of_Civilization.html?id=Ermk_FmwcS4C&amp;amp;redir_esc=y&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, if we look closely with the above premise of AIT one can see the astuteness in this statement that by linking European Caucasians with Aryan, he was praising himself. Attitude of Max Muller towards Hinduism can be judged from other quotes,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The worship of Shiva, Vishnu, and other popular deities was of the same and in many cases of a more degraded and savage character than the worship of Jupiter, Apollo or Minerva.&lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books/about/In_Search_of_the_Cradle_of_Civilization.html?id=Ermk_FmwcS4C&amp;amp;redir_esc=y&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;History seems to teach that the whole human race required a gradual  education before, in the fullness of time, it could be admitted to the  truths of Christianity.&lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books/about/In_Search_of_the_Cradle_of_Civilization.html?id=Ermk_FmwcS4C&amp;amp;redir_esc=y&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is disheartening to see North and South Indians quarreling over this day in and day out. North Indians claiming themselves to be the fair skinned North Indians while the South Indians claiming to be victims of the foreigner Aryans and their caste discrimination. This has taken a toll in Indian politics we well. Tamilnadu politics is strictly anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmanic since DMK set its foot in the state politics. So let me try to clear this once and for all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I will try to enumerate why Aryan Invasion theory is a myth. Most of the items have been borrowed (copied) from various sources on the internet, and I will try to give references wherever possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The  key evidence in favor of this alleged invasion stems from the discovery  of  &lt;strong&gt;skeletons&lt;/strong&gt; in the Indus valley towns of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro.   However, recent studies have proved that this skeleton had not resulted   from death during the war with invading Aryans and that they likely died a   natural death due to the drying up of the Saraswati river that caused   widespread famine. This is the reason why IVC should be called more aptly Saraswati Valley Civilization. Even the Vedas give much importance to River Saraswati rather than Indus. Further, the very dating of these skeletons has been   questioned (i.e. if the skeletons didn't belong to the late Indus  valley period, their death, even if due to war doesn't imply an  &quot;invasion&quot; of  any sort) David Feuerstein in his book &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books/about/In_Search_of_the_Cradle_of_Civilization.html?id=Ermk_FmwcS4C&amp;amp;redir_esc=y&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;In Search of the Cradle of Civilization&lt;/a&gt;&quot; argues there was likely a period of  &quot;immigration&quot; of  lighter skinned people from the area around Southern  Turkey (the  speculated homeland of Aryans) but that this immigration  happened during  the pre-ice age period and that the so called Dravidian and Aryans coexisted in  the Indian subcontinent since before the dawn of  the Indus-Saraswati  Civilization.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Various &lt;strong&gt;Dravidian Gods&lt;/strong&gt; have  made their way into  Vedic literature and mainstream Hinduism since its  very beginnings.  Aryans, if they were &quot;invaders&quot; would likely have  discarded local  Dravidian gods or at the very least have denigrated/given them lower status. Shiva, known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashupati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pashupati&lt;/a&gt; by Dravidians is a &quot;Dravidian&quot; god - he is  however given the  highest status by Vedic &quot;Aryans&quot; and he signifies Shakti (i.e. the  energy that keeps the Universe running). The picture below is a clay table from Harappa. Krishna, one  of the avatars of  Vishnu (as allegedly Aryan god) is well documented as  being dark skinned.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There is no evidence yet that the  &lt;strong&gt;Dravidian scripts&lt;/strong&gt;  evolved from the as yet undecipherable Indus valley  script. In fact,  recent studies have identified similarities between  the Brahmi script and the Indus valley script. The Brahmi script was  used to write  Sanskrit before the Devnagri script came into being. This  would, in fact, imply that the Indus valley script was a precursor to  the Brahmi  script &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1477504540&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Call Of The Lost Ages: A Study Of The Indus Valley Script&lt;/a&gt; or Sanskrit &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1450770614&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indus Script Dictionary&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Occam's Razor Argument&lt;/strong&gt;. By not using the AIT, one could  bridge one big logical gap in the history of Indic Civilization. On one hand there is the magnificent IVC which  boasted of town and urban planning and trade commerce  at a level  significantly more advanced than any other contemporary civilization - but which left behind no literary works of any sort. On  the other hand, one has the Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads - the most  ancient texts and surviving body of knowledge which make references  to events that  occurred over 7000 years ago - and yet there is no known  urban Aryan  civilization that existed around India that far back in  history. The only  logical way to fix this gap is to accept that Vedic  literature is the  product of the Indus-Saraswati civilization and that  this very civilization has been the only  common ancestor to  all modern day Indians. Another point is that before the Vedas were written, it had been an oral  tradition. However, an oral tradition of this kind of philosophy and culture  cannot be maintained by a people in constant movement for decades if not  centuries over many thousands of miles, which is what the AIT proposes. Such a tradition as the Vedic culture could be preserved only by a  sedentary people where the older generation would have the necessary time to  pass the communal lore to the younger generation.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Further, recent &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/genetics-aryan-debate.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;DNA studies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;  have proved  that North Indian &quot;Aryans&quot; and South Indian  &quot;Dravidians&quot; are more  genetically similar than North Indian &quot;Aryans&quot;  are to modern day Europeans. This bolsters the final sentences of argument 1 since it implies that the waves of Aryan migration into  India occurred in the very distant past (very likely before the Indus  valley civilization began) and that these &quot;Aryans&quot; and &quot;Dravidians&quot;  likely coexisted in the  Indian subcontinent for the last 7000 years or  more. This study also identifies that the Indian population has  been generally stable for a very long time and that there has been no  major injection of Central Asian Genes for over 10000 years at least.  So, if any migration did happen, it was long before settlements emerged,  before the domestication of the horse, before the Iron or Bronze ages. We  are talking about hunter-gatherers, small bands of nomads etc. The  latest dating of the Indus Saraswati Civilization is 9000 years - as per  Radio Metric Dating; the genetic evidence is older by this than 1000+  years at least.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Literature&lt;/strong&gt;:  The Rigveda. The geographical area of the Rig Veda (RigVed) is  clearly delineated as North West India; there is no room for any doubt.  It specifically mentions the Saraswati as between the Yamuna and the  Sutlej, That can only be the Ghaggar river bed. Satellite imagery has  established that this used to be a massive river system in the old days.  The Rigveda does not mention a drying Saraswati, clearly meaning that it  must have been written well before 1900 - 2600 BC. There is no mention  of either invasion or Migration in the Rigveda; if any migration occurred,  it happened before 3000 BC - if at all. There is also no mention of a Central Asian landscape in the RigVed; it is specific in that it  mentions the Kabul river to the west and the Ganga to the east. There is  awareness of the Himalayas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://indiawires.com/13837/news/national/indus-valley-civilization-as-old-as-7380-bc-asi/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Radiometric Dating&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; of the Indus-Saraswati places the real age of this civilization to somewhere around 7200 BC. This was announced by the ASI in an international  conference on 5th November 2012. This also suggests that migration did  not happen 3500 years ago, or even 9000 years ago.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;R1a1a&lt;/strong&gt; gene mutation is found in North India  and East Europeans, South Siberia, Tajikistan and North Eastern Iran, A  study on this conducted in 2010 found that the oldest strain of the  R1a1a branch was concentrated in the Gujarat-Sindh-Western Rajasthan  region of India, suggesting that this was close to the origin of the  genetic group. A mutation M458 is found in Europeans but is not found  at all in Asians. This M458 mutation is at least 8000 years old, thus  lending credence to the observations above.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Another civilization at that time was the &lt;strong&gt;Avestan Civilization&lt;/strong&gt; often known as Mesopotamian Civilization. The later formed their own religion &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Zoroastrianism&lt;/a&gt;, which was wiped out by the Caliphate. There are striking similarities in Zoroastrianism and the Hinduism. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahura_Mazda&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ahura Mazda&lt;/a&gt; in Zoroastrianism which is a force of Good is an Asura in Hinduism and analogically, Devas in Hinduism were &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angra_Mainyu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ahirman&lt;/a&gt; forces of Evil in Zoroaster Religion. So, it corroborates the claim that IVC had the proto-concepts of Hinduism and it was not a concept brought by the invading Aryan hoards.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;in my opinion, this nine-point argument against the AIT (Aryan Invasion Theory) should be sufficient to clarify any misconception about AIT and IVC&lt;/strong&gt;. But, the question still remains as to why this insane idea was developed in the first place, that too without any proper scientific data to validate it? The only thing which it took into account was the superficial skin color variations between south and north Indians. What motives did it serve to the Europeans?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;References --&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://politricks.quora.com/Aryan-Invasion-and-Indus-Valley-Civilization&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[1] Max Muller, Biographies of  Words and the Home of the Aryas, by London, 1888, p. 120.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_M%C3%BCller&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[2] Max Müller - Wikiquote.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/aryan_invasion_theory_the_final_nail_in_its_coffin.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[3] The Final Nail in its Coffin.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.quora.com/Politics-of-India-1/The-Aryan-Invasion-Theory-What-are-the-arguments-given-by-its-supporters-and-opponents/answer/Vishal-Kale-2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[4] Vishal Kale's answer to Politics of India: The Aryan Invasion Theory: What are the arguments given by its supporters and opponents?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.quora.com/India/What-are-some-alternatives-to-the-Aryan-invasion-theory-of-Indian-history/answer/Shatajit-Basu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[5]Shatajit Basu's answer to India: What are some alternatives to the Aryan invasion theory of Indian history?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/genetics-aryan-debate.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6] Indus Script Dictionary: S. M. Sullivan: 9781450770613: Amazon.com: Books : I had a wonderful chat with the author in the comments to this post]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-03-30T14:12:16.530" LastActivityDate="2016-03-30T14:12:16.530" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="83" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:02:41.880" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Today all most all of Hinduism is Orthodox. Due to the classification of Buddhism and Jainism as separate religion they are no longer treated as part of Hinduism. Hence, as what is left in Hinduism is being primarily based on the Vedas (the revealed scriptures) all of Hinduism is orthodox. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The definition of unorthodox in Hinduism is &lt;em&gt;Veda neendako nâstikaha&lt;/em&gt;. That is, &lt;strong&gt;the school of thought that doesn't accept authority of the Vedas is unorthodox&lt;/strong&gt;. Previously Buddhism, Jainism and Ajivika school of thought came into formation in India by rejecting the Vedas, hence they were considered unorthodox. But after their classification as separate religion, most of Hinduism is Orthodox except certain sects that follow scriptures that are not based on the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-12-15T07:12:21.413" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T07:12:21.413" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="84" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="88" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:04:34.447" Score="17" ViewCount="7810" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard the word &quot;Moksha&quot; in Hinduism. I know it is related to death and birth. What exactly it is? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T01:49:23.377" Title="What is &quot;Moksha&quot; in Hinduism?" Tags="|death|terminology|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="85" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:05:47.550" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T05:05:47.550" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T05:05:47.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="86" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:05:47.550" Score="0" Body="For questions about terms and jargon used in Hinduism." OwnerUserId="68" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T19:36:36.177" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T19:36:36.177" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="87" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="81" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:11:36.057" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;During the course of Hinduism, the local elements played a crucial role in forming the sacred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the &lt;em&gt;Rigvedic&lt;/em&gt; Ages, &lt;em&gt;Saraswati&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Indus&lt;/em&gt; played a crucial role in forming the hymns and myths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the Vedic Ages, mainly &lt;em&gt;Upanishads&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt;, which occurred in the Gangatic Planes, Ganga and it's tributaries gained more prominence and importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ancient Indians also claim to have found some medicinal and anti-bacterial properties for the water in Ganga, which has been somewhat corroborated by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7113/full/443754a.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;recent research&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-12-15T07:12:02.910" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T07:12:02.910" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="88" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="84" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:29:31.283" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; in Hinduism and &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt; in Buddhism are closely related concepts. &#xA;One of the core beliefs of Hinduism is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;re-incarnation&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Pvgpy.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone is subjected to this never ending cycle of misery and is bound to this suffering by the laws of Karma. Again, Karma mean 'your deeds'. It can be good or bad and you will be given the fruits of your Karma in your next life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That being said, the ultimate goal for a Hindu is to break away from the cycle of life and death and reach the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt;. Even the lure of Heaven is a sin originating from greed (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaama&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;is called attaining Moksha or Nirvana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T05:29:31.283" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="89" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:31:55.917" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;In addition to what has been answered by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/42/467&quot;&gt;@cheenbabes&lt;/a&gt; - To quote specifically&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;it is still followed in 2014 when it is no longer a reason. Are there&#xA;  any other, religious reasons for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In many sects within Hinduism, It is a command of God. Like in Swaminarayan sect, it is mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://web.archive.org/web/20151203141254/http://www.shikshapatri.org.uk/~imagedb/hms/mss_browse.php?expand=638,639&amp;amp;act=chunit&amp;amp;unit=174&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shikshapatri&lt;/a&gt; Verse 174.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="73" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-04-08T20:17:29.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="90" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="84" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:34:52.003" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Simply saying &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; is the permanent liberation of a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; from the cycle of death and birth&lt;/strong&gt;. As per Hinduism it is the fourth and final objective of every Human, the other three being Dharma (right action), Artha (earning money) and Kama (procreation). All these four (Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha) are known as four &lt;em&gt;purusartha&lt;/em&gt; (objective or exertion) of a human being in Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T05:34:52.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="91" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="84" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:35:21.740" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moksha&lt;/strong&gt; is &lt;em&gt;ultimate liberation&lt;/em&gt;. This is the goal of human life. Moksha is the liberation of the soul from the cycles of birth and death; thereafter, it remains &lt;strong&gt;eternally&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;in the service of God in His abode&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha is when the causal body is destroyed and the pure ãtmã achieves everlasting bliss in the worship of God. The word causal body implies that it is the cause of the jiva having to undertake a physical body and bear out its destiny in accordance to its karmas. It is only through the grace of God or the God-enlightened Sãdhu (guru) that one’s kãran sharir is dissolved and moksha is achieved. Penance, austerities, yoga, yagnas (ceremonial sacrifices), donations, and other pious actions do not directly give moksha. The fruit of doing these pious deeds is the contact and association with God and the God-enlightened S ãdhu. Once such association with God and the God-enlightened Sãdhu has been achieved, understanding their true form, following their commands, and imbibing dharma, gnãn, vairãgya, and bhakti earns the jiva their grace and thus ultimate moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When an ãtmã achieves moksha, God grants it a divine body. With this divine body it resides in the abode of God with infinite other liberated souls. Here it enjoys everlasting bliss in worshipping God. The happiness from infinite universes put together pales into insignificance in front of the bliss of God experienced by these liberated souls. In His divine abode, God grants the ãtmã powers and a form that is similar to His own. Yet, the ãtmã is distinct from God and forever retains a relationship of servitude towards God. In fact, such powers bear no attraction to these liberated souls because their experience of worshipping God brings infinite times more bliss than the exercise of any powers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="73" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T05:35:21.740" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="92" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="84" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:38:43.080" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;What Moksha means in layman's words, is that you get &lt;em&gt;free&lt;/em&gt; from the cycle of rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A short description of rebirth, if you don't know about it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, it is believed that you consist of two things, one is a soul, which is indestructible. No harm can be done to the soul whatsoever. The other is your body. It is destroyed to soil after you die. &lt;strong&gt;Your soul then gets free from your body and goes to another body, a newborn baby&lt;/strong&gt;! This is called rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This cycle continues on. Every soul has to pass through several (&lt;a href=&quot;http://nyomanbelog.blogspot.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;8,400,000&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahaprabhu.net/satsanga/2008/01/12/surrender-to-sri-guru/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;*&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://bvml.net/SBBTM/jivatattva.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;+&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;em&gt;yonies&lt;/em&gt; or species. Then and only then do you get a human form. (The soul inside a human is the same as that of a soul inside an ant).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSOdpJidTnd8aO-WUtm2Y0p_RSnmi7pHD5YmDw4yAXc83szLtus&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;em&gt;Your soul going to the holy abode of God.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your actions transcend karma to become akarma, you can achieve &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;. Your soul then doesn't go to any other body after dying, it goes to the holy abode of God. You serve him there, and you don't suffer from the wrath and tears of this world. &lt;strong&gt;You become free&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="39" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T15:24:36.990" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T15:24:36.990" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="93" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="36" CreationDate="2014-06-19T05:49:24.680" Score="140" Body="&lt;p&gt;Earlier answerers have given a sociological explanation for the cremation ritual, but I'll try to provide a purely theological explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, every &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is made of five &lt;em&gt;Mahabhootas&lt;/em&gt;, namely, &lt;em&gt;Dhara (Earth)&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Nabh(Ether)&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Vayu(Air)&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Varuna(Water)&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Agni(Fire)&lt;/em&gt;. After death, the body is supposed to disintegrate back into these many &lt;em&gt;Mahabhoota&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus believe that souls after living in the body for so long time, get attached to the body and if left to rot on its own or buried, will linger in the vicinity. So, burning the body makes the soul depart to its rightful place sooner than burial.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, &lt;em&gt;sadhus&lt;/em&gt; (enlightened persons) and children are not cremated, rather buried because the soul of a sadhu is already enlightened and the souls of children are not bound to the body too long to get attached to the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;em&gt;Agni&lt;/em&gt; has a special status among the &lt;em&gt;Pancha Mahabhootas&lt;/em&gt; (Five Elements) in being the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livingsanskrit.com/new-moon-newsletter-vol-4-the-5-elements/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;purest of pure&lt;/a&gt;. All the remaining Mahabhootas become impure after they are used for cleaning. For instance, Water after being used to clean filth, itself becomes impure and cannot be used; Air after being inhaled becomes CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; and cannot support life. Similar things hold for Earth and Ether.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fire is the only exception. Fire, even after being used to burn and purify, remains pure and potent. Thus the concept of &lt;em&gt;Agni Pareeksha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Agni Saakshi&lt;/em&gt;, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And for this reason, Fire is used to liberate the body back to its origins in the &lt;em&gt;Pancha Mahabhootas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, see &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.everplans.com/tools-and-resources/hindu-funeral-traditions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Funeral Rites&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T15:31:05.883" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T15:31:05.883" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="95" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T06:05:00.263" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, rebirth or reincarnation occur in Hinduism. To answer your sub-questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reincarnation is the phenomenon where the immortal soul is continuously born and reborn in any one of 8,400,000 life-forms until it attains moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Detail&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ãtmã is characterized by unchanging truth, consciousness, and bliss. The ãtmã is formless and has always been bound by a kãran sharir (causal body). This causal body is not a body in the physical sense. It is simply an accumulation of the sanskãrs (impressions of past karmas). The pure ãtmã together with this kãran sharir is known as the jiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because the jiva is formless in nature, without a physical and subtle body, it is unable to enjoy or suffer the fruits of its karmas, nor can it endeavor to attain God. So, out of compassion, God grants the formless jiva a physical and subtle body according to its karmas. Then, just as we cast off old clothes for new, the jiva casts off its old body for a new one – given to it by God according to its karmas. Hindu scriptures explain that the jiva attains the bodies of 8.4 million life forms in rotation and in them, experiences happiness and misery according to its karmas. It is only possible to attain ultimate liberation through the human body. In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/The-Vachanamrut-Spiritual-Discourses-Swaminarayan/dp/8175264314/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1403157845&amp;amp;sr=8-1&amp;amp;keywords=vachanamrut%20baps&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vachanãmrut&lt;/a&gt; [Bhugol-Khagol], while explaining the importance of this rare and priceless human birth, Bhagwan Swaminarayan says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A jiva squanders its human body, which it receives after 35,000,000 prãkrut-pralays (i.e. 10,886,400,000,000,000,000,000 human years), for the sake of vain worldly pleasures, and by the refuge of a false guru. Consequently, it has to suffer the torments of Yam and the agonies of the pits of narak. Moreover, it receives another human birth in a place where liberation is attainable only after passing through the sufferings of the cycle of 8.4 million life forms, i.e. after another 35,000,000 prãkrut-pralays. This is the interval before one receives a human birth again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, O brother, having understood this today, and having sought the refuge of the Sadguru Sant – the granter of liberation – and having kept your body, indriyas and antahkaran in accordance with his wish, strive for the benefit of your ãtmã and reach the abode of God. If you do not realise this fact today and waste this human body, which is instrumental in attaining liberation, you will have to wait for the aforementioned time before you receive another chance like this. Only after such suffering, and only at the end of that interval will you receive another opportunity to attain liberation, and that too if you strive for it. If you do not, you will not attain liberation. This is a fundamental principle. The wise should ponder over this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One with exceptionally good karmas, having attained some form of contact with God or the God-realized Sãdhu, maybe released from having to undertake birth within the cycle of 8.4 million life forms. Instead, he would continue to take human births until, offering devotion to God, he earns the pleasure of God or the God-realised Sãdhu and attains moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swaminarayan.org/faq/hinduism.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha FAQs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="73" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T22:31:47.990" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="97" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="112" CreationDate="2014-06-19T06:36:00.167" Score="98" ViewCount="50111" Body="&lt;p&gt;I attended a session of a priest. He described how eating non-veg food is disfavoured in Hinduism. He told us that a verse of Bhagavad-Gita says that eating non-veg food is evil.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Priest:&lt;/em&gt; If you eat non-veg food, you share the &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; of killing an innocent animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Me:&lt;/em&gt; Plants are also living beings. Eating them should also be equally bad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Priest:&lt;/em&gt; Yes, that's why you should only eat food offered to Krishna, so the Karma on it is removed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later on, a thought came to me which confused me:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why can't I just offer animal flesh to Krishna and then eat it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not asking &amp;quot;why is non-veg forbidden&amp;quot; but rather &amp;quot;why is there a difference between eating plants and eating animals?&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. I am strictly vegetarian.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T15:36:34.897" LastActivityDate="2023-07-27T17:21:37.420" Title="Why can we eat 'living' plants but not 'living' animals?" Tags="|food|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="21" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="98" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T06:56:04.680" Score="20" ViewCount="2424" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/j4/j4018.htm&quot;&gt;Ghata Jataka&lt;/a&gt;, one of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jataka_tales&quot;&gt;Jataka Tales&lt;/a&gt; that form part of Buddhist scripture, recounts the life of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna&quot;&gt;Krishna&lt;/a&gt; in a way that mostly parallels conventional Hindu accounts, except for one notable incident that would be quite unfamiliar to most Hindus.  It goes as follows: &quot;one clearly beloved son&quot; of Krishna dies, and as a result Krishna &quot;half dead with grief, neglected everything, and lay lamenting, and clutching the frame of his bed.&quot;  In response to this, Krishna's younger brother Ghatapandita starts wandering in the streets, raving like a madman about how he wants a rabbit from the moon.  Krishna realizes that wanting someone who is born to never die is just as impossible a request as wanting a rabbit from the moon, so he is convinced to stop mourning the death of his son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The conceit, of course, is that Ghatapandita is supposed to be Buddha's previous birth and Krishna is supposed to be the previous birth of Buddha's disciple &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sariputta&quot;&gt;Sariputta&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is, do any of the details of this story have a basis in Hindu scripture, for instance in the Srimad Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana)?  Is there any younger brother of Krishna corresponding to Ghatapandita?  (Krishna does bring the earlier babies of his mother Devaki &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/85&quot;&gt;back from the dead&lt;/a&gt;, so he would have had six physically &quot;younger&quot; brothers, but none of their names are close to Ghata.)  Is there any story about Krishna losing a &quot;beloved son&quot; and mourning the loss?  All of this seems quite out of character, so I'm somewhat skeptical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-08-05T03:37:18.077" LastActivityDate="2020-06-09T06:02:00.340" Title="Does the Jataka account of Krishna have any basis in Hindu scripture?" Tags="|krishna|buddhism|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="99" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17" CreationDate="2014-06-19T07:08:35.453" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is filled with references to middle beings, i.e. beings which are neither Gods nor Humans. Some of these creatures are --&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakshini&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yakshini&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apsara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandharva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gandharva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaksha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yaksha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinnara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kinnara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and many other celestial beings. All of these mentioned are sometimes benevolent sometimes malicious. Notable are Yakshinis, which are generally regarded as malicious in Keralite traditions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are not Angels, per se as per Christian Traditions, but can be considered to be super-humans in terms of their abilities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have serious issues about the concept of demi-gods, it's a concept introduced by ISKCON and I haven't seen or heard about it apart from ISKCON books and Avengers (the comic series). The Hindu name for those is &lt;em&gt;Deva&lt;/em&gt; and the word, 'Demigod' doesn't do justice to the word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;After OP clarified the question to imply that Angels mean 'messenger of God'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, there aren't any messenger of God in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-06-22T20:28:33.360" LastActivityDate="2018-06-22T20:28:33.360" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="100" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="65" CreationDate="2014-06-19T07:10:27.563" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;code&gt;Hindu&lt;/code&gt; was originally coined by the ancient Persians to describe the people living east of the &lt;code&gt;Sindhu&lt;/code&gt;, or &lt;code&gt;Indus River&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The term spread westward, and eventually it became popularized throughout the world. It was only with the invasion of India, first by the Muslims and then by the British that the term &lt;code&gt;Hindu&lt;/code&gt; came into use in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prior to that, the practitioners of the native religion of India called their religion, &lt;code&gt;Sanãtan Dharma – the Eternal Religion&lt;/code&gt;. It was known as eternal, because the Truths revealed by it are true today, were true before this universe existed, and will be true even after the destruction of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Hinduism-Introduction-Vol-Two-Set/dp/8175264330/ref=sr_1_20?s=books&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1403261596&amp;amp;sr=1-20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hinduism Part 1 &amp;amp; 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="73" LastEditorUserId="2489" LastEditDate="2023-11-12T05:07:28.153" LastActivityDate="2023-11-12T05:07:28.153" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="101" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T07:10:56.233" Score="59" ViewCount="52372" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu temples, the statues of the deities are present in the sanctum. But in (most) Shiva temples, only a linga is present instead of a Shiva statue. The linga worship seems to be limited only to Shiva, since no other deity is worshipped widely in linga form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is Shiva primarily (and uniquely) worshipped in the linga form?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-21T18:23:50.497" LastActivityDate="2021-10-03T00:00:00.157" Title="Why is Shiva primarily worshipped in a linga form?" Tags="|shiva|worship|temple|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="12" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="102" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-19T07:24:40.237" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Temple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A temple is a place and structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer, worship and sacrifice, or analogous rites. Temple is considered a dwelling place of a god or gods. A temple is maintained and supervised by a priest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Temple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A  Hindu temple incorporates all elements of Hindu cosmos - presenting the good, the evil and the human, as well as the elements of Hindu sense of cyclic time and the essence of life - symbolically presenting dharma, kama, artha, moksa and karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-01-23T06:27:51.147" LastActivityDate="2018-01-23T06:27:51.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="103" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T07:24:40.237" Score="0" Body="A temple is a place and structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer, worship and sacrifice, or analogous rites." OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="819" LastEditDate="2014-10-11T18:34:05.013" LastActivityDate="2014-10-11T18:34:05.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="104" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-19T07:26:22.250" Score="0" Body="&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva is Lord of Death and very well known as Mahadev(&quot;Greater God&quot;). Shiva has many benevolent and fearsome forms. At the highest level Shiva is limitless, transcendent, unchanging and formless. He lives on mountain Kailash with his wife Parvati and two children Kartikeya &amp;amp; Ganesha. Shiva is also regarded as the patron god of yoga and arts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main iconography attributes of Shiva are the third eye on his forehead, the snake Vasuki around his neck, the crescent moon adorning, the holy river Ganga flowing from his matted hair, the trishula as his weapon and the damaru as his instrument.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva is usually worshiped in the aniconic form of Lingam. The other popular names associated with Shiva are Mahadev, Mahesh, Maheshwar, Shankar, Shambhu, Rudra, Har, Trilochan, Devendra (meaning Chief of the gods) and Trilokinath (meaning Lord of the three realms).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva's role as the primary deity of Shaivism is reflected in his epithets Mahadeva (&quot;Great God&quot;), Mahesvara and Paramesvara (&quot;Supreme Lord&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiva&lt;/a&gt; on Wikipedia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T18:59:08.740" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T18:59:08.740" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="105" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T07:26:22.250" Score="0" Body="Shiva (The auspicious one) is the &quot;Destroyer&quot; among the Trimurti. He is considered as supreme Brahman according to Shaivism. Use this tag to ask questions that concern about Shiva in any of his forms" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-03T14:14:06.020" LastActivityDate="2018-02-03T14:14:06.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="106" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-19T07:26:48.983" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;rebirth or reincarnation is a religious or philosophical concept which states that one's soul or spirit cannot die. After the biological death of one, the soul takes birth again in a new bodily form. This is the central tenet of Sanatan Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="85" LastEditorUserId="85" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T14:42:32.577" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T14:42:32.577" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="107" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T07:26:48.983" Score="0" Body="After the biological death of one, the soul takes birth again in a new bodily form." OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-08-02T07:48:05.300" LastActivityDate="2014-08-02T07:48:05.300" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="109" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T07:34:44.203" Score="40" ViewCount="91996" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been with some Brahmins, and I was told that along with meat, they are also prohibited from eating onions and garlic. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can understand the meat prohibition because of cows, but what is the reason for the prohibition on onions and/or garlic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="39" LastEditDate="2014-06-26T02:53:03.510" LastActivityDate="2021-07-21T10:28:36.350" Title="Why do some Hindus, especially brahmins, not eat onion or garlic?" Tags="|practice|food|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="110" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="145" CreationDate="2014-06-19T07:46:27.403" Score="14" ViewCount="2563" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism isn't a religion but a way of living. Koran and Bible both mention Hinduism, Islam and Christianity and treat Hinduism and themselves as a religion but nowhere in a Hindu text Hinduism is considered a religion (at least not in my knowledge).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any mention of other religions in any Hindu text?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="86" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-22T04:58:03.587" LastActivityDate="2017-07-23T07:58:51.763" Title="Does Hinduism acknowledge the existence of other religions?" Tags="|scripture|other-religions|christianity|islam|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="111" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="132" CreationDate="2014-06-19T07:50:56.990" Score="28" ViewCount="6401" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is known for its wide acceptance of other cultures. Most religions, like Christianity, Islam, etc. have very strict rules regarding this. They are not allowed to worship or visit any other religious places. But in Hinduism, I don't see such restrictions like in other religions- Hindus are allowed to visit other religious and pray to Jesus, Allah, and Buddha if they want. Why is it so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt; As MKaama mentioned, there could be different opinions among different philosophical groups within Hinduism regarding this, but I am asking based on a general view, specifically compared to other religions like Christianity, Islam or Buddhism where visiting other religious places have very strict restrictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2014-07-21T18:17:14.023" LastActivityDate="2020-07-23T13:09:49.227" Title="Why do Hindus have no restrictions on going to churches or any other religious places?" Tags="|other-religions|worship|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="112" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="97" CreationDate="2014-06-19T08:00:14.647" Score="97" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am going to give the answer from a different perspective. The conception of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%E1%B9%87a&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Guna&lt;/a&gt; (property).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;There are Three types of Guna&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sattva (the quality of goodness):&lt;/strong&gt; Sattva is Calm, Saintly. Its brings up quality that allows spiritual holiness, forgiveness and submission to God. Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/17/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 17.8&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Raja (the quality of passion):&lt;/strong&gt; Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning are dear to those in the mode of passion. Such foods cause distress, misery and disease.  (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 17.9&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tamas (the quality of ignorance):&lt;/strong&gt; Food prepared more than three hours before being eaten, food that is tasteless, decomposed and putrid, and food consisting of remnants and untouchable things is dear to those in the mode of darkness.Onions and garlic fall into this category.(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 17.10&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We are what we eat&lt;/strong&gt;, so you see. When you see the whole picture from the Gunas' perspective it will start making sense altogether. Why we can't eat certain types of foods, why we do not use some types of food in our Pujas (rituals or worship).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to be a saint/God's servant, humans must suppress raja and tamas guna, and eating sattvic food is a large part of that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna states what should be used to worship him with Patram (leafs), Puspam (flowers), Falam (fruits), Toyom (water). So, god didn't say worship me with meat. The priest meant to say the same. Krishna only takes Sattvic foods from us. See the Bhagavad Gita 9.26 quote &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/9/26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is it true that if we eat vegetables, we are still taking lives, therefore we're guilty?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, yes. The only way to mitigate this is to offer the food first for sacrifice. This is supported in Bhagavad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3.13&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered ﬁrst for sacriﬁce. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a difference in picking fruits or greens from a plant, which does not always kill the plant. Regardless, the food must be offered to get free from negative karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are five types of people who gets equal share of sin of killing an animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Person who kills it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Person who sells the meat.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Person who carries it to home&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Person who cooks it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Person who eats.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Request to anyone edit this answer&lt;/strong&gt; If you want to relate science with religion please post your own answer. The answer given is strictly theoretical (how concepts is described in scriptures).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also read Chaandhogya Upanishad&#xA;They says that Your Food divides into 3 parts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shthul&lt;/strong&gt; change into &lt;strong&gt;solid waste food. Example-Toilet&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aadhu&lt;/strong&gt; change into &lt;strong&gt;liquid food like blood&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shushm&lt;/strong&gt; change into &lt;strong&gt;mind balancing elements like Brain&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="83" LastEditorUserId="28213" LastEditDate="2022-11-09T06:37:48.490" LastActivityDate="2022-11-09T06:37:48.490" CommentCount="14" CommunityOwnedDate="2014-08-24T11:51:42.737" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="114" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21" CreationDate="2014-06-19T08:16:03.517" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Devanagari it is correctly written as ओं or ओ३म्. The universal representation is ॐ. Om or Aum is a combination of three sounds a (a-kāra), u (u-kāra), m (ma-kāra). A-kara means form or shape like earth, trees, or any other object. U-kāra means formless or shapeless like water, air or fire. Ma-kāra means neither shape nor shapeless (but still exists) like the dark energy content of the Universe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="50" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T08:16:03.517" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="115" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="109" CreationDate="2014-06-19T08:17:06.887" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the scripture, garlic, onion and mushroom are prohibited for Brahmins because they are considered impure as they generally grow in the place of impurity. Brahmins need to maintain purity as they worship gods who are &lt;em&gt;sattvic&lt;/em&gt; (pure) in nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Garlic, leeks and onions, mushrooms and (all plants), springing from impure (substances), are unfit to be eaten by twice-born men. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu05.htm&quot;&gt;[Manu Smriti - 5.5]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T21:46:49.477" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T21:46:49.477" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="117" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T08:25:58.287" Score="36" ViewCount="3864" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism we have the &quot;main&quot; three gods, &lt;em&gt;Brahma, Vishnu,&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt;. We also have many, many, more &lt;em&gt;devas&lt;/em&gt;, each with his or her own dominion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, the &lt;em&gt;devas&lt;/em&gt; may appear in various &lt;em&gt;avatars&lt;/em&gt;, in which case many entities are actually one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, in general, is there any way to perceive the entire array of &lt;em&gt;devas&lt;/em&gt; as a single entity? I've seen some other Hindus with philosophies like this, and am wondering if there is any basis in the scriptures for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, is the &lt;em&gt;Trimurti&lt;/em&gt; really one, single-willed entity, or is it a triumvirate-like conglomerate?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="87" LastEditorUserId="87" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T08:34:21.007" LastActivityDate="2015-12-17T01:58:46.863" Title="Is Hinduism strictly polytheistic or are the gods considered to be eventually one entity?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="11" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="118" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T08:37:21.503" Score="14" ViewCount="244" Body="&lt;p&gt;From what I've seen, Hinduism isn't a religion like most of the other modern ones with many &quot;rules&quot; that you have to follow, it's more of a &quot;pick-your-own-rules&quot; way of doing it. (See: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/1/is-there-an-orthodox-hinduism&quot;&gt;Is there an Orthodox Hinduism?&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additionally, it changes much as time passes&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is, are there any invariant &quot;core&quot; tenets/rules to Hinduism; i.e. rules that have not changed since Vedic times and are still a part of the religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some candidates:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The no-conversions rule (one must be born a Hindu). This seems to be changing now.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Restrictions against beef&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1. So do other religions, really.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="87" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-12-29T02:02:28.383" Title="Are there any core invariants to Hinduism?" Tags="|belief|culture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="119" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="123" CreationDate="2014-06-19T08:40:50.910" Score="12" ViewCount="1710" Body="&lt;p&gt;After marriage, women have to wear a mangal sutra. Why is that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it obligatory? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T21:47:00.680" LastActivityDate="2022-07-29T07:31:40.623" Title="Why do brides wear a mangal sutra?" Tags="|belief|marriage|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="120" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="117" CreationDate="2014-06-19T08:47:22.397" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;@AwalGarg yeah, that's sort of my question. Do we consider the Trimurti to be one entity or a triumvirate-like conglomerate?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Comment made by OP on the question... This answer is followed by that comment.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, lets look at the history of the &lt;em&gt;Trimurtis&lt;/em&gt;. There are a few variations, lets pick a general one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the &lt;em&gt;Trimutis&lt;/em&gt; come into existence (don't ask me how). From the &lt;em&gt;Nabhi&lt;/em&gt; of him, is born a &lt;em&gt;Lotus/egg&lt;/em&gt; out of which come one of the other &lt;em&gt;trimurtis&lt;/em&gt; and from the &lt;em&gt;eye&lt;/em&gt; of the original &lt;em&gt;trimurti&lt;/em&gt; is born the third &lt;em&gt;Trimurti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can be inferred from this, that basically, there is only one original God who divided himself into 3 parts each with a specific business. So originally, &lt;em&gt;Trimurti&lt;/em&gt; was &lt;strong&gt;The God&lt;/strong&gt;, who divided himself into the &lt;em&gt;trimurtis&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you ask me now that are the &lt;em&gt;trimurtis&lt;/em&gt; single or not, then they are one when you put them together. They are not single in a sense that they different parts of the same thing (&lt;strong&gt;The God&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-08T02:48:22.037" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="121" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="119" CreationDate="2014-06-19T08:53:06.857" Score="8" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mangalsutra is a symbolic representation of the divine deities which is Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. As per scripture of the Mangalsutra, the gold part represents Parvati and the black beads which holds the gold represents Lord Shiva. Gold is a symbol of prosperity and well-being. Hence, it is believed that if a woman wears the Mangalsutra, she brings happiness and prosperity in the family. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to scriptures, the Mangalsutra attracts a lot of positive and divine energy. In a Mangalsutra the two golden cups are hollow from one side and is raised on the other side. The Mangalsutra is worn with the hollow side facing the body so that the positive energies are attracted towards the void of the cups. This helps to keep the body and mind healthy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By wearing the Mangalsutra, the woman gains energy and power. It connects the body to the divine Shakti which resides in the body in the form of an element, fire. This gives the woman the energy to take care of the entire family and well-being of each member.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read more at: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.boldsky.com/yoga-spirituality/faith-mysticism/2013/why-hindu-women-wear-mangalsutra-036245.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Why Hindu Women Wear Mangalsutra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="85" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T22:34:48.920" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T22:34:48.920" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="122" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="101" CreationDate="2014-06-19T08:57:49.950" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/aM7k&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Padma Purana recounts the story of how Shiva worship came to be restricted to the linga.  A group of sages were once conducting a yagna (ritual) on the banks of the Saraswati river, when they started to wonder which god to dedicate the ritual to.  So they sent sage &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhrigu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhrigu&lt;/a&gt; (famous for his short temper) to test which god out of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva was most worthy.  When he went to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kailash&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mount Kailash&lt;/a&gt; to test Shiva, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandi_%28bull%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nandi&lt;/a&gt; (Shiva's bull) prevented Bhrigu from meeting Shiva, because Shiva and Parvati were engaged in amorous pursuits at the time.  Enraged by this disrespect, Bhrigu put a curse on Shiva that from then onwards he could only be worshipped in the form of a linga.  (By the way, if you're interested Vishnu was the one who ultimately won the test, although it had major ramifications that led to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara#Legend&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;the story of Tirupati Balaji, AKA Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Dharmaputhiran points out that the Wikipedia article about Venkateshwara I linked to claims that according to the Tirumala Sthala Purana (the temple scripture of the Tirupati temple), Shiva was actually engaged in deep meditation when Brighu visited him.  But Wikipedia is wrong about this; &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/O1KD&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Tirumala Sthala Purana shows that Shiva and Parvati were engaged in amorous pursuits at the time, just as the excerpt I gave from the Padma Purana says.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-12T18:02:09.777" LastActivityDate="2015-09-12T18:02:09.777" CommentCount="26" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="123" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="119" CreationDate="2014-06-19T09:02:01.083" Score="6" Body="&lt;h3&gt;It's a Sign&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wearing the &lt;em&gt;managal-sutra&lt;/em&gt; is a unique sign that a lady is married. Similar to the red powder she uses on her scalp (&lt;em&gt;maang&lt;/em&gt;). It is unique because &lt;em&gt;mangal-sutras&lt;/em&gt; are different in looks. It would be very difficult to find two &lt;em&gt;mangal-sutras&lt;/em&gt; exactly the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jPUC0.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jPUC0m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;sample mangal sutar&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;It's Holy&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was first seen in history with &lt;em&gt;God Shiva and Goddess Parvati&lt;/em&gt;. It was a symbol of their holy and divine love. It was followed from then on and adopted a general rule.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;It's a Gift&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also one of the first gifts a man gives to his better half. It is generally made of Gold, its expensive. It symbolizes prosperity and happiness that a woman brings in the family she goes in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;The science behind it&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is constructed to channel positive energy into the female's mind. See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/121/101&quot;&gt;Nihil's answer&lt;/a&gt; for more info on that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T07:38:46.483" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="124" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="117" CreationDate="2014-06-19T09:04:21.767" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The basis of forms is to let you relate to God.  You are free to create your own God; that's what sub-cultures in India have done.  Each village has its own deity, designed to let its people relate to it - for protection, morality or strength.  Over a period, the deities have been accepted by larger communities and the ways of worship had also changed to accomodate larger diverse group of people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a practicing Hindu, the theory on three forms is immaterial.  A Hindu sees all as different forms of one God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="92" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T09:04:21.767" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="125" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="520" CreationDate="2014-06-19T09:04:56.663" Score="25" ViewCount="11424" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, brides wear Mangal Sutra to signify that they are married. Additionally, the use of sindoor, red kumkum powder also applied along the parting of the hair, is also worn by married women. These are all symbols that signify that a woman is married.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why don't such symbols exist for men?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T01:05:49.167" LastActivityDate="2022-07-29T07:26:13.103" Title="Why don't men wear the likes of Mangal-Sutra to signify they are married?" Tags="|marriage|women|symbolism|gender|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="127" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="97" CreationDate="2014-06-19T09:10:01.317" Score="35" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is because eating non-movable things has been allowed by Prajapati (Brahma or the lord of the beings).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the scripture:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is &lt;em&gt;sthavara&lt;/em&gt; (immovable i.e. vegetables, plants, etc.) is the&#xA;food of &lt;em&gt;jangama&lt;/em&gt; (movable i.e. animals) [Manu. Smrt. - 5.29]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why it is so? Because, if we don't eat something then we will die. Scriptures allow eating  anything whether it's movable(animals) or immovable (plants) when life is in danger:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can eat meat when his life is in danger. (i.e. if the condition is&#xA;such that if you don't eat meat you will die.) [Manu. Smrt. - 5.27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the sustenance of life Prajapati created everything. So both&#xA;movable and immovable are the food of &lt;em&gt;prana&lt;/em&gt;  (life force) [Manu.&#xA;Smrt. - 5.28]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having stated that, the scripture has heavily instructed in the favor of not eating meat as it includes causing pain to animals please see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/72/38&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Now, because we can't eat meat, only plant food is left. &lt;strong&gt;So to sustain our lives we have to eat plant food anyway.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the question is, don't plants feel pain when they are uprooted or their fruits, leaves, vegetables are  plucked? Well, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_perception_(paranormal)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;may be they do&lt;/a&gt;. But in case of plants, the pain,  suffering and self identification is certainly less than the animals. So it involves less karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why can't I just offer animal flesh to Krishna and then eat it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your priest is partially right.  You can certainly offer meat to gods and eat it (Manu 5.27), but this doesn't mean offering to Krishna. This means offering it to certain higher beings like manes and demigods (in the mode of &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;). In that case proper rite and ritual must be done with proper mantras. Simple mental offering wouldn't work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna being God Himself doesn't need any kind of food or offering for His sustenance. Whatever a devotee offers Him as a token of love and devotion He accepts it. But other demigods and manes being another form of existence need certain things for their satisfaction which can be offered to them through &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt; or sacrifice. Eating meat by offering to them in that way has been accepted:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Irrespective of whether one has bought the meat, killed the animal&#xA;himself or has received from another person, there is no fault in&#xA;eating meat when it has been offered to the gods and the manes. [Manu -&#xA;5.32]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But anyway, offering food to God before eating it is certainly a good habit because food may contain many other faults apart from it being veg or non-veg.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Edit: the answer has been updated as the question has changed&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-20T12:06:13.273" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="128" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21" CreationDate="2014-06-19T09:11:54.300" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your teacher is incorrect. The symbol ॐ is indeed a Devanagari ligature of  ओ + ँ. It's actually represented slightly differently in Tibetan, Siddham, Bengali, Jain scripts to name a few.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="64" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T09:11:54.300" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="129" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="434" CreationDate="2014-06-19T09:37:37.963" Score="12" ViewCount="13757" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana, when Lord Rama was about to kill Ravana, Indra sent his glorious and prestigious rath (chariot) to aid Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While taking leave from Ayodhya, Lord Rama had promised his father Dasharatha that during his vanavas (exile), he shall not make use of any royal thing whatsoever, and that he will only depend on things that poor men normally use. He had stated clearly that during his vanavas, he will reject anything which will give him the feeling or pleasure of royal experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In that case, why did he accept the rath?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-18T22:40:53.300" LastActivityDate="2015-11-22T20:27:38.007" Title="Why did Lord Rama accept Indra's rath (chariot) in the Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|indra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="130" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="118" CreationDate="2014-06-19T09:42:27.987" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some core invariants IMHO,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Belief in Veda/Shruti (this is summarily rejected by Cārvāka and other materialistic and atheistic school of Hinduism).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Belief in Re-incarnation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Belief in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80tman_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Belief in One universal &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt; which pervades all beings, animate as well as inanimate.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Belief in Karma and the role it play&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-29T02:01:09.297" LastActivityDate="2016-12-29T02:01:09.297" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="131" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="117" CreationDate="2014-06-19T10:02:39.080" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, there's a single undivided entity Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though there are alternate interpretation in various schools of Hinduism like &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta&quot;&gt;Advaita&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvaita&quot;&gt;Dwaita&lt;/a&gt; schools about the possible relationship between Brahman and men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaita proclaims that everything, including you, me and the Devas and Brahman itself is one and the same thing. Brahman manifest itself as the universe. Quoting from the Wikipedia article on &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta#Adi_Shankara&quot;&gt;Advaita Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Advaita_Vedanta&amp;amp;oldid=612577829&quot;&gt;specific revision&lt;/a&gt;),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankara's synthesis of Advaita Vedanta is summarised in this quote&#xA;  from the Vivekacūḍāmaṇi, one of his Prakaraṇa graṃthas (philosophical&#xA;  treatises):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;In half a couplet I state, what has been stated by crores of texts;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;that is Brahman alone is real, the world is mithyā (not independently existent),&#xA;    and the individual self is nondifferent from Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Sringeri Math, Shankara's message can be summarised even&#xA;  shorter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The eternal, impersonal, consciousness Absolute is the Brahman, the one without a second.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, the Dvaita school advocates that Brahman and the material world have separate existences and that this world is different from Brahman. Again quoting from the Wikipedia article on &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvaita_Vedanta#Philosophy&quot;&gt;Dvaita Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dvaita&amp;amp;oldid=598892903&quot;&gt;specific revision&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dvaita Vedanta (dualistic conclusions of the Vedas) espouses dualism by theorizing the existence of two separate realities. The first and the more important reality is that of Vishnu or Brahman. Vishnu is the supreme Self, God, the absolute truth of the universe, the independent reality. The second reality is that of dependent but equally real universe that exists with its own separate essence. Everything that is composed of the second reality, such as individual soul (Jiva), matter, etc. exist with their own separate reality. The distinguishing factor of this philosophy as opposed to Advaita Vedanta (monistic conclusion of Vedas) is that God takes on a personal role and is seen as a real eternal entity that governs and controls the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T17:29:24.803" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T17:29:24.803" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="132" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="111" CreationDate="2014-06-19T10:10:09.703" Score="35" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because Hinduism is not structured like Islam or Christianity. There is no 'one' supreme god or 'one' single book to guide you. Everyone is free to find their own way to the ultimate freedom (moksha) and most of the religious books (Vedas, Upanishads, Geeta etc.) prohibit harming other living things. As long as you don't hurt anyone, you can live even without praying and not be condemned. If however you wish to pursue spiritual path to achieve moksha, you are free to worship any god/force/inspiration in a harmless way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am an atheist and have learnt a little about a few religions. I have come to believe that Hinduism is the next best thing to atheism and agnosticism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I had answered this question 6 years ago, when I was way more ignorant (than now :) ), and largely unaware of my ignorance, and had many presumptions, and misconceptions. (Reading this extremely narcissistic, and idiotic line makes me cringe every time: &amp;quot;I am an atheist and have learnt a little about a few religions&amp;quot;.. )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now (year 2020), I would't even dare to attempt answering this question, as I wouldn't know what you mean by Hinduism, atheism, agnosticism etc. , let alone compare it to other religions (which I know even less about), because these concepts are defined / understood differently by almost everyone. Specially defining hinduism is even more difficult cause there isn't one definition / practice / book / institution accepted by ALL.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, though generally Hindu population (or a large section of it, if not the religion itself) do not have restriction on visiting other religious places, there are few Hindu temples, which do not allow non-hundu people to enter. So its not as open a culture / religion EVERYWHERE in India as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I did not want to delete / edit original text in my answer because it is an accepted answer, and has been upvoted a few times, so changing it would feel like cheating, even if the answer turns out to be inaccurate, (or&#xA;as some comments below argue, completely wrong).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My original answer, would probably, still have some relevance, if you consider the question only asks why &amp;quot;Hindus&amp;quot; (not hinduism) have no restrictions, and the fact that most Hindus (even some religiously sincere ones), haven't read, are aware of, or even considered the question of what should be, THE authoritative book / god / person / practice etc. to follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="96" LastEditorUserId="96" LastEditDate="2020-07-23T13:09:49.227" LastActivityDate="2020-07-23T13:09:49.227" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="135" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="117" CreationDate="2014-06-19T11:34:46.540" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question leads to another core belief of Hinduism - Parabrahma, Paramãtmã, Parameshwar, One Supreme Bhagwan, or God who is unparalleled and the highest entity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Very well known mantra from the Hindu scripture&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gurur Brahmaa Gurur Vishnu Gurur Devo Maheshwarah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Guru Saakshaata &lt;strong&gt;Parabrahma&lt;/strong&gt; Tasmai Shri Guruve Namah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parabrahma manifests in various forms, but He is one and supreme. The Rig Veda proclaims, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Ekam sat viprãhã bahudã vadanti,”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Truth is one, but the wise describe it in many ways.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is strictly &lt;strong&gt;monotheistic&lt;/strong&gt;, worshiping one but with respect for all Gods and spirituality. To be more precise, it is henotheistic, meaning the belief in and worship of one &lt;strong&gt;Supreme God&lt;/strong&gt; without denying the existence of other ‘gods’ or forms of the Supreme God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parabrahma&lt;/strong&gt; is ****sat-chit-ãnanda****, that is, &lt;em&gt;eternal&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;consciousness&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;bliss&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'sarvopari'&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;em&gt;supreme and all-powerful&lt;/em&gt;;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'sãkãr'&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;em&gt;possessing a divine and personal form&lt;/em&gt;;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'sarva kartã'&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;em&gt;the all-doer&lt;/em&gt;;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'antaryami'&lt;/strong&gt;, the all-knower;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'pragat'&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;em&gt;ever-present on Earth through a gunatit guru&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parabrahma is independent, and His divine power prevails over all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is the creator, sustainer, and destroyer.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is the only controller of infinite universes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is above &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; and controls it with His power. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Through His association, &lt;strong&gt;jivas&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;ishwars&lt;/strong&gt; can become divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;ishwars&lt;/strong&gt; - all deities including brahma, vishnu, mahesh)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the question would be who's Parabrahma then? Different sects have their own explanation of this question. I'll refrain from going into those details as question is limited to whether Hinduism is polytheistic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="73" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-08T02:45:58.850" LastActivityDate="2014-10-08T02:45:58.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="136" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="117" CreationDate="2014-06-19T11:53:01.817" Score="32" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is neither strictly polytheistic nor strictly monotheistic. The concept of God has been differently defined for people of different nature and qualities. We know that there are three primary nature or qualities &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; (goodness), &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt; (passion) and &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; (ignorance). Hence, there are three different gods representing the same God in His three different temperaments. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmā&lt;/strong&gt; - The &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt; mode of God in which He manifests the creation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yo ha khalu vāvāsya rājasoṃ'śo'sau sa yo'yaṃ brahmātha&lt;/em&gt; [Mait. Up. - 4.5]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Now that part of Him which is characterized by Passion is known as Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; - The &lt;em&gt;sattwa&lt;/em&gt; mode of God in which He preserves the creation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yo ha khalu vāvāsya sātvikoṃ'śo'sau sa evaṃ viṣṇuḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Mait. Up. - 4.5]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Now that part of Him which is characterized by Purity is known as Vishnu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; - The &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; mode of God in which He annihilates the creation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yo ha khalu vāvāsya tāmasoṃ'śo'sau sa yo'yaṃ rudro'tha&lt;/em&gt; [Mait. Up. - 4.5]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Now that part of Him which is characterized by ignorance or darkness is known as Rudra/Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, Vishnu Purana explicitly mentions that even if there are these three definitions of God for three different activities (creation, preservation, annihilation), God is one and only one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sruṣṭisthityantakarṇī brhmāviṣuśivātmikām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sa saṃjñāṃ yāti bhagabāneka eva janārdanaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 1.2.66]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  God (Janārdanaḥ) is one only. For the purpose of creation, preservation and annihilation He takes up three definitions as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically it's the same God but with different personas, just like the same person takes up different modes and qualities depending upon what he is doing. In office, his mood is something; while worshipping, his mood is something; while playing, his mood is something else. So at the core, it's only one God that exists but sages tell and describe it differently:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;brahmaitad advitīyaḿ vai gīyate bahudharṣibhiḥ&lt;/em&gt;  [SB - 11.9.31]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - This Brahman is one without a second. But sages sing (talk) about Him in multiple ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now you may ask why they describe the same God diffently. The answer is personal taste and preference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;śreyo vadanty anekāntam yathā-karma yathā-ruci&lt;/em&gt;  [SB - 11.14.9]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - People talk about the Supreme God in multiple ways as per their actions and likeness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we all know that due to the threefold material nature of sattva, rajas and tamas the personal liking and preference of people vary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bikārāṃśca guṇāṃścaiva biddhi prakṛtisambhavān&lt;/em&gt; [BG -13.20]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Know that &lt;em&gt;vikaras&lt;/em&gt; and the qualities (&lt;em&gt;satva&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;) are the product of the material nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, keeping in the eye the people of different natures, sages have authored scriptures of the threefold qualities. So &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt; of various gods and goddesses have been classified as &lt;em&gt;sattvic&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;rajasic&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;tamasic&lt;/em&gt; that attract people of different nature. So some say Shiva is God, some say Vishnu is God and so on. But at the core, there is only one single entity without a second commonly refereed as Brahma in the Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ekam advitiyam brahma&lt;/em&gt; [Chg. Up - 6.2.1]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    - Brahma is one without a second&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as per scriptures, the answer to your question &quot;Is the Trimurti really one?&quot; is Yes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T04:01:11.327" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T04:01:11.327" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="138" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="149" CreationDate="2014-06-19T12:23:41.190" Score="22" ViewCount="2302" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard tales where if you're bad, you are re-incarnated as a bug or something. I'm sure there is more to it than this - can someone clear it up?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T15:34:46.587" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T17:08:24.143" Title="How exactly does karma work?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="140" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="39887" CreationDate="2014-06-19T12:33:43.077" Score="13" ViewCount="2955" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know very little about what Hindus believe about the existence of different lokas (worlds). For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Par Loka (heaven)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paathal Loka (underworld)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhu Loka (Earth)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know, &#xA; - Exactly how many lokas (or worlds) are there? &#xA; - Who lives there? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I just know that we people live on Bhuloka (Earth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard once there are 54 lokas but I don't know anything about them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-08T02:38:25.047" LastActivityDate="2020-04-03T14:15:30.473" Title="How many lokas are there?" Tags="|lokas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="141" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="140" CreationDate="2014-06-19T12:57:44.333" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Following is a list of &lt;em&gt;lokas&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satya-loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tapa-loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jana-loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahar-loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svarga-loka (the indra lok)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhuvar-loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhu-loka (where we live)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atala-loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vitala-loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sutala-loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Talatala-loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatala-loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rasatala-loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patala-loka (where dwell the snakes)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yama-loka (where the evil get punishment for sins)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think there could be 54 lokas. These are all of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of them are where a soul or living being goes (if they are not reborn) after death on the basis of their karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We live on Bhu-lok (our dear dear Earth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-08T02:37:31.803" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="142" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="148" CreationDate="2014-06-19T13:27:16.783" Score="24" ViewCount="9962" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are some claims that ancient Hindu scriptures have mentioned Jesus Christ or the Prophet Muhammad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/beliefs/jesus_1.shtml&quot;&gt;BBC - &quot;Hinduism: Jesus in Hinduism&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.islam101.com/religions/hinduism/Mhs.htm&quot;&gt;&quot;Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in Hindu scriptures&quot; at Islam101&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to know what is the stance of Hindu experts on these claims? Does the Hindu consensus accept that the &lt;em&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/em&gt; had &quot;predicted&quot; the Prophet Muhammad?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="102" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-02T13:21:35.063" LastActivityDate="2023-05-28T06:39:47.523" Title="Did Hindu scriptures predict Muhammad and/or Jesus?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|other-religions|christianity|islam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="144" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8" CreationDate="2014-06-19T14:02:26.647" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;My answer will take view from scriptures and not the today's pseudo science&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why Menstruation occurs ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Lord Indra deva offended his spiritual master Brihaspati, and eventually declined in oppulence and peace. Suggested, he approached &quot;Visvarupa&quot; a demigod with 3 heads and son of demigod &quot;tavsta&quot;. Ordered by Indra, he performed sacrifice to raise the pious credits of Indra, but with one mouth, the 3rd mouth started supporting the Asuras and when Indra noticed that he took out weapon and killed the Visvarupa. Enraged his father &quot;tvasta&quot; took revenge, which is another story. But due to killing of Brahmana, Indra did the greatest sin of Brahma hatya and now had to suffer. Eventually story goes in the way that he finds the way of getting rid of it by distributing the sin over 4 bearers and giving boons to them. Women were one among them. They took the 1/4 the share of Indra's sin and eventually started menstruating. Indra on return gave the boon that women will have more sexual powers than males and enjoy more sensual pleasures. Please don't take it otherwise, it again has many philosophical backgrounds, I better avoid here.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the state of women undergoing menstruation ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shastrik injunction and scientifically both, since its a combination of rotten blood and flesh , it makes the body impure and contaminated. Cooking food and serving someone not only involved feeding grains, its a tansfer of consciousness. Why ? have you ever wondered why a roti baked by mother satisfies so nicely but not by the dhaba walas ? because mother transfers the consciousness of love and care in the food cooked. Similarly when menstruating the consciousness remains impure too while thinking about the bodily conditions and hence women should avoid cooking food and other activities that involves serving family.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why barred from temples and other religious activities ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again same reason, impure consciousness due to thinking about genitals, blood, bodily conditions etc. God is not material he is spiritual, Supreme Consciousness and so &quot;A consciousness can be served by consciousness only&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who should follow ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every women, its a myth that only brahmans should follow but its about every women's health and her family. Those who say its supersition are simply fools. Other than humans many other mammals menstruate and they don't take care of hygeine and bath etc. In this way humans are becoming more like animals these days. Die unto western philosophies, who degraded the society to animal consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What scientific basis you put for it ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scriptural clarification itself is sufficient, but out there there are many followers of the theory of evolution who demand scientific basis. There is, some have already been mentioned. During periods a lot of blood is lost may times. This makes them physically weak and emotionally drained as you already know that Progesterone and Oxytocin hormones levels have steep changes giving rise to drastic mood swifts. This mood actually we call connection to the consciousness. Due to blood loss they need proper rest and care.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this gives answer to many questions. Please feel free to ask.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="35" LastEditorUserId="1" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T21:08:04.710" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T21:08:04.710" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="145" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="110" CreationDate="2014-06-19T14:17:55.673" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;No. Hinduism or more properly Sanathana Dharma predates mature religions which are well known today. Also, Hinduism evolved as a way of living or culture as opposed to a strict set of rules enforced by a religious/political/other influential body hence there is no need to compare or take examples from other religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures focus on stories (historical or folklore) to serve as examples for human living of what is right or wrong.There may be other old religions which do not refer any other. Religions that evolved much later, like the ones you mentioned draw inspiration from the Hindu or other older religions or were inclined to go against a certain set of cultural values based on their own beliefs and experiences, hence the mention or comparison.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the scriptures don't mention any other religions, they also do not reject any form of worship and has several examples (Kannappa Nayanar) where standard practices are overridden and Bhakti (devotion) is highlighted instead. This is quite an unique and important aspect of Hinduism&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="33" LastEditorUserId="33" LastEditDate="2014-07-11T20:32:12.850" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T20:32:12.850" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="146" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17" CreationDate="2014-06-19T15:01:56.537" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;A lot of non-Hindu resources tend to equate &lt;em&gt;Devas&lt;/em&gt; to Angels, but I feel that's inaccurate because even though they became more subservient to whoever the One God was in different traditions, they are still deities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indian mythological figures corresponding to the angelic idea of 'beautiful sky-dwelling / possibly winged heavenly messengers' would probably be &lt;strong&gt;Apsaras&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Gandharvas&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Gandharvas&lt;/em&gt; are the (male) court musicians of the Heavenly Court of Indra and &lt;em&gt;Apsaras&lt;/em&gt; are the (female) court dancers, with &lt;em&gt;Gandharvas&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Apsaras&lt;/em&gt; being spouses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unlike &lt;em&gt;angels&lt;/em&gt; they are not really entities to be looked to for intervention / protection etc. They're pretty much just minor heavenly beings who serve Indra. &lt;em&gt;Apsaras&lt;/em&gt; are associated with arts, quite similar to the Muses of Greek tradition but also often portrayed as sexual beings sent by Indra to seduce and distract ascetics. &lt;em&gt;Gandharvas&lt;/em&gt; in addition to their musical duties, also serve the 'warlike Hosts of Heaven' function of the Judeo-Christian angels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="64" LastEditorUserId="64" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T15:07:14.093" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T15:07:14.093" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="147" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="151" CreationDate="2014-06-19T15:18:10.610" Score="9" ViewCount="22970" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some of the western religions have evil spirits like devils and demons.  Does the concept or belief in evil spirits occur in Hinduism?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8" LastActivityDate="2021-02-19T09:50:33.637" Title="Does the concept of Evil Spirits occur in Hinduism?" Tags="|evil|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="148" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="142" CreationDate="2014-06-19T15:24:05.187" Score="30" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Bhavishya Purana is one of those scriptures which is not available in its authentic form. There isn't a single manuscript available now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It has been altered and modified by so many people to suit their needs that now, it's nothing more than a couple of Sanskrit slokas. Stephen Knapp describes it best:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;However, I should also point out that this prophecy of Jesus in the &lt;em&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/em&gt; is found in no other &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt;, which often corroborate each other. This is why a study of the 18 major &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt; will reveal an assortment of prophecies that are often repeated one in another. So to find this story of Isha Mashiha in no other &lt;em&gt;Purana&lt;/em&gt; sends a red flag of warning. Furthermore, not everyone gives the &lt;em&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/em&gt; pure confidence. It is known that as many as 200 pages from this text had become lost or misplaced, and various interpolations are likely to have occurred in this text while India was under the British administration. So, we should be somewhat cautious about accepting this on face value.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;However, there are presently four known editions of the &lt;em&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/em&gt;, each having different predictions from the other, but suspiciously having one consistent prediction - that of Jesus or Isha Masiha. One edition contains five chapters, one contains four, another contains three and yet another contains only two. Additionally, the contents in all four editions differ in various degrees - some having extra verses and some having less. Due to these circumstances, it is difficult to ascertain which of the four is the original text of the &lt;em&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/em&gt;, if indeed an original text still exists, but suspiciously, as mentioned, all four editions do mention Jesus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Venkateswar Steam Press edition of the &lt;em&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/em&gt; printed in Bombay in 1829 (and reprinted by Nag Publishers in 2003) is probably the most complete version available, containing all the main features of the four manuscripts. Since &lt;strong&gt;none&lt;/strong&gt; of the four editions of the &lt;em&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/em&gt; predate British Rule in India, this further suggests a discrepancy. The fact is that the British tried to &lt;strong&gt;monopolize the publishing of all Sanskrit literature&lt;/strong&gt; during the British Raj. They bought or confiscated any Sanskrit literature they could locate. And that is why you practically cannot find any Vedic literature that is published before 200 years ago. It is further known that they liked to publish their own translations, as if India could not produce its own Sanskrit scholars to translate the Sanskrit themselves. Plus, they would also try to interpolate various verses here and there to have the reader draw a different conclusion of the personality or traits of the characters described in the texts. Most were quite noble, but by slipping in verses that said certain persons had less than admirable qualities or degraded habits, or that questionable practices were used, it would change the reader’s disposition and attitude toward such personalities or the Vedic culture itself, even if they were Indian born followers of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore, the consistent prophecy of Jesus in all four editions of the &lt;em&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/em&gt;, in spite of the differences in the editions found, seems to indicate an interpolation regarding the so-called meeting of Maharaja Shalivahana and Jesus. This is found in the 19th chapter of the Pratisarga-parva. However, as B. V. Giri Swami relates, in examining this section, certain flaws can be found which betray its dubious origins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(bolding added)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, basically it looks like a cooked up story with motives unknown. The complete article is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/jesus_predicted_in_the_vedic_literature.htm&quot;&gt;&quot;Jesus Predicted in the Vedic Literature?&quot;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T20:59:44.227" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T20:59:44.227" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="149" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="138" CreationDate="2014-06-19T15:27:41.120" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;A complex topic, but I will try to give the basics and make some points.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, let's understand what creates karma from the Vaishnava perspective. In the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 4.16-23), Krishna explains that are three different types of work: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;akarma,&lt;/em&gt; which is work done in pure consciousness, which produces no karma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;karma,&lt;/em&gt; prescribed work, which accrues either good or bad karma (work produces fruit),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;vikarma,&lt;/em&gt; or forbidden activities.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The goal is to perform all our activities in transcendental consciousness, which creates no karma or &lt;em&gt;akarma&lt;/em&gt;. Good karma and bad karma do not balance each other out. They are like two different bank accounts, and the money in both will have to be spent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One cannot escape the cycle of birth and death unless one is completely free from karma. Krishna again explains this in Bhagavad Gita 4.20:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandoning all attachment to the results of his activities, ever satisﬁed and independent, he performs no fruitive action, although engaged in all kinds of undertakings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam (5.5.5) also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As long as one does not inquire about the spiritual values of life, one is defeated and subjected to miseries arising from ignorance. Be it sinful or pious, karma has its resultant actions. If a person is engaged in any kind of karma, his mind is called karmātmaka, colored with fruitive activity. As long as the mind is impure, consciousness is unclear, and as long as one is absorbed in fruitive activity, he has to accept a material body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as the next body, that is governed by the state of the consciousness at the time of death. See Bhagavad Gita 8.6:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also mention of this later in the Gita in chapter 14.&#xA;What you're referring to in &quot;if you're bad, you will become a bug,&quot; there are specific references to what type of birth you will take if you commit certain actions, and these are mentioned in numerous Puranas, but it is rather complex.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-01-28T23:46:57.923" LastActivityDate="2015-01-28T23:46:57.923" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="150" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="147" CreationDate="2014-06-19T15:34:41.080" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The concept of the 'Devil' as the nemesis of 'God' and demons as fallen angels can possibly be equated with &lt;em&gt;Daityas&lt;/em&gt; / &lt;em&gt;Asuras&lt;/em&gt;, the counterpart to &lt;em&gt;Devas&lt;/em&gt; / &lt;em&gt;Suras&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In current tradition, &lt;em&gt;Asuras&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Daityas&lt;/em&gt; are pretty similar to how demons might be portrayed elsewhere, completely antagonistic, and mostly evil, but this was a change that only happened in post-Vedic literature (interestingly, at around the same time in Zoroaster, the similar group of deities called &lt;em&gt;daevas&lt;/em&gt; became evil and &lt;em&gt;ahuras&lt;/em&gt; became good) and  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In early Vedic texts, both &lt;em&gt;suras&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;asuras&lt;/em&gt; were half-sibling / cousin deities who were antagonistic and constantly competed with each other, some bearing both designations at the same time. The mother of the &lt;em&gt;suras&lt;/em&gt; was &lt;em&gt;Aditi&lt;/em&gt; and the mother of the &lt;em&gt;asuras&lt;/em&gt; was &lt;em&gt;Diti&lt;/em&gt;, both sisters-wives of the Rishi Kashyap (who incidentally is also the father of pretty much every thing else thanks to his other wives, the other sisters of Aditi and Diti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later texts introduce beings such as &lt;em&gt;Vetalas&lt;/em&gt; (a kind of ghost-vampire thing), &lt;em&gt;Pishachas&lt;/em&gt; (flesh-eating demons), &lt;em&gt;Bhoot&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Preta&lt;/em&gt; (types of ghosts) which can be referred to as the demon / devils cognate to the Western idea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="64" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T15:34:41.080" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="151" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="147" CreationDate="2014-06-19T15:42:01.983" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There's no equivalent of Satan in Hinduism. Hinduism has a universal Brahman which pervades all things good as well as evil. Satan (an absolute evil) is a necessity in Abrahamic faith to explain all things bad because the Abrahamic God cannot do anything evil. Hindu God on the other hand pervades everything good as well as bad. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Vedas, there are only three principles or entities that exist in reality, in sum total. These three are: &lt;em&gt;Brahm&lt;/em&gt; (God), &lt;em&gt;Jeevatma&lt;/em&gt; (the countless souls) and &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; (the material energy). Indeed, the universe is made up of these three entities alone. There never was a fourth being and there never will be a fourth being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the 'demons' in the Hindu religion are classified under the 'soul' category. Due to their &lt;em&gt;Karmas&lt;/em&gt; (actions) they are born in those wicked races and have such sinful propensities. The Upanishads state that no one can be equal to God (&quot;Eka mevadveeteeyam brahm&quot;). He is unmatched in power, stature or opulence. Thus, there is no room for any independent being to work against the will/design of God in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides, Hindu scriptures state that any person performs actions only according to his will. Of course, these actions are shaped by his company and atmosphere, but there never is any inherently evil being whispering sin into his ears.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact, Hinduism denies the very idea of evil. Evil, according to the Hindu scriptures, is non-existent. There are three modes of nature - &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;. The demons and other cruel people are said to be possessed of &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;, but even they can overcome this darkness by purifying their mind through association with &lt;em&gt;sattvic&lt;/em&gt; matter/personalities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishnamath.in/gospel/archives/50&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;To quote Shri Ramakrishna&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The world consists of the illusory duality of knowledge and ignorance. It contains of knowledge and devotion, and also attachment to 'lust and greed'; righteousness and unrighteousness; good and evil. But Brahman is unattached to these. Good and evil apply to the jiva, the individual soul, as do righteousness and unrighteousness; but Brahman is not at all unaffected by them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One man may read the Bhagavata by the light of the lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light; but that lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well as on the virtous. You may then ask, 'How, then can one explain misery, and sin and unhappiness?' The answer is that these apply to the jiva. Brahman is unaffected by them. There is poison in a snake; but though others may die if bitten by it, the snake itself is not affected by the poison.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T21:46:42.777" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T21:46:42.777" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="152" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T16:17:47.023" Score="11" ViewCount="5834" Body="&lt;p&gt;The relationship between Samudra Manthan and alcohol came up in a comment thread to another question, with one commenter stating that alcohol was forbidden in Hinduism because Daanavs drank alcohol and lost the chance at the amrit (nectar of immortality).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I tried to follow up on this thread myself, and came across these seemingly contradictory bits of information:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Varuni or Sura&lt;/strong&gt;, goddess and creator of alcohol - taken - somewhat reluctantly (she appeared dishevelled and argumentative) - accepted the demons. &lt;sub&gt;[source = wiki mentioning Horace Wilson's translation of &lt;em&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_manthan&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the Vishnu Purana, during the Samudra manthan or &quot;churning of the ocean&quot;, the daityas came to be known as asuras because they rejected &lt;strong&gt;Varuni&lt;/strong&gt;, the goddess of sura &quot;wine&quot;, while the devas accepted her and came to be known as suras. &lt;sub&gt;[source = wiki mentioning Roshen Dalal's &lt;em&gt;Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asuras&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then there's the point that Varuni is the consort of Varuna - who is a &lt;em&gt;Sura&lt;/em&gt; - the god of water, but also has the distinction of being referred to as an &lt;em&gt;Asura&lt;/em&gt; in the Rig Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given all this, can someone clarify what exactly was going on with Varuni (and wine!) during the Samudra Manthan? Do the epithets 'suras' and 'asuras' have any relationship to 'sura' ie. 'wine' and if so, what &lt;em&gt;is&lt;/em&gt; that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="64" LastEditorUserId="64" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T17:00:29.217" LastActivityDate="2023-06-04T15:05:08.613" Title="Samudra Manthan and the role of Alcohol - Suras, Asuras and Varuni" Tags="|asuras|samudra-manthan|gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="153" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T16:36:54.143" Score="20" ViewCount="1517" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, is there a concept of evolution? If so, how it it portrayed? I seen a YouTube video that I am unable to find again that says that the Vedic text says that beings evolve from most complex being to the simplest being(backwards from scientific conception), but also states that consciousness evolves from the simplest to the most complex. Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T16:28:01.443" LastActivityDate="2024-02-26T02:41:50.317" Title="How is evolution portrayed?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="154" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-19T16:37:20.713" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T16:37:20.713" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T16:37:20.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="155" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T16:37:20.713" Score="0" Body="The Samudra Manthan is an episode in the Puranas and Mahabharata in which the ocean of milk was churned by the devas and asuras. " OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T21:01:33.537" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T21:01:33.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="156" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T16:56:16.593" Score="16" ViewCount="994" Body="&lt;p&gt;When circumambulating a temple or an idol (i.e. perform pradakshinam), we do so clockwise. Now, it's obvious that we need to have everybody circumambulating in the same direction, or else people would run into each other. But why do we specifically do so in a clockwise direction? Is there a scriptural basis for this, or is it merely traditional?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(I assume clockwise circumambulation is a universal practice; if not, please correct me.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastActivityDate="2019-03-29T14:18:55.823" Title="Why do we perform pradakshinam (circumambulation) clockwise?" Tags="|practice|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="157" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T17:19:31.683" Score="24" ViewCount="4900" Body="&lt;p&gt;I understand there is a caste system on the basis of occupation. What is the reason for having such a classification system? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Has the original concept stayed the same or has it evolved over time (if at all)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="102" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-11T07:59:26.270" LastActivityDate="2021-01-16T05:23:59.247" Title="What is the purpose of the caste system? How has it changed?" Tags="|terminology|caste-system|" AnswerCount="9" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="158" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T17:24:48.987" Score="23" ViewCount="1693" Body="&lt;p&gt;The swastika symbol is used in many ceremonies, such as the yagya, among others. What is its significance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what is the correct direction for the swastika?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PmqOf.png&quot; alt=&quot;clockwise-opening swastika&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This or its mirror image?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="86" LastEditorUserId="9105" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T06:40:01.383" LastActivityDate="2020-07-17T02:58:56.080" Title="What is the significance of the swastika?" Tags="|symbolism|symbols|swastika|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="159" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T17:41:02.897" Score="18" ViewCount="11085" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Tulsi plant has a significant role in Hinduism and its rituals. It is considered a holy plant, and in front of every Hindu house, there will be a Tulsi plant. Why is it considered a holy plant? What is the textual basis for treating it as holy? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="12176" LastEditDate="2018-02-07T13:36:55.147" LastActivityDate="2021-06-06T04:54:55.690" Title="What is the importance of the Tulsi plant (Holy basil)?" Tags="|rituals|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="160" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="157" CreationDate="2014-06-19T17:51:59.687" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word 'Caste system' is used interchangeably and undifferentiated for '&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;jati&lt;/a&gt;' and &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varna_%28Hinduism%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;varna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; is the classification of people on the basis of their occupation and has four classes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, possessor of knowledge&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt;, the warrior and rulers&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt;, the mercantile and businessmen&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sudra&lt;/em&gt;, farmers and landowners&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This scheme was not heriditary but people find it generally easy to just take up the family business rather than start soemthing on their own. The story of how Varna system started goes like this,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Visvamitra, and Agastya, two great rishis suggested a mean to counter&#xA;great evils upon mankind by first understanding what great powers&#xA;were. They noticed that there were four great wealths which were dear to&#xA;mankind. These were,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Knowledge&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Strength&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Financial Wealth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Land&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Rishis pondered that among these four wealth, none two should be held by one man, hence they constituted four classes or&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; and gave responsibility of each wealth to each of them and laid down specific conduct rules of each &lt;em&gt;varna&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance, a&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Brahmin&lt;/em&gt; is not supposed to employ armed men or soldiers neither is he&#xA;supposed to buy land or amass wealth. A Brahmin is supposed to lead a&#xA;life of financial misery and lead his life teaching pupil and sustain&#xA;himself and his family by alms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, a &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt; is not supposed&#xA;to legislate any law in his kingdom. This has to be done by Brahmin in&#xA;his court. He cannot buy land and amass wealth as Brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jati&lt;/em&gt; on the other hand was heriditary and mean little except in cases of endogamous marriage and clan relationships. Even today, people in India practice endogamous marriage within one's Jati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T05:08:50.510" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="161" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-19T18:07:55.733" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T18:07:55.733" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T18:07:55.733" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="162" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T18:07:55.733" Score="0" Body="For questions about customs and traditions in Hinduism (called &quot;Karma kanda&quot;, as opposed to &quot;Jnana kanda&quot;, which refers to the philosophical aspects of Hinduism). " OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="22857" LastEditDate="2023-09-28T09:59:06.907" LastActivityDate="2023-09-28T09:59:06.907" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="163" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T18:37:58.963" Score="20" ViewCount="35981" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindus prefer to wear red tilak and sandal wood tilak on foreheads. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Lord Shiva wears Bhasma(Vibhuthi). Many of his followers do the same. How did this practice originate? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="10329" LastEditDate="2018-04-23T13:23:56.233" LastActivityDate="2019-01-23T18:54:19.910" Title="Why Hindus wear red tilak and sandal wood tilak on foreheads?" Tags="|rituals|culture|tilak|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="164" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="157" CreationDate="2014-06-19T18:42:45.333" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;The caste system, as existing in modern India, is a degraded form of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varna_%28Hinduism%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;varnasrama&lt;/a&gt;. The Wikipedia article is full of western speculation, but the proper definition is given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-04-13.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-gita&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(God says)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Four [profesional] colorings were created by me, differentiated by qualities and activities. ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The qualities (guna) mentioned in this verse are not just random general qualities of a person but specifically the &lt;strong&gt;goodness/passion/nescience&lt;/strong&gt; (sattva/rajas/tamas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is described in more detail in &lt;strong&gt;Brhat-Parasara-Hora-Sastra&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A person affected primarily by &lt;strong&gt;sattva guna&lt;/strong&gt; is apt to be a good brahmana (teacher, scientist, priest...)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A person affected primarily by &lt;strong&gt;rajo guna&lt;/strong&gt; is apt to be a good kshatriya (leader, officer, governor...)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A person affected primarily by &lt;strong&gt;tamo guna&lt;/strong&gt; is apt to be a good shudra (worker, artisan, performer...)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A person without a dominating influence from the mix of three gunas is apt to be a good vaishya (merchant, landowner, industrialist...)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note that the entire material world consists exclusively of these 3 qualities, there is no question of anyone not being affected by them or being affected by something else. It is only a question of proportions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;So, the original system was a natural system of work division that made everyone happy. The degraded caste system arose as people started to claim positions without being actually qualified. They substituted **heredity** in place of **qualities**. The first example of transgression is given in Srimad-Bhagavatam where a brahmana boy Shringi curses good king Parikshit, although brahmana and ksatriya duties are to protect each other.&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At long last, the explicit answer: the purpose of the distorted caste system is most likely to increase the influence of it's creators, which is very insignificant. The purpose of the original varnasrama is four purusarthas: dharma, artha, kama, moksha, ie stability, prosperity, gratification and freedom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastEditorUserId="113" LastEditDate="2021-01-15T15:02:17.487" LastActivityDate="2021-01-15T15:02:17.487" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="165" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="159" CreationDate="2014-06-19T18:46:29.587" Score="9" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Why is Tulsi considered Sacred&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The theological explanation is,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hindus regard it as an earthly manifestation of the goddess Tulsi, a consort of the god Vishnu. The offering of its leaves is mandatory in ritualistic worship of Vishnu and his forms like Krishna and Vithoba.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the psychological explanation could be because of the medicinal and antibacterial properties of basil plant,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tulsi has been used for thousands of years in Ayurveda for its diverse healing properties. It is mentioned in the Charaka Samhita, an ancient Ayurvedic text. Tulsi is considered to be an adaptogen, balancing different processes in the body, and helpful for adapting to stress. Marked by its strong aroma and astringent taste, it is regarded in Ayurveda as a kind of &quot;elixir of life&quot; and believed to promote longevity. It is an elixir for cough; the leaves when chewed after meals acts as a digestive, and when taken before and after cold water bath controls temperature in the stomach and prevents cold. If sprinkled over cooked food in stored water, tulsi leaves prevent bacterial growth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are numerous myths and stories of the bond between Tulsi and Krsna (Vishnu), and it's said that Tulsi is the vegetative manifestation of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Tulsi in Hindu scriptures&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/a&gt; declares a person who is cremated with Tulsi twigs in his funeral pyre gains moksha and a place in Vishnu's abode Vaikuntha. If a Tulsi stick is used to burn a lamp for Vishnu, it is like offering the gods lakhs of lamps. If one makes a paste of dried Tulsi wood(from a plant that died naturally) and smears it over his body and worships Vishnu, it is worth several ordinary pujas and lakhs of Godan (donation of cows).Water mixed with the Tulsi leaves is given to the dying to raise their departing souls to heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as Tulsi respect is rewarding, her contempt attracts the wrath of Vishnu. Precautions are taken to avoid this. It is taboo to urinate, excrete or throw waste water near the plant. Uprooting and cutting branches of the plant is prohibited. When the plant withers, the dry plant is immersed in a water body with due religious rites as is the custom for broken divine images, which are unworthy for worship. Though Tulsi leaves are necessary for Hindu worship, there are strict rules for it. Only a male must cut them and only in the daylight. A prayer of forgiveness may also be offered to Tulsi before the act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All quotes in this answer are from the Wikipedia article &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsi_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tulsi in Hinduism&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tulsi_in_Hinduism&amp;amp;oldid=613199244&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;specific revision&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T21:07:19.650" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T21:07:19.650" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="167" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="159" CreationDate="2014-06-19T19:07:23.657" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The esoteric importance: &lt;strong&gt;Tulasi&lt;/strong&gt; as &lt;em&gt;lila-shakti&lt;/em&gt; (the pastime energy of the Supreme Lord) is a division of &lt;em&gt;sandhini-shakti&lt;/em&gt; (the all-encompasing unifying energy that is the basis of everything). Sandhini-shakti itself is one of the three principal energies of the Lord: &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sat&lt;/strong&gt;-cit-ananda&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulasi as &lt;strong&gt;Vrinda-devi&lt;/strong&gt; grants one entrance into the ashta-kaliya-lila or the intimate pastimes of Krishna. Neither Brahma, nor Shiva can do that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the best Tulasi experts in the world, Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami has collected great original materials on Tulasi (see Books section).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2021-06-06T04:54:55.690" LastActivityDate="2021-06-06T04:54:55.690" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="168" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="158" CreationDate="2014-06-19T19:15:19.137" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The swastika is well-recognized as an important Hindu symbol. It represents God (the Brahman) in his universal manifestation, and energy (&lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt;). It represents the four directions of the world (the four faces of Brahma). It also represents the Purushartha: Dharma (natural order), Artha (wealth), Kama (desire), and Moksha (liberation).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika#Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swastika&lt;/a&gt; on Wikipedia).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's also associated with the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even some theories suggest it represents the Big Bang. Even the four arms represent the four stages of life (Brahmacharya, Grahasth, Vanaprasth and Sannyas). And it is used as a medium for Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T19:17:07.683" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T19:17:07.683" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="169" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="156" CreationDate="2014-06-19T19:20:11.590" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the vaishnava verbal tradition: turning to the right decreases material desires, turning to the left increases them. Religious practitioners want more freedom, so they always circumambulate clockwise to turn to the right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T19:20:11.590" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="171" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="27947" CreationDate="2014-06-19T19:26:45.560" Score="8" ViewCount="4977" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Islam and Christianity, it is obligatory for a couple to take a shower to purify themselves. I have never heard of such a thing from any of my Hindu friends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any teachings related to this? I have been reading other teachings about purification, like the menstrual question on this site, which says that a woman needs to be clean. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any teaching which tells a couple to get clean after copulation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-07T10:58:05.290" LastActivityDate="2019-01-14T01:08:40.083" Title="Do a couple need to purify themselves after copulation?" Tags="|marriage|sex|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="172" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-19T19:31:57.673" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T19:31:57.673" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T19:31:57.673" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="173" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T19:31:57.673" Score="0" Body="A mark worn by a Hindu on the forehead to indicate caste, status, or sect, or as an ornament." OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T21:07:29.693" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T21:07:29.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="138" CreationDate="2014-06-19T19:53:25.327" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Definition: karma is the interaction between jiva (soul) and matter :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are three principal &quot;actors&quot; in the material world: (1)&lt;strong&gt;God&lt;/strong&gt;, (2)the passive &lt;strong&gt;matter&lt;/strong&gt; and (3)the active &lt;strong&gt;living beings&lt;/strong&gt;. (4)&lt;strong&gt;Kaala&lt;/strong&gt; (or time) is the process by which God relates to the matter (separates it into the no-longer-available, available and yet-unavailable). (5)&lt;strong&gt;Karma is the process by which the (small) living beings relate to the matter.&lt;/strong&gt; It is by no means simple: &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-04-16.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad gita 4.16&lt;/a&gt;. These are the five principal topics that are discussed in Mahabharata and in Bhagavad-gita especially.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is enforced by God :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-10.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 9.10&lt;/a&gt; Krishna says that matter works under his superintendence.&#xA;  Karma is a material law, static and predictable. The other party, the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; soul is not predictable and causes variety (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-05.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 7.5&lt;/a&gt;), however everyone's karma is only the repercussion of his own choices. How karma is enforced, is a complex system of delegation, where demigods, human authorities and even plants and insects play their roles on behalf of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Basic Rules :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The 4th chapter of Bhagavad-gita describes that attachment is what causes bondage. Even if two persons perform the same action externally, their intent is what determines the result, which can be completely different in both cases. If there is no attachment, there is no result to suffer or enjoy (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-18-12.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.12&lt;/a&gt;). Karma is very individual and dependent on knowledge (in the sense that nobody can act in your place but can inspire you).&#xA;  Whatever you choose, you always get the &lt;strong&gt;full experience&lt;/strong&gt;, even if it is distributed in time. E.g. if somebody thinks that he will get happiness by killing others (including meat eating), he will get killed many times over himself in a similar spirit to get the full experience of the killing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Escape from karma :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Matter is a source of suffering only, therefore wise people prefer not to touch it at all: they do interact, but not for themselves (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-06-01.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 6.1&lt;/a&gt;). This is &lt;strong&gt;akarma&lt;/strong&gt;: the one who ordered the action, takes the responsibility. In a mundane sense, these are the scriptures, but actually they represent God. If someone surrenders to Krishna, Krishna takes all responsibility to protect the devotee (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-22.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 9.22&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-12-05.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 12.6-7&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-18-62.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.66&lt;/a&gt;). Interaction with spirit is not karma. There is no karma in the spiritual world at all, because there is no matter. Everything is totally spontaneous. Purely spiritual activity is another way to view akarma. Interactions between materially conditioned living beings are also not pure karma, there is an element of freedom or unpredictability.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-02T04:51:06.677" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T04:51:06.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="175" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="206" CreationDate="2014-06-19T19:54:14.513" Score="13" ViewCount="3830" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently, gay rights have been a very hot topic, and some politicians say that they are un-natural and against Hindutva. But how? I mean I don't remember any Veda or religious book saying anything against a third gender. And even the Mahabharata has a transgender character (Shikhandi). Is there anything in the Vedas/Upanishads/Puranas for the acceptance or non-acceptance of third-gendered people? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-10-09T07:50:25.343" LastActivityDate="2018-01-14T11:01:07.227" Title="What does Hinduism say about third-gendered people?" Tags="|belief|gender|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="176" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-19T20:05:41.690" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T20:05:41.690" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T20:05:41.690" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="177" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T20:05:41.690" Score="0" Body="Cārvāka (Sanskrit: चार्वाक), also known as Lokāyata, is a system of Indian philosophy that assumes various forms of materialism, philosophical skepticism and religious indifference." OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T20:58:19.910" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T20:58:19.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="178" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="45" CreationDate="2014-06-19T20:18:19.340" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Baby Krishna transitioned into his characteristic dark blue skin&#xA;colour because a she demon Putana poisoned him with her breast&#xA;milk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his youth, Krishna despairs whether fair skinned Radha and other&#xA;Gopikas (girls) will like him because of his skin colour. His mother,&#xA;tired of the desperation, asks him to approach Radha and colour her&#xA;face in any colour he wanted. This he does, and Radha and Krishna&#xA;became a couple. The playful colouring of the face of Radha has&#xA;henceforth been commemorated as Holi. (Source:&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi#Significance&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1][2]&lt;/sup&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's what the origion of holi is and in Braj region of India, where Krishna grew up, the festival is celebrated for 16 days (until Rangpanchmi) in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna, a Hindu deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[1]: Lynn Peppas (2010), Holi, Crabtree Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7787-4771-0, pp. 12–15&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;[2]: R Deepta, A.K. Ramanujan's ‘Mythologies’ Poems: An Analysis, Points of View, Volume XIV, Number 1, Summer 2007, pp. 74–81&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-12-31T17:50:42.497" LastActivityDate="2021-12-31T17:50:42.497" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="179" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T21:31:24.653" Score="32" ViewCount="30448" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tirupati is most commonly associated with the world-renowned &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_Venkateswara_Temple&quot;&gt;Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple&lt;/a&gt;.  But there is another Vishnu temple in Tirupati, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tirumala.org/ptv_tpt_govindaraja.htm&quot;&gt;Govindaraja Swami Temple&lt;/a&gt;.  (This isn't the only Govindaraja temple; there's also &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Govindaraja_Perumal_Temple&quot;&gt;one in Chidambaram&lt;/a&gt;.)  As I understand it, the story of the temple goes roughly as follows: when &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot;&gt;Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt; (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, AKA Srinivasa or Balaji) wanted to marry &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmavathi&quot;&gt;Padmavathi&lt;/a&gt;, he got a large loan from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubera&quot;&gt;Kubera&lt;/a&gt; (the god of wealth) to pay for the wedding expenses.  Afterwards, Govindaraja, an elder brother of Venkateshwara and another form of Vishnu, helped Venkateshwara by counting the money.  He spent a long time weighing the gold on a giant scale until he fell asleep on the scale itself, which is how the statue looks in the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who is this Govindaraja?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What does it mean to say that he is Venkateshwara's elder brother?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Was he a son of Venkateshwara's foster mother Vakuladevi?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I wasn't aware that Vakuladevi had any biological children or was even married.  I just thought Vishnu came to the house of Vakuladevi when she was an elderly woman living alone, but was she a widow or something?  (Presumably if she had a husband he would be the next birth of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanda_%28mythology%29&quot;&gt;Nandagopa&lt;/a&gt;, just as she was the next birth of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yashoda&quot;&gt;Yashoda&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Or was Vakuladevi a foster mother to Govindaraja just as she was a foster mother to Venkateshwara?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is anything else known about Govindaraja other than this gold-counting story, for instance how and why Vishnu took an incarnation as Govindaraja?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-12T19:18:16.307" LastActivityDate="2019-03-04T01:26:54.277" Title="Who is Govindaraja and how is he related to Venkateshwara?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|temple|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="180" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-19T21:37:03.360" Score="40" ViewCount="16717" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some Hindus believe that the Gautama  Buddha is one of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashavatara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dashavatara&lt;/a&gt;; others replace him with Balarama (and sometimes other figures, but mostly Balarama). Which groups of Hindus believe that the Buddha was one of the principal avatars of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I vaguely remember reading that this is divided roughly along north-south geographic lines, with people living in the North (loosely, the non-Dravidian states) typically counting the Buddha as an avatar, and people in the South (loosely, the Dravidian states) typically counting Balarama as an avatar. Is this the case?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2018-11-05T00:07:08.303" LastActivityDate="2023-08-24T03:33:43.997" Title="Is Gautama Buddha an avatar of Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|other-religions|buddhism|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="182" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="180" CreationDate="2014-06-19T21:56:46.723" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the Vaishnava perspective, Buddha is regarded as an avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First from the poet Jayadeva, who lists him as one of the &lt;em&gt;dasavatara&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nindasi yajna-vidher ahaha sruti-jatam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sadaya-hridaya darsita-pasu-ghatam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kesava dhrita-buddha-sarira jaya jagadisa hare&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;O Kesava! O Lord of the universe! O Lord Hari, who have assumed the form of Buddha! All glories to You!&#xA;  O Buddha of compassionate heart, you decry the slaughtering of poor animals performed according to the rules&#xA;  of Vedic sacrifice.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, Buddha's incarnation is mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam (1.3.24):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tataḥ kalau sampravṛtte&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sammohāya sura-dviṣām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  buddho nāmnāñjana-sutaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kīkaṭeṣu bhaviṣyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Añjanā, in the province of Gayā, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theist.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Srimad Bhagavatam quotation is in the context of listing the avatars of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T21:56:46.723" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="183" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-19T22:32:44.683" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mythology is not just about imaginary stories but can be real stories of people in the ancient times. E.g., Itihasas (Ramayana and Mahabharata) are ancient histories or Vedic mythology, and they are not necessarily imaginary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Further information:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/classical-literature-mythology-and-folklore/folklore-and-mythology/mythology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mythology -  Detailed Explanation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;What is a Myth? What is Mythology?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/mythology/about-mythology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;More about Mythology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.britannica.com/topic/myth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Myth and Mythology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7961" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-01-16T23:34:51.513" LastActivityDate="2020-01-16T23:34:51.513" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="184" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T22:32:44.683" Score="0" Body="Mythology is the &quot;study (logia) of myths (mythos)&quot;, it has Greek origins. Myths do not necessarily mean false or imaginary, it means stories, legends, folklore, tradition, etc. So it should be used for asking questions about stories/tales that are part of Hindu tradition, custom and beliefs." OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-01-16T23:35:38.737" LastActivityDate="2020-01-16T23:35:38.737" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="185" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-19T22:34:23.397" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T22:34:23.397" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T22:34:23.397" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="186" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T22:34:23.397" Score="0" Body="For questions about the history of Hinduism. " OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T19:04:54.967" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T19:04:54.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="187" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-19T22:38:22.613" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-06-19T22:38:22.613" LastActivityDate="2014-06-19T22:38:22.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="188" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-19T22:38:22.613" Score="0" Body="Worship is the act of praising and seeking the blessings of God. It is widely referred to as Pooja in Hinduism." OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-20T20:04:15.677" LastActivityDate="2014-07-20T20:04:15.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="190" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="45" CreationDate="2014-06-20T00:25:53.287" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;They imitate Krishna's pastimes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The powders are supposed to be auspicious and well-scented substances like sandal, musk, turmeric, kunkuma and aguru covered with lacquer to form balls that dissipate upon impact. They are supposed to be thrown with love and create bliss in the target. This is how Krishna is playing with the gopis, but the modern imitators might have different standards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Shri Garga Samhita Canto 4, Volume 2, Chapter 12&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 14&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;shrikhandiguru-kasturi-haridra-kunkuma-dravaih&#xA;puritabhir dritibhish ca samyuktas ta vrajanganah&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The girls of Vraja carried sprinklers filled with water mixed with sandal, aguru, musk, yellow turmeric and red kunkuma.&lt;p&gt;&#xA;  Text 15&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;rakta-hastah pita-vastrah kujan-nupura-mekhalah&#xA;gayantyo holika-gitir galibhir hasya-sandhibhih&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With red hands and yellow garments, and with rowdy songs and laughter, they sang about the glories of Holi.&lt;p&gt;&#xA;  Text 16&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;abiraruna-curnanam mushtibhis ta itas tatah&#xA;kurvatyash carunam bhumim dig-antam cambaram tatha&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Throwing fistfulls of red powder, they reddened the sky, the earth, and all the directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna is infinitely rich, has no formal obligations towards anyone and is not limited in time or in any other way. The sole purpose of his existence is to enjoy, so why not? Holi festival is a sutable way to express love and amuse themselves. It is similar to cake throwing in the western movies. Krishna might as well be throwing gold and diamonds, but those substances are not so pleasing upon impact. At other festivities they also throw butter on each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastEditorUserId="113" LastEditDate="2014-07-15T14:18:34.957" LastActivityDate="2014-07-15T14:18:34.957" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="191" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-20T00:51:51.750" Score="19" ViewCount="4320" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Karnataka&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;coat of arms&lt;/a&gt; of the Indian state of Karnataka depicts a strange two-headed bird:&lt;img src=&quot;https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Seal_of_Karnataka.svg/278px-Seal_of_Karnataka.svg.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This creature comes from certain versions of the story of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narasimha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narasimha&lt;/a&gt;, the man-lion avataram (incarnation) of Vishnu.  As most people know the story, Narasimha kills the demon &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiranyakashipu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hiranyakashipu&lt;/a&gt; and rescues his devotee &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prahlad&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prahlada&lt;/a&gt;, and that's the end of it.  But a lot of Puranas continue the story as follows: after Narasimha kills Hiranyakashipu, he is still in a state of rage (because his devotee was threatened), and he is destroying everything in his path, starting with the former Asura armies of Hiranyakashipu.  The gods are worried that Narasimha will destroy the entire universe in his wrath, so Shiva takes the form of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharabha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sharabha&lt;/a&gt;, a half-lion, half-bird creature, in order to subdue and pacify the angry Narasimha.  That's where most versions end, but some versions of the story go even further: in response to Sharabha, Narasimha creates &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandaberunda#Vaishnava_and_Smartha_views&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ghandaberunda&lt;/a&gt;, a two-headed bird creature of his own which overpowers Sharabha, and then everyone calls it a day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, in what Hindu scriptures is this story of Ghandaberunda mentioned?  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/05-09/features1382.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This article&lt;/a&gt;, which is Wikipedia's source, says that Ghandaberunda &quot;is mentioned in some Puranas and in certain regional scriptures in South India&quot;.  Does anyone know what Puranas are being referred to, and what these South Indian &quot;regional scriptures&quot; are?  The only thing the article says is &quot;HH Chinna Jeeyar has observed that Ganda Bherunada Nrsimha Avatharam is mentioned in a minor text known as Nru Kanteerava abhyudhayam?&quot;  What is the &quot;Nru Kanteerava abhyudhayam&quot;?  Googling for it doesn't turn up anything useful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's plenty of artistic and sculptural depictions of Ghandaberunda, like the coat of arms of Karnataka, but can anyone shed any light on what textual sources discuss him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: You can read the story of Ghandaberunda in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/pdwj&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the new Amar Chitra Katha comic &quot;Divine Beings&quot;.  Here's an picture of Sharabha and Gandhaberunda taken from the comic:&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tpo4g.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-10T09:42:50.053" LastActivityDate="2023-11-14T08:03:04.063" Title="What scriptures discuss Ghandaberunda, the bird beast created by Narasimha?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|shiva|narasimha|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="192" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="97" CreationDate="2014-06-20T00:59:05.677" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The exact reason is: &lt;strong&gt;mercy&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;dayā&lt;/em&gt;). The human society depends on 4 qualities: cleanliness(purity), mercy, austerity and truthfulness [Bhagavata purana 1.17.24]. Meat-eating destroys mercy, as a result the human society degrades into a flock of 2-legged animals. Meat-eating is also the principal cause of all the wars, because it cultivates hatred. The amassed hatred needs some escape, therefore it erupts into the wars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;The answers about gunas are not entirely correct,&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;because plants have more tamas than animals, and also make the eater tamasic (e.g. mushrooms, asafoetida), but are still allowed. The principal difference is that it is the divinely-appointed service of plants to be eaten by man (or rather, to be used in sacrifice: &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-03-13.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.13&lt;/a&gt;), and they advance spiritually by being used. Animals used in sacrifice are supposed to be revived by the priest in a new, reformed body, but current day priests don't have the power, or don't even know the mantras or neglect the process entirely. And by just being killed, most animals don't make progress. The exception is snakes and scorpions, so you can kill them for eating, if you want.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answering a comment: as the soul transmigrates through 8.4 million species, some species are progressive (prepare the soul for more freedom in higher species) and some are regressive (limit the freedom due to bad qualities). Snakes an scorpions are very envious by nature and can never progress towards a higher form until they get killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, cows and bulls are the most advanced animals by their character, next to human, therefore their abuse (killing) is especially sinful (creates misery for people).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-07T10:53:17.760" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="193" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="109" CreationDate="2014-06-20T01:09:37.430" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to ayurveda, foods are classified by their rasa (taste), vipak (aftertaste), virya (energy) and prabhava (specific qualities). The specific qualities of onion and garlic are that they carry the energy of &lt;strong&gt;anger&lt;/strong&gt;. Anger pollutes memory and therefore increases bodily consciousness (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-02-62.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-gita 2.63&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T01:09:37.430" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="194" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14" CreationDate="2014-06-20T02:09:01.110" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a very precise reason for avoiding all intoxication -- it destroys &lt;strong&gt;austerity&lt;/strong&gt;. Austerity is one of the four defining qualities of a human civilization (Bhagavata purana 1.17.24).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T02:09:01.110" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="195" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="84" CreationDate="2014-06-20T04:25:48.440" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are five kinds of liberation (moksha): sayuja, salokya, sarupya, sarsti, samipya (in increasing order of opulence).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;sayuja  - merging into spiritual existence without an identity&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;salokya - obtaining an eternal, all-knowing and blissful form on the planet of God&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;sarupya - that form is human&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;sarsti  - in opulence similar to God (eternal spiritual palace)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;samipya - in constant presence of The Lord.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 1st one happens in brahmajyoti (the destination of monists, shaivites), the latter four - on vaikunthas (the destination of ordinary vaishnavas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-08T05:54:15.027" LastActivityDate="2014-10-08T05:54:15.027" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="196" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="204" CreationDate="2014-06-20T04:36:20.687" Score="13" ViewCount="1531" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-18-03.html&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-gita 18.3&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-18-05.html&quot;&gt;18.5&lt;/a&gt; specifically mentions them as separate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Christianity they are understood as giving something up and giving something to others, which is quite similar, and these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Could we also use both &quot;&lt;strong&gt;yajna&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; and &quot;&lt;strong&gt;daana&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; for any donation? If not, what is the specific difference?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastActivityDate="2019-07-20T15:57:21.693" Title="What is the difference between sacrifice (yajna) and charity (dana)?" Tags="|yajna|bhagavad-gita|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="197" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="156" CreationDate="2014-06-20T04:49:42.357" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gphindutemple.com/aug2011.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This reference&lt;/a&gt;  says We cannot draw a circle without a centre point. The Lord is the &#xA;centre, source and essence of our lives. Recognising Him as the focal &#xA;point in our lives, we go about doing our daily chores. This is the &#xA;significance of pradakshina. Also every point on the circumference of &#xA;a circle is equidistant from the centre. This means that wherever or &#xA;whoever we may be, we are equally close to the Lord. &#xA;His grace flows towards us without partiality. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doing it in clockwise direction keeps the almighty to our right hand side so symbolically we have given prominent position to them, as a token of respect, devotion &amp;amp; love. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may find wiki article &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parikrama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharathkidilse.blogspot.in/2009/10/pradakshina-circumambulate.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; and  &lt;a href=&quot;http://theancientindia.blogspot.in/2012/09/pradakshina-in-temple.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; also have good information. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T04:49:42.357" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="198" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23440" CreationDate="2014-06-20T04:55:37.083" Score="10" ViewCount="2376" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manu_%28Hinduism%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu&lt;/a&gt; is supposedly the progenitor of mankind. Even the English word &quot;man&quot; is derived from his name. There are 14 Manus in each day of Brahma. The current Manu is Vaivasvata, and he is currently supposed to be alive, but we don't see him on the earth. Manus are also not mentioned among demigods, kimpurushas, gandharvas, definitely not among yakshas and rakshasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My educated guess is that he must be living in the &lt;strong&gt;bhuvarloka&lt;/strong&gt; planetary system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could you please give any references from scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T15:16:15.380" LastActivityDate="2023-02-20T08:54:48.340" Title="Where does Manu currently live?" Tags="|scripture|lokas|manu|cosmology|etymology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="199" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="147" CreationDate="2014-06-20T05:07:07.207" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Culturally those concepts did exist.  Ramayana talks about demons trying to stop fire rituals.  Many other literary works and chants do mention about them.  Tamil epics and prayers do refer to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is no single book as a guiding authority for Hindus.  So, it depends upon the sub-cultures and belief systems to have / not have evil spirits.  For example, communities living closer to forests have more references to evil spirits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="92" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T05:07:07.207" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="200" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="180" CreationDate="2014-06-20T05:16:14.830" Score="30" Body="&lt;p&gt;Putting aside what people say and believe if you go through the scriptures then you will find that Buddha was an incarnation of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two prominent scriptures about Vishnu portray Buddha as His incarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shrimad Bhagavatam says, to delude the people who are envious to the gods, at the beginning of Kali Yuga Buddha will appear as the son of Anjani in Kikata (Gayā / Bihar province today) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tataḥ kalau sampravṛtte sammohāya sura-dviṣām&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;buddho nāmnāñjana-sutaḥ kīkaṭeṣu bhaviṣyati&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 1.3.24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu Puran says, for helping the gods (&lt;em&gt;suras&lt;/em&gt;) Vishnu from His body produced Mayāmoha (Buddha):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ityukto bhagavāṃstebhyo mayāmohaṃ śarīrataḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;samutpādya dadau viṣṇuḥ praha cedaṃ surottamān&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 3.17.41]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thing is, &lt;strong&gt;because Buddha spread a non-Vedic tenet some did not like to accept Him as an incarnation of Vishnu who is a Vedic god&lt;/strong&gt;. So they replaced Him with Balarama, Vitthal, etc. depending on their local culture and tradition. For example, I am from Odisha and we often place Jagannatha  in the avatar list instead of Buddha. Sometimes we even consider Buddha to be an incarnation of Jagannatha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &lt;strong&gt;if Buddha was indeed an incarnation of Vishnu, then there has to be at least one reference about one of Vishnu's incarnations in Buddha's Jātak tales&lt;/strong&gt; which list many of Buddha's past births. And interestingly, the Jātaka tales do have such a reference in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/j4/j4018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ghata Jātaka&lt;/a&gt; about Krishna. Of course, the story and characters are different, but that's just obvious. So I don't know what other groups and people believe, but personally, I believe Buddha to be an incarnation of Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be frank, if you decide not to go by the book (scriptures) then this is just a matter of personal preference. At the end of the day, every prominent god or goddess is a direct or partial incarnation of God, replace the position with whoever you like. In fact, the Gita Govinda while places Buddha as the 9th incarnation replaces Krishna with Balarama (&lt;em&gt;Haladhara&lt;/em&gt;) as the 8th one, portraying Krishna as the source of all incarnation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vahasi vapuṣi viśade vasanaṃ jaladābhaṃ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;hala hati bhīti militayamunābham&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;keśava dhruta-haladhara-rupa jaya jagadīśa hare !&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Disclaimer: I am thankful to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/36/keshav-srinivasan&quot;&gt;Keshav&lt;/a&gt; for the question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/98/38&quot;&gt;Does the Jataka account of Krishna have any basis in Hindu scripture?&lt;/a&gt;&#xA; as it directly gave me the Jātaka tale I was looking for.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T13:42:29.827" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="201" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="152" CreationDate="2014-06-20T05:25:08.427" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though I didn't understood your question, here are my thoughts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To churn/stir the samudra the energy of suras is not enough, so invited asuras(their half brothers). Churning gives them amrutham (nectar which gives immortality). Suras are stvik by nature and asuras have more rajs &amp;amp; tamas. A wiki on them may be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_%28Hinduism%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asura&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;satvik by products generated during churning are taken by suras(what ever they took, they use for prosperity of universe and its beings) where as rajas &amp;amp; tamas by asuras. wine/alcohol by nature makes one out of his own control, you know the effects of alcohol consumption on health &amp;amp; family. So it is taken by auras. Next came amrutham! to prevent asuras taking amrutham, lord vishnu took the form of lady and started distributing from the end of suras. asuras got much attracted towards that beauty &amp;amp; with the intention to see her  for long time stood last in the queue. Their evil mind prevented them form thinking that by their turn how much amrutham would be left. Then intelligent asura rahu  took the form of sura and joined between suras, to have amrutham. for more information on the connected happenings, refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketu_%28mythology%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; wiki articles &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T05:25:08.427" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="202" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="196" CreationDate="2014-06-20T05:37:37.513" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are my thoughts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any good act without selfish advantage, done for the welfare of others may be coined as equivalent to yajna. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wiki on this article is here&lt;/a&gt; where as daana can be anything like like food, money, ornaments or animals given to underprivileged for their well being or for the spiritual progress of donor or to remove the sins of donor. In whatever case donor is considered as small compared to the acceptor/receiver in the view of the advantages gained by donor because of acceptor accepting it. Donor should not boast on his offerings but feel bad as he was not able to give much more than that, donor should not reveal to anyone about this daana/charity so as to get all the benefits from that act. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T05:37:37.513" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="203" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="214" CreationDate="2014-06-20T05:42:30.410" Score="20" ViewCount="7787" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu sanyasis/monks wear saffron colored robes. Is there any scriptural reasons for saffron? Or is it just cultural since Buddhist monks also wear saffron ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-11-21T06:57:34.100" LastActivityDate="2017-02-15T14:41:50.100" Title="What is the significance of the saffron color?" Tags="|scripture|tradition|symbolism|sanyasi|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="204" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="196" CreationDate="2014-06-20T05:46:36.133" Score="9" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yajna, the fire sacrifice, is the central ritual of the Vedic&#xA;  sacrificial cult. The basic idea of Yajna according to the Vedic&#xA;  ritualists was that man can have a happy and prosperous life only if&#xA;  he lived in harmony with his environment, consisting of Nature and the&#xA;  Devas who control the forces of Nature. Man gets his progeny and his&#xA;  sustenance as the gifts of Nature and he should express his thanks to&#xA;  the Devas. Man is required to make an offering of thanks-giving to the&#xA;  Devas a share of the good things of Nature which he gets by their&#xA;  goodwill. This offering is made through fire which is the link between&#xA;  man and the Devas. This thanks-giving takes the form of ritualistic&#xA;  fire sacrifices with offerings of commodities and utterance of Vedic&#xA;  hymns. Proper performance of these Yajnas or sacrifices secures the&#xA;  goodwill of the Devas through which man's survival and sustenance is&#xA;  assured. Later on in Chapter 4 the Gita itself speaks of other Yajnas&#xA;  (Dravya-yajna, Pranayama-yajna, Tapo-yajna, Svadhyaya-yajna and&#xA;  Jnana-Yajna) of which the fire sacrifice is only one. Thus in the Gita&#xA;  view Yajna ultimately is a symbol for all the moral and spiritual&#xA;  effort of man for his higher evolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Danam or Charity is to be understood as sharing one's food and wealth with other humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF: adopted from the commentary of the Ramakrishna Order monk Swami Tapasyananda on Srimad Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2019-07-20T15:57:21.693" LastActivityDate="2019-07-20T15:57:21.693" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="205" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="268" CreationDate="2014-06-20T05:47:29.633" Score="24" ViewCount="2572" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Ramayana, Shri Ram was an avatar of Vishnu; in the Gita or Mahabharata, Shri Krishna was an avatar of Vishnu. Everything they did in human form, they were perfectly able to do it in their original/God form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then why did they opt for a human avatar/form? Was it in order to come and live amongst normal people and then help them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="120" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T12:32:22.867" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T12:32:22.867" Title="Why do Gods take avatar?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|gods|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="206" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="175" CreationDate="2014-06-20T05:47:35.967" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;hrc.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The erotic sculptures on ancient Hindu temples at Khajuraho and&#xA;  Konarak, and the sacred texts in Sanskrit constitute irrefutable&#xA;  evidence that a whole range of sexual behavior was known to ancient&#xA;  Hindus. The tradition of representing same-sex desire in literature&#xA;  and art continued in medieval Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayyappan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ayyappan&lt;/a&gt; is a Hindu deity who is believed to be an incarnation of&#xA;  Dharma Sasta, the offspring of Shiva and Vishnu (in the form of&#xA;  Mohini)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A number of 14th-century texts in Sanskrit and Bengali (including the&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krittivasi_Ramayan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krittivasa Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;, a devotional text still extremely popular&#xA;  today) narrate how hero-king Bhagiratha, who brought the sacred river&#xA;  Ganga from heaven to earth, was miraculously born to and raised by two&#xA;  co-widows, who made love together with divine blessing. These texts&#xA;  explain that his name Bhagiratha comes from the word bhaga (vulva),&#xA;  because he was born of two vulvas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another sacred text, the fourth-century &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kama_Sutra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kamasutra&lt;/a&gt;, emphasizes&#xA;  pleasure as the aim of intercourse. It categorizes men who desire&#xA;  other men as a “third nature.” The text goes on to subdivide such men&#xA;  into masculine and feminine types and describes their lives and&#xA;  typical occupations (including flower sellers, masseurs and&#xA;  hairdressers). The Kamasutra also includes a detailed description of&#xA;  oral sex between men and refers to long-term unions between male&#xA;  partners.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hindu mythology, ritual, and art, the power of androgyny or sexual&#xA;  ambiguity is a frequent and significant theme. Bahuchara Mata, the&#xA;  main object of hijra veneration, is a version of the Mother Goddess,&#xA;  for whose sake they undergo emasculation. In return for their&#xA;  emasculation the Goddess gives them the power to bless people with&#xA;  fertility, granting them an important religious role in births and&#xA;  marriages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iravan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iravan&lt;/a&gt;/Aravan is a patron god of well-known transgender communities called Ali (also Aravani in South India, and Hijra throughout South Asia). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On A temple festival of Aravan, Hijras and aravanis are ceremonially&#xA;  married to the idol of Aravan (and hence the name Aravani is a term of&#xA;  identity that many hijras adopt). Often hijras come to Koovagam with&#xA;  their lovers or ‘husbands’ and on the penultimate night of the&#xA;  festival, they all exerience a night of ‘marital bliss’, ( Source:&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/article59561.ece?service=print&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;newindianexpress.com&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if Hinduism have so many example of Trans-reference and even Kamasutra and Khajuraho and Konarak also includes them and no refrense say its adharma or unantural then that claims of politician also proves wrong. Some claims also said that it British people who influenced the non-homosexuality movement. And as i already included from link text, Hijra's is said to be divine not a disease. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T21:06:03.117" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T21:06:03.117" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="208" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="205" CreationDate="2014-06-20T06:00:01.770" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu's avatars typically descend for a very specific purpose. An&#xA;  oft-quoted passage from the Bhagavad Gita describes the typical role&#xA;  of an avatar of Vishnu—as bringing dharma, or righteousness, back to&#xA;  the social and cosmic order:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot; Whenever righteousness wanes and unrighteousness increases I send&#xA;   myself forth. For the protection of the good and for the destruction of evil, and for the establishment of righteousness, I come into being&#xA;   age after age. (Gita:4.7–8)&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Source:&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar#Avatars_of_Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if you go with the story of Avatars of Vishnu or devi, then you know this Avatar are to help Humans because of vardan's of Asura's which cause trouble for all. For example Hiranyakashyap can't be killed by deva or humans or animals or asura. So need of Narasimha avatar came whcih is none of them from the vardan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Avatar's also needed to guide us in a right way. Rama is associated with Dharma teahcing to humanity. Similarly Krishna is associated with teaching us about Karma and given us Geeta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T06:40:57.897" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T06:40:57.897" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="209" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="205" CreationDate="2014-06-20T06:08:35.093" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Historically avatars like Rama and Krishna came to wage wars against the ungodly. Avatars can also come to spread spiritual message by directly showing people how to live a stainless life. Let me post some direct quotes from Sri Ramakrishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;God can be directly perceived in a man in a tangible form. Seeing an&#xA;  Incarnation of God is the same as seeing God Himself. God is born on&#xA;  earth as man in every age.&quot; (March 9, 1883)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;God has different forms and He sports in different ways. He sports as&#xA;  Isvara, deva, man and the universe. In every age He descends to earth&#xA;  in human form, as an Incarnation, to teach people love and devotion.&#xA;  There is the instance of Chaitanya. One can taste devotion and love of&#xA;  God only through His Incarnations. Infinite are the ways of God's play&#xA;  but what I need is love and devotion. I want only the milk. The milk&#xA;  comes through the udder of the cow. The Incarnation is the udder.&quot;&#xA;  (June 25, 1883)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The Incarnation of God is a part of the lila of Sakti. The purpose of&#xA;  the Divine Incarnation is to teach man ecstatic love for God. The&#xA;  Incarnation is like the udder of a cow, the only place milk is to be&#xA;  got. God incarnates Himself as a man. There is a great accumulation of&#xA;  divinity in an Incarnation, like the accumulation of fish in a deep&#xA;  hollow in a lake.&quot; (September 7, 1883)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF: All the quotes are from the English translation of Ramakrishna Kathamrita]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T16:35:32.660" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T16:35:32.660" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="211" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="205" CreationDate="2014-06-20T06:19:00.233" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;As for the why take an avatar part, it's in the most popular verse of the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yada yada hi dharmasya&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  glanir bhavati bharata&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  abhyutthanam adharmasya&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tadatmanam srjamy aham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whenever and wherever a decline of righteousness and predominance of unrighteousness prevails, at that time I manifest myself personally, O descendant of Bharata.[1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For your second part:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why gods had to take human avatar or take a human form in order to come and live amongst normal people?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Avatars are not always of human form. The first 4 avatars (Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha) were animals in the order of aquatic animal, amphibious animal, and land animals, before taking human form. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This in a way supports the idea of the evolution of consciousness (as well as species) and instilled values to emulate for the consciousness (and species) present at that time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;And why human form?&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To prove to the humans that the creator of laws of the universe can operate within the laws and that living a righteous life within this framework is humanly possible. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The avatar creates the capacity in consciousness for every human to achieve a similar victory of realization.&quot;[2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, an avatar is significantly different from a prophet in that every human can attain the consciousness of an avatar while a prophet is a &quot;chosen&quot; special person whose consciousness cannot be attained by humans. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-04-07.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-04-07.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[2] Malothra R.,  Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism, Chapter 5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2014-06-21T13:28:42.790" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T13:28:42.790" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="212" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="153" CreationDate="2014-06-20T06:38:44.980" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it is true. (Some cynics might dismiss it as co-incidence.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Matsya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First avatar is a fish, one which is creature living in water. If we&#xA;  compare it with biological evolution on different Geological Time&#xA;  Scale first developed life was also in the form of fish which&#xA;  originated during Cambrian period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kurma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Second avatar was in the form of Tortoise (reptiles). In geology also&#xA;  first reptiles comes as second important evolution which originated in&#xA;  Mississippian period just after Amphibians. Varaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Third avatar was in the form of Boar. Evolution of the amphibean to&#xA;  the land animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Narasimha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Man-Lion (Nara= man, simha=lion) was the fourth avatar. But in&#xA;  geology no such evidences are mentioned. It may have been related with&#xA;  Ape Man The term may sometimes refer to extinct early human ancestors,&#xA;  such as the undiscovered missing link between apes and humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vamana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fifth Avatar is the dwarf man. It may be related with the first man&#xA;  originated during Pliocene.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parashurama&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The man with an axe was the sixth avatar. It has the similarities with&#xA;  the first modern man originated during Quaternary period or the man of&#xA;  Iron Age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Rama, Lord Krishna and Lord Buddha were the seventh, eighth and&#xA;  ninth other avatars of Lord Vishnu. It indicates the physical and&#xA;  mental changes and evolution in the man from its time of appearance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taken from here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://theepicworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/similarity-between-darwinism-and.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://theepicworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/similarity-between-darwinism-and.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is not only physical evolution but also evolution of consciousness at each stage of evolution of species. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T06:38:44.980" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="213" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="222" CreationDate="2014-06-20T07:14:54.003" Score="51" ViewCount="42545" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've seen that Hindus worship lord Ganesha before starting any &lt;em&gt;puja&lt;/em&gt; (act of worship) or important task.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've also seen people worshipping lord Ganesha before they start off with marriage proceedings, and on marriage invitation cards. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They also keep idols of lord Ganesha in their cars, home entrances, etc....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why do they always worship lord Ganesha before they go to start off with some good/important tasks?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T22:34:29.200" LastActivityDate="2022-12-22T13:54:26.883" Title="Why is lord Ganesha worshipped first before any puja?" Tags="|worship|ganesha|" AnswerCount="10" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="214" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="203" CreationDate="2014-06-20T07:24:57.253" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/od/artculture/a/major_hindu_symbols.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;About.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If there is any color that can symbolize all aspects of Hinduism, it's&#xA;  saffron - the color of Agni or fire, which reflects the Supreme Being.&#xA;  As such, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/od/artculture/ig/Sacred-Symbols-of-Hinduism/Symbol---Homakunda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;fire altar&lt;/a&gt; is regarded as a distinct symbol of ancient&#xA;  Vedic rites. The saffron color, also auspicious to the Sikhs, the&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://buddhism.about.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Buddhists&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/cs/jainism/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jains&lt;/a&gt;, seems to have obtained religious significance&#xA;  much before these religions came into being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fire worship had its origin in the Vedic age. The foremost hymn in the&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/cs/vedasvedanta/a/aa120103a_2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/a&gt; glorifies fire: &quot;Agnimile purohitam yagnasya devam rtvijam,&#xA;  hotaram ratna dhatamam.&quot; When sages moved from one ashram to another,&#xA;  it was customary to carry fire along. The inconvenience to carry a&#xA;  burning substance over long distances may have given rise to the&#xA;  symbol of a &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/od/artculture/ig/Sacred-Symbols-of-Hinduism/Symbol---Dhvaja.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;saffron flag&lt;/a&gt;. Triangular and often forked saffron flags&#xA;  are seen fluttering atop most Sikh and Hindu temples. While Sikhs&#xA;  regard it as a militant color, Buddhist monks and Hindu saints wear&#xA;  robes of this color as a mark of renunciation of material life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from that wearing the color symbolizes the quest for light. It is the battle color of the Rajputs, the warrior caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-21T07:12:47.677" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T07:12:47.677" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="215" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="235" CreationDate="2014-06-20T07:33:16.480" Score="8" ViewCount="6185" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of Number 9 in Hindu mythology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even that every important numbers when summed up ends to a number 9.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Example#1&lt;/em&gt;: the life span of four yugas from this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/timings_of_the_four_yugas.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krita or Satya-yuga is 1,440,000 human years (&lt;em&gt;sum of digits is &lt;strong&gt;9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Treta-yuga is 1,080,000 human years (&lt;em&gt;sum of digits is &lt;strong&gt;9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dvapara-yuga is 720,000 human years (&lt;em&gt;sum of digits is &lt;strong&gt;9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kali-yuga is 360,000 human years (&lt;em&gt;sum of digits is &lt;strong&gt;9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Example#2&lt;/em&gt;: &quot;Nava grahas&quot; - Nine planets in Hindu mythology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Example#3&lt;/em&gt;: Navratri - lasts nine days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Example#4&lt;/em&gt;: There are 9 Purans, 108 MahaPuran (Upnishads).Mahabharat has 18 chapters (batter lasted for 18 days), Geeta has 18 chapters, Bhagavat has 108000 Shloks (verses)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Links to refer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/srh_home/1996_2/msg00272.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Significance of 9?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/nine.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Myths-Dreams-Symbols&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PS&lt;/strong&gt;: There might be some nonsense in the above reference links but they are just only to support my question.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T12:56:32.087" LastActivityDate="2020-06-17T12:56:32.087" Title="Number 9 in Hindu mythology" Tags="|symbolism|numerology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="217" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3122" CreationDate="2014-06-20T07:49:35.857" Score="27" ViewCount="7010" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Ramayana epic, Lord Rama built a bridge across the sea to Lanka to rescue Sita from Ravana. I could see many images of Ram Sethu between Sri Lanka and India in Google Maps and it is said to have been there for millions of years. I have heard that this bridge, Ram Sethu, is made up of stones that never sink in the water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How was Ram Sethu built according to the Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S.: I recently saw a video in which villagers were putting big stones in water and those stones were floating in the water. But I never expected that such stones still exist. See the video &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2ztuJuH8sw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2023-03-02T14:30:30.387" LastActivityDate="2023-03-02T14:30:30.387" Title="What does the Ramayana say about floating stones of Ram Sethu?" Tags="|ramayana|ram-setu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="219" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="203" CreationDate="2014-06-20T08:32:52.803" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Buddha gave up his mortal body, he was covered with a special robe dyed in saffron. Ever since then, Buddhist monks have adopted saffron as the colour that can help them achieve their goal of 'moksha' or deliverance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saffron is omnipresent in all the religions that have branched out from Hinduism. You see saffron in the garb of  monks living on alms. It is the colour of the religious standard that flutters over Sikh gurudwaras and Hindu temples. For the Sikhs it represents fight against injustice, and for Hindus a religious fundamentalism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.royalsaffron.com/spirit.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.royalsaffron.com/spirit.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T12:37:36.480" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="220" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="213" CreationDate="2014-06-20T08:35:38.710" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To ward off the obstacles&lt;/strong&gt; that may happen in the work, be it &lt;em&gt;puja&lt;/em&gt; (worship) or something else, Ganesha is first worshiped always. You will find the mantra that is usually chanted to be as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vakratunḍa mahākāya suryakoṭi samaprabhaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;nirvighna kurume deva sarva karyeṣu sarvadā&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt; itself is self explanatory why He is first worshiped. The simple meaning is as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are large bodied with a curved trunk and as radiant as billion&#xA;  suns. Oh deva! make every work free from obstacles always!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T08:35:38.710" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="222" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="213" CreationDate="2014-06-20T08:51:27.867" Score="28" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here's the story of its origin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Bhagwan left his abode on Mt. Kailas in the Himalayas to meditate in a cave. Parvati’s friends suggested that she should have an attendant (gana) of her own because they were not pleased with Shiva’s ganas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, she used her divine powers and bore a son. She named him Vinayak and instructed him to guard their home. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Shiva returned home, Vinayak did not allow him to enter. After a brief argument, Shiva beheaded Vinayak with his trishul. When Parvati heard about this incident, she cried in despair over the loss of her son. As a means to console Parvati, Shiva sent his men to the forest and instructed them to retrieve the head of the first living creature they met. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shortly, his men returned with the head of a baby elephant. With his divine powers, Shiva placed the baby elephant’s head over his son’s body. In a matter of seconds, Vinayak came back to life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this incident, Vinayak became known as Gajaanan, which stems from the root word ‘&lt;em&gt;gaj&lt;/em&gt;’ meaning elephant. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shiva blessed him with a boon and explained that people would first offer their love and devotion to Ganeshji before starting any auspicious activity.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strike&gt;The story comes from brahma-vaivarta purāṇa (third part - Ganesha Khand)&lt;/strike&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.baps.org/Publications/Books/Apana-Prerak-Parvotsavo-575.aspx&quot;&gt;Apna Prerak Parvotsavo&lt;/a&gt; book&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="73" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T10:56:32.600" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T10:56:32.600" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="226" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="196" CreationDate="2014-06-20T09:47:31.753" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, you can not use both &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;dana&lt;/em&gt; for any donation&lt;/strong&gt;. For any kind of donation where you give something completely to someone else, you can use the word &lt;em&gt;dana&lt;/em&gt; but not &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Dana&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Yajna&lt;/em&gt; are two different things. That's why they are mentioned in separate verses. The basic difference is as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dana is generally the activity of giving something away completely to a proper receiver.&lt;/strong&gt; That something can be any physical object like money, food, etc. or non physical object like boon, knowledge, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajna is generally the activity of burning something away in a specific way with a form of fire for God, gods, manes or the Self&lt;/strong&gt;. When fire sacrifice is performed with physical fire and physical objects for higher beings (gods, manes, etc.) it is known as &lt;em&gt;dravya yajna&lt;/em&gt;. When ignorance is burned away with fire of knowledge it is known as &lt;em&gt;jñāna yajna&lt;/em&gt;. When past karma is burned away by the fire of austerity it's known as &lt;em&gt;tapa yajna&lt;/em&gt;, if it's done by regular study of scriptures it is known as &lt;em&gt;swadhya yajna&lt;/em&gt; and so on. Thus there are different types of yajna done for different purposes (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-04-32.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG - 4.32&lt;/a&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it is noteworthy that in many fire sacrifices (&lt;em&gt;drava yajna&lt;/em&gt;), &lt;em&gt;dana&lt;/em&gt; is also accompanied. After the completion of &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt;, money, land, etc. are donated to the priest. The &lt;em&gt;yajamana&lt;/em&gt;(host) may also donate food, cloth, etc. to the attending public. So even though &lt;em&gt;dana&lt;/em&gt; is a separate thing, it is mostly accompanied in &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt;.  But the words should not be used interchangeably. From the Christian point of view, charity is same as &lt;em&gt;dana&lt;/em&gt;, but not &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-27T22:35:36.527" LastActivityDate="2016-03-27T22:35:36.527" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="227" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-20T09:50:10.567" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T09:50:10.567" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T09:50:10.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="228" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-20T09:50:10.567" Score="0" Body="Tag for the Vedic or specifically Rigvedic deities including Mithra, Indra, Varuna, Aryaman, Aditi etc." OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T22:32:55.470" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T22:32:55.470" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="229" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="230" CreationDate="2014-06-20T09:57:37.657" Score="7" ViewCount="5209" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my childhood, I had read about the life span of Brahma. can someone please enlight this topic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastActivityDate="2018-02-26T04:18:37.637" Title="What is the life span of Lord Brahma according to Vedas?" Tags="|gods|life-span|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="230" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="229" CreationDate="2014-06-20T10:05:54.313" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism had their own scale of measuring mass, length and time, and they have done this to both extremes. Time can be measured to very small units as well as to humongous scales.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time#Reckoning_of_time_for_Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu Units of Time|Wiki&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-08-17.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 8.17&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;1 human fortnight (15 days) = 1 day (light) or night of the Pitṛs&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;1 human month (30 days) = 1 day (light) and night of the Pitṛs&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;30 days of the Pitṛs = 1 month of the Pitṛs = (30 × 30 = 900 human days)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;12 months of the Pitṛs = 1 year of the Pitṛs = (12 months of Pitṛs × 900 human days = 10800 human days) &lt;p&gt;The lifespan of the Pitṛs is 100&#xA;  years of the Pitṛs (= 36,000 Pitṛ days = 1,080,000 human days = 3000&#xA;  human years)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;12000 Deva Years = Life Span of Devas = 1 Mahā-Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;1000 Mahā-Yugas = 1 Kalpa = 1 day (day only) of Brahma &lt;p&gt;(2 Kalpas constitute a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion human years)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;30 days of Brahma = 1 month of Brahma (259.2 billion human years)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;12 months of Brahma = 1 year of Brahma (3.1104 trillion human years)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;50 years of Brahma = 1 Parārdha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;2 parardhas = 100 years of Brahma = 1 Para = 1 Mahā-Kalpa (the lifespan of Brahma)(311.04 trillion human years)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short as per Hindu traditions, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The life span of any Hindu deva spans nearly (or more than) 4.5 million years and the lifespan of Brahma is 311.04 trillion human years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SideNote: Age of Universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years, nowhere close to the lifetime of Brahma. It's probably a few days old. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T06:02:12.517" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T06:02:12.517" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="231" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-20T10:10:37.360" Score="17" ViewCount="15999" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why did all the Pandavas (i.e. Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva) marry the same woman i.e., Draupadi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the circumstance under which they had to marry Draupadi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2018-10-23T17:47:58.243" LastActivityDate="2020-02-03T00:20:11.023" Title="Why did all the Pandavas marry Draupadi?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|draupadi|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="234" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="117" CreationDate="2014-06-20T10:51:13.110" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the very outset, I may tell you that there is no polytheism in&#xA;  India. In every temple, if one stands by and listens, one will find&#xA;  the worshippers applying all the attributes of God, including&#xA;  omnipresence, to the images. It is not polytheism, nor would the name&#xA;  henotheism explain the situation. &quot;The rose called by any other name&#xA;  would smell as sweet.&quot; Names are not explanations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vivekananda (Complete Works I p 15)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Vana Parva Section CCLXX says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Spirit has three conditions. In the form of Brahma, he is&#xA;  the Creator, and in the form of Vishnu he is the Preserver, and in his&#xA;  form as Rudra, he is the Destroyer of the Universe!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2014-08-02T16:13:07.630" LastActivityDate="2014-08-02T16:13:07.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="235" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="215" CreationDate="2014-06-20T11:08:47.830" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Numbers 18, 108, 1008, 10008 are all multiples of 9 which is a mystic number. All multiples of 9 added together ultimately become number 9. This can be verified (16x9=144; 1+4+4=9).&#xA;The mystic number 9 is arrived as follows:&#xA;The universe is constituted of the three factors - time, space and causation.&#xA;The universe is constituted of the three Gunas (ingredients) - sattva, rajas and tamas.&#xA;The universe is constituted of the three functions - creation, preservation and destruction.&#xA;This three times three making nine has made nine a mystic number. The number nine exhausts the definition of the phenomenal universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Twice nine or eighteen makes the Mahabharata scheme complete. &#xA;The eighteen Parvas define in detail the career of man on earth.&#xA;The eighteen chapters in the Gita make Yoga philosophy complete.&#xA;The eighteen day war makes the warrior's exploits complete.&#xA;Eighteen are the divisions of the armies of the contending parties -Pandavas and Kauravas with one having seven and the other eleven divisions. Thus all the available human forces mobilized were eighteen in number.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata is thus an exposition of the human possibilities and achievements graded into eighteen, the first multiple of nine. The higher multiples of nine signify further ranging into divine regions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF:Swami Chidbhavananda in his commentary on the Gitas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T11:08:47.830" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="236" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="246" CreationDate="2014-06-20T11:25:52.180" Score="27" ViewCount="17515" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Ramayana, when Sugriva approached Lord Rama for help in taking his kingdom and wife back from his monstrous brother Vaali, Lord Rama helped him by killing Vaali from behind without his knowing, while the combat between him and Sugriva was going on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: Why did Lord Rama strike Vaali from behind? Why didn't he face him directly and challenge him to combat?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-19T01:39:41.350" LastActivityDate="2020-04-07T13:08:01.687" Title="Why did Lord Rama strike from behind to kill Vaali?" Tags="|ramayana|vali|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="237" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13639" CreationDate="2014-06-20T11:36:57.767" Score="55" ViewCount="14895" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, there are three supreme gods, &lt;strong&gt;Brahma, Vishnu &amp;amp; Mahesh (Shiva)&lt;/strong&gt;. Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the protector/Preserver, and Shiva (Rudra) is the Destroyer/Regenerater.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But how these gods were born? Did the Supreme Lord (Brahman) create them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="133" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-04-25T20:12:55.000" LastActivityDate="2023-04-25T20:12:55.000" Title="How were the Trimurti born?" Tags="|shiva|vishnu|brahma|birth|" AnswerCount="11" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="238" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-20T12:05:53.690" Score="23" ViewCount="9137" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Christianity, God dies. Something similar concept is there  in Norse mythology. Are there any stories in Hinduism about the death of Gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. I am not talking about avatars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-12-02T18:22:00.100" LastActivityDate="2023-11-22T16:31:57.720" Title="Do Gods die in Hinduism?" Tags="|gods|death|" AnswerCount="12" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="239" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="236" CreationDate="2014-06-20T12:08:44.560" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the story is narrated in Ananda ramayana, sara kanda another treatise of Ramayana, tells that Rama not only accords salvation to Vali but accords a boon to become a tribal in Krishna's incarnation, and kill Krishna at the end, as retaliation to the present killing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yadi api tvam duraacaaro nihato asi raNe mayaa | tathaa api bhilla&#xA;ruupeNa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dvaapara ante anghri mama | bhitvaa prabhaase baaNena puurva vaireNa&#xA;vaanara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;यदि अपि त्वम् दुराचारो निहतो असि रणे मया । तथा अपि भिल्ल रूपेण&#xA;&#xA;द्वापर अन्ते अन्घ्रि मम । भित्वा प्रभासे बाणेन पूर्व वैरेण वानर&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vali had a boon, granted by Lord Shiva that whosoever fought with Vali would lose half of his strength and courage to Vali. This made him almost invincible in battle duels. Even Ravana fought with Vali and was defeated by him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sugreev was weak in front of Vali but he was virtuous and he was the victim. Lord Ram agreed to kill Vali for gaining Sugreev's trust and help in conquering Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Lord Ram would have faced Vali face to face, he would lose half of his strength to Vali and Vali &lt;em&gt;could have&lt;/em&gt; won. Hence, at the advice of Lord Ram, Sugreev fought with Vali while Ram struck Vali from behind, even though attacking a person engaged in a duel from behind was considered morally wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, when Vali was taking his last breaths, he asked Ram, also known as मर्यदापुरुशोत्तम् &lt;em&gt;Maryadapurushottam&lt;/em&gt; (the perfect man, one who upholds virtues) about his immoral and unethical act. For this Ram consoles him saying that this &lt;em&gt;paapa&lt;/em&gt; of his will haunt him in his next incarnation as Krsna and he will die by the hand of Vali's next incarnation as a &lt;em&gt;Nishad&lt;/em&gt; (Hunter).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Gods are subjected to Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-23T05:26:03.097" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="242" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="238" CreationDate="2014-06-20T12:50:29.303" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;In hinduism , everything has cycle of life and death. Universe has a life of 100 brahma years (311 trillion 40 billion human years), Devtas' 1 day equals 1 year of humans. So yes everything has age. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But for all practical reasons, &lt;strong&gt;Gods are immortal&lt;/strong&gt;. Godess Parvati (incarnation of Godess Sati) became immortal only when God Shiv told her about immortality(that's what Amarnath temple is famour for). Amrit derived from &lt;em&gt;samundra manthan&lt;/em&gt;(churning of sea) made all &lt;em&gt;Devtas&lt;/em&gt; immortal when they drank it. One &lt;em&gt;Asura&lt;/em&gt; also drank amrit and he also became immortal. God Vishnu cut his head, but they are still alive as Rahu(head)/Ketu(body).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then we have seven &lt;em&gt;chiranjivis&lt;/em&gt; immortals. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अश्वत्थामाबलिर्व्यासोहनुमांश्च विभीषण:कृपश्चपरशुरामश्च सप्तैतेचिरंजीविन:।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashwathama, Bali , Kripa, Parsurama, Vibhishana , Hanuman, Vyasa. Apart from the 7 mentioned there are other like Bhushundi, Saptarishi, Sage Markandeya, Jambhavan, Markandeya, Devapi, Maru and others who are immortals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user115" LastEditorDisplayName="user115" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T13:40:11.590" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T13:40:11.590" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="243" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-20T13:22:11.533" Score="13" ViewCount="808" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read from a mythological story that Fire (&lt;em&gt;Agni Lingam&lt;/em&gt;) is entirely different and much more important than the other pancha bhoota: Water (&lt;em&gt;Appu Lingam&lt;/em&gt;), Sky (&lt;em&gt;Akasha Lingam&lt;/em&gt;), Air (&lt;em&gt;Vayu Lingam&lt;/em&gt;), Land (&lt;em&gt;Prithivi Lingam&lt;/em&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this true? If yes, why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="60" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T12:34:51.923" LastActivityDate="2015-08-04T06:52:59.940" Title="According to Ramayana/Mahabharat why is Agni (Fire) different from the other pancha bhoota?" Tags="|ramayana|mahabharata|panchabhoota|agni|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="246" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="236" CreationDate="2014-06-20T14:20:23.083" Score="28" Body="&lt;p&gt;We don't need to speculate; we can look at the justification Rama himself gave for his actions: (This is all taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga18/kishkindha_18_frame.htm&quot;&gt;this translation&lt;/a&gt; of the Valmiki Ramayana by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao and KMK Murthy.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In response to Vali's claim that Rama has no jurisdiction to enforce laws there, since they're not in Ayodhya, Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga18/kishkindhasans18.htm#Verse6&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that the Ikshkvaku dynasty has authority over the entire earth: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;This earth with its mountains, woods, and forests, even along with the authority to condone or condemn the animals, birds, and humans on it belongs to Ikshvaku-s. He who is virtue-souled, truth-abiding, plain-speaking, and the knower of the import of probity, pleasures, and prosperity, and the one who is concerned in controlling or condoning his subjects, that Bharata is the ruler of earth.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note that he is speaking of his own younger brother, who is ruling the kingdom in Rama's absence.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga18/kishkindhasans18.htm#Verse9&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that in punishing evildoers, he is carrying out his brother Bharata's decree to enforce dharma (righteousness): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Holding his virtuous decree desiring to keep up the continuum of righteousness, we and some other kings are wayfaring this earth in its entirety. While that Bharata, the kingly-tiger and a patron of virtue, is ruling the earth in its entirety, who is there to conduct himself in an unacceptable way to morality on it?  Abiding in our own pre-eminent righteousness, and even abiding by the order of Bharata we punish him who deviated from the path of morality, according to custom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In response to Vali's claim that he did nothing wrong, Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga18/kishkindhasans18.htm#Verse12&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; Vali's misconduct, engaging in actions quite inappropriate for a king:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As for you, you brought virtue to a state of decadence, rendered yourself reprovable by your own decadent behaviour, for carnality alone has become your primary doctrine, and thus you have not abided by the conduct meetly to a king....  Realise this reason by which I have eliminated you… you misbehaved with your brother's wife, forsaking the perpetual tradition [Sanatana Dharma - the traditional name for Hinduism]. While the great-souled Sugreeva is still alive, you with your habit of sinful acts have lustily misbehaved with Sugreeva's wife Ruma, who should be counted as your daughter-in-law. Thereby, oh, vanara, this punishment is imposed on you, for your dissolute sinning in abusing your brother's wife, thereby for your transgression of tradition and virtue. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga18/kishkindhasans18.htm#Verse37&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that he is allowed to attack from behind because Kshatriyas are allowed to hunt mrigas (animals) by surprise, and vanaras are shaka-mrigas (jungle-animals):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People will be capturing several animals, either covertly or overtly, with snares, springes and even with numerous contrivances. Meat eating people will undeniably kill animals, either they are speedily sprinting or standing steadily, fully dismayed or undismayed, vigilant or unvigilant, and &lt;strong&gt;even if they are facing away&lt;/strong&gt;, in that there is no sacrilege. &lt;strong&gt;In this world even the kingly sages well-versed in virtue will go on hunting, and hunting is no face to face game, as such, oh, vanara, therefore I felled you in combat with my arrow because you are a tree-branch animal, whether you are not combating with me or combating against me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should add that most people only know about Vali's harsh questioning of Rama's actions, but after Rama gives his justification, Vali &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga18/kishkindhasans18.htm#Verse45&quot;&gt;realizes&lt;/a&gt; that Rama acted properly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, best one among men, what all you have said is that way proper, undoubtedly. Indeed an ignoble cannot disprove a nobleman, Raghava, and with regards to the undesirable and improper words I have unwittingly spoken earlier, in that mater too it will be truly unapt of you to make me blameworthy, as I spoke them in anguish and ignorance. You alone are the knower of recourses and their real nature, namely probity, prosperity, pleasure seeking, and emancipation; dharma, artha, kaama, moksha ; and you take delight in the welfare of subjects, and your faultless intellect is clear in accomplishing ends by judging the causes and effects. Oh, Rama, the knower of probity, I am the one who digressed from the rightness and a forerunner among such transgressors, such as I am, give absolution even to me with words abounded with rightness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-19T01:29:51.193" LastActivityDate="2015-10-19T01:29:51.193" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="247" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="213" CreationDate="2014-06-20T14:28:18.227" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every year on Ganesh Chaturthi after the puja we read a story, as a part of the ritual. The story I heard goes like this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva and Parvati put a race between their children Ganesh and Kartikeya. The race was to go around the world thrice and bath in all sacred rivers. The winner would be made head to all ganas. Kartikeya started on his mount (the peacock), but Ganesh knew he would not win with his mount (the mouse). So he instead circled his parents thrice and earned the equal effect of circling the world thrice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Ganesh won and he was made head of all ganas (Ganapati), as a reward for his intelligence he was also made head of all obstacles (Vigneshwara). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="23" LastEditorUserId="23" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T14:56:21.603" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T14:56:21.603" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="248" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="249" CreationDate="2014-06-20T14:56:33.887" Score="6" ViewCount="899" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like many other Hindu pujas (prayers), the Maa Durga puja is celebrated by creating an idol for her. But, even though I saw it happen in many movies (Devas, Aanand), I never understood why the soil for such holy rituals are taken from the land of prostitutes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any divine context for this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T22:31:17.913" LastActivityDate="2021-06-08T12:33:45.123" Title="Soil for Maa Durga puja" Tags="|prayer|durga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="249" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="248" CreationDate="2014-06-20T15:05:36.360" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know, prostitution is considered as taboo in Hindu Religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when a person decides to have sex with a prostitute, he is aware that he is going to do a bad thing, and hence he loses his good deeds/goodness outside the brothel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As many people visit the brothels, the soil outside holds all the goodness which are lost by those people, think as if the goodness is shed in that soil by the people who visit there and hence that soil is used to create idols as it is considered as pure/filled with good deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To support my answer, I found this, to refer...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pujari goes personally to Nishiddho Pallis, Sonagachi to beg for&#xA;  dust from a prostitute. It is believed that a man who enters a brothel&#xA;  leaves all his purity and virtues there. Therefore, making the soil of&#xA;  a brothel pure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/JM-durga-puja-why-are-prostitutes-considered-sacred-during-navratri-4396164-PHO.html?seq=4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Refernce&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-06-20T15:23:41.137" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T15:23:41.137" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="250" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="238" CreationDate="2014-06-20T15:06:04.737" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama and Lakshmana catch a brief glimpse of the gods in the Aranya Kanda of the Ramayana.  (Indra is in a hurry to leave because it's not the right time to reveal to Rama who he really is.)  Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga5/aranyasans5.htm#Verse15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And oh, manly-tiger Lakshmana, those that are there in hundreds and hundreds around Indra, those youthful ones with their ear-ornaments and swords in hands, with wide and broad chests, with club shaped arms, and clad in glimmering red garments, all are like tigers, all are unapproachable, all of them are wearing ornamental chains on their chest-place that are akin to flaring fires, and in their appearance, Soumitri, they always bear a look of twenty-five-year-olds.  The age factor of gods remains constant at the age that appears for these nice-looking Tigerly-men, so they say... &lt;strong&gt;for gods are immortals and they will be ever young&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, I should add that contrary to popular belief, the fundamental reason for the immortality of the gods is not the drinking of Amrita, the nectar of immortality. The gods were already inherently immortal before, but then they lost their immortality due to a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durvasa#Role_In_The_Churning_Of_The_Ocean&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;curse of Durvasa&lt;/a&gt;. They just needed to churn the ocean and obtain Amrita to restore what they previously had.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-20T20:02:36.957" LastActivityDate="2015-10-20T20:02:36.957" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="251" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="237" CreationDate="2014-06-20T15:14:30.380" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to many of the Puranas, it is clearly mentioned that Lord Vishnu is &quot;sanadhana:&quot;, i.e no beginning and no end. From his belly button, lord Brahma was born. He started creating things. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way he created four sages (I forgot their names) and asked them to help in his creation work. They refused it and they went to &quot;thapa:&quot;. Brahma got angry. His anger was &quot;Rudra&quot; or Shiva. After the end of the millions and millions of &quot;chaturyugas&quot; (Krutha, Thretha, Dwabara, Kali) a day will get over for Brahma. The three worlds will die (Bhoo:, Bhuva:, Suva:). A day for brahma is a &quot;kalpa&quot;. After some years for Brahma, Brahma will go back to the belly button of Vishnu after the whole 14 worlds die. Then again after a nap, Lord Vishnu germinates Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user137" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-27T08:31:48.530" LastActivityDate="2015-12-27T08:31:48.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="252" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="97" CreationDate="2014-06-20T15:24:50.403" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;Killing of 'living' being always happens. Every moment the anti-bodies in us are killing microorganisms. But being a human we possess the the unique quality of rationality. Hence rationally we need to choose a path of least destruction/least himsa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer to this &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAnrfqnea-w&quot;&gt;video&lt;/a&gt; where Rajiv Malothra excellently explains this concept: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-24T12:50:19.333" LastActivityDate="2015-02-24T12:50:19.333" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="253" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="257" CreationDate="2014-06-20T16:03:58.167" Score="26" ViewCount="5427" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindus believe in Murthi pooja or idol worship. What is the reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since my childhood, I believed that God does exist in an idol but I don't have the exact clarification or history behind it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-27T03:51:26.717" LastActivityDate="2023-01-27T17:36:16.000" Title="What is the significance of Murthi pooja (idol worship)?" Tags="|belief|worship|idols|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="254" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="243" CreationDate="2014-06-20T16:14:44.307" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a story in Mahabharata Santi Parva about a time when virtue and vice disappeared due to unrestrained sexual indulgence. Then the Vedas disappeared. When both the Vedas and righteousness were lost the gods were possessed by fear. Overcome with fear they sought the protection of Brahman. The gods said unto Brahman with joined hands, 'O god, the eternal Vedas have been afflicted in the world  of men by covetousness and error. For this we have been struck with fear. Through the loss of the Vedas, O Supreme Lord, righteousness has been lost. For this, O Lord of the three worlds, we are about to descend to the level of human beings. Men used to pour libations upwards while we used to pour rain downwards.....&quot; (REF: the 19th century translation of the Mahabharata by Ganguli, Santi Parva, Section 59], Ganguli remarks that men by pouring libations of clarified butter on sacrificial fires, feed the gods. The latter fed by these libations, pour rain on the earth whence men derive their sustenance. Men therefore are said to pour upwards and the gods pour downwards. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It must be remembered that in the old Vedic sacrificial dharma the only link between the Vedic gods and men was the sacrificial fire. Thus fire has a special place in the Vedic dharma.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T16:14:44.307" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="255" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="253" CreationDate="2014-06-20T16:25:32.563" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Murthi Puja became a subject of intense debate in 19th century Bengal mainly due to Christian missionary propaganda. Even educated Bengali Hindus began opposing murthi Puja. I am posting below a conversation between M and Sri Ramakrishna where M asks Sri Ramakrishna about murthi puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;M:&quot;Sir, suppose one believes in God with form. Certainly, He is not&#xA;  the clay image!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna (interrupting):&quot;But why clay? It is an image of&#xA;  spirit.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;M could not understand the significance of this &quot;image of spirit&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;But sir,&quot; he said to the Master,&quot; one should explain to those who&#xA;  worship the clay image that it is not God, and that, while worshipping&#xA;  it, they should have God in view and not the clay image. One should&#xA;  not worship clay.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Master (sharply):&quot;That's the one hobby of you Calcutta people - giving&#xA;  lectures and bringing others to light! Nobody ever stops to consider&#xA;  how to get light himself. Who are you to teach others? He who is the&#xA;  Lord of the universe will teach everyone. He alone teaches us, who has&#xA;  created this universe ; who has made the sun and moon, men and beasts,&#xA;  and all other beings; who has provided means for their sustenance; who&#xA;  has given children parents and endowed them with love to bring them&#xA;  up. The Lord has done so many things - will He not show people the way&#xA;  to worship Him? If they need teaching, then He will be the Teacher. He&#xA;  is our Inner Guide. Suppose there is an error in worshipping the clay&#xA;  image; doesn't God know that through it He alone is invoked? He will&#xA;  be pleased with that very worship. Why should you get a headache over&#xA;  it? You had better try for knowledge and devotion yourself. You were&#xA;  talking of worshipping the clay image. Even if the image is made of&#xA;  clay, there is need for that sort of worship. God, Himself, has&#xA;  provided with different forms of worship. He who is the Lord of the&#xA;  universe has arranged all these forms to suit different men in&#xA;  different stages of knowledge. The mother cooks different dishes to&#xA;  suit the stomachs of her different children. Suppose she has five&#xA;  children. If there is a fish to cook, she prepares various dishes from&#xA;  it - pilau, pickled fish, fried fish, and so on - to suit their&#xA;  different tastes and powers of digestion.&quot; [March 1882]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;REF: English translation of Ramakrishna Kathamrita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'M' is Mahendranath Gupta who wrote Ramakrishna Kathamrita.&#xA;Master is Sri Ramakrishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am posting here some shlokas from Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita Section I, Creation, Chapter 12 that is self explanatory:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;58&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Till the realisation of perfect knowledge a man should continue the ritualistic worship of Shiva. 59-60. In order to convince the&#xA;  world, the rituals must be continued. Just as the sun is reflected in&#xA;  many vessels, in the same manner, O devas, know that the supreme&#xA;  Brahman, Shiva, assumes the form of whatever is seen or heard in the&#xA;  world real or unreal. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There is difference in vessels but not in the water they contain. This is what those who know the real meaning of the Vedas say.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&quot;Lord Shiva is within the heart of beings in this world.&quot; Of what avail are images to those who have the real knowledge?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Having an image is very auspicious for a person who has no such knowledge. It is a ladder that enables him to climb to a higher&#xA;  position.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;It is very difficult to climb to a position without a support. The image is only a means to achieve the Nirguna Shiva. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The attainment of the Nirguna through a Saguna is certainly possible. In this manner, the symbols of all lords are conductive to&#xA;  steady faith and belief. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This lord is very great and this is the mode of worship of that lord. If there is no image, of what avail are scents, sandal paste,&#xA;  flowers etc?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Till the realisation of true knowledge, the image shall necessarily be worshipped. If any one does not worship the image&#xA;  before he attains perfect knowledge, his downfall is sure.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2015-10-28T15:48:30.350" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T15:48:30.350" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="256" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="238" CreationDate="2014-06-20T17:00:24.360" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question is rather unclear but the answer is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Visnu is immortal, everyone else in the material world dies eventually&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma is the oldest living being and lives for 100 years, which calculates out to around 311 trillion years. This is calculated as one cycle of 1,000 cycles of the 4 yugas to be equal to one day of Brahma. At the end of each day of Brahma, all planets lower than Tapoloka, including Svargaloka, where all the devas live, are completely covered by water. After Brahma awakes, he again recreates the entire creation. See Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Canto 3 Chapters 8-11&lt;/a&gt; for more information. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/10/28-29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;quotation&lt;/a&gt; proving that the devas are created by Brahma:&#xA;  The creation of the demigods is of eight varieties: (1) the demigods, (2) the forefathers, (3) the asuras, or demons, (4) the Gandharvas and Apsarās, or angels, (5) the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas, (6) the Siddhas, Cāraṇas and Vidyādharas, (7) the Bhūtas, Pretas and Piśācas, and (8) the superhuman beings, celestial singers, etc. All are created by Brahmā, the creator of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides that, Bhagavad Gita mentions that Krishna is the Supreme Person above all other persons in both verse 10.8 and 15.17.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/10/8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 10.8&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/15/17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 15.17&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Besides these two, there is the greatest living personality, the Supreme Soul, the imperishable Lord Himself, who has entered the three worlds and is maintaining them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More quotes from the Vedas about the fallibility of the devas and the Supremacy of Lord Visnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nārāyaṇād brahmā jāyate&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  nārāyaṇād prajāpatiḥ prajāyate&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  nārāyaṇād indro jāyate&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  nārāyaṇād aṣṭau vasavo jāyante &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nārāyaṇād ekādaśa rudrā jāyanta &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nārāyaṇād dvādaśādityāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“From Nārāyaṇa, Brahmā is born, and from Nārāyaṇa the patriarchs are also born. From Nārāyaṇa, Indra is born, from Nārāyaṇa the eight Vasus are born, from Nārāyaṇa the eleven Rudras are born, from Nārāyaṇa the twelve Ādityas are born.”&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(Narayana Upanisad)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;eko vai nārāyaṇa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  āsīn na brahmā neśāno&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nāpo nāgni-somau neme &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dyāv-āpṛthivī na nakṣatrāṇi na sūryaḥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“In the beginning of the creation there was only the Supreme Personality Nārāyaṇa. There was no Brahmā, no Śiva, no water, no ﬁre, no moon, no heaven and earth, no stars in the sky, no sun.” (Maha Upanisad)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T17:00:24.360" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="257" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="253" CreationDate="2014-06-20T17:43:36.807" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the Vaishnava perspective:&#xA;Taken as the summary of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 11, Chapter 27. &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/11/27&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; for the specific verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worshiping the Deity form of the Supreme Lord automatically brings purity and satisfaction to the mind. Thus it is the source of all desirable gains. If a person has no engagement in Deity service he will simply remain attracted to material sense gratification, and he will have no hope of giving up bad association. The Personality of Godhead has given instruction, among the regulations of the Sātvata scriptures, on the process of worshiping Him as the bona fide Deity. Brahmā, Śiva, Nārada, Vyāsa and all other sages have recommended this process described by the Lord as most perfectly beneficial for all the occupational classes and spiritual orders of human society, including even the women and śūdras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are three varieties of arcana, Deity worship, based on either the original Vedas, the secondary tantras, or a combination of these. The Deity image, the ground, the fire, the sun, the water and the heart of the worshiper are all true locations of the Deity’s presence. The Deity form to be worshiped may be constructed of any one of eight substances — stone, wood, metal, clay, paint, sand (drawn upon the ground), the mind or jewels. These categories are further subdivided into two: temporary and permanent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The details of the worshiping process are as follows: The devotee should bathe both physically and by chanting mantras, and then he should perform the utterance of Gāyatrī at the prescribed juncture of the day. He should arrange a seat facing either east or north, or else directly facing the Deity, and should bathe and clean the Deity. Then he should present clothing and ornaments, sprinkle water on the vessels and other paraphernalia to be used in the worship, and offer water for bathing the Deity’s feet, arghya, water for washing His mouth, fragrant oils, incense, lamps, flowers and food preparations. After this, one should worship the Lord’s personal servants and bodyguards, His consort energies, and the spiritual masters by chanting their respective mūla-mantras. The worshiper should recite prayers from the Purāṇas and other sources, offer obeisances flat on the ground, beg for benediction, and place on himself the remnants of the Lord’s garlands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Included in this method of Deity worship are the proper installation of the transcendental Deity by constructing a fine temple, and also the conducting of processions and other festivals. By worshiping Lord Śrī Hari with unconditional devotion in this manner, one gains access to pure loving service to His lotus feet. But if one steals property that has been given as charity to the Deity or the brāhmaṇas, whether given by himself or by others, he will have to take his next birth as a stool-eating worm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T17:43:36.807" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="258" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="237" CreationDate="2014-06-20T17:51:36.710" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;You might see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/256/39&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; for some clarification as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana,or Garbhodakasayi Visnu was floating on the water at the bottom of the universe. A lotus flower came out of his navel, and Brahma was born. Brahma was then in charge in recreating all the other beings in the universe. First he created the four Kumaras. He also created Shiva from his forehead. Srimad Bhagavatam (3.10.28-29) also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The creation of the demigods is of eight varieties: (1) the demigods, (2) the forefathers, (3) the asuras, or demons, (4) the Gandharvas and Apsarās, or angels, (5) the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas, (6) the Siddhas, Cāraṇas and Vidyādharas, (7) the Bhūtas, Pretas and Piśācas, and (8) the superhuman beings, celestial singers, etc. All are created by Brahmā, the creator of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the full account in Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Canto 3&lt;/a&gt;, Chapters 8-12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-06-20T17:51:36.710" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="259" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="237" CreationDate="2014-06-20T18:12:30.023" Score="28" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu has no beginning or end.  As Vishnu's incarnation Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/10/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in the Bhagavad Gita, &amp;quot;Neither the hosts of gods nor the great sages know My origin or opulences, for, in every respect, I am the source of the gods and sages.  He who knows Me as the unborn, as the beginningless, as the Supreme Lord of all the worlds – he only, undeluded among men, is freed from all sins.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma was born from a lotus flower that emerged from Vishnu's navel, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/8/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu was alone, lying on His bedstead, the great snake Ananta, and although He appeared to be in slumber in His own internal potency, free from the action of the external energy, His eyes were not completely closed....  The Lord lay down for a thousand cycles of four yugas in His internal potency, and by His external energy He appeared to be sleeping within the water....  The subtle subject matter of creation, on which the Lord’s attention was fixed, was agitated by the material mode of passion, and thus the subtle form of creation pierced through His abdomen.  Piercing through, this sum total form of the fruitive activity of the living entities took the shape of the bud of a lotus flower generated from the Personality of Viṣṇu.... Into that universal lotus flower Lord Viṣṇu personally entered as the Supersoul, and when it was thus impregnated with all the modes of material nature, the personality of Vedic wisdom, whom we call the self-born, was generated.  Brahmā [was] born out of the lotus flower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Srimad Bhagavatam also &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; how Shiva was born out of Brahma's anger:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was much anger generated in the mind of Brahmā, which he tried to control and not express.  Although he tried to curb his anger, it came out from between his eyebrows, and a child mixed blue and red was immediately generated.  After his birth he began to cry: O destiny maker, teacher of the universe, kindly designate my name and place.  The all-powerful Brahmā, who was born from the lotus flower, pacified the boy with gentle words, accepting his request, and said: Do not cry. I shall certainly do as you desire.  Thereafter Brahmā said: O chief of the demigods, you shall be called by the name Rudra by all people because you have so anxiously cried.  My dear boy, I have already selected the following places for your residence: the heart, the senses, the air of life, the sky, the air, the fire, the water, the earth, the sun, the moon and austerity.... My dear boy Rudra, you have eleven other names: Manyu, Manu, Mahinasa, Mahān, Śiva, Ṛtadhvaja, Ugraretā, Bhava, Kāla, Vāmadeva and Dhṛtavrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story is presented in longer form in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm#&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana&lt;/a&gt; of the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Brahma] said to him, 'My boy, why criest thou, when thou art born out of labour and trouble?' He said, 'Nay, but I am not freed from (guarded against) evil; I have no name given me: give me a name!' Hence one should give a name to the boy that is born, for thereby one frees him from evil;--even a second, even a third (name), for thereby one frees him from evil time after time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Rudra' And because he gave him that name, Agni became suchlike (or, that form), for Rudra is Agni: because he cried (rud) therefore he is Rudra. He said, 'Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Sarva.' And because he gave the him that name, the waters became suchlike, for Sarva is the waters, inasmuch as from the water everything (sarva) here is produced. He said, 'Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Pasupati.' And because he gave him that name, the plants became suchlike, for Pasupati is the plants: hence when cattle (pasu) get plants, then they play the master 3 (patîy). He said, 'Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Ugra.' And because he gave him that name, Vâyu (the wind) became suchlike, for Ugra is Vâyu: hence when it blows strongly, they say 'Ugra is blowing.' He said, 'Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Asani.' And because he gave him that name, the lightning became suchlike, for Asani is the lightning: hence they say of him whom the lightning strikes, 'Asani has smitten him.' He said, 'Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Bhava.' And because he gave him that name, Parganya (the rain-god) became suchlike; for Bhava is Parganya, since everything here comes (bhavati) from the rain-cloud. He said, 'Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Mahân Devah (the Great God).' And because he gave him that name, the moon became suchlike, for the moon is Pragâpati, and Pragâpati is the Great God. He said, 'Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Îsâna (the Ruler).' And because he gave him that name, the Sun became suchlike, for Îsâna is the Sun, since the Sun rules over this All. He said, 'So great indeed I am: give me no other name after that!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be noted that even though Shiva is the son of Brahma and Brahma is the son of Vishnu, Shiva is still in some sense also a direct creation of Vishnu.  As Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Baladeva_Vidyabhushana/Vishnu_Sahasra_Nama/Prologue.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, &amp;quot;The ancestors of civilization, and entities such as Shiva, were created by Me. They do not know of this because they are illusioned by My cosmic material energies.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T15:48:08.797" CommentCount="26" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="260" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-20T18:26:21.593" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ramayana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is one of the most respected and oldest epics of Hinduism. It portrays the life of Lord Rama, who is believed to be a &lt;strong&gt;human incarnation&lt;/strong&gt; of Lord Vishnu. Throughout his journey, Lord Rama does not use his supernatural powers and lives as a simple human. This epic prolixly explains the various duties of relationships such as, &lt;em&gt;How should a king be?&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;How should a brother behave?&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;How must a wife be?&lt;/em&gt; and so on. The important characters of Ramayana are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dasharatha&lt;/em&gt; - King of Ayodhya, Father of Lord Rama.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kausalya&lt;/em&gt; - One of Dasharatha's wives, Mother of Lord Rama.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sumithra&lt;/em&gt; - One of Dasharatha's wives, Mother of Lakshmanan, Shatrughna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kaikeyi&lt;/em&gt; - One of Dasharatha's wives, Mother of Bharatha.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Janaka&lt;/em&gt; - King of Mithila, father of Sita and Urmila.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sunayani&lt;/em&gt; - Wife of Janaka.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kushathwaja&lt;/em&gt; - Brother of Janaka, father of Mandavi and Shrutakeerti.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lord Rama&lt;/em&gt; - Son of Dasharatha and Kausalya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sita&lt;/em&gt; - Wife of Lord Rama and daughter of Janaka.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lakshmanan&lt;/em&gt; - Son of Dasharatha and Sumithra (also pronounced as Lakshmana, twin with Shatrughna)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Urmila&lt;/em&gt; - Wife of Lakshmana and daughter of Janaka.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bharatha&lt;/em&gt; - Son of Dasharatha and Kaikeyi (also pronounced as Bharathan).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mandavi&lt;/em&gt; - Wife of Bharatha, daughter of Kushathwaja who is the brother of Janaka.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shatrughna&lt;/em&gt; - Son of Dasharatha and Sumithra (also pronunced as Chathrugnan).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shrutakeerti&lt;/em&gt; - Wife of Shatrughna, daughter of Kushathwaja, sister of Mandavi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vaali&lt;/em&gt; - King of Kishkintha, Son of Indra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sukreeva&lt;/em&gt; - Younger brother of Vaali.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hanuman&lt;/em&gt; - Believed to be an incarnation of Lord Shiva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ravana&lt;/em&gt; - King of Sri Lanka.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vibheeshana&lt;/em&gt; - Younger brother of Ravana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Surpanakha&lt;/em&gt; - Sister of Ravana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Guha&lt;/em&gt; - A boatman who helped Lord Rama, when the latter was in the jungle.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jatayu&lt;/em&gt; - A vulture who informed Lord Rama about Ravana, when the latter kidnapped Sita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="90" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T19:03:38.860" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T19:03:38.860" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="261" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-20T18:26:21.593" Score="0" Body="A Hindu epic, written by sage Valmiki. It is the story of Lord Rama's life." OwnerUserId="85" LastEditorUserId="68" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T04:43:29.417" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T04:43:29.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="262" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="282" CreationDate="2014-06-20T19:00:42.617" Score="9" ViewCount="923" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Abrahamic religions have &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_apocrypha&quot;&gt;Biblical apocrypha&lt;/a&gt;, sections of the work claimed by some to be authentic but excluded by the main body of the religion. Does the Gita have any similar sections? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-25T16:34:42.503" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T16:13:57.560" Title="Does the Gita have any apocrypha?" Tags="|scripture|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="263" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="265" CreationDate="2014-06-20T21:49:17.687" Score="5" ViewCount="253" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu cosmology, particularly long periods of time are reckoned in terms of units like &quot;days of Brahma&quot;, where one day of Brahma is equal to 4.32 billion &quot;human&quot; years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I always thought that the &quot;Brahma&quot; here was Brahma as in the creator deity of the Trimurti. However, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/230/13&quot;&gt;another answer&lt;/a&gt;, it is claimed that this is actually Brahman, the supreme being that underlies all. Which of these is correct? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My thinking in associating this with the Trimurtic Brahma was that it is said the universe is remade on each day of Brahma, and so the association with Trimurtic Brahma makes sense, since he is the one that does the remaking. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-02-01T13:34:41.870" Title="Does &quot;day of Brahma&quot; refer to the Trimurtic creator deity or to the supreme Brahman?" Tags="|brahma|brahman|time|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="264" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="267" CreationDate="2014-06-20T22:51:38.107" Score="44" ViewCount="12821" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well-known that temples devoted to Brahma are &lt;em&gt;extremely&lt;/em&gt; rare compared to temples devoted to Vishnu and Shiva (or, indeed, any number of other deities, e.g. Murugan, Ganesh, Hanuman, etc.). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Question 1: &lt;strong&gt;Why is this?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am of course familiar with (what I assume is) the standard mythological justification - in one of the Puranas (not sure which), Brahma and Vishnu tried to race to the top of an infinite Shivalingam; Brahma lied about having made it to the top; he then incurred Shiva's wrath, and was thus cursed that he would never again be worshiped. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Question 2: &lt;strong&gt;Is that really all there is to it?&lt;/strong&gt; I find it somewhat surprising that this solitary tale would suffice to prevent a &quot;Brahmite&quot; sect (so to speak) from ever arising.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-06T11:28:35.273" LastActivityDate="2024-02-29T11:17:45.293" Title="Why are temples devoted to Brahma so rare?" Tags="|temple|brahma|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="265" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="263" CreationDate="2014-06-20T22:52:35.533" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;A &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_%28aeon%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kalpa&lt;/a&gt; is definitely a day of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahma&lt;/a&gt; the creator god, not &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt; the divine essence.  This can be gleamed from numerous Hindu scriptures, but for instance here's how the &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/11/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; describes the kalpa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Outside of the three worlds, the four yugas multiplied by one thousand comprise one day in the world of Brahmā. A similar period comprises a night of Brahmā, in which the creator of the universe goes to sleep. After the end of Brahmā’s night, the creation of the three worlds begins again in the daytime of Brahmā, and they continue to exist through the life durations of fourteen consecutive Manus, or fathers of mankind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-01T13:34:41.870" LastActivityDate="2016-02-01T13:34:41.870" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="267" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="264" CreationDate="2014-06-21T02:37:49.883" Score="31" Body="&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I am of course familiar with the standard mythological justification.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The story you mention isn't actually the standard justification for why Brahma isn't worshiped. But since you were wondering, the justification you give is from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/G2pU&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vidyeshwara Samhita&lt;/a&gt; of the Shiva Purana. In this account, Brahma and Vishnu argue about who is superior until this argument turns into a battle.  The battle threatens to destroy the three worlds, so the devas (gods) go to Shiva for help. To stop the conflict, Shiva turns into a pillar of fire that seems to go forever in both directions. Both Brahma and Vishnu are curious about what it is, so Brahma turns into a swan to go to the top, and Vishnu turns into a boar to go to the bottom. Both are unsuccessful, but Brahma lies that he went to the top, presenting a Ketaki flower that arose from the middle of the pillar and claiming it's from the top. Vishnu concedes defeat, but then Shiva appears, Vishnu touches Shiva's feet and as a result Shiva grants Vishnu the privilege to be worshiped as an equal to Shiva. Shiva then creates the demon Kala Bhairava to cut off Brahma's fifth head, but Vishnu persuades Shiva to take mercy on Brahma, so Shiva instead curses Brahma that he can't be worshiped in temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The version of the story given in the Shiva Purana is likely a later interpolation, because it differs from more common versions in a variety of ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In most versions the argument between Brahma and Vishnu does not come to blows;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In most versions Shiva explicitly offers help to the two gods by proposing a race;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In some versions Shiva just turns really tall without turning into fire;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In most versions the Ketaki flower falls from Devaloka instead of the middle of the pillar;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In Vaishnava versions Vishnu just touches Shiva's feet to tickle him so he'll bend down and Vishnu can touch his head and win.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the most important difference for our purposes is that in most versions, Kala Bhairava actually does cut off Brahma's fifth head rather than showing mercy, and Shiva does not actually put any curse on Brahma. (In fact in these versions the opposite happens: Brahma puts a curse on Kala Bhairava that he'll be a vagabond.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the more common justification for why Brahma isn't worshiped actually comes from another story, one recounted in many places, for instance &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/aM7k&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;in this  excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Padma Purana. (I described it earlier in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/122/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.) A group of sages were conducting a yagna (ritual) on the banks of the Saraswati river, when they started to wonder (on the prompting of Narada) which god to dedicate the ritual to. So they sent sage Bhrigu (famous for his short temper) to test which god out of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva was most worthy. When he went to see Brahma, he put his hands together to salute Brahma.  But Brahma was too proud to honor Brighu in any way, so outraged by this disrespect Brighu cursed Brahma that he would no longer be allowed to be worshiped. (By the way, if you're interested Vishnu was the one who ultimately won the test, although it had major ramifications that led to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara#Legend&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the story of Tirupati Balaji, AKA Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2023-11-12T05:05:55.220" LastActivityDate="2023-11-12T05:05:55.220" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="268" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="205" CreationDate="2014-06-21T04:48:43.347" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is indeed a very good question. But unfortunately &lt;strong&gt;no specific reason can be pointed out as the sole cause for God's incarnations&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हरि अवतार हेतु जेहि होई। इदमित्थं कहि जाइ न सोई।। [Ramcharit Manas - 1.121]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, from scriptures and whatever sages have said three primary reasons can be pointed out,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Establishment of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; 2. Deliverance of saintly people 3. Destruction of the wicked people&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna has Himself told this to Arjuna as we know from the Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 4.8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same reason has also been stated for Rama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जब जब होइ धरम कै हानी। बाढहिं असुर अधम अभिमानी।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;करहिं अनीति जाइ नहिं बरनी। सीदहिं बिप्र धेनु सुर धरनी।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तब तब प्रभु धरि बिबिध सरीरा। हरहि कृपानिधि सज्जन पीरा।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;असुर मारि थापहिं सुरन्ह राखहिं निज श्रुति सेतु।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जग बिस्तारहिं बिसद जस राम जन्म कर हेतु।। [Ramcharit Manas - 1.121]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Whenever dharma declines and the demons, wicked and the haughty increase&lt;/em&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;when they do such immoral work that they can not be described, and when Brahman, cow, gods, and earth are in danger,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In those times God taking different kinds of bodies take away the pain and suffering of the saintly persons&lt;/em&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Killing the demons He reinstates the gods and preserves the order of His own Vedas&lt;/em&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;He spreads His glory throughout the world, for Rama's birth know these are the cause&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then the question is why the almighty God, by whose mere thinking thousands and thousands of universes get annihilated, would take birth to kill mere demons and wicked humans who are just part of the universe itself? Can't He just do it by His will without taking so much trouble of taking birth here in this mortal world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, the above reason alone is not satisfactory. So Shrimad Bhagavatam states an even more appropriate reason for the cause of God's descend as a human. &lt;strong&gt;God takes avatar as a human not just to kill the demons but to teach us the way of life by practically observing it Himself&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;martyāvatāras tv iha martya-śikṣaṇaṁ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;rakṣo-vadhāyaiva na kevalaṁ vibhoḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB 5.19.5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This reason seems sensible as from Shri Rams's life we learn how to be a good son, good brother, good king, etc. But then the question arises, what is the necessity of God to take avatar and teach us Himself when prophets, saints and sages already do the job of teaching by living saintly life themselves? Again, if we take Shri Krishna's birth as example, then there are also many activities by Him which we should never try to do it ourselves. Hence, this can't be the sole reason. So Bhagavatam says, &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;However we may argue, there can be no other reason than amusement for which He who has no birth takes birth here&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;na te ’bhavasyeśa bhavasya kāraṇaṁ&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vinā vinodaṁ bata tarkayāmahe&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 10.2.39]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is, God takes birth here for His amusement or entertainment. But this can not be the actual reason because He who Himself is always blissful (&lt;em&gt;sadchidanda&lt;/em&gt;) would require no other thing for His amusement. Only they who are not happy, tired or stressed require and depend upon other things for happiness and amusement. But God being always blissful why would He require anything else for His pleasure or amusement? Hence, Bhagavatam states the most appropriate &lt;strong&gt;reason for God's descend is to bestow the highest benefit upon humankind by manifesting His pastime here&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;nṛṇāṁ niḥśreyasārthāya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vyaktir bhagavato nṛpa&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 10.29.14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This reason seems sensible because without the incarnations of God, the world would be bereft of His sweet pastimes. Without which there would be no scriptures like Ramayana, Bhagavata, etc. and the devotees would have nothing to think and talk about. Only the concept of &lt;em&gt;avyakta&lt;/em&gt; (unmanifested) &lt;em&gt;nirakara&lt;/em&gt; (formless) God would have remained which is hard to comprehend and practice. So &lt;strong&gt;one of the primary reasons for God's descend as a human is for bestowing the mercy of devotion to people and even to the transcendentalists who worship the unmanifested formless absolute (&lt;em&gt;avyakta nirākara brahma&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tathā paramahaṁsānāṁ munīnām amalātmanām&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhakti-yoga-vidhānārthaṁ kathaṁ paśyema hi striyaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/1/8/20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; [SB - 1.8.20]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T05:49:35.807" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="269" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="264" CreationDate="2014-06-21T05:23:26.373" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Hindu Trinity of Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva, Lord Brahma is the Creator of the Universe and all living beings are said to have evolved from him. Brahma is also believed to have created the Saptarishi, or seven great sages, to help him create the Universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Brahma creates the world, it remains in existence for 1 of his days, which means 2,160,000,000 years in terms of Hindu calendar. The world is said to exist for one Kalpa, or one day in the life of Brahma. Brahma is then believed to go to sleep for one night, which is as long as a Kalpa. When Brahma goes to sleep at the end of his day, the world perishes in fire. When HE awakens, HE again restores the whole creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This process (&lt;em&gt;Pralaya&lt;/em&gt;) goes on till 100 years of Brahma's life is completed, which is the life span of Brahma. When this period ends, HE himself loses his existence, and HE and all Gods and Sages, and the whole universe get dissolved into their constituent elements. And this whole process of creation and destruction repeats itself ceaselessly, the world getting re-created endlessly...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Inspite of the above immense role, Why only three Temples of Brahma in the World? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Legend has it that Lord Brahma is said to be very liberal with granting boons and is easily pleased when prayed to without any thought as to who is praying and asking him for a boon. HE is rather callous in granting boons to the demons unguardedly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the deadly demons, from Hiranyakashipu to Ravana, received their boons from Brahma, which made them singularly notorious in destroying the noble virtues of the world. Then it became necessary for Lord Vishnu to appear in his various reincarnations to kill these demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That is why the cult of Brahma's worship declined as HE became unpopular amongst religious devotees who began to deem Brahma as the sole God of worship for the demons. Another reason why Brahma is not widely worshipped is the belief that being the Creator, his work is complete, at least for the time being. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hence, there are innumerable temples of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva around the world, while Lord Brahma has only 3 temples, all in India, one at Pushkar Lake in Ajmer, another in Khokhan - Kullu Valley and the other at Khedabrahma in Kerala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&amp;amp;sd=Articles&amp;amp;ArticleID=1203&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahma: The God with Only Three Temples&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-21T05:29:23.610" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T05:29:23.610" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="270" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="673" CreationDate="2014-06-21T05:32:22.113" Score="19" ViewCount="18078" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the difference between Devas, Daevas, Asuras and Rakshasa fundamentally?&#xA;It is very confusing to distinguish and characterize them without clear examples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T06:24:21.303" LastActivityDate="2018-01-03T06:24:21.303" Title="Difference between Devas, Daevas, Asuras and Rakshasa" Tags="|gods|asuras|rakshasa|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="271" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-21T05:55:07.960" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-06-21T05:55:07.960" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T05:55:07.960" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="272" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-21T05:55:07.960" Score="0" Body="For questions about Hindu gods in general. If you have a question about a specific god (e.g. Indra or Shiva), please use a more specific tag instead of this one. " OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-23T19:46:38.810" LastActivityDate="2014-06-23T19:46:38.810" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="273" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="262" CreationDate="2014-06-21T06:43:39.553" Score="-4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;Apocrypha&quot; is not an appropriate term when referring to the Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Comparison with Bible&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bible is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_the_Bible&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;compendium&lt;/a&gt; of over 60 books. Bhagavad-gita is but a chapter in a canto of the epic Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the biblical tradition many texts are anonymous and the origins and transmittance of the text obscure. Most Vedic texts mention the author (either at the beginning or at the end), even many songs include a verse about the author. When properly received, the texts come from an unbroken parampara (chain) of teachers-students where each member is a known (at least, to the adjacent generations) reliable saint. Mahabharata gives Vyasadeva as its author and he was still available in the 13th century to validate Madhvacarya's commentaries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The very text of the Bible gets &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibles_of_Constantine&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;edited at times&lt;/a&gt;, but it is forbidden to modify standard shastra in the vedic tradition. Instead, sages write commentaries or even commentaries on commentaries, or their own treatises.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abundant commentaries on Bhagavad-gita attest to its preservation. &lt;a href=&quot;http://sankaracharya.org/gita_bhashya.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shankaracarya's commentary&lt;/a&gt; is from 7th century, but his mission was to misinterpret the Vedas. Commentaries of the 4 Vaisnava sampradayas (who preserve the original message) &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;are available here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Substitutes for apocrypha&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Somewhat similar in spirit, an &quot;enhanced version&quot; of Gita is Purnacandra's &lt;a href=&quot;http://blservices.com/gitamrita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gitamrita&lt;/a&gt;, based on the commentary of Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another chapter in Mahabharata, where Arjuna asks Krishna to repeat the Gita again, but Krishna tells him some other story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 11th canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam contains Uddhava-gita, which is similar in topics to the Bhagavad-gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The very speaker of Gita -- Lord Krishna was present on the Earth from 1486 to 1534 A.D. in Bengal as &lt;strong&gt;Nimai pandita&lt;/strong&gt; a.k.a. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaitanya_Mahaprabhu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Krishna Caitanya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. He was actively preaching his teachings again, so those could also be taken as an extension to the Bhagavad-gita. However, he did not indicate any discrepancies in the extant version of Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastEditorUserId="113" LastEditDate="2014-06-21T09:22:12.060" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T09:22:12.060" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="274" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="301" CreationDate="2014-06-21T07:40:42.427" Score="11" ViewCount="8801" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Bhagvad&lt;/em&gt;, Lord Krishna is portrayed stealing butter and milk from the Gopis. He teased them, broke their &lt;em&gt;dahi handis&lt;/em&gt;, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why did he do so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why are the acts of &lt;em&gt;stealing&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;teasing&lt;/em&gt; women allowed for him but not for other men?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-06-21T11:25:03.540" LastActivityDate="2022-06-19T03:04:28.927" Title="Why did Krishna steal butter and milk?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="275" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="320" CreationDate="2014-06-21T07:42:53.407" Score="14" ViewCount="2488" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavatam&lt;/em&gt;, Krishna is the 8&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; son of Devaki. Why did he have to come as the eighth son?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why not 1&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt;? or 2&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt;? or 3&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt;? or 4&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;? or 5&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;? or 6&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;? or 7&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;? or 9&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T10:35:41.700" LastActivityDate="2022-06-19T03:14:45.250" Title="Why did Krishna have to be the eighth son?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="276" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-21T07:43:29.167" Score="8" ViewCount="4811" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that Lord Rama exiled Maa Sita even after she passed the Agni Pariksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For an overview, Maa Sita was captured by Ravan, and later, Lord Rama fought with an army of monkeys with Ravan's army, but soon after the war, Lord Rama asked Maa Sita to undergo Agni Pariksha to get rid of rumours about Maa Sita's purity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Soon after Maa Sita plunged into the fire, Lord Agni raised her unharmed and she passed the pariksha (test).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I've read that she was still exiled by Lord Rama. Is that true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-15T20:54:30.330" LastActivityDate="2017-01-10T01:15:08.963" Title="Did Lord Rama exile Maa Sita?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|sita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="277" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-21T07:56:27.920" Score="38" ViewCount="75461" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I have read, Lord Krishna's love for Radha was eternal. Then, why didn't he marry Radha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-21T08:28:58.420" LastActivityDate="2022-05-22T13:27:17.650" Title="Why didn't Lord Krishna marry Radha?" Tags="|krishna|radha|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="281" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="277" CreationDate="2014-06-21T08:26:02.000" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To understand Radha correctly you need to somewhat understand the&#xA;  mysteries of “rasa” and “prema” – the ecstatic experience of spiritual&#xA;  love. Krishna and Radharani playfully married once, as children&#xA;  sometimes do. They did not really marry, however, because their love&#xA;  is more primal, profound, and unbounded than what wedded love&#xA;  facilitates. Wedded love is a very elevated type of divine union with&#xA;  the Supreme Personality of Godhead, yet in marriage the intimacy and&#xA;  spontaneity is not limitless. Some limitation is imposed by the sense&#xA;  of “duty” that husband and wife naturally acquire towards one another.&#xA;  This sense of duty is beautiful, but the highest type of love is even&#xA;  more beautiful. It is so profound that it requires no sense of duty –&#xA;  and flows absolutely spontaneously – breaking all things that stand in&#xA;  its path. Thus the pure transcendental love that Radha and Krishna&#xA;  enjoy on the highest level of bliss (paramānanda) expresses itself in&#xA;  the form of being paramours, not being husband and wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vicd108.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/why-didnt-krishna-marry-radha/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SOURCE&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="130" LastEditDate="2014-06-21T08:33:21.903" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T08:33:21.903" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="282" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="262" CreationDate="2014-06-21T08:37:58.363" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scriptures, including the Mahabharata which contains the Bhagavad Gita, were originally passed down through countless generations via oral tradition.  But nowadays the main source we have on them (other than the limited oral tradition that still goes on in some ashrams) is via written manuscripts, and manuscripts had to be copied and recopied as the material they were written on (either bark in North India or palm leaves in South India) was of poor quality.  So as it happens, the best manuscripts we have today of the Bhagavad Gita are not the manuscripts of the Mahabharata, but rather manuscripts of commentaries of the Bhagavad Gita, because a commentary needed to quote accurately the verses it was commenting on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/a&gt; wrote a commentary (the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara_bibliography#Bhagavadgita_Bhashya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita Bhashya&lt;/a&gt;) which quoted 693 of the 700 verses of the Bhagavad Gita, so the &quot;Shankara recension&quot;, the version of the Bhagavad Gita quoted in his commentary, as preserved in the South Indian manuscripts, has served as the accepted reference for verses in the Bhagavad Gita - it's the one relied upon whenever people make translations of the Bhagavad Gita or the Mahabarata (since the Mahabharata has to include the Bhagavad Gita).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in parallel with the South Indian manuscripts of Adi Shankaracharya, there is another commentary on the Bhagavad Gita that has been diligently preserved in manuscripts - the commentary of the Kashmiri Shaivite philosopher &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhinavagupta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Abhinavagupta&lt;/a&gt;.  He commented on relatively few verses, but some of the verses he quotes are verses that we otherwise don't have from any other source.  The version of the Bhagavad Gita quoted in Abhinavagupta's commentary, as passed down in Kashmiri manuscripts, is known as the &quot;Kashmiri recension.&quot;  In the introduction to &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/srimadbhagavadgi015443mbp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;, Shripad Krishna Belvalkar describes some of the differences between the Shankara and Kashmiri recensions.  This mostly has to do with relatively minor grammatical and syntactical changes that lead Belvalkar to conclude that the Kashmiri recension is probably a distortion by later scribes of the original text of the Bhagavad Gita, which in his view would be closer to the Shankara recension.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the more important difference is the fourteen extra verses unique to the Kashmiri recension.  These would be the only thing that could possibly be called by the term &quot;Bhagavad Gita apocrypha&quot;.  That's really tiny, but you have to consider that the Bhagavad Gita is a 700-verse portion of a 100 thousand-verse epic poem, so there's not much room for apocrypha.  In any case, if you want to know what these verses say, they're given in Sanskrit in the appendix of Belvalkar's book.  But if you don't know Sanskrit, you can read Swami Lakshmanjoo's &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicilluminations.com/downloads/Bhagavad%20Gita/other%20translations/Bhagavad%20Gita%20Kashmiri.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;brief commentary&lt;/a&gt; on the extra verses.  (Lakshmanjoo apparently believed that these few extra verses contained some important mystical truths that only the Kashmiri Shaivites were in possession of.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-22T20:26:42.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-22T20:26:42.163" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="286" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="338" CreationDate="2014-06-21T09:47:10.283" Score="16" ViewCount="7285" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the Vedas, getting married to a girl after kidnapping is considered devil or daemon (दानव &lt;em&gt;dānava&lt;/em&gt;) Vivaha (marriage) which isn't righteous (धर्मानुकूलन &lt;em&gt;dharmānukūlana&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Lord Krishna kidnapped Rukmini. I want to know why Lord Krishna did that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is this kind of marriage righteous even though it's not considered good by the dharma shastras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="141" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-03T21:52:08.873" LastActivityDate="2019-11-21T14:49:23.377" Title="Why did Lord Krishna kidnap Rukmini to get married?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|dharma|smriti|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="287" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="286" CreationDate="2014-06-21T09:59:39.520" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna did not forcefully kidnap Rukmani. It was a planned affair with the consent of the girl eloped. Thus, the word kidnap itself may not appropriately describe the event.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is true that the Vedas say that marrying a girl against her wishes isn't righteous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case of Rukmani and Krishna, Rukmani had pleaded Krishna with a letter of pleasing shlokas. Lord Krishna was impressed by this. Rukmani's plead was that th Lord Krishna should come, and abduct her from her brother Rukmi who wanted to marry Rukmani forcefully to Shishupal - a Kaurav - and the son of the then ruling king Damghosh of Chedi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna accepted her plea and took Rukmani away from her brother Rukmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="145" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T05:30:28.860" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T05:30:28.860" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="288" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-21T10:02:24.297" Score="4" ViewCount="301" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know from the Brahmasutra (composed by Badarayana Rishi), the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads show us the source of Mukti(emancipation) and this way is Nivrtiya(निवर्तीय), whereas the way described in Veda are प्रवृत्ती (prvartiya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what is difference between the Nivrtiya(निवर्तीय) way and the प्रवृत्ती (prvartiya) way?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="141" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T10:31:31.713" LastActivityDate="2014-10-09T10:31:31.713" Title="What is the difference between the Nivrtiya(निवर्तीय) way and प्रवृत्ती (prvartiya) way?" Tags="|mukti|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="289" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-21T10:11:51.057" Score="20" ViewCount="16177" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Dharma according to the Bhagavad Gita? Are hymns and worship of God compulsory in the Bhagavad Gita ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="141" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T05:30:27.763" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T10:10:34.517" Title="What is Dharma according to the Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|worship|bhagavad-gita|dharma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="290" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-21T10:16:35.663" Score="10" ViewCount="11705" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most Hindus believe that Lord Krishna had 16108 wives. Can someone explain this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard that, according to Srimad Bhagavata, the number &quot;16108&quot; has a different philosophical meaning. What does Srimad Bhagavata say about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-27T01:51:34.443" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T05:39:55.367" Title="Did Krishna have 16108 wives?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|symbolism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="293" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="290" CreationDate="2014-06-21T10:42:03.350" Score="9" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As per Mahabharata, Krishna had a total of 16108 wives, of which eight&#xA;  were his principle wives and they are Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati, Kalindi, Mitravrinda, Nagnajiti, Bhadra and Lakshana. &#xA;  The other 16100 were rescued from&#xA;  Narakasura, where they had been forcibly kept. These women were in&#xA;  disgrace because they had lived with the demon king and none of their&#xA;  families would accept them. So, Krishna gave these women the status of&#xA;  his wives. This marital status was not for sexual pleasure but to give&#xA;  them shelter and a respectful place in the society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna's marriage with 16100 wives was synonymous to raas leela&#xA;  where he danced with 108 gopis at the same time while each gopi&#xA;  believed he was dancing only with her. Whole life Krishna manifested&#xA;  in 16108 forms to share same love and care to all his wives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Purana and the Mahabharata differ and set the number as 16100. Generally all of them are unnamed, however many commentators of the Bhagavata Purana state Rohini to be their leader, though such an explicit mention is not found in the scripture. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://experiencehinduism.com/interesting-stories/krishna-playboy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;More explanation given here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T14:39:41.113" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T14:39:41.113" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="295" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-21T10:57:34.063" Score="18" ViewCount="7703" Body="&lt;p&gt;It can be observed that many Hindu Gods and saints are shown sitting on animal (tiger) skins. What could be the reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-16T04:24:18.713" LastActivityDate="2018-04-04T13:14:11.600" Title="Why are Gods and Yogis shown sitting on animals skins?" Tags="|gods|yoga|culture|animals|symbolism|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="296" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="297" CreationDate="2014-06-21T11:22:30.983" Score="7" ViewCount="43876" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is that black color clothes are avoided or not allowed to wear in some temples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are also avoided when Hindus celebrate festivals like Diwali, Navratri etc, generally on auspicious days&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that our temples don't allow belts, wallets etc when they are made of animal skin but whats wrong in wearing black clothes or having black colored objects with us?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-06T17:00:27.727" LastActivityDate="2018-01-30T16:14:47.260" Title="Why are the black colored clothes avoided when visiting temple?" Tags="|worship|temple|color|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="297" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="296" CreationDate="2014-06-21T11:32:42.073" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Black is the symbol of unhappiness. That's why, we don't wear it in temples. Although, some &lt;em&gt;murtis&lt;/em&gt; in temples are normally black, like that of &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt;. This is because Gods and Goddesses are free from happiness and unhappiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above all, its just a symbol. (You can think of it as another superstition...)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, we have a lot of colors symbolizing things. Below are a few others:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Red indicates both sensuality and purity.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saffron indicates sacred and holy things.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Green indicates festive season and happiness.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yellow indicates knowledge and learning.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;White is a mixture of seven different colors hence it symbolizes a little bit of the quality of each.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Blue is a symbol of nature; the sky, the oceans, the rivers and the lakes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T11:32:42.073" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="298" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="296" CreationDate="2014-06-21T11:41:53.333" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Black is considered bad and evil. It is avoided in anything cultural, not just visiting temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However note that black is not completely avoided, people visiting &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarimala&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sabarimala&lt;/a&gt; temple actually wear black colour. It is favourite colour of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shani&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shani&lt;/a&gt; and people wear it to please him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="23" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T11:41:53.333" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="299" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="305" CreationDate="2014-06-21T11:48:41.287" Score="8" ViewCount="285" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Parashurama believed to be one of the Avatars of God Vishnu. I have seen that Parashuram were present in Ramayana (&lt;em&gt;When God Ram breaks the God Shiva's blessed Bow to marry Goddess Sita&lt;/em&gt;) as well as in Mahabharatha (&lt;em&gt;as a teacher who teaches secret and deadliest arts of battle to Bheeshma&lt;/em&gt;). As far as I know, these two epic stories were happened in completely different Yugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, how was Lord Parashurama alive so long? Or is he immortal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-27T11:27:22.280" LastActivityDate="2018-04-27T11:27:22.280" Title="How old was Lord Parashurama?" Tags="|yuga|parashurama|life-span|chiranjivi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="300" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-21T11:50:14.700" Score="15" ViewCount="688" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Hindu texts are replete with references of deities using a particular animal as their primary vehicle. E.g., Ganesha has a mouse for his vehicle, Shiva uses an ox (Nandi), while Karthikeya is associated with a peacock, Durga with a tiger, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there an explanation for certain deities using a particular animal as their vehicle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2019-08-06T05:34:42.253" LastActivityDate="2019-08-06T05:34:42.253" Title="Significance of certain deities using a particular animal as their vehicle" Tags="|gods|animals|symbolism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="301" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="274" CreationDate="2014-06-21T11:50:15.543" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavata itself, this is explained. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu philosophy, the aim of each human life is to attain or realize the &lt;em&gt;Parabrahma&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Paramathma&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning of the relation between Lord Krishna and the Gopis represents the &lt;em&gt;Paramathma&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Jeevathma&lt;/em&gt;. This was most eternal and can not be compared with other devotees of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna wanted to give the Gopis a sign from his early childhood that he was about to steal their hearts. By engaging in stealing, the Gopis started to complain to Ma Yasodha about Krishna. He was actually making the Gopis think of him always. Since he did these things, the Gopis started to think about Krishna in each and every one of their actions. Since the Yadavas' life was associated with cattles, the simplest way to do this trick was to steal butter and milk. And by doing this, Lord Krishna prepared them for the Rasaleela. Thus, Paramathma (Krishna) and Jeevathmas (Gopis) showed that everything is the one and only ParaBrahma. Thus, Lord Krishna lead them to Moksha through eternal love and devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T07:03:09.880" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T07:03:09.880" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="302" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="300" CreationDate="2014-06-21T12:03:32.863" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you pointed out Most of the Hindu Gods have their vehicles as animals. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will explain about the Lord Ganesha and rat. One outsider who does not know about the inner meaning may simply laugh when saying that Lord Ganesha travel on a white rat. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Acutally Lord Ganesha is the God of Intelligence and attention. Before starting education(Vidyarambh) we pay tribute to Ganesha as 'Hari Sree Ganapathaye Nama'. His animal rat is the symbol of the human mind. It will never take rest, always mind is running(a running mind). So as a representation of Lord Ganesha(God of Intellect and attention)controlling the Mind, it has put it as like Rat is the vehicle of Lord Ganesha.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, every other Gods and Vehicle has it's own inner meaings. Like Shiva- Ox, Saraswathi- Hamsa, etc. Also apart from this there can be other explanations too, as mentioned in different stories in Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2014-07-16T17:14:22.703" LastActivityDate="2014-07-16T17:14:22.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="303" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-21T12:09:03.757" Score="9" ViewCount="348" Body="&lt;p&gt;Almost all religious places in India are located on the peak of a mountain. Why have they chosen that place? Is there any belief underlying that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="419" LastEditDate="2014-08-29T04:24:20.133" LastActivityDate="2015-11-22T04:03:36.690" Title="Why is it that almost all gods residing on Earth reside on a mountain?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="304" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-21T12:10:41.323" Score="16" ViewCount="66496" Body="&lt;p&gt;Basically, there are a few numbers (of days) after various events that are of special significance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E.g. 41 days after a person dies, the members of their family must go to a temple; likewise for any good occasions. Also, every 3, 16, or 41 days, certain events/formalities are done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And my question is, what do these numbers signify in case of death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="126" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2014-07-29T18:51:50.293" LastActivityDate="2018-03-10T10:32:11.857" Title="What is the significance of 3, 16, or 41 days after the death?" Tags="|death|numerology|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="305" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="299" CreationDate="2014-06-21T12:14:43.777" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;He is one of the seven immortals or &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiranjivi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chiranjivi&lt;/a&gt;, of Hinduism. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kalki Purana&lt;/a&gt; writes that he will re emerge at end time to be the martial guru of Kalki. He will then instruct the final avatar to undertake penance to receive celestial weaponry, required to save mankind at end time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T12:14:43.777" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="306" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="307" CreationDate="2014-06-21T12:18:21.933" Score="7" ViewCount="1428" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that all goddesses (e.g. Ambe, Vaishnodevi and other goddesses) are actually body parts of Sati Devi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T11:45:15.663" LastActivityDate="2019-01-28T18:01:51.130" Title="Are all goddesses part of Sati Devi?" Tags="|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="307" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="306" CreationDate="2014-06-21T12:49:23.050" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_%28goddess%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sati's&lt;/a&gt; Wikipedia page- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Daksha once organized a grand yajna to which all the gods were&#xA;  invited, with the exception of Sati and Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sati goes there uninvited without Shiva. Sati was received coldly by&#xA;  her father.  Every passing moment made it clearer to Sati that her&#xA;  father was entirely incapable of appreciating the many excellent&#xA;  qualities of her husband. The realization then came to Sati that this&#xA;  abuse was being heaped on Shiva only because he had wed her; she was&#xA;  the cause of this dishonor to her husband. She was consumed by rage&#xA;  against her father and loathing for his mentality. Calling up a prayer&#xA;  that she may, in a future birth, be born the daughter of a father whom&#xA;  she could respect, Sati invoked her yogic powers or yogic Agni which&#xA;  was attained by her due to severe devotion or puja done by her and&#xA;  immolated herself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to some traditions, it is believed that an angry Shiva performed the fearsome and awe-inspiring Tandava dance with Sati's&#xA;  charred body on his shoulders. During this dance, Sati's body came&#xA;  apart and the pieces fell at different places on earth. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to another version, Shiva placed Sati's body on his shoulder and ran about the world, crazed with grief. The Gods called &#xA;  upon the god Vishnu to restore Shiva to normalcy and calm. Vishnu used&#xA;  his Sudarshana Chakra to dismember Sati's lifeless body, following &#xA;  which Shiva regained his equanimity. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Both versions state that Sati's  body was thus dismembered into 51&#xA;  pieces which fell on earth at  various places. Several different&#xA;  listings of these 51 holy places,  known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti_Peethas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shakti Peethas&lt;/a&gt;, are&#xA;  available; some of these places have  become major centers of&#xA;  pilgrimage as they are held by the  Goddess-oriented Shakta sect to be&#xA;  particularly holy. Besides 51 main  Shakti pethas, some small peethas&#xA;  like Bindudham have also in  existence which are due to Sati's fallen&#xA;  blood drops.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But three Pindi's of Veshno Devis is out of this 51 Shakti Peethas. Even there is contradictions in this counts in all stories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishno_Devi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vaishno Devi&lt;/a&gt; Wikipedia page&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaishno devi is one of 108 shakti peetha, the story of Vaishno Devi is&#xA;  found in Chandi uppurana. When Vishnu Bhagwan cuts Sati Maa's body&#xA;  into 108 peethas then 52 body parts fell onto earth atmosphere and&#xA;  rest of the 56 fell on other planets. Out of which the &quot;Blessing Hand&quot;&#xA;  of Goddess Sati had fallen on &quot;Planet Venus&quot; or Shukra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the same Veshno devi page its is told that Three Pindi's are Made by three Goddess ( Shakti, Sarasvati and lakshmi). So other goddess are not made by part of Sati's body  but this Shakti peetha's are. And the girl Kumari  made of Parvati's physical appearance, soul of &quot;Lakshmi&quot; and Goddess of knowledge, Saraswati. Which is know as Veshno Devi in Bhairav Katha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-06-21T13:01:46.003" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T13:01:46.003" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="308" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="289" CreationDate="2014-06-21T13:05:38.533" Score="10" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Preliminary answer&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before looking in Gita we need to analyze the word &quot;dharma&quot; from a dictionary. Sanskrit has only about 2000 important verbal roots, from which the meaning of most other words can be derived. &quot;&lt;em&gt;dhar&lt;/em&gt;&quot; means &quot;&lt;em&gt;to hold&lt;/em&gt;&quot;, &quot;&lt;em&gt;to uphold&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. The esoteric meaning of &quot;dharma&quot; is &quot;&lt;strong&gt;something that provides stability&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;, &quot;the natural position&quot;. The common translations as &quot;law&quot; and &quot;duty&quot; are actually derivative.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Now we approach Gita&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;with the refined question of &quot;what is the source of stability&quot;? There are two answers given due to our dual identity -- for the material body and for the spirit soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For the body&lt;/strong&gt; -- one should engage in work in accordance to his inborn nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-05-02.html&quot;&gt;BG 5.2&lt;/a&gt;: work is better than abstinance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-03-35.html&quot;&gt;BG 3.35&lt;/a&gt;: there is no fear in performing fitting duties, even if not completed properly&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-18-45.html&quot;&gt;BG 18.47&lt;/a&gt;: performing duties related to one's nature cannot be sinful. Those duties were described in the previous verses, 18.42-43 and are analysed as varna: brahmana/ksatriya/vaishya/shudra. Shudra will be perfectly happy when working as a shudra (e.g. performing arts), but totally distraught when working as a kshatriya (manager), regardless of his salary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-18-46.html&quot;&gt;BG 18.48&lt;/a&gt;: the nature is inborn (and thus doesn't change during life). This is related to the three gunas and can be determined by an astrologer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For the soul&lt;/strong&gt; ---&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-18-62.html&quot;&gt;BG 18.66&lt;/a&gt;: give up all duties and surrender to me (Krishna says). Krishna is the source of everything (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-10-07.html&quot;&gt;BG 10.8&lt;/a&gt;) -- as long as you have Krishna, there is no lack of anything. There is no need to separately endeavor for wealth, health, fame, beauty or knowledge, as Krishna will give all that (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-22.html&quot;&gt;BG 9.22&lt;/a&gt;) and more. He can solely deliver anyone from any suffering (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-12-05.html&quot;&gt;BG 12.6-7&lt;/a&gt;) and grant any boon, including liberation and love. Even the boons of the worshipers of demigods (other deities) are granted by Krishna (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-22.html&quot;&gt;BG 7.22&lt;/a&gt;), because nobody else can actually grant anything independently. There can be at most one independent entity, everything else becomes inevitably subordinated. But it is your free choice whether to fight with inevitable reality or use it to your full advantage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Recap&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What stability is ultimately attained by engaging in the above mentioned duties? By performing material duties, only temporary stability can be obtained, because the entire material platform is unstable (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-08-16.html&quot;&gt;BG 8.16&lt;/a&gt;). By going to the spiritual world, one is free forever. Krishna wants to enjoy and the natural duty of every living being is to assist in his enjoyments. Whoever comes to that conclusion (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-19.html&quot;&gt;BG 7.19&lt;/a&gt;) is never ever disturbed again (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-31.html&quot;&gt;BG 9.31&lt;/a&gt;) and can enjoy together with the Lord in any of His forms and worlds (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-15-05.html&quot;&gt;BG 15.6&lt;/a&gt;) (which are many).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastEditorUserId="113" LastEditDate="2014-06-21T15:28:27.173" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T15:28:27.173" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="309" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="286" CreationDate="2014-06-21T13:13:33.977" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rukmani was believed to be an incarnation of the goddess Laskhmi. According to the Mahabaratha, Rukmani fell in love with Lord Krishna and wanted him to marry. Rukmani's parents also accepted to this, but &lt;strong&gt;Rukmi&lt;/strong&gt;, who is the elder brother of Rukmani, opposed this marriage. The reason for his opposition was that Rukmi was a close supporter for Kamsa, who is a demon and was killed by Lord Krishna. So as per Rukmani's desire and request, to save the woman, Lord Krishna kidnapped her and married her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the Vedas and beliefs, kidnapping a woman &lt;strong&gt;without her acceptance&lt;/strong&gt; to marry or against her personal desire is considered to be an evil. One such example is the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="90" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T09:28:19.623" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T09:28:19.623" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="310" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="295" CreationDate="2014-06-21T13:25:21.723" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mahashivratri.org/about-lord-shiva.html&quot;&gt;mahashivratri.org&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is shown sitting on or wearing a tiger skin. The tiger is&#xA;  the vehicle of Shakti, the Goddess of power and force. Shiva is beyond&#xA;  and above any kind of force. He is the master of Shakti. The tiger&#xA;  skin that he wears symbolizes victory over every force. Tiger also&#xA;  represent lust. Thus sitting on Tiger skin, Shiva indicates that he&#xA;  has conquered lust.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also signifies non-lavished life style of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the Yogi's, Most of the yogi's origin is said from Shiva, That's why they have similarities in style to Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T13:25:21.723" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="311" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="317" CreationDate="2014-06-21T14:15:37.243" Score="15" ViewCount="10180" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kamsa was told by a mystical voice that Devaki's 8&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; son shall kill Kamsa himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he puts Vasudeva (Devaki's husband) and Devaki in a cell, and whenever they have a child, he goes and mercilessly kills him/her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he was so desperate to stop his death, then why didn't he put Devki and Vasudev in different cells? That would stop any child from coming.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-12-07T15:55:03.273" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T07:18:57.847" Title="Why didn't Kamsa keep Vasudeva and Devaki in separate cells?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="312" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="300" CreationDate="2014-06-21T14:26:07.503" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;They all have stories behind them. Gods don't just randomly chose animals from a list. I will cite few examples&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganesha&lt;/strong&gt; - While Ganesh was still a child, a giant mouse began to terrorize all his friends. Ganesh trapped him with his lasso and made him his mount. Mushika was originally a gandharva, or celestial musician. After absentmindedly walking over the feet of a rishi (wise man) named Vamadeva, Mushika was cursed and transformed into a mouse. However, after the rishi recovered his temper, he promised Mushika that one day, the gods themselves would bow down before him. This came to pass when Mushika's path crossed Ganesh's.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; - Before becoming the vehicle of Shiva, Nandi was a deity called Nandikeshvara, lord of joy and master of music and dance. Then, without warning, his name and his functions were transferred to the aspect of Shiva known as the deity Nataraja. From half-man, half-bull, he became simply a bull. Since that time, he has watched over each of Shiva's temples, always looking towards him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;1. Source : &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vahana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia - Vahana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T14:26:07.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="314" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="47" CreationDate="2014-06-21T14:45:40.533" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's also related to my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/264/why-are-temples-devoted-to-brahma-so-rare/313#313&quot;&gt;other answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to one version of Pushkar yajna story, because of absence of Savitri for the yajna, Brahma married Gurjar girl, Gayatri. Gayatri got purified by Cow's womb to be worthy to be wife of Brahma. After Savitri ( Srasvati in some versions) arrival, she cursed everyone responsible of yajna. She also cursed Cow to get unholy waste as food in Kaliyuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Endowed by the powers of yajna, Gayatri diluted Savitri's curse, and said that whatever Cow will eat in Kaliyuga, she will still treated as holy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T12:21:55.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="315" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="316" CreationDate="2014-06-21T14:53:33.703" Score="23" ViewCount="32740" Body="&lt;p&gt;A lot of Hindu gods have human heads. However, this is not the case with Lord Ganesha, who has an elephant head. Why does he have an elephant head?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2020-06-11T04:53:12.860" LastActivityDate="2020-06-17T02:59:24.107" Title="Why does Lord Ganesha have an elephant head?" Tags="|puranas|ganesha|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="316" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="315" CreationDate="2014-06-21T15:00:20.447" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a story behind the elephant head. I would certainly write one but with some broken grammar so I preferred &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythological_anecdotes_of_Ganesha#Elephant_head&quot;&gt;quoting it from Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One day Goddess Parvati was at home on Mt.Kailash preparing for a&#xA;  bath. As she didn’t want to be disturbed, she told Nandi, her husband&#xA;  Shiva’s Bull, to guard the door and let no one pass. Nandi faithfully&#xA;  took his post, intending to carry out Parvati’s wishes. But, when&#xA;  Shiva came home and naturally wanted to come inside, Nandi had to let&#xA;  him pass, being loyal first to Shiva. Parvati was angry at this&#xA;  slight, but even more than this, at the fact that she had no one as&#xA;  loyal to Herself as Nandi was to Shiva. So, taking the turmeric paste&#xA;  (for bathing) from her body and breathing life into it, she created&#xA;  Ganesha, declaring him to be her own loyal son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The next time Parvati wished to bathe, she posted Ganesha on guard&#xA;  duty at the door. In due course, Shiva came home, only to find this&#xA;  strange boy telling him he couldn’t enter his own house! Furious,&#xA;  Shiva ordered his army to destroy the boy, but they all failed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This surprised Shiva. Seeing that this was no ordinary boy, the&#xA;  usually peaceful Shiva decided he would have to fight him, and in his&#xA;  divine fury severed Ganesha’s head, killing him instantly. When&#xA;  Parvati learned of this, she was so enraged and insulted that she&#xA;  decided to destroy the entire Creation. Lord Brahma, being the&#xA;  Creator, naturally had his issues with this, and pleaded that she&#xA;  reconsider her drastic plan. She said she would, but only if two&#xA;  conditions were met: one, that Ganesha be brought back to life, and&#xA;  two, that he be forever worshipped before all the other gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva, having cooled down by this time, agreed to Parvati’s&#xA;  conditions. He sent Brahma out with orders to bring back the head of&#xA;  the first creature he crosses that is lying with its head facing&#xA;  North. Brahma soon returned with the head of a strong and powerful&#xA;  elephant, which Shiva placed onto Ganesha’s body. Breathing new life&#xA;  into him, he declared Ganesha to be his own son as well, and gave him&#xA;  the status of being foremost among the gods, and leader of all the&#xA;  ganas (classes of beings), Ganapati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, not only Ganesha has an animal head, Hanuman is nothing but a monkey god.&#xA;Same with Varaha which is an avatar of Lord Vishnu in a form of Boar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-06-21T15:07:25.177" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T15:07:25.177" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="317" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="311" CreationDate="2014-06-21T15:17:38.483" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Srimad Bhagavatam doesn't shed much light on this; it just &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/1/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that in response to Narada informing him that the gods were making preparations to kill the Asuras (demons) of the world, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaṁsa thought that all the members of the Yadu dynasty were gods and that any of the children born from the womb of Devakī might be Viṣṇu. Fearing his death, Kaṁsa arrested Vasudeva and Devakī and chained them with iron shackles. Suspecting each of the children to be Viṣṇu, Kaṁsa killed them one after another because of the prophecy that Viṣṇu would kill him. (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/1/65-66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.65-66&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if I were to guess, I'd say that he was worried that he might lose power at some point (he was so insecure that he imprisoned his own father after all), and if that happened Vasudeva and Devaki might be set free and have a child that would be his undoing.  So by locking them up in separate cells, he might just be delaying the inevitable birth of their children, while allowing them to have children while they're in his control would allow him to kill any child that would pose a threat to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T07:18:57.847" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T07:18:57.847" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="318" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="288" CreationDate="2014-06-21T15:25:25.393" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The four classical goals of life (purusharthas) are dharma, artha, kama and moksha. Pravritti is the path of action where one aims for dharma, artha and kama and lives a prosperous and a pleasant life. Nivritti is renunciation of artha and kama as one's goal in life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 16.7 says: The demoniac do not know about the way of action (pravritti) or the way of renunciation (nivritti). Neither purity, nor good conduct, nor truth is found in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically pravritti is the path of pious householders while nivritti is the path of monks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T15:25:25.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="320" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="275" CreationDate="2014-06-21T15:40:17.553" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because the 6 dead sons of Devaki are reincarnation of Marichi's sons. They got cursed by  Sage Devala for laughing on him or by Brahma ( because they have seen Brahma trying to copulate with his own daughter and hence derided at him. Indignant Brahma had then curse them to take birth in demon incarnation.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So they therefore were born as the sons of Kaalanemi who was the son of Hiranyakashipu's brother Hiranyaksha. They used to remain in the water at Patala loka performing penance to obtain immortality. Brahma granted them immortality. However Hiranyakashipu became angry at this. He did not like his brother's grandsons obtaining a boon from Brahma since he considered himself as the only worshipable person. Therefore, he cursed them to be born again and be killed by their own father. Accordingly, they were born as Devaki's children and were killed by their own father. Kamsa as Kaalanemi was their father in their earlier birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To eliminate contradiction of curse and boon,  Goddess Durga ( or Yogmaya in some versions) made the six of those sons of Kaalanemi to fall in deep sleep, retrieved their souls from those sleeping bodies and placed those souls in the womb of Devaki. Thus, King Kamsa killed six of his own sons of his earlier body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The seventh one was Balram, because Rama promised Lakshmana to be his younger brother in his next incarnation. That's why he is 8th son of Devaki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why Narada confused Kansa to kill all sons of Devaki, rather then only 8th.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story is found in the Srimada Bhagvatam Mahapurana &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/10/85/advanced-view/#bb74594&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ŚB 10.85.47, 48&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-06-19T03:14:45.250" LastActivityDate="2022-06-19T03:14:45.250" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="321" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-21T15:57:25.860" Score="18" ViewCount="1362" Body="&lt;p&gt;Everywhere in the Bhagavatam, Lord Krishna keeps asking us to worship cows, not to harm them etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why only cows, why not other animals?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All animals do something or the other for nature. Together they all keep the food cycle alive. Then why give special importance to cows?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T18:00:06.993" LastActivityDate="2022-03-14T12:30:29.130" Title="Why are cows given special importance?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|tradition|animals|cows|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="322" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="323" CreationDate="2014-06-21T16:16:16.113" Score="8" ViewCount="454" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the &lt;em&gt;Vishnu Sahasranaamam&lt;/em&gt;? Why is it important? During what times of day can one recite it? What are the important verses in it? What is the history of it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="90" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T05:53:37.810" LastActivityDate="2017-08-29T09:39:23.833" Title="Vishnu Sahasranaamam and its importance" Tags="|vishnu|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="323" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="322" CreationDate="2014-06-21T16:16:16.113" Score="7" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;strong&gt;Sahasranamam&lt;/strong&gt; is to be split-ed as Sahasra + Namam. &lt;em&gt;Sahasra&lt;/em&gt; means &quot;one thousand&quot; and &lt;em&gt;Namam&lt;/em&gt; means &quot;names&quot; in Sanskrit. Thus, the term &lt;em&gt;Vishnu Sahasranamam&lt;/em&gt; gets us the meaning 1000 names of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, Naama worship (&lt;em&gt;names worship&lt;/em&gt;, also said as நாம சங்கீர்த்தனை &lt;em&gt;nāma caṅkīrttaṉai&lt;/em&gt; in Tamil) is considered as much more powerful than other forms of &lt;em&gt;sloka&lt;/em&gt; worship. There are no restrictions for Vishnu Sahasranamam worship in a day. Literally, one can worship this verses right after getting up even before bathing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The most important verse in this worship is as follows,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Raama Raama Raamaethi Rame Raamey Manoramey&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sahasranaama Dhathulyam Raama Naama varaananey&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;History: Yudhistira was uncertain about which is the biggest Dharma to follow in life. Lord Krishna took him to the battlefield where Bhishmachaarya was lying in a bed of arrows, during his last minutes. Bhishmachaarya was very ill and could not answer all the questions. At the time he meditated on Lord Krishna, and Lord Krishna offered his blessings to Bhishmachaarya. After this, Bhishmachaarya answered Yudhistira's question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yudhistira's question&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;em&gt;Kimaegam thai vatham loakae kim vaapyaegam&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;paraayanam sthuvanhtha gam gamarchchandha praapnuyar vaanavasa subam.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;:  Who is the greatest God in the world? Who is the one saves all? By worshipping whom, one can become auspicious? What is the greatest Dharma according to you? By worshipping what, one can get rid of the bonds of this world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishmaachaarya answered Yudhistira as, whoever brought you to this world is the greatest Lord and he is the one to whom anyone must surrender. He advised meditating on his 1000 names, by means of which one can reach the auspicious state and get rid of bonds and Karmas. He then recited the 1000 names of Lord Vishnu. This part of Mahabharatha called &quot;Vishnu Sahasranamam&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="90" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T05:32:06.770" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T05:32:06.770" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="324" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="321" CreationDate="2014-06-21T16:16:53.000" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per rebirth rules, the vegetarian animals will be having human birth sooner than other animals or trees. May be that could be the reason. Also in Bhagavata, earth goddess was in cows form when going to talk with Brahma Deva. Raja Pareekshith saw the earth goddess as a cow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also there can be other reasons too. Cows are calm in their nature and usually those animals do not try to hurt any others. Indian culture was deeply associated with agriculture and cattle are an essential part of farming. So cow gave a way of living for the society in ancient India. Hinduism is a culture of truth and it always stick to the truthfulness and rightness. So the people in that culture can not simply forget and avoid anything that have done something useful for them in the past. It is the Dharma and that is why it is known as 'Sanathana Dharma'. So it is not just the economics playing the role here, it is Dharma.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other animals too are considered to be protected as per Dharma. &lt;strong&gt;Ahimsa Paramo Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;  it is a basic block of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2015-03-29T08:27:31.857" LastActivityDate="2015-03-29T08:27:31.857" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="325" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="328" CreationDate="2014-06-21T16:19:23.810" Score="7" ViewCount="184" Body="&lt;p&gt;I saw an episode about the Karni Mata temple in a TV Show - &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mano_Ya_Na_Mano&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mano Ya Na Mano&lt;/a&gt; (&quot;Believe it or not&quot;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They showed black rats and said that people treat them as sacred, and that people also drink the milk left over from the vessels from which those rats drank. Why is that so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T06:08:39.387" LastActivityDate="2019-10-31T06:10:18.187" Title="Why are black rats treated as sacred at the Karni Mata temple?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="326" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-21T16:21:16.567" Score="14" ViewCount="4860" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any specific teachings related to how Hindus should dress in the public? In Islam, for instance, it has been outlined that women must wear a hijab or nikab. Islam has very clear instructions when it comes to clothing. Do Hindus have clear instructions on how, what, when or what not to wear based on special or non-special events?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-05-15T17:38:55.517" LastActivityDate="2019-05-15T17:38:55.517" Title="Do Hindus have specific dress code guidelines in their dharma shastras (scriptures)?" Tags="|belief|culture|dharma-shastras|smriti|dress|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="327" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-21T16:25:13.577" Score="11" ViewCount="24945" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many depictions of Vishnu resting on a Snake. But why is it that the snake is sometimes depicted as 3-headed, 5-headed or 7-headed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning or importance of snakes in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T09:30:51.303" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T11:04:21.827" Title="What is the significance or importance of a 7-headed snake?" Tags="|vishnu|animals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="328" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="325" CreationDate="2014-06-21T16:37:23.170" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two main legends associated with Karni Mata Temple,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Legend has it that Laxman, Karni Mata's stepson (or the son of one of her storytellers), drowned in a pond in Kapil Sarovar in Kolayat Tehsil while he was attempting to drink from it. Karni Mata implored Yama, the god of death, to revive him. First refusing, Yama eventually relented, permitting Laxman and all of Karni mata's male children to be reincarnated as rats.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Local folklores say that 20,000 strong army men deserted a nearby battle and came running to deshnoke. Upon learning the sin of desertion, punishable by death, Karni Mata spared the lives but made them rats and offered the temple as the future place of stay. The army of soldiers expressed their gratitude and promised to serve Karni Mata lifelong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's a strong belief that If one of the rats is killed, it must be replaced with one made of solid gold. Eating food that has been nibbled on by the rats is considered to be a &quot;high honor&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karni_Mata_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Karni Mata Temple|Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T16:37:23.170" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="329" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="295" CreationDate="2014-06-21T16:48:47.473" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's prescribed in Ayurveda not to sit on bare floors because of the risk of &lt;em&gt;Vata&lt;/em&gt;. Hence, the reason for Yogis to use some kind of separation between themselves and the floor/rock etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, since Yogis and Sanyasis are generally away from civilization and man made fabric, it could also lead to the use of more natural and available 'fabric' of animal skin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found this from a &lt;a href=&quot;http://raiseyourkundalini.com/wp-content/uploads/.../why-use-sheepskin.pdf&quot;&gt;yogic site&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is traditional for many Kundalini Yoga practitioners to use sheepskins on which to do&#xA;  their yoga. This is personal preference. Yogi Bhajan recommended the sheepskin for meditation, as it created an insulation between the yogi and the magnetic pull of the Earth. Indeed, many people experience deeper states of connection to their Self and the Universe when using a sheepskin as compared to a sticky mat or cushion (synthetic yoga mats are taking up to 1/3 of the aura away from a person).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T16:48:47.473" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="330" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="327" CreationDate="2014-06-21T17:09:14.290" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Snakes are very important in Hinduism. There are many reasons for this; snakes shed their skin, and grow it back later. This represents &amp;quot;rebirth&amp;quot;, while also representing death and mortality. Not just that - snakes cannot be tamed; hence, they represent freedom. Another reason is given &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.khandro.net/mysterious_naga.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All nagas are considered the offspring of the Rishi or sage, Kasyapa, the son of Marichi.  Kashyapa is said to have had by his twelve wives, other diverse progeny including reptiles, birds, and all sorts of living beings. They are denizens of the netherworld city called Bhogavati.  It is believed that ant-hills mark its entrance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the same source tells:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Indian mahasiddha, Nagarjuna, received his illuminating insights and tantric empowerment with the help of the nagas in the lake beside which he meditated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://hubpages.com/hub/myths-of-naga-in-hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Hindu Scriptures, Naga live in the Netherworld called Naga-Loka or Patala-Loka with unimaginable richness. When the Naga were over populated on the earth, Brahma, the Creator, banished them to the underworld. Naga are the children of Kashyap Rishi who married Brahma 13 daughters. Their mother’s name is Kudra. Kashyap is also the father of gods, demons and animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Snakes are Lord Shiva’s garland, anklets and armlets. Hindu gods like Bhairav and Mahakala are protected and decorated by snakes. Thousand-headed Naga called Ananta protects Goddess Kali. Like Lord Vishnu, many gods rest on Naga or are protected by Naga. Naga guard Hindu temples and shrines. Naga are depicted on the doors, windows and the walls of the temples. Naga are also the seat of the deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tantra and Yoga, which are the esoteric practices in Hinduism, philosophize about serpent power inside human body. This serpent called Kundalini, depicted as a coiled snake, would be evoked by mysterious yogic practices or tantric rituals. When this serpent power is awakened ignoramus humans are said to be liberated from worldly vices. Literal meaning of Kundalini is coiled Naga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The multiple heads on the snake is symbolic; it is used to denote protection. This number may vary, for the reason I mention below. As &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_worship#Hindu_mythology&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shesha (Adisesha, Sheshnaga, or the 1000 headed snake) upholds the world on his many heads and is said to be used by Lord Vishnu to rest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why does the snake have multiple heads? The Puranas tell that Shesha holds all the planets of the Universe (we now know it is in the solar system) on his hoods. A possibly non-spiritual explanation for the number of heads is said &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freebsd.nfo.sk/hinduism/nagovia.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The seven-headed Naga serpents depicted as statues on Cambodian temples such as Angkor Wat possibly represent the seven races within the Naga society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user140" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T17:09:14.290" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="333" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="286" CreationDate="2014-06-21T22:02:32.890" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/52/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing of the beauty, prowess, transcendental character and opulence of [Krishna] from visitors to the palace who sang His praises, Rukmiṇī decided that He would be the perfect husband for her.  Lord Kṛṣṇa knew that Rukmiṇī possessed intelligence, auspicious bodily markings, magnanimity, beauty, proper behavior and all other good qualities. Concluding that she would be an ideal wife for Him, He made up His mind to marry her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Rukmini's brother Rukmi hates Krishna, so he stops his family from giving  Rukmini to Krishna, and makes arrangements for marrying his sister to Krishna's enemy &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishupala&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shishupala&lt;/a&gt;.  So Rukmini sends a Brahmana to Dwaraka to deliver the following letter to Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O beauty of the worlds, having heard of Your qualities, which enter the ears of those who hear and remove their bodily distress, and having also heard of Your beauty, which fulfills all the visual desires of those who see, I have fixed my shameless mind upon You, O Kṛṣṇa.  O Mukunda, You are equal only to Yourself in lineage, character, beauty, knowledge, youthfulness, wealth and influence. O lion among men, You delight the minds of all mankind. What aristocratic, sober-minded and marriageable girl of a good family would not choose You as her husband when the proper time has come?  Therefore, my dear Lord, I have chosen You as my husband, and I surrender myself to You. Please come swiftly, O almighty one, and make me Your wife. My dear lotus-eyed Lord, let Śiśupāla never touch the hero’s portion like a jackal stealing the property of a lion....   O unconquerable one, tomorrow when my marriage ceremony is about to begin, You should arrive unseen in Vidarbha and surround Yourself with the leaders of Your army. Then crush the forces of Caidya and Magadhendra and marry me in the Rākṣasa style, winning me with Your valor.  Since I will be staying within the inner chambers of the palace, You may wonder, “How can I carry you away without killing some of your relatives?” But I shall tell You a way.... If I cannot obtain Your mercy, I shall simply give up my vital force&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up, this was a rescue, not a kidnapping.  Rukmini calls this a Rakshasa marriage, which is where the bride is willing to get married but the bride's family isn't, so the groom fights off the bride's family and whisks the bride away.  This is to be distinguished from a Paishacha marriage, where the bride doesn't want to get married either; the Paishacha marriage is the one strictly forbidden in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manusm%E1%B9%9Bti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti&lt;/a&gt;.  The Rakshasa marriage is allowed for Kshatriyas, but arguably this isn't even a Rakshasa marriage, because Rukmini's parents were also consenting to the marriage; it was just Rukmini's brother who was objecting and making the army of Vidarbha oppose Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2014-06-21T22:02:32.890" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="334" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-22T00:16:47.970" Score="20" ViewCount="19699" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some Hindu temples require men to remove their shirts before they enter. I don't remember the names of any temples off the top of my head, but I do believe that a few temples in and around Thanjavur had this policy, and I remember hearing that this is relatively common across Kerala and Tamil Nadu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the basis (scriptural or otherwise) for this requirement?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastActivityDate="2018-11-14T06:23:19.783" Title="Why do some temples require men not to wear shirts?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="336" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-22T03:28:09.783" Score="23" ViewCount="4724" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is called &quot;Dharma&quot; unlike Christianity or Islam, which are called &quot;religions&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: What is the difference between Dharma and Religion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="141" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-20T21:44:57.803" LastActivityDate="2019-10-30T10:56:03.980" Title="What is the difference between dharma and religion?" Tags="|dharma|translation-request|other-religions|terminology|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="338" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="286" CreationDate="2014-06-22T03:49:36.180" Score="19" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As per vedas getting married to a girl after kidnapping is considered&#xA;  devil/daemon (दानव) Vivaha (marriage) which isn't righteous&#xA;  (धर्मानुकूलन).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have perfectly stated the correct thing. Shri Krishna indeed married Rukmani in a &lt;em&gt;rākṣasa&lt;/em&gt; style:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhagavān bhīṣmaka-sutāṁ rukmiṇīṁ  rucirānanām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rākṣasena vidhānena upayema&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 10.52.18]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  King Parīkṣit said: The Supreme Lord married Rukmiṇī, the beautiful-faced daughter of Bhīṣmaka, in the &lt;em&gt;Rākṣasa&lt;/em&gt; style — thus I have heard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per our scriptures marrying a girl by kidnapping her is considered to be a marriage of the demonic type (&lt;em&gt;danav vivha&lt;/em&gt; / &lt;em&gt;rakshasa vivha&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The forcible abduction of a maiden from her home, while she cries out and weeps, after (her kinsmen) have been slain or wounded and their houses broken open, is called the Rakshasa (demonic) rite. [Manu Smrt. - 3.33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;strong&gt;Shri Krishna, as a &lt;em&gt;kshahtriya&lt;/em&gt;, did not break any law or &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; by such marriage&lt;/strong&gt;. Because the scriptures allow &lt;em&gt;danav vivah&lt;/em&gt; for the people of the &lt;em&gt;ksahtriya&lt;/em&gt; (warrior) caste:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For Kshatriyas those before-mentioned two rites (pichasa and asura), the Gandharva and the Rakshasa, whether separate or mixed, are permitted by the sacred tradition. [Manu Smrt. - 3.26]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now regarding the question why Shri Krishna kidnapped Rukmini, it is because She loved Him and She Herself sent Him message to do so:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;śvo bhāvini tvam ajitodvahane vidarbhān&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  guptaḥ sametya pṛtanā-patibhiḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  parītaḥ nirmathya caidya-magadhendra-balaṁ prasahya&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  māṁ rākṣasena vidhinodvaha vīrya-śulkām&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/52/41&quot;&gt; [SB 10.52.41]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O unconquerable one, tomorrow when my marriage ceremony is about to begin, You should arrive unseen in Vidarbha and surround Yourself with the leaders of Your army. Then crush the forces of Caidya and Magadhendra and &lt;strong&gt;marry me in the &lt;em&gt;Rākṣasa&lt;/em&gt; style&lt;/strong&gt;, winning me with Your valor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-04T10:50:18.543" LastActivityDate="2014-07-04T10:50:18.543" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="339" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="336" CreationDate="2014-06-22T03:53:29.070" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In English, Hinduism is called a &quot;religion&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hindi (and Sanskrit, I guess), Christianity and Islam are both called &quot;dharma&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not going to claim that &quot;dharma&quot; and &quot;religion&quot; mean &lt;em&gt;exactly&lt;/em&gt; the same thing, because words for abstract things from different languages rarely mean exactly the same thing. Nonetheless, the English idea of &quot;religion&quot; is close enough to the Hindi/Sanskrit idea of &quot;dharma&quot; that we may as well treat them as interchangeable. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T03:53:29.070" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="340" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="326" CreationDate="2014-06-22T04:15:39.907" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will try to answer your question. It is a valid but difficult one and I do not see any valid research that I can cite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to the fact that Hinduism is probably the oldest &quot;Religion&quot;, it was not developed by a single teacher or preacher. It originated from ancient India's way of living. Various unknown &quot;Teachers&quot; have contributed to this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do's and Don'ts never existed before its development and it was a free run in the social setup. The development of Do's and Don'ts started posing restrictions in the life of men &amp;amp; women mainly to avoid any intentional or unintentional 'hurt' to others. These rules and regulations categorized people through development of caste system (largely based on their profession) and hence form a society. This was a part of social fabric development that was later named as Hinduism. This process has been well described in the book the 'Discovery of India' by Jawaharlal Nehru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The caste system imposed do's and don'ts according to the profession taken up by people. The attire they wore was based on the requirements of living to cover up themselves and their profession. If you see in ancient depictions and texts a lot of importance was attached to jewellery along with the clothes which was an integral part of clothing. In most cases the clothes remained as single woven piece of cloth (Dhoti or Sari) to cover the bottom half. An additional piece for women to cover the top half or wrap the same piece to cover the top too. The kings and the warriors (Rajputs) wore jewellery, weapons  and other protection equipment as part of their clothing attire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far I know there is no clear definition or restriction on clothing in Christianity too. I am not sure how much my reply answers your question but I would strongly recommend you to read the book mentioned above for a deeper insight or watch an old series 'Bharat Ek Khoj' telecast on doordarshan earlier and now available on the youtube for a good understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="105" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T13:05:02.323" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T13:05:02.323" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="341" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="336" CreationDate="2014-06-22T04:30:57.700" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;Western lexicons refer to all faiths of the world by the term &quot;religion&quot;. Therefore, from a Western perspective, Hinduism is also known as one of the world's &quot;religions&quot;. The reference to Hinduism as a religion is purely from a Western context. Thus, nothing is taken away when perceiving from that viewpoint. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, to equate religion as an equivalent translation for &quot;dharma&quot; is incorrect. The word dharma itself has no equivalent Western word. And any translation, simplistic or scholarly, would fall short of fully justifying the original meaning of the word &quot;dharma&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharma has the Sanskrit root &lt;em&gt;dhri&lt;/em&gt;, which means &quot;that which upholds&quot;&#xA;  or &quot;that without which nothing can stand&quot; or &quot;that which maintains the&#xA;  stability and harmony of the universe.&quot; Dharma encompasses the&#xA;  natural, innate behavior of things, duty, law, ethics, virtue, etc.&#xA;  Every entity in the cosmos has its particular dharma ― from the&#xA;  electron, which has the dharma to move in a certain manner, to the&#xA;  clouds, galaxies, plants, insects, and of course, man. Man's&#xA;  understanding of the dharma of inanimate things is what we now call&#xA;  physics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;British colonialists endeavored to map Indian traditions onto their&#xA;  ideas of religion so as to be able to comprehend and govern their&#xA;  subjects; yet the notion of dharma remained elusive. The common&#xA;  translation into religion is misleading since, to most Westerners, a&#xA;  genuine religion must:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;be based on a single canon of scripture given by God in a precisely defined historical event;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;involve worship of the divine who is distinct from ourselves and the cosmos;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;be governed by some human authority such as the church;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;consist of formal members; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;be presided over by an ordained clergyman; and &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;use a standard set of rituals.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But dharma is not limited to a particular creed or specific form of&#xA;  worship. To the Westerner, an &quot;atheistic religion&quot; would be a&#xA;  contradiction in terms, but in Buddhism, Jainism, and Carvaka dharma,&#xA;  there is no place for God as conventionally defined. In some Hindu&#xA;  systems the exact status of God is debatable. Nor is there only a&#xA;  single standard deity, and one may worship one's own ishta-devata, or&#xA;  chosen deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharma provides the principles for the harmonious fulfillment of all&#xA;  aspects of life, namely, the acquisition of wealth and power (artha),&#xA;  fulfillment of desires (kama), and liberation (moksha). Religion,&#xA;  then, is only one subset of dharma's scope.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Religion applies only to human beings and not to the entire cosmos;&#xA;  there is no religion of electrons, monkeys, plants and galaxies,&#xA;  whereas all of them have their dharma even if they carry it out&#xA;  without intention.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajiv-malhotra/dharma-religion_b_875314.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Is Not The Same As Religion&lt;/a&gt; (by Rajiv Malhotra)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="145" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-09-15T00:03:03.333" LastActivityDate="2018-09-15T00:03:03.333" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="342" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="360" CreationDate="2014-06-22T05:13:41.007" Score="12" ViewCount="2258" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana, Lord Rama gave a chance to Ravana to surrender and sent Angada as his ambassador for peace conciliation. This was because mercy befits a warrior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why didn't Rama, for the same reason, give a chance to Vali to surrender and give Sugriva his rights to the throne of the Vanara kingdom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="147" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-24T00:42:48.297" LastActivityDate="2022-06-24T02:47:59.167" Title="Why did Lord Rama give a second chance to Ravana, but not to Vali?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ravana|vali|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="343" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2445" CreationDate="2014-06-22T05:17:58.190" Score="29" ViewCount="10951" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama was a great and just king of Ayodhya. There were some rumors reported by his subjects against the purity of Lady Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as per the &lt;em&gt;Raja Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, Rama had to banish Sita. But was it against &lt;em&gt;Raja Dharma&lt;/em&gt; when Rama and his brother were witnesses to Sita's purity (no matter what the episode of &lt;em&gt;Agni Pariksha&lt;/em&gt; (trial-by-fire) was)? How is it justified for a just king like Rama not to protect Lady Sita when there were witnesses proving her innocence? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note that there was no evidence in favor of the rumors spread by the people. Was it justified to ignore the witnesses of the trial-by-fire? Was it not against &lt;em&gt;Raja Dharma&lt;/em&gt;? Was being unjust part of &lt;em&gt;Raja Dharma&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="147" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-17T16:22:14.053" LastActivityDate="2020-12-20T13:38:38.410" Title="Why did Sri Rama banish Lady Sita when he was a witness of her fire-test himself?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|dharma|sita|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="345" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-22T05:43:38.820" Score="9" ViewCount="2299" Body="&lt;p&gt;There has been lots of Spiritual masters (I'm avoiding the word Guru deliberately, because of such rampant misuse of it) who were proponents of various sects of Vaishnavam such as Madhava (Brahma-Vaishnavam Sect, ब्रह्म-वैष्णवं), Shridhara Swamy (Rudra-Vaishnavam Sect, रूद्र-वैष्णवं) etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were the main identifying factors of these sects or sampradayas (सम्प्रदाय)? What differentiated these from each other and from themselves?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2017-04-02T16:27:11.337" Title="What is the difference between various Vaishnava Sampradayas?" Tags="|vishnu|sects|vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="346" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2313" CreationDate="2014-06-22T05:56:29.073" Score="7" ViewCount="8802" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know Bhishma Pitamaha was a legendary warrior. He always fought for the right thing and for truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, if Kamsa was doing so much evil, and Bhishma Pitamaha was already there on Earth, why didn't he try to stop Kamsa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-26T14:55:57.443" LastActivityDate="2016-04-01T21:46:00.670" Title="Why didn't Bhishma Pitamaha stop Kamsa?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|bhagavata-purana|bhishma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2016-04-01T21:46:50.203" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="347" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="315" CreationDate="2014-06-22T05:58:16.560" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several Puranic stories about Lord Ganesha and his elephant head. These stories are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Once Parvati, just for fun, prepared an image of a child with an&#xA;elephant's head, out of the unguents smeared over her body and threw&#xA;it into the river Ganga. It came to life. Both Ganga and Parvati&#xA;addressed the boy as their child. Hence Lord Ganesha is known as&#xA;Dvaimatura, 'one who has two mothers'; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Parvati prepared the&#xA;image of a child out of the scurf from her body, endowed him with&#xA;life and ordered him to stand guard before her house. When Siva&#xA;wanted to enter the house he was rudely prevented by Ganesha. Siva&#xA;became Rudra and got him beheaded. Seeing that Parvati was&#xA;inconsolable, Siva grafted an elephant's head on the body of the boy&#xA;and gave him life. Siva appointed this new-found son as the head of&#xA;all his retinues, who thus became 'Ganapati'.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He sprang from&#xA;Siva's countenance which represents akashtattva (principle of&#xA;ether). His captivating splendour made Parvati react angrily and&#xA;curse him, resulting in the elephant head; and &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha was&#xA;originally Krishna himself in the human form. When Sani, the&#xA;malevolent planet spirit gazed at him, his head got separated and&#xA;flew to  Goloka. The head of an elephant was subsequently grafted on&#xA;the body of the child.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these Puranic stories are taken from the book 'Hindu Gods and Goddesses' by Swami Harshananda. Swami Harshananda of the Ramakrishna Order is an Advaitist and does not take the Puranic stories seriously. The learned Swami gives several views regarding the meaning of the elephant head. First he points out that Ganapati had gained de facto recognition in the hearts of millions of votaries over several centuries long before the Puranas were written. Several Puranic stories reflect the struggle by various Puranic authors to give de jure recognition to Ganapati! He gives the following possible meanings of the elephant head:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;'Gana' means category. Everything that we perceive through our senses or grasp through our mind can be expressed in terms of category. The principle from which all such categories have manifested themselves is Ganapati, the Lord of categories. In effect, it means the origin of the whole creation, God Himself;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A common Sanskrit word to denote elephant is 'Gaja'. Hence the name Gajanana or Gajamukha (elephant-faced) for Ganapati. But the word 'Gaja' has a deeper connotation. 'Ga' indicates 'Gati', the final goal towards which the entire creation is moving. 'Ja' stands for 'Janma' or birth or origin. Hence 'Gaja' signifies God from whom the worlds have come out and towards whom they are progressing, to be ultimately dissolved in Him. The elephant head is thus purely symbolical and points to this truth;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A factor we observe in creation is its two-fold manifestation as the microcosm (Suksmanda) and macrocosm (Brahmanda). Each is a replica of the other. They are one in two and two in one. The elephant head stands for the macrocosm and the human body for the microcosm. The two form one unit. Since the macrocosm is the goal of microcosm, the elephant part has been given greater prominence by making it the head.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The elephant-human form of Ganapati is the iconographical representation of the great Vedantic dictum, 'tat-tvam-asi'(which means You the apparently limited individual are in essence the Cosmic Truth, the Absolute). The elephant stands for the cosmic whereas the human stands for the individual.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF: Hindu Gods and Goddesses by Swami Harshananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-08T07:15:35.460" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T07:15:35.460" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="349" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="374" CreationDate="2014-06-22T06:15:21.973" Score="7" ViewCount="1119" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas teach Hindus to avoid some food items. The list includes not only non-vegetarian food but also old food items in the vegetarian categories too (older in this sense means food items which are put in the fridge for more than one day and also items like pickle.) Also, it is advised to avoid items with too much peppery, salty, and sour taste. What is the basis for this? Are there any specific reasons behind this categorization?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T07:05:10.450" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T16:18:16.567" Title="Why are some food items advised against by the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|food|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="351" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="354" CreationDate="2014-06-22T06:27:05.450" Score="12" ViewCount="1501" Body="&lt;p&gt;Drona is the guru of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. How did he get his name 'Drona'? What is the incident or reason which gave this specific name to him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-16T05:47:06.870" LastActivityDate="2019-10-09T08:49:02.447" Title="How did Dronacharya get his name &quot;Drona&quot;?" Tags="|mahabharata|dronacharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="352" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="357" CreationDate="2014-06-22T06:34:31.110" Score="10" ViewCount="1305" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanatana Dharma originated in India. India also has another name: &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Bharata/Bharathavarsha&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. The term ArshaBharata culture is commonly used for pointing out the Sanatana Dharma in South India. How did the nation get this name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2014-09-27T05:50:07.943" LastActivityDate="2022-06-25T03:32:23.163" Title="Why is India also called Bharata?" Tags="|terminology|india|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="353" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="289" CreationDate="2014-06-22T06:37:44.567" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dharma, in spiritual context, can be loosely stated as right action. And what is the right course of action for a person depends upon many factors like time, place, situation, etc. Hence, &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; is subjective and varies from person to person. So the Gita states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sreyan sva-dharmo vigunah para-dharmat svanusthitat&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sva-dharme nidhanam sreyah para-dharmo bhayavahah&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 3.35]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  It is better to do one's own duty imperfectly than to do someone else's duty perfectly. Even dying while performing one's own duty is superior; but the consequence of following someone else's duty is dangerous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Gita describes many different paths and practices for people of different order, nature and caste. Perfectly executing one's &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; (right action /  duty) awards heaven. When Arjuna was unwilling to fight, Krishna reminds him of His duty and tells him, if he follows his &lt;em&gt;kshyatriya dharma&lt;/em&gt; (warrior duty), then even by getting killed in the battle he'll attain heaven (&lt;em&gt;hato vā prāpsyasi svargaṁ&lt;/em&gt; [BG -2.37])&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the fruit of all these kinds of &lt;em&gt;laukika dharma&lt;/em&gt; (worldly duties) including the worship of the demigods is temporary heaven and the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; keeps revolving in the &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;te taṁ bhuktvā svarga-lokaṁ viśālaṁ   kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  evaṁ trayī-dharmam anuprapannā   gatāgataṁ kāma-kāmā labhante&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.21]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus after experiencing the vast heavenly worlds, they return back to this mortal world when their stored up merits run out. Thus being influenced by the duties and injunctions of the three Vedas, those who desire material enjoyment repeatedly born and die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in Gita Krishna advises Arjuna to &lt;strong&gt;leave all kinds of &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; and surrender only to Him&lt;/strong&gt; (God):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 18.66]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abandoning all kinds of duties, surrender to Me alone. I will give you salvation from all sins, you need not worry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And instead of worshiping gods, ghosts, manes, etc. who provide temporary material results He tells to practice devotion to Him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   mam evaishyasi yuktvaivam atmanam mat-parayanah&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Engage your mind on Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer obeisances to Me. Thus being absorbed in My thoughts, you will surely come to Me alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But, is worshiping God compulsory?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, of course not. In Gita, after describing everything to Arjuna, Krishna doesn't tell or compel Arjuna to do anything particular, but leaves the decision unto him completely and tells him to do as he likes after analyzing what He said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;iti te jñānam ākhyātaṁ guhyād guhya-taraṁ mayā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   vimṛśyaitad aśeṣeṇa &lt;strong&gt;yathecchasi tathā kuru&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; [BG - 18.63]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus I described to you knowledge more confidential than the confidential. Deliberate on this completely and then do as you like.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nothing is compulsory in the Vedic system. Do what you like, but be ready to face the consequences. System of karma takes care of all. You just reap what you sow. So to answer your question, no, hymns and worship of God are not compulsory in Bhagavad Gita. But it strongly recommends to do so (surrender and devotion) for one's own spiritual progress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-16T21:01:24.400" LastActivityDate="2015-11-16T21:01:24.400" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="354" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="351" CreationDate="2014-06-22T06:45:14.263" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Droṇa&lt;/em&gt; in Sanskrit means &quot;bucket&quot; (or something like it - not sure of the nuance here). Per the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/monier/&quot;&gt;Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;n. (fr. 4. द्रु) a wooden vessel , bucket , trough &amp;amp;c ; a सोम vessel ([cf. Zd. draona]) RV. MBh. &amp;amp;c (ifc. f(आ). Hcat. )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that Drona was born from a bucket, and that that is how he got his name:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And as it came out, he [Bharadwaja] held it in a pot (drana), and of that fluid thus preserved in a pot was born a son who came to be called Drona (the pot-born).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;, book 1 (Adi Parva), section 168 (part of the Chaitraratha Parva), using the Ganguli translation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-05T05:15:24.623" LastActivityDate="2014-11-05T05:15:24.623" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="356" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="351" CreationDate="2014-06-22T06:46:19.563" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Droṇa implies that he was not gestated in a womb, but outside the human body in a droṇa (vessel or a basket). We do know this in another name, as &lt;strong&gt;test tube babies&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-05T05:15:51.547" LastActivityDate="2014-11-05T05:15:51.547" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="357" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="352" CreationDate="2014-06-22T06:48:17.110" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;After the name of an ancient king &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharata_%28emperor%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bharata&lt;/a&gt;, India is also known as Bharata-varṣa since the prehistoric times. Before it, this land was called as Ajanābha-varṣa. This is stated in Shrimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ajanābhaṁ nāmaitad varṣaṁ bhāratam iti yata ārabhya vyapadiśanti.&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 5.7.3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The name of this land was Ajanabha. It came to be known as Bharata after starting of his (King Bharata) reign.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T11:56:39.763" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="358" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="349" CreationDate="2014-06-22T07:02:34.100" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer to this question is given in the Gita shlokas 17.8-10.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Persons who are Sattvika by nature like foods that promote longevity, vitality, energy, health, happiness and cheerfulness, as also those that are juicy, soft, nourishing and agreeable. &lt;em&gt;Gita 17.8&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Persons who are Rajasa by nature like foods that are bitter, sour, salty, excessively heating, pungent, burning and thirst-producing as also what bring on uneasiness, depression and disease. &lt;em&gt;Gita 17.9&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Persons who are Tamasa by nature like foods that are stale, tasteless, putrid, decayed and unclean, and constitute the leavings of others. &lt;em&gt;Gita 17.10&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita seems to suggest that salty, sour types of foods encourage rajasa and can bring about depression and disease.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T14:24:50.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="359" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="367" CreationDate="2014-06-22T08:35:20.533" Score="10" ViewCount="715" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vali was famous for the boon that he had received, according to which &lt;strong&gt;anyone who fought him in single-combat&lt;/strong&gt; lost half his strength to Vali, thereby making Vali invulnerable to any enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vali_(Ramayana)#Early_life&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia - Vali&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clear that the boon is valid in single combat only. Then what would happen if two strong people together fight against Vali. Example, Ravana and Sugriva together fighting against Vali. Whose half power will go to Vali? How? Why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In that case, is it possible to win when fighting Vali? If yes, then why didn't anybody already win?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T01:36:09.653" Title="What will happen if two people fight Vali together?" Tags="|ramayana|vali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="360" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="342" CreationDate="2014-06-22T08:44:14.880" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vali was given enough of chances by Sugriva. Sugriva wanted peace, but Vali denied this. Lord Rama knew this, so there is no point in giving Vali another chance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, to follow &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;, Lord Rama also gave Vali a chance to fight with bravery against Lord Rama himself. He had promised Vali that he will be given a chance to avenge his unjust&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; murder. See the following quote,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also said, Rama promised Vali to give him a chance to avenge his unjust murder. Vali was reincarnated as the hunter and archer Jara in Mahabharata (Dwapara Yuga). Jara was the cause of the death of Shri Krishna (the re-incarnation of Shri Rama) when he struck His feet by an arrow taking them to be a deer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;sub&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/31490/17833&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7397/do-any-scriptures-say-that-the-hunter-jara-was-a-rebirth-of-vali&quot;&gt;Do any scriptures say that the hunter Jara was a rebirth of Vali?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, Ravana &lt;em&gt;deserved&lt;/em&gt; a second chance because he was a Brahmin, he had pleased Lord Shiva with uncomparable worship. He was an extensively genius person who had knowledge of all scriptures. It was worthy to consider forgiving him and let him stay on Earth. But anyways, Ravana was destined to be killed by Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;1. Unjust according to Vali himself, and not according to the laws of nature. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-06-24T02:47:59.167" LastActivityDate="2022-06-24T02:47:59.167" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="361" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="290" CreationDate="2014-06-22T08:52:27.337" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Shrimad Bhagavatam after killing Narakasura Krishna saw sixteen thousand maidens who were kidnapped and imprisoned by Narakasura:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tatra rājanya-kanyānāṁ &lt;strong&gt;ṣaṭ-sahasrādhikāyutam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;bhaumāhṛtānāṁ vikramya rājabhyo dadṛśe hariḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 10.59.33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Nārada out of the curiosity &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;How with a single body Krishna married sixteen thousand  maidens simultaneously at separate places&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot; went Dvaraka to witness the daily activities of Krishna himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;narakaṁ nihataṁ śrutvā tathodvāhaṁ ca yoṣitām&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;kṛṣṇenaikena bahvīnāṁ tad-didṛkṣuḥ sma nāradaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 10.69.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;citraṁ bataitad ekena vapuṣā yugapat pṛthak&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;gṛheṣu &lt;strong&gt;dvy-aṣṭa-sāhasraṁ&lt;/strong&gt; striya eka udāvahat&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 10.69.2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There Narada found that through His mystic power (&lt;em&gt;yoga māyā&lt;/em&gt;) Krishna was simultaneously present in the palaces of each queen and busy in different household activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as per Bhagavatam Krishna was indeed married to the 16,000 rescued maidens. Saints reconciling the Narakasura account as mentioned in the Vishnu Purana give the number as 16,100:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kanyāpure sa kanyānāṁ ṣoḍaśātulavikramaḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;śatādhikāni&lt;/strong&gt; dadṛśe sahasrāṇi mahāmune&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 5.29.31]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if you include the other eight queens of Krishna that He had married earlier the number becomes 16,008. So as per puranas Krishna indeed has 16,108 wives, there was no other philosophical meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, many times there are hidden esoteric meanings to myths and stories of the &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt;. So I can't give a reference to a puranic soruce, but from Yoga point of view it has another meaning as below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the yogis there are 16,108 important &lt;em&gt;nadis&lt;/em&gt; (nerves) in the physical human body, out of which the three most important ones are the &lt;em&gt;ida&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;pingala&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;sushanma&lt;/em&gt;. Now it is well known that &lt;strong&gt;Krishna is &lt;em&gt;Yogeswara&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (lord among the Yogis). So as a yogi He was master of all the nadis, just like a husband is the master of his wife. So from yogic point of view Krishna had 16,108 wives means He was master of the 16,108 &lt;em&gt;nadis&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T08:52:27.337" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="362" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="652" CreationDate="2014-06-22T09:41:58.647" Score="11" ViewCount="3204" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently on a Sathsang, I understood the values of Ekadasi Vratha, explained by a scholar. He explained the power of Ekadasi in various pakshas - Krishna paksha and Shukla paksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I tried to follow the Vratha, I was stuck at a point. In the calendar (or in Panchang), it was mentioned as Ekadasi starts at 12:15 PM on Monday and ends at 11 PM on Tuesday (this is just an example).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Since this auspicious Vratha is shared by both days, when can one follow the Vratha?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Considerations&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ekadasi is Vratha day, on which the people must chant &lt;em&gt;Namas&lt;/em&gt; in the nighttime without sleeping.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The whole day, people must try to avoid drinking water, eating food, and sleeping.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The next day will be practiced as Dhwathasi Vratha and early in the morning, the Vratha has to be completed with a Sathviga food such as raw rice food or fruits, etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if one follows the Vratha on Monday since Monday night has the Ekadasi tithi, when can he start the Vratha and how can he end the Vratha in next day morning? &lt;em&gt;Because Ekadasi extends up to 11 PM, and if he ends the Vratha in the early morning it will not be Dhwathasi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Else if he follows the Vratha on Tuesday, the Ekadasi period Vratha will be a &lt;em&gt;very short time i.e. until 11 PM&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the general practice in this situation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="90" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-12T09:15:15.470" LastActivityDate="2022-01-12T09:19:08.743" Title="How to determine a day for Vratha or a festival when a Nakshatra is shared between days?" Tags="|rituals|astrology|vrata|tithi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="363" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="364" CreationDate="2014-06-22T09:44:56.320" Score="23" ViewCount="2188" Body="&lt;p&gt;Given that Karma and punarjanma (rebirth) are the prime beliefs of Hinduism, why do we need Yamalokam and punishment in it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I mean, through Karma, the fruits of both good and bad deeds are obtained either in the same birth or the next one. Then why do we need Yamalokam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="153" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-23T04:39:19.917" LastActivityDate="2014-06-27T06:35:38.583" Title="Why do we need Yamalokam?" Tags="|rebirth|karma|yamaloka|afterlife|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="364" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="363" CreationDate="2014-06-22T10:36:13.923" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer to this question is linked to the concept of residual karma. This residual karma idea and what happens to evil-doers is explained in Brahma Sutra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But of others (i.e. those who have not performed sacrifices etc.) the ascent is to the abode of Yama, and after having experienced (the results of their evil works) the descent (to the earth again takes place). On account of such a passage (for the evil-doer) being declared by the Sruti. (Brahma Sutra Sankara Bhasya 3.1.13)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sruti passage referred to in the above shloka is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Hereafter never reveals itself to a person devoid of discrimination, heedless, and perplexed by the delusion of wealth. &quot;This world alone exists,&quot; he thinks,&quot; and there is no other.&quot; Again and again he comes under my sway. (Yama speaks in Katha Upanishad I.2.6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clear that if you do bad deeds that you end up in Yama Loka. However, there are two perplexing questions here. Does the person who descends to earth from Yama loka return with any Karma (i.e. is the Karma of the evil-doer after serving his term in Yama loka zero?)? What decides that a person will after death be immediately reborn in earth or return to earth after serving a time in Yama loka? These two questions are actually linked. The answer to this question is given in Brahma Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the exhaustion of (good) work (the soul) with residual Karma (descends to this earth), as is known from the Sruti amd Smriti, along the path (it) went by (from here) and differently too. (Brahma Sutra Sankara Bhasya 3.1.8) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above Sutra says that what is exhausted in heaven is only that specific Karma which gave the soul a birth in lower heaven, but on the exhaustion of this Karma the remaining Karma, good and bad, brings it back to earth. While this Sutra talks of heaven and good deed, it also applies to Yama Loka and bad deeds. Let me explain the idea by a concrete example. Let us suppose that a dead person has a list of 10 karmas with goodness values (1, -3, 4, 5, -100, 4, 3, 2, 5, 8) where the minus sign stands for evil deeds. What Brahma Sutra Sankara Bhasya 3.1.8 is saying is that this person will go to Yama Loka only for that extremely evil deed of goodness value -100. After he has exhausted the bad effect due to the -100 Karma, he can then go back to earth with the residual karma (1, -3, 4,5,4,3,2,5,8). The idea is that only extremely evil or good deeds lead a man to Yama loka or to lower heavens. All minor good and bad karmas are served on the earth plane.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T04:40:59.727" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T04:40:59.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="366" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="334" CreationDate="2014-06-22T11:36:03.567" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can think of two reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Clothing habits of the locals due to the weather conditions.   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Show of obedience.   In a society with class hierarchy,  men are expected to show their obedience by not covering their torso. Such obedience was warranted in temples, usually controlled by powerful classes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="92" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-12-15T07:14:20.863" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T07:14:20.863" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="367" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="359" CreationDate="2014-06-22T11:39:18.270" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;It seems that boon description there is incorrect. The boon was not limited to one opponent only or to a single man combat. As per the boon given by Brahma to Vali, &lt;strong&gt;when confronting an opponent Vali will conquer half of the opponents strength:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आहूय वालिनं ब्रह्मा ददौ वरं अनुत्तमम् । &lt;strong&gt;प्रतीपवर्तिनोभूयात् अर्ध बलं अरिन्दम&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  aahuuya vaalinam brahmaa dadau varam anuttamam | &lt;strong&gt;pratiipavarti nobhuuyaat artha balam arindama&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Summoning Vali, Brahma gave an unexcelling boon... &lt;strong&gt;any combatant confronting Vali will loose half of his strength to Vali&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So even if Vali faced two opponents, he would take away half of both of their strengths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why while Vali was busy battling Sugreev, Shri Ram shot an arrow at his chest hiding at a distance without facing him directly. Because if Rama faced him directly then Vali would have taken half of His strength as well and Rama could have been defeated by Vali:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दृश्यमानः तु युध्येथा मया युधि नृपात्मज | अद्य वैवस्वतम् देवम् पश्येः &lt;strong&gt;त्वम् निहतो मया&lt;/strong&gt; || &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dR^ishyamaanaH tu yudhyethaa mayaa yudhi nR^ipaatmaja |&#xA;  adya vaivasvatam devam pashyeH &lt;strong&gt;tvam nihato mayaa&lt;/strong&gt; || [VR - 4.17.47]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Had you been in combat with me en face oh, prince, you would have been &lt;strong&gt;killed by me&lt;/strong&gt; and by now you would have seen the death-god Yama. [4-17-47]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the side note &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga17/kishkindhasans17.htm#Verse48&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-27T01:36:09.653" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T01:36:09.653" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="368" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="369" CreationDate="2014-06-22T12:53:04.100" Score="13" ViewCount="16547" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a difference between &lt;em&gt;God&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Devi-Devta&lt;/em&gt; or are they same?&#xA;As we know there are thousands of &lt;em&gt;devis&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;devas&lt;/em&gt;, are they the same as God or is there any difference between them? If they are different, then what is the difference?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the exact count of God, Devi, Devtas? Are there crores of Devi Devtas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="157" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-12-29T08:10:02.913" LastActivityDate="2023-01-21T10:34:38.350" Title="What is the difference between God and Devi-Devta or are they same?" Tags="|gods|brahman|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="369" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="368" CreationDate="2014-06-22T13:15:49.327" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is a difference between Gods and Devtas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, the &lt;em&gt;Trimurti&lt;/em&gt; is the God. &lt;em&gt;Bhagvatam&lt;/em&gt; further clears that &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt; is the supreme God&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/1/3/28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;verse here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Devtas&lt;/em&gt; are God's helpers. All the &lt;em&gt;Devtas&lt;/em&gt; are given some jobs. They are thus classified into each of their own department.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like Indra Dev looks into weather. Surya Dev is responsible for giving energy and light to plants, animals etc. Vayu Dev takes care of the flow of wind etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devas also take in return materialistic things. Like in Yagnas etc, we offer Aahuti to devas. The people of Mathura gave fruits and other stuff to Indra Dev, so that he can protect them from rain and thunder. This practice, though, was condemned by Krishna himself because taking something forcefully for not harming them is bad. Things given by will can be accepted. Anyways, offering anything materialistic to Devas should be avoided.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can further imagine it this way:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire universe is the office. Trimurti is the founder of the office. Devas are the workers/managers of specific departments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would also like to clear a common misconception that there are 33 crore devis/devtas. There is nothing like that. &lt;em&gt;Crore&lt;/em&gt; means categories. People started thinking of crore as a number, and so did the confusion arise. There are devtas of 33 categories - 33 departments.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;They are NOT 330 million in number.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="39" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T17:03:49.490" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T17:03:49.490" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="370" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="368" CreationDate="2014-06-22T13:43:04.673" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt; This sets up the tone for the rest of the answer. Basically, everyone believes that there's only one supreme God, but everyone, &lt;em&gt;Shakites&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Vaishnavites&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Krishnites&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Shiivites&lt;/em&gt; call it by different names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;God in Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Forms of explicit monotheism find mention in the canonical &lt;em&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/em&gt;. Explicit monotheism in the form of emotional or ecstatic devotion (bhakti) to a single external and personal deity (in the form of Shiva or Vishnu) became popular in South India in the early medieval period. Ecstatic devotion to Krishna, a form of Vishnu, gained popularity throughout India during the Middle Ages and gave rise to schools of &lt;em&gt;Vaishnavism&lt;/em&gt;. Ecstatic devotion to Goddess Durga became popular in some parts of India in the later medieval and early modern ages. &lt;em&gt;Vaishnavism&lt;/em&gt;, particularly &lt;em&gt;Krishnaism&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Shaktism&lt;/em&gt; and some forms of &lt;em&gt;Shaivism&lt;/em&gt; remain the most explicit forms of monotheistic worship of a personal God within Hinduism. Other Hindus, such as many of those who practice &lt;em&gt;Shaivism&lt;/em&gt;, tend to assume the existence of a singular God, but do not necessarily associate God with aspects of a personality. Rather they envisage God as an impersonal Absolute (Brahman), who can be worshipped only in part in a human form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;&quot;Great indeed are the devas who have sprung out of Brahman.&quot; — Atharva Veda&#xA;&#xA; Auṃ – That supreme Brahman is infinite, and this conditioned Brahman is infinite. The infinite proceeds from infinite. If you subtract the infinite from the infinite, the infinite remains alone. --Ishopanishad&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Brahman&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is conceived as personal (&quot;with qualities&quot;), impersonal (&quot;without qualities&quot;) and/or supreme depending on the philosophical school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages of the Upanishads teach that Brahman is the ultimate essence of material phenomena (including the original identity of the human self) that cannot be seen or heard but whose nature can be known through the development of self-knowledge ([atma jnana][2]). According to Advaita, a liberated human being (jivanmukta) has realised Brahman as his or her own true self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The later Vedic religion i.e. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; produced a series of profound philosophical reflections (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanisads&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;) in which Brahman is now considered to be the one Absolute Reality behind changing appearances; the universal substrate from which material things originate and to which they return after their dissolution. The sages of the Upanishads made their pronouncements on the basis of personal experience (revelation or sruti) as an essential component of their philosophical reflection. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[2]: pp.77, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.abebooks.com/Principal-Upanishads-Edited-Introduction-Text-Translation/10209859264/bd&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.abebooks.com/Principal-Upanishads-Edited-Introduction-Text-Translation/10209859264/bd&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-22T14:16:42.743" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T14:16:42.743" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="371" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="236" CreationDate="2014-06-22T14:29:12.590" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually Lord Rama didn't exactly strike Vali from behind, but from a far distant place. From behind He would not have been able to target Vali's chest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason Rama didn't face him and challenge him to combat was because vali had obtained a special boon from Brahma which enabled him to take away half the strength of the opponent he faced:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आहूय वालिनं ब्रह्मा ददौ वरं अनुत्तमम् । प्रतीपवर्तिनोभूयात् अर्ध बलं अरिन्दम ॥ [See the side note &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga17/kishkindhasans17.htm#Verse48&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here]&#xA;  &lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Inviting Vali, Brahma gave him an excellent boon. On confrontation with an opponent Vali will conquer half of his strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Rama faced Vali directly then He would have lost half His strength respecting Brahma's boon  and could have been killed by Vali:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दृश्यमानः तु युध्येथा मया युधि नृपात्मज | अद्य वैवस्वतम् देवम् पश्येः त्वम् निहतो मया || [VR - 4.17.47]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Had you been in combat with me en face oh, prince, you would have been killed by me and by now you would have seen the death-god Yama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the reason He didn't confront Vali directly. From battle point of view it was unjust for Rama to do so as a Khsyatriya, but as wounded Vali accepted himself to be a fruit, leaf, eating animal:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;फल मूल अशनम् नित्यम् वानरम् वन गोचरम् | माम् इह अप्रतियुध्यन्तम् अन्येन च समागतम् || [VR - 4.17.25]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I am a vanara subsisting on fruits and tubers and always moving in forests alone; such as I am, what made you to torture me when I was not combating with you en face, furthermore, when I was involved with another?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama justified His actions by stating that sagely kings even go for hunting and hunting is not always a face to face game:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यान्ति राजर्षयः च अत्र मृगयाम् धर्म कोविदाः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मात् त्वम् निहतो युद्धे मया बाणेन वानर |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अयुध्यन् प्रतियुध्यन् वा यस्मात् शाखा मृगो हि असि ||  [VR - 4.18.40]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In this world even the kingly sages well-versed in virtue will go on hunting, and hunting is no face to face game, as such, oh, vanara, therefore I felled you in combat with my arrow because you are a tree-branch animal, whether you are not combating with me or combating against me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-06-23T01:58:21.097" LastActivityDate="2014-06-23T01:58:21.097" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="372" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="392" CreationDate="2014-06-22T16:04:39.390" Score="16" ViewCount="13239" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Ramayana, we know that Ravana was the King of the golden city of Lanka. How did he get this city? I know very little other than that it was offered by Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-01T14:22:39.913" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T14:22:39.913" Title="How did Ravana get the golden city of Lanka?" Tags="|shiva|ramayana|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="373" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="36" CreationDate="2014-06-22T16:18:03.003" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;In addition to Vineet Menon's comments, that Agni (Fire) is the purest element of the 5 elements (Mahabhutas) that is accessible to man - (The other begin Ether (Nabha or Akasha) is intangible and is capable of sustenance and not incineration or destruction.), there is also another reason to it, in that, cremation is the best possible way to symbolically signify the transformation of the Gross (or Sthula Sharira attached to the Annamaya Kosha) to the Subtle (or Sukshma Sharira attached to the Pranamaya Kosha). This is also the reason camphor is lit for mangala aarathi in temples, where the camphor signifies the sthoola and the sublimation (disappearance) of the camphor when lit by fire (which is the 'Chit' or consciousness) signifies the sookshma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as rightly put by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/93/467&quot;&gt;Vineet&lt;/a&gt;, realized souls and children devoid of ego (ahankara) are buried and not cremated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the Holy Bible does say &quot;From Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust&quot;. - Food for thought!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="158" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-02-03T01:42:46.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="374" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="349" CreationDate="2014-06-22T16:18:16.567" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spiritualsatya.com/karma-and-the-vegetable-diet/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Karma and the vegetable diet&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In vegetables there is but one active tattwa, or elementary condition of matter. That is jal, which means ‘water’. It refers to the liquid state of any substance. In insects there are two active tattwas, agni or ‘fire’, and vayu or ‘air’. Agni refers to the resolving state, or heat; it means a transitional state of matter. Vayu refers to the gaseous condition of matter. In birds there are three active tattwas: jal, agni and vayu. In the higher animals there are four active tattwas: prithvi (earth), jal, agni and vayu. But in man, and in man alone, all five tattwas are active. As a matter of fact, all five tattwas are in everything in the world, but they are not active. Akash is the last one, which is active in man alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the law by which we are governed is this: &lt;em&gt;The greater the number of active tattwas that are combined in the living individual, the higher he is in the scale of evolution and also the greater the responsibility involved in killing that individual&lt;/em&gt; – hence, the greater the burden of karma assumed in killing. But &lt;em&gt;since man has to eat something in order to continue his life here&lt;/em&gt;, the ancient sages and Masters selected the &lt;strong&gt;least harmful&lt;/strong&gt; substances, that is, those things in the killing and eating of which there is the least karma to be assumed. They decided on vegetables; no animals at all. Of course, there is some karma to be assumed in eating vegetables, as there is life in them too. But in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;vegetables there is the lowest form of life, and hence the least karma involved.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; This is the chief reason why the saints do not approve of killing and eating animals.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The second reason is that the eating of animal food interferes with one’s spiritual refinement.&lt;/strong&gt; It drags a person down toward the animal plane. It is a fact that as long as one eats animals, he will be more or less like animals. It is unavoidable that we should become like what we eat, just as we become like that of which we constantly think. We must absorb its qualities to some extent. How could it be otherwise? That is but common sense, and I believe most people will agree to it. It may be tested by anyone. A heavy animal diet will always awaken the animal passions and drag one’s thoughts down to the animal plane. But the disciples of the saints have as their chief aim and effort in life to rise above the animal plane and to unfold their spiritual powers. Hence they must not eat that which will pull them down to the animal level.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;See more at: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spiritualsatya.com/karma-and-the-vegetable-diet/#sthash.n2sHozSz.dpuf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.spiritualsatya.com/karma-and-the-vegetable-diet/#sthash.n2sHozSz.dpuf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vegetarian and vegan ethics are not a recent fad in Asia, but a longstanding human aspiration and virtue&lt;/em&gt;- &lt;a href=&quot;http://aeon.co/magazine/being-human/vegetarian-and-vegan-ethics/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mercy towards animals&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="159" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T16:18:16.567" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="375" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="125" CreationDate="2014-06-22T16:23:55.093" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mangal sutra is one of the seven symbols that indicate a woman is married, whereas married men have only one (a toe ring).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These symbols are stripped away when the husband dies&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not mandatory for the bride to wear the mangal sutra either, only the kumkum on the forehead is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="160" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T16:23:55.093" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="377" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="368" CreationDate="2014-06-22T16:35:29.127" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can imagine in such a way that the Devathas are great positions hold by great souls. These souls are not reached perfection, they may proceed forward and become one with god(Braman) or by their bad karma go down spiritually and reborn again as man. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manvantara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Manvantara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Each Manvantara is created and ruled by a specific Manu, who in turn&#xA;  is created by Brahma, the Creator himself. Manu creates the world, and&#xA;  all its species during that period of time, each Manvantara lasts the&#xA;  lifetime of a Manu, upon whose death, Brahma creates another Manu to&#xA;  continue the cycle of Creation or Shristi, Vishnu on his part takes a&#xA;  new Avatar, and also a new Indra and Saptarishis are appointed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="159" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T16:35:29.127" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="378" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="191" CreationDate="2014-06-22T16:41:41.220" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not many scriptures describe this particular form of Lord Nrsimha actually. This form of Narasimha is worshipped mainly via the Tantric path. There are multiple sub-forms of Sri Gandabherunda but are revelead only by an adept Guru to the disciple. They are Ashtamukha Gandabherunda Nrsimha (Eight faced), Dwaadasha Mukha Gandabherunda Nrsimha (12 faced), Oordhwa Mukha Gandabherunda Nrsimha (22 faced), Dwaatrimshanmukha Gandabherunda Nrsimha (12 faced), Panchaashanmukha Gandabherunda Nrsimha (50 faces). The qualification for worship of these forms is Narayana Ashtaakshari and Nrsimha Mantraraja (also called as Nrsimha anushtubh mantra)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mysore royal family have been worshipers of Sri Vidya and were initiated into the secret Sri Vidya cult centuries ago and Gandabherunda Nrsimha aradhana is considered a part of some Sri Vidya schools. The Gandabherunda symbol (The double bird) in the coat of arms was borrowed/extended by the State of Karnataka from the Mysore royal family tradition when the State was formed in November 01, 1950.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. Some information were taken from Kamakoti Mandali (an online forum of Sri Vidya worshipers)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="158" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-03-26T14:58:15.077" LastActivityDate="2019-03-26T14:58:15.077" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="380" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="386" CreationDate="2014-06-22T17:48:43.477" Score="15" ViewCount="4695" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that you should take &lt;em&gt;prasadam&lt;/em&gt; with your right hand only. If you take it with your left hand, it is considered bad. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any reasoning for the significance of right hand in the Hindu community? I am looking for scientific as well as traditional reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="161" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-06-23T03:03:11.023" LastActivityDate="2016-07-12T06:47:22.753" Title="What is the significance of the right hand?" Tags="|belief|prasad|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="381" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-22T17:53:59.907" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prasad is edible food prepared and served first to deity or God and then distributed among followers of God. This is general practice to prepare prasad in Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="161" LastEditorUserId="161" LastEditDate="2014-06-23T19:48:27.623" LastActivityDate="2014-06-23T19:48:27.623" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="382" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-22T17:53:59.907" Score="0" Body="Prasad is food prepared for Deity" OwnerUserId="161" LastEditorUserId="161" LastEditDate="2014-06-23T19:48:11.220" LastActivityDate="2014-06-23T19:48:11.220" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="383" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="380" CreationDate="2014-06-22T18:06:52.950" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;All good deeds are done with the right hand, such as a &lt;em&gt;tilak&lt;/em&gt; (coloured spot or mark worn by Hindus), vermillion, giving donations, or taking parsad. Generally, the left hand is used to take something which is temporarily yours, which means you have to return it. There is not much science behind it. The right hand is considered to be spiritually superior to the left hand as it is believed that the right hand is one's own while the left expresses the destiny and the traits of one's spouse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="162" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T20:34:18.207" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T20:34:18.207" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="385" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="412" CreationDate="2014-06-22T18:13:58.550" Score="15" ViewCount="1499" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen people keeping numerous fasts in an year. Where does the idea of fasting originate, and what is the reason behind keeping a fast?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="162" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-23T04:39:03.520" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T10:47:31.903" Title="What is the reason behind fasting (vrat)?" Tags="|fasting|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="386" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="380" CreationDate="2014-06-22T18:31:08.707" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because the left hand is used for toilet purposes and that makes left hand unholy to do holy works. Even old people say that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ulta haath hamesha ulte kaamon mein hi use hota hai&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;means left hand should be used for unholy works only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, its only for division of holy and unholy work among both hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T04:49:37.677" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T04:49:37.677" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="388" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-22T20:53:50.040" Score="7" ViewCount="4826" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I was a kid, I read the Amar Chitra Katha version of the story of Bhasmāsura - &lt;em&gt;the demon-king who gained a boon from Shiva with the power to burn to ashes anybody on whose head he placed his hand&lt;/em&gt;. In the end, Vishnu (in the guise of Mohini) tricks Bhasmāsura into putting his hand on his own head, thus killing himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now that I am older, I would like to read the original (non-comic) version of this story. I've searched a bit, but unfortunately, I can't find what text(s) this story appears in. Where can I find the story of Bhasmāsura?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-06-26T05:44:07.793" LastActivityDate="2022-06-26T05:46:09.007" Title="Where can I read the original story of Bhasmāsura?" Tags="|shiva|vishnu|avatars|asuras|demon|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="389" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="217" CreationDate="2014-06-22T22:34:02.607" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama, frustrated by the waters that separated him and his army from Lanka, grew angry with the ocean &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga22/yuddhasans22.htm&quot;&gt;[6.22.1-4]&lt;/a&gt; and readied an arrow which, when fired, would dry the ocean, allowing his army to cross into Lanka. [―.―.5]. This caused a convulsion of the earths and the heavens [―.―.6-12] that prompted the deity of the ocean (Sagara, though I have also seen this as being Varuna) to appear before him (previously, the deity of the ocean had ignored Rama's prayers &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga21/yuddhasans21.htm&quot;&gt;[6.21]&lt;/a&gt;, thus prompting Rama's anger). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upon appearing, the deity explained to Rama that there was a way to cross the ocean without drying it up [6.22.28]. He informed Rama that Nala (a vanara engineer who was part of his entourage) had a boon from his father (Vishwakarma, the divine architect) that would allow him to build a bridge [―.―.44-47]. And so, the vanara army set to work bringing rocks and trees from all over to the sea [―.―.52-71].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, here's the thing - nowhere in the text is it specified &lt;em&gt;how&lt;/em&gt; exactly the bridge was built - did the stones and rocks float? Or was the bridge built from the seabed up? It is unclear. I'm not sure what recension the site I linked is using - it is possible that other recensions would contain more information about the building of the bridge. Rajagopalachari's abridged translation (section 66 &quot;The Great Causeway&quot;) also makes no mention of the precise way in which the bridge was built. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is possible that the idea of Ram Sethu being built of floating stones is a modern notion, though I am by no means sure of this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastActivityDate="2014-06-22T22:34:02.607" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="390" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="388" CreationDate="2014-06-23T00:12:42.397" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/88/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; contains a version of this story, except Vishnu deceives him in a different way: instead of turning into Mohini and attracting him, he turns into a young student and charms him with his words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The demon named Vṛka, a son of Śakuni’s, once met Nārada on the road. The wicked fellow asked him which of the three chief gods could be pleased most quickly.  Nārada told him, &quot;Worship Lord Śiva and you will soon achieve success. He quickly becomes pleased by seeing his worshiper’s slightest good qualities — and quickly angered by seeing his slightest fault.   He became pleased with ten-headed Rāvaṇa, and also with Bāṇa, when they each chanted his glories, like bards in a royal court. Lord Śiva then bestowed unprecedented power upon each of them, but in both cases he was consequently beset with great difficulty.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus advised, the demon proceeded to worship Lord Śiva at Kedāranātha by taking pieces of flesh from his own body and offering them as oblations into the sacred fire, which is Lord Śiva’s mouth.  Vṛkāsura became frustrated after failing to obtain a vision of the lord. Finally, on the seventh day, after dipping his hair into the holy waters at Kedāranātha and leaving it wet, he took up a hatchet and prepared to cut off his head. But at that very moment the supremely merciful Lord Śiva rose up out of the sacrificial fire, looking like the god of fire himself, and grabbed both arms of the demon to stop him from killing himself, just as we would do. By Lord Śiva’s touch, Vṛkāsura once again became whole.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Śiva said to him: &quot;My friend, please stop, stop! Ask from me whatever you want, and I will bestow that boon upon you. Alas, you have subjected your body to great torment for no reason, since I am pleased with a simple offering of water from those who approach me for shelter.&quot;  The benediction sinful Vṛka chose from the lord would terrify all living beings. Vṛka said, “May death come to whomever I touch upon the head with my hand.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upon hearing this, Lord Rudra seemed somewhat disturbed. Nonetheless, O descendant of Bharata, he vibrated om to signify his assent, granting Vṛka the benediction with an ironic smile, as if giving milk to a poisonous snake.  To test Lord Śambhu’s benediction, the demon then tried to put his hand on the Lord’s head. Thus Śiva was frightened because of what he himself had done.  As the demon pursued him, Lord Śiva fled swiftly from his abode in the north, shaking with terror. He ran as far as the limits of the earth, the sky and the corners of the universe.  The great gods could only remain silent, not knowing how to counteract the benediction. Then Lord Śiva reached the luminous realm of Vaikuṇṭha, beyond all darkness, where the Supreme Lord Nārāyaṇa is manifest. That realm is the destination of renunciants who have attained peace and given up all violence against other creatures. Going there, one never returns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Lord, who relieves His devotees’ distress, had seen from afar that Lord Śiva was in danger. Thus by His mystic Yoga-māyā potency He assumed the form of a brahmacārī student, with the appropriate belt, deerskin, rod and prayer beads, and came before Vṛkāsura. The Lord’s effulgence glowed brilliantly like fire. Holding kuśa grass in His hand, He humbly greeted the demon.  The Supreme Lord said: &quot;My dear son of Śakuni, you appear tired. Why have you come such a great distance? Please rest for a minute. After all, it is one’s body that fulfills all one’s desires. O mighty one, please tell Us what you intend to do, if We are qualified to hear it. Usually one accomplishes his purposes by taking help from others.&quot; ... Thus questioned by the Personality of Godhead in language that poured down upon him like sweet nectar, Vṛka felt relieved of his fatigue. He described to the Lord everything he had done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Lord said: &quot;If this is the case, We cannot believe what Śiva says. Śiva is the same lord of the Pretas and Piśācas whom Dakṣa cursed to become like a carnivorous hobgoblin.  O best of the demons, if you have any faith in him because he is the spiritual master of the universe, then without delay put your hand on your head and see what happens.  If the words of Lord Śambhu prove untrue in any way, O best of the demons, then kill the liar so he may never lie again.&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus bewildered by the Personality of Godhead’s enchanting, artful words, foolish Vṛka, without realizing what he was doing, placed his hand on his head.  Instantly his head shattered as if struck by a lightning bolt, and the demon fell down dead. From the sky were heard cries of “Victory!” “Obeisances!” and “Well done!”. The celestial sages, Pitās and Gandharvas rained down flowers to celebrate the killing of sinful Vṛkāsura. Now Lord Śiva was out of danger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead then addressed Lord Giriśa, who was now out of danger: “Just see, O Mahādeva, My lord, how this wicked man has been killed by his own sinful reactions. Indeed, what living being can hope for good fortune if he offends exalted saints, what to speak of offending the lord and spiritual master of the universe?”. Lord Hari is the directly manifest Absolute Truth, the Supreme Soul and unlimited ocean of inconceivable energies. Anyone who recites or hears this pastime of His saving Lord Śiva will be freed from all enemies and the repetition of birth and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think the specific story of Vishnu turning into Mohini to deceive this demon (as portrayed e.g. in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhasmasur#In_dance&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sohal Nati dance&lt;/a&gt;) is in any of the Puranas.  Devdutt Pattanaik claims in &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/?id=Oka4ekgGDRoC&amp;amp;pg=PT31&amp;amp;dq=mohini%20Vishnu&amp;amp;cd=50#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=mohini%20Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; that it's in the Vishnu Purana, but you can search in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin//vp/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt; yourself; it doesn't seem to be there.  Apparently it is there, though, in the Buddhist text Satara Dewala Devi Puvata according to page 146 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=RvuDlhpvvHwC&amp;amp;lpg=PA150&amp;amp;dq=mohini%20visnu&amp;amp;pg=PA146#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=Dewala&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-07-11T20:38:25.263" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T20:38:25.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="391" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-23T00:16:21.897" Score="9" ViewCount="733" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiduism#Scriptures&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; there are two main types of scriptures, the four Vedas (which are seen as eternal), and the Smritis (which are seen as revealed). I was wondering what the current Hindu thought on the status of the Smritis are, like are they canon? Are they not accepted by everyone, like the  apocrypha of Christianity? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="164" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-05-28T23:17:04.380" LastActivityDate="2020-12-12T04:56:04.263" Title="How accepted are the Smritis?" Tags="|scripture|pramana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="392" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="372" CreationDate="2014-06-23T03:07:06.770" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Lanka is described in detail in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=6QwYAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;output=html_text&amp;amp;source=gbs_navlinks_s&quot;&gt;Uttara Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of the Ramayana.  (The links in my answer link to different excerpts from the Uttara Kanda.)  There were three Rakshasa (demon) brothers named Sumali, Mali, and Malyavan who &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/0nZF&quot;&gt;obtained a boon of invincibility&lt;/a&gt; from Brahma and then told the divine architect Vishwakarma, &quot;Erect a mansion for us resembling the mansion itself of Maheshwara [i.e. Shiva].&quot;  So on the island mountain Suvela, Vishwakarma  &quot;construct[ed] a city of Lanka there, having an area of thirty yojanas, and measuring an hundred (sic) in length; surrounded by a golden wall and furnished with golden gateways ... having a strong wall and a moat, abounding in hundreds of golden edifices&quot;.  But then Vishnu &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/n0rR&quot;&gt;defeated the three brothers&lt;/a&gt;, killing Mali and driving Sumali, Malyavan, and their Rakshasa comrades away to Patalaloka (the netherworld).  Since Lanka was abandoned by the Rakshasas, when Kubera son of the sage Vishravas was made the god of wealth, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/sIRd&quot;&gt;moved into Lanka&lt;/a&gt; at his father's suggestion.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later on, the demon Sumali I mentioned earlier got his daughter Kaikeshi married to Kubera's father Vishravas, and they had many children including Ravana.  Ravana got a boon of near-invincibility from Brahma, so at his grandfather Sumali's urging he &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/9e8s&quot;&gt;attempted to retake Lanka&lt;/a&gt; for the Rakshasas.  When Kubera heard that his half-brother Ravana wanted to move into Lanka, he was more than happy to have him, saying this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My father had given [Lanka] to me, when it had been emptied of Rakshasas; and ... I have inhabited this place, furnished with charity, honor, and other virtues ... [A]s this city and kingdom are mine, so they are thine, O mighty-armed one.  Do thou enjoy this kingdom without a foe.  May my kingdom and wealth never undergo division when thou art present. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Ravana wasn't willing to share the kingdom; he wanted it exclusively for him and his fellow Rakshasas, so Kubera at his father's suggestion abandoned Lanka and went to the Himalayas.  That is how Lanka came to be under Ravana's possession.  (Contrary to popular belief Ravana did not fight Kubera over Lanka; like I said he got Lanka without a fight.  The battle between them &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/9GMf&quot;&gt;happened later&lt;/a&gt;, when Ravana was attacking everyone under the sun in his attempt to take over the three worlds.  It was during that battle that Ravana defeated Kubera and took the Pushpaka Vimana.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-04T07:40:01.833" LastActivityDate="2014-10-04T07:40:01.833" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="393" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="277" CreationDate="2014-06-23T04:39:31.810" Score="37" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that Lord Krishna and Radha are eternal lovers who dwell in &lt;em&gt;Go-loka&lt;/em&gt;. In &lt;em&gt;Goloka&lt;/em&gt; their pastimes are always going on. So as per BrahmaVaivarta Purana, in &lt;em&gt;Goloka&lt;/em&gt;, before the manifestation of their pastime on earth, on one occasion Radharani had a heated argument with Shridama, the personal attendant of Krishna.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In course of their conversation Radharani got angry and cursed Shridama to take birth as a demon. So Shridama also in return &lt;strong&gt;cursed Radharani&lt;/strong&gt; to be born as a human, and after spending pastime with Krishna in Gokula &lt;strong&gt;She will get separated for 100 years from Her beloved lover Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;manuṣyā iva kopaste tasmātvaṃ mānuṣī bhubi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     bhaviṣyāsi na saṃdeho mayā śaptā tvamambike&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 4.3.103]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are getting angry like a human, hence you'll become a human. Mother! you'll become a human without any doubt due to my curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;gokule prapya taṃ kruṣṇaṃ vihariṣyasi kānane&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;bhavitā te varṣaśataṃ vicchedo hariṇā saha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;punaḥ prapya tamīśaṃ ca golokamājamiṣyasi&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 4.3.105,106]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In Gokula getting the company of Krishna you will enjoy pastimes in the forest. Then you'll experience a separation of hundred years from Hari. After that you'll again get His company and return to &lt;em&gt;Go-loka&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, even though Krishna's love for Radha was eternal, due to the effect of the curse He couldn't marry Radha socially or openly. Instead, as per the curse, on Earth Radha had to marry Rayana of Vrindavan who was also Kirshna's partial incarnation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mūḍhā rāyaṇapatnīṃ tvāṃ vakṣanti jagatitale&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     rāyaṇaḥ śrīhareraṃśo vaiśyo vrundāvane vane&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 4.3.104,105]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  On Earth fools will say you to be the wife of Rayana. Rayana will be the partial incarnation of Hari in Vrindavan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, although Krishna didn't marry Radha on Earth formally or socially, all the &lt;em&gt;gopis&lt;/em&gt; including Radha were in fact His wives in &lt;em&gt;Go-loka&lt;/em&gt;. Hence, during their pastimes in Vrindavan &lt;strong&gt;they were wedded to each other by Brahmā&lt;/strong&gt; himself and Krishna had spent time only with His wives from &lt;em&gt;Go-loka&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tābhiḥ sārdhe sa reme ca svapatnībhirmudā'nvitaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     pāṇiṃ jagrāha radhāyāḥ svayaṃ brahmā purohitaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 4.115.88]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lord Krishna enjoyed pastimes in Vrindavan only with those of His wives who were residents of &lt;em&gt;Go-loka&lt;/em&gt;. Brahmā himself as the priest wedded Radha to Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-06-23T15:58:10.087" LastActivityDate="2014-06-23T15:58:10.087" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="394" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="391" CreationDate="2014-06-23T04:53:40.340" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes Wikipedia is right in saying that Hinduism has two types of scriptures, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Aruti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shruti&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smriti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Smriti&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Shruti&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word itself means 'to be heard' and are supposed to be cosmic vibrations from the Brahman itself. This class of Hindu scripture includes, four Vedas (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rig-Veda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rig&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajur-Veda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yajur&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sama-Veda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sama&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atharva-Veda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Atharva&lt;/a&gt;) which are supplanted by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmanas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahmanas&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aranyakas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Aranyakas&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Smriti&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word 'shruti' means 'remembered', which implies that these texts are works of great sages and Rishis and they incorporated their knowledge which is passed on. They are definitely &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books?id=xnhNZQJ07DYC&amp;amp;pg=PA1&amp;amp;lpg=PA1&amp;amp;dq=sruti%20smriti%20inferior&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=XjsBYLH0r8&amp;amp;sig=8OSC-m34B02rIaFMKLlIYRnt7Gg&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=_7ynU5qADcOUuAS61oCYDw&amp;amp;ved=0CBoQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=sruti%20smriti%20inferior&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;inferior to Shruti&lt;/a&gt; and are generally codified laws. There are numerous Smritis like Narada Smriti, Manu Smriti. Typically, Hindu jurisprudence consider Smritis as suitable for a particular generation or time, after which they become obsolete.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-23T05:38:10.310" LastActivityDate="2014-06-23T05:38:10.310" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="395" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-23T04:59:03.210" Score="9" ViewCount="1988" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atharva&lt;/em&gt; Veda is not considered the same as other three Veda and the study of which is generally discouraged if one doesn't have the required moral conditioning. What makes the Atharva Veda different from the other three?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know &lt;em&gt;Atharva&lt;/em&gt; contains recipe for numerous maleficent rituals including &lt;em&gt;vashikarana&lt;/em&gt; etc. Could this be the reason?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone shed some light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-10-15T19:44:42.970" LastActivityDate="2019-10-15T20:28:10.663" Title="What makes the Atharva Veda different from the other three?" Tags="|vedas|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="396" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="334" CreationDate="2014-06-23T05:26:35.927" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two views I've come across so far. They are contradictory, yet I find both of them reasonable given proper explanations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reason 1:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Quote from an answer on &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientindia.quora.com/WHY-TO-VISIT-TEMPLES-Scientific-Reason&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Quora&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;these temples are located strategically at a place where the positive energy is abundantly available from the magnetic and electric wave distributions of north/south pole thrust. The main idol is placed in the core center of the temple, known as “&lt;em&gt;Garbhagriha&lt;/em&gt;” or &lt;em&gt;Moolasthanam&lt;/em&gt;. In fact, the temple structure is built after the idol has been placed. This &lt;em&gt;Moolasthanam&lt;/em&gt; is where earth’s magnetic waves are found to be maximum. We know that there are some copper plates, inscribed with Vedic scripts, buried beneath the Main Idol. What are they really? No, they are not God’s / priests’ flash cards when they forget the &lt;em&gt;shlokas&lt;/em&gt;. The copper plate absorbs earth’s magnetic waves and radiates it to the surroundings. Thus a person regularly visiting a temple and walking clockwise around the Main Idol receives the beamed magnetic waves and his body absorbs it. This is a very slow process and a regular visit will let him absorb more of this positive energy. Scientifically, it is the positive energy that we all require to have a healthy life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reason 2:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Quote from a myth debunking website &lt;a href=&quot;http://nirmukta.com/2012/05/19/temple-pseudoscience/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nirmukta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;This also explains why men are not allowed to wear shirts at a few temples and women are requested to wear more ornaments during temple visits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why? Should only the men benefit and not the women? Once again goes to&#xA;  show how all religions are misogynistic to the core. In all&#xA;  probability the men are basically forced to be bare-chested so that&#xA;  they could identify who are all wearing the sacred thread and who are&#xA;  not. Nothing but organized, divinely codified and sanctioned&#xA;  discrimination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'll leave it up to you to decide what you choose to believe!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="44" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-06-23T05:55:43.023" LastActivityDate="2014-06-23T05:55:43.023" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="397" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-23T05:55:50.767" Score="8" ViewCount="30300" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen in many &lt;em&gt;puja&lt;/em&gt; and rituals sesame seeds being used with milk. Scriptures also mention its usage in certain rituals. So what's the importance of sesame seeds? Why they are used?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2018-10-04T17:49:43.657" Title="Why are sesame seeds used in vedic puja and rituals?" Tags="|rituals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="400" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="391" CreationDate="2014-06-23T07:19:48.827" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vineet Menon has given a very good answer to this question. I will add the following:&#xA;Both Sruti and Smriti cannot override human reason. I am posting here two quotes on the importance of reason:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Acharya Shankara, for example, in his Gita Bhasya 18.66 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The appeal to the infallibility of the Vedic injunction is misconceived. The infallibility in question refers only to the unseen forces or apurva, and is admissible only in regards to matters not confined to the sphere of direct perceptions, etc. ..... Even a hundred statements of sruti to the effect that fire is cold and non-luminous won't prove valid. If it does make such a statement, its import will have to be interpreted differently. Otherwise, validity won't attach to it. Nothing in conflict with the means of valid cognition or with its own statements may be imputed to sruti.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yoga Vasistha Ramayan II.18 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The remark of a child is to be accepted, if it is in accordance with reason; but the remark of even Brahma Himself, the creator of the world is to be rejected like a piece of straw if it does not accord with reason.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Smritis (Dharma Shastras) themselves suggest that some of the laws should be changed if they are found offensive to future generation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;However, discard the desire (kama) and material wealth (artha) if contrary to Dharma; as also, any usage or custom or rules regarded as source of Dharma if at any time they were to lead to unhappiness or arouse people's indignation. (Manu Smriti 4.176)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T02:50:24.247" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T02:50:24.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="401" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="395" CreationDate="2014-06-23T07:37:18.363" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ayurveda and Vedic music are included in the Atharva Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The major Vedas are Rigveda, Yajurveda and Samaveda. The Atharva Veda is/was considered as a part of Rigveda. (See note below)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As an example consider what &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kum%C4%81rila_Bha%E1%B9%AD%E1%B9%ADa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kumārila Bhaṭṭa&lt;/a&gt; wrote about Lord Shiva,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishuddh gnaan dehaay &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;trivedi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; divya chakshu-she I Srey praapti nimit-taay namah Som-ardh-dhaarine II 1 II&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aRamankumarjha/140.194.76.129/DURGA_SAPTASHATI_PATH&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In this text/manthra, Lord Shiva is called &quot;Trivedi&quot; (knows 3 Vedas; not &quot;Chathurvedi&quot; - knows 4 Vedas), the reason behind this is the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Not sure about from what time it is considered as a separate veda. Also unsure about the reason for the separation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T03:02:45.767" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T03:02:45.767" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="402" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="403" CreationDate="2014-06-23T07:54:21.043" Score="9" ViewCount="13268" Body="&lt;p&gt;For doing tilak, I have been always instructed to use my ring fingers. But my Panditji always used his thumb. When I asked about it he instructed me that Pandits and brahmins can also use their thumb too, but I didn't get the reason for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I really want to know the logic behind it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T02:41:16.807" LastActivityDate="2018-05-15T04:17:59.780" Title="Why is the ring finger or thumb used for tilak?" Tags="|belief|tilak|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="403" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="402" CreationDate="2014-06-23T08:29:09.543" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/JM-why-is-tilak-applied-with-ring-finger-2168156.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;an article by bhaskar.com&lt;/a&gt; (emphasis mine)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The area below the ring finger is called the 'surya parvat' or 'surya shetra' and the '&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogaindailylife.org/esystem/yoga/en/180600/chakras/agya-chakra/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;agaya chakra&lt;/a&gt;' is situated in the forehead. It is believed that &lt;strong&gt;by applying tilak with the ring finger gives 'surya' or sun like glow to the face. This also awakes the 'agaya chakra' and the person gets wisdom and fame&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is why tilak should always be applied with the ring finger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that by using the ring finger, a person brings a glow to the face – symbolically the energy of Surya (the Sun). This makes the person ready for the particular day’s Karma (act, object).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pundits also use their thumbs to apply tilak (commonly on other people).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... &lt;strong&gt;at the base of the thumb is Venus&lt;/strong&gt;. Saturn is the protector of lifespan, Jupiter represents immortality and &lt;strong&gt;Venus represents health&lt;/strong&gt;. Tilak applied with the ring-finger and the thumb is very beneficial. &lt;strong&gt;Venus gives life force, health, is the creator of new life, the bestowed of gentility and politeness.&lt;/strong&gt; This is achieved by applying Tilak with the thumb. unbroken rice grains (Akshat) mixed in red chandan and apply the Tilak with the thumb. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-blogs/seekers/faith-and-rituals/tilak-why-is-it-applied-in-spiritual-practices&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tilak - why is it applied in spiritual practices?&lt;/a&gt; on SpeakingTree.in&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T02:42:54.240" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T02:42:54.240" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="404" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2006" CreationDate="2014-06-23T09:03:43.703" Score="11" ViewCount="7528" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Hindu religion, visiting a temple without ablution (cleaning dirt) is said to be sin. One should always bathe before visiting the temple. But in Srisailam, the story is completely different. A person should enter without cleaning the dirt from their body. If he/she does bathe to clear the dirt it is said to be a sin. Why is this so? What is the story behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T02:45:19.597" LastActivityDate="2018-01-16T10:13:26.177" Title="What is the story behind Dhooli Darsanam in Srisailam?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="405" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="395" CreationDate="2014-06-23T11:04:29.797" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are currently four Vedas, known as the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda. Many years ago, the Vedas were referred to as trayi, meaning three. There must have been some point of time when there were only three Vedas, the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Sama Veda. The Atharva Veda is believed to be a later addition to the sacred canon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is important to know that there were four classes of priests who were required at any sacrifice (yajna). The first class consisted of the officiating priests or acolytes (hotri). They invoked the gods by reciting the mantras, prepared the sacrificial ground and the altar, and poured out the libations. The hymns of the Rig Veda are for this class of priests. The second class of priests consisted of choristers (udgatri). They were the ones who chanted the sacred hymns and the hymns of the Sama Veda are for this class of priests. The third class of priests consisted of reciters (adhvaryu). While they carried out sacrificial rites, they chanted sacred texts and the hymns of the Yajur Veda are for this class of priests. The fourth class of priests consisted of brahmana overseers. They supervised the sacrifice and the hymns of the Atharva Veda are for this class of priests.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Atharva Veda was first revealed to Atharvan, the Angirasa and the Bhrigus. The text obtains its name from Atharvan. The Atharva Veda is also known as Brahma Veda. This is because the hymns of the text were meant for the brahmana overseers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unlike the other Vedas, in addition to the prayers, the Atharva Veda contains charms and spells. It is almost as if the Atharva Veda used to be recited to counteract evil influences during the course of a sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: Introduction to &lt;a href=&quot;https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/B01L4FV8RS&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Atharva Veda&lt;/a&gt; by Bibek Debroy and Dipavali Debroy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-10-15T20:28:10.663" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="406" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-23T13:06:40.163" Score="12" ViewCount="464" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is one sloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saurashtre Somanatham cha Srisaile Mallikarjunam|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shankaram|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Setu Bandhe tu Ramesam, Nagesam Darukavane|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Varanasyantu Vishwesam, Tryambakam Gautamee thate|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Himalaye tu Kedaaram, Ghrishnesam cha shivaalaye|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Etani jyotirlingani, Saayam Praatah Patennarah|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sapta Janma Kritam pApam, Smaranena Vinashyati Ujjayinya Mahakalam Omkaram amaleswaram|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Paralyam Vaidyanatham cha, Dakinyam Bheema&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the question is, on what basis was the order decided? And I also heard that Somnath Mahadev has higher values then other Shiva lingas. Is that true? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T02:39:58.860" LastActivityDate="2014-10-03T03:38:26.960" Title="Why is Somnath of higher value than other Shiva lingas?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="407" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="441" CreationDate="2014-06-23T13:39:41.087" Score="29" ViewCount="43567" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of my friends told me that you are either born as a Hindu or not: You cannot convert from any other religion to Hinduism or the other way round. Is something of that sort mentioned in the Vedas or any other religious text?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="162" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-04-25T20:14:22.050" LastActivityDate="2023-04-25T20:14:22.050" Title="Is it true that one can not convert to Hinduism from any other religion or vice versa?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|conversion|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="408" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="409" CreationDate="2014-06-23T13:48:28.170" Score="13" ViewCount="2559" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many festivals in Hinduism. But some of them are considered very important. One of them is Diwali, a festival of lights. What is the significance of the festival? Why is it celebrated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T02:33:41.637" LastActivityDate="2023-07-14T09:00:18.620" Title="What is the significance of the festival Diwali? Why is it celebrated?" Tags="|festivals|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="409" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="408" CreationDate="2014-06-23T13:48:28.170" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Diwali is also known as &lt;em&gt;Dipavali&lt;/em&gt; which is a Sanskrit word formed from &lt;em&gt;dipa&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;light&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;lamp&lt;/em&gt;) and &lt;em&gt;avali&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;row&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;series&lt;/em&gt;). Hence, it means a &quot;&lt;em&gt;row of lights&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. There are many beliefs behind the festival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is celebrated for the return of the lord Rama from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanvas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;vanvas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is also celebrated for the return of &lt;em&gt;Pandavas&lt;/em&gt; from 12 years &lt;em&gt;vanvas&lt;/em&gt; as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is celebrated for the victory of Goodness over Evil and Light over Darkness.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is also ends a year and begins new year of Hindu calendar.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is celebrated in other religious like Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism as well (for different significance).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Diwali is a 5-day festival (in most areas of India).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dhanteras:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;Dhan&lt;/em&gt; means wealth and &lt;em&gt;Teras&lt;/em&gt; is the 13th* day of the last month of &lt;em&gt;Vikram Samvat&lt;/em&gt;, which is the Hindu calendar. It is celebrated for goddess Lakshmi, goddess of wealth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kali Chaudas:&lt;/strong&gt; aka &lt;em&gt;Choti Diwali&lt;/em&gt;. Demon Narakasura was killed by the lord Krishna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Diwali:&lt;/strong&gt; As said above: Commemorates the return of Lord Rama to his hometown (Ayodhya) from 14 years of exile in the forest, after defeating the evil demon king Ravana of Lanka. It is the end of the year in the &lt;em&gt;Vikram Samvat&lt;/em&gt; calendar.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Padwa:&lt;/strong&gt; Celebrates the victory of the lord Krishna over Indra, the deity of thunder and rain, by lifting Govardhana Hill with his little finger to save people from the floods. It's the new year of the &lt;em&gt;Vikram Samvat&lt;/em&gt; calendar.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhai Duj:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;Bhai&lt;/em&gt; means brother and &lt;em&gt;Duj&lt;/em&gt; means 2nd (2nd day of the new year). It is a celebration of a loving brother-sister relationship in a similar spirit to &lt;em&gt;Raksha Bandhan&lt;/em&gt; but with different rituals.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before this 5-day festival, people clean their homes, offices etc. During the festival people decorate their homes, offices with lights, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File%3aLights_and_Reflections_Diwali_India_November_2013.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;diya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File%3aDiwali_decorations_flower_with_diya_in_the_middle_India_November_2012.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rangoli&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. People celebrate Diwali with crackers (firecrackers). Padwa is also known as Annakut (a mountain of food). Devotees celebrate this day by creating &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.baps.org/Data/Sites/1/Media/GalleryImages/7260/WebImages/london_annakut_13_038f.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Annakut&lt;/a&gt; for the God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;* 1 to 15 days come twice in a month in the calendar (Vikram Samvat). &lt;em&gt;Dhanteras&lt;/em&gt; is the second 13th day of the month.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T02:36:36.357" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T02:36:36.357" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="410" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="415" CreationDate="2014-06-23T13:50:04.070" Score="18" ViewCount="102315" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been told that there are 16 sanskaar (sacraments of life) described in the great texts of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am aware of &lt;em&gt;naamkaran&lt;/em&gt; (naming ceremony), &lt;em&gt;janeu&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;yagnopavit&lt;/em&gt; (sacred thread), &lt;em&gt;vivah&lt;/em&gt; (marriage) and &lt;em&gt;antim sanskar&lt;/em&gt; (cremation). Please explain in brief what are all the 16 sanskars and how does one accomplish each of these rites of passages?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="162" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-05-12T01:03:42.130" LastActivityDate="2016-07-14T10:57:48.453" Title="What are the 16 sanskaar (Sacraments of Life) and How do you complete them?" Tags="|rituals|samskara|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="411" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="413" CreationDate="2014-06-23T14:16:39.667" Score="22" ViewCount="38160" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Ramayana, Lord Hanuman was a &lt;em&gt;Brahmachari&lt;/em&gt; (celibate/bachelor). Why did he decide to spend his life as a celibate? What is the reason behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2022-11-05T05:42:07.930" LastActivityDate="2022-11-05T05:42:07.930" Title="Why did Lord Hanuman decide to spend his life as a celebate?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|brahmacharya|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="412" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="385" CreationDate="2014-06-23T14:26:27.843" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;One reason for fasting is to atone for one's &lt;em&gt;papa&lt;/em&gt; (usually translated as sin). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in Mahabharata Santi Parva, section 36, Vyasa said, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By penances, religious rites, and gifts, O Bharata, a man may wash off his sins if he does not commit them again. By subsisting upon only one meal a day, that procured by mendicancy, by doing all his acts himself (without relying on the aid of a servant)....by becoming a brahmacharin and always ready for exertion, by casting off all malice, by sleeping on bare ground, by publishing his offence to the world, by doing all this for full 12 years, a person can cleanse himself from the sin of having slain a Brahmana. .....By living upon the scantiest meal every day for a space of six years, a person may be cleansed of that sin [2]. By observing a harder vow with regard to food one may be cleansed in three years [3]. By living upon one meal a month, one may be cleansed in course of only a year. By observing again an absolute fast, one may be cleansed within a very short time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF: Ganguli's translation of Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section 36&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[2] Ganguli remarks in a foot note that the rule laid down is that he should eat in the morning for the first three days, in the evening for the second three days, eat nothing but what is got without soliciting for the next three days and fast altogether for the three days that follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[3] The harder rule referred to is eating in the morning for seven days; in the evening for the next seven days; eating what is got without soliciting for the next seven days; and fasting altogether for the next seven days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T02:32:46.873" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T02:32:46.873" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="413" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="411" CreationDate="2014-06-23T14:29:13.450" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Hanuman was technically not a bachelor (&lt;em&gt;Brahmachari&lt;/em&gt;). His wife was Suvarchala&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/hanuman-was-married-to-whom/45652&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;¹&lt;/a&gt; who was the daughter of Surya (the Sun god). According to Surya, Suvarchala was an &lt;em&gt;ayonija&lt;/em&gt; (born without [the participation] of the &lt;em&gt;yoni&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because he wanted to learn &lt;em&gt;Nava Vyakarnas&lt;/em&gt; (the 9 Grammar Rules), he has to marry, and being an &lt;em&gt;Aajanma Brahmachari&lt;/em&gt; (life-long bachelor), Hanuman was not eligible to study it. Surya grants him a boon that he will still be a bachelor even after marriage as a &lt;em&gt;Prajapatya Brahmachari&lt;/em&gt; and will maintain his celibacy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uzrBe.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Hanuman's Marriage Picture&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="162" LastEditorUserId="162" LastEditDate="2022-11-04T20:20:29.007" LastActivityDate="2022-11-04T20:20:29.007" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="414" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="407" CreationDate="2014-06-23T14:44:13.680" Score="24" Body="&lt;p&gt;Of course someone can convert to Hinduism. Some of the most famous Bengali Vaishnava masters are ex-muslims. &lt;strong&gt;One example is Haridas Thakur a direct disciple of Sri Chaitanya. Another example is the millions of Indonesians who have converted to Hinduism over the centuries.&lt;/strong&gt; Even in recent times Swami Vivekananda has said the non-Hindus can convert to Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I want to see you Swami&quot;, I began, &quot;on this matter of receiving back into Hinduism those who have been perverted from it. Is it your opinion they should be received?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Certainly&quot;, said the Swami (Vivekananda),&quot; they can and aught to be&#xA;  taken.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He sat gravely for a moment, thinking, and then resumed, &quot;Besides,&quot; he&#xA;  said, &quot;we shall otherwise decrease in numbers. When the Mohammedans first came, we are said -- I think on the authority of Ferishta, the oldest Mohammedan historian --- to have been six hundred millions of hindus. Now we are about two hundred millions. And then every man getting out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the more. Again the vast majority of Hindu perverts to Islam and Christianity are perverts by the sword, or to the descendents of these. It would be obviously unfair to subject these to disabilities of any kind. As to the case of born aliens, did you say? Why, born aliens have been converted in the past by crowds, and the process is still going on. In my own opinion, this statement not only applies to aboriginal tribes, to outlying nations, and to almost all our conquerors before the Mohammedan conquest, but also to all those castes who find a special origin in the Puranas. I hold that they have been aliens thus adopted. Ceremonies of expiation are no doubt suitable in the case of&#xA;  willing converts, returning to their Mother church, as it were; but on those who were alienated by conquest-- as in Kashmir and Nepal -- or on strangers wishing to join us, no penance should be imposed.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;― Vivekananda (Complete Works V, p233, interview given in &quot;Prabuddha&#xA;Bharat&quot;, April, 1899)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A princess of Java recently (2017) converted to Hinduism.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.currentriggers.com/world/indonesia-princess-java-became-hindu/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.currentriggers.com/world/indonesia-princess-java-became-hindu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2018-02-01T14:18:02.860" LastActivityDate="2018-02-01T14:18:02.860" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="415" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="410" CreationDate="2014-06-23T15:28:51.877" Score="25" Body="&lt;p&gt;The 16 samskaras are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Garbhadhana&lt;/strong&gt; (Conception)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara is performed by parents and consists of fervent prayer for a child in order to fulfil the obligation to continue the human race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Punsavana&lt;/strong&gt; (Fetus protection)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara is performed during the third or fourth month of pregnancy. A priest recites Vedic hymns to invoke divine qualities in the child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Simantonnayana&lt;/strong&gt; (Satisfying the cravings of the pregnant mother)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara is similar to a baby shower, and is, performed during the seventh month of pregnancy when prayers are offered to God for the healthy physical and mental growth of the child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. Jatakarma&lt;/strong&gt; (Child birth)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantras are recited for a healthy and long life of the child at his birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5. Namakaran&lt;/strong&gt; (Naming the child)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name for the baby is selected such that its meaning can inspire the child to follow the path of righteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6. Nishkramana&lt;/strong&gt; (Taking the child outdoors for the first time)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara is performed in the fourth month after birth when the child is moved outside the house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7. Annaprasana&lt;/strong&gt; (Giving solid food)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the sixth, seventh or eighth month child is given solid food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8. Mundan&lt;/strong&gt; (Hair cutting)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is performed during the first or third year of age when the child's hair is removed by shaving.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9. Karnavedha&lt;/strong&gt; (Ear piercing)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara  is performed in the third or fifth year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;10. Upanayana&lt;/strong&gt; (Sacred thread ceremony)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This introduces the male child to a teacher in order to receive education and marking the entry of the child to Brahmacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;11. Vedarambha&lt;/strong&gt; (Study of Vedas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara is performed at the time of Upanayana or within one year. The Guru teaches the Gayatri Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;12. Samavartana&lt;/strong&gt; (Returning home after completion of education)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara is performed at the age of about 25 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;13. Vivaha&lt;/strong&gt; (Marriage)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;14. Vanaprastha&lt;/strong&gt; (Preparation for renunciation)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara is performed at the age of 50 to celebrate the departure from the householder stage to the Vanaprastha stage when the person begins to engage in spiritual activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;15. Sannyasa&lt;/strong&gt; (Renunciation)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara is performed after Vanaprastha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;16. Antyesthi&lt;/strong&gt; (Cremation)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the final samskara performed after death by his or her descendents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF: &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8178220075&quot;&gt;The Hindu Mind by Bansi Pandit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="68" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T07:43:17.327" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T07:43:17.327" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="416" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-23T18:35:30.330" Score="7" ViewCount="14194" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Shiva temples, special poojas are performed during &lt;em&gt;Pradhosham&lt;/em&gt;. What is the reason behind observing Pradhosham? Are there any specific requirements that ought to be observed during Pradhosham? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T03:06:46.623" LastActivityDate="2016-02-01T10:18:25.903" Title="What is the significance of Pradhosham?" Tags="|rituals|shiva|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="417" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="424" CreationDate="2014-06-23T19:18:19.193" Score="13" ViewCount="2360" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've rarely seen idols of Lord Ganesha with his trunk turning towards the right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, people say that Ganesha idols having the trunk turning towards the right should be given extra care in the form of daily worship, and similarly, they have to look after the idol carefully. Why is that so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, we have Siddhivinayak temple here where Lord Ganesha's  trunk turns to the right:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2EJGn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2EJGnl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Siddhivinayak&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Compared to Lal Baugh cha Raja where the trunk turns towards the left:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IqkxG.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Lal Baugh cha Raja&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T05:40:18.873" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T05:40:18.873" Title="Why do idols of Lord Ganesha only rarely have the trunk turning to the right?" Tags="|rituals|ganesha|art|symbolism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="418" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="442" CreationDate="2014-06-23T20:20:19.257" Score="30" ViewCount="33534" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, all male brahmins are required to go through an &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initiation&quot;&gt;initiation&lt;/a&gt; called &lt;strong&gt;thread ceremony&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana&quot;&gt;upanayanam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; or yagnopachhedan) in which their heads are shaved before they are given &lt;strong&gt;the sacred thread&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;janeva, yajñopavītam (यज्ञोपवीतम्)&lt;/strong&gt; or upavīta), to wear on their torso for the rest of their lives. I have also seen some non-brahmins wearing one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sacred thread is called by other names depending upon the region and community; a few of which are &lt;em&gt;Bratabandha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Janivaara&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Jandhyam, Poita, Pūṇūl, Janeu, Lagun, Yajnopavita, Yagyopavit, Yonya and Zunnar&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind the thread ceremony (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana&quot;&gt;upanayanam&lt;/a&gt;), especially the shaving of the head?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance and origin of the practice of wearing a &lt;em&gt;janeva&lt;/em&gt; (yajñopavītam)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="41" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-21T22:38:39.660" LastActivityDate="2022-07-08T07:19:39.127" Title="What is the significance of the janeva (sacred thread)?" Tags="|rituals|practice|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="419" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="433" CreationDate="2014-06-24T01:17:35.733" Score="20" ViewCount="4686" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parashurama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parashurama&lt;/a&gt; is a famous avatara (incarnation) of Vishnu who killed the Kshatriyas (kings) of the world twenty-one times.  Since he had defeated all the rulers of the world, he obtained control of the entire Earth.  But I'm interested in what happened to the Earth afterward.  The immediate aftermath seems clear: to repent for the sin of killing all those people, Parashurama conducted an Ashwamedha Yagna (horse ritual), performed by sage Kashyapa (the ancestor of many gods and demons), and then Parashurama gave the earth to Kashyapa as a gift for performing the yagna.  This is well-attested in many scriptures: In the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, Parashurama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga75/bala_75_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; to Rama &quot;I gave all that earth to sage Kashyapa, a sage with divine soul and with pious observances, as a ritualistic-generosity.&quot;  The Vana Parva of the Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03117.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;And the exterminator of the [Kshatriyas] possessed of immense strength, bestowed the earth upon the high-souled Kasyapa, and then became engaged in penance of an exceedingly severe form.&quot;  Finally, the Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/9/16/21-22&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; Parashurama dividing the earth among Kashyapa and the priests working under him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what happened to the Earth after Parashurama gave it to Kashyapa?  The next major mythological event that occurred was Ravana taking over the three worlds, as described in the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana.  So how did Ravana take over the earth?  Did he take it directly from Kashyapa, or were there some intermediate stages between Kashyapa's control of the earth and Ravana's?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Ravana did take over the world from Kashyapa, then I think it may have been a voluntary transfer (akin to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/392/36&quot;&gt;how Ravana got the island of Lanka&lt;/a&gt;), because there are legends (I don't know whether they're based in scripture) that Ravana and Parashurama were friends. so it's possible that Parashurama simply told Kashyapa to give the earth to Ravana.  But that's just speculation.  Are there any other scriptures that detail how custody of the earth went from Kashyapa to Ravana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-10-20T20:41:24.013" Title="What did Kashyapa do with the Earth after he received it from Parashurama?" Tags="|ramayana|mahabharata|parashurama|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="420" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="391" CreationDate="2014-06-24T04:06:48.030" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scripture is made up of two categories, Shruti and Smriti.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shruti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shruti&lt;/a&gt; means &quot;that which is heard&quot; (what Christians would call &quot;revelation&quot;).  Hindus believe that from time immemorial, sages known as Dhrishtas (literally &quot;seers&quot;) have, during a state of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapasya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tapasya&lt;/a&gt; (deep meditation), heard sacred verses directly from the gods.  In the Dwapara Yuga (the age before the one we're currently living in), these verses were compiled by a sage named &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna Dwaipayana Veda Vyasa&lt;/a&gt; (or Vyasa for short) into a set of four books we call &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Vedas&lt;/a&gt;.  (Technically Vyasa only compiled the first three books - Rig, Yajur, and Sama - while the Atharvana Veda is attributed to the sages &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiras_%28sage%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Angiras&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atharvan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharvan&lt;/a&gt;.)  As the words of the Vedas are believed to be divine in origin, they are held to be the foremost authority of the Hindu religion.  As Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga109/ayodhyaitrans109.htm#Verse14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in the Ayodhya Kanda of the Ramayana, the Vedas &quot;have the foundation in Truth [and] one should thoroughly surrender to truth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second category of Hindu scripture is called &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smriti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smriti&lt;/a&gt;, literally &quot;that which is remembered&quot;.  It refers to those sacred texts of Hinduism which were composed by human authors and then passed down by teacher to student via oral tradition.  Note that just because the specific words of these scriptures were composed by humans, that does not mean that they're not divinely inspired.  (It's similar to how in the Bible, the words &quot;I am the Lord thy God who delivered thee from Egypt&quot; are thought to be words that God himself chose, whereas the Torah as a whole is believed to be authored by Moses but inspired by God.)  There are numerous works that are called Smriti, but among the most prominent works are the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Puranas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note: this is an abbreviated version of my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/64/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, where I go into greater about the scriptures that fall into each category.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T04:06:48.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="421" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="368" CreationDate="2014-06-24T04:24:09.147" Score="6" Body="&lt;h2&gt;No, they are not the same!&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God is the supreme fundamental entity, known as Brahman (not Brahmā), from which everything in the universe, including the universe itself, comes forth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante yena jātāni jīvanti&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    yatprayantyabhisaṃviśanti tadvijijñāsasva tadbrahmeti&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up. -&#xA;  3.1]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    That from which all these beings are born, having born by which they live, That into which having departed they enter, seek to know&#xA;  That, That is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;janmādyasya yataḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Brh. Su. - 1.1.2]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -- From where origin etc. take place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;While God is the cause of the universe, devi-devta (gods and goddesses) are part of the universe itself.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence, God is the source of all gods, goddesses and sages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;aham ādir hi devānāṁ maharṣīṇāṁ ca sarvaśaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG -10.2]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   I am indeed the source of gods and sages in every respect.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Some differences&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are not eternal and came into existence just like us. Just like we exist on &lt;em&gt;bhu-loka&lt;/em&gt; (earth), they are believed to exist in the &lt;em&gt;swarga-loka&lt;/em&gt; (heaven). While God is the Supreme Being, gods and goddesses are one kind of higher beings like the &lt;em&gt;pitaras&lt;/em&gt; (manes). While all of us, including the gods and higher beings are under the influence of &lt;em&gt;māyā&lt;/em&gt; (illusion), God is the lord of &lt;em&gt;māyā&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mama māyā duratyayā&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 7.14]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  My illusory energy is difficult to overcome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;māyinaṃ tu maheśvaraṃ&lt;/em&gt; [Sve. Up. - 4.10]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  But God is the lord of &lt;em&gt;māyā&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While gods and goddesses are propitiated by sacrifices and rituals, God being the source of everything needs nothing from us. But if one wants to attain God (&lt;em&gt;parameswara&lt;/em&gt;), then only through devotion He can be achieved:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;na sādhayati māṃ yogo na sāṅkhyaṃ dharma uddhava&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     na svādhyāyas tapas tyāgo yathā bhaktir mamorjitā&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.14.20]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Neither yoga brings Me under control, nor knowledge and virtue. O Uddhava, neither study of the scriptures, nor penance and renunciation brings Me under control like unalloyed devotion to Me does.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Number of God and gods&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God being the supreme fundamental entity is one without a second:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ekam advitiyam brahma&lt;/em&gt; [Chg. Up - 6.2.1] - Brahma is one without a second&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;brahmaitad advitīyaḿ&lt;/em&gt;  [SB - 11.9.31] - This Brahma is one without a second&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But gods and goddesses of higher planes of existences being manifested beings just like us, are innumerable in number. However, just like we have a countable number of authorities (presidents or prime ministers) for every country, there is a specific number of gods who have authority over many aspects of our world. The scripture [&lt;em&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - 3.9&lt;/em&gt;] gives the number as thirty three (33) and states that the other form of gods (3306) are just their powers:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कतमेतेत्रयश्च त्रीच शतात्रयश्च त्रीच सहस्रेति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Which are the three&#xA;  hundred three and three thousand three gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सहोवाच महिमान एवइषामेते,त्रयस्त्रिंशत्त्वेवदेवाइति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    He (Yajnavalkya) said, &quot;Those are their powers, but gods are only thirty three.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कतमेतेत्रयस्त्रिंशदित्य्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Which are the thirty three?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अष्टउवसव ,एकादश रुद्रा ,द्वादशादित्यास् , तएकत्रिंशद् , इन्द्रश्चैवप्रजापतिश्च त्रयस्त्रिंशाविति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;Eight Vasus, eleven Rudras, twelve Adityas&lt;/strong&gt;. These are thirty one, &lt;strong&gt;Indra and Prajapati&lt;/strong&gt; make it thirty three.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T04:24:09.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="422" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="411" CreationDate="2014-06-24T04:25:16.147" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I agree with mjosh, Lord Hanuman is married to Suvarchala Devi. Because He Himself is a god(rudra amsa), who has self realization, decided to live a noble life with no space to world marital pleasures. For Him Rama seva(service) is everything and dedicated His entire life in Rama seva. He is not bramhachari but practices bramhacharya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanathana dharma recommends bramhacharya as it keeps all sensory organs, mind, heart under one's own control. It boosts memory and gives mental &amp;amp; physical stability and strength. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="65" LastEditDate="2014-07-15T06:54:48.253" LastActivityDate="2014-07-15T06:54:48.253" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="423" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="416" CreationDate="2014-06-24T04:29:55.997" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Pradosha_Kalam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;hindupedia&lt;/a&gt;,  If, the period between sunset to next sunrise is divided into 5 equal parts, the first part is called &lt;em&gt;Pradosha Kalam&lt;/em&gt; and it denotes the end of day time and the beginning of night. This is also called the period of &lt;em&gt;Asuras&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Raaksha Neram&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pradosha Kaalam&lt;/em&gt; is that period of time during which Lord Shiva is known to have evolved out of His unsteady state (due to the effect of the poison he had consumed) and performing &lt;em&gt;Ananda Thandava&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Tandavam&lt;/em&gt; is the dance of Lord Shiva) on top of his &lt;em&gt;Rishabha Vahana&lt;/em&gt; (Sacred Nandi Bull). During this &lt;em&gt;pradosha&lt;/em&gt; time, Lord Shiva is known to be in the most ecstatic of moods as he has been successful in saving mankind from the ill effects of the Poison '&lt;em&gt;hala&lt;/em&gt;'. His &lt;em&gt;Ananda Thandava&lt;/em&gt; blesses all the three worlds and the &lt;em&gt;Devathas&lt;/em&gt; in turn pray to him.&#xA;Lord Shiva is known to be very generous giving away &lt;em&gt;Vardhan&lt;/em&gt; (boons), although, he would test his devotees to the core. To those devotees who pray to him during the &lt;em&gt;Pradosha Kaalam&lt;/em&gt;, duly observing fast, performing puja, chanting of &lt;em&gt;Rudram&lt;/em&gt;, visiting sacred places of interest, He brings prosperity and happiness in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-03T03:33:23.243" LastActivityDate="2014-10-03T03:33:23.243" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="424" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="417" CreationDate="2014-06-24T05:22:35.410" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganesha Idols exhibits both, right handed and left handed trunk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Right handed trunk&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These idols are called &lt;em&gt;Dakshinamurthy&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Dakshi­nabhimukhi&lt;/em&gt;, which means they are south facing. South direction leads to &lt;em&gt;Yamalok&lt;/em&gt; (the abode of Yam, Lord of Death) while right direction symbolizes &lt;em&gt;Surya Nadi&lt;/em&gt; (The Solar Channel), which gives radiant glow to the person who has activated it. &#xA;It's for this reason, such Ganesh Idols are caled Jagrut (active).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-is-ganapati-with-the-right-sided-trunk-not-commonly-worshipped.html&quot;&gt;Hindujagruti&lt;/a&gt; says about right handed Ganesha Idols not worshipped, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The dakshinabhimukhi idol is not worshipped ritualistically in the usual manner because &lt;em&gt;tiryak&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;raja&lt;/em&gt;) frequencies are emitted from the south. The ritualistic worship of this idol is performed by observing all the norms of ritualistic worship meticulously. Consequently the &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; component is augmented and one is not distressed by the &lt;em&gt;raja&lt;/em&gt; frequencies coming from the south.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Left handed trunk&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These murties are called Vamamukhi, which means North facing. Left signifies Chandra Nadi (The Moon Channel) which signifies bliss and &lt;em&gt;Ananda&lt;/em&gt; (happiness). This idol can be worshipped ritualistically.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T05:22:35.410" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="425" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="426" CreationDate="2014-06-24T05:34:53.067" Score="19" ViewCount="43758" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen people pouring milk on the Shivling. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qbcqc.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;Image taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://shivmandirsarthali.com/?page_id=26&quot;&gt;shivmandirsarthali.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T04:24:19.707" LastActivityDate="2017-07-18T02:08:53.533" Title="What is the significance of pouring milk on the Shivling?" Tags="|shiva|practice|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="426" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="425" CreationDate="2014-06-24T05:34:53.067" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://shivmandirsarthali.com/?page_id=26&quot;&gt;shivmandirsarthali.com&lt;/a&gt;: (emphasis mine)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abhishek is a Sanskrit term denoting a devotional activity of giving Holy bath to a deity. It literally means “to cleanse.” Before starting the ritual, a devotee washes his hands and pours water over the Ling. However, &lt;strong&gt;this practice is not to cleanse the Ling, as God doesn’t need any cleansing. He is the purest—but it is an implication of cleaning &lt;em&gt;oneself&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Later milk is poured on the Shiv Ling, which is a connotation of &lt;strong&gt;purifying one’s life and washing all the sins from oneself&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The practice is not to clean the Ling but the person itself. It washes all the sins from oneself and purify one's life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T05:34:53.067" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="428" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-24T05:38:56.270" Score="6" ViewCount="258" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are very few references as to how the rules for Devalaya Vastu (देवालय वस्तु) were written. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any insights on who the original authors were, how and why they wrote the very specific rules that govern the construction of Hindu temples would be great.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="160" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T06:11:27.733" LastActivityDate="2015-03-10T05:52:48.403" Title="How were the rules for Devalaya Vastu forged?" Tags="|rituals|temple|art|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="429" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="689" CreationDate="2014-06-24T05:54:11.530" Score="6" ViewCount="194" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many epic stories, sages always do &lt;em&gt;yajnas&lt;/em&gt;. What is the reason behind it? I am assuming there might be a universal reason such as &quot;for the good of the realm&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does someone know the exact reason?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T07:12:06.193" LastActivityDate="2018-12-01T11:38:00.773" Title="Why did saints used to do Yajna?" Tags="|rituals|yajna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="430" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-24T06:11:29.237" Score="12" ViewCount="2361" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know and understand, the Sanskrit word &quot;&lt;em&gt;lingam&lt;/em&gt;&quot; लिन्गम्  means the genital organ of a human or an animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the &lt;em&gt;Shivling&lt;/em&gt; the same thing? If this is so, what is the significance behind this portrayal and how did worshipping the &lt;em&gt;Shivling&lt;/em&gt; become a common practice today?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="58" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T04:27:32.060" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T19:16:55.683" Title="What is a Shivling?" Tags="|shiva|practice|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-02-16T04:25:19.740" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="431" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="430" CreationDate="2014-06-24T06:30:17.537" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Etymology of Linga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Before entering into an explanation of Shiva Linga, I have to say a few words on the meaning of the word Linga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Linga is derived from the Sanskrit root Lika which means to sculpt or to paint, and Linga means one that sculptures or paints. God being the Sculptor of the Universe, He is known as Linga, and this word has become ultimately to mean any form or symbol that represents Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It has become in a later stage to mean any sign or symbol, in a general sense, and it is in this sense the word is used now. Refer to any dictionary, Sanskrit or Tamil and you will find the meaning of the word as a symbol or mark - a சின்னம், a குறி. The word is used in this sense by Lexicographers, Grammarians and Logicians; and it may even be found as a technical term used in this sense in Hindu Logic. Lingapattiam is the name of a commentary on the meanings of Sanskrit words, and one could clearly see in what sense the word is used as the title of that Book. But of course, in course of time, the word happened to convey other meanings as well and among them that of the generative organ, by the common law of degeneration of words which is not peculiar to Tamil or Sanskrit alone. Even then, this degenerated import of the word is not its chief meaning, but it is only a secondary one of very rare use. How the word happened to be used in this sense could itself be easily traced. There is an etymological rule in Tamil known as இடக்கரடக்கல் which is a form of decorum used in giving expression to objects which would not admit of open mention. The genital organ came to be referred according to this rule as இலிஙம் or குறி, and the use of these words in this sense has become a fashion in course of time. Not only the word Lingam but the word Kuri itself is used in this sense; but no one who has any idea of Tamil will contend that every Kuri is a genital organ. The word Kuri means punctuation, a brand mark, and I am sure that no punctuation will ever be said to represent a genital organ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another derivation, of the word Lingam is Ling, which means involution, and Gam, which means evolution. So, that Lingam is the principle of involution and evolution combined together, and such a combination can only be traced to God, the primordial cause of the whole Jagat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It could thus be clearly seen that the radical meaning of the word Lingam does not in the least convey any sense applicable to the generative organ, but, on the contrary, the real meaning of the word may be found so sublime and so deep that it will immensely benefit one to scrutinize the word and learn its meaning analytically.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Meaning of the Shiva Linga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So far for the word Lingam. I will now proceed to explain, as briefly as I can, the meaning of Shiva Lingam, but I must say at the outset that this object has a large stock of mysticism about it which can only be explained by an adept for whose qualifications I have the least pretence. Shiva Lingam is explained at great length by Shiva Agamas and several Puranas; and the Vedas themselves could be found to have their own explanation of Shiva Lingam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is the main principle of Hindu philosophy - and I am sure that principle is admitted by all religions -, that every particle of this great Jagat is moved by God. There cannot be any movement without God, and the existence of the universe would be altogether impossible without Divine energy. The principle of creation has been very minutely and systematically described in our sastras according to which Shiva Linga is the embodiment of the cosmic creation. There was the Nirguna Brahm; and there was the primordial cosmic element called Maya. What was the course taken by the Divine Energy in producing the cosmic world out of Maya? Maya is an extremely subtle matter without any form or shape, and it is of two kinds - Suddha Maya and Asuddha Maya - or the lower and upper Maya. This Maya is in the presence of Shivam or Nirguna Brahma and that of its Sakti or Divine Energy. This Sakti having energized Suddha Maya, the mundane egg of the universe was formed. This was Nadha or the principle of sound. This was what is known as Nama or name - the first expression of limitation. From this Nadha or Name came out Bhindu or Rupa i.e., the form - the second stage of limitation. This name and form - Nama and Rupa - is what is known as Omkara Pranava; and this is the seed and seat of all matter and force. The Nadha is represented by a line and the Bhindu by a disc. It is this Nadha or vibration that is known as Linga and Bhindu is what is known as its Pita. This Lingam with its Pitam or the principle of Name and Form is still beyond comprehension, and the form that could be comprehended a little better came out of the Bindhu above referred to in the order of evolution. This is what is known as Sadakkiam or SadaShivam. This is Rupa-Rupam, or with shape and without shape. From this SadaShivam came out Maheswara. With fully developed form, from him Rudra, in the region of Asuddha Maya, from him Vishnu, and from him, Brahma. These nine different phases or Navapitam are the different stages of evolution which the great God - or properly speaking - His Sakti - assumed in manifesting Itself to the souls - or in fact to excite their intelligence, and evolve this Jagat or universe out of Maya. The different actions in the region of Suddha Maya are performed by SadaShivam and Maheswara, while those in the lower Asuddha Maya by Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma - the Hindu triad. It could thus be seen what position the Nadha and Bhindhu hold in the order of cosmic evolution. These two principles as I have already said are known as Pranava - Nadha representing Nama, and Bhindhu representing Rupa - and it is this Pranava that is represented by Shiva Lingam. Nadham or the principle of egg - is represented by a line and Bhindhu, the next stage, by a disc. The line is the Linga and the disc is the Pita. We know that the principle of all writings in any language is embodied in this line and disc. Can we with any sense of correct knowledge call this Linga an emblem of generative organ? I am sorry that our critics are unable to form an idea of the creative principle except through the genital organ. You will see that in the order of evolution above out-lined, no fully developed form is manifested until the stage of Maheswara is reached.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting S.Sabaratna Mudaliyar in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mamandram.org/shiva/lecture-on-shiva-linga.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lecture on the Shiva Linga&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="167" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T04:28:53.507" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T04:28:53.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="432" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="430" CreationDate="2014-06-24T06:36:33.910" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gurjari.net/ico/Mystica/html/shivalinga.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; page explains,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Linga means &quot;sign, mark, or symbol&quot;. It also refers to a digging&#xA;  implement or plough. Since the plough readies the earth for&#xA;  insemination, the word linga is also applied to the phallus,&#xA;  particularly as the phallic emblem of Shiva. Though Shiva is&#xA;  considered the destroyer (Trimurti) according to Hindu belief,&#xA;  creation (Srishti) follows destruction. The linga is therefore&#xA;  associated with the sexual union of Shiva and Parvati, which results&#xA;  in creation. It is a symbol of the procreative power of the universe.&#xA;  Linga is derived from the Sanskrit word lingam, which comes from li&#xA;  meaning, &quot;to dissolve&quot; and gam &quot;to move on&quot;. This refers to the belief&#xA;  that one appears as a being in the world and then dissolves back into&#xA;  the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Shivalinga is phallus-shaped and fixed on a base, which is shaped&#xA;  like a yoni. The structure symbolises the supreme creative energy. It&#xA;  is usually made of stone but can also be of wood, metal, crystal, and&#xA;  soapstone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are various explanations as to why the linga represents Shiva.&#xA;  According to the Vamana Purana, after Sati's death, Shiva went to&#xA;  mourn in the forest. Seeing the virile god, the wives of the sages&#xA;  living in the forest were enamoured and followed Shiva around.&#xA;  Enraged, the sages cursed Shiva, causing his phallus to fall off. The&#xA;  moment it touched the ground, his phallus started growing. Soon the&#xA;  earth, unable to support its weight, began quivering. When Brahma and&#xA;  Vishnu realised why the earth was shaking, they requested Shiva to&#xA;  take back his phallus. Shiva consented to do so on the condition that&#xA;  the sages worshipped his phallus. He pronounced that nothing would be&#xA;  impossible for one who worshipped the Shivalinga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Linga Purana says that Brahma and Vishnu were once arguing over&#xA;  who was the supreme being. Suddenly, there appeared Sivalinga before&#xA;  them a huge column of fire. Both of them decided to find one end each.&#xA;  Whoever returned first would be acknowledged as supreme. Vishnu&#xA;  assumed the form of a boar and dug into the earth. Brahma, in the form&#xA;  of a swan, flew upwards. They searched for days but in vain. Then&#xA;  Shiva appeared in the fiery column. Brahma and Vishnu realised their&#xA;  mistake and acknowledged Shiva as the Supreme Being. The Shivalinga&#xA;  represents that column of fire Jyotirlinga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The phallic cult appears to have been prevalent in India since the&#xA;  Indus Valley Civilisation (c. 3000 BC - 700 BC). Emblems resembling&#xA;  the linga and yoni have been discovered in excavations of ancient&#xA;  cities. Although the Vedas are contemptuous of the linga because of&#xA;  its association with the phallus, later literature like the Puranas&#xA;  and tantric texts laud phallic worship. According to these texts,&#xA;  Brahma, Vishnu and other gods live at the site where Shiva exists in&#xA;  the form of a linga. The Vamana Purana says that during Chaturmasya,&#xA;  Shiva sleeps in all lingas. Therefore, praying at any linga during&#xA;  this time is considered especially auspicious. It is believed that the&#xA;  land within 100 cubits (about 160 ft) of a linga is very sacred and&#xA;  called Shivasthala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are approximately 30 million lingas in temples and shrines all&#xA;  over India. Most of them are named after the place where they are&#xA;  located or after the person who established them there. Lingas fall&#xA;  into three categories. The first are the Anadi or Svayambhu, or&#xA;  self-generated lingas. They are believed to be the most sacred and are&#xA;  said to have fallen from heaven. Next are the Sithavara, or fixed&#xA;  lingas. These are crafted and then, after an initiation ceremony done&#xA;  according to Puranic rites, installed at a sacred location. It is&#xA;  believed that once a linga is installed, it should never be moved as&#xA;  that would result in a calamity. The third category of lingas are the&#xA;  Jangam, or movable lingas. These are the miniature lingas, which are&#xA;  made of stone, clay, metal, or other material. They are worn as&#xA;  amulets and necklaces, or worshipped in the homes of Shiva's devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The actual worship of the Shivalinga begins with bathing it, first&#xA;  with water mixed with earth, and then with water mixed with the&#xA;  Panchagavya. The linga is then smeared with sandalwood paste. Next,&#xA;  flowers and leaves are offered especially bel leaves. Next comes the&#xA;  arati, followed by the devotee's prayer. Shiva is believed to be very&#xA;  hot-tempered: bathing the linga and applying sandalwood paste are&#xA;  believed to soothe him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="58" LastEditDate="2014-06-24T06:57:23.380" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T06:57:23.380" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="433" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="419" CreationDate="2014-06-24T07:32:44.810" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apparently the Mahabharata tells the story of Parashurama twice - once in the Vana Parva as I linked to in my question, but also once in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a049.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva.  And it's the second version that has the answer to my question.  It looks like after Kashyapa got control of the earth, Bhumidevi the goddess of the earth told Kashyapa to install certain Kshatriyas she deemed worthy as new kings of the earth, since the world had fallen into chaos in the absence of kings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When anarchy sets in on earth, the weak are oppressed by the strong, and no man is master of his own property. Unprotected duly by Kshatriyas observant of virtue, and oppressed by the wicked in consequence of that disorder, the earth quickly sank to the lowest depths. Beholding the earth sinking from fear, the high-souled Kasyapa held her on his lap; and since the great Rishi held her on his lap (uru) therefore is the earth known by the name of Urvi. The goddess earth, for protection's sake, gratified Kasyapa and begged of him a king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Earth said, &amp;quot;There are, O, regenerate one, some foremost of Kshatriyas concealed by me among women. They were born in the race of Haihayas. Let them, O sage, protect me. There is another person of Puru's race, viz., Viduratha's son, O puissant one, who has been brought up among bears in the Rikshavat mountains. Another, viz., the son of Saudasa, has been protected, through compassion, by Parasara of immeasurable energy and ever engaged in sacrifices. Though born in one of the regenerate orders, yet like a Sudra he does everything for that Rishi and has, therefore, been named Sarvakarman (servant of all work). Sivi's son of great energy, viz., Gopati by name, has been brought up in the forest among kine. Let him, O sage, protect me. Pratardana's son, named Vatsa of great might, has been brought up among calves in a cowpen. Let that one of the royal order protect me. Dadhivahana's grandson and Diviratha's son was concealed and protected on the banks of Ganga by the sage Gautama. His name is Vrihadratha. Possessed of great energy and adorned with numerous blessed qualities, that blessed prince has been protected by wolves and the mountains of Gridhrakuta. Many Kshatriyas belonging to the race of Maratta have been protected. Equal unto the lord of Maruts in energy, they have been brought up by Ocean. These children of the Kshatriya order have been heard of as existing in different places. They are living among artisans and goldsmiths. If they protect me I shall then stay unmoved. Their sires and grandsires have been slain for my sake by Rama Of great prowess. It is my duty, O great sage, to see that their funeral rites are duly performed. I do not desire that I should be protected by my present rulers. Do thou, O sage, speedily make such arrangements that I may exist (as before).&amp;quot; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sage Kasyapa then, seeking out those Kshatriyas of great energy whom the goddess had indicated, installed them duly as kings (for protecting her). Those Kshatriya races that are now extent are the progeny of those princes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(On a side note, the need for new kings in the wake of Parashurama was also behind the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnivansha#Legend&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;birth of the Rajputs&lt;/a&gt; according to legend.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up, the earth went from the hands of Kshatriyas to Parashurama, from Parashurama to Kashyapa, and then from Kashyapa back to the Kshatriyas.  That explains why Ravana had to conquer the earth kingdom by kingdom; the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana describes how Ravana defeated conquered various kingdoms by challenging their kings to battle, for instance defeating Rama's ancestor Anaranya as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/xbgY&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda.  (Anaranya put a curse on Ravana that his descendant would defeat him.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-05-19T13:56:56.303" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="434" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="129" CreationDate="2014-06-24T08:24:55.550" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;First let's establish that Rama did in fact take Indra's chariot.  The incident is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga102/yuddha_102_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana for his part, standing in his chariot struck Rama with thunderbolt-like arrows, as a cloud strikes gushes of rain on a huge mountain. With an attentive mind, Rama showered golden decked arrows, looking like blazing flames of fire, on Ravana in the battle-field. The gods, celestial musicians and kinnaras thought that the battle was not equal between Rama standing on the ground and Ravana fighting from a chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing their nectar-like words, the illustrious Indra, the chief of celestials then called Matali and spoke as follows: &quot;Go quickly with my chariot to Rama, who is standing on the earth. After reaching the earth, invite him to take his seat in the chariot and carry out a great service to the gods.&quot;&#xA;  Hearing the words of Indra, Matali, the charioteer of Indra, offering salutation to him by bowing his head, spoke then the following words: &quot;O Indra! Providing with green horses the excellent chariot, I will proceed then immediately and perform the duty of a charioteer to Rama.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then came the glorious and excellent chariot of Indra, having variegated body decked in gold, which was fitted with hundreds of tiny bells, with its pole of cat's eye gems shone like the morning sun, yoked to excellent green horses, having golden chaplets on their heads, having white whisks, covered with nets of gold, shining like the sun and bearing a flag-staff raised on a golden bamboo. Ascending the chariot, as enjoined by Indra and descending from paradise, Matali approached Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Matali, the charioteer of Indra, along with a whip in his hand, stayed in the chariot itself and joining his palms in salutation, spoke the following words to Rama. &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Indra has sent this chariot to you for your victory&lt;/strong&gt;, O the mighty and the glorious Rama, the destroyer of adversaries! Here is the great bow belonging to Indra, an armour shining as fire, some arrows as bright as sun and a stainless auspicious spear. O heroic king! Mounting this chariot with me as a charioteer, kill Ravana the king, as earlier Indra the lord of celestials killed the demons.&quot;&#xA;  Duly circumambulating that chariot (as a mark of respect) and offering his salutation, when thus spoken by Matali, &lt;strong&gt;Rama then ascended the chariot&lt;/strong&gt;, causing the three worlds to shine forth with his splendour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as for whether Rama violated any promise to or order from his father, I don't think he did.  All Kaikeyi &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga18/ayodhyasans18.htm#Verse37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;tells him&lt;/a&gt; to do, speaking on behalf of Dasaratha, is &quot;&lt;strong&gt;You have to leave this coronation function and dwell in the forest of Dandaka for fourteen years, wearing braided hair and covered with a hide.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;  And Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga19/ayodhyasans19.htm#Verse2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;responds&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Let it be, as you said it. I shall fulfill the king's promise, go to the forest from here to reside there, wearing braided hair and covered with a hide.&quot;  And he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga34/ayodhyasans34.htm#Verse43&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;tells&lt;/a&gt; Dasaratha &quot;I, as promised, fulfilling your command, shall live in the forest along with forest-dwellers for fourteen years.&quot;  So I don't see any promise that &quot;he shall not make use of any royal thing whatsoever&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now you could argue wearing the &quot;armour shining as fire&quot; would be a violation of the &quot;covered with a hide&quot; part.  But in any case, by the time Rama had defeated Ravana, his fourteen period of exile &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga119/yuddhasans119.htm#Verse14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;had ended&lt;/a&gt;.  And it's highly unlikely that the fourteenth year ended during the battle, so presumably it was already over when Rama accepted the chariot and armour.  So one way or another, Rama didn't do anything wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-18T19:34:12.913" LastActivityDate="2015-11-18T19:34:12.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="435" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-24T10:32:07.973" Score="30" ViewCount="5317" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva or Mahadev is generally considered a deity of &lt;em&gt;Sanyasi/yogis&lt;/em&gt;. Shiva himself is the greatest yogi and lives in &lt;em&gt;Smashan&lt;/em&gt;. But unlike most other Hindu gods, he has a proper family. Parvati is his wife, and he has two sons (Kartikeya and Ganesha) and one daughter (Ashoksundari).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I wonder why a Sanyasi god has a family while most other gods don't.? Even if they have family they a not generally portrayed as one!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt; @&lt;em&gt;AnkitSharma&lt;/em&gt; has given a nice answer but I already know what he is saying. I know that many gods have family &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;(note that many of them have children only, they never lived as a whole family)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. But Shiva family live with each other like any other normal family. And it had got so much popularity, in any Hindu family at least one of Shiva's family member is worshiped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know are there any historical reason such that &lt;em&gt;Aryan-Native mix-up&lt;/em&gt; or any &lt;em&gt;philosophical or mythological&lt;/em&gt; reasons behind it. Why Shiva a &lt;em&gt;Sanyasi&lt;/em&gt; (asectic) god (Many Shiva followers are also &lt;em&gt;Sanyasis&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; do not believe in family life) is associated with a concept such as marriage &amp;amp; family?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="133" LastEditorUserId="19480" LastEditDate="2020-01-16T23:30:31.220" LastActivityDate="2020-01-16T23:30:31.220" Title="Why Shiva (an asectic god) has family while most other Gods don't?" Tags="|shiva|belief|marriage|shaivism|sanyasi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="438" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="443" CreationDate="2014-06-24T14:16:29.930" Score="13" ViewCount="10594" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know more about Yami. It is believed that there was a twin sister of &lt;code&gt;Yama&lt;/code&gt; named &lt;code&gt;Yami&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="161" LastEditorUserId="161" LastEditDate="2023-02-10T03:30:03.923" LastActivityDate="2023-02-10T03:30:03.923" Title="Is Yami the twin sister of Yama?" Tags="|vedic-gods|yama|yami|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="440" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="159" CreationDate="2014-06-24T15:13:12.190" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is considered holy as it has been blessed by Lord Vishnu himself and burns away sins of a person. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulasi plant on earth is actually a form of Laxmi. As per Devi Bhagavatam, due to a quarrel among Saraswati, Ganga, Laxmi, Saraswati cursed Laxmi to be born as a plant and river on earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;brukṣarupā saridrupā bhaviṣyasi na saṃśya&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     viparītaṃ  tato druṣṭvā kiṃcinno vaktumarhasi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     saṃtiṣṭhati sabhāmadhye yathā vrukṣo yathā sarit&lt;/em&gt;   [DB - 9.6.32,33]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Seeing the opposite behavior of Ganga you are not saying anything in this assembly and  present as if a tree or river. So you will become the form of a tree and form of river without any doubt. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Laxmi being favorite of Vishnu, He then consoled Her by stating that everything had happened as predestined. So He told Her to go and be born and as a plant in India. &lt;strong&gt;She will be known as Tulasi and will be able to purify all the three worlds&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;trailokyapāvanīnāmnā tulasīti ca mahābhārate&lt;/em&gt; [DB - 9.6.48]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, as per Garuda Puran planting, preserving, watering, touching and worshipping Tulasi tree burns away a persons accumulated sins of many births:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रोपनात्पालनात्सेकान्नमःस्पर्श्नकीर्त्तनात्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    तुलसी दहते पापं न्रुणां जन्मार्जितं खग [GP - 2.28.9]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Bird (Garuda), by planting, preserving, watering, touching and worshipping, Tulasi burns away a person's accumulated sins of many birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Padma Purana &lt;strong&gt;Tulasi is favorite to Krishna or Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, it is a sacred plant for the Vaishnavas. Wherever Tulasi plant is planted ghosts and demons go away from that place. So due to such reasons it is considered holy and planted in almost every Hindu house. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-29T08:10:15.340" LastActivityDate="2016-10-29T08:10:15.340" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="441" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="407" CreationDate="2014-06-24T15:23:27.833" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, there is no bar in converting from any religion to Hinduism or vice-versa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas speak about &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mleccha&quot;&gt;Mlecchas&lt;/a&gt; as someone who is not Vedic and not Indian. Basically, mlecchas are people who speak an illegible language and not Sanskrit. The concept of geography, religion and language was all mixed with each other to be indistinguishable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism doesn't have a conversion ritual unlike similar ceremony in Christianity  or Islam which causes the inadvertent feeling of disbelief in the believer about his conversion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conversion only requires that person to accept the Hindu way of life and leading a &lt;em&gt;Dharmic&lt;/em&gt; life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref &#xA;1. &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books/about/Mlecchas_in_early_India.html?id=oAtuAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;redir_esc=y&quot;&gt;Mlecchas in Early India&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T15:23:27.833" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="442" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="418" CreationDate="2014-06-24T15:50:35.913" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;upa&quot; means near and &quot;nayanam&quot; means leading. So &lt;em&gt;Upanayam&lt;/em&gt; means &quot;leading near&quot;. It's one of the 13 &lt;em&gt;samskara&lt;/em&gt; prescribed by the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does the Sacred Thread signify?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Janeu&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;yajñopavītam&lt;/em&gt; symbolizes the ability of the wearer to perform &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhyavandanam&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sandhyavandanam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and recite the Gayatri Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a variation in the thread count of &lt;em&gt;yajñopavītam&lt;/em&gt;. Bachelors wear a single thread, married men wear 2, and married men with children wear 3. Each thread contains 3 strands as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three strands signify three debts,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Debt to one's teacher(s).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Debt to one's parents and ancestors.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Debts to sages and &lt;em&gt;Rishis&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of Rituals&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Upanayanam&lt;/em&gt; was performed traditionally before the boy starts his study of Veda i.e &lt;em&gt;Vidyarambham&lt;/em&gt;. It acts as a stepping stone for leading a life of &lt;em&gt;Brahmachari&lt;/em&gt; in the service of Guru studying Veda and other subjects. Ages are specified in Manu-smriti as 8 for Brahmins, 11 for &lt;em&gt;Kshathriyas&lt;/em&gt;, 12 for &lt;em&gt;Vaishyas&lt;/em&gt; (Manu Smriti sloka 2:36).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana&quot;&gt;Upanayam from wiki&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The main point of having gone through the &lt;em&gt;Upanayana&lt;/em&gt; ceremony is the wearing of the &lt;em&gt;Yajñopavītam&lt;/em&gt; on the body. The &lt;em&gt;Yajñopavītam&lt;/em&gt; is circular, being tied end-to-end (only one knot is permissible); it is normally supported on the left shoulder (savya) and wrapped around the body, falling underneath the right arm. The length of the &lt;em&gt;Yajñopavītam&lt;/em&gt; is generally 96 times the breadth of four fingers of a man, which is believed to be equal to his height. Each of the fingers represents one of the four states that the soul of a man experiences: waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep and knowledge of the absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It denotes that one who wears the sacred &lt;em&gt;Yajñopavītam&lt;/em&gt; should be pure in his thought, word and deed. The sacred &lt;em&gt;Yajñopavītam&lt;/em&gt; reminds a &lt;em&gt;Brahmachari&lt;/em&gt; to lead a regulated life with purity in his thought, word and deed. This &lt;em&gt;Yajñopavītam&lt;/em&gt; also represents the debt that is owed to the guru, parents and society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refs: &lt;a href=&quot;http://svbf.org/wp-content/uploads/vaidika-samskaras/4_VaidikaSamskaras.pdf&quot;&gt;Vaidika Samskara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T04:50:09.277" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T04:50:09.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="443" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="438" CreationDate="2014-06-24T15:57:34.890" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is described in chapter 77 of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramayana.pushpak.de/pdf/markandeya_en.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The daughter of Vishwakarman [the divine architect] was the wife of the sun, by name Sajna who begat on her a son, by name Manu, who, illustrious as he was, was equally a master of various branches of learning. He was the son of Vivaswat and was therefore called Vaivaswata. As soon as she was espied by the sun Sajna used to close her eyes and therefore he, in anger, addressed to her cruel words: &quot;Since, O stupid one, you close yours eyes as soon as I cast my looks on you therefore will you give birth to Yama, the destroyer of creatures.&quot; Thereupon the goddess, stricken with fear, assumed trembling looks, at which the sun again said to her. &quot;Since beholding me, you have assumed trembling looks you will give birth, as your daughter, to the fickle river.&quot; Thus by the imprecation of her husband she gave birth to Yama and the great river celebrated under the name of Yamuna. Henceforth she, with great difficulty, began to suffer the effulgence of the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, in case you're interested that isn't how the story ends: after that Sanjana leaves Surya, because she cannot take his brightness and she's replaced with her shadow Chaya, who pretends to be Sanjana.  You can find out about the rest of the story in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/545/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2014-09-04T14:49:20.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="444" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="363" CreationDate="2014-06-24T17:29:40.700" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not necessarily that one only experiences his karma in this life or the next one. For example, there are numerous references in the Puranas (Padma, Skanda, etc) that state that for a particular action, one will have to take birth as a dog for 100 lives. So the actions have the power to act in many lives going forward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer this question fully, it is important to understand karma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is stated in the Padma Purāṇa that there are four kinds of effects due to sinful activities, which are listed as follows: (1) the effect which is not yet fructified, (2) the effect which is lying as seed, (3) the effect which is already mature and (4) the effect which is almost mature. It is also stated that all these four effects become immediately vanquished for those who surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu, and become engaged in His devotional service in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness (1.1.24)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those effects described as &quot;almost mature&quot; refer to the distress from which one is suffering at present, and the effects &quot;lying as seed&quot; are in the core of the heart, where there is a certain stock of sinful desires which are like seeds. The Sanskrit word kūṭam means that they are almost ready to produce the seed, or the effect of the seed. &quot;An immature effect&quot; refers to the case where the seedling has not begun. From this statement of Padma Purāṇa it is understood that material contamination is very subtle. Its beginning, its fruition and results, and how one suffers such results in the form of distress, are part of a great chain. When one catches some disease, it is often very difficult to ascertain the cause of the disease, where it originated and how it is maturing. The suffering of a disease, however, does not appear all of a sudden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://vanisource.org/wiki/The_Nectar_of_Devotion_--_Vrndavana,_November_6,_1972&quot;&gt;The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 6, 1972&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the conclusion is that is extremely difficult to understand what actions we are suffering for currently and what the future will entail. You can see that Padma Purana also mentions devotional service to Visnu as a solution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3, Lord Kapila explains to his mother Devahuti about the path of the conditioned soul in the material world. See in particular &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/3/30&quot;&gt;Chapter 30&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/3/31&quot;&gt;Chapter 31&lt;/a&gt;. From this it appears that the soul must sometimes have his subtle body covered in order to suffer extreme pain on account of his previous sinful reactions. You can think of it in this way: if you are very pious, you can go to the heavenly planets, Svargaloka. The enjoyment there cannot be copied on this earth planet. Similarly, some of the punishment can not be carried out on this earth planet either. But as karma and Yamaraja are unfailingly fair and just, the punishment must be meted out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On an interesting side note, the concept of hell does not have an evil ruler, as it does in such religions as Christianity and it is also not eternal. Yamaraja is actually a pure devotee of Lord Visnu and he has the utmost compassion for all souls, considering his job a thankless task and to be his service to the Supreme Lord to reform the wayward living entities in the material world. See Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 6 for more info.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T04:42:39.730" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T04:42:39.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="445" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="368" CreationDate="2014-06-24T17:29:45.360" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question of “god” is a complicated one in Hinduism, and depending on how the English word “god” is translated into Sanskrit, different ideas will emerge. If the word “god” is translated as “deva,” which refers to an individual deity, then there are literally millions of gods in Hinduism, most of whom are worshipped by some Hindu or the other. On a practical level, however, many devas are obscure, and any particular Hindu probably worships less than ten. These include Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Shiva, the destroyer. In this sense, Hinduism can be described as polytheistic or even pantheistic religion. It should be noted that the devas do not correspond to the Judeo-Christian “angels;” since many individual devas have the attributes, such as immortality, omniscience, omnipresence, and the like, that are usually the hallmark of the one God in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If, however, the word “god” is instead translated as “Brahman,” which refers to divinity in the abstract, then there is only one god in Hinduism. Brahman is one of the three substances that exist in the universe. The other two are chit and achit. Achit refers to all physical matter. Chit refers to nonphysical essence. Humans and animals possess an atma, meaning soul or self, which is made of chit. Both chit and achit were created by and depend upon Brahman. Achit is constantly being created and destroyed, so our physical bodies are mortal and life always comes to an end. The atma, on the other hand, is eternal and unchanging because it is made of chit. The gods are also immortal because they are made of Brahman. Only achit is transitory and imperfect. Since humans were created by the gods, the purpose of life is to please them, and the end goal is Moksha, end of the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, where one can reunite with the Brahman from which we came.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note: I first posted this answer in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/41/36&quot;&gt;Meta&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T17:29:45.360" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="446" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="428" CreationDate="2014-06-24T18:07:15.057" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Temple and idol construction and Vastu requirements have been elaborately defined in the Matsya Purana, Brihat Samhita and Vishwakarma Prakasha. In addition it also depends on the chief deity to whom the temple is built. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For temples where the presiding deity is Ganapathi, Shiva, Subrahmanya (Karthikeya), Shakti and Dharma Shaashta, the main reference point is the Shaiva Aagama and for Vishnu, Surya and other forms of Narayana and Lakshmi, Vaishnava Aagama is referred to. Additionally, for certain forms of Devi, Tantra Shastra is also brought in for Yantra sthaapana and uddhaara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Shilpa shastra deals with the construction and sculpting of statues/idols and Vastu shastra deals with the construction of the temple complex and the inner sanctum.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishwakarma (who is attributed as the &quot;Purusha&quot; (or the Brahman itself) in the Rig Veda) is the presiding deity for all construction engineering and related crafts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="158" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-03T03:28:21.597" LastActivityDate="2014-10-03T03:28:21.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="447" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="418" CreationDate="2014-06-24T18:55:23.420" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The concept of Upanayanam is steeped in symbolism. A Brahmachari is allowed to wear a Yagnopaveeta of 3 strands, a householder 6 strands and a householder who has performed his Shastyaabdhapurti (60th birthday) is allowed to wear 9 strands. The 9 strands are also worn to signify the last 3 strands as a substitute for the Angavastram. Each 3 strands are tied together with a knot and only one knot is permitted per thread. As a rule, the upaveetha is to be hand woven by using cotton and drawing thin shreds and rolling them with the help of the sacred ash and consecrated water. When the desired thickness is achieved for each strand, they are knotted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a Tantra aspect to the concept as well. The three strands represent the three main naDis viz., Ida, Pingala and Sushumna. The knot signifies the Bramha Granthi - the first knot encountered while raising the Kundalini shakti (the divine energy) situated in the Muladhara chakra. It is said that only after breaking past the Bramha Granthi, the student is free from animalistic urges and is set on the right path of salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second thread (of three strands) are worn for two main reasons: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Everyone looking at him will know that he is married (people in the early days used to cover their upper body only with a cloth - Angavastram). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The better half (wife) usually a homemaker, will not have the time required for Sadhana (practice) and therefore, the responsibility of the wife's emancipation is also on the husband's shoulder. Therefore, he wears the second upaveetha on behalf of the wife and grants her equal share of the merits derived from his practice and spiritual quest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The third and final upaveetha is worn basically to tell the world that he is a Vriddha (senior citizen) and therefore will command respect and his blessings to be sought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thread is worn from left to right because the Ida nadi (signifying the moon) runs from the Muladhaara on the right and ends on the left side of upper part of the body (at the Ajna chakra and the thread can only rest on the shoulder and not any further up). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ida side is chosen because the Ida naDi controls the mental functions of the brain and is responsible for contemplation, meditation and worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is to be noted that while performing the daily Sandhyavandanam, pranayama is an integral part and in almost all lineages, it is taught to start the Anuloma-Viloma pranayama (alternate nostril breathing) from the left nostril first as it draws in the prana in to the &quot;cool&quot; channel rather than the right nostril (&quot;hot&quot; channel).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the Shraddha ceremony the thread is worn on the other side (from right shoulder dropping to the left hip). This is because the departed soul is invited to the ceremony to partake of the tarpana and pinda dana. Souls, as they do not posses a body have 360 degree vision and see everything (front, back, sideways, up and down) all at the same time. This causes objects to be mirrored and wearing the upaveetha in the reverse actually appears the correct way to the invited soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People of 3 of the 4 chaturashramas - Bramhacharya, Grihasta and Vanaprastha as a rule are supposed to wear the Yagnopaveetha. People who have taken up the Sanyasa ashrama (Turiya ashrama) are not allowed as they are supposed to be beyond the regular timetabled practices and are to be constantly engrossed in Samadhi and are not required to perform daily austerities (but many Sanyasis still perform their daily austerities to set an example to followers)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yagnopaveetha is to be worn by all the people of the first three varna ashramas - Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaishya The fourth ashrama are not allowed as their prescribed profession is manual labour and hence would not have the time to follow prescribed rules and worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the Upanayana ceremony, the student is initiated into the Gayathri mantra as the first mantra for his life long spiritual quest and final emancipation. The Gayathri mantra is a moksha pradana mantra and not meant for acquiring material benefits and hence this mantra is taught.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="158" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-03T03:30:32.517" LastActivityDate="2014-10-03T03:30:32.517" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="448" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="407" CreationDate="2014-06-24T19:00:29.150" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vineet is right and so is Mr_Green. The name says it all. Sanatana Dharama. The word &quot;Dharma&quot; means &quot;way&quot; or &quot;path&quot;. It is a way of life and is not a religion. So the question of conversion does not arise. And as Mr_Green said, there was no other religion as such. Anyone can accept the Dharma and continue with his/her life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="158" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T19:00:29.150" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="449" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="407" CreationDate="2014-06-24T20:36:02.817" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The short answer is yes, anyone can become a Hindu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As others was pointed out, there is nothing in Vedas which prevent people from becoming Hindus(or following Dharma). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person is a Christian if he/she pledges to follow the Nicene Creed and/or Apostles Creed which lay the definitions of Christian faith. Hinduism does not have such &lt;em&gt;documents of faith&lt;/em&gt; which people need to pledge to follow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is to to become a Hindu then ? We'd need a clear definition of what is Hindu to say what it is to become a Hindu. Dr.Koenraad Elst debates the definition of Hindu in his book &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://voiceofdharma.org/books/wiah/&quot;&gt;Who is a Hindu?&lt;/a&gt;&quot;. He says that people who follow Vedas cannot alone be called Hindus as there are many non-vedic 'Hindu' sects like Lingayats. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the books &lt;a href=&quot;http://beingdifferentbook.com/&quot;&gt;Being Different&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://indrasnetbook.com/&quot;&gt;Indra's Net&lt;/a&gt;, Rajiv Malothra traces a commonality between almost all 'Hindu' sects which is the belief in immanence of divinity in every object &amp;amp; every being, belief in the Human nature being originally divine (as opposed to being originally sinful) as the main commonalities and others being belief in Karma &amp;amp; re-incarnation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence if anyone who accepts the above would automatically become a Hindu without any initiation ceremonies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2014-06-24T20:36:02.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="450" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-25T03:35:59.160" Score="12" ViewCount="37995" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many images like the following that portray Lord Hanuman tear-open his chest and reveal Lord Rama and Sita inside it. What is the story behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NMw2K.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NMw2K.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-11-16T15:02:11.567" LastActivityDate="2018-11-16T15:02:11.567" Title="Why is Lord Hanuman portrayed as tearing-open his chest and showing Lord Rama is within it?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|art|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="452" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="410" CreationDate="2014-06-25T04:14:45.543" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindus believe that every aspect of life is sacred. That is why each significant stage, from conception to cremation, is celebrated as a reminder that life is a gift from God which should be duly respected and lived according to His wishes. The nearest English word for samskara is sacrament, related to the phrase 'rite of passage'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although the number of samskaras prescribed by various scriptures vary, there are sixteen that are a consensus among scholars. These 16 samskaras are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pre-natal Samskaras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(1) Garbhadan (Conception)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'&lt;strong&gt;Garbha&lt;/strong&gt;' means womb. '&lt;strong&gt;Dan&lt;/strong&gt;' means donation. In this sacrament the man places his seed in a woman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gruhyasutras and Smrutis advocate special conditions and observances for this, to ensure healthy and intelligent progeny. Procreation of children was regarded as necessary for paying off debts to the forefathers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another reason for having progeny is given in the Taittiriya Upanishad. When the student ends his Vedic studies, he requests permission to leave from his teacher (see Samskara 14). The teacher then blesses him with some advice which he should imbibe for life. One of the commands is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Prajaatantu ma vyavyachchhetseehi...&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (Shikshavalli, Anuvak 11.11) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Do not terminate one's lineage - let it continue (by having children).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(2) Pumsavana (Engendering a male issue)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pumsavana&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Simantonayana&lt;/strong&gt; (the third samskara) are only performed during the woman's first issue. Pumsavana is performed in the third or fourth month of pregnancy when the moon is in a male constellation, particularly the Tishya-nakshatra. This symbolises a male child. Therefore the term pumsavana literally means 'male procreation'. Sushrut, the ancient rishi of Ayurveda, has described the procedure in his Sushruta Samhita: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Having pounded milk with any of these herbs - Sulakshmana, Batasurga, Sahadevi and Vishwadeva - one should instil three or four drops of juice in the right nostril of the pregnant woman. She should not spit out the juice.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(3) Simantonayana (Hair-parting)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Gujarati this is known as &lt;strong&gt;Khodo bharavo&lt;/strong&gt;. In this, the husband parts the wife's hair. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The religious significance of this samskara is to bring prosperity to the mother and long life to the unborn child. It also wards off evil influence. The physiological significance is interesting and advanced. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sushrut (Sharirsthan, Ch.33) believed that the foetus's mind formed in the fifth month of pregnancy. Hence the mother is required to take the utmost care for delivering a healthy child. Stipulating the details, Sushrut enjoined the pregnant mother to avoid exertion of all kinds: refrain from sleeping during the day and keeping awake at night, and also avoid fear, purgatives, phlebotomy (blood letting by slicing veins) and postponing natural excretions. (Sharirsthan, Ch.21). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Childhood Samskaras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(4) Jatakarma (Birth rituals)&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;These rituals are performed at the birth of the child. It is believed that the moon has a special effect on the newly born. In addition, the constellation of the planets - nakshatras - also determine the degree of auspiciousness. If birth occurs during an inauspicious arrangement, the jatakarmas are performed to ward off their detrimental effects on the child. The father would also request the Brahmanishtha Satpurush for blessings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(5) Namkaran (Name-giving)&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Based on the arrangement of the constellations at birth, the child is named on a day fixed by caste tradition.&#xA;In the Hindu Dharma, the child is frequently named after an avatar, deity, sacred place or river, saint, etc., as a constant reminder of the sacred values for which that name represents. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(6) Nishkrama (First outing)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the third month the child is allowed agni (fire) and chandra (moon) darshan.&#xA;In the fourth month he is taken out of the house for the first time, by the father or maternal uncle, to the mandir for the Lord's darshan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(7) Annaprashan (First feeding)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Feeding the child with solid food is the next important samskara. For a son this is done in even months - the 6th, 8th, 10th or 12th months. For a daughter this is done in odd months - 5th, 7th or 9th months. The food offered is cooked rice with ghee. Some sutras advocate honey to be mixed with this.&#xA;By advocating this samskara, the wise sages accomplished two important considerations. First, the child is weaned away from the mother at a proper time. Second, it warns the mother to stop breast feeding the child. For, an uninformed mother, many out of love, continue breast feeding the child, without realising that she was not doing much good to herself or the child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(8) Chudakarma (Chaul) (Shaving of head)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara involves shaving the head (of a son) in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 5th year, or when initiating him with the janoi (Upanayan). According to Sushrut, the significance of this, together with nail cutting, is to give delight, lightness, prosperity, courage and happiness (Chikitsasthan. Ch. 24-72). Charak also voiced a similar opinion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A tuft of hair (shikha, chotli) is left in place at the top of the head for longevity. Sushrut points out its significance, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Inside the head, near the top, is the joint of a shira (artery) and a sandhi (critical juncture). There, in the eddy of hairs, is a vital spot called the adhipati (overlord). Any injury to this part causessudden death&quot; (Sharirsthan Ch. VI, 83). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the course of time, the shikha was regarded as a symbol of the Hindu Dharma and its removal came to be regarded as a grave sin (Laghu Harita IV).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(9) Karnavedh (Piercing the earlobes)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The child's ear lobes are pierced either on the 12th or 16th day; or 6th, 7th or 8th month; or 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th or 9th year. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sushrut reasoned, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The ears of a child should be pierced for protection (from diseases such as hydrocoele and hernia) and decoration&quot; (Sharirasthan Ch.16.1, Chikitsasthan Ch.19.21). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One sutra says that a goldsmith should pierce the ears while Sushrut advocates a surgeon. For a boy, the right earlobe is pierced first and for a girl, the left. For boys today, this samskara is only prevalent in some states of India. In girls, this samskara has lost its religious significance and is only performed to enable them to wear earrings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Educational Samskaras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(10) Vidyarambh (Learning the alphabet)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara is also known as &lt;strong&gt;Akshararambha&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Aksharlekhan&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Aksharavikaran&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Aksharavishkaran&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is performed at the age of five and is necessary before commencing Vedic study - Vedarambh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After bathing, the child sits facing west, while the acharya (teacher) sits facing east. Saffron and rice are scattered on a silver plank. With a gold or silver pen the child is made to write letters on the rice. The following phrases are written: &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Salutation to Ganesh, salutation to Sarasvati (goddess of knowledge), salutation to family deities and salutation to Narayan and Lakshmi.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; The child then writes, &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Aum Namah Siddham&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. He then presents gifts to the acharya, such as a pagh and safo (head adornment of cloth). The acharya then blesses the child. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(11) Upanayan (Yagnopavit) (Sacred thread initiation)&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;At the age of eight the son is initiated by the acharya with the sacred thread, known as &lt;strong&gt;janoi&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;yagnopavit&lt;/strong&gt;. Amongst all the foregoing samskaras this is regarded as supreme. It is the dawn of a new life, hence &lt;strong&gt;dvija&lt;/strong&gt; - twice born. The child enters studentship and a life of perfect discipline which involves brahmacharya (celibacy). He leaves the guardianship of his parents to be looked after by the acharya. This samskara is performed by Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, for both boys and girls. Therefore, both the boy and girl received training in discipline, truthful living and physical service. During the course of time this samskara ceased to be given to girls, who thus failed to be formally educated. Today, the tradition of education underlying this samskara has died out. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(12) Vedarambh (Beginning Vedic study)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara was not mentioned in the earliest lists of the Dharma Sutras, which instead listed the four Vedic vows - Ved Vrats. It seemed that though upanayan marked the beginning of education, it did not coincide with Vedic study. Therefore a separate samskara was felt necessary to initiate Vedic study. In this samskara, each student, according to his lineage, masters his own branch of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(13) Keshant (Godaan) (Shaving the beard)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara is included as one of the four Ved Vrats. When the other three faded, &lt;strong&gt;keshant&lt;/strong&gt; itself became a separate samskara. '&lt;strong&gt;Kesh&lt;/strong&gt;' means hair and '&lt;strong&gt;ant&lt;/strong&gt;' means end. This samskara involves the first shaving of the beard by the student at the age of sixteen. It is also called &lt;strong&gt;Godaan&lt;/strong&gt; because it involves gifting a cow to the acharya and gifts to the barber.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since the student now enters manhood he is required to be more vigilant over his impulses of youth. To remind him of his vow of brahmacharya, he is required to take the vow anew; to live in strict continence and austere discipline for one year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(14) Samavartan (End of Studentship)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This samskara is performed at the end of the brahmacharya phase - the end of studentship. '&lt;strong&gt;Sama vartan&lt;/strong&gt;' meant 'returning home from the house of the acharya.' This involves a ritual sacrificial bath known as &lt;strong&gt;Awabhruth Snan&lt;/strong&gt;. It is sacrificial because it marks the end of the long observance of brahmacharya. It is a ritual bath because it symbolises the crossing of the ocean of learning by the student - hence &lt;strong&gt;Vidyasnaatak&lt;/strong&gt; - one who has crossed the ocean of learning. In Sanskrit literature, learning is compared to an ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before the bath, the student has to obtain permission from the acharya to end his studentship and give him &lt;strong&gt;guru-dakshina&lt;/strong&gt; - tuition fees. Permission is necessary because it certifies the student as a person fit in learning, habit and character for a married life. Obviously the student is not in a position to pay fees. One Sutra describes the debt of the teacher as unpayable, &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Even the earth containing the seven continents is not sufficient for the guru-dakshina.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those students who wished to remain as lifelong students observing brahmacharya would remain with the acharya. Today, this means accepting a spiritual guru - an Ekantik Satpurush and becoming a sadhu. The student thus bypasses the next two ashrams, to enter sannyas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(15) Vivaha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the most important of all the Hindu Samskaras. The Smrutis laud the &lt;strong&gt;gruhastha&lt;/strong&gt; (householder) ashram as the highest, for it is the central support of the other three ashrams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu enjoins, &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Having spent the first quarter of one's life in the guru's house, the second quarter in one's own house with the wife, and the third quarter in the forest, one should take sannyas in the fourth, casting away every worldly tie.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (Manu Smruti IV.1). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By marriage an individual is able to achieve the four purusharths (endeavors) of life: &lt;strong&gt;dharma (righteousness), artha (wealth), kama (desire) and moksha (salvation)&lt;/strong&gt;. He is also able to pay off ancestral debt by having children. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Procreation for children is also a primary purpose of marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(16) Antyesthi (Death rites)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Antyeshti is the final samskara in a Hindu's life. Yajur Veda regards vivaha as the sixteenth samskara while Rig Veda considers antyeshti. Though performed after the death of a person by his relatives, it is of importance because the value of the next world is higher than that of the present. The final rituals are performed with meticulous care with the help of Brahmin priests.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first ritual after death is to place a few tulsi leaves and a few drops of water in the mouth of the dead person. It is then laid on the floor which has been purified by applying the sacred cowdung. The old clothes are removed and the body is bathed with sanctified water. The body is then covered with one piece of a new, unbleached, uncut cloth (kafan). It is then laid on a bier (nanami) made of bamboo canes tied with jute strings. The underlying message in removing the old clothes can be gleaned from a Sanskrit verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Dhanãni bhumau pashavashcha goshthe,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Nãri gruhadware sakhã smashãne,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Dehashchitãyãm paraloka mãrge,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Dharmãnugo gachhati jiva ekaha.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Wealth will remain buried, cattle will remain in the pen, (his) wife will accompany (him) to the doorway, friends will accompany him to the crematorium, the body will come till the funeral pyre, but on the path to the next world, the jiva goes alone (with his karmas).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8175263563&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hindu Rites and Rituals: Sentiments, Sacraments and Symbols&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;by Sadhu Mukundcharandas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="145" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T04:22:32.873" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T04:22:32.873" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="453" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="460" CreationDate="2014-06-25T05:04:29.993" Score="9" ViewCount="1513" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, during the wedding of Rama and Sita, both families share their respective family trees.  Vashishta &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga70/bala_70_frame.htm&quot;&gt;presents&lt;/a&gt; a long genealogy for Rama's family, the Ikshvaku dynasty, going all the way back to the gods including Surya, Brahma, and ultimately Vishnu.  Then Sita's father Janaka &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga71/bala_71_frame.htm&quot;&gt;presents&lt;/a&gt; his ancestry as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once there was an emperor Nimi, who was renowned in the triad of worlds by his own accomplishments, and who was uniquely seraphic-souled and a best one among all stalwart emperors.  And his son was named as Mithi, and Janaka was Mithi's son, the first one to be designated as Janaka.  And even from that Janaka it is Udaavasu who took birth. From Udaavasu it is noble souled Nandivardhana took birth, and Nandivardhana's son is named as Suketu, by his name.  From Suketu the highly powerful and virtue-souled Devaraata is born, and from that kingly sage Devaraata, it is Brihadratha who took birth, thus we have heard.  From Brihadratha it is the highly braving, courageous and valiant Mahaaviira has come, and the bold and truth-valiant Sudhriti from Mahaaviira.  Form Sudhriti, the right-minded and highly generous Dhristaketu took birth, and from the kingly sage Dhristaketu it is highly renowned Haryashva is the son.  Haryashva's son is Maru, and Maru's, son is Pratiindhaka, and the son of Pratiindhaka's is noble-souled king Kiirtiratha.  The son of Kiirtiratha is remembered as Devamiidha, and the son of Devamiidha is Vibudha, and Vibudha's son is Mahiidraka. Mahiidraka's son is the great mighty king Kiirtiraata, and the son born to sagely king Kiirtiraata is Mahaaroma.  From Mahaaroma it is the virtue-souled Swarnaroma, and from kingly sage Swarnaroma it is Hrasvaroma.  Two sons are born to that knower of virtue and noble souled Hrasvaroma, I am the elder, and my younger brother is this brave Kushadhvaja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Janaka's lineage is presented up to &quot;an emperor Nimi&quot;.  But my question is, what is Janaka's ancestry beyond Nimi?  Are there any scriptures that trace the ancestry of Janaka all the way back, just as Vashishta did for Rama?  Was Janaka of the solar dynasty (Suryavansha) or some other dynasty?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T07:25:50.660" LastActivityDate="2016-01-16T10:16:23.533" Title="What is the full ancestry of Janaka?" Tags="|ramayana|ancestry|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="455" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="37971" CreationDate="2014-06-25T05:07:11.017" Score="17" ViewCount="967" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the steps to take if a person wants to convert to Hinduism?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Is it possible for anyone to convert to Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T05:11:12.507" LastActivityDate="2020-01-22T01:55:55.407" Title="What are the steps for a person to take if he/she wants to convert to Hinduism?" Tags="|conversion|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="456" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="455" CreationDate="2014-06-25T05:15:02.527" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can become a Hindu by following the Hindu's worship procedures and practices. There is no need of any formal conversion procedure like other religions. Any one cannot compel/convert anyone to Hindu. You can become a Hindu by acting as a Hindu. There are many worship procedures depending upon the gods and cultures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="188" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T05:15:02.527" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="457" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="385" CreationDate="2014-06-25T05:18:36.550" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Fasting is just one kind of a &lt;em&gt;vrat&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Vrat&lt;/em&gt; generally means observing with determination (vow) the rules of the scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;śastrodito hi niyamo vrataṃ tacca tapo matam&lt;/em&gt; [Agni Puran - 175.2]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Certainly, rules ordained by the scriptures are called vrata. That too is also said as &lt;em&gt;tapa&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Depending upon what vow is observed it can be &lt;em&gt;Satyavrat&lt;/em&gt; (vow to be truthful), &lt;em&gt;Pativrat&lt;/em&gt; (vow to be loyal to husband, hence we call &lt;em&gt;pativrata stri&lt;/em&gt; ), &lt;em&gt;Upavasvrat&lt;/em&gt; ( vow to abstain from regular activities like like eating, sleeping, mating, etc.). So there are many kinds of such &lt;em&gt;vratas&lt;/em&gt; given by different kinds of &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt; for different purposes. Some are observed on particular days, or for particular number of days and some are observed throughout the life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a &lt;em&gt;vrata&lt;/em&gt; certain difficult tasks like fasting are observed because the &lt;em&gt;samtapa&lt;/em&gt; (pain) of such tasks act as &lt;em&gt;tapa&lt;/em&gt; (heat) to burn away sins. And pleased by the &lt;em&gt;vrata&lt;/em&gt; the gods and God give enjoyment, liberation, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vrataṃ hi kartusantāpāttapa ityabhidhiyate&lt;/em&gt; [AP - 175.3]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The person observing &lt;em&gt;vrat&lt;/em&gt; has to under go physical pain, hence &lt;em&gt;vrat&lt;/em&gt; is also known as &lt;em&gt;tapa&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;te syurdevādayaḥ pritā bhuktimuktipradāyakāḥ&lt;/em&gt;  [AP - 175.5]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The &lt;em&gt;vrata&lt;/em&gt; pleasing gods and God awards enjoyment and liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now different puranas (padma puran, vishunu puran, etc.) mention different kinds of &lt;em&gt;vratas&lt;/em&gt; with specific rules to observe on specific days for specific deities. So people keep numerous fasts in a year. As most of the vratas include fasting, people abstain from eating completely or eat only fruits as may be permitted by the vrat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T05:18:36.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="458" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="450" CreationDate="2014-06-25T05:24:24.997" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As Awal Garg says, the popular story of Hanuman tearing his chest open occurs in the context of him receiving a string of pearls at Rama's coronation.  But the chest-tearing story does not seem to actually be there in the Ramayana, which just says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga128/yuddhaitrans128.htm#Verse78&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama presented to Seetha, an excellent string of pearls, furnished with superior gems, shining like a beam of moon-light; two clean and beautiful raiment and lovely ornaments. Looking towards Hanuman the monkey, Seetha, daughter of Janaka, having taken off the pearl-string from her neck, repeatedly caught the glimpse of all the monkeys.  Looking at her, Rama who was acquainted with the gesture of another, spoke to Seetha as follows: &quot;Dear Seetha! Give the pearl-necklace to a person, with whom you are pleased and in whom the following viz. sharpness, firmness, renown, dexterity, competence, modesty, prudence, virility, prowess and intelligence are ever present.&quot;  The black-eyed Seetha gave that pearl necklace to Hanuman. Hanuman, the foremost among the monkeys, by wearing that necklace, which was as white as a heap of moonlight-beams, shone brilliantly as a mountain silvered by a white cloud.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it looks like Hanuman just accepts the necklace.  Now it's possible that that the chest-tearing story is described in some Purana or other scripture, but so far I haven't found any.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T17:51:05.040" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T17:51:05.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="459" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="472" CreationDate="2014-06-25T05:36:26.610" Score="24" ViewCount="14714" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard that the Gayatri mantra is actually used to worship the sun, and that the mantra was titled &quot;Gayatri mantra&quot; because the mantra is formed using Gayatri meter (a Vedic meter).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="73" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T06:18:21.153" LastActivityDate="2023-01-25T18:08:56.097" Title="Is the Gayatri mantra used to worship the sun or Goddess Gayatri?" Tags="|worship|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="460" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="453" CreationDate="2014-06-25T05:53:38.460" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Janaka's ancestry beyond Nimi is same as Rama's. Because Nimi was the brother of Vikuksi on whose lineage Rama appeared. So Janaka was also of solar dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Iksvaku had one hundred sons, among which 3 were prominent: Vikuksi, Nimi and Dandaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kṣuvatas tu manor jajñe ikṣvākur ghrāṇataḥ sutaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;tasya putra-śata-jyeṣṭhā vikukṣi-nimi-daṇḍakāḥ&lt;/em&gt; [&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/9/6/4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB - 9.6.4&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  While sneezing, from the nostril of Manu, Iksvaku was born. Iksvaku had hundred sons among which the eldest were Vikuksi, Nimi and Dandaka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-16T10:16:23.533" LastActivityDate="2016-01-16T10:16:23.533" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="461" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="462" CreationDate="2014-06-25T05:56:24.833" Score="10" ViewCount="1854" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/1327&quot;&gt;suggested edit&lt;/a&gt; was rejected I had the impression that Yamalokam is Naraka(the hell). And I was told &lt;a href=&quot;http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/16267595#16267595&quot;&gt;in the chat&lt;/a&gt; that Yamlokam is not the hell. So I am really curious. What is Yamlokam? How is it different from Naraka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T06:38:21.227" Title="What is Yamlokam? How is it different from Naraka?" Tags="|yamaloka|naraka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="462" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="461" CreationDate="2014-06-25T06:21:02.483" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yamaloka generally means the province of Yama. It's not actually same as Naraka (hell), but generally said so. After a person dies then he is taken to Yamaloka. Yama as the judge from Chitragupta's account determines the person's sins and virtues. Then as per that he sends the person either to hell or heaven. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as per my experience from the scriptures I would put it thus:  &lt;strong&gt;Yama-loka is just like a court house where people are temporarily held until their judgement is over and Narak (hell) is like a prison where a person goes to experience his punishment&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the order of Yama, his minions (&lt;em&gt;yama duta&lt;/em&gt;) put the sinful souls&#xA;  into hell. But they take a virtuous person who observed the laws of&#xA;  the &lt;em&gt;rishis&lt;/em&gt; (Vashistha etc.) to heaven. [Agni Puran - 203.5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T06:38:21.227" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T06:38:21.227" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="463" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="459" CreationDate="2014-06-25T06:48:50.827" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;First you need to know what is translation of Gayatri mantra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ भूर्भुव: स्व: तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं । भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि, धीयो यो न:&#xA;  प्रचोदयात् ।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh God, the Protector, the basis of all life, Who is self-existent,&#xA;  Who is free from all pains and Whose contact frees the soul from all&#xA;  troubles, Who pervades the Universe and sustains all, the Creator and&#xA;  Energizer of the whole Universe, the Giver of happiness, Who is worthy&#xA;  of acceptance, the most excellent, Who is Pure and the Purifier of&#xA;  all, let us embrace that very God, so that He may direct our mental&#xA;  faculties in the right direction. ( Source:&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eaglespace.com/spirit/gayatribywords.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;eaglespace.com&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is no explicit mention of any god (THIS IS WRONG TAT SAVITUR REFERS TO SAVITAR THE SUN GOD), it refers to supreme god. And as per few believes Surya is also considered as supreme god. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few translation also accounts it as for a female god too, Durga sometimes. But its like interpenetrating this mantra as per personal believes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-20T04:17:35.090" LastActivityDate="2017-03-20T04:17:35.090" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="464" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-25T07:23:39.987" Score="8" ViewCount="5915" Body="&lt;p&gt;As Yama and Shani are brothers and even have similar kind of work (to judge our karmas), did they ever confront each other while performing their duties? Is any such event explained in our scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-27T01:12:52.563" LastActivityDate="2017-05-22T14:37:11.253" Title="Did Yama and Shani ever confront each other?" Tags="|yama|shani|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="465" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-06-25T07:28:24.067" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T07:28:24.067" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T07:28:24.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="466" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-06-25T07:28:24.067" Score="0" Body="Shani Dev is a deity that Hindus pray to remove obstacles and ward-off evil. Shani is one of the Navagrahas in Jyotisha." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T20:20:36.600" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T20:20:36.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="467" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="469" CreationDate="2014-06-25T10:03:48.867" Score="13" ViewCount="5592" Body="&lt;p&gt;There was a mention of &quot;Samudra Manthan&quot; (the churning of the ocean) in Hindu mythology. Why was it performed? Please also mention the items which resulted from the churning, with a small explanation for each.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2020-06-11T04:54:05.053" LastActivityDate="2020-06-12T04:20:01.530" Title="Why was the Samudra Manthan performed?" Tags="|puranas|samudra-manthan|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="468" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="363" CreationDate="2014-06-25T10:27:13.297" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The simple answer is, &lt;strong&gt;for getting punishment of the committed sins&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then the question becomes, as you have raised, why someone would experience the results in hell when he has to also experience the results of his bad actions on earth itself? This is a nice question. It is known as &lt;strong&gt;the problem of double retribution&lt;/strong&gt;. To understand the reason of why or why not, we have to first understand what causes a sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For smooth and proper operation of life here and in the hereafter the rishis formulated various laws. Through their power gained through austerity they could perceive past, present and the future, so they knew what activities lead to what conclusions. They were aware of which activities break the order and what could be done to mend the order. Through various &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt; and scriptures they they gave out these laws for the benefit of the humans. So &lt;strong&gt;whenever any set law of the sages (&lt;em&gt;varnashrama dharama&lt;/em&gt; etc.)is violated, it creates a sin.&lt;/strong&gt;  And for breaking the order or the rule one goes to &lt;em&gt;Naraka&lt;/em&gt; for punishment:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;varṇāśramaviruddhaṃ ca karma kurvanti ye narāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    karmaṇā manasā bācā nirayeṣu patantite&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 2.6.32]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    He who through his mind, speech and action does work that is against his &lt;em&gt;varnashrama dharma&lt;/em&gt; (duites as per his caste) falls into hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, sometimes a law may get violated unintentionally or out of necessity. So as a counter action, the sages have also stated the actions that should be done in such cases. The set of actions done for the expiation of sins is known as &lt;em&gt;prayaschit&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sages prescribe a penance for unintentionally committed sins. Some&#xA;  declare, on the evidence of the revealed texts, (that it may be&#xA;  performed) even for an intentional (offence). [Manu. Smrt. - 11.45]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from other bad actions, some grave acts like (murder of Brahmin, mating with someone forbidden by the scriptures, drinking alchol etc.) when done consciously has no other expiation than death. So here on earth itself one can free himself of sins by proper expiation. &lt;strong&gt;If however, on committing the sins, one doesn't expiate for them on earth, then he has to experience the corresponding punishment in hell as mentioned in various scriptures:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;pāpakṛdhyāti narakaṃ prāyaścittaparāṅmukha:&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 2.6.38]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     He who commiting a sin who doesn't want to expiate, goes to &lt;em&gt;naraka&lt;/em&gt; (hell)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the result of certain grave actions are not experienced on earth but in other planes of existence like hell and heaven. It's because &lt;strong&gt;they can not yield equivalent result here on earth&lt;/strong&gt;. For example, when one performs 100 &lt;em&gt;asvamedha yajnas&lt;/em&gt; then the resulting merit becomes so big that he can't enjoy it here on earth. So he has to become the king of heaven. Similarly certain bad actions and severe actions like murder of people are so grave that they can't have equivalent effect here. So for getting equivalent punishment they have to go to hell. Only the result of minor good and bad actions are experienced here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;REFERENCE&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA; Mahabharat  Apaddharmanusasana Parva, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a164.htm&quot;&gt;Chapter 165&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA; For an overall idea refer Garuda Puran, Agni Puran, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-06-27T06:35:38.583" LastActivityDate="2014-06-27T06:35:38.583" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="469" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="467" CreationDate="2014-06-25T11:54:43.790" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;As goes with any Hindu myth, the culprit of the entire mayhem was Lord Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once upon a time &lt;em&gt;Indra&lt;/em&gt; who was riding his elephant came across &lt;em&gt;Durvasa&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Rishi&lt;/em&gt;, who gifted him a garland of flower. &lt;em&gt;Indra&lt;/em&gt;, who absent mindedly instead of keeping the garland himself, put it on the elephant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since the garland was made of flowers, insects and bees started to get attracted by it, which provoked the Elephant who threw the garland into the floor and stomped it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On knowing this, &lt;em&gt;Durvasa&lt;/em&gt; was furious (because apparently, the garland was a dwelling of fortune and should have been treated with care and treated as &lt;em&gt;prasadam&lt;/em&gt;) and went on to curse all the &lt;em&gt;devas&lt;/em&gt; and made them dovoid of any strength, vigor and fortune.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The the &lt;em&gt;Asuras&lt;/em&gt; knowing the ill fortune of devas captured all three lokas. &lt;em&gt;Devas&lt;/em&gt; went to Lord Vishnu for his advice who asked them to get the &lt;em&gt;Amrita&lt;/em&gt; (अमृत) from under the vast ocean &lt;em&gt;kṣīrasāgara&lt;/em&gt; (क्षिर्-सगर) by &lt;em&gt;Samudramanthan&lt;/em&gt; समुद्रमन्थन् . &lt;em&gt;Devas&lt;/em&gt; alone weren't capable to do such a Herculean task and they needed the help of &lt;em&gt;Asuras&lt;/em&gt; in doing so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asuras being naive agreed to this and they agreed to distribute the things which emerge from the sea equally among each other. Vasuki (वसुकि), King of Serpents was made the churning rope, and Mount Mandar (मन्दार) was made the spindle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bf1Ej.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Mandara and Vasuki with team of devas and asura&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asuras were made to hold the head of Vasuki while the Devas held on to the tail part, and hence the great churning started. During churning, Mount Mandar became unstable and was going under the sea bed. Vishnu took Kurma-Avatar (कूर्मावतारम्) (Vishnu in Tortoise avatar) and went under mount Mandar mountain to support it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following things came from the churning of sea,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sura&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Varuni&lt;/em&gt; - Goddess and creator of wine&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Apsaras&lt;/em&gt; - various divine nymphs like Menaka and Rambha etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kaustubha&lt;/em&gt; - a rare diamond said to be the most valuable jewel in the world&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Uchhaishravas&lt;/em&gt; - the divine seven headed white horse&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kalpavriksha&lt;/em&gt; - the wish-granting tree&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kamadhenu&lt;/em&gt; - the wish fulfilling cow&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Airavata&lt;/em&gt; - the white elephant&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lakshmi&lt;/em&gt; - the Goddess of Fortune and Wealth. Vishnu and Her were reunited after having been separated for many ages.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Halahala&lt;/em&gt; - the Great Poison which threatened the very existence of World and was nutralized by Lord Shiva by drinking it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Amritam&lt;/em&gt; - The Elixir of youth and immortality.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9jULZ.gif&quot; alt=&quot;Gifts from Churning of Sea&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During fight between &lt;em&gt;Devas&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Asuras&lt;/em&gt; for obtaining &lt;em&gt;Amritam&lt;/em&gt;, a few drops fell on earth at Ujjain, Nasik, Allahabad, and Haridwar. The drops are said to have purified the land and it is here that every year devotees come to wash away their sins in the famous assembly called &lt;em&gt;Kumbh Mela&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mahashivratri.org/samudra-manthan.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samudra manthan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/11-08/features1193.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;HareKrishna&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-08-01T09:46:46.890" LastActivityDate="2014-08-01T09:46:46.890" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="470" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-25T11:57:22.440" Score="14" ViewCount="96647" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you can see in many pictures of Shiva, he wears a naga wrapped around his neck.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/e2ZZX.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Lord Shiva&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mobileapples.com/Wallpapers_Detail.aspx?Title=Lord%20Shiva%20Wallpaper%20&amp;amp;Sno=10715&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Credits for Image&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is there any reason behind keeping that naga around his neck, or is that a vahan for lord Shiv just like lord Ganesha has a rat or like the goddess Mata Ji who has a tiger?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that he is known as Pasupathinath, which means &quot;lord of all creatures&quot;, and that he controls all the animals. Since snake is feared by most of us, is that the reason he wears them around his neck?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, does he wear just one, or there are multiple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T22:26:28.710" LastActivityDate="2021-06-12T12:30:30.890" Title="Why does lord Shiva wear a Naga (snake) around his neck?" Tags="|shiva|symbolism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="472" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="459" CreationDate="2014-06-25T12:15:05.637" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gayathri is not &lt;strong&gt;a&lt;/strong&gt; mantra. There are classes of mantra called Gayathri which follow a particular meter called Gayathri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most popular Gayathri mantra &lt;strike&gt;&lt;code&gt;ॐ भूर्भुव: स्व:&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strike&gt; &lt;code&gt;तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं । भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि, धीयो यो न: प्रचोदयात् ।।&lt;/code&gt; happens to be one among the many.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayathri Chandus is a format of 24 meters, any mantra set to this &lt;em&gt;chandus&lt;/em&gt; is called a Gayathri (and there are many gayathries). The one today understood as Gayathri mantra , is Savithri  Mantra (because of the deity &lt;em&gt;Savitr&lt;/em&gt;) set in Gayathri Chundas . The &lt;em&gt;Rishi&lt;/em&gt; for this mantra is &lt;em&gt;Vishvamithra&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mantra is specifically meant for Thapas (तपस; the highest of Tantras) as it increases the heat in the body burning up all muck at the physical level.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2015-05-04T04:12:36.507" LastActivityDate="2015-05-04T04:12:36.507" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="473" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="474" CreationDate="2014-06-25T12:23:22.023" Score="8" ViewCount="15220" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can see in many pictures of lord Shiva a flow of water like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qARsEm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://satishverma.deviantart.com/art/Lord-Shiva-104258391&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;satishverma.deviantart.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What exactly is it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T09:57:53.543" Title="What is that flow of water on the head of lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|symbolism|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="474" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="473" CreationDate="2014-06-25T12:38:08.633" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to state that, the water which comes out of lord Shiva's hair is River Ganges or Ganga, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt; depicts...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu in one of his incarnations, appeared as&#xA;Vamana in the sacrificial arena of Asura King Mahabali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then in order&#xA;to measure the universe, he extended his left foot to the end of the&#xA;universe and pierced a hole in its covering with the nail of his big&#xA;toe. Through the hole, the pure water of the Causal Ocean (Divine&#xA;Brahm-Water) entered this universe as the Ganges River.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having washed&#xA;the lotus feet of the Lord, which are covered with reddish saffron,&#xA;the water of the Ganges acquired a very beautiful pink color. Because&#xA;the Ganges directly touches the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu (Narayana)&#xA;before descending within this universe,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganges is known as Bhagavat-Padi which means Emanating from the lotus feet of Bhagavan&#xA;(God). It finally settles in Brahmaloka or Brahmapura, abode of Lord&#xA;Brahma before descending to planet Earth at the request of Bhagiratha&#xA;and held safely by Lord Shiva on his head to prevent destruction of&#xA;Bhumi (Mother Earth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, the river Ganges was released from Lord&#xA;Shiva 's hair to meet the needs of the country according to Hindu&#xA;mythology.In other legends, Himavat fathered Parvati and Ganga .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T06:26:52.630" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="475" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="473" CreationDate="2014-06-25T12:40:16.887" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The water on Head of God Shiva is River Ganga. It is said that King Bhageeratha did &lt;em&gt;Tapasya&lt;/em&gt; to give peace to his 60,000 ancestors who were made to ashes by an angry saint (Kapil).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being happy with the &lt;em&gt;Tapasya&lt;/em&gt; of Bhageeratha, God Brahma called Ganga from the sky to land on the Planet earth where the ashes of Bhageeratha ancestors were.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since the force of River Ganga could have destroyed the Earth, God Shiva decided to land on His head. That is how God Shiva has River Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagara_(Vedic_king)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Sagara performed a horse sacrifice (Ashwamedha yajna) to prove his supremacy. Lord Indra, the leader of the demigods, became fearful over the results of the yajna, so he decided to steal the horse. He left the horse at the ashram of Kapila, who was in deep meditation. King Sagar’s 60,000 sons, (born of Queen Sumati), and his son Asamanja (born of Queen Keshini) were then sent to find the horse. When the 60,000 sons found the horse at Kapiladeva’s ashram, they thought he had stolen it. When they prepared to attack the meditating rishi (sage), Kapila opened his eyes. Because the sons of King Sagara had disrespected such a great personality, consequently, fire emanated from their own bodies, and they were immediately burned to ashes.&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DiFyv.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, King Sagara sent his grandson Amshuman to retrieve the horse. Kapiladeva returned the horse and told Anshuman that the sons of King Sagar could be delivered if the Ganges descended to earth and bathed them in her waters. King Sagar’s great-great-grandson, Bhagiratha, eventually pleased Mother Ganga, and asked her to come to earth. Mother Ganga told Bhagiratha that the force of the Ganges falling from heaven would be too great for the earth to sustain, and that she needed someone to break the fall. Bhagiratha then worshiped Lord Siva, who then agreed to accept the descending river upon his head. After the Ganga fell down on the ashes of the 60,000 sons of King Sagara they came alive and got their eternal position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DiFyv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T13:08:31.957" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="476" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="459" CreationDate="2014-06-25T13:41:55.350" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually there is no explicit Goddess named Gayatri. Gayatri means &quot;which protects one who chants it&quot;. The mantra is so powerful such that the mantra itself is worshipped as a Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Through Gayatri, we worship the almighty (Vishnu or Shiva) by comparing it to the brightness of Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: books&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user137" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T23:46:26.937" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T23:46:26.937" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="477" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="459" CreationDate="2014-06-25T15:10:21.743" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gayatri mantra is in Rig Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gayatri mantra is the most sacred Rigvedic mantra. The Gayatri&#xA;mantra praises the sun in the form of Lord Brahma in the morning, as&#xA;Lord Vishnu at noon, and as Lord Shiva in the evening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Facing east, a devotee repeats this mantra a number of times (usually&#xA;a fixed number). This mantra is imparted to a young boy at his&#xA;Yagnopaveet (Upanayana) for initiation into the religious and&#xA;spiritual order of the Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om bhoor bhuvah svah; tat savitur varaynyam; bhargo dayvasya dheemahi;&#xA;dhiyo yo nah prachoda-yat; Om. (Rig Veda 3.62.10 and Yajur Veda 36.3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om (God), bhooh or bhoor (earth, the giver of life), bhuvah&#xA;(atmosphere, the dispeller of miseries), svah (wealth, the bestower of&#xA;happiness), tat (that), savitur (creator), varanyam (most worthy,&#xA;acceptable, and desirable), bhargah or bhargo (personification of&#xA;knowledge), dayvasya (of divine), dheemahi (meditate), dhiyah or dhiyo&#xA;(minds, intellects), yah or yo (one who), nah (our), prachoda-yat&#xA;(inspire, lead).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation of the Gayatri Mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God is the giver of life, the dispeller of miseries, and the bestower&#xA;of happiness. Let us meditate upon that Creator, the most worthy and&#xA;acceptable Almighty God. May He inspire and lead our minds and&#xA;intellects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;REF: The Hindu Mind by Bansi Pandit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recently I came across this discussion of the Gayatri Mantra in Agni Purana. It might be useful for the reader.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On Gayatri mantra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Said the God of fire: Thus, having performed the rite of his daily&#xA;Sandhya, a Brahmana should recite the Gayatri mantra running as “Om&#xA;Bhurbhuvah Svaha, Tat Saviturvarenyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi, Dhiyo yo&#xA;nah Pracodayat Om.” This mantra is called the Gayatri (lit. an&#xA;emancipating song) from the fact of it’s delivering the singers and&#xA;their wives from the cycles of rebirths. &lt;strong&gt;Since its essence serves to&#xA;illumine the sun (Savita) and forms the fountain source of all light&#xA;in the universe, it is also known as the Savitri mantra.&lt;/strong&gt; Since it&#xA;first came as a word out of the mouth of the four-faced deity, it is&#xA;also called the Sarasvati. The word “Bharga” occurring in the middle&#xA;of the mantra represents the supreme light, the essence of the&#xA;Parabrahma, from the root Bha to shine and Bhrasja to cook or ripen,&#xA;in which sense it has been used many times in the Chandas (Vedas). The&#xA;word refers to that essence of the god which causes the cereals to&#xA;ripen in the harvest time and dispels the gloom of night which&#xA;enveloped the universe before the dawn of creation. The light-essence&#xA;of the Supreme Being is the mightiest of all lights and this self of&#xA;the universal Spirit is the most adored (Varenyam) of all existences.&#xA;In the alternative it may mean that the divine self of the Absolute&#xA;should be worshipped with a view to ensure a heavenly existence. And&#xA;since the root Vr of the term Varenyam may also mean ‘to cover’, it&#xA;necessarily signifies, as used in the text, an existence which&#xA;enveloped or lies beyond the states of waking, sleeping and dreaming&#xA;and hence a Being who is changeless, eternal and absolutely pure the&#xA;universal God, the Absolute Purity, the Perfect Knowledge, the&#xA;Infinite Reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the emancipation of my soul, &lt;strong&gt;I meditate upon the divine self of&#xA;that light which is the god Vishnu, the origin of the universe. Some&#xA;there are who read “Siva”, “Sakti”, “Agni” (such as the Agnihotra) in&#xA;the place of “light” in the text of the mantras. And since the term&#xA;Vishnu has been described in the Vedas and the other holy scriptures&#xA;as synonymous with the sun, the fire and the Rudra, it makes no&#xA;essential difference, whichever of these epithets has been used.&lt;/strong&gt; The&#xA;divine self of the god, manifest as the sun or Vishnu, produces the&#xA;libations of clarified butter and it is the self of the same god&#xA;manifest as the light, Parjanya (the god of rain), Vayu (the wind),&#xA;Aditya (the sun) grows and nourishes the cereals and vegetables by&#xA;giving rise to heat and moisture. Libations of clarified butter cast&#xA;into the fire are carried to the sun who creates the rain-clouds. Rain&#xA;causes the stalks of food grains (Annam) to shoot out and man is the&#xA;offspring of food (Annam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word “Dhimahi” in the text may be also derived from the root “Dha”&#xA;to hold and accordingly the mantra may be interpreted to mean may we&#xA;make a full comprehension of the god who is the creator of the seven&#xA;regions known as the Bhuh, Bhuvas, etc. The word Nah is the possessive&#xA;plural form of the personal form of the personal pronoun “I” and the&#xA;word “Bharga” means divinity or divine essence and hence the latter&#xA;part of the mantra (Bhargo Devasya … Pracodayat) means: “May that&#xA;essence of the god Vishnu manifest as the sun or the fire-god, leads&#xA;the minds of us (all created beings) to dwell on his divine self in&#xA;all acts and undertakings and at all times. Led by the god, the soul&#xA;of a man goes to heaven or falls into the pit of this material&#xA;universe which is nothing but the cavity of the mouth of Hari. A&#xA;Brahmana should hold himself identical with the god who sports on the&#xA;field of paradise. A yogi bent on working out the salvation of his&#xA;soul, shall behold the essence of the universal spirit reflected in&#xA;the disc of the sun, at the sight of which he would break the chain of&#xA;births and deaths and get rid of the three sorts of pain a man is&#xA;usually heir to and recite the following mantra: “You are the eternal&#xA;Brahma, the infinite spiritual light, O you who shine in the disc of&#xA;the sun. I am identical with you, O you the divinity of Visnu! The&#xA;status of waking, sleep or dreaming do not constitute myself. I am&#xA;beyond these. I am a disembodied spirit filling the universal space&#xA;and running through all sorts of life up to the Supreme Brahma. I deem&#xA;myself one with the absolute spirit, the Aditya Purusa. I am the&#xA;infinite and eternal “om”, whence flows out all knowledge and good&#xA;deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agni Purana 216.1-18&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2022-01-06T04:00:19.010" LastActivityDate="2022-01-06T04:00:19.010" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="478" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-25T15:30:41.907" Score="11" ViewCount="4844" Body="&lt;p&gt;When there's Ganesha Chaturthi going on, people say that we shouldn't look at the moon on the day of immersion (&lt;em&gt;visarjan&lt;/em&gt;) as its counted as a bad omen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why did he cursed the moon and why is that, we shouldn't look at the moon?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-25T16:48:14.857" LastActivityDate="2021-06-11T11:45:49.157" Title="Why did Lord Ganesha curse the Moon?" Tags="|belief|ganesha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="480" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="455" CreationDate="2014-06-25T18:05:53.790" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is a way of living, it is a culture passed by Ancient rishis and Yogis. It just help to realize who you are. As a culture, it does not need any conversions based on religions. Even if there are so many beliefs, rituals and sacraments in Hinduism it all lead to the single road, self realization. It teach to see God in every thing, in trees, in animals, in stones and in all living and non living things. According to Hinduism for attaining the self realization you can follow any path. So for being a Hindu you do not need any conversions and only religions follow such procedures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This culture know that every God is the same. So according to Hindus, Krishna, Jesus, Allah and Shiva are equal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though, Self realization is the ultimate aim, according to Hinduism there are different ways to attain that, karma marga(way), bhakthi marga and Jnana marga. And for common people, the way of 'Karma' is advised. So, if someone want to follow a life by obeying all dharma/rules in Hinduism(which is a perfect way of living), as a first step you should consider understand about dharmas/rules  from the books like Bhagavat Gita, Upanishaths,etc. One example of such rule from Upanishath is 'Ahimsa Paramo Dharma', which means, not to harm anything in the world. Likewise there are so many rules in sanathana dharma to follow. This can be done by yourself and if that is difficult, you may need a guidance/help from someone who know about such dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2014-08-27T07:49:57.377" LastActivityDate="2014-08-27T07:49:57.377" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="481" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="111" CreationDate="2014-06-25T18:08:06.467" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adding to what @Swapnil Luktuke has answered,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is a way of living, it is a culture passed down by ancient rishis and Yogis. It just helps to realize who you are. As a culture, it does not need any conversions based on religions. Even if there are so many beliefs, rituals and sacraments in Hinduism it all leads to the single road, self-realization. According to Hinduism, for attaining self-realization you can follow any path. So for being a Hindu you do not need any conversions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This culture knows that every God is the same. They see God in everything, in trees,  in animals, in stones and in every human. So according to Hindus, Krishna, Jesus, Allah and Shiva are all equal.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most important texts in Hinduism, the 4 Vedas, mahavakyas (ultimate messages) are the following.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda       - &lt;strong&gt;prajñānam brahma&lt;/strong&gt; - Wisdom/consciousness is Brahman (highest truth)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda   - &lt;strong&gt;ayam ātmā brahma&lt;/strong&gt; - I am this Self is Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sama Veda      - &lt;strong&gt;tat tvam asi&lt;/strong&gt; - You are that(Brahman)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda     - &lt;strong&gt;aham brahmāsmi&lt;/strong&gt; - I am that (Brahman)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus do not pray &quot;Hindu Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu&quot;, instead they pray &quot;Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu&quot; (May all &lt;strong&gt;world&lt;/strong&gt; be well). That &lt;strong&gt;world&lt;/strong&gt; includes people of every religion, atheist and every living being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2016-01-06T04:59:21.293" LastActivityDate="2016-01-06T04:59:21.293" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="482" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="506" CreationDate="2014-06-25T18:26:34.147" Score="8" ViewCount="786" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sabarimala temple is a famous temple in South India which is located in the state of Kerala. See the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sabarimala.kerala.gov.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;website1&lt;/a&gt;. Many people visit the temple every year during the pilgrim season. Swami Ayyappa is the deity here and all except women between 10-50 age group can visit the temple with the 41 days vratha is strictly followed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The biggest difference from other temples is that here the devotees are called by the same name as the deity; that is both are called Swami Ayyappa(Lord Ayyappa). Why are the devotees also called by the same name as the God? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2020-03-15T09:46:15.113" LastActivityDate="2020-03-15T09:46:15.113" Title="Why are the deity and devotee called by the same name 'Swami Ayyappa' in Sabarimala?" Tags="|belief|temple|ayyappa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="483" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-25T22:44:33.197" Score="22" ViewCount="376" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a single jiva &lt;em&gt;(life)&lt;/em&gt; associated with a single body or is it that many jivas are associated with a single body? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism tells us that there is only one jiva to each body. If that really is the case, then observation tells us when a branch of a Rose, or a Banyan, or a Pipal tree is cut and planted elsewhere, another plant/tree of the same kind grows up there. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We see a similar observation with Earthworms. When it is cut across, the head part re-grows to form a full body. So is that another jiva or is it the same jiva appearing in a regenerative body? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the case of Earthworms, the tail part does not re-generate its head part and so it dies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another kind of worm called the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarian&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Planarian Flatworm&lt;/a&gt; which when cut across re-generates into two different worms, each part has the capacity to re-generate the missing parts of the body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are these two different worms having the same jiva or different jiva? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is really happening here? Did a single jiva get dissected into two, or did another jiva enter the new tree or plant or worm? Or is the body really associated with multiple souls. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Hindus tell us that there is only a single jiva associated with each birth and therefore body, then how did the jiva, which is whole and indivisible, be cut and become many?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="145" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-26T10:24:18.530" LastActivityDate="2016-05-26T10:24:18.530" Title="Can a single jiva which is whole and indivisible be cut and become many?" Tags="|jiva|atma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="484" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="473" CreationDate="2014-06-25T22:57:53.377" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't think that the Bhagavata Purana actually describes the episode in which Shiva agrees to take Ganga into his hair so as to prevent her mighty flow from destroying the Earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This episode &lt;em&gt;is&lt;/em&gt;, however, touched on in the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, as part of Vishwamitra's narration to Rama. Basically, what happens is that Bhagiratha performs a penance, at the end of which he receives a boon from Brahma; he requests that the Ganga descend to Earth &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga42/bala_42_prose.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;(1.42)&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Thousands of years have rolled by while Bhageeratha stood practising his severe ascesis, oh, dextrous Rama, and then the lord and master of all beings, namely god Brahma, is well pleased with that great-souled king's ascesis. Forefather Brahma then arrived along with assemblages of gods, and spoke this way to the great-souled Bhageeratha who is deep in the practise of ascesis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot; 'Oh, great king Bhageeratha, oh, lord of the people, I am delighted with the perfectly conducted ascesis of yours, hence oh, truly committed one, you may beseech for a boon.'  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;That great resplendent and highly fortunate king Bhageeratha then remaining with suppliantly adjoined palm fold spoke to him who is the Forefather of all worlds, namely Brahma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot; 'Oh, god, if you are satisfied with my ascesis, and if there is any fruition to the ascesis of mine, let all the sons of Sagara get water oblations through me. While the ashes of these great souls are drenched with the waters of Ganga, let all of those great-grandfathers of mine depart to heaven, eternally. Oh, god, I indeed pray for offspring in our Ikshvaku dynasty, let not our dynasty dwindle as I am issueless, and oh, god, let this be the other boon to me.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The Forefather of all the worlds, Brahma, then replied the king who has spoken in that way, in an auspicious tongue that is sweet-sounding and sweetly worded, as well. 'Oh, top-speeded chariot-rider Bhageeratha, this aspiration of yours is sublime, and oh, the furtherer of Ikshvaku dynasty, so be it, let safeness betide you. 'This Ganga is the one with snow-broth, the elder daughter of Himavanta, and oh, king Bhageeratha, god Shiva alone is capable to sustain her force in the course of her alighting onto earth, and in fact, he is to be commissioned for that purpose. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot; 'Oh, king Bhageeratha, the earth cannot endure the downfall of Ganga and to sustain Ganga, oh, king, indeed I do not behold none other than the Trident-wielder, god Shiva.' Thus Brahma spoke to Bhageeratha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Speaking this way to the king Bhageeratha and informally greeting Ganga also, that Creator of Worlds, Brahma, left for heaven along with all the groups of gods and Wind-gods.&quot; Thus Vishvamitra continued narration about the arrival of River Ganga to earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following sarga &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga43/bala_43_prose.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;(1.43)&lt;/a&gt; describes the way in which Ganga descended, flowing through Shiva's hair and all of that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;On completion of one year, he who is venerated by all worlds, the consort of Uma and the god of animals from insects to humans, that god Shiva revealed himself and spoke this to the king. Oh, best one among humans, I am delighted with your unwavering effort, and I will fulfil your cherish. I will therefore sustain Ganga, the daughter of king of mountains by my head. Afterwards, she who is reverenced by all the worlds and who is the elder daughter of Himavanta, that Ganga assuming an unendurable form and an insupportable rapidity, they say, then plunged from the sky onto the auspicious head of Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;She who is an extremely unendurable river that goddess Ganga even speculated saying to herself, 'let me enter netherworld, indeed whisking Shiva with my streams. Discerning her egotism god Shiva is infuriated, and then on his part that Three-eyed god Shiva thought to pent her up in the tufts of his head-hair. And oh, Rama, she that holy River Ganga swooped down into the cavernous curls of matted hair-tufts on the holy head of God Shiva, and she became a detainee in them. Though she strove hard in one way or another to reach the earth that Ganga is rendered incapable, as she could not gain access for an outlet from any edge of the coils of matted hair-tufts of Shiva, hence she is held there in durance vile. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Goddess Ganga whirled round and round in the coils of tufts alone for many number of years, and when Ganga's emanation from those coils is intangible Bhageeratha again firmed up in a marvellous penance in the matter of her descent to earth. Oh, Rama, the legatee of Raghu, with that ascesis of Bhageeratha god Shiva is very much delighted, and thereupon he has also released Ganga aiming at Bindu Lake in Himalayas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;While god Shiva released Ganga into Bindu Lake seven streams have emerged out of it, and thus three auspicious Ganga-s with holy waters have cruised eastward which are known as Hlaadini, Paavani, and Nalini. Also thus Sucakshu, Seetha, and the excellent river Sindhu are the other three rivers which streamed to the westward direction with their holy waters. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Of them the seventh Ganga flowed towards the path of Bhageeratha' chariot, and that great-resplendent and kingly sage Bhageeratha sitting in a divine chariot moved ahead and even Ganga followed him. Thus Ganga came from heavens onto Shankara's head and from there onto the earth, and there on earth her waters advanced with a tumultuous sound advancing them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastActivityDate="2014-06-25T22:57:53.377" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="485" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="658" CreationDate="2014-06-26T00:10:37.313" Score="7" ViewCount="671" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Venkatachala Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana describes how &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt; (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, AKA Balaji or Srinivasa) meets &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmavathi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Padmavathi&lt;/a&gt; for the first time.  He saves Padmavathi from an elephant, and when Padmavathi and her friends ask him who he is, he says this (from page 24 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/RjEf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those conversant with ancient traditions say that our family is that of the Sun.  Our names are innumerable.  They sanctify learned men.  By colour and name the ascetics say that I am Krishna.  My discus instills fear in the minds of the enemies of Suras and those who hate Brahmanas.  On hearing the sound of my conch enemies become confounded.  Even among immortal beings there is no bow equal to mine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why does Vishnu say his &quot;family is that of the Sun&quot;?  Vishnu is actually an ancestor of Surya the sun god, not a descendant; Surya is the son of Kashyapa, who is the son of Marichi, who is the son of Brahma, who is the son of Vishnu.  So I don't see how it makes sense to call Vishnu a member of the family of the Sun.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two possible reasons that I see:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He could be referring to his incarnation (avataram) as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vamana the dwarf&lt;/a&gt;, who is one of the sons of Aditi and Kashyap.  (Surya the sun god is another one of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aditi#Motherhood&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;sons of Aditi&lt;/a&gt;.)  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He could be referring to his incarnation as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rama&lt;/a&gt;, who &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga70/bala_70_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;was a member&lt;/a&gt; of the Solar dynasty.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone shed light on what Vishnu meant?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T05:52:30.470" LastActivityDate="2016-03-22T14:11:03.970" Title="Why does Vishnu tell Padmavathi that he is a member of the Solar dynasty?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|venkateshwara|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="486" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="491" CreationDate="2014-06-26T02:11:50.647" Score="12" ViewCount="3637" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the beliefs related to Lunar and Solar eclipses according to Hindu culture? I have heard that they are the result of trouble making by Rahu and Ketu by devouring the sun/moon for a while. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://68.media.tumblr.com/f4b7c0e446da269eee2e11742927fca0/tumblr_nrv19dNezF1ticd75o1_500.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-22T03:40:32.193" LastActivityDate="2017-08-22T03:40:32.193" Title="What are the beliefs related to lunar and solar eclipses?" Tags="|belief|eclipse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="487" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="525" CreationDate="2014-06-26T02:22:42.220" Score="8" ViewCount="11249" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any explanation of distance between Bhur lok (&lt;em&gt;earth&lt;/em&gt;) and Indra lok? For example, I have seen Arjuna visits Indra lok to meet his father (&lt;em&gt;Indra&lt;/em&gt;) while he and his brothers are in exile. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There might be some explanation about the distance in Hindu mythology. Please share it if it is available in any upanyas/book rather than just Mahabharatha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T13:00:11.593" LastActivityDate="2022-08-12T03:03:55.530" Title="Distance between Bhur lok (Earth) and Indra lok?" Tags="|lokas|astronomy|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="488" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="521" CreationDate="2014-06-26T02:29:23.293" Score="10" ViewCount="1235" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we all know, temples remain closed when there is an eclipse. But the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srikalahasteeswara_temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srikalahasti temple&lt;/a&gt; remains open even during eclipses and they also do special pujas on these occasions. Please share the story/reason behind this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-07-19T22:17:07.000" LastActivityDate="2019-07-19T22:17:07.000" Title="Why does Srikalahasti Temple remain open during an eclipse?" Tags="|shiva|history|temple|eclipse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="490" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="617" CreationDate="2014-06-26T02:31:47.307" Score="6" ViewCount="319" Body="&lt;p&gt;Being a Hindu, we are all aware that all karma eventually gets back to us. If we  perform a negative karma, sooner or later the negative effects of our earlier karma will catch us up. In addition, we are aware that every karma leaves a deep impression in the mind (samskara). Now, despite having a firm belief in the theory of karma, and also feeling penitent about such, why does a jiva act out the karma as if under the control of some forces in spite of his best wishes to prevent such action. For instance, consider the simple case of addicts, who are well aware of the harmful effects of the addiction but are unable to break out of the addiction. What results in the auto-pilot of the mind? Is the jiva still responsible for the karma? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="145" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-11-05T16:38:18.853" LastActivityDate="2014-11-05T16:38:18.853" Title="How can one reverse the impression of a karma knowing that it is wrong?" Tags="|karma|jiva|samskara|mind|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="491" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="486" CreationDate="2014-06-26T04:12:54.887" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;You heard correctly.  The story of Rahu and Ketu occurs after the churning of the ocean, when Vishnu turned into the beautiful woman Mohini in order to trick the Asuras (demons) and give the Amrita, the nectar of immortality, only to the gods (gods).  The Adi Parva of the Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01020.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; what transpired next:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And all the gods at that time of great fright drank the Amrita with delight, receiving it from Vishnu. And while the gods were partaking of it, after which they had so much hankered, a Danava named Rahu was also drinking it among them in the guise of a god. And when the Amrita had reached Rahu's throat only, Surya and Soma (recognised him and) intimated the fact to the gods. And Narayana instantly cut off with his discus the well-adorned head of the Danava who was drinking the Amrita without permission. And the huge head of the Danava, cut off by the discus and resembling a mountain peak, then rose up to the sky and began to utter dreadful cries. And the Danava's headless trunk, falling upon the ground and rolling thereon, made the Earth tremble with her mountains, forests and islands. And from that time there is a long-standing quarrel between Rahu's head and Surya and Soma. And to this day it swalloweth Surya and Soma (during solar and lunar eclipses).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WzZEW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should note that although in this account (and &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/8/9/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the similar account&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam) only the head survives and the headless body dies, in more popular versions of the story both the head and the body survive separately due to the Amrita being in the middle of the Asura's throat - the head is known as Rahu and the headless body is known as Ketu.  And this isn't information entirely absent from scripture; the Karna Parva of the Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;the headless planet Ketu (is peerless) among all the planets&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, it should be noted that the Rahu and Ketu have some basis in astronomy: they correspond to the two &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_node#Names_and_symbols&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;lunar nodes&lt;/a&gt;, and eclipses occur whenever the sun or the moon passes through one of these nodes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T01:00:09.230" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T01:00:09.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="492" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="501" CreationDate="2014-06-26T04:49:43.563" Score="15" ViewCount="20426" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, we do &lt;em&gt;Namaskar&lt;/em&gt; to the God statues in the temples as a symbol of belief, respect, and worship. In addition, we also do &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sashtang&lt;/strong&gt; Namaskar&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What exactly is &lt;em&gt;Sashtang Namaskar&lt;/em&gt;, and why must one do it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-26T15:31:31.157" LastActivityDate="2022-10-24T18:31:03.580" Title="What is the significance of Sashtang Namaskar?" Tags="|belief|worship|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="493" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-26T05:03:52.073" Score="11" ViewCount="374" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have all heard that kids were sent to Gurukul returned as educated men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wonder what life in a Gurukul was like, what subjects did the kids study, and what activities filled a typical day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="149" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-06-30T15:05:38.647" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T15:05:38.647" Title="What was the education system in the Gurukuls like?" Tags="|guru|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="495" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="498" CreationDate="2014-06-26T07:13:29.857" Score="10" ViewCount="16777" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've often seen people, women especially, worship Peepal Trees (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_religiosa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ficus religiosa&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UhKY3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Peepal tree worshipping by Hindus&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why they do so? Is there any reason from Hindu scriptures behind doing that? As far as I know, people say that our ancestors' souls stay on those peepal trees, and hence we worship them. Is that explanation true, or is there some other reason behind rituals involving a peepal tree? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Credits for Image : &lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.baps.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://kids.baps.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="12" LastEditDate="2014-06-26T15:40:58.080" LastActivityDate="2015-08-05T16:10:26.477" Title="Why Hindus worship Peepal Trees? (Ficus religiosa)" Tags="|belief|worship|peepal-tree|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="496" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-26T07:13:57.173" Score="7" ViewCount="152" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many aspects of Hindu rituals are closely tied with astrology, star gazing and charts. How and when did this start to happen? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="160" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-12-23T17:08:00.077" LastActivityDate="2018-12-23T17:08:00.077" Title="How and when did astrology become a defining aspect of Hinduism?" Tags="|history|rituals|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="497" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-26T07:28:26.070" Score="6" ViewCount="171" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are words in some languages which are difficult to translate to other languages like &lt;em&gt;gestalt&lt;/em&gt; in German.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are words which get lost in translation without sufficient context.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is possible that words from Hindu scriptures written in Sanskrit got mistranslated to English.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word '&lt;em&gt;brahmacarya&lt;/em&gt;' got translated as celibacy.  But it literally means 'to dwell on the divine'.  The word '&lt;em&gt;varna&lt;/em&gt;' got translated as 'caste' - which has racial connotations -  when it should have been 'class' or 'group'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is worse is that most Hindus learned from the incorrect translations to the extent that today even Hindus have misconceptions about what they are.  I believe that a lot of misconceptions about Hinduism stems from these incorrect translations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What according to you would be a significant mistranslated word/concept?  A mistranslation that has caused the most damage or misconception to Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="149" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-07-06T18:40:48.907" LastActivityDate="2014-07-06T18:40:48.907" Title="Lost in mistranslation?" Tags="|translation-request|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-06-26T16:54:41.310" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="498" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="495" CreationDate="2014-06-26T07:40:03.113" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Brahma Purana and the Padma Purana, relate how once, when the demons defeated the Gods, Vishnu hide in the peepal. Therefore spontaneous worship to Vishnu can be offered to a peepal without needing his image or temple. The  &lt;a href=&quot;http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/skanda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; considers the peepal to be a symbol of Vishnu. Vishnue is said to have been born under a peepal tree. Some believe that the tree houses the Trimurti – the roots being Brahma; the trunk, Vishnu; and the leaves, Shiva. The Gods are said to hold their councils under this tree, and so the tree is associated with spiritual understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_religiosa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Skanda Purana states that the Sarasvati originates from the water pot of Brahma flows from Plaksa on the Himalayas. According to Vamana Purana 32.1-4, the Sarasvati was rising from the Plaksa tree (Pipal tree).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Plaksa Pra-sravana denotes the place where the Sarasvati appears. In the Rigveda Sutras, Plaksa Pra-sravana refers to the source of the Sarasvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The peepal is also closely linked to Krishna. In the Bhagavad Gita, he says:&#xA;&amp;quot;Among trees, I am the ashvattha.&amp;quot; Krishna is believed to have died under this&#xA;tree, after which the present Kali Yuga is said to have begun. And he will reside in a peepal leaf after &lt;em&gt;Pralayam&lt;/em&gt; till the next world is created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/LOzcY.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Five-trees (Pancha-vat) are considered sacred in India. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Fig tree&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A wild fig (Sycamore) tree (Gular)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Banyan tree&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pakar (citron-leaved), Indian fig tree&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mango tree&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/skanda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt;, if one does not have a son, the peepal should be regarded as one. As long as the tree lives, the family name will continue. To cut down a peepal is considered a sin equivalent to killing a Brahmin, one of the five deadly sins or &lt;em&gt;Panchapataka&lt;/em&gt;. According to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/skanda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt;, a person goes to hell for doing so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people are particular to touch the peepal only on a Saturday. The Brahma Purana explains why, saying that &lt;em&gt;Ashvattha&lt;/em&gt; and peepala were two demons who harassed people. &lt;em&gt;Ashvattha&lt;/em&gt; would take the form of a peepal and peepala the form of a Brahmin. The fake Brahmin would advise people to touch the tree, and as soon as they did, &lt;em&gt;Ashvattha&lt;/em&gt; would kill them. Later they were both killed by &lt;em&gt;Shani&lt;/em&gt;. Because of his influence, it is considered safe to touch the tree on Saturdays.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lakshmi&lt;/em&gt; is also believed to inhabit the tree on Saturdays. Therefore it is considered auspicious to worship it. Women ask the tree to bless them with a son tying red thread or red cloth around its trunk or on its branches.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/skanda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ijpcsonline.com/files/53.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ficus religiosa(Peepal) : A Phyto-Pharmacological Review&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-23T05:16:35.127" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="499" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="497" CreationDate="2014-06-26T08:48:50.150" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;A few notable points : For more refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/common-misconceptions-about-hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;veda.wikidot&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hinduism: A Modern Term&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Words like Hindu or Hinduism are anachronisms. They do not exist in&#xA;  the Indian cultural lexicon. People have coined them to suit their&#xA;  needs in different points of history. Nowhere in the scriptures is&#xA;  there any reference to the term &quot;Hinduism&quot;. The very name “Hinduism”&#xA;  is a regional/people group descriptive name. It is the name for the&#xA;  inhabitants and the religion of the Indus River region. The&#xA;  inhabitants were called Hindus and their religion was called Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The common name for Hinduism is &lt;strong&gt;Sanatana Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Civilization more than a Religion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hinduism does not have any one founder, and it does not have a Bible&#xA;  or a Koran to which controversies can be referred for resolution.&#xA;  Consequently, it does not require its adherents to accept any one&#xA;  idea. It is thus cultural, not creedal, with a history contemporaneous&#xA;  with the peoples with which it is associated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Much More than Spirituality&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Writings we now categorize as Hindu scriptures include not just books&#xA;  relating to spirituality but also secular pursuits like science,&#xA;  medicine and engineering. This is another reason why it defies&#xA;  classification as a religion. Further, it cannot be claimed to be&#xA;  essentially a school of metaphysics. Nor can it be described as 'other&#xA;  worldly'. In fact, one can almost identify Hinduism with a&#xA;  civilization that is flourishing even now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="167" LastActivityDate="2014-06-26T08:48:50.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="500" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="493" CreationDate="2014-06-26T08:57:59.500" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the world of Indian Music, the place of a Guru has been considered as the highest of all which has been well described in the following couplet: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo, Maheshwarah,  Guru&#xA;  SaakshatParabrahma, Tasmay Shree GuruveNamah ||”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from a paper on '&lt;a href=&quot;http://iasir.net/AIJRHASSpapers/AIJRHASS13-140.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;COMPARITIVE STUDY OF ANCIENT GURUKUL SYSTEM AND THE NEW TRENDS OF GURU-SHISHYA PARAMPARA&lt;/a&gt; '&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Merits of Guru Shishya Parampara&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Gurus had enormous knowledge and knew how to teach the most&#xA;arduous of the things.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This Parampara used to take its time and due to this the students used to come out in a very perfect manner. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They used to inherit a certain style and had the efficiency in it. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this the student was well trained and he had the full authority for his art form. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The student used to have very humble respects for the Guru and discipline was pursued due to this they got the opportunity to learn the good points of the attitude and art. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They were taught directly or face-to-face and there were lot of benefits of this style of teaching. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The environment provided to the student was made sure the he would come out an artist. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Demerits of Guru Shishya Parampara&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The student never got a glimpse of the other genres because he came across only one Guru. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was no time period allotted for the course. The student had to depend on the teacher totally. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The ancient system did not entertain the theoretical wing of the art. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Guru used to hide a lot of important points which the student used to be unaware of. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The student also had to do all the inferior daily house cores. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="167" LastActivityDate="2014-06-26T08:57:59.500" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="501" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="492" CreationDate="2014-06-26T09:47:23.913" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Sashtang namaskar or dandvat?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sashtang namaskar or dandvat is a symbol of complete submission that reminds devotees to respect God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devotees perform sashtang dandvat pranam by lying fully prostrate on the floor with their arms stretched out towards the Idols.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eight specific parts of the body should touch the floor:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;thighs&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;feet&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;hands&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;chest&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;mind&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;head&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;speech&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;eyes&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why we must do it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All of our karmas are performed through mind, body, or speech, and every karma in life should be offered to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.baps.org/cultureandheritage/Traditions/HinduPractices/DandavatPranam.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="73" LastActivityDate="2014-06-26T09:47:23.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="504" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-26T10:50:47.540" Score="17" ViewCount="27964" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why did Daksha hate Shiva, though Shiva is his son-in-law and one of Trimurti?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="181" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-23T18:27:43.270" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T18:27:43.270" Title="Why did Daksha Prajapathi (father of Sati) hate Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="505" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="508" CreationDate="2014-06-26T10:57:09.703" Score="8" ViewCount="267" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people use &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; while doing &lt;em&gt;yoga&lt;/em&gt;. Does that mean that yoga is a part of Hinduism? If yes, does the inclusion of yoga in Hinduism have a basis in Hindu texts like the Vedas, Upanishads, etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="12" LastEditDate="2014-06-26T15:00:17.293" LastActivityDate="2014-06-26T15:01:48.107" Title="Is yoga a part of Hinduism?" Tags="|rituals|yoga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="506" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="482" CreationDate="2014-06-26T11:01:28.040" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can see a quote which is showing in front of temple , &quot;tatwamasi&quot; . This simply means that &quot;It's you&quot;. The concept of adwaitha (non-duality) shows here. By saying the same name &quot;Ayyappa&quot; together, it shows that we all, including the lord Ayyappa, are equal. The same Brahman exist in each and everyone  of us. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2014-06-30T17:45:04.857" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T17:45:04.857" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="507" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="496" CreationDate="2014-06-26T11:02:07.287" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Astrology was a defining aspect since the beginning of Hinduism. The core of Hinduism is the Vedas and in one way, the core of the Vedas are the rituals and &lt;em&gt;yajnas&lt;/em&gt; (sacrifices). The Vedas define particular moments, planetary positions etc. when the rituals or yajna should be started. Hence, since the prehistoric times &lt;em&gt;rishis&lt;/em&gt; (sages) and &lt;em&gt;munis&lt;/em&gt; started star gazing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thing is, to understand the Veda and its &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; properly and to understand the time table and planetary positions properly, knowledge of certain other things like grammar, meter (to chant the mantras), astronomy (to know the time of ritual), etc. are also required. Hence, these (six in number) are known as the limb of the Vedas (&lt;em&gt;Vedanga&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्रापरा रुग्वेदो यजुर्वेदः सामवेदोऽथर्ववेदः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    शिक्षा कल्पो व्याकरणं निरुक्तं छन्दो ज्योतिषमिति |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    अथ परा यया तदक्षरमधिगम्यते  [Mundak. Up. - 1.1.5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Of these (Knowledge), Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sam Veda, Atharv Veda,&#xA;  Sikhsa (phonetics), kalpa (ritual), vyakaran (grammar), nirukta (word&#xA;  definitions), chanda (meter), jyotisha (astrology) are lower. And the&#xA;  higher than these is the knowledge through which the imperishable is&#xA;  attained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So astronomy is as old as the Vedas, but later on sages and scholars like Parashara, Garga, Varah Mihir, etc. formulated more precise rules and helped gain it today's form which are used to calculate birth charts, forecast future, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know whether it count's as a proper reference, but in the Shri Krishna serial of Ramananda Sagar I had heard that Garga was the sage who first created the planetary chart system (in the episode where he names Krishna). The Vishnu Puran also states Garga as the ancient rishi who learned &lt;em&gt;jyotishi&lt;/em&gt; from Sesha (&lt;em&gt;Ananta Naga&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yamārādhya purāṇarvirgagoṃ jyortīṣi tattvataḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    jñātavānsakalaṃ caiva nimittapaṭhitaṃ phalam&lt;/em&gt;  [VP - 2.5.26]   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Worshipping him (Sesha), the ancient &lt;em&gt;rishi&lt;/em&gt; Garga obtained the complete knowledge of &lt;em&gt;jyotishi&lt;/em&gt; (astrology) and the auspicious and inauspicious effects of planetary positions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-06-26T17:29:42.913" LastActivityDate="2014-06-26T17:29:42.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="508" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="505" CreationDate="2014-06-26T11:17:52.257" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, yoga is a core part of Hinduism just like meditation is a core part of yoga.  Go through any Upanishad and you will find mention of some form of meditation there. For example, consider the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वदेहमरणिं कृत्वा प्रणवं चोत्तरारणिं ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ध्याननिर्मथनाभ्यासाद्देवं पश्येन्निगूढवत्॥  [Sve. Up. - 1.14]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Making own body the lower wood, AUM is made the&#xA;  upper, Churning in meditation through practice, the divine is seen&#xA;  hidden under.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse from Svetasvetar Upanishad mentions the process of meditation using the mantra om. Similarly, other upanishads have also such mentions. Now if you are interested in the physical excercise part of the yoga, they are too a part of Hinduism and go under the six philosophies of Hinduism (sad darshana). &lt;strong&gt;Maharshi Patanjali&lt;/strong&gt; was the founder of this school of thought and through his work &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali&quot;&gt;Patnajali Yoga sutra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; he gave out different methods of Yoga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from these you can know that Yoga is actually a core part of Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-06-26T11:22:54.793" LastActivityDate="2014-06-26T11:22:54.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="509" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="504" CreationDate="2014-06-26T12:34:37.157" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Shrimad Bhagavatam, it is because Lord Shiva didn't show proper respect to Daksa Prjapati, at an occasion of Yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dakṣa was adequately welcomed by the president of the great assembly,&#xA;  Lord Brahmā. After offering Lord Brahmā respect, Dakṣa, by the order&#xA;  of Brahmā, properly took his seat.  [SB -  4.2.7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Before taking his seat, however, Dakṣa was very much offended to see&#xA;  Lord Śiva sitting and not showing him any respect. At that time, Dakṣa&#xA;  became greatly angry, and, his eyes glowing, he began to speak very&#xA;  strongly against Lord Śiva. [ SB - 4.2.8 ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being the Prajapati, he was of course a respectable man. So when every one else showed proper respect and good mannerism but not his own son in law Siva, he got angry on Him and hated Him. Anyway, he probably never liked Shiva because He was a &lt;em&gt;smashan&lt;/em&gt; dweller. So that occasion made him furious and he poured his heart out:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I had no desire to give my daughter to this person, who has broken all&#xA;  rules of civility. Because of not observing the required rules and&#xA;  regulations, he is impure, but I was obliged to hand over my daughter&#xA;  to him just as one teaches the messages of the Vedas to a śūdra. [ SB&#xA;  - 4.2.13 ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He lives in filthy places like cremation ground, and his companions&#xA;  are the ghosts and demons. Naked like a madman, sometimes laughing and&#xA;  sometimes crying, he smears crematorium ashes all over his body. He&#xA;  does not bathe regularly, and he ornaments his body with a garland of&#xA;  skulls and bones. Therefore only in name is he śiva, or auspicious;&#xA;  actually, he is the most mad and inauspicious creature. Thus he is&#xA;  very dear to crazy beings in the gross mode of ignorance, and he is&#xA;  their leader. [ SB - 4.2.14, 15 ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Referece&lt;/strong&gt;:  &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/4/2&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavatam, Canto 4, Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-06-26T14:07:31.607" LastActivityDate="2014-06-26T14:07:31.607" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="510" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="504" CreationDate="2014-06-26T12:51:45.563" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Shiva Purana, Daksha disliked Shiva due to the latter failing to properly respect him during a yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there's more background to this as well. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daksha, in addition to being a son of Brahma, was also a King, with a royal lifestyle; and being a King he wanted to use his daughters' marriages to increase his influence and power through marriage alliances with influential folks. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, Sati, his youngest daughter had &lt;em&gt;always&lt;/em&gt; been interested only in marrying Shiva. Daksha strongly disapproved of this as Shiva was an ascetic, and his followers consisted of ghosts, demons, ghouls and goblins. At this point in the tale, Daksha does not seem to be aware of Shiva being a &quot;Supreme God&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Despite Daksha's disapproval, when Sati's swayamvara (a ceremony in which a bride can choose her own husband) was held, she chose Shiva and Daksha was powerless to stop the wedding. Leading to Daksha's hatred of the ascetic Shiva growing even stronger &lt;em&gt;because&lt;/em&gt; he was now his son-in-law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="64" LastActivityDate="2014-06-26T12:51:45.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="511" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-26T13:20:13.937" Score="11" ViewCount="3800" Body="&lt;p&gt;From what I've understood, Moksha means attaining union with the Supreme Soul. But Dvaita philosophy says that the &lt;em&gt;individual souls&lt;/em&gt; (jiivatma) are different from the &lt;em&gt;Supreme Soul&lt;/em&gt; (paramatma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If &lt;em&gt;jiivatma&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;paramatma&lt;/em&gt; are different, how exactly does the Dvaita theory explains the attainment of moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-09-15T16:44:38.403" LastActivityDate="2014-10-09T12:31:23.477" Title="How does Dvaita philosophy explain Moksha?" Tags="|moksha|philosophy|dvaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="512" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="505" CreationDate="2014-06-26T14:54:35.623" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, yoga has been mentioned explicitly in Hindu scriptures. Here is one example, from the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;, Adi Parva XCII:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashtaka asked, 'Who amongst these, O king, both exerting constantly&#xA;  like  the Sun and the Moon, first attaineth to communion with Brahma,&#xA;  the ascetic or the man of knowledge?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yayati answered,'The wise, with the help of the Vedas and of&#xA;  Knowledge, having ascertained the visible universe to be illusory,&#xA;  instantly realises the Supreme Spirit as the sole existent independent&#xA;  essence. While they that devote themselves to Yoga meditation take&#xA;  time to acquire the same knowledge, for it is by practice alone that&#xA;  these latter divest themselves of the consciousness of quality. Hence&#xA;  the wise attain to salvation first. Then again if the person devoted&#xA;  to Yoga find not sufficient time in one life to attain success, being&#xA;  led astray by the attraction of the world, in his next life he is&#xA;  benefitted by the progress already achieved, for he devoteth himself&#xA;  regretfully to the pursuit of success. But the man of knowledge ever&#xA;  beholdeth the indesctructible unity, and, is, therefore, though&#xA;  steeped in wordly enjoyments, never affected by them at heart.&#xA;  Therefore, there is nothing to  impede his salvation. He, however, who&#xA;  faileth to attain to knowledge, should yet devote himself to piety as&#xA;  dependent on action. But he that devoteth himself to such piety, moved&#xA;  thereto by desire of salvation, can never achieve success. His&#xA;  sacrifices bear no fruit and partake of the nature of cruelty. Piety&#xA;  which is dependent on action that proceedeth not from the desire of&#xA;  fruit, is, in the case of such men Yoga itself.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="12" LastEditDate="2014-06-26T15:01:48.107" LastActivityDate="2014-06-26T15:01:48.107" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="513" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="511" CreationDate="2014-06-26T15:08:20.307" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Madhvacharya considers Jivas and God as eternally different. Thus an Advaita style moksha is not possible. (In fact Dvaitins regard the Advaita Moksha as destruction of the Jiva and thus to be avoided.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhvacharya prefers Bimba-pratibimba (ray and its reflection) relation between God and Jiva, where God is the original ray and the Jiva is the reflection. The Jiva as a reflection of God is absolutely dependent on God and also has some characteristics of God. Thus Jiva also has a conscious and blissful nature which is masked by the oppressive influence of Karma but in liberation expands to full capacity. But even in liberation there is no equality between Brahman and Jiva. This is not the entire story. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dvaita doctrine suggests that there are differences between the liberated Jivas, i.e., liberated Jivas are not only not equal to God and also not equal to each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF:Bhakti Schools of Vedanta by Swami Tapasyananda &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-26T15:28:10.427" LastActivityDate="2014-06-26T15:28:10.427" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="514" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="497" CreationDate="2014-06-26T15:21:51.820" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are tons of words which got corrupted in translation into English. This is especially important because it were British who first tried to translate Hindu scriptures into current languages and helped in the wider recognition. I'll list a few notable ones which I remember -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahman : The most best way to describe Brahman in English is God, but it fails miserably because of the different concept of God in West and Hinduism. Brahman is not a scornful, judgmental father sitting atop cloud. Rather Brahman is a all-pervasive entity, more of whom you can read at &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt;. In Hinduism, the pronoun for Brahman is 'tat' which is 'it' in English not 'he'.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karma : In Hindu scripture Karma is a very complex word with hidden connotations and meaning which means 'ones deeds' in short. In popular culture, the meaning has degraded to such an extent that even 'Karma is a bitch' is a valid sentence.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dharma : From scripture, it means 'ones duty', it has no relation to religion or tradition. A sample sentence would be, The Dharma of Sun is to glow and radiate light. But the mistranslation into Hindi and other language lead it to mean something related to religion.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tantra : From a western connotation, Tantra mean Sex. There's no ifs and buts to it. But scriptures tell you a different story. Tantra essentially mean awakening of Kundalini with sexual energy, which is considered of highest potency.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kama : Popular connotation is Sex, but the actual meaning of Kama is desire. So, Kamadeva is not the eastern equivalent Cupid, rather the reign of Kamadeva is much more broad.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'll add to this list as I find more such words..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2014-06-26T15:21:51.820" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="515" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="511" CreationDate="2014-06-26T15:39:46.090" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Followers of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhvacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Madhvacharya&lt;/a&gt;, the chief exponent of Dvaita, do not believe in Moksha as conventionally understood by other schools, where the jivatma acheives unity with paramatma.  In Madhva's view, the jivatma will always remain distinct from paramatma; he believed that Mukti or salvation involved the Vishnu's elevation of the jivatma to an exalted state where you are almost (but not quite) equal to Vishnu himself, living in Vaikunta (the abode of Vishnu) and experiencing eternal bliss.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://shivallibrahmins.com/great-acharyas/shriman-madhvacharya/chapter-11/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Muktas (those who have attained Mukti) are described in the Shrimadhvavijaya Mahakavya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The liberated souls here [in Vaikunta] have four arms, lotus eyes, wear yellow golden dresses and wear superior ornaments. They have effulgence like the rising sun and the blue black colour of dark clouds (colour of Sri Narayana). They sport here with bliss....  It is not only that the bliss of those who obtain proximity with the Supreme Being is unmatched. The bliss of all those who, after Mukti have reached Vaikunta, which exceeds the great qualities of other worlds like that of Brahma etc. and cannot be secured by any one without completion of their Sadhana to earn the grace of the God, is unmatched (in accordance with their own worth)....  There are no births, deaths or aging in this place. The three kinds of suffering (Adhyatmika, Adhibhautika and Adhidaivika) are not there. Thus, there can be no other kind of sorrow. There are no defects (of character) like jealousy etc., as the root causes of such defects – the three Gunas (Satva, Rajas and Thamas) are not there.  Though the Mukta souls have their intrinsic gradation amongst themselves, they have great mutual love for each other. They have realised that Vishnu is their selfless benefactor (without any expectation of return) and have devotion to the souls superior to themselves. They enjoy bliss always (which is part of their own essential nature) up to the limits of their own complete satisfaction.  The Mukta souls are very beautiful, eternally young and wear Harichandana paste with sweet scent on their bodies, which is red like the newly born moon. They are fanned with attractive Chamaras by servants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://michaelsudduth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Philosophy-of-Sri-Madhvacharya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how Madhva's view of Mukti is described in the book &quot;The Philosophy of Madhvacharya&quot; by B.N.K Sharma (pages 473-475):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhva, therefore, lays, great stress on the survival of every individual personality, as such, in release. This is the corollary of his belief in the distinctiveness of the Svarupa of each Jiva. As release is the realisation of the intrinsic bliss of selfhood by each one of us, it must be a positive experience, to be felt and be realised by each and at the same time incommunicable to others....&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Lord is pleased to lift the veil of His 'Maya' and manifest the true and essential nature of the soul to it in full....  Madhva, therefore, regards Mukti as a complete self- expression, self-manifestation and self-realisation, in short, a complete unfolding of the self in all its promise and potency.... Madhva has left us in no doubt as to the manner of life led by the freed souls in release. Like the Lord, they are for ever contented.... Wisdom and enjoyment of perfect bliss are their own nature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T12:31:23.477" LastActivityDate="2014-10-09T12:31:23.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="516" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="125" CreationDate="2014-06-26T16:03:10.037" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's not about keeping it fair that even men should wear some form of accessory indicating they are married. Wearing a mangal-sutra is a tradition similar to a sister tying a &lt;em&gt;rakhee&lt;/em&gt; on her brother's wrist to remind him of his duty to protect her. Even in that case, there is no equivalent of &lt;em&gt;rakhee&lt;/em&gt; that a sister has to wear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope that answers the question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="151" LastEditorUserId="151" LastEditDate="2016-04-23T12:29:24.340" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T12:29:24.340" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="517" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="538" CreationDate="2014-06-26T16:39:00.147" Score="9" ViewCount="51434" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of us heard this famous quote &lt;em&gt;&quot;Loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu&quot;&lt;/em&gt; (let everybody live peacefully). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where it is originated from and which shloka mention this line and from which text ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-06-27T05:37:57.733" LastActivityDate="2020-07-13T03:36:22.490" Title="The origin of &quot;Loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="518" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-26T17:18:11.077" Score="11" ViewCount="464" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of mantras and why do people chant them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="199" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-13T05:48:54.430" LastActivityDate="2017-06-13T05:48:54.430" Title="Do mantras actually have any significance?" Tags="|gods|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="519" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="522" CreationDate="2014-06-26T17:18:55.403" Score="14" ViewCount="1800" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is so much emphasis on Meditation in Hinduism. Can common meditation techniques of today be traced to scriptural sources? I have heard through word of mouth that Transcendental Meditation technique can be traced to Shiva Sooktam. Like that what are all the techniques available in the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-06T04:22:11.170" LastActivityDate="2018-03-20T14:59:56.980" Title="What are the meditation techniques found in the scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|meditation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="520" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="125" CreationDate="2014-06-26T18:04:32.150" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;First a small clarification from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mangala_sutra&amp;amp;oldid=614610642&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia entry&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strike&gt;Contrary to false impression generated in recent decades by Indian movies and TV soap opera, the practice does not exist in every part of India, nor is it an integral part of a marriage ceremony.&lt;/strike&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from the mangala sutra, the toe rings (bichhua), kumkum, bangles, nalla pusalu (black pearls) and nose ring form six symbols that may indicate that a woman is married.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when we say Mangal Sutra, we mean any of the above symbols that indicate marriage status.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the question, I think it has to do with prevalence of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polygyny&amp;amp;oldid=616323089#Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Polygyny&lt;/a&gt;. A man could have many wives, but not otherwise. So women would need an indication for their marital status, a &amp;quot;taken&amp;quot; tag if we may call it. Where as men don't need any.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I said this is just my guess, have no references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mangala Sutra is integral part of Hindu Marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This practice is an integral part of a marriage ceremony as prescribed by Manusmriti the traditional law governing Hindu marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polyandry_in_India&amp;amp;oldid=608946464&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Polyandry&lt;/a&gt; also existed in Hinduism but it was less prevalent when compared to Polygyny. Reference:  Polygamy: A Cross-Cultural Analysis. Berg Publishers. p. 109.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="23" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-25T04:16:51.323" LastActivityDate="2020-06-25T04:16:51.323" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="521" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="488" CreationDate="2014-06-26T18:41:07.333" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;SriKalaHasti is the temple popular for Kaal Sarp Dosh Nivaran and Rahu Ketu Puja. Since &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rahu&lt;/a&gt; and Ketu are attributed to be the reasons for the eclipse, this temple remains open during the eclipse. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the eclipse, devotees offer puja to Rahu and Ketu to pacify them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="85" LastActivityDate="2014-06-26T18:41:07.333" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="522" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="519" CreationDate="2014-06-26T22:42:34.367" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The main ancient source of information on Hindu meditation techniques is Patanjali's &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yoga Sutras&lt;/a&gt;, a very (and I mean very) short work which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yogasutr.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Some people might call the Yoga Sutras scripture, but as far as the major scriptures of Hinduism go, I know of two places where meditative techniques are discussed:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 6&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhagavad Gita (brackets in original):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To practice yoga, one should go to a secluded place and should lay kuśa grass on the ground and then cover it with a deerskin and a soft cloth. The seat should be neither too high nor too low and should be situated in a sacred place. The yogī should then sit on it very ﬁrmly and practice yoga to purify the heart by controlling his mind, senses and activities and ﬁxing the mind on one point.  One should hold one’s body, neck and head erect in a straight line and stare steadily at the tip of the nose. Thus, with an unagitated, subdued mind, devoid of fear, completely free from sex life, one should meditate upon Me within the heart and make Me the ultimate goal of life.  Thus practicing constant control of the body, mind and activities, the mystic transcendentalist, his mind regulated, attains to the kingdom of God [or the abode of Kṛṣṇa] by cessation of material existence.   There is no possibility of one’s becoming a yogī, O Arjuna, if one eats too much or eats too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough.  He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.  When the yogī, by practice of yoga, disciplines his mental activities and becomes situated in transcendence – devoid of all material desires – he is said to be well established in yoga....  In the stage of perfection called trance, or samādhi, one’s mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This perfection is characterized by one’s ability to see the Self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the Self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness, realized through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difﬁculty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.   One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with determination and faith and not be deviated from the path. One should abandon, without exception, all material desires born of mental speculation and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind.  Gradually, step by step, one should become situated in trance by means of intelligence sustained by full conviction, and thus the mind should be ﬁxed on the Self alone and should think of nothing else.   From wherever the mind wanders due to its ﬂickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shanti Parva&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Betaking himself to the path of abstention, he should seek to extinguish his dependence on both the External and the Internal. Sitting on kusa grass, with kusa in hand, and binding his coronal locks with kusa, he should surround himself with kusa and have kusa for robes. Bowing unto all earthly concerns, he should take leave of them and never think of them. Assuming equability by the aid of his mind, he should fix his mind on the mind itself. Reciting the highly beneficial composition (viz., the Gayatri), he meditates with the aid of his intellect on Brahma alone. Afterwards he leaves off even that, being then absorbed in concentrated contemplation. In consequence of his dependence on the strength of the Gayatri which he recites, this concentrated contemplation will come of itself. By penances he attains to purity of soul, and self-restraint, and cessation of aversion and desire. Freed from attachment and delusion, above the influence of all pairs of opposites (such as heat and cold, joy and sorrow, etc.), he never grieves and never suffers himself to be drawn towards worldly objects. He does not regard himself as the actor nor as the enjoyer or sufferer of the consequences of his acts. He never, through selfishness, fixes his mind on anything. Without being employed in the acquisition of wealth, he abstains also from disregarding or insulting others, but not from work. The work in which he is employed is that of meditation; he is devoted to meditation, and seeks meditation unalterably. By meditation he succeeds in bringing about concentrated contemplation, and then gradually leaves off meditation itself. In that state he enjoys the felicity which attaches to the abandonment of all things. Having thoroughly mastered the principle of desire he casts off his life-breaths and then enters into the Brahmic body. Or, if he does not desire to enter into the Brahmic body, he at once goes upwards into the region of Brahma and has never to undergo rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-04T14:20:47.783" LastActivityDate="2015-02-04T14:20:47.783" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="523" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="524" CreationDate="2014-06-27T01:20:06.923" Score="23" ViewCount="2551" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is known that Hinduism is one of the oldest religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why is it so difficult to date the beginning of Hinduism. We have a lot of scriptures and texts which give us a lot of information but why are scholars still debating as to when Hinduism actually began?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-06-30T03:08:25.373" LastActivityDate="2022-06-30T03:08:40.500" Title="When did Hinduism begin?" Tags="|history|time|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="524" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="523" CreationDate="2014-06-27T03:23:43.560" Score="27" Body="&lt;p&gt;In ancient period, Hinduism was known as &quot;Sanatana Dharma&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanatana Dharma&lt;/strong&gt; is by its very essence a term that is devoid of sectarian leanings or ideological divisions. This is evident by the very term itself. The two words, &quot;Sanatana Dharma&quot;, come from the ancient Sanskrit language. '&lt;strong&gt;Sanatana&lt;/strong&gt;' is a Sanskrit word that denotes that which which is &lt;strong&gt;Anadi&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;beginningless&lt;/strong&gt;), &lt;strong&gt;Anantha&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;endless&lt;/strong&gt;) and does not cease to be, that which is eternal and everlasting. With its rich connotations, Dharma is not translatable to any other language. Dharma is from dhri, meaning to hold together, to sustain. Its approximate meaning is &quot;Natural Law,&quot; or those principles of reality which are inherent in the very nature and design of the universe. Thus the term Sanatana Dharma can be roughly translated to mean '&lt;strong&gt;the natural, ancient and eternal way.&lt;/strong&gt;' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;[Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/sanatana-dharma&quot;&gt;veda.wikidot.com/sanatana-dharma&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the simple answer is Hinduism was actually not a religion but a common practice which was being followed by our ancestors. So there is no question of a starting point for Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other references:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduismfacts.org/2011/11/origin-of-hinduism-when-did-hinduism-start/&quot;&gt;Hinduism Facts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-06T23:48:33.653" LastActivityDate="2016-03-06T23:48:33.653" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="525" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="487" CreationDate="2014-06-27T03:27:12.193" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra lok is same as Swarg lok as Indra is considered the king of Swa lok or Swarga lok (heaven). As per Vishnu Puran, the distance between bhulok (earth) and swalok (heaven) would be 1 &lt;em&gt;lakh&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;yojana&lt;/em&gt; (8 lakh km).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It states, &lt;em&gt;surya mandala&lt;/em&gt; (the zone of the sun) is situated 1 &lt;em&gt;lakh&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;yojana&lt;/em&gt; away from earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhūmeryojanalakṣe tu sauraṃ maitreya manḍalam&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 2.7.5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, from surya mandala onward the 14 &lt;em&gt;niyuta&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;yojana&lt;/em&gt; (approx. 1120 &lt;em&gt;lakh&lt;/em&gt; km) till the Dhruva star is known as Swa loka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dhruvasuryāntaraṃ yadya niyutāni caturdaśa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     svarlokaḥ so'pi gadito lokasaṃsthānacintakaiḥ&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 2.7.18]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Those who analyze the position of different zones state the fourteen niyuta yojana between the sun and Dhruva as Swa loka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as per the scripture, basically after 8 &lt;em&gt;lakh&lt;/em&gt; km from earth the region of swarga would begin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-06-27T03:27:12.193" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="526" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="587" CreationDate="2014-06-27T03:55:44.337" Score="10" ViewCount="2436" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I was brought up, I was told to face East when starting some new task or while doing prayers or chanting mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My guess is that it might have come out of ancient sun (Surya) worship as sun rises in the east.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any real significance for considering the Eastern direction to be auspicious?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-06-30T03:32:21.677" LastActivityDate="2022-06-30T03:33:34.470" Title="What is the significance of facing East?" Tags="|belief|practice|prayer|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="527" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="551" CreationDate="2014-06-27T04:00:37.237" Score="23" ViewCount="3462" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people are only familiar with &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasharatha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dasharatha&lt;/a&gt;'s four sons - Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughna.  But there is a common story that Dasharatha also had a daughter.  The story as I understand it goes roughly as follows: before the birth of Rama or any of Dasharatha's other sons, Dasharatha and Kausalya had a daughter by the name of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shanta&lt;/a&gt;.  Now Kausalya's sister Varshini was the wife of Romapada king of Anga, and the couple were unable to have children.  So Varshini once asked Dasharatha, jokingly, whether he would give his daughter Shanta to her and her husband.  But Dasharatha took the request seriously and agreed to give his daughter to Romapada.  Romapada raised Shanta, and eventually married her off to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishyasringa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rishyasringa&lt;/a&gt;, the sage who carried out Dasharatha's &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putrakameshti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Putrakameshti Yagna&lt;/a&gt; that produced Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But none of this is mentioned in the Ramayana.  The (very entertaining) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga9/bala_9_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;story of Rishyasringa&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga10/bala_10_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;how he got married to Shanta&lt;/a&gt; is described in great detail, but Shanta is just described as Romapada's daughter;  for instance it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga11/balasans11.htm#Verse3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;the king of Anga will beget a fortunate girl named Shanta&quot; and when Dasharatha talks to Rompada he just &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga11/bala_11_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;your daughter princess Shanta&quot;.  There's no mention that Shanta is actually the biological daughter of Dasharatha.  The Vana Parva of the Mahabharata similarly &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03113.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;And [R]omapada, the desire of his heart fulfilled, bestowed his daughter Santa on Rishyasringa in marriage.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what scriptures, if any, mention the fact that Shanta is Dasharatha's daughter?  There are many retellings of the Ramayana in the Puranas, so maybe one of them mentions it?  Or is it a later folk legend with no basis in Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-15T20:26:52.870" LastActivityDate="2021-09-30T15:42:54.507" Title="What scriptures describe Shanta as Dasharatha's daughter?" Tags="|ramayana|scripture|dasharatha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="528" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="483" CreationDate="2014-06-27T04:11:23.310" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;The same question was asked by &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nityanand_Swami_%28Paramhansa%29&quot;&gt;Nityanand Swami&lt;/a&gt; and answered by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swaminarayan.org/lordswaminarayan/&quot;&gt;Bhagwan Swaminarayan&lt;/a&gt;. These spiritual discourses are recorded and complied into the &lt;a href=&quot;http://download.baps.org/books/vachanamrut.pdf&quot;&gt;Vachanamrut&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In one of the discourses in the section &lt;strong&gt;Gadhadã I-13&lt;/strong&gt; titled as &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Planting the Branch of a Banyan or&#xA;Pipal Tree Elsewhere&lt;/strong&gt;, Bhagwan Swaminarayan explains how God gives body to &lt;em&gt;the&lt;/em&gt; jivas and following that he answers the question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In addition, &lt;em&gt;God makes the body of that jiva give birth to another&#xA;  body&lt;/em&gt; – again, &lt;em&gt;according to its own karmas&lt;/em&gt;. Just as God created the&#xA;  various life forms from the bodies of Kashyap and the other&#xA;  prajãpatis, similarly, that same God, while residing in all jivas as&#xA;  antaryãmi, creates other bodies from one body by methods appropriate&#xA;  to that particular body. &lt;em&gt;However, the jiva, through which other bodies&#xA;  are created, does not itself multiply into many forms&lt;/em&gt;. So, in reality,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;God grants birth to a jiva, through an appropriate body of another&#xA;  jiva, according to the relation of the karmas between the two jivas&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="73" LastActivityDate="2014-06-27T04:11:23.310" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="529" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="125" CreationDate="2014-06-27T04:17:40.413" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Mangal-sutra can be a symbol of monogamous human pair-binding. &#xA;Early Hindu society was a matriarchy where children were referred using their mother's name. For example, son of Radhya was called Radheya, son of Krithika was called Karthikeya. This was because, in many cases polygamy was prevalent and a women didn't really know who the father of the child was. One could be sure who the mother was as she gave birth to the child. When monogamous relationships evolved, the men had to take responsibility for the children they fathered. This created a sense of ownership. When men tie the mangal sutra, it instilled in them a sense of duty. It also made it clear to other men that the woman is another man's wife and he shouldn't mate with her. &#xA;This answers why only woman wear a symbol signifying that they are married. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a story that all girl children were considered the property of devas as soon as they were born and men had to symbolically win them and hence tie the mangal sutra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://kalchiron.blogspot.com/search/label/history%20of%20Hindu%20marriage%20series&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; blog series on &quot;Brief History of Hindu Marriage&quot; explains many rituals surrounding marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2014-06-27T04:17:40.413" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="530" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="517" CreationDate="2014-06-27T04:42:46.953" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I had first heard this mantra from the prayer gatherings of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sathya_Sai_Baba&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sathya Sai Baba&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mantra doesn't seem to have origins in any vedic text but may just be a saying of some wise guru which got orally transmitted. This mantra is considered a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanti_Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shanti Mantra&lt;/a&gt;. There is also a possibility that it existed in some vedic branch which was lost &lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://archives.amritapuri.org/bharat/mantra/lokah.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-06-27T05:36:16.817" LastActivityDate="2014-06-27T05:36:16.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="532" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="125" CreationDate="2014-06-27T04:44:02.250" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Things like 'Mangalsutra' and 'Sindoor', worn only by married women, must have started out as a way for women to feel safe (signifying that they are not 'available') and later became a mandatory ritual over time. Then it makes some sense why such things never happened for men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, like all parts of the world, indian society was (is partly even now) &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;acutely male dominated&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. There are many rituals which were biased and unfair to women like 'Sati'. This male dominance would have resulted in many simple rituals turning into torture for women. Like in case of 'Mangalsutra' and 'Sindoor', stripping them off a woman while she's grieving for her husband's death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="96" LastEditorUserId="96" LastEditDate="2014-06-27T04:55:58.963" LastActivityDate="2014-06-27T04:55:58.963" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="535" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="519" CreationDate="2014-06-27T05:21:40.437" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately not all the common meditation techniques can be traced back to scriptures. It is because meditation simply means concentrating the mind on a certain object so that it gets absorbed only in that object and becomes devoid of all other thoughts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tatra pratyayaikatānatā dhyānam&lt;/em&gt;  [PYS - 3.2]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;pratayāntaranirmuktaḥ pratayo dhyānamucyate&lt;/em&gt;  [Agni Pu. - 373.3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So depending upon what object is meditated upon, what thoughts or &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; are repeated, and how the concentration of mind is achieved, meditation can be of different types. Prominent scriptures generally lay out some of the fundamental guidelines for meditation. The rest are learnt from a teacher as meditation is a physical process. Keshav has already given the example of the Bhagavad Gita. In purana's like Bhagvata and Vishnupuran the meditation technique is to &lt;strong&gt;concentrate on the beautiful form&lt;/strong&gt; of Krishna or Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The meditating sage must think of&#xA;  Vishńu (hold the form internally in the mind), as having a pleased and lovely countenance, with eyes like&#xA;  the leaf of the lotus, smooth cheeks, and a broad and brilliant&#xA;  forehead; ears of equal size, the lobes of which are decorated with&#xA;  splendid pendants; a painted neck, and a broad breast, on which shines&#xA;  the Srivatsa mark; a belly falling in graceful folds, with a&#xA;  deep-seated navel; eight long arms, or else four; and firm and&#xA;  well-knit thighs and legs, with well-formed feet and toes. [VP -&#xA;  6.7.80-84]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even before them, the Upanishads mentioned the meditation technique of &lt;strong&gt;concentrating on OM&lt;/strong&gt; to attain Brahma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वदेहमरणिं कृत्वा प्रणवं चोत्तरारणिं ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ध्याननिर्मथनाभ्यासाद्देवं पश्येन्निगूढवत्॥  [Sve. Up. - 1.14]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Making own body the lower wood, AUM is made the upper,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Churning in meditation through practice, the divine is seen&#xA;  hidden under. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharsi Patanjali formed the yoga school of thought by reconciling the scriptures, of which meditation was a limb. Later on Hata Yoga, Laya Yoga, etc. were formed by different &lt;em&gt;yogis&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;munis&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So through experimentation &lt;em&gt;yogis&lt;/em&gt; and saints keep creating different types of meditations while the basic under lying principles remain the same.It varies depending upon what is meditated upon, what &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt; is chanted and what is thought about. As per their own preference they give it different kinds of name. Hence, not all techniques preached in the modern times can be traced back to the scriptures, but their fundamentals certainly can be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-03-07T10:35:55.213" LastActivityDate="2015-03-07T10:35:55.213" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="536" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="523" CreationDate="2014-06-27T05:25:36.570" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;To put honestly, Indians are very bad at recording or documenting stuffs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's fairly accepted that Hinduism can be attributed to the origins of Veda, the oldest one being Rg Veda, we have to look for the origins of Rg Veda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda was for a long time transmitted orally because scriptures in Hinduism have a strict &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mamandram.org/hinduism-scriptures/hindu-scriptures.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;oral tradition&lt;/a&gt; and the language Sanskrit and the scriptures were composed taking this into account. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, even the time when Rg Veda was first penned down isn't documented making it very difficult to get the time-line of Rg Veda being composed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Max Muller attributes Rig Veda to be composed at around 1500-2000 B.C. but there have been allegations of this time-line being biased as one can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ancient.eu.com/The_Vedas/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;AncientHistory&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/india/rigveda.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ThenAgain&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hknet.org.nz/plastic-max-page.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;HKNet&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://controversialhistory.blogspot.in/2008/01/date-of-rig-veda.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Controversies in History&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2015-07-06T12:08:11.983" LastActivityDate="2015-07-06T12:08:11.983" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="537" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="543" CreationDate="2014-06-27T05:25:46.357" Score="12" ViewCount="2562" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard about &lt;em&gt;Brahmamuhurtha&lt;/em&gt; (Brahma time),  that it is a time where we can do meditation or have good concentration power. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/Brahmamuhurta-The-best-time-for-meditation/articleshow/4659848.cms&quot;&gt;India Times&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmamuhurta is the morning period between 3.30 a.m. and 5.30 a.m. It is suitable for meditation. After a good night's sleep, the mind is refreshed, calm and serene. There is the preponderance of sattva or purity in the mind at this time, as well as in the atmosphere. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from scientific explanation, Is there any mention about this in Hindu mythology? If so, please explain in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2019-08-22T10:32:37.790" LastActivityDate="2023-08-04T06:54:16.777" Title="What is the Significance of Brahmamuhurtha" Tags="|time|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="538" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="517" CreationDate="2014-06-27T05:53:34.883" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;This phrase is from one of the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mangala Mantra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; often recited after a &lt;em&gt;pooja&lt;/em&gt; or religious ceremony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वस्तिप्रजाभ्यः परिपालयंतां न्यायेन मार्गेण महीं महीशाः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गोब्राह्मणेभ्यः शुभमस्तु नित्यं &lt;strong&gt;लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनोभवंतु&lt;/strong&gt; ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;svasti-prajā-bhyaḥ pari-pāla-yaṁtāṁ nyāyena mārgeṇa mahīṁ mahīśāḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;go-brāhmaṇebhyaḥ śubham-astu nityaṁ &lt;strong&gt;lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino-bhavaṁtu&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;auṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May the well-being of all people be protected&#xA;  By the powerful and mighty leaders be with law and justice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May good success be with all cows (divinity) and scholars, &lt;strong&gt;May all (samastah) the worlds (lokha) become (bhavantu) happy (sukhino).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om peace, peace, peace&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ashtangayoga.info/source-texts/mantra/mangala-mantra/&quot;&gt;AshtangaYoga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-06-27T12:12:41.947" LastActivityDate="2014-06-27T12:12:41.947" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="540" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-27T10:24:57.210" Score="12" ViewCount="2478" Body="&lt;p&gt;In various sub-castes, people used to practice untouchability i.e., some of the people who were considered lower castes, for example, sweepers, cleaners, etc. were ignored, and there were rules such as others were not allowed to touch them, if they did, they were ignored by the community.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why they used to do that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-26T16:09:26.863" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T19:08:34.657" Title="Why did Hindus practice untouchability?" Tags="|practice|caste-system|untouchability|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="541" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="545" CreationDate="2014-06-27T11:24:02.167" Score="15" ViewCount="23741" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know Surya is associated with Sanjana and Chayya but I have known so many variations of the story from local books. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I want to know what is the story of Surya's wife from scriptures, are  Sanjana and Chayya sisters or Chayya is created by Sanjana? And who abandoned whom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-04T15:06:56.947" LastActivityDate="2022-06-29T04:36:06.563" Title="What is the story of surya's wives?" Tags="|surya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="542" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="540" CreationDate="2014-06-27T11:31:33.440" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question has more to do with human nature than Hinduism. When people were divided into castes based upon their work, some castes declared themselves superior and called others inferior. Worshiping Gods was considered superior and noble work, so that caste became superior. Cleaning, washing etc. were considered inferior work, so that caste became inferior. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know which resulted in which and so on, but these feelings resulted in customs like not allowing lower caste people into temples and not allowing them to read the Vedas. Those customs further reinforced the feelings. Untouchability spread like a superstition where everybody believed in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From this documentary &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/5752/India-Untouched---Stories-of-a-People-Apart-&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;India Untouched&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It exposes the continuation of caste practices and Untouchability in Sikhism, Christianity and Islam, and even amongst the communists in Kerala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Untouchability is prevalent in other religions too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;within Dalits, sub-castes practice Untouchability on the &quot;lower&quot; sub-castes, and a Harijan boy refuses to drink water from a Valmiki boy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So untouchability is not just two-layered, it's multi-layered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="23" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-26T23:38:40.357" LastActivityDate="2016-01-26T23:38:40.357" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="543" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="537" CreationDate="2014-06-27T12:25:00.423" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahmamuhurtam&lt;/em&gt; is the time one and a half hour before sunrise, or more precisely is 1 Hr 36 Minutes. i.e. 96 Minutes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This time is considered apt for religious, yoga and meditative purposes because during this time, the &lt;em&gt;sattava&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt; of the environment is highest, after sunrise the &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt; overwhelms which is why it's considered good to cook food and perform other daily routines like studying after sun-rise. After sun sets, the &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; overwhelm and which becomes unsuitable for any religious purposes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting, &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedantavision.org/content/faq-s/question-10.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;VedantaVision&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Brahma muhurta has tremendous importance in our lives as it is the time when we can invest our energies in developing our sattvika content. It is a time when the mind is calm, free from distractions of the world and the intellect fresh from a good night’s sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashtanga Hridayam (one of the texts in Ayurveda) says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The healthy person should get up (from bed) during brahma muhurta, to protect his life. -- Ashtanga Hridayam, vol. I, 2:1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmamuhurtha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmamuhurtha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedantavision.org/content/faq-s/question-10.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;VedantaVision&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.banyanbotanicals.com/library/the-secret/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Banyan Botanicals&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-14T09:53:07.723" LastActivityDate="2015-09-14T09:53:07.723" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="545" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="541" CreationDate="2014-06-27T14:42:06.480" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Surya's wives is told in many scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is first told in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/a&gt;, but in very abbreviated form: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tvashtar prepares the bridal of his Daughter: all the world hears the tidings and assembles.  But Yama's Mother, Spouse of great Vivasvān, vanished as she was carried to her dwelling.  From mortal men they hid the Immortal Lady, made one like her and gave her to Vivasvān.  Saranyu brought to him the Aśvin brothers, and then deserted both twinned pairs of children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Tvashtar is a name for the divine architect &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishvakarman&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishwakarma&lt;/a&gt;, Vivasvan is a name of Surya, and Saranyu is a name of Sanjana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The confusion you mention about Chayya being Sanjana's sister comes from a brief reference to the story in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/8/13/8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;: &quot;O King, I have previously described [in the Sixth Canto] the two daughters of Viśvakarmā, named Saṁjñā and Chāyā, who were the first two wives of Vivasvān.&quot;  But if you actually go to the earlier description of the wives in the Sixth Canto, it just &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/6/6/41&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Chāyā, another wife of the sun-god&quot;, without describing her origin, so it could just be that Suta Goswami gave an incorrect summary of what he had said previously.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now let me give a proper telling of the story from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin//vp/vp076.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanjná, the daughter of Viśwakarman, was the wife of the sun, and bore him three children, the Manu (Vaivaswata), Yama, and the goddess Yamí (or the Yamuná river). Unable to endure the fervours of her lord, Sanjná gave him Chháyá 1 as his handmaid, and repaired to the forests to practise devout exercises. The sun, supposing Chháyá to be his wife Sanjná, begot by her three other children, Śanaiśchara (Saturn), another Manu (Sávarńi), and a daughter Tapatí (the Tapti river). Chháyá, upon one occasion, being offended with Yama 2, the son of Sanjná, denounced an imprecation upon him, and thereby revealed to Yama and to the sun that she was not in truth Sanjná, the mother of the former. Being further informed by Chháyá that his wife had gone to the wilderness, the sun beheld her by the eye of meditation engaged in austerities, in the figure of a mare (in the region of Uttara Kuru). Metamorphosing himself into a horse, he rejoined his wife, and begot three other children, the two Áswins and Revanta, and then brought Sanjná back to his own dwelling. To diminish his intensity, Viśwakarman placed the luminary on his lathe, to grind off some of his effulgence; and in this manner reduced it an eighth, for more than that was inseparable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chapter 77 of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramayana.pushpak.de/pdf/markandeya_en.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/a&gt; (page 135) presents a longer form of the story if you're interested:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O great one, the daughter of Vishwakarman was the wife of the sun, by name Sajna who begat on her a son, by name Manu, who, illustrious as he was, was equally a master of various branches of learning. He was the son of Vivaswat and was therefore called Vaivaswata. As soon as she was espied by the sun Sajna used to close her eyes and therefore he, in anger, addressed to her cruel words: &quot;Since, O stupid one, you close yours eyes as soon as I cast my looks on you therefore will you give birth to Yama, the destroyer of creatures.&quot; Thereupon the goddess, stricken with fear, assumed trembling looks, at which the sun again said to her. &quot;Since beholding me, you have assumed trembling looks you will give birth, as your daughter, to the fickle river.&quot; Thus by the imprecation of her husband she gave birth to Yama and the great river celebrated under the name of Yamuna. Henceforth she, with great difficulty, began to suffer the effulgence of the sun. And unable to bear it she began to think. &quot;What shall I do? Where shall I go? Repairing where can I get respite and be not subject to the ire of my husband?&quot; Thus meditating in many ways the great daughter of the Patriarch thought well of the protection of her father. Thereupon bent on going to her father's house the illustrious (goddess) converted her own body into the favourite shadow of the sun and said to her. &quot;Do thou, like me, live in the abode of the sun and like wise shouldst thou behave thyself towards the sun and his offspring. Even when accosted thou shouldst not tell him of my departure. On the other hand thou shouldst always tell him. &quot;I am Sajna.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The illusory Sajna said: - &quot;O goddess, I shall carry out thy mandate so long the sun does not pull me by the hair or imprecate a curse on me; I shall relate the story when he will pull me by the hair or curse me&quot;. Having been thus addressed the goddess repaired to her father's abode and saw there Twastri who had all his sins washed away by ascetic observances. She was received with great honour by Vishwakarman and that blameless lady too lived for some time in her father's house.  Thereupon having greeted his daughter of beautiful limbs who had not lived there for a long time with great love and honor (he said): - &quot;When I behold thee, my girl, even many livelong years appear as the half of a moment. But virtue is disappearing. It is not praiseworthy for females to live long in the house of her relations; and it is the desire of their kinsmen that the women may live in the house of their husbands. Thou hast been wedded to the Sun the lord of the three worlds. It does not behove thee, O my girl, to live for ever in the house of thy husband. Do thou therefore repair to the house of thy father. I have been pleased with thee and do adore thee. Come again, O auspicious girl, to see me....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having been thus addressed by her sire, O ascetic, she said &quot;So be it&quot;; and then having worshipped her father she repaired to Uttarakuru. Thereupon reluctant to bear the effulgence of the Sun and afraid of his rays, she, having assumed the form of a mare, engaged in ascetic observances. Thereupon regarding her as Sajna the Sun begat on his second wife two sons and a highly beautiful daughter. The illusory Sajna did not manifest that excessive affection towards the sons and daughter of Sajna as she did towards her own offspring. She daily looked after their own comforts. Manu forgave her for this but Yama could not do so. Then to strike her he raised up his foot in anger - and then immediately stricken with mercy he did not let it fall on her person. Thereupon, O twice- born one, the illusory Sajna, with her palms trembling and lips expanded in anger, imprecated a curse on Yama: (28) &quot;Since, out of irreverence thou hast raised a foot against me who am thy father's wife thy that very foot shall drop off to-day&quot;. Having thus heard of the curse thus imprecated by his mother and been stricken with fear Yama approached his sire and having saluted him said: &quot;It is a great wonder, O father, never witnessed by any that a mother, relinquishing all affection, imprecates a curse on her son. Me thinks, as does Manu hold, that she is not our mother, for even when a son grows unnatural a mother does not become so&quot;. Hearing Yama's words the Divine Sun sent for the illusory Sajna and asked her where Sajna had gone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whereto she replied: - &quot;O Sun, I am the daughter of Twastri, Sajna, thy wife and the mother of all these children&quot;. Although accosted by the Sun in many ways she did not communicate any thing else. Then the Sun in anger-addressed himself to imprecate a curse. Thereat she communicated everything truly to the Sun. Informed of all the Sun repaired to the abode of the divine Twastri. Thereupon he worshipped the Sun with great reverence, adored of the three worlds who had come to his house.  Then when questioned about Sajna, Vishwakarma told him: - &quot;Despatched by thee she came to my house&quot;.  Then having concentrated his mind the Sun saw her, carrying on ascetic observances in the form of a mare in the province of Uttarakuru. The Sun then came to know of the object of her penances namely, &quot;May my husband become of a mild form and the performer of auspicious deeds&quot;. The Sun then, O twice-born one, said to Vishwakarma, the father of Sajna, &quot;do thou to-day losen the fierceness of my rays. Vishwakarma then reduced the effulgence of the Sun who travels over a year and the deities then began to hymn him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story is continued in chapter 78, where the part about Surya turning into a horse and having three kids in horse form is described, after which Surya and Sanjana turn back into their normal form and go back to Surya's abode, where Surya, his two wives, and his children live happily ever after.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-05-25T15:41:45.560" LastActivityDate="2015-05-25T15:41:45.560" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="546" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="435" CreationDate="2014-06-27T15:51:38.957" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva is portrayed and worshiped in many forms, he one of those rare naked ascetic who has even conquered over Kama, he's worshiped as a passionate lover and is worshiped along with his consort Shakti as the union, in a pacific mood with his consort Parvati and son Skanda, as the cosmic dancer (Nataraja), as a mendicant beggar, as a yogi, and as the androgynous union of Siva and his consort in one body, half-male and half-female (&lt;em&gt;Ardhanarisvara&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among his common epithets are &lt;strong&gt;Sambhu&lt;/strong&gt; (&amp;quot;Benignant&amp;quot;), Sankara (&amp;quot;Beneficent&amp;quot;), &lt;strong&gt;Pasupati&lt;/strong&gt; (&amp;quot;Lord of Beasts&amp;quot;), &lt;strong&gt;Mahesa&lt;/strong&gt; (&amp;quot;Great Lord&amp;quot;), &lt;strong&gt;Mahadeva&lt;/strong&gt; (&amp;quot;Great God&amp;quot;), &lt;strong&gt;Rudra&lt;/strong&gt; (&amp;quot;Crying&amp;quot;), &lt;strong&gt;Asutosa&lt;/strong&gt; (&amp;quot;Easily pacified&amp;quot;), &lt;strong&gt;Bhutanatha&lt;/strong&gt; (&amp;quot;Lord of Ghosts&amp;quot;), &lt;strong&gt;Tripurari&lt;/strong&gt; (&amp;quot;Victor over the three demoniac cities&amp;quot;) etc. These things may seem orthogonal, but they are not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva is someone who has mastered his sexual powers through Kundalini Yoga. Quoting this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swamij.com/shakti.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shakti, Kundalini, and&#xA;the River of Tantra Yoga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one energy that keeps taking on new shapes and forms. In Tantra the name of that energy is Shakti, which is the manifesting, or feminine force that is actually one and the same with its only apparent companion Shiva, the latent, or masculine. Each time the energy takes on a new form, we give it a new name. Shakti becomes Kundalini Shakti, or simply Kundalini. Kundalini becomes the energy of Prana, which flows in patterns or channels called Nadis, and concentrates itself by forming intersections known as Chakras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva is considered as ideal husband and unmarried woman are asked to worship Shiva to get a suitable better half. Quoting &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theshivaexperience.com/why-is-lord-shiva-considered-the-ideal-husband-lord-shiva-and-parvati-relationship/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Why is Lord Shiva considered the ideal husband?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is also the god who is in absolute control of his emotions. He has to be, after all he has two such willful and headstrong wives! Lord Shiva does not let the determination of his wives annoy or frustrate him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He readily listens to what they have to say agreeing or disagreeing with their opinions in a gentle manner. He treats Parvati as equals and not as subservient being. He sees them as his companion, individual with whom he can discuss anything and everything - whether it may be intellectual conversations, gathering or giving of advice or even just a light-hearted banter to make him smile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To him her opinion has high value and he enjoys banter and conversations with her. It is these amazing traits of the God alongside his legendary virility that there are many young women in India who wish that they would have an ideal husband like Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ardhanarishwar image of Shiva with Shakti is portrays him as someone who has understood the true meaning of a matrimony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ardhnarishwar avatar of Shiva and his acknowledgement of the different but equal status of the male and female energy, represented by the Shiv-Shakti dichotomy continues to show all and sundry the extent to which Shiva loved and treasured his female half. The process of generating and sustaining life is incomplete without the active participation of both forces. It is a reality Shiva encompasses even though he is all powerful and invincible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/encyclopedia/siva.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siva and Durga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://1stholistic.com/prayer/hindu/hol_Hindu-Shiva.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva God of Destruction&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-27T15:51:38.957" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="548" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="540" CreationDate="2014-06-27T19:01:17.280" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;For your question 'So why they used to do that?' :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from Dr.Koenraad Elst's 1994 Essay &quot;Caste: The view from Belgium&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Untouchability originates in the belief that evil spirits surround&#xA;  dead and dying substances. People who work with corpses, body&#xA;  excretions or animal skins had an aura of danger and impurity, so they&#xA;  were kept away from mainstream society and from sacred learning and&#xA;  ritual. This often took grotesque forms: thus, an untouchable had to&#xA;  announce his polluting proximity with a rattle, like a leper.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Untouchability seems to originated from a notion of impurity associated with certain professions. This is not unique to Hindu society as it is popularly believed. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burakumin&quot;&gt;Burakumin&lt;/a&gt; people of Japan, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baekjeong&quot;&gt;Baekjeong&lt;/a&gt; people of Korea were considered untouchable. It seems to have arisen from basic human nature to seek safety in an age where some diseases had no cure. Hence people who had the potential to carry diseases were kept away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Untouchability is not mentioned in Vedic Samhitas. It does not have sanction in scriptures and it seems to have existed among non-Vedic Hindus too:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...the Tamils believed that any taking of life was dangerous, as it&#xA;  released the spirits of the things that were killed.  Likewise, all&#xA;  who dealt with the dead or with dead substances from the body were&#xA;  considered to be charged with the power of death and were thought to&#xA;  be dangerous.  Thus, long before the coming of the Aryans with their&#xA;  notion of varna, the Tamils had groups that were considered low and&#xA;  dangerous and with whom contact was closely regulated&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This reinforces that it was based on basic human instinct to seek safety rather than sanctioned by scriptures. So even within an untouchable caste, some sub-castes might have been considered untouchable by the members of the same caste on the notion of safety.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://voiceofdharma.org/books/wiah/ch1.htm&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2014-06-27T19:21:37.053" LastActivityDate="2014-06-27T19:21:37.053" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="549" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="563" CreationDate="2014-06-27T19:18:44.310" Score="8" ViewCount="395" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas are in sanskrit. Are there any scriptures which are considered equivalent(i.e as respected) as the Vedas? They do not necessarily have to be in sanskrit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Tamil, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_Prabandha&quot;&gt;Divya Prabandham&lt;/a&gt; is considered as Dravida Veda and conferred as fifth Veda. Does any other indic language have a scripture that merits being recognized as a fifth Veda? I do not mean translation of Vedas into other languages but original works which are considered equivalent to Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-05-28T21:21:23.050" LastActivityDate="2020-10-06T04:22:47.780" Title="Are there any scriptures in Hinduism equivalent to the Vedas?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|pramana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="550" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-27T19:23:25.660" Score="35" ViewCount="26154" Body="&lt;p&gt;Given that the great Abhimanyu was an expert at &lt;em&gt;Chakra-Vyuha&lt;/em&gt; (a.k.a &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmavyuha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma-Vyuha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;), why couldn’t he manage to come out of it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna was also an expert in Chakra-Vyuha at that time, so why didn't he rescue Abhimanyu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="206" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T17:44:27.540" LastActivityDate="2021-05-24T02:55:16.043" Title="What exactly was the Chakra-Vyuha or Padma-Vyuha in the Mahabharata, and why did Abhimanyu fail to break it?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|abhimanyu|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="551" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="527" CreationDate="2014-06-27T21:00:45.600" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shanta is described as Dasharatha's daughter in the Srimad Bhagavatam not in a retelling of the Ramayana as you might expect, but in a &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/9/23/7-10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;description&lt;/a&gt; of a line of lunar dynasty kings which includes Romapada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From Diviratha came a son named Dharmaratha, and his son was Citraratha, who was celebrated as Romapāda. Romapāda, however, was without issue [i.e. without children], and therefore his friend Mahārāja Daśaratha gave him his own daughter, named Śāntā. Romapāda accepted her as his daughter, and thereafter she married Ṛṣyaśṛṅga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Dasharatha having a daughter does have a scriptural basis after all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-15T23:44:31.063" LastActivityDate="2016-02-15T23:44:31.063" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="552" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-28T00:14:43.843" Score="8" ViewCount="1587" Body="&lt;p&gt;In all temples &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aarti&lt;/a&gt; i.e a lamp with camphor or ghee is lit and is shown in circular motion in front of the deities. Is this just a ritual for revering Agni or does it have a deeper significance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also as a sub question: In south Indian temples(and maybe in north Indian too) devotees touch the Aarti and touch their eyes. Why is this done? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-06-29T13:24:44.197" LastActivityDate="2019-03-25T14:31:37.700" Title="Why is aarti performed to deities in temples?" Tags="|temple|practice|gods|agni|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="553" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="585" CreationDate="2014-06-28T03:02:48.157" Score="5" ViewCount="670" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Srimad Bhagavatam, after describing Vishnu's incarnation (avataram) as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vamana the dwarf&lt;/a&gt;, it says &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/8/23/29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who is subject to death cannot measure the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Trivikrama, Lord Viṣṇu, any more than he can count the number of atoms on the entire planet earth. No one, whether born already or destined to take birth, is able to do this. This has been sung by the great sage Vasiṣṭha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's the Prabhupada translation; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/canto8/chapter23.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;'s the Aadhar translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great saint [Vasishthha Muni] stated in his mantras that no mortal human being subject to death or destined to be reborn can measure the glories of Lord Urukrama, just as no one is capable of counting the number of atoms of the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what exactly did Vashishta say, and in what scripture does he say it?  The name Vashishta is not even in this verse; it just says &quot;iti āha mantra-dṛg ṛṣiḥ puruṣasya yasya&quot;, meaning roughly &quot;thus it was said about Purusha by a rishi who was a seer of mantras&quot;. (Purusha is a name for a form of Vishnu described in the Vedas.)  All Prabhupada says in his commentary is &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/8/23/29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasiṣṭha Muni has given a mantra about Lord Viṣṇu: na te viṣṇor jāyamāno na jāto mahimnaḥ pāram anantam āpa. No one can estimate the extent of the uncommonly glorious activities of Lord Viṣṇu.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But where is this mantra from?  I assume it's from one of the Vedas, because otherwise it wouldn't mention the fact that Vashishta is a seer of mantras; the Vedas are the collection of the mantras that was heard by seers (dhrishtas) from the gods.  But where in the Vedas is this mantra found?  My first thought would have been the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purusha_sukta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purusha Sukta&lt;/a&gt;, a hymn from the Rig Veda, since the verse refers to Purusha, but the seer of the Purusha Sukta is Vishnu's incarnation &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara-Narayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narayana&lt;/a&gt;, not Vashista.  (See book 10 hymn 90 in the Rig Veda Anukramani in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.). So it must be somewhere else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T06:44:35.833" Title="Where does sage Vashishta describe Vishnu's immeasurable greatness?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|bhagavata-purana|puranas|vamana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="554" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="552" CreationDate="2014-06-28T04:59:33.077" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm skeptical about this explanation having any scriptural basis, but Steven J. Rosen in his book &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0742562379&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&quot;Essential Hinduism&quot;&lt;/a&gt; claims that the light of the aarati symbolizes the light of spirituality freeing us from the night of materialism (page 196):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Arati&lt;/em&gt; is a ceremony replete with symbolism. The word &lt;em&gt;arati&lt;/em&gt;, for example, literally means “before night,” and this is not only because the first of these ceremonies begins in predawn hours. The waving of the &lt;em&gt;arati&lt;/em&gt; lamp as an offering to the deity implies an end to the “night” of the practitioner’s material sojourn—he or she is now situated in the light of God’s devotion. &lt;em&gt;Arati&lt;/em&gt; is a safe place to be, where “night” cannot reach us. But night has a tendency to engulf us again and again, and so &lt;em&gt;arati&lt;/em&gt; is a reminder to be vigilant, before our materialistic night again rises to the fore.  [italics in original]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like I said, I don't buy it, but the one thing I do take away from this is that aarati has its origins, at least etymologically, in pre-dawn rituals.  So it could just be that as part of the process of waking up the deity (the same purpose as saying the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suprabhatam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Suprabhatam&lt;/a&gt;), people used to wave a lamp around, and then this practice came to be done throughout the day.  But that's just speculation on my part.  In any case, as far as I know, aarati isn't even mentioned in Hindu scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-06T04:43:53.370" LastActivityDate="2014-10-06T04:43:53.370" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="555" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="550" CreationDate="2014-06-28T05:39:08.493" Score="10" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Why didn't Abhimanyu break out of Chakravyuh&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the story goes in Mahabharata, in their bed time Arjun was narrating a very ingenious &lt;em&gt;Yyuha&lt;/em&gt; to his wife Subhadra. Subhadra was at that time expecting and she had Abhimanyu in her womb.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Subhadra was all vigilant during the first part of the narration which involved entering the &lt;em&gt;Vyuha&lt;/em&gt;, but during the latter part i.e. exiting she felt sleepy and couldn't pay proper attention to it. So, Abhimanyu who was in her womb couldn't listen to the second part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nhsf.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=360:mahabharata-abhimanyu-and-the-chakra-vyuha&amp;amp;catid=68:hum&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata: Abhimanyu and Chakra-vyuha&lt;/a&gt; has a somewhat alternate story,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Abhimanyu was in his mother's womb, Sri Krishna used to take Subhadra on excursions. To humour her, Krishna used to relate many of his adventures to the pregnant Subhadra. On one such excursion Krishna was narrating his experience with the technique of Chakra-vyuha and how step-by-step the various circles could be penetrated. Chakra-vyuha was a military formation which was an effective form of defence. The army would be arranged in the form of a circular grid and would then challenge the enemy to break that grid. Nonetheless, it seems that Subhadra did not find this topic interesting and she soon fell asleep. However, someone else was interested in Sri Krishna's narration - the yet to be born Abhimanyu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While Subhadra dozed off, Abhimanyu continued to carefully follow Sri Krishna's narrative of the Chakra-vyuha. But, after talking for some time and not receiving any response from Subhadra, Sri Krishna realised that she was savouring a sweet nap. Sri Krishna, who had at that time come up to the seventh step of the Chakra-vyuha, gave up his narration and returned with Subhadra to the palace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Why didn't Krishna help Abhimanyu out of Chakravyuha&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the promise given to Pandavas and Kauravas about usage and distribution of his resources, he wasn't supposed to participate in the Mahabharata war, rather he was only supposed to be an advisor.&#xA;Krishna with his power could have rescued Abhmanyu easily, but his promise prevented him to do so..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/bhagavata/bhagavata_7.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Krishna's Kurushetra Lila&lt;/a&gt; explains this strory beautifully,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna was lying down, resting, when Duryodhana and Arjuna arrived. Duryodhana entered first, and sat near the head of Sri Krishna. He grabbed a chair and reclined. Arjuna did not sit on a chair. He stood with folded hands at the feet of Sri Krishna. After a while, Sri Krishna opened his eyes, and first, naturally, he could see only what was near his feet, not his head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Arjuna, how come you are here at this moment?” said Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“No sir! I have come first,” said Duryodhana from behind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Oh! You have also come,” said Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna said, “You have come first, but I saw Arjuna first. Also, he is younger, you are the elder. Don’t you think it is proper for me to speak to the younger one first, especially as I saw him first?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then turning to Arjuna, Sri Krishna asked, “What made you come here?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna replied, “Great Master, you know what is going to happen. War has become inevitable. We all want your help.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna said, “What can I give you? I have two things. I have a large army called Narayani Sena; if you want it, you can take it. Otherwise I am here, but unarmed, doing nothing. I will merely sit and discuss with you. I will not take part in the war. If you want such a man as I am, take me. Or if you think this is not going to be of any utility to you, take the large army which will help you, as it is almost invincible.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“I want you only, Master,” replied Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Immediately Duryodhana retorted, “I want the army.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Take it,” said Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana left the place hurriedly, and declared to the Kuru family that he had already won victory in the war, that his victory was certain because of the invincible forces that he had received from Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Duryodhana left the place, Sri Krishna accosted Arjuna and said, “What a foolish person you are! Why did you not ask for the army? What good is it if I sit idle without doing anything for you? Why have you made this wrong choice? The other man took the good forces, and you are asking for me, who is as good as nothing.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna replied, “Thou art all for me, great Master. I know you very well. Don’t try to deceive me by this query as to why I have chosen you.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Oh! You want to vie with me. Okay, all right. Do that,” said Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then they both left.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-05T06:30:32.573" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="556" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="550" CreationDate="2014-06-28T06:12:19.610" Score="40" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vyuha&lt;/em&gt; generally means an arrangement. So &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmavyuha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chakra vyuha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; means the arrangement of soldiers in the form of a wheel. This was an old warfare technique like &lt;em&gt;garuda vyuha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;makara vyuh&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;mandala vyuh&lt;/em&gt; etc. &lt;em&gt;Chakra vyuh&lt;/em&gt; being hard to penetrate Drona chose it on the thirteenth day of war when Abhimanyu got killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QmvJZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Chakra Vyuha Explanation&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abhimanyu failed to break it because he had not learnt how to break it. In fact, he had not learnt the technique to enter into it in the traditional way. While he was in his mother's womb Arjuna used to talk about war strategies to  Subhadra and from that only he had learned the technique. However, while talking about how to breakout of a &lt;em&gt;chakra vyuha&lt;/em&gt; Subhadra got asleep and Abhimanyu couldn't listen the technique. So he only knew how to break into a &lt;em&gt;chakra vyuha&lt;/em&gt;, but not how to break out of it in case of any danger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why didn't Shri Krishna rescue Abhimanyu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is true that apart from Abhimanyu, two other people on the Pandav side who knew about &lt;em&gt;chakra vyuha&lt;/em&gt; strategy were Shri Krishna and Arjuna. But as per their strategy, before forming the &lt;em&gt;chakra vyuha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Susarman of the Kauravas challenged Arjuna for fighting and lured him away along with his chariot driver Shri Krishna to the southern part of the battle field&lt;/strong&gt;. So both Arjuna and Krishna were unaware about what was going on with Abhimanyu. Had they been present there, then Arjuna would have certainly done something if not Shri Krishna, as He had given his word to not use weapons in the battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference&lt;/strong&gt;: MB - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07031.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;7.31&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;33&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-28T10:12:47.247" LastActivityDate="2016-05-28T10:12:47.247" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="557" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-28T14:11:02.070" Score="15" ViewCount="6737" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any references to polygamy (multiple marriages) and whether they are allowed or prohibited in Hinduism? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At least in the Indian law, multiple marriages are banned for Hindus. But what do the sacred books say?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="185" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-07-19T00:51:27.703" LastActivityDate="2018-12-10T10:20:45.223" Title="What does Hinduism say about polygamy (multiple marriages)?" Tags="|marriage|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="558" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="557" CreationDate="2014-06-28T14:43:48.983" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism polygamy was there. We can see a lot of examples in varies stories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,Lord Rama's father dasharadha has three wives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in Hindu mythology there are many instances of polygamy being practiced not only by men, but also by women (termed as polyandry) the most famous example of polyandry is Draupadi marrying the five pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This doesn't mean that Hinduism supports polygamy. But there were no authentic proofs are  available from any sacred texts which supporting polygamy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The best example of Hinduism as an advocate for monogamy is the case of Lord Rama, who was a strict Ek-Patnivrata Purush (a man dedicated to a single woman) and is also hailed as Maryada Purushottam (Ideal &amp;amp; Best among men). He has been pointed out as a Role-Model for all posterity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T09:13:10.627" LastActivityDate="2015-03-04T09:13:10.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="559" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-28T19:51:51.227" Score="18" ViewCount="3204" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Srimad Bhagavatam, there's a description of the spouses and descendants of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80dityas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adityas&lt;/a&gt;, a group of 12 gods who are the sons of Aditi and the sage Kashyapa.  The Adityas include Surya, Indra, Varuna, etc., but the youngest of the Adityas is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vamana&lt;/a&gt;, the dwarf incarnation of Vishnu, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/6/18/8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; is what the Srimad Bhagavatam says about Vamana's family:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By His own potency, the Lord, who has multifarious potencies, appeared in the form of a dwarf as Urukrama, the twelfth son of Aditi. In the womb of His wife, whose name was Kīrti, He begot one son, named Bṛhatśloka, who had many sons, headed by Saubhaga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question, what is the story of these family members?  Who is Kirti, and what is the story of how Vamana married her?  And what's the story of Vamana's son and grandchildren?  I wasn't aware that Vamana did anything else after he defeated Mahabali and restored the three worlds to Indra.  (And I was under the impression that Vamana was an unmarried brahmachari when he encountered Mahabali.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only clue I have is the meaning of their names.  Kirti means fame or glory, which might makes sense if she's an incarnation of Vishnu's wife Lakshmi, since fame can be connected to wealth and prosperity.  Brihatshloka means &quot;of great fame&quot;, so there's a pattern here at least.  (I should note that Vishnu is often called Punyasloka, meaning &quot;of holy fame&quot;, so it may be connected to that too.) Finally Saubhaga means good fortune.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any other scriptures which discuss who these people were?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I just found a passage in the Vishnu Purana which says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp044.htm#fr_239&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For in like manner as the lord of the world, the god of gods, Janárddana, descends amongst mankind (in various shapes), so does his coadjutrix Śrí. Thus when Hari was born as a dwarf, the son of Adití, Lakshmí appeared from a lotus (as Padmá, or Kamalá)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I assume this Padma or Kamala is the same as Kirti.  So we at least know that Kirti was born from a lotus.  But I still don't know how she came to marry Vamana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-21T04:05:08.803" LastActivityDate="2023-07-20T23:06:15.770" Title="What is the story of Vamana's wife Kirti and son Brihatshloka?" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavata-purana|vamana|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="560" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="586" CreationDate="2014-06-28T22:38:53.643" Score="12" ViewCount="45026" Body="&lt;p&gt;I got to know from a relative that Shani has 2 sons - &lt;em&gt;Maandhi&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Kuligan&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like Shani, they are supposed to create malefic effects according to Jyotisha. What is the story behind them? Very little seems to be known about them.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-07-07T05:39:03.140" LastActivityDate="2020-07-07T07:33:24.913" Title="What is the story behind sons of Shani?" Tags="|astrology|shani|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="561" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="552" CreationDate="2014-06-28T22:51:57.463" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I like @Keshav Srinivasan's &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/554/467&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt; which explains the symbolism behind the Aarthi. I found another reasonable &amp;amp; practical explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The old Hindu temples are usually large and the shrines are usually located deep inside the temple far away from the entrance. In olden days when there was no electricity, one couldn't see the deity properly in the dark. Hence the priest would light a lamp and move it in circular motion so that the deity's Murthy is seen by the devotees. I have observed that the circular motion covers the face, the arms and the legs of the deity, thus covering the whole Murthy. And to magnify the brilliance of the illuminated deity, the deities are adorned with glittering jewelry which reflects light off the Aarthi and makes it look even more spectacular to the devotee.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://aravindb1982.hubpages.com/hub/Meaning-of-Aarti-or-Arati-done-by-waving-camphor-at-the-Lord&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-10-06T04:12:33.810" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="562" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-28T23:29:29.527" Score="23" ViewCount="8621" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata, Duryodhana has been depicted with a wide range of characteristics - in some versions as the pure embodiment of evil and in others as a highly virtuous person fighting for his rightful place as the king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know that Krishna favored the Pandavas while Balarama favored Duryodhana. Why did Balarama, who upheld moral values better than Krishna, favor Duryodhana if the latter's character was suspicious? Even if Duryodhana was highly righteous and an excellent person - the attempted stripping of Draupadi occurred under his watch. How is Balarama still justified in siding with Duryodhana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="156" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-13T15:49:07.500" LastActivityDate="2022-03-20T22:18:08.630" Title="Why did Balarama favor Duryodhana?" Tags="|mahabharata|balarama|duryodhana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="563" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="549" CreationDate="2014-06-29T02:39:20.477" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas occupy the highest pinnacle point of all the sum total scriptures in Hinduism. No other Hindu scripture can be accorded that position. So the answer to that question would be: &quot;no - there are no equivalents to the Vedas.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason being all other scriptures derive their principles from the Vedas but the Vedas are independent. Every great acharya who has to establish their final unquestionable fundamental philosophy has to write a Prasthantrayi which is based on the Upanishads, the Brahma-Sutra and the Bhagavad Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upanishads are the essence of the Vedas but not its equivalent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brahma sūtra is an early exposition of the Vedanta-interpretation of the Upanishads. It is also called Uttara-Mimāṃsā or the investigation of the later part of the Vedas. It is intended to be a summary of the teaching of the Upanishads. Since, the Upanishads, themselves come from Vedas, the Brahma-Sutra are a part of the Vedas but not the equivalent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavad Gita's teachings are based on the Vedas too. The Vedas are not approachable due to the level of abstraction and the deep philosophical treatise involved. Thus, texts like the Bhagavad Gita were written to give a concrete form to the Vedas. It allowed Hindus to have a practical grasp and appreciation of the finer concepts detailed in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Vedas are &quot;the&quot; foundational scriptures of Hinduism. There cannot be any scripture equivalent to the Vedas. If you are asking about a scripture that summarizes all the teachings of Vedas in a unified form and achieves an equivalent recognition - then yes - there are plenty of such scriptures in Hinduism. I wouldn't call them to be equivalent to the Vedas but a dense, and highly condensed form of the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="145" LastActivityDate="2014-06-29T02:39:20.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="564" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-29T03:10:57.987" Score="8" ViewCount="308" Body="&lt;p&gt;As today is the day &lt;em&gt;(29&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; June 2014)&lt;/em&gt; when Lord Krishna, Subhadra and Balram goes on a &lt;em&gt;Rath yatra&lt;/em&gt; and that's famous in Jagannathpuri. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since last 137 years that's happening in Ahmedabad, Gujarat as well and it is said that  Jagannath puri and Ahmedabad's Rath yatras are very famous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know about the Jagannathpuri story but I've have any idea about Ahmedabad's Rath yatra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is that famous in Ahmedabad as well? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any story behind it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="13268" LastEditDate="2022-07-02T09:49:20.853" LastActivityDate="2022-07-02T09:49:20.853" Title="Why and how Rath-yatra in Ahmedabad started?" Tags="|krishna|history|tradition|ratha-yatra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="567" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="569" CreationDate="2014-06-29T06:08:12.820" Score="9" ViewCount="2036" Body="&lt;p&gt;Meaning of the words used :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kundali - Horoscope&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mangal - Planet Mars&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Peepal Tree - Ficus religiosa or Sacred Fig&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dosh - Blame&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indian people often match Kundalis before they allow the boy and the girl to marry. The most often thing I always mark is that they see whether a boy or a girl is mangalik or not so why they need to see that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've heard people saying that if an individual has mangal dosh in his kundali, he suffers from tensions in his relationship, unfavorable for marriages and also, ones life can end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, they are resolved by doing a &lt;em&gt;Kumbh Vivah&lt;/em&gt; i.e a mangalik first marries a Banyan tree or a Peepal tree, or they are married to Gold or Silver idol of lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So coming to the point, what is Mangalik &lt;em&gt;(Mangal Dosh)&lt;/em&gt; and why they marry a tree before they marry a real person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastActivityDate="2018-01-15T12:06:50.013" Title="What is Mangal Dosh (Mangalik)" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="568" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="557" CreationDate="2014-06-29T06:20:09.347" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;When the people used to follow &lt;em&gt;varnashrama dharama&lt;/em&gt; (duty as per caste and order) properly, &lt;strong&gt;multiple marriages were allowed&lt;/strong&gt; by the scriptures. However, certain rules and regulations related to caste were also to be followed in such cases. For example, consider the following statement:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the first marriage of twice-born men (wives) of equal caste are&#xA;  recommended; but for those who through desire proceed (to marry again)&#xA;  the following females, (chosen) according to the (direct) order (of&#xA;  the castes), are most approved. [Manu - 3.12]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A &lt;em&gt;Brahmana&lt;/em&gt; can take three wives, a &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt; can take two wives and as regards the Vaisya, he should take one wife from only his own order. [MB - Ansusasan Parva - Chptr 44]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, from statements like below it is evident that multiple marriage was present in the society: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If among all the wives of one husband one have a son, Manu declares&#xA;  them all (to be) mothers of male children through that son. [Manu -&#xA;  9.183]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages were strictly against inter-caste marriage as it corrupted the blood line and produced sons of lower quality. But &lt;strong&gt;for the purpose of preservation of lineage&lt;/strong&gt; multiple marriage was allowed esspecially for the twice borns like the Kshatriya Kings. If the Kings didn't have any son there would be no one to rule the Kingdom. Hence, to prevent anarchy Kings were allowed to have multiple wives if a wife didn't beget a son. However, &lt;strong&gt;having multiple wives was not a custom out of desire, but out of necessity&lt;/strong&gt;.  Only kings of later time forgot the actual purpose and adopted it as some sort of fashion. But because it was not a settled law to have multiple wives, virtuous kings like Ramachandra accepted only one. &lt;strong&gt;Law books do not favor polygamy unless it is done for rightful purposes like saving one's linage or dynasty.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-06-29T06:48:26.220" LastActivityDate="2014-06-29T06:48:26.220" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="569" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="567" CreationDate="2014-06-29T06:35:41.940" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;lagna kundali&lt;/em&gt; (birth chart with the ascedant) of a person if any malefic planet (especially the planet mars) is present at least in the lagna (1st house) or in the 7th house (house of the spouse or marriage) then the person is considered to be a &lt;em&gt;mangalik&lt;/em&gt;. Other houses that are considered for mars's presence for a person to be &lt;em&gt;mangalik&lt;/em&gt; are 2nd, 4th, 8th and 12th.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If Mars be posited there,  she will become a widow, both benefics and&#xA;  malefics occupy the 7th house, she  will   remarry.   If   there be a&#xA;  malefic or  malefics  in  the 8th house,  she will  get  a  shortlived&#xA;  husband. If the 2nd house is occupied by malefics, the native dies&#xA;  with  her husband. [Phaladipika, Chapter 11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mars being firey in nature when it looks upon the house of marriage or partner, it is said to burn that house. Hence, it creates tension, quarrel, etc. among the partners and even affects the health and life of the spouse of a &lt;em&gt;mangalik&lt;/em&gt; person. So if one of the partners has  &lt;em&gt;magalik dosh&lt;/em&gt; marriage is discouraged. If both partners have the fault, then it gets canceled  out and marriage is ok.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, sometimes Kumbh Vivah is performed because it makes the banayan tree, peel tree, etc. the first husband and then it has to suffer the bad consequences of the mangalik dosh, not the actual husband. Vishnu being God  Himself, it is believed mars can't have -ve effects on Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Disclaimer:  I have provided the answer only as per my awareness about astrology, I am not an expert.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-06-29T07:21:00.950" LastActivityDate="2014-06-29T07:21:00.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="572" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="589" CreationDate="2014-06-29T08:11:29.580" Score="16" ViewCount="91193" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is it that people shave babies' head, be it a boy or girl, when they go for the baby's first haircut? According to my sub religion i.e. Vaishnav (Gujarati), we call it as a Mundan &lt;em&gt;(Head shaving ceremony)&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is done after a specific period of time after the birth of the child, and as far as I know, most of the Hindu sub castes follow this pratha &lt;em&gt;(tradition/practice)&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to me, Hindus shave their head when some relative, or a close member of their family dies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what's the reason behind shaving the hair off for the first time after the birth of the baby?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-06-29T17:11:58.983" LastActivityDate="2021-10-12T17:20:21.963" Title="Why do Hindus shave a baby's head (first hair cut)?" Tags="|tradition|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="574" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-29T08:32:25.313" Score="17" ViewCount="29097" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read that Ekalavya was a great archer similar to Arjuna and Karan (Karna). He made himself believe that Dronacharya is his Guru &lt;em&gt;(Teacher)&lt;/em&gt; by keeping a statue of Dronacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day Dronacharya saw Ekalavya and understood the situation that Ekalavya is his disciple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why did Dronacharya ask for Eklavya's thumb as his &quot;&lt;em&gt;Guru dakshina&lt;/em&gt;&quot; &lt;em&gt;(Teacher's fee)&lt;/em&gt; despite knowing that without his thumb, Ekalavya won't be able to shoot arrows anymore?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-09T05:53:42.423" LastActivityDate="2022-07-02T03:19:35.653" Title="Reason behind asking Ekalavya's thumb as Guru dakshina?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="575" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="572" CreationDate="2014-06-29T08:51:02.487" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's part of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83sk%C4%81ra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saṃskāra&lt;/a&gt;, which are said to be a purification process&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;. There are 16 Saṃskāra and  Chudakarana (Mundan/First Hair cutting) is one of them. Some believes says birth hairs are undesired traits from the past births and this ceremony is used to set the child free from past birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1]: PV Kane, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/historyofdharmas029210mbp#page/n317/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samskara, Chapter VI&lt;/a&gt;, History of Dharmasastras, Vol II, Part I, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, pages 260-265&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-10-12T17:20:21.963" LastActivityDate="2021-10-12T17:20:21.963" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="577" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="578" CreationDate="2014-06-29T11:47:42.700" Score="16" ViewCount="31554" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen a lot of times in temples that priests offer milk to snake idols.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind it? Do snakes really drink milk?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-07T00:17:30.200" LastActivityDate="2017-01-07T00:17:30.200" Title="Why do Hindus feed milk to snakes?" Tags="|worship|culture|tradition|animals|naga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="578" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="577" CreationDate="2014-06-29T12:08:22.013" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many folk tale behind the drinking of the milk, the famous one is :-;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A tale of a farmer living in a village. He had two sons and one of&#xA;  whom killed three snakes during ploughing operations. The mother of&#xA;  the snake took revenge on the same night by biting the farmer, his&#xA;  wife and two children and they all died. Next day the farmer’s only&#xA;  surviving daughter, distraught and grieved by the death of her parents&#xA;  and brothers, pleaded before the mother snake with an offering of a&#xA;  bowl of milk and requested for forgiveness and to restore the life of&#xA;  her parents and brothers. Pleased with this offering the snake&#xA;  pardoned them and restored the farmer and his family to life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Panchami#Folktales&quot;&gt;Reference : Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to your second question which says &quot;Do snakes really drink milk?&quot; and the answer is &lt;strong&gt;Snakes don't drink milk&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I know people over here go and make the snake drink milk on &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Panchami&quot;&gt;Nag Panchami&lt;/a&gt; but the fact is that snakes don't drink the milk. Even if they do, they are not able to digest it and eventually they die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Milk is for mammals and not reptiles. What the snakes charmers do is that they don't provide food and water to snakes for a day or two before the Nag Panchami, and hence, inorder to quench the thirst and hunger, snakes drink the milk and they die later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I ain't sure if anyone still believes that the snakes really drink but I would suggest not to do so, you are taking someones life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you truly want to worship Nag Deva &lt;em&gt;(Snake god)&lt;/em&gt; than pour milk and offer your food to idols and not the real snakes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-06-29T12:25:39.723" LastActivityDate="2014-06-29T12:25:39.723" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="579" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="582" CreationDate="2014-06-29T12:39:46.987" Score="22" ViewCount="22792" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that in Kalki avatar, God Vishnu will marry Goddess Vaishnav devi as promised(&lt;em&gt;The promise event occurs when God Vishnu were in Ram avatar and returning to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile&lt;/em&gt;). It is also said that Lord Ram has offered his complete army (&lt;em&gt;including Lord Hanuman&lt;/em&gt;) to protect the Goddess until He re-incarnate as Kalki and marry her. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this, I know that Kalki Avatar will come on horse to erase corruption and other bad things. So, are there any scriptures which explains the story of Kalki (&lt;em&gt;a future glimpse&lt;/em&gt;)? please brief it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-24T19:50:13.663" LastActivityDate="2021-11-03T21:40:22.490" Title="What is the story of Kalki (tenth avatar of God Vishnu)?" Tags="|ramayana|avatars|kalki|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="580" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="584" CreationDate="2014-06-29T12:40:59.417" Score="9" ViewCount="25193" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the title explains, why do we have specific days to worship specific gods? For example&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sunday - &lt;em&gt;Lord Surya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Monday - &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tuesday - &lt;em&gt;Lord Ganesha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Wednesday - &lt;em&gt;Lord Vithal&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thursday - &lt;em&gt;Sai Baba, Lord Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Friday - &lt;em&gt;Mahalakshmi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saturday - &lt;em&gt;Hanuman, Shani Bhagwan&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is there any reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastActivityDate="2023-02-16T15:00:01.577" Title="Why each day of the week is dedicated to a particular god?" Tags="|worship|temple|gods|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="581" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="311" CreationDate="2014-06-29T12:56:26.863" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is because he was not as tyrant as we think. He was probably tyrant to the world, but not to his sister. In fact he loved her so much that he became the chariot driver himself for Devaki and Vasudeva and set off to transport the newly wedded couple to their home:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaṁsa, the son of King Ugrasena, in order to please his sister Devakī&#xA;  on the occasion of her marriage, took charge of the reins of the&#xA;  horses and became the chariot driver. He was surrounded by hundreds of&#xA;  golden chariots. [SB - 10.1.30]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But on the way he heard the omen and got desperate. He got so desperate that he couldn't see what's right and wrong and proceeded to kill Devaki directly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaṁsa was a condemned personality in the Bhoja dynasty because he was&#xA;  envious and sinful. Therefore, upon hearing this omen from the sky, he&#xA;  caught hold of his sister’s hair with his left hand and took up his&#xA;  sword with his right hand to sever her head from her body. [SB -&#xA;  10.1.35 ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Killing Devaki right on the spot was undoubtedly a far better solution than imprisoning her with Vasudeva.&lt;/strong&gt; But he didn't do it as Vasudeva made him realize that Devaki was not the threat, but her children and promised Kamsa to handover his new born children:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasudeva said: O best of the sober, you have nothing to fear from your&#xA;  sister Devakī because of what you have heard from the unseen omen. The&#xA;  cause of death will be her sons. Therefore I promise that when she&#xA;  gives birth to the sons from whom your fear has arisen, I shall&#xA;  deliver them all unto your hands. [SB - 10.1.54]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;strong&gt;Kamsa let them live, not as prisoners but like free prince and princess&lt;/strong&gt;. And when in due course of time the first child was born, to keep his word, Vasudeva went to hand over the child to Kamsa. But Kamsa was probably not that tyrant, or probably he loved his sister more. So instead of killing the child he was impressed of Vasudeva's truthfulness and said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Vasudeva, you may take back your child and go home. I have no fear&#xA;  of your first child. It is the eighth child of you and Devakī I am&#xA;  concerned with because that is the child by whom I am destined to be&#xA;  killed. [SB - 10.1.60]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But later on once Narada visited Kamsa and said how all Yadus are demigods and have been born to kill the demons. This made Kamsa doubtful and he thought any of the eight child could be Vishnu. Only then he decided to imprison them. But because by that time he had already seen the truthfulness of Vasudeva, &lt;strong&gt;he knew Vasudeva would certainly hand over all his future children as promised&lt;/strong&gt;. So &lt;strong&gt;the best strategy for him was to have Vasudeva and Devaki give birth to the children and kill them one by one&lt;/strong&gt;. Once the eighth child was killed he could rest assured. Probably that is why along with his love for his sister, he allowed Vasudeva and Devaki to live together in prision under his supervision.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;REFERENCE&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-06-29T12:56:26.863" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="582" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="579" CreationDate="2014-06-29T13:18:00.860" Score="20" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Appearance of Lord Kalki (&lt;em&gt;the Avatar or incarnation of Godhead&lt;/em&gt;) is foretold in the &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; 12th Canto and described also in detail in the &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmanda-purana&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. Therein it gives predictions as to where he will appear (&lt;em&gt;the village name&lt;/em&gt;), who his parents will be, what his mission will be, and when he will appear. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is described that he will appear at the conjunction of the two yugas, namely at the end of Kali-yuga and the beginning of Satya-yuga. The great cycle of the four yugas, namely Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali, rotates like the calendar months. The present age of Kali-yuga lasts 432,000 years, out of which we have passed only 5,000 years after the Battle of Kuruksetra and the end of the regime of King Pariksit. So there are 427,000 years balance yet to be finished, till the advent of Lord Kalki. Therefore at the end of this period, the incarnation of Kalki will take place, as foretold in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. The name of His father, Visnu Yasa, a learned brahmana, and the village Sambhala are also mentioned. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;shambhala-grama-mukhyasya brahmanasya mahatmanah    vishnuyashasah&#xA;  kalkih pradurbhavishyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Lord Kalki will appear in the home of the most eminent brahmana of Shambhala village, the great soul Vishnuyasha.&quot;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ashvam ashu-gam aruhya devadattam jagat-patih  asinasadhu-damanam&#xA;  ashtaishvarya-gunanvitah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Lord Kalki, the Lord of the universe, will mount His swift horse Devadatta and, sword in hand, travel over the earth exhibiting His eight mystic opulence's and eight special qualities of Godhead.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vicarann ashuna kshaunyam hayenapratima-dyutih  nripa-linga-cchado&#xA;  dasyun kotisho nihanishyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Displaying His unequalled effulgence and riding with great speed, He will kill by the millions those thieves who have dared dress as kings.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atha tesham bhavishyanti manamsi vishadani vai  vasudevanga-ragati-&#xA;  punya-gandhanila-sprisham&#xA;  -janapadanam vai hatesv akhila-dasyushu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;After all the imposter kings have been killed, the residents of the cities and towns will feel the breezes carrying the most sacred fragrance of the sandalwood paste and other decorations of Lord Kalki, and their minds will thereby become transcendentally pure.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yadavatirno bhagavan kalkir dharma-patir harih  kritam bhavishyati&#xA;  tada praja-sutish ca sattviki&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;When the Supreme Lord Hari [Krishna] has appeared on earth as Kalki, the maintainer of religion, Satya-yuga [the age of truth] will begin, and human society will bring forth progeny in the mode of goodness.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The mission of Kalki Avatara is to re-establish the religious principles, which have disappeared by the end of Kali Yuga, the iron age of hypocrisy and quarrel. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya&#xA;  tadatmanam aham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself.&quot;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to re-establish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.&quot;&lt;/em&gt; [BG 4.7-8]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the End of Kali Yuga, the population of the whole world will be so much reduced to animalism that there will be no more power to understand what is God, or what is spiritualism. And it is already there, the Kali-yuga. It will increase. People will have no power to understand this philosophy, God consciousness. So at that time, when there are no more religious principles, there is no other alternative than to kill them all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At that time the Kalki avatara will come, and He'll take a sword on the horseback, just like a king send from heaven, He'll simply go on killing all these non-believers, Godless creatures and usher in another Satya-yuga, the golden age of righteousness and truth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kalki avatara is the last of the ten major incarnations of Lord Vishnu who will appear in the end of this Kali Yuga to protect religious principles. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kalki: The Next Avatar of God  and the End of Kali-yuga&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;by Stephen Knapp &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;(An excerpt from The Vedic Prophecies)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The age of Kali-yuga is said to start from the year 3102 BC, after the disappearance of Lord Krishna. Lord Caitanya appeared 500 years ago, at which time the Golden Age within Kali-yuga is supposed to start and last another 10,000 years. As the Golden Age within of Kali-yuga comes to a close, the lower modes of material nature will become so strong that people will lose interest in spiritual topics. It is said that everyone will become godless. Whatever devotees, bhaktas, and sages are left on the planet will be so unique in character and peculiar compared with the rest of society that they will be ridiculed and hunted down in the cities for sport like animals. Thus, they will flee the cities to live underground in caves or high up in the mountains, or simply disengage from the earthly plane of existence. In this way, they will disappear from the face of the earth. That is the time when the dark influence of the age of Kali-yuga will become so dominant that its full influence will manifest without hindrance.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THE APPEARANCE OF LORD KALKI&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are many incarnations of the Supreme Being as stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.3.26): &quot;O brahmanas, the incarnations of the Lord are innumerable, like rivulets flowing from inexhaustible sources of water.&quot; However, out of all the various incarnations of the Supreme, the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.3.28) specifically states &quot;krishnas tu bhagavan svayam,&quot; which means that Lord Sri Krishna is the original Supreme Personality of God. All others are His plenary portions, or parts of His plenary portions, who descend into this material world to carry out certain responsibilities and to do specific things. This is especially the case when the planets are overly disturbed by miscreants and atheists. In Kali-yuga many years go by in which constant disturbances and social upheavals are allowed to happen, but the Vedic literature predicts that at the end Lord Kalki will make His appearance to change everything, as described in the following verses:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Thereafter, at the conjunction of two yugas [Kali-yuga and Satya-yuga], the Lord of the creation will take His birth as the Kalki incarnation and become the son of Vishnuyasha. At this time the rulers of the earth will have degenerated into plunderers.&quot; (Bhag.1.3.25)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Lord Kalki will appear in the home of the most eminent brahmana of Shambhala village, the great soul Vishnuyasha.&quot; (Bhag.12.2.18)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;At the end of Kali-yuga, when there exist no topics on the subject of God, even at the residences of so-called saints and respectable gentlemen of the three higher castes, and when the power of government is transferred to the hands of ministers elected from the lowborn shudra class or those less than them, and when nothing is known of the techniques of sacrifice, even by word, at that time the Lord will appear as the supreme chastiser.&quot; (Bhag.2.7.38)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Purana (Book Four, Chapter 24) also explains that, &quot;When the practices taught in the Vedas and institutes of law have nearly ceased, and the close of the Kali age shall be nigh, a portion of that divine being who exists of His own spiritual nature, and who is the beginning and end, and who comprehends all things, shall descend upon earth. He will be born in the family of Vishnuyasha, an eminent brahmana of Shambhala village, as Kalki, endowed with eight superhuman faculties.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Agni Purana (16.7-9) also explains that when the non-Aryans who pose as kings begin devouring men who appear righteous and feed on human beings, Kalki, as the son of Vishnuyasha, and Yajnavalkya as His priest and teacher, will destroy these non-Aryans with His weapons. He will establish moral law in the form of the fourfold varnas, or the suitable organization of society in four classes. After that people will return to the path of righteousness.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Padma Purana (6.71.279-282) relates that Lord Kalki will end the age of Kali and will kill all the wicked mlecchas and, thus, destroy the bad condition of the world. He will gather all of the distinguished brahmanas and will propound the highest truth. He will know all the ways of life that have perished and will remove the prolonged hunger of the genuine brahmanas and the pious. He will be the only ruler of the world that cannot be controlled, and will be the banner of victory and adorable to the world.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here in these verses we find that Lord Kalki will come as a chastiser or warrior. By this time the planet will be filled with people who will be unable to understand logical conversations. They will be too slow-minded and dull-witted, not capable of being taught much, especially in the way of high philosophy regarding the purpose of life. They will not know what they need to do or how to live. And they certainly will be unable to change their ways. Therefore, Lord Kalki does not come to teach, but simply to chastise, punish, and cleanse the planet.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Furthermore, we also find the name of the place where Lord Kalki will appear and the name of the family in which He will be born. The family will be qualified brahmanas. This means that a disciplic and family line of spiritually qualified brahmanas will remain on the planet throughout the age of Kali, no matter how bad things get. Though they may be hidden, living in a small village somewhere, it will be this line of bhaktas, spiritual devotees, from which Lord Kalki will appear in the distant future. No one knows where this village of Shambala is located. Some feel that it is yet to manifest, or that it will be a hidden underground community from which Lord Kalki will appear.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this connection we find in the Padma Purana (6.242.8-12) the prediction that Lord Kalki will be born in the town of Shambala near the end of Kali-yuga from a brahmana who is actually an incarnation of Svayambhuva Manu. It is described that Svayambhuva performed austerities at Naimisa on the bank of the Gomati River for acquiring the privilege of having Lord Vishnu as his son in three lifetimes. Lord Vishnu, being pleased with Svayambhuva, granted the blessing that He would appear as Svayambhuva's son as Lord Rama, Krishna, and Kalki. Thus, Svayambhuva would appear as Dasaratha, Vasudeva, and then Vishnuyasha. Also, in the Padma Purana (1.40.46) we find Lord Vishnu admits that He will be born in Kali-yuga. Thus, He will appear as Lord Kalki.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Srimad-Bhagavatam (12.2.19-20) describes Lord Kalki's activities as follows: &quot;Lord Kalki, the Lord of the universe, will mount His swift white horse Devadatta and, sword in hand, travel over the earth exhibiting His eight mystic opulences and eight special qualities of Godhead. Displaying His unequaled effulgence and riding with great speed, He will kill by the millions those thieves who have dared dress as kings.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THE ACTIVITIES OF LORD KALKI&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We should make note here that, as the Vedic literature explains, when the Supreme kills anyone, that person is immediately spiritually purified by His touch and because the person is focused on the Supreme Being while leaving his body. Thus, that person attains the same destination as those yogis who spend years steadying the mind in order to meditate and leave their bodies while focused on the Supreme. So being killed by the Supreme is a great advantage for those of a demoniac mentality who would otherwise enter lower realms of existence or even the hellish planets in their next lives.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Purana (Book Four, Chapter 24) continues to explain Lord Kalki's activities: &quot;By His irresistible might he will destroy all the mlecchas and thieves, and all whose minds are devoted to iniquity. He will reestablish righteousness upon earth, and the minds of those who live at the end of the Kali age shall be awakened, and shall be as clear as crystal. The men who are thus changed by virtue of that peculiar time shall be as the seeds of human beings, and shall give birth to a race who will follow the laws of the Krita age [Satya-yuga], the age of purity. As it is said, 'When the sun and moon, and the lunar asterism Tishya, and the planet Jupiter, are in one mansion, the Krita age shall return.'&quot; The Agni Purana (16.10) also relates that Hari, after giving up the form of Kalki, will go to heaven. Then the Krita or Satya-yuga will return as before.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Additional information that can help us understand the activities of the next coming of God is found in the Linga Purana (40.50-92), the Brahmanda Purana (1.2.31.76-106 &amp;amp; 2.3.73.104-126), and the Vayu Purana (58.75-110). In these texts we find descriptions of Lord Kalki as He will appear in the future and also as how He appeared in previous incarnations as Pramiti in this time period known as the Svayambhuva Manvantara. These texts tell us that as Kali-yuga comes to a close, and after the death of Bhrigu (or in order to slay the Bhrigus), Kalki (Pramiti) took birth in the Lunar dynasty of Manu. He will wander over the planet without being seen by any living being. Then he will start His campaign in His thirty-second year and roam the earth for twenty years. He will take with Him a big army of horses, chariots, and elephants, surrounded by hundreds and thousands of spiritually purified brahmanas armed with weapons. [Being brahmanas, these weapons may be brahminical weapons that are activated by mantras, such as the powerful brahmastra rather than base weapons of combat such as knives, swords, and spears, or even guns and ordinary explosives.] Though they may try to do battle with Him, He will kill all of the heretics [and false prophets] and wicked, mleccha kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In a previous incarnation He killed the Udicyas (Northerners), Madhya Deshyas (residents of the middle lands), Purvatiyas (mountain dwellers), Pracyas (Easterners), Praticyas (Westerners), Dakshinatyas (of Southern India), the Simhalas (Sri Lankans), Pahlavas (the fair-skinned nomadic tribes of the Caucasus mountains), Yadavas, Tusharas (people of the area of Mandhata, India, or present day Tukharistan), Cinas (Chinese), Shulikas, Khashas, and different tribes of the Kiratas (aboriginal tribes living in north-eastern India and Nepal) and Vrishalas.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No one could stop Him as He wielded His discus and killed all the barbarians. When He was finished He rested in the middle land between the Ganges and Yamuna with His ministers and followers. He allowed only a few people to remain, scattered over the planet. These would be as seeds for the next generations that would follow in the next Satya-yuga. Thereafter, when Lord Kalki has made way for the next age of Satya-yuga, and delivered the earth and whatever is left of civilization from the effects of Kali-yuga, He will go back to His eternal abode along with His army.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Continuing with the description of Lord Kalki as described in the Linga, Brahmanda, and Vayu Puranas, they explain that after Lord Kalki returns to His eternal abode, when those subjects surviving at the end of Kali-yuga are enlightened, the yuga changes overnight. Then the minds of all people will become enlightened, and with inevitable force Krita or Satya-yuga sets in. People will then realize the soul, and acquire piety, devotion, tranquility, and clear consciousness. Then those Siddhas [the enlightened and perfected living beings who had remained invisible on a higher dimension through the end of the age of Kali] return to the earthly dimension and again are clearly visible. They establish themselves with the return of the Saptarishis, the seven sages, who instruct everyone about spiritual life, Vedic knowledge, and the progressive organization of society for a peaceful and fulfilling existence. Then again people flourish and perform the sacred rites, and the sages will remain in authority to continue the advancement of the new Satya-yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.yoga-philosophy.com/eng/bookindex.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Philosophy Of Understanding The Supreme by Urdhvaga das&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.yoga-philosophy.com/eng/kalki.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Appearance of Kalki Avatar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.stephen-knapp.com/kalki_the_next_avatar_of_God.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kalki: The Next Avatar of God and the End of Kali-yuga by Stephen Knapp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-12-03T23:20:37.037" LastActivityDate="2018-12-03T23:20:37.037" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="584" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="580" CreationDate="2014-06-30T03:01:27.193" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually, the days were not dedicated to any particular god, but to particular planets as per &lt;em&gt;jyotishi&lt;/em&gt;. Since the astrologers calculated and formulated rules for time keeping, they used celestial objects as their reference. So each day is dedicated to a particular celestial object found in astrology:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravi-var (Ravi - Sun)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Soma-var (Soma - Moon)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Mangal-var (Mangal - Mars)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Budha-var (Budha - Mercury)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Guru-var / Brihaspati-var (Guru/Brihaspati - Jupiter)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shukra-var (Shukra - Venus)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shani-var (Shani - Saturn)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But later on due to different reasons like a god's appearance, birth day, or as certain events in mythology took place on a specific day, that day was started to be celebrated for that particular god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, it is believed that &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman was born on a Tuesday&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, that day is dedicated to him. &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva holds up the moon on his head&lt;/strong&gt;, hence known as Chandrasekhara. So moonday (Monday) is dedicated to Shiva. Thursday being dedicated to Brihaspati, the guru of gods, Lord Vishnu is worshipped on this day. It is because &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu is Brihaspati&lt;/strong&gt; Himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;purodhasāṁ ca mukhyaṁ māṁ viddhi pārtha bṛhaspatim&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 10.24]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Partha (Arjuna), know Me as Brihaspati, the chief of all priests.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, from other folk stories like Santhosi Mata Vrat, certain days like Friday gained prominence for a particular deity or god. But at the end of the day, all days are actually dedicated to a particular planet as per our &lt;em&gt;jyotishi&lt;/em&gt; system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T03:01:27.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="585" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="553" CreationDate="2014-06-30T03:46:28.490" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Anukramani of the Rig Veda says that Vashistha is the seer of the Seventh Mandala of the Rig Veda (see Book 7 in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and that is where I found the mantra heard by Vashishta.  The reason I didn't find it initially is that Prabhupada writes it as &quot;na te viṣṇor jāyamāno na jāto mahimnaḥ pāram anantam āpa&quot;, whereas the Rig Veda as it's presented &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv07099.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; spells the beginning slightly differently: &quot;na te viṣṇo jāyamāno na jāto deva mahimnaḥ param antam āpa&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07099.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the full hymn from the Rig Veda that is referenced by the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 MEN come not nigh thy majesty who growest beyond all bound and measure with thy body.&#xA;  Both thy two regions of the earth, O Viṣṇu, we know: thou God, knowest the highest also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 &lt;strong&gt;None who is born or being born, God Viṣṇu, hath reached the utmost limit of thy grandeur.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  The vast high vault of heaven hast thou supported, and fixed earth's eastern pinnacle securely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 Rich in sweet food be ye, and rich in milch-kine, with fertile pastures, fain to do men service.&#xA;  Both these worlds, Viṣṇu, hast thou stayed asunder, and firmly fixed the earth with pegs around it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 Ye have made spacious room for sacrificing by generating Sūrya, Dawn, and Agni.&#xA;  O Heroes, ye have conquered in your battles even the bull-jawed Dāsa's wiles and magic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5 Ye have destroyed, thou, Indra, and thou Viṣṇu, Śambara's nine-and-ninety fenced castles.&#xA;  Ye Twain smote down a hundred times a thousand resistless heroes of the royal Varcin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 This is the lofty hymn of praise, exalting the Lords of Mighty Stride, the strong and lofty.&#xA;  I laud you in the solemn synods, Viṣṇu: pour ye food on us in our camps, O Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 O Viṣṇu, unto thee my lips cry Vaṣaṭ! Let this mine offering, Sipivista, please thee.&#xA;  May these my songs of eulogy exalt thee. Preserve us evermore, ye Gods, with blessings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 2 is the specific mantra being discussed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-09-05T03:53:09.517" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="586" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="560" CreationDate="2014-06-30T03:49:32.913" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Maandhi &amp;amp; Kuligan as son's of Shani seem to be only known among Tamil Hindus. &#xA;Some say Maandhi &amp;amp; Kuligan are 2 names for the same son of Shani and some say they are 2 different sons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are seen along with Shani and his 2 wives in Ramanathaswami Temple at Thirunaraiyur (Nachiarkoil) near Kumbakonam.&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the book &lt;em&gt;Sarvartha Sindhamani&lt;/em&gt;, it is mentioned that Maandhi is Shani's son and Kuligan is Yama's son.&lt;sup&gt;[2]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a Tamil folklore from Ramayan about Maandhi's birth:&#xA;When Raavana's son Indrajit was about to be born, Shani was poised to be in the 12th house of his horoscope which is a malefic house. Raavana forced Shani to be in the 11th house which is a beneficial house instead. Shani was forced to do as per Raavan's wishes but he had kept one of his legs partially in the 12th house. On seeing this, angry Raavana took his sword and chopped Shani's leg. The chopped portion fell in the 1st house and Maadhi arose from it and gave malefic effects to Indrajit(by giving him short lifespan).&lt;sup&gt;[3]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story surrounding Shani's sons seem to be associated only with Jyotisha, endemic to South India and not much known outside that circle. Maandhi is supposed to be a shadow planet bringing ill effects. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shani with his wives and 2 sons from Ramanathaswami Temple, Thirunaraiyur :&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HknDE.png&quot; alt=&quot;Shani with his wives and sons&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindu.com/fr/2004/01/02/stories/2004010201491200.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hindu.com/fr/2004/01/02/stories/2004010201491200.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http://classroom2007.blogspot.com/2013/07/astrology_24.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://classroom2007.blogspot.com/2013/07/astrology_24.html&lt;/a&gt; (Text in Tamil)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;http://bit.ly/1rNZzFF&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://bit.ly/1rNZzFF&lt;/a&gt; (Text in Tamil)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2014-06-30T15:09:56.023" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T15:09:56.023" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="587" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="526" CreationDate="2014-06-30T04:04:38.297" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is because gods are believed to be present in the east direction of earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवमनुष्या दिशो व्यभजन्त प्राचीं देवा दक्षिणा पितरः प्रतीचीं मनुष्या उदीचीं रुद्रा  [Tait. Samh. - 6.1.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Gods and men divided the directions. Gods took the east, &lt;em&gt;pitaras&lt;/em&gt; (manes)&#xA;took the south, men took the west and &lt;em&gt;rudras&lt;/em&gt; took the north.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So while worshiping or praying to the gods, a person generally has to face to the east  direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T04:04:38.297" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="588" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="597" CreationDate="2014-06-30T04:07:31.050" Score="5" ViewCount="4814" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna and his siblings Balarama &amp;amp; Subhadra are portrayed with huge eyes at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagannath_Temple,_Puri&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jaganath Temple&lt;/a&gt; at Puri. This kind of portrayal is not seen in other temples. Is there any story behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Deities at Jaganath Temple, Puri:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Wu5t4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Krishna and his siblings at Puri&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T07:58:16.477" Title="Why is Krishna portrayed with huge eyes at Puri Jaganath temple?" Tags="|krishna|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="589" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="572" CreationDate="2014-06-30T04:56:19.487" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the scripture, it is &lt;strong&gt;done for the spiritual benefit&lt;/strong&gt; of the child &lt;strong&gt;in the first or the third year&lt;/strong&gt; after his/her birth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As per the direction of the revealed texts&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;chuda karma&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  (tonsure) must be performed, for the sake of spiritual merit (observing &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;), by all&#xA;  twice-born men in their first or third year. [Manu - 2.35]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; used while performing &lt;em&gt;chuda karma&lt;/em&gt;, the benefits are longevity of life, freedom from diseases and attainment of strength, health, vigor and good progeny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-06-30T05:02:49.710" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T05:02:49.710" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="590" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="591" CreationDate="2014-06-30T05:38:53.107" Score="14" ViewCount="47084" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I've heard before, there was a story which said that lord Brahma had five heads  but the fifth one was chopped off by lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why did lord Shiva chop off the fifth head of lord Brahma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, did he really had five heads or he has four as it's shown here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/F0341.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Lord Brahma&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-11-05T05:27:28.627" LastActivityDate="2021-08-05T06:38:49.283" Title="Why did lord Shiva chop off lord Brahma's fifth head?" Tags="|shiva|brahma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="591" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="590" CreationDate="2014-06-30T06:18:09.340" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://scotdir.com/home/religion-and-spirituality/hindu-deities-brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Spiritual living 360&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One such story says that Brahma created a woman named &lt;strong&gt;Shatarupa&lt;/strong&gt; to help him with his job of creation. According to the myth, Shatarupa was so beautiful that Brahma became completely infatuated with her and stared at her wherever she went. Shatarupa was embarrassed by this attention and tried to escape his gaze, but in every direction that she moved, Brahma sprouted a new head until he had developed four. The frustrated Shatarupa became desperate and began to jump to try to escape his gaze. This prompted Brahma to sprout yet another head on top of the others in order to keep her in sight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that &lt;strong&gt;Shiva admonished Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; for his &amp;quot;unholy&amp;quot; behavior towards Shatarupa and &lt;strong&gt;chopped off his fifth head as punishment&lt;/strong&gt;. Brahma had given into the cravings of the flesh and abandoned the work of the soul and for this Shiva's curse was that people should not worship Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story also goes on to say that Brahma has been continually reciting the four Vedas ever since as a form of repentance, one from each of his four heads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have seen the same story in other links too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.phalkefactory.net/index.php?title=The_fifth_head_of_Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Phalke-factory&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mythologydictionary.com/shatarupa-mythology.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mythology dictionary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I have also found a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Brahma_purana#More_Creation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;reference&lt;/a&gt; where there is no description of what I have referred from above links.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;: (&lt;em&gt;added after @Dineshkumar's comment below&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books?id=TUFZ9XzzHAcC&amp;amp;pg=PA123&amp;amp;lpg=PA123&amp;amp;dq=Brahma%20desired%20Sarasvati%20and%20went%20to%20her,%20asking%20her%20to%20stay%20with%20him.%20She,%20being%20his%20daughter,%20was%20furious%20at%20this%20and%20said,%20%27Your%20mouth%20speaks%20inauspiciously%20and%20so%20you%20will%20always%20speak%20in%20a%20contrary%20way.%27%20From%20that%20day&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=axcUjIJJYh&amp;amp;sig=-BIaDc_qkMDjzHEyjIUdw1MZsTE&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=hyqxU7i0IMiPuASDqICgAg&amp;amp;ved=0CBsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=Brahma%20desired%20Sarasvati%20and%20went%20to%20her%2C%20asking%20her%20to%20stay%20with%20him.%20She%2C%20being%20his%20daughter%2C%20was%20furious%20at%20this%20and%20said%2C%20%27Your%20mouth%20speaks%20inauspiciously%20and%20so%20you%20will%20always%20speak%20in%20a%20contrary%20way.%27%20From%20that%20day&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siva Purana&lt;/a&gt;, Jnanasamhita 49:65-80:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma desired &lt;strong&gt;Sarasvati&lt;/strong&gt; and went to her, asking her to stay with him. She, being his daughter, was furious at this and said, 'Your mouth speaks inauspiciously and so you will always speak in a contrary way.' From that day, Brahma's fifth head always spoke evilly and coarsely. Therefore one day when Siva was wandering about with Parvati and came to see Brahma, Brahma's four heads praised Siva but the fifth made an evil sound. &lt;strong&gt;Siva, displeased with the fifth head, cut it off&lt;/strong&gt;. The skull remained stuck fast to Siva's hand, and though he was capable of burning it up, Siva wandered the earth with it for the sake of all people, until he came to Benares.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-30T04:40:35.703" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="593" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9329" CreationDate="2014-06-30T06:57:34.303" Score="27" ViewCount="10970" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma is said to be the creator of Earth but what about other planets? Who created them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard that for every planet there is a creator like Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have also seen an incident in Shri Krishna when Lord Brahma feels that no one is more powerful than him and abducts friends of Shri Krishna (&lt;em&gt;in child hood&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then as a lesson, Shri Krishna summons all Brahmas (&lt;em&gt;creator of other planets&lt;/em&gt;) to teach a lesson to Lord Brahma that he is not the only one creator&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any explanation about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: The story resembles in this&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kasarabada.org/bhagavatam%2015.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;link&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; but this did not mention about the other Brahmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2022-11-12T06:44:27.410" LastActivityDate="2022-11-12T06:44:27.410" Title="Are there other Brahmas and universes?" Tags="|krishna|scripture|brahma|creation|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="595" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="593" CreationDate="2014-06-30T07:19:12.323" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First you should understand one thing is that all stories in Hinduism are mythical and contains hidden meanings. Actually Brahma didn't create this earth, he created the whole world, means all other planets including our earth...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People may confuse with this sloka and assume that there many Brahmas and Shivas....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Madhya 21.58&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ananta brahmāṇḍera yata brahmā-rudra-gaṇa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;cirloka-pāla-śabde tāhāra gaṇana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SYNONYMS&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ananta — unlimited; brahmāṇḍera — of the universes; yata — all; brahmā — Lord Brahmās; rudra-gaṇa — and Lord Śivas; cira-loka-pāla — permanent governors of the worlds; śabde — by the word; tāhāra — of them; gaṇana — counting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TRANSLATION&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Actually it is very difficult to ascertain the number of universes. Every universe has its separate Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, who are known as permanent governors. Therefore there is also no counting them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But we go through the detailed meaning the purpote is,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva are called &lt;em&gt;cira-loka-pāla&lt;/em&gt;, permanent governors. This means that they govern the affairs of the universe from the beginning of the creation to the end. In the next creation, the same living entities may not be present, but because Brahmā and Śiva are existing from the beginning to the end, they are called cira-loka-pāla, permanent governors. Loka-pāla means &amp;quot;predominating deities.&amp;quot; There are eight predominating deities of the prominent heavenly planets, and they are Indra, Agni, Yama, Varuṇa, Nirṛti, Vāyu, Kuvera and Śiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T08:00:03.420" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="596" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="593" CreationDate="2014-06-30T07:29:44.783" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there are as many Brahmas and Rudras as there are universes: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ananta brahmāṇḍera yata brahmā-rudra-gaṇa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  cira-loka-pāla-śabde tāhāra gaṇana&lt;/em&gt; [CC - 2.21.58]     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Actually it is very difficult to ascertain the number of universes. Every universe has its separate Lord Brahmā and Lord Rudra, who are known as permanent governors. Therefore there is also no counting them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another account regarding this where Krishna ask his door keeper which Brahma has come to visit Him. Brahma surprised by this question of the door keeper later asks Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why did you inquire which Brahmā had come to see You? What is the&#xA;  purpose of such an inquiry? Is there any other Brahmā besides me&#xA;  within this universe? [CC - 2.21.65]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna smiled hearing this and called upon other Brahmas and unlimited Brahmas arrived there:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These Brahmās had different numbers of heads. Some had ten heads, some&#xA;  twenty, some a hundred, some a thousand, some ten thousand, some a&#xA;  hundred thousand, some ten million and others a hundred million. No&#xA;  one can count the number of faces they had. [CC - 2.21.67]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in short, &lt;strong&gt;yes there are other Brahmas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;REFERENCE:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/21&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chaitanya Charitamruta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="3872" LastEditDate="2016-06-15T05:41:17.020" LastActivityDate="2016-06-15T05:41:17.020" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="597" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="588" CreationDate="2014-06-30T07:58:16.477" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://btg.krishna.com/why-krishna-appears-jagannatha&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Utkala-khanda&lt;/strong&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; gives another account related to Krishna’s appearance as Jagannatha. (Utkala is the traditional name for Orissa.) Once, during a solar eclipse, Krishna, Balarama, Subhadra, and other residents of Dwaraka went to bathe in a holy pond at Kurukshetra. Knowing that Krishna would be there, Srimati Radharani, Krishna’s parents Nanda and Yashoda, and other residents of Vrindavana, who were burning in the fire of separation from the Lord, went to meet Him. Inside one of the many tents the pilgrims had set up at Kurukshetra, &lt;strong&gt;Rohini&lt;/strong&gt;, Lord Balarama’s mother, narrated Krishna’s Vrindavana pastimes to the queens of Dwaraka and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The residents of Dwaraka are said to be in the mood of opulence (aishvarya), and they worship Krishna as the Supreme Lord. But the residents of Vrindavana are in the mood of sweetness (madhurya), and they have a confidential relationship with Krishna that surpasses awe and reverence because it is based on friendship and love. Rohini’s narration was thus extremely confidential, so she posted Subhadra at the door to prevent anyone from entering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna and Balarama came to the door and stood on Subhadra’s left and right sides. While listening to Rohini’s narration of Krishna’s intimate Vrindavana pastimes, Krishna and Balarama became ecstatic, and Their internal &lt;strong&gt;feelings were exhibited externally&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Their eyes became dilated, Their heads compressed into Their bodies, and Their limbs retracted&lt;/strong&gt;. Seeing these transformations in Krishna and Balarama, Subhadra also became ecstatic and assumed a similar form. Thus, by hearing about Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavana, Krishna and Balarama, with Subhadra in between, displayed their ecstatic forms of Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and also those pictures are from Orissa tradition, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattachitra&quot;&gt;Tala patachitra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A familiar and lovable name&#xA;  of Lord Jagannath is '&lt;strong&gt;Chakadola&lt;/strong&gt;', meaning round&#xA;  eyes. The word 'Chakadola' is synonymous with&#xA;  'Chakanayana', 'Chakaakshia'. &lt;strong&gt;Unlike those of&#xA;  Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra&lt;/strong&gt;, the&#xA;  eyes of Jagannath are &lt;strong&gt;round in shape&lt;/strong&gt;. The&#xA;  symbolic meanings of Chakadola are as&#xA;  interpreted by some eminent scholars, recounted&#xA;  below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/june_july-2007/engpdf/Pages87-87.pdf&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;em&gt;In pdf format&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dsource.in/resource/patachitra-paintings/themes.html&quot;&gt;Further reading&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T07:58:16.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="598" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-30T08:03:37.647" Score="22" ViewCount="67573" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Shiva purana, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Brahma desired Sarasvati and went to her, asking her to stay with him. She, being his daughter, was furious at this and said, 'Your mouth speaks inauspiciously and so you will always speak in a contrary way.' From that day, Brahma's fifth head always spoke evilly and coarsely. Therefore one day when Siva was wandering about with Parvati and came to see Brahma, Brahma's four heads praised Siva but the fifth made an evil sound. Siva, displeased with the fifth head, cut it off. The skull remained stuck fast to Siva's hand, and though he was capable of burning it up, Siva wandered the earth with it for the sake of all people, until he came to Benares.&quot; -- &lt;strong&gt;Siva Purana, Jnanasamhita 49:65-80&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does it mean? Did lord Brahma want to commit incest with his own daughter? Please tell me the actual fact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T13:19:20.950" LastActivityDate="2024-02-06T15:18:09.667" Title="Did lord Brahma commit incest with his daughter?" Tags="|belief|puranas|brahma|saraswati|" AnswerCount="11" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="599" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-30T08:18:36.167" Score="13" ViewCount="4545" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to my understanding, a Sage is a person who has broken all the earthly bonds and intensely devoted to God. Such persons distance themselves from all kinds of material and physical pleasures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But legend has it that great sages like Agasthya and Vashishta were married. How is it acceptable for a person who has renounced worldly pleasures to marry and indulge in physical pleasures? Or, is my understanding about the sages wrong?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastActivityDate="2021-03-13T23:12:32.320" Title="Is it acceptable for Sages to marry and have a family?" Tags="|marriage|sanyasi|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="598" CreationDate="2014-06-30T08:39:15.320" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma desired to have a wife. Since it was Brahma himself who is responsible for creation, he created a lady named Saraswati. When Brahma expressed his desire to marry her, Saraswati opposed Brahma arguing that he was like a father to her since it was he who created her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Brahma persuaded Saraswati by saying that the very reason for her creation is to be his wife. Saraswati tried arguing that she could not copulate with her own father. However, it was useless and finally Saraswati succumbed to Brahma's wish and became his wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-08-20T11:16:47.970" LastActivityDate="2015-08-20T11:16:47.970" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="601" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-06-30T08:40:21.930" Score="12" ViewCount="995" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most Hindu festivals are pinned to a Lunar day or Tithi like Rama-navami, hera-pancami etc. The 7-day week runs out-of-sync with the lunar tithis; it would be very confusing to try to follow both at the same time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet many astrological sites also assign deities and planets to the 7-day week days. Is it just a recent western superimposition? Or are there any references to vasara or weekdays in the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastEditorUserId="458" LastEditDate="2015-05-29T03:13:02.750" LastActivityDate="2023-02-15T10:11:16.117" Title="What is the concept of a week in Hinduism?" Tags="|astrology|calendar|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="603" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="416" CreationDate="2014-06-30T09:20:32.807" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pradhosha pooja is one of the most important among the poojas performed to Lord Shiva. In Shukla Paksha (15 moon days from New moon to Full moon) and Krishna Paksha (15 moon days from Full moon to New moon) the evening of the Trayodasi (thirteenth moon day) between 4.30 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. is called Pradhosha. It comes once in fifteen moon days. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pradhosha time is especially meant for praying to Lord Shiva. Praying in that time is believed to free us from all our sins and gives moksha finally (hence the name Pradhosha). During Pradosha time a special type of circumambulating called &lt;em&gt;Somasutra Pradhakshinam&lt;/em&gt; is done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The origin of Pradhosha is related to churning of milky ocean by Devas and Asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once the gods (Devas) and the demons (Asuras) were churning the milky ocean hoping to extract Amirtham (Divine Nectar) with the help of Vasuki, the serpent king. Vasuki, who was used as a rope around Mount Meru to churn the ocean couldn't bear the pain. So, it started spewing venom (&lt;em&gt;Halahala&lt;/em&gt;). Frightened by the effects the venom could cause, Brahma took to his heels. Vishnu’s bluish body darkened further. The Devas, being chased by the Halahala, ran towards Lord Shiva to plead him for help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At Kailash, the Devas ran around (circumambulated) Shiva and tried to escape from the poison. But the poison sprout in front of them forcing them to turn back and run in the opposite direction. This repeated a few times before Shiva sent &lt;em&gt;Sundarar&lt;/em&gt; to fetch the poison and eventually drank it to save the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From then on, the period during which the Devas circumambulated around Lord Shiva is regarded as &lt;em&gt;Pradhosha&lt;/em&gt; and the way they circumambulated (as given in the picture below) is referred to as the &lt;em&gt;Somasutra Pradhakshinam&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QxeB8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Somasutra Pradhakshinam&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Source of the Image: &lt;a href=&quot;http://arunachalamystic.blogspot.in/2013/08/somasutra-pradakshinam-2.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://arunachalamystic.blogspot.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-06-30T09:26:06.307" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T09:26:06.307" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="604" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="607" CreationDate="2014-06-30T09:33:22.553" Score="9" ViewCount="6080" Body="&lt;p&gt;None of the persons I have read about from the Vedic scriptures have surnames. Instead they have &lt;strong&gt;patronymics&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;matronymics&lt;/strong&gt; e.g. &quot;&lt;em&gt;bhārata&lt;/em&gt;&quot;, &quot;&lt;em&gt;pārtha&lt;/em&gt;&quot;, &quot;&lt;em&gt;vēyāsakī&lt;/em&gt;&quot;, &quot;&lt;em&gt;raghunandana&lt;/em&gt;&quot;, &quot;&lt;em&gt;jāhnavī&lt;/em&gt;&quot; etc. One Indian friend of mine said that his surname &quot;&lt;em&gt;Chander&lt;/em&gt;&quot; was created by manipulating the proper name, but he is not living in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most western countries have the custom of inherited surnames. But how is it in India? Do Indian passports even have a field for the surname? If yes, what is the surname originally derived from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-06-30T14:41:47.637" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T14:41:47.637" Title="Do Indians have real surnames?" Tags="|culture|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="605" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="604" CreationDate="2014-06-30T12:01:24.707" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ancient Indians generally have pravara meaning they start their family/dynasty descending order from the root person to the current person. In modern times, it has been changed(pravara still exist but not everyone knows their!) to either the area they belong to (town/village name) or any historic activity done by them (eg: annadanam as surname indicates their ancestors offered food to all needy) or some other name coined by their ancestors or by their profession or by their way of living. In some parts of India, father's or husband's name is carried as surname. In other parts, grandfather's name as surname. I  observe there is no uniform practice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes surname(or last name) field is carried in all forms including passport! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T12:01:24.707" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="606" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="599" CreationDate="2014-06-30T12:17:30.220" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanathana Dharma never recommended anyone not to marry or not to make money! It has shown the way to attain mukthi/salvation through different practices. On attaining an age either one should get married or should take &lt;em&gt;Sanyasa Deeksha&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Getting married is considered as easy one as it would not be as strict as &lt;em&gt;Sanyasa Deeksha&lt;/em&gt;. Sanyasa Deeksha may be considered as speedy way to attain mukthi. Either way you are guided by several Dharmic practices which makes you to set yourself free from &lt;em&gt;Arishat Vargas&lt;/em&gt; (desire, lust, anger, ..). It may be tough for a common man to keep his senses under control. They can be brought to peace and control only on steady practice of dharmic activities and by the experience gained by one's one life! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, many sages lead the marital life and have shown us the path for liberty. Their way of life can be taken as inspirational stories on how to practice those dharmas and they show us how to react to different situations in life. It is also strict dharma which says one should give birth to an offspring to get rid of &lt;em&gt;Punnama Narakam&lt;/em&gt; (a hell named punnama) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-06-30T17:01:34.240" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T17:01:34.240" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="607" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="604" CreationDate="2014-06-30T12:50:21.400" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The practice amongst Hindus in modern India varies. Indian Passports are standard with First Name and Last Name fields.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;North India&lt;/strong&gt;, for many people surnames have been standard for generations and are dependant on caste and family group. Some family groups may have multiple interchangeable surnames available to them, so that a child of someone called &lt;em&gt;X LastName1&lt;/em&gt;, may choose to call themselves &lt;em&gt;Y LastName2&lt;/em&gt;, where both &lt;em&gt;LastName1&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;LastName2&lt;/em&gt; are indicative of the same family group. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These names can be derived from traditional job of the family, or the name of person the family is supposed to be descended from, or some feat performed by the celebrated ancestor or the place the person's ancestors are supposed to be from.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In many cases, for example in rural India, or among the lower social strata, or just generally where this historic information may not be available to the family, or because the person in question wants to change their surname for any reason - generic Last Names like &lt;strong&gt;Kumar&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Singh&lt;/strong&gt; (can be used by any gender) or &lt;strong&gt;Kumari&lt;/strong&gt; (female LN, usually used by unmarried women/girls) and &lt;strong&gt;Devi&lt;/strong&gt; (female LN, usually used by married/older women).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the South Indian state of &lt;strong&gt;Tamil Nadu&lt;/strong&gt;, there is no practice of surname - instead father's name is used (uncommonly mother's name for some girls, and after marriage husband's name). In countries outside of India with significant Tamil minorities this is implemented as male_person's_name S/O father's_name or female_person's_name D/O father's_name in official documents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Karnataka&lt;/strong&gt;, also in South India, surnames are present - they may include some element of 'place of origin' and a patronymic as an 'extra' name. &lt;strong&gt;Keralite&lt;/strong&gt; Hindus seem to have the tradition of using caste name as surname.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for the people in Vedic literature not having surnames, well, surnames all over the world are a fairly recent innovation! People in ancient lit all over the world rarely seem to have them. Case in point, the Arthurian legends, Norse sagas etc. In fact in many countries, using patronymics as the Last Name is still a common tradition. :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="64" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T12:50:21.400" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="608" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="416" CreationDate="2014-06-30T13:02:48.997" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pradosham&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pradosham is a specific window of time that occurs during the day. It is believed that the energy during this time makes it easier to dissolve and release karma. Stories, prayers and rituals have been built around this time to help us better work with and understand the significance of these karma busting energies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are three different energy levels to Pradosham depending on which day of the month that it occurs. Each energy level indicates how much karma may be released at that time. Pradosham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;are a gift from the Universe to help speed our evolution and make our lives easier and happier.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When does it occur?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All Pradoshams occur between 1 - 1/2 hours before and right up until the moment of sunset in the time zone where you are physically. The smaller energy level Pradoshams occur every day during this time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The middle energy level Pradoshams occur twice each month - on the 13th moon day after the New Moon and after the Full Moon. To determine on which days these Pradoshams occur, begin your count on the actual New Moon or Full Moon day and count that day as &quot;1&quot;. Continue the count until you reach &quot;13&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are counting from the Full Moon, Pradosham will normally occur two days before the next New Moon, and if you are counting from the New Moon Pradosham will normally occur two days before the next Full Moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The larger energy level Pradosham occurs when one of the 13th moon days occurs on a Saturday. The planet Saturn is considered the Lord of Karma who delivers many of life's tougher lessons to help us refine and evolve their souls. On a Saturday Pradosham it is believed that Lord Shiva has more influence over Saturn and can cause Saturn to loosen or release entirely some of the karmic bonds that limit us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pradosham and God Realization&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purpose of our human life is God realization. This is an often repeated statement. But Siddhas tell you that you can get to your life purpose only when your karma has been wiped clean, and the time is ripe for grace to flow to you. When that happens an intense flowering happens, and both the material and spiritual worlds open up for you. You have a choice then on the abundance that you are presented with.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whether you take the spiritual or material route, one thing is certain: you have to completely eliminate your karma to even to get there. Pradosham rituals give a great opportunity to build a road to prosperity and true happiness. On the 13th Moon Pradosham days, special poojas are offered to Lord Shiva who eliminates your karma and helps to bring light into your life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T13:02:48.997" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="609" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="604" CreationDate="2014-06-30T14:18:39.420" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Indians have real surnames&lt;/strong&gt;. And &lt;strong&gt;yes, Indian passports do have a field for surname&lt;/strong&gt;. The &lt;strong&gt;surnames were usually derived from the job or duty people performed&lt;/strong&gt;. In India people generally belonged to either of the four castes namely Brahman (priests), Kshatriya (warriors), Vaisya (traders / farmers), Shudra (service men). So there name was done as per that. The scripture states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let the first part of a Brahmana's name denote something auspicious,&#xA;  a Kshatriya's be connected with power, and a Vaisya's with wealth, but&#xA;  a Sudra's express something contemptible. [Manu -  2.31]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The second part (surname) of a Brahmana's name shall be a word&#xA;  implying happiness, of a Kshatriya's a word implying protection, of a&#xA;  Vaisya's a term expressive of thriving, and of a Sudra's an expression&#xA;  denoting service. [Manu 2.32]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as per this rule people used to have surnames. I am not aware about other states, but in my state (Odisha) the surnames still denote the nature of job the ancestors used to do. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, many Brahmins have surname &lt;em&gt;purohit&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;panda&lt;/em&gt;, etc. which means priest. Kshatriyas have surname like &lt;em&gt;senapati&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;khandayata&lt;/em&gt;, etc. which were related to war and weapons they used. Vaisyas have surname like &lt;em&gt;teli&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;sahu&lt;/em&gt;, etc. denoting the nature of their business. Sudras have sruname like &lt;em&gt;khunita&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;dasa&lt;/em&gt;, etc. denoting their service offered to others. People of other states also must have surnames on this basis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So yes, Indians have real surnames. Just that in the ancient times people used to get names depending upon their deeds e.g. Madhusudan (killer of Madhu, another name of Krishna), Indrajit (winner of Indra, another name of Ravan's son) and so on. And also they were known by the name of their fathers and mothers as you have mentioned. People just used to have multiple names in the past.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T14:18:39.420" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="610" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="599" CreationDate="2014-06-30T15:07:45.833" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The short answer is yes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ancient Hindus followed &lt;em&gt;Ashrama Dharma&lt;/em&gt; which lays out 4 stages for human life - Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanaprastha and then Sannyasa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The monks were in the last 2 stages in most cases. They leave to the forest along with their wife, leaving behind their property and children. They start leading a life fully devoted to spirituality. At a later stage, when they are ready, they become &lt;em&gt;Sanyasis&lt;/em&gt; and live alone meditating. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the monks were once married and become celibate at the Vanaprastha stage and after; not the other way around. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-06-30T16:37:35.317" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T16:37:35.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="611" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="518" CreationDate="2014-06-30T16:37:06.757" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit word Mantra is formed from the root word &quot;Man&quot; meaning mind and &quot;tra&quot; meaning tools/instruments or vehicle. Hence Mantra serves as a instrument to transform the mind(towards pure primordial consciousness).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantras are core to Tantric practices. The mantras, especially Bija(seed) mantras are supposed to be primordial sounds heard by ancient seers in deep meditation. For example, Dr. David Frawley says this about Shakti mantras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Most Shakti mantras contain the vowel–I, the vibratory ee-sound, which&#xA;  is the main &lt;strong&gt;primal sound of Shakti&lt;/strong&gt;. Most contain the consonant-R,&#xA;  which is the seed of fire, heaven, light, order and dharma and has a&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;stimulating and energizing effect&lt;/strong&gt;. Some contain the consonant-L, which&#xA;  is the seed of earth, water, joy and bliss and has a calming and&#xA;  stabilizing effect. Many begin with either the letter-H, which&#xA;  indicates prana, light and the Sun, or the letters S or Sh, which&#xA;  indicate the Moon, the mind and water. Some like Au or Aim consist of&#xA;  vowels only.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ayurveda-ernaehrung.ch/Medien_pdf/Ayurveda%20Fachartikel/Bija-Mantra_Frawley.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; (Emphasis mine)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like the Shakti mantras, other mantras are used to produce different effects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, mantras are primordial vibrations which are supposed to have existed eternally long before the world was manifested in the way it is now and hence are considered divine and produce an effect on our consciousness. This is their significance. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The below reference has more information about Mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ayurveda-ernaehrung.ch/Medien_pdf/Ayurveda%20Fachartikel/Bija-Mantra_Frawley.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mantra Yoga and Primordial Sound&lt;/a&gt;, Dr. David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T16:37:06.757" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="612" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="599" CreationDate="2014-06-30T16:54:37.360" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are actually talking about  &lt;em&gt;munis&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;sannyasis&lt;/em&gt;. It is restricted for renuncaites to enjoy worldly pleasures once they renounce the world. Performing their own funeral rites (&lt;em&gt;sradha&lt;/em&gt;) they become dead to the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;turiyāśramasvikārārārthaṃ kṛcchraprāyaścittapurvakam &lt;strong&gt;aṣṭaśrāddham kuryāt&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;  [Narad Parivrajaka Up. 4.37]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  For entering the &lt;em&gt;sannyasa&lt;/em&gt; order one has to perform the eight &lt;em&gt;sradhas&lt;/em&gt; having done the&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;kṛchchhra&lt;/em&gt; penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the sages (&lt;em&gt;rishis&lt;/em&gt;) are different. They are not subject to such laws. Infact, it is the sages who are the law makers. In the world order, sages are next to God. So sages can marry and have families, but not a &lt;em&gt;sannyasi&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally a &lt;em&gt;sannyasi&lt;/em&gt; is someone who either didn't marry out of detachment or was already married and took sannyasa after fulfilling the householder's duty. Only those who are in the order of &lt;em&gt;sannyasa&lt;/em&gt; have to distance themselves from material and physical pleasures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Without any material attachment, with senses fully controlled,&#xA;  remaining enthusiastic, and satisfied in realization of the Supreme&#xA;  Lord and his own self, the saintly person should travel about the&#xA;  earth alone. Having equal vision everywhere, he should be steady on&#xA;  the spiritual platform. [SB - 11.18.20]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the &lt;em&gt;rishis&lt;/em&gt; are free to marry and have family or do as they please. But they being law makers themselves, generally don't break the laws.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T16:54:37.360" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="613" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="599" CreationDate="2014-06-30T16:54:38.043" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;We must first establish the sanskrit back-translation of a &quot;sage&quot; to make the answer meaningful. If that is &lt;strong&gt;&quot;sādhu&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (which means &quot;good&quot;) or &lt;strong&gt;&quot;riši&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (&quot;the respected one&quot;), there is no contradiction. Upbringing and education of children is a valuable, respectable and recommended duty for qualified persons. Chānakya nītišāstra 1.14:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A wise man should marry a virgin of a respectable family even if&#xA;  she is deformed. He should not marry one of a low-class family,&#xA;  through beauty. Marriage in a family of equal status is preferable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we take &quot;sage&quot; to mean &lt;strong&gt;&quot;sannyāsī&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (&quot;renunciate&quot;), it is unthinkable of him to marry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Muni&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (&quot;philosopher&quot;) should be aware of the wisdom definition in Bhagavad-gītā 13.10:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;asaktir anabhišvangah putra-dāra-grihādišu&#xA;  (detachment from offspring, wife and everything household-related) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Muni&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; , &lt;strong&gt;&quot;tapasvī&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;&quot;tyāgī&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;&quot;yogī&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; cannot be mixed with family life simultaneously, but can be interspersed, e.g. Hiranyakašipu practiced severe austerity, but left his wife Kayādhu unprotected during that time (Bhāgavata-purāna, canto 7). Kardama muni was parcticing yoga before and after begetting children with his wife Dēvahūti, but not in parallel (Bhāgavata-purāna, canto 3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T16:54:38.043" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="614" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="629" CreationDate="2014-06-30T16:55:15.713" Score="21" ViewCount="10694" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Devasams (srardham) or annual memorial ritual performed to the deceased, rice is fed to crows. I was told by elders at home that the crows represent our Pitris. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind crows acting as a link to our Pitris and not any other bird or animal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-28T22:33:09.197" LastActivityDate="2017-07-24T11:51:01.137" Title="Why are crows considered to be a link to our pitris (spirits of ancestors)?" Tags="|rituals|practice|sraddha|ghosts|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="615" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="616" CreationDate="2014-06-30T17:56:11.720" Score="8" ViewCount="3907" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Indian culture, Guests &lt;em&gt;(Atithis)&lt;/em&gt; are treated as equal to the God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did this originate from Hinduism? If so in which text/scripts is this quote mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T13:44:17.753" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T16:18:04.913" Title="Where does Atithi Devo Bhava (Guests are equal to Gods) come from?" Tags="|belief|upanishads|culture|india|taittirya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="616" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="615" CreationDate="2014-06-30T18:46:50.007" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Athithi Devo Bhava, which as you said roughly means &amp;quot;treat the unexpected guest as a god&amp;quot;, originates from the Taittirya Upanishad of the Yajur Veda.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15032.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt; the whole hymn that it's taken from:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After having taught the Veda, the teacher instructs the pupil: 'Say what is true! Do thy duty! Do not neglect the study of the Veda! After having brought to thy teacher his proper reward, do not cut off the line of children! Do not swerve from the truth! Do not swerve from duty! Do not neglect what is useful! Do not neglect greatness! Do not neglect the learning and teaching of the Veda!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;'Do not neglect the (sacrificial) works due to the Gods and Fathers! Let thy mother be to thee like unto a god! Let thy father be to thee like unto a god! Let thy teacher be to thee like unto a god! &lt;strong&gt;Let thy guest be to thee like unto a god!&lt;/strong&gt; Whatever actions are blameless, those should be regarded, not others. Whatever good works have been performed by us, those should be observed by thee,--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;'Not others. And there are some Brâhmanas better than we. They should be comforted by thee by giving them a seat. Whatever is given should be given with faith, not without faith,--with joy, with modesty, with fear, with kindness. If there should be any doubt in thy mind with regard to any sacred act or with regard to conduct,--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;'In that case conduct thyself as Brâhmanas who possess good judgment conduct themselves therein, whether they be appointed or not 1, as long as they are not too severe, but devoted to duty. And with regard to things that have been spoken against, as Brâhmanas who possess good judgment conduct themselves therein, whether they be appointed or not, as long as they are not too severe, but devoted to duty,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1-7) Thus conduct thyself 'This is the rule. This is the teaching. This is the true purport (Upanishad) of the Veda. This is the command. Thus should you observe. Thus should this be observed.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The quote is from Verse 2, where it's translated as &amp;quot;Let thy guest be to thee like unto a god!&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T13:21:38.810" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="617" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="490" CreationDate="2014-06-30T19:49:42.263" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;An advice from Bhagavad-gītā: &lt;code&gt;param drištvā nivartatē&lt;/code&gt; (2.59). By getting a higher experience, one gives up the previous interest. So one can gradually change his faith by hearing about the advantages of spiritual practice and the defects of sensual urges.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is again corroborated in Bhagavad-gītā 9.2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt; rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyam pavitram idam uttamam&#xA;pratyakšāvagamam dharmyam su-sukham kartum avyayam&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;King of all knowledge, king of all secrets, this topmost purifying upholder has to be experienced directly, very joyful, must be done incessantly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The knowledge referred to in this verse is about Krishna's supreme position, transcendental to matter, and how to contact him, and how by that contact one can get heavenly delights, satisfy all needs and become free:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt; šubhāšubha-phalair evam mokšyase karma-bandhanaih&#xA;sannyāsa-yoga-yuktātmā vimukto mām upaišyasi&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Those who) engage mind in renunciation (from material activity) and yoga (cooperation with Krishna), certainly get rid of auspicious and inauspicious results of karmic bondage and, completely free, attain me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krišna's supreme quality is mādhuryam (sweetness), and by engaging in personal exchanges with Him, one quickly becomes disinterested in passive material objects, which were enforced upon him primarily by commercial advertisements. Social duties are also a kind of advertisement. Because people want something from you, they enforce you into some kind of relationships and activities. There are also demoniac entities that gain control of people if they seduce them to intoxication and other sins. To seduce people, they supply some amount of &quot;canned&quot; happiness in the beginning. Unless one has access to higher happiness, it is very difficult to withstand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In verse 3.43 of Bhagavad-gītā Krišna recommends to overcome material desires (kāma) by realizing one's spiritual identity as being superior to senses, body, mind and intelligence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;evam buddheh param buddhvā samstabhyātmānam ātmanā&#xA;jahi šatrum mahā-bāho kāma-rūpam durāsadam&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also take a look at &lt;a href=&quot;http://adityadham.com/aditya/samskara.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://adityadham.com/aditya/samskara.htm&lt;/a&gt; and the aštanga-yoga process, which gradually clears one from all karma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;yama&lt;/strong&gt; fixes gross health problems&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;niyama&lt;/strong&gt; fixes problems with social relationships&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;asana&lt;/strong&gt; fixes subtle (internal) health problems&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;pranayama&lt;/strong&gt; clears sinful impressions from mind&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;pratyahara&lt;/strong&gt; detaches outer senses from the sense objects (forms, smell, touch etc.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;dharana&lt;/strong&gt; pacifies subtle (internal) sensual urges &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;dhyana&lt;/strong&gt; detaches mind from material activity&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;samadhi&lt;/strong&gt; detaches oneself from the false material identity (ahamkāra)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jīva is responsible for the choice it makes, but many aspects of how that choice manifests are beyond jīva's control, so he is not responsible about that. The most basic choice is whether you pay attention to live beings (cit) or dead matter (acit).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T19:49:42.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="618" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="523" CreationDate="2014-06-30T19:52:49.127" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;India does not have a documented history.  The history has been &lt;em&gt;reconstructed&lt;/em&gt; from monuments and cultural documents.  The task has been made more difficult because all the kings started their own calendars.  So, to put a firm date on anything is well nigh impossible.  Also, consider the fact that the ancient texts were not written but verbally transmitted from teacher to pupil.  And hence, it is not possible to attribute a date to the &lt;em&gt;beginning&lt;/em&gt; of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="40" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T19:52:49.127" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="619" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="626" CreationDate="2014-06-30T20:02:12.120" Score="14" ViewCount="21004" Body="&lt;p&gt;Throughout the Hindu scriptures, there have been instances of Kings offering Horses as sacrifice to the Gods in the &lt;em&gt;Ashwamedha Yagna&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the significance of this ritual? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why only horses were chosen and not any other animal? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How did this ritual originate?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="41" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-15T09:50:22.403" LastActivityDate="2017-12-15T09:50:22.403" Title="What is the significance of Ashwamedha Yagna?" Tags="|rituals|animals|yajna|vedic-rituals|ashwamedha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="620" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="574" CreationDate="2014-06-30T20:26:00.703" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Having better skills than Arjuna, Ekalavya didn't have the ability to use his skills for a good cause. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the Kurukshetra yudh, Ekalavya supported Kauravas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna always followed Dharma when executing his powerful skills. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru Dhrona felt that Ekalavya might misuse his strength, so to keep him away from this powerful skills, Dhronacharya asked Ekalavya to donate his thumb as guru dakshina.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is as per the Bharatam written by Vedya Vyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="219" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T16:00:51.123" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T16:00:51.123" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="621" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="601" CreationDate="2014-06-30T20:37:28.913" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Hindu equivalent for the modern weekday is called as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;vāsara&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;vāra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; in the modern usage.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ravi-Vāsara, Som-Vāsara, Mangal-Vāsara&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; etc, which are equivalent of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday do bear a striking resemblance etymologically.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although &lt;em&gt;Vāsaras&lt;/em&gt; do not serve any computational purpose, unlike &lt;em&gt;Tithis&lt;/em&gt;, which are used to determine a day in the lunar calendar, they still do form one of the five &lt;strong&gt;angas&lt;/strong&gt; of the Hindu &lt;strong&gt;Panchanga&lt;/strong&gt;, the other four being &lt;em&gt;tithi&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;nakshatra&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;yoga&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;karna&lt;/em&gt;. They are also mentioned in the &lt;em&gt;Vedanga Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt; which is considered to be the origin of Hindu Astrology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for what could be the origin of this system, the answer is the &lt;em&gt;Navagrahas&lt;/em&gt;: Surya(Ravi, Sun),Som(Moon),Mangal(Mars), Budha(Mercura), Guru(Jupiter), Shukra(Venus), Shani(Saturn), Rahu and Ketu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first seven preside over individual &lt;strong&gt;Vāsaras&lt;/strong&gt; while &lt;em&gt;Rahu&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Ketu&lt;/em&gt; are responsible for the Solar and Lunar eclipses. All these nine &lt;em&gt;Grahas&lt;/em&gt; are said to move with respect to the fixed constellations in the zodiac, hence influencing the lives of the people affected by the respective constellations.  It is not very unlike the western belief in astrology where different deities were said to preside over the opening hours of the days named after them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is not just a westernised version of our own system. Tithis and Vāsaras exist independently of each other and fulfill different requirements. Tithis have more significance in the field of Astronomy for maintaining calendars and predicting celestial events like eclipses, Vāsaras have Astrological significance, helping determine the effect of the current arrangement of stars on the life of an individual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as with everything else in Hinduism, Astronomy and Astrology are closely related and these two are easily mixed up with one another. It is better to keep track of tithis for the purposes of a calendar of events.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="41" LastActivityDate="2014-06-30T20:37:28.913" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="625" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="654" CreationDate="2014-07-01T00:52:45.817" Score="16" ViewCount="2787" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen that bengali brahmins are non-vegetarians whereas their counterpart in the rest of India are strictly lacto-vegetarians. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can you tell me why this difference in their culture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="117" LastEditorUserId="734" LastEditDate="2014-08-27T14:24:45.430" LastActivityDate="2014-08-27T14:24:45.430" Title="Why bengali brahmins are non-vegetarians?" Tags="|culture|brahmins|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="626" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="619" CreationDate="2014-07-01T04:09:36.263" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aswamedha &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt; was a royal rite. It was done only by the Kings to spread their glory throughout the world and for the benefit of their kingdom (&lt;em&gt;rāṣṭram vā aśvamedhaḥ&lt;/em&gt;). Regarding its origin and usage of horses the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सोऽकामयत: मेध्यं म इदं स्याद् , आत्मन्व्यनेन स्यामिति  ततोऽश्वः समभवद्&#xA;  यदश्वत् , तन्मेध्यमभूदिति  तदेवाश्वमेधस्याश्वमेधत्वम्  [Brh. Up. -&#xA;  1.2.7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   He (the first &lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt; or Brahman) desired &quot;let this (his body) be fit for sacrifice(&lt;em&gt;medha&lt;/em&gt;) and let me be embodied by&#xA;  it&quot;. Then he became a horse as it swelled. He thought, it has become&#xA;  fit for sacrifice. Hence, the horse sacrifice is called as Aswamedha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sacrifice itself has been mentioned in the Vedas (taitariya samhita, 7th khanda). So its origin is prehistoric. From scriptures like Ramayan (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga13/bala_13_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bal Kanda&lt;/a&gt;) Mahavarat (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aswamedha Parva&lt;/a&gt;), etc. their performance and processes are known. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was also beleived that &lt;strong&gt;one who performs 100 Asvamedha &lt;em&gt;yanjas&lt;/em&gt; obtains the position of Indra&lt;/strong&gt; in heaven. So Indra tries to create hindrances in such performances. One example is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/4/19&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indra's stealing of King Pṛthu's horse&lt;/a&gt; on his final horse sacrifice. Also, Bali, grandson of Prahlad, &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/8/15/34&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tried to perform 100 Aswamedha &lt;em&gt;yanjas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; after which he would have been the king of gods. So Lord Vishnu in the Vaman incarnation &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/8/18/20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;hindered his completion&lt;/a&gt; of 100 Aswamedha &lt;em&gt;yanjas&lt;/em&gt; by taking away everything from him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T08:48:47.380" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T08:48:47.380" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="627" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="659" CreationDate="2014-07-01T05:17:23.760" Score="7" ViewCount="1622" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do Hindus take &lt;em&gt;Pradakshina&lt;/em&gt; (Circumambulation) around sacred idols?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does it signify? Do the number of times of taking rounds and direction matter?  It would be great to know how it started and what it signifies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T07:54:45.207" LastActivityDate="2015-01-26T08:18:02.187" Title="Why do Hindus take Pradakshina (Circumambulation) around sacred idols?" Tags="|rituals|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="628" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-01T05:32:42.287" Score="3" ViewCount="183" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the idol target of worship or is God the target? Is the idol used only to get nearer to God? If yes how can an idol bring us nearer to God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="225" LastEditorUserId="225" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T08:24:37.183" LastActivityDate="2014-07-26T05:33:33.760" Title="Do Hindus believe that Idols make a person spiritually closer to God?" Tags="|worship|gods|idols|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2014-07-01T15:55:47.940" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="629" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="614" CreationDate="2014-07-01T05:47:19.790" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason that crows are linked to Pitris (spirits of departed ancestors) is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/ryZ3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana.  Once there was a Maheshwara Yagna (Shiva ritual) being conducted by Samvartta, brother of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%E1%B9%9Bhaspati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihaspati&lt;/a&gt;, on behalf of a king named Marutha.  Since Brihaspati is the guru of the gods, the gods were in attendance.  But then the demon Ravana showed up, wanting to challenge Marutha in his quest to conquer the three worlds.  Ravana had famously received a boon from Brahma that made him invincible against the gods, so the gods were terrified and hid from him by changing into various animals:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And seeing that Rakshasa [demon] Ravana invincible by reason of the boon he had received, the deities, apprehensive of being worsted by him, assumed the forms of beasts.  And Indra became a peacock and &lt;strong&gt;[Yama] the king of righteousness, a crow&lt;/strong&gt;, and [Kubera] the bestower of riches a lizard, and Varuna a swan; and ... others also became other beasts.  [emphasis added]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Ravana devoured (yes, devoured!) the sages present at the Yagna, and after he left the gods were grateful for the animal forms that had saved them, so they each gave a boon to the respective species of animal they had turned into.  This is the boon that Yama (the god of death) gave to the crow:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh bird, I am well-pleased with thee.  Listen to my words as I utter them.  As I have been pleased with thee, thou shalt, without doubt, enjoy immunity from the various ailments to which the birds are subject.  And O bird, from my curse fear of death shall not approach thee; and thou shalt exist as long as people do not slay thee.  &lt;strong&gt;And those men residing in my dominion, being smitten with hunger, shall be refreshed along with thy relations, when thou hast eaten and been refreshed.&lt;/strong&gt;  [emphasis added]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he gives it the boon that whenever the crows have eaten and been replenished, the Pitris (spirits of departed ancestors) will also be replenished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-05-01T14:13:08.623" LastActivityDate="2015-05-01T14:13:08.623" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="630" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-01T05:47:39.100" Score="13" ViewCount="6801" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have often read that there are some Hindu sects which speak against idol worship. I want to know who they are and what reasons they cite to justify their claims.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="225" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-09-30T21:54:38.170" LastActivityDate="2018-03-28T01:21:21.083" Title="Which Hindu sects prohibit idol worship?" Tags="|sects|idols|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="631" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-01T05:52:54.190" Score="6" ViewCount="513" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which books are considered the most authentic (not popular) in Hinduism , please provide the ranking of such books by its authenticity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here authentic would mean how old and how well the particular work is preserved and is considered to be the closest approximation of God's will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="225" LastEditorUserId="225" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T06:01:53.520" LastActivityDate="2017-04-07T23:42:23.133" Title="What are the primary authentic sources of Hinduism?" Tags="|teaching|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="632" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="630" CreationDate="2014-07-01T05:57:43.447" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;One I know of is the followers of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arya_Samaj&quot;&gt;Arya Samaj&lt;/a&gt;. They don't do such because they do not believe God takes incarnations and hence has any form. &lt;strong&gt;They believe God is formless, hence He cannot have any pictures, idols, etc&lt;/strong&gt;. So they perform fire rituals instead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refernce: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.arya-samaj.org/index.php?site=introduction&quot;&gt;Arya Samaj Website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T05:57:43.447" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="633" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-01T05:59:20.610" Score="7" ViewCount="117" Body="&lt;p&gt;Assuming Hinduism has this concept of revelation of God which is the prime truth, so how does Hinduism distinguish between false claims of God's teaching from the true claims of God's teachings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g: A well known saint would try to introduce false teachings and is accepted only because he is known as a saint and behaves like  it. What instrument would be used to accept or reject this saints teachings assuming there are evil elements (Rakshashas) who come in various disguise to misguide mankind?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short how are Hindu beliefs validated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="225" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-07-04T14:35:30.770" LastActivityDate="2022-07-04T14:35:30.770" Title="How does Hinduism identify a concocted teaching from true teachings of God?" Tags="|belief|teaching|truth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="634" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="633" CreationDate="2014-07-01T06:14:34.507" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;A nice question indeed. So our sages in the ancient times determined the basis upon which the truth value of an idea can be ascertained. &lt;strong&gt;Irrespective of where the idea has originated, by validating it against different kinds of proofs, it can be made sure whether the teaching is correct or false.&lt;/strong&gt; The different kinds of proofs are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;pratakṣa pramān&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (Direct Perception) We know something to be true when we directly witness it through our senses. For example, you&#xA;  know the existence of monkeys to be true because you have seen them&#xA;  for yourself.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;anumāna pramān&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (Inference ) You know something to be true by intelligent guessing or inferring. For example, by seeing smoke on the&#xA;  mountain you become sure of the fire underneath.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;śabda pramān&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (Verbal Testimony ) You accept something as true when a reputed or reliable person has said it or when it has come from&#xA;  a reliable source. For example, you know electrons exist even though&#xA;  you have not seen them for yourself. You accept the words and&#xA;  testimonies of the scientists for this.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;upamana pramāṇa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (Comparison) Sometimes you gain the knowledge of something by comparing it with something else that you know as&#xA;  true. For example, you might not have seen a bulldog before, but when&#xA;  you see it for the first time, by comparing its behavior, appearance&#xA;  and nature to other animals you have seen, you come to the conclusion&#xA;  that its must be another variety of dog.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;arthapati&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (Presumption) Sometimes you have to presume something to be true because you know something else related to it as&#xA;  true. For example, you know your friend exists and know his address.&#xA;  But when you go to his house you find he is not there. It doesn’t mean&#xA;  that he doesn’t exist, as you are sure of his existence from before.&#xA;  So you presume that he is out somewhere. So the statement that your&#xA;  friend is out somewhere is accepted as true.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;anupalabdhi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (Non cognition) You know something to be true when you don’t see it or find it. For example, you know horses don’t&#xA;  have horns because you don’t find it on any. This proof is similar to&#xA;  direct sense proof but negatively.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Using one or many of these types of proofs, different schools of thought originated and refuted. For example, the hedonistic Charvak school of thought only relied upon direct sense perception. But direct sense perception can not be always true (e.g. earth looks flat, but its actually round). So &lt;strong&gt;by using the other methods of proof (inference, scriptural testimony, etc.) Charvak philosophies were refuted by our &lt;em&gt;acharyas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from these, the Nyaya school of thought gives 5 steps to validate a teaching or proposition. They are:  &lt;em&gt;pratinja, hetu, udaharana, upanaya, nigamana.&lt;/em&gt; Please, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyaya#Theory_of_inference&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;see this on wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; for an example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T06:23:52.663" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T06:23:52.663" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="635" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="630" CreationDate="2014-07-01T06:36:16.300" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The primary sect of Hinduism which rejects idol worship is the reformist sect &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arya_Samaj&quot;&gt;Arya Samaj&lt;/a&gt;, founded by &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Dayananda&quot;&gt;Swami Dayananda Saraswati&lt;/a&gt;.  Dayananda presents several arguments against idol worship in his book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamaj.org/newsite/Light_Of_Truth.pdf&quot;&gt;The Satyarth Prakash&lt;/a&gt; (The Light of Truth), but here are two of them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) He argues that it insults the omnipresence of God to worship him in a localized form, and that any sacrifice or subservience of objects to an idol amounts to denying God's presence in those objects as well (page 242):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Being All-pervading He cannot be imagined to exist in any particular object only. To hold to the contrary would be tantamount to believing that the sovereign Lord of the earth rules over a small cottage to the exclusion of His whole Empire and would be an insult to Him. In like manner, it is a blasphemy against God to imagine Him as existing in one particular object only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you believe Him to Omnipresent, why do you pluck flowers fro the garden and offer them to the idol, make a thin paste of Sandal wood and apply this to it, burn incense, beat drums and cymbals, and blow trumpets before it? He pervades your hands, why do you then stand before it with folded palms? He is in your head, why should you then prostrate yourself before the image? He is in food and drinks, why should you then offer them to it? He is in water, why, should you the bathe it? God pervades all these things. What do you worship, the pervader or the pervaded? If the former, why do you then offer flowers, etc., to images made of stone or wood? If the latter, why do you then lay a false claim to the worship of God? Why don't you say that you worship stalks and stones etc., which is the bare truth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)  He argues that Vedas &quot;positively condemn&quot; idol worship, citing the following quotes (pages 243-244):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(1) &quot;They are enveloped in darkness, in other words, are steeped in ignorance and sunk in the greatest depths of misery who worship the uncreated, eternal prakriti - the material cause of the world - in place of the All-pervading God, but those who worship visible things born of the prakriti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time.&quot; YAJUR VEDA 40: 9.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(2)&quot;The formless Supreme Spirit that pervades the universe can have no material representation, likeness or image.&quot; YAJUR VEDA 32: 3.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(3) &quot;Do thou offer thy worship to the self-same Brahma (All-pervading God) who transcends the power of speech and is the source thereof by virtue jof His being Omnipotent, and is the support of the Universe. No other Being is worthy of adoration.&quot; KENOPANISHAD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(4)&quot;Do thou offer thy worship to the self-same Brahma who cannot be comprehended by the human mind and yet is cognizant of the inner workings of the mind. Do thou never worship the soul and the intellect in place of God.&quot; KENOPANISHAD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(5) &quot;Do thou offer thy worship to the Being that cannot be seen with eyes, and yet, He it is from whom the power of sight is derived. Do thou never worship the sun, the fire and the lightening and other material objects which are distinct from Him.&quot; KENOPANISHAD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(6) &quot;Do thou offer thy worship to the self-same Brahma who is not the object of auditory perception, and yet He it is who is the bestower of the power of hearing. Do thou never worship sound* etc., in place of the Lord.&quot; KENOPANISHAD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(7) &quot;Do thou offer thy worship to the self-same Brahma who is not influenced by the breathing forces and yet is the director thereof. Do thou never worship the atmosphere in place of the Lord (which is distinct from Him).&quot; KENOPANISHD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T08:34:42.500" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T08:34:42.500" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="636" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="628" CreationDate="2014-07-01T06:39:19.667" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, idols are just a mean to grow inner faith, devotion and attachment to God. So the Garuda Puran states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;na kāśṭhe vidyate devo na śilāyam na mrutsuca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhāve hi vasate devastasmādbhāvo hi kāraṇam&lt;/em&gt; [GP - 2.28.11]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Deva (god) is neither present in the wood nor in the stone, nor in the soil (i.e. idols made of these things). He resides only in the emotion or feelings (&lt;em&gt;bhava&lt;/em&gt;), hence &lt;em&gt;bhava&lt;/em&gt; (devotion / emotion) is the only reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it's difficult for an embodied being with a form to concentrate and worship the formless:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal&#xA;  feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make&#xA;  progress in that discipline is always difﬁcult for those who are&#xA;  embodied. [BG - 12.5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, in Hinduism there is also the provision for worshiping idols. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-26T05:33:33.760" LastActivityDate="2014-07-26T05:33:33.760" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="638" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="631" CreationDate="2014-07-01T06:58:46.107" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scripture is made up of two categories, Shruti and Smriti. Shruti means &quot;that which is heard&quot; (what Christians would call &quot;revelation&quot;). Hindus believe that from time immemorial, sages known as Dhrishtas (literally &quot;seers&quot;) have, during a state of Tapasya (deep meditation), heard sacred verses directly from the gods. In the Dwapara Yuga (the age before the one we're currently living in), these verses were compiled by a sage named Krishna Dwaipayana Veda Vyasa (or Vyasa for short) into a set of four books we call the Vedas. (Technically Vyasa only compiled the first three books - Rig, Yajur, and Sama - while the Atharvana Veda is attributed to the sages Angiras and Atharvan.) As the words of the Vedas are believed to be divine in origin, they are held to be the foremost authority of the Hindu religion. As Rama says in the Ayodhya Kanda of the Ramayana, the Vedas &quot;have the foundation in Truth [and] one should thoroughly surrender to truth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second category of Hindu scripture is called Smriti, literally &quot;that which is remembered&quot;. It refers to those sacred texts of Hinduism which were composed by human authors and then passed down by teacher to student via oral tradition. Note that just because the specific words of these scriptures were composed by humans, that does not mean that they're not divinely inspired. (It's similar to how in the Bible, the words &quot;I am the Lord thy God who delivered thee from Egypt&quot; are thought to be words that God himself chose, whereas the Torah as a whole is believed to be authored by Moses but inspired by God.) There are numerous works that are called Smriti, but among the most prominent works are the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata is an epic poem, one of the longest in the world. It was composed by Vyasa (the same guy who compiled the Vedas), and it discusses a great war between two factions of the same family, the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Prominently featured in the Mahabharata is the Pandavas' cousin Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu. In the beginning of the war, one of the Pandavas, Arjuna, is reluctant, confused about what the righteous path is, so Krishna gives him a discourse known as the Bhagavad Gita, a guide to how to righteously live one's life. While the Mahabharata as a whole is considered to be of lesser authority than the Vedas, since the words are humanly composed, the Bhagavad Gita is often considered to be a fifth Veda, because it is the words of Krishna and is thus of divine origin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note: This is excerpted from my longer answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/64/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T07:09:32.403" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="639" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-01T07:23:41.860" Score="35" ViewCount="35527" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is it that people don't wear shoes and sandals when they visit a temple? Sometimes they remove them outside of temple premises and sometimes outside of the temple steps...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's a common practice amongst Hindu people whenever they visit a dharmik sthal/temple, so what's the reason behind removing footwear outside?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And is there a rule to do so, or do people just follow a common norm?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0nFed.png&quot; alt=&quot;Footwear outside temple&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Credits for the image: &lt;a href=&quot;http://double-barrelledtravel.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;double-barrelledtravel.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="245" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T19:26:48.647" LastActivityDate="2018-04-08T12:32:43.137" Title="Why do Hindus remove their footwear before entering temples?" Tags="|worship|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8" CreationDate="2014-07-01T08:42:42.937" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;The practice of separating menstruating women from the household is based in the concept of Ritual Purity &amp;amp; Ritual Contamination in the Vedic tradition. Ritual Purity and its understanding is a major aspect of any religious tradition. At its heart, there is a belief that humans exist in a natural state of uncleanliness, and this 'uncleanness' is not just physical, but spiritual as well. Any emanation from the body is considered unclean. Association with the divine requires purification at all levels. For example, within Christianity, the act of Baptism cleanses the child and allows him to receive God's grace. The act of Confession is necessary to receive the Eucharist, the body of Christ. Wazu purification is necessary to offer &lt;em&gt;namaz&lt;/em&gt;. So on and so forth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Within Hinduism, Ritual Purity is understood to occur at many hierarchies. The Gods (and deities) exist at the highest level of purity. The Priests who tend to them must exist at a similar level of purity. For the Priest, this purity is achieved by the thrice daily recitation of the &lt;em&gt;Sandhya Vandanam&lt;/em&gt; (ie, the Gayatri), &lt;em&gt;achaman&lt;/em&gt;, and similar purifications. This allows the Priest to now associate with the deities. However, if he contacts anything (or anyone) 'unclean', he must repeat the process. Unclean acts include sex, sleep, eating, sneezing, vomiting, etc. Any emanation from the body is unclean. By the same logic hair &amp;amp; nail clippings are also considered unclean, once they're separated from your body. A menstruating woman is thus considered 'ritually unclean', due to active emanation from her body. Similarly a Priest with an oozing wound (or a runny nose) is ritually unclean. There are also levels of purity. Normally, leftovers are considered highly contaminating. The emanations, or leftovers of people higher up the purity scale are purifying for people lower down. The leftovers of the Gods is purifying for us humans. Tirtha, the bathwater of the deity, is purifying for us. Similarly, the leftovers of the Guru is revered by his followers. In traditional families women eat the leftovers of her husband. A mother can eat the leftovers of her children and not be contaminated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most Hindus are more familiar with the related concept of &lt;em&gt;Sutak&lt;/em&gt; which describes a condition (temporary or continuous) where ritual purification is not possible, for any number of reasons. Most people have a great misunderstanding about what &lt;em&gt;Sutak&lt;/em&gt; means. Contrary to popular belief, &lt;em&gt;Sutak&lt;/em&gt; is not a state of EXTRA uncleanness, but rather a condition in which ritual purity has been reset. The &lt;em&gt;Preta-kanda&lt;/em&gt; of the &lt;em&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/em&gt; also describes levels of &lt;em&gt;Sutak&lt;/em&gt;, most of which are removed by bathing. These are understood to simply be conditions where the pre-existing ritual purity is lost, and can be regained by the regular methods. For example, upon the birth of a child, the father also has &lt;em&gt;sutak&lt;/em&gt;, but in his case this is removed by bathing and the usual ablutions. The mother, however, has &lt;em&gt;Sutak&lt;/em&gt; for 10 days, due to the continuing secretions from her body, which would nullify her attempts at ritual purification. This is no different from a person with a runny nose... or diarrhea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T08:42:42.937" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="642" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="643" CreationDate="2014-07-01T09:13:49.163" Score="15" ViewCount="16332" Body="&lt;p&gt;When a baby is born in Hindu family the very first thing they do is prepare a &lt;em&gt;Kundali&lt;/em&gt; of that child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In that Kundali they draw a chart like&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vKpJn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Kundali&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From this Kundali the future of that guy is predicted. It is also used&#xA;to match with the Kundali of the other person before a couple decides to marry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the main significance of this Kundali in our life? and in what ways does it affects us?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2022-11-18T15:00:22.790" LastActivityDate="2022-11-18T15:00:22.790" Title="What is the significance of Kundali in Hindu Family" Tags="|astrology|horoscopes|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="643" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="642" CreationDate="2014-07-01T09:27:35.413" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kundali is the Hindi for what we call 'Horoscope' in English. It is a pretty widely used thing in astrology. It is based on the fact that heavenly bodies and their positions at the time of an event effects how the event goes on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in the case of the birth of a child, we record when he/she is born, at what place and other details. Astrologers, then on the basis of position of prominent stars, 7 planets, Sun and the Moon about that time create a chart, similar to the pic you posted (number of charts is not limited to 1).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The numbers in the various sections indicate the position of different heavenly bodies. By position, I don't mean position in space, but position corresponding to a specific house in the Kundali (which ultimately depends on some calculations based on the time and spatial position)...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not only on the birth of someone, but astrologers also use the Horoscope calculation in numerous other events. When sacred rituals take place, we try to do them in specific time spans called &lt;em&gt;Shubh Mahurats&lt;/em&gt; which are considered good. These time spans are predicted the same way Horoscopes are calculated, but in some different context.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shubh Mahuratas&lt;/em&gt; are calculated/predicted for most things like marriages, ring-ceremony, baby-showers etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nowadays, you can encounter that people first concern Astrologers for these time spans and request doctors to have their babies delivered near that &lt;em&gt;Shubh Mahurat&lt;/em&gt; so that life of the baby be good. (&lt;em&gt;I know this is a bit weird, but it does happen, somewhat rarely though!&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are total 12 houses&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; in all. Each house can accommodate a heavenly body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each house also corresponds to specific areas of life. The first house, for example signifies life, longevity, self, health, nature and appearance of native; Complexion, vitality, sorrows, gains and profits to younger brothers and his friends. It governs head and face.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The heavenly body present in the house signifies how the person's life will go on in that area. These heavenly bodies keep changing their positions with time; thus, your daily horoscope changes. The change depends on which &lt;em&gt;graha&lt;/em&gt; comes in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further detailed horoscope information for a particular person can be calculated for specific transits by astrologers, when given birth details.&#xA;This is done by seeing the most initial &lt;em&gt;graha&lt;/em&gt; which was present in the house. Then, we calculate which &lt;em&gt;graha&lt;/em&gt; will be more &lt;em&gt;strong&lt;/em&gt;. If a strong (and good) &lt;em&gt;graha&lt;/em&gt; comes in, life in that area will be good and vice versa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;1. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kpjyotish.com/Astrology_basics.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference - Astrology Basics&lt;/a&gt; See this link for more details on houses.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-12-15T07:36:30.713" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T07:36:30.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="646" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="868" CreationDate="2014-07-01T10:51:20.710" Score="45" ViewCount="80461" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of us are aware of the children of Shiva and Parvati ⇒ Kartikeya, Ganesh and many others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have never come across the children of Vishnu and Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lastly, I am aware of the avatars of Vishnu and Lakshmi who had children, e.g.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ram―Sita ⇒ Luv &amp;amp; Kush&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna―Rukmani ⇒ Pradyumna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are the children of Vishnu and Lakshmi? Can anyone provide me with this knowledge?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="97" LastEditorUserId="97" LastEditDate="2022-12-07T21:20:43.927" LastActivityDate="2022-12-07T21:20:43.927" Title="Who are the children of Vishnu and Lakshmi?" Tags="|vishnu|lakshmi|children|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="647" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="666" CreationDate="2014-07-01T11:20:50.503" Score="13" ViewCount="40342" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before starting any prayer it is required that we light a lamp which is made up of oil and cotton wick. But it is considered &lt;em&gt;uttam&lt;/em&gt; (best) if ghee (Clarified butter) is used instead of oil. Why is ghee considered &lt;em&gt;uttam&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="148" LastEditorUserId="148" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T12:05:45.913" LastActivityDate="2016-01-25T08:51:58.640" Title="Why is it best if we light ghee lamp in the house while praying?" Tags="|belief|worship|prayer|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="649" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-01T11:26:15.280" Score="10" ViewCount="7528" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is considered very good to have the lamp that we light be lit through out the prayer. During Navratra, the lamp if lit till the end of the 9&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; day is considered to bring lot of luck, happiness, prosperity etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &quot;akhanda deepak&quot; should not be extinguished by itself or by someone, which means it should be lit through out the prayer period which may be more than 24 hours.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is this so? What is its actual significance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="148" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-15T04:10:45.767" LastActivityDate="2014-10-21T05:56:33.950" Title="What is the significance of &quot;Akhanda Deepak&quot; while doing puja?" Tags="|belief|worship|prayer|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="650" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="653" CreationDate="2014-07-01T11:40:21.357" Score="13" ViewCount="16339" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you do not light a lamp while doing a prayer and reciting any mantras. But it is necessary to burn an incense stick. This is practised by Buddhist too. Why do we need to do so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="148" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T12:24:59.810" Title="Why is it necessary to burn incense stick while praying?" Tags="|belief|worship|prayer|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="651" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="647" CreationDate="2014-07-01T11:47:52.230" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lamps / Diya we say have special meaning in Hindu dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lightness is a symbol of &lt;em&gt;knowledge&lt;/em&gt; which in a way removes ignorance amongst humans, just as light removes darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since old days, people lit lamps around their homes, in temples etc just to ignore darkness because some people relate darkness with evil spirits, bad demons etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some ignore doing &lt;em&gt;(shubh)&lt;/em&gt; [Good] &lt;em&gt;(karya)&lt;/em&gt; [work] in darkness, and hence they do it in the early morning (when there's light[prakash])&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to share a snippet from Sanskrit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;असतोमा सद्गमय। &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;तमसोमा ज्योतिर् गमया।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय॥ ॐ शांति&#xA;  शांति शांति - बृहदारण्यक उपनिषद् 1.3.28.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, the sentence I have highlighted is pronounced as &lt;em&gt;&quot;Tamso maa jyotir gamaya&quot;&lt;/em&gt; which means &lt;em&gt;From darkness, lead me to light&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now why do we use Ghee and why not candles? Ghee which is made out of cows milk is preferred or in your words, its considered as uttam as it spreads vibrations which helps human talk with Gods and Godesses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a difference between lighting a lamp with ghee, oil and candles, I already explained you about the ghee, but when one lits the lamp with oil, it spreads the vibration which helps you talk with your ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the one which lits up with candles spreads vibrations which helps one communicate with Evil spirits(Demons). Hence when you see, some people do black magic tricks to interact with the souls (Aatma) they use candles while doing so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, as far as I remember, recently I visited Tirupati mandir, where they still don't use artificial lights in the inner main room where they've kept lord Tirupati's murthi, they use diya instead which is nothing but a natural form of light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To support my answer, I would like to link to a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-is-ghee-lamp-preferred-to-oil-lamp-during-puja-ritual.html&quot;&gt;similar article&lt;/a&gt; which has similar views over this and is covered in detail&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T12:11:33.727" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T12:11:33.727" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="652" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="362" CreationDate="2014-07-01T12:17:51.357" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two schools of thought on the observance of &lt;em&gt;Ekadashi&lt;/em&gt;, and the calendar in general. Important days are noted by their &lt;em&gt;tithi&lt;/em&gt;, which is a lunar phenomenon and moves independently of the sunrise/sunset.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ekadashi&lt;/em&gt; timings have two major considerations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;fasting during the entire period of the &lt;em&gt;Ekadashi&lt;/em&gt; tithi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;one must break the fast (&lt;em&gt;Parana&lt;/em&gt;) after sunrise the next day,&#xA;during &lt;em&gt;Dwadashi&lt;/em&gt; tithi, unless it's over before sunrise, and not&#xA;during &lt;em&gt;Hari Vasara&lt;/em&gt;, the first quarter of the &lt;em&gt;tithi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Different groups emphasize one of these considerations over the other:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Smartas give more weightage to the first point, ie, fasting during&#xA;the entire &lt;em&gt;Ekadashi tithi&lt;/em&gt; period. In the example given, since the&#xA;&lt;em&gt;tithi&lt;/em&gt; starts midday on Monday, fasting must begin at sunrise on Monday. &lt;em&gt;Dwadashi&lt;/em&gt; begins at 11 AM the next day, and since the fast&#xA;should not be broken in the first quarter of the &lt;em&gt;tithi&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Parana&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;would be roughly 1-3 PM on Tuesday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some &lt;em&gt;Vaishnava&lt;/em&gt; groups feel that the sun must only &lt;strong&gt;rise&lt;/strong&gt; during&#xA;the &lt;em&gt;Ekadashi tithi&lt;/em&gt;, and the second point is more important. In this&#xA;scenario, &lt;em&gt;Ekadashi&lt;/em&gt; fasting is observed from sunrise on Tuesday, and&#xA;the &lt;em&gt;Parana&lt;/em&gt; will happen early Wednesday morning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-12T09:19:08.743" LastActivityDate="2022-01-12T09:19:08.743" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="653" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="650" CreationDate="2014-07-01T12:29:36.920" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not completely necessary to burn incense sticks while praying. It has just become a traditionally followed practice. &lt;strong&gt;What is necessary is to create an environment of sweet fragrance and aroma made out of pure material (like natural products).&lt;/strong&gt; Because that purifies the air and it helps higher beings and ethereal beings to roam there if you are calling them. It is because &lt;em&gt;prāna&lt;/em&gt; (life air) is the food for all beings starting from animals to gods:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;prāṇaṃ devā anu prāṇanti manuṣyāḥ paśavaśca ye prāṇo hi bhūtānāmāyuḥ tasmātsarvāyuṣamucyate&lt;/em&gt; [Tait Up - 2.3] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The gods live on breath, also men and animals. &lt;em&gt;Prāna&lt;/em&gt; certainly is&#xA;  the life of all beings. Therefore &lt;em&gt;prāna&lt;/em&gt; is called life of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As &lt;em&gt;prāṇa&lt;/em&gt; acts as the food for the &lt;em&gt;jivātmā&lt;/em&gt;, using incense sticks, &lt;em&gt;dhupa&lt;/em&gt;, etc. through the aromatic air food is offered to them in various worships, &lt;em&gt;puja&lt;/em&gt; and rituals. So it's not completely necessary to burn incense sticks while praying unless some god or higher being is going to come there in a subtle form. But anyway, burning incense stick is a good practice as it will at the least make the place of worship pleasant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T16:11:00.950" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T16:11:00.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="654" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="625" CreationDate="2014-07-01T12:39:33.183" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not all &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_Brahmins&quot;&gt;Bengali Brahmins&lt;/a&gt; eat fish. Vaidikas, who migrated from Kannauj, follow the same dietary rules as Brahmins in the rest of the country.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason for the relaxation of rules among the indigenous brahmins was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/324615/Kulinism&quot;&gt;Kulinism&lt;/a&gt;, introduced by &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballal_Sena&quot;&gt;King Ballal Sena&lt;/a&gt; (1160–1179). This soon led to polygamy, where women of lower castes could be married, which eventually diluted the strict caste rules followed elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastEditorUserId="269" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T17:37:22.960" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T17:37:22.960" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="657" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="660" CreationDate="2014-07-01T14:39:56.087" Score="6" ViewCount="804" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is stated in Hindu scriptures that every Hindu must do Surya Namaskar. But I am not sure how to do it? I always do Namaskar by facing towards east.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, there are 12 steps for Surya Namaskar in yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I need someone to explain those steps to me in a correct order.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-03T04:55:08.727" LastActivityDate="2020-03-14T10:36:10.477" Title="Correct way of Surya namaskar?" Tags="|worship|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="658" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="485" CreationDate="2014-07-01T15:00:35.103" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Srinivasa uses the word &lt;em&gt;Divakarakula&lt;/em&gt;. [&lt;a href=&quot;http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/puranas/skanda_purana/skanda_purana_02vaishnava_01venkata.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Skanda Purana, Vaishnav Khanda, Venkatachalamahamatmaya&lt;/em&gt;, 4.47&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Divakarakula&lt;/em&gt; means &quot;lineage/clan/dynasty of Surya&quot;. The translation provided in the question chooses &quot;family&quot; for &lt;em&gt;kula&lt;/em&gt;, but it's more appropriately understood as &quot;lineage&quot;, i.e. the Solar Dynasty or the &lt;em&gt;Suryavanshi&lt;/em&gt; descendants of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikshvaku&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ikshvaku&lt;/a&gt;. Lord Srinivasa is alluding to Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Consider that wherever the word &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.org/kula&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;kula&lt;/a&gt; occurs in scripture. In almost all of those cases, it's used in the sense of &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=vaMza&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&quot;vamsha&quot;&lt;/a&gt;, the greater clan or lineage, rather than the immediate family. The fruit of the &lt;em&gt;Dinakarakula&lt;/em&gt; is Lord Rama. (&lt;em&gt;Raghuveera Gadyam, Ramacharitmanasa&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-22T14:11:03.970" LastActivityDate="2016-03-22T14:11:03.970" CommentCount="26" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="659" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="627" CreationDate="2014-07-01T15:20:06.870" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;To begin with, Pradakshina is not only done around idols in the Sanctum Sanctorum of temples, but also around many sacred things like Tulsi plant, Peepal tree, Agni, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to your question, &lt;strong&gt;why do Hindus take Pradakshina (Circumambulation) around sacred idols?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Typically, Pradakshina is done after the completion of traditional worship (pooja) and after paying homage to the deity. Pradakshina is supposed to be done with a meditative mood. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We always assume God is the center of our existence. He also exists everywhere. So when we do Pradakshina or circumambulation, it signifies that our actions and thoughts are always centred around God. So, we are reminded of the eternal truth that God is the center of all things and is the main focus of our existence. This is the main principle behind Pradakshinam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do the number of times of taking rounds and direction matter?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, yes. In Pradakshina, one goes to the left hand direction to keep the deity around the Sanctum Sanctorum on one's right side (except during Pradhoshams when we do Pradakshina in a different way - &lt;em&gt;Somasukta Pradakshinam&lt;/em&gt;). As a matter of fact, most of the planets revolve around sun in this way only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally, Pradakshina is done once for Ganesha, thrice for Shiva, four times for Vishnu and nine times for Navagraha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T15:30:41.990" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T15:30:41.990" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="660" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="657" CreationDate="2014-07-01T15:36:09.650" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;This 12 steps of Surya namaskar are preferable to do when the sun is rising.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the 12 steps from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/yoga/yoga-poses/sun-salutation&quot;&gt;Art of living&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;1. Pranamasana (Prayer pose)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Stand at the edge of your mat, keep your feet together and balance your weight equally on both the feet.&#xA;  Expand your chest and relax your shoulders.&#xA;  As you breathe in, lift both arms up from the sides and as you exhale, bring your palms together in front of the chest in prayer position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;2. Hastauttanasana (Raised Arms pose)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Breathing in, lift the arms up and back, keeping the biceps close to the ears. In this pose, the effort is to stretch the whole body up from the heels to the tips of the fingers&#xA;  How to deepen this yoga stretch?&#xA;  You may push the pelvis forward a little bit. Ensure you're reaching up with the fingers rather than trying to bend backwards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;3. Hasta Padasana (Hand to Foot pose)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Breathing out, bend forward from the waist, keeping the spine erect. As you exhale completely, bring the hands down to the floor, beside the feet.&#xA;  How to deepen this yoga stretch?&#xA;  You may bend the knees, if necessary, to bring the palms down to the floor. Now make a gentle effort to straighten the knees.&#xA;  It's a good idea to keep the hands fixed in this position and not move them henceforth until we finish the sequence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;4. Ashwa Sanchalanasana (Equestrian pose)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Breathing in, push your right leg back, as far back as possible. Bring the right knee to the floor and look up.&#xA;  How to deepen this yoga stretch?&#xA;  Ensure that the left foot is exactly in between the palms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;5. Dandasana (Stick pose)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As you breathe in, take the left leg back and bring the whole body in a straight line.&#xA;  How to deepen this yoga stretch?&#xA;  Keep your arms perpendicular to the floor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;6. Ashtanga Namaskara (Salute With Eight Parts Or Points)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gently bring your knees down to the floor and exhale. Take the hips back slightly, slide forward, rest your chest and chin on the floor. Raise your posterior a little bit.&#xA;  The two hands, two feet, two knees, chest and chin (eight parts of the body touch the floor).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;7. Bhujangasana (Cobra pose)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Slide forward and raise the chest up into the Cobra posture.You may keep your elbows bent in this pose, the shoulders away from the ears. Look up.&#xA;  How to deepen this yoga stretch?&#xA;  As you inhale, make a gentle effort to push the chest forward; as you exhale, make a gentle effort to push the navel down. Tuck the toes under. Ensure you're stretching just as much as you can; do not force.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;8. Parvatasana (Mountain pose)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Breathing out, lift the hips and the tail bone up, chest downwards in an 'inverted V' (/) posture.&#xA;  How to deepen this yoga stretch?&#xA;  If possible, try and keep the heels on the ground and make a gentle effort to lift the tailbone up, going deeper into the stretch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;9. Ashwa Sanchalanasana (Equestrian pose)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Breathing in, bring the right foot forward in between the two hands, left knee down to the floor, press the hips down and look up.&#xA;  How to deepen this yoga stretch?&#xA;  Place the right foot exactly between the two hands and the right calf perpendicular to the floor. In this position, make a gentle effort to push the hips down towards the floor, to deepen the stretch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;10. Hasta Padasana (Hand to Foot pose)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Breathing out, bring the left foot forward. Keep the palms on the floor. You may bend the knees, if necessary.&#xA;  How to deepen this yoga stretch?&#xA;  Gently straighten the knees and if you can, try and touch your nose to the knees. Keep breathing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;11. Hastauttanasana (Raised Arms pose)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Breathing in, roll the spine up, hands go up and bend backwards a little bit, pushing the hips slightly outward.&#xA;  How to deepen this yoga stretch?&#xA;  Ensure that your biceps are beside your ears. The idea is to stretch up more rather than stretching backwards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;12. Tadasana&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As you exhale, first straighten the body, then bring the arms down. Relax in this position, observe the sensations in your body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mdhil.com/yoga-surya-namaskar/&quot;&gt;mdhil&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It can be performed at any time of the day, although early mornings on an empty stomach are considered ideal. Each of the twelve steps involved in this yogic exercise, comes with its own breathing pattern. It is important for a beginner not to exert himself/herself too much. 10 minutes of surya namaskar, where 3 minutes are allocated for rest is perfect for a daily workout.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Precautions:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;It is important that you relax after surya namaskar. Moving on to another asana too quickly will only harm your body.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;People with severe back problems related to spinal cord or have high blood pressure should not attempt surya namaskar without expert guidance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Surya namaskars should be effortless. The aim of a surya namaskar is not to exhaust your body.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;It’s important not to do too many too soon. Yoga can be damaging to your system if you are not careful enough&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pregnant women should not attempt surya namaskar without their doctors and yoga trainer’s approval.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-07-01T15:42:13.610" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T15:42:13.610" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="663" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="163" CreationDate="2014-07-01T16:14:27.070" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most visible external symbols of Hindu identity is the mark that many of us wear on our forehead. Origin of this practice is unclear. But, in ancient times, when the &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; system predominated, people used to apply tilaks differently that represented their &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Brahmins&lt;/em&gt; applied a white chandan mark signifying purity. &lt;em&gt;Kshatriyas&lt;/em&gt; wore a red tilak that signified their valour. &lt;em&gt;Vaishyas&lt;/em&gt; wore a yellow (usually turmeric) tilak which signified prosperity as they were traders. The &lt;em&gt;Sudras&lt;/em&gt; applied a black tilak representing their service to all the above three Varnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But later, the tilaks were used to denote which &lt;em&gt;Sampradaya&lt;/em&gt; one belongs to. The worshippers of Lord Vishnu wore a tilak in the shape of 'U' (also called &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sricharanam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Naamam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;). The worshippers of Lord Shiva wore &lt;em&gt;Bhasma&lt;/em&gt;/&lt;em&gt;Vibhuthi&lt;/em&gt; in three horizontal lines (also called &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripundra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tripundra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;). The lines and the color used may vary from region to region and from sect to sect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The area in which the mark is applied is between the eyebrows, called the &lt;strong&gt;Ajna Chakra&lt;/strong&gt;. This is the point that most schools of Hinduism consider the entry and exit point of our &lt;em&gt;jivaatma&lt;/em&gt; (soul). Scientifically, this Ajna Chakra area is often cited as the seat of thinking, concentration and memory. It is also the area which gets heated during stress and tension. Applying the tilak (generally using Chandan) has a cooling effect and aids concentration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In modern time, red tilak (&lt;em&gt;Kumkum&lt;/em&gt;) is widely used by women. Considered a symbol of Goddess Parvati, it signifies female energy and is believed to protect women and their husbands. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is an interesting incident in the Ramayana regarding the significance of &lt;em&gt;Kumkum&lt;/em&gt;. One day as Sri Jankidevi, wife of Lord Rama, was adorning her forehead with Sindur, &lt;em&gt;Hanuman&lt;/em&gt; asked her, &quot;Mata, why do you put this red thing on your head?&quot; Sri Jankidevi replied, &quot;By applying this, my swami (husband) will live long.&quot; Since Hanuman is a Parama-bhakta of Sri Rama, he thought that if a pinch of Sindur could make his master’s life long, a whole lot of it would make him live much longer. So he rubbed it all over his gigantic body!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, even if the origin of the practice is unclear, the above incident in Ramayana makes it clear that the practice existed even during (or may be, well before) the &lt;em&gt;Treta-yuga&lt;/em&gt;, in which Sri Rama lived.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tilak based on Sampradaya - &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilaka&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilaka&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ajna Chakra - &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajna&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/tilak.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduism.co.za/tilak.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T05:49:10.253" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T05:49:10.253" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="664" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="163" CreationDate="2014-07-01T16:29:09.463" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva, vaishnava, shakthi, ganapathi, surya, skanda are the most popular gods of worship. Each  of their ways of worship, rituals slightly differ and different types of tilaks symbolically represent the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, wearing tilak enhances the spiritual well being of the follower, noticing tilak on one's forehead head promotes dharmic feeling and fear of doing sin. tilak on starting point of womens' hair starting hair junction says she is married and her husband is alive. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T16:29:09.463" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="665" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="253" CreationDate="2014-07-01T17:11:08.197" Score="19" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dve vāva brahmaṇo rūpe, mūrtaṃ caivāmūrtaṃ ca&lt;/em&gt; [Brh. Up - 2.3.1]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  God (Brahman) has two modes, formless (&lt;em&gt;nirakara&lt;/em&gt;) as well as form (&lt;em&gt;sakar&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when God has two forms, it is just obvious that there will be two different ways to worship Him. Those who worship the formless Brahman, require no image and idol. But worshiping the formless Brahman is difficult for an embodied being who itself has a form:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kleśo ’dhika-taras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 12.5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Their hardships are more whose minds are attached to the Unmanifested (formless Brahman). Walking on the path of the&#xA;  Unmanifested is certainly troublesome for the embodied beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, people also worship the Brahman with a form. Now, &lt;strong&gt;when it comes to worshiping God with a form, certainly an image or idol becomes necessary&lt;/strong&gt;. So we have the concept of worshiping God in the form of an idol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, this doesn't mean that God is present only in the idol. &lt;strong&gt;God is equally present everywhere&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हरि ब्यापक सर्बत्र समाना। प्रेम तें प्रगट होहिं मैं जाना।। [RCM - 1.185]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    God is equally present everywhere and is revealed only by love (devotion).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, idols and images are only a mean to increase our inner feelings and devotion to God. It's the feelings for God in the heart that matters. Hence, Garuda Puran says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;na kāśṭhe vidyate devo na śilāyam na mrutsuca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;bhāve hi vasate&lt;/strong&gt; devastasmādbhāvo hi kāraṇam&lt;/em&gt; [Grd. Pu. - 2.28.11]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Deva (god) is neither present in the wood nor in the stone or in the soil (i.e. idols made of these things). He resides only in the emotion or feelings (&lt;em&gt;bhava&lt;/em&gt;), hence &lt;em&gt;bhava&lt;/em&gt; (devotion / emotion) is the only reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because it's mental worship that matters Shrimad Bhagavatam says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhaktasya ca yathā-labdhair &lt;strong&gt;hṛdi bhāvena&lt;/strong&gt; caiva hi&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.27.15]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A devotee may worship Me with whatever paraphernalia he is able to&#xA;  obtain, and may even worship Me within his heart with emotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But because emotion is all that matters it does not mean that worshiping the idols are all in vain. Actually when the &lt;em&gt;prana pratistha&lt;/em&gt; (establishing life) of an idol has been properly done, the deity in the subtle form receives the offerings of the devotee. So while inner feeling is the important thing, outer worshiping also matters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So these are some explanations for &lt;em&gt;murti puja&lt;/em&gt; (idol worship) in our culture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T17:11:08.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="666" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="647" CreationDate="2014-07-01T17:50:13.913" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you pointed 'ghee' is considered as the best for lighting lamps in houses and also in temples. This is the product extracted from milk of cows, which is considered sacred. Ghee is one of the purest form of milk which is extracted from the butter. As we all know cow milk has  some medicinal qualities. Since ghee is the purest form of milk, it will have it's highest qualities. When we use ghee lamp it helps to purify the atmosphere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following information is taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-is-ghee-lamp-preferred-to-oil-lamp-during-puja-ritual.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Agni Puran clearly states that only oil or Ghee (clarified butter) be&#xA;  used in the lamp meant for puja and no other combustible substance.&#xA;  According to the Science of spirituality the lamp with clarified&#xA;  butter is more sattvik (spiritually pure) as compared to lamp in which&#xA;  oil is used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Generally the use of oil is more prevalent than that of Ghee. The oil&#xA;  containing lamp kindles longer while the ghee containing lamp kindles&#xA;  for a short period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ghee lamp has more capacity to attract the sattvik vibrations present in the surrounding atmosphere as compared to oil lamp.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The oil lamp can attract the sattvik vibrations spread over a maximum distance of 1 meter while the ghee lamp can attract sattvik&#xA;  vibrations spread over till Swarga Lok (heaven)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When the oil lamp stops burning the predominance of raja particles in the atmosphere is enhanced and lasts for half an hour. On the other&#xA;  hand when the ghee lamp stops burning the impact of sattvikta (the&#xA;  quality of being sattvik) on the atmosphere is experienced even after&#xA;  four hours.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Effect on the worshipper as per Kundalini Yog&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to yogic path of Kundalini Yog there are seven principle&#xA;  chakras or energy centers in the human being. These chakras influence&#xA;  practically every aspect of human being including physical body, mind&#xA;  and intellect. The oil lamp is effective in purification of Muladhar&#xA;  and Swadhishthan Chakra only to certain extent but the ghee lamp&#xA;  purifies Manipur and  Anahat chakras to a significant  extent. Just as&#xA;  there are seven chakras in the human body, there are paths for the&#xA;  flow of vital energy (chetana). These are called as Nadis or channels.&#xA;  The three principle nadis are Chandra nadi (Moon channel), Surya nadi&#xA;  (Sun channel) and Sushumna nadi. When Chandra nadi is active the&#xA;  person perceives coolness. The activation of Surya nadi imparts energy&#xA;  to the person. The Sushumna nadi is activated when the person starts&#xA;  progressing spiritually. The oil lamp activates the Surya nadi of the&#xA;  person while ghee lamp activates only that nadi which is essential to&#xA;  the worshipper in a particular action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Effect on the subtle sheaths of the worshipper&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the science of spirituality the body which is visible to&#xA;  our eyes is called Annamaya Kosha or food sheath. Besides this there&#xA;  are four other Koshas namely Pranmaya Kosha or vital air sheath,&#xA;  Manomaya Kosha or the mental sheath, Vidnyanmaya Kosha or sheath of&#xA;  intellect and Anandmaya Kosha or bliss sheath. The Pranmaya kosha  is&#xA;  a seat for the Pancha pranas (five vital air elements) which provides&#xA;  energy to the gross body. The second Manomaya kosha is the seat of&#xA;  emotions. The third Vidnyanmaya Kosha is the seat of intellect and the&#xA;  fourth Anandamaya Kosha is the seat of Soul which is of the nature of&#xA;  existence, consciousness and bliss (satchidananda). Even these subtle&#xA;  sheaths or koshas are affected by the oil or ghee lamps. The oil lamp&#xA;  imparts power to the raja particles in the Pranamaya kosha which makes&#xA;  the individual restless. The ghee lamp strengthens the sattva&#xA;  particles of Pranamaya kosha and Manomaya Kosha and as a result of&#xA;  this the jiva (individual, embodied soul) becomes peaceful,stable and&#xA;  happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Spiritual experience imparted by oil and ghee lamps&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When we see subtle light or vision of a deity then it is an example of&#xA;  spiritual experience related to Tej tattva or absolute fire element.&#xA;  When we experience a feeling of touch without any external reason &#xA;  then it is a spiritual experience related to Vayu tattva or absolute&#xA;  air element. The ghee lamp gives spiritual experience of Tej tatva and&#xA;  Vayu tattva to the worshipper.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T02:53:37.517" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T02:53:37.517" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="667" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7446" CreationDate="2014-07-01T18:25:02.933" Score="9" ViewCount="2677" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before starting the day, or keeping feet on Earth, Hindus usually touch Earth by their hands. What could be the possible reasons behind this ritual?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this to show respect to Earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T12:24:53.263" LastActivityDate="2015-06-03T16:51:03.053" Title="Why do Hindus touch Earth before starting the day?" Tags="|rituals|earth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="671" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="649" CreationDate="2014-07-01T20:35:41.977" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per MrAlien's answer for &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/647/why-is-it-best-if-we-light-ghee-lamp-in-the-house-while-praying/651#651&quot;&gt;Why is it best if we light ghee lamp in the house while praying?&lt;/a&gt;, its based on Sanskrit saying,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;असतोमा सद्गमय। तमसोमा ज्योतिर् गमया। मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय॥ ॐ शांति शांति&#xA;  शांति - बृहदारण्यक उपनिषद् 1.3.28.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But for Akhanda Jyoti/Deepak,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Japa done in front of a akhand jyoti is 1000 times more effective.&#xA;  Deities like Ganesha, hanuman, bhairav and Devi are pleased when&#xA;  worshipped in front of a Jyoti. Akhand Deepak represents your&#xA;  unshakable and unflickering faith in your Isht Devta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Extinguishing of akhand deepak is considered inauspicious, so be&#xA;  careful in  maintaining it. This is an omen that there are upcoming&#xA;  problems. If this happens, light the diya again and do the puja again&#xA;  and increase the count of japa you regularly do to give you strength&#xA;  to fight with the upcoming problem. ( Source:&lt;a href=&quot;http://articles.holydrops.com/akhand-jyoti-275.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;holydrops.com&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the same old saying I grown up listening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2014-10-21T05:56:33.950" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="673" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="270" CreationDate="2014-07-01T20:41:12.970" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The usual translations are dēva=sura=divine, āsura=demoniac, rākšasa=man-eating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;The divine qualities&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;dēvas&lt;/strong&gt; are supposed to have these: fearlessness (abhayam), purification of existence (sattva samšuddhih), adherence to knowledge (jnāna vyavastitih), cooperation (yoga vyavasthitih), charity (dāna), self-control (dama), sacrifice (yajna), svādhyāya (contemplation), austerity (tapah), straightforwardness (ārjavam), nonviolence (ahimsā), truthfulness (satyam), placidity (akrodhah), renunciation (tyāgah), peacefulness (šāntih), non-malignancy (apēšunam), compassion towards embodied beings (dayā bhūtēšu), generosity (aloluptvam), gentleness (mārdavam), modesty (hrīh), reliability (acāpalam), influence (tējah), forgiveness (kšamā), determination (dhritih), cleanliness (šaucam), faithfulness (adrohah), limited ambitiousness (na ati mānitā).&#xA;(From Bhagavad-gītā 16.1-3.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Dēvas&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;live on &lt;strong&gt;Svargaloka&lt;/strong&gt; (capital Amaravatī), are headed by Indra, are authorized to receive worship from humans and grant benedictions to them (Bhagavad-gītā 3.11), fly on flower airplanes, fight with demons, are generally descendants of Āditi and are amicable to God (who is Dēva-Dēva, worshiped by the worshipable) .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;The demoniac qualities&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hypocrisy (dambhah), arrogance (darpah), cheating (abhimānah), anger (krodhah), harshness (pārušyam) and ignorance (ajnānam) are typical for demons. (From Bhagavad-gītā 16.4.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Āsuras&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;live on dark &lt;strong&gt;hellish&lt;/strong&gt; planets (Īšopanišad 3), regularly lose their leaders due to warfare (but not their guru Šukrācārya), are only allowed to abuse and exploit human sinners, rely on desperate painful austerities and mechanical contraptions (Rāvana planned to build a stairway to heaven), they are generally descendants of Diti and Danu and envy God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sura/asura designates one's attitude towards God, but it is not strictly a race. However,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Rākšasas&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;are a race, generally of demoniac character, but not always. Bhīma's son Ghatotkaca and Rāvana's brother Vibhishana are ethnically rākšasas but have divine disposition. Bhāgavatam 3.6.29 says that rākšasas live in antarikša (among clouds, space above Earth but below bhuvarloka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All three of these are super-human, but there are also other types, look at Bhāgavatam 2.10.37-40. Another related longer read is here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://truthdisclosed.wordpress.com/tag/lokas-locations-in-universe-as-explained-by-vedas/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://truthdisclosed.wordpress.com/tag/lokas-locations-in-universe-as-explained-by-vedas/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-04-28T03:29:38.247" LastActivityDate="2017-04-28T03:29:38.247" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="676" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="630" CreationDate="2014-07-01T20:52:00.603" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read somewhere, 70% of all Hindu scripts is about Atheism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Among the various schools of Hindu philosophy, Mimamsa, and Samkhya while not rejecting Brahman, typically rejects a personal God, creator God, or a God with attributes. While Samkhya rejected the idea of an eternal, self-caused, creator God, Mimamsa argued that the Vedas could not have been authored by a deity.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_in_Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though this is about not believing in God, it doesn't prohibit worshipping idols.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="246" LastActivityDate="2014-07-01T20:52:00.603" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="678" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="682" CreationDate="2014-07-02T02:55:57.917" Score="10" ViewCount="22570" Body="&lt;p&gt;We Hindus often hear the words &quot;ishwar&quot; and &quot;bhagvan&quot; . What are the differences between these two words?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-03-06T18:29:44.403" LastActivityDate="2019-03-06T18:29:44.403" Title="Differences between &quot;Ishwar&quot; and &quot;Bhagvan&quot;?" Tags="|terminology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="679" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14190" CreationDate="2014-07-02T03:14:07.377" Score="9" ViewCount="1193" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discussed previously in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/629/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/ryZ3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana describes how a king named Marutha once had a Maheswara Yagna (Shiva ritual) performed, conducted by the sage Samvartha, brother of Brihaspati the guru of the gods.  The demon Ravana came there, and he &quot;devour[ed] the maharishis that were present at the place of sacrifice ... [and] satisfied with their blood, [Ravana] again went to the earth.&quot; (Page 1612)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, did Ravana kill Samvartha?  On page 1610, Samvartha is described as a Brahmarishi, which is a sage of the highest order, as opposed to merely a maharishi or great sage.  So is it possible that Ravana only devoured the maharishis who were working under Samvartha, and Samvartha himself survived?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know if there are descriptions in other scriptures of Samvartha being alive after that incident?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Wikipedia &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiras_(sage)#Angirasa.E2.80.99s_lineage&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;claims&lt;/a&gt; that Samvartha is still alive:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It’s in the lore that Samvarta is still in his physical body and is living as a wandering naked monk in Varanasi and small forests around it in a state of total “Vairagya” and absolute union with “Para Brahman”. He is of intense nature. He is known to shun the company of humans and would curse and throw stones at people who try to see him. But if anybody perseveres and gets his darshan, he would bless them with liberation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does this claim have any scriptural basis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-10-03T15:33:28.087" Title="Did Ravana kill Brihaspati's brother?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="682" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="678" CreationDate="2014-07-02T04:37:11.617" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bhagvan&lt;/em&gt; is a term made of two different words, &lt;em&gt;bhaga&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;van&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Bhaga&lt;/em&gt; generally means supreme opulence. The Vishnu Purana defines &lt;em&gt;bhaga&lt;/em&gt; as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;aiśvaryasya samagrasya dharmasya yaśasariśrayaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jñānavairāgyayoścaiva ṣaṇṇāṃ bhaga itīraṇā&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 6.5.74]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Complete splendor, virtue, glory, opulence, knowledge, dispassion - these six are known as &lt;em&gt;bhaga&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So just like one who has &lt;em&gt;dhana&lt;/em&gt; (wealth) is known as &lt;em&gt;dhanavan&lt;/em&gt;, one how has all these six is known as &lt;em&gt;bhagavan&lt;/em&gt;. ( &lt;em&gt;bhaga&lt;/em&gt; + &lt;em&gt;van&lt;/em&gt; = &lt;em&gt;bhagavan&lt;/em&gt; ) But the opluences descried above are only found in the supreme personality of Godhead. Hence, the absolute truth, Brahman is also called as &lt;em&gt;Bhagavan&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this, Bhagavan also means the omniscient being who has the complete knowledge of creation, dissolution, knowledge, ignorance, etc.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;utpattiṃ pralayaṃ caiva bhūtānāmāgatiṃ gatim&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vettiṃ vidyāmavidyāṃ ca sa vācyo bhagavāniti&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 6.5.78]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, regarding &lt;em&gt;Ishwara&lt;/em&gt;, it has been &lt;strong&gt;derived from the Sanskrit root &lt;em&gt;ish&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, which means to rule. So &lt;em&gt;Ishwara&lt;/em&gt; means the supreme being who rules over everyone and everything. But as God is  only such being, He is also known as &lt;em&gt;Ishwara&lt;/em&gt;. ( &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;īśate iti īśvaraḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;strong&gt;irrespective of whether we say &lt;em&gt;Bhagavan&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Iswara&lt;/em&gt;, both imply the same personal form of God&lt;/strong&gt;. Just their meanings are different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-01-08T06:15:38.650" LastActivityDate="2015-01-08T06:15:38.650" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="683" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-02T04:53:02.197" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Agni (fire) is one of the element of &lt;a href=&quot;/questions/tagged/panchabhoota&quot; class=&quot;post-tag&quot; title=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;panchabhoota&amp;#39;&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;panchabhoota&lt;/a&gt;. It is considered &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/680/68&quot;&gt;the purest element&lt;/a&gt; among Pancha Bhoota.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni is the accepter of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods. He is ever-young, because the fire is re-lit every day, and also immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni, the Vedic god of fire, has two heads, one marks immortality and the other marks an unknown symbol of life. Agni has made the transition into the Hindu pantheon of gods, without losing his importance. With Varuna and Indra he is one of the supreme gods in the Rigveda. Due to the link between heaven and earth, and deities and humans, he is associated with Vedic sacrifice, taking offerings to the other world in his fire. In Hinduism, his vehicle is the ram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agni&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Agni&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-20T10:03:53.910" LastActivityDate="2014-08-20T10:03:53.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="684" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-02T04:53:02.197" Score="0" Body="Agni (Sanskrit: अग्नि), is a Hindu deity, one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is also known as God of Fire. " OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-20T10:04:08.370" LastActivityDate="2014-08-20T10:04:08.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="686" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-02T06:35:42.587" Score="17" ViewCount="6017" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per a previous question asked on this site, we know that &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/411/&quot;&gt;Lord Hanuman was a bachelor&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Surya grants him a boon that he will still be a bachelor even after&#xA;  marriage as a Prajapatya Brahmachari and will maintain his celibacy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But stories claim that Makardhwaja is Lord Hanuman's son. How is this possible when the excerpt suggests that Lord Hanuman was a bachelor?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2022-06-29T12:29:01.273" Title="Did lord Hanuman have a son?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="687" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-02T06:52:07.370" Score="18" ViewCount="10224" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why didn't Krishna take a more active part in Battle of Kurukshetra in Mahabharata?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna was the &lt;em&gt;Saarthi&lt;/em&gt; (Charioteer) of Arjuna and rode his &lt;em&gt;rath&lt;/em&gt; (Chariot) around during battle and was a valuable adviser to Pandavas but why didn’t he fight in the battle with his weapon(s)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="236" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T13:55:05.213" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T08:09:20.350" Title="Why didn't Krishna take a more active part in Battle of Kurukshetra in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="689" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="429" CreationDate="2014-07-02T07:08:33.120" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yajna&lt;/em&gt; can be of many different types. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/4&quot;&gt;fourth chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Bhagavad Gita lists many of them. But the ones you are referring to are commonly known as fire sacrifices. While &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt; generally is the activity of fire sacrifice, the purpose and reason behind doing it can be different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The primary purpose of &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt; is to offer oblations to the gods. Now, the reason why some one would try to please the gods can be different. A person may do so for fulfilling his material desire or for some other purposes. But &lt;strong&gt;the sages in the ancient times used to do so for the welfare and prosperity of the human beings&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;saha-yajñāḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā purovāca prajāpatiḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    anena prasaviṣyadhvam eṣa vo ’stv iṣṭa-kāma-dhuk&lt;/em&gt;   [BG - 3.10]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacriﬁces for Viṣṇu, and blessed them by saying, “Be thou happy by this yajña [sacriﬁce] because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As gods are simply higher beings existing in the material world, they too need nourishment and power for their prosperity. By performing &lt;em&gt;yajnas&lt;/em&gt; we can benefit them and in return they'll benefit us through rain, fulfilling desire, etc. Hence, performance of yajna for the gods has been suggested in the Gita as through mutual cooperation we both will prosper:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;devān bhāvayatānena te devā bhāvayantu vaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    parasparaṁ bhāvayantaḥ śreyaḥ param avāpsyatha&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 3.11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The demigods, being pleased by sacriﬁces, will also please you, and thus, by cooperation between men and demigods, prosperity will reign for all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So sages used to do &lt;em&gt;yanja&lt;/em&gt; for the benefit of the gods which in turn would benefit the human beings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T07:08:33.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="690" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="687" CreationDate="2014-07-02T07:21:44.533" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;When war became imminent between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, they started assembling their forces. They also went and sought the support of their respective friendly kings. Since Krishna had equal ties with both the Pandavas and the Kauravas, Duryodhana and Arjuna went to seek the support of Krishna. They both reached Dwaraka at the same day. But Krishna was fast asleep when they reached his palace. So, they both waited for him to wake up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Krishna woke up, his eyes fell upon Arjuna first and then on Duryodhana. He welcomed both and asked the reason for their visit. They both requested Krishna's support for their side in the war. Duryodhana argued that he should get first preference since it was he who came to the palace first. But Krishna defended Arjuna saying even if it was Duryodhana who came first, his eyes fell on Arjuna first. Krishna further argued that while distributing favours, it is a tradition to begin with the junior most recipient. Having said that, Krishna offered Arjuna two choices and asked Arjuna to choose whichever he liked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the first option, Krishna offered his entire army, which was gigantic and almost invincible. As the second option, Krishna offered his assistance. But he said that he will not wield any weapon and won't fight the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna chose the second one saying that with Krishna by his side, he will be able to face all the princes of the land and their hordes single handed in the battle. Arjuna also requested Krishna to be his charioteer and Krishna granted his wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is an incident described in the &lt;em&gt;Mahabaratha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T12:20:50.420" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T12:20:50.420" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="691" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="687" CreationDate="2014-07-02T07:52:03.053" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is an excerpt from my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/555/70&quot;&gt;another answer&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why didn't Krishna helped Abhimanyu out of Chakravyuha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the promise given to Pandavas and Kauravas about usage and distribution of his resources, he wasn't supposed to participate in the Mahabharata war, rather he was only supposed to be an adviser.&#xA;Krsna with his power could have rescued Abhmanyu easily, but his promise prevented him to do so..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/bhagavata/bhagavata_7.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Krishna's Kurushetra Lila&lt;/a&gt; explains this story beautifully,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna was lying down, resting, when Duryodhana and Arjuna arrived. Duryodhana entered first, and sat near the head of Sri Krishna. He grabbed a chair and reclined. Arjuna did not sit on a chair. He stood with folded hands at the feet of Sri Krishna. After a while, Sri Krishna opened his eyes, and first, naturally, he could see only what was near his feet, not his head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Arjuna, how come you are here at this moment?” said Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“No sir! I have come first,” said Duryodhana from behind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Oh! You have also come,” said Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna said, “You have come first, but I saw Arjuna first. Also, he is younger, you are the elder. Don’t you think it is proper for me to speak to the younger one first, especially as I saw him first?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then turning to Arjuna, Sri Krishna asked, “What made you come here?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna replied, “Great Master, you know what is going to happen. War has become inevitable. We all want your help.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna said, “What can I give you? I have two things. I have a large army called Narayani Sena; if you want it, you can take it. Otherwise I am here, but unarmed, doing nothing. I will merely sit and discuss with you. I will not take part in the war. If you want such a man as I am, take me. Or if you think this is not going to be of any utility to you, take the large army which will help you, as it is almost invincible.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“I want you only, Master,” replied Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Immediately Duryodhana retorted, “I want the army.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Take it,” said Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana left the place hurriedly, and declared to the Kuru family that he had already won victory in the war, that his victory was certain because of the invincible forces that he had received from Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Duryodhana left the place, Sri Krishna accosted Arjuna and said, “What a foolish person you are! Why did you not ask for the army? What good is it if I sit idle without doing anything for you? Why have you made this wrong choice? The other man took the good forces, and you are asking for me, who is as good as nothing.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna replied, “Thou art all for me, great Master. I know you very well. Don’t try to deceive me by this query as to why I have chosen you.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Oh! You want to vie with me. Okay, all right. Do that,” said Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then they both left.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T12:22:06.207" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="692" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="687" CreationDate="2014-07-02T08:48:44.720" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason behind this is very simple. Whoever has faith in God will pass through panic situations and face a lot more troubles and hurdles. But finally, we will pass through all of those if we allow God to lead our lives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the same time, he won’t do things by his own; he make us to do it by ourself with his help. That is the inner meaning why he didn't take part in the battle. Hope you understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="259" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T09:32:32.017" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T09:32:32.017" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="694" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="696" CreationDate="2014-07-02T09:35:48.460" Score="6" ViewCount="13218" Body="&lt;p&gt;How many white horses were there in the chariot of Arjuna in Mahabharata ? 4 or 5 ? Some pictures showing 5 and some others showing 4 ? What is the exact number? It will be great if you add some pictures/quotes ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T12:18:50.640" LastActivityDate="2016-05-15T08:36:02.507" Title="How many white horses were there in the chariot of Arjuna in mahabharatha war?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="696" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="694" CreationDate="2014-07-02T09:49:27.097" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I commented, Arjuna's chariot had four white horses... Their respective names were&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saibya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sugriva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Meghapuspa &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Balahaka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dharmakshetra.com/literature/horses.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nambD.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Arjuna&amp;#39;s Chariot&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Image Credits : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dharmakshetra.com/literature/horses.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;dharmakshetra.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you commented, am not sure about why some of the paintings show five horses so I searched for it and I found a nice thought &lt;a href=&quot;http://qna.rediff.com/questions-and-answers/how-many-horses-were-there-for-arjuna-s-chariot-th/7785448/answers/7788104&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;written by Vijay Shanker&lt;/a&gt; who says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May be with the&#xA;  purpose of conveying a symbolic message that our body being a&#xA;  Kurushetra battlefield where an ongoing fight between &quot;Dharam&quot; and&#xA;  Adharam&quot; keeps on going can only be won if we keep a proper control&#xA;  over our Five Panchendriyas - eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, which&#xA;  keeps us distracted from our right path. Krishna might be representing&#xA;  our &quot;Vivek &quot; or &quot;consciousness&quot; of our body controlling our Five&#xA;  panchendriyas represented by five horses to lead us to win over the&#xA;  wrongdoings and win the final battle&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T10:03:30.073" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T10:03:30.073" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="697" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3760" CreationDate="2014-07-02T09:51:17.807" Score="52" ViewCount="236169" Body="&lt;p&gt;Semitic religions such as Islam and Christianity consider masturbation to be a sin. What about Hinduism? Please give some authentic quotes for the answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T21:42:35.323" LastActivityDate="2023-01-05T17:54:27.057" Title="What does Hinduism say about masturbation?" Tags="|belief|sex|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="699" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-02T10:13:30.857" Score="11" ViewCount="2070" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading an article I got this line,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The references to Murugan can be traced back to the first millennium&#xA;  BCE.    There are references to Murugan in Kautilya's Arthashastra, in&#xA;  the works of Patanjali, in Kalidasa's epic poem the Kumarasambhavam.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Kushanas, who governed from what is today Peshawar, and the&#xA;  Yaudheyas, a republican clan in the Punjab, struck coins bearing the&#xA;  image of Skanda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could any one please explain or suggest some reading to know how Lord muruga has evolved as Tamil god in Tamilnadu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If due to muslim invasion Kanda worship was abolished in North India, how worship of Ganesha and Siva still exists and why none of other gods has any relation to language Tamil?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&#xA;I dont think its a duplicate. My question is how Lord muruga evloved as tamil god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="261" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2019-06-02T05:58:24.620" LastActivityDate="2019-06-04T22:09:04.090" Title="How Skanda in North India to Kandha (Lord muruga) in South India?" Tags="|gods|worship|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="700" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-02T10:13:33.213" Score="13" ViewCount="1012" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard about &lt;em&gt;Pitra Dosh&lt;/em&gt;. There is a disbelief regarding the actual meaning of &lt;em&gt;Pitra Dosh&lt;/em&gt; that it arises as our forefathers are not happy with us and they have feelings of hatred for us. But that is not the actual reason behind &lt;em&gt;Pitra Dosh&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone explain me about the &lt;em&gt;Pitra Dosh&lt;/em&gt; and also why that affects us? and how one can get rid of &lt;em&gt;Pitra Dosh&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2019-06-02T05:56:57.347" LastActivityDate="2024-02-15T09:53:26.257" Title="What is Pitra Dosh?" Tags="|belief|pitru|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="702" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="667" CreationDate="2014-07-02T10:21:02.537" Score="8" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;samudravasane devi&#xA;  parvatasthana mandale&#xA;  vishnupatni namastubhym&#xA;  padasparsam kshamasva me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Goddess, who dwells in the Oceans,&#xA;who's life-giving breasts are the mountains.&#xA;Salutations to the wife of Lord Vishnu,&#xA;Forgive me for the sin of touching you with my feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-&lt;a href=&quot;http://rare-news-collection.blogspot.in/2009/03/bhoomi-vandanam.html&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bhoomi vandanam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among traditional South Indian Brahmins, it is customary to recite this verse before rising from bed. You touch the earth and seek forgiveness from Bhu Devi for stepping on her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastEditorUserId="226" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T10:30:12.820" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T10:30:12.820" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="705" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="712" CreationDate="2014-07-02T10:47:01.680" Score="14" ViewCount="20347" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've seen at many of the devotees bathe in river Ganges at sacred places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is often seen when people are celebrating &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kumbh Mela&lt;/a&gt; as well, so why do they bathe in river Ganges &lt;em&gt;(Ganga)&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BqJqZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Kumbh Mela&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Image Credits : &lt;a href=&quot;http://dandapani.org/blog/tag/kumbh-mela/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;dandapani.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T10:53:12.387" LastActivityDate="2019-03-10T07:33:43.423" Title="Why do Hindus bathe in river Ganges (Ganga)?" Tags="|culture|ganga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="706" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="720" CreationDate="2014-07-02T10:56:36.387" Score="17" ViewCount="5859" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many religions have a history of disallowing women (&lt;em&gt;or men, in some cases&lt;/em&gt;) from being religious leaders. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What level of leadership are women allowed to hold in Hinduism?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there anything significant about the history of women in Hinduism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-24T08:27:50.420" LastActivityDate="2018-03-26T19:42:04.937" Title="Are women allowed to be Hindu sanyasis/monks?" Tags="|history|women|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="707" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="705" CreationDate="2014-07-02T11:03:02.060" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is considered that as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/285/&quot;&gt;the river Ganges is sacred&lt;/a&gt;, bathing in it helps us get rid of the sins we have committed in our previous life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some apparent limitations to this. Only sins committed unknowingly shall be ripped off. If you have knowingly committed a sin, and now you &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; repent for it, then also, the fruits of your sin can be avoided by bathing in Ganges.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other rivers are also considered fruitful, but Ganges is at the top of the list for obvious reasons...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As of the mechanism involved, when we wash our body in Ganges, &lt;em&gt;Ma Ganga&lt;/em&gt; takes away the associated sins and the corresponding fruits. We then become free from any upcoming trouble.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, don't think that you can just commit any sin knowingly, then go have a dive, and you are now free! This &lt;strong&gt;won't&lt;/strong&gt; happen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T12:15:16.833" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="708" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="711" CreationDate="2014-07-02T11:03:04.160" Score="18" ViewCount="3441" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is often seen that people who worship gods at temple rung bells when they enter the temple. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These bells are hung generally near the idols or at the entrance of the temples. They are also rung while the devotees are performing &lt;em&gt;Aarti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even at homes, people have small bells which they ring before they sit for puja &lt;em&gt;(Act of worship)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So whats the reason behind ringing those bells?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastActivityDate="2015-08-17T10:39:05.167" Title="Why do Hindu temples have Bells?" Tags="|belief|temple|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="709" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="708" CreationDate="2014-07-02T11:09:07.090" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;For the same reason we chant hymns, sing &lt;em&gt;Aartis&lt;/em&gt; etc. &lt;strong&gt;They are associated with music.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Bsca6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;a typical bell&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, music is considered a way of worship... In-fact, so much so, it is &lt;em&gt;associated completely&lt;/em&gt; with worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A bell is just another &lt;em&gt;musical instrument&lt;/em&gt;. It is used for worship because of this reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also creates sounds which create a mythical environment. It can be experienced with day to day life. Go to a temple, hammer a bell, and you will feel more close to the temple, and in a more soothing, sacred world! They create positive vibrations as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T12:12:25.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="710" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="574" CreationDate="2014-07-02T11:18:19.663" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am posting here the Ganguli translation of Mahabharata Adi Parva, Section CXXXIV that deals with the Ekalavya episode which gives the answer to this question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana continued, “ … And one day, O grinder of foes, the Kuru&#xA;  and the Pandava princes, with Drona’s leave, set out in their cars on&#xA;  a hunting excursion. A servant, O king, followed the party at leisure,&#xA;  with the usual implements and a dog. Having come to the woods, they&#xA;  wandered about, intent on the purpose they had in view. Meanwhile, the&#xA;  dog also, in wandering alone in the woods, came upon the Nishada&#xA;  prince (Ekalavya).  And beholding the Nishada of dark hue, of body&#xA;  smeared with filth, dressed in black and bearing matted locks on head,&#xA;  the dog began to bark aloud.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Thereupon the Nishada prince, desirous of exhibiting his lightness of&#xA;  hand, sent seven arrows into its mouth (before it could shut it). The&#xA;  dog, thus pierced with seven arrows, came back to the Pandavas. Those&#xA;  heroes, who beheld that sight, were filled with wonder, and ashamed of&#xA;  their own skill, began to praise the lightness of hand and precision&#xA;  of aim by auricular precision (exhibited by the unknown archer). And&#xA;  they thereupon began to seek in those woods for the unknown dweller&#xA;  therein that had shown such skill. And, O king, the Pandavas soon&#xA;  found out the object of their search ceaselessly discharging arrows&#xA;  from the bow. And beholding that man of grim visage, who was totally a&#xA;  stranger to them they asked, ‘Who art thou and whose son?’ Thus&#xA;  questioned, the man replied, ‘Ye heroes, I am the son of&#xA;  Hiranyadhanus, king of the Nishadas. Know me also for a pupil of&#xA;  Drona, labouring for the mastery of the art of arms.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana continued, “The Pandavas then having made themselves&#xA;  acquainted with everything concerned with him, returned (to the city),&#xA;  and going unto Drona, told him of that wonderful feat of archery which&#xA;  they had witnessed in the woods. &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna, in particular&lt;/strong&gt;, thinking all&#xA;  the while, O king, Ekalavya, saw Drona in private and relying upon his&#xA;  preceptor’s affection for him, &lt;strong&gt;said&lt;/strong&gt;, ‘Thou hadst lovingly told me,&#xA;  clasping me, to thy bosom, &lt;strong&gt;that no pupil of thine would be equal to&#xA;  me. Why then is there a pupil of thine, the mighty son of the Nishada&#xA;  king, superior to me?&lt;/strong&gt;’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaisamapyana continued, “On hearing these words, Drona reflected for a&#xA;  moment, and resolving upon the course of action he would follow, took&#xA;  Arjuna with him and went unto the Nishada prince. And he beheld&#xA;  Ekalavya with body besmeared with filth, matted locks (on head), clad&#xA;  in rags, bearing a bow in hand and ceaselessly shooting arrows&#xA;  therefrom. And when Ekalavya saw Drona approaching towards him, he&#xA;  went a few steps forward, and touching his feet and prostrated himself&#xA;  on the ground. And the son of the Nishada king worshipping Drona, duly&#xA;  represented himself as his pupil, and clasping his hands in reverence&#xA;  stood before him (awaiting his commands).  Then Drona, O king,&#xA;  addressed Ekalavya, saying, ‘If, O hero, thou art really my pupil,&#xA;  give me then my fees.’ On hearing these words, Ekalavya was very much&#xA;  gratified, and said in reply, ‘O illustrious preceptor, what shall I&#xA;  give? Command me; for there is nothing, O foremost of all persons&#xA;  conversant with the Vedas, that I may not give unto my preceptor.’&#xA;  Drona answered, ‘O Ekalavya, if thou art really intent on making a&#xA;  gift, I should like then to have the thumb of thy right hand.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana continued, ”Hearing these cruel words of Drona, who had&#xA;  asked him of his thumb as tution-fee, Ekalavya, ever devoted to truth&#xA;  and desirous also of keeping his promise, with a cheerful face and an&#xA;  unafflicted heart cut off without ado his thumb, and gave it unto&#xA;  Drona. After this, when the Nishada prince began once more to shoot&#xA;  with the help of his remaining fingers, he found, O king, that he had&#xA;  lost his former lightness of hand. &lt;strong&gt;And at this Arjuna became happy,&#xA;  the fever (of jealousy) having left him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was Arjuna's jealousy and his pressure on Drona to keep his promise that led to the tragic incident. There is no caste angle here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-15T01:31:51.007" LastActivityDate="2017-03-15T01:31:51.007" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="711" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="708" CreationDate="2014-07-02T11:23:45.077" Score="13" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is believed that deities remain manifest in mandirs in which bells&#xA;  (ghanta) are rung. In Hindu mandirs, bells are usually hung in the&#xA;  area or porch preceding the inner sanctum. Devotees ring them as an&#xA;  invocation to the deity to listen to their prãrthnã and be blessed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is an art and science of making bells to produce the requisite&#xA;  sounds. There are bells specially made to produce the long strains of&#xA;  the sound OM. The handle of a ghantadi signifies prãna – the vital&#xA;  force in the form of Hanumanji, Garud, Nandi or Chakra. During Garud&#xA;  sthãpanvidhi, the handle is offered pujan. A bell without a handle in&#xA;  one of these forms is forbidden in rituals, since it may augur&#xA;  misfortune. The body of the bell is said to represent the divinity of&#xA;  time (Ãgama-Kosha 1992 VI:99).  (Source:&lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.baps.org/thingstoknow/hinduism/56.htm&quot;&gt;kids.baps.org&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduterminal.org/2013/05/why-do-we-ring-bell-in-temple.html&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a deep scientific analysis of the temple bells.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bells are also used to inform people to gather for aarti too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T11:23:45.077" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="712" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="705" CreationDate="2014-07-02T11:28:28.447" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;King Bhagirath did Tapas to bring the Holy Ganga to earth in order to wash the ashes of his forefathers and free them from sin. Bhagirath's wish was granted and Ganga was released from the Heavens to earth. But the great speed with which Ganga descended to earth was capable of destroying everything on its way. So, Lord Shiva, to save the world, caught Ganga on his long hair and released it with reduced speed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to this, the already holy Ganga was considered sacred since she descended directly from Lord Shiva's head. In olden times, people normally used to bath only in ponds, lakes and rivers (may be bathrooms were not prevalent during those days). Here, we must note that the very reason of bringing Ganga to the earth was to wash off the sins of the forefathers of Bhagirath. So, the people who normally bathed in lakes and rivers showed a great interest in bathing in the Holy river Ganga, with the idea that it will wash away their sins too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, taking bath in Ganga alone is not capable nullifying one's sin. This can be understood from the following argument between Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati were traveling on earth. Goddess&#xA;  Parvati saw thousands of people heading towards River Ganga to take&#xA;  holy bath as it was an auspicious day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Goddess Parvati wondered whether all these people will attain Moksha&#xA;  or liberation by bathing in River Ganga. So she asked Lord Shiva – do&#xA;  you think all these people heading towards Ganga will attain Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva laughed and said that only a dozen or so among them will&#xA;  get Moksha. Only that person who has come with devotion and pious mind&#xA;  will get Moksha. Only those persons who will not commit any sin after&#xA;  the holy bath will get Moksha. Most of these people that are waiting&#xA;  to take a holy dip have come to perform it as a ritual and get over&#xA;  with a responsibility. Some are here to show off that they are&#xA;  religious minded. Many of them are here to satisfy their ego of&#xA;  bathing in Ganga. Shiva said that one who is really yearning for&#xA;  Moksha will attain it here on this earth itself and for such people&#xA;  taking a dip and not taking one is of same value.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But Goddess Parvati argued that all the people here have come from far&#xA;  of places and they are spiritual, good and religious minded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva agreed to prove that He was right. Shiva disguised as a leper&#xA;  and Goddess Parvati disguised as his beautiful wife and went to the&#xA;  banks of Ganga. Goddess Parvati as wife started asking people to help&#xA;  her husband perform the Ganga Snan so that he will be cured of&#xA;  leprosy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Majority of the people ignored her and went to take the holy dip. Some&#xA;  said some sentimental words and showed sympathy but did not help the&#xA;  leper perform the holy bath. Some advised the beautiful wife to leave&#xA;  the leper there and go home and get re-married. Some passed vulgar&#xA;  comments. Some asked her to get married to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After several hours and thousands of people passing by, a man came and&#xA;  helped the leper perform the holy bath. He remained silent and just&#xA;  said namaste to the wife and leper and went away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva then said to Goddess Parvati that the man who helped the&#xA;  leper has already attained Moksha. He has already realized that all&#xA;  that is here is nothing but the Supreme Being. He is silent, calm and&#xA;  serene. For him a leper and handsome man is the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Argument between Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati cited from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindu-blog.com/2009/12/story-taking-ganga-snan-or-holy-bath-in.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hindu-blog.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-02-12T13:35:47.270" LastActivityDate="2018-02-12T13:35:47.270" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="713" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="706" CreationDate="2014-07-02T12:01:57.977" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, women can be monks in Hinduism. The Ramakrishna Sarada math is run entirely by women monks. Mata Amritanandamayi is a famous monk known the world over as the hugging monk. She heads her own organization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are examples of women Sannyasis who have attained Moksha in Mahabharata. I will give here 2 such examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pingala said, ‘…What women is there that regards that Supreme Soul as&#xA;  her dear Lord, even when he comes near? I am now awake. I have been&#xA;  roused from the sleep of ignorance. I am no longer influenced by&#xA;  desire. Human lovers, who are really the embodied forms of hell, shall&#xA;  no longer deceive me by approaching me lustfully. Evil produces good&#xA;  through the destiny or the acts of a former life. Roused (from the&#xA;  sleep of ignorance), I have cast off all desires for worldly objects.&#xA;  I have acquired a complete mastery over my senses. One freed from&#xA;  desire and hope sleeps in felicity. Freedom from every hope and desire&#xA;  is felicity. Having driven off desire and hope, Pingala sleeps in&#xA;  felicity. [Ref: Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CLXXV]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) In the same Satya Yuga, a woman of the name Sulabha, belonging to the mendicant order, practised the duties of Yoga and wondered over the whole Earth. In course of her wanderings over the Earth, Sulabha heard from many Dandis of different places that the ruler of Mithila was devoted to the religion of emancipation. ....Sulabha became desirous of a personal interview with Janaka.  [ The story is very long. So I will shorten it by saying that Sulabha went to Janaka and entered his mind through her Yoga Power to check if Raja Janaka was truly emancipated. Janaka protested saying that as a mendicant and a woman she should not have entered his body to check whether he has really attained Emancipation.  Sulabha gave Raja Janaka a good dressing down. I will quote only a few lines of her retort.] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sulabha said, 'The contact of one that is emancipated with another&#xA;  that has been so, or Purusha with Prakriti, can not lead to&#xA;  intermingling of the kind thou dreadest.  Only those that regard the&#xA;  soul to be identical with the body, and that think the several orders&#xA;  and modes of life to be really different from one another, are open to&#xA;  the error of supposing an intermingling to be possible. My body is&#xA;  different from thine. But my soul is not different from thine. When I&#xA;  am able to realise this, I have not the slightest doubt that my&#xA;  understanding is really not staying in thine though I have entered&#xA;  into thee by Yoga.' [Ref: Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCCXXI]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2014-11-24T15:07:22.163" LastActivityDate="2014-11-24T15:07:22.163" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="714" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-02T12:46:17.887" Score="6" ViewCount="2194" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know Ahimsa is the core concept of Hinduism. It is not just non-violence or not resorting to arms, but it is also the feeling that tries to reduce harm to all living creatures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes, force or violence may in fact be necessary to prevent harm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is it possible inline with the concept of Ahimsa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T18:56:02.327" LastActivityDate="2015-02-10T22:50:13.623" Title="How does the practice of self-defense fit into the concept of Ahimsa?" Tags="|belief|ahimsa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="715" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3" CreationDate="2014-07-02T13:22:02.057" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the philosophical (Vedanta) side, Hinduism has two divisions: &lt;strong&gt;Dvaitha&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Advaitha&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Dvaita&lt;/strong&gt; philosophy was founded by Shri Madhavacharya. It says that &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; (individual souls) are different from the &lt;em&gt;paramatma&lt;/em&gt; (the Supreme Soul). The &lt;strong&gt;Advaitha&lt;/strong&gt; philosophy is thought to be proposed by Shri Gaudapadacharya. Advaitha literally means '&lt;em&gt;not-two&lt;/em&gt;' in Sanskrit. It argues that &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; is a part of &lt;em&gt;paramatma&lt;/em&gt; itself. Sri Aadi Shankara, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda were some of the notable persons who advocated &lt;em&gt;Advaitha Vedanta&lt;/em&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also many branch philosophies like &lt;em&gt;Dvaitadvaitha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Vishishtadvaitha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Shuddhadvaita&lt;/em&gt;, etc. which have evolved from either of the two main philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on worship, there are six divisions: &lt;em&gt;Saivism&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Vaishnavism&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Shaktism&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Ganapatyam&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Kaumaram&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Sauram&lt;/em&gt;. Out of these, &lt;strong&gt;Saivism&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Vaishnavism&lt;/strong&gt; are the two important divisions. The Saivites worship &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; and the Vaishnavites worship &lt;em&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; (or one of his avatars). There are many sub-sects within Saivism and Vaishnavism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sub-sects of Saivism includes &lt;em&gt;Pashupata Saivism&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Saiva Siddhanta&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Kashmir Saivism&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Siddha Siddhanta&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Lingayatism&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Kalamukham&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Kapalikam&lt;/em&gt;. Though there are some differences between these sub-sects, all of them centre around Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sub-sects of Vaishnavism includes &lt;em&gt;Kumara-sampradaya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Brahma-sampradaya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Rudra-sampradaya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Sri-sampradaya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Ayyavazhi&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Swaminarayan&lt;/em&gt; sect. All these sub-sects centre around Lord Vishnu (or his avatars like Krishna). The Kumara-sampradaya, founded by Nimbarka, is based on &lt;em&gt;Dvaitadvaitha&lt;/em&gt; philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shaktism&lt;/em&gt; is based on the worship of Shakti and is still famous among the Hindu women of India. &lt;em&gt;Ganapatyam&lt;/em&gt; is based on the worship of Lord Ganesha. &lt;em&gt;Kaumaram&lt;/em&gt; is based on the worship of Karthikeya (Muruga). It is popular in South India, especially in Tamilnadu. Lord Muruga himself is considered to be a Tamil God. &lt;em&gt;Sauram&lt;/em&gt; is based on the worship of Surya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also an atheistic school of thought called &lt;em&gt;Caravaka&lt;/em&gt;. It is also called &lt;em&gt;Lokayata&lt;/em&gt; and is mainly associated with materialistic philosophies. Another materialistic philosophy is &lt;em&gt;Samkhya&lt;/em&gt;, which advocates Dualism. Sage Kapila is regarded as the founder of Samkhya school of thought. &lt;em&gt;Purva Mīmāṃsā&lt;/em&gt; philosophy contains both &lt;em&gt;theistic&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;atheistic&lt;/em&gt; doctrines. It is more concerned about &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; rather than God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T17:23:49.860" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T17:23:49.860" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="716" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="714" CreationDate="2014-07-02T13:44:21.477" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ahimsa as we know it today was a notion popularized by M.K.Gandhi. While the core of what he said was as per Hindu philosophy, he missed an essential part that ahimsa also meant prevention/minimization of himsa and not just non-himsa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma is contextual. One needs to understand the situation and do the action which minimizes himsa. This was the doubt Arjuna had in the Kurukshetra war - that if waging a war which would result in so many deaths was correct. The essence of Krishna's reply is that by causing harm to the Adharmic people, he'd prevent larger harm which would happen if the Adharmic Kauvravas won. This is in fact what is called &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya Dharma&lt;/em&gt;. For example, killing Bin Laden was himsa but it prevented much more himsa which would have happened if he was alive. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himsa in self-defence would fall under the category of himsa to prevent a larger himsa. Dr.David Frawley uses the terms Absolute and relative non-violence to describe this in the book &lt;em&gt;&quot;The Importance Of Kshatriya Dharma&quot;&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Absolute and Relative Non-violence&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We must discriminate between&#xA;  absolute non-violence and relative non-violence. Absolute non-violence&#xA;  means not even raising a hand even to defend oneself from unjust&#xA;  attack. Relative non-violence means only using violence to defend&#xA;  oneself and one's community. &lt;strong&gt;Relative non-violence is appropriate for&#xA;  communities and for those who have not renounced the world&lt;/strong&gt;, and above&#xA;  all for the Kshatriya or noble class of people who cannot idly stand&#xA;  by in the face of oppression. (Emphasis mine)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Absolute non-violence - that is, not resorting to force even to defend&#xA;  one's life and property - is a Dharma in Hinduism for Sannyasins or&#xA;  those who have renounced the world, and therefore have nothing to&#xA;  defend. Yet even Swamis can use force to protect their country should&#xA;  they choose when their country is attacked. We note that in the course&#xA;  of Indian history that monks and Brahmins at times found it necessary&#xA;  to resort to violence to defend their religion and their country&#xA;  against invaders.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindubooks.org/david_frawley/awaken_bharata/the_importance_of_kshatriya_dharma/page6.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[1]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2015-02-10T22:50:13.623" LastActivityDate="2015-02-10T22:50:13.623" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="717" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-02T14:26:06.710" Score="8" ViewCount="28723" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that if our nearest relatives have passed away, we can't enter temple for 16 days and also if there were any children born, family members and close relative's don't visit temples for 11 days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have three questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the reason(s) behind this belief?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the other occasions like this, except death and childbirth?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is the number of days(banned days in temples) equal for all casts?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T19:23:00.183" LastActivityDate="2017-11-30T03:57:17.347" Title="Why don't Hindus enter temples after certain occasions?" Tags="|belief|rituals|culture|customs|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="718" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="687" CreationDate="2014-07-02T14:51:54.947" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not that Krishna didn't take an active part, He just didn't use weapons as He had promised. &lt;strong&gt;The Yadavas (the clan to which Krishna belonged to) had good relations with both Pandavas and Kauravas&lt;/strong&gt;. So when both Duryodhan and Arjuna approached Krishna for gaining the support of the Yadavas, Krishna had to support both of them in some way. So He diplomatically put the following choice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;te vā yudhi durādharṣā bhavantv ekasya sainikāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ayudhyamānaḥ saṃgrāme &lt;strong&gt;nyastaśastro 'ham ekataḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; [MB - 5.7.17]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  These invincible soldiers endowed with weapon will become one of yours in the battle and I alone, resolved not to fight will will go on the other side without any weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna happily choose Krishna and Duryodhana was also happy to get the army. So as &lt;strong&gt;Krishna had earlier given His word to not use weapons in the battle&lt;/strong&gt;, He didn't fight the battle with His weapon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T15:33:01.160" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T15:33:01.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="719" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="717" CreationDate="2014-07-02T15:59:52.057" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;These are known as &lt;em&gt;asucha&lt;/em&gt; related to birth (&lt;em&gt;sutika&lt;/em&gt;) and death (&lt;em&gt;mrutika&lt;/em&gt;). There are many rules and regulations regarding these. I briefly give answers to only what you have asked:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The reason behind this belief is that, birth and death create impurity for blood related kinsmen. Temples being residing place of gods, who like purity, entering temples are prohibited in such occasions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, death and birth are only such occasions where this impurity (&lt;em&gt;asaucha&lt;/em&gt;) happens.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;No, the number of days a person will remain impure varies according to the caste. As per the scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Brahmana shall be pure after ten days, a Kshatriya after twelve, a Vaisya after fifteen, and a Sudra is purified after a month. [Manu - 5.83 / Agni Pu. 157.2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more rules for calculating the days of impurity, but the above one is the standard.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-05T03:57:37.393" LastActivityDate="2014-07-05T03:57:37.393" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="720" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="706" CreationDate="2014-07-02T16:36:10.390" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes woman are allowed to become monks/sanyasinis/rishikas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is probably the only living religion which considers God to be feminine. And in ancient times many vedic rishis were women. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The notable female rishikas who contributed to the composition of the&#xA;  Vedic scriptures are: The Rig Veda mentions Romasha, Lopamudra, Apala,&#xA;  Kadru, Visvavara, Ghosha, Juhu, Vagambhrini, Paulomi, Yami, Indrani,&#xA;  Savitri, and Devayani. The Sama Veda adds Nodha, Akrishtabhasha,&#xA;  Sikatanivavari and Gaupayana.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andal&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another famous female monk was &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andal&quot;&gt;Andal&lt;/a&gt; who is revered by Tamil Vaishnavites. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In today's time, as mentioned by @Pradip Gangopadhyay, Ramakrishna Sarada math and Mata Amritanandamayi are examples. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi&quot;&gt;Wikipedia - Rishi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T16:36:10.390" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="721" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-02T17:31:03.403" Score="13" ViewCount="56535" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why there's a crescent moon over lord Shiva's head?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FsRsL.png&quot; alt=&quot;Lord Shiva&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Image Credits : &lt;a href=&quot;http://hdwallpaperes.com/lord-shiva/har-har-mahadev-bholenath-shiv-sankar-hd-pics/&quot;&gt;hdwallpapers.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-07-02T18:58:54.160" LastActivityDate="2021-10-12T19:32:14.463" Title="Why lord Shiva has a crescent moon on his head?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="722" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="721" CreationDate="2014-07-02T17:50:05.687" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The waxing and waning of moon was used to calculate the days and months in earlier times. Thus, the moon symbolizes time and Lord Shiva wearing moon on his head denotes that Shiva has complete control over time and is beyond the measure of time and is eternal. There is also an interesting incident behind the waxing and waning of moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandra was once cursed by Ganesha to lose his light gradually. And the curse was reduced, upon Chandra's prayer, and he was made to wax and wane, each phase lasting for 14 days (Refer this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/479/81&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-07-02T17:50:05.687" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="724" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="725" CreationDate="2014-07-03T04:43:59.867" Score="6" ViewCount="3450" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen in many temples of Lord Shiva where people do &lt;em&gt;pradakshinas&lt;/em&gt; and then while entering/leaving the Sanctrum, they see Shiva-Linga from in between the ears of the Nandi statue which is exactly in straight and opposite to the Shiva-Linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story behind this and why Nandi statue is kept facing the Shiva-Linga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: looks like two questions but they have same story behind it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-07-07T14:23:22.590" LastActivityDate="2022-07-07T14:23:22.590" Title="What is the significance of viewing Shiva-Linga from in between the ears of Nandi?" Tags="|shiva|belief|worship|shiva-lingam|nandi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="725" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="724" CreationDate="2014-07-03T05:02:00.643" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;During &lt;em&gt;Samudra mantha&lt;/em&gt;(Sea churning), Lord Shiva drunk all the poison which came out of Manthan. This made His throat blue in color.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From this &lt;a href=&quot;http://fullnfenil7.blogspot.in/2012/11/why-is-nandi-placed-in-shiv-temple.html#.U7ThA_mSzVo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The poison in the throat is always a burning sensation for lord Shiva. Lord Shiva loves to spend time in meditation (Dhyanam). But this burning throat is not allowing him to do his meditation. Then &lt;strong&gt;He ordered Nandi to sit in front of him and blow some air on to his throat&lt;/strong&gt;. The air blown on to his throat relieves him from the burning sensation. From then Onwards, Lord Shiva does his mediation with the help of Nandi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, the Nandi statue is place facing opposite to Shiv Ling. The same source also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whenever we visit lord Shiva temple &lt;strong&gt;we should not go in between Nandi and Shiv ling&lt;/strong&gt; (we should not break the path between Shiva and Nandi).If we do so, it is believed that we are disturbing lord Shiva's meditation. If we have a wish to share with lord Shiva, we should tell the wish in the ears of Nandi. Nandi later share the wishes of visitors with Shiva after the meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also believed that present of Nandi in Temples shows the Bond between Lord Shiva and Nandi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-07-03T08:37:39.147" LastActivityDate="2014-07-03T08:37:39.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="727" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="700" CreationDate="2014-07-03T05:47:31.133" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pitra dosh&lt;/em&gt; is a term related to astrology. A specific conjunction in the natal chart is termed as &lt;em&gt;pitra dosh&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Generally if the ninth  house (the house of fathers) of the natal&#xA;  chart contains the malefics sun and &lt;em&gt;rahu&lt;/em&gt;, then it creates &lt;em&gt;pitra dosh&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is said that this conjunction arises in the chart if the &lt;em&gt;pitaras&lt;/em&gt; (deceased forefathers) are unhappy with the person. He might have neglected doing &lt;em&gt;shardaha&lt;/em&gt; for them and may have disrespected them for which his ancestors got unhappy. Just like us pitaras require satification through food and respect. This is done through the &lt;em&gt;shradha&lt;/em&gt; ceremony. So it is said that when a person had neglected such duties, in his chart &lt;em&gt;pitra dosh&lt;/em&gt; arises.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pitra dosh&lt;/em&gt; in the birth chart creates unhappiness in life, causes failure in personal endeavors like job, business, etc. To get rid of &lt;em&gt;pitra dosh&lt;/em&gt; astrologers suggest performance of different kinds of &lt;em&gt;pujas, shradhas, tarpanas&lt;/em&gt; etc. If you are really interested to know, you should better consult a good astrologer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Disclaimer: I have provided the answer only as per my awareness about astrology, I am not an expert.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-03T05:47:31.133" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="728" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="729" CreationDate="2014-07-03T05:52:10.773" Score="10" ViewCount="19885" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen in many temples there are Nandi and tortoise facing the Shiva linga. what is the story of being tortoise facing the Shiva linga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1SIEP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-05-17T05:20:25.257" LastActivityDate="2017-05-17T05:20:25.257" Title="What is the story of tortoise which is just in front of Nandi in Lord Shiva Temple?" Tags="|shiva|temple|shiva-lingam|nandi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="729" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="728" CreationDate="2014-07-03T06:00:02.850" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;A tortoise in front of lord Shiva's idol symbolically signifies two reasons :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As we know that when you try to touch or harm a tortoise, it will take his legs and head inside his shell, hence this signifies that even humans should withdraw all his senses from our material world, which in Hindi we say &lt;em&gt;Moh-Maya nahi rakhni chahiye&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Its the way that tortoise hatches its eggs, they don't sit over their eggs to hatch, instead they constantly look at them, and hence it is kept facing lord shiva which signifies that one should concentrate while praying the god.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from that, turtle also has a remote relation with lord Shiva &lt;em&gt;(Not relation to turtles in front of lord Shiva idol)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As we know, lord Shiva is always portrayed in a Yoga pose, so in yoga, we do have &lt;em&gt;Kurmasana&lt;/em&gt; (Tortoise Pose) &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TGhqR.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Kurmasana&quot;&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image Credits : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/2795&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yoga Journal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Turtle is said to be as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_turtles#India&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;one avatar of lord Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurma&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to me, there are any script reference over this, its we people who believe keeping a tortoise in front of lord Shiva's idol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-03T06:21:26.253" LastActivityDate="2014-07-03T06:21:26.253" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="730" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="733" CreationDate="2014-07-03T06:03:48.957" Score="7" ViewCount="4930" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Dhruva Tara&lt;/em&gt; (North Star) is believed to be a holy star in Hinduism. What is the story behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-07-03T06:14:45.247" LastActivityDate="2017-06-19T10:10:11.010" Title="What is the story of Dhruva Tara (North Star)?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="731" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="678" CreationDate="2014-07-03T06:56:07.247" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu Religion, the word Bhagwan has symbolic meaning too. The word encompasses Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space – the five elements. Thus the term Bhagavan translates as the manifestation of the physical form of universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the word भगवान (Bhagavan) –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘भ’ stands for Bhoomi or Earth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'ग' stands for Gagan or Space&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘व’ stands for Vayu or Air&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘आ’ stands for Agni or Fire&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘न’ stands for Neer or Water&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user115" LastActivityDate="2014-07-03T06:56:07.247" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="732" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="794" CreationDate="2014-07-03T08:02:23.233" Score="7" ViewCount="1087" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard about these two words and want to know, are they the same or is there any difference or relation between them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="278" LastEditorUserId="278" LastEditDate="2014-07-03T10:56:01.093" LastActivityDate="2015-02-12T04:40:31.563" Title="Are Sanatan Dharm and Hindu Dharm synonymous terms? If not, what is the difference between the two?" Tags="|dharma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="733" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="730" CreationDate="2014-07-03T08:11:28.793" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fairytales/indian_mythology_stories/brave_dhruva.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kidsgen.com&lt;/a&gt;:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;King Uttanpada had two wives. His first wife, Sunity, was the daughter&#xA;  of a tribal chief. His second wife, Suruchi, was the daughter of a&#xA;  rich king. Sunity had a son named Dhruva and Suruchi's son was named&#xA;  Uttam. Dhruva was the elder of the two, so it was his right to become&#xA;  the next king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But Suruchi was very selfish; she hated her stepson Dhruva and wanted&#xA;  her son Uttam to be the ruler. Uttanpada loved Suruchi more than&#xA;  Sunity because she was beautiful. Under her influence, he ordered&#xA;  Sunity and Dhruva to leave the palace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mother and son started living in a small hut near the forest. Sunity&#xA;  told Dhruva stories about God and Dhruva always thought about God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One day, Dhruva went to the palace and saw Uttam sitting on his&#xA;  father's lap. But when Dhruva tried to do the same, Suruchi stopped&#xA;  him and said, &quot;There is no place for you on your father's lap. Only my&#xA;  son can sit on his lap.&quot; Dhruva looked at his father hoping that he&#xA;  would stop Suruchi and take him on his lap. But his father did not say&#xA;  anything and ignored him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Deeply hurt, Dhruva returned to his mother. Weeping bitterly he asked&#xA;  her why he had no place on his father's lap and why they had no place&#xA;  in the palace. Brave DhruvaSunity had no answer to her son's&#xA;  questions. Dhruva said, &quot;You told me that God is good, he helps those&#xA;  who pray to him. I will go and find God, he will certainly give me my&#xA;  place.&quot; Dhruva decided to go to the forest and pray until God appeared&#xA;  before him. In the forest, he met Narada Muni, who was worried that a&#xA;  five-year-old boy like him would face many difficulties in the forest.&#xA;  He warned Dhruva that wild animals could eat him up. But Dhruva was&#xA;  determined to find Lord Vishnu. Impressed by his determination, Narada&#xA;  taught him how to survive in the forest. He also taught him the mantra&#xA;  &quot;Om Namo Bhagavathe Vasudevaya' by chanting which he could please Lord&#xA;  Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For many months, Dhruva prayed in the forest, and faced many&#xA;  difficulties. He even stopped eating. With every breath, he chanted&#xA;  the mantra in praise of God. Finally, Lord Vishnu was pleased with his&#xA;  determination and appeared before him. He not only granted Dhruva a&#xA;  place on his father's lap, but also a permanent place in the sky after&#xA;  his death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some variation of the story say that Dhruva declined the boon but Lord Vishnu asked him again and again and then he asked for the devine place equal to top of the world, that's why he got boon of become &quot;Druva Tara&quot; after death and even Saptarishi revolves around him. Similar story present &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books?id=zhIbyxoxHMgC&amp;amp;pg=PA41&amp;amp;dq=dhruva%20tara&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=fgu1U9nJFY7d8AW5hoGQCQ&amp;amp;ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=dhruva%20tara&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even as per believes his mother also got divine place in swarga and his father also accepted him and he became good king in his life and became star after death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some believes say that the story of becoming star after death is also inspired by this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-19T10:10:11.010" LastActivityDate="2017-06-19T10:10:11.010" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="734" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-03T08:39:08.557" Score="10" ViewCount="5876" Body="&lt;p&gt;I often hear about &quot;&lt;em&gt;Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam&lt;/em&gt;&quot; which means &quot;The whole world is one family&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story behind this quote? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T20:33:10.147" LastActivityDate="2017-09-17T07:20:31.567" Title="Why do Hindus follow the quote &quot;Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam&quot;?" Tags="|symbolism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="735" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="642" CreationDate="2014-07-03T08:42:11.193" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though, Kundali/Janampatri (or 'Horoscope' in English) may be prepared anytime by providing - date, month and year of birth along with time and place (longitude and latitude) Kundli is divided on 12 houses of 30 degrees each (total 360 degrees complete circle) and further divided into 27 Nakshtras. Each Nakshtras are further divided into four &lt;em&gt;charans or padas&lt;/em&gt;. Planets according to their physical alignment at the time of birth as seen from place of birth are recorded in the kundli. There are nine planets : Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn , Rahu and Ketu. (Rahu and Ketu though nodes of earth but are treated as planets for all astrological purpose). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kundli is the map of your journey of life. The position of the ascendant, signs, house(s) and planets in the Kundli determines the incidents of your life. &lt;strong&gt;The incidents of your life are determined by the Kundli which can not be changed but their auspiciousness can be maintained if you perform good deeds and help others.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kundli is prepared at the time birth to ascertain the alphabet according to the charan of the nakshatra. That alphabet &lt;em&gt;maybe&lt;/em&gt; used to keep the name of the child. Also, Kundli is seen for any immediate such as health (even death) of child. In case, of any negative planetary influence, appropriate remedies such as &lt;em&gt;pooja , havan , daan&lt;/em&gt; etc are performed/done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Through a Kundli, one can ascertain any details about the &lt;em&gt;jatak's&lt;/em&gt; (the person whose chart is being checked) life. It is possible to check for health, work and what kind of work, general life, wealth, friends, enemies, spouse(s), legal matters and many more things. Matchmaking is also done through this, the usual matching practice is matching of Gunas and checking for Manglik Dosha which are both incomplete as they check primarily 1 planet out of 9. A good astrologer will check the Kundli for all 9 planets. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The happiness and sorrowfulness in your life comes according to the work you performed in previous birth. Therefore if you perform good deeds, spiritual and charitable activities then you will face minor problems or obstacles in your life. The Kundli and Muhurta are interrelated because if you perform auspicious tasks and events in an auspicious Muhurta according to your birth-chart, you will be happy and your problems may also get reduced. Therefore, the need of the hour is to give primacy to Muhurta for performing any auspicious event.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user115" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditorDisplayName="user115" LastEditDate="2015-12-15T07:36:58.943" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T07:36:58.943" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="736" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="739" CreationDate="2014-07-03T09:59:01.607" Score="7" ViewCount="14463" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is often seen that people offer mustard oil to Lord Shani, mostly on Saturdays and Tuesdays.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what is the significance behind pouring mustard oil over Lord Shani's Idol?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bGPRY.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Lord Shani Deva&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Image credits : blog.onlineprasad.com&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-07-03T10:15:53.077" LastActivityDate="2017-03-18T12:48:25.053" Title="Why do people offer mustard oil to Lord Shani?" Tags="|temple|shani|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="737" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="749" CreationDate="2014-07-03T10:09:35.980" Score="65" ViewCount="19485" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every mantra begins with the word &lt;em&gt;ॐ&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Aum&lt;/em&gt;/&lt;em&gt;Om&lt;/em&gt;). (Ex. &lt;em&gt;Aum Namho Bhagwate Vasudevaya Namah&lt;/em&gt; etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ॐ&lt;/em&gt; itself is considered a mantra in Ayurveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Questions:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the meaning of ॐ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is it given the first place in all (or most) mantras (at least to my knowledge)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What other significance does it have, if any, in Hinduism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why &lt;em&gt;this&lt;/em&gt; specific word?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T19:41:23.673" LastActivityDate="2023-11-22T15:45:05.387" Title="What is the significance of ॐ (Om/Aum)?" Tags="|om|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="739" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="736" CreationDate="2014-07-03T10:40:43.510" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shanidev.co.in/shani-dev-and-hanuman-ji.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;strike&gt;shanidev.co.in&lt;/strike&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.templeyatri.com/why-shani-dev-like-oil/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;blog.templeyatri.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One day, Hanuman was performing some duties for Lord Ram. Shani Dev who noticed this wanted to create problems and tried to disturb Hanuman from his work. Hanuman got his angry as his duties towards his master, Lord Ram was getting  delayed. Therefore, the powerful Hanuman caught Shani Dev by the tail and kept knocking him against a big stone. He kept on continuing the tasks for Lord Ram at the same time.  Finally after his work was over, when Hanuman turned to look at Shani Dev, Shani apologised for his mistakes. Hanuman was gracious enough to accept Shani Dev’s apologies. Shani Dev then promised Hanuman, that he will never obstruct t any task performed for Lord Rama and that he will not hurt the true devotees of Lord Ram and Hanuman during their lifetimes. Hearing this, Hanuman was very happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since Hanuman was continuously knocking Shani Dev against a big stone, the latter suffered severe wounds in his body and was in immense pain. He requested Hanuman for some oil to be applied for his wounds. When he applied the oil that Hanuman gave, on his wounds, all his pain, wound and scars vanished. Shani Dev was very happy as he was relieved from all pain and troubles. This is why, even today, people who worship Shani Dev, offer oil to Him, to make Shani Dev happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the reason that some people worship Hanumanji on Saturday too, because Lord Shani promised Hanumaji to not make trouble to worshippers of Lord Raam and Lord Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also one variation of the story where Shani Dev thought of taking test of Hanuman's power and he asked him to move away from the way but Hanumanji didn't change his position. Shani Dev tried by all way to move him but he doesn't even able to move his tail. Then Hanumaji gripped him in his tail and jumped all around the jungles and mountains and making Shani Dev injured. And then Shani Dev asked for making him free and Hanumanji agreed on a promise that he will not make trouble to Rama and Hanuman devotees. And Hanumanji gave him oil for his injuries. (This version of story is heard in Temples and can be read in local books too.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-09-28T17:29:58.073" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T17:29:58.073" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="740" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="737" CreationDate="2014-07-03T11:13:09.790" Score="28" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;em&gt;aum&lt;/em&gt; consists of three sounds: &lt;strong&gt;a&lt;/strong&gt; (as 'u' in 'hut'), &lt;strong&gt;u&lt;/strong&gt; (as 'o' in 'loot') and &lt;strong&gt;m&lt;/strong&gt; (as 'm' in 'ham'). These three sounds are considered to constitute all the words spoken by people i.e., all the words consist any one or combination of these three sounds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In another sense, the word is considered to represent the &lt;em&gt;Trimurtis&lt;/em&gt;. The sound &lt;strong&gt;a&lt;/strong&gt; symbolises the creation of the universe, thereby denotes &lt;em&gt;Lord Brahma&lt;/em&gt;. The sound &lt;strong&gt;u&lt;/strong&gt; symbolises the existence of the universe, thereby denotes &lt;em&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;. The sound &lt;strong&gt;m&lt;/strong&gt; symbolises the end or the destruction of the universe, thereby denotes &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a separate Upanishad called &lt;em&gt;Maandookyopanishad&lt;/em&gt; which speaks about the greatness of &lt;em&gt;aum&lt;/em&gt; alone. It says that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;aum&lt;/em&gt; is the primeval word which stands for the entire universe&#xA;  permeated by Brahman and therefore Brahman itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why it is recited at the beginning and end of every mantra. Since it denotes the ultimate Brahman itself, it is considered to be the superior mantra. Moreover, &lt;a href=&quot;http://experiencehinduism.com/scientific-facts/chant-om-aum-significance-science&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; reports that the tonoscope image of the word &lt;em&gt;aum&lt;/em&gt; matches with the &lt;em&gt;Sri Yantra&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When we chant AUM, it produces a vibration in us which resonates with&#xA;  the universal vibration of AUM, and we are elevated from our everyday&#xA;  minds to relationship with our true Self. We chant AUM to be in tune&#xA;  with the true Self. The sound AUM, when chanted, vibrates at the&#xA;  frequency of 432 Hz, which is the same vibrational frequency found&#xA;  throughout everything in nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In addition the vibrations and rhythmic pronunciation also have a&#xA;  physical affect on the body by slowing down the nervous system and&#xA;  calming the mind similar to meditation. When the mind is relaxed, your&#xA;  blood pressure decreases and ultimately the health of your heart&#xA;  improves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;The answer is an excerpt from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.krishnamurthys.com/profvk/mantra2.html&quot;&gt;krishnamurthys&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://experiencehinduism.com/scientific-facts/chant-om-aum-significance-science&quot;&gt;experiencehinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-17T14:20:50.390" LastActivityDate="2015-02-17T14:20:50.390" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="741" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="737" CreationDate="2014-07-03T11:17:35.163" Score="25" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I was young, I used to see the OM symbol in Hindu temples. I used to wonder at its meaning. It is only later that I learnt that OM is clearly explained in Mandukya Upanishad (MU). MU is one of the ancient classical Upanishads commented upon by Acharya Shankara. It comprises of only 12 shlokas (verses). It is also one of the most fascinating for reasons that will become clear as we go through the short text. I found, however, that the significance of OM was not clear to me even after going through MU. I fully understood only after reading Vivekananda on OM. I will first of all go through the text of MU and then discuss the significance of OM as explained by Vivekananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;OM DEFINED in MU&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MU opens with a startling claim:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This letter that is OM is all this. All that is past, present, or future is verily OM. And whatever is beyond the three periods is also verily OM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mandukya Upanishad 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One question arises in the mind of a reader when faced with such a claim. How can a mere word be all this, past, present, future and even beyond these periods? Before we can have any answer to this question, let us see what else does MU say.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BRAHMAN AND SELF IN MU&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All this is surely Brahman. This Self is Brahman. The Self, such as It is, is possessed of four quarters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first quarter is Vaisvanara whose sphere of action is the waking state, whose consciousness relates to things external, who is possessed of seven limbs and nineteen mouths, and who enjoys gross things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taijasa is the second quarter, whose sphere of activity is the dream state, whose consciousness is internal, who is possessed of seven limbs and nineteen mouths, and who enjoys subtle objects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That state is deep sleep where the sleeper does not desire any enjoyable thing and does not see any dream. The third quarter is Prajna who has deep sleep as his sphere, in whom everything becomes undifferentiated, who is a mass of mere consciousness, who abounds in bliss, who is surely an enjoyer of bliss, and who is the doorway to&#xA;the experience (of the dream and waking states).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This one is the Lord of all; this one is Omniscient; this one is the inner Director of all; this one is the Source of all; this one is verily the place of origin and dissolution of all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They consider the Fourth to be that which is not conscious of the internal world, nor conscious of the external world, nor conscious of both the worlds, nor a mass of consciousness, nor conscious, nor unconscious; which is unseen, beyond empirical dealings, beyond the grasp of the organs of action, uninferable, unthinkable, indescribable; whose valid proof consists in the single belief in the Self; in which all phenomena cease; and which is unchanging, auspicious and non-dual; That is the Self, and That is to be known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mandukya Upanishad 2-7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In these 6 shlokas, MU describes the various states of the Self or Brahman. These various states are the waking, dreaming, deep sleep state and what it says is the uninferable, unthinkable, fourth state. MU uses significant terms to describe these states. For example, it calls the dream state as Taijasa which means radiant. Why does it call the Self in its dream state as Taijasa? I asked this question to a Swami of the Ramakrishna Order. He told me that the dream state of the Self shines like the Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RELATION BETWEEN OM AND SELF&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That very Self, considered from the standpoint of the syllable denoting It is OM. Considered from the standpoint of letters constituting OM, the quarters of the Self are the letters of OM, and the letters are the quarters. The letters are a, u. and m.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaisvanara, having the waking state as his sphere, is the first letter a, because of the similarity of pervasive or being the first. Who knows thus, does verily attain all desirable things, and becomes the foremost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who is Taijasa with the state of dream as his sphere of activity is the second letter u of OM; because of the similarity of excellence and intermediateness. He who knows thus increases the current of knowledge and becomes equal to all. None is born in his line who is not a knower of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prajna with his sphere of activity in the sleep state is m, the third letter of OM, because of measuring or because of absorption. Anyone who knows thus measures all this, and he becomes the place of absorption.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The partless OM is Turiya - beyond all conventional dealings, the limit of the negation of the phenomenal world, the auspicious, and the non-dual. OM is thus the Self to be sure. He who knows thus enters the Self through his self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mandukya Upanishad 8-12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MU now connects the dots and shows how the various states of the Self are described by OM. MU does not answer, however, why OM was chosen by the Rishis to describe all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vivekananda on OM&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We still do not have the answers to the question raised previously. How can a mere word be all this? I looked next at what Vivekananda has written on OM in the hope of getting an answer. Vivekananda has written the following in his free translation and commentary of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra 1.27:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commentator says the manifesting word of God is Om. Why does he&#xA;emphasize this word? There are hundreds of words for God. One thought&#xA;is connected with a thousand words; the idea &amp;quot;God&amp;quot; is connected with&#xA;hundreds of words, and each one stands as a symbol for God. Very good.&#xA;But there must be a generalization among all these words, some&#xA;substratum, some common ground of all these symbols, and that which is&#xA;the common symbol will be the best, and will really represent them&#xA;all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In making a sound we use the larynx and the palate as a sounding&#xA;board. Is there any material sound of which all other sounds must be&#xA;manifestations, one which is the natural sound? Om (Aum) is such a&#xA;sound, the basis of all sounds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first letter, A, is the root sound, the key, pronounced without&#xA;touching any part of the tongue or palate; M represents the last sound&#xA;in the series, being produced by the closed lips, and the U rolls from&#xA;the very root to the end of the sounding board of the mouth. Thus, Om&#xA;represents the whole phenomena of sound-producing. As such, it must be&#xA;the natural symbol, the matrix of all the various sounds. It denotes&#xA;the whole range and possibility of all the words that can be made.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from these speculations, we see that around this word Om are&#xA;centered all the different religious ideas in India; all the various&#xA;religious ideas of the Vedas have gathered themselves round this word&#xA;Om. What has that to do with America and England, or any other&#xA;country? Simply this, that the word has been retained at every stage&#xA;of religious growth in India, and it has been manipulated to mean all&#xA;the various ideas about God. Monists, dualists, mono-dualists,&#xA;separatists, and even atheists took up this Om. Om has become the one&#xA;symbol for the religious aspiration of the vast majority of human&#xA;beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Take, for instance, the English word God. It covers only a limited&#xA;function, and if you go beyond it, you have to add adjectives, to make&#xA;it Personal, or Impersonal, or Absolute God. So with the words for God&#xA;in every other language; their signification is very small. This word&#xA;Om, however, has around it all the various significances. As such it&#xA;should be accepted by everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 1, Patanjali Yoga Sutra, Commentary I.27&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is after reading Vivekananda that the significance of OM became clear to me. Om signifies the totality of all possible sounds. Om stands for the infinite possibility. So it was chosen by the Rishis to signify the Self and its waking states.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri Ramakrishna on OM&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This still leaves one other question. Since there were several Rishis, how did all Rishis agree to that single word? I found the answer in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna:&amp;quot;You explain 'AUM&amp;quot; with reference to 'a', 'u', and 'm'&#xA;only.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahima:&amp;quot;'A', 'U', and 'M' mean creation, preservation and&#xA;destruction&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna:&amp;quot;But I give the illustration of a gong - 'tom', t --&#xA;o--m. It is the merging of the Lila in the Nitya: the gross, the&#xA;subtle and the casual merge in the Great Cause; waking, dream and deep&#xA;sleep merge in Turiya. The striking of the gong is like the falling of&#xA;a heavy weight into a big ocean. Waves begin to rise; the Relative&#xA;rises from the Absolute; the Causal, Subtle, and gross bodies rise&#xA;from the Great Cause; from Turiya emerge the states of deep sleep,&#xA;dream and waking. From the Absolute to the Relative, and from the&#xA;Relative to the Absolute. Therefore I give the illustration of the&#xA;gong's sound 'tom'. I have clearly perceived all these things. It has&#xA;been revealed to me that there exists an Ocean of Consciousness&#xA;without limit. From it come all things of the relative plane and in It&#xA;they merge again. Millions of Brahmanda rise in that Chidakasa and&#xA;merge in It again. All this has been revealed to me.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Chapter 33, With Various Devotees)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the answer! All Rishis agreed about the word OM since the same word was revealed to them as it was revealed to Sri Ramakrishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali Yoga Sutra has a discussion on Om.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sacred Word designating Him is Pranava or the Mystic Syllable OM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Patanjali Yoga Sutra I.27&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Repeat It and Contemplate Upon Its Meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Patanjali Yoga Sutra I.28&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From that comes realization of the Individual Self and the obstacles&#xA;are resolved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Patanjali Yoga Sutra I.29&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Repetition (japa) of OM as part of a mantra obtained from a Guru purifies the mind, removes the obstacles and leads to the direct experience of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2023-11-12T02:08:22.957" LastActivityDate="2023-11-12T02:08:22.957" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="742" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="734" CreationDate="2014-07-03T11:45:14.193" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know if there is any story behind quote or not. But, according to my understanding, it has a philosophical meaning. According to the &lt;em&gt;Advaitha Vedanta&lt;/em&gt;, all the &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; (all the lives including plants, animals and humans) were a part of the &lt;em&gt;Paramatma&lt;/em&gt;. Because of &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt;, they have been born in this world in any one of the life form. According to the &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; that the &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; gathers in its life, it is either reborn or attains &lt;em&gt;Mukthi&lt;/em&gt; (union with &lt;em&gt;Paramatma&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said that, all the life forms (not just the human beings) trace back their origin to the &lt;em&gt;Paramatma&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Paramatma&lt;/em&gt; is the source and destination of all &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt;. Hence, all the &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; on earth are considered to be from the same family (that of the &lt;em&gt;Paramatma&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastActivityDate="2014-07-03T11:45:14.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="743" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="734" CreationDate="2014-07-03T12:09:35.730" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a detailed discussion in the Indian-American scholar Rajiv Malhotra's book, Indra's Net'.  I am posting here an excerpt from Rajiv Malhotra's book:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The most common Sanskrit phrase quoted in this regard, often repeated&#xA;  at popular gatherings, is vasudhaiva kutumbakam', which means, 'the&#xA;  world is one family'. This assertion is recited as a signature of&#xA;  Hindu benevolence towards others and is often used to promote a spirit&#xA;  of unconditional generosity towards others. The earliest occurences of&#xA;  'vasudhaiva kutumbakam' are found in the Hitopadesa and the&#xA;  Panchatantra, which are collections of fables discussing practical&#xA;  situations in life through talking animals. These stories are meant as&#xA;  an entertaining educational aid for children, and their popularity&#xA;  has carried them to distant places across Asia and Europe. It is&#xA;  important to note that there fables impart values that are pragmatic&#xA;  and contextual, as opposed to high philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In these stories the phrase is used in both ways - to advocate harmony&#xA;  towards others and also to advocate vigilance and suspicion towards&#xA;  those one does not fully understand. The moral of the story depends on&#xA;  the context. If one is operating from a position of power over others,&#xA;  and those others have good intentions, then the message is to include&#xA;  them with mutual respect. On the other hand, if one is ignorant of&#xA;  others' intentions, or one is operating out of weakness, then such&#xA;  behaviour is seen as a mark of foolishness. It is by no means a&#xA;  blanket statement of an unconditional welcome as is often made out in&#xA;  popular usage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In one story in the Hitopadesh, a cunning jackal, trying to create a&#xA;  place for himself in the home of a native deer says, 'vasudhaiva&#xA;  kutumbakam' in his appeal to the deer. The deer ignores warnings from&#xA;  other animals, who caution that it is unwise to trust someone at face&#xA;  value without first ascertaining his history, nature, and intent, Upon&#xA;  deceitfully acquiring the deer's trust and moving in his home, the&#xA;  opportunistic jackal later tries to get the deer killed. Indeed the&#xA;  moral of the story is that one must watch out for cunning subversives.&#xA;  Blindly trusting those who preach 'universal brotherhood' can lead to&#xA;  self-destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-07-03T12:09:35.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="744" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-03T12:44:32.920" Score="11" ViewCount="32738" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have a lot of things that we can't do on certain week days. (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They include cutting nails, getting a hair cut, shampooing hair etc. Why is it so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="189" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-04-20T17:34:53.930" LastActivityDate="2022-07-16T04:15:10.353" Title="Why can't we do tasks like cutting nails on three alternate weekdays?" Tags="|belief|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="29" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="745" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="562" CreationDate="2014-07-03T17:17:12.690" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Mahabharat Tatparya Nirnaya of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhvacharya&quot;&gt;Madhavacharya&lt;/a&gt;, it was because &lt;strong&gt;Balarama had come under the influence of &lt;em&gt;kali&lt;/em&gt; and had deviated from &lt;em&gt;bhagavata dharam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. The reason he deviated from &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; was because he disbelieved Krishna's words, who was God Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna and Balarama chased the fleeting Satadhanwa as he had killed Satyabhama's father Satrajit for the Syamantaka jewel. But after Krishna killed him, He didn't find the precious jewel with him. He told Balarama that the jewel was not with Satadhanwa. But Balarama didn't believe Krishna. He thought that Krishna had kept the jewel and lying to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Balarama did not believe Shri Krishna. Out of anger went to Videha and&#xA;  lived there for five years. Duryodhana, realizing that it is&#xA;  impossible to get Shri Krishna leave the Pandavas and come to his&#xA;  side, decided to attract Balarama to his side, and went there. [MBTN -&#xA;  20.33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Duryodhana became the pupil of Balarama for learning the art of mace&#xA;  warfare. Knowing that Shri Krushna was not around, he requested&#xA;  Balarama to give his  sister Subhadra in marriage to him and Balarama&#xA;  promised him to grant his wish. [MBTN - 20.34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/mbtntrans/Chapter_20_prabhanjanacharya.pdf&quot;&gt;read the notes&lt;/a&gt; that Shri Madhavacharya gives to the verses, it will become apparent how Duryodhana cheated Balarama for his purpose and how Balarama having disbelieved Krishna had deviated from the path of &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;. But Balarama being simple (or probably due to the influence of shani as Acharyaji mentions) was affectionate for his favorite disciple. Probably that is why he favored Duryodhana and ignored his misdeeds like people often ignore misdeeds of persons they like. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-03T17:17:12.690" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="746" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="748" CreationDate="2014-07-04T01:52:02.423" Score="15" ViewCount="1166" Body="&lt;p&gt;OP claimed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/737/what-is-the-significance-of-%E0%A5%90-om-aum&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Every mantra begins with the word ॐ (Aum/Om).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that true? Are there any mantras that don't have ॐ in them? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="290" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2019-06-04T14:59:36.230" Title="Does every mantra begin with/contain ॐ(Aum)?" Tags="|om|mantras|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="747" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="801" CreationDate="2014-07-04T03:36:14.100" Score="5" ViewCount="902" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every Hindu is well aware of (male) trinities, but I have also heard that there are female trinities too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T13:19:28.287" LastActivityDate="2015-03-04T13:19:28.287" Title="Are there any female trinities in Hinduism?" Tags="|gods|goddess|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="748" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="746" CreationDate="2014-07-04T04:13:59.523" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Almost every mantra begins with OM. The reason is given below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The syllable Om is the root from which the Vedas have sprung.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;(Every rite, therefore, should commence with the utterance of that syllable of vast import)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Of him who has uttered for him the&#xA;  syllables Om, Namas, Swaha, Svadha, and Vashat, and who has according&#xA;  to the extent of his ability, performed sacrifices, and other rites,&#xA;  there is no fear in respect of next life in all the three worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXVIII&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One notable exception is the Rama Taraka Mantra which does not begin with OM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2019-06-04T14:59:36.230" LastActivityDate="2019-06-04T14:59:36.230" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="749" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="737" CreationDate="2014-07-04T04:41:57.370" Score="43" Body="&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om denotes the supreme Brahma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;omiti brahma omitīdaṃsarvam&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up. - 1.8.1]&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Om is Brahman. Om is everything here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;girām asmy ekam akṣaram&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 10.25]&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Of sound vibrations I am the single syllable (OM)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as we know God is threefold in nature, the same is the case for the single syllable Om. It consists of three different letters A, U, M which are the seed of all other letters, sounds, and words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sa vā eṣa omityetadātmābhavat sa tredhātmānaṃ vyākuruta omiti tisro mātrā etābhiḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Mait. Up. 6.3]&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;He(God) came to have Om as his soul. He divided into three parts. So Om is the three units (a,u,m).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the letters A, U, M can be signified differently as Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, or creation, preservation, annihilation, or &lt;em&gt;satva&lt;/em&gt;(goodness), &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;(passion), &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;(ignorance). The Mandukya Upanishad which deals only the &lt;em&gt;pranava&lt;/em&gt; (Om) defines the three units as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;jāgaritasthāno vaiśvānaro'kāraḥ prathamā mātrā&lt;/em&gt; [Mandu. Up. - 9]&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Waking state is the first unit (A)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;svapnasthānastaijasa ukāro dvitīyā mātrā&lt;/em&gt; [Mandu. Up. - 10]&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Dream state is the second unit (U)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;suṣuptasthānaḥ prājño makārastṛtīyā mātrā&lt;/em&gt; [Mandu. Up. - 11]&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Sleeping state is the third unit (M)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These three states are related to a person. But these are also synonymous to creation, preservation, annihilation and other meanings when analyzed from the universal point of view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Usage of Om at the beginning of &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om is the primeval sound from which everything originated. By Om speech is held together:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yathā śaṅkunā sarvāṇi parṇāni saṃtṛṇṇānyevamoṃkāreṇa sarvā vāksaṃtṛṇṇoṃkāra&lt;/em&gt; [Chg. Up. 2.23.3]&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Like with a spike(stem or branch of a tree) all leaves are hold together, through the syllable Om all speech or voice is hold together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is said that, &lt;strong&gt;without the presence of Om at the beginning all the following letters of the mantra will fall apart and hence won't work&lt;/strong&gt;. Om at the beginning holds the rest of the mantra together. So on a similar context the Manu Smriti also says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let the Brahmin always pronounce the syllable Om at the beginning and at the end of (a lesson in) the Veda; (for) unless the syllable Om precedes, (the lesson) will slip away (from him) and unless it follows, it will get scattered. [Manu - 2.74]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om is the seed &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt; from which every other letter and mantra originated. Hence, om goes at the beginning of the Veda mantras while reciting it. Because chanting of the Vedas begins from Om, it is also known as &lt;em&gt;udgitha&lt;/em&gt; (chanting of Veda &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;omityetadakṣaramudgīthamupāsīta&lt;/em&gt; [Chg. Up. - 1.1.1]&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;One should worship Om as the &lt;em&gt;udgitha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think this answers all the four questions you asked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T15:44:54.370" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T15:44:54.370" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="750" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="706" CreationDate="2014-07-04T07:56:04.117" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, women can be leaders in Hinduism. Hinduism perceives women as &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Shakti&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; or strength. As the Sanskrit hymn goes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;या देवी सर्वबूतेशू शक्तिरुपेना सन्स्थिता&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ya devi sarvabhuteshu, shaktirupena sansthita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This hymn, though dedicated to Goddess Durga, is applicable to all women, or so is believed by Hindus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism believes that none can be stronger than the Creator: the &lt;strong&gt;Mother&lt;/strong&gt; being the ultimate creator. Hinduism has instances of female leaders - &lt;em&gt;Gargi&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Maitrayee&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Arundhati&lt;/em&gt; in the Vedic ages. Later ages show instances of &lt;em&gt;Sarada Mata&lt;/em&gt;, wife of Lord Ramakrishna. She was worshipped by Lord Ramakrishna himself as &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Shoroshi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="293" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-04T11:01:51.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="751" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-04T08:37:19.443" Score="13" ViewCount="509" Body="&lt;p&gt;There were (and still are) many divisions in Hinduism. According to historical facts, these divisions were very deep rooted in the society during the Medieval period. It is also known that there were serious clashes between them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In South India, especially during the Chola rule, there were four main religions. Buddhism, Jainism, Saivism and Vaishnavism (yes, Saivism and Vaishnavism were separate religions back then, atleast that's what history says). There were clashes between Saivism and Vaishnavism. For instance, King Kulothunga Chola II ordered to uproot Govindaraja Swamy from Thillai Nataraja temple (a Saivite temple). Then during the 16th century, Krishnappa Nayak seems to have ordered the re-installation of Govindaraja in the temple, amidst strong protests from the Saivites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though Buddhism and Jainism have maintained their status as separate religions, Saivism and Vaishnavism, once clashing sects, are now united under Hinduism. Today, there is no enemity among Saivites and Vaishnavites, as far as I know. The Saivites visit Vaishnavite temples and Vaishnavites pray at Saivite temples. Even other sects like Shaktism, Kaumaram easily mingle with others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What or who led to this unification of once clashing divisions of Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastActivityDate="2014-07-04T17:28:02.990" Title="What led to a unified Hinduism?" Tags="|history|sects|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="752" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-04T08:52:32.333" Score="8" ViewCount="6289" Body="&lt;p&gt;In almost all &lt;em&gt;Poojas&lt;/em&gt; (worship) &lt;em&gt;nãrikel&lt;/em&gt; (coconut) is used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fmuE6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;Image source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://picdif.com/photo/4172/A-shrifal-tied-with-a-pious-thread-and-betelnuts-arranged-on-green-leaves.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;picdif.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of using &lt;em&gt;nãrikel&lt;/em&gt; in &lt;em&gt;pooja&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-07-04T10:45:03.397" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T01:38:28.387" Title="What is the significance of nãrikel (coconut) in pooja?" Tags="|belief|worship|rituals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="753" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-04T08:55:47.827" Score="11" ViewCount="1594" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people are only familiar with the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavishya_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/a&gt;, one of the 18 Mahapuranas (major Puranas) which deals primarily with prophecies about the future.  But the Bhavishya Purana also comes with an appendix - the Bhavishyottara Purana, which gets its name because it's sometimes considered to be the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavishya_Purana#Uttaraparvan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttara Parva&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhavishya Purana, but more often it's considered to be an Upapurana (minor Purana) in its own right.  Wikipedia characterizes it as &quot;primarily a handbook of religious rites with a few legends and myths&quot;, but the one very important story it has is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_Tirumala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srinivasa Kalyana&lt;/a&gt;, the famous story of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt; (AKA Srinivasa or Balaji) and his marriage to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamelu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padmavathi&lt;/a&gt;.  The Bhavishyottara Purana is in fact one of the main sources of the Venkateshwara story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, are there any English translations of the Bhavishyottara Purana?  Or if a complete translation isn't available, I'd even settle for a translation of just the Srinivasa Kalyana portion of it.  All I've found so far are the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sumadhwaseva.com/granthagalu/srinivasa-kalyana/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This webpage&lt;/a&gt;, which claims to translate the first twelve Adhyayas (chapters) of the Srinivasa Kalyana of the Bhavishyottara Purana, but is actually an English translation of &lt;a href=&quot;http://chaturvedivyasa.org/books.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Kannada translation&lt;/a&gt; of those Adhyayas of the Bhavishyottara Purana. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The freely available book &lt;a href=&quot;http://vishnudut1926.blogspot.com/2013/10/shree-venkatachala-mahatmyam-sri.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Sri Venkatachala - Its Glory&quot;&lt;/a&gt; by G. V. Chalapati Rao, which according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=CY9eAAAAQBAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PT51&amp;amp;ots=yQfCEscE33&amp;amp;dq=%22chalapathi%20rao%22%20sthala&amp;amp;pg=PT51#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; is a translation of the Venkatachala Mahatmya, the Sthala Purana (temple scripture) of the Tirupati temple, written in the fifteenth century by Jiyar Ramanujayyan and consisting of excerpts from various Puranas that discuss Venkateshwara, including presumably the Srinivasa Kalyana of the Bhavishyottara Purana.  But there's probably abridgment going on here.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in both cases, there are multiple layers between the English and the original Sanskrit text.  Are there any direct English translations of either the whole Bhavishyottara Purana or just the Srinivasa Kalyana section?  I would prefer something that's freely available online.  I'd also prefer an unabridged translation, because I want to see the glorious story of Venkateshwara in full detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="9125" LastEditDate="2018-03-08T09:48:39.907" LastActivityDate="2018-03-08T09:48:39.907" Title="Are there any English translations of the Bhavishyottara Purana or just the Srinivasa Kalyana section?" Tags="|translation-request|venkateshwara|puranas|bhavishya-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="754" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="752" CreationDate="2014-07-04T09:11:27.387" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The coconut (Gujarati. – nãriyel, Sanskrit. – nãrikel) is used as an auspicious pujã offering. It has several virtues and underlying sentiments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its important virtue is that the coconut tree takes in salty water and gives sweet and nutritious water through the fruit. Similarly, man is inspired to mould himself by eradicating his ‘saltish’ swabhãvs and to become sweet within.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ancient times, Vishvamitra rishi created the coconut, to be used as an offering to appease the deities to halt animal sacrifice. In this manner the rishis propounded ahimsã during ritual offerings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since then the coconut has become a symbol of sacrifice. Therefore in any auspicious venture or ritual, a person offers a coconut to a deity with the sentiment, ‘I offer myself at your feet’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is offered to a deity on certain lunar tithis such as Purnimã and Ekãdashi, often with a small packet of sãkar (sugar crystals) and 1.25 rupees in coin form. In some mandirs and sampradãys, the pujãri cracks the coconut and offers one piece to the deity and returns the other piece to the devotee as prasãdam. It is commonly offered to Hanumanji on Saturdays.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is placed on top of a kalash, with mango or betel vine leaves during kalash sthãpan in pujã rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coconut water is also used during abhishek in some south Indian temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is cracked on the doorstep of a new building during Vãstu pujã and during pujan of new heavy machinery. This is after performing pujan of Thãkorji and imprinting red chãndlo on the shrifal, while chanting shantipaath and other Vedic mantras and shloks. The water from the cracked shrifal is then sprinkled inside, as well as on those present, to confer purity and auspiciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During a marriage proposal, it is sent by the girl’s parents to the proposed groom. If he accepts it, then the engagement is fixed. This is known as ‘having accepted the nãriyel’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All parts of the coconut and tree are useful, to make: thatch roof, mats, stick brooms, screens, coir rope and edible oil. The soft or dried flesh is often sliced into chips and offered with sãkar as prasãdam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also tied to a bier in six places before taking a body for cremation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;SOURCE&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.baps.org/thingstoknow/hinduism/54.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kids.baps.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="294" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-04T13:51:31.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="755" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="734" CreationDate="2014-07-04T09:35:41.120" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindus follow &lt;em&gt;vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam&lt;/em&gt; (whole world is indeed one family) because that's broad minded thinking. It is a proverb that goes like below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ayaṃ nijaḥ paro veti gaṇanā laghucetasām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     udāracaritānāṃ tu vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam&lt;/em&gt; [Panchatantra - 5.3.38]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Considering &quot;This person  is ours (friend) and this person is not&quot; is narrow minded thinking. But for the liberal broad minded person the whole world is indeed one family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a proverb so we can't say what's its origin or story. But being a proverb it has been used in story books like &lt;em&gt;Panchatantra&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Hitopadesha&lt;/em&gt;. The Mahat Upanishad(6.71) also mentions it in a slightly different form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;REFERENCE:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasudhaiva_Kutumbakam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-04T09:35:41.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="756" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-04T10:52:03.370" Score="9" ViewCount="23108" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've seen this written at various places say shop entrances, home entrances and other places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These terms are generally written besides Lord Ganesha's image.  Not only this, it is also written on marriage invitations and Diwali greetings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The terms are often associated with swastika symbol &lt;em&gt;(well, most of the time)&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why they write the terms &lt;em&gt;Shubh&lt;/em&gt; which means auspiciousness and &lt;em&gt;Labh&lt;/em&gt; means Profit?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/odqh7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Shubh Labh with Swastika symbol&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Image Credits : &lt;a href=&quot;http://zns.india.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;zns.india.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T04:22:39.997" LastActivityDate="2014-10-09T04:24:47.217" Title="Why Hindus write Shubh and Labh with a Swastika?" Tags="|belief|astrology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="757" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="760" CreationDate="2014-07-04T12:11:08.683" Score="25" ViewCount="33491" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know, there is no mention of Sage Valmiki in the Ramayana. He was mentioned or seen only in the Lava-Kusha story. So who told the complete story of the Ramayana to Sage Valmiki? Was it Goddess Sita herself when she left Ayodhya and stayed in Valmiki's hermitage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please explain the incident in brief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-01T07:36:22.687" LastActivityDate="2016-01-21T12:53:09.897" Title="How could Valmiki write the Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|valmiki|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="758" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="751" CreationDate="2014-07-04T14:46:56.260" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rajiv Malothra's book &lt;a href=&quot;http://indrasnetbook.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indra's Net&lt;/a&gt; precisely deals with this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, to understand what the term Hinduism means, refer to this question: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/65/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-hindu&quot;&gt;What is the origin of the word &amp;quot;Hindu&amp;quot;?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer to Myths 2,3,6 from &lt;a href=&quot;http://indrasnetbook.com/myths-challenged/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page from Indra's Net book's site. Also on the same page see &quot;&lt;em&gt;Summary of both sides of the debate&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. I am not quoting it here as it is too long. This has some arguments in favor of evolution of a unified Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prior to colonial invasions, a sense of unified religion was developed by Vijnanabhiksu who brought together Vedānta, Sāṃkhya, and Yoga into a single theistic synthesis known as avibhagādvaita&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijnanabhiksu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[1]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;. It is wrongly assumed that unity between philosophical schools came &lt;em&gt;only&lt;/em&gt; as a response to colonization. During colonial times, with Vivekananda popularizing Advaita in which everything in this world is a manifestation of a single Brahman, the unity was further strengthened. But the basis of Vivekananda's ideas of unity came from pre-colonial ideas and the Upanishads. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-07-04T14:46:56.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="759" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="751" CreationDate="2014-07-04T15:48:53.167" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rajiv Malhotra's book Indra's Net deals with this question. This has already been mentioned in an answer in this site. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book claims that it is Vijnanabhikshu who unified Hinduism in the 16th century. I disagree with Malhotra's claim. It is Shankara who united Hinduism centuries before Madhava, Vijnanabhikshu and others. He is remembered as the shanmatasthapaka for uniting the worshippers of Ganesh, Surya, Vishnu etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankara also unified the Advaita Vedanta schools with the Bhakti schools of Vedanta by saying that Bhakti is a very useful method to attain chittasuddhi (purification of heart). It is another matter that Bhakti Vedantins did not accept his unification scheme. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The establishment of 4 mathas in 4 corners of India, his journeys along the length and breadth of India laid the foundation of united Hinduism. We, the modern Hindus, regardless of our attitudes towards Shankara (whether we accept his teachings or are opposed to him) are children of Shankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The priests of the temples of Uttarakhand, Nepal etc are still from Kerala. There is no doubt that Swami Vivekananda presented a unified vision of Hinduism in the 19th century. We should remember, however, that Vivekananda (whose full monastic name is Swami Vivekananda Puri) is a Dasnami Sannyasi of Puri order and is a child of Shankara. The doxographies penned by Madhavacharya and others were made possible by Shankara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am amazed why RM did not see Shankara as a unifier of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medhajournal.com/index.php/en/kunena/2-philosophy/1360-indra-s-net-review-ia?start=6&quot;&gt;I did write a review of Malhotra's book here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-04T17:28:02.990" LastActivityDate="2014-07-04T17:28:02.990" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="760" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="757" CreationDate="2014-07-04T15:58:18.540" Score="30" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is true that Sita and her sons Lava and Kusha all stayed at the sage Valmiki's ashram (hermitage).  But that is not how Valmiki came to know of the story of the Ramayana.  He learnt the story earlier than that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Valmiki was visited by the Devarishi (divine sage) Narada.  Since Narada was knolwedgeable on a great many subjects, Valmiki &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga1/bala_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;asked him a question&lt;/a&gt; about whether there is any man in the world today who possesses the most illustrious qualities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[T]he Sage-Poet Valmiki is inquisitively enquiring about a man who is a composite for all merited endowments in his form and calibre: &amp;quot;Who really is that person in this present world, who is principled and also a potential one, a conscientious one, a redeemer, and also a truth-teller and self-determined in his deed?  Who is he conduct-wise blent with good-conduct.  Who in respect of all beings is benign?  Who is adept and also the ablest one [and] also uniquely good to look to?  Who is that courageous one, who controlled his ire, who is brilliant, non-jealous and even whom do the gods fear, when provoked to war?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Narada told Valmiki that it's almost impossible for one man to have all these traits, but it turns out there is such a man living today, possessing these good qualities and so many more: the present king of Ayodhya, by the name of Rama.  Narada gave a brief description of Rama's characteristics and life story, but Valmiki wanted to know more.  Then Valmiki went to take a bath, when he saw a hunter killing a krouncha bird while its female companion was crying out in a mourning song, and so in anger Valmiki &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga2/balaitrans2.htm#Verse15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;uttered the following sentence&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;maa nishhaada pratiSThaamtva | magamaH shaashvatiiH samaaH ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yat krauNcha mithunaat eka | mavadhiiH kaama mohitam||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Oh! Ill-fated Hunter, by which reason you have killed one male bird of the couple, when it is in its lustful passion, thereby you will get an ever-lasting reputation for ages to come.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was just absent-mindedly saying his words with the same rhythm that the Krouncha bird was crying out in, but then he realized the beauty of his sentence: it was a perfect line of poetic verse, the fist piece of poetry that humanity had ever composed.  (The mantras of Vedas were already around, but that is poetry composed by the gods, not by Man.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki then got home to his Ashram, and was visited by Brahma the creator god.  Brahma explained that it was by his doing that Valmiki had uttered that sentence, and it was because he was blessing Valmiki with the ability to tell the entire life of Rama in poetic meter.  Brahma said &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga2/balaitrans2.htm#Verse15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You shall narrate the legend of Rama, the virtuous, intellectual and an intrepid one, and a godlike person in this world as well, as you have heard it from sage Narada.  The adventures of valorous Rama along with Lakshmana, and the misadventures of demons, known or unknown in every detail, and even the plight of Vaidehi which is either revealed or un-revealed so far, and whatever legend that has happened, all that will also be known to you, even if it were to be unknown, as yet.  You shall versify the heart pleasing and merit-yielding legend of Rama, and not a single word of yours will be unfounded in this epic.  As long as the mountains and even rivers flourish on the surface of the earth, so long the legend of Ramayana will flourish in this world&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he gave Valmiki the boon that he would know the whole life of Rama, that everything Valmiki wrote in his epic poem would be accurate, and that his poem would endure forever.  And sure enough, after Brahma disappeared and Valmiki started meditating, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga3/balaitrans3.htm#Verse3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;saw the entire life of Rama&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of Rama, Lakshmana and Seetha, also of King Dasharatha and his wives, and what bechanced on Rama when he was in kingdom Ayodhya; Valmiki veritably discerned all that. Their smiles, their conversations, their deeds and the succession of events as well, all of them the sage saw wholly and clearly by the yogic power conferred by Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And he saw not just Rama's past and present, but also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga3/balaitrans3.htm#Verse39&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;what was yet to come&lt;/a&gt; in Rama's life:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The godly sage Valmiki composed the futuristic legend of Rama while on the surface of earth, and whatever that is there, that is composed in all its minuteness, in the coming chapters of this epic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, it was during Valmiki's composition of the Ramayana that Rama's wife Sita, by the path of destiny, came to Valmiki.  And when Valmiki finished his epic poem, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga4/balaitrans4.htm#Verse6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;taught it&lt;/a&gt; to Sita's sons Lava and Kusha.  And Lava and Kusha spread this epic far and wide, until (through a serious of events described in the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana) they came to the court of Ayodhya, and Rama himself asked the two boys to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga4/balaitrans4.htm#Verse36&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;narrate the epic&lt;/a&gt; to him and his brothers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then those two singers, motivated by Rama's words, sang the ballad in maarga system, for they are well versed in it, then even Rama, who is also in the congregation, again to pacify his mind, [for the story of Seetha puts his mind to turmoil,] became interested at heart [to continue listening Seetha's story]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that is how the narration of the Ramayana begins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-09-09T09:40:07.863" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="761" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="25" CreationDate="2014-07-05T03:20:18.293" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the question hints at the mobilization of the &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/strong&gt;, I would like to firstly emphasize upon the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The expanding literacy rates have obviously helped in spreading the holy verses of the Gita &lt;em&gt;en masse&lt;/em&gt;. Earlier, the Gita was available only in Sanskrit which was understandable only to the Brahmins as other varnas did not have eligibility to learn this. However, newer versions of the Gita contain vernacular translations of the sacred Sanskrit hymns. Thus this holy book can be read and understood by one and all, much without the help of a preacher.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Indian Renaissance&lt;/strong&gt; led to the eradication of Sati, the intiative being led by &lt;em&gt;Raja Ram Mohan Roy&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Lord William Bentinck&lt;/em&gt;. Courtesy goes to education once again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the practice of untouchability as mentioned in earlier comments was prevalent even when education had reached Indian commoners.It was merely a taboo or stereotype which was considered quite natural. It was first brought into mainstream discussion by &lt;em&gt;Mahatma Gandhi&lt;/em&gt; with his concept of &lt;strong&gt;Harijans&lt;/strong&gt; or &quot;The Children of the God&quot;. Education had been in the country much before Gandhiji's era.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References have also been made to animal sacrifices. It was only stopped recently with the enforcement of the &lt;em&gt;Wildlife Protection Act&lt;/em&gt; and other legal proceedings involving concern about fauna and flora. Education was quite prominent in those years when goats, bulls and even human beings were sacrificed in the name of &lt;em&gt;satisfying&lt;/em&gt; the Almighty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not merely education that helps in changing the popular beliefs and practices. Any change requires concern and awareness, in addition to education to be brought about. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, since the question has been specifically made about the Gita being popularized, education being spread, has indeed played a major role. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="293" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-05T11:23:06.757" LastActivityDate="2014-07-05T11:23:06.757" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="762" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="756" CreationDate="2014-07-05T04:20:32.677" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is a practice to write Shubha Labha along with the image of&#xA;  Ganesha. Shubh is ‘auspiciousness’ and Labh is ‘Profit.’ The two words&#xA;  are mainly written by traders, business men, shopkeepers etc on&#xA;  account books and in front of the shops. Some Hindu cultures consider&#xA;  Shubh and Labh as the sons of Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In some Hindu traditions, Ganesh has two wives named Riddhi (material&#xA;  wealth) and Siddhi (intellectual and spiritual wealth). Ganesha has&#xA;  two sons named Shubh and Labh in Riddhi and Siddhi. &#xA;  source:&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindu-blog.com/2010/07/shubha-labha-and-ganesh-why-we-write.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;hindu-blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So writing Shubh Labha is to gain auspiciousness and Profit and its also symbolic to Lord Ganesha's children name too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T04:24:47.217" LastActivityDate="2014-10-09T04:24:47.217" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="763" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="803" CreationDate="2014-07-05T05:34:00.870" Score="12" ViewCount="25926" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've seen my friends who are Brahmin(Hindu sub-caste) wearing a janoi (Gujarati for &quot;sacred thread&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, when they go to the washroom, they wear that thread on their ears.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why do they wear that thread?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="129" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-02T11:42:22.500" LastActivityDate="2016-08-22T14:50:06.110" Title="Why do some of the Hindu &quot;Brahmins&quot; wear a sacred thread?" Tags="|rituals|brahmins|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="764" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="756" CreationDate="2014-07-05T05:58:58.187" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;To understand this, you should know the actual meaning of lord Ganesha's story .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The most well-known story about Ganesh’s birth is probably the one&#xA;  taken from the Shiva Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once mother Parvati wanted to take a bath, there were no attendants&#xA;  around to guard her and stop anyone from accidentally entering the&#xA;  cave. Hence she created an image of a boy out of dirt and infused life&#xA;  into it, and thus a little boy was born. Parvati asked the boy not to&#xA;  allow anyone to enter the house, and the boy obediently followed his&#xA;  mother's orders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Background: There are 2 energies in this Universe. One is the&#xA;  Universal GOD Energy that is outside us and the other is the Soul&#xA;  Energy that is inside a person. Hindu scriptures know that GOD is&#xA;  beyond Man or Women. To explain to a novice GOD is depicted sometimes&#xA;  as a Man and sometimes a Women (Per Hindu scriptures). So sometimes&#xA;  the Universal GOD is depicted as Man and sometimes it is depicted as a&#xA;  Woman. Similarly the soul inside is either a Woman or a Man depending&#xA;  on what the Universal GOD is depicted as. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Explanation: So in the story of Ganesh’s Birth, Parvati is depicted as&#xA;  Universal GOD and Shiva is the Soul in the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After a while Shiva returned from outside, and as he tried to enter&#xA;  the house,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Explanation: In a living person, Shiva (Soul) is always trying to&#xA;  reach Parvati (Universal Soul).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva came to meet Parvati and was stopped by the little boy. He told&#xA;  the little boy that he was Parvati's husband, and demanded that he be&#xA;  let in. The little boy would not hear any person's word other than his&#xA;  dear mother's. So Shiva has a fierce battle with the little boy. The&#xA;  little boy was strong and rose up to the challenge and fought Shiva&#xA;  and held him back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Explanation&lt;/strong&gt;: The force stopping Soul(Shiva) from reaching Universal GOD (Parvati) is the little child and that is the EGO of the&#xA;  person. EGO is explained in different ways. Will not go in detail on&#xA;  what EGO is in this post. Just know that EGO is so strong that it can&#xA;  stop Shiva(Soul) from reaching Parvati (Universal GOD).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At last Shiva severed the head of the little boy head with his&#xA;  trishula.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Explanation: The only way for Shivato meet Parvati is to cut the head&#xA;  of EGO. i.e Bow the head to the Universal GOD. When EGO is out of the&#xA;  way Shiva(Soul) and Parvati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Universal GOD) meet in a living person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Parvati came out and saw her son's lifeless body she asked that&#xA;  Shiva restore the boy’s life. A Brahma suggested that Shiva replace&#xA;  the boys head with the first living being that came his way which lay&#xA;  with its head facing north. Shiva then sent his celestial armies&#xA;  (Gana) to find and take the head of whatever creature they happened to&#xA;  find asleep with its head facing north. They found a dying elephant&#xA;  which slept in this manner, and after its death took its head,&#xA;  attaching the elephant's head to the boy’s body and bringing him back&#xA;  to life. And thus Ganesha is Born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Explanation&lt;/strong&gt;: In a living person the EGO is gone and therefore the Soul(Shiva) of the person has met the Universal GOD(Parvati). The&#xA;  energies activated in the person now is that of Ganesha. Meaning that&#xA;  any action taken by a person while connecting the Soul to the&#xA;  Universal GOD will remove obstacle. The elephant head is depicts the&#xA;  removal of obstacles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ganesha is married to 2 sisters Riddhi and Siddhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Explanation&lt;/strong&gt;: In that state Ganesha i.e. Shiva(Soul) and Parvati (Universal Soul) meeting in a living person, interacts with the world.&#xA;  In this world one can only give or/and take from someone. i.e. Ridhi&#xA;  and Sidhi. So Ganesha (living person) is married to the world of&#xA;  giving and receiving. The living person is married to either taking or&#xA;  giving something to this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ganesha has 2 children from Riddhi and Siddhi..Name of the children&#xA;  are Shubh and Labh&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Explanation&lt;/strong&gt;: So a living person in the state of Ganesha interacts with the world Riddhi and Siddhi there is an output from it that&#xA;  interaction i.e. He gets SHUBH LABH or PURE PROFIT.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shubh and Labh ask their parents for a sister and they get a sister&#xA;  names Santosh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Explanation&lt;/strong&gt;: So from the interaction with the world as Ganesha a person gets SHUBH LABH (PURE PROFIT) and from the PURE PROFIT he gets&#xA;  SANTOSH or CONTENTMENT.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That is the purpose of Life. To get CONTENTMENT in every action that&#xA;  one takes in Life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In a living person the Soul (Shiva) is always trying to meet the&#xA;  Universal GOD (Parvati).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;EGO stops the Shiva (Soul) from meeting Parvati (Universal GOD).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the head of EGO is removed Shiva(Soul) and Parvati (Universal&#xA;  GOD) meet thereby creating igniting the energies of Lord Ganesha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Ganesha when a person interacts with the world as, giving (Riddhi)&#xA;  and taking (Siddhi), then the output is Shubh (Pure) Labh (Profit).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From Shubh Labh (Pure Profit) the person gets Santosh (Contentment).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When one prays to Lord Ganesha then one is asking to connect to the&#xA;  Universal Soul to remove obstacles and to give us contentment. All the&#xA;  rituals are fully aligned to this principle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Quoting from : &lt;a href=&quot;http://atul-thakur.hubpages.com/hub/True-meaning-of-Birth-of-Ganesha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;atul-thakur.hubpages.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-06T10:07:48.143" LastActivityDate="2014-07-06T10:07:48.143" CommentCount="1" CommunityOwnedDate="2014-07-05T05:58:58.187" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="765" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="773" CreationDate="2014-07-05T06:01:26.117" Score="18" ViewCount="104549" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many idols of lord Ganesha, I saw that the left tusk is broken.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/z2qcX.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;lord Ganesha with broken tusk&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Credit: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/64.102&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/64.102&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story behind that broken tusk? Does it signify something?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-09-06T22:51:05.253" LastActivityDate="2020-02-05T07:21:56.070" Title="What is the story behind lord Ganesha's broken tusk?" Tags="|ganesha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="766" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="770" CreationDate="2014-07-05T06:10:02.093" Score="4" ViewCount="1765" Body="&lt;p&gt;The human psychic body has two types of nadis which as I know are Surya nadi and Chandra nadi. &#xA;AFAIK, the nadis change automatically but one can also trigger them as needed. How to know which nadi is triggered at present and how to change it to other nadi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastActivityDate="2016-07-11T03:11:43.497" Title="How to know which nadi is triggered at present?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="768" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="789" CreationDate="2014-07-05T06:19:28.377" Score="3" ViewCount="6476" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question is extend of my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/766/93&quot;&gt;previous question&lt;/a&gt;. There are beliefs that some works should be done only when we have Surya nadi and other works should be done in Chandra nadi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the specific works related to Nadis mentioned somewhere in scriptures? please explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-07-05T18:52:24.370" Title="What is the difference between Surya nadi and Chandra nadi?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="769" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="782" CreationDate="2014-07-05T06:28:21.937" Score="2" ViewCount="5232" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know whether I should ask this in Hinduism or Physics but I think my question would would better relate with this site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to an ancient epic &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ramayana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Ravana&lt;/em&gt; was having an aircraft named '&lt;em&gt;Pushpak Vimanam&lt;/em&gt;', which is believed to be one of the ancient miracles in Hinduism epic and advancement of technology at that time. Well I am currently in my academics in my final year and studying the detailed properties of charge and magnetism. My teacher told me that few theories have been made that &lt;em&gt;Pushpak Vimanam&lt;/em&gt; might be working on this principal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In detailed way his air craft must have been made with a light weight conductor which might be having charge uniformly distributed over it's surface leading to formation of some electric and magnetic field that may help in lifting the aircraft and balancing the gravitational force. However it still remains a mystery that how &lt;em&gt;Vimanam&lt;/em&gt; was able to get such enormous charge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At that age if technology was so much advanced then why not someone wrote the working and mechanism behind that like we study about some complex machines in high school today?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beside this also I want to ask whether it can be true? Means are there any kind of evidence or anything which can prove this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="91" LastEditorUserId="91" LastEditDate="2014-07-05T06:44:47.963" LastActivityDate="2015-10-12T21:25:18.863" Title="Science behind working of Pushpak Vimanam" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2014-07-05T17:04:56.773" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="770" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="766" CreationDate="2014-07-05T07:03:06.680" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because this is a question related to physical practice, an actual teacher can best describe it. But I am providing a brief information so that it will be helpful. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are actually many &lt;em&gt;nadis&lt;/em&gt;, but three are important. Two you have already mentioned, the Surya &lt;em&gt;nadi&lt;/em&gt; and Chandra &lt;em&gt;nadi&lt;/em&gt;. They are also called as &lt;em&gt;pingala&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;ida&lt;/em&gt; respectively. The third one is &lt;em&gt;Sushanma&lt;/em&gt; (roughly the spinal chord). You can know which of the two &lt;em&gt;nadis&lt;/em&gt; is active by this simple method:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Put your fingers under your nostril and exhaust air out of your nose so that you can feel it on your fingers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;You'll find that air from one nostril is coming in more quantity. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the nostril is the right one, then Surya &lt;em&gt;nadi&lt;/em&gt; is active and if the nostril is the left one, then Chandra &lt;em&gt;nadi&lt;/em&gt; is active. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rhythm changes throughout day from nostril to nostril and also sometimes both the nostrils are active. Regarding triggering them automatically, it's not easy. You have to practice yoga techniques like &lt;em&gt;pranayama&lt;/em&gt;. If you can change or trigger the flow of air at will then you have already perfected &lt;em&gt;pranayama&lt;/em&gt; which takes years of practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-05T07:03:06.680" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="773" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="765" CreationDate="2014-07-05T09:14:31.693" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of how Ganesha broke his tusk is recounted in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/pNH9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Upodghata Pada of the Brahmanda Purana.  Parashurama, the axe-wielding incarnation of Vishnu, had sucessfully defeated his enemy Kartavirya Arjuna and the kings allied with him, and so he wanted to thank Shiva for giving him the power to fight these enemies.  Parashurama went to Mount Kailash to pay his obeisances to Shiva, but Ganesha stopped him, saying his father was sleeping along with his mother, and he didn't want Parashurama intruding on them in case they might be engaged in amorous pursuits.  Parashurama was enraged that he was being prevented from seeing Shiva, and so he started fighting Ganesha.  Ganesha was winning handily, but then Parashurama threw his axe at Ganesha and Ganesha didn't fight back against it, because the axe was a gift from Shiva:&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MIsBi.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Perceiving that the axe had been given to him by his father, Ganesha became desirous of meaning it not to go in vain.  Hence he received it with his left tooth (tusk).  Chopped off by the axe, the tusk fell on the ground, covered with blood like a mountain that fell on the ground when struck by Indra's thunderbolt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that there are other stories about Ganesha losing his tusk, most famously the story included in some manuscripts of the Mahabharata concerning Ganesha breaking his own tusk off to continue writing the Mahabharata as Vyasa was dictating it to him.  But this story is widely agreed by scholars to be a later interpolation, and it's not found in any critical editions of the Mahabharata, and you can see for yourself that it's not even included in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this translation&lt;/a&gt; of chapter 1 of the Adi Parva.  So the most prominent story that's actually grounded in scripture is the one I gave above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-04-04T19:34:09.317" LastActivityDate="2015-04-04T19:34:09.317" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="774" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="781" CreationDate="2014-07-05T09:34:22.393" Score="61" ViewCount="10343" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who wrote the Vedas and why?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How did the Vedas exist since their inception?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Where can we read the Vedas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user304" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-04-25T20:12:19.797" LastActivityDate="2023-04-25T20:12:19.797" Title="How did the Vedas in Hinduism come into existence?" Tags="|vedas|history|resource|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="775" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-05T09:41:57.490" Score="3" ViewCount="2577" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question was taunting me since I watched Animal Planet's revelation on Mermaids &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaids:_The_Body_Found&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wikipedia about mermaids&lt;/a&gt; I wonder that as we have a great culture and mythology, this fact should be included in that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/mermaids&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Animal planets mermaid video&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user304" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T04:17:53.637" LastActivityDate="2014-10-31T04:49:00.530" Title="Were mermaids in hinduism?" Tags="|animals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="776" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-05T12:16:41.677" Score="3" ViewCount="78" Body="&lt;p&gt;We can see a lot of type of idols in different temples. Can we categorized it  ? Also how many types of idols are there? Explanation with pictures will be perfect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="187" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T05:36:06.880" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T05:36:06.880" Title="How many types of idols are there in temples?" Tags="|belief|prayer|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2014-07-05T22:36:44.153" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="779" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="65" CreationDate="2014-07-05T13:02:44.773" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually, there is no word like &quot;hindu&quot; in our ancient scriptures and Vedas. One of the reason is answered above perfectly by our community members. Another reason is our dharma is actually called as &quot;&lt;strong&gt;hyndava dharma&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (hy as in high). This includes all the Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads. For that matter any Hindu day-to-day living is Hyndava Dharma only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user304" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T19:15:25.220" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T19:15:25.220" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="780" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-05T13:23:55.403" Score="7" ViewCount="769" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to some comments on the question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/706&quot;&gt;Are women allowed to be Hindu sanyasis/monks?&lt;/a&gt; Some people believe that Devdasi and Sanyasin are near synonyms, and others that they are very different.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How are Devdasi and Sanyasin different?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2018-06-20T03:03:29.057" Title="How are Devdasi and Sanyasin different?" Tags="|women|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="781" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="774" CreationDate="2014-07-05T15:03:31.993" Score="51" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas are &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shruti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Śruti&lt;/a&gt;, which means &quot;that which is heard&quot; (what Christians would call &quot;revelation&quot;).  Hindus believe that from time immemorial, sages known as Dhrishtas (literally &quot;seers&quot;) have, during a state of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapasya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tapasya&lt;/a&gt; (deep meditation), heard sacred verses directly from the gods.  In the Dwapara Yuga (the age before the one we're currently in), these verses were compiled by a sage named &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyasa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna Dwaipayana Veda Vyasa&lt;/a&gt; (or Vyasa for short) into a set of four books we call &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Vedas&lt;/a&gt;.  (Technically Vyasa only compiled the first three books - Rig, Yajur, and Sama - while the Atharvana Veda is attributed to the sages &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiras_%28sage%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Angiras&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atharvan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharvan&lt;/a&gt;.)  As the words of the Vedas are believed to be divine in origin, they are held to be the foremost authority of the Hindu religion.  As Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga109/ayodhyaitrans109.htm#Verse14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in the Ayodhya Kanda of the Ramayana, the Vedas &quot;have the foundation in Truth [and] one should thoroughly surrender to truth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should add that each of the four Vedas is divided into four portions: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas which consist of hymns to various gods; Brahmanas, which provide instructions on the proper conducting of important rituals; Aranyakas, which provide a guide to rituals meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical message of the Vedas.  In any case, when someone says &quot;I read the Rig Veda&quot; without qualification, they usually mean the Rig Veda Samhita, because the Samhitas are the core part of the Vedas which came directly from the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note: the above is excerpted from my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/64/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for where you can read the Vedas, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sacred-texts.com&lt;/a&gt; is a good site.  Here's the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna Version&lt;/a&gt; of the Yajur Veda Samhita, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shukla version&lt;/a&gt; of the Yajur Veda Samhita, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sv.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Sama Veda Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharvana Veda Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana&lt;/a&gt; of the Yajur Veda, some &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/upan/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;major Upanishads&lt;/a&gt; from various Vedas, and some &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/tmu/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;minor Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-01-25T16:45:27.943" LastActivityDate="2018-01-25T16:45:27.943" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="782" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="769" CreationDate="2014-07-05T16:05:17.957" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Science behind religious things are off topic here. But to clarify certain things you mentioned in the question, I am answering your post.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can't say about the science behind such an aircraft, but I can say that crafts like those were not completely mechanical. Modern scientists forget to take into account spiritual powers. There are two kinds of science, spiritual which is based upon the existence of spirit, and material, which is based upon the existence of subatomic particles. So such aircrafts must have made use of spiritual power through the usage of &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;yantra&lt;/em&gt;, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now why no one wrote down the technology behind it could be because such aircrafts were not the norm like we see on airplanes today. Those were used by gods and didn't belong to earth. For example, Ravan got the airplane from Kubera (VRM - &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga121/yuddhasans121.htm#Verse9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;6.121.9&lt;/a&gt;), which was made by Viswakarma for Brahma. Similarly, there is another instance in the Bhagavatam where Śālva obtains such a fighter aircraft as a boon from Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great Lord Umāpati is known as “he who is quickly&#xA;  pleased,” yet only at the end of a year did he gratify Śālva, who had&#xA;  approached him for shelter, by offering him a choice of benedictions. [SB - 10.76.5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śālva chose a vehicle that could be destroyed by neither&#xA;  demigods, demons, humans, Gandharvas, Uragas nor Rākṣasas, that could&#xA;  travel anywhere he wished to go, and that would terrify the Vṛṣṇis.  [SB - 10.76.6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Śiva said, “So be it.” On his order, Maya Dānava, who conquers his enemies’ cities, constructed a flying iron city named&#xA;  Saubha and presented it to Śālva.  [SB - 10.76.57]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This unassailable vehicle was filled with darkness and could go anywhere. Upon obtaining&#xA;  it, Śālva went to Dvārakā, remembering the Vṛṣṇis’ enmity toward him. [SB - 10.76.8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;strong&gt;because those were divine objects and not a norm in the world, nobody probably wrote it down&lt;/strong&gt;. It is also another fact that retaining knowledge in memory was the norm in the ancient times rather than keeping a written record of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, irrespective of its authenticity we do have a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vaim%C4%81nika_Sh%C4%81stra&amp;amp;oldid=611994428&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaimanika Shastra&lt;/a&gt; written down in earlier part of the twentieth century. As per the writer, he obtained the knowledge from sage Bharadwaja. On a side note, it is worth noting that Shri Rama on his way to Ayodhya on the Pushpaka Vimana took a halt at Rishi Bharadwaja's hermitage. To be frank, whatever actual science was behind such crafts was probably known only to the gods and the sages. We modern day people can only speculate it must have been like this, it must have been like that, etc. without taking spiritual power into account.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-12T21:25:18.863" LastActivityDate="2015-10-12T21:25:18.863" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="784" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="774" CreationDate="2014-07-05T16:28:13.327" Score="28" Body="&lt;p&gt;The traditional answer to the question as to how the  Vedas came into existence is that the Vedas are eternal! The traditional answer to the question as to who wrote the Vedas is that there are no writers! Vedas are anadi or beginning-less. Some Hindus (those who follow &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%ABm%C4%81%E1%B9%83s%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purva Mimamsa Darshana&lt;/a&gt;) and probably others still hold to these views literally. Is there any way to understand the claims of Vedas being beginningless and eternal in a non-literal sense? I am posting below Swami Vivekananda's views on the Vedas: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was a time when the Vedas themselves were considered eternal in&#xA;  the sense in which the divine truths contained therein were changeless&#xA;  and permanent and were only revealed to man. At a subsequent time, it&#xA;  appears that the utterances of the Vedic hymns with the knowledge of&#xA;  its meaning was important; and it was held that the hymns themselves&#xA;  must have had a divine origin. At a still later period, the meaning of&#xA;  the hymns showed that many of them could not be of divine origin,&#xA;  because they inculcated upon mankind performance of various unholy&#xA;  acts, such as torturing animals; and we can find many ridiculous&#xA;  stories in the Vedas. The correct meaning of the statement &quot;The Vedas&#xA;  are beginning less and eternal&quot; is that the law or truth revealed by&#xA;  them to man is permanent and changeless. Logic, geometry, chemistry,&#xA;  etc., reveal also a law or truth which is permanent and changeless and&#xA;  in that sense they are also beginning less and eternal. But no truth&#xA;  or law is absent from the Vedas, and I ask any one of you to point out&#xA;  to me any truth which is not treated of in them. (Vivekananda Complete&#xA;  Works (CW), Vol.5: &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_5/interviews/with_the_swami_vivekananda_at_madura.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;With the Swami Vivekananda at Madura&lt;/a&gt;, pp.205-206)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas.&#xA;  They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. It may&#xA;  sound ludicrous to this audience [in the West] how a book can be&#xA;  without beginning or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant. They&#xA;  mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by&#xA;  different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravitation&#xA;  existed before its discovery and would exist if all humanity forgot&#xA;  it, so is it with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral,&#xA;  ethical, and spiritual relations between soul and soul and between&#xA;  individual spirits and the Father of all spirits were there before&#xA;  their discovery, and would remain even if we forget them. (CW, &#xA;   Vol.1: &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/addresses_at_the_parliament/v1_c1_paper_on_hinduism.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Paper on Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;, pp.6-7.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas are anadi, eternal. The meaning of the statement is not, as&#xA;  is erroneously supposed by some, that the words of the Vedas are&#xA;  anadi, but that the spiritual laws inculcated by the Vedas are such.&#xA;  These laws, which are immutable and eternal, have been discovered at&#xA;  various times by great men or rishis, though some of them have been&#xA;  forgotten now, while others are preserved. (CW, Vol.6: &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_6/notes_of_class_talks_and_lectures/notes_taken_down_in_madras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Notes Taken&#xA;  Down in Madras&lt;/a&gt;, 1892-93, p.103)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T04:13:05.820" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T04:13:05.820" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="785" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="828" CreationDate="2014-07-05T17:11:11.680" Score="10" ViewCount="1726" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is an extract from Wikipedia :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samvatsara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samvatsara&lt;/a&gt; is a Sanskrit term for &quot;year&quot;. In Hindu tradition, there are 60 Samvatsaras, each of which has a name. Once all 60 samvatsaras are over, the cycle starts over again. On occasion, one will be skipped, as the count is based on the zodiac position of Jupiter, whose period around the Sun is slightly less than 12 years (the full cycle of 60 covers five Jovian years).        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there an astronomical representation for the cycle of 60 &#xA;Samvatsaras ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Remark&lt;/strong&gt;: The zodiac position of Jupiter (Brihaspati) is not a sufficient explanation because five Jovian years correspond to 59 years and 113 days, so that there is a shift of 252 days for every cycle of 60 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20" LastEditorUserId="20" LastEditDate="2014-07-28T12:10:01.710" LastActivityDate="2014-07-28T12:10:01.710" Title="Is there an astronomical representation for the cycle of 60 Samvatsaras?" Tags="|belief|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="786" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-05T17:28:49.370" Score="20" ViewCount="12452" Body="&lt;p&gt;Picture frames, especially the one in Diwali, Lord Ganesha is shown with Goddess Saraswati and Goddess Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is that so? I know the story of Lakshmi adopting Ganesha as his son from Parvati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So that make sense for Lakshmi portrayed with Ganesh but why Goddess Saraswati is also portrayed with them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-19T15:00:39.077" LastActivityDate="2019-10-05T20:51:01.677" Title="Why is Saraswati shown with Ganesha and Lakshmi?" Tags="|ganesha|lakshmi|saraswati|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="787" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-05T18:14:20.783" Score="8" ViewCount="364" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several English translations of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Sutras&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutra&lt;/a&gt; Bhasya of Shankara, by Swamis speaking English.  I've never found a (complete) French translation.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt;: Is there a French translation of the Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Shankara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Remark&lt;/strong&gt;: Perhaps there is such a translation by a Swami native close to Pondicherry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-14T19:18:57.970" LastActivityDate="2018-12-14T19:18:57.970" Title="Is there a French translation of the Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Shankara?" Tags="|vedanta|translation-request|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="788" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="787" CreationDate="2014-07-05T18:35:18.943" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.worldcat.org/title/le-vedanta-etude-sur-les-brahma-sutras-et-leurs-cinq-commentaires/oclc/301280005&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Le Vedanta : etude sur les Brahma-sutras et leurs cinq commentaires&quot;&lt;/a&gt;, which is a book with five commenatries on the Brahma Sutras, but I'm not sure whether it includes Adi Shankaracharya's commentary or not.  You may also be interested &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8186569022&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this French translation&lt;/a&gt; of the Brahma Sutra itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2014-07-05T18:35:18.943" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="789" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="768" CreationDate="2014-07-05T18:52:24.370" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The information about breathing science is contained in &lt;strong&gt;Swarodhaya Shastra&lt;/strong&gt;. It is also referred to as &lt;em&gt;Shiva Swarodaya&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Phonetical astrology&lt;/em&gt; &lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Swarodaya_/_Swara_Yoga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;[1]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;. Though I have never read the scripture myself, I am quoting from my friend's notes on Swarodhaya Shastra. It was incomplete and so I could give only a limited answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the breath flows through the right nostril, it is called &lt;em&gt;Surya Swara&lt;/em&gt; (or surya nadi) and when it flows through the left nostril, it is called &lt;em&gt;Chandra Swara&lt;/em&gt; (or chandra nadi). The process by which the flow changes from one nostril to the other is called &lt;em&gt;Swara Sankranti&lt;/em&gt;. Rarely, the breath may flow through both the nostrils, which is termed as &lt;em&gt;Vishvat Kala&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Surya Swara&lt;/em&gt; represents &lt;em&gt;male energy&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;Chandra Swara&lt;/em&gt; represents &lt;em&gt;female energy&lt;/em&gt;. So, the power of breath for a man is highest in the Surya Swara and for a female, it is highest in the Chandra Swara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastActivityDate="2014-07-05T18:52:24.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="791" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="792" CreationDate="2014-07-05T20:12:13.993" Score="19" ViewCount="9253" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/a&gt; is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, and it includes many important things, including a retelling of the Ramayana, a religious dialogue between Shiva and Parvati known the Shiva Gita, and several Sahasranamams (lists of 1000 names of a god), including a Vishnu Sahasranam (different from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu_sahasranama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the more famous one&lt;/a&gt; that Bhishma told in the Mahabharata), a Rama Sahasranamam, and a Venkatesha Sahasranam (in praise of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt;).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, the only unabridged English translation of the Padma Purana is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/padma-purana-ten-volumes-IDF395/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this 10-volume translation&lt;/a&gt; by N.A. Deshpande from the 1950's, published by Motilal Banarsidass.  My question is, is the whole translation available for free on the internet?  I've found most of the volumes of it online, as I discuss in my answer, but the whole thing still eludes me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Naturally, since this is a reputable site, I only want legal sources, nothing that involves any copyright-infringement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-27T07:26:16.877" LastActivityDate="2019-01-28T14:25:17.793" Title="Is the complete English translation of the Padma Purana available online?" Tags="|puranas|translation-request|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="792" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="791" CreationDate="2014-07-05T20:12:13.993" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've so far found two legal sources that have certain volumes of the Motilal-Banarsidass translation of the Padma Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;DSpace&lt;/a&gt;, the digital repository of the West Bengal Public Library Network, which has books in PDF format, but breaks each book into 80-page chunks.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dli.ernet.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Digital Library of India&lt;/a&gt; (DLI), which currently has lots of books only in TIFF format but is in the process of converting them all to PDF.  I converted them to PDF using &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/cancerian0684/dli-downloader/releases&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;DLI Downloader&lt;/a&gt;.  (I used version 5.4, available &lt;a href=&quot;http://code.google.com/p/dli-downloader/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, which is the latest version compatible with Windows XP).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So here are the volumes I've found so far using these two sources (remember there are 10 volumes total):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/wLOT/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 3&lt;/a&gt; (from DLI)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12948&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 4&lt;/a&gt; (from DSpace)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Tcco/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 5&lt;/a&gt; (from DLI)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/ZtXX/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 6&lt;/a&gt; (from DLI)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12949&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 7&lt;/a&gt; (from DSpace)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12952&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 8&lt;/a&gt; (from DSpace)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12954&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 9&lt;/a&gt; (from Dspace)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/CsMd/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 10&lt;/a&gt; (from DLI)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the index of the Padma Purana is at the end of volume 10.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also found links to Volume 1 and Volume 2, but I haven't confirmed that the links are legal, so I'm refraining from posting them in case they infringes on copyright.  Does anyone know whether this book is in the public domain, or whether it's still under copyright? (I asked this question in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/332/what-is-the-copyright-status-of-indian-books&quot;&gt;Meta&lt;/a&gt; as well.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2015-07-29T07:14:19.667" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="793" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-06T03:04:01.973" Score="5" ViewCount="650" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the preamble to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu_sahasranama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Sahasranama&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduassociationhk.com/Mantras_Vishnu_Sahasranama.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;following verse&lt;/a&gt; occurs (see page 3):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;asya sri vishNOr divya sahasranAma stotra mahA mantrasya|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sri vedavyAso bhagavAn RshiH|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;anushTup chandaH|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sri mahAvishNu paramAtmA sriman nArAyaNo devatA|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of the great mantra called the Sri Vishnor Divya Sahasranama Stotra, the sage [who heard it from the gods] is Sri Vedavyasa Bhagavan, the meter is Anushtup, the deity [whom it is about] is Sri Mahavishnu Paramatma Sriman Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is about the unusually elaborate epithet used for Vishnu, &amp;quot;Sri Mahavishnu Paramatma Sriman Narayana.&amp;quot;  The meaning is clear: Mahavishnu just means the great Vishnu; Paramatma means the supreme soul or supersoul, which Vishnu certainly is; and Sriman Narayana is a common name of Vishnu which means the one who sleeps in the water.  But I'm wondering why this particular combination of names was used as the name of the deity of Sahasranamam.  Usually when the deity of a mantra is given, a very simple name is used, so it might say &amp;quot;vishNu devatA&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;mahavishNu devatA&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;sriman nArAyaNo devatA&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this particular phrase something that occurs elsewhere to describe Vishnu, perhaps in the preamble of some of other mantras to Vishnu?  Or is it unique to the preamble of the Vishnu Sahasranama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-05-18T19:37:27.550" Title="Does the phrase &quot;Sri Mahavishnu Paramatma Sriman Narayana&quot; occur outside the Vishnu Sahasranamam?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|mantras|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="794" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="732" CreationDate="2014-07-06T03:15:54.697" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, they are not synonymous terms&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Sanatana&lt;/em&gt; means eternal. So any &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; which is eternal can be termed as &lt;em&gt;sanatana&lt;/em&gt;. But Hindu &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; is a term that came into existence after the people of Indus vally civilazation, who practiced the Vedic system, were called as Hindus by followers of other religion. (See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/75&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we see the history, then we will find that every major religion in the world had its founder  or prophet. But &lt;strong&gt;the Vedic system has no such history of its inception&lt;/strong&gt;. It is prehistoric and will continue to exist as long as there are humans. Hence, it is considered eternal and the Vedic religion is called as &lt;em&gt;sanatana dharma&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, because followers of the Abrahimic religion also consider their religion to be existing since the beginning, they can term their religion &lt;em&gt;sanatana dharma&lt;/em&gt; as well technically, but Hindhu &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; will always denote the people of the Vedic religion. And &lt;em&gt;sanatana dharma&lt;/em&gt; being a Vedic term, naturally implies the Vedic religion commonly known as Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-07-06T03:15:54.697" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="795" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-06T04:40:41.483" Score="8" ViewCount="3883" Body="&lt;p&gt;In temples, Devotees often receive 'teertham' which comes in various forms.&#xA;Sometimes it is just plain water mixed with camphor or at times it is something as rich as 'pachamrut'.&#xA;What does it signify? And is there a specific gesture in which devotees have to accept it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2014-07-06T04:53:27.560" LastActivityDate="2018-02-24T14:21:16.617" Title="What is the significance of 'teertham' offered to devotees?" Tags="|rituals|temple|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="796" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="795" CreationDate="2014-07-06T06:18:48.090" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Theertham&lt;/em&gt; is usually the water with which the deity has been washed, or done '&lt;em&gt;abhishekam&lt;/em&gt;' with . It can contain &lt;em&gt;tulsi&lt;/em&gt; (Basil leaves), sometimes milk, sometimes camphor and water. Hence usually, it is interchangeably used with &lt;em&gt;charnamrit&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One has to receive it with both hands, and avoid spillage on the ground, as it is assumed to be holy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="306" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-07-06T07:18:55.803" LastActivityDate="2014-07-06T07:18:55.803" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="797" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="81" CreationDate="2014-07-06T06:19:20.487" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the scripture, river Ganga is considered sacred because it has arisen from the feet of Vishnu and destroys the sins of a person:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;caraṇābjasamudbhutā gaṃgā nameti viśrutā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    pāpāanāṃ sthūlarāśīnāṃ naśinī śeti nārada&lt;/em&gt; [Padma Pu. - 6.22.3]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Narada, renowned as Ganga, it has arisen from the lotus like feet (of Vishnu) and destroys sins in larger quantities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganga being auspicious and destroyer of sins, it is revered and worshipped by the people:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mānyeyaṃ sarvadā loke pavitrā pāpanāśinī&lt;/em&gt; [Pdm. Pu. - 6.22.9]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  She is pure, destroyer of sins and always honored in the world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T13:38:49.527" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T13:38:49.527" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="798" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="800" CreationDate="2014-07-06T06:31:51.177" Score="25" ViewCount="21283" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damaru&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Damaru&lt;/a&gt; attached to the Trishul that Lord Shiva carries? What does that Damaru signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zyIeq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="151" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:28.070" LastActivityDate="2017-03-16T16:42:28.070" Title="Why is there a Damaru attached to Lord Shiva's trishul?" Tags="|shiva|symbolism|symbols|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="799" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="831" CreationDate="2014-07-06T07:07:35.413" Score="10" ViewCount="4073" Body="&lt;p&gt;The members of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivaishnava&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; sect of Hinduism (of which I'm a member), especially the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyengar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyengars&lt;/a&gt; (Sri Vaishnavas who are Brahmanas), are divided into two sub-sects, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thenkalai&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thenkalais&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadakalai&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vadakalais&lt;/a&gt;.  These sub-sects both agree on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visishtadvaita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Visishtadvaita&lt;/a&gt; philosophy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanuja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramanujacharya&lt;/a&gt; that characterizes the Sri Vaishnava belief system, but they have several fine-grained but important doctrinal differences; &lt;a href=&quot;http://sriramanujar.tripod.com/tVsv.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt; does a good job of laying out the points of dispute.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2835/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more details.) In any case, these differences don't have much impact on the day-to-day religious practices of Iyengars, but they do have some: for instance, Vadakalais wear a U-shaped &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sricharanam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;namam&lt;/a&gt; on their foreheads while Thenkalais wear a Y-shaped namam, Vadakalais bow down twice while Thenkalais only bow once, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about another such difference, concerning the words used in the Sankalpam.  Before you do any Hindu ritual, you are supposed to begin by saying the Sankalpam, a formulaic utterance where you tell the gods where you're located in the universe, the time and date you're performing the ritual, what ritual you'd like to do, etc.  Hindus of all sects say the Sankalpam in almost identical fashion, except for a single line.  (See page 2 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.avaniavittam.org/images/AvaniAvittam%20For%20Yajur%20Upaakarma%20Sankalmpam%20(%20iyengar).pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF&lt;/a&gt;). The line begins with the words &quot;Sri Bhagavat Aagjna&quot;, meaning you are doing this ritual with the blessings/approval of Bhagavan or God (similar to the Latin expression &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annuit_c%C5%93ptis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Annuit Coeptis&lt;/a&gt;).  But how the line is continued depends on what sect you belong to.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you're a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaivism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shaiva&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarta_Tradition&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smartha&lt;/a&gt;, you would continue the line by saying something like &quot;Parvati Parameshwara Preethiyartham&quot; or just &quot;Parameshwara Preethiyartham&quot;, meaning that you are doing the ritual for the sake of Parameshwara (a name of Shiva).  But if you're a Sri Vaishnava, what you say next depends on what sub-sect you belong to.  Vadakalai Iyengars say something similar to the Shaivites: &quot;Sriman Narayana Preethiyartham&quot;, meaning that you are doing the ritual for the sake of Sriman Narayana (a name of Vishnu).  Thenkalai Iyengars, on the other hand, say &quot;Bhagavat Kainkarya Rupam&quot;, meaning that your performance of the ritual is a form of service to Bhagavan (God).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the philosophical difference between Thenkalais and Vadakalais that could possibly lead to such a small change in wording?  Thenkalais and Vadakalais are all Vaishnavas, so presumably they'd all agree that Vishnu can rightly be called Bhagavan, the supreme being.  So what's the difference they're quarreling about?  Doing something for the sake of a god vs doing something as a form of service to a god seems like splitting hairs to me.  Could it be that I'm mistranslating the Sanskrit words Preethiyartha and/or Kainkarya?  Or am I missing some subtle philosophical distinction here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, I just noticed that the preamble of the Vishnu Sahasranamam contains the phrase &quot;Sri Mahavishnu Preethyarthe&quot;.  Could that be related to the Vadakalai practice of saying &quot;Sriman Narayana Preethyartham&quot;?  If so, why would they substitute the name &quot;Mahavishnu&quot; with the name &quot;Sriman Narayana&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T14:03:07.170" Title="What is the Thenkalai-Vadakalai disagreement about &quot;Sriman Narayana Preethiyartham&quot; vs &quot;Bhagavat Kainkarya Roopam&quot;?" Tags="|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|vadakalai|thenkalai|sankalpa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="800" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="798" CreationDate="2014-07-06T07:38:47.113" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva is often described as cosmic dancer and a great musician. Shiva's &lt;em&gt;Tandavam&lt;/em&gt; is the cosmic dance and his &lt;em&gt;Damaru&lt;/em&gt; (a small hourglass shape drum) represent the cosmic sound. It is said in &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books?id=83RnAwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT24&amp;amp;lpg=PT24&amp;amp;dq=damaru%20shiva%20shiva%20mahapurana&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=MWjJcfYdnI&amp;amp;sig=PVoKsd9dIOv1j8D1tilJ2Al1etM&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=3fm4U8iWG4mjugSyyoCgBw&amp;amp;ved=0CF4Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=damaru%20shiva%20shiva%20mahapurana&amp;amp;f=false&quot;&gt;Shiva &lt;em&gt;Mahapurana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the sounds from the &lt;em&gt;damaru&lt;/em&gt; beats the the rhythm of the cosmic vibrations and the energy is activated by the divine Mother or &lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sound from &lt;em&gt;damaru&lt;/em&gt; often is interpreted as the &lt;em&gt;Pranavam&lt;/em&gt; and represent the *Shabda Brahma*n. Pranavam or OM is supposed to the precursor to all human languages.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/siva.htm&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's a very beautiful &lt;em&gt;strotam&lt;/em&gt; which mimics the sound produced by &lt;em&gt;damaru&lt;/em&gt; called &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Tandava_Stotram&quot;&gt;Shiva &lt;em&gt;Tandava&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Strotam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; by creating a rolling effect. The first couplet is &amp;mdash;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जटाटवीगलज्जलप्रवाहपावितस्थले &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गलेऽवलम्ब्य लम्बितां भुजङ्गतुङ्गमालिकाम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  डमड्डमड्डमड्डमन्निनादवड्डमर्वयं &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चकार चण्डताण्डवं तनोतु नः शिवः शिवम् ||१|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jatatavee gala jwalapravaha pavitha sthale &lt;br&gt; Galae..valambya&#xA;  lambitaam bhujanga tunga malikaam &lt;br&gt; Damad damad damad&#xA;  damanninaadavaddamavaryam &lt;br&gt; Chakara chandatandavam tanotu naha&#xA;  shivaha shivam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-06T09:29:21.723" LastActivityDate="2014-07-06T09:29:21.723" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="801" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="747" CreationDate="2014-07-06T10:49:02.697" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;One can view &lt;em&gt;Lakshmi&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Saraswati&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;Parvati&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Kali&lt;/em&gt;) as the female trinity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are the wives/female counterparts of &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Brahma&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt;, respectively. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bellaterreno.com/art/a_religion/hindu/hinduismgods_trinity_goddesses.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="306" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:24:52.140" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:24:52.140" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="802" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3" CreationDate="2014-07-06T10:51:20.827" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism has many sects. It depends upon what perspective you are considering it from.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It all starts from the Vedas. However, Vedas being not consistent in their philosophies, different schools of thought emerged in India either by accepting or rejecting the authority of the Vedas. Those schools of thought which accept its authority are part of Hinduism and known as &lt;em&gt;sad darshana&lt;/em&gt; (six philosophies) and the others became separate religion like Buddhism, Jainism, etc. or lost prominence like Charvak and Ajivika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now among the six schools of thought, not all accepted the existence of a personal God (&lt;em&gt;Ishwara&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nyāya System&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Deals with: Logical methods for verifying the truth value of an information&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  God Exists?: Yes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaiśesika System&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Deals with: Fundamental constitution of matter&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  God Exists?: No&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sāṃkhya System&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Deals with: Cause and nature of the existence&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  God Exists?: No&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mīmāṃsā System (&lt;em&gt;pūrva mīmāṃsā&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Deals with: interpretation of &lt;em&gt;karma kānḍa&lt;/em&gt; (ritualistic) portion of the vedas&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  God Exists?: No&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yoga System&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Deals with: Physical well being and cessation of mental tendencies&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  God Exists?: Yes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedānta System (&lt;em&gt;uttara mīmāṃsā&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Deals with: interpretation of jñāna kānḍa portion of the vedas&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  God Exists?: Yes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In course of time the Vedanta school of thought, which says God exists, become prominent due to contribution of many scholars (&lt;em&gt;acharyas&lt;/em&gt;) and philosophers. But then, it also got divided into two primary sects or schools of thought:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. God is without form, attribute and qualities:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Under this the prominent school of thought goes the &lt;strong&gt;Advaita Vada&lt;/strong&gt; philosophy of which Sankaracharya is the well known proponent.&#xA;As per them, &lt;strong&gt;God alone is real, the world is an illusion. There is no difference between the individual soul (&lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;) and supreme soul (Brahman). Both are one and identical.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. God is with form, attribute and qualities:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Under this go the other remaining vedanta schools of thought:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishishtadvaita&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Śrī Rāmānujāccārya was its founding proponent.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahma has attributes and qualities. It is quality less only in the sense that, it doesn’t have any negative qualities.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jiva&lt;/em&gt; (the individual soul) and Brahman (God) are related like part and whole. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dvaitadvaita&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Śrī Nimbārkācārya was the founding &lt;em&gt;acharya&lt;/em&gt; of this school of thought.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shri Krishna is the Brahman (God).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jiva and Brahma have both similarities and differences.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dvaita&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Śrī Mādhvācārya was the founding &lt;em&gt;acharya&lt;/em&gt; of this school of thought.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahma is personal. He has attributes, qualities and form. He is Vishnu.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The individual soul is different and separate from Brahman (God). They are not identical.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shuddadvaita&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Śrī Vallabhācārya was the founding &lt;em&gt;acharya&lt;/em&gt; of this school of thought.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahma and jiva are essentially the same just like fire and the spark produced from it.&#xA;  And just like the spark, jiva is different from Brahma and just a part of it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Krishna is the supreme God and devotion to Him is the way for salvation.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now apart from these there is also &lt;strong&gt;Achintya Bhedabheda&lt;/strong&gt; school of thought by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It also considers Shri Krishna as God Himself. So basically these Vedanta school of thought that say God has a form consider Vishnu or Krishna as the God Himself and say this world is real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, considering God has a form, there are also other sects depending upon who the God is. There are minimum five primary sects, some of which also have many sub-sects:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Worshippers&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Has many sub-sects like Laxmi-sampradaya (tradition), Rudra-sampradaya, etc. Please see &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishnavism&quot;&gt;Vaishnavism&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva Worshippers&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Has many sub-sects like pashupata, kapalika, etc. Please see &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaivism&quot;&gt;Shaivasim&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shakti Worshippers&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Has many sub-sects like srikula, kalikula, etc. Please see &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaktism&quot;&gt;Shaktisim&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganpati Worshippers&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Worship Lord Ganesh.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Surya Worshippers&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Worship Sun.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from these there are many other sects and sub-sects throughout India taking into account various local gods, goddesses and teachers. Those belonging to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartism&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Smarta&lt;/em&gt; tradation&lt;/a&gt; chose whatever God they like to worship. So a Hinduism has so many sects that a complete list will become too huge. But above stated are the primary and major sects found in Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-06T10:59:24.373" LastActivityDate="2014-07-06T10:59:24.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="803" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="763" CreationDate="2014-07-06T12:12:23.230" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Found answer after googling it's been quite a long story but i have to write to explain others who have the same question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Earlier a few centuries back.  Men would not wear shirts, they had&#xA;  their top body open, so to identify - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a person wears a single (1 set of 3 ) it means he is a brahmin&#xA;  (unmarried)  When a person wears a double(2 set of 3 ) it means he is&#xA;  a brahmin (married)  When a person wears a treble (3 set of 3 ) it&#xA;  means he is a brahmin (married) but not without father. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;White is peace,knowledge etc. There is no show off, it is the duty&#xA;  they are to perform with respect to the above number of thread sets. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Three thread in a set is GOD G-Generater O- Organiser D - Destroyer&#xA;  which in local parlance is  Brahma Vishnu Mahesh&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some one says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is only a symbol for peace. Actually it should be wear around the&#xA;  mind&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One blog explains me very well&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Janehu/Upanayanam ceremony is a very important tradition among the Brahmins. After the Namkaran (naming) ceremony, it is probably the next biggest occasion for the Brahmin boy. This ceremony marks the boy's entry into studies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upanayanam ceremony takes place when the boy is around 7-8 years old. A sacred thread, called Yagnopavitam is placed around the left shouder of the boy. This thread is a composite of 3 threads, signifying Goddesses Gayatri (thought), Saraswati (word) and Savitri (deed) respectively. There is also a knot in the middle that signifies the unending Brahman.&#xA;A head priest whispers the Gayatri Mantra into the boy's ears, and he is formally initiated into education.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this, the boy is supposed to tie the thread around his ear whenever he passes urine, so as to avoid getting it into contact with the excretory organs and thus getting contaminated. The thread is also changed once a year on the occasion of Shravani Purnima, the full moon day in the month of Shravan. This is also known as Avaani Avittam in Tamil, and coincides with the Raksha Bandhan or Rakhi festival of North India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The below photo shows Brahmins taking part in the thread changing ceremony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, so much so for the religious part of it. But what is the factual meaning behind this Janehu/Upanayanam ceremony? Let us explore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though the fact about keeping the thread pure by avoiding contact with the excretory organs is understandable, there is a hidden meaning in this practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a scientifically proven fact that a vein passing through the ear regulates the flow of urine. Therefore, when the boy wears the sacred thread around his ear while passing urine, he is unconciously helping his urinary system to regulate the urine flow, thus keeping his urinary system, bladder, etc. healthy and free of problems.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, we should take into account the fact that the Brahmins of olden days did not lead a very active lifestyle (i.e.) they were mostly conducting Pujas, where their primary role was to be seated and chant Mantras. In this scenario, it would have been difficult to keep their kidneys in top-shape. This is why this alternative system of Yagnopavitam (sacred thread) has been formulated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="129" LastActivityDate="2014-07-06T12:12:23.230" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="804" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-06T12:38:54.300" Score="4" ViewCount="216" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story behind Lord Mahavishnu lying on a serpent with 5 heads in an ocean? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-11T08:34:21.557" LastActivityDate="2017-04-11T08:34:21.557" Title="Story behind Lord Mahavishnu lying on a 5 headed serpent in the ocean" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2018-11-02T04:54:31.987" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="805" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="650" CreationDate="2014-07-06T14:26:34.977" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usually,&lt;em&gt;sandhyapuja&lt;/em&gt; is done at 'twilight' or '&lt;em&gt;trisandhya&lt;/em&gt;'. That is the time when many insects and mosquitoes are present. Along with the aroma as the other user mentioned, the dhoop/ incense stick also gets rid of the insects and mosquitoes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="306" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-31T04:52:23.830" LastActivityDate="2014-10-31T04:52:23.830" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="806" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="810" CreationDate="2014-07-06T14:32:48.247" Score="14" ViewCount="37847" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why did Lord Krishna attack Bhishma &lt;em&gt;(Bhishma Pitamaha)&lt;/em&gt;, in spite of vowing that he would not pick up a weapon in the Kurukshetra war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-12T08:36:28.237" LastActivityDate="2017-12-09T19:56:53.087" Title="Why did Lord Krishna attack Bhishma?" Tags="|krishna|mahabharata|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="808" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="811" CreationDate="2014-07-06T15:10:50.760" Score="15" ViewCount="23577" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did lord Shiva of the Thrimoorthi get three eyes? Who gave him the third eye?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user304" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T07:36:22.080" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T16:32:18.490" Title="Why does lord Shiva have three eyes?" Tags="|shiva|shaivism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="810" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="806" CreationDate="2014-07-06T16:13:41.990" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna had to attack Bhishma (actually He &lt;em&gt;almost&lt;/em&gt; attacked him) because Arjuna was unable to stop the wrath that Bhishma had unleashed. Arjuna promised Shri Krishna to take out Bhisma in battle:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चॊदयाश्वान यतॊ भीष्मः करिष्ये वचनं तव&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पातयिष्यामि दुर्धर्षं वृद्धं कुरुपितामहम [MB - 6.102.37]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Urge the steeds, O Hrishikesa, to where Bhishma is. I will do as you say. I will overthrow the Kuru grandsire Bhishma, that invincible&#xA;  warrior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But while battling with Bhisma, Arjuna broke the string of his own bow: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथास्य तद अपि करुद्धश चिच्छेद धनुर अर्जुनः [45]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;strong&gt;Shri Krishna seeing that Arjuna was fighting mildly and Bhishma was showering arrows, put away the reins of the horses and jumped down from the chariot and proceeded to kill Bhishma&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वासुदेवस तु संप्रेक्ष्य पार्थस्य मृदुयुद्धताम&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भीष्मं च शरवर्षाणि सृजन्तम अनिशं युधि [50]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उत्सृज्य रजतप्रख्यान हयान पार्थस्य मारिष&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    करुद्धॊ नाम महायॊगी परचस्कन्द महारथात&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    अभिदुद्राव भीष्मं स भुजप्रहरणॊ बली&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    परतॊदपाणिस तेजस्वी सिंहवद विनदन मुहुः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    दारयन्न इव पद्भ्यां स जगतीं जगतीश्वरः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    करॊधताम्रेक्षणः कृष्णॊ जिघांसुर अमितद्युतिः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    गरसन्न इव च चेतांसि तावकानां महाहवे  [MB 6.102.53-55]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abandoning then, O sire, Partha's silver like steeds, and filled with wrath, that great lord of Yoga powers jumped down from that great chariot. Repeatedly roaring like a lion, the mighty Krishna of great energy and immeasurable splendor, the Lord of Universe, with eyes red as copper from rage, and having his bare arms alone for his weapons, rushed towards Bhishma, whip in hand, desirous of slaying him and seeming to split the universe itself with his tread. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But after that, Arjuna pleaded Krishna to not break His vow and promised to kill Bhisma himself. Shri Krishna in anger without saying a word to Arjuna (unlike what we have seen in TV shows) goes back and mounts the chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;माधवस तु वचः शरुत्वा फल्गुनस्य महात्मनः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न किं चिद उक्त्वा सक्रॊध आरुरॊह रथं पुनः [70]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Madhava, however, hearing these words of the high-souled Phalguni, spoke not a word, but in anger once more mounted upon the chariot. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from this account of the Mahabharat, it seems that even though Shri Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/718/38&quot;&gt;had promised to not use weapons&lt;/a&gt;, he was forced to take the step of using one due to the unstoppable wrath of Bhishma which Arjuna had failed to prevent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, Shri Krishna did this because His main purpose was not to be known as someone who keeps his vow, but to establish &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; as He had stated to Arjuna in Gita (4.7-8). So when He saw the side of &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; was facing trouble in the battle, He had to interfere in it anyway. Also, He might have done it to please Bhishma as well who was His devotee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat - Bhishma Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-01-12T08:38:34.090" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="811" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="808" CreationDate="2014-07-06T18:02:06.567" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;The third eye as seen on Lord Shiva's forehead is also the &lt;strong&gt;spiritual eye or ajna chakra&lt;/strong&gt; which stands for higher consciousness and allows us to see the real world for the world as we see it is an illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus believe that every human possesses this &lt;strong&gt;'third eye'&lt;/strong&gt; which can be activated only after years of meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who gave him the third eye?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva formed it himself.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;According to Mahabharata, One day Shiva's wife Parvati, daughter of the King of Mountains, stealthily went behind Shiva and playfully placed her hands over his eyes. Suddenly darkness engulfed the whole world and all beings trembled in great fear as the lord of the universe had closed his eyes. Suddenly a massive eye of flame erupted from the forehead of Shiva; a third eye had appeared there and this gave light to the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, this narration has a background to it. Shiva opened his third eye for the first time to set ablaze &lt;strong&gt;Kama&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;em&gt;the God of desire&lt;/em&gt; when Kama tried to play cupid between Shiva and Parvati.&#xA;Since then it has been said that third eye is meant only for destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A detailed and plausible background to this narration is found &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/the-third-eye.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does it signify?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva’s third eye represents the rejection of desire. It is the eye that killed Kama. &#xA;And why does Shiva reject desire? Because he realized the consequences of desire – when the object of desire (Sati) goes away, there is immense sorrow and rage. Desire not only evokes positive emotions (love, affection, contentment, compassion), it also evokes negative emotions (anger, dissatisfaction, sorrow). Shiva therefore shies away from it, preferring the cold still mountains which represent the state of transcendence – where there is just stillness, silence and bliss. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2014-07-09T03:41:51.187" LastActivityDate="2014-07-09T03:41:51.187" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="812" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="757" CreationDate="2014-07-06T18:02:27.617" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Goddess Sita didn't narrate the story to Valmiki but Valmiki himself wrote the Ramayana. Someone says Valmiki to meditate upon the word &lt;strong&gt;'mara'&lt;/strong&gt; which when repeated continuously sounds &lt;strong&gt;Rama&lt;/strong&gt;. From the meditation, he was able to write the story of the Ramayanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Ramayana is a story designed by the Lord Narayana. The devarishi&#xA;  Narada once goes meditates in a place where Lord Shiva previously&#xA;  meditated and destroyed Manmadhudu (which is nothing more than a&#xA;  desire). The devarishi Narada also got desires while he was&#xA;  meditating, but he still continued and completed his meditation&#xA;  without getting deviated. He, therefore thinks that he defeated&#xA;  Manmadhudu (a desire) and that the entire credit goes to him. However,&#xA;  it is because of the great Lord Shiva, Devarisihi Narada had completed&#xA;  his meditation successfully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He goes to Lord Shiva and tells him that he won against Manmadhudu.&#xA;  Lord shiva smiles and says about the story that he destroyed&#xA;  Manmadhudu previously in that place so did he successfully meditated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva tells to Narada not to tell Narayana that the credit goes to Narada but not Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada disobeys Lord Shiva's words and then goes to Lord Bramha and&#xA;  tells this. Bramha also tells not to say like this to Lord Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada again disobeys his father (Lord Bramha) words and tells it to Lord Narayana. As Lord Narayana is known for teaching lessons to those who are filled with ego, he does the same thing to Narada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Narayana creates a story like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada once will be invited to a kingdom. He is requested to tell&#xA;  astrology to the king's daughter. He says that she will get Lord&#xA;  Narayana as her husband. Narada, however on the other side likes that&#xA;  girl and wishes to marry her. He goes to Lord Narayana and tells that&#xA;  she likes that girl and that he needs to look like Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Narayana gives everything fine, but he gives a monkey face to&#xA;  Narada. Narada goes to the swayamvaram of the king's daughter. Every&#xA;  king who came to participate in the swayamvaram laughs at Narada.&#xA;  Narada doesn't know that he is given a monkey face. He therefore,&#xA;  thinks that they are laughing towards him because of jealous. He&#xA;  curses those people who laughed at him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Finally, Lord Narayana enters the Swayamvaram and marries the king's&#xA;  daughter. Lord Narada looks at his face and finds that he is given a&#xA;  monkey face. With lots of anger he goes to Lord Narayana and curses&#xA;  him that his wife will also be kidnapped by someone and you will fight&#xA;  with him to get her back. This is what is Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Narayana accepts the curse with a smile and incarnates in the Ramayanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-30T19:06:41.970" LastActivityDate="2015-12-30T19:06:41.970" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="813" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-06T18:08:56.670" Score="0" Body="&lt;h3&gt;1. Guidelines for using the tag&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For questions about Lord Vishnu, the god of preservation this tag must be used. In case of questions on directly any of his famous avataras (without any &lt;em&gt;other&lt;/em&gt; link to Vishnu) like Rama and Krishna, their respective tag must be preferred. The tag Narayana also redirects to this tag and hence this is the preferred tag.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2. General Description&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu (Sanskrit: विष्णु), also known as Narayana, is one of the three primary gods (Trimurti). Being the god of preservation, he has a dominance of Sattvaguna. His divine consort is Devi Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune. Together they reside in Vaikuntha where the Lord rests on a bed made by the coils of his serpent, Shesha or Ananta, earning him the name of Anantashayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Vaishnavas, he is the Supreme God or Brahman, the all omnipotent, omniscient deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The deity is described as being blue like the Atasi flower or like rain clouds. He has four hands in which he holds a conch (shankkha), discus ( sudarshana chakra), mace (kaumudaki gada) and a lotus. He is draped in yellow garments and adorned by the Vaijayanti Mala and Kaustubha gem. It is from his navel that Brahma in a lotus sprang out at the beginning of the Padma Kalpa and hence he is known as Padmanabha. The Lord’s vehicle is the ever faithful eagle Garuda, the Lord of Birds and son of Vinata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being the god of preservation, the Lord protects the earth from evil and it is for this purpose that he manifests in different forms on earth. As the Srimad Bhagavad Gita 4.7-8 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत। अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदाऽऽत्मानं सृजाम्यहम्॥७॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम्। धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय संभवामि युगे युगे॥८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whenever there is decline of righteousness, O Arjuna, and rise of unrighteousness, then I manifest Myself. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked and for the establishment of righteousness, I am born in every age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Srimad Bhagavatam describes about 24 main such avatars of the Lord with Rama and Krishna being the most famous and widely adored deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3. Useful Links&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-01-12T12:16:41.020" LastActivityDate="2021-01-12T12:16:41.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="814" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-06T18:08:56.670" Score="0" Body="For questions on the god of preservation, among the Trimurti. Also called Narayana. The Supreme God or Brahman in Vaishnavism. In case of questions exclusively on his avataras, the respective tag is preferable like Rama, Krishna." OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-01-12T12:18:12.740" LastActivityDate="2021-01-12T12:18:12.740" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="815" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T02:30:34.857" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;With a hundred thousand verses, the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt; by Veda Vyasa is considered the longest poem in the world. It narrates the great war fought in India between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T18:51:40.813" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T18:51:40.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="816" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T02:30:34.857" Score="0" Body="The epic by Veda Vyasa narrating the great war fought in India between the Kauravas and the Pandavas." OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T18:44:24.013" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T18:44:24.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="817" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="780" CreationDate="2014-07-07T03:17:25.843" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Devadasi system was the one most prevalent in southern India and parts of Odisha. Devadasis were young girls who were &quot;dedicated&quot; to the worship of deities. They had to gain expertise in arious classical dance forms like Bharatnatyam and Odissi. They were thought to be &lt;strong&gt;MARRIED TO THE LORD&lt;/strong&gt; himself. However they had various kings and influential people as their patrons. Information regarding Devadasis can be viewed at &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devadasi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devadasi&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many researchers have called Devadasis a &quot;&lt;em&gt;cursed&lt;/em&gt;&quot; community. It is because many of the devadasis have themselves confessed of being &quot;&lt;em&gt;dedicated to a life of sex work&lt;/em&gt;&quot; in the name of religion. The Devadasi system continues in many parts despite being declared illegal in 1988. For details visit: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/21/devadasi-india-sex-work-religion&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/21/devadasi-india-sex-work-religion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, sanyasinis are those women who have left GARHASTHYA to take up &quot;sannyasa&quot; or have proceeded to the same right after Brahmacharya without even entering into Garhasthya. Consult &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sannyasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sannyasa&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1979/gjuly79/qualsan.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1979/gjuly79/qualsan.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unlike the devadasis, the sanyasinis maintain celibacy. They are dedicated not merely to  the deity but play a role in the betterment of the society too. There has been no declaration of sannyasa being illegal till date.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="293" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T03:17:25.843" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="818" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2105" CreationDate="2014-07-07T03:43:03.290" Score="11" ViewCount="19299" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lamashree.org/dalailama_23_adi_s&amp;amp;dl.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This website&lt;/a&gt;, of dubious reliability, claims that &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/a&gt; lost in a debate against the Buddhist philosopher &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasubandhu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vasubandhu&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Towards the end of his short life, defeated in debate by the Buddhist Mahapandita Vasubandhu, Adi Shankaracharya was compelled to embrace Buddhism once again, as was the norm then. He died out of the sheer shame of his defeat!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question isn't about the claim concerning how he died; I'm pretty sure that at least Hindu sources say that he died by merging into the famous Lingam at &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kedarnath_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kedarnath&lt;/a&gt; to attain Moksha.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm wondering whether it's true that Adi Shankaracharya had a debate with Vasubandhu.  Are there any records of such a debate?  If so, what were the points debated and what was the result?  I highly doubt that the result would have been Adi Shankaracharya being forced to accept Buddhism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-05-01T03:24:37.937" LastActivityDate="2018-03-31T21:37:31.747" Title="Did Adi Shankaracharya lose a debate against the Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu?" Tags="|history|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|buddhism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="819" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="101" CreationDate="2014-07-07T04:17:02.057" Score="35" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am giving an additional account. The linga form of worship is the symbolic worship of Lord Shiva. As per Puranas like Brahmanda purana, Linga Purana, in the very beginning Shiva appeared to Brahma and Vishnu in the form of a bright splendor column of light whose beginning and end  they both could not find out. &lt;strong&gt;So the &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; form of Shiva also signifies the column of bright light.&lt;/strong&gt; This account was narrated by the sage Sūta when other sages asked him about the origin of the linga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kathaṃ liṃgamabhūlliṃge samabhyarcyaḥ sa śaṃkaraḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     kiṃ liṃgaṃ kastathā liṃgī sūta vaktumihārhasi&lt;/em&gt; [LP - 17.2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  How can there be &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; of God who is &lt;em&gt;alingi&lt;/em&gt; (without &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt;). How the &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; of Shankara is worshipped? What is &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; and what is &lt;em&gt;lingi&lt;/em&gt;? O Suta, please tell us these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Sūta goes on to narrate how Brhama had earlier given answers to the same questions to the gods. The linga form of Siva had appeared before the beginning of creation at the time when Vishnu and Brahma were engaged in arguments:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;etasminnantare liṃgamabhavaccāvayoḥ puraḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vivādaśamanārthaṃ hi prabodhārthaṃ ca bhāsvaram&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jvālāmālāsahasrāḍhyaṃ kālānalaśatopamam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kṣayavṛddhivinirmuktamādimadhyāṃtavarjitam&lt;/em&gt;  [LP - 17.33,34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then after that a bright &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; appeared between both of us to counsel our arguments. That linga was surrounded by thousands of flames and hot like fire of death. Without any beginning and end, that was free from decay and growth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So apart from the commonly known reason of the &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; worship, this is another account we find in our scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T04:17:02.057" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="820" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-07T04:39:48.000" Score="22" ViewCount="1412" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have multiple versions of Vishnu Sahasranama in our scriptures like Mahabharata, Padma Purana, Skanda Purana, etc. But the Mahabharata version is mostly used by us. So apart from the fact that Mahabharata is more popular than the other scriptures, is there any specific reason why that version of Sahasranama is mostly used and recommended by saints?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-16T22:58:06.920" LastActivityDate="2020-01-12T08:44:04.040" Title="Why Vishnu Sahasranama of Mahabharata is mostly used?" Tags="|mahabharata|tradition|skanda-purana|padma-purana|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="821" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-07T05:20:31.923" Score="11" ViewCount="1242" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; is married to &lt;em&gt;Lakhsmiji&lt;/em&gt; . After marriage he preferred to stay with goddess &lt;em&gt;Lakshmiji&lt;/em&gt; in the &lt;em&gt;Sea&lt;/em&gt; . The &lt;em&gt;Sea&lt;/em&gt; is considered as Father of &lt;em&gt;Lakshmiji&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what made lord &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; stay in the sea?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="130" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T05:53:47.183" LastActivityDate="2015-11-05T18:26:11.920" Title="Why Vishnu agrees to stay at Lakshmi's place after marriage?" Tags="|vishnu|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="822" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="775" CreationDate="2014-07-07T07:34:59.580" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There has been instances of mention of &lt;em&gt;matsyakanyaka&lt;/em&gt; or mermaids, such as this &quot;Our mythology speaks of many Vyasas; and it is said that there had been twenty-eight Vyasas before the present Vyasa—Krishna Dvaipayana—took his birth at the end of Dvapara Yuga. Krishna Dvaipayana was born of Parasara Rishi through the Matsyakanya—Satyavathi Devi—under some peculiar and wonderful circumstances.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/saints/vyasa.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Maharshi Vyasa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="306" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-31T04:49:00.530" LastActivityDate="2014-10-31T04:49:00.530" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="823" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-07T07:40:49.553" Score="19" ViewCount="1287" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Anukramani&lt;/a&gt;, the seer of Mandala 7 of the Rig Veda is the sage &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasishtha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vashishta&lt;/a&gt;, and in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07100.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;following verse&lt;/a&gt; from Mandala 7, Vasishta addresses Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What was there to be blamed in thee, O Viṣṇu, when thou declaredst, I am Sipivista?  Hide not this form from us, nor keep it secret, since thou didst wear another shape in battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sipivista means either bald or infused with the sun's rays, but my question is, what is the form being referred to when it says &quot;another shape&quot;, and what battle is it referring to?  I think I have an answer to the second question; this verse recurs in Book 8 Chapter 1 Hymn 4 of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sv.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sama Veda&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sayana&lt;/a&gt;'s commentary for that hymn says &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=ot7NfhBy148C&amp;amp;lpg=PA383&amp;amp;ots=45SRgObLBv&amp;amp;dq=%22assuming%20another%20artificial%20shape%22&amp;amp;pg=PA383#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%22assuming%20another%20artificial%20shape%22&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu formerly abandoned his own form, and assuming another artificial shape, succourred Vasishtha in battle.  Recognizing the god, the Rishi addresses him with the verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's only one battle Vasishta is known for - the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Ten_Kings&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Battle of Ten Kings&lt;/a&gt; (AKA the Dasarajna), where the Bharata king Sudas defeated a powerful alliance of many kings.  The Bharatas were successful in taking over India, which is why we call India Bharata-Varsha today.  In any case, Vasishtha, who was Sudas' guru at the time, was instrumental in his victory, because he was able to get the gods, particularly Indra and Varuna, to participate in the battle on the side of Sudas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it looks like Vasishta got the assistance of Vishnu as well, which wouldn't be surprising as Vishnu and Indra are often closely associated  (since Vishnu's incarnation Vamana is Indra's little brother).  So the question remains, what's the alternate form that Vishnu assumed in the Battle of Ten Kings?  Are there any other scriptures that describe Vishnu's role in this battle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2020-01-22T13:03:40.567" Title="What form did Vishnu take in the Battle of Ten Kings?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|rig-veda|vashishta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="824" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="827" CreationDate="2014-07-07T07:43:25.783" Score="7" ViewCount="2321" Body="&lt;p&gt;To kill Hiranyakashyipu, why did Lord Vishnu take on an avatar that was half human and half lion? He could have just come straight in his original form and killed that &lt;em&gt;Daanav&lt;/em&gt;. Is there any specific reason behind this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-08T15:12:13.060" LastActivityDate="2017-02-22T18:52:27.047" Title="Why did Vishnu take on an avatar that was half human and half lion?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|narasimha|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="825" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="824" CreationDate="2014-07-07T08:19:06.820" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because &lt;em&gt;King Hiranyakashyipu&lt;/em&gt;, who was father of little &lt;em&gt;Prahlad&lt;/em&gt;, a great devotee of Lord Vishnu, was granted a boon from Brahma that &quot;No human, No animal, No one in the skies, No one on the land&quot; will be able to kill him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hiranyakashyipu's&lt;/em&gt; sins were increased to great extent that even Deva's were getting scared of him and couldn't stop him, so &lt;em&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; took avatar of half human, half animal, and he killed him in middle of skies and land.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiranyakashipu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia - Hiranyakashyipu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="317" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T09:08:47.997" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T09:08:47.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="826" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="824" CreationDate="2014-07-07T08:43:14.077" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is written in Srimad Bhagwatam 7.8.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prahlada was challenged by his father in the following sentence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;O most unfortunate Prahlada, you have always described a supreme being other than me, a supreme being who is above everything, who is the controller of everyone, and who is all-pervading. But where is He? If He is everywhere, then why is He not present before me in this pillar?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prahlada answered,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was, He is and He will be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hiranyakashipu, unable to control his anger, smashed the pillar with his mace, and then following a tumultuous sound, Vishnu in the form of Narasimha appeared from it and in defence of Prahlada went to attack his father, Hiranyakashipu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In order to kill Hiranyakashipu and not upset the boon given by Brahma, the form of Narasimha was chosen. Hiranyakashipu could not be killed by human, deva or animal, Narasimha is neither one of these, as he is a form of Vishnu incarnate as a part-human, part-animal.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He comes upon Hiranyakashipu at twilight (when it is neither day nor night) on the threshold of a courtyard (neither indoors nor out), and puts the demon on his lap (neither earth nor space). Using his nails (neither animate nor inanimate) as weapons, he disembowels and kills the demon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, basically, it was done because of the boon Brahma gave to the demon because of his penance. If the mentioned steps were not taken, Brahma's boon would have broken, which wasn't intended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="75" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T08:43:14.077" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="827" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="824" CreationDate="2014-07-07T09:02:08.227" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason that Vishnu went through all that rigmarole is described in the Srimad Bhagavatam.  To avenge the death of his brother Hiranyaksha at the hands of Vishnu in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varaha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha&lt;/a&gt; (boar) incarnation, Hiranyakshupu undertook long and arduous Tapasya (deep meditation), until Brahma appeared before him.  He asked Brahma for &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/7/3/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the following boon&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O my lord, O best of the givers of benediction, if you will kindly grant me the benediction I desire, please let me not meet death from any of the &lt;strong&gt;living entities created by you&lt;/strong&gt;.  Grant me that I not die within &lt;strong&gt;any residence or outside any residence&lt;/strong&gt;, during the &lt;strong&gt;daytime or at night&lt;/strong&gt;, nor on the &lt;strong&gt;ground or in the sky&lt;/strong&gt;. Grant me that my death not be brought by any being &lt;strong&gt;other than those created by you&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;nor by any weapon, nor by any human being or animal&lt;/strong&gt;.  Grant me that I not meet death from &lt;strong&gt;any entity, living or nonliving&lt;/strong&gt;. Grant me, further, that I not be killed by &lt;strong&gt;any god or demon&lt;/strong&gt; or by &lt;strong&gt;any great snake from the lower planets&lt;/strong&gt;. Since no one can kill you in the battlefield, you have no competitor. Therefore, grant me the benediction that I too may have &lt;strong&gt;no rival&lt;/strong&gt;. Give me sole lordship over all the living entities and presiding deities, and give me all the glories obtained by that position. Furthermore, give me all the mystic powers attained by long austerities and the practice of yoga, for these cannot be lost at any time.  [emphasis added]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That might seem like it covers everything, but Vishnu still &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/7/8/29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;found a way&lt;/a&gt; to kill him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a snake captures a mouse or Garuḍa captures a very venomous snake, Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva captured Hiraṇyakaśipu, who could not be pierced even by the thunderbolt of King Indra. As Hiraṇyakaśipu moved his limbs here, there and all around, very much afflicted at being captured, Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva placed the demon on His lap, supporting him with His thighs, and in the doorway of the assembly hall the Lord very easily tore the demon to pieces with the nails of His hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's review how it gets around the conditions of the boon:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu assumes the form of Narasimha, a half-man half-lion creature, so he's neither a human being nor an animal.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He kills him on the doorstep, so it's neither inside nor outside.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He kills him at twilight, so it's neither day nor night.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He puts him on his lap before he kills him, so it's neither on the earth nor in space&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He kills him with his fingernails, which is dead matter, so neither a living thing nor an inanimate object.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as always, Vishnu triumphed in the end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-12T21:41:05.777" LastActivityDate="2016-01-12T21:41:05.777" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="828" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="785" CreationDate="2014-07-07T09:11:42.507" Score="9" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chaitramasi jagadbrahma sasarju prathamehaani&#xA;  Shukla paksha samagranthu thadaa suryodaye sathi&#xA;  Pravarthayaamaasa thatha kaalasya gananaamapi&#xA;  Grahantaaraan ruthoonmaasaan wathsaraanwathsaraadhipaan&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  -&lt;em&gt;Chaturvarga Chintamani&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma created the Universe on the first day of &lt;em&gt;Shukla Paksha&lt;/em&gt; of the &lt;em&gt;Chaitra&lt;/em&gt; month. He created the planets, stars, seasons, years and Lords of years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From their original union during the moment of Creation; the Sun and planets have moved endlessly forward from the same spot in the sky, each at their own speed. This region is the constellation of Aries, or &lt;em&gt;mesha&lt;/em&gt;. This is the first constellation that the Sun enters after it crosses north of the Equator, the Spring Equinox. &lt;em&gt;Chaitra&lt;/em&gt; marks the first month after the Sun enters the constellation of &lt;em&gt;mesha&lt;/em&gt;. The lunar cycle has the same beginning, called &lt;em&gt;Meshadi&lt;/em&gt; or the &quot;start of Aries&quot;. Similiarly, the &lt;em&gt;grahas&lt;/em&gt; (planets) started from &lt;em&gt;mesha&lt;/em&gt; as well. Let's consider the slowest members of the planets, Jupiter &amp;amp; Saturn. Jupiter (&lt;em&gt;Brihaspati&lt;/em&gt;) has a daily motion of 5 &lt;em&gt;kalas&lt;/em&gt; (angular minutes), and takes ~ 12 years to return back in &lt;em&gt;mesha&lt;/em&gt;. Saturn (&lt;em&gt;Shani&lt;/em&gt;) has a daily motion of 2 &lt;em&gt;kalas&lt;/em&gt;, and takes ~ 30 years to return. This way, it takes ~60 years for both &lt;em&gt;Brihaspati&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Shani&lt;/em&gt; to come together in &lt;em&gt;mesha&lt;/em&gt;, which marks the first year of the &lt;em&gt;samvatsara&lt;/em&gt; cycle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The starting date was determined by &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryabhata&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aryabhata&lt;/a&gt;, who backcalculated the positions of the planets to coincide at &lt;em&gt;mesha&lt;/em&gt; at the beginning of Kali yuga, to 3102 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The choice of 3102 BCE had a special significance for Aryabhata. Midday at Ujjain on the equinoctial day 21 March CE 499 exactly corresponds to the beginning of the year 3600 of his Kaliyuga. Since the ardharatrikapaksa (midnight school) starts its Kaliyuga six hours before the Aryapaksa, Aryabhata artificially made the duration of the year slightly longer in the former case so that in both the schools the 3600th year starts at the same time. Significantly, CE 499 is the year of the composition of Aryabhatiya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it is now known that planetary orbits are subject to various kinds of perturbations, and a theory depending on the orbital period as the sole parameter cannot give accurate results. According to modern numerical simulations, on 17/18 February 3102 BC the five geocentric planets were not aligned but spread over two neighboring zodiacal signs. This again underlines the inference that the significance of the date was hypothetical rather than real. In addition, the &lt;em&gt;adhikmasa&lt;/em&gt; (leap month) methodology as introduced by &lt;em&gt;Bhaskara&lt;/em&gt; II worked to shift the years from their original cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Siddhanta Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;Samvatsaras&lt;/em&gt; have been counted as 60 beginning from &lt;em&gt;Vijaya&lt;/em&gt; and going down to &lt;em&gt;Nandana&lt;/em&gt;. But &lt;em&gt;Varahamihira&lt;/em&gt; in &lt;em&gt;Brihat Samhita&lt;/em&gt; regarded the beginning of the &lt;em&gt;Samvatsara&lt;/em&gt; cycle, not from &lt;em&gt;Vijaya&lt;/em&gt;, but from the 35th &lt;em&gt;Samvatsara&lt;/em&gt; of &lt;em&gt;Prabhava&lt;/em&gt;. Since &lt;em&gt;Varahamihira’s&lt;/em&gt; times it is this sequence which has been accepted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For an astrological explanation, see &lt;a href=&quot;http://satva.blogspot.in/2011/12/effects-of-samvatsaras.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastEditorUserId="226" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T14:05:19.740" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T14:05:19.740" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="829" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-07T09:32:14.863" Score="33" ViewCount="3837" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently, Dwarka Shankaracharya, Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati stirred controversy by claiming that since Shirdi Sai was a human and that there are no mention of him any Hindu scripture, he shouldn't be worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any basis for his allegation? Does Hindu scripture prohibit worship of humans?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is a seer right in issuing a carpet ban on worship of a 'god' on this basis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sai-vs-Shankaracharya-Conflict-may-turn-ugly/articleshow/37670625.cms&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Times of India&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT1: I haven't made myself sufficiently clear on this, I &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.quora.com/Are-the-accusations-made-by-Shankaracharya-true/answer/Vineet-Menon-1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;answered&lt;/a&gt; a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.quora.com/Are-the-accusations-made-by-Shankaracharya-true&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; couple of days before asking the same things here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the minimal understanding of Hinduism I have, what Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati said is not fair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu Pantheon was never static but fluid and very dynamic. Our concept of gods were very different in vedic times, which included Indra, Agni, Mithra, Varuna and other Rigvedic deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, the concept of god shifted from these gods to the gods which we know, right now i.e. the Trimurty (Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma) and various incarnations of Vishnu, Sons of Shiva and Shakti. Rigveda doesn't have mention of these gods, rather later Puranas were entirely dedicated to them, which made up the myth base for these gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2023-07-16T11:13:19.443" Title="What is the basis for worshipping Sai Baba? Are there are references to him in the Vedas or other Vedic literature?" Tags="|scripture|rituals|worship|sai|" AnswerCount="9" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="831" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="799" CreationDate="2014-07-07T12:45:34.663" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Vadakalai&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Sankalpam&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sri Bhavatagya sriman Narayana preethiyartham&lt;/em&gt; ~ &quot;By the command of Bhagavat, (I do this act) for the pleasure of Lord Narayana&quot;. [Prītyā=&lt;em&gt;sans&lt;/em&gt;. joy, pleasure]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since the &lt;em&gt;Vadakalai&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Sankalpam&lt;/em&gt; is practically identical to the &lt;em&gt;smarta&lt;/em&gt; in construction, we'll take that as the standard, and let's consider why the &lt;em&gt;tenkalai&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;sankalpam&lt;/em&gt; is different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Tenkalai Sankalpam&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sri Bhavatagya bhagavat kainkarya rUpam&lt;/em&gt; ~ &quot;By the command of Bhagavat, (I do this) in the form of servitude to the Lord&quot;. [Kaiṅkarya=&lt;em&gt;sans&lt;/em&gt;. servitude, the job of a slave]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Tenkalai&lt;/em&gt; philosophy emphasises that the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is in a perpetual state of bondage to the Lord. Unlike in the &lt;em&gt;Vadakalai&lt;/em&gt; worldview, the soul cannot act on its own volition, even to surrender (&lt;em&gt;prapatti&lt;/em&gt;), ie, the infamous &lt;em&gt;Marjala Nyaya&lt;/em&gt;. For the most hilarious explanation of this theological argument, see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavadgitausa.com/vadakalai_tenkalai.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. To perform any act explicitly for pleasing the Lord was &lt;em&gt;amaryaada&lt;/em&gt;, (disrespectful), since:-&#xA;-the soul was offering itself when it in actuality eternally belonged to the Paramaatma, and&#xA;-not even the physical act of surrendering can force the Lord to save the soul&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So instead of pleasing the Lord, you must simply serve, ie, &lt;em&gt;kainkarya&lt;/em&gt;. Rather than the standard 'सेवा', which implies voluntary service, this is '    कैङ्कर्य', 'servitude', the involuntary act of a slave. For a more exhaustive explanation of the concept of &lt;em&gt;kainkarya&lt;/em&gt;, see &lt;a href=&quot;http://kirtimukha.com/chinna/MukundaMala/kainkaryam.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for &lt;em&gt;Mahavishnu prityartham&lt;/em&gt; in the Vishnu Sahasranama, this is in the &lt;em&gt;Purvanyasa&lt;/em&gt; section, and are the words of Sri Vyasa himself, and therefore, cannot be changed by &lt;em&gt;Thankalais&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Vadakalais&lt;/em&gt;. This is not to emphasise &lt;em&gt;Mahavishnu&lt;/em&gt; over &lt;em&gt;Narayana&lt;/em&gt;. Just a few lines before, Sri Vyasa declares that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्री वेदव्यासो भगवान ऋषिः।&#xA;  अनुष्टुप् छन्दः।&#xA;  श्रीमहाविष्णुः परमात्मा श्रीमन्नारायणो देवता।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-Sri Vedvyasa is the author of this text,&#xA;which is composed in the Anushtup metre,&#xA;the presiding diety of which is &quot;Sri Mahavishnu paramatma Sriman Narayana&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The version of the Sahasranama in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_vishhnu/viShNusahasranAmastotragaruDapurANa.itx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/a&gt; doesn't have &lt;em&gt;Mahavishnu prityartham&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-14T10:47:23.293" LastActivityDate="2015-02-14T10:47:23.293" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="832" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="829" CreationDate="2014-07-07T13:09:01.750" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Swami has every right to hold such an opinion. Ordinary Hindus also have the right to disagree with his opinion. The Swami does not have authority over Hindus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma said in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a131.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section 132&lt;/a&gt; that a man &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;is said to be conversant with duty, who knows duty as depending on&#xA;  all four foundations&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;§&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Footnotes &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;§&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; These four foundations of duty are (1) as laid&#xA;  down in the Vedas, (2) as laid down in the Smritis, (3) as sanctioned&#xA;  by ancient usage and customs and (4) as approved by the heart or one's&#xA;  own conscience.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus whether a Hindu worships Sai Baba is a matter of his conscience. Nobody can interfere in such a matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma might be referring to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc145585.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manusmriti 2.12&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वेदः स्मृतिः सदाचारः स्वस्य च प्रियमात्मनः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एतच्चतुर्विधं प्राहुः साक्षाद् धर्मस्य लक्षणम् ॥ १२ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vedaḥ smṛtiḥ sadācāraḥ svasya ca priyamātmanaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  etaccaturvidhaṃ prāhuḥ sākṣād dharmasya lakṣaṇam || 12 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Veda, the Smṛti, the Practice of cultured Men, and what is agreeable to oneself—these directly constitute the fourfold means of knowing Dharma.—(12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-23T16:23:10.480" LastActivityDate="2016-09-23T16:23:10.480" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="834" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="836" CreationDate="2014-07-07T16:10:09.203" Score="16" ViewCount="34606" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard there was one occasion where a god and his devotee fought a great battle against each other. It's the case of Lord Rama vs. Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being a true devotee, why did Hanuman fight against his &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%ADa-devat%C4%81_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;cherished god&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Rama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-22T15:45:04.923" LastActivityDate="2017-02-25T08:12:33.400" Title="Why did Hanuman fight with Lord Rama?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="836" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="834" CreationDate="2014-07-07T18:40:10.900" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, this story has no scriptural basis; it may just be folklore.  The story as I remember it goes roughly as follows: the king of Kashi was once in Ayodhya, perhaps during the coronation of Rama, and he insulted the short-tempered sage Vishwamitra who was there at the time.  Vishwamitra was furious and he told Rama that he wanted the king's head at his feet by sunset.  Rama was duty-bound to obey, as Vishwamitra was his guru, so he promised that he would do that.  The king of Kashi, terrified for his life since Rama was immeasurably powerful, sought refuge in Hanuman.  Hanuman agreed to protect the king, and so Rama and Hanuman were forced to battle each other.  Rama tried launching arrows at Hanuman, but the arrows fell to the ground when Hanuman kept chanting Rama's name, because Rama's name is even more powerful than his arrows.  So they were at a stalemate, and then they found a way to resolve the situation: they made the king of Kashi bow down to Vishwamitra, so that technically his head would be at his feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think this story is told in any Hindu scriptures; I originally learnt it myself from some comic book for kids.  But I just found the story in the book &amp;quot;Hanuman's Tale: The Messages of a Divine Monkey&amp;quot; by Phillip Lutgendorf (pages 162-164):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[T]he king of Kashi happens to be journeying to Ayodhya to pay his respects to Rama.  En route, he meets the sage Narada, who requests a favor of him.  When the king agrees, Narada tells him to show respect to everyone in Rama's court, but to ignore sage Vishwamitra....  The ever-volatile Vishwamitra is enraged by the slight and informs Rama of it, calling it a stain on the honor of his court.  Rama's brow darkens; he removes three arrows from his quiver and vows that he will take the life of the king of Kashi before the sun sets....  The king is trembling like a leaf, however, so Narada offers a suggest for how he might yet save himself: &amp;quot;Go to [Hanuman's mother] Lady Anjana and ask for her protection.&amp;quot; ... When he then reveals that his would-be executioner is Rama hismelf, Anjana is troubled.  &amp;quot;This will be difficult&amp;quot;, she says, then adds, &amp;quot;still, I'll try.&amp;quot;  At this moment Hanuman arrives and bows at his mother's feet.... [S]he makes him, in turn, promise three times to assist her....  His mother reminds him of the great dharma of sheltering the week and of the fact that she has given her word.  Hanuman says he will try to find a way out&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman flies back to Ayodhya with the king and brings him to the bank of the Sarayu.  He tells him to wade waist-deep into the water and remain there, repeating Rama's name.  Meanwhile, Hanuman presents himself at court, bows to Rama, ... [and] asks that henceforth he be permitted to guard those who repeat Rama's name, and further, that as long as he does so, no power in the universe, - &amp;quot;not even God himself&amp;quot; - should be able to cause them harm.  Rama readily agrees, whereupon Hanuman ... rushes back to the riverbank[.]...  Rama is soon informed of this and becomes furious.  He takes one of his arrows, charges it with mantras for the destruction of the king of Kashi, and fires it right from the palace.  But the arrow halts in mid-air just in front of the king[.]...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, Vishwamitra too arrives on the scene, brooding over the curious crisis he preciptated.  As Rama prepares to fire his arrow, Vashishta ... tells the offending king to throw himself at Vishwamitra's feet.  The king does so, still repeating the mantra, and Vishwamitra is pleased and declares his act of repentance to be sufficient.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-05-08T14:27:42.837" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="837" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T19:28:33.737" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T19:28:33.737" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T19:28:33.737" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="838" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T19:28:33.737" Score="0" Body="Narasimha, the man-lion form of Lord Vishnu is typically counted as the fourth avatar of Lord Vishnu's Dashavatara." OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-09-11T15:59:58.930" LastActivityDate="2021-09-11T15:59:58.930" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="839" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T19:50:31.123" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T19:50:31.123" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T19:50:31.123" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="840" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T19:50:31.123" Score="0" Body="For questions about Brahman, the divine essence also called as Paramatma. Not to be confused with [brahma] or [brahmins]. " OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T07:52:40.193" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T07:52:40.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="841" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T19:52:01.973" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T19:52:01.973" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T19:52:01.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="842" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T19:52:01.973" Score="0" Body="For questions about brahmins, as in the caste. Not to be confused with [brahma] or [brahman]." OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T19:52:01.973" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T19:52:01.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="843" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T19:52:27.660" Score="0" Body="&lt;h3&gt;1. Guidelines for using the tag&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This tag must be used when questions about Lord Brahma, the creator deity are being asked. It should not be confused with [brahman], the all pervading absolute god or [brahmins], the highest of the four varnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2. General Description&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma (Sanskrit: ब्रह्मा) is one of the three primary gods (Trimurti). Being the creator deity, he has a dominance of Rajoguna and is often referred to as Pitamaha. He is married to Devi Saraswati, the goddess of arts and knowledge. Lord Brahma resides with her in the highest of the seven upper worlds, known as Brahmaloka or Satyaloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma is described as ‘Swayambhu’ or self-born and ‘Hiranyagrabha’ or golden egg, both of which allude to the fact that he created himself and emerged from a golden egg. The Rigveda 10.121.1 reads:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हिरण्यगर्भ: समवर्तताग्रे भूतस्य जात: पतिरेक आसीत्। स दाधार पृथिवीं द्यामुतेमां कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम॥१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hiranyagarbha was present at the beginning; when born, he was the sole lord of created beings; he upheld this earth and heaven, let us offer worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma is also described as lotus born which alludes to another story at the beginning of the Pādma Kalpa, where he entered the body of Lord Vishnu who closed all the opening to his body. It is then that Brahma was born from a lotus that sprouted from the navel of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other attributes of the deity include him being four-faced and reciting the four Vedas from each of his faces. He is depicted as four armed carrying in his hands, a sacrificial ladle (sruva), rosary beads (akshamala), a water pot (kamandalu) and the Vedas or a lotus. His vehicle is a swan, but is often seated on a lotus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3. Useful links&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-01-12T12:19:37.360" LastActivityDate="2021-01-12T12:19:37.360" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="844" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T19:52:27.660" Score="0" Body="For questions about Brahma, the creator deity of the Trimurti. Not to be confused with [brahman] or [brahmins]." OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T19:52:27.660" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T19:52:27.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="845" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:13:13.007" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Asking for translation of random Sanskrit verses or works not related to Hinduism is off-topic for the site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-06-17T21:05:22.707" LastActivityDate="2019-06-17T21:05:22.707" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="846" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:13:13.007" Score="0" Body="For questions where the asker seeks translations of a particular Hindu scripture or other related works (e.g., commentaries), hymns and shlokas (verses). Please also tag your question with the scripture/work whose translations you are looking for." OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-07-22T23:24:03.817" LastActivityDate="2019-07-22T23:24:03.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="847" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:13:24.490" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:13:24.490" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:13:24.490" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="848" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:13:24.490" Score="0" Body="Cārvāka (Sanskrit: चार्वाक), also known as Lokāyata, is a system of Indian philosophy that assumes various forms of materialism, philosophical skepticism and religious indifference." OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:13:24.490" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:13:24.490" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="849" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:17:36.523" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Use this tag for questions about how Buddhism relates to Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Questions about Buddhism that are &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; related to Hinduism may be asked at &lt;a href=&quot;http://buddhism.stackexchange.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Buddhism.SE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:17:36.523" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:17:36.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="850" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:17:36.523" Score="0" Body="For questions about how Buddhism relates to Hinduism. See also Buddhism.SE." OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:17:36.523" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:17:36.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="851" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:18:24.337" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama is the eldest son of Kausalya and King Dasharatha. He is referred to as Maryada Purushottama (perfect man). Rama married Sita who was an avatar of Goddess Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the sake of his father's honor, Rama abandons his claim to Ayodhaya's throne to serve an exile of fourteen years in the forest. His wife Sita and brother Lakshmana decide to join him, and all three spend the fourteen years in exile together. While in exile, Sita is kidnapped by Ravana, the Rakshasa monarch of Lanka. After a long and arduous search, Rama fights a colossal war against Ravana's armies.  In a war of powerful and magical beings, greatly destructive weaponry and battles, Rama slays Ravana in battle and liberates his wife. Having completed his exile, Rama returns to be crowned king in Ayodhya and eventually becomes emperor, rules with happiness, peace, prosperity and justice – a period known as Rama Rajya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia on Rama&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-04-01T17:04:27.847" LastActivityDate="2019-04-01T17:04:27.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="852" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:18:24.337" Score="0" Body="Rama, the protagonist of Ramayana. Considered an avatar of Lord Vishnu by some while others like the Ramanandis consider him the source of all avatars." OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-04-01T17:05:32.167" LastActivityDate="2019-04-01T17:05:32.167" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="853" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:20:47.467" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:20:47.467" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:20:47.467" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="854" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:20:47.467" Score="0" Body="Hanuman is one of the central characters of Ramayana. He is a devotee of Rama and the son of Vayu." OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:40:20.037" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:40:20.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="855" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:21:02.803" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Use this tag for questions about how Islam relates to Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Questions about Islam that are &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; related to Hinduism may be asked at &lt;a href=&quot;http://islam.stackexchange.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Islam.SE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:21:02.803" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:21:02.803" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="856" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:21:02.803" Score="0" Body="For questions about how Islam relates to Hinduism. See also Islam.SE." OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:21:02.803" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:21:02.803" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="857" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:21:30.783" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:21:30.783" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:21:30.783" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="858" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:21:30.783" Score="0" Body="For questions about the holy texts of Hinduism. Please also use a more specific tag (e.g. [vishnu-purana]) if possible. " OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:39:26.733" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:39:26.733" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="859" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:21:37.893" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Use this tag for questions about how Christianity relates to Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Questions about Christianity that are &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; related to Hinduism may be asked at &lt;a href=&quot;http://christianity.stackexchange.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Christianity.SE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:21:37.893" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:21:37.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="860" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:21:37.893" Score="0" Body="For questions about how Christianity relates to Hinduism. See also Christianity.SE." OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:21:37.893" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:21:37.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="861" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:23:15.413" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rigveda (Sanskrit: ऋग्वेद ṛgveda, a compound of ṛc &quot;praise, verse&quot; and veda &quot;knowledge&quot;) is a sacred Indo-Aryan collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns still being used in India. It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts (śruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is one of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. Philological and linguistic evidence indicate that the Rigveda was composed in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, most likely between c. 1500–1200 BCE, though a wider approximation of c. 1700–1100 BCE has also been given.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rigveda contains several mythological and poetical accounts of the origin of the world, hymns praising the gods, and ancient prayers for life, prosperity, etc.Some of its verses are still recited as Hindu prayers, at religious functions and other occasions, making it probably the world's oldest religious texts in continued use.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-22T17:03:57.543" LastActivityDate="2014-10-22T17:03:57.543" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="862" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:23:15.413" Score="0" Body="The oldest of the four Vedas. See also [vedas]." OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:41:09.903" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:41:09.903" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="863" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:25:42.173" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lakshmi (Sanskrit: लक्ष्मी lakṣmī ) is the Hindu Goddess of wealth, love, prosperity (both material and spiritual), fortune, and the embodiment of beauty. She is the wife of Lord Vishnu. Also known as Mahalakshmi, she is said to bring good luck and is believed to protect her devotees from all kinds of misery and money-related sorrows. Representations of Lakshmi are also found in Jain monuments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmi is called Shree or Thirumagal because she is endowed with six auspicious and divine qualities, or Gunas, and also because she is the source of strength even to Vishnu. When Vishnu incarnated on the Earth as the avatars Rama and Krishna, Lakshmi took incarnation as his consort. Sita (Rama's wife), Radha (Krishna's lover), Rukmini and Satyabama are considered forms of Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmi is worshiped daily in Hindu homes and commercial establishments as the goddess of wealth. She is also worshiped as the consort of Vishnu in many temples. The festivals of Diwali and Kojagiri Purnima are celebrated in her honor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lakshmi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-07-25T08:05:04.013" LastActivityDate="2014-07-25T08:05:04.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="864" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:25:42.173" Score="0" Body="Goddess of wealth and wife of Lord Vishnu." OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-07-07T20:36:19.273" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T20:36:19.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="865" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2758" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:42:38.597" Score="11" ViewCount="9187" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some versions of the Mahabharata depict an incident where Draupadi gets to know that Karna is Kunti-putra and she regrets not allowing Karna to participate in her svayaṁvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this event mentioned in any scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/42ez2.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/42ez2.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-30T02:51:24.297" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T02:57:44.840" Title="Do scriptures indicate that Draupadi regretted not allowing Karna to participate in her svayaṁvara?" Tags="|mahabharata|karna|draupadi|swayamvar|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="866" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="901" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:47:56.740" Score="19" ViewCount="23877" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have listened to various version of the Mahabharata where various people are said to be listening to the Bhagavad Gita along with Arjuna, like Hanuman, Barbarika, etc. But this count varies. So what is the real count? How many people listen to it with Arjuna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T17:15:13.877" LastActivityDate="2015-08-08T17:09:37.220" Title="How many people listened to the Bhagavad Gita in the Mahabharata along with Arjuna?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="867" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-07T20:52:27.133" Score="8" ViewCount="883" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the first instance of a Swayamvar in Hinduism? I know of a few popular ones like Draupadi's Swayamvar, Amba's Swayamvar, and Sita's Swayamvar. But what is the first instance of a Swayamvar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-12-18T05:54:35.607" LastActivityDate="2017-12-18T05:54:35.607" Title="What is the first instance of a Swayamvar in Hinduism?" Tags="|marriage|swayamvar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="868" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="646" CreationDate="2014-07-07T21:34:40.663" Score="25" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, the only time that children of Lakshmi are mentioned in Hindu scriptures is in verses 11 - 12 of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/prayers_to_goddess_lakshmi.htm&quot;&gt;Sri Suktam&lt;/a&gt;, a hymn from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khilani&quot;&gt;Khilani&lt;/a&gt; (apocrypha or later portions) of the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We are the progeny of our forefather, Sage Kardama, who is one of the sons of Goddess Lakshmi. We invoke that Sage Kardama to install in his family the Universal Mother, Mahalakshmi, who is decked with the garland of lotuses. So be it.  We invoke another son of Lakshmi named Chikleeta. May he dwell in our home and may his mother, Mahalakshmi, dwell in our family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's almost no information known beyond that.  The sage Kardama is usually thought of as a son of Brahma, born from Brahma's shadow, as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/27&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.  The only other connection between Lakshmi and Kardama is a story about how when Lakshmi emerged out of the churning of the ocean, she took sage Kardama as her adopted &lt;em&gt;father&lt;/em&gt;, not son, as a reward for his Tapasya.  And I don't think Chiklita is mentioned in any other scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meanings of the names Kardama and Chiklita both refer to moist or wet things, so that might also be related to Lakshmi's emergence from the churning of the ocean,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more thing that you may want to know is that Kardama and Chilkita are apparently two of the seers of the verses in the Sri Suktam, according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/srisukta.html&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If we consider the entire Sukta as a whole, then the Rishis are: Each mantra of this Sukta has a different Rishi (seer), Chandas (metre), Devi (deity) and Viniyoga (ritual application).  Ananda, Chikleeta, Kardama, Shreeda and Indira, who are said to be the sons of goddess Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm not sure whether the claim that these are all sons of Lakshmi has any scriptural basis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/2-Uk&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Vayu Purana lists two named more sons of Vishnu and Lakshmi, &quot;Bala (Strength) and Utsaha (Energy)&quot;.  And it also says the drivers of vimanas were born to her as &quot;mental sons&quot;, and that she had two daughters, Ayati and Niyati, who became daughters-in-law of Brighu (who is Lakshmi's adopted father!).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-11-13T18:44:35.570" LastActivityDate="2014-11-13T18:44:35.570" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="869" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="866" CreationDate="2014-07-07T22:07:45.847" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanjaya and Dhritrastra are listening as well. See Bhagavad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/1/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1.1&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;This brings the total count to 3 people. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastActivityDate="2014-07-07T22:07:45.847" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="870" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="866" CreationDate="2014-07-08T02:10:06.860" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, logically Arjun, Sanjay and Dhritarashtra are the people listening. But noticing further we find Lord Hanuman residing on the flag of Arjun' s chariot (His chariot was called &lt;em&gt;Kapidhwaj&lt;/em&gt;), so in a way he can also be said to have heard the Gita. However this count varies according to different historians and researchers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="293" LastEditorUserId="293" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T07:51:54.490" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T07:51:54.490" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="871" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="68" CreationDate="2014-07-08T02:20:49.350" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Atheism is accepted as a Nastika branch of Sanatana Dharma because of the importance given to conscience in Sanatana Dharma. After all even the Gita shloka 18.63 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus have I imparted to you wisdom which is more secret (profound)&#xA;  than all that is secret (profound). &lt;strong&gt;Reflecting over this whole&#xA;  teaching, do as you think fit.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna does not say, 'Believe or else....'! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Lokayats also claimed that the only reliable pramana (epistemological proof) is sensory perception and that using such a principle it can be shown that the Vedas have been written by buffoons and fools. Since various sects use various pramanas to make their case, it is not possible to deny atheists their right to choose the particular pramana that supports their case. Hindu Dharma acknowledges that at any age there will always be some people who will be sceptical of the theistic principle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T02:20:49.350" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="872" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-08T02:37:43.243" Score="7" ViewCount="204" Body="&lt;p&gt;For gods like Ganesha, Shiva, Vishnu and many others, the idol of the Vahana (animal or otherwise) is placed outside the garbagriha &lt;em&gt;(the innermost sanctum of a Hindu temple)&lt;/em&gt; in most temples. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet in many references to vahanas in holy texts, they are supposed to be be always present alongside God(s). Why is this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="160" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T06:33:59.230" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T08:38:55.070" Title="Why are vahanas placed outside the main temple instead of near the deity?" Tags="|temple|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="873" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="876" CreationDate="2014-07-08T02:46:04.787" Score="23" ViewCount="7465" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegle_marmelos&quot;&gt;Aegle Marmelos or Bel Leaves&lt;/a&gt; are used in the rituals related to Lord Shiva. What is the significance of these leaves in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="160" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T19:39:54.177" LastActivityDate="2018-02-15T08:39:43.527" Title="What is the significance of Bel leaves in Shiva worship?" Tags="|shiva|worship|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="874" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="873" CreationDate="2014-07-08T03:18:36.337" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a &lt;em&gt;stotra&lt;/em&gt; (hymn) called &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JML6OzjhOL8&quot;&gt;Bilwastakam&lt;/a&gt;, that describes the spiritual benefits of using even one bel leaf for lord Shiva. For example, the first verse says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tridalaṃ triguṇākāraṃ trinetraṃ ca triyāyuddham&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  trijanmapāpasaṃhāraṃ ekabilvaṃ śivārpaṇam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Offering one three petaled bel leaf which is like the three qualities, which is like the three eyes of Shiva, which is like the trident weapon of Shiva, destroys sins of three births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So basically, the bel leaves used in Shiva &lt;em&gt;puja&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;signify the three eyes of Shiva and also His three pointed trident (or three weapons)&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, bel trees, being a favorite of shiva, are also considered to be a form of Shiva as well (&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;mahādevasvarupoyaṃ bilvo&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; [Shiva Puran  22.22]).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T10:18:26.373" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T10:18:26.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="875" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="117" CreationDate="2014-07-08T03:46:05.607" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is difficult categorize Hinduism as either Pantheistic or Polytheistic. Rather Hinduism started out as a way of life with various philosophical ideas that finally amalgamated as Hinduism - the religion what we call today.  Hinduism has various schools of thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The question of categorizing Hinduism in to one of the &quot;eistic&quot; ideas arised because of Western minds who were trying to understand what Hinduism is.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Monotheism&lt;/strong&gt; simply means the acknowledgment of one god. It prohibits the worship of the divine in any form other than the ‘official’ version. It is rooted in the idea of ‘only one’.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Polytheism&lt;/strong&gt; is the view that there are many gods.&#xA;In &lt;strong&gt;Pantheism&lt;/strong&gt;, God is inseparably united with nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we get this distinction clear, it becomes clear that Hinduism does not worship ‘One God’. Instead, Hinduism worships the oneness of all gods and indeed, the oneness of everything in existence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;To answer your question,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Both pantheism and polytheism co-exist in Hinduism . This idea can be best expressed as parts of a wheel.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;The many deities are like the spokes, all of which emanate from the hub and each playing an important role.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The Divine is formally referred to as Brahman (not Brahmin). It is said to be the source, the hub, from which all deities are manifest.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a clearer picture lets understand how both co-exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pantheistic view believes in more philosophical God. God is in all things, and all things are in God.&#xA;God is seen as a supreme being and not a person. God is someone beyond knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following is an excerpt from Atharva Veda. However many of the Upanishads and later Vedic writings support this view of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;na dvitIyo na tR^itIyashchaturtho nApyuchyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na pa.nchamo na ShaShThaH saptamo nApyuchyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nAShTamo na navamo dashamo nApyuchyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ya etaM devamekavR^itaM veda&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is none second to It, neither third not even fourth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is none fifth to It, neither sixth not even seventh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is none eighth to It, neither ninth not even tenth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is the only Supreme. This is to be known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An interesting &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15072.htm&quot;&gt;conversation&lt;/a&gt; in brihadaranyaka upanishad supports this view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Philosopher Sankara , formulated a philosophic system known as Advaita Vedanta.  According to this philosophy there is an absolute unity between Brahman and atman. Our perception that we are separate beings from Brahman and from one another is in fact an illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In analogy, God can be seen as a vast ocean , and all living beings &quot;jiva&quot; as drops of water, when drops of water meet the ocean all are a part of the ocean.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we have seen earlier that Hinduism was a way of life, &lt;strong&gt;there was a need in people to connect to a personal God having some form&lt;/strong&gt; rather than &lt;strong&gt;a Supreme God with no form.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;This eventually led to polytheism with God taking shape in the form of various deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism allows people to believe in and pray to their own conceptualizations of the divine in whatever form they choose, while at the same time elevating all of them to their ultimate reality, which is the singular omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient divinity, who demands no allegiance, punishes no one for lack of belief, yet provides wisdom, comfort, compassion, and freedom to those who seek it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hinduism mentions that God is one , only the ways to reach God are many.&lt;/strong&gt; In this way many even consider Gautama, Mahavira, Jesus and Mohammed are ways to reach the Supreme God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is for this reason that has given rise various schools of thought. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saivism&lt;/strong&gt;:Saivite Hindus worship the Supreme God as Siva, the Compassionate One. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shaktism&lt;/strong&gt;:Shaktas worship the Supreme as the Divine Mother, Shakti or Devi. She has many forms. Some are gentle, some are fierce. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaishnavism&lt;/strong&gt;: Vaishnavites worship the Supreme as Lord Vishnu and His incarnations, especially Krishna and Rama. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Smartism&lt;/strong&gt;:Smartas worship the Supreme in one of six forms: Ganesha, Siva, Sakti, Vishnu, Surya and Skanda. Because they accept all the major Hindu Gods, they are known as liberal or nonsectarian.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More details on ways to communicate with God are described in this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/h_polytheism.asp&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henotheism&quot;&gt;Henotheism&lt;/a&gt; is the most appropriate word to describe Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2014-07-18T03:09:35.877" LastActivityDate="2014-07-18T03:09:35.877" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="876" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="873" CreationDate="2014-07-08T04:45:03.923" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason that the leaves of the Bilva tree are used in the worship of Shiva is that the Bilva tree emerged from the sweat of Shiva's wife Parvati, as described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/bwYG&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Nagara Khanda of the Skanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The splendid Daughter of the Mountain; the goddess [Parvati] became tired due to her sports.  Drops of sweat appeared on her forehead ... and a drop fell on the ground. It became a great tree on the excellent mountain Mandara....  Parvati said, &amp;quot;Since this tree pierced through the ground and rose up near me, let it be named Bilva.  If anyone approaches this tree devoutly and collects the leaves, he shall certainly become a king of the earth.  If anyone with perfect faith worships me with its leaves, he will realize whatever desire he may cherish.  If a person, after seeing the leaves of Bilva, at least maintains faith in the rite of adoration, I shall undoubtedly be the bestowed of wealth on him.  If anyone makes his mind to eat the tip of the leaves, thousands of his sins perish automatically.  If a man places the tip of the leaf on his head, no torture of Yama will give him pain.&amp;quot; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Bilva tree is very excellent, sacred and destructive of sins.  There is no doubt about this that Goddess Girija resides at its root.  It is remembered that Dakshayani is present on its stem, Maheshwari on its branches, Goddess Parvati on its leaves and Katyayani on its fruit.  Gauri has been mentioned as present on its bark, Aparna at the middle of the bark, Durga in the flower and Uma in the branches and twigs.  At the behest of Girija, nine crores of Shaktis have stationed themselves on its thorns for the sake of protecting living beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those are all names of different forms of the goddess Parvati.  Since every part of the Bilva tree is suffused with some form of Parvati, it is the ideal article to be used in worship of Shiva, just as Tulasi is ideal for worshipped Vishnu as it's associated with Vishnu's wife Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-31T17:59:24.560" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="877" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-08T05:24:28.270" Score="15" ViewCount="7538" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are exactly 108 beads in the rosary (japmala). What's the significance of the count 108 here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="73" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T10:21:08.507" LastActivityDate="2015-05-17T16:01:21.293" Title="What is the significance of '108' beads in the rosary (japmala)?" Tags="|japamala|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="878" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="877" CreationDate="2014-07-08T05:35:04.197" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Japamala&lt;/em&gt; is used for &lt;em&gt;japa&lt;/em&gt; (recital) of &lt;em&gt;slokas&lt;/em&gt; and/or &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IN Hinduism and other Dharmic religion, there's been tremendous importance given to the figure 108. Many sects in Hinduism requires a person to recite a &lt;em&gt;sloka&lt;/em&gt; for 108 times. For eg.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mukhya&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Shivaganas&lt;/em&gt; are 108 in number and hence all Shaiva sects majorly &lt;em&gt;Lingayats&lt;/em&gt; use 108 &lt;em&gt;rudraksha&lt;/em&gt; beaded lace for japa. Also they recite supreme lord Shiva's 108 names daily during their morning Shiva-puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudiya_Vaishnavism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gaudiya Vaishnavism&lt;/a&gt;, there are 108 &lt;em&gt;gopis&lt;/em&gt; of &lt;em&gt;Vrindavan&lt;/em&gt;. Recital of these names, often accompanied by the counting of a 108-beaded &lt;em&gt;mala&lt;/em&gt;, is considered sacred and often done during religious ceremonies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, mainly it's because of the importance given to the number 108, because of which beads in rosary are 108 in number.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read more about the number itself &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mallstuffs.com/blogs/BlogDetails.aspx?BlogId=264&amp;amp;BlogType=Spiritual&amp;amp;Topic=Why%20number%20108%20is%20holy%20and%20auspicious%20in%20Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Why number 108 is holy and auspicious in Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T05:35:04.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="879" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="877" CreationDate="2014-07-08T06:01:09.717" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;After a reading this i can't stop myself to post this a beautiful quote &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Religion and the arts:The number 108 is considered sacred in many&#xA;  Eastern religions and traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism,&#xA;  Sikhism and connected yoga and dharma based practices. The individual&#xA;  numbers 1, 0, and 8 represent one thing, nothing, and everything&#xA;  (infinity). 108 represents the ultimate reality of the universe as&#xA;  being (seemingly paradoxically) simultaneously One, emptiness, and&#xA;  infinite. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hinduism For example: Hindu deities have 108 names, while in Gaudiya&#xA;  Vaishnavism, there are 108 gopis of Vrindavan. Recital of these names,&#xA;  often accompanied by counting of 108-beaded Mala, is considered sacred&#xA;  and often done during religious ceremonies. The recital is called&#xA;  namajapa. Accordingly, a mala usually has beads for 108 repetitions of&#xA;  a mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The distance of Sun from Earth divided by diameter of Sun and distance&#xA;  of Moon from Earth divided by diameter of Moon is approximately equal&#xA;  to 108. It is claimed that the great sires of Vedanta knew this&#xA;  relationship and thus 108 is a very important number in Vedantic&#xA;  chantings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BuddhismLikewise: Tibetan Buddhist malas or rosaries (Tib. ཕྲེང་བ Wyl.&#xA;  phreng ba, &quot;Trengwa&quot;) are usually 108 beads;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/108_%28number%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; sometimes 111&#xA;  including the Guru Bead(s), reflecting the words of the Buddha called&#xA;  in Tibetan the Kangyur (Wylie: Bka'-'gyur) in 108 volumes. Zen priests&#xA;  wear juzu (a ring of prayer beads) around their wrists, which consists&#xA;  of 108 beads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Japa Mala, or Japa beads, made from Tulasi wood. Consisting of 108&#xA;  beads in total + the head bead.The Lankavatara Sutra has a section&#xA;  where the Bodhisattva Mahamati asks Buddha 108 questions and&#xA;  another section where Buddha lists 108 statements of negation in the&#xA;  form of &quot;A statement concerning X is not statement concerning X&quot;.&#xA;  In a footnote, D.T. Suzuki explains that the Sanskrit word translated&#xA;  as &quot;statement&quot; is &quot;pada&quot; which can also mean &quot;foot-step&quot; or &quot;a&#xA;  position.&quot; This confusion over the word &quot;pada&quot; explains why some have&#xA;  mistakenly held that the reference to 108 statements in the&#xA;  Lankavatara refer to the 108 steps that many temples have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In some schools of Buddhism it is believed that there are 108&#xA;  defilements.In Japan, at the end of the year, a bell is chimed 108&#xA;  times in Buddhist temples to finish the old year and welcome the new&#xA;  one. Each ring represents one of 108 earthly temptations a person must&#xA;  overcome to achieve nirvana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/108_%28number%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="129" LastEditorUserId="129" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T10:31:55.200" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T10:31:55.200" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="880" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="897" CreationDate="2014-07-08T06:05:10.723" Score="7" ViewCount="6192" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many temples, I have seen people praise the tail of a cow instead of its head or legs (&lt;em&gt;which are common&lt;/em&gt;). Praising the head of a cow is said to be counted as a sin. What is the reason behind this? Is there any mythological story about this practice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T10:38:21.910" LastActivityDate="2014-10-24T11:17:26.203" Title="Why do people praise/worship only the tails of cows?" Tags="|worship|cows|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="881" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-08T06:14:51.477" Score="14" ViewCount="13990" Body="&lt;p&gt;I see strong connections between Hinduism and Christianity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Would I be wrong to be a Hindu who has a Hindu approach to spirituality but I hail Christ as the supreme personality of the Godhead and believe that I receive liberation in his name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="334" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-26T17:06:08.060" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T09:52:46.513" Title="Can one be a Hindu that worships through Christ?" Tags="|belief|other-religions|christianity|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="882" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-08T07:01:56.457" Score="13" ViewCount="1965" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since the Hindu calendar is based on the lunar calendar, there is a difference of 11 days between the earth year and the lunar year.&#xA;It is a fact that the solar year is made up of 365 days and about 06 minutes and the lunar year is made up of 354 days. &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/adhik.htm&quot;&gt;Link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To adjust this difference &lt;em&gt;Adhik Maas&lt;/em&gt; is added regularly. This is how Makar Sankranti &lt;em&gt;(kite flying festival)&lt;/em&gt; is always on 14th January.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since when has this practice been followed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="335" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T10:30:08.090" LastActivityDate="2015-03-17T01:52:32.960" Title="When was &quot;Adhik Maas&quot; added to the Hindu calendar?" Tags="|practice|calendar|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="885" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="41015" CreationDate="2014-07-08T07:55:24.420" Score="58" ViewCount="3965" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is believed that when Lord Vishnu took the avatar of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Venkateshwara Swamy&lt;/a&gt;, the goddesses (&lt;em&gt;Lord Vishnu's two wives&lt;/em&gt;) gave seven curses to Him. For each curse, Lord Vishnu took one step back from them and at last became a statue which is in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirupati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirupathi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were those seven curses by which Lord Venkateshwara became a statue?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T09:25:57.743" LastActivityDate="2020-07-09T17:19:10.563" Title="What were the seven curses said by the goddesses to Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="887" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="881" CreationDate="2014-07-08T08:56:40.427" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not a Hindu scholar, but I can say that Hinduism doesn't stop one from believing in other Gods or religious ways. Yes, you can follow Hinduism and still pray to Christ, if that is the answer you are looking for. But you have to see if Christianity allows you to do such a thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="336" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T12:33:56.037" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T12:33:56.037" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="888" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-08T09:33:32.837" Score="7" ViewCount="1562" Body="&lt;p&gt;The great king Vikramaditya had a throne which has 32 puppets. I heard that when Bhojaraja tried to sit on the throne, each puppet told a different story about the greatness of Vikramaditya. As most of us know, one of the puppets told the famous story of &quot;Vikram - Betaal&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did Vikramaditya get this throne, and why did he get this throne?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T10:29:19.030" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T10:29:19.030" Title="What is the story of Vikramaditya's throne with 32 puppets?" Tags="|vikramaditya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="890" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-08T10:21:37.597" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T10:21:37.597" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T10:21:37.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="891" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-08T10:21:37.597" Score="0" Body="A japamala, or just &quot;mala&quot;, is a chain of prayer beads, often 108 in number." OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T10:21:37.597" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T10:21:37.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="892" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="866" CreationDate="2014-07-08T10:56:45.363" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not sure but Ved Vyas ji and Ganesh ji also listened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because Ved Vyas is the person who gave us Mahabharat, and Ganesh ji wrote Mahabharata while Vyas ji was narrating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T15:00:47.993" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T15:00:47.993" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="893" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="898" CreationDate="2014-07-08T11:06:26.637" Score="24" ViewCount="13175" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I know, Lord Hanuman's parents were Anjana (&lt;em&gt;mother&lt;/em&gt;) and Kesari (&lt;em&gt;father&lt;/em&gt;). Then why is Lord Hanuman also known as &quot;Pavan putra Hanuman&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Son of lord Pavan&lt;/em&gt;)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T11:45:46.323" LastActivityDate="2022-04-04T06:22:31.440" Title="Why is Lord Hanuman known as &quot;Pavan putra Hanuman&quot;?" Tags="|hanuman|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="894" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="939" CreationDate="2014-07-08T11:17:04.837" Score="34" ViewCount="28548" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ravana abducted Goddess Sita with evil intentions to marry her. But he didn't step forward to do so. What protected Goddess Sita from Ravana for more than six months (as far as I know) in Ravana's palace?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-09-03T17:37:25.833" LastActivityDate="2019-06-06T20:21:50.443" Title="How did Goddess Sita protect herself in Ravana's palace?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|sita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="895" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-08T11:48:36.827" Score="3" ViewCount="69" Body="&lt;p&gt;While performing &lt;em&gt;Rudrekadasi&lt;/em&gt;, the priests tie the flower garland across the room or from the ceiling of the room. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is this done?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="232" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2019-06-12T11:32:43.160" LastActivityDate="2019-06-12T11:32:43.160" Title="Why do priests tie up flower garlands when performing Rudrekadasi?" Tags="|shiva|rituals|vedic-rituals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="896" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="915" CreationDate="2014-07-08T11:54:00.047" Score="4" ViewCount="1148" Body="&lt;p&gt;For &lt;em&gt;Maharudram&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Athirudram&lt;/em&gt;, how many priests should chant the &lt;em&gt;rudram&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="232" LastEditorUserId="10088" LastEditDate="2024-02-03T17:15:45.070" LastActivityDate="2024-02-03T17:15:45.070" Title="For Maharudram or Athirudram how many priests should chant the rudram?" Tags="|shiva|vedic-chanting|rudram|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="897" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="880" CreationDate="2014-07-08T12:19:56.687" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.godandguru.com/shiv-puran/chapter-10.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/a&gt; describes an incident when Lord Rama, Sita, and Lakshman heard of the death of King Dashratha. Rama &amp;amp; Lakshmana left to find the required items for the &lt;em&gt;shraddha&lt;/em&gt; ceremony. When Rama did not return in time, Sita performed them on his behalf.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Rama returned and Sita told him what she had done, she called on four witnesses: the Falgu river, a Ketaki bush, the fire, and a cow. All denied telling the truth, including the cow. While the cow's mouth lied, the tail, however, shook in agreement with Sita. After Lord Surya appeared and attested to her truth, Sita cursed the four false witnesses: the Falgu river to disappear underground, the Ketaki to never be offered to Lord Shiva, the fire to eat everything indiscriminately, and the cow's mouth to be impure. The hindquarters of the cow remained pure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T12:19:56.687" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="898" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="893" CreationDate="2014-07-08T12:35:52.337" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was because, Vayu god had impregnated Anjana through his mind. Hence, Hanuman, although was born from Anjana and Kesari, is also known as &lt;em&gt;Pavan-putra&lt;/em&gt; (son of wind):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मनसा अस्मि गतो यत् त्वाम् परिष्वज्य यशस्विनि |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वीर्यवान् बुद्धि संपन्नः पुत्रः तव भविष्यति || [VRM - 4.66.18]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  By which reason I embraced you and impregnate myself within you through my mind, by that reason you are impregnated in a super sensory manner, thereby you will beget a valiant son endowed with intellect&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga66/kishkindha_66_frame.htm&quot;&gt;66th chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Kishkinda Kanda in Valmiki Ramayan describes the whole story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स त्वम् केसरिणः पुत्रः क्षेत्रजो भीम विक्रमः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मारुतस्य औरसः पुत्रः तेजसा च अपि तत् समः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वम् हि वायु सुतो वत्स प्लवने च अपि तत् समः [VRM - 4.66.29,30]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Such as you are, you are Kesari's son through his wife, oh, frightful pugilist, and you are the lineal son of Air-god, and even by your gusting you are selfsame to Air-god, and even by your flying also you are his selfsame to Air-god, in all respects&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T12:45:14.947" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T12:45:14.947" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="899" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-08T12:36:19.007" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T12:36:19.007" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T12:36:19.007" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="900" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-08T12:36:19.007" Score="0" Body="Sati is Shiva's first wife (before Parvati). Not to be confused with the ritual practice in which wives self-immolate on their husband's funeral pyres." OwnerUserId="13" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T12:36:19.007" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T12:36:19.007" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="901" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="866" CreationDate="2014-07-08T12:54:58.767" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The following is given for thought which is based on Vyasa Bharata,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna, by boon to Sanjaya and Dhritarashtra: &#xA;       Nobody talked on Bhagavad Gita at any other time except by Arjuna who wanted to hear again but the request was rejected by Lord Krishna! (Mahabharata, Book 14: Aswamedha Parva, Chapter 16, Anugita Parva). Lord Krishna felt sad on this forgotten aspect. But instead Lord Krishna gave one Anugita.   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m140&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m140&lt;/a&gt;... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna gave Srimad Bhagwad Gita only to Arjuna and the entire world was in suspended animation at that time. Only exceptions were Sanjaya and through him Dhritarashtra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Bhagavad Gita portions are in fact a live running commentary by Sanjaya to Dhritarashtra.   The author Sri Vyasa in Mahabharata gives Bhagavad Gita to us through Sanjaya only.  2) Barbarika, son of Ghatotkacha; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Barbarika name and the episode is not mentioned in Mahabharata. This may be from some other version or from a folk base.     In Rajasthan, he is worshipped as Khatushyamji, and is believed to have been sacrificed before the Mahabharata war to ensure the victory of his grand-fathers, the Pandavas. In return for his sacrifice, he was deified by a boon given by Krishna.    There is paradox here. He wanted to fight for the loosing side and took his life for the victory for the Pandavas.     3) Aravan's (son of Arjuna) sacrifice: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aravan or Iravan or Kuttantavar (கூத்தாண்டவர்) name and episode is not available in Vyasa Bharata. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first account of Aravan's sacrifice is found in Parata Venpa—the earliest surviving Tamil version of the Mahabharata—by Peruntevanar (9&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century). The tale is later retold by  Villiputuralvar in his 14&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;-century Makabharatam and by Nallapillai in  the 18&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century. The legend is also mentioned in the text Khoothanvar Sthala Purana, associated with the shrine of Kuttantavar.    In modern interpretations, Aravan's head symbolizes not only self-sacrifice but also regeneration and continuity, because of his ability to see the war after his sacrifice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If Aravan's Head is alive, can this be taken as full sacrifice for the victory of Pandavas?     4) Hanuman in the flag; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Hanuman need not be brought to the human level by saying that along with Arjuna and Sanjaya.    Hanuman is beyond the level of hearing Gita as His concentration is fully devoted to Lord Rama and Rama Nama. Lord Hanuman is beyond and above the level prescribed by Bhagavad Gita. &#xA;       If Hanuman in the flag can hear means the Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent Bhagavan Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma, Lord Ganesa, Lord Subramanya, Maha Sakthi, Sun God, Trikala Gnanis like Narada could have heard the Bhagavad Gita then! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5) Summary: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Based on the Vyasa Mahabharata and only from Vyasa Mahabharata, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Three contemporaries plus one divine Vedav Vyasa were the listeners: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One (Arjuna) listened Srimad Bhagavad Gita directly in front of Lord Krishna. &#xA;       One with divine vision (and ear, both given by Vedav Vyasa) at the Hastinapura palace also listened (Sanjaya). &#xA;      One more heard the running voice commentary through Sanjaya (the king Dhritarashtra). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those three were the listeners of Bhagavad Gita when it was delivered. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sage Vyasa (who knows the past, present and future) became the author of Mahabharata (Vyasa Bharata) by remembering everything later!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m140&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m140&lt;/a&gt;... &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind&lt;/a&gt;... &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarika&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iravan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iravan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A better answer is &lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110813013320AAAhVZU&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna gave Srimad Bhagwad Gita only to Arjuna and the entire world was in suspended animation at that time. Only exceptions were Sanjaya and Dhritarashtra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nobody talked on Bhagavad Gita at any other time except by Arjuna who wanted to hear again but the request was rejected by Lord Krishna! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Three contemporaries plus one divine Vedav Vyasa were the listeners: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One (Arjuna) listened Srimad Bhagavad Gita directly in front of Lord Krishna.  One with divine vision (and ear, both given by Vedav Vyasa) at the Hastinapura palace also listened (Sanjaya).  One more heard the running voice commentary through Sanjaya (the king Dhritarashtra). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those three were the listeners of Bhagavad Gita when it was delivered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sage Vyasa who knows the past, present and future and later to write Mahabharata (Vyasa Bharata) could have recalled later! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4, Verse 3: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स एवायं मया ते ऽदय यॊगः परॊक्तः पुरातनः  भक्तॊ ऽसि मे सखा चेति रहस्यं हय एतद उत्तमम &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;sa evayam maya te ’dya  yogah proktah puratanah  bhakto ’si me sakha ceti  rahasyam hy etad uttamam&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to YOU because you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3) Bhagavad Gita Visvarupa Darsan: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Book 6, Chapter 33, Verse 9):  (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 11, Verse 9: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;संजय उवाच  एवम उक्त्वा ततॊ राजन महायॊगेश्वरॊ हरिः  दर्शयाम आस पार्थाय परमं रूपम ऐश्वरम&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sanjaya uvaca  evam uktva tato rajan  maha-yogesvaro harih  darsayam asa parthaya  paramam rupam aisvaram &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanjaya said: O King, speaking thus, the Supreme, the Lord of all mystic power, the Personality of Godhead, displayed His universal form to Arjuna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sridhara Swami's Commentary: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having bequeathed the supernatural eyes of illumination the Supreme Lord Krishna exhibited His almighty, omnipotent, transcendental visvarupa or divine universal form. The description of this universal form is what is being described in this verse and the next five verses by Sanjaya, who was also given divine sight to see it by Vedavyasa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Sanjaya narrated the the whole incident to Dhritarashtra.  Dhritarashtra only heared the running commendary given by Sanjaya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One link more to give you a more idea &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://krishna.org/the-history-of-bhagavad-gita/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;History of Bhagawat Gita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="129" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-03T06:32:25.657" LastActivityDate="2015-03-03T06:32:25.657" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="902" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="903" CreationDate="2014-07-08T12:59:45.130" Score="17" ViewCount="31149" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is &quot;Shiva&quot; just a name of a God or does the word actually denote something?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, what is the real meaning of the word &quot;Shiva&quot; (also spelled as Śiva or शिव)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user304" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-02-23T18:32:19.247" LastActivityDate="2024-02-06T11:09:09.260" Title="What is the meaning of the word &quot;Shiva&quot;?" Tags="|shiva|symbolism|shaivism|name|etymology|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="903" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="902" CreationDate="2014-07-08T13:06:07.983" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The meaning of the name Shiva is &quot;&lt;em&gt;Auspicious, Pure&lt;/em&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva is a male Sanskrit name that refers to the third aspect of god, called in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If pronounced with a long final vowel &quot;a&quot;, Shiva is a female name; a name of the goddess Parvati, Uma and Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can also be described as &quot;&lt;em&gt;The god staying in a state blissful, enjoying in its own self eternally, without any flaws.&lt;/em&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T13:33:37.453" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T13:33:37.453" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="904" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="902" CreationDate="2014-07-08T13:29:26.723" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Its a bit hard to understand the exact term shiva for us ! in sanskrit shiva means &amp;quot;the one who dosent exist&amp;quot;. Or who is not physical or bounded.&#xA;Shih vah the pronunciation means becoming null or the term black hole is what has been till date invented to describe shiva. In universe what u can see and touch and reason is created but the space between them or the non- substance between them that hold all planets or stars or other substance existing in universe together that space is shiva. The 2nd word used to describe shiva is shankar where &amp;quot;sam&amp;quot; means equal &amp;quot;kar&amp;quot; means to do. What equates everything nature, planets, stars, their position, existance and space between them is shiva. Its a bit more than what can be described with the vocabulary of any other languages of world. This is best I can do to tell you what shiva is its not refering to lord but such thing is no less than a god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shaivam.org/shpmeans.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shaivam.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;shiva the name of the Lord is a mantra. It is a part of the very holy mantra of shaivam The Holy Five Letters. mantra means powerful word. The mantras are revealed to and through the sages in their matured spiritual state to the entire world. These mantras may or may not be associated directly to one particular language. At times they get interpreted in the languages. The name shiva and The Holy Five Letters are accepted as they are in different languages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In samskritam, the word &lt;strong&gt;shiva means auspicious, prosperous&lt;/strong&gt; (mangalam). The Lord who is called pashupati, Asutosha being the Supreme that can not be measured by the thoughts, appears to the one who worships as the God graceful, blissful and nurturing. Its auspicious and graceful forms and names are invoked by the worshiper for the upliftment of oneself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Tamil, it refers to shiva - civappu - chemporul, meaning &lt;strong&gt;the Perfect Being&lt;/strong&gt;. The God staying in a state blissful, enjoying in Its Own Self eternally, without any flaws is the Supreme Lord shiva. The Perfection is the completeness - there is nothing external that is required to make the Self blissful. In this context it would be worthwhile to contemplate on the mantra shivatarAya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other sources also supports the above explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://aboutshiva.com/about_shiva_home.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;AboutShiva.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.religionfacts.com/hinduism/deities/shiva.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Religionfacts.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T05:40:23.937" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="905" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="881" CreationDate="2014-07-08T14:30:41.173" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;I &lt;strong&gt;do not&lt;/strong&gt; see a strong connection between Hinduism and Christianity. Both have completely opposite world views and meta-physics. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Hindu is free to worship Jesus as a deity and a manifestation of the Brahman. But that would invalidate Jesus' status as the only Son of God in Christianity. If a Hindu were to consider Jesus as the only Son of God, then it would invalidate all the Hindu deities and gods(as being false gods). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Liberation is not same as Salvation which Jesus offers.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Jesus were to be accepted as a 'savior', it'd invalidate the Hinduism's idea of Sat-Chit-Ananda nature of Humans, i.e. Humans are originally divine and not originally sinful. A Hindu does not need to be saved from sin(Salvation) as there is no sin in Hinduism. The Human Condition arises from ignorance of the true Sat-Chit-Ananda nature and not from Sin resulting is disobeying God's Order. The ultimate aim is to make a &quot;cognitive shift&quot; form avidhya to vidhya(Liberation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If humans are not originally sinful, every human would be same as Jesus(sinless). Then we don't need Jesus who according to Christianity is a sinless person capable to accept our sins and save us(be our substitute).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Original Sin was committed by Adam &amp;amp; Eve and was sexually transmitted to their offsprings. This goes against law of Karma where one's bad karma is spent by themselves in successive births but not carried over to their progeny. Hence Adam &amp;amp; Eve's bad karma would be spent by them and not all humans. If this were to be the case, then there is no need to be saved from original sin of Adam &amp;amp; Eve by Jesus. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no guilt associated with disobeying God(which caused original sin) in Hinduism since most schools believe that the world is a manifestation of Brahman rather than a creation of a personal God who commands humans to obey him. Hence there is no one to disobey but just law of Karma(cause &amp;amp; effect) and Dharma(natural way). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no eternal heaven nor eternal hell in Hinduism. You would not go to the eternal heaven if you accept Jesus as a savior while being a Hindu nor would you be damned to eternal hell if you don't. Liberation is not same as going to eternal heaven. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, nothing prevents you from worshiping Jesus but you should know the consequences of doing so. You'd have to invalidate either Hinduism or Christianity's truth claims in order to worship Jesus while being a Hindu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2015-08-12T14:37:49.353" LastActivityDate="2015-08-12T14:37:49.353" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="906" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="908" CreationDate="2014-07-08T14:39:40.903" Score="16" ViewCount="5878" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dashavatara refers to the ten Avatars of lord Vishnu, which are :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matsya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kurma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Narasimha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vamana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Parashurama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Buddha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalki&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But apart from the above, lord Vishnu has one more Avatar i.e &lt;strong&gt;Mohini&lt;/strong&gt;, which is a female avatar of lord Vishnu and the only female Avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Than why Mohini is not one of the Dashavatara of lord Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastActivityDate="2018-12-12T08:57:34.920" Title="Why is Mohini not one of the Dashavatara of lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="908" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="906" CreationDate="2014-07-08T14:55:46.427" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu has many types of &lt;em&gt;avataras&lt;/em&gt;. In fact, His &lt;em&gt;avatars&lt;/em&gt; are innumerable:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O brāhmaṇas, the incarnations of the Lord are innumerable, like&#xA;  rivulets flowing from inexhaustible sources of water. [SB - 1.3.26]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;strong&gt;these ten are only the prominent ones; especially because they take place on this material plane, our earth&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;avatarati it avatara&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; - so those are called &lt;em&gt;avataras&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;because they descend to earth&lt;/strong&gt; and take up material bodies of transcendental nature. Where as many other &lt;em&gt;avatars&lt;/em&gt; take place on other planes of existences, just like the Mohini one.  Hence, Mohini is not in the list of the ten avatars. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;REFERENCES&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavatam 1.3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/encyclopedia/avatars.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;very good article&lt;/a&gt; to understand about the &lt;em&gt;avatars&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-09T03:09:03.113" LastActivityDate="2014-07-09T03:09:03.113" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="909" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="945" CreationDate="2014-07-08T15:26:41.250" Score="6" ViewCount="4122" Body="&lt;p&gt;We consider Lord Mahavishnu as having ten avatars because they descend to this material plane (Earth). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doesn't that apply to Lord Ayyappa who is the son of Lord Shiva &amp;amp; Vishnu? Shouldn't he be an avatar of Lord Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorDisplayName="user7295" LastEditDate="2016-10-04T15:32:22.467" LastActivityDate="2022-03-22T16:08:46.563" Title="Why isn't Lord Ayyappa an avatar of Lord Mahavishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="910" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="909" CreationDate="2014-07-08T16:17:13.763" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ayyappa isn't an Avatar of Vishnu, rather his son in union with Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sabarimala.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=91&amp;amp;Itemid=93&quot;&gt;official website of Shabarimala&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manikantan, an alias of Ayyappa was born of Hari (Lord Vishnu) and Hara (Lord Shiva), with Hari assuming the form of a female (Mohini). Hence Ayyappan is also named as Hariharasutan (Sutan meaning Son).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T16:17:13.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="912" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="906" CreationDate="2014-07-08T16:37:50.763" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;For a 'person'(don't get offended) to be called &lt;em&gt;Avatara&lt;/em&gt;, he/she has to be born on the our Earth in material form experience Earth-ness but without loosing any divine power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word, Avatar itself mean to descend as saviour as अव- (ava-, “down”) +‎ तार (tāra, “savior”).&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0#Sanskrit&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikitionary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By definition an incarnation is different. It requires the birth of God in physical form, through the natural process and his existence upon earth in physical form undergoing the same experiences as living beings. It is not necessary that the physical form needs to be that of human always. It can be a human, animal or semi human or even mythical form. The incarnation may exist for a brief period of time or for a life time. The incarnation may have all the powers and awareness of God in His absolute aspect or only a necessary portion of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/8/12/en1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt; do list Mohini as an Avatar of Vishnu in the 26 Avatars, but also comments on it being infinite. It was Garuda Purana which counts the Avatars to be 10.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/concepts/avatar.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-02-12T06:15:45.150" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:15:45.150" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="914" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="881" CreationDate="2014-07-08T18:00:44.960" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will try to answer your question rather differently. I agree with @Yogi that Hinduism does not define how to worship or whom to worship. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being the first among the known religions there was no need to make or create a comparison in worshipping style. Rather, Hinduism has always tried to define how to live your life while performing your prime duty for the welfare of self and the society. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Manusmriti', 'Upanishads', 'Vedas', 'Ramayana', 'Mahabharata' and the 'Bhagavad Gita' are all dedicated to define a way of living (do's and don'ts) for the welfare of the society. Every manuscript defines the do's and don'ts for a man/woman while playing different roles in life. Be it as a father/son/brother/servant/king/soldier/trader/teacher or any other role a person is required to play at the same time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism 'does not hold' you from performing the duties of life through any 'channel' be it through The Bhagavad Gita or The Bible or The Quran or The Guru Granth Sahib. You go through any holy book mentioned here or teachings of these saints. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the teachings you follow guide you to perform your duties for the welfare of the society then perhaps you are following hinduism without the feel of guilt and approval from any 'Pandit' who defines Hinduism or Christianity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know, I cannot answer the question perfectly well but I believe that my explanation will help you take your own decision.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="105" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T18:00:44.960" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="915" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="896" CreationDate="2014-07-08T18:51:07.057" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Maha Rudra Yajna is one of the highest forms of community worship ,with the involvement of 11 Ritwiks reciting the Sri Rudra Prasna 11 times on 11 occassions ,totalling 1,331 times followed by one tenth (133) recitations for the purpose of the homam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="348" LastActivityDate="2014-07-08T18:51:07.057" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="916" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="924" CreationDate="2014-07-08T19:00:55.423" Score="46" ViewCount="42183" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, I think the Indian society is very orthodox and can't generally accept things like an unmarried girl walking with or talking to a boy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is an unmarried girl or boy having sexual intercourse considered bad? Does Hinduism prohibit doing so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It will be great if you can add some scriptural references to your answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-07-19T01:05:13.110" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T02:56:41.720" Title="Does Hinduism forbid sexual intercourse before marriage?" Tags="|scripture|belief|culture|marriage|sex|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="917" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="894" CreationDate="2014-07-08T19:10:20.210" Score="-3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will try to be logical rather than being authentic as I cannot lay my hands on any citations in support of my answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana was never looking forward to marry Sita. The whole problem started after the proposal of marriage by Ravana's sister Shurpanakha was rejected by Rama &amp;amp; Lakshmana in a cruel manner. Ravana primarily came out to avenge this from Rama &amp;amp; Lakshmana. But after he saw the duo with Sita he was attracted to her. He decided to take her to Lanka and marry her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After reaching Lanka his first wife Mandodari scolded him on his shameful act. He tried to argue that he did this to revenge his sister's insult and hurting by the brothers. So he wants to avenge this insult by marrying her. Mandodari advised him that if he marries Sita without her consent it would be wrong and unjust (Adharma). So he should first convince Sita and then marry after taking her consent. As per the Ramayana, Mandodari always accompanied Ravana to 'Ashok Vatika' to ensure that he is not using any force. Since Sita never accepted Ravana's proposal he did not even touch her as he was a genuine brahmin and not a rapist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="105" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-28T14:33:51.443" LastActivityDate="2016-05-28T14:33:51.443" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="918" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-08T19:12:19.880" Score="6" ViewCount="122" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda, in a passage that simultaneously discusses the creation of the world and the way to properly conduct a yagna (fire-ritual), &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4129.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;quotes two individuals&lt;/a&gt; concerning the laying of bricks in a yagna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here now Âktâkshya used to say, &quot;Only he who knows abundant bricks possessed of (special) prayers, should build up the fire (altar): abundantly indeed he then heals Father Pragâpati.&quot;  But Tândya used to say, &quot;Surely the bricks possessed of prayers are the nobility, and the space-fillers are the peasants; and the noble is the feeder, and the peasantry the food; and where there is abundant food for the feeder, that realm is indeed prosperous and thrives: let him therefore pile up abundant space-fillers!&quot; Such then was the speech of those two, but the settled practice is different therefrom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about the content of these quotations, but rather about who is quoted.  I assume that Tandya is the eponymous seer of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchavimsha_Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tandya Mahabrahmana&lt;/a&gt; of the Sama Veda, so presumably his quotation is taken from the Tandya Brahmana.  (Can anyone verify this?)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who is Aktakshya, the other individual who's quoted?  Is he the seer of one of the Brahmanas of the Vedas?  Is his quotation taken from some other work that he is either the seer or the author of?     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-29T08:06:38.000" LastActivityDate="2015-09-29T08:06:38.000" Title="Who is the figure Aktakshya, quoted in the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda?" Tags="|vedas|yajur-veda|shatapatha-brahmana|sama-veda|rishi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="919" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="921" CreationDate="2014-07-08T19:25:36.677" Score="14" ViewCount="14968" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ayurveda is the Sub-Veda among four Veda(s). My question is which Veda is the primary Veda of Ayurveda? Please explain!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-07-08T20:01:43.467" LastActivityDate="2019-06-25T09:38:09.363" Title="In which veda(s) is Ayurveda included?" Tags="|vedas|ayurveda|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="921" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="919" CreationDate="2014-07-08T19:49:44.057" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ayurveda is treated as Upaveda of Rigveda and Antharveda.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ayurveda-recipes.com/history.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Charanavyuha mentions Āyurveda as Upavedas of Rigveda. But Sushruta and Bhavaprakasha mention Ayurveda as an upaveda of the&#xA;Atharvaveda. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas#Upaveda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Ayurveda  is treated as upveda of Rigveda or Atharveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T11:23:45.507" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T11:23:45.507" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="922" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-08T20:09:57.030" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the ancient Ayurvedic scholar Charaka, &quot;ayu&quot; comprises the mind, body, senses and the soul. Ayurveda can be defined as a system, which uses the inherent principles of nature, to help maintain health in a person by keeping the individual's body, mind and spirit in perfect equilibrium with nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Description&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Widely regarded as the oldest form of healthcare in the world, Ayurveda is an intricate medical system that originated in India thousands of years ago. The fundamentals of Ayurveda can be found in Hindu scriptures called the Vedas — the ancient Indian books of wisdom. The Rigveda, contains a series of prescriptions that can help humans overcome various ailments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The aim of this system is to prevent illness, heal the sick and preserve life. This can be summed up as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swasthyas swasthya rakshanam&lt;/strong&gt; - to protect health and prolong life&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aturasya vikar prashamanamcha&lt;/strong&gt; - to eliminate diseases and dysfunctions of the body&#xA;And both these are aimed towards the promotion of health on three levels:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mentally&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Physically&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Spiritually&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Specialized ayurvedic remedies such as panchakarma, marma chikitsa, dhara or following an ayurvedic diet, basically endeavor to restore the harmony of the tridoshas. The purpose of all ayurvedic remedies and herbal medicines is to keep the doshas or the humors in equilibrium, since an imbalance indicates a disease condition. Samsodhana (cleansing process), samsamana (palliative measures) and nidanaparivarjana (treating the causes) are the three main stages through which ayurvedic remedies usually progress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of these three remedial phases, samsodhana is considered a prominent process and according to ayurveda, should be administered with full care. Panchakarma is synonymous with this process. In fact, panchakarma is a group of five ayurvedic remedies, all of which are not practiced in all diseases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Basic Principles of Ayurveda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayurveda is based on the premise that the universe is made up of five elements: air, fire, water, earth and ether. These elements are represented in humans by three &quot;doshas&quot;, or energies: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. When any of the doshas accumulate in the body beyond the desirable limit, the body loses its balance. Every individual has a distinct balance, and our health and well-being depend on getting a right balance of the three doshas (&quot;tridoshas&quot;). Ayurveda suggests specific lifestyle and nutritional guidelines to help individuals reduce the excess dosha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A healthy person, as defined in &lt;strong&gt;Sushrut Samhita&lt;/strong&gt;, one of the primary works on Ayurveda, is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;he whose doshas are in balance, appetite is good, all tissues of the&#xA;  body and all natural urges are functioning properly, and whose mind,&#xA;  body and spirit are cheerful…&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It focuses on establishing and maintaining balance of the life energies within us, rather than focusing on individual symptoms.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It recognizes the unique constitutional differences of all individuals and therefore recommends different regimens for different types of people. Although two people may appear to have the same outward symptoms, their energetic constitutions may be very different and therefore call for very different remedies.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ayurveda is a complete medical system which recognizes that ultimately all intelligence and wisdom flows from one Absolute source (Paramatman). Health manifests by the grace of the Absolute acting through the laws of Nature (Prakriti). Ayurveda assists Nature by promoting harmony between the individual and Nature by living a life of balance according to her laws.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ayurveda describes three fundamental universal energies which regulate all natural processes on both the macrocosmic and microcosmic levels. That is, the same energies which produce effects in the various galaxies and star systems are operating at the level of the human physiology—in your own physiology. These three universal energies are known as the Tridosha.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Finally, the ancient Ayurvedic physicians realized the need for preserving the alliance of the mind and body and offers mankind tools for remembering and nurturing the subtler aspects of our humanity. Ayurveda seeks to heal the fragmentation and disorder of the mind-body complex and restore wholeness and harmony to all people.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T09:10:01.330" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T09:10:01.330" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="923" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-08T20:09:57.030" Score="0" Body="Ayurveda is a Sanskrit term, made up of the words &quot;ayus&quot; and &quot;veda.&quot; &quot;Ayus&quot; means life and &quot;Veda&quot; means knowledge or science. The term &quot;ayurveda&quot; thus means 'the knowledge of life' or 'the science of life'. According to the ancient Ayurvedic scholar Charaka, &quot;ayu&quot; comprises the mind, body, senses and the soul." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T09:10:28.527" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T09:10:28.527" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="924" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="916" CreationDate="2014-07-08T20:20:03.180" Score="63" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt;: May or may not be permitted for Kshatriyas, but forbidden for everyone else, and not encouraged for Kshatriyas either.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Technically there is no such thing as &lt;em&gt;premarital&lt;/em&gt; intercourse in Hinduism.  Whenever two people consummate a relationship, regardless of the circumstances, it is usually classified as a marriage of one sort or another.  It's even considered a marriage if the woman doesn't consent, like if she's drugged or unconscious.  The only question is whether it is a good marriage or a bad marriage, a marriage sanctioned by Hinduism or one that's strictly forbidden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu03.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; from the Manu Smriti describes the different kinds of marriage, which ones are permitted for which castes, and the consequences of doing one marriage vs. the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the description of the eight types of marriage:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1.]  The gift of a daughter, after decking her (with costly garments) and honouring (her by presents of jewels), to a man learned in the Veda and of good conduct, whom (the father) himself invites, is called the Brahma rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[2.]  The gift of a daughter who has been decked with ornaments, to a priest who duly officiates at a sacrifice, during the course of its performance, they call the Daiva rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[3.]  When (the father) gives away his daughter according to the rule, after receiving from the bridegroom, for (the fulfilment of) the sacred law, a cow and a bull or two pairs, that is named the Arsha rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[4.]  The gift of a daughter (by her father) after he has addressed (the couple) with the text, 'May both of you perform together your duties,' and has shown honour (to the bridegroom), is called in the Smriti the Pragapatya rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[5.]  When (the bridegroom) receives a maiden, after having given as much wealth as he can afford, to the kinsmen and to the bride herself, according to his own will, that is called the Asura rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[6.]  The voluntary union of a maiden and her lover one must know (to be) the Gandharva rite, which springs from desire and has sexual intercourse for its purpose.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[7.]  The forcible abduction of a maiden from her home, while she cries out and weeps, after (her kinsmen) have been slain or wounded and (their houses) broken open, is called the Rakshasa rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[8.]  When (a man) by stealth seduces a girl who is sleeping, intoxicated, or disordered in intellect, that is the eighth, the most base and sinful rite of the Pisakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the sort of thing you're talking about would be classified as a Gandharva marriage.  Let's see what marriages are permitted for what castes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages state that the first four are approved (in the case) of a Brahmana, one, the Rakshasa (rite in the case) of a Kshatriya, and the Asura (marriage in that) of a Vaisya and of a Sudra.  But in these (Institutes of the sacred law) three of the five (last) are declared to be lawful and two unlawful; the Paisaka and the Asura (rites) must never be used.  For Kshatriyas those before-mentioned two rites, the Gandharva and the Rakshasa, whether separate or mixed, are permitted by the sacred tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &amp;quot;the sages&amp;quot;, whoever they are, apparently say that the Gandharva marriage is forbidden for everyone, but the Manu Smriti is saying that they're wrong, and that a Gandharva marriage is actually permitted for Kshatriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, even if the Kshatriyas are allowed to have a Gandharva marriage, that doesn't mean that it's encouraged.  Marriages higher up on the list are still considered the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-24T14:23:50.530" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="925" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23058" CreationDate="2014-07-09T01:52:27.390" Score="12" ViewCount="4236" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that Lord Krishna didn't marry his lover Radha, but we still consider her as the consort of Lord Krishna. My question is why do we worship them together?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-15T10:50:05.143" LastActivityDate="2019-05-09T15:21:01.397" Title="If Radha and Krishna aren't married, why do we worship Them together, like Sita-Rama?" Tags="|krishna|belief|vaishnavism|goddess|radha|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="926" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="932" CreationDate="2014-07-09T02:14:16.647" Score="13" ViewCount="26488" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was there any reason behind Shri Krishna being quiet until Sisupala made a hundred mistakes? Why did Shri Krishna let him make a hundred mistakes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T03:27:29.190" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T03:27:29.190" Title="Why did Shri Krishna forgive the 100 mistakes done by Sisupala?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="927" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="935" CreationDate="2014-07-09T02:36:30.730" Score="17" ViewCount="7375" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that there are &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/62/93&quot;&gt;many avatars&lt;/a&gt; of Vishnu but some say that the famous &lt;em&gt;Dashavatar&lt;/em&gt; include &lt;em&gt;lord Buddha&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashavatara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;) and some say as &lt;em&gt;Balarama&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/od/godsgoddesses/a/10avatars.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;hinduism.about.com&lt;/a&gt;). but &lt;em&gt;Mohini&lt;/em&gt; avatar is not considered as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/906/93&quot;&gt;part of Ten avatars&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are the exact famous &lt;em&gt;Dasavatarms&lt;/em&gt; as mentioned in Scriptures?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-07-17T09:39:56.553" LastActivityDate="2023-03-25T18:44:56.303" Title="What are the exact ten avatars of Vishnu?" Tags="|scripture|vishnu|avatars|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="928" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="926" CreationDate="2014-07-09T02:55:35.440" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it was because Krishna had given word to Sishupala's mother to forgive his hundred mistakes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपराधशतं कषाम्यं मया हय अस्य पितृष्वसः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुत्रस्य ते वधार्हाणां मा तवं शॊके मनः कृथाः [MB - 2.40.22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Do not grief, O aunt, I'll forgive his hundred offences even if he deserved to be killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, in the yajna of king Yudhisthira, Krishna kept silent until his hundred offences were over and then only killed him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-01T03:42:56.460" LastActivityDate="2016-02-01T03:42:56.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="929" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="925" CreationDate="2014-07-09T02:59:38.983" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;A brief answer, source linked at the end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The love between Radha and Krishna is not a mundane love like in this material world. Therefore, we can't apply normal moralistic standards here.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Another story in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/Compiled_and_Imp_Scriptures/Glories_of_Shri_Radha/Meeting_of_Radha_Krishna/Marriage_of_Radha_Krishna.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahma Vaivarta Purana&lt;/a&gt; states that they were indeed married by Lord Brahma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;On a more esoteric level, Radha is married to Abhimanyu, who is but an expansion of Krsna. However, for the purpose of &lt;em&gt;rasa&lt;/em&gt;, or spiritual mellow, Radha and Krishna are in the mood of separated lovers, which makes Their spiritual love more intense.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.krishna.com/if-radha-and-krishna-arent-married-why-do-we-worship-them-together-sita-rama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;See full answer here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastActivityDate="2014-07-09T02:59:38.983" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="930" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="277" CreationDate="2014-07-09T03:03:06.053" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna and Radharani are married according the Brahma Vaivarta Purana. They were married in the forest of Vrindavana by Lord Brahma. &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/Compiled_and_Imp_Scriptures/Glories_of_Shri_Radha/Meeting_of_Radha_Krishna/Marriage_of_Radha_Krishna.htm&quot;&gt;Read the full pastime here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, for the purpose of &lt;em&gt;rasa&lt;/em&gt;, or spiritual mellow, Radha and Krishna are situated in the transcendental mellow of &lt;em&gt;parakiya bhava&lt;/em&gt;. This mellow is exhibited between separated lovers. Thus, Radha is married to Abhimanyu, who is an expansion of Krishna, to intensify the pastime of Radha and Krishna love. In the Vaishnava tradition, it is important to understand that the love between Radha and Krishna is transcendental and is not a reflection of any kind of mundane love in this material world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-07T11:32:28.393" LastActivityDate="2014-10-07T11:32:28.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="931" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="157" CreationDate="2014-07-09T03:04:58.773" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;To understand the original concept of caste system, one must first understand the basic tenets of karma and reincarnation in hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once these ideas are clear, you get a clear picture how caste sytem is deeply interleaved with &lt;strong&gt;karma&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;rebirth&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Karma states that one reaps what one sows. Hinduism also supports the idea of an immortal soul that is reborn. Thus, the actions in a past life decides the fate and thus the caste one is born into in the future life&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Caste System is the long-time Hindu practise of job allocation based on the group one is born into. There are 4 groups - the Brahmins (the learned), the Kshatriyas (the warriors), the Vaisyas (the merchants) and the Sudras (the labourers). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How it started?? Purpose?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Caste System was one of the first attempts at division of labour&#xA;when the society was primitive. There were a few major job roles that&#xA;needed to be filled in.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The different roles were alloted based on the inherent nature one&#xA;was born with. Brahmins possesed the intellectual capacity,&#xA;Kshatriyas exhibited courage, Vaisyas had good business sense and&#xA;the Sudras could serve well.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It also helped in easy grasping of the job skill by the child from&#xA;the parent. The hierarchy structure helped in smooth issue of&#xA;commands for getting things done in the society.&#xA;Eventually, the Caste System became a deeply established practise in the Hindu society.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What went wrong ??&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since the Caste System was based on ranking, the higher castes&#xA;misused it to subjugate the lower ones. It went to such intolerable&#xA;levels as to the creation of the idea of 'untouchables' - those who&#xA;were considered sub-standard humans.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;However this rigid caste system was a degraded form of Varnashrama-&#xA;dharma as prescribed by Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What was actually  prescribed by Lord Krishna??&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad-gita (4.13):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;catur-varnyam maya srishtam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    guna-karma-vibhagashah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the three modes of material nature and the work&#xA;  associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created&#xA;  by Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna says that a person’s varna comes from his guna, “nature” or “quality,” and karma, the type of activity he does. Krishna does not use the word janma, “birth.” The varnashrama system is not rigid or oppressive. If a person born into a family of a lower varna shows the qualities and inclinations of a brahmana, he can be educated accordingly and become a brahmana. On the other hand, being born in an upper- varna family does not automatically confer that status without the proper qualities and training.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I have not elaborated on the idea of &quot;Gunas&quot; since it is well explained in one of the answers.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-09T15:17:52.783" LastActivityDate="2014-07-09T15:17:52.783" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="932" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="926" CreationDate="2014-07-09T03:10:41.120" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is told in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sabha Parva&lt;/a&gt; (Book Two) of the Mahabharata.  When Shishupala was born, he had three eyes and four arms, which terrified his parents, the king and queen of Chedi.  Then an invisible voice sounded from the heavens and said this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This thy son, O king, that hath been born will become both fortunate and superior in strength. Therefore thou hast no fear from him. Indeed cherish the child without anxiety. He will not die (in childhood). His time is not yet come. He that will slay him with weapons hath also been born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His parents were worried and asked the voice 'who would be the one that would kill Shishupala?', and it answered:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He upon whose lap this child being placed the superfluous arms of his will fall down upon the ground like a pair of five-headed snakes, and at the sight of whom his third eye on the forehead will disappear, will be his slayer[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So his parents called all the kings of the world to Chedi and put the child on each of their their laps to see which one would be the slayer.  Finally Krishna and Balarama (who were still children at the time) came, as they were nephews of the queen of Chedi.  (The queen of Chedi was the sister of Krishna's father Vasudeva).  As soon as Krishna put Shishupala in his lap, Shishupala's extra arms fell off and his third eye disappeared.  So the queen of Chedi realized that Krishna was the one prophesied to kill Shishupala, and she asked him &quot;O thou of great strength, thou wilt have to pardon the offences of Sisupala for my sake. O tiger of the Yadu race. Know O lord, even this is the boon that I ask.&quot;  And Krishna responded &quot;O aunt, even when he will deserve to be slain, I will pardon an hundred offences of his. Grieve thou not.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when he grew up Shishupala found a way to commit a hundred offenses, making his last offenses at Yudishtra's Rajasuya Yagna, and in the middle of the Yagna, in front of all the kings present, Krishna killed Shishupala with the Sudarshana Chakra, saying &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Listen ye lords of earth, why this one had hitherto been pardoned by me. As asked by his mother, a hundred offences (of his) were to be pardoned by me. Even this was the boon she had asked, and even this I granted her. That number, ye kings, hath become full. I shall now slay him in your presence, ye monarchs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2016-03-23T17:40:38.847" LastActivityDate="2016-03-23T17:40:38.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="933" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="927" CreationDate="2014-07-09T03:16:17.817" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please refer to Jayadeva Goswami's Dasavataram stotra &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.salagram.net/Dasavatara-page.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ten avatars described are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matsya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kurma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nrsimha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vamana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Parasurama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Balarama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Buddha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalki&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a list of the 22 scheduled incarnations of Lord Visnu in the Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/1/3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1.3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those are described as the four Kumaras, Varaha, Narada, Nara and Narayana Rsi, Kapila, Dattatreya, Yajna, Rsabhadeva, Prthu, Matsya, Kurma, Dhanvantari, Mohini, Nrsimha, Vamana, Parasurama, Vyasadeva, Balarama, Krishna, Buddha, and Kalki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see there is some overlap between them but the Srimad Bhagavatam gives a more comprehensive list.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastActivityDate="2014-07-09T03:16:17.817" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="934" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-09T03:33:02.960" Score="12" ViewCount="1101" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have often read that the Atharva Veda was a combined composition of both Atharvans and Bhrigus.&#xA;However the Atharva Veda consists of only the Atharvans part of the knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this true and described anywhere in later texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit:&#xA;Found a few blogs that describe this&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sreenivasaraos.com/tag/bhrigu-angirasa-conflict/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://sreenivasaraos.com/tag/bhrigu-angirasa-conflict/&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hubpages.com/religion-philosophy/athravanavesta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://hubpages.com/religion-philosophy/athravanavesta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2016-04-10T15:29:08.420" LastActivityDate="2016-07-05T02:08:37.957" Title="Is it true that more than half of the knowledge of the Atharva Veda was lost or went missing?" Tags="|vedas|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="935" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="927" CreationDate="2014-07-09T03:39:47.490" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;This isn't a proper answer, but then again I don't think there can be a proper answer.  The notion of Dasavatharam isn't a notion that's found in Hindu scriptures; there are countless avatarams of Vishnu found in Hindu scriptures, such as the approximately twenty-four avatarams of Vishnu found in the Srimad Bhagavatam, and different people have made different lists of what they think the &quot;top ten&quot; should be.   People have generally settled on the first seven: Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, and Rama.  The question is one who the last three are.  The four contenders are Balarama, Krishna, Buddha, and Kalki.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people consider Balarama to be purely an avataram of Vishnu's serpent &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adiseshan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adiseshan&lt;/a&gt;, so they say Krishna, Buddha, Kalki.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivaishnava&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnavas&lt;/a&gt; consider Adiseshan himself to be an avataram of Vishnu, so they say Balarama, Krishna, Kalki.  (And it may even be due to some skepticism about whether Buddha is an avataram at all.) &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudiya_Vaishnavism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gaudiya Vaishnavas&lt;/a&gt; like Jayadeva give Krishna an elevated status, not viewing him as a mere avataram of Vishnu (in fact they sometimes say Vishnu is an avataram of Krishna), so they say Balarama, Buddha, Kalki.  I even know of temple carvings that show Balarama, Krishna, Buddha, because they don't want to count Kalki as he is yet to come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is right?  It's not really possible to say one way or another, since the question of which avatarams are &quot;most important&quot; or &quot;main&quot; is pretty much a subjective matter.  If you were to walk up to me on the street and ask me to rattle off the Avatarams of Vishnu I would say Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parasurama, Rama, Balarama, Krishna, Kalki.  But I'm biased, as I'm an &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyengar&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyengar&lt;/a&gt; (a Sri Vaishnava Brahmana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-17T15:10:49.570" LastActivityDate="2015-08-17T15:10:49.570" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="936" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="925" CreationDate="2014-07-09T04:00:00.507" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because &lt;strong&gt;She is indeed half body of Shri Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; in the following way:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आबिर्बभुव कन्यैका कृष्ण्स्य वामपार्श्वतः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धवित्वा पुष्पमानिय द्दातर्ध्य प्रभो पदे&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रासे सम्भुय गोलोके सा दधाव हरे पुरः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तेन रधा समाख्याता पुराविद्भिद्विजोतम [BVP - 5.25,26]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then a maiden manifested from the left portion of Shir Krishna. She ran and obtained flowers to offer onto the feet of Shri Krishna. O best of the priests, because she originated from the &lt;em&gt;rasa&lt;/em&gt;(ra) in Goloka and  &lt;em&gt;dhavitva&lt;/em&gt; (dha), i.e. ran in front of Hari, scholars call Her Radha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in Goloka, the abode of Krishna, it is Radha who is the consort of Shri Krishna. It is Shri Radha who becomes Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, in Vaikuntha, Sita, the consort of Rama, in &lt;em&gt;Treta yuga&lt;/em&gt; and Rukmini in &lt;em&gt;Dwapara&lt;/em&gt;. We generally worship the Lord along with His consort as the &lt;em&gt;Shakti-Shaktimaan&lt;/em&gt; duo. So &lt;strong&gt;Radha being the consort of Krishna, they are worshiped together.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are interested to know whether they were married or not, and if not then why, then you can refer to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/393/38&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-19T04:32:14.257" LastActivityDate="2017-06-19T04:32:14.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="937" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="942" CreationDate="2014-07-09T05:17:13.147" Score="26" ViewCount="23360" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know at what age Lord Krishna was killed by the hunter (the rebirth of Vali)? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptural references available for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2020-07-07T08:53:53.667" LastActivityDate="2020-07-07T08:53:53.667" Title="At what age was Lord Krishna killed by the hunter?" Tags="|scripture|krishna|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="938" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="941" CreationDate="2014-07-09T05:19:39.130" Score="11" ViewCount="4062" Body="&lt;p&gt;Someone told a priest that he wants to pray in &lt;em&gt;reverse&lt;/em&gt; and the priest told him this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are praying like &lt;em&gt;Om Namah Shivay&lt;/em&gt; currently. So you need to pray now &lt;em&gt;Shivay Namah Om&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is what is &lt;em&gt;reverse&lt;/em&gt; chanting and what does it signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="129" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-09T15:30:20.603" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T01:47:10.613" Title="What is reverse chanting?" Tags="|rituals|shiva|prayer|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="939" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="894" CreationDate="2014-07-09T05:45:54.240" Score="31" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ravana was not able to force himself on Sita due to a curse he had received years earlier, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/UiIi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana.  Ravana and his army were once camped on mount Kailash, preparing to attack Devaloka (the kingdom of the gods), when he saw the Apsara (nymph) Rambha and was enchanted by her beauty.  He propositioned her, but she refused his advances, saying that she was like Ravana's daughter-in-law, as she was on her way to see Nalakuvara, son of Ravana's brother Kubera the god of wealth.  Ravana paid no heed to this, saying that Rambha was an Apsara, and Apsaras are never wedded to just one husband.  He then ravished Rambha.  When Nalakuvara heard what had happened, he put the following curse on Ravana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh fair one, since thou hast been ravished despite thy unwillingness he shall never be able to get by an unwilling damsel.  Whenever he shall, stricken by lust, ravish a reluctant damsel, his head shall be sundered into seven pieces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Ravana couldn't take liberties with Sita against her will.  He had to get Sita to marry him voluntarily, although he did use threats to try to convince her.  When he first brings her to Lanka, he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/aranya/sarga56/aranyaitrans56.htm#Verse25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, angry lady Maithili, listen to my words. A period of twelve months is given to you. And oh, smiley smiler, if you do not come nigh of me within that period, then the cooks will slice you to pieces for the purpose of a morning meal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And when Hanuman came to Lanka, he hears &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga22/sundarasans22.htm#Verse8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ravana telling Sita&lt;/a&gt; that he would keep his word and give her two more months before killing her:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Seetha with best complexion! Whatever limit has been made by me to you, those two months are protectable to me. Thereafter ascend my bed.  Above two months you not desiring me as husband will be killed in my kitchen for my breakfast.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(On a side note, it's probably as good a time as any to mention that Vishnu says in the Skanda Purana that Sita was never actually kidnapped, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3555/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  If that's the case, then the real answer would be &quot;by not going to the palace at all&quot;!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-06-21T15:04:38.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="940" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-09T05:53:05.660" Score="2" ViewCount="195" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is &lt;em&gt;yugāvatāra&lt;/em&gt; a well-defined term in the scriptures or just a pet name assigned by devotees to their &lt;em&gt;Ishta-deva&lt;/em&gt; (worshipable deity) whom they consider to be the most important for that &lt;em&gt;yuga&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are they the same in various &lt;em&gt;mahāyugas&lt;/em&gt;, or changing, like in one &lt;em&gt;Kali-yuga&lt;/em&gt; Buddha is the principal, in another — &lt;em&gt;Kalki&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Šrī Satya Sai and Šrī Rāmakrišna wear the title and Šrī Krišna Caitanya is also called &quot;yugāvatāra&quot; by followers, all related only to this particular Kali-yuga. Is there a more complete list?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastEditorUserId="214" LastEditDate="2014-07-15T06:40:17.333" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T06:00:38.073" Title="What is yugāvatāra?" Tags="|avatars|yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="941" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="938" CreationDate="2014-07-09T06:00:50.510" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Changing the word order in Sanskrit does not reverse the phrase meaning. Meaning stays the same, because word relationships are indicated by inflection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Word order gets customarily changed in Sanskrit poetry. Example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;namas te gaura vānī šrī mūrtaye dīna tārine &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rūpānuga viruddhāpasiddhānta dhvānta hārine&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gaurāvirbhāva bhūmes tvam nirdeštā saj jana priyah &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vaišnava sārvabhaumah šrī jagannāthāya te namah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in both verses &quot;&lt;em&gt;namah te&lt;/em&gt;&quot; and &quot;&lt;em&gt;te namah&lt;/em&gt;&quot; mean the same thing, &quot;&lt;em&gt;I bow down before you&lt;/em&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-09T06:42:33.343" LastActivityDate="2014-07-09T06:42:33.343" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="942" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="937" CreationDate="2014-07-09T06:09:28.130" Score="32" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna lived for 125 years; in the Srimad Bhagavatam, Brahma &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/11/6/25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells&lt;/a&gt; Krishna that it's time for his life on earth to end:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Supreme Personality of Godhead, O my Lord, You have descended into the Yadu dynasty, and thus You have spent one hundred twenty-five autumns with Your devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's another popular way to calculate his age: the Matsya Purana apparently contains a reference to Krishna being 89 years old during the Mahabharata War (see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5172/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and the Mausala Parva of the Mahabharata says that Krishna died 36 years after the war, which adds up to 125 years total.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-05-24T02:22:54.067" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="943" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="68" CreationDate="2014-07-09T06:55:34.853" Score="2" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Because The Lord is most liberal&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will not digress here &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/24/what-is-hinduism&quot;&gt;what is Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;, but will answer in terms of Vedic culture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedas&lt;/strong&gt; are the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of God is complete. So, &lt;em&gt;everything&lt;/em&gt; is included. There can only be one &lt;strong&gt;Absolute&lt;/strong&gt;. Even those who do not believe in His/its existence or oppose Him, are still inevitably part of the Absolute. All possible philosophies are included in the Vedic knowledge, categorized and thoroughly analyzed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Evidence&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad-gītā 7.2 Krišna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am telling you complete knowledge with practical realization, knowing which, nothing else remains to be known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then in Bhagavad-gītā 11.7:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The entire Universe is here, in one place. Look now at the moving and non-moving beings inside my body and whatever else you want to see.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are numerous stories in the Vedic literature about nišādas, mlēcchas, yavanas, rākšasas and others who do not follow the Vedic injunctions directly, but they are still given some roles and perform some functions under the indirect influence of the same Vedic authority:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The nature exhibits both moving and non-moving beings under my supervision. Because of this reason, the Universe is working.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Bhagavad-gītā 9.10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2014-07-14T11:43:24.697" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="944" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="927" CreationDate="2014-07-09T07:40:58.460" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhrigu &lt;em&gt;rishi&lt;/em&gt; cursed Vishnu to take repeated births on earth (Devi Bhagavata, 4.12.8,9) for which He is taking innumerable incarnations here and we are having a problem to decide what are the exact &lt;em&gt;dashaavataras&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When scriptures describe the &lt;em&gt;avatars&lt;/em&gt; of Vishnu, which are infinite, they &lt;strong&gt;include both Balarama and Buddha as Vishnu's incarnations&lt;/strong&gt;. For example, Shrimad Bhagavatam says as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the nineteenth and twentieth incarnations, the Lord advented&#xA;  Himself as Lord Balarāma and Lord Kṛṣṇa in the family of Vṛṣṇi and by so doing He removed the burden of the world. [SB - 1.3.23]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Añjanā, in the province of Gayā, just for the&#xA;  purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theist. [SB - 1.3.24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So also, Garuda Puran mentions both Balarama and Buddha as an incarnations of Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ekonaviṃśe viṃśatime vṛṣṇiṣu prāpya janmanī&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    rāmakṛṣṇāviti bhuvo bhagavānaharadbharam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    tataḥ kalestu sandhyānte sammohāya suradviṣām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    buddho nāmrā jinasutaḥ kīkaṭeṣu bhaviṣyati&lt;/em&gt; [Grd. Pur- 1.1.31,32]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In brief&lt;/strong&gt;: 20th,21st are Rama-Krishna born in the Vrshni clan. Then in Kali, He will become Buddha in Kikata (modern Gaya province).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;strong&gt;wherever a list of ten is given, most of the times Buddha replaces Balarama&lt;/strong&gt;. For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dharma saṃrakṣaṇārthāya adharmādivinaṣṭaye&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  daityarākṣasanāśārthaṃ &lt;strong&gt;matsyaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; pūrvaṃ yathābhavat&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;kūrmo varāho nṛharirvāmano rāma&lt;/strong&gt; ūrjitaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yathā dāśarathī &lt;strong&gt;rāmaḥ kṛṣṇobuddho&lt;/strong&gt;'tha &lt;strong&gt;kalki&lt;/strong&gt; api&lt;/em&gt; [Grd, Pu. - 1.86.10,11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then in the 3.15 chapter, Garuda puran gives a list of incarnations where Buddha is prsent but not Balarama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the Varaha Puran lists the ten incarnations with Buddha as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;matsyaḥ kūrmo varāhaśca narasiṃho'tha vāmanaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rāmo rāmaśca kṛṣṇaśca buddhaḥ kalkī ca te daśa&lt;/em&gt;  [Vrh. Pu. - 4.2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mastya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parshurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Kalki are the ten incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the Agni Puran goes on to describe the ten avatars one by one and in the list it describes about Buddha as one of them in the 16th chapter. Even the Vishnu Puran (3.17.41) mentions Buddha as in incarnation of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does this means Buddha &lt;strong&gt;exactly belongs&lt;/strong&gt; to the Dashavatara? Probably not. It just means, &lt;strong&gt;Buddha certainly belongs to the popular Dashavatara list&lt;/strong&gt;. It's because some scriptures even neither mention Buddha nor Balarama in their list of ten incarnations. For example, the Vayu Puran replaces them with Dattatreya and Vedavyasa. Then one verse whose origin I don't know mentions Balarama but not Buddha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;matsyaḥ kūrmo varāhaśca narasiṃhaśca vāmanaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rāmo rāmaśca rāmaśca kṛṣṇaḥ kalkirjanārdanaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - The ten incarnations are: Mastya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parshurama, Rama, Balarama, Krishna,and Kalki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So moral of the story? Many scriptures mention Buddha in the ten &lt;em&gt;avatars&lt;/em&gt; and some don't. So Buddha belongs to the popular list of ten incarnations of Vishnu. But because Buddha spread a non-Vedic tenet, some people do not accept Him as an incarnation of Vishnu and replace Him with Balarama. But if you go by the scriptures, then both are incarnations of Vishnu. So chose whoever you like and include Him in your list of &lt;em&gt;dashavataras&lt;/em&gt;.  At the end of the day, His incarnations are nothing but infinite:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;avatārā hyasaṃkhyeyā hareḥ&lt;/em&gt;  [Grd. Puran - 1.1.34 / SB - 1.3.26]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हरि अनंत हरिकथा अनंता [RCM - 1.139]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T14:11:10.513" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T14:11:10.513" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="945" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="909" CreationDate="2014-07-09T09:33:15.967" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The difference between a descended &lt;strong&gt;avatāra&lt;/strong&gt; and a foolish embodied being (&lt;strong&gt;dehī&lt;/strong&gt;) is that avatāra does not forget his spiritual identity in the process and maintains a strong connection with the spiritual plane. E.g. in the Kurukšētra battle Krišna was hit by all kinds of divine weapons, including one that Arjuna could not possibly deflect, but Krišna did not suffer. He could just absorb the weapons, himself being unarmed. Likewise, any avatāra is expected to manifest at least some exceptional supernatural prowess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupadabooks.com/cc/madhya/20/365&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chaitanya-Charitāmrita 2.20.365&lt;/a&gt; Sanātana Goswāmī asks a tongue-in-cheek question &quot;Who is the avatāra in Kali age?&quot;. The question is amusing, because he is asking it to &lt;em&gt;that avatāra himself&lt;/em&gt; and they both know that. However, the Master answers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O Sanātana, give up your intelligent tricks. Listen to the description of the šaktyāveša-avatāras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To summarize his answer, &lt;strong&gt;an avatāra&lt;/strong&gt; is recognized by the principal (mukhya) and superimposed (gauna) symptoms. In an avatāra, the manifestation of (divine) energy is direct (sākšāt-šaktye), if it is just a semblance (ābhāse), the person is called &quot;&lt;strong&gt;vibhūti&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; instead. The symptoms to be looked for are described in the šāstras by muni Vjāsa (primary symptoms: name, skin color, dress, place of residence; divine energies: knowledge, love, the powers to create and maintain worlds and to protect and destroy villains; superimposed activities: killing of demons, creation, maintenance and destruction of the worlds and other). He also goes on to mention some avatāras and to describe the qualities and pastimes of Krišna in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Thus,&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;while we have not discovered a description in šāstras of Lord Ayyappa as an avatar of Lord Mahavishnu, we cannot accept him as such.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastActivityDate="2014-07-09T09:33:15.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="946" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="947" CreationDate="2014-07-09T10:19:23.140" Score="18" ViewCount="33882" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where did Duryodhana go after his death? Though he had committed many wrong deeds, I just wanted to know where he went to. Heaven or hell?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what about the Pandavas? Did they go to Krishna's abode or Heaven?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard that Karna went to his father's adobe, &lt;em&gt;Suryaloka&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone give &lt;strong&gt;authentic reference&lt;/strong&gt; so as to where each of them went after death  ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="360" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2019-04-24T19:26:17.740" LastActivityDate="2019-04-24T19:26:17.740" Title="Where did Duryodhana and the Pandavas go after their death?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|duryodhana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="947" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="946" CreationDate="2014-07-09T10:37:51.813" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana &lt;strong&gt;went to Heaven first after his death&lt;/strong&gt;. Yudhisthira saw him in heaven as the king when he entered there:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arrived at Heaven, king Yudhishthira the just, beheld Duryodhana&#xA;  endued with prosperity and seated on an excellent seat. He blazed with&#xA;  effulgence like the sun and wore all those signs of glory which belong&#xA;  to heroes. And he was in the company of many deities of blazing&#xA;  effulgence and of Sadhyas of righteous deeds. Yudhishthira, beholding&#xA;  Duryodhana and his prosperity, became suddenly filled with rage and&#xA;  turned back from the sight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And regarding other Pandavas and Karna, they were not present in heaven immediately, but had gone to hell. Messengers from heaven lead Yudhisthira to hell through an unauspicious path where he heard them screaming:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Thus addressed, they answered him from all sides, saying, ‘I am&#xA;  Karna!’ ‘I am Bhimasena!’ ‘I am Arjuna!’ ‘I am Nakula!’ ‘I am&#xA;  Sahadeva!’ ‘I am Dhrishtadyumna!’ ‘I am Draupadi!’ ‘We are the sons of&#xA;  Draupadi!’ Even thus, O king, did those voices speak.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, if you are wondering why Pandavas went to hell, then it was just an illusion by Yama to test Yudhisthira and deceive him as he had deceived Drona about his son:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Pritha, thy brothers, O king, were not such as to deserve&#xA;  Hell. All this has been an illusion created by the chief of the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O king, that desirous of doing thee good, I caused thee to be sent for having a view of Hell. Thou hadst, by a pretence, deceived Drona in the matter of his son. Thou hast, in consequence thereof, been shown Hell by an act of deception. After the manner of thyself, Bhima and Arjuna, and Draupadi, have all been shown the place of sinners by an act of deception. Come, O chief of men, all of them have been cleansed of their sins. &lt;strong&gt;All those kings who had aided thee and who have been slain in battle, have all attained to Heaven&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But you might be wondering why Duryodhana got to go to heaven. This is because, he fought like an warrior in the battle and died a khsytriya's death. And as Krishna had told in Bhagavad Gita, if one dies in the battle doing his duty, then he goes to heaven:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;hato va prapsyasi svargam&lt;/em&gt; [BG 2.37]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - If you get killed in battle field, then you'll attain heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And those whose sins are more enjoy heaven first and then enter to hell. So after death they attained heaven. And after having spent their time there they then proceeded to their respective abodes. Like you have said, Karna went to &lt;em&gt;surya loka&lt;/em&gt;, Yudhisthira entered into the God of Righteousness and so on. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18005.htm&quot;&gt;5th chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Swargarohanika parva mentions all these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference:  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/index.htm&quot;&gt;Mahabharat, Swargarohanika Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-10-13T03:39:02.023" LastActivityDate="2014-10-13T03:39:02.023" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="948" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="949" CreationDate="2014-07-09T10:41:03.450" Score="21" ViewCount="56129" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kartikeya is elder son of lord Shiva and goddess Parvati, but he is not worshiped much compared to his dad, mother and brother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you visit temples in our country, rarely any temple will have an idol for Kartikeya, whereas the temple will always have idols of lord Shiva and Ganesha and atleast a photo frame of goddess Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is same with the frames of gods we see around, Kartikeya is rarely seen with them&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/s62UT.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;lord Shiva family&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Credits for Image : &lt;a href=&quot;http://ajitvadakayil.blogspot.com&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ajitvadakayil.blogspot.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-25T16:31:06.573" LastActivityDate="2022-04-19T21:59:38.373" Title="Why is Kartikeya not worshiped much compared to lord Shiva, lord Ganesha and goddess Parvati?" Tags="|shiva|worship|gods|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="949" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="948" CreationDate="2014-07-09T11:37:28.010" Score="24" Body="&lt;p&gt;The point that Karthikeya is not widely worshipped may be true in North India. But in Tamilnadu, he is very popular. This may be due to the fact that all the major incidents which involved Karthikeya took place in Tamilnadu. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Abodes_of_Lord_Muruga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Six Abodes of Murugan&lt;/a&gt; signifies such incidents. Apart from the Six main temples, there are numerous other notable temples dedicated to Karthikeya. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marudamalai&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Maruthamalai&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kataragama_temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kathirkamam&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkal_Singaravelan_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sikkal&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundrakudi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kunrakkudi&lt;/a&gt; are some of them. In Tamilnadu, he is regarded as the &lt;em&gt;Tamil Kadavul&lt;/em&gt; (meaning Tamil God).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Outside Tamilnadu, Karthikeya is worshipped in Karnataka and Kerala also. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukke_Subramanya_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kukke Subramanya Temple&lt;/a&gt; is located in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. Keezhattingal Sree Subrahmanyan swamy temple, Chacka BalaSubrahmanya swamy temple, Edappazhinji Subrahmanya swamy temple are a few of the many Karthikeya temples located in Kerala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Outside India, Karthikeya is worshipped in Sri Lanka and Malaysia too. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nallur_Kandaswamy_temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nallur Murugan temple&lt;/a&gt; and Thirukkovil Murugan temple (it was affected by 2004 Tsunami)  are notable temples in Sri Lanka. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Caves&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Batu Malai Murugan&lt;/a&gt; temple is a famous temple located near Kaula Lumpur in Malaysia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is true that Karthikeya worship is not popular in North India. During the Gupta rule, Karthikeya should have been worshipped (or atleast widely known) considering the fact that two Gupta kings were named after him (Skanda Gupta and Kumara Gupta). Even today there is Karthikeya temple in Haryana at Pehowa. In Delhi, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malai_Mandir&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Malai Mandir&lt;/a&gt; is a temple dedicated to Karthikeya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The existence of numerous temples lead us to the conclusion that Karthikeya worship is popular in South India. In Tamilnadu, it is equal in popularity to Shiva worship. But in North India, Karthikeya worship seems to have declined slowly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the frames of Shiva's family, here is one with Karthikeya. In fact, this is the first picture that came up when I googled &quot;siva family&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XfdQh.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-09T11:44:37.333" LastActivityDate="2014-07-09T11:44:37.333" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="950" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="937" CreationDate="2014-07-09T12:12:19.737" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna's birth date was 18th July 3228 BCE and Death date was 18th February 3102 BCE (the start of Kali Yuga) according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/dashavatara/lord-krishna/krishna-date-of-birth.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;DrikPanchang&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user304" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-29T21:34:18.893" LastActivityDate="2015-08-29T21:34:18.893" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="951" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2028" CreationDate="2014-07-09T12:29:04.450" Score="7" ViewCount="16408" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently I went to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushkar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pushkar&lt;/a&gt;. I visited a temple of Lord Kartikeya where women aren't allowed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T09:47:14.210" LastActivityDate="2018-03-03T03:22:18.687" Title="Why are women not allowed in the Kartikeya Temple at Pushkar?" Tags="|worship|temple|practice|women|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="952" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-09T13:09:54.400" Score="13" ViewCount="1038" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What happens between death and rebirth? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does the soul go to heaven/hell in between? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If so, does rebirth occur irrespective of whether the soul went to heaven or hell?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="290" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-15T04:06:44.960" LastActivityDate="2018-01-21T11:01:43.493" Title="Is there heaven/hell in between death and rebirth?" Tags="|death|rebirth|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="953" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="321" CreationDate="2014-07-09T13:35:01.483" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamadhenu#mediaviewer/File%3aSacred_cow2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sacred cow&lt;/a&gt;,&#xA;Hindus worship a number of other animals such as snakes, elephants and monkeys besides cows. However cows are considered the most sacred as it is believed that more than 3 crore Hindu gods and goddesses reside in a cow's body. The cow is considered sacred and called go-mata(cow-mother) since it provides milk and is a harmless animal. Dairy products are important in several Hindu rituals such as yajnas where ghee (clarified butter) is used as offerings to gods. In olden times when the cows grazed on medicinal plants on hills, the milk and urine of cows had medicinal values. Thus, go-mutra(urine) was used to treat diseases. For all these reasons , the cow is the most sacred animal for Hindus and men who owned most cows were considered richest( go-maan). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="369" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-07-09T13:52:41.230" LastActivityDate="2014-07-09T13:52:41.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="954" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2098" CreationDate="2014-07-09T14:03:05.747" Score="11" ViewCount="1865" Body="&lt;p&gt;Following are the four stages of life described for a Hindu male:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmachari&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Grihastha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vanaprastha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sanyasa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does this only apply to males? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If so, what about females? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do females have a different (if any) description of life stages like this?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T09:44:48.310" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T10:35:18.240" Title="Stages of life for a Hindu female?" Tags="|women|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="955" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="952" CreationDate="2014-07-09T14:14:25.577" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;For minor good or bad deeds people do not go to either heaven or hell and are reborn in the earthly plane. For those people who do go to either lower heaven or hell are reborn in the earth plane after their punya (merit) due to extraordinary good deed (reason for going to lower heaven) or paapa (demerit) due to extraordinary evil deed (reason for going to hell) are exhausted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The physical body dies but the mind and the senses leave the physical body. Persons who have not attained moksha are part of the life-death-life.... cycle. They may also have to stay in heaven or hell for some time if they have done a particularly good thing or a heinous crime, respectively. After the merit of their particular good karma or the demerit of their particular bad karma is exhausted, they will again be born into the Earth plane. The process is linked to the concept of residual karma. This residual karma idea and what happens to evil-doers is explained in Brahma Sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But of others (i.e. those who have not performed sacrifices etc.) the&#xA;  ascent is to the abode of Yama, and after having experienced (the&#xA;  results of their evil works) the descent (to the earth again takes&#xA;  place). On account of such a passage (for the evil-doer) being&#xA;  declared by the Sruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Brahma Sutra Sankara Bhasya 3.1.13)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sruti passage referred to in the above shloka is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Hereafter never reveals itself to a person devoid of&#xA;  discrimination, heedless, and perplexed by the delusion of wealth.&#xA;  &quot;This world alone exists,&quot; he thinks,&quot; and there is no other.&quot; Again&#xA;  and again he comes under my sway.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Yama speaks in Katha Upanishad I.2.6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clear that if you do bad deeds that you end up in Yama Loka. However, there are two perplexing questions here. Does the person who descends to earth from Yama loka return with any Karma (i.e. is the Karma of the evil-doer after serving his term in Yama loka zero?)? What decides that a person will after death be immediately reborn in earth or return to earth after serving a time in Yama loka? These two questions are actually linked. The answer to this question is given in Brahma Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the exhaustion of (good) work (the soul) with residual Karma&#xA;  (descends to this earth), as is known from the Sruti amd Smriti, along&#xA;  the path (it) went by (from here) and differently too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Brahma Sutra Sankara Bhasya 3.1.8)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above Sutra says that what is exhausted in heaven is only that specific Karma which gave the soul a birth in lower heaven, but on the exhaustion of this Karma the remaining Karma, good and bad, brings it back to earth. While this Sutra talks of heaven and good deed, it also applies to Yama Loka and bad deeds. Let me explain the idea by a concrete example. Let us suppose that a dead person has a list of 10 karmas with goodness values (1, -3, 4, 5, -100, 4, 3, 2, 5, 8) where the minus sign stands for evil deeds. What Brahma Sutra Sankara Bhasya 3.1.8 is saying is that this person will go to Yama Loka only for that extremely evil deed of goodness value -100. After he has exhausted the bad effect due to the -100 Karma, he can then go back to earth with the residual karma (1, -3, 4,5,4,3,2,5,8). The idea is that only extremely evil or good deeds lead a man to Yama loka or to lower heavens. All minor good and bad karmas are served on the earth plane.The person who has attained moksha is free forever from the endless cycle of Samsara. The cycle of birth and death will only end after the attainment of moksha or liberation. The length of the process will depend on how quickly or slowly the person will attain moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2018-01-21T11:01:43.493" LastActivityDate="2018-01-21T11:01:43.493" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="956" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="157" CreationDate="2014-07-09T15:09:33.573" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Caste is an inappropriate translation of the Varna system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word 'caste' was an English adaptation from the Portuguese term&#xA;  'casta, which was first used by the Portuguese' in describing what&#xA;  they perceived to be India's social structure. There is no term&#xA;  'caste' in Sanskrit or any Indian language. The only reference to such&#xA;  social structure in the Gita is verse 13 of chapter 4, where the&#xA;  notion of 'varna' has been explained. Varna was mistranslated as&#xA;  'caste', and after generations of repetition, it became the prevailing&#xA;  view even amongst Hindus educated under the British system.&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the reason for having such a classification system?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason for having a classification based on occupation was division of labor.&#xA;Division of labor is natural and can be observed in nature. For example, insects such as wasps, ants, bees etc. have a clearly defined roles in their colonies. Power hierarchies have been observed among primates. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The division of labor in the case of the Hindu system was based on one's aptitude(guna) as mentioned in other answers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Has the original concept stayed the same or has it evolved over time (if at all)?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The original system was flexible and people constantly kept moving between Varnas. It was getting ossified during British time and the boundaries were made fixed in post-independence time which is against the original purpose of the Varna system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is an example of Jatis changing Varna in pre-independence period &lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9qaAB.png&quot; alt=&quot;Jati changing Varna&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.infinityfoundation.com/ECITcaste3frameset.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagvadgita on Caste by Rajiv Malhotra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X5Ta1he1OS8LqBsQ1KD9Zo5EygCInTzKGu-M9vX00JI&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Caste: a HAF-baked lamentation By Kalavai Venkat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2014-07-09T15:09:33.573" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="957" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="958" CreationDate="2014-07-09T16:09:43.730" Score="15" ViewCount="15009" Body="&lt;p&gt;When generating a horoscope for a person, what is the Panchang to be used? There are two major panchangs, &lt;em&gt;Vakya&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Thirukanitha&lt;/em&gt; (Tamil name; I don't know what it is called in other states). Out of these two, which is advised for use? Which Panchang will give exact results?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two groups of astrologers each following one of the two Panchangs. And the horoscope generated by them have different values. Which will be the correct one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Panchang did Vashista use to generate the horoscope of Lord Rama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="90" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-05T15:15:37.677" LastActivityDate="2024-03-12T07:04:42.390" Title="What is the panchang to be used when generating a horoscope?" Tags="|astrology|vashishta|horoscopes|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="958" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="957" CreationDate="2014-07-09T19:20:01.643" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Note that I'm basing my answer on largely on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mypanchang.com/vakyam-thiruganita.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/tamil/info/thiruganita-versus-vakyam-panchangam.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt;, both of which use the Drik Panchangam, so that might bias the arguments somewhat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vakya Panchgangam system, as used for instance in the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pambu_Panchangam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pambu Panchangam&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://srirangaminfo.com/vakya-panchangam-srirangam.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Rangam Panchangam&lt;/a&gt;, originates in an ancient astrological work called the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya_Siddhanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Surya Siddhanta&lt;/a&gt;.  The Surya Siddhanta covers many topics in astrology, but most notably it has a section with a collection of simple mnemonic devices that describe how to determine the location of the heavenly bodies like the Sun and Moon, based on trigonometric calculations that were quite advanced for its time.  These mnemonic devices, written in the form of simple sentences with easy-to-remember words (Vakya), were extremely accurate in describing the motions of heavenly bodies at the time of composition.  But the author knew that they would only be accurate for a very short amount of time, so he wrote that these Vakyas should be regularly updated by observing the actual positions of the heavenly bodies using the human eye and then modifying the Vakyas to match the latest motions of those bodies.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And accordingly future generations kept rewriting the Vakyas, but unfortunately the last person to make an update was the Indian astronomer &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaskaracharya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhaskaracharya&lt;/a&gt; nearly a thousand years ago.  So practitioners of the Vakya Panchangam are relying on astronomical calculations that are incredibly out of date.  That is why people often use Drik Ganitha Panchangam, AKA Thiruganitha Panchgam, where you don't rely on the Vakyas at all, and instead rely on the actual positions of the the heavenly bodies.  Drik comes from the Sankrit word &quot;drishti&quot; meaning sight, because it originally relied on naked-eye observations, but Drik-Panchangam websites today rely upon methods that are even more precise than the naked eye, like sophisticated modern astronomical calculation techniques, as well as &lt;a href=&quot;http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ephemeris data from NASA&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet there are lots of people that still rely on Vakya Panchangam.  Why?  Well, it's tradition to use the Vakyas, as the Surya Siddhanta is considered divine.  But the extent to which the Surya Siddhanta is out of date was demonstrated by the 1950 solar and lunar eclipses, where the Vakya Panchangams published dates and times for the eclipses that were dramatically different from what actually occurred.  From that time onwards even the publishers of Vakya Panchagams have started using certain astronomical data, like eclipse times taken from Drik Panchangam publications.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if you want the most accurate information out there, it's advisable to use modern Drik Panchangams found on the Internet, but there is the downside that you're not keeping with the old traditions.  What would be ideal is if someone today were to write updated Vakyas.  People up to the time of Bhaskara were willing to do that, but in the modern day people are too scared to make changes to the Sanskrit words of the illustrious writers of the past.  But that concern may be unfounded; we have excellent Sanskrit writers living today, like &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambhadracharya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rambhadracharya&lt;/a&gt; whose work has been compared favorably to that of Kalidasa.  I think someone like that may be qualified to rewrite the Vakyas of the Surya Siddhanta, if they only have the courage to do so. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And to answer your other question, this site says &quot;Maharishi Vashistha and Varahamihira have said to make the panchangam as per Druka ganita.&quot;  So presumably that's what Vashishta used for Rama's horoscope.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-01-13T05:39:41.313" LastActivityDate="2015-01-13T05:39:41.313" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="960" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-10T03:26:38.790" Score="9" ViewCount="602" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/753/are-there-any-english-translations-of-the-bhavishyottara-purana-or-just-the-srin&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the book &quot;Venkatachala - Its Glory&quot; is a translation of the Sthala Purana (temple scripture) of the famous Tirupati temple, and this temple scripture consists of excerpts from various Puranas that discusss the story of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt; (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, AKA Balaji or Srinivasa).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the Sthala Purana describes the wedding of Vishnu and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamelu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padmavathi&lt;/a&gt; in great detail.  The wedding is officiated by the god Brahma, and before the wedding begins Brahma asks Vishnu to worship his &quot;family deity.&quot;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/VXNL&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; describes Vishnu's response:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Our family deity is the sacred Sami tree&quot; said Srinivasa.  Agastya located the tree.  The bridegroom went round it praising it.  He then offered worship to his family goddess....  In a golden vessel, filled with pearls and covered by a costly cloth, the family goddess was offered worship and consecrated near Lord Varaha.  Srinivasa was conducting himself as an ordinary human being!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why does Vishnu say that his family deity is the Sami tree?  I know about the holiness of the Tulasi plant for Vishnu, but I hadn't heard that the Sami tree was sacred for him.  And in any case, I'm not sure what it would mean for Vishnu to have a &quot;family deity&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, does anyone know what actual Purana this passage from the Sthala Purana of Tirupati is taken from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-01-01T09:39:47.883" Title="Why is the family deity of Venkateshwara the Sami tree?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|temple|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1961" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="1984" CreationDate="2014-07-10T07:44:32.653" Score="15" ViewCount="4806" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Dattatreya is supposed to be the form of the trinity gods born on Earth and I saw that he has three faces, each of which resembles one god of the trinity (i.e lord Shiva, lord Vishnu, and lord Brahma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How was lord Dattatreya born on Earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-12-20T17:11:06.123" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T13:19:38.290" Title="How was lord Dattatreya born?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1962" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="1963" CreationDate="2014-07-10T07:54:07.307" Score="32" ViewCount="9162" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that in Ramayana it is stated that mountains used to have wings at one point, then somehow all the mountains lost their wings, except for one mountain which was between India and Sri Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mountain helped Lord Hanuman by letting him rest on itself for a while when he was flying towards Lanka in search of Goddess Sita. Although, Lord Hanuman didn't take rest on the mountain, he did show respect towards the mountain for its kindness, by touching it with his toe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, is it true that mountains had wings? If yes, then how did they lose their wings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-12-03T11:02:02.740" LastActivityDate="2024-03-20T09:03:32.583" Title="Did mountains use to have wings?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|indra|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1963" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1962" CreationDate="2014-07-10T08:03:44.163" Score="29" Body="&lt;p&gt;As &lt;a href=&quot;http://chiraan.blogspot.in/2008/11/sundarkandnirnay-2.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sundarkandnirnay - 2&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mainak parvat had wings. Earlier all the mountains had wings. They out of pride, started flying in the air and settling down at their will. This caused inconvenience to the people at large. Hence Indra cut the wings of all the mountains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Mainak, the golden parvat, 100 yojana in width, took shelter of vayu and then consequently was saved and allowed to stay in lavan samudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And one more point need to mention, which may be out of this question but from same link,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fact that Mainak was 100 yojana, 800 miles, shows Lanka is not the Srilanka we often mistake, Lanka is far away beyond Malayachal, behind trikut parvat. Srilanka is simhala dweep according to Varaha purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="364" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T08:10:07.563" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1964" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="1969" CreationDate="2014-07-10T08:04:36.873" Score="30" ViewCount="8909" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is &quot;Chandra&quot; added to the name of Lord Rama even though he is from the &quot;Suryavanshi&quot; (solar) clan? Also, this title was not added to any of his brothers or his father - only to Rama himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason we add &quot;Chandra&quot; to Lord Rama's name to get Lord Rama Chandra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;FYI - We had a discussion about this with one of my friends and he said Chandra (the moon) asked Rama to add it, but I really don't know the story behind this nor did he.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me know if anyone has any references or stories for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T14:38:16.397" LastActivityDate="2019-10-26T12:45:24.333" Title="Why is &quot;Chandra&quot; added in the name of Lord Rama?" Tags="|ramayana|gods|rama|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1965" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="1997" CreationDate="2014-07-10T08:06:44.950" Score="15" ViewCount="28013" Body="&lt;p&gt;Somehow Lord Hanuman forgets that he could fly, and has other special powers until Jaambavant reminds him of them. How and why did this happen?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've also heard that Lord Hanuman wasn't actually capable of flying but of jumping to high distances. Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-06T03:55:28.557" LastActivityDate="2015-02-06T03:55:28.557" Title="Why did Lord Hanuman forget that he has special powers?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1966" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1965" CreationDate="2014-07-10T08:33:18.540" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanumana was mischievous in his childhood, so some sages gave him a minor curse to forget his powers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Apart from trying to snatch Sun-fruit, Hanuma's childhood-rascaling&#xA;  was intolerable for some sages and hermits. Hanuma used to tease and&#xA;  tickle the sages by snatching away their personal belongings, by&#xA;  spoiling well arranged worship articles etc. Knowing that Hanuma is&#xA;  indomitable by the blessings of Brahma and Indra and all the&#xA;  celestials, and as a severe punishment is uncalled for, as he is&#xA;  simple little monkey, the sages gave him a minor curse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bādhase yatsamāśritya balamasmānplavaṅgama&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    taddīrghakālaṃ vettāsi nāsmākaṃ śāpamohitaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    yadā te smāryate kīrtistadā te vardhate balam&lt;/em&gt; [VR - 7.36.35 ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Deluded by this curse, for a long time you won't be able to remember your powers using which you caused us trouble. But when you'll be reminded of your glory, your powers will increase.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If Hanuma were to be aware of&#xA;  his own might, the course of Ramayana would have been otherwise. He&#xA;  would have simply enlarged his body and brought whole of Lanka island&#xA;  to Rama, as he has lifted sanjivini mountain, to enliven Lakshmana in&#xA;  the war with Ravana's son, Indrajit. So this was a necessary curse&#xA;  upon Hanuma. Hence Jambavanta had to harangue Hanuma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding his flying, I have also heard the same. But he was son of wind god. So it must not be impossible for him to fly. The reference site mentions fly jumpers when translating the word &lt;em&gt;plavangamāḥ&lt;/em&gt; and uses the word &lt;em&gt;plavana&lt;/em&gt; to describe Hanuman's movement in the sky. So by using the word &lt;em&gt;plavana&lt;/em&gt;, it would mean Hanuman was flowing in the sky, which just means He was flying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga66/kishkindha_66_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kishkindha Kand, Chapter 66&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-01-28T23:36:31.550" LastActivityDate="2015-01-28T23:36:31.550" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1967" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="1970" CreationDate="2014-07-10T08:50:33.140" Score="9" ViewCount="702" Body="&lt;p&gt;I see the unit of measurement &quot;&lt;em&gt;yojana&lt;/em&gt;&quot; being used frequently in excerpts mentioned on this site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But Mainak, the golden parvat, 100 yojana in width, took shelter of vayu and then consequently was saved and allowed to stay in lavan samudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It seems the &lt;em&gt;Mainak Parvat&lt;/em&gt; is 100 yojana across. Is this a colloquial unit of measurement?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="58" LastEditorUserId="39" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T21:35:31.747" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T21:35:31.747" Title="Is 'yojana' a colloquial unit of measurement?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1968" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-10T08:51:36.107" Score="8" ViewCount="11886" Body="&lt;p&gt;How can I confess if I did something wrong or against God in Hinduism? What confession methods are there in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2015-06-17T02:29:37.583" LastActivityDate="2017-03-26T02:49:34.357" Title="What are the methods of confession in Hinduism?" Tags="|sin|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1969" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1964" CreationDate="2014-07-10T09:05:06.017" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no such story. But there are two reasons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Rama was the first child after a long wait, in King Dashratha's family, so he was very dear and close to King's heart so they called &quot;Chand sa beta&quot; in Hindi or &quot;Chandra&quot; in Sanskrit.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Rama was born on &quot;Chaitra&quot; Month of Indian calendar in suda 9(or Ramanavmi), which is the ninth day of the bright-half of the Indian month Chaitra. From birth, his face was as brilliant/glare as the chandra (moon) on Purnima (the full-moon day). While only a baby, he captured the moon (from its image in a dishpan), and was thus also named Rama+chandra=RamChandra. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="317" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T09:05:06.017" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1970" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1967" CreationDate="2014-07-10T09:12:10.103" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yojana&lt;/em&gt; is the unit of measurement of distance. It was used anciently and even used by some very old people in villages. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it can be roughly translated as league in English language, but it's counting was not like a league, which originally meant the distance a person can walk in an hour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ancient times people in India used to measure things by the size of fingers.  They would say, this stick is 5 &lt;em&gt;anguli&lt;/em&gt; (fingers) long. I have even heard old people in the village using that measurement still today. Only after the rule of the Britishers that we adopted the metric system of measurement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one &lt;em&gt;yojana&lt;/em&gt; was a unit of distance measurement whose smallest unit was one finger (few inches roughly). So the Artha Sashtra gives the definition of &lt;em&gt;yojana&lt;/em&gt; as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 &lt;em&gt;yojana&lt;/em&gt; = 4 &lt;em&gt;gorutas&lt;/em&gt;; 1 &lt;em&gt;goruta&lt;/em&gt; = 1000 &lt;em&gt;dhanus&lt;/em&gt;; 1 &lt;em&gt;dhanu&lt;/em&gt; = 96 &lt;em&gt;angulas&lt;/em&gt;. So&#xA;  by taking one &lt;em&gt;angula&lt;/em&gt; (finger) as ¾ inch, one &lt;em&gt;yojana&lt;/em&gt; becomes about 4.54&#xA;  statute miles. Which is roughly 5 miles (8 km).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But later on by comparing with other sources, the calculation becomes different.  For example, Aryabhata mentions earth's diameter as 1050 yojana. And comparing it with the current value of 7928 miles we get 1 yojana as 7928/1050 = 7.55miles (around 12km).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one yojana has varying interpretations in terms of kilometers. Anciently it was about 8km. But now generally it's converted between  13 to 16 km.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Please see this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sizes.com/units/yojana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt;, it has good information.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books?id=9oi64rTVwNMC&amp;amp;lpg=PP1&amp;amp;dq=Vedic%20Cosmography%20and%20Astronomy&amp;amp;pg=PR4#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T15:06:28.573" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T15:06:28.573" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1971" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1965" CreationDate="2014-07-10T09:33:31.353" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Hanuman was able to fly from birth, which is a gift given by his father Vayu Deva. You can notice this point when he first was tempted to eat the sun and flew to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as he grew up, (as all kids do) he started to enjoy his childhood by troubling other saints, rushi (muni) with his extreme powers. So just to stay safe, rushis gave him &lt;em&gt;Shaap&lt;/em&gt; to forget all his powers. Since Lord Hanuman was born for a reason, if he forgot all his powers, then the reason for which he was born would not be fulfilled. So as an alternate for that &lt;em&gt;Shaap&lt;/em&gt;, rushis also said that in time of need, if someone reminded him that he has powers, he will get his powers back. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have also heard that lord Hanuman was actually not able to fly but to jump to higher distances. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This fly/jump is a knowledge which is given by his father &lt;em&gt;Vayu Deva&lt;/em&gt;. When he was kid, he made his first &lt;em&gt;fly/jump&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from Hanuman, all Vanaras were able to fly. But they have their own capacity or limits to reach. At the time of flying to Lanka, Hanuman was not considered as first priority. &lt;em&gt;Sugreeva&lt;/em&gt; asked others first like, &lt;em&gt;Angada&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Jambavanta&lt;/em&gt; and so on, but all others weren't able to fly that far.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jambavanta&lt;/em&gt; considered to be elder among all have strength to fly for any distance, because he is old and less strength, he willingly suggested Hanuman to fly that far. Another reason may be because of Hanumans's birth reason, he is born to serve Lord Rama. So any work that belongs to Rama, Hanuman will do it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Flying of Hanuman is also illustrated in one more situation. After the victory of Rama, (some part I excluded here) Rama gave a white lotus flower to &lt;em&gt;Hanuman&lt;/em&gt; and told him to give it to &lt;em&gt;Surya Deva&lt;/em&gt; on behalf of Rama. Hanuman flew to Surya Loka and gave that flower to Surya Deva. In this case, there is no &lt;em&gt;Yojanas&lt;/em&gt; count, because he flew in outer space restlessly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="364" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T14:43:03.660" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T14:43:03.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1973" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-10T10:46:09.407" Score="4" ViewCount="954" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is &lt;em&gt;Buddha&lt;/em&gt; ninth Avataram of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;em&gt;Lord Venkateshvara (Balaji)&lt;/em&gt; is also an avataram of Vishnu who came to earth in Kaliyuga(will be exists on earth to the end of Kaliyuga). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Venkateshvara can be considered as ninth Avataram of Vishnu. Because he is know avataram of Vishnu, but How Buddha became ninth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="364" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T11:08:05.747" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T14:03:06.233" Title="Ninth avataram of Vishnu" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ClosedDate="2014-07-10T13:57:12.020" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1974" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1973" CreationDate="2014-07-10T11:30:14.100" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;See, we can't speculate who is the ninth &lt;em&gt;avatar&lt;/em&gt; and who is not. We can only check what the scriptures say about it. Already there have been two-three questions regarding this on the site. So I am answering it briefly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scriptures describe incarnations of Vishnu as infinite. And not all incarnations happen in our material plane. Those incarnations in which the Lord descends to this material plane of existence are known as &lt;em&gt;avatars&lt;/em&gt;. And even among those, only ten are prominent and most important as per the scriptures. &lt;em&gt;Mastya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Kurma&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Varaha&lt;/em&gt; all are &lt;em&gt;avatars&lt;/em&gt; because the Lord assumed a seemingly material form for the sake of the earth and gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it's true that the ninth &lt;em&gt;avatar&lt;/em&gt; is somewhat controversial because it portrays Buddha as an &lt;em&gt;avatar&lt;/em&gt; of Vishnu. Why? Because Vishnu is a Vedic god and Buddha spread a non-Vedic tenet telling everyone to reject the Vedas and &lt;em&gt;yajnas&lt;/em&gt;. Some say due to Buddha's influence as a teacher who affected so may people around the world, He was accepted as an avatar of Vishnu. We can't say whether it's true or not, but in the scriptures Buddha has been mentioned as an &lt;em&gt;avatar&lt;/em&gt; of Vishnu. We can't change that. Otherwise Gaudiya Vaishnavas who accept Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as an incarnation of Krishna would certainly list Him in the ten &lt;em&gt;avataras&lt;/em&gt;. So also many other sects and cults would replace the ninth &lt;em&gt;avatar&lt;/em&gt; with their worshiped deity or preceptor. But then, they would not be able to provide scriptural proofs to back up their claims. It's because most of the scriptures mention Buddha as the ninth &lt;em&gt;avatar&lt;/em&gt; and some also mention Balarama as the ninth &lt;em&gt;avatar&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;If we don't go by the book, then it's all just a matter of personal preference whom we accept as the ninth &lt;em&gt;avatar&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, after all, all &lt;em&gt;avatars&lt;/em&gt; are nothing but Vishnu Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For scriptural references regarding the ten &lt;em&gt;avatars&lt;/em&gt;, please see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/944&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T14:03:06.233" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1975" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2004" CreationDate="2014-07-10T11:41:00.437" Score="33" ViewCount="5780" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does a human being have a soul after death?&#xA;What will happen after death according to Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="382" LastEditorUserId="382" LastEditDate="2021-02-07T10:49:10.193" LastActivityDate="2021-02-07T10:49:10.193" Title="What happens after death?" Tags="|belief|karma|moksha|atma|death|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="1976" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="1988" CreationDate="2014-07-10T12:02:10.163" Score="26" ViewCount="13128" Body="&lt;p&gt;From what I've read, I've concluded that Lord Hanuman is one of the seven * Chiranjeevis.* (Immortals). But I am not sure who made Lord Hanuman immortal, and why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've heard many rumours that Lord Rama made Lord Hanuman immortal and told Him to wait in the Himalayas with the &lt;em&gt;Vanara sena&lt;/em&gt; (army of monkeys). But I don't know what the purpose behind it was.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-23T12:35:25.740" LastActivityDate="2021-11-14T13:48:28.733" Title="Who made Lord Hanuman immortal?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1977" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="464" CreationDate="2014-07-10T12:06:17.163" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Both &lt;em&gt;Yama&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Shani&lt;/em&gt; have different works to do. &lt;em&gt;Yama&lt;/em&gt; judges our karmas, while &lt;em&gt;Shani&lt;/em&gt; counts them. Each intake and outtake of air inside our body is considered to count &lt;em&gt;Ayu&lt;/em&gt; of a living creature, and this counting is done by &lt;em&gt;Shani mahadev&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard this from an episode published in &lt;em&gt;TTD&lt;/em&gt; channel (but I don't remember when). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shani&lt;/em&gt; has two sons who will take care of every karma (both good and bad, I guess one son documents good and another bad) of every living creature and record is submitted to &lt;em&gt;Chitragupta&lt;/em&gt; in &lt;em&gt;Yamaloka&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Chitrgupta&lt;/em&gt; will announce good and bad karmas of all souls who enters the &lt;em&gt;Yamaloka&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Yamadharmaraya&lt;/em&gt; decides to punish or send to &lt;em&gt;Swargaloka&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="364" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T14:44:17.167" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T14:44:17.167" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1978" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1975" CreationDate="2014-07-10T12:09:44.283" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every living thing is having &quot;Athma&quot; or &quot;soul&quot;. In Hinduism, body is illusion and the &quot;Athma&quot; is true and the reality. After death, &lt;em&gt;Athma&lt;/em&gt; will take rebirth until it is merged with the supreme one called &quot;Paramathma&quot; . This is called &quot;Moksha&quot;. The time taken for the &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; will depend upon one's &quot;Karma&quot; and &quot;Dharma&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T12:41:52.690" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T12:41:52.690" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1980" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="1983" CreationDate="2014-07-10T12:20:50.553" Score="14" ViewCount="2009" Body="&lt;p&gt;Few days ago I came across &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduismfacts.org/reincarnation-rebirth/salvation-nirvana-moksha/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;an article&lt;/a&gt; related to Buddhism, mostly related to a topic, &quot;&lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt;&quot; . I wonder after reading this, because it is almost similar to &quot;&lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;&quot; in Hinduism. Does anyone know about this? &quot;Moksha&quot; and &quot;Nirvana&quot; are same? If not, what are the differences between them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="187" LastEditDate="2018-03-29T06:05:17.590" LastActivityDate="2018-03-29T06:05:17.590" Title="The differences between &quot;Nirvana&quot; in Buddhism and &quot;Moksha&quot; in Hinduism" Tags="|belief|moksha|buddhism|enlightenment|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1982" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="1991" CreationDate="2014-07-10T15:02:50.533" Score="25" ViewCount="10277" Body="&lt;p&gt;If I remember, Shri Krishna and Balarama didn't have the weapons &lt;em&gt;Sudarshana chakra&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Hala&lt;/em&gt; respectively with them when they were fighting with Kamsa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I am assuming they got these weapons later. How and from where did they got these weapons and do they have other weapons as well? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-23T03:07:42.250" LastActivityDate="2017-03-06T12:35:56.317" Title="Who gave weapons to Shri Krishna and Balarama and how?" Tags="|krishna|weapon|balarama|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1983" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1980" CreationDate="2014-07-10T15:04:56.900" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Both Nirvana &amp;amp; Moksha are liberation from Samsara(repeating cycle of birth, death &amp;amp; rebirth). To understand the difference between them, we'll see what Moksha &amp;amp; Nirvana is as per many schools of Hinduism &amp;amp; Buddhism(only a very high level view).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Advaita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaita school believes in Jivanmukti(liberation here and now). One can attain Moksha while being alive since every atman is already liberated and would only need a realization of it(cognitive shift). The realization here being that of the &lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt; which is infinite &amp;amp; eternal.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dvaita &amp;amp; Vishitadvaita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dvaita believes in post-mortem liberation only. A person who has gone through rigorous ethical and moral disciplines, followed by right knowledge, right action, non-attachment, worship and devotional meditation(upasana) on the Personal God(Vishnu), becomes fit for moksha through God's grace.&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; &#xA;There are 4 levels of Moksha which can be attained based on the level of spiritual progress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishitadvaita also believes in a similar criteria to attain Moksha. Once attained, the atman lives in Vaikunta in the presence of God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both these schools do not believe in Jivanmukti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahayana Buddhism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Buddhism is a non-theistic tradition. Nirvana is the realization of Sunyata(emptiness), Anithya(impermanace) and Anatman(non-self). This would mean realization of the cause of Dukha and cessation of Dukha. Similar to Advaita, Nirvana can happen here and now. Liberated Bodhisatvas can remain on earth to help others attain Nirvana. There are 7 levels of Nirvana which can be attained by Humans. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Theravada Buddhism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirvana in this is similar to Mahayana but differs a little. Nirvana is not just cessation of Dukha but also annihilation of the person. I.e Nirvana can be attained only post-mortem. All humans attain the same Nirvana attained by the Buddha. No different levels. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The goal for both Nirvana &amp;amp; Moksha is liberation from Samsara but differ in finer details due to the difference meta-physics between Hinduism and Buddhism. The former is mostly theistic and believes in Atman while the later is purely non-theistic and does not believe in existence of Atman(believes in Anatman). I.e in Hinduism samsara is the travel of Atman from one body to another before becoming one with Brahman while in Buddhism samsara is a causal connection between one birth to another before attaining a state of freedom. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, they differ only meta-physically. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1] Swami Bhaskarananda, Journey From Many to One – Essentials of Advaita Vedanta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T22:01:51.447" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T22:01:51.447" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1984" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1961" CreationDate="2014-07-10T15:47:37.360" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Datta or Dattatreya was the son of the sage Atri, one of the mind-born sons of Brahma, and his wife Anasuya.  (He's called Dattatreya because it's Datta + Atreya, the family name of Atri's descendants.)  Datta was born together with Soma, the moon god and an incarnation of Brahma, and Durvasa the angry sage who was an incarnation of Shiva. The story is told briefly in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/4/1/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Lord Brahmā ordered Atri Muni to create generations after marrying Anasūyā, Atri Muni and his wife went to perform severe austerities in the valley of the mountain known as Ṛkṣa.... He was thinking: &amp;quot;May the Lord of the universe, of whom I have taken shelter, kindly be pleased to offer me a son exactly like Him.&amp;quot;  While Atri Muni was engaged in these severe austerities, a blazing fire came out of his head by virtue of his breathing exercise, and that fire was seen by the three principal deities of the three worlds.  At that time, the three deities approached the hermitage of Atri Muni, accompanied by the denizens of the heavenly planets, such as the celestial beauties, the Gandharvas, the Siddhas, the Vidyādharas and the Nāgas....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three deities told Atri Muni: &amp;quot;Dear brāhmaṇa, you are perfect in your determination, and therefore as you have decided, so it will happen; it will not happen otherwise....  You will have sons who will represent a partial manifestation of our potency, and because we desire all good fortune for you, those sons will glorify your reputation throughout the world.&amp;quot;  Thus, while the couple looked on, the three deities Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Maheśvara disappeared from that place after bestowing upon Atri Muni the benediction.  Thereafter, from the partial representation of Brahmā, the moon-god was born of them; &lt;strong&gt;from the partial representation of Viṣṇu, the great mystic Dattātreya was born&lt;/strong&gt;; and from the partial representation of Śaṅkara [Lord Śiva], Durvāsā was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in this telling, the birth of Soma, Dattatreya, and Durvasa are just a reward of Atri's Tapasya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is one more reason for their birth, described in chapter 16 of the the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramayana.pushpak.de/pdf/markandeya_en.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/a&gt;.  There was once a Brahmana named Kaushika who one night tripped over the sage Mandavya, and so Mandavya was angered and uttered the following curse: &amp;quot;That sinful wretch of a man, by whom, I sorely afflicted and reduced to a miserable plight, have been pushed with feet, shall forsooth be deprived of his life at the sun rise. As soon as he will see the rays of the sun he will meet with destruction.&amp;quot;  Kaushika's wife was terrified, so she used her magical powers to stop the sun from rising:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereupon hearing that dreadful curse, his wife, greatly afflicted, said &amp;quot;The sun shall not rise&amp;quot;. Therefore the sun not rising there was a continuous night extending over many days and accordingly the celestials were terrified.  They thought &amp;quot;How can this entire universe, shorn of Vedic recitations and those of Vashat, Swaha and Swadha, be saved from being utterly ruined? Without the division of day and night that of months and seasons will cease and from its being destroyed the summer and the winter solstice cannot be known....  There is no lighting of the sacrificial fire and the want of sacrifices is observed.&amp;quot;  Hearing the words of the celestials assembled there and afraid at the stoppage of sacrifices the god Prajapati (Brahma) said: -  &amp;quot;Energy is pacified by energy and asceticism by asceticism; hear, O ye immortals, my words. For the glorification of the chaste wife the sun will not rice; and for his not rising, you and the mortals (are so anxious).  If you wish that the sun should rise you should propitiate Atri's wife, the ascetic and devotedly chaste Anusua.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anasuya was able to convince Kaushika's wife to allow the sun to rise, in exchange for Anasuya using her magical powers to save Kaushika's life.  The gods were grateful and offered her a boon:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anusuya said: - &amp;quot;If the celestials headed by Brahma are propitiated with me and are prepared to give me a boon and If am deemed by you worthy of it, then let Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara be born as my sons; and may I with my husband acquire Yoga leading to the liberation from miseries.&amp;quot; Thereupon, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, and other gods said &amp;quot;so be it&amp;quot;. Then honouring that female ascetic they repaired to their respective habitations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereupon after a long time Brahma's son the divine Atri cast his look upon his own wife Anusua; bathed after her course having all her limbs purified and an excellent form worthy of being coveted by all. Having his mind stricken with desire that ascetic thought in his mind of that one of a blameless person....  The moon, the stay of the life of all creatures, was born as the mind begotten son of the patriarch Atri. &lt;strong&gt;Well-pleased the high-souled Vishnu was born from his own body as the best of the twice-born, Dattatreya permeated by the quality of goodness.  Incarnating himself Vishnu was born as the second son of Atri known under the name of Dattatreya&lt;/strong&gt; who sucked the breast of Anusuya....  Then was born Durvasa, a portion of Rudra impregnated with the quality of darkness. Thus Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva were born as her three sons. By virtue of the boon conferred upon her by the celestials Brahma was born at the moon, Vishnu as Dattatreya and Sankara as Durvasa.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the story in the Markandeya Purana fleshes out the events that led up to the brief story in the Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-12-09T04:05:45.097" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1985" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2020" CreationDate="2014-07-10T19:11:19.667" Score="29" ViewCount="4953" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu Avatars like Rama and Krishna get worshipped in all main regions of India. But why doesn't Parashurama get worshipped that much? Is there some reason for it? Parashurama is the longest-serving Avatar of Vishnu. He is even said to be living in the mortal world and will train Kalki avatar. So why doesn't he get worshipped that much?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T20:06:08.367" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T11:27:59.830" Title="Why isn't Parashurama worshipped like the other Vishnu Avatars?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|parashurama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1988" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1976" CreationDate="2014-07-10T20:11:45.310" Score="28" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman's immortality is a combination of multiple boons. First of all, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga66/kishkindha_66_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Kishkindha Kanda of the Ramayana, when Hanuman was a child, he saw the sun and thought it was a fruit, so he flew toward it in an attempt to eat it.  When Indra saw Hanuman coming, he threw his Vajra (thunderbolt) to strike him down, in the process injuring Hanuman's left cheekbone.  Vayu the wind god, who was Hanuman's father, was furious at his son's injury, so he refused to circulate air in the world anymore (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga66/kishkindhasans66.htm#Verse25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;narrated&lt;/a&gt; to Hanuman by Jambavan):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then on observing that you are mutilated, highly infuriated is that scent-wafter Air-god and that tempestuous Air-god has not physically circulated throughout the triad of worlds.  When the triad of worlds is being roiled with breathlessness, all the administrative gods of universe are bewildered, and they started to supplicate the Air-god for his grace.  Oh, chivalric warrior at war, while the Air-god is being supplicated, oh, dear boy, Brahma gave you a &lt;strong&gt;boon decreeing your &amp;quot;indestructibility by any missile.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;  On scrutinising that you are unhurt even after hit by Thunderbolt, oh, ablest Hanuma, the Thousand-eyed Indra kind-heartedly gave you a choicest &lt;strong&gt;boon saying that your death occurs only by your own volition.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Brahma's boon and Indra's boon are two of the causes of his immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The third is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/6Xx6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana.  After Rama was told by Yama the god of death that his time on earth is over, Rama prepared to go into the Sarayu river along with his brothers Bharata and Shatrughna (as Lakshmana was already dead).  Before he did so, he gave boons to various people, and in particular this was the boon he gave to Hanuman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Rama] said to Hanuman: &amp;quot;It is settled that &lt;strong&gt;thou shalt live forever&lt;/strong&gt;, do thou, now observe thy promise.  As long as my history shall run current in this world do thou at my command live happily.&amp;quot;  Being thus addressed by high-souled Raghava Hanuman attained to great delight and said: &amp;quot;As long as the sacred theme shall pass current in this world I shall live here carrying out thy commands.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, you asked whether Rama told Hanuman to stay with the whole Vanara army in the Himalayas.  It doesn't look like it; he just gives Jambavan, Mainda, Dvivida, and five other Vanaras (presumably including Nila and Nala) the following boon: &amp;quot;As long as the Kali Yuga exists do ye all live.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com//07uttara/uttara_036.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a fuller description of the boons Hanuman received as a child, from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Indra ... spoke the following words: &amp;quot;Because this baby’s jaw was broken by a thunderbolt hurled by my hand, this tiger among monkeys will be known by the name Hanuman. I grant him the supreme and wonderful boon that from this day onwards he will be &lt;strong&gt;invulnerable to my thunderbolt&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The venerable sun-god, who dispels darkness, then said: ‘I bestow upon him one percent of my effulgence. When he is able to study the scriptures, I shall give him understanding of the scriptures, by which he will become eloquent. There will be no one like him in understanding of the scriptures.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Varuna granted him the boon that &lt;strong&gt;for millions of years he would not die from his noose or from water&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yama granted him &lt;strong&gt;health and invulnerability to his rod of chastisement&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Kuvera, the lord of wealth, said: &amp;quot;I am very pleased. I grant him the boon that &lt;strong&gt;my mace will not cause his death in combat&lt;/strong&gt; and that he will not become tired in combat.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva said: “I grant this child the supreme boon that &lt;strong&gt;he will be invulnerable to death by me or my weapons&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After glancing at the child, the wise Vishvakarma, the best of technicians, granted him the following boon: &amp;quot;Being &lt;strong&gt;invulnerable to the divine weapons&lt;/strong&gt; made by me, he will be &lt;strong&gt;long-lived&lt;/strong&gt;.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma said: ‘This child will be &lt;strong&gt;long-lived&lt;/strong&gt; and great. He will be &lt;strong&gt;invulnerable to my rod of chastisement and to curses uttered by brahmanas&lt;/strong&gt;....  This best of monkeys will be able to assume any form he chooses. He will be able to go wherever he wants as fast as he wants.&amp;quot; [Emphasis added]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-22T03:48:58.530" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1989" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-10T20:20:36.340" Score="1" ViewCount="426" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scientists tell us that 90% of the cells in (or on) a human body are microbes (bacteria/viruses, etc.). Most of these are essential for human life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the dead body of a Hindu is cremated, all these are burned alive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does a religion which believes in karma and in not killing (if possible) any lifeforms deal with this predicament?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand the ancients had no clue about these bacteria and their role, but now that modern Hindus know about the microbes, why won't they change?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="392" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-07-10T20:26:09.027" LastActivityDate="2014-07-31T09:09:37.657" Title="Why do Hindus still perform cremation now that it is known that cremation will kill microbes?" Tags="|karma|ahimsa|cremation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1990" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1975" CreationDate="2014-07-10T21:54:22.540" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Looking at it from a Vaishnava perspective, the soul is eternal and fundamentally different from the body. Krishna explains this in the Bhagavd Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/2/13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2.13&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, the soul enters another body after death. There are a total of 8,400,000 different types of forms within this material world and the soul could go into any one of these after death. The next body depends on the state of consciousness at death. This is explained in Bhagavad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/8/6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;8.6&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also interesting to note that there is a concept of heaven and hell in Vaishnavism, however it is non-permanent. In other words, the soul may be punished after death in hell, but is later released and takes on another body. Similarly, a soul may go to heaven and enjoy there, but when his pious karma is depleted, he is born again. For descriptions of the hellish planets, see Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/5/26&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;5.26&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/3/30&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;3.30&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The soul attains liberation from the cycle of birth and death when he surrenders again to the Supreme Lord Krishna or Vishnu. After that he returns to the spiritual world, where there is no birth or death. He receives his original spiritual body and meets with Krishna or any of the other Visnu personalities face-to-face.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastActivityDate="2014-07-10T21:54:22.540" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1991" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1982" CreationDate="2014-07-10T22:09:22.580" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is described in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata.  A king named Shwetaki had once conducted a Yagna (fire-ritual) for twelve years, and having consumed all the ghee (clarified butter) that was offered into the fire, Agni the fire god felt lethargic.  So he consulted Brahma, who &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01226.htm&quot;&gt;told him&lt;/a&gt; to consume the Khandava forest:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O exalted one, thou hast eaten, for twelve years, a continuous stream of sacrificial butter poured into thy mouth! It is for this that illness hath seized thee. But, O Agni, grieve not for it. Thou shalt soon regain thy own nature. I shall dispel this surfeit of thine and the time for it is even come. The dreadful forest Khandava, that abode of the enemies of the gods, which thou hadst of old once consumed to ashes at the request of the gods, hath now become the home of numerous creatures. When thou will have eaten the fat of those creatures, thou shalt regain thy own nature. Proceed thither in haste to consume that forest with its living population. Thou wilt then be cured of thy malady.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni tried to consume the forest, but he was thwarted by Indra, who kept using rainstorms to extinguish the flames, because of Indra's friendship with the Naga king Takshaka who lived there.  So Agni went back to Brahma for advice, and Brahma told him that the famous sages &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara-Narayana&quot;&gt;Nara and Narayana&lt;/a&gt; had reincarnated on the earth as Arjuna and Krishna.  So he approached Arjuna and Krishna, who happened to be near the Khandava forest at the time, and asked them for help.  They were happy to oblige, but they requested weapons that would be commensurate to the task of fighting Indra.  So Agni summoned Varuna the ocean god, who gave Arjuna the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandiva&quot;&gt;Gandiva bow&lt;/a&gt; and chariot of Chandra the moon god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And more importantly for our purposes, Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01228.htm&quot;&gt;received&lt;/a&gt; the Sudarshana Chakra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And [Agni] then gave unto Krishna a discus with an iron pole attached to a hole in the centre. And it was a fiery weapon and became his favourite. Having obtained that weapon, Krishna also became equal to the task. [Agni] then, addressing Krishna, said, &quot;With this, O slayer of Madhu, thou shalt be able without doubt to vanquish in battle even foes that are not human. With this weapon, without doubt, thou shalt be superior in battle to men and gods, and Rakshasas and Pisachas, and Daityas and Nagas. And thou shalt certainly be able with this to smite all. And, O Madhava, hurled by thee in battle at thy foes, this weapon will irresistibly slay the enemy and again come back into thy hands.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also says this: &quot;And the lord Varuna, after this, gave unto Krishna a mace, of name Kaumodaki, capable of slaying every Daitya and producing, when hurled, a roar like that of the thunder.&quot;  I assume that's the Gada of Balarama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not to keep you in suspsense, Krishna and Arjuna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01237.htm&quot;&gt;succeeded&lt;/a&gt; in their endeavor, which is not surprising; as Sanjaya &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/18/78&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in the Bhagavad Gita, &quot; Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, you also asked about Balarama's plow.  Well, the Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/18/27&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; Balarama as a &quot;haladhara&quot;, or plow-wielder, back when he was a kid in Vrindavana.  So he must already have had the plow at the time of the fight with Kamsa.  I think the only reason he didn't use it is that Kamsa's wrestling contest was a hand-to-hand combat event.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-09-15T17:53:34.580" LastActivityDate="2014-09-15T17:53:34.580" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1992" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2290" CreationDate="2014-07-11T01:33:34.013" Score="15" ViewCount="7286" Body="&lt;p&gt;At the end of the &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh_Chaturthi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganesh Chaturthi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; festival, the idol of Lord Ganesha is usually immersed (referred to as &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sanskritdictionary.com/visarjana/218853/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;visarjana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;) in a water body, as the concluding rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the reason behind this? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also, why is &lt;em&gt;visarjana&lt;/em&gt; (immersion) only done on certain days e.g., 1.5, 5 or 11 days after the idol has been installed?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-09-11T21:12:15.103" LastActivityDate="2019-09-11T21:12:15.103" Title="Why is the idol of Lord Ganesha immersed in water (visarjana)?" Tags="|ganesha|festivals|symbolism|customs|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="1993" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1968" CreationDate="2014-07-11T03:36:29.977" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism doesn't dictate confession because the core principle of Hinduism is &quot;The jeevathma and paramathama are one and the same (advaitha philosophy)&quot;. All the wrong deeds are always done in presence of conciousness. For example when we do a wrong thing and realize that it was a mistake, we realize that mistake was done in the absence of conciousness, we even realise that there was a kind of absence of conciousness (which means conciousness was always there realizing that it seemed like absent during wrong doing). The realization of the mistake done itself is Confession. The wrong do=er, The mistake realizer, The person who decides to confess, The confession-er, The forgiver, The one who regret and The Suffer-er are all one and the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S: All my answers come from the combined experiences and the teachings of Sri Gurudev Atmanand [&lt;a href=&quot;http://swamiatmanand.com/publications.php]&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://swamiatmanand.com/publications.php]&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="395" LastEditorUserId="395" LastEditDate="2017-03-26T02:49:34.357" LastActivityDate="2017-03-26T02:49:34.357" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1996" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-11T04:00:31.693" Score="11" ViewCount="1771" Body="&lt;p&gt;Both sharks and dolphins have been known to live in and around India. The Irrawaddy dolphin and the Ganges shark are species that actually live in seas or swim up rivers. It seems like there should be some mention of either of these creatures in Hindu mythology. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any references to them in scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="218" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-14T11:09:05.083" LastActivityDate="2018-02-14T11:09:05.083" Title="Are there references to sharks or dolphins in hindu mythology?" Tags="|scripture|animals|ganga|rivers|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1997" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1965" CreationDate="2014-07-11T04:15:32.517" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found an actual scriptural account of the story the other two answers describe, from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a child, Hanuman acquired lots of boons from various gods, as I describe in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1988/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  And he started using his new-found powers to &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com//07uttara/uttara_036.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;cause a lot of mischief&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of the boons he received and the strength which he gained from them, Hanuman was replete with his own speed, like the ocean.  Overflowing with energy, Hanuman fearlessly desecrated the hermitages of great sages. He broke the sacrificial laddles and vessels, interrupted the offering of oblations into sacrificial fires and tore up the piles of bark cloth belonging to the peaceful sages. The mighty Hanuman continued doing such deeds. Knowing that Brahma had made him invulnerable to punishment by brahmanas, the sages tolerated it because of his power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although prohibited by [his fathers] Kesari and Vayu, Hanuman went beyond the bounds of propriety. Great sages born in the families of Bhrigu and Angira, who were never overly angry or wrathful, became furious and cursed him in the following way: &amp;quot;O monkey, &lt;strong&gt;illusioned by our curse, you will for a long time be unaware of your own strength&lt;/strong&gt;, by dint of which you harassed us. Your strenth will again grow when you are reminded of your glory.&amp;quot; Thereafter, by the power of the words of the great sages, Hanuman was deprived of his strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That curse is what caused him to forget his powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You also asked whether Hanuman has the power to genuinely fly.  I think the answer is yes, because Jambavan &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga66/kishkindhasans66.htm#Verse28&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells him&lt;/a&gt; that he has the same powers of flight as his father Vayu the wind god:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are the lineal son of Air-god, and even by your gusting you are selfsame to Air-god, and even by your flying also you are his selfsame to Air-god, in all respects[.}&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-14T03:29:25.917" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="1999" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-11T04:57:05.650" Score="3" ViewCount="3208" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that &lt;em&gt;Narada&lt;/em&gt;, Vedic sage who plays a prominent role in a number of Hinduism's earliest texts, notably the &lt;em&gt;Ramayana&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavata Purana&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why he is called as &lt;em&gt;Narad Muni&lt;/em&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And why he always carries a &lt;em&gt;Veena&lt;/em&gt; with him? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UppQ7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Naradmuni&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Credits for Image : &lt;a href=&quot;http://s635.photobucket.com/user/babalokenathny/media/narada.jpg.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;babalokenathny&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-11T05:30:27.763" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T23:45:07.163" Title="Why Narada preferably called as Narad Muni?" Tags="|narada|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2000" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1999" CreationDate="2014-07-11T05:23:25.993" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Muni just means &quot;sage&quot;, so Narada is often called Narada Muni or Devarishi, just like e.g. Brighu is often called Brighu Maharishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as the Veena goes, Narada uses his Veene, called the Mahati, to provide musical accompaniments for his songs about Vishnu.  Apparently Narada is credited with the origin of the Veena.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=QxPCBCk3wVIC&amp;amp;lpg=PA918&amp;amp;dq=narada%20mahati%20purana&amp;amp;pg=PA918#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot;&gt;This book&lt;/a&gt; summarizes a story from the Vayu Purana about how the Veena started being played by humans (pages 917-918): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following story occurs in the Vayu Purana as to how Narada's Vina became the musical instrument of the world.  Once Narada was in Indra's court when the latter asked Urvasi to give a dance performance.  She did so and in the course saw Jayanta, son of Indra seated before her.  She was swept over by a passion for Jayanta as a result of which some mistakes were made by her in dancing.  Narada, who was playing his Veena called Mahati, also committed mistakes.  Narada did so to attract the attention of the audience to Urvasi's mistakes.  Noticing the mistakes, Agastya, who too was present on the occasion, cursed Urvasi to become a baboo.  He cursed that Narada's Vina should become the Vina of the world[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T05:23:25.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2001" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1976" CreationDate="2014-07-11T05:33:27.770" Score="14" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अजर अमर गुणनिधि सूत होऊ | करहु बहुत रघुनायक छोहु &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ajar amar gunanidhi sut hohu| &#xA;  Karahu bahut Raghunaayak chhohoo|| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;RamacharitManas Sundarkand Doha 16 Line 3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sita (Wife of Rama) made him immortal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doha (written in avadhi language) means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;Ajar      = Ever young (Ever green, who does not grow old)&#xA;Amar      = Immortal&#xA;Gunanidhi = Lots of good quality&#xA;Sut hohu  = Blessed you with (blessing someone)&#xA;Karahu    = To do something &#xA;Bahut     = Lots of &#xA;Raghunaayak = Rama, God , husband of sita&#xA;Chhohoo = To please, to make him happy &lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="399" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-13T20:30:55.367" LastActivityDate="2015-08-13T20:30:55.367" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2002" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-11T05:52:03.143" Score="47" ViewCount="56974" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have always believed that Lord Rama was a vegetarian, but after reading certain blogs I found out that there might be certain verses in Ramayana (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga96/ayodhyaitrans96.htm#Verse2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;like the one below&lt;/a&gt;) which indicate quite the opposite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;idaM medhyamidaM svaadu niSTaptamidamagninaa | &lt;br&gt; evamaaste sa&#xA;  dharmaatmaa siitayaa saha raaghavaH || 2-96-2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama, whose mind was devoted to righteousness stayed there with&#xA;  Seetha, saying; &quot;This meat is fresh, this is savoury and roasted in&#xA;  the fire.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, since I haven't read the entire Ramayana, I cannot attest to the fact that whether Rama was a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which is why I need to ask, is there some concrete proof that Rama was a meat eater?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="400" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-01T22:15:13.510" LastActivityDate="2024-03-20T09:15:16.560" Title="Was Lord Rama a non-vegetarian?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|food|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2003" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2002" CreationDate="2014-07-11T06:14:39.013" Score="40" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aamisham means meat and it also means enjoyable sense object like kingdom;&#xA;it also &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/%C4%81mi%E1%B9%A3a/29482/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;means&lt;/a&gt; immense sense gratification and very pleasant and dear sense&#xA;objects. Why translate this word only to mean meat? Isn't it biased&#xA;translation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/m%C4%81%E1%B9%83sa/175727/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Maamsa&lt;/a&gt; means meat and it also &lt;strong&gt;means pulp of a fruit or root&lt;/strong&gt;. Roots are quite&#xA;commonly roasted in fire and eaten.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga36/sundara_36_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sloka  5-36-41&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न मांसं राघवो भुङ्क्ते न चापि मधुसेवते | &lt;br&gt; वन्यं सुविहितं नित्यं&#xA;  भक्तमश्नाति पञ्चमम् ||  ५-३६-४१ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na māṃsaṃ rāghavo bhuṅkte na cāpi madhusevate | &lt;br&gt; vanyaṃ suvihitaṃ&#xA;  nityaṃ bhaktamaśnāti pañcamam || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;can also mean that Raghuvamsi never eat meat nor do they&#xA;drink liquor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="399" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-03-22T06:32:03.587" LastActivityDate="2017-03-22T06:32:03.587" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2004" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1975" CreationDate="2014-07-11T07:03:11.000" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because no one has actually seen what happens after death, there are multiple beliefs regarding this. But the yogis through their eyes of knowledge know the movement of the beings before and after their death:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;utkrāmantaḿ sthitaḿ vāpi bhuñjānaḿ vā guṇānvitam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vimūḍhā nānupaśyanti paśyanti jñāna-cakṣuṣaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 15.10]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Not the people of lower intelligence, but one with the eye of knowledge sees how a being leaves the body, stays in the body and experiences different bodies due to nature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we have many descriptions regarding this in various puranas and scriptures. The exact description and explanation of different cases would be very very long. So I am answering briefly the course of journey of a human being or &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; after death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the body dies,the &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; is carried away to the abode of Yama&#xA;  for judgement of his actions. Sinful &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; are taken through a door&#xA;  and path that is painful and pious souls are taken through another&#xA;  path that is not painful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Yama has judged the person's work, then depending upon his work&#xA;  he will either be taken to heaven or put into hell. Then after&#xA;  finishing his term there he will again have to comeback to this&#xA;  material plane of existence taking birth in any kind of material body as per his&#xA;  actions. This is the normal course of a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;'s life in &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;. [Agni Pu. - Chapter. 203]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, if someone has done austerity, penance, devotion, etc. then depending upon his mode of spiritual activity he will go to the respective abode. If one worships formless quality less Brahman, after death he will also merge in Brahman [BG - 12.4]. If one worships Brahman with form (like Krishna, Vishnu, etc.) then depending upon his thought at the time of death [BG - 8.6], he can enter to the respective deity's abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yānti deva-vratā devān pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā yānti mad-yājino ’pi mām&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.25]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Worshipers of the gods go to the gods; worshipers of forefathers go to the pitra loka; to the ghosts go those who worship ghosts; those who worship Me come to Me alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the bottom line is, as long as a person's karmic account is not clean, he will only be wandering in different planes of existences in different kinds of bodies enjoying different kinds of pains and pleasures depending upon his actions. So yes, as per the scriptures the human being has a soul (or, existence) after his/her death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-24T10:19:48.573" LastActivityDate="2015-02-24T10:19:48.573" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2005" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="404" CreationDate="2014-07-11T07:45:08.813" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dhooli/Dhuli means Dirt, it is not considered as a sin if pilgrims bathes and enters sanctum sanctorum.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The temple allows devotees to worship the Shiva Lingam without bathing  as it is said that lord doesn't judge his devotees by his physical impurities but by his intrinsic spirituality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that at Sreesailam, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is manifested as a father and when his children&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;(devotees)&lt;/em&gt; visit him, he is eager to see them upfront without any delay and grant all the wishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though, some pilgrims do bathe at Patalaganga, which is about 3KM away from Mallikarjuna temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiadivine.org/content/topic/1161870-srisailam-temple-has-no-barriers/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference for Dhooli/Dhuli Darshanam&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://tipparaju.wordpress.com/2011/03/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference for Belief&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you commented and as I stated before, its more of a belief or custom, rather than a story behind that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Srisailam there is a peculiar custom known as 'dhuli darshan.' This&#xA;  is mostly followed by pilgrims who are from Karnataka. At the time of&#xA;  the dasara festival many pilgrims from Karnataka start pilgrimate&#xA;  towards Srisailam on foot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After climbing the footstairs of the hill the pilgrims straightaway&#xA;  walk into the sanctum sanstorum of the Mallikarjunaswami temple&#xA;  without taking bath at Krishna Ghat for having darshna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books?id=8ro-8reHVgoC&amp;amp;pg=PA166&amp;amp;lpg=PA166&amp;amp;dq=story%20behind%20dhooli%20srisailam&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=AsWc-LJ1ip&amp;amp;sig=8YLmsmdnRhq0QsveHzPz_JSiEhA&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=EJu_U4ycJNSKuASDtIC4Ag&amp;amp;ved=0CEAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=story%20behind%20dhooli%20srisailam&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Encyclopedia of the Śaivism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-11T08:19:14.113" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T08:19:14.113" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2006" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="404" CreationDate="2014-07-11T08:14:19.040" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The general practice at Srisailam is to first bathe in the &lt;em&gt;Patalaganga&lt;/em&gt; (Krishna river), and walk from there to the Temple, for which a special walkway exists. It is part of the basic etiquette of any temple to bathe before entering the shrine, as reintererated in the &lt;em&gt;Devasthanam's&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://srisailamtemple.com/Srisaila_devasthanam/dos-and-donts.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The standard practice of visiting any sacred &lt;em&gt;kshetra&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;dham&lt;/em&gt; is to first perform &lt;em&gt;tarpan&lt;/em&gt; to your ancestors on the first day, after which you may go take darshan. Most Shiva temples (and most Jyotirlingas) allow entry in the &lt;em&gt;garbha griha&lt;/em&gt;, and actually touch the &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;sparsha darshanam&lt;/em&gt;). Lord Shiva is not contaminated by anything, and as the Srikalahasti temple shows, not even by eclipses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;dhuli darshan&lt;/em&gt; is a practice popular among devotees from Karnataka. In south India, the month of &lt;em&gt;kartik&lt;/em&gt; is sacred to Shiva, and many devotees would walk all the way to Srisailam. For these hardcore devotees, performing &lt;em&gt;tarpan&lt;/em&gt;, walking to the &lt;em&gt;Patalaganga&lt;/em&gt; and back seemed superfluous, and would directly take Darshan first. This is the &lt;em&gt;dhuli darshan&lt;/em&gt; performed by &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt;, not all, and particularly during &lt;em&gt;kartik&lt;/em&gt; month. &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books?id=8ro-8reHVgoC&amp;amp;pg=PA166&amp;amp;lpg=PA166&amp;amp;dq=srisailam+dhuli&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=AsWc-LE7lt&amp;amp;sig=ZBQVDV-N5Us7Uxuq6z3aCCTW1pg&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=AYq_U4qoMtSQuATpm4LABA&amp;amp;ved=0CDAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=srisailam%20dhuli&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T08:14:19.040" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2007" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="872" CreationDate="2014-07-11T08:38:55.070" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;garbha griha&lt;/em&gt; represents the innermost sanctum of the deity's &lt;em&gt;loka&lt;/em&gt;. Here only the deity and their consort(s) reside. When the &lt;em&gt;garbha griha&lt;/em&gt; doors close, their Lordships finally have some privacy, and this is when they sleep. The vahana, the Lordship's greatest devotee, is always eager to serve, and waits just outside the sanctum, in line-of-sight of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T08:38:55.070" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2008" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1999" CreationDate="2014-07-11T09:15:03.183" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Narada as we know him now was actually a normal boy of a maidservant in his previous birth. Due to association with some asectics he devloped faith in God and practiced meditation and austerity. Pleased by his devotion, Vishnu appeared before him for one time and said that only in his next birth he will be able to associate with God. So Narada led that life as an ascetic (&lt;em&gt;muni&lt;/em&gt;) singing the flories of Lord. When after &lt;em&gt;pralaya&lt;/em&gt; (annihilation of the whole universe), when creation began next time, Narada in his present form came into existence along  with the other rishis:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After 4,300,000,000 solar years, when Brahmā awoke to create again by the will of the Lord, all the ṛṣis like Marīci, Aṅgirā, Atri and so on were created from the transcendental body of the Lord, and I also appeared along with them. [SB - 1.6.30]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Narada is known as a &lt;em&gt;muni&lt;/em&gt;. And regarding his Veena, it was given to Him by God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And thus I travel, constantly singing the transcendental message of the glories of the Lord, vibrating this instrument called a vīṇā, which is charged with transcendental sound and which was given to me by Lord Kṛṣṇa. [SB - 1.6.32]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Linga Puran chapter 2.3 has also description regarding how Narada as an ascetic performed penance and obtained his musical skills. I'll add it when I have made the translations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shrimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/1/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1.5&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/1/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1.6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T09:15:03.183" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2009" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1968" CreationDate="2014-07-11T09:26:45.887" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The law of karma is inescapable.  One must bear the consequences of ones deeds, good or bad.  If one happens to die before bearing the consequences, one must be born again to bear them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One way of looking at reincarnation is that it is simply a device to plug the one loophole in the theory of karma - that of a person dying before bearing the consequences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also explains why people who have done nothing wrong are suffering, why some are born rich and others are born poor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason why Abrahamic religions have no use for reincarnation is because one can do a penance to get ones sins forgiven.  Confession itself does not wipe away the sins.  The priest will prescribe a penance, like '5 hail marys'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even there, the only reason to get ones sins forgiven is to go to heaven.  Sinners would go to hell permanently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is either karma + reincarnation, or forgiving of sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rituals of 'ganga snaana' or dip in the holy river, or even a pilgrimage to holy places, are not about cleansing the sins, but more about purification - a somewhat different concept.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="149" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T09:26:45.887" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2010" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2025" CreationDate="2014-07-11T09:28:53.253" Score="10" ViewCount="11880" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lets see some Vedic quotes which says earth is static.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oh Man ! He who made the trembling earth static is Indra. (Rig Ved 2/12/12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The God who made the earth stable (Yajur Ved 32/6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Indra protects the wide earth which is immovable and has many forms (Atarv Ved 12/1/11)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let us walk on the Wide and Static earth (Atharv Ved 12/1/17)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this correct? If not, what is the actual meaning of these verses?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-12-19T13:43:47.510" Title="Do Vedas say Earth is static?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2011" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1989" CreationDate="2014-07-11T09:35:34.933" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is broad, to give you an idea, after soul is left the body, according to the sect which one belongs to, there is tradition to decompose/destruct the body. Here are few exmaples for it..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a baby dies, body would be buried in the earth and not cremated. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard from someone that if a saint/sanyasi leaves his body, his body would be cut into four pieces and spread the pieces across four sides of forest in order to feed animals(may be considered as he lived for others and even after he leaves this world he is helpful to someother being in this way). There are also instances where they disappear/leave their body in a sea. If not it would be buried in a place and the place is worshiped as brindavan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general the resistance power of the aged or diseased will be low and would be adobe of many harmful microbes, so it is cremated &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most important cause is after the body is cremated, ash will be collected from important body parts and is dissolved into holy river water, it is believed that this will free the dead person from hell and may give better life next time. (so is organ donation is not well popular)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T09:35:34.933" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2012" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-11T09:38:11.017" Score="26" ViewCount="159117" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kalki avataar is the avatar of lord Vishnu. It is said that Kalki Avatar will born in Kaliyug. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any specific date or time which describes Kalki's birth? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="408" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T05:26:29.977" LastActivityDate="2019-12-30T13:20:11.250" Title="When will the Kalki avatar be born?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|kalki|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2013" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2010" CreationDate="2014-07-11T09:44:21.137" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is my idea!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Keeping Earth static may mean giving stability or gravity to earth which makes life possible. It may also seem like the Earth is making balance between the centripetal and centrifugal forces. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas said that sun is the center of universe and all planets revolve &amp;amp; rotate around the sun and also, Moon shines because of the Sun! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-11T10:37:58.373" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T10:37:58.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2014" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2012" CreationDate="2014-07-11T09:46:21.673" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia quotes:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;South Indian astrologers have analyzed Puranas extensively to try and foretell the time of birth of Kalki. The signs described in the Kalki Purana are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The moon will be in Dhanishtha nakshatra, Aquarius, suggesting he will be wealthy, acclaimed and swift in action and thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sun will be in Swati, the nakshatra of the sword.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jupiter will be in Purva Ashadha nakshatra, Sagittarius.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ascendant Lord will be in Purva Ashadha nakshatra, also Sagittarius, suggesting invincibility and early victory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saturn will be exalted in Libra, predicting a balance between justice and the sword.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ketu, lord of horse-headed Ashwini, will be exalted in Scorpio, suggesting he will descend atop a great white steed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His arrival is stipulated at a time when the earth is engulfed in crisis because of a tyrannical and powerful ruler. Kalki Bhagwan is said to be mounted on a strikingly beautiful White Horse, and is most often picturised in the foreground of a dark sky. This symbolises his coming at a time when darkness (evil) is the order of the day, and he is the saviour to rid the world of its sufferings. This is similar to the Parashuram avatar, where Lord Vishnu killed the atrocious Kshatriya rulers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kalki Avatar is the most eagerly awaited one, more so because it will signify the cleansing of the world from all its sorrows that have been accumulated for many millennia. He is to arrive at the end of Kalyug, the dark age, and will mark the beginning of the Sat Yug. According to calculations, there are still many years left for that to happen (The Kalyug extends for a period of 432000 years, and it has just started - 5000 years ago). When we have such advanced military technology today, it will be interesting to see (though we may not, unless we do not manage to attain salvation by then, and are still caught in the rebirth cycle) what kind of weapons Kalki Avatar utilises.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also said that Kalki avtar will come, when all the three rivers Saraswati, Yamuna and Ganga return to heavens ( dried).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The earliest reference to the Kalki Avatar is found in the India's great epic, the Mahabharat. Rishi Markandeya tells Yudhishtir, the seniormost Pandava, that Kalki will be born to Brahmin parents. He would excel in academics, sports and warfare, and thus become a very intelligent and powerful young man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kalki Puranam tells that he will stay for some time in Simhala Dwipa (Sri Lanka) and then return to India. Very minute details about his wife and children are mentioned. There are portions which have a literal connotation and there are also portions which have a symbolic connotation. The symbolic method was given by God so that the false ones who claim themselves as God will get caught when they try to fit themselves into his role. This method was reserved for another purpose also. It was done to prevent the Vedas from being destroyed by the atheists. Kalki Puranam also tells about all the deeds that Kalki Maha Avatar will accomplish. They tell us how he will confront 'Kali Purushan' directly and annihilate him. They also tell how he will ascend to heaven after his divine purpose is accomplished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also mentions that he will be born in Sambala Gramam. So Sambala Gramam must be near Tamirabarani according to these texts and not in North India as is popularly believed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagawatham, Canto II, Chapter 5: Text 39-40 as follows: &quot;Very few people are found to follow and worship Narayana in Kali-Yuga. Simple and insignificant people are found worshipping Lord Narayana in &quot;DRAVIDA-DESHAM&quot; (TAMIL NADU) in a place where River TAMIRAPARNEE will be flowing (TIRUNELVELI)&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a very clear cut prophecy. So it can be understood that the final KALKI MAHA AVATAR will have his abode on the outskirts of River Tamiraparnee, which is in Tamil Nadu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The astronomical positions of the stars and planets now is not the same as it was in the antediluvian world when the Pole Star was right on top of Mount Meru. Kanchi Peedam asserts this most categorically. As the world is now tilted at an angle of twenty three and half degrees the configuration of the stars and planets at the time of birth of Kalki Maha Avatar will not be the same as stated in the texts when a different configuration was applicable. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prabhupada.org.uk/kalki.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-05-15T03:50:08.530" LastActivityDate="2015-05-15T03:50:08.530" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2015" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2022" CreationDate="2014-07-11T10:01:06.100" Score="8" ViewCount="1201" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know how &quot;Moksha&quot; is explained in both &quot;Advaitha&quot; and &quot;Dvaitha&quot; philosophies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about &quot;Vishishtadvaitha&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T04:21:34.223" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T04:21:34.223" Title="How Vishishtadvaitha explains Moksha?" Tags="|moksha|vishishtadvaita|teaching|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2016" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2017" CreationDate="2014-07-11T12:03:21.427" Score="21" ViewCount="2983" Body="&lt;p&gt;Svargalok is considered as a place where good people reside. From the wiki - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Svarga is seen as a transitory place for righteous souls who have&#xA;  performed good deeds in their lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, many stories/references on Indra's character do not support him to be king of swarga, e.g.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indra seduced Ahalya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He once stood against lord Krishna(Govardhana Parvat incident)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Always in doubt for his throne&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He struck Hanuman's jaw during his childhood&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do not forget serials by Ramanand Sagar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then what makes him the king of demi gods despite of having such loose character in various incidents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-08-21T17:37:33.463" LastActivityDate="2023-10-01T14:26:20.357" Title="What made Indra the king of Svargalok?" Tags="|worship|gods|indra|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2017" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2016" CreationDate="2014-07-11T12:17:01.637" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt; is not the name of a person, its the name of a post, same with all other Lords and Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same is with &lt;strong&gt;Trishanku&lt;/strong&gt;, who is considered as a future candidate for &lt;strong&gt;Indra padavi&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Hanuma&lt;/strong&gt; is awarded as a future &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; for his countless &lt;strong&gt;Rama Nama Japam&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The person holding &lt;strong&gt;Indra's&lt;/strong&gt; post will be changed after his term is completed. Until then he can do whatever he wants to. If he does anything bad, he will be punished but his post will not be taken back. But one can challenge him in battle and conquer his post.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Consider the case of &lt;em&gt;Ahalya&lt;/em&gt;, he got a &lt;em&gt;Shrapa&lt;/em&gt; (curse) and all trees in the world shared that &lt;em&gt;Shrapa&lt;/em&gt; and released &lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt; from it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In &lt;em&gt;Govardhana Parvat&lt;/em&gt; incident, Lord Krishna also gave him a &lt;em&gt;Shrapa&lt;/em&gt; that no one in this world will worship &lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt; separately (but he should be given share in all &lt;strong&gt;Yagnas/Yagas&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Always in doubt for his throne&lt;/em&gt;, Yes thats the fear of his position, whoever is eligible for that post can claim it. Or need to wait until his turn completes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;He struck Hanuma's jaw during his childhood&lt;/em&gt;, this is what the actual job of &lt;strong&gt;Indra's&lt;/strong&gt; post is, whoever person he is. &lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt; needs to maintain balance and peace all over in his territory. So he arrived there to protect &lt;em&gt;Surya deva&lt;/em&gt; by listening to the complaint of &lt;em&gt;Rahu&lt;/em&gt;, unknowingly hurting &lt;em&gt;Hanuma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="364" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-21T17:37:39.047" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2018" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="62" CreationDate="2014-07-11T12:29:50.933" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I. &lt;em&gt;Rtadhama&lt;/em&gt;, the Vasu Prajapati&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have two candidates, both of whom make sense to me. Let me know in the comments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-Varuna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Varuna is Lord of Waters, cognate with the more well known &lt;em&gt;Apa&lt;/em&gt; Vasu &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ap_(water)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;(&lt;em&gt;Apa&lt;/em&gt; = water)&lt;/a&gt;. He's a &lt;em&gt;Vasu&lt;/em&gt; as a controller of the element of water, and in the Vedas, space. Varuna is intimately associated with &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%B9%9Ata&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ṛta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, &quot;truth, order&quot;. He is the very embodiment of Rta, the original Prajapati (&lt;em&gt;Samarangana Sutradhara&lt;/em&gt; X.107.32). &lt;em&gt;Rtadhama&lt;/em&gt;, &quot;He who abides in Order&quot;, makes sense as Varuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-Indra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the 12th &lt;em&gt;Manvantara&lt;/em&gt;, the Indra's name is &lt;em&gt;Rtadhama&lt;/em&gt;. Indra's status as a &lt;em&gt;Vasu&lt;/em&gt; is well known (&lt;em&gt;Shatapata Brahmana&lt;/em&gt; I.6.4.2), and is the Lord of &lt;em&gt;Vasus&lt;/em&gt;, and like Varuna, is a progenitor Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;II. Eighth Rudra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;रुद्राणामष्टमो रुद्रः&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;rudranaamashtamo rudrah&lt;/em&gt;) is more correctly &quot;eighth Rudra among Rudras&quot;. In the &lt;em&gt;Shatapata Brahmana&lt;/em&gt; 6.1.3, Rudra asks Brahma to give him a name, but He isn't satisfied, and asks for a greater name. This goes on till He's finally satisfied with the eighth name, &lt;em&gt;Isana&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Îsâna (the Ruler).' And because he gave him that name, the Sun became suchlike, for Îsâna is the Sun, since the Sun rules over this All. He said, 'So great indeed I am: give me no other name after that!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-[Shatapata Brahamana 6.1.3.17]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;III. Sadhya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most sources do not enumerate specific numbers of &lt;em&gt;Sadhyas&lt;/em&gt;, though they are usually associated as the recipients of the fifth portion of sacrifice [&lt;em&gt;Ashwamedha yagya&lt;/em&gt;, where they receive the fifth vertebra], [&lt;em&gt;Chandogiya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; 3.10, where they are seers of the fifth nectar], behind the &lt;em&gt;Vasus&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;Rudras&lt;/em&gt;, like in these verses. Madhvacharya's &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books?id=edOF_rU1WDUC&amp;amp;pg=PA200&amp;amp;lpg=PA200&amp;amp;dq=five+sadhyas&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=yTZrs8Lqoa&amp;amp;sig=dc7SsFMNaPK-pQ1Vs0wVW4pwUPk&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=w6W_U5HCB9GfugS34ILIDg&amp;amp;ved=0CFMQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%20sadhyas&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhashya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; on the &lt;em&gt;Chandogiya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; mentions that five beings (or classes of beings?) are included in the &lt;em&gt;Sadhyas&lt;/em&gt; (Suparna, Shesha, Sarasvati, Suparni, &amp;amp; Varuni), and their Lord is Brahma. Perhaps by the fifth &lt;em&gt;Sadhya&lt;/em&gt; Lord Brahma is referring to himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;IV. Boar with one tusk&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a mistranslation. The word is &lt;strong&gt;&quot;एकशृङ्ग&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, &quot;*eka-shringa&quot;. &lt;em&gt;Shringa&lt;/em&gt; is best understood as &quot;point, peak, or horn&quot;, [see &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=HK&amp;amp;beginning=0+&amp;amp;tinput=shringa&amp;amp;trans=Translate&amp;amp;direction=AU&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;] all of which are used fairly often in scriptural texts, ie, &lt;em&gt;Harivamsa&lt;/em&gt; 3.35.10 in the context of mountain peak. &lt;em&gt;Eka-shringa&lt;/em&gt; in this context is best understood as &quot;pre-eminent, of highest importance&quot; [see &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=ekazRGga&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can &lt;em&gt;eka-shringa&lt;/em&gt; refer to &lt;em&gt;one tusk&lt;/em&gt;, in the context of &lt;em&gt;Varaha&lt;/em&gt;? Unlikely. The most common reference to Lord Varaha's tusks either use the familiar &lt;em&gt;danta&lt;/em&gt; (teeth), &lt;em&gt;dramshtra&lt;/em&gt; (tusk), or &lt;em&gt;dashana&lt;/em&gt; (tusk), like in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.salagram.net/Dasavatara-page.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dasavatara-stotra&lt;/a&gt;. Interestingly, &lt;em&gt;shringa&lt;/em&gt; is used in this text to refer to the points of Lord Narasimha's nails.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With this understanding of &lt;em&gt;eka-shringa&lt;/em&gt;, the text reads &quot;you are the preeminent boar&quot;, which makes a lot more sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;V. Great Bull&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is more than likely a reference to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishabha_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Rishabhadeva&lt;/a&gt;, one of the 24 avatars of Lord Vishnu mentioned in the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavata Purana&lt;/em&gt;, and one of the first great seers of the Vedic religion. The 'hundred heads' could refer to his hundred sons, who go on to be great seers themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-19T14:46:47.290" LastActivityDate="2015-11-19T14:46:47.290" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2019" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2010" CreationDate="2014-07-11T12:43:28.733" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ancient Hindu spelled out concept of Heliocentric Universe as long back as Rigveda, which by conservative estimates can be traced to ~2000 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This hymn in Rigveda explains my position, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upon this five-spoked wheel revolving ever all living creatures rest and are dependent. Its axle, heavy-laden, is not heated: the nave from ancient time remains unbroken. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01164.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 1.164.13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Explanation&lt;/strong&gt;: The five -spoked wheel is the 'Earth' and five spokes refer to the five climatic regions, 2 frigid, 2 temperate and the tropical zone. The revolution is the spinning of Earth about it's axis and which remains un-heated even after innumerable rotations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;High on the forehead of the Bull one chariot wheel ye ever keep,&#xA;  The other round the sky revolves. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryabharati.org/rugved/englrugved.asp?ln=en&amp;amp;bk=01&amp;amp;pt=a&amp;amp;pg=030&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 1.30.19&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Explanation:&lt;/strong&gt; The Bull here is the Dasyu (sky) and the sun is the 'forehead of sky'. The wheel on the other hand, is the orbital motion of Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For other hymns which conceptualize heliocentric universe, refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books?id=LWZ0PmhGf9gC&amp;amp;pg=PA41&amp;amp;lpg=PA41&amp;amp;dq=heliocentric%20earth%20veda%20verses&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=HjeD-VGnQN&amp;amp;sig=jtUfYe2FG9cvaoayheyAj0_tnOo&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=9LW_U4--E4meugTv1IDYBQ&amp;amp;ved=0CCMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=heliocentric%20earth%20veda%20verses&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Celestial Key to the Vedas&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note that these concepts were purely based on observations and hence mythology and astronomy was amalgamated as seen never before. This was the main reason, in my opinion for the usage of 'strange' words.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The hymns OP quoted uses words like 'trembling', 'static' and 'immovable' with respect to Earth. These words describes the 'relative stability' of earth when compared to other terrestrial objects like trees and rock. For a casual observer, Earth is still and it feels only trembling when there's an earthquake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-07-11T17:33:51.143" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T17:33:51.143" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2020" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1985" CreationDate="2014-07-11T12:49:08.377" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;All forms are His. He promised to descend to earth to save the nobles and to punish the evil when ever required, in this process He either takes a form on His own or influence(may give power) someone to act on His behalf or He may wish to put His amsa (a part) in any being for the cause.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each avatara is meant for different purpose and the way of worship to that deity and the return we get out of it differs among! Each deity in various forms worshiped in various ways blesses with different results! (like Ganapathy worshipped as lakshmi ganapathi, natya ganapathi, maha ganapathy, arka ganapathy...)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rishuis (Seers) on doing exhaustive worship on a deity understands these and teaches to the fellow people whom to worship, how to worship for a specific purpose. So wrong way of worshiping may give wrong results by any deity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parasurama amsa(a part of avatar) is just limited to kill the evil kings, parasuram later approached lord dattatreya for liberation, parasuram is not purna(complete) avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T04:21:13.233" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T04:21:13.233" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2021" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2015" CreationDate="2014-07-11T14:25:19.293" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Vishistadvaita a Jiva has two kinds of attributes, Dharmi-jnana and Dharmabhuta-jnana. Dharmi-jnana may be described as intrinsic consciousness of the subject revealing itself and Dharmabhuta-Jnana as attributive consciousness which reveals external objects to the subject. In bondage the attributive consciousness of the Jiva is contracted or very limited in scope of its functioning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The liberated Jivas are those who, evolving through all forms of bodies, at last come to the stage of human birth, and eventually attain moksha through spiritual disciplines and surrender to the Divine. By the grace of Narayana they are liberated from Samsara and raised to the Divine status of Vaikuntha, where they get the new spiritual body of Suddha-satva. Being free from the load of Karma, their Dharmabhuta-Jnana now attains to its maximum expansion and becomes one with that of Ishvara. But their atomic nature (anutva) remains, distinguishing them from the Infinity (Anantam) that God is. In the Divine Vaikuntha they become His servitors or instruments of service, or remains absorbed in the bliss of Narayana. They become one with God in knowledge and bliss, but not in power; for Narayana alone is the Great Cause of the universe (liberated Jivas do not have the power to create, preserve or destroy the universe).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF: Bhakti Schools of Vedanta by Swami Tapasyananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T14:25:19.293" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2022" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2015" CreationDate="2014-07-11T14:49:10.480" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've summarized the relevant parts from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/uploads/5/5/4/9/5549439/catechismofva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;A Catechism of the Visiṣṭhādvalta Phllosophy of Śrī Rāmānuja āchārya&lt;/a&gt; by N. Bhashyacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Moksha?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Entire separation of Jīva from all connection with matter, and complete destruction of Karma whether good or bad. The word Mokṣa literally means release from bondage (bandha). All Jīvas can obtain Mokṣa if qualified to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Means to attain Moksha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are four means: Karma-yoga, Jñāna-yoga, Bhakti-yoga and Prapatti(Saranagati/devotional surrender).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only persons of great mental development and who possess Jñāna (spiritual knowledge) are fit to practice the first three, viz., Karma-yoga, Jñāna-yoga and Bhakti-yoga. Those who have attained neither mental development nor spiritual knowledge, and who are incapable of practicing the other means of mokṣa may have recourse to Prapatti. This may be practiced by any one, without distinction of caste or creed, even if he be a chandala or a mleccha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kinds of Moksha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha is of 2 kinds, Kaivalya and Brahmānanda. Kaivalya is an isolated form of enjoyment whereas Brahmānanda is enjoyment in a relationship with Parabrahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where is Moksha?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is enjoyed in a place called parama-pada (supreme state or Vaikuṇṭha loka), which is not material, being comprised of śuddha-sattva. It is above all material worlds. Both kinds of mokṣa ’Kaivalya’ and ’Brahmānanda’ are enjoyed in Vaikuṇṭha loka, but in different parts of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is Moksha permanent?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mokṣa is everlasting. Muktas (Jivātmas that have attained Mokṣa) are never again subject to the qualities of matter or to Karma. But if they choose, for the sake of doing good to the world, they may incarnate on earth. After such an incarnation they return to Mokṣa, and even during these incarnations they are not subject to matter or Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T14:49:10.480" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2023" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2029" CreationDate="2014-07-11T16:07:01.557" Score="14" ViewCount="3300" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sons of Lord Shiva, Ganesha and Muruga (Kartikeya) are very famous and worshipped by many, but not his only daughter, Ashokasundari. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-23T04:51:03.640" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T04:51:03.640" Title="Why is Lord Shiva's daughter Ashokasundari not worshipped?" Tags="|shiva|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2024" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-11T16:57:08.537" Score="14" ViewCount="6882" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many south Indian temples, especially in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the temple's external walls are painted in white &amp;amp; red stripes. Why is it done so? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8IXvZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;South Indian Temple wall&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-04-07T05:15:40.603" LastActivityDate="2017-01-07T09:03:38.077" Title="Why are many South Indian temple's walls painted in white and red stripes?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2025" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2010" CreationDate="2014-07-11T17:51:21.400" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, we can not believe translations to Sanskrit language as such. Even sanskrit experts have difficulties in defining the meaning of some words. And here is my explanation for your specific question. Let me answer this using your quotes itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The very first quote is against the earth static view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Oh Man ! He who made the trembling earth static is Indra. (Rig Ved 2/12/12)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just give proper look at this sentence and get what is the meaning of this sentence. This is an exclamatory sentence where it is emphasizing the power of Indra. The sentence simply means the Indra is powerful enough to make the trembling and moving earth still. That means rigveda is sure about it's movement. So the first quote proves that the &lt;em&gt;static theorem&lt;/em&gt; which you pointed is wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The God who made the earth stable (Yajur Ved 32/6)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word 'stable' does not mean the earth is still, it do have a lot other meanings which are more suitable. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indra protects the wide earth which is immovable and has many forms (Atarv Ved 12/1/11)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Immovable' means which can not be moved by a force. That does not mean it is static. The text could be from a point of view from a common man, for him it is certainly immovable. Isn't it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Let us walk on the Wide and Static earth (Atharv Ved 12/1/17)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only quote which has a word 'static' is this one(and the question is up with the helping hand from this quote only). As this is only a translation, this one also can not be counted as a relevant one to be put forward the static earth view in the question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And please see the synonyms of static:  unchanged, fixed, stable, steady, unchanging, changeless, unvarying, invariable, constant, consistent, uniform, undeviating&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also as mentioned in the other answers here, vedas known that earth is round and it is rotating around sun ages before the modern scientists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2014-07-13T15:47:41.733" LastActivityDate="2014-07-13T15:47:41.733" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2026" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="110" CreationDate="2014-07-11T21:04:37.440" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is not really a religion. Its a tradition n culture that people of India have been following for so long. Let me describe how Hinduism got its name:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Muslims came to India they started calling people of India as Hindu because they first met Indians at the HIND RIVER. With time the non-Muslims started thinking of them self as Hindus (which does not meant religion but they started believing it). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The actual meaning of Hindu means Indian or even to be more accurate those who live beside HIND RIVER.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="377" LastActivityDate="2014-07-11T21:04:37.440" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2028" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="951" CreationDate="2014-07-12T03:03:41.210" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Lord Kartikeya was doing meditation Lord Indra gets jealous that Brahma might give him more power than himself. So he plans to distract Lord Kartikeya by sending the most beautiful Apsaras. Lord Kartikeya gets angry and curses that &quot;any woman who comes to his place to distract him from his meditation shall turn into stone&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In time, it has become a belief that women coming to visit Pushkar might get cursed instead of being blessed. That's why women are not allowed in Pushkar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="395" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-12T08:46:04.670" LastActivityDate="2014-07-12T08:46:04.670" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2029" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2023" CreationDate="2014-07-12T04:18:49.047" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's probably because the story of Ashokasundari is only attested in the Padma Purana; you can read the story starting from page 1280 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12948/3/Chapter1_1241-1320p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhumi Kanda of the Padma Purana.  (If you want to read the rest of the Padma Purana, see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/792/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Ashokasundari is described in the Padma Purana as the wife of Nahusha and mother of Yayati, when other scriptures say that Nahusha's wife was Viraja, daughter of the Pitris (ghosts of departed ancestors).  (I discuss Viraja in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3732/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.). &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/hv_1_30.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Harivamsa says, for instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ancestors of Kardama Prajapati are the descendants of Pulaha Prajapati, and these are the fatherly gods collectively termed as Susvadhas ... [T]he brainchild of this group of manes is &lt;strong&gt;lady Viraja who is the mother of king Yayati and the wife of King Nahusha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/hv_1_30.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is another quote from the Harivamsa saying the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;King Nahusha begot six sons through a damsel of fatherly gods, known as lady Viraja, or lady Suswadha, to wit, these six Indra-like sons are: Yati, Yayati, Samyati, Ayati, Bhava, and Suyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vayu Purana has similar statements.  So the story of Ashokasundari is thought by some to be a later interpolation to the Padma Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2014-12-30T18:52:32.490" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2030" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-12T04:28:39.087" Score="0" ViewCount="12345" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is the founder of Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma like Jesus for Christianity, Prophet Muhammad for Islam  and  Gautama Buddha for Buddhism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also which religious book is similar to Bible for Christians and Koran for Muslims?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="417" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-12T08:45:54.377" LastActivityDate="2014-07-12T08:45:54.377" Title="Who is the founder of Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2014-07-18T12:02:13.623" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2031" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-12T04:34:03.623" Score="0" ViewCount="148" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Caste system, particularly untouchability as practised by the Hindus, was it sanctioned (e.g. Sharia Law in Islam) by the ancient sacred religious texts or is it imposed by modern Aristocrats to enslave the poor people, similar to Slavery as practised in Western Countries, particularly US?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="417" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-12T05:37:53.180" LastActivityDate="2014-07-12T05:37:53.180" Title="Caste in Hinduism" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2014-07-12T05:07:12.147" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2032" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2031" CreationDate="2014-07-12T04:52:11.193" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Caste system/untouchability was not sanctioned in hinduism or the texts. Most of the texts explain about how one has to live both internally and externally to attend moksha. Most of the books are explanatory with stories to understand the life style or culture one should inculcate to have correct way of living. The religious discrimination started with diversified influences in time but the core hindu nature doesn't discriminate among the living begins. &quot;Sarvhe janha sukhinobavanthu&quot; meaning &quot;Let all kinds of people attend the happiness (pure conciousness or divinity)&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="395" LastActivityDate="2014-07-12T04:52:11.193" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2033" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2030" CreationDate="2014-07-12T05:00:10.220" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hinduism was not a religion founded by any one person.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was the way of life of the people living in the Indian subcontinent, across the 'Sindh' river. At that time it was known as &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Sanatan Dharma&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; or &quot;Eternal Religion&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The teachings of Hinduism were passed down from generation to generation in the form of Vedas.(oral transmission).  &lt;strong&gt;These Vedas contain knowledge and teachings which is in the purest form and directly revealed by the Almighty to enlightened &quot;rishis&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita (Song of the God)&lt;/strong&gt; is the holy book of Hindus. However most of the philosophy in Bhagavad Gita is derived from the &lt;strong&gt;Vedas (Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda)&lt;/strong&gt; which act as the foundation stone of Hindu beliefs.&#xA;To add to it, Bhagavad Gita is a part of the larger epic &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Mahabharata&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastActivityDate="2014-07-12T05:00:10.220" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2034" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2035" CreationDate="2014-07-12T08:21:08.600" Score="16" ViewCount="17542" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please tell me about the seven immortals in Hinduism? How did they become immortals?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-27T11:24:45.110" LastActivityDate="2018-04-27T11:24:45.110" Title="Who are the seven immortals (Chiranjeevi)?" Tags="|history|belief|life-span|chiranjivi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2035" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2034" CreationDate="2014-07-12T09:31:29.610" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;As mentioned &lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100414222443AAVIswY&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chiranjivins (Sanskrit nominative sing. ciranjivi, चिरंजीवी):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word is a combination of &quot;chiram&quot; (long) and jivi (lived).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Aswathama Balir Vyaso Hanumanash cha Vibhishana Krupacharya cha Parashuramam Saptatah Chirjeevanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Which means that Aswathama, King Mahabali, Veda Vyasa, Hanuman Ji,&#xA;  Vibhishana , Krupacharya and Lord Parashuram are death-defying or&#xA;  imperishable personalities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Markandeya, a great rishi and Jambavan are also considered as&#xA;  Chiranjivins.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brief note on Chiranjivins: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Aswathama:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aswathama did not attain the so called Chiranjitvam due to any noble&#xA;  deed. It was a curse from Lord krishna after Aswathama killed all the&#xA;  sons of Pandavas with his Brahmastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Book 10: Sauptika Parva, Chapters, 15 &amp;amp; 16: Aswathama&#xA;  could not take back Brahmastra and with that killed the sons of the&#xA;  Pandavas. But Lord Krishna gave rebirth to the foetus, that of&#xA;  Parikshit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna cursed Aswathama as follows; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Always engaged in sinful acts, thou art the slayer of children. For this reason, thou must have to bear the fruit of these thy sins. For&#xA;    3,000 years thou shalt wander over this earth, without a companion and&#xA;    without being able to talk with anyone. Alone and without anybody by&#xA;    thy side, thou shalt wander through diverse countries, O wretch, thou&#xA;    shalt have no place in the midst of men. The stench of pus and blood&#xA;    shall emanate from thee, and inaccessible forests and dreary moors&#xA;    shall be thy abode! Thou shalt wander over the Earth, O thou of sinful&#xA;    soul, with the weight of all diseases on thee.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;King Bali is immortalised because even Vishnu had to humble himself as Vamana to conquer him. He stands out for his valour and&#xA;  charity — two great eternal qualities. Bali knew fully well who Vamana&#xA;  was. Yet, he prepared to surrender all he had, to his Lord. So this&#xA;  man of grace is still revered. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vyas, the great scholar and writer, the author of Mahabharata and the Srimad Bhagavatam, is another immortal, a shining beacon of&#xA;  erudition and wisdom. A katha-wachak reading from the holy texts, is&#xA;  said to ascend the Vyaspeeth — blessed by the immortal Vyas. He comes&#xA;  to represent the continuity of erudition, scholarship and the&#xA;  apotheosis of the writer as the ultimate visionary. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman exemplifies selflessness, courage, devotion, energy, strength and righteous conduct. He stands for the potential that is&#xA;  inherent in all of us. He also represents the air, the atmosphere and&#xA;  thus the life-breath — the prana. Sita is believed to have bestowed on&#xA;  him the boon which made Hanuman ever-youthful, energetic and immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vibhisana had unshakable faith in what he believed. He was a fearless counsellor of righteousness even when all around him were&#xA;  given to sycophancy and peer pressure. As a follower of right conduct,&#xA;  Vibhisana survived unscathed while tragedy befell the unrighteous king&#xA;  and his followers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kripacharya was an extraordinary teacher. To him, all pupils were equal. A guru like Dronacharya favoured Arjuna and sacrificed an&#xA;  equally if not more promising student — he asked Ekalavya for his&#xA;  right thumb. Kripacharya, on the other hand, upheld the highest&#xA;  standards expected of a teacher: He was impartial. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Parashuram was master of martial arts. No one could beat him — whether the tools were astras, sastras or divine weapons. He had no&#xA;  temporal ambition. Had he so wished, he would have been the greatest&#xA;  Chakravarti Samrat India had ever known. But he lived a hermit's life.&#xA;  He was also one who never hesitated to admit a mistake. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During Sita's swayamvar, after Ram had broken the divine bow of&#xA;  Shiva, Parashuram asked both Ram and Lakshman for forgiveness. Despite&#xA;  his excellent qualifications, he did not hesitate to apologise in all&#xA;  humility that he had lost his reason in anger. Parashuram symbolises&#xA;  excellence and strength, tempered by humility.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="424" LastEditorUserId="460" LastEditDate="2014-07-17T09:45:05.080" LastActivityDate="2014-07-17T09:45:05.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2036" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-12T11:42:08.990" Score="5" ViewCount="1021" Body="&lt;p&gt;We are all practicing westerners time format means a day is starting at midnight 00:00 . What about Hinduism? Does any Hindu scriptures mention about it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-12T14:53:44.203" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T23:19:18.253" Title="What is the concept of &quot;a day&quot; in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|calendar|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2037" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2041" CreationDate="2014-07-12T11:43:16.200" Score="9" ViewCount="2229" Body="&lt;p&gt;Almost every religion has a belief in this qoute that God lives in us and we are an image (in Islam human is stated to be the Khalifa; junior, of God). What does Hinduism state about this belief?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="24" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2014-09-29T21:43:19.953" LastActivityDate="2018-02-14T06:24:27.707" Title="What does Hinduism state regarding the concept 'God lives in us'?" Tags="|belief|gods|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2038" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2037" CreationDate="2014-07-12T12:14:34.353" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most important texts in Hinduism is 4 veda's mahavakyas(ultimate messages) are the following&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda - prajñānam brahma Wisdom/consciousness is the brahma(highest truth)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda - ayam ātmā brahma I am this Self is Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sama Veda - tat tvam asi You are that(Brahma)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda - aham brahmāsmi I am that (Brahma)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything is God according to Hinduism, including every living and nonliving things, and the human life is for realizing this fact. Humans are getting a chance for self realization or moksha by this life. Even if everything is God, only humans can understand that, only they can think about the God and thus move in the path of self realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T03:55:39.893" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T03:55:39.893" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2039" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2047" CreationDate="2014-07-12T12:42:33.143" Score="29" ViewCount="8806" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ravana was one of the greatest devotees of Lord Siva. He also worshiped Lord Brahma and the two of them had given him enormous powers. Among the Trimurthis, only Lord Vishnu punished him as Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana is considered as a symbol of cruelty. Many people believe that Ravana is a villain who kidnapped Goddess Sita from Lord Rama and killed many people. And at the end of the story Lord Rama killed Ravana and returned to his Kingdom of Ayodhya with Sita. But can it be considered as a punishment? Isn't it a rare privilege to be killed by the hands of God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was Ravana actually a villain as people believe today or was he a devotee of Lord Vishnu? What is the actual story behind the scene?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T21:32:02.113" LastActivityDate="2022-01-22T11:41:03.320" Title="Was Ravana actually a villain? Or was he a devotee of Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|bhagavata-purana|ravana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2041" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2037" CreationDate="2014-07-12T14:50:02.760" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Using Advaita Vedanta to answer your question, God(Nirguna Brahman) has no form, gender or qualities. Brahman cannot be called He or She but only It or That. Hence humans are not an 'image' of God. God didn't create the cosmos but became the cosmos. Hence everything in this world is Brahman, from a rock to a bacteria to a human. Only humans poses the potential to realize the true nature of Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The phrase &quot;Atman is Brahman&quot; is used in Advaita. The metaphor of &lt;em&gt;Indra's Net&lt;/em&gt; is used to explain this. It is an infinite network with a jewel at each node. Each jewel reflects every other jewel and each jewel is a microcosm of the whole net. The jewels are the Atman the whole net is the Brahman. Hence Atman is a microcosm of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some illustrations of the Indra's Net: &lt;a href=&quot;http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Indras_Net-02.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Image 1&lt;/a&gt; , &lt;a href=&quot;http://the-wanderling.com/indras_net02.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Image 2&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;Notice that each node reflects every other node and thus each node also contains the whole network in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2014-07-12T14:50:02.760" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2042" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2039" CreationDate="2014-07-12T15:01:15.920" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as Ravana was concerned, he had a genuine enmity with Rama.  But Ravana and Kumbhakarna were actually incarnations of two great devotees of Vishnu, Jaya and Vijaya.  The story is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/15/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/16/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among the oldest beings in creation are the Sanat Kumaras, four sages who are mind-born sons of Brahma, and who look eternally young.  The Sanat Kumaras once visited Vaikuntha to see their grandfather Vishnu, but when they tried to enter they were &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/15/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;stopped at the gates&lt;/a&gt; by Vishnu's gatekeepers Jaya and Vijaya, who thought they were mere children:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The four boy-sages, who had nothing to cover their bodies but the atmosphere, looked only five years old, even though they were the oldest of all living creatures and had realized the truth of the self. But when the porters, who happened to possess a disposition quite unpalatable to the Lord, saw the sages, they blocked their way with their staffs, despising their glories, although the sages did not deserve such treatment at their hands.  When the Kumāras, although by far the fittest persons, were thus forbidden entrance by the two chief doorkeepers of Śrī Hari while other divinities looked on, their eyes suddenly turned red because of anger due to their great eagerness to see their most beloved master, Śrī Hari, the Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages said: Who are these two persons who have developed such a discordant mentality even though they are posted in the service of the Lord in the highest position and are expected to have developed the same qualities as the Lord? ...  Therefore let us consider how these two contaminated persons should be punished. The punishment should be apt, for thus benefit can eventually be bestowed upon them. Since they find duality in the existence of Vaikuṇṭha life, they are contaminated and should be removed from this place to the material world, where the living entities have three kinds of enemies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Jaya and Vijaya were cursed to be born on Earth.  Vishnu then came to the gates and said &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/16/12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; to the Sanat Kumaras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These servants of Mine have transgressed against you, not knowing the mind of their master. I shall therefore deem it a favor done to Me if you order that, although reaping the fruit of their transgression, they may return to My presence soon and the time of their exile from My abode may expire before long.... O brāhmaṇas, know that the punishment you inflicted on them was originally ordained by Me, and therefore they will fall to a birth in a demoniac family. But they will be firmly united with Me in thought through mental concentration intensified by anger, and they will return to My presence shortly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And he told Jaya and Vijaya, &amp;quot;By practicing the mystic yoga system in anger, you will be cleansed of the sin of disobeying the brāhmaṇas and within a very short time return to Me.&amp;quot;  So they would take births as various enemies of Vishnu, so that they could be killed by Vishnu and quickly return to Vaikuntha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jaya and Vijaya took three births on earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They were born as Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu, the two demon sons of Diti who were killed by Vishnu in his Varaha and Narasimha incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They were born as Ravana and Kumbhakarna and were killed by Vishnu in his incarnation as Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Finally they were born as Shishupala and Dantavakra, who were killed by Vishnu in his incarnation as Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Ravana genuinely had feelings of enmity towards Rama.  But the reason he had such feelings in the first place was that Vishnu gave him those feelings as a way of lessening the length of time he would have to be on Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T02:02:48.047" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2043" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-12T15:40:35.110" Score="12" ViewCount="2216" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, Krishna goes to Duryodhana on behalf of the Pandavas in order to try to negotiate peace and avert the Kurukshetra war.  When he hears that Krishna is coming, Duryodhana hatches a plan to kidnap and imprison Krishna.  But Vidura advises against it, because of how powerful Krishna is.  He &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;recounts&lt;/a&gt; Krishna's great deeds which demonstrate his might:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seekest thou to seize that Kesava by force? While only a child, he slew Putana and two Asuras assuming the shape of birds, and O bull of Bharata's race, he held up the mountains of Govardhana (on his little finger) for protecting the kine (from a continuous rain). He hath also slain Aristha, and Dhenuka and Chanura of great strength, and Aswaraja, and Kansa, the doer of evil. He hath slain Jarasandha, and Vakra, and Sisupala of mighty energy, and Vana in battle, and numerous other kings also have been slain by him. Of immeasurable might, &lt;strong&gt;he vanquished king Varuna and also Pavaka (Agni)&lt;/strong&gt;, and on the occasion of bringing (down from the celestial regions) the (heavenly flower called) Parijata, he defeated the lord of Sachi himself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, when did Krishna fight Varuna (the ocean god) and Agni (the fire god)?  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1991/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, there was an occasion in which Krishna and Arjuna helped Agni in fighting Indra and the gods, and on that occasion Varuna was also on their side, giving Arjuna the Gandiva bow and Krishna the Sudarshana Chakra.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But do Hindu scriptures describe any occasions where Krishna fought against Varuna and Agni?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T11:43:35.150" Title="When did Krishna fight Varuna and Agni?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|agni|varuna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2044" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-12T16:06:36.727" Score="11" ViewCount="1246" Body="&lt;p&gt;We often see lot of pictures of Lord Shiva sitting in the snow clad mountain of Kailasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it represent anything symbolically?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. I'm not interested in the story of how Shiva came to live on Mount Kailasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-04T16:57:14.397" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T09:28:36.493" Title="What is the symbolic meaning behind Lord Shiva sitting in snow clad mountain Kailasa?" Tags="|shiva|symbolism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2045" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-12T16:10:45.587" Score="10" ViewCount="3066" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do some Hindus observe fast during the lunar month of &quot;Shravan&quot;?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What does it signify?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Is it prescribed by the holy texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-12T17:07:13.893" LastActivityDate="2015-02-07T08:47:34.533" Title="Why do some Hindus observe fast during the month of &quot;Shravan&quot;?" Tags="|rituals|tradition|fasting|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2046" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2037" CreationDate="2014-07-12T16:45:18.533" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The fundamental difference between the religions of the West and Hinduism, is that there are two entities in the religions of the West - The Creator and Creation. Hinduism doesn't.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is one religion that is a proponent of the  &quot;Part of the whole&quot; theory. The universe is the &quot;Whole&quot;, and we are part of that &quot;Whole&quot;. So, there is no difference between a human and the universe. We are part of that whole. Our bodies are made up of the same elements (Pancha Bhootas) which the universe is made of. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, human body is made up of 1 billion cells. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can ONE cell say that it was created by the human it belonged to ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do we say that the Cell is the &quot;part of the whole&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in a sense each cell makes the human the WHOLE. Also, the cell lives because it is part of the WHOLE HUMAN, and the WHOLE HUMAN lives because of each cell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if you use the same argument on the HUMAN as a part of the WHOLE universe, the argument is the same. The human being lives because of the Universe, and the universe lives because of the human, and other parts of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or we extend it further and say that &quot;GOD is part of you &quot; . &quot;You are part of God&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if you read this again..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.Rig Veda - prajñānam brahma Wisdom/consciousness is the brahma(highest truth)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.Atharva Veda - ayam ātmā brahma I am this Self is Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.Sama Veda - tat tvam asi You are that(Brahma)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4.Yajur Veda - aham brahmāsmi I am that (Brahma)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It makes more sense.  &quot; You are part of God &quot;  God is part of you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-12T16:45:18.533" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2047" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2039" CreationDate="2014-07-12T17:36:56.020" Score="30" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Was Ravana actually a villain?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, he was. If by villain we mean someone who trades the path of unrighteousness then Ravana was nothing less than a villain:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जप जोग बिरागा तप मख भागा श्रवन सुनइ दससीसा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आपुनु उठि धावइ रहै न पावइ धरि सब घालइ खीसा।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अस भ्रष्ट अचारा भा संसारा धर्म सुनिअ नहि काना।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तेहि बहुबिधि त्रासइ देस निकासइ जो कह बेद पुराना।।  [RCM - 1.182]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ravana would get up and run at once to stop austerity, penance, dispassion, etc. as soon as any talk of it entered in his ears.  Such prevalent was corruption and sinful wrong actions that &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; was no where to be heard of. He would torture in many ways and sent to exile whoever read the Vedas and &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Was Ravana a devotee of Lord Vishnu?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, he was not. He was a devotee, or better a worshiper, of Lord Shiva and Brahma like you have stated. He did this to acquire power and boons which he used to spread terror and havoc on people. No devotee can ever imagine hurting his deity even in his dream, let alone stealing the wife of his deity and fighting with him. The definition of a devotee is someone who thinks in favour of his deity:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;anukulyena krsnanu-silanam bhaktir uttama&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; [BRS - 1.1.11]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Devoid of any personal desires, not tainted with impersonal knowledge and fruitive actions, following of Krishna in favour of Him is known as the best of all devotions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Ravana's actions caused difficulties and hardship for Shri Ram. No devotee can do that. So he was not a devotee of Vishnu, otherwise he wouldn't have developed such an enmity towards His human incarnation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;It is a rare privilege to be killed by the hands of God, Isn't it?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is. Ravana got the privilege which is even rare to get for the saints and sages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;खल मल धाम काम रत रावन। गति पाई जो मुनिबर पाव न।। [RCM - 6.113.5]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - The wicked, sinful, lustful Ravana attained an exalted state even rare and scarce to the sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So now we need to do the thinking. Can any ordinary soul compel and make the the supreme Lord to descend on earth for him? Can any ordinary soul dare to take away &lt;em&gt;Maa&lt;/em&gt; Sita, the wife of Shri Rama, from the Lord Himself? Can any ordinary soul get the privilage of getting killed in the hands of the Lord Himself? The plain answer is, no. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Story behind the scene&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Ravana was no ordinary soul. He was previously one of the two gatekeepers at Vishnu's abode Vaikuntha. Due to stopping the four Sanat kumaras they got cursed and had to take birth in demonic families as the Lord had desired:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lord replied: O brāhmaṇas, know that the punishment you inflicted on them was originally ordained by Me, and therefore they will fall to a birth in a demoniac family. But they will be firmly united with Me in thought through mental concentration intensified by anger, and they will return to My presence shortly. [SB - 3.6.26]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Ravana's activities were of a villain, but it was only to render a pastime for the Lord. So the moral of the story is that, even the greatest enemies of the Lord are nothing but His true devotees. And &lt;strong&gt;Ravana in his life did nothing but devotion to Vishnu in the mode of enmity.&lt;/strong&gt; It is because, due to enmity and anger he always remembered and thought of Shri Rama. And we know thinking of the Lord in any way is nothing but an act of devotion and it causes oneness with Him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kāmaṁ krodhaṁ bhayaṁ sneham aikyaṁ sauhṛdam eva ca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nityaṁ harau vidadhato yānti tan-mayatāṁ hi te&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 10.29.15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Persons who constantly direct their lust, anger, fear, protective affection, feeling of oneness and friendship toward Lord Shri Hari are sure to become absorbed in Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This type of devotion out of anger and fear is known as &lt;em&gt;pratīpa bhakti&lt;/em&gt; (BRS- 2.3.92). But it only suits such powerful personalities like Kamsa, Ravana, Sisupala, etc. who behind the scene are nothing but Vishnu's personal servants and devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-05-21T20:17:13.243" LastActivityDate="2016-05-21T20:17:13.243" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2048" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2049" CreationDate="2014-07-12T19:04:12.440" Score="6" ViewCount="1378" Body="&lt;p&gt;Divine judgement and the concept of the soul going to either heaven or hell based on actions on Earth is present in many religions. But this concept is conspicuously absent in Hinduism - rather rebirth is given more importance. What are the reasons for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="160" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-22T13:46:25.623" LastActivityDate="2016-01-22T13:46:25.623" Title="Why is the concept of Divine judgement not given much importance in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|gods|rebirth|death|afterlife|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2049" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2048" CreationDate="2014-07-12T20:51:19.757" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;But this concept is conspicuously absent in Hinduism&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;Nothing is farther from the truth.&lt;/strong&gt;  The Garuda Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/gpu05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; in great detail how Yama the god of death judges each soul based on Chitragupta's listing of the person's good deeds and bad deeds:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sinful man cries when he hears the mingled wails of &amp;quot;Oh, Oh,&amp;quot; and having heard his cry, those who walk about in the city of Yama....  He, having gone to Chitragupta, reports the good and evil deeds. Then Chitragupta tells it to [Yama] the King of Justice.  The men who are Deniers, O Tārkshya, and always delight in great sin; these are all, as is proper, well-known to the King of Justice.   Nevertheless, he asks Chitragupta about their sins. Chitragupta, although he is all-knowing, enquires of the Śravaṇas....   These report to Chitragupta everything that is said and done, openly and secretly, by men.  These followers of the King of Justice know accurately all the virtues and vices of mankind, and the karma born of mind, speech and body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To the man who pleases them by austerity, charity and truthful speech, they become benevolent, granting heaven and liberation.  Knowing the wicked actions of the sinful, those truth-speakers, relating them before the King of Justice, become dispensers of misery&lt;/strong&gt;....  Then, by command of Yama, Chitragupta speaks to all those sinners, who are crying, and bewailing their karmas, &amp;quot;O, you sinners, evil-doers, polluted with egoism, injudicious, why ever did you commit sin?&amp;quot;  ...  The King of Justice, seeing them standing motionless like thieves, has fitting punishment ordered for the sinful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the cruel messengers, having beaten them, say, &amp;quot;Go along, you sinner, to the very dreadful terrifying hells.&amp;quot; ... &amp;quot;Oh, forgive my faults&amp;quot; -- with suppliant hands, those most. sinful people, helpless, implore the messengers.... &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Forgiveness of faults is done by the Lord Hari Īśwara&lt;/strong&gt;. We only punish miscreants, as we are ordered.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So make sure you pray to Lord Hari (Vishnu)!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, this doesn't mean there's no reincarnation; later on the Garuda Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/gpu07.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;Those who are very sinful, having passed through dreadful hells produced by their great sins, are born here upon the exhaustion of their karma.&amp;quot;  And similarly concerning good people it &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/gpu17.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;The righteous man having enjoyed heaven, is born in a stainless family.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You should also know that the goal isn't ultimately to enjoy Devaloka (heaven) or to be reincarnated as something good.  Rather, the goal of existence is to escape this Samsara, this cycle of birth, death, reward and punishment in the afterlife, etc. and to attain Moksha, or union with the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-23T15:01:59.903" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2050" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2052" CreationDate="2014-07-12T21:18:23.097" Score="24" ViewCount="13006" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that Hindu texts do mention about demonic beings like Rakshasas. But is there any reference to ghosts in Vedas?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If ghosts are just 'atman' without bodies, don't they reincarnate?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T03:52:19.567" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T23:40:22.490" Title="Do ghosts and spirits exist in Hindu beliefs?" Tags="|belief|ghosts|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2052" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2050" CreationDate="2014-07-13T05:52:37.490" Score="24" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, they do exist in Hindu beliefs. Like people worship gods, there are also people and occult practitioners who worship ghosts. It is evident from statements like below in the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yajante sāttvikā devān yakṣa-rakṣāṁsi rājasāḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;pretān bhūta-gaṇāṁś cānye yajante tāmasā janāḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 17.4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods; those in the mode of passion worship the demons; and those in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yānti deva-vratā devān pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā yānti mad-yājino ’pi mām&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.25]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Thos who worship gods go to the gods; worshippers of forefathers go to the &lt;em&gt;pitru loka&lt;/em&gt;; to the ghosts go those who worship ghosts, and those who worship Me come to Me alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ghosts do reincarnate, but a &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; becomes a ghost for multiple reasons and until he obtains a womb for rebirth he will have to wander as a ghost. Depending upon his karma and spiritual activity the length he stays as a ghost can vary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Some more info:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a person dies then he becomes a &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt; (Ghost). Generally this phase is temporary and as soon as the funeral rites are over, the &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt; state is over and the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; then gets the status of Pitru (manes or forefathers). However, if the funeral rites are not duly performed or the death and actions of the person is not good then he may get stuck in the limbo or &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt; phase:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;pāpakarmaratā ye vai pūrvakarmavaśānugāḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;jāyante te mṛtāḥ pretāstāñchṛṇuṣva vadāmyaham&lt;/em&gt; [GP - 2.22.3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;He who is indulged in sinful activities goes to become a &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt; after death; that I am telling you please listen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;svaiḥ svaistu karmabhiḥ prāptaṃ pretatvaṃ hi dvijottama&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;paradroharatāḥ sarve pāpamṛtyuvaśaṃ gatāḥ&lt;/em&gt; [GP - 2.22.33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;O best among the twice-borns (&lt;em&gt;dvijottama&lt;/em&gt;), one certainly attains the state of &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt; due to ones own actions. All those who are engaged in offence or enmity (&lt;em&gt;droha&lt;/em&gt;) toward others, under the influence of sin and death go  on to be come ghosts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That chapter then describes many such activities doing which one goes into the &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt; state for certain. Basically if one commits sins, kills other, causes pain to elders, brother, sister etc. without any reason, who has forsaken rememberance of Vishnu, who doesn't perform fire sacrifices, etc. obtains the state of &lt;em&gt;pretatva&lt;/em&gt; (ghost hood).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T05:23:13.503" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2053" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2055" CreationDate="2014-07-13T07:39:56.970" Score="18" ViewCount="9579" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read bhagavad gita where krishna mentions maya to be a illusion and everything in this is world is made of maya. What I don't understand is if everything is made up of maya then why is krishna telling it, isn't that too maya ? and what about the moksha, isn't that also a delusion? Why should I still try to attain moksha if it is unreal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="199" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-26T12:12:44.883" LastActivityDate="2022-03-23T11:26:58.937" Title="What is maya and why is it there?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2055" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2053" CreationDate="2014-07-13T12:19:43.743" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Everything that we see and don't see, the whole of our material existence is made up of two primary components, &lt;em&gt;prakriti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;saṃyuktametatkṣaramakṣaraṃ ca vyaktāvyaktaṃ bharate viśvamīśaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Sve. Up. - 1.8]   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;-By the combination of perishable (&lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;) and imperishable (&lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt;), the lord fills the whole world with the manifest and unmanifest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yāvat sañjāyate kiñcit sattvaṁ sthāvara-jaṅgamam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kṣetra-kṣetrajña-saṁyogāt tad viddhi bharatarṣabha&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 13.27]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O chief of the Bhāratas, know that whatever you see in existence, both the moving and the nonmoving, is only a combination of the ﬁeld of activities (&lt;em&gt;prakriti&lt;/em&gt;) and the knower of the ﬁeld (&lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of these two, prakruti is the inert and insentient part and purusha is the active sentient part. So all lifeless matter that we see starting from sand grains to matter in our bodies is the product of prakruti. But the other part known as Purusha is what gives life to matter. So we living beings are a marveolous fusion of prakruti and purusha. And it is this prakruti which is also known as maya, avidya (ignorance), etc.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;māyāṃ tu prakṛtiṃ vidyānmāyinaṃ ca maheśvaram&lt;/em&gt; [Sve. Up. - 4.10]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Know that &lt;em&gt;prakriti&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; itself and God is the lord of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the thing regarding &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; is that, due to its influence the soul which is actually free finds itself in bondage. Mind is the product of prakriti, hence it naturally stays under the influence of the threefold material natures known as &lt;em&gt;satva&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;. These threefold nature arise due to &lt;em&gt;prakriti&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bikārāṃśca guṇāṃścaiva biddhi prakṛtisambhavān&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 13.20]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -Know that material nature and transformations arise from &lt;em&gt;prakriti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And because the mind of a person naturally stays under its influence, he does many kinds of material activities and gets entangled and bound in the &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;. Due to his actions under the influence of God's &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; he keeps on wandering through different bodies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 18.61]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Arjuna, God resides in the heart of every being and through His &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; He is making them all wander as if they are seated on a machine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, beyond this material existence there exists spiritual existence entering where one doesn't have to return to this material world of pain and suffering again:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yaṁ prāpya na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 8.21]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -That is my supreme abode, attaining which, one doesn't have to come back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So because &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is primarily spiritual in nature but has accepted this material mode of existence due to ignorance (maya), Shri Kirshna instructs to get rid of it and try for liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Why does &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; exist?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It exists because God exists. Just like heat and light are inherent properties of fire, &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; is an inherent energy potential of God. Hence, it will always exist. So no one can destroy it completely, but can get rid of it for himself. So Shri Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 7.14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  This &lt;strong&gt;divine energy of Mine&lt;/strong&gt;, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difﬁcult to overcome. But those who approach (surrender) to Me alone, cross beyond it easily .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the answers to your questions are as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The whole world is not an illusion. Illusion means, unreal. But the world is not unreal. &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; is just one aspect of the existence, not whole of the existence. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna is telling about it, because ignorance is the foremost form of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;. By listening and understanding about the truth one gains knowledge which helps him destroy ignorance and get rid of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;So &lt;em&gt;moskha&lt;/em&gt; is not a delusion, it is the process or activity of getting rid of this material world and the endless circle of births and deaths. So &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; in one sense is the jiva's returning to its original home, back to the Godhead. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; is not unreal, hence you should try to attain it. Even just by acquiring the right knowledge and realizing it you will feel more happiness and peace here on this earth, what to speak of the bliss of liberation!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus I have briefly answered your questions. But the subject matter is such that it can occupy a whole book. But to summarize all, I end the answer with the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kṣaraṃ pradhānamamṛtākṣaraṃ haraḥ kṣarātmānāvīśate deva ekaḥ&#xA;  tasyābhidhyānādyojanāttattvabhāvādbhūyaścānte viśvamāyānivṛttiḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Sve. Up. - 1.10] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Primordial matter (&lt;em&gt;pradhana&lt;/em&gt; / &lt;em&gt;prakriti&lt;/em&gt;) is perishable. Immortal and imperishable is the soul. Both over the perishable and the soul rules one God. By meditating upon Him, by uniting with Him, and by becoming one with Him at the end one gets rid of all kinds of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-17T05:57:15.523" LastActivityDate="2014-07-17T05:57:15.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2056" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-13T18:04:01.247" Score="7" ViewCount="352" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the Hindu temples are maintained by Priests. What are the qualifications that one need to become a priest? What are the duties of the priests towards the temple and god (if any)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastActivityDate="2014-08-21T04:48:29.243" Title="Importance of Priests in temples" Tags="|worship|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2057" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2062" CreationDate="2014-07-13T18:14:18.640" Score="10" ViewCount="2331" Body="&lt;p&gt;In all of the temples that I have seen, only males serve as priests. I don't remember seeing any women priestesses. Though there are a few famous women devotees like Aandaal, Meera Bai, etc. there are seldom any women priestesses in our temples. Even in temples dedicated to &lt;em&gt;Shakthi&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Kaali&lt;/em&gt; only males serve as priests (as far as I know). Why are women restricted from priesthood?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T01:09:08.493" LastActivityDate="2023-09-27T07:59:05.710" Title="Can women be priestesses?" Tags="|temple|women|gender|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2058" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-13T18:28:18.150" Score="9" ViewCount="439" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindus and Buddhists celebrate Guru Purnima every year. What is the significance of celebrating Guru Purnima? Are there any specific rituals that are expected to be done during the day? Also, when does it occur?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T20:55:04.960" Title="Guru Purnima celebration" Tags="|rituals|festivals|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2059" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2002" CreationDate="2014-07-13T22:43:13.973" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a practicing Hindu and Brahmin with a reasonable knowledge of Ramayana and some of its different versions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know meat eating is not restricted  to any Hindu Caste, while in general South Indian Brahmins practice vegetarianism. Bengali Brahmins eat fish, Kashmiri Brahmins eat meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further Rama is a Kshatriya(Warrior Class) son of King Dasaratha. Hence I do not see any reason why he should be a vegetarian. Hence in my opinion, there is no issue whether he is vegetarian or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="434" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-03T03:34:05.230" LastActivityDate="2015-03-03T03:34:05.230" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2060" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8" CreationDate="2014-07-14T04:22:43.333" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;To add to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/42/467&quot;&gt;@cheenbabes answer&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is why women were not allowed to perform any rituals:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Puja should be done only with Sattva dominant body and mind&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the Menstruation period, there is &quot;Rajas&quot; nature dominant in female body (high emotional activity).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T08:52:28.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2061" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2058" CreationDate="2014-07-14T04:32:48.550" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;To excel in any field a learnt &amp;amp; experienced person is required and the one who teaches &amp;amp; guides you may be termed as guru where as the one who is self realized and can set you from cycle of life and death is spiritual guru or sadguru. Guru can appear to be an ordinary individual to all. He can be understood and experienced only by His blessings. He is neutral, He don't want any worldly things, He is self sufficient. He has become equal to bramha, the oneness. So the disciples worship and render dedicated service to his Guru to gain knowledge and liberation! Guru has infinite forms, Guru takes many bodies and descend to earth and by each form He preaches a specific (bhakthi/karma/gnana/..) to each of His follower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Purnima&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Guru purnima&lt;/a&gt; is Guru worship day. One has to remember the Guru parampara/lineage from parabramha to His Guru. Guru pada puja or paduka puja (worshiping Guru's holy feet. If Guru is far or has left His body, His footware is worshiped) is done. It falls on the day of full moon, Purnima, in the month of Ashadh (June–July) of the Shaka Samvat, Indian national calendar and Hindu calendar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-11T06:22:31.687" LastActivityDate="2014-11-11T06:22:31.687" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2062" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2057" CreationDate="2014-07-14T04:37:22.877" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Right from the Vedic times till this date, women are not prohibited from learning vedas. There have been many women &lt;strong&gt;purohits (priests who have expertise in rituals outside of temples)&lt;/strong&gt; in the past and present. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However we rarely encounter women &lt;strong&gt;pujaris (temple priests)&lt;/strong&gt; because of the following physiological and sociological reasons:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Puja should be done only with Sattva dominant body and mind&#xA;During the menstruation period, there is &quot;Rajas&quot; nature dominant in female body (high emotional activity).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to this, on a women may not be able to perform temple duties on 4-5 days per month.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Naturally it becomes difficult to find a replacement priest for just 4-5 days&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Also, not to forget that during pregnancy too, a woman would be unable to carry out daily rituals.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T22:47:51.033" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T22:47:51.033" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2064" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2067" CreationDate="2014-07-14T05:02:39.323" Score="11" ViewCount="5674" Body="&lt;p&gt;There have been many accounts as to who actually was the father of goddess Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Contrary to what Valmiki's Ramayana says, some of them states that Sita was Ravana's first child whom he abandoned; when it was prophesized that his first child will destroy him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to another version; Sita was the reincarnation of Vedavati (the learned woman) who cursed Ravana when he misbehaved with her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who was goddess Sita's father?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why are there multiple versions on Sita's birth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which one should we believe in?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-06T21:05:32.737" LastActivityDate="2019-05-26T05:39:27.600" Title="Who was goddess Sita's father? Why are there multiple stories? Which one should we believe?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|sita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2065" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-14T05:12:34.803" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-07-14T05:12:34.803" LastActivityDate="2014-07-14T05:12:34.803" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2066" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-14T05:12:34.803" Score="0" Body="Maharishi Vashishtha is one of the Saptarishis (seven great Rishis) in the seventh, i.e. the present Manvantara, or age of Manu. He was also the Guru of Shri Rama as exemplified in the text Yoga Vashishtha." OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T20:20:19.980" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T20:20:19.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2067" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2064" CreationDate="2014-07-14T07:26:39.553" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;We should go by the the Ramayana. If it says Janaka is the father, then we should believe that. However, Ramayana says, King Janaka found Sita in a furrow buried under the earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ मे कृषतः क्षेत्रम् लांगलात् उत्थिता मम&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  क्षेत्रम् शोधयता लब्ध्वा नाम्ना सीता इति विश्रुता | [VR - 1.66.13,14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Later, when I was ploughing the ritual field then raised by the plough [from the furrow is a baby girl... since she is] gained while consecrating the ritual-field, she is named as Seetha, and thus she is renowned&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as there are no direct description of how Sita appeared under earth, other texts add up how that furrow ended up there. For example, the Sanghadasa's &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_in_Jainism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jaina version of Ramayana&lt;/a&gt; says Sita was actually daughter of Ravana. When he heard from the astrologer that the first child would ruin his lineage, he gave her up and his men buried her in a furrow under the ground where Janaka later found her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Vedavati, as per Skanda Puran she became the &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; Sita whom Ravan kidnapped. Vedavati after giving up her life in fire due to Ravana's ill behaviour became Swaha, the wife of Agni. And when Ravana tried to kidnap Sita, it was Swaha who actually took the place of Her. So Vedavati was not the actual Sita, but the &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, there are many other versions and stories. But when no authentic information is available, we should consider Janaka as Maa Sita's father. Because at the least, Janaka raised Her and as a parent wedded Her to Shri Rama. Even Mahabharat describes Sita as Janaka's daughter and says She was made by a rishi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विदेहराजॊ जनकः सीता तस्यात्मजा बिभॊ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यां चकार सवयं तवष्टा रामस्य महिषीं परियाम [MB - 3.258.9]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Janaka was the king of Videha. Sita was his daughter. &lt;em&gt;Rishi&lt;/em&gt; Twashta had created Her desiring to maker Her the beloved wife of Shri Rama&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there are many different stories and reasons. We just need to believe what the prominent texts like Ramayana and Mahabharat say.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedavati#Prophecy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedavati&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-07-14T08:15:41.677" LastActivityDate="2014-07-14T08:15:41.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2068" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-14T08:41:11.690" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganesha, and also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka. The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana (Sanskrit: गण; IAST: gaṇa), meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha (Sanskrit: ईश; IAST: īśa), meaning lord or master. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big belly. This statue has four arms, which is common in depictions of Ganesha. He holds his own broken tusk in his lower-right hand and holds a delicacy, which he samples with his trunk, in his lower-left hand. The motif of Ganesha turning his trunk sharply to his left to taste a sweet in his lower-left hand is a particularly archaic feature. Ganesha typically holds an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a pasha (noose) in the other upper arm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning. In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devotees offer Ganesha sweets such as modaka and small sweet balls. He is often shown carrying a bowl of sweets, called a modakapātra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ganesha&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-14T07:57:37.317" LastActivityDate="2014-08-14T07:57:37.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2069" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-14T08:41:11.690" Score="0" Body="Ganesha is the elephant headed god and the elder son of Lord Shiva. He was created by Goddess Parvati to guard her place." OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-14T19:15:32.317" LastActivityDate="2014-07-14T19:15:32.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2070" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-14T08:47:41.067" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavata Purana which is also famously known as Srimad Bhagavatam and Srimad Bhagavata Maha Purana is one of the 18 major Puranas, written by Sage Vyasa. Its main theme is devotion towards Lord Vishnu and his various incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is composed of 12 skandhas and 18000 verses. Amongst the 12 skandhas, the 10th skandha is the longest and the most famous. It contains the &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_vishhnu/gopigeeta.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gopi Geeta&lt;/a&gt;, the rasa-lila, and many other incidents related to the youthful years of Lord Krishna.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was narrated to Sage Shukha, by Sage Vyasa; to Sage Shaunaka (and others) by Sage Suta; to King Parikshit by Sage Shukha.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article on Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavata.org&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;English translation of Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4459" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-01-03T09:24:58.793" LastActivityDate="2020-01-03T09:24:58.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2071" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-14T08:47:41.067" Score="0" Body="Bhāgavata Purāṇa, also known as Śrīmad Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Śrīmad Bhāgavataṃ and Bhāgavata is one of the major puranic texts of Hinduism with its focus on bhakti towards Vishnu." OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-14T10:55:56.843" LastActivityDate="2014-07-14T10:55:56.843" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2072" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-14T08:49:38.860" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-07-14T08:49:38.860" LastActivityDate="2014-07-14T08:49:38.860" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2073" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-14T08:49:38.860" Score="0" Body="For questions related to the various divisions and sub-divisions of Hinduism like Shaivism, Vaishnavism, etc." OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-14T19:15:09.053" LastActivityDate="2014-07-14T19:15:09.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2074" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-14T08:59:37.400" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-07-14T08:59:37.400" LastActivityDate="2014-07-14T08:59:37.400" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2075" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-14T08:59:37.400" Score="0" Body="The Shiva Lingam is a representation of Lord Shiva for worship in temples. It also represents the infinite nature of Lord Shiva." OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-14T19:15:00.010" LastActivityDate="2014-07-14T19:15:00.010" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2076" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-14T09:01:31.737" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is a common perception that there is no difference between a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; and  an  &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt;  and  both  words  are  commonly  translated  as  ‘soul’&lt;/strong&gt;. But there is a very significant difference between the two.&#xA;Atma is eternal and pure self-luminous consciousness which has no limitations or conditioning. Jiva, on the other hand, denotes an atma when it becomes conditioned under the influence of avidya or karma and falsely identifies itself with prakriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All jivas are atmas but all atmas are not necessarily jivas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. Jiva is  a  complex  entity  with  atma  at  its  core  and  many  conditioning layers  superimposed  on  it  due  to  avidya.  A  conditioned  jiva  forgets its true nature as pure consciousness and wrongly thinks that it is the physical  body,  manas  and  buddhi.  It  superimposes  the characteristics  of  body  such  as  gender,  old  age,  sickness,  tallness, fatness upon itself and becomes a samsara-bound jiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Types of Jivas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are three categories of jivas:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;nitya suri&lt;/strong&gt; — These are the members of the Divine Ministering Assembly which, although being jivas, have never been subjected to transmigration. They are the eternal servants who make up the entourage of the Lord. (eg. Ananta, Garuda, Vishvaksena and others.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;mukta&lt;/strong&gt; — Those jivas that have finally been liberated from the cycle of reincarnation after going through a myriad of births and which are now residing in the Supreme Realm (paramapada) in eternal communion with Sriman Narayana enjoying the fullness of Grace and the divine bliss.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;baddha&lt;/strong&gt; — Those jivas that are temporarily bound by karma which causes them to transmigrate through different bodies in the various realms of existence of which there are seven. These realms of existence are called Lokas and for the purpose of working through their Karma, the jivas incarnate in 6 types of bodies;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a. animal tiryak&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;b. human manushya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;c. gods deva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;d. antigods asura&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e. hungry ghost preta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;f. Hell-being naraki&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are six principle negative emotions associated with embodiment. Each one of these categories of sentient beings is dominated by one of these negative emotions. Animals are characterised by ignorance (moha), humans are characterised by desire (kama). The gods are characterised by pride (mada). The antigods are characterised by jealousy (matsarya), the hungry ghosts are characterised by greed (lobha) and the hell-beings are characterised by anger or resentment (krodha). Although these are taught to be actual physical incarnated states we can perceive their existence in the realm of human psychology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although it is popularly believed and taught that after a human birth one can regress and incarnate in an animal body, this is not necessarily the case. The animals do not have a moral sense of right and wrong and are governed by their instincts. The spiritual progress of animals is a passive not an active one and therefore they cannot actively participate in the achievement of Liberation (Moksha). They simply have a natural evolution from a lower to a higher life form. Whereas in the human form one has the ability to think and to undertake the entire responsibility for one’s own spiritual evolution. Virtuous and pious action (punya) and spiritual study &amp;amp; wisdom (jñanam) lead to progression and evolution but sinful action (papam) and spiritual ignorance (ajñanam) lead to rebirth in lower human species, and certainly one can see that there are certain human beings that are very much on a par with or lower th!an animals in their condition and behaviour!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those baddhas who have begun the journey back to Godhead can further be divided into another two groups:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kevalas&lt;/strong&gt; - or the super jñanis (wise-ones) who are the yogis who pursue the path of self-realisation/enlightenment alone and seek total isolation of the Self such as the Jains or the transcending of Self, such as the Theravadan Buddhists; as their ultimate goal through the practice of meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mumukshus&lt;/strong&gt; - those jivas who have taken to the spiritual path and are seeking communion with the Lord either through Bhakti - devotion or sharanagati - the path of self surrender.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="28213" LastEditDate="2023-01-21T10:34:28.313" LastActivityDate="2023-01-21T10:34:28.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2077" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-14T09:01:31.737" Score="0" Body="Also known as jivatma(Sanskrit: &quot;the embodied atman&quot;) or the Individual Self. Jiva, denotes an atma when it becomes conditioned under the influence of avidya-maya or karma and falsely identifies itself with prakriti." OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="28213" LastEditDate="2023-01-21T10:34:57.653" LastActivityDate="2023-01-21T10:34:57.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2078" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2057" CreationDate="2014-07-14T14:06:10.960" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Women/Girl should not be a &lt;strong&gt;Priestess&lt;/strong&gt; because of 2 reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;They are referred to be &quot;Rajaswale&quot;. During the period of &quot;Rutu Chakra&quot; (menstrual cycle) they are forbidden to enter temples (I don't know the actual reason).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Since the Priests job is to chant &lt;em&gt;Mantras&lt;/em&gt;. All &lt;em&gt;Mantras&lt;/em&gt; need to be pronounced in an order of increasing and decreasing voice (swara) sometimes need to hold breath to complete sentence perfectly, otherwise the result will be nil (or some miss spell will give bad results). This will produce pressure on the stomach (&lt;em&gt;Nabhi&lt;/em&gt;) at same location where women/girls will have &lt;strong&gt;Uterus&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Garbha Kosha&lt;/em&gt;). If this pressure applied continuously (priests need to chant daily) on it, this may lead to some pregnancy issues in them. Which is not good.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="364" LastActivityDate="2014-07-14T14:06:10.960" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2079" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="68" CreationDate="2014-07-14T15:01:17.277" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Carvaka is not part of Sanatana Dharma. He was just a materialistic philosopher who happened to exist a long time ago. He rejected the authority of any divine scripture and the soul. So he had teachings in opposition to Vedic authority. You can think of him as a forefather of Richard Dawkins style philosophers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="242" LastActivityDate="2014-07-14T15:01:17.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2080" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2086" CreationDate="2014-07-14T15:10:23.960" Score="36" ViewCount="15530" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any temples for the following three avatars of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matsya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kurma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, please share some information about some popular temples for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-24T06:31:59.777" LastActivityDate="2020-04-29T07:47:35.087" Title="Are there any temples for Matsya, Kurma, and Varaha avatars?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|avatars|varaha|matsya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2082" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2084" CreationDate="2014-07-14T15:22:34.497" Score="16" ViewCount="29869" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind the Lord Krishna stealing clothes of Gopikas and give them back after seeing their nudity ? What is the meaning of this story? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastActivityDate="2018-09-09T08:17:16.867" Title="Why did Krishna steal the Gopikas clothes from the tree when they were bathing in the little river?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2083" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2115" CreationDate="2014-07-15T04:15:35.047" Score="7" ViewCount="418" Body="&lt;p&gt;During a trip to Southern India one man was chanting prayers with his (plastic) shoes on, because he was travelling. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some &lt;em&gt;local brahmin&lt;/em&gt; strongly reprimanded him for his misconduct and disrespect during a prayer. He said the pilgrim has no idea what the prayer is, and is totally ignorant etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was all happening on an empty street early in the morning, not in the temple, so &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/639/why-do-hindus-remove-their-footwear-before-entering-temples&quot;&gt;the answers here&lt;/a&gt; does not answer my question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The pilgrim was a westerner. Probably he was chanting &quot;Hare Krishna&quot; on beads. I didn't hear much, but he was relaxed before and then became unsettled, took off his shoes and carried them in hand. So in what way does shoes affect a person while he is praying?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-07-16T21:32:10.643" Title="How do shoes affect prayers? Are they prohibited?" Tags="|prayer|dress|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2084" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2082" CreationDate="2014-07-15T04:42:00.343" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was just a pastime of Lord Shri Krishna to test and teach the &lt;em&gt;gopis&lt;/em&gt; a lesson. The &lt;em&gt;gopis&lt;/em&gt; loved Shri Krishna very much and desiring to obtain Him as their husband they performed &lt;em&gt;Kātyāyanī&lt;/em&gt; (one from of &lt;em&gt;maa&lt;/em&gt; Durga) &lt;em&gt;vrat&lt;/em&gt; for a month. On the final day of the &lt;em&gt;vrat&lt;/em&gt; finishing their &lt;em&gt;puja&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;gopis&lt;/em&gt; went to Yamuna for bathing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;evaṃ purṇe ca māse ca samaptidivase tathā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  snātuṃ prajagmugārpyaśca vastrāṇyādhyāya tattaṭe&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus after the passing of one month, on the day of the completion, the &lt;em&gt;gopis&lt;/em&gt; went to Yamuna for bathing carrying with them clothes, jewels, and many other things. [BVP - 4.27.8,9]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a sportive mood they put their garments on the shore and went into the river without clothes. However, entering into water without clothes is offensive to &lt;em&gt;varuna&lt;/em&gt; (the god of water). So to teach them a lesson, Shri Krishna and their friends took their clothes and hid at a distance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vastrāṇādāya te sarve tasthurekatra dūrataḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śataśaḥ punjikāstatra sthāpayāmāsurunpukhā&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 4.27.18] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Collecting the garments they went away and hid at a distance. Thus they gathered and created a heap of hundreds of clothes there. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Shri Krishna told the &lt;em&gt;gopis&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;saṃkalpite vratāha ca māse magalakarmaṇi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yūyaṃ nagnā: kathaṃ toye vratāṃgahanikārikāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vrate tu nagnā yāsnātitāṃ  ruṣṭovaruṇaḥsvayaṃ&lt;/em&gt;  [BVP - 4.27.21,23]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   You have vowed to observe the auspicious &lt;em&gt;vrat&lt;/em&gt; for one month. Then how are you bathing in the water naked  which is destroyer of the fruits of the &lt;em&gt;vrat&lt;/em&gt;? Varuna (god of water )himself gets angry on him/her who baths naked in the water during the &lt;em&gt;vrat&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When &lt;em&gt;gopis&lt;/em&gt; found out that Shri Krishna and His friends had taken their clothes, they requested Shri Krishna to give them back:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Śyāmasundara, we are Your maidservants and must do whatever You say. But give us back our clothing. You know what the religious principles are, and if You don’t give us our clothes we will have to tell the king. Please! [SB - 10.22.15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, to test their surrenderness  Shri Krishna spoke them as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: If you girls are actually My maidservants, and if you will really do what I say, then come here with your innocent smiles and let each girl pick out her clothes. If you don’t do what I say, I won’t give them back to you. And even if the king becomes angry, what can he do? [SB - 10.22.16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the &lt;em&gt;gopis&lt;/em&gt; did as Shri Krishna told them, He returned their clothes. Thus after lovingly teasing and testing the &lt;em&gt;gopis&lt;/em&gt;, the Lord granted their desire and told them that their wishes will be fulfilled:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Go now, girls, and return to Vraja. Your desire is fulfilled, for in My company you will enjoy the coming nights. After all, this was the purpose of your vow to worship goddess Kātyāyanī, O pure-hearted ones. [SB - 10.22.27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-15T05:22:40.627" LastActivityDate="2014-07-15T05:22:40.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2086" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2080" CreationDate="2014-07-15T06:13:26.437" Score="34" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, there are temples for all three.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Matsya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most temples to Matsya are in South India. First of all, there is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://tinyurl.com/nagalapuram&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanarayana Swami Temple&lt;/a&gt; in Nagalapuram, a village in Andhra Pradesh.  Matsya is called Vedanarayana because he rescued the Vedas after the demon Hayagrivasura stole them from Brahma. You can see Matsya on the exterior of the temple (taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://goopuram.blogspot.com/2012/03/sri-vedanarayanaswamy-temple.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1s42A.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then there is the very ancient Rajagopala Swami Temple in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannarkovil&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mannarkovil&lt;/a&gt;, a village in Tamil Nadu which is most famous because of the poems of the Vaishnava saint &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulasekaraazhvaar&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kulashekhara Alwar&lt;/a&gt;.  Ravana's brother &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibhishana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vibhishana&lt;/a&gt; is said to have worshipped Matsya at this location while he was heading back to Lanka after Rama's coronation.  (This would have been right after he lost the Ranganatha statue at Sri Rangam, since Sri Rangam is north of Mannarkovil.)  &lt;a href=&quot;http://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2009/11/kulasekara-perumal-koil-in-mannar-koil.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a depiction of Matsya in the temple:&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/61wv2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kurma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://templeindia.info/kurma-varadaraja-swamy-temple/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the idol of Kurma from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurmai#Temples&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma Varadaraja Swami Temple&lt;/a&gt;, a Pallava-era temple in the village of Kurmai (named after Kurma) in Andhra Pradesh:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8W7Yf.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That idol doesn't look much like a turtle, but the famous Swayambhu (divinely created) idol at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Kurmam#SriKurmam_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Kurmam Temple&lt;/a&gt;, also in Andhra Pradesh, clearly &lt;a href=&quot;http://visakhapatnamtourism.blogspot.com/2009/04/sri-kurmam-temple-srikakulam.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;looks like a turtle&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xug6B.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Varaha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question of Varaha temples is the most interesting, because like Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama, &lt;strong&gt;Varaha is still alive on the earth today&lt;/strong&gt;.  Most people only know about how Varaha defeated the demon Hiranyaksha and retrieved the Earth from the water.  But afterwards he came down and started living on the Earth for the benefit of his devotees, as described in the Venkatachala Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana (page 12 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/13009/3/Chapter1_1-80p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After eulogizing the Lord thus Goddess Earth [Vishnu's wife Bhumidevi] saluted him (falling on his feet.  On seeing her saluting the eyes of The Lord beamed with delight.  He lifted up Goddess Earth with her arms and Embraced her.  Her sniffed the face of [Bhumidevi] and placed her on his left lap.  He then rode on Lord Garuda and went to Vrishabhachala.  The Lord of the Earth was Eulogized by the leading sages beginning with Narada.  On the western bank of Swamipushkarini, honored by all the worlds, remains seated The Lord having the face of Boar.  He is worshipped there by the leading sages, Vaikhanasas (&quot;anchorites&quot;) of great magnificence, noble souls on a par with Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This area near the Swamipushkarini lake came to be known as Adi Varaha Kshetra (the place of the first Varaha), and it has been called the &quot;oldest place on Earth&quot;, because  Varaha has been living there since the beginning of the present Kalpa.  (That's why the present Kalpa is called Shwetavaraha Kalpa - the Kalpa of white Varaha.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this place became even more famous when Lakshmi abandoned Vishnu after being &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_Tirumala#Vaikuntam_deserted&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;kicked by Bhrighu&lt;/a&gt;.  Lakshmi came down to the Earth and started living in Adi Varaha Kshetra, and then Vishnu himself came down there to find her.  He requested permission to stay in that place from Vahara (Vishnu's own incarnation!).  Varaha agreed, but on the condition that anyone who worships Vishnu in Adi Varaha Kshetra must first pay his respects to Varaha.  Not to keep you in suspense, Adi Varaha Kshetra is now called Tirupati, and the story I'm alluding to is the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara#Legend&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;story of Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And to this day, devotees to Vishnu's temple in Tirupati, the world-renowned &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_Venkateswara_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple&lt;/a&gt; located on the southern bank of Swamipushkarini, are supposed to first go and worship Varaha.  Since Varaha lives on the western bank of Pushkarini, a temple was created there for him by Ramunjacharya, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/0ivj&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Venkatachala Itihasamala.  It is the great &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tirumala.org/ptv_tm_varaha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha Swami Temple&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8N3ep.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the next time you go to Tirupati, make sure you go to that temple first.  As the Skanda Purana describes, you might even see a glimpse of Varaha himself running around as a white boar!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-23T11:25:25.667" LastActivityDate="2015-12-23T11:25:25.667" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2087" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="821" CreationDate="2014-07-15T08:47:02.073" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu stays his in his place Vaikunthaloka, just as our bhuloka has oceans Vishnuloka has Ksheerasagara. He stays there according to Puranaprakriya. The ocean where Lakshmi was born is situated in earth. This ocean is in Vaikuntha. The question itself is not right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="438" LastEditorUserId="438" LastEditDate="2014-07-15T09:55:52.443" LastActivityDate="2014-07-15T09:55:52.443" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2088" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2053" CreationDate="2014-07-15T09:35:04.787" Score="4" Body="&lt;h2&gt;&amp;quot;Māyā&amp;quot; means &amp;quot;reality&amp;quot;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can also mean &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;illusion&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;, depending on your viewpoint. Literally, &amp;quot;mā&amp;quot; &amp;quot;yā&amp;quot; — that, which is not. Lord Krišna is the only puruša and īšvara or total enjoyer and controller above all states of existence (BG 4.6, 5.29). For all other, there are basically two states of reality — &lt;strong&gt;yoga māyā&lt;/strong&gt; (BG 7.25) and &lt;strong&gt;mahā māyā&lt;/strong&gt; (BG 7.26-27).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Yoga māyā&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;or parā prakriti facilitates the pastimes of the living entities in the spiritual world in connection with their (our) source (BG 9.13).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Mahā māyā&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;or aparā prakriti covers the full knowledge and constraints to material dualities of sense perception. This isolates those who do not cooperate with their source (BG 9.12).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;#&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the Vedic instructions are about &lt;strong&gt;switching&lt;/strong&gt; your perception of reality from material to transcendental, e.g. Bhagavad-gītā 7.28. The transcendental reality is supposed to be more enjoyable. However, it can still be called illusion, because someone like Nanda babā might think he is the father of Krishna, although actually Krishna is the original source and Nanda is actually His energy. Nonetheless, that relationship is extremely enjoyable for both of them.&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/45hwt.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Nanda Yashoda Krishna&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Other sub-realities&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;can also be created by mystic beings like rākšasas, and people can also bewilder each other. Every woman is supposed to somewhat possess mystic abilities. These illusions can also be called &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;māyā&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;, but they are not so general and permanent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-11-02T17:46:15.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2089" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="125" CreationDate="2014-07-15T09:35:41.290" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Men too have some symbols but it varies according to customs. In brahmins I have watched some sampradayas where brahmacharis wear dhoti without kacche and after marrying they wear dhotis with kacche. I have also watched they start to wear two or more yajnopaveetas after marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="438" LastActivityDate="2014-07-15T09:35:41.290" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2091" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2083" CreationDate="2014-07-15T10:14:48.060" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The idea of prayer in Hinduism is that Humans become one with nature by freeing up with mind and body. By leaving out any form of footwear, the whole human body becomes a good conductor. This allows the body to conduct magnetic flow without hindrance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="444" LastActivityDate="2014-07-15T10:14:48.060" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2092" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-15T12:26:51.920" Score="3" ViewCount="719" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of Gayathri Mantra? On what occasions is this Mantra used? Also, what is the meaning of the Gayathri Mantra? Will be grateful for an explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="460" LastEditDate="2014-07-17T07:56:51.823" LastActivityDate="2020-08-19T06:56:35.807" Title="Significance of Gayathri Mantra" Tags="|prayer|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2093" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-15T13:03:46.170" Score="9" ViewCount="1852" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some major religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism have the &lt;strong&gt;Creation Story&lt;/strong&gt;, which describes how God created the universe, the earth and then the first man and woman, who are regarded as the father and mother of all mankind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Hinduism also have the Creation Story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="292" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-20T19:10:03.827" LastActivityDate="2015-10-20T19:10:03.827" Title="Does Hinduism also have the Creation Story?" Tags="|belief|brahma|creation|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2094" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2100" CreationDate="2014-07-15T13:55:55.910" Score="23" ViewCount="21443" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Ramayana, the Vanara Sena (monkey clan) made a glorious impact and registered its strong presence headed by Lord Hanuman, Vali, and Sugriva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But after that there is no major presence or mark made by this clan. What happened to the clan of mighty warriors of the Vanara Sena after the Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-15T20:03:57.813" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T09:30:33.937" Title="What happened to the Vanara Sena after the Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2095" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2092" CreationDate="2014-07-15T15:17:59.870" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;A typical gāyatrī mantra indicates three things: situation, process and goal. There are many gāyatrī mantras, e.g.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sarvamantra.com/rudra-gayatri-mantra/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rudra gāyatrī&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanatansociety.org/indian_music_and_mantras/mantras_brahma_mantra.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahma gāyatrī&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindudevotionalblog.com/2008/10/narasimha-gayatri-mantra-nrsimha.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nrisimha gāyatrī&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kāma gāyatrī&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sāvitrī mantra and many others...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In all cases the Deity is typically addressed as all three — the surrounding, the uplifter and the ultimate goal. As the result of chanting, you will reach the Deity (&lt;strong&gt;mantra siddhi&lt;/strong&gt;) and receive His blessings. Gāyatrī mantras are supposed to be somewhat secret, so I will not delve on their content in detail. They should be received from an empowered Guru who can ensure your success in chanting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gāyatrī is also a &lt;strong&gt;meter&lt;/strong&gt; of 3 padas (quarters) of 8 syllables each. It is the shortest of all &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_meter&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;meters&lt;/a&gt; (24 syllables), followed by anuštubh (32 syllables), brihati (36 syllables) and others. Being the first of all meters, Krišna claims to be gāyatrī (Bhagavad-gītā 10.35: &lt;em&gt;gāyatrī chandasām aham&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-18T19:46:54.067" LastActivityDate="2014-07-18T19:46:54.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2096" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="29" CreationDate="2014-07-15T17:02:19.657" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Unrelated to newspapers, but in &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad-gītā 2.22&lt;/strong&gt; Krišna also says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vāsāmsi jīrnāni yathā vihāya ... tathā šarīrāni vihāya jīrnāni&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;jīrna&quot; is pretty close in meaning to &quot;&lt;strong&gt;expired&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;, &quot;decayed&quot; and &quot;worn out&quot;, so &lt;strong&gt;Krišna&lt;/strong&gt; used the same word for &lt;strong&gt;death&lt;/strong&gt; 5000 years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastActivityDate="2014-07-15T17:02:19.657" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2097" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2093" CreationDate="2014-07-15T17:11:48.383" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Creation Story&lt;/em&gt; of the universe can be described as a Big Loop which include many nested loop systems. Will start with a loop that actually describes how &lt;strong&gt;Earth&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Creatures&lt;/strong&gt; created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; as all know is &lt;strong&gt;Shrushtikarta&lt;/strong&gt;, means he have the ultimate power to creation. The time of &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; will start after a &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt; is like replacement of &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;. When new person take charge as &lt;strong&gt;Bramha&lt;/strong&gt; he will &lt;em&gt;pray&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; to give powers to make creations. &lt;em&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; will give powers to &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; to create universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Initial stage of the universe will be in the shape of &lt;strong&gt;Golden Egg&lt;/strong&gt; this &lt;em&gt;Egg&lt;/em&gt; is created by &lt;strong&gt;Bramha&lt;/strong&gt;, so &lt;strong&gt;Bramha&lt;/strong&gt; is also called as &lt;strong&gt;Hiranyagarbha&lt;/strong&gt;. This &lt;em&gt;Egg&lt;/em&gt; will split into two parts, top half will become 7 &lt;em&gt;Oordhvalokas&lt;/em&gt; and below part becomes 7 &lt;em&gt;Adharalokas&lt;/em&gt;. This completes first stage of &lt;strong&gt;Srushti&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then comes other creations. Since &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; can't handle everything, he will create few assistants. First &lt;strong&gt;Bramha&lt;/strong&gt; creates 4 sons &lt;em&gt;Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanandana&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Sanatkumara&lt;/em&gt;. But they refused to assist him in his creation process and proceed to be in &lt;em&gt;Bramhacharya&lt;/em&gt; forever. Then &lt;strong&gt;Bramha&lt;/strong&gt; creates 9 sons together they called &lt;em&gt;NavaBramha&lt;/em&gt; and they are, &lt;em&gt;Marichi, Atri, Angirasa, Pulastya, Pulaha, Pratu, Bhrugu, Vasista&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Daksha&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Narada&lt;/em&gt; is considered as &lt;em&gt;Bramha Manasa Putra&lt;/em&gt; but will not take part in &lt;strong&gt;Srushti&lt;/strong&gt;. Then these 9 sons of &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; carried &lt;strong&gt;Srushti&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pratu&lt;/strong&gt; one among nine sons of &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; had assigned with the task to find a suitable place for &lt;strong&gt;Srushti&lt;/strong&gt;. He searched all locations to find a suitable planet. Then he choose planet &lt;em&gt;Earth&lt;/em&gt; to continue &lt;strong&gt;Srushti&lt;/strong&gt;. Because &lt;strong&gt;Pratu&lt;/strong&gt; found this planet, so this planet is named accordingly &lt;strong&gt;Pruthvi&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This process will be continued only when &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; will change. Between this change there will be again small &lt;strong&gt;Srushti&lt;/strong&gt;. There is also a case where &lt;strong&gt;Srushti&lt;/strong&gt; will happen only on earth. This will be at the end of all &lt;em&gt;Yugas&lt;/em&gt;. There are different ways of ending to all creatures on this earth. This depends on how many times all 4 &lt;em&gt;Yugas&lt;/em&gt; repeated. This small ending is called as &lt;em&gt;Pralaya&lt;/em&gt;. In a normal case, &lt;em&gt;Jala Pralaya&lt;/em&gt; will happen. In case of &lt;em&gt;Jala Pralaya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Markandeya Mahamuni&lt;/em&gt; will prepare a big &lt;em&gt;Boat&lt;/em&gt;, big enough to fit all life samples in it. Then he will collect all life samples in it and tie that boat to &lt;em&gt;Mainaka Parvata&lt;/em&gt;. After the end of &lt;em&gt;Jala Pralaya&lt;/em&gt;, he will start the &lt;strong&gt;Srushti&lt;/strong&gt; again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is more to explain but less time. I have just mentioned basics of &lt;strong&gt;Srushti&lt;/strong&gt;. You can find different explanation in different scripts. What I have given is from &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt;. Still there is lot to explain, but I too have less info with me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="364" LastEditorUserId="23" LastEditDate="2014-07-24T13:49:37.060" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T13:49:37.060" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2098" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="954" CreationDate="2014-07-15T17:16:52.070" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पिता रक्षति कौमारे भर्ता रक्षति यौवने। रक्षन्ति स्थविरे पुत्रा न स्त्री स्वातन्त्र्यमर्हति॥ (9.3) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was told by Manusmruthi about women's freedom. This Sanskrit sloka (verse) explains stages of women's life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Koumari - childhood&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yovane - adulthood the third stage is old stage.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user304" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T08:16:26.920" LastActivityDate="2015-03-04T08:16:26.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2099" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2093" CreationDate="2014-07-15T17:33:57.007" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism doesn't have &lt;strong&gt;a creation story&lt;/strong&gt;, it has &lt;strong&gt;a lots of creation stories&lt;/strong&gt;. Creation stories are central to &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puranas&quot;&gt;puranas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, local myths and beliefs. So there are a lot of variations to the stories even between &lt;em&gt;purana&lt;/em&gt; to &lt;em&gt;purana&lt;/em&gt;. But regarding the concept of first man and woman, yes it's also there in Hinduism. They are known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manu_(Hinduism)&quot;&gt;Manu&lt;/a&gt; and Shatarupa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the creation stories are not exactly like that of the other religions where God created the world and the first man and woman just appeared inside it in the sixth day or so. In most of the &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt; the creation process starts from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot;&gt;Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;, from whom arises &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma&quot;&gt;Brahma&lt;/a&gt; and then Brahma creates all other beings. Among all the beings that are created, not all were of the same type. Some were gods, some were demons, some were sages and so on. So Manu was one of the created beings who propagated the human lineage on earth. He even built a boat during a great flood to preserve life on earth. You will find this similar to Noah's ark story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But apart from the stories, scriptures also maintain statements in favour of evolutionary process of creation. For example, the Taitariya Upanishad says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tasmādvā etasmādātmana ākāśaḥ saṃbhūtaḥ ākāśādvāyuḥ vāayoragniḥ agnerāpaḥ  adabhyaḥ pṛthivī  pṛthivyā oṣadhayaḥ oṣadhībhyonnam annātpuruṣaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up. - 2.1]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Verily from this Self (the singularity) arose the space; from space air, from air fire, from fire water, from water earth, from earth minerals, from minerals vegetation and from vegetation man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So because Hinduism doesn't have only one authoritative book, there is no single authoritative creation story. And because creation stories are part of mythology they tend to vary from scripture to scripture at least to some extent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/2/5&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavatam, 2.5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/2/6&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavatam, 2.6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-15T17:33:57.007" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2100" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2094" CreationDate="2014-07-15T21:16:18.543" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Qr0m&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana describes the fate of various Vanaras.  When Rama was told by Yama the god of death that his time on Earth was over, he prepared to depart the Earth by going into the Sarayu river.  And when Sugriva heard about this, he put Vali's son Angada in charge of the Vanara kingdom of Kishkindha and then he and a bunch of other Vanaras went to Ayodhya to join Rama in departing the Earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[M]onkeys assuming shapes at will, bears and Rakshasas [demons] began to assemble there.  Apprised of Rama's determination of going to heaven, monkeys, born of celestially, Rishis and Gandharvas taking Sugriva before them, came there to see Rama.  And they all said: &#xA;  &quot;O Rama, O foremost of men, if thou dost repair to heaven forsaking us all, it will be hurling Yama's rod upon us.&quot; The highly powerful Sugriva too saluting Rama said: &quot;O lord &#xA;  of men, having placed Angada on the throne I have come hither. I have determined upon following thee, O King.&quot; Hearing the words of monkeys, Rama said that their desire &#xA;  would be fulfilled....  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kakuthstha said to Hanuman: &quot;It is settled that thou shalt live forever, do thou, now observe thy promise. As long as my history shall run current in this world do thou at my command live happily.&quot; Being thus addressed by the high-souled Raghava Hanuman &#xA;  attained to great delight and said: — &quot; As long as the sacred theme shall pass current in this world I shall live here carrying out thy commands.&quot; Thereupon he said to the &#xA;  Jambhuvan, Brahma's son, Mainda, Dwrivida and five others in his company: &quot;As long as the Kali Yuga exists do ye all live.&quot; Having thus addressed them all Kakuthstha said to bears and monkeys: &quot;Do ye come all with me.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Sugriva and the Vanaras who came with him departed the Earth along with Rama, except for Hanuman, Jambavan, Mainda, Dvivida, and five other Vanaras (presumably including Nila and Nala), most of whom are still alive today.  And then there was Angada and all the other Vanaras who decided not to go to Ayodhya, who presumably would have lived for an ordinary length of time, but then they would have had descendants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there are lots of references to Vanaras and their kingdom of Kishkindha in the time of Krishna and the Mahabharata: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Among the most famous appearances of a Vanara are Hanuman's encounters with the Pandavas.  The Vana Parva of the Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03145.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; how Hanuman, in the Gandhamadana mountains in the Himalayas, once blocked the path of his brother Bhima (since they're both sons of Vayu the wind god) and then blessed him.  And then there is the story, told in the Bengali version of the Mahabharata at least, of Arjuna meeting Hanuman at Rameshwaram and betting him that he could make a sturdy bridge of arrows; this encounter is said to be responsible for Arjuna putting the flag of Hanuman on his chariot, which is why Arjuna is often called Kapidhwaja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/He9aI.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/56/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; how Krishna was once falsely accused of stealing the Syamantaka gem, and his quest to find it to clear his name.  The gem had fallen into the possession of Jamabavan, who was living In a mountain cave, and Jamabavan gave it to his son to play with.  So Krishna fought Jamabavan to get the gem back.  Jamabavan realized that Krishna was an incarnation of Vishnu, and thus a rebirth of Rama whom Jamabavan had the utmost loyalty to.  So he gave Krishna the Syamantaka gem, and he also gave him his daughter's hand in marriage.  Jamabavan's daughter Jamabavati thus became one of Krishna's eight queens.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata describes how Yudhishtra conducted a Rajasuya Yagna, during which he sent his four brothers in all four directions, and each king they encountered had to either accept the sovereignty of Yudushtra or fight them.  Sahadeva was sent South, and he conquered the Vanara kingdom of Kishindha after a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02030.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;week-long battle with Mainda and Dvivida&lt;/a&gt;, who were ruling it at the time:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The long-armed hero ... marched further to the south. And then he beheld the celebrated caves of Kishkindhya and in that region fought for seven days with the monkey-kings Mainda and Dwivida. Those illustrious kings however, without being tired an the encounter, were gratified with Sahadeva. And joyfully addressing the Kuru prince, they said, &quot;O tiger among the sons of Pandu, go hence, taking with the tribute from us all. Let the mission of the king Yudhishthira the just possessed of great intelligence, be accomplished without hindrance.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Vanara kingdom still existed at the time of the Mahabharata. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note that Sahadeva was the son of one of the Ashvini Kumaras, and Mainda and Dvivida were also sons of the Ashvini Kumaras, so he was fighting his own brothers.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/67/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; how Dvivida wanted to take revenge on Krishna for killing the demon Narakasura, who was for some weird reason friends with Dvivida:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was an ape named Dvivida who was a friend of Narakāsura’s. This powerful Dvivida, the brother of Mainda, had been instructed by King Sugrīva.  To avenge the death of his friend [Naraka], the ape Dvivida ravaged the land, setting fires that burned cities, villages, mines and cowherd dwellings.  Once Dvivida tore up a number of mountains and used them to devastate all the neighboring kingdoms, especially the province of Ānarta, wherein dwelt his friend’s killer, Lord Hari.  Another time he entered the ocean and, with the strength of ten thousand elephants, churned up its water with his arms and thus submerged the coastal regions.  The wicked ape tore down the trees in the hermitages of exalted sages and contaminated their sacrificial fires with his feces and urine.  Just as a wasp imprisons smaller insects, he arrogantly threw both men and women into caves in a mountain valley and sealed the caves shut with boulders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally Dvivida harassed a group of young women who were with Krishna's brother Balarama, so Balarama &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/67/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;killed him after an epic battle&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Balarāma saw the ape’s rude behavior and thought of the disruptions he had created in the surrounding kingdoms. Thus the Lord angrily took up His club and His plow weapon, having decided to put His enemy to death.  Mighty Dvivida also came forward to do battle....   Dvivida, the most powerful of apes, now clenched his fists at the end of his palm-tree-sized arms, came before Lord Balarāma and beat his fists against the Lord’s body.  The furious Lord of the Yādavas then threw aside His club and plow and with His bare hands hammered a blow upon Dvivida’s collarbone. The ape collapsed, vomiting blood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CNZNA.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-01-19T15:46:30.253" LastActivityDate="2015-01-19T15:46:30.253" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2102" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1975" CreationDate="2014-07-16T05:26:11.607" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you get reference for &quot;Yogavasisth&quot; then, you found that there is no birth or death its only thought and what we think.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In one example from this book, one person live 3 or I think 7 life within just only in thought in which one is 20 years long, other is 70 year long, and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What &quot;Yogavasisth&quot; tells is, All is just thought of yours when your thought come to Sunya there where no life and no death. If you read books related with &quot;Raman Mahrshi&quot; you find more about this point and that is known as &quot;Adveyt wad&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-24T09:18:10.760" LastActivityDate="2015-02-24T09:18:10.760" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2103" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2116" CreationDate="2014-07-16T06:54:21.603" Score="15" ViewCount="1092" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did Lord Ganesha get a mouse as his vehicle? Is there a story behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And what does the mouse signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2019-08-06T17:01:24.773" LastActivityDate="2019-08-06T17:01:24.773" Title="Why does Lord Ganesha have a mouse as his vehicle?" Tags="|puranas|ganesha|symbolism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2105" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="818" CreationDate="2014-07-16T10:40:00.677" Score="26" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shankara never considered Buddhists as serious threat for mainstream Hinduism or its Philosophical thoughts. In his Magnum opus Sutra Bhashya (the work which also has one of its objectives as para-paksha-khandana [refuting other thoughts with aid of anubhava and yukti]) he has regarded Sankhyas as pradhānamalla (cheif opponent) (Sū. Bhā. 1.4.28) with whom defeated all others will be defeated. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shankara and Vasubandhu lived nearly 200 years apart. Vasubandhu lived in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iep.utm.edu/vasubandhu/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;5th century&lt;/a&gt; . So no chance of any discussion or conversion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2a. Shankara in his Sutra Bhashya 2.2.28 discusses a kaarika (shloka) of Diṅnāga who is a Shishya of Vasubandhu. He lived in 5th Century.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2b. Shankara also discusses about Gunamati (Sū. Bhā. 2.2.22) who lived in 7 th century.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaita is not mere intellectual speculation, It has to understood by Guru who has knowledge and expertise in teaching of Real-I which is encompassing even the self-identity (I) (vykatitva) and world. With this aspect in mind: duality, idols, puja (symbols) are all just expression of Self for a Atmajnani and for a Sadhaka it is a technique to revisit his own self. Shankara never disowned murti-puja or any sadhanas. Besides he emphasizes all necessary sadhanas according to ones maturity level. Refer (Sū. Bhā. 3.4.26) and through out his works.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="438" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-23T09:37:12.407" LastActivityDate="2017-11-23T09:37:12.407" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2106" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2111" CreationDate="2014-07-16T11:03:36.320" Score="14" ViewCount="5345" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know at the end of Ramayana, Lord Rama and Lakshmana separated. But what is the reason for that? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-22T13:00:54.607" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T06:17:12.890" Title="Why did Lord Rama and Lakshmana separate?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2107" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2106" CreationDate="2014-07-16T12:25:11.220" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can't call it a separation. Rama abandons Lakshmana. He says abandoning good people is as good as killing them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विसर्जये त्वां सौमित्रे मा भूद् धर्मविपर्ययः । &lt;br&gt; त्यागो वधो वा&#xA;  विहितः साधूनां ह्युभयं समम् ॥ १३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Story: While Rama is having a secret meeting with Devatas, for it to be uninterrupted, he gives this responsibility to Lakshmana. If he fails he was to be killed. But due to Durvasa's entry Lakshmana could not keep his responsibility. So Rama in great grieve says that he has abandoned him. Lakshmana goes to Sarayu river doing achamana, he holds his breath and ends his avatara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="438" LastEditorUserId="438" LastEditDate="2017-07-14T06:17:12.890" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T06:17:12.890" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2108" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-16T18:44:59.613" Score="8" ViewCount="3131" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &quot;Prabhandam Parijatapaharanam&quot; book, the poet &lt;em&gt;Nandi Thimmana&lt;/em&gt; wrote that Satyabhama kicked Lord Krishna with her left leg because of her jealousy that Lord Krishna gave a flower &lt;em&gt;Parijata Pushpam&lt;/em&gt; to his other wife Rukmini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any truth in this story or is it just a poetic imagination?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="434" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2018-05-27T15:00:02.407" LastActivityDate="2023-08-03T07:12:52.873" Title="Was Satyabhama jealous of other wives of Krishna?" Tags="|krishna|satyabhama|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2109" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-16T18:45:20.277" Score="19" ViewCount="9148" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata, it's mentioned that Arjuna forgot the Bhagavad Gita which was once heard in the war field from Lord Krishna. Bhagavad Gita is one of the greatest messages or advices from Lord Krishna to the whole world and it was advised to Arjuna to do his Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/anu/anugita.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anu Gita, Ashvamedhika Parva: Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Prithâ, after becoming possessed of his kingdom (in an)&#xA;  undisturbed (state), enjoyed himself in the company of Krishna, full&#xA;  of delight in that heavenly palace. And once, O king! they happened to&#xA;  go, surrounded by their people, and rejoicing, to a certain portion of&#xA;  the palace which resembled heaven. Then Arjuna, the son of Pându,&#xA;  having surveyed with delight that lovely palace, in the company of&#xA;  Krishna, spoke these words: 'O you of mighty arms! O you whose mother&#xA;  is Devakî ! when the battle was about to commence, I became aware of&#xA;  your greatness, and that divine form of yours. &lt;strong&gt;But that, O Kesava!&#xA;  which through affection (for me) you explained before, has all&#xA;  disappeared, O tiger-like man! from my degenerate mind.&lt;/strong&gt; Again and&#xA;  again, however, I feel a curiosity about those topics. But (now), O&#xA;  Mâdhava! you will be going at no distant date to Dvârakâ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But after the Mahabharata war, one day Arjuna told that he had forgotten the Bhagavad Gita. Why did this happen? How can a man forget the greatest advice which led to the success of his life? Was there a mistake in the way Arjuna grasped the Gita that led to this incident?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user16530" LastEditDate="2019-10-22T14:38:51.747" LastActivityDate="2021-02-24T04:18:00.150" Title="Why did Arjuna forget the Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2110" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2126" CreationDate="2014-07-16T18:54:01.720" Score="19" ViewCount="2699" Body="&lt;p&gt;Names of many Indians are derived from names of various Hindu Gods. Even here on Hinduism.SE, we have many users with such names, for example, Keshav Srinivasan, Krishna, Ram, Hari, Damodaran, Shiva, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People belonging to other religions also give their God's name to people, but I assume this was started and widely used by Hindus before other religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, why do Hindus name their people using Gods' names? Is there any specific reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-14T09:01:19.947" LastActivityDate="2020-03-10T09:16:32.840" Title="Why is God's name used for people?" Tags="|gods|culture|tradition|name|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2111" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2106" CreationDate="2014-07-16T20:30:39.400" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/c4lq&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana.  A mysterious sage once came to Ayodhya, claiming to be &quot;the messenger of the great saint Atibala&quot; and wanting to talk to Rama.  Rama agreed to talk to him, but the sage said that the matter they had to discuss was extremely confidential:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If dost thou wish to bring about the well-being of the celestials, my earnest desire is that we may talk over it in a solitary place. And if thou hast any regard for the words of [Atibala] that foremost of ascetics, do thou so order that whoever shall hear or see us, when we shall converse in a solitary place, shall be slain by thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama agreed, posting Lakshmana outside the palace gate and telling him &quot;When I shall talk with this ascetic in this solitary room whoever, shall hear or see us, shall be slain by me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Rama and the sage went into a room to talk, and the sage revealed himself to be Yama the god of death.  And he delivered to Rama a message from Brahma saying that Rama's time on earth was over:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou didst use to protect the deities whenever they were assailed by any calamity. O lord of the universe, it is for that reason, on beholding the destruction of creatures thou wert born on earth to slay the Ten-necked demon. And at that time thou didst promise that thou wouldst live in the land of mortals for eleven thousand years. Thereupon thou didst assume a human form to carry out thine desire. Now that period is ripe and this is the proper time to inform thee of it. O great king, do thou wait in this land of mortals &#xA;  if dost thou wish to govern people for some time more. And if dost thou wish to repair to the region of immortals, do thou again lord over the deities in thy Vishnu form and let them be freed from anxiety.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama then agreed to depart the earth soon, for the welfare of the gods.  Meanwhile, the famously short-tempered sage Durvasa suddenly came to the palace gate, wishing to see Rama because it was time to break a long fast.  Lakshmana stopped him, saying that Rama was busy at the moment, but the Durvasa would hear none of it.  He said this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Saumitri, if dost thou not go even this very moment and communicate unto Rama my arrival, I shall [curse] thee, Rama, Bharata, Shatrughna, your sons and grand-sons. I shall curse also thy kingdom and cities. I cannot any longer restrain my growing ire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Lakshmana was left with no choice but to go into the room and tell Rama that Durvasa was there to see him.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama was now left with a thorny dilemma: he had issued an order that he would kill anyone who came into the room, and the kings of Ikshvaku always live up to their word, and yet now he had to carry out the order against his own brother.  He consulted his advisers, and then he reached the decision that the only way to spare Lakshmana's life would be to disown him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Lakshmana, it is not proper to act against morality, I do therefore renounce thee; for the pious hold that destruction and renounciation are all the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Distraught by this, Lakshmana immediately left Ayodhya and went to the Sarayu river, where he ended his life by engaging in meditation and stopping his breathing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in case you're wondering, after Lakshmana's death, Rama resolved to depart the earth, and he along with his brothers Bharata and Shatrughna and many Vanaras including Sugriva (as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2100/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), all went into the Sarayu river.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-02-26T13:59:02.433" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2112" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2110" CreationDate="2014-07-16T20:54:42.613" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;I guess this practice was started mainly to take care of the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;To ensure that you utter the name of God through daily social communications in case you don't have time to go to temples and conduct formal worship to the God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The names of Gods when uttered frequently in social life might have a long lasting cleansing and soothing effect on ones sub-conscious mind which in turn may play a pivotal role in the development of ones conscious mind (character), e.g. a person named Gopal may (in his  sub-conscious) identify himself with the divine personality of God Krishna and hence refrain from any ill activities in his conscious life. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="454" LastEditorUserId="454" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T18:13:09.650" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T18:13:09.650" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2113" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2109" CreationDate="2014-07-16T21:03:22.360" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think (am not absolutely sure) I read somewhere that after Lord Krishna showed Arjun the ViswaRoop (the Grand Divine Reality that everything is God and that God is everything), he felt that it would be difficult for Arjun to lead a life of normal human being with this realization. Arjun would no longer be able to accept Krishna as his friend and soul mate; instead he might look upon him only with respect and awe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, he told Arjun that he would make him forget everything that was shown to him during the Gita episode. The Gita instructions would only leave a subtle impression in Arjun's sub-conscious mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="454" LastActivityDate="2014-07-16T21:03:22.360" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2115" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2083" CreationDate="2014-07-16T21:32:10.643" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This attitude can be noticed among the conservatives, who I doubt possess the slightest spirituality in their minds. One does not have to free his foot of footwear to free ones mind. One just needs to comprehend and appreciate the deep spirituality inherent in the Hindu philosophy. One doesn't even need to offer formal prayers to God by chanting hymns and uttering mantras. You can be a perfect Hindu by simply following and observing the principles of Gita in your life. Concentrate on good work without thinking about the consequences, do good deeds to others; what else do you need to achieve salvation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda was far greater a religious scholar than this modern-day priest mentioned in the question, who I think loves to humiliate a westerner for such petty and insignificant matters as shoe removal than attempting to imbibe the true essence of Hinduism himself.&#xA;Swami Vivekananda would never have asked a westerner to remove his/her shoes outside a temple.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="454" LastActivityDate="2014-07-16T21:32:10.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2116" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2103" CreationDate="2014-07-17T04:06:47.630" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganesha came to kill Mushikaasura who is troubling all! In course of war Ganesha broke one of his teeth and thrown on to Mushika to kill, Mushika ran through all Lokas, he found no place to hide and no one who can save him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the end Mushaka accepted his defeat and pleaded Ganesha to save his life, Ganesha shown mercy on Mushika and accepted him as his vehicle upon his request! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-18T19:44:27.980" LastActivityDate="2014-07-18T19:44:27.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2117" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2119" CreationDate="2014-07-17T04:25:13.337" Score="27" ViewCount="6666" Body="&lt;p&gt;Killing of animals or humans as a sacrifice is generally banished in Hinduism although some clans are still allowed to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is this Hindu practice of sacrificing animal or human life to make gods happy still justified?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT 1&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; When you edit this question, please refrain from removing the phrase '&lt;strong&gt;human sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;' as few users have tried and failed. I am looking for clarification/justification on both types of sacrifices in my question - animals and humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Barbaric sacrifice is a human sacrifice related to war and there are a few past incidents to prove that this took place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT 2&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am still looking for answers justifying human sacrifices that happened in the past.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-14T06:07:56.780" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T06:07:56.780" Title="How is animal or human sacrifice justified?" Tags="|practice|worship|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2118" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-17T04:47:42.763" Score="6" ViewCount="2575" Body="&lt;p&gt;Have there than any recorded prophecies in the Bhagavad Gita or other major Hindu writings that, according to a significant number of Hindus, was later fulfilled in an event known to history?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="458" LastActivityDate="2021-11-13T19:35:06.797" Title="Fulfilled prophecies in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|history|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2119" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2117" CreationDate="2014-07-17T05:13:30.157" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;Śrīla Prabhupāda has mentioned this as vedic sacrifice&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bali-dāna (&lt;em&gt;kālī-pūjā&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;durgā-pūjā&lt;/em&gt;), in which a goat or other&#xA;  prescribed animal is slaughtered in a ritual performed for the&#xA;  demigoddess Kālī (Durgā) and its flesh consumed afterwards. This&#xA;  sacrifice, he says, is recommended in the tāmasika Purāṇas, Vedic&#xA;  literatures aimed at the gradual reformation and elevation of persons&#xA;  from the lowest levels of human consciousness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He describes the process and purpose of the &lt;em&gt;bali-dāna&lt;/em&gt; sacrifice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like a person is attached to eat meat. Now if all of a sudden if he is instructed that meat eating is not good. Or a person is attached to drink liquor. If he at once said that liquor is not good, he cannot accept. Therefore in the Purāṇas we'll find, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;All right, if you want to eat meat, you just worship goddess Kālī and&#xA;  sacrifice a goat before the goddess. And you can eat meat. You cannot&#xA;  eat meat or flesh by purchasing from the slaughterhouse or butcher&#xA;  shop. You have to eat in this way.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That means restriction. Because if you want to perform the sacrifice before the goddess Kālī, there is a certain date, there is a certain paraphernalia, you have to arrange for that. And that pūjā, that worship is allowed on the dark moon night. So dark moon night means once in a month. And the mantras are chanted in this way: the goat is advised that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;You are sacrificing your life before the goddess Kālī. So you get&#xA;  immediately promotion to have a human form of life.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually it happens. Because to come to the standard of human form of life one living entity has to pass through so many evolutionary process. But the goat who agrees or who is by force sacrificed before the goddess Kālī, he gets immediate promotion to the human form of life. And the mantra says, that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;You have got the right to kill this man who is sacrificing.&quot; Māṁsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Māṁsa means that you will also eat his flesh, next birth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Why eat this flesh? Then I'll have to repay with my flesh. Why shall&#xA;  I do this job?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You see. The whole idea is to restrain him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Śrīla Prabhupāda points out, the mantra recited in the ceremony makes it evident that though this sacrificial process is sanctioned by the Vedas, it does not excuse the person for whom it is performed from the laws of God and nature. &quot;Even by following this method,&quot; he notes, &quot;one is still an offender.&quot; However, Śrīla Prabhupāda shows that the action of one who follows this recommendation is restricted, better informed and less offensive than it would be otherwise. Moreover, the sacrificial process protects society at large from the adverse effects of animal slaughter. He writes: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No one can create a living being despite all advancement of material&#xA;  science, and therefore no one has the right to kill a living being by&#xA;  one's independent whims. For the animal-eaters, the scriptures have&#xA;  sanctioned restricted animal sacrifices only, and such sanctions are&#xA;  there just to restrict the opening of slaughterhouses and not to&#xA;  encourage animal-killing. The procedure under which animal sacrifice&#xA;  is allowed in the scriptures is good both for the animal sacrificed&#xA;  and the animal-eaters. It is good for the animal in the sense that the&#xA;  sacrificed animal is at once promoted to the human form of life after&#xA;  being sacrificed at the altar, and the animal-eater is saved from&#xA;  grosser types of sins (eating meats supplied by organized&#xA;  slaughterhouses which are ghastly places for breeding all kinds of&#xA;  material afflictions to society, country and the people in general).&#xA;  The material world is itself a place always full of anxieties, and by&#xA;  encouraging animal slaughter the whole atmosphere becomes polluted&#xA;  more and more by war, pestilence, famine and many other unwanted&#xA;  calamities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes that the goal of the sacrifice is to discourage animal slaughter. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So after hearing all these mantras, if one takes the risk of eating&#xA;  meat, let him do that. But who is that sane man who will take this&#xA;  risk? This is the meaning of sacrifice. Not that it is a&#xA;  slaughterhouse substitute&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śrīla Prabhupāda holds that rituals such as the Kālī-pūjā are good for containing the lower propensities of humanity and encouraging the ignorant toward more elevated levels of awareness. He tells of how the Vedas and other scriptures include such recommendations for this very purpose. However, he maintains that ultimately, animal sacrifice is not auspicious and that it should not be taken to represent the ideals or the goal of religion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śrīla Prabhupāda thus shows that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;there is no reason to perform large-scale animal sacrifices in this&#xA;  day and age. Regarding the bali-dāna ritual for meat-eaters, he&#xA;  concludes that this type of sacrifice has its necessity and is&#xA;  certainly better than allowing unrestricted slaughter, but that&#xA;  ultimately, it is not the best practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although one is sometimes permitted to sacrifice an animal before the&#xA;  goddess Kālī and eat it instead of purchasing meat from a&#xA;  slaughterhouse, permission to eat meat after a sacrifice in the&#xA;  presence of the goddess Kālī is not the order of the Supreme&#xA;  Personality of Godhead. It is simply a concession for the miserable&#xA;  person who will not give up eating meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vanipedia.org/wiki/Animal-Killing_in_Human_Society#Animal_sacrifice_.28ref.29&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vanipedia&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastActivityDate="2014-07-17T05:13:30.157" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2120" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2271" CreationDate="2014-07-17T05:41:43.533" Score="7" ViewCount="379" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Fourth Khanda of the Taittirya Samhita of the Yajur Veda is chanted during the preparation of the altar of a Yagna (fire-ritual), and the second Prapathaka of this Khanda, which is chanted during the preparation of the ground of the Yagna, begins with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this hymn&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou art the step of Visnu, overcoming hostility, mount the Gayatri metre, step along the earth, excluded is he whom we hate. Thou art the step of Visnu, overcoming [curses], mount the Tristubh metre, step along the atmosphere, excluded is he whom we hate. Thou art the step of Visnu, overcomer of the enemy, mount the Jagati metre, step along the sky, excluded is he whom we hate. Thou art the step of Visnu, overcomer of the foe, mount the Anustubh metre, step along the quarters, excluded is he whom we hate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clearly &quot;step of Vishnu&quot; is a reference to Vishnu's incarnation (avataram) as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vamana the dwarf&lt;/a&gt;, who conquered the three worlds from the Asura (demon) Mahabali by taking three steps.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, who is the figure being addressed when the hymn says &quot;Thou art the step of Vishnu&quot;?  The second Prapathaka is related to the preparation of the ground for the ritual, so could this be a hymn to the Earth, which is one of the places Vishnu that stepped on?  Or is it referring to someone else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-06T16:46:24.530" LastActivityDate="2015-08-03T18:55:11.277" Title="Who is addressed as &quot;the step of Vishnu&quot; in the Yajur Veda?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|yajur-veda|vamana|yajna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2121" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2110" CreationDate="2014-07-17T06:00:48.627" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is just people's thought that keeping God's name will make the person follow the righteous path and even let other thinks he/she is a good person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nobody keeps the names which imprints bad on that person such as Ravana, Narakasura, kansa and the list goes on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many people's also think to keep some names which imprints good on them and they are not God names such as Sudheer, Suber, Susheel etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, most people select a good name for their child from the good names they know which are mostly God names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-18T19:42:26.177" LastActivityDate="2014-07-18T19:42:26.177" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2122" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-17T06:04:01.480" Score="3" ViewCount="1665" Body="&lt;p&gt;My father once told me that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If someone use &lt;em&gt;tantrik vidhya&lt;/em&gt; to hurt other he/she also affected by it. So never use it. If I use tantra to hurt other I will also hurt by it if my purpose is bad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is: &#xA;Is it really true? if yes, then why lord &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt; created it? because as far as I know there are some sort of &lt;em&gt;tantra&lt;/em&gt; which are specifically use by &lt;em&gt;Kapalic&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Aghori&lt;/em&gt; with bad purpose) to hurt people or to make other as &lt;em&gt;chela&lt;/em&gt; (servant). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and if it is bad then why it is also mentioned in &lt;em&gt;Atharva-veda&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-17T06:37:15.467" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T10:33:24.983" Title="Is use of tantrik vidhya also hurt people who use it?" Tags="|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2123" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2140" CreationDate="2014-07-17T06:38:46.043" Score="21" ViewCount="107315" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a very controversial thing about this verse along the religious websites, especially non-Hindu websites, they claim that idol worship is prohibited in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are arguing with this verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They enter darkness those who worship natural things (for e.g. air, water, fire, etc.). They sink deeper in darkness those who worship sambhuti i.e. created things.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;(Yajurved 40:9)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now , what is the true meaning of this phrase?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2022-11-05T06:43:44.127" LastActivityDate="2022-11-05T06:43:44.127" Title="Do the Vedas prohibit idol worship?" Tags="|vedas|worship|yajur-veda|idols|meaning|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2124" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2122" CreationDate="2014-07-17T06:45:14.370" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;No &lt;em&gt;vidya&lt;/em&gt; is inherently good or bad. It's their mode and purpose of use that makes them good and bad. For example, engineers read chemistry and create explosives to destroy mountain and create highways for the benefit of people. But then some other kind of people study them and create explosives to hurt humans. So just like guns which can be used to either defend oneself or kill another, so also &lt;em&gt;tantra&lt;/em&gt; or any other kind of &lt;em&gt;vidya&lt;/em&gt; can be used in both ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But because it is primarily helpful to people it's there in the Atharva veda and still exists in the world. But the thing is that, due to the ill effects of this age of &lt;em&gt;kali&lt;/em&gt;, knowledge which were once used for the benefit and well being of the people are now being used for hurting them. It is because most of those occult practitioners are narrow minded, uneducated and of &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; nature [BG - &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/17/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;17.5,6]&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now regarding whether it hurts the users who hurt others, the answer is yes. Everything is karma, those practitioners know this well. Doesn't matter who or what you are, you can never escape from the effects of your karma. So if someone uses it for bad purpose, then eventually the bad effects will catch him sooner or later. That is why most of these practitioners' life and death are terrible. Worshiping and revering ghosts, in the end they too become ghosts themselves [BG - &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/9/25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;9.25]&lt;/a&gt;. Like you I had also heard about these from some old people and read stories in some local books. I answered your question on that basis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-17T06:45:14.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2125" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19541" CreationDate="2014-07-17T06:48:50.583" Score="10" ViewCount="228" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard many times that structure of lord Shiv temple differs from other Gods temples. I heard that lord Shiv temple must have the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ponds&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;water flow near the temple.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true? if yes, please mention all which are must for a Shivaalay temple as per scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have seen in some lord Shiv temples the above mentioned things. Some temple names are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahanandi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Srikalahasthi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yaganti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-03T08:05:32.340" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T12:26:54.273" Title="How should be a Shivaalay Temple?" Tags="|shiva|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2126" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2110" CreationDate="2014-07-17T07:33:08.653" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the primary reasons is the &lt;strong&gt;sin destroying effects the Lord's names&lt;/strong&gt;. The inspiration for doing this can be linked to the story of Ajamila as described in the Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ajamila was a pious brahmana. But once he saw a prostitute engaged with a man in the forest and since then he got infatuated. He fell down from his religious activities and went so low as to marry the prostitute herself. He abandoned spiritual activities and engaged in sinful ones. In course of time he begot ten sons from his wife and he had named the youngest one who he loved very much as Narayana. At the time of his death when the minions of Yama came, out of fear he repeatedly called his youngest son with his name Narayana. As he took the name of the Lord, messengers of Vishnu came and realised him from the fetters of Yama. Vishnu &lt;em&gt;dootas&lt;/em&gt; discussed with the Yama dootas why he shouldn't be punished. Hearing this conversation, Ajamila could know his mistakes and got back his life. Then he spent rest of his life practising devotion to the Lord and finally went to Vishnu's abode after his death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So even the holy name of the Lord is powerful enough to redeem people of their sins. Hence, Yama said to his messengers the importance of chanting  Lord's name as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore it should be understood that one is easily relieved from all sinful reactions by chanting the holy name of the Lord and chanting of His qualities and activities. This is the only process recommended for relief from sinful reactions. Even if one chants the holy name of the Lord with improper pronunciation, he will achieve relief from material bondage if he chants without offenses. Ajāmila, for example, was extremely sinful, but while dying he merely chanted the holy name, and although calling his son, he achieved complete liberation because he remembered the name of Nārāyaṇa. [SB - 6.3.24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My dear servants, &lt;strong&gt;please bring to me only those sinful persons who do not use their tongues to chant the holy name and qualities of Kṛṣṇa&lt;/strong&gt;, whose hearts do not remember the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa even once, and whose heads do not bow down even once before Lord Kṛṣṇa. Send me those who do not perform their duties toward Viṣṇu, which are the only duties in human life. Please bring me all such fools and rascals. [SB - 6.3.29]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to this effect of God's name, people in India generally name their children such.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Shrimad Bhagavatam, &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Canto 6&lt;/a&gt;, Chapters 1-3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-08T21:13:30.180" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2127" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2123" CreationDate="2014-07-17T07:39:40.730" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Idol worshiping is not prohibited in &lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt;, but considered as least kind of worshiping. Preference is given to &lt;strong&gt;Manasika Pooja&lt;/strong&gt; which means a person who wish to worship any god, need to assume god's image in his mind and concentrate on that god and worship in his mind &lt;strong&gt;Manasika&lt;/strong&gt;. This method is possible to only those who have a lot of meditation practice, and those people are mostly be saints or &lt;em&gt;Rushi&lt;/em&gt;. So all other people who can't achieve this method, they can use alternate way. Idol worshiping is one of the alternate way which can be followed by a common man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ways of worshiping will also differ in each &lt;em&gt;Yuga&lt;/em&gt;. Difficulty is reduced from one &lt;em&gt;Yuga&lt;/em&gt; to another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;em&gt;Kruta Yuga&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Satya Yuga&lt;/em&gt; worshiping is only by &lt;em&gt;Yagna&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Yaga&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Tapass&lt;/em&gt; because gods were coming to earth more often and people were living like few 1000 years. Only those who have ability to do &lt;em&gt;Tapass&lt;/em&gt; for many 100 years will be considered for special reward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;em&gt;Treta Yuga&lt;/em&gt; still &lt;em&gt;Tapass&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Yagna&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Yaga&lt;/em&gt; is the way to worship. But because people live like few 100 years, less than &lt;em&gt;Kruta Yuga&lt;/em&gt;, the duration and count also reduced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;em&gt;Dwapara Yuga&lt;/em&gt; this is again reduced. In &lt;em&gt;Kali Yuga&lt;/em&gt; as all we know, no guaranty to live 100 years, among all of it 50-60 years will be spent for career building and settle down. So common people can't follow those difficult methods to worship. So this is again reduced to &lt;strong&gt;Nama Smarana&lt;/strong&gt;. Just chanting gods name is enough. If they have will power then can perform &lt;strong&gt;Manasika Pooja&lt;/strong&gt; for few &lt;em&gt;Seconds&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update :&lt;/strong&gt; There are few &lt;strong&gt;Shlokas&lt;/strong&gt; in Vedas which will describe a god. They are called as &lt;strong&gt;Dhyana Shlokas&lt;/strong&gt;. By which one can assume a god with those descriptions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of them can't imagine what they think for very long time, its because of &lt;strong&gt;Manasika Chanchalatva&lt;/strong&gt;, so for those people who can't do &lt;strong&gt;Manasika pooja&lt;/strong&gt; they can follow &lt;em&gt;Idol Worshiping&lt;/em&gt;. Nothing wrong in worshiping god in any way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kalaya Tasmien Namaha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="364" LastEditorUserId="364" LastEditDate="2014-07-17T09:23:35.313" LastActivityDate="2014-07-17T09:23:35.313" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2128" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2131" CreationDate="2014-07-17T07:46:12.020" Score="7" ViewCount="12033" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm pretty much aware of Shravan Maas, we don't eat non-veg and alcohol; some people don't even shave but why there is a gap of 15 days in Shravan Maas of North Indians and Maharashtrians?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="462" LastActivityDate="2018-08-12T05:07:11.727" Title="Why there is gap of 15 days in Shravan Maas of North Indians and Maharashtrians?" Tags="|india|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2129" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2110" CreationDate="2014-07-17T07:47:51.517" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The primary reason for naming people with names of God is to ensure that we always remember God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People usually take an effort to think about God only when they have a dedicated time to pray, which is not numerous in Hindu culture. So by naming people with names of Gods, everyone are forced to call out that name. And this is considered to be equal to that of a prayer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this can also be understood that by calling out a Hindu God name of a person, even if you are not a Hindu, you are praying to that deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="444" LastActivityDate="2014-07-17T07:47:51.517" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2130" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2108" CreationDate="2014-07-17T07:57:51.300" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Satyabhama was not jealous with other wives of Kirshna. But she considered herself to be more important than other wives of kirshna. Satyabhama thought that she is the only one who can make Krishna happy and not any other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Satyabhama was not jealous with other wives, but she always wanted Krishna to give more importance to her than any other wives. When krishna spent some time with others, she didn't like it and became angry. Some consider this as jealousy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read this from &quot;Krishna Avatar&quot; part 5,6,7,8 by Kanaiyalal Munshi (in Gujarati).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-21T07:16:27.020" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T07:16:27.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2131" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2128" CreationDate="2014-07-17T08:17:42.823" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Each Hindu month consists of one full lunar cycle, either from full moon to full moon, or new moon to new moon, which would be ~ 28 days. The period from the &lt;em&gt;Purnima&lt;/em&gt; to &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt; takes ~14 days, and is called the &lt;em&gt;Shukla-paksha&lt;/em&gt;, or the bright half of the month. From the &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt; to &lt;em&gt;Purnima&lt;/em&gt; is another 14 days, which is called the &lt;em&gt;Krishna-paksha&lt;/em&gt;, or the dark half of the month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;North Indians follow the &lt;em&gt;Purnimant&lt;/em&gt; calendar, ie, the month begins with the &lt;em&gt;Purnima&lt;/em&gt; or the full moon, till the next full moon. In the North Indian calendar, the &lt;em&gt;Shukla-paksha&lt;/em&gt; of the month comes first, followed by the &lt;em&gt;krishna-paksha&lt;/em&gt;. Maharashtrians &amp;amp; South Indians follow an &lt;em&gt;Amavasyant&lt;/em&gt; calendar, ie, the month begins from &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt; or the New Moon, where the &lt;em&gt;krishna-paksha&lt;/em&gt; comes first, followed by the &lt;em&gt;shukla-paksha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastActivityDate="2014-07-17T08:17:42.823" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2132" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13769" CreationDate="2014-07-17T08:56:37.763" Score="9" ViewCount="9073" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I know, Shri Krishna used to announce the end of the battle for the day in great Mahabharata battle using a &lt;em&gt;Shankh&lt;/em&gt; named as &lt;em&gt;Panchajanya&lt;/em&gt;. Does anyone know how He got this &lt;em&gt;Shankh&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-05-22T12:54:38.200" LastActivityDate="2018-05-22T13:33:29.390" Title="How did Shri Krishna get the Shankh named Panchajanya?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|weapon|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2133" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2132" CreationDate="2014-07-17T09:15:57.630" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Panchajanya&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Shankhasur&lt;/em&gt; was an evil sea demon who lived in a colossal conch shell in the deepest depths of the Prabhasa ocean or was a demon in the form of a conch shell. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He kidnapped the son of Sandipani, the guru of Shri Krishna, Balarama and Sudama, and imprisoned him in the conch shell. Upon completion of their studies, Krishna, Balarama, and Sudama persuaded the teacher to ask for the preceptor’s dakshina (fees) of his liking. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sandipani asked for, as his dakshina, the restoration of his child. Krishna became enraged when he heard about the kidnap and plunged into the sea to rescue the son of Sandipani. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna successfully slew Shankhasur and took the conch shell for himself. He then named the conch shell after the Demon. Whenever Krishna blows from the shell it foreshadows the death of his next opponent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchajanya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-17T09:47:10.557" LastActivityDate="2014-07-17T09:47:10.557" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2134" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2056" CreationDate="2014-07-17T10:54:40.223" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Now-a-days &lt;em&gt;Archakatva&lt;/em&gt; course is offered by different universities and there are specific Veda schools run by many individuals and temple bodies. The basic qualifications include he should be able to do all services starting from &lt;em&gt;Suprabhatam&lt;/em&gt; (hymns to wakeup God ) to &lt;em&gt;Pavalimpu/Unjal Seva&lt;/em&gt; (hymns to make God sleep) including various activities like Archana, Abhishekam, Alankara, different Upacharas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Priest should see god in the idol and should accept HIM as omnipotent. He should be capable of performing different kinds of &lt;em&gt;Homas&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Vratas&lt;/em&gt; specific to the deity. Each temple follows different &lt;em&gt;Aagama Saastra&lt;/em&gt; and priest should have thorough knowledge of them. He should do &lt;em&gt;Prokshana&lt;/em&gt; (sprinkling of holy water reciting vedic hymns) in case of any eclipse or any &lt;em&gt;Dosha&lt;/em&gt; (impurity caused to temple or god by any reason like some being dies in temple or someone comes to visit temple when he is not supposed to like early days of someone's birth or death in the family). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He should co-ordinate regularly with the &lt;em&gt;Dharmakarthas&lt;/em&gt; (noble men entitled to take care of temple activities) and with the &lt;em&gt;Matt&lt;/em&gt; with which the temple is associated. If someone equal to the God like &lt;em&gt;Sanyasi&lt;/em&gt; or any other who has self-realization visits the temple, they should be welcomed with &lt;em&gt;Purnakumbam&lt;/em&gt; to the temple by the priest. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The list of responsibilities of priest is big or just cant be explained much here. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T04:25:45.430" LastActivityDate="2014-07-22T04:25:45.430" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2135" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2109" CreationDate="2014-07-17T11:18:58.660" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The same reason we forget good advices, the fickleness of our mind. Even after reading and listening to the Gita so many times we don't remember all its messages, then was it not just obvious for Arjuna to forget what he listened just once and that too on a battle field? After listening to Gita he engaged in the terrible battle directly for about 18 days. He would have hardly got any time to reflect upon Shri Krishna's message that took 18 chapters in the Mahabharat. So later Arjuna wants to listen to the teachings again and requests Krishna to retell it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;viditaṃ te mahābāho saṃgrāme samupasthite&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   māhātmyaṃ devakī mātas tac ca te rūpam aiśvaram&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   yat tu tad bhavatā proktaṃ tadā keśava sauhṛdāt&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   tat sarvaṃ puruṣavyāghra naṣṭaṃ me naṣṭacetasaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [MB - 14.16.5,6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O mighty-armed one, Your greatness became known to me upon the approach of the battle. O son of Devaki, Your form also, as the Lord of the universe, then became known to me! What You said unto me at that time through affection, O Kesava, has all been forgotten by me, O chief of men, in consequence of the fickleness of my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Shri Krishna friendly rebukes him for being such a dull witted and faithless person (अश्रद्दधानॊ ऽसि दुर्मेधाश चासि पाण्डव [MB - 14.16.10]) and narrates to him another set of instructions known as the Anugita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-17T11:18:58.660" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2136" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2137" CreationDate="2014-07-17T11:22:50.057" Score="6" ViewCount="17853" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm confused that why we don't eat non-veg, don't intake liquor and some people don't shave while Shravan Maas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the relation of not eating non-veg in Shravan Maas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the relation of not intaking liquor in Shravan Maas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the relation of not shaving in Shravan Maas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="462" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-17T12:10:14.343" LastActivityDate="2018-12-06T23:34:48.683" Title="Why we don't eat non-veg, don't intake liquor and some people don't shave while Shravan Maas?" Tags="|vedas|food|fasting|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2137" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2136" CreationDate="2014-07-17T11:34:34.183" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Possible reasons could be&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Religious Importance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shravan is supposed to be the holiest month of the Hindu calendar. It is full of festivals and minor celebrations. Festivals include Janmastmi, Raksha Bandhan, Naag Panchami, Onam, Kajori Purnima, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shravan is the holy month of Lord Shiva. Every Monday (day of week dedicated to Lord Shiva) is called Shravan Somvar. All the 4 Shravan Somvars are special and you are supposed to be fasting for them. As Shiva's chosen month, every day of this month is laden with religious significance, so Hindus avoid non vegetarian food and liquor in this month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scientific Reasons&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the month in which the monsoons are in full blast. The rains bring a whole lot of water borne diseases with them. The general hygiene is bad and you never know what infection you might catch. Hindus believe that meat during this month has more chances of being infected. So it is better to avoid meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shravan in mythological terms is the month of love and romance. Practically it is the breeding season for most of the animals. Fishing during this time is prohibited by Hindu laws as the female fish have eggs in their stomach. It is a sin to kill animals when they are pregnant or hatching eggs. That is why Hindus avoid meat and fish during this month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, I don't know the relation of not shaving in Shravan Maas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As shared by @Rishi Kulshreshtha, Shaving is not done in Shravan Maas because during that time, the Straight razor use to get infected by rust due to monsoon and it can cause skin injuries. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_razor&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;straight razor&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="464" LastEditDate="2014-07-21T12:04:44.837" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T12:04:44.837" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2138" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2045" CreationDate="2014-07-17T12:01:34.013" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scientific Reason&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During Shravana monsoon is at its peak and there is less sunlight, it makes digestive system weak. During this period, water-borne diseases spread rapidly. Fasts detoxify the system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Religious Reason&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is believed that one who carries out the Shravan Somvara Vrat has their prayers answered. During the day devotees consume only non-solid foods such as milk, buttermilk, fruit juice and fruits. The devotee then breaks his/her fast (eats his/her evening meal) after praying to Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Don't know whether its prescribed in holy texts or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T07:16:54.693" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T07:16:54.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2139" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23551" CreationDate="2014-07-17T12:06:10.377" Score="25" ViewCount="4144" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu scriptures, the three main rivers are Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. As we all know, rivers Ganga and Yamuna are present in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;But where on the current world map is the Saraswati river according to Hindu scriptures?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is any incident mentioned in scriptures about Saraswati river becoming invisible?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: I know the answer according to science but not according to Hindu scriptures. According to science, it was present in Afghanistan and it has dried up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-19T11:14:44.287" LastActivityDate="2024-02-14T06:53:55.800" Title="Where is the Saraswati river according to Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|saraswati|rivers|geography|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2140" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2123" CreationDate="2014-07-17T12:44:53.140" Score="29" Body="&lt;p&gt;The verse you are referring to is as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti ye 'sambhūtim upāsate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tato bhūya iva te tamo ya u sambhūtyām ratāḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is present in the Isha Upanishad or the Shukla Yajur Veda chapter forty. But to say that this verse prohibits idol worship would be incorrect. All that it says is, &lt;strong&gt;those who worship only  the &lt;em&gt;asambhuta&lt;/em&gt; (which has not originated) and those who worship only the &lt;em&gt;sambhuta&lt;/em&gt; (which has originated) enter into darkness&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the thing is, because Sanskrit words can mean multiple things, people give it different meanings. But simply speaking, &lt;em&gt;asambhuta&lt;/em&gt; here means the unmanifested absolute formless mode of supreme Brahman and &lt;em&gt;sambhuta&lt;/em&gt; means the different manifested forms  like the &lt;em&gt;devas&lt;/em&gt; or demigods. It is because, the absolute neither comes to exist nor ceases to exist (without origin), but the various gods come to exist and also after their time is over cease to exist (with origin). Similarly, there is another verse which forbids both knowledge and ignorance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti ye 'vidyām upāsate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tato bhūya iva te tamo ya u vidyāyām ratāḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Isha Up. - 9]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now tell me, what kind of logic is this! It is understandable if we say one will enter darkness if he worships or follows ignorance, but why would any one enter darkness if he follows knowledge?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;strong&gt;these verses only encourage to have a complete knowledge of the both the aspects&lt;/strong&gt; instead of following or knowing only one partially. It is because both knowledge and ignorance are part of God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vidyāvidye mama tanū&lt;/em&gt; [SB - &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/11/11/3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;11.11.3]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   - Both knowledge and ignorance are my body (energy potencies)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And God is both with and without forms:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dve vāva brahmaṇo rūpe, mūrtaṃ caivāmūrtaṃ ca&lt;/em&gt; [Brh. Up - 2.3.1]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - God (Brahman) has two modes, formless (&lt;em&gt;nirakara&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;asambhuta&lt;/em&gt;) as well as form (&lt;em&gt;sakar&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;sambhuta&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas and scriptures are full of contradicting statements for a certain reason. &lt;strong&gt;If one takes up only one statement and tries to define everything else as per it, then he will only reach biased and wrong conclusions.&lt;/strong&gt; Complete knowledge is always required. So another verse of that same Upanishad explicitly mentions to known both knowledge and ignorance. Because &lt;strong&gt;only by knowing both the modes of God that one will be able to have the complete and absolute knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vidyāṁ cāvidyāṁ ca yas tad vedobhayaṁ saha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  avidyayā mṛtyuṁ tīrtvā vidyayāmṛtam aśnute&lt;/em&gt; [Isha Up. - 11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Only one who can learn the process of nescience (&lt;em&gt;avidya&lt;/em&gt;) and that of transcendental knowledge (&lt;em&gt;vidya&lt;/em&gt;) side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So don't take any such arguments seriously. &lt;strong&gt;Idol worship is neither mandatory nor prohibited in Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt;. In fact &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt; like Shrimad Bhagavatam itself mention the process of deity form worship of the God and what the idols can be made of:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;śailī dāru-mayī lauhī lepyā lekhyā ca saikatī&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mano-mayī maṇi-mayī pratimāṣṭa-vidhā smṛtā&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.27.12]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Deity form of the Lord is said to appear in eight varieties — stone, wood, metal, earth, paint, sand, the mind or jewels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/iso&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ishopanishad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA; - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/665&quot;&gt;Significance of idol worship&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavatam - 11.27&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-02-20T03:32:45.003" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2141" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="406" CreationDate="2014-07-17T13:39:48.560" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not that Somnath Mahadev has higher values then other Shiva lingas. Somnath Mahadev is the first &lt;em&gt;Jyotirling&lt;/em&gt; among the 12 Jyotirlings. All the 12 jyotirlings have different importance and symbolism, you can't compare any of the Jyotirlings as its said &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; himself is present there and &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; is the same. Its just that &lt;em&gt;Somnath Mahadev&lt;/em&gt; is taken first in shlok. To know more about Jyotirlings, refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-03T03:38:26.960" LastActivityDate="2014-10-03T03:38:26.960" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2142" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-17T14:00:31.673" Score="3" ViewCount="1866" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama is considered the perfect husband. He is also well known for the strong brotherly bond with lakshmana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, by the end of Ramayana, Rama is shown to abandon both sita and lakshmana for various reasons. So,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is Rama still strongly associated with family bonds? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there a specific reason?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="156" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-27T09:17:12.500" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T09:17:12.500" Title="Rama's family values as interpreted by devotees" Tags="|ramayana|rama|sita|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2143" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2139" CreationDate="2014-07-17T15:11:30.887" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Saraswati river is surely very important in the vedas and the question asked by many is the &quot;present condition of the Vedic Saraswati river&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is not much literal evidence but some people refer the &lt;strong&gt;Sutlej&lt;/strong&gt; river to be the descendant of Saraswati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/saraswati.bharat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="469" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-17T17:25:18.640" LastActivityDate="2014-07-17T17:25:18.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2146" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-17T17:31:38.317" Score="12" ViewCount="632" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many religions, a practice/custom or tradition starts with a noble intention, mainly due to prevalent social needs. But with time it is corrupted, or digresses or even becomes obsolete.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With that premise, my questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the origin of the dowry system in the Sanatana Dharma?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any official literature on this?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="102" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-04-26T21:40:03.540" LastActivityDate="2024-03-10T03:19:13.643" Title="Origins of the dowry system" Tags="|history|practice|marriage|women|smriti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2147" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2150" CreationDate="2014-07-17T18:05:38.453" Score="24" ViewCount="9345" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there different methods of worshiping God in different yugas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in the Sathya Yuga, the major method of worship is meditation or yagas. In Kaliyuga -  chanting of God's name. I have heard that even if Kaliyuga is the worst one, it does have an advantage in the method of worship. People can just chant God's name and can get Moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could someone please give insight on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have two more related questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can we consider these methods as just &quot;different ways&quot; leading to GOD?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And can a person choose any method or only one method according to the current &lt;strong&gt;Yuga&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-02T15:27:54.080" LastActivityDate="2021-05-28T10:10:48.553" Title="Do methods of worship change according to yugas?" Tags="|practice|worship|yuga|time|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2148" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2142" CreationDate="2014-07-17T19:35:07.673" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You misunderstood. Lord Rāma is known as Maryada Purushottama which means the best of men or the Supreme Purusa (personality), not as a 'perfect family man'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Take the two incidents, exile of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/276/did-lord-rama-exile-maa-sita&quot;&gt;Sita&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2106/why-did-lord-rama-and-lakshman-separate&quot;&gt;Lakshmana&lt;/a&gt;. Both of these incidents happened after Lord Rama becoming the ruler of Kingdom Ayodhya. The dharma of a king is to lead his people in the path of Dharma. King Rama was forced to exile Sita(and that was not husband Rama) for keeping the Dharma. The same Dharma exiled Lakshmana(and it was not brother Rama).   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a person, Rama personifies the characteristics of an ideal person (purushottama)&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;[83] who is to be emulated. He had within him all the desirable virtues that any individual would seek to aspire, and he fulfils all his moral obligations (maryada). Rama's purity and piety in his intentions and actions inspires affection and devotion for him from a variety of characters from different backgrounds. For example, he gave up his rightful claim to the throne, and agreed to go into exile for fourteen years, to fulfill the vow that his father had given to Kaikeyi, one of King Dashratha's wives. This is in spite of the fact that Kaikeyi's son, Bharat, begged him to return to Ayodhya and said that he did not want to rule in place of Rama. But Rama considered his dharma as a son above that of his own birthright and his life's ambition. For such supreme sacrifices, and many other qualities, Rama is considered a maryada purushottama(the best of upholders of Dharma). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also while mentioning family you forgot to mention about the perfect son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some of his ideals are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the time when it was normal for kings to have more than one wife, Rama gave the ideal of having a single wife. After Sita was banished, he was doing penance with a gold statue of Sita. In Balakanda of Valmiki Ramayana it is written that Rama and Sita resided in each other's heart.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama always followed his promise at any cost&lt;/strong&gt;. In fact, he went to forest to make his &lt;strong&gt;father's promise&lt;/strong&gt; to Kaikeyi true. Another instance was when, he had promised the Spirit of Time that during their conversation, if anyone was to intrude, Rama would have pronounce an instant death sentence upon the individual. They were intruded upon by his beloved younger brother Lakshmana, and to keep his part of the promise, pronounced the death sentence. There are many examples of Rama's promises which he kept. Most important are the promise to sages to save their lives from Rakshasas, getting back Sugreeva's kingdom, making Vibhishana the king of Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of these qualities make a perfect family man too. So one of my statement needed to be corrected, he was a perfect family man too. Your doubts can be cleared by reading the Ramayana. It's just explaining the qualities of Lord Rama and how should one live for Dharma.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rāma - in the words of Swami Vivekananda - is &quot;the embodiment of truth, of morality, the ideal son, the ideal husband, and above all, the ideal king.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vivekanada quoted it in the correct order. Son,husband and then the ideal king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2014-07-17T19:35:07.673" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2149" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2146" CreationDate="2014-07-17T21:08:26.247" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm trying to explain the most probable interpretation of the inception of the dowry system in ancient India particularly in Hinduism. These are solely my views and I may in fact be wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The (voluntary) gifts given by the bride's parents were typically the items that were necessary to start off a new family life. Examples of such items include new bed, utensils etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since the bride goes to a new home, she carries with her some of her family possessions such as ornaments (for her own personal use) etc. I don't see any plausible reason for the bride's father to keep these ornaments in his own house.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In cases where the groom's family is economically less stable than the bride's family, any monetary gift given as dowry could potentially give the necessary impetus to the groom to start off a new prospective career, e.g. initial investment for a new business, which eventually ensures nothing but a prosperous life for the new family and I don't see any wrong in it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The dowry can be looked upon in a positive light in the sense that it can act as a shield to the new bride against the male dominated social system. If the bride's father pays a reasonable amount of money to the groom's family, their attitude towards the new bride could potentially be more of submissive (may be sub-consciously) rather than aggressive. This in turn also helps the bride to gradually become an important member of her new home.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="454" LastActivityDate="2014-07-17T21:08:26.247" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2150" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2147" CreationDate="2014-07-18T01:24:43.700" Score="27" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, you've heard correctly.  As the four Yugas progress, the world becomes more and more evil.  But as a way to help people deal with all the evil that surrounds them, in later Yugas it becomes easier and easier to obtain great benefits from even small religious activity.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin//vp/vp157.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Vyasa describes the benefits of the Kali Yuga in the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fruit of penance, of continence, of silent prayer, and the like, practised in the Krita age for ten years, in the Treta for one year, in the Dwápara for a month, is obtained in the Kali age in a day and night: therefore did I exclaim &amp;quot;Excellent, excellent, is the Kali age!&amp;quot;  &lt;strong&gt;That reward which a man obtains in the Krita by abstract meditation, in the Treta by sacrifice, in the Dwápara by adoration, he receives in the Kali by merely reciting the name of Keshava.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So make sure you say my name!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa also says that it becomes easier to do your Dharma (duty):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In truth, in the Kali age duty is discharged with very little trouble by mortals, whose faults are all washed away by the water of their individual merits; by Śúdras, through diligent attendance only upon the twice-born [Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas]; and by women, through the slight effort of obedience to their husbands.... [I]n the Krita and other ages great were the toils of the [twice-born] to perform their duty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Puranas isn't the only scripture that describes these benefits of the Kali Yuga; &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/11/5/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what the sons of Rishabha say in Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People in Satya-yuga are peaceful, nonenvious, friendly to every creature and steady in all situations. They worship the Supreme Personality by austere meditation and by internal and external sense control....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Tretā-yuga, those members of human society who are fixed in religiosity and are sincerely interested in achieving the Absolute Truth worship Lord Hari, who contains within Himself all the demigods. The Lord is worshiped by the rituals of sacrifice taught in the three Vedas....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[I]n Dvāpara-yuga men who desire to know the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the supreme enjoyer, worship Him in the mood of honoring a great king, following the prescriptions of both the Vedas and tantras....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who are actually advanced in knowledge are able to appreciate the essential value of this Age of Kali. Such enlightened persons worship Kali-yuga because &lt;strong&gt;in this fallen age all perfection of life can easily be achieved by the performance of saṅkīrtana&lt;/strong&gt; [chanting together].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And they even recommend two prayers to Vishnu to be said during the Kali Yuga, &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/11/5/33&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/11/5/34&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  (Prabhupada believes these verses to be prayers to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is considered an incarnation of Vishnu by Gaudiya Vaishnavas, but in my opinion they're prayers to either Vishnu himself or perhaps Venkateshwara.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And later on in the Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhumidevi (the goddess of the Earth) herself gives a &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;similar description&lt;/a&gt; of the methods of worship in the different Yugas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The people of Satya-yuga are for the most part self-satisfied, merciful, friendly to all, peaceful, sober and tolerant. They take their pleasure from within, see all things equally and always endeavor diligently for spiritual perfection....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Tretā age people are devoted to ritual performances and severe austerities....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Dvāpara age people are interested in glory and are very noble. They devote themselves to the study of the Vedas, possess great opulence, support large families and enjoy life with vigor....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Kali-yuga, objects, places and even individual personalities are all polluted. The almighty Personality of Godhead, however, can remove all such contamination from the life of one who fixes the Lord within his mind.  &lt;strong&gt;If a person hears about, glorifies, meditates upon, worships or simply offers great respect to the Supreme Lord, who is situated within the heart, the Lord will remove from his mind the contamination accumulated during many thousands of lifetimes&lt;/strong&gt;....  &lt;strong&gt;Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Viṣṇu, in Tretā-yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dvāpara-yuga by serving the Lord’s lotus feet can be obtained in Kali-yuga simply by chanting [Hari]&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-04-28T17:53:06.413" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2152" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-18T07:11:39.977" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna (Sanskrit: कृष्ण, Kṛṣṇa) is the 8&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; incarnation of lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna was born to Devaki and her husband, Vasudeva. It was prophesied that the 8&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; son of Kansa's sister (Devaki) will kill Kansa. Thus, Kansa sent his sister Devaki and her husband (Vasudeva) to prison. Lord Vishnu himself later appears to Devaki and Vasudeva and tells them that he himself will be their 8&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; son and kill Kansa and destroy sin in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some sub-traditions, like Gaudiya-Vaishnavism, within the larger Vaishnavism, Krishna is worshipped as Svayam Bhagavan (the Supreme God) and it is sometimes known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishnaism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishnaism&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tag info sourced from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="460" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-05-10T07:41:37.937" LastActivityDate="2022-05-10T07:41:37.937" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2153" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-18T07:11:39.977" Score="0" Body="Krishna is considered Brahman by sects like Gaudiya Vaishnavism etc, while others consider Him as the eighth incarnation among ten principle incarnations (Sanskrit दशावतार, IAST daśāvatāra) of Lord Vishnu. Use this tag to the questions that are concerned anything with Krishna" OwnerUserId="460" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2019-04-16T07:50:42.777" LastActivityDate="2019-04-16T07:50:42.777" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2155" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-18T09:47:52.567" Score="13" ViewCount="624" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akshaya_Tritiya&quot;&gt;Akshaya Tritiya&lt;/a&gt; is an important Hindu festival and I have seen people buying jewellery and other items on this &quot;auspicious day&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is Akshaya Tritiya celebrated in the world? To be more specific, I am concerned with celebrations inside India as well as outside India (Bali or in the United States or any other regions with significant population)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="58" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-05-03T02:57:15.427" LastActivityDate="2022-05-03T16:56:53.943" Title="How is Akshaya Tritiya celebrated?" Tags="|rituals|festivals|celebrations|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2156" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-18T09:51:28.880" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Festivals can be celebrations for many different factors, but religious festivals usually involve the celebration of some act in the life of a certain Godly entity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good examples of festivals could be Holi, Diwali, Navratri etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also see,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/questions/tagged/holi&quot; class=&quot;post-tag&quot; title=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;holi&amp;#39;&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;holi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/questions/tagged/diwali&quot; class=&quot;post-tag&quot; title=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;diwali&amp;#39;&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;diwali&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/questions/tagged/ganesh-chaturthi&quot; class=&quot;post-tag&quot; title=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;ganesh-chaturthi&amp;#39;&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;ganesh-chaturthi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="58" LastEditorUserId="58" LastEditDate="2014-07-18T12:01:46.880" LastActivityDate="2014-07-18T12:01:46.880" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2157" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-18T09:51:28.880" Score="0" Body="A festival is an event centering on and celebrating some unique aspect of the community." OwnerUserId="58" LastEditorUserId="58" LastEditDate="2014-07-18T12:01:35.350" LastActivityDate="2014-07-18T12:01:35.350" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2158" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2160" CreationDate="2014-07-18T10:09:21.383" Score="26" ViewCount="159132" Body="&lt;p&gt;After Mahabharata, there is no major presence mark made by Pandava and Krishna. What happened to them after that? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="477" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-18T10:32:30.763" LastActivityDate="2015-12-08T18:20:01.870" Title="What happened to Pandavas and Shri Krishna after Mahabharata?" Tags="|krishna|mahabharata|pandavas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2159" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2163" CreationDate="2014-07-18T10:24:10.977" Score="4" ViewCount="15239" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that Arjuna was not together with his brothers for 12 years when he was exiled and later he joined them in the 13th year of incognito exile. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So where he was for 12 years?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-18T11:53:57.123" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T04:56:28.160" Title="Where was Arjuna for 12 years when he was exiled?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2160" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2158" CreationDate="2014-07-18T11:19:43.437" Score="31" Body="&lt;p&gt;After Mahabharat they return to their respective kingdoms, rule for few decades (around 35 years) and then leave this world for ever having served their purpose of life. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mausala Parva&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m17/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahaprasthanika Parva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharat has the detailed description about it. The major events in breif are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After Mahabharat war is over, Gandahari struck with grief on the death of  his sons curses Shri Krishna that the Yadavas will also die a same death. Shri Krishna accepts the curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After around 35 years the sons of Shri Krishna playfully misbehaved some rishis and got cursed in return. Samba dressed as a pregnant woman, along with other Yadavas, went on asking rishis to predict the gender of her future child. One rishi gets angry and curses he will give birth to an iron piece which will destroy their entire race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dwarika witnesses bad omens and sinful activites increase. Shri Krishna instructs others to go on a pilgrimage to Prabhasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;At Prabhasa, the Yadavas drink wine and get intoxicated. A fight ensues among them and every Yadava kills one another. Only Shri Krishna, Daruka, Vabhru and Balarama survive. But later on Vabhru and Balarama leave this world too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna sends Daruka to inform Arjuna and bring help. Meanwhile, a hunter mistakenly shoots an arrow that strikes at Shri Krishna's foot and leaves Him wounded. Shri Krishna consoles the hunter and then merges in the image of Vishnu and leaves this mortal world for His own abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna reaches there. Tries to save widowed queens of Shri Krishna but loses in fight against the barbarians. Vedavyasa instructs Arjuna that the Pandavas' purpose of life has been over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira coronates Parikshit and the 5 Pandavas along with Draupadi set out for their journey towards heaven by climbing the mountain Himalaya. A dog follows them on their way up to the mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Along their way while climbing the mountain one after another in the order of Draupadi, Sahadeva, Nakula, Arjuna and Bhima fall down and die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira alone survives and Indra comes to welcome to heaven him with his chariot. Indra asks Yudhisthira to leave the dog behind and enter into the chariot and go to heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira declines the offer to enter into heaven unless the dog also goes with him as the dog has befriended him. The dog then becomes Yama and tells Yudhisthira that he has passed the test. After that Yudhisthira enters into heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, after many such series of events Shri Krishna and the Pandavas leave this mortal world. The city of Dwaraka submerges into the ocean and eventually the present age of &lt;em&gt;Kali&lt;/em&gt; begins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Reasons for which the Pandavas fell down from the mountain&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Ankit's suggestion (with reference to the point 8 above) below are the reasons, as given by Yudhisthira to Bhima, for which the Pandava brothers and Draupadi except Yudhisthira fell down from the mountain:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Draupadi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;O best of men, though we were all equal unto her she had great partiality for Dhananjaya. She obtains the fruit of that conduct today. [MB - 17.2.6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sahadeva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;He never thought anybody his equal in wisdom. It is for that fault that this prince has fallen down. [MB - 17.2.10]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nakula&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;He was of righteous soul and the foremost of all persons endued with intelligence. He, however, thought that there was nobody that equalled him in beauty of person. Indeed, he regarded himself as superior to all in that respect. It is for this that Nakula has fallen down. [MB - 17.2.16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arjuna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Arjuna had said that he would consume all our foes in a single day. Proud of his heroism, he did not, however, accomplish what he had said. Hence has he fallen down. This Phalguna disregarded all wielders of bows. One desirous of prosperity should never indulge in such sentiments. [MB - 17.2.21,22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhima&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;You were a great eater, and you used to boast of your strength. You never attended, O Bhima, to the wants of others while eating. It is for that, O Bhima, that you have fallen down. [MB - 17.2.25]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-12-09T03:19:46.100" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2161" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="40109" CreationDate="2014-07-18T12:20:10.893" Score="11" ViewCount="23592" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard a lot about the Sleep Lover, Kumbhakarna. Why was he sleeping for so many days continuously? Is there a story behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-30T13:23:44.153" LastActivityDate="2020-04-23T06:22:49.127" Title="What is the story behind Kumbhakarna's sleep?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|kumbhakarna|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2162" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2161" CreationDate="2014-07-18T12:44:49.977" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kumbakarna is brother of Ravana. Both started to do tapas in praise of Brahma. Gods who were feared after Kumbakarna's strength, pleaded Goddess Saraswathi to influence Kumbakarna and restrict him from getting mighty boons. When Brahma came descended to bless the duo, She then entered on to the tongue of Kumbakarna and made him ask to bless him with 6 months of sleep and 6 months for feeding himself! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-26T14:42:47.713" LastActivityDate="2018-02-26T14:42:47.713" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2163" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2159" CreationDate="2014-07-18T12:58:03.830" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna underwent two separate exiles&lt;/strong&gt;. One was without his brothers for twelve years and the other was with his brothers for thirteen years. Some people may have intermixed the two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first twelve years of exile he faced was because he had to break a mutual agreement that the Pandava brothers had among them and the second thirteen years exile was due to the defeat in the dice game.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reason for Arjuna entering the twelve years exile:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;After the five brothers married Draupadi, Narada visited them and said they should have a mutual agreement of how they will spend time with her. Narada told a story how two invincible demon brothers lost their life fighting over the possession of a &lt;em&gt;apsara&lt;/em&gt;. So the five brothers made a rule that they would spend time with Draupadi in turn and no one would interfere while any brother was with her. If anyone did so, then he would have to enter into exile for twelve years as a celibate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But one day to help a Brahmin save his cow Arjuna needed his Gandiv dhanu for which he had to enter into the room where Yudhisthira and Draupadi were together. After returning Arjuna asked permission from Yudhisthira to go into exile. But Yudhisthira said it is not necessary because his intention was good. However, Arjuna to keep the promise and respecting truth entered into a 12 year exile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During this 12 year period he wandered many places, took pilgrimage, spend time with sages, married some damsels, spend time with Krishna, abducted and married Subhadra and then returned to Indraprastha. So some of the events are as below:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Spend time performing fire sacrifcies with Brahmanas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Met Ulupi, the daughter of the king of &lt;em&gt;Nagas&lt;/em&gt; at the bank of Ganga and spend some time with her.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Leaving Ulupi, he performed many yajna and dana and went through the land of Kalinga to reach at Manipura.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;King of Manipura had a daughter Chitrangada. He had no male child as a succesor so he wanted his daughter to have a male child. Arjuna married her and spend three years time in Manipura. When she gave birth to a son, Arjuna took leave from Manipura.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The he went to the southern oceans and spend time with ascetics. There he helped them make the water crocodile free. Then desiring to see Chitragadha again he went to Manipura and after beholding his son Vabhruvahana on throne he proceeded to Gokarna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna went to meet Arjuna there and brought him to his city. Arjuna fell in love with Subhadra there and married her by abducting. Balarama first opposed to this but later agreed upon Shri Krishna's suggestion. Then Arjuna and Subhadra go to Indraprastha.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Arjuna spend his first twelve years in exile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Mahabharat &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01215.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1.214&lt;/a&gt;-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01215.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;222&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-02T04:56:28.160" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T04:56:28.160" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2164" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2161" CreationDate="2014-07-18T13:22:57.333" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kumbhakarna was able to eat a lot of food in his single meal since his childhood. The quantity of his single meal is equal to the food you can say like your whole life's food quantity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of this the Devas from swarg ( heaven ) were in very much tension that if he lives for more like this then the whole earth's food will be finished. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While Kumbakarna was doing tapas with his other brother Ravana &amp;amp; Vibhishan, when Lord bramha asked Kumbakarna for bless, at that time Godess Saraswati placed on his tongue and instead of &quot;Indrasan&quot;  ( the thrown of Lord Indra from Heaven ), he spoke &quot;Nindrasan&quot; which means Bed. So Lord Bramha blessed him for same. So because of Nindrasan, he needed to sleep 6 months and then he could wakeup for single day. After this again he needed to sleep for next 6 months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please watch the first 5 minutes from this episode &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfmDlFLMiqA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ramayan Episode 62&lt;/a&gt;, I answer based on this video. If you know Hindi language, then good otherwise there are subtitles in the video, that will help you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-04T19:11:55.083" LastActivityDate="2015-08-04T19:11:55.083" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2165" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-18T16:38:24.257" Score="2" ViewCount="98" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Wikipedia page on &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu diet&lt;/a&gt;, an excerpt from the Atharva Veda (the chronologically last one of the four) says that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who eat flesh uncooked, and those who eat the bleeding flesh of&#xA;  men, Feeders on babes unborn, long-haired, far from this place we&#xA;  banish these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is if the religious Hindu texts haven't explicitly prescribed any particular eating preferences, why is this act of eating non-conventional meat (e.g. beef or pork) frowned upon by some of the conservatives? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've had the opinion that Hinduism is a religion of universal acceptance and the eating habits of a person has got nothing to do with the Hindu religion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this true or does Hinduism have some specific culinary instructions for its followers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="454" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-18T19:35:07.483" LastActivityDate="2014-07-18T19:35:07.483" Title="Eating restrictions in Hinduism" Tags="|non-vegetarian|food|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2014-07-20T04:40:37.647" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2166" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2139" CreationDate="2014-07-18T16:53:20.827" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some myths suggest that river Saraswati actually flows underground in the Yumuna-Gangetic plain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more information you can refer this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/15455&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;detailed article&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="482" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-08-01T03:45:39.417" LastActivityDate="2014-08-01T03:45:39.417" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2167" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2210" CreationDate="2014-07-18T18:13:08.723" Score="12" ViewCount="9460" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard a lot about Yama who carries dead persons from Earth to Yamaloka in his vehicle, a buffalo. My question is, how was Yama born and how did he become the king of Yamaloka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-08T15:46:57.453" LastActivityDate="2016-04-24T04:41:08.613" Title="How was Yama born and how did he become the king of Yamaloka?" Tags="|death|yama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2168" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="786" CreationDate="2014-07-18T18:22:49.283" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu rituals make it mandatory for Ganesha to be worshiped before the start of any Pooja.&#xA;Hence, Ganesha is a part of the frame. Also, Ganesha is generally considered as the Lord of wealth and the bestower of knowledge. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Diwali we celebrate and workship wealth. But true wealth comes only when a person has knowledge or talent . Its said Lakshmi finds the home of the learned only. Since Saraswati is the goddess of books and music (talent), even she is worshiped with Ganesha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You'll like to read about Devdutt Pattanaik's blogs. He explains all these questions very well. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the link to his website: &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://devdutt.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="482" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-29T13:20:10.410" LastActivityDate="2014-09-29T13:20:10.410" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2169" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-19T00:03:55.207" Score="12" ViewCount="638" Body="&lt;p&gt;God (&lt;em&gt;Paratma&lt;/em&gt;) in Hinduism is beyond the realm of time, as a result of which He is eternal. According to the Hindu philosophy, each living creature possesses a soul (inner core of consciousness) which is a part of this universal consciousness (that of God Himself). The life of a creature is thus a mortal attire which is changed with each birth and death event cycle that a soul passes through, whereas the soul itself being a part of the God exists for eternity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does the Hindu philosophy has to say about the Rakshasas (demons or anti-Gods)? Do they also have to pass through birth-death cycles? Do they possess souls and if so are their souls also a part of God? Can they achieve salvation, i.e. do their souls unify with the universal consciousness (&lt;em&gt;paratma&lt;/em&gt;) ever?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="454" LastEditorUserId="454" LastEditDate="2019-05-01T22:03:14.070" LastActivityDate="2019-05-01T22:03:14.070" Title="Are the Rakshasas (demons) eternal?" Tags="|atma|moksha|rakshasa|samsara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2170" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2184" CreationDate="2014-07-19T00:41:13.933" Score="9" ViewCount="315" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Chapter 11 of Gita, Lord Krishna while showing the ViswaRoop (Universal form vision) to Arjun said that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Behold the two Adityas, the eight Vasus, the eleven forms of Siva,&#xA;  the twin Aswins  as well as the forty nine Maruts. Behold at once the&#xA;  whole universe of moving and  stationary beings situated in this one&#xA;  part of body of Mine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjun could see Brahma and Siva, the Gods of creation and destruction are seated within His body. I think this Gita chapter symbolizes the hypothesis that all Gods are nothing but different manifestations of the same God (&lt;em&gt;Paratma&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the Gita doesn't mention anything about the &lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt; (energy) or the &lt;em&gt;Prakriti&lt;/em&gt; (nature), the female counterpart of this Universal Being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is does the Hindu religious philosophy suggest bi-theism, i.e. two distinct Gods - the &lt;em&gt;Prakriti&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;Purush&lt;/em&gt;, or is it the case that it is essentially mono-theistic with both Prakriti and Purush being again two manifestations of the same Supreme Being?    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="454" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-19T12:54:55.217" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T18:43:46.720" Title="Is Hinduism religious philosophy mono-theistic (Paratma) or bi-theistic (Prakriti and Purush)?" Tags="|gita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2171" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2161" CreationDate="2014-07-19T03:36:40.467" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/D2Di&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana.  Ravana was told by his father Vishravas that he should attain the status of his half-brother Kubera the god of wealth.  (Kubera and Ravana were both sons of Vishravas, but they had different mothers.). So Ravana, along with his brothers Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana, went to the hermitage of Gokarna to engage in Tapasya (deep meditation).  Here is what Kumbhakarna in particular did:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Kumbhakarna, putting forth his best energies, constantly abode in the path of righteousness. And remaining in the midst of five fires in summer,he practised austerities, and in the rainy season, soaked in water (poured down) by clouds, he sat in the heroic attitude.* And in winter he always remained in the water. Thus passed away ten thousand years of that one putting forth exertions in behalf of religion, and established in the path of honesty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His brothers engaged in similarly arduous activities, until finally Brahma appeared before them and offered them each a boon.  Ravana asked for immortality, but was denied, so he asked that he would &amp;quot;be incapable of being slain by birds and serpents, Yakshas, Daityas, Danavas and Rakshasas, and the deities.&amp;quot;  Vibhishana asked to always be righteous, so Brahma granted him immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally Brahma went to ask Kumbhakarna what boon he wanted, but then at that very moment the gods approached Brahmna and begged him not to grant Kumbhakarna any boons for fear that he would cause even more mayhem:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Kumbhakarna thou shouldst. confer no boons, since thou knowest in what manner doth this wicked-minded one frighten people. And, O Brahma, seven Apsaras in Nandana, ten&#xA;attendants of Mahendra, as well as sages and human beings, have been devoured by this one. Considering what this Rakshasa did when he had not obtained any boon whatever, if he obtain one now he shall eat up the three worlds. Do thou then, O lord having immeasurable prowess, pretending to give him a boon, give stupifaction (instead). Thereby the welfare of people would be secured, and the honor of this one too shall be maintained&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Brahma asked his wife Saraswati, who is the goddess of speech among other things, to take control of Kumbhakarna's speech and make him wish for something that would benefit the gods rather than harming them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And [Brahma] the lord of creatures, on having her, spake unto Saraswati, &amp;quot;O Vani!  Be thou the goddess of speech of this foremost of Rakshasas, favorable unto the deities.&amp;quot; Having said &amp;quot;So be it,&amp;quot; she entered (within Kumbhakarna's throat) ; and [Brahma] said, &amp;quot;O Kumbhakarna, O mighty-armed one, do thou ask for the boon that thou wouldst have.&amp;quot; Hearing those words, Kumbhakarna said, &amp;quot;O god of gods, &lt;strong&gt;my wish is that I may sleep for a good many years&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot; Thereupon, saying &amp;quot;So be it,&amp;quot; Brahma along with the celestials went away; and the goddess, Saraswati, also again left the Rakshasa. And on Brahma accompanied by the deities going to the celestial regions, he was renounced by Saraswati, and then he regained his consciousness. And then the wicked-minded Kumbhakarna sorrowfully thought, &amp;quot;What is this speech that has to-day come out from my lips ? Meseems I had then been stupified by the deities that had come.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is how Kumbhakarna was cursed with sleeping.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should also be noted that in the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, Vibhishana gives an account of Kumbhakarna's sleeping curse where he neglects to mention the part about the Tapasya, but he does discuss how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga61/yuddha_61_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the curse was lessened&lt;/a&gt; to being able to be awake once every six months:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Humbled by Brahma's curse, Kumbhakarna then fell down in front of Ravana. Thereupon, the highly perplexed Ravana spoke the following words: &amp;quot;O Brahma! You are cutting off a well-grown golden tree, just at the time of yielding its fruit. It is not fair on your part to curse your own great grandson like this. Your words can never prove to be in vain. There is no doubt about it. He will have to sleep certainly. Let some space of time be fixed for his sleeping and waking.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing the words of Ravana, Brahma spoke as follows: &amp;quot;He will indeed sleep for six months and wake-up for a day.  On that single day, this male demon, having starved for six months, will wander over the earth and eat the human race with his month wide open, like an augmented fire.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the thing is Kumbhakarna was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga12/yuddha_12_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;already awake&lt;/a&gt; close to the beginning of the war between Rama and Ravana.  But Ravana, in his desperation to beat Rama, awoke Kumbhakarna only &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga60/yuddhasans60.htm#Verse17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;nine days&lt;/a&gt; after he went to sleep.  It was Kumbhakarna's being woken up at a time when he was supposed to be asleep that led to his death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-02T18:30:28.593" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2172" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2178" CreationDate="2014-07-19T13:18:38.963" Score="16" ViewCount="33003" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata, there is a story where Bhishma fought with his &lt;em&gt;guru&lt;/em&gt; (teacher) Lord Parashurama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the reason behind fighting with his &lt;em&gt;guru&lt;/em&gt;? And who won the fight?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-12T08:38:39.037" LastActivityDate="2019-08-16T02:15:18.630" Title="Why did Bhishma fight with Lord Parashurama?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|parashurama|bhishma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2173" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2170" CreationDate="2014-07-19T14:59:54.900" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vaishnava Acharyas have interpreted Hindu scripture in a monotheistic manner. The Samkhya system is dualistic postulating two ultimate realities, Purusha (Self - not the empirical self) and Prakriti, primordial nature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaita Vedanta says Brahman is not two. What does this statement mean?&#xA;Brahman is silence, according to Sankara (c. 788-820 AD). In a passage preserved only in Sankara's commentary (quoted by Swami Prabhavananda in 'The Spiritual Heritage of India') Brahman is described as silence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'&quot;Sir,&quot; said a pupil to his master, &quot;teach me the nature of Brahman.&quot;&#xA;  The master did not reply. When a second and a third time he was&#xA;  importuned, he answered: I teach you indeed, but you do not follow.&#xA;  His name is silence.&quot;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you accept Sankara's view then Hinduism can not be classified into any system!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-07-19T14:59:54.900" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2118" CreationDate="2014-07-19T15:21:07.290" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;These prophecies can be categorized into two. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prophecies in the scriptures &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;prophecies made by teachers/acharyas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that in Kaliyug rise of adharma will be there. Surely adharma is rising all over the world without any doubts. I think it can be considered as a prophecy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2015-05-20T17:24:07.767" LastActivityDate="2015-05-20T17:24:07.767" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2175" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2181" CreationDate="2014-07-19T16:11:51.657" Score="26" ViewCount="5150" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did Lord Mahavishnu get the Sudarśana Chakra? Why is it called the ultimate weapon among other weapons?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-16T21:33:11.443" LastActivityDate="2017-03-06T12:28:40.873" Title="What is the story of the &quot;Sudarśana Chakra&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|vishnu-purana|weapon|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2176" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2172" CreationDate="2014-07-19T17:04:55.620" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhisma was student of Lord Parshurama. In the Mahabharat , bhisma has given his words that he will give his full life to service the his father's kingdom. And when he will never get marry and create his own family. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When &quot;Kashi&quot;'s King arranged his 3 daughter's swayamvar ( a ceremony where girl choose life partner for marriage ) that time Bhisma went to that ceremony to get girl for his cousin son &quot;Vhichirtra Virya&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was tradition that Kashi's girl always get marry to &quot;Kuru-raj&quot; ( family of Bhisma ). So Kashi's king allow their daughter to get marry to &quot;Vhichitra Virya&quot;. Bhisma now come back to Hastinapur with all three girls.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three girls named were Amba, Ambika &amp;amp; Ambhalika. The first girl Ambha was in love with a king named &quot;Salved&quot;. She was about to marry with him in swamyavar. In Swayamvar when Salved king ask Bhisma for fight, Bhisma won. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when Amba told that she &amp;amp; salved king were in love, them bhisma didnt bring her to Hastinapur. But later on salved king didnt accept Amba as she was won by Bhisma in fight. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Abma has nobody to love &amp;amp; marriage. She went to Lord Parshuram for justice and then Lord parshuram invite his student Bhisma for fight. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This fight went for many years, but no body won the fight. The fight was stopped by Lord Shiva. That time Lord shiva blessed Amba that she will be reason for Bhisma's death one day. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see these answer in video format from &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVLleE8nWYs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharat's episode 3&lt;/a&gt; - This episode contains video of Swayamvar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M48WbsRpHMw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharat episode 4&lt;/a&gt; where Amba meets Lord Parshuram &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7adtITICbYY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharat episode 6&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_9NCCPAZIw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharat episode 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastActivityDate="2014-07-19T17:04:55.620" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2177" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2172" CreationDate="2014-07-19T17:44:06.577" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhisma had vowed to remain celibate throughout his life and not become a king. So his step brother Vichitravirya was to be the king. When Vichitravirya became of right age Bhisma started searching brides for him. The king of Kashi had three daughters namely, Amba, Ambika and Ambalika. The king announced a Swayambar where the participants had to fight in a battle and the winner would marry the three princesses. Bhisma won there above others and abducted the three princess. He let his brother Vichitravirya marry Ambika and Ambalika. But Amba loved Salwa so he let her go to Him. But Salwa didn't accept her as she was own and taken away by another person in a fight. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amba returns to Bhisma and asks him to marry her. But due to his vow, Bhisma denies. Hoping taht Bhisma wouldn't deny his Guru's order she takes refuge of Parshurama. Parshurama says &#xA;to Bhisma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Kauravya, thou acceptest not, for pleasing me, this daughter of the ruler of Kasi! O delighter of the Kurus, I cannot be gratified unless thou actest in this way! O mighty-armed one, take this maiden and preserve thy race! Having been abducted by thee, she obtaineth not a husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;strong&gt;Bhisma in favour of truth agrees to fight instead of breaking his vow&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, a battle rages between Bhisma and Parshurama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The battle goes on for around 23 days without any conclusion. Then Bhisma was stopped by gods from using Praswapa weapon as it would have humiliated his Guru. Parshurama was also stopped by Pitrus as he was not fighting for a proper reason being a Brahmana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O sire, never display such 'rashness again, the rashness, viz., of engaging in battle with Bhishma, or especially with any Kshatriya, O descendant of Bhrigu's race, to fight is the duty of a Kshatriya! Study (of the Vedas) and practice of vows are the highest wealth of Brahmanas! For some reason, before 'this, thou hadst been ordered by us to take up weapons. Thou hadst then perpetrated that terrible and unbecoming feat. Let this battle with Bhishma be thy very last, for enough of it thou hadst already. O thou of mighty arms, leave the combat. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;strong&gt;Parshurama declares the greatness of Bhisma&lt;/strong&gt; and tells Amba to take refuge of Bhisma instead:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'O damsel, in the very sight of all these persons, I have fought according to the best of my power and displayed my prowess! By using even the very best of weapons I have not been able to obtain any advantage over Bhishma, that foremost of all wielders of weapons! I have exerted now to the best of my power and might. O beautiful lady, go withersoever thou wishest! What other business of thine can I accomplish? Seek the protection of Bhishma himself! Thou hast no other refuge now! Shooting mighty weapons Bhishma hath vanquished me!' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amba being turned down by Bhisma gives up her life and later reborns as Shikhandi  and plays an important role in Bhisma's death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Mahabharat &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01103.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1.102&lt;/a&gt;,5.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05181.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;181&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05188.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;188&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;189&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-20T15:03:03.143" LastActivityDate="2016-03-20T15:03:03.143" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2178" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2172" CreationDate="2014-07-19T20:24:08.337" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhishma recounts the story in the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, but first some background.  Bhishma was the son of Shantanu, king of Hastinapura, and the goddess Ganga.  But Ganga abandoned Shantanu, and Shantanu later fell in love with a woman named Satyavati.  But Satyavati's (adopted) father Matsyagandha, the chief of a fisherman tribe, wouldn't consent to the marriage, because he was afraid that Bhishma and his descendants would rule Hastinapura rather than Satyavati's children.  So Bhishma made a vow that he would never become king, and that he would remain celibate so that his descendants would never claim the throne.  (It's because of that terrible vow that he got the name &quot;Bhishma&quot; or terrible.)  Then Matsyagandha agreed to the marriage, and in due course of time, Shantanu and Satyavati had two sons, Vichitravirya and Chitrangadaa.  When Shantanu died Chitrangada became king, but he soon died after a confrontation with a Gandharva because the two of them had the same name (yes, really!). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the throne now fell to Vichitravirya, who had no wives, but Bhishma heard that the King of Kashi was holding a Swayamvara for his daughters Amba, Ambika, and Ambilika.  So Bhishma went to Kashi to win those princesses for Vichitravirya.  He kidnapped the three princesses, fighting all the kings of the world when they tried to stop him, and brought them back to Hastinapura.  But then the eldest princess Amba informed Bhishma that she was in love with a king named Shalva, so Bhishma allowed her to go back to him.  But Shalva wasn't willing to take her back, because she had been abducted by another man.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amba was furious that Bhisma ruined her life, so to take revenge she went to Parashurama and asked for his help in killing Bhishma.  Parashurama was reluctant to do so, both because Bhishma was his former student and because he had made a vow that he wouldn't take up arms anymore.  But the sage Akritavana told Parashurama that it's not proper to abandon someone whom you have promised to help, and then &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05180.htm&quot;&gt;reminded&lt;/a&gt; him that he had also made an additional vow about taking up arms under certain circumstance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This also was, O great Muni, the vow then made by thee, O Rama ... that thou wouldst slay in battle the person, be he a Brahmana, a Kshatriya, a Vaisya, or a Sudra, who would be a foe to the Brahmanas. Thou hadst further promised that as long as thou wouldst live thou wouldst not abandon those that would come to thee in fright and seek thy protection, and &lt;strong&gt;that thou wouldst ... slay that proud warrior who would vanquish in battle all the assembled Kshatriyas of the earth&lt;/strong&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And since Bhishma, in the process of kidnapping the three princesses, had defeated all the kings of the world in battle, Parashurama was allowed to fight him.  And so he said &quot;Taking this maiden with me, I will repair myself to the place where Bhishma is. If Bhishma, proud of his achievements in battle, do not obey my behest, I will then slay that arrogant wight. Even this is my fixed resolve.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Parashurama went to Kurukshetra, the future site of the Mahabharata war, and asked Bhishma to come there.  Bhishma came immediately, eager to see his former guru.  Then Parashurama asked Bhishma to marry Amba, since no one else would marry her after having been abducted.  But Bhishma &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05181.htm&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; that he couldn't marry her himself because of his vow of celibacy, and he couldn't give her to his brother Vichitravirya because he had already promised to let her go to Shalva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Brahmana, I cannot, by any means, bestow this girl on my brother. O thou of Bhrigu's race, it was to myself that she said, I am Salwa's! And it was by me that she was permitted to go to Salwa's city. As regards myself, even this is my firm vow that I cannot abandon Kshatriya practices from fear or pity, or avarice of wealth, or lust!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Parashurama was left with no choice but to try to kill him.  That is how guru and shishya were forced to fight.  Now Bhishma was was wearing armor and sitting in a chariot, whereas Parashurama was just on foot, so Bhishma offered him weapons and a chariot as well, but Parashurama &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05182.htm&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; that he had no need for such things, being an incarnation of Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Earth, O Bhishma, is my car, and Vedas, like good steeds, are the animals that carry me! The wind is my car-driver, and my coat of mail is constituted by those mothers in the Vedas (viz., Gayatri, Savitri and Saraswati). Well-covered by these in battle, O son of Kuru's race, I will fight!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And so the first great battle fought in Kurukshetra commenced.  The more famous Kurukshetra war between the Pandavas and Kauravas took 18 days, but the war between these two heroes took 24 days.  By the 23rd night, Bhishma had tried all the maneuvers and weapons he could think of, but none of them were able to defeat Parashurama, so he prayed that the gods would suggest a path to victory while he slept.  (Like the Mahabharata war, this Kurukshetra battle was also fought between sunrise and sunset every day.)  And sure enough, in a dream the gods &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05186.htm&quot;&gt;told him&lt;/a&gt; that they would give him the knowledge of the Prashwapastra, a weapon formerly wielded by the god &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyaus_Pita&quot;&gt;Dyaus Pita&lt;/a&gt; (because Bhishma is an incarnation of Dyaus Pita):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rise, O Ganga's son, thou needst have no fear! We will protect thee, for thou art our own body! Rama, the son of Jamadagni, will never be able to vanquish thee in battle! Thou, O bull of Bharata's race, wilt be the conqueror of Rama in combat! This beloved weapon, O Bharata, called Praswapa, appertaining to the lord of all creatures, and forged by the divine artificer, will come to thy knowledge, for it was known to thee in thy former life! Neither Rama, nor any person on earth is acquainted with it. Recollect it, therefore, O thou of mighty arms, and apply it with strength! O king of kings, O sinless one, it will come to thee of itself! ... ! Afflicted by the force of this thy weapon, the son of Jamadagni, will fall asleep!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next day, Bhishma suddenly gained the knowledge of the Pashwapastra, but when he tried to use it, Narada and other gods came and stopped him.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05188.htm&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is Bhishma's account of it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I had aimed it, Narada addressed me, saying, &quot;Yonder, O Kauravya, stay the gods in the sky! Even they are forbidding thee today! Do not aim the Praswapa weapon! Rama is an ascetic possessed of Brahma merit, and he is, again, thy preceptor! Never, Kauravya, humiliate him.&quot; While Narada was telling me this, I beheld those eight utterers of Brahma stationed in the sky. Smilingly, O king, they said unto me slowly, &quot;O chief of the Bharatas, do even what Narada sayeth. Even that, O best of Bharata's race, is highly beneficial to the world!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And shortly thereafter Parashurama was approached by the spirits of his ancestors, who similarly told him to stop fighting, because Parashurama wasn't supposed to act like a Kshatriya anymore, and because Bhishma was destined to die at the hands of another:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O sire, never display such 'rashness again, the rashness, viz., of engaging in battle with Bhishma, or especially with any Kshatriya, O descendant of Bhrigu's race, to fight is the duty of a Kshatriya! Study (of the Vedas) and practice of vows are the highest wealth of Brahmanas! For some reason, before 'this, thou hadst been ordered by us to take up weapons....  Let this battle with Bhishma be thy very last, for enough of it thou hadst already....  Bhishma is one of the foremost of Vasus! ... -how can he be defeated by thee? Desist, therefore, O Bhargava! That foremost of the Pandavas, Arjuna, the mighty son of Indra, hath been ordained by the Self-create to be the slayer of Bhishma!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And so after some contretemps, Parashurama agreed to put down his weapons and surrender.  He told Amba that he couldn't defeat Bhishma and that Bhishma was the one she should seek refuge in.  But Amba wasn't interested in anything but revenge at this point and she said &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05189.htm&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As regards myself, I will not go a second time to Bhishma. I will, however, O perpetuator of Bhrigu's race, go thither, O thou endued with wealth of asceticism, where I may (obtain the means to) myself slay Bhishma in battle!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So she engaged in Tapasya (deep meditation) until Shiva appeared before her, and she asked that she be reborn as a man so that she could kill Bhishma.  Shiva granted her the boon, and Amba immediately jumped into a fire.  She was reborn as Draupadi's brother Shikhandi, who was instrumental in Bhishma's death, because Bhishma was unwilling to fight someone who had been a woman in a past life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-09-11T14:37:46.763" LastActivityDate="2014-09-11T14:37:46.763" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2179" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2185" CreationDate="2014-07-20T01:12:41.557" Score="17" ViewCount="1948" Body="&lt;p&gt;How many distinct independent paths/practices/methods are there to achieve Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can moksha be achieved through just one path/practice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If not, what are the minimum combinations of practice, and in which order must they be practiced?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there weightage to these practices, for example, a particular practice is valued 10 times another one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="488" LastActivityDate="2021-01-14T16:07:02.453" Title="How many distinct independent paths are there to achieve Moksha?" Tags="|moksha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2180" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-20T01:20:59.337" Score="10" ViewCount="1039" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the ultimate objectives in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Moksha the only ultimate objective?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="488" LastEditorUserId="488" LastEditDate="2014-07-20T02:09:58.080" LastActivityDate="2020-02-19T16:06:53.920" Title="What are the ultimate objectives in Hinduism?" Tags="|moksha|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2181" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2175" CreationDate="2014-07-20T01:26:13.543" Score="24" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Sudarshana Chakra was created by the divine architect Vishwakarma.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/545/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Vishwakarma's daughter Sanjana married Surya the sun god.  But she couldn't withstand his brilliance, so she ran away to the Earth.  Eventually Surya found her, and he told Vishwakarma to reduce his brilliance so that Sanjana would be able to be around him.  So Vishwakarma reduced Surya's brilliance an eighth, and then fashioned that excess brilliance into various weapons including the Sudarshana Chakra, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin//vp/vp076.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To diminish his intensity, Viśwakarman placed the luminary on his lathe, to grind off some of his effulgence; and in this manner reduced it an eighth, for more than that was inseparable. The parts of the divine Vaishńava splendour, residing in the sun, that were filed off by Viśwakarman, fell blazing down upon the earth, and the artist constructed of them &lt;strong&gt;the discus of Vishńu&lt;/strong&gt;, the trident of Śiva, the weapon of the god of wealth, the lance of Kártikeya, and the weapons of the other gods: all these Viśwakarman fabricated from the superfluous rays of the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chapter 78 of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramayana.pushpak.de/pdf/markandeya_en.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/a&gt; (page 137) provides more detail about what was made from the briliance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The earth was engendered by that portion of his effulgence which was identical with Rik - the etherial region was created by what was identical with Yajur and heaven by what was identical with Saman. The Divine Architect, made with those fifteen divisions of his effulgence that had been exhausted, the trident of Siva, &lt;strong&gt;the discus of Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;, the dreadful maces of Vasus, Sankara and the fire god, the conveyance of the god of riches and other shining weapons of Yakshas, Vidyadharas and other celestials.  Thenceforward the Divine Sun bears only the sixteenth portion of his effulgence, which was thus distributed into fifteen divisions by the celestial Architect Viswakarman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Vishnu didn't get the Sudarshana Chakra directly from Vishwakarma; he got it from Shiva, as the sage Upamanyu &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; to Krishna in the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The discus which thou bearest, O sinless one, was given unto thee by Mahadeva....  Wonderful and irresistible in energy it was given unto thee by that illustrious god. In consequence of its blazing energy it was incapable of being gazed at by any person save Siva the wielder of Pinaka. It was for this reason that Bhava (Siva) bestowed upon it the name of Sudarsana. From that time the name Sudarsana came to be current in all the worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Upamanyu says &quot;thou&quot; only because Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu, not because it's how Krishna himself got the Sudarshana Chakra.  Krishna actually got it from Varuna the ocean god, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1991/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. And since you asked about the power of the Sudarshana Chakra, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01228.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here's&lt;/a&gt; how Agni the fire god describes it to Krishna in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With this, O slayer of Madhu, thou shalt be able without doubt to vanquish in battle even foes that are not human. With this weapon, without doubt, thou shalt be superior in battle to men and gods, and Rakshasas and Pisachas, and Daityas and Nagas. And thou shalt certainly be able with this to smite all. And, O Madhava, hurled by thee in battle at thy foes, this weapon will irresistibly slay the enemy and again come back into thy hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Srimad Bhagavatam gives a &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/6/8/23&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;similar description&lt;/a&gt; of its power:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Set into motion by the Supreme Personality of Godhead and wandering in all the four directions, the disc of the Supreme Lord has sharp edges as destructive as the fire of devastation at the end of the [Yuga]. As a blazing fire burns dry grass to ashes with the assistance of the breeze, may that Sudarśana cakra burn our enemies to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should also be noted that when the demon Hayagrivasura stole the Vedas, he also stole Vishnu's Sudarshana Chakra, so Vishnu got it back after killing him in his Matsya incarnation, as Sugriva &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga42/kishkindhasans42.htm#Verse28&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in the Kishkindha Kanda of the Ramayana.  (The translation of that verse is inaccurate though, because it makes it sound as if Hayagrivasura always had it.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-04-16T21:34:14.770" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2182" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2180" CreationDate="2014-07-20T02:51:08.430" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, moksha is not the ultimate objective for all Hindus. Moksha is the goal for Advaita Vedanta. Vaishnava objective is Vaikutha where a Vaishnava will enjoy bliss with Krishna or Narayana eternally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People who follow Purva Mimamsa want to go to heaven at least until the merit due to Yajnas are exhausted. People who follow Samkhya probably want to be Prakritilina which will allow them to be controller of nature at least for one cycle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The objective of Yoga is Kaivalya which is a state of permanent cessation of the Gunas which work as cause and effect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kaivalya&lt;/strong&gt; or liberation (of Purusa) is the state of permanent cessation&#xA;  of the Gunas which work as cause and effect and after having brought&#xA;  about experience and liberation, have no further service to render to&#xA;  Purusa. In other words, Kaivalya is the state which is reached when&#xA;  the Supreme Consciousness is established in Its own self, i.e., when&#xA;  It is unrelated to or unconcerned with Buddhi, and remains alone for&#xA;  all time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English translation by Swami Hariharananda Aranya of Vyasa's Commentary on Yoga Philsosophy of Patnajali 4.34&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2020-02-19T15:29:25.310" LastActivityDate="2020-02-19T15:29:25.310" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2183" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2179" CreationDate="2014-07-20T03:05:45.463" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha is the goal of only Advaita Vedantins. There are broadly 2 &#xA;distinct paths. I am posting below a conversation from Mahabharata, &#xA;Adi Parva, Section XCII which discusses these distinct paths:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashtaka asked, 'Who amongst these, O king, both exerting constantly&#xA;  like  the Sun and the Moon, first attaineth to communion with Brahma,&#xA;  the ascetic or the man of knowledge?'   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yayati answered, 'The wise, with the help of the Vedas and of&#xA;  Knowledge, having ascertained the visible universe to be illusory,&#xA;  instantly realises the Supreme Spirit as the sole existent independent&#xA;  essence. While they that devote themselves to Yoga meditation take&#xA;  time to acquire the same knowledge, for it is by practice alone that&#xA;  these latter divest themselves of the consciousness of quality. Hence&#xA;  the wise attain to salvation first. Then again if the person devoted&#xA;  to Yoga find not sufficient time in one life to attain success, being&#xA;  led astray by the attraction of the world, in his next life he is&#xA;  benefitted by the progress already achieved, for he devoteth himself&#xA;  regretfully to the pursuit of success. But the man of knowledge ever&#xA;  beholdeth the indesctructible unity, and, is, therefore, though&#xA;  steeped in wordly enjoyments, never affected by them at heart.&#xA;  Therefore, there is nothing to  impede his salvation. He, however, who&#xA;  faileth to attain to knowledge, should yet devote himself to piety as&#xA;  dependent on action. But he that devoteth himself to such piety, moved&#xA;  thereto by desire of salvation, can never achieve success. His&#xA;  sacrifices bear no fruit and partake of the nature of cruelty. Piety&#xA;  which is dependent on action that proceedeth not from the desire of&#xA;  fruit, is, in the case of such men Yoga itself.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-07-20T03:05:45.463" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2184" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2170" CreationDate="2014-07-20T03:30:40.800" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is a religion that compromises of many schools of thought among which there are six prominent &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_philosophy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;philosophical systems&lt;/a&gt; that try to assert the nature and reality of our existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; concept of our existence belongs to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samkhya&lt;/a&gt; school of thought. As per Samkhya philosophy there is no God (a supreme ruling deity) who created the universe. The universe came into existence from primordial matter (Pradhana). Before the creation the three qualities &lt;em&gt;Satva&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; were in perfect equilibrium. But in course of time the symmetry broke and the universe came into existence. But &lt;em&gt;pradhana&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; being inert, there exists another fundamental unit called &lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt;, which is responsible for all that is  sentient in the universe. Hence, the world is an interaction between these two aspects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as per Samkhya Philosophy &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; are the two fundamental units of our existence, but not deities who can be worshipped. So this can be stated as a dualistic philosophy not bi-theistic. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now regarding Gita, it does talk about &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, the female counter part. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;shakti&lt;/em&gt; (energy), God is &lt;em&gt;shaktimaan&lt;/em&gt; (reservoir or withholder of energy)&lt;/strong&gt;. So it is the sentient &lt;em&gt;Shaktimaan&lt;/em&gt; who always controls the inert energy. Hence, controlling &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, God creates all the universes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.8]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Subduing the &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; under myself, I create the worlds again and again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Samkhya Philosophy only asserts upto the two fundamental units of our existence. It doesn't accept the existence of God above it because there are no direct proofs. But if we go through other scriptures, then we will find that &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt; are nothing but two energy aspects of the Lord Himself. So God is the controller of the two:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;eṣa vai bhagavān sākṣāt pradhāna-puruṣeśvaraḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 7.15.27]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - God Himself is indeed the lord of &lt;em&gt;pradhana&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;) and &lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;13th chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Gita is completely devoted to the discussion of prakruti and purusha. So the core of Vedic philosophy is monotheistic (God or &lt;em&gt;Paramatma&lt;/em&gt; is one without a second). But unlike other religions it accepts that the same God takes on many different forms and names as may be necessary. You may also want to read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/136&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; on a similar topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-07-20T03:30:40.800" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2185" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2179" CreationDate="2014-07-20T04:34:10.083" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Assuming that by Moksha you mean liberation from this material existence, not merging into he absolute (Brahman), following are the answers to your questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;How many paths exist?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There exists four fundamental paths for attaining liberation. They are Karma, Jnana, Dhyana and Bhakti. But dhyana being a physical technique that can be used both in the Jnana marga and Bhakti maraga, the total different paths can be said to be three. Other paths like  Yoga are subsets of these three. The Bhagavad Gita discusses about these different paths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Can moksha be achieved through just one path/practice?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, irrespective of any path you follow you will eventually achieve liberation. Just like many different roads lead to the same destination, the different paths lead to the same end objective of liberation. Paths like devotion are easy, but paths of Jnana, Dhyana are comparatively difficult. But you are not limited to only one path, you can follow all the there if you are eligible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;If not, what are the minimum combinations of practice, and in which order must they be practiced?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the point of view of easiness one should start from Karma Yoga, then proceed to Bhakti and then to Jnana. Having the mind fixed only upon the Lord is the utmost objective, but its difficult too. So the Bhagavat Gita in the 12th chapter describes the order suitable for a person depending upon his ability:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just ﬁx your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt. [BG - 12.8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My dear Arjuna, O winner of wealth, if you cannot ﬁx your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga. In this way develop a desire to attain Me.  [BG - 12.9]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you cannot practice the regulations of bhakti-yoga, then just try to work for Me, because by working for Me you will come to the perfect stage.  [BG - 12.10]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If, however, you are unable to work in this consciousness of Me, then try to act giving up all results of your work and try to be self-situated.  [BG - 12.11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Is there weightage to these practices?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, there is none. The thing is that, all these paths are circularly related. If you start from one and do it perfectly, you will automatically move to the other. Perfect devotion gives knowledge and perfect knowledge leads to the devotion of the lord. So there is no path small or big. It only depends upon the eligibility of the practitioner. Irrespective of whatever path you follow, when done perfectly it will award you knowledge. And perfect knowledge can lead you to the &lt;em&gt;jivanmukta&lt;/em&gt; state, that is liberated while living. It is because knowledge destroys every kind of action(BG - 4.37) and it is only action that acts as the seed of repeated birth here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, one thing to remember is that, because these are different paths, the experience you'll have will be different. That is, even though you'll achieve liberation from this material existence, where you will go and your experiences will be different. See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2182/38&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; for different objectives of different types of practitioners.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have actually asked very important questions. The complete answer to these cannot be given briefly. Discussing these in brief with scriptural quotes took around thirty pages on my book. So I have answered the gist here without quoting much scriptural verses. If scriptural references are required, then I can add them later when I get time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-20T04:34:10.083" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2186" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2180" CreationDate="2014-07-20T04:53:00.157" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The ultimate objective in Hinduism depends upon what school of thought or philosophy you are following. But the common thing in all of them is the same, &lt;strong&gt;liberation from this material mode of existence&lt;/strong&gt;. So getting rid of Samsara is the ultimate objective. But while staying on this material plane for a proper living many other things are required. Hence, taking those into account Hinduism lays out four objectives in life known as &lt;em&gt;chatruvarga&lt;/em&gt; or the four &lt;em&gt;purusarthas&lt;/em&gt;. They are: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; (this is the first priority, evey other objective must be done abiding to &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Artha&lt;/em&gt; (earning money for a sustainable living in the right way)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kama&lt;/em&gt; (creating progeny with wife for continuation of the race)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; (renouncing worldly activities and focusing on liberation from this material existence of repeated birth and death)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While these are the common objectives for a human here as per Hinudism, different philosophical systems layout their different objectives. For example, in the path of &lt;em&gt;bhkati&lt;/em&gt; the first three are called &lt;em&gt;bhukti&lt;/em&gt; (enjoymnet) and &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; is called &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; (permanent liberation into the absolute). And a devotee renounces both for eternal  association with God. For them Bhkati is the supreme most dharma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 1.2.6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-20T04:53:00.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2187" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-20T06:14:25.167" Score="26" ViewCount="14176" Body="&lt;p&gt;[&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; To be clear, I am not asking why Ravana wouldn't be harmed or killed by the Sudarshana Chakra; that's obvious.  I'm asking why and under what circumstances Vishnu launched the Sudarshana Chakra at Ravana.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Sundara Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, Hanuman sneaks into Ravana's palace and sees Ravana sleeping.  And in particular he sees &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/sundara/sarga10/sundaraitrans10.htm#Verse15&quot;&gt;Ravana' arms&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Hanuman also saw the wealthy Ravana's arms tied with golden armlets thrown apart, resembling flag staffs raised in honor of Indra.  Those arms had wounds made by stabbing from the pointed edges of tusks of Iraavata and fleshy shoulders smeared with diamond and &lt;strong&gt;hit by Vishnu chakra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of Vishnu hitting Ravana with his Sudarshana Chakra (discus weapon)?  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/bvwY&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana describes how when Ravana was attacking Devaloka, Indra asked Vishnu for help in fighting Ravana.  But Vishnu refused, saying that Ravana had a boon that he couldn't be killed by any god, but that he would soon incarnate on the Earth as Rama to defeat him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do not fear, hear what I have to say.  He is invincible by virtue of the boon, and that vicious-souled one is incapable of being vanquished even by the celestials and Asuras. Irrepressible by virtue of his prowess, that Rakshasa, with his son, shall accomplish a mighty object. O lord of celestials, even if I am requested by thee, I shall not withstand the Rakshasa, Ravana in the conflict. Without slaying the enemies in the encounter Vishnu doth never go back — but it is hard to fulfill my desire from Ravana, well protected by the boon. However I do promise before thee, O lord of the Devas, O performer of hundred sacrifices, I shall, soon become the cause of this Rakshasa's death.  I shall soon destroy Ravana with his family in due time and afford delight unto the Devas. I speak the truth unto thee, O king of the Devas, O lord of Sachi; do thou divested of fear, fight, O thou gifted with great strength, along with the Devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if Vishnu didn't fight Ravana during the battle of Devaloka, when did he hit Ravana's shoulder with the Sudarshana Chakra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-08-20T15:59:12.923" LastActivityDate="2023-08-20T15:59:12.923" Title="When was Ravana hit by the Sudarshana Chakra?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|ravana|asuras|sudarshana-chakra|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2189" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2180" CreationDate="2014-07-20T07:07:50.757" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha is only a purushartha (1 out of 4) - a duty according to the Hindu philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main goal is not just attaining Moksha but to serve the Creator of this universe, the Bramha (not lord Bramha). Everyone has his own jeevana karya out of which the primary goal is to be united with the ultimate God (Moksha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most important of all goals is to be a Human as vedas say &lt;code&gt;manurbhava&lt;/code&gt;&#xA;(be human).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also there are varying definitions for Moksha for every other pantha, but most important is that be a manushya and serve god as manushya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-09T15:35:54.180" LastActivityDate="2015-10-09T15:35:54.180" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2192" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-20T19:37:25.277" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-07-20T19:37:25.277" LastActivityDate="2014-07-20T19:37:25.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2193" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-20T19:37:25.277" Score="0" Body="For questions about marriage, practices and rituals associated with marriage that are specific to Hinduism." OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-21T06:40:14.373" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T06:40:14.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2194" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-20T19:42:21.610" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-07-20T19:42:21.610" LastActivityDate="2014-07-20T19:42:21.610" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2195" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-20T19:42:21.610" Score="0" Body="Monks are persons who have renounced worldly life and are involved in tapas and other religious pursuits. They are also referred to as Rishis and Sanyasin in Hinduism." OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-20T19:43:59.117" LastActivityDate="2014-07-20T19:43:59.117" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2196" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-20T19:46:20.410" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Read more about &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/vedas&quot;&gt;vedas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-20T20:02:34.887" LastActivityDate="2014-07-20T20:02:34.887" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2197" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-20T19:46:20.410" Score="0" Body="Sama Veda is the third of the four Vedas which are considered as the core Hindu Scriptures." OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-20T19:59:51.733" LastActivityDate="2014-07-20T19:59:51.733" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2198" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-20T19:53:01.477" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;For more information on Vedas, Visit &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/277&quot;&gt;http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/277&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-08-14T13:52:01.260" LastActivityDate="2016-08-14T13:52:01.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2199" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-20T19:53:01.477" Score="0" Body="Vedas are the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. There are four vedas viz., Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. They were compiled by Sage Vyasa." OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T18:59:32.087" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T18:59:32.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2200" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2211" CreationDate="2014-07-20T20:41:39.470" Score="10" ViewCount="1250" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80stika_and_n%C4%81stika&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Āstika&lt;/a&gt; schools mention these different types of muktis:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sārūpya, Sālokya, Sārṣṭi, Sāmīpya, Sāyujya, Viśate, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaivalya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaivalya&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moksha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Moksha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there more types of muktis in āstika schools? Which types of muktis are common across various āstika schools? Is viśate also a type of mukti? Are sāyujya and kaivalya same, but different terms in different schools?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: &lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110223015747AAtdK3T&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaivalya&lt;/a&gt; (Yahoo) mentioned in yahoo answer seems different from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaivalya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaivalya&lt;/a&gt; (Wikipedia) mentioned in Wikipedia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110223015747AAtdK3T&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;What is difference between Salokya &amp;amp; Sayujya Mukti...?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sārūpya : Equal bodily feature&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sālokya : Equal facility to live on the same planet with the Lord&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sārṣṭi  : Equal possession of opulence like the Lord&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sāmīpya : Equal association with the Lord&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sāyujya : Being merged into the existence or body of the Lord&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Viśate  : Devotees who are not at all anxious for any kind of liberation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaivalya: Merging into the effulgence of the Supreme Lord&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Update:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/group/krishnaconsciousness/forum/topics/sayujya-mukti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sayujya-mukti&lt;/a&gt;, which describes and discusses the 5 muktis in more detail, and also &lt;a href=&quot;http://swamitripurari.com/2004/05/mayavadis-brahmavadis-and-sayujya-mukti/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;mayavadis-brahmavadis-and-sayujya-mukti&lt;/a&gt;, both interesting reads on muktis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="488" LastEditorUserId="488" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T17:26:13.123" LastActivityDate="2014-07-22T17:26:13.123" Title="Which Āstika schools mention the different types of Muktis?" Tags="|moksha|mukti|philosophy|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2201" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2202" CreationDate="2014-07-20T20:53:57.330" Score="4" ViewCount="810" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the consumption of Paan leaf allowed under the rules of a Sattvic diet, or is it prohibited? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it matter how it is prepared, or what other ingredients are used?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-21T04:55:50.220" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T12:48:55.990" Title="Is Paan considered Sattvic?" Tags="|food|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2014-08-22T18:52:41.477" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2202" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2201" CreationDate="2014-07-21T00:21:42.020" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Betel leaves have a pungent taste, and pungent foods are &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/17/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; as Rajasic, not Sattvic, in the Bhagavad Gita.  I'm not sure whether there are any scriptures that give definitive lists of foods that belong to each category, but in any case &lt;a href=&quot;http://ayurveda-foryou.com/treat/foodtemparament.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/article429979.ece?service=print&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; both classify betel leaves as Rajasic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T00:21:42.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2203" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-21T03:03:29.647" Score="7" ViewCount="23575" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism there is month named &quot;Shravan&quot; which known as very holy month of Lord Shiva. Many People do fast during this month. Some people do fast only on every mondays and some does full month. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is seen that some people who do fast are not shaving or cut their hair during whole month. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the reason/story behind this ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already read the question &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2045/467&quot;&gt;Why do some Hindus observe fast during the month of “Shravan”?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2136/467&quot;&gt;Why we don't eat non-veg, don't intake liquor and some people don't shave while Shravan Maas?&lt;/a&gt;, but none of this contain the answer for what I asked in the question. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T10:09:59.403" Title="What is the reason for not shaving during Shravan Month?" Tags="|shiva|fasting|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2204" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-21T04:24:30.513" Score="5" ViewCount="766" Body="&lt;p&gt;During British rule, the town of Tirupati including its world-renowned &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_Venkateswara_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple&lt;/a&gt; came to be controlled by the East India Company, starting in 1801.  And the first East India Company official to control the area, a Collector named Stratton, was very interested in the temple, since it's one of the holiest sites in Hinduism, so he sent a bunch of questions to the temple officials asking all about the temple's history, traditions, stories, etc.  The record of his questions and their answers is known as the &quot;Sawal-E-Jawab&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/WxXj&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Sawal-E-Jawab claims that Venkateshwara (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, AKA Srinivasa or Balaji) is alluded to in the Taittirya Upanishad of the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is said in the Upanishads that [Venkateshwara] is the all-pervading Vishnu present in Vaikunta, on the earth and everywhere.  In the Taittiryopanishad, in the fifth Parva called &quot;Narayanam&quot;, it is stated that &lt;strong&gt;the Lord shines at the farther end of the water&lt;/strong&gt;, in the middle of this earthly region, and that he makes the other elements shine through his own light.  This is quoted from the commentary of Vidyaranya on the said Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason that &quot;the Lord shines at the farther end of the water&quot; seems like a reference to Venkateshwara is that the Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple is located at the Southern end of the Swami Pushkarini lake.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, where exactly is this statement in the Taittirya Upanishad?  It says it is in the &quot;fifth Parva&quot;, but as far as I can tell there's no such thing.  You can read the Taittirya Upanishad &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Taittiriya_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; it's only divided into three Vallis, and each Valli is divided into a bunch of Anuvakas.  And I tried searching through the work but I couldn't find any such quote.  Could the statement be from the Mahanarayana Upanishad instead?  The Taittirya Upanishad constitutes the seventh, eighth, and ninth Vallis of the Taittirya Aranyaka of the Yajur Veda.  But the tenth Valli of the Taittirya Aranyaka is called the Mahanarayana Upanishad, and the Sawal-E-Jawab does say that the quote is from something called the &quot;Narayanam&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the Sawal-E-Jawab isn't even claiming to take the statement directly from the Taittirya Upanishad, but rather from a commentary on the Upanishad by Vidyaranya, the brother of Sayana (who wrote a definitive commentary on the Vedas).  Does anyone know if Vidyaranya's commentary discusses the quote about being on the farther end of the water?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(P.S.  On a side note, some people may be wondering how the Vedas could possibly mention Venkateshwara, when the Vedas were around long before Rama and Krishna, and Venkateshwara came to the earth after Krishna.  But when people talk about the Vedas being of unfathomable age, they're talking about the the mantras found in the Samhitas of the Vedas.  Those mantras were heard directly from the gods by sages over countless generations, but they were compiled into the Vedic Samhitas by Vyasa at the end of the Dwapara Yuga.  So presumably the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads were only added to the Samhitas some time after the beginning of the Kali Yuga.  So since the Venkateshwara story took place shortly after the death of Krishna and the start of the Kali Yuga, there would have been enough time for information about him to be included in Upanishads.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-19T04:13:47.247" LastActivityDate="2015-09-19T04:13:47.247" Title="Where is the allusion to Venkateshwara in the Taittiriya Upanishad?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|upanishads|venkateshwara|taittirya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2205" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-21T05:56:38.863" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Avatara concept is used primarily in Hinduism for descents of Vishnu whom Vaishnava Hindus worship as the Supreme God. Shiva and Ganesha are also described as descending in the form of avatars. The Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana offers the details of Ganesha`s avatars specifically, the avatars of Vishnu also carry a greater theological prominence than those of Shiva or Ganesha and upon examination relevant passages are directly derivative of the Vaishnava avatara lists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most traditional form of Avatar within Hinduism is the incarnations of Vishnu, the preserver or sustainer aspect of God within the Trimurti or Hindu Trinity. Dasavatara is the ten Avatars of Vishnu in the Garuda Purana. Matsya is first avatar of Vishnu. However, the ten most famous descents of Vishnu are collectively known as the &quot;Dasavatara&quot; and denote avatars who were most prominent in terms of their influence on human society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first four of the avataras appeared in the Satya Yuga and the first of the four Yugas or ages in the time cycle were described within Hinduism. The next three avatars appeared in the Treta Yuga, the eighth descent in the Dwapara Yuga and the ninth in the Kali Yuga. The tenth is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga after some 427,000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though Avatars may appear in different forms at different times, places and circumstances, yet they are all the manifestations of the One Supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T18:44:46.320" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T18:44:46.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2206" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-21T05:56:38.863" Score="0" Body="avatara (Sanskrit: avataranam) means &quot;the decent of Supreme Being on earth for the ascent of man&quot;), means ‘descent’, and usually implies a deliberate descent of the Divine into the mortal realms to reveal the Absolute Truth to humanity and remind them of their true divine nature." OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T18:44:46.320" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T18:44:46.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2207" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-21T06:04:49.887" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-07-21T06:04:49.887" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T06:04:49.887" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2208" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-21T06:04:49.887" Score="0" Body="The Vishnu deity worshipped in the Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple in Tirupati, also known as Balaji or Srinivasa" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-07-21T07:04:48.263" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T07:04:48.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2209" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2108" CreationDate="2014-07-21T07:03:04.290" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would say Satyabhama kicking Shri Krishna is just poetic imagination. Satyabhma was proud of her beauty, chastity and love for Krishna. She always believed Shri Krishna loved her more. So when she heard from her maids that Shri Krishna had given the magnificent &lt;em&gt;parijata&lt;/em&gt; flower to Rukmani, she became jealous and arrogant:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;rūpayauvanasampannā svasaubhāgyena garvitā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  abhimnavatī devī śrutvaiverṣyāvaśaṃ gatā&lt;/em&gt;  [HP - 2.65.50]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The goddess endowed with beauty and youth, proud for her good fortune, became envious after hearing this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Shri Krishna went to Satyabhama leaving the company of Narada and Rukmani and talked with her, she said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;madīyastvamiti hyāsīnmama nityaṃ manaḥ prabho&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  adya sādhāraṇaṃ snehaṃ tvayi tāvadgatāsmyaham&lt;/em&gt; [HP - 2.66.47]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh lord, I had always thought you to be mine. But today I know that your love for me is ordinary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So she showed haughtiness, but did not kick Shri Krishna. Saints and poets sometimes just spice up things a bit more out of love and mischief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T07:03:04.290" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2210" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2167" CreationDate="2014-07-21T07:10:54.603" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yama is the son of Surya the sun god and his first wife Sanjana.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/545/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Vishwakarma the divine architect married his daughter Sanjana to Surya, but she couldn't bear the brilliance of Surya's rays.  So once when Sanjana was pregnant with Yama and his twin sister Yamuna, she closed her eyes upon the gaze of her husband, so angered by this Surya cursed her unborn children, as described in chapter 77 of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramayana.pushpak.de/pdf/markandeya_en.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/a&gt; (page 135):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As soon as she was espied by the sun Sajna used to close her eyes and therefore he, in anger, addressed to her cruel words: &quot;Since, O stupid one, you close yours eyes as soon as I cast my looks on you therefore will you give birth to Yama, the destroyer of creatures.&quot; Thereupon the goddess, stricken with fear, assumed trembling looks, at which the sun again said to her. &quot;Since beholding me, you have assumed trembling looks you will give birth, as your daughter, to the fickle river.&quot; Thus by the [cursed] of her husband she gave birth to Yama and the great river celebrated under the name of Yamuna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that Sanjana couldn't stand Surya's brilliance any longer, so she ran away to to earth, but she sent her shadow Chayya back to Surya to pretend to be her.  Chayya was really good at acting like Sanjana, and even had several children with Surya, but she treated her children better than Sanjana's children, so Yama once raised his foot to kick her, which led to him incurring another curse (page 136): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The illusory Sajna did not manifest that excessive affection towards the sons and daughter of Sajna as she did towards her own offspring. She daily looked after their own comforts. [Sanjana's first son] Manu forgave her for this but Yama could not do so. Then to strike her he raised up his foot in anger - and then immediately stricken with mercy he did not let it fall on her person. Thereupon, O twice- born one, the illusory Sajna, with her palms trembling and lips expanded in anger, imprecated a curse on Yama: &quot;Since, out of irreverence thou hast raised a foot against me who am thy father's wife thy &lt;strong&gt;that very foot shall drop off to-day&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Surya then realized that this woman was not Sanjana, because no mother would issue such a curse against her own son.  So Surya found out the truth and he went to the Earth to find Sanjana.  Sanjana agreed to come back, after Surya asked Sanjana's father Vishwakarma to his divine tools to reduce Surya's brilliance an eighth.  Afterwards Surya lived happily ever after with his two wives Sanjana and Chayya.  And he assigned each of his children a job, in particular making Yama the god of death (page 137):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[H]is second son Yama, on account of the [curse] of his mother, became of virtuous looks. His father brought about an end of his [curse] saying, - &quot;The worms, taking the flesh of his feet, shall fall down on the earth.&quot; Because he was of virtuous looks and impartial both towards his friends and enemies &lt;strong&gt;his father appointed him in the office of the Regent of the Dead&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more thing: you said that Yama &quot;carries dead persons from earth to yamaloka in his vehicle, a buffalo&quot;.  But Yama doesn't usually transport souls himself; his attendants the Yamadutas are the ones who usually do that.  The Vana Parva of the Mahabharata tells the story of Savitri.  When Savitri's husband Satyavan dies, Yama comes to take him, so Savitri asks him, &quot;I had heard that thy emissaries come to take away mortals, O worshipful one! Why then, O lord, hast thou come in person?&quot;  Yama says &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03295.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; in response:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This prince is endued with virtues and beauty of person, and is a sea of accomplishments. He deserveth not to be borne away by my emissaries. Therefore is it that I have come personally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So clearly he's making an exception to the standard procedure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T15:25:36.927" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2211" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2200" CreationDate="2014-07-21T09:18:32.963" Score="6" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Which &lt;em&gt;astika&lt;/em&gt; schools mention those &lt;em&gt;muktis&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These different types of muktis you have mentioned belong to the bhakti school of thought where God is considered to have a spiritual form with attributes (&lt;em&gt;sakara&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;saguna&lt;/em&gt;). But because bhakti school of thought doesn't directly belong to the six philosophical schools (&lt;em&gt;saddarshana&lt;/em&gt;), these concepts of mukti can be said to go under Vedanta &lt;em&gt;astika&lt;/em&gt; school. It is because the Vedanta school has many more subdivisions like advaita, dvaita, etc. of which bhakti is a major part having been suggested by four different Vedanta schools. So the concept of mukti is central to the Vedanta astika school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Are there more types of muktis?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;advaita&lt;/em&gt; system preached by Shankaracharaya is known as &lt;em&gt;kevala advaita&lt;/em&gt; (pure non-duality). It's a system that preaches the path of knowledge. So as per this school there are these two kinds of &lt;em&gt;muktis&lt;/em&gt; like &lt;em&gt;jivanmukti&lt;/em&gt; (liberated while alive) and &lt;em&gt;videhamukti&lt;/em&gt; (liberation without the body or after death). Scholars also mention many other types of &lt;em&gt;muktis&lt;/em&gt; as per the doctrine they preach.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Which types of mukti's are common across various āstika schools?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like I had already written in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2186/38&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; to your question, getting liberation from this material mode of existence is the common objective of all irrespective of how they define what happens after emancipation.  Astika schools like Samkhya and Nyaya give importance to the acquiring of right knowledge to cast out ignorance rather than to achieve &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt;. Then in the Mimamsa school of thought attaining heaven is called as &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt;. Hence, because &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; is the concept that belongs primarily to the Vedanta school, the Sayujya &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; where the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; merges into the absolute losing its name and form is common to all types of Vedanta schools of thought. But it may not be the objective of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is viśate also a type of mukti?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not sure where you read or heard it, but &lt;em&gt;visate&lt;/em&gt; is a word which simply means &amp;quot;enters&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;goes into&amp;quot;. So no, it's not a type of &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Are sāyujya and kaivalya same, but different terms in different schools?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No Kaivalya and Sayujya are not same. The concept of Kaivalya belongs to the Yoga school of thought. Attaining Kaivalya is the end objective for them. It is a kind of liberation where the &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; maintains its independent conscious existence and yet stays free from &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;. But in Sayujya mukti the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; merges in the effulgence of the Brahman forever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope this answers all the questions you asked in this post. You already have the Bhagavatam references from the yahoo question you mentioned. And in the Bhakti school of thought, Shrimad Bhagavatam is highly respected and also accepted as a source of valid knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T09:18:32.963" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2214" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-21T12:22:33.240" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rāvaṇa is the primary antagonist in the Hindu epic Ramayana, where he is depicted as the rakshasa and asura king of Lanka. Rama had once addressed Ravana as a &quot;Maha Brahman&quot; (Great Brahmam in the context of his education). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rāvaṇa is depicted and described as having ten heads. He is described as a follower of Shiva, a great scholar, a capable ruler and a maestro of the veena, but someone who wished to overpower the devas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His ten heads represents that his knowledge of the six shastras and the four Vedas. In the Ramayana, Rāvaṇa is the antagonist, kidnapping Rama's wife Sita to exact vengeance on Rama and his brother Lakshmana for having cut off the nose of his sister Surpanakha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-10-20T16:03:24.590" LastActivityDate="2014-10-20T16:03:24.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2215" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-21T12:22:33.240" Score="0" Body="Rāvaṇa is the primary antagonist in the Hindu epic Ramayana." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-22T17:03:44.173" LastActivityDate="2014-10-22T17:03:44.173" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2216" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2203" CreationDate="2014-07-21T12:39:21.020" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Religious reason for not Cutting &amp;amp; Shaving:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It would stem from a tradition. There probably is no proof, but it probably stemmed from/is akin to being a nazareth. Most people have some type of tradition that they practice to honor traditions of old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scientific reason for not Shaving:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shaving is not done in Shravan Maas because during that time, the Straight razor use to get infected by rust due to monsoon and it can cause skin injuries or you can say infections. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_razor&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;straight razor&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; There is no scientific reason for not cutting hair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="462" LastEditorUserId="462" LastEditDate="2014-07-21T12:54:13.267" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T12:54:13.267" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2217" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2201" CreationDate="2014-07-21T12:42:48.100" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I cannot say anything about paan as it is not mentioned in any of the scriptures and it is a by product of the ancient mouthfreshner known as tambul or tambool which is dry and is prepared for rituals nowadays and even during Havan or Yagna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The process is after the panchopchaar pooja in which 5 elements in different forms are offered to the diety, at last a mukprakshalan stuff is given known as tambool.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://khaugiri.blogspot.in/2009/02/tambul.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page teaches everything about tambul it's ingredients and recipies&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as devi devtas eat it, it is a sattvic product but only if you follow rules of tambul not the wet paan we see nowadays, It contains many harmful substances like the pan-masala and other chemical sweeteners which are carcinogenic in nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2014-07-21T12:48:55.990" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T12:48:55.990" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2219" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2231" CreationDate="2014-07-21T13:41:34.443" Score="26" ViewCount="138194" Body="&lt;p&gt;What were the reason(s) behind the fight between Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu? I think the Harivamsa Parva of the Mahabharata narrates this incident.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.startv.in/episodes/mahadev-and-lord-vishnu-fight-with-each-other/44126&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;story&lt;/a&gt; goes like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahadev makes Goddess Lakshmi realise that she has done a mistake by&#xA;  suspecting Lord Vishnu. Goddess Lakshmi pleads with Mahadev to bring&#xA;  Lord Vishnu back. Mahadev goes to the Patal Lok in Vrishabh’s disguise&#xA;  to bring Lord Vishnu back. Mahadev and Lord Vishnu fight with each&#xA;  other. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Their fight continues for years. Ganesha promises Parvati to&#xA;  put an end to Mahadev and Lord Vishnu’s fight. Lord Brahma becomes&#xA;  worried as Lord Vishnu attacks Mahadev with Narayana Astra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the actual story?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T19:51:58.653" LastActivityDate="2022-01-04T19:18:49.513" Title="Why did Lord Shiva fight with Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|shiva|vishnu|avatars|harivamsa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2220" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16085" CreationDate="2014-07-21T14:52:31.423" Score="14" ViewCount="9983" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the duration (timeline) of the four &lt;em&gt;Yugas&lt;/em&gt; in Hindu cosmology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="491" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-21T18:00:45.543" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T16:34:55.527" Title="What is the duration (Timeline) of the four &quot;Yugas&quot;?" Tags="|yuga|cosmology|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2221" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2220" CreationDate="2014-07-21T15:03:40.227" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Time Period of 4 Yuga's &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sat Yuga&lt;/em&gt; - 1,728,000 Solar Years&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Treta Yuga&lt;/em&gt; - 1,296,000 Solar Years&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dwapar Yuga&lt;/em&gt; - 864,000  Solar Years&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kali Yuga&lt;/em&gt; - 432,000 Solar Years&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;you see because of mercy lord cut through the time for Kaliyuga! For more information over Hindu time measurement, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time#Reckoning_of_time_among_other_entities&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;read here&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/yuga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;more-reading&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-04-08T15:36:36.133" LastActivityDate="2016-04-08T15:36:36.133" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2222" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-21T16:45:35.963" Score="8" ViewCount="883" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Namaskar&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Namaste&lt;/em&gt; is the traditional way of greeting/praying in India. Also in temples we use the same gesture to pray to the Lords. As Hinduism is hiding many unknown facts in it's rituals, curious to know about different views for this famous one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the actual origin of this practice and what does it actually signify? Is there any text/scripture mentioning the practice? (for example, may be in any yoga postures?) What is the internal meaning of this practice if any?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the significance/internal meaning which I came to know is this one: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;while praying, one hand represent the &lt;em&gt;Jeevathma&lt;/em&gt; and other hand represent the &lt;em&gt;Paramathma&lt;/em&gt;. When joining both hands together in front of God in the temple, the joined hands represent the concept of &lt;em&gt;Parabrahma&lt;/em&gt;, i.e. the concept that both the God(&lt;em&gt;Paramathma&lt;/em&gt;) and devotee(&lt;em&gt;Jeevathma&lt;/em&gt;) is the same &lt;em&gt;Parabrahma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T16:25:54.317" LastActivityDate="2019-02-06T10:26:02.657" Title="What is the origin of Namaskar? What does it signify?" Tags="|tradition|india|symbolism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2223" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-21T17:46:21.117" Score="15" ViewCount="1785" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rudraksham seems to have an important place in the Saivite sect of Hinduism. I have seen it being worn by many Saivite temple priests and many rishis (in their portrayals). Apart from priests, I have also seen people preferring to wear Rudraksha Maala around their neck. People also use it for prayer beads. Lord Shiva himself is depicted wearing Rudraksha around his hair, neck and arms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason for Rudraksha to have gained so much importance and popularity in Shaivism? Is there any mention about Rudraksha in the Scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-10T09:23:52.400" LastActivityDate="2020-05-21T21:02:42.810" Title="What is the significance of Rudraksha in Saivism?" Tags="|shiva|practice|shaivism|rudraksha|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2224" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-21T17:50:26.827" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-07-21T17:50:26.827" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T17:50:26.827" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2225" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-21T17:50:26.827" Score="0" Body="Shaivism is one of the six major sects of Hinduism, which reveres Lord Shiva as the Supreme Being. Shaivism holds that Shiva is the creator, preserver, destroyer, revealer and concealer of all that is." OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-21T18:07:55.193" LastActivityDate="2014-07-21T18:07:55.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2226" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2239" CreationDate="2014-07-22T01:37:14.473" Score="13" ViewCount="361" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have come across many symbols like ॐ , Swastika , Yantra and Lord Shiva's Trident that are generally associated with Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like the cross represents Christianity or crescent represents Islam, is there any universal symbol for Hinduism?    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2016-04-23T04:56:25.800" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T04:56:25.800" Title="Is there a universal symbol for Hinduism?" Tags="|symbolism|om|symbols|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2228" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-22T03:15:37.913" Score="19" ViewCount="7391" Body="&lt;p&gt;In India, it is tradition of touching feet of a relative who is elder in age (like grandfather/mother, uncle/aunt, in-laws) for blessing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason/story behind this ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T07:40:48.277" LastActivityDate="2021-10-23T05:57:42.980" Title="What is the reason to touch the elder person's feet for blessing?" Tags="|rituals|tradition|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2229" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-22T03:59:29.263" Score="15" ViewCount="89661" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many people who worship lord Shiva who prefer to be naked and they have ash &lt;em&gt;(Bhabhuti)&lt;/em&gt; powdered all over their body. I am not sure what these people are known as but I have seen them in Kumbhmela on Television. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These people always drink &lt;em&gt;Bhang&lt;/em&gt; and smokes &lt;em&gt;Chillum&lt;/em&gt;. They say that lord Shiva too has these habits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OV6by.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Credits : www.pinterest.com&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, is it true that lord Shiva drinks &lt;em&gt;Bhang&lt;/em&gt; and smokes &lt;em&gt;Chillum&lt;/em&gt;? Is it mentioned in any scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YyXKn.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Credits: lh6.ggpht.com&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T07:30:31.947" LastActivityDate="2019-03-14T13:25:43.377" Title="Does lord Shiva smoke Chillum?" Tags="|shiva|kumbh-mela|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2230" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2229" CreationDate="2014-07-22T04:06:22.043" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Those people are very well known as &quot;Naga Bava&quot; (Naked Saints). Lord Shiva lives in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmashana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shmashāna&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (a Hindu crematorium), Lord Shiva likes to have ash on his body. This is the reason this people also paste the ashes on their body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the significance of &lt;em&gt;Bhang&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Beedi&lt;/em&gt; : Bhang is very well known drink which normally people drinks during a festival named Shivratri. For the people who do Dhyan,  Bhang is very useful for them to concentrate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this doesn't mean that it is a normal drink like any other alcoholic drink. Bhang is very holy drink. It helps a person to bring Shiva in Dhyan mudra. These days people drinks it for enjoyment, which is wrong. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beedi is not the correct word. Correct word is Chillum. Chillum does the same purpose like Bhang does.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T07:39:30.277" LastActivityDate="2014-07-22T07:39:30.277" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2231" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2219" CreationDate="2014-07-22T04:28:15.367" Score="29" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are multiple incidents you could be referring to:.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The story depicted in the TV serial you linked to is (loosely) based on a story told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/7u3C&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shatarudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana, about a battle between Vishnu and Shiva's incarnation Vrishabha the bull, AKA Vrishesha.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most accounts of Churning of the Ocean end with Vishnu tricking the Asuras by turning into Mohini, and then the gods defeating the Asuras (demons) in battle after drinking the Amrita (nectar of immortality).  But the Shiva Purana tells a modified version of the story, where a bunch of beautiful Apsaras (nymphs) are born out of stray drops of Amrita, and the Asuras enchanted by their beauty kidnap them and take them to Patalaloka (the underworld).  Then the battle between the gods and the Asuras take place, and Vishnu in the course of fighting the Asuras chases them all the way to Patalaloka.  But then after he defeats them, he sees the beautiful Apsaras, and struck by the arrow of Kama (the god of love) he becomes enamoured of them.  So he fathers a bunch of children with them, and those sons soon becomes a menace to the three worlds:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu begot of them sons of great exploits and valour, experts in various kinds of warfare, shaking the entire earth.  Those sons of Vishnu of great strength and valour wrought great havoc both in heaven and earth causing misery to all.  On seeing the geat harm done to the worlds the gods and the sages approached Brahma and informed him of this after bowing to him.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Brahma goes to Shiva, informing of him of the mayhem caused by the sons of Vishnu, and asks Shiva to make Vishnu leave Patalaloka and stop his dalliances with those Apsaras.  So Shiva turns into Vrishabha the bull and goes into Patalaloka, killing Vishnu's sons and fighting Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then  bellowing  in  the  form of  a  Bull,  [Shiva] the  Pinaka-bearing  lord  entered  the  crevice  and  shouted  terribly.  At  his  bellowing  sound,  cities  and  towns  crumbled down  and  all  the  citizens  trembled.  Then  the  bull  attacked  Vishnu's sons  wielding  their bows  for  fighting,  deluded  by  Siva's  Maya and  proud  of their  great  strength  and  exploit....  [T]he  sons  of  Vishnu became  furious.  Those  heroes  roared  loudly  and  rushed  against  Siva.  Rudra  in  that  form  of  a  bull  was  furious  at  those sons of  Vishnu  who  rushed  at  him.  He  kicked  them  with his  hoofs  and  tore  them  with  his  horns.  When  their  limbs  were  split  by  Rudra,  they  swooned  and  lost  their  lives.  They  were  immediately  destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When  they  were  killed  Vishnu  the  foremost  of  the strong  came  out  shouting  loudly  and  hastened  towards  Siva.  On  seeing  Siva  in  the  form of a bull going along after killing  his  sons,  Vishnu  hit  him  with  divine arrows and&#xA;  missiles. Then  the  infuriated  Siva,  the  highly  powerful  one in  the  form  of  a  bull  stood  like  a  mountain  and  caught hold  of  all  those  missiles  of  Vishnu.  O  sage,  shouting  furiously,  lord  Siva  in  the  form of a  bull  shook  the  three  worlds  terribly.  The  lord  leaped  up  suddenly  and  kicked  the  infuriated  Vishnu who  was  deluded  and  could  not  realise  him. The  lard  then  tore  him  with  his  horns.  Unable  to  bear  the  onslaught, Vishnu  deluded  by Maya  was  exhausted  and  utterly  shattered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vishnu finally snaps out of the Maya and realizes that the bull is Shiva.  Embarrassed that he didn't recognize Shiva sooner, Vishnu leaves his Sudarshana Chakra (discus weapon) in Patalaloka and returns to Lakshmi, and Shiva provides him with a new Sudarshana Chakra, even more powerful than the old one.  (The Sudarshana Chakra was anyway provided by Shiva, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2181/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should make clear that this story is probably not authentic, but rather a later interpolation to the Shiva Purana, because no story remotely like this is found in any other Puranas or other Hindu scriptures.  And there are no other scriptures that mention Vishnu begetting children with women other than his wives.  (But there are references to Vishnu having children with Lakshmi in the Sri Sukta of the Rig Veda Khilani, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/868/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;You mentioned the Harivamsa, but story above doesn't occur in the Harivamsa.  The Harivamsa does describe, however, a battle between Shiva and Vishnu's incarnation Krishna, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_124.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_125.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Parva.  (It's also described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/63/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna's grandson Aniruddha was once kidnapped by the demon Bana (son of Mahabali), who had captured Aniruddha after he discovered that his daughter Usha and Aniruddha were in love.  So Krishna came with Balarama and the armies of Dwaraka to defeat Bana and rescue his grandson.  They soon defeated Bana's armies, so Shiva and his Gana army came to Bana's aid, since Bana was a great devotee of Shiva.  Thus begin an epic battle between Krishna and Shiva, where they launched many powerful Astras (magical weapons) at one another.  The battle became so destructive, with Krishna winning, that Bhumidevi the goddess of the Earth worried that the Earth wouldn't survive it, so she asked Brahma to put an end to it.  Brahma approached Shiva and &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_125.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;asked him&lt;/a&gt; to stop fighting:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The lord Brahma looked at Rudra (Shiva) and spoke the following words: &quot;The destruction of great demons has started now (with your consent). Then why are you protecting them?  O the one with great arms! I do not like your fighting with Krishna. Also you are not understanding Krishna with your intellect. Your soul is divided in two parts (of which one is Krishna).&quot;  When he was advised thus by Brahma, the lord (Shiva), the lord who does not have any decline, entered his (own) body by yoga and visualized the entire three worlds along with all the moving and fixed beings.  Then Rudra (Shiva) who is born from a single source, realized his own soul as the soul of Krishna (Brahma - the ultimate soul).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shiva realized that Krishna was none other than Vishnu, who is Paramatma the supreme soul and thus undefeatable, so he surrendered.  In case you're wondering, Krishna was successful in defeating Bana and rescued Aniruddha, but he spared Bana's life because Bana was the great-grandson of Vishnu's great devotee Prahlada.  And Bana too became friendly with Krishna.  So Aniruddha married Bana's daughter Usha and everyone went back to Dwaraka.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Strictly speaking neither of the above stories actually describe a battle between Vishnu and Shiva; the first story is about a battle between Vishnu and Shiva's incarnation Vrishabha, and the second story is about a battle between Shiva and Vishnu's incarnation Krishna.  As far as I'm aware, the only battle between Vishnu and Shiva themselves is the one &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga75/bala_75_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described by Parashurama&lt;/a&gt; in the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, and Vishnu won it merely by saying &quot;hum&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once, all the gods were asking the Grandparent, Brahma, as to who is powerful and who is less powerful among the blue-throated Shiva and Vishnu, but the Grandparent Brahma on inferring the intent of gods started to create adversity among those two, Shiva and Vishnu, for the Grandparent is the best adherer of truthfulness, as truth cannot be demonstrated on hearsay evidence.  Owing to their animosity then occurred a fierce and hair-raising war among Shiva and Vishnu, as each aspired victory for himself. By the 'hum' sound of Vishnu that ruinously overpowering longbow of Shiva is broken, and the triple-eyed God, Mahadeva, is frozen.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then gods along with the assemblages of sages and celestial carana-s have come together and appealed to those two for appeasement in the matter of wielding authority, and then those two superior gods, Shiva and Vishnu, went into a state of amity. On seeing the bow of Shiva rendered inert by the mettlesomeness of Vishnu, from then on &lt;strong&gt;the gods along with the assemblages of sages deemed Vishnu to be the paramount&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case you're wondering, Shiva's bow is the same one that was later broken by Vishnu's incarnation Rama to win Sita's hand in marriage.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, there is also a story of a battle between Vishnu's incarnation Narasimha, Shiva's incarnation Sharabha, and Vishnu's incarnation Gandhabherunda, which I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/191/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, but I haven't found a full scriptural basis for that story yet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-02-22T18:16:41.607" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2232" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-22T05:41:28.317" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Astrology is based on the fundamental observation that what happens above in the sky impacts the life down below on earth. So the movement of planets, stars and other celestial objects are noted to track time and predict the course of a person's life. Basing upon years of observation astrologers have formulated rules and noted patterns that can be used for various types of astrological calculations including the fate and destiny of a person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Use this tag when asking about astrological time system, concepts related to astrology, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T06:57:56.807" LastActivityDate="2014-07-22T06:57:56.807" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2233" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-22T05:41:28.317" Score="0" Body="The branch of knowledge that deals with study of planetary positions to calculate time and determine its auspiciousness, forecast events, predict future and so on." OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T06:57:40.353" LastActivityDate="2014-07-22T06:57:40.353" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2234" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="288" CreationDate="2014-07-22T06:57:48.773" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pravruti&lt;/em&gt; means indulgence in material activities and &lt;em&gt;nivruti&lt;/em&gt; means non-indulgence in them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas have two primary portions, &lt;em&gt;Karma Kanda&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Jnana Kanda&lt;/em&gt;. The Karma kanda portion of the Vedas lead out the path of &lt;em&gt;pravruti&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;Jnana Kanda&lt;/em&gt; part of the Vedas (to which the Upanishads belong) lead out the path of &lt;em&gt;nivruti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the path of &lt;em&gt;pravruti&lt;/em&gt;, one can obtain heaven and higher planets by properly following the scriptural injunctions and the &lt;em&gt;varnashrama&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;. But in the path of &lt;em&gt;nivruti&lt;/em&gt;, the sole objective is attainment of the formless Brahman, there is no desire for personal enjoyment or worldly emotions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas contain &lt;em&gt;pravruti&lt;/em&gt; way because it is better to follow scriptural injunctions and prohibitions and go to heaven than to lead an unregulated barbaric life and fall to hell. So the Bhagavatam explains:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;phalaśrutiriyaṃ nṝṇāṃ na śreyo rocanaṃ param&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śreyovivakṣayā proktaṃ yathā bhaiṣajyarocanam&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.21.23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Those statements of scripture promising fruitive rewards do not prescribe the ultimate good for men but are merely enticements for executing beneficial religious duties, like promises of candy spoken to induce a child to take beneficial medicine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And because the path of &lt;em&gt;nivruti&lt;/em&gt; doesn't award the asscoication with the Lord, in Bhagavatam Shri Krishna says to give up both &lt;em&gt;pravruti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;nivruit&lt;/em&gt;, both scriptural injunctions and prohibitions, and practice only His devotion:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tasmāt tvam uddhavotsṛjya codanāṁ praticodanām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca śrotavyaṁ śrutam eva ca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mām ekam eva śaraṇam&lt;/em&gt;[SB - 11.12.14,15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Therefore, My dear Uddhava, abandon the Vedic mantras as well as the procedures of supplementary Vedic literatures and their positive and negative injunctions. Disregard that which has been heard and that which is to be heard. Simply take shelter of Me alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-22T06:57:48.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2235" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2226" CreationDate="2014-07-22T07:44:16.410" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;ॐ, is the actual symbol, others are derivatives. The ॐ represents 'OMKAR' the supreme entity, defined as 'OM KE AKAR WALA', looking like ॐ .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastActivityDate="2014-07-22T07:44:16.410" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2236" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2220" CreationDate="2014-07-22T07:46:45.427" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Sri Yukteswar (&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holy_Science&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Holy Science&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;), the duration of the four Yugas are:     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satya Yuga:  4800 years  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Treta Yuga: 3600 years  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dwapara Yuga:  2400 years  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kali Yuga: 1200 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Remark&lt;/strong&gt;: Personally, I do not know if Sri Yukteswar right, but this answer should be given until the lighting is done on this matter. Sometimes masters transmit erroneous information for subtle reasons... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20" LastActivityDate="2014-07-22T07:46:45.427" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2237" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2241" CreationDate="2014-07-22T08:07:56.620" Score="46" ViewCount="60354" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that Jesus is an avatar of Lord Vishnu (or even a reincarnation of Krishna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2022-11-05T12:27:54.590" LastActivityDate="2022-11-05T12:27:54.590" Title="Is Jesus an avatar of Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|avatars|christianity|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2238" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="101" CreationDate="2014-07-22T08:16:30.150" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Linga form is believed to be introduced by Lord Shiva himself, to settle the dispute among Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma. This is a brief narration of the incident that jabahar has mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/819/81&quot;&gt;his answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once, Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma were fighting over each other's supremacy. Worried by the intense fight between them, Shiva decided to make them realize the futility of their fight. He took the form of a flaming pillar (linga) between Brahma and Vishnu, challenging both of them to measure the gigantic Linga. They accepted the challenge and decided to find one end each to establish supremacy over the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu took the form of a Varaha (boar) and went into the earth (patala loka) to find the bottom end of the Linga. Brahma assumed the form of a swan and flew up to find the top end of the Linga. Even after a very long journey, they were not able to find the end of the Linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On his way upward, the exhausted Brahma met a Ketaki flower which fell from the Linga. Brahma got the flower to agree to support his claim of having seen the top of the Linga. Then Brahma descended and met Vishnu and lied to him that he has reached the top. As agreed, the Ketaki flower also supported Brahma's claim.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The unethical act of Brahma enraged Lord Shiva and he appeared with his full glory from the central part of the pillar. Overawed by Lord Shiva's magnificence, Vishnu and Brahma bowed before him. However, the enraged Shiva cursed Brahma, that would never be worshipped nor would he have any temples. Shiva also banned Ketaki flower from being used in any worship as an offering to the gods. Shiva, impressed by Vishnu's perseverance, granted him a status equal to that of himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Lord Shiva manifested himself in the Linga form, Shiva is widely worshipped as a Lingam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2014-07-22T08:16:30.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2239" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2226" CreationDate="2014-07-22T08:22:25.597" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aum ॐ is considered as the Bramha Naad the first naad or sound made after the creation this was considered to be made out of the Big Bang Explosion (HiranyaGarbha(golden Cosmic Egg) Expanding).Scientifically you can think it as the CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background radation) left as traces after the Incident of Big Bang. As Aum is complete in itself and the first naad after creation it is also considered as Mantra Raaj (king of all mantras) as Mantras are the made out of naad (vibes or energy waves) , ॐ is Sampurna Naad (whole naad). That's why ॐ is not only a symbol for hinduism but for everything in this universe , it contains the whole universe in itself ,it is the universe itself not just a &lt;code&gt;universal symbol&lt;/code&gt; ,and talking about Sanatan (hindu) Dharma it is the one which talks only about supreme truth, so we have taken veda vaani (word of vedas) to make ॐ our universal symbol(vedas depict aum as the Bramha Naad).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2014-08-11T13:20:18.683" LastActivityDate="2014-08-11T13:20:18.683" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2241" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2237" CreationDate="2014-07-22T08:38:06.713" Score="49" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Bhavishya Purana, Jesus is reincarnation of one of the greatest &lt;em&gt;Bhaktas&lt;/em&gt; of lord Vishnu known as &lt;strong&gt;Dhruva Rishi&lt;/strong&gt;. That's why he was born out of &lt;em&gt;kumari garbha&lt;/em&gt; (virgin's womb) under Pole star (&lt;em&gt;Dhruva Tara&lt;/em&gt; in Hindi). Bhavishya purana addresses Jesus reincarnation of Dhruva Rishi as &lt;code&gt;Kumarigarbhasambhavaam&lt;/code&gt;(born from a virgin Kumari).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/jesus_predicted_in_the_vedic_literature.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhavishya purana describing about Jesus Christ&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is some of the excerpt from above source:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dr. Vedavyas, a research scholar with a doctorate in Sanskrit, discusses some important prophecies from the Bhavishya Purana, which he says dates back to 3000 B.C. He states that one prophecy describes the future appearance of Isha putra, the son (putra) of God (Isha)(Jesus Christ), born of an unmarried woman named Kumari (Mary) Garbha Sambhava. He would visit India at the age of thirteen and go to the Himalayan Mountains and do tapas or penance to acquire spiritual maturity under the guidance of rishis and siddha-yogis before going back to Palestine to preach to his people. So, if Jesus was trained by the sages of India, this would explain why he was able to perform various miracles (siddhas). It also explains why there are so many philosophical similarities between early Christianity and Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; Bhavishya Purana is no longer in yathaswaroop (as it was) nd Bhavishya Purana is a controversial subject and is not considered genuine (as it was written), &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/indian-religions/hinduism/really-prophecy-jesus-vedas/#&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;More on this subject&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't mean any Offence on (towards) any Religion or anyone's religious believes. I am just expressing what I came to know when I searched for Jesus in Sanatan Dharma Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as a concluding statement, it is up to your buddhi/viveka (intellect) to decide what is correct or incorrect, and seeing the proofs I say &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;JESUS WAS/MIGHT-BE A BHAKTA NOT AVATAR OF Shriman Narayana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-04-12T20:49:53.737" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T20:49:53.737" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2242" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="425" CreationDate="2014-07-22T08:42:01.520" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pouring milk on the Shivling is process of Abhishek. Abhishek is the process of bathing the deity. According to Shiv Aagam (Poojaa rules) Abhishekam is considered as one part of the Shodashopachaar Poojaa. Shiv will be pleased by the process of bathing. If you pour a drop of water on the ‘Ling form’ you will the blessings of Shiv. Since Shiv is widely worshiped in the form of the Shiv Ling as well as presiding deity, Annaabhishekam will be performed only to Shiv Ling. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiv Ling Abhishek is done with the prescribed 11 ingredients:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gingely oil&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Panchgavya (mixture of five ingredients ie milk, yogurt or yoghurt, ghee and cow's urine)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Panchaamrit (mixture of five ingredients - milk, yogurt, ghee, honey and sugar candy)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ghee&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Milk&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Curd or yoghurt&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Honey&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sugar cane juice&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lime juice&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tender coconut water&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sandal paste&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastActivityDate="2014-07-22T08:42:01.520" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2243" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2245" CreationDate="2014-07-22T09:00:51.770" Score="3" ViewCount="5538" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu temples we can see that many people does Dandvat Pranam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qe6GU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why it is consider as more important than normal namaskara mudra ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T09:09:59.267" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T11:05:29.257" Title="Why dandvat pranam has more importance?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2014-07-22T12:45:57.637" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2245" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2243" CreationDate="2014-07-22T09:05:53.907" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So Krisna worship, mad-yaji, worshiping Krisna... Krisna says, &quot;Worship&#xA;  Me.&quot;  What is that? Mam namaskuru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you simply come in this temple and offer little obeisances,&#xA;  dandavat...  Danda, danda means &quot;rod&quot;;  vat means &quot;like.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just like one stick falls straight on the ground, similarly, if we&#xA;  fall straight before the Deity, that is called dandavat, &quot;like the&#xA;  stick.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dandavat-pranama. Prakrsta-rupena namrata.  Namrata is required. &#xA;  Jnane prayasam udapasya namanta eva.  Namanta. Be submissive.  So this&#xA;  dandavat is the symbolic presentation of submission. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Krisna wants that sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja&#xA;  [Bg. 18.66], submission. The bhakti process is simply submission. So&#xA;  mad-yajino 'pi yanti mam [Bg. 9.25].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who have not studied Vedic literatures. The temples are installed for this(Dandavat-pranama) purpose. If somebody comes, simply offers his obeisances before the Deity or before the spiritual master simply by doing that(Dandavat-pranama), he will become perfect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prabhupadavani.org/main/Bhagavatam/397.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Prabhupadavani&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-09T11:05:29.257" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T11:05:29.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2246" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-22T09:24:58.627" Score="17" ViewCount="11669" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_H._Dowling&quot;&gt;Levi H. Dowling&lt;/a&gt; wrote the book &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aquarian_Gospel_of_Jesus_the_Christ&quot;&gt;The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The title of section VI is: &lt;strong&gt;Life and Works of Jesus in India&lt;/strong&gt;, here is an &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Aquarian_Gospel_of_Jesus_the_Christ/Chapter_21&quot;&gt;extract&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;And Jesus was accepted as a pupil in the temple &lt;strong&gt;Jagannath&lt;/strong&gt;; and here learned the Vedas and the Manic laws.&quot; &lt;em&gt;section VI, chapter 21, verse 19&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mark Mason wrote the book &lt;em&gt;In Search of the Loving God&lt;/em&gt;, here is an &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.markmason.net/ch4ex1.htm&quot;&gt;extract&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Daya Mata, president of Self-Realization Fellowship, went to India&#xA;  in 1959, and in an interview with one of India's great spiritual&#xA;  leaders, His Holiness Sri Bharati Krishna Tirtha, the Shankaracharya&#xA;  of Puri, she mentioned that she had been told that Jesus &quot;spent some&#xA;  of his life in India, in association with her illumined sages. His&#xA;  Holiness replied, 'That is true. I have studied ancient records in the&#xA;  Puri Jagannath Temple archives confirming those facts. He was known as&#xA;  &quot;Isha,&quot; and during part of his time in India he stayed in the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Jagannath&lt;/strong&gt; Temple. When he returned to his part of the world, he&#xA;  expounded the teachings that are known today as Christianity.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Jesus really visit Jagannath Temple of Puri?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Remark&lt;/strong&gt;: The two quotes above are not &lt;em&gt;proofs&lt;/em&gt; of such a visit, but just clues. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there &lt;em&gt;published&lt;/em&gt; &quot;ancient records in the Puri Jagannath Temple archives confirming those facts&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T16:41:37.360" Title="Did Jesus visit Jagannath Temple of Puri?" Tags="|temple|india|christianity|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="12" ClosedDate="2021-03-20T04:50:31.667" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2247" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-22T10:21:14.080" Score="14" ViewCount="8332" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata when five Pandavas &amp;amp; their wife went into forest for 12 years they lost the game of Chopat with Duryodhana, that time Draupadi used to cook food in a patra ( dish/bowl ) named Akshaya Patra ( Akshaya meaning never finishing ). She can get as much food as she want for their daily need. Once after Draupadi eats her meal, the Akshaya patra  stops producing food for same day. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So When Pandavas returned to their home back, what happened to that Akshaya Patra ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-22T07:45:56.500" LastActivityDate="2018-10-09T15:00:10.843" Title="What happened to the Akshaya Patra after the exile?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|draupadi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2248" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-22T10:33:16.987" Score="21" ViewCount="53674" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharat, Karna was the son of Lord Sun. The Sun has given him Kavach (Breastplate Armor) &amp;amp; Kundal (Ear-rings) to protect him. This Kavach &amp;amp; Kundal were attached to his body. As long as this Kavach &amp;amp; Kundal were protecting Karna, no weapon could harm him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna has a habit of giving donation daily after the giving &lt;em&gt;ardhya&lt;/em&gt; to Sun in the morning. When the Mahabharata's fight was about to begin, Indra went to Karna and asked for his Kavach &amp;amp; Kundal. Karna gave his Kavach &amp;amp; Kundal to Indra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then, What Indra did with Kavach &amp;amp; Kundal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-21T07:43:35.903" LastActivityDate="2018-04-05T13:57:03.783" Title="What happened to Karna's Kavach &amp; Kundal?" Tags="|mahabharata|indra|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2249" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2251" CreationDate="2014-07-22T11:06:48.677" Score="29" ViewCount="10609" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4/124&quot;&gt;this post&lt;/a&gt; recently where @jabahar explains about &lt;em&gt;Are people always reborn as people?&lt;/em&gt; where user answers as &amp;mdash;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Depending upon karma a jivatma (spirit) may reborn in the body of&#xA;  other animals. As per Shrimad Bhgagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhūtāni tais tair nija-yoni-karmabhir bhavanti kāle na bhavanti&#xA;  sarvaśaḥ [SB - 7.2.41]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In course of time every being receives a material body as per his&#xA;  corresponding actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I got that we can be incarnated as any species but does the karma of previous life affect the new life? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question I asked is because some people say that &lt;em&gt;we pay for our sins in the same life&lt;/em&gt;, so if this is true than why we are reincarnated based on karma as we have already paid for our bad deeds in the same life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if karma of past life isn't considered than why people have troubles with their lives because on the other hand people say &lt;em&gt;you are getting troubles in this life because you did something bad in the past life&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also read about &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/138/how-exactly-does-karma-work?rq=1&quot;&gt;How exactly does karma work&lt;/a&gt; but I am syncing the two major aspects i.e karma and rebirth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-04-25T20:14:47.243" LastActivityDate="2023-04-25T20:14:47.243" Title="Does the karma from the previous life affect the current life?" Tags="|death|karma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2251" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2249" CreationDate="2014-07-22T12:38:00.450" Score="36" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Yes, it does.&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To know why we have to reborn even though we underwent &amp;amp; experienced some karmic outcome in the same life we need to understand the three types of Karma, &lt;em&gt;viz&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;sanchita&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;arjita&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;(accumulated/stored/preserved), &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;prārabdha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;(preordained/ripe) and &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;kriyamāna&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;āgama&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (accumulating/ongoing/current):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;prārabdhāgāmyarjitāni karmatrayamitīritam&lt;/em&gt; [Varah Up. - 12]&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Prārabdha, āgami and arjita, these are the three karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The coming of existence (creation) and ceasing of existence (dissolution) have been going on infinitely. Hence, a &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; also takes birth and dies infinite times in it. As a &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; continues his life, he engages in numerous kinds of actions both good and bad. But his single life time may not be enough to experience the results of all his actions. And because a reaction must follow an action, to experience the reaction of his own actions the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; has to take birth again accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;1.Sanchita Karma&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the thing is, because a &lt;em&gt;jivatama&lt;/em&gt; takes countless births, his actions are also countless. So all the unexperienced pending reactions of the &lt;em&gt;jivatama&lt;/em&gt; that are due to be experienced are stored as &lt;em&gt;Sanchita Karma&lt;/em&gt;. So sanchita karma of a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is too large, nearly infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;2.Prārabdha Karma&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only a portion of the &lt;em&gt;sanchita karma&lt;/em&gt; can be experienced in one life time. So that portion of karma which determines most events and type of life of a &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; is known as Prarabdha Karma. &lt;strong&gt;It is this &lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt; that determines the species of life and major events in life&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;3.Kriyamāna Karma or Agami Karma&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because a &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; is not only experiencing reactions to his past life actions (like sudden accident, winning of lottery, etc.) but also engaged in newer ones, all his present life actions get accumulated and known as &lt;em&gt;kriyamana karma&lt;/em&gt;. These karmas will either yield result in the same life or if they do not get experienced then they will get stored up as &lt;em&gt;sanchita&lt;/em&gt; karma to influence the future lives of the &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now that we know these three types of Karma, the answers to your questions can be understood easily:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;If we pay for our sins in the same life, then why do we reincarnate?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is because, even if we pay for some of our deeds, we have numerous other reactions of past life still in pending to be experienced. So even if our karmic account of this life stays clean, to balance out our past actions we have to take birth again unless we clear them out some way in the present life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;If karma of past life is not considered then why people have troubles in their lives?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This question indeed suggests the fact that Karma of past life do affect the present life. For example, sometimes even good persons face accidents, misfortune etc. and some bad people, even though engaged in bad actions, move freely. This happens all because of &lt;em&gt;prarabdha&lt;/em&gt; karma. If a person has in his &lt;em&gt;prarabdha&lt;/em&gt; to face accident, then doesn't matter how good he is in his present life, he will certainly face it to balance out his past life action. Similarly, if a person has in &lt;em&gt;prarabdha&lt;/em&gt; to enjoy a luxurious life, then he will certainly do so even if he does bad actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfathomable is the depth of accounting of Karma (&lt;em&gt;gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ&lt;/em&gt;- &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 4.17&lt;/a&gt;). It's implications are beyond comprehension. But I hope this answers the two questions you have asked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T20:35:09.117" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2252" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-22T12:39:55.963" Score="11" ViewCount="4866" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Hahuman was able to resize his body. When he wanted to cross the sea to get information of Maata Sita, he enlarge his body and cross the sea by jumping from India to Shri Lanka ( Keep in mind that Hauman jumped till Sun in his childhood, so India to Shri Lanka distance is just nothing ). On reaching to Shri Lanka, Hanuman decrease his body size to mosquito to enter into Ravana's Kingdom. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next time Hanuman increase his body when Laxman got injured by Meghnath while fighting, Hanuman brings vaidya ( doctor ) sushen from Lanka with his full home. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again Hanuman increase his body when Hanuman broght Sanjivani from a Himalaya mountain, he brought whole mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So How come only Hanuman was able to resize his body as and when require. Does anybody else has this power too ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T05:09:22.860" Title="How come Lord Hanuman was able to resize his body?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2253" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-22T14:17:03.803" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The narration is present in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhishma Parva&lt;/a&gt; of the epic &lt;a href=&quot;/questions/tagged/mahabharata&quot; class=&quot;post-tag&quot; title=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;mahabharata&amp;#39;&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; written by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa&lt;/a&gt; famously known as &lt;a href=&quot;/questions/tagged/vyasa&quot; class=&quot;post-tag&quot; title=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;vyasa&amp;#39;&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;vyasa&lt;/a&gt; or veda-vyasa. It is accepted as a &lt;em&gt;smriti&lt;/em&gt; and scholars use it as &lt;em&gt;smriti praman&lt;/em&gt; while deriving philosophical conclusions. The Bhagavad Gita is the most popular sacred text in Hinduism and has the same status in Hinduism as Bible has in Christianity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most essential of the teachings of Bhagavad-gita is that we are all eternal spirit souls and not this body, and there is a transcendental spiritual sky where we all belong and not this material world. It delineates the path of karma-yoga, bhakti-yoga and jnana-yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavad Gita as a stand alone text comprises of eighteen chapters with 700 verses dealing with five essential topics and their relationship with each other - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;īśvara (controllers and supremen-controller)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;jīva (the tiny spirit soul or living entity)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;prakṛti (material nature)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;kāla (eternal time)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;karma (actions of living entity)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In only 700 verses it sheds light on almost all the important aspects of spiritualism. Hence, it is the most concise and definitive source of spiritual knowledge for a common man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The popularity and the usefulness of Bhagava-gita can be seen by the sheer number of commentaries ancient and present written on it by the acharyas of different vedic school of thought. Some of them are given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Bhagavad-Gita.with.the.Commentary.of.Sri.Shankaracharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Advaita Bhashya&lt;/a&gt; by Sri &lt;a href=&quot;/questions/tagged/adi-shankaracharya&quot; class=&quot;post-tag&quot; title=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;adi-shankaracharya&amp;#39;&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;adi-shankaracharya&lt;/a&gt;, The most famous commentary on Bhagavad Gita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/BhagavadGitaWithElevenCommentaries/page/n8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;11 different commentaries with sanskrit text&lt;/a&gt;, which includes:&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Adi Shankaracharya's Gita Bhashya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anandagiri's Subcommentary on Adi-Shankaracharya's Bhashya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Ramanujacharya's Vishishtadvaita Bhashya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Vedanta Deshika's Tatparya Chandrika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Madhvacharya's Dvaita Bhashya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Jayatirtha's Prameya Dipika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Hanumat Acharya's Paishach Bhashya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Venkatanatha's BrahmanandaGiri Bhashya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Vallabhacharya's Tattva-Dipika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Purushottama's Ananda-Tarangini&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Nilakantha's Bhava-deepa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/uploads/5/5/4/9/5549439/ramanuja_gita_bhashya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishishtadvaita bhashya&lt;/a&gt; of Sri Ramanujacharya, translation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita As It Is&lt;/a&gt;, translation &amp;amp; commentary with word-for-word and sanskrit text&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="7961" LastEditDate="2019-12-30T23:21:02.663" LastActivityDate="2019-12-30T23:21:02.663" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2254" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-22T14:17:03.803" Score="0" Body="Srimad Bhagavad Gita or Gitopanishad is considered to be the essence of all Upanishads instructed to Arjuna by Shri Krishna on the battle field of Kurukshetra during the Mahabharata war." OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="7961" LastEditDate="2019-12-30T23:20:48.303" LastActivityDate="2019-12-30T23:20:48.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2255" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-22T14:47:41.977" Score="8" ViewCount="1740" Body="&lt;p&gt;Almost all concepts in &lt;em&gt;non-dualism(advaita-siddhanta)&lt;/em&gt;, it is believed that Human body is unreal or &lt;em&gt;&quot;maya&quot;&lt;/em&gt; and only &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;  is real. Their claim is that without atma body is nothing. In my personal opinion, that is completely illogical concept. Because, if we think vice-versa, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is nothing without the body. The identity of atma is only in living bodies else it is nothing, even weaker than an atom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are my thoughts right? If not, please explain with clarifications. Is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;body&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; really &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;unreal&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and weaker than &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-23T10:34:12.617" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:16:24.557" Title="Body is un-real and only atma is real in Hinduism?" Tags="|atma|maya|advaita|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2258" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2255" CreationDate="2014-07-22T15:26:13.923" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;No your thought is not right, &lt;strong&gt;Atma&lt;/strong&gt;(soul) is part of parmatma(the supreme soul), hence it is pure. Atma is unborn, it can't be killed and Eternal. Atma is free and unbound, it gets a new body in every life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Body&lt;/strong&gt; is made of five Tattvas i.e. &lt;em&gt;Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether&lt;/em&gt; and is bound to all these. Your body dies after death which is not true for atma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Posting following shloks from Bhagwat Geeta Adhyay 2 for reference&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/2/17/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 2.17&lt;/a&gt; : That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable&#xA;  soul.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/2/20/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 2.20&lt;/a&gt; : For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will&#xA;  not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and&#xA;  primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/2/21/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 2.21&lt;/a&gt; : O Pārtha, how can a person who knows that the soul is indestructible, eternal, unborn and immutable kill anyone or cause&#xA;  anyone to kill?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/2/22/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 2.22&lt;/a&gt; : As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and&#xA;  useless ones.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/2/23/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 2.23&lt;/a&gt; : The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/2/24/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 2.24&lt;/a&gt; : This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, present&#xA;  everywhere, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/2/25/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 2.25&lt;/a&gt; : It is said that the soul is invisible, inconceivable and immutable. Knowing this, you should not grieve for the body.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-02-12T06:16:24.557" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:16:24.557" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2259" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2272" CreationDate="2014-07-22T15:38:16.510" Score="10" ViewCount="1821" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, every God is having its own image/form and characteristics. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any God who having no form/image in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T03:29:08.217" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T03:29:08.217" Title="Does any God exist without form/image in Hinduism?" Tags="|gods|belief|symbolism|nirguna|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2260" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-22T15:45:37.793" Score="2" ViewCount="796" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many Hindus who call themselves as &lt;em&gt;hussaini brahmins&lt;/em&gt; who worship &lt;em&gt;Imam hussain&lt;/em&gt; and his 72 companions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is the incident of &lt;em&gt;Karbala&lt;/em&gt; present in any historical books of Hindus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thing is that I recently met a person who was working on this topic (Hinduism and &lt;em&gt;Karbala&lt;/em&gt;). He gave me an article which was based on a Holy book of Hindus which was based on life history of lord Shiva and His wife Parvathi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The lines were somewhat like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never forget Parvathi, after a long time from now there will be a pious boon of god who will be known by the name mahamat [prophet mohammed p.b.u.h.] who will have a beautiful daughter who will never commit any sin in her life [fatimah(s.a.)] but at last the disbelievers of mahamat kill her son very far away from his home without food water and shelter very brutally but after this humanity will open the eyes of everyone and that sacrifice shall be remembered till the end&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="452" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-23T10:40:13.463" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T12:39:10.170" Title="Is anything available in hinduism history about the incident of karbala?" Tags="|history|islam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2262" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2259" CreationDate="2014-07-22T16:51:51.203" Score="6" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Lord Siva is formless and beyond our mind and senses&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the &lt;a href=&quot;http://temple.dinamalar.com/New.php?id=1182&quot;&gt;Vishwanath temple in Sathur, Virudunagar, Tamil Nadu&lt;/a&gt; during the Tiruvadhirai festival in December they place Lord Nataraja in front of Viswanath and place a mirror before Lord Nataraja. Deepa aradhana is done to all three at the same time, namely, Siva in the Lord Nataraja form, formless as well as in the abstract form (linga) as if to indicate that Siva graces us in all these three forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you search for Nirguna you should see several references, including:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saivism.net/articles/aspectsofsiva.asp&quot;&gt;Saiva tradition&lt;/a&gt; identifies Lord Siva or Shiva as a formless&#xA;  eternal and mysterious being with many aspects and dimensions. He is&#xA;  both transcendental and immanent, who cannot be quantified and&#xA;  qualified objectively with our limited awareness. He is beyond our&#xA;  mind and senses, but within the reach of our experience and&#xA;  awakening.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/415907/nirguna&quot;&gt;Nirguna&lt;/a&gt;: &quot;The Advaita (Nondualist) school of Vedānta assumes on&#xA;  the basis of selected passages of the Upaniṣads that Brahman is beyond&#xA;  all polarity and therefore cannot be characterized in the normal terms&#xA;  of human discursive thought. This being the case, Brahman cannot&#xA;  possess qualities that distinguish it from all other magnitudes, as&#xA;  Brahman is not a magnitude but is all. The fundamental text of this&#xA;  tenet is the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad definition of Brahman as neti-neti&#xA;  (“not this! not that!” 2.3.6). The scriptural texts that ascribe&#xA;  qualities to Brahman, leading to the conception of a qualified Brahman&#xA;  (saguṇa) are, according to the Advaita school, merely preparatory aids&#xA;  to meditations.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user508" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-22T18:12:26.313" LastActivityDate="2014-07-22T18:12:26.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2263" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2252" CreationDate="2014-07-22T18:46:10.030" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1988/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, when Hanuman was a child he saw the sun and thought it was a fruit, so he flew towards it in an attempt to eat it. When Indra saw Hanuman coming, he threw his Vajra (thunderbolt) to strike him down, in the process injuring Hanuman's left cheekbone. Vayu the wind god, who was Hanuman's father, was furious at his son being struck down, so he refused to circulate air in the world anymore.  So to pacify Vayu, Brahma revived Hanuman, and then the gods bestowed various boons on him, which are &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com//07uttara/uttara_036.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana.  Here is the boon bestowed by Brahma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This child will be long-lived and great. He will be invulnerable to my rod of chastisement and to curses uttered by brahmanas.... This best of monkeys will be &lt;strong&gt;able to assume any form he chooses&lt;/strong&gt;. He will be able to go wherever he wants as fast as he wants.  His movement will be unimpeded and he will be glorious. In combat he will accomplish hair-raising deeds for Ravana’s consternation and for the pleasure of Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is this power &quot;to assume any form he chooses&quot; that Hanuman uses at Lanka; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/sundara/sarga2/sundaraitrans2.htm#Verse45&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; is what he thinks to himself in the Sundara Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If I stay here with my usual form, I can be destroyed. The task of the Lord will also be harmed.  For that reason, I will become small in my appearance and will enter Lanka at night for the success of the task of Sri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, other Vanaras, specifically the ones fathered by the gods to help Rama, did have some shape changing abilities, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga17/balasans17.htm#Verse25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana: &quot;They are endowed with guise changing faculties, with bodily might and by their pride and might are identical to lions and tigers, and they are born-free in their movement in forests.&quot;  But their abilities would presumably have been much more limited, not having received the powerful boon from Brahma.  So Hanuman was probably the only one who could assume forms of any size he wished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2014-07-22T18:46:10.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2266" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="699" CreationDate="2014-07-22T23:24:53.267" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism as we know today is not what it was 2000, 3000 years ago. And still today, there are several gods who were added later to the pantheon and roots are not known (or made conviently). Speaking of Murukan, Velavan, Kandan (not Kanda) epochs great pride for a Tamil. It is even hard to write about him in English. However, for the sake of explaining this and for the benefit of non-Tamil, here we go. Velavan or Velan, is a simple god with close ties to nature, or nature worship. There is a obvious push to make &lt;a href=&quot;http://murugan.org/research/skanda-chowdhury.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kartikeya and Murugan&lt;/a&gt; to be one and same, they both differ vastly in the setup.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tamilvu.org/slet/servlet/srchlxpg?editor=%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%B0%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%8D&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Murukan&lt;/a&gt; is one of the five gods responsible for five ways of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tamilvu.org/slet/l0100/l0100uri.jsp?song_no=951&amp;amp;book_id=1&amp;amp;head_id=3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tamil living spaces&lt;/a&gt;. He is seen in &lt;a href=&quot;http://murugan.org/research/mahadevan.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indus valley scripts&lt;/a&gt; (well before the vedic deities?). Worship of spear (&lt;a href=&quot;http://madhavipanthal.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-post.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vel&lt;/a&gt;) and celebration of spring. Murugan is more often worshiped as war god and always young (the word Murugan meaning the young one).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="515" LastEditorUserId="515" LastEditDate="2019-06-04T22:09:04.090" LastActivityDate="2019-06-04T22:09:04.090" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2267" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2277" CreationDate="2014-07-23T02:15:16.720" Score="5" ViewCount="2616" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently learned about the story of Indra and the ants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The punchline of the story is that lord Vishnu appear as a boy before Indra and tells Indra that the ants in his palace were previous Indras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This seems to suggest that Gods are subject to the cycle of death and rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can we know when a god dies? (&lt;em&gt;Might we be worshiping a dead god?&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do gods only die at the end of the universe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&#xA;There is already a question on death and Gods here: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/238/do-gods-die-in-hinduism&quot;&gt;Do Gods die in Hinduism?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However, I don't fully understand if/how the answers there answer my question.&#xA;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="29" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-03-30T15:34:14.247" Title="How do Hindus know when gods die?" Tags="|gods|death|rebirth|indra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2268" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-23T02:37:47.867" Score="19" ViewCount="3229" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read/heard in various places that Sanskrit is considered sacred or true or special. These sources sometimes claim that the sounds used to speak Sanskrit have a beneficial effect on the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Except for being the language for Hindu religious texts (scripture), does Hinduism regard the Sanskrit language as sacred/true or special in some intrinsic way?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="29" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T11:07:09.450" Title="How important is Sanskrit?" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2269" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2259" CreationDate="2014-07-23T03:01:42.253" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Advaita Vedanta God(Brahman)'s true nature is impersonal.&#xA;Brahman is classified as Nirguna Brahman and Saguna Brahman or Ishwara.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; is the one and only absolute truth. &#xA;Nirguna Brahman is &lt;strong&gt;formless, genderless, indivisible, eternal, infinite and changeless&lt;/strong&gt;. Actually Nirguna Brahman cannot be described using words like 'infinite or 'eternal' as Nirguna Brahman is indescribable but for the sake of understanding of humans those adjectives are used. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The human mind can never think other than in human terms. It unknowingly projects human characteristics on Nirguna Brahman. Thus impersonal Nirguna Brahman acquires personality very much resembling a human personality. Impersonal Nirguna Brahman appears to become Personal Brahman, also called &lt;strong&gt;Saguna Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence God is actually formless and all deities and gods are Saguna Brahman i.e having human form as perceived by human intellect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Biblography&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Bhaskarananda, The Concept of God in Advaita Vedanta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T03:01:42.253" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2270" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2268" CreationDate="2014-07-23T03:21:45.867" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Sanskrit is special in some intrinsic way. The sounds of its alphabets are such that uttering them mentally causes resonant vibration with the Chakras of the human subtle body. This idea is the very basis of Mantra Sastra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most famous example of a Sanskrit mantra is OM. This is the reason why most mantras are in Sanskrit. Sanskrit alphabets (Varnamala) are actually worshipped by Saktas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next time you look at a Kali murthi please look at the garland of human skulls. This garland stands for the Sanskrit alphabets. Sound associated with Sanskrit alphabets is considered to be the source of all sounds in mantra sastra. Swami Chetanananda of the Ramakrishna order mentions briefly about the importance of Sanskrit alphabet in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kalimandir.org/is-kali-terrible/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2016-08-03T04:42:06.597" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T04:42:06.597" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2271" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2120" CreationDate="2014-07-23T04:05:31.233" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the answer on &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=d0YTQ9Ty8r4C&amp;amp;lpg=PA368&amp;amp;dq=%22you%20are%20the%20step%20of%20visnu%22%20four&amp;amp;pg=PA368#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%22you%20are%20the%20step%20of%20visnu%22%20four&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;page 368&lt;/a&gt; of the book &quot;The Dharmasutras: The Law Codes of Ancient India&quot; by Patrick Olivelle:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu steps are the four steps a person offering the [Soma] sacrifice takes at its conclusion.  He recites a ritual formula at each step, and every formula begins with &quot;You are the step of Vishnu&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when the Yajur Veda says &quot;thou art the step of Vishnu&quot;, it's not addressing some god as I assumed.  Rather, the performer of the Soma Yagna is addressing his own footsteps, which are supposed to symbolize the steps that Vishnu took in his Vamana incarnation.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suppose the idea is roughly as follows. Mandala 7 of Rig Veda says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07100.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Over this earth with mighty step strode Viṣṇu, ready to give it for a home to Manu.  In him the humble people trust for safety: he, nobly born, hath made them spacious dwellings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So presumably just as the steps of Vishnu made the Earth safe for humanity, the performer of the Soma Yagna is supposed to take four ritualistic steps in order to make the ground safe for the completion of the ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-19T20:41:16.840" LastActivityDate="2015-02-19T20:41:16.840" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2272" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2259" CreationDate="2014-07-23T04:13:19.923" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism God has two forms or modes: &lt;em&gt;Saguna Sakara&lt;/em&gt; (with form and characteristics) and &lt;em&gt;Nirguna Nirakara&lt;/em&gt;(without form and characteristics):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dve vāva brahmaṇo rūpe, mūrtaṃ caivāmūrtaṃ ca&lt;/em&gt; [Brh. Up - 2.3.1]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -God (Brahman) has two modes, formless (&lt;em&gt;nirakara&lt;/em&gt;) and form (&lt;em&gt;sakara&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So even though we see God being worshipped in many forms, all of them do not have a form too. Just like our soul is without form but externally our body has a form, God is also both with and without form. It is only for our easy apprehension and concentration that we think of Him in many different forms. So the Bhagavatam also says thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;iti mūrty-abhidhānena mantra-mūrtim amūrtikam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yajate yajña-puruṣaṁ sa samyag-darśanaḥ pumān&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 1.5.38]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus he is the actual seer who worships, in the form of transcendental sound representation, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣhṇu, who has no material form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;strong&gt;even Lord Vishnu, whom we generally think of as four handed, is also worshiped without form&lt;/strong&gt;. His four handed form has symbolic meaning. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the thing is, &lt;strong&gt;when God is considered in His formless and attribute-less form, there remains nothing to distinguish Him as Siva, Brahma or Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;. Only when we see some form or characteristics that we identify Him as a certain God. So the formless Brahma can be called by any name. But &lt;strong&gt;most often the name Siva is used to denote the formless quality-less Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;śivaiko brahmarupatvānniṣkalaḥ parikīrtitaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Shv. Pu. - 1.5.10]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Shiva alone, being Brahman, is known as formless and quality less.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the answer to your question is, every worshiped form of God (not demigods) is also devoid of form, but the mode of God which doesn't have any specific picture, idol or image is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;nirakara Brahman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. But even then because we, as humans, have form, some worshipers of &lt;em&gt;nirakara&lt;/em&gt; Brahman try to represent formless Brahhman with fire which also doesn't have a specific form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-08-02T12:20:17.010" LastActivityDate="2014-08-02T12:20:17.010" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2273" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-23T04:26:09.380" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-07-23T04:26:09.380" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T04:26:09.380" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2274" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-23T04:26:09.380" Score="0" Body="Sanskrit an ancient Indo-European language of India, in which the Hindu scriptures and classical Indian epic poems are written and from which many northern Indian (Indic) languages are derived." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-07-23T06:55:10.000" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T06:55:10.000" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2275" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2268" CreationDate="2014-07-23T04:52:13.730" Score="19" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Is Sanskrit regarded as sacred?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Sanskrit is considered as the divine language. The sages in the ancient time realized the Vedas in  the form of sound patterns. Those sound patterns expressed in language form came to be known as Sanskrit after much refinement and addition of meaning to the patterns through the use of syntax and grammar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Sankrit language, the way it is, creates unique pattern and sound vibrations when used, especially in the chanting of certain &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt;. It is also believed that Sanskrit is the language of communication among the gods. So most hymns and mantras for gods are written in Sanskrit language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is sanskrit special in some way?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is the oldest living language till today. It is the source of many other languages like Pali, Prakruti, etc. Also many other languages used in the north Indian states came into formation from the gradual corruption of Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit has also close relationship with other European languages. For example, English &amp;quot;mother&amp;quot; is a cognate of Sanskrit &amp;quot;mātár'; likewise, father-pitár, brother-bhrā́tar, sister-svásar, daughter-duhitár, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/articles/SpecialitiesofSanskritLanguageLiterature.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This page&lt;/a&gt; lists many other specialties of the language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Referece:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Sanskrit_origin&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia List&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-16T03:39:29.873" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2276" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2268" CreationDate="2014-07-23T05:32:00.123" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;To add support to the above answers, speaking sanskrit language is also meant to be as a kind of yoga for Vocal system. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritsounds.com/about-sanskrit/46/index.html&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Sounds&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanskrit is an exquisite language from ancient India. There it is considered divine, originating from the meditations of ancient sages. The word Sanskrit itself means &lt;strong&gt;&quot;refined, well done.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; The alphabet is perfectly designed for the &lt;strong&gt;human vocal apparatus&lt;/strong&gt;, and is pronounced phonetically. Sanskrit shares its script, called Devanāgarī, with Hindi, India's national language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vagyoga.co.in/mnemonictechnique1%20.htm&quot;&gt;VagYoga&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This unique invention is from &lt;strong&gt;Rigvedic&lt;/strong&gt; source through &lt;strong&gt;Vagyoga Kundalini&lt;/strong&gt;. The many hours of memorization have been reduced to minimum because this technique simply utilizes the natural production of the sound &amp;amp; language. The Vagyoga Technique is dependent upon understanding the intrinsic logic of the Sanskrit language through principles and law of Sound-vibration indicated in earliest Vedic literature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T05:32:00.123" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2277" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2267" CreationDate="2014-07-23T05:43:26.707" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, we might not be worshiping a dead god. Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra is not a god, but a position. The king of the heaven is known as Indra. It's just like the position of president. So just like when the president dies or retires, some one else takes up his place, whenever the acting Indra retires, someone other eligible &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; takes up his place. Hence, &lt;strong&gt;because we worship the authority of Indra, but not the specific &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; acting as Indra, we might not be worshiping a dead god.&lt;/strong&gt; Now because Indra is the name of the position, you might be wondering what's his actual name. So as per Vishnu Purana the name of current Indra is Purandara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;āditya-vasu-rudrādyā devāśvātra mahāmune&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  purandarastathaivātra maitraya! tridaśeśvaraḥ&lt;/em&gt;  [VP - 3.1.31]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O great sage, in this &lt;em&gt;manvantara&lt;/em&gt; Aditya, Vasu, Rudra, etc. are the gods and their king is Purandara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding their longevity, they change  at the end of each &lt;em&gt;manvantara&lt;/em&gt;. Our existence lasts for one &lt;em&gt;kalpa&lt;/em&gt; (a single day of Brahma). And each &lt;em&gt;kalpa&lt;/em&gt; is divided into fourteen &lt;em&gt;manvantaras&lt;/em&gt;. In every &lt;em&gt;manvantara&lt;/em&gt;, the rulers change. That is, the position of Manu, the sapta rishis (seven primary sages), the Indra, etc. go to other eligible &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt;. So doesn't matter whether a god retires or dies and takes birth as an ant, the position and responsibilities of a god always stay active. And because 1 &lt;em&gt;manvantara&lt;/em&gt; is equal to 306,720,000 human years, from the perspective of we humans, who live only for few decades, the position of gods stays occupied all the time. So we might not be worshiping a dead god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-23T06:03:06.703" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T06:03:06.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2278" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2294" CreationDate="2014-07-23T06:14:40.977" Score="16" ViewCount="29745" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/Shiva-The-Supreme-And-Shankar-The-Deity/articleshow/2841133.cms&quot;&gt;TimesofIndia&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a subtle difference between the Supreme Soul Shiva and Shankar the deity. The Supreme has been worshipped in the oval or egg-shaped form of the &lt;em&gt;Shivalingam&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-blogs/seekers/faith-and-rituals/difference-between-shiva-shankara&quot;&gt;Even Speaking tree states they are different&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This did confuse me. I was thinking them as one. Can someone please shed light on this topic? (&lt;em&gt;maybe from scriptures&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If they are different deity forms, please explain the difference between them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-23T10:36:40.190" LastActivityDate="2017-01-03T10:39:59.690" Title="Are Lord Shiva and Lord Shankar two different deities?" Tags="|shiva|symbolism|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2280" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2324" CreationDate="2014-07-23T07:09:12.890" Score="15" ViewCount="4433" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Ravana really have ten heads? Or is it a mythical concept? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he really had ten heads, who gave him this and what is the story behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-21T15:30:04.953" LastActivityDate="2021-11-02T17:15:39.670" Title="Did Ravana have ten heads?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2281" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2255" CreationDate="2014-07-23T07:15:57.803" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, that's not the sole view in Hinduism. As you have stated, that is the view of the Advaita Vedantins, the school of thought preached by Shankaracharya. As per them, the whole of our existence including the body, &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; (individual soul), etc. are illusion and unreal; Brahman alone is only real. They do not even acknowledge that &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is different from Brahman. So their tenet is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;brahma satyam jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -Brahman is real, the world is unreal. &lt;em&gt;Jiva&lt;/em&gt; is Brahman itself, not different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as per other schools of thought, the world and the body are not unreal, but temporary. And   soul is the ever existing permanent entity. Because body is subject to birth and death, but the soul is not, the soul is considered as the actual identity of a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; and given more importance. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Atma is nothing without the body?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The view that &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; is nothing withou the body is incorrect. It is because the body has a dependent existence, but the &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; does not. You said this because you feel &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; has no identity without the body. But the truth is, &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; has no identity irrespective of whether it is in the body or not. &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; itself is devoid of material name, form and quality. So doesn't matter whether it stays in the body or not, it always maintains its true identity of no identity. It means, even if the body doesn't exist, &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; will not lose any of its inherent quality and existence. Cessation of body doesn't have any impact upon &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt;. It is because &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; stays in the body untouched by it just like the all pervading sky:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yathā sarva-gataṁ saukṣmyād ākāśaṁ nopalipyate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarvatrāvasthito dehe tathātmā nopalipyate&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 13.33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Like the all pervading subtle space doesn’t mix with anything, so also the soul situated throughout the body doesn’t get mixed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if the &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; ceases to exist, then the body will become dead and lose all its features like liveliness, growth, activity, etc. So &lt;strong&gt;because body is depended upon the &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt;, but not &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; on the body, it is the &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; which is superior.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the thing is, neither the &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt;, nor the body can alone give rise to any sensible meaning. Both has to be present together for existence to exist. But existence is not eternal, it will dissolute one day. Hence, all meaning will be gone. There will be no one else to ponder over whether body or the &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; is greater. In that state when nothing existed, it is &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; alone that existed:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ātmā vā idameka evāgra āsīt&lt;/em&gt; [Ait. Up. - 1.1.1]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; alone was present in the beginning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For these reasons, &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; being independent, is superior. And body (product of &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;) being necessary for a meaningful existence is real but temporary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-04-18T06:05:27.897" LastActivityDate="2015-04-18T06:05:27.897" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2282" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2278" CreationDate="2014-07-23T07:41:11.880" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Lord Shiva and Lord Shankar are same. Its same as one deity has many names so as Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The other popular names associated with Shiva are Mahadev, Mahesh,&#xA;  Maheshwar, Shankar, Shambhu, Rudra, Har, Trilochan, Devendra (meaning&#xA;  Chief of the gods) and Trilokinath (meaning Lord of the three realms)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T07:41:11.880" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2284" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2280" CreationDate="2014-07-23T08:13:10.553" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rāvaṇa is depicted and described as having &lt;em&gt;ten&lt;/em&gt; heads and &lt;em&gt;two&lt;/em&gt; ears&#xA;  in total. His ten heads represents that his knowledge of the six&#xA;  shastras and the four Vedas. Lord Shiva also gave him the name&#xA;  &quot;Dashaanan&quot; (Dasa = ten, mukha/anan = face), after he offered his ten&#xA;  heads to Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ten heads also represented passion, pride, anger, greed, infatuation, lust, hatred, jealousy, selfishness and ego when he offered them to Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T13:35:58.013" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T13:35:58.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2285" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2267" CreationDate="2014-07-23T08:26:33.580" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_cosmology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article talks about the manvantara and it's swami (now is savarni), death/replacement of manu. The article also throws light on death/replacement  of the creator god (Lord Bramha), the article also shows how hindu stories are scientifically sound and they both join at one end. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This even death of Bramha means that there is death for every god created in one Chaturyuga . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the exact time divisions for Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;1 human year (in Hindu calendar) = 1 Deva Ahoratra for God (1 day and 1 night)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;360 Deva Ahoratras = 1 Deva Vatsara&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;12,000 Deva Vatsara = 1 Chaturyuga&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(12,000 Deva Vatsaras are defined as, 4,800 Deva Vatsaras of Krita yuga, 3,600 Deva Vatsaras of Treta Yuga, 2,400 Deva Vatsaras of Dvapara Yuga and 1,200 Deva Vatsaras of Kali Yuga which is 1,200 * 360 = 4,32,000 human years)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;71 Chaturyugas = 1 Manvantaram (1 life span of Manu)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;14 Manvantaras = 1 kalpa (1 day of Brahma)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;2 Kalpas = 1 day + 1 Brahma ratra&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;360 days of Brahma = 1 Brahma varsha&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Talking about Indra it is a position reserved for the Bali who struggles and gives respect to the vamana avatar in every Chaturyuga. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabali&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; article talks about the raja Bali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following is excrept from the article which is derived from Vamana Purana&#xA;which talks about next Indra as Raja Bali.&#xA;As he was pushed down into Patala (a good colony of demons), King Bali made a last request. He requested that he be allowed to visit Kerala once in a year to ensure that his people were still happy, well fed and content. Lord Vishnu was pleased to grant Mahabali his wish. Also, &lt;em&gt;by the boon of Vishnu, Bali will be the next, that is the eighth Indra (King of Devas) (Purandara is the current Indra) during the time of the eighth Manu, Savarni Manu&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you see from above discussion that we are not even equivalent to a second in a god's life cycle we have to Worship them as eternal in our lifetime and they will be automatically replaced by newer ones after their Lifecycle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S: Talking about god's sun is also a god and will die after estimated life span of 12 billion years!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some interyugic cycle which Shri Yuketshwar Giri believes cycle in one yuga e.g.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Presently it is the age of kali yuga but in the kali-yuga(or any other yuga) there are 4 ages in it also known as sat,treta,dwapar,kali and each of them depicts the age of the dharma i.e. weather it is decline of righteousness or rise of it this cycle completes in 24000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuga#Sri_Yukteswar.27s_teachings_on_the_yugas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; for more reading on this theory&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-01-22T10:07:21.370" LastActivityDate="2015-01-22T10:07:21.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2286" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-23T08:52:01.457" Score="10" ViewCount="14884" Body="&lt;p&gt;In every Shiva temple, I have seen a copper pot (like the one in the picture) that is kept hanging above the Shiva Lingam. It has a hole at its bottom and is filled with water so that water keeps dripping on the Shiva Lingam. I have not noticed it being used for any other deity. Is there any particular reason for this water dripping copper pot being hanged above the Lingam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PkJur.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Image source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiamart.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.indiamart.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T15:29:18.753" Title="What is the copper pot that is kept hanging above the Shiva Lingam?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2287" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2286" CreationDate="2014-07-23T08:55:17.637" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is very fond of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2242/467&quot;&gt;Abhishek&lt;/a&gt;. To make a continuous abhishek on the Shiv Ling, they put a copper pot which a very small hole at the bottom. This way water's abhishek runs for long period of time. Some people also put milk init.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Majority of Shivling worshipped in temples and sacred places have pots hanging on top of the Shivling. A hole is made on the pot and water drips continuously on the Shivling. There is a symbolism attached to the water dripping from the pot. Legend has it that the water in the pot is meant to cool Shiva of the effects of drinking the halahala poison during the Samudra Manthan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Symbolically the water dripping from the pot indicates that life is always about movement. There is no stagnation. If we become stagnant then we rot and this is against nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Life also ebbs out slowly like the water dripping from the pot. The short period that is available should be used to attain self realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each moment in our life is like the water drop, we should dedicate it to the supreme truth. Perform our dharma by submitting all actions to the supreme truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T09:04:37.830" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2289" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2223" CreationDate="2014-07-23T09:22:47.970" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Shiva Purana, in its 25&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; chapter describes the following about Rudraksha's origin:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Siva, the Yogeshwar (master of Yoga), was meditating for thousands of&#xA;  years for the benefit of people everywhere. When Siva opened his eyes,&#xA;  some tear-drops fell on the earth and grew into Rudraksha trees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rudraksha trees grow in India, Nepal, Indonesia, Hawaii and Australia.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudraksha#Description&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[1]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; The Rudrakshas are considered holy since they are believed to be the representations of Shiva's tears. They may have upto fourteen faces (sides). Rudrakshas with different faces are believed to have different abilities. For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One sided Rudraksha is believed to bring happiness, wealth, liberation and removes problems and obstacles.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Two sided Rudraksha is believed to increase mental powers, calms agitated minds, helps to overcome Tamasic Guna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Three sided Rudraksha is believed to help in acquiring knowledge and skills, helps increase digestive power, effective in reducing fever and in eye diseases.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Four sided Rudraksha is believed to increase memory and improve the power of speech.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;This answer is an excerpt from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/siva.htm#Rudraksha%20Beads&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduism.co.za/siva.htm#Rudraksha%20Beads&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T09:22:47.970" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2290" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1992" CreationDate="2014-07-23T09:27:41.500" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every year Clay statues of Lord Ganesha are immersed into the water bodies or in sea. Gradually the clay dissolves into water. Ganesha's image disappears. This ritual is designed by our ancestors to draw attention to the 'ephemeral nature of life and worldly things'. Showing that nothing in this mortal world lasts forever. It celebrates the fact of life of Creation(Idol construction),Perpetuation and finally Visarjan or immersion(Destruction) in water bodies with fun and fair, as celebration pointing to the fact and Showing that death is imperative/essential for creation of new that's why people say &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;&quot;गणपति बब्बा मोरिया अगले वरस तू जल्दी आ !&quot;.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_ganesh_visarjan_done&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wiki.answers.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, many people who keeps a Ganesh in their homes choose to perform the immersion much before this. There are no hard and fast rules as to when it's done. Rather it's up to personal preference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://goindia.about.com/od/festivalinformation/ss/Guide-To-Mumbai-Ganesh-Visarjan.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ganesh Visarjan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-03T08:34:51.587" LastActivityDate="2014-10-03T08:34:51.587" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2291" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2295" CreationDate="2014-07-23T09:47:50.187" Score="8" ViewCount="3996" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that King Vikramaditya lived for exact 2000 years. How did he managed to live so long? was that a boon from some God? or was it a trick?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2014-07-23T10:34:13.817" LastActivityDate="2023-04-07T20:13:11.180" Title="Who gave boon to Vikramaditya to live for 2000 years and why?" Tags="|history|vikramaditya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2292" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2291" CreationDate="2014-07-23T09:58:48.550" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;From Source &lt;a href=&quot;http://tamilandvedas.com/tag/vikramaditya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vikramaditya&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Godess Kali has given boon to Vikramaditya for ruling 1000 years of his kingdom. Vikramaditya has minister named Bhatti. Bhatti told him that he would make it 2000 years. rule. Bhatti prayed to Goddess and she appeared before him. When he asked for 2000 year life span, Goddess Kali put a condition, just to avoid Bhatti. She asked Bhatti to cut off the head of Vikram and bring it to her. Bhatti went to Vikram and cut off his head while he was asleep. Vikram knew what happened but did not prevent Bhatti cutting his head off. Vikram had so much trust in his minister that whatever he did was for his good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing the head of Vikram, Kali kept her promise and blessed Bhatti to live for 2000 years. Immediately Bhatti sniggered at her. Kali was surprised and asked the reason for his laughter. Bhatti said to her, “Oh, I thought you are going to cheat me like you cheated my king Vikram. You gave him a boon to live for 1000 years and look here, I have got his head for you. Kali suddenly realised her ‘mistake’ and brought Vikram to life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This way Vikram praised his wise minister Bhatti and both of them ruled for 2000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T09:58:48.550" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2293" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2291" CreationDate="2014-07-23T09:58:59.780" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Goddess Kali appeared before Vikramaditya, she blessed him to ‘&lt;em&gt;rule the country for one thousand years&lt;/em&gt;’! He boasted to his minister Vetala Bhatti about his boon. Wise Bhatti told him that he would make it &lt;em&gt;2000&lt;/em&gt; years rule. Vikramaditya was surprised to hear it and asked for clarification. Bhatti told him to rule the country for &lt;em&gt;six months in a year and spend another six months in the forest&lt;/em&gt;. It would double the time of his rule. Vikram was very happy and was ready to follow his advice. But he wanted his minister to stay with him throughout his rule. Bhatti promised that he would also get a boon for 2000 year life span.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhatti prayed to Goddess and she appeared before him. When he asked for 2000 year life span, Goddess Kali put a condition, just to avoid Bhatti. She asked Bhatti to cut off the head of Vikram and bring it to her. Bhatti went to Vikram and cut off his head while he was asleep. Vikram knew what happened but did not prevent Bhatti cutting his head off. Vikram had so much trust in his minister that whatever he did was for his good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing the head of Vikram, Kali kept her promise and blessed Bhatti to live for 2000 years. Immediately Bhatti sniggered at her. Kali was surprised and asked the reason for his laughter. Bhatti said to her, “Oh, I thought you are going to cheat me like you cheated my king Vikram. You gave him a boon to live for 1000 years and look here, I have got his head for you. Kali suddenly realised her ‘mistake’ and brought Vikram to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vikram praised his wise minister Bhatti and both of them ruled for 2000 years. When Vikram was away in the forest for first six months, Bhatti ruled the kingdom. When Bhatti was in the forest, Vikram ruled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://tamilandvedas.com/tag/vikramaditya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vikramaditya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T09:58:59.780" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2294" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2278" CreationDate="2014-07-23T10:10:30.917" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is a technical difference. Generally these two terms are used interchangeably as a synonym.  But Shankara, Rudra, Mahadeva, etc. mean the God who dwells in the Kailasha mountain. And Shiva means His absolute formless mode of bright light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Shiva&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Linga Purana has the description regarding the origin of Siva which goes something like below:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Just before the beginning of the creation, Brahma and Vishnu had some disagreement and a quarrel ensued. At that time a column of bright light appeared before them and solved their issues. That bright light is described as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;jvālāmālāsahasrāḍhyaṃ kālānalaśatopamam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kṣayavṛddhivinirmuktamādimadhyāṃtavarjitam&lt;/em&gt; [LP - 1.17.34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That linga was surrounded by thousands of flames and hot like fire of death. Without any beginning, middle and end, that was free from decay and growth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This endless formless form of bright light is known as Shiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;śivaiko brahmarupatvānniṣkalaḥ parikīrtitaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Shv. Pu. - 1.5.10]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Shiva alone, being Brahman, is known as formless and quality less.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Shankara or Rudra&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Puran has the following description regarding origin of Rudra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later on Brahma commenced the process of creation. During that time he desired a child like himself. Then a blue-red colored child appeared on his lap and started crying as he wanted a name. Brahma named him Rudra, but he still continued to cry. So Brahma gave him another seven names. They are: Bhava, Sarva, Ishana, Pashupati, Bhima, Ugra and Mahadeva. Rudra married to Sati, the daughter of Daksha. Sati getting angry on Daksha gave up her life and reborn as Parvati, the daughter of Himavat and Mena. Then Hara (Shiva) again married Parvati. [VP - 1.8.2-14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in the Gita Shri Krishna says He is Shankara among all the &lt;em&gt;rudras&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;rudrāṇāṁ śaṅkaraś cāsmi&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 10.23]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Of all the Rudras, I am Shankara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it means Shankara is a Rudra. Hence, although Shiva and Shankara both imply the same deity, Shiva means his formless pure bright light form (meditated upon by Yogis) and Shankara means his commonly known Kailasa dwelling ascetic form (worshiped by devotees).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To remove the doubt that some may incur, I am explaining it further. Shiva, Mahadeva, Shankara, Rudra, or whatever name we may say for the Kailasa dwelling God, the fact remains the same that He has a formless aspect. So we can say Shiva, Mahadeva, Shankara, or any other name has a formless aspect. For example, Keshav cites a &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=pQNi6kAGJQ4C&amp;amp;lpg=PA90&amp;amp;dq=mahadeva%20formless%20purana&amp;amp;pg=PA90#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=mahadeva%20formless%20purana&amp;amp;f=false&quot;&gt;statement from a book&lt;/a&gt; which says as per Kurma Purana Mahadeva is by nature formless. The verse actually exists in the purana and it is as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;arūpaḥ kevalaḥ svastho mahādevaḥ svabhāvataḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Kurm. Pu. - 1.10.82]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Mahadeva is by nature formless, single, dwelling in his own self. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse doesn't say Mahadeva is the formless aspect, but it says by nature He is formless. So this means, He has a more general aspect that is endowed with form. And we all know that general form having the moon on his head. For example the following verse states the form:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tadantare mahādevaḥ śaśāṅkāṅkitaśekharaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  prasādābhimukho rudraḥ prādurāsīnmaheśvaraḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Kurm. Pu. - 2.1.31]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then Rudra, the great lord Mahadeva, whose head is endowed with the moon, appeared with a smiling face.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But forms like these are illusory as stated in the previous line of the book or in the verse [1.10.82]. So if forms like these are illusory and dependent, then which one is the independent formless form? Well, that formless aspect, although can be referred by any name, generally referred as Shiva. So Shiva also means the formless form that Yogis meditate upon as already mentioned in the answer :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;jyotiḥ paśyanti yuñjānāstasmai yogātmane namaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yayā saṃtarate māyāṃ yogī saṃkṣīṇakalmaṣaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  prapadye tat paraṃ tattvaṃ tadrūpaṃ pārameśvaram&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nityānandaṃ nirādhāraṃ niṣkalaṃ paramaṃ śivam&lt;/em&gt; [Kurm. Pu. - 1.10.70,72]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  To Him whom the yogis see as the bright light and by whom the yogis becoming sinless cross over &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;, I offer my obeisance. I surrender to that supreme essence, supreme lord, always blissful, independent, without from (parts) supreme Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because a person's name which is a Sanskrit word can have a meaning, someone may argue that the name Shiva in the above verse means auspiciousness, a quality of the deity not the deity Himself. But if the meaning is taken literally, then the same will also apply to Mahadeva. Beacuse Madhadeva can literally mean the title or definition (&lt;em&gt;saṃjñā&lt;/em&gt;) meaning great god or it can also mean the Rudra named Mahadeva that originated from Brahma as stated above from Vishnu Purana. The same names are also given in Kurma Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhavaḥ śarvastatheśānaḥ paśūnāṃ patireva ca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhīmaścogro mahādevastāni nāmāni sapta vai&lt;/em&gt; [Kurm. Pu. - 1.10.26]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He has these seven names: Bhava, Sarva, Ishana, Pashupati, Bhima, Ugra and Mahadeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So literally the title Mahadeva can be addressed to the formless Brahman or any other god, but generally it means the moon crested form of Shiva. Nevertheless, to make it more clear I am citing another verse which makes the subtle difference more apparent:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mahādevaṃ arcayitvā śivasāyujyamāpnuyāt&lt;/em&gt;  [Kurm. Pu. - 2.35.31]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - By worshipping Mahadeva, the worshipper obtains &lt;em&gt;sayujya&lt;/em&gt; (identity) with Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know &lt;em&gt;sauyjya&lt;/em&gt; means a type of &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; where the soul merges in the formless Brahman, and here the term Siva is explicitly used apart from Mahadeva to refer to the formless Brahman where the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; merges. Even to describe the one and only supreme Brahman, the word Shiva has been used:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;nityānandamamṛtaṃ satyarūpaṃ śuddhaṃ vadanti puruṣaṃ sarvavedāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tamomiti praṇaveneśitāraṃ dhāyāyanti vedārthaviniścitārthāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  na bhūmirāpo na mano na vahniḥ prāṇo'nilo gaganaṃ nota buddhiḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  na cetano'nyat paramākāśamadhye vibhāti devaḥ śiva eva kevalaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Kurm. Pu. - 2.10.15,16]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  All the Vedas state that the &lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt; (or supreme entity) is always blissful, pure, and has the form of truth. Those who have understood the meaning of the Vedas meditate upon Him through the &lt;em&gt;pranava&lt;/em&gt; (OM). Neither the earth, nor the water, nor the mind, nor the speech, life air, wind or sky, nor the intellect, nor the consciousness, nothing shines in the supreme sky, only one Shiva alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;tl;dr;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from examples like these and above cited references, it is just apparent that there is a subtle difference between Shiva and other terms, even though they are used interchangeable at many places. But the names are used so interchangeably that it doesn't make much sense literally and depends upon the context. &lt;strong&gt;So the point is, even if the difference is subtle, it certainly holds true from the Yoga point of view where Shiva is most often used to denote the supreme Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-08-03T16:17:20.463" LastActivityDate="2014-08-03T16:17:20.463" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2295" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2291" CreationDate="2014-07-23T10:20:48.857" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Indra&lt;/strong&gt; offered with a throne to King Vikramaditya for solving a curious quest of greatest dancer among &lt;em&gt;Aspsaras&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Rambha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Urvasi&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Menaka&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Tilottama&lt;/em&gt;).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindumythologyforgennext.blogspot.in/2012/08/vikramaditya-and-apsaras.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Blog link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra was pleased. He had found someone who could be sent to Kaushika. He turned to Vikramditya, 'King! You may not know it, but you have done a great service for me! In appreciation of this I will give you a throne...The throne was given to me by Lord Shiva himself! It is no ordinary throne. Only the greatest of the kings can sit on it. &lt;strong&gt;Any king who sits on the throne would rule for a thousand years&lt;/strong&gt;. You have proved to me that you are more than deserving to sit on the throne! I will give the throne to you.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The throne has 32 puppets with 32 steps. It is said that the puppets were cursed &lt;em&gt;Apsaras&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the throne made King Vikramaditya to rule for 1000 years. To accompany his Brother Vikramaditya for 1000 years, Bhatti (&lt;em&gt;a very clever minister&lt;/em&gt;) does worship to &lt;strong&gt;Goddess Kali&lt;/strong&gt; to get boon for 2000 years instead of 1000 years. Goddess Kali instructs Bhatti to bring head of his brother Vikramaditya to get the boon. As instructed, Bhatti went to Vikramaditya's room and woke him up (&lt;em&gt;as killing(unnecessary violence) is sin/Adharma&lt;/em&gt;) and then he states the offer presented by Goddess Kali to him. Vikramaditya without hesitation said to take his head. So, Bhatti did so, he cuts off his head and presented to Goddess Kali in the temple. Happy to see that, Goddess Kali  gave him the boon to live for 2000 years. But Bhatti grinned saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My brother was booned to rule for 1000 years on the throne by lord Indra which was clearly became false by his dead then how can I trust your boon now?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Understanding the cleverness of Bhatti, Goddess Kali granted Bhatti the boon to live for 2000 years and made Vikramaditya alive. She told him to rule for 6 months every year and other 6 months go for tour (&lt;em&gt;Bhatti explains the trick of why he asked for 2000 years instead of 1000 years to Goddess kali&lt;/em&gt;) &lt;sup&gt;need citation&lt;/sup&gt;. So that both the brothers can live for 2000 years. While Vikramaditya was away from the throne, Bhatti used to rule the Kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many stories or adventures related to Vikramaditya which were mostly happened when He was away from the throne for 6 months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said the above, both Vikramaditya as well as Bhatti were great devotees of Goddess Kali. It is said that Vikramaditya used to talk with Goddess Kali frequently in a temple of Ujjain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T15:33:55.687" LastActivityDate="2016-04-09T15:33:55.687" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2296" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3580" CreationDate="2014-07-23T10:36:42.243" Score="8" ViewCount="2255" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swaminarayan's birth name was Ghanshyam. So why he is called Nilkanth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-06-17T03:31:54.303" LastActivityDate="2016-06-07T08:43:19.793" Title="Why is Swaminarayan called Nilkanth?" Tags="|name|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2298" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-23T12:09:11.490" Score="6" ViewCount="4172" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been told that, for religious reasons, some plants must never be planted inside your house, or inner courtyard or even close the house, as in front-yard/backyard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A pundit had specifically mentioned 5 plants but I can't recall them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The pundit also emphasized, the branches of these plants must not touch the house or house boundary wall at all, though they may be planted towards outside perimeter if the front-yard/backyard is large.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Would you know which plants and why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="488" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-09-09T06:08:44.843" LastActivityDate="2015-03-11T15:45:54.040" Title="For religious reasons, which plants should never be planted inside the house or even close to the house?" Tags="|belief|plants|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2301" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-23T12:53:42.390" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-07-23T12:53:42.390" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T12:53:42.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2302" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-23T12:53:42.390" Score="0" Body="Tulsi (Ocimum Tenuiflorum) or Holy basil is a sacred plant in Hindu belief. Hindus regard it as an earthly manifestation of the goddess Tulsi, a consort of the god Vishnu." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-23T14:42:57.547" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T14:42:57.547" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2303" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2229" CreationDate="2014-07-23T14:00:42.317" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva is the god of death. So, he accepts everything that is rejected of which are rotting things such as corpses, alcohol and such. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even marijuana is something rejected by mankind. Coincidentally, everything that is rotting, creates intoxication which is a state of mind when one tends to death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Shiva consuming alcohol and smoking are all allegorical aspects of him depicting him as the GOD OF DEATH.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But remember that it is based on probabilities,There are various misconceptions about that, but it does not mean that lord Shiva smoker or alcoholic, it only shows that the lord is in the state of intoxication(Cenotaph) and far away from society&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-24T21:02:57.713" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T21:02:57.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2304" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2307" CreationDate="2014-07-23T14:08:12.920" Score="13" ViewCount="11259" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;em&gt;Adwaitha - Siddhantha&lt;/em&gt;, after a person's death, &lt;em&gt;Aatma&lt;/em&gt; will merge with supreme one, called &lt;em&gt;Paramathma&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, how can we know that an Aatma got &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;? Is there any way to identify it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-23T17:05:29.560" LastActivityDate="2020-11-16T03:17:40.473" Title="How can we know that an Aatma got Moksha?" Tags="|moksha|atma|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2305" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2246" CreationDate="2014-07-23T14:09:28.843" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no biblical support for the idea that Jesus meditated in India before beginning His ministry in Israel. Nor is there any evidence that He left the land of His birth at any time to go to India or anywhere else. Of the four Gospel accounts, only two mention the birth of Jesus (Matthew and Luke), and only one (Luke) mentions anything about Jesus' life prior to His beginning His three-year ministry in Israel. So, from His birth until 12 years of age, the Bible tells us very little about what happened in Jesus’ life. And from ages 12 to 30, we know nothing. This has led many to speculate as to what Jesus did during those intervening years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many who are convinced that between the ages of 12-29, Jesus travelled . These sorts of claims are presented in the film The Lost Years of Jesus. They are also made in Shirley Maclaine's Out on a Limb, Janet Bock's The Jesus Mystery, Elizabeth Clare Prophet's The Lost Years of Jesus and Holger Kirsten's Jesus Lived in India. Edgar Cayce the trance medium, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Sai Baba have also claimed that Jesus went to India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Life of St Issa&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The claim that Jesus spent his missing years in India originated with Nicholas Notovitch's The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ in 1894. Notovitch, a Russian journalist, claimed he had found documents in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery which described Jesus' life. In these scrolls Jesus was known as St Issa. At the age of 12 he left Jerusalem for India where he studied the Vedas. He was welcomed by the outcasts for his wisdom and miracles but the Brahman priests grew jealous and sent St Issa away. He journeyed to Kashmir and Tibet. In Tibet he mastered the Buddhist Scriptures and then returned to Palestine to preach.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T14:09:28.843" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2307" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2304" CreationDate="2014-07-23T14:29:56.600" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;No there isn't any way to identify that one got mokshya or not as no one has any idea about how the atma is(&lt;em&gt;as its so small as mentioned below and no ordinary human being can see it without the help of supreme Lord&lt;/em&gt;) and whose atma it is, only paramathma knows about it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the upper point of a hair is divided into one hundred parts and&#xA;  again each of such parts is further divided into one hundred parts,&#xA;  each such part is the measurement of the dimension of the spirit soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/2/17/en&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;  Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (5.9) &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-04-04T10:52:33.130" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T10:52:33.130" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2308" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2298" CreationDate="2014-07-23T14:32:36.337" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to religious and scientific reason &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mango&lt;/a&gt; tree, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_religiosa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Peepal&lt;/a&gt; tree , &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azadirachta_indica&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Neem&lt;/a&gt; tree are good in nearby. But,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thorny Plants&lt;/strong&gt; - Thorny plants should not be planted near the house. Cactus should not be planted at all. Thorny plants other than roses have a negative energy. Ideally, all thorny plants should be&#xA;  pulled up and destroyed. The reason could be that the thorns can hurt&#xA;  you when you brush past them so be careful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Creepers&lt;/strong&gt; – Creepers or other plants should not be grown along-side the building wall as support their clingers slowly creep into tiny&#xA;  cracks in the walls and gradually widen them as they grow, causing&#xA;  damage and seepage of water through the walls. Creepers should only be&#xA;  grown in a garden, and they should have their own independent&#xA;  supports. A creeper like a Money plant can be grown within the house&#xA;  but should not be grown outside, using a tree for support.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Flower Pots&lt;/strong&gt; - Flower pots should not be kept on the compound wall facing the North, East or North-East as they will block the useful&#xA;  morning sunlight coming in from these directions. Flower pots and&#xA;  decorative plants can be placed on the ground in these directions, but&#xA;  they should not grow taller than 3 feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fore more information refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://astrologyreadings.tumblr.com/post/37254988193/what-trees-should-be-planted-in-a-house-garden&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-09T15:14:24.420" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T15:14:24.420" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2309" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-23T14:57:06.970" Score="4" ViewCount="4821" Body="&lt;p&gt;By etymology the word Hindu refers to people living near Sindhu riverbed. So Hindus must have been in North India initially. How and when did Hinduism spread to southern India? Before Hinduism spread to s. India, what were the religions (if any) there? Did these people voluntarily convert to Hinduism? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="290" LastActivityDate="2015-06-27T19:22:35.840" Title="When did Hinduism spread to south India?" Tags="|india|history|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2310" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-23T15:16:13.363" Score="17" ViewCount="20034" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do Sadhu, Sant, Rishi and Muni mean the same thing? How are these terms defined?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="290" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-23T16:29:20.150" LastActivityDate="2018-02-27T15:43:43.410" Title="Meaning of Sadhu, Sant, Rishi and Muni" Tags="|sanskrit|terminology|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2311" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="346" CreationDate="2014-07-23T15:17:07.130" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Kans wanted to kill devki, Vasudev(father of Lord Krishna) came in between and said don't kill devki as she has not done anything wrong and their son won't kill his own mama, however kans didn't agreed to which.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that vasudev said that he and devki would surrender to kans and also promised that none of their relatives(including hastinapur where bhisma pitama was senapati) would attack kans to free vasudev and kunti and in return let devki live.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hindu mythology, Kunti (Sanskrit: कुंती Kuntī) also called Pritha,&#xA;  was the biological daughter of Shurasena, a Yadava, the sister of&#xA;  Vasudeva, the foster daughter of her cousin King Kunti-Bhoja, the wife&#xA;  of King Pandu of Hastinapur and the mother of King Karna of Anga and&#xA;  King Yudhisthira of Indraprastha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;kunti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kans agreed to that and then he kept devki and vasudev in prison.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other reason why bhishma didn't stop kans was he was bound to the throne of hastinapur and he couldn't attack any one without kings consent and since kans didn't do any harm to hastinapur, he and bhishma pitamaha never came face to face.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="464" LastEditDate="2014-07-24T07:44:35.400" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T07:44:35.400" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2313" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="346" CreationDate="2014-07-23T16:09:32.967" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There's no reason to believe that Bhishma would try to stop Kamsa.  You can ask the same question about a million different people: why didn't Bhishma kill Kamsa, Shishupala, Jarasandha, Narakasura, etc. And why didn't Drupada kill any of them, and why didn't the Pandavas kill any of them (other than Bhima killing Jarasandha)?  It's not the dharma of a Kshatriya to go around the world killing all the evildoers.  The dharma of a Kshatriyas involves enforcing Dharma within your own kingdom, and possibly going outside your kingdom to enforce Dharma if war is justified by Vedic law in a particular circumstance.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jarasandha was a bad guy for a long time, and he even drove Krishna and the Yadavas out of Mathura, but the Pandavas never tried to fight him during any of that.  It was only at the time of Yudishtra's Rajasuya Yagna that it was justified for Bhima to go to Magadha  and challenge Jarasandha to a battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-07-24T22:47:30.857" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T22:47:30.857" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2314" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2310" CreationDate="2014-07-23T16:10:06.340" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;All are away from materialism and are progressing on spirituality however little difference is there between them&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sadhu&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; - The who has renunciated the world and living alone &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rishi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; - Sadhu who has progressed a lot...and stays in his Ashram while teaching others about God &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Muni&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; - A Rsihi who lives alone..and normally does not impart knowedge..but busy in his own quest further &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sant&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; - One who knows the truth... he may be living with family but will be busy in propagating the truth &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061024043939AAcy3lQ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="464" LastEditDate="2014-07-24T07:17:40.440" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T07:17:40.440" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2316" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2344" CreationDate="2014-07-23T16:16:01.573" Score="17" ViewCount="30794" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard that the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%ADa-devat%C4%81_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ishta-Deva&lt;/a&gt; is pre-decided for each person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do you know who your Ishta-Deva is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="488" LastEditorUserId="458" LastEditDate="2015-07-16T02:10:20.863" LastActivityDate="2022-08-04T17:03:56.090" Title="How do you find out your Ishta-Deva (personal deity)?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2317" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="264" CreationDate="2014-07-23T16:57:05.677" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Everyone here has given the answers based on mythology. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mythological stories were a tool to mainly teach people to either avoid certain behaviour and / or to aspire and strive to improve one's self by adopting desirable traits. To the intelligent, it should thus be self-evident that they are not meant for literal interpretation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman: &lt;em&gt;The&lt;/em&gt; GOD (a very simple interpretation).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Brahmin: A student of the &lt;em&gt;vedas&lt;/em&gt; who leads a &lt;em&gt;dharmic&lt;/em&gt; life; scholar.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Brahma: God of creation (the creator; part of the trinity).   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt; describe the creator &lt;em&gt;Brahma&lt;/em&gt; as the manifestation that &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; assumes for the purpose of any creation. &lt;em&gt;Brahma&lt;/em&gt;, thus &lt;strong&gt;having the nature of &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, is considered as the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;veda&lt;/em&gt; incarnate&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;embodiment of knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worship in Hinduism is steeped with &lt;strong&gt;symbolism&lt;/strong&gt;. Very briefly -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whether it is the &lt;em&gt;vedic&lt;/em&gt; form or the &lt;em&gt;agamic&lt;/em&gt; form of worship, both heavily utilise symbolism to reinforce a concept of what the deity being worshipped represents and / or the focus of the worship. &lt;strong&gt;Symbolism is used to reinforce religious teaching to increase ones understanding&lt;/strong&gt; about some concept or the deity being worshipped, thus increasing our spiritual wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;vedic&lt;/em&gt; form of worship do not utilise idols or shrines and is offered in the form of &lt;em&gt;yagnas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, almost always with a ritual fire. Oblations are offered into the fire, along with &lt;em&gt;vedic&lt;/em&gt; chantings. As we place the &lt;em&gt;ahuti&lt;/em&gt; (offerings) into the flame, we symbolically offer all our &quot;impurities&quot; - our anger, greed, jealousy, grudges, pains, obstacles - and pray to God to make us as pure as the offerings we give to &lt;em&gt;Agni&lt;/em&gt;. Performing a &lt;em&gt;Yagna&lt;/em&gt; itself is a symbolism of the unity of the physical (e.g. the heat from the fire) and meta-physical (e.g. the &lt;em&gt;Vedic&lt;/em&gt; mantras), &lt;strong&gt;to achieve desired physical, psychological and spiritual benefits&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, &lt;strong&gt;the &lt;em&gt;agamic&lt;/em&gt; form of worship is based on idols and temples&lt;/strong&gt;, along with other associated rituals. &lt;strong&gt;The agamic scriptures&lt;/strong&gt; have many parts out of which the &lt;em&gt;Kriya pada&lt;/em&gt; of each &lt;em&gt;Agama&lt;/em&gt; describes in &lt;strong&gt;detail the rules&lt;/strong&gt; for constructing a temple or sculpting a diety (among many other things). And &lt;strong&gt;these rules have either a sound reason and / or is symbolic&lt;/strong&gt; to specify something. For example, the &lt;em&gt;mudras&lt;/em&gt; (gestures) of an idol that has fingers pointing down symbolize that the God is of a charitable nature, where as the &lt;em&gt;mudra&lt;/em&gt; where the fingers point upwards (as in blessing someone) signify a protector.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since we are talking about temples (whether of Brahma or Vishnu or anyone else), we are essentially talking about the agamic form of worship in Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As mentioned earlier, the &lt;em&gt;agamic&lt;/em&gt; scriptures deal with the &lt;strong&gt;philosophy&lt;/strong&gt; and spiritual knowledge of worship of a deity. Every idol or form that is used for such worship is different because each &lt;strong&gt;symbolically represent the different characterisation of the deity&lt;/strong&gt; being worshipped, based on the philosophy that the scriptures define about said deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the scriptures (and existence of temple) point out, it isn't as if Brahma isn't / wasn't worshipped at all. The &lt;em&gt;Garbhadhana&lt;/em&gt; (conception ritual), &lt;em&gt;Punswana&lt;/em&gt; (fertilization ritual), &lt;em&gt;Chudakarma&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Keshanta&lt;/em&gt; karma (ceremonious tonsuring), &lt;em&gt;Vivaha&lt;/em&gt; (wedding ritual) are all also associated with Lord Brahma. There are also funeral rites where Lord Brahma is invoked. All these can be symbolically considered as the act of creation or new beginning. Thus, logically, you would turn to the Creator to please / appease him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then, you can also turn to Vishnu, the protector, or Shiva the destroyer to please or appease them, for these very things. Why not offer worship to any one or any two or all of them? Such perceptions lower the importance of Brahma in the eyes of the followers of either Vishnu or Shiva, and would have certainly contributed to his loss of followers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahma&lt;/em&gt; is also represented symbolically as the &lt;em&gt;veda&lt;/em&gt; itself&lt;/strong&gt; - the reservoir of all knowledge. (In this context, a cosmic power of the ultimate reality -  the knowledge that contains the knowledge of all the phenomena evolved from it. Or in simpler words TRUE KNOWLEDGE.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Worship is based on faith&lt;/strong&gt;. And to faithfully believe something means you do not question it. Yet, the quest for knowledge starts with doubts, questions, debates and discussions. Thus, &lt;strong&gt;a faith based worship of Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; - the manifestation of true knowledge - &lt;strong&gt;is a philosophical contradiction&lt;/strong&gt;, as faith is often an hindrance to anyone on the quest of knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, the REAL reason that ancient scholars didn't &quot;worship&quot; Brahma is to &lt;strong&gt;resolve&lt;/strong&gt; such philosophical contradiction that his role as the creator and his primacy as the source of all knowledge created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The quest for knowledge is itself a desire and an act of veneration of &quot;knowledge&quot; (as a deity). Thus, studying and following the &lt;em&gt;vedas&lt;/em&gt; can by itself be considered as a worship of &lt;em&gt;Brahma&lt;/em&gt;, and what all Brahmins do. And the evolution of our scriptures is a testament to this - an indirect reference to the importance (and equality) of Lord Brahma within the trinity, by the ancient scholars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;Our philosophy has stood the test of time because it is based on sound reasoning&lt;/strong&gt; - not because of what some God did to another God or somebody blessed or cursed someone. Such literal interpretation can really inhibit our spiritual growth.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(For the spiritually inclined -&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This also reminds me of the the approach of ancient Islamic scholars on how to teach their religion. When the young muslims were introduced to their religion, they were taught that &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Doubt&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; is &lt;em&gt;haram&lt;/em&gt; (forbidden; something to be avoided; a sin even if done with good intentions). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reasoning was that due to the limitation of a child's understanding, more emphasis was placed on faith (which can also be described as absence of doubt). But as they become older they were urged to explore more - as prophet Muhammed (pbuh) did in long meditations resulting in the revelation of the holy Quran to him by God.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="524" LastEditorUserId="524" LastEditDate="2014-07-24T17:03:01.920" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T17:03:01.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2318" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2328" CreationDate="2014-07-23T17:16:52.757" Score="5" ViewCount="2092" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do Hindus worship different avatars of Gods and aspects of nature like Sun, Snake, Cow etc if they believe in only God which is Parabrahma? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T13:18:31.993" LastActivityDate="2018-02-02T04:55:26.067" Title="Why do Hindus worship different Gods if they believe in only one God which is parabrahma?" Tags="|worship|avatars|brahman|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2319" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2246" CreationDate="2014-07-23T17:27:47.177" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Are there published &quot;ancient records in the Puri Jagannath Temple archives confirming those facts&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nope. None to speak of. Claims of Jesus in India go back to the 19th century. See the associated &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_years_of_Jesus#Claims_of_Jesus_in_India_before_crucifixion&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt;. Nicolas Notovich admitted his story was a hoax, and Dowling's source for his own book was &quot;channeling.&quot; See Robert Van Voorst's comment (quoted in the article):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jesus' putative travels to India and Tibet, his grave in Srinagar, Kashmir, and so forth. Scholarship has almost unanimously agreed that these references to Jesus are so late and tendentious as to contain virtually nothing of value for understanding the Historical Jesus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="458" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T17:27:47.177" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2320" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2309" CreationDate="2014-07-23T17:29:13.320" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no question of conversions in Hinduism. Because it was not a religion at all. The word Hinduism itself was began to use in the recent past. It is actually 'Sanathana Dharma' and it is the culture followed in all over the India. More than a religion it is a way of life.(and what @Dharmaputhiran commented is exactly true)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Hinduism conversion' - that is rare term indeed and 'voluntarily conversion' that is just your opinion without considering the facts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmanism(historic vedic religion/culture)is the one which eventually changed it's name to today's Hinduism. Over time, Brahmanism gradually became Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following description related to Ramayana reveals that Brahmans and temples were there in South India before ages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Treta yuga Lord Rama visited South India in search for Sita. He built a bridge 'Ramasethu' to SriLanka in which floating stones were used. Also it is believed that one of the south Indian state Kerala was created by Parasurama which was also in Treta yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the legends, Lord Parasurama created the land between &lt;strong&gt;Gokarna and Kanyakumari&lt;/strong&gt;. Lord Parasurama the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu was the son of Sage Jamadagni and Renuka. As a mark of repentance for Kshatriya Nigraha sin, Parasurama meditated at Gokarna and invoked Lord Varuna (the Lord of the Oceans). Parasurama asked him for a boon. To absolve himself of the sins he had committed, he wanted to donate some land to the Brahmins. There was no land available because he already donated the whole land he obtained by the 21 round Kshatriya Nigraha to Sage Kashyapa. Lord Varuna told Parasurama that he would give him as much land as he wished. He told him to fling his Parasu (axe) from where he stood at Gokarna. The land from Gokarna till the point where the axe landed would be given to him was the boon that Lord Varuna promised him. The throw of the `axe' from Gokarna to Kanyakumari created Kerala. Parasurama donated this land to the Brahmins and settled Brahmins there in 64 gramams or villages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;32 out of the 64 gramams are in the Tulu speaking region (in between Gokarnam and Perumpuzha) and the remaining 32 gramams are in the Malayalam speaking region(in between Perumpuzha and Kanyakumari) in Kerala. Those in Kerala listed in the Keralopatti, the narrative of Kerala history are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Payyannoor 2. Perumchelloor (Talipparambu) 3. Alatthiyoor 4. Karanthol 5.Chokiram (Shukapuram) 6. Panniyoor 7. Karikkau 8. Isaanamangalam 9. Thrussivaperoor 10. Peruvanam. 11. Chamunda (Chemmanta) 12. Irungatikkootal (Iringalakkuda) 13. Avattiputhur (Avittathoor) 14. Paravoor 15. Airanikkulam 16. Muzhikkalam 17. Kuzhavur 18. Atavur 19. Chenganatu(Chengamanadu) 20. Ilibhyam 21. Uliyannoor 22. Kalutanatu. 23. Ettumanoor 24. Kumaranalloor 25. Kadamuri 26. Aranmula 27. Tiruvalla 28. Kidangoor 29.Chengannoor 30. Kaviyoor 31. Venmani and 32. Neermanna (Niranam)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So according to this, the land was created by Parasurama and later &lt;strong&gt;donated to Brahmins&lt;/strong&gt; which clearly indicate that Brahmanism was in South India at least from Treta yuga according to this. Also it states that 108 Shivalayas(temples) were  consecrated by Parasurama. You can check the list in the reference&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parasurama had consecrated 108 Shiva temples and 108 Durga temples for the well-being and prosperity of the people in Kerala . Among these 216 temples, the Lord Shiva of Gokarnam Mahabaleswara Temple in the north and Goddess Kumari of Kanyakumari temple in the south were considered as the protectors of Kerala. The first Shivalaya created by Parasurama was the Thrissivaperoor Vadakkunnatha Temple and the last one was the Thrikkariyoor Mahadeva Temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the reference &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vaikhari.org/108shivalaya.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-23T18:01:12.753" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2321" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2309" CreationDate="2014-07-23T18:03:40.673" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question assumes that Hinduism came from outside of India though Aryan &quot;invasion&quot;. The AIT is disputed and increasingly losing credibility. &#xA;When you make the assumption that Hinduism came from outside through invaders, you make the assumption that it spread like how Islam and Christianity spread whose ideology itself asks it's followers to proselytize others. Mapping Hinduism to this world view is incorrect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is not a monolith. It is a collection of &quot;organic&quot; cultures which originated and existed in India before colonization. There was always diversity and unity was never forced upon people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tamil people largely followed Saivam. Sangam literature is considered the oldest Tamil literature. First and second sangam literature is lost. But in the third sangam literature, it is mentioned that Shiva was the chief of the first Sangam and Murugan was the chief of the second Sangam. Nakkiran was the chief of the third Sangam and he was a great devotee of Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saiva Siddantha tradition was developed in Tamil. It is considered non-vedic as the philosophy and methods of worship of Shiva are different from those in the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other than Saivam, there were lots of local deities and local heros like Madurai Veeran, Karupusaamy, Aiyanar, Sudalai Madan, etc., as well as animistic tribal traditions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedic traditions supposedly spread to South India through sage Agathiyar who is considered the father of Tamil literature. The spread did not 'convert' non-vedic people nor did it try to eliminate them. Rather it created an organic unity. The above mentioned local deties were absorbed into the Vedic family without erasing them. That is, people continue to worship them the same way as they did before vedic influence. The only difference is a bond was created with the vedic deities. For example, Karupusaamy became the Vishnu's personal guard and a path to Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The concept of &quot;Aram&quot; in Thirukural is similar to &quot;Dharma&quot; in the vedic traditions and sometimes considered to be the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence there was always a organic unity between various traditions in India, north and south and there was not 'conversion' or replacement of 'native traditions'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE&lt;/strong&gt;: See this paper &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.academia.edu/1573411/Vedic_Roots_of_Early_Tamil_Culture&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedic Roots of Early Tamil Culture&lt;/a&gt; by Michel Danino which discusses this topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2015-06-27T19:22:35.840" LastActivityDate="2015-06-27T19:22:35.840" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2322" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2237" CreationDate="2014-07-23T19:02:35.207" Score="30" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jesus is not an avatar of Vishnu. Avatar is not same as prophet. An avatar is significantly different from a prophet in that every human can attain the consciousness of an avatar while a prophet is a &quot;chosen&quot; special person whose consciousness cannot be attained by humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One cannot consider Jesus to be an avatar because he solves a different problem than Vishnu. He 'redeems' humans from their originally sinful nature which Vishnu doesn't. See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/905/14&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for the details. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to scriptural 'proofs', quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://western-hindu.org/2008/10/09/a-christian-tries-to-convert-me-using-false-information/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this weblog&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Evidence based on the Bhavishya Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following verse appears to predict Jesus Christ. There are also many other verses predicting Jesus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;isha muurtirt-dradi&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;praptaa nityashuddha&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sivamkari ishamasihah iti ca&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mama nama pratishthitam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“Having placed the eternally pure and auspicious form of the Supreme&#xA;  Lord in my heart, O protector of the earth planet, I preached these&#xA;  principles through the mlecchas’ own faith and thus my name became&#xA;  ‘isha-masiha’ (Jesus the Messiah).”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This may at first appear to be remarkable. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavishya_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; shows&#xA;  that the same purana also remarkably predicts Queen Victoria. Other&#xA;  sources show that it even used words in English (‘Sunday’, ‘February’&#xA;  and ‘Sixty’), a language that would not exist in any recognisable form&#xA;  for over a thousand years from the supposed date of this document. It&#xA;  also predicted the East India Company and Mugal Rule. This would&#xA;  appear to be a remarkably predictive document indeed!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Unfortunatley there are a number of things that make it look much more&#xA;  likely to be tempered with. Firstly, no editions of this purana dating&#xA;  from before British rule can be found. Secondly the predictions stop&#xA;  at 1900, so there are no predictions of events occurring after the&#xA;  first recorded edition of this document. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/jesus_predicted_in_the_vedic_literature.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Steven Knapp points out&lt;/a&gt; that&#xA;  there is documented evidence of Christians plotting to write such&#xA;  false documents:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In 1784, the famous Indologist Sir William Jones wrote the following&#xA;  letter to Sir Warren Hastings, Governor General of India, confirming&#xA;  our suspicions that this was indeed part of their program:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“As to the general extension [spreading] of our pure faith&#xA;  [Christianity] in Hindoostan [India] there are at present many sad&#xA;  obstacles to it… We may assure ourselves, that Hindoos will never be&#xA;  converted by any mission from the church of Rome, or from any other&#xA;  church; and the only human mode, perhaps, of causing so great a&#xA;  revolution, will be to translate into Sanscrit… such chapters of the&#xA;  Prophets, particularly of ISAIAH, as are indisputably evangelical,&#xA;  together with one of the gospels, and a plain prefatory discourse,&#xA;  containing full evidence of the very distant ages, in which the&#xA;  predictions themselves, and the history of the Divine Person (Jesus)&#xA;  is predicted, were severally made public and then quietly to disperse&#xA;  the work among the well-educated natives.” (Asiatic Researches Vol. 1.&#xA;  Published 1979, pages 234-235. First published 1788).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Over all I think we can assume that this is more likely to be a&#xA;  forgery than a genuine prediction, though there is evidence that the&#xA;  Bhavishya Purana did exist historically and it is likely that it is a&#xA;  genuine document that has been added to and altered rather than a&#xA;  complete forgery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just suppose however that the sages really could predict the life of&#xA;  Jesus, Muhammad and the rise of the British Empire (but not be able to&#xA;  see a few decades later to its decline). Would that mean that we&#xA;  should become Christians? More likely it would validate the mystical&#xA;  powers of the Rishis. If we are to believe this part of the Hindu&#xA;  Scriptures then surely we should believe all! In this unlikely event&#xA;  we should see Jesus as an incarnation of God, but also believe the&#xA;  other predictions such as Krishna, samsara and reincarnation. It seems&#xA;  to me that this was not only an attempt at forgery but a futile one at&#xA;  that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2015-10-14T17:18:52.510" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2324" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2280" CreationDate="2014-07-24T01:22:02.770" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Ravana literally had ten heads.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/6M4f&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana describes Ravana's birth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[T]he girl [Kaikeshi]... after a length of time brought forth a very terrible and hideous offspring having the form of a Rakshasa, — &lt;strong&gt;having ten necks&lt;/strong&gt;, furnished with large teeth, and resembling a heap of collyrium, with coppery lips, twenty arms, huge faces, and flaming hair. On his having been born, jackals with flaming mouths and other ferocious beasts began to gyrate on the left. And that god showered down blood; and the clouds uttered forth harsh sounds. And the Sun was deprived of his splendour; and meteors began to dart to the earth. And the earth shook; and the wind swept away violently. And that lord of streams — the ocean, which was calm before, became agitated. And his sire resembling his grand-father named him, (saying), &quot;As this one hath been born with ten necks, he shall be called Ten-necked.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/D2Di&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;another excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda, Ravana cut off nine of his heads in the course of his Tapasya (deep metitation), but then Brahma restored them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the Ten-necked one passed ten thousand years without fare. On a thousand years being complete, he offered his own head as a sacrifice to Fire. In this way he passed away nine thousand years ; and nine of his heads entered into Fire. And as in the tenth year he intended to strike off his tenth head, [Brahma] the Great-father presented himself at that place....  [Brahma said] &quot;Hear!  I having been gratified, will &#xA;  confer on thee a fresh boon. O Rakshasa, O sinless one, &lt;strong&gt;those heads of thine which have been offered as sacrifices and which have sunk into the fire, shall again be thine.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana's heads also play a role in the final battle between Rama and Ravana, because as Rama kept cutting Ravana's heads off they kept magically regrowing, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga107/yuddhaitrans107.htm#Verse55&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereupon, the great-armed Rama who augmented the fame of the kings born in Raghu dynasty, stretching with anger, the serpent-like arrow with his bow, chopped off the glorious head of Ravana, which was graced with blazing ear-rings. Then, all the three worlds saw that head, fallen on the ground.  Another head, exactly similar to that head, cropped up on the shoulders of Ravana. That second head was again chopped off by Rama, possessing a swift hand and who was swift in his act. The second head of Ravana was cut off by arrows in that battle. Soon after that head was chopped off, it again rose into view.  Rama chopped off that head too with his arrows looking like thunderbolts. In the same manner, a hundred of Ravana's heads of equal splendour were chopped off by Rama. Yet, no certainty about Ravana's death could be seen. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was only when Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga108/yuddhaitrans108.htm#Verse17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;hit Ravana's chest&lt;/a&gt; with a Brahmastra that Ravana finally died.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-23T03:44:15.277" LastActivityDate="2016-01-23T03:44:15.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2325" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2327" CreationDate="2014-07-24T02:44:11.020" Score="6" ViewCount="2100" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;I am God&quot; if a human said it, truly believing it, that is. I know there are concepts like those of Brahman and Paramatma which indicate a unity of divinity, as well as the Sanskrit phrase &quot;Tat twam asi&quot; and the Bhagavad Gita's message (which seems to center a lot on the individual)...but do these add up such that the phrase &quot;I am God&quot; has some validity?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="525" LastActivityDate="2023-01-21T10:35:13.760" Title="How applicable is the phrase &quot;I am God&quot; to Hinduism?" Tags="|brahman|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2326" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2361" CreationDate="2014-07-24T03:41:20.727" Score="20" ViewCount="4458" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can animals attain Moksha or do that have to take human birth to attain Moksha ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is this story of Gajendra Moksha where an elephant gets Moksha. Is it just a special case or is it possible by animals to attain Moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-29T22:53:05.200" LastActivityDate="2022-03-29T04:16:16.093" Title="Can animals attain moksha?" Tags="|moksha|rebirth|animals|birth|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2327" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2325" CreationDate="2014-07-24T03:49:59.383" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you want to know whether the phrase &amp;quot;I am God&amp;quot; has validity in Hinduism, that exact phrase is present in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universaltheosophy.com/sacred-texts/brihadaranyaka-upanishad/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; (Nikhilananda's translation):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They say: “Since men think that by the Knowledge of Brahman they become all, what, pray, was it that Brahman knew by which It became all?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This [self] was indeed Brahman in the beginning. It knew itself only as “I am Brahman.” Therefore it became all. And whoever among the gods had this enlightenment, also became That [Brahman]. It is the same with the seers (rishis), the same with men. The seer Vāmadeva, having realized this [self] as That, came to know: “I was Manu and the sun.” And to this day, whoever in a like manner knows the self as “I am Brahman,” becomes all this [universe]. Even the gods cannot prevent his becoming this, for he has become their Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note that Brahman is only one possible translation of the word &amp;quot;god&amp;quot;; see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/41/36&quot;&gt;my answer&lt;/a&gt; in Meta.)  Now the question becomes how to interpret the passage.  Some might interpret it as saying that the only thing that's keeping you from &amp;quot;becoming the universe&amp;quot; is that you don't realize that you're already the Universe.  Others would say, however, that the passage means that you used to be Brahman and that you can become Brahman after you realize your former state, but that you're not Brahman right now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Hindu religion doesn't have a single position about the relationship between Jivatma, the individual soul, and Paramatma, the supreme soul or soul of the gods.  Rather, different sects of Hinduism, like Advaitam, Dvaitam, and Visishtadvaitam, have differing views on the question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Adi Shankaracharya's philosophy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Advaitam&lt;/a&gt;, Jivatma is already identical to Paramatma, he just doesn't realize it yet because he's in the illusion of Maya.  Madhvacharya's philosophy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvaita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dvaitam&lt;/a&gt;, on the other hand, posits that Jivatma and Paramatma are totally separate, and that the best the Jivatma can hope for is to get into more elevated state, never actually becoming one with Paramatma, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/515/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  And Ramanujacharya's philosophy of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishishtadvaita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishistadvaitam&lt;/a&gt; (the philosophy of Sri Vaishnavas like myself) advocates a compromise position, where there is larger whole but within that whole there is some division, akin to the relationship between a fetus and a pregnant woman; the fetus is a part of the pregnant woman's body, yet it's not the same as the pregnant woman herself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there are other philosophies like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achintya_Bheda_Abheda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Achintya Bheda Abheda&lt;/a&gt;, where there is simultaneous oneness and difference, but where the coexistence of unity and plurality is beyond Man's comprehension.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up, while the phrase &amp;quot;I am Brahman&amp;quot; does occur in Hindu scripture, the larger question of whether you are Brahman right now is one that is hotly debated amongst the different sects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="7984" LastEditDate="2023-01-21T10:35:13.760" LastActivityDate="2023-01-21T10:35:13.760" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2328" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2318" CreationDate="2014-07-24T04:06:38.327" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is because, the one supreme God doesn't offer any material benefits to the worshipper. Rather, because material things cause attachment and bondage, He snatches away whatever material things his true devotee may have:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yasyāhamanugṛhṇāmi hariṣye taddhanaṃ śanaiḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tato'dhanaṃ tyajantyasya svajanā duḥkhaduḥkhitam&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 10.88.8]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I gradually take away his wealth whomever I show my favour and grace. Then due to poverty his friends and relatives abandon him and thus he suffers distress after distress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, in the heart of a devotee detachment towards this world grows and it becomes easier for him to think and concentrate on God more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So people who are desrious of material benefits, instead of worshipping God, worship other demigods, &lt;em&gt;bhutas&lt;/em&gt; (air, water, etc.), ghosts, manes, etc:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kāmaistaistairhṛtajñānāḥ prapadyante 'nyadevatāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  taṃ taṃ niyamamāsthāya prakṛtyā niyatāḥ svayā&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 7.20]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And secondly, people are under the influence of the threefold material nature of &lt;em&gt;satva&lt;/em&gt;(goodness), &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;(passion) and &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; (ignorance). Hence, driven by their primary nature they even though believe in one supreme God, worship many other beings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yajante sāttvikā devānyakṣarakṣāṃsi rājasāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pretānbhūtagaṇāṃścānye yajante tāmasā janāḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 17.4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods; those in the mode of passion worship the demons; and those in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only those whose minds are in pure goodness and who do not have any material desires worship the Supreme personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the thing regarding worshipping &lt;em&gt;avatars&lt;/em&gt; is that, &lt;em&gt;Parambrahma&lt;/em&gt; has no material form. So for embodied beings like us who have a material form, it is very difficult to worship Parambrahma in His all pervading absolute formless form:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kleśo ’dhika-taras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 12.5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difﬁcult for those who are embodied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So instead of worshipping &lt;em&gt;Parambrahma&lt;/em&gt;, most people worship His different avatars. But then, as you know, there are followers of Advaita and many other sects who do not worship any &lt;em&gt;avataras&lt;/em&gt; but revere and meditate upon the formless &lt;em&gt;Parambrahma&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T04:06:38.327" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2329" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="877" CreationDate="2014-07-24T06:18:20.117" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Indian astrology, there are 27 nakshatras and 4 padhas (times) for each, totaling 27 x 4 = 108 padhas. So any living being is born in one of these timings. For peace and prosperity of all beings 108 is selected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="272" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T06:18:20.117" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2330" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2325" CreationDate="2014-07-24T06:38:20.463" Score="5" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Does the phrase &quot;I am God&quot; have some validity?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it has. Because this phrase &quot;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;aham brahmāsmi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; is not the philosophical conclusion of any man, but comes directly from the Veda (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 of the Yajur Veda). So it is valid, &lt;strong&gt;but the question is what kind of Brahman &quot;I am&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman although is one without a second, depending upon activities it is known as three:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhoktā bhogyaṃ preritāraṃ ca matvā sarvaṃ proktaṃ trividhaṃ brahmametat&lt;/em&gt; [Sve. Up. 1.12]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -The enjoyer, the object of enjoyment and the creator/controller, all these are said to be the three types of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one Brahman is that which is enjoyed, i.e. material things of &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; (bhogya), the second is that which enjoys (&lt;em&gt;bhokta&lt;/em&gt;) and the third is that who gives rise to both the enjoyed and the enjoyer (prerataram). So we are Brahma, but the bhokta Brahman (the second type) and we are under the influence of &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt;. But the creator Brahamn is the lord of maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since, &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; is the covering that is between us and God, once &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; is casted out man can become Brahman. Only then the sentence I am Brahman can be fully valid. It is because &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; is ignorance which prevents us from knowing and realizing Brahman. But once maya is gone, Brahma is realized. And by realizing Brahma, one becomes Brahman himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;brahma vid brahmaiva bhavati&lt;/em&gt; [Mund. Up. - 3.2.9]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - One knowing (realizing) Brahman becomes Brahman.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जानत तुम्हि तुम्हि वन जाइ [Ramcharit Manas]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - By knowing You, one becomes You.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the question is, because he becomes Brahman (God), can he produce or create the other two kinds of Brahma (&lt;em&gt;bhokta&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;bhogya&lt;/em&gt;)? No, he can't. Because, such a jiva who after liberation gets God, might gain other powers but creation of the world, etc. are only in the hand of Supreme Brahma. So the Brahma Sutra says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;jagadvyāpāravarjaṃ&lt;/em&gt; [BrSu - 4.4.17]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - The liberated soul gets all powers except creation of &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt;, worlds, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the identity is in the sense that the liberated &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; gets the bliss and enjoyment of equal to God. Jiva doesn't become the God. So the Brahma Sutra says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhogamātrasāmyaliṅgāc ca&lt;/em&gt; [BrSu - 4.4.21]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -Equality of the soul with Brahman is only with respect to enjoyment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So once, a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;, whose consciousness has found identity with Brahma, becomes liberated enjoys the bliss of Moskhsa (emancipation) and then merges in Brahma losing all his identity. &lt;strong&gt;Once he has merged in Brahma, there is no coming back, there is no coming back.&lt;/strong&gt; [BrSu - 4.4.22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this is generally the concept of &quot;I am God&quot; of the non-dualists (&lt;em&gt;Advatins&lt;/em&gt;) who meditate upon the impersonal absolute Brahman. &lt;strong&gt;Identity of Brahman and &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; as one is a special realization that is attained after much practice known as &lt;em&gt;Sadhana Chatushtaya&lt;/em&gt; (discrimination, detachment, control of mind, control of senses, meditation, etc.)&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;I am God&quot; is not a simple statement that by uttering this or knowing this one becomes God. It is a realization that has to be achieved and realized, otherwise we will only be speculating how &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; can be God, why he cannot be God etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T06:38:20.463" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2331" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9297" CreationDate="2014-07-24T07:08:04.213" Score="15" ViewCount="51828" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that lord Hanuman is very powerful and he was friend of Sugriva, then why didn't he help Sugriva to get his throne back from his brother Vali (&lt;em&gt;by killing vali&lt;/em&gt;)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know Vali was with boon that he will take 50% of power from his opponent who ever challenges him but I am sure this is not the reason behind lord Hanuman not fighting with Vali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-24T07:18:12.607" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T18:02:24.520" Title="Why didn't lord Hanuman help Sugriva to kill Vali?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|vali|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="22" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2332" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2331" CreationDate="2014-07-24T07:17:34.310" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vali was king of the &lt;em&gt;Vanaras&lt;/em&gt;. Moreover, the dispute was only between the two brothers Vali and Sugriva. So it was not right for third person to interfere in their business. But &lt;strong&gt;because Rama was a descendant in the Ikshvaku lineage, to whom the whole land, forests, mountains, etc. belonged [VR - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga18/kishkindhasans18.htm#Verse6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;4.18.6]&lt;/a&gt;, Rama had the right to punish him by law, but not Hanumana.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another possible cause lies in an &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/1965/38&quot;&gt;earlier question&lt;/a&gt; you asked. It was may be because, Hanuman didn't remember all his powers. And without knowing all his powers, he couldn't have defeated such a strong personality like Vali (given he also had that &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/367/38&quot;&gt;special boon&lt;/a&gt; of taking half of his opponents power). Even Sugriva took a test of Rama's power to be sure that He can defeat Vali.  Hanuman, remembered all his power when Jambvan reminded him at the shore of the sea for flying over to Lanka. By that time Vali was already dead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T08:42:36.827" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2333" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2336" CreationDate="2014-07-24T07:48:37.360" Score="20" ViewCount="53329" Body="&lt;p&gt;We are aware of Draupadi as the wife of Pandavas whereas Subhadra is the wife of Arjuna and, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidimbi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hidimbi&lt;/a&gt; is the wife of Bhima.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides Draupadi, are there any other wives of Yudhisthir, Nakul and Sahdev? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, Pandava children, Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna-Subhadra and, Ghatotkacha, son of Bhima-Hidimbi are well-known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the names of Draupadi's sons and other Pandava children, if they exist?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="257" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T07:49:32.470" LastActivityDate="2021-05-20T22:45:09.177" Title="Can anyone explain the family tree of Pandavas?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2334" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2340" CreationDate="2014-07-24T07:50:33.660" Score="17" ViewCount="13151" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know there were many people who could have killed Ravana, like Lord Hanuman and Jambavan. But they didn't kill Ravana. Only Lord Rama did. Why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-01-11T20:27:59.923" LastActivityDate="2018-10-22T07:19:47.647" Title="Why did only Lord Rama kill Ravana?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|ravana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2335" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2333" CreationDate="2014-07-24T07:59:20.693" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Drapadi married to five Pandava's they all had given her a word that they will not marry any other girl their whole life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhima married to Hidamba before getting marry with Draupadi, because she was in love with Bhima. She told mother Kunti that either she will do suicide or allow her to get marry with Bhima. Mother kunti told her that she can marry to Bhima but as she belongs to Rakshasas family. However she would not be  allowed to enter in to Hastinapur's kingdom. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna &amp;amp; Subhdra were in love with each other. Lord Krishna helped them to get marry. For Lord Krishna , Draupadi like his sister, and hence Draupadi allowed Subhdra to stay with them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upapandavas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia source&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Drapadi's sons name are as follows, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prativindha : Prativindha or Shrutavindha was born to Yudhisthira and Draupadi and was the eldest of the Upapandavas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Satanika : Satanika was born to Nakula and Draupadi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sutasoma : Sutasoma was the son of Bhima and Draupadi was the third of the Upapandavas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Srutasena : Srutasena was born to Sahadeva and Draupadi and the fourth upapandava. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Srutakarma : rutakarma was the son born to Arjuna and Draupadi, the youngest Upapandavas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="532" LastEditDate="2014-07-24T13:29:08.273" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T13:29:08.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2336" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2333" CreationDate="2014-07-24T07:59:55.163" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Name of sons of Draupadi are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prativindhya from Yudhishthira&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sutasoma from Bheema&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Srutakirti from Arjuna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satanika from Nakul&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Srutakarma from Sahadev&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference : &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draupadi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira, Nakula and Sahadeva also had a wife other than Draupadi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira had other wife Devika, the daughter of Govasana of the&#xA;Saivya tribe, who bore him a son named Yaudheya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer : &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yudhisthira&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yudhisthira &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nakula had other wife Karenumati, the daughter of the king of the&#xA;Chedi Kingdom, who bore him a son, Niramitra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer : &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakula#Marriage&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nakul&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sahadeva married his maternal cousin Vijaya, the daughter of Dyutimat,&#xA;the king of Madra, and had a son named Suhotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer : &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahadeva#Marriage&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sahadeva &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T08:11:27.783" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2337" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2334" CreationDate="2014-07-24T08:13:39.277" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jambvan&lt;/em&gt; can't kill Ravana, because Ravana had a boon that only a Monkey or Man ( Narayan in man form) can kill him. Jambvan was in form of bear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Ravana met first time with Lord Hanuman, he told him that He is Amar ( a person who can't die ). Listening to this, Lord Hamuman reminded him his boon that he was blessed to be only killed by a &lt;em&gt;Monkey&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Narayan&lt;/em&gt; ( i.e. Lord Vishnu ). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman told him that he too can kill Ravana at that very moment but he wanted Lord Rama to get credit of killing Ravana, and that's why he didn't kill him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="2974" LastEditDate="2017-01-27T16:33:29.837" LastActivityDate="2017-01-27T16:33:29.837" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2338" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2339" CreationDate="2014-07-24T09:29:56.797" Score="7" ViewCount="635" Body="&lt;p&gt;On the last night of the war after Duryodhana's defeat, Ashwatthama  attacked the Pandava camp and strangled Dhrishtadyumna to death in his sleep, he killed Shikhandi and Uttamaujas , He killed Draupadi's five sons, the Upapandavas, while they were sleeping, believing them to be the five Pandava brothers and many other prominent warriors of the Pandava army. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So who was Uttamaujas ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="464" LastEditDate="2014-07-24T10:17:12.763" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T05:36:05.520" Title="Who was Uttamaujas in Mahabharat?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2339" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2338" CreationDate="2014-07-24T09:32:54.277" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.apamnapat.com/entities/Uttamaujas.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttamaujas - A Panchala Prince&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uttamaujas was a Panchala prince, a great warrior, who fought on the Pandava side in the great Kurukshetra war. Along with his comrade Yudhamanyu, he was assigned the task of protecting the chariot wheels of Arjuna, which duty he discharged admirably. Although he took part in a few single combats in the war, for the most part, he is mentioned as accompanying and guarding Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having survived the eighteen day war, he was killed in his sleep by Drona's son Ashwatthama during the despicable night-raid on the Pandava camp.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T09:34:58.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2340" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2334" CreationDate="2014-07-24T10:09:35.297" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;One important reason goes far back to even before Ravana was born. Ravan was actually one of the two gatekeepers at Lord Vishnu's abode Vaikuntha. Once, they stopped the four Sanat kumaras from entering into Vaikuntha and they got cursed. So they took take birth in demonic families as the Lord had desired:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lord replied: O brāhmaṇas, know that the punishment you inflicted on them was originally ordained by Me, and therefore they will fall to a birth in a demoniac family. But they will be firmly united with Me in thought through mental concentration intensified by anger, and they will return to My presence shortly. [&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/16/26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB - 3.16.26&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They later on took birth as Hiranakshya, Hirankashyapu in Satya Yuga, Ravana, Kumbhakrana in Treta Yuga, and Kamsa, Sisupala in Dwapara Yuga. So for their deliverance, Vishnu in His avatars had to kill them. So only Lord Rama Killed Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-22T07:19:47.647" LastActivityDate="2018-10-22T07:19:47.647" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2341" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-24T11:02:20.330" Score="22" ViewCount="57219" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana, Indrajit was able to hit Laxman by his special weapon named &lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt;. Due to this Laxman went very near to death. Now Lord Hanuman went to Himalaya &amp;amp; brought Sanjivani. This way Laxman was saved.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next day Indrajit uses all three main weapons i.e. Bramhastra, Narayanan's Sudarshan Chakra &amp;amp; Shiva's Pashupatra (Trishul). These weapons are considered as most deadly weapons but none of this weapon was able to harm Laxman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Video Source from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDLB_G4hP-8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan&lt;/a&gt;. All the sources of this &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayan_(TV_series)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayan&lt;/a&gt; are based on the Valmiki's Ramayan &amp;amp; Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how come shakti weapon was able to harm Laxman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="13148" LastEditDate="2019-04-29T13:18:05.750" LastActivityDate="2019-04-29T13:18:05.750" Title="Why did Laxman get injured by Indrajit's 'shakti' weapon?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|weapon|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2342" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2334" CreationDate="2014-07-24T11:04:38.027" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As pointed out above, ravana could only be killed by a vaanar(monkey) or a manushya(human).    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, when hanuman met ravana for the first time, he went as a doot(ambasador) and couldn't fight with ravana.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, you always fight with a person of your stature, therefore, ravana(leader of rakshasa) fought with lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="530" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T11:04:38.027" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2343" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="882" CreationDate="2014-07-24T11:12:15.740" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was added with the creation of calendar  on (432,000 X 4) years  which is the time of Krutayug (which was first era on earth according to hindusm)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greatdreams.com/hincal.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;GreatDreams.com&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ancient Hindu seers have had a comprehensive study of time. The minute details covered by those fantastic minds in reckoning time is bewildering. The Hindu calender is based on the age of Bramha, the Creator. The life span of Creator Lord Bramha is 100 years. His age now is 51 years. Each day of Lord Bramha is designated by a Kalpa. Each Kalpa comprise of 14 Manus and each Manu consist of 71 Mahayuga. 1000 such Mahayugs completes Lord Bramha's 1 day. At present, we are in the 28th Mahayug. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since the calender is based on the phases of the moon, the twelve as above take 354 days, 8 hours and 34.28 seconds. This creates a difference of 10 days, 21 hours and 35.16 seconds from the actual solar year (365 days, 6 hours, 9.54 seconds)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-07-26T16:37:27.067" LastActivityDate="2014-07-26T16:37:27.067" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2344" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2316" CreationDate="2014-07-24T14:29:34.427" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The key role in revealing one's Ishta Devata plays the &lt;em&gt;Atma Karaka&lt;/em&gt;. Atma Karaka is the planet that has the highest longitude. To find one's Ishta Devata we have to look at the Atma Karaka in Navamsa, since the Navamsa shows blessings of God onto the native and the way in which the native communicates with God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atma Karaka in Navamsa is called the &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;Karakamsa&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;. The 12th from the Karakamsa determines the &amp;quot;Istha Devata&amp;quot;. The 12th house from the karakamsa is called the &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;Jivanmuktamsa&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;. This is the house signifying the emancipation of the soul and we have to examine this house in order to find one's Ishta Devata. If there is a graha in the Jivanmuktamsa, it signifies the Devata. If there are more grahas than one, we choose the strongest. If there is no graha in the Jivanmuktamsa, you can see whether any Grahas are aspecting the 12th. If no Grahas aspect it, you can take the 12th Lord as Ishta Devata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The deities are worshipped based on the planets in the 12th from kaarakaamsha. Here are &amp;gt;the presiding deities for each planet who will be your Ishta Devata as per your horoscope.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sun~ Vishnu/ Rama/ Shiva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Moon ~ Krishna/Parvati&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mars ~ Hanuman/ Subramanya/ Sri Narasimha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mercury ~ Vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jupiter ~ Vishnu/ Sri Vamana/ Dattatreya/ Sai Baba&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Venus ~ Mahalakshmi/ Parashurama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saturn ~ ShaniDev/ Hanuman/ Kurma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rahu ~ Durga/ Varaha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ketu ~ Ganesh/ Matsya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ascendent ~ Kalki&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For example&lt;/strong&gt;: Sun in 12th from Atma Karaka shows a worshipper of Shiva and Moon in 12th from Atma Karaka shows a worshipper of Gouri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://anu0562.blogspot.in/2010/05/ishta-devata.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ishta Deva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Source 2: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/BPHSEnglish/BPHS%20-%201%20RSanthanam/page/n333/mode/2up?view=theater&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 33, Verse 63-74&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-02-03T09:23:06.357" LastActivityDate="2022-02-03T09:23:06.357" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2347" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2333" CreationDate="2014-07-24T16:09:44.540" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/familytree.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the family tree of the Pandavas:&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SzXua.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, Arjuna had four wives, each of whom bore him a son: Draupadi had Shrutakirti, Krishna's sister Subhadra had Abhimanyu, the Naga princess Ulupi had Iravan, and Chitrangada princess of Manipura had Babruvahana.  And each of Arjuna's four brothers also had a son with Draupadi: Yudishtra had Prativindhya, Bhima had Sutasoma, Nakula had Shatatija, and Sahadeva had Shrutakarma.  And although the family tree doesn't show it, Bhima and the Rakshasi Hidimbi had Ghatotkacha. In addition, Yudishtra and Devika had Yaudheya, Bhima and Valandhara had Sarvaga, Nakula and Karenumati had Niramitra, and Sahadeva and Vijaya had Suhotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Abhimanyu, Iravan, and Ghatotkacha all died during the Mahabharata war.  And the five sons of Draupadi were killed immediately after the war by Ashwattama, who thought they were the five Pandavas; he was trying to avenge the death of his father Drona.  (For this he was cursed with a painful immortality.)  In any case, Babruvahana was the only child of Arjuna to live after the Mahabharata war; he became the king of his mother's kingdom of Manipura.  And when the Pandavas went to the Himalayas after the death of Krishna, they left the kingdom of Hastinapura to Abhimanyu's son Parikshit, the first Kali Yuga ruler of the Kuru dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-07-24T16:19:29.640" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T16:19:29.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2348" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2341" CreationDate="2014-07-24T18:18:29.977" Score="29" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, Indrajit never tried to use a Brahmastra, Narayanastra or Pashupatastra in the war (although he did use a Brahmastra against Hanuman during Hanuman's pror visit to Lanka, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2945/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;).  But he did once use another weapon of Shiva, the Raudrastra, although as I'll discuss below that was just to fight off one of Lakshmana's weapons.  Second of all, the TV serial is conflating a bunch of different incidents:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is one occasion where Indrajit fatally wounded Lakshmana, but that's an occasion where he fatally wounded both Rama and Lakshmana.  As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga44/yuddha_44_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga45/yuddha_45_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, early on in the war, Sugriva's nephew Angada defeated Indrajit in battle, so Indrajit turned invisible and then launched numerous Nagastras (snake weapons) at Rama and Lakshmana, which put them in a state very close to death.  But then Vishnu's mount Garuda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga50/yuddha_50_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;came to the battlefield&lt;/a&gt;, eating all the snakes and healing the wounds of Rama and Lakshmana.  (Rama asked him who he was and why he was helping them, but Garuda refused to answer because Rama wasn't supposed to know that he was an incarnation of Vishnu.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The only direct confrontation between Lakshmana and Indrajit happened later on in the war, and its conclusion is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga90/yuddha_90_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda.  Indrajit fired a Yamastra (weapon of Yama god of death), but Lakshmana destroyed it with a Kuberastra (weapon of Kubera god of wealth).  Then Lakshmana launched a Varunastra (weapon of Varuna the ocean god), but Indrajit destroyed it with a Raudrastra (weapon of Shiva).  Then Indrajit fired an Agneyastra (weapon of Agni the fire god), but Lakshmana destroyed it with a Saurenastra (weapon of Surya the sun god).  Then Indrajit launched an Asurastra (weapon of the demons), but Lakshmana destroyed it with a Maheshwarastra (another weapon of Shiva).  Finally Lakshmana hit Indrajit with an Indrastra (weapon of Indra king of the gods), killing him.  Now after killing Indrajit, Laskhmana did have some wounds, but those wounds were very easily &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga91/yuddha_91_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;healed by Sugriva's father-in-law Sushena&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The incident you mentioned involving Hanuman carrying a mountain happened even later in the war and had nothing to do with Indrajit.  As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga100/yuddha_100_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda, during the battle between Rama and Ravana, Ravana's brother Vibhishana killed Ravana's horses, so Ravana got down from his chariot and threw a powerful spear at Vibhishana, but Lakshmana shot the spear down with three arrows.  Angered by this, Ravana threw an even more formidable spear at Lakshmana, fatally wounding him.  So as described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga101/yuddha_101_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt;, Sugriva's father-in-law Sushena sent Hanuman to retrieve the herbs called Vishalya Karani, Savarni Karani, Sanjiva Karani, and Sandhana Karani from the peak of Mount Oushadi.    Hanuman couldn't identify the herbs on that mountain, so he brought the mountain peak itself to Lanka, and then Sushena used the herbs to heal Lakshmana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there's not even a question of Lakshmana being vulnerable to some Astras (magical weapons) and not others, because there iss never an occasion where he shows any invincibility against Astras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T06:57:50.930" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2349" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2356" CreationDate="2014-07-24T18:27:54.293" Score="9" ViewCount="1342" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why did Lord Chaitanya appear on earth? Is he a Vishnu Avatar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-03-06T03:24:09.303" LastActivityDate="2019-03-06T03:24:09.303" Title="Why did Lord Chaitanya appear on earth?" Tags="|vishnu|gods|avatars|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2350" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2349" CreationDate="2014-07-24T19:00:24.810" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is only thought of as an incarnation of Vishnu by the Gaudiya Vaishnava sect, which includes the organization ISKCON.  Other Vaishnava sects, like the Sri Vaishnava sect I belong to, don't regard him as an incarnation of Vishnu.  In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/11/5/32&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is a verse in the Srimad Bhagavatam that Gaudiya Vaishnavas consider a prophecy of Chaitanya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Kṛṣṇa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that this is a translation by a Gaudiya Vaishnava, so it's written from the point of view that it is a reference to Chaitanya.  The translation by J.M. Sanyal (not online) words things somewhat more neutrally:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The wise, with chanting songs, celebrating the name of The Lord, adore him who is black, and with his body and limbs, ornaments, weapons and attendants like Garuda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gaudiya Vaishnavas also believe that this line from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b114.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Sahasranama&lt;/a&gt; refers to Chaitanya: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He that is of golden complexion; He whose limbs are like gold (in hue); He that is possessed of beautiful limbs; He whose person is decked with Angadas made with sandal-paste; He that is the slayer of heroes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-07-24T19:17:25.413" LastActivityDate="2014-07-24T19:17:25.413" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2351" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2352" CreationDate="2014-07-25T02:27:56.593" Score="2" ViewCount="599" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Lord Nityananda the incarnation of Sri Balarama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-25T02:38:19.713" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T23:01:06.217" Title="Is Lord Nityananda the incarnation of Sri Balarama?" Tags="|balarama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2352" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2351" CreationDate="2014-07-25T02:39:57.767" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Chaitanya Charitamrta and Gaudiya Vaishnava view, yes he is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sei kṛṣṇa navadvīpe śrī-caitanya-candra&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;sei balarāma saṅge śrī-nityānanda&lt;/em&gt; [CC - 1.5.6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;That original Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared in Navadvīpa as Lord Caitanya, and Balarāma appeared with Him as Lord Nityānanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarva-rūpe āsvādaye kṛṣṇa-sevānanda&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;sei balarāma — gaura-saṅge nityānanda&lt;/em&gt;  [CC - 1.5.11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;In all the forms He tastes the transcendental bliss of serving Kṛṣṇa. That same Balarāma is Lord Nityānanda, the companion of Lord Gaurasundara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;5th chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Lila in Chaitanya Charitamrita describes in detail about Lord Nityananda Balarama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-25T04:19:12.920" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2354" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-25T03:12:19.033" Score="6" ViewCount="3294" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khilani&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Khilani&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda contains the famous Sri Sukta, a hymn to Lakshmi goddess of wealth.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/prayers_to_goddess_lakshmi.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; is what verses 11-12 of the Sri Sukta say:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sloka 11:  We are the progeny of our forefather, Sage Kardama, who is one of the sons of Goddess Lakshmi. We invoke that Sage Kardama to install in his family the Universal Mother, Mahalakshmi, who is decked with the garland of lotuses. So be it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sloka 12: We invoke another son of Lakshmi named Chikleeta. May he dwell in our home and may his mother, Mahalakshmi, dwell in our family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, why is Kardama called a son of Lakshmi?  Kardama is a famous sage who was the father of the sage Kapila (an incarnation of Vishnu), and he is usually said to be born of Brahma's shadow (although the Harivamsa &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/hv_1_30.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;calls&lt;/a&gt; him a descendant of Brahma's son Pulaha).  And I've heard that after the churning of the ocean Lakshmi made Kardama her adopted &lt;em&gt;father&lt;/em&gt;, not son.  But do any other scriptures describe him as Lakshmi's son?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my main question is, who is the figure mentioned in verse 12, Chikleeta?  Are there any scriptures that discuss his story?  The only information I could find about him is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/srisukta.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt;, which says that Kardama and Chilkita are two of the seers of verses in the Sri Sukta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each mantra of this Sukta has a different Rishi (seer), Chandas (metre), Devi (deity) and Viniyoga (ritual application). If we consider the entire Sukta as a whole, then the Rishis are: &lt;strong&gt;Ananda, Chikleeta, Kardama, Shreeda and Indira, who are said to be the sons of goddess Lakshmi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But is there any scriptural basis for Lakshmi having sons with these names?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T22:17:52.143" Title="What is the story of Lakshmi's son Chikleeta?" Tags="|vedas|lakshmi|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2356" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2349" CreationDate="2014-07-25T04:44:49.233" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Harinama Sankirtana&lt;/em&gt; (chanting of the Lord's names) is the prescribed spiritual duty for the people of Kali Yuga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dvāpare paricaryāyāṁ kalau tad hari-kīrtanāt&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 12.3.52]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Viṣṇu, in Tretā-yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dvāpara-yuga by serving the Lord’s lotus feet can be obtained in Kali-yuga simply by chanting the name of Hari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although the scriptures defined the prescribed duty, they didn't tech how to do it practically. For this pupose a teacher is required. And who could other than the God himself can teach us how to practice His &lt;em&gt;nama samkirtana&lt;/em&gt;? So God from time to time takes birth here for teaching us the practical process:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;martyāvatāras tv iha martya-śikṣaṇaṁ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rakṣo-vadhāyaiva na kevalaṁ vibhoḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB 5.19.5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  But God takes avatars here to teach or educate the people, not only just to kill the demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is for this reason that Lord Chaitanya took birth here. &lt;strong&gt;He revived the &lt;em&gt;samkirtana&lt;/em&gt; movement, brought into public the Hare Krishna &lt;em&gt;mahamantra&lt;/em&gt;, and staying as a &lt;em&gt;sannyasi&lt;/em&gt; Himself, He taught others how to practice devotion through the process of chanting the Lord's names and forms.&lt;/strong&gt; In those mediaval times irreligious activities had taken over and whether or not Lord Chaitanya's divinity is accepted, His activities and pastimes restored the &lt;em&gt;yuga dharma&lt;/em&gt; and many people are getting the opportunity of chanting the Lord's names now. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Chaitanya Charitamrita states Shir Krishna's desire for taking birth as a devotee:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yuga-dharma pravartāimu nāma-saṅkīrtana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  cāri bhāva-bhakti diyā nācāmu bhuvana&lt;/em&gt; [CC - 1.3.19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I shall personally inaugurate the religion of the age — nāma-saṅkīrtana, the congregational chanting of the holy name. I shall make the world dance in ecstasy, realizing the four mellows (&lt;em&gt;dāsya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;sākhya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;vāstalya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;mādhurya&lt;/em&gt;) of loving devotional service.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this was the primary reason behind Lord Chaitanya's appearance from Gaudiya Vaishnava perspective. You can read the &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;third&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;fourth&lt;/a&gt; chapter of Chaitanya Charitamrita to know more about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Him being an &lt;em&gt;avatara&lt;/em&gt; of Vishnu, people have different views. But in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, He is accepted as an incarnation of Vishnu or Shri Krishna [CC - 1.5.6]. &lt;strong&gt;Regardless of His divinity, He is revered as a spiritual teacher by whose mercy one crosses this material ocean filled with crocodiles of various opinions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;śrī-caitanya-prabhuṁ vande bālo ’pi yad-anugrahāt&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  taren nānā-mata-grāha-vyāptaṁ siddhānta-sāgaram&lt;/em&gt; [CC - 1.2.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I offer my obeisances to Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by whose mercy even an ignorant child can  cross the ocean of theories filled with crocodiles of various opinions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-25T05:03:07.507" LastActivityDate="2014-07-25T05:03:07.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2357" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2326" CreationDate="2014-07-25T05:19:34.520" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I agree with  @Mr_Green's answer in the comment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srikalahasti is the place where The Spider (SRI), Cobra (KALA) and Elephant (HASTI) rendered service with devotion to lord shiva  and attained  moksha &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srikalahasti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;(wiki)&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second as again pointed by @Mr_Green,  &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gajendra_Moksha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gajendra_Moksha&lt;/a&gt; is a good example. Elders say this is when the makara/crocodile got boon to turn into makara torana (as decoration behind lord vishnu in all His temples).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the hindu gods have animals or birds as vehicles like hen, peacock by lord Subrahmanya, cow by lord Dattatreya, rat by lord Ganapathy, lion by mother goddess, owl by lord Lakshmi, camel by lord Hanuman, kite by lord vishnu, nandhi by lord Shiva, swan by mother saraswathi .. the list is endless. Snake is worn by lord Shiva as ornament in His neck and hands, lord Vishnu as His bed, lord Ganapathy as His yagnopaveetham, those snakes attained moksha in this way. Behind every of these there is a story on how they attained  moksha! There are good no of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vahana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki articles&lt;/a&gt; on this! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-07-25T05:19:34.520" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2360" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2222" CreationDate="2014-07-25T06:32:07.787" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Few things I know on the namaskara practice is..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Doing namaskara is a sign of accepting the greatness of the person, it has sense of surrendering for protection and welfare! This is why we offer Namaskara to Almighty and Gurus!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Namaskara symbolically conveys that you are equivalent to me, it is the same god who is in both of us, I'm surrendering to Him! This oneness feel may be the origin of this practice started by the seers! &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The other day I learnt that if 10 chakras of ten ten fingers are joined (one chakra on each finger) it forms a complete loop to ease flow of positive energy and makes a complete cycle of energy flow! &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The another significance of namaskara is as there wont be any physical contact, infections passable can be controlled! If a low spiritual energy body touches a higher being, the higher one may take the energy of lower one with out any sign of transfer! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-07-25T06:32:07.787" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2361" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2326" CreationDate="2014-07-25T06:58:30.203" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, animals don't attain &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;. Because the natural order is as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sthāvarāḥ krimayo'vjāśca pakṣiṇaḥ paśavo narāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dārmmakāstridaśāstadūnamokṣiṇaśca yathākramam&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 2.6.34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  After experiencing the sufferings of hell, the sinners go through the various stages of existence in the following order: immovable trees, worms, birds, animals, men, pious men,&#xA;  gods and liberated souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, if by &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; you mean, the advaita one, then by no means animals can attain that because they cannot cultivate the knowledge to ward away ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, due to the grace of the Lord an animal certainly can attain &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt;, just like Gajendra did [SB - 8.4.6]. But these are special cases when they were devotees of Lord in their previous births. For example, Gajendra was a devotee of the Lord:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Gajendra had formerly been a Vaiṣṇava and the king of the country known as Pāṇḍya, which is in the province of Draviḍa [South India]. In his previous life, he was known as Indradyumna Mahārāja. [SB - 8.4.7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other than that, I have also heard that god-realized saints can also liberate animals if they want. But in anyway, animals can't attain &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; naturally by their own, because unlike humans, those are &lt;em&gt;bhoga yonis&lt;/em&gt; (where one only experiences the deeds of his actions, doesn't accumulate newer ones). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-26T17:30:05.687" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T17:30:05.687" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2362" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2414" CreationDate="2014-07-25T07:46:50.147" Score="4" ViewCount="3775" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Lord Krishna take away Arjuna's &lt;em&gt;dhanur vidya&lt;/em&gt; (archery abilities) before leaving the Earth (&lt;em&gt;Prithvi Lok&lt;/em&gt;)? If yes, why from Arjuna only and why not from other Pandavas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-12T05:43:20.047" LastActivityDate="2016-01-12T05:43:20.047" Title="Did Lord Krishna take away Arjuna's dhanur vidya (archery abilities)?" Tags="|krishna|pandavas|arjuna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2363" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-07-25T08:04:29.570" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-07-25T08:04:29.570" LastActivityDate="2014-07-25T08:04:29.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2364" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-25T08:04:29.570" Score="0" Body="Arjuna is the third among five pandavas and better known as the best in Archery. Also known for acquaintance with Shri Krishna which resulted in the famous Bhagavad Gita dialogue." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T17:46:48.233" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T17:46:48.233" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2365" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24733" CreationDate="2014-07-25T08:17:24.470" Score="9" ViewCount="8538" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that while Kamsa was dying, he cursed Shri Krishna that he (Shri Krishna) will also die in the hands of his nephew.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna had only one sister i.e Subhadra. So, while she was pregnant, Shri Krishna was telling her the secret of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmavyuha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chakravyuha&lt;/a&gt;, as it was a boring topic for her, she slept soon but the child inside her womb was listening to Shri Krishna's explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The child was acknowledging that he is listening to the explanation by doing &lt;em&gt;hmm&lt;/em&gt; sound frequently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna told the child about how to enter the Chakravyuha but not how to exit it so that the child will die in Chakravyuha and Shri Krishna can get rid of the curse. But some other sources say that Arjuna was explaining the Chakravyuha to Subhadra, when he explained the entering of Chakravyuha, Shri Krishna interrupted him and took him away.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And also during the battle (Mahabharata), Shri Krishna as a charioteer diverted Arjuna's (who is aware of Chakravyuha) Chariot far from the Chakravyuha when Abhimanyu was entering in to it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: There were other nephews of Shri Krishna known as upa-pandavas. Though they weren't in direct relation with Shri Krishna, they died on the night of the end of Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T17:54:07.393" LastActivityDate="2020-02-21T01:11:09.167" Title="Was Abhimanyu's death, a plot by Krishna?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|abhimanyu|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2366" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="780" CreationDate="2014-07-25T08:20:16.787" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Tamil, Devdasis are called &quot;Dev-adiyal&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adiyal&lt;/strong&gt; means &lt;em&gt;servant&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact, &lt;strong&gt;Dasi&lt;/strong&gt; means &lt;em&gt;nurse / servant / attendant&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dev-dasis/Dev-adiyals were basically attendants of the lord. Generally it can be understood that temples adopted and took care of poor and orphan children in the neighbouring community. These children grew up in the temple, attending to temple functions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As time went by, rich and powerful men formed relationships with these women or abused them, slowly turning them into prostitutes, and undesirables of the society. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Devdasi or Devadiyal is a vulgar curse word now, used to curse at women. At one time it wasn't so; it was a term of respect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then it meant &lt;em&gt;&quot;Lord's Attendant&quot;&lt;/em&gt;. Now it sadly means &lt;em&gt;&quot;Prostitute&quot;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: My knowledge of Tamil and oral historical tradition&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanniyasis&lt;/strong&gt; are hermits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saṃnyāsa in sanskrit means renunciation. From that you get a Sanniyasi - someone who threw away all worldly attachments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Traditionally Sanniyasis retreat into forests, caves and similar secluded areas to meditate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: Knowledge of Sanskrit and oral historical tradition&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="545" LastEditorUserId="545" LastEditDate="2018-06-20T03:03:29.057" LastActivityDate="2018-06-20T03:03:29.057" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2367" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2395" CreationDate="2014-07-25T08:46:09.457" Score="24" ViewCount="9334" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any story behind Karna's miserable life despite his benevolent nature? Any prior karma in a previous life to justify his current life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read it somewhere that when Karna died, Lord Krishna was not happy so Arjuna asked about it and he replied about Karna's &lt;em&gt;daanveerta&lt;/em&gt; when they went to the battlefield where Karna laid dead. They went there in Brahmana form like they were looking for some alms but due to incapability of Karna they are returning. So Karna stopped them and took a brick and broke his golden teeth and offered this to Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is even though the nature of Karna was so good why did he lead a sorrowful life? What previous karma of his caused his sorry state of life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-27T20:03:02.770" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T07:42:44.990" Title="Which previous karma made Karna's life full of sorrow despite his benevolent nature?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|karma|karna|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2372" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2367" CreationDate="2014-07-25T12:07:11.917" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Eons before events in Mahabharatha, Karna was a Tyrant or Demon called Dambhodbhava who was granted extra ordinary protection by Suriya (Sun) due to his devotion. He misused it and caused harm to the world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After he was killed he was born again as Karna, and still he had the grace of Surya. However he had to undergo a hard life due to his past life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindumythologyforgennext.blogspot.in/2012/09/karnas-karma.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://hindumythologyforgennext.blogspot.in/2012/09/karnas-karma.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="545" LastActivityDate="2014-07-25T12:07:11.917" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2374" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-25T12:12:40.610" Score="5" ViewCount="716" Body="&lt;p&gt;Could you explain the Sad Bhuja form of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-09-16T06:28:31.920" LastActivityDate="2014-09-16T06:28:31.920" Title="Could you explain the Sad Bhuja form of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu?" Tags="|symbolism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2375" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2362" CreationDate="2014-07-25T12:38:25.833" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;No it is not like that. I know we have heard stories regarding this. But as per Mahabharata, it just happened in due course of time because all of Arjuna's weapons had fulfilled their purpose. So while escorting the &lt;em&gt;yadus&lt;/em&gt; through the forest, he could not fight the robbers.He didn't even succeed to string his bow. So later on he approaches Vyasa and tells his inability:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Taking up my bow I found myself unequal to even string it. The might that had existed in my arms seemed to have disappeared on that occasion. O great ascetic, my weapons of diverse kinds failed to make their appearance. Soon, again, my shafts became exhausted. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Veda Vyasa tells him all this happened due to time and his weapons had went away having fulfilled their purpose:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thy weapons, having achieved success, have gone away to the place they came from. They will, again, come into thy hands when the Time for their coming approaches.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, because God is time Himself, we can say Krishna took away Arjuna's power. But it is not the direct opinion of the Mahabharata. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;16.7&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;16.8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-25T12:38:25.833" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2376" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2374" CreationDate="2014-07-25T14:03:09.567" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The form of Sad-bhuja, the six-armed Lord Gaurasundara, is a&#xA;  representation of three incarnations. The form of Sri Ramacandra is&#xA;  symbolized by a bow in one hand and an arrow in another, the form of&#xA;  Lord Sri Krsna is symbolized by a stick and a flute like those&#xA;  generally held by a cowherd boy, and Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu is&#xA;  symbolized by a sannyasa-danda and a kamandalu, or waterpot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/17/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Caitanya Caritamrta  Ādi 17.12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-25T14:56:09.407" LastActivityDate="2014-07-25T14:56:09.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2377" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="345" CreationDate="2014-07-25T14:14:54.130" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are four main Vaishnava sampradayas, or chains of disciplic succession descending down through the important acharyas, or spiritual preceptors. These are also the main schools of thought in the Vedic tradition. Thus, anyone should belong or be a part of one of these sampradayas if they are going to be considered authorized in their Vedic teachings or practice. These sampradayas are the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sri sampradaya, where the main exponent is Ramanujacharya (who lived in 12th century, born in 1016), propagated the doctrine called visista advaita, or oneness with varieties of the Lord and His energies. This is said to have originated from Sri or Goddess Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahma sampradaya, where the main exponent is Madhvacharya (who lived in 13th century, born in 1238), propagated the doctrine called visista dvaita, or duality with varieties. This is said to have originated from Lord Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rudra sampradaya, the main exponent is Vishnu Swami, who propagated the doctrine called suddha dvaita, or pure transcendental duality; Vallabha Acharya is also a branch of this sampradaya. This is said to have originated from Rudra or Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hamsa, Catuhsana, Kumara or Sanat sampradaya, the main exponent is Nimbarka, who propagated the doctrine called dvaita advaita or simultaneous oneness and duality. This is said to have originated from Lord Brahma’s sons, the Kumaras or which Sanat Kumara is one.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source and more information &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/four_sampradayas.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-02T16:27:11.337" LastActivityDate="2017-04-02T16:27:11.337" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2378" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1996" CreationDate="2014-07-25T14:21:28.457" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavadgita 10 .31&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of puriﬁers I am the wind, of the wielders of weapons I am Rāma, of ﬁshes I am the shark, and of ﬂowing rivers I am the Ganges.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/10/31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T04:14:52.597" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T04:14:52.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2379" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2318" CreationDate="2014-07-25T15:05:42.917" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question warrants two sub questions.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is God according to Hinduism?    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why do Hindus worship differently?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer to the first question is that Hinduism considers God as the ultimate cause-effect relationship that binds the entire system - the universe and beyond. It is not something out of the system, but very much inherent and built into the system. To be more specific when you rub a matchstick against its case it lights up. You can find the cause- effect relationship by digging deep into its chemistry, may up to its subatomic levels or you can superficially say that the cause and effect is inherent in the matchstick- case system. (This is just an analogy to how a cause effect relationship is inherent in the system. Extrapolating it too much may cause mis-concepts).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now for the second question, why do Hindus worship differently? People are of different make - different intelligence, different mindset , different tolerance levels, and so on. What ever be the make of the man,  the intention of life is to refine ourselves. Refinement happens only through experience. Hinduism recognizes the inbuilt conscience of a man in correcting himself through experiences. Only oneself can judge his self. &#xA;A matured person, with a noble view point on life can understand this virtuous system- the universe and beyond. Only a mature and noble man who believes in the self correcting nature of this huge system can afford to think of God as the cause-effect relation ship inherent in the system. This concept of God is very abstract. It is not quite simple as conceiving God as a person or object with the power to bless and punish at one's whims and fancies.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming back to the question, Why do Hindus worship differently? let me tell you, most people need a God who can bless and punish. For most of us God with these qualities is a psycho-logic necessity. Hinduism allows this. Any man can choose his own form of God if that helps him to lead a refined way of life. And Hinduism hopes that at some point of time of his life (in this birth or in any other cycles of birth!) the person will realize the eternal truth that he along with the system is God! (A word of caution - Knowing something is very different from realizing something. This writer who writes as if he knows everything has not realized it. But certainly believes that he will realize at some point of time, just like every other)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I mean by Hinduism is the Philosophy and spirit reflected from the VEDAS.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="552" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T08:51:55.080" LastActivityDate="2015-03-04T08:51:55.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2380" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2316" CreationDate="2014-07-25T15:06:45.660" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two possible ways, in my opinion, that Ishta Devata is chosen by a spiritual aspirant. These two ways are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) A spiritual aspirant becomes attracted to a particular Deity after reading through different spiritual literature and accepts that Deity his Ishta Devata; and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) The Guru of the spiritual aspirant meditates and finds out about the person's Ishta Devata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MASTER:..(To Ram and the other devotees) &amp;quot;If you asked me which form&#xA;of God you should meditate upon, I should say: &lt;strong&gt;Fix your attention on&#xA;that form which appeals to you most;&lt;/strong&gt; but know for certain that all&#xA;forms are the forms of one God alone.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Chapter 8, The Master's Birthday Celebration at Dakshineswar&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2021-06-06T12:19:36.890" LastActivityDate="2021-06-06T12:19:36.890" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2382" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2318" CreationDate="2014-07-25T15:11:37.567" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The underlying premise of the question is faulty. There is no such thing as different gods since Parabrahmaa is ekamevadvitiam (one without a second) according to the Upanishads. The apparently different gods are simply different names and forms of Parabrahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-07-25T15:11:37.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2384" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2386" CreationDate="2014-07-25T16:41:56.470" Score="7" ViewCount="16551" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why if Lord Parashurama is a Vishnu Avatar appear with Rama in the Ramayana and with Krishna in the Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-12T20:28:33.900" LastActivityDate="2018-01-12T20:28:33.900" Title="How did Parashurama, a Vishnu Avatar, appear alongside the next two Avatars of Rama &amp; Krishna?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|rama|avatars|parashurama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-09-08T05:06:19.207" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2385" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2387" CreationDate="2014-07-25T18:57:37.407" Score="1" ViewCount="19884" Body="&lt;p&gt;We believe that every religious tradition behind a scientific reason. What is the scientific reason behind this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why people of some caste wear it? I have asked some my Brahmin friends, they told me that this is a part of an education and it's a tradition, but am not satisfied with those answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="555" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-25T20:25:57.140" LastActivityDate="2014-07-26T15:11:57.787" Title="What is Janeu (Upnayan Sanskar)? What is the importance of it?" Tags="|tradition|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2014-07-25T20:16:04.620" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2386" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2384" CreationDate="2014-07-25T19:00:01.000" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are only 7 Cheerenjivi's (the eternal Beings) out of which one is lord Parshurama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See following for all names&#xA;&lt;code&gt;अश्वत्थामाबलिर्व्यासोहनुमांश्च विभीषण:कृपश्चपरशुरामश्च सप्तैतेचिरंजीविन:&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Lord Parshurama is an Avatar of Lord Vishnu and his every avatar has a specified work to do in it's whole life span out of which Parshurama was the one with a life upto the Chaturyuga so he had a large amount of work to do for a long time in Coming Yugas (after Treta Yuga(his birth Yuga)). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Parshurama is the one which is Bramhin as well as a Warrior it means he is a Bramhin Warrior a perfect Guru for every being, he also has all the magical weaponry traning (astra vidya) with him. Because of this qualities he has been casted as a guru of lot of characters that too very Important like Bhishma Pitamaha, Karna,Kalki(see kalki purana for refrence).Also he Supplies all knowlegde to the Important Characters at Right time for sake of the God's will and planning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cases when he appeared and why&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In TretaYuga &#xA;In case of Ramayana in Sita Swayamvar after the Breaking of the Pinak Dhanush of Lord Shiva ,Lord Parshuram who was in medetation on Mahendra Parwat became angry and due to his sattvic anger he came to Lord Rama and tested him for his patience and most importantly &lt;code&gt;he Gave his Bow the Sharang Dhanush to Lord Rama&lt;/code&gt; as it was nessesary for Ravan Vadh&#xA;refrences:&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parashurama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In DwaparYuga &#xA;In case of Mahabharata he was the mentor and guru of Bhishma Pitamaha ,Karna.&#xA;Lord Parshurama was all aware of the future incidents as he was himself   Vishnu he knew Karna would be a obstacle in Dharmsanstapan Path (In path of Dharma) so to ensure his death he cursed him (for his lie of being Bramhin in order to become his disciple) of losing all his falsely gained knowlegde at the time when he needed it most and it happened to be the fighting time in mabharata war and he died for the same reasons due to his death Pandava's win,&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2367/which-previous-karma-made-karna-life-full-of-sorrow-despite-of-his-benevolent-na/2395#2395&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer tells the story of meeting of Lord Krishna and Lord Parshurama&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Future Appearance in Kaliyuga &#xA;In future i.e. Kaliyuga it is said that Lord Parshurama will be the Guru of Lord Kalki &lt;code&gt;The Kalki Purana writes that he will reemerge at the end of Kali Yuga to be the martial and spiritual guru of Kalki, the tenth and final avatar of Vishnu. It is foretold that he will instruct Kalki to perform a difficult penance to Shiva, and receive the celestial weaponry needed to bring about end time.&lt;/code&gt; source &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kalki&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In these all lilas(Games/Actions) of Lord Shri Hari Vishnu he played a role for a long time as Lord Parshurama to help himself in tasks that he had to accomplish himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T08:25:29.693" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2387" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2385" CreationDate="2014-07-25T19:02:54.567" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Upnayan(Janeyu) tradition  is the part of an education procedure, which provides to a child at a particular age, it is also part of upbringing of Child, it is known as Upnayan Sanskar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In it a person assume(hold) a janeu(a thread three-fold) there are three knots in it which is mark of three chief Gods of Hindu's Bramha,Vishnu And Mahesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was wore by every cast people at that time when only 4 casts existed in hindu Bramhin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. The tradition is made by our sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are both scientific and Religious reasons behind it&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Religious reason&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One feels steady that the god always with me in form of &lt;em&gt;Janeu&lt;/em&gt;, I am the offspring of god.&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Janeu&lt;/em&gt;  symbol of god existence with holder(who holds &lt;em&gt;Janeu&lt;/em&gt;) which inspires a man to avoid misdeeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scientific Reason&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a man goes for urine or latrine ,he hangs and folds &lt;em&gt;Janeu&lt;/em&gt; over the right ear&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a blood vessel named &lt;em&gt;Lohitika&lt;/em&gt; on right ear, it is pressed by &lt;em&gt;Janeu&lt;/em&gt;, it helps to release urine or latrine freely and reduces the diseases related to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ETwjD.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-26T15:11:57.787" LastActivityDate="2014-07-26T15:11:57.787" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2388" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-25T23:39:33.813" Score="20" ViewCount="3063" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm puzzled by Ashvatthaman's status as a chiranjivi. Not necessarily that he is one, but more the circumstances surrounding it. To wit, Ashvatthaman is made to wander the earth endlessly for 3000 years (and thus he is a chiranjivi) and he will bear all the diseases afflicting the world. I've heard others say that Ashvatthaman is a chiranjivi because he will take on the role of Vyasa in the next cycle of yugas, but have not been able to substantiate this claim with textual sources. To me, this all seems like an odd mixture of punishment and reward - Ashvatthaman is made immortal, and will perhaps have the honor of serving as Vyasa, yet he is clearly being punished as his perpetually diseased state demonstrates. Any insights on the why of all this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="557" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-27T11:16:57.693" LastActivityDate="2021-11-03T00:35:38.067" Title="Ashvatthaman's immortality?" Tags="|mahabharata|vyasa|ashwatthama|chiranjivi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2389" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-26T02:16:33.427" Score="4" ViewCount="1281" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was a bit surprised to realize that there was no post relating to measles. Anything about it would help me, like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How it is viewed and what is its significance?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do the scriptures mention it as being a manifestation of a Goddess or the results of her anger?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is the treatment mentioned in the history?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is it merely superstition?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user560" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-10T01:50:08.530" LastActivityDate="2016-04-10T01:50:08.530" Title="Measles according to the customs &amp; beliefs" Tags="|belief|customs|superstitions|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2390" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2388" CreationDate="2014-07-26T02:42:16.007" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;First let me recount the story of Ashwatthama's curse, which is told in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2388/ashvatthamans-immortality&quot;&gt;Sauptika Parva&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahabharata.  After the Mahabharata war, Ashwattama, in order to avenge the death of Duryodhana at the hands of the Pandavas, and presumably also to avenge the death of his father Drona, went into to the camp of the Pandavas at night to kill them.  But the Pandavas were away that night, and Ashwatthama instead killed the Upapandavas, the five sons the Pandavas had with Draupadi, thinking it was the Pandavas.  When he realized that he had killed five innocent boys, he went to the Ashram (hermitage) of Vyasa to repent for his sin.  Then Krishna the Pandavas found out that Ashwatthama had killed their sons, so they tracked his chariot to Vyasa's hermitage.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When he saw them, Ashwatthama feared for his life, so he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10013.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;launched a Brahmastra&lt;/a&gt; (weapon of Brahma) at them.  And in response Arjuna launched a Brahmashirastra.  To prevent the two extremely destructive weapons from doing any damage, the sages Narada and Vyasa came and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10015.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;persuaded Arjuna to withdraw his weapon&lt;/a&gt;.  Vyasa asked Ashwatthama to do the same, but he couldn't withdraw the Brahmastra, so instead he redirected it to hit the wombs of the Pandava women.  This did not serious damage, because although it killed the unborn baby Parikshit in the womb of Abhimanyu's wife Uttara, Krishna was able to bring it back to life.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, for all his crimes, Krishna issued the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10016.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;following curse&lt;/a&gt; on Ashwatthama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As regards thyself, all wise men know thee for a coward and a sinful wretch! Always engaged in sinful acts, thou art the slayer of children. For this reason, thou must have to bear the fruit of these thy sins. For 3,000 years thou shalt wander over this earth, without a companion and without being able to talk with anyone. Alone and without anybody by thy side, thou shalt wander through diverse countries, O wretch, thou shalt have no place in the midst of men. The stench of pus and blood shall emanate from thee, and inaccessible forests and dreary moors shall be thy abode! Thou shalt wander over the Earth, O thou of sinful soul, with the weight of all diseases on thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Krishna's utterance was purely a curse; there wasn't any reward to go along with it.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But you are right that Ashwatthama will become the Vyasa of the next Mahayuga, as (Krishna Dwaipayana) Vyasa's father Parashara &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin//vp/vp077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the next Dwápara, Drauńi (the son of Drońa) will be the Vyása, when my son, the Muni Krishńa Dwaipáyana, who is the actual Vyása, shall cease to be (in that character).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this isn't a reward for his misdeeds.  Rather, it's due to the fact that upon hearing Krishna's curse, Ashwatthama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10016.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;told&lt;/a&gt; Vyasa that he planned to be with him:  &quot;With thyself among all men, O holy one, I shall live! Let the words of this illustrious and foremost of men become true!&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So presumably it is the time that Ashwatthama will have spent with Vyasa, engaging in spiritual pursuits and atoning for his sins, that will make him deserve to succeed Vyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-10-06T02:56:53.607" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2391" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-26T05:06:39.260" Score="2" ViewCount="810" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Guru Geetha of Skanda Purana, Lord Shiva told mother Parvathi that the ways to serve Guru is very secret and even gods don't know how to serve guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is it secret? What are the known ways to serve Guru? If we are living distant to our Guru, does service to the equivalent person (as it is said guru takes different forms to uplift humans) counted as service to our Guru?  Can you quote few differences between service by disciple &amp;amp; by devotee? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question may be broad but am just trying to understand the Guru principle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Answer to my understanding&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;There are many ways to render service to Guru. But for everything, His grace and permission are required! &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Few points from Guru Geetha of Skanda Purana (request community to correct grammatic mistakes, if any in following slokas): &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Devakinnera gandharva pitaro yakshu charana muneniva janate guru srusrushana vidhim (Gods, forefathers, monks.. no one knows how to serve guru )&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Though He doesn’t need anything, for self upliftment, disciple may offer service which pleases Him like keeping His ashram, temple clean. One has to know what Guru requires for Himself and for worship or for others and can provide them timely. One should not take his own decisions; he has to consult Guru while doing service. &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Aaasanam sayanam vastram vaahanam bhushanaadikam sadakena prada dravyam gurosantoshakaram (chairs, beds, clothes, vehicles, ornaments may be offered by follower to please Guru !)&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Even if you like distant from Guru, you can do paduka puja (worshiping Guru’s footware), following Guru shown path is real service to Him! One can respect, do service, any other spiritually enhanced person (follow his words until it does not violate Guru shown path) but should not take him as Guru! If Guru goes permanently to a distant place like Himalayas or if He leaves His body or if He Himself orders to follow another person as his Guru, then one shall follow that order.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Disciple does services, follows His words without doubt or confusion, without seeing personal benefit where as devotee does service only to gain blessings for materialistic things, for power, wealth or health. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="65" LastEditDate="2014-08-15T04:33:28.890" LastActivityDate="2014-08-15T04:33:28.890" Title="Guru Seva types" Tags="|skanda-purana|guru|guru-geetha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-08-06T06:54:07.163" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2392" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2396" CreationDate="2014-07-26T05:25:02.553" Score="22" ViewCount="4111" Body="&lt;p&gt;The few known ways to reach god are bhakthi marga, karma marga, gnana (jnana) marga &amp;amp; yoga marga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How one can know the best way which suits to him? Are there any references? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For this timetabled life style, is there a way to know the proposition of them which suits to the person to take him to the next spiritual level? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="10329" LastEditDate="2018-05-06T19:55:46.420" LastActivityDate="2018-05-06T19:55:46.420" Title="How can one know which path among karma, bhakti and jnana is suitable for him?" Tags="|mukti|sadhana|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2393" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2392" CreationDate="2014-07-26T05:36:33.297" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not only according to Hinduism, It applies to all religious,&#xA;Karma Yoga is the best way to reach god and it is also a best way of achieving  &amp;quot;Moksha&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://shawcss.tripod.com/Hinduism_online/Ways/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;tripod.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we have seen, karma yoga can be described as the way of faithful action without any interest in its effects and without any personal sense of giving. In other words, one must renounce any selfish motive behind one's act. Those who follow this path do what is required of them by their caste and place in life without any thought of the consequence of their action. In so doing, one avoids the accumulation of negative karma while simultaneously acquiring good karma. As we have seen, Rama exemplifies this way of faithfulness in the Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavad-Gita, karma yoga is actually connected to the concept of devotion to a god. In 3:30-31 of the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dedicating all works to Me in a spiritual frame of mind, free from desire, attachment, and mental grief, do your duty.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Those who always practice this teaching of Mine, with faith and free from cavil, are freed from the bondage of Karma.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be noted that in some ways the Bhagavad-Gita is addressing those who claimed that the only way to keep from accumulating negative karma is to do nothing. Many people had concluded that they would have to renounce the world, withdraw from it, and do as little as possible in order to avoid the negative consequences of action. There were two problems with this approach. On the one hand, it is simply not possible to renounce all activities. On the other hand, if everyone renounced all actions because of fear of negative karma, the cosmos itself would collapse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The one who does not help to keep the wheel of creation in motion by sacrificial duty, and who rejoices in sense pleasures, that sinful person lives in vain, O Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Notice in the verse above, the the &amp;quot;wheel of creation&amp;quot; is kept in motion by &amp;quot;sacrificial duty.&amp;quot; Thus, complete renunciation of duties and responsibilities is not only impossible, the attempt to do so endangers the order of the world. Karma yoga provides an alternative to the renunciation of duty and responsibility.In karma yoga, one renounces not the world, but the selfish motives behind any actions. One who acts without any thought of reward or punishment has in fact renounces all selfish motives.The result of fulfilling one's duties without thought of reward or punishment is freedom from the effects of karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-26T10:27:43.177" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2394" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2397" CreationDate="2014-07-26T05:51:44.577" Score="36" ViewCount="2671" Body="&lt;p&gt;How can we trust someone and accept him as Guru? Can we know or assess the spiritual level of a person? Are there any references for choosing one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What should we do if we realize that the guru we chose wasn't the right one in terms of knowledge?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-07-26T17:13:48.523" LastActivityDate="2021-05-24T11:29:47.863" Title="How do I find the right Guru?" Tags="|guru|sadhana|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2395" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2367" CreationDate="2014-07-26T06:58:18.500" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The other two answers cite &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindumythologyforgennext.blogspot.in/2012/09/karnas-karma.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt;, which claims to be telling a story from the Srimad Bhagavatam, but you can read the Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; I don't see any such story.  As far as I'm aware, the only place in Hindu scripture where the story of Dambhodbhava is told is in the  Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, and it doesn't mention anything about Dambhodbhava reincarnating as Karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Krishna went as an envoy of the Pandavas to the Kauravas' palace, the Kauravas remained silent after Krishna made his offer of peace.  So Vishnu's other incarnation Parashurama, who happened to be in palace at the time, admonished them by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;recounting the story of Dambhodbhava&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was a king of yore named Dambhodbhava, who was the Head of the earth. It hath been heard by us that his sovereignty extended over the whole world. And that mighty car-warrior, rising every morning after the night had passed away, called the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas unto himself and asked them, saying, &amp;quot;Be he a Sudra, a Vaisya, a Kshatriya, or a Brahmana, is there any one who is superior or even equal to me in battle?&amp;quot; ... And some high-souled Brahmanas then ... told him, &amp;quot;There are two persons who are foremost of all men and who are always victorious in battle. Thou, O king, wilt by no means be equal to them if thou seekest an encounter with any one of them.&amp;quot; ... And the two Rishis received the king hospitably, with fruits and roots, and a seat and water....  [T]he king said unto them the same words that he was in the habit of saying unto all. And he said, &amp;quot;The whole earth has been conquered by the might of my arms. All my foes have been slain. Desiring a battle with you both I have come to this mountain. Offer me this hospitality. I have been cherishing this wish from a long time.&amp;quot; Thus addressed, Nara and Narayana said, &amp;quot;O best of kings, wrath and covetousness have no place in this retreat. How can a battle, therefore, be possible here? There are no weapons here, and nothing of unrighteousness and malice. Seek battle elsewhere. There are many Kshatriyas on earth.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although thus addressed, the king still pressed them for giving him battle. The Rishis, however, continually soothed him and overlooked his importunity. King Dambhodbhava, still desirous of battle, repeatedly summoned those Rishis to fight. Nara, then, O Bharata, taking up a handful of grass-blades, said, &amp;quot;Desirous of battle as thou art, come, O Kshatriya, and fight! Take up all thy arms, and array thy troops. I will curb thy eagerness for battle hereafter!&amp;quot; ... Dambhodbhava with all his troops, desirous of slaying that ascetic, covered all sides with a shower of arrows. That ascetic, however, by means of those blades of grass, baffled all those terrible shafts of the king that were capable of mangling the bodies of hostile warriors. The invincible Rishi then let off towards the king his own terrible weapon made of grass-blades and which was incapable of being counteracted. And highly wonderful was that which happened, for that ascetic, incapable of missing his aim, pierced and cut off, by those grass-blades alone, the eyes and ears and noses of the hostile warriors, aided also by his power of illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And beholding the entire welkin whitened by those grass-blades, the king fell at the feet of the Rishi and said, '&lt;strong&gt;Let me be blessed!&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; Ever inclined to grant protection unto those that sought it, Nara then, O king, said unto that monarch, &amp;quot;Be obedient to the Brahmanas and be virtuous. Never do so again.... &lt;strong&gt;Blessed be thou, and with our leave, go hence&lt;/strong&gt;, and never again behave in this way. At our command, enquire thou always of the Brahmanas as to what is for thy good!&amp;quot; The king then, worshipping the feet of those two illustrious Rishis, returned to his city, and from that time began to practise righteousness. Great indeed, was that feat achieved of old by Nara. Narayana, again, became superior to Nara in consequence of many more qualities. &lt;strong&gt;They that were Nara and Narayana in days of yore are now Arjuna and Kesava.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Reminds you a bit of Snow White, doesn't it?). As you can see, there's no mention of Dambhodhbhava reincarnating as anyone, only about Nara and Narayana reincarnating as Arjuna and Krishna.  And the story ends with Dambodhbhava actually being &lt;em&gt;blessed&lt;/em&gt; by Nara and Narayana, not cursed as the webpage says.  So the webpage's claim seems to be erroneous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; who the different characters were incarnations of, and this is what it says about Karna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna--the first of all exalted men--the foremost of all wielders of weapons--the slayer of foes--and &lt;strong&gt;the best portion of [Surya] the maker of day&lt;/strong&gt;--was the friend and counsellor of Duryodhana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Karna was an incarnation of Surya, just as Arjuna was an incarnation of Indra.  Now recall that in the Ramayana, Sugriva was an incarnation of Surya and Vali was an incarnation of Indra.  So it's often said (although it may not have a basis in scripture) that Arjuna killed Karna in an underhanded way to get even with Karna's previous birth Sugriva being involved in the underhanded killing of Arjuna's previous birth Vali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-26T06:58:18.500" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2396" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2392" CreationDate="2014-07-26T07:13:43.297" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is simple. Just ask yourself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How attached am I to this material life?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How much material desire do I have?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do I like the life experience here?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Depending upon your answers and how you feel about them, you can easily decide which path is suitable for you. Because the scripture says the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;nirviṇṇānāṁ jñāna-yogo nyāsinām iha karmasu&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  teṣv anirviṇṇa-cittānāṁ karma-yogas tu kāminām&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.20.7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Among these three paths, jñāna-yoga, the path of philosophical speculation, is recommended for those who are disgusted with material life and are thus detached from ordinary, fruitive activities. Those who are not disgusted with material life, having many desires yet to fulfill, should seek perfection through the path of karma-yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yadṛcchayā mat-kathādau jāta-śraddhas tu yaḥ pumān&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  na nirviṇṇo nāti-sakto bhakti-yogo ’sya siddhi-daḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.20.8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  If somehow or other by good fortune one develops faith in hearing and chanting My glories, such a person, being neither disgusted with nor very much attached to material life, should achieve perfection through the path of loving devotion to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the rule is simple:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If you are not interested in material life, then follow path of &lt;em&gt;jnana&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;dhyana&lt;/em&gt; is primary part of it)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If you are attached to material life and have material desires without much interest in God and spiritual things, then follow the path of &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If you are neither too detached, nor too attached and have faith and interest in God, then follow the path of &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Irrespective of which path you follow, if you do it properly, then it will automatically lead you to the other. However, in this present age of Kali, following the path of &lt;em&gt;jnana&lt;/em&gt; is very difficult. So generally path of devotion can be easily followed by most people without any risk. And &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt; (devotion to God) gives the result of all the other paths:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yat karmabhir yat tapasā jñāna-vairāgyataś ca yat&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yogena dāna-dharmeṇa śreyobhir itarair api&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarvaṁ mad-bhakti-yogena mad-bhakto labhate ’ñjasā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  svargāpavargaṁ mad-dhāma kathañcid yadi vāñchati&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.20.31,32]   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Everything that can be achieved by fruitive activities, penance, knowledge, detachment, mystic yoga, charity, religious duties and all other means of perfecting life is easily achieved by My devotee through loving service unto Me. If somehow or other My devotee desires promotion to heaven, liberation, or residence in My abode, he easily achieves such benedictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So ask yourself those questions and depending upon your state of mind you can easily decide which path is suitable for your current situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-13T19:59:38.817" LastActivityDate="2016-03-13T19:59:38.817" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2397" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2394" CreationDate="2014-07-26T09:00:37.243" Score="23" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the scriptures, a right guru must be fulfilling two important qualities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Srotriya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; : He must be well versed in all the &lt;em&gt;sashtras&lt;/em&gt;, i.e. Vedas, Puranas, Philosophies, etc. (master in theory)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahmanistha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: He must himself have realized God and stays fixed in Him. (master in practice)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the scriptures say as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tad vijñānārthaṃ sa gurum evābhigacchet samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyam brahma-niṣṭham&lt;/em&gt; [Mund. Up. - 1.2.12]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;-To know That (God) he (the seeker) goes to a guru who is well versed in scriptures and situated in Brahman (God realized) .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tasmād guruṃ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṃ brahmaṇyupaśamāśrayam&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.3.21]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Therefore, the seeker approaches a good and noble guru who is skillful in the knowledge of the scriptures and the supreme and who having taken the shelter of Brahma stays satisfied in Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After following a guru for few years if you find you are not improving or he is not the right person, then the only thing you should do is to stop following him and without any ill feelings towards him, just try to find someone else. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Technically one can do a lot of things after he finds himself cheated or a prey to the media hype, but he should focus upon continuing his development rather than getting revenge minded and focusing on someone else's ruin. Those negative feelings will only degrade him further instead of helping him move up. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finding guru is actually a subjective thing. Even while one guru may work for a seeker, he may not be good for another one. And again, how would you know if he is God realized? Any one may show some cheap miracle or some spiritual power and can act as a guru. So it is generally said that &lt;strong&gt;it is not the student who finds the guru, it is the guru who finds the student.&lt;/strong&gt; For example, Vivekananda first didn't accept Ramakrishna as his guru, even he mocked him. But later upon more interaction he felt his divinity and accepted as guru. So without properly analyzing it is very hard to find out who is a true guru and who is not. It is  because true saints even act opposite to their nature sometimes. So from my experience I would say &lt;strong&gt;if one has faith in God and genuine interest, then eventually he will find the right guru even if he falls prey to others many times.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Update&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adding more info regarding changing guru upon pbvamsi's suggestion. The thing about changing guru is that, it should be done only when its necessary and required. So I said one can change guru when he is not finding any improvement after following him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because not all gurus are perfect or of the same caliber and qualification, one may not find perfection by following only one guru. So the scripture says knowledge cannot be stable through one guru alone:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;na hyekasmādgurorjñānaṃ susthiraṃ syātsupuṣkalam&lt;/em&gt; [SB -11.9.31]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   - Not through one guru knowledge becomes steady and complete.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also real life examples when a guru sends his disciple to someone else for further improvements. Also the other thing is that, one guru may be perfect in yoga but doesn't know about devotion. So a student have to change his guru if he wants to learn devotion, knowledge or something else like it. So there is provision for changing guru. &lt;strong&gt;But only when it is necessary and required&lt;/strong&gt;. If one finds a guru who is perfect and satisfies the above mentioned two conditions, there is no reason for someone to change guru. Moreover, in that case changing guru will break &lt;em&gt;ananyata&lt;/em&gt; (complete surrender to only one) and the student cannot proceed further. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So your saying that a guru cannot be changed is right and true, but only when one has accepted the guru as one's true master and the guru also has accepted him as his dear disciple. In those cases, the guru and disciple become one soul in two bodies. Guru and &lt;em&gt;shisya&lt;/em&gt; relationship is the most noble, divine and pure of all. It is one bond that never breaks. So before one has found his true guru, he can change many others. But once he has found him, there is no change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-09-27T11:02:25.740" LastActivityDate="2014-09-27T11:02:25.740" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2399" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2407" CreationDate="2014-07-26T10:49:51.973" Score="85" ViewCount="47951" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is our destiny predetermined? I've read some stories which do show that a person's destiny is predetermined, like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pathi pragrahiṇaṁ kaṁsam&lt;br&gt; ābhāṣyāhāśarīra-vāk&lt;br&gt; asyās tvām aṣṭamo&#xA;garbho&lt;br&gt; hantā yāṁ vahase ’budha [SB 10.1.34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: While Kaṁsa, controlling the reins of the horses, was&#xA;driving the chariot along the way, an unembodied voice addressed him,&#xA;“You foolish rascal, the eighth child of the woman you are carrying&#xA;will kill you!”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above part relates to the incident when Kamsa imprisoned Devaki and Vasudeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kamsa relented but imprisoned both Devaki and her husband Vasudeva (from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devaki&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was decided that Lord Krishna, the 8&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;son of Devaki will kill Kamsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if every action of a living being is predetermined, then why are we reborn as another animal, or if human, then why do we have problems because of our bad Karmas? I can also take an example of a &lt;em&gt;Jyotish&lt;/em&gt; (astrologer) who predicts our future which is also a sign of predetermined destiny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This question is somewhat related to my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2249/does-karma-of-previous-life-affect-new-life&quot;&gt;previous question&lt;/a&gt; which discusses karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Over there, the user explains that the karmas of past life also affect our new life but if every individual's future/destiny is predetermined, then it's not the person who is doing bad karma, as it is already written for him that he will be doing bad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So these two topics are somewhat redundant. If destiny is predetermined, then there is nothing like karma, and if we have karma then why are our lives predestined? An individual can do good things in order to get over his bad karmas, but if he is not destined to do so, he won't, which will increase bad karma for him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, I would like to understand predetermined destiny vs karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;tl;dr&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is our destiny predetermined?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If yes, then why count karma, as our actions are already decided?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also, how can an individual possibly get rid of bad karma if his destiny is predetermined with bad actions?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T15:40:49.220" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T15:40:49.220" Title="Is our destiny predetermined? If yes, then why do our actions affect our karma?" Tags="|astrology|karma|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2400" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-26T13:32:04.327" Score="7" ViewCount="863" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Govindan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Marshall Govindan&lt;/a&gt;  wrote the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1895383005&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here is the summary of Chapter 8. Siddha Boganathar:      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An Oceanic&#xA;  Life Story. A mission to China and transmigration. Transformation of&#xA;  his physical body. &lt;strong&gt;Becomes known as Lao-Tzu, founder of Taoism&lt;/strong&gt;. Return&#xA;  to India. Establishes shrine at Katirgama, and attains soruba samadhi.&#xA;  Second mission to China. Current activities. Selections from the&#xA;  writings of Siddha Boganathar.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See also the webpage &lt;a href=&quot;http://palani.org/bhogar_biography.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siddha Bhoganāthar: An Oceanic Life Story&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt;: Is it true that Lao-Tzu is actually &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogar&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siddha Bhoganāthar&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20" LastEditorUserId="20" LastEditDate="2014-07-28T12:29:51.947" LastActivityDate="2014-07-28T12:29:51.947" Title="Is it true that Lao-Tzu is actually Siddha Bhoganāthar?" Tags="|belief|history|other-religions|guru|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2401" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-26T13:46:00.370" Score="0" ViewCount="148" Body="&lt;p&gt;In everyday of our life we fall in dilemma in making dharmic decisions like&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;whether to use pesticides and save plants or not &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;whether to kill (green leaf) plants to cook or not&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;whether to steal milk from cows or not (making calf eat grass)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;whether to use silk clothes made by killing worms or not&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If i don't get anything for the day can i eat egg or flesh? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like few of above quoted, if we fall into any such situation how to analyze which is dharmic? Are there any guides to help in making such decisions?  what is the chronology  of thinking process to ensure we make right decisions? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-07-28T07:05:08.420" Title="how make dharmic decisions" Tags="|belief|scripture|dharma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2014-07-28T06:41:18.840" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2402" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2394" CreationDate="2014-07-26T14:21:41.427" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adding few points to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2397/467&quot;&gt;jabahar's answer&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no privilege to change Guru in the disciple's lifetime. One has to take enough time in choosing a right Guru. Infact &lt;strong&gt;it is not the student who finds the guru, it is the guru who finds the student&lt;/strong&gt;. Based on one's strong determination, he may get the right Guru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few references to add are: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) Once a disciple came to Narasimha Saraswathi and begged Him to accept him as disciple showing the anger of his current Guru as the reason, but Narasimha Sarawathi explained what kind of Guru one will get and sent him back to his Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) Once Indra left Bruhaspathi and approached Viswarupa to be as his Guru. Later Indra approached Dattatreya and pleased Him to be his Guru! Dattatreya explained the Guru principle and denied to accept Indra as His disciple. He said there is no chance to change Guru and taught him to approach Bruhaspathi again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So before choosing a person as Guru one can test Him multiple times but after choosing Him as Guru there is no chance to change! Even if disciple stops following, He will uplift disciple's life, He will follow disciple in all the lifes to come(reference is Bhadrasheela's story in Datta Purana). But if one denies his own Guru then no one can save him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After one makes stong determination, he will be privileged to meet many sadhus. With whom one's heart becomes peaceful and experiences sat-chit-ananda (true bliss eternal), in whose presence one gets courage and will power to solve all problems(a feeling that they will get solved by themselves), in whose presence all the worries &amp;amp; sorrows are forgotten, above all in whose presence one feels &lt;code&gt;he is my savior, my relative&lt;/code&gt;, such a person can be approached as Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-11-25T12:04:56.957" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2404" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2399" CreationDate="2014-07-26T15:58:22.823" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is an excellent question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any way to reconcile between predestination and the Karma theory?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will say one can reconcile provided you think of karma theory operating from the point of view of jiva while predestination is operating from the point of view of the Divine. We, jivas, live in time and so have a clearly defined past and hopefully a future. The Divine is beyond time and the concepts of past and future do not make sense from the divine point of view. Thus we will interpret our present experience as due to past events and we have no capacity to see the future. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At most we can calculate probabilities of what will happen in future. There is no such restriction at the Divine level because it is beyond the concept of time. From the divine point of view everything is known. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus both predestination and Karma theory could be correct with the proviso that Karma operates in our plane while predestination operates in the Divine plane.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T09:03:08.277" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T09:03:08.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2405" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2406" CreationDate="2014-07-26T16:48:40.247" Score="7" ViewCount="1135" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that one day, Kubera invited Lord Ganesha to his palace. There, Lord Ganesha ate continuously which made Kubera's resources almost empty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true that Lord Ganesha used to eat a lot? And if yes, then what used to stop Ganesha from eating more?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-04T07:03:29.933" LastActivityDate="2018-10-04T07:03:29.933" Title="Does Lord Ganesha eat a lot?" Tags="|ganesha|kubera|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2406" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2405" CreationDate="2014-07-26T17:23:28.343" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganesha doesn't eat a lot of food, he did that intentionally the day Kubera invited him to his palace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we know that &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubera&quot;&gt;Kubera&lt;/a&gt; is a lord of wealth, and because of this he felt proud and started showing off his richness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day, Kubera went to lord Shiva and Parvati to invite them to his palace but lord Shiva denied Kubers invitation, instead he said to Kubera to invite lord Ganesha and he proudly replied that he can feed 100's and 1000's of kids like Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When lord Ganesha went to his palace, he was offered with food which is a common tradition in Hinduism when we have guests at home we offer them food. Lord Ganesha ate everything whatever was offered to him, and he asked for more, and soon there was no more food in his palace. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of this, Kubera ordered his troops to collect food around the village and offered Ganesha, but Ganesha was still hungry, and there was no more food around to give to lord Ganesha, and he said to Kubera that Kubera said proudly that he can feed 100's of kids like Ganesha, so as there's no more food now, he will eat him, this frightened Kubera and he went to lord Shiva for help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After hearing to Kubera, lord Shiva told him to break his pride and provide lord Ganesha handful of rice, Kubera went back to his palace and offered handful of rice to lord Ganesha with &lt;em&gt;Humility&lt;/em&gt; which satisfied lord Ganesha's hunger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've wrote the story as I've heard, but you can refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythological_anecdotes_of_Ganesha#Appetite&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; for reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-26T18:23:55.847" LastActivityDate="2014-07-26T18:23:55.847" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2407" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2399" CreationDate="2014-07-27T03:42:49.007" Score="102" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a very good question because most of us often wonder about it many times. So I am explaining it with an example. It will be a bit lengthy, so please read it with patience. Also make sure to read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2251&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; to get an idea about the three types of karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Are our destinies predetermined?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, they are.&lt;/strong&gt; Destiny means a set of events and experiences that are certain to happen in a particular person's life. So most &lt;strong&gt;major events&lt;/strong&gt; in our lives are predefined.  For example, where and to which family we will be born, what type of job we will be doing, what incidents and life we will be experiencing, etc. are predefined. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, for any event to manifest a certain set of actions are also required. Hence, for the manifestation of certain predefined events, the necessary actions will also have to take place. That is why certain actions are also predefined and these set of preordained actions are known as &lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt;. And for the actions to manifest we will need to have that kind of desire and mindset. Hence, people's likings, nature, etc. are also acquired as per their past actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, due to a past wrong action (stopping the four &lt;em&gt;Sanat kumaras&lt;/em&gt; from meeting Vishnu) Sishupal and Vakradanta, in  their previous life as a guard in Vaikuntha (abode of Vishnu), got cursed and had to take birth as a demon, and Kamsa in his previous birth was demon Kalanemi and was cursed by Hiranyakashipu. And because they were predestined to be killed by Krishna, most of their actions were destined to be wrong and demonic in nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;If destiny is predefined, then why do our actions affect our karma?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;If whatever I'll do in my life is already predefined, then certainly I shouldn't be held accountable for my actions.&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;After all, it's all fated, why should my actions count? Why should they affect my karma?&quot; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, these are all valid questions. But the point is, &lt;strong&gt;not all our actions are predefined. Only those set of actions that will give rise to predetermined events are predefined.&lt;/strong&gt;  And in our life we do both kinds of actions, predefined and not defined. Those set of actions that were not predefined are known as Kriyamana Karma (accumulating actions). It is mostly these actions that affect our karma, not the preordained ones. &lt;strong&gt;Generally, preordained events and actions being effects of our past life actions, once experienced, they get balanced out&lt;/strong&gt;. But the &lt;em&gt;Kriyamana karma&lt;/em&gt;, being newer actions that we do in this present life, get stored to be experienced later. Let me give an example for better understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Example&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose you had done many good works in your previous life and for that reason you are destined to be wealthy and famous. So, if in this life, you have become an engineer or programmer, then you will feel attracted to develop a software that it will become famous and earn you money. So most of your actions will be towards fulfilling that objective. You will be coding day in and day out and doing a lot of things for it. But along with that you will be doing many other actions that are in no way relevant to your destined objective. For example, you may see a person who needs some help and help him out, scold or abuse someone for no reasons other than out of anger, and many other little things you will be doing that no way contribute to your destined objective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;So those set of minor and major actions that &lt;strong&gt;do not contribute&lt;/strong&gt; to your destined experience of wealth and fame are stored to be experienced later. (&lt;em&gt;kriyamana karma&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;agami karma&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And those set of actions (like coding, planning etc.) that &lt;strong&gt;do contribute&lt;/strong&gt; to your destined objective are generally not considered unless the sense of doership is attached to them. (&lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me represent the flow of karma in a diagram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7s1or.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;karma in a diagram&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;How can an individual possibly get rid of bad karma if it has already been defined in his destiny?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Unfortunately one can't&lt;/strong&gt;. There is no way to escape from the effects of actions without experiencing their results. Just like an arrow already shot cannot be taken back, &lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt; that has already set out in motion cannot be escaped from. It will catch you sooner or later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Example:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;After knowing Devaki's 8&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; son was going to kill him, Kamsa tried many tricks, methods and plans. But no matter how hard he tried, eventually he had to meet his destiny. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, whether &lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt; can be avoided or not, depends upon its strength. If one uses his &lt;em&gt;kriyamana&lt;/em&gt; actions for acts of penance and expiation (this includes astrological remedies), then those new good actions may cancel out or reduce the strength of &lt;em&gt;prarabdha&lt;/em&gt; actions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Example:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Markandeya rishi was destined to be dead at the age of 16. But he engaged himself in the devotion of Shiva and practised austerity sincerely. Hence, due to his devotion and penance by the grace of Lord Shiva he escaped his certain death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also if one realizes Brahman and acquires the knowledge, all his actions are burned away and he becomes free:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yathaidhāṁsi samiddho ’gnir bhasma-sāt kurute ’rjuna&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jñānāgniḥ sarva-karmāṇi bhasma-sāt kurute tathā&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 4.37]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  As a blazing ﬁre turns ﬁrewood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the ﬁre of knowledge burn to ashes all reactions to material activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, preordained karma that has been already rolled out, cannot be taken back and one has to experience his &lt;em&gt;prarabdha&lt;/em&gt; just for the current life even after realization of knowledge of Brahman. But a true jnani sees everything as Brahman and hence prarabdha doesn't affect his mind:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;utpanne tattvavijñāne prārabdhaṃ naiva muñcati&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tattvajñānodayādūrdhvaṃ prārabdhaṃ naiva vidyate&lt;/em&gt; [Nadabindu Up. - 22]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Even after attaining knowledge of the self &lt;em&gt;prarabdha&lt;/em&gt; never exhausts out. But after realization of knowledge &lt;em&gt;prarabdha&lt;/em&gt; is not felt by the &lt;em&gt;jnani&lt;/em&gt; as he considers the body as unreal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from &lt;em&gt;jnana&lt;/em&gt;, by devotion and grace of God also one gets liberation from all his stored sinful actions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 18.66]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abandoning all kinds of &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; if you surrender only to Me, I will give you liberation from all sins, you need not worry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-04-16T06:41:18.173" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2408" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2958" CreationDate="2014-07-27T07:32:35.810" Score="13" ViewCount="1502" Body="&lt;p&gt;Trisiras (AKA Vishwarupa) was the three-headed son of the divine architect Tvashta (AKA Vishwakarma).  He was extremely devout, even serving as temporary guru of the gods when Brihaspati had abandoned the gods out of anger.  But then Indra, seeing how powerful Trisiras was, and fearing that he would aid the Asuras (demons) with his power, decided to kill Trisiras by cutting off all three of his heads heads.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/6/9/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Srimad Bhagavatam describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once upon a time, however, the King of heaven, Indra, understood that Viśvarūpa was secretly cheating the gods by offering oblations on behalf of the demons. He became extremely afraid of being defeated by the demons, and &lt;strong&gt;in great anger at Viśvarūpa he cut Viśvarūpa’s three heads from his shoulders&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Incidentally, Indra's killing of Trisiras led to the creation of the demon Vritrasura, and the deed Indra is famous for in Hindu scripture is the killing of Vritrasura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about Trisiras' religious activity.  As I mentioned above, Trisiras was a very devout individual, and the Rig Veda Anukramani states that Trisiras son of Tvashta was the seer of one of the hymns of the Tenth Mandala of the Rig Veda.  (See Book 10 Hymn 8 in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.). The hymn is mainly about Agni the fire god, but &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; is how the hymn ends:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Through his wise insight Trita in the cavern, seeking as ever the Chief Sire's intention, carefully tended in his Parents' bosom, calling the weapons kin, goes forth to combat.  Well-skilled to use the weapons of his Father, Āptya, urged on by Indra, fought the battle.  Then Trita slew the foe seven-rayed, three-headed, and freed the cattle of the Son of Tvaṣṭar.  Lord of the brave, &lt;strong&gt;Indra cleft him in pieces who sought to gain much strength and deemed him mighty.  He smote his three heads from his body, seizing the cattle of the omniform [Vishwarupa] Son of Tvaṣṭar.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is a description of the death of Trisiras!  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the verses of the Vedas originate from sages called Dhristas who heard these verses directly from the gods during deep meditation.  And the Anukramani says that the person who heard the verses in this particular hymn was Trisiras himself!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So did Trisiras foresee his own death?  Are there any other scriptures that say that he knew he was going to die beforehand?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T14:56:58.337" Title="Did Trisiras predict his own death in a Vedic hymn?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|indra|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2409" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2401" CreationDate="2014-07-27T10:13:04.457" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question arises out of personal dilemma and difficulty in resolving issues to your own convincing level.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion it would be wrong to say that the question is opinion based. The question is a genuine one and intrigues many people who take their inputs from others and get confused while forming an opinion of their own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would suggest you to go thru the texts of Bhagwat Gita where the evaluation of dharma and adharma was explained to Arjuna by Sri Krishna. Killing someone who does not respect others (Shishupal) or intentionally hurts others is considered as dharma. Anything done for greed is also not dharma. Greed is a result of lack of control over the five senses which drives a person towards committing sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Killing of an animal by another animal is always due to their natural demand which is the eternal food cycle and hence never termed as adharma. Extending the logic of milk from cows (stealing it from the calf) can also be extended to Trees for their fruits as adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes if you are born as and brought up as a non-vegetarian person then you can put yourself in the category the tiger who has to kill to live. Thus killing for basic living is not adharma. Biting by mosquitos is a part of mosquito's livelihood but hurting to you. So you reserve the right to get rid of them the either way. An act of self defence cannot be adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But killing for pleasure of your eyes or the pleasure of your tongue is not dharma. Till the time you are controlling your senses and are caring for others so as not to draw any unjustified pleasure to fulfill the greed of your senses you would not commit any adharma. The moment your senses start controlling you and due to that you start hurting others (plant or animal either thing) you can term that as adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As defined in the Bhagwat Gita a yogi is not the one who tries to 'suppress' his basic needs. The real yogi always tries to mould himself and control his senses such a way that either abundance or the lack of anything does not disturb him. A yogi feels the hunger and is aware of it but is able to control the body if he is not able to find food. He does not indulge into overeating as soon as he finds food in abundance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The yogi as defined in Gita is the one who follows dharma. Hope this will fire your imagination further and help you draw your own conclusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="105" LastActivityDate="2014-07-27T10:13:04.457" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2411" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2401" CreationDate="2014-07-27T16:20:27.810" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dharma is based on vedas! Since vedas cant be understood by common men, it is re-written by the seers in layman terminology in smriti and they are explained further in 18 puranas. To make it even simpler, panchama veda mahabharata is written. It is said that what is there in mahabharata is there in the entire universe, what is not their in it wont be there anywhere else in the world. Ramayana &amp;amp; Mahabharata are to epic histories which gives idea on how to live and how to make dharmic decisions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In simple the order of the scriptures that have to be referred to make a dharmic decision at the time of dilemma are vedas-&gt;smritis-&gt;puranas-&gt;ramayana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Guru teachings are above all to a disciple, one has to do an act without a thought of how dharmic it is, as those are tailored for the disciple! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Incase if one cant understand all of these then he/she should follow the person who knows the above, atlast if even that is not possible then one's own conscience has to be used to make dharmic decision. One simple principle is it should not harm or hurt anyone, one has to think how would he/she feels if someone else does the same on him/her. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more general ref to make decision is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;matrvat para-daresu (see mother in every women) &lt;br&gt; para-dravyesu&#xA;  lostavat (all others’ property as no more than garbage in the&#xA;  street)&lt;br&gt; atmavat sarva-bhutesu (other living entities as he does&#xA;  his own self)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-07-28T07:05:08.420" LastActivityDate="2014-07-28T07:05:08.420" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2413" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2415" CreationDate="2014-07-28T04:48:13.383" Score="8" ViewCount="2056" Body="&lt;p&gt;How is it justified that Harishchandra sold his wife, or that Pandu's sons bet against Draupadi in the Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;FYI - They were never charged (at least I don't find any reference) for this - for example, Indra blessed Harishchandra and Yudhisthira made it to heaven (he was charged only for his half-truth but never for this). There are also various instances where married women are at their toes despite not being guilty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Hinduism is a male-dominant culture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am only asking this in terms of religion and will happy to edit if it hurts someone sentiments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-24T09:34:01.193" LastActivityDate="2018-04-24T09:34:01.193" Title="How is betting against one's wife and selling one's life partner justifed in Hinduism?" Tags="|mahabharata|belief|philosophy|pandavas|harishchandra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2414" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2362" CreationDate="2014-07-28T08:41:59.873" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the answer to my question over &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp155.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Its a bit long but worth reading.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Story goes like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ARJUNA having found the bodies of Krishńa and of Balráma, performed for them, and the rest of the slain, the obsequial rites. The eight queens of Krishńa, who have been named, with Rukminí at their head, embraced the body of Hari, and entered the funeral fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Revatí also, embracing the corpse of Balráma, entered the blazing pile, which was cool to her, happy in contact with her lord. Hearing these events, Ugrasena and Anakadundubhi, with Devakí and Rohiní, committed themselves to the flames.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The last ceremonies were performed for all these by Arjuna, who then made all the people leave the city, and took Vajra with him. The son of Kunti conducted the thousands of the wives of Krishńa, with Vajra, and all the people, from Dwáraká, with tenderness and care, and travelled slowly away.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sudharman palace and the Párijáta tree, which had been brought to&#xA;  earth by Krishńa, both proceeded to heaven; and on the same day that&#xA;  Hari departed from the earth the powerful dark-bodied Kali age&#xA;  descended. The ocean rose, and submerged the whole of Dwáraká,&#xA;  except alone the dwelling of the deity of the race of Yadu. The sea&#xA;  has not yet been able to wash that temple away, and there Keśava&#xA;  constantly abides, even in the present day. Whoever visits that holy&#xA;  shrine, the place where Krishńa pursued his sports, is liberated from&#xA;  all his sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna, halted the people he had brought from Dwáraká in the Panchanada country, in a rich and fertile spot; but the desires of the robbers (of the neighbourhood) were excited, when they observed so many widowed females, also such great riches, in the possession of Arjuna alone. Inflamed by their cupidity, they assembled the villainous Ábhiras, and said to them, &quot;&lt;em&gt;Here is this Arjuna, immensely rich, and having numerous women, whose husbands have been slain, passing confidently amongst us; a disgrace to all brave men. His pride is raised by the death of Bhíshma, Drońa, Jayadratha, Karńa, and others, whom he has slain: he does not know the prowess of simple villagers. Up, up; take your long thick staves: this stupid fellow despises us. Why should we not lift up our arms?&lt;/em&gt;&quot; So saying, they rushed, armed with cudgels and clods of earth, upon the people, who were without their lord. Arjuna encountered them, and said to them in derision, &quot;&lt;em&gt;Retire, wretches, ignorant of what is right, unless ye are desirous of dying.&lt;/em&gt;&quot; But they disregarded his menaces, and seized his treasures and his women, the wives of Viswaksena. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arjuna lost fight with barbarians:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereupon Arjuna began to brace his heavenly bow Gándíva, irresistible in battle; but it was in vain; for,in spite of all his efforts to tighten it, it continued flaccid: neither could he call to recollection the incantations of the superhuman weapons. Losing all patience, he launched, as best he might, his shafts upon the enemy; but those shot from Gándíva merely scratched the skin. The arrows given him by Agni to carry certain destruction now were themselves destroyed, and were fatal to Arjuna in his contest with herdsmen. He endeavoured to recall the might of Krishńa; animated by which, his numerous arrows had overthrown mighty kings; but he tried in vain, for now they were put aside by the peasants, or they flew at random, wide of their aim. His arrows being expended, he beat the banditti with the horn of his bow; but they only laughed at his blows: and the barbarians, in the sight of Arjuna, carried off all the women of the Vrishńi and Andhaka tribes, and went their way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna then goes to Vyása and regrets the loss of his powers, Vyása consoles him, and tells him the &lt;em&gt;story of Asht́ávakra's cursing the Apsarasas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Story of Asht́ávakra's cursing the Apsarasas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In former times a Brahman, named Asht́ávakra, was pursuing his&#xA;  religious penances, standing in water, and meditating on the eternal&#xA;  spirit, for many years. In consequence of the overthrow of the Asuras,&#xA;  there was a great festival on the summit of Meru: on their way to&#xA;  which, Rambhá, Tilottamá, and hundreds and thousands of beautiful&#xA;  nymphs, saw the ascetic Asht́ávakra, and they praised and hymned him&#xA;  for his devotions. They bowed down before him, and eulogized him, as&#xA;  he was immersed up to his throat in water, his hair twisted in a&#xA;  braid. So they sang in honour of him whatever they thought would be&#xA;  most agreeable to that most eminent of Brahmans. Asht́ávakra at last&#xA;  said to them, 'I am well pleased with you, illustrious damsels;&#xA;  whatever you wish for, ask of me, and I will give it you, however&#xA;  difficult it may be of attainment.' Then all those nymphs, Rambhá,&#xA;  Tilottamá, and others, recorded in the Vedas, replied, 'It is enough&#xA;  for us that thou art pleased; what need we aught else, venerable&#xA;  Brahman?' But some amongst them said, 'If, exalted sir, you are indeed&#xA;  pleased with us, then grant us a husband, the best of men, and&#xA;  sovereign of the Brahmans.' 'So be it,' replied Asht́ávakra, and&#xA;  thereupon came up from the waters. When the nymphs beheld him coming&#xA;  out of the water, and saw that he was very ugly, and crooked in eight&#xA;  places, they could not restrain their merriment, but laughed aloud.&#xA;  The Muni was very angry, and cursed them, and said, 'Since you have&#xA;  been so impertinent as to laugh at my deformity, I denounce upon you&#xA;  this imprecation: through the grace I have shewn unto you, you shall&#xA;  obtain the first of males for your husband; but in consequence of my&#xA;  curse, you shall afterwards fall into the hands of thieves.' When the&#xA;  nymphs heard this uttered by the Muni, they endeavoured to appease&#xA;  him; and they so far succeeded, that he announced to them they should&#xA;  finally return to the sphere of the gods. It is in consequence, then,&#xA;  of the curse of the Muni Asht́ávakra that these females, who were at&#xA;  first the wives of Keśava, have now fallen into the hands of the&#xA;  barbarians; and there is no occasion, Arjuna, for you to regret it in&#xA;  the least. All this destruction has been effected by the lord of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyása then tells Arjuna, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;all your powers were because of Lord Krishna, he gave you that to fulfill a purpose which has been fulfilled; Now all your Astras and Shatras have returned to the almighty. Oh wise prince! do not grief for that which is lost as it is all done by his(Lord Krishna) will.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; After which Arjuna and his brothers place Paríkshit on the throne, and go to the forests as suggested by Vyása &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-06T08:26:10.140" LastActivityDate="2015-02-06T08:26:10.140" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2415" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2413" CreationDate="2014-07-28T10:38:52.150" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Raja Harishchandra was renowned for his justice and being religious. He had two unique qualities,first- he kept his word and never went back on what he uttered as a promise and second he never uttered a lie in his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Story of Raja Harishchandra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;once Vishwamitra(a great sage) approached Harishchandra and informed him of a promise made by the king during the sage's dream to donate his entire kingdom. Harishchandra was so virtuous, that he immediately made good his word and donated his entire kingdom to the sage and walked away with his wife and son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since, the entire world was under the sage after he donated his kingdom, the king had to go to Varanasi. This was now the only place outside the influence of the sage. But the sage proclaimed that for an act of donation to be completed, an additional amount as Dakshina (honorarium) had to be paid. Harishchandra, with no money in his hands, had to sell his wife and son to a Brahmin Grihastha to pay for the Dakshina. When the money collected still did not suffice for the purpose, he sold himself to a guard at the cremation ground, who was in charge of collecting taxes for the bodies to be cremated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The king, his wife and son had to sustain tremendous hardships doing their respective chores. The king helped the guard cremate the dead bodies, while his wife and son were used as household helpers at the house of the Brahmin. Once, the son had been to the garden to pluck flowers for his master's prayer, when he was bitten by a snake and he died instantly. His mother, having nobody to sympathise for her, carried his body to the cremation grounds. In acute penury, she could not even pay the taxes needed to cremate him. Harishchandra did not recognise his wife and son. He asked the lady to sell her golden mangalasutra and pay the tax. It is at this instance that his wife recognises the man as her husband. She has a boon that her husband only could see her mangalasutra. Harishchandra then came to her and recognised her as his wife and was stung by pangs of agony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, Harishchandra, was dutybound by his job to perform the cremation only after the acceptance of the tax. So, he asked his wife, if she was willing to undergo further hardships and stand by him in this hour of calamity. The faithful wife readily gave assent. She had in her possession only a saree, a part of which was used to cover the dead body of her son. She offers half of her lone dress as the tax, which Harishchandra could accept and perform the last rites of his son. When she proceeded to remove her dress, miracles happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu, Indra and all Devas and the sage Vishwamitra himself manifested themselves on the scene, and praised Harishchandra for his perseverance and steadfastness. They brought his son back to life. They also offered the king and his wife, instant places in heaven. Harishchandra refused, stating that he was bound to his master, the guard. The Devas then reveal that the guard was none other than Yama. He again refused, saying that he cannot leave behind his subjects, by Kshatriya Dharma. He asked for a place in heaven for all his subjects. But the gods refused, explaining that the subjects had their own Karma and they have to undergo them. The king was then ready to forego all his virtues and religiousness for his people, so that they could ascend to heaven leaving him behind. The gods, now immensely pleased with the unassailable character of the great king, offered heavenly abode to the king, the queen and all their subjects. The sage Vishwamitra helped to populate the kingdom again and installed Harishchandra's son as the king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/strong&gt; If you read the above story whatever Harishchandra did, he did for justice and being religious and he was tested for the qualities he possessed in which he passed. In the end he did not accept heaven which was being offered to only him, instead he was ready to forego all his virtues and religiousness for his people, so that they could ascend to heaven leaving him behind. &lt;strong&gt;Hence Hinduism is not about being male dominant culture, its only about the dharma.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yudhisthira Story&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira  was known as &lt;em&gt;Dharmaraja&lt;/em&gt;. Yudhisthira's true prowess was shown in his unflinching adherence to Satya (truth) and Dharma (righteousness to fulfill one's moral duty), which were more precious to him than royal ambitions, material pursuits and family relations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira succumbed to Shakuni's challenge in the game of dice, while being a novice in it. Game of dice had certain rules, one of which was &lt;em&gt;One can't quit in the middle of game until and unless he has lost whatever he possessed and had pride on&lt;/em&gt;. Yudhisthira lost everything one by one including his palace brothers, himself and wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/strong&gt; Yudhisthira did all this because he was following his Dharm, he himself knew whatever happened with Draupadi was adharm but he was not able to do anything because he was tied to his Dharm and later for peace and establishment of dharm and righteousness &lt;em&gt;Mahabharat&lt;/em&gt; yudh took place. &lt;strong&gt;Hence Hinduism is not about being male dominant culture, its only about the dharma.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastActivityDate="2014-07-28T10:38:52.150" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2416" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-28T10:44:37.920" Score="11" ViewCount="9793" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why did our supreme lord create Earth and why did we come to Earth? From where did all this  start?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-28T11:40:34.497" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T05:42:33.110" Title="Why was earth created and why did we come to Earth?" Tags="|gods|earth|creation|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2417" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2413" CreationDate="2014-07-28T11:19:26.887" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is a &lt;em&gt;dharmic&lt;/em&gt; religion where importance is given to personal &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;. And keeping one's words and promises, that is, observing truthfulness is considered as one of the best &lt;em&gt;dharmas&lt;/em&gt;. Even truth is considered God Himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सत्यं बरह्म तपः सत्यं सत्यं सृजति च परजाः&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;सत्येन धार्यते लॊकः सवर्गं सत्येन गच्छति [MB - 12.183.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Truth is Brahma; Truth is Penance; it is Truth that creates all creatures. It is by Truth that the whole universe is upheld; and it is with the aid of Truth that one goes to heaven&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So sometimes people to observe the &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; of truthfulness can also do things that are generally not done, like selling one's wife or life partner.  In these situations, doing what's difficult to do for the sake of &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; adds value to a person character of being truthful and being a man of his words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Harishchandra&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harishchandra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harishchandra&lt;/a&gt; was know for his truthfulness. When Viswamitra informed him that he had promised to give his kingdom, he immediately gave up all his wealth and kingdom. But when Visamitra asked for &lt;em&gt;dakshina&lt;/em&gt; (fee offered to guru) along with &lt;em&gt;dana&lt;/em&gt; (donation), he had to sell his wife and son. When the money didn't suffice, he even sold himself to a guard at a cremation ground.  &lt;strong&gt;Because he did all these not for his personal benefit but for the observance of truth, his acts which are generally condemnable, turned out to be virtuous.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Yudhisthira&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, Ydhisthira was a Kshatriya (warrior) king and elder brother of all other Pandavas.  Losing in a game puts prestige of the king at stake. So Yudhisthira being a Kshatriya tires to win the game again and again even by betting his brothers and himself, but loses due to cheating of Sakuni. So Sakuni prompts Yudhisthira that he can steal win back all these by betting the only thing he had left, Draupadi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O king, there is still one stake dear to thee that is still unwon. Stake thou Draupadi, the princess of Panchala. By her, win thyself back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Yudhisthira tried to win by betting Draupadi, but unfortunately lost. Although this act of betting was condemnable, it was still justified because Yudhisthira was the husband and elder brother of all other Pandavas. So it was their &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; to abide with Yudhisthira's misfortune. And because the Pandava's were already won by Sakuni, to keep their word they were unable to do anything. So Bhisma explains:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न धर्मसौक्ष्म्यात सुभगे विवक्तुं; शक्नॊमि ते परश्नम इमं यथावत&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;अस्वॊ हय अशक्तः पणितुं परस्वं; सत्रियश च भर्तुर वशतां समीक्ष्य&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;तयजेत सर्वां पृथिवीं समृद्धां; युधिष्ठिरः सत्यम अथॊ न जह्यात    [MB - 2.60.40,41]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;O blessed one, morality is subtle. I therefore am unable to duly decide this point that thou hast put, beholding that on the one hand one that hath no wealth cannot stake the wealth belonging to others, while on the other hand &lt;strong&gt;wives are always under the orders and at the disposal of their lords&lt;/strong&gt;. Yudhishthira can abandon the whole world full of wealth, but he will never sacrifice morality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Yudhisthira betting Draupadi was even though condemnable, still justified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Does this mean Hinduism is a male dominant religion?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, it gives equal status to both.&lt;/strong&gt; Otherwise why there were &lt;em&gt;swayambars&lt;/em&gt;, marriage ceremonies where a bride chooses her groom out of many candidates?  It is only because &lt;strong&gt;women are bodily weak, fickle in nature and their chastity is valued more in Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt; that scriptures suggest women to stay under the guidance of their husband, sons and brothers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By a girl, by a young woman, or even by an aged one, nothing must be done independently, even in her own house. [Manu - 5.147]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent. [Manu - 5.148]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She must not seek to separate herself from her father, husband, or sons; by leaving them she would make both (her own and her husband's) families contemptible. [Manu - 5.149]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is just that after marriage, it becomes a woman's duty to be happy with her husband's happiness and companion on her husband's misfortune. Otherwise, the scripture gives equal status to women and praises them as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Women must be honored and adorned by their fathers, brothers, husbands, and brothers-in-law, who desire (their own) welfare.   [Manu - 3.55]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where women are honored, there the gods are pleased; but where they are not honored, no sacred rite yields rewards. [Manu - 3.56]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And we all know what consequence followed the Kauravas for this act of dishonoring Draupadi before everyone in the courtyard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-28T11:19:26.887" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2418" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-28T11:44:26.103" Score="4" ViewCount="1280" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just like Sita accompanied Lord Rama during &quot;vanavasa&quot;, were it not the dharma of Urmila to accompany Lakshmana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="552" LastActivityDate="2015-07-30T19:50:22.777" Title="Why did not Urmila accompany Lakshmana?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2419" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-28T13:59:28.053" Score="8" ViewCount="1025" Body="&lt;p&gt;The main difference (I know) between Hinduism and Buddhism is that the first defends &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80tman_%28Hinduism%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ātman&lt;/a&gt; theory whereas the second defends &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatman_%28Hinduism%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anātman&lt;/a&gt; theory.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shankara&lt;/a&gt; is known for having debated (and won) with Buddhists on this difference.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Question&lt;/em&gt;: What are the main arguments in favor of the Ātman view over the Anātman view?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I reside in India since almost two years, and I've discussed about Buddhism with some Hindu friends. Most of them think that Buddhism is a part of Hinduism, in the sense that one aspect of Hinduism can defend the Ātman view whereas another aspect can defend the Anātman view. The Hinduism does not state that the Ātman view is the truth and the Anātman view is wrong, but the Hinduism (in its purest aspect) questions every dogma in one sense or another. When Shankara fought against Buddhism, I didn't fight against the Anātman view, he fought against the Anātman dogma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-24T09:19:29.183" LastActivityDate="2020-10-29T01:59:40.470" Title="What are the main arguments in favor of the Ātman view over the Anātman view?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|atma|brahma-sutras|buddhism|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2420" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2418" CreationDate="2014-07-28T14:50:00.130" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://greatramayana.com/ramayan-characters/urmila-57&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; link gives details about Laxman's wife Urmila and it also states that she was serving Lord Ram and Laxman's parents, as the eldest Daughter-in-Law of their family after Lord Ram Laxman and Godess Sita left for the forest life (vanvasa) of 14 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Ramayana, when Lakshman was leaving for the forest with&#xA;  lord Rama, Urmila was ready to accompany him. But, Lakshmana hesitates&#xA;  and advises her to stay back to take care of her &quot;in laws&quot;.He also&#xA;  states that he cannot take care of her in the forest as he will be&#xA;  busy serving his brother and apologizes to her. Urmila agrees and&#xA;  remains a devoted wife for fourteen years until her husband returned&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urmila_%28Ramayana%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia (Urmila)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-06T06:46:30.147" LastActivityDate="2014-08-06T06:46:30.147" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2421" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2419" CreationDate="2014-07-28T15:03:14.443" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Buddhists say that the Hindu Atman theory is about the ego which in their view is non-existent. Hence they call their no-ego theory Anatman (not Atman). Hindus of course do not accept that Atman is the same as ego. So who is right? There is no way to intellectually decide who is right. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am adding this material to essentially answer the question in the comment section. Sankara attacks Buddhists on other grounds not directly on the Atman-Anatman theories.I will quote Sankara's Brahma Sutra Bhasya II.ii.31 where he attacks all three Buddhist Idealists (Vijnanabada), Buddhist Realists (Sarvastitvavadins) and Buddhist Nihilists (Sarvasunyavadins or Madhyamikas) to give a flavour of his argument:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As for the ego-consciousness that is assumed to be the abode of&#xA;  disposition (or tendency), that too has no stable form, since you&#xA;  postulate its momentariness like sense-perception. Hence it cannot be&#xA;  the abode of tendencies. &lt;strong&gt;For unless there be some principle running&#xA;  through everything and abiding through all the three periods of time&#xA;  or some unchanging witness of all&lt;/strong&gt;, there can be no human dealing&#xA;  involving remembrance, recognition, etc, which are contingent on past&#xA;  impressions that are stored up in conformity with environment, time&#xA;  and causation. If the ego-consciousness be (assumed to be) unchanging&#xA;  by nature, your doctrine (of momentariness) will be set at naught.&#xA;  Moreover since the theory of momentariness is upheld equally in&#xA;  Vijnanavada, all the defects arising from momentariness that were&#xA;  levelled (by us) against the theory of these (Buddhists) who believe&#xA;  in the existence of (momentary) external things, viz those shown under&#xA;  the aphorisms starting from, &quot;And because the earlier is negated when&#xA;  the later emerges&quot; (II.ii.20) are to be remembered in this context as&#xA;  well. Thus are refuted both these Buddhist points of view - of both&#xA;  those who believe in external things and those who believe in&#xA;  (subjective) consciousness). As for the view of the absolute nihilist,&#xA;  no attempt is made for its refutation since it is opposed to all means&#xA;  of valid knowledge. For human behaviour, conforming as it does to all&#xA;  right means of valid knowledge, cannot be denied so long as a&#xA;  different order of reality is not realized; for unless there be an&#xA;  exception, the general rule prevails.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You notice how he brings in the Atman theory (bolded sentence) indirectly. What does Shankara mean? He is attacking Buddhists who think of the 'I' sense in the following manner: I .... I.... I (where the 'I' sense does not exist during the dotted time period). What Sankara is arguing is that how do these Buddhists know that the series is not I1...I2...I3 etc where I1, I2, I3 are three different ego-consciousnesses? How can there be a stable personality which remembers a unique past or recognises old friends if the ego is unstable? In fact it is these Buddhists who need an unchanging principle (the Atman) that witnesses everything for all time (i.e. even during the gaps in ego-consciousness). Only if this Atman exists can Buddhists avoid problems regarding stability of personality. Otherwise a person who is Rama at one moment will consider himself Lakshmana in the next moment after the ego comes back.  If these Buddhists now say that the ego-consciousness is stable and not momentary in order to save themselves from this conundrum then they have refuted themselves. Sankara then goes on to say that he can give a similar argument refuting Buddhists who regard the external world to exist momentarily. Even in this case of a momentary external world you will need an Atman (an unchanging witness for all time) to give stability to our perception. So in either case you need the Atman principle to make sense of our experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2014-07-29T09:52:48.770" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T09:52:48.770" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2422" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2419" CreationDate="2014-07-28T15:03:23.847" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It totally depends on which theory you believe in, its not about which theory is better. Buddhism also takes you to the path to liberation,after meditation from which one comes to know about himself/herself(gets knowledge/gyan) from one of the Buddhist theories whereas same thing has been told in Bhagwat Geeta by Lord krishna that you can get liberation and meet the supreme lord by &lt;em&gt;Gyan Yog&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence both are better as both lead you to the path of liberation and peace, it mainly depends on which theory you believe in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand it in a better way consider the following example&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Person A is author and earns(say 50,000 amount) by writing books and&#xA;  there is a person B who is a cricketer and earns(say 50,000 amount) by&#xA;  playing cricket. Now here comes the question, What to opt for? Become&#xA;  an author and earn money or do the same by playing cricket. The answer&#xA;  is simple choose in which you believe and excel in as in both you are&#xA;  earning. I hope you got my point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="464" LastEditDate="2014-07-28T15:18:13.510" LastActivityDate="2014-07-28T15:18:13.510" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2423" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2433" CreationDate="2014-07-28T16:02:38.740" Score="8" ViewCount="469" Body="&lt;p&gt;When and how the atmas were created? Which sacred text explain it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-06T09:23:11.953" LastActivityDate="2016-06-22T07:57:07.770" Title="When and how the atmas were created?" Tags="|atma|jiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-06-22T08:08:29.430" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2424" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2426" CreationDate="2014-07-28T16:52:09.320" Score="5" ViewCount="1661" Body="&lt;p&gt;Christianity talks of the golden ratio. I have read about it from the Da Vinci Code. Is there anything similar to the golden ratio in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="293" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-08-12T13:55:37.363" LastActivityDate="2019-08-12T13:55:37.363" Title="Golden ratio in hinduism" Tags="|mathematics|numerology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2425" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2260" CreationDate="2014-07-28T20:27:33.390" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;No authentic vedic text ever talks about Mohammad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This reference to Mahamada is found only in Bhavishya Purana which itself is a very dubious text. It also speaks about Jesus and British rule. Refer to my answer for &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2322/14&quot;&gt;Is Jesus avatar of lord Vishnu?&lt;/a&gt; where I point out the dubious nature of Bhavishya Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer to this article &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/mohammed_is_he_really_predicted_in_bhavishya_purana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prophet Mohammed: Is He Really Predicted in the&#xA;Bhavishya Purana?&lt;/a&gt; which provides detailed rebuttal to Mohammed in Hinduism hoaxes and shows logical loopholes in those hoaxes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-07-28T20:27:33.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2426" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2424" CreationDate="2014-07-28T22:04:46.760" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;2nd century BCE Sanskrit grammarian Pingala's Chandahśāstra 8.32-33 which while classifying poetic meters of long and short syllables, presents the Mount Meru (Meru-Prastāra, ‘steps of Mount Meru’, but Meru-Khanda, ‘portion of Mount Meru’ by Bhāskara II in his Līlāvatī written in 1150), which is also known as the Pascal’s triangle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The shallow diagonals of the Mount Meru sum to the Fibonacci series, whose &#xA;limiting ratio is the golden mean.&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2v5Oy.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0411195.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Golden Mean and the Physics of Aesthetics&lt;/a&gt;, Subhash Kak, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2014-07-28T22:04:46.760" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2427" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2432" CreationDate="2014-07-29T04:24:44.627" Score="6" ViewCount="1505" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any references to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halley%27s_Comet&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Halley's Comet&lt;/a&gt; in the Hindu scriptures? If there are, then in what perspective is the comet depicted as? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="236" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-10T01:42:23.197" LastActivityDate="2020-03-01T03:06:36.723" Title="Are there any references to Halley's Comet in the Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|belief|scripture|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2428" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-29T04:31:05.187" Score="6" ViewCount="3791" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do Hindu scriptures acknowledge the presence of Dinosaurs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="236" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T14:36:48.530" LastActivityDate="2018-04-23T11:58:14.463" Title="Do Hindu scriptures acknowledge the presence of Dinosaurs?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-01-06T04:01:39.200" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2429" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2430" CreationDate="2014-07-29T04:52:39.740" Score="38" ViewCount="5059" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, how the Vedas originated is that from time immemorial, sages known as Dhristas have heard mantras (sacred verses) directly from the gods during a state of Tapasya (deep meditation).  And then in the Dwapara Yuga, a sage named Krishna Dwaipayana Vedavyasa (or Vyasa for short) compiled these verses into a set of four books we call the Vedas.  (Technically Vyasa only compiled the Rig, Yajur, and Sama Vedas - the Atharvana Veda was compiled separately by the sage Atharva and Angiras).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verses of the Vedas come from the Tapasya of hundreds of different sages, and they're addressed to lots of different gods.  So to preserve all this information, the sage Shaunaka (among others) compiled the Anukramanis, a set of systematic indices for the Vedas which, among other things, documents the sage who heard each verse from the gods, and the deity that each verse is addressed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is the Anukramani of the Rig Veda available online in English?  The Anukramanis give lots of information for each verse, including information about poetic meter and content, but all I really want is the names of the sages and deities for all the hymns.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &lt;a href=&quot;http://voiceofdharma.org/books/rig/ch1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt; claims to provide the sage associated with each hymn, but it's inadequate, because first of all it doesn't describe the case where there's ambiguity as to who the seer of a hymn is, and it also doesn't describe the case when different verses within a hymn were heard from the gods by different sages.  And the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ralph TH Griffith translation&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda claims to provide the deity of each hymn, but when different verses of a hymn are dedicated to different gods, it often just says &quot;Various&quot; and leaves it at that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, the only source that has all the information I want is Oxford's &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0199370184&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;3-Volume translation of the Rig Veda&lt;/a&gt;, which just came out a few months ago.  And I have compiled most of the sage and deity information from that book, but not all of it.  So is there any online source that has the complete sage and deity information for all the verses of the Rig Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2021-04-14T16:37:33.460" Title="Is the Anukramani index of sages and deities of the Rig Veda available online?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|rig-veda|translation-request|rishi|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2430" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2429" CreationDate="2014-07-29T04:52:39.740" Score="40" Body="&lt;p&gt;It took a lot of work, but through careful searching of the Oxford's Rig Veda translation through Google Books, I was able to compile most of the Anukramani's sage and deity information, except for some hymns in books 8 and 9 as I'll describe below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So without further ado, here's the list of seers and deities for each Book of the Rig Veda, in PDF format:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Uc5E&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/z0pl&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/vlQb&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/hJfx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/nG5A&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/KZmx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/AtwT&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/3d7M&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 8&lt;/a&gt; (except for hymns 28-29, 32, 34, 40-100, 102-103)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/U4bs&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 9&lt;/a&gt; (except for hymns 1-2, 60-61, 63, 65, 71, 73-77, 81-83, 86, 94-95)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://goo.gl/9H93sz&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: The user hfdfh was good enough to write down a lot of the missing names in Books 8 and 9 &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/M3Rol.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So now I am just missing Hymns 40-100 of Book 8.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-30T12:55:21.073" LastActivityDate="2016-01-30T12:55:21.073" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2431" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2419" CreationDate="2014-07-29T05:03:31.633" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since your question is not limited only to arguments of Shankara, I am going to explain an argument in this answer. But I am not sure whether this has been used by anyone or not to argue against the &lt;em&gt;anatman&lt;/em&gt; view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Buddhist view accepts existence of Karma and rebirth. And it is a simple principle of the system of Karma that the doer of the action and the experiencer of the results, both are the same person. And when a person dies, he takes birth again to experience the results of his unexpereinced actions. Now the question is, &lt;strong&gt;what is common between the deceased person and the reborn one that you say this new born one is the reincarnation of the deceased one?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Certainly, the body is not common, nor also the mind. If the mind were common, then the new born one would have the exact same tendencies and memories. So when the body and mind are not common, then certainly there must be something else common between the two that their reincarnation is accepted. And Hinduism says, it is the &lt;em&gt;atman&lt;/em&gt; that is common in both the bodies. But as per Buddhism there is this missing gap.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if we accept &lt;em&gt;anatman&lt;/em&gt; view then the question of identity would arise. Buddhists just say the new body is an effect of actions done by the past body. But effect being something different than the cause, there identity should not be accepted. But nevertheless they do so. For example, His Holiness Dalai Lama is believed to reincarnate once He leaves His old body. Hence, after the death of His Holiness, they start the search for His Holiness's reincarnation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know any textual reference but I believe Buddha just didn't acknowledge the existence of Atman. He didn't completely deny it's existence. The existence of an eternal self can cause attachment  in people's mind. And because attachment of any form leads to suffering, Buddha didn't acknowledge its existence. Because the concept of whole of Buddhism is to reduce suffering. During His time in Hinduism &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt;, animal sacrifices, etc. were high in practice for the purpose of acquiring a good position for the &lt;em&gt;atman&lt;/em&gt; in the afterlife . It is probably because of that He preached an &lt;em&gt;anatman&lt;/em&gt; view. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T05:03:31.633" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2432" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2427" CreationDate="2014-07-29T05:39:11.813" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Certainly there is no direct reference to it because in ancient times Halley's comet was not known by that name. But there is mention of a big comet that was seen in the sky during the Mahabharata war:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धूमकेतुर महाघॊरः पुष्यम आक्रम्य तिष्ठति [MB - 6.3.12]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -A fierce comet rises, afflicting the constellation &lt;em&gt;Pusya&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because Mahabhrata mentions the position of starts and planets in the sky during certain events, researchers are able to find out the dates of the event by analyzing the planetary positions.  So they say that the comet that has been mentioned in the Mahabharata as being seen during the war was Halley's comet. For example, consider the below statement from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/mahabharat/mahab_vartak.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this web source&lt;/a&gt; written by Dr.P.V.Vartak:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa has mentioned that at the time of Mahabharat war a big comet was seen just beyond Pushya Nakshtra. There are many comets. Indian Astro- nomical works refer to more than 500 comets, but big comets are very few. Haley's comet is one of the big comets which comes at the regu- lar intervals of 77 years. It was seen in 1910 and 1987. If we add 1910+5561 = 7271. 7271 is divisible completely by 77. Evidently it seems that it was Haley's comet was seen at the Mahabharat War.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T05:39:11.813" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2433" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2423" CreationDate="2014-07-29T06:48:05.963" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atmas&lt;/em&gt; (souls) were never created. &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; is eternal, ever existing and unborn:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ’yaṁ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 2.20]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jiva being part of God, is also eternal and ever existing like God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ&lt;/em&gt;  [BG - 15.7]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tava puruṣaṁ vadanty akhila-śakti-dhṛto ’ṁśa-kṛtam&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 10.87.20]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Vedas say that the soul is a manifested part of Your as you are the possessor of all energies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Creation and annihilation are going on eternally cyclically. At the time of annihilation, &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; enter into God and again manifested back (not created) upon next creation as they were:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarva-bhutani kaunteya prakritim yanti mamikam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kalpa-kshaye punas tani kalpadau visrijamy aham&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O son of Kunti, at the end of the millennium all material manifestations enter into My nature, and at the beginning of another millennium, by My potency, I create them again. That is, the material world manifests again and the &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; resume their activity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like heat and light are the integral part of fire, so are the &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; are integral part of God, &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; being the other. So the Vishnu Puran mentions the energies as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;viṣṇuśaktiḥ parā proktā kṣetrajñākhyā tathāparā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  avidyā karmmasaṃjñānyā tṛtīyā śaktiriṣyate&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 6.7.61]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vishnu &lt;em&gt;shakti&lt;/em&gt; is called as superior and &lt;em&gt;khetranja&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;shakti&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 13.2]) is called inferior and the third energy named karma is known as ignorance (&lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This also has been mentioned in Chaitanya Charitamruta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kṛṣṇera ananta-śakti, tāte tina — pradhāna&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ‘cic-chakti’, ‘māyā-śakti’, ‘jīva-śakti’-nāma&lt;/em&gt; [CC - 2.8.151]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Krishna has infinite energies among which three are primary. Their names are: &lt;em&gt;chid shakti&lt;/em&gt; (same as Vishnu &lt;em&gt;shakti&lt;/em&gt; in the above verse), &lt;em&gt;maya shakti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;jiva shakti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the point is, the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; being an energy potency of the Lord, is also eternal like Him. So no body created the &lt;em&gt;atmas&lt;/em&gt;, they are eternal and unborn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-29T10:38:48.763" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T10:38:48.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2436" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2139" CreationDate="2014-07-29T10:14:04.017" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a Saraswati river in gujarat, near sidhhpur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraswati_River,_Gujarat&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saraswati River, Gujarat, Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SvLt6.gif&quot; alt=&quot;saraswati&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T10:14:04.017" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2439" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2220" CreationDate="2014-07-29T11:27:59.420" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;kbd&gt;Sébastien Palcoux&lt;/kbd&gt; and &lt;kbd&gt;Creator&lt;/kbd&gt; found good numbers from some scripture/ literature / Wikipedia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I recently visited &quot;Brahmakumaris&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to share this what they said about &quot;Yugas&quot;. What they said to me, I could think as it was logically true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is just a belief of &lt;code&gt;Brahmakumaris&lt;/code&gt;, so There is no dispute with Hindu scriptures. I am just sharing their belief. And as per my understandings it was logically true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yugas :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;code&gt;BrahmaKumaris&lt;/code&gt;, each &lt;code&gt;Yuga&lt;/code&gt; consists of 4 ages in a single cycle of 5000 years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yuga = 5000/4 = 1250 Years&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this cycle, the Sat Yuga or Golden Age emerges as the very first yuga and lasts for a period of 1250 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The hindu swastik is the symbol of dividing the four Yugas in &lt;code&gt;exactly 1250 years&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why I thought it is logically true? What I think?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is nothing like satiyuga or kaliyuga, it is just a time in which people follow either Shubha (good) or Labha (Benefits).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In our Gujarat State we draw swastika near our door of home and we write Shubha on left side and Labha at right side. &lt;strong&gt;swastika stands for lucky charm.&lt;/strong&gt; means both good and benefit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How swastika is related to Yugas??&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Satiyuga&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;Tretayuga&lt;/code&gt;, People follow what is good. They do not think for badness/benefit of self.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Dwaparyuga&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;kaliyuga&lt;/code&gt; , people follow what is beneficial regardless of whether it will harm others or not.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This trueness of these two, we can understand by the example of Rama and Krishna. Rama followed what dharma(ethics of that time of Tretayuga) says and Krishna followed what benefit holds in Mahabharata. We can also understand how the thoughts of people changed with Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yuga is measurement for years. If the 4 yugas are measured with different number of days then &lt;strong&gt;it is not proper unit&lt;/strong&gt;!!!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 Yuga = 1250 years  &amp;lt;-- This should be common unit like 1 km = 1000 meters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do we ever consider 2km=3456meters??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3 According to Hinduism the nature of humans is made of 3 properties(गुण). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satva, Rajas and Tamas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Brahmakumaris, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Satiyuga&lt;/code&gt; is &lt;em&gt;satopradhan&lt;/em&gt; stage (&lt;code&gt;Golden Age&lt;/code&gt; according to Bible)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satva(Deities) more, Rasjas less, Tamas few (Asuras)&#xA;   - People do not do sins&#xA;   - Nature is perfect&#xA;   - No accidental deaths&#xA;   - People live exactly 150 years&#xA;   - They follow proper stages of life (Brahmcharya, Grihastashram, Varnaprasthasharm and Sanyaas)&#xA;   - They do with the law of अकर्म Akarma&#xA;   - So no harmness to others and that is why they are called gods(pure souls)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Golden age the souls were complete in all respects. Vishnu is called &quot;sarva guna sapanna&quot;(16 guna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Tretayuga&lt;/code&gt; Silver Age&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satva little bit less but still more, Rajas Medium, Tamas Growing (Ravana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In silver age, there was a slight decline in divine qualities. But even then there was sovereignty of complete peace and happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama is 14 guna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Dwaparyuga&lt;/code&gt; Couper Age&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satva Medium, Rajas More, Tamas Medium&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Copper age follows the Silver Age. By this time, the souls, who had transmigrated through several lives, become body-conscious. The vices like lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego cast their shadows on them. And they had thus fallen from the state of purity and worthiness and become vicious and unworthy. As they forget their true selves and broke with purity, natural laws came to be violated. Even nature deviated from her usual course, having thus begun to harm them, even though slightly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is in this age that various religions were established. A good many faiths began appearing like branches coming forth from the World-Tree. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abraham founded Islam; Buddhism was founded by Budha; Jesus Christ founded Christiniaty; Shankaracharya established the class of recluses and hermits; Mohammed Prophet established the Muslim religion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The previous deity religion came to be known as Hindu religion because they lost their deity-hood or divinity in them.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The population also increased considerably. Whereas in the beginning, &lt;code&gt;everything was one&lt;/code&gt;, now there are many religions, many kingdoms, languages, cultures and dynasties. Thus grew mutual strife, divisions and disunity and this state of affairs continued.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;kaliyuga&lt;/code&gt; Iron Age&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satva Less, Rajas More, Tamas More&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Iron Age that follows the Copper-Age, problems, difference of views and disputes begin to increase. The souls in this age are over-powered by vices and darkness of ignorance. They become vicious and impious. There is quite a crop of dissensions due to religious, communal and sectarian difference. Women are treated with utter contempt. &lt;strong&gt;Nature&lt;/strong&gt; becomes instrumental in causing distress to man. Disease, grief, old age, premature death, death by accident, etc afflicted mankind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The duration of one World Cycle is 5000 years.&lt;/strong&gt; Ages repeats.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.brahmakumaris.com/rajayoga-meditation/98.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Human Tree&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.brahmakumaris.com/rajayoga-meditation/99.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;World Cycle&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T11:27:59.420" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2440" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="304" CreationDate="2014-07-29T11:46:06.540" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Importance of Days after death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Day 1 Body is kept until child(male) come to ignite the body of the parent&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the moment of death the whole family is having &quot;sutak&quot; means they are apart from the whole society, can not cook at home , can not touch anybody or can not go to temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Day 2-13 I think you might be knowing all the procedures so not writing here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some communities believe after day 13 the family can now re-integrate into the society and some communities believe after 40 day a family can re-integrate into the society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this depends on community. So people of family can now go to temple on these days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The day when &quot;sutak&quot; releases family's day come to re-integrate to society. So that day is important. Maybe we will have better answers than this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-07-29T17:56:13.223" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T17:56:13.223" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2441" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2331" CreationDate="2014-07-29T12:02:00.820" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually as per hindusim everything that happens is the will of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Rama killed Valli, he was behind 7 trees, which were considered as 7 saints cursed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Rama's arrow also freed those saints from curse and also killed Vali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vali's death was written by Rama's hand and hanuman knew that. Actually Rama sent Hanuman to save Sugriva not to kill Valli.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Rama would not kill Valli then Vaali could not kill Krishna in his next incarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we can see it as leela of Lord Vishnu. Because untill a person like Vaali does not do sin like harrasing younger brother's wife and throwing younger brother out of kingdom and finally beating him hard to kill him, no god kills anybody. so valli was supposed to do sins. Because of Valli's fate Hanuman did not kill him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another fact is Vaali was a king and &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman was not a king&lt;/strong&gt;. According to Hindusim only a king can challenge or kill a king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T12:02:00.820" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2442" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2416" CreationDate="2014-07-29T12:44:46.540" Score="16" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Earth is stage, we all are actors&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earth is like &lt;strong&gt;a stage&lt;/strong&gt; where we all see drama movie. We all are actors and we are performing our roles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are the eyes, mouth and hands of existence. If the self does not interfere, the nature sees,,speaks and acts through us. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Life is considered as Yajna for others.&lt;/strong&gt; We are given body to do some work as per our skills and knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is always a life but most of them are for the existence of self but actually it is given to make it meaningful by helping others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A meaningful life isn't about acquiring money and other facilities; it’s about dedicating your life to helping others as much as you can.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are not of this body and this body is not of ours. This body is made of materials of this planet so is mortal. The invisible energy that is called Aatman is &lt;strong&gt;Ansh&lt;/strong&gt;(Purush) of &lt;code&gt;Parmeshwara&lt;/code&gt; that controls the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can consider a driver who is driving a car. Car is body but it is not driver. &lt;code&gt;Aatman&lt;/code&gt; is the actual driver. When car crushes someone we do not say car killed , but we say driver killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Earth is nothing but just a planet &quot;a stage&quot; where all the drama take place. We are souls who play the roles in this drama with various culture, various nature , various beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The earth is created to provide all materials that one needs to be alive, to create, to farm , to survie, to kill to do anything with the material.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What we do depends on us. But what we need is provided by earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we know that we want our child to study well, we provide all facilities like pencil, eraser to him/her. Thus God provided all the toys to us that we need to do something.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To enhance our skills, to be civilized he provided society. Otherwise why wouldn't he make a new planet per soul??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no land where God did not provide standard living life example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no soul with loneliness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Choice is always of child's to make life meaningful. But the requirements are always satisfied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever happens is for good and whatever will happen will also be for good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Trust your inner values and play the role because the role given to you is only you can play the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can’t help someone just by making a wish to do so, you have to take action. That's why we came here. to take action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;You are wonderfully made.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Look at the world around you, the infinite detail and creativity. Unimaginable beauty surrounds us every day. You are part of that creation, materializing from the same artist that created sunsets and rainbows. Don't ever allow yourself to think you are anything less than wonderful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Creativity is good for the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Creativity is when your spirit gets a chance to play and express itself. So whether art, dance, cooking, making music, writing, or creating a garden, let yourself go! Create!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever fills your heart with gladness is a good thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let yourself be filled. There is much joy and beauty in the world if you only open yourself to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;you&quot; matter.No one else can be the person you were created to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People need you. People you love and even people you have never met are depending on you. You matter to God as well. Do not think for a minute that you are not important; - the world needs you. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are for earth and earth is for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;you are being asked to be a steward of this earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God entrusted this earth to us. Not to trash and spoil her, but to respect and treat her well. After all, this earth is the handiwork of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The answer was finished here only&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;**EDIT : ** (For the comment of &lt;code&gt;Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta&lt;/code&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;The ultimate Truth of Geeta and concept of stage and actors&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-33.html&quot;&gt;Gita&lt;/a&gt; Lord mentioned Earth as &quot;म्रुत्यु लोक&quot; and told Arjuna to do &quot;कर्म&quot; work with the memory of &quot;GOD&quot; and &quot;भजस्व माम्&quot; means &quot;Worship me&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By doing so &quot;You will reach me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another time Lord Krishna mentioned &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Soul is eternal But soul's rising or fall is only possible when &lt;strong&gt;soul is in body&lt;/strong&gt;. By doing &quot;कर्म&quot; work&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Without body soul has no feelings.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I just explained this by writing &quot;Playing a role&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why I wrote it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On stage some drama is going on. My name is parth but now I am going on stage and playing a role of &quot;SID&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now may be my role is of 20 minutes. For these 20 minutes I will say dialoges of SID and act as SID only. Everybody identify me as SID. But in reality I am Parth!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And I used &quot;acting&quot; -&gt; &quot;Doing &quot;कर्म&quot; work&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Actually my &quot;कर्म&quot; work is not binding me with fruit (Either good or bad) but my wishes, faith or my greed behind doing that work is binding me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if you know that &quot;Parth&quot; is just a notice board to identify me on earth (Obviously on my license, passport it is written) But in reality I am &lt;strong&gt;soul&lt;/strong&gt; sent on stage(earth) to play this role(Parth or SID).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if you seriously consider your self and all others as soul only, you will do all your &quot;कर्म&quot; work with no sin , no wish , no greed but with pure heart and that will not bind you and by doing so you will be freed without &quot;कर्म&quot; work you did.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more thing is having the memory of GOD in mind,too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why worshiping GOD?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because drama is always made by some &quot;DIRECTOR&quot;, &quot;STORY Writer&quot;.. Isn't it??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The actor never says his own dialogue. There is some director or story writer who has created/written this show.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If in drama my scene is to fight with another actor, but if I do it like &quot;This is just the director's order&quot;, will I have any bad feeling or hurt feeling with another one??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if it is so, &lt;strong&gt;what about the creativity of an actor&lt;/strong&gt;?? Can't he has his own acting skill, dancing skill, his own dialogues and all that??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, GOD knows that. So he creates situations. But the real decision is your own &quot;कर्म&quot; work. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your every decision taken may bring you either closer or away from GOD. The more you remember god more exams he will take of yours.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wrote &lt;code&gt;&quot;when Soul is in body&quot;&lt;/code&gt; Because by body itself soul can express or do creativity. And also if soul has done bad then punishment is also possible only in body. (BECAUSE I DO NOT BELIEVE IN HELL OR PARADISE). If some one has killed many and died, how can people on earth know that he got punished in hell or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOBODY KNOWS and nobody can know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why Punishment?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To stop others by doing sins. Otherwise nobody will care of what they do. Is the earth for sins or &quot;Moksha&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When Punishment?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When GOD realize that this soul is making poorer itself by continuously making sins only and this soul's rising is only possible with new body then and only GOD punish with death. That's why Lord asked Arjuna &quot;to kill&quot; in Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this drama is necessary. In Hindu scriptures it is mentioned that in human life someone can make powerful soul by attaining &lt;code&gt;&quot;Moksha&quot;&lt;/code&gt; which is considered as main goal of life. But it is not possible without having a human life. That is why we come on earth. Obviously GOD is not willing for anyone to sin. But bad people may do so because of ambitions. &lt;strong&gt;But we can not say that everything good is because of GOD's will&lt;/strong&gt;. When we are about to do some bad work like stealing some thing(football), our good sense always says that this is bad, but our mind says &lt;code&gt;&quot;I want it, nobody is looking, just steal I do not have football, I love it , steal&quot;&lt;/code&gt;, If we control it then it is called &lt;code&gt;&quot;योग&quot;&lt;/code&gt; and if mind controls us then that work's fruit will bind us. Mind is like a small child and brain is like a elder child. Both are given to soul as powers. &lt;strong&gt;GOD is witness&lt;/strong&gt; of everybody's brain and decision but &lt;strong&gt;never interfere.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Gita Lord said I can not prevent fate of this war!!! when society lost gentleman or gentleman choose not to do work society creates war for itself. This war is result of Good people's inactivity, like King Pandu, Bhishma, Karna and Drona.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Between your fruit and you, GOD never interfere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be free, the concept of playing role is important to understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more thing By just attaining &lt;code&gt;&quot;Moksha&quot;&lt;/code&gt; we are given life?? If so good people will take &lt;code&gt;&quot;Sanyaas&quot;&lt;/code&gt; (go to jungle for meditation and worship god), isn't so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what if someone take good water from river, what is left? Only mud.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When good people choose not to interfere(in activeness), the society is led by sinners. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In such situation Even though I attain &quot;Moksha&quot; , will it benefit society?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. This is called &lt;strong&gt;selfishness&lt;/strong&gt;. To help others we have to sacrifice and &quot; To sacrifice&quot; is called &quot;Yajna&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Life or Sacrifice means?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Giving time, doing karma, sharing, putting smile on someone's face, supporting someone in sadness, sometimes not doing anything but just to breath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Joy will come when you pass on the love you have received. do not save happiness share it on different faces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why I said &quot;Life means living for others(Yajna)&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever I wrote is in Gita, read it for more details. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do you still think &lt;code&gt;&quot;Vishwaroopam&quot;&lt;/code&gt; is just what all gods appeared in one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No it is we all who are on earth. This is real knowledge of &lt;code&gt;Gita&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Gita ,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sankhya Yog -&gt; know yourself (you are soul, Purusha)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karma Yog -&gt; Do work as actors, do not bind your self&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhakti Yog -&gt; Get properties of GOD and his help by worshiping unto him&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gyan Yog -&gt; Understand the ultimate truth and rise yourself&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The ultimate truth&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;પ્રત્યેક જીવ શિવનો જ અંશ છે જે આ સત્યને જાણી લે છે તે સંપૂર્ણ સત્ય નો જાણકાર છે અને સદાય બીજાઓ સથે હળીમળીને જીવે છે.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each soul(जीव) is the child of supreme soul(शिव), who see each soul as brothers to him, always live with compassion for others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also you will be interested in this one. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/notes/parth-trivedi/birth-and-death-two-unavoidable-moments/10200883967020511&quot;&gt;Birth and Death - two unavoidable moments&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT 2:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;(For the comment and edit of question of 1. Where did it start?2. if I would god and I am complete why would I created others?)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When there is no universe == universe exists? (Are universe and nothing are two sides of mirror? Are these two only GOD's two images? Form ness(Prakruti) vs Formlessness(Purusha))&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I draw circle, after the circle is drawn.. how can I know the starting point? (Because according to Hindu mythology Creation,Existence, Destruction is cycle , repeating many times) This is called &lt;code&gt;Aaadi&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;Madhya&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;Aant&lt;/code&gt;, how to identify egg came or bird, first?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then what is the GOD?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;God is formless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Knowledge&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Light&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Happiness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These 3 things are not made of Proton, Neutron and Electron.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But without Body (made of Proton, Neutron and Electron), they can not be felt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a difference between &quot;Jad&quot; means Dead things like table,spoon,wall,land and &quot;Living Being&quot; like souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the difference?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dead is dead, and soul has &quot;Chetana&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Chetana?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Liveness is called chetanta. We can think ideas,creativity and all non-material things like feelings,love and all. Dead things does not have them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism GOD is explained as having &quot;Chaitanya Swaroop&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dead body is &quot;Prakruti&quot; nature, and living soul is &quot;Purusha&quot;, Ansha of Parmatman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the combinations of these two Living being is possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GOD Nature&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I am GOD, I am complete. I am the only one.  Nothing is there. But why to create? Why to operate and why to Destroy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;G - Generator - Genesis&#xA;O - Operator&#xA;D - Destroyer &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;why?? (What I believe)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because this is my(GOD) nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is my(GOD) nature only. May be this is because of my will or may be it is my(GOD's) fate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;in Geeta lord said that also that the universe creation is &lt;code&gt;superintended&lt;/code&gt; my me only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-10.html&quot;&gt;see the verse here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From where did it start?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why in &lt;code&gt;Rug Veda&lt;/code&gt; it is written&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When there was nothing everything was just &quot;Sat swaroopam&quot;(Combination of Prakuti and Purusha) and fire of love arose in the GOD and GOD became the universe it self. God decided to be divided himself in cycle (because loops have no end), 3 cycles (Generation, Operation, Destruction), 3 times (Morning, Noon, Evening ),3 worlds (Eartg, Heaven, Hell), 3 Guna (Properties) (Satva, Rajas, Tamas), 3 devatas (Brahma, Vishnu , Mahesh) (GOD is &quot;Nirakar&quot; means with no shape - But took &quot;Sakar roop as deities&quot;), 3 phases of life (Birth, Life, Death), 3 kinds of creatures (On Land, On sky, Under water), 3 Tattva (Proton, Neutrone, Electrone), 3 numbers (+ve,0,-ve) ... Many is written.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why 3?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To cause loop 3 is important&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;initialization&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Operation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;end&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And repeating this means loop.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes origins are always in cosmic from (like seed of tree, egg of bird and all planets,stars are circle) Because circle is presentation of infinite loop.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no difference between universe and GOD, both are the one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aadi(Beyond time)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Anant (Infinite)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Shiva (Pure and beneficer)&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and GOD nature is to create,operate and destroy -&gt; this is called &quot;Trugunateetam&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Role of GOD&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I am GOD I must have 3 things&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pure -&gt;  I should be supreme soul&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Powers -&gt; I must hold all powers of universe&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Beneficier -&gt; I must benefit &lt;code&gt;others&lt;/code&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For 3rd one I need &lt;code&gt;&quot;Others&quot;&lt;/code&gt; (souls) who may consider me a supreme soul, but I must benefit them, then and only I am GOD. Being only pure may not benefit OTHERS, being powerful may or may not benefit others but being &lt;code&gt;beneficier&lt;/code&gt; with purity makes a GOD (Shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I may edit this answer to explain more if I have some more thoughts on this one.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-09-18T15:55:55.373" LastActivityDate="2014-09-18T15:55:55.373" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2444" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2169" CreationDate="2014-07-29T13:11:55.743" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Soul is soul no matter of devta's, human's, rakshasa's or anybody's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the soul is given the category as per soul's nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the worst person can be the best no matter he is rakshasa or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Example, Prahlad was rakshasa by birth!! But he is the best devotee of Lord Vishnu whom all rakshasa hate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At any point of time nature can change. But it is through &amp;quot;AWARENESS&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The person not aware of what he is doing is considered as &amp;quot;Rakshasa&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Soul is always a part of GOD. It is like shallow copy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each soul has basic properties of GOD like peace,love,bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the angriest person will be calm and peaceful for more % of the time per day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some times some souls behaves like demon because they are given such role and only they can fulfill them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But through the light of awareness they can change their nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Body dies, soul never dies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Time change, thoughts never change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But choice of thoughts may change anytime.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is nothing like Hinduism, or no religion can make a person deity or demon, it is just the atmosphere provided to one in childhood to grow nature that results in small actions of his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I mentioned thought never die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good thoughts are deities and bad thoughts are demons. Do they ever die?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A taste of one particle of soul is taste of the whole sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The experience of self's soul is not different from the experience of supreme soul(GOD).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why to stick with Hinduism?? Why only hinduism scriptures define what is demon?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why can't we have our own definitions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever written some years ago was suitable to that IQ level of that time's people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If they write &amp;quot;There was a demon with 1000 hands and some god killed him&amp;quot; --&amp;gt; Is this acceptable in this age of science???&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maybe some buffalo will think GOD is super buffalo may be with 4 horns!!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Imagination has no end.... but how you relate it with reality is important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our choice represents our soul. Nobody is eternal except GOD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oh Parth, you were not there or I or these all kings and soldiers were not there, it is not true, and you, or I or theses all kings and soldiers will not exist in future, it is also not like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-02-12.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita Shloka&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Hindu philosophy everybody who takes birth has to die.Only Lord shiva has not taken birth, so only he is eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes demons have to pass through birth-death cycles. Yes their souls are also a part of god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Example Ravana. Kumbhakarana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By soul, both were door keepers of Lord Vishnu's abode!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their names were Jay and Vijaya. Both were cursed to born in Rakshasa yoni for 3 births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3 demon births&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First Birth: Hiranyakh and Hiranyakashyapu&#xA;Second Birth: Ravana and Kumbhkarna&#xA;Third Birth:  Shishupala and Dantavakra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In all of these three births they were cursed to be killed by Lord Vishnu as Varaha , Narmsinha, Rama and Krishna avatars of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So they borne, died and their soul freed from curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then they went to again as door keeprs to Lord Vishnu's abode after death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;reference : &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaya-Vijaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jaya-Vijaya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Edits are invited for this answer&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T19:26:24.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2445" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="343" CreationDate="2014-07-29T13:54:29.683" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will try to answer your question despite the comments pointing to a certain other answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not about justification, but about decision making. If there were rumors about Sita Devi then that could potentially reduce respect to her king by their subjects and eventually lead to lesser able administration. As a king, Rama had to sacrifice his personal life for his role as a king - but it is to be remembered that for the rest of his reign, he did not think of another woman either. Which is what makes him so admirable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="33" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T13:54:29.683" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2446" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2428" CreationDate="2014-07-29T17:10:32.713" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;In any case, we do find a reference to what easily could be understood to be dinosaurs in Srimad Bhagavatam when demons and demigods rode strange creatures into battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;grdhraih kankair bakair anye syena-bhasais timingilaih&#xA;  sarabhair mahisaih khadgair go-vrsair gavayarunaih&#xA;  sivabhir akhubhih kecit krkalasaih sasair naraih&#xA;  bastair eke krsna-sarair hamsair anye ca sukaraih&#xA;  anye jala-sthala-khagaih sattvair vikrta-vigrahaih&#xA;  senayor ubhayo rajan vivisus te ’grato ’gratah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O King, some soldiers fought on the backs of vultures, eagles, ducks, hawks and bhasa birds. Some fought on the backs of timingilas, which can devour huge whales, some on the backs of sarabhas, and some on buffalo, rhinoceroses, cows, bulls, gavaya [jungle cows] and arunas. Others fought on the backs of jackals, rats, krkalasa, rabbits, human beings, goats, black deer, swans and boars. In this way, mounted on animals of the water, land and sky, including animals with deformed bodies [vikrta-vigraha], both armies faced each other and went forward.” (Bhag. 8.10.10-12 – The Battle Between the Demigods and the Demons)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here we find a fantastical description of the vahanas used in a great battle in horary antiquity, but some of the creatures described have no English or Indo-Aryan equivalent such as bhasa, sarabhas, timingila, gavaya, arunas, krkalasa and vikrta-vigraha. So what are these creatures and why do they have no equivalent names in modern languages? Could they be extinct? Could any of these have been what we now call dinosaurs? We think so. The mere fact that the timingila is mentioned is proof enough that some of these creatures are going to be formidable predators – which ones?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vikrta-vigraha translates as ‘animals with deformed bodies’ and krkalasa translates as ‘big lizard’. So when one’s opponent is riding a vicious animal like a rhinoceros or a timingila — then is riding an ordinary lizard into battle a good idea, even a big one? Krkalasa is a ‘big lizard’ — think dinosaur! And vikrta-vigraha are ‘animals with deformed bodies’ — think dinosaur! In any case, no vahana mentioned here could have been ordinary, – even the human vahanas must have been giants. So it is intelligent to think that if one takes these narratives to be true in the first place, then what we think of today as dinosaurs could surely be among the vahanas mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gavaya mentioned in the above verse translates as ‘jungle cow’ and interestingly enough these ‘jungle cows’ (also known in modern Hindi as nila-gaya, blue cows) still exist in and around Vrndavana, India and, like the Makara, they have the distinct characteristic of three animals — a cow, a horse and a deer. Once seeing these strange animals there is no argument that they are a ’three in one’ creature. So why not a Makara with a mouth of a crocodile, a body of a fish, and a tail of a peacock? You just haven’t seen one yet. But it looks like the archaeologists in England are on to something with their recent discovery of the Pliosaur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is true that the krkalasa and bhasa are not easily equated with Tyrannosaurus Rex and Pterodactyl, but then again, why not? It seems to be a matter of putting one and one together and moving on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes – there were dinosaurs mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam and possibly other places in the vast Vedic literature. Unfortunately, it has been the thinking of some theists that the scientists have falsified dinosaur remains (“The Devil put them there”) simply to give credit to the evolutionary theory. But I think it is safe to say that such does not stand against the repeated discoveries of dinosaurs in different parts of the world and even in India. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://gosai.com/writings/makara-myth-or-fact-dinosaurs-in-srimad-bhagavatam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;srimad bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-04-23T11:58:14.463" LastActivityDate="2018-04-23T11:58:14.463" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2447" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2479" CreationDate="2014-07-29T17:12:39.540" Score="20" ViewCount="16557" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found most of our religious books speak about Lord Vishnu's avatars and there are much fewer books that I know of about Lord Shiva. If Lord Vishnu has 10 avatars then how many avatars do Lord Shiva has?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In one of my research I came across a Shiva avatar that I never knew. Sharaba was the name for the Avatar, other name is Gandaberunda, derived from the meaning of a half lion and half bird. sharaba incarnation of Lord Shiva is to tame Narasimha avatar of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is the only line of story I know about Sharaba avatar of Lord shiva. Does any one know beyond this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found few pictures of Lord sharabeswar subduing Lord Narasimha. I thought of adding these pictures in question itself. The stone carvings are found in Airavateswar temple, Kumbakonam TamilNadu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HAWYV.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="47" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2021-03-26T15:05:54.383" LastActivityDate="2022-06-19T19:34:23.473" Title="What is the story of Sharaba?" Tags="|shiva|vishnu|avatars|narasimha|" AnswerCount="10" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2448" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="304" CreationDate="2014-07-29T18:31:16.440" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me briefly answer your question, this is the content which I have given as the comment earlier. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The numbers mentioned in the example is relevant in case of the death. There are different types of pranas and jivas in our body. After the death of a person each of them leaves the physical body (or annamaya Kosa). When the death take place first of all pranavayu is leaving the body and depending on the behavior all of them specific time to leave the body. Also the soul too have it's timings to leave the body. On 3&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; day of death there are certain rituals to perform and these are done for the moving of these things smooth. The same is applicable to the 41&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; day. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The number 16 represent the 16&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Sansakara 'Anthyeshti'. There are 16 samskaras in total. There are 15 samskaras before the 16&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; one, like gharbhadana,pumsavanam,etc. See the detail in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/410/what-are-the-16-sanskaar-sacraments-of-life-and-how-do-you-complete-them&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt;. So after the death of a person the rituals mentioned in the 'Antheyshti' will be done by relatives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Don't have enough details on these. These are just my basic understandings and this answer is certainly not complete.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-10-09T10:23:25.400" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2449" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2170" CreationDate="2014-07-29T18:43:46.720" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Prakruti?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prakruti(nature) is body made of material&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Purush?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purush is Ansh of Parmeshwara , which is known as Aatma(Soul). By combination of these two only a living being is possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Shakti?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Shiva Maha Puran,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva was in Ardhnareshwar Roop (Half Female and half male)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But to create the world lord Brahma asked Shiva to separate Shakti so that the universe can begin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shakti is energy which is in various forms in universe. Also in Prakruti and also in Purush but in different manner and form. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Shiva is the energy manager.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per hinduism Shiva has never taken birth. And who has never taken birth can not die. So is eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T18:43:46.720" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2450" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="157" CreationDate="2014-07-29T19:09:05.153" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Everybody has explained caste system well, So I am not going write about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Caste System was by quality and activity as per Vedic Scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How it changed to by birth??&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually in vedic age if the person is seating for meditation, he was actually meditating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there was no doubt that the person is Brahmina and with Sato guna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But later on, fake and show off started. So it was very hard at that time to identify a person in caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A Brahmina considered person got arrested for murder!!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A Khsatriya or king goes for sanyaas to meditate!!!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also parents were forcing their children to accept their activity as own's activity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And caste system changed to by caste instead of by birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So those who had knowledge started teaching to only those who are son of particular caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Example, Parshurama taught only Brahmans and Khashtriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T19:09:05.153" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2452" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4" CreationDate="2014-07-29T19:37:43.677" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;An attempt at a more scientific explanation..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you have seen entropy theory, it says that energy moves from a less chaotic state to a more chaotic state. There is a mutation of energy, and materials from low entropy to high entropy all the time. This is described in detail in Roger Penrose's  - Emperor of the New mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Back to Hinduism, it  believes in the concept of Pancha Bhoota. That is, the human body is composed of these 5 elements, and therefore must obey chemical and physical laws of the universe. and also we must  be having physical properties and chemical properties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ancient sages have tried to classify our property also in the form of Zodiac signs, and interestingly, the theory, classifies all of us humans into Earth, Sun, Water, and Air signs, which is actually from the same concept of Pancha Bhootas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More interestingly, there is this concept of Low entropy and High entropy sun signs.. For example, Aries is a Low entropy sign (Initiating), and Leo is a higher entropy sign(Fixed), and Saggitarius is (Mutating), which is highest entropy.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if you look at Fire signs, all the zodiac is trying to tell is Aries(Fuel) -&gt; Leo (Fire) -&gt; Saggitarius (Light).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or in other words, the transformation of energy from low entropy to high entropy is described within the realm of our birth and death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if energy, matter, transform from low entropy to high entropy, and they continue to live in the transformed high entropy form within the universe, why cant, we humans, who are also formed from the same materials, and therefore subject to the same laws of energy transformation, be also be around in the universe in a higher state of entropy for ever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,  we can postulate that humans  transform into newer lives and there is this concept of karma after death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, this whole theory only explains that our material body continues to be in this universe for ever in some form or the other.. But our consciousness ?? Where does it go after death. ? Hinduism postulates that consciousness does not have birth or death. It continues.. So, probably, the consciousness is recycled from one person to another person ? Is that what these texts are trying to say.. Hope we find this out some day. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-29T19:37:43.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2453" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="303" CreationDate="2014-07-29T19:42:03.633" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Possible Reasons of meditating on mountain&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Most Gods do meditation and they need cool atmosphere which they can find on mountains.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Most Gods spend time practicing yogic austerities.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Normal Humans/animals do not visit mountains regularly.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also See : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mountain-living-more-hear/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Scientific Advantages of living on mountain&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-10-11T09:48:15.063" LastActivityDate="2014-10-11T09:48:15.063" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2454" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-29T20:30:00.907" Score="9" ViewCount="3914" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why did Bhima kill Duryodhana unfairly by hitting him below the waist during their final battle in the Mahabharata war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-30T20:09:36.990" LastActivityDate="2021-05-22T02:01:20.197" Title="Why did Bhima kill Duryodhana unfairly?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|duryodhana|bhima|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2455" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2454" CreationDate="2014-07-29T20:30:49.317" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2014/07/why-did-bhima-kill-duryodhana-unfairly-by-hitting-him-below-the-waist-during-their-final-battle-in-the-mahabharata-war/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TheSpiritualScientist&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let’s first consider how unfair the whole battle was for Bhima. Due to Gandhari’s blessing Duryodhana’s body had become invincible, no matter how expertly or forcefully Bhima hit it. What was he supposed to do? Just let himself get beaten to death for no fault of his – all because his opponent had got a blessing for no virtue of his?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;A “blessed” batsman&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To grasp the unfairness of the situation, consider a rough cricket analogue: during a faceoff between a champion batsman and a champion bowler, suppose the batsman gets a “blessing” to never get out, even if he is caught, trapped leg before wicket, clean bowled, hit wicket or whatever else. What is the bowler supposed to do? No matter how well he bowls, there’s just no way he can win.&#xA;  Fans with even a modest sense of fairness would be up in arms protesting the way the contest had been rigged against the bowler. But suppose no one protested. The poor bowler bowled the best spell of his life, got the batsman out several times and yet got no credit for it. Wouldn’t that be patently unfair?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That’s what happened to Bhima. He hit Duryodhana twice with such awesome force that the blow could have rent a mountain apart, what to speak of breaking a human frame apart. His achievement was like that of a bowler clean-bowling the batsman not just once but scores of times. And yet what did Bhima get for his feat? Nothing – leave alone victory, not even a crack on Duryodhana’s body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How long could Bhima go on like this especially when Duryodhana was counterattacking and wounding Bhima? Among the many blows that hit Bhima, two of Duryodhana’s blows were so brutal that they would have instantaneously killed a lesser warrior. Though Bhima was badly injured by those devastating blows, he with superhuman fighting spirit maintained a stoic face, showing no weaknesses. His plight was like that of a bowler carted for six sixes in two successive overs. Actually, Bhima’s plight was a million times worse. Why? Because Duryodhana’s blows were wounding not just Bhima’s morale, but also his body. It’s something akin to the batsman’s shots hitting the bowler, thus rendering him less and less capable of bowling – while still being expected to go on bowling till death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Can we really blame the battered bowler if he took the only way out of the carnage: bowl bodyline and get rid of the batsman, retired hurt? If we were being wounded like that, can we be sure that we too wouldn’t do something similar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Understandably, Bhima took the only way out of the slaughter by hitting Duryodhana at the only place it hurt: his thighs. Just as bowling bodyline in normal cricket is unfair, so was hitting the thighs unfair in a normal mace-fighting battle. But when it was the only way to bring some fairness back into an unfair battle, would it still be blameworthy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Honoring the spirit of the rule, adapting its letter&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rather than blaming Bhima for hitting that unfair blow, perhaps we need to give him credit for fighting fairly for so long, despite being sentenced to an eminently unfair contest. Bhima could have claimed justification for finishing the battle quickly with an early unfair blow:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maitreya Rishi had cursed Duryodhana that he would die due to the breaking of his thighs and Bhima could have claimed to simply be an instrument for fulfilling the sage’s curse.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhima could even have claimed that he had vowed to break Duryodhana’s thighs for having obscenely exposed those thighs to publically humiliate Draupadi – and that he had to do whatever it took to fulfill his vow.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Bhima did not take recourse of any of these reasons at the first possible opportunity demonstrates his respect for for the spirit of fair play. But the battle had been rendered unfair not because of his action, but even before he took any action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Their battle was not like a normal mace-fighting battle to which the standard rules applied. Duryodhana had brought something extraneous into the battle – his mother’s protection in the form of an invisible invincible armor.  That extraneous factor so totally tilted the scales in Duryodhana’s favor that to re-balance the scales Bhima too had to bring something extraneous – Krishna’s protection in the form of an action plan to bypass that armor. Krishna implemented part A of that emergency plan when he persuaded Duryodhana to cover his private parts while going to see his mother. And then he told Bhima to implement part B of that plan by hitting Duryodhana’s vulnerable thighs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yes, that kind of blow was unfair in a normal wrestling battle, but what was normal or fair about a wrestling battle in which one player couldn’t win, no matter how well he fought? Understandably, such an abnormal battle couldn’t be played by the normal rules if there was to be any hope for a fair result.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Krishna later said, there was no other way Bhima could have won – and so he had to take the only way available.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-07-30T07:56:42.557" LastActivityDate="2014-07-30T07:56:42.557" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2456" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2458" CreationDate="2014-07-30T06:22:44.977" Score="11" ViewCount="12138" Body="&lt;p&gt;Today Adi Shankaracarya's Adavaitvaad is a prominent philosophy in Hinduism but if we go through his life, we see that he not only preserved the idol worship practices across India but actively promoted it through certain rituals like 'Panchayatan' pooja and composed numerous 'Stotras' for various deities. This probably could be the start of Polytheism or at-least the formal establishment of the Polytheism in Hindus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding Advait vedanta doesn't accept the notion of personal God/Godess. Then why didn't Shankara eliminate the idol worship?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="543" LastEditDate="2021-05-22T05:17:50.117" LastActivityDate="2021-05-22T05:17:50.117" Title="Why did Adi Shankara promote idol worship?" Tags="|idols|adi-shankaracharya|advaita|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2457" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-30T06:50:44.257" Score="41" ViewCount="11376" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavat Geeta (Chapter 9 Verse 7), it is said that the Jeevas are created at the start of Kalpa, and this cycle keeps on repeating for-ever. This implies that the Mukti or Moksha is not a permanent state but a temporary state which lasts for a Kalpa. I think Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati of Arya samaj holds this view point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any explanation, regarding this, found in Vedas or other scriptures? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="543" LastEditDate="2016-02-29T05:21:16.533" LastActivityDate="2023-07-25T19:09:14.733" Title="Is Moksha a permanent state?" Tags="|moksha|mukti|" AnswerCount="10" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2458" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2456" CreationDate="2014-07-30T06:57:12.650" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya came down to uplift humankind through different ways and one such way is idol worship. Unlike the yogic/tantric/karma paths, one can enjoy the fruits of this idol worship soon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a layman, to worship God who is; formless, nameless, and without any predominant character is very difficult. So, noble forms of Almighty with various names and forms are adopted for idol worship. Rituals like &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alankara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;alankara&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhi%E1%B9%A3eka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;abhisheka&lt;/a&gt; etc. associated with each deity are specified in the holy scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upon intense worship of these idols, one finds it easy to mediate on image of such deity. Out of love, devotion and affection the mind can be submerged with God in meditation. The personification of god makes devote develop strong relation with ease. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2019-12-26T14:17:41.100" LastActivityDate="2019-12-26T14:17:41.100" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2459" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2447" CreationDate="2014-07-30T07:49:04.323" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narasimha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narashima&lt;/a&gt; was half man and half lion incarnation of  Lord Vishnu. Narashima tore apart Hiranyakashipu’s belly with sharp nails. The claw is a part of the body that is both living and dead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://sites.google.com/site/thetensionsofshivaandvishnu/the-story-of-sharabha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The story of sharabha&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After he killed Hiranyakashipu, Narashima was still enraged! Brahma sent Prahalada to pray to Vishnu in hope that it would calm him down. Prahalada’s efforts were to no avail. Frightened, all of the gods went to Lord Shiva for help in calming Vishnu. Lord Shiva first sent two of his best earthly men, Bhairav and Veerbhadra, to calm Narashima. Narashima pounced on Veerbhadra when Veerbhadra asked Narashima to calm down nicely. To protect Veerbhadra, Shiva appeared in his most devastating form, &lt;strong&gt;Sharabha&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;em&gt;It is said to be a giant, frightening, form with thousands of hands. His appearance resembled a huge cannibal bird.&lt;/em&gt; Sharabha scratched Narashima with his wings and carried him off into the distance. Vishnu became so scared that he fell unconscious. After he woke up, Vishnu eulogized Lord Shiva, which pleased Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharabha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sharabha&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiranyakashipu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hiranyakashipu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-07-30T08:05:49.120" LastActivityDate="2014-07-30T08:05:49.120" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2460" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-30T08:07:15.603" Score="1" ViewCount="243" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sobrightandbeautiful.net/blog/volcanoes-versus-dinosaurs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This article&lt;/a&gt; states that gigantic volcano eruptions in the area of Deccan in modern India were the cause of life extinction on Earth 66 million years ago. About 4 subsequent volcano eruptions spewed poisonous gases and ash into the air, blocking sunlight and wiping out most lifeforms on Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How does this period of destruction tally with Kalpa/Yuga theory?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do Hindu / other ancient texts have any reference to this event? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any connection to Shiva's destructive force?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="545" LastActivityDate="2017-06-19T05:37:04.037" Title="Is there any reference in Hindu or ancient texts to the Deccan Trap volcano eruptions which wiped out life on Earth?" Tags="|shiva|yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2461" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-30T08:53:54.777" Score="7" ViewCount="899" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How are Kalpas traditionally calculated?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukteswar_Giri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Yukteswar Giri&lt;/a&gt; has said in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukteswar_Giri#The_Holy_Science&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Holy Science&lt;/a&gt; that the sun revolves around another star, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuga#Sri_Yukteswar.27s_teachings_on_the_yugas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;taking 24,000 years per revolution&lt;/a&gt;. As the Sun (and our solar system) swing around the other star, our system is brought close to Vishnunabhi, the seat of creative power, Brahma. He stated that this is the age of Dharma, where humans are most spritual, honest and just etc. The opposite, i.e our solar system is as far away from Vishnunabhi as possible, is where humans are the most wicked etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which version is correct?&lt;/strong&gt;  Can anyone explain and elaborate more on these?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are there any matches with scientific research?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For reference, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2220/what-is-the-duration-timeline-of-the-four-yugas/&quot;&gt;Yugas are already discussed here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="545" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2014-10-13T08:35:57.980" Title="Please explain Kalpa theory and calculations?" Tags="|yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2462" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2325" CreationDate="2014-07-30T09:08:38.237" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I had answered the same question in another thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will repeat it here again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism does not generally believe in the concept of Creator and Creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the words to this effect are told, most of the religious texts propagate this concept of &quot;I am God&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What it means can be explained using an analogy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a cell in your body is analogous to one human, and the human is analogous to the universe, we can start by asking the following question....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q : Can a cell in your body say that the HUMAN was the CREATOR, because the cell wouldn't have existed without the human, in the first place ? But interestingly enough, the human wouldn't have existed but for those cells.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in the same way, we can explain humanness in relation to GOD. Humans are part of the WHOLE, which we term as GOD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I am God. (this must be better understood now).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-30T09:08:38.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2463" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="368" CreationDate="2014-07-30T09:28:49.250" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The concept of multi-theism or mono-theism in religions is a very hotly contested topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look at creation as it is today,  I will try and pick the cues from things which we can see around us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wil start with Pancha Bhootas. So, Air, Water, Earth, Fire, and Space. If I leave space aside, which is just a fabric, that leaves us 4 elements, which we can touch, or feel or experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question I have is as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In all of creation - say human life or animal life, it became possible, when all these 4 elements came together. If we leave one element aside, then we would end up with a non living thing.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some examples : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Stone - Lot of Earth, Little or no Water, Little Air, No fire.&#xA;Wood - Same as above&#xA;Animals - Earth, Air, Water, and Fire.&#xA;Humans - same as above.&#xA;Plants - All the 4 .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, from a point of view of Creation, it is a proven concept that without bringing the 4 elements together life cant happen. Now there is a force which is bringing together the 4 elements in way to create life itself. It is an invisible force.- Which we call GOD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the recipe for making a living thing is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A cook - God&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A set of ingredients - 4 elements&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A passion or goal - Consciousness or soul&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devis, and Devtas are in a way the ingredients, and God would be cook.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in a way, if food were to be grateful to somebody for its success, it should be thankful to the ingredients that made it, and to the cook who made it, and to the passion that made it taste better.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, multi-theism is a point of view of religion, where you thank all the things that made the great food possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dont we appreciate the cook ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dont we also appreciate the ingredients ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And dont we appreciate the passion and energy that made it all happen ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mono-theism gives all the credit to the cook, and refuses to acknowledge the role of the ingredients, and the passion. ( in an analogous way).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-30T09:28:49.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2464" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="117" CreationDate="2014-07-30T09:34:08.607" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism does not have a strict code of conduct on who is authorised to describe God. By the very token , that if one person described God and religion, then every other person, also has the right to describe God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the very basis of science. Science is a pursuit of truth. Not a documentation of truth itself. Every person, starting from Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus, and Hubble, have all changed the way we describe the universe, and the processes around us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same way, the same creativity holds good for defining God itself. So, we define God, and then we redefine it and then we redefine it, till we get a better picture of who God is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Polytheism represents that continuous effort, and imagination of thousands of people on how they see or describe God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-30T09:34:08.607" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2466" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="343" CreationDate="2014-07-30T10:40:38.607" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;My first answer was regarding Sita’s first fire test, while they were in Lanka after winning the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Regarding Second time fire test&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once The King Rama went for town travel cloak(That no one can know that this is our king)&#xA;to know what the people are thinking about the kingdom and king, Is there any who unsatisfied with king?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He saw some people who were discussing about Ram-Ravana war, Some people had doubt on sita, Some blamed Rama that he is very Fatuous by accepting Sita after she had stayed in lanka. Rama could not tolerate that majority people had doubt about the holiness of &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;sita&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He believed that if the public have not trust on their king then he is not a good king. He also found that the people of kingdom are unsatisfied with his decision. For public satisfaction he abandoned his wife Sita, because he believed that it’s his duty although he knew about Sita’s holiness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end he told Sita to give fire test again in front of all (the public of avadh) to show her holiness and purity. Rama showed his Raj-Dharma(A duty of King).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sita&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; did not attempt second fire test as well as she attempted subside by going into the earth(land).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-08T14:30:14.063" LastActivityDate="2015-02-08T14:30:14.063" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2469" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="142" CreationDate="2014-07-30T11:23:39.723" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The fundamental difference between Western religions and Hinduism is the fact that Hinduism does not try to prove that God exists through references to Miracles, Predictions of the future etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu texts prevail only on Understanding the Self. Realization of the truth. Texts and scriptures give knowledge bases to aid that understanding.  The concept of God itself is very simple, and complex at the same time. People who want to practice the Simple version do that, and people who want to practice the complex version do that as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But to believe in the concept of God, and the scriptures, forecasting, predictions etc are not really required. It is only required to aid people fall into the line. Hinduism never believed in proselytizing anyway.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-30T11:23:39.723" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2470" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13" CreationDate="2014-07-30T11:29:39.327" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a fundamental difference in religious styles of the West and the East.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Western religions (Islam and Christianity) have a digital view of the world. Creator and Creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism in its core believe the Created and Creation are one and the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Western religions believe in preaching. Hinduism believes in understanding and experiencing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Western religions have this view of &quot;Not my way, or the highway&quot;. Hinduism treats &quot;My way&quot;, &quot;Highway&quot;, &quot;Some other way&quot;, &quot;No way&quot; as different ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Western religions could have been influenced by Hinduism, since the texts and scriptures existed at the time the Western religions came up. Hinduism is unlikely to have been influenced by Christianity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cultural influences of the West on the East, did occur, but religious influences were very limited, as the two religions have markedly different styles of approach towards God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-03T10:55:43.957" LastActivityDate="2014-10-03T10:55:43.957" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2471" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="697" CreationDate="2014-07-30T11:47:57.860" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism does not deal with social situations like Western religions do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are no chapters on how to deal with women, how to marry, how to divorce, how to have sex, whether to have drugs, whether to have alcohol etc etc. There are no 10 commandments. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There have been various books or literature on topics like society, class, sex etc, but that's on the side. They are again theories written by many people along the way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interestingly, if you see India as it is today, there is a lot of ingrained rules on how to live, marry, divorce. A kind of Hindu law. But all of those have come from centuries of learning, shaping, relearning, adapting, adopting, copying, debating, conflicting, dispelling, removing, curtailing, picking, dropping and how you like it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a society it slowly adopts what's best in the current context.  Look at child marriage - It was prevalent 2 centuries ago. Now it is unheard of. Sati - prevalent 100 years ago. Now - unheard of. Women at work - unheard of 100 years back. 33% reservation for women in parliament - Now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in a way, the religion has found a non-prescriptive way of dealing with internal change. And the core of it is is a simple idea&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot; Nobody is wrong. Nobody is right&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This concept is the basis of all values that came from India. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;==&gt; Debate, conflict, understand, Agree, Accept, Change and keep doing that in circles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The one thing people outside of India may have noticed is that Indians are always fighting war of words with each other. Now thats the fundamental value that societies need to adapt, and to change. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a short way, Masturbation was also debated in India by Vatsayana, and he was the first to say OK to it. I dont think, any conflicting ideas have come since then.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-30T11:47:57.860" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2473" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="44" CreationDate="2014-07-30T11:57:15.957" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is the only religion that mentions that Universe is infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there is no cover or boundary wall where you stand on one side, you are inside the Universe, and then there is a God sitting outside that boundary taking care of the universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in way, Hinduism has left that question unanswered, by stating that the Universe extends to infinity on all sides..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, whether you want aliens to part of this universe or not, probably was not covered anywhere in Hinduism. Puranas do talk of demons, Rakshasas, Devas etc, but they are metaphors for describing evil, and good. People in wierd costumes, horns on their heads, is actually a recent imagination and Hinduism as such does not try to desribe those.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-30T11:57:15.957" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2474" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2093" CreationDate="2014-07-30T12:12:13.430" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I dont know, whether I am overshooting the concept, but there is a very interesting observation you take from Dasavatharam ( the 10 avatars of God).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matsya avatar  - Fish  ( Aquatic)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kurma avatar  - Tortoise ( Amphibian)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha avatar - Bear (Mammal)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Narasimha avatar - Half man, Half animal ( Early Neanderthal)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vamana avatar - Short man ( First man, Short statured)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Parasurama avatar - Angry man ( Hunting for food, and killing from anger)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rama avatar - Organized society man (Hunting for land, and food)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna avatar - Love and kindness ( Advanced intelligence - revenge, love, kindness)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Buddha avatar - Advanced thoughts ( Peace, Harmony, higher order thoughts)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalki avatar - Self destructive thoughts ( Global warming, greed, exploitation)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, I dont want to say that the person who wrote it, had all these ideas in mind. But have a look again.. See &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashavatara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashavatara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was Charles Darwins theory written by Bhagavata Purana and Vishnu Purana around 200 BC to 20 BC.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-30T12:12:13.430" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2475" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2456" CreationDate="2014-07-30T12:44:17.643" Score="6" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Why didn't Shankara eliminate the idol worship?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How could he? He was not just any scholar biased by his own views and prejudiced to others, he was a true knower of the Vedas and scriptures.  From answers like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/665/38&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; you can know that scriptures support both &lt;em&gt;sakara&lt;/em&gt;(with-form) and &lt;em&gt;nirakara&lt;/em&gt; (formless) Brahman. Adi Sankarachrya only preached one aspect of the whole truth as it was required for that time to win over the Buddhists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During his time Buddhism was spreading widely in India. So by his scholarly work he created a doctrine that was easier for Buddhists to accept. The Advaita philosophy was pseudo-Buddhist in nature and hence it was a compromise that was easier for the Buddhists to accept.  So by preaching the Advaita philosophy Shankaracharya blocked the widespread of Buddhism and by establishing  various temples, chardham, etc. at the same time he revived Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So at one hand he defeated Buddhist philosophers through his &lt;em&gt;advaita&lt;/em&gt; philosophy converting them to Hinduism and at the other hand he promoted idol worship and established various &lt;em&gt;dhams&lt;/em&gt;, monasteries etc. to strengthen Hinduism. So reviving Hinduism was the purpose why he also promoted idol worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the scriptures it is known that Shankaracharya was actually an incarnation of Shiva and he had taken birth for that purpose only. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30601/79_chapter_30.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 30&lt;/a&gt; of Kurma Purana says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदेव साधयेन्नृणां देवतानां च दैवतम्। &lt;br&gt; करिष्यत्यवताराणि शंकरो&#xA;नीललोहितः॥ ३३॥ &lt;br&gt;  श्रीतस्मार्तप्रतिष्ठार्थ भक्तानां हितकाम्यया।&#xA;&lt;br&gt; उपदेक्ष्यंति तज्ज्ञानं शिष्याणां ब्रह्मसंज्ञितम्॥ ३४॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्ववेदान्तसारं हि धर्मान्वेदनिदर्शितान्। &lt;br&gt; सर्ववर्णान् समुद्दिश्य&#xA;स्वधर्मा ये निदर्शिताः।। ३५।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The people should adore lord Mahadeva, who happens to be the god of&#xA;gods. The brown complexioned Siva, for the establishment of Srauta&#xA;(Vedic) and Smarta dharmas (belonging to the Smritis), and for the&#xA;welfare of the devotees shall incarnate on earth. He Will enlighten&#xA;his devotees on the subjects of the gist of Vedantas, the knowledge&#xA;relating to the Brahman, and all the dharmas enshrined in the Vedas,&#xA;which have been narrated earlier.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, even though he preached the theory of impersonal Brahman, he himself was a great devotee of Lord Krishna. This is evident from his numerous writings like Bhajagovindam, Achyutashtakam, Jagannathaastkam, etc. In Prabodh Sudhakar he writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhuteṣvantaryāmī jñānamayaḥ sadcīdānandaḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;prakruteḥ paraḥ parātmā yadukulatilakaḥ sa evāyam&lt;/em&gt; [195]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The crown jewel of Yadu dynasty, Shri Krishna, is the all knowing supreme soul of the form of knowledge and eternal bliss who is beyond &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; (material nature/&lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;) and resides in every being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So his philosophy was for a special purpose, but internally he was a devotee. His devotion for Vishnu or Krishna is only but obvious because Shiva is the greatest of all Vaishnavas [SB - 12.13.16]. Hence, even though he preached theory of impersonal Brahman, didn't eliminate idol worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T11:40:30.953" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2476" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2456" CreationDate="2014-07-30T14:09:08.977" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adi Sankara did not promote idol worship. He accepted (not promoted) sakara upasana because according to him sakara upasana leads to chittasuddhi (purification of heart).&#xA;He did not accept that sakara upasana would lead to moksha but that it is a preparatory step. He claimed that sakara upasana is for dull people and thus required since most people are dull and nirakara sadhana is for advanced seekers. He did this to unite several streams of Hindu thought. He is known as shanmatastapaka. It is another matter that Vasihnavas did not accept his position and obviously disliked being called dull people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I question several of the assumptions of this question. Hindus do not worship idols. They worship God through murthi puja. A murthi is not an idol (a lifeless piece of stone) but an image of spirit because a special Divine presence is invoked in a murthi through the prana pratistha ceremony. A murthi properly worshipped is filled with spiritual energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is also not polytheistic. Vaishnavas are of course monotheists. Those who follow kevala Advaita of Sankara regard sakara Brahman as ultimately unreal and nirguna Brahman to be undefinable. Thus they are also not polytheists. Those who follow the Vedanta of Ramakrishna which regards sakara and nirakara as two sides of the same coin are also not polytheists. Ramakrishna order Swamis used to tell us that Vaishnava call Brahman, Krishna and Saivites call Brahman, Siva and Saktas call Brahman, Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-07-30T14:09:08.977" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2477" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-30T19:10:42.223" Score="8" ViewCount="3495" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was going through &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2326/can-animals-attain-moksha&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question about animals attaining Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to story, both elephant and crocodile were the devotees of the the Lord Vishnu in previous life. In the plot of the story, elephant named the Gajendra(King Indradyumna in previous life) was drowned in to the lake by a crocodile(Huhu, a ghandarva in previous life). The crocodile caught the elephant's leg and was dragging him to the deep water. The story end like this, Lord Vishnu appears and escapes Gajendra from crocodile by killing the crocodile with the weapon 'Sudarsana Chakra' and then the elephant got the Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the question goes here, even though it is known as 'Gajendra Moksha', actually the moksha was given to the crocodile also. And crocodile got the 'rare privilege'(same as in the case of Ravana, Kamsa,etc.) of getting killed by the hands of Lord Vishnu and was given moksha before the Gajendra. The crocodile was actually trying to kill the devotee elephant who prayed Lord Vishnu with this famous prayer,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शुक्लांबरधरं विष्णुं शशि वर्णं चतुर्भुजं ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रसन्न वदनं ध्यायेत सर्व विघ्नोपशान्तये॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the moksha was first given to the crocodile who had not at all prayed to Lord and also we can not find any form of devotion directly to Lord Vishnu or any other Gods from the crocodile. But in the case of Gajendra, he was chanting and praying the name of Lord Vishnu with total devotion. Still he was second compared to the crocodile in attaining Moksha. What is the reason? Why was the true devotee elephant Gajendra second? Or what was the particular form of karma or devotion method of crocodile which lead to attaining moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-07-13T07:26:43.433" Title="Who had the first priority in getting Moksha in the 'Gajendra Moksha' story, the crocodile or the elephant Gajendra?" Tags="|vishnu|bhakti|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2478" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2480" CreationDate="2014-07-31T01:02:37.120" Score="13" ViewCount="6124" Body="&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia article on &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyer&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyer&lt;/a&gt; has a passage without citations which says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The title 'Iyer' was used as a designation for all Tamil Smartha&#xA;  Brahmins during the medieval period, during which they were organised&#xA;  into single community. However, during the 11th century, a breakaway sect formed a new community called &quot;Iyengars&quot;, worshipping Sri Vaishnava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Tamil Vaishnavites (Iyengars) descend from Iyers? Or did they evolve from generic Hindus who were not Iyers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-05T00:17:20.257" LastActivityDate="2017-07-15T12:08:36.860" Title="Did Tamil Vaishnavites (Iyengars) descend from Shaivites (Iyers)?" Tags="|history|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|tamil|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2479" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2447" CreationDate="2014-07-31T01:58:53.920" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you want to learn about the incarnations of Shiva, you can read the &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12959&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatarudra Samhita&lt;/a&gt; of the Shiva Purana, which mentions numerous incarnations including the following: Vrishabha the bull, whom I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2231/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;; Virabhadra, the demon created by Shiva to kill Daksha after the death of Shiva's first wife Shakti; Kalabhairava, the demon created by Shiva to cut off Brahma's fifth head; and Sharabha who is the focus of your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of Sharabha is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/qTGn&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shatarudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana.   It says that after Narasimha kills Hiranyakashipu and rescues Prahlada, his anger doesn't subside, so the gods, fearing that he will destroy the three worlds in his fury, ask Shiva for help.  So Shiva sends his incarnation Virabhadra to subdue Narasimha.  Virabhadra tries to reason with Narasimha, but Narasimha is committed to destroying the three worlds, so Virabhadra transforms into the half-lion half-bird creature Sharabha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then in a trice the form of Virabhadra became invisible....  Thereafter [the] middle [of Shiva's splendor] became clearly manifested in the form characteristic of Rudra of deformed shape....  He had a thousand heads and wore matted hair.  His head was adorned by the cresecent moon.  He appeared like a bird with wings and beak.  His body was fierce and fully developed.  His fangs were very sharp.  Adamantine claws were his weapons.  His neck was black in colour.  He had huge arms and four legs.  He was blazing like fire....  His three eyes were as wide and blazing as the fire of the evil spirit of great fury.  His fangs and lips were clearly visible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sharabha grabs hold of Narasimha, taking him high up into the sky and then dropping him onto the ground.  Narasimha then snaps out of his fury, acknowledges the power of Shiva, and then dies.  The gods praise Sharabha, who tells them this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It was Vishnu alone in the form of Man-lion, haughty and strong, engaged in the activity of annihilating the universe.  He shall be prayed and bowed by my devotees aspiring achievements.  He is the foremost of my devotees and the granter of boons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that Sharabha disappears and Virabhadra appears, tearing the hide off of Narasimha's body, which is said to be the hide that Shiva wears.  And Narasimha's head becomes one of the skulls in Shiva's necklace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Shiva Purana's account ends with Sharabha simply disappearing after defeating Narasimha, but some versions of the story add a further incident, which is where Gandhaberunda comes into the picture: after Sharabha grabs hold of Narasimha, Narasimha in his fury creates a two-headed bird beast called Gandhaberunda which is even more powerful than Sharabha.  Gandhaberunda defeats Sharabha in battle, and then Vishnu and Shiva finally call it a day.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tpo4g.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Gandhaberunda is famous enough that he is depicted in the coat of arms of Karnataka, but I haven't yet found a scriptural basis for his story, which is why I asked &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/191/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  But in the mean time, you read the story of Gandhaberunda and Sharabha in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/pdwj&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the new Amar Chitra Katha comic &quot;Divine Beings&quot;; the above picture is taken from there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-09-08T03:29:05.990" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2480" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2478" CreationDate="2014-07-31T02:59:05.670" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Iyengars are an ofshoot of the Iyers. But Iyer didn't originally mean Smartha Brahmana. Iyer originally just denoted people of the highest jati (subcaste) of the Brahmana varna (caste). Then after the time of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/a&gt; the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smartha&lt;/a&gt; philosophy became popular among Iyers. (Smarthas technically worship five gods whom they believe are manifestations of Ishvara, but in practical terms they're often called Shaivite, both because Ishvara is usually considered to be synonymous with Shiva and because Shiva is the god that they typically worship more than the other four.  Also note that Smartha originally meant &quot;follower of Smriti&quot;, and in that sense pretty much all Hindus in the Kali Yuga are Smartha, but I'm using it in the modern sense of the Smartha philosophy of Adi Shankaracharya.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then after the time of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanuja&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramanujacharya&lt;/a&gt;, Iyers who converted to his &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Vaishnava&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; philosophy started calling themselves Iyengar. And so since pretty much all the Vaishnava Iyers (other than non-&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishishtadvaita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Visitadvaita&lt;/a&gt; Vaishnavas) were calling themselves Iyengars, the ones that still called themselves Iyers were the Smartha Iyers, so the term &quot;Iyer&quot; eventually became synonymous with &quot;Smartha Brahmanas of the highest subcaste&quot;, which is the current meaning of the word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-07-31T03:12:20.953" LastActivityDate="2014-07-31T03:12:20.953" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2481" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-31T05:53:37.450" Score="8" ViewCount="1605" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Ixm9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shatarudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana, Shiva tells Brahma about his incarnations (avataras) in the Dwapara Yugas of the various Mahayugas in the Vaivasvata Manvantara (the current Manvantara).  And this is what he says about the Dwapara Yuga of the twenty-eighth Mahayuga (the current Mahayuga):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the twenty-eighth aeon of Dvapara, there will be Dvaipayana Vyasa, the son of Parashara ,and the most excellent of Purushas [Vishnu] shall be born as Krishna with his one-sixth part, as the foremost of the sons of Vasudeva.  Then I too shall be born with the body of a Brahmachari and the soul of a Yogi by means of Yogic Maya to the great surprise of the worlds.  On seeing a dead body forsaken in the cremation ground I shall enter into it and make it free from ailments by means of Yogic Maya for the welfare or Brahmins.  Then I will enter the holy divine cavern of Meru along with you and Vishnu.  O Brahma, I shall then be known as Lakulin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakulin, also known as Lakulisha, was a famous Shaivite thinker who introduced the Pashupata vow, an ancient method of propitiating Shiva which among other things involves smearing ash all over your body; Shiva is described as the originator of the Pashupati vow in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b112.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c049.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the text of the Shiva Purana has suffered a lot of corruption, so it's possible that this description of Lakulisha is a later interpolation.  But my question is, assuming the passage is authentic, are there any stories of Lakulisha meeting any prominent Dwapara Yuga figures?  The Dwapara Yuga was the time of Krishna, the Pandavas, the Kauravas, Vyasa, etc.  So did Lakulisha have dealings with any of them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, does anyone know what the story is of Lakulisha entering the cavern of Mount Meru along with Brahma and Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I just noticed that the excerpt from the Shiva Purana I provided says &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Ixm9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh great lord, the Vyasas in every recurring Dvapara age are twenty-eight in number.  The Yogeshwara incarnations at the beginning of every recurring Kali Age are also so many.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Lakulisha is a Yogeshwara incarnation of Shiva, does that mean that Lakulisha lived in the Kali Yuga and not the Dwapara Yuga?  Then he presumably wouldn't have a chance to meet Krishna or the Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-12-19T08:03:54.763" LastActivityDate="2016-02-23T10:16:54.760" Title="Did Shiva's incarnation Lakulisha meet Krishna or other Mahabharata characters?" Tags="|shiva|avatars|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2482" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2492" CreationDate="2014-07-31T05:58:23.877" Score="12" ViewCount="3401" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Law of Karma can be said to be the cornerstone of Hindu philosophies. Where in Hindu scriptures do we find the first mention of the Law of Karma?&#xA;Does it have mention in Vedas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-14T17:47:58.957" LastActivityDate="2016-11-24T15:32:19.913" Title="Origin of the Law of Karma" Tags="|vedas|scripture|history|philosophy|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2483" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="238" CreationDate="2014-07-31T06:40:18.253" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are four Vedic statements referred to in various articles in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/thatthou.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the web&lt;/a&gt; and here it is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tat Tvam Asi  means(That Thou Art) from Samaveda- Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aham Brahmasmi means(I am Brahman). From Yajurveda- The Brhadaranyakopanisad&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ayam Atma Brahman means (This Self is Brahman). From Atharva Veda -Mandukyopanisad&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pragnanam Brahman means (Brahman is Consciousness). From Rgveda- Aitareyopanisad&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In all these statements, the difference between you as a creation and creator is very thin. This goes back to the part of the WHOLE concept.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You as an entity in the universe is the same as a cell in your body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interestingly, you can reapply this logic everywhere at any scale. So, you can say,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A ENERGY SPARK is A PART, A QUARK is a WHOLE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A QUARK is a PART, and the ATOM is the WHOLE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An ATOM is a PART, and the CELL is the WHOLE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;CELL being a PART and HUMAN as the WHOLE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;HUMAN being a PART, and the UNIVERSE as the WHOLE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;UNIVERSE being a PART, and MULTIVERSE as the WHOLE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, this is a self symmetrical scale model. And there is a branch of math which deals with this  - CHAOS THEORY &amp;amp; FRACTALS.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When you create a fractal, you notice that the fractal continues to grow till infinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I assume that the source of the fractal, stopped, the fractal would implode, and shutdown. A very similar way, if God were to die, all these subsequent progressions of life and material which has grown in such tremendous scale from big to tiny, will also cease to exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If God dies ( the fractal equation, that is spawning the universe), the universe would cease almost instantly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, here is my summary:&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;I don't think there is a scenario where God will die, and we will live to see it.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;But, theoretically God can die, as per similar Fractal science, and its close resemblance to the statements in Upanishads.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note here, that due to a lack of wisdom, we have to allude to the source of the universe to be an entity called God. God may be at the end of the day, a simple fractal equation. It is very similar to how ice crystals are formed. Ice crystals form when water freezes around one tiny dust particle. And then they grow into billions of varieties of ice crystals. Universe was formed in the same way. Around one dust particle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But whatever we explain, we simply cannot explain how the dust particle came in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why you can see, why the Upanishads are so tough to understand. The statements written in them are very small, but extremely difficult to comprehend, and you can see umpteen interpretations of the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-24T08:56:01.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2485" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2562" CreationDate="2014-07-31T06:47:59.180" Score="5" ViewCount="545" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nandhi&lt;/strong&gt; is a great worshipper of Lord Shiva, and always with him in Kailasa. What is the story of Nandhi? How was he born? How he is became the part of Lord &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Kailasa&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-07-31T06:55:31.663" LastActivityDate="2015-10-30T10:25:10.107" Title="What is the story of Nandhi(bull)?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-10-30T14:53:26.030" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2486" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="295" CreationDate="2014-07-31T06:54:58.033" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not all Gods are shown sitting in tiger skin. Usually Shiva is shown, since Shiva is a metaphor for &quot;Destruction &amp;amp; recreation&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, I repeat that the Western religions have this digital view of wrong and right.. I know where the question is going , but let me put it in perspective..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Animal rights&quot;, &quot;Vegetarianism&quot;, are all concepts which evolved along the way. 4000 years back, we can only speculate how these value systems evolved. There were societies which had a iron grip on what constituted wrong and right, and Hindu society was basically, a non-prescriptive, debate and conflict based society. So, there would have been a time, when kings wore animal skins, and therefore when artists painted God, they would have painted God as sitting on animal skins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, we have 1000 tigers in the whole planet. So, we don't even want to see a God sitting on an animal skin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Today, I can guarantee that very very few Hindus would purchase animal skins in their homes. Now, that's an evolution of opinion due to the current world context. But that does not mean, a Hindu would repaint the Shiva pictures and remove the animal skins and replace them with vinyl carpets.. That's a religious symbol..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-31T06:54:58.033" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2488" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-31T07:15:37.427" Score="2" ViewCount="868" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Rukmini say anything to Lord Krishna before Mahabharata begin? Lord Krishna  totally supported the war and he wanted to be on Pandava's side. Did Rukmini supported these all decisions? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any role of Rukmini behind Mahabharata war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-07T14:31:23.847" LastActivityDate="2015-09-07T14:31:23.847" Title="Did Rukmini (Lord Krishna's wife) had any role behind Mahabharata war?" Tags="|krishna|mahabharata|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2489" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="31570" CreationDate="2014-07-31T07:33:17.910" Score="18" ViewCount="15298" Body="&lt;p&gt;Were there any characters like Ahiravan and Mahiravan in Ramayana? What did they do in Lord Rama's battle against Ravana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard they captured Lord Rama and Laxmana. Can someone explain this incident?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T06:09:16.013" LastActivityDate="2022-02-11T02:06:15.263" Title="Who were Ahiravan and Mahiravan?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|rakshasa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2491" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-31T07:56:23.917" Score="13" ViewCount="34423" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva blessed Vasuki and wore him as an ornament around his neck. What is the story of Lord Shiva and Vasuki and for what reasons Lord Shiva blessed him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-29T09:04:50.717" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T06:03:57.000" Title="What is the story of Lord Shiva and Vasuki?" Tags="|shiva|vasuki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2492" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2482" CreationDate="2014-07-31T08:01:38.097" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The law of Karma is not explictly mentioned in the Samhitas of the Vedas (the part of the Vedas heard from the gods).  But there's still implicit mention of it even in the Samhitas, for instance in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this hymn&lt;/a&gt; from the Tenth Mandala of the Rig Veda, which describes the benefits of generously and liberally giving Dakshina (gifts) to the Brahmanas who have performed a Yagna (ritual) for you (Dakshina is translated with the archaic English word Guerdon meaning gift or reward):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;High up in heaven abide the Guerdon-givers: they who give steeds dwell with the Sun for ever.  They who give gold are blest with life eternal. They who give robes prolong their lives, O Soma.... He who brings Guerdon comes as first invited: chief of the hamlet comes the Guerdon-bearer....  Guerdon bestows the horse, bestows the bullock, Guerdon bestows, moreover, gold that glisters.  Guerdon gives food which is our life and spirit. He who is wise takes Guerdon for his armour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The liberal die not, never are they ruined: the liberal suffer neither harm nor trouble.  The light of heaven, the universe about us,—all this doth sacrificial Guerdon give them.  First have the liberal gained a fragrant dwelling, and got themselves a bride in fair apparel.  The liberal have obtained their draught of liquor, and conquered those who, unprovoked, assailed them.  They deck the fleet steed for the bounteous giver: the maid adorns herself and waits to meet him.&#xA;His home is like a lake with lotus blossoms, like the Gods’ palaces adorned and splendid.  Steeds good at draught convey the liberal giver, and lightly rolling moves the car of Guerdon.  Assist, ye Gods, the liberal man in battles: the liberal giver conquers foes in combat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So giving Dakshina to the Brahmanas performing your Yagna can bestow upon you, among other things: being high up in heaven, an eternity with Surya, eternal life, a long life, being invited first, becoming chief of your village, a horse, a bullock, gold, food, a bride, the light of heaven, the Universe (!), a beautiful house, a bride, liquor, a good chariot, and victory in battle.  This is a clear case of a good deed leading to benefits in both this life and in the afterlife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the oldest explicit mentions of the Law of Karma are from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which is one of the oldest Upanishads because it is actually part of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Part 3, Chapter 12, Adhyaya 13 of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universaltheosophy.com/sacred-texts/brihadaranyaka-upanishad/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishads&lt;/a&gt; says (Nikhilananda's translation):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then [sage Yajnavalkya and his student] went out and deliberated, and what they talked about was karma (work), and what they praised was karma: &lt;strong&gt;one becomes good through good karma and evil through evil karma.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Part 4, Chapter 4, Adhyaya 5 contains a similar statement:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According as [the self] acts and according as it behaves, so it becomes: by doing good it becomes good, and by doing evil it becomes evil. It becomes virtuous through virtuous action, and evil through evil action....  As is its desire, so is its resolution; and as is its resolution, so is its deed; &lt;strong&gt;and whatever deed it does, that it reaps&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the earliest enunciation of the doctrine of Karma comes to us from these words of the sage Yajnavalkya, a contemporary of Janaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-24T15:32:19.913" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2498" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2501" CreationDate="2014-07-31T08:26:02.290" Score="9" ViewCount="2358" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita it's mentioned that &lt;em&gt;Yajna, Tapa&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Dana&lt;/em&gt; are the Karmas which a person should never abandon in his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is &lt;em&gt;'Tapa'&lt;/em&gt; in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-31T08:56:21.253" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T07:47:34.450" Title="What is 'Tapa' in Hinduism?" Tags="|krishna|karma|bhagavad-gita|gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2500" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="157" CreationDate="2014-07-31T08:44:06.510" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is very difficult to defend the concept of caste, given so much bad light it has received.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, here is a scientific explanation..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1000's of years back, there were limited professions - agriculture, trade, art, professional services ( carpentry, digging wells etc), and warriors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was no concept of recruitment bazaars, or campus recruitment.. All professions were learnt only through one model - Internship. So, there was ONE guru, and many SHISYAS. After the gurus death, the SHISHYAS would become gurus, and they would pass the knowledge along.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since there were no printing and books, there was no storage medium for skills. People were the storage medium. In such a society, it would be hard to switch careers. If you are in agriculture, you are stuck to agriculture, no matter what you wanted to do. There was no concept of &quot;DREAMS, GOALS, LIKES, DISLIKES&quot;. There was only one concept &quot; DO or DIE&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu happened to capture this knowledge transition process by giving it brand names such as Kshatriyas, Brahmins, Vaishyas..  This branding exists everywhere, in all societies. It exists even today in the form of &quot; COO, CEO, CTO, CIO, Sales Head, Operations head and so on&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For some reason, Manu's scriptures have become poisonous material for the readers. And the reason for that is simple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Over a period of centuries, when more and more services came, and the ROI for Services became better than Agriculture, the equation of power shifted. So, the Agriculturists became poor, and the Services folks became rich. So, this changing social equation meant that the symbols of such power and influence wielded by people who controlled agriculture and trade had to be targeted and destroyed. So, Manu's scriptures have become corrupt, and wrong. And Hindus have to constantly answer questions like these in every forum.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, I think that is fine. The most important aspect is that the change has happened, and is happening peacefully without civil war, murder and blood. That is what the more mature societies do, when they find themselves in the wrong side of things. And that is the great thing to take away from this question..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do you deal with your religions inadequacies, and make change happen, adopt it, accept it, and move on, instead of wallowing in knee deep blood, anger and revenge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-31T08:44:06.510" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2501" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2498" CreationDate="2014-07-31T08:51:27.637" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, the Bhagavad Gita says it in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tyājyaṁ doṣa-vad ity eke karma prāhur manīṣiṇaḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-karma na tyājyam iti cāpare&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 18.3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Some learned men declare that all kinds of fruitive activities should be given up as faulty, yet other sages maintain that acts of sacriﬁce, charity and penance should never be abandoned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tapa generally means austerity like meditation, self control and other spiritual practices. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;17th chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Bhagavad Gita states the  different types of tapa. They are: &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satvic&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rajasic&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tamasic&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;1. Satvic Tapa (Austerity in the mode of goodness)&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is of three kinds, austerity of the body, of the speech and of the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;deva-dvija-guru-prājña-pūjanaṁ śaucam ārjavam&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;brahmacaryam ahiṁsā ca śārīraṁ tapa ucyate&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 17.14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Worship of the Supreme Lord, the brāhmaṇas, the spiritual master, and superiors like the father and mother, and cleanliness, simplicity, celibacy and nonviolence are called austerity of the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;anudvega-karaṁ vākyaṁ satyaṁ priya-hitaṁ ca yat&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;svādhyāyābhyasanaṁ caiva vāṅ-mayaṁ tapa ucyate&lt;/em&gt;  [BG - 17.15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Austerity of speech consists in speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneﬁcial, and not agitating to others, and also in regularly reciting Vedic literature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;manaḥ-prasādaḥ saumyatvaṁ maunam ātma-vinigrahaḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;bhāva-saṁśuddhir ity etat tapo mānasam ucyate&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 17.16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;And satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control and puriﬁcation of one’s existence are the austerities of the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The threefold austerities in the mode of goodness are done with faith without any personal desires. [BG - 17.17] But the other two types of austerities are tainted with personal desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;2. Rajasic Tapa  (Austerity in the mode of passion)&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;satkāra-māna-pūjārthaṁ tapo dambhena caiva yat&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;kriyate tad iha proktaṁ rājasaṁ calam adhruvam&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 17.18]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Penance performed out of pride and for the sake of gaining respect, honor and worship is said to be in the mode of passion. It is neither stable nor permanent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;2. Tamasic Tapa (Austerity in the mode of ignorance)&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mūḍha-grāheṇātmano yat pīḍayā kriyate tapaḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;parasyotsādanārthaṁ vā tat tāmasam udāhṛtam&lt;/em&gt; [BG -17.19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Penance performed out of foolishness, with self-torture or to destroy or injure others, is said to be in the mode of ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-03T16:44:43.100" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2503" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1989" CreationDate="2014-07-31T09:09:37.657" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;By stating that cremation kills microbes, you are thrusting this idea that Hindus dont kill even microbes..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sir, you are asking the wrong religion, the wrong question.. Shiva was a meat eater, and so did Ram. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, you are confused between Jainism and Hinduism. Jains cover their mouth , so that they dont even kill a fly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why did Hindus cremate. In general, Hinduism has somehow repelled this idea of museums for the dead. In general, Hindus don't construct buildings and monuments over the dead. If you went across India, you would find temples or buildings, palaces, but almost zero buildings venerating the dead. This concept of venerating the dead came from western religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-31T09:09:37.657" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2504" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="25" CreationDate="2014-07-31T09:23:29.410" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu practices were always changing.. Look at the diversity of theories, counter theories, rituals, stories, mythologies, ideas, counter ideas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The central idea to the Hinduism was always DEBATE, CONFLICT, ACCEPT, AGREE, CHANGE, and back to DEBATE again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in sense your question is wrong. Literacy doesn't change religions. There are highly literate societies which have not been able to change their religion. There have been not so literate societies which have undergone remarkable change in their religious practices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is your sense of debate and ability to question yourself that creates change. And Hinduism has been at the forefront of that change every since the day it began. And I am sure, we will find practices in Hinduism which will starkly stand out as societies progress from where it is today. So, the central idea is to adopt , adapt and move on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="425" LastActivityDate="2014-07-31T09:23:29.410" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2505" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="540" CreationDate="2014-07-31T09:57:31.623" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It has it's origin in practicing cleanliness when contagious diseases were in abundance, which had no cure. So the people having professions related to 'unclean' things like wastes, leather etc were prohibited from touching, accessing public places and common water supplies like lakes and wells. In course of time this became a custom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastActivityDate="2014-07-31T09:57:31.623" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2506" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-31T09:59:13.063" Score="8" ViewCount="5958" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know of a good, complete translation of the Valmiki Ramayana, with each word explained? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have found two such translations online, but both are incomplete.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Valmikiramayan.net&lt;/a&gt; stops with Yuddha Kanda, while &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; has only the first five kandas, ending with Sundara Kanda. I desperately need a translation, preferably a modern one, in prose. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="592" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-23T06:05:28.127" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T23:41:26.687" Title="Valmiki Ramayana translation, word by word" Tags="|ramayana|translation-request|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2507" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2488" CreationDate="2014-07-31T09:59:36.503" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no source mentioned in Rukmani supporting Lord Krishna or saying anything important or specific about Mahabharat to Lord Krishna. As far as Lord Krishna supporting a war is concerned, Lord Krishna knew that war always causes destruction of life and many other resources, so saying this he supported this war isn't right. Lord Krishna went as shanti doot to hastinapur and presented proposals so that peaceful solution can be found to which Duryodhana refused.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However this war was the only option left to establish Dharma, Hence Mahabharat took place and Lord Krishna did what was necessary and was to be done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastActivityDate="2014-07-31T09:59:36.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2508" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="97" CreationDate="2014-07-31T10:58:09.927" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Non vegetarian food was a norm during Vedic period. The only restriction was not to eat animals having 'five nails' since the time of smritis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The difference in veg and non-veg might have been introduced in Hinduism from Buddhism in which killing/eating of 'sentient' being is forbidden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-02-20T21:20:04.940" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T21:20:04.940" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2509" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2512" CreationDate="2014-07-31T11:05:59.930" Score="16" ViewCount="35332" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Lord Krishna have children? If yes, what were their names? What did happen to them after Krishna's death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-07-31T12:39:25.607" LastActivityDate="2021-11-06T18:31:04.990" Title="Did Lord Krishna have children?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2510" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-31T11:29:25.237" Score="8" ViewCount="11778" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu dharma we have many gods and deity's and also we have different chalisas for them like Shiv Chalisa, Hanuman Chalisa and others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is - what is a chalisa and what is its importance? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why do we read it, what does it symbolize and why so many chalisas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-12T05:50:57.757" LastActivityDate="2020-01-04T14:52:59.840" Title="What is a chalisa and what is the importance of chalisa?" Tags="|gods|goddess|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2511" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2509" CreationDate="2014-07-31T11:32:50.157" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The details of Lord Krishna's family and His offspring from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtabharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;ashtabharya's&lt;/a&gt; [eight principal queen/consorts]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;List of offspring classified as patrani's or ashtabharya's of Lord Krishna &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rukmini&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;Pradyumna, Charudeshna,Sudeshna, Charudhena, Sucharu, Chharugupta, Bhadracaru, Charuchandra, Vicaru and Caru.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satyabhama&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; Bhanu, Subhanu, Svarbhanu, Prabhanu, Bhanuman, Chandrabhanu, Brihadbhanu, Atibhanu, Sribhanu and Pratibhanu.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jambvanti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; Samba,Sumitra, Purujit, Satajit, Sahasrajit, Vijaya, Citraketu, Vasuman, Dravida and Kratu.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nagnajiti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; Vira, Candra, Asvasena, Citragu, Vegavan, Vrisha, Ama, Sanku, Vasu ,Kunti.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kalindi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; Sruta, Kavi, Vrisha, Vira, Subahu, Bhadra, Santi, Darsa ,Purnamasa.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mitravinda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; Vrika, Harsha, Anila, Gridhra, Vardhana, Unnada, Mahamsa, Pavana, Vahni and Kshudhi.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhadra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; Sangramajit, Brihatsena, Sura, Praharana, Arijith, Jaya and Subhadra.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lakshmana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; Praghosha, Gatravan, Simha, Bala, Prabala, Urdhaga, Mahasakti, Saha, Oja and Aparajita.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of the unrighteous behaviour of Samba (the son of Jambavanti) all unrighteous Yadava's were wiped out from earth,Lord Krishna had warned them about this massive wipe out (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_%28Krishna%27s_son%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yadavas wiped out&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-29T19:18:25.263" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T19:18:25.263" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2512" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2509" CreationDate="2014-07-31T12:09:27.680" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Lord Krishna had many children. As per Shrimad Bhagavatam the number was at least 161,080. Regarding His sons and grandsons, the scripture says their numbers were in millions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King, the sons and grandsons of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s children numbered in the tens of millions. Sixteen thousand mothers gave rise to this dynasty. [SB - 10.61.19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna had 16,108 wives and He had 10 children from each. Of His wives, 8 were principal and all their children's names are mentioned in the Bhagavatam. They are as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Rukmani&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first son of Queen Rukmiṇī was Pradyumna, and also born of her were Cārudeṣṇa, Sudeṣṇa and the powerful Cārudeha, along with Sucāru, Cārugupta, Bhadracāru, Cārucandra, Vicāru and Cāru, the tenth. None of these sons of Lord Hari was less than his father. [SB - 10.61.11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Satyabhāmā&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ten sons of Satyabhāmā were Bhānu, Subhānu, Svarbhānu, Prabhānu, Bhānumān, Candrabhānu, Bṛhadbhānu, Atibhānu (the eighth), Śrībhānu and Pratibhānu.[SB - 10.61.12]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Jāmbavatī&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sāmba, Sumitra, Purujit, Śatajit, Sahasrajit, Vijaya, Citraketu, Vasumān, Draviḍa and Kratu were the sons of Jāmbavatī. These ten, headed by Sāmba, were their father’s favorites. [SB - 10.61.12]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. Nāgnajitī&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sons of Nāgnajitī were Vīra, Candra, Aśvasena, Citragu, Vegavān, Vṛṣa, Āma, Śaṅku, Vasu and the opulent Kunti. [SB - 10.61.13]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5. Kālindī&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śruta, Kavi, Vṛṣa, Vīra, Subāhu, Bhadra, Śānti, Darśa and Pūrṇamāsa were sons of Kālindī. Her youngest son was Somaka. [SB - 10.61.14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6. Mādrā&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mādrā’s sons were Praghoṣa, Gātravān, Siṁha, Bala, Prabala, Ūrdhaga, Mahāśakti, Saha, Oja and Aparājita. [SB - 10.61.15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7. Mitravindā&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mitravindā’s sons were Vṛka, Harṣa, Anila, Gṛdhra, Vardhana, Unnāda, Mahāṁsa, Pāvana, Vahni and Kṣudhi. [SB - 10.61.16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8. Bhadrā&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saṅgrāmajit, Bṛhatsena, Śūra, Praharaṇa, Arijit, Jaya and Subhadra were the sons of Bhadrā, together with Vāma, Āyur and Satyaka. [SB - 10.61.17]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from these eight queens, Shri Krishna had 16,100 other queens and each had 10 sons each:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tāsāṁ yā daśa-putrāṇāṁ kṛṣṇa-strīṇāṁ puroditāḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 10.61.7]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -Among Lord Kṛṣṇa’s wives, each of whom had ten sons&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if we calculate thus, then the number would be around 161,080.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Almost all of these children and their grandchildren died due to the quarrel and fighting that ensued among them in the Prabhasa region and due to the submerging of Dwaraka under the sea. But the great-grandson of Shri Krishna, Vajra, the son of Anirudha (Anirudha was son of Pradyumna ) survived and was appointed as King by Arjuna as described in Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shirmad Bhagavatam, &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/61&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Canto 10, Chapter 61&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Mahabharata, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mausala Parva, 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-12T10:29:51.230" LastActivityDate="2018-10-12T10:29:51.230" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2514" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2527" CreationDate="2014-07-31T13:13:59.933" Score="12" ViewCount="4542" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read somewhere that doing sadhana of mrityunjaya mantra can make a man immortal. If yes, what is the proper sadhana or practice or any other way to make a man immortal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="594" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-05T05:33:39.613" LastActivityDate="2018-10-05T05:33:39.613" Title="What is the formula for immortality (&quot;mrityunjaya mantra&quot;)?" Tags="|shiva|mantras|moksha|prayer|immortality|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2515" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2510" CreationDate="2014-07-31T13:17:33.720" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;We do worship of a God in many ways. The ways are formed like &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mantrochar ( A statement or slogan repeated frequently ).  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhoon ( A Small Prayer sang repeatedly )&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prayar ( Single time sang Prayer )&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chalisa ( forty verse prayer )&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhyan ( Meditation )&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Chalisa verses are praise and plead with devotion. The acts and deeds of deities are recalled in these verses to aid the devotee to meditate on righteous and noble qualities.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman Chalisa is very famous. Other known chalisa are listed below, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/ganeshchalisa/ganchalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ganesh Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/durgachalisa/durgachalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Durga Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/ramchalisa/ramchalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ram Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/shivchalisa/shivchalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiv Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/vindhchalisa/vindhchalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vindhaswari Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/laxmichalisa/laxmichalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Laxmi Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/Sai_chalisa/sai_chalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sai Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/shanichalisa/shanichalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shani Chailsa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/gayatrichalisa/gayatrichalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gayatri Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/krishnachalisa/krishnachalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Krishna Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/saraschalisa/saraschalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Saraswati Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/santoshichalisa/santoshichalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Santoshi Mata Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/bhairavchalisa/bhairavchalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhairav Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/gangachalisa/gangachalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ganga Chailsa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/navgraha_chalisa/navagraha_chalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Navagraha Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/Kali_chalisa/kali_chalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kali Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/chalisas/radha_chalisa/radhachalisa.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Radha Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastActivityDate="2014-07-31T13:17:33.720" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2516" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-31T13:31:59.897" Score="17" ViewCount="2713" Body="&lt;p&gt;The types I know are Maharshi, Devarshi, Rajarshi, Bramharshi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the difference among them? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is their chronology? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who awards/grants them those titles? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What kind of sadhana/practice needs to be observed to conquer each of these stages? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are those titles permanent? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-20T09:05:03.783" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T06:05:53.680" Title="What are different types of Rishis?" Tags="|sadhana|rishi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2517" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2540" CreationDate="2014-07-31T13:33:21.900" Score="10" ViewCount="3824" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've seen that many people do devotion in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=681&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;madhurya bhava&lt;/a&gt; (the emotion of lover-beloved) to male Gods e.g., Krishna, Shiva, Rama etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a similar way, can a devotee have madhurya bhava towards goddesses such as Radha, Parvati, etc. or is it forbidden?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it is also said that &lt;em&gt;tvameva sarvaṃ mama deva deva&lt;/em&gt;  (you truly are my all, my god of gods)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to make sense of this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="594" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-17T11:11:09.380" LastActivityDate="2018-06-16T17:22:44.997" Title="Madhurya bhava towards goddesses such as Radha, Parvati, etc.," Tags="|shiva|krishna|worship|radha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2518" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2506" CreationDate="2014-07-31T15:57:15.030" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The site &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;valmikiramayan.net&lt;/a&gt; you mentioned covers the Bala Kanda through the Yuddha Kanda, so presumably all you really want is a word-for-word translation of the Uttara Kanda.  Well, unfortunately it's hard enough to find any translation at all of the Uttara Kanda, let alone a word-for-word one. There are only two complete online translations of the Uttara Kanda that I know of: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=UlB2dUaZiX0C&amp;amp;dq=ramayana%20dutt&amp;amp;source=gbs_navlinks_s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This one&lt;/a&gt; by Manmatha Nath Dutt from the 1800's, and &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This one&lt;/a&gt; by Robert Biggs from 2005.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayanaepic.com/sarga_k7_s1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this translation&lt;/a&gt; by Ananta Rama Rao from 2003, but it only covers the first half of Uttara Kanda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;None of these translations give the meaning of each word.  I'm not sure anyone has written a word-for-word explanation of the Uttara Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-31T15:35:47.460" LastActivityDate="2016-03-31T15:35:47.460" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2519" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2477" CreationDate="2014-07-31T17:45:51.550" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata explains this, the priority was surely for the Crocodile. It shows one of the important message from the story 'Gajendra Moksha'. It may seems like the crocodile didn't do anything particular to attain the Moksha directly from Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the story we know that crocodile was attacking one of the devotee of Vishnu, the elephant Gajendra. The crocodile knowingly or unknowingly caught the feet of one of the devotee of Lord Vishnu. Thus by touching the feet of the true devotee of God, the crocodile became eligible for Moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The greatest message from the story is this, the one who touches the feet of a true devotee of God is also eligible for Moksha or it can be said as those who serve the devotees are also eligible for moksha, and the priority is given to those who serving the devotee. Lord Vishnu values the people who serve his devotees than his own devotees. This was the reason why crocodile was given moksha earlier than Gajendra. So the method of devotion done by the crocodile is serving the devotee of the God. (There are also other messages in this story but that is not related to this question.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2014-08-01T03:41:57.340" LastActivityDate="2014-08-01T03:41:57.340" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2520" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2286" CreationDate="2014-07-31T18:00:18.653" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord shiva also called as &lt;code&gt;jal dhar priya&lt;/code&gt; (fond of small stream of water) so the copper pot filled with water is kept hanging above the Shiva Lingam..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="594" LastActivityDate="2014-07-31T18:00:18.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2521" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-31T18:09:36.197" Score="5" ViewCount="13664" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shathru Samhara pooja is believed to be done for destroying the enemies. This pooja is usually performed in temples.&#xA; - What is the purpose of such pooja? &#xA; - Do this actually have any other meanings or is it supposed to destroy the enemies? &#xA; - Seems like there is a misconception about this pooja, can somebody elaborate the real purpose of this pooja?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-13T08:11:50.080" LastActivityDate="2022-08-03T07:11:18.350" Title="What is the purpose of Shathru samhara pooja?" Tags="|temple|mantras|puja|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2522" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2531" CreationDate="2014-07-31T18:22:01.773" Score="7" ViewCount="4153" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &quot;Hare Rama&quot; mantra is very famous among Hindus. Why is this mantra so important? Is it mentioned in any texts/scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-11-09T17:16:28.530" LastActivityDate="2022-09-14T13:54:06.883" Title="What is the significance of the &quot;Hare Rama&quot; mantra? In which of the texts is this mentioned?" Tags="|krishna|scripture|mantras|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2524" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-07-31T20:37:22.500" Score="1" ViewCount="952" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard Amruth Manthan today. I do not know what it means. Can anyone explain me the story of Amruth Manthan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="598" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-18T09:25:23.127" LastActivityDate="2018-09-18T09:25:23.127" Title="What is the story of Amruth Manthan?" Tags="|samudra-manthan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2014-08-01T05:18:01.510" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2525" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2560" CreationDate="2014-07-31T22:22:09.737" Score="9" ViewCount="335" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've transcribed words pronounced by Ramanand Puri during the Kumbh Mela 2001:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(&lt;em&gt;Source&lt;/em&gt;: see &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuvhjHYyZYM&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; from 1:50 to 2:25)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Every place, every society, every country is famous for its specialization.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   &lt;strong&gt;If you talk of righteousness, spiritualism, then India comes first.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   If you talk of electronics then Japan comes first.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In richness, America is very powerful.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt;: Why India &quot;comes first&quot;?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I stop the post here, it would sound a bit &quot;not politically correct&quot; and &quot;primarily opinion-based&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, the last Maha Kumbh Mela (2013) welcomed more than 100 million people !&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The sages are very respected in India. A completely naked sādhu can cross a modern city and this is normal for most people, and sometimes, a suit dressed man, seeing the sādhu in the street, goes to him for a pranāma before joining his workplace, and this is also normal.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, through this post, what I really want to understand is:&lt;br&gt;&#xA; Why the spirituality is so respected, so &quot;alive&quot; in India (compared to other countries)?&lt;br&gt;&#xA; Are there historical or geographical explanations?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why do most of the avatars took place in this country? Why so many sages and gurus was born India? Is there any special mentions about these in scriptures? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2014-08-01T17:32:51.843" LastActivityDate="2014-08-02T05:23:03.263" Title="&quot;If you talk of righteousness, spiritualism, then India comes first&quot;. Why?" Tags="|worship|tradition|india|spiritual-level|kumbh-mela|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2014-08-08T07:36:05.367" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2526" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2525" CreationDate="2014-07-31T23:37:30.850" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu religion is the oldest religion in the world. Indians are culturally very rich as well as their religion. Comparing with other religions would be a sin. But, Hinduism has seen different era's. It has survived through different generations and is spiritually very advanced. That is a reason why Indians come in the first place when speaking of &quot;Righteousness&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="598" LastActivityDate="2014-07-31T23:37:30.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2527" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2514" CreationDate="2014-08-01T02:07:09.087" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;The proper practice to be followed in the use of the Mrityunjaya Mantra is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/76WJ&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Rudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana.  The sage Dadhichi once got into a fight with a king named Khshuva.  Kshuva easily overpowered Dadhichi, so Dadhichi's ancestor Sukracharya (guru of the Asuras) came and magically healed his wounds, and then told him this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dear Dadicha, after worshipping Shiva the lord of everyone, I am going to tell you the highly potential Vedic mantra Mahamrityunjaya.  We worship the three-eyed lord Shiva, The lord of the three worlds, the father of the three spheres, The Lord of the three gunas.  Lord Shiva is the essence, the fragrance of the three Tattvas, three fires, of everything that is trichotomized, of the three world, of the three arms and of the trinity.  He is the nourisher.  In all living beings, everywhere, in the three Gunas, in the creation, in the sense organs, in the devas and Ganas, he is the essence as the fragrance in a flower.  He is the lord of devas.  O excellent brahmin of good rites, He is called the nourisher because it is from Him the supreme Purusha Siva that the Prakriti, the different Tattvas from Mahat to the different Indriyas, Vigm, Brahma, the sages, Indra and the devas derive their nourishment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Worship that immortal deity Siva with sacred rites, penance, self-study of the Vedas, yogic practices, meditation, observance of truth and other means.&lt;/strong&gt; You will be freed from the noose of Yama.  The lord is the cause of both bondage and salvation.  In my opinion this Mrtasaiijivani mantra is the most excellent of all. &lt;strong&gt;Repeat these mantras regularly remembering Siva with devotion. After Japa, Homa and recitation of the mantras observe fast, but you can drink water day and night.  If the meditation is conducted in the presence of Siva there is no fear of death from anywhere.  Nyasa and other ritualistic rites shall be observed. Siva shall be worshipped duly.&lt;/strong&gt; Siva who is favourably disposed to his devotees shall be propitiated. I shall also mention the observance of meditation. &lt;strong&gt;It is after this meditation that the mantra shall be repeated as long as the purpose is realised due to Siva's power.&lt;/strong&gt; [Emphasis added]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what you need to meditate on before you say it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I worship the three-eyed Lord Siva, the conqueror of death who is accompanied by(Parvati); who pours water on his head from two vessels held in his lotus-like hands, by means of the other pair of hands; who has placed the two hands with the pots on the lap; who usually holds in his hands the Rudraksha garland and a deer and whose body is rendered cool and wet by the nectar exuding from the moon worn qn the head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I put in bold the instructions you need to follow.  The consequences of all this is clear: &amp;quot;You will be freed from the noose of Yama.&amp;quot; and  &amp;quot;If the meditation is conducted in the presence of Siva there is no fear of death from anywhere.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And indeed, after Dadichi followed this procedure for a long time. Shiva appeared before him and granted him the following boons: &amp;quot;adamantine bones, impossibility of being killed and absence of distress.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, Dadichi didn't actually live forever, because he accepted death voluntarily for a good cause; when Indra was trying to kill the powerful demon Vritrasura, Dadichi gave up his own life so that his invincible bones could be fashioned into a weapon for Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, you should know that if you seek immortality as an end goal you probably won't get it.  (Dadichi merely wanted invincibility as a means to teach a lesson to the arrogant king Kshuva.)   As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/D2Di&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana, Ravana and his brothers Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana were once engaging in Tapasya (deep meditation) for a very long time.  Ravana even went so far as to cut off nine of his heads and made a move to cut off the tenth when Brahma appeared before the three brothers.  Ravana asked for immortality, but he was denied it because he wasn't worthy.  Vibhishana, on the other hand, asked to be good forever, and Brahma granted him immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if immortality is your goal, you may not get it, but by pursuing higher things you may get benefits like immortality and the like.  It's akin to what Socrates said: &amp;quot;I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private.&amp;quot;  As Socrates says, it is Dharma or virtue that is the source of good things.  And ultimately what should be pursued is not prolonging your life, but rather seeking an end to the entire cycle of life, death, and rebirth, namely Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T01:34:52.747" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2528" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2524" CreationDate="2014-08-01T03:24:25.043" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samudra Manhan&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mrut  = Dead &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Amrut ( Amrit ) = A liquid which can give immortality to anyone (Elixir of life). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manthan = to churn&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Devtas &amp;amp; Asuras came togather to get Amrut by doing Samudra Manthan ( Churning of The Ocean ). They come down to ocean of milk and took the mountain Mandara as a churning-pole and the hundred-headed serpent Vāsuki as a churning-rope. They tied the serpent around the mountain, and started churning the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They churned the Ocean of milk for thousand years and many things came out from the ocean. The Lord Dhanvantary ( the heavenly physician ) appeared with pot containing Amrut inside it. Vishnu took the Mohini avatar and distracted the Asuras from drinking the Amrut. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then lord Vishnu distributed the Amrut among devtas but one of the Asura that is RahuKetu took the avatar of a devta. Later on when Vishnu came to know about this, he threw his divine weapon Sudarshana, which cuts off RahuKetu's head, but the nectar had reached upto his throat so he did not died. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, his head and body were then separated, and later on they became planets, i.e Rahu and Ketu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_manthan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-08-01T09:45:24.193" LastActivityDate="2014-08-01T09:45:24.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2529" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-01T03:39:49.237" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-01T03:39:49.237" LastActivityDate="2014-08-01T03:39:49.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2530" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-01T03:39:49.237" Score="0" Body="Pooja or Puja is a prayer ritual performed by Hindus to host, honor and worship one or more deities, or to spiritually celebrate an event." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-01T07:29:20.280" LastActivityDate="2014-08-01T07:29:20.280" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2531" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2522" CreationDate="2014-08-01T04:17:02.673" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The earliest mention of the Hare Krishna mantra is in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/kaliasant.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kali Santarana Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the end of Dvapara-Yuga, Narada went to Brahma and addressed him thus: &quot;O Lord, how shall I, roaming over the earth, be able to across Kali ?&quot; To which Brahma thus replied: &quot;Well asked. Hearken to that which all Shrutis (the Vedas) keep secret and hidden, through which one may cross the Samsara (mundane existence) of Kali. He shakes off (the evil effects of) Kali through the mere uttering of the name of the Lord Narayana, who is the primeval Purusha&quot;. Again Narada asked Brahma: &quot;What is the name?&quot; To which Hiranyagarbha (Brahma) replied thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare.    These sixteen names (words) are destructive of the evil effects of Kali.&lt;/strong&gt; No better means than this is to be seen in all the Vedas. &#xA;     These (sixteen names) destroy the Avarana (or the centripetal force which produces the sense of individuality) of Jiva surrounded by the sixteen Kalas (rays). Then like the sphere of the sun which shines fully after the clouds (screening it) disperse, Parabrahman (alone) shines.&quot;&#xA;     Narada asked: &quot;O Lord, what are the rules to be observed with reference to it?&quot; To which Brahma replied that there were no rules for it. Whoever in a pure or an impure state, utters these always, attains the same world of, or proximity with, or the same form of, or absorption into Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whoever utters three and a half Crores (or thirty-five millions) times this Mantra composed of sixteen names (or words) crosses the sin of the murder of a Brahmana. He becomes purified from the sin of the theft of gold. He becomes purified from the sin of cohabitation with a woman of low caste. He is purified from the sins of wrong done to Pitris, Devas and men. Having given up all Dharmas, he becomes freed at once from all sins. He is at once released from all bondage. That he is at once released from all bondage is the Upanishad. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Kali Santarana is widely considered by scholars to be a later interpolation, not an authentic Hindu scripture.  (For instance,  &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=mBMxPdgrBhoC&amp;amp;lpg=PA42&amp;amp;dq=kali%20santarana%20upanishad&amp;amp;pg=PA42#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=kali%20santarana%20upanishad&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; only says that it was composed before the sixteenth century.)  This is for multiple reasons: there are no ancient commentaries of it or ancient references to it; I think it's the only Upanishad that mentions the Yuga system, which was mainly revealed to human beings in the Itihasas and Puranas; it refers to the conversation happening at the end of the Dvapara Yuga, which would only make sense if the reader is presumed to be living long after the beginning of the Kali Yuga, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the Hare Krishna mantra was popularized in the sixteenth century by the Vaishnava thinker Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.  Chaitanya's followers, the Gaudiya Vaishnavas, placed supreme importance on the chanting of this mantra, which is why members of ISKCON, a popular Gaudiya organization, are commonly referred to as &quot;Hare Krishnas.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, even if you don't believe in the authenticity of the Kali Santarana Upanishad, there's still nothing wrong with chanting the Hare Krishna mantra  After all, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2150/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Hindu scriptures do say that chanting the name of Krishna/Vishnu is extremely beneficial in the Kali Yuga.  And the Padma Purana says that chanting the name of Rama is as good as chanting the entire Vishnu Sahasranamam.  So insofar as the popularization of the Hare Krishna mantra has encouraged the utterance of Rama and Krishna's name, there's no problem with it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2014-09-12T18:43:58.457" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2533" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-01T05:39:40.747" Score="20" ViewCount="32722" Body="&lt;p&gt;Spread across India, we have many temples of Lord Shiva and we also have about twelve Jyotirlingas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know whether there's any difference between a Shiva Temple and a Jyotirlinga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-22T16:07:05.183" LastActivityDate="2018-01-10T09:48:10.450" Title="What is the difference between a Shiva temple and a Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|temple|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2536" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2550" CreationDate="2014-08-01T07:52:35.963" Score="5" ViewCount="10049" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone recommend some good books on Lord Shiva? I'm interested in learning more, but I'm not sure were to start.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="601" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-06-20T19:23:26.613" LastActivityDate="2019-06-20T19:23:26.613" Title="Any good books about Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2537" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2543" CreationDate="2014-08-01T08:42:58.383" Score="10" ViewCount="549" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;code&gt;Hinduism&lt;/code&gt; we consider &lt;code&gt;Karma&lt;/code&gt; as supreme and your good/bad mainly depends on &lt;code&gt;karma&lt;/code&gt;, then how do wearing certain gems can impact destiny/trouble/good/bad etc. ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it only a marketing strategy by certain people or there is some solid reference provided in the scripts regarding this that how do they slow down or distract the bad things to happen ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastEditorUserId="315" LastEditDate="2014-08-01T08:48:11.563" LastActivityDate="2022-06-20T15:50:37.443" Title="How wearing a gem(ratna) distract bad woes/trouble?" Tags="|belief|karma|astrology|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2539" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2536" CreationDate="2014-08-01T09:26:49.757" Score="-3" Body="&lt;p&gt;7 Secrets Of Shiva is the book you are searching for. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Smeared with ash, draped in animal hide, he sits atop the snow-capped mountain, skull in hand, withdrawn, with dogs for company, destroying the world with his indifference. He is God who the Goddess shall awaken. His name is Shiva. Locked in his stories, symbols and rituals are the secrets of our ancestors. This book attempts to unlock seven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is written by Devdutt Pattanik.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="598" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T12:31:33.560" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T12:31:33.560" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2540" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2517" CreationDate="2014-08-01T09:56:30.027" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The purpose of devotional practices is to feel closer to one's deity or God. Closeness towards God will only increase if one thinks of God as a personal relative rather than the all powerful all knowing God. Hence, devotee saints suggest to practice devotion in the sentiments of a friend, parent, lover, etc. As the devotion towards God increases, the &lt;em&gt;bhava&lt;/em&gt; or sentiments automatically appear or one can practice them as per his eligibility and liking:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although devotional service is one, it becomes manifested in eleven forms of attachment: attachment to the Lord's glorious qualities, to His beauty, to worshipping Him, to remembering Him, to serving Him, &lt;strong&gt;to reciprocating with Him as a friend, to caring for Him as a parent, to dealing with Him as a lover, to surrendering one's whole self to Him, to being absorbed in thought of Him, and to experiencing separation from Him&lt;/strong&gt;. This last is the supreme attachment. [NBS - 82]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like a person when falls in love always thinks about his/her beloved. So also a devotee who falls in love with God always remembers his deity. Hence, &lt;em&gt;madhurya bhava&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;kanta bhava&lt;/em&gt; (the sentiment of a lover) is said to be the best among all types of devotion. Because, in it, a person feels more closer and attached to God. And the scripture says, irrespective of lust, love, anger or whatever, if one directs his feelings towards God then he attains Him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Persons who constantly direct their lust, anger, fear, protective affection, feeling of oneness and friendship toward Lord Hari are sure to become absorbed in Him. [SB - 10.29.15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, unlike love between two persons where taints of personal desire may persist, in devotional practices love for God is clear and crystal like the rays of the Sun. There remains no personal desire but only the desire for the Lord's happiness. &lt;em&gt;Madhurya bhava&lt;/em&gt; is the top most devotional sentiment which only a few, out of the many, practice properly. And for those few, God is truly their everything; starting with mother, father, friend, knowledge and wealth, to all other gods (&lt;em&gt;twameva mata cha pita twameva....mama deva deva&lt;/em&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-21T16:30:56.767" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T16:30:56.767" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2541" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2477" CreationDate="2014-08-01T11:18:16.403" Score="2" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;The Lake -&amp;gt; The world&#xA;The Gajendra Elephant coming to drink water -&amp;gt; The souls coming to world to do Karma&#xA;The Crocodile -&amp;gt; Sins done by the soul&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of the soul's sin soul has to take rebirth in the world again and again. So how to get free from world and attain Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to cut the past sins or to stop ourselves from doing more sins, the only way is making GOD as our goal,keeping in mind GOD and behaving like we do not hurt others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we continuously chant GOD's name, the feeling to surrender to GOD happens which is described as &lt;code&gt;&quot;Bhakti&quot;&lt;/code&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because of &lt;code&gt;&quot;Bhakti&quot;&lt;/code&gt; we are inspired to do less sins and we feel guilt for our past sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And we surrender to GOD that I accept my all sins and now whatever I have done I am doing &quot;Praschatap&quot; for that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So because of your true worship GOD cut your sins(Crocodile) and you become free to attain Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is true message actually.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And according to scripture the story narrates only Gajendra's Moksha, not about corcodile's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this is also written in Vishnu Puran that whoever Lord Vishnu kills gets &quot;Vaikuntha Loka&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like Jaya and Vijaya became door-keepers by getting killed by Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But getting Vaikuntha Loka does not sense that we get Moksha because Jay Vijaya has to take birth 3 times again because of curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we should understand that only keeping GOD in memory will cause someone to attain Moksha. Not by killing some devotee's life. Otherwise people will try to get Moksha by such violant way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-13T08:33:58.723" LastActivityDate="2014-10-13T08:33:58.723" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2542" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10489" CreationDate="2014-08-01T11:25:09.037" Score="13" ViewCount="677" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are a few questions in my mind regarding &lt;strong&gt;Nag Panchami&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the history and importance of Nag Panchami?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why do we worship &lt;em&gt;Nagas&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Snakes&lt;/em&gt; in Nag Panchami though we're afraid of them?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why do many people draw &lt;em&gt;Nagas&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Snakes&lt;/em&gt; on a paper and stick it to their walls on this occasion?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What's the importance of &lt;em&gt;Meethi Seviyan&lt;/em&gt; (a sweet) during this day? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/19RXm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="462" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T07:04:59.953" LastActivityDate="2018-10-13T11:49:39.863" Title="Nag Panchami and its importance?" Tags="|shiva|worship|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2543" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2537" CreationDate="2014-08-01T11:29:11.690" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scriptures do not describe how they do it, but they do describe that wearing certain gems give benefits like destruction of sin, protection from snakes, etc. For example, consider the following verse of the Garduda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;teṣu rakṣoviṣavyālavyādhighnānyaghahāni ca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  prādurbhavanti ratnāni tathaiva viguṇāni ca&lt;/em&gt; [GP - 1.68.8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Among the gems some protect against poisons, snakes, diseases and expiate sins. And some others also contain demerits. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like in Ayurveda certain herbs and plants are known to have beneficial effects, so also in astrology certain gems and stones are known to have good effects. But scriptures describe they must be delicately prepared  and should be genuine in order to work. So good gems may not change fate or destiny of a person, but they do have some level of positive influence upon the bearer as per the scriptures.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-08-01T11:29:11.690" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2546" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2457" CreationDate="2014-08-01T12:16:44.963" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Good Work -&amp;gt; Good Fruit&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Bad Karma -&amp;gt; Bad Fruit&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;code&gt;Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta&lt;/code&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-20.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; Lord Krishna said that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For good deeds people go to heaven and have good fruits, they go to hell for their bad ones and after facing both good in heaven and bad in hell they again come to earth again by taking &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-21.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;rebirth&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be free Oh Arjuna you have to leave the desire of fruits. Do Karma without willingness of fruit and worship me in parallel. Only surrender unto me can lead to the Moksha(Mukti or Freeing from rebirth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who worship ghosts, reach ghosts, those who worship deity gets that deity but worshiping me only reach me. So you just worship me and perform your duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By doing so your Karma will be converted to &amp;quot;aaKarma&amp;quot;. you will not have fruits, but those &amp;quot;Karma&amp;quot;s will be considered as I(GOD) have done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So with no binding of fruits, such of you will get free from rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna said in this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asitis.com/8/16.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-08-16.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Moksha?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a state where a soul gets returned to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-08-21.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;ParamDhama or Akshar Dham - a supreme abode&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt; A permanent home of souls(body is considered as temporary home), where all souls resides. And again come to earth when their role is again in next World-Drama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This state is never permanent. Because Lord Said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who died, his next birth is absolutely happen, and the born one will absolutely die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-02-27.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;who is dead , birth is certain&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So for maybe some time soul will get Moksha,which is different than death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After death soul may go to heavan or hell but after moksha soul go to &amp;quot;Paramdhama&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Except Shiva Parmatma, every body takes birth. All the souls. Even Lord Vishnu also. Only Lord Shiva never takes birth because he is considered as &amp;quot;Ajanma&amp;quot; birthless (who has never born).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha is a state where soul is inactive and is considered as Mukti (Free from Karmas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is also Moksha in real life known as &amp;quot;Jeevan Mukti&amp;quot; (Living Moksha)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Be neutral in doing your Karma, rise above hates and loves, have neutrality for Good or Bad, Happiness and sorrow and just perform your duty with clean heart. Consider Elephant, Gentleman, Demon and dog as same souls(Neutral for all). And you will free from any effects of your performed activity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-06-27.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Such devotee is considered highest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In another verse in &lt;code&gt;Guruleelamruta&lt;/code&gt; Moksha is considered as Krupa &amp;quot;Blessings&amp;quot; of Guru Duttatreya(GOD who is considered as Combinations of all three Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhyanmulam Gurur murty, Pooja mulam Guru padam,&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Mantravakyam Gurur Vakyam, &lt;strong&gt;Mokshamulam Guruh Kripa&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;means the last one Moksha mulam Guruh Kripa, means Guru's Kripa is root towards Moksha. Only God's blessing can make you reach Moksha, but is temporary. Moska is not permanent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Example&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;is of 24 Tirthankara's in Jainism who are said to take birth again after attaining the birth, and All these tirthankara's were Hindu Kshatriyas!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Lord Vishnu himself takes birth millennium after millennium.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is Moksha permanent?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mokṣa is not permanent. Souls attained Moksha are never again subject to the qualities of matter or to Karma. But if they or GOD choose, for some good karmas for the world, they may incarnate on earth. But after the kalpa, everything is reset. So after kalpa new Moksha attainment is required.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-02T05:40:25.207" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2548" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2259" CreationDate="2014-08-01T14:16:49.663" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism in its purest sense starting from the Vedas have a very complex to understand, but inherently very simple concept of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is nothing and everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is indescribable&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is eternal&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Self itself can reflect God&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So and so forth. I have tried to describe God using an analogy in another post, but let me get a crack at it again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, I will do the argument in reverse&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A multiverse consists for many universes&#xA;A universe consists of many planets and other heavenly bodies&#xA;A planet consists of many materials and lifeforms&#xA;A lifeform conists of many cells&#xA;A cell consists of many atoms and so on..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, here there is a &quot;contains&quot; relationship.. Now, here is where we all seem to miss the bus.. Somehow, we have this collective mistaken notion that for something to be part of something else, it needs to be connected physically by a wire or tube or something else..&#xA;So, we being part of God, are not able to understand that we don't need a wire to be attached from us to God.  We are only part of a larger construct.  The same way, the electrons are simply floating around the nucleus, and not tied to the nucleus with a wire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this is the image of God.. as articulated by core Hindu texts.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, for a open question.. If we are part of God, we have a couple of choices&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We worship everything as God&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We worship something as God&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We worship nothing as God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, many milleniums later, Hinduism must have felt that there is no particular reason to deny a personal image of God in anyone, given that the original theory ascribes a larger concept of indescribable nature of God. So, this creative license, I should day must have resulting in hundreds of people conjuring their own images of Gods. Artisans, Monks, Kings, going on an overdrive using their imagination to describe God in their own words and minds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, after 5 millenium, in this forum , you are asking me why Hindus have so many Gods.. !!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is : Hindus started with a very complicated description of God, as mentioned in the Vedas. And in that process, there must have been a compulsion to produce a more simpler, easier narration, and created so many diverse images, and descriptions of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="605" LastActivityDate="2014-08-01T14:16:49.663" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2549" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2461" CreationDate="2014-08-01T15:07:34.603" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think, I know what article you are referring to.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;the sun, with its planets and their moons, takes some star for its dual and revolves around it in about 24,000 years of our earth-a celestial phenomenon which causes the backward movement of the equinoctial points around the zodiac&quot;. - &lt;a href=&quot;http://baharna.com/karma/yuga.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://baharna.com/karma/yuga.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In science, this is called axial precession or the Precession of the Equinox. The precession of the equinox can be explained easily as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Imagine earth to a top (spinning top). When the top slows down, you must have seen that it spins and starts drawing an imaginary circle around its axis. Earth rotates like that, as of today around its axis. But this imaginary circle that the earths axis is drawing in the sky actually takes around 24000 to 26000 years to complete one circle. That is called precession of the equinox.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cS6CL.png&quot; alt=&quot;Axial Precession&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;(image from wikipedia)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also earth, the sun and solar system also is moving around the Milky way itself. This giant revolution around the center of the Milky Way takes approximately 225 to 250 million terrestrial years. - This is called the Galactic year. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_year&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_year&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, going back the Precession of the Equinox, the imaginary line that the Earth draws on the sky apparently traverses the zodiacal positions of the stars - The 12 zodiacs, and roughly it means that the each zodiac ranges for around 2000 - 2100 years. And the world and society experience that zodiac for that period. Somewhere in the region of 300 BC, Earth entered into Age of Pisces, and then somewhere now 2000 A.D to 2100 A.D, earth will enter into the Age of Aquarius ( The zodiac traverses in reverse, not forwards. After Aquarius, somewhere in the range of 4200 A.D , we will traverse into Age of Capricorn and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are vaguely right, in the sense that the value systems that exist during each age reflects the behavior of that zodiac. Some very impressive explanations are given for each zodiacal age in the Wiki. Take your time to go through them. But it does not indicate that value systems become corrupt. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="605" LastEditorUserId="545" LastEditDate="2014-08-03T06:02:28.087" LastActivityDate="2014-08-03T06:02:28.087" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2550" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2536" CreationDate="2014-08-01T15:25:32.413" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since you want to learn more about Shiva, there are many places you can start.  I don't know your level of background, but if you know nothing at all you may want to start by reading the comic book series Amar Chitra Katha, which tells lots of stories of Shiva.  Here are a few relevant Amar Chitra Katha comics, in no particular order:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amarchitrakatha.com/ack/books/349-349-TalesOfShiva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tales of Shiva&lt;/a&gt; - stories of how Shiva has helped various devotees of his&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amarchitrakatha.com/ack/books/350-350-SatiandShiva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sati and Shiva&lt;/a&gt; - the story of Shiva's first wife and her tragic death&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amarchitrakatha.com/ack/books/100-100-SHIVAPARVATI&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiva Parvati&lt;/a&gt; - the story of how Shiva remarried the next birth of Sati&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amarchitrakatha.com/ack/books/118-118-KARTTIKEYA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kartikeyya&lt;/a&gt; - the story of Shiva's six-headed son, born to defeat a powerful demon&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amarchitrakatha.com/ack/books/102-102-AmarChitraKatha-AMARCHITRAKATHA-Singles-EPICANDMYTHOLOGY-GANESHA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ganesha&lt;/a&gt; - the story of Parvati's son and how he got an elephant head&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It looks like you can buy all five comics &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amarchitrakatha.com/ack/books/66-66-AmarChitraKatha-AMARCHITRAKATHA-5IN1-StoriesOfShiva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Or if you prefer to buy them in ebook form, check out the &lt;a href=&quot;http://digital.amarchitrakatha.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Amar Chitra Katha app&lt;/a&gt;.  I can also tell you more Shiva-related Amar Chitra Kathas if you're interested.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you don't like reading comic books, you can read the excellent book &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8187111011&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&quot;Shiva - An Introduction&quot;&lt;/a&gt; by Devdutt Pattanaik.  It contains lots of information and stories about Shiva, both famous and obscure.  It's very easy to read and chock-full of famous artwork and statues featuring Shiva.  And it's written by the author of &quot;Jaya&quot;, the popular illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata.  Note that Pattanaik likes to take some artistic license with the stories (and so does Amar Chitra Katha to some extent), but for the most part it's accurate and should give you a good idea of who Shiva is and what he's done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then on the other extreme, if you already know the stories of Shiva and you're seeking even more information and details, then you can of course read Hindu scripture itself, specifically the Shiva Purana, a four-volume work you can get &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/siva-purana-complete-set-in-4-volumes-NAB424/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  (The volumes are available online as well, but it's hard to access them so I may write a question and answer about them later.) There are also some stories of Shiva in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala_kanda_contents.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bala Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of the Ramayana.  But in any case I doubt you're looking for Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-08-19T19:44:06.700" LastActivityDate="2014-08-19T19:44:06.700" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2551" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2533" CreationDate="2014-08-01T16:08:16.763" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Difference&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes there is a difference between a Lord Shiva temple and a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;Jyotirling&lt;/a&gt;. It is said that Lord Shiva himself is present there at all 12 Jyotirlings where as in temples we do establishment( स्थापना)of a Lord Shiva murti as an idol or a shiv linga and start doing prayers and performing all the rituals. No Jyotirling was established by us, it was all already established by Lord Shiva himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Importance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each and every Jyotirling has its own importance, check the links to get the details as it would be a too long answer to post importance of each jyotirling&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.boldsky.com/yoga-spirituality/faith-mysticism/2012/somnath-temple-lord-shiva-jyotirlingas-029424.html&quot;&gt;Somnath&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallikarjuna_Swamy#Story&quot;&gt;Mallikarjuna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahakaleshwar_Jyotirlinga#Mythology&quot;&gt;Mahakaleshwar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omkareshwar#Legends_.26_history_of_Omkareshwar&quot;&gt;Omkareshwar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kedarnath_Temple#Hindu_mythology&quot;&gt;Kedarnath&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhimashankar#Story_.26_History&quot;&gt;Bhimashankar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashi_Vishwanath_Temple#Importance_of_the_temple&quot;&gt;Vishwanath&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimbakeshwar_Shiva_Temple#In_Mythology.2C_history_and_present&quot;&gt;Trimbakeshwar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidyanath_Temple#Legend&quot;&gt;Baidyanath&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nageshvara_Jyotirlinga#The_narratives_on_Nageshvara_Jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;Nageshvara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanathaswamy_Temple,_Rameswaram#Significance_Today&quot;&gt;Rameshwar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grishneshwar#History&quot;&gt;Grishneshwar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastActivityDate="2014-08-01T16:08:16.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2552" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2521" CreationDate="2014-08-01T16:15:50.660" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.priestservices.com/our-services/shatru-samhara-homa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;PriestServices&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Significance:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Subramanya is the youngest son of Lord Shiva and goddess Parvathi. He is considered as god of love but at the same time a fierce to enemies. He never fails to instill fear in the heart of negative people and harmful entities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Lord Subramanya of Vedic times&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Rig Veda Lord Subramanya is considered as the overwhelming power. Moreover the sage Veda Vyas wrote Skanda Purana and Sangam Tamil Literature speaks of the Lord’s six abodes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Benefits of Shatrusamhara Homam:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Homa gives a person joy and authority. It protects and prevents one from evil eyes, curses of gods, planets and ancestors. It further enhances family relationship, removes dullness, fear, mental block, frees one from debts, helps to cure fatal diseases, bestows progeny; give good health and six Siddhis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Kartikeyaya Vidmahe&#xA;Shakti Hastaya Dhimahi&#xA;Tanna Skanda Prachodayat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Mantra is an armor which protects us from our enemies and gives courage to face them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Recommended to:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One who constantly face Enemies (military and police person)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One in Political Field&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Business Competitors&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Possessed with Black Magic, Eevil Eyes and Spirits&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ancestral Cruses&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Suffering with Chronic Disease&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And for protection from Negative Forces&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Legend&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Penance of Goddess Parvathi on Shiva got her married to Him. The purpose of marriage is to create lord Muruga and to kill the demon Surapadma. Lord Shiva took a form with six faces and from each third eye of the six faces, a fire spark came out. He asked the Gods of fire and wind to carry the sparks to River Ganges. Later Ganga took it to Sarvana pond. This six fire spark transformed into six beautiful babies who were nurtured by six Karthigai maids. Muruga has twelve hands but one face as Mother Parvathi merged the six faces into one. He is also known as Kumaran, Mayilvaganan, Kaangeyan, Velayuthan, Gugan etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The demon Surapadma created terror to all gods. So, Lord Shiva decided to destroy him through Muruga. Muruga obtained 11 weapons and a Vel or spear from Shiva and Parvathi to vanquish the demon. He then fought for ten days, at Thiruchendur. Soorapadman took the form of a big mango tree which was split by the spear of Muruga and the two halves turned into a peacock (vehicle) and a cock (on flag) respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People also conduct 'Poorna Kriya' on the Amavasyas which is generally related with the birth of twins thus bringing contentment and peace in their life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="598" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-01T17:28:36.220" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2553" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-01T16:50:33.723" Score="16" ViewCount="11379" Body="&lt;p&gt;I saw Devi Durga twice in dream this week. In the dream, I was offering pooja to the Devi, I am Muslim. what is the meaning of the dream according to Hinduism? what does seeing Hindu god in the dream signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="606" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-10-25T11:41:23.607" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T18:46:57.193" Title="What is the meaning of seeing Devi Durga in dream for non-Hindu?" Tags="|durga|dream|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2554" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2536" CreationDate="2014-08-01T17:26:09.687" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;My first suggestion would be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read story of the devotee of shiva called 'nayanar' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/nayanar.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.dlshq.org/download/nayanar.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and Second suggestion is to &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purchase &lt;code&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/code&gt; it is easily available in any local spiritual book shop. But first few chapter is about karm kand so I will suggest to read it from middle from where you get interest into it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="594" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T12:32:54.930" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T12:32:54.930" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2555" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2416" CreationDate="2014-08-01T17:38:11.713" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two type of yoni(body) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karma Yoni &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhog Yoni..`&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Human Being are Karma Yoni, rest all living being (insect, tree, animal, devta etc) are Bhog Yoni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We humans came here to do Karma so that we will be rewarded according to our karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the reward? The reward is (Heaven, Moksha, Bhakti and there are many other rewards)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="594" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-06T06:48:50.870" LastActivityDate="2014-08-06T06:48:50.870" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2557" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2278" CreationDate="2014-08-01T18:12:29.253" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes There is a difference,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Shiva Puran first chapter it has clearly stated the difference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva created Sankara.&#xA;From Sankara left hand side came Visnu From right hand side Mahadev&#xA;and from vishnu belly button (Nabhi) Brama came.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Primarily there are 5 supreme head  out of which is Shiva is the Highest one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="594" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-25T12:06:35.087" LastActivityDate="2014-11-25T12:06:35.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2558" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2229" CreationDate="2014-08-02T03:48:48.733" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some people have asked me why Lord Shiva drinks Bhang or smokes Ganja? Why do all the shaiv sadhus smoke Ganja all the time? Isn't it a drug? Do our Hindu religious leaders take drugs? Or worse, does one of our Trinity, Lord Shiva Himself, promote drugs? In this article, I'll answer these questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now western scientists are discovering that Bhang is one of the most effective natural medicines available to man - This is something that Hindus scientists had already discovered at least 3000 years back!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since western doctors are realizing the truth, today they use Bhang/Ganja/Cannabis/Marijuana for treating ancer, Aids/HIV, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), chronic pains and depression patients and they're discovering its new applications every day! But our own Ayurveda mentioned the medicinal properties of Bhang/Ganja so long ago! In fact, Marijuana is mentioned in Rig Veda, Atharva Veda, Ayurveda and many other ancient Hindu texts! Some of the uses of Bhang that ancient Hindu scientists discovered thousands of years ago are - Dyspepsia, Nervous disorders, Severe pain, Insomania, Dysentery, Gonorrhoea, Loss of appetite because of illness and even poisoning. It's AMAZING that our ancient Hindu doctors were able to learn so much that western scientists are still catching up!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Before closing, I'd like to mention one more thing - Alcohol has already been considered bad in Hindu society but Bhang isn't (at least not until Indian government started following western governments).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Brief History of Bhang&lt;/strong&gt; Bhang was first used as an intoxicant in India around 1000 BC and soon became an integral part of Hindu culture. In the ancient textArtharvaveda, Bhang is described as a beneficial herb that &quot;releases anxiety&quot;. Bhang preparations were sacred to Gods, particularly Shiva. One of Shiva's epithets was &quot;Lord of Bhang&quot; as he is said to have discovered the transcendental properties of the mixture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In imitation of Shiva, many sadhus use Bhang to boost meditation and achieve transcendental states. Besides, Bhang or cannabis is also believed to be popular amongst Sufis as an aid to spiritual ecstasy since a long time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bond with the Bhang&lt;/strong&gt; Ancient as it is, bhang has become a inseparable part of Indian tradition. So much so that it has become symbolic for a lot of things. They might be, or rather they are, pure superstitious believes. But if one understands the inherent sentimental and emotional nature of Indians, one can very easily feel the emotional bond people have with bhang. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="594" LastActivityDate="2014-08-02T03:48:48.733" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2559" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-02T03:59:23.223" Score="5" ViewCount="5308" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is often confusing as to what is the difference between puja and aarti. Is aarti a part of puja?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can any one enlighten the differences between these two ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-08T07:04:37.877" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T07:04:37.877" Title="What is the difference between puja and aarti rituals?" Tags="|rituals|tradition|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2560" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2525" CreationDate="2014-08-02T05:15:59.807" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is from the concluding cheaper of the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1884852122&quot;&gt;Journey from Many to One / Essentials of Advaita Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; by Swami Bhaskarananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found this relevant to your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hinduism, the oldest of all major religions, belongs to the oldest&#xA;  living civilization of this planet.The difference between a young&#xA;  civilization and an old civilization is comparable to the difference&#xA;  between the young and the elderly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The young usually have a lot of physical vigor and intelligence, which&#xA;  no matter how keen, tends to be superficial. It has expanse but not&#xA;  much depth. On the other hand, the elderly do not have their youthful&#xA;  vigor anymore. Having crossed the storms of passion they have acquired&#xA;  relatively calm and serene minds and are now capable of deep and&#xA;  unbiased thinking. Relieved of the intellectual arrogance of their&#xA;  youth, they become fit for acquiring “wisdom,” that rare and precious&#xA;  commodity which is the outcome of their many years of experience.&#xA;  Their wisdom enables them to become broadminded, forgiving, and&#xA;  tolerant of other people’s views.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In ancient times, when civilization was very young, all human&#xA;  ancestors lived in tribal societies. The idea of nationhood came much&#xA;  later. A tribal society didn’t have as many moral and ethical&#xA;  injunctions and prohibitions as we have today. Thus it was a much&#xA;  freer society. At the same time, it had extreme rigidity in religious&#xA;  thinking. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For example, let us consider a typical tribal society of the&#xA;  prehistoric period. Let us suppose that the tribe lived on a volcanic&#xA;  island cut off from the rest of humanity. Its world was one of&#xA;  ignorance, mystery, magic, superstition and fear. The strongest man in&#xA;  the tribe became the chief. He was also the best hunter and warrior.&#xA;  As in any animal pack, this tribe also maintained a strict pecking&#xA;  order, the chief being at the top of the social ladder. The second&#xA;  most powerful member of the tribe was the medicine man cum priest,&#xA;  imagined to possess great magical power. Even the chief treated him&#xA;  with awe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The island had a dormant volcano that erupted periodically spewing out&#xA;  lava and causing a lot of suffering to the tribe. The medicine man had&#xA;  determined that a deity must live inside that volcano. Judging by the&#xA;  great devastating power of the volcano, he had concluded that it must&#xA;  be an enormously strong male deity. As with any dormant volcano, when&#xA;  pressure would build up inside, the volcano erupted and lava started&#xA;  flowing out of its crater until the pressure was relieved. Then it&#xA;  became dormant again for some years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once in the past, when pressure had built up inside the volcano, lava&#xA;  started pouring out of its crater. Terrified people went to the&#xA;  medicine man seeking his advice. He said that the volcano god had&#xA;  become angry, and to appease him a young woman had to be sacrificed.&#xA;  Then one hapless young woman was forcibly thrown into the red-hot,&#xA;  flowing lava as an offering to the deity. Some days later when the&#xA;  lava flow stopped on its own, the medicine man claimed all the credit&#xA;  for this. Had anyone in that tribe questioned or doubted the existence&#xA;  of that so called volcano god, he most probably would have been&#xA;  killed. Such lack of tolerance caused by extreme rigidity in religious&#xA;  thinking is a common characteristic of people belonging to younger&#xA;  civilizations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The civilization in India is the oldest living civilization of the&#xA;  world. The only other comparable ancient civilization that’s still&#xA;  alive today is China. The ancient Egyptian civilization has long ago&#xA;  gone out of existence. So also has the relatively younger Aegean&#xA;  civilization. The Greeks, who destroyed the Aegean civilization and&#xA;  later built their own, appeared on the stage only around 1500 B.C. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the civilization in India grew older it acquired wisdom. Along with&#xA;  that wisdom came broadmindedness and the spirit of tolerance to accept&#xA;  newer religious and metaphysical thoughts. That’s why the word&#xA;  “blasphemy” is not to be found anywhere in Hindu religious thought. In&#xA;  Hinduism any sincere and rational question can be raised. As a result,&#xA;  over the past several thousand years, all possible questions have been&#xA;  asked. And numerous Hindu thinkers, who appeared on the stage at&#xA;  different periods of time, have provided appropriate answers to those&#xA;  questions. Those questions and answers form the foundation of Hindu&#xA;  philosophy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aside from that, not having a known founder also has been a blessing&#xA;  to Hinduism. Had it been a religion with a specific founder, it would&#xA;  have been hard for Hinduism to undergo the kind of evolution it has&#xA;  had over the past many thousand years. Various saintly souls and&#xA;  philosophers at different times have appeared on the stage, played&#xA;  their individual roles, and enriched Hinduism with their teachings.&#xA;  They have reformed and revitalized this religion and made it relevant&#xA;  to the changing times and people. This would not have been possible&#xA;  had Hinduism had a single known founder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why the spirituality is so respected, so &quot;alive&quot; in India (compared to other countries)?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above discussion, we can see that India being a very old civilization is more mature and hence values spirituality more. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2014-08-02T05:23:03.263" LastActivityDate="2014-08-02T05:23:03.263" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2562" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2485" CreationDate="2014-08-02T06:17:37.967" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Sati yuga, Nandhi was born in one bull family, from his child hood only he was a great worshipper of Shiva. When Shiva used to perform meditation on Kailasa, Nandhi went to Kailasha to meet Shiva with his father, but from the moment he saw Shiva, he just refused to go back with his father and stayed at kailash only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually Sati told Nandhi to go to Kailasha. But Nandhi did not enter to kailasha, instead just stood at the beginning of Kailasha. Shiva was meditating, he awake and told his Bhoot gana that, there is one true devotee of him who will not enter in kailasha until he welcome him ti kailasha. Shiva went and welcomed Nandhi. This is how they met.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a belief that if you want your message to reach Shiva you can say in  Nandhi's ears. While in meditation, Shiva hear only messages from Nandhi only. Many people say there wishes in Nandhi's ears. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Linga Purana, Shilag is father of NAndhi who did tapasya to get a son who never dies. Lord Shiva booned him a son Nandhishwara. He was born from Yagnabhumi.(Land of yagna)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2015-10-30T10:25:10.107" LastActivityDate="2015-10-30T10:25:10.107" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2563" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2229" CreationDate="2014-08-02T06:28:16.280" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva drank Bhanga, but there is nothing mentioned about Chillam and alchohole.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;True: Lord Shiva drank Bhanga only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Story behind bhanga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After killing some Asura, Parvati was returned in his parvati roop from Kali by many efforts of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So after a long time Shiva and Parvati met, So Nandhi, Kartikeya and Ganesha decided to do something like celebration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha organized &quot;Bhoja&quot; - Food Party&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kartikey did oemthing I do not remember&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Nandhi organized a bhanga party.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this bhanga party Shiva drank Bhanga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2014-08-02T06:28:16.280" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2564" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2572" CreationDate="2014-08-02T07:20:03.127" Score="11" ViewCount="20393" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that the Godavari river is believed to be &quot;river Ganga of South India&quot; and has some story behind the origin of it. Can someone please explain the origin of Godavari river as per scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-26T21:53:14.227" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T18:51:39.960" Title="Story of origin of the Godavari river?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|ganga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2565" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2559" CreationDate="2014-08-02T08:54:57.070" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Puja&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Puja is the act of showing reverence to a god, a spirit, or another aspect of the divine through invocations, prayers, songs, and rituals. An essential part of puja for the Hindu devotee is making a spiritual connection with the divine. Most often that contact is facilitated through an object: an element of nature, a sculpture, a vessel, a painting, or a print.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means worship,devotion and reverence. Puja is believed to be derived from the word 'pu-chey',or worship. The term puja is now used to include all forms of worship, ranging from the simple daily offerings of flowers, fruit, leaves, rice, sweetmeats and water to the deities in homes or temples, to the sacrifices in temples dedicated to Kali, Durga and other female deities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Aarti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Traditionally the &lt;em&gt;Aarti&lt;/em&gt; is performed during the morning and evening in a Hindu household.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Aarti consists of a small flame which burns on a wick, placed on a plate, which is rotated round the Deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ritual of the Aarti makes the light of the flame dispel darkness, the incense that is burnt gives out fragrance, a bell is rung, hands are clapped while one sings the Aarti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Aarti&lt;/em&gt; reminds us of the greatness of the Lord, because the flame that we rotate is symbolic of the Cosmos (Sun, Moon, Stars) revolving around the Almighty paying obeisance to him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spiritualpuja.com/whatispuja.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Spiritual Pooja&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Aarti&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puja_%28Hinduism%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Puja&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="602" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-08T06:22:21.657" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T06:22:21.657" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2566" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-02T17:17:32.850" Score="7" ViewCount="853" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva are the same and they both are supreme god, then why there is difference between them. Why was Lord Shiva called as a &lt;code&gt;Vairagi&lt;/code&gt; and Lord Vishu as a &lt;code&gt;sansaric vishnu&lt;/code&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="20968" LastEditDate="2023-05-22T07:10:34.117" LastActivityDate="2023-05-22T07:10:34.117" Title="Why was Lord Shiva called as a Vairagi and Lord Vishu as a sansaric vishnu when both are same?" Tags="|shiva|vishnu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2567" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-02T17:22:21.490" Score="4" ViewCount="8520" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva was a vairagi in the starting, then why did he turn into a grihastha by marrying Goddess Sati and then her reincarnation Goddess Parvati?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-27T09:08:25.373" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T01:04:27.237" Title="Why was Lord Shiva a vairagi in the starting and then turned into a grihastha?" Tags="|shiva|parvati|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2568" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="881" CreationDate="2014-08-02T20:12:16.683" Score="1" Body="&lt;h2&gt;One GOD One Family&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anybody you can choose as &quot;Guru&quot;, choose any deity, any Christ, any sadhu, any true devotee or pure soul. But the condition is that soul should be in communication with vibration of GOD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To reach GOD, the medium or the guider can be anybody.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;GOD is one, to reach him ways may vary. Any religion has nothing to do with your choice of &quot;Guru&quot;, but yes &lt;strong&gt;GOD is only one&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With any religion or any belief system you go, if you say truth and follow righteousness , &lt;strong&gt;GOD will choose you&lt;/strong&gt;. The world see presentation but GOD see intention.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You  will be directly guided by GOD to right messenger of him. GOD will not appear to give you knowledge but he will choose any human being to provide you what he wants you to know. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;wo janam leta nahi, karma karta nahi, bhogta nahi, lekin us ke kam wo karvata he neemitt banakar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;means, In gita god said, i am ajanma(Birthless), akarta and abhokta, but I make someone neemitta of situations and only and only my will operates world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta God said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The devotee worships any form/deity who is child of mine, I make his faith stronger in that form/deity and he gets what &lt;strong&gt;I have decided&lt;/strong&gt; for him by that form/deity only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note :&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;em&gt;Your goal should be &lt;strong&gt;GOD&lt;/strong&gt;, not the deities or christs, otherwise god has mantioned , those whose goal is deity, reach deity, those who worship ghosts, reach ghosts, but whose central goal is GOD(I), reaches GOD(me) only.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you have faith in Christ, purely worship him, you are indirectly worshiping GOD only(Your GOAL is GOD). Because Christ said that he is not god but is god's child. So he is also not willing that someone worship him and consider him god, but yes there is no doubt that he is pure soul and I believe that he is in contact of GOD. If you have faith in Hanumanji , worship him, indirectly every worship to pure souls are to GOD only. and if your faith is pure, GOD will increase your faith such way that your belief in Hanumanji/Christ will be stronger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes there may be some distinction between Christ is avatar of deity or not, but my personal opinion is all deity's are also child of GOD only, and Christ was very humble man and dearest child of GOD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Lord Krishna and Christ , both of them are Guru only. Guru is the one who become medium of source of knowledge from GOD, because only knowledge is what GOD want to give us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hindu there is verse that consider Krishna as World Teacher&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasudevam, Sutam devam, Kans Chanura Mardnam,&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Devaki Param anandam Krishnam Vande Jagat Gurum,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Last phrase Jagat Gurum means World teacher.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman Chalisa also starts with &quot;Shree Guru&quot; means &quot;Oh teacher..&quot;. Any deity is medium but final destination is GOD,Allah, Shiva who is one only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;There is only one difference that Christ was not a GOD. So Hindus will not accept it. But if some one had written it in somewhere I am demn sure Hindus will blindly accept it.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So you personally can/can not consider Christ as deity&lt;/strong&gt;. but there is no written text in Hinduism about it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Can one become Hindu?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Hinduism , every creature on earth is created by Brahma only and Hindu is sanatana Dharma, means there were no other religions other than Hindu in this world, means everybody on earth is Hindu. Later on many faiths originated as different religions, means people selected different faith (maybe at that time's need was it) but GOD is one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Being Hindu or Christian is &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; important, getting liberation from GOD and experiencing GOD's vibrations is important.faith is important. Knowing that GOD is one is important. Choice of &quot;Guru&quot; or &quot;Spiritual guider&quot; is personal for all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2014-08-02T20:12:16.683" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2569" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2570" CreationDate="2014-08-02T20:26:31.413" Score="3" ViewCount="2424" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read that Hindu is foreign word and  However, the Persians could not pronounce the letter &quot;S&quot; correctly in their native tongue and mispronounced it as &quot;H.&quot; Thus, for the ancient Persians, the word &quot;Sindhu&quot; became &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shraddhananda.com/Meaning_and_Origin_Of_The_Word_Hindu.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu&lt;/a&gt;.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the real name of Hindu Dharma? Also what is the meaning of its real name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-08-03T11:38:40.380" LastActivityDate="2014-08-12T18:25:34.187" Title="What is the real name of Hinduism? Also what is the meaning of its real name?" Tags="|vedas|dharma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2014-08-05T12:36:45.837" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2570" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2569" CreationDate="2014-08-02T20:26:31.413" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Vedas the Dharma is said to be &lt;em&gt;&quot;Sanatana Dharma&quot;&lt;/em&gt; - Eternal Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people consider &lt;code&gt;Sanatana Dharma&lt;/code&gt; as &lt;code&gt;&quot;Aadi Sanatana Devi Devta Dharma&quot;&lt;/code&gt; means oldest one Dharma that teaches one to behave like Devi Devta (Deity).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, the Dharma is to be said &quot;Aarya Dharma&quot; and the india as &quot;Aarya Vrata&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Edit is invited as this is wiki.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-12T18:25:34.187" LastActivityDate="2014-08-12T18:25:34.187" CommentCount="1" CommunityOwnedDate="2014-08-02T20:26:31.413" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2572" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2564" CreationDate="2014-08-03T04:56:58.307" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of the Godavari river is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/aS5K&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Kotirudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana.  In this account, the sage Gautama, who is a mind-born son of Brahma, is engaged in Tapasya (deep meditation) on the Brahmagiri mountain when there is a hundred-year drought in the area and thus crops can't grow.  So for the welfare of others, he starts engaging in Tapasya to Varuna the ocean god, who appears before him after six months.  Varuna denies Gautama's request for rain, because it would go against the wishes of the gods, so Gautama instead asks for &quot;divine everlasting water yielding permanent results.&quot;  So Varuna tells Gautama to dig a ditch, and then Varuna fills it with divine water and says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O great sage, let there be a perennial supply of water in this ditch that has become sacred.  This will becomes famous on the earth by your name.  Charitable gifts made here, rites performed here, penance pursued here, the sacrifices done here for the gods, and the Shraddha offered here to the manes, everything will be imperishable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Gautama and other sages in the area come to the new body of water and start planting crops and the like again.  But on one occasion, Gautama sends his shishyas (disciples) to get water, but they're stopped by the wives of the other sages, who want to get water first.  The disciples complain to Gautama's wife Ahalya, who goes to the body of water and collects water before everyone else.  The other sages are furious at this petty incident, so to get revenge they pray to Ganesha, who appears before them.  The sages ask him to force Gautama to leave his hermitage; Ganesha first advises them not to try to harm someone who has only done them good, but they insist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Ganesha approaches the sage Gautama, taking the form of a feeble cow, and starts eating Gautama's crops.  To shoo the cow away, Gautama throws some blades of grass at it, but as soon as the grass touches the cow he sees it fall dead.  Gautama is shocked that he has committed Gohatya (cow-killing), a supreme sin in the Hindu religion, so he takes his wife and leaves the hermitage in order to undertake an arduous course of repentance that involves circumambulating the Brahmagiri mountain, going around confessing his sin to everyone he encounters, and making Lingams to worship Shiva.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RvgE5.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally Shiva appears before him, and Gautama asks to be made sinless.  Shiva laughs and says that Gautama hasn't committed any sins, and that Gautama is such a great sage that even looking at him makes other people sinless.  In any case, Gautama asks Shiva for Ganga to be brought there, so that he and others could be purified of their sins.  So Shiva gives Gautama &quot;the essence of the earth and heaven&quot; (whatever that means), which was apparently Gautama's inheritance from his father Brahma, and I guess Gautama uses that essence to summon the goddess Ganga.  Shiva tells this to Ganga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O goddess, till the advent of the Kali Yuga, when the son of Vivasvat shall be the twenty-eighth Manu, you shall stay here alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think this is a scrambled translation, by the way; there are only 14 Manus who rule in a given Kalpa, not 28.  It probably means &quot;till the advent of the 28th Kali Yuga, when the son of Vivasvat shall be the Manu&quot;, because the current Kali Yuga is the 28 Kali Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  And it probably means the end of the Kali Yuga, not the beginning, because the Godavari river is still here.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, Ganga says that she'll only agree to stay if Shiva also stays there, so Shiva manifests himself as Tryambakeshwara (meaning the three-eyed lord), one of the twelve Jyotirlingas (Lingas that appeared after Shiva manifested as a pillar of light.) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.walkthroughindia.com/festivals/the-12-jyotirlingas-of-the-great-god-of-gods-lord-shiva/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a picture of it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ohYy2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Ganga agrees to stay there as a new river, initially called the Gautami river but now known as the &lt;strong&gt;Godavari river&lt;/strong&gt;.  Gautama and his disciples bathe there to purify themselves of sin.  And even the sages who tried to take revenge on Gautama are eager to get rid of the sins.  Ganga is initially reluctant to purify these men who had been so cruel to Gautama, but then Gautama convinces her to relent and he digs a ditch for her to emerge from and purify the sages of their sins.  That ditch is the famous Kushavartha Thirtha at the Tryambakeshwara temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, like many parts of the Shiva Purana, at least some of this account seems to be a later interpolation, because it apparently references the Pachayata, a group of five gods who are worshipped in the Smartha sect founded by Adi Shankara, so it's an anachronism.  Also, the reference to Ganesha may be a later interpolation, because references to Ganesha in the Mahapuranas are few and far between.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may also be interested to know that this apparently isn't the first universe that had a Godavari river in it; the &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/amo7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Kotirudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana gives an account of how a similar story occurred in a previous Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-08-04T01:48:06.333" LastActivityDate="2014-08-04T01:48:06.333" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2573" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-03T06:16:58.653" Score="7" ViewCount="395" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2572/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Shiva Purana describes the origin of the Godavari River.  According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/10lx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Kotirudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana, after the sage Gautama prays to Shiva for a long time, Shiva appears before him, and Gautama asks Shiva for the Ganga river to be brought near his hermitage at the Brahmagiri mountain.  This is what it says after that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The essence of the earth and heaven had been extracted of yore, a part of this had been given to the sage [Gautama] by Brahma at his marriage.  What had been held over, lord Shiva favourably disposed towards his devotees, now gave to the sage.  Then the waters of Ganga assumed the form of a lady and stood there.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what exactly is this &quot;essence of the earth and heaven&quot;, and what is the story of how it was &quot;extracted&quot; in days &quot;of yore&quot;?  What was it that Brahma gave Gautama as a wedding gift, and what did Shiva give to Gautama the rest of?  And how is any of this related to the appearance of the goddess Ganga at Gautama's hermitage?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this essence some kind of magical power, enabling you to summon any god you please?  Or is it a collection of all the substances in the three worlds, which would presumably include water from the Ganga river, and is that water what turned into the form of a goddess to appear before Gautama?  Or is it something else entirely?  Are there any other scriptures which describe Gautama receiving this essence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-03-22T16:17:42.710" Title="What is the &quot;essence of the earth and heaven&quot; given by Brahma to sage Gautama at his marriage?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2574" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2577" CreationDate="2014-08-03T11:58:31.177" Score="46" ViewCount="218586" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a difference between &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagwata Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagwata Purana&lt;/strong&gt; states that Vishnu is more supreme than Shiva, and from Vishnu, Brahma and by Brahma, Shiva was born. But if that is so, why does Vishnu worship Shiva in all of his incarnations, whereas Shiva never worships anybody?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt; says that Vishnu and Brahma were created from &lt;code&gt;Aadi Anant JyotirStambha&lt;/code&gt; of Shiva. When there was a dispute between Brahma and Vishnu about who is more supreme, at that time, Shiva appeared as Jyotirstambha and asked both of them to reach start and end of it. Vishnu traveled downwards to reach end and Brahma traveled upwards to reach beginning, but both of them failed and considered there is no end of Shiva and asked Shiva to guide them. In this story Brahma lied that he reached beginning, So Shiva banned his worships in Hinduism, which is true. Brahma's son Daksha Prajapati was against Shiva because of this reason only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Lord Rama established Shiva Linga when he was marching towards Lanka which is known as &lt;code&gt;Rameshwara Mahadeva&lt;/code&gt; meaning Ishwar (God) of Rama. In Ramayana, when Lord Rama wanted to do Prashchatap because he considered killing Ravana as sin of killing a brahmana, he asked Hanumanji to organize to establish a Shiva Linga and asked again Shiva for mercy and to cut his sin. If Lord is himself able to cut sins, can't he cut his own sins?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Krishna avatar when Krishna wanted to bring some tree &lt;code&gt;Kalpa Vriksha&lt;/code&gt; from Indra, he worshiped Shiva for blessings and that is known as &lt;code&gt;Gopeshwara Mahadeva&lt;/code&gt; in vrindavana  meaning Ishwara (God) of Gopal (Krishna). Also when Krishna wanted to have a son, he asked sages and from their advice he prayed to Lord Shiva to get a son. If Krishna was Vishnu against who nothing will happen, why he said that &amp;quot;Shive Sarvadhi Sadhike&amp;quot; means nothing happens without Shiva's will, so please bless me with son!! when the Mahabharata was about to be battled he asked Pandavas to have bliss of Shiva first and arranged a Pooja of Shiva Linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Bhagwata Purana&lt;/strong&gt; also, there is a story about Lakshmi Devi's unhappiness with Vishnu because Vishnu told her that half area of his heart is dedicated to Lord Shiva only. And in the rest of the half, all the creatures of world and all deities including her wife Lakshmi lives!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashurama is also considered as great devotee of Shiva, Shiva gave him Parashu (axe), for which Parashurama is famous for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;So, why doesn't Shiva worship anybody whereas Vishnu worships him in all his incarnations?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I think is, because Shiva is the only Supreme Paramatma as he is unborn (Ajanma), Akarta and Abhokta (Vairagi) as said in Geeta that God is Ajanma, Akarta and Abhokta. God is neerakar (shapeless and formless), Shiva Linga is symbol of Shiva's such form only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also Vishnu always advised other deities (Kartikeya, Indra, Parvati, etc.) to worship Shiva only if they have mistakenly committed sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm curious and trying to make sense of all this. Can anybody throw some light on my doubts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Vishnu says Shiva is the eternal origin (seed) of all things&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Veda Vyasa's Mahabharata, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anushasana Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The blessed Vishnu said, 'I saluted Mahadeva, saying,--Salutations to thee, O thou that art &lt;strong&gt;the eternal origin of all things&lt;/strong&gt;. The Rishis say that thou art the Lord of the Vedas. The righteous say that thou art Penance, thou art Sattwa, thou art Rajas, thou art Tamas, and thou art Truth...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu himself said &amp;quot;Shiva is the eternal origin of ...&amp;quot; That's why I think Shiva linga is the seed and whatever we see, it is just a tree from that seed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2023-03-27T16:57:25.763" Title="Why doesn't Shiva worship anybody where as Vishnu worships him in all his incarnations?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|bhagavata-purana|shiva-purana|creation|" AnswerCount="19" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2575" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2574" CreationDate="2014-08-03T14:58:35.227" Score="31" Body="&lt;p&gt;Puranas are sectarian literature. You will find them disagreeing about the supreme Deity. You should instead read a non-sectarian scripture like Mahabharata. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03270.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Vana Parva Section CCLXX&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Spirit has three conditions. In the form of Brahma, he is&#xA;  the Creator, and in the form of Vishnu he is the Preserver, and in his&#xA;  form as Rudra, he is the Destroyer of the Universe!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra/Shiva are simply three names and forms of Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rishi Sanat-sujata says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Udyoga Parva Section 43&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is but one Brahman which is Truth’s self. It is from ignorance&#xA;  of that One, that god-heads have been conceived to be diverse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Hari himself said that no one should see any difference between Him and Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Well-adored by the Rishis, by Brahma, and by all the deities, that&#xA;  great God, the Lord of the universe, otherwise called by the name of&#xA;  Hari, then addressed the illustrious Isana and said these words:-&lt;strong&gt;He&#xA;  that knows thee, knows me. He that follows thee, follows me. There is&#xA;  no difference between thee and me. Do thou never think otherwise.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCCXLIII&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another example is given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Partha, with a cheerful soul, and joined hands and eyes expanded&#xA;  (in wonder), gazed at the god having the bull for his mark [Shiva] and&#xA;  who was the receptacle of every energy. And he beheld the offerings he&#xA;  made every night to Vasudeva lying by the side of the Three-eyed&#xA;  deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07078.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Drona Parva Section LXXXI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am adding a passage that clearly states that only ignorant person sees any difference between Brahman, Brahma, Rudra and Hari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Bhagavan said: I, who am known as the supreme cause of the worlds,&#xA;  its soul, its ruler, the witness of everything, the self-effulgent&#xA;  being and attributeless Absolute - in truth I am both Brahma and&#xA;  Rudra. O Learned one!  Verily I assume different names like Brahma,&#xA;  Vishnu and Maheswara, appropriate for the creation, preservation and&#xA;  destruction of the universe, which I perform by assuming My Yoga-maya,&#xA;  which has its three constituent Gunas of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. &lt;strong&gt;In&#xA;  Me, the all-comprehending and all-pervading Self, known as Brahman,&#xA;  the ignorant man sees Brahma, Rudra and other entities as different.&#xA;  Just as a man will not consider the members of his body like the head&#xA;  and the limbs as different from himself but only parts of himself, so&#xA;  does one who has taken refuge in Me sees all beings as parts of Me. He&#xA;  attains eternal peace who does not perceive any difference between the&#xA;  three - Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara - who are one in nature and&#xA;  pervade in all beings.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana translated by Swami Tapasyananda IV.7.50-54.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-05T13:55:01.843" LastActivityDate="2016-04-05T13:55:01.843" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2576" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-03T16:14:51.823" Score="9" ViewCount="9580" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why only cows, why not buffaloes or goats or any other animal whose milk is edible for humans? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="402" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-16T14:10:27.553" LastActivityDate="2018-02-24T15:25:40.677" Title="Why does lord Krishna love cows so much?" Tags="|krishna|animals|cows|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2577" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2574" CreationDate="2014-08-03T17:35:06.403" Score="26" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though the god is one, when we see in terms of Generation, Operation, Destruction these are taken care by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva respectively. Since Vishnu is responsible for execution, it is He who descends to take care of the creation. This may be killing the demons or establishing dharma or to spread knowledge or to fulfill desire of a devotee. No one can understand Him, so He shows how to worship Him for different purposes. Also Vishnu worships Shiva symbolically to say both are same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘&lt;strong&gt;Sivasya hridayam vishnur-vishnoscha hridayam sivah&lt;/strong&gt;’ — Vishnu is the heart of Shiva and likewise Shiva is the heart of Vishnu.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They both meditate upon one another all the time! A good discussion on this is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/same-faith-debates/135416-i-used-hindu-38.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other perspective Vishnu has taken &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajas&quot;&gt;Rajas&lt;/a&gt; nature and Shiva has taken &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sattva&quot;&gt;Sattva&lt;/a&gt;. Rajas is full of desires and action and hence He worships Shiva to fulfill the desires, this way He shows how to worship the god whereas Shiva is satvik, He is self realized and self sufficient and hence He doesn't appear to worship anyone externally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-03-23T09:16:02.040" LastActivityDate="2016-03-23T09:16:02.040" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2578" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2576" CreationDate="2014-08-03T17:36:39.210" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;To understand this we need to understand the importance of Cows in Hinduism. The following is an excerpt from the book, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217493.Aghora&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aghora: At the left hand of God&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cow is a perfect mother. She has four teats: one for her calf, one for guests including birds and animals, one for use in rituals and one for her master. The milk is automatically divided into four equal portions; everyone is provided for. And the cow is passionately devoted to her calf, just as a real mother must be to her child. Sometimes the mere sight of the calf makes milk flow from cow's udder; not drip -- flow...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and if the calf dies the cow refuses to give milk -- not like our water buffaloes who can be tricked with the head of a calf on stick. The buffalo is the symbol of &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt;, stupidity, dullness; the cow is pure &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt;, mental brightness...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not just buffaloes, even your western cows will give milk whether or not the calf is still alive... What is so great about giving milk? All animals do it. The greatness of out Indian cows is that they give milk only out of an outpouring of love.That is the value of cow's milk. Won't a little of that love come through into the milk? It must.That emotion separates cows from other animals...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are not worshipping the hide, hooves or the tail; we worship the essence...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna was called Gopala when he was a baby. Gopala literally means &amp;quot;protector of cows&amp;quot;. There are many esoteric meaning to this word, but even the obvious meaning is beautiful. Gopala was such a lovable little baby that all the cows in the vicinity loved him more than they loved their own calves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, basically the answer to the significance of Cows to Krishna, in particular and Hinduism, in general is what is mentioned in the preceding excerpts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-03T17:36:39.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2579" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2607" CreationDate="2014-08-04T03:59:15.030" Score="3" ViewCount="1180" Body="&lt;p&gt;In N Raghunathan's forward to a translation of the Vishnu Sahasranamam, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/sri-visnusahasranama-stotram-IDF072/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;gives&lt;/a&gt; a purported quote from the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rigveda ... affirms the potency of the Divine-Name in such verses as the following of Dirghatamas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asya jananto Nama-child-viviktana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mahaste Visnoh sumatim bhajamahe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which means, &amp;quot;O ye who wish to gain realization of the supreme truth, utter the name of Visnu at least once in the steadfast faith that it will lead you to such realization&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, where in the Rig Veda is this verse from?  It says it is a verse of Dirghatamas.  Well, as you can see in the Anukramani index for Rig Veda Book 1 in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the sage Dighatamas Aucatya is the seer of hymns 140-164 of Rig Veda Book 1.  You can read Rig Veda Book 1 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rvi01.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; I couldn't find the verse, at least at first glance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu_sahasranama#Quotes_about_Vishnu_Sahasranama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; also quotes this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the oldest scriptural text in Hinduism, the Rig Veda; V.I.15b.3, it states:&#xA;&amp;quot;O ye who wish to gain realization of the Supreme Truth, utter the name of &amp;quot;Vishnu&amp;quot; at least once in the steadfast faith that it will lead you to such realization.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm not sure what &amp;quot;V.I.15b.3&amp;quot; means.  The Rig Veda is divided into 10 books (Mandalas), each book is divided into a bunch of hymns (suktas), and each hymn is composed of a bunch of verses (richas).  So why is it giving four numbers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2021-04-08T20:52:45.403" Title="Where does the Rig Veda describe realizing supreme truth through Vishnu's name?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2581" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-04T06:55:42.093" Score="8" ViewCount="4157" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question is specifically about the earliest times and location of the origin of Lord Shiva's legends. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the earliest recorded stories about him, do the legends of Shiva originate within traditional Hindustan (India) region or from further out areas like Iran or Tibet etc? What historical records and/or archaeological artifacts have been found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I did some reading up following Veneet's comments below, and the earliest artifact found comes from Mohenja-Daro - the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashupati_seal&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pashupati seal, dating from 2600–1900 BCE&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://indiansaga.com/history/seals_indusvalley.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reading 2&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://indiansaga.com/history/religion_indusvalley.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reading 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/E5JNG.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;The Pashupati Seal, dating from 2600–1900 BCE &quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some further reading led me to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernunnos&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Celtic god Cernunnos&lt;/a&gt;. His artifacts had been made further away, in ancient Thrace (near Turkey/Greece/Bulgaria). They also date later after the Mohenja Daro seal. 200BC-300AD as compared to Pashupati seal's 2600–1900 BCE. Does this suggest that worship of Shiva extended much further than today? Then it would be similar to how Buddhism extended far and wide, and then shrank to smaller pockets of worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/K9n4o.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celtic God Cernunnos&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A more clearer picture, found on &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundestrup_cauldron&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gundestrup Cauldron artifact&lt;/a&gt;, dating 200 BC to 300 AD, probably from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrace&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thrace&lt;/a&gt;, located at modern Southern Bulgaria, Eastern Greece and North-western Turkey.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XKgpc.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I for one, find the similarity between our Shiva and their Cernunnos to be bloody remarkable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/other-paths/druidry-dharma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This article&lt;/a&gt;, section &quot;The Horned God - Cernunnos, Shiva or Pashupati?&quot;, talks about this, and Lord Shiva's and Sanskrit's connection to Celtic Druidism.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone shed further light?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="545" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T14:36:36.543" LastActivityDate="2020-08-31T04:18:02.670" Title="Where and when do Lord Shiva's legends originate?" Tags="|shiva|history|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2582" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2457" CreationDate="2014-08-04T14:33:39.710" Score="23" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are right about the statement from Gita. But its implication is different. You are talking about the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kalpa-kṣaye punas tāni kalpādau visṛjāmy aham&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.7]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O son of Kuntī, at the end of the &lt;em&gt;kalpa&lt;/em&gt;, all the beings and material nature (&lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;) enter into Me, and at the beginning of another &lt;em&gt;kalpa&lt;/em&gt;, by My potency, I create them again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the word &lt;em&gt;bhutani&lt;/em&gt; means all the &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; or beings. So the word creation (&lt;em&gt;visṛjāmy&lt;/em&gt;) also applies to the beings, not the souls. Whatever beings exist here are the combination of two primary components, &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; (material part) and &lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt; (the soul part):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yāvat sañjāyate kiñcit sattvaṁ sthāvara-jaṅgamam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kṣetra-kṣetrajña-saṁyogāt tad viddhi bharatarṣabha&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 13.27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O chief of the Bhāratas, know that whatever you see in existence, both the moving and the nonmoving, is only a combination of the ﬁeld of activities (material nature or &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;) and the knower of the ﬁeld (the soul or the &lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt; part or the soul is unborn and eternal (BG 2.20), but the material part like the body is perishable (&lt;em&gt;antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG 2.18]). So at the time of annihilation, the material part (&lt;em&gt;prakriti&lt;/em&gt;) enters into God as stated in the verse you mentioned (BG 9.7). And then at the beginning subduing the &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, upon which the &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; are dependent, God creates the worlds again and again:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhūta-grāmam imaṁ kṛtsnam avaśaṁ prakṛter vaśāt&lt;/em&gt;  [BG - 9.8]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Subduing the &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; under my control, I create again and again. All these beings are under the obligation of &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; or material nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, &lt;strong&gt;at the beginning the material parts (galaxies, planets, five fundamental parts, etc.)  are created again, but not the &lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt; part&lt;/strong&gt;. Just that after getting the other fundamental part, i.e. &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;,  the &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; are created again. That is, they get new material body and form. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; permanent?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now regarding &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;/&lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt;, let me explain it with an example. &lt;em&gt;Jivas&lt;/em&gt; are unlimited in number and at the time of creation their states are resumed just like a test match is resumed the following day. One who is out, doesn't come to bat the next day. Only those who are not out come to play and their score resumes from yesterday. Similarly, once a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; has attained the state of liberation, he doesn't necessarily returns back. Only those who had not attained the state of &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; in the previous &lt;em&gt;kalpa&lt;/em&gt;, resume their state. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are different types of &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; and there are different schools of thought on this also. But the most common thing of &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;mayanivriti&lt;/em&gt; (liberation from &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;). &lt;strong&gt;Once, one gets beyond &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;, it can't cover him again just like darkness can never cover light.&lt;/strong&gt; Otherwise there would be no point in trying to get liberation if it would take over the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; again. So once a &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; is liberated he doesn't return here again by default:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;anāvṛttiḥ śabdād anāvṛttiḥ śabdāt&lt;/em&gt; [Br. Su 4.422]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - There is no return after liberation as per the Vedas ([Chg. Up. - 4.15.6], [Brh. Up - 6.2.15]), there is no return.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So also says Gita for the &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; who have attained God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;avyakto ’kṣara ity uktas tam āhuḥ paramāṁ gatim&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yaṁ prāpya na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 8.21]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That supreme state which is said as unmanifested and imperishable, that place from which, having attained it, one never returns – that is My supreme abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; from &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; is a permanent imperishable state. But taking birth or not is dependent upon the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;. So some liberated &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; who are no more under the influence of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; even come down to practice and taste the sweet nectar of devotion as &lt;em&gt;lila&lt;/em&gt; (pastime). Even Shankaracahrya, who preached &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; completely merges into Brahman losing his form,  wrote this in his commentary on Nrishima Tapani Upanishad 2.4:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;muktāpi lilayā vigraham kritvā tvām bhajante&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Even the liberated souls in the pastimes taking forms worship you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; were limited, then at the beginning of each kalpa, everything would have to startover again and every &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; would have to play the same role. But because &lt;em&gt;jivatmas&lt;/em&gt; are infinite in number, &lt;em&gt;kalpa&lt;/em&gt; after &lt;em&gt;kalpa&lt;/em&gt; the process continues resuming from where it ended before. Each time the material part (&lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;) is manifested, but the &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; resume from whatever progress and work they had done before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-08-04T14:45:06.037" LastActivityDate="2014-08-04T14:45:06.037" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2583" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2576" CreationDate="2014-08-04T15:51:17.653" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know from history that cows were among the very first animals to be domesticated by men about 9000 BCE and for a long time cows were the major source of milk and many other milk related products for humans. They also give us many other beneficial things. Besides cows are very peaceful, docile and innocent creatures. Cows are so docile and peaceful that you can literally leave a baby with a cow for few hours and baby will be safe. Same cannot be said about any other animal.&#xA;And because Hinduism itself is very old and its origin date back to tens of thousands of years and Krishna's age was around 5,000 years ago. Even at that time cows were major source of milk. So it is really very little we can do to treat cows with respect. This is the message Krishna is giving to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2014-08-04T17:42:31.550" LastActivityDate="2014-08-04T17:42:31.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2584" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2574" CreationDate="2014-08-04T15:57:45.440" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu or Krishna is the Supreme Being and He is worshiped and followed by Shiva's incarnations. For example Hanuman was an incarnation of  Shiva and Rama was an  incarnation of Vishnu, as Wikipedia states&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuman is mentioned as an avatar of Shiva or Rudra in the Sanskrit&#xA;  texts like the Mahabhagvata Purana, the Skanda Purana, the Brhaddharma&#xA;  Purana and the Mahanataka among others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additional this &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/od/lordhanuman/a/hanuman.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; sates that,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Believed to be an avatar of Lord Shiva, Hanuman is worshiped as a&#xA;  symbol of physical strength, perseverance and devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know from the scriptures Hanuman followed Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another point is  Shiva holds river Ganges on his head which originates at the lotus feet of Vishnu. So it is not right to say that Shiva doesn't worship Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most importantly Krishna, the complete avatar clearly reveals in the Gita that He is the Supreme Being in manifest form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastEditorUserId="5012" LastEditDate="2016-04-05T13:42:26.710" LastActivityDate="2016-04-05T13:42:26.710" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2585" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2569" CreationDate="2014-08-04T16:01:48.857" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes you are right. Hinduism or Hindu are foreign or more precisely Persian origin words and they have same etymoloy as you mention in your question. The proper and original name of Hinduism is Sanatan Dharma which translates to the Eternal Religion or the Eternal Faith. It is called so because Sanatan Dharma is not based on any sectarianism but on fundamental truths which hold true for all mankind and in all ages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-04T16:01:48.857" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2586" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2553" CreationDate="2014-08-04T16:05:05.353" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It simply means that you were a devotee of Durgaji in some previous lifetime and she is reminding you to worship her again to complete your journey. You seem to be one lucky fellow because even those devotees don't see her in their dreams who have been worshipping her for a long time.&#xA;In fact a new study in psychology suggests that many of your dreams might be your memories from your past lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-04T16:05:05.353" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2587" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2514" CreationDate="2014-08-04T16:13:20.470" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no formula for immortality because nobody in the material world is immortal. Maha mrityunjaya mantra is recommended for those people who think their lives are in great danger like in case of some disease or some planetary influences. There is only one way to achieve iimmortality and it is to liberate oneself from this physical-material existence with the help of Hare Krishna mahamantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-04T16:13:20.470" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2588" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2416" CreationDate="2014-08-04T16:19:11.357" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is stated in the Upanishads that we were all once in God means in His kingdowm. We all existed in perfect peace, love, and harmony with the Supreme Being. But as we are all individual souls we wanted to expereince duality we wanted independence from God and thus we all came out of that union with God. Duality means opposite of everything that is present with God. We had to experience many ups and downs and through all these ups and downs to reach God again. And because the Supreme Being loves us so much that he created this phenomenal universe for us to experience duality. That is also the purpose of reincarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-04T16:19:11.357" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2591" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2457" CreationDate="2014-08-04T16:47:56.673" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes moksha is the permanent state. One who has reached the abode of Lord never takes birth again. The recurring cycle of creation and destruction you are mentioning is about those souls who have not achieved moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;That supreme abode is called unmanifested and infallible, and it is the supreme destination. When one goes there, he never comes back. That is My supreme abode.&quot; - Chapter 8, Verse 21 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-04T16:47:56.673" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2592" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2048" CreationDate="2014-08-04T16:54:17.563" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is because Hinduism is Sanatana Dharma based on eternal truths and reincarnation is truth not divine judgement. Saying God judges people is ascribing lowly human qualities to God. Because God doesn't judge anyone. It is our own karmas which judge us and accordingly our next incarnation is decided by our own karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-24T15:43:37.207" LastActivityDate="2015-06-24T15:43:37.207" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2594" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2365" CreationDate="2014-08-05T02:24:08.950" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As mentioned above, it was Arjuna, Subhadra's husband who was telling her the ways to break through a chakravyuha, and not her brother Krishna. And during the battle (Mahabharata), Shri Krishna as a charioteer diverted Arjuna's (who is aware of Chakravyuha) Chariot far from the Chakravyuha when Abhimanyu was entering in to it. Sri Krishna did it to save King Dhrupad' s kingdom from the hands of the Kaurav army who had already attacked Panchal. King Dhrupad was a student of Lord Parashuram and he too was aware of breaking the chakravyuha. And to defend his kingdom, he would be taking a part of the Pandava army, which would make them weaker. Lord Krishna was confident enough that, Arjuna would be capable of battling the Kaurav army out there alone;he also knew that it would take King Dhrupad a long time to reach his kingdom, while the Lord himself could travel lightning fast and come to the rescue. So, he took Arjun away, leaving Abhimanyu in the hands of King Dhrupad and the remaing four Pandavas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="293" LastActivityDate="2014-08-05T02:24:08.950" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2595" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-05T03:53:14.243" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-05T03:53:14.243" LastActivityDate="2014-08-05T03:53:14.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2596" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-05T03:53:14.243" Score="0" Body="The Shiva Purana or Shiva Mahapurana is one of the puranas (a genre of Hindu religious texts), dedicated to the Lord Shiva. It contains twelve Saṁhitās and 100,000 shlokas (verses)." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-08-09T10:31:57.897" LastActivityDate="2015-08-09T10:31:57.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2597" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2648" CreationDate="2014-08-05T04:19:13.837" Score="11" ViewCount="1184" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu.  The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda.  The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it is the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, one of the Alwars was a king called Kulashekhara Alwar, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/60c2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is a poem from his Perumal Tirumoli, taken from JSM Hooper's book &quot;Hymns of the Alvars&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If Thou wilt not my portion'd grief dispel, I have no hope but Thee, &#xA;  Vitruvakodu's Lord, girt with its groves of flowers with fragrant smell &#xA;  I'm like a babe, which weeps, yet thinks of mother's grace, though she with anger fierce has thrast it from her face. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Girt on all sides by walls that heaven touch, Vitruvakodu's Lord, e'en like a well-born girl who only knows her husband, though deeds such as men may mock her lover does, so will I sing, Though thou'lt not be my Lord, Thy anklets tinkling. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Surrounded by wide lands which fishes see, Vitravakodu's Lord, e'en if Thou wilt not look on me, I have no other hold but Thee - like subjects looking to the rod of wreathed king, though he regards them not and works deeds harrowing. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Though by illusion from Thee woe I have without a remedy, Vitruvakodu's Lord, At Thy grace only win I look, Thy slave, Like a sick man, who, though physician cut with knife &#xA;  And brand, yet loves him with a love as long as life. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Slayer of elephant great and fierce of eye Vitravakodu's Lord, &#xA;  Where shall I go and live? &#xA;  Save for Thy feet, like a great bird am I &#xA;  Which goes around and sees no shore and comes at last &#xA;  Back o'er the tossing sea and perches on ship's mast ! &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Though red fire conies itself and makes fierce heat, &#xA;  The lotus red blooms not &#xA;  Save for the fierce-rayed one &#xA;  Who in the lofty heavens has his seat. &#xA;  Vitruvakodu's Lord, though Thou will not remove &#xA;  My -woe, my heart melts not save at Thy boundless &#xA;  love.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;E'en when forgotten wholly by the sky &#xA;  The green crops only look, &#xA;  (Vitruvakodu's Lord!) &#xA;  At the great black clouds as they rise. So I, &#xA;  Thy servant, more and more will set my mind on &#xA;  Thee, &#xA;  Though Thou wilt not remove my human misery. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;With gathered waters all the streams ashine &#xA;  Must spread abroad and run &#xA;  And enter the deep sea &#xA;  And cannot stand outside. So refuge mine, &#xA;  Save in the shining bliss of entering Thee, is none, &#xA;  Vitravakodu's Lord, thick cloud-hued, virtuous one ! &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why does Kulasekhara Alwar address Vishnu as &quot;Vitruvakodu's Lord&quot; in every stanza of the poem?  The only help the translator provides is that Vitruvakodu is &quot;a place in the Chera country.&quot; (The Cheras were one of the empires that ruled South India, Kerala in particular, and it was the empire that Kulasekhara Alwar ruled.)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why is Vishnu called the lord of Vitruvakodu?  Is Vitruvakodu one of the Divya Desams, the 108 sacred places of Vishnu praised by the Alwars in their poetry?  Did Vishnu or one of his incarnations (avataras) do something famous in Vitruvakodu?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-30T14:05:14.697" LastActivityDate="2015-10-11T11:49:47.107" Title="Why does Kulasekhara Alwar call Vishnu &quot;Vitruvakodu's Lord&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|sri-vaishnava|alwar|tamil|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2598" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2603" CreationDate="2014-08-05T09:02:09.707" Score="16" ViewCount="11737" Body="&lt;p&gt;In one of the popular stories from the &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt;, Sudama visits his old friend &lt;strong&gt;Sri Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; at his palace with &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flattened_rice&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;beaten rice&lt;/a&gt;. When Lord Krishna was going to eat the beaten rice a second time, suddenly, his wife &lt;strong&gt;Rukmini&lt;/strong&gt; stops him from eating more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the reason behind that? Why did Rukmini stop him? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-11T16:16:06.937" LastActivityDate="2022-03-11T23:30:25.897" Title="Why did Rukmini stop Lord Krishna from eating beaten rice given by Sudama a second time?" Tags="|krishna|puranas|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2599" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2598" CreationDate="2014-08-05T09:17:14.407" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sudama &amp;amp; Lord Krishna were friend from gurukul (school time friends). One day guru mata has given them &quot;chura&quot; (food) and send them in forest to collect wood for fire. Those were rainy days and in night Sudama got separate from Krishna because of heavy rain. In night Sudama started eating the &quot;chura&quot; and he himself finished all the &quot;chura&quot;. Because of this this act he was debtor to Lord Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After leaving the gurukul, Sudama's life was running in very poor condition. He thought to meet his friend. Sudama's wife Susheela has given him  beaten rice for Lord Krishna. Because of poorness that  beaten rice was the only wealth with Sudama at that time, which he wanted to give his friend Krishna.  The beaten rice was of amount of three hand only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sel8fdS_60g&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lord Krishna has started giving one by one lok&lt;/a&gt; (like swarg lok, prithvi lok etc...) as he was eating one by one hand beaten rice. In two hand beaten rice Krishan has already given Sudama to Swarg lok &amp;amp; Prithvi lok's vaibhav. He was about to give his own Vaikunth dham for third hand beaten rice, seeing this Godess Laxmi stopped him and she her self ate third hand beaten rice and for that she blessed Sudama's wife by giving eternal beauty boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T13:13:47.407" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T13:13:47.407" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2567" CreationDate="2014-08-05T14:58:26.280" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva (Rudra) was married from the beginning. &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt; like Bhagavatam, Vishnu Puran, etc. give the account how Rudra was born from Brahma and married Sati, the daughter of Daksha, as his wife. Below is a description from Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later on Brahma commenced the process of creation. During that time he desired a child like himself. Then a blue-red colored child appeared on his lap and started crying as he wanted a name. Brahma named him Rudra, but he still continued to cry. So Brahma gave him another seven names. They are: Bhava, Sarva, Ishana, Pashupati, Bhima, Ugra and Mahadeva. &lt;strong&gt;Rudra married to Sati, the daughter of Daksha&lt;/strong&gt;. Sati getting angry on Daksha gave up her life and reborn as Parvati, the daughter of Himavat and Mena. Then Hara (Shiva) again married Parvati. [VP - 1.8.2-14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But after casting of the body by Sati, Lord Shiva resumed His ascetic form. However, the demon Tarakasura had the boon that he would only be killed by Siva's son. May be he thought Siva was an ascetic and won't marry and hence won't have a son. But the gods requested Himavat to accept Parvati as his daughter and then suggested Kamadeva to afflict Shiva with desire for marriage. But Shiva burned Kama to ashes. Then the gods pleaded Shiva to marry Parvati and begot a son so that Tarakasura can be killed. So Lord Shiva told them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;nocita hi vidhānaṃ vai vivāhakaraṇaṃ nṛṇām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mahānigaḍasaṃjño hi vivaha druḍhabandhanaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kusaṃgā bahavo loke strisaṃgastatra cādhikaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  uddharetsakalebaindhairna strisamgātpramucyate&lt;/em&gt; [Shiva Pu. - 2.24.60,61]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  As far as possible, man should not marry. Marriage known as chain is a very strong bondage. Usually there are many &lt;em&gt;kusanga&lt;/em&gt; (bad association) in the world, but association with women is the worst of all. One can free himself from other bad associations, but cannot free himself from a woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;strong&gt;because Lord Shiva is fond of and saviour of devotees, instead of His unwillingness, He agreed to the gods' proposal and became a &lt;em&gt;grihasta&lt;/em&gt; (family man)&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhaktadhino'hamevāsmi taddaśātsarvakāryakrut&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ayathocitakartā hi prasiddhau bhubanatraye&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nāsti yadyāpi me kaścidihakaraṇe ruciḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vivahayiṣye girijāṃ putrotpādanahetave&lt;/em&gt; [Sv. Pu. -2.24.67,75]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  As I am under my devotees, I do all their work. Even I am famous in all the three worlds as someone who gets the odd jobs done. So even though I have no desire and liking in these things, I will marry Parvati for the purpose of begetting a son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharat has a different version of the story where the gods stop Shiva from begotting a son as it would be fierce enough to devour entire world. So Shiva draws up his semen and hence called as &lt;em&gt;Urdhareta&lt;/em&gt; (one who has taken his semen up) since that day. Generally the yogu ascetics are known as &lt;em&gt;urdharetas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-08-05T15:04:29.350" LastActivityDate="2014-08-05T15:04:29.350" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2601" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-05T16:52:54.070" Score="13" ViewCount="30444" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many of my friends are Hindus and most of them are pure vegetarians. I respect that nature but when coming to the matter of eggs, they say that eating an egg is just like killing a living thing, which I don't understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the white eggs available in the market are just unfertilized eggs, which contains only a single ova in them, just like human beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the menstrual cycle operates in the female Endometrium and if the ova is not fertilized by any sperm, then it would also disintegrate. So why is that just like killing some living organism, or in other words if someone thinks that the Ova are not living then why is egg not taken by them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="452" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T20:25:15.660" LastActivityDate="2020-06-17T20:25:15.660" Title="Why are eggs not consumed by many Hindus?" Tags="|food|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-08-22T08:15:48.153" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2602" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2601" CreationDate="2014-08-05T17:44:28.337" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;A &quot;vegetarian egg&quot; or an egg without an embryo developing in it is produced when a hen does not mate with a rooster before laying the egg.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moral Reason&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have been taught that one reason such eggs are not considered suitable for consumption is that by preventing fertilization you are preventing the birth of an animal, which is considered unjust by some. The reasoning here is that blockading the creation of life is similar if not equal to extinguishing it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedic Reason&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sattvic_diet&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia's article on Sattvic diet&lt;/a&gt;, an unfertilized egg is considered Rajasic, or overly stimulating. Such foods are not to be consumed as they lead to an unfit state of mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="419" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T13:41:01.433" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T13:41:01.433" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2603" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2598" CreationDate="2014-08-06T03:07:33.930" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/81/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being the direct witness in the hearts of all living beings, Lord Kṛṣṇa fully understood why Sudāmā had come to see Him. Thus He thought, “In the past My friend has never worshiped Me out of a desire for material opulence, but now he comes to Me to satisfy his chaste and devoted wife. &lt;strong&gt;I will give him riches that even the immortal gods cannot obtain.&lt;/strong&gt;” Thinking like this, the Lord snatched from the brāhmaṇa’s garment the grains of flat rice tied up in an old piece of cloth and exclaimed, “What is this? My friend, have You brought this for Me? It gives Me extreme pleasure. Indeed, &lt;strong&gt;these few grains of flat rice will satisfy not only Me but also the entire universe&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After saying this, the Supreme Lord ate one palmful and was about to eat a second when the devoted goddess Rukmiṇī took hold of His hand.  [Queen Rukmiṇī said:] &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;This is more than enough, O Soul of the universe, to secure him an abundance of all kinds of wealth in this world and the next.&lt;/strong&gt; After all, one’s prosperity depends simply on Your satisfaction.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Rukmini stopped him because Krishna's satisfaction at just one palmful of rice was already enough to give Sudama &amp;quot;an abundance of all kinds of wealth in this world and the next&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the sentiment Krishna expresses when he says &amp;quot;these few grains of flat rice will satisfy not only Me but also the entire universe&amp;quot; occurs in the Mahabharata as well; when Draupadi has only a morsel of rice in her pot and she has to feed group of sages, Krishna eats that single morsel of rice and that is enough to satisfy him and thus the entire universe, leading the sages to feel full as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna expresses this notion earlier on in the chapter as well:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I regard as great even the smallest gift offered by My devotees in pure love, but even great offerings presented by non-devotees do not please Me.  If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I will accept it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-03-02T15:41:28.480" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2604" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-06T04:11:16.733" Score="13" ViewCount="719" Body="&lt;p&gt;Soma is a drink, derived from a plant that's now unknown, that played an crucially important role in Vedic ritual; the Soma Yagna, in which Soma was offered to the gods, is extensively discussed in the Vedas and it was the chief Vedic method of worshipping the gods.  The god of this drink is Chandra the moon god, and in his capacity as the god of the Soma drink he is often called Soma, Pavamana, or Indu.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv09097.htm&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a verse from the Ninth Mandala of the Rig Veda (often called the Soma Mandala) in praise of him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Winning the friendship of the Deities, Indu flows in a thousand streams to make them joyful.  &lt;strong&gt;Praised by the men after the ancient statute&lt;/strong&gt;, he hath come nigh, for our great bliss, to Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is this &quot;ancient statute&quot; about praising Soma?  The verses of the Rig Veda are already of timeless antiquity, having been heard by sages directly from the gods from time immemorial.  So what statute is so old that it's even considered ancient by a Rig Vedic verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-04T14:24:06.953" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T04:36:34.377" Title="What is the &quot;ancient statute&quot; referred to in the Rig Veda?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|soma|chandra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2605" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2616" CreationDate="2014-08-06T05:38:36.363" Score="9" ViewCount="1728" Body="&lt;p&gt;Out of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element#Classical_elements_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Five-Elements&lt;/a&gt; only akasha is the one I am unable to understand till now. How is it related to the earth or a material body? Though we know it's different from &lt;strong&gt;air&lt;/strong&gt; and recedes into outer space, how is it possible to add akasha as an element which forms our body?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do I explain this to a scholar and explain its significance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-22T23:21:30.060" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T17:16:51.147" Title="How do I explain akasha (sky - one of the Panchamahabhuta) to a scholar?" Tags="|scripture|panchabhoota|akasha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2606" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-06T07:48:33.923" Score="8" ViewCount="3557" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2531/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.britannica.com/topic/Hare-Krishna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hare Krishna mantra&lt;/a&gt;, popularized by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his Gaudiya Vaishnava followers (especially the organization ISKCON), originates from the Kali Santarana Upanishad, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/kaliasant.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. The Kali Santarana Upanishad is widely considered by many to be a later interpolation, for multiple reasons: there are no ancient commentaries of it or ancient references to it; I think it's the only Upanishad that mentions the Yuga system, which was mainly revealed to human beings in the Itihasas and Puranas; it refers to the conversation happening at the end of the Dvapara Yuga, which would only make sense if the reader is presumed to be living long after the beginning of the Kali Yuga etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the earliest known mention or record of the Kali Santarana Upanishad? &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=mBMxPdgrBhoC&amp;amp;lpg=PA42&amp;amp;dq=kali%20santarana%20upanishad&amp;amp;pg=PA42#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=kali%20santarana%20upanishad&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This book&lt;/a&gt; merely says that it dates to before the sixteenth century, presumably because the popularization of the Hare Krishna mantra dates to the sixteenth century. Now the Kali Santarana Upanishad is listed in the Muktika, the canon of 108 Upanishads, but the Muktika was passed down by oral tradition, and we only have written records of the Muktika from the seventeenth century onwards.  So the Kali Santarana Upanishad could have been a late addition to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any references to it dating back significantly before the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T03:15:39.967" Title="What is the earliest record of the Kali Santarana Upanishad, source of the Hare Krishna Mantra?" Tags="|krishna|history|mantras|upanishads|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2607" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2579" CreationDate="2014-08-06T08:18:50.890" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm still not sure what Wikipedia meant by &quot;V.I.15b.3&quot;, but in any case I found the line in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01156.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;hymn 156&lt;/a&gt; of Mandala 1 of The Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;FAR-SHINING, widely famed, going thy wonted way, fed with the oil, be helpful. Mitra-like, to us.&#xA;  So, Viṣṇu, e’en the wise must swell thy song of praise, and he who hath oblations pay thee solemn rites.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who brings gifts to him the Ancient and the Last, to Viṣṇu who ordains, together with his Spouse,&#xA;  Who tells the lofty birth of him the Lofty One, shall verily surpass in glory e’en his peer.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Him have ye satisfied, singers, as well as ye know, primeval germ of Order even from his birth.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Ye, knowing e’en his name, have told it forth: may we, Viṣṇu, enjoy the grace of thee the Mighty One.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Sovran Varuṇa and both the Aśvins wait on this the will of him who guides the Marut host.&#xA;  Viṣṇu hath power supreme and might that finds the day, and with his Friend unbars the stable of the kine.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Even he the Heavenly One who came for fellowship, Viṣṇu to Indra, godly to the godlier,&#xA;  Who Maker, throned in three worlds, helps the Āryan man, and gives the worshipper his share of Holy Law.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv01156.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit version&lt;/a&gt; is transliterated slightly differently than how Raghunathan gives it: &quot;āsya jānanto nāma cid vivaktana mahaste viṣṇo sumatiṃ bhajāmahe&quot;.  And as you can see above, Griffiths translates it as &quot;Ye, knowing e’en his name, have told it forth: may we, Viṣṇu, enjoy the grace of thee the Mighty One.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And just as N. Raghunathan says, the sage who heard this hymn from the gods was Dirghatamas Aucatya; see hymn 156 in the Anukramani for Rig Veda Book 1 in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-03-09T19:36:35.040" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2608" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2581" CreationDate="2014-08-06T09:16:52.907" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all try not to compare Gods with Humans - this is not a Amish Tripathi Novel of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immortals_of_Meluha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiva&lt;/a&gt; and it will mostly offend people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I had once read in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Linga-Purana-B-K-Chaturvedi/dp/8128806793&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Linga Purana&lt;/a&gt; and this is &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/LingaPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Online Version&lt;/a&gt; that once Brahma and Vishnu were fighting over each other’s power, trying to prove who is superior. Scared by the intensity of the battle, the other gods asked Shiva to intervene. Lord Shiva assumed the form of a flaming gigantic Linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Surprised at the gigantic form, they both tried to measure its height by going in the opposite directions of the linga (upwards &amp;amp; downwards). Brahma changing his form to a swan and Vishnu to a boar (Varaha), they travelled for eons but they couldn't find either end of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the way up, Brahma met Ketaki flower and told her to lie to Vishnu that he (Brahma) had seen the top, so they both descend and meet Vishnu and they both lie that they have seen the top of cosmic column. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At this point, the central part of the column split and the Supreme Lord Shiva appears in front of them in full grace. He explained to them that both were borne of him and three of them separated into three different divinities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However Lord Shiva was also angry with Ketaki and Brahma for making the false claim, and cursed Brahma to never be worshiped, and barred Ketaki forever from being offered in worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I am not wrong, that day is worshiped as Maha-Shiv-Ratri (&quot;Grand Shiva Night&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think there might be any historical records other than Vedas and Puranas, and I guess &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nataraja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nataraja Idol&lt;/a&gt; can help you with some records.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="602" LastEditorUserId="545" LastEditDate="2014-08-06T12:43:31.267" LastActivityDate="2014-08-06T12:43:31.267" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2609" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-06T09:43:58.777" Score="8" ViewCount="1126" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every Hindu God carries multiple weapons like Trishul, Chakra, Gada, Pharsha, Danda, Sword or Bow. The same god in different Murthis (statue) carries different weapons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one weapon is powerful enough to kill the demon, why do gods carry  multiple weapons?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard that darshan of these weapons is equally important as each of them bless us with protection, peace, wealth, knowledge, health etc. If it's true I want to know the significance of prominent weapons and the way to worship them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-12T04:20:29.570" LastActivityDate="2016-09-12T04:20:29.570" Title="What is the significance of weapons? Why do gods carry multiple weapons?" Tags="|gods|weapon|darshan|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2610" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-06T09:48:16.987" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-06T09:48:16.987" LastActivityDate="2014-08-06T09:48:16.987" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2611" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-06T09:48:16.987" Score="0" Body="Darshan (Sanskrit: दर्शन) meaning &quot;visions of the divine&quot;." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-06T12:28:40.197" LastActivityDate="2014-08-06T12:28:40.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2612" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-06T09:56:47.787" Score="7" ViewCount="1428" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, People visits temples for God's darshan. One of the meaning of darshan is to see using your eyes. So in this case Why people close their eyes when they actually visit temple for their God's darshan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastActivityDate="2015-04-24T22:50:54.137" Title="Why do people close their eyes in temple during darshan?" Tags="|temple|darshan|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2613" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2623" CreationDate="2014-08-06T11:08:05.743" Score="17" ViewCount="20129" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the power of the &lt;em&gt;Narayana Kavacha mantram&lt;/em&gt; that appears in the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavatham&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning of this &lt;em&gt;mantram&lt;/em&gt; and how do you get the benefits of the &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="232" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-13T08:59:47.333" LastActivityDate="2015-12-13T08:59:47.333" Title="What is the power of Narayana Kavacha mantram?" Tags="|vishnu|mantras|bhagavata-purana|puranas|prayer|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2615" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="171" CreationDate="2014-08-06T12:36:18.950" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism &amp;amp; Indian culture before western influence did not view sexual activity as a taboo or unclean act. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In many parts of India, there are photos from older eras that show women being topless and temple sculptures etc. The fact that these are on temples would indicate advanced civilisation and architecture. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources (mouseover to view hidden images)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote class=&quot;spoiler&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OQ24Hs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&#xA; &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/V3rNgs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&#xA; &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nTDGOs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&#xA; &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/x9mSJs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&#xA; &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pchJHs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&#xA; &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SygkUs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also ancient manuscripts such as Kama Sutra (&quot;Manuscript of Love&quot;) that go into detail regarding love and sexual relations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As such, before the Portuguese (Catholic), Muslims &amp;amp; British (Protestant) introduced their puritan and prudish views, India was quite liberated, and did not view sex as a vile act needing &quot;cleansing&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This does not mean Indians were unhygienic or not clean. To the contrary, travelers to India, such as Marco Polo, have observed and recorded that Indians bathed multiple times a day and were quite fastidious about being clean. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The people here go into battle with lance and shield and they go stark naked.[...]&#xA;  Another one of their customs is that all of them, male and female, wash their whole body in cold water twice a day - this is, morning and evening. One who did not wash twice a day would be thought an ascetic, as we think of the Patarins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=HLxwRuyH_P0C&amp;amp;lpg=PT322&amp;amp;dq=marco%20polo%20indians%20washing%20twice%20daily&amp;amp;pg=PT322#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Travels, Marco Polo, c. 1300 AD&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I'd presume that once business is done, couple would proceed to wash all that sweat off ;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="545" LastEditorUserId="24" LastEditDate="2019-01-14T01:08:40.083" LastActivityDate="2019-01-14T01:08:40.083" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2616" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2605" CreationDate="2014-08-06T14:22:19.933" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am giving excerpts from 'The Serpent Power' by Sir John Woodroffe on the Bhutas including Akasa. Sir John compares Akasa with ether but I will remove those parts from the excerpt  posted here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Indian theory [says] that ...scientific or ponderable matter does&#xA;  not permanently exist, but says that there are certain motions or&#xA;  forces (five in number) which produce solid matter, and which are&#xA;  ultimately reducible to Akasa. Akasa is one of the gross&#xA;  forces into which the Primordial Power (Prakrti-Sakti) differentiates&#xA;  itself. Objectively considered it is a vibration in and of the&#xA;  substance of Prakrti of which it is a transformation in which the&#xA;  other forces are observed to be operating. Lastly, Akasa is not an&#xA;  ultimate, but is itself derived from the super-sensible Tanmatra, with&#xA;  its quality (Guna) whereby Akasa affects the senses; and this Tanmatra&#xA;  is itself derived from the mental I-making principle (Ahamkara), or&#xA;  personal consciousness produced from the superpersonal&#xA;  Jiva-consciousness as such (Buddhi), emanating from the root-energy,&#xA;  or Prakrti-Sakti, the cause and basis of all forms of &quot;material&quot; force&#xA;  or substance. At the back of both &quot;matter&quot; and mind, there is the&#xA;  creative energy (Sakti) of the Supreme who is the cause of the&#xA;  universe and Consciousness itself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Matter affects the Jiva in five different ways, giving rise in him to&#xA;  the sensations of smell, taste, sight, touch and feel, and hearing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As already explained, the Tanmatras are supersensible, being abstract&#xA;  qualities, while the senses perceive their variations in particular&#xA;  objects only. These sense particulars are produced from the generals&#xA;  or universals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the Sabda-Tanmatra and from the combinations of the later with&#xA;  the other Tanmatras are produced the gross Bhutas (Maha-bhuta), which&#xA;  as things of physical magnitude perceivable by the senses approach the&#xA;  Western definition of discrete sensible &quot;matter&quot;. These five&#xA;  Maha-bhutas are Akasa (Ether), Vayu (air), Tejas (fire), Apas (water)&#xA;  and Prthivi (Earth). Their development takes place from the Tanmatra,&#xA;  from one unit of that which is known in sensible matter as mass&#xA;  (Tamas), charged with energy (Rajas) by the gradual accretion of mass&#xA;  and redistribution of energy. The result of this is that each Bhuta is&#xA;  more gross than which precedes it until &quot;Earth&quot; is reached. These five&#xA;  Bhutas have no connection with the English &quot;elements&quot; so called, nor,&#xA;  indeed, are they elements at all, being derived from the Tanmatras.&#xA;  Dynamically and objectively considered they are (proceeding from&#xA;  Akasa) said to be five forms of motion, into  which Prakrti&#xA;  differentiates itself; viz, non-obstructive, all-directed motion&#xA;  radiating lines of force in all directions .. affording the space&#xA;  (Akasa) in which other forces operate; transverse motion and&#xA;  locomotion in space (Vayu); upward motion giving rise to expansion&#xA;  (Tejas); and the motion which produces cohesion, its characteristic of&#xA;  obstruction being the opposite of the non-obstructive ether (Akasa) in&#xA;  which it exists and from which it and the other Tattvas spring. The&#xA;  first is sensed by hearing through its quality (Guna) of sound&#xA;  (Sabda)[According to western notions, it is the air which is the cause&#xA;  of sound. According to Indian notions, Akasa is the substratum&#xA;  (Asraya) of sound and Air (Vayu) is a helper in its manifestation];&#xA;  the second by touch through resistance and feeling; the third by sight&#xA;  as colour; the fourth by taste through flavour; and the fifth by the&#xA;  sense of smell through its odour, which is produced by matter only in&#xA;  so far as it partakes of the solid state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The hard and stable obstructive &quot;earth&quot; is that which is smelt,&#xA;  tasted, seen and touched, and which exists in space which is known by&#xA;  hearing - that is the sounds of it. The smooth &quot;water&quot; is that which&#xA;  is tasted, seen, and touched in space. &quot;Fire&quot; is what is seen and&#xA;  touched - that is felt as temperature- in space. &quot;Air&quot; is what is so&#xA;  felt in space. And sound which is heard is that by which the existence&#xA;  of Akasa is known. These Bhutas when compounded make up the material&#xA;  universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Akasa is space and is the starting point of the other Bhutas. The subject matter of the Bhutas is complicated because it is derived from Yogic and not ordinary experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-08-06T14:22:19.933" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2617" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2605" CreationDate="2014-08-06T14:34:24.350" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Akasha&lt;/em&gt; is present everywhere. It is the substratum of all other &lt;em&gt;bhutas&lt;/em&gt;. Without the existence of space, nothing else could exist because there has to be something that will act as a base. And that something is &lt;em&gt;akasha&lt;/em&gt; or space that pervades everything. Hence, &lt;em&gt;akasha&lt;/em&gt; is one of the five fundamental elements. In fact it is the most important fundamental element as &lt;em&gt;akasha&lt;/em&gt; was manifested first and from it alone arose everything else:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tasmādvā etasmādātmana ākāśaḥ saṃbhūtaḥ ākāśādvāyuḥ vāayoragniḥ agnerāpaḥ  adabhyaḥ pṛthivī  pṛthivyā oṣadhayaḥ oṣadhībhyonnam annātpuruṣaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up. - 2.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Verily from Brahman arose the space; from space air, from air fire, from fire water, from water earth, from earth minerals, from minerals vegetation and from vegetation man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So because spae is the most fundamental of the element that acts as the base, not just our body, every other thing like planets and galaxies can be said as made of &lt;em&gt;akasha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-08-06T14:34:24.350" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2620" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2630" CreationDate="2014-08-06T17:17:20.470" Score="11" ViewCount="3542" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen that in many hindu temples, all other deity's statues are brought from the entrance of the temple and some &lt;em&gt;&quot;Pran Pratistha&quot;&lt;/em&gt; ritual &lt;em&gt;Vidhi&lt;/em&gt;(method) is performed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But when the &lt;em&gt;shiva Linga&lt;/em&gt; is established, the roof is cut and `Shiva Linga_ is established from sky only!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In gujarat,India in one temple, I have seen such establishment of Shiva Linga. So because of my curious nature, I asked people why such a unique way of Shiva Linga only? Other statues were taken from entrance only..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They said, Shiva is unborn, so his incarnation is not possible from any mother's womb. So in hinduism Shiva linga is established from sky, means the Shiva directly comes from sky(Paramdham or Kailash) only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anybody know about this? Is there any explanation in some hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I heard this again from &lt;em&gt;Pujari&lt;/em&gt; also. I asked some Brahmakumari sisters also to verify, they also told me the same thing. So I trusted what everybody told me. But now this made me more curious about this. Can anybody please cite some sources? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2014-08-07T15:52:38.197" LastActivityDate="2018-11-26T11:53:03.753" Title="Why Shivalinga sthapana in temple is unique in Hinduism?" Tags="|shiva|temple|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2621" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2612" CreationDate="2014-08-06T17:54:02.397" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Two possible reasons why closing your eyes could be good:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Close your eyes and feel God's presence amidst the peace and quiet prevailing in the Temple. It is easier to concentrate when everyone around you is also doing the same.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Look at the deity with eyes and take darshan, then close your eyes and visualize His presence filling you and everything around you.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna had the vision of Mother Kali at the Dakshineshwar temple as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The buildings with their different parts, the temple, and all vanished from my sight, leaving no trace whatsoever, and in their stead was a limitless, infinite, effulgent ocean of Consciousness or Spirit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such vision cannot be easily obtained in a single day and requires constant remembrance and burning desire for God and God alone. But we can take a small step in the same direction by focusing on the God first externally and then internally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus one may picture or visualize this ocean of conscious divinity filling the entire area.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I think most people do it because they have the habit of closing their eyes and praying to God right from the childhood. Many do however keep eyes open when praying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Side Note:&#xA;Darshan does mean see God with eyes, but a deeper version of &lt;em&gt;'darshan'&lt;/em&gt; is to feel His presence with your 'inner eyes' (heart). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna had the Darshan of Mother Kali in this fashion:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I was then suffering from excruciating pain because I had not been blessed with a vision of the mother. I felt as if my heart were being squeezed like a wet towel. I was overpowered by a fear that it might not be my lot to realize Her in this life. I could not bear the separation any longer: life did not seem worth living. Suddenly my eyes fell on the sword that was kept in the Mother's temple. Determined to put an end to my life, I jumped up like a madman and seized it, when suddenly the Mother revealed herself to me, and I fell unconscious on the floor. What happened after that externally or how that day or the next passed , I do not know, but within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss altogether new, and I felt the presence of the Divine Mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically Darshan is feeling God's presence, both internally as well as externally.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cosmicharmony.com/Av/RamaKris/RamaKris.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Links for Sri Ramakrishna's vision experiences&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2015-01-19T17:53:34.120" LastActivityDate="2015-01-19T17:53:34.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2622" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2612" CreationDate="2014-08-06T18:06:57.943" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, people of every religion do this. A possible reason might be it helps the person focus on his prayer by blocking out other visual stimuli.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="597" LastActivityDate="2014-08-06T18:06:57.943" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2623" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2613" CreationDate="2014-08-06T21:55:04.477" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Narayana Kavacha is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/canto6/chapter8.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2408/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Trisiras (AKA Vishwarupa) was the three-headed son of the divine architect Tvashta (AKA Vishwakarma), and he was killed by Indra.  But before all that, Trisiras temporarily served as guru of the gods when Brihaspati had abandoned them out of anger.  During this time, Indra asked Trisiras how he could equip himself with the Narayana Kavacha (armor of Vishnu) so that he could defeat the Asuras.  Here is the procedure that Trisiras told Indra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One puts on armor in case one is overcome by fear. [For His purpose arming oneself] one should first wash one's hands and feet and then after saying the required mantra [doing âcamana, three times over] sip water. Sitting down, facing the north one next should ritually purify oneself [in pavrita 'touching kus'a'] by preparing oneself mentally in silence. Thus in dedication to the lordship of Nârâyana being innerly cleansed one should adopt the defense in which one, beginning with saying 'om', offers one's obeisances to Nârâyana by designating two mantras to one's body [by nyâsa], that is to say the [eight syllables of the] mantra 'om namo nârâyanâya' to each of the [eight] parts of the body, touching therewith [consecutively] one's lower legs, knees, thighs,  abdomen, heart, chest, mouth and [top of the] head, or even repeat this in reverse order [beginning with ya, which is called respectively utpatti-nyâsa and samhâra-nyâsa].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next one should assign the [twelve] syllables of the mantra beginning with om and ending with ya [om namo bhagavate vâsudevâya] to the [twelve parts of the] fingers starting with the [tip of the] index finger and ending with the four joints of the two thumbs. [Then chanting the mantra 'om vishnave namah', All glories to Lord Vishnu] the heart should be assigned 'om', 'vi' next comes to the top of the head, 'sha' comes between the eyebrows, 'na' on the s'ikhâ [the tuft of hair on the back of the head with Vaishnava monks], 've' comes between the eyes, the syllable 'na' should be assigned to all the joints of the body and 'mah' should be thought of as a weapon in the form of a mantra, so that one becomes an intelligent [representative of it]. By [finally] saying the mantra beginning with a visarga [an aspirated 'ha'] and ending with 'phath' ['mah astrâya phath' or: 'thus I call for my weapon'], one should be fixed on the respect for Lord Vishnu in every possible way. One should recite the following prayer representing the Supreme Self to meditate upon that [in the form of Bhagavân] is endowed with the six opulences of learning [or knowledge], power and austerity [as also wealth, beauty and fame].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is the meaning of the Narayana Kavacha mantra itself, which you're supposed to say after doing the above:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I pray that the Lord of the eight qualities [see also 3.15: 45] whose feet rest upon the back of Garuda and who holds the conch shell, disc, shield, sword, club, arrows, bow and ropes in his eight hands, will protect me on all sides. May Matsya [the fish incarnation of Lord Vishnu] protect me against the aquatic predators in the water  who represent the noose of Varuna. May He as the dwarf incarnation Vâmana who took the three steps [as Trivikrama, Lord Vishnu as the conqueror of the three worlds] protect me on land and may He as Vis'varûpa [Him in the form of the universe] protect me in the sky [the ether]. May the Supreme Master Lord Nrisimhadeva whose fearful laughter resounding in all directions meant the fall of the enemy of the leader of the demons [Hiranyakas'ipu] and the miscarriage of  his babies, protect me in [my toiling in] the wilderness and on the front in battle. May we in the streets be protected [against thugs] by Him whom one respects with the rituals, Lord Varâha who raised the planet earth on His tusks. May there for us on the mountain tops be the protection of Lord [Paras'u-]Râma and may we in foreign countries be protected by [Lord Râmacandra] the elder brother of Bharata and His brother Lakshmana. May Lord Nârâyana protect me against religious fanaticism and keep me from acting in madness, may Nara keep me from being arrogant, may Dattâtreya the master of [the powers of] yoga keep me from straying from the path of yoga and may Kapila, the Lord of [all good] qualities, keep me from attachment to the fruits of labor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May Sanat-kumâra [the perfect celibate] protect me against Cupid [lust], may Hayagrîva [the horse incarnation] keep me from the path of disrespecting the divinity, may the best of  all sages the devarshi Nârada keep me from offenses during the service and may the Lord in the form of Kûrma [the tortoise incarnation] keep me out of the everlasting hell. May Bhagavân Dhanvantari [the physician avatâra] protect me against things harmful to one's health, may Rishabhadeva, the one fully in control of the mind and the self, keep me from duality and fear, may Yajña [Vishnu as the Lord of sacrifice] keep me from infamy and an awkward social position and may Lord Balarâma in the form of Ananta S'esha keep me away from the angry serpents. May Bhagavân Dvaipâyana [Vyâsadeva] keep me from ignorance and may Lord Buddha protect me against the hosts of heretics and madness [as a consequence of negligence]. May Kalki, the Lord who in this darkest age of quarrel incarnates as the greatest one in defense of the dharma [also as the channa- or covert avatâra], protect me against the impurities of the time we are living in [viz. intoxication, promiscuity, gambling and meat-eating; see also 1.17: 24].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May Kes'ava protect me with His club during the hours after sunrise, may Govinda holding His flute protect me early in the morning, may Nârâyana the Lord of all potencies, protect me late in the morning and may Lord Vishnu the ruler with the disc in His hand, protect me during the hours at noon. May Lord Madhusûdana with the fearful bow S'ârnga protect me early in the afternoon. May Mâdhava, the Lord of Brahmâ, Vishnu and S'iva, protect me in the late afternoon and may Lord Hrishîkes'a protect me during the hours at dusk. May Lord Padmanâbha [the Lord from whose navel the universe sprang] be the one protector during the entire evening early and late.  May the Lord with the S'rîvatsa mark protect me during the hours after midnight, may Janârdana the Lord with the sword in His hand protect me late at night and may Lord Dâmodara protect me during the hours before dawn [during which there is the brâhmamuhûrta]. May the Controller of the Universe, the Supreme Lord in the form of time protect me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please let the sharp rimmed [Sudars'ana] disc that wielded by the Lord destructively moves in all directions alike the fire at the end of time, burn to ashes the enemy forces, the same way a blazing fire with its friend the wind would burn dry grass in an instant. May You [Kaumodakî], oh mace so dear to the Invincible Lord, whose impact sparks with fire like thunderbolts, pound to pieces, smash, destroy and pulverize my enemies the imps [Kushmândas], the magicians [Vainâyakas], the evil spirits [Yakshas], the demons [Râkshasas], the ghosts [Bhûtas] and the maddeners [Grahas]. Oh conch shell [oh Pâñcajanya], may you with your frightening sound make the hearts tremble of the enemy torturers [Pramathas], evil spirits [Pretas], she-devils [Mâtâs], madmen [Pis'âcas] and heretics [Vipra-grahas] with their evil looks. You oh sharpest of all swords [oh Nandaka], may you in the hands of the Lord cut to pieces, chop up the enemy soldiers. Oh shield marked with a hundred shining moons, blind the eyes of the evil-minded ones so full of anger and pluck out their sinful eyeballs. May by the glory of Your name, form and attributes all the bad [influence of the] planets, falling stars, sinners, snakes, scorpions, predators  and other living beings and fear arousing poisoners of our minds and bodies who obstruct our well-being, be completely destroyed. May the majesty of Garuda whom one praises in hymns, he who embodies the Vedic verses, may that master protect us with [his name and] all the names of Vishvaksena [the Lord whose powers are found throughout the universe] against an endless suffering. May His holy names, forms, strategies ['carriers'] and weapons, protect our intelligence, mind and life air from being caught in fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We pray that whatever that is disturbing us [and our devotion] will find its end as a logical consequence of the fact that it is You, the Lord [of time] alone who decides what the ultimate reality would be of that what is and that what is not. Those bent upon an absence of differences think of the oneness of the Soul [within the material diversity]. Following that course, He is truly understood as the [One transcendental] omniscient Supreme Lord [who defeats the illusion] by means of His expanding spiritual energy in the form of His decorations, weapons, characteristics and the opulence of His many potencies and different names. May He, the all-pervading One, with all His forms protect us always and everywhere. May the Supreme Lord in every nook and corner, in all directions, above and below, on all sides, from within and from without, in the form of Nrisimhadeva annihilate all worldly fears with His mighty roar [or song, see the Nrisimha Pranâma]. May He with His effulgence overshadow all other influences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Whew! That was long.). And here is how Trisiras describes the power of the Narayana Kavacha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Whoever keeps this [prayer] in mind will, whatever he came to see, found at his feet or stumbled upon, immediately be freed from all fright and fear. He who employs this mystic prayer has nothing to fear, not from the government, not from rogues, not from maddeners and such nor from any disease at any time.&lt;/strong&gt; This prayer was in the past used by a man called Kaus'ika, a brahmin who fixed in yoga gave up his body in the desert. His remains were spotted by Citraratha, the king of the Ghandarvas from above in his heavenly chariot, when he one day, surrounded by many a beautiful woman, had moved in the direction where the twice-born one had died. All of a sudden he with his heavenly vehicle, his vimâna, inescapably tumbled out of the sky. Amazed about it he consulted with the Vâlikhilyas [the sages of the sun god] who advised him to collect the bones, throw them in the eastward flowing Sarasvatî and then return home after taking a bath in that river.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And we can add to this the example of Indra himself, who after learning all this from Trisiras was able to defeat the Asuras in battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, I quoted the Aadhar translation, rather than the Prabhupada translation I usually quote, because the Prabhupada translation of this passage seemed to contain a lot of inaccuracies.  But of course, you need to say the actual Narayana Kavacha mantra in Sanskrit, not English, so just to get the Sanskrit text you can use &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/6/8/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; on Prabhupads's site.  Verses 12-34 make up the Narayna Kavacha mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-24T03:47:18.977" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2624" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2626" CreationDate="2014-08-07T04:18:16.367" Score="14" ViewCount="373" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is &lt;em&gt;Lalitha Sahasranaamam&lt;/em&gt;? Why is it important? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During what times of day can one recite it? What are the important verses in it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the history of it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="383" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-05T14:15:30.537" LastActivityDate="2018-10-31T04:24:40.353" Title="What is the Lalitha Sahasranaamam?" Tags="|worship|durga|goddess|devi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2625" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-07T04:47:12.277" Score="9" ViewCount="4195" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Vishnu appeared before Vasudeva and Devaki in their prison cell in order to incarnate as Krishna, he told them about how he was born to them in previous births as well, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/3/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My dear mother, best of the chaste, in your previous birth, in the Svāyambhuva millennium, you were known as Pṛśni, and Vasudeva, who was the most pious Prajāpati, was named Sutapā.  When both of you were ordered by Lord Brahmā to create progeny, you first underwent severe austerities by controlling your senses....  Since I am the best of all bestowers of benediction, I appeared in this same form... to ask you to take from Me the benediction you desired. You then expressed your desire to have a son exactly like Me....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since I found no one else as highly elevated as you in simplicity and other qualities of good character, &lt;strong&gt;I appeared in this world as Pṛśnigarbha, or one who is celebrated as having taken birth from Pṛśni&lt;/strong&gt;.  In the next millennium, I again appeared from the two of you, who appeared as My mother, Aditi, and My father, Kaśyapa. I was known as Upendra, and because of being a dwarf, I was also known as Vāmana.  O supremely chaste mother, I, the same personality, have now appeared of you both as your son for the third time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of Vishnu's incarnation (avatara) Prishnigarbha?  What was the purpose of this incarnation, and what did he do?  I can't find much information on him.  Prahupada &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/4/9/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;claims&lt;/a&gt; in one of his purports that Prishnigarbha was the incarnation of Vishnu who appeared before Dhruva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in his Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta, the Sahasraśīrṣā Personality of Godhead who appeared at that time was the incarnation known as Pṛśnigarbha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does this claim have any scriptural basis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Wikipedia &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guruvayurappan#Origin_of_the_murti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;King Suthapas and his wife ... gave birth to Prasnigarbhan who gave to the world the practice of Brahmacharya Vratha (Celibacy).&amp;quot;  But it doesn't provide any sources.  Are there any scriptures that mention this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What other details about Prishnigarbha's life are mentioned in Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2021-02-11T14:29:49.500" Title="What is the story of Vishnu's incarnation Prishnigarbha?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|bhagavata-purana|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2626" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2624" CreationDate="2014-08-07T06:33:39.903" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lalitha Sahasra Namam is from Brahmanda purana (Old epic of the universe), it is divided into three parts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first one is called ‘&lt;em&gt;Poorva Bhaga&lt;/em&gt;’ the middle portion which is called ‘&lt;em&gt;Stotra&lt;/em&gt;’ which consists of 1000 Namas (names) and the last portion is called ‘&lt;em&gt;Uttara Bhaga&lt;/em&gt;’. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Poorva Bhaga talks about its origin. The Uttara Bhaga gives details of the benefits of recitation of this Lalitha Sahasranamam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since there is a specific question about the recitation of this Sahasranamam, its benefits include disease free life, no pre-mature death, begetting children, etc. Normally such benefits are cited for all the stotras. The timing of recitation is clearly spelt out in the uttara bhaga. To begin with the least, it is said that one should recite this at least once in his/her life time&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read more from the below given links,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/g7.htm&quot;&gt;Reference 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.starsai.com/lalithambigai-goddess-lalithasahasranamam.html&quot;&gt;Reference 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalita_Sahasranama&quot;&gt;Wiki Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://taksu.wordpress.com/2006/12/08/how-to-start-reciting-lalitha-sahasranama/&quot;&gt;How to start reciting the Sahasranaamam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="602" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-08T07:47:17.993" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T07:47:17.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2627" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11845" CreationDate="2014-08-07T06:39:17.743" Score="6" ViewCount="2838" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the origin of Indian music? I've heard that music is derived from &quot;Samaveda&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it right? If yes, then what type of music is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaveda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Samaveda&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-03T18:54:27.973" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T18:54:27.973" Title="Did Indian music originate from the Samaveda?" Tags="|vedas|sama-veda|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2628" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-07T07:01:15.183" Score="15" ViewCount="38818" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where are the original versions of the Vedas? Are our oldest scriptures lost in the history of time? Some say that they were lost due to the religious war which happened in the earlier days and some say that due to the emergence of other religions they were stolen part by part and were lost completely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And other thing is that who wrote these scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that they are supposed to have been directly revealed, and thus are called śruti (&quot;what is heard&quot;), distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are called smṛti (&quot;what is remembered&quot;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have gotten a few answers like this &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Where_is_original_Veda_book_present&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;one&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="602" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T12:33:07.753" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T12:33:07.753" Title="Where are the original versions of the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2629" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2628" CreationDate="2014-08-07T08:38:07.343" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you want to know the origin of the Vedas, they are &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shruti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shruti&lt;/a&gt;, which means &quot;that which is heard&quot; (what Christians would call &quot;revelation&quot;).  Hindus believe that from time immemorial, sages known as Dhrishtas (literally &quot;seers&quot;) have, during a state of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapasya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tapasya&lt;/a&gt; (deep meditation), heard sacred verses directly from the gods.  In the Dwapara Yuga (the age before the one we're currently living in), these verses were compiled by a sage named &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna Dwaipayana Veda Vyasa&lt;/a&gt; (or Vyasa for short) into a set of four books we call &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Vedas&lt;/a&gt;.  (Technically Vyasa only compiled the first three books - Rig, Yajur, and Sama - while the Atharvana Veda is attributed to the sages &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiras_%28sage%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Angiras&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atharvan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharvan&lt;/a&gt;.)  As the words of the Vedas are believed to be divine in origin, they are held to be the foremost authority of the Hindu religion.  As Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga109/ayodhyaitrans109.htm#Verse14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in the Ayodhya Kanda of the Ramayana, the Vedas &quot;have the foundation in Truth [and] one should thoroughly surrender to truth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should add that each of the four Vedas is divided into four portions: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas which consist of hymns to various gods; Brahmanas, which provide instructions on the proper conducting of important rituals; Aranyakas, which provide a guide to rituals meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical message of the Vedas.  In any case, when someone says &quot;I read the Rig Veda&quot; without qualification, they usually mean the Samhita of the Rig Veda, because the Samhita is the core part of the Veda which came directly from the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note: the above is excerpted from my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/64/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As to your assertion that the Sanskrit version of the Vedas has been lost, that is simply not true.  Here are the original Sanskrit versions of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/rigveda/rvfinder.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/yajurveda/#TS&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna version&lt;/a&gt; of the Yajur Veda Samhita, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcd/ind/aind/ved/yvw/vs/vs.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shukla Version&lt;/a&gt; of the Yajur Veda Samhita, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/sama_veda/sama_veda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sama Veda Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/ind/aind/ved/av/avs/avs.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharvana Veda Samhita&lt;/a&gt;.  (And if you want to read English translations, see the links in the bottom of my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T07:48:21.333" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2630" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2620" CreationDate="2014-08-07T09:09:51.980" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is truth value in what they said. The &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; from of Shiva denotes the unborn supreme Brahman. The origin of &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; has been described in Shiva Purana, Linga Purana, etc. The &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; denotes a column of fire that extends infinitely from top to bottom without a middle:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;etasminnantare liṃgamabhavaccāvayoḥ puraḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;vivādaśamanārthaṃ hi prabodhārthaṃ ca bhāsvaram&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;jvālāmālāsahasrāḍhyaṃ kālānalaśatopamam&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;kṣayavṛddhivinirmuktamādimadhyāṃtavarjitam&lt;/em&gt;  [LP - 17.33,34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Then after that a bright &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; appeared between both of us to counsel our arguments. That linga was surrounded by thousands of flames and hot like fire of death. Without any beginning and end, that was free from decay and growth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the &lt;em&gt;Shaiva Puranas&lt;/em&gt; the linga form appeared before Brahma and Vishnu to solve their dispute regarding who is supreme between them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Installation&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding it's installation, it is not compulsory to install the &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; from the sky alone. The &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; can be taken into the temple through the open doors or through predetermined place for doors present in the particular direction. But in the absence of such appropriate doors, the rule is to install the &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; from sky  without touching the door or by taking it over the stone that will be used to close the doors (&lt;em&gt;dwara bandha&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;lingaṃ samsthāpya datvārghya prāsādaṃ sanniveśayet&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;dvāreṇa dvārabandhena dvaradeśena tacchilā&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;dvārabandhe śikhaśunye tadardhenātha tadrute&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;varjayan dvārasamsparśaṃ dvāreṇaiva mahesvaram&lt;/em&gt; [Agni. Pu. - 97.21,22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;After offering &lt;em&gt;arghya&lt;/em&gt; to the &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; install it in the temple by taking it through the open door or through the doorstep (&lt;em&gt;dwara bandaha&lt;/em&gt;) without touching the door. Otherwise, install the God from the sky taking it over the doorstep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-07T09:09:51.980" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2631" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2609" CreationDate="2014-08-07T10:45:26.187" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.chakranews.com/powerful-spiritual-and-physical-weapons-from-ancient-hindu-texts/2762&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astra_%28weapon%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; are some of the weapons which were used by ancient Hindu Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And about their worship there is something called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/navratri/durga-puja/ayudha-puja-date-time.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shastra Puja&lt;/a&gt; , &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayudha_Puja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ayudha Puja&lt;/a&gt; or some parts of North India its &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishwakarma_Day&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishwakarma Puja&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;On these days worship of weapons or Implements which are used by the people with different profession is undertaken so as to protect them with the instrument which they are associated with.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Kerala there is an ancient martial art named &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalaripayattu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kalaripayattu&lt;/a&gt; in this also the weapons are worshipped before they start the battle and these weapons are placed in particular puja room where they face East direction according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vastu_Shastra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vastu Shastra&lt;/a&gt;. Mostly their guardian deity are an avatar of Bhagavathi (Devi/Shakti), Kali, Shiva, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="602" LastActivityDate="2014-08-07T10:45:26.187" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2632" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2712" CreationDate="2014-08-07T11:16:14.247" Score="42" ViewCount="30956" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question seems a bit off-topic to me even though I am daring to ask because it is a must to know. There are many believes that the present days &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayodhya&quot;&gt;Ayodhya&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra&quot;&gt;Kurukshetra&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam%27s_Bridge&quot;&gt;Ram Sethu&lt;/a&gt; and many other places are the same ones depicted in Hindu scriptures. But is there any strong evidence to prove that the Hindu culture is an ancient one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please share whatever you know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The intent of this post is to know the oldest evidence related to Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;: I am not against Hinduism here. This question is just to show the world how ancient is Hinduism. So, please make everyone believe with a relevant source as evidence in your answer and stop debating with me in comments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2015-10-13T08:21:42.270" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T20:37:43.157" Title="Are there any strong evidence that Hinduism religion is an ancient one?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2634" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2636" CreationDate="2014-08-07T12:12:05.637" Score="16" ViewCount="989" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard different tales of Ramayana while travelling to different parts of India. The basic story remains the same but slight differences do exist. What really concerns me is the way Ravan abducted Sita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, one story I heard in Kerala is that, Ravan came disguised as a beggar and when Sita extended her arm to offer him food, crossing her arm outside of &lt;em&gt;Lakshman Rekha&lt;/em&gt;, Ravan snatched her and took her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;em&gt;Kamba Ramayan&lt;/em&gt; states that the whole land including the &lt;em&gt;Lakshman rekha&lt;/em&gt; was snatched by Ravan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kindly tell me the different types of Ramayana and the different stories mentioned in each. Also, I have heard that Ravan clearly knew that Lord Vishnu had taken birth as a human and so in order to attain salvation through a god's hands, he abducted Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="256" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T19:45:40.827" LastActivityDate="2016-01-25T19:47:02.570" Title="Different Ramayanas" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|ravana|sita|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2636" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2634" CreationDate="2014-08-07T15:31:42.267" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The two great epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata have been so popular in expressing human nature and prescribing Dharma that every author, every culture has adopted them to suit their founding principles. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The essay &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/art-culture/three-hundred-ramayanas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Three Hundred Ramayanam&lt;/a&gt; by A. K. Ramanujan is an excellent material for the comparative study of these various versions of that one eternal story between good and bad from the north Indian version of Valmiki to the south Indian one by the great Tamizh poet Kamban to the Jain version and the one popular in Bali and Indonesia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every version puts some nuances into it, which, keeping the story line intact, teach the listener something interesting about the culture in which they were written. For a complete reading, I would highly recommend to read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/art-culture/three-hundred-ramayanas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the original article&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'll finish my post with certain observations,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kambaramayanam (Kamba's Ramayanam) was much more into &lt;em&gt;bhakti-rasa&lt;/em&gt; than the previous version by Valmiki in Valmiki Ramayanam. Although he was proclaimed as an &lt;em&gt;Avatara&lt;/em&gt; of Vishnu, the text by Valmiki portrayed him well within human limitation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Valmiki, Rama’s character is not that of a god but of a god-man who has to live within the limits of a human form with all its vicissitudes. Some argue that the references to Rama’s divinity and his incarnation for the purpose of destroying Ravana, and the first and last books of the epic, in which Rama is clearly described as a god with such a mission, are later additions. Be that as it may, in Kampan he is clearly a god. Hence a passage like the above is dense with religious feeling and theological images. Kampan, writing in the twelfth century, composed his poem under the influence of Tamil bhakti. He had for his master Nammalvar (ninth century?), the most eminent of the Sri Vaisnava saints. So, for Kampan, Rama is a god who is on a mission to root out evil, sustain the good and bring release to all living beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The highly non-violent Jains, for whom even killing an insect or plant is a sin tried to keep Rama, the protagonist from killing Ravana. Instead, they made Lakshman do the dirty work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the Jain way of thinking, a pair of antagonists, Vasudeva and Prativasudeva—a hero and an antihero, almost like self and Other—are destined to fight in life after life. Laksmana and Ravana are the eighth incarnations of this pair. They are born in age after age, meet each other in battle after many vicissitudes, and in every encounter Vasudeva inevitably kills his counterpart, his prati. Ravana learns at the end that Laksmana is such a Vasudeva come to take his life. Still, overcoming his despair after a last unsuccessful attempt at peace, he faces his destined enemy in battle with his most powerful magic weapons. When finally he hurls his discus (cakra), it doesn’t work for him. Recognising Laksmana as a Vasudeva, it does not behead him but gives itself over to his hand. Thus Laksmana slays Ravana with his own cherished weapon. Here Rama does not even kill Ravana, as he does in the Hindu Ramayanas. For Rama is an evolved Jain soul who has conquered his passions; this is his last birth, so he is loath to kill anything. It is left to Laksmana, who goes to hell while Rama finds release (kaivalya). One hardly need add that the Paumacariya is filled with references to Jain places of pilgrimage, stories about Jain monks, and Jain homilies and legends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a particular dalit oral version, Sita is Ravana's daughter and was cursed by Shiva for not keeping his word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This folk narrative, sung by an Untouchable bard, opens with Ravana (here called Ravula) and his queen Mandodari. They are unhappy and childless. So Ravana or Ravula goes to the forest, performs all sorts of self-mortifications like rolling on the ground till blood runs from his back, and meets a jogi, or holy mendicant, who is none other than Siva. Siva gives him a magic mango and asks him how he would share it with his wife. Ravula says, ‘Of course, I’ll give her the sweet flesh of the fruit and I’ll lick the mango seed.’ The jogi is skeptical. He says to Ravula, ‘You say one thing to me. You have poison in your belly. You’re giving me butter to eat, but you mean something else. If you lie to me, you’ll eat the fruit of your actions yourself.' Ravula has one thing in his dreams and another in his waking world, says the poet. When he brings the mango home, with all sorts of flowers and incense for the ceremonial puja, Mandodari is very happy. After a ritual puja and prayers to Siva, Ravula is ready to share the mango. But he thinks, ‘If I give her the fruit, I’ll be hungry, she’ll be full,’ and quickly gobbles up the flesh of the fruit, giving her only the seed to lick. When she throws it in the yard, it sprouts and grows into a tall mango tree. Meanwhile, Ravula himself becomes pregnant, his pregnancy advancing a month each day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Ravula goes to astrologers, who tell him he is being punished for not keeping his word to Siva and for eating the flesh of the fruit instead of giving it to his wife. They advise him to feed and dress the child, and leave her some place where she will be found and brought up by some couple. He puts her in a box and leaves her in Janaka’s field.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;South East Asian Ramayanam has its own quirks here and there,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though many incidents look the same as they do in Valmiki, many things look different as well. For instance, as in the South India folk Ramayanas (as also in some Jain, Bengali and Kashmiri ones), the banishment of Sita is given a dramatic new rationale. The daughter of Surpanakha (the demoness whom Rama and Laksmana had mutilated years earlier in the forest) is waiting in the wings to take revenge on Sita, whom she views as finally responsible for her mother’s disfigurement. She comes to Ayodhya, enters Sita’s service as a maid, and induces her to draw a picture of Ravana. The drawing is rendered indelible (in some tellings, it conies to life in her bedroom) and forces itself on Rama’s attention. In a jealous rage, he orders Sita killed. The compassionate Laksmana leaves her alive in the forest, though, and brings back the heart of a deer as witness to the execution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The reunion between Rama and Sita is also different. When Rama finds out she is still alive, he recalls Sita to his palace by sending her word that he is dead. She rushes to see him but flies into a rage when she finds she has been tricked. So, in a fit of helpless anger, she calls upon Mother Earth to take her. Hanuman is sent to subterranean regions to bring her back, but she refuses to return. It takes the power of Siva to reunite them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Again as in the Jain instances and the South Indian folk poems, the account of Sita’s birth is different from that given in Valmiki. When Dasaratha performs his sacrifice, he receives a rice ball, not the rice porridge (payasa) mentioned in Valmiki. A crow steals some of the rice and takes it to Ravana’s wife, who eats it and gives birth to Sita. A prophecy that his daughter will cause his death makes Ravana throw Sita into the sea, where the sea goddess protects her and takes her to Janaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T19:47:02.570" LastActivityDate="2016-01-25T19:47:02.570" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2638" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2309" CreationDate="2014-08-07T16:04:24.827" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism did not spread to South India. IT is native to South and North India both. If you are talking about the relatively modern term Hinduism then you are mistaken even though the origin of this word is same as you explained in your question. The right name of Hinduism is Sanatan Dharma which has existed in South India from very ancient times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-07T16:04:24.827" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2641" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2642" CreationDate="2014-08-07T16:23:46.420" Score="37" ViewCount="12086" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Where are the details about the 7 chakras mentioned in Hindu scriptures?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is their significance?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="232" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-07-03T02:54:35.850" LastActivityDate="2018-07-03T02:54:35.850" Title="Reference to the 7 chakras in Hinduism" Tags="|scripture|yoga|chakras|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2642" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2641" CreationDate="2014-08-07T17:14:55.653" Score="26" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are seven chakras in a Human body as Yoga and Tantra prescribes. These are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sahasrara (सहस्रार्)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Agya (आज्ञा)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishuddi (विशुध्दि)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anahata (अनाहत)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manipura (मणिपुर)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swadhisthana (स्वाधिशतान)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Muladhara (मूलाधार)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/T4qIi.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chakras are supposed to be mystic power centres in human body along the spine. Kundalini Shakti (often called Serpent Power) is dormant in a normal human and has to be awakened to reach ultimate consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the Kundalini awakens, it uncoils up breaking open these chakras and activating them untill the Shakti unites with her Shiva at Sahasrara Chakra. Tantric traditions give immense importance to awakening of Kundalini Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The awakening of each Chakra is supposed to elevate ones consciousness to higher levels along with providing certain &lt;em&gt;siddhis&lt;/em&gt; to the yogi. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.santosha.com/philosophy/hathayoga-pradipika-chapter3.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The eight siddhis (Ashtasiddhi अष्टसिध्दि) are&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aṇimā: reducing one's body even to the size of an atom&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahima: expanding one's body to an infinitely large size&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Garima: becoming infinitely heavy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Laghima: becoming almost weightless&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prāpti: having unrestricted access to all places&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prākāmya: realizing whatever one desires&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Iṣṭva: possessing absolute lordship&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaśtva: the power to subjugate all&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This ascent through the chakras can be viewed as an upward journey through the self which refines and subtilizes the energy that is the kundalini, until at the sixth chakra, the Ajna, center of command, a qualitative change has taken place. The chakras are centers of transformation of psychic or mental energy into spiritual energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further readings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tantra-kundalini.com/chakras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tantra-kundalini.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.chakras.net/energy-centers&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chaktra.net&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia-Chakra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhi#Eight_primary_siddhis&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia-Siddhi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2017-02-17T07:33:15.940" LastActivityDate="2017-02-17T07:33:15.940" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2643" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="406" CreationDate="2014-08-07T19:36:24.837" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;No it is nothing about order or nothing like higher value. &lt;kbd&gt;SID M&lt;/kbd&gt; is absolutely right that it is taken first in shloka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Importance of Somnath Jyotirlinga&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Somanatha Jyotirlinga&lt;/em&gt; which is shiva's manifestation for protection of moon, when Chandra dev was cursed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the prayer of mother of &quot;Asuras&quot; demons -&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Asurmata&lt;/strong&gt; , Lord Shiva blessed her that if any of her sons , with pure heart, prays to Shiva with &lt;em&gt;Somanatha Jyotirlinga&lt;/em&gt; , will be illegible for heaven directly!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Many demons entered in heaven and Indra did not like that. So he went to Vishnu who denied that he can not do anything against Shiva's will. Indra then went to mother of devas(deities) and asked her to pray to Parvati(Shakti).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parvati promised her that she will help Indra and she sent Ganesha to stop Asuras from entering heaven. Then Lord Shiva and Parvati appeared and Shiva asked Ganesha to stop. Shiva told that Somnatha is just a way to heaven for those who are asura mata's sons. Meanwhile Rishi Kashyap asks his wife asuramata about the causes in heavan due to asuras. She asks mahadev to take his blessings back, but shiva says, any body who is wishing to go to heavan, if with pure heart prays to Somnatha Jyotirlinga, his wish will be fulfilled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And thus it has the importance that Somnath Mahaev's prayer from pure heart may bring you heaven!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference&lt;/strong&gt; - Shiva Maha Puran&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-08-10T07:58:58.980" LastActivityDate="2014-08-10T07:58:58.980" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2644" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-08T03:22:05.570" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-08T03:22:05.570" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T03:22:05.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2645" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-08T03:22:05.570" Score="0" Body="Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म ) means action, work or deed. Karma refers to the principle of causality where intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-08T05:07:18.210" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T05:07:18.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2646" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-08T03:28:50.237" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-08T03:28:50.237" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T03:28:50.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2647" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-08T03:28:50.237" Score="0" Body="chakras are energy points or knots in the subtle body. Chakras are part of the subtle body and are the meeting points of the subtle (non-physical) energy channels, called nadiis." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-08T05:07:13.053" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T05:07:13.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2648" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2597" CreationDate="2014-08-08T04:50:25.553" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was right about Vitruvakodu being one of the 108 Divya Desams.  The reason I couldn't find it initially is that it's more commonly spelled as Vitthuvakodu or Thiruvitthuvakodu. (Thiru means holy and it is commonly added to the names of Divya Desams).  Vitthuvakodu is a village in Kerala, and according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://temple.dinamalar.com/en/New_en.php?id=113&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; it is the location of the fampus story Rama's ancestor Ambarisha a story and the sage Durvasa &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/9/4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam.  Briefly, Ambarisha was engaging in an Ekadasi fast in honor of Vishnu here, and Durvasa came to him, asking for food.  Then Durvasa went to take a bath, and Ambarisha had some water before Durvasa came back because it was important to break the fast at the right time.  Durvasa was furious, and created a chakra (discuss weapon) to kill Ambarisha.  But Ambarisha was a steadfast devotee of Vishnu, so the chakra was destroyed by Vishnu's Sudarshana chakra, which started chasing Durvasa.  It only stopped chasing him when he fell at Ambarisha's feet and asked for forgiveness.  In any case, after that incident Ambarisha attained Moksha at this location.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also the home of the Vishnu temple called &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaya_Pradhan_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Abhaya Pradhaya Perumal&lt;/a&gt; or Uyyavantha Perumal, which was established by the Pandavas after Arjuna engaged in Tapsya at this location (presumably inspired by Ambarisha).  Each of the Pandavas apparently established their own Vishnu statue in the temple; &lt;a href=&quot;http://temple.dinamalar.com/en/New_en.php?id=113&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Vishnu statue established by Yudhishtra, for instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JSl7A.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the main deity of the temples, the one referred to as Abhaya Pradhan or Uyyavantha, is the idol installed by Arjuna (the photo isn't too clear, so I included a drawing as well):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/x2Izj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kk8m1.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's presumably the darshan of this idol that inspired Kulasekhara Alwar to compose a poem addressed to &quot;Vitthuvakodu's lord&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-11T11:49:47.107" LastActivityDate="2015-10-11T11:49:47.107" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2650" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2657" CreationDate="2014-08-08T05:46:19.517" Score="5" ViewCount="16628" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a famous story related to Shri Krishna that when He was kid, he used to eat soil. One day, his mother &lt;em&gt;yashoda&lt;/em&gt; caught him and asked whether he was eating soil. but Shri Krishna lied that he wasn't eating soil. To believe him, his mother asked him to open his mouth. When he opened mouth, his mother saw whole universe which made her go unconscious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is why Shri Krishna showed universe in his mouth to her mother knowing that it is not a normal act to do so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-01-24T10:20:31.677" LastActivityDate="2017-10-28T13:49:37.847" Title="Why did Shri Krishna show the whole universe to his mother?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2651" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2699" CreationDate="2014-08-08T08:08:34.653" Score="5" ViewCount="704" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that Navrathri is 9 days occasion on which Goddess shows different deity forms each day. But I am not sure what is the significance of these nine deity forms and why Goddess decided to take these avatars?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard a story that Goddess Parvati was angry on lord Shiva for cutting head of lord Ganesha. From this anger, these nine avatars were emerged. But I am not sure to which extent it is true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-13T04:43:52.730" LastActivityDate="2015-04-15T22:20:28.817" Title="What is the significance of deity forms of navrathri?" Tags="|goddess|navrathri|parvati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2652" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-08T08:47:16.233" Score="3" ViewCount="111" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am asking about books written by historians on the state/nature of Hinduism through various centuries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="290" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T10:07:02.570" Title="What are some good reference texts on history of Hinduism?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-08-11T08:46:06.067" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2653" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2652" CreationDate="2014-08-08T09:00:12.353" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kannadasan, who is a popular writer in south wrote a book called &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12297749-arthamulla-hindu-matham-vols-1-10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Arthamulla Indhu Madham&lt;/a&gt;&quot; which means &quot;Meaningful Hinduism&quot; is a nice book on Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="636" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-08T10:07:02.570" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T10:07:02.570" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2654" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2516" CreationDate="2014-08-08T09:05:00.493" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maharshi&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA; a Rishi who is very great in his spirituality(great seer), who had reached a &#xA;certain level towards his goal(path).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rajarshi&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA; a King who is so spiritual that he becomes a Rishi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devarshi&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA; a Rishi dwelling in the heavenly regions or a deva who is also a Rishi. The sons of Dharma or Yoga, divine or godlike sage. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmarshi&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA; a Rishi who has seen the Supreme Spiritual Truth and who were the founders of gotras of Brahmans or caste-races.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-09T15:13:19.800" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T15:13:19.800" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2655" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-08T10:44:24.387" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-08T10:44:24.387" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T10:44:24.387" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2656" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-08T10:44:24.387" Score="0" Body="Yoga (Sanskrit: योग) are the physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that aim to transform body and mind." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-08T11:39:48.123" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T11:39:48.123" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2657" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2650" CreationDate="2014-08-08T11:09:30.183" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;While Shri Krishna was a child He performed many pastimes just as a human child does. We all know how little children lie when they are asked if they have done something bad or wrong. So also Shri Krishna lied when mother Yashoda asked Him if He had eaten soil:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa replied: My dear mother, I have never eaten dirt. All My friends complaining against Me are liars. If you think they are being truthful, you can directly look into My mouth and examine it. [SB - 10.8.35 ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to prove His point when He opened His mouth mother Yashoda saw the whole universe inside it. She realized the divinity of Shri Krishna and forgetting the soil eating incident, surrendered to Him mentally (SB - &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/8/41&quot;&gt;10.8.41&lt;/a&gt;).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, after knowing Shri Krishna was the Lord of the universe, mother Yashoda could never have treated Him like a son and show her affection towards Him. So lord's internal potency &lt;em&gt;Yogamaya&lt;/em&gt; made her forget about Shri Krishna's divinity:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mother Yaśodā, by the grace of the Lord, could understand the real truth. But then again, the supreme master, by the influence of the internal potency, Yoga-māyā, inspired her to become absorbed in intense maternal affection for her son. [SB - 10.8.43]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Immediately forgetting Yoga-māyā’s illusion that Kṛṣṇa had shown the universal form within His mouth, mother Yaśodā took her son on her lap as before, feeling increased affection in her heart for her transcendental child. [SB - 10.8.44]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So mother Yashoda considered, loved and treated Him just as her son instead of revering Him as God even after that incident. Even if it was not a normal act to do so, &lt;strong&gt;Shri Krishna performed it as a playful pastime&lt;/strong&gt;. Moreover, not even a minor action of Shri Krishna is normal. All His actions are divine however significant or insignificant they may seem:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;janma karma ca me divyam&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 4.9]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - My birth and my actions are divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T11:09:30.183" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2658" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-08T11:59:00.087" Score="2" ViewCount="190" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many versions of bhagavd gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am reading one provided by iskcon. But if at all, there is version with better description and contents. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which one is the best to refer?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="216" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-08T12:06:03.023" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T12:06:03.023" Title="Which is the most trusted bhagvat gita version available?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-08-08T13:59:11.420" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2659" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-08T13:13:43.910" Score="26" ViewCount="103208" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, food is categorized into  Tamasic, Rajasic, Sattvic, or combination of them. What does these categories signify?  Can anyone consume food from any of these categories? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any restrictions on which types of food to be used in offerings and prayer?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T15:24:51.187" LastActivityDate="2023-08-23T09:10:49.610" Title="What are Tamasic, Rajasic and Sattvic foods?" Tags="|food|non-vegetarian|gunas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" CommunityOwnedDate="2014-08-22T06:09:32.793" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2661" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="343" CreationDate="2014-08-08T15:34:45.070" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama himself never doubted lady Sita but it was for the satisfaction of the people of his kingdom. And being an ideal man and ideal king he was supposed to fulfill wishes of people of his kingdom. And how can you say he did not protect his wife? He went to all the way to Lanka like an ideal husband. But Rama is ideal man, means ideal son, ideal brother, ideal husband, ideal father and ideal king. So in every circumstance he behaved the way an ideal man is supposed to behave. Had he not asked Sita to go to live in forests people would have said he was not good king So people will never be satisfied. But he did what could possibly be done to keep his foolish subjects happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-03T04:03:00.250" LastActivityDate="2014-10-03T04:03:00.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2662" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="687" CreationDate="2014-08-08T15:42:00.257" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is because Krishna is parmeshwara or God himself. And God deosn't take sides though God helps those who are on the path of dharma or righteousness. Krishna's mere thought would have destroyed the entire Kaurava clan in seconds but through his inactiveness in the war he wanted to show that it is duty of righteous men and women to fight against evil and they will be helped by God like saintly Pandavas werre helped. As long as goodness can keep evil under control its fine but once evil has surpassed all limits and cannot be controled by mortals then God descends on this plane to save the saintly people from wicked people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-08T15:42:00.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2663" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-08T18:31:29.460" Score="5" ViewCount="573" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalidasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kalidasa&lt;/a&gt; is most famous for being a Sanskrit playwright who wrote plays based on stories from  Hindu scripture.   But Kalidasa also composed epic poetry on the same subject, most notably &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raghuva%E1%B9%83%C5%9Ba&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Raghuvamsa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, an epic poem about members of the Raghu dynasty, including Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what are the specific Hindu scriptures that &lt;em&gt;Raghuvamsa&lt;/em&gt; is based on?  Did Kalidasa ever mention what sources he relied upon to compose it?  Or have later scholars surmised where the content of &lt;em&gt;Raghuvamsa&lt;/em&gt; originates from?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I assume that the Valmiki Ramayana was one of the sources used, particularly the Uttara Kanda, but what other sources were used?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-12-04T06:03:12.273" LastActivityDate="2020-09-12T12:37:05.780" Title="What scriptures did Kalidasa use in his Raghuvamsa?" Tags="|ramayana|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2665" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2668" CreationDate="2014-08-09T03:10:17.227" Score="14" ViewCount="23848" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Sanatana Dharma, what are the types of sins? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What types of sins can be washed and how and in what cases it is not considered as sin even if people commit one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="65" LastEditDate="2014-08-09T10:01:28.250" LastActivityDate="2021-11-10T13:34:10.293" Title="What are different types of sins?" Tags="|dharma|sin|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2668" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2665" CreationDate="2014-08-09T17:40:39.873" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question seems simple, but it's a bit broad because there are hundreds of sins mentioned in our scriptures. There are so many kinds of sins mentioned in our scriptures that categorizing them would be difficult. Generally, &lt;strong&gt;a sin is committed when the prescribed laws of the sages are violated either by mind, body or speech&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;varṇāśramaviruddhaṃ ca karma kurvanti ye narāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  karmaṇā manasā bācā nirayeṣu patantite&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 2.6.32]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He who through his mind, speech and action does work that is against his varnashrama dharma (duites as per his caste) falls into hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one can say there are these three kinds of sins, viz. &lt;em&gt;saririk&lt;/em&gt; (physical sins), &lt;em&gt;manasik&lt;/em&gt; (mental sins), &lt;em&gt;vachik&lt;/em&gt; (verbal sins). Nevertheless, scriptures do mention different types of sins as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;Maha-pataka&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Killing a Brahman, drinking liquor, theft, violation of the preceptor's bed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. &lt;em&gt;Upa-pataka&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Eating condemned food, giving up agnihotra, not fulflilling obligations towards gods, sages and manes, killing a woman, &lt;em&gt;shudra&lt;/em&gt; or a &lt;em&gt;vaisya&lt;/em&gt;, etc.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. &lt;em&gt;Jatibrhamsa-pataka&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Beating a brahmana, smelling liquor or garlic, living through begging, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. &lt;em&gt;Apatrikarana-pataka&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Speaking untruth, serving a &lt;em&gt;shudra&lt;/em&gt;, etc.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5. &lt;em&gt;Malinikarana-pataka&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Killing worms and insects, stealing wood, fruit or flower, giving up patience, etc.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But apart from these there are hundreds of minor and major sins mentioned in the scriptures. And some are even equal to the &lt;em&gt;mahapataka&lt;/em&gt; (mortal sins). Also, Mahabharata mentions about various kinds of sins including the five grave ones (&lt;em&gt;mahapataka&lt;/em&gt;). They are as below in brief:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Drinking alcoholic liquors, killing a Brahmana, and the violation of the preceptor's bed, are sins that, if committed consciously, have no expiation. The only expiation laid down for them is death.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The unmarried girl who suffers her virginity to be deflowered incurs three-fourths of the sin of &lt;em&gt;brahma hatya&lt;/em&gt;, while the man that deflowers her incurs a sin equal to a fourth part of that of &lt;em&gt;brahma hatya&lt;/em&gt; (Brahmanicide).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;By slandering Brahmanas or by striking them, one sinks in infamy for a hundred years. By killing a Brahmana one sinks into hell for a thousand years. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Expiating Sins&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sins committed cannot be just washed away without experiencing their corresponding punishment in hell.&lt;/strong&gt; However, for &lt;strong&gt;sins committed unintentionally&lt;/strong&gt; and in cases where the sinner repents his deeds [VP - 2.6.40], the scriptures prescribe performance of &lt;em&gt;prayaschita&lt;/em&gt; (acts of expiation):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sages prescribe a penance for unintentionally committed sins. Some declare, on the evidence of the revealed texts, (that it may be performed) even for an intentional (offence). [Manu - 11.45]&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A man that has acted sinfully destroys his sin by acting virtuously afterwards and by penances. [Mbh]&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Excluding the five grave sins (&lt;em&gt;mahapatakas&lt;/em&gt;) that have been mentioned above, all other sins have expiations, provided for them. &lt;strong&gt;Expiating those sins according to the ordinances laid down for them, one should not again indulge in them&lt;/strong&gt;. [Mbh]&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A householder has five slaughter-houses (as it were, viz.) the hearth, the grinding-stone, the broom, the pestle and mortar, the water-vessel, by using which he is bound (with the fetters of sin).In order to successively expiate (the offences committed by means) of all these (five) the great sages have prescribed for householders the daily (performance of the five) great sacrifices. [Manu - 3.68,69]&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To mention the various kinds of expiations mentioned in the scriptures for each type of sins would be too broad. However, along with expiations like vow of celibacy, living on begging, etc. all scriptures also mention &lt;strong&gt;remembrance of Vishnu's names and practice of devotion to Him as one of the best destroyer of sins&lt;/strong&gt;. Bhagavad Gita also explicitly mentions it in the verse 18.66.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sin is always considered as a sin whenever people commit it. One cannot simply knowingly commit a sin and think it will not be considered as a sin. In case of knowingly committing sin, the consequences and expiations are even more severe. But when a sin like death of someone occurs while treating other, while helping other (&lt;em&gt;paropakara&lt;/em&gt;) or while punishing other, it is not considered as a sin [Agn Pu - 173.5]. Also, people who are God realized and perfectly situated in Self realization without the sense of doership, sinful acts like killing even do not bind them [BG - 18.17] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Agni Purana - 168, Mahabharat - 12.165&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-08-12T06:04:46.020" LastActivityDate="2014-08-12T06:04:46.020" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2669" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2670" CreationDate="2014-08-09T19:15:14.240" Score="6" ViewCount="7191" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently I was reading about Padmanabha Swamy temple where the treasure was unlocked. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have seen a statue of lord Vishnu where he is resting over &lt;em&gt;Anant Naag&lt;/em&gt; and from his &lt;em&gt;Nabhi&lt;/em&gt;, lotus is coming out in which lord Brahma resides. So what is the exact story behind this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the relation of Brahma with Padmanabha Swamy and how did they got the treasure?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-09T20:16:23.827" LastActivityDate="2020-04-19T01:18:03.160" Title="What is the story behind Padmanabha Swamy?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2670" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2669" CreationDate="2014-08-09T21:30:39.750" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning of Padmanabha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bibhudevmisra.com/2013/05/the-symbolism-of-vishnu-in-world.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Symbolism of Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is widely regarded as the Supreme Creator. In our religion he is shown reclining on the coils of a gigantic, seven-hooded serpent called Ananta-Sesha, in the middle of the cosmic milky ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Vishnu and Ananta-Sesha and are eternally present through the periodic cosmic cycles of creation and destruction. The Vishnu Purana states that at the end of a “&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time#Reckoning_of_time_for_Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Day of Brahma&lt;/a&gt;” (1000 Mahā-Yugas = 1 Kalpa = 1 day (day only) of Brahma), when the entire creation has been dissolved, and the world has been converted into one vast ocean, “the Supreme reposes upon his mighty serpent couch amidst the deep: he awakes after a season, and again, as Brahma, becomes the author of creation.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y1bJv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Munneswaram Temple, Sri Lanka, c. 1000 CE. Source: Wikipedia&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above image is from Munneswaram Temple, Sri Lanka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The emerging lotus flower from the navel of Vishnu (&lt;em&gt;vishnu nabhi&lt;/em&gt;), on which Brahma is seated is set to bring forth the material of creation.  Hence, Vishnu is described as “lotus-navelled” (&lt;em&gt;padma-nabha&lt;/em&gt;); and Brahma is termed the “navel-born” (&lt;em&gt;nabhija&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Padmanabha Swami Temple:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/493va.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;32Kg Ananta Sayanam Idol&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above &lt;a href=&quot;http://srirangaminfo.com/srirangamphotos/Sri-Padmanabhaswamy-Temple-photos/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;image&lt;/a&gt; is a 32 kg idol of Vishnu in Ananta Sayanam pose apart form the shiva linga which was shot of the treasures which were unearthed form temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for the treasures of the temple it is a very old temple as many purana's like  Brahma Purana, Matsya Purana, Varaha Purana, Skanda Purana etc, states about that shrine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Late in the middle of 17&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; and 18&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century the &lt;em&gt;Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma&lt;/em&gt; took over the throne at the age of 22 from  &lt;em&gt;Ettuveetil Pillamar&lt;/em&gt; due to some conspiracy, and as the temple has 6 chambers labelled form 'A to F' has been present from the day of construction of temple, it was used to store the valuables of the ruling king as a safe deposit and only the king and the high priest of the temple were allowed to go inside the vault, until recently when chamber 'A' was opened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;NOTE: chamber B has not yet opened due to fear of bad omen as they did Ashtamangala Devaprasnam which might cause Divine displeasure&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They also had gold coins of East India Company. It is assumed that when the British had war with the southern kings, they hid most of the treasures in that vault and was asked to seal it off and was never seen again until recently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="602" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-02-04T11:42:24.120" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2671" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2735" CreationDate="2014-08-10T02:50:01.180" Score="8" ViewCount="3003" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is Agni karyam(worshiping fire)? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there any classifications among? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Whats the eligibility to do Agni karyam? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How one gets benefited by such act? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is Nityagnihotra? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there any mandatory Agni karyas to do in one's own life time? If so, what are they and when they will be performed?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-13T04:43:09.807" LastActivityDate="2014-10-13T04:43:48.433" Title="What is significance of Agni karyam?" Tags="|worship|agni|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2672" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-10T04:05:35.357" Score="25" ViewCount="7608" Body="&lt;p&gt;Alambusha, AKA Shalakantaka, was a Rakshasa (demon) who fought on the Kaurava side in the Mahabharata war.  As &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata, he was the one who killed Arjuna's son Iravan, and as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07171.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Drona Parva, he was eventually killed by Bhima's Rakshasa son Ghatotkacha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm interested in Alambusha's lineage.  It is mentioned in the Mahabharata that Alumbusha is Rishyasringa's son.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/527/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Rishyasringa was the sage who performed the Putrakameshti Yagna for Dasharatha, which resulted in the birth of Rama and his brothers.  And Rishyasringa was married to Dasharatha's daughter Shanta (who was raised by Romapada king of Anga).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how is it that a son of the sage Rishyasringa and a grandson of Dasharatha was a Rakshasa?  Did Rishyasringa have a Rakshasa son because of some kind of curse?  Or did he marry a Rakshasi (demoness) after he married Shanta, similar to how the sage Vishravas married the demoness Kaikeshi (mother of Ravana) after he married Ilavida (mother of Kubera)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T09:26:35.673" LastActivityDate="2021-06-01T01:20:54.660" Title="What is the story of Alambusha, demon son of sage Rishyasringa?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|itihasa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2673" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-10T10:32:30.733" Score="14" ViewCount="778" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/HinduMathematics&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;History of Hindu Mathematics&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (Bibhutibhushan Datta and Avadesh Narayan Singh) vol.1 p.1: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The earliest works available, the Vedas (c. 3,000 B.C. or probably&#xA;  much earlier), although consisting  mainly of hymns of praise and&#xA;  poems of worship, show a high state of civilization. (...) It is here&#xA;  that we find the beginnings of the science of mathematics&#xA;  (arithmetics, geometry, algebra, etc.).    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mathematics#Indian_mathematics&quot;&gt;Wikipedia, History of mathematics, Indian mathematics&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The earliest civilization on the Indian subcontinent is the Indus&#xA;  Valley Civilization that flourished between 2600 and 1900 BC in the&#xA;  Indus river basin. Their cities were laid out with geometric&#xA;  regularity, but no known mathematical documents survive from this&#xA;  civilization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt;: Did the science of mathematics begin with the Vedas? If yes, why?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Was the concept of numbers transmitted by rishis? When?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-02-12T17:06:51.580" LastActivityDate="2018-02-12T17:06:51.580" Title="Did the science of mathematics begin with the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|history|mathematics|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2674" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-10T11:21:18.830" Score="6" ViewCount="948" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gayatri-Mantra appeared in the Rigveda, which was composed between c. 1700–1100 BCE.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This Mantra has probably been transmitted from masters to disciples, a long time before being written.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt;: When did the Gayatri-Mantra appear orally for the first time (approximately)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20" LastActivityDate="2014-12-29T18:08:32.620" Title="When did the Gayatri-Mantra appear?" Tags="|vedas|history|rig-veda|rishi|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2675" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-10T13:01:19.387" Score="12" ViewCount="5942" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is it placed on our head after Darsan? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I am correct, the &lt;em&gt;Satagopuram&lt;/em&gt; is not offered in Shakthi temples. What is the reason behind this? (&lt;em&gt;In which kind of temples can this be seen?&lt;/em&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do we need to chant any mantra/hymns while &lt;em&gt;Satagopuram&lt;/em&gt; is placed on our head or does the priest chant any hymns? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can it be placed on all of us unconditional of our purity or are there any exemptions? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-02-07T18:27:35.543" LastActivityDate="2017-03-11T00:57:46.073" Title="What is the significance of Satagopuram?" Tags="|vishnu|rituals|temple|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2676" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-10T13:16:53.673" Score="12" ViewCount="1901" Body="&lt;p&gt;I observe many people setting vedic mantras like Gayatri mantram or Subprabhatam as their ringtone or callertune for their mobiles. To my belief, on account of its power and importance it can't be sung by such devices untimely and also we are not supposed to stop the mantra chant in attempt to answer the call. Regardless of our inner and outer purity we cant listen to these hymns. The power of beejaskaras are underestimated! These are meant to be chanted in pure &amp;amp; calm environment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I correct? If so, are there any simple references to convince a common man (laymen) and condemn their practice? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-22T15:54:27.220" LastActivityDate="2014-08-22T16:46:39.147" Title="Can we place vedic hymns as our ringtones?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2677" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2676" CreationDate="2014-08-10T17:12:11.827" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes you are correct. There are specific rules and boundations for chanting mantras, to get the full benefit from it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rules of Chanting&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The duration of each tone is fixed and one should chant the manra according to the swara with each syllable stressed to the required extent, and each tone (for the corresponding syllable) chanted for that duration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chanting should not be done like singing, or like reading. It should not be muttered fast, each syllable should be properly uttered with the required stress and pronounced with clarity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While chanting one should sit with his back upright, and not shake or move while chanting. Chanting should be done with a fixed posture to allow the complete effect of the sound energy. While this rule in general applies to singing also (say for instance classical music), it applies even more rigidly in case of chanting a mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whether the mantra is chanted aloud or internally, it should be done along with the swara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we check the second rule (while chanting  one should...) it is clear that if we apply it as a ringtone it can ring anytime during (sleeping,bathing,etc) also some mantra's are restricted on some places (samshan bhoomi, street, public places etc). Even after all this if we take too much precautions and want it to ring (or even to play) we will not be reciving any cosmic energy as we are not creating the sound(naad) of the mantra's , we are not always sitting in the prescribed procedure...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are restrictions to some mantra's like mahamrutunjay mantra, durga saptashati mantras etc are that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are reciting it you should not stop in between chants and you should sit on clean and dry asan (made of kush, kambal(&lt;em&gt;wool&lt;/em&gt;),or mrug charma[not possible]).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Talking about gayatri mantra, it is a starter for sadhna and is used by bramhin's to amplify their energy. It is clearly a disrespect of gayatri mantra or any vedic hymn if we set it as a ringtone or play it anywhere at any-time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remember there is difference between bhajans and mantras. we can set bhajans as ringtone but not mantras as mantra's are energy sources.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we think of mantras as Sun, bhajans are as lamp. You can lit lamp anywhere but you cannot make sun go here and there, you can just derive energy from sun in correct manner with correct techniques.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Fundamentals_of_Mantra_Sadhana_or_Practice&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2014-08-22T16:46:39.147" LastActivityDate="2014-08-22T16:46:39.147" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2678" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-11T02:14:38.630" Score="6" ViewCount="828" Body="&lt;p&gt;The conversion of the great Kanchi temple from Thenkalai to Vadakalai is a well known fact (lot of documentation in the court cases). Can somebody provide historic records (court records etc) or archival evidence regarding the conversion (&lt;em&gt;if ever converted&lt;/em&gt;) of the Aaravumudan temple in Kumbakonsm (Thirukudanthai), commonly known as the Sarangapani temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="649" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-28T14:56:09.420" LastActivityDate="2017-05-28T14:56:09.420" Title="Was the Sarangapani temple ever converted from Thenkalai to Vadakalai?" Tags="|temple|history|sri-vaishnava|vadakalai|thenkalai|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2679" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-11T02:29:46.903" Score="3" ViewCount="2229" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally we do a sankalpam before any pooja but during an annual cycle we recite the MahaSankalpam also. What is the meaning of the MahaSankalpam and what all scientific facts can be derived from them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="232" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-21T12:28:13.473" LastActivityDate="2019-08-27T04:03:46.243" Title="What facts can be derived from the MahaSankalpam sloka?" Tags="|sankalpa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2680" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2687" CreationDate="2014-08-11T04:08:10.893" Score="9" ViewCount="1609" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every Devta and Devia has a specific place as home. We can see that only Narad muni keeps travelling across all the &lt;em&gt;lokas&lt;/em&gt; everytime.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where is his home location? Or is there any reason that he has to keep travelling across all the &lt;em&gt;lokas&lt;/em&gt; continuously?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-22T16:34:23.670" LastActivityDate="2016-12-07T09:57:06.417" Title="Where does Narad muni live?" Tags="|lokas|narada|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2683" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2686" CreationDate="2014-08-11T09:37:05.610" Score="3" ViewCount="478" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu mythology has mentions of the &lt;em&gt;Gurukula&lt;/em&gt; system of education. I have heard how the Guru and the &lt;em&gt;Guru-Patni&lt;/em&gt; (Guru's wife) lived with their students. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the Guru (teacher) is always a man. Is there any mention of any &lt;em&gt;Gurukulam&lt;/em&gt; where the teacher is a woman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="256" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T06:19:14.813" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T06:19:14.813" Title="Were there women teachers in Gurukulas?" Tags="|women|guru|customs|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2684" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2685" CreationDate="2014-08-11T16:01:07.817" Score="10" ViewCount="6834" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rakshas king Ravana was worshiping Lord Shiva very strongly. Once he has created Shiv Stotram for Lord Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the story behind creating Shiv Stotram?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-26T10:45:44.983" LastActivityDate="2019-04-28T16:29:38.487" Title="Why did Ravana create Shiv Stotram?" Tags="|shiva|stotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2685" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2684" CreationDate="2014-08-11T17:30:17.917" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ravana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; is a symbol of ego. &lt;em&gt;Ravana&lt;/em&gt; had ego for his power, so he went to pick up the whole &lt;em&gt;Kailash&lt;/em&gt; mountain on which God Shiva meditates. To achieve this purpose he asked his brother &lt;em&gt;Kubera&lt;/em&gt; for &lt;em&gt;Pushpak&lt;/em&gt; plane. He traveled towards Himalaya and stopped at the entrance of Kailash to pick it. &lt;em&gt;Nandi&lt;/em&gt; found him and asked him to stop. He abused Nandi that Nandi is animal and &lt;em&gt;Nandi&lt;/em&gt; cursed him that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The day when one animal (Monkey &lt;em&gt;Hanuman&lt;/em&gt;) will burn your golden Lanka, that day oh Ravana, understand that you are no more and you have reached your end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana continued by ignoring Nandi and started to lift Kailash. Lord Shiva opened his eyes from meditation and put his toe on the ground, Ravana's hands got stuck! Till Shiva's toe was touched to the surface, the whole mountain could not be moved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravan yells for Shiva to free his hands by creating &lt;code&gt;Shiva Tandava Strotram&lt;/code&gt;, and Shiva frees him and leaves him in peace because &lt;em&gt;Ravana&lt;/em&gt; cried a lot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjiiRKTAPLI&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;See video about &lt;code&gt;Shiva Tandava Strotram&lt;/code&gt; with lyrics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference - Read full Story in Ramayana narrated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TheRamayanaUttaraKandam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttara Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also read Ravan Samhita!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_shiva-shiva_tandava_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The last 2 verses mention the importance of this Strotra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;14.1: This Greatest of the Great Stava (Hymn) has been Uttered; those who Regularly...&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;14.2: ... Recite it and Contemplate on Shiva with Purity of Mind and in an Uninterrupted manner and ...&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;14.3: ... with Great Devotion in Hara, the Guru, will Quickly Advance towards Him; there is No other Way or Refuge,&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;14.4: The Delusion of that Person will be Destroyed by Deep Contemplation (Meditation) on Shankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;15.1: During the Time of Completion of the Puja, those who Recite this Song of the Ten-Headed Ravana, ...&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;15.2: ... Recite this after Completing the Puja of Shambhu in the Evening,...&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;15.3: ... To him who is Steadfast in this Worship; will come Chariots Yoked with King of Elephants and Horses (signifying Prosperity) ...&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;15.4: ... and Devi Lakshmi will Always show Her Graceful Face to him; Sri Shambhu will Bestow this Boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Tandava_Stotram&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;asked&lt;/a&gt; with folded hands:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When will I be happy, living in the hollow place near the celestial river, Ganga, carrying the folded hands on my head all the time, with my bad thinking washed away, and uttering the mantra of Lord Shiva and devoted in the God with glorious forehead with vibrating eyes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-04-28T16:29:38.487" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2686" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2683" CreationDate="2014-08-11T18:10:47.533" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Female teachers are there in hinduism. World-mother Jagadamba Parvati herself taught Banasur's daughter &lt;strong&gt;Usha&lt;/strong&gt;. Parvati taught Usha dancing, singing, fighting and all Vedas also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another mother guru is &lt;em&gt;Gayatri Mata&lt;/em&gt;, she is considered as mother of Vedas for all brahmins in hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Gurukulam, female rishis were there. One of them is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargi_Vachaknavi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gargi Vachaknavi&lt;/a&gt;, she have also created some hymns in Upnishada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru's wife is also a teacher in Gurukulam. One of them is Lopamudra, Wife of Sage Agastya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many woman in hinduism who has guided someone in spiritual way, one of them is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarada_Devi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sarda Devi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Guru in Hinduism is referred to spiritual guider. One of such spiritual guider is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muktabai&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Muktabai&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-22T16:11:38.527" LastActivityDate="2014-08-22T16:11:38.527" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2687" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2680" CreationDate="2014-08-11T18:24:17.793" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the start of Satya yuga, &lt;em&gt;Narad muni&lt;/em&gt; misguided &lt;em&gt;Daksha Prajapati&lt;/em&gt;'s all sons, to take &lt;em&gt;Sanyaas&lt;/em&gt; and perform meditation for &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of this, &lt;em&gt;Daksha&lt;/em&gt;'s sons declined to marry and to accept society. They all went to jungle to perform meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This made &lt;em&gt;Daksha Prajapati&lt;/em&gt; worried about how he will handle the kingdom, because he will not have any successors. He asks his sons who misguided them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When &lt;em&gt;Daksha&lt;/em&gt; knows &lt;em&gt;Narad&lt;/em&gt; is the root cause, he curses &lt;em&gt;Narad muni&lt;/em&gt;, that he will not have any home/family and will have to travel places, here and there with chanting of &lt;em&gt;Narayana&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Narad muni&lt;/em&gt; accepts his curse as the curse states the chanting of Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Hindu scriptures, &lt;em&gt;Narada&lt;/em&gt; does not have any home, but he has spent most of time in traveling only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/6/5/en1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedabase&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 6.5.43:&lt;/strong&gt; You have made me lose my sons once, and now you have again done the same inauspicious thing. Therefore you are a rascal who does not know how to behave toward others. You may travel all over the universe, but I curse you to have no residence anywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-07T09:57:06.417" LastActivityDate="2016-12-07T09:57:06.417" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2688" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-12T04:19:55.253" Score="4" ViewCount="484" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why the prayer contains 40 lines though 1, 11, 21 etc are considered as good in religious work?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any significance of number 40 in hindu mythology ? Also which is the first Chalisa(forty verse) and who made it for whom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;FYI - I read this post but nothing there about the number 40.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2510/what-is-a-chalisa-and-what-is-importance-of-chalisa&quot;&gt;What is a chalisa and what is the importance of chalisa?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T06:17:58.763" Title="What is the significance of number 40 in forty verse prayer?" Tags="|practice|prayer|numerology|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-06-19T14:59:27.517" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2689" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2698" CreationDate="2014-08-12T04:24:05.730" Score="14" ViewCount="19777" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rudraksha comes 14 different types. Each type has its own importance &amp;amp; benefits. If a person wants to have Rudraksha for him/her then which Rudraksha should he/she Dharan (take)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-21T20:36:00.613" LastActivityDate="2024-03-13T03:50:09.490" Title="How to choose a specific Rudraksha?" Tags="|shiva|rudraksha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2690" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-12T05:01:18.553" Score="15" ViewCount="18680" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any reason behind the restriction that Garuda Purana should only be read during normal days (i.e., when there's no death in the family)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My elders told me that it should be only read on the 10&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; day after death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is it so? Why can't we read it on normal days?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="636" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-09T17:19:41.000" LastActivityDate="2017-01-09T17:19:41.000" Title="Why can Garuda Purana be read on specific days only?" Tags="|puranas|culture|tradition|superstitions|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2692" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-12T08:09:18.243" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-12T08:09:18.243" LastActivityDate="2014-08-12T08:09:18.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2693" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-12T08:09:18.243" Score="0" Body="Rudraksha (&quot;Rudra's eyes&quot;) is a large evergreen broad-leaved tree whose seed is traditionally used for prayer beads in Hinduism." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-12T09:23:01.157" LastActivityDate="2014-08-12T09:23:01.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2694" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-12T12:44:16.233" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Purana (Sanskrit: पुराण, &lt;em&gt;Purāṇa&lt;/em&gt;) literally means &quot;very old or ancient&quot;, so these are ancient Theistic Vedic texts compiled by the Sage Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasdeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Puranas deal with myriad of different topics helping the jiva or soul to evolve in his journey towards the supreme destination. It answers the questions important to human-beings like Who am I? Purpose of Life? What is my Relationship with other human beings and God? How to lead a happy life? etc etc and also giving case histories from ancient past of persons who were successful or who failed miserably.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The case histories are not limited to just the earth planet nor are limited to current yuga time-scale.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Technically a text is called a Purāṇa if it has some of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/12/7/9-10/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;following characteristics&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The creation of this universe&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The subsequent creation of worlds and beings&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The maintenance of all living beings&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The sustenance of universe, worlds and the beings&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The rule of various Manus&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The dynasties of great kings&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The activities of such kings&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Annihilation of the Universe&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Motivation &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Supreme shelter&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;More Learning&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/12/7/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;More interesting things about Puranas directly from a Maha-Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10323/7961&quot;&gt;Difference between Mahapurana (major) and Upa-Purana (minor)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puranas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/24230/7961&quot;&gt;How many Puranas are there?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5307/7961&quot;&gt;Classification of Puranas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7961" LastEditorUserId="7961" LastEditDate="2019-08-30T15:42:41.053" LastActivityDate="2019-08-30T15:42:41.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2695" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-12T12:44:16.233" Score="0" Body="Puranas (Sanskrit: पुराण) are ancient Hindu texts eulogizing various deities, primarily the divine Trimurti God in Hinduism through divine stories. Questions pertaining to the 18 mahapuranas  can use this tag." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-08-30T15:51:49.020" LastActivityDate="2019-08-30T15:51:49.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2696" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2697" CreationDate="2014-08-12T14:02:03.593" Score="14" ViewCount="6084" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva is white, Rama is sky blue, Krishna is black, Hanuman is Goldena and Gowri is red (red+white+yellow in fact) in color.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though the God is unique, He takes different forms with different colors for each avatar. Is there any significance behind the colors? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can we apply the same theory of color is based on character to humans? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-27T10:39:28.400" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T07:42:35.017" Title="Why are Hindu gods colored?" Tags="|gods|color|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2697" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2696" CreationDate="2014-08-12T17:09:21.657" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Color signifies the property of the God's character&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Shiva is karpur Gaur&lt;/code&gt; - i.e. white as camphor, because he is totally nirlipta(not affected by samsara or worldly habits or wealth) he is always covered in white Bhasma (ashes which come out of his own agni stambha form [refer :Linga Purana]).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Talking about Shri Rama he is light-blue colored signifying the calmness and politeness also the maryada(always being within human limits). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dark Blue color of lord Krishna is similar to the Sandhya Kal (Evening Time) where day meets night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अतुलितबलधामं हेमशैलाभदेहं &lt;br&gt; दनुजवनकृशानुं ज्ञानिनामग्रगण्यम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सकलगुणनिधानं वानराणामधीशं&lt;br&gt; रघुपतिप्रियभक्तं वातात्मजं नमामि ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/bhakta_hanuman-atulita_bala_dhamam.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mantra Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mantra from SunderKand of Ramayana depicts Characteristics of Shri Hanuman. Here &lt;em&gt;Haemshalbdeham&lt;/em&gt; means 'body like &lt;code&gt;Golden Mountain&lt;/code&gt;'. The golden color of his body depicts that he is beautiful and powerful (full of tejas) that is his body has become golden colored due to Shri Rama bhakti or chanting of continuous Shri Ram naam/Name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At Last Gauri as name depicts is white as her husband Mahadev Lord Shiva, this depicts their Intimacy of characteristics, bonding etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In humans it is the varna which is specified in jyotishya (Astrology) and the Kundali of a person this depicts the color of human child when he is born and this affects its characterstics (not in a racist way).According to varna the gana is judged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wou.edu/provost/library/exhibits/exhibits2004-05/color/Images/hinduism.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; if you want more details on colour and their significance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-05-19T12:25:40.277" LastActivityDate="2017-05-19T12:25:40.277" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2698" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2689" CreationDate="2014-08-12T17:59:15.770" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a secret relationship between Rudraksha and the wearer, which is very secret and can not be shared. Rudraksha tree was born from Lord Shiva's tears, so have great energy of healing others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The wearer's nature is affected from rudraksha only. Different types of rudraksha have different effects. One can also wear combination of rudraksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For Example&lt;/strong&gt;, if you fell nervous, Keep a big size 5 Mukhi Rudraksha with you. Whenever you feel nervous due to sudden shock and feel cold, just hold it tight in your right palm for ten minutes. You will regain your confidence and body will start warming up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The number of faces a bead can have varies from a single face up to 21 faces. They are used for different purposes, so it would be improper to just buy something in the shop and put it on the body. Wearing the wrong type could disturb one’s life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Ek mukhi&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A lot of people want to wear an ek mukhi, which has only one face because it is very powerful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People say if you wear an ek mukhi, you will leave your family within twelve days. Whether you leave the family or not is not the issue, it is just that it will make your energies in such a way that you will want to be alone. It doesn't make you compatible to be with other people&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Shiva puran, all types are mentioned of rudraksha, in which ek mukhi is shiva himself, which can destroy any worst sin. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shivshankar.in/worship-method-of-siva-lingas/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Read last paragraph about Shiva puran Rudraksha here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Five-faced&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Five-faced beads or panchmukhi is safe and good for everyone – man, woman and child. It is for general wellbeing, health and freedom. It lowers your blood pressure, calms your nerves and brings a certain calmness and alertness in your nervous system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Six-faced&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Children below 12 years of age can wear six-faced beads. It will help them calm down and be more focused. Above all they will receive the right type of attention from the adult.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;many are there, you can find on &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/the-significance-of-rudraksh/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;internet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Astrology&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the modern Astrologers; &lt;em&gt;Rudraksha&lt;/em&gt; is used for removing malefic planetary effect. There are twenty seven Constellations. Each has control of one of the Nine Planets. Each constellation is controlled by some related &lt;em&gt;Rudraksha&lt;/em&gt;. Therefore according to these constellations, various multifaceted &lt;em&gt;Rudraksha&lt;/em&gt; are worn (Control planets) and is found useful in multi-discipline.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Ayurveda&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Ayurveda, Rudraksha strengthens the body constitutions. It removes the blood impurities and strengthens the body substance. It removes the bacteria inside as well as outside the Human Body. Rudraksha removes the headache, cough, paralysis, and blood pressure, heart disease and maternity problems. Wearing of Rudraksha brings glow on the face, which results in calm and charming personality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But for some skins, it cause allergy, so better to wear what suits to your skin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person can take advice from any Hindu astrologer with his kundali can can ask him to suggest him any rudraksha type.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Better to ask a person who has knowledge about it instead of just experimenting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rudraksham.com/choosing-rudraksha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;If you want to choose rudraksha by yourself Please see this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-15T17:30:17.960" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2699" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2651" CreationDate="2014-08-12T18:52:50.283" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of Navaratri&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Navaratri represents a celebration of the Goddess Amba(the Power). In gujarat(India) we do Aarti of Mother Amba all 9 days and play Garaba.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Navaratri or Navadurga Parva happens to be the most auspicious and unique period of devotional sadhanas and worship of Shakti (the sublime, ultimate, absolute creative energy) of the Divine conceptualized as the Mother Goddess-Durga, whose worship dates back to prehistoric times before the dawn of the Vedic age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navratri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of Nav - durga incarnations&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Name - worship day on navratri - Planet Govern&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shailputri - Day 1 - Moon&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the self-immolation as Goddess Sati, Goddess Parvati took birth as the daughter of Lord Himalaya. In Sanskrit Shail means the mountain and due to which Goddess was known as Shailputri, the daughter of the mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmacharini - Day 2 - Mangal&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Parvati took birth at the home of Daksha Prajapati. In this form the Goddess Parvati was a great Sati and her unmarried form is worshipped as Goddess Brahmacharini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Brahmacharini did severe penance to get Lord Shiva as her husband. She performed hard austerity and due to which She was called Brahmacharini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandraghanta - Day 3 - Shukra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Chandraghanta is the married form the Goddess Parvati. After getting married to Lord Shiva Goddess Mahagauri started adorning her forehead with half Chandra and due to which Goddess Parvati was known as Goddess Chandraghanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kushmanda - Day 4 - Aun&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Parvati started living inside the center of the Sun so that He can liberate energy to the universe. Since then Goddess is known as Kushmanda. Kushmanda is the Goddess who has the power and capability to live inside the Sun. The glow and radiance of her body is as luminous as that of the Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Skandamata - Day 5 - Budha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Goddess Parvati became the mother of Lord Skanda (also known as Lord Kartikeya), Mata Parvati was known as Goddess Skandamata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Katyayani - Day 6 - Brihaspati(Guru)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To destroy demon Mahishasura, Goddess Parvati took the form of Goddess Katyayani. It was the most violent form of Goddess Parvati. In this form Goddess Parvati is also known as Warrior Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kalratri - Day 7 - Shani&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the Goddess Parvati removed outer golden skin to kill demons named Shumbha and Nishumbha, She was known as Goddess Kalaratri. Kalaratri is the fiercest and the most ferocious form of Goddess Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahagauri - Day 8 - Rahu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu mythologies, the Goddess Shailputri at the age of sixteen was extremely beautiful and was blessed with fair complexion. Due to her extreme fair complexion she was known as Goddess Mahagauri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siddhidatri - Day 9 - Ketu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the beginning of the universe Lord Rudra worshipped Adi-Parashakti for creation. It is believed that Goddess Adi-Parashakti had no form. The supreme Goddess of Power, Adi-Parashakti, appeared in the form of Siddhidatri from the left half of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference :&lt;/strong&gt; Markandey Purana &lt;em&gt;(In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freewebs.com/jaidurga/informationonmataji.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Durga Saptshati&lt;/a&gt;, the Markandeya Purana depicts nine embodiments of the Goddess)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Also See:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navadurga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nav Durga on Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi_Mahatmya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Mahatmya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-17T18:19:38.307" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2700" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-13T03:10:41.837" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-13T03:10:41.837" LastActivityDate="2014-08-13T03:10:41.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2701" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-13T03:10:41.837" Score="0" Body="Dharma (Sanskrit: धर्म ) is a key concept with multiple meanings in the Indian religions Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-13T05:58:50.923" LastActivityDate="2014-08-13T05:58:50.923" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2702" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-13T03:46:08.127" Score="7" ViewCount="6255" Body="&lt;p&gt;In northern India whenever we perform any yagna we keep the &lt;code&gt;pan&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;supari&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;batasha&lt;/code&gt; at the base of the havan kunda and then start the yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although in various other ritual performances we use &lt;code&gt;pan&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;supari&lt;/code&gt; at other places too, so what is the relevance of using it as par as my understanding &lt;code&gt;pan&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;supari&lt;/code&gt; is related to chewing tobacco habits so how it is relevant in our &lt;code&gt;hindu&lt;/code&gt; culture ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastActivityDate="2014-08-28T06:48:00.220" Title="What is the significance of pan and supari in yagna?" Tags="|practice|culture|yajna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2703" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-13T03:55:40.513" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-13T03:55:40.513" LastActivityDate="2014-08-13T03:55:40.513" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2704" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-13T03:55:40.513" Score="0" Body="Yagna (Sanskrit: यज्ञ) is an ancient ritual of offering and sublimating the Havana Sámagri (herbal preparations) in the fire." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-13T05:59:11.430" LastActivityDate="2014-08-13T05:59:11.430" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2705" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2708" CreationDate="2014-08-13T05:36:49.750" Score="10" ViewCount="9160" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do we only say about the &lt;em&gt;Rama&lt;/em&gt; naam during the funeral though we have various gods in hinduism. Is there any specific story behind this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've never heard anyone pronouncing the names of lord Shiva or lord Vishnu, but it would make sense if people calls the name of lord Shiva as he is a god of Death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why people keep pronouncing the name of lord Rama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastEditorUserId="315" LastEditDate="2014-08-13T09:13:17.600" LastActivityDate="2016-09-27T14:40:44.360" Title="Why do we keep saying &quot;rama naam satya&quot; while carrying a dead body for funeral?" Tags="|practice|rama|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2706" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1975" CreationDate="2014-08-13T08:34:34.770" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The events that happens after death of one is clearly mentioned in &quot;Garuda Purana&quot;. After a individual died the body of his/her is cremated. After that, 15 day rituals will takes place in which rice balls are offered which makes the body of the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-49.For nine days and nights the departed obtains rice-balls, and on the tenth day the &#xA;  being, with fully formed body, acquires strength. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-50.50. The old body being cremated, a new one is formed by these offerings, O Bird; the &#xA;  man, the size of a hand (cubit), by this experiences good and evil on the way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-55.On the thirteenth day the departed(soul), bound by the servants of Yama, walks alone along the road like a captured monkey. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-56.The extent of the way of Yama measures eighty-six thousand Yojanas, 1 without &#xA;  Vaitaraṇî, O Bird.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-57.Two hundred and forty-seven Yojanas each day the departed travels, going by day &#xA;  and night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-58-59.Having passed successively. through these sixteen cities on the way, the sinful &#xA;  man goes to the place of the King of Righteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This purana is completely based on Conversation between Vishnu and Garuda ( Vahana of Vishnu).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="636" LastActivityDate="2014-08-13T08:34:34.770" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2707" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2665" CreationDate="2014-08-13T09:11:17.203" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/gpu06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/a&gt; deals with the list of sins that leads a human to Hell. I will take some verses from there and post them here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5-12. Slayers of Brâhmiṇs, drinkers of intoxicants, slayers of owe, infanticides, murderers of women, destroyers of the embryo, and those who commit secret sins,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who steal the wealth of the teacher, the property of the temple or of the twice-born&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who take away the possessions of women, and those who steal the possessions of children;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who do not repay their debts; those who misappropriate deposits; those who betray confidence; and those who kill with poisonous foods;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who seize upon the fault and depreciate the merit, who are jealous of those who have merit, who are attached to the wicked, who are foolish, who turn away from the company of the good;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who despise places of pilgrimage, good men, good actions, teachers and Shining Ones; those who disparage the Purâṇas, the Vedas, the Mîmâṁsâ, the Nyâya and the Vedânta;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who are elated at seeing the miserable, who try to make the happy wretched, who speak evil words, and are always evil-minded&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who do not listen to good counsel nor even to the word of the Śâstras, who are self-satisfied, who are unbending, who are foolish, who thinks themselves learned;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These, and many others, very sinful, devoid of righteousness, certainly go on the Way of Yama, weeping day and night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="636" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T18:31:50.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2708" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2705" CreationDate="2014-08-13T09:31:21.580" Score="7" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Anything without the name RAMA has no value&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Name Rama is equivalent to the Omkar naadbrahma. When you recite your soul is ready to have mukti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ram nam Satya hai&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Satya bolo mukti hai&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a chance that the Atman(soul) of the particular Jeeva(person) which has just passed away will get free from the sansaar chakra(World), if recited by others who are performing last rituals. Hence this is like a giving best wishes to the atma(soul) of the dead person. The continuous chattering in a loop implies that the dead body is no longer a truth (has no breath) which is the name RAMA. Anything without the name RAMA has no value, whatsoever. In Ramayana, Hanumanji also broke mala given by sita because Rama's name was not written on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Glory of Rama name in Sages and scriptures&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Gita 9th Adhyay If we speak name of Lord, we succeed in individual and universal blossoming.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama Nama gets exactly the same importance in Saguna Upasana (worshipping the Absolute Truth as a Being with a form) as does the Pranava ('Om') Mantra in Nirguna Upasana (worshipping the Absolute Truth as formless).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rishi Manu shows that the Rama Nama has links to all the other mantras that ever exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Syavana Smriti (Syavana is the name of a rishi), Syavana says that the Rama Nama is the essence of all the Vedas, Shastras, Itihasas and Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The chief among the Mantras for the Shaivites is the Panchakshari (5 lettered) mantra, 'Om Nama Shivaya'. Without the letter ‘ra’, ‘Narayana’ would read as ‘Nayana’ that means one without a way (‘gati’); without the letter ‘ma’, ‘Namasivaya’ would read as ‘Nasivaya’ that means inauspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the jiva akshara (life giving letters) 'Ra' and 'Ma' of these two Mantras are put together to form the Rama Nama!&#xA;Anyone chanting this Divine Name thus worships both Shiva and Vishnu at the same time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Connection with Yoga&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From source &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.namadwaar.org/articles/gloryoframanama.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;namadwaar&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the philosophy of the Yoga, 'Ra' is considered the 'Mooladhara' (the point of origin of the power of Kundalini) and 'Ma' is the 'Sahasrara' (the destination). Hence, when the Rama Nama is chanted in the right tone and manner, the serpent power rises and hits the head or the 'kapala' Thus, by merely chanting the Rama Nama, one can become a Yogi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So people speaks it for dead person's soul who is connected to the origin (Supreme soul) .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Another story related to Rama name,&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before writing Ramayana Rishi Valmiki was a thief and pirate named as &amp;quot; Valiya lutera&amp;quot;. Sage Narada suggested him to chant &lt;strong&gt;Mara Mara&lt;/strong&gt; whose opposite is Rama Rama. Valmiki started and he became sage out of the pirate and Lord Rama blessed him to write Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is truth that by chanting name of Rama everything can be accomplished.  (This is my own experience that the things I deserve, if I do not get, by chanting the holy word Rama, I am always able to get.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;People's experience&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatma Gandhi united the whole india by chanting of Rama only, and Lord Hanuman is worshiped in &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman Chalisa&lt;/strong&gt; to have &lt;code&gt;Rama Rasayana&lt;/code&gt; means Rama names chemical that is generated from brain because of Rama name chanting and create power in the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama name itself is a truth, and when person dies he goes from Mriyu lok to Satya lok, so chanting of Rama's name gives peace to soul, even Ravana said Rama's name when he died!!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama name is the home for people like me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Rama name is given highest priority&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna may be considered as &lt;em&gt;Purushottama&lt;/em&gt;, But Lord Rama was a &lt;strong&gt;Maryada Purushottama&lt;/strong&gt;, means the best person living in community. one step above lord Krishna. Both are the one, but difference between examples provided by Lord Vishnu. It is said in Ramayana that just one name of Rama effects 10 times taking name of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Trust level&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a trust level which is highest for Lord Rama, In india we say&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;leave it on Ram Bharose, means leave it on the trust on Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People also &lt;strong&gt;seek&lt;/strong&gt; to have a son like Rama, non other any deity. Rama only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People give way to troupe carrying dead body by just hearing Rama nama Satya he. And also chant the name of Rama and wish peace for the dead person's soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This name is holiest word and its chanting creates holy vibrations for soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-13T11:02:22.100" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2709" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2722" CreationDate="2014-08-13T16:51:19.387" Score="7" ViewCount="3756" Body="&lt;p&gt;If Rudram, Namakam &amp;amp; chamakam are related to Shiva, why they are chanted for abhishekam of other gods? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other prominent alternative hymns for abhishekam? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are they chanted only in shiva-agama or it is same in vishnu-agama? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="65" LastEditDate="2014-08-15T02:17:00.377" LastActivityDate="2021-09-30T13:09:40.440" Title="What are hymns chanted for abhishekam?" Tags="|shiva|vishnu|ganesha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2710" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2673" CreationDate="2014-08-13T18:36:30.437" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, vedic mathematics is one subject, deep subject. It gives short cuts for big number calculations. Some people also wanted to implement that logic in making ALUs- Arithmatic and Logical Unit of computer but did not succeed yet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rishes gave lots of techniques to solve maths problems in the form of sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read them here &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Vedic_Mathematics/Techniques/Multiplication&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedic Mathematics Tricks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Vedic Mathematics?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedic Mathematics is the name given to the ancient system of Mathematics which was rediscovered from the Vedas between 1911 and 1918 by Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji (1884-1960). According to his research all of mathematics is based on sixteen Sutras or word-formulae.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/vedic.htm#History%20of%20Mathematics%20in%20India&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;What is Vedic Mathematics?&lt;/a&gt; &amp;lt;- this link contains many sutras explanation with examples... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In hanuman chalisa, sage Tulsidas mentioned&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yug sastra yojan par bhanu, lilyo tahi madhur fal janu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;means in childhood hanumanji jumped to eat sun considering sun is fruit, the distance between sun to earth they mentioned is exactly proven by NASA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 Yug = 12000 years &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;1 Sahastra = 1000&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;1 Yojan = 8 Miles &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Yug x Sahastra x Yojan = -&gt; 12000 x 1000 x 8 miles = 96000000 miles&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Convert miles to km&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 mile = 1.6kms &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;96000000 miles = 96000000 x 1.6kms = 1536000000 kms &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;to Sun NASA has said that, it is the exact distance between Earth and Sun(Bhanu). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In vedas also numbers are used to mention hymns, also in Mahabharata count of people died in armies is mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Geometry is also given as maps of rivers etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kings used to make a move during battles by creating vyuha on dummy maps based on their area's geometry only. They also try to increase the area of their territory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have no idea about algebra during vedic period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ramayana pushpak Plane is also mentioned. This mean aeronautical ideas were also there at that times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And bridge over sea is also mentioned , so civil engineering concepts can also be understood which has also proofs about Golder Dwarka City in Gujarat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-02T03:04:29.020" LastActivityDate="2015-03-02T03:04:29.020" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2711" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2734" CreationDate="2014-08-13T19:04:19.933" Score="11" ViewCount="6004" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many saints and yogis practice Brahmacharya(Celibacy) for whole life. What are the benefits of Brahmacharya and how important is this practice according to Sanathana Dharma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the rules to be followed in practicing this? What are the advises and steps to be followed in hindu texts/scriptures about this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2014-10-02T17:13:13.020" LastActivityDate="2014-10-02T17:13:13.020" Title="What is the importance of Brahmacharya (Celibacy) in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|practice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2712" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2632" CreationDate="2014-08-13T19:19:43.253" Score="54" Body="&lt;p&gt;Through out the world, every where, whenever researchers,archaeologists find shiva lingam from earth, they reach to the decision that hindu people may lived here before some time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva lingam is found from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/recent_archeological_finds_confirming_Vedic_history.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Omsk city Russia&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/ResurgingHinduism/posts/516857758385387&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Africa&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.africasia-primitive-and-antiques.com/items/1173886/item1173886store.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Afghanistan&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.megalithomania.com/hires/800x600/turoe.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ireland&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/zTuroe.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Greece&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/art_photos_twlevethirteen.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mongolia&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/art_photos_twlevethirteen.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siberia&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/art_photo_fourteen.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vatican Rome&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiadivine.org/news/history-and-culture/ancient-shiva-lingas-found-throughout-vietnam-r769&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vietnam&lt;/a&gt;,Itly, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.viewzone.com/petra.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Petra Jordan&lt;/a&gt;, Sri lanka, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.merinews.com/article/18-million-year-old-shivalinga-at-juttika-shiva-temple/15771369.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;India&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashupatinath_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nepal&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicempire.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;task=view&amp;amp;id=25&amp;amp;Itemid=9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mexico&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/photos/ancient-artifacts-and-symbols/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Cambodia&lt;/a&gt; etc. &amp;lt;- Search on internet about their photos taken from archeologists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/shiva-lingam-some-scientific-truths/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The statues of Shiva Lingams were found in the archeological findings in Babylon, a city of ancient Mesopotamia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a Ancient Shiva temple in Tashkant, Uzbekistan. Ancient Vishnu Statue was found in Russia. Shiv Lings are excavated in Italy. There is a Hindu Temple in Baku, Azerbaijan. Is God Shiva not the Principle Deity all over SE Asia till Phillipines. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Most of the shiva lingas found are minimum 1000-5000 and some &gt;5000 years old according to archaeologists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Shiva in Islam&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Islam also considers shiva as god, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/shiva-linga-in-mecca-om-is-786/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;mecca&lt;/a&gt; there is a shiva lingam whom they call Noor-e-ilahi, noor means light, we call the same jyoti, and ilahi means god, Jyotirlingam or noor -e ilahi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Shiva in christianity&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In church you will find candles, christ said God is light, the shape of candle's fire is the same shape of shivalingam, we call it jyotirlingam, jyoti means shape of fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Shiva in Sikhism&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In sikh, guru said, Shiva is maha guru. Guru nanak said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sat Shri Akal Ek Omakar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Ancient Shiva Temples&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do you know that Tang Dynastry in South Eastern China worshipped God Shiva.&#xA;Japan too worships Ganesha,Shiva, Yama and Saraswati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Search on internet, you will find many evidence from archeologiests.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;America and Australia were not discovered, so they both left.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also Note:&lt;/strong&gt; Vedic Deities are present in many other religions, just names changed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For Example:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;YamaDev or Yamraj in hinduism and budhhist&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yima in Zoroastrianism&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yan in chinese&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yanluowang in japanese&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shinje in Tibetian&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ymir in Proto-Germanic&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hades in greek mythology&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yima Xšaēta in Iranian mythology&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Orisis in Egyptian&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Lord Ganesha has different names&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Language - Name&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tamil -Pillaiyar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Barmi - MahaPiyennai&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhot - Sogdadag&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mongolia- TvotKharun&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Khagan - TvotKharun&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Cambodia - Prahkenij&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chinese - Kuanshi Tien&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Japanese - Kangi Nen&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Country - Name and Avatar of Lord Ganesha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nepal - Sun Ganapati&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Myanmar - Maharshini&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mongoliya - Gajamukh Dhyotkar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tibet - Sokprak&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Cambodia - Prashganesh, Prahkans&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Japan - Veenayakasha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Javadheep - Kalantak&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vietnam - Ganesha on Tortoise&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bosnia - Ganesha with 4 arms and long hairs&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Iran(In Iorisban Area) - Ganesha with sword(This statue is in museum in Paris)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Afghanistan - One statue with allidharoon- avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mexico - Gajamukha Human avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mexico - (In Kodhan) Lord Varuna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Greece - Lord Janus with two faces - one look to future and another look to past&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also In one &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/When-Where-was-Lord-Rama-born-and-what-evidence-is-there-to-substantiate-this&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;research of ISR&lt;/a&gt;, they did using Planetorium software, they found that Lord Rama's date of birth is 10th January 5114BC.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also See &lt;a href=&quot;http://sarojbala.blogspot.in/2012/06/scientific-dating-of-ramayan-era.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Scientific Dating of Ramayana era&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/recent_archeological_finds_confirming_Vedic_history.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ancient Idol of Lord Vishnu found during excavation in an old village in Russia’s Volga Region,&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please give your feedback.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-10-13T05:45:00.587" LastActivityDate="2016-10-13T05:45:00.587" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2713" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-14T03:27:52.460" Score="9" ViewCount="17827" Body="&lt;p&gt;When we enter into Shiva temple, we can see that Lord Ganesh and Lord Hanuman's statue before the Shiva Lingam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of these two statues in Shiva Temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-22T16:47:12.943" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T03:13:39.647" Title="What is the significance of Lord Ganesh &amp; Lord Hanuman's statue in Shiv Temple?" Tags="|shiva|temple|ganesha|hanuman|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2714" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2862" CreationDate="2014-08-14T05:59:30.303" Score="11" ViewCount="909" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is human the ultimate species according to Hinduism? This is somewhat related to karma, hence is it considered ultimate to be reborn as a human? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/66/124&quot;&gt;An individual can be reborn as any species based on karma of his past life.&lt;/a&gt; So can we say that a person did good things in his previous life and hence, now he is a human?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people regret their lives because they think that they were bad in their past life and hence they got an avatar of human whereas on the other hand, people pray god for giving them a life of human.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, when an individual does good things, he attains Moksha, but immediately before he attains that, is there any other species he lives the life of instead of a human? Or is it that he attains moksha from any life form?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-02-09T05:24:26.213" Title="Is human the ultimate species according to Hinduism?" Tags="|karma|atma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2715" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2732" CreationDate="2014-08-14T07:02:51.943" Score="4" ViewCount="979" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata we have read/heard and seen in television shows that when the Mahabharata battle took place, all Pandava's son (i.e Abhimanyu and the rest) participated. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But did Duryodhana &amp;amp; other Kaurav's son participate in the Mahabharata battle or they didn't?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T10:41:20.470" LastActivityDate="2017-12-21T10:41:20.470" Title="Did Kaurav's son participate in the Mahabharata battle?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|kauravas|chandravansh|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2717" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2711" CreationDate="2014-08-14T07:24:43.987" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahmacharya is not just unmarried. It is abstaining sexual desires.(This doesn't even mean to be impotent). There are many disadvantages of over masturbating and sex. It basically weakens our immune system. The energy we get is received from food we eat. It is converted into 7 dhatus step by step - Blood, muscles, fats, bones, veins, nerves and shukr. Shukra is sperms in males and ovules in females. Creation of shukr requires 28 days after eating food. So when we have sex, we spend that valuable treasure in no time. Moreover, it affects immune system, eyes and spiritual aura. It reduces 'oja' ie vocal power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Books- Yuvadhan Suraksha - Asaram Bapu&#xA;(Marathi) Brahmacharya hech jeevan ani Verryanash hach mrityu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastEditorUserId="657" LastEditDate="2014-08-15T07:11:57.833" LastActivityDate="2014-08-15T07:11:57.833" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2718" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2713" CreationDate="2014-08-14T07:26:15.103" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Thing is Lord Ganesha is called as &quot;Mudhar Kadavul&quot; a.k.a First lord. In all the temples Lord Ganesha is worshipped as the first lord so only his statue is at the entrance. During important festivals in temples, all lord statue are placed in vahanas and are shown before lord Ganesha statue before proceeds to streets. He is declared as first god to worship in Hinduism and every other god will seek his permission before doing any proceedings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Hanuman statue is at the entrance because he will be worshipped after we finish our worship all other gods in that temple. Lord Hanuman is responsible for blessing people with hope so that they don't lose hope on their prayers. He is god of bravery and so he blesses people with confidence. Hence he is worshipped last in every temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="636" LastActivityDate="2014-08-14T07:26:15.103" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2720" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2460" CreationDate="2014-08-14T08:33:37.573" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yuga theory states that four yugas are of length 4.32 million years. Currently 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; chaturyuga is going on. So 66 million is 13&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;/14&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; chaturyuga. Currently we don't what exactly happened in that period. There is very less information available of period behind this chaturyuga. (3.9million years ago)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-19T05:37:04.037" LastActivityDate="2017-06-19T05:37:04.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2722" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2709" CreationDate="2014-08-14T09:45:16.983" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all there is a &lt;em&gt;Panchayatan&lt;/em&gt; (formation for offering puja), in this we perform Abhishek to the Aaradhya (main) god for which we are offering puja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are following possibilities for Aradhya and other god's&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Any Male God(Except Shiva) we use &lt;em&gt;Purusha Sukta&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord Narayana(Vishnu) and all his 24 avatar's we use &lt;em&gt;Vishnu Sukta&lt;/em&gt; (notice we can also use Purusha Sukta instead) each 11 times for Abhishek.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva we use &lt;em&gt;Rudram&lt;/em&gt; also known &lt;em&gt;Rudradhya&lt;/em&gt;. The &lt;em&gt;Rudradyaya&lt;/em&gt; can be done 11 times it makes one &lt;em&gt;Laghu Rudra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;11 Rudra Path = 1 Laghu Rudra &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;11 Laghu Rudra = 1 MahaRudra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;11 MahaRudra= 1 Ati Rudra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All Devi's (female Godess) we use, &lt;em&gt;Shri Sukta&lt;/em&gt;, also Lakshmi Sukta can be used for special pujas like Deepawali Pujan.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;While doing Navgraha Puja and Performing Abhishekam we use &lt;em&gt;Saura Sukta&lt;/em&gt; for Sun God.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For Ganpati or Ganesha people perform Abhishek by reciting Ganpati Atharvasirsha which is widely &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3012/489&quot;&gt;considered as an interpolation&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(A general Note : All These Suktas' are Derived from Vedas' and has to be sung like the vedic hymns , with full knowledge of how  vedic hynms or mantras are chanted)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/articles/panchayatana_puja.htmtyhin&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; has more details on Panchayatan.&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;In Vaishnava temples, First Vishvaksenar is Worshipped for removing obstacles, then Shriman Narayana is worshipped with abhishekam by Purusha suktam, Sri Suktam(since Sri devi or Thayar resides in his heart).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Laxmi is then attended with Sri Suktam and other preferred stotras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-07T05:16:52.460" LastActivityDate="2017-06-07T05:16:52.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2726" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="300" CreationDate="2014-08-14T11:43:23.953" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although it is difficult to entire story of each vahana(vehicle) to god. I post some 2 of them which i know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganesha&lt;/strong&gt; - There was once a Gandharva (a celestial being) named Kroncha.In the court of Indra, he once met the sage Vamadeva, and filled with pride, insulted him. This incited the anger of the sage, who cursed him that he would lose the good looks he was so proud of, and become a mouse. Kroncha found himself turned into a mouse, and ashamed of his appearance, ran away. He entered the ashram of Sage Parashara, and, true to his nature in his new form, started creating havoc. Meanwhile, Ganesha was paying a visit to the sage. The sage’s disciples approached Ganesha and asked him to put an end to the mouse which was wreaking havoc in their well kept ashram.Ganesha at once realized the true identity of the mouse. Using a rope, he lassoed the mouse, and mounted it. Contact with the divine body of Ganesha made Kroncha at last realize the error of his ways. Besides, Ganesha was so heavy that he felt himself being crushed. He prayed to Ganesha, “Lord, please forgive me for my sins. I have learnt my lesson. Please accept me as your mount and release me from this misery!” Ganesha relented and made himself light enough for the mouse to bear his weight. And thus did he become Mooshika Vahana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Muruga A.K.A Karthikeya&lt;/strong&gt; - Surapadma and his kin asuras terrorize Swarga, the place of Indra.Years of deva-asura battle had finally enraged Surapadma to the point of unleashing his full might in battle, a fist of fury that sought to catch hold of the devas and crush them once and for all. He had them imprisoned in the deepest and darkest dungeons of his city in Veeramahendrapuram. Simhamukha, the younger brother of the asura king Surapadma, came running into the throne room of his brother's palace, agitated and out of breath.As per the order of Lord Shiva, Karthikeya gets the &quot;Vel&quot; (A spear like weapon) and raged war against the both Surapadma and Simhamukha. This fierce battle ended with both of them being defeated.(In Hinduism, this battle is called as SooraSamharam). After this both of them needs salvation for their sins.Simhamukha and Surapadma were both blessed by Karthikeya to remain immortal. While Simhamukha was to become the lion steed of the goddess Kaali, Surapadma chose to serve Karthikeya himself. The king of the asuras offered himself to Murugan in two forms: a flagstaff bearing what was to be known thence as Karthikeya's sigil- a rooster; and Karthikeya's own mount, the peacock.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/312/467&quot;&gt;@Awal Garg&lt;/a&gt; is correct about Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Durga&lt;/strong&gt; - after being completely defeated by Mahisasura, the gods, headed by Brahma,approached Visnu and prayed for the destruction of the demon. Thereupon all the gods&#xA;including Brahma, Visnu and Siva emitted flames of anger which solidified into the effulgent form of a goddess (Durga) with three eyes and ten arms,each of which bore a weapon given by the mighty gods. During this time the Himavat offered a white lion to goddess Durga as her vahana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="636" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-01-30T08:53:13.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2727" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2454" CreationDate="2014-08-14T14:08:34.260" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira actually deeply regretted the deceitful actions. He said in Mahabharata Salya Parva Section 59, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;It is we that deserve to be pitied in every respect, O Kaurava! We&#xA;  shall have to drag on a miserable existence, bereft of all our dear&#xA;  friends and kinsmen. Alas, how shall I behold the widows, overwhelmed&#xA;  with grief and deprived of their senses by sorrow, of my brothers and&#xA;  sons and grandsons! ..... We, on the other hand, shall be reckoned as&#xA;  creatures of hell, and shall continue to suffer the most poignant&#xA;  grief! The grief-afflicted wives of Dhritarashtra's sons and&#xA;  grandsons, those widows crushed with sorrow, will without doubt, curse&#xA;  us all!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna defended the various deceitful actions as follows in a voice deep as that of the clouds or the drum in Mahabharata Salya Parva Section 61: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;All of them were great car-warriors and exceedingly quick in the use&#xA;  of weapons! If ye had put forth all your prowess even then ye could&#xA;  never have slain them in battle by fighting fairly! King Duryodhana&#xA;  also could never be slain in a fair encounter! The same is the case&#xA;  with all those mighty car-warriors headed by Bhishma! From desire of&#xA;  doing good to you, I repeatedly applied my powers of illusion and&#xA;  caused them to be slain by diverse means in battle. If I had not&#xA;  adopted such deceitful ways in battle, victory would never have been&#xA;  yours, nor kingdom, nor wealth! These four were very high-souled&#xA;  warriors and regarded as Atirathas in the world. The very Regents of&#xA;  the Earth could not slay them in fair fight. Similarly, the son of&#xA;  Dhritarasthra, though fatigued when armed with mace, could not be&#xA;  slain in a fair fight by Yama himself armed with his bludgeon! Ye&#xA;  should not take it to heart that this foe of yours hath been slain&#xA;  deceitfully. When the number of one's foes becomes great, then&#xA;  destruction should be effected by contrivances and means. The gods&#xA;  themselves, in slaying the Asuras, have trod the same way. That way,&#xA;  therefore, that had been trod by the gods, may be trod by all.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna argues that Pandavas could not have defeated the Kauravas in a fair fight. A defeat of the Pandavas would have meant defeat of dharma. Hence the deceitful means.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-08-14T14:08:34.260" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2728" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-14T14:48:58.490" Score="8" ViewCount="1942" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can someone explain philosophical/spiritual/religious reason as to why it was okay for man  to have several wives but sinful for woman to have more than one? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it written is some book that woman should not have more than one partner? if not, why is it frowned upon?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="659" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-15T21:57:01.777" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T07:16:14.867" Title="Why could man have several wives historically and its sinful for woman to have more than one?" Tags="|belief|marriage|dharma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2729" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2728" CreationDate="2014-08-14T15:03:01.543" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not sinful both ways. It changes from time to time and place to place. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the past, people had many wives but the majority of those were from Royal families. Common people were mostly following monogamy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more reason might be that the sex ratio was much higher than today. Even you can search for 1881 census. It has sex ratio larger than 1100. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saying about &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyandry_in_India&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Polyandry&lt;/a&gt;, it is still practiced in some tribes of South India like Todas and some parts of North East India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-03T07:16:14.867" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T07:16:14.867" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2732" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2715" CreationDate="2014-08-14T16:14:22.277" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duryodhana#Family&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Duryodhana was married to Bhanumati, daughter of Bhagadatta, king of&#xA;  the city Pragjyotisha. He fathered two children of royal queen, son&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Laxman Kumara&lt;/em&gt; and daughter &lt;em&gt;Lakshmana&lt;/em&gt; and many children from concubines as well. As per Urubhanga he had a son called Durjay of who&#xA;  information is not yet known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.encyclopediaindica.com/index.php/Lakshmana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Laxman&lt;/a&gt; was &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laxman_Kumara#Death&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;killed by Abhimanyu in the Mahabharata war&lt;/a&gt; on the 13&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; day using the Nagashirashtra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="659" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T06:15:19.560" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T06:15:19.560" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2734" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2711" CreationDate="2014-08-14T18:06:41.963" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, &lt;strong&gt;Yogi&lt;/strong&gt; is defined as a person who follow these 4 rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmcharya(Pure Body)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shudhdhta(Pure mind)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pavitrata(Pure soul)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satsang(Sat means GOD and sang means communion)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To keep your soul in communion with GOD, Pure Body is the first need. People always bow to Rishies, sages, they actually bow to their pure life. In geeta lord mentioned many times that Kaam is the great enemy of Yogi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kaam does not mean that you can not have children, but Kaam means &lt;em&gt;Vasana&lt;/em&gt; means desire of sex or just having sex to fullify bodily desires like animals or just bodily attractions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord has mentioned that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People whose hearts are filled by Dharma, Kaam in their body is also my will to rule the (birth)cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is not opposing sex for children wishes instead it supports it. Many rishes have children, even hindu deities also have. You need to understand the Brahmcharya's meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In hinduism there is a great importance of &quot;Maun&quot;, most people understand it as not speaking or keeping mum means maun, actually maun means stopping your bad ideas and desires is maun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord has mentioned in Gita that &quot;Win your Indriyas&quot;, Hanumanji is called &lt;code&gt;Jeetendriyam&lt;/code&gt; means person who won indriyas in shloka,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manojavam marutatulyvegam,&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Jeetendriyam budhdhivatam varishtham,.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means hanumanji a true Brahmachari who won indriyas, means all his indriyas are in his control.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmachari does not mean who just be virgin , or do not masturbate, but is a person who never &quot;see&quot;/&quot;think about&quot; any woman without purity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pure body always have better strength over diseases, and also required for true Yogi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Just for your information, in Islam masturbating is considered as a sin also.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Steps in Detail&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 1 Brahmcharya&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmcharya is the first step to Yoga. The person is asked to be free from physical impurities and asked to keep his body clean by taking bath 3 times a day, having Satvik Bhojana, and avoiding Sex and perform yoga exercises at morning. A person is asked to do meditation as much as possible. Meditation is defined in Hinduism as &lt;code&gt;&quot;Forgetting that I am body and being in Aatmik stage, means I am soul, not a body.&quot;&lt;/code&gt; A person is given body to do good deeds only, so using Indriyas as much less as much possible. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just having saxual pleasure is considered as &quot;Pashuta&quot; means animal feelings. Dharma is to rise above this Pashuta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmcharya is itself considered as Tapa, for ex, in the case of Bhishma, Hanumana, Parshurama, Swaminarayana etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmcharya increases your willingness in Yoga. In Yoga sutra it is one of the Niyamas(rules) in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali&quot;&gt;Patanjali&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 2 Shudhdhata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First make your body pure, then Second step Shudhdhata means see everybody as pure soul. In Geeta Lord said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That devotee of mine who has nutral nature and who see dog,elephant,gentleman and demon as same souls, I like him the most.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means I am also a pure soul and others are also a pure soul, this thought creates purity in your mind. An no hate feelings for others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 3 Paveetrata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Third step, Paveetrata means be pure, do pure and have good ideas, if bad ideas come, just see them with pureness they will go away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purity is defined as it has no intuitions, If self does not interfere, nature speaks through us. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Steps to be pure:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a. Perform meditation as much as possible&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;b. Japa(Chanting name of GOD),Tapa(Penance), Upavaas(fast),prayers, Yajna etc. Follow Hinduism rules in Vedas given for standard life&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;c. Seek forgiveness for your past sins to the person/GOD&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;d. Follow righteousness, like speaking truth etc.&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;e. Nobody(not even creatures) should be harmed by you&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;f. Increase Positivity and joy in your nature&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purity is maintained only by following righteousness. Pure soul always see world with compassion and performs duties towards society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purity gathers your &quot;Yoga Tapa&quot; or &quot;Yoga Bala&quot;. GOD always protects the Yoga Bala of his devotees. This is called &quot;Yoga Kshem&quot; also. And GOD is called Yogeshwara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 4 SatSanga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Last step, be in communion with GOD, the person who leave everything in GOD's hand will eventually find GOD's hand in everything. But this is only possible if person follows righteousness , speaking truth etc. Seek GOD to show you a way to meaningful life. GOD is the best Guide, he will give all your answers and only he can, if you communicate with him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When you understand that only you,yourself never do anything, It is governed by GOD only as per his will, that day some great work will be done by your hands. This is called being &quot;Nimita&quot; only. Then no Karma will bind you as you are doing as it's GOD will only, leaving all fears,wishes,gains etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you follow these rules strictly, you will be able to have psychological powers, you will be able to grasp vibrations, people's intentions, Telepathy,seeing future in dreams etc. You soul's power may increase if it's GOD's will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Only pure body can feel vibrations from other pure souls.(Telepathy)&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;lt;- This statement is my personal experience/belief which I wanted to share with this answer, may be for others this statement may not be true, I just shared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Reference for these 4 steps, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma Parva + Ramayana + Ayurveda -&gt; Brahmcharya&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Sankhya Yoga(Geeta)+Atmasanyam yoga -&gt; Shudhdhata&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Gyaana–Karma-Sanyasa yoga+Bhakti Yoga(Geeta) -&gt; Paveetrata&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Satsang -&gt; In gita,  lord said &quot;Oh Arjuna, follow my orders, come under my protection,surrender unto me and perform duties, help is always ready.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-08-19T12:07:26.690" LastActivityDate="2014-08-19T12:07:26.690" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2735" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2671" CreationDate="2014-08-14T19:15:27.253" Score="3" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Types of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnikaryam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Agnikaryam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;pratah (morning) Agni karyam &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;sayam (evening) Agni karyam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Rules&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Only Brahmacharis (who wear janoi) can perform it&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Different in the verses as per veda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You must provide homa/ahuti means sacrifice (Agni is minister of sacrifice)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Importance of Agni in Rigveda&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agni means fire, Agnidev is twin brother of Indra who has 2 faces. Agnidev is considered as &lt;strong&gt;a mouth&lt;/strong&gt; of every deity in Rigveda. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agni's another name is &lt;em&gt;Pavaka&lt;/em&gt;, means whatever enters in fire becomes pure(ashes), that's why we hindus burn Parthiv body of dead person in fire.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In rigveda, agni is considered as a &lt;strong&gt;messenger of gods&lt;/strong&gt; between Mrityu loka and Swarga (link between heaven and earth), that's why in yajna fire is kept first. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When we pray we keep fire in the form of &quot;Diva&quot;lamp/candle.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agni is considered as trupta in rigveda means the fire eats maya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pray &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agni&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Agni&lt;/a&gt; the receiver, holder and distributor (Purohit) of energy, which leads to victory of devta and wealth to the performer of yagya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agni is considered as the invoker of wealth, that is why kings in hinduism performed yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Nityagnihotra&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The person is said to be Nityagnihotra if he worships fire regularly without any break. The person must have to do &quot;Havan&quot; regularly. The fire should be kept in his home in any form, lamp or &quot;Havan Kunda&quot;(the stage for havan fire in yajna) continously. Mostly in Gujarat state in India, we have &quot;Akhand Divo&quot; means continuous lamp with big lamp with oil. Being Nityagnihotra gives many privileges. Nityagnihotra is selected first from his area as a &quot;Yajaman&quot;, many sages come to his home to take &quot;Bhiksham&quot;, my favorite GOD Lord Rama was Nityagnihotra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Is it mandatory?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Worship is never mandatory. It is choice for a person in routine. Hinduism or any religion can suggest / advice, if it orders than I personally do not take it as religion. Yes, worshiping may/may not be helpful, but it can not be like red signal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At some occasions in (Hindu)one's life fire/fire worship is mandatory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aarti (Parayer to deity as a lamps)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Marriage (Hindu wedding)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;At Tulasi pot&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;at kitchen as a pitru tarpan lamp&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After death to burn a dead body&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yajna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;At the festival of Holi to burn holika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without fire/fire worship, above tasks can not be completed as Hindu rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-13T04:43:48.433" LastActivityDate="2014-10-13T04:43:48.433" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2737" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-15T03:29:02.560" Score="8" ViewCount="3117" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why people are not allowed to take images of god/goddesses in &lt;em&gt;Garbha gudi&lt;/em&gt; (sanctum sanctorum) of a temple. Is it a sin according to scriptures? or any other reason behind such restriction?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to the above, I also heard that some mantras should not be published anywhere and should not be printed on papers, and should not be digitized. why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T09:10:23.770" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T09:10:23.770" Title="Why restriction on taking images and publishing 'some' mantras" Tags="|scripture|mantras|temple|practice|culture|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2739" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-15T04:22:59.820" Score="6" ViewCount="126" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are some granthas on &lt;em&gt;Vimanas&lt;/em&gt; like &lt;em&gt;Vaimanikashastram&lt;/em&gt; by Bharadwaj Rishi and &lt;em&gt;Samaranganasutradhar&lt;/em&gt; written by Bhoj Raja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone share the name of books available or any source which is authentic enough to provide information for the same? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want some translation in English or Hindi, especially for समरांगणसूत्रधार (Samaranganasutradhar) because it has info about aerial warfare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-16T04:43:53.147" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T04:43:53.147" Title="Any books or links for information over Granthas on Vimanas?" Tags="|translation-request|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2740" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2894" CreationDate="2014-08-15T05:02:19.690" Score="7" ViewCount="1234" Body="&lt;p&gt;When was Bhagiratha born? Are there any attempts to date his period? Because it is said that the incident of the drought occurred when Kapila &lt;em&gt;Nakshatra&lt;/em&gt; was seen in the sky. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think this might be helpful in mapping how long back Bhagiratha existed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T15:57:12.970" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T15:57:12.970" Title="Period of Bhagiratha?" Tags="|ramayana|bhagiratha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2743" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2737" CreationDate="2014-08-15T08:26:48.603" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mantras are to be recited with perfect grammar else it may mean something else. The vibrations which are produced by chanting the vedic mantras are very powerful and said to heal many inner &amp;amp; outer diseases. So one has to learn them from masters who know the complete meaning &amp;amp; purpose the the mantra. They have to be learnt from person to person with correct pronunciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Temples are the spiritual centers. One learns how to build character through the puranas or the speeches delivered there. One learns the joy of sharing by doing charity or learns from others who does there. Soft skills which are presented to please god like singing (music heals), dancing (reasoning skills),  poetry (imaginative &amp;amp; creative skills) will take us to next level both spiritually and also with worldly knowledge. Temples energize us like this in numerous ways which may be difficult to explain all in one answer. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Idols of god are installed with vedic hymns in Garbha gudi, the process is called prana pratista meaning after that process god Himself/Herself lives in that murthi. Everyday god takes different upacharas from suprabatham to unjal seva through that murthi. This creates the divine environment around the temple and one who visits temple gets peace and confidence in account of unrecognized energy set around. So, if such powerful god is taken photo, kept in home, people may become lazy to visit temple often they may convince themselves on seeing the image taken. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T06:14:27.497" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T06:14:27.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2744" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2461" CreationDate="2014-08-15T08:30:05.743" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have lengths of yugas and kalpas according to दाते पंचांग.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Kali yuga - 432000&#xA;Dwapar yuga - 864000&#xA;Treta yuga - 1296000&#xA;Sat yuga - 1728000&#xA;=Chaturyuga - 4320000&#xA;&#xA;Kalp = 71*chaturyuga&#xA;Brahma's 1day = 14*manu/kalp&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same is for night. Brahmas life can be calculated b multiplying above figure by &lt;code&gt;30(days)*12(month)*100(years)&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Currently Brahma's 50 years have passed. First day 7&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; manvantar 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; kaliyuga and year 5116 is going on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-13T08:35:57.980" LastActivityDate="2014-10-13T08:35:57.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2745" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-15T12:09:39.557" Score="8" ViewCount="2803" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there actual existence of &lt;em&gt;Nectar (अमृतं)&lt;/em&gt;? If yes, then where and if no then why not, because I heard that Devtas got nectar from the sea, and they all became immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-05T11:55:52.507" LastActivityDate="2018-10-07T21:55:10.857" Title="Is there an actual existence of nectar (अमृतं)?" Tags="|belief|samudra-manthan|amrita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2746" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2737" CreationDate="2014-08-15T12:27:40.120" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;About the Mantra: With my discussion on &quot;Why Gayatri Mantra restricted  by Vishwamitra, so that other can not use?&quot; it is said that there lots of thing in this mantras than just peace and good health. Mantra can also be used as Weapon, Mantra can be used for bad thing like for MARAN vidya. So, many of the mantras should must be kept in secret so that can not used for harmful purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we talk about Vedas mantra than, these mantra should be pronounce at appropriate time and with appropriate RAGA otherwise, you can not get vibration of mantra and may be you lost faith in Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in last, on my discussion of above question of Gayrti Mantra, one sadhu(bava) told me that there is a reverse spell in Gaytri Mantra, which is related with BRAMASHTRA weapon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-03T03:35:01.950" LastActivityDate="2015-03-03T03:35:01.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2748" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2728" CreationDate="2014-08-15T12:57:22.350" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't think that there is a religion issue about having more wive. Because in ancient back days almost all have one wife and if say some have more than one wife like someone say king, then there was Political issue. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like Krishna have many wives, But if you see in deeper you will find that, there are many  political reasons, so that krishna married to more than one. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no rule that man have several wives, i don't think MANU bhagvan(god) define the rule of many wives in MANUSRUTI.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastActivityDate="2014-08-15T12:57:22.350" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2750" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2737" CreationDate="2014-08-15T16:56:58.810" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Photography of the murthis are banned to protect them from ridicule. Christian missionaries and western audiovisual media have taken pictures of the images and ridiculed them. Christian missionaries in the 19th century used to beat murthis with stick in public to prove to Hindus that these murthis are not gods. This is one reason for the current restriction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people do not want to publish the texts of some mantras because they are afraid that such mantras may be used for nefarious purposes by unscrupulous people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-08-15T16:56:58.810" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2752" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2745" CreationDate="2014-08-15T18:26:59.243" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism, nectar exists. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;4 Nectar drops&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/concepts/amrit.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;legends&lt;/a&gt; four drops of the nectar fell upon earth at Ujjain, Prayag, Hardwara and Nasik and the four are pilgrim places. People take bath near the banks of rivers at those places. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this is true than nectar really existed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Other forms of nectar in Hinduism&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayurveda considers milk as nectar. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People make dying person drink Ganga water before the person die considering that water will make dying person's heart clean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedic people extracted a Soma-juice, which is considered to be a nectar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Is Knowledge nectar?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Geeta considers knowledge as nectar.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Parvati became immortal by hearing knowledge about immortality from Lord Shiva, The Amarnath Temple is famous for it. That knowledge is titled &quot;Amar Katha&quot; in which Lord Shiva is considered as &quot;Nath of Amar aatmans&quot; -&gt; Lord or Malik or father of eternal souls&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Atharva veda&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/athar/avbook06.asp#av06089&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;In Atharva veda there is hymn,&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the third heaven above us stands the Asvattha tree, the seat of Gods.There the Gods gained the Kushtha plant, embodiment of end-less life. There moved through heaven a golden ship, a ship with cordage wrought of gold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There Gods obtained the Kushtha plant, the flower of immortality.Thou art the infant of the plants, the infant of the Snowy Hills: The germ of every thing that is: free this my friend from his disease.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rains are reffered to Amrit Dhara or Amrit Varsha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though Nectar is not available in drink form, one can become immortal by attaining Mukti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Rigveda&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a hymn in Rigveda,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They who for Indra, with their mind, formed horses harnessed by a word,&#xA;  Attained by works to sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They for the two Nasatyas wrought a light car moving every way:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They formed a &lt;strong&gt;nectar-yielding cow.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Yoga&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/essays/yoga_life.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yoga&lt;/a&gt; believed that one necessary quality for such a person has to be what is known as Amritapurna (&quot;filled with nectar&quot;), that is an advanced state of purity of mind as a result of body and mind purification. A Drashta, according to Yoga has to be considered having the Amritapurna quality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;My own concept&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Samudra manthan, Lord Shiva was asked to give definition of &quot;manthan&quot;, where he stated manthan is the process to  check mind's thoughts and mind's purity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When you sit alone, most people have bad ideas or remember their bad deeds first, but the person who drinks this poison is the one who accepts that he has badness inside him, but then this makes him very free inside his heart, after accepting his bad karmas or doing Praschatap, he feels like he finishes his part by accepting blame, now what ever punishment he will accept. This is &lt;strong&gt;&quot;nectar-like&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; for him because he realized his mistake and now he is free from guilt. Guilt is the only poison on one's mind. Wash it and become free.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; Because of Guilt many anxiety disease happens in psychology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-08-22T17:48:38.027" LastActivityDate="2014-08-22T17:48:38.027" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2753" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-16T01:44:17.980" Score="11" ViewCount="1415" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any restriction in Hinduism that female partner must be younger than the corresponding male partner for marriage? If it is there, why? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu texts, is there any restriction on the maximum and minimum age gap between the marrying couple? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-03-07T01:42:58.017" LastActivityDate="2019-03-07T01:42:58.017" Title="About age restrictions on marriage in Hinduism" Tags="|marriage|customs|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ClosedDate="2019-03-08T04:31:27.903" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2754" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2753" CreationDate="2014-08-16T01:58:39.790" Score="1" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Some people say that women have more maturity than men at a particular age. Hence to balance them a difference of 4-5 years is recommended. My mother had told me that men's life expectancy is less than woman and they start getting health problems earlier than women. So in order to match their these periods, it is done so, so that both can tackle all problems together.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is no such rule for age gap. In medival times, adult men married child girls. (That's wrong of course). But the age gap must not be much, +ve or -ve&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastEditorUserId="657" LastEditDate="2014-08-16T07:31:14.113" LastActivityDate="2014-08-16T07:31:14.113" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2755" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2675" CreationDate="2014-08-16T05:44:51.893" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's because the Sadagopuram, AKA Sadagopam or Sadari, is unique to Vishnu temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alwars&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Alwars&lt;/a&gt; (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu, which was pivotal in the development of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivaishnava&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; sect (of which I'm a member).  One of the most famous Alwars was called Nammalwar or Sadagopan, and he spent his life under a Tamarind tree in the town of Kurugur, but he was still able to compose poems about many of the Divya Desams, the 108 sacred places of Vishnu praised in the Alwars' poetry.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In one of his poems praising the deity of the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uppiliappan_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uppillaiappan Vishnu temple&lt;/a&gt;, Nammalwar says &lt;a href=&quot;http://rithaavaree.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/sadagopaorsadaari_gopalgopinath3.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; (see page 1): &quot;I, Sadagopan of Kurugur [am] one who is ... joined with His Holy Feet that grew to the heavens.&quot; The &quot;grew to the heavens&quot; part is about Vishnu's incarnation as Vamana the dwarf, but what's important for our purposes is that Nammalwar said that he was one with Vishnu's lotus feet.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QfU4f.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Sri Vaishnavas started using a crown, called the Sadagopam, to represent the head of Nammalwar (since his name was Sadagopan), and on the top of the Sadagopam are the footprints of Vishnu, as you can see in the image above.  The idea is that just as Nammalwar surrendered to the lotus feet of Vishnu, so should you.  That is the origin of placing the Sadagopam on people's heads in Sri Vaishnava temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-02-07T18:26:32.090" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T18:26:32.090" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2756" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-16T06:16:06.800" Score="7" ViewCount="971" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvars&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Alwars&lt;/a&gt; (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu.  The Alwars are crucially important figures in the development of Vaishnavism; it is the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivaishnava&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Alwars praised many Vishnu temples and other sacred places of Vishnu in their poetry; a sacred place of Vishnu that was praised by at least one Alwar is called a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_Desam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Divya Desam&lt;/a&gt;, and there are 108 of them.  My question is, who compiled this list of 108 Divya Desams?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_Prabandha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Naalayira Divya Prabhandam&lt;/a&gt;, the collection of the Alwars' 4000 verses, was compiled by a Sri Vaishnava thinker named &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathamuni&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nathamuni&lt;/a&gt;.  But who went through all the poems and found out what locations they mentioned?  And who was the one who came up with the concept of Divya Desams in the first place?  Was all that done by Nathamuni too?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-08-26T15:22:09.713" LastActivityDate="2016-04-15T02:32:30.560" Title="Who compiled the list of 108 Divya Desams of Vishnu?" Tags="|temple|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2758" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="865" CreationDate="2014-08-16T07:38:46.523" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Vyasa Mahabharata, there is nothing related to it. But in one folk tale story is there. This tale is known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/modern-mythmaking/stains-of-the-jambul.html&quot;&gt;Stains of Jambul&lt;/a&gt;, in which Draupadi confesses love for Karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Draupadi did not tell regret words to Karna, but she confessed during the exile in 13 year near some lake. She also asked Krishna why Krishna did not tell her as he knew everything, Krishna told her as it was destined for her. If she would not insult Karna, Karna would never insult her. Krishna also tells her that Karna's destiny was also decided based on his past life deeds so he become Sut Putra instead of Surya Putra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Draupadi actually rejected Karna based on Krishna's gesture only. So she did not have any hate feelings for Karna. So she was not illegible to be blemished. So she said nothing to anybody. Yes she regretted in front of Pandavas as per tale(Not Mahabharata).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If I had married him, I would not have been gambled away, publicly  humiliated and called a whore. For he has all the qualities possessed by my 5 husbands.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: Jambul-akhyan - A folk tale&#xA;Also known as : Stains of the jambul - A folk tale &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; This story is not in Mahabharata written by Vyasa. But just a folk tale. The story of the Jambu fruit comes from a folk play from Maharashtra called Jambul-akhyan. It is said that the Jambu fruit stains the tongue purple to remind us of all the secrets that we keep from the world.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-08-17T04:21:34.440" LastActivityDate="2014-08-17T04:21:34.440" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2759" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2764" CreationDate="2014-08-16T07:48:33.203" Score="10" ViewCount="4742" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that International Society for Krishna Consciousness has widespread all over the world. These people are very good devotees of Krishna, followed of non violence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But many of them say they follow only Krishna and he is the only almighty God. The core principle of Hinduism is &lt;code&gt;एकं सत् विप्राः बहुधा वदन्ति|&lt;/code&gt; truth is one, wise men call it by different names. This is a very important principle and every Hindu must follow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ISKCON devotees are good in Bhaktiyoga but they believe that Bhakti is only way to moksh. So should we consider these people as Hindus or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastEditorUserId="16030" LastEditDate="2021-03-02T00:10:55.653" LastActivityDate="2021-03-02T00:10:55.653" Title="Should we consider ISKCON devotees as Hindus or not?" Tags="|krishna|moksha|bhakti|sects|iskcon|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2018-07-12T15:58:41.700" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2760" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2759" CreationDate="2014-08-16T08:56:43.263" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Hindu is identification of the people which form the &lt;code&gt;Sanatan&lt;/code&gt; Religion (the ancient religion) which is prescribed by god(Sriman Narayana) himself. God had prescribed only one text (which represents a lifestyle) known as Vedas, also Vedas have been reincarnated in a simpler form as &lt;code&gt;Purana's&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;Bhagwad Gita&lt;/code&gt; which was word of Lord Krishna. He himself is regarded as BramhaSwaroop (one face of supreme godHead) by Vedas , he prescribed in Bhagwad Mahapurana the path of Bhakti so in a way they(ISKCON people) are correct by believing one god and have supreme faith in him so as in Veda, this Concludes that they are HINDUS.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-05-17T20:36:40.540" LastActivityDate="2016-05-17T20:36:40.540" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2764" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2759" CreationDate="2014-08-16T15:17:16.083" Score="24" Body="&lt;p&gt;This needs an examination of the meaning of the word Hindu. A few questions already exist about what the term 'Hindu' means. Legally in India, anyone who does not follow Abrahamic faiths are Hindus. That includes Jains, Sikhs &amp;amp; Buddhists too. Similarly ISKCON would also fall under the category of legal Hindu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one were to see if ISKCON would fall under theological Hinduism, it would since their main deity is Krishna who is a 'Hindu' deity. The ISKCON people have tried to isolate themselves from the term Hindu since unfortunately a negative connotation has been associated with Hinduism in the west where ISKCON is active. The negative connotation being Hinduism = Casteism = Racism/Slavery. Though many ISKCON devotees like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/&quot;&gt;Stephen Knapp&lt;/a&gt; have extensively written against racist interpretation of Hinduism, many western ISKCON devotees still suffer from 'difference anxiety' and disassociate themselves from Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2014-08-16T22:12:31.007" LastActivityDate="2014-08-16T22:12:31.007" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2767" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2772" CreationDate="2014-08-16T17:51:40.507" Score="15" ViewCount="430" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm Hindu and I've noticed that in some places, Sravan month ends a few weeks earlier (eg. in Nepal it's already over), than for other places (e.g my town). Why does this happen?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sravan month is just one of the examples; these happen during most of the festivals. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've tried to ask some religious people but have not been satisfied by the answers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's the need for so many different calendars? Why can't we have one that will make our religion more powerful and less doubtful? &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2128/why-there-is-gap-of-15-days-in-shravan-maas-of-north-indians-and-maharashtrians&quot;&gt;This QA&lt;/a&gt; addresses two calenders only, but I've noticed there are more than two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Normal calendar made by religious experts.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaishnava calendar (varying from 1 city to another).  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;North Indian calendar (again made by &lt;em&gt;some other&lt;/em&gt; religious experts). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For some other South Indian States like Tamil Nadu (made by &lt;em&gt;their&lt;/em&gt; experts).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There might be many others about which I'm not aware. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why, what's the need for all these variety?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="669" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T21:54:18.133" Title="Why can't we have same calendar?" Tags="|culture|india|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2768" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1992" CreationDate="2014-08-17T02:45:11.990" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is more to ganesha visarjan than just creation or destruction principle of life. Actually when we worship a sthool object (material object) it actually becomes one of the Jagrit (active) form of god. When that material object's purpose or our purpose has been completed we have to destroy it , but before destroying it we have to make sure there are no godly elements remain in it and it becomes a inactive god object again (supta form) like every other material object.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we directly put it into water or dump the object, it will be disrespect of the energy of the supreme god. So to avoid this we pray to god to leave that object before we destroy it (by visarjan mantras depicted in texts) so that after sprinkling the abhimantrit water (enchanted water) on the idol the energy gets released and goes to its udgam sthan (the origin) and thus a cycle is complete then we do the Visarjan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2014-08-17T02:45:11.990" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2770" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2815" CreationDate="2014-08-17T12:37:51.497" Score="7" ViewCount="7868" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gandhar was a great kingdom for thousands of years. I know that Sindh was first won in 712 AD by Muhammed Bin Kasim from the last Hindu king of Sindh, Dahir. But I have never heard of extinction of Hindus from Afghanistan. Who was the last Hindu king of Upaganasthan/Gandhar? Till when were Hindus dominating that land?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastActivityDate="2015-07-05T06:52:59.377" Title="When exactly did the Hinduism become extinct from Afghanistan?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2771" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-18T04:56:33.450" Score="29" ViewCount="2136" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, how the Vedas originated is that from time immemorial, sages known as Dṛṣṭas (literally seers) have heard sacred verses (mantras) directly from the gods during a state of Tapasya (deep meditation). And then in the Dvāpara Yuga (the age before the current one), a sage named Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vedavyāsa (Vyāsa for short) compiled these verses from all those different sages into a coherent work, dividing them into a set of four books we call the Vedas. (Technically Vyāsa only compiled the Rig, Yajus, and Sāma Veda; the Atharvaṇa Veda was compiled by the sages Atharva and Aṅgiras).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Vyāsa wasn't the first one to compile and divide the Vedas, and he won't be the last.  Vedavyāsa is in fact a title, assigned to a different person in every Dvāpara Yuga, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin//vp/vp077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; by Vyāsa's father Parāśara in the Viṣṇu purāṇa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Twenty-eight times have the Vedas been arranged by the great Rishis in the Vaivaśvata Manvantara in the Dvāpara age, and consequently eight and twenty Vyāsa have passed away; by whom, in their respective periods, the Veda has been divided into four. In the first Dvāpara age the distribution was made by Svayambhu (Brahma) himself; ... I [Parāśara] was the Vyāsa of the twenty-sixth Dvāpara, and was succeeded by Jaratkāru; the Vyāsa of the twenty-eighth, who followed him, was Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana. These are the twenty-eight elder Vyāsas, by whom, in the preceding Dvāpara ages, the Veda has been divided into four. In the next Dvāpara, [Aśvatthāma] Drauṇi (the son of Droṇa) will be the Vyāsa, when my son, the Muni Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana, who is the actual Vyāsa, shall cease to be (in that character).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why do the Vedas need to be recompiled and redivided in every Dvāpara Yuga?  I can understand if the knowledge of the Vedas is lost over the generations as people die, and thus in every Dvāpara Yuga someone needs to go back to all the sages and find out the verses they heard from the gods.  But most of the people mentioned in the above quote are Cirañjīvis (immortals), so why doesn't the new Vedavyāsa just ask some previous one for their compiled work?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyāsa's father Parāśara is immortal, for instance, so couldn't Vyāsa have just asked his dad for the verses he had compiled two Dvāpara Yugas ago?  And Aśvatthāma is immortal (as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2390/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;), and he's alive right now, so rather than waiting until the next Dvāpara Yuga, couldn't he just walk into a bookstore tomorrow and buy a copy of Vyāsa's version of the Vedas?  Or if there's an issue of all the original Śākhās (recensions) not being included in the books they sell in bookstores, couldn't Aśvatthāma have just gotten the Vedas from Vyāsa himself in the last Dvāpara Yuga, especially considering that he was a student of Vyāsa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the issue simply that the compiled Vedas grow in size each time, because in the intervening years between Dvāpara Yugas, sages will have heard certain verses from the gods that had never been heard before?  Is Vyāsa's version of the Vedas bigger than Parāśara's, and will Aśvatthāma's be even bigger?  Are there any scriptures that describe this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="16889" LastEditDate="2021-10-28T03:01:40.323" LastActivityDate="2022-03-07T17:08:30.403" Title="Why do the Vedas need to be recompiled every Dvāpara Yuga?" Tags="|vedas|yuga|time|vyasa|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2772" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2767" CreationDate="2014-08-18T07:31:29.490" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The calendars will differ. Because the sun is rising at different timings in different regions.  Calendars are actually a part of culture than based on a religion. Those are based on mainly the Sun. Most of the Hindu rituals are related to the nature and weather conditions. So according to the regions, these factors differs. Since Sanathana Dharma is the culture of India, the different calendars in Hinduism depend on the weather and nature conditions of India. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most calendars will have mentions of the start of the agricultural season. Just consider the monsoon, the starting and duration of monsoon varies in different states, according to that there might be differences in calendars in South India and North India. This culture is very much related to agriculture, and it is a wide spread culture in a large country. There can be some variations in the same culture which will be most probably based on the nature of that region. So the festivals of specific regions also depend on this. Most of the festivals in India will be in the reaping season of the agriculture, so those festivals will vary according to states. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example in Kerala, there is Malayalam calendar starting at the month of 'Chingam' and it is the reaping season. So one of the most celebrated festival in Kerala, &lt;em&gt;'Onam'&lt;/em&gt; is in the month of Chingam. So from states to states festivals may differ. There will be common festivals, but most of these festivals and rituals depend on the weather and nature. Even if there are some common festivals, each of them will have it's unique variations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each Smrithi is followed in a region for a particular period according to it's nature and weather conditions. Smrithies are allowed to edit accordingly whenever needed. So the experts in particular region could have edited them according to the conditions. This is the way our ancient rishis and experts defined it and it should not be changed unless there is variations in nature conditions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2014-08-18T17:48:44.817" LastActivityDate="2014-08-18T17:48:44.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2774" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2771" CreationDate="2014-08-18T13:27:57.747" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Good question. I think the answer is what you gave in the last part. Vedas must be relocated and upgraded after every 4,320,000 years. It might be that, for example many people translate Geeta according to their own understanding, like Tilak did for Geetarahasya, Dnyaneshwar for dnyaneshwari, etc. So Vedas also must be getting changed according to each person's thinking. During this period, original  Sanskrit verses must be untouched. Hence to revive the original meaning, Vyasa must again revive the whole text and preach its meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-24T06:56:25.377" LastActivityDate="2015-03-24T06:56:25.377" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2775" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2745" CreationDate="2014-08-18T17:14:30.233" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;The existence of Amritha can neither be proved not disproved. Unless you experience it for yourself, there is no way to know. However here is a spiritually-interpreted answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Amritha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Amritha is that which makes you &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amrita&quot;&gt;immortal&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The body, which is composed of five elements, is bound to die and decay. &lt;strong&gt;Sri Krishna says in the Gita 2:27&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the one who has taken birth, death is certain and for the one who is dead, birth is certain therefore you ought not to lament for an inevitable situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The soul, which is beyond these elements, is always, has always been and will always be immortal. &lt;strong&gt;Sri Krishna says in the Gita 2:20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus when your association with your body is changed to your soul (when you realize you are not this temporary and ephemeral body, but rather the eternal and blissful soul) then you thereby realize that you were never mortal, but always eternal. &lt;strong&gt;Sri Krishna says in the Gita 2:12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus Amritha is not necessarily a liquid that you drink to become bodily immortal, but rather it is the liquid of knowledge, devotion or happiness through which you reach Sri Krishna that makes you immortal. &lt;strong&gt;Sri Krishna says in the Gita 8:16&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ&#xA;punar āvartino 'rjuna&#xA;mām upetya tu kaunteya&#xA;punar janma na vidyate&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All beings from highest plane down to the lowest are subject to birth and death. But the one who reaches Me, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What about the story of the Devatas churning the ocean of milk to obtain nectar?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The ocean of milk refers to the mind, it is filled with poison (Halahala) of your negative thoughts and ego consciousness. &lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/arishadvarga&quot;&gt;Reference:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the six passions of mind or enemies of desire, kama (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (delusion), mada (pride) and matsarya (jealousy), the negative characteristics which prevent man from realizing the atman (Reality that is his True Being).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Churning it refers to removing these tendencies by either self-enquiry, devotion to God, or selfless love for all. &lt;strong&gt;Sri Krishna says in the Gita 5:23&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That person who is able to neutralize in this life, the physical, mental and emotional urges generated from desire and passion, before the death of the body; he is fully self-controlled and certainly happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Amrith refers to the eternal realization of the Supreme that occurs as an outcome. Devatas refer to your positive and good tendencies, while rakshasas refer to your negative tendencies. &lt;strong&gt;Sri Krishna declares in the Bhavagad Gita 6:7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The being who has conquered the mind, transcending the dualities of cold, heat, happiness, distress, honor and dishonor is firmly established with the Ultimate Consciousness within.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus in you are embedded all of these positive tendencies(devatas), negative tendencies(rakshasas), ego and other six passions (Halahala poison) and finally God Himself (Amrith).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in the Gita 13:6,7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The major elements of earth, water, air, fire and ether; the false ego, spiritual intelligence, the unmanifest element in material nature, the ten senses along with the mind and the five objects of the senses as sound, sight, taste, touch and smell; desire, disdain, happiness, distress, the perceptual faculty of the mind, determination; all this is declared to be the field of activities modified by the six transformations of the physical body beginning with birth and ending with death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically He is saying that all these qualities and tendencies are attributes of material nature which controls us. This is responsible for birth and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna then also says this in Gita 13:7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now I shall explain that which is to be known, realizing which the nectar of immortality is attained; that reality is eternal having Me as the Supreme, beyond cause, beyond effect and designated as Brahman the Ultimate Truth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is declaring that realization of Brahman or the Absolute Truth is verily the nectar of immortality. What is meant by realization of Brahman, well differen schools of philosophy have different versions of that. But the crux is that by knowing that Truth which Sri krishna expounds, it is possible to become immortal, i.e. free from rebirth. That kind of knowledge, devotion or action which has at its essence the Supreme Being or Brahman or Sri Krishna or Lord Shiva or any other name is the greatest of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; The story mentioned of Devas churning the ocean is an actual historical event, but there are also many lessons and values to be gained of all avatara's of God, this being one such value.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2014-12-19T21:57:59.727" LastActivityDate="2014-12-19T21:57:59.727" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2776" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2778" CreationDate="2014-08-19T09:26:18.440" Score="17" ViewCount="30661" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have observed and even practiced the act of breaking a coconut before any Hindu ritual or before starting any auspicious deed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also offered before God after breaking it. What does this signify? What makes coconut so special?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I referred this question. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/752/&quot;&gt;What is the significance of n&amp;#227;rikel (coconut) in pooja?&lt;/a&gt; but it seems like the question does not refer to the act of breaking a coconut and its significance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2022-07-16T04:15:47.583" Title="What is the significance of breaking a coconut in Hindu rituals?" Tags="|worship|rituals|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2777" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2036" CreationDate="2014-08-19T11:17:48.090" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, in Mahabharata epic, there are many incidents that mentions a day is called from sunrise to sunset.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For any place, where a person can not see sun then it is considered as end of the day. The day starts for that place when a person can see sun from horizons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, when Pandava's exile was about to complete, Arjuna appeared in front of Duryodhana, at that time sun was not visible from that place. It was considered as end of the day, hence end of Pandava's exile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-09-19T07:28:40.837" LastActivityDate="2014-09-19T07:28:40.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2778" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2776" CreationDate="2014-08-19T11:31:02.410" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Can't find any reliable citations for this, but I have mostly heard about this from my parents and elders.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coconut breaking is a symbolic act of submitting oneself completely to the almighty. Before starting anything good/big (ex: foundation stone of buildings, buying a new car etc), coconuts are offered. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coconut is also known as &quot;Sriphal&quot;, or Gods fruit. It is considered as the purest form of offering to God, since the milk and the white kernel is not polluted due to the hard outer shell. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;(Again, I don't have any reliable citations for this)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The coconut itself symbolizes one's own head, specifically the person's ego. In the process of breaking the coconut, the person let's go of his ego and pride which he might have achieved or is going to achieve. When the ego is broken, only then you can taste the sweet milk of success, or the fruit itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt; Although I couldn't find any authentic citations, here are a few blogs and threads who have written about it. I only know this from my parents and elders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bharathkidilse.blogspot.in/2009/10/coconut.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://bharathkidilse.blogspot.in/2009/10/coconut.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindu-blog.com/2008/03/why-do-hindus-break-coconut-in-ganesh.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hindu-blog.com/2008/03/why-do-hindus-break-coconut-in-ganesh.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's a link which talks more about coconut as an offering to gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dhilipkumarek.wordpress.com/article/why-hindus-break-coconut-in-ganesha-temples-etc/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://dhilipkumarek.wordpress.com/article/why-hindus-break-coconut-in-ganesha-temples-etc/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="352" LastEditorUserId="352" LastEditDate="2014-08-19T13:20:53.850" LastActivityDate="2014-08-19T13:20:53.850" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2779" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-19T13:04:25.170" Score="5" ViewCount="1896" Body="&lt;p&gt;We see tortoise figurine at the entries of almost all the temples. What is the significance and origin of this custom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="543" LastEditDate="2014-08-21T02:31:08.413" LastActivityDate="2014-08-21T02:31:08.413" Title="Why do temples have tortoise figurine at the entrance?" Tags="|temple|customs|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2781" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2759" CreationDate="2014-08-19T15:05:00.783" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;ISKCON is obviously a Hindu organisation because its  discipilic succession goes back to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His philosophical teaching of &lt;em&gt;achintya bhedabheda&lt;/em&gt; which are based upon Hindu scriptures. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's discipilic succession goes back to Madhavendra Puri who is believed to be a part of Madhavacharya's lineage. So it being a Vaishnava &lt;em&gt;sampradaya&lt;/em&gt; its followers are definitely Hindu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the western followers of it are at best Hindu only by belief or practice. &lt;strong&gt;They are not actually considered Hindu owing to a lack of Hindu birth&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, they are not allowed to enter the Jagannatha temple at Puri, which is restricted to Hindus only. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it is incorrect to think that they are not Hindu just because they believe &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt; is the  only path to &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt;. There are many sects, many beliefs in Hinduism which are quite opposite to each other. But all are part of Hinduism. ISKCON just happens to preach the easy path of &lt;em&gt;bhkati&lt;/em&gt; (chanting Krishna's names) suitable for this age as suggested by the scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-06-22T19:56:59.603" LastActivityDate="2018-06-22T19:56:59.603" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2782" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2759" CreationDate="2014-08-19T16:05:14.157" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It does not matter whether we think ISKCON people are Hindus. They have told me that they follow the superior Vedic Dharma since Hinduism is a vague term. I obtained this info from personal contact. What I think they mean is that Hinduism is an umbrella term which includes even an atheistic branch. It does not accurately portray the philosophical position of ISKCON. Vedic Dharma, on the other hand, is in agreement with ISKCON according to the followers of ISKCON.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2020-03-01T14:12:29.400" LastActivityDate="2020-03-01T14:12:29.400" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2784" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7673" CreationDate="2014-08-20T02:58:52.067" Score="13" ViewCount="1722" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you're a brahmin, you're probably familiar with the &lt;a href=&quot;http://avaniavittam.org/images/AVANI-AVITTAM_Yajur-2014.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;following mantra&lt;/a&gt; (see page 2):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajnopavitam, paramam pavitram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prajapatim yatsahajam purastath |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayushyam agriyam pratimunja subhram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajnopavitam balam astu tejah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Put on the sacred thread, the supreme purifier, which was born along with Brahma long ago, which bestows long life, preeminence, and purity may the sacred thread bestow strength and light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the mantra you say when you put on the sacred thread, variously called the Yagnopavita, Poonal, or Janayu.  Brahmins change their sacred thread every year in a ritual called Avani Avittam or Upakarma, which took place this month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scripture does this mantra come from?  The preamble you're supposed to say beforehand provides some detail about the mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajnopavita dharana mahamantrasya, Brahmarishihi, Thrishtupchandaha, Trayi Vidyadevata, Yajnopavita dharana viniyogaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of the great mantra called the wearing of the sacred thread, the sage [who heard it from the gods] is Brahma, the meter is Trishtup, the deity [whom it's about] is the triple wisdom [i.e. the three Vedas], the purpose is the wearing of the sacred thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It might seem strange that the sage who heard this mantra from the gods is the god Brahma, but there are actually many verses in the Vedas which were heard by various gods.  (See the Anukramani for Rig Veda Book 10 in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; hymn 14, for instance, was heard from the gods by Yama the god of death, called Yama Vaivasvata in the Anukramani, and hymn 121 was heard by Brahma, called Hiranyagarbha Prajapatya.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in what scripture does this mantra heard by Brahma occur?  Also, on a side note are there any scriptures that describe how the sacred thread was originally &amp;quot;born along with Brahma&amp;quot;, as the mantra says?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-06-28T21:19:53.193" Title="What scripture does the sacred thread mantra come from?" Tags="|scripture|rituals|mantras|brahma|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2785" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2779" CreationDate="2014-08-20T03:15:00.653" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tortoise is the Narayan Avatar (one of the Avatar's of Lord Vishnu) which appeared at the time of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_manthan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Samudra Manthan&lt;/a&gt; Lord Took this avatar of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kurma&lt;/a&gt;(Tortoise) to stabalize the Rock above on the Ocean floor and due to the rubbing of the Mountain on the Back of Lord Vishnu the Divya(magical/mythological) Elements erupted form the Ocean Floor and also the Shakti of Lord Vishnu Godess Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to the following properties we keep Lord Vishnu avatar kurma on the temple entrance so that it keeps the balance of the infrastructure and protects it from any harm, there is one spiritual aspect also that we have manthan (torrent of thoughts) going on in our mind to control that manthan and give us the stability to take the correct decision the kurma(tortoise) helps us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2014-08-20T03:15:00.653" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2786" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2800" CreationDate="2014-08-20T03:51:45.407" Score="10" ViewCount="2310" Body="&lt;p&gt;For navagraha shanti (satisfying 9 planets), people give navadhanya daana respective to the planet, does it has power to transfer our sins earned by our own karma or it is just meant to satisfy the planets? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there ways to transfer punya/punyam or pap/papam? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2020-07-07T06:58:11.007" Title="Can sins be transferred?" Tags="|sin|navagraha|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2787" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-20T03:57:08.163" Score="8" ViewCount="2137" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do Hindu Gods have multiple heads &amp;amp; multiple shoulders? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it just meant to symbolically represent the God we worship is cosmic? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-24T11:10:24.023" LastActivityDate="2018-01-28T21:38:59.117" Title="Why do Hindu Gods have multiple organs?" Tags="|gods|symbolism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2788" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2787" CreationDate="2014-08-20T05:03:07.803" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Deities are often portrayed with multiple arms, especially when they are battling cosmic forces. The multiplicity of arms emphasizes the deity's immense power and ability to perform several acts at the same time. The portrayal of a deity in human form but with multiple arms is the artist's attempt to express the deity's superhuman power. Demons are frequently depicted with multiple heads to convey their superhuman power as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Occasionally a deity is shown with more than one head in an attempt to describe various aspects of the character of that deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The multiple arms are to show a difference but also a greater power than humans.&#xA;The number of arms varies depending on the symbolism being shown. Thus normally it is 4 arms each holding a different item (with a different meaning). However, the number can and does vary. For example Lord Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Abhaya Mudra (gesture of fearlessness) of his lower right hand symbolizes Ganesha's blessings and protection on a person's journey through life, especially the spiritual one.&#xA;In His upper right hand, Ganesha usually holds an axe, with which He is said to cut off all attachments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He pulls the devotee nearer to the spiritual path by the rope that He carries in His upper left hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He offers rewards for penances (sadhana) done with the modak (type of confection, usually made from rice flour and a stuffing of jaggery, coconut, etc.) He holds in His lower left hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can get 6 or 10 armed Lord Ganesha with other items each with their own meaning. So it depends on the complexity of the message.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Places that have a 2 armed deity usually (not always) have a legend of the deity manifesting in the area where the temple was built.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some definitions for this aspect go directly into an ancient Indian mythology, for example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma originally possessed one head. From a part of his own body, he created a woman Shatarupa. Brahma fell in love with his own female creation and could not take his eyes off her extraordinary beauty. Shatarupa felt shy and tried to evade his gaze by moving away on all sides. To follow her wherever she moved, Brahma created his 5 heads. Four of which facing East, West, North and South and the one facing up. (It is said that from the four of his heads four Vedas came into existence, namely, Rigveda, Samveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda and from the top one 18 Puranas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord Shiva got angry for this behavior of Brahma and cut off his 5th head facing up. Therefore HE was left with four of his heads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Be-Ca/Brahma.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mythencyclopedia&lt;/a&gt; Or for example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a battle with Gods (Devtas), Tarakasur gathered the most destructive things in Brahmand(Universe) and made a Linear weapon out of the same. He wanted it to use it on Earth to destroy it to prevent Lord Shiva to establish the 51 Shakti-peeths formed out of the limbs of Sati fallen on Earth to prevent the Devtas getting power from there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Lord Shiva came to know by his intuition about the plans of Tarakasur, he imbibed or absorbed the weapon in the same way as he had done with Poison or Vish at the time of Great Ocean Churning (Samudra-manthan). He could have very well thrown the weapon anywhere in the universe but then that would have meant total destruction of that part of the universe, the weapon being meant for heavy destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence to avoid that destruction, Lord Shiva absorbed it in his body and it formed the 3rd eye, the eye of destruction. From then it is opened by Lord Shiva only when he wants to totally destruct anybody (e.g., Kamadev, the God of Sex) or anything (say Universe at the end of all 4 yugas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was asked in comments &amp;quot;Why wasn't Lord Hanuman portrayed like that&amp;quot;? My answer is Lord Hanuman was portrayed like that too in his hypostasis of Panchamukhi Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a picture of Hanuman, his hypostasis of Panchamukhi Hanuman. The photo I took in Jakhoo temple in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/F7tPv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Panchamukhi Hanuman&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Panchamukha (Devanagari: पञ्चमुख) (alternatively Panchamukhi) is a Sanskrit word meaning 'five-faced'. Most of the Hindu deities are shown as having several faces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The origin of Sri Panchamukhs Hanuman can be traced to a story in Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the war between Lord Rama and Ravana. Ravana took help of Mahiravana who is the king of pathala. Lord Hanuman in order to protect Lord Ram and Lakshman formed a fortress with his tail. Mahiravana took the form of Vibeeshana and took Lord Ram and Lakshman to pathala loka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman entered pathala loka in search of Rama and Lakshmana, and he found out that to kill Mahiravana he had to extinguish five lamps (life of Mahiravana is in 3 places, lamps are one of them) burning in five different directions at the same time, so he has taken the Panchamukha form with Hanuman, Hayagriva, Narasimha, Garuda and Varaha faces and extinguished the lamps and killed Mahiravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Hanumath Prakaranam in Sri Vidyarnavatantram, Anjaneya has five faces (Pancha Mukha) and ten weapons. The five faces are that of Lord Hanuman, Lord Narasimha, Lord Adivaraha, Lord Hayagriva, and Lord Garuda. Hanuman is a great yogi (mystic) having transcended the five senses (Pancha Indriyas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Kamba Ramayanam (in Tamil), the significance of number five is beautifully narrated as follows: The son of one of the five elements (son of wind - Pavana Thanaya) crossed one of the five elements (water – the ocean), through one of the five elements (sky), met daughter of one of the five elements (daughter of earth - Sita Devi) burnt down Lanka by one of the five elements (fire). Sundara Kandam, which highlights the heroic exploits of Lord Hanuman at Lanka is the fifth canto in the Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, it is considered auspicious to go around His idol 5 times, 14 times, 23 times, 32 times or with such numbers the digits of which add to five. The pancha mukha hanuman is a rare idol of Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many legends and interpretations to this. The legend Lord Hanuman is said to have appeared before Raghavendraswamy in a unique way amalgamating within him the avataras of &amp;quot;varaha, garuda, anjaneya, narasimha and hayagreeva&amp;quot;, thus five-headed. Panchamukhi, located on the south bank of river Tungabhadra near Manchala now known as Mantralayam is where Raghavendraswamy performed penance for 12 long years in a cave.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In appreciation of his Yoga, Lord Panchamukhi Pranadevaru, Kollahpura Mahalakshmi, Lord Venkateshwara of Tirupati and Kurmavathara gave darshan to him. Then he left for Mantralaya where he entered into Samadhi. A temple has been constructed at the spot where he performed penance known as the Panchamukhi Anjaneyaswamy temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The details of Panchamukaa are: East facing Anjaneya to grant humanity Ishta Siddhi. South facing Karala Ugraveera Narasimha to grant humanity Abhista Siddhi. West facing Mahaveera Garuda to grant humanity Sakala Sowbhagya. North facing Lakshmi Varaha to grant humanity Dhana Prapthi. Urdhva Mukha {atop} being Hayagriva to grant humanity Sarva Vidya Jaya Prapthi. The interpretations&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are five ways of prayer to the Lord. They are Naman, Smaran, Keerthanam, Yachanam and Arpanam. The five faces depict these five forms. Lord Hanuman always used to Naman, Smaran and Keerthanam of Lord Sri Rama. He totally surrendered (Arpanam) to his Master Sri Ram. He also begged (yachanam) Sri Rama to bless him the undivided love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavat Gita Lord Krishna says to Arjun, &amp;quot;He who acts for me, who is engrossed in me, who is my devotee, who is free from attachment, he reaches me&amp;quot; . We find all these 5 qualities enshrined in Hanuman. Each of his face explains the five divine qualifications. May be an artist thought over about this before making the Vigraham. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;There is a belief that one of the faces is that of Sri Vinayaka. The idol of Adyanta Maha Prabhu depicts a figure of half Anjaneya and half Vinayaka. Half Ganesha and half Hanuman At Madya Kailas temple Adyar Madras The idol is an amalgam of Sri vigneshwara and Sri Anjaneya on the lines of Ardhanareeswara ( Siva and Parvati) and Sri Sankaranarayana (combination of Siva and narayana). &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The word Aadiyantha stands for &amp;quot;beginning to end&amp;quot; (Aadi = beginning &amp;amp; Antha = end). There is a Tamil saying &amp;quot;Begin with Ganesa and end up with Anjaneya&amp;quot;. Many people visit the temple to get the blessing of the &amp;quot;Twins&amp;quot; against the influence of Navagrahas. The importance of the idol is that Sri Vigneswara and Sri Anjaneya are the only two deities who are totally free from any influence over them whatsoever by the Navagrahas. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;It is believed that, the devotees can and do influence the Navagrahas themselves proportionate to the devoutness with which the devotees address themselves to Sri Aadiyanta Prabhu!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This description of Panchamukha is taken from a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchamukha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="600" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-01-28T21:38:59.117" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2789" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2798" CreationDate="2014-08-20T05:16:12.203" Score="25" ViewCount="6006" Body="&lt;p&gt;A text says that a king named &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakudmi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kakudmi&lt;/a&gt; time-traveled in a two-way trip (Earth ⇒ Brahmaloka and Brahmaloka ⇒ Earth). It also says that there is a difference in frequency of times at different places in the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any other scripture that says about time travel (like what Kakudmi did)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any character in our scripture that time-traveled but without physically traveling in space?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T08:54:42.417" LastActivityDate="2023-07-26T04:49:29.477" Title="Time travel in Hindu scripture" Tags="|scripture|puranas|time|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2790" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2791" CreationDate="2014-08-20T05:36:30.027" Score="-1" ViewCount="6021" Body="&lt;p&gt;Famous masters of Tibetan Tantra, such as Roerich and Blavatskaya wrote that energy vibrations of animals don't match to the frequency of human beings and that's why people shouldn't keep them at home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've heard many times that a dog is not recommended to be kept inside home. It was advised not to allow a dog to live in your home, but keep it outside in the yard. Many people though nowadays live with dogs inside home. What is the background for this from the perspective of myths of Hinduism and Indian traditional attitude towards dog and animals in general?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="600" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-21T20:09:02.673" LastActivityDate="2014-08-21T20:09:02.673" Title="Why are animals (e.g. a dog) considered as not recommended for living inside home, but allowed outdoors?" Tags="|belief|animals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2014-08-20T06:06:01.293" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2791" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2790" CreationDate="2014-08-20T06:08:40.660" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Any animal is natural, so considering good or bad is personal thing. Hinduism states that animals can not be considered as illegible for Heavan. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m17/m17003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; epic is proof for this, when Yudhisthira was asked to leave dog when Indra asked him. That dog was Yama himself, and Yudhisthira denies to come to heavan without dog, Indra told that dog is animal who can only go to hell, There is no place in Heaven for persons with dogs Yudhisthira agrees to go to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SadGurudeva Maharaj Lord Dattatreya is widely famous in Hinduism. Dog was one of the 24 teachers to Dattatreya. In any photograph of Lord Dattatreya , you will find 4 dogs, who are considered as 4 Vedas. There is a story that when Lord Dattatreya speaks, even Vedas keep mum. Vedas originated from breath of Lord Datta. Here you can see even Lord himself respects dogs by learning from them and considers them teachers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yamadev, Yamraj or Dharmaraj has a dog with three heads. This is mentioned in Rigveda. The dogs are worshipped as a part of a five-day Tihar festival that falls roughly in November every year. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogs_in_religion&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;, it is believed that dogs guard the doors of Heaven and Hell. &#xA;There is an incranation of shakti whose vehical is dog. Bhairava's vehicle is also a dog.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism every creature is considered as originated from Lord Brahma. The properties of animal makes it good or bad for mankind. Actually dogs are the best friends of society but unfortunately worst people are compared with them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why dogs can not be kept inside home?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dogs may have many diseases which are allergetic to humans. Natural environment is more suitable to animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism, dogs are guards, and guards are at entrance only, there is no place for them inside home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2014-08-20T06:18:53.863" LastActivityDate="2014-08-20T06:18:53.863" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2793" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2789" CreationDate="2014-08-20T09:46:27.063" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all that wasn't Time travel, you are talking of a phenomenon known as 'Time Dilation Phenomenon', in the same story it is also written that when he returned to earth, he found his further generations living (not sure but I think it was fourth generation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Time dilation phenomenon was given by Albert Einstein which is the part of his &quot;Theory of Relativity&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; will make it more understandable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story might look he traveled to future, but no, in brahma lok the time dilated, meaning his 1 sec might be equal to hours on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, there are no stories related to time travel, because time travel is actually not possible, you can only give optimistic results of future dependent on the Karmas, Planets and other things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-22T07:31:01.990" LastActivityDate="2014-08-22T07:31:01.990" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2794" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2786" CreationDate="2014-08-20T10:06:41.377" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Sin or Good both are fetter, one of iron other of gold, need to cut both&amp;quot;&#xA;I'll go to the reference of Geeta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;14.5 O mighty-armed one, the alities, viz sattva, rajas and tamas, born of Nature, being the immutable embodies being to the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You cannot kill your sins, but you can make you good larger than your sin. Everything in this world is relative, if the word is very good (ie. satyug) then even a lie will be a sin, but if the world is very bad(ie. kalyug) a lie would look a very feeble sin to anyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The GANGA SNAN or the NAVGRAH SHANTI are again relative words, they do a very merge consent in kalyug, but they give differential benefits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. the ganga, from where it comes, flows through many plants, which are very good herbs, thus having herbal benefits to human, this causes human to live more stable life in respect to his helth problems. Less health problems less needs for medicine, more saving to eat, less changes of you mind being corrupted to go for sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can never be free from sins, there will be instant in life where you will go wrong, you motive to make your good greater than you sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-07-07T06:58:11.007" LastActivityDate="2020-07-07T06:58:11.007" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2795" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2787" CreationDate="2014-08-20T14:42:38.120" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The iconography of a Devata is philosophy in action. The analogy is the Feynman diagrams in particle Physics. A trained Physicist can read off the various contribution to the scattering cross section of a scattering process by looking at its Feynman's diagram. Similarly the details of the murthi tell a knowledgeable person the major things to know about the Devata. For example, multiple arms with weapons signifies superhuman power to destroy the various passions (Krodha, kama, lobha, moho, matsarya, and Ahamkar).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-08-20T14:42:38.120" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2796" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2786" CreationDate="2014-08-20T16:42:24.460" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Transfer of karma means someone else will suffer or enjoy the results of your actions. So &lt;em&gt;Navagraha Shanti&lt;/em&gt; is not actually a transfer of sins. It is just pacification of the planets done for &lt;em&gt;rishta khandana&lt;/em&gt; (breaking malefaction due to planets). It doesn't reduces or transfers sins, it just pacifies the planets who have become malefic in our birth chart due to previous minor wrong actions. (&lt;em&gt;The thing to note here is that, scriptures state hell is the punishment of committing sins. Sins can only be negated by performing appropriate expiatory actions, otherwise a person has to experience punishment in hell.&lt;/em&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Astrology gives different kinds of activities, rituals and &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; to pacify the planets that are in malefic positions. The activity of performing those actions mitigates the bad effects to some amount that otherwise could have happened. &lt;strong&gt;But they do not transfer you karma. Your performance of those remedial actions cancels out some of the bad effects.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in case of transfer of karma, you won't have to do anything. The other person who is willing to receive the karma will have to undergo the equivalent effect. However, transfer of karma, even though is possible, is quite rare and against the natural order. Only some advanced yogis and saints can do this. Even if one is eligible to do this, he won't take upon himself someone else's karma and suffer the consequences of breaking the law of nature. Only few compassionate saints and yogis take upon themselves other person's sins and that too very few times when extremely necessary. So the concept of transferring of sins is as good as non existent for average people like us. The best we can do is to avoid making sins or expiate the ones we have already done by performing expiatory actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-08-20T16:42:24.460" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2797" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-20T17:32:06.390" Score="14" ViewCount="1934" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people (specially left-leaning) like to call Hindu epic books such as Ramayana and Mahabharata as myths. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is what is the exact reason for the use of this word myth or mythology despite so many archaelogical, astronomical and historical research into the events mentioned in both the texts? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in short my question is, is there any special reason for using the word myth in describing the two great epics of Hinduism or is it something else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T16:28:35.627" LastActivityDate="2017-12-31T01:14:23.483" Title="What exactly is the basis/reason behind calling Hindu epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata as myths/mythology" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|history|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2798" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2789" CreationDate="2014-08-20T17:44:24.793" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavata Purana and some other &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt;, there is mention of a king named &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muchukunda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Muchukunda&lt;/a&gt; who also experienced a similar effect. He went to join the battle for the gods as their commander but by the time he was free to return, all his family and relatives were extinct being swept away by this effect of relative time (&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/51/18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB - 10.51.18&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;This answer is based on the verse from Bhagavata as it describes the story a bit more than the other &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt;. But anyone who is interested can find the story mentioned at least in the following &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt;: Vishnu Purana, Brahma Purana, Skanda Purana, Harivamsha, and Padma Purana. This incident may also be present in Mahabharata, but I don't know the chapter number.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now those who rightly say that the above-referenced verse doesn't explicitly state less time had passed for Muchukunda should put some thoughts and analyze the meaning again. Everything is not present in direct words always that everything would be easily understood. Otherwise, there would be no explanations, commentaries, &lt;em&gt;bhasyas&lt;/em&gt;, etc. by saints and scholars. And there would be no arguments, debates, and different sects and creeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyway, in this verse, it should be noted that not only his family but relatives, citizens,  contemporaries, all are gone in course of time. Had Muchukunda been under the same effect of time, he would have been dead also. But because he was in devaloka the course of time for him was slower and different. If only his family were extinct then someone could have said Muchukunda was probably having a longer life length. But because all the citizens of his Kingdom, his relatives, and contemporaries were dead it can be understood that time was running faster on earth compared to where Muchukunda was.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T08:57:50.883" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T08:57:50.883" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2799" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2797" CreationDate="2014-08-20T20:41:52.120" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you Google the word 'myth' the following two meanings show up:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;a widely held but false belief or idea.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think when they say the great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata (or from other beliefs) are myths, they are actually referring to the former definition, rather than the latter. But because the latter is more widely used and popular, it is often interpreted that way, which is not true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T19:04:45.897" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T19:04:45.897" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2800" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2786" CreationDate="2014-08-20T21:15:30.763" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karma refers to the reward or fruit of action. When one commits a good deed, it is returned back to him/her. When one commits a bad deed(sin), it is also returned back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can it be transferred to someone else?&#xA;There are accounts of saints taking on the sicknesses (or bad karma) of others in order to relieve them of their misery throughout history. But this is done voluntarily by the saint, rather than by the disciple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example the great Saint/Avatar Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is believed to have taken the sins of the people &lt;a href=&quot;http://gosai.com/writings/abandon-unhealthy-mentalities&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jagai and Madai story&lt;/a&gt; as given below here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later Jagai and Madhai came before the Lord with folded hands. Lord Chaitanya then requested the brothers to give the Lord a tulsi leaf saying, &quot;I will take your sinful reactions. Give them all to Me.&quot; At first the brothers refused saying, &quot;O Lord You do not know how sinful we are. We can not do it.&quot; The brothers reminded the Lord that they had killed many cows, brahmins, women, and given trouble to countless innocent persons. But the Lord insisted and finally it was done. When Lord Chaitanya received the sins of Jagai and Madhai the Lord lost his golden complexion and He immediately became black.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However this cannot be done by all. Only the great Yogis, the great Avatars and the great Saints can do this. Others may be able to but it is dangerous to attempt such things as taking on another's fruits without proper intuition and Divine Will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Paramahansa Yogananda speaks of this  'Autobiography of a Yogi':&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The metaphysical method of physical transfer of disease is known to highly advanced yogis. A strong man can assist a weaker one by helping to carry his heavy load; a spiritual superman is able to minimize his disciples' physical or mental burdens by sharing the karma of their past actions. Just as a rich man loses some money when he pays off a large debt for his prodigal son, who is thus saved from dire consequences of his own folly, so a master willingly sacrifices a portion of his bodily wealth to lighten the misery of disciples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By a secret method, the yogi unites his mind and astral vehicle with those of a suffering individual; the disease is conveyed, wholly or in part, to the saint's body. Having harvested God on the physical field, a master no longer cares what happens to that material form. Though he may allow it to register a certain disease in order to relieve others, his mind is never affected; he considers himself fortunate in being able to render such aid. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is clear that not all can/should attempt to take on the karma of another preson. So then what else to do with the bad karma. Sin can not only be transferred but also removed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to circumvent sin?&#xA;Three ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Through self-inquiry: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;to one person, the daily job gives great misery and seems like a great sin committed, but yet to another person who is unemployed the daily job seems to be a great blessing. Therefore both persons are envying each other, while not happy with what they have. Then what really is a sin? It is only sin if we choose to think of it as sin. Just as the world looks green when we have green spectacles, the world appears to be dual when we wear the 'good &amp;amp; evil' spectacles of the Mind. Thus realizing this will destroy all sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Adi Shankaracharya states in aparokshanubhuti 98:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All actions of man, Perishes when one is able to see, Brahman which is in the higher and also lower&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Through devotion to God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a the child accepts both the sweet-tasting chocolate as well as the bitter-tasting vegetables from the parents, in trust that the parent Loves the child and will do only what is best. Similarly trust in the Lord, that whatever happens is controlled by Him and is done for our own Good. Then this leads to surrender and leads to acceptance. When we accept all as gift of God, there is no sin, there is only gift. This requires faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna states in Bhagavad Gita 18, 66:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Through karma yoga (doing good deeds without expecting results): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;simple logic: if what we do comes back to us, then why do bad? thereby spend all of time doing good day and night, until we realize that in our joy of giving, we do not care for receiving anything. Then where is the need to think of ourself? Selflessness thereby dawns and destroys all sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swamiji Sivanandaji  on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/practicekarma.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Practice of Karma Yoga&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The practice of Nishkamya Karma Yoga destroys sins and impurities of the mind and causes Chitta Suddhi or purity of the Antahkarana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about going around nine planets in temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like the all great rituals of Hinduism if done with conviction, sincerity, purity and love then it will also result in removal of sins. However if done mechanically with thoughts of &quot;I have to go here today&quot;, &quot;I have to get Y today&quot;, &quot;What will Z do today&quot;, &quot;What to eat&quot; etc. then it is not as effective. Thus concentration and discipline is the key.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna says in &quot;The Five Commandments of Sri Ramakrishna&quot; by Swami Dayatmananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We have to impress on our minds that purity of thought and sincerity of purpose are the essential conditions one has to achieve and develop in the religious life if it is to be expeditiously fruitful. An aspirant must practise self-control. He has to avoid all slips in ethical life and should live a life of discipline. These are the sine qua non of the higher life, and it is well-known that nothing will happen if spiritual disciplines are practised perfunctorily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When that purity of purpose and sincerity in sadhana is achieved and when one tries in secret and in solitude and with single-minded devotion to repeat the name of God, His vision will come and the devotee will get absorbed in Him. This chanting of God's name must form a regular habit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2014-12-18T19:40:51.843" LastActivityDate="2014-12-18T19:40:51.843" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2801" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-20T21:17:40.653" Score="9" ViewCount="758" Body="&lt;p&gt;The coming of Lord Vishnu's 10&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; and final avatar, Kalki, has been long foretold (see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/582/419&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; for detail).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am curious as to whether any other avatars were similarly foretold in advance. If so, where did the prophecies come from, and how did people at the time react to them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2018-07-18T10:53:01.950" Title="Were any of Vishnu's avatars (besides Kalki) foretold in advance?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2802" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2822" CreationDate="2014-08-21T02:44:52.017" Score="20" ViewCount="3978" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Manache Shlok&lt;/em&gt; in Marathi mentions that Ramayana happens once in a &lt;em&gt;Kalpa&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मना कल्पना कल्पिता कल्प कोटी| नव्हे रे नव्हे सर्वथा रामभेटी|| मना कामना राम नाही जयाला| अति आदरे प्रीती नाही तयाला|| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Explanation of this consisted that Ramayana happens once in a kalpa. I am curious to know if all the ten avatars of Vishnu repeat in each &lt;em&gt;Chaturyuga&lt;/em&gt; (Mahayuga).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-24T09:01:46.170" LastActivityDate="2018-11-24T09:01:46.170" Title="Do the same avatars repeat in each chaturyuga?" Tags="|vishnu|history|avatars|yuga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2803" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2797" CreationDate="2014-08-21T07:31:14.223" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;One statement, if &lt;em&gt;History&lt;/em&gt; gets old it becomes &lt;em&gt;Legend&lt;/em&gt; and when &lt;em&gt;Legend&lt;/em&gt; gets old, it becomes a &lt;em&gt;Myth&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, they are too old to get proofs from, and they are repeated so many times, that we even cannot be sure that each and every part of them is correct (I am not saying false,  history can also be told in some modified form).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata was about 3200 BC and we don't know much things, for example, &lt;em&gt;Indus Valley Civilization&lt;/em&gt; which is younger; around 2300 BC.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The advancement of science has got many proofs of Mahabharata but Ramayana still remains a myth, for many minded humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-22T17:48:46.290" LastActivityDate="2014-08-22T17:48:46.290" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2804" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-21T08:10:08.513" Score="26" ViewCount="107035" Body="&lt;p&gt;People usually avoid sleeping with head facing to the North. What I heard is that doing so will bring death. Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="419" LastEditDate="2014-08-23T06:58:27.087" LastActivityDate="2022-03-01T15:46:21.783" Title="Why not sleep with your head facing North direction?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2807" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2804" CreationDate="2014-08-21T08:32:51.587" Score="18" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Religious Reason&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The south corner is considered as a direction of Death. It also said that the Yamalok ( hell ) is located in the south of the universe and beneath the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Normally when a person dies, his/her body should be kept in a position like head towards north. This is one of the strong reason that people avoid sleeping head towards north direction. For more information read &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naraka_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narak article from Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Scientific Reason&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Science says that it is because the human body has its own magnetic field (Also known as hearts magnetic field, because of the flow of blood) and Earth is a giant magnet. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we sleep with head towards north, our body's magnetic field becomes completely asymmetrical to the Earth's Magnetic field. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That cause problems related to blood pressure and our heart needs to work harder in order to overcome this asymmetry of Magnetic fields. Apart from this, another reason is that our body has significant amount of iron in our blood. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we sleep in this position, iron from the whole body starts to congregate in our brain which can cause a headache, Alzheimer’s Disease, Cognitive Decline, Parkinson disease and brain degeneration. All these things don't happen in one or two single night but it happens if the person has a daily habit of sleeping in a north direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="13132" LastEditDate="2018-01-12T13:42:04.613" LastActivityDate="2018-01-12T13:42:04.613" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2808" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2776" CreationDate="2014-08-21T09:17:16.853" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Kerala, breaking cocunut is called &lt;em&gt;'Muttarrukkal'&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;'Muttu'&lt;/em&gt; means &lt;em&gt;'any difficulties'&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;'arukkal'&lt;/em&gt; means &lt;em&gt;removing&lt;/em&gt;. So &lt;em&gt;'Muttarukkal'&lt;/em&gt; means removing the difficulties on issues. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are different special &lt;em&gt;'Muttarukkals'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vahana Muttu - For Vahanam(Vehicle)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vidhya Muttu - For Vidhya(Education)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dheha Muttu - For Dheham(Body)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="686" LastActivityDate="2014-08-21T09:17:16.853" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2812" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2804" CreationDate="2014-08-21T12:19:22.517" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason we don't keep the head in the north and legs in the south is because south direction is associated with Yamalokam. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naraka_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Naraka (Sanskrit: नरक) is the Hindu equivalent of Hell, where sinners&#xA;  are tormented after death. It is also the abode of Yama, the god of&#xA;  Death. It is described as located in the south of the universe and&#xA;  beneath the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in Hindus, we lay down a person with his head to north and feet in south when they die. Also if you know, we always hang dead peoples photo frames in the south. Hence, its considered that sleeping in this direction may bring trouble, distress etc to an individual. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, a person can sleep in an opposite direction for example, he can keep his head in the south and feet facing north. This sleeping position is also suggested in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vaastu-shastra.com/vastu-for-bedroom.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaastu Shastra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should sleep with head towards South, East or West and never in&#xA;  north.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://theancientindia.blogspot.in/2012/08/sleeping-directions.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;You can refer a post below which explains cultural as well as scientific reasons&lt;/a&gt; (though as pointed out by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2804/why-not-sleep-with-your-head-facing-north-direction/2812#comment4738_2812&quot;&gt;bjb568&lt;/a&gt; there are scientific reasons towards this and yes, the article has an alternate story as well)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-08-21T18:21:51.333" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2813" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-21T12:36:30.393" Score="10" ViewCount="8258" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that the evil or dark powers get more powerful at times like Amavasya (new moon night), Grahan (Solar/Lunar Eclipse), Ashtami &amp;amp; Navami (eighth &amp;amp; ninth day from new moon &amp;amp; full moon day), on Tuesday, on Sunday and few other times. It is believed that black magic works more better on these days.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it correct? How to understand this? Does Evil gets equal or more powerful than Devas on these specific days? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-14T10:25:57.980" LastActivityDate="2018-04-24T08:42:50.113" Title="Does evil get stronger at specific times?" Tags="|astrology|asuras|evil|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2815" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2770" CreationDate="2014-08-21T15:55:15.403" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The year 980 C.E. marks the beginning of the Muslim invasion into India proper when Sabuktagin attacked Raja Jaya Pal in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is today a Muslim country separated from India by another Muslim country Pakistan. But in 980 C.E. Afghanistan was also a place where the people were Hindus and Buddhists. The name &quot;Afghanistan&quot; comes from &quot;Upa-Gana-stan&quot; which means in Sanskrit &quot;the place inhabited by allied tribes&quot;. This was the place from where Gandhari of the Mahabharat came from, Gandhar whose king was Shakuni. Today the city of Gandhar is known as Kandahar. The Pakthoons are descendants of the Paktha tribe mentioned in Vedic literature.&#xA;  Till the year 980 C.E., this area was a Hindu majority area, till Sabuktagin from Ghazni invaded it and displaced the ruling Hindu king - Jaya Pal Shahi. Shiva worship was widespread in Afghanistan. There was a time when the entire region was replete with hundreds of Shiva temples celebrating Shiva – Parvati worship and abuzz with Shiv chants, prayers, legends and worship.&#xA;  Archaeological excavations in this region conducted by Sir Estine (an East India Company official) led to the recovery of uncountable shrines and inscriptions. He has authored four books on that topic featuring photos of icons, icons and inscriptions discovered. The photos show a sun temple and a Ganesha statue too. An Islamabad University professor Abdul Rehman has authored two books on those finds recalling the glory and prosperity of those times.&#xA;  Regimes of two Hindu rulers “Kusham” and “Kidara” lasted for fairly long periods. During their rule a number of Shiva temples were not only in Afghanistan but in other West Asian regions too. Uzbekistan and Takzikistan formed part of the Afghan kingdom in those times. Tashkent has one of those ancient Shiva temples standing even today.&#xA;  Professor Abdul Rehman states that Bukhara region Was known as “Shah Vihar” in ancient times. It was ruled by an Hindu king. When Arabs invaded that kingdom its queen traveled to Kashmir to seek military help. Arab chronicles mention her as 'Khatoon', meaning ’Woman’.&#xA;  Baku (capital of the Azerbaijan region) known for its underground petroleum yields has still an ancient Hindu temple of the Divine Flame generated by the subterranean petrol and gas). During the Czar regimes in Russia a Punjabi priest officiated at that temple. The walls display some religious stanzas written in Punjabi Gurumakhi script. The market there also had Hindu merchants. Nearby was a locality too of Hindu inhabitants. Baku in Azerbaijani language actually signifies a Goddess. Therefore obviously Baku derives its name from a very ancient Vedic Goddess temple there&#xA;  Kenduj a province of Afghanistan, was ruled by a king that had a Hindu prime minister. This is mentioned in history books. Albirruni’s travel account contains details of ancient Hindu Afghanistan, He mentions a Hindu king, Khingla whose coins bore the imprint of Shiva. The first ruler of that dynasty was Viahitagni. History mentions a Shiva temple in Gardej township, which was plundered by Arab invaders.&#xA;  Khingla dynasty ruled the region from 666 to 843 A.D. From 843 to 850 A.D. a Brahmin Minister ruled the region. The Kalkaa community of Brahmins had acquired prominence in those times. They were later known as Kallers. A township of that name exists in Punjab. Prominent among them who find a mention in later history are Samantdev, Bheemdev, Jaipaldev, Anandpal and Trilochan.&#xA;  Jaipaldev suffered a defeat in 1002 when Mohammed Ganzavi invaded India. Unable to bear that defeat Jaipaldev committed suicide. When Hsüan-tsang visited the region early in the 7th century CE, the Kabul valley region was ruled by a Hindu Kshatriya king, who is identified as the Shahi Khingal, and whose name has been found in an inscription found in Gardez.&#xA;  The Hindu Shahi kings of Kabul and Gandhara may have had links to some ruling families in neighboring Kashmir and other areas to the east. The place where Kabul's main mosque stands today was the site of an ancient Hindu temple and the story of its capture is kept alive in Islamic Afghan legend which describes the Islamic hero Sabuktagin who fought with a sword in every hand to defeat the Hindus and destroy their temple to put up a Mosque in its place.The victory of Sabuktagin pushed the frontiers of the Hindu kingdom of the Shahis from Kabul to behind the Hindu Kush mountains Hindu Kush is literally &quot;killer of Hindus&quot; - a name given by Mahmud Ghazni to describe the number of Hindus who died on their way into Afghanistan to a life of captivity. After this setback, the Shahis shifted their capital from Kubha (Kabul) to Udbhandapura (modern Und in NWFP).Sabuktagin's son Mahmud Ghazni, kept up the attacks on the Shahis and captured Und. Subsequently, the Shahis moved their capital to Lahore and later to Kangra in Himachal. The recovery and significance of the inscription, telling a story of the Hindu ruler Veka and his devotion to lord 'Shiva', was told by leading epigraphist and archaeologist Prof Ahmad Hasan Dani of the Quaid-E-Azam University of Islamabad at the Indian History Congress.&#xA;  Veka is said to have conquered the earth, the markets and the forts by his eight-fold forces, suggesting that he must have himself gained success against the Arab rulers of southern Afghanistan.During the rule of the Hindu Shahi ruler Bhimapala there was a break in the dynasty - one branch, headed by Jayapala, ruled in Lamaghan and Punjab, and another branch, headed by Veka, ruled in northern part of Afghanistan. The northern branch must have come to an end by the conquest of Alptigin in the second half of tenth century AD&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Wisdom courtesy: Subodh Kapoor)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source of this information can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-slideshow/seekers/mysticism/the-hindu-history-of-afghanistan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="698" LastEditorUserId="698" LastEditDate="2014-08-29T14:00:14.473" LastActivityDate="2014-08-29T14:00:14.473" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2816" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2817" CreationDate="2014-08-21T17:17:17.287" Score="33" ViewCount="6525" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know if Hinduism and science contradict each other. This is an issue that arises in many religions, the most prominent example being Christianity and its &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Earth_creationism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;disagreement with evolution&lt;/a&gt;. So how does Hinduism deal with this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I am a Hindu, does that mean that I cannot accept what science has discovered? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do Hindu scriptures mention how to deal with scientific findings that may not line up with the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-08-21T19:19:14.707" LastActivityDate="2021-02-04T00:23:50.650" Title="Does Science contradict Hinduism? How to deal with scientific discoveries that don't line up with Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|science|pramana|" AnswerCount="9" CommentCount="22" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2817" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2816" CreationDate="2014-08-21T17:17:17.287" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is an &lt;strong&gt;intrinsically scientific&lt;/strong&gt; religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas themselves accurately describe very complicated geometric concepts including six-dimensional spaces, distances between celestial bodies, and using changing skylines to measure time, just to name a few examples (&amp;quot;Vedic Geometry Course&amp;quot; Dr. S. K. Kapoor). If you follow the Dhashavataram carefully, you will see that it perfectly mirrors the evolution of life on Earth as well as the emergence of increased social structure (and eventual decline) among humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, it has been written that the Vedas themselves are to be consulted only in matters which &lt;strong&gt;cannot&lt;/strong&gt; be resolved by either &lt;em&gt;Pratyaksha&lt;/em&gt; (direct observation) or &lt;em&gt;Anumana&lt;/em&gt; (inferences and inductions based on said observations, or in other words &lt;strong&gt;science&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The third category of knowledge, &lt;em&gt;Sabda&lt;/em&gt;, refers to the Vedas themselves. Smritis, Itihasas, and Puranas are also included here where they &amp;quot;do not contradict the Vedas&amp;quot;. &lt;em&gt;Sabda&lt;/em&gt; is to be relied on to resolve questions which either have not yet been answered by &lt;em&gt;Pratyaksha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Anumana&lt;/em&gt; (e.g. how does physics behave in a six-dimensional space?) or cannot be answered (e.g. what happens to the &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; after death?).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Info above paraphrased from: &amp;quot;A Dialogue on Hinduism&amp;quot;, Sri V. N. Gopala Desikan, pg. 24-25&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, Vedas and science do not contradict each other. They lie &lt;strong&gt;orthogonal&lt;/strong&gt; to each other. Our gurus want us to use science to answer any worldly questions, and seek the Vedas for matters that science does not or cannot answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ultimately, Hinduism is a very scientific religion. Many of our beliefs stem directly from scientific facts (ritual purity and not shaving during certain months just to name a few). The idea that one can either be a scientist or a Hindu but not both is simply untrue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In summary, I'll leave you with this quote from &amp;quot;A Dialogue on Hinduism&amp;quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Student: I do not understand why logic should not be used to discuss Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru: Logic will be useful, when we discuss about known things, so that, with authority, we can make use of our logic and argument. But logic &lt;strong&gt;cannot&lt;/strong&gt; be of use, in discussing about unknown things, unseen things like Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Student: Does this mean that logic cannot be used at all for studying or understanding Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru: No, it is not that. The primary authority is the Vedas and these can be &lt;strong&gt;supplemented&lt;/strong&gt; by logic, &lt;strong&gt;without deviating&lt;/strong&gt; from the authority of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-21T17:17:17.287" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2818" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2816" CreationDate="2014-08-21T17:46:55.187" Score="47" Body="&lt;p&gt;Science must be accepted even when science contradicts the Vedas. Vedas should be used only in matters which can not be probed by any scientific method. Vedic authority does not extend to matters which can be studied using scientific methods. I am posting some quotes that will hopefully make things clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a141.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; in Mahabharata Shanti Parva Section CXLII:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even the words heard from an ignorant person, if in themselves they be&#xA;  fraught with sense, come to be regarded as pious and wise. In days of&#xA;  old, Usanas said unto the Daityas this truth, which should remove all&#xA;  doubts, &lt;strong&gt;that scriptures are no scriptures if they cannot stand the&#xA;  test of reason.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Acharya Shankara, for example, in his &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=ro&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=18&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=66&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita Bhasya 18.66&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The appeal to the infallibility of the Vedic injunction is&#xA;  misconceived. The infallibility in question refers only to the unseen&#xA;  forces or apurva, and is admissible only in regards to matters not&#xA;  confined to the sphere of direct perceptions, etc ... &lt;strong&gt;Even a&#xA;  hundred statements of sruti to the effect that fire is cold and&#xA;  non-luminous won't prove valid.&lt;/strong&gt; If it does make such a statement, its&#xA;  import will have to be interpreted differently. Otherwise, validity&#xA;  won't attach to it. Nothing in conflict with the means of valid&#xA;  cognition or with its own statements may be imputed to sruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF: Srimad Bhagavad Gita Bhasya of Sri Sankaracarya translation by Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier, p. 629.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/yoga-vasistha-sanskrit/d/doc249996.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yoga Vasistha II.18&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yuktiyuktamupādeyaṃ vacanaṃ bālakādapi&lt;/em&gt; | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;anyattṛṇamiva tyājyamapyuktaṃ padmajanmanā&lt;/em&gt; || 3 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The remark of a child is to be accepted, if it is in accordance with&#xA;  reason; but the remark of even Brahma Himself, the creator of the&#xA;  world is to be rejected like a piece of straw if it does not accord&#xA;  with reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF: Vasistha's Yoga translated by Swami Venkatesananda, p 35.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C4%81caspati_Mi%C5%9Bra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vachaspati Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, another Advaita Vedanta philosopher, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.105465#page/n526/mode/1up/search/vacaspati+says&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Na hy āgamāḥ sahasram api ghaṭam paṭayitum īṣate&lt;/em&gt; (Bhāmatī, Introduction)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A thousand scriptures cannot make a jar into a cloth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF: Quoted by S. Radhakrishnan in his book, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.105465/page/n11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indian Philosophy, Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-08-10T00:54:40.443" LastActivityDate="2019-08-10T00:54:40.443" CommentCount="22" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2819" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2820" CreationDate="2014-08-21T18:30:03.800" Score="15" ViewCount="16426" Body="&lt;p&gt;Balarama is traditionally considered to be an avatar of Lord Vishnu by those who do not consider Buddha to be one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, I have also frequently heard that He is an avatar of &lt;em&gt;Adiseshan&lt;/em&gt;, the multi-headed snake upon which Lord Vishnu rests in &lt;em&gt;Vaikuntham&lt;/em&gt; (the abode of lord Vishnu). This is evidenced by the fact that upon His death, a white cobra was observed exiting His mouth (&lt;em&gt;at least according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balarama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; and Amar-Chitra-Katha; sorry for not having a more reliable source&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In what ways do the scriptures support these two interpretations? Are they necessarily mutually exclusive? I have sometimes heard people say that He is actually an avatar of both Lord Vishnu and Adiseshan. How is this possible?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-27T15:36:40.477" LastActivityDate="2021-10-17T19:58:39.807" Title="Is Balarama an Avatar of Vishnu or Adiseshan (or both)?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|balarama|adisesha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2820" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2819" CreationDate="2014-08-22T02:38:09.407" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason that Balarama is called an incarnation (avatara) of Vishnu is that the serpent Adiseshan is himself a form of Vishnu.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://srimadbhagavatam.org/canto10/chapter2.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Balarama's birth is described in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Kamsa had killed six of the children born from Devakî, the seventh one, &lt;strong&gt;a plenary expansion of Vishnu who was celebrated with the name Ananta&lt;/strong&gt;, therefore [was born] as an embryo in the womb of Devakî ... [Vishnu] instructed His spiritual potency [Yoga-mâyâ] as follows: ... &quot;In the womb of Devakî &lt;strong&gt;there is the embryo known as [Ananta-]S'esha who is a plenary expansion of Me&lt;/strong&gt;. Take care of a smooth transition from her womb to the womb of Rohinî.... Because He changes wombs [from Devakī to the womb of Rohinī] the people of the world will address Him with the name Sankarshana, because He brings pleasure to the people [of Gokula] He will be called Râma and because of His great physical strength He will be named Balabhadra.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://srimadbhagavatam.org/canto5/chapter25.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is another passage in the Srimad Bhagavatam that describes the role that Adiseshan plays as a form of Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At a distance of thirty-eight thousand yojanas beneath the base of Pâtâla He is situated who, as &lt;strong&gt;a part of the Supreme Lord&lt;/strong&gt;, relates to the darkness and is called Ananta. Scholarly Vaishnavas describe Him as Sankarshana, the ruler of the ego or I that is characterized by self-awareness [pride, identification], because He unites - 'draws together' - the seer and the seen, the subject and the object. The celestial sky around the earth, this universe, sustained on only one of the thousands of hoods of the Supreme Lord in the form of Anantadeva, is  seen as a [tiny] white mustard seed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/10/29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Among the Nagas I am Ananta.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, since you were wondering, Balarama reverting back into Adiseshan is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Mausala Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Proceeding then to the forest, Keshava [i.e. Krishna] beheld Rama sitting in a solitary spot thereof. He also saw that Rama had set himself to Yoga and that from out his mouth was issuing a mighty snake. The colour of that snake was white. Leaving the human body (in which he had dwelt so long), that high-souled naga of a 1,000 heads and having a form as large as that of a mountain, endued besides with red eyes, proceeded along that way which led to the ocean. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-13T22:49:42.893" LastActivityDate="2015-07-13T22:49:42.893" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2822" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2802" CreationDate="2014-08-22T06:23:51.097" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JBxfN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Image&quot;&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This might give you an idea of how yugas are divided. As far as same thing getting repeated every chaturyug ,i do not reckon any mention of that but in Devadutta Patanaik book &quot;SITA&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yum comes Ayodhya to take Lord Ram life but he couldn't enter as Hanuman is guarding the gates of Ayodhya. Lord Ram knew about this, so to distracts Hanuman from guarding the gate he drops his ring in river and ask Hanuman to fetch it. Hanuman dive inside the river but he donot find the ring but meet nagas of nagalok. He enquires about the ring but they refuse to tell him until he tell them the story of Lord Ram. So he tells the whole story to them and then enquires about ring. They point in the direction where he can find the ring . When he reaches the location he see heap of rings, each exactly similar to other. He ask which one is of Lord Ram. They say &quot;As many ring, so mang Ram&quot;. Life is a cycle. What has happened in the past will again happen in future.Each time a monkey comes to fetch the ring,a Ram dies up there. Hanuman rushes back to Adyodhya to see Ram took Jal samadhi.&#xA;  Block quote&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devdutta researches very deeply before writing his book. So he must taken this from somewhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from that We indian believe that what has happened in past will again happen in future, that is why we have a word &quot;kal&quot; for both yesterday and tomorrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="698" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-02-20T11:23:05.453" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T11:23:05.453" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2823" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2816" CreationDate="2014-08-22T07:28:22.573" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;So before answering your question i would like start with quotes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;'Astonishing fact! The Hindu Revelation (Veda) is all relavations the only one whose ideas are in perfect harmony with Modern Science, as it proclaims the slow and gradual formation of the world.'&amp;quot; (The Bible in India by Jacolliot, Vol II, Chapter 1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'It (Vedic Religion) recognizes but One God. It is a thoroughly scientific religion where religion and science meet hand in hand. Here theology is based upon science and philosophy.' (The Superiority of the Vedic Religion by W.D. Brown)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to the answers I have certain excerpts from books written by western authors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To the philosophers of India, however, Relativity is no new discovery, just as the concept of light years is no matter for astonishment to people used to thinking of time in millions of kalpas, (A kalpa is about 4,320,000 years). The fact that the wise men of India have not been concerned with technological applications of this knowledge arises from the circumstance that technology is but one of innumerable ways of applying it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sir John Woodroffe, A Tribute to Hinduism, page 246&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Indians came closest to modern ideas of atomism, quantum physics, and other current theories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rig-Veda, is the first Indian literature to set down ideas resembling universal natural laws. Cosmic law is connected with cosmic light, with gods, and, later, specifically with Brahman. It was the Vedic Aryans... who gave the world some of the earliest philosophical texts on the makeup of matter and the theoretical underpinnings for the chemical makeup of minerals. Sanskrit Vedas from thousands of years before Christ implied that matter could not be created, and that the universe had created itself.&#xA;Two thousand years before Pythagoras, philosophers in northern India had understood that gravitation held the solar system together, and that therefore the sun, the most massive object, had to be at its center.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Twenty-four centuries before Isaac Newton, the Hindu Rig-Veda asserted that gravitation held the universe together. The Sanskrit speaking Aryans subscribed to the idea of a spherical earth in an era when the Greeks believed in a flat one. The Indians of the fifth century A.D. calculated the age of the earth as 4.3 billion years; scientists in 19th century England were convinced it was 100 million years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dick Teresi, Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu are more exact in astronomy and astrology than any other people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tarikh al-Yaqubi, The Foundations of the Composite Culture in India, page 59&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Long before it became a scientific aspiration to estimate the age of the earth, many elaborate systems of the world chronology had been devised by the sages of antiquity. The most remarkable of these occult time-scales is that of the ancient Hindus, whose astonishing concept of the Earth's duration has been traced back to Manusmriti, a sacred book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Professor Arthur Holmes, Hinduism And Scientific Quest, page 20&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, these are few that perfectly say how Hinduism (Sanatan Dharma) is and has always been sync with Science.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="698" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-22T08:14:43.413" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2824" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-22T07:58:59.073" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Balarama was a son of Yadava king Vasudev. The evil king Kansa, the brother of Devaki, was intent upon killing the children of his sister because of a prediction that he would die at the hands of her eighth son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu then impregnated the belly of the goddess Devaki with two strands of hair, one black, one white. To ensure their safety, their essence was transferred before birth to Rohini, who also desired a child. At birth, Krishna had a darker complexion, while Balarama was born fair. The other name of Balarama is also Sankarshana, meaning a spirit transferred between two wombs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was named Rama, but because of his great strength he was called Balarama, Baladeva or Balabhadra, meaning &quot;Strong Rama&quot;. He was born under Shravana nakshatra on Shraavana Purnima, or Raksha Bandhan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is often depicted with a drinking cup, pitcher, axe, shield and sword. Balarama may have originated in Vedic times as a deity of agriculture and fertility. In Jainism he is known as Baladeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Balarama spent his childhood as a cow herder with his brother Krishna. He killed Dhenukasura, an asura sent by Kansa, as well as Pralambasura and Mushtika wrestlers sent by the king. After the evil king died, Balarama and Krishna went to the ashrama of sage Sandipani's at Ujjayini for study. He later married Revati, the daughter of King Kakudmi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Balarama taught both Duryodhana of the Kauravas and Bhima of the Pandavas the art of fighting with a mace. When war broke between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, Balarama cared for both sides, and so remained neutral. When the mighty Bhima defeated the more skilled Duryodhana by striking him in the groin with his mace, Balarama threatened to kill Bhima. This was prevented when Krishna reminded Balarama of the vow of Bhima—to kill Duryodhana by crushing the thigh he had exposed to Bhima's wife Draupadi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balarama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Balarama&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-22T17:35:43.563" LastActivityDate="2014-08-22T17:35:43.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2825" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-22T07:58:59.073" Score="0" Body="Balarama (बलराम), also known as Baladeva, Balabhadra and Halayudha, is the elder brother of Lord Krishna in Dwaper Yug." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-22T12:18:34.937" LastActivityDate="2014-08-22T12:18:34.937" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2826" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14443" CreationDate="2014-08-22T08:46:06.213" Score="7" ViewCount="1899" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, each of the four Vedas consists of four portions: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas which consist of hymns heard from the gods; Brahmanas, commentaries on the Samhitas which provide instructions on the proper conducting of important rituals; Aranyakas, which provide instructions for  rituals meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical message of the Vedas.  But when someone says, e.g. &amp;quot;I read the Rig Veda&amp;quot; without qualification, they usually mean the Samhita of the Rig Veda, because the Samhitas are the core part of the Veda which are of divine origin; the verses of the Samhitas come from sages known as Dhrishtas (literally &amp;quot;seers&amp;quot;) who heard them directly from the gods, and then these verses were compiled by a sage named Krishna Dwaipayana Veda Vyasa (or Vyasa for short).  The Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads are works that were mostly later added on as supplements and commentaries for Vyasa's Samhitas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is one Upanishad that has a very different origin - the Isha Upanishad, AKA the Ishavasya Upanishad.  It isn't some supplement or commentary, it's actually part of one of the Samhitas themselves; it's the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/wyvbk40.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;40th Adhyaya&lt;/a&gt; of the Vajasaneyi Samhita, which is the Samhita of the Shukla (white) version of the Yajur Veda.  (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01243.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is another translation of the Upanishad.)  This means that the Isha Upanishad isn't just someone's philosophical teachings like the other Upanishads, rather it's a hymn heard directly from the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, who is the seer of the Isha Upanishad, i.e. the sage who heard it from the gods?  If I had to guess, I would guess that it's the sage Yajnavkya, who's associated with the Vajasaneyi Samhita in general, but I'm not sure.  Also, since the verses of the Vedas are usually addressed to some god or the other, who is the Isha Upanishad addressed to?  The last few verses are addressed to gods like Pushana and Agni, but who are the earlier verses addressed to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the sort of information that can be found in the Anukramanis, a set of systematic indices for the Vedas which, among other things, documents the sage who heard each verse from the gods, and the deity that each verse is addressed to.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, I compiled the sage and deity information for most of the hymns from the Anukramani of the Rig Veda Samhita, but the Yajur Veda Anukramanis don't seem to be so easily accessible.  Apparently there is one Anukramani for the Vajasaneyi Samhita, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=U-1jAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA226&amp;amp;ots=r_4-hcpfoY&amp;amp;dq=katyayana%20anukramani%20madhyandina&amp;amp;pg=PA226#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=katyayana%20anukramani%20madhyandina&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The third Anukramani, that of the Madhyandina-Shakha of the Vajasaneyaka, is ascribed to Katyayana, who is mentioned also as the author of an Anuvakanukramani.  It gives the names of the poets, the deities, and the meters, for all the verses of the Samhita, including the Khila (Adhyaya 26-35), and the Sukriya portions (Adhyaya 36-40).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That seems like exactly the work I want, because it has information for Adhyaya 40, which is the Isha Upanishad.  So does anyone know whether Katyayana's Anukramani of the Madhyandina Shakha is available online, or if it's even been published in book form, whether in Sanskrit or in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: I posted a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2906/36&quot;&gt;separate question&lt;/a&gt; to try to find the Anukramani information for the Vajasaneyi Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="7984" LastEditDate="2023-01-21T10:34:33.593" LastActivityDate="2023-01-21T10:34:33.593" Title="Who is the seer of the Isha Upanishad?" Tags="|vedas|yajur-veda|upanishads|rishi|isha-upanishad|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2827" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-22T09:30:21.513" Score="4" ViewCount="151" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the importance of &lt;em&gt;Suvasinis&lt;/em&gt; (married woman) in all Hindu rituals? Why not a widow or a celibate girl participate in Hindu rituals? What is the reason for giving coconut and rice only to &lt;em&gt;Suvasinis&lt;/em&gt;? Please also explain science behind it (&lt;em&gt;if there is any&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-22T11:08:19.260" LastActivityDate="2014-08-22T11:08:19.260" Title="What is the importance of Suvasinis" Tags="|rituals|women|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2014-08-24T07:04:29.940" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2828" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-22T09:59:42.970" Score="19" ViewCount="1279" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is more merely an outside question. Many have a conscious feeling that why all Devas, Avataras and incidents written on our text books are confined to Indian Mediterranean, mostly North region of India?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The spread through mapping seems to start from Afghanistan (&lt;em&gt;Gandhar&lt;/em&gt;) and ending to Uttar Pradesh (Indian state), as what there current names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I take a look at the mapping, the most conscious is Shiva, who resided in Himalayas (Peculiarly), but there being thousands of mountains around the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Rama took avatar in &lt;em&gt;Ayodhya&lt;/em&gt; which is the northern part of India, but not in any other country.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even most of the mythological history seems to revolve around Northern Part of India only, leaving Ramayana which includes Sri Lanka as a core part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-20T16:18:47.073" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T16:18:47.073" Title="Why all Avatar's and Grantha's references happened only in India and not elsewhere?" Tags="|avatars|india|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2829" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2828" CreationDate="2014-08-22T10:16:19.967" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many references which point towards places outside India. But the names are contemporary to puranas so the names are obviously in Sanskrit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vaaman Purana, it is said that Vaaman or Vishnu placed a Trident on a mountain to define the boundary of east direction. (It is also repeated in Kishkindha Kand of Ramayana). This trident is Paracas Candelabra of Peru. The patal to which Bali goes is claimed as South America by P N Oak. Kalyavan from Mahabharata is also claimed by Shivaji Sawant in his book to be Yavan (Ionian or Greek). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We need to find such unexplained places outside India also. (For e.g. Places from Patal like Bhogawati, Tribhuvanak Nagariust be searched in South America. They are claimed by P N Oak and Anil Patil as Bogota and Tiahuanaco)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, before and after Ravana, India has been a superpower in the world. Main goal of Ramayana was to establish Ayodhya's supremacy over powerful Lankan empire. As victory is written by the victor, we can see heroes from India and villains from other countries - Ravan, Kalyavan, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-24T07:02:09.153" LastActivityDate="2014-08-24T07:02:09.153" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2830" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2813" CreationDate="2014-08-22T15:28:57.397" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that evil power gets stronger at specific times?&#xA;This question will lead to the more broader question of&#xA;Does anything (good, evil or anything else) for that matter get stronger at specific times?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The traditional belief is that each human/ any being is under the influence of several tendencies, some of these are so-called good and others are 'bad'. When bad predominates we call it as evil power and when good predominates we call this good power. This is the natural order of things in the relative world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These tendencies are however like seeds. The seed in it has the potency to grow into a giant tree, but it requires the influence of several forces (sunlight, rains, adequate rain water, etc.). While these forces have direct influence in the seed, the power to grow is present in the seed only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly our tendencies which are like seeds also have in them the potency to grow into a tree of 'character' (good / bad / lazy / angry / greedy / pure). These seeds are also under the influence of several forces. Some of them are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Influence of our company - under good company our good tendencies have more power to grow, while under bad company out bad tendencies have more power to grow.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Time of day - at different times of the day there is more opportunity for certain tendencies to take action, for example, when at night our 'lazy' tendencies have more power, because of the nature of the body.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Alignment of planets (astrological) - It is said that different planets aligning produce combination of different energies which influence the tendencies in beings. For example, on Amavasya or Ashtami certain tendencies have more power because of these energies influence.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Strength of Guru - when our Guru has taken us into His fold, then all our tendencies and actions are under His direct and great influence. The disciple who has surrendered to Him moves around in great bliss, enjoying and playing life as a game, without any attachment to actions or result.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other forces that influence, but that would just make the post long.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does evil power get more power than Devas? It is impossible to say unless we are a deva ourself. It is believed that the devas and rakshasas are constantly in fight for power, however the Devas always have the Lord on their side, and thus no matter how powerful the evil powers get, the good eventually triumphs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But here is some food for thought:&#xA;All of these forces are only powerful when we choose to give it that power. When we acknowledge that evil on this day has obtained more power than good, then verily that shall be so! If we deny this and always hold good to be above evil, regardless, then that shall be true! How to understand this? As follows: think of a dream, in the dream we experience great misery, we are falling from a cliff or we are falling from somewhere and we undergo misery. However on waking up this misery no longer controls us. How is that dream any different from this so called dream of 'real-life'? This is an advaitic thought that while it is true that the dreamer 'suffers' because of certain consequences, on waking up, his/her dream no longer has control over them. Similarly the events/beings in our life (including good as well as evil) are only able to communicate with us, it is upto us whether or not to give them the control. This is the so called 'free-will' of life. This may not be exact answer to the question but it is some food for thought to a deeper question of 'why/how to prevent evil tendencies/evil powers from controlling my life'. Self confidence, faith in God, good understanding all are complementary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastActivityDate="2014-08-22T15:28:57.397" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2831" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2835" CreationDate="2014-08-22T16:13:59.160" Score="25" ViewCount="56274" Body="&lt;p&gt;For those who do not know, there are two main sects of Sri Vaishnavism: &lt;em&gt;Thenkalai&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Vadakalai&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Vadakalai&lt;/em&gt; sect wear their &lt;em&gt;namam&lt;/em&gt;, or &lt;em&gt;thiruman&lt;/em&gt;, in a &quot;U&quot; shaped pattern with &lt;em&gt;manjal&lt;/em&gt; or yellow like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MVhla.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the &lt;em&gt;Thenkalai&lt;/em&gt; sect wear it in a &quot;Y&quot; shaped pattern with &lt;em&gt;kunkumam&lt;/em&gt; or red like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1loYE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While this difference is probably the most visible one, I am not completely sure whether I fully understand the differences in the theological beliefs of the two sects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could someone please articulate what are the major disagreements between these two branches?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, for those who are interested, one of the differences in ritual was previously discussed &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/799&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but for this question I would like to know more about the differences in belief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2018-02-07T14:47:28.573" Title="What is the difference between Thenkalai and Vadakalai sects of Sri Vaishnavism?" Tags="|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|vadakalai|thenkalai|philosophy|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2832" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2675" CreationDate="2014-08-22T16:49:02.320" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2755/467&quot;&gt;@KeshavSrinivasan&lt;/a&gt; has already given a fantastic answer on the origin of the practice, but I would like to address the purity aspect which you brought up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone can in fact receive the &lt;em&gt;Sadari&lt;/em&gt;, but there are differences in the way it is presented. Most people who arrive at the temple in everyday clothes will receive the &lt;em&gt;Sadari&lt;/em&gt; placed once on their head (note that there are not any &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; recited by anyone during this process).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it is different for those who arrive in &lt;em&gt;Swarupam&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Panandathiruman&lt;/em&gt; like this:&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6dSBs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The placement of 12 &lt;em&gt;thiruman&lt;/em&gt; on the body may be done after taking part in the ritual of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saranagathi.org/articles/samasrayanam.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Samasrayanam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; which includes the branding of the &lt;em&gt;Sanga&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Chakram&lt;/em&gt;, or conch-shell and discus, on the shoulders. &lt;em&gt;Samasrayanam&lt;/em&gt; represents initiation into &lt;em&gt;Sri Vaishnavism&lt;/em&gt;. This ritual can be performed by an &lt;em&gt;acharya&lt;/em&gt; on anyone, regardless of caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you arrive at a temple in this manner, the &lt;em&gt;Sadari&lt;/em&gt; is placed first on the head, then on the right and left shoulders at the spot of the brandings, and then once again on the head. In some temples they might shorthand it by simply placing the &lt;em&gt;Sadari&lt;/em&gt; twice on the head, or they might extend it by additionally placing it on the praying hands before it returns to the head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can think of it as an extra reward for those who have undertaken this extra step of commitment towards &lt;em&gt;Perumal&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-06-05T05:49:01.450" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2833" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2849" CreationDate="2014-08-22T17:14:16.750" Score="9" ViewCount="209" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanathana Dharma followers does rigorous practice of worship by various ways to lessen the love on one's own body like taking cold water bath even in winter, walking on burning coal, fasting, panchagni sadhana, inserting small trishul/velayud through cheeks &amp;amp; tongue. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone practice these anytime? Are there any guidelines on who can do, where, when, why &amp;amp; how?  Is layman's (follower's)belief enough to save the self from the harm or any puja/mantra/yagna which is done parallel to these saves them from the harm? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, one how has the knowledge and is still not able to control himself shall do all these. But I observe everyone practices these with minimal knowledge. Most of them now-a-days apparently does only for worldly pleasures? What does scriptures say about these people? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma on one hand says human life is very valuable and asks one to protect his body till he gets salvation and on other hand it describes how to do rigorous practices to speed and take sadhana to the next level. How to co-relate and understand these? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-22T18:27:33.570" LastActivityDate="2014-08-26T16:51:40.330" Title="What does Hinduism say about harming the body?" Tags="|worship|sadhana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2834" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2816" CreationDate="2014-08-22T19:19:06.623" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe that science and hinduism are not that different and not at all contradictory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it must be said that in order to see the similarities, it is needed to dive deep into Hinduism and Hindu beliefs. Some of the Hinduism philosophies here has been following the Advaita Vedanta stance and some others the Achithyabedhabheda stance, some the Dvaita stance. It is mainly to highlight the similarities in observations, although conclusions vary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some examples in plain English to support my point:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Science: Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Matter can be decomposed into energy as per E=mc2 which means energy is present in matter as well&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism: God is without beginning nor end (i.e) He was neither created nor destroyed, He takes various forms and is present in everything, including his creation (matter)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave%E2%80%93particle_duality&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Science: Every matter exhibits properties as a particle and as a wave&lt;/a&gt;. In fact it simultaneously exhibits properties of both particle (something that can be seen/touched/heard/felt or smelt) and wave-nature (something which cannot be directly seen/touched/heard/felt or smelt but which can be perceived through existence of a 'medium' (in case of mechanical waves) or a 'field' (in case of electromagnetic waves). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/Our_Real_Nature.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;There is both a form nature and a formless nature&lt;/a&gt; to every being, the form nature refers to the physical body, which can be perceived by the senses and the formless nature refers to the mind, which can be perceived through the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Science: Vacuum is not empty, but is filled with some kind of radition (cosmic microwave background, which is believed to be present since the Big Bang), energy (dark energy) or some kind of particles (vacuum state, a set of particles coming in and out of existence) &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_state&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki1&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_microwave_background&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki2&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki3&lt;/a&gt;. Hinduism: The cosmic sound (or vibration) Om fills all of existence and it is the back-bone of all creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton&amp;#39;s_laws_of_motion&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Science: All of the objects in the observable universe are controlled by the three laws of motion.&lt;/a&gt; The first law is that of inertia (or inability to change its own state of rest or motion), the second law deals with acceleration under influence of force and the third law deals with action-reaction balance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism: All of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=10&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0CE4QFjAJ&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hinduwebsite.com%2Fgunas.asp&amp;amp;ei=5CgkVLOzK4G2yAS_14KQDQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNFsBMcO70sAtVo13AgKrp3XoKWTbw&amp;amp;sig2=0BdMEu83ld_nDrcNIgK4rw&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;existence is under control of the three gunas (or tendencies)&lt;/a&gt;? The first is that of Tamas (kind of laziness or lethargy, unwillingness to change one's present state), the second is that of Rajas (kind of excitation or passionate activity under influence of tendencies and desires, equivalent to acceleration under force), the third is that of Sattva (the state of non-judgement, purity, or balanced state of mind)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Science: All matter in the universe was formed from a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;single point&lt;/a&gt;, which expanded into the various masses and energies that are present today. This is the most accepted view of creation called the Big Bang. Without this assumption several scientific postulates made are simply invalid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism: Initially there was only One. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/concepts/advaita.asp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The One became two and the two became many&lt;/a&gt;. This One is God (called Vishnu by Vaishnavas, Shiva by Shaivas and Brahman by Vedantis). All of creation was formed from Him and are thus pervaded by Him. This point of origin is God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BUT What about evolution?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism, the avatars of Lord Vishnu beliefs:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matsya (Fish)   AQUATIC&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kurma (Tortoise)  AMPHIBIOUS&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha (Boar)  LAND ANIMAL&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Narahari (Half-man half-lion) PRE-EVOLVED HUMAN BEINGS (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitional_fossil#Missing_links&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;missing link to evolution&lt;/a&gt;??)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vamana (Dwarf human)    EARLY HUMANs&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Parasurama (Axe weilder, Kshatriya slayer, super powered)  NOMADIC HUMANS&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rama (Ideal man)     HUMANs&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna (super-powered and all-knowing, embodiment of love and beauty)    (FUTURE/GOAL of Human life?)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE: In no way am I trying to compare Lord Rama to our current Humans or Lord Parashurama to Nomadic humans. But I am merely trying to point toward the similarity between beliefs and the possible inner meanings behind our beliefs, that there is more to Hinduism than what people observe normally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more examples in which Science and Hinduism cross-over and speak of same things. However it is necessary to dive deep into both religion and science in order to understand their relationship. My own personal opinion is that religion is the fullness of science. Where science uses techniques of observation and experimentation to understand the unapparent from the apparent (kind of a top down approach, which does give rise to lot of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_physics&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;unsolved&lt;/a&gt; problems), religion uses techniques of inquiry and practice to understand the apparent from usage of unapparent (kind of a bottom-up approach).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore if I am a scientist, should I accept what Hinduism says? If I am a Hindu should I accept what Science says? There is no need to accept without understanding, the only answer to this question is to first understand Hinduism and then decide to accept it or not, similar with science.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2014-10-16T15:59:52.553" LastActivityDate="2014-10-16T15:59:52.553" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2835" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2831" CreationDate="2014-08-22T20:19:19.657" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, these aren't the two main sub-sects of Vaishnavism, they are the two main sub-sects of &lt;em&gt;Sri&lt;/em&gt; Vaishnavism.  There are other Vaishnava Sampradayas, like the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudiya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gaudiya Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; sect that ISKCON adheres to.  What distinguishes Sri Vaishnavas from other kinds of Vaishnavas are mainly two things: our beliefs, and our origins.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe in Achintya Bheda Abheda, a simultaneous unity and difference between Jivatma (the human soul) and Paramatma (divine soul or supersoul) that is inconceivable.  Madhvas believe in Dvaita, a fundamental difference between Jivatma and Parmatma.  Sri Vaishnavas, on the other hand, believe in Visistadvaita, or &quot;qualified monism&quot;, where there is one big unified whole called Paramatma, but within that there are still distinct parts like Jivatmas, akin to how an unborn baby is part of the body of a pregnant woman, but the pregnant woman's body extends beyond the baby (what Western thinkers would call &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panentheism#Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;panentheism&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sri Vaishnava sect has its origins in the works of the Alwars, a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu.  The 4000 poems of the Alwars were collected by Nathamuni into a book called the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, which started being thought of as the Dravida Veda, or Veda of South India.  It is the beliefs and principles embodied in the poems of the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam that provided a basis for the Sri Vaishnava belief system.  Nathamuni was the founder of the sect, but it really got into prominence when Ramanujacharya became its leader.  As I describe in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, it is after the time of Ramanujacharya that Sri Vaishnavas became a sizable enough portion of the Brahmin community that they started developing a distinct identity, which is e.g. how the Iyengars emerged from the Iyers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Ramanujacharya placed pretty much equal emphasis on both Sanskrit scripture, like the Vedas, Upanishads, and Puranas, and the Tamil Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, because he took the notion that it was the Dravida Veda very seriously.  But after his death, his followers started having disagreements.  They all agreed on the Visistadvaita philosophy that characterizes the Sri Vaishnava belief system, but they had disputes that fundamentally revolved around how much authority we should give to the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam.  Manavala Mamunigal and his successors believed that words of the Alwars are of paramount importance, and that they contain all the important messages of the Vedas and more, so they started called themselves Thenkalai (the Southern group), because their supreme scripture was the Naalayira Divya Prabhanda, which is from South India.  Vedanta Desikan and his successors still believed that Alwars' words were sacred, but they also thought that we shouldn't neglect the importance of Sanskrit scripture like the Vedas.  Since they placed some emphasis on scripture that had come from North India, they became known as Vadakalai (the Northern group).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other doctrinal differences between Thenkalais and Vadakalais emerge from this split over what scriptures to pay the most attention to.  For instance, Naalayira Prabhandam consists in large part of devotional poems where the Alwars describe their utter dependence on Vishnu for salvation (Moksha), akin to a lovesick youth being dependent on the affections of his beloved.  Since the Thenkalais paid attention almost exclusively to the works of the Alwars, they developed the notion that all of us are dependent on Vishnu to grant salvation to whomever he chooses, and that we are powerless to do anything to achieve it.  The traditional analogy is to baby kittens, who don't need to do anything in order to be carried around by their mother.  The Vadakalais, on the other hand, got from Sanskrit scripture the insight that there are actually things we can do to try to achieve Moksha, like the principles of Bhakti Yoga laid out in the Bhagavad Gita.  But they also paid attention to the poems of the Alwars, which led them to believe that it is possible to be granted salvation by Vishnu the way the Alwars were talking about, but in order to do that you need to first make a positive act of surrender (Saranagati or Prapatti) to the lotus feet of Vishnu.  The traditional analogy for the Vadakalai belief is baby monkeys, who have to make some effort to cling to their mother's body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &quot;cats vs. monkeys&quot; dispute is the biggest doctrinal difference between Thenkalais and Vadakalais, but there are other smaller differences; &lt;a href=&quot;http://sriramanujar.tripod.com/tVsv.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is a list of ten of them (the central difference I discussed above is described in points 1, 4, and 5):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Regarding Lord's mercy. Next to the Caste mark, this probably is the only other difference most people are aware of&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vadakalai View: Some positive gesture is necessary on the part of the jeevatma to deserve the grace of God, because He can be deemed partial if He grants Moksha to all both deserving and undeserving.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tenkalai View: Lord's grace is spontaneous. He can grant Moksha to anyone he likes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) Regarding the status of Lakshmi (i) as to her being the means (ii) as to her being infinite (iii) as to her being Paramatma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vadakalai View: (i) She is the means for attaining salvation as much as the Lord Himself and also has the role of a mediator ( Purushakara) (ii) She is infinite in nature (Vibhu) like the Lord Himself (iii) She is also Paramatma as much as the Lord Himself&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tenkalai View: (i) Do not accept this position though they accept her recommendatory role as held by Vadakalais (ii) She is atomic in nature like other Jeevatmas (iii) She is a Jeevatma like any of us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3) Regarding Kaivalya &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vadakalai View: (i) Kaivalya is inferior to Paramapada (ii) Kaivalya is not eternal (iii) Kaivalya is situated Outside Paramapada &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tenkalai View (i) Accepted (ii) Kaivalya is eternal (iii) Kaivalya is within&#xA;  Paramapada but in its outermost parts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4) Regarding the means of Bhakti and Prapatti &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vadakalai View:  Accept both as the direct means but Bhakti is more difficult and dilatory while Prapatti is easy and immediate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tenkalai View: Do not accept any means because Jeevatma is so utterly dependent as to&#xA;  be incapable of adopting either Bhakti or Prapatti as a means. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5) Regarding Prapatti &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vadakalai View: Prapatti has to be a positive specific act of surrender by the&#xA;  jeevatma to the Paramatma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tenkalai View: No positive, specific act is necessary. All that is required is (i) the knowledge of the Svarupa of the Jeevatma and (ii) mental acceptance of the Lord's grace in granting salvation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6) Regarding sins &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vadakalai View: When a jeeva surrenders, the Lord forgives the sins committed by the&#xA;  jeevatma and grants Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tenkalai View: The sins of a jeevatma is a source of joy for the Lord who relishes&#xA;  the same like a cow licking off the dirt on the body of its calf &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7) Regarding performance of Compulsory duties like Sandhyavandanam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vadakalai View: As compulsory duties are laid down by the Sastras which are the Lord's&#xA;  commandments, non- performance will tantamount to transgression of His&#xA;  commands (Ajna adhilangana) and will render the Prapanna liable for&#xA;  punishment&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tenkalai View: To a highly evolved soul, non- performance of the compulsory duties is&#xA;  not an offence. But, they should continue to do them more for setting&#xA;  an example to the less evolved souls. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8) Regarding the interpretation of the words &quot;Sarva Dharman Parityajya' occurring in the Charama sloka &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vadakalai View: The Dharmas actually refer to the 32 Vidyas attaching to Bhaktiyoga&#xA;  which had already been given up by the jeeva due to incapacity and&#xA;  delay involved in observing them and the Lord offers to stand in their&#xA;  place&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tenkalai View: This is literally interpreted to mean ' First, give up your duties and&#xA;  then take refuge in the Lord' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9) Regarding the Lord's grief at the suffering of the souls &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vadakalai View: One can have grief only when one cannot remove suffering of another.&#xA;  But, the Lord is capable of removing suffering. So, there is no need&#xA;  for Him to grieve. As Sri Rama , He shows to the World how a human&#xA;  would feel and how one should react on seeing the misery of others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tenkalai View: They hold that the Lord actually feels sorry on seeing the sufferings&#xA;  of souls and cite examples from Srimad Ramayana where Sri Rama is&#xA;  depicted as grieving over the misery of others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10) Regarding the Lord's being also atomic as well as gigantic in size as mentioned in the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vadakalai View: He is smaller than the atom in beings that are atomic in size. This is&#xA;  called 'Antar Vyapti' ( Immanence). He is also greater than the&#xA;  greatest in the sense He pervades and surrounds everything. This is&#xA;  called ' Bahir Vyapti'. ( Transcendence)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tenkalai View: His being atomic in atoms and enveloping even the biggest are all done by what is known as 'Agatitha Ghatana Saamartya'- Special powers enabling accomplishment of even the impossible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tell me if you want me to clarify any of these points.  By the way, in the interest of full disclosure, my dad is a Thenakalai and my mom is a Vadakalai, so I'm technically a Thenkalai, but my beliefs lean more toward the Vadakalai side because I think Sanskrit scripture is important.  So that might bias my description of the two sides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: The web page I quoted above gives only 10 of the 18 points of difference between the beliefs of Thenkalais and Vadakalais, but &lt;a href=&quot;http://sreevaishnavam.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/vadakalai-thenkalai-doctrinal-differences/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the full list of 18 points, quoted from a journal article.  (Note that N denotes Vadakalai and S denotes Thenkalai.). Also, &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/XjLb&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is an excerpt from C. Umakanthan's book &quot;Greatness of Saranagati in Sri Vaishnavism&quot; discussing seven of the differences.  (Vedanta Desikan's view is what became the Vadakalai view and Pillai Lokacharya's view is what became the Thenkalai view).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-01-06T16:01:28.397" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2836" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-22T21:03:13.643" Score="4" ViewCount="487" Body="&lt;p&gt;When performing &lt;em&gt;Aradhanam&lt;/em&gt;, a daily &lt;em&gt;Pooja&lt;/em&gt; performed by &lt;em&gt;Sri Vaishnavites&lt;/em&gt;, there are certain moments when one is supposed to ring a &lt;em&gt;Ghantam&lt;/em&gt;, or bell. The bell produces an auspicious sound synonymous with &quot;Om&quot;, which is why it is used. However, there are two ways to ring the bell depending on the circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two ways you can make sound with ghaNTa (Bell). One ringing&#xA;  it such a way that the tongue touches  only one side of the ghaNTa.&#xA;  You have to make ghaNTa naatham like this while&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Opening the koyil aazhvar( the Divine box where PerumaL is in yoga&#xA;  nidra)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;While offering argyam, paadyam, and aachamaniiyam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;While doing&#xA;  thirumanjanam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;While offering Dhupam, Diipam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The tongue of the ghaNTa should touch both the sides of the bell while&#xA;  doing Harati and while offering food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://srivaishnavam.com/aradhana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason for this difference in how the bell is rung? If the sound of the bell is auspicious, why not just ring it in the full manner all the time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-11T06:32:38.057" LastActivityDate="2017-04-11T06:32:38.057" Title="Different ways to ring a bell in Aaradhanam" Tags="|worship|rituals|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2837" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-23T03:12:11.213" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-23T03:12:11.213" LastActivityDate="2014-08-23T03:12:11.213" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2838" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-23T03:12:11.213" Score="0" Body="A sect of Vaishnavas (Vishnu-worshippers) founded by Nathamuni and popularized by Ramanujacharya, based on the teachings of the Alwars and tracing its origins to the goddess Lakshmi (Sri)." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-18T07:58:57.393" LastActivityDate="2018-06-18T07:58:57.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2840" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2844" CreationDate="2014-08-23T08:45:39.563" Score="14" ViewCount="23136" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't have much knowledge about &lt;em&gt;Lord Hayagriva&lt;/em&gt;, just known that he was the one who provided vedic knowledge to &lt;em&gt;Lord Brahma&lt;/em&gt;,he has horse head, was an avatar of &lt;em&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;, white in color, and symbol of wisdom and knowledge. And this is also not from very trustworthy sources.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wanted to know, his history as per written in trustworthy textures. Please try to avoid Wikipedia, and throw me light with actual textures(translated).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="419" LastEditDate="2014-08-23T18:57:12.493" LastActivityDate="2018-09-11T04:59:01.223" Title="Who was Lord Hayagriva?" Tags="|vishnu|gods|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2841" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-23T08:52:02.603" Score="11" ViewCount="2827" Body="&lt;p&gt;While going through some discussions, I found that &lt;em&gt;Panchmukhi Hanuman&lt;/em&gt; was altogether a different person but not &lt;em&gt;Lord Hanuman&lt;/em&gt; and took birth a long time before &lt;em&gt;Ramayan Time&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But a recent chit-chat with a friend who revealed me about &lt;em&gt;Panchmukhi Hanuman&lt;/em&gt; being advance form of &lt;em&gt;Lord Hanuman&lt;/em&gt; and quoted me with a story of &lt;em&gt;Ramayan Time&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want exact history about both, or both being one entity. (Logically everything is one, that supreme being).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-23T11:21:35.567" LastActivityDate="2022-03-31T05:43:41.837" Title="What is a difference between Lord Hanuman and Lord Panchmukhi Hanuman? Are they same?" Tags="|gods|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2842" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-23T11:37:24.450" Score="3" ViewCount="9004" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just wanted to know the belief behind celebrating ganesh chaturthi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Me and my family have decided to bring ganesha idol home this year. But as my grandfather passed away this year , some people are saying that you can not celebrate ganesh chaturthi for one year. It is not allowed in hinduism. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="709" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-23T13:13:39.540" LastActivityDate="2017-08-23T15:17:10.177" Title="Celebrating ganesh chaturthi" Tags="|ganesha|festivals|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2843" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2759" CreationDate="2014-08-23T12:06:36.743" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to mention few things:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hindu is just a name of lifestyle given to the people living aside of river sindhu.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna is supreme as mentioned by many vedas and puranas. It is not that ISKCON people are just following sentimentally.&#xA;Some references are here:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vanisource.org/wiki/SB_1.3.28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.28&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mṛḍayanti yuge yuge&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vanisource.org/wiki/SB_1.3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Krishna is the source of all incarnations.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dharmakshetra.com/sages/relaization%20of%20brahma.htm#TEXT1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahma-Samhita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;isvarah paramah krsnah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  anadir adir govindah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarva-karana-karanam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Other 33 millions demigods are there which are generally considered as equal as to GOD due to lack of knowledge. It is just like a Government in which you see a prime minister and many other ministers who are handling many departments. In the same way different demigods handles different departments like fire,water,modes of nature etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If someone is following the rules and regulations, he might have gone through these slokas also in which it is clearly mentioned that a foolish worships demigods for some material desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read Bhagvad Gita chapter-7.20 to 7.24 at &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/7/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;vedabase&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="710" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-02-12T06:16:48.973" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:16:48.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2844" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2840" CreationDate="2014-08-23T12:48:20.787" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Lord Hayagriva is the avatar of Vishnu with a horse head. &lt;em&gt;Haya&lt;/em&gt; means horse and &lt;em&gt;griva&lt;/em&gt; means neck. So the deity with a horse head from his neck is known as Hayagriva. The incident of how He got that horse head is present in different scriptures with slight variations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once in the ancient time the gods decided to do a Yajna. But they&#xA;couldn't find where was Vishnu. They searched for Him at different&#xA;places, and then after meditating they got to know where He was&#xA;present. When they got there they saw that Shri Vishnu was in&#xA;meditation supporting His head on His bow. To wake Him up, Brahma&#xA;created some ants (or that ant like creatures that eat away wood and&#xA;things) and told them to eat away one part of the bow so that  when it&#xA;breaks the Lord's meditation will break by losing the support.&#xA;However, when it was done, the Lord's head got cut up getting tangled&#xA;with the string of the bow. Then to correct it a horse head was fixed&#xA;there by the god Viswakarma. After that incident Vishnu did penance&#xA;and got back His original head.   [Skanda Purana - 3.2.14,15 / Devi Bhagavata - 1.5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures also mention the reason why the Lord's head was lost. But the reasons given are different. While Skanda purana states it was due to a curse from Brahma, the Devi Bhagavata says it was due to a curse from Laxmi and also because a demon by the same name who steals the Vedas from Brahma eventually (SB - 8.24), has asked the boon to be killed by someone who had a horse head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So overall, even the accounts differ slightly in the scriptures, Hayagriva is the horse headed incarnation as you have heard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Giving Vedas to Brahma&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Madhu and Kaitabha stole the Vedas from Brahma, He become overtaken by grief and requested Lord Vishnu to rescue the Vedas. So the Lord as Hayagriva brings the Vedas back and gives it to Brahma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two Asuras, making an appointment with the Vedas in respect of the time when they would come back to take them up again, threw them down in the nether region, and ran towards the spot whence those sounds appeared to come. Meanwhile, O king, the Supreme Lord with the equine head, otherwise called Hari, who was himself in the nether region, took up all the Vedas. Returning to where Brahma was staying, he gave the Vedas unto him. Having restored the Vedas unto Brahma, the Supreme Lord once more returned to his own nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wqViU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having compassed the destruction of the two Asuras and restored the Vedas to Brahma, the Supreme Being dispelled the grief of Brahma. Aided then by Hari and assisted by the Vedas, Brahma created all the worlds with their mobile and immobile creatures. After this, Hari, granting unto the Grandsire intelligence of the foremost order relating to the Creation, disappeared there and then for going to the place he had come from. &lt;strong&gt;It was thus that Narayana, having assumed the form equipt with the horse-head, slew the two Danavas Madhu and Kaitabha (and disappeared from the sight of Brahma)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c047.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat - 12.348&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-23T16:08:04.003" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2845" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2841" CreationDate="2014-08-23T14:25:25.373" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Hanuman and Panchmukhi Hanuman both are same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the Ramayana war, Ravan's Brother Mahiranvan took Ram &amp;amp; Laxman to patal-lok. Hanuman went to patal-lok to protect Ram, Laxman &amp;amp; bring them back. After reaching patal-lok Lord hanuman found out that to kill Mahiravan one has to extinguish five lamps (life of Mahiravana is in 3 places, lamps are one of them) burning in five different directions at the same time, so he has taken the Panchamukha form. Hayagriva, Narasimha, Garuda and Varaha faces and extinguished the lamps and killed Mahiravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchamukha&quot;&gt;Panchmukhi Hanuman&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastActivityDate="2014-08-23T14:25:25.373" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2846" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2840" CreationDate="2014-08-23T15:47:48.397" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Hayagriva is in fact an &lt;em&gt;avatar&lt;/em&gt; of Lord Vishnu, usually depicted with the head and neck of a horse (He is not to be confused with the &lt;em&gt;Asura&lt;/em&gt; Hayagriva (also depicted with a horse head) who stole the Vedas from Brahma and was killed by Sri Matsya Avatar).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fPECH.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Sri Lakshmi Hayagriva&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Probably the best description we have of Him comes from the &lt;em&gt;Hayagriva Stotram&lt;/em&gt;, a prayer in his praise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We meditate upon that Supreme One, who has the neck and face of a&#xA;  horse and who is the embodiment of Jn~AnA (divine Knowledge) and&#xA;  AnandhA (Bliss). He has a ThirumEni (body) like a radiant, blemishles&#xA;  Spatikam (Crystal) and is the abode of all VidhyAs (branches of&#xA;  Learning).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will notice that this stanza introduces the concept that Sri Hayagriva is considered sacred to academic and educational pursuits. This idea is expanded upon in a later stanza which describes the neighing sound that He produces to be the very &lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt; themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Hala-Hala sounds in the form of neighings emanating from the&#xA;  divine throat of Sri HayagrIvan, the Horse-faced Lord, are the&#xA;  aggregate of Saama VedA mantrAs, the word for word meanings of the Rg&#xA;  vedA (Rks) and the abode of Yajur VedA manthrams .These Hala-Hala&#xA;  nadhams are the destroyers of all obstacles to true Jn~Anam about&#xA;  ChEthana-AchEthana-Isvara tatthvams; these Hala-Hala sounds are like&#xA;  the movement of the waves from the ocean of true knowledge (Jn~Anam).&#xA;  May these sunAdhams chase away the inner darkness (ajn~nam) arising&#xA;  from the uproar (loud and confusing noise) of debaters whose minds are&#xA;  driven by their own pride, arrogance and viparItha Jn~Anam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if Sri Hayagriva is the source of the &lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt;, whence did Brahma learn them? The answer lies just a few stanzas below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Horse-faced Lord worshipped as the Lord of Speech (VaagIsan )is&#xA;  indeed the avathAra roopam of Para VaasudEvan of Sri VaikuNtam. He&#xA;  instructs Brahma Devan on the VedAs and is like the unique , morning&#xA;  light ( prAtha: SandhyA )to drive away our inner darkness . He is the&#xA;  matchless , sacred collyrium (anjanam) for revelation of the dhivya&#xA;  Jn~Anam .May this subhAsraya ThirumEni of this incarnation of Para&#xA;  VaasudEvan shine with in and before me always!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it was Sri Hayagriva Himself who originally instructed Brahma in the &lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt;. In fact, it was He too who instructed Saraswati and Veda Vyasa, as is described later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The pretty-to-behold (ramyA) form of KailAsanAthan (GirIsan) known as&#xA;  DakshiNAmUrthy, the &quot;Goddess of Learning &quot; and the wife of Brahma&#xA;  Devan with the name of Sarasvathi having the white lotus as Her abode&#xA;  and even Sage VyAsA and others famous for their powers of divine Vaak&#xA;  --all of them derive their Saarasvatham (power of divine speech ) from a mere fragment of the power of the Adhi VidhyA Moorthy, Lord&#xA;  HayagrIvan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now after Brahma had received the Vedas, he did in fact lose them and Sri Hayagriva had to retrieve them for him. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/philosophy/associates/demons/vishnu/ajnana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 8:24:57&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the end of each kalpa, when the demon Ajnana steals the Vedic&#xA;  knowledge, Lord Hayagriva appears and preserves it. Then He delivers&#xA;  it to Lord Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the end of the millennium, ignorance personified assumed the form&#xA;  of a demon, stole all the Vedas and took them down to the planet of&#xA;  Rasatala. The Supreme Lord, however, in His form of Hayagriva&#xA;  retrieved the Vedas and returned them to Lord Brahma when he begged&#xA;  for them. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Lord,&#xA;  whose determination never fails.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5or5n.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Sri Hayagriva restores the Vedas to Brahma&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are actually multiple accounts of demons stealing the Vedas and Sri Hayagriva recovering them, but since @jabahar has already addressed the incident detailed in the Mahabharatam, I have described the one from Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In essence, Sri Hayagriva is the source of all divine knowledge, and worship of him is considered extremely auspicious for any academic pursuits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://godprayers.blogspot.com/2013/02/sri-hayagreeva-stotram.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source for Translation and Transliteration&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/acharyas/desika/stotras/pdf/hayagriva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Original Sanskrit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T05:20:07.113" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T05:20:07.113" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2847" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2842" CreationDate="2014-08-23T19:13:59.377" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Firstly&lt;/strong&gt; : Ganesh Chaturthi, is celebrated as a birthday (actually rebirth) of &lt;em&gt;Lord Ganesha&lt;/em&gt;, as it is celebrated on fourth day of the bright half of Bhadrapad, it has a term &lt;em&gt;Chaturthi&lt;/em&gt; in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;rebirth&lt;/em&gt;, as I mentioned, corresponds to the incident where while &lt;em&gt;Ganesha&lt;/em&gt; in a human head form tried to block passageway of Lord Shiva, resulting in rage of Shiva and loosing his head. Thereafter, when Lord Shiva was consolidated by Devi Parvati, Shiva gave him a new birth attaching an elephant infant's head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.2014ganeshchaturthi.in/when-celebrate-ganesh-chathurthi-2014/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;More details&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is not ancient norm related to this celebration, according to latest date, this started from &lt;em&gt;Shivaji's Time 1630-80&lt;/em&gt;, after that followed by &lt;em&gt;Peshawars&lt;/em&gt;, from &lt;em&gt;1740-1820&lt;/em&gt;, thereafter it started loosing its glory when it was again renewed by &lt;em&gt;Lokmanya Tilak&lt;/em&gt; in &lt;em&gt;1893&lt;/em&gt;, in contribution to unity of different castes and generate patriotic zeal among people against the British.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Secondly&lt;/strong&gt; : Your second part has nothing to do with Ganesh Chaturthi. It is normal priviledge in Hindu households, to not celebrate till 1st year of relative's death, you cannot even worship (pooja, but you can inchant mantras) till the third day of relative's death. This has a more wider reference, which I don't think liable here, you can ask this question differently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="10256" LastEditDate="2017-08-23T15:17:10.177" LastActivityDate="2017-08-23T15:17:10.177" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2849" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2833" CreationDate="2014-08-24T04:56:59.757" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well known that Sanatan Dharma is liberal in declaring that there are multiple ways to &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt;, not just only one. Hence, there are different kinds of practices observed by followers of different paths. But regardless of whatever path is followed, the body is the priamry asset through which any kind of &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; or penance can be done. Hence, it's said: &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;sariamadya khalu dharma sadhanam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (i.e. the protection or maintenance of the body is the foremost duty and then only &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; can be cultivated)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once the body is taken care of, one may either subject it to pain and penances like walking on burning coal, inserting &lt;em&gt;trishul&lt;/em&gt;, etc. or quietly sit and do meditation in peace.  What one will do depends upon the nature of the person whether he is &lt;em&gt;svatic&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;rajasic&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;tamasic&lt;/em&gt;. Those practices which inflict sever pain and difficulty to the body are said to be &lt;em&gt;tamasic&lt;/em&gt; and people of that nature do them due to material desires, ego and pride:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;aśāstra-vihitaṁ ghoraṁ tapyante ye tapo janāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dambhāhaṅkāra-saṁyuktāḥ kāma-rāga-balānvitāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  karṣayantaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ bhūta-grāmam acetasaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  māṁ caivāntaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ tān viddhy āsura-niścayān&lt;/em&gt;  [BG - 17.5,6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Those who undergo severe austerities and penances not recommended in the scriptures, performing them out of pride and egoism, who are impelled by lust and attachment, who are foolish and who torture the material elements of the body as well as the Supersoul dwelling within, are to be known as demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So those severe practices are not actually meant for everyone to do and the purpose is almost always gaining material desires. Only people in &lt;em&gt;tamasic&lt;/em&gt; mode of material nature do it and it is not as per the scriptures (&lt;em&gt;aśāstra-vihitaṁ&lt;/em&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, apart from the severe practices, certain other practices like fasting, pranayam, etc. are done to gain control over the senses and the body so that mind can stay focused in spiritual progress. Those are allowed by scriptures (BG - 4,26,29,30). Also people in the mode of &lt;em&gt;svata&lt;/em&gt; perform actions like &lt;em&gt;yanja&lt;/em&gt; and worshipping of gods which are quite fine (BG - 17.3,4). Only those severe penances by subjecting the body to pain are of &lt;em&gt;tamasic&lt;/em&gt; nature and are not required to be followed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-08-24T04:56:59.757" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2850" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-24T05:16:29.730" Score="4" ViewCount="205" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since over a year I've this disconnect with everything around me, people and work and everything else and now, sometimes have suicidal thoughts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wish to stay away from all this and find a meaning to life. I don't have much money with me. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to stay at a temple or some similar institution for some time, maybe a year or two, maybe longer. Is there any such institution where I can stay. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What policy does ISKON follow?&lt;/strong&gt; I am willing to do work or volunteer for their activities etc but I can't spend much money. Please suggest if I should post this to some other site if Hinduism.SE isn't appropriate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm a 25 year old boy in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="714" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-24T05:44:29.310" LastActivityDate="2014-08-24T07:00:44.927" Title="Is it possible to stay full time at a temple/religious location for an year or so?" Tags="|temple|life|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ClosedDate="2014-08-25T05:40:26.953" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2853" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2690" CreationDate="2014-08-24T07:18:34.083" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, it's not like that, it can be read on normal days as far as I know. The Garuda Purana has a  part known as &lt;em&gt;preta kalpa&lt;/em&gt; which describes the journey after death and the related rituals to be done. Those are referred and read during the occasion of the passing away of someone. So it has become a taboo or fear to read it on other days like it has happened wth the sentence &quot;&lt;em&gt;ram naam satya hai&lt;/em&gt;&quot; (Rama's name is truth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So at different places of the &lt;em&gt;purana&lt;/em&gt; it has been praised and suggested to read as it offers &lt;em&gt;punya&lt;/em&gt; and bestows desires. For example, consider the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tat śrīmadgaruḍaṃ puṇyaṃ sarvadaṃ paṭhatastava&lt;/em&gt; [GP - 1.3.9]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - That auspicious Garuda purana when read gives &lt;em&gt;punya&lt;/em&gt; and all objects&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;taduktaṃ gāruḍaṃ puṇyaṃ purāṇaṃ yaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarvakāmamavāpyātha prāpnoti paramāṃ gatim&lt;/em&gt; [GP - 1.240.34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That man who reads this auspicious Garuda purana attains the supreme destination having obtained all his desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given the nature of the subject matter that the &lt;em&gt;purana&lt;/em&gt; contains, some portions of it may be considered as inauspicious by people, but I have not come across anything that forbids its reading. In fact at many places it has been praised and suggested to be read as mentioned in the above verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2014-10-01T03:57:47.593" LastActivityDate="2014-10-01T03:57:47.593" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2854" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2759" CreationDate="2014-08-24T08:03:28.157" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;You will not find anyone except krishna or his incarnations to be addressed as 'Bhagavan' in vedas and puranas. They might be addressed as 'Deva' or demigod. &#xA;Even in Bhagavad Gita lord is always addressed as:&#xA;&quot;Bhagavan Uvacha&quot; &#xA;Bhagavan is used for krishna only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again I would like to mention the definition of GOD which is given by parashar muni who is the father of vedavyasa(the compiler of vedas). &#xA;In fact, Shri Parashara listed a total of six “attractive” qualities as explained in the following verse. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;aishvaryasya samagrasya&#xA;viryasya yashasah shriyah&#xA;jnana-vairagyayosh chaiva&#xA;shannam bhaga itingana&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above verse from Vishnu-purana 6.5.47, Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is thus defined by Shri Parashara Muni as one who is full in six opulences—who has full strength, fame, wealth, knowledge, beauty, and renunciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All through His life five thousand years back, Krishna had continually engaged in various pastimes that establish the fact that He possesses all the six opulences in full. Krishna exhibited unlimited strength. His strength was present from the moment of His birth. When He was just three months old, the Putana demon attempted to kill Him, but instead she was killed by Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna also possesses unlimited fame. Of course, devotees of Krishna know of Him and glorify Him, but apart from them, many millions in the world are aware of the fame of the Bhagavad-gita. In all countries all over the world the Bhagavad-gita is read by philosophers, psychologists, and religionists. The fame of the Bhagavad-gita is Krishna’s fame.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beauty, another opulence, is possessed unlimitedly by Krishna. Krishna Himself is very beautiful, as are all His associates. The earth planet is an insignificant planet within the universe, yet this one planet has so many attractive features. We can just imagine, then, how many attractive features must be possessed by God, who is the creator of the entire cosmic manifestation. How beautiful He must be—He who has created all beauty?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person is attractive not only because of his beauty, but also because of his knowledge. A scientist or philosopher may be attractive because of his knowledge, but what knowledge is more sublime than that given by Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita? There is no comparison in the world to such knowledge. At the same time, Krishna possesses full renunciation (vairagya). So many things are working under Krishna’s direction in this material world, but actually Krishna is not present here. A big factory may continue to work, although the owner may not be present. Similarly, Krishna’s potencies are working under the direction of His assistants, the demigods. Thus Krishna Himself is aloof from the material world. Details regarding this are all described in the revealed scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You would have understood by now how Krishna possesses all the six opulences in full, therefore being “all-attractive”. Thus He is considered by great Vedic authorities as Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="710" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-03T06:10:50.880" LastActivityDate="2015-03-03T06:10:50.880" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2855" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2859" CreationDate="2014-08-24T16:05:49.893" Score="5" ViewCount="609" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know, every text book is directly or indirectly related to vedas. This 'Ayurveda', has a 'Ved' in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By meaning it seems its another type of veda, but being four veda pillared, I didn't found any reference of it being of any four.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As going in between discussion, I'm sure its not any one of four vedas, yet it has a 'ved' ending with it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I just wanted to know its relation to Vedas(Direct One, as I posted every text has at least indirect relation to veda) or if not why it got the name 'Ayurveda'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't want to be offensive in nomenclature of the book, yet what I know the way Sanskrit words are created is scientific, and 'Ayur' meaning life and 'Veda' meaning 'science'(Sorry I don't have any relative english word for it.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="499" LastEditDate="2014-08-25T10:21:49.110" LastActivityDate="2016-07-04T09:08:18.113" Title="What is Ayurved's relation with Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|ayurveda|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-12-19T05:32:43.263" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2858" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2888" CreationDate="2014-08-25T05:41:49.360" Score="3" ViewCount="502" Body="&lt;p&gt;On Raksha Bandhan, men are tied with a band on their hands by their sister. These bands are coming in different types in market such as cartoon characters, some designs, with stones etc.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any explanation in scriptures on how a Rakhi band should be?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-25T07:36:03.943" LastActivityDate="2014-08-27T05:51:46.640" Title="How a Rakhi band should be?" Tags="|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2859" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2855" CreationDate="2014-08-25T05:46:20.547" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is another type of veda but it believed to be a part of Atharva-veda, as 'Veda' means 'knowledge' and 'Ayur' means 'life' in Sanskrit. Ayurveda is the most ancient science of healing which enhances longevity. It has influenced many of the older traditional methods of healing including Tibetan, Chinese and Greek medicine. Hence, Ayurveda is considered by many as the 'mother of healing.&#xA;The hymns and mantras contained in Atharva-veda were contributions of Rishis and munis or sages, over a period of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Aryan who were called &lt;em&gt;'Aryavartas'&lt;/em&gt; were the people who used to live in northern parts of India and Himalayas, and and is believed to be the place where the Rishis and Munis lived. At present it covers areas in countries like Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan and Tibet. The civilizations of these countries are deeply influenced by the unique intellectual contributions of these Rishis and Munis. In Atharva-veda, Ayurveda is divided into 8 parts called '&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Ayurveda#Ashtaangas_of_Ayurveda_-_The_Eight_Limbs_of_Ayurveda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ashtaangas Ayurveda&lt;/a&gt;', I am not explaining the specifics of each though.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as you have said that you know every text books of the veda, you should have known about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read these link to get more informations&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atharvaveda#Divisions_and_issues_of_note&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.allayurveda.com/discover.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ayurveda1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swadeshi.co/Ayurveda-history.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ayurveda2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ayurvedatips.info/origin.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ayurveda3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="602" LastActivityDate="2014-08-25T05:46:20.547" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2860" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-25T05:49:42.483" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-25T05:49:42.483" LastActivityDate="2014-08-25T05:49:42.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2861" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-25T05:49:42.483" Score="0" Body="Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness, either to realize some benefit or as an end in itself." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-25T07:37:19.107" LastActivityDate="2014-08-25T07:37:19.107" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2862" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2714" CreationDate="2014-08-25T06:26:20.080" Score="10" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Is it considered ultimate to be reborn as a human?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, &lt;strong&gt;it is considered ultimate to be not born at all&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Jivas&lt;/em&gt; being part of God exist in different kinds of bodies starting from insects and humans on earth to gods and demons in heaven and hell. But any kind of such material existence being under the influence of repeated death and birth, has always condemned by the scriptures and saints. That is why the scriptures prescribe ways like &lt;em&gt;jnana&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt; for attaining &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt;, etc. But &lt;strong&gt;because only through the human body that &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; can be attained, it is considered the best among the bodies&lt;/strong&gt;. So even the gods of heaven want human birth so that they can achieve liberation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;svargiṇo ’py etam icchanti lokaṁ nirayiṇas tathā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sādhakaṁ jñāna-bhaktibhyām ubhayaṁ tad-asādhakam&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.20.12]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The residents of both heaven and hell desire human birth on the earth planet because human life facilitates the achievement of transcendental knowledge and love of Godhead, whereas neither heavenly nor hellish bodies efficiently provide such opportunities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other births being &lt;em&gt;bhoga yoni&lt;/em&gt;, their actions can not award liberation. Only the human birth being a &lt;em&gt;karma yoni&lt;/em&gt; can award spiritual results as per the action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is the human birth the result of past good deeds?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It depends. One may have got the human birth because he did good things (mixture of good and bad) in the past life or he may have got it in course of time after going through other form of bodies. The rule is simple as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A person when does only good works as prescribed in the scriptures he goes to higher planets like heaven. When a person does bad and sinful works prohibited by the scriptures, he goes to hell. When a person does a mixture of good and bad, he reborns on earth in different kinds of bodies as per his action. [SB - 4.29.26-29]&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One who does sinful actions, goes to hell and after experiencing punishments there obtains lower animal forms and gradually obtains a human birth in course of time. [VP - 2.6.34]&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One who does good and scripture prescribed actions goes to heaven and returns down to earth once his merits are exhaust. [BG - 9.21]&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Why do some lament while some request for a human birth?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you see from the above references, human birth is kind of a middle stage between good and bad, some lament why they did some bad work and sins that they had to take birth as human and experience difficulties, otherwise they could have been gone to heaven. But those people do not have the correct knowledge. Those who do, instead pray to God for human birth so that they can practice devotion, austerity, etc. to get permanent liberation from repeated death and birth. So the scriptures say:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;nṛ-deham ādyaṁ su-labhaṁ su-durlabhaṁ plavaṁ su-kalpaṁ guru-karṇadhāram&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mayānukūlena nabhasvateritaṁ pumān bhavābdhiṁ na taret sa ātma-hā&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.20.17]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The human body, which can award all benefit in life, is automatically obtained by the laws of nature, although it is a very rare achievement. This human body can be compared to a perfectly constructed boat having the spiritual master as the captain and the instructions of the Personality of Godhead as favorable winds impelling it on its course. Considering all these advantages, a human being who does not utilize his human life to cross the ocean of material existence must be considered the killer of his own soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;iha cedavedīd atha satyamasti na cedihāvedīn mahatī vinaṣṭiḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Kena Up. - 2.5]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - If during this life one understands the supreme, then it’s good. But if one fails to understand the Supreme, then he’ll incur a great loss. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because this human birth has this potential to set one &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; free from &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;, obtaining the human birth is nothing but the grace of God. (कबहुक करि करुणा नर देहि । देत ईश बिनु हेतु सनेही - RCM). One just needs to utilize it for the right purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Does a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; attain &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; from any life form?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, almost always not except some exceptions. This question has an &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2361/38&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; which says &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; is possible only through the human birth. I have heard an example of how God realized souls can give &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; to animals as mentioned in that answer. There was a cow in Shri Ramana Maharshi's ashram and at the time of the cow's death he placed his hand over her and said she was liberated. So those are only few exceptions. Another thing is that, an individual attains heaven only by doing good deeds, &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; or liberation from births is the result of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2185/38&quot;&gt;following the paths&lt;/a&gt; described in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-08-25T06:26:20.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2863" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2842" CreationDate="2014-08-25T07:15:08.677" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Celebrating a festival when a relative passes away depends on how the relative was related to you. If your grandfather who passed away is your paternal grandfather(father's father) then it is not advisable to celebrate any festival for one year as there are other ceremonies to be performed which take precedence over celebrating festivals. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your maternal grandfather passed away, then you have no restrictions on celebrating any festival after the one or one and half months after the demise (as @Creator said). It all ultimately comes down to how well you have dealt with loss and sorrow to celebrate now.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;I should probably make my answer more clear.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; There are numerous and varied ceremonies performed when a person dies and all of it depend on the different castes and sub-castes we belong to (and I am making no reference to any particular caste here). Firstly, (as I mentioned in my comment below) people do not celebrate because they need to have a feast every month and it isn't nice to have it coincide with a festival, which is supposed to be a happy occasion. Next, at least in the olden times, with people not being very well off, they would have to spend a lot on the funeral that it would leave them almost penniless to have money to celebrate festivals. It is believed that the atma should be fed once every month for a year, after which it needs to be fed once every year;meaning it depends on us for a year. Hence the 'one year' mark.&lt;br/&gt;Considering that people need to follow all this (whether they wish to follow is left to them) it is advised not to celebrate for a year. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="677" LastEditorUserId="677" LastEditDate="2014-08-25T10:24:43.380" LastActivityDate="2014-08-25T10:24:43.380" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2864" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2871" CreationDate="2014-08-25T09:25:26.903" Score="8" ViewCount="33162" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any significance to visiting temples on Amavasya Day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or are there any restrictions in doing so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="232" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-25T09:49:49.420" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T14:40:36.483" Title="What is the significance of visiting temple on amavasya day?" Tags="|rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2865" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2900" CreationDate="2014-08-25T09:26:25.887" Score="5" ViewCount="5769" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Treta yuga, when Lord Vishnu took avatar as Raam, Lord Shiva was aware about this and he took avatar as Lord Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Ramayana there is a part mentioned that when Raam was in forest ( for 14 years vanvas ) with Sita &amp;amp; Laxmana, Godess Parvati went to forest to check actually Raam is Vishnu's avatar or not ? When Raam show her, he simply said why you are alone, where is Lord Shiva ? Hearing this she got confirmed that Raam is an avatar of Lord Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when she come back to Kailash, Lord Shiva asked her about examination of Raam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally when Vishnu takes any avatar, it is well known among all the devi-devtas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in this case Why Godess Parvati was not aware that Raam is actually an avatar of Lord Vishnu while Lord Shiva was very well known about this part ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-25T10:47:43.213" LastActivityDate="2015-12-31T05:47:05.167" Title="Why Godess Parvati was not aware of Raam as Vishnu's avatar?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|parvati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2866" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2889" CreationDate="2014-08-25T10:59:19.190" Score="8" ViewCount="11413" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally people avoid going outside during eclipse time. Pujari closes the temple's door  during eclipse time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind this ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastActivityDate="2015-03-24T21:07:00.910" Title="Why do people avoid going outside during eclipse time?" Tags="|belief|eclipse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2867" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-25T11:03:44.877" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-25T11:03:44.877" LastActivityDate="2014-08-25T11:03:44.877" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2868" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-25T11:03:44.877" Score="0" Body="An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object is temporarily obscured, either by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-26T12:13:10.270" LastActivityDate="2014-08-26T12:13:10.270" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2869" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-25T11:05:43.863" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-25T11:05:43.863" LastActivityDate="2014-08-25T11:05:43.863" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2870" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-25T11:05:43.863" Score="0" Body="Parvati (Devanagari: पार्वती) is known as the motherly form of Mother Goddess Gauri Jagadamba. Parvati is another form of Shakti, the wife of Shiva and the gentle aspect of Maha Devi or Durga, the Great Goddess." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-26T12:13:02.790" LastActivityDate="2014-08-26T12:13:02.790" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2871" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2864" CreationDate="2014-08-25T12:16:46.077" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is importance in visiting the temple on Amavasya day.The human mind and moon is closely related. There are some Hindu practices based on this fact. Our mind will be powerful and pure if there is a full moon. During the krisnapaksha (dark lunar phase), the vulnerability to negative thoughts increase and will be at it's peak on the Amavasya day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the Amavasya day, when there is no full moon, the mind will be the weakest and highly vulnerable to impure thoughts. So to overcome this, and to keep our mind calm and clear, it is recommended to go to temples on this  day which will help to keep away the negative thoughts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A related Note to show that mind is related to moon: &lt;strong&gt;'Food for thought'&lt;/strong&gt;, is a great saying actually(&lt;em&gt;no, I am not referring to it's dual meaning&lt;/em&gt;). What we consume will become our thoughts. The effect or guna of food we consume is generally reflected on the 4th day in our mind after consuming the food item. Usually we avoid Tamasic food items such as meat, fish or egg in order to make our mind calm and clear, i.e. to have positive thoughts. Rajasic food items will also play a role in creating negative thoughts. So if we consume Tamasic or Rajasic food on the 11th day of dark lunar phase, then on the Amavasya day our mind will be most vulnerable to negative thoughts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to avoid this hindus follows an ancient practice. On the 11th day of dark lunar phase (Krishnapaksha) they take fasting and only consume the food items having most sathwik value such as vegetables and fruits. They avoid rajasic food items too on this day such as rice. So what is that practice? It is &lt;strong&gt;'Ekadashi fasting'&lt;/strong&gt;. As mentioned earlier, the effect of these food items (satwik gunas from sathwik food) reflects on the thoughts on the 4th day. Remember we consumed these food items on 11th day of dark lunar phase. So next day is Dwadashi, then thriodashi and Chaturdashi. The 4th day will be always 'Amavasya', where there is no moon and mind highly vulnerable to negative thoughts. Since we have the gunas from sathwik food which we consumed 4 days earlier, then mind will be strong enough to prevent any impure/negative thoughts on the Amavasya day. So in short, when eating the pure food items on the 11th day of lunar phase,'ekadashi day', the sathwa gunas of that food items will be reflected in our mind on the Amavasya day. So we will not be affected by negative or impure thoughts or at least able to prevent most of such thoughts. If the mind is pure on this Amavasya day then it will be pure for rest of the days in the month. So what happens if we follow ekadashi fasting on every month? The mind is clear and calm for the whole year. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you asked in the question, the temple visits on Amavasya day is another way to get rid of negative thoughts on the Amavasya day. It is a simple instruction but the result of this simple practice is very valuable to the whole life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S: So one of the ultimate aims of such practices is to create a community with ideal minds. Hinduism just doesn't simply say 'Loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu', it does have hidden secrets which will make the world a better place. Our ancestors just instructed us to follow these practices but have not explained the reason. They said just to follow, there will be result. But what happened is that many of the people misunderstood such practices and rituals and categorized them as misdeeds and superstitions. Still the ultimate science of human mind and nature are just hidden beneath such practices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: A satsang in our locality + &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekadashi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekadashi&lt;/a&gt;( refered wikipedia for finding the terms, but the essence of the answer is from the satsang. Even though Wikipedia has some ideas related to what is explained in the answer). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T14:40:36.483" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T14:40:36.483" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2872" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-25T12:21:17.800" Score="5" ViewCount="935" Body="&lt;p&gt;This post is a specialization of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2229/20&quot;&gt;Does lord Shiva smoke Chillum?&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does most of the sadhus smoke Chillum or just a few of them?   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does the proportion of consumers increases (among the sadhus)?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is &quot;too much smoking Chillum&quot; (as some sadhus seem do) not good spiritually?   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some sadhus do not look like very high level spiritual men, but just junkies. In my opinion, such an increase is not at all good for the Hindu spirituality. It looks like (in some sense) the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_of_the_Amazon_rainforest&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;deforestation of the Amazon rainforest‌​&lt;/a&gt;, it's a disaster !!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T14:39:51.670" Title="Can a chillum consider as bad habit of the sadhus?" Tags="|tradition|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2874" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2872" CreationDate="2014-08-26T03:30:28.823" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer it I will take care of root words used in your question, CHILLUM, BAD HABIT, SADHU.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chillum&lt;/strong&gt; : Chillum is actually a pipe, it is not what you inhale, the content you inhaling matters, if you are taking higher concentration of nicotine in your chillum it will effect your mental health.You can understand through &lt;a href=&quot;http://conceptual-reflections.w43w.com/2407/chillum-science/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;The content used in chillum is not high nicotine, and a chillum has 'Safi', which is water containing cloth, and removes any kind of containment from the air drawn from it, making it least harmful in health cases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sadhu&lt;/strong&gt; : Someone who does not belong to the word, or according to him, the world does not belongs to him. He considers world a &lt;em&gt;'MAYA'&lt;/em&gt;, a conclave of mass, between him and god. He doesn't acquire a family, relatives even no colleagues. He is friendly to natures every being, even to the stone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bad Habit&lt;/strong&gt; : This needs more description to understand. Two questions, &lt;em&gt;Is pissing in bathroom a bad habit? Is pissing on neighbors door a bad habit?&lt;/em&gt;, you are right second one is. But if I ask, &lt;em&gt;Is Pissing a bad habit?&lt;/em&gt; No of course not, until and unless you are doing it at a wrong place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But these questions doesn't clarify anything. A doing is a bad habit, if it confirms a loss, or ill treatment, or anything bad to other. Here &lt;em&gt;'Other'&lt;/em&gt; needs to be understood, the other make the thing good or bad. Mostly parents would not like there child to have nicotine, why? he will not be able to study nor be able to do work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if Sadhu is having a chillum, is he doing any harm to anyone, no, he doesn't have a family, colleagues to shout for him, neither the chillum harms the environment in any way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short &lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;chillum is not considered as a bad habit for Sadhus&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Furthermore&lt;/strong&gt; : .The sadhus are not attached to the world so the worldly thing like chillum does not affect their &lt;em&gt;chitta&lt;/em&gt; in the way it does to a man who is a chain smoker,that's why if they do it in &lt;em&gt;nishkam&lt;/em&gt;(detached) way to relax their mind that's why it is not bad habit. If even a sadhu does the same by involving into or is affected by not getting it by a specific time period, then that is &lt;em&gt;sakama&lt;/em&gt;(totally involved) way and it is a bad habit, or we can say sin which creates bad &lt;em&gt;samskars&lt;/em&gt; on &lt;em&gt;chitta&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T14:39:51.670" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T14:39:51.670" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2875" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2876" CreationDate="2014-08-26T03:40:10.907" Score="56" ViewCount="150566" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that at the end of the Kali Yuga, the world will be destroyed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What does this mean? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Will the Earth be destroyed or will the entire Universe be destroyed? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can someone throw light on this?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="232" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-04-25T20:13:16.490" LastActivityDate="2023-04-25T20:13:16.490" Title="What exactly happens at end of Kali Yuga? Will the world be destroyed?" Tags="|yuga|time|kali-yuga|lokas|pralaya|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2876" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2875" CreationDate="2014-08-26T04:59:56.843" Score="65" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, the world won't actually get destroyed at the end of the Kali Yuga.&lt;/strong&gt;  Rather, what's going to occur is that when the evil and decadence of the Kali Yuga reaches its zenith, Vishnu will have an incarnation (avatara) as Kalki the horse rider, to kill all the evil people and restore Dharma on earth, commencing a new Satya Yuga.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Srimad Bhagavatam describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Kalki will appear in the home of the most eminent brāhmaṇa of Śambhala village, the great soul Viṣṇuyaśā.  Lord Kalki, the Lord of the universe, will mount His swift horse Devadatta and, sword in hand, travel over the earth exhibiting His eight mystic opulences and eight special qualities of Godhead. Displaying His unequaled effulgence and riding with great speed, He will kill by the millions those thieves who have dared dress as kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After all the impostor kings have been killed, the residents of the cities and towns will feel the breezes carrying the most sacred fragrance of the sandalwood paste and other decorations of Lord Vāsudeva, and their minds will thereby become transcendentally pure.  When Lord Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appears in their hearts in His transcendental form of goodness, the remaining citizens will abundantly repopulate the earth.  &lt;strong&gt;When the Supreme Lord has appeared on earth as Kalki, the maintainer of religion, Satya-yuga will begin, and human society will bring forth progeny in the mode of goodness.  When the moon, the sun and Bṛhaspatī are together in the constellation Karkaṭa, and all three enter simultaneously into the lunar mansion Puṣyā — at that exact moment the age of Satya, or Kṛta, will begin.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So even if some people are killed, the world will still go on after the end of the Kali Yuga.  The Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga keep repeating in a cycle.  Now one cycle of all four Yugas is called a Mahayuga or Chatur Yuga, and 1000 Mahayugas make up one Kalpa.  A Kalpa constitutes just one day for Brahma the creator god.  After the day is over, Brahma goes to sleep, and then the Pralaya, or night of Brahma, commences.  The Pralaya, of equal length to a Kalpa, is the time period when the entire three worlds (the physical universe along with Devaloka and Asuraloka) are destroyed by fire emanating from the mouth of Vishnu's serpent Adiseshan.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/11/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how it's described in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the day, under the insignificant portion of the mode of darkness, the powerful manifestation of the universe merges in the darkness of night. By the influence of eternal time, the innumerable living entities remain merged in that dissolution, and everything is silent.  When the night of Brahmā ensues, all the three worlds are out of sight, and the sun and the moon are without glare, just as in the due course of an ordinary night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The devastation takes place due to the fire emanating from the mouth of [Ananta], and thus great sages like Bhṛgu and other inhabitants of Maharloka transport themselves to Janaloka, being distressed by the warmth of the blazing fire which rages through the three worlds below.  At the beginning of the devastation all the seas overflow, and hurricane winds blow very violently. Thus the waves of the seas become ferocious, and in no time at all the three worlds are full of water.  The Supreme Lord [Vishnu] lies down in the water on the seat of Ananta, with His eyes closed, and the inhabitants of Janaloka offer unto the Lord their glorious prayers with folded hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And by the way, all this annihilation is overseen by Shiva god of destruction, who engages in his cosmic Tandava dance in order to direct all this destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the Pralaya is over, Brahma wakes up and commences the creation of the three worlds again, and thus a new Kalpa begins.  Now a Kalpa is already an incredibly long period of time, but it's just one day in the life of Brahma.  Now imagine how long a hundred years is in the life of Brahma!  That is how long Brahma lives for, and it's called Mahakalpa.  And after the Mahakalpa is over, Brahma dies, and then there is a period of even greater destruction, the Mahapralaya, which lasts as long as Mahakalpa.  And then Brahma is reborn, marking the start of a new Mahakalpa.  And the cycle begins again!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-07-11T13:44:51.707" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2878" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-08-26T12:55:27.033" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-08-26T12:55:27.033" LastActivityDate="2014-08-26T12:55:27.033" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2879" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-08-26T12:55:27.033" Score="0" Body="Bhishma (or Bheeshma or Devavrata or Bhishma Pitamah) was the eighth son of Kuru King Shantanu and grand uncle of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-08-26T13:58:07.520" LastActivityDate="2014-08-26T13:58:07.520" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2882" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2833" CreationDate="2014-08-26T16:51:40.330" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanatan Dharma says you should not be attached to your body. It is because the body is not the real self. And too much attachment to the body keeps us earth bound means we keep coming back in various rebirths. Sanatan Dharma says keep your body clean, nourished and healthy without attachment because it is your vehicle of liberation if used properly. If not used properly it will be cause of bondage to the material world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-26T16:51:40.330" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2884" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-27T03:00:42.810" Score="13" ViewCount="1046" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alwars&quot;&gt;Alwars&lt;/a&gt; (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the development of Vaishnavism; it is the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Vaishnava&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; sect (of which I'm a member).  The Alwars praised many Vishnu temples and other sacred places of Vishnu in their poetry; a sacred place of Vishnu that was praised by at least one Alwar is called a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_desam&quot;&gt;Divya Desam&lt;/a&gt;, and there are 108 of them; see the list &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_desam#List_of_Divya_Desams&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now because of the important role that the Alwars' poetry played in the development of the Sri Vaishnava sect, Sri Vaishnavas naturally tried to build temples in the sites of any Divya Desams that didn't already have Vishnu temples, and the advent of the Sri Vaishnava sect led many existing Vishnu temples to convert to Sri Vaishnavism in their rituals and practices.  So my question is, out of the 108 Divya Desams, how many of them are the site of a Sri Vaishnava temple?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now two of the Divya Desams aren't even located on earth, Vishnu's ocean of milk and Vishnu's palace of Paramapadam.  It's probably best to avoid speculation here about what customs are used to worship Vishnu there, so I'm just asking about the 106 Divya Desams on Earth!  I expect some Divya Desams in North India (of which there aren't that many) don't have Sri Vaishnava temples, only because Sri Vaishnavism is more popular in South India.  But are there any South Indian Divya Desams whose Vishnu temples follow other sects other than Sri Vaishnavism, like Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the like?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-11-08T21:13:49.777" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T16:24:45.560" Title="How many of the Divya Desams are the sites of Sri Vaishnava Temples?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2886" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2887" CreationDate="2014-08-27T04:04:04.250" Score="10" ViewCount="1631" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am just curious to know how does Karma work for a person who has converted to Hinduism.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If we consider Karma as a bank account; how is Karma accounted for a converted individual? Is it the Karma after conversion or the Karma since birth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T14:40:12.000" Title="How does Karma work for a person who has converted to Hinduism?" Tags="|karma|conversion|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2887" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2886" CreationDate="2014-08-27T04:48:41.370" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karma is what you had done and what you are doing in your life time. So Karma will be there from the very next moment of your birth. There is nothing to do with Hindu, Muslim or Christian. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Karmaphalam&lt;/em&gt;, Fruit(Reward) for your Karma will be awarded to you in your life time, may be in your next life too. Whether you are or were a Hindu or Muslim or Christian won't be considered in this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="686" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-27T10:00:41.027" LastActivityDate="2014-08-27T10:00:41.027" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2888" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2858" CreationDate="2014-08-27T05:22:18.383" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Perfect Definition:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rakhi is a sacred thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu scriptures Rakhi can be defined as a thread &lt;strong&gt;made of cotton thread that can be tied on hand with pure wish&lt;/strong&gt;. It can be even a piece of your cloth!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is kind of &lt;strong&gt;bracelet&lt;/strong&gt;. Sachi tied a bracelet on Indra's hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Any design is accepted. Because the wish for good has only one design -&gt; purity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sisters buy cartoon rakhis for brothers who are children. These brother will love cartoons , so they buy it. Reasons may vary for choosing a rakhi. Mostly colors are golden or red, but one may choose other colors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some brothers like Rudraksha Rakhis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the importance is sister's prayer for his brothers' well beings. These prayers have power. That only make Rakhi protects his brother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raksha_Bandhan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Click Here,&lt;/a&gt; there are many incidents from Hindu scripture based on Rakshabandhan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hindu scripture has defined a rakhi to be sacred thread only. Whenever the term Rakhi is used in texts, in most texts it is referred as cotton thread or bracelet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Meaning of the rakhi&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Raksha means protection, whilst Bandhan is the verb to tie. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that when a woman ties a rakhi around the hand of a man it becomes obligatory for him to honour his religious duty and protect her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Traditional stories state that rakhis are blessed with sacred verses and are encompassed by them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes rakhis are consecrated in rice and grass before they are given, and they are traditionally tied by people familiar with the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following these customs the rakhi is believed to remove sin from one hand and provide safety to the other. The protection offered by a rakhi is believed to remain for a year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/holydays/raksha.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rakshabandhan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-08-27T05:51:46.640" LastActivityDate="2014-08-27T05:51:46.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2889" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2866" CreationDate="2014-08-27T05:42:08.460" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the ancient time itself, our ancestors follow the practice of staying inside, eating nothing etc. Some says its just a pure myth and there is nothing scientific in it. But what I know is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In an eclipse, it is possible to look directly at the sun without much discomfort to your eyes at the time. But doing so can cause severe damage to your eyes without you even knowing it. Also sun rays contain harmful rays like X-Rays,UV Rays etc. This will cause harm to our body.&#xA;Also regarding to food, I had read somewhere that,Sun light is the source of all food but during a solar eclipse we only get partial sun light which has passed through moon's atmosphere this light might contain elements/rays that are not completely absorbed by earth's atmosphere and hence there are more chances of contamination of food items during eclipse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the reason for closing Temple doors may be &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;It is believed that during the solar eclipse, there's a strong negative charge loading on the earth. Since the temples are built to attract astral energy &amp;amp; positively charge the devotees; the positive effects will be reversed during the solar eclipse. Usually, the temples are immediatelly re-opened after the eclipse.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more explanations,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swaminarayan.org/faq/eclips.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Eclipse&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://toostep.com/debate/is-solar-eclipse-a-matter-of-science-or-faith&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Is solar eclipse a matter of science or faith?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="686" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T05:24:31.723" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T05:24:31.723" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2890" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2891" CreationDate="2014-08-27T06:36:37.790" Score="3" ViewCount="502" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that there are 7 (or 8) immortals mentioned in our scriptures like &lt;em&gt;Hanuman&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Ashvathaman&lt;/em&gt;, I know only two of them, and I want to know others, with their brief enlightenment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I used the word 'semi' as I wasn't able to find a word to describe personnel who's age is limited to a &lt;em&gt;'Mahayug'&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-27T09:55:08.440" LastActivityDate="2014-08-27T09:55:08.440" Title="Who are the immortals(semi) mentioned in our scriptures?" Tags="|history|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2014-08-27T08:10:16.053" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2891" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2890" CreationDate="2014-08-27T06:47:13.547" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiranjivi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chiranjivi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;List of the seven immortals are as below, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ashwatthama, the son of Drona. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bali, also called MahaBali, was the virtuous emperor of the three worlds and grandson of Prahlad&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hanuman, served Rama. He stands for selflessness, courage, devotion, strength, and righteous conduct.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kripa, military guru of the princes in the Mahabharata.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Parashurama, 6th avatar of Vishnu, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vibhishana, brother of Ravana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vyasa, the sage who composed the Mahabharata.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu scripture contains a mantra about the seven immortals, in which their names are recited for luck and longevity:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अश्वत्थामाबलिर्व्यासोहनुमांश्च विभीषण:कृपश्चपरशुरामश्च सप्तैतेचिरंजीविन:।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashwathaama Balir Vyasaha Hanumantha Vibeeshanaha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kripa Parashuramascha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Saptaitey Chiranjivinaha&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from the seven Chiranjivis above mentioned, there exist other Chiranjivis as well. For instance, Sage Markandeya, when at the age of sixteen, was blessed with immortality.&#xA;Other immortals or Chiranjivins. Jambavan, Markandeya, Devapi, Maru, Saptarishis, Bhusunda (Crow), Alha and Udal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastActivityDate="2014-08-27T06:47:13.547" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2892" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2901" CreationDate="2014-08-27T07:30:33.073" Score="13" ViewCount="5538" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard a lot about the power of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/418/what-is-the-significance-of-the-janeva-sacred-thread&quot;&gt;Janeva&lt;/a&gt; (Yajñopavītam or sacred thread), a small cloth string worn on the shoulders across the hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When chatting with some Brahmins, I found them suggesting that it is restricted to Brahmins only. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While I was watching some videos, I actually found that Janeva is worn by everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T15:40:09.233" Title="Is Janeva (Yajñopavītam or sacred thread) limited to Brahmins only?" Tags="|practice|caste-system|brahmins|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2893" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2892" CreationDate="2014-08-27T07:35:52.580" Score="-3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Janev is not restricted to the Brahmin community. It can be worn by anyone who had studied the Vedas and Mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmin means 'One who knows Brahmam (World)'. As per the Hindu belief, one who studies all the four Vedas and other mantras will know the Brahma. So he too become a Brahmin. From earlier times, only a particular community were allowed to study vedas and all. So they were called Brahmins. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now a days any one can study all these and can become a &lt;em&gt;'Brahmin'&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="686" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-26T14:53:51.807" LastActivityDate="2015-11-26T14:53:51.807" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2894" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2740" CreationDate="2014-08-27T07:36:52.090" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikshvaku_dynasty&quot;&gt;Ikshvaku_dynasty&lt;/a&gt;, King Sagara was ancentor of king Bhagirataha. King sagara had 60,000 sons who became ghosts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;King -&gt; Period&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;20 Sagara -&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagara_%28Vedic_king%29&quot;&gt;Satya Yuga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;21 Asamanja -&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagara_%28Vedic_king%29&quot;&gt;Satya Yuga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;22 Amsumana -&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagara_%28Vedic_king%29&quot;&gt;Satya Yuga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amsumana was already there in the story where &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapila&quot;&gt;Kapiladeva&lt;/a&gt; returned the horse and told Anshuman that the sons of King Sagara could be delivered if the Ganges descended to earth and bathed them in her waters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kapila is vedic sage and king Sagara is considered to be vedic king. Now Anshumana sons&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;23 Dileepa -&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;24 Bhagiratha -&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These two can have period of either satya yuga or Treta Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;37 Rama -&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treta_Yuga&quot;&gt;Treta yuga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Rigveda&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges_in_Hinduism&quot;&gt;Ganga&lt;/a&gt; is mentioned in the Rigveda, the earliest and theoretically the holiest of the Hindu scriptures. Ganga is mentioned in the nadistuti (Rigveda 10.75), which lists the rivers from east to west. In RV 6.45.31, the word Ganga is also mentioned, but it is not clear if the reference is to the river.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we can see that before Rigveda was composed Ganga was there on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Years Calculation&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_numbers_in_Hindu_scriptures&quot;&gt;According to Hindu numbers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Duration of Satya yuga     1,728,000 years&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Duration of lifetime of human in Satya yuga    around 100,000 years.&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Duration of lifetime of human in Tretā-yuga    around 10,000 years &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma is at number 1 so at number 24 years can be maximum of 840 *1000 years if we consider a person can have son at the age 35 which is in Gruhasthashram as per vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Time passed after beginning of Kali-Yuga (Battle of Kurukṣetra)    around 5,114 years&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Calculation is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Year of Kaliyuga started  5,114 years &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;+ Time of Dwapar Yuga 864,000 years&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;+ Time of Treta yuga 1,296,000 years&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;= 2165114 Years&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Period of Bhagirataha can be before 2165114 years minimum&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Edits are invited to improve this answer&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-08-27T08:52:08.133" LastActivityDate="2014-08-27T08:52:08.133" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2895" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2892" CreationDate="2014-08-27T08:22:10.627" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Janev is sacred thread that is given to brahmana when he accept being Brahmana only. Brahman child is given the ritual and is given Gayatri Mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;who can wear Janev?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A male person who can be either Brahmana, Kshatriya or Vaisya can wear Janev because they can read Vedas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Purpose for Kshatriya is that he will always protect Brahmanas and cows.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Purpose for Brahmana is he will always follow and teach Vedic Dharma to others.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Purpose for Vaisya is he will get success in his business by wearing Janev.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Male has to wear 3 strings of janev, but after &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;marriage&lt;/a&gt; he has to wear 6 strings. 3 more strings are considered as to be of his wife's.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-04-01T09:19:34.797" LastActivityDate="2015-04-01T09:19:34.797" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2896" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2886" CreationDate="2014-08-27T09:08:04.803" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karma is the work or action or activity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma never binds you, only your intentions, wishes, willingness from that Karma's gains binds you. Your own wishes, gain desires and your own thoughts bind you with good or bad fruit of Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every soul who is in body performs activity (Karma), so Karma theory is beyond religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma theory is exactly like Newton's third Law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What you did is what you get. or one can say &quot;Tit for tat&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is like a resultant force of your applied force.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who is a soul in body&lt;/strong&gt; this law applies to him. Being Hindu, muslim, Sikh or isai has nothing to do with anything. Even this law is applicable to animals. Every living being comes under this Karma theory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just make sure you perform your activities as Vairagi (Desireless Person), and with duty, rise above fruits, Moha attraction and just do it as it is GOD's will, that Karma will never bind you according to Karma Yoga of Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta. But this applies to all souls nevertheless of they are from any religion, converted to some or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Is Karma accounted?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes but not from birth, from your &lt;strong&gt;&quot;first birth on Mrutyu Loka&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, your Karma is accounted, noted and you can only be freed by attaining Moksha. Hindu scriptures state that Chitragupta notes every activity of all souls on Mrityuloka when a person dies his judgments are done on behalf of his activities only. He may face his fruits in next lives also. But judgement is always full of justice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Almost all (may be 75%) religions have theory of judgement, paradise and hell. Almost all of them have the concept of Dharmaraj or Yama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T14:40:12.000" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T14:40:12.000" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2897" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2923" CreationDate="2014-08-27T09:54:46.013" Score="5" ViewCount="308" Body="&lt;p&gt;Personally, I believe there is no fiction in our scriptures (I will neglect very minute ones)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rather I've heard and read people calling the scriptures as fiction, using  questions like 'were Hindu gods married?', and with no actual references trying to prove the Puranas wrong and put forward the idea of fiction in the Puranas. Actually they try to put forward the complete fictional part of the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know if this question is out of scope or belief, yet is commonly asked one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to detail, what explanation I get, 'these scriptures are fictional, the Puranas are the set of stories to explain the way to do good but in an interesting manner.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short they are trying to call them just stories but not history, hence rendering them fictional.&#xA;E.g. The elephant head of Ganesha, and the story behind it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="545" LastEditDate="2014-08-27T19:14:44.770" LastActivityDate="2014-08-29T03:48:28.413" Title="Are scriptures authentic or fictional?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2014-08-31T02:19:46.940" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2899" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-27T10:20:57.193" Score="11" ViewCount="515" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to clarify that this question is &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; about immortals, or about how to become an immortal. It is about the word &lt;em&gt;immortal&lt;/em&gt; in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have a very brief idea, that an immortal is only a supreme being and we know one day the whole universe will end. Therefore it is clear that no one is truly immortal (as they speak in English).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I actually wanted to ask is what is the limit of an immortal's life? a &lt;em&gt;Yuga&lt;/em&gt;, a &lt;em&gt;Mahayuga&lt;/em&gt;, a &lt;em&gt;Kalpa&lt;/em&gt; or something larger? If my assumption is true, do these vary with every immortal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-26T17:27:41.863" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T17:42:58.353" Title="In Hinduism, what does &quot;immortal&quot; mean? Is there a limit on an immortal's lifespan?" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|atma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2900" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2865" CreationDate="2014-08-27T10:37:29.980" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is Lord's &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; which even overtakes gods and goddesses. However, it was not Parvati who got bewildered, it was Her previous incarnation Sati. The description is present in Ramacharitmanas and Shiva Purana (2.2.25).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Sati saw that Shiva, the lord of all gods, was praising and revering Rama, a human prince, she got confused. So she asked Siva for the reason and He told that Rama is no one but Vishnu Himself. But Sati again thought, Vishnu is omniscient and the abode of all knowledge. So why He is searching and lamenting? But Shiva is omniscient also, so He also could not have told the untruth. Thus She got into doubt even after Shiva Himself told Her the truth. Seeing this, Shiva could know that the Lord's maya had got hold of Sati and He told Her to test it out Herself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लाग न उर उपदेसु जदपि कहेउ सिवँ बार बहु।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बोले बिहसि महेसु हरिमाया बलु जानि जियँ।। [RCM - 1.51]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Even if Shiva told it again and again, it made no difference to Sati. So Shiva, knowing that  She has got under the influence of Vishnu &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;, smilingly said... (to test out Rama Herself)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the reason is Vishnu's maya. And the thing is, even though gods and goddesses many know that Lord Hari has taken birth as a human on earth, under the influence of maya they may even fail to recognize Him. For example, in Dwapara Yuga, Brahma also got bewildered seeing Krishna eating food with cowherd boys. So He also tried to taste Lord Krishna and asked for pardon later. &lt;strong&gt;Lord's &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; is very powerful, even the gods can't escape from it&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-08-27T10:37:29.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2901" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2892" CreationDate="2014-08-27T14:47:09.330" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The wearing of the sacred thread is part of the Dharma (duty) of the first three castes because as the Manu Smriti &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu01.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt;, they are the ones who can read the Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;87)  But in order to protect this universe He, the most resplendent one, assigned separate (duties and) occupations to those who sprang from his mouth, arms, thighs, and feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;88)  To Brahmanas he assigned &lt;strong&gt;teaching and studying (the Veda)&lt;/strong&gt;, sacrificing for their own benefit and for others, giving and accepting (of alms).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;89)  The Kshatriya he commanded to protect the people, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices, &lt;strong&gt;to study (the Veda)&lt;/strong&gt;, and to abstain from attaching himself to sensual pleasures;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;90)  The Vaisya to tend cattle, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices, &lt;strong&gt;to study (the Veda)&lt;/strong&gt;, to trade, to lend money, and to cultivate land.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;91)  One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Sudra, to serve meekly even these (other) three castes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti also describes how the age when the sacred thread ceremony (Upanayanam) can be performed is different for each of the first three castes; for Brahmins it's age 5-16, for Kshatriyas it's 6-22, and for Vaishyas it's 8-24:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;36) In the eighth year after conception, one should perform the initiation (upanayana) of a Brahmana, in the eleventh after conception (that) of a Kshatriya, but in the twelfth that of a Vaisya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;37) (The initiation) of a Brahmana who desires proficiency in sacred learning should take place in the fifth (year after conception), (that) of a Kshatriya who wishes to become powerful in the sixth, (and that) of a Vaisya who longs for (success in his) business in the eighth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;38) The (time for the) Savitri (initiation) of a Brahmana does not pass until the completion of the sixteenth year (after conception), of a Kshatriya until the completion of the twenty-second, and of a Vaisya until the completion of the twenty-fourth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The material the sacred thread is made up of is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;also different&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;44) The sacrificial string of a Brahmana shall be made of cotton, (shall be) twisted to the right, (and consist) of three threads, that of a Kshatriya of hempen threads, (and) that of a Vaisya of woollen threads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the fact that the first three castes wear the sacred thread is why these castes are called Dvija or twice-born; the wearing of the sacred thread is thought to be a second birth for a person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-08-30T14:05:24.987" LastActivityDate="2014-08-30T14:05:24.987" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2902" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3324" CreationDate="2014-08-27T15:43:18.563" Score="6" ViewCount="527" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of a &lt;em&gt;Samadhi&lt;/em&gt; place of a Saint? Is there any special power or energy around that place? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="232" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-28T07:56:34.957" LastActivityDate="2016-11-18T07:12:49.320" Title="What is significance of a samadhi place?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2903" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2899" CreationDate="2014-08-27T16:09:14.953" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Super soul (God) and Jivatman (individual soul) are both immortal. However our physical, material bodies are not immortal. In fact nothing in material world is immortal nor it is supposed to be. And once the material universes end the new cycle of creation will begin. There is no permanent end in the Eternal Religion. Cycles of creation and dissolution of material universes will go on. At the time of dissolution of material universes those souls are still not disturbed who have already attained moksha because they are already in Golok Vrindavan or Vainkunth, the abode of God. And when material universes are annihilated the abode of Lord is still untouched and unchanged and eternally blissful as Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;When Brahma's day is manifest, this multitude of living entities comes into being, and at the arrival of Brahma's night they are all annihilated.&quot; - Bhagwad Gita (chapter 8, verse 18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Again and again the day comes, and this host of beings is active; and again the night falls, O Partha, and they are helplessly dissolved.&quot; - Bhagwad Gita (chapter 8, verse 19)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this universe is annihilated, that part remains as it is.&quot; - Bhagwad Gita (chapter 8, verse 20)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;That supreme abode is called unmanifested and infallible, and it is the supreme destination. When one goes there, he never comes back. That is My supreme abode.&quot;&#xA;  - Bhagwad Gita (chapter 8, verse 21)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now question arises what happens to those souls at the time of dissolution of material universes who have not attained liberation from material existence? Such souls enter God in deep sleep but obviously their material bodies are dissolved and awakened again when new cycle of creation begins in new material bodies. And one more thing is when individual souls enter God they don't lose their existence. They remain in unmanifested and impersonal God but maintain their individuality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in short the Super Soul and individual soul both are immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-26T17:42:58.353" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T17:42:58.353" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2904" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2897" CreationDate="2014-08-27T16:35:34.950" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes K Cloud you are right. While I agree that everything may not be understandable or explainable in our scriptures but they contain a vast amount of wealth of knowledge. But what some people do today on purpose is they neglect that 99% part of knowledge and focus on that which is not explainable as of now. It is actually nothing but a great conspiracy behind it. To call everything from ancient India as myths, uncivilized, fiction etc so that Indians never feel proud of their ancient heritage and always feel ashamed of being Indian.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-27T16:35:34.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2906" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14461" CreationDate="2014-08-28T04:40:58.443" Score="11" ViewCount="1338" Body="&lt;p&gt;Each of the four Vedas consists of four parts: Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads.  But the core of the Vedas is the Samhitas, which consist of verses heard directly from the gods by sages called Dhristas (literally &quot;seers&quot;).  These verses were compiled by the sage Krishna Dwaipayana Veda Vyasa into the books that we call the Vedic Samhitas.  Now associated with each Samhita is a systematic index called an &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anukrama%E1%B9%87%C4%AB&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anukramani&lt;/a&gt;.  The Anukramanis, compiled by sages in ancient times, document, among other things, the sage who heard each verse from the gods, and the deity that each verse is addressed to.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, with a lot of effort I was able to compile this Anukramani information for most of the hymns of the Rig Veda Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now my question is, where can I get the Anukramani of the Shukla Yajur Veda?  (There are two versions of the Yajur Veda, the Shukla or &quot;white&quot; version and the Krishna or &quot;black&quot; version.)  The reason I ask is that in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2826/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; I'm trying to find out the sage who heard the Isha Upanishad, which is the only Upanishad that is part of the Samhitas of the Vedas, specifically the Samhita of the Shukla Yajur Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Samhita of the Shukla Yajur Veda is called the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajurveda#Shukla_Yajurveda&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vajasaneyi Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, and there are two Shakhas or recensions of the Samhita, the Madhyandina Shakha and the Kanva Shakha.  And apparently there does exist an Anukramani of the Madhyandina version of the Samhita, authored by the sage Katyayana.  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=U-1jAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA226&amp;amp;ots=r_4-hcpfoY&amp;amp;dq=katyayana%20anukramani%20madhyandina&amp;amp;pg=PA226#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=katyayana%20anukramani%20madhyandina&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the Yajur Veda we have three Anukramanis... The third Anukramani, that of the Madhyandina-Shakha of the Vajasaneyaka, is ascribed to Katyayana, who is mentioned also as the author of an Anuvakanukramani. It gives the names of the poets, the deities, and the meters, for all the verses of the Samhita, including the Khila (Adhyaya 26-35), and the Sukriya portions (Adhyaya 36-40).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=DmlFAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;dq=madhyandina%20anukramani&amp;amp;pg=PA208#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=madhyandina%20anukramani&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This book&lt;/a&gt; says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yajur Veda has three Anukramanis, viz. one for the Atreya recession of the Black Yajur Veda, one for the recension of the Charakas, and &lt;strong&gt;the third for the Madhyandina recension of the White Yajur Veda&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But these books don't seem to mention anything about where Katyayana's Anukramani of the Madhyandina recension has been published.  For my previous question about the Rig Veda Anukramani, I specifically wanted the Anukramani online in English. But here I'm much more desperate, because I can't find it in any form.  So I just want to know whether it's been published &lt;em&gt;at all&lt;/em&gt;, whether in book form or online, whether in Sanskrit or in English translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the Anukramanis contain lots of other information about each verse, like the poetic meter and the like, but all I really want from the Anukramani of the Shukla Yajur Veda is the sage and deity information.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2018-02-01T14:17:00.507" Title="Has the Anukramani of the Shukla Yajur Veda ever been published in any form?" Tags="|vedas|translation-request|rishi|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2907" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-28T05:03:03.203" Score="11" ViewCount="30366" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard about this Vrata, known as &lt;em&gt;Nanda Vrata&lt;/em&gt;, kept for Lord Shiva, and is considered as the toughest of the Vratas kept for &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that the Vrata helps oneself to destroy, Mai (myself), from body. I want to know how it is kept, when and how it should be started?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-28T16:34:29.747" LastActivityDate="2017-08-14T19:41:49.553" Title="What is Nanda Vrata?" Tags="|shiva|vrata|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2908" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2907" CreationDate="2014-08-28T05:09:05.197" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindu-blog.com/2014/03/nanda-vrata-nanda-vrat-dedicated-to.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nanda Vrat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Godess Sati has observed this vrat to get Shiva as husband. This vrat is observed on the Phalgun Shukla Paksha Saptami (seventh day during the waxing phase of moon in any Hindu month). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nanda  Vrat is observed for getting good husband or wife. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It involves fasting from sunrise to next day morning sunrise.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One has to purify oneself before sunrise and offer prayers to Shiva on the fasting day.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prayers involve chanting of the mantra ‘Om Namah Shivaya.”&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Offer Bilva leaves and white color flower to Shiva. Listen to prayers dedicated to Shiva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You can make a simple sweet dish and offer it as Prasad.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;While fasting you can eat fruits or other Vrat foods.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You have to offer prayers in the morning and in the evening.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The fast ends next morning after sunrise.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To complete the fast you should perform food donation – Annadanam to poor children or elderly people on any date after the Vrat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastActivityDate="2014-08-28T05:09:05.197" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2909" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2702" CreationDate="2014-08-28T06:13:15.340" Score="4" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Significance of Supari&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Name :&lt;/strong&gt; Betel Nut&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Supari is considered as very pure property of living being. In any ritual, we need to call deities by chanting ritual verses, in such case it is called &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Sthapana&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; means establishment. But if we do not have statue of the deity, Supari is used. &lt;strong&gt;Supari is the representation of the deity which we want to call but we do not have his statue&lt;/strong&gt;. Supari is symbol in such cases for deity like Brahma, Yamadev, Varundev, Indradev. Sometimes in &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Grahashanti&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; it also represents planets like Mangal, Rahu, Ketu, Surya, Guru etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, Supari is alternative for such absence. In some ritual supari also represents human being, for example, some ritual require wife to be present, but if she is away or dead, Supari is used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;faiths and blind faiths&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People also give Supari to GOD, in such cases it is believed that Supari is hard so all hard feelings are surrendered to GOD, so GOD may convert it in soft ones and will bless them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Significance of Pan&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Name :&lt;/strong&gt; Betel Leaf&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism the concept of &amp;quot;Aasan&amp;quot; or seat is there. When some guest arrive we usually ask him to have a seat. So Pan is used as &lt;strong&gt;a seat&lt;/strong&gt; to supari. You may also find statues of deities are also kept or put on pan in some Yajnas or rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you do not have betel leaf, you can also use &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyalthia_longifolia&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;Asopalav&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt; tree's leaf. In various regions tree may vary, I do not know, but the concept is &lt;strong&gt;to give seat&lt;/strong&gt; to supari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Betel leaf, if someone eats it, kills germs and is considered that Lord Shiva and Mother Parvati has fed them, so they are considered &amp;quot;Sanjeevani&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;medicine&amp;quot;, so in ritual it is also a symbol of wish for healthy life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Disclaimer : This answer is not copy pasted from anywhere, it is just based on my knowledge about rituals. One may get cited answer of this question, but I am not able to find any citation from Hindu scriptures&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-28T06:48:00.220" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2910" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-28T06:29:37.473" Score="6" ViewCount="4226" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where the original manuscript &lt;strong&gt;(Since Vedas are not written by its creators themselves, First hand-written or most complete version)&lt;/strong&gt; of Hindu Vedas such as ‎Rigveda, Atharvaveda, ‎Yajurveda, ‎Samaveda are kept?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard someone saying that two of the most important Vedas are kept in a German Museum and the other two are kept in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="740" LastEditorUserId="740" LastEditDate="2014-09-02T07:25:06.130" LastActivityDate="2017-04-21T02:41:09.400" Title="Location of Hindu Vedas" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-04-24T13:27:50.343" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2912" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-28T10:10:24.377" Score="5" ViewCount="2463" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any ancient Vedic Shlokas or poems in Tamil mention about taking care of parents at their old age? I have searched in &lt;em&gt;Thirukkural&lt;/em&gt; but am not able to find any.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does Hinduism says about taking care of parents, particularly at their old age?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="261" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-28T16:10:25.993" LastActivityDate="2015-03-01T13:09:20.470" Title="Poem on taking care of parents at their old age" Tags="|vedas|tamil|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2913" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2914" CreationDate="2014-08-28T10:17:46.313" Score="19" ViewCount="2726" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagwad gita, Lord Shri Krishna said that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Our soul/spirit is so small even smallar then the size of an atom. We cannot see, harm, or kill it and it is immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;em&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/em&gt; explains about all kinds of punishments given to us after death depending upon our deeds performed in our life span, before the next birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there is a conflict if the size of the spirit is smaller than the atom, then how it is possible to give these kind of punishments? like roasting in hot oil tank by Yama, Kinkaras etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="741" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-08-28T16:04:14.103" LastActivityDate="2021-06-06T12:06:38.353" Title="Conflict between Bhagwad Gita &amp; Garuda Puran regarding the Atma/Soul" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|atma|naraka|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2914" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2913" CreationDate="2014-08-28T10:37:50.747" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no conflict. Gita is talking about the Atman. Garuda Purana is talking about the linga sarira (also known as sukshma sarira) or the subtle body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The human body and personality are contained in 5 sheaths according to Vedanta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Annamaya kosha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pranamaya Kosha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manomaya Kosha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vignanamaya Kosha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anandamaya Kosha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of these koshas, &lt;em&gt;Annamaya Kosha&lt;/em&gt; is the gross body. The next three koshas make up the subtle body or linga sarira. The last &lt;em&gt;Anandamaya Kosha&lt;/em&gt; is the causal body or karana sarira.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are five kosas or sheaths in which the Self is manifested as the&#xA;ego or the jivatman. The first of them consists of &lt;strong&gt;food&lt;/strong&gt;. Other&#xA;sheaths consists of &lt;strong&gt;prana&lt;/strong&gt; or life, &lt;strong&gt;manas&lt;/strong&gt; or instinctive and&#xA;perceptual consciousness, &lt;strong&gt;vijnana&lt;/strong&gt; or intelligence and &lt;strong&gt;ananda&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;or bliss. These five principles of matter, life, consciousness,&#xA;thought and bliss are found in the world of non-ego. Anna or food is&#xA;the radiant, the viraj, which is perceptible by the senses, the&#xA;physical. According to Suresvara, life, consciousness and intelligence&#xA;constitute the subtle self, the sutratman and bliss is the causal&#xA;sheath, the karana kosa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Commentary on Taittiriya Upanishad II.1.1 by S. Radhakrishnan in The Principal Upanishads&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After these 5 koshas lie the Atman. The mind is a small part of the subtle body. Even ghosts have subtle and causal bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2021-06-06T12:06:38.353" LastActivityDate="2021-06-06T12:06:38.353" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2916" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2910" CreationDate="2014-08-28T11:07:07.380" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have mentioned this in the comments of my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2628/where-are-the-original-versions-of-vedas&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt;. As this one is anyhow duplicate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the oldest known copies of Atharvaveda and Rigveda (2 of the 4 books) are kept at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bori.ac.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhandarkar Oriental Institute in Pune&lt;/a&gt;, Maharashtra. These two manuscripts are written in Sanskrit and were found in Rajasthan during the late 1800's. They are dated from around 12-1300 AD and thus preceding any major Persian influences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These manuscripts are included in the UNESCO list of world heritage sites and are commonly expected to be priceless treasures for all of humanity. &#xA;Thought I am unsure of the other 2 books (Samaveda and Yajurveda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as a personal opinion most of the scripts I guess are lost during the time due to war between religions and other natural or man made causes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="602" LastEditorUserId="8450" LastEditDate="2017-04-21T02:41:09.400" LastActivityDate="2017-04-21T02:41:09.400" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2917" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2912" CreationDate="2014-08-28T13:15:17.280" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can't say about poems but you can read about it in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/index.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; (I-XI-2) &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/UpanishadsTamil&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(Tamil Version)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'.... मातृदेवो भव । पितृदेवो भव । ......' (तैत्तिरीय उपनिषद्, शिक्षावल्ली, अनुवाक ११, मंत्र २)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Matru devo bhava (revere your mother as God)&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Pitru devo bhava (revere your father as God)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a Hindu family, it is an obligatory religious duty of the children to look after their aged parents and provide them with decent means of living. It is written in &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/extra/bl-lawsofmanu1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manusmriti&lt;/a&gt; about how one should do his &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in the contrary, it is said in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kali Yuga&lt;/a&gt; that women wander from one man to another. Men no longer look after their parents in their old age, and fail to provide for their own children. One's beauty is thought to depend on one's hairstyle. Filling the belly is said to be the only purpose in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cows are killed once their milk production drops. Atheism flourishes. Religious observances are performed solely for the sake of reputation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="602" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-28T16:14:00.577" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2918" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2255" CreationDate="2014-08-28T15:00:05.297" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You seem to have very gross misunderstanding. Body, material body specifically is not the real identiy of atma or soul. In fact whole teachings of Hinduism primarily focus on how to develop lesser attachment with our material bodies and more on the real self, the atma, which is the essense of an individual because attachment to the material bodies keep us earth bound and we will never be serious about liberation from this existence of pain and suffering. The physical body is iving because it is made animate by atma. As soon as the soul leaves the body it is no better than mound of dust.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-28T15:00:05.297" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2919" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="866" CreationDate="2014-08-28T15:02:19.533" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Two people, Arjuna and Sanjaya. Sanjaya narrated the whole Gita to Dhritrashtra but he did not listen to the verses directly. So in short Arjuna and Sanjaya listened to the Gita in first person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-28T15:02:19.533" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2920" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2946" CreationDate="2014-08-28T15:03:54.920" Score="12" ViewCount="7290" Body="&lt;p&gt;On the top of temples we often see different kinds of flag posts. On temples of Vishnu we see a &lt;em&gt;chakra&lt;/em&gt;, on the temples of Shiva we see a trident, and also some other types of flag posts. For example, see the below pics: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NySQs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2YTmr.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Nwliv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind it as per the scriptures? A person said that those are generally used for identifying the temple just by seeing it from the outside. Is that true as per the scriptures, are there any scriptural reasons for using the various types of flag posts on different temples? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-08-29T04:05:51.307" LastActivityDate="2016-07-24T19:30:46.033" Title="What is the significance of different types of flag posts on the top of temples?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2921" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2886" CreationDate="2014-08-28T15:06:01.670" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is not a sectarian religion in which certain things depend on your conversion to or from. It is called the Eternal Religion and rightly so. Law of karma affects us all regardless of what earthly beliefs and identities we have. Yes law of karma acts upon each and every individual and it is free of conversion. In fact it is not from birth but even before that, from previous lifetimes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-28T15:06:01.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2922" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2842" CreationDate="2014-08-28T18:44:30.940" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usually, Hindus do not celebrate any festival after the death of close relatives for one year. It is related to the athma leaving the body. Usually, different poojas are performed after the death of a person. And these poojas are performed after a particular number of days. Usually the major numbers are 3,16 and 41 days. These numbers depend on the different pranas leaving the body. Even after the cremation of a body there will be some pranas/jeevas which should be liberated by such poojas on a particular day. AFIK, only after the poojas done after the one year, the soul is completely liberated. You may need to ask an expert about the different pranas/jeevas and the days taken by them to leave the earth after the death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the southern part of India, a ritual called 'Bali tharpana' is performed and it is related to this. You can get a brief idea &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindu-blog.com/2007/07/karkidaka-vavu-bali-in-2007.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hindu-blog.com/2007/07/karkidaka-vavu-bali-in-2007.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the related question which is already asked about the importance of specific days after the death. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/304/what-is-the-significance-of-3-16-or-41-days-after-the-death/2448#2448&quot;&gt;What is the significance of 3, 16, or 41 days after the death?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T14:40:29.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2923" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2897" CreationDate="2014-08-29T03:48:28.413" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scriptures are authentic&lt;/strong&gt;, there is no doubt in it. But it is also true that some stories in them can be fictional.  Scriptures like the primary &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt; and other texts were written not by ordinary humans, but by sages and saints who were able to know the past present and future. And it was neither the nature, nor the duty of the sages to lie, bewilder and mislead the humans. So whatever stories are there which seems fictional, are either have esoteric meanings that we don't understand or they are there for the greater good of explaining certain concepts and give knowledge in a story form. It is a commonly known fact that stories are an effective method of imparting knowledge. So the Yoga Vashishtha says about this in a similar context:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Rama, without an illustration, truth that has not be personally experienced, cannot be grasped just like without the light objects in the house cannot be seen in the night. [YV - 2.18.51]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, they are fictional in the sense that the sages were poets by nature and whenever necessary they used their poetic imagination to describe events and incidents more vividly and beautifully with ornamental language. But to tell and believe that the incidents never happened at all would be foolishness because that would be accusing the sages as liars. Only when one meets a sage that one can know how powerful they are, otherwise he will only be speculating just like a nice guy who once told me how could Vedavyasa know and write so many things in details if those were not his own imaginations? So all these are myths, that's why they are called mythology. But if they were all myths, how could Vedavyasa write the actual position of stars in the sky, planetary positions, etc. which have already been verified by researchers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So thinking them fictional, undermining and neglecting them is only our lack of understanding. However, if we get the message or the esoteric meaning of the stories, then there is no problem in considering the stories as fiction. But if one loses faith thinking them to be fictions only, then he will cause his own degradation owning to the lack of faith in the sage's words. So the Gita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ajnas casraddadhanas ca samsayatma vinasyati&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nayam loko 'sti na paro na sukham samsayatmanah&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 4.40]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-08-29T03:48:28.413" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2924" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2920" CreationDate="2014-08-29T05:14:49.243" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Two of your pictures are of the Nila Chakra on top of the Puri Jagannath temple, and there's apparently a special story for why that Chakra is on the top of the temple rather than inside; it was a punishment for the Sudarshana Chakra's pride, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=hd0rnGa72PsC&amp;amp;lpg=PA109&amp;amp;dq=nilachakra%20jagannath&amp;amp;pg=PA108#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in the age of Kali Lord Vishnu took the form of Lord Jagannath devoid of limbs and was seated like a small pole like structure.  Lord Sudarshan became elated and proud for his power in the age of Kali.  Lord Vishnu could know the pride of Lord Sudarshan and sent him to call Hanuman... Hanuman started for the meeting with Lord Jagannath at Srimandir... There was some altercation between Lord Sudarshan and Hanuman.... Lord Sudarshan out-paced Hanuman and to bar the entry of Hanuman to Srimandir moved with tremendous speed and guarded the four entrances of Srimandir.... Hanuman then prayed the Lord and energized himself with tremendous power, became eight-handed and held the great King of Chakras at the four entrances of Sri Mandir in fingertips of the four created hands.  He then folded two of his hands as a token of respect to Lord Jagannath ... and then proceeded to have the darshan of Lord Jagannath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Realizing the futility of the pride in the presence of Hanuman, the great devotee, Lord Sudarshan came to the Lord.  As a punishment for the pride Lord Sudarshan was cursed to hide all the power and sit as a pole-like structure in the left side of Lord Jagannath.  Lord Sudarshan prayed Lord Jagnnath who was gracious&#xA;With his weapon the king of the chakras. &lt;strong&gt;He told Lord Sudarshan in the age of Kali, the king of wheels will adorn the spire of Sri Mandir as Nila Chakra.  A darshan if Nila Chakra will be equivalent to the darshan at the Lord's.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if other Vishnu temples in North India put up a Chakra like this, I can only assume that it's in imitation of the Puri Jagannath temple, similar to how Vishnu temples often copy a lot of the features and practices of the world-renowned Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple in Tirupati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And I assume that the practice of putting Trishulas on the top of Shiva temple has an entirely different origin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-08-29T05:14:49.243" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2926" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-29T09:24:33.370" Score="8" ViewCount="14105" Body="&lt;p&gt;There being numerous &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt;, what should be the sequence of reading adheard, to make the history more understandable to human mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will also like the sequence on basis of time, for example, &lt;em&gt;Ramayan&lt;/em&gt; was of time before &lt;em&gt;Mahabharat&lt;/em&gt;, so its likely to make linearity in time phase, I should read &lt;em&gt;Ramayan&lt;/em&gt; afterwards &lt;em&gt;Mahabharat&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bottom Note :&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;I know, all Puranas are dependent and can be read without the knowledge of others, but to frame a time-mass linearity, what would be the sequence, in other words, which purana happened when.(To be concies.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastActivityDate="2014-08-29T10:37:03.367" Title="What should be the sequence of reading(happening) Puranas?" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2927" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2928" CreationDate="2014-08-29T09:42:34.997" Score="13" ViewCount="16098" Body="&lt;p&gt;Our scriptures describe about 28 types of &lt;em&gt;Narakas&lt;/em&gt;, what are they and what are there levels?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here with levels I want clarification on which &lt;em&gt;Naraka&lt;/em&gt; is considered bad to worst in punishments?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-08T06:10:14.557" LastActivityDate="2018-12-08T06:10:14.557" Title="What are levels (types) of Narakas?" Tags="|naraka|punishment|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2928" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2927" CreationDate="2014-08-29T10:13:04.137" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Types of hell differ in each purana/smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From  &lt;a href=&quot;http://omshivgoraksh.blogspot.in/2014_04_27_archive.html&quot;&gt;omshivgoraksh.blogspot&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manu Smriti&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; - &lt;strong&gt;21 hells&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yajnavalkya Smriti&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; - &lt;strong&gt;21 hells&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhagavata Purana &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;- &lt;strong&gt;28 hells&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu Purana &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;- &lt;strong&gt;28 hells&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Devi Bhagavata Purana &amp;nbsp;- &lt;strong&gt;28 hells&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;However, Vishnu Purana, Bhagvata purana and Devi Bhagvata purana ends up stating that there are hundreds and thousands of hells.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-blogs/seekers/self-improvement/door-to-hell&quot;&gt;Speaking tree&lt;/a&gt; explains the 28 hells from Garuda purana as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(1) Tamisram (Heavy flogging)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who rob others of their wealth are bound with ropes by Yama’s Servants and cast into the Naraka known as Tamisram. There, they are given a thrashing until they bleed and faint. When they recover their senses, the beating is repeated. This is done until their time is up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(2) Andhatamtrsam (Flogging)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Hell is reserved for the Husband or the Wife who only treat their spouses well when they are to profit or pleasure to them. Those who forsake their wives and husbands for no apparent reasons are also sent here. The punishment is almost the same as Tamisram, but the excruciating pain, suffered by the victims on being tied fast, makes them fall down senseless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(3) Rauravam (torment of snakes)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is the hell for sinners who seize and enjoy another man’s property or resources. When these people are thrown into this hell, those whom they have cheated, assume the the shape of “Ruru”, a dreadful serpent. The serpent(s) will torment them severely until their time is up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(4) Mahararuravam (death by snakes)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here there is also Ruru serpents but more fiercer. Thosewho deny the legitimate heirs, their inheritance and possess and enjoy others property will be squeezed and bitten non stop by this terrible serpents coiling around them. Those who steal another man’s wife or lover will also be thrown here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(5) Kumbhipakam (cooked by oil)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is the hell for those who kill animals for pleasure. Here oil is kept boiled in huge vessels and sinners are plunged in this vessels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(6) Kalasutram (Hot as hell)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This hell is terribly hot. Those who don’t respect their elders esp. when their elders have done their duties are sent here. Here they are made to run around in this unbearable heat and drop down exhausted from time to time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(7) Asitapatram (sharp flogging)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is the hell in which sinners abandon one’s own duty. They are flogged by Yama’s Servants with whips made of asipatra (sharp-edged sword-shaped leaves). If they run about under the flogging, they will trip over the stones and thorns, to fall on their faces. Then they are stabbed with knives until they drop unconscious, When they recover, the same process is repeated until their time is up in this Naraka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(8)Sukaramukham (Crushed and tormented)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rulers who neglect their duties and oppress their subjects by misrule, are punished in this hell. They are crushed to a pulp by heavy beating.When they recover, it is repeated until their time is up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(9) Andhakupam (Attack of the animals)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is hell for those who oppress the good people and not helping them if requested despite having the resources. They will be pushed into a well, where beasts like Lions, tigers, eagles and venomous creatures like snakes and scorpions. The sinners have to endure the constant attacks of this creatures until the expiry of the period of their punishment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(10) Taptamurti (Burnt Alive)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who plunder or steal Gold and jewels are cast into the furnaces of this Naraka which always remains hot in blazing fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(11) Krimibhojanam (Food for worms)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who do not honour their Guests and make use of men or women only for their own gain, are thrown into this Naraka. Worms, insects and serpents eat them alive. Once their bodies are completely eaten up, the sinners are provided with new bodies, which are also eaten up in the above manner. This continues, till the end of their term of punishment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(12) Salmali (Embracing hot images)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Naraka is intended for men and women who have committed adultery. A figure made of iron, heated red-hot is placed there. The sinner is forced to embrace it, while Yama’s servants flog the victim behind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(13) Vajrakantakasali (Embracing sharp images)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Naraka is the punishment for Sinners who have unnatural intercourse with animals. Here, they are made to embrace iron images full of sharp diamond needles that pierce through their bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(14) Vaitarani (River of Filth)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rulers who abuse their power and adulterers are thrown here. It is the most terrible place of punishment. It is a river which is filled with human excreta, blood, hair, bones, nails, flesh and all kinds of dirty substances. There are various kinds of terrible beasts as well. Those who are cast into it are attacked and mauled by these creatures from all sides. The sinners have to spend the term of their punishment, feeding upon the contents of this river.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(15) Puyodakam (Well of hell)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is a well filled with excreta, urine, blood, phlegm. Men who have intercourse and cheat women with no intention of marrying them are considered like animals. Those who wander about irresponsibly like animals are thrown in this well to get polluted by it’s contents. They are to remain here till their time is up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(16) Pranarodham (Piece by Piece)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Naraka is for those who keep dogs and other mean animals and constantly hunt and kill animals for food. Here the servants of Yama, gather around the sinners and cut them limb to limb while subjecting them to constant insult.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(17) Visasanam(Bashing from Clubs)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Naraka is for the torture of those rich people who look down at the poor and spend excessively just to display their wealth and splendour. They have to remain here at the whole term of their punishment where they will be bashed non stop from heavy clubs from Yama’s Servants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(18) Lalabhaksam (River of semen)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is the Naraka for lustful men. The lascivious fellow who makes his wife swallow his semen, is cast into this hell. Lalabhaksam is a sea of semen. The sinner lies in it, feeding upon semen alone until his period of punishment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(19) Sarameyasanam (Torment from dogs)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those guilty of unsocial acts like poisoning food, mass slaughter, ruining the country are cast into this hell. There is nothing but the flesh of dogs for food. There are thousands of dogs in this Naraka and they attack the sinners and tear their flesh from their bodies with their teeth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(20) Avici (turned into dust)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Naraka is for those who are guilty for false witness and false swearing. There are hurled from a great height and they are utterly smashed into dust when they reached the ground. They are again restored to life and the punishment is repeated till the end of their time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(21) Ayahpanam (Drinking of burning substances)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who consume alcohol and other intoxicating drinks are sent here. The women are forced to drink melted iron in liquid form, whereas the men will be forced to drink hot liquid molten lava for every time they consume a alcoholic drink in their earthly lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(22) Raksobjaksam (Revenge attacks)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who do animal and human sacrifices and eat the flesh after the sacrifice will be thrown in this hell. All the living beings they killed before would be there and they will join together to attacking, biting, and mauling the sinners. Their cries and complaints would be no avail here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(23) Sulaprotam (Trident Torture)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People who take the lives of others who have done no harm to them and those who deceives others by treachery are sent to this “Sulaportam” hell. Here they are impaled on a trident and they are forced to spend their whole term of their punishment in that position, suffering intense hunger and thirst, as well as enduring all the tortures inflicted on them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(24) Ksharakardamam (hanged upside down)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Braggarts and those who insult good people are cast into this hell. Yama’s servants keep the sinners upside down and torture them in many ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(25) Dandasukam (eaten alive)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sinners who persecute others like animals will be sent here. There are many beasts here. They will be eaten alive by this beasts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(26) Vatarodham (weapon torture)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This hell is for those who persecute animals which live in forrests, mountain peaks and trees. After throwing them in this hell, sinners are tortured with fire, poison and various weapons during their time here in this Naraka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(27) Paryavartanakam (torture from birds)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who denies food to a hungry person and abuses him is thrown here. The moment the sinner arrives here ,his eyes are put by being pierced the beaks of birds like the crows and eagles. They will be pierced later on by this birds till the end of their punishment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;(28) Sucimukham (Tortured by needles)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Proud and Miserly people who refuse to spend money even for the basic necessities of life, like better food or buying food for their relations or friends will find their place in this hell. Those who do not repay the money they have borrowed will also be cast into this hell. Here, their bodies will be constantly be pricked and pierced by needles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other references:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-blogs/seekers/science-of-spirituality/lokas-the-planets-of-advanced-aliens&amp;amp;sort=like&quot;&gt;Types of lokas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-31T03:56:27.273" LastActivityDate="2014-08-31T03:56:27.273" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2929" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2926" CreationDate="2014-08-29T10:37:03.367" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There exists hardly any reading sequences of the &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt;. One can start with the one he likes. It is because all the eighteen major &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt; briefly or broadly deal certain similar contents (creation, dissolution, lineage, etc.) and describe past events taking into account a central deity of the Trimurti. So a single purana can be found narrating tales of both Rama and Krishna and events of &lt;em&gt;Satya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Treatya&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Dwapara yuga&lt;/em&gt; along with certain nature of the age of Kali. Some also describe future events. But all the &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt; are considered to be the creations of Vedavyasa. Hence, their literal creation times are probably same and limited to the Dwapara Yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the literature of &lt;em&gt;itihasa&lt;/em&gt;(history) that are associated with different time periods. For example, Ramayana is associated with &lt;em&gt;Tretaya yuga&lt;/em&gt; and Mahabharata is of the &lt;em&gt;Dwapara Yuga&lt;/em&gt;. But if you need a particular &lt;strong&gt;sequential order of the &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt; from the oldest to newest&lt;/strong&gt;, then it would be something like below as described in the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;asṭādaśa purāṇāni purāṇajñāḥ pracakṣate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brāhma pāhma vaiṣṇavañca śaivaṃ bhāgavataṃ tathā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  athānyannāradīyañca mārkaṇḍeyañca saptamam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  āgra yamaṣmarañceva bhaviṣyaṃ navamaṃ tathā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  daśamaṃ brahmavairtaṃ laiṅgamekādaśaṃ smṛtam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vārāhaṃ drādaśañca ve skāndañcātra trayodaśam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  caturdaśaṃ vāmanañca kaurmaṃ pañcadaśaṃ smṛtam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mātsyañca gāruḍa़ñcavai brahmāṇḍañca tataḥ parama&lt;/em&gt;  [VP - 3.6.20-23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Order&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  1. Brahma Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2. Padma Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3. Vishnu Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  4. Shiva Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  5. Bhagavata Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  6. Narada Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  7. Markandeya Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  8. Agni Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  9. Bhavisya Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  10. Brahmavaivarta Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  11. Linga Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  12. Varaha Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  13. Skanda Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  14. Vamana Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  15. Kurma Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  16. Mastya Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  17. Garuda Purana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  18. Brahmanda Purana  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-08-29T10:37:03.367" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2930" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2927" CreationDate="2014-08-29T12:37:05.863" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mr_Green's answer describes it all. So I would just like to add few more words and give the scripture references. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some authorities say that there is a total of twenty-one hellish planets, and some say twenty-eight. My dear King, I shall outline all of them according to their names, forms and symptoms. The names of the different hells are as follows: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Tāmisra, Andhatāmisra, Raurava, Mahāraurava, Kumbhīpāka, Kālasūtra, Asipatravana, Sūkaramukha, Andhakūpa, Kṛmibhojana, Sandaṁśa, Taptasūrmi, Vajrakaṇṭaka-śālmalī, Vaitaraṇī, Pūyoda, Prāṇarodha, Viśasana, Lālābhakṣa, Sārameyādana, Avīci, Ayaḥpāna, Kṣārakardama, Rakṣogaṇa-bhojana, Śūlaprota, Dandaśūka, Avaṭa-nirodhana, Paryāvartana and Sūcīmukha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All these planets are meant for punishing the living entities. [SB - 5.26.7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smruti describes the twenty one hells that a Brahmin goes for different kinds of activities. But a successive order of the hells is given on the context of an acitvity where a Brahman accepts objects or gifts from a king who acts opposite to scriptural injunctions. There names are as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tamisra, Andhatamisra, Maharaurava, Raurava, Kalasutra, Mahanaraka, Samgivana, Mahaviki, Tapana, Sampratapana, Samghata, Sakakola, Kudmala, Putimrittika, Lohasanku, Rigisha, Pathin, the (flaming) river, Salmala, Asipatravana, and Lohadaraka.  [Manu - 4.87-90]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from these, the mention of the twenty eight kinds of hell can be found in the Garuda Purana (1.57), Vishnu Purana (2.6), the Bhagavatam (5.26) and many other &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt;. But another sequential list of the 28 kinds of hell in the order of their position is given in Agni Purana which goes something as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ghora, Sughora, Atighora, Mahaghora, Ghorarupa, Taralatara, Bhayanaka, Bhayotkata, Kalratri, Mahachanda, Chanda, Kolahala, Prachanda, Padma, Narakanayika, Padmabati, Bhishana, Bhima, Karalika, Vikarala, Mahabajra, Trikona, Panchakonika, Sudirgha, Vartula, Saptabhuma, Subhumika, Diptamaya. [Agni Pu. - 371.14-18]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The names in this &lt;em&gt;purana&lt;/em&gt; are different from the others and it says each of these hells have 5 rulers totaling 140 and five more that rule over these 140. And it states the names like Raurava, Maharaurava, Kalasutra, Mahanaraka, Samgivana should be understood as the names of those rulers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now regarding the level as per their punishments, no such explicit mentions are there. They just say for this sin, this punishment is given in this hell. To classify which is the bad or worst punishment, would probably depend upon the person classifying it. Because for one person one kind of punishment may feel easier compared to one, but for someone other that punishment may be the worse. But any way, a good description of the sins and the hells to read would be the &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/5/26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;5.26th chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhagavata and to read the same descriptions from that chapter with images would be &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedische-weisheit.de/vedische-geschichten/hell-punishment.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt; I found on the Net.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-08-30T17:01:27.897" LastActivityDate="2014-08-30T17:01:27.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2931" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2939" CreationDate="2014-08-29T13:19:24.637" Score="14" ViewCount="21980" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard many stories regarding the end of lord Krishna. How exactly did lord Krishna die? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also heard that some arrow killed him and that arrow also have some history. Is that true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="742" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-04-14T22:46:25.453" LastActivityDate="2017-03-07T07:27:07.393" Title="Is there any story behind Lord Krishna's death?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2932" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="175" CreationDate="2014-08-29T15:51:18.933" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Essentially there is nothing against third-genderism or any other sexuality in Hinduism or you can also say Sanatan Dharma. In fact the basic belief in Hinduism is we are all living out our karmas on earth and accordingly we get bodies on earthly plain and in fact it is against the core principles of Hinduism to discriminate against third gender people. But the modern day Hindu right is completely ignorant about Hindu scriptures and on this issue are guided more by their own prejudices rather than by what is mentioned in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="618" LastActivityDate="2014-08-29T15:51:18.933" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2933" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2934" CreationDate="2014-08-29T16:04:22.917" Score="5" ViewCount="86447" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Sangu&lt;/em&gt;, or sacred conch shell is very auspicious in Hinduism and is used in many rituals. However, I have heard of a rare &lt;em&gt;Valampuri Sangu&lt;/em&gt; which is supposedly even more sacred to use.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the &lt;em&gt;Valampuri Sangu&lt;/em&gt; and how can I identify it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastActivityDate="2015-06-08T06:01:37.673" Title="How to identify Valampuri Sangu (conch shell)?" Tags="|rituals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2934" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2933" CreationDate="2014-08-29T16:04:22.917" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is a Sangu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When performing &lt;em&gt;Aradhanam&lt;/em&gt; for &lt;em&gt;Perumal&lt;/em&gt;, it is important to use a &lt;em&gt;Sangu&lt;/em&gt; or conch shell to bathe the &lt;em&gt;Vigraham&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Sangu&lt;/em&gt; are also commonly blown at the beginning and end of &lt;em&gt;Arti&lt;/em&gt; in North Indian practice&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The conch shell to be used comes from a particular species of sea snail known as &lt;em&gt;Turbinella Pyrum&lt;/em&gt;, which can be found exclusively in the waters of the Indian Ocean. It is important that one uses the shell from the correct species, much as one should not use the leaves of another plant in place of &lt;em&gt;Tulasi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RJx7y.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Turbinella Pyrum&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valampuri Sangu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will notice in the picture above that if one were holding the &lt;em&gt;Sangu&lt;/em&gt; with the crown facing upwards, the opening would appear on the right side of the shell. This is called a dextral shell. In very rare cases, approximately 1 in every 100,000, the shell will form with the opening on the left side, known as a sinistral shell. These extremely rare shells are known as &lt;em&gt;Valampuri Sangu&lt;/em&gt;, and are considered very auspicious to use, as they are sacred to &lt;em&gt;Lakshmi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;False Valampuri&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given how rare the &lt;em&gt;Valampuri Sangu&lt;/em&gt; is, many scam artists will attempt to take advantage of buyers by hoarding &lt;em&gt;Sangu&lt;/em&gt; to artificially inflate the price, or by falsely selling the shells of a different species as &lt;em&gt;Valampuri Sangu&lt;/em&gt;. As a result, one must be especially careful when purchasing &lt;em&gt;Sangu&lt;/em&gt; to ensure that one gets the correct species which can be used in worhsip.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xoj6k.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Lightning Whelk&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shown above is the Lightning Whelk (&lt;em&gt;Busycon perversum&lt;/em&gt;). This snail is native to Florida and the Caribbean islands. You will notice that it is sinistral, that is the opening is on the left of the shell. In fact, it is extremely rare to find a dextral Lightning Whelk shell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of their naturally sinistral form, Lightning Whelk shells are often sold as &lt;em&gt;Valampuri Sangu&lt;/em&gt; even though they are not the correct species and cannot be used in worship. It is easy to mistakenly purchase and use the Lightning Whelk shell thinking that it is a &lt;em&gt;Valampuri Sangu&lt;/em&gt; so one must be very careful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Identifying a True Valampuri&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many features which distinguish the correct species &lt;em&gt;Turbinella Pyrum&lt;/em&gt; from the Lightning Whelk. By paying attention to these differences, a careful observer can easily  identify whether a shell is a true &lt;em&gt;Valampuri Sangu&lt;/em&gt; or a fake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Columellar plicae: &lt;em&gt;T. Pyrum&lt;/em&gt; has 3 to 7 ridges along the inner column at the opening of the shell. The Whelk does not have these ridges and has a smooth inner column.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Knobs: The Whelk has many knobs, or raised bumps, along the spiral at the crown of the shell. By contrast, &lt;em&gt;T. Pyrum&lt;/em&gt; has smooth spirals.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Crooked siphonal canal: The long end of the Whelk shell will usually (but not always) be slightly crooked. By contrast the long end of &lt;em&gt;T. Pyrum&lt;/em&gt; tends to be fairly straight.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can even see these differences illustrated in the pictures above. Of course, keep in mind that if it is difficult to tell, it is always better to use a dextral &lt;em&gt;Sangu&lt;/em&gt; of the correct species than a sinistral Lightning Whelk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sources&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shankha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shankha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbinella_pyrum&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Turbinella Pyrum&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakshinavarti_Shankh&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valampuri Sangu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_whelk&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lightning Whelk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastActivityDate="2014-08-29T16:04:22.917" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2935" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2931" CreationDate="2014-08-29T16:19:33.770" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lord Krishna&lt;/em&gt; was killed by a hunter after reaching 125 years on Earth. While he was sitting beside the bush, his leg was visible and the hunter, thinking it was the leg of an animal, shot his foot with a poisonous arrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The hunt was due to &lt;em&gt;Gandhari&lt;/em&gt;, the mother of Kauravas. She cursed Lord Krishna, that he will die after 36 days from the time when she spoke it, and that his kin will kill each other and the whole &lt;em&gt;Yaduvansh&lt;/em&gt; will end like the &lt;em&gt;Kauravansh&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt; : The hunter who hunted &lt;em&gt;Lord Krishna&lt;/em&gt;, was a reincarnation of &lt;em&gt;Bali&lt;/em&gt;, brother of &lt;em&gt;Sugreev&lt;/em&gt;, who was killed by &lt;em&gt;Lord Ram&lt;/em&gt;, on the contrary Lord told him that he would give him a chance to do similar to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source &lt;a href=&quot;http://kshetrapuranas.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/the-death-of-krishna-adapted-from-the-mahabharatha/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Details&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-05T01:16:09.953" LastActivityDate="2015-03-05T01:16:09.953" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2936" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-29T19:54:37.100" Score="0" ViewCount="58" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a extension of this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/552/why-is-aarti-performed-to-deities-in-temples&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have seen not only &lt;em&gt;Devi/Devtas&lt;/em&gt; but also humans, plants and animals are welcomed through a spiritual deed called &lt;strong&gt;'&lt;em&gt;Aarti&lt;/em&gt;'&lt;/strong&gt;. Why it started? And what is its relations and resultants with different type of forms like &lt;em&gt;Humans&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Plants&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Animals&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That question resolves round the deities, but we have experienced artis before animals and plants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to this the most common word used in Aarti is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Aarti Utarna&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;,  why the term &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Utarna&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (pull down) used in the phrase? Is the word symbolic, or have any spiritual relationship?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question does tries to describe the 'Arti', put fails to define why its pulled down (Utarna)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-04T07:16:00.250" LastActivityDate="2018-10-04T07:16:00.250" Title="What is the relation of Aarti with different spiritual bodies?" Tags="|rituals|practice|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2014-08-30T07:00:06.773" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2937" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2728" CreationDate="2014-08-29T20:48:23.187" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all the question is incorrect, actually its &lt;strong&gt;'Not sinful'&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;'Sinful too'&lt;/strong&gt;, and for both(there is no discrimination done here).Before I describe my answer I want to clarify that there's nothing written in any scripts about a women marrying (Vivah will be a more appropriate word) many men is a sinful act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;What marriage is?&lt;/em&gt; Its a bonding between two souls, that means the two souls will receive same type of pleasure, sorrow and rewards as they are married. Not only this their Karmas are equally divided. Meaning if wife does something sinful the husband has to be the part of it (either he was part of it physically or not), as they are considered 'Ardhang' of each other and after marriage treated as one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;How its 'Sinful' or 'not Sinful'?&lt;/em&gt; If someone has multiple husband/wives, its perfectly sure that their souls would be bonded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;For example&lt;/em&gt;, one man marries 2 women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Case 1 :&lt;/strong&gt; If one of his wife does a &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;karma's&lt;/em&gt; action will have a &lt;em&gt;result&lt;/em&gt;, this &lt;em&gt;result&lt;/em&gt; would be  divided into 2 parts, 1st to the husband and second to the wife, the left out wife will remain in the &lt;em&gt;Akarmik&lt;/em&gt; state. Now if we look through husband's perspective, he is getting dual Karma Results, one from his first wife and other from his next.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Case 2 :&lt;/strong&gt; If the husband does a &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;karma's&lt;/em&gt; action as a &lt;em&gt;result&lt;/em&gt; would be divided into 3 parts, one for himself and other two for two wives each.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in either cases we just need to replace the word &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; with &lt;strong&gt;Bad Karma&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;Good Karma&lt;/strong&gt;, we will get different results, I will discuss one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the karma is bad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Case 1 :&lt;/strong&gt; The wife will not only suffer from the result but the husband will too, the left out wife will go through the physical aftereffect of the result but not spiritual one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Case 2 :&lt;/strong&gt; The husband and his two wives will suffer from results equally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From above we can clarify that a multi marriage becomes &lt;em&gt;Sinful&lt;/em&gt; or not &lt;em&gt;Sinful&lt;/em&gt;, depending not only on the depth of multiplicity but also the nature of the nodes(people being married within)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bottom Note :&lt;/strong&gt; It's always strictly advised to follow &lt;em&gt;monogamy&lt;/em&gt;, as that would lead to equal division in karmas. Not only this the control-ability of that type of marriage is simple, and most off multi marriages suffer from less-controls resulting in wrong &lt;em&gt;Karmas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are very less chances of one being so supreme, to take care of others(in case of multiple opposite) all emotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is always suggested to comply with the '&lt;em&gt;Arthang&lt;/em&gt;'(half part) to male/female. The system is always in stable state if equal and opposite charges are kept in the bounds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-05T10:20:26.700" LastActivityDate="2015-03-05T10:20:26.700" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2939" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2931" CreationDate="2014-08-30T04:30:14.830" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Krishna's death is told in the Mausala Parva of the Mahabharata, but what led up to it starts earlier, in the Stri Parva.  Right after the Mahabharata war, when Gandhari went to the battlefield of Kurukshetra where her sons' bodies were lying dead, she was overcome with anger at Krishna for not stopping such a deadly war, so she gave him the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11024.htm&quot;&gt;following curse&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since thou wert indifferent to the Kurus and the Pandavas whilst they slew each other, therefore, O Govinda, thou shalt be the slayer of thy own kinsmen! In the thirty-sixth year from this, O slayer of Madhu, thou shalt, after causing the slaughter of thy kinsmen and friends and sons, perish by disgusting means in the wilderness. The ladies of thy race, deprived of sons, kinsmen, and friends, shall weep and cry even as these ladies of the Bharata race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna accepted the curse willingly, because it was all part of his divine plan to eliminate the Yadava race who had become a burden on the earth.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the sequence of events immediately leading up to the Krishna's death is described in the Mausala Parva.  36 years after the Mahabharata war, the sages Vishwamitra, Kanva, and Narada came to Dwaraka, and Krishna's son Samba along with his friends decided to play a trick on the sages.  They dressed up Samba as a woman, and asked the sages what kind of son this woman would have.  The sages saw through the disguise, and enraged by this act of disrespect, they issued the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16001.htm&quot;&gt;following curse&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This heir of Vasudeva, by name Samba, will bring forth a fierce iron bolt for the destruction of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas. Ye wicked and cruel ones, intoxicated with pride, through that iron bolt ye will become the exterminators of your race with the exception of Rama and Janarddana. The blessed hero armed with the plough will enter the ocean, casting off his body, while a hunter of the name of Jara will pierce the high-souled Krishna while lying on the ground.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And indeed, the next day Samba really did give birth to an iron bolt!  When Ugrasena (the king of Dwaraka) heard about this, he ordered his men to make the bolt into a fine powder and then throw the powder into the sea.  And the production of alcohol was banned, because the curse mentioned that the Yadavas would destroy their own race while drunk.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then shortly thereafter, the entire Yadava race went to the sea coast to bathe in the sacred waters of Prabhasa, and there they started to drink.  A drunken brawl soon ensued, and lacking weapons they started plucking Eraka grass out of the ground, which &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16003.htm&quot;&gt;magically transformed into iron bolts&lt;/a&gt; with the power of thunder:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indeed ... whoever amongst them took up in wrath a few blades of the Eraka grass, these, in his hands, became soon converted into a thunderbolt... Every blade of grass there was seen to be converted into a terrible iron bolt. All this ... was due to the curse denounced by Brahmanas. He who hurled a blade of grass saw that it pierced through even such things as were utterly impenetrable. In fact, every blade was seen to become a terrible bolt having the force of thunder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You see, some of the powder from the iron bolt of Samba had washed up on the shore of Prabhasa and had magically grown into that Eraka grass.  In any case, using the weapons furnished by the grass, the Yadavas soon annihilated each other.  Then Krishna's brother Balarama started engaging in meditation and soon &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16004.htm&quot;&gt;gave up his body,&lt;/a&gt; turning back into Vishnu's serpent Adiseshan:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Proceeding then to the forest, Keshava [i.e. Krishna] beheld Rama sitting in a solitary spot thereof. He also saw that Rama had set himself to Yoga and that from out his mouth was issuing a mighty snake. The colour of that snake was white. Leaving the human body (in which he had dwelt so long), that high-souled naga of a 1,000 heads and having a form as large as that of a mountain, endued besides with red eyes, proceeded along that way which led to the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna then sat down in the forest, knowing that it was time for him to depart the earth.  He was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16004.htm&quot;&gt;shot by the hunter Jara&lt;/a&gt;, who mistook Krishna's left foot for the mouth of a deer: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A fierce hunter of the name of Jara then came there, desirous of deer. The hunter, mistaking Keshava, who was stretched on the earth in high Yoga, for a deer, pierced him at the heel with a shaft and quickly came to that spot for capturing his prey. Coming up, Jara beheld a man dressed in yellow robes, rapt in Yoga and endued with many arms. Regarding himself an offender, and filled with fear, he touched the feet of Keshava. The high-souled one comforted him and then ascended upwards, filling the entire welkin with splendour. When he reached Heaven, Vasava and the twin Ashvinis and Rudra and the Adityas and the Vasus and the Viswedevas, and Munis and Siddhas and many foremost ones among the Gandharvas, with the Apsaras, advanced to receive him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jara's shaft was made of the remaining powder of Samba's iron bolt, which had been swallowed by a fish, where it had solidified into a piece of iron.  Jara caught the fish and made the iron into a shaft for hunting.  Thus, just as the sages had prophesied, Krishna and his Yadava clan were destroyed by an iron bolt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, it is said that Jara was the reincarnation of Sugriva's brother &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vali_%28Ramayana%29&quot;&gt;Vali&lt;/a&gt;, whom Vishnu had killed from behind in his incarnation as Rama, so Jara was killing Krishna the way Rama had killed Vali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-01-16T02:46:00.007" LastActivityDate="2015-01-16T02:46:00.007" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2941" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2944" CreationDate="2014-08-30T17:49:58.867" Score="5" ViewCount="1344" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't understand about the popularity of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shri Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;, even though he cheats in Mahabharata for Arjuna's victory and even though he had thousands of wives, he is considered true symbol of love, still he didn't marry his true Love &lt;strong&gt;Radha&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="751" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-27T10:30:27.680" LastActivityDate="2016-01-02T03:58:36.070" Title="Why is Lord Shri Krishna so popular Hindu God?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2942" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2945" CreationDate="2014-08-30T19:38:05.247" Score="32" ViewCount="9823" Body="&lt;p&gt;In different Puranas there are mentions of the Brahmasthra which is one of the powerful weapons capable of destroying the whole world. I have seen usually in Purana TV serials, these astras (arrows) are portrayed with some sparks, glitters and smoke - nothing more nothing less. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually, what is the story behind Brahmasthra? Does this weapon make use of mantras and convert ordinary arrows to Brahmasthra? And has anyone ever used this in history, and if so, on what occasion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: @Creator has asked some further doubts on this in the comments. Adding those questions here:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is the Brahmasthra mantra and control still depicted anywhere in astra vidya or in any scriptures?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And is that vidya still alive?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T07:36:39.117" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T07:36:39.117" Title="What is the story behind the Brahmasthra? Was it actually ever fired?" Tags="|scripture|brahma|weapon|brahmastra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2943" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2941" CreationDate="2014-08-31T02:46:49.097" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like I said in comment &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2941/why-is-lord-shri-krishna-so-popular-hindu-god#comment5159_2941&quot;&gt;Leela&lt;/a&gt; is the single word answer for your question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to practical life, We have three main God  , Bramha, Vishnu &amp;amp; Mahesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma   ==&gt; Creator of the world&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu  ==&gt; Care taker of life  &amp;amp; all jivatmas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahesh   ==&gt; Destroyer of the world&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the brahma creates the world, his work is over and Lord Vishnu comes in the picture. It is his duty to keep running the world properly with Dharma. Due to this he keeps taking avatars. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When brahma creates the world we ( humans ) doesn't know much about the worldism/jivatma. We only knows Vishnu &amp;amp; his avatara's as it happens during our life time. When the world's time is over Mahesh takes his action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So conclusion is Vishnu's avatars &amp;amp; Leela is the only stories we heard most during our life time, This is the one of the practical reason as per my point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In reality each God has same importance but during creation &amp;amp; destruction we are not much involve that's why we think that Vishnu has more attraction, but I don't think it is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-01-02T03:58:36.070" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2944" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2941" CreationDate="2014-08-31T03:09:34.813" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer indeed is &lt;strong&gt;Shri Krishna's &lt;em&gt;leela&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (pastimes) as stated in the comment by Kedarnath above. There is no other incarnation of God where so much &lt;em&gt;leela&lt;/em&gt; manifested as it did in the avatar of Krishna. Starting from His birth till His disappearance from earth, all His activities were full of play and  turn of events. His human like activities of stealing butter, telling lies, etc. create affection and devotional feelings and it becomes easier to think about Him more and more. Hence, Shri Krishna is also known as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Leela Purushottama&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it's true that cheating in the war is certainly not a likable activity, but He did it for the purpose of establishing &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; by defeating the &lt;em&gt;adharmi&lt;/em&gt; Kauravas through the hands of Arjuna and other Pandavas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding marrying thousands of wives, He did it because those girls were under the captive of a demon named Naraka. When Shri Krishna killed the demon, they all accepted Shri Krishna as their husband (SB - 10.59.34). And regarding Shri Krishna not marrying Radha, it was due to the effect of a curse given to Radha by Shridama. Please see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/393/38&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; regarding this curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-08-31T03:09:34.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2945" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2942" CreationDate="2014-08-31T03:53:05.420" Score="27" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Brahmastra is the weapon of Brahma. Like other astras (celestial weapons), it is invoked with a special mantra, and then you can use it to destroy anything that is created by Brahma. The Brahmastra does refer to a special arrow, but an ordinary arrow can also be given the same power using the mantra, and as discussed below, some people have even used the mantra on blades of grass when they didn't have arrows handy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are numerous occasions in which the Brahmastra has been used:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/sundara/sarga38/sundara_38_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Sundara Kanda of the Ramayana, for some reason Indra's son Jayanta once turned into a crow and started pecking at Sita when Rama and Sita were on the Chitrakuta mountain.  The pecking soon grew violent enough that Sita started bleeding, and Rama loved Sita so much that even her smallest injury was intolerable to him. So he turned a blade of Kusha grass into a Brahmastra and threw it at the crow, but then redirected it to merely destroy the crow's right eye when it begged for mercy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, the long-armed Rama, the best among wise men, swirling his eyes in anger, made a resolve in the matter of that ferocious crow. Taking a blade of Kusa grass from his bed ( made of Kusa grass), Rama employed it to work with Brahma's missile (a mythical weapon which deals with infallible destruction). That blazing shoot of grass, resembling a fire destroying the world, flared up in front of that bird. As Rama threw that blazing blade of Kusa grass towards that crow, that blade of grass went chasing that crow in the sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, while that blade of grass came chasing, that crow went flying in many a way. Seeking protection, it roamed all over the world. Roaming the three worlds in search of a saviour, that crow was abandoned by Indra; its father, the celestials and the sages. Finally, it sought refuge in the same Rama.That Rama, who affords protection, was compassionate and protected that crow, which fell on the ground (in salutation to Rama) and sought for protection, eventhough it was apt to be killed. Seeing that crow, coming exhausted and dejected, Rama said to it: &quot;It is not possible to make Brahma missile a waste. For this reason, tell me what to do now.&quot;  Thereafter, that crow said &quot;Let your arrow shoot my right eye.&quot; Then that blade of Kusa grass shooted the right eye of that crow. By giving away its right eye in that way, the crow saved its life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, this is the story that Sita told Hanuman, to give Rama proof that Hanuman really talked to Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga48/sundara_48_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; later on in the Sundara Kanda of the Ramayana, after Hanuman talked to Sita in Lanka, Ravana's forces tried to attack him, but they were unsuccessful.  So then Ravana's son Indrajit launched a Brahmastra at Hanuman.  Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/1976/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Hanuman had received a boon from Brahma that he couldn't be destroyed by any weapon, so the Brahmastra only had the effect of immobilizing him and knocking him to the ground.  And due to further boons from Brahma even that effect  wore off quickly, although Hanuman continued to lie motionless just so that he could be captured. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga21/yuddha_21_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga22/yuddha_22_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, when Rama needed to cross the ocean to go to Lanka, he prayed for three days straight to Varuna the ocean god.  But Varuna didn't appear before Rama, so Rama got angry and threatened to fire a Brahmastra to destroy the ocean (so that he could at least walk across the ocean floor to Lanka):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While Rama was stretching that bow, both the heaven and earth suddenly seemed to be split asunder. Mountains also were shaken. Darkness enveloped the world. All the quarters were obscured. Lakes and rivers were soon agitated. The moon sun and the stars moved obliquely and though the sun's rays lighted the sky, it was enveloped by darkness and shined with a blaze of hundreds of meteors while thunders reverberated with an unparalleled sound in the sky. Series of celestial winds blew in their colossal form and the winds, then sweeping away the clouds, tore up the trees again and again. The wind, shattering the mountain peaks, broke off the points of the rocks. Winds of great velocity struck together in the sky and emitted flashes of radiance proceeding from lightning with a great sound and then there were great thunders. The visible creatures cried out along with the thunders. The invisible beings too gave off a terrific noise. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The creatures were overpowered, frightened, agitated, lied down and also very much anguished. They did not move due to fear. The great ocean with its waves and water, along with its living creatures including snakes and demons soon became possessed of a terrific velocity. Due to that speed and swelling of waters, the ocean crossed beyond the other shore to the extent of a Yojana (eight miles). Rama born in Raghu dynasty and the annihilator of enemies, did not retreat before that ocean, which swelled and crossed its limits. Then, Sagara (the ocean god) himself rose from the middle of the ocean as the sun rises at dawn from the huge mountain of Meru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Varuna appeared before Rama and told him to build a bridge out of rocks that would float magically by the power of Nila and Nala.  Rama was satisfied by this, but he still had to release the Brahmastra at something, so at Varuna's suggestion, instead of destroying the ocean water he destroyed the water at a place called Drumatilya frequented by robbers.  That place, modern-day Malwar in Rajasthan, is now a desert as the Brahmastra destroyed the water there.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As described in a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddha_108_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, in Rama's final battle with Ravana, Rama kept cutting off Ravana's heads but they kept regrowing. So then at the suggestion of Indra's charioteer Matali, Rama fired a Brahmastra (an actual Brahmastra arrow given by Agastya) at Ravana, which is what killed him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, the valiant Rama, who was reminded thus by Matali, took hold of a blazing arrow, which was given by Brahma and which in turn was given to him by the glorious sage, Agastya earlier in the battle-field and which looked like a hissing serpent. Having been made formerly for Indra, the lord of celestials by Brahma, the lord of creation of infinite strength, it was bestowed in the past on the ruler of gods, who was desirous of conquering the three worlds...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Making it sacred by a special formula as per the procedure specified in scriptures, Rama who was endowed with an extraordinary strength then fixed that arrow which was the foremost among the three worlds, capable of removing the fear of Ikshwaku dynasty, taking away the glory of the enemies and bestowing joy to one's own self on his bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While that excellent arrow was being fixed by Rama, all the beings were frightened and the earth trembled. That enraged Rama, stretching his bow well and with an attentive mind, hurled that arrow which can tear off the vitals, towards Ravana. That arrow, which was inviolable as a thunderbolt hurled by the arms of Indra and irresistible as Yama the lord of Death, fell upon Ravana's chest. That arrow, released with great speed and which was capable of destroying the body, tore off the heart of that evil-minded Ravana. That arrow, which was capable of causing death to the body, after taking away the life of Ravana and having been anointed with blood, penetrated the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2390/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sauptika Parva&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahabharata describes how after the Mahabharata war, Drona's son Ashwatthama tried to take revenge on the Pandavas by burning them in their tent while they were sleeping.  But the Pandavas weren't at their camp that night, so Ashwatthama accidentally killed the Upapandavas, the five sons the Pandavas had with Draupadi. When he realized that he had killed five innocent boys, he went to the Ashram (hermitage) of Vyasa to repent for his sin. Then Krishna the Pandavas found out that Ashwatthama had killed their sons, so they tracked his chariot to Vyasa's hermitage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When he saw them, Ashwatthama feared for his life, so he turned a blade of grass into a Brahmashirastra and launched it at them. (A Brahmashirastra, or &quot;heads of Brahma&quot; weapon, is like four Brahmastras in one!)  And in response Arjuna launched a Brahmashirastra right back at him. To prevent the two weapons from doing extreme damage by colliding, the sages Narada and Vyasa came and persuaded Arjuna to withdraw his Brahmashirastra. Vyasa asked Ashwatthama to do the same, but he couldn't withdraw his weapon, so instead he redirected it to hit the wombs of the Pandava women. This did no serious damage, because although it killed the unborn baby Parikshit in the womb of Abhimanyu's wife Uttara, Krishna was able to bring it back to life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-01-19T16:54:36.023" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2946" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2920" CreationDate="2014-08-31T09:51:08.250" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;So it turns out that, &lt;strong&gt;protection of the temple&lt;/strong&gt; (possibly from &lt;em&gt;pishacha&lt;/em&gt; and demonic forces) is the reason they are used on the temples. The &lt;em&gt;chakra&lt;/em&gt; and trident are the weapons of Vishnu and Shiva respectively. Hence, &lt;em&gt;chakra&lt;/em&gt; is used on Vishnu temples and &lt;em&gt;trishula&lt;/em&gt; or the trident is used on Shiva temples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vaiṣṇavādau ca cakrāḍhayaḥ kumbhaḥ syānmurtimānataḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sa ca triśūlayuktastu agraculāmigho mataḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Agni. Pu. - 102.3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  On temples of Vishnu, the &lt;em&gt;chakra&lt;/em&gt; should be placed upon the pitcher which should be according to the size of the idol. If the pitcher is endowed with a &lt;em&gt;trishula&lt;/em&gt;, then it is known as &lt;em&gt;agrachuda&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are empowered with &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; along with the flag and the flag staff upon the completion of their establishment on the temple top and the guru prays the presiding deity of the weapon for protection:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;guruḥ pāśupataṃ dhyāyan sthiramantrādhipairyutam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ādhipān śastrayuktakāṃśca rakṣaṇāya nibodhayet&lt;/em&gt; [Agni. Pu. - 102.28]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The guru after meditating on &lt;em&gt;pashupata&lt;/em&gt; and being endowed with the presiding deities of the &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt;, requests the presiding deity of the weapon for protection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above reason seems correct to me, but if there are other reasons please feel free to comment, answer or edit this post and I will unaccept this answer. Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-08-31T09:51:08.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2947" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-08-31T14:48:51.543" Score="9" ViewCount="698" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani I provided in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2429/is-the-anukramani-index-of-sages-and-deities-of-the-rig-veda-available-online?lq=1&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, verses 4-6 of Rig Veda Book 1 Hymn 155 are addressed to Vishnu. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01155.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; they are: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;We laud this manly power of him the Mighty One, preserver, inoffensive, bounteous and benign;&#xA;  His who strode, widely pacing, with three steppings forth over the realms of earth for freedom and for life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A mortal man, when he beholds two steps of him who looks upon the light, is restless with amaze.&#xA;  But his third step doth no one venture to approach, no, nor the feathered birds of air who fly with wings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He, like a rounded wheel, hath in swift motion set his &lt;strong&gt;ninety racing steeds&lt;/strong&gt; together with &lt;strong&gt;the four&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  Developed, vast in form, with those who sing forth praise, a youth, no more a child, he cometh to our call.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three steps seem like a clear reference to Vishnu's incarnation as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vamana the dwarf&lt;/a&gt;, but my question is, what is this reference to Vishnu's &quot;ninety racing steeds together with the four&quot;?  What is the story of these 90 horses of Vishnu, and what does &quot;the four&quot; denote?  Four additional horses?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Western Indologists, for instance in &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=cTZbAAAAQAAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA31&amp;amp;ots=isWtctYOi6&amp;amp;dq=%22sets%20in%20motion%20like%20a%20revolving%20wheel%22&amp;amp;pg=PA31#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%22sets%20in%20motion%20like%20a%20revolving%20wheel%22&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;, have speculated that the 90 horses really denote the fact that there are 90 days in a season, and that the four denotes the fact that there four seasons in year.  But are there any scriptures that describe Vishnu literally driving a chariot pulled by 90 horses?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T15:22:46.850" Title="What is the story of the 90 horses of Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2948" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2952" CreationDate="2014-08-31T16:44:42.253" Score="13" ViewCount="565" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for exact purpose/reason on why one should worship God? Is it because we are in god's depth as he offered us a life or is it just because god is supreme, creator of world around us?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this reason or purpose explained in any scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastActivityDate="2019-01-29T03:32:47.697" Title="Why one should worship God?" Tags="|worship|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2949" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2950" CreationDate="2014-08-31T18:57:26.873" Score="14" ViewCount="1405" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a Vaishnav and hence I worship &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinathji&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrinathji&lt;/a&gt;. It is said that Shrinathji is an avatar of Lord Krishna but again, Lord Krishna is an avatar of Lord Vishnu so is it possible that gods can take avatars of avatars?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinathji&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shrinathji is a form of Hindu god Krishna, manifest as a&#xA;  seven-year-old child (Balak).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, they have used &lt;em&gt;form&lt;/em&gt; to describe it but I think that means an avatar or am taking it wrongly?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-02T16:24:28.083" LastActivityDate="2023-09-07T08:10:14.733" Title="Can a god have an Avatar of an Avatar?" Tags="|krishna|gods|temple|avatars|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2950" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2949" CreationDate="2014-09-01T02:25:01.837" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shrinathji is not an incarnation (avatara) of Krishna, he's just Krishna himself.  The Srinathji idol depicts Krishna as a child holding the Govardhana hill, which is why his hand is raised as you can see in the image below.  Krishna didn't incarnate as some other individual to lift the hill, he lifted it himself.  So it makes no sense to call Shrinathji an incarnation of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HRuWa.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as to your question about whether there can be incarnation of an incarnation, the answer is yes, as long as we understand what we mean by that.  &quot;X is an incarnation of Y&quot; means that X is a body whose soul is Y.  So Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu, for instance, because the soul that was occupying Rama's body was Vishnu.  Now if Rama were in turn to create an incarnation, what soul would it have?  Vishnu would be the soul, of course.  So an incarnation of an incarnation of a god is at a fundamental level just an incarnation of that same god.  To put it another way, to say that someone is an incarnation of an incarnation is a statement about how that person came to be created, not a statement about what they are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Keeping that in mind, here are some examples of people who were an &quot;incarnation of an incarnation&quot; of some god:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2820/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna's elder brother Balarama is an incarnation of Vishnu's serpent Adiseshan (AKA Ananta), but he is still an incarnation of Vishnu, even included in the Dasavathara often, because Adiseshan is himself an incarnation of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2479/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Shiva Purana describes a (possibly spurious) story where Vishnu's incarnation Narasimha is subdued by a half-lion half-bird creature Sharabha, an incarnation of Virabhadra, who is himself a demon incarnation that Shiva took to kill Daksha after Shakti's death.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/191/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, there is also a story about how after Narasimha was subdued by Shiva's incarnation Sharabha, Sharabha was himself defeated by Ghandaberunda, a two-headed bird beast incarnation of Narasimha, who let's remember is himself an incarnation of Vishnu. Whew!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2819/is-balarama-an-avatar-of-vishnu-or-adiseshan-or-both/2820#comment4757_2820&quot;&gt;a comment&lt;/a&gt; to one of my answers, a user suggested two other potential examples, Vitthoba and Venkateshwara, who he claimed were incarnations of Krishna, but I don't think it's true in either case.  I would call Venkateshwara (AKA Srinivasa or Balaji) either Vishnu himself or a simple incarnation of Vishnu.  After all, he does call Rama and Krishna past births of his, which suggests that he's either a &lt;em&gt;re&lt;/em&gt;incarnation of them, in which case he would be a simple incarnation of Vishnu, or that they're incarnations of his, which would mean that he's Vishnu himself.  And I think Vitthoba (AKA Vitthala or Panduranga) is just Krishna, not an incarnation of Krishna, based on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vithoba#Legend&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;stories&lt;/a&gt; presented on the Wikipedia page.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-07-18T14:30:05.783" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2951" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2947" CreationDate="2014-09-01T04:43:18.820" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Idam Vishnurvi Chakrame tredha nidadhipadam Samurhamasya panesure&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to this shloka of the Rig-Veda, Vishnu accepts the direct&#xA;  and the indirect world along with nature and atoms and increases its&#xA;  body, and then, he measures with his steps all the three forms of the&#xA;  world, the earth , the space and the atomic world between the two. In&#xA;  other words, all the three worlds are inherent in Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If we see that the word &lt;em&gt;'Vishnu'&lt;/em&gt; comes from &lt;em&gt;'Vish'&lt;/em&gt; root, then it&#xA;  means something that is excessively active, dynamic. The chief&#xA;  characteristic of Vishnu is his dynamism. Vishnu, in the form of a&#xA;  chakra(wheel), rotates 90 horses (i.e days) with four names, i.e. four&#xA;  seasons, which hint 365 days of a year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And I guess you are right it is the days and seasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So far I have got this much only from &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books?id=XLJBJX1Xoi8C&amp;amp;pg=PA92&amp;amp;lpg=PA92&amp;amp;dq=90%20horses%20of%20Vishnu&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=jqshuKwr_S&amp;amp;sig=J5h9UBt864a7rzGhbLZBQooXQVw&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=y_IDVJnLOJONuATWw4C4BA&amp;amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp070.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt; I have read something about the horses that each planets ride, for eg. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The chariot of the son of Chandra, Budha or Mercury, is composed of&#xA;  the elementary substances air and fire, and is drawn by eight bay&#xA;  horses of the speed of the wind&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the total makes only to 60 summing up all the planets horses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="602" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-09-01T04:51:06.923" LastActivityDate="2014-09-01T04:51:06.923" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2952" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2948" CreationDate="2014-09-01T04:56:59.510" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is actually an important and fundamental question. So I am re-framing it for providing the explanation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the law of karma is as such that a man reaps what he does, then what is the necessity of worshipping God? If one will do good, then irrespective of whether he worships God or not, he will obviously get good in return. So is also the case for doing bad. So when God being just and impartial gives results only as per one's actions, then why should He be worshipped and also for what reason?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, it is not that we are in the debt of God because He created us and hence we should worship! Because God didn't create us, &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; being an energy of God, is also eternal just like God (BG - 15.7). In course of time the material world manifests and dissolutes and the &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; come into existence and go out of existence. So because we are not in debt or something for our existence, then why should we worship God?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is, &lt;strong&gt;God has to be worshipped for getting rid of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. The thing is, just like God and &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; are eternal, so also there exists a third entity which is eternal. It is called &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; and it is another energy of God (please see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2055/38&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; for &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;). Due to the existence of this third entity called &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; has been eternally separated from God and forgetting its true blissful nature, revolving in various kinds of bodies and experiencing pain, pleasure, happiness, distress, etc. from time to time again and again. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;, due to the influence of maya, is unaware of its true self, considering the body to be his real identity he is doing actions of different kinds and getting bound by sins, virtues, etc. caused by those actions. And by worshipping or surrendering to God one can easily get rid of his bondage causing sins. So the Gita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 18.66]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abandon all kinds of &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; and just surrender unto Me. I shall give your liberation from all sins. You need not worry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a common experience of all that everyone does everything for the purpose of getting happiness and pleasure. But due to effect of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; (ignorance) one doesn't know where the real happiness is. So he is looking for it here through various kinds of activities driven by his personal nature. But no matter what a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; does, it never gets that ultimate happiness and peace. This has been going on eternally and the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is bereft of the bliss and happiness he has always been longing internally. So &lt;strong&gt;only by getting rid of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; that a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; can achieve God and get the happiness and bliss he is looking for.&lt;/strong&gt; It is because God is bliss Himself and by attaining God one becomes blissful:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;anando brahmeti vyajānāt&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up - 3.6]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Brahma is bliss, thus I (Brhigu) realized.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;raso vai saḥ , rasa hyevāyaṃ labdhvā ānandī bhabati&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up - 2.7]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   - He is the sweet mellow. Obtaining this mellow one becomes blissful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; has to be got rid at any cost so that a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; can fulfil its actual purpose of attaining liberation and bliss. And &lt;strong&gt;only he who worships God gets rid of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, no one else. So the Gita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 7.14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difﬁcult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; is divine and God's power, only He can withdraw it from a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;. The &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; can't do it himself. So once one realizes the reason for worshiping God, he can &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2185/38&quot;&gt;follow the different paths&lt;/a&gt; that exist for attaining liberation. But regardless of whatever path he follows, devotion to God will always be required at one stage or the other in his spiritual progress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T06:09:00.777" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2953" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3012" CreationDate="2014-09-01T06:04:33.117" Score="9" ViewCount="6506" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where do we find the Ganapati Atharvasheersh in scriptures? What is the meaning of the word 'Atharvsheersh'. Who is the writer of it (Rishi Ganak or Atharvan)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-23T02:40:05.983" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T12:38:39.393" Title="What is the origin of Ganapathi Atharvasheersh?" Tags="|vedas|ganesha|rishi|atharva-veda|upanishads|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2954" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2955" CreationDate="2014-09-01T10:37:38.017" Score="10" ViewCount="2661" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard about Kakabhusundi, who described the cycle of creation and recreation of the universe. Who was he? and how had he attain such knowledge?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-10T08:19:34.127" LastActivityDate="2020-03-10T08:19:34.127" Title="Who was Kakabhusundi?" Tags="|kakbhushundi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2955" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2954" CreationDate="2014-09-01T12:09:10.557" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kakabhusundi was a crow and a great devotee of Shri Rama. He clears the confusion of Garuda regarding Shri Rama being God as mentioned in the Ramacharitmanas. He attained a vast knowledge because he had underwent many thousands of births but always remembered whatever he learned in his previous births and he was blessed by a sage. His life story is present in Ramacharitmanas which is briefly as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhusundi was born as a sudra in Ayodhya in the kali yuga of a previous kalpa. He was a devotee of Shiva and hypocritic to every other God. Affected by a famine he left Ayodhya and went to Ujjain. There he met a good Brahman who was devotee of Shiva. From him he learnt many things and worshiped Shiva daily. One day his guru tried to make him understand in every possible way that the sole reward of worshiping Shiva is the uninterrupted devotion to Rama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But because he was haughty and hypocrite he became spiteful. One day while he was worshiping Shiva his guru entered the temple but he didn't rise and greet him out of pride. His guru being kind, didn't say anything. But Shiva got angry and cursed him to get thousands of repeated births in lower forms starting from a python as that is the consequence of offending one's guru. Hearing this curse he trembled in fear. But his guru pacified Shiva and asked for forgiving his disciple. So Shiva said, he would take thousands of birth due to the effect of the curse, but he will get rid of it quickly without feeling any suffering and agony of life and death. And he will also grow devoted to Shri Rama. After that he went through numerous births, but due to the blessing of Shiva he went through them without any pain and remembered his knowledge:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सिवँ राखी श्रुति नीति अरु मैं नहिं पावा क्लेस।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एहि बिधि धरेउँ बिबिध तनु ग्यान न गयउ खगेस।। [RCM - 7.109]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later on he was born as a Brahmana and was devoted to Shri Rama. Once he went to sage Lomasa and asked him for discourse about God. Sage Lomasa narrated how &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; and Brahman are identical and not separate. He told Brahma is without any body, attributes and so on. Bhusundi didn't like it and argued with Lomasa. This made even the enlightened Lomasa irritated but he :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुनु प्रभु बहुत अवग्या किएँ। उपज क्रोध ग्यानिन्ह के हिएँ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अति संघरषन जौं कर कोई। अनल प्रगट चंदन ते होई।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बारंबार सकोप मुनि करइ निरुपन ग्यान।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मैं अपनें मन बैठ तब करउँ बिबिध अनुमान।।   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhusundi argued too much in favor of &lt;em&gt;saguna bhakti&lt;/em&gt; that Lomasa got angry and cursed Him thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुनि पुनि सगुन पच्छ मैं रोपा। तब मुनि बोलेउ बचन सकोपा।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मूढ़ परम सिख देउँ न मानसि। उत्तर प्रतिउत्तर बहु आनसि।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सत्य बचन बिस्वास न करही। बायस इव सबही ते डरही।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सठ स्वपच्छ तब हृदयँ बिसाला। सपदि होहि पच्छी चंडाला।। [RCM - 7.112]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Again and again I kept arguing for &lt;em&gt;saguna&lt;/em&gt; worship. Then the sage became angry and said: &quot;Fool, you are not giving your mind to the supreme lesson and only doing arguments and counter-arguments. You are not believing the true words and distrusting it just like a crow. You are haughty and your heart is filled with your own opinions. Therefore, you become a bird.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhusundi accepted the curse without any fear or humbleness. So when the sage found out that he was so devoted to Rama, he blessed him with knowledge and devotion of Shri Rama. And &lt;strong&gt;because it was in the body of a &lt;em&gt;kaka&lt;/em&gt; (crow) he received that ultimate devotion to Shri Rama, he never gave up that body and hence he is known as Kakabhusundi&lt;/strong&gt;. In that body of the crow beholding the Lord all his ignorance vanished:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ताते यह तन मोहि प्रिय भयउ राम पद नेह।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निज प्रभु दरसन पायउँ गए सकल संदेह।। [RCM - 7.114]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-19T06:07:15.103" LastActivityDate="2017-06-19T06:07:15.103" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2956" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-01T12:42:30.583" Score="7" ViewCount="879" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have heard about the &lt;em&gt;Vajra&lt;/em&gt; holded by &lt;em&gt;Dev Indra&lt;/em&gt;, which was said to be from the bones of &lt;em&gt;Rishi Dadhichi&lt;/em&gt;, but before that, while saving Devi Sati from a rakshas &lt;em&gt;Rishi Dadhichi&lt;/em&gt; earned a boon from &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt;, that his bones will become of &lt;em&gt;Vajra&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does this &lt;em&gt;Vajra&lt;/em&gt; mean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-20T07:37:53.747" LastActivityDate="2018-11-20T07:37:53.747" Title="What does 'Vajra' mean?" Tags="|weapon|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2958" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2408" CreationDate="2014-09-01T15:24:03.753" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, he did.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found the answer in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/NIeG&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the sixth Adhyaya of the Brihaddevata, an ancient work by the sage Shaunaka that describes the different gods that Rig Vedic verses are addressed to and the stories of how those verses were heard from the gods.  Here is what it says about the hymn (Book 10 Hymn 8) I quoted above:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Trisiras son of Tvaṣṭar [saw] the next hymn...  Now six (stanzas) of this (hymn) are adressed to Agni (x.8.1-6), &lt;strong&gt;while with the triplet which follows, &quot;Of him&quot; (&lt;em&gt;asya&lt;/em&gt;, 7-9), he praised Indra at the end of a dream&lt;/strong&gt;: such is our sacred tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So apparently in a dream, Trisiras heard three verses from the gods which &quot;praised Indra&quot;, although what the verses praise Indra for is the killing of Trisiras!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it looks like Trisiras did foresee his own death after all.  I wonder what his reaction was when he woke up from that dream.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T14:56:58.337" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T14:56:58.337" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2959" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2967" CreationDate="2014-09-02T02:29:52.000" Score="18" ViewCount="8671" Body="&lt;p&gt;What does Hinduism say in regards to suicide? Or maybe even assisted suicide? Not just out of depression or anger, but what if your just tired and want to retire?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-05-03T16:07:47.737" LastActivityDate="2021-12-03T16:29:47.600" Title="What does Hinduism say about Suicide?" Tags="|belief|death|sin|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2960" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2966" CreationDate="2014-09-02T02:36:56.263" Score="1" ViewCount="586" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Hinduism say anything about ghosts? Like why they may be stuck here, if it's really the jiva or something else like it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T04:31:15.910" Title="What Does Hinduism Say About Ghosts?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2014-09-02T05:21:08.207" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2961" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2964" CreationDate="2014-09-02T02:56:09.647" Score="8" ViewCount="3579" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any references to reptilian-like entities in Hinduism? Are they friend or foe, what kind of acts have they committed, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T03:30:33.980" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T03:30:33.980" Title="Does Hinduism Say Anything About Snake People, Reptilians, or Snake/Reptilian Like Enities?" Tags="|belief|naga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2962" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2961" CreationDate="2014-09-02T03:34:48.640" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are lots of instances of snake people in Hindu texts. They are generally referred as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C4%81ga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nagas&lt;/a&gt;. They live in the Nagaloka that is believed to be in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Patala&lt;/a&gt; under the earth. They are just another kind of species created by Brahma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Brahmā created the region below the earth for the demons and the Nāga snakes. In this way the destinations of the three worlds were arranged as the corresponding reactions for different kinds of work performed within the three modes of nature. [SB - 11.24.13]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So they are just another kind of species and hence neither inherently friends or foes to humans. But many references are there where their behaviors are friendly. Even marriages also have taken place. For example, Arjuna married &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulupi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ullupi&lt;/a&gt; who was a &lt;em&gt;Naga kanya&lt;/em&gt;. The epic Mahabharata mentions about the Nagas  at many places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-09-02T11:55:08.810" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T11:55:08.810" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2963" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-02T04:05:07.110" Score="1" ViewCount="89" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that the Shadari is a symbolism of God's feet (patham) and he blesses you when it is kept over your head. I am not certain if this is correct, if someone could explain in detail it would be enlightening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="757" LastEditorUserId="757" LastEditDate="2014-09-03T03:38:55.153" LastActivityDate="2014-09-03T03:38:55.153" Title="What is the purpose of Shadari in a temple?" Tags="|temple|practice|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-09-03T04:42:32.777" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2964" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2961" CreationDate="2014-09-02T04:26:40.737" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Nagas are a race of snake people mentioned throughout Hindu scripture.  Their origin is described in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata.  The sage Kashyapa, son of Marichi the mind-born son of Brahma, had many wives, daughters of Brahma's son Daksha.  Through them he had countless children, among them gods like Indra and other Adityas through Aditi, demons like Hiranyakashipu and other Daityas through Diti, etc.  Now two of his wives were named Vinata and Kadru, and he offered them each a boon.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; is what they asked for:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kadru wished to have for sons &lt;strong&gt;a thousand snakes all of equal splendour&lt;/strong&gt;. And Vinata wished to bring forth two sons surpassing the thousand offsprings of Kadru in strength, energy, size of body, and prowess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those thousand snake sons of Kadru were the first Nagas.  (By the way, Vinata's two sons were Surya's charioteer Aruna and Vishnu's bird vehicle Garuda.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A lot of the Nagas were killed in a Yagna (fire ritual) carried out by Arjuna's great-grandson Janamejaya, to avenge the death of his father Parikshit at the hands the Naga king Takshaka.  (Janamejaya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01057.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;was persuaded&lt;/a&gt; to stop before he killed them all, though.) But the ultimate reason they were killed is that they were cursed by their mother Kadru for disobeying them.  And Brahma and the other gods allowed this curse to be enacted, because of how cruel the Naga race was to others:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And seeing that the snakes had multiplied exceedingly, the Grandsire [Brahma], moved by kind consideration for his creatures, sanctioned with all the gods this curse of Kadru. Indeed, as the snakes were of virulent poison, great prowess and excess of strength, and &lt;strong&gt;ever bent on biting other creatures&lt;/strong&gt;, their mother's conduct towards them -- &lt;strong&gt;those persecutors of all creatures&lt;/strong&gt; -- was very proper for the good of all creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So that answers your question about what they're generally like.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;later chapter&lt;/a&gt; in the Adi Parva mentions that there are &quot;many thousands and millions&quot; of Nagas, and gives the names of quite a few of them.  But here are three of the most prominent Nagas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Adiseshan, the eldest son of Kadru, and the serpent that Vishnu reclines upon&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vasuki, the snake who was used as the rope to turn Mount Mandara in the Churning of the Ocean&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Takshaka, the king of the Nagas I mentioned earlier who killed Arjuna's grandson Parikshit&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-11-04T22:23:05.003" LastActivityDate="2014-11-04T22:23:05.003" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2966" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2960" CreationDate="2014-09-02T04:31:15.910" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Hinduism says many things about ghosts. The Garuda Purana has good descriptions about it of which some are as below to answer your question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a person dies then he becomes a &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt; (Ghost). Generally this phase is temporary and as soon as the funeral rites are over, the &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt; state is over and the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; then gets the status of Pitru (manes or forefathers). However, if the funeral rites are not duly performed or the death and actions of the person is not good then he may get stuck in the limbo or &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt; phase:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;pāpakarmaratā ye vai pūrvakarmavaśānugāḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;jāyante te mṛtāḥ pretāstāñchṛṇuṣva vadāmyaham&lt;/em&gt; [GP - 2.22.3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;He who is indulged in sinful activities goes to become a &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt; after death; that I am telling you please listen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;svaiḥ svaistu karmabhiḥ prāptaṃ pretatvaṃ hi dvijottama&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;paradroharatāḥ sarve pāpamṛtyuvaśaṃ gatāḥ&lt;/em&gt; [GP - 2.22.33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;O best among the twice-borns (&lt;em&gt;dvijottama&lt;/em&gt;), one certainly attains the state of &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt; due to ones own actions. All those who are engaged in offence or enmity (&lt;em&gt;droha&lt;/em&gt;) toward others, under the influence of sin and death go  on to be come ghosts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That chapter then describes many such activities doing which one goes into the &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt; state for certain. Basically if one commits sins, kills other, causes pain to elders, brother, sister etc. without any reason, who has forsaken rememberance of Vishnu, who doesn't perform fire sacrifices, etc. obtains the state of &lt;em&gt;pretatva&lt;/em&gt; (ghost hood).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T04:31:15.910" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2967" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2959" CreationDate="2014-09-02T04:45:06.913" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the scriptures, one who commits suicide becomes a ghost:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;udbandhanamṛtā ye ca viṣaśastrahatāśca ye&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ātmopaghātino ye ca viṣūcyādihatāstathā&lt;/em&gt; [GP - 2.22.8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One who dies by hanging, also through poison and weapon, one who commits suicide and also dies by cholera etc. becomes a ghost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures also prohibit to perform any funeral rites (shradha) for people who have died by committing suicide and the relatives do not become unclean by such deaths unlike other natural and legitimate deaths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-09-02T04:57:37.193" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T04:57:37.193" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2968" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-02T05:37:32.893" Score="11" ViewCount="4849" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question is in reference to the question asked before. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2690/&quot;&gt;Why can Garuda Purana be read on specific days only?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I talk to people they mention that the Garuda Puranam should be read at sacred places and not at home. Are these recommendations only out of fear of an inauspicious event or are there direct consequences? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="757" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-08-13T10:41:34.973" Title="Can Garuda Puranam be read at home?" Tags="|scripture|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2969" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-02T05:57:06.647" Score="7" ViewCount="561" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is in reference to the Slokha below (&lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_vishnu-shuklambaradharam_vishnum.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sloka link&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shukla-Ambara-Dharam Vissnnum Shashi-Varnnam Catur-Bhujam |&#xA;Prasanna-Vadanam Dhyaayet Sarva-Vighno[a-U]pashaantaye ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: 1: (We Meditate) Who is Wearing White Clothes,&#xA;Who is All-Pervading, Who is Bright in Appearance like the Moon and&#xA;Who is Having Four Hands, 2: Who is Having a Compassionate and&#xA;Gracious Face, Let us Meditate on Him To Ward of all Obstacles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why and How the slokha is attributed to Lord Ganesha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="757" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-28T13:40:38.880" Title="Sloka attributed to Lord Ganesha" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|ganesha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-06-04T13:19:01.727" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2970" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-02T05:58:43.350" Score="15" ViewCount="143639" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard this many times but don't know what it means. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Ganpati another name for Ganesha? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is bappa and Morya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="292" LastActivityDate="2018-02-24T14:07:37.597" Title="What is the meaning of &quot;Ganpati Bappa Morya&quot;?" Tags="|ganesha|festivals|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2971" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2974" CreationDate="2014-09-02T06:20:18.057" Score="7" ViewCount="6226" Body="&lt;p&gt;Various prayascittas are specified in scriptures to negate the effect of bad karmas done by a person knowing or unknowingly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are these useful for this purpose? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do Vedas mention prayascittas? If, as per law of Karma, the effects of Karma can not be evaded, what is the use of prayachittas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="543" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T12:55:41.640" LastActivityDate="2020-03-27T13:47:44.907" Title="How to use Prayascitta to negate the effect of karma?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|karma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2972" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2970" CreationDate="2014-09-02T06:58:09.320" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morya_Gosavi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Morya Gosavi&lt;/a&gt;  was a prominent saint and the greatest devotee of Lord Ganesha. Morya is associated with the name of lord Ganapati as veneration to this great devotee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-03T16:44:26.003" LastActivityDate="2015-02-03T16:44:26.003" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2973" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2978" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:03:57.303" Score="3" ViewCount="1375" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all are living in Kaliyug and the 'Kali'/'Kalipurush'(not to be confused with Goddess Kalimatha) has great influence on people these days. Are there mentions of major places where 'Kali' resides in any of the scripture? Also what are the major methods to minimize the effect of Kali according to scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P:S: I have heard that Kali resides in the places where 'competition' occurs(like the reputation game in here). So Kalipurush is present in Stakexchange too, Isn't it the right assumption?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T11:41:57.953" Title="What are the methods to overcome/minimize the effect of Kalipurush in Kaliyug?" Tags="|scripture|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2974" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2971" CreationDate="2014-09-02T07:23:38.987" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many laws set by the sages in various scriptures for different castes and orders and for different situations. Disobeying them creates a sin. But sages have also prescribed expiations for persons who repent after committing a sin. So &lt;strong&gt;the &lt;em&gt;prayaschittas&lt;/em&gt; are useful only if the person has repentance for what he has done&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;kṛte pāpe'nutāpo vai yasya pusaḥ prajāyate&lt;/em&gt; - VP 2.6.40).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's true that the effects of Karma cannot be evaded, but it's inexorable only in that case when there is no method to evade it. For example, the effects of disease are unavoidable if no medicine is known or one doesn't take the medicine even after knowing it. So performing the  prescribed &lt;em&gt;prayaschita&lt;/em&gt; is another action that counter acts the effects of previous action. If &lt;em&gt;prayaschitta&lt;/em&gt; is not done, then their corresponding punishment hell will have to be suffered as mentioned in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from &lt;em&gt;prayaschitta&lt;/em&gt; cleaning the body and the soul, it also restores back one's social status and brings back peace of mind:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tasmādyatnena karttavyaṃ prāyaścittaṃ viśuddhaye&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  evamasyāntarātmā ca lokaścaiva prasīdati&lt;/em&gt; [GP - 1.105.2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Therefore, one should carefully  perform &lt;em&gt;prayaschitta&lt;/em&gt; for the purification of the inner soul. Doing so also makes people happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In earlier times and also in some villages today, people generally don't talk and mix with them who are known to have committed some sins. They are like outcasted from the society. So after performance of &lt;em&gt;prayaschitta&lt;/em&gt;, they regain their previous social status.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now regarding &lt;em&gt;prayaschittas&lt;/em&gt; mentioned in the Vedas, I am not sure if there are expiations mentioned as vividly as in the puranas and other &lt;em&gt;dharma sashtras&lt;/em&gt;. But there are certainly mentions of it found also in the Vedas, at least regarding expiations for fault in performance of sacrifice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found some links mentioning expiation in the Vedas from Net. One prayer is like below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;From the sins which knowingly or unknowingly we have committed, do ye, all gods, of one accord, release us!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If awake, or if asleep, to sin inclined, I have committed a sin, may what has been, and what shall be, as if from a wooden post, release me!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;As one released from a wooden post, as one in a sweat by bathing (is cleansed) of filth, as ghee is clarified by the sieve, may all (the gods) clear me from sin!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe42/av190.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some other links I found are are below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av02035.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Expiation for an imperfectly performed sacrifice&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe42/av192.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Expiation for certain heinous crimes&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe42/av191.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Expiation for the precedence of a younger brother over an older&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books?id=p9zCbRMQbyEC&amp;amp;lpg=PP1&amp;amp;dq=isbn%3A8120806441&amp;amp;pg=PA356#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;A book about Vedas mentioning expiation in a section&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T04:33:14.017" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T04:33:14.017" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2976" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2969" CreationDate="2014-09-02T10:07:01.593" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is actually a &lt;em&gt;shloka&lt;/em&gt; that is attributed to Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;, not Ganesha. The link you have provided also mentions it as a &lt;em&gt;shloka&lt;/em&gt; for Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it can also be attributed to Shri Ganesha, or rather, it can be confused as a &lt;em&gt;shloka&lt;/em&gt; for Lord Ganesha due to the presence of the last word &lt;strong&gt;सर्वविघ्नोपशान्तये&lt;/strong&gt; (all obstacles are appeased). It is actually Lord Ganesha who is known as the lord and remover of obstacles. So Ganesha is also known as Vighnesha (&lt;em&gt;Vighna&lt;/em&gt; + &lt;em&gt;Isha&lt;/em&gt;). So if the word Vishnu is taken literally as all pervading and emphasis is given to the last word regarding obstacles, one can also attribute it to Ganesha. But having said that, it is worth noting that it is actually a widely used &lt;em&gt;shloka&lt;/em&gt; for Lord Vishnu, but not Lord Ganesha. Other qualities given in the &lt;em&gt;shloka&lt;/em&gt; suite more to Vishnu rather than Ganesha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T10:07:01.593" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2977" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-02T11:02:37.593" Score="15" ViewCount="1071" Body="&lt;p&gt;Historically, Buddhism and Jainism were just some of the many sects or philosophical schools in ancient times. When was the separation of religions happened and when were all vedic and non-vedic sects clubbed under Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-11-03T06:47:39.503" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T10:14:09.967" Title="When were Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism marked as separate religions?" Tags="|history|philosophy|sects|buddhism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2978" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2973" CreationDate="2014-09-02T11:41:57.953" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kali entered earth  during the period of rule of Parikshita. So knowing that Kali had entered he set out to kill Kali in his personified form. Then out of fear Kalipurusha went into his surrender and King Parikshit allowed him to stay at the following five places only:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sūta Gosvāmī said: Mahārāja Parīkṣit, thus being petitioned by the personality of Kali, gave him permission to reside in places where &lt;strong&gt;gambling, drinking, prostitution and animal slaughter&lt;/strong&gt; were performed.  [SB - SB 1.17.38]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The personality of Kali asked for something more, and because of his begging, the King gave him &lt;strong&gt;permission to live where there is gold&lt;/strong&gt; because wherever there is gold, there is also falsity, intoxication, lust, envy and enmity.  [SB - SB 1.17.39]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the personality of Kali, by the directions of Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the son of Uttarā, was allowed to live in those five places.  [SB - SB 1.17.40]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In today's terms, it can be said that Kali lives where there is money, because money also produces the same results of falsity, intoxication, envy, etc. just like gold and also gold was used as currency in those days (&lt;em&gt;swarna mudra&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Minimizing Effects of Kali&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, effects of Kali can be avoided by avoiding the things that cause kali or where kali resides. So the next verse (SB - 1.17.41) suggests to avoid contact with the above things. Nevertheless, for &lt;em&gt;Kali yuga&lt;/em&gt;, the scriptures state &lt;em&gt;Harinama&lt;/em&gt; is the best remedy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting Krishna's names, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom. [SB - 12.3.51]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha&lt;/em&gt; [Brhannaradiya Purana]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hari's name, Hari's name, Hari's name only without anything other, in kali there exists no  other way. There exists certainly no other way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Kali at StackExchange&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now regarding stackexhange, &lt;em&gt;kali&lt;/em&gt; doesn't actually reside here, it resides in the minds of  users participating here. It's because, the overall purpose of the site is good, but because our minds are clouded by ego, pride, envy, jealous, biased and negative feelings that forgetting humbleness, truth and politeness we treat and act negatively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding reputation, it's not actually quite gambling, but if it is considered as the currency or money of the users of stackexchange, then certainly Kali is present here because for the love and want of reputation users are doing smart things. Secondly, when Kali means quarrel, any type of subjective argument and dis-argument with negative intentions in the mind certainly proves the existence of Kali. So your assumption is right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But even like the &lt;em&gt;Kali yuga&lt;/em&gt; has certain merits, so also participating on SE has. Casting aside all the negative feelings we may have to endure, we do learn many things. Although with users acting politely, a site like this could be a pleasant experience, the unpleasant experiences give one the opportunity to test out his tolerance and virtue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T11:41:57.953" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2979" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3090" CreationDate="2014-09-02T12:00:45.483" Score="11" ViewCount="2062" Body="&lt;p&gt;By law and court system a marriage can be ended with legal divorce. Islam says if they say Talaq three times then the marriage is over. Like Islam, does Hinduism allow divorce for a married couple?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Moreover, some people say that with a marriage, a couple ties  bond for '7 lives' with each other. But still, is there any provision of divorce in Hindiusm?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="742" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-10-07T16:08:10.747" LastActivityDate="2018-10-07T16:08:10.747" Title="Is there any provision for 'Divorce' in Hindusm?" Tags="|rituals|culture|marriage|other-religions|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2019-03-30T16:44:24.763" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="2981" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2959" CreationDate="2014-09-02T14:00:31.983" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard about &quot;kapaala moksham&quot; which means salvation of the skull. There are some legends about really really advanced yoga practitioners, capable of letting their &quot;life&quot; come out of their body by perforating the skull - just through their will, while meditating.  Most of these legends also say that those yogis are well aware of the time when they should end their lives. And when their time comes, they achieve this kapaala moksham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="763" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T14:00:31.983" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2982" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2984" CreationDate="2014-09-02T14:48:11.397" Score="9" ViewCount="336" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any text regardless the evolution of consciousness, how to improve consciousnesses, and so-forth? I'm not sure if this is correct, but the &quot;jiva&quot; mind?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T16:09:23.393" Title="Does Any Hindu Texts Say Anything About The Evolution Of Consciousness?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2983" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2991" CreationDate="2014-09-02T14:56:26.970" Score="5" ViewCount="439" Body="&lt;p&gt;From what I'm gathering, you are not supposed to be &quot;bad&quot; obviously, but it also seems that you are not supposed to be &quot;happy&quot; either?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I getting this right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[edit] Are we to exist without karma, akarma, so be neither good nor bad?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T15:16:02.683" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T15:16:02.683" Title="In Hinduism, are you not supposed to be happy?" Tags="|scripture|bhagavad-gita|upanishads|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2984" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2982" CreationDate="2014-09-02T16:09:23.393" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Hindu texts related to Yoga schools of thought discuss about the evolution of consciousness. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali&quot;&gt;Patanjali Yoga Sutra&lt;/a&gt; is such an important text that describes about consciousness, mental activities and also mentions the practices required to improve the consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Consciousness is generally the faculty that creates the awareness of &quot;I&quot; in the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; (being) and by default the awareness of a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; stays limited only to its body and its related objects. The purpose of evolution of consciousness is to expand it such that it merges with the universal consciousness and the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; attains &lt;em&gt;kaivalya&lt;/em&gt; (liberation). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Through practice of positive traits like friendliness, compassion, etc. one's consciousness gradually gets purer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;maitrīkaruṇāmuditopekṣaṇāṃ sukhaduḥkhapuṇyāpuṇyaviṣayāṇāṃ bhāvanātaścittaprasādanam&lt;/em&gt; [PYS - 1.33]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Consciousness gradually becomes peaceful through friendliness, compassion, delight, and equanimity toward all things irrespective of pleasant or painful, and good or bad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;-Consciousness evolves or transforms along form, timespan, and condition as the elements and the senses. [PYS - 3.13]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The text is in aphorism form so understanding it directly may not be possible. Moreover, yoga being a physical activity to understand the practical implications of the text some expert's help can be required. Nevertheless, to answer the question evolution of consciousness has been dealt with very much detail in Hinduism in the yoga schools of thought. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/ysp/index.htm&quot;&gt;Here is a link&lt;/a&gt; if you want to read that book online.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T16:09:23.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2985" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2997" CreationDate="2014-09-02T16:37:41.330" Score="10" ViewCount="20738" Body="&lt;p&gt;Will the atma get moksha if a person dies in unnatural ways such as suicide, murder, etc?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-09-03T10:59:09.790" LastActivityDate="2017-12-18T05:10:09.687" Title="Will the atma get moksha if a person dies unnaturally?" Tags="|death|moksha|atma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2986" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-02T17:36:01.603" Score="5" ViewCount="10035" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question arised in my mind after I read - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2985/467&quot;&gt;Will Athma get moksha if a person die unnaturally?&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many people went from serious accident &amp;amp; surgery that time elder says that &lt;em&gt;Ram Rakhe ene kon chakhe&lt;/em&gt; (meaning When Lord Rama is taking care of a human then even death can't harm him/her easily) or sometimes elder says that may be his death time is still not arrived that's why he/she got saved or sometimes it is called &lt;em&gt;chamatkar&lt;/em&gt; (miracle).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this means that a person's death time is predefined when he takes birth? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this is true then can a person die before his death time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T07:29:17.657" Title="Can a person die before death time?" Tags="|death|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2987" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-02T18:19:15.407" Score="4" ViewCount="78" Body="&lt;p&gt;Being a Brahmin, I do observe Fast. But literally,I don't know its importance. I wondered, how being hungry whole day could fulfill your wish. Do &lt;code&gt;GOD&lt;/code&gt; pleases when people are hungry?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As, I am a Punjabi and I also studied in Gurbani&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chhod Ann (food,bhojan) Jo Kare pakhand, Na suhagan ( married ) Na oh rand (widow women)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I just want to know how being hungry can fulfill our wish ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="732" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-09-02T20:55:27.063" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T20:55:27.063" Title="What is the importance of fast (Vrat)?" Tags="|vrata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2014-09-02T20:57:08.360" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2989" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="2992" CreationDate="2014-09-02T21:47:01.053" Score="52" ViewCount="6424" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wonder at this question, because as with most major religions, it seems all you are mostly meant to do is to serve/devote yourself to God. It also seems that even in Hinduism this is the only way to unite with God? Why can't we just be good, why must we worship, what we must do in order to worship?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there nothing else that we are meant to do? The concept of &quot;worship&quot; just makes me more like we are enslaved to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-09-03T11:46:27.317" LastActivityDate="2021-01-13T17:05:24.110" Title="Is the ultimate purpose of life only to serve God?" Tags="|worship|gods|life|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2990" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2767" CreationDate="2014-09-02T21:54:18.133" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Calendars are often designed with the solstices, equinoxes, and alignment of heavenly bodies in mind; in conjunction with the earth's wobble. The problem is that these differ depending on where you live, especially the heavenly bodies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although, as already mentioned, they are more cultural then religious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastActivityDate="2014-09-02T21:54:18.133" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2991" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2983" CreationDate="2014-09-03T03:05:40.330" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's not like that. The sole purpose of Hinduism is to show the path of true happiness to all beings. It's because happiness is the inherent desire of every &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; and until and unless one &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; becomes truly happy he will be doing various kinds of activities, good and bad and getting entangled by their reactions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is just that the definition of happiness is something different in Hinduism:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yo vai bhuma tat sukham, nalpe sukham asti, bhumaiva sukham, bhuma tveva vijijnasitavya iti, bhumanam, bagavah, vijijnasa iti.&lt;/em&gt; [Chg. Up. - 7.23.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Happiness is infinite, there is no happiness in finite. Happiness is completeness, happiness is the totality, happiness is in the Absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Real happiness is something, upon which sorrow and distress cannot take over&lt;/strong&gt;. That which wanes away is not happiness. Everything material being under the influence of time is certain to perish at some point, so happiness that is dependent upon material things, positions and qualities are certain to cause distress upon their loss. So Vedanta school of thought from Hinduism teaches to fix the mind upon God who is imperishable and eternal, hence by doing so the happiness that will be derived will also be eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the other thing is, bliss is probably the suitable word to express that state of happiness . Bliss is superior and beyond happiness and distress. So the scripture states that state of saintliness and  serenity is achieved by him who neither delights on happiness nor gets agitated in distress:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;duḥkheṣv anudvigna-manāḥ sukheṣu vigata-spṛhaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhaḥ sthita-dhīr munir ucyate&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 2.56]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the distress and miseries or elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Happiness is the core concept of Hinduism and that's why it prescribes all the rules and regulations. Because happiness is the natural outcome of &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; (right actions). There is a beautiful verse regarding this but I don't know where it's from. It is as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुखं वांछति सर्वो हि तच्च धर्मसमुद्भवं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्माद्धर्मः सदा कार्यः सर्ववर्णेः प्रयत्नतः &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Everyone desires Happiness and that arises only from &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;. Hence, &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; (right action) should always be the duty and endeavour of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-09-03T03:05:40.330" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2992" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2989" CreationDate="2014-09-03T04:16:47.000" Score="47" Body="&lt;h1&gt;tl;dr;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worshiping God is not mandatory. But one who wants true happiness (which actually all do), can only obtain it by approaching and surrendering to God. But because God is both with and without attributes one can chose the path of worship and serving God  or the path of meditating upon His formless aspect or only continue to do actions in a detached way without worshiping God. However, the path of devotion is the easiest, safest and quickest way of deliverance from this materialistic mode of existence filled with dualities like pain-pleasure, happiness-distress, birth-death, etc. It is because, &lt;strong&gt;in other paths, the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; walks on his own power and hence must deliver himself through his own effort. But in the path of devotion, God delivers his surrendered devotees:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But those who worship Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, having ﬁxed their minds upon Me, O son of Pṛthā – for them I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death. [BG - 12.6,7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since many users are taking interest in this question and the title has changed since the time I originally wrote the answer, I am improving and explaining the original brief answer a bit more clearly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is the ultimate purpose of life only to serve God?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, serving God is not the ultimate purpose of life; at least not per Hinduism. &lt;strong&gt;The ultimate purpose of life is happiness&lt;/strong&gt;, peace, bliss or whatever other name you give it. Why? Because serving or worshiping God is something that a person comes to know about much later in life. But seeking happiness or avoiding pain is something that a person (&lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;) knows inherently starting from his birth without even anyone teaching him it explicitly. &lt;strong&gt;Because it is happiness that a person ever wants, getting true happiness that is eternal and everlasting is the ultimate purpose of life&lt;/strong&gt;. Anything that a person does, is only a mean to that end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in Hindu or Vedic schools of thought avoidance of suffering (&lt;em&gt;dukha&lt;/em&gt;) and obtaining of bliss (&lt;em&gt;ananda&lt;/em&gt;) has been accepted as the purpose of life. Now the question is, if happiness is the purpose of life where does God come from into the picture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Happiness and God&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2991/38&quot;&gt;real happiness&lt;/a&gt; is defined as something which is infinite. That is, it doesn't wane away or taken over by distress and problems. But the happiness that we generally get from the world and its objects are momentary and temporary being under the influence of time. Driven by never satiating desire, a person will have to work again and again at the cost of disappointment and distress to maintain such temporary happiness. But the sages and saints who have realized God have experienced God as the ultimate everlasting bliss. So the scriptures say, God is nothing but bliss, or bliss itself is God (i.e. God and bliss are synonyms). And by attaining that bliss that once can become blissful:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;anando brahmeti vyajānāt&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up - 3.6]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Brahman (God) is bliss, thus I (Brhigu) realized.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;raso vai saḥ , rasa hyevāyaṃ labdhvā ānandī bhabati&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up - 2.7]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - He is the sweet mellow. Obtaining this mellow one becomes blissful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So God being eternal and beyond the effects of time, unlike the material happiness, any happiness that will be derived from Him will be eternal. &lt;strong&gt;Because happiness is the objective of life and God is the ultimate happiness that there is, scriptures suggest to approach and attain God&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O scion of Bharata, surrender unto Him utterly. By His grace you will attain transcendental peace and the supreme and eternal abode.[BG - 18.62]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, not because God is our creator or master that we need to approach God, but because knowingly or unknowingly it is the ever lasting happiness of God that we are looking for, we are told to attain God. Because until and unless that happiness is obtained, a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; will be doing various kinds of activities for it (both sins and good deeds, but mostly sins due to ignorance and illusion) and will be suffering their reactions in various kinds of bodies in this materialistic mode of existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is serving God the only path in Hinduism to unite with God?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, there are other paths too. Some schools of thought like Samkhya and Nyaya say a person needs to acquire the right knowledge to eradicate ignorance and thus he will be able to avoid suffering, because suffering (dukha) is caused by ignorance only. But it is not always guaranteed that just by avoiding suffering one will become happy (e.g. sleep state). So Vedanta school of thought says by attaining God or bliss that the objective will be fulfilled. So for the purpose of attaining or uniting  with God &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2185/38&quot;&gt;three different paths&lt;/a&gt; have been laid out in scriptures for people of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2396/38&quot;&gt;different ability, state and situations&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;Karma Marga&lt;/em&gt; (path of  detached action)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is the path of just doing good without any attachment to the work and its results. In this path there is no worship of God is required.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. &lt;em&gt;Bhakti Marga&lt;/em&gt; (path of faith or devotion)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is the path where worshipping and serving God mentally and physically is required. Here God is worshipped with form and attributes. The devotee surrenders to God leaving every kind of &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; and always remembers and practices His devotion. So God gives him liberation from the sins of leaving other actions (BG - 18.66).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. &lt;em&gt;Jnana Marga&lt;/em&gt; (path of knowledge)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is the path of realizing oneself to be the Brahma himself (&lt;em&gt;aham brahmasmi&lt;/em&gt;). Here the &lt;em&gt;nirguna nirakara&lt;/em&gt; (attribute less and formless) aspect of Brahma is meditated upon. There is no worship or serving of God in this path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But among these three paths, &lt;em&gt;Jnana Marga&lt;/em&gt; is too difficult and &lt;em&gt;Karma Marga&lt;/em&gt; is too lengthy. Because it may take quite a number of births until one's actions and reactions get balanced out so that he will not born again. Also there are chances of failing from the path in the above two. So the path of devotion is the easiest and safest for most people in this age of Kali, so it is mostly suggested by saints and sages. But the thing is, all paths are cyclically related, so irrespective of from where one starts, if he follows that sincerely he will get the results of the next. And at some point or later a jiva has to practice devotion because only through God's grace that one can &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2952/38&quot;&gt;get rid of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (illusion).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Are we all meant to do is worship God?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, we are not meant to serve God by default. That is, it's not mandatory or compulsory. &lt;em&gt;Jiva&lt;/em&gt; (a being) is independent and hence free do to whatever he likes. But whatever a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; will do, he will do it only for the purpose of getting happiness. So by understanding where true happiness exists, a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; has to do the decision and choice for himself. &lt;strong&gt;It's always the choice of the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; whether to approach God and get real happiness or revolve in this materialistic mode of existence attaching his mind to temporary happiness and suffering distress and disappointment on its way&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because it is always the choice of the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;, even after Krishna (an incarnation of God in Hinduism) explained everything to Arjuna, He didn't tell him to do whatever He said just because He was God. He told Arjuna to think over all the instructions and do as he liked:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;iti te jñānam ākhyātaṁ guhyād guhya-taraṁ mayā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vimṛśyaitad aśeṣeṇa yathecchasi tathā kuru&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 18.63]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus I have explained to you knowledge more conﬁdential than the conﬁdential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So says the Katha Upanishad (2.2) in a similar context that, both material happiness (&lt;em&gt;preya&lt;/em&gt;) and spiritual happiness (&lt;em&gt;sreya&lt;/em&gt;) approach a person, the wise is he who chooses the later. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2014-09-07T03:59:40.280" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2993" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5331" CreationDate="2014-09-03T04:24:18.283" Score="7" ViewCount="1852" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2826/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Isha Upanishad has a special property that other Upanishads don't: it's part of the actual Samhitas of the Vedas, i.e. the part of the Vedas whose verses were heard directly from the gods.  (It's the 40th Adyaya of the Shukla Yajur Veda.) So while other Upanishads are just philosophical teachings designed to clarify the meaning of the Vedic verses, the verses of the Isha Upanishad are of divine origin.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now proponents of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; school of Hinduism don't generally write commentaries on the hymns of the Vedic Samhitas, but they make an exception in this case because the Isha Upanishad is still an Upanishad.  The Isha Upanishad is only 18 verses long, but it has been the subject of voluminous commentary.   For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=VSI1AQAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=upanishads%20sankara&amp;#39;s%20commentary&amp;amp;pg=PA1#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is a commentary by Adi Shankaracharya, a proponent of Advaita Vedanta (a philosophy where the Jivatma or individual soul is identical to Parmatma or the divine soul).  And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dvaita.org/sources/shruti/translation.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is a commentary by Madhvacharya, proponent of Dvaita Vedanta (a philosophy where Jivatma and Paramatma are totally different).  And &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/iso&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is even a commentary by Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada, who believes in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's philosophy of Achintya Bheda Abheda (inconceivable unity and difference between Jivatma and Paramatma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what about the other major school of Vedanta, Visitadvaita Vedanta, the philosophy of the Sri Vaishnava sect of Hinduism (of which I'm a member), according to which Jivatmas are distinct parts of Parmatma but Paramatma extends beyond them?  Are there any Sri Vaishnava commentaries on the Isha Upanishad available online in English?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya, the figure most prominently associated with Visistadvaita, doesn't seem to have written any commentaries on the Isha Upanishad, but two other Sri Vaishnavas did.  The Sri Vaishnava philosopher Vedanta Desikan wrote a commentary on it, which is there in &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8189564080&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=MXnXAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;source=gbs_ViewAPI&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;, but is it available online anywhere?  A Sri Vaishnava Acharya named Koora Narayana also wrote a commentary on it, available online &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/isavasyopanisatk00kura&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in Sanskrit.  But are there any English translations of it?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2021-01-10T08:13:28.190" Title="Are any Sri Vaishnava commentaries of the Isha Upanishad available online?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|translation-request|isha-upanishad|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2994" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2989" CreationDate="2014-09-03T07:04:35.490" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adding to jabahar answer. Also Serving God and his fellow men is a way to express our love (Bhakthi) to the Lord. It is believed widely that through Bhakthi we could reach Moksha(ultimate bliss or one-ness with the Lord), where the soul does not the enter the cycle of of birth and death. If the Jiva chooses this path, serving him in some form is prescribed by the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said that, the Jivas are given a free will to pursue our destination and our happiness. According to the law of Karma &quot;&lt;strong&gt;What goes around comes around&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;, so if the Jiva does good, good will surely come to it. But rebirth of the soul is still inevitable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="757" LastEditorUserId="757" LastEditDate="2014-09-03T07:46:53.047" LastActivityDate="2014-09-03T07:46:53.047" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2995" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3002" CreationDate="2014-09-03T07:34:52.513" Score="4" ViewCount="2340" Body="&lt;p&gt;What shall we do if we get a bad dream?  &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Are there any hymns to be recited to get rid of ill effect of a bad dream? &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;What shall we do if we get a good dream?  &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;What are good signs &amp;amp; bad signs(objects/creatures/incidents) that appear in dreams as future predections?  &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;What type of dreams will become true and how soon? &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Where is the reference of dreams and its effects in any scriptures?  &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2019-02-06T14:06:47.830" Title="How to understand dreams?" Tags="|dream|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2014-09-03T15:59:35.427" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2996" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2989" CreationDate="2014-09-03T09:20:30.227" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It depends on the Love towards GOD. If you Love someone you want to be with them always right!!! If you Love GOD then you will always want to be with HIM. If you think GOD as your guest then you will feel that you are slave for HIM when you worship HIM. If you think HIM as your LOVE who does everything for you, then obviously you will worship HIM always. GOD is with us always, HE cares us always because HE loves us always. If you Love HIM always you will worship HIM always. Worship is to show your love towards GOD. When you love your wife or parents you will always talk proud and good things about them. Even if they do bad things you will condemn them which is also a part of Love. This is what happens with GOD too. When you love your creator, obviously you will love HIS created beings. When you Love GOD you will love your family, your neighbour, your environment, your society and your life. And this is the entire purpose of our life, Love GOD then you will love everything. He created us because HE loved us. Its about to us to Love HIM and Serve HIM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="768" LastActivityDate="2014-09-03T09:20:30.227" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2997" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2985" CreationDate="2014-09-03T10:50:05.277" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, the &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; will not get &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; by such deaths. The default rule is, a person dying such unnatural death as suicide, weapons, etc. will become a ghost:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;udbandhanamṛtā ye ca viṣaśastrahatāśca ye&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;ātmopaghātino ye ca viṣūcyādihatāstathā&lt;/em&gt; [GP - 2.22.8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;One who dies by hanging, also through poison and weapon, one who commits suicide and also dies by cholera etc. becomes a ghost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gardua Purana chapter 2.40 describes many more such untimely deaths upon which one can go to hell or become a ghost. Some of them are, death by strangulation, who fall from peaks, whose bodies are  not properly cremated, who are defiled by jackals, dogs and worms, who die of terrible disease and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally, such kinds of death are considered to be results of past sins. So the chapter 2.44 of Garuda Purana says in the first three verses who die out of suicide, animals, reptiles, water, poison, etc. are said as great sinners.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, what will happen after death, whether a person will enter permanent ghosthood or not, etc. are dependent upon the action of the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; while he was alive (&lt;em&gt;svaiḥ svaistu karmabhiḥ prāptaṃ pretatvaṃ&lt;/em&gt; - [GP - 2.2.33]). So the scripture says God redeems such a soul and gives &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; if he had done devotion and remembered Him always while he was alive:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;baddhaḥ parikarastena mokṣāya gamanaṃ prati&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;kṛṣṇakṛṣṇeti kṛṣṇeti yo māṃ smarati nityaśaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [GP - 2.38.8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;I give &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; to that bound soul who &lt;strong&gt;always remembers&lt;/strong&gt; Me as Krishna, Krishna, Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So even though the natural and default outcome of such unnatural deaths is hell and &lt;em&gt;pretavta&lt;/em&gt; (ghosthood), through devotion and remembrance of God one may get rid of it. After all, what next state the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; will attain solely depends upon the last thoughts in his mind. So the Gita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail. [BG - 8.6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And whoever, at the end of his life, quits his body remembering Me alone at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt. [BG - 8.5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why yogis, even though die at their own will, do not get bound by such laws. They fix their mind upon God and willfully discard the body. But for common people like us, it is very very difficult to remember God while dying because emotions of all kinds, pain and fear of all kinds will take over our mind. Hence, saints and sages suggest to practice remembrance of God always so that it will be easier for us to remember Him while leaving the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-12-12T08:23:14.370" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2998" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2989" CreationDate="2014-09-03T10:52:43.247" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would ask a different question: &lt;em&gt;Do every life have a common purpose?&lt;/em&gt; We people are individuals, and have our own ways. There probably is some common point to reach, but that is far far away. And to &lt;em&gt;your&lt;/em&gt; question: If you have to ask, than the answer probably is: &lt;strong&gt;NO, it seems not to be &lt;em&gt;your&lt;/em&gt; path.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Serving God may have different reason. It should not be slavery, but a &lt;em&gt;tool&lt;/em&gt;. I don't think that almighty God needs/wants slaves and mindless followers. He created us &lt;em&gt;in His image&lt;/em&gt; (this is from Christianity) &lt;strong&gt;to think, learn and evolve&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;(my interpretation)&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I myself do believe in something, but won't say I am religious, neither Christian, nor Hindu, &lt;em&gt;maybe both&lt;/em&gt;, depends on how you define it, how you like it. You might say I follow &lt;em&gt;the path of Knowledge and Love&lt;/em&gt;. That is &lt;em&gt;my&lt;/em&gt; path and I would like to add, that I came to a conclusion, that every human feeling/emotion can be seen as a kind of love or fear (mostly fear of not being loved/accepted).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we can rethink &lt;strong&gt;what is worshiping good for?&lt;/strong&gt; I think that it can lead people to understand love and possibly each other more. Isn't that a good way to evolve? Not for everybody, but some people can really learn a lot this way, let the love they express to God fill them and help them to love others and &lt;em&gt;be good&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why can't we just be good?&lt;/em&gt; Didn't I just answered this question? I truly believe that &lt;strong&gt;this is the best way, &lt;em&gt;to be good&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. But how you learn &lt;em&gt;what is good and what is bad&lt;/em&gt;? Would two people always agree on same act to be good or bad?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This seems what life is all about: &lt;em&gt;learn to be good. And be happy to be good ;)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user769" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-09-03T11:30:03.407" LastActivityDate="2014-09-03T11:30:03.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="2999" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3016" CreationDate="2014-09-03T12:24:19.227" Score="10" ViewCount="1345" Body="&lt;p&gt;It seems that the rituals, customs, deities, methods of worship etc. in Hinduism today are mainly based on various Puranas and not the Vedas. Even the Vedic Gods are not worshiped in temples. Very few Hindus perform Yagnyas or Agnihotras. Do any sects of Hindus still follow Vedic traditions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T05:16:37.697" LastActivityDate="2021-05-07T07:08:46.007" Title="Does Vedic Hinduism exist today?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|history|tradition|customs|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3000" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2989" CreationDate="2014-09-03T12:28:33.580" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my view the main &quot;mistake&quot; here is that we are all PART of someone/something with the name God. &#xA;I see it differently. We are not a part but equal entity with one have more knowledge and ability than others. We are all equally god-like creatures entrapped within our own postulated inabilities. Therefore God as a &quot;Creator&quot; is just a superior to us in a magnitude of knowledge and ability to create. This assumption does not make anyone a &quot;part&quot; of him and give one Much better perspective in a long run to grow and be bigger as person or entity. Even bigger than God him/itself. And there is nothing wrong about it but just a show that individual desire greater Knowledge, Responsibilities, Havingness, Abilities and want to be more a Reason and to Create, rather than be an effect of someone or something. &#xA;The purpose of life in this regard will be to play, create games and learn from them acquiring experience and abilities to grow as a spiritual being. Those games must be ethical and help oneself and others to grow up, otherwise one will only get more inabilities and fall instead of rising above himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="770" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-09-04T12:33:08.437" LastActivityDate="2014-09-04T12:33:08.437" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3001" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3015" CreationDate="2014-09-03T12:41:38.690" Score="1" ViewCount="104" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just as the title says. If a person feels there purpose in life is to create something materialistic, such as scriptures that help others find there way, but at the same time the person feels like they are in bondage because of it, especially when it is a life long quest. How does one recover from that? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism it seems even though the person feels they are serving God, at the same time that person is condemning himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T02:08:05.423" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T02:08:05.423" Title="What if you felt God wanted you to create something materialistic, which leads to a life of bondage, how does one recover from that?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2014-09-04T12:40:57.333" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3002" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2995" CreationDate="2014-09-03T12:48:12.803" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your experiences in your daily life becomes your dreams,your meetings,your doings,your thoughts,your anger,your wishes,youe failures,your success,your relations all of them together form your dreams.You can never know the beginning of a dream.&#xA;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/p/dream-theories.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;psychology.about.com&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dreams have fascinated philosophers for thousands of years, but only recently have dreams been subjected to empirical research and concentrated scientific study. Chances are that you’ve often found yourself puzzling over the mysterious content of a dream, or perhaps you’ve wondered why you dream at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First, let’s start by answering a basic question –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is a dream?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A dream can include any of the images, thoughts and emotions that are experienced during sleep. Dreams can be extraordinarily vivid or very vague; filled with joyful emotions or frightening imagery; focused and understandable or unclear and confusing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So why do we dream? What purpose do dreams serve?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While many theories have been proposed, no single consensus has emerged. Considering the enormous amount of time we spend in a dreaming state, the fact that researchers do not yet understand the purpose of dreams may seem baffling. However, it is important to consider that science is still unraveling the exact purpose and function of sleep itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some researchers suggest that dreams serve no real purpose, while others believe that dreaming is essential to mental, emotional and physical well-being. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yet in Hinduism,they consider things seen in  dreams as significant:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/od/relatedfields/a/dreamsymbols_3.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hinduism.about.com&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lamp:&lt;/strong&gt; Very favourable dream. Very happy life. Family peaceful. This dream is always of good signs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Learning:&lt;/strong&gt; You will attain influence and respect. Good omen to dream that you are learning and acquiring knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Leprosy:&lt;/strong&gt; To dream that you have leprosy always indicates a very great future misfortune. Perhaps you have committed some crime to be severely punished by law. You will have many enemies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Light:&lt;/strong&gt; To dream of lights is very good. It denotes riches and honour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Limbs:&lt;/strong&gt; Breakage of limbs indicates breakage of a marriage vow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lion:&lt;/strong&gt; This dream indicates greatness, elevation and honour. You will become very important among men. You will become very powerful and happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Money:&lt;/strong&gt; Receiving money in dream denotes earthly prosperity. Giving of it denotes ability to give money.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mother:&lt;/strong&gt; If you dream that you see your mother and converse with her, it indicates that you will have prosperity in life. To dream that you have lost your mother indicates her sickness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Murder:&lt;/strong&gt; To dream that you have murdered somebody denotes that you are going to become very bad and wretched, vicious and criminal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nectar:&lt;/strong&gt; To drink nectar in dream indicates riches and prosperity. You will be beyond your expectations. You will marry a handsome person in high life and live in great state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nightmare:&lt;/strong&gt; You are guided by foolish persons. Beware of such people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Noises:&lt;/strong&gt; To dream of hearing noises indicates quarrels in family and much misery in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ocean:&lt;/strong&gt; The state of life will be as the ocean is perceived to be in dream, viz., calm and peaceful life when the ocean is calm and troublesome life when the ocean is stormy, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Office:&lt;/strong&gt; If you dream that you are turned out of the office it means that you will die or lose all property. This is a very bad dream for all people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Owl:&lt;/strong&gt; Denotes sickness and poverty, disgrace and sorrow. After dreaming of an owl, one need not have any hope of prosperity in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Palace:&lt;/strong&gt; To live in a palace is a good omen. You will be elevated to a state of wealth and dignity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Paradise:&lt;/strong&gt; This is a very good dream. Hope of immortality and entrance into Paradise. Cessation of sorrows. Happy and healthy life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pigs:&lt;/strong&gt; This indicates a mixture of good and bad luck. You will have great troubles but you will succeed. Many enemies are there, but there are some who will help you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prison:&lt;/strong&gt; This is a dream of contrary. Indicates freedom and happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rain:&lt;/strong&gt; This foretells trouble especially when it is heavy and boisterous. Gentle rain is a good dream indicating happy and calm life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;River:&lt;/strong&gt; Rapid and flowing muddy river indicates great troubles and difficulties. But a river with calm glassy surface foretells happiness and love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ship:&lt;/strong&gt; If you have a ship of your own sailing on the sea, it indicates advancement in riches. A ship that is tossed in the ocean and about to sink indicates disaster in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Singing:&lt;/strong&gt; This is a dream of contrary. It indicates weeping and grief. Much suffering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Snakes:&lt;/strong&gt; You have sly and dangerous enemies who will injure your character and state of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thunder:&lt;/strong&gt; Great danger in life. Faithful friends will desert you. Thunder from a distance indicates that you will overcome troubles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Volcano:&lt;/strong&gt; Quarrels and disagreements in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Water:&lt;/strong&gt; This indicates birth (of some person).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wedding:&lt;/strong&gt; This indicates that there is a funeral to be witnessed by you. To dream that you are married indicates that you will never marry. Marriage of sick persons indicates their death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Young:&lt;/strong&gt; To dream of young persons indicates enjoyment. If you are young, it indicates your sickness. You may die quickly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Earthquake:&lt;/strong&gt; This foretells that great trouble is going to come, loss in business, bereavement and separation. Family ties are broken by death—quarrels in family and fear everywhere, heart breaking agony and disaster from all sides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Eclipse:&lt;/strong&gt; Hopes are eclipsed. Death is near. Enjoyment may be put an end to. There is no use of dotting on the wife, for life is coming to an end. The friend is a traitor. All expectations will bear no fruit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Elephant:&lt;/strong&gt; Good health, success, strength, prosperity, intelligence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Embroidery:&lt;/strong&gt; Those persons who love you are not true to their salt. They will deceive you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Famine:&lt;/strong&gt; National prosperity and individual comfort. Much enjoyment. A dream of contrary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Father:&lt;/strong&gt; Father loves you. If the father is dead, it shows a sign of affliction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fields:&lt;/strong&gt; Very great prosperity. To walk in green fields shows great happiness and wealth. Everything happens good. Scorched fields denote poverty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fighting:&lt;/strong&gt; Quarrels in families. Misunderstanding among lovers, if not temporary separation. A bad dream for merchants, soldiers and sailors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fire:&lt;/strong&gt; Health and great happiness, kind relations and warm friends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Floods:&lt;/strong&gt; Successful trade, safe voyage for traders. But to ordinary persons it indicates bad health and unfavourable circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Flowers:&lt;/strong&gt; Gathering beautiful flowers is an indication of prosperity. You will be very fortunate in all your undertakings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Frogs:&lt;/strong&gt; These creatures are not harmful. This dream therefore is not unfavourable. It denotes success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ghost:&lt;/strong&gt; This is a very bad omen. Difficulties will be overwhelming. Terrible enemies will overpower you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Giant:&lt;/strong&gt; Great difficulty to be encountered. But meet it with boldness. Then it will vanish. This indicates that you will have an enemy of the most dreadful character.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Girl (unmarried):&lt;/strong&gt; Success, auspiciousness will come over you. Hopes will be fulfilled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;God:&lt;/strong&gt; This is a rare dream which few people experience. Great success and elevation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grave:&lt;/strong&gt; Some friend or relative will die. Recovery from illness doubtful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hanging:&lt;/strong&gt; If you are hung, it is good to you. You will rise in society, and become wealthy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Heaven:&lt;/strong&gt; The remainder of your life will be spiritually happy, and your death will be peaceful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hell:&lt;/strong&gt; There will be bodily suffering and also mental agony. Great suffering due to enemies and death of relatives, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Home:&lt;/strong&gt; To dream of home-life in early boyhood indicates good health and prosperity. Good sign of progress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Husband:&lt;/strong&gt; Your wish will not be granted. If you fall in love with another woman’s husband, it indicates that you are growing vicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ill:&lt;/strong&gt; To dream that you are ill shows that you will have to fall a victim to some temptation, which, if you do not resist, will injure your character.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Injury:&lt;/strong&gt; If you are injured by somebody else, it means that there are enemies to destroy you. Beware of them. Change of locality is desirable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Itch:&lt;/strong&gt; This is an unlucky dream. Denotes much difficulty and trouble. You will be unhappy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jail:&lt;/strong&gt; If you dream that you are in jail it indicates that in life you will prosper. This is a dream of contrary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Journey:&lt;/strong&gt; This indicates that there will be a great change in conditions and circumstances. Good journey indicates good conditions and bad journey with troubles indicates a bad life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;King:&lt;/strong&gt; To appear before a friendly king is a sign of great success, and before a cruel king is very unfavourable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lamp:&lt;/strong&gt; Very favourable dream. Very happy life. Family peaceful. This dream is always of good signs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Learning:&lt;/strong&gt; You will attain influence and respect. Good omen to dream that you are learning and acquiring knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Leprosy:&lt;/strong&gt; To dream that you have leprosy always indicates a very great future misfortune. Perhaps you have committed some crime to be severely punished by law. You will have many enemies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Light:&lt;/strong&gt; To dream of lights is very good. It denotes riches and honour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Limbs:&lt;/strong&gt; Breakage of limbs indicates breakage of a marriage vow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lion:&lt;/strong&gt; This dream indicates greatness, elevation and honour. You will become very important among men. You will become very powerful and happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Money:&lt;/strong&gt; Receiving money in dream denotes earthly prosperity. Giving of it denotes ability to give money.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mother:&lt;/strong&gt; If you dream that you see your mother and converse with her, it indicates that you will have prosperity in life. To dream that you have lost your mother indicates her sickness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Murder:&lt;/strong&gt; To dream that you have murdered somebody denotes that you are going to become very bad and wretched, vicious and criminal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nectar:&lt;/strong&gt; To drink nectar in dream indicates riches and prosperity. You will be beyond your expectations. You will marry a handsome person in high life and live in great state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nightmare:&lt;/strong&gt; You are guided by foolish persons. Beware of such people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Noises:&lt;/strong&gt; To dream of hearing noises indicates quarrels in family and much misery in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ocean:&lt;/strong&gt; The state of life will be as the ocean is perceived to be in dream, viz., calm and peaceful life when the ocean is calm and troublesome life when the ocean is stormy, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Office:&lt;/strong&gt; If you dream that you are turned out of the office it means that you will die or lose all property. This is a very bad dream for all people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Owl:&lt;/strong&gt; Denotes sickness and poverty, disgrace and sorrow. After dreaming of an owl, one need not have any hope of prosperity in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Palace:&lt;/strong&gt; To live in a palace is a good omen. You will be elevated to a state of wealth and dignity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Paradise:&lt;/strong&gt; This is a very good dream. Hope of immortality and entrance into Paradise. Cessation of sorrows. Happy and healthy life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pigs:&lt;/strong&gt; This indicates a mixture of good and bad luck. You will have great troubles but you will succeed. Many enemies are there, but there are some who will help you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prison:&lt;/strong&gt; This is a dream of contrary. Indicates freedom and happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rain:&lt;/strong&gt; This foretells trouble especially when it is heavy and boisterous. Gentle rain is a good dream indicating happy and calm life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;River:&lt;/strong&gt; Rapid and flowing muddy river indicates great troubles and difficulties. But a river with calm glassy surface foretells happiness and love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ship:&lt;/strong&gt; If you have a ship of your own sailing on the sea, it indicates advancement in riches. A ship that is tossed in the ocean and about to sink indicates disaster in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Singing:&lt;/strong&gt; This is a dream of contrary. It indicates weeping and grief. Much suffering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Snakes:&lt;/strong&gt; You have sly and dangerous enemies who will injure your character and state of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thunder:&lt;/strong&gt; Great danger in life. Faithful friends will desert you. Thunder from a distance indicates that you will overcome troubles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Volcano:&lt;/strong&gt; Quarrels and disagreements in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Water:&lt;/strong&gt; This indicates birth (of some person).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wedding:&lt;/strong&gt; This indicates that there is a funeral to be witnessed by you. To dream that you are married indicates that you will never marry. Marriage of sick persons indicates their death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Young:&lt;/strong&gt; To dream of young persons indicates enjoyment. If you are young, it indicates your sickness. You may die quickly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="754" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2019-02-06T14:06:47.830" LastActivityDate="2019-02-06T14:06:47.830" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3003" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-03T12:54:24.523" Score="6" ViewCount="427" Body="&lt;p&gt;I get confused often when I read Hindu scripture translations because it always seem like there is no straight answer to anything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read that Narayana is water that Vishnu came from, but then some say they are one and the same, or that water comes from Vishnu, or that Vishnu actually just rests on water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other places it says Brahma instead of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm just wondering if there is any worshipping of water, or traditions involving water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-17T11:40:06.027" LastActivityDate="2017-06-19T08:53:51.053" Title="Is there any worshipping of water in Hinduism?" Tags="|vishnu|belief|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3004" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3007" CreationDate="2014-09-03T13:02:38.900" Score="5" ViewCount="220" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there anything special about human beings compared to other beings? Especially our strengths and weaknesses? Or are we just weak, or is our strengths &amp;amp; weaknesses determined only by our devotion or connection with God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do we compare ourselves to the Demi-Gods, nagas, demons, angels, divas, devas, rakashas, so on and so forth(I do not know them all).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastActivityDate="2022-07-03T16:14:09.617" Title="Do The Hindu Scriptures Say If There Is Anything Special About Human Beings Compared To Other Unworldly Beings Such As Demi-Gods, Demons, Etc" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3005" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3003" CreationDate="2014-09-03T14:13:21.433" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes there is sometime confusion between Brahma Vishnu and Maheshvara (called as Tridev of Hinduism).&#xA;See every God in Hinduism have some responsibilities I mention some of them&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bramha - Creator of Universe&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu - Manage everything which made by Brahma (generally good things)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maheshvara - Responsible to minimize and destroy which are bad or wrong and control odd things.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in your question you ask for Worshiping of water, so when it deals with creation then credit goes to Brahma and when it deals with water after that the credit goes to Vishnu and When it deals destroy the water  then credit goes to Maheshvara (Also know as God Shankar, Mahadev).&#xA;Also there is one more water worship named as Devi &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Ganga&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (same named as river in India). for more info about ganga you can use search engine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="772" LastEditorUserId="117" LastEditDate="2016-01-06T10:20:32.670" LastActivityDate="2016-01-06T10:20:32.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3006" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2999" CreationDate="2014-09-03T14:15:46.913" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, still there are many Hindus who follow Vedic traditions (might not be following with 100% accuracy but still they follow). I myself know few people who do Nitya Agnihotra, read Vedas daily, perform Sandya Vandana and try to lead their life as said in Vedas.&#xA;There are even Veda Patashala's in India. List of Veda pathasala's in Andhra Pradesh are in link &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicheritage.gov.in/Vedapatasalas_Andhra_Pradesh.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://vedicheritage.gov.in/Vedapatasalas_Andhra_Pradesh.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TTD is also planning to establish new Veda Pathasala's in different locations to improve the Vedic culture in India&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/ttd-to-develop-veda-patasala-at-keesaragutta-in-telangana/article33847419.ece&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/ttd-to-develop-veda-patasala-at-keesaragutta-in-telangana/article33847419.ece&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="34" LastEditorUserId="34" LastEditDate="2021-05-07T07:08:46.007" LastActivityDate="2021-05-07T07:08:46.007" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3007" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3004" CreationDate="2014-09-03T15:05:33.597" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is something special about humanity. Mahabharata Santi Parva section CCC says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The swan [Brahman] said, &quot;..I disclose unto you a great mystery.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;There is no status that is superior to humanity.&lt;/strong&gt; Freed from sin like the Moon from the murky clouds, the man of wisdom, shining in&#xA;  resplendence, attains to success by patiently waiting for his time. A&#xA;  person of restrained soul, who become the object of adoration with all&#xA;  by becoming the foremost of the supporting pillars of the universe,&#xA;  and towards whom only agreeable words are spoken by all, attains to&#xA;  the companionship of the deities.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-09-03T15:05:33.597" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3008" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3004" CreationDate="2014-09-03T15:11:13.203" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will want to clarify first of all the words you used:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Demi-Gods :&lt;/strong&gt; I don't know whom you call demi-gods, but in hinduism their is nothing like a demi god. Yet demi god's definition might look similar to the Devas. The son of devas in human form are not demi-gods, they might have some &lt;em&gt;natural benefits&lt;/em&gt; yet they remain humans only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Demons :&lt;/strong&gt; There are no demons in Hindu Scriptures, there are Rakshas, but they are not demons. Demon means a being having supernatural benefits for wrong deeds, but nothing can go wrong against nature(leaving nature itself), so its not possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Angels :&lt;/strong&gt; Even their are no angels in Hinduism, some people do try to comply them equal to Hindu Devas but their meaning doesn't fits in the definition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nagas :&lt;/strong&gt; Naga are just humans, they are not of different origin or form, they are a very close worshipers of Lord Shiva, nothing else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Divas :&lt;/strong&gt; I never heard that word in scriptures, might be you looking for Devi. And Devi is the female attribute of Deva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rakshas :&lt;/strong&gt; Among'st Lord's creations, their were animals with mind, amongst them were , Vanar( not a complete homo sapien, generally with monkey like attributes), Rakhasa and Humans. Humans are herbivore, and Rakshas are carnivore. This is only the structural difference. Rakshas have the same benefit which humans have, but due to their carnivorous nature they end up developing qualities(Extreme Rajo + Tamo gun) in them which is the cause of evil, hence most of Rakshasas were found evil in nature ( but not all).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short in Hindusim there are &lt;em&gt;Devas/Devis, Humans/Vanars,Rakshasas,Bhoot/Pret(Ghost) and other lower animals.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Among'st them the earthy minded animal ie. &lt;strong&gt;Human,Vanra and Rakshasa&lt;/strong&gt; have a upper hand, they are give the power of &lt;strong&gt;KARMA&lt;/strong&gt;. With their deeds they can not only challenge Devas but challenge god himself. Because of this they gain an additional benefit of gaining MOKSHA( the eternal silence, or the abode of &lt;strong&gt;GOD&lt;/strong&gt;) for them, but others ie. Devas,Animals and Plants are restricted to assigned work and can only find &lt;strong&gt;MOKSHA&lt;/strong&gt; while coming back to human form.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastActivityDate="2014-09-03T15:11:13.203" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3010" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3011" CreationDate="2014-09-03T17:29:03.140" Score="2" ViewCount="253" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am hindu,a believer in hinduism,but respect each and every religion equally....somedays ago I was having discussion about The Gods Goddessess with my friend after which i was left with no answer.....I want to regain my believe in religion and answer my friend to tell him the power of hinduism,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Discussion:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I was on the side of the religion and my friend was against it...My questions are the same as of asked by my friend that left me silent...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me :&lt;/strong&gt;  God Exists !,How can you say that he is nowhere.Who created this&#xA;  world then, have you not heard about jiva and maya etc. etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Friend:&lt;/strong&gt; O really! Where is he then?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me :&lt;/strong&gt; He is all Over&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Friend:&lt;/strong&gt; Man! seriously,you are saying this, I can't believe I am&#xA;  hearing this from a professional like you living in 2014.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me:&lt;/strong&gt; Its nothing to relate this thing with professionalism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Friend :&lt;/strong&gt;  Ok so tell me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If the Gods are real&lt;/strong&gt;,where are they?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhrama,Vishnu,Mahesh, &lt;strong&gt;were they having body structures like humans?&lt;/strong&gt;    if yes then how can they be God(they are Not avatars&#xA;  either)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They were having wives&lt;/strong&gt; like normal human males do, and they were termed as Goddessess.How were they different from humans&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mahesh(Shiv) smoked weed.Really a God?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;What's &lt;strong&gt;karma,punar janma&lt;/strong&gt;,do you really believe in them?Who is taking them into account?The murders happening.the rapes&#xA;  happening,the betrayals.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There are &lt;strong&gt;so many religions&lt;/strong&gt;,with their own boundaries and    restrictions,completely different from each other,how can you know&#xA;  which one to believe.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All these are bookish&lt;/strong&gt;,they are created by the great writers to&#xA;  maintain rules in the past. to make the people fear of the power they&#xA;  can't see,and follow the civilization ,that's all  And those&#xA;  people(the Gods if exists) were the best of there times and&#xA;  great scientists; not more than that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing all this I was left with silence,please provide me with the answer,please........ &lt;strong&gt;Looking forward for responses that will help me to regain my beliefs in religion.&lt;/strong&gt; Because now I am ARGUING WITH MYSELF about my beliefs.....WAS I A dumb following it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;IF something positive exists, then this is sure that negative exists too, i.e the evil, the power opposite to God&lt;/strong&gt; ..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="754" LastEditorUserId="754" LastEditDate="2014-09-09T09:06:17.520" LastActivityDate="2014-09-09T09:06:17.520" Title="Power of the religion,Existence of God-Evil,its structure defined in holy books,Hinduism to define" Tags="|shiva|worship|guru-geetha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2014-09-04T06:42:26.727" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3011" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3010" CreationDate="2014-09-03T18:17:23.427" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Being you, I would provide him and answer, he could understand:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to quantum physics, there must be an observer to make something to exist. Without an observer, world would be an infinite ocean of possibilities, no matter.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is accepted that our universe started with a Big Bang, but who was that observer that made the first impulse, that allowed matter to emerge from that infinite ocean? Wouldn't you call such entity a God?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the question has been altered: There should have been the same amount of matter and anti-matter created and the two should have anihilated again on contant. Yet, there happens to be matter. This leads us to conclusion, that there must have been more matter than anti-matter. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Is the balance really so strict to be equal? How about infinity - infinity = ?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I won't help you with Hinduism much, to me all this is an attempt to describe something beyond our comprehention in words, we could understand - a metaphore. How far it goes I cannot tell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;This part will rather be personal&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, something I feel, something I have seen in my vision: There was an entity asking himself the very first question: Who am I? (Bible, Exodus 3.14: &quot;I am who I am&quot; or simply &quot;I am&quot;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soham_%28Sanskrit%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;So-ham&lt;/a&gt; = &quot;I am He/That&quot;). That entity got overwhelmed with Love to all that has to come - The Creation. &lt;em&gt;(That is quite hard to describe what all I could see and feel, that was me who got overwhelmed.)&lt;/em&gt; That was so called Big Bang. ...some would say, that such God would have desires and therefore would not be a God. We are. What is the difference between pure love and desire? I believe there is no problem in it, but you may find one-step-longer explanation in Hinduism, I don't think it is that important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We are perfect in an infinite time line&lt;/strong&gt;. We are not perfect when we thing about ourselves as only a part of what we really are. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;It is evolution... but what is time?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user769" LastEditorDisplayName="user769" LastEditDate="2014-09-03T19:57:13.457" LastActivityDate="2014-09-03T19:57:13.457" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3012" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2953" CreationDate="2014-09-04T01:47:37.613" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Ganapati Atharvashirsha Upanishad, AKA the Ganesha Upanishad or Ganapati Upanishad, is a text which claims to be an Upanishad associated with the Atharvana Veda; here is what it says about itself in verses 16-18 (see pages 5-7 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dharmicscriptures.org/Ganapati%20Upanishad%20with%20translation.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF file&lt;/a&gt;): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who studies this Atharva text moves towards Brahman.... This&#xA;  Atharva text should not be given to those not pupils....  &lt;strong&gt;This is an Atharva&#xA;  saying&lt;/strong&gt;: &quot;He who moves towards Brahmavidya is never afraid.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last sentence is where it gets the name Atharvashirsha, or &quot;head of Atharva&quot;, because some interpret the line not as an introduction of a quote as this translation renders it, but rather as a statement that the text as a whole was said by the sage Atharva, i.e. that it came right from the head of Atharva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now having said that, it should be noted that the Ganapati Atharvashirsha Upanishad is widely considered to be a later interpolation, not a genuine Upanishad of the Atharvana Veda.  This is for multiple reasons.  First of all, references to Ganesha in ancient Hindu scripture are few and far between, as Ganesha rose to popularity much later.  But more importantly, it's not listed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muktik%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Muktika&lt;/a&gt;, the canonical list of Upanishads, which means that it's presumably less than 400 years old.  Let me explain why.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu scripture was passed down via oral tradition, and there were some good oral tradition processes and some bad ones.  An example of an incredibly rigorous oral tradition process is the one used to preserve the Samhitas of the Vedas, the core part of the Vedas whose verses were heard directly from the gods.  Because these verses were of divine origin, people took great pains to  preserve every last syllable exactly, such as parallel disciplic successions and independent cross-checks.  That is how scholars are so sure that, e.g. the Rig Veda Samhita as we have it today is almost the exact same document that the sage Vyasa compiled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But other texts weren't so rigorously prserved.  In particular, the Muktika Upanishad, a text listing the names of the Upanishads of each the Vedas, was passed down with so little rigor that anyone in the disciplic succession could freely add in titles of Upanishads as he saw fit.  This wasn't done maliciously; it was just students innocently thinking that the text they had received was incomplete, since they were aware of supposed Upanishads which were not mentioned.  This is how Upanishads that are now widely considered to be spurious, like the Kali Santarana Upanishad as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2606/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, were added onto the Muktika canon.  The text of the Muktika only started becoming stable once it was committed to writing, but that was only in the seventeenth century.  So the Muktika is basically a list of all the documents that people even remotely considered to be an Upanishad up until the seventeenth century.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet the Ganapati Atharvashirsha Upanishad is not even listed in the Muktika Upanishad, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://web.archive.org/web/20090805184434/http://geocities.com/advaitavedant/muktika.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  That means that none of the students in the disciplic successions, going all the way up to a few hundred years ago, ever added it to the text, which means that they presumably hadn't heard of it.  So that implies that origin of the text, or at least the time when it started being considered an Upanishad, was newer than when the Muktika Upanishad was committed to writing.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-01-07T02:00:47.840" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3013" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3003" CreationDate="2014-09-04T03:35:54.743" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It might be slightly off topic, but I will explain why there are no &lt;code&gt;straight forward&lt;/code&gt; answers with an example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a text about hata yoga known as &lt;code&gt;Gheranda  samhita&lt;/code&gt;. This is a sample shloka from &lt;code&gt;Gheranda samhita&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganga Yamuneyor Madhye Bala randa Payaswini&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Balavantena grunhiyaa tad vishnum paramapada&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translated literally, it means that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a young widow standing between river ganga and yamuna. If you go and grab her forcefully, you will get vishun pada (&lt;em&gt;moksha or liberation&lt;/em&gt;).  Though the translation is right, the interpretation is totally incorrect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will now tell you the actual meaning of this. Here Ganga and Yamuna refer &lt;strong&gt;Ida&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Pingala naadi&lt;/strong&gt;. The young widow standing between them is nothing but the &lt;strong&gt;sushumna naadi&lt;/strong&gt;.  If you can control your Sushumna naadi, then you will get Moksha or liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's the reason why you need to have a Guru to understand all these. Even some versions of Bhagavadgeeta and Veda mantras have been twisted by some scholars who just translated it without understanding the real meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you don't have Guru and want to learn scriptures, you might become a scholar but you cannot progress spiritually which is the real purpose of learning scriptures in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="779" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-05T16:21:55.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3014" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-04T04:45:42.017" Score="9" ViewCount="862" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, each of the four Vedas consists of four portions: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas which consist of verses heard from the gods; Brahmanas, which provide instructions on the proper conducting of important rituals; Aranyakas, which provide a guide to rituals meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical message of the Vedas.  But the Shukla Yajur Veda is organized differently.  (There are two versions of the Yajur Veda, the Shukla or &quot;white&quot; version and the Krishna or &quot;dark&quot; version.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shukla Yajur Veda only consists of two portions: a Samhita, called the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajurveda#Shukla_Yajurveda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vajasaneyi Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, and a Brahmana, called the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatapatha_Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana&lt;/a&gt;.  That doesn't mean that it's missing Aranyakas and Upanishads, just that they're located in strange places.  One Upanishad, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isha_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Isha Upanishad,&lt;/a&gt; is actually part of the Vajasaneyi Samhita, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2826/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  Another Upanishad, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brihadaranyaka_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;, is part of the Shatapatha Brahmana, specifically forming Adhyayas (chapters) 4-9 of the 14th Kanda of the Shatapatha Brahmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the Aranyaka of the Shukla Yajur Veda, known as the Brihad Aranyaka.  According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aranyaka#Brihad-Aranyaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt;, the Brihad Aranyaka is also part of the Shatapatha Brahmana, specifically forming Adhyayss 1-3 of the 14th Kanda of the Shatapatha Brahmana.  So if Wikipedia is right, that would mean that of the nine Adhyayas of the 14th Kanda, the first three form the Brihad Aranyaka and the last six form the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.  But that doesn't make sense to me; why would the name be Brihadaranyaka Upanishad if it were separate from the Brihad Aranyaka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could it be that the Brihad Aranyaka constitutes the entire 14th Kanda of the Shatapatha Brahmana, making the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad part of the Brihad Aranyaka?  To put it another way, is the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad an Upanishad inside of an Aranyaka inside of a Brahmana, or just an Upanishad inside of a Brahmana? (Whew!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2023-08-30T13:07:04.243" Title="Is the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad part of the Brihad Aranyaka?" Tags="|vedas|yajur-veda|upanishads|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3015" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3001" CreationDate="2014-09-04T04:59:20.467" Score="3" Body="&lt;h1&gt;tl;dr;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Until and unless one has realised God and obtained true happiness, whatever he will do he will do it only for the sake of happiness of himself and not others (even if the reward is intrinsic like seeing others happy). So any kind of work done in that phase may feel like a bondage for the person because he is missing the real purpose.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karma is created when there is mental attachment to it and its results. Without mental attachment and feelings of doership karma will not bind.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Work done for God without any personal motives is always liberating.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand how you feel with this. But I'll have to explain few things first, please bear with me:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, God would not want anything from anyone. It is because, only he who lacks something will want that thing from somebody or somewhere else. But for God there is nothing that is lacking and unachievable :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;na me pārthāsti kartavyaṁ triṣu lokeṣu kiñcana nānavāptam avāptavyaṁ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 3.22]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - O son of Pṛthā, there is no work prescribed for Me within all the three planetary systems. Nor am I in want of anything, nor have I a need to obtain anything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if a common person like us who is not spiritually advanced feels that God wants him to do something, then it's only his delusion. I know most of us feel it from time to time that may be God wants me to do this, may be this is the purpose of my life, but these are only our subconscious thoughts. It is not God who wants us to do it, it is only us who want to do it driven by our nature and predispositions of the mind. Which are arising due to effect of our past karma. We only add the excuse of God to back it up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If God wanted someone to do anything, then the person would have no fussy feelings about it, rather solid confirmation from God through some divine means (like visions, dreams, etc.). That is, God would tell the person directly through some means like he told Arjuna in Mahabharata that through him He wants to kill the evil Kauravas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mayaivaite nihatāḥ pūrvam eva&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nimitta-mātraṁ bhava savya-sācin&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 11.33]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - They are already put to death by My arrangement, and you, O Savyasācī, can be but an instrument in the ﬁght.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it is true that people who have wrong notions or biased views may think God is subconsciously saying him to do a thing, but that's never God, that's always the subconscious mind. How? Because, if it were God, then you could ask Him a diffucult question (like what's the mass of planet Mars) the answer of which you don't know and he would reply back the correct answer. But that hardly happens. So now we are settled on the point that it is usually the subconscious mind, not the almighty omniscient God that influences a person to do some work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now secondly, if for whatever reason a person gets the desire to do some noble work for God like writing a scripture and doesn't have selfish motives, then that work will not bind him. Because work done for the purpose of God is always liberating and its not material:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mad-artham api karmāṇi kurvan siddhim avāpsyasi&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 12.10]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -  By working for Me you will come to the perfect stage.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mat-karma-kṛn mat-paramo mad-bhaktaḥ saṅga-varjitaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu yaḥ sa mām eti pāṇḍava&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 11.55]   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  My dear Arjuna, he who engages in My pure devotional service, free from the contaminations of fruitive activities and mental speculation, he who works for Me, who makes Me the supreme goal of his life, and who is friendly to every living being – he certainly comes to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But one should be careful that such work doesn't produce pride or egoism in him, else tainted by material qualities that work can cause attachment due to the feeling of doership. Mostly when any work is done for the purpose of God, the work and its results,whether good or bad, are always offered to the God. That's why even materialistic work done for God doesn't bind the doer. So &lt;strong&gt;mental renunciation is important&lt;/strong&gt;. The mental renunciation of action (physical  renunciation not necessary) becomes &lt;em&gt;karma yoga&lt;/em&gt;, and any such work whether it is done for or against God does't bind a person. That is the path of without worship I tried to explain briefly in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2992&quot;&gt;other answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if anyone is condemning himself due to the noble work because he is missing out many other things in life and finds himself in bondage due to it, then it's only his lack of understanding. Choices has to be made in life and once done with proper understanding there shouldn't be any feelings of bondage or remorse. And when it comes to doing works related to God without selfish motives, then it is just natural that the person will find himself lacking materially, but he would be happy and peaceful in the mind. I tried to explain it briefly, but if you need more scriptural references or explanation feel free to comment and I'll add them when I get time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2014-09-04T04:59:20.467" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3016" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2999" CreationDate="2014-09-04T06:27:16.773" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is almost always Vedic, even if the customs, method of worship, etc. change. It is true that performance of Vedic Yajna, rituals, etc. have decreased, but that's only obvious for this age of Kali. However, this doesn't mean that Vedic traditions have been forgot. Veda &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; constitute three &lt;em&gt;kandas&lt;/em&gt; or sections (&lt;em&gt;kanda trayatmika veda&lt;/em&gt;). They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karma Kanda  2. Upasana Kanda and  3.Jnana Kanda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt; and rituals for various gods are basically part of &lt;em&gt;Karma Kanda&lt;/em&gt;. The &lt;em&gt;purva mimansa&lt;/em&gt; school of thought deals with the ritualistic &lt;em&gt;karma kanda&lt;/em&gt; portion. So it is the following of &lt;em&gt;karma kanda&lt;/em&gt; portion that has decreased because doing those correctly are difficult in this age of Kali. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the &lt;em&gt;jnana kanda&lt;/em&gt; portion generally contains the upanishdas upon which the &lt;em&gt;uttara mimansa&lt;/em&gt; or Vedanta school of thought is based. And there are many Vedanta schools of thought starting from Advaita Vada of Adi Shankara to Achintya Bhedabheda Vada of Shri Chaitanya. Those schools of thought are still active today and hence they are following the teachings of Vedas as outlined by their respective &lt;em&gt;Acharyas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in a nutshell, Vedas are still followed today in Hinduism, but the &lt;em&gt;karma kanda&lt;/em&gt; rituals have reduced. Apart from the fact that doing them correctly fulfilling all their requirements is difficult today, performance of them leads only to heaven and doesn't give liberation. So because those Vedic rituals deal with the three modes of material nature, it is generally suggested to avoid them if one wants liberation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;trai-guṇya-viṣayā vedā nistrai-guṇyo bhavārjuna&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nirdvandvo nitya-sattva-stho niryoga-kṣema ātmavān&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 2.45]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Vedas deal mainly with the subject of the three modes of material nature. O Arjuna, become transcendental to these three modes. Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But one may ask, if this is so then why does the Vedas contain those things? So the Bhagavatam  says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;phala-śrutir iyaṁ nṝṇāṁ na śreyo rocanaṁ param&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śreyo-vivakṣayā proktaṁ yathā bhaiṣajya-rocanam&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.21.23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Those statements of scripture promising fruitive rewards do not prescribe the ultimate good for men but are merely enticements for executing beneficial religious duties, like promises of candy spoken to induce a child to take beneficial medicine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also know that how in Satya Yuga mode of attaining God was meditation and later on it become Yajna and worships in Treta Yuga and now in this age of kali, because people are not spiritually advanced and interested, remembering and taking of God's names is suggested in scriptures. Also following puranas makes Hinduism Vedic because &lt;em&gt;purana&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;itihasa&lt;/em&gt; have been accepted as the 5th Veda (&lt;em&gt;itihāsapurāṇaḥ pañcamo vedānāṃ&lt;/em&gt; - Chg. Up. - 7.1.4). Also in many rituals prescribed by the &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; of the Vedas are used. So &lt;strong&gt;regardless of whether we are following the &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt; or the rituals of the Vedas, the core of Hinduism is still and will always be Vedic&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now regarding the &lt;em&gt;agnihotra&lt;/em&gt; and Yajnas, the followers of arya samaj possibly do agnihotra daily and I have heard there is a Gayatri Pariwar community who perform Yajna daily. Also from time to time many different organisations organise and perform Yajnas which are basically based on the &lt;em&gt;karma kanda&lt;/em&gt; rules of Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-10-30T04:40:43.710" LastActivityDate="2014-10-30T04:40:43.710" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3018" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-04T09:17:03.807" Score="8" ViewCount="992" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my view the life begins at the time of forming zygote inside the mother's womb. My question is that what is the view of Hinduism about &quot;the beginning of a life&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-09-04T12:04:12.693" LastActivityDate="2019-04-19T06:04:05.093" Title="According to Hinduism at what time the life begins?" Tags="|life|life-span|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3019" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2989" CreationDate="2014-09-04T10:38:37.277" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The four Purusharthas or goals of life according to Hindu Dharma are Dharma, Artha (wealth), Kama (pleasure) and finally Moksha (liberation). Dharma, Artha and Kama are for those who find this world pleasant. Moksha is the goal of people who find this ocean of life positively unpleasant. Mahabharat Santi Parva Section CCCIII describes the ocean of life and the need for moksha as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;That Ocean, so terrible has sorrow for its waters. Anxiety and grief&#xA;  constitute its deep lakes. Disease and Death are its gigantic&#xA;  alligators. The great fears that strike the heart at every step are&#xA;  its huge snakes. The deeds inspired by Tamas are its tortoises. Those&#xA;  inspired by Rajas are its fishes. Wisdom constitutes the raft for&#xA;  crossing it. The affections entertained for objects of the senses are&#xA;  its mire. Decrepitude constitutes its region of grief and trouble.&#xA;  Knowledge..is its island. Acts constitute its great depth. Truth is&#xA;  its shores. Pious observances constitute the verdant weeds floating on&#xA;  its bosom. Envy constitutes its rapid and mighty current. The diverse&#xA;  sentiments of the heart constitute its mines. The diverse kinds of&#xA;  gratification are its valuable gems. Grief and fever are its winds.&#xA;  Misery and thirst are its mighty eddies. Painful and fatal diseases&#xA;  are its huge elephants. The assemblage of bones are its flight of&#xA;  steps and phlegm is its froth. Gifts are its pearl-banks. The lakes of&#xA;  blood are its corals. Loud laughter constitute its roars. Diverse&#xA;  sciences are its impassibility. Tears are its brine. Renunciation of&#xA;  company constitutes the high refuge (of those that seek to cross it).&#xA;  Children and spouses are its unnumbered leeches. Friends and kinsmen&#xA;  are the cities and towns on its shores. Abstention from injury and&#xA;  Truth are its boundary line. Death is its storm-wave. The knowledge of&#xA;  Vedanta is its island (capable of affording refuge to those that are&#xA;  tossed upon its waters). Acts of compassion towards all creatures&#xA;  constitute its life-buoys, and Emancipation is the priceless commodity&#xA;  offered to those voyaging on the waters in search of merchandise. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So your goal for your life would depend on whether you find the Hindu scriptural view of the ocean of life to be realistic or pessimistic. Those who find it to be pessimistic would naturally aim for artha and kama moderated by dharma. Those who find the scriptural view of life to be realistic would want to attain moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to say a few words here about how one can attain moksha. Is serving God or worshipping God absolutely necessary to attain moksha? The answer is no. Bouddhas, strict Advaita Vedantins try to attain moksha without invoking God. Others, those who follow Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Mantra Yoga take help from God to attain moksha.  The ultimate purpose of life is Moksha while serving God is a method to attain Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-09-04T10:38:37.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3020" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3043" CreationDate="2014-09-04T11:38:48.917" Score="9" ViewCount="644" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sometimes I'm very confused about what is life and death. Why are we living and why will we face death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedic shastras, there is detail explanation on what happens after death, what we have to do in our life, etc. But I didn't find about the true meanings of life and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it only &quot;&lt;em&gt;take birth&lt;/em&gt;&quot;, &quot;&lt;em&gt;live on earth&lt;/em&gt;&quot; and finally &quot;&lt;em&gt;face death&lt;/em&gt;&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="782" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-09-07T12:34:53.167" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T05:59:06.697" Title="What is death and life?" Tags="|vedas|death|life|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3021" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3018" CreationDate="2014-09-04T12:24:25.703" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scientifically:&lt;/strong&gt; You are correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By Hinduism:&lt;/strong&gt; Its a soul,which is going to change a body like clothes, leaving off the old one and wearing newones.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eaglespace.com/spirit/gita_reincarnation.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;see this&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaasaa.nsi jiirNaani yathaa vihaaya navaani gRRihNaati naro.aparaaNi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tathaa shariiraaNi vihaaya jiirNaanyanyaani sa.nyaati navaani dehii..&#xA;  B.G. II-22&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That is:&lt;/strong&gt; The life of your &lt;strong&gt;body&lt;/strong&gt; begins when Zygote was formed in mother's womb, but there is no life of your &lt;strong&gt;soul&lt;/strong&gt; (and no death either).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="754" LastActivityDate="2014-09-04T12:24:25.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3023" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3027" CreationDate="2014-09-04T13:13:55.383" Score="15" ViewCount="14065" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata, I know how Lord Shree Krishna had the end of material life as well as his body, but what happened to his body?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="782" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-01T14:13:48.573" LastActivityDate="2017-03-25T23:43:00.140" Title="What happened with the dead body of Lord Shree Krishna?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3024" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-04T13:16:54.810" Score="3" ViewCount="99" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can somebody summarize, in short, the various aspects of Hinduism with respect to,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Morality&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ethics&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Metaphysics&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Origin of life (humans and other living beings)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Purpose of life&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Various paths to achieve this purpose&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Two lines for each point with reference to scriptures would do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-01-10T03:42:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-01-10T03:42:28.163" Title="Tenets of Hinduism in short" Tags="|tradition|rebirth|customs|philosophy|gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2014-09-05T16:12:56.583" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3025" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-04T13:23:32.730" Score="1" ViewCount="164" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's practically impossible for any individual to read and understand all the Hindu scriptures. What is the minimum set of scriptures which a person needs to read and understand the philosophy of Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastActivityDate="2014-09-04T13:37:20.200" Title="Most important scriptures to understand hinduism" Tags="|vedas|history|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2014-09-05T06:58:56.363" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3026" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3025" CreationDate="2014-09-04T13:37:20.200" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you strictly go for the minimum set &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'BHAGWAT GITA'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; contains all. It is the set of most important tenants to listen and perform as per &lt;em&gt;Sanatan Dharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further to clarify on your word 'It's practically impossible for any individual to read and understand all the Hindu scriptures.' You can read all, yes but understanding is a difficult job. Even understanding one line might take years, depending on your knowledge and perspective. To make this easy you need to acquire a Guru, &lt;em&gt;Bhagwat Gita&lt;/em&gt; will not be able to do the 'most' good without him if your understanding and perspective both are small.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastActivityDate="2014-09-04T13:37:20.200" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3027" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3023" CreationDate="2014-09-05T02:45:05.170" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in this answer, Krishna was shot by the hunter Jara who mistake his foot for a mouth of a deer.  What happened next is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Mausala Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Coming up, Jara beheld a man dressed in yellow robes, rapt in Yoga and endued with many arms. Regarding himself an offender, and filled with fear, he touched the feet of Keshava. The high-souled one comforted him and then ascended upwards, filling the entire welkin with splendour. When he reached Heaven, Vasava and the twin Ashvinis and Rudra and the Adityas and the Vasus and the Viswedevas, and Munis and Siddhas and many foremost ones among the Gandharvas, with the Apsaras, advanced to receive him. Then, O king, the illustrious Narayana of fierce energy, the Creator and Destroyer of all, that preceptor of Yoga, filling Heaven with his splendour, reached his own inconceivable region. Krishna then met the deities and (celestial) Rishis and Charanas, O king, and the foremost ones among the Gandharvas and many beautiful Apsaras and Siddhas and Saddhyas. All of them, bending in humility, worshipped him. The deities all saluted him, O monarch, and many foremost of Munis and Rishis worshipped him who was the Lord of all. The Gandharvas waited on him, hymning his praises, and Indra also joyfully praised him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this is just a description of how Krishna's soul ascending to Devaloka (Vishnu's atmaswarupa, which is why it's described as many-armed), because a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Mausala Parva describes how Arjuna cremated Krishna's physical body:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Searching out the bodies then of Rama and Vasudeva, Arjuna caused them to be burnt by persons skilled in that act. The son of Pandu, having next performed duly those sraddha rites that are done to the dead, quickly set out on the seventh day, mounting on his car.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should add that at least according to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=0z02cZe8PU8C&amp;amp;lpg=PA152&amp;amp;ots=NjGr4IqHtw&amp;amp;dq=arjuna%20%22krishna&amp;#39;s%20body%22&amp;amp;pg=PA152#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;local legends&lt;/a&gt; of Orissa, when Arjuna was cremating Krishna's body the heart was incapable of being consumed by the fire, so Arjuna threw it in the sea, and the heart now resides within the Krishna idol of the famous Puri Jagannath Temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-01T14:17:01.947" LastActivityDate="2016-03-01T14:17:01.947" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3031" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3033" CreationDate="2014-09-05T06:46:45.207" Score="16" ViewCount="11658" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How to chant Aditya Hrudayam? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How does it help in life?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the story behind this?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="383" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-16T03:57:02.907" LastActivityDate="2021-02-27T14:40:46.800" Title="What is the use of chanting Aditya Hridayam?" Tags="|ramayana|mantras|surya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3032" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="598" CreationDate="2014-09-05T07:57:55.467" Score="34" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am re-posting the improved answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nobody has given any parameter to explain why Saraswati was a daughter of Brahma. Daughter is produced only by X-chromosome of father and  X-chromosome of mother. That means X-X combination of father and mother respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the case of Brahma and Saraswati this rule is not applied at all. So she is not bilogical daugter of Brahma. Hence there is no question of incest at all. That she was produced from the sperm of Brahma is a trash story without any evidence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Muslims and Christians are citing this on the name of Saraswati puran, which no Hindu has ever heard about. It is not enlisted among the sub-purans also. Ignorant Hindus having no connection with their scriptures are becoming prey to this conspiracy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The authentic sources talk about her manifestation from the air coming out from the mouth of Brahma. So she has no bodily connection with Brahma. Hence daughtership of Saraswati is invalid. No body is talking about the Sanskrit word used in scripture in this case for 'daughter' in English. It has different meanings too. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another fact is that he(Brahma) and she(Saraswati) are not human with bones and flesh like us, so there is no incest. Lamb and Lion are not herded with same stick. Four heads of Brahma and four arms of Saraswati signifies that they are not human. Unless you accept the very first proposition you should not jump to your conclusion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is eternal consort which manifested from half of his body via air. So she has been explicitly called Patni/wife as per &lt;strong&gt;Brihadaranyaka upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथा स्त्रीपुमान्सौ सम्परिष्वक्तौ स इममेवात्मानं द्वेधाऽपातयत् ततः पतिश्च प‌त्नी चाभवताम्। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patni is called better half of man in veidc principle. Though it has secondary meaning for human beings, it has primary meaning for Vishnu, Brahma, and Mahesh. It has been stated in above sentence of Upnishad. We will see the vedic incidences in vedic perspective not in Islamic perspective.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And now the story of Urvashi? One who projected/injected this story is just the best ignorant. He does not know the chronology in vedic genesis. Urvashi never existed when Sarawati manifested. Have pity on them. Suggest to read our scriptures in vedic perspective. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more detailed knowledge for this episode please visit this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindusudarshan.com/debunked/brahmaa-sraswati-thier-relationship-incest.html&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="784" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T08:35:49.257" LastActivityDate="2015-03-04T08:35:49.257" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3033" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3031" CreationDate="2014-09-05T08:29:19.680" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Aditya Hridayam, meaning heart of Surya, is a hymn to Surya the sun god that the sage Agastya told Rama on the battlefield of Lanka right before his battle with Ravana, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga105/yuddha_105_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana.  Here is what Agastya tells Rama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Rama, the mighty armed! Hear the following eternal secret, by which you can conquer all the enemies in battle, my child!  This holy hymn dedicated to the Sun deity will result in destroying all enemies and bring you victory and never ending supreme bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He then praises Surya effusively, after which he gives the actual hymn:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;namaḥ pūrvāya giraye paścimāyādraye namaḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jyotirgaṇānāṃ pataye dinādhipataye namaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jayāya jayabhadrāya haryāśvāya namo namaḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;namo namaḥ sahasrāṃśo ādityāya namo namaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nama ugrāya vīrāya sāraṅgāya namo namaḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;namaḥ padmaprabodhāya pracaṇḍāya namo.astu te ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;brahmeśānācyuteśāya sūryāyādityavarcase |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhāsvate sarvabhakṣāya raudrāya vapuṣe namaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tamoghnāya himagnāya śatrughnāyāmitātmane |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kṛtaghnaghnāya devāya jyotiṣāṃ pataye namaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hail to you in the form of eastern mountain and hail to the western mountain. Hail to the lord of host of luminaries and hail to the lord of the day.  Hail to you, the giver of victory, hail to you, the joy born of victory! Hail to you, the god with green horses, hail to you, having thousands of rays! Hail, hail to you the son of Aditi! Hail to you, the fierce one, hail to you the valiant one! Hail to you, the one with variegated colours! Hail to you, the awakener of the louts, hail to you, the furious one!  Hail to you, the ruler of Brahma, Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu the infallible, the sun-god, the light indwelling the solar orb, the resplendent one, the devourer of all, appearing in form of Rudra. Hail to you, the dispeller of darkness, the destroyer of cold, the exterminator of foes, the one whose extent in immeasurable, the destroyer of the ungrateful, the god, who is the ruler of all lights.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is the benefit he describes to Rama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Rama! No individual glorifying this sun-god, in distresses in difficulties; in the woods or in times of peril, comes to grief. Worship this sun-god, the lord of the universe and the god of all gods with undivided attention. Muttering this praise three times, you will come out victorious in battles.  You will be able to kill Ravana at this very moment, O mighty armed one!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agastya then left the battlefield, and Rama followed his instructions, sipping water three times and then saying the Aditya Hridayam three times, and as a result Surya himself (who was Rama'a ancestor after all) urged Rama on.  And needless to say, Rama did indeed win his battle against Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, I should mention that it's customary to recite the whole chapter, not just the actual hymn I quoted above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-27T17:21:25.933" CommentCount="33" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3034" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2659" CreationDate="2014-09-05T10:22:07.237" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are Three types of Guna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Sattva (the quality of goodness):&lt;/strong&gt; Sattva is Calm, Saintly. Its brings up quality that allows spiritual holiness, forgiveness and submission to God. Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart. &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/17.10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Raja (the quality of passion):&lt;/strong&gt; Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning are dear to those in the mode of passion. Such foods cause distress, misery and disease. Onions and garlic fall into this category.&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/17/8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Tamas (the quality of ignorance):&lt;/strong&gt; Food prepared more than three hours before being eaten, food that is tasteless, decomposed and putrid, and food consisting of remnants and untouchable things is dear to those in the mode of darkness.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/17/9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are what we eat, so you see. When you see the whole picture in Gunas perspective it will start making sense altogether. Why we can't eat certain types of foods, why we do not use some types of food in our Pujas (rituals or worship).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to be a saint/God's servant, humans must suppress raja and tamas guna, and eating sattvic food is a large part of that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="742" LastActivityDate="2014-09-05T10:22:07.237" CommentCount="2" CommunityOwnedDate="2014-09-05T10:22:07.237" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3035" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3024" CreationDate="2014-09-05T11:46:41.663" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is very vast and it contains &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/802/38&quot;&gt;various schools of thought&lt;/a&gt;. So there can be different tenets from different schools of thought. Having said that let me answer the various aspects briefly as per your question: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;1. Morality&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are no common rules of morality. Depending upon the time and situation it can vary from person to person. One thing can be moral at sometime but immoral at other. So what is moral and what is immoral for a person depending upon his caste (&lt;em&gt;varna&lt;/em&gt;), order (&lt;em&gt;ashrama&lt;/em&gt;) and time and has been detailed in many scriptures like the Manu Smriti and the &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt;. So the Gita says the scriptures are the authority regarding what should be done and what shouldn't be done:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should therefore understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should act so that he may gradually be elevated. [BG - 16.24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;2. Ethics&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ethics are simple and well known. For example: tell the truth, &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/755/38&quot;&gt;vasudhaiva kutumbakam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (whole world is but one family), treat father, mother, guests as god and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;satyaṃ vada | dharmaṃ cara | svādhyāyānmā pramadaḥ |mātṛdevo bhava | pitṛdevo bhava | ācāryadevo bhava | atithidevo bhava |&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up. - 1.11]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;-Tell the truth, follow &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;, do not neglect in daily study of scriptures, treat mother as a god, treat father as a god, treat teacher as a god, treat the guest as a god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;3.Metaphysics&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The existence is composed of insentient parts consisting of material elements like earth, water, fire, air, etc. and sentient part comprising of &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; or souls. Insentient part (jada) is called &lt;em&gt;apara prakruti&lt;/em&gt; and chetana &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is called &lt;em&gt;para prakruti&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Earth, water, ﬁre, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego – all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature. [BG - 7.4,5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding planes of existence it is a commonly known belief that apart from earth there are also heaven and hellish realms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;4.Origin of Life&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything originated from God. It was only God that was existent in the beginning. He desired to create the beings and did austerity and from that everything here was produced:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ātmā vā idameka evāgra āsīt sa īkṣata lokānnu sṛjā iti&lt;/em&gt; [Ait. Up. - 1.1.1]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Only the Self (Brahman) was in the beginning. He desired to create the beings.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sa tapo 'tapyata sa tapastaptvā idaṃ sarvamasṛjata&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up. - 2.6]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - He then got heated in heavy heat (i.e. in the heat of austerity). After getting heated by austerity he created all these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;5.Purpose of Life&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To develop detachment towards this materialistic mode of existence and grow attachment towards God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;śāstreṣv iyān eva suniścito nṛṇāṁ kṣemasya sadhryag-vimṛśeṣu hetuḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  asaṅga ātma-vyatirikta ātmani dṛḍhā ratir brahmaṇi nirguṇe ca yā&lt;/em&gt; [SB 4.22.21]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  It has been conclusively decided in the scriptures, after due consideration, that the ultimate goal for the welfare of the humans is detachment from the bodily concept of life and increased and steadfast attachment for the Supreme Lord, who is transcendental, beyond the modes of material nature.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a social point of view, Hinduism accepts the four &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2186/38&quot;&gt;purusarthas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; viz. &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;artha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;kama&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; as the purpose of human life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;6.Various Paths&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only 3 paths (&lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;jnana&lt;/em&gt;) exist for attaining the end result of liberation. Whatever other path we know goes under either of these three:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yogās trayo mayā proktā nṝṇāṁ śreyo-vidhitsayā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jñānaṁ karma ca bhaktiś ca nopāyo ’nyo ’sti kutracit&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.20.6]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Uddhava, because I desire that human beings may achieve perfection, I have presented three paths of advancement — the path of knowledge, the path of work and the path of devotion. Besides these three there is absolutely no other means of elevation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-01-10T03:41:51.047" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3036" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2956" CreationDate="2014-09-05T12:35:32.633" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all I'm not sure weather I'm correct, but while reading one of English translation of &lt;em&gt;Shiva Puran&lt;/em&gt;, I found the translated english of &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vajra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, which means &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'Hard as Lightning'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This can be metaphoric as Vajra and characteristics of lighning, are similar, whatever thing is thrown to lightning(due to its excessive charge density) either exhausts(or repelled) or is passed by depending upon the &lt;strong&gt;'Mass density : Charge Density'&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short any thing thrown towards Vajra will be reflected away (repelled), or will be of no use (exhausted) when coming in touch of Vajra. If in some case its more powerful than &lt;em&gt;Vajra&lt;/em&gt;, will just pass away through it making the &lt;em&gt;Vajra Practically Invincible.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And due to its High Charge Density Characteristics, can become the cause of excessive lightning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="499" LastEditDate="2014-09-16T15:49:54.180" LastActivityDate="2014-09-16T15:49:54.180" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3037" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-05T16:35:32.913" Score="6" ViewCount="2155" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have come across many philosophies in Hinduism with regards to the soul or &quot;atman&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I was just curious if there is any concept of soul mate explained in Hinduism?  Can anyone enlighten?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-09-05T16:43:59.863" LastActivityDate="2014-09-15T15:38:26.637" Title="Is there a concept of soul mate in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3039" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="28969" CreationDate="2014-09-06T04:01:24.227" Score="12" ViewCount="795" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvars&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Alwars&lt;/a&gt; (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The 4000 verses of the Alwars were compiled by the Vaishnava Acharya &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathamuni&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nathamuni&lt;/a&gt; into a book called the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_Prabandha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Naalayira Divya Prabhandam&lt;/a&gt;, which is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it's the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems which Nathamuni used to found what we now call the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivaishnava&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; sect of Hinduism (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm interested in how Nathamuni compiled the Alwars' poems into the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam.  As I understand it, the traditional account goes roughly as follows. (This is what is presented, e.g. in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_Prabandha#Compilation&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt;.)  Long after the time of the Alwars, almost all their poetry had been lost.  Then one day Nathamuni, while on a religious pilgrimage, heard someone reciting a poem of an Alwar named Nammalwar, AKA Sadagopan, in praise of the deity of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarangapani_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sarangapani Vishnu Temple&lt;/a&gt;.  Now Nammalwar had spent his life under a tamarind tree in the town of Kurugur, but he still managed to write such vivid poetry about many of the sacred places of Vishnu.  Nathamuni was spell-bound by the beauty of the poem, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/tvm/tvm5-8.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and then he heard the last verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sadagopan of Kurugur has caught hold of The Lotus Feet of Krishna, (who&#xA;  sucked the life of Putana, the Rakshasa, along with her breast milk,&#xA;  who came in the guise of a lady to offer the infant Krishna her poisonous&#xA;  breast milk to kill Him) and sung thousand verses about Krishna, which&#xA;  are sweeter than the music of flute; &lt;strong&gt;out of those 1000, the readers of&#xA;  these ten are so dear and sweet to Vaishnavas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nathamuni was so captivated by this single poem of Nammalwar that he wanted to  hear the other 990 verses, but the person who recited the poem didn't know any more verses, or whether any other verses even existed.  Nathamuni didn't know how to obtain the other verses, but then he remembered that the lazt verse said that the author was &quot;Sadagopan of Kurugur&quot;, so he decided to go to the town of Kurugur in the hope of learning more of the poems&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The people of Kurugur told Nathamuni that there was a poet named Nammalwar who lived there, but the townspeople had thrown the scroll containing his poetry into the river out of a misplaced fear that Nammalwar's poetry would lead people astray from the teachings of the Vedas.  Nathamuni was distraught, but then someone in the town taught him a poem by another Alwar, named Madhurakavi Alwar, who was a student of Nammalwar.  Madhurakavi Alwar's poem, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://web.archive.org/web/20090331002734/http://www.acharya.org/vyakyanam/kst/index.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, is not about Vishnu like most of the Alwars' poems, but rather in praise of his guru Nammalwar.  So Nathamuni went to the Tamarind tree, under which Nammalwar had spent his life, and he recited Madhurakavi Alwar's poem 12000 times!  Finally Nammalwar appeared before Nathamuni, and taught him the 1000 verses of Nammalwar, the 3000 verses of the other 11 Alwars, and other philosophical teachings.  That, according to traditional accounts, is how Nathamuni acquired the 4000 verses of the Alwars, which he compiled in the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, are there any secular accounts of how Nathamuni compiled the poems of the Alwars?  Western Indologists, for instance, presumably don't believe that Nathamuni acquired them by magic, so what do they think he did?  Sri Vaishnavas consider Nammalwar to be the guru of Nathamuni, since Nammalwar appeared before him and taught him so much.  Do Western Indologists believe that Nathamuni was a contemporary of Nammalwar, and that Nammalwar was Nathamuni's literal guru?  Do they think he learned all 4000 verses of the Alwars from Nammalwar, or do they think that he got the poems from many different people, akin to how Vyasa compiled the Vedas from many different sages?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-06T14:13:29.910" LastActivityDate="2018-09-08T07:05:51.083" Title="What is the secular account of the compilation of the Alwars' poems?" Tags="|history|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|tamil|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3040" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-06T05:36:21.740" Score="7" ViewCount="81" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are different forms of lord Krishna described in &lt;em&gt;Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta&lt;/em&gt; like &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bal Krishna &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Purna Purushottam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ranchodrayji&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Giridhar Gopal&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Makhan Chor &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;... etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I want to know that why and how lord Krishna takes the form of &lt;em&gt;Shreenathaji&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every &lt;em&gt;Vaishanva&lt;/em&gt; follows the form of Shreenathaji with &lt;em&gt;Yamunaji&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Maha Prabhuji&lt;/em&gt;. So what is the story behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="782" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-09-08T19:55:22.153" LastActivityDate="2014-09-08T19:55:22.153" Title="When lord Krishna takes the form of Shreenathaji?" Tags="|krishna|vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2014-09-10T11:21:12.830" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3043" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3020" CreationDate="2014-09-07T12:32:11.703" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is commonly known that God is the eternal everlasting entity that is one without a second. Just like fire, although a single entity, has these two energies of light and heat, God also has these two special energies known as &lt;em&gt;Jiva&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. Of these two we are the sentient &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; and everything else is insentient matter. So these three entities God, &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; are unborn and eternal:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;jñājñau dvāvajāvīśanīśāvajā hyekā bhoktṛbhogyārthayuktā&lt;/em&gt; [Sve. Up. - 1.9]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The knower (God) and the ignorant (&lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;), are both unborn. She (i.e. &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;) too is unborn who is connected with the enjoyer and the objects of enjoyment. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a certain reason, the whole of the existence operates in a cyclic manner. So in course of time the existence appears, stays and then disappears. This has been going on continually and will continue to go on forever. So, &lt;em&gt;utpati&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;sthiti&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;pralaya&lt;/em&gt; are the three aspects of the existence. Because part exhibits the nature of the whole, whatever exists in the existence also follows a similar pattern. So &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; take birth here, live for some while and then eventually die. After their detah they go on to other realms as per their actions and then again take birth here. So this is also going on cyclically. This cycle of repeated existence is known as &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like from a campfire arise thousands of sparks, infinite number of &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; come from God and return to it (Mund. Up. - 2.1.1). But due to the existence of the other energy known as &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; once entering into &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt; gets entangled in it and can not get out and return to its source. Until and unless a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; returns back to God it will keep revolving in this material mode of existence taking birth again and death again infinite times:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;punarapi jananaṃ punarapi maraṇaṃ punarapi jananī jaṭhare śayanam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  iha saṃsāre bahudustāre kṛpayā apāre pāhi murāre&lt;/em&gt; [from Bhaja Govindam, by Adi Shankara]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Birth again and death again, into the mother's womb again,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hard it is to cross this &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt; Oh Murari, redeem me through your infinite grace. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So sages and saints suggest various ways so that we can obtain the liberation from this repeated cycle of death and birth. So yes, for an average person life is simply &quot;take birth&quot;, &quot;live on earth&quot; and finally &quot;face death&quot;, but &lt;strong&gt;for the wise, taking birth was inevitable, so also death, but whether to take birth again or not is dependent upon how he lives on earth&lt;/strong&gt;. If he will not work to get out of the clutches of &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;, then obviously he will work to get more entangled in it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note: This is actually an existential question. So the answer can be varying and lengthy to explain. So I answered it briefly without including much scriptural references.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-01-24T04:25:03.080" LastActivityDate="2015-01-24T04:25:03.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3044" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-08T06:14:31.940" Score="24" ViewCount="10962" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Aranya Kanda of the Ramayana, when Rama meets the great bird Jatayu for the first time, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/aranya/sarga14/aranya_14_frame.htm&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; is how Jatayu introduces himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But that eagle with sweet and soft words spoke to them as though to please them, &quot;oh boy Rama know me as your father's friend.&quot; Accepting that bird as his father's friend Raghava revered it... Raghava revered Jatayu in his turn by gladly hugging and stood by him with his head bent, and that kind-natured Rama is indeed regardful of the friendship of his father with Jatayu that is repeatedly said by Jatayu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, how exactly did Jatayu and Rama's father Dasharatha become friends according to Hindu scripture?  After all, it's not every day you make friends with a giant bird!  The passage I quoted above seems to suggest that Jatayu told Rama exactly how he knew his father, but unfortunately Valmiki didn't see fit to tell us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are three potential stories I've heard involving Dasharatha and Jatayu, but I'm not sure which of them has a scriptural basis:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is the story told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhriguashram.org/ver3/rama_sister.php&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt; about how when Ravana asks Brahma for immortality, Brahma refuses, saying that he is destined to be killed by the son of Kausalya.  This takes place before Dasharatha and Kausalya are married.  To prevent Kausalya from having a son, Ravana kidnaps her and puts her in a wooden box, which he sets afloat in the Sarayu river.  Dasharatha sees the box and jumps into the river to retrieve it.  He gets swept away in the current as well, but then Jatayu sees him and rescues him.  Dasharatha and Jatayu then team up to retrieve the wooden box.  They find Kausalya inside it, Dasharatha and Kausalya get married, and Dasharatha and Jatayu become friends.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the Kamba Ramayana (the Tamil retelling of the Ramayana), when Jatayu hears from Rama that Dasharatha is dead, he laments the loss of his friend, saying &lt;a href=&quot;http://englishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com/2014/07/kamba-ramayanam-aranya-kandam-padalam-1.html&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2712.Oh Dasaratha  who has a pretty mind   without   any guilt  ,&#xA;  When you like the churner which breaks the curd   &lt;strong&gt;killed  Sambarasura&lt;/strong&gt;  ,&#xA;  Who was giving sorrow to the beings    of the world  , you said ,&#xA;  Making the   world  scattered with soft dust  and surrounded by the sea that,&#xA;  “You are the body and I am the soul”, and your words will not change  ,&#xA;  But  with soul lying here ,  the ignorant Yama  has   taken the body to the heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Sambarasura, AKA Timidhwaja, is a demon that is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga9/ayodhya_9_frame.htm&quot;&gt;mentioned&lt;/a&gt; in the Ayodhya Kanda of the Ramayana.  He lived in the Dandaka forest, and was such a formidable demon that the gods enlisted the help of Dasharatha in defeating him.  After the battle Dasharatha was badly wounded, but his wife Kaikeyi drove the chariot and brought him back to safety.  Dasharatha was so grateful to Kaikeyi for saving his life that he gave her the infamous two boons which were later used to exile Rama to the forest.  The Ayodhya Kanda doesn't mention Jatayu, but it's possible that Jatayu fought alongside Dasharatha in his battle against Sambarasura.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is the story told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/gu-F&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the new Amar Chitra Katha comic &quot;Divine Beings&quot;.  Once, during Dasharatha's early days as king of Ayodhya, the kingdom suffered a terrible drought.  Dasharatha consulted his priests, who informed him that the kingdom was suffering the ill-effects of Shani (god of the planet Saturn).  So Dasharatha took off in a flying chariot to find Shani and persuade him to have mercy on Ayodhya.  When Shani saw Dasharatha approaching, he feared that his gaze might kill Dasharatha, so he instead directed his gaze at Dasharatha's chariot, which was burnt to ashes.  Dasharatha started falling to the Earth, but he was caught by Jatayu, who had been watching the whole thing.  In any case, Shani was pleased by all the efforts Dasharatha had gone through, so he agreed to stop Ayodhya's drought.  Jatayu flew Dasharatha back to Ayodhya, and they were friends ever since.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So which of these three stories, if any, has a basis in Hindu scripture?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm inclined to doubt the veracity of the first story, because in the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, Ravana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga60/yuddhasans60.htm#Verse11&quot;&gt;quotes&lt;/a&gt; Brahma as just saying &quot;You know of the threat from men&quot;, not indicating which human it was going to be. I'm inclined to believe that the story in the Kamba Ramayana is probably true as far as it goes, because the author Kamaban was very well-researched, but Kamban never claims that this is how Jatayu and Dasharatha first met.  So maybe Jatayu fought alongside Dasharatha after they had already become friends.  So that leaves the story given in the Amar Chitra Katha comic, which to my mind seems like the most plausible account of how Jatayu and Dasharatha first met.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-06-05T12:01:22.903" LastActivityDate="2021-06-05T12:01:22.903" Title="How did Dasharatha become friends with Jatayu?" Tags="|ramayana|dasharatha|jatayu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3045" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3081" CreationDate="2014-09-08T09:30:22.593" Score="30" ViewCount="2684" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to some religions, donating the human organs (especially after one's death) is considered a good practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is it a good thing to do according to Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have any Hindu acharyas commented on this practice one way or other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="383" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-12-30T22:35:31.867" LastActivityDate="2022-01-10T23:26:31.687" Title="Is organ donation allowed? Have any Hindu acharyas commented on this practice?" Tags="|practice|dharma|culture|death|life|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3047" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3045" CreationDate="2014-09-08T15:38:42.407" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe, organ donation is not a bad practice. Its a religion of Humanity where we can help someone even after your death. Its one way you can help someone after your death. As per my knowledge every religion encourage or support blood donation and its similar to organ donation after your death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interestingly, reports about the use of body parts to benefit others are also deeply embedded in Hindi mythology. In fact, the earliest depiction of Xenotransplantation is the case of Ganesha, one of the best known and most widely worshiped deities in the Hindu pantheon, who is pictured with an elephant head. Various Hindu scholars have endorsed organ donation publicly. Hasmukh Velji Shah of the World Council of Hindus stated that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The important issue for a Hindu is that which sustains life should be accepted and promoted as Dharma (righteous living). Organ donation is an integral part of our living from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/741267_7&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/741267_7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of all the things that it is possible to donate, to donate your own&#xA;body is infinitely more worthwhile. — The Manusmruti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;In the joys of others lies our own.&amp;quot; His Holiness Pramukh Swami&#xA;Maharaj, BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Life after death is a strong belief of Hindus and is an ongoing process of rebirth. The law of Karma decides which way the soul will go in the next life. The Bhagavad Gita describes the mortal body and the immortal soul in a simple way like the relationship of clothes to a body:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;navani grhnati naro 'parani&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;anyani samyati navandi dehi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a person puts on new garments&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;giving up the old ones&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;the soul similarly accepts new material bodies&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;giving up the old and useless ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Bhagavad Gita chapter 2:22&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scientific and medical treatises (Charaka and Sushruta Samhita) form an important part of the Vedas. Sage Charaka deals with internal medicine while Sage Sushruta includes features of organ and limb transplants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I always carry my donor card with me. It says that my whole body can&#xA;be used for organ donation and medical purposes after my death. I&#xA;would like to encourage as many people as possible to do the same.&amp;quot;&#xA;The Late Dr Bal Mukund Bhala, Co-ordinator Hindu International Medical&#xA;Mission, Former President Hindu Council UK&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="774" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-08T19:59:51.210" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3050" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-09T04:07:32.573" Score="5" ViewCount="705" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think there's a temple to some goddess in the vicinity of Tirupati that was established by Vishnu himself.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/753/are-there-any-english-translations-of-the-bhavishyottara-purana-or-just-the-srin&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the book &quot;Venkatachala - Its Glory&quot; by G.V. Chalapathi Rao is an English translation of the Sthala Purana (temple scripture) of the famous Tirupati temple  and this temple scripture consists of excerpts from various Puranas that discuss the story of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt; (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, AKA Srinivasa or Balaji).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Purana describes the wedding of Vishnu and Padmavathi in great detail.  Before the wedding begins, the god Brahma, who is officiating the wedding, asks Vishnu to go worship his &quot;family deity&quot;.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/VXNL&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; describes what Vishnu does in response:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Our family deity is the sacred Sami tree&quot; said Srinivasa. Agastya located the tree. The bridegroom went round it praising it. He then offered worship to his &lt;strong&gt;family goddess&lt;/strong&gt;.... In a golden vessel, filled with pearls and covered by a costly cloth, the family goddess was offered worship and consecrated near Lord Varaha. Srinivasa was conducting himself as an ordinary human being!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I already asked a question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/960/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; about why the Sami tree is sacred to Vishnu, but now I'm wondering, who is Vishnu's &quot;family goddess&quot;, whom Vishnu worships after worshipping the Sami tree?  The only clue we have is that fact that Vishnu apparently had a statue of this goddess &quot;consecrated near Lord Varaha.&quot;  Let me explain what that means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most people only know the story of Vishnu's incarnation as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varaha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha the boar&lt;/a&gt; up to the part where he defeats the demon Hiranyaksha and rescues the earth from the water.  But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2086/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, afterwards he came down and started living on the Earth for the benefit of his devotees, and in fact &lt;strong&gt;Varaha is still alive to this day&lt;/strong&gt;, on the western bank of the Swamipushkarini lake near Tirupati. (In fact the original name of the Tirupati area is Adi Varaha Kshetra - the place of the first Varaha.)  Since Varaha lives there, a temple was built there in his honor, the great &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tirumala.org/ptv_tm_varaha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha Swami Temple&lt;/a&gt;.  Devotees of the Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple in Tirupati, located on the southern bank of Swamipushkarini, are supposed to first worship Varaha in the western bank.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any temples to goddesses in the vicinity of the Varaha Swami temple?  You'd expect that people would take great pains to preserve a temple established by Vishnu himself, so hopefully it still exists today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-03-27T07:24:10.063" Title="What is the temple for a &quot;family goddess&quot; in Tirupati that was established by Vishnu himself?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|venkateshwara|goddess|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3052" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3055" CreationDate="2014-09-09T09:10:55.257" Score="6" ViewCount="6480" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard the name &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'Gandharvas'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, while I was reading &lt;em&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/em&gt;, as the part of the beings in the creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are these? Is there any relation of Humans to them (ancestral basis), or they are simply a different type of beings all together? Can I get a valid link where I can find there description (will be pleased with Sanskrit works and simultaneous translation.)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2014-09-10T05:57:09.193" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T08:21:50.123" Title="Who are Gandharvas?" Tags="|scripture|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3053" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-09T10:27:34.240" Score="5" ViewCount="10788" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said Shiva dances twice a day at dawn and dusk but concept of day for humans is much different from god's, so how to correlate Shiva's dawn-dusk with that of humans?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that all gods will join the tandava/dance in different forms like playing instruments, singing stotras on Shiva! Does Vishnu participate in it? It is said that Vishnu will be in yoga nidra/sleep for half an year, so how would he participate in it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, how is sandya tandava is different from pralaya tandava?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="383" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-20T15:26:09.140" LastActivityDate="2016-07-25T08:36:55.560" Title="Does Vishnu participate in Shiva Tandava and how is Sandya Tandava is different from Pralaya Tandava?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3054" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-09T11:17:17.970" Score="2" ViewCount="66" Body="&lt;p&gt;People do Sraddha for dead elders ( specially parents ). After finishing the pooja &amp;amp; giving dakshina to Bramhana the last step is to feed the crow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So What is the importance to feed the crow for Sraddha vidhi? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastActivityDate="2014-09-09T11:17:17.970" Title="Why do people feed to crow during Sraddha?" Tags="|rituals|sraddha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2014-09-09T14:23:56.647" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3055" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3052" CreationDate="2014-09-09T13:54:16.060" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gandharvas were a different tribe of creation just like devas, apsaras or rakshasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ORIGIN&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Vishnu Purāna, they were sons of Brahmā.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The Gandharvas were next born, imbibing melody; drinking of the&#xA;  goddess of speech, they were born, and thence their appellation. (gām&#xA;  dhayantah, 'drinking speech').&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In another place in the same Purana, it is also mentioned that they were the offspring of Kasyapa and Arishtā, and therefore grandchildren of Brahmā. The Padma Purāna speaks of them as the children of Vach. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hindu mythology, the Gandharva was a minor deity in the Rig-Veda, however in later writings they were described as a class of semi divine beings.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;In Fact, Vishvavasu is probably the oldest Gandharva mentioned who is also the composer of Rigveda ( 10.139) by the name Vishvavasu Devgandharva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following is the Ananda Valli from the Taittiriya Upanishad explaining the different levels of happiness among various species of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;te ye satam manusa anandah | sa eko manusyagandharvanamanandah |&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;srotriyasya cakamahatasya |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;One hundred such units of human joy make up a single unit of joy&#xA;  which the manushya gandharva possesses. A sage full of revelation and&#xA;  free from all cravings also possesses the same joy.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Gandharva in general refers to a species of heavenly musicians. There&#xA;  are two categories of gandharvas mentioned in these verses. The first&#xA;  is the manushya gandharvas - or human gandharvas, and the second is&#xA;  the deva gandharvas - or heavenly gandharvas. On the earthly planet&#xA;  there are many realms of existence that are inaccessible to the&#xA;  ordinary humans. These realms exist on high dimensions of space.&#xA;  According to the Vedic conception of reality there are 64 dimensions&#xA;  of existence, of which ordinary humans interact with three. The&#xA;  manushya gandharvas live in higher dimensions within the earthly realm&#xA;  of existence. There are many descriptions within the Puranas of lands&#xA;  existing on this planet that are inaccessible to us. For example,&#xA;  there are three different levels of the Himalayas. What we experience&#xA;  as the Himalayas is only the lowest dimensional level. It is described&#xA;  in the Mahabharata that Bhima was able to visit many of these higher&#xA;  dimensional realms when he was collecting wealth for the rajasuya&#xA;  yajna. Also the palace of Yudhishthira Maharaja was created by&#xA;  yakshas, who exist on higher dimensions. The artwork they made for the&#xA;  palace (paintings, carpets, ceiling, etc.) was actually animated and&#xA;  in three dimensions. So much so that it was not possible to&#xA;  distinguish it from reality. For those who are existing in three&#xA;  dimensions, a painting will be done in two dimensions. But for those&#xA;  existing in four dimensions, a painting will be done in three&#xA;  dimensions. This is why Duryodhana was confused when he entered&#xA;  Yudhishthira's palace, and ended up stepping in a pond, thinking it&#xA;  was the floor.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;te ye satam manusya-gandharvanamanandah | sa eko&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;devagandharva-namanandah | srotriyasya cakamahatasya |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;One hundred such units of joy which the manushya gandharva possesses&#xA;  make the joy of the deva gandharva. A sage full of revelation and free&#xA;  from all cravings also possesses the same joy.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[This verse is describing the heavenly gandharvas. They are a heavenly&#xA;  species. Their leader is Vishvavasu, who guards the soma rasa. This&#xA;  category of gandharva mainly makes up the celestial musicians. They&#xA;  entertain the higher devas and perform in Indra's court.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;te ye satam devagandarvanamanandah | sa ekah pitrinam&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ciralokalokanamanandah | srotriyasya cakamahatasya |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;One hundred such units of joy which the deva gandharva possess make&#xA;  the joy of the Pitrus who inhabit the long enduring would. A sage full&#xA;  of revelation and free from all cravings also possesses the same joy.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bvashram.org/articles/gods-demigods-and-incarnations.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/the-age-of-the-gandharvas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Age of Gandharvas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp48.htm#fr_449&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gandharva origins&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://historyindianized.blogspot.com/2012/06/exotic-tribes-of-india-gandharva-apsara.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Famous Gandharvas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T08:21:50.123" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T08:21:50.123" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3056" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-09T14:55:13.583" Score="14" ViewCount="342" Body="&lt;p&gt;I understand that Lord Vishnu's body is &lt;em&gt;aprakrita&lt;/em&gt;, composed of &lt;em&gt;sat-chit-ananda&lt;/em&gt;, but is it understood to have a &lt;strong&gt;physical&lt;/strong&gt; reality?  i.e. four arms, two legs, one head, two eyes, five fingered hands, ie, a basic humanoid form that predates the creation of humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does it contrast with the &lt;em&gt;Advaita&lt;/em&gt; understanding of &lt;em&gt;nirguna brahman&lt;/em&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="226" LastEditorUserId="226" LastEditDate="2014-09-10T19:45:58.443" LastActivityDate="2015-10-17T00:51:37.880" Title="What are the different Vaishnava interpretations on the nature of Lord Vishnu's physical form?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|philosophy|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3057" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3059" CreationDate="2014-09-10T05:21:40.757" Score="5" ViewCount="4639" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard somebody mention a sacrifice that was made before the Mahabharata battle began. Please share any information available.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="256" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T03:31:34.030" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T03:31:34.030" Title="Who was the first to die in the battle of the Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|death|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3058" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8404" CreationDate="2014-09-10T06:05:34.160" Score="10" ViewCount="32288" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Venkatachala Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana describes the story of Venkateshwara (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, AKA Balaji or Srinivasa).  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/5Z38&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; describes how Brihaspati, guru of the gods, is called by Padmavathi's father Akasa Raja to fix a date for the marriage of Vishnu and Padmavathi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saying &quot;So be it&quot; the Lord of men called Brihaspati from the world of Suras asked him about (the hour) for the marriage of the girl and the bridegroom.  The king asked: &quot;The native star of the girl is Mrigashirsha; &lt;strong&gt;that of The Lord is Shravana&lt;/strong&gt;.  Let the conjunction of these two be considered.&quot;  On hearing it [Brihaspati] said &quot;The star Uttaraphalguni suits both of them for the increase of their happiness. It is declared so by the divine astrologers.  Let their marriage be celebrated on the marriage be celebrated on the Uttaraphalguni day.&quot;  He said, &quot;Let it be celebrated duly in the month if Vaishakha.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why does Vishnu have Shravana as his Nakshatra or birth star?  Vishnu's connection to Shravana Nakshatra isn't limited to Venkateshwara, by the way; &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=vI_OINmOtDYC&amp;amp;lpg=PA17&amp;amp;dq=shravana%20vishnu&amp;amp;pg=PA17#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says &quot;Vishnu is the presiding deity over Shravana&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now strictly speaking it's meaningless for Vishnu to have a &quot;birth star&quot;.  First of all, as Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/10/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in the Bhagavad Gita, Vishnu is unborn, and second of all he's older than the stars!  So I assume it's referring to the birth one of Vishnu's incarnations (avataras), because similar answers are given elsewhere in the story.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/485/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, when Vishnu is asked by Padmavathi and her friends what dynasty he belongs to, he says he is a member of the solar dynasty, because Rama was a descendant of Surya the sun god.  And when asked who his parents are, the answer given is Vasudeva and Devaki, the parents of Krishna.  So presumably this too is a reference to one of Vishnu's incarnations&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But which one?  The Bala Kanda of the Ramayana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga18/balaitrans18.htm#Verse9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that Rama was born during Punarvasu Nakshatra, and the Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/3/1-5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that Krishna was born during Rohini Nakshatra.  So was someone else born during Shravana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do Hindu scriptures provide any explanation of why Shravana is considered the birth star of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T03:34:20.030" Title="Why is Shravana Nakshatram considered the &quot;birth star&quot; of Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|venkateshwara|skanda-purana|nakshatra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3059" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3057" CreationDate="2014-09-10T06:54:17.103" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;On the first day of the Kurukshetra war, there were countless unnamed warriors who die, before any named characters were killed.  The Bhishma Parva &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06046.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; what was generally going on:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And in that awful combat destructive of heroes, the sire slew the son, the son slew the sire, the sister's son slew the maternal uncle, the maternal uncle slew the sister's son, friend slew friend, and relatives slew kinsmen. Even thus the slaughter took place in that encounter of the Kurus with the Pandavas. And in that frightful and terrible battle in which no consideration was shown (by anybody for anybody).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the first named character killed in the war was Virata's son Uttara, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06047.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;who was killed&lt;/a&gt; by Madri's brother Shalya (who was unfortunately forced to fight on the Kaurava side, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6609/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Uttara also, the son of Virata, on a tusker with upraised trunk, rushed against the ruler of the Madras. Salya, however, succeeded in checking the unparalleled impetuosity of that prince of elephants rushing quickly towards his car. That prince of elephants, in great wrath, placing his leg upon the yoke of (Salya's) car, killed his four large steeds of excellent speed. The ruler of the Madras then, staying on that car whose steeds had been slain, hurled a dart, all made of iron, and resembling a snake, for slaying Uttara outright. The latter's coat of mail being cut through by that dart, he became totally deprived of his senses and fell down from his elephant's neck, with the hook and the lance loosened from his grasp. And Salya then, taking up his sword and jumping down from his excellent car, and putting forth his prowess, cut off the large trunk of that prince of elephants. His coat of mail pierced all over with a shower of arrows, and his trunk cut off, that elephant uttered a loud shriek and fell down and expired. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other sons of Virata, the king who hosted the Pandavas during their year in hiding, were also killed in the war, along Virata with himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-03-05T06:18:36.267" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3060" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3061" CreationDate="2014-09-10T07:30:29.453" Score="15" ViewCount="11836" Body="&lt;p&gt;This confusion came into my mind after watching Ekta Kapoor's 'Kahani Mahabharat Ki..' TV serial.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I saw this story that Rishi Vyasa was the biological father of Dhitarashtra and Pandu, or something like that. Is this true? What is the story behind the birth of Dhritarashtra and Pandu? Or was it Vidura who was the son of Vyasa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="742" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-05-16T19:05:07.487" LastActivityDate="2016-03-28T15:58:05.510" Title="Were Kauravas and Pandavas the biological decendants of Vyasa?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|vyasa|kauravas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3061" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3060" CreationDate="2014-09-10T08:59:20.743" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Kauravas are biological descendants of Vyasa, but the Pandavas are not, as I'll explain below.  But first, some background.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shantanu, king of Hastinapura many generations before the Pandavas and Kauravas, married the goddess Ganga and had a son named Bhishma.  But then Ganga abandoned Shantanu, and Shantanu later fell in love with a woman Satyavati. But Satyavati's (adopted) father Matsyagandha, the chief of a fisherman tribe, wouldn't consent to the marriage, because he was afraid that Bhishma and his descendants would rule Hastinapura rather than Satyavati's children. So Bhishma made a vow that he would never become king, and that he would remain celibate so that his descendants could never claim the throne. (It's because of that terrible vow that he got the name &quot;Bhishma&quot; or terrible.) Then Matsyagandha agreed to the marriage, and in due course of time, Shantanu and Satyavati had two sons, Vichitravirya and Chitrangadaa. When Shantanu died Chitrangada became king, but he soon died after a confrontation with a Gandharva because the two of them had the same name (yes, really!).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Vichitravirya became of marriageable age, Bhishma heard that the king of Kashi was holding a Swayamvara for his daughters Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika.  So Bhishma went to the Swayamvara kidnapped the three princesses.  As I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2178/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, he released the eldest princess Amba, a decision that would later have devastating consequences.  In any case, Vichitravirya married Ambika and Ambalika, but almost immediately thereafter he died of a disease.  So now the kingdom faced an uncertain future, because Vichitravirya and Chitrangadu was dead, and Bhishma could not have children, which meant there was no prospect of heirs to the throne.  So Shantanu's widow Satyavati sent for the sage Vyasa, a son she had with the sage Parashara before she met Shantanu, and told him to father sons with the two queens.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Vyasa, being an ascetic, didn't pay much attention to his appearance, so the queens were quite hesitant to have children with him.  As &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, Ambika closed her eyes the whole time, so Vyasa got angry and put a curse on her that she would have a blind son, Dhritharashtra.  And Ambalika was pale the whole time, so Vyasa put a curse on her that her son Pandu would have leprosy.  On the other hand, Ambika's maidservant was eager to have a child with such an illustrious sage, so Vyasa fathered a child with her as well, Vidura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So yes, this does mean that biologically the Kauravas were the grandchildren of Vyasa, since they were the sons of Dhritarashtra and Gandhari.  But that doesn't mean that the Pandavas are the grandsons of Vyasa as well.  You see, although the Pandavas were the sons of Kunti and Madri, the two wives of Pandu, they are not in fact Pandu's biological children.  Pandu had incurred a curse that he could not touch any woman with desire.  So Kunti used a special mantra she had acquired from the sage Durvasa which allowed you to have children with any god.  So Kunti used the mantra to have three sons - Yudhishtra from Yama the god of death, Arjuna from Indra, and Bhima from Vayu the wind god.  And she taught the mantra to Madri who used it to have two sons, Nakula and Sahadeva, with the two Ashwini Kumaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up, the Kauravas had the blood of Vyasa, and thus some small amount of blood from Shantanu's wife Satyavati, albeit not the blood of Shantanu himself.  The Pandavas, on the other hand, didn't even have the blood of Vyasa, being the sons of gods.  Ironically, the only living person at the time of the Mahabharata war who had blood from the actual royal family of Hastinapura was Bhishma, the one person who couldn't be king or have children.  So in the strictest sense the bloodline of Shantanu ended with the death of Bhishma at the end of the Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-04-08T07:48:40.177" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3062" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3082" CreationDate="2014-09-10T09:42:36.313" Score="8" ViewCount="11247" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is also said that he was more angry with either Bheeshma, Pandu, Shantanu's ancestors or the whole Kurus line because of the way the Kurus had destroyed his line years before. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a story behind Shakuni's upbringing and this war between Gandhar and Hastinapur. What is it exactly? He is seen by many as one of the key persons that caused the Kurukshetra War (Apart from his role that dice game, hate Pandavas and all.). Was revenge the only reason he left Gandhar and came to Hastinapur with his sister Gandhari? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="742" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-10T17:12:08.337" LastActivityDate="2018-07-02T04:14:12.400" Title="Why was Shakuni unhappy with his sister Gandhari's marriage to Dhritarashtra?" Tags="|mahabharata|gandhari|shakuni|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3063" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3053" CreationDate="2014-09-10T11:05:27.373" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The history behind it:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is believed that Lord Shiva is the king of all dancers. He was an expert in the thandava style of dancing. This is a vigorous manly style of dancing. This stotra is about him while in the act of dancing. Alliteration and onomatopoeia create roiling waves of resounding beauty in this great stotra. This stotra which is so majestic was composed by none other than Ravana, the demon king, who ruled over Sri Lanka, who was one of the great devotees of Lord Shiva. Once the proud Ravana conquered the entire World and approached Mount Kailas on top of which Lord Shiva resides with his consort Goddess Parvathi. Ravana called Lord Shiva to come down. When he did not, he uprooted the mountain with his twenty hands. This made Goddess Parvathi jittery. Then Lord Shiva pressed down the mountain with his thumb. Ravana was crushed by the weight of the mountain. Ravana shouted very loudly that all the three worlds get frightened. He shouts in pain and praises Lord Shiva by singing the Sama Veda and this great stotra composed by him. Lord Shiva was pleased and pardoned him and gives the name Ravana (Who roared very loudly. Before this incident, he was known as Dashakantha or Dashagreeva). &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saivism.net/prayers/tandava.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference-1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EqtIl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EqtIl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Ravana lifting Kailasa (statue)&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana as we all know was a learned man. He  was so obessed with his powers that he thought of lifting the Mount Kailash –the abode of his guru –Shiva. He even managed to do it, Shiva was annoyed and He put it back in place by pressing it with his toe. Ravana realised his folly and he composed and sung the famous Shiv-Tandav Stotra in praise of Shiva. Shiva, as he is known for his benovelence got impressed by his intense tapas and granted him the boon of indestructability. He also bestowed him with the most powerful weapon - the chandrahas. Shiv Tandav stotra sings praises of shiva’s beauty and power. It is a unique example of Hindu devotional poetry and its recitation creates rolling waves of resounding beauty.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Those who read Shiva Tandav Stotra at the end of every worship or, read it after worship of Lord Shiva on the Pradosh day, They are said to receive the blessings of Lord Shiva, and of god of wealth. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ezinekaleidoscope.com/beautiful-prayer-shiva-tandava-stotram.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference-2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Monday is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is said that Lord Shiva is easily pleased. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.londonsrimurugan.org/pdf/EachDayoftheWeek.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference-3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="600" LastEditorUserId="600" LastEditDate="2016-07-25T08:36:55.560" LastActivityDate="2016-07-25T08:36:55.560" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3064" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15736" CreationDate="2014-09-10T11:29:29.917" Score="8" ViewCount="2019" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard a story about &lt;em&gt;Kamadeva&lt;/em&gt;, here it is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; was doing deep meditation, &lt;em&gt;Kamadeva&lt;/em&gt; disturbs him by inducing love and desire into &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt;, which caused disturbance to &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt; and made &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt; angry. Because of which &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt; opened his third eye and burned &lt;em&gt;Kamadeva&lt;/em&gt; and turned him into ashes. But by the request of &lt;em&gt;Devi Rati&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt; resurrects &lt;em&gt;Kamadeva&lt;/em&gt; only for &lt;em&gt;Rati&lt;/em&gt; such that she only can see.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is he really dead for others? If he died, then how come humans still get feelings of love and desire with out the existence of &lt;em&gt;Kamadeva&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2018-12-18T05:28:56.437" LastActivityDate="2018-12-18T05:28:56.437" Title="Is Kamadeva (Manmatha) still alive or dead?" Tags="|gods|shiva-purana|kamadeva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3065" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3067" CreationDate="2014-09-10T11:30:05.917" Score="6" ViewCount="1793" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, we light camphor to the God statues in the temples. what is the symbol of that. In addition, we also give aarati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What exactly is it mean , and why must one do it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="383" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2014-09-11T13:38:08.383" LastActivityDate="2014-09-11T13:38:08.383" Title="what is the significance of lighting camphor infront of god?" Tags="|rituals|gods|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2014-09-11T17:28:52.267" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3066" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3064" CreationDate="2014-09-10T11:50:11.317" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;em&gt;Shiva Puran&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; told the deities that &lt;em&gt;Kamadeva&lt;/em&gt; would take birth as the son of &lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Rukmini&lt;/em&gt; in the era of dwapar. A demon by the name of Shambar would throw him off in the sea. He would kill that demon and marry &lt;em&gt;Rati&lt;/em&gt;, who too would be living in a city near the sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the deities were not satisfied. They requested &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; to help &lt;em&gt;Rati&lt;/em&gt; to unite with her husband. &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; then told them that &lt;em&gt;Kamadeva&lt;/em&gt; would become his Gana, but he also warned them against revealing this fact to anybody. Rati then went to the city where the demon Shambar was expected to appear in the era of dwapar. The deities too went back to the heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This clearifies that kamadeva is still alive and is now the gana of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;End Note :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;Kamadeva is still alive, doing the same job, but under different leader.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-10T11:50:11.317" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3067" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3065" CreationDate="2014-09-10T13:09:58.847" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, Aarti is an important part of daily worship. &#xA;Very good question. &#xA;There are lots of things we do in the daily routine life but lots of them do not make sense in common logic but we have to check back on History. Here it is explained in simple words by BAPS Sanstha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bochasanvasi Shree Aksharpurshottam Sansatha explained significance of Aarti in simeple words here....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Aarti is the symbolic waving of a lighted wick in a clockwise motion in front of the murti of Bhagwan while singing a prayer. It symbolizes the removal of darkness by true spiritual enlightenment. Aarti is a tradition dating back thousands of years. In ancient times, there was little light inside the mandirs, and even less light actually reached the garbha gruh, or the inner sanctum of the mandir where the murtis are located. The only way to have darshan of the murtis was from the light cast from a divo, a clay lamp with a cotton wick dipped in ghee. During aarti, this lamp was held near each part of the murti so that devotees could properly see all the parts of the murti. Today, millions of Hindus devoutly perform aarti in their homes or attend aarti at mandirs everyday.&quot;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.baps.org/Spiritual-Living/Hindu-Practices/Aarti.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.baps.org/Spiritual-Living/Hindu-Practices/Aarti.aspx&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aarti is the ancient practice of waving a lighted wick in a clockwise motion around a murti while singing a prayer.  It symbolizes the removal of darkness by true spiritual enlightenment.  Devotees typically perform aarti twice in their ghar mandir, once in the morning and again at night.  In traditional Hindu mandirs, aarti is performed 5 times a day. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.baps.org/About-BAPS/WhoWeAre/BasicBeliefs/Practices.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.baps.org/About-BAPS/WhoWeAre/BasicBeliefs/Practices.aspx&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="774" LastActivityDate="2014-09-10T13:09:58.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3068" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-10T19:30:08.743" Score="0" ViewCount="94" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't understand why &lt;strong&gt;Caste System&lt;/strong&gt; is there Hindu Religion. How could it be possible that a religion divides people? If I am not wrong &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shri Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; himself describes caste in &lt;strong&gt;Shrimad Bhagvat Gita&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually, here by asking this I want to know why Lord Shri Krishna describes the caste system, how he could divide his own devotees in terms of:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmin&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaishya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shudra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To God all his devotees are same then how could he describes that god will accept prayers and havan only if we do it with brahmins?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="751" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-24T17:42:14.340" LastActivityDate="2016-05-24T17:42:14.340" Title="Why is Caste System there in Hindu religion?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|caste-system|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2014-09-11T05:18:02.897" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3069" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8438" CreationDate="2014-09-11T04:43:57.403" Score="10" ViewCount="2421" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani compiled in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Book 8 Hymn 33 of the Rig Veda was heard from the gods by the sage Medhyatithi, a descendant of the sage Kanva, and it's addressed to the god Indra.  But the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv08033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;hymn ends&lt;/a&gt; in a rather odd way:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;17 Indra himself hath said, &quot;The mind of woman brooks not discipline,&#xA;  Her intellect hath little weight.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18 His pair of horses, rushing on in their wild transport, draw his car:&#xA;  High-lifted is the stallion's yoke.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;19 Cast down thine eyes and look not up. More closely set thy feet. Let none&#xA;  See what thy garment veils, &lt;strong&gt;for thou, a Brahman, hast become a dame&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, I don't know whether in verse 17 Indra is making a general observation about the intelligence of women, or just a statement about some particular woman! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my main question is, who is the person being addressed in verse 19, apparently a Brahmana man who has transformed into a woman somehow?  Is it a reference to the story of Asanga, the man described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv08001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 8 Hymn 1&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda, who was temporarily cursed to turn into a woman and then restored?  And what does any of this have to do with Indra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2018-08-30T17:30:45.520" Title="Who is the Brahmana changed into a woman in the Rig Veda?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|indra|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3073" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3075" CreationDate="2014-09-11T10:55:34.580" Score="12" ViewCount="4161" Body="&lt;p&gt;While going through I found scriptures depicting about &lt;em&gt;Pancha Kosha&lt;/em&gt;, suggesting the &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt; is not just inside the physical body but is actually wrapped up in these Five Kosha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are these &lt;em&gt;Pancha Kosha&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T10:56:11.563" Title="What are Five Layers (Pancha Kosha) of Human?" Tags="|scripture|yoga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3074" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3073" CreationDate="2014-09-11T11:04:13.223" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The subtle or metaphysical body of &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; is said to be consisting of five different sheaths or layers known as &lt;em&gt;pancha kosha&lt;/em&gt;. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Annamaya kośa&lt;/em&gt;  — Food filled sheath&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Prāṇamaya kośa&lt;/em&gt;  — Life air filled sheath&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Manōmaya kośa&lt;/em&gt;  — Mind filled sheath&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vijñānamaya kośa&lt;/em&gt;  — Knowledge filled sheath (Intellect)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ānandamaya kośa&lt;/em&gt;  — Bliss filled sheath&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; is said to be covered by these five sheaths and the last one (bliss) is its true nature. The Taitariya Upanishad discusses about it in some more detail in a metaphorical way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-09-11T11:04:13.223" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3075" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3073" CreationDate="2014-09-11T11:28:29.943" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Human body is actually a sheath or &lt;em&gt;Kosha&lt;/em&gt;, if we dig deeper towards the soul(Atman), we find five distinct layers covering it, these are called the &lt;em&gt;Five Sheaths&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Pancha Kosha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Annamay Kosha :&lt;/strong&gt; Meaning &lt;em&gt;'Food Sheath'&lt;/em&gt;, is the physical body, with hands, eyes, the body which has a name and dies. This is the gross, physical body. This is the sheath of the physical self, named from the fact that it is nourished by food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pranamaya Kosha :&lt;/strong&gt; Meaning &lt;em&gt;'Life Air Sheath'&lt;/em&gt;, contains the word Prana, which holds together the mind and body,  its one physical manifestation is the breath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manomaya Kosha :&lt;/strong&gt; Meaining &lt;em&gt;'Mind Sheath'&lt;/em&gt;, the mind with five sesory organs are the physical manifestation of this Kosha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vijnanamaya Kosha :&lt;/strong&gt; Meaning &lt;em&gt;'Intellect Kosha'&lt;/em&gt;,composed of Vijnana, or intellect, the faculty which discriminates, determines or wills.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anandamaya Kosha :&lt;/strong&gt; Meaning &lt;em&gt;'Bliss Sheath'&lt;/em&gt;, composed of ananda, or bliss,In deep sleep, when the mind and senses cease functioning, it still stands between the finite world and the self. Anandamaya, or that which is composed of Supreme bliss, is regarded as the innermost of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Image describes the layers:&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rIC3n.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;Along with these there are two more Koshas which are inherent in the Atman,&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chitta Maya Kosha :&lt;/strong&gt; Body of consciousness.&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Atma Maya Kosha :&lt;/strong&gt; Body of Pure Spirit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thekundaliniyoga.org/vedanta/pancha_kosha_five_layers_of_human_existence.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panch Kosha Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-11T11:28:29.943" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3076" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-11T12:24:55.753" Score="2" ViewCount="146" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question has puzzled me for long. My family does consume non-veg but we don't do it on Mondays and Thursdays and also not on full moon days. Also we only consume mostly meat and fish. So why is it like this ? Why some particular sects/castes have high resistance for non-veg consumption and others are very liberal; given that both follow hinduism and practice the same rituals in the exact same way.&#xA;What does our vedas/puranas say about this ? I vaguely remember &lt;strong&gt;bhagwad-geeta&lt;/strong&gt; mentioning three types of food: satvik, raajsik and taamsik. Non-veg i believe falls in taamsik and is considered to be the worst.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="804" LastActivityDate="2014-09-11T12:24:55.753" Title="Does hinduism/vedas allow non-veg consumption?" Tags="|culture|food|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-09-11T18:37:53.030" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3078" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3079" CreationDate="2014-09-11T16:50:48.650" Score="32" ViewCount="8011" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following is the time span of yugas. Now we are in kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/4_yugas.PNG&quot; alt=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will these yugas repeat?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the same yugas repeat, then what about the incidents happening in the universe? Will they also repeat? E.g., I'm typing this question now; will it occur again in the next kaliyuga or a different yuga? Will new incidents also happen?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yugas do not repeat, then what will happen after kaliyuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-08T06:40:13.973" LastActivityDate="2018-01-08T06:40:13.973" Title="Repetition of Time and Yugas in Hinduism" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|time|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3079" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3078" CreationDate="2014-09-11T17:13:23.927" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;The four yugas you listed, join to be called as &lt;em&gt;Mahayuga or Chaturyuga&lt;/em&gt;. Every cycle(&lt;em&gt;Mahayuga&lt;/em&gt;) has different happenings all together, its not clear whether each cycle(&lt;em&gt;Mahayuga&lt;/em&gt;) will have same incidents. There are some marked incidents which have to happen, like the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, they are sure to happen in every yuga and in the same form, the difference will be circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, &lt;em&gt;Lord Raam&lt;/em&gt; will come in every &lt;em&gt;Tretayuga&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;Ramayana&lt;/em&gt; which we read is of this Mahayuga, but we don't know what had happened in previous Mahayuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2954/who-was-kakabhsundi&quot;&gt;Kakabhushundi&lt;/a&gt;, gave a reference by telling he saw &lt;em&gt;Lord Rama&lt;/em&gt; 11 times on earth and every time different things happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoga Vashishtha, the text which states conversations between Vashistha, a rig vedic teacher, and various Gods and Kakbhushubdi, a creature which stands outside of normal time and sees all. It recounts the cyclical nature of time, where Kakabhushundi has seen Ramayan 11 times with different outcomes and seen Mahabharat 16 times with different results, but, after seeing Daksha Yagya twice, he did not either care to see it again or saw no point to seeing any more, as it ended the same way each time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we keep away linearity and think about Heisenberg's uncertainity principle we get&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Further conversations talk about the atoms or anu at quantam level and inside each quantam level are different universes. A sorrowful queen is shown that her husband is still alive in one of the quantam or atomic universes and ruling wisely and is given the option to join him there. The idea of Heisenberg's Principle is enunciated when a rishi visits and illustrates a decision tree by showing how several parallel universes, with all possible results of a decision, could occur and uses that illustration to explain why he took the decision he did in this universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So after Kaliyug there will be definite Satyug to come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Concept of Time.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;According to hinduism, &lt;a href=&quot;http://baharna.com/karma/yuga.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Time&lt;/a&gt; is like a helix, it moves circularly and in one direction, that means major incidents have to happen, like incarnation of Vishnu (not of Shiva, Shiva incarnation depend on cirumstances), but otherwise nothing will repeat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/87PpF.png&quot; alt=&quot;Helix Showing Semi-Repeated nature of Time&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More References :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2802/do-the-same-avatars-repeat-in-each-chaturyug&quot;&gt;Avatar's Repeating&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2014-09-13T08:26:07.530" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3080" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3045" CreationDate="2014-09-12T01:56:03.713" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Donation and Charity are considered as Good Karma in Hinduism and it is full of stories and myths where people put their duty to donate the highest. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some examples are: Mahabali, Karna etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Out of all you can donate, donating your body/self is considered the highest form of donation. So in Hinduism not only organ donation is allowed but it is revered as highest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me give you an example of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dadhichi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dadhichi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dadhichi gave up his life and his bones for the greater good of society. Reading his story and watching acts based on his story since childhood instills the importance of donation &amp;amp; sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You should not only donate  your organs to save/help other individual&#xA;  but also you should sacrifice your life for greater good if the need&#xA;  be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An example of this age Dadhichi could be &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259627/Man-golden-arm-James-Harrison-saves-2million-babies-half-century-donating-rare-blood.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259627/Man-golden-arm-James-Harrison-saves-2million-babies-half-century-donating-rare-blood.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's the example I wish to live by, as an Hindu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="633" LastEditorUserId="633" LastEditDate="2014-09-17T00:50:35.933" LastActivityDate="2014-09-17T00:50:35.933" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3081" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3045" CreationDate="2014-09-12T04:50:49.483" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Organ donation yes may be done for the welfare of others' in the view of service to human is service to god. But physical organs, beauty, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kal%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;64 kalas&lt;/a&gt; are based on punya &amp;amp; pap earned by oneself through the life cycles. Afaik there are no references of such donations in Hindu mythology! After one's death, the ash of vital organs would be collected and is poured into holy rivers which will liberate soul from pap(salvation) &amp;amp; give them better life or mukthi(liberation). If the organs are donated, the ash from such parts can't be collected. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibi_(king)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;king Shibi&lt;/a&gt; donated his organs to save life of a pigeon from an eagle as kshatra dharma! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2020-02-04T10:20:55.057" LastActivityDate="2020-02-04T10:20:55.057" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3082" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3062" CreationDate="2014-09-12T05:08:53.210" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I can tell, stories of Shakuni being motivated by revenge are just folklore with no basis in Hindu scripture.  The Adi Parva of the Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01111.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; Dhritarashtra's marriage to Gandhari in completely amicable terms, with Shakuni's father Suvala overcoming his reluctance over Dhritashtra's shortcomings after considering the virtuous qualities possessed by Kuru Dynasty men, and Shakuni happily participating:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Soon after Bhishma heard from the Brahmanas that Gandhari, the amiable daughter of Suvala, having worshipped Hara (Siva) had obtained from the deity the boon that she should have a century of sons. Bhishma, the grandfather of the Kurus, having heard this, sent messengers unto the king of Gandhara. King Suvala at first hesitated on account of the blindness of the bridegroom, but &lt;strong&gt;taking into consideration the blood of the Kurus, their fame and behaviour, he gave his virtuous daughter unto Dhritarashtra&lt;/strong&gt; and the chaste Gandhari hearing that Dhritarashtra was blind and that her parents had consented to marry her to him, from love and respect for her future husband, blindfolded her own eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sakuni, the son of Suvala, bringing unto the Kurus his sister endued with youth and beauty, formally gave her away unto Dhritarashtra. And Gandhari was received with great respect and the nuptials were celebrated with great pomp under Bhishma's directions. And the heroic Sakuni, after having bestowed his sister along with many valuable robes, and having received Bhishma's adorations, returned to his own city. And, O thou of Bharata's race, the beautiful Gandhari gratified all the Kurus by her behaviour and respectful attentions. And Gandhari, ever devoted to her husband, gratified her superiors by her good conduct; and as she was chaste, she never referred even by words to men other than her husband or such superiors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; how Arjuna's son Iravan kills most of Shakuni's brothers during the Mahabharata war, refuting the notion that Shakuni's siblings died in a Kuru dungeon:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sons of Suvala, however, recovering their senses, once more rushed at Iravat, excited with wrath. Iravat, however, proud of his might, and displaying his lightness of hand, proceeded towards all of them, armed with his sword. Moving as he did with great activity, the sons of Suvala, although they moved about on their fleet steeds, could not find an opportunity for striking that hero (on foot). Beholding him then on foot, his foes surrounded him closely and wished to take him captive. Then that crusher of foes, seeing them contiguous to himself, struck off, with his sword, both their right and left arms, and mangled their other limbs. Then those arms of theirs adorned with gold, and their weapons, fell down on the earth, and they themselves, with limbs mangled, fell down on the field, deprived of life. Only Vrishava, O king, with many wounds on his person, escaped (with life) from that dreadful battle destructive of heroes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, in revenge for Iravan's killing of the brothers of Shakuni, Duryodhana told the Rakshasa (demon) Alambusha to kill Iravan, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2672/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-29T16:01:54.947" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3083" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2123" CreationDate="2014-09-12T07:17:21.777" Score="-6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is idol worship really prohibited in Hinduism according to the following verses?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya ch 6 section 2 shloka 1 (GOD is one without )&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shvetashvatara upansihad ch 6 v 9 (Of there GOD there are no lords, have no parents, no superior, no mother, no father, )&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shvetashvatara upansihad ch 4 v 19 (of that GOD there is no pritima means no pictures, no idols, image, picture, statue, painting)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yajurveda ch 32 Mantra 3 (of that GOD there is no image primita)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad Chapter #6, Section #2, Verse #1; ekam evaditiyam God is only one without a second.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Swethaswethara Upanishad; Chapter #4,Verse #19 Na Tasya Pratima Asti of that God there is no Prathima, there is no likeness, there is no&#xA;  image, there is no picture, there is no photograph, there is no&#xA;  sculpture,there is no statue.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Swethaswethara Upanishad; Chapter #4, Verse #20; no one can see the Almighty God.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhagwat Gita Chapter #7, Verse #20; all those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="807" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-08T13:06:00.000" LastActivityDate="2016-04-08T13:06:00.000" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3084" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-09-12T08:14:33.200" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-09-12T08:14:33.200" LastActivityDate="2014-09-12T08:14:33.200" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3085" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-09-12T08:14:33.200" Score="0" Body="The name of an epoch or era within a four age cycle. " OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-09-13T11:50:24.870" LastActivityDate="2014-09-13T11:50:24.870" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3086" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="598" CreationDate="2014-09-12T09:08:54.907" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all we are not enough capable of translating each and everything correctly, but if you go through all the &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt; you will find one thing in common, the &lt;em&gt;Param Brahma&lt;/em&gt; in creation divided itself into two parts, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Prakriti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; itself is the &lt;em&gt;Tridev&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;Brahma&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Mahesh&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Prakriti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is the universe, everything as the part of universe i.e. galaxy, planets, plants, animals, and atoms. As universe is finite but &lt;em&gt;Prakrati&lt;/em&gt; is not, a lot of energy was left out after creation, this left out infinite energy was the cause of the creation of Lakshmi, Saraswati, and Parvati(Sati). All three came into creation by same physical word if you go deeper into Brahma's Creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This might not fulfill the answer because we are of meager brains, we need to learn a lot to translate and get the actual meaning of &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt; correctly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Last thing&lt;/strong&gt; most of English translation are invalid, so don't give a lot of emphasis on them, I have read an altogether different story which says, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was a fight between Rakshasas and Devas, where Devas were overpowered, and they went for help to Tridev, amongst which Shiva fought with the Devas, but Brahma just watched it. When Rakshasas were overpowered they started fleeing on which the fifth head of Brahma suggested the Rakshasas return to the battlefield and fight Shiva, this made Shiva angry and he tore off his fifth head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In relation to incest, I already explained that Brahma is a Purusha part of &lt;em&gt;Param Brahma&lt;/em&gt;, and Saraswati is a Prakriti part of &lt;em&gt;Param Brahma&lt;/em&gt;, therefore they will naturally attract as two opposite type of energies. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;But the word incest is actually limited towards biological beings, and it cannot be used to define the relations of Atman.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; To Describe it more, there are two types of Reproduction, Sexual(found in mammals) and Asexual(as in ameba) and the asexual, the initial creation of Brahma all reproduce Asexually. &lt;em&gt;And foremost we even cannot call Saraswati as daughter of Brahma, she is Prakriti(matter) and Brahma is Purusha(anti-matter), both with opposite nature.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even we are attracted towards the &lt;em&gt;Tridev&lt;/em&gt;, because they are &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; and we are &lt;em&gt;Prakriti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="499" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T12:14:50.193" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T12:14:50.193" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3089" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2999" CreationDate="2014-09-12T22:22:13.067" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer your question, I would differentiate between Vedic religion as the one followed by vedic people and Hinduism as what is followed presently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do any sects of Hindus are still following vedic traditions?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yes, there is a group called Arya Samaj who strictly follow the authority of Vedas disregarding idol worship.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What was different in Vedic times?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There were no temples, since lifestyle was more nomadic&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yagna was the most important ritual&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vedic Gods were primarily forces of nature eg. Agni, Vayu, Indra, Surya, etc instead of deities &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the lifestyle became less nomadic, the yagna was replaced by a more personal Puja.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The style of worship changed i.e. instead of invoking Gods, Gods were appeased.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However the ultimate motive of both remains the same - the desire to cope with existence&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The present day Hinduism is Puranic based but having its roots in Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hinduism can be divided in three phases:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Age of Rituals (Karma Kanda), Vedic era - focuses on execution of rituals (mechanical)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Age of Speculation (Gyan Kanda), Upanishadic era - focuses on a deeper understanding of destiny (Intellectual)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Age of Worship (Upasana Kanda), Bhakti era focuses on appeasement of deities (Emotional)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason for the transformation between phase 1 to phase 2 has been explained in this &lt;a href=&quot;http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/The_veda-vada_followers_of_the_Vedas_are_generally_inclined_to_karma-kanda,_the_performance_of_sacrifice_according_to_the_Vedic_injunctions._They_are_thereby_promoted_to_higher_planetary_systems._They_generally_practice_the_Caturmasya_system&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;account&lt;/a&gt; as mentioned in the Gita by Krishna himself. It is to be noted that the Vedas were written at a time when there was no other religion. Thus there was another transformation from phase 2 to phase 3 which was more of an effort by the rishis to propel Hinduism further and save it from Buddhism and Jainism as explained &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/a-brief-walk-through-the-vedas.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a nutshell, Hinduism has evolved but the core has always been the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedas&lt;/a&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/vedic_culture_hinduism_a_short_introduction.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedic Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/vedicsacrifice.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yajna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastActivityDate="2014-09-12T22:22:13.067" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3090" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2979" CreationDate="2014-09-13T03:50:50.020" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, there is no such privilege in Sanathana dharma. Runanubandha Rupena Pasu(wealth/possessions) Patni(wife) Sutalayaah(children), the worldly relations are form of debt of ours in the previous births. The bond will eventually break in any form once the debt is cleared between. Karma is inevitable so wise people don't try to escape from it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Elders arranges marriage by seeing the astrological match between the bride &amp;amp; groom and hence there used to be mutual understanding and respect between wife &amp;amp; husband. Ancient people are much inclined towards &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;dharma&lt;/a&gt;/ righteousness of character. Satya, Treta, Dwapara, Kali &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;yuga&lt;/a&gt; has &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Dharma&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;dharma&lt;/a&gt; stood on 4,3,2,1 legs respectively.  Hence with decline of following dharma, people are giving much importance to kshanika indriya sukha (momentary pleasures) and are not ready/wise enough to face their karma bondage debts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T06:38:17.450" LastActivityDate="2014-10-09T06:38:17.450" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3091" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3092" CreationDate="2014-09-13T04:04:37.837" Score="18" ViewCount="30541" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Dharma has four legs (pillars) and it is depicted in the form of vrushabham (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandi_(bull)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;nandi&lt;/a&gt;). What are those four legs? As far as I know, cow's four legs are also seen as four legs of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma has 4 legs in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Satya yuga&lt;/a&gt;, 3 in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treta_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Treta&lt;/a&gt;, 2 in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwapar_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dwapara&lt;/a&gt; and just 1 leg in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kali yuga&lt;/a&gt;. How to understand this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it merely mean the percentage of righteousness in an individual, righteous people in a society or a theoretical combination of some practices? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-25T08:08:42.517" LastActivityDate="2018-02-25T08:08:42.517" Title="What are the four legs of Dharma?" Tags="|yuga|dharma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3092" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3091" CreationDate="2014-09-13T06:02:33.290" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, the four legs of the bull of Dharma do not represent percentages of righteousness in society (although it is true that the number of righteous people decline as the Yugas progress).  Rather, the legs represent different virtuous qualities any individual can have.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/1/17/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Arjuna's grandson Parikshit says in the Srimad Bhagavatam, upon seeing the bull of Dharma standing on one leg at the start of the Kali Yuga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the age of Satya your four legs were established by the four principles of &lt;strong&gt;austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness&lt;/strong&gt;. But it appears that three of your legs are broken due to rampant irreligion in the form of pride, lust for women, and intoxication. You are now standing on one leg only, which is your truthfulness, and you are somehow or other hobbling along. But ... [Kali], flourishing by deceit, is also trying to destroy that leg.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up, in the Satya Yuga, the bull of Dharma starts out with four legs: Tapas or austerity, Shaucha or cleanliness, Daya or mercy, and Satya or truth.  By the start of the Treta Yuga, austerity is gone, and by the start of the Dwapara Yuga cleanliness is gone.  Finally, by the time the Kali Yuga comes, only one leg is left standing, namely truth, and even truth is steadily eroded as the Kali Yuga progresses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a positive note, Parikshit was able to re-establish the legs of Dharma in the Kali Yuga, by banishing the Kali Yuga into a limited number of places:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahārāja Parīkṣit, thus being petitioned by the personality of Kali, gave him permission to reside in places where &lt;strong&gt;gambling, drinking, prostitution and animal slaughter&lt;/strong&gt; were performed.  The personality of Kali asked for something more, and because of his begging, the King gave him permission to live where there is &lt;strong&gt;gold&lt;/strong&gt; because wherever there is gold there is also falsity, intoxication, lust, envy and enmity. Thus the personality of Kali, by the directions of Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the son of Uttarā, was allowed to live in those five places.  Therefore, whoever desires progressive well-being, especially kings, religionists, public leaders, brāhmaṇas and sannyāsīs, should never come in contact with the four above-mentioned irreligious principles.  Thereafter &lt;strong&gt;the King reestablished the lost legs of the personality of religion [the bull]&lt;/strong&gt;, and by encouraging activities he sufficiently improved the condition of the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as long as you avoid those five things, the negative effects Kali Yuga won't be present.  And as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2150/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Kali Yuga has its own benefits, like the ability to achieve great results simply by chanting the name of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-02-13T09:14:20.773" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3093" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-13T07:13:27.613" Score="7" ViewCount="727" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard of Navagraha vana(garden of trees representing 9 planets), Nakshatra vana(trees representing 27 stars), Devatha vana(trees representing each god).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are those plants? Does worshiping give the equal benefit of worshiping murthi in the temple? Are there any special benefits? If possible, can you also attempt to describe how to worship each of them with one-liners!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T11:07:29.123" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T10:18:44.563" Title="What is the relation between trees and gods?" Tags="|gods|plants|navagraha|nakshatra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3094" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3037" CreationDate="2014-09-13T07:41:32.067" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;God's love is pure, true, eternal, irrelevant of one's own character and only love which doesnot expect anything return from you. Almost all religions convey the same message. Atma in course of life cycles, does punya &amp;amp; pap and based on this karma, one's next birth is decided.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As mentioned &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3090/65&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Runanubandha Rupena Pasu(wealth/possessions) Patni(wife) Sutalayaah(children), the worldly relations are form of debt of ours in the previous births.The only person who can enlighten you is God or Guru who is again a form of God, He is the only soul-mate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One way for salvation or liberation is to give up everything and take Sanyasa-ashram or the other is Gruhastu-ashram. To enter Gruhastu-ashram one should get married and then should strictly observe the dharmic rituals &amp;amp; practices that are suggested. To perform all such duties, one, if has his spouse with a good harmony &amp;amp; understanding with him, he can perform all such duties with ease and comfort. Spouse is only materialistic-mate of this birth. So, Afaik there is no mention of soul-mate for common man in sanathana dharma except of God/Guru! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2014-09-13T07:41:32.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3095" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-13T10:32:51.057" Score="10" ViewCount="547" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've seen lot of &lt;em&gt;Yantras&lt;/em&gt; till now, the famous being the Shri Yantra. What are these yantras? How are they made? and What they signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also heard that the Hinduism supports Pattern Energy, which is the basic foundation of Yantras. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4oof3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-14T17:51:28.560" LastActivityDate="2018-12-14T17:51:28.560" Title="Yantras: creation, significance and importance?" Tags="|yantra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3096" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11675" CreationDate="2014-09-13T12:49:26.150" Score="8" ViewCount="2731" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bramhachari&lt;/a&gt; should do &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.britannica.com/topic/pradakshina&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;pradakshina&lt;/a&gt; (circumambulation) clockwise, a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grihastha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gruhasthu&lt;/a&gt; anti-clockwise and a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.britannica.com/topic/sannyasi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanyasi&lt;/a&gt; both clockwise and anti-clockwise not crossing the back of the murthi (deity). Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/659/65&quot;&gt;This answer&lt;/a&gt; says we should only do it clockwise so that God always falls to our right side!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2018-03-05T18:36:09.157" Title="Does pradakshina direction differ with each stage of life (ashrama)?" Tags="|rituals|sanyasi|ashram|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3097" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="747" CreationDate="2014-09-13T15:58:02.260" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The male trinity is essentially incomplete without a female trinity.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The female trinity comprises of Saraswati, Laxmi and Shakti who are the consorts of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva respectively.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saraswati embodies knowledge (needed by Brahma to create)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Laxmi embodies wealth (needed by Vishnu to sustain)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shakti embodies power (needed by Shiva to destroy)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three Goddesses are seen as one entity and together called &lt;strong&gt;Devi, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tridevi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tridevi&lt;/a&gt; or Adi-Maya-Shakti or &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Parashakti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Adi Parashakti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastActivityDate="2014-09-13T15:58:02.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3101" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-14T05:41:36.770" Score="16" ViewCount="1289" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1991/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata describes how Agni the fire god once needed to consume the Khandava forest in order to get over a malady, but Indra kept using rainstorms to extinguish the flames, because of his friendship with the Naga king Takshaka who lived there.  So Agni consulted with Brahma, who told him the famous sages Nara and Narayana had reincarnated on the earth as Arjuna and Krishna.  So he approached Arjuna and Krishna, who happened to be near the Khandava forest at the time, and asked them for help. They were happy to oblige, but they requested weapons that would be commensurate to the task of fighting Indra.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Agni summoned Varuna to give them celestial weapons.  Varuna gave Krishna the Sudarshana Chakra of Vishnu, and he gave Arjuna the famous Gandiva bow.  But he also gave Arjuna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01228.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;one more thing&lt;/a&gt;, a celestial chariot that had belonged to Chandra the moon god:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Varuna ... gave a car furnished with celestial weapons and whose banner bore a large ape. Yoked unto that car were steeds white as silver of the fleecy clouds, and born in the region of the Gandharvas, and decked with golden harness, and resembling in fleetness the wind or the mind. And it was equipped with implement of war, and was incapable of being vanquished by the celestials or the Asuras. Its splendour was great and the sounds of its wheels was tremendous. It delighted the heart of every creature that looked at it. It had been made by Viswakarman, the architect of the universe and one of the lords of creation, after severe ascetic meditation. Its splendour, like that of the sun, was so great that no one could gaze at it. &lt;strong&gt;It was the very car from which the lord Soma [Chandra] had vanquished the Danavas [Asuras]&lt;/strong&gt;. Resplendent with beauty, it looked like an evening cloud reflecting the effulgence of the setting sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, when did Chandra use this chariot to defeat the Asuras (demons)?  The only war between the gods and the Asuras I'm aware of where Chandra played a prominent role is the famous Tarakamaya war, but Chandra was on the Asura side during that war.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3106/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Tarakamaya war was started when Chandra kidnapped Tara, the wife of Brihaspati guru of the gods, so the gods fought Chandra on behalf of their guru, while the Asuras took Chandra's side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the story of Chandra's victory against the Asuras where he rode the chariot later given to Arjuna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2021-04-06T20:00:20.017" Title="When did Chandra defeat the Asuras with Arjuna's chariot?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|chandra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3102" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-14T09:11:07.153" Score="6" ViewCount="27386" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the duties &amp;amp; responsibilities of Ashta Dikpalakas? Are they considered gods/demigods? Can they be worshiped for any specific purpose?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why are Ūrdhvā &amp;amp; Adho dikpalakas are not prominent? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard eating, reading, worshiping/sadhana, travelling in each of these directions will bestow something! Is it true? If yes, please explain.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="65" LastEditDate="2014-09-14T09:19:17.173" LastActivityDate="2016-11-04T12:20:12.343" Title="Who are Ashta Dikpalakas? what is their job?" Tags="|belief|practice|demi-god|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3103" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-14T11:55:08.323" Score="6" ViewCount="794" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard, for a person based on his karma leaves the physical body through one of the nava randhra marg. It is said that if life energy/atma left the body through bramha randra then the person may attain mukthi/liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true? Can we estimate person's next birth or the loka to which the soul/atma goes after the death based on the nava randhra marg choosen? Which of those marg indicates what about a person's death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T04:19:57.577" LastActivityDate="2015-03-04T12:43:16.047" Title="How to understand the dead person's future based on the life energy left through nava randhra marg?" Tags="|death|moksha|atma|lokas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3104" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3102" CreationDate="2014-09-14T23:24:58.150" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ashta Dikpalakas (Dikpalas) :&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ashta Dikpalas&lt;/em&gt; are the guardians of direction. There are eight deities who are responsible for protecting the eight directions of the world, they are known as Ashta Dikpalakas. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kubera : for North (Uttara)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Yama     : for South (Dakshina)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Indra    : for East (Pūrva)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Varuna : for West (Paścima)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Isana (Shiva) : for North-East (Īśānya)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Agni : South-East (Āgneya)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Vayu : North-West (Vāyavya)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Nirrti (sometimes Raksasa) : South-West (Nairṛti)&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to these there are two more deities added for extra dicrections and then the Dikpalakas are considered as being 10 or  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dasa-Dikpalakas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, being&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma : Zenith (Ūrdhva)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Vishnu : Nadir (Adho)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Ūrdhva&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Adho&lt;/em&gt; are also considered, but not so prominent, because the major use of the Dikpalakas as enlisted in the &lt;em&gt;Vastu-Shastra&lt;/em&gt; which observes only the eight major directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Vastu-Shahstra&lt;/em&gt; on relation with the eight direction, defines the eating,sleeping, reading and worshiping habbits, a common e.g. is not to sleep with your legs facing the &lt;em&gt;South(Dakshina)&lt;/em&gt; direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dikpalas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; are also considered as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lokpalas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; when considered as the guardian of universe directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vastusai.com/ashta-dikpalakas.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ashta Dikpalakas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/HinduReligion/Gods/AstaDikpalas.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Asta Dikpalas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_directions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Guardians of the directions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-29T04:44:27.903" LastActivityDate="2014-09-29T04:44:27.903" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3105" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3107" CreationDate="2014-09-15T03:48:01.403" Score="4" ViewCount="1998" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know some saints perform the Chatur Masya Vrata. I want to know for what reason. Also what is the duration of this vrata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="232" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-29T04:41:16.500" LastActivityDate="2014-09-29T04:41:16.500" Title="What is significance of Chatur Masya Vrata?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3106" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-15T05:26:51.800" Score="15" ViewCount="4171" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous wars between the gods and the Asuras (demons) was the Tarakamaya war.  The war was started when Chandra the moon god kidnapped Tara, wife of Brihaspati guru of the gods.  (Brihaspati is often just called Guru, and he's the god of the planet Jupiter.). To rescue their guru's wife, the gods fought a great war against Chandra, and the Asuras took Chandra's side because of Sukracharya's personal animus towards Brihaspati.  In the end Chandra gave back Tara, but not before she became pregnant with his son, Budha god of the planet Mercury.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the army of the gods was led by Shiva, who fought on the side of Brihaspati because of his loyaly to Brihaspati's father Angiras, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp098.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In vain Vrihaspati sought to recover his bride; in vain Brahmá commanded, and the holy sages remonstrated; Soma [Chandra] refused to relinquish her. Uśanas [Sukracharya], out of enmity to Vrihaspati, took part with Soma. &lt;strong&gt;Rudra [Shiva], who had studied under Angiras, the father of Vrihaspati&lt;/strong&gt;, befriended his fellow-student. In consequence of Uśanas, their preceptor, joining Soma, Jambha, Kujambha, and all the Daityas, Dánavas, and other foes of the gods, came also to his assistance; whilst Indra and all the gods were the allies of Vrihaspati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is this story of Shiva studying under the sage Angiras?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Angiras was one of the mind-born sons of Brahma, so he's certainly old enough.  But does anyone know any other scriptures that describe Shiva as a student of Angiras?  Are there any other details known about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I just found out that &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam also describes Shiva as a disciple of the sage Angiras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because of enmity between Bṛhaspati and Śukra, Śukra took the side of the moon-god and was joined by the demons. But Lord Śiva, because of affection for the son of his spiritual master, joined the side of Bṛhaspati and was accompanied by all the ghosts and hobgoblins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-19T15:19:27.690" LastActivityDate="2021-09-16T01:39:35.287" Title="When was Shiva a disciple of sage Angiras?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3107" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3105" CreationDate="2014-09-15T07:02:57.500" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &lt;em&gt;Chaturmasya&lt;/em&gt; derived from two words &lt;em&gt;Chatur&lt;/em&gt; - meaning four and &lt;em&gt;Masya&lt;/em&gt; meaning Month, collectively called four-months. The &lt;em&gt;Chaturmasya Vrata&lt;/em&gt; is a &lt;em&gt;Vrata&lt;/em&gt; to be observed for a period of four months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Vedic authoritative source 'पक्षा वै मासाः' one &lt;em&gt;‘Paksha’&lt;/em&gt; or a fortnight is taken as one month, and traditionally the Vrata is observed only for two months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Chaturmasya period begins in the month of &lt;em&gt;Asadha&lt;/em&gt; (June-July) from the day of &lt;em&gt;Ekadashi&lt;/em&gt; called &lt;em&gt;Sayana-Ekadashi&lt;/em&gt;, in the fortnight of the waxing moon. The period ends in the month of &lt;em&gt;Kartika&lt;/em&gt; (October-November) on the &lt;em&gt;Ekadashi&lt;/em&gt; day known as &lt;em&gt;Utthana-ekadashi&lt;/em&gt;, in the fortnight of the waxing moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the rainy season, Sanyasins observe Chaturmasya and stay at one place to meditate on the Absolute Reality and instruct their disciples in the Spiritual lore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is this Vrata for Saints ? NO&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Vrata is not considered as difficult, The Vrata can be observed by all sections of the population. It does not matter whether one is in &lt;em&gt;Grhastha Ashramas&lt;/em&gt; or a &lt;em&gt;Sanyasi Ashramas&lt;/em&gt;, its compulsory for all &lt;em&gt;Ashramas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Chaturmasya Vrata requires different vows to be observed, the real purpose behind the vow taken during these four months is to minimize the quantity of sense of satisfaction from desire, vows enlisted in this &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/Holy_Days_of_the_Year/Ekadashi/Shri_Chaturmasya_Vrata_-_Four_months.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;LINK&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastActivityDate="2014-09-15T07:02:57.500" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3108" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-15T07:42:19.680" Score="18" ViewCount="18095" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have not heard about birthday celebrations in our puranas or texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But is there any account of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna_Janmashtami&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Janmashtami&lt;/a&gt; (birthday of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Krishna&lt;/a&gt;) celebration in any of the puranas or other texts? When did it start?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also some more doubts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How do Hindus celebrate birthdays generally?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How important is the birthday celebration in Hinduism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Generally, Hindus celebrate the 60&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; birthday of people with much importance. Do yearly birthday celebrations have less importance in Hinduism? What do our scriptures say about it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T16:34:18.727" LastActivityDate="2022-12-25T08:09:28.620" Title="How do Hindus celebrate birthday?" Tags="|krishna|culture|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3109" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-09-15T10:44:46.630" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-09-15T10:44:46.630" LastActivityDate="2014-09-15T10:44:46.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3110" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-09-15T10:44:46.630" Score="0" Body="Janmashtami (Devanagari जन्माष्टमी) is an annual celebration of the birth of the Hindu deity Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-16T05:41:40.420" LastActivityDate="2014-09-16T05:41:40.420" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3112" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-15T13:05:25.130" Score="11" ViewCount="14974" Body="&lt;p&gt;Akshata (unbroken rice) is used in all Hindu rituals. What is the significance of Akshata in rituals?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2022-08-07T06:16:13.037" LastActivityDate="2022-08-07T06:16:13.037" Title="What is the significance of Akshata in rituals?" Tags="|rituals|customs|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3113" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3121" CreationDate="2014-09-15T15:01:19.277" Score="5" ViewCount="4892" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nayanars are the devotees of Lord Shiva and Alvars are the devotees of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there anyone who is both Alvar and Nayanar? Is it possible?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T13:28:29.167" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T13:28:29.167" Title="Is there anyone who is both Alvar and Nayanar?" Tags="|vaishnavism|shaivism|alwar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3117" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-15T18:46:38.517" Score="5" ViewCount="1610" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a person keeps on meditating, then a lot of heat will be generated from his/her body. Hiranyakashyapa (&lt;em&gt;or some demon&lt;/em&gt;) was meditating then all God's couldn't bear the heat and rushed to Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is heat generating from the body related to kundalini? Or related to highest chakra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="731" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-29T04:39:29.977" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T03:41:36.507" Title="Does continuous Meditation generates heat from body?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3118" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-15T19:07:54.367" Score="0" ViewCount="1071" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any cryptic information in the photos of our Gods? Did we lost in the years of invasion? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example: Muruga has two wives. Valli and Devasena. Sometimes he is with Ayudhas. Sometimes alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="731" LastEditorUserId="731" LastEditDate="2014-09-17T07:57:57.497" LastActivityDate="2014-09-17T07:57:57.497" Title="Any cryptic message in photos of Hindu Gods?" Tags="|gods|goddess|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-09-16T06:41:12.843" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3119" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3118" CreationDate="2014-09-15T23:01:53.977" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;If I understand you correctly, you're asking whether we have any actual photos of the gods, so that we can see exactly what they look like.  The answer is no, we don't have any such photos, but remarkably, we can still see exactly what Vishnu's face looks like.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you're familiar with the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara#Legend&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;story of Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt; (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, AKA Balaji or Srinivasa), then you may be aware that after Vishnu married Padmavati, he turned himself into stone (perhaps after some contretemps involving Lakshmi and Padmavati).  That statue is the deity of the world-renknowned &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_Venkateswara_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple&lt;/a&gt; in Tirupati, and it shows exactly what Vishnu looked like right before he turned into stone.  So it's our best guide to his appearance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, it's extremely hard to see what the statue really looks like, because most of the time it's covered with so many ornaments and decorations.  The only time the ornaments come off is during the Friday abhishekham (bath) of the statue, but it's very hard to be in the audience for it.  Thankfully, a documentary of the temple was made in the 1950's, and it has footage of the Friday abhishekham; see the 36:45 mark of &lt;a href=&quot;http://youtu.be/gxJwB_rWEfc&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://youtu.be/4NQhYQKbGhY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; for a color version.  Here are some screenshots from that footage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First here's the whole statue:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/T7b7Z.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here's a close up of the face:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HhUVe.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately it's hard to see the details because the statue is black, but it's clearer when covered in milk:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GpSf7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here's a zoomed-in view of the face when covered in milk:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kDhyB.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is our best look at exactly what Vishnu's face looks like.  And it's also exactly how Rama and Krishna looked, because they're two incarnations that share Vishnu's appearance (apart from skin-color in the case of Rama).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One note of caution: it may seem from the position of the cheeks that Vishnu has a big grin on his face.  But that's somewhat misleading, because Vishnu has high cheek-bones.  He's probably smiling, but the position of his lips seems like a better indication of his facial expression than his cheeks.  And by the way, the eyes may seem closed because of the shadow, but they're actually wide-open.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-09-16T23:28:31.217" LastActivityDate="2014-09-16T23:28:31.217" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3121" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3113" CreationDate="2014-09-16T06:25:34.267" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Alwars&quot; refers to a very specific group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who wrote Tamil poetry about Vishnu, and similarly the term &quot;Nayanars&quot; refers to a very specific group of 63 ancient Shaivite saints who wrote Tamil poetry about Shiva.  So to answer your question as stated, we just need to look at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvars#Place.2C_month_and_star_of_birth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;list of 12 alwars&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Poigai Alvar    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhoothathalvar  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Peyalvar    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thirumalisai Alvar  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nammalvar   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Madhurakavi Alvar   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;King Kulasekhara Alvar  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Periyalvar  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Andal   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thondaradippodi Alvar   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thiruppaan Alvar    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thirumangai Alvar   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And you can verify for yourself that none of these people is included in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayanars#The_sixty-three_Nayanmars&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;list of 63 Nayanars&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if you're asking whether there are devotees of both Vishnu and Shiva, then the answer is yes.  Adi Shankaracharya, who was not only a Shaivite philosopher but also someone considered by many to be an incarnation of Shiva himself, composed the famous Bhaja Govindam in praise of Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/2002/07/18/stories/2002071800100800.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt;, the Nayanar Sambandar once asked Tirumangai Alwar to compose a poem in praise of the deity of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazheesirama_Vinnagaram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tadalan Vishnu temple&lt;/a&gt; in Sambandar's home town of Sirkazhi. Sambandar was so pleased with Tirumangai Alwar's poem that he gave him a trident as a gift.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-09-23T15:21:34.037" LastActivityDate="2014-09-23T15:21:34.037" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3122" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="217" CreationDate="2014-09-16T06:55:26.733" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;The building of Rama's bridge is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga22/yuddha_22_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, but the description is rather vague.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Varuna the ocean god tells Rama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, I am fathomless and my nature is that it is impossible of being swum across. It becomes unnatural if I am shallow. I am telling you the following device to cross me.  O, prince! Neither from desire nor ambition nor fear nor from affection, I am able to solidify my waters inhabited by alligators.  O, Rama! I shall make it possible to see that you are able to cross over. I will arrange a place for the monkeys to cross me and bear with it. As far as the army crosses me, the crocodiles will not be aggressive to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's unclear whether Varuna is saying that he usually never solidifies his waters for any reason, but that he's granting a special exception to Rama, or whether he's saying that he will &amp;quot;bear&amp;quot; the crossing of the Vanara army without resorting to solidifying the ocean water.  Either way, what he seems to be saying is that he will bear the weight of the bridge, rather than allowing it to sink to the bottom of the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is confirmed when he tells Rama to have the Vanara Nala build the bridge:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O, excellent man! This one, named Nala, a glorious person, is the son of Vishvakarma; who was given a boon by his father and is equal to Visvakarma.  Let this greatly energetic monkey build a bridge across me. &lt;strong&gt;I can hold that bridge.&lt;/strong&gt; He is just the same as his father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, here is the actual description of the bridge:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From here and there the monkeys brought Palmyra trees, pomegranate shrubs, coconut and Vibhitaka, Karira, Bakula and neem trees. The huge bodied monkeys with mighty strength uprooted elephant-sized rocks and mountains and transported them by mechanical contrivances. The water, raised up due to sudden throwing of mountains in the sea, soured upward towards the sky and from there again, gushed back. The rocks befalling on all sides perturbed the ocean. Some others drew up strings a hundred Yojanas long (in order to keep the rocks in a straight line.) Nala on his part initiated a monumental bridge in the middle of the ocean. The bridge was built at that time with the cooperation of other monkeys, of terrible doings. Some monkeys were holding poles for measuring the bridge and some others collected the material. &lt;strong&gt;Reeds and logs resembling clouds and mountains, brought by hundreds of monkeys, lead by the command of Rama, fastened some parts of the bridge.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Monkeys constructed the bridge with trees having blossom at the end of their boughs. Some monkeys looking like demons seized rocks resembling mountains and peaks of mountains and appeared running hither and thither. Then, a tumultuous sound occurred when the rocks were thrown into the sea and when mountains were caused to fall there. On the first day, fourteen Yojanas of bridge were constructed by the monkeys speedily, thrilled with delight as they were, resembling elephants. In the same manner, on the second day twenty Yojanas of bridge were constructed speedily by the monkeys of terrific bodies and of mighty strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The passage isn't explicit about the role of the trees, but the part I put in bold provides some indication; it says that the logs &amp;quot;fastened some parts of the bridge&amp;quot;.  That suggests to me that the trees served to maintain the distance between the boulders and transplanted mountains that formed the core of the bridge.  I don't think the trees were what held the rocks up; there would have been no need for that, because Varuna promised to hold the bridge up himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, this is all just speculation on my part.  Tulasidas' Ramcharitmanas provide more detail about Nila and Nala getting a curse that would make anything they throw into the water float, but such specificity isn't there in the original Ramayan's account of the building of the bridge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T14:19:01.280" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3123" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-09-16T08:00:25.157" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-09-16T08:00:25.157" LastActivityDate="2014-09-16T08:00:25.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3124" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-09-16T08:00:25.157" Score="0" Body="Navratri (Hindi: नवरात्री Gujarati: નવરાત્રી) [literally meaning nine nights] is a festival celebrated for nine nights dedicated to the worship of the Hindu deity Durga." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-24T07:21:31.603" LastActivityDate="2017-03-24T07:21:31.603" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3125" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3112" CreationDate="2014-09-16T09:12:20.553" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu pooja has its own significance. The pooja articles are arranged in 5 layers, usually most of the people these days don't do such things as many don't know about it. It is arranged according to the five layers of the cosmic elements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They layer follow as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-are-puja-articles-arranged-in-specific-five-layers.html#2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;First layer&lt;/a&gt; consists of plate for offerings (naivedya) and another&#xA;for puja, which is for earth and water elements.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-are-puja-articles-arranged-in-specific-five-layers.html#3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The second layer&lt;/a&gt; consists of Kaalash (water pot),related to aaptattva or absolute water principle.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-are-puja-articles-arranged-in-specific-five-layers.html#4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Third layer&lt;/a&gt; contains the articles related to absolute fire element or tejtattva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-are-puja-articles-arranged-in-specific-five-layers.html#5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Fourth layer&lt;/a&gt; is related to absolute air principle or Vayutattva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-are-puja-articles-arranged-in-specific-five-layers.html#6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Fifth layer&lt;/a&gt; is related to akshtattva or absolute ether principle.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Akshata basically consists of uncooked un-broken pieces of rice which is&#xA;  mixed with turmeric. It is sometimes used to bless bride and groom&#xA;  during weddings. Akshata is also sprinkled during other auspicious&#xA;  ceremonies. Symbolically, Akshata represents prosperity, fertility and&#xA;  bounty. When Akshata is offered to a deity, it is believed to be the&#xA;  finest offering that a devotee can make. Akshata is believed to be&#xA;  equal to offering clothes, jewelry, food, or any other offering.&#xA;  Akshata is usually thrown over the head of the devotees during pujas&#xA;  and during functions like marriage and other auspicious events. After&#xA;  the puja and ceremony, Akshata is cleaned from the floor and is&#xA;  deposited in a seperate place where people will not step on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The akshata attract the subtle frequencies of five principal deity&#xA;  namely Shiv, Shakti, Shri Ram, Shri Krishna and Shri Ganesh. Akshata&#xA;  is the central point of puja plate. If the rice grains used for&#xA;  preparing Akshatas are broken then their capacity to attract the&#xA;  principles of higher deities is automatically reduced. When the&#xA;  akshtas are offered to a deity the energy of the deity is transferred&#xA;  in it and favourable vibrations are generated in akshatas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Akshata is also used in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upasana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Upasana&lt;/a&gt; in which a Deity or Parmeshwara is worshipped using 3 actions those are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manasika (concentrating on the Linga)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vachika (worship or service by reciting deities mantras)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kayika (worship or service of the Linga)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kayika is where the akshata is used with other things like Bhasma, Gandha,  Pushpa, Bilwapatra, Dhoopa, Deepa Samarpana and performing Pradakshina and Namaskara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further reading can be done here &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wikihow.com/Perform-Puja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;on how to perform pooja&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="602" LastEditorUserId="602" LastEditDate="2015-11-26T04:42:01.263" LastActivityDate="2015-11-26T04:42:01.263" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3126" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-09-16T10:19:29.250" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Description&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Moksha is seen as a final release from one's worldly conception of self, the loosening of the shackle of experiential duality and a realization of one's own fundamental nature which is true being, pure consciousness and satchidānanda (bliss) an experience which is ineffable and beyond sensation. According to Advaita Vedanta, at liberation the individual atman (or the Self) is realized to be one with the Ground of all being — the Source of all phenomenal existence known as Brahman. The self-as-individual is realized to have never existed. In other dvaita traditions it is held that the identification between the liberated human being and God is not total but there is always some distinction between the two. In Vaishnava, Moksha involves forsaking everything material and establishing one's existence as a purely devoted servant of Vishnu (bhagavan or God; also known by many other names such as Krishna, Rama, narayana, etc.). Some Hindu scriptures emphasize this devotional conception of Moksha, which is achieved through the practice of Bhakti Yoga (Yoga of worship) or Prapatti (surrender). On the other hand, works of the non-dualistic Hindu school, Advaita Vedanta or Brahmavada whose doctrinal position is derived from the Upanishads, say that the Self or Super-Soul is formless, beyond being and non-being, beyond any sense of tangibility and comprehension.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In dvaita-advaita (dualist) and qualified advaitic schools of the personal Vaishnava traditions, Moksha is defined as the loving, eternal union with Ishvara (God) and considered the highest perfection of existence. The bhakta (devotee) attains the abode of his supreme Lord in a perfected state but maintains his or her individual identity, with a spiritual form, personality, tastes, pastimes, and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Advaita philosophy, the ultimate truth is not a singular Godhead, per se, but rather is oneness without form or being, something that essentially is without manifestation, personality, or activity. Moksha is union with this oneness. The concepts of impersonal Moksha and Buddhist Nirvana are comparable. Indeed, there is much overlap in their views of higher consciousness and attainment of enlightenment.&#xA;In Nastika religions such as Jainism and Buddhism, Moksha is a union with all that is, regardless of whether there is a God or not. After Nirvana, one obtains Moksha. The Nirvana of Hinduism is Brahma-Nirvana meaning that it will lead to God.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-08T15:15:00.707" LastActivityDate="2015-10-08T15:15:00.707" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3127" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-09-16T10:19:29.250" Score="0" Body="Moksha (Sanskrit: मोक्ष) means emancipation, liberation or release. In soteriological and eschatological sense, it connotes freedom from saṃsāra, the cycle of death and rebirth." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-17T12:49:43.087" LastActivityDate="2014-09-17T12:49:43.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3128" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3117" CreationDate="2014-09-16T15:27:04.043" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, continuous meditation generates an inner heat if the Manipura Chakra of the Yogi becomes active. The Manipura Chakra which is located in the spinal center of the region of the navel is the seat of the Tejas tattva (fire). An active Manipura Chakra would indeed generate an inner heat due to the Tejas tattva. The best reference for this type of esoteric knowledge is the book 'Serpent Power' by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-09-16T15:27:04.043" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3129" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3117" CreationDate="2014-09-17T05:25:49.877" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are three types of tapas in a human being , when we meditate with a goal to be liberated from wordly matters we are actually removing all three gunas (satva,rajas,tamas) and become nirguna, to attain the divine position in lotus feet of lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In bhagwat-mahapuran one shloka describes shri krishna as &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sacchidananda rupaya jagadutpayadi hetave &lt;code&gt;tapatraya&lt;/code&gt; vinashaya shri krishnaya vayam namah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tapa+traya=three tapas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The tapa means heat and that's exactly what we libreate when we meditate and do hari kirtan as described in shloka.When we see sacchidananda swaroop of lord krishna who is reason for creation and destruction of this world , we burn our karmas and release three type of tapas and then we see lord in a nirguna avastha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-51&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Refrence&lt;/a&gt; for tapas and it's types.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2014-09-17T05:25:49.877" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3130" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-17T06:12:31.757" Score="10" ViewCount="9478" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you're a Brahmin, you're probably familiar with the practice of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achamana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Achamanam&lt;/a&gt;, the practice of sipping water while reciting mantras in order to purify oneself at the start of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhyavandanam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sandhyavandanam&lt;/a&gt; and other Hindu rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are three main versions of Achamanam.  There's the Smriti Achamanam, where you recite one line of the Gayatri mantra for each of three sips of water.  Then there is the Purana Achamanam, where you touch various parts of your body while reciting 24 names of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the mostly common version of Achamanam is the Shruti Achamanam, where you sip water three times while reciting three names of Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Achyutaya Namaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Anantaya Namaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Govindaya Namaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scripture does this mantra originate from?  It is called the &amp;quot;Shruti Achamanam&amp;quot;, so it presumably comes from Shruti, which is a term for the parts of Hindu scripture that were heard directly from the gods by sages, which were compiled by the sage Vyasa into the books we call the Vedas.  So where in the Vedas can this mantra be found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, it's interesting to note that the Smriti Achamanam uses the Gayatri mantra, but the Shruti Achamanam, which is presumably far older, uses names of Vishnu instead.  Gods like Vishnu aren't discussed as much in Vedic scripture, because Vedic yagnas involve gods like the Adityas more.  So it's remarkable that the mantra for such an important Vedic ritual is a mantra to Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-15T14:17:44.697" Title="What scripture does the original Achamanam mantra come from?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|rituals|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3131" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2123" CreationDate="2014-09-17T07:26:59.413" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is one of the most hot topics, especially on the internet, to cause disturbances in the mind of simple Hindus unaware of scriptural complexities. First two answers, one by Mr.Javahar and other by Mr. Bharadwaj are giving some clues to this, so I refrain myself including those answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quotations like EKAMEVA ADWITEEYAM from vedas have no connections with ritual performance, the way anti Hindus are trying to connect it. It is a philosophical statement which signifies that ultimate truth is one and no one is equal to him. The most notorious sentence that anti Hindus use is from svetaasvatar upnisad-- न तस्य प्रतिमा अस्ति, but they use it totally out of context. In first sight the meaning seems to be --He has no Image. But this meaning is absolutely incorrect if complete sentence is read , WHICH THESE COWARDS DO NOT CITE OUT OF FEAR.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The complete sentence is this--न तस्य प्रतिमा अस्ति यस्य न‌ाम महद् यशः। The root verb in the word PRATIMAA is MAA which means--to measure.  When  the words न प्रतिमा of above sentence is compounded as per the rule of sanskrit it becomes अप्रतिम/ APRATIMA. Any one can check the meaning of this word in any standard dictionary. It has absolutely no connection with Idol. This simply means who cannot be compared, non-comparable, non-parallel etc. This word is used in Present Indian languages too, with same meaning. Again this is talking about only philosophical aspect of ultimate truth,  not the ritual aspect. Now coming to the main sentence, the object of comparison is very clearly  mentioned here--MAHAD-YASAH , which means great glory. So the conclusive meaning of this sentence is that--no one can compete with his great glories, he is supreme glorious. Please go and read the commentaries of Sri Shankar or Sri Rang Ramaanuja on this verse of SVET. Up 4/19.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am providing some evidences from veda, not from puranas which is definitely loaded  with such evidences. One of which has been cited by Mr.Javahar from Bhaagavtam. Please read these sentences:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;मा असि प्रम‌‌ा असि &lt;strong&gt;प्रतिमा असि&lt;/strong&gt;।-- (तैत्तिरीय प्रपाठक अनुच्छेद ५)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;सहस्रस्य &lt;strong&gt;प्रतिम‌‌ा असि&lt;/strong&gt;..। ---(यजुर्वेद १५/६५)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;अथैनमात्मनः &lt;strong&gt;प्रतिमाम् असृजत&lt;/strong&gt; यद् यञ्जम् (yajnam)....।--(शतपथ ११/१/८/३)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are few evidences which directly involve the word PRATIMAA and confirms that LORD has it. There are many other evidences in the vedas related to the PRATIMAA or worshiping media such as stone. Stone is not GOD it is worshiping media only, like fire. I do not want to prolong it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the question is that can the word IMAGE/IDOL represent the meaning of word PRATIMAA used in vedas? The resounding answer is NO. The SRI MURTI used in the temples for worshiping is called ARCHA, It is not equivalent to IDOL of english language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the YAJNAS, as per satapath Brahamn are PRATIMAA of the lord. Fire, water, earth, stone, air etc are used in YAJNA. There are different tyes of YAJNAS. Please read Bhagavad-Gitaa 4/24-31 for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="784" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2022-11-01T15:17:45.887" LastActivityDate="2022-11-01T15:17:45.887" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3132" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-17T07:58:06.493" Score="16" ViewCount="2763" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why does Makar Sankranti always happens to be on Jan 14&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; / 15&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;, while all other Hindu festivals depend on size of moon like Chaturthi, Amavasya, Poornima etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any more Hindu festivals which also follows English calendar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="804" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-19T07:45:48.723" LastActivityDate="2018-12-07T03:34:41.813" Title="Why does Makar Sankranti follow English calendar?" Tags="|festivals|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3133" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6630" CreationDate="2014-09-17T11:11:19.697" Score="9" ViewCount="909" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mudras&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; ? How they help human maintain physical, mental and spiritual equilibrium and what are their type ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know this might be huge, but I will only like to have a small brief about &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mudras&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, mostly their types if any, with usage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My main context is, I have seen suggestion related to &lt;em&gt;Mudras&lt;/em&gt; which are due to modifiable position of palm and figures. Are &lt;em&gt;Mudras&lt;/em&gt; related to hands only, or they are also verified through different parts of body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qFN3r.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-02T09:19:35.183" LastActivityDate="2018-02-02T09:28:07.230" Title="Are mudras limited to hands?" Tags="|spiritual-level|mudra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3134" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3135" CreationDate="2014-09-17T14:04:32.143" Score="4" ViewCount="2215" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was trying to learn hymns from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCQCSN38KYY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this Rig Veda video&lt;/a&gt;. But I couldn't find the first few verses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where in the book is it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="823" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-11-01T02:42:40.413" LastActivityDate="2015-08-03T06:21:07.140" Title="Where is this hymn in the Rig Veda?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3135" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3134" CreationDate="2014-09-17T16:11:58.550" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The first mantra in the video is Rig Veda Book 2 Hymn 23 Verse 1; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv02023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Sanskrit and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv02023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the English:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ghaṇānāṃ tvā ghaṇapatiṃ havāmahe kaviṃ kavīnāmupamaśravastamam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jyeṣṭharājaṃ brahmaṇāṃ brahmaṇas pata ā naḥ ṣṛṇvannūtibhiḥ sīda sādanam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We call thee, Lord and Leader of the heavenly hosts, the wise among the wise, the famousest of all,&#xA;the King supreme of prayers, O Brahmaṇaspati: hear us with help; sit down in place of sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was traditionally considered a mantra to Brihaspati the guru of the gods; see the Anukramani for Rig Veda Book 2 in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But because it contains the word &amp;quot;Ganapati&amp;quot;, people often consider it to be a prayer to Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second mantra is Rig Veda Book 10 Hymn 112 Verse 9; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv10112.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Sanskrit and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10112.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the English:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ni ṣu sīda ghaṇapate ghaṇeṣu tvāmāhurvipratamaṃkavīnām |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;na ṛte tvat kriyate kiṃ canāre mahāmarkaṃmaghavañcitramarca ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord of the hosts, amid our bands be seated: they call thee greatest Sage among the sages.&#xA;Nothing is done, even far away, without thee: great, wondrous, Maghavan, is the hymn I sing thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Anukramani for Book 10, this was traditionally considered a mantra to Indra, but again because it contains the word &amp;quot;Ganapati&amp;quot; people often consider it to be a prayer to Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The third mantra is Rig Veda Book 6 Hymn 61 Verse 4; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv06061.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Sanskrit and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv06061.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the English:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pra ṇo devī sarasvatī vājebhirvājinīvatī |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dhīnāmavitryavatu ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May the divine Sarasvatī, rich in her wealth, protect us well,&#xA;Furthering all our thoughts with might&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is unambiguously a mantra to Saraswati, as you can see in the Anukramani for Rig Veda Book 6.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can't quite make out the words of the fourth mantra, which goes from the 1:04 mark to the 1:22 mark of the video.  (Can anyone else hear it?). But the fifth mantra is Rig Veda Book 1 Hymn 164 Verse 39; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv01164.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Sanskrit and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01164.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the English:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ṛco akṣare parame vyoman yasmin devā adhi viśve niṣeduḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yastan na veda kiṃ ṛcā kariṣyati ya it tad vidusta ime samāsate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upon what syllable of holy praise-song, as twere their highest heaven, the Gods repose them,—&#xA;Who knows not this, what will he do with praise-song? But they who know it well sit here assembled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Anukramani for Rig Veda Book 1, this mantra is dedicated to all the gods, but I suspect the reason they included this mantra in the chant was because of the meaning, which may be related to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pranava&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And after the first five mantras they start going into Rig Veda Book 1 Hymn 1; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv01001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Sanskrit and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the English.  This hymn is dedicated to Agni the fire god, as you can see in the Anukramani for Rig Veda Book 1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-03T06:21:07.140" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3136" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11812" CreationDate="2014-09-17T16:39:32.997" Score="13" ViewCount="3815" Body="&lt;p&gt;After browsing &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/264/why-are-temples-devoted-to-brahma-so-rare&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question on Brahma temples. I was wondering why even Yama temples are very few in the world. Yama is the god that determines whether a person(soul) is sent to Swarga lok (Heaven) or Naraka lok (Hell). Hence I assume that Yama would be worshiped a lot and was wondering why Yama temples are rare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2021-06-08T18:13:18.267" Title="Why are Yama temples few in number?" Tags="|temple|yama|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3137" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-17T23:22:21.250" Score="8" ViewCount="36993" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many Hindus who visit Tirumala Venkateswara temple in Tirupati get their head tonsured and offer their hair to Lord Venkateswara. Why is this tradition followed? Why is it only followed in Venkateswara temple and not other temples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-02T04:59:44.143" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T21:14:25.627" Title="Why does one get their head tonsured and offer the hair to Lord Venkateswara in Tirupati?" Tags="|tradition|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3138" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3139" CreationDate="2014-09-17T23:54:36.670" Score="18" ViewCount="21557" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama#Children&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Rama and Sita have twins named Lava (Luv) and Kusha (Kush). From childhood I have also learnt that Lord Rama had twins. While reading &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/646/who-are-the-children-of-vishnu-and-lakshmi&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question, I came across &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/646/who-are-the-children-of-vishnu-and-lakshmi/648#comment1278_646&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; comment that mentions that Kusha was made by Valmiki as a clone to Lava and that Lord Rama has only one son Lava. Can anyone clarify which of these is true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T04:20:02.913" Title="Is Kusha (kush) son of Lord Rama?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3139" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3138" CreationDate="2014-09-18T01:56:43.193" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Of course he is&lt;/strong&gt;. The Ramayana says Sita gave birth to two sons, not that Vamiki cloned one from the other:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yāmeva rātriṃ śatrughna parṇaśālāṃ samāviśat&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tāmeva rātriṃ sītāpi prasūtā dārakadvayam&lt;/em&gt; [VRM - 7.66.1]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  On the same night in which Satrughna took shelter in the hermitage,  Sita gave birth to two sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That same chapter then goes on to describe how the two sons get the name of Lava and Kusha.  After the birth of the sons, the disciples there informed Valmiki of this and told to protect the new born children from ghosts and demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Valmiki took a grass (&lt;em&gt;Kusha&lt;/em&gt;), cut it off (&lt;em&gt;lava&lt;/em&gt;) into two parts and sanctified it with &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt;. He instructed the women there to rub the upper part to the elder boy and the lower part to the younger boy. That is how they came to be known as Lava and Kusha. [7.66.4-7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So some probably take that ritual that Valmiki did to save the new born twins from the effect of ghosts, demons etc. as a cloning process, but it is not. As evident from the scripture, &lt;strong&gt;Sita gave birth to two sons, there were no clones made by Valmiki.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-09-18T01:56:43.193" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3140" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3138" CreationDate="2014-09-18T02:33:43.733" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Lava and Kusha are definitely both sons of Rama and Sita.  The birth of Lava and Kusha in the ashram of the sage Valmiki is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/dKC5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the same night Satrughna housed himself in a thatch-cottage &lt;strong&gt;Sita gave birth to twin sons&lt;/strong&gt;. In the midnight &#xA;  the Muni boys came to Valmiki and communicated unto him &#xA;  is auspicious intelligence, saying &quot;O illustrious Sir, the &#xA;  loved spouse of Rama hath given birth to two sons ; do &#xA;  thou so protect them that evil spirits might not injure them.&quot; &#xA;  Hearing aring those words the highly effulgent Valmiki went there &#xA;  and attained to great delight on beholding those two highly &#xA;  effulgent sons, resembling the newly risen sun and the celestials.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereupon he made arrangements against the oppression of ghosts and goblins. Thereupon taking Kusa (the upper part of the grass) and Lava (the lower part) the great &#xA;  ascetic Valmiki made those arrangements. And giving &#xA;  Kusa sanctified by Mantras unto the hands of elderly women &#xA;  he said, &quot;do ye rub the person of the elder boy with these&quot; ; &#xA;  and giving them Lava he said &quot;do ye rub the person of the &#xA;  younger brother with this. And according to this I shall &#xA;  name the first Son Kusa and the second Lava ; and by those &#xA;  names they shall be celebrated on earth.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And just so that there's no doubt that Rama is the father, here is what Valmiki tells Rama about the paternity of Lava and Kusha, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/xcR6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;another excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I tell you the truth, O Rama, that these irrepressible twin &#xA;  brothers are your sons, O descendant of Raghu. I am &#xA;  the tenth son of Pracheta, so, far from speaking untruth &#xA;  it does not even spring up in my mind. I therefore &#xA;  know the truth that these twins are thy sons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-09-18T19:05:46.343" LastActivityDate="2014-09-18T19:05:46.343" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3143" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-18T07:01:12.153" Score="6" ViewCount="668" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/753/are-there-any-english-translations-of-the-bhavishyottara-purana-or-just-the-srin&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the book &quot;Venkatachala - Its Glory&quot; by G.V. Chalapathi Rao is an English translation of the Sthala Purana (temple scripture) of the famous Tirupati temple and this temple scripture consists of excerpts from various Puranas that discuss the story of Venkateshwara (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, AKA Balaji or Srinivasa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sthala Purana describes the wedding of Vishnu and Padmavathi in great detail.  Padmavati's father Akasa Raja, in the course of giving his daughter away, has to recount the ancestry of the groom.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/0Uwo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; describes what he says about Vishnu's &quot;ancestry&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Born in the lineage of Vasishtha, great grandson of Yayati, grandson of the valiant Surasena, son of Vasudeva, Oh! bridegroom, kindly accept this bride.  I am dedicating to you Purushottama, this bride.  Be pleased to accept her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now of course, as the Bhagavad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/10/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; Vishnu is unborn and without beginning, so it's hard to describe an &quot;ancestry&quot; for him, so it looks like Akasa Raja is using the ancestry of Vishnu's incarnation Krishna instead.  And sure enough, Krishna is the son of Vasudeva, son of the Yadava king Surasena, and the Yadavas are descendants of Yadu son of the very ancient king Yayati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, why does Akasa Raja say that Vishnu is descended from the lineage (gotra) of the sage Vashishta?  Vasishta is one of the mind-born sons of Brahma, but Krishna wasn't descended from him.  As I mentioned above, Krishna was a descendant of Yayati, and Yayati was a king of the Lunar dynasty, which means that he was a descendant of Chandra the moon god.   But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1984/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Chandra is the son of the sage Atri, another mind-born son of Brahma, not Vashishta.  (In fact Padmavathi is described as having Atri gotra for this very reason, since Akasa Raja is a king of the Lunar dynasty as well.)  So why would Venkateshwara have Vasishta gotra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could it be that just the &quot;lineage of Vasishta&quot; part alone is referring to the ancestry something other than Krishna?  The only descendant of Vashishta I can think of who's an incarnation of Vishnu is Vyasa, but it's unlikely that Akasa Raja would just arbitrarily refer to Vyasa of all people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-12-09T23:55:09.290" Title="Why is Venkateshwara called a descendant of sage Vasishta?" Tags="|vishnu|venkateshwara|puranas|vashishta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3144" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3147" CreationDate="2014-09-18T11:49:58.273" Score="6" ViewCount="338" Body="&lt;p&gt;On Dhanteras people buy gold/sliver items, Businessmen do &quot;Chopda Pujan&quot;, What is the importance of this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-09-19T05:25:18.660" LastActivityDate="2014-09-19T05:25:18.660" Title="What is the importance of Dhanteras?" Tags="|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3145" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-09-18T11:51:26.000" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-09-18T11:51:26.000" LastActivityDate="2014-09-18T11:51:26.000" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3146" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-09-18T11:51:26.000" Score="0" Body="Dhanteras (Hindi : धनतेरस) is the first day of the five-day Diwali Festival as celebrated in India." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-19T02:02:52.233" LastActivityDate="2014-09-19T02:02:52.233" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3147" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3144" CreationDate="2014-09-18T11:56:50.560" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;An ancient legend ascribes the occasion to on interesting story about the 16 year old son of King Hima. His horoscope predicted his death by snake-bite on the fourth day of his marriage. On that particular day, his newly-wed wife did not allow him to sleep. She laid out all her ornaments and lots of gold and silver coins in a heap at the entrance of the sleeping chamber and lit lamps all over the place. Then she narrated stories and sang songs to keep her husband from falling asleep. The next day, when Yama, the god of Death, arrived at the prince’s doorstep in the guise of a Serpent, his eyes were dazzled and blinded by the brilliance of the lamps and the jewellery. Yama could not enter the Prince's chamber, so he climbed on top of the heap of gold coins and sat there the entire night listening to the stories and songs. In the morning, he silently went away. Thus, the young prince was saved from the clutches of death by the cleverness of his new bride, and the day came to be celebrated as Dhanteras. The following day came to be called Naraka Chaturdashi ('Naraka' means hell and Chaturdashi means 14th). It is also known as ‘Yamadeepdaan’ as the ladies of the house light earthen lamps or ‘deep’ and these are kept burning throughout the night glorifying Yama, the God of Death. Since this is the night before Diwali, it is also called 'Chhoti Diwali' or Diwali minor Diwali.&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/od/diwalifestivaloflights/p/dhanteras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Read this&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to another popular legend, when the Gods and demons churned the ocean for Amrita or nectar, Dhanvantari (the physician of the Gods and an incarnation of Vishnu) emerged carrying a jar of the elixir on the day of Dhanteras.&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/od/diwalifestivaloflights/p/dhanteras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="742" LastActivityDate="2014-09-18T11:56:50.560" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3148" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3151" CreationDate="2014-09-18T14:42:37.927" Score="7" ViewCount="368" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does flora - trees, flowers, earth contain prana?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is this a cosmic energy that is set in earth and nature?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do living organisms contain that energy?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can it heal or give you its power?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="829" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2018-04-09T13:52:39.853" LastActivityDate="2018-04-09T16:06:03.403" Title="What is a prana?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3149" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-18T15:46:51.200" Score="3" ViewCount="1054" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to chant the most true and the best mantra of devi---Maa Kali ,Maa durga,Maa Saraswati?&#xA;I do not know whether their is any generalized mantra for the feminine aspect of god?&#xA;Can anyone recommend from experience?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="830" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2014-09-19T02:22:23.093" LastActivityDate="2016-08-14T06:06:04.863" Title="Mantra-Can anyone recommend me a mantra of devi or the adi-para shakti or the feminine aspect of God?" Tags="|mantras|saraswati|durga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2014-09-21T09:22:49.780" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3150" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3149" CreationDate="2014-09-18T16:18:07.433" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Perhaps the most famous general Devi mantra is the Aparajita Stuti, AKA the Tantrik Devi Sukta, a mantra taken from the Devi Mahatmya (AKA Saptashati) of the Markandeya Purana, where the gods use this mantra to propitiate Durga.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.satyananda.net/download/tantroktam-devi-sooktam.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the Sanskrit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमो देव्यै महादेव्यै शिवायै सततं नमः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमः प्रकृत्यै भद्रायै नियताः प्रणताः स्म ताम्॥९॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Namo devyai mahaa-devyai shivaayai satatam namaha | Namah prakåityai&#xA;  bhadraayai niyataah praëataah sma taam || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रौद्रायै नमो नित्यायै गौर्ये धात्र्यै नमो नमः। &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  ज्योत्स्नायै चेन्दुरूपिण्यै सुखायै सततं नमः॥१०॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Raudraayai namo nityaayai gauryai dhaatrayai namo namaha | Jyotsnaayai&#xA;  chendu-roopiëyai sukhaayai satatam namaha || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कल्याण्यै प्रणतां वृद्ध्यै सिद्ध्यै कुर्मो नमो नमः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नैर्ऋत्यै भूभृतां लक्ष्म्यै शर्वाण्यै ते नमो नमः॥११॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kalyaaëyai praëataam våiddhyai siddhyai kurmo namo namaha |&#xA;  Nair-åityai bhoo-bhåitaam lakshmyai sharvaaëyai te namo namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दुर्गायै दुर्गपारायै सारायै सर्वकारिण्यै। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ख्यात्यै तथैव कृष्णायै धूम्रायै सततं नमः॥१२॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Durgaayai durga-paaraayai saaraayai sarvakaarinyai | Khyaatyai tathaiva kåiñhëaayai&#xA;  dhoomraayai satatam namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अतिसौम्यातिरौद्रायै नतास्तस्यै नमो नमः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमो जगत्प्रतिष्ठायै देव्यै कृत्यै नमो नमः॥१३॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Ati-saumyaati-raudraayai nataastasyai namo namaha | Namo&#xA;  jagat-pratiñh-öhaayai devyai kåityai namo namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या देवी सर्वभूतेषु विष्णुमायेति शब्दिता। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥१४॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥१५॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः॥१६॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yaa devee sarvabhooteñhu viñhëu-maayeti shabditaa | Namastasyai&#xA;  namastasyai namastasyai namo namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या देवी सर्वभूतेषु चेतनेत्यभिधीयते। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥१७॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥१८॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः॥१९॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yaa devee sarvabhooteñhu cheta-netyabhi-dheeyate | Namastasyai&#xA;  namastasyai namastasyai namo namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या देवी सर्वभूतेषु बुद्धिरूपेण संस्थिता। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥२०॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥२१॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः॥२२॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yaa devee sarvabhooteñhu buddhi roopeëa samsthitaa | Namastasyai&#xA;  namastasyai namastasyai namo namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या देवी सर्वभूतेषु निद्रारूपेण संस्थिता। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥२३॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥२४॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः॥२५॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yaa devee sarvabhooteñhu nidraa roopeëa samsthitaa | Namastasyai&#xA;  namastasyai namastasyai namo namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या देवी सर्वभूतेषु क्षुधारूपेण संस्थिता। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥२६॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥२७॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः॥२८॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yaa devee sarvabhooteñhu kshudhaa roopeëa samsthitaa | Namastasyai&#xA;  namastasyai namastasyai namo namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या देवी सर्वभूतेषुच्छायारूपेण संस्थिता॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥२९॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥३०॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः॥३१॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yaa devee sarvabhooteñhu chhaayaa roopeëa samsthitaa | Namastasyai&#xA;  namastasyai namastasyai namo namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या देवी सर्वभूतेषु शक्तिरूपेण संस्थिता॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥३२॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥३३॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः॥३४॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Yaa devee sarvabhooteñhu shakti roopeëa samsthitaa | Namastasyai&#xA;  namastasyai namastasyai namo namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या देवी सर्वभूतेषु तृष्णारूपेण संस्थिता॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥३५॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥३६॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः॥३७॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yaa devee sarvabhooteñhu tåiñhëaa roopeëa samsthitaa |&#xA;  Namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या देवी सर्वभूतेषु क्षान्तिरूपेण संस्थिता॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥३८॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै॥३९॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः॥४०॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yaa devee sarvabhooteñhu kshaanti roopeëa samsthitaa | Namastasyai&#xA;  namastasyai namastasyai namo namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is the English:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We bow to the goddess, to the great goddess, to the energy of infinite&#xA;  goodness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We prostrate, with hands together, to nature, to the excellent one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We bow to the reliever of sufferings, to the eternal, to the&#xA;  embodiment of rays of light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We continually bow to the goddess who manifests light, to the form of&#xA;  devotion, and happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We bow to the welfare of those who bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To change, to perfection, to dissolution, to the wealth which sustains&#xA;  earth, to the wife of consciousness, we bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We bow to the one who removes difficulties, who removes beyond all&#xA;  difficulties, to the essence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We bow to the extremely beautiful and to the extremely fierce, the&#xA;  establisher of the perceivable world and who is the mundane existence,&#xA;  the divine goddess in all existence who is addressed as the&#xA;  perceivable form of the consciousness which pervades all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We bow to the divine goddess in all existence who resides all&#xA;  throughout the consciousness and is known by the reflections of mind,&#xA;  who resides in the forms of intelligence, sleep, hunger, appearance,&#xA;  energy, desire, patient forgiveness, the form of all living beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We bow to the divine goddess in all existence who resides in the forms&#xA;  of humility, peace, and faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We bow to the divine goddess in all existence who resides in the form&#xA;  of beauty enhanced by love, and in the forms of true wealth, change&#xA;  and recollection or memory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We bow to the divine goddess in all existence who resides in the forms&#xA;  of compassion, satisfaction and Mother, and also confusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Presiding over the senses of all beings and pervading all existence,&#xA;  to the omnipresent goddess who individualizes creation we bow, we bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the form of consciousness she distinguishes the individual&#xA;  phenomena of the perceivable universe. We bow, we bow, we bow, we bow&#xA;  to her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-08-14T06:06:04.863" LastActivityDate="2016-08-14T06:06:04.863" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3151" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3148" CreationDate="2014-09-19T07:58:12.577" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Energy means power, yes trees, flower have them. This energy lasts for some time only. Like when a flower rises its power lasts for 1-2 days, after this time flower or leaves fall. Every thing has its time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;what is prana? does flora - trees, flowers, earth contain it?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prana is there in trees. &lt;strong&gt;Are you asking Prana means &amp;quot;Jeeva&amp;quot;?&lt;/strong&gt; If yes then yes trees are considered as living beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;code&gt;Tulasidaskrut Ramayana&lt;/code&gt; When Lord Rama was asked why he hide himself behind trees and killed Vali? There is mention that those trees were cursed 7 sages who became 7 trees of &amp;quot;Tada&amp;quot; &amp;lt;- I do not know its English name, whom Lord Rama freed by his arrow only!! This means their energy is there. Prana should also be there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Maha Purana&lt;/strong&gt; Mother Parvati converted 4 deities and Guru Brihaspati in trees, on Lord Shiva's advice she freed them too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earth is a goddess in Hinduism, so it should be living being I guess, in reality I do not know. :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;code&gt;Varah Puran&lt;/code&gt; Goddess Earth is there whom Lord Vishnu told the importance of Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Can it give you power? Is it used for healing?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also we eat them and we get energy from them. Many plants are used to make medicines, so they are used for healing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Disclaimer:I don't understand more about your question, but what I understood I answered. Please tell me if I misunderstood your question. I will either edit or will remove this answer so this page looks clean.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-04-09T16:06:03.403" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3152" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-09-19T08:24:24.500" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-09-19T08:24:24.500" LastActivityDate="2014-09-19T08:24:24.500" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3153" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-09-19T08:24:24.500" Score="0" Body="Durga (Sanskrit: दुर्गा) is the most popular incarnation of Devi, also known as Mother Adi-Parashakti." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-25T09:14:56.567" LastActivityDate="2014-09-25T09:14:56.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3154" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3136" CreationDate="2014-09-19T08:46:55.590" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma's story is different than Yamadeva. Shiva banned worship of Brahma so many people accepted it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Any &lt;strong&gt;number of temples&lt;/strong&gt; are based on the the way how much the deity is favorite of how many people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If people are more, more temples, if less, less temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism most deity has some territory in India, like Ganesha is widely worshiped in Gujarat and Maharashtra, you will find more temples in these regions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord prabhu Kartikeya is widely worshiped in south, in Gujarat there is not even single temple of Lord Kartikeya, but it does not mean they avoid this deity, when ever they will pass through this Lord Kartikeya's temple they will go there and will salute Lord Kartikeya. Temples are not there because people did not build any.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mother Durga is widely worshiped in Bengal side and more temples are there only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Except Shivalinga temples most of the deity has their number of devotees in specific regions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is because the playground of those deities are there. Most famous temples have related story of the deity. That connects people's faith to that deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yamadeva is deity who is called &lt;code&gt;YamaRaja&lt;/code&gt;. There is nothing like he has less importance than others. Of course he is worshiped. But the number of temple are less because of less attention of people to him, and less people have him favorite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any Hindu will go to his temple, but the number of temples increases with people's faith with the deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will find almost 100% people knows Hanuman Chalisa but rarely 2% who know some verse of Yamadev. May be in some territory Yamraja's temples and devotees may be more. But if we consider the whole India, the knowledge about this deity will be less compared to Shiva, Rama, Hanumanaji temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People does not worship based on what deity's work is, they worship based on the faith. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devotee may select any form of GOD, all are GOD only. may be yamaraja's form is less people chosen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More people have more faith in Shiva so they will build more Shiva temples , yes they also have faith in Yamadeva but this people have more faith to Shiva, so they will build Shiva temples, same with Rama, Vishnu etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Also worshiping Yamadeva does not mean Yamadev will send you to Swarga (paradise), he is DharmaRaja, he will only judge you on behalf of your Karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All gods have equal nature for all. yes your worships may bring you something, but worship itself is a satvika karma, so obviously you will get fruit for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes if you do Tapa of Yamdeva, and do Satvik Karma, he or any deity will give you boon. but to do so you have to accept Satva and leave Tamas, that you do with performing Tapa. Then and only you can get Boon or paradise or something you want from GODs. Everything is Karma only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having less temples does not mean the deity is less worshiped, in rituals whoever deity is required people call them in Yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2014-09-19T08:46:55.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3156" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3132" CreationDate="2014-09-19T08:55:51.117" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;Uttarayan&quot;, means the day on which sun moves towards &quot;Uttar&quot; means North direction. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We celebrate it only on 14&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;, the next day 15&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; is called &quot;Vasee Uttarayan&quot; means the following day of &quot;Makar Sankranti&quot; or &quot;Stale Uttarayan&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is considered that sun marching towards North takes souls to Heaven and heading towards south takes souls to hell. In Mahabharata it is mention when Bhishma decided to leave body on the day of Uttarayan only on the advice of Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu calendar is based on moon, but this day is related with sun. And as per Gregorian calendar this day is found that &lt;code&gt;the sun enters the Capricorn (Sanskrit: Makar) zodiac&lt;/code&gt;, so Makar Sankranti is celebrated on this day only as it is solar event only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hindu calendar is moon event based calendar and Gregorian Calendar is strictly a solar calendar based on solar events of 365 days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Makar Sankranti is solar event it is followed by Gregorian Calendar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-29T04:28:19.093" LastActivityDate="2014-09-29T04:28:19.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3157" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15423" CreationDate="2014-09-19T09:34:04.163" Score="21" ViewCount="1726" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Hinduism, Parashurama is widely known as a person who raised war against Kshatriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as per Vedas, whether a person is a Brahmana or a Kshatriya is based on his karmas only. If one kills another seeking revenge, is he a Brahmana or a Kshatriya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Parashurama is to be considered a Brahmana, he should've forgiven the Kshatriyas or at the most he should've cursed them, but why did he take up weapons?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Kalki avatar is predicted to be a Brahmana and will raise a war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think it's true that Brahmana is the one who never accepts Tamas nature. So can a Brahmana kill someone to seek revenge?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a Brahmana does kill someone, should we now consider him a Kshatriya taking into account his recent actions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-10T11:59:23.407" LastActivityDate="2022-03-26T13:44:44.000" Title="Can a Brahmana raise a war or kill someone?" Tags="|karma|caste-system|brahmins|parashurama|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3159" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3132" CreationDate="2014-09-19T10:07:11.153" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It doesn't necessarily comes on 14&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; January, We have seen it almost falls on 14 January many times it comes earlier or many times later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hinduism is the major festivals of Makar Sankranti. This festival is&#xA;  celebrated all over India in some form. Sun in Capricorn occurs on&#xA;  Poush Mass is celebrated on the solstice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This festival is celebrated mostly on fourteen of January. Sometimes&#xA;  the festival twelve, thirteen or fifteen may be, it depends on the&#xA;  fact that when the sun enters Sagittarius Capricorn left. The day&#xA;  begins with the sun's solstice speed and for this reason it is also&#xA;  called Uttarayani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="834" LastEditorUserId="834" LastEditDate="2014-10-02T06:55:07.630" LastActivityDate="2014-10-02T06:55:07.630" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3161" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-19T13:49:05.430" Score="6" ViewCount="2555" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why was Bheesma Brother name was &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Vichitraveerya&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; which direct means was strange semen. as ancient time name reflect the character in fact. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So was his semen strange?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="834" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-30T05:34:44.160" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T11:15:14.770" Title="Vichitraveerya nomenclature?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3162" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3161" CreationDate="2014-09-19T14:38:34.163" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is true that in ancient times people used to get names as per their qualities and accomplishments. But in this case it can't be said that way because from childhood it couldn't have been known how his semen was going to be. The word &lt;em&gt;virya&lt;/em&gt; can also mean valour. So sometimes it is said, he is a &lt;em&gt;viryavan purusha&lt;/em&gt;. It doesn't mean the person is full of semen, but full of valour or courage. So if the name Vichitravirya was given to him from his childhood then it could also mean strange or extraordinary valour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it is possible that he got that name later on or this name somehow represented the possible fact that he was impotent. It is because, Bhisma forcibly brought Ambika and Ambalika to get them married with Vichitravirya and even after spending seven years with his two wives he produced no children as his successor (MB - &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01103.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1.102&lt;/a&gt;). So if he got the name later on, then it can imply that he was impotent or unable to produce children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Update&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After getting useless nagging in the comments below, I did a Google search and found a &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.in/books?id=gzN2_fu0mIYC&amp;amp;pg=PA38&amp;amp;lpg=PA38&amp;amp;dq=vichitravirya%20name%20meaning&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=VE03SzDcTX&amp;amp;sig=m03HLc6g0VhItuSLrHTZSzls6iw&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=njccVPH_MNOeugSc5oCwAQ&amp;amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=vichitravirya%20name%20meaning&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;link to a book&lt;/a&gt; which also states the same second reason that I gave in the answer. I hope this backs up the answer. I am unwilling to spend my time searching scriptures just to find what a name means even if it exists at all!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interestingly, Mahabharata also uses the term &lt;em&gt;virayavan&lt;/em&gt; to describe Vichitravirya's quality while narrating about his birth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;athāparaṃ maheṣvāsaṃ satyavatyāṃ punaḥ prabhuḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;vicitravīryaṃ rājānaṃ janayām āsa &lt;strong&gt;vīryavān&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;  [MB - 1.95.3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;After that, the lord (king Santanu) again begot to Satyavati the king Vichitravirya, the courageous bowman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this backs ups the first reason that the name can mean extraordinary or strange valour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-19T22:57:18.927" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3163" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-20T03:46:27.437" Score="12" ViewCount="2817" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gayatri Mantra is called king of all Mantra. Chanting Gayatri Mantra every knowledge can be achieved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is Gayatri Mantra so important? Who was the Gayatri Mantra given to first?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ भूर्भुव: स्व: तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं । भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि, धीयो यो न:&#xA;  प्रचोदयात् ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="223" LastEditorUserId="8277" LastEditDate="2019-06-30T21:30:44.057" LastActivityDate="2019-07-18T12:18:37.153" Title="Why Gayatri Mantra is the king of all mantra?" Tags="|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3171" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3137" CreationDate="2014-09-20T12:03:21.490" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;A small but popular story is there for this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Lord Sri Venkateshawara  (MahaVishnu/Balaji) was inside the snake-antHill on Tirumala , one sacred cow is to come and give milk to the Lord daily (Brahma took the form as sacred cow), When a cow-herd man at once saw the sacred-cow pouring milk in the snake-ant Hill, he became angry and without understanding the truth, the Cow-herd man took the axe and has hit the cow on the cow’s head with the axe. The Supreme Lord Sri Venkatesha(Vishnu) who was present inside the snake-antHill received the hurt of the axe on his head from the cow-herd man instead of Cow getting hurt. When Lord received the hurt of the Axe on his head, the portion of his hair on his head disappeared due to hurt by the axe. When mother Neela Devi saw Lord being hurt on his head, she immediately removed the hair from her head and placed on the Lord’s head in the portion where the lord was hurt. Immediately Lord became well and Lord’s hair reappeared as beautiful as before he was hurt. Lord Venkatesha(Vishnu) knowing that hair is one of the beautiful features of women, Lord Sri Venkatesha promised that his devotees will shave Hair of their head (tonsure) and dedicate their hair to her. Neela Devi accepts the hair sacrificed by Devotees of Lord Venkatesha(Vishnu) and Lord blesses his devotees who sacrifice their hair for the sake of the Lord. This is the reason why Devotees tonsure or shave their head in Tirumala. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also Spiritual reasons: Tonsure or Shaving hair as offering for Lord represents a real sacrifice of material beauty and giving up false-ego in the way of shaving their hair as the sacrifice to please Supreme Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sources:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara_Temple,_Tirumala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article on Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala .&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Why-is-it-believed-to-do-Mundan-donating-Hair-to-Lord-Tirupati-Balaji-What-is-the-story-significance-behind-it&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Quora question on the same topic.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="731" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-11-21T05:29:48.997" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T05:29:48.997" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3175" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3185" CreationDate="2014-09-22T06:41:54.170" Score="22" ViewCount="1798" Body="&lt;p&gt;In some religions like Christanity and Islam there are some forced praying time. Christians have to attend mass in weekends (sundays) whereas muslims congregates on fridays in mosques. As far I know there is no forced praying time in hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why doesn't Hinduism follow these kind of strict rules or does it have any such praying rule?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="117" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-09-24T15:05:48.033" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T21:26:19.940" Title="Why praying is not a compulsion in Hinduism?" Tags="|prayer|dharma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3176" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3175" CreationDate="2014-09-22T11:16:52.660" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason is given in Gita 18.63 which says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Reflecting on this entire teaching do as you think fit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Hindu might well not agree with Hindu spiritual teachings. Compulsory praying will go against the liberal spirit of the Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-09-26T07:18:45.257" LastActivityDate="2014-09-26T07:18:45.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3177" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-22T11:17:52.300" Score="6" ViewCount="717" Body="&lt;p&gt;Everyone says that the prime holy book of Hindus is &lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt; but if it is true then why Hindus take oath on Gita, and why not on Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any other reason for taking oaths on Gita? or Veda is not the prime holy book?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="363" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-09-25T05:41:50.930" LastActivityDate="2014-09-25T05:41:50.930" Title="Which is the prime holy book of Hindus?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3178" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3177" CreationDate="2014-09-22T11:21:36.353" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas are an entire library while Gita is a single book which gives a summary of the Vedic teachings. It is more convenient to use a single book rather than a whole library.&#xA;Moreover it also helps that Gita is one of the Prasthana-trayas of the popular Vedanta school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2014-09-22T13:37:38.877" LastActivityDate="2014-09-22T13:37:38.877" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3181" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-22T12:14:56.757" Score="-2" ViewCount="4970" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Subhadra really an unimportant character?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is she ignored? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is she given equal position as that given to Balram and Draupadi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any book on her?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides that, Who was the main and favourite wife of Arjun?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone tell about the bonding of Arjun Subhadra, Subhadra Draupadi, Subhadra Krishna and rest others?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="847" LastEditorUserId="97" LastEditDate="2014-09-24T06:03:10.827" LastActivityDate="2014-09-26T12:52:49.303" Title="Why is Subhadra ignored as an unimportant character in mythology?" Tags="|krishna|mahabharata|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-09-24T12:06:25.087" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3182" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-22T12:18:47.657" Score="11" ViewCount="4368" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally we keep leaves of Tulsi over Prasāda( SACRAMENT) we offer to Gods. But recently in Ganesh Festival our priest while doing pooja told us that &quot;Tulsi is not offered to Lord ganesha, it is offered to Lord Vishnu&quot; on this I asked reason, then  priest answered that it was a curse to Tulsi and since then Tulsi plant is kept out of our house(Aangan) and there is a more story behind that which he don't know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any One know story what happened between Lord Ganesha and Tulsi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="675" LastEditorUserId="223" LastEditDate="2014-09-27T10:55:21.870" LastActivityDate="2017-07-09T11:06:48.880" Title="Why we do not keep Tulsi on Prasada offered to lord Ganpati?" Tags="|ganesha|prasad|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3185" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3175" CreationDate="2014-09-22T14:58:33.243" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;You used an Important word called Force (I will not talk about the scientific force here)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Force ( Meaning ) :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  1. Coercion or compulsion, especially with the use or threat of violence.&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  2. Make (someone) do something against their will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Will :&lt;/strong&gt; The thing that one desires(and the desire is limited to natural cause, e.g. You had a full meal, but you want to have more, its greed not will).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism teaches to &lt;em&gt;move in parallel to nature&lt;/em&gt;, this is only thing which Hinduism calls to human, and the first principle of walking parallel to nature is doing with your will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism believes in Karma, you have your will, do whatever you want, but be prepare for the consequences. Doesn't it looks logical and more natural, a lion never eats with full stomach, neither any animal. Its nature, we are nature, if we force someone against the will, we are actually forcing the nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only thing we can do is teach them the &lt;em&gt;difference between right and wrong&lt;/em&gt;, its always a &lt;em&gt;person's choice to choose one&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Now about Pray :&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;What is Pray ? Is pray limited to group of words, which you draft in-front of god. No in Hinduism it has a broader concept, if your Praying just the sake of Drafting words its useless, you need to do with your will, you should have an utter belief in him, you should be ready and gone from other thoughts while you are praying him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you pray with your will you are actually thoughtless and your pure intentions are inclined towards him, making it more effective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Are their rules for Praying&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;(I shouldn't use the word here as its with limited sence) : Their are rules, like &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Surya Namashkar&lt;/em&gt;, which will be helpful in &lt;em&gt;Brahmamuhurata&lt;/em&gt; only&lt;/strong&gt;. But they are not forced to us, why ? again its your will if you want to gain the benefits or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;What GOD wants :&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Is he a dictator? no he is a creator, to understand this, just think you created something, you will love to be it what you created. Therefore GOD doesn't wants you to Pray him, if you do he will Please, but If you don't it will not hurt him, &lt;em&gt;he only wants you to take care of the fellow creation&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My answers may feel empty without scriptural proofs, I will try to add some, but this is the overview of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="499" LastEditDate="2015-08-18T19:34:40.253" LastActivityDate="2015-08-18T19:34:40.253" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3186" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3609" CreationDate="2014-09-22T23:18:51.540" Score="11" ViewCount="33035" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard that it is not allowed to pick the leaves of a Tulsi plant on certain days such as Dwadasi among others. This is why Acharyas advise against using store-bought Tulsi in offerings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which specific days are these, and why is it not allowed to pick Tulsi leaves on them?  Could one theoretically pick several leaves on the valid days and use them in Pooja during the days when it cannot be picked?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also is there a specific protocol to be observed for the act of actually picking the leaves off of the plant?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="419" LastEditDate="2014-10-21T05:39:04.077" LastActivityDate="2020-04-23T03:55:36.797" Title="Why can Tulsi leaves only be picked on certain days?" Tags="|rituals|worship|food|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3187" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-23T03:59:37.583" Score="9" ViewCount="1888" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, the sage Vishwamitra tells Rama and Lakshmana the famous story of the descent of the Ganga river to Earth.  As described in this chapter of the Bala Kanda, Rama's ancestor Sagara once conducted an &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashvamedha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ashwamedha Yagna&lt;/a&gt; (horse ritual), and Indra, fearing that the yagna would make Sagara too powerful, stole the sacrificial horse so that Sagara couldn't complete the ritual. &#xA;So Sagara sent his sons to look for the horse, and they scoured the earth trying to find it.  As described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga40/balasans40.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt;, Sagara's sons finally found the horse near the ashram of Kapila, a great sage and incarnation of Vishnu.  They accused Kapila of stealing the horse, and he was so enraged that he burned them all to ashes.  It was the quest to scatter the ashes of Sagara's sons in a holy body of water that motivated Sagara's descendant Bhagiratha to bring the river Ganga from Devaloka to Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about how the sage Kapila is referred to in the passage.  For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga40/balasans40.htm#Verse2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here is what&lt;/a&gt; Brahma says when he tells the gods that Kapila is going to burn Sagara's sons to ashes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To whom this Mother Earth belongs in all her entirety, &lt;strong&gt;he is that prescient Vāsudeva&lt;/strong&gt;, and she is also the consort of that Maadhava, and that Vishnu eternally props up Mother Earth. Hence, that reverential Vishnu donning the semblance of Sage Kapila will burn down the sons of emperor Sagara to ashes in a fire of fury.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga40/balasans40.htm#Verse25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the description of Kapila when he is seen by the sons of Sagara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But all those great-souled and great-mighty ones with terrible dash have seen &lt;strong&gt;the Infinite Vāsudeva&lt;/strong&gt; in the form of sage Kapila there in the northeast, and oh, descendant of Raghu, they have also seen the ritual-horse moving nearby that sage Kapila, thus all of the sons of Sagara obtained a matchless delight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the fact that Vishnu is referred to by the name &quot;Vāsudeva&quot;. Now when people today refer to Vishnu as Vāsudeva, they mostly do it because it's a name of Vishnu's incarnation Krishna, since his father was named Vasudeva.  Yet this is a passage in the Ramayana, which was composed long before Krishna was even born, and it's talking about events that happened long before Rama was even born!  This could be because Brahma and Vishwamitra already foresaw Vishnu being born as Vasudeva's son in the future, or it could be that the name &quot;Vāsudeva&quot; is being used literally, to mean &quot;Lord of the Vasus&quot;; the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vasus&lt;/a&gt; are a group of 8 Vedic gods associated with various slements of nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, my question is, is the Ramayana the earliest Hindu scripture which refers to Vishnu as Vāsudeva, or are there even earlier scriptures?  Is he called Vāsudeva in the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-15T18:00:30.577" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T07:10:17.967" Title="What is the earliest reference to Vāsudeva as a name of Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|kapila|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3188" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3189" CreationDate="2014-09-23T05:55:48.190" Score="10" ViewCount="8235" Body="&lt;p&gt;Often I get nervous and I want to overcome the same. I know for sure that some Sanskrit mantra can help me to overcome this problem.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So can you recommend me a mantra to overcome fear and nervousness?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="288" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-09-23T06:08:31.013" LastActivityDate="2017-11-30T16:02:18.167" Title="Recommend me a mantra to overcome fear and nervousness" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3189" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3188" CreationDate="2014-09-23T06:58:34.230" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can chant following mantras daily:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gayatri Mantra &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;ॐ भूर्भुव: स्व: तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं । भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि, धीयो यो न: प्रचोदयात् ।।&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Panchakshara Mantra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;ॐ नमः शिवाय ।।&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Raam Naam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;राम राम....&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case you have time then you can either read the Hanuman Chalisa or hear the Hanuman chalisa from .mp3 player (The best one is Gulshan Kumar's Hanuman Chalisa). Reading/Hearing Hanuman Chalisa with concentration just for once will decrease a lots of your fear and nervousness because Hanuman is also very well known as &lt;em&gt;Sankatmochan&lt;/em&gt; (problem resolver).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="623" LastEditorUserId="1251" LastEditDate="2014-12-30T06:20:18.710" LastActivityDate="2014-12-30T06:20:18.710" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3190" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3175" CreationDate="2014-09-23T08:11:14.753" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR: Prayer is a duty if you wear the sacred thread.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The daily &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhyavandanam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sandhyavandanam&lt;/a&gt; ritual is the duty of wearers of the sacred thread, and as I discuss in my answer, the wearing of the sacred thread is the duty of all Dvijas (members of the first three castes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti includes a discussion the various duties of Dvijas; here is what it says about the duty of the daily chanting of the Gayatri mantra, which is the central activity of the Sandhyavandhanam ritual:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;101&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let him stand during the morning twilight, muttering the Savitri until the sun appears, but (let him recite it), seated, in the evening until the constellations can be seen distinctly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He who stands during the morning twilight muttering (the Savitri), removes the guilt contracted during the (previous) night; but he who (recites it), seated, in the evening, destroys the sin he committed during the day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But he who does not (worship) standing in the morning, nor sitting in the evening, shall be excluded, just like a Sudra, from all the duties and rights of an Arya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the Gayatri mantra is called the Savitri here because it's a mantra to Surya, and Savita is another name for Surya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-09T15:46:24.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3191" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3210" CreationDate="2014-09-23T10:20:48.627" Score="22" ViewCount="18936" Body="&lt;p&gt;I watched a TV serial named &quot;Devo ke Dev Mahadev&quot; on channel &quot;Life Ok&quot;. In that, they mentioned several stories of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu always meditating upon each other and connected to each other at all times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that true? If yes, what is the reason behind this? Can anybody enlighten me on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="850" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-18T22:24:55.317" LastActivityDate="2023-11-06T13:30:41.527" Title="Why do Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva always meditate on each other?" Tags="|shiva|vishnu|worship|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3192" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3181" CreationDate="2014-09-23T17:16:19.683" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Too many questions but I will try to answer them,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Answer 1:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Subhadra is one of the most important characters when one considers Mahabharat. Her grandson Parikshit became the heir to the Kuru Rashtra after Yudhisthir's reign. All the sons of Draupadi, Shubhadra, Uloopi and Hidamba died in the great war of Mahabharat. Abhimanyu, Subhadra and Arjun's son was a great warrior in a very young age and hence importance is given to Subhadra for giving birth to Abhimanyu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Answer 2:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Your second question doesn't make much sense, why is she ignored - What makes you feel she is being ignored and by whom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Answer 3:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratha-Yatra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rath Yatra&lt;/a&gt; should give you insight that she is given equal position and importance when it comes to worship and Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Answer 4:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Not sure if there is any book on her, I haven't come across any. But reading &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhadra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; should give you more insight (if you already haven't)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Answer 5:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Not entirely sure about favourite wife but from what I have read at various places - Uloopi comes up to my mind. She has releaved Arjun from curse, brought him back to life, gave him a boon, sacrificed her son Iravan for the Mahabharat war and many other reasons. &#xA;And without a doubt the main and first wife of Arjun was Draupadi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Answer 6:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Bonding between all of these can be obtained by reading the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt; and also the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagwat&lt;/a&gt; (There are variations of Bhagwat) Selecting specific chapters from Mahabharat will help you understand the various situations and bonding between these characters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="97" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-26T12:52:49.303" LastActivityDate="2014-09-26T12:52:49.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3193" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-24T04:03:53.387" Score="28" ViewCount="3660" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indian schools of philosophy are traditionally divided into two categories, Astika and Nastika.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80stika_and_n%C4%81stika#.C4.80stika&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Astika schools&lt;/a&gt; accept the authority of the Vedas as divinely revealed truth (shruti), whereas &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80stika_and_n%C4%81stika#N.C4.81stika&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nastika schools&lt;/a&gt;, like Buddhism, Jainism, and Charvaka, reject the authority of the Vedas.  Generally members of Astika schools are the ones that are called Hindu, whereas the Nastika schools fall into the broader category of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_religions#.22Dharmic_religions.22&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharmic faiths&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_philosophy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; are the traditional Astika schools of philosophy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Samkhya&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yoga&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nyaya&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vaisheshika&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mimāṃsā&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vedanta&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it seems to me that one school is vastly more popular than the others: the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; school, which derives its tenets from the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads, as expounded in Vyasa's &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta#Schools_of_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is Wikipedia's chart of the various Vedanta philosophies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AEadN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From what I can tell, almost every popular sect of Hinduism subscribes to one of these Vedanta philosophies.  Smarthas, for instance, believe in Adi Shankarachatya's philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, according to which Jivatma (the individual soul) and Paramatma (divine soul or supersoul) are identical.  Sri Vaishnavas believe in Ramanujacharya's philosophy of Visistadvaita Vedanta, according to which Jivatmas are distinct parts of Parmatma but Paramatma extends beyond them.  And Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Vedantic philosophy of Achintya Bheda Abheda, according to which there is a simultaneous unity and difference between Jivatma and Paramatma that is inconceivable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what is the percentage of Hindus who belong to a sect which subscribes to the Vedanta school of philosophy?  Note that when I say &quot;Hindu&quot; I don't mean Buddhists and the like, I just mean people belonging to the Astika schools.  I'm wondering how many Hindus belong to the Vedanta school, compared to how many Hindus belong to the other Astika schools like Purva Mimamsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My guess is that the percentage is significantly greater than 95%, but have there been any statistics collected on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-30T10:06:31.637" LastActivityDate="2018-04-30T06:28:51.030" Title="What percentage of Hindus belong to a sect that subscribes to the Vedanta school?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|sects|statistics|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="28" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3197" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3200" CreationDate="2014-09-25T03:54:45.390" Score="17" ViewCount="8254" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is &lt;em&gt;Param Brahma&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Parampita Parmeshwar&lt;/em&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the relation of lord Vishnu, lord Shankara with Param Bhrahma ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="857" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-26T10:49:00.817" LastActivityDate="2016-04-24T01:08:54.647" Title="What is Param Brahma?" Tags="|shiva|vishnu|brahma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3198" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-25T04:24:04.137" Score="12" ViewCount="1379" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/a&gt;, a work by Vyasa which summarizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.  You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; they consist of concise sayings, so people usually read them with the help of a commentary.  Numerous commentaries have been written on them, by proponents of various Vedantic philosophies, but the two most prominent commentaries are the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhashya&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Bhashya&lt;/a&gt; of Ramanujacharya.  But there was another commentary much older than those two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Ramunjacharya's day, the only commonly known interpretation of the Brahma Sutras was Adi Shankaracharya.  But Ramanujacharya felt that Adi Shankaracharya had twisted the meaning of the Brahma Sutras to suit his Advaita philosophy and that properly understood, the Brahma Sutras were actually consistent with the Visistadvaita philosophy that characterized Ramanujacharya's &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Vaishnava&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; sect.  In an attempt to find the true meaning of the Brahma Sutras, Ramanujacharya procured a commentary on the Brahma Sutra by Baudhayana, an ancient sage who had written numerous supplements and commentaries on the Yajur Veda. In contrast to Adi Shankaracharya, who viewed the Upanishadic philosophy of the Brahma Sutras in isolation, apparently Baudhayana thought that the Upanishads could only be understood after studying the Vedas.  In any case, relying on the meaning of the Brahma Sutras given by Baudhayana, Ramanujacharya was able to write a new commentary on the text which argued that Vyasa had really intended to convey the philosophy of Visistadvaita Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there are no surviving copies of Baudhayana's commentary.  But my question is, are there at least fragments or quotes of the work which survive?  Does Ramanujacharya ever directly quote Baudhayana in the Sri Bhashya?  If there are any fragments, are they available in English translation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-12T15:43:25.993" LastActivityDate="2016-08-20T15:16:59.303" Title="Are there any surviving quotes from Baudhayana's commentary on the Brahma Sutras?" Tags="|philosophy|sri-vaishnava|brahma-sutras|vedanta|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3199" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-25T04:34:41.230" Score="6" ViewCount="6213" Body="&lt;p&gt;During the festival season of Navrathri it is a custom of keeping Marapachi dolls in Gollu (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Navrathri Golu&lt;/a&gt;), a custom which is widely practiced in the southern states. What is the significance of these dolls in Navrathri?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A1304.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Marapachi Doll&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="757" LastActivityDate="2016-10-06T13:23:29.740" Title="Significance of Marapachi doll in Gollu" Tags="|culture|tradition|customs|navrathri|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3200" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3197" CreationDate="2014-09-25T04:38:44.957" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahman is that supreme entity from which everything originates, in which everything stays and into which upon desolation everything merges:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;janmadasya yatah&lt;/em&gt; [BrSu -1.1.2]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - From whihc origin etc. take place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante yena jātāni jīvanti yatprayantyabhisaṃviśanti tadvijijñāsasva tadbrahmeti&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up. - 3.1]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That from which all these beings are born, having born by which they live, That into which having departed they enter, seek to know That, That is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That Brahman is both formless and with form (&lt;em&gt;dve vāva brahmaṇo rūpe, mūrtaṃ caivāmūrtaṃ ca&lt;/em&gt;  [Brh. Up. - 2.3.1]). Because we are endowed with form, we generally attribute the above three activities of creation, preservation and desolation to three different forms of the same supreme Brahman known as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. But Brahman is one without a second (&lt;em&gt;ekam advitiyam brahman&lt;/em&gt; [Chg. Up - 6.2.1])and all these three are &lt;em&gt;swaansha&lt;/em&gt; (part of the same God) or &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/136/38&quot;&gt;different temperaments of the same supreme entity&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So depending upon one's nature and belief people accept either Vishnu or Shiva as the supreme entity. But they are but the same. Also, the Bhagavad Gita states Shri Krishna as the parambrahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  puruṣaṁ śāśvataṁ divyam ādi-devam ajaṁ vibhum&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  āhus tvām ṛṣayaḥ sarve devarṣir nāradas tathā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  asito devalo vyāsaḥ svayaṁ caiva bravīṣi me&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 10.12,13]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala and Vyāsa conﬁrm this truth about You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another thing is that, the word Brahman in Sanskrit means an entity which is big itself and makes others big:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yasmācca bṛhati bṛṃhayati ca sarvaṃ tasmāducyate paraṃbrahmeti&lt;/em&gt; [Shandilya Up. - 3.2]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  — Because He increases and caused everything to increase, it is called supreme Brahman.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it's generally the same whether we say Brahman or Parambrahman. &lt;em&gt;But because in Vedas, even jiva and prkruti have been termed as Brahman, when we say Parambrahman it means the supreme entity that rules over these other kinds of Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, namely the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-01-23T11:39:45.353" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3201" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-09-25T05:12:40.373" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-09-25T05:12:40.373" LastActivityDate="2014-09-25T05:12:40.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3202" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-09-25T05:12:40.373" Score="0" Body="A tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-25T06:19:02.317" LastActivityDate="2014-09-25T06:19:02.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3203" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3175" CreationDate="2014-09-25T06:59:37.133" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hiduisam is very broad religion, covers all levels of peoples based on spritual. The mantra one chants is actually a prayer. &#xA;Example &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa&#xA;  kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare&#xA;  hare rāma hare rāma&#xA;  rāma rāma hare hare &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;means Oh Lord please engage me in your service. Chanting mantra consciously is itself a prayer &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the grievous sins are removed for one who worships Lord Sri Hari, the Lord of all lords, and chants the holy name, the Maha-mantra.&#xA;— Padma Purana, 3.50.6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one chants consciously one gets benefit, rather forcing someone to chant and chanting unconsciously.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="820" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-07T13:13:54.220" LastActivityDate="2014-10-07T13:13:54.220" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3204" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-25T11:14:55.467" Score="6" ViewCount="95" Body="&lt;p&gt;Watched an episode (broadcast on 25/09/2014 on Life Ok) of &quot;Devo Ke Dev Mahadev&quot;, an epic serial on Lord Shiva. From this episode i came to know that ॐ (Om/Aum) is the everything in which all universe resides, including Tridev( Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the question arise in my mind are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is ॐ? (This is not a word so should not be a defined then)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it true that everything is in ॐ and Tridev are only a energy part of ॐ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope i have explained well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="850" LastActivityDate="2014-09-25T11:14:55.467" Title="Who is God? or What is God? or What is ॐ?" Tags="|shiva|vishnu|brahma|om|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-09-25T12:25:41.443" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3205" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-25T13:14:47.490" Score="4" ViewCount="106" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 12 Jyotirling of Lord Shiv. I want to know that what is Jyotirling and how these 12 Jyotirling are different from other Shivling?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="850" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-25T13:47:39.573" LastActivityDate="2014-09-26T12:28:48.330" Title="What is a Jyotirling and how it is different from other Shivling?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2014-09-29T09:22:19.577" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3206" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3132" CreationDate="2014-09-25T17:11:35.267" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Hindi Sanskrit text above translates to the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is the major festivals of Makar Sankranti. This festival is celebrated all over India in some form. Sun in Capricorn occurs on Poush Mass is celebrated on the solstice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This festival is celebrated mostly on fourteen of January. Sometimes the festival twelve, thirteen or fifteen may be, it depends on the fact that when the sun enters Sagittarius Capricorn left. The day begins with the sun's solstice speed and for this reason it is also called Uttarayani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="860" LastActivityDate="2014-09-25T17:11:35.267" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3207" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-26T01:28:02.900" Score="6" ViewCount="605" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've seen good questions on fasting &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/search?tab=relevance&amp;amp;pagesize=30&amp;amp;q=fasting&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. I would like to know types of fasting like some do it half day, some full day, some previous day noon to next day noon, some takes only lime juice, some takes only fruit juices, some even without water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can all of them give same result? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the right procedures? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How one should choose among?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T07:02:08.763" Title="What are types of fasting, does all yield same result?" Tags="|practice|fasting|sadhana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3208" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-26T01:34:39.983" Score="7" ViewCount="1301" Body="&lt;p&gt;As a continuation to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3207/65&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question, What is the best day for fasting? As a techie I can comfortably fast only on weekends! So, can I do fasting on any day where I get less work? Are there any best days to fast?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Am asking best day to fast only for understanding but not for evaluation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T16:43:50.130" Title="What are the best days to do fasting?" Tags="|practice|fasting|sadhana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3209" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-26T03:49:55.463" Score="14" ViewCount="72852" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard a lot of myth related to shaving beard and moustache.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Those whose father is alive should &lt;strong&gt;NOT&lt;/strong&gt; shave.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;We should not Shave on Thursday(because wealth might go away) and Saturday.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There are people who think that cutting hair on Saturdays help cut down Saade Sati of Shani Dev.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;It is also believed that one should not wash their hair or clothes on a Thursday.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There is also a myth for not cutting hair or shaving on Tuesday &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many stories about shaving and hair wash in Hinduism which are practiced by many religious people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being a Senior technocrat, We are expected to be clean shaved. Shall I go without taking care of  specific &lt;strong&gt;DAYS&lt;/strong&gt; or is there any combination of allowed days which let us manage with these customs as well as our daily life style.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please share some other myths related to this.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="223" LastEditorUserId="223" LastEditDate="2014-09-27T06:33:22.773" LastActivityDate="2022-11-22T20:46:13.357" Title="Myth/Customs related to shaving &amp; hairwash" Tags="|tradition|customs|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3210" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3191" CreationDate="2014-09-26T07:19:29.953" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would try to correct a one misconception that Lord Vishnu meditates on Lord Shiva. &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No he doesn't, Lord Vishnu actually meditates on Lord Brahma.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a cyclic process, Lord Brahma meditates on Lord Shiva, Lord Shiva meditates on Lord Vishnu and Lord Vishnu meditates on Lord Brahma, and the cycle goes on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why this Cycle ?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Brahma is a creator by nature, but before creation there is destruction, so he needs to understand the destruction, therefore he meditates on Lord Shiva, Vishnu is a Preserver, to Preserve he needs to understand the generation(creation), therefore he meditates on Lord Brahma , Shiva on the other-hand is a  annihilator, to destroy he needs to understand Preservation, therefore he meditates on Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why they need to understand their predecessor process ?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Natural law, every process is the outcome of a process, and to understand a process, you need to know origin process. This also shows the &lt;em&gt;cyclic and infinitum&lt;/em&gt; nature of any process's existence. This is a reason why science went way back to atoms, then to neutrons and still searching the cause of it(currently medalling with string theory).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To make everything more visible, I created this image which conveys it all. In the image, B = Brahma, V = Vishnu and S = Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i01PD.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But is it not written in Puranas ?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes its written, but in other way, puranas say :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu worships Lord Shiva and Lord Shiva worships Lord Raam (Vishnu Avatar).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But meditation is different than worshiping. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/264/why-are-temples-devoted-to-brahma-so-rare/2317#2317&quot;&gt;Lord Shiva cursed Lord Brahma that he would not be worshiped by anyone.&lt;/a&gt; Meditation is needed to understand something, you want to understand 'BIKE' meditate on it, you want to understand 'GOD' meditate on him. Worshiping is kind of give-take relationship between Purusha and Prakrati, the prakrati worships Purusha, to get something from it. Some worship Purusha to easily understand the way(the creation or the God), because meditating can sometime become tougher and time lengthy and needs higher consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Serial ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TV serial &amp;quot;Devo ke Dev Mahadev&amp;quot; on channel &amp;quot;Life Ok&amp;quot;, also told the same thing, that &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu actually meditates on Bhrama&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, It is in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsx_8g4hY08&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;8th October 2012, 234th episode.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scene describes that Mata Parvati comes across Lord Shiva, who is meditating on Lord Vishnu at that time, she asks him the question why he meditating on Lord Vishnu, and their he answers about the cycle process.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-29T06:07:19.507" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3213" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3208" CreationDate="2014-09-26T13:59:31.560" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question is genuine but the problem is that as you said in weekends you are suggest to do fasting but in weekends you are doing nothing and not concentrate on any work and your mind is free to think anything and generally it happen  that whatever thing we wanted to do (like fasting) such conditions comes in which you are forced to cross it and negative energy (or mentality) force you to don't do that things that you wanted to do (as fasting).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as per the Hinduism everyday in a week is dedicated to some of the God (as there are 33 Crore Lords in Hindu's) so &lt;strong&gt;you can do fasting on any of the day in week&lt;/strong&gt; but personally I suggest you to &lt;strong&gt;don't do fasting on weekend&lt;/strong&gt; as you are not able to concentrate on fasting and while you are working you are forcefully concentrate on your work the filling of hungriness will not come in your mind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="772" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-30T06:52:47.157" LastActivityDate="2014-09-30T06:52:47.157" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3214" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3220" CreationDate="2014-09-26T16:26:37.170" Score="2" ViewCount="1216" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the difference between Bhakta and Para bhakta?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any difference in how they worship?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any difference in their character?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do they do more Poojas than bhaktas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T08:06:16.647" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T08:06:16.647" Title="What is the difference between Bhakta and Para Bhakta?" Tags="|worship|bhakti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3215" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-26T16:50:43.817" Score="4" ViewCount="1036" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanathana Dharma is one of the rarest culture in history of mankind which emphasize on the protection of nature. Here in India, Hindus respect the value of life in Nature. They respect trees, animals and all other living beings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before cutting one tree, they  apologize and ask permission from the tree being cut. I have seen this practice in Kerala, where tree cutters and carpenters ask for permission of tree. Also there is a saying like 'One tree is equal to 10 sons', which shows the importance of trees. Also forests are an essential part in the life of Hindu according to Varnasrama dharma.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a general view, most of the Hindu scriptures deals with the nature. In ancient times, there were no question of nature protection since people were keeping their values and considered earth as equal to mother. But this is Kaliyuga and everything has changed a lot. People all over the world is looting nature and destroying the forests. My question is in concern with all these activities against nature. What does Hinduism say about nature protection? Which of the particular Hindu scripture deals with the protection of nature? Or is it like all of them deal with it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also as an additional question, does anyone know about the origin of the practice which is about asking permission to trees before cutting them down? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2014-09-26T17:42:58.957" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T20:53:33.063" Title="What does Hinduism say about protection of nature?" Tags="|culture|earth|nature|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3216" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-26T17:01:39.453" Score="4" ViewCount="335" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the importance of celebrating temple festivals every year?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the concept behind this celebration?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does any scriptures/texts include rules to be followed in temple festivals?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T03:57:05.417" LastActivityDate="2016-05-17T06:40:05.543" Title="What is the importance of celebrating temple festivals every year?" Tags="|scripture|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3218" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3182" CreationDate="2014-09-26T18:37:52.897" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the following Incident &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ganeshmall.com/info/Ganesh_Legends_Q_26A?&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and list of references given at the end of this post.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question related Fact:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganesha is offered all sorts of sacred flowers, fruits and sweets in worship but not the Tulsi leaves, the sacred basil. Tulsi is very much&#xA;venerated by Hindus, specially the Vaishnavas, but it is not offered&#xA;to Ganesha because of a curse&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tulsi&lt;/strong&gt; (an herb from the basil family) was a beautiful maiden who, when she saw the resplendent Ganesha, fell in love with him and wished to marry him. Ganesha though, was a confirmed bachelor (at least according to some legends) and refused to oblige her. The enraged Tulsi cursed him that one day, he would indeed break his vow of celibacy. Ganesha cursed her in return, that she would marry a demon and later, turn into a plant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Tulsi realized her folly and pleaded for mercy until Ganesha relented.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“You will be the most fragrant plant of all”,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;He said,&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“one that will please all the gods. Your leaves will be used&#xA;especially in the worship of Vishnu. But you will never be present&#xA;where I am worshiped.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;References&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lordsiva.in/?q=content/babulanth-ganesh&amp;amp;page=10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Shiva . com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jaiganesha.co.in/story.php?sid=14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jai Ganesha . com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ganeshblog.com/2009/09/why-is-tulsi-not-offered-to-hindu-god-ganesha.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganesh Blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhriguashram.org/ver3/ganeshantulsi.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;There&lt;/a&gt; is a detailed story behind this fact.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="223" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-26T18:37:52.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3220" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3214" CreationDate="2014-09-27T03:59:57.090" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;A &lt;em&gt;bhakta&lt;/em&gt; (devotee) is someone who does &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt; (devotion). The word &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt; has been derived from the Sanskrit root &lt;em&gt;bhaj&lt;/em&gt;, which means to chant, sing or glorify.  So generally, a &lt;em&gt;bhakta&lt;/em&gt; is someone who sings, chants or praises someone else or God through various means. But the thing is, the reason why a person does &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt; can be different and  this reason and attitude differentiates a &lt;em&gt;bhakta&lt;/em&gt; from a &lt;em&gt;para bhakta&lt;/em&gt; (a superior devotee). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gita says there are four kinds of people who do devotion:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;catur-vidha bhajante mam janah sukrtino 'rjuna&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  arto jijnasur artharthi jnani ca bharatarsabha&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 7.16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O best among the Bharatas [Arjuna], four kinds of pious men render devotional service unto Me--the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So these are normal devotees because they worship God for the fulfilment of their own purpose and desires. But that devotion which is done out of love for God and without any personal desires is called as &lt;em&gt;uttama&lt;/em&gt; or the best devotion:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   anukulyena krsnanu-silanam bhaktir uttama&lt;/em&gt; [BRS - 1.1.11]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Devoid of any personal desires, not tainted with impersonal knowledge and fruitive actions, following of Krishna in favour of Him is known as the best of all devotions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So these kind of &lt;em&gt;bhaktas&lt;/em&gt; who are devoid of personal desires are called as &lt;em&gt;niskama bhkata&lt;/em&gt; and superior than the other devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is there any difference in how they worship?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because it is the attitude and mentality for doing devotion that is different, there are hardly any differences between how they worship. A devotee does the worship for fulfilling his personal desire, but a true devotee does this only to please his lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, one important difference is that, mental worship (&lt;em&gt;manasika puja&lt;/em&gt;) becomes the primary mode of worship for most such true devotees. And the &lt;em&gt;nabadha bhkati&lt;/em&gt; (nine types of devotion: singing, chanting, remembering, etc.) remain common for most devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is there any difference in their character?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, as the feelings of devotion increases and one gets absorbed more and more in it, the character of the devotee changes and many other symptoms can appear. Their knowledge will mature and eventually they will understand and realize that everyone is nothing but God and their attitude towards other will change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally there are people who are devoted to God, but because their knowledge is not mature their characters and attitude towards others are not good. Even they hate, despise or quarrel with others. So &lt;strong&gt;there are these 3 types of devotees: ordinary or common devotee, intermediate devotee and best devotee:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ordinary Devotee&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;arcāyām eva haraye pūjāṁ yaḥ śraddhayehate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  na tad-bhakteṣu cānyeṣu sa bhaktaḥ prākṛtaḥ smṛtaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.2.47]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He is considered as an ordinary devotee who faithfully worships the Lord and his &lt;em&gt;acharya&lt;/em&gt; or guru, but doesn’t respect other devotees and other people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the beginning stage of a true devotee. He likes his personal deity whether it's Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna or anyone else and he likes his guru or &lt;em&gt;acharya&lt;/em&gt;. But he has negative feelings for devotees of other sects and traditions. In this stage the ego is very high so it causes the feeling of personal superiority and produces negative feelings towards others.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Intermediate Devotee&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;īśvare tad-adhīneṣu bāliśeṣu dviṣatsu ca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  prema-maitrī-kṛpopekṣā yaḥ karoti sa madhyamaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.2.46]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  An intermediate devotee loves the Lord and is friendly to all devotees of lord. He shows mercy to ignorant people but disregards those who dislike the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This generally happens because a devotee considers himself and other devotees fortunate and superior because they are walking on the path of God and not following materialistic life. So a subtle ego in him causes to dislike other materialistic people. (In this state there is &lt;em&gt;dvesha&lt;/em&gt; towards the materialistic world)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Best Devotee&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarvabhūteṣu yaḥ paśyedbhagavadbhāvamātmanaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhūtāni bhagavatyātmanyeṣa bhāgavatottamaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.2.45]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He is best devotee who sees his own self situated in everything and sees everything situated in God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the state when a devotee actually realizes everything is God (&lt;em&gt;vasudeva sarvam iti&lt;/em&gt;). There is neither &lt;em&gt;raga&lt;/em&gt; (attachment or liking) nor &lt;em&gt;dvesha&lt;/em&gt; (dislike or hatred) for anything. Generally devotees say everything is God, in everyone God resides, etc., but they don't actually realize it. When they do, they become the best devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Do they do more puja than bhaktas?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, it's not like that. But just like Sai has mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3214/what-is-the-difference-between-bhakta-and-para-bhakta#comment5799_3214&quot;&gt;his comment&lt;/a&gt; they always remember their Lord. Even a moment feels like an aeon to them without their Lord. It's a thing of inner mentality, not external worships. But because true devotion is generally love, no one can say how it will manifest. People do different sorts of things out of love. So depending upon one's personality, attitude and knowledge a &lt;em&gt;bhakta&lt;/em&gt; can do anything out of devotion, even may perform more &lt;em&gt;pujas&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;vratas&lt;/em&gt;, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Update&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;True devotion is that which is causeless and without any personal desires. To state this I cited a verse from Bhakti Rasamruta Sindhu which sums it all beautifully in one verse. BRS is one of the best books that exists on devotion. But if you are somehow biased by sectarian views and don't appreciate works and writings of other saints, even if they are correct, then kindly ignore that verse (BRS - 1.1.11) and consider the following from Narada Bhakti Sutra instead:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;gunarahitam kamanarahitam pratikshanavardhamanam&lt;/em&gt; [NBS - 54]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - True devotion is devoid of material qualities and desires and it increases every moment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If NBS is also controversial to you then please ignore that as well and replace it with the following verses from Bhagavata which also states the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 1.2.6]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;ahaituky avyavahitā yā bhaktiḥ puruṣottame&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 3.29.12]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;PS: I am neither a Gaudiya Vaishnava nor do I belong to any sect or sampradaya. I respect all saints so I don't think a right and correct thing is controversial just because a saint from another sect says it.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-09-27T10:24:39.277" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3221" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3216" CreationDate="2014-09-27T04:16:22.077" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Temples can be categorized into 4 types,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swayambhu: God emerged himself. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Deva pratistitha: One god's murthi/idol installed by other god/gods.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rushi pratisthitha: Murthi was installed by a Rushi &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manusha pratisthitha: Murthi was installed by human being&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on type of installation  of murthi, each murthi will have certain  amount of power. Each of these murthis may have been installed for different purposes. At auspicious timings, this power gets multiplied. Hence the one who takes darshan of the murthi will get more benefited. One may (un)consciously and conveniently spend more time at temple at the festivals in the account of different sevas/services  offered to god. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Temples protect our culture, through the dharmic and spiritual activities by the haves, have-nots will get benefited and since it is done at temple, others will get motivated and will be promoted from within to do such activities (hence they will do within their limitations or will do when they have). This is how moral values for next generation is passed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Through the classical arts like singing, dancing or drama one can easily understand the morals set by our ancestors from vedic times. One can easily understand how gods responds to devotees call. For these reasons, our ancient temples are very spacious to accommodate thousands of devotees and pilgrims. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Temple festivals serve the very same purpose. On the top of general festivals, on murthi installation muhurtha of every year is celebrated. Atleast for this reason, we all assemble at temple to perform different sevas and dharmic activities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T03:57:43.517" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T03:57:43.517" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3222" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3215" CreationDate="2014-09-27T05:01:12.567" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanathana Dharma teaches us to worship mother earth as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bh%C5%ABmi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;bhudevi&lt;/a&gt;, in fact entire creation is seen as cosmic body of God where creator is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya#Puru.E1.B9.A3a&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;purusha&lt;/a&gt; and creation is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya#Prakriti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;prakriti&lt;/a&gt;. Everyone/everything is seen as a form of god. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus(sanathana dharma followers) worship flora and fauna equally, dharma is our way of life and this is daily practice for us! Our culture says &lt;code&gt;Vruksho rakshati rakhitaha&lt;/code&gt; meaning those who protect tree will be protected! We &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/79/65&quot;&gt;feed&lt;/a&gt; small insects by rangoli.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3093/65&quot;&gt;Every&lt;/a&gt; tree is linked with a god and is worshipped, growing a plant indirectly feeds animals and insects depended on it. Animals are seen as god's &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vahana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;vehicle&lt;/a&gt; and are protected. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-09-27T05:01:12.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3223" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3442" CreationDate="2014-09-27T07:06:46.127" Score="17" ViewCount="42061" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Shiva really the āsana for Lalitha Devi? How to understand this? Who is her consort? If Shiva is her consort, why did she make him an āsana? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what is pancha bramha āsana's significance? Who are those pancha bramhas? Why did She take that form? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/z3iEB.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2018-05-27T11:37:41.623" LastActivityDate="2020-09-12T17:49:44.587" Title="Why does Lalitha Devi sit on Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|shakti|brahmanda-purana|lalita|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3224" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-27T07:33:12.823" Score="1" ViewCount="102" Body="&lt;p&gt;Each god will have a different name, form, mantra and qualities. During festive seasons or other occasions we see one god will be decorated to look like different god. Each Murthi will be installed on a very particular yantra, by performing particular rituals, so how can we do alankara to one god to look like another god or another avatar? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its prominent practice on Dasara, Sri Krishna's &amp;amp; Sri Rama's birthday. On Rama's birthday will visiting Rama's temple and visiting Krishna's temple (krishna murthi decorated with Rama's attire) bless us with same result? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-10-12T10:00:54.787" Title="Can one God be decorated to other look like other God?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3225" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="56575" CreationDate="2014-09-27T09:15:57.913" Score="3" ViewCount="668" Body="&lt;p&gt;Islam is a strict monotheist faith like Judaism and Sikhism, and we also find support of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.islamandhinduism.com/ih/articles%20of%20faith.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;monotheism in the Vedas&lt;/a&gt; to the extent &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/630/which-hindu-sects-prohibit-idol-worship&quot;&gt;that there are some sects which prohibit idol worship among the Hindus&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.islamreligion.com/category/50/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;fundamental core Islamic beliefs&lt;/a&gt; like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Only one God (i.e. Allah)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prophet as messenger of God&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Afterlife system with heaven/hell&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Angels &amp;amp; virgins&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Revealed books (i.e. Quran)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Divine predestination&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can Islam be accommodated in Hinduism such that Islam can be seen as a non conflicting sect within Hinduism? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="225" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-11-01T10:15:55.453" LastActivityDate="2023-09-26T07:21:19.470" Title="Can Islamic beliefs be accommodated into certain sect of Hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|other-religions|sects|islam|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3226" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-27T11:56:11.663" Score="5" ViewCount="254" Body="&lt;p&gt;When a river gets &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushkaram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;pushkaram&lt;/a&gt;, I see many people leaving deepam at holy rivers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the known ways to worship a river? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why do they do it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TjDYw.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Women worshipping a river&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-19T15:46:46.023" LastActivityDate="2017-06-19T15:46:46.023" Title="How to worship a holy river?" Tags="|rituals|rivers|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3229" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3231" CreationDate="2014-09-27T13:57:40.883" Score="-1" ViewCount="11725" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do scriptures say about planet mars?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any mention about that anywhere in Hinduism context?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="232" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-28T01:30:12.853" LastActivityDate="2014-10-12T08:47:18.847" Title="What do scriptures say about planet mars?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2014-09-29T15:26:44.207" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3231" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3229" CreationDate="2014-09-27T19:15:46.867" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Shiva Purana, Mars is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mangal graha&lt;/a&gt; in Hinduism, son of goddess earth. Lord Mangal (Mars) is one of the nine planets or navagrahas. He is also known by the names Angaraka and Kuja. He is considered the son of Prithvi or Bhumi, the Earth Goddess.He is associated with strength, valor, and courage. Lord Mangal is the protector of dharma (righteousness), and the purpose of life. Mars is owner of Mesh and Vrishik Rashi. This planet is having power that affects a person's life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mangala represents drive and physical energy, self-confidence and ego, strength, anger, impulsiveness, heroism and adventurous nature. Mangala rules over blood, muscles and bone marrow. He is associated with battle, war and soldiers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are constantly changing jobs, you may have Mars planet astrological problem, if you are mangalik, you have late marriage problem. If you have Manglik as on upper half box, you may have aggressive nature and may loose control of your mind sometimes. These are symptoms, Mangal graha problems are also like you may have secret enemies at your workplace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Scriptures:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Astrology:&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Mangal has four hands, and carries a trident and mace as weapons. He wears red ornaments. Worshiping Lord Mangal frees one from skin illnesses, debts, and poverty. The gemstone of Lord Mangal is the red coral, and his day is Tuesday. He is the guardian of the south direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramayana :&lt;/strong&gt; Many causes are there of planet mars in Hinduism. When ravana caged planets in Ramayana this Graha was also caged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganeshpuranam:&lt;/strong&gt; Once the elder brother of Hiranyaksh had kidnapped Prithvi Devi (Earth). To get Prithvi Devi released from him, God appeared in the form of 'Varah'. The God killed Hiranyaksh and Prithvi Devi was rescued. At that time Prithvi Devi was very pleased with the God and she wished to marry him. At the time of Varahavtar, the glowing of God was like having thousands of suns in the sky. It was unbearable. Then the God appeared in the beautiful and original form to fulfill the wishes of Prithvi Devi. They married and lived alone for one year. Mangal was born to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva Purana- Chap 2.71 :&lt;/strong&gt; Once when Lord Shiva was engrossed in 'deep meditation' upon his abode Mount Kailash, three drops of perspiration originated from his forehead and fell down on the earth. From those drops manifested a very beautiful infant, who was of reddish complexion and who had four arms.The child was handed over to the earth goddess, Bhumi for upbringing by Lord Shiva. The child was named Bhaum as he was nurtured and brought up by 'Bhumi' (earth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Bhaum grew up, he went to Kashi and did a tremendous penance to please lord Shiva. Lord Shiva blessed him by granting him 'Mangala loka (the Abode of Mangala), which was superior even to the 'Shukra loka' (the Abode of the god of Venus - Shukra). The same 'Bhauma' is established in the solar system by the name of Mangala (the planet Mars).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No other scriptures(I know) states anything about this planet. But there are Vrat kathas related to Lord Mars you can read them &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharathkidilse.blogspot.in/2009/12/mangalvar-vrat-katha.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-12T08:47:18.847" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3232" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="934" CreationDate="2014-09-27T19:30:36.303" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it is possible. It was ransacked and destroyed by an army of the Muslim Mamluk Dynasty under Bakhtiyar Khilji in c. 1197 CE. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So many temples of Hindu's and most famous library situated in Bihar named as Nalanda which contain ancient Hindu's Dharma Granth's (like veda's ) are destroyed and through them in fire as he is against Hinduism,  at that time so many books/granth's are not have duplicate copy and that's why as you said is possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is no any prof about veda's. You get details report about &quot;Nalanda Agnikand&quot; on google. As you mentioned Bhrigus, here are some details about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indianetzone.com/29/bhrigu_rishi.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhrigu Rishi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="772" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-09-29T13:39:19.273" LastActivityDate="2014-09-29T13:39:19.273" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3235" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-28T00:45:30.030" Score="6" ViewCount="269" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have no doubt that whether reincarnation occurs and also that rarely people have any memory of their past life, but I have a serious concern. I have a great liking of music that too specially for Indian classical genre. So when I am reborn in this world will I again have the same appreciation and liking for it? So the question is simple that do we cease to be the kind of person that we were in our last birth and start from zero again?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="869" LastEditorUserId="869" LastEditDate="2014-09-28T01:41:22.803" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T21:32:59.473" Title="Do people have same preferences and liking towards everything in this world or are they wiped like a clean slate after reincarnation?" Tags="|rebirth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3236" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-28T03:41:59.100" Score="20" ViewCount="3217" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, Bhishma gives advice to Yudishtra and the Pandavas concerning how to be a good king and how to be good person, while he's lying on a bed of arrows after the end of the Kurukshetra war.  At one point, Yudishtra's youngest brother Nakula (an accomplished swordsman) asks Bhishma about how the first sword was created.  Bhishma tells the story of how long ago, the Asuras (demons) were causing mayhem throughout the world.  In response, Brahma conducted a great Yagna (fire-ritual), and out of the fire of the Yagna came Asi, a being who turned into the first sword ever created.  Brahma gave the sword to Shiva, who used it to defeat the Asuras in battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a165.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt; how the sword was passed down after that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The divine Rudra [Shiva], after this, gave the sword, that protector of religion, dyed with the blood of Danavas, unto Vishnu with due adorations. Vishnu gave it unto Marichi. The divine Marichi gave it unto all the great Rishis. The latter gave it to Vasava [Indra]. Vasava gave it to the Regents of the world. The Regents, O son, gave that large sword to Manu the son of Surya....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In time Manu installed his own son Kshupa in the sovereignty of all creatures, and gave him the sword for their protection. From Kshupa it was taken by Ikshvaku, and from Ikshvaku by Pururavas. From Pururavas it was taken by Ayus, and from Ayus by Nahusha. From Nahusha it was taken by Yayati, and from Yayati by Puru. From Puru it was taken by Amurtarya, From Amurtarya it descended to the royal Bhumisaya. From Bhumisaya it was taken by Dushmanta's son Bharata. From Bharata, O monarch, it was taken by the righteous Ailavila. From Ailavila it was taken by king Dhundumara. From Dhundumara it was taken by Kamvoja, and from Kamvoja it was taken by Muchukunda, From Muchukunda it was taken by Marutta, and from Marutta by Raivata. From Raivata it was taken by Yuvanaswa, and from Yuvanaswa by Raghu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Raghu it was taken by the valiant Harinaswa. From Harinaswa the sword was taken by Sunaka and from Sunaka by the righteous-souled Usinara. From the last it was taken by the Bhojas and the Yadavas. From the Yadus it was taken by Sivi. From Sivi it descended to Pratardana. From Pratardana it was received by Ashtaka, and from Ashtaka by Prishadaswa. From Prishadaswa it was received by Bharadwaja, and from the last by Drona. After Drona it was taken by Kripa. &lt;strong&gt;From Kripa that best of swords has been obtained by thee with thy brothers.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So after all that illustrious history, the divine sword Asi was finally given to the Pandavas by their teacher Kripacharya, presumably during the time of their education.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what happened to the sword after the time of the Pandavas?  First of all, is there any occasion in the Mahabharata where any of the Pandavas actually used the sword?  And what did the Pandavas ultimately do with it?  Did they give it to Arjuna's grandson Parikshit, who took over the kingdom after the Pandavas went to the Himalayas?  Was Asi passed down through the generations of the Kuru dynasty?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2021-05-23T08:09:36.130" Title="What did the Pandavas do with the oldest sword in the world?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|weapon|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3237" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-28T03:46:14.170" Score="8" ViewCount="7426" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we remember our past lifes' mistakes then there are less chances of making that mistake again, at our good times we can understand it as result of our past good deeds/punyam and at bad times we understand the mistakes done by us. By this we can easily understand the concept of karma in our lives and through self realization &amp;amp; evaluation there are more chances for us to get free from the cycle of birth &amp;amp; death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind our memory loss? I heard dog will remember its past life and will cry when it sits on ash heap but forgets once its out of it! Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2023-10-11T03:58:04.030" LastActivityDate="2023-10-11T06:23:00.913" Title="Why don't we remember our past lives?" Tags="|life|afterlife|sin|punyam|" AnswerCount="9" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3238" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-28T03:55:35.620" Score="6" ViewCount="1292" Body="&lt;p&gt;How practice of mounam/silence helps a in spiritual level enhancement of sadhak? What does our vedic texts say about its practice &amp;amp; benefits? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can we break the silence when truly necessary if not what's the alternative way to reply? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T02:13:22.043" Title="What is the significance of practicing silence?" Tags="|practice|sadhana|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3239" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-28T04:58:06.123" Score="5" ViewCount="1665" Body="&lt;p&gt;AFAIK, based on one's own understanding and spiritual level, one may find love on one avatar who may be called ista devatha. Why do we have kula devatha/family god and grama devatha/village god worship when we know God is one and all His forms are equal? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Grama devatha usually will be shakti or a god in veera form and kuladevatha may be the ista devatha of father or forefathers or may had been chosen for a particular cause or a reason. Even in puja I see people worship all these three, why is this practice introduced? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-09-30T12:46:26.747" Title="Why do we have kuladevatha, grama devatha, when ista devatha does the same job ?" Tags="|rituals|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3240" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-28T08:01:37.390" Score="5" ViewCount="2913" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many rituals and practices in everyday life of Hindus. There will be slight variations according to the regions. Even though there are some common practices to be followed by everyone. What are they? How should one Hindu spend one day? What does scriptures say about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, One should wake up at ___ time. Then touch the earth with certain mantra, then do things like &lt;em&gt;surya namaskar&lt;/em&gt;, exact food timings and other such important practices until we go to sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="458" LastEditDate="2015-07-23T04:19:03.943" LastActivityDate="2016-07-28T10:38:22.453" Title="What daily routines should be followed in a Hindu's life?" Tags="|rituals|practice|culture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3241" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-28T08:08:26.087" Score="15" ViewCount="50098" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usually, we pray before having food. Are there any mantras which should be chanted before taking food? If such mantras exist, do they differ according to the meal e.g., breakfast, lunch and supper?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-07-20T14:09:21.850" LastActivityDate="2023-07-20T14:09:21.850" Title="Should we chant mantras before eating food?" Tags="|mantras|belief|culture|food|eating|" AnswerCount="10" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3242" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-28T08:46:58.090" Score="0" ViewCount="46" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bells are there in every hindu temples. There must be some significance of bells. Is there any importance of the sound of bells?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="868" LastActivityDate="2014-09-28T08:46:58.090" Title="What is the significance of bell in Hindiusm?" Tags="|belief|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-09-28T12:38:53.687" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3243" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3240" CreationDate="2014-09-28T08:52:46.733" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2901/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the wearing of the sacred thread Is the duty of all Dvijas (members of the first three castes).  And as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3190/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;,  there's one daily duty that's common for all wearers of the sacred thread: the daily &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhyavandanam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sandhyavandhanam&lt;/a&gt; ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti includes a discussion the various duties of Dvijas; here is what is says about the duty of the daily chanting of the Gayatri mantra, which is the central activity of Sandhyavandhanam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;101&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Let him stand during the morning twilight, muttering the Savitri until the sun appears, but (let him recite it), seated, in the evening until the constellations can be seen distinctly.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who stands during the morning twilight muttering (the Savitri), removes the guilt contracted during the (previous) night; but he who (recites it), seated, in the evening, destroys the sin he committed during the day.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But he who does not (worship) standing in the morning, nor sitting in the evening, shall be excluded, just like a Sudra, from all the duties and rights of an Arya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the Gayatri mantra is called the Savitri here because it's a mantra to Surya, and Savita is another name for Surya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2014-10-05T15:30:49.760" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3244" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-28T09:07:08.297" Score="1" ViewCount="111" Body="&lt;p&gt;If it is true that all the things are governed by gods. Does that mean that we don't have previledge to become what we want to be. Or even how we live our life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If these things are pre defined, like&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Where we are born?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Whom we marry?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who we encounter in our life?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When we die or where we die?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or can we change our life. Can anyone provide any good information on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="868" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-29T04:21:06.863" LastActivityDate="2014-09-29T04:21:06.863" Title="It is said that what happens in the present or future are all governed by God" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2014-09-29T04:46:13.283" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3247" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23441" CreationDate="2014-09-29T04:53:33.540" Score="6" ViewCount="1689" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, each of the four Vedas consists of four portions: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas which consist of verses heard from the gods; Brahmanas, commentaries on the Samhitas which provide instructions for important rituals; Aranyakas, which provide a guide to rituals meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical message of the Vedas.  But the Yajur Veda has seem peculiarities in its organization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, the Yajur Veda comes in two versions, the Shukla or &quot;white&quot; version, and the Krishna or &quot;dark&quot; version.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3014/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Shukla Yajur Veda consists of two texts: a Samhita, called the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajurveda#Shukla_Yajurveda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vajasaneyi Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, and a Brahmana commenting on it, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatapatha_Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana&lt;/a&gt;.  The Krishna Yajur Veda, on the other hand, does not have a separate Samhita and separate Brahmana.  Instead, it has a text called the Taittirya Samhita which is a combination of both a Samhita and a Brahmana.  In other words, some parts of the Taittirya Samhita were actually heard from the gods, while other parts are just commentaries on verses heard from the gods.  (In contrast, Samhitas of other Vedas are entirely of divine origin.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, is there any listing of exactly what parts of Taittirya Samhita were heard from the gods?  In some cases, it's obvious when a verse is of divine origin, because it occurs in the Samhita of another Veda.  For instance, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shri_Rudram_Chamakam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rudram&lt;/a&gt;, which occurs in the Fifth Prapathaka of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Fourth Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of the Taittirya Samhita, also occurs in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/wyvbk16.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sixteenth Adhyaya&lt;/a&gt; of the Vajasaneyi Samhita of the Shukla Yajur Veda, so we know that it's of divine origin.  But what about verses that occur only in the Taittirya Samhita?  How do we tell the nature of those?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the sort of information that can be found in the Anukramanis, a set of systematic indices for the Samhitas of the Vedas which document the sage who heard each verse from the gods, and the deity that each verse is addressed to. In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, I compiled the sage and deity information for most of the hymns from the Anukramani of the Rig Veda Samhita.  And in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2906/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, I tried to get the Anukramani of the Vajasaneyi Samhita of the Shukla Yajur Veda. Now I want the Anukramani for the Taittirya Samhita, because if it tells you the sage who heard each verse from the gods, it would presumably also tell you if a given verse wasn't heard from the gods at all.  Now Wikipedia says that there's an Anukramani &quot;belonging to the Atreyi shakha of the Taittiriyasamhita&quot;.  Does anyone know whether that Anukramani is available anywhere, preferably online in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T06:03:14.303" LastActivityDate="2018-02-13T17:10:32.300" Title="What parts of the TaittirIya Samhita of the Yajur Veda are Shruti?" Tags="|vedas|yajur-veda|shatapatha-brahmana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3248" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3237" CreationDate="2014-09-29T09:20:32.550" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Few reasons are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If we remember our past lives then we end up seeing all our relatives &amp;amp; friends in animals and other beings. We would be emotionally lost and we may waste our complete life in their service!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We would run after our worldly possessions gained in our previous births and will start fighting for command over it, this way we stop working and just strive hard to get our wealth into our control!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The relations between humans may be looked as the amount of karma bondage between two souls. We start seeing all women as mothers and sisters and men as fathers and brothers, in this account new bondings can't be made, elder can't pass moral values to younger!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The varna system would collapse, no one can stop anyone from doing anything.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Remembering all the painful experiences, human would lose hope and may just do nothing other than feeling sad on such happenings!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2023-10-11T03:52:40.840" LastActivityDate="2023-10-11T03:52:40.840" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3249" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-29T09:24:27.077" Score="0" ViewCount="684" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard story that &lt;em&gt;Gandhari&lt;/em&gt; cursed to Lord Krishna that he will not have any son for his dynasty, when Krishna send Duryodhna partially naked instead of full naked. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But other side I see Krishna have sons. This is not related to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2509/did-lord-krishna-have-children&quot;&gt;The question&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So which is the truth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="834" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T03:38:07.917" Title="Did Gandhari Curse Krishna not to have son?" Tags="|krishna|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2014-09-29T14:38:13.190" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3251" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3249" CreationDate="2014-09-29T14:33:25.197" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Gandhari cursed Krishna but with the death of all Yadavas in a manner similar to the death of her sons. So Krishna had children but they all met with same destiny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The death of Krishna's sons is a part of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausala_Parva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mausala Parva&lt;/a&gt; but the curse is given in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stri_Parva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Stri Parva&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a good detailed answer, refer Keshav's answer: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2931/is-there-any-story-behind-lord-krishnas-death/2939#2939&quot;&gt;Is there any story behind Lord Krishna's death?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-14T03:38:07.917" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T03:38:07.917" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3252" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3188" CreationDate="2014-09-29T14:49:17.593" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can refer to the Kali Santarana Upanishad, one of the primary 108 Upanishads:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hare krishna hare krishna&lt;br&gt;&#xA;krishna krishna hare hare&lt;br&gt;&#xA;hare rama hare rama&lt;br&gt;&#xA;rama rama hare hare &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;iti shodashakam namnam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;kali-kalmasha-nashanam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;natah parataropayah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;sarva-vedeshu drishyate&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verses 5-6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sixteen names of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra: hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare, hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare destroy all the inauspiciousness of the age of Kali. This is the conclusion of all the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="39" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-09-29T14:49:17.593" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3253" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3241" CreationDate="2014-09-29T16:01:16.283" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prayer to chant before meal&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmārpaṇam brahma havir Brahmāgnau brahmanāhutam;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Brahmaiva tena gantavyam Brahma karma samādhinā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Brahman is the oblation; Brahman is the clarified butter etc. constituting the offerings, by Brahman is the oblation poured into the fire of Brahman; Brahman verily shall be reached by him who always sees Brahman in all actions.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uttering this prayer, one should start meal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer to this link for more info &lt;a href=&quot;https://vaniquotes.org/wiki/BG_04.24_brahmarpanam_brahma_havir..._cited&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://vaniquotes.org/wiki/BG_04.24_brahmarpanam_brahma_havir..._cited&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="876" LastEditorUserId="876" LastEditDate="2021-06-06T11:16:15.343" LastActivityDate="2021-06-06T11:16:15.343" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3254" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3258" CreationDate="2014-09-29T16:35:35.257" Score="11" ViewCount="382" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are the characters of human influenced by his/her past life? or is it only because of present life? Is it mentioned in any Puranas/Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="868" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-09-29T17:42:09.367" LastActivityDate="2014-10-01T04:05:02.317" Title="Do people inherit characters from their past life?" Tags="|karma|life|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3255" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="940" CreationDate="2014-09-29T17:15:31.717" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;For every yuga, there is the principal process of self-realization:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;satya — meditation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;dvāpara — sacrifice&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;trētā — deity worship&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;kali — chanting of the Holy Name.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Gautama muni switched dvāpara/trētā of this mahāyuga, so trētā was the one with sacrifices and dvāpara was the one with deity worship.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yugāvatāra is the messenger of God who establishes the religious process of the age.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, there is only one yugāvatāra per age, and they are different in different yugas and mahāyugas. &lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupadabooks.com/cc/madhya/20/330&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chaitanya Charitāmrita Madhya ch.20&lt;/a&gt; gives the only logical explanation. However, I still have no information about other yugas. Most likely, Krishna is not the yugāvatāra of the recent dvāpara-yuga, because he appeared at the very end, too late to establish the yuga-dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastActivityDate="2014-09-29T17:15:31.717" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3256" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-30T05:43:20.047" Score="2" ViewCount="1753" Body="&lt;p&gt;We often see people whispering in a deity's ear like in the image below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eo49M.png&quot; alt=&quot;whisper in deity&amp;#39;s ear&quot;&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Normally, when we visit the temple we simply close our eyes and pray or tell our wish to God. But some people do the above action as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it have any special meaning?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T05:47:02.153" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T05:47:02.153" Title="What is the reason for whispering a wish in God's ear?" Tags="|worship|temple|prayer|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3257" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2574" CreationDate="2014-09-30T06:22:29.437" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, None of these trio comparable to each other, they have their own significance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;G&lt;/strong&gt; : Generator ==&gt; Brahma who create this world &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O&lt;/strong&gt; : Operator ==&gt; Vishnu who run the world &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt; : Destroyer ==&gt; Shiva who destruct the world &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and coming to the question &quot;Why Vishnu  worship Shiva?&quot; because Vishnu is only incarnated as human being of Supreme GOD on time to time ( From Satyuga to Kalyuga ) to guide and teach the lesson to live life and worship is also a part of human life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="834" LastEditorUserId="834" LastEditDate="2014-09-30T08:50:15.583" LastActivityDate="2014-09-30T08:50:15.583" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3258" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3254" CreationDate="2014-09-30T08:28:48.940" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Definitely Hindu Dharma believes that the qualities of mind are inherited from past birth (not always the knowledge, which happens in rare cases). Just as past life environment and Jiva's participation effects this life same way present life experiences and participation is accumulating to qualities of mind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are lots of instances in Vedic lore: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुरुषे त्वेवाविस्तरामात्मा स हि प्रज्ञानेन संपन्नतमो विज्ञातं वदति विज्ञातं पश्यति वेद श्वस्तनं वेद लोकालौको मर्त्येनामृतमीप्सतीत्येवं (मीप्सत्येवं) संपन्नः । अथेतरेषां पशूनामशनापिपासे एवाभिविज्ञानं....यथा प्रज्ञानं हि सम्भवः ।” (ऐ. आ. २-३-२)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Atman appears more clearly in human body, than any other beings. Human relates himself to trikaala, intellect guided karmas. His achievements can range from this world, other worlds (janmantara) and an attempt, even with his mortal faculties he aim to become immortal..... ones birth is according to ones collective intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“वर्णा आश्रमाश्च स्वकर्मनिष्ठाः प्रेत्य कर्मफलमनुभूय ततः शेषेण विशिष्टदेशजातिकुलरूपायुःश्रुतवृत्तवित्तसुख मेधसो जन्म प्रतिपद्यन्ते” (गौ. ध. २-२-२९)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If people following their varna dharmas and Ashrama dharmas after giving up their body would enjoy in swargaloka, and then after that they would be born in unique place, jaati, kula, with good appearence, long life, knowledge, good conduct, money, happiness, good intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The famous shlokas from Bhagavadgita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation from Gita Press.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पार्थ नैवेह नामुत्र विनाशस्तस्य विद्यते ।&#xA;  न हि कल्याणकृत् कश्चिद्दुर्गतिं तात गच्छति ॥6-40॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Bhagavan said : Arjuna, there is no fall for&#xA;him either here or hereafter. For, O My beloved,&#xA;none who strives for self-redemption (i.e., God-&#xA;realization) ever meets with evil destiny. (40)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्राप्य पुण्यकृतां लोकानुषित्वा शाश्वतीः समाः ।&#xA;  शुचीनां श्रीमतां गेहे योगभ्रष्टोऽभिजायते ॥6-41॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such a person who has strayed from Yoga,&#xA;obtains the higher worlds, (heaven etc.) to which&#xA;men of meritorious deeds alone are entitled, and&#xA;having resided there for innumerable years, takes&#xA;birth of pious and prosperous parents.&#xA;(41)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथवा योगिनामेव कुले भवति धीमताम् ।&#xA;  एतद्धि दुर्लभतरं लोके जन्म यदीदृशम् ॥6-42॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or, if he is possessed of dispassion, then not&#xA;attaining to those regions he is born in the family&#xA;of enlightened Yogis; but such a birth in this world&#xA;is very difficult to obtain.&#xA;(42)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्र तं बुद्धिसंयोगं लभते पौर्वदेहिकम् ।&#xA;  यतते च ततो भूयः संसिद्धौ कुरुनन्दन ॥6-43॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna, he automatically regains in that birth&#xA;the latencies of even-mindedness of his previous&#xA;birth; and through that he strives harder than ever&#xA;for perfection in the form of God-realization. (43)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A suppositional reasoning for the above would be any prodigy whose achievements can be linked to his past life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="438" LastEditorUserId="438" LastEditDate="2014-10-01T04:05:02.317" LastActivityDate="2014-10-01T04:05:02.317" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3259" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3390" CreationDate="2014-09-30T10:29:29.420" Score="26" ViewCount="193418" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does marriage (love or arranged) really depend on yours and your partner's Kundali and Gunas?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If yes, then what happens if a person gets married without matching Kundalis?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-28T00:49:37.047" LastActivityDate="2018-02-22T12:39:11.040" Title="Does marriage really depend on Kundali and Gunas?" Tags="|belief|marriage|kundali|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3260" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3062" CreationDate="2014-09-30T10:32:01.427" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I have heard, he(shakuni) was disappointed with the wedding and the aftermath of it, as gandhari made herself virtually blind, it didn't look good to shakuni, and he felt that his sister was cheated and his &quot;kul&quot; insulted (marrying his sister to a blind man), and hence he swore to destroy everything that was related to Hastinapur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a shruti, not sure whats written in texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="879" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-30T10:37:07.647" LastActivityDate="2014-09-30T10:37:07.647" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3261" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2931" CreationDate="2014-09-30T10:42:21.027" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Okay here is the shruti....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna was killed by a shephard who was none other than Angada, Bali's sone from treta. While departing Lord Rama asked everyone who helped during war with Ravana, Angada demanded that, though you are the ultimate God, still I want revenge of my fathers' death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama obliged, and told him that he will be reborn as a shephard in Dwapar, and will get a chance to kill him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the story mentioned here happened. Arujuna was with Lord Krishna at that time, and he wanted to remove the arrow, Lord Krishna told arjun that &quot;if he removes this, he will no longer be able to lift Gandiv, as it was a shudra's arrow.&quot; , still Arjuna insisted, and he removed the arrow, and hence he could never lift Gandiv thereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna left earth in the aftermath of it, and Angada had his revenge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;--&#xA;for those asking for reference, if you believe in Hinduism, and all the texts written and said over in our scriptures, I am from one of brahmin clans who are the direct 'descendants of Lord Agni, and thats how we take &quot;Aachamani&quot;, we recite, &quot;Agni Putro-aham&quot; during achmani, so I believe whatever we have been told by our elders is right enough, and needs no reference. We are given compulsory education at home of the vedas and everything related to hinduism, in the form that our elders have heard from their elders till 12 yrs of age along with modern education.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If anyone finds any reference in any texts about above story let me know&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="879" LastActivityDate="2014-09-30T10:42:21.027" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3263" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2399" CreationDate="2014-09-30T12:39:59.730" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;results are predestined, not the ways to reach to the result. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 100s of byroads to reach any destination, now its upon your choice, which road you choose, which ultimately decides your karma, and hence your sufferings and enjoyments on roads thereafter, but ultimately your fate will remain same, just the roads will be different according to your karma in this and previous lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have been told a very nice cycle, that ultimately everything has happened in the past, the same will repeat today, and same will again happen in future. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These souls remain same, their actions are same, their sufferings will remain same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only thing is, choose a right path for you, obviously you are destined to choose that path, but still use all your intellect to choose the path which hurts the least, and chances of taking you to the divinity are most.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="879" LastActivityDate="2014-09-30T12:39:59.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3265" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3239" CreationDate="2014-09-30T12:46:26.747" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, we Hindus pray all our Kuldevta, gramdevta and Ishtdevta during any auspicious activity as they are three gods who are present always around us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;we invite other devi devta's who are nearest to us and are always there for other auspicious occasions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;its like how you can put, as you have a dinner hosted at your house for people from far, would you not like to call your neighbors? especially when they have protected you, your forefathers, and your statesmen all these years?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And regarding one god formula, Isht is one, but we pray different forms of him, according to our desire so that it gives a sense of satisfaction to the inner god in us, and hence we have more energy to fulfill any work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="879" LastActivityDate="2014-09-30T12:46:26.747" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3266" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3237" CreationDate="2014-09-30T12:50:53.507" Score="1" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We do remember everything from our past life till just before we are born.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You can still recollect things from your past life if you concentrate by way of meditation,have strong self confidence and can devote yourself in the divine idea of reincarnation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is a phenomenon called deja vu, thats because you do remember things from your past life, Basically life is all a vicious, never ending cycle. You have done all these in millions of your previous lives, you are doing it today, and you will again do it in your millions of coming lives.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Only souls which have been already mentioned in our scriptures to become free for life and death cycle, are the ones who have actually become free of it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are born in Kaliyuga, means you cannot be free from it, you have to accept this, and just be too good that your next births are a bit nearer to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="879" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-09-30T12:53:39.963" LastActivityDate="2014-09-30T12:53:39.963" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3269" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3209" CreationDate="2014-09-30T13:07:35.893" Score="8" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those whose father is alive should NOT shave.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There isn't anything like this. You are not allowed to have a clean shave (shaving moustache) if your elder brother is alive.  Only brahmins are not allowed to have a clean head, as they need shikha. others can have clean head without any issue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We should not Shave on Thursday(because wealth might go away) and Saturday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its belief that you should not do activities like washing clothes, shaving, using soaps etc on days when someone in your family fasts on that day or has fasted previously. Thursday is common in this context as usually people fast on this day.&#xA;Basically as a sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are people who think that cutting hair on Saturdays help cut down Saade Sati of Shani Dev.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, it doesn't. Actually people don't cut hair on saturdays. Neither do people purchase new things on saturday. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is also believed that one should not wash their hair or clothes on a Thursday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;considered a sacrifice&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is also a myth for not cutting hair or shaving on Tuesday&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same because its considered a sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover anyone calling practices in our religion as myth or superstition is due to the western class of thinking. They made us look like idiots so that we underestimate ourselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note that its scientifically well proven by our archaeologist's &amp;amp; scientist's that we are much older civilizations than them, our thought processes and everything is much more advanced than them and hence our beliefs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Traditions which have been here since millions of years (yes, Ramayana happened 1.7 million yr ago) cannot be defied by some western retards, and we must follow rules and regulations our forefathers have set for us, to have a healthy and prosperous life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="879" LastEditorUserId="2333" LastEditDate="2015-03-30T03:33:35.197" LastActivityDate="2015-03-30T03:33:35.197" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3273" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-09-30T14:54:21.463" Score="3" ViewCount="698" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found wiki article on yaksha prashna &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaksha_Prashna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Where can I find the elaborated explanation on  this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I observe these sort of question &amp;amp; answer sessions, discourses, arguments appear in our epics which apparently seems like essence of dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone please list other such prominent scenarios? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-03T05:06:47.837" LastActivityDate="2016-01-03T05:06:47.837" Title="What is the significance of yaksha prashna? Are there any other such prominent scenarios?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3275" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3241" CreationDate="2014-09-30T15:07:23.667" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sri Vaishnava tradition, there is a specific procedure to be followed before consumption of &lt;em&gt;Prasadam&lt;/em&gt; (meaning cooked rice with ghee). The name of this procedure is &lt;em&gt;Pariseshanam&lt;/em&gt;. Oftentimes the rice and ghee are served before the rest of the meal, so it is common to perform &lt;em&gt;Pariseshanam&lt;/em&gt; first on the &lt;em&gt;Prasadam&lt;/em&gt; before the other foods are served.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The protocol for &lt;em&gt;Pariseshanam&lt;/em&gt; is described &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/mar2000/0110.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wash your feet and palms and perform aachamanam.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After the rice and ghee are served, sprinkle little water on the&#xA;  food while chanting the following mantra, inorder to do nivedhanam to&#xA;  Bhagawan who resides in you as an antharyAmi.  Om antharyAmiNE nama:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In your right palm, have some water, and put it around your leaf(or&#xA;  plate) in clockwise direction and chant the following mantra.  Om&#xA;  bhurbhuvassuva:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do the following nyasam.  prANAgnihotramanthrasya bhrahmA rushi: &#xA;  (touch top of the head)  anushtup cchandha:  (touch the tip of the&#xA;  nose)  vaishvAnarAgnirdevathA  (touch the heart)  prANAgnihotrE&#xA;  viniyOgha: (both the palms together do the    semicircular motion&#xA;  starting from outside towards you)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In your right palm, have some water, and put it around your leaf(or&#xA;  plate) in clockwise direction and chant the following mantra.  sathyam&#xA;  thvarthEna parishinchAmi (during the day)  rutham thvA sathyEna &#xA;  parishinchAmi  (during the night)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then partially lift the top left corner of the leaf or you could&#xA;  touch the plate. Use only the thumb, index finger and middle finger of&#xA;  the left hand.  You can skip this step if perumAL theertham is&#xA;  self-served.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Request for the perumAL theertham to be served.  First, sprinkle&#xA;  the theertham onto the food.  Second, hold the perumal&#xA;  theertham(pAdhyam).  Don't have yet, wait until the theertham is&#xA;  served for all.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chant the following manthra and then have the theertham without&#xA;  noise.  amruthOpastharaNamasi&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then perform the following prANAhoothi.  Use only the thumb, index&#xA;  finger and middle finger of the right hand and take a very little&#xA;  amount of the rice and ghee mixed and swallow it without touching the&#xA;  teeth.  Om prANAya svAhA  (east)  Om apAnAya svAhA  (south)  Om&#xA;  vyAnAya svAhA  (west)  Om udhAnAya svAhA  (north)  Om samAnAya svAhA &#xA;  (center)  Om bhrahmaNE svAhA  (center)  Om bhrahmaNi mama&#xA;  AthmamruthathvAya (center)  SriGovindhAya nama:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, switch the one you are holding with left hand to right hand. &#xA;  Request to serve water to purify your left hand at that corner.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Until you come to this point don't have anything other than what&#xA;  you had during parisEshanam.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have thrupthi bhOjanam.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have what you need to (food, fruits, water etc) before the utthara&#xA;  bhojanam.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;utthara bhojanam.  Request for the perumAL theertham to be served.&#xA;  Hold the perumal theertham(pAdhyam).  Don't have yet, wait until the theertham is served for all. Chant the following manthra and then have half what was served.  amruthApidhAnamasi&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And pour the rest around the leaf while chanting the following. &#xA;  rauravE apuNyanilayE padmarbudha nivAsinAm |  arththinAmudhakam&#xA;  dhaththam akshayyamupathishtathu ||&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then, gargle 16 times, wash your feet and perform the Achmanam&#xA;  twice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purpose of &lt;em&gt;Pariseshanam&lt;/em&gt; is to purify the food before eating it, and offer it to &lt;em&gt;Perumal&lt;/em&gt; before consumption. Note that we are not technically supposed to eat any food that has not been offered, so by offering the food right before consuming it, we ensure that we are not committing a mistake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A careful observer will also note that there is a lot of overlap in the mantras between &lt;em&gt;Pariseshanam&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Bhojyasanam&lt;/em&gt;, which is the procedure of offering food during daily &lt;em&gt;Aradhanam&lt;/em&gt;. This makes sense as both are forms of offering food to &lt;em&gt;Perumal&lt;/em&gt; albeit in different contexts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T01:03:29.640" LastActivityDate="2016-03-21T01:03:29.640" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3277" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3237" CreationDate="2014-09-30T15:52:58.433" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Gita (4.5) Krishna says to Arjuna 'Many a birth have I passed through, O Arjuna, and so have you. I know them all, but you know them not, O scorcher of foes.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Memories are a part of the mind, the mind dissolves with the gross body upon death. What is carried from one life to another are 'impressions' on the jiva. If you do something with all your heart and do something repeatedly every day, then it will make a deep impression that will carry forward to and manifest in your next life. If you teach yourself to love God with all your heart it will carry forward as an impression to your next life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said he remembered all his past lives. Patanjali says in the Yoga Aphorisms that a man who attains samadhi is able to know all his past lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2023-10-11T03:55:08.883" LastActivityDate="2023-10-11T03:55:08.883" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3279" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3225" CreationDate="2014-09-30T16:50:32.800" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The keynote to Hinduism is 'Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti - That which exists is One, men call it by various names'. All religions are true. Ramakrishna Parmahamsa said All clocks tell time, but all show a different time and none are exactly right. So are all religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are we to argue as to what is true or not true in a particular religion? Have you seen God? Has He told you directly? Religions are maps only, they are not God. See God then you can ask Him directly what is true and not true. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says in the Atharva Veda 'Ekarh Jyotir Bahudha Bibhati - The One Light appears in diverse forms'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the Mahimnah Stotra -'As the different streams having their sources in different places all minngle their waters in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All religions belong to God, God does not belong to any religions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda has said that he accepts all religious beliefs, the only belief he does not accept is when a person says my religion alone is true, all other religions are false.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-09-30T16:50:32.800" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3280" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3282" CreationDate="2014-10-01T05:04:01.133" Score="41" ViewCount="25789" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gandhari had a boon from Lord Shiva to have 100 sons. Now, it is impossible for a woman to give birth to 100 sons in a single lifetime. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how were all 100 Kauravas born together?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-07-23T16:02:56.547" LastActivityDate="2023-07-23T16:02:56.547" Title="How were all 100 Kauravas born together?" Tags="|mahabharata|kauravas|gandhari|pregnancy|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3281" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-01T05:33:52.847" Score="6" ViewCount="4832" Body="&lt;p&gt;Book 12 Hymn 1 of the Atharvana Veda is called the Bhumi Sukta, and it's dedicated to Bhumidevi the goddess of the Earth.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av12001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what one of the verses says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;10&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;She whom the Asvins measured out, o'er whom the foot of&#xA;  Vishnu strode,&#xA;  Whom Indra, Lord of Power and Might, freed from all foemen&#xA;  for himself,&#xA;  May Earth pour out her milk for us, a mother unto me her son.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the &quot;foot of Vishnu&quot; is clearly a reference to Vishnu's incarnation as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vamana the dwarf&lt;/a&gt;, where one of his steps was on the earth.  And I think the reference to Indra and the foemen is probably an allusion to the story of Indra's defeat of the demon &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vritra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vritrasura&lt;/a&gt;, which is Indra's most celebrated deed in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what is the story of the Ashwini Kumaras &quot;measur[ing] out&quot; the Earth?  For those who don't know, the Ashwini Kumaras are the twin sons of Surya the Sun god and his wife Sanjana, who had taken the form of horses at the time; see the passages quoted in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/545/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  They are the gods of the morning and evening star, as well as gods of medicine.  People today mostly know them for their role in the Mahabharata as the fathers of the Pandavas Nakula and Sahadeva.  And in the Ramayana, they were the fathers of the Vanaras Mainda and Dvivida (who ironically fought their brother Sahadeva, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2100/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, are there any other scriptures which describe the Ashwini Kumaras measuring out the Earth?  And what does it even mean to measure out the Earth?  Does it mean finding out how big it is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-11-25T10:17:54.360" Title="What is the story of the Ashwini Kumaras measuring the Earth?" Tags="|vedas|atharva-veda|bhumi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3282" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3280" CreationDate="2014-10-01T06:02:24.827" Score="41" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of the Kauravas' birth is told in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata.  First of all, the reason that Gandhari had a hundred sons was as a result of boon she had gotten from the sage Vyasa as a reward for the hospitality she had once shown him.  Later she became pregnant, but the pregnancy lasted two years, and she got jealous that Pandu's wife Kunti had already delivered, so she got impatient and tried to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01116.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;terminate the pregnancy&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day Gandhari entertained with respectful attention the great Dwaipayana who came to her abode, exhausted with hunger and fatigue. Gratified with Gandhari's hospitality, the Rishi gave her the boon she asked for, viz., that she should have a century of sons each equal unto her lord in strength and accomplishments. Some time after Gandhari conceived and she bore the burden in her womb for two long years without being delivered. And she was greatly afflicted at this. It was then that she heard that Kunti had brought forth a son whose splendour was like unto the morning sun. Impatient of the period of gestation which had prolonged so long, and deprived of reason by grief, she struck her womb with great violence without the knowledge of her husband. And thereupon came out of her womb, after two years' growth, a hard mass of flesh like unto an iron ball.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was Vyasa, the one who had given her the boon in the first place, that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01116.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;made this mass of flesh into a hundred sons&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gandhari, without endeavouring to disguise her feelings, addressed the Rishi and said, 'Having heard that Kunti had brought forth a son like unto Surya in splendour, I struck in grief at my womb. Thou hadst, O Rishi, granted me the boon that I should have a hundred sons, but here is only a ball of flesh for those hundred sons!' Vyasa then said, 'Daughter of Suvala, it is even so. But my words can never be futile. I have not spoken an untruth even in jest. I need not speak of other occasions. Let a hundred pots full of clarified butter be brought instantly, and let them be placed at a concealed spot. In the meantime, let cool water be sprinkled over this ball of flesh.' ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That ball of flesh then, sprinkled over with water, became, in time, divided into a hundred and one parts, each about the size of the thumb. These were then put into those pots full of clarified butter that had been placed at a concealed spot and were watched with care. The illustrious Vyasa then said unto the daughter of Suvala that she should open the covers of the pots after full two years....  &lt;strong&gt;Then in time, king Duryodhana was born from among those pieces of the ball of flesh that had been deposited in those pots.... Then, O king, within a month, were born a full hundred sons unto Dhritarashtra and a daughter also in excess of this hundred.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That daughter was named Duhsala, by the way, and she married Jayadratha, who blocked the Pandavas from rescuing Arjuna's son Abhimanyu during the Mahabharata war.  And Dhritashtra also had one other son, Yuyutsu, with a Vaishya woman.  Yuyutsu was the only surviving son of Dhritashtra after the war, and he ultimately became a regent for Arjuna's grandson Parikshit when the Pandavas retired to the Himalayas and installed Parikshit on the throne.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is interesting to note, by the way, that when Gandhari received all this from Vyasa, she was actually being helped by her own father-in-law, since Vyasa was Dhritashtra's biological father, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3061/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: More detail about Duhsala's birth is given in the next chapter of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata.  When the mass of flash was being divided into 100 pieces, Gandhari suddenly wished that she could have a daughter in addition to the 100 sons, so Vyasa &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01117.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;accommodated her request&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All this while that illustrious and best of Rishis, Krishna-Dwaipayana himself was dividing the ball of flesh; and counting a full hundred of the parts, he said unto the daughter of Suvala, 'Here are thy hundred sons. I did not speak aught unto thee that was false. Here, however, is one part in excess of the hundred, intended for giving thee a daughter's son. This part shall develop into an amiable and fortunate daughter, as thou hast desired' Then that great ascetic brought another pot full of clarified butter, and put the part intended for a daughter into it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So that extra daughter was Jayadratha's wife Duhsala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-09T13:13:37.267" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3284" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2533" CreationDate="2014-10-01T10:41:34.133" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jyotirlings are place where the Shiva appeared when he had created the jyotirlings initially.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the mythology suggest there was a argument between the lord Vishnu and lord Brahma over the supremacy. At that time Lord Shiva had created three endless light beams cutting across the three world and asked both the gods to enter in these light beams and one who will find the end would be supreme. Both Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma enter the light. But none could find the end. Lord Vishnu accepts the defeat and Lord Brahma lied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva cursed Lord Brahma that he will not have any followers, And He blessed Lord Vishnu that  He will be Prayed till the end of the world. Those three beams of light are original Jyotirlings and the place where the Lord Shiva appeared on the earth during that travel are called jyotirlings there were supposedly 64 jyotirling out of which 12 are very Pious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more information read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/04-12/features2427.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article published by ISKCON.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="863" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-09T02:22:28.020" LastActivityDate="2016-12-09T02:22:28.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3285" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3291" CreationDate="2014-10-01T11:09:31.460" Score="8" ViewCount="1189" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we see, each of the god in Hinduism has some quality. For example, we say that lord Ganesha is a god of Wisdom, lord Shiva is for destruction, Hanuman for strength and so on.. They signify these traits in some or the other way...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the question arises that why each of the god has some special quality about them and why they can't be one? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If lord Brahma is the creator then why he cannot destruct or maintain instead of Shiva and Vishnu doing those tasks? So the question is why not a single god but various gods with particular significance (quality) about them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To give more examples :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Shiva - Destroyer&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Brahma - Creator&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Vishnu - Maintainer&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Hanuman - Strength&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Ganesha - Wisdom / Wealth(Riddhi Siddhi) / Knowledge&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Goddess Saraswati - Knowledge&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Goddess Laxmi - Wealth&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kubera - Wealth&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yama - Death&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kamadeva - Human Love&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as we see, each of the god is specific to one work, no common trait, they are unique in their own ways and they are not recognized for any other thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, no one will say that lord Shiva is a god of Wisdom / Wealth. Also am sure if lord Brahma can create then he can certainly destroy but no, we have a separate god for that task so why is that so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-10-01T12:21:36.293" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T08:18:22.307" Title="Each God has a specific trait in Hinduism" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3286" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3241" CreationDate="2014-10-01T11:17:29.703" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;We do have a &quot;bhojan mantra&quot; which we should chant before eating food:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;ओम् यन्तु नदयोः वर्षन्तु पर्जंया सुपिप्पला ओषधयोः भवन्तुः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अन्नवताम् ओदनवताम् मामिक्षवताम् एशाम् राजा भूयासन् ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ओदन् मुत्ब्रुवते परमेष्ठीवा एषः यदोदनः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परमामेवैनम् श्रियंगमयति ।।1।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om Yantu Nadyo Varshantu Parjnyah Supipala Aosadhyao Bhavantu ।  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  AnnVata ModanVata MaMikshvataam ! eshaam Raja Bhuyasam ।।  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Odanmudbruvate parmesthi va esah yadodanah Parma maivainam Sryam Gamyati!!&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Meaning: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  May the rivers flow and the clouds give rain. May the plants yield good harvest. May I&#xA;  become the king of all those having plenty of food, boiled rice, curd and milk. Food is&#xA;  praiseworthy. This food is verily Brahma the creator. This will lead to the greatest prosperity&#xA;  in the form of health and wealth.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;मा भ्राता भ्रातरं द्विक्षन्‌, मा स्वसारमुत स्वसा । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सम्यञ्च: सव्रता भूत्वा वाचं वदत भद्रया ।।2।। (अथर्ववेद 3.30.3)&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; Ma Bhrata bhrataram duyakshan Ma Swasaarmut swasa !  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  samyach savrta bhutwa Vancha Vadat Bhadrayaa !!  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bramharpanam bramha Havibramhagno bramhana hutam !  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bramhmaiv ten Gantavyam bramhkarm samadhina !!  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;Meaning: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Let no brother hate his brother. Let no sister hate his sister. With proper courteous behaviour and bound by a vow, always speak pleasant and auspicious words. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;ॐ सहनाववतु सहनौ भुनक्तु सहवीर्यं करवावहै | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तेजस्विना वधितमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ॐ शान्ति शान्ति शान्तिः || &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om Sah Naavvatu !    sah Nao Bhunaktu !    sah virya karva vahe !&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tejosvina vadhitamastu Ma Vidvisavahe !!   Shanti ! Shanti ! Shanti&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Meaning: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  May it (the knowledge of Brahman) protect us&#xA;  both. May it make us both enjoy. May we&#xA;  together acquire the capacity for knowledge. May&#xA;  our study be brilliant. May we not hate each other.&#xA;  Om ! Peace ! Peace ! Peace !&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="833" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T01:42:12.920" LastActivityDate="2016-03-21T01:42:12.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3287" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3285" CreationDate="2014-10-01T13:34:26.027" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people actually believe that all of these &lt;em&gt;Devas&lt;/em&gt; simply represent various forms or aspects of a single central God. This single God is commonly interpreted as &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Trimurti&lt;/em&gt;, or &lt;em&gt;MahaVishnu&lt;/em&gt; depending on who you ask.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2016/what-made-indra-the-king-of-svargalok/2017#2017&quot;&gt;The other common interpretation&lt;/a&gt; is that these &lt;em&gt;Devas&lt;/em&gt; are not truly immortal dieties, but rather posts which may be occupied by &lt;em&gt;jivatmas&lt;/em&gt; with extremely high &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;. In other words, the work of running the universe has been smoothly delegated amongst all of these &lt;em&gt;Devas&lt;/em&gt;. The reason that they don't double up on the work is simply because it's not their job. Brahma does not destroy anything because even though its within his ability, its his job to create and destruction on his part would interfere with Shiva's work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That being said, to some degree there actually is a bit of overlap in qualities (i.e. not all of these traits are unique to the &lt;em&gt;Deva&lt;/em&gt; that describes them). For instance, both &lt;em&gt;Saraswati&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Hayagriva&lt;/em&gt; are worshiped as deities of knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, it's worth considering the fact that many of the more frequently worshiped &lt;em&gt;Devas&lt;/em&gt; actually do take on many forms, to represent several qualities. For example, as @Kedarnath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3285/each-god-has-a-specific-trait-in-hinduism#comment6006_3285&quot;&gt;pointed out&lt;/a&gt;, Rudra and Natarajan both represent very different traits, but they are both forms of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="419" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-10-02T05:25:57.017" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3288" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3285" CreationDate="2014-10-01T16:06:43.550" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let us first check what Hindu scriptures say about the Divine. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXXX says, &quot;Know that this entire&#xA;  universe is under the control of &lt;strong&gt;one divine Being&lt;/strong&gt;. The Veda that is in&#xA;  the soul.......regards the unity of various creatures. When a living&#xA;  creature realizes this unity in consequence of true knowledge, he is&#xA;  then said to attain to Brahman&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the status of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra/Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Vana Parva Section CCLXX says,&quot; The Supreme Spirit hath&#xA;  three condition, In the form of Brahma, he is the Creator, and in the&#xA;  form of Vishnu he is the Preserver, and in his form as Rudra, he is&#xA;  the Destroyer of the Universe&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra/Shiva are simply three names and forms of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can extend this even further and say that all the other Devatas are simply different names and forms of Brahman, i.e., different aspects of Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-10-01T16:06:43.550" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3289" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3241" CreationDate="2014-10-02T04:09:45.950" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rigvedic brahmins follow a specific procedure of remembering the essence of life - &lt;strong&gt;Prana&lt;/strong&gt; before eating. I am not sure if some others also follow the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prana is energy, vitality, power. Prana is the foundation and essence&#xA;  of all life; the energy and vitality that permeates the entire&#xA;  Universe. Prana flows in everything that exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogaindailylife.org/esystem/yoga/en/160300/the-spiritual-background/prana/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Prana&lt;/a&gt; is divided into ten main functions. So in this procedure, first a small portion of food is taken, divided into five parts and dedicated to the five upa-pranas - Naga, Kurma, Devadatta, Krikala and Dhananjaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Nagaye Namah, Om Kurmaye Namah, Om Devadattaye Namah, Om Krikalaye Namah,&#xA;  Om Dhananjayaye Namah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then achaman is done and some food is taken with remembering five pranas - Prana, Apana, Udana, Vyana and Samana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Pranaye svaha, Om Apanaye svaha, Om Udanaye svaha, Om Vyanaye svaha,&#xA;  Om Samanaye svaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is advisable not to speak to anyone and not to leave the place while having food. When food is finished, one more achaman is done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="886" LastActivityDate="2014-10-02T04:09:45.950" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3290" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3238" CreationDate="2014-10-02T04:28:36.213" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna says (Gita 17.16) that silence is one of the austerities of the mind. If practiced without desire for the fruit it is of the nature of sattva (Gita 17.18).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How a silence is broken and under what circumstances is up to you. &quot;No evil, My son, befalls a man who does good.&quot; - (Gita 6.40). I have known several sadhus in my life that would have a day of silence every week. One carried a small board and wrote on it when necessary to speak. Another would just try hand motions. Such austerities are hard to do if one is living in the world and has to interact with family or business, but not impossible. Perhaps on a holy day where one's duties are lessened and one can spend more time alone in contemplation.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-10-02T04:28:36.213" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3291" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3285" CreationDate="2014-10-02T04:36:57.360" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Parmahamsa gave the example of a man who is a judge. When he goes into the courtroom he is seen by the people present as a judge. When he comes home his wife sees a husband. His children sees him as a father. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is all the same person, the different perceptions are in the eye of the beholder. God is one. &quot;Ekarh jyotir bahudha bibhati - The one Light appears in diverse forms&quot; (Atharva Veda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-02T09:31:50.077" LastActivityDate="2014-10-02T09:31:50.077" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3292" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3214" CreationDate="2014-10-02T05:06:19.080" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vivekananda quoting Narada says that Bhakti is &quot;intense love of God&quot;. He further states &quot;The repetition of names, the rituals, the forms, and the symbols, all these various things are for the purification of the soul. The greatest purifier among all such things, a purifier without which no one can enter the regions of this higher devotion (Para-Bhakti), is renunciation...This is religion - renunciation.&quot; (C.W., V3, p 70)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When one has attained Para-Bhakti, all thought of this world falls off, one whole mind and soul are devoted to God only. Outer manifestations of rituals may or may not fall off. Vivekananda once asked Pavhari Baba (whom he considered to have attained the highest states of Para-Bhakti) why he performed ritualistic Karmas and ritualistic worship of Shri Raghunathji. Pavhari Baba replied &quot;'Why do you take for granted that everybody makes Karma for their own good? Cannot one perform Karma for others?'&quot; (C.W. V4, p.293)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Religion lies not in rituals, religion lies in realization. Realization is gained through renunciation.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-10-02T05:06:19.080" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3293" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-02T06:07:53.860" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-10-02T06:07:53.860" LastActivityDate="2014-10-02T06:07:53.860" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3294" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-02T06:07:53.860" Score="0" Body="The Atharvaveda (Sanskrit: अथर्ववेद) is a sacred text of Hinduism and one of the four Vedas, " OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="5307" LastEditDate="2016-04-16T04:29:49.550" LastActivityDate="2016-04-16T04:29:49.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3295" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-02T07:22:07.727" Score="30" ViewCount="36589" Body="&lt;p&gt;After leaving Vrindavan for killing Kansa in Mathura, why didn't Krishna ever go back to Vrindavan, where he was brought up, again? Why didn't he ever go to meet Sri Radha again?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="886" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-06-03T16:36:15.413" LastActivityDate="2023-06-03T16:36:15.413" Title="Why didn't Krishna ever visit Vrindavan after leaving?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|brahma-vaivarta-purana|vrindavana|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3296" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-02T13:57:48.257" Score="12" ViewCount="74249" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have planted a Bilva (Bel) plant in my lawn whose leaves I use for Shiva pooja. Some of the priests said that Bel plant should not be planted in the house. Instead, it should be migrated to a temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-02T14:25:57.923" LastActivityDate="2016-11-20T17:11:00.923" Title="Should I plant Bilva in my home?" Tags="|shiva|worship|plants|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3297" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3296" CreationDate="2014-10-02T17:51:51.443" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism the Bilva tree is sacred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It can be planted anywhere. Bilva leaves and fruits have very high medicinal value especially to cure stomach related problems. However, while planting Bilva tree it may be kept in mind that there is danger from falling fruits which are very hard and heavy and can cause injury.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: this &lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110922025431AA4LlDU&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;, which has a detailed explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="886" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-08T07:47:36.097" LastActivityDate="2014-10-08T07:47:36.097" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3298" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-02T19:09:54.437" Score="21" ViewCount="4762" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Mahabharata, Puranas and many sources, it is assumed that Pandavas and Kauravas were more than 80 years old when Kurukshetra battle was fought. A detailed discussion on the calculation of ages from different sources can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.quora.com/Mahabharata/What-would-have-been-the-age-of-pandavas-and-other-characters-at-the-time-of-the-kurukshetra-battle&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But how can one fight a deadly war at this age with perfection as shown by the warriors from both the sides? I believe that anything super natural in Mahabharata is written in symbolic way and if we research more, the technical and actual incident can be extracted. So, what exactly does this age group symbolize when octogenarian heroes can fight such a historical battle, as per Hindu Scriptures or from Hinduism pov?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="886" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-05-29T18:09:25.140" LastActivityDate="2021-09-21T05:15:28.707" Title="How could octogenarian heroes fight in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3307" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2566" CreationDate="2014-10-03T19:16:03.230" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Think about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To go from point A to point B, you just need a vehicle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;one can take car, bike, boat , plane , helicopter, bus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;all are vehicles but YOU are the one who chose to specify car, bus etc rather than &quot;vehicle&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;coming to technicality, siva is FORMLESS as mahadeva he is acetic, as mahaesvara he is lord of uma, as aghora he is dispeller of darkness, as vamadeva he is instructor to whole world. so not truely vairagi..but nevertheless adheres to it in certain aspects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana : formless ,Vishnu sansaric: as vamana avatar a sanyasi, as kapila deva a sanyasi as matsya and kurma avatar no sansaric as parasurama no sansara..only as vishnu, krishna , rama ,narasimha, varaha etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;clearly netiher title si applicable to them entirely why are you worrying about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;worship shiva on monday, vishnu on wednesday and friday, skanda on tuesday, devi on friday , hanuman on sat, grahas on sunday. Everyday ganesha.. so simple, no need to go into details just be happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;both are one and same but people chose to look at them differently. just like your friend call your birth name in home and your mother call you pet name at home. Does that make you 2 different person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="894" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T13:40:17.687" LastActivityDate="2014-10-09T13:40:17.687" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3314" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-05T14:07:35.217" Score="8" ViewCount="40932" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Temples at some places there are saints or Sadhus or Babas who say they have seen GOD, there are some people who say  that GOD has entered their body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I have seen one incident myself : when the Baba say that GOD has&#xA;entered their  body, they (Babas) wobble their body and head. Some say that Goddess has arrived and She is performing these acts (&lt;em&gt;Mata ayi hai&lt;/em&gt;). Is this possible that some GOD can enter in human body&#xA;and annotate messages OR is this just a fake? Because this is happening&#xA;from long time in Hinduism and can be seen even today in&#xA;villages. What is truth here?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The disease of &lt;strong&gt;Chechak&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;Small pox&lt;/strong&gt; I guess) is also said to be related to &lt;strong&gt;Devi Mata&lt;/strong&gt;. Is their any story or incident regarding it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="754" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-10T02:03:34.867" LastActivityDate="2016-04-10T02:03:34.867" Title="Inviting the GOD inside human body" Tags="|belief|gods|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3316" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3730" CreationDate="2014-10-06T05:58:32.843" Score="3" ViewCount="4448" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that there are 10s of reasons as a consequence of which &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Karna&lt;/a&gt; met his death, what are they? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is he eligible for heaven and liberty, as quoted &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna#Ascension_to_svarga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2021-05-22T20:01:32.560" Title="What are reasons for Karna's death?" Tags="|mahabharata|death|sin|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3317" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-06T06:05:25.190" Score="3" ViewCount="204" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can anyone start &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aparigraha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; practice? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it a lifetime process or can we practice it for few weeks or months like deeksha?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does it have any limitations/exceptions?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;To what extent does it permit to depend on others for livelihood? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-06T06:07:31.480" LastActivityDate="2020-05-29T12:03:45.420" Title="What is aparigraha vrat?" Tags="|sadhana|vrata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3318" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-06T06:17:28.110" Score="4" ViewCount="543" Body="&lt;p&gt;If I know there is only one God and all are his forms, Can I worship(at temples) one avatar of His' with mantras of His another avatar/form (among Shiva, Shakti, Ganapathi, Skanda, Surya, Vishnu and Agni)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-08T04:55:55.547" LastActivityDate="2016-06-10T07:44:19.203" Title="Can we use one god's mantra to worship others?" Tags="|worship|avatars|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3319" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-06T06:26:01.577" Score="6" ViewCount="227" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that the size of an idol should not be more than a thumb size of the family's head. If there is not a special puja/worship, nivedya/food offerings should be offered to the murthi/idol daily, is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why are shila/rock murthi not prominently used in inhouse worship? Likewise, can someone tell what is the best among murthi made of panchaloha, gold, silver, rock, sand and picture/illusion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="12976" LastEditDate="2020-07-14T02:50:50.823" LastActivityDate="2020-07-14T02:50:50.823" Title="What are the murthis allowed in one's puja mandir?" Tags="|worship|puja|idols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3320" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-06T06:37:09.840" Score="4" ViewCount="1615" Body="&lt;p&gt;AFAIK, Rig veda says, every star is related to a God and hence everyday is special day(festival) to worship a specific god, what are those stars and to which god does they relate to? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-10-06T07:27:26.853" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T09:07:03.350" Title="What is relation between Star and God?" Tags="|worship|gods|festivals|nakshatra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3321" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-06T06:57:18.923" Score="22" ViewCount="6614" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, Rama is hesistant to kill the Rakshasi (demoness) Thataka because she's a woman, but the sage Vishwamitra &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga25/bala_25_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells him&lt;/a&gt; that even Indra king of the gods has fought women when they were engaged in evil:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Compassion regarding the elimination of a female is ungermane, oh, best one among men, since a prince has to effectuate it intending the welfare of four categories of society....  To the nominee who bears the burden of kingdom this is the age-old duty, and hence oh, Rama, the legatee of Kakutstha, eliminate this infamy, as goodness is inevident in her, isn't it?  Oh, Rama, the protector of people, &lt;strong&gt;we have heard that Indra once eliminated Manthara, the daughter of Virochana, when she wished to annihilate earth, haven't we?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, &quot;we&quot; may have heard about this, but I haven't!  So my question is, what is the story of Manthara daughter of Virochana?  For those who don't know, Virochana was a famous demon killed by Indra.  He was the son of Prahlada and the father of Mahabali.  So that would make Manthara Mahabali's sister.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, the Puranas often focus on male genealogy, so they're not much help here; the Vishnu Purana just &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp056.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Prahláda had a son named Virochana; whose son was Bali&quot; and similarly the Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/6/18/16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Prahlāda had one son, Virocana, whose wife gave birth to Bali Mahārāja.&quot;  However, later on in the Ramayana there is some indication that Virochana had a daughter; &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/7VeI&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana describes the wife of Ravana's brother Kumbhakarna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[T]hat master - Lanka's lord - going (back) to the city married his brothers.  And Ravana married the &lt;strong&gt;grand-daughter of Virochana (on the maternal side)&lt;/strong&gt; named Vajrajwala to Kumbhakarna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So assuming Virochana had only one daughter, that would make Manthara Kumbhakarna's mother-in-law!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, what is the story of Manthara's attempt to &quot;destroy Earth&quot;, to the point where Indra needed to kill her?  By the way, Virochana's daughter Manthara is not to be confused with Virochana's uncle Mandara, whom I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/71/what-is-the-story-of-hiranyakashipus-son-mandara&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  (And she is different from Kaikeyi's evil servant Manthara, although &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga25/balaitrans25.htm#Verse20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this translator&lt;/a&gt; claims that Kaikeyi's servant Manthara was named after Virochana's daughter.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T15:38:25.040" Title="What is the story of Mahabali's sister's attempt to destroy the world?" Tags="|ramayana|indra|asuras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3322" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3320" CreationDate="2014-10-06T08:10:28.250" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 27 Star ( Nakshatra ). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Ashvinī&#xA;Bharanī&#xA;Kṛttikā&#xA;Rohinī&#xA;Mrigashīra&#xA;Ārdrā&#xA;Punarvasu&#xA;Pushya&#xA;Ashlesha (nakshatra)&#xA;Maghā&#xA;Pūrva Phalgunī (Pubbha)&#xA;Uttara Phalgunī (Uttara)&#xA;Hasta&#xA;Chitrā&#xA;Svātī&#xA;Vishākhā&#xA;Anurādhā&#xA;Jyeshtha&#xA;Mūla&#xA;Pūrva Ashādhā&#xA;Uttara Ashādhā&#xA;Shravana&#xA;Dhanistha&#xA;Shatabhisha&#xA;Pūrva Bhādrapadā&#xA;Uttara Bhādrapadā&#xA;Revatī&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can say all these are देवता (devta) but not god (bhagwan).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To know more &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakshatra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nakshatra&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="900" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-06T09:34:52.017" LastActivityDate="2014-10-06T09:34:52.017" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3323" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3314" CreationDate="2014-10-06T09:43:49.490" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't want to comment on fake people who do these for money or fame or for livelihood. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With my understanding I can say.. Based on one's  previous birth samskara (derived good characters from previous birth) one may attain a state with minimal effort compared to others. People cant stay in that state for much time, their karma brings them down to their actual stage. This is the stage where more people makes a false step and this is when a Sadguru is required to guide them and help them reach higher stages. In this journey one may be blessed with asthasiddis and nava nidhis, one should not fall as a prey but treat them as a milestone or a checkpoint and has to proceed further for their spiritual enlightenment. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only strong note I say is a true sadhak/devotee won't reveal his state because the state itself comes with abundant energy, peace and happiness, it requires no second person intervention. These stages cannot be explained but can only be experienced. Sadhak should not reveal his state because it may bring pride &amp;amp; ego factors. If its revealed to others, people may come to him to get blessed with worldly pleasures which again will throw sadhak to life cycle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2014-10-06T09:43:49.490" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3324" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2902" CreationDate="2014-10-06T10:10:50.327" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As said by Sai in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2902/what-is-significance-of-a-samadhi-place#comment5059_2902&quot;&gt;comment&lt;/a&gt;, its powerful place. Any rituals/sadhana done near samadhi yields several multiples of actual benefit of the act. Its best place to practice meditation &amp;amp; yoga. Service to samadhi may be considered as service to Guru. Guru is form of God, his adobe is kailsh/vikunta hence its equal important place to worship like other kshetras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2014-10-06T10:40:01.860" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3325" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3318" CreationDate="2014-10-06T15:11:53.273" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well even though it is a fact that God is one singular power(or shall we say, &quot;energy&quot;) there are different form to it. Just like different kinds of energy, these various forms are invoked using different mantras. (A human cannot gain energy from fire or water directly. He needs to eat).&#xA;Every mantra is made up of Bijāksharas and each of them correspond to different forms of what we call, God.&#xA;Unlike our western counterparts who hold the viewpoint that God is always good, even god can have relatively positive or negative forms.&#xA;That is why we have Kali/Jyeshta/Alakshmi(goddess of misfortune) and Kāli which is a non-peaceful form of Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, it is better to stick on to using a mantra meant for worshipping one form to be used exclusively for that purpose.&#xA;Wrong pronunciation of mantras(to be specific, Bijāksharas) may lead to the invocation of some powerful forms requiring special rituals to be kept at check. If not, the aura of the deity may bring upon mishaps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="901" LastActivityDate="2014-10-06T15:11:53.273" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3328" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-08T01:20:56.663" Score="4" ViewCount="1765" Body="&lt;p&gt;In context to this question about &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2840/who-was-lord-hayagriva&quot;&gt;Lord Hayagriva&lt;/a&gt;, considered as the avatara of Lord Vishnu, I have some clarification to do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hayagriva, I think is not a Lord Vishnu's Avatar, but a Vishnu Himself but in different form (as &lt;em&gt;Lord Hayagriva is not mentioned in the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashavatara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dashavatar List&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Incident mentioned Lord Hayagriva getting vedas, is similar to Lord Vishnu getting vedas back from Rakshasa Hayagriva in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Matsya Avatar&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hayagriva, as mentioned in the referenced question's answer, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;means Horse Neck&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, then why the Rakshasa got that name?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Or there is no Rakshasa named as Hayagriva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the link which is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/philosophy/associates/demons/vishnu/ajnana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;main source&lt;/a&gt; of creating confusion, please clarify. What I think is we are not interpreting the scriptures rightfully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-12-29T11:41:06.510" Title="Hayagriva : The Rakshasa and The Lord" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|puranas|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-02-20T17:38:29.963" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3329" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-08T03:39:14.387" Score="9" ViewCount="1610" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that women should not work during Lunar Eclipse or &lt;em&gt;Chandra Grahan&lt;/em&gt;. It is said that doing so effects the physical health of the baby.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any mention of this in the scriptures, or any specific reason behind this ritual?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="202" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-10-11T04:59:13.137" LastActivityDate="2017-08-23T05:43:05.127" Title="Why is Chandra Grahan (Lunar eclipse) considered unsafe for pregnant women in Hinduism?" Tags="|rituals|women|eclipse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3333" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3314" CreationDate="2014-10-08T18:52:05.160" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Human is in itself Divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;|| Tat Tvam Asi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A body is like some field, that is &lt;em&gt;&quot;Kshetra&quot;&lt;/em&gt;. And one who resides in the body is &lt;em&gt;&quot;Kshetragya&quot;&lt;/em&gt;. And that Himself, i.e &lt;em&gt;&quot;JeevaAtma&quot;&lt;/em&gt; which is God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Space and Time&lt;/strong&gt; are illusions around us. Another great illusion is the &lt;strong&gt;Free Will.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like in M-theory that sees the worlds as a 3-D &quot;membrane&quot; moving in higher dimensional cosmos. There could be many coexisting membrane, may be just side by side, but one totally unaware of the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, there are &lt;em&gt;&quot;Lokas&quot;&lt;/em&gt; all around us, which we can not see or perceive. When a &lt;em&gt;&quot;Jeevatma&quot;&lt;/em&gt; leaves a body, and its attachments, it moves through parallel universes. A spacial dimensional unimaginable, but in few fractions of a second.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What we call a 'Ghost' could be &quot;anybody&quot; from a different dimensions, or a soul in &lt;em&gt;&quot;PretYoni&quot;&lt;/em&gt;, because of its &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; or left attachments. So that the soul is unable to move on to other dimension and still dwelling in subtle form on earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So God never has to enter a human body because He's already there. People do say &lt;em&gt;&quot;Devi&quot;&lt;/em&gt; entering into a body in exaggeration or superstition. A female Goddess is considered a consort of God. So if &lt;strong&gt;God is the Universal Consciousnes&lt;/strong&gt;s, his &lt;strong&gt;Consort is the all pervading Energy&lt;/strong&gt; OF the material world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastActivityDate="2014-10-08T18:52:05.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3336" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2979" CreationDate="2014-10-09T01:31:33.627" Score="-3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/h_divorce.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;From hinduwebsite:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Divorce rules for Women:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In ancient times, women in Hindu society had limited freedom. Women were bought and sold, abducted, &#xA;                  forcibly married and forced into slavery or prostitution. There &#xA;                  was nothing like the modern concept of a divorce or a legal &#xA;                  separation in Hindu society. Once a woman left her parent's &#xA;                  home, she was completely at the mercy of her husband or his &#xA;                  parents and if he found her incompatible or unattractive and &#xA;                  abandoned her, there was little that she could do. She had no &#xA;                  right to divorce, no right to remarry and no right to leave &#xA;                  the house and approach any one without her husband's permission. &#xA;                  Part of the problem was that Manu, &#xA;                  the famous law maker, viewed women with suspicion and would &#xA;                  not trust them with freedom. He believed that they needed to &#xA;                  be kept under the protection and watch of men all the time, &#xA;                  so that they would not have the opportunity to cause the confusion &#xA;                  of castes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;TL;DR: Divorce for women, no such thing. Women were not people, they were possessions.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Divorce rules for Men:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In case of men the situation was different. Men had many &#xA;                  rights and privileges, which went with their status as upholders &#xA;                  of Dharma, and which they exercised in the name of religion, &#xA;                  family or expediency. The suffering of Sita in the epic&#xA;  Ramayana, &#xA;                  after she was abandoned by her husband in the name of Dharma, &#xA;                  is a case point. Lord Rama, a paragon of virtue, duty and sense &#xA;                  of morality, abandoned his wife, whom he loved so dearly, on &#xA;                  the mere allegations of possible infidelity on her part. He &#xA;                  had no proof, but as an upholder of Dharma, he reacted promptly &#xA;                  and banished her into the forests, ignoring the fact that she &#xA;                  was pregnant and innocent.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;TL;DR: Men owned 'their' woman. They could throw her away, leave her etc. Remarrying, having multiple wives etc was also not an issue.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="545" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T06:39:52.477" LastActivityDate="2014-10-09T06:39:52.477" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3338" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2246" CreationDate="2014-10-09T05:25:52.173" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yeah Jesus did visited Jagannath Temple.&lt;/strong&gt; The ancient text in the temple mentioned a foreigner to be a pupil of Hindu Gurus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is to be noted here is that, In India his  Hindu masters initiated Jesus into yoga and the highest spiritual life, giving him the spiritual name “Isha” (from 'Ishvar') which is a descriptive title often applied to Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Zohar (2:188a-b)&lt;/strong&gt; a compilation of ancient Jewish mystical traditions and the major text of the Jewish Kabbalah, contains the following incident regarding the knowledge of an illumined rabbi concerning the religion of India and the Vedic religious rite known as the sandhya, which is an offering of prayers at dawn and sunset for enlightenment:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Rabbi Yose and Rabbi Hiyya were walking on the road. While they were&#xA;  walking, night fell; they sat down. While they were sitting, morning&#xA;  began to shine; they rose and walked on. Rabbi Hiyya said, ‘See, the&#xA;  face of the East, how it shines! Now all the children of the East [in&#xA;  India], who dwell in the mountains of light [the Himalayas], are&#xA;  bowing down to this light, which shines on behalf of the sun before it&#xA;  comes forth, and they are worshipping it.…Now you might say: ‘This&#xA;  worship is in vain!’ but since ancient, primordial days they have&#xA;  discovered wisdom through it.”  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Swami Nirmalananda Giri (see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ocoy.org/original-christianity/the-christ-of-india/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“In the nineteen-fifties, the former head of the Govardhan Math, and&#xA;  head of the entire monastic Swami Order of Shankaracharya, Jagadguru&#xA;  Bharat Krishna Tirtha, claimed that he had discovered&#xA;  “incontrovertible historical evidence” that Jesus had lived in the&#xA;  Govardhan Math as well as in other places of India. &lt;strong&gt;He was writing a&#xA;  book on the subject, but died before it could be finished.&#xA;  Unfortunately the fate of his manuscript and research is presently&#xA;  unknown.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, it is generally supposed that at the end of his ministry in Israel Jesus ascended into heaven. But Saint Matthew and Saint John, the two Evangelists that were eye-witnesses of his departure, do not even mention such a thing, for they knew that &lt;strong&gt;he returned to India after departing from them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Now, about some people in Jesus' period.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Apollonius of Tyna&lt;/strong&gt; (born c. 4 AD), the great saint of the Greek world, was a teacher, a great &lt;strong&gt;ascetic&lt;/strong&gt;, a &lt;strong&gt;celebate&lt;/strong&gt;, a &lt;strong&gt;vegetarian&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;These practices were UNCOMMON among Greeks who practiced Pederast Homosexuality at the time.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;But on the other hand such practices were not only VERY common in India, but were a way of living of Hindus.&lt;/strong&gt; A greek sophist of the Roman imperial period, Philostratus has devoted two and a half of the eight books of his &lt;em&gt;Life of Apollonius&lt;/em&gt; (1.19–3.58) to the description of a &lt;strong&gt;journey of his hero to India.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;So its clear that traveling to India for things like medical treatment, education (Pythagoras traveled to India for treatment of his Epilepsy, thats when he came across the advanced ideas of Geometry taught in Indian 'Gurukuls'. Whatever that has been attributed to him is actually Indian knowledge.)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Because of Apollonius' Yogic skills&lt;/strong&gt;, Apuleius ranked him with Moses and Zoroaster. Lampridius tells us that Alexander Severus included Apollonius with Abraham, and Orpheus amongst his &lt;strong&gt;household Gods&lt;/strong&gt;. For this very fact, he became a hated name among the Christians (here, the followers of Jesus and NOT the Church). In their struggle against Christianity, Pagan philosophers often invoked his name. Hierocles, proconsul of Bithynia under Diocletian (c. 305) cited Apollonius' miracles to show that miracles were not the peculiar property of Christianity. &lt;strong&gt;Orthodox Christians could not believe that there could be such a great ethical and divine character outside the Christian fold, apparently OUT OF JEALOUSY.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when it was so common and popular at the time, for the Europeans to travel to India for enlightenment, its not far fetched to believe Jesus must have got his wisdom from Hindu Gurus in India like others at the time. In fact, &lt;strong&gt;the Yogic miracles he showed were COMMON ATTRIBUTES of ascetics in ancient India.&lt;/strong&gt; I mean even today there are ascetics in Himalayas who have great Yogic power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jesus was a GREAT ascetic Yogi, trained in India.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastEditorUserId="20" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T04:12:35.973" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T04:12:35.973" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3342" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-09T09:24:03.030" Score="11" ViewCount="5873" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Ravana was dying in the battlefield after getting hit by Lord Rama, Lord Rama sent Lakshmana to Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana and Lakshmana had some conversation. What was it all about?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-10-17T15:05:35.360" LastActivityDate="2021-10-17T15:05:35.360" Title="Did Rama really send Lakshmana to receive wisdom from Ravana after his fall in war?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ravana|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3343" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2986" CreationDate="2014-10-09T12:02:45.027" Score="3" Body="&lt;h2&gt;I once had a short Out-of-body Experience.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So was I dead in the moments!?&lt;/strong&gt; No! Because my attachments with my body were still not broken. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Hindu concept &lt;em&gt;Mrityu&lt;/em&gt; is NOT just when the physical body stops working. Its a also &lt;strong&gt;includes&lt;/strong&gt; when the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jeevatma&lt;/em&gt; moves on&lt;/strong&gt;, breaking all its bondages, to its next stop in any other &lt;em&gt;Loka&lt;/em&gt;, that could be again on this earth, based on its accumulated &lt;em&gt;Krama&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hindu &lt;em&gt;Mrityu&lt;/em&gt; = Body dies + &lt;em&gt;Jeevatma&lt;/em&gt; moves on, breaking all its attachments.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So they are the attachments that binds a &lt;em&gt;Jeevatma&lt;/em&gt; with the body. Sages who have power &quot;&lt;em&gt;Ichha Mrityu&lt;/em&gt;&quot; leave the body as well as attachments at the same time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According the GREAT sage Manu, the last two stage in a CORRECT Hindu Life are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;VaanPrastha Aashram&lt;/em&gt;: &lt;strong&gt;To break the attachments of Family, Society and Past&lt;/strong&gt;, by moving to a jungle away form loved ones, but with just wife.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sanyaas Aashram&lt;/em&gt;: &lt;strong&gt;To break the attachments from the body itself&lt;/strong&gt;, by becoming a wandering ascetic.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as time passed on, humans degraded and the attachments with body grew stronger, so much that in &lt;em&gt;Kaliyuga&lt;/em&gt;, sometimes even the Last ashram becomes insufficient to release the soul free. (Usually, people don't even follow these &lt;em&gt;Aashrams&lt;/em&gt;.) And a Hindu family was made obligated for &lt;em&gt;PINDA DAAN&lt;/em&gt; and other &lt;em&gt;Sanskaars&lt;/em&gt; of its dead, for their &lt;em&gt;shanti&lt;/em&gt;. In some cases, even after &lt;em&gt;Pinda Daan&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;Pitra-Dosha&lt;/em&gt; may remain attached to a person from birth to birth, causing him recurring losses, in his every life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(In fact, of all the adversaries a person may face in Life, are MOSTLY due to unsatisfied soul of &lt;em&gt;Pitra&lt;/em&gt; or ancestors.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now question is, &lt;strong&gt;what happens in &lt;em&gt;Akaal Mrityu&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt; That is when the time of &lt;em&gt;Mrityu&lt;/em&gt; i.e end of bondage, hasn't come but still the body dies due to some accident.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Akaal Mrityu&lt;/em&gt; is also due to &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;, when its written that the soul has to wander in &lt;em&gt;BhootYoni&lt;/em&gt;. That is between two worlds, or its two &quot;stops&quot;. Due to INTENSE attachments even after death rituals, the soul may not gets &quot;shanti&quot; in that case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Chamatkaars&quot;&lt;/em&gt; are only for a expecting souls. &lt;strong&gt;But, in fact everything is ALREADY written&lt;/strong&gt;, i.e when is the body gonna die and when are its attachments gonna break.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastEditorUserId="910" LastEditDate="2014-10-09T12:09:54.203" LastActivityDate="2014-10-09T12:09:54.203" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3344" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-09T12:34:20.017" Score="16" ViewCount="3434" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the heaven-hell concept, pious go to &lt;em&gt;Swarga&lt;/em&gt; (heaven) and sinners go to &lt;em&gt;Naraka&lt;/em&gt; (hell). However, if one has good/bad karma, the rebirth concept says that he/she will enjoy/suffer in their next births. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can both these theories be true when they contradict each other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="914" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:56:41.513" LastActivityDate="2021-03-24T13:41:20.323" Title="How can heaven-hell concept and rebirth concept both be true?" Tags="|karma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3346" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3353" CreationDate="2014-10-09T13:57:05.050" Score="3" ViewCount="619" Body="&lt;p&gt;Could someone explain to me:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the role of yoga &amp;amp; meditation in Hinduism - what is its purpose and relation to God? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And how is Hinduism's yoga/meditation practice and purpose different from Buddhist practice and purpose?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="545" LastEditorUserId="545" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T02:15:26.737" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T09:55:59.510" Title="Role of meditation and yoga in Hinduism &amp; differences from Buddhist meditative practices" Tags="|yoga|buddhism|meditation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3347" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3344" CreationDate="2014-10-09T14:21:16.953" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You said, &quot;sinners go to Naraka (Hell)&quot;, yeah true. But what happened to the &quot;sinner&quot; there?&lt;/strong&gt; Scriptures say, they get tormented in ways that can't be imagined. Who is the Sinner then? Note that the sinner's body is dead now. Whats left is the soul, and that ONLY should pass on to other &lt;em&gt;Lokas&lt;/em&gt; e.g Heaven or Hell. Soul = &lt;em&gt;&quot;Atma&quot;&lt;/em&gt; + a &lt;em&gt;Subtle body&lt;/em&gt; i.e &lt;em&gt;Jeevatma.&lt;/em&gt; Now &lt;strong&gt;Can &lt;em&gt;Jeevatma&lt;/em&gt; alone be tormented or pampered?&lt;/strong&gt; NO!! Let us see why.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jeeva&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; are different. &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; is eternally blissful, with trait like &lt;em&gt;Satta, Chitta, Ananda.&lt;/em&gt; Nothing can harm &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; in ANY way. &lt;strong&gt;Its has (or feels) no Pain, no sorrow, has no memory, or seeks happiness either.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jiva&lt;/em&gt; on the other hand is physical self that takes birth, grows, FEELS (pain or pleasure), and at last dies. And while it exists, it usually accumulates &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;, creates memories or say expressions on the psychic, which may all goes into its &lt;em&gt;Subtle body&lt;/em&gt;, that is mentioned above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So the &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; which is covered with accumulated &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; (and sometimes memory too), is called &lt;em&gt;Jeevatma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; Actually, &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; is a state of being of &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; itself. Precisely, kind of its Unbalanced state. &lt;strong&gt;So &quot;Jeevatma&quot; can also NOT be harmed or pampered in ANYWAY!!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what's the need of Hell or Heaven when you can't harm a sinner-soul, or pamper a saint-soul in return, when it passes into the &lt;em&gt;Loka&lt;/em&gt;!!???&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here comes Rebirth into play.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Re-Birth is nothing by mapping of an &lt;em&gt;Jeevatma&lt;/em&gt; with a &lt;em&gt;Jeeva&lt;/em&gt;, in that respective &lt;em&gt;Loka&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; Be it &lt;em&gt;NarakLoka&lt;/em&gt; (Hell), &lt;em&gt;SwargaLoka&lt;/em&gt; (Heaven) or &lt;em&gt;MrityuLoka&lt;/em&gt; (Earth). So when a &lt;em&gt;Jeevatma&lt;/em&gt; takes rebirth, it becomes ready to get what it deserves, because ONLY THROUGH some &quot;assigned&quot; body, a &lt;em&gt;Jeevatma&lt;/em&gt; can receive the fruits of its accumulated &lt;em&gt;Karma.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And So again, TO GET THE FRUITS OF HIS DEED ONE &lt;strong&gt;HAS TO&lt;/strong&gt; TAKE A RE-BIRTH, whether in Hell, or Heaven or here on Earth. That is why its said that &lt;strong&gt;a soul is always SENTENCED to Life, rather than &quot;Gifted&quot; a Life.&lt;/strong&gt; And to be free is to, break this rebirth cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There the two concepts DO NOT contradict, rather go hand in hand actually. THIS IS THE GREATNESS OF THE WISDOM OF HINDUISM.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastEditorUserId="910" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T04:22:03.570" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T04:22:03.570" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3349" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11397" CreationDate="2014-10-09T15:05:09.457" Score="13" ViewCount="15890" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, Rama is hesistant to kill the Rakshasi (demoness) Thataka because she's a woman, but the sage Vishwamitra &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga25/bala_25_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells him&lt;/a&gt; that even the gods have fought women when they were engaged in evil:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Compassion regarding the elimination of a female is ungermane, oh, best one among men, since a prince has to effectuate it intending the welfare of four categories of society.... To the nominee who bears the burden of kingdom this is the age-old duty, and hence oh, Rama, the legatee of Kakutstha, eliminate this infamy, as goodness is inevident in her, isn't it? Oh, Rama, the protector of people, we have heard that Indra once eliminated Manthara, the daughter of Virochana, when she wished to annihilate earth, haven't we?  And Rama, &lt;strong&gt;once Vishnu wiped out even the wife of sage Bhrigu and sage Shukracarya's mother when she wished the world to become one without a governing factor, namely Indra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I already asked about Indra killing Manthara &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3321/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but now I'm interested in the story of Vishnu killing Sukracharya's mother.  For those who don't know, Sukracharya is the guru of the Asuras (demons), god of the planet Venus, and son of the sage Bhrigu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only account I could find of Vishnu killing Sukracharya's mother is from the Fourth Skanda of the Devi Bhagavatam.  In this account, Sukracharya goes to pray to Shiva in order to acquire a mantra to help the Asuras defeat the gods.  The gods take advantage of Sukracharya's absence to launch an attack on the Asuras.  Since the Asuras can't turn to their guru for help, they instead turn to Sukracharya's mother, who knocks the gods unconscious with her magical powers.  Sukracharya's mother then threatens to &amp;quot;devour&amp;quot; Indra, so Indra &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk04ch11.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;asks Vishnu to kill her&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing the Daityas thus attacked, the mother was furiously irritated and told them she would make all of them overpowered by sleep by her tapas strength, clarified intellectual force.  So saying she sent the Goddess of sleep who at once overpowered the Gods and made them all lie down on the grounds senseless. Indra with the other Devas lay there dumb, and miserable.  On seeing Indra thus stupefied by sleep, the Bhagavân Visnu told Indra to enter into His body. He would then carry him to another place and he will be better.  Indra entered into the Visnu’s body; and, under His protection, he became free from sleep and fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On seeing Indra thus sheltered by Visnu and fearless, the mother of Kâvya spoke: &amp;quot;O Indra! I will devour you with Visnu today by my Tapas force. All the Devas will presently see all this and my extraordinary power.&amp;quot;  ... Indra, on hearing the Devas cry aloud, told Visnu, &amp;quot;O Madhusûdana! I am more bewildered in particular than yourself.  O Mâdhava! No need of any further consideration. Before this wretch, inflated with pride by her tapasyâ, burns us, better cause her death as early as possible.&amp;quot;  &lt;strong&gt;When thus requested by Indra who was very much perplexed, Bhagavân Visnu quickly remembered his Sudars’ana disc...  The disc, the ever obedient weapon of Visnu appeared instantly at his remembrance; and Visnu, becoming angry as prompted by Indra held the disc in His hand, and, hurling it off on the S’ukrâ’s mother, severed off her head quickly.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story ends with Sukracharya's father Bhrigu bringing his wife back to life and cursing Vishnu to be born repeatedly on earth in various incarnations (avataras).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi-Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; is widely regarded as not being an authentic Hindu scripture; it's purportedly an Upapurana (minor Purana), but it's not mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upapurana#The_Kurma_Purana_list&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;canonical lists&lt;/a&gt; of Upapuranas given in the Mahapuranas.  So my question is, are there any other scriptures that tell the story of Vishnu killing Sukracharya's mother?  The story took place sufficiently long ago that it's alluded to by Vishwamitra in the Ramayana, so is it possible that it's mentioned in the Vedas?  Is the story mentioned in Puranas other than the Devi Bhagavatam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-15T06:09:16.707" Title="What is the story of Vishnu killing sage Bhrighu's wife Kavyamata?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|shukracharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3351" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-09T15:09:57.423" Score="0" ViewCount="116" Body="&lt;p&gt;In our dream we keep hearing sounds which are coming from outside environment , those sounds seamlessly blend into dream. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ex: if the alarm goes off, in dreams it blends and we dog barking continuously. Some kind of dangers also peek in and warn us - like getting hit by car, drowning etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How is possible?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do dreams travel in waves?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are warnings based on Karma?&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Some of our fore fathers are warning? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="731" LastEditorUserId="731" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T12:37:24.560" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T12:37:24.560" Title="How real world get translated into dreams" Tags="|karma|dream|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2014-10-10T10:29:30.470" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3352" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-09T15:16:03.223" Score="5" ViewCount="260" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do we need to take Guru Updesha to chant Panchakshari, Dwadashakshari to get complete phalam of chanting?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="731" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T09:38:34.973" LastActivityDate="2015-02-11T15:01:54.673" Title="Chanting hymns require guru?" Tags="|gods|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3353" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3346" CreationDate="2014-10-09T15:19:41.177" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am following roughly the book 'The Serpent Power' by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodruffe). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason for us not seeing anything beyond the material world is because our physical mind which has neural correlates with the brain is incapable of seeing beyond the material world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu scriptures say that there is another mind, a spiritual mind or pure mind, which is indeed capable of seeing beyond the material world. This spiritual mind is connected with Chakras or energy centers located inside the sushumna channel in our spine. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are broadly two methods of developing this spiritual mind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One method is to take help from Divine Beings. Bhakti Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Raja Yoga (partially), Patanjali's Yoga (partially) are some of the methods that take help of Divine Beings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other method is to decline any Divine help and do it with one's own effort. Jnana Yoga and Buddhism claim to follow the second method. In reality many Jnana Yogis and Buddhists do take help of Divine Beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T01:50:24.477" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T01:50:24.477" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3354" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3342" CreationDate="2014-10-09T16:01:16.087" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lakshmana did not have a conversation with Ravana on his death bed; there was no time to have a such a conversation, since Ravana was killed as soon as he was struck by Rama's Brahmastra (which I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2945/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;), as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddha_108_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Making [the Brahmastra] sacred by a special formula as per the procedure specified in scriptures, Rama who was endowed with an extraordinary strength then fixed that arrow which was the foremost among the three worlds, capable of removing the fear of Ikshwaku dynasty, taking away the glory of the enemies and bestowing joy to one's own self on his bow.  While that excellent arrow was being fixed by Rama, all the beings were frightened and the earth trembled. That enraged Rama, stretching his bow well and with an attentive mind, hurled that arrow which can tear off the vitals, towards Ravana. That arrow, which was inviolable as a thunderbolt hurled by the arms of Indra and irresistible as Yama the lord of Death, fell upon Ravana's chest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That arrow, released with great speed and which was capable of destroying the body, tore off the heart of that evil-minded Ravana. That arrow, which was capable of causing death to the body, after taking away the life of Ravana and having been anointed with blood, penetrated the earth.&#xA;Smeared with blood on having killed Ravana and thereby accomplishing its mission, that arrow re-entered its own quiver (of Rama) silently. From the hands of the slain Ravana, who was being separated from his life, fell his bow with its arrows (fitted to it), at the same time coinciding indeed with his life-breath.&#xA;Having lost his life, that king of demons for his part, who was endowed with terrible swiftness and invested with great splendour, fell down from the chariot to the ground, like Vritra the demon when the latter was struck down by the thunderbolt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the story you heard is probably from some later version, perhaps Tulasidas' Ramcharitmanas or something else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T14:38:32.300" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3355" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3344" CreationDate="2014-10-09T18:19:22.320" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE : The answer is base on knowledge which I understood from the scriptures, I can also be wrong.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Starting from Geeta :&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sin and Good both are like fetter ( बेडियाँ ), one of Iron and one of Gold, you need to cut them both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning :&lt;/strong&gt; Sins and Goods are all needed to be accumulated and reacted upon, they can never simply vanish away or cut each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Life-Death cycle :&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;In the whole lifespan the atman has to go through &lt;em&gt;84lac Yonis&lt;/em&gt;, these yonis are define throught their Karmas, and the lifespan of Atman end when it becomes Parmatman. Its Karmas are cut through these 84lac Yonis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How its Done :&lt;/strong&gt; I will go with an example&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Case 1 :&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; A person died, went with his deeds up, his left pocket has 20k of bad karmas and right has 50k of good karmas, the difference is 30k good karmas. The 30k good karmas are awarded with life in heaven. In heaven he lives like a Devta and alloted under the 33 categories &lt;em&gt;(Many confuse 33 categories of Devta to 33 crore Devta)&lt;/em&gt; of Devtas, till those 30k good karmas are spend up. After that, that atman has to take birth again in human form with 20k bad as well as 20k good karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;case 2 :&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; This person dies in another life and this time gains 10k good karmas and 70k bad karmas, the difference being 60k bad karmas, for these bad karmas he is awarded with life in downgraded yonis ie. Dog, Fish even Trees, and sometime if his bad deeds were so dangerous( ie. raping, murdering ,butchering etc. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/363/why-do-we-need-yamalokam?lq=1&quot;&gt;more explained here&lt;/a&gt;) not to be overcomed by the downgraded yonis is send to Hell for cutting its bad karmas. After that, the person is left with 10k of bad as well as 10k of good karmas, and takes birth in human form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of equal bad and good kamras he had in both cases, he will go thruogh same amount of pain and happiness all over his life as is said &lt;em&gt;'Happiness and Sorrow come in equal amount over the life.'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This might have given some idea, but one confusion, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;what about atman, when body is dead, atman feels nothing, its just a part of the supreme soul&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The body is made of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3073/what-are-five-layers-pancha-kosha-of-human&quot;&gt;Five Layers&lt;/a&gt;, whenever a human die it leaves its Fifth layer which is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'Anamaya Kosh'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, made of materialistic entities like &lt;em&gt;bones and flesh&lt;/em&gt;. The remaining four layers still remain and contain the Atman and these four layered body goes through the course of cutting its karmas, to cut the bad karma it either takes &lt;em&gt;Anamaya Kosh&lt;/em&gt; of animals and plants or send directly to hell, and to cut the good deeds send to heaven. These four layers have &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'Manomaya Kosh'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, which remembers everything, therefore an Atman remembers all its previous lives and even the torments in the hell. The atman is the first layer which is covered by the four Koshas or Layers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think this might help explaining the duality of Heaven-Hell and Reincarnation of the same Atman, as I stated above I can also be wrong, &lt;em&gt;the question is a very broad one and different people will have different point of view in it&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2014-10-09T18:19:22.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3356" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3363" CreationDate="2014-10-09T18:55:15.733" Score="8" ViewCount="5372" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do only Indian squirrels have stripes on their back, whereas squirrels from other countries don't have stripes on their body? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this because of Rama? What is the story/belief behind this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T06:33:52.813" LastActivityDate="2016-08-15T17:59:29.160" Title="Why do only Indian squirrels have stripes on them?" Tags="|belief|ramayana|animals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3358" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-10T01:33:35.917" Score="6" ViewCount="1742" Body="&lt;p&gt;Turmeric is used in many religious occasions and ceremonies in Hinduism in various ways. It is especially used during marriages in many ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Uf4gG.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Turmeric rice&quot;&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lj9SC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Thaali&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Turmeric is also used to make Ganesha and other gods/goddess &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cLviM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;turmeric Ganesh&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OTNmu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Turmeric god&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that turmeric has many health benefits and medicinal uses but don't know the religious importance for turmeric in Hinduism. Can anyone explain how the tradition of using turmeric in various religious ceremonies started and its religious importance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="819" LastActivityDate="2020-09-20T10:53:47.303" Title="Significance of turmeric in Hindusim" Tags="|gods|tradition|marriage|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3359" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2229" CreationDate="2014-10-10T02:47:32.757" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't believe scriptures support that Shiva was a drug user. If someone else can show otherwise, I'll accept that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe in a lot of ways modern &quot;popular&quot; Hinduism is corrupted from what it's supposed to be - with unnecessary rituals and superstitions overshadowing the true practices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Concerning drugs, I believe these are &quot;pop&quot; Sadhus. I've never come across literature that depicts famous hermits and monks to have used drugs. Rather, they were more focussed on cleansing the mind of all forms of delusions (maya) and the body of all forms of desire (Kama). Drugs are definitely Kama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some excerpts from a talk Osho gave on &lt;a href=&quot;http://o-meditation.com/2012/06/12/the-attraction-for-drugs-is-spiritual-osho/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;drug use and meditation&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I am against drugs because they can become addictive and they can prevent your spiritual growth. You can start thinking that you have achieved what you were seeking, and your hands are empty. You are just dreaming.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;it can give you a really positive ecstatic experience, although it will be hallucinatory. But if you don’t know the real, it looks almost the real. Even a man like Aldous Huxley, one of the most intelligent men of this generation, thought that through LSD he has achieved the same experience as Gautam Buddha, Kabir, Ramakrishna.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;If you don’t know the real, naturally you cannot call it hallucinatory. It is so real. Huxley had no experience of meditation. He has really no right to say such a thing. You can say such a thing only when you have experienced both, that it is the same experience as Kabir.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kabir never used any drug. His experience was purely of meditation. On what grounds Huxley can say it is the same experience? He does not know the experience of Kabir. I can understand that he has been through a tremendously beautiful experience, but that experience disappears as the effect of the LSD goes out of the system.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;But Kabir’s experience remains twenty-four hours, day in, day out, his whole life. Once it happens, it is always there.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This is a simple criterion. But he was so much fascinated by the experience, and he corrupted almost a whole generation. They thought that if a man like Huxley says that LSD can give you samadhi, then what is the need of going into so much trouble for meditation with no guarantee whether you will be able to succeed or not?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;he can compare that the first one {drug ecstacy}  was just a dream, and this {meditation} is a reality, and the first one was just cheating myself through chemistry, ‘And the first one was not helping me in my spiritual growth. It was in fact preventing the growth, keeping me addicted and retarded’. The second one goes on growing, and now he starts gathering courage to explore more.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://o-meditation.com/2012/06/12/the-attraction-for-drugs-is-spiritual-osho/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Full speech is here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Osho said was drugs can give &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;evidence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; of a spritual experience, and if used rightly can convince a newbie that the spritual experience exists and is worth pursuing. With pure meditation it can take decades before someone starts experiencing sprituality. However drugs are only simulation. They give you quick rewards. Depending on them for quick shortcut &quot;ecstacies&quot; can get you hooked on them and lead you to believe you are really having a spritual experience, and lead you to astray from actually pursuing meditative lifestyle, which would seem more and more harder and less rewarding. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="545" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T02:47:32.757" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3360" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-10T04:46:56.487" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lakshmana was the younger brother of Shri Rama and was also considered to be an avatara of Vishnu’s serpent Adishesha. He was born to Queen Sumitra and King Dasharatha of the Solar Ikshvaku dynasty. By virtue of being born as Sumitra’s son, he was referred to as Saumitri. The devout brother that he was, Lakshmana willingly elects to accompany and serve Shri Rama and Devi Sita in their exile to the forest for 14 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20129" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-01-13T04:35:53.457" LastActivityDate="2021-01-13T04:35:53.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3361" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-10T04:46:56.487" Score="0" Body="Lakshmana (Sanskrit: लक्ष्मण) is a character in Ramayana who was the brother and close companion of Rama and also considered to be an avatara of Vishnu's serpent Adishesha." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-10T06:32:14.820" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T06:32:14.820" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3362" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="97" CreationDate="2014-10-10T05:58:04.277" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Core belief of Hinduism is always to be &lt;em&gt;Sattvik&lt;/em&gt;, respect balance. Be least supportive to the increasing &quot;entropy&quot; around.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Supposes the current generation of ALL Humans get vanished, by some magic, from the face of earth. What will happen? A most amazing thing. &lt;strong&gt;Whole world would eventually reach the state of equilibrium.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yeah! &lt;strong&gt;its us, Humans who are the &lt;em&gt;&quot;Kshetragya&quot;&lt;/em&gt; of this &lt;em&gt;Kshetra&lt;/em&gt; of Mother Earth. Exactly like, &lt;em&gt;YamaRaj&lt;/em&gt; is of &lt;em&gt;Yamloka&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Indra&lt;/em&gt; is of &lt;em&gt;SwargaLoka&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; Its ONLY us that can maintain or disturb the balance of the earthly system. Its ONLY us who will face the consequences too. AND this our ancient sages knew VERY WELL! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So whats the point here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its this. &lt;strong&gt;When by removing the chaotic West-influenced society on Earth, Earth's Harmony can be retained, what if we CHOOSE to live on earth, BUT DISTURBING IT TO THE LEAST!!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For pleasure of tongue, a man-turned animal kills another animal, changes happen. It happens too, when he kills a bacteria, or even a Tree or Plant. A STUPID would say, &quot;Killing is killing, what if its of an animal, insect, bacteria or a plant&quot;. &lt;strong&gt;But actually the &quot;changes&quot; caused by these killing are different and can be arranged from least to most.&lt;/strong&gt; These &quot;changes&quot; are NOT just on physical paradigm, but also on psychic, emotional etc. level too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Being a veggie you contribute LEAST in increasing the &quot;Entropy&quot; of the earthly system.&lt;/strong&gt; And this has NOTHING to do with what you offer to your deity. &lt;strong&gt;Its for your own good, not for God, that is BOTH in the Killer and the Killed.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T05:58:04.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3363" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3356" CreationDate="2014-10-10T07:39:19.223" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There's a legend often associated with Ramayana. This episode is not there in &lt;em&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Kambaramayanam, Adhyatmaramyana or Ramacharitamanas&lt;/em&gt;. But I know it has been current for a very very long time. I heard it from my  grandmother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Several popular modern versions of Ramayana in English and our own languages include it.There is a reference to it in a single verse in &lt;em&gt;Naalaayira Divyaprabandham&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Tondaradippodi Azhvaar&lt;/em&gt;, who lived in the 8th century AD says in the 27th verse of his &lt;em&gt;Tirumaalai&lt;/em&gt;:'I am not like the squirrel which tried to help those monkeys which were lifting and moving hills, by itself rolling over in the sea to provide a small block to the flow of the waves. My heart has the strength of trees, but is treacherous. I am unable to use it in the service of Sri Ranganatha. I am just wasting myself!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Okay so the story goes like this,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/N64tC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prior to the war, the vanara-sena consisting of monkeys and bears were busy building the bridge to Lanka. The construction was heavy-duty work. Some monkeys noticed a squirrel running back and forth in the construction site. They got curious and tried to observe what the squirrel was up to. The little brown squirrel dipped in the sea and rolled on the sands till its body was fully covered with sand. It then ran to the site of construction and shook the sand off its body and ran back to get the next ‘load’ of sand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another version of the story says that it carried little pebbles in the mouth. In any case, the impact of its work was minimal; but the little squirrel went about the routine in full earnest. The monkeys found it amusing and started to mock the squirrel and the bears soon joined them in the act. The squirrel was quite upset in being teased and ran straight to Rama to complain. It had to stand tall on its little feet and shout to make itself heard to Rama – quite tall compared to the rodent. Rama heard the squirrel and his heart melted seeing tears in its eyes. He acknowledged the contribution of the squirrel, however small it was, in his efforts to bring Sita back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama ran his fingers on the back of the animal as a gesture of acknowledgement. That movement of Rama’s fingers earned the squirrel its stripes, which are carried even today by the three striped palm squirrels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://indiantales.in/?p=211&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;IndianTales&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T07:39:19.223" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3364" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-10T07:54:57.000" Score="6" ViewCount="477" Body="&lt;p&gt;What does Hindu scriptures say about soul (&lt;em&gt;atman&lt;/em&gt;) and it's innate characteristics? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can a &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; have ambitions/emotions/fear/love ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How will these characteristics be reflected in his incarnations?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In what way does a &lt;em&gt;atman&lt;/em&gt; overcome such ambitions and prepare for &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2021-05-12T13:21:52.847" Title="Reincarnation and past life ambitions and emotions" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|moksha|atma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3365" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3346" CreationDate="2014-10-10T09:55:59.510" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yoga is the union of the subject and the object. Meditation is the ways, the means, to attain that. Through meditation we learn to control the mind. We are not aware of the spiritual world because since our birth our minds have been constantly bombarded by sensory experiences. To see the bottom of a pool of water, the water must be still, there cannot be any waves on the surface of the water. If you teach your mind to stop accepting sensual stimuli, then the spiritual world will opne up by itself. Swami Vivekananda said &quot;Control the mind, cut of the senses, then you are a Yogi; after that, all the rest will come....&quot; Our minds need to be stilled so that we can perceive what is below the surface. Vivekananda also said &quot; This going outwards must be stopped [the mind looking only towards the senses]. This is what is meant by turning the eyes inwards, and then alone the glory of the Lord within will be seen.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vivekananda's book &quot;Raja Yoga&quot; also has his translation of Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no philosophical difference between Mahayana Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta. Buddha said - find out for yourself. Meditate. Find out yourself if there is a difference by meditation, not argumentation.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T09:55:59.510" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3366" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3351" CreationDate="2014-10-10T10:19:33.337" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Upanishads, there are 4 states of consciousness. The waking, dream, dreamless, and the Turiya.The first 3 states are what are experienced by us as living beings, the 4th state (Turiya) is the consciousness of Brahman (Mandukyopanishad 1-7).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mandukya Upanishad (II.1) - &quot;The wise declare the falsity of all objects in a dream because of the location of the objects inside (the body) and because of (their) contraction.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-10-10T10:19:33.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3367" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3259" CreationDate="2014-10-10T11:21:57.607" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said and stated, in our scriptures and Vedas, that persons with larger number match of &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; in the &lt;em&gt;Kundali&lt;/em&gt; results in a fruitful marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; are not matching in the &lt;em&gt;Kundali&lt;/em&gt;, then it means there is lower chance of compatibility between the two persons. Thus, lesser chance of marriage survival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nobody starts to love someone after seeing his/her &lt;em&gt;Kundali&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="918" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-10-17T09:19:19.353" LastActivityDate="2014-10-17T09:19:19.353" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3369" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-10T16:48:54.233" Score="13" ViewCount="4802" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Puranas, and already in the Atharvaveda, there are fourteen worlds, seven higher ones (vyahrtis) and seven lower ones (patalas), viz. bhu, bhuvas, svar, mahas, janas, tapas, and satya above and atala, vitala, sutala, rasaataala, talatala, mahaatala, patala and naraka below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loka#Hindu_tradition&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are those lokas meant for? As we already have a place called earth and it's possible to do all duties that are performed in those lokas on earth as well, just like we are doing now?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are those lokas cosmic (which humans can never see) or physical (which we can see, but not with the available technology)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T02:21:32.270" LastActivityDate="2016-03-19T12:06:24.833" Title="What is the reason behind lokas in Hinduism?" Tags="|belief|worship|history|philosophy|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3370" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-10T18:14:47.283" Score="3" ViewCount="740" Body="&lt;p&gt;While looking up &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vikarma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, I'm not finding any specifics. Most translations I read say &quot;sinful&quot; or &quot;forbidden&quot; activities, but that's not very specific. It doesn't really say what these &quot;sinful&quot; or &quot;forbidden&quot; activities are. One even says &quot;work without sense&quot;; what does that mean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone clear this up for me, and explain in detail what is &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vikarma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; and what kind of actions build it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-26T03:35:06.703" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T06:02:27.023" Title="What is vikarma specifically?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3372" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3370" CreationDate="2014-10-11T03:56:52.007" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let me tell you first WHY Hindu texts are not THAT &quot;specific&quot; like the Holy Books of Abhrahamic religions.&lt;/strong&gt; Why they usually just tell about the the different spiritual states, and leave up to the seeker, to trace &lt;strong&gt;HIS OWN&lt;/strong&gt; path from one state to other (and eventually to the Absolute). Actually this is common in every aspect of Hinduism. And &lt;strong&gt;the reason is because there are ALWAYS innumerable paths between any two states,&lt;/strong&gt; to be specific. Similarly, there are innumerable paths leading to self-realization, of the &lt;em&gt;God in self&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyway now lets jump to answering your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The phrase &quot;work without sense&quot;, means &lt;strong&gt;you should not &quot;react&quot; to the temptations and desires, forced upon you by your sense organs.&lt;/strong&gt; Senses can ONLY react, on their objects of attachments i.e either in present, or in memory of past, or in imagination of future. That reaction, passing through your &quot;Logical and Intelligent&quot; Brain, and tends to gain complete control of your conscious mind, making you driven by chaos, a creator of &quot;spiritual entropy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Desires are like a grand ships, in the ocean of mind, ready to sail on the voyage of self gratification, burning the fuel of &quot;your&quot; will. BUT the point here is that those ships itself are, actually made of ICE. &lt;strong&gt;Their destiny is to melt back into mind eventually&lt;/strong&gt;. But till then you would be occupied wasting time in increasing the &quot;Spiritual Entropy&quot; of your system. So its better not to let your mind &quot;freeze&quot;, so that the &quot;ships&quot; of desires can melt, as early as possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Whatever&lt;/strong&gt; that tends to completely occupy your consciousness and making you to forget your divine self is a &quot;Sinful&quot; activity. All spiritual-chaos generating, states of mind i.e &lt;em&gt;Kaama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Madd, and Matsarya&lt;/em&gt;, have the same tendency to occupy the mind. ONLY these &quot;enemies&quot; have the power to generate ARMY of desires attacking your mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;SO any &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; done to quench any such desires INSIDE our own self is Vikarma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Any &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; done to quench SIMILAR desires in other being i.e OUTSIDE our own self is (&quot;Good&quot;) Karam&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And doing &lt;strong&gt;Karma, by keeping &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; as guide is Akarma.&lt;/strong&gt; You are not here to quench your thirst OR even the thirst of others, &lt;strong&gt;but to REALIZE that the &quot;thirst&quot; itself is a delusion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;At last&lt;/strong&gt; please NOTE that that worrying too much about Sin, Virtue, Heaven or Hell, &quot;good&quot;, &quot;bad&quot;, is a trait of Abrahamic religions. Hindu stress more on his own &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, rather than on Karma or Vikarma. Because free will (&quot;to apply outside&quot;), is the BIGGEST delusion of this &lt;em&gt;Dukkhalaya Ashashvatt Sansaar&lt;/em&gt;. A Hindu knows that if he is always with his higher self and Dharma, everything will fall into place &lt;strong&gt;automatically&lt;/strong&gt; on its own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE:&lt;/strong&gt; I seldom provide references when I present my views on the subject, because I think looking up to a book every time you &quot;think!&quot;, is a again NOT a hindu trait. Vedas were in souls of ancient sages, they did not mug it up either. &lt;strong&gt;Reading Vedas should be a journey of Mind to soul, rather than of memory from one synapse to the other.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mind you, that there is a difference between Vedas and books of other religion. &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Vedas&quot; are NOT &quot;Holy&quot; as in &quot;Holy Bible&quot; or &quot;Holy Quran&quot;, but they can for sure MAKE YOU HOLY.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastEditorUserId="910" LastEditDate="2014-10-11T06:34:56.017" LastActivityDate="2014-10-11T06:34:56.017" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3373" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3375" CreationDate="2014-10-11T04:42:32.677" Score="15" ViewCount="3585" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not sure if this claim is true. I often read in some online forums that our scriptures were tampered by the British when they invaded us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the speculated reasoning while doing so was to &lt;em&gt;Divide and Conquer&lt;/em&gt; a secular country.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some links are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7RGLr8Oka8&quot;&gt;Youtube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ajitvadakayil.blogspot.in/2014/09/ashwamedha-yagam-bloodless-sacrifice.html&quot;&gt;Blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is: Were the Hindu scriptures really tampered with by the British?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And were the original scriptures exported from India in some form? If so, is it possible to compare the two versions and see what the differences are?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-10-11T13:23:13.360" LastActivityDate="2019-11-01T17:31:06.343" Title="Were Hindu scriptures tampered with by the British?" Tags="|scripture|history|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3375" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3373" CreationDate="2014-10-11T05:20:18.690" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is some evidence for British tampering with Hindu scriptures, though not direct evidence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In 1784, the famous Indologist Sir William Jones wrote the following&#xA;  letter to Sir Warren Hastings, Governor General of India, confirming&#xA;  our suspicions that this was indeed part of their program:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“As to the general extension [spreading] of our pure faith&#xA;  [Christianity] in Hindoostan [India] there are at present many sad&#xA;  obstacles to it… We may assure ourselves, that Hindoos will never be&#xA;  converted by any mission from the church of Rome, or from any other&#xA;  church; and the only human mode, perhaps, of causing so great a&#xA;  revolution, will be to translate into Sanscrit… such chapters of the&#xA;  Prophets, particularly of ISAIAH, as are indisputably evangelical,&#xA;  together with one of the gospels, and a plain prefatory discourse,&#xA;  containing full evidence of the very distant ages, in which the&#xA;  predictions themselves, and the history of the Divine Person (Jesus)&#xA;  is predicted, were severally made public and then quietly to disperse&#xA;  the work among the well-educated natives.” (Asiatic Researches Vol. 1.&#xA;  Published 1979, pages 234-235. First published 1788)&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/jesus_predicted_in_the_vedic_literature.htm&quot;&gt;[1]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One such work suspected of British Tampering is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/jesus_predicted_in_the_vedic_literature.htm&quot;&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/a&gt; where Sanskrit verses about Jesus could have been inserted by the British. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More than tampering with scriptures they concocted false racial theories using deliberate misinterpretation of scriptures which is playing havoc even to this day. &#xA;For example, &quot;caste&quot; was an invention of the European colonists. They corrupted Varna-Jati-Kula system into caste. Read more about it in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.infinityfoundation.com/ECITcaste3frameset.htm&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article. Also Aryan Invasion Theory was invented by misinterpretations of Rig Veda. The book &quot;&lt;em&gt;The Rigveda - A Historical Analysis&lt;/em&gt;&quot; by  Shrikant G Talageri points out some of these misinterpretations such as racially classifying Indian Jatis based on nasal index using a single word in Rig Veda, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2014-10-11T16:56:51.777" LastActivityDate="2014-10-11T16:56:51.777" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3376" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-11T05:25:44.563" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vaishnavism is one of the major branches of Hinduism along with Shaivism, Smartism, and Shaktism. It is focused on the veneration of Vishnu. The principal belief of Vaishnavism  is the identification of Vishnu or Narayana as the greatest or supreme god. The followers of Vaishnavism are referred to as Vaishnava(s) or Vaishnavites. Vaishnavas worship the Supreme Lord, Vishnu and his ten incarnations, including Rama and Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-11T18:30:25.553" LastActivityDate="2014-10-11T18:30:25.553" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3377" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-11T05:25:44.563" Score="0" Body="Vaishnavism is one of the branches of Hinduism with followers worshiping lord Vishnu as the greatest or supreme god" OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-11T18:29:10.070" LastActivityDate="2014-10-11T18:29:10.070" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3378" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-11T05:31:02.643" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata, the Pandavas are the five adopted sons of Pandu, being the soms of his wives Kunti and Madri with five different gods.  Their names are Yudhisthira, Arjuna, Bhima, Nakula and Sahadeva, and they are the sons of Yama the god of death, Indra king of the gods, Vayu the wind god, and the two Ashwini Kumaras respectively. All the Pandavas  were married to the same woman, Draupadi. The Pandavas fought the Battle of Kurukshetra against their cousins the Kauravas with the help of Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-11T18:33:47.440" LastActivityDate="2014-10-11T18:33:47.440" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3379" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-11T05:31:02.643" Score="0" Body="Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva, five brothers who are the heroes of theMahbharata, named after their adopted father Pandu." OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-11T18:27:51.303" LastActivityDate="2014-10-11T18:27:51.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3382" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="303" CreationDate="2014-10-11T09:48:30.963" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is true that many deities have already chosen mountain for meditation,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva -&amp;gt; Kailas in Himalaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dattatreya -&amp;gt; Giranar in Gujarat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;GODDESS Kali -&amp;gt; Pavagirh in Gujarat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Balaji -&amp;gt; Thirumala&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many thousands of temples are on mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Belief, Temple roof can not be walked over&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one belief or blind faith, I do not know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;that above temple's roof where &amp;quot;Dwaja or flag&amp;quot; is there&amp;quot;, It is prohibited that one can not walk on it. Also not on roof.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In our Gujarat also in our homes we never walk on/above the surface where our temple resides. It is strictly prohibited. That's why temples have round shaped roofs. So no body walks on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it is on higher place, obviously people can see it from more distance, so it is good. &lt;strong&gt;But it can not be considered as &amp;quot;proper reason&amp;quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Especially in the case of mountain, we may have better answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now to find out common reason &amp;quot;Why they are on temple&amp;quot; is very difficult to answer.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most temples on mountain are well famous temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main reason behind visiting temple is &amp;quot;Prasad&amp;quot; &amp;lt;- this is not food&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pra -&amp;gt; Prabhu's&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;sa-&amp;gt; Sakhshat&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;D -&amp;gt; Darshan&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Temples have statues, what else they have? But devotees visit and see this statue and this is Prasad. They can see their deity clearly with eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &amp;quot;Darshan&amp;quot; is valuable for devotees. Most famous temples are very ancient and chosen by deity. Nobody knows even sometimes who has performed Pran Pratishta ritual of such temples. People have to walk through stairs and do some physical exercise, which is good for their health.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But this also can not be considered as actual reason why they are on mountain.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Real Answer is in the Story&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This temples are old temples. So the story behind these temples are the only thing we know about. We can find out reading or hearing story behind these temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Story behind the temple is the only reason or proof why they are on mountain.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This may be the right answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-11T09:54:13.740" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3384" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3387" CreationDate="2014-10-11T14:00:02.343" Score="3" ViewCount="4228" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been chanting Hanuman Chalisa since childhood, but what makes me wonder is that, why there is the verse -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;buddhi heen tanu janike sumirahu pawankumar,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bal buddhi vidhya deu mohi harhu kalesh vikar&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बुद्धिहीन तनु जानिके सुमिरौं पवन-कुमार ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बल बुधि बिद्या देहु मोहिं हरहु कलेस बिकार ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isn't that offensive for lord Hanuman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="629" LastEditorDisplayName="user4857" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T12:48:10.940" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T04:26:45.140" Title="Is there any hidden meaning behind this verse?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3385" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3344" CreationDate="2014-10-11T14:05:20.270" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Until Moksa is attained, all beings have to go through an endless cycle of birth and death. Some say that if a person has committed an especially heinous sin, the jiva may find itself in hell for some time. But nothing is forever, except Brahman. After suffering in hell for the karmic deed that sent it there, it will be reborn. Likewise with heaven. But there are enough ways to suffer on this earthly plane without the need of hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in The Gita (Ch. 14, verses 14 and 15) &quot; If the embodied soul meets with death when sattva prevails, it goes to the spotless realms [heaven] of those who know the Highest. If the embodied soul meets with death when rajas prevails, it is born among those who are attached to action [men]; and if it meets with death when tamas prevails, it is born in the wombs of creatures devoid of reason [animals, etc.].&quot;  - There is no mention of 'hell'....    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-10-11T14:05:20.270" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3386" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2447" CreationDate="2014-10-11T14:29:57.017" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva assumed the form of devastating sharabha for calming down narsimha murthy. When sharabha tried to destroy narsimha, narsimha became even more angry,his fury reached peaks, he created a mystical, ferocious,most powerful God named &quot;gandabherunda&quot;..gandabherunda tore sharabha &amp;amp; shoolini devi(parvati) into parts. Then a new form of goddess lakshmi &quot;pratyangira devi&quot; was able to calm down narsimha.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="922" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-11T15:29:58.940" LastActivityDate="2014-10-11T15:29:58.940" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3387" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3384" CreationDate="2014-10-11T14:59:53.083" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you're just misinterpreting the line.  Tulasidas isn't calling Hanuman &quot;buddhihina&quot; or lacking in intelligence, he's calling himself buddhihina and thus in need of Hanuman's help.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gitapress.org/books/1528/1528%20Hanuman%20chalisa.pdf&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Gitapress translation renders the line:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Considering myself devoid of intellectual merits, I invoke Sri Hanuman, the son of wind-god. O! Bestow on me the strength, intellect and knowledge. Kindly remove my bodily ailments and mental maladies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2014-10-11T14:59:53.083" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3388" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3352" CreationDate="2014-10-12T05:42:48.633" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;To not chant because one has not the guru to teach properly is only an excuse by the mind to not do. If one starts and has a sincere heart, the guru will not be wanting, the guru will appear. For every step you make towards God, God makes 10 steps toward you. A mother does not love her child less because it can only say Ma and does not know how to say Mother. She herself will take the child and teach it how to say Mother properly if no one else does. What counts is sincerity of heart. Krishna says in the Gita (9.26) &quot;Whosoever offers Me, with devotion, a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water-that I accept, the pious offering of the pure in heart.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-10-12T05:42:48.633" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3389" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-12T07:23:53.757" Score="5" ViewCount="1370" Body="&lt;p&gt;A traditional Vedic yagna (fire-ritual) would be conducted by &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_priesthood#Chief_priests&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;three main priests&lt;/a&gt; - a Hotar who would chant hymns from the Rig Veda Samhita, an Adhvaryu who would chant hymns from the Yajur Veda Samhita, and an Udgatri who would chant (or rather sing) hymns from the Sama Veda Samhita.  (The Samhitas are the core part of the Vedas, consisting of verses heard directly from the gods.). Now the reason the Sama Veda priest was called an Udgatri is because the Udgitha is the name for a certain portion of the Sama Veda Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what part of the Sama Veda is the Udgitha?  You can read the Sama Veda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sv.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, as you can see, it's divided into two Parts, each of which has a bunch of Books, each of which consists of a bunch of Chapters, each of which consists of a bunch of Hymns with ten verses or less.  So which hymns are included in the Udgitha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that if you search for the term Udgitha, you'll often come across assertions that &quot;Om is the Uditha.&quot;  Such assertions originate in the Chandogya Upanishad, but the reason the Chandogya Upanishad refers to the sound Om as the Udgitha is because the Udgitha portion of the Sama Veda is sung beginning with Om, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01022.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the beginning of the Chandogya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let a man meditate on the syllable Om, called the udgîtha; for the udgîtha (&lt;strong&gt;a portion of the Sâma-veda&lt;/strong&gt;) is sung, beginning with Om.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So let me be clear that this question is not about Om.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-01T07:31:48.050" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T06:24:54.253" Title="What part of the Sama Veda Samhita is the Udgitha?" Tags="|vedas|sama-veda|chandogya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3390" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3259" CreationDate="2014-10-12T09:14:35.190" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kundali and Gunas are just a part of the mathematics which is given a name &quot;Astrology&quot;. As per the person's birth time and birth place, the effect gravitational forces of planets and stars on those two persons forms their matching Lagana kundali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now this mathematics of astrology is &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Probability&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; based outcome. Astrology gives you % of probability based on the gravitational and time effects based on kundali gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is just probability. One may or may not believe in it. But we can never take decisions blindly based on probabilities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes for safety , we can take precautions and can consider this probabilities earlier, but One can strongly change result by doing Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marriage never depends on Gunas and Kundalies, this is blind to believe. Marriage depends on two person's love. &lt;strong&gt;No hindu scriptures has written that one should always marry by checking kundali only&lt;/strong&gt;. Even if it is written it is not a neutral note.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who is unknown to this kundali stuff , like some christian person or some other religion person, if he marry without kundali, so is it 100% that he will end up in brake up?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, never. We should consider or treat kundali probabilities as notices or precautions but it is foolishness to blindly believe in kundalis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just take an example of Siknadar, who made a new line in his hand and won the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravan who caged all planets, he was also destroyed. So in his kundali was it written that he will do such stuff? Astrology is just probability, it never gives accurate answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shir Ram and Mata Sita have a match of all 36 Gunas but their marriage is not success, They have to go to vanvas and after returning from Vanvas Mata Sita leave Shri Ram due to some of reason. Courtesy&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/849/urfusion&quot;&gt;urfusion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any man can change is fate. Only &quot;Purushartha&quot; is the only way to completely destroy risks and win against any situations. Have trust in yourself and your inner values instead of having trust in astrology. You will crack astrology also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma faleshu kadachana&quot;, kundali make you bias before doing karma even. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one who is with strong will and dedicated love can bring peaceful marriage life to her partner and can win against all gravitational forces of Planets. &lt;code&gt;&quot;Himmat e Marda to Madad e khuda&quot;&lt;/code&gt;, There is courage and there is fear, courage is the only thing that helps a person to win. I am sorry if my intention is wrong. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes brain and heart's decisions are different. Now whom to follow is difficult for someone. In Gita Lord said &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indriyas are batter than outside world, Mind is better than Indriyas but inside all creatures, &quot;Saul&quot; resides inner or deeper than these two which is considered best than all these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly forces of individuals(plus and minus) will affect each other after marriage. This forces can be calculated using planetary situations and astrologies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-05-23T10:10:51.913" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3391" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3224" CreationDate="2014-10-12T09:33:31.050" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you copy someone and do not have your own uniqueness, you are not creative by nature. Each GOD has their unique quality. Now to copy Rama's Alankara to Gansha, does not bring any significance of doing so. By human nature you may have joy, fun or something you will feel you have done something strange, but It does not bring any meaning at all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Blessing is beyond clothes, alankara and appearance. Blessing has nothing to do with alankaras. &lt;strong&gt;Blessing or worshiping is a feeling of heart&lt;/strong&gt;, do you believe that they have anything to do with changing GOD's appearance? Blessings are just blessings, there are not any types in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama and Krishna is the same supreme being Lord Vishnu in Hinduism, so there is no difference that you see Rama in Krishna or you see Krishna in Rama. In Hinduism all GODs are manifestation of same supreme GOD. GODs always bless with bliss, love, purity based on our eligibility. So Krishna or Rama are just 2 notice boards for 2 avataras, after all they all are same GOD Lord Maha Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is a religion who teach you towards &quot;&#xA;एकता(Unity)&quot; from &quot;भिन्नता(Separation)&quot;. That is true religion. True religion can not separate GODs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-10-12T10:00:54.787" LastActivityDate="2014-10-12T10:00:54.787" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3392" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3316" CreationDate="2014-10-12T09:57:17.860" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The main reasons were&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna insulted Sati Draupadi by calling her prostitute in Vastraharana. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna supported Duryodhana and unrighteousness. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is the main reason for his death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He attained paradise, because Indra was bound to take every person to paradise who will die in Mahabharata's &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kurukhestra&lt;/a&gt; war land. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Vamana Purana&lt;/strong&gt; tells how King Kuru came to settle on this land. He chose this land at the banks of Sarasvati River(since dried up before 1900BCE[3]) for embedding spirituality with 8 virtues: austerity (tapas), truth (satya), forgiveness (kshama), kindness (daya), purity (suchee[disambiguation needed]), charity (daan), yagya and brahmacharya. Lord Vishnu was impressed with the act of King Kuru and blessed him. God gave him two boons, one that this land forever will be known as a Holy Land after his name as Kurukshetra (the land of Kuru) and the other that anyone dying on this land will be going to heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nobody has gone to paradise to see he attained paradise or not, it is written in Mahabharata so we believe he may attained paradise. &lt;strong&gt;The point is he was on bad side. And his karma led him to death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2014-10-12T09:57:17.860" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3393" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="36" CreationDate="2014-10-12T09:57:37.467" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;I agree with the current answers, I just wanna add little more information.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;they cremate out of common sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If we bury that place has to be dedicated to single person&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Such place cannot be used by others at least for few decades &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How many such places are needed? world will have more cemeteries &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After decades if the cemetery is unknowingly sold people would fall for superstitious beliefs of ghosts. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-04T03:58:14.833" LastActivityDate="2014-11-04T03:58:14.833" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3394" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3259" CreationDate="2014-10-12T09:59:20.747" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Human character is complex.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Emotions can be said to a be &lt;em&gt;Chemical Imbalance&lt;/em&gt;, that can be explained completely by chemistry. As per what scientist have tested on rats but when we look closely &lt;em&gt;chemicals / hormones ONLY can define Instincts, like Lust, Aggression, Frustration etc.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the traits that are makes Humans to &quot;fall&quot; (to standard of animal). Now to understand the &quot;Fall&quot; here, we need to know what is &quot;Rise&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Rise&quot; is something BEYOND Logic, Intelligence, Instinct. Few instance of Human &quot;rising&quot; is,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When he practices &lt;em&gt;Kshamaa&lt;/em&gt;, for his greatest enemy / offender.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When he practices &lt;em&gt;Tyaag&lt;/em&gt;, even when he himself need that thing so much.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When he &quot;holds on&quot; to something, even if every...EVERYTHING seems to be (logically) against it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When he practices &quot;Universal&quot; Love, above all difference of space, texture and time.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the above the above things are NOT controlled BY earthly, material things (e.g hormones chemicals etc.) rather they may affect the Human materially and notice that ONE THING COMMON in ALL of the instance of &quot;Rise&quot; is &quot;Belief&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now how are these &quot;non-scientific&quot; traits, rooted in &quot;Belief&quot;, controlled by gods? (people also call them godly blessings.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's through those celestial bodies above in sky.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And this is what that &lt;em&gt;Kundali&lt;/em&gt; projects. &lt;em&gt;Good placement of the planets and stars give you strength in this subtle thing called &quot;Belief&quot; NECESSARY to &quot;RISE&quot; in a certain sphere of life.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Good placed Sun gives Belief in Self&lt;/em&gt;. Making the people Leaders, men with powerful souls.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Good placed Moon gives Belief in the ALL the rest (except Self), i.e Outside World (remember that Moon &quot;reflects&quot; the Sun).&lt;/em&gt; It brings Harmony. As the &quot;mirror&quot; is good, you would see nothing but &quot;yourself&quot; everywhere, because for a Hindu Outside world is just a reflection of Inner Self.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as we done with the most high view, i.e 'You' and 'The Rest', we move forward into lower sphere of Materials, which deals with the feeling like &quot;Mine-ness&quot;, &quot;belonging-ness&quot;, if you understand what I mean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Good placed Mars gives Belief of &quot;belonging-ness&quot; with respect to self.&lt;/em&gt; Making a person great administrator. So even in GREAT adversaries this man would move forward. He, after committing, would never say something like, &quot;Oh mann...this sh#t ain't my cup of tea!.&quot; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Good placed Mercury gives Belief of &quot;belonging-ness&quot; with respect to rest of outside world.&lt;/em&gt; Making a person clearly see &quot;which share is whom, and how much&quot;. He can say exactly what one wants to hear. He would be intuitively exact in business, sharp in logic and good with numbers.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we move further down to the sphere of &quot;Emotions&quot;. Its NOT about the &quot;drama&quot; we see on media, rather its the subtle trait that makes a person capable to HOLD on the emotion, and rise above his instincts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Good placed Jupiter gives Belief in a human on the strength of his emotional self.&lt;/em&gt; Making him capable to bear anything. He would NEVER let any emotional surge flood his castle of values and beliefs. He is the most &quot;STABLE&quot; guy to be at the front of intense emotional &quot;give-n-take&quot;, who would never lose his sense and integrity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Good placed Venus gives a person Belief in strength of the emotional side of rest outside world.&lt;/em&gt; He exactly can match (or even can go further) another person at emotional level. He makes other feel composed. &quot;Generating&quot; Emotional harmony is his prime trait in the situation. So if wanna be happy, &quot;invest&quot; in making a Venus-person happy, and the &quot;returns&quot; would be very high.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have you ever noticed that the echo of our sound, in a secluded cave or valley, takes DIFFERENT time to reach us, when we shout in DIFFERENT directions? The same happens with &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;, which is our next sphere belief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Good placed Saturn gives Belief, that &quot;the time would come&quot;, when you will &quot;hear your echo&quot;. Yes &lt;em&gt;it gives immense patience&lt;/em&gt; if the going gets tough, and humbleness if its easy. Its only your 'orientation' that makes your Karma reach too early or too late. And only a Saturn-guy keep changing it patiently until he get to hear his &quot;echo&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now you see every sphere mentioned is paired except the sphere of &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;. Can't we do the same with &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; sphere? &lt;em&gt;No thats a personal thing limited to Self. And so can not be reflected on to the rest outside world.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also the &quot;real&quot; planets are now done. And we now have Shadow Planets, that deals the &quot;shadowy&quot; subject of Attachment between Self and the rest of the world, which also is intrinsic to self, like &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rahu&lt;/em&gt; gives kinda magnetic attachments to a person, for an object. Now if &lt;em&gt;Rahu&lt;/em&gt; is well placed, this guy would have belief that his object will &quot;come&quot; to him eventually. All gamblers on a long lucky streak in Casinos, are &lt;em&gt;Rahu's&lt;/em&gt; friends. But if &lt;em&gt;Rahu&lt;/em&gt; is malefic, that subject will &quot;go&quot; to the &quot;object&quot; BREAKING ALL LAWS. He would the most treacherous person you may see. By such trait he also go to Jail too.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ketu&lt;/em&gt; gives Detachment to a person. Its well placement provides him power to see beyond the obvious, psychic visions, spirituality. This guys minds floats over the realm of common man. He may have great occult powers too. Again if &lt;em&gt;Ketu&lt;/em&gt; is badly placed the person would be like a dog, sniffing over everything. Self doubt, self created fears, are integral parts of his life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly &lt;em&gt;Guna-Milan&lt;/em&gt; is about how well your partner COMPLEMENTS you in THESE SUBTLE TRAITS. That is, basically it makes sure that the low point of the &quot;Beliefs&quot; of the two person never coincide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if some couple disregard this &lt;em&gt;Vidya&lt;/em&gt;, and *if they indeed are not a good match as per &lt;em&gt;Guna Milan&lt;/em&gt;, then their relationship would be like an UNSTABLE EQUILIBRIUM.* Whenever a potential blow of time hits these couple, they would &quot;fall&quot;... TOGETHER.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shri Ram &amp;amp; Sita indeed is the BEST match&lt;/em&gt;. They BOTH complement each other in the BEST way, in no matter what happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;NOTE:&lt;/em&gt; I seldom provide references in my posts, because I think looking up to a book every time you &quot;think!&quot;, is a again NOT a hindu trait. Vedas were in souls of ancient sages, they have not mugged it up either. Reading Vedas should be a journey of Mind to soul, rather than of memory from one synapse to the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mind you, that there is a difference between Vedas and books of other religion. &lt;em&gt;&quot;Vedas&quot; are NOT &quot;Holy&quot; as in &quot;Holy Bible&quot; or &quot;Holy Quran&quot;, but they can for sure MAKE YOU HOLY.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-10-28T07:59:03.397" LastActivityDate="2014-10-28T07:59:03.397" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3395" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3296" CreationDate="2014-10-12T10:16:54.273" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bilva tree is not normal tree. There are many Bilva trees in many jungles of India. There is no restriction that Bilva tree can not be planted at home. In hinduism, each home is a symbol of Shivalaya. Each father is a symbol of Shiva, Every mother is considered as pious and pure and respected as mother Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Blva tree is having pure effects. Many people just go to temple and put Bilva leaf on Shivalinga and just go out of temple. It is not true ritual. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;True ritual&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;is touch Bilva leaf to ShivaLingam , chant &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Bilvashatak&lt;/strong&gt; verses&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tridalam Trigunakaam, Trinetram cha triyayudham,&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Trijanma pap samharama Ek bilvam shivarpanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can chant whole Bilvashatak or can chant only this verse. Now take that Bilva leaf and put it on head, touch it on eyes and take it with you for the day. Put it in your pocket of shirt and take it with you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This single leaf will make your whole day &quot;Peacefull and energatic&quot;, this is true ritual. This leaf has that power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;No Restrictions in Hindu Scriptures&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bilva tree is a tree so it can plant itself like any other tree anywhere. Wind can transfer this tree's seed to somewhere and it can grow anywhere by itself. No need to fear to have it in home garden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No Hindu scriptures states any restriction in Bilva tree. Priests may have told you because they have fear that this tree's energy is more. But you can have confidence in your self, and can ignore them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is in your garden , so it will not be publicly available, if it would be in temple then more people can use it, so priests may have some good intention. After all they are priests so they must have some good intention. But personally I will tell you not to fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2014-10-12T10:16:54.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3396" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="101" CreationDate="2014-10-12T10:53:18.053" Score="25" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all the real name is not Shiva Linga, The real name is Jyotirlingam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a form of Jyoti. Jyoti is a fire, whose shape is exactly the shape of lingam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Question is why lingam for only shiva?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Shiva appeared in jyotirlingam form to solve dispute of Brahma and Vishnu&quot; so for shiva, jyotirlingam is not full truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We need to put focus more on Shiva's actual form to understand this answer, which is &quot;Nirguna&quot; according to Rigveda and Shiva maha purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva gave his introduction to Vishnu and Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gyan Swaroopam Shivohm Shivohm (Brahma)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Neejanand swaroopam Shivohm Shivohm (Vishnu)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Prakash Swaroopam Shivohm Shivohm (Mahesh- Shiva's 3rd eye) &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing this both Brahma and Vishnu prayed to Shiva to appear so that they can see him. Shiva appeared in Jyotirlingam form, this jyoti was a fire of love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 12 Jyotirlingam are 12 Jyotirstambha of Shiva. Shiva is the only deity who is accepted as &quot;Neerakar Nerguna Brahm&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The origin of word &quot;Aadi&quot; came into existence because for anything's existence we have time based exam. Nobody knows the origin of time because nobody exactly existed to check Shiva's origin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, when Vishnu came to know about Shiva's introduction Vishnu explained that Shiva is actually a seed, Shiva is a seed and whatever we see is a tree originated from that seed -&gt; That is &quot;Lingam&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From The Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva -&gt; Veda Vyasa Mahabharata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The blessed Vishnu said: &quot;I salute Mahadeva. Salutations to Thee. O Thou that art eternal origin of all things. The Rishis say that Thou art the Lord of the Vedas. The righteous say that Thou art Penance, Thou art Sattwa, Thou art Rajas, Thou art Tamas, and Thou art truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu himself said &quot;Shiva is eternal origin of ...&quot; That's why Shiva linga is seed and Whatever we see it is just a tree from that seed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is origin. Shiva is originator so Shiva is worshiped in the form of Jyotirlinam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-11-25T18:43:45.973" LastActivityDate="2014-11-25T18:43:45.973" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3397" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3163" CreationDate="2014-10-12T10:57:48.497" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mother Gayatri is the GODDESS of &lt;strong&gt;knowledge and virtues&lt;/strong&gt;. This mantra is specifically meant for Thapas (तपस; the highest of Tantras) as it increases the heat in the body burning up all muck at the physical level.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Who gave Gayatri Mantra?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Vishwamitra when he composed Rigveda, he put this mantra in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 3.62.10 and Yajur Veda 36.3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now there is no official record about how Vishwamitra got this mantra in Hindu scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2014-10-12T10:57:48.497" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3398" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-12T13:24:28.610" Score="5" ViewCount="3147" Body="&lt;p&gt;In south indian hindu marriages bride and groom shower each other with turmeric rice. what is the reason/story behind this ritual practice? Some says it is the significance of glory, desire for happiness, enjoyment and contentment. How come it represents desire for happiness, enjoyment and contentment?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-13T01:33:02.270" LastActivityDate="2018-04-23T18:19:45.783" Title="What is the significance behind saffron and turmeric mixed rice shower in hindu marriage?" Tags="|rituals|culture|marriage|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3400" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-12T14:57:21.500" Score="2" ViewCount="4036" Body="&lt;p&gt;During the kurukhetra battle, one day &lt;em&gt;Gandhari&lt;/em&gt; asked her son &lt;em&gt;Duryodhana&lt;/em&gt; to come and meet her naked. &lt;em&gt;Durodhana&lt;/em&gt; agreed and when he was on his way, &lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt; stopped him and advised not to go naked infront of her mother, that would be a shameful act. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Duryodhana&lt;/em&gt; thought its a true advice and wrapped him with a Banana tree leaf. &lt;em&gt;Gandhari&lt;/em&gt; removes her bandage and was surprised to see that her son was not completely naked as it was instructed to him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhan's body turned into iron except the part which was covered by banana tree leaf and because of this, he was defeated in wrestling (mallyudha) against &lt;em&gt;Bhim&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the question is, how &lt;em&gt;Gandhari&lt;/em&gt; knew that her eye sight/rays (when no bandage) had so much power that it could make a person's body turn into an iron?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="317" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-13T08:23:56.773" LastActivityDate="2015-04-23T14:37:44.853" Title="How did Gandhari know that seeing her son Duryodhana without eye bandage would make his body IRON?" Tags="|mahabharata|gandhari|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3401" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-12T16:12:27.223" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Research indicate there is life after death. “There is no conclusive evidence to prove that there is reincarnation. But 68% of 500 hundred odd people with rebirth symptoms remembered their past”, According to Dr. Satwant K. Pasricha (1998) of the National Institute of MentalHealth and Neuroscience, Bangalore, India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have also past life knowledge. My Guru of past life His Holiness Maharaj Sahab, the 3&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; Guru of Radhasoami Faith REVEALED to me that I was Sarkar Sahab, the 4&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Guru of Radhasoami Faith in my previous birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="925" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-13T06:42:53.430" LastActivityDate="2014-10-13T06:42:53.430" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3402" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3404" CreationDate="2014-10-12T18:38:31.967" Score="25" ViewCount="6578" Body="&lt;p&gt;As usual in general weekends I was reading &lt;em&gt;Shrimad Bhagawat Gita&lt;/em&gt; yesterday night, in which verses were,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-29.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 9 Verse 29&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Smoham Sarvabhuteshu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means I am equally disposed to all living entities&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Means in any religion's person Lord is also in them too.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most famous verses&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-04-08.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 4 Verse 7 and 8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yada yada hi dharmasya, Dharma samsthapanayay Sambhavami Yuge Yuge....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means to establish Dharma &lt;strong&gt;I(Lord Vishnu)&lt;/strong&gt; appear millennium after millennium and &lt;strong&gt;I(Lord Vishnu)&lt;/strong&gt; manifest &lt;strong&gt;myself(Supreme soul)&lt;/strong&gt; personally&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord also said that to establish righteousness, that is only my duty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Great Sadguru &lt;code&gt;Lord Dattatreya&lt;/code&gt; was asked how GOD do their work even though they are not residing on earth,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord said, GOD always make people &amp;quot;Neemitta&amp;quot; even though Lord appear as avatar or not like &lt;code&gt;sage Atri&lt;/code&gt; and mother &lt;code&gt;Ansuya&lt;/code&gt; was &amp;quot;Neemitta&amp;quot; for Lord Dattatrya's incarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In dattabavani we say&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atransuya kare Neemitta, pragatyo jaga karan nischita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isn't is Lord Vishnu's own will, to make honorable Jesus Christ , Budhdha, Guru Nanak and Muhammad, &amp;quot;Nemitta&amp;quot; to establish righteousness in the form of other religions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Neemitta&amp;quot; means we think we are doing, but it is GOD who is just doing everything, we are just eyes,nose and mouth of existence. Lord is in all beings, he is doing all that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Why Jesus Ishu Christ, Guru Nanak, Lord Budhdha and Muhammad Payagambar should not be considered as Lord Vishnu's avatars?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I strongly believe that these all are Lord himself, because only he can establish religion and millions of people will follow him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Great work like establishing Dharma can only be done by great soul only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just because hinduism scriptures have not been updated, so we should deny Lord's such avatars? This is unfair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord himself said in Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-18-43.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 18 Verse 43&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following each his own activity, a man reaches perfection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes Lord's intention is, Even though I am birth less, even though I reside on earth or not, whatever happens is my will only. I am the one who is operator. You can find me in any form on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Gujarati we have one tale,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without God's will even leaf doesn't move.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So all those people who established righteousness in some way are Lord's avatars only, because only he can establish Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we just follow whatever Lord said, of course we have to believe that they all are either Lord's avatars only. If someone deny then these people are Lord's dearest children than us otherwise who would be chosen for such a great great work(Karma)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Main question&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My dear friend, We accepted just scriptures, we did not accept &amp;quot;What is written in scripture.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though God wants to give a message of &amp;quot;Love&amp;quot; by Jesus, People will say show us your chaturbhuja form or we will not follow what you are trying to establish... because your name is not in scriptures.. then what does it mean by saying &amp;quot;I am in all living entities?&amp;quot; :( I am very sad now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some one in mathematics will give you idea that &amp;quot;This is how it works&amp;quot;, it will not give list of all possible sums.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the scripture mentioned some x avatars of vishnu, some 24 some 10. Did they write&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Only and only this x are avatars? others are not? Even though they have done greater work than past avatars?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just think for a moment &amp;quot;Jesus Christ's greateness&amp;quot; .. how great great great work he has done, Do you think except Lord, someone can give a message of &amp;quot;Love&amp;quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Except Lord Budhdha, who can give message and knowledge that can build a whole &amp;quot;religion&amp;quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupadabooks.com/sb/1/3/24&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.3.24 Translation&lt;/a&gt; Courtesy &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/991/anonymous&quot;&gt;Anonymous&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Añjana, in the province of Gayā, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question takes you to comparison, and you believe yes only Lord can establish religion. If you come to this you are on my side, otherwise I will read your view and will accept your view if you explain me what I am unable to understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Except these x people, others can not become avatars?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But after Krishna, no avatar is recorded, Because nobody recorded yet. Krishna himself told &amp;quot;How it works&amp;quot;, he did not tell you who is next avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just understand accept what Krishna said and think.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now give me answer &amp;quot;Why Jesus etc. are not Vishnu's avatars as per what knowledge is given by Lord himself?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One Answer is : &amp;quot;These avatars are not in scriptures&amp;quot;, except this? any other answers are there, which are based on &lt;strong&gt;the knowledge of scriptures&lt;/strong&gt; that I shared?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have nothing related to people's acceptance or belief, I want to find some clause from sacred text of Hinduism that states &amp;quot;X person can not be avatar&amp;quot; or something that defines &amp;quot;What is avatar&amp;quot;, so we can get answer based on this 2 things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cited two links from comments shows &amp;quot;What Ishu and Budhdha told?&amp;quot; , I am not interested in checking they are avatars or not based on what they said, I am finding according to Hinduism texts, What we should think about hem. They are not my subject, their life style and work we all know, We are judging our Gita's text or some other Hindu text vs this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope I made you clear about my view of question. We are not interested in people, or their belief, we are just analyzing our Gita knowledge which is ultimate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-01T03:59:24.163" Title="Why Jesus Isu Christ, Guru Nanak, Buddha and Muhammad should not be considered as Lord Vishnu's avatars?" Tags="|vishnu|gods|avatars|bhagavad-gita|other-religions|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2018-04-30T11:59:43.880" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3404" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3402" CreationDate="2014-10-13T02:58:02.433" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;You have realised the correct thing. But the reason they should not be considered as avatars of Vishnu is because it has not been explicitly mentioned in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the scriptures which tell us in the first place who Vishnu is and what are His incarnations. So without the scriptures explicitly mentioning any of the prophets it will always remain a subjective thing to decide whether someone is an &lt;em&gt;avatara&lt;/em&gt; of Vishnu or not. It's because the scriptures, even after mentioning the major incarnations of Vishnu, don't forget to mention that His incarnations are nothing but infinite (&lt;em&gt;avatārā hyasaṃkhyeyā hareḥ [SB - 1.3.26]&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;People are driven by ego&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So your assertion that the founder or prophets of other major religions must be avatars of Vishnu is correct, but it's subjective. Undoubtedly God is one whether we call Him Vishnu or something else, but people's ego is attached to whatever things they believe that they cannot think out of the box and feel everyone else is wrong. But who realise and understand the message of the scriptures know that God is equally in all and impartial to everyone (&lt;em&gt;samoham sarva bhutesu&lt;/em&gt;) irrespective to their cast, creed and religion. But because not all people realise this, we see much hatred and negative feelings between strong adherents of different religions. What to say about religions, we even see hatred between followers of different sects in the same religion. All because of ego and lack of correct knowledge. With correct knowledge one realises everyone and everything as Vishnu Himself, not only just the prophets. For people with the correct knowledge everything is Brahman (&lt;em&gt;sarvamkhalu idam brahman&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma su-durlabhah&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 7.19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;God descends to establish religion&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like the verse from Gita (&lt;em&gt;yada yadahi&lt;/em&gt;..) you have mentioned says, God descends to establish religion. Also, He makes people &lt;em&gt;nimmita&lt;/em&gt; (medium) for establishing His desire. For example, as Krishna He made Arjuna a &lt;em&gt;nimmita&lt;/em&gt; to kill the unrighteous Kauravas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So certainly, the task of establishing the other religions were done by His people whom we call as prophets. They can be considered as &lt;em&gt;ansha avataras&lt;/em&gt; (partial incarnations). But again considering this is only subjective. There is Bhavisya Purana which mentiions this, but it is not considered as completely authentic due to the fault of possible later interpolations. I have some personal findings from which I know Jesus is a part incarnation of God, but I wouldn't share them because they can be subjective and confusing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Without God's will not even a leaf moves&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Exactly. So it is only under His will that religions of different kinds which are even contradictory to each other has come into existence. Hence, whether someone is a follower of Sikhism, Buddhisim, Jainsim or any other Abrahamic religion, in everyone's heart the same God resides equally and moves them through His &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; (illusory potency):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;bhramayan sarva-bhutani yantrarudhani mayaya&lt;/em&gt; [ BG - 18.61]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So you can say, it is the same Lord who is pulling everyone's string. That is, by making people &lt;em&gt;nimmita&lt;/em&gt; He is causing different kinds of things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Bottom line&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the conclusion is, your personal realisation is correct but because there is no authentic scriptural testimonies to support them being the avatars of Vishnu, you can't just claim it out in the open. Even if you get scriptural testimony, people will ridicule, mock and say it's a later interpolation. We have plenty of scriptural testimony for Buddha being an avatar of Vishnu, but even then people have differing views. Some say those are later interpolations and accept Balarama as an avatar of Vishnu instead of Buddha. Now how can one make someone understand when he rejects the scriptures in favor of his personal views? Hence, because people will always have differing views depending upon their level of knowledge and understanding, it's nice to have realisations but not so nice to try to make others realize.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Update&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So after reading your comments it seems you are trying to find reasons to not consider prophets of other religion as avatars of Vishnu instead of the fact that they did the work of establishing religions which is done only by God or His chosen people. But unfortunately considering someone as an &lt;em&gt;avatara&lt;/em&gt; or not is only subjective unless it is mentioned in scriptures which are accepted as the standard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Avatarati iti avatara.&lt;/em&gt; That is, as the lord descends down to earth as a mere mortal from His higher position, He is called as an &lt;em&gt;avatara&lt;/em&gt;. Generally the &lt;em&gt;avataras&lt;/em&gt; are categorised as three kinds: &lt;em&gt;purna avatara&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;avhesha avatara&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;amsa avatara&lt;/em&gt;, but this is not the standard and various other types exist as well. So the point is, generally the major &lt;em&gt;avataras&lt;/em&gt; are listed in the scriptures and the numerous &lt;em&gt;amsa avataras&lt;/em&gt; are not listed in them. So recognising these &lt;em&gt;amsa avataras&lt;/em&gt; become difficult and subjective. I am giving an example below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Avatara Case Study&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Around 515 years ago Nimai &lt;em&gt;pandit&lt;/em&gt; (Chaitanya Mahaprabhu) appeared and spread the &lt;em&gt;nama samkirtana&lt;/em&gt; (chanting lord's names) movement. &lt;em&gt;Nama Samkirtana&lt;/em&gt; is the prescribed &lt;em&gt;yuga dharma&lt;/em&gt; of the scriptures for the age of &lt;em&gt;kali&lt;/em&gt;. He is considered as an incarnation of Radha-Krishna by the followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. But there is no direct mention of Him in the scriptures. So considering Him an avatara is completely subjective. Hence, followers of other sects don't consider Him as an &lt;em&gt;avatara&lt;/em&gt;. He even showed a &lt;em&gt;sadabhuja&lt;/em&gt; (six armed) divine form probably to Svarupa Damaodara. There were many such incidents, but who can validate those?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Miracles are not standard&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Miracles like showing four armed form is not a standard because doing so will throw faith out of the window, and not doing so will also cause disbelief. So all saints at some point or other showed some form of miracle be it bringing the dead back to life or turning the water into wine. Also, in course of history many charlatans showed cheap miracles to prove their divinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Physical features are not standard&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;It is said that an &lt;em&gt;avatara&lt;/em&gt; of Vishnu will have the marks of &lt;em&gt;sankha&lt;/em&gt; (conch shell), &lt;em&gt;Chakra&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;gada&lt;/em&gt; (mace), etc. While I believe this because I know it from a trust worthy source, there are other physical features like height, hair, teeth, etc. that are considered by some which cannot be the standard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Six standard qualities that the Lord posses&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;According to the scripture the lord or Bhagavan should have the following six qualities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;aiśvaryasya samagrasya dharmasya yaśasariśrayaḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;jñānavairāgyayoścaiva ṣaṇṇāṃ bhaga itīraṇā&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 6.5.74]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Complete splendor, virtue, glory, opulence, knowledge, dispassion - these six are known as bhaga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So by this standard, if someone doesn't have these six qualities then he is not an &lt;em&gt;avatara&lt;/em&gt;. But if someone has all these then you have to consider him as an &lt;em&gt;avatara&lt;/em&gt;. Shri Krishna qualifies this standard and hence in Gita it is written &lt;em&gt;Bhagavan Uvacha&lt;/em&gt; and so also in many other scriptures. However, the problem with this standard is that it works only with &lt;em&gt;purna avataras&lt;/em&gt;, i.e. the incarnation in which all the opulences of the Lord manifests. But in &lt;em&gt;amsa avataras&lt;/em&gt; (partial incarnations) all the qualities may not be there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So without some standards it is always subjective to recognise an &lt;em&gt;amsa avatara&lt;/em&gt; unless one takes the words of a saint or scripture for granted. You want reasons for not considering them as &lt;em&gt;avataras&lt;/em&gt;, but unfortunately my understanding is different. They are partial incarnations of the lord. How do I know? I can only say that I take the words of a saint for granted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But unfortunately in course of time there also have been many false saints who are considered as an &lt;em&gt;avatara&lt;/em&gt; by their followers. So it is a tricky task. But from my personal experience, all that I can say is that if one has genuine faith and devotion in Lord then he will certainly find out what is right even if he has to undergo and believe what is wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;People have to wait until Kalki's appearance?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kaliki is a major &lt;em&gt;avatara&lt;/em&gt; who is said to appear towards the end of the age of kali. You feel that people have to wait until He appears and they will not try to be righteous. But to uphold &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; saints and sages will take birth time to time and encourage people. They will do the work as &lt;em&gt;nimiita&lt;/em&gt; (medium) just like you had said. So there is nothing to be worried about. Nevertheless, towards the end evil and &lt;em&gt;adharama&lt;/em&gt; will certainly rise to a level that the Lord will have to descend in the house of Vishnujasa in Sambala village.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-11-12T04:10:12.040" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3406" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-13T08:27:17.850" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-10-13T08:27:17.850" LastActivityDate="2014-10-13T08:27:17.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3407" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-13T08:27:17.850" Score="0" Body="Gandhari is the wife of Dhritarashtra, mother of the Kauravas, and daughter of king Subala of Gandhara." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T05:33:27.300" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T05:33:27.300" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3408" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-13T11:09:20.590" Score="4" ViewCount="304" Body="&lt;p&gt;In India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, there are many sites that are linked with Ramayana. Many are said to have been established by Gods themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have there been any attempts to archaeologically date these sites? The events depicted must have happened during or before the establishment of these sites. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If they have been dated, then we can know with certainty &quot;&lt;em&gt;at the very least&lt;/em&gt;&quot; how old Ramayana events are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This would also help with figuring out the ancient history of India &amp;amp; Sri Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Addition 1:&#xA;The Koneswaram Shivan Temple in Trincomalee / &quot;Sri Kona Mountain&quot;, Sri Lanka is said to have been worshiped and patronized by Ravana. The first temple sunk under the sea in Tsunami in BC 306. Current temple at the site is the third one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="545" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-27T09:16:10.190" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T10:09:08.243" Title="Has archaeological dating been attempted on Ramayana sites?" Tags="|ramayana|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3409" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-13T19:52:45.260" Score="5" ViewCount="273" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am involved in a class focused on studying different civilizations and cultures. I chose to study Indian culture and focused on religion.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If anyone is willing to give me a few answers, I would love to have personal insight about the following: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the biggest challenge about being Hindu in America? Or is there a challenge at all - maybe you have only encountered tolerance and acceptance?  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What do you believe to be the most misunderstood part of your religion?  For example, do you encounter people who believe that people of Hindu faith are polytheistic? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In what ways do you think Hinduism and Indian culture have begun to influence American culture? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What do you believe to be the most profound idea(s) in Hinduism? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What would you say to a person who values the spiritual aspects of Hinduism but is an atheist? That is, can religion and spirituality be separated? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you have experience with the caste system - please tell me a bit about how belonging to a caste might shape your perspective of the world, influence how other people perceive you, influence how you perceive your religion etc. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am new to these ideas so please forgive me if I have asked anything that I shouldn't. I am incredibly fascinated by all of this and am eager to read your answers! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="928" LastEditorUserId="928" LastEditDate="2014-10-13T21:08:54.453" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T04:37:32.980" Title="A few questions about being Hindu in America" Tags="|belief|culture|life|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2014-10-15T04:06:37.773" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3410" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3409" CreationDate="2014-10-14T04:37:32.980" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a good book available for free download that speaks directly to the many misconceptions propagated in the US about Hinduism. It is &quot;Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America&quot; go to &lt;a href=&quot;http://rajivmalhotra.com/books/invading-sacred/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://rajivmalhotra.com/books/invading-sacred/&lt;/a&gt; for a free download. If you want a good introduction to Hinduism, in all it's flavors, I would recommend &quot;The Spiritual Heritage of India&quot; by Swami Prabhavananda. Available from Amazon, hardcopy and Kindle versions.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T04:37:32.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3411" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2970" CreationDate="2014-10-14T05:02:00.163" Score="1" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Ganapathi is another name of Lord Ganesha which means the Lord/Owner of all Shiva Gana (The army of Lord Shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bappa means Father/Lord and Morya refers to the greatest devotee of Lord Ganesha. To understand the meaning completely, &quot;Ganapathi Bappa Morya&quot; alone is not sufficient. The entire stanza &quot;Ganapathi Bappa Morya, Purchya Varshi Laukar ya&quot; is needed, which means &quot;O Lord/Father Ganesha, come again next year fast&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="859" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-24T14:07:37.597" LastActivityDate="2018-02-24T14:07:37.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3412" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3419" CreationDate="2014-10-14T06:30:21.433" Score="16" ViewCount="20139" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UnATq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Goddess kali &quot;&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We've often seen in many photos that Goddess Kali is topless or half-nude.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the meaning of this image?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is this image questioning Hinduism's morality level?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-07-19T17:05:55.890" LastActivityDate="2023-12-04T12:09:26.977" Title="Why is goddess Kali shown topless?" Tags="|goddess|symbolism|durga|kali|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3413" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-14T06:44:33.913" Score="5" ViewCount="435" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma is very well-known as the creator of the world. His task is concerned with creation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma's weapon is named &quot;Brahmastra&quot;, and its work is to destroy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when Lord Brahma is related to creation, why is his weapon related to destruction?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T07:38:36.817" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T07:38:36.817" Title="Why does Brahma's Brahmastra destroy when his task is to create?" Tags="|brahma|weapon|brahmastra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3414" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3412" CreationDate="2014-10-14T07:48:03.227" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The connotations of all the forms of the representation of God are almost exclusively allegorical. By being partially nude the Goddess in the fullness of Her terrible beauty stands revealed to us. It speaks to us of a wonder beyond beauty and ugliness. God is beyond human concepts of good and evil. God is beyond shame.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the Divine Mother reveals Herself to you, will you ask Her why She does not have shame? Or maybe you should ask why you still have shame in your own mind? The Lord only reveals Himself to a person who has gone beyond shame and shamelessness, good and evil. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T07:48:03.227" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3415" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-14T08:10:38.727" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T08:10:38.727" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T08:10:38.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3416" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-14T08:10:38.727" Score="0" Body="Kapila was an ancient sage who was an incarnation of Vishnu and the founder of the Samkhya school of philosophy." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-14T15:02:55.303" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T15:02:55.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3417" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3412" CreationDate="2014-10-14T09:29:39.180" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer to this question is two point. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The concept that toplessness is crude or vulgar is a western custom. It's one of the byproducts of Victorian morality that was forced into our cultural system. Before the arrival of westerners, there was no concept of a separate cloth to cover the top half of the body. In Europe, due to colder climate, they have to cover more than we have to. This requirement slowly trickled down into their tradition and toplessness became vulgar &#xA;When they came to India, they found the one piece sari, which barely used to cover the breasts of women, to be very uncivilized. Hence, in their effort to &quot;civilize&quot; us, they introduced the concept of top cloth and the morality associated with it. &#xA;If you go to any old temples, you will hardly see the idols covering the top half of the body for this reason alone. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most of the paintings and images of gods and goddesses you see today are derivatives of the work of Raja Ravi Varma, who first started producing oil paintings of mythological characters. So he chose to dress them as he found appropriate. There is no deeper meaning being conveyed. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Toplessness is vulgar according to modern standards. In our original cultural, vulgarity was measured in terms of character and it's purity, not how many clothes you can wear. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="41" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T09:29:39.180" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3418" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3298" CreationDate="2014-10-14T11:45:53.123" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like other classes held by their Gurus. It is mandatory to become a YOGI for them and YOG was a routine practice for people of those days. Now if you have read Holy Book of Hinduism &lt;code&gt;Geeta&lt;/code&gt;, there at one instance Krishna referred Arjuna as &lt;code&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/code&gt; not because he belongs to that clan or caste. It is because he is that level of &lt;code&gt;Yogi&lt;/code&gt;. As Krishna clarifies &amp;quot;Arjuna ek Kshtriya shreni ka yogi hai&amp;quot;.&lt;br&gt;Also this is the reason they are able to call super powers exists in our Solar system. Proof of this has been seen later years also. Tansen's deepak rag, Swami Dayanand Saraswati victory over death (he died because he wanted to). These people are yogi, they can control the rear and tear of cells formation in their body. Now a days few animals can do so, they have the ability to regrow their body parts several times in their lifetime.&lt;br&gt;But people now a days won't believe it because they can't do it or they have never noticed such thing in their life by naked eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="317" LastEditorUserId="317" LastEditDate="2021-06-07T17:42:59.470" LastActivityDate="2021-06-07T17:42:59.470" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3419" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3412" CreationDate="2014-10-14T14:30:37.303" Score="41" Body="&lt;p&gt;The premise of the question, that Goddess Kali is like a human female, is incorrect. Ma Kali is the infinite Brahman according to the great spiritual figures like Ramprasad and Sri Ramakrishna. It would be a terrible mistake to read the iconography literally. I am posting one song by Ramprasad published in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna to make the point:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once for all, this time, I have thoroughly understood.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;From one who knows it well, I have learnt the secret of bhava(spiritual mood).&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;A man has come to me from a country where there is no night,&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;And now I can not distinguish day from night any longer:&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Rituals and Devotions have all grown profitless for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My sleep is broken: how can I sleep any more?&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;For now I am wide awake in the sleeplessness of Yoga.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;O Divine Mother, made one with thee in yoga-sleep at last,&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;My slumber I have lulled asleep evermore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I bow my head, says Prasad, before desire and liberation;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Knowing the secret that Kali is one with the highest Brahman,&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;I have discarded, once for all both righteousness and sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The iconography of Ma Kali shows her to be completely nude and not just topless. What you think of as her skirt is not really a skirt. Her full breasts nourish all sentient beings. She is shown nude because no finite clothes can cover the infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A philosophical explanation of this image is given here: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kalimandir.org/post/is-kali-terrible&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.kalimandir.org/post/is-kali-terrible&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2023-12-04T12:09:26.977" LastActivityDate="2023-12-04T12:09:26.977" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3420" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3413" CreationDate="2014-10-14T14:57:05.440" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The purpose of any weapon is to attack and/or destroy the enemy, so if you're just asking why Brahma uses weapons at all when he is supposed to be the creator god, it's because the gods are constantly fighting battles with the Asuras (demons).  Now if you're asking why the Brahmastra is so destructive compared to other Astras, Astras are related to the powers of the god they're associated with.  And since Brahma is the god of creation, the Brahmastra is able to destroy anything created by Brahma, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2945/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-10-14T14:57:05.440" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3422" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3426" CreationDate="2014-10-15T04:47:17.437" Score="13" ViewCount="11740" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Aandal in Kali yuga wanted to emulate Krishna Bhakthi which Gopika women had enjoyed in his presence.She was inspired and chose the practice of pavai nombu or vratha followed by Gopika women who prayed to Goddess &lt;strong&gt;Karthiyayini&lt;/strong&gt; for them to attain Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;question 1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why did the Gopika women not pray to Krishna to attain Krishna? Did they not know he was God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background 2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Draupathi was insulted in public by the Kauravas. She called to Krishna for help. Assuming if she had believed in some other God, she would have called that God's name or atleast shouted Amma. But she chose to call Krishna for help&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Key Question&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did people in Krishna's time know that he was God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="757" LastEditorUserId="757" LastEditDate="2014-10-16T02:13:13.710" LastActivityDate="2022-10-28T05:12:12.233" Title="Did people in Krishna's time know that he was God?" Tags="|krishna|gods|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3423" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-15T04:49:31.743" Score="8" ViewCount="1873" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tarkasur had a boon by Lord Shiva that he could be killed only by Shiva's son. Devtas assigned Kamadeva to stop Lord Shiva's meditation and create love in his heart, so that as a result Shiva's son can be born. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kamadeva and Rati were played their role to create love between Lord Shiva &amp;amp; Parvati, but when Lord Shiva come to know about this, he got angry and opened his third eye. A fire raised from his third eye which burned the Kamadev.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On request of Kamadeva's wife Rati, Lord Shiva gave her a boon that in Dvapara Yuga, Kamadeva will re-born as Shree Krishna's son named &lt;em&gt;Pradyumnna&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now without the Kamadeva, it is not possible for a new life to born. So the question is How the new life was being created between the time period of the death and the re-born of kamadeva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-23T15:44:43.327" LastActivityDate="2016-06-23T15:44:43.327" Title="How was the world running after Kamadev's death?" Tags="|shiva|kamadeva|parvati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3424" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-15T05:06:11.603" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-10-15T05:06:11.603" LastActivityDate="2014-10-15T05:06:11.603" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3425" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-15T05:06:11.603" Score="0" Body="Kāmadeva (Sanskrit: कामदेव) is the Hindu god of human love or desire." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-15T11:33:54.247" LastActivityDate="2014-10-15T11:33:54.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3426" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3422" CreationDate="2014-10-15T06:01:36.280" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is both yes and no. Some people were aware about His divinity and some were not. Hence not even all the Gopis were aware that He is God and loved Him as an ordinary boy. There were various categories of Gopis out of which some were sages in previous lives, some were manifested form of Veda &lt;em&gt;richas&lt;/em&gt;. They knew that Krishna was God, both other Gopis didn't.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Out of all the gopis that loved Krishna some were married and some were unmarried. It is the unmarried girls who performed the Katyayani &lt;em&gt;vrat&lt;/em&gt; because gods and goddesses when pleased grant boons. So because all the gopis in their heart loved Krishna they performed that &lt;em&gt;vrat&lt;/em&gt; as it was customary and usual in those days for unmarried girls to perform vrat to get good husbands. This type of &lt;em&gt;vrat&lt;/em&gt; is still present today in some form where girls perform &lt;em&gt;kumara purnima puja&lt;/em&gt; to get good grooms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background 2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Draupadi knew the divinity of Krishna and hence called Him for help. Because it is only God who delivers the devotee from immediate danger. Gods and goddesses generally has to be pleased and many puja and rituals may be required for them. But Draupadi was in no situation for worshipping or keeping a &lt;em&gt;vrat&lt;/em&gt; to please any god hence after being unable to defend herself with her own power she remembered Krishna for help as she knew his divinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background 3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Arjuna didn't know that Krishna was God. He always considered Him as his friend who was mighty, intelligent and powerful. But he never ever thought that He could be God Himself. He was in doubt until Krishna showed Him His &lt;em&gt;viswa rupa&lt;/em&gt; (universal form). Then only he realized Krishna as God and told as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sakheti matvā prasabhaṁ yad uktaṁ he kṛṣṇa he yādava he sakheti&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ajānatā mahimānaṁ tavedaṁ mayā pramādāt praṇayena vāpi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yac cāvahāsārtham asat-kṛto ’si vihāra-śayyāsana-bhojaneṣu&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  eko ’tha vāpy acyuta tat-samakṣaṁ tat kṣāmaye tvām aham aprameyam&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 11.41,42]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thinking of You as my friend, I have rashly addressed You “O Kṛṣṇa,” “O Yādava,” “O my friend,” not knowing Your glories. Please forgive whatever I may have done in madness or in love. I have dishonored You many times, jesting as we relaxed, lay on the same bed, or sat or ate together, sometimes alone and sometimes in front of many friends. O infallible one, please excuse me for all those offenses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So not everyone was aware that Krishna was God. Some knew, some didn't know, and some came to know later. Due to lord's &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; not everyone is able to know His divinity when He takes birth as a human [BG - 7.25,9.11]. (&lt;em&gt;nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ&lt;/em&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-10-15T06:01:36.280" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3427" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3422" CreationDate="2014-10-15T06:45:19.987" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;As a child, Krishna kept his divinity a secret, so that Kamsa wouldn't know that Vishnu had been born on Earth to kill him.  When Krishna was born, he had four arms and all the ornaments of Vishnu, but Devaki asked him to appear like an ordinary human child so Kamsa wouldn't know his true identity, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/3/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your form as Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is appreciated by yogīs in meditation. Please make this form invisible to those who see with material eyes. O Madhusūdana, because of Your appearance, I am becoming more and more anxious in fear of Kaṁsa. Therefore, please arrange for that sinful Kaṁsa to be unable to understand that You have taken birth from my womb. O my Lord, You are the all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Your transcendental four-armed form, holding conchshell, disc, club and lotus, is unnatural for this world. Please withdraw this form.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Krishna took various measures in his childhood to hide his divinity, for instance making his foster mother Yashoda forget about seeing the Universe in Krishna's mouth, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/8/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; later on in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mother Yaśodā, by the grace of the Lord, could understand the real truth. But then again, the supreme master, by the influence of the internal potency, Yoga-māyā, inspired her to become absorbed in intense maternal affection for her son.  Immediately forgetting Yoga-māyā’s illusion that Kṛṣṇa had shown the universal form within His mouth, mother Yaśodā took her son on her lap as before, feeling increased affection in her heart for her transcendental child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And a &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/19/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam describes how Krishna told his friends to close their eyes before he swallowed up a forest fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's only after Krishna went back to Mathura and killed Kamsa that people started to learn that Krishna was an incarnation (avatara) of Vishnu, mainly through the words of famous sages who openly declared this fact to the world; in the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/10/12-13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentions four sages&lt;/a&gt; who have proclaimed Krishna's divinity:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the great sages such as &lt;strong&gt;Nārada, Asita, Devala and Vyāsa conﬁrm this truth about You&lt;/strong&gt;, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a result, a great many people accepted Krishna's divinity during his lifetime.  For instance, in the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata, Bhishma tells Yudishthira to make Krishna the chief guest of his Rajasuya Yagna, giving &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; as his justification:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He that approveth not the worship offered unto Krishna, the oldest one in the universe, deserveth neither soft words nor conciliation....  This one (meaning Krishna) here, of undefiled glory, deserveth to be worshipped not by ourselves alone, but being of mighty arms, he deserveth to be worshipped by the three worlds also....  The whole universe without limit is established in him of the Vrishni race. Therefore do we worship Krishna amongst the best and the oldest, and not others....  Krishna is the origin of the universe and that in which the universe is to dissolve. Indeed, this universe of mobile and immobile creatures hath sprung into existence from Krishna only. He is the unmanifest primal cause (Avyakta Prakriti), the creator, the eternal, and beyond the ken of all creatures. Therefore doth he of unfading glory deserve highest worship. The intellect, the seat of sensibility, the five elements, air, heat, water, ether, earth, and the four species of beings (oviparous, viviparous, born of filthy damp and vegetal) are all established in Krishna. The sun, the moon, the constellations, the planets, all the principal directions, the intermediate directions, are all established in Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And since you asked about Draupadi, her plea to Krishna acknowledges the fact that he is Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Govinda, O thou who dwellest in Dwaraka, O Krishna, O thou who art fond of cow-herdesses (of Vrindavana). O Kesava, seest thou not that the Kauravas are humiliating me. O Lord, O husband of Lakshmi, O Lord of Vraja (Vrindavana), O destroyer of all afflictions, O Janarddana, rescue me who am sinking in the Kaurava Ocean. O Krishna, O Krishna, O thou great yogin, thou soul of the universe, Thou creator of all things, O Govinda, save me who am distressed,--who am losing my senses in the midst of the Kurus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, when Krishna goes to Duryodhana's court as an envoy of the Pandavas, the Kauravas remain silent after Krishna's offer of peace, so Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama (who happens to be in the court at the time) admonishes them, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;telling them&lt;/a&gt; that Krishna is a reincarnation of Vishnu's incarnation sage Narayana, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2395/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  Sage Kanva makes a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05105.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;similar statement&lt;/a&gt; to Duryodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And to top it all off, Krishna revealed his divine Vishwarupa form to everyone in the court before he left:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And as the high-souled Sauri laughed, from his body, that resembled a blazing fire, issued myriads of gods, each of lightning effulgence, and not bigger than the thumb. And on his forehead appeared Brahman, and on his breast Rudra. And on his arms appeared the regents of the world, and from his mouth issued Agni, the Adityas, the Sadhyas, the Vasus, the Aswins, the Marutas, with Indra, and the Viswedevas. And myriads of Yakshas, and the Gandharvas, and Rakshasas also, of the same measure and form, issued thence....  And on his diverse arms were seen the conch, the discus, the mace, the bow called Saranga, the plough, the javelin, the Nandaka, and every other weapon, all shining with effulgence, and upraised for striking.... And beholding that awful form of the high-souled Kesava, all the kings closed their eyes with affrighted hearts, except Drona, and Bhishma, and Vidura, endued with great intelligence, greatly blessed Sanjaya, and the Rishis, possessed of wealth of asceticism, for the divine Janardana gave unto them this divine sight on the occasion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's amazing that despite all of this, Duryodhana still refused to accept Krishna's divinity even after seeing it with his own eyes!  It's only at some point during the Mahabharata war that Duryodhana finally admits to himself something along the lines of &quot;Perhaps the sages are right, and Krishna really is Vishnu.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-10-21T10:54:50.040" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3428" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-15T11:20:54.170" Score="8" ViewCount="6394" Body="&lt;p&gt;No offence, What do the sculptures of khajuraho and konark temples represent as they are too erotic(hope you understand,refer those pics once if not, westernized)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not just sculptures of khajuraho and konark temples but lot of other hindu temples have some fine art(erotic) on temples? what do they tell devotees? Why it was carved on temples.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know its natural thing, But why in holy place?(No offence please. My intention is not to offend anyone, But this was the question faced by lot of hindus from other religions).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2020-06-27T10:25:54.397" LastActivityDate="2020-06-27T10:25:54.397" Title="What do the sculptures on hindu temples represent?" Tags="|belief|temple|scripture|history|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3429" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2310" CreationDate="2014-10-15T11:48:44.197" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sadhu&lt;/strong&gt; means &quot;good&quot; in sanskrit. This person must be good according to scriptures, i.e. something that God likes. It is a very broad range.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sant&lt;/em&gt; - I cannot immediately recognize, what is meant by that. &quot;sata&quot; would be an independent person, transcendental to material inebrieties (e.g. Bhagavata Purana 1.2.17). &quot;sat&quot;=independent, permanent. &quot;Shanta&quot; would mean &quot;peaceful&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rishi&lt;/strong&gt; would mean &quot;glorious&quot;, &quot;glorified&quot; or &quot;glorifier&quot;, somebody who sings or composes the vedic prayers. &quot;rich&quot; in Sanskrit (two sounds, vowel &quot;ri&quot; + consonant &quot;ch&quot;, both absent in the English) means &quot;praise&quot;. Chaitanya Charitamrita 2.17.186 says &quot;unless one's opinion is different in some way, he is not considered a Rishi (sage)&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nasav rishir yasya matam na bhinnam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Muni&lt;/strong&gt; = philosopher, thinker. Probably a silent, introvert person. This is related to &quot;mauna&quot;=&quot;silence&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastActivityDate="2014-10-15T11:48:44.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3431" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="619" CreationDate="2014-10-15T12:33:12.043" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ashwamedha Yajna was done to empower your kingdom and glory, so the ashwa(Horse) was Sacrafice(send Free to go anywhere). And what so ever the land the Horse was going to cover would be considered as a Integral part of the Kingdom of the person/King who had performed the ritual of Ashwamedha Yajna(Yudhisther and Pariksheet had done for the said cause). If any king/person will stop the horse or refuse to accept the kingship of the King(who performed the Ashwamedha yajna) need to fight for that(Just like Luv-Kush fought against the army of Lord Rama).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was considered if anyone does 100 Ashwamedha Yajna, he would be considered as Indra, as Indra was the King of Gods,and was the king of entire Swarga. Hence if anyone will perform the Ashwamedh yajna 100 time will naturally cover all the earth, and hence will be considered as Indra, as he would be the only King of the Kings on the Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashwamedha Yajna was also done if anyone thinks he had committed any big Mistake or sin in his life and now want to do the Penanace for that(Lord Rama has done the Ashwamedha yajna to do the Penance for killing a women(Strihattya of Tarka) and a Bramhmin()Bramhahatya of Ravana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="934" LastEditorUserId="934" LastEditDate="2014-10-17T06:49:04.357" LastActivityDate="2014-10-17T06:49:04.357" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3432" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3546" CreationDate="2014-10-15T15:50:26.890" Score="10" ViewCount="2599" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani I provided in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2429/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Book 1 Hymn 154 of the Rig Veda is addressed to Vishnu.  Here is one of the verses from that hymn:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Let the hymn lift itself as strength to Viṣṇu, the Bull far-striding, dwelling on the mountains,&#xA;Him who alone with triple step hath measured this common dwelling-place, long, far extended.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;triple step&amp;quot; part is presumably a reference to Vishnu's incarnation as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vamana the dwarf&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is, why is Vishnu referred to in this hymn as a bull?  Vishnu has taken numerous incarnations, but I'm not familiar with any bull incarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only other time I know of where Vishnu has been referred to as a bull is in the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, where Brahma reveals to Rama who he really is and tells him about the various incarnations of Vishnu, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/62/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  In the course of doing that, Brahma says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga117/yuddhasans117.htm#Verse23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:  &amp;quot;In the form of the Vedas, you are the great Bull with hundred heads (rules) and thousand horns (precepts).&amp;quot;  Is that a reference to the same bull?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other scriptures which refer to Vishnu as a bull or describe a bull incarnation of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2023-11-22T17:57:40.530" Title="Why does the Rig Veda call Vishnu a mountain-roaming bull?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|avatars|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3433" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3423" CreationDate="2014-10-16T01:27:01.890" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva's third eye did not kill Kama, it merely rendered him Ananga or bodiless; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga23/bala_23_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how Vishwamitra describes to Rama and Lakshmana in the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Love-god was with his body wise men used to call him Kama, the passion. At this place, that Love-god with his naughty intent braved god of gods Shiva who had been practising ascesis and who concentrated observantly, and who was returning after his marriage along with his followers, namely the Wind-gods, and that great soul Shiva disapprovingly roared at Love-god.  And Rama, the wrathful third-eye of Shiva destroyed the lewd-minded Love-god making all his limbs to fall down from his body.  There the body of Love-god is evanesced when that great soul Shiva burnt it down, and by the anger of that god of gods Shiva, Love-god is rendered as a bodiless entity.  Then onwards Love-god is renowned as Ananga, as he is without body, and where his body is given up that is renowned as Anga province.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Kama's soul was still around to cause people to fall in love and have children and the like.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-16T01:27:01.890" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3434" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-16T01:51:01.010" Score="5" ViewCount="324" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Shalya Parva of the Mahabharata, before Bhima faces Duryodhana in the mace battle, Vishnu's incarnation Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09058.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;warns Arjuna&lt;/a&gt; about how formidable Duryodhana will be, since Duryodhana has just been defeated in the war:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This old verse uttered by Usanas hath been heard by us. Listen to me as I recite it to thee with its true sense and meaning! &quot;Those amongst the remnant of a hostile force broken flying away for life, that rally and come back to the fight, should always be feared, for they are firmly resolved and have but one purpose!&quot; Shakra [Indra] himself, O Dhananjaya, cannot stand before them that rush in fury, having abandoned all hope of life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Ushanas is another name of Sukracharya, guru of the Asuras, because his mother was Bhrigu's wife Ushana AKA Kavyamata, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3349/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, where is this verse of Sukracharya quoted by Krishna from?  Is it from the Vedas?  The Rig Veda Anukramani provided in  my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; mentions a few hymns which were heard from the gods by Sukracharya, but at first glance I couldn't find this verse there.  Is it from something other than the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T03:56:18.483" Title="Where is the verse of Sukracharya quoted by Krishna?" Tags="|vedas|krishna|mahabharata|shukracharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3435" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3436" CreationDate="2014-10-16T05:12:01.260" Score="2" ViewCount="2214" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu mythology, all important work will be started at a particular time that we call &quot;muhurat&quot;, and we look for a chaugriyan also for that day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the reason behind that?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the use of these things?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How do they affect the work?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why they are different for different people?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-10-30T18:28:10.047" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T16:41:44.497" Title="What are &quot;muhurat&quot; and &quot;chaugriyan&quot; (चौघड़िया)?" Tags="|belief|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3436" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3435" CreationDate="2014-10-16T11:34:26.170" Score="1" Body="&lt;h3&gt;What is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhurta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;muhurat&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Hinduism, there is a belief that astrology works on every creature, because planets and stars have their gravitational forces. So based on them in the Hindu calendar (which is moon-based), astrologers find and state the probability of a &amp;quot;suitable or good time&amp;quot; in a day for any work. It is believed that this time provides better results for work or that the person feels pure while doing work in this time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This muhurat depends on the type of work and the situations of the planets and Nakshatras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can have multiple muhurts in a single day or one can have no muhurts at all for months&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In short, &amp;quot;muhurat&amp;quot; is an auspicious time based on astrological mathematics.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choghadiya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chaugriyan&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cho-ghadiya means four ghadi which totals to 96 minutes. Most of choghadiya are of a figure around 96 minutes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each day is divided into two time periods: Daytime - the period from sunrise to sunset Nighttime - the period from sunset to sunrise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each period contains eight Choghadiya's. The daytime difference is arrived at by calculating the difference between Sunrise and Sunset and dividing the same by 8.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Chaudhadiyas are for performing prayers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-30T18:26:51.330" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3437" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-16T15:45:53.090" Score="7" ViewCount="3857" Body="&lt;p&gt;Subhadra is worshiped along with her brothers Krishna (the avatar of Vishnu) and Balarama (the avatar of Shesha-naga).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As such Was she also an avatar of any Goddess?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so, Which Goddess and what is the source of that information?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="64" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-08T02:30:30.367" LastActivityDate="2021-07-12T11:35:30.610" Title="Was Subhadra also an avatar?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|subhadra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3438" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-16T16:12:24.813" Score="8" ViewCount="2739" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna's 16100 junior wives come with an &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/290/did-krishna-have-16108-wives&quot;&gt;explanation of rescue from a life of indignity.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rukmini and Radha are both supposed to be avatars of Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then, how is Krishna's marriage to his other 7 chief wives reconciled with the idea of the LakshmiNarayana duality / trimurti-tridevi combination?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Shiva-Parvati and Brahma-Saraswati pairs seem to be exclusive, and the idea of exclusivity is considered highly ideal in the story of Sita-Ram, and even Radha-Krishna to some extent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the reason/origin of this seeming discrepancy when it comes to legends associated with Krishna, and do any texts attempt to explain it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="64" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T12:38:32.973" Title="How is the existence of Krishna's 8 Chief Wives reconciled with the idea of Vishnu/Lakshmi?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3439" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3358" CreationDate="2014-10-16T17:24:38.110" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;One logical explanation for this is: in old times(even now!) not everyone is so intelligent to recognize the medical importance of items like turmeric; so adding an element of religious importance makes it significant and noticeable by everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So coming back to importance of turmeric, it contains many medicinal values that consuming it a little bit every day can reduce the risk of deadly diseases like cancer. That is the main reason why turmeric is an important spice in Indian foods. So as far as your question is concerned, the turmeric applied to Gods/ used to make murthis like Ganesha- is later given to devotees as prasad which the devotees (mainly ladies) apply to their body and face before taking bath. This reduces tan, skin cancer issues and improves the glow on the face. We did not have these many cosmetics earlier and turmeric was considered the main cosmetic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same is the case with rice made yellow with turmeric (akshatha), this when thrown upon us leaves a little bit of residue of turmeric and then when taken bath- dissolves into our body through our skin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope that answers your question!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="941" LastActivityDate="2014-10-16T17:24:38.110" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3440" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3095" CreationDate="2014-10-16T17:37:41.363" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;True. Chakra is a pattern that holds energy in it. Particularly Shri chakra yantra is made with a specific metal (I believe its copper).  The dot is the centre of this yantra is called 'bindu' and this is where all its energy is stored. This yantra holds and emits positive energy when invoked by chanting special mantras.These mantras contain beeja aksharas. Beeja akshara (alphabets) contains energy and they release this energy when recited in their required swara(sound level). This energy is then captured by the yantra and that constantly emits positive vibes in its surrounding space. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With that being said, any wrong doing could convert it to emit negative vibes which could lead to negative issues in one's life. So it is said not to have these yantras at home but can be worshipped at temples. That is why this worship is secretive and the mantras are not known to everyone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yantra is also the other form of Goddess Parvathi and one who wants to gain spiritual knowledge, worldly income (money) or any other wish to be fulfilled can pray to the yantra or to her. If your wish is pure, unharmful to anyone in any form your wish gets granted. The simple best mantra to please the divine mother is &quot;Shri Maaathre Namaha&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="941" LastActivityDate="2014-10-16T17:37:41.363" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3442" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3223" CreationDate="2014-10-16T18:33:24.093" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lalitha Sahasra Nama is the best answer for all your questions here. She is Shrichakra Raja nilaya- Lalitha Devi, the divine mother. Let me give the answers based on the picture above. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sachaamara Rama Vaani Savya Dakshina sevitha.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama (Lakshmi) and Vaani (Saraswathi) are said to do her seva with chamara (fans).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;sashara chaapa paasha ankushaam &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two weapons in her upper right and left hands are to cut the worldly desires in out heart and bring us to her feet. The weapon in the lower right hand is the ankusha which is used to poke us and remind us to come back to her feet, like a mahout pokes the elephant and teaches it discipline. The sugarcane in her lower left hand is not exactly a sugar can but is a bow made of sugar cane. This was manmadha's bow before he died. The bow is made of sugarcane, its string from bees and the arrows made from flowers (pushpa baana) used to shoot at people to make them fall in love to continue the population. After manmadha's death, mother took it into her hands and became Shri Kameshwari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pancha Brahma asana sthitha (or) Pancha Prethasanaseena Pancha Brahma Swaroopini &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 5 brahmas sitting at her feet are actually the legs of her throne and these 5 brahmas are Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Ishwara and Sadashiva. These five become motionless without Shakti(her).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kumara Gana naadha Amba&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two sitting at her feet in the front are her sons Kumara and Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shri Shivaa Shiva Shakti Aikya Rupini Lalithambika.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is not exactly sitting on Him but it represents that she is Shivaa- the female or the energy of Shiva. Both are complete only when both are together and thus she forms Lalithambika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That Chakra is our heart in a logical sense (I heard that our heart has the same number of grooves as the Chakra Raja has and the dot in the center is the divine mother). She sits in our heart and rules us and always takes care of us and takes us into her at the end. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="941" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-17T05:42:07.733" LastActivityDate="2014-10-17T05:42:07.733" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3443" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3398" CreationDate="2014-10-16T18:49:09.887" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism talks about health with great respect. All the happiness, glory can be enjoyed only if he/she has good health.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, there is no joy if one has great sweets(desserts) in his fridge and he has diabetes. Desserts can only be enjoyed only if he has great health but not just great wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So since marriage is the start of life together, bride and groom promise each other that they will take care of each other and as a start they pour turmeric infused rice on each other. (mantras have another added significance in this ritual) Turmeric is one such item (spice) that has many health benefits. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I recently answered a question about turmeric in another post &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3358/significance-of-turmeric-in-hindusim/&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope that answers all your questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="941" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2014-10-28T07:21:43.847" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3444" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3446" CreationDate="2014-10-17T03:47:17.653" Score="5" ViewCount="3096" Body="&lt;p&gt;In every hindu temple, gods statue will show similar hand gestures. Mainly one is upward facing towards sky and the other facing earth. What gods statue tell us through &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4HwQ9.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;hand gestures&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In lot of temples statues are always in attention position(not free standing), seeing straight forward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-17T04:19:29.187" LastActivityDate="2014-10-17T07:38:50.367" Title="What do hindu gods hand gestures and standing pose represent?" Tags="|belief|rituals|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3445" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3447" CreationDate="2014-10-17T06:24:55.857" Score="6" ViewCount="5497" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are so many conflicts in this. Some peoples are say that Sai Baba of Shirdi is a God while on the other end one the most respected Peeth's (पीठ) head Sankracharya told he is just a normal man. There is no need to worship him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the truth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is Sai Baba of Shirdi really a God?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is Sankracharya right?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-17T09:45:02.257" LastActivityDate="2014-10-24T23:02:37.167" Title="Is Sai Baba of Shirdi really a God?" Tags="|belief|vedas|spiritual-level|sai|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2014-10-25T18:39:34.460" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3446" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3444" CreationDate="2014-10-17T07:38:50.367" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It wil depend upon which murthi you are talking about and which pose. For example the Shiva-Nataraja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The upper raised right hand carries a small drum like an hour glass, for the beating of rhythm. This connotes Sound, the vehicle of speech, conveyor of revelation and divine truth. Sound is associated with Ether, the first of the five elements. Out of it unfold the other elements. Sound and Ether signify the first moment of creation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The upper left carries a tongue of flame with a half moon posture of the fingers (ardhacandra-mudra). Fire is the element of destruction of the world. On the one side of Shiva, creation, on the other side, destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other right hand is the 'fear-not' gesture (abhaya-mudra) - giving protection and peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other left lifted across the chest, pointing downwards to the uplifted left foot. The uplifted foot signifies refuge and liberation to the devotee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other parts of the Shiva-Nataraja are also pregnant with meaning. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hand gestures are referred to as Mudras. They are common to both Hindus and Buddhists. For more information on specific mudras, Wikipedia is a good starting point - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudra&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudra&lt;/a&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-10-17T07:38:50.367" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3447" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3445" CreationDate="2014-10-17T08:51:04.583" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It depends upon the perspective one analyzes him from. As per the scriptures God or &lt;em&gt;bhagavan&lt;/em&gt; is someone who fulfills six qualities (complete splendor, virtue, glory, opulence, knowledge, dispassion) combinedly  known as &lt;em&gt;bhaga&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;aiśvaryasya samagrasya dharmasya yaśasariśrayaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jñānavairāgyayoścaiva ṣaṇṇāṃ bhaga itīraṇā&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 6.5.74]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Complete splendor, virtue, glory, opulence, knowledge, dispassion - these six are known as bhaga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from scriptural point of view he may not be God, but scriptures also say that guru is God Himself. We all know this from &lt;em&gt;gurur brahma gurur vishnu..&lt;/em&gt; And as per the scriptures, the devotion, behavior and respect towards guru should  be exactly similar as one would respect, treat and behave towards God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yasya deve parā bhaktiḥ yathā deve tathā gurau&lt;/em&gt;   [Sve. Up. - 6.26]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - One who has utmost devotion for God and as for God so also for the guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So even though one may not be God as per the first definition of &lt;em&gt;bhagavan&lt;/em&gt; above, he is certainly God for his followers and disciples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the scriptures also state that God realized souls who know Brahman become Brahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;brahman vid brahmaiva bhavati&lt;/em&gt; [Mundaka Up. - 3.2.9]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;mayātma-bhūyāya ca kalpate vai&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.29.34]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जानत तुम्हि तुम्हि होइ जाइ [RCM]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Knower of Brahman becomes Brahman himself.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So by this definition, if someone is a God realized soul, then he is a God. But the Godly powers and opulence may not be there as it is only a definition basing upon the Godly bliss he experiences. (&lt;em&gt;bhogamatra samlingyacha&lt;/em&gt; [BrSu - 4.4.21])&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sai Baba is a &lt;em&gt;Siddha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Siddhas&lt;/em&gt; are personalities who generally posses mystic powers. But after that, if he is the guru of someone or God realized himself (which he certainly is) then he can be considered as God by some. At least, people who are benefited and helped by him from troubles will certainly consider and respect him as God. But others may say he is not a God just like you have cited that the Sankaracharya of some monastery has said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/832/38&quot;&gt;another answer&lt;/a&gt; Pradip has beautifully pointed out that one's duty and course of action is also determined by one's conscience. Hence, people will undoubtedly have differing views regarding this and will give different remarks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;PS: I have only shared things as per the scripture. My personal view is complicated to share. For me everything and everyone is God.&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-10-19T01:51:23.230" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3448" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-17T09:42:14.447" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-10-17T09:42:14.447" LastActivityDate="2014-10-17T09:42:14.447" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3449" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-17T09:42:14.447" Score="0" Body="Kundali or horoscope a chart which contains all information about a person's graha (planets) and their positions in different houses affecting different areas of life." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:54:56.550" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:54:56.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3450" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-17T09:46:31.850" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sai Baba of Shirdi (1838 – 15 October 1918; resided in Shirdi), also known as Shirdi Sai Baba, was a spiritual master who was and is regarded by his devotees as a saint, fakir, avatar (an incarnation of God), or sadguru, according to their individual proclivities and beliefs. He was revered by both his Muslim and Hindu devotees, and during, as well as after, his life on earth it remained uncertain if he was a Muslim or Hindu himself. This however was of no consequence to Sai Baba himself.Sai Baba stressed the importance of surrender to the guidance of the true Sadguru or Murshad, who, having gone the path to divine consciousness himself, will lead the disciple through the jungle of spiritual training&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-18T11:22:58.590" LastActivityDate="2014-10-18T11:22:58.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3451" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-17T09:46:31.850" Score="0" Body="Sai Baba of Shirdi (1838 – 15 October 1918; resided in Shirdi), also known as Shirdi Sai Baba, was a spiritual master who was and is regarded by his devotees as a saint, fakir, avatar, or sadguru, according to their individual proclivities and beliefs." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-17T20:02:51.997" LastActivityDate="2014-10-17T20:02:51.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3452" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3456" CreationDate="2014-10-17T09:57:26.677" Score="10" ViewCount="3074" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read that people who convert to Hinduism do not belong to any specific caste. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the concept of no caste (or Jati, Varna) exists, and we are willing to allow people to be free of the caste system, then why are there problems (or perceived misunderstandings) among the castes, for whatever reason? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what practices for worship do the converts follow? If they follow a certain sect's way, do they automatically get considered one of that sect?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="677" LastEditorUserId="677" LastEditDate="2014-10-19T08:13:00.630" LastActivityDate="2021-01-26T09:46:45.803" Title="Converting to Hinduism and Caste" Tags="|caste-system|conversion|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3453" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3454" CreationDate="2014-10-17T12:20:06.937" Score="6" ViewCount="647" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the best way to do Lakshmi Puja in Diwali?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how should one go with the following before starting with the puja?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the things that we need to use?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the actual process?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2023-07-14T09:33:31.103" LastActivityDate="2023-07-14T09:33:31.103" Title="How to do Lakshmi Puja in Diwali?" Tags="|rituals|puja|festivals|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3454" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3453" CreationDate="2014-10-17T13:53:55.260" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Remember One thing that every worship or prayer needs your faith and The Holy Spirit&#xA;and it is the core component of a successful worship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Worship must be conducted with a calm frame of mind. One should be calm and the mind should be quiet while doing this worship and afterwards too.   &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is not easy, but one must try patiently and assiduously for this calm frame of mind. This is very important.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Calmness is a result of one's confidence and faith in God.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Worship Procedure&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Print out the two photos of &lt;a href=&quot;https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4028/4471921145_07873e614f_z.jpg?zz=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sundara MahaLakshmi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and her consort &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/a8qIk.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kamala Varadaraja&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and frame them. Click on the links below to get these photos:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Keep these photos in front of you at the level of your eyes when you are seated. (If you have a home shrine, that much better!)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is a good idea to light a minimum of two deepa lamps and place them on either side of or in front of the deity photos. Lighting a minimum of two incense sticks and keeping them near the deities is also a good idea. If you don't know how to do this, skip to the next step.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sit down in front of the photos of Sundara MahaLakshmi and lord Kamala Varadarajar. These photos should be at the level of your eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chanting following Verse &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ya Sa Padma Sanastha Vipula Kati Tati Padma Patrayat Aksi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Gam Bhira Vartana Bhistana Bharana Mita Subhra Vastrottariya&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ya Laksmir Divya Rupa Irmani Gana Kha Citaih Sna Pitahema Kumbh Aih&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sa Nityam Padma Hasta Mama Vasatu Grhe Sarva Mangalyayukta Swaha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-10-18T06:29:01.773" LastActivityDate="2014-10-18T06:29:01.773" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3455" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3458" CreationDate="2014-10-17T15:19:19.413" Score="3" ViewCount="757" Body="&lt;p&gt;In hinduism, there is a restriction to cite/ read mantras or vedas to the non-brahmins. It is regarded as sin if the non-brahmins read the contents in vedas or cites mantras. &#xA;For example, we can cite gayatri mantra(Since we are brahmin). It is regarded as the most powerful mantra. But we are trained not to read/cite the mantra infront of any non-brahmin people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is it like so in hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="868" LastActivityDate="2014-10-28T07:18:14.317" Title="Why there is restriction to cite mantras or vedas?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3456" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3452" CreationDate="2014-10-17T17:37:44.420" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;There has already been a lot of discussion on converting to Hinduism and about caste system here on this site. The OP's question is slightly redundant. But I will answer the last part which hasn't been talked about here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, what practices for worship do the converts follow? If they follow&#xA;a certain sect's way, do they automatically get considered one of that&#xA;sect?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A sect is not a Jati or caste. For example, Vaishnavam or Shaivam is a sect and it has followers from many Jatis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A brief note on Caste :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Caste as we know of today is corruption of the Varna-Jati-Kula system. And this corruption was done by European Indologists' inability to comprehend the system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Varna was occupational classification. Jati was occupational sub-classification and Kula was lineage. One was born into a Varna &amp;amp; Jati but was free to switch his Varna based on his/her aptitude &amp;amp; abilities. At times a whole Jati switched Varnas even till as recent as  1930s&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/956/14&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Caste of converts to Hinduism:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When non-Hindus who become Hindus, they don't have to be part of any Varna or Jati unless they choose to, by taking up initiation. (&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note that unlike some other religions, becoming a follower of Hinduism itself does not need initiation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; One is automatically a Hindu when he/she follows Dharma. Refer to any answer to another question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/449/14&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example one can follow the Vaishnava sect(like ISKCON) and not belong to a particular Varna/Jati. But if one decides to pursue the creation and distribution of Vedic knowledge under the sect full-time, they can choose to be initiated as a Brahamana(who by definition does only that). In fact ISKCON has a written test which needs to be cleared to become a Brahmana&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iskcon.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=27&amp;amp;Itemid=134&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For other traditional sects too, &lt;strong&gt;if one is qualified&lt;/strong&gt;, he can take up initiation to be an acharya/brahmana. For example an archarya of a Srivaishanava mutt in Australia who theoratically is a Mleccha(foreigner) has been initiated as an Iyengar Brahmin by the Jiyar of Sriperumbudur&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/about.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence if one merely wants to follow Sanathana Dharma but not dedicate his/her full time to a particular profession, they need not be initiated into a Varna or Jati  but just remain a follower of a sect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="8277" LastEditDate="2021-01-26T09:46:45.803" LastActivityDate="2021-01-26T09:46:45.803" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3457" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3459" CreationDate="2014-10-18T00:24:29.253" Score="6" ViewCount="4365" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading the Rig Veda and saw that a lot of versions leave out lines 5-9 in book 10 hymn 61. Is there a reason why? (Did Ralph T.H. Griffith forget to translate them?)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe these are the correct lines,    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Membrum suum virile, quod vrotentum fuerat, mas ille retraxit. Rursus illud quod in juvenem filiam sublatum fuerat, non aggressurus, ad se rerahit.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परथिष्ट यस्य वीरकर्ममिष्णदनुष्ठितं नु नर्योपौहत&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुनस्तदा वर्हति यत कनाया दुहितुरानुभ्र्तमनर्वा ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Quum jam in medio connessu, semiperfecto opere, amorem in puellam pater impleverat, ambo discedentes seminis paulum in terrae superficiem sacrorum sede effusum emiserunt.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मध्या यत कर्त्वमभवदभीके कामं कर्ण्वाणेपितरि युवत्याम |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनानग रेतो जहतुर्वियन्ता सानौनिषिक्तं सुक्र्तस्य योनौ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Quum pater suam nilam adiverat, cum eā congressus suum semen supra viram effudit. Tum Dii benigni precem (brahma) progenuerunt, et Vastoshpatim, legum sacrarum custodem, formaverunt.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पिता यत सवां दुहितरमधिष्कन कष्मया रेतःसंजग्मानो नि षिञ्चत |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सवाध्यो.अजनयन बरह्म देवावास्तोष पतिं वरतपां निरतक्षन ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ille tauro similis spumam in certamine jactavit, tunc discedens pusillaximis huc profectus est. Quasi dextro pede claudus processit, &quot;inutiles fuerunt illi mei complexus,&quot; ita locutus.&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स ईं वर्षा न फेनमस्यदाजौ समदा परैदपदभ्रचेताः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सरत पदा न दक्षिणा पराव्रं न ता नुमे पर्शन्यो जग्र्भ्रे || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="944" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-08T13:38:38.740" LastActivityDate="2016-08-05T19:13:35.487" Title="What is the English translation of Rig Veda Book 10 hymn 61 verses 5-8?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3458" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3455" CreationDate="2014-10-18T02:05:04.757" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;This restriction, a by-product of the caste system is due to one interpretation of Hindu scripture. There are other interpretations that do not impose any restriction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCCXIX, Rishi Yajnavalkya is quoted as as saying,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'.. All orders of men are Brahmanas. All are sprung from Brahma. All&#xA;men utter Brahma. Aided by an understanding that is derived from and&#xA;directed to Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I inculcated this science teaching of Prakriti and&#xA;Purusha. Indeed this whole universe is Brahma. From the mouth of&#xA;Brahma sprung the Brahmanas; from his arms, sprung the Kshatriyas;&#xA;from his navel, the Vaisysa; and from his feet, the Sudras. All the&#xA;orders, (having sprung in this way) should not be regarded as&#xA;pilfering from one another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Impelled by ignorance, all men meet with&#xA;death and attain, O King, to birth that is the cause of acts. Divested&#xA;of knowledge, all orders of men, dragged in terrible ignorance, fall&#xA;into varied orders of being due to the principles that flow from&#xA;Prakriti. For this reason, all should, by every means, seek to acquire&#xA;knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have told thee that every person is entitled to strive&#xA;for its acquisition. One that is possessed of knowledge is a Brahmana.&#xA;Others, (viz., Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas and Sudras) are possessed of&#xA;knowledge. Hence this science of emancipation is always open to them&#xA;all.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-28T07:18:14.317" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3459" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3457" CreationDate="2014-10-18T04:06:34.433" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a reason why Ralph T.H. Griffith chose to translate these four verses into Latin rather than English: it's because they have inappropriate content.  I'm largely in agreement with Griffith's choice (although we should take note that Latin was more widely understood in Griffith's day than in ours).  Still, since you're interested, &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=fgzVAwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA1476&amp;amp;ots=HSsyux0Kld&amp;amp;pg=PA1476#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how the newly released 3-volume Oxford University Press translation of the Rig Veda renders these verses &lt;sup&gt;(I put it in a spoiler tag because of the inappropriate content)&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote class=&quot;spoiler&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Lcd7w.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a reference to the story of how Brahma attempted to commit incest with his daughter Saraswati, and to stop him Shiva cut off Brahma'a fifth head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1233.htm#fr_485&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda says about these verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pragâpati conceived a passion for his own daughter... 'May I pair with her!' thus (thinking) he united with her.  This, assuredly, was a sin in the eyes of the gods. 'He who acts thus towards his own daughter, our sister, [commits a sin],' they thought.  The gods then said to this god who rules over the beasts (Rudra), 'This one, surely, commits a sin who acts thus towards his own daughter, our sister. Pierce him!' Rudra, taking aim, pierced him. Half of his seed fell to the ground. And thus it came to pass.  &lt;strong&gt;Accordingly it has been said by the Rishi with reference to that (incident), 'When the father embraced his daughter, uniting with her, he dropped his seed on the earth.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I put the last sentence in bold because the statement that &quot;has been said by the Rishi&quot; is just the first line of verse 7 above.  By the way, in case you're wondering the Rishi who heard this Rig Vedic hymn from the gods is Nabhanedistha son of Manu (as you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) which is why this hymn is often called the Nabhanedistha Sukta.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: MGM pointed out in the comments that Griffiths also omitted parts of Rig Veda Book 10 Hymn 86, and this time he didn't even put them into Latin.  So here is the new Oxford translation's rendering of the hymn (again, in a spoiler tag due to inappropriate content):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote class=&quot;spoiler&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sVg5l.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-01-07T21:18:33.970" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3461" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11051" CreationDate="2014-10-18T14:12:44.427" Score="6" ViewCount="3483" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Taittirya Upanishad makes up the seventh, eighth, and ninth Vallis (sections) of the Taittirya Aranyaka of the Yajur Veda.  The last of these three Vallis is called the Bhrigu Valli, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; how its first chapter begins:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhrigu Vâruni went to his father Varuna, saying: &quot;Sir, teach me Brahman.&quot; He told him this, viz. Food, breath, the eye, the ear, mind, speech. Then he said again to him: &quot;That from whence these beings are born, that by which, when born, they live, that into which they enter at their death, try to know that. That is Brahman.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Bhrigu is a very famous sage; as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3349/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, he is the father of Sukracharya guru of the Asuras, and as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/267/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/122/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, he was the one who cursed Brahma that he could never be worshipped, and cursed Shiva that he could only be worshipped in Linga form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, why is he given the surname &quot;Varuni&quot; in this passage, and why is Varuna the ocean god called &quot;his father&quot;?  Bhrigu is usually described a son of Brahma, not Varuna.  Could this be similar to how the sages Vashishta and Agastya have the surname Maitravaruni, even though they were originally sons of Brahma, because they were reborn as sons of Mitra (god of friendship) and Varuna? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-03-17T10:38:14.300" Title="Why is sage Bhrigu called the son of Varuna the ocean god?" Tags="|upanishads|varuna|taittirya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3463" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3466" CreationDate="2014-10-19T05:22:32.017" Score="3" ViewCount="19071" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/06ihA.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Maa Durga&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beside Maa Durga stands Lord Kartika, Lord Ganesha, Goddess Saraswati and Goddess Lakhsmi. While Lord Ganesha is married to a Banana Plant and Goddess Lakhsmi is married to Lord Narayan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is Lord Kartika and Goddess Saraswati unmarried? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any story or logic behind their remaining unmarried?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="950" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-31T05:27:52.357" LastActivityDate="2014-10-31T05:27:52.357" Title="Why Lord Kartik and Goddess Saraswati are unmarried?" Tags="|saraswati|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3466" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3463" CreationDate="2014-10-19T10:09:48.657" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Neither one of them is unmarried.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saraswati is the wife of Brahma the creator god; &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/13/57&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Srimad Bhagavatam describes Brahma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Brahmā, &lt;strong&gt;the lord of Sarasvatī&lt;/strong&gt;, was mystified. “What is this?” he thought, and then he was not even able to see. Lord Kṛṣṇa, understanding Brahmā’s position, then at once removed the curtain of His yoga-māyā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma also has a second wife Gayatri, by the way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as Kartikeya goes, according to South Indian tradition he has two wives, Valli and Devasena.  Valli isn't really mentioned much in Hindu scripture.  But regardless of whether you accept South Indian tradition, Devasena is definitely described in Hindu scripture; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03228.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is a description of the marriage of Kartikeya and Devasena from the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And considering that this being (Skanda) was undoubtedly destined to be the husband of this lady by Brahma himself, he had her brought there, dressed her with the best apparel. And the vanquisher of Vala then said to Skanda, 'O foremost of gods, this lady was, even before thy birth, destined to be thy bride by that Self-existent Being. Therefore do thou duly accept her lotus-like beautiful right hand with invocation of the (marital) hymns.' Thus told, he duly married her. And Vrihaspati learned in hymns performed the necessary prayers and oblations. She who is called Shashthi, Lakshmi, Asa, Sukhaprada, Sinivali, Kuhu, Saivritti, and Aparajita, is known among men as Devasena, the wife of Skanda. When Skanda became united to Devasena in indissoluble bonds of matrimony, then the gods of prosperity in her own personal embodiment began to serve him with diligence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-21T02:35:44.577" LastActivityDate="2014-10-21T02:35:44.577" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3468" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T05:11:44.997" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;For more information, see &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akshaya_Tritiya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Akshaya Tritiya&lt;/a&gt; on Wikipedia. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T18:20:00.223" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T18:20:00.223" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3469" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T05:11:44.997" Score="0" Body="Akshaya Tritiya, also known as Akha Teej, is a holy day for Hindus and Jains." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T18:17:03.457" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T18:17:03.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3470" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T05:13:47.063" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Upanishads (from the Sanskrit meaning &quot;sitting down near&quot;) are a collection of Vedic texts which contain the earliest emergence of some of the central religious concepts of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. They are also known as Vedanta (&quot;the end of the Veda&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are regarded as the source of Vedanta and Samkhya philosophies. The Upanishads are considered by Hindus to contain revealed truths (Sruti) concerning the nature of ultimate reality (brahman) and describing the character and form of human salvation (moksha). The Upanishads are found mostly in the concluding part of the Brahmanas and Aranyakas and have been passed down in oral tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T03:50:51.270" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T03:50:51.270" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3471" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T05:13:47.063" Score="0" Body="The last part of the Vedas, consisting of dialogues between teachers and students clarifying the philosophical teachings of the Vedas." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T03:49:53.877" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T03:49:53.877" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3472" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T05:17:54.190" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra, also known as Śakra in the Vedas, is the king of the Devas or gods and the lord of Svargaloka or heaven in Hinduism. He is the god of rain and thunderstorms. He wields a lightning thunderbolt known as vajra and rides on a white elephant known as Airavata.  He was given great importance in the Vedic period, but in later times his worship has been surpassed by the worship of gods like Vishnu and Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-20T13:14:54.727" LastActivityDate="2014-10-20T13:14:54.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3473" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T05:17:54.190" Score="0" Body="The king of the Devas or gods and the lord of Svargaloka or heaven in Hinduism.  He is the god of rain and thunderstorms." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-20T13:16:21.713" LastActivityDate="2014-10-20T13:16:21.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3474" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-20T11:11:44.067" Score="0" ViewCount="3343" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which of the following was the most important reason for Ravana abducting Sita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because &lt;em&gt;Suparnakha&lt;/em&gt; was humiliated whatever was the reason&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because he came to know that Sita was the most beautiful women in the world so she could be the his wife.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because &lt;em&gt;Khara&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Dusana&lt;/em&gt; were killed by Lord Rama &amp;amp; Lord Laxmana and it was the duty of the King to take revenge . it is immaterial for Ravana that &quot;Khar &amp;amp; Dusan were killed as they attacked for wrong reasons&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;No one can show supremacy in front of Ravana even if he's right.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070820222217AAcTHn1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Can anyone tell me the actual reason?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="582" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2015-09-22T07:00:56.407" LastActivityDate="2015-09-22T07:00:56.407" Title="Why did Ravana abduct Sita?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-10-21T07:00:13.033" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3475" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3474" CreationDate="2014-10-20T12:03:35.950" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several reasons&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ravan was not invited by Raja Janak in Mata Sita's Saymbar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ravan want to take revenge of his sister Soorpanaka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;these are the reasons but the main reason is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to a story from Bhagavata Purana, the Four Kumaras, Sanaka,&#xA;Sanandana, Sanatana, and Sanatkumara who are the manasaputras of&#xA;Brahma (sons born from the mind or thought power of Brahma), visited&#xA;Vaikuntha, the abode of Vishnu, to see him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to the strength of their tapas, the four Kumaras appear to be mere children, though they are of great age. Jaya and Vijaya, the gate&#xA;keepers of the Vaikuntha interrupt the Kumaras at the gate, thinking&#xA;them to be children. They also tell the Kumaras that Sri Vishnu is&#xA;resting and that they cannot see him now. The enraged Kumaras replied&#xA;Jaya and Vijaya that Vishnu is available for his devotees any time,&#xA;and cursed both the keepers Jaya and Vijaya, that they would have to&#xA;give up their divinity, be born as mortals on Earth (bhuloka, or&#xA;physical plane), and live like normal human beings. Vishnu appeared&#xA;before them, and the gatekeepers requested Vishnu to lift the curse of&#xA;the Kumaras. Vishnu says curse of Kumaras cannot be reversed. Instead,&#xA;he gives Jaya and Vijaya two options.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The first option is to take seven births on Earth as a devotee of Vishnu.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Second is to take three births as his enemy.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After serving either of these sentences, they can re-attain their stature at Vaikuntha and&#xA;be with him permanently. Jaya and Vijaya cannot bear the thought of&#xA;staying away from Vishnu for seven lives. As a result, they choose to&#xA;be born three times on Earth even though it would have to be as&#xA;enemies of Vishnu. (This story is also used as a metaphor about the&#xA;cost of committing transgressions in &amp;quot;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&amp;quot;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the first life they were born as Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha in the Krita Yuga, to Diti (daughter of Daksha Prajapathi) and sage&#xA;Kashyapa who were killed by Vishnu taking the form of Varaha, a boar&#xA;and Narasimha,a man-lion in the Satya Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In their second life they were born as Ravana and Kumbhakarna and were killed by Vishnu who descended as Rama in the Treta Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in their third life as Shishupala and Dantavakra (in some places Dantavakra is replaced by Kamsa) who were killed by Vishnu who&#xA;descended as Krishna in the Dwapara Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It has been noted by many that the strengths of Jaya and Vijaya gradually declined with each subsequent birth. Vishnu needed one&#xA;avatar each to kill Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu. Born as Rama he&#xA;was able to vanquish both Ravana and Kumbhakarna. In his Krishna&#xA;avatar the killing of Shishupala and Danthavakra is not the main focus&#xA;but more to reduce the 'Bhoobhara&amp;quot; (The burden on mother earth by too&#xA;many sinners).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaya-Vijaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is This the main reason . Everything was preplanned. They just have to follow that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-20T14:34:21.047" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3476" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:17:56.063" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Culture is, &quot;that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cambridge English Dictionary states that culture is, &quot;the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="39" LastEditDate="2015-09-30T20:56:21.037" LastActivityDate="2015-09-30T20:56:21.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3477" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:17:56.063" Score="0" Body="Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-09-30T20:56:30.133" LastActivityDate="2015-09-30T20:56:30.133" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3478" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:19:12.627" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;Mantra&quot; means a sacred utterance believed to have spiritual power in Hinduism.  The term mantra was originally reserved for the divinely revealed verses of the Vedas, but there are also mantras in the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas, and some of these mantras are also claimed to be divinely revealed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-20T13:26:54.753" LastActivityDate="2014-10-20T13:26:54.753" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3479" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:19:12.627" Score="0" Body="A sacred utterance in praise of a god which is believed to have spiritual power in Hinduism, especially used for divinely revealed verses of the Vedas." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-20T13:29:54.450" LastActivityDate="2014-10-20T13:29:54.450" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3480" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:19:57.577" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Most observant Hindus engage in some type of formal worship (pūjā)&#xA;  both in the home and in temples. In the home, Hindus usually have a&#xA;  special place that is used as a shrine, and which contains a picture&#xA;  or statue symbolizing the individual's chosen form(s) of God (ishta).&#xA;  Other practices in the home include meditation (dhyāna), the chanting&#xA;  of God's name or names (japa), and the recitation of scriptures such&#xA;  as the Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Before performing pūjā, the devotee usually bathes and wears washed&#xA;  clothes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Visiting temples is not obligatory for Hindus. Hindu temple priests&#xA;  (pandās) are salaried workers, hired by temple authorities to perform&#xA;  ritualistic worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Priests begin to perform temple worship at daybreak, and continue with&#xA;  various rituals until late in the evening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Besides home and temple worship, observant Hindus are supposed to&#xA;  perform every action as an offering to God as prescribed by karma&#xA;  yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-03T08:08:48.733" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T08:08:48.733" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3481" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:19:57.577" Score="0" Body="For questions about prayer (i.e. [puja]). " OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T18:54:34.887" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T18:54:34.887" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3482" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:20:49.877" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-10-20T13:20:49.877" LastActivityDate="2014-10-20T13:20:49.877" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3483" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:20:49.877" Score="0" Body="Questions related to food." OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T12:31:18.113" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:31:18.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3484" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:21:41.320" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-10-20T13:21:41.320" LastActivityDate="2014-10-20T13:21:41.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3485" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:21:41.320" Score="0" Body="Questions about Hindu Philosophy, which is divided into six main schools: Sankhya (also called Samkhya), Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika(Vaiśeṣika), Mimamsa and Vedanta." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-04T09:53:11.160" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T09:53:11.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3486" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:22:18.427" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;India, officially the Republic of India, also called as Bhārat (भारत) in Sanskrit, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-06T16:47:31.033" LastActivityDate="2016-03-06T16:47:31.033" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3487" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:22:18.427" Score="0" Body="India, officially the Republic of India,also called as Bhārat (भारत) in Sanskrit, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-06T16:47:34.690" LastActivityDate="2016-03-06T16:47:34.690" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3488" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:26:31.117" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T18:36:32.237" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T18:36:32.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3489" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:26:31.117" Score="0" Body="For questions about issues in Hinduism that specifically affect or concern women." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T18:36:32.237" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T18:36:32.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3490" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:28:51.580" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-10-20T16:01:56.067" LastActivityDate="2014-10-20T16:01:56.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3491" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:28:51.580" Score="0" Body="Use this question to ask about the role and references of animals in Hinduism. " OwnerUserId="29157" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-02-01T13:44:24.450" LastActivityDate="2023-02-01T13:44:24.450" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3492" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:29:50.710" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;disciplined and dedicated practice or learning, especially in religion or music.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-21T11:12:06.030" LastActivityDate="2014-10-21T11:12:06.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3493" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:29:50.710" Score="0" Body="disciplined and dedicated practice or learning, especially in religion or music." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-22T17:04:21.087" LastActivityDate="2014-10-22T17:04:21.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3494" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:35:10.443" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Yajurveda (Sanskrit: यजुर्वेदः yajurveda, a tatpurusa compound of yajus &quot;sacrificial formula&quot; and veda &quot;knowledge&quot;) is one of the four canonical texts of Hinduism, the Vedas. Estimated to have been mostly composed c. 1200–1000 BCE (see below), the Yajurveda Samhita, or &quot;compilation&quot;, contains the liturgy (mantras) needed to perform the sacrifices of the historical Vedic religion, and the added Brahmana and Śrautasutra add information on the interpretation and on the details of their performance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-22T17:04:12.253" LastActivityDate="2014-10-22T17:04:12.253" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3495" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:35:10.443" Score="0" Body="One of the four Vedas, specifically dealing with the mantras said while performing each step of a Yagna." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-21T11:09:19.377" LastActivityDate="2014-10-21T11:09:19.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3496" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:36:39.020" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Life is a characteristic distinguishing physical entities having signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (death), or because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate. Biology is a science concerned with the study of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The smallest contiguous unit of life is called an organism. Organisms are composed of one, or more, cells, undergo metabolism, maintain homeostasis, can grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and, through evolution, adapt to their environment in successive generations. A diverse array of living organisms can be found in the biosphere of Earth, and the properties common to these organisms—plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria — are a carbon - and water-based cellular form with complex organization and heritable genetic information.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-10-20T16:04:29.750" LastActivityDate="2014-10-20T16:04:29.750" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3497" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:36:39.020" Score="0" Body="Life is a characteristic distinguishing physical entities having signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (death), or because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-10-20T16:05:44.643" LastActivityDate="2014-10-20T16:05:44.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3498" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:37:20.450" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Fasting is primarily an act of willing abstinence or reduction from certain or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period, usually a single day (24 hours), or several days. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some Hindus fast on certain days such as Ekadasi, Pradosha kalam, Purnima. Some other people fast depending on personal belief and favorite deity. For example, devotees of Shiva tend to fast on Mondays, while devotees of Vishnu tend to fast on Thursdays &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-14T14:58:36.540" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T14:58:36.540" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3499" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:37:20.450" Score="0" Body="Fasting is primarily an act of willing abstinence or reduction from certain or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. Some Hindus fast on certain days such as Ekadasi, Pradosha kalam, Purnima. Some other people fast depending on personal belief and favorite deity. For example, devotees of Shiva tend to fast on Mondays, while devotees of Vishnu tend to fast on Thursdays " OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-14T14:57:57.477" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T14:57:57.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3500" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:39:04.807" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parshuram (Parashurama, Parashuraman) is the sixth avatar of Vishnu, He is son of Renuka and the saptarishi Jamadagni. He lived during the last Treta Yuga, and is one of the seven immortals or Chiranjivi, of Hinduism. He received an axe after undertaking terrible penance to please Shiva, who in turn taught him the martial arts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashurama is most known for ridding the world of kshatriyas twenty-one times over after the mighty king Kartavirya killed his father. He played important roles in the Mahabharata and Ramayana, serving as mentor to Bhishma, Karna and Drona. Parashurama also fought back the advancing seas to save the lands of Konkan, Malabar and Kerala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashurama is worshipped as mool purush, or founder, of the Bhumihar Brahmin, Chitpavan, Niyogi, Daivadnya, Mohyal, Shukla, Awasthi, Tyagi, Kothiyal, Anavil, Nambudiri Brahmin communities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parashurama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-10-20T16:06:14.920" LastActivityDate="2014-10-20T16:06:14.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3501" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T13:39:04.807" Score="0" Body="Parshuram (Parashurama, Parashuraman) is the sixth avatar of Vishnu, He is son of Renuka and the saptarishi Jamadagni. He lived during the last Treta Yuga, and is one of the seven immortals or Chiranjivi, of Hinduism. He received an axe after undertaking terrible penance to please Shiva, who in turn taught him the martial arts." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-23T04:54:04.147" LastActivityDate="2014-10-23T04:54:04.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3502" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T16:48:09.177" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The alwar or azhwars were 12 Tamil poet-saints of south India who espoused ‘emotional devotion’ or bhakti to Visnu-Krishna in their songs of longing, ecstasy and service.  The Alwars are crucially important figures in the development of Vaishnavism; it is the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are twelve* in number. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Poigai Alwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhoothathalwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Peyalwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thirumalisai Alwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nammalwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Madhurakavi Alwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kulashekhara Alwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Periyalwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Periyalwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thondaradippodi Alwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thiruppaan Alwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thirumangai Alwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;*&lt;sub&gt; Vadakalai sect of Sri Vaishnavas considers only 10 alwars excluding Madhurakavi Alwar and Andal. They are worshipped and revered but not included in this list of Alwars. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T13:44:37.053" LastActivityDate="2018-10-16T13:44:37.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3503" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T16:48:09.177" Score="0" Body="The alwar or azhwars were 12 Tamil poet-saints of south India who espoused ‘emotional devotion’ or bhakti to Visnu-Krishna in their songs of longing, ecstasy and service." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-21T11:17:19.737" LastActivityDate="2014-10-21T11:17:19.737" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3504" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:46:23.020" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kartikeya, also known as Skanda, Murugan and Subramaniyan, is the Hindu god of war. He is the commander-in-chief of the army of the devas (gods) and the son of Shiva and Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Murugan is often referred to as &quot;Tamil Kadavul&quot; (meaning &quot;God of Tamils&quot;) and is worshiped primarily in areas with Tamil influences, especially South India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore and Reunion Island. His six most important shrines in India are the Arupadaiveedu temples, located in Tamil Nadu. In Sri Lanka, Hindus as well as Buddhists revere the sacred historical Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna and Katirkāmam Temple situated deep south.[1] Hindus in Malaysia also pray to Lord Murugan at the Batu Caves and various temples where Thaipusam is celebrated with grandeur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Kartikeya is known as Subrahmanya with a temple at Kukke Subramanya known for Sarpa shanti rites dedicated to Him and another famous temple at Ghati Subramanya also in Karnataka. In Bengal and Odisha, he is popularly known as Kartikeya (meaning 'son of Krittika').&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-22T17:02:48.860" LastActivityDate="2014-10-22T17:02:48.860" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3505" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:46:23.020" Score="0" Body="Kartikeya, also known as Skanda, Murugan and Subramaniyan, is the Hindu god of war. He is the commander-in-chief of the army of the devas (gods) and the son of Shiva and Parvati." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-22T17:03:54.600" LastActivityDate="2014-10-22T17:03:54.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3506" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:50:02.393" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Guru Shukracharya was the son of Bhrigu Rishi and Ushana, also known as Usha, the daughter of Hiranya Kashyap. Shukracharya was the preceptor of the Asuras, the demons. Shukracharya had been to Maharshi Aangrish for education but came back on seeing his favoritism towards his son Brihaspati. He then went to study with Rishi Gautam. . Shukracharya was very proud of his knowledge and spiritual power and so he always hated Brihaspati, the guru of the devtas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shukracharya, the preceptor of the demons though hated the devtas (deities), the Saints and devtas respected him because of his knowledge, wisdom and power acquired by religious austerities. In the Indian tradition of knowledge also Shukracharya is remembered as a great scholar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a mention of Shukracharya in the incidences during the Narsinha incarnation of lord Vishnu. Hiranyakashyap tried many ways to kill his son Bhakt Prahlad, a devotee of lord Vishnu. Shukracharya, who was against Vishnu, helped Hiranyakashyap in this shameful act. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Ganga had asked Shukracharya not to indulge himself in this sinful act but Shukracharya did not stop from supporting the demons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, during the Vaman incarnation of lord Vishnu, when King Bali was donating the land to lord Vaman, Shukracharya shrunk himself with his powers and sat in the spout of the vase, from which water has to be poured to seal the promise to the deity in disguise. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahavishnu, in disguise of the Vaman, understood immediately, and picked a straw from the ground and directed it up the spout, poking out the left eye of Shukracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-22T17:03:37.063" LastActivityDate="2014-10-22T17:03:37.063" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3507" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:50:02.393" Score="0" Body="Sukracharya is the Guru of the Asuras (demons) and god of the planet Venus." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-21T11:21:42.837" LastActivityDate="2014-10-21T11:21:42.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3508" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:52:46.193" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;An ashram would traditionally, but not necessarily in contemporary times, be located far from human habitation, in forests or mountainous regions, amidst refreshing natural surroundings conducive to spiritual instruction and meditation. The residents of an ashram regularly performed spiritual and physical exercises, such as the various forms of yoga. Other sacrifices and penances, such as yajnas were also performed. Many ashrams also served as gurukuls or residential schools for children under the Guru-shishya tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashrams have been a powerful symbol throughout Hindu history and theology. Most Hindu kings, until the Middle Ages, are known to have had a sage who would advise the royal family in spiritual matters, or in times of crisis, who was called the rajguru, which literally translates to royal teacher. A world-weary emperor going to this guru's ashram, and finding solace and tranquility, is a recurring motif in many folktales and legends of ancient India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes, the goal of a pilgrimage to the ashram was not tranquility, but instruction in some art, especially warfare. In the Hindu epic Ramayana, the protagonist princes of ancient Ayodhya, Rama and Lakshmana, go to the Rishi Vishvamitra's ashram to protect his yajnas from being defiled by emissary-demons of Ravana. After they prove their mettle, the princes receive martial instruction from the sage, especially in the use of divine weapons, called divyastras (Sanskrit divya: divine + astra: missile weapon; the Sanskrit word astra means missile weapon, such as an arrow, as opposed to shastra, which means a hand-to-hand weapon, such as a mace.) In the Mahabharata, Lord Krishna, in his youth, goes to the ashram of Sage Sandipani, to gain knowledge of both intellectual and spiritual matters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-22T17:02:53.290" LastActivityDate="2014-10-22T17:02:53.290" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3509" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:52:46.193" Score="0" Body="Traditionally, an ashram (Sanskrit/Hindi: आश्रम) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery.Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Hindu cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, similar to a studio, yeshiva or dojo." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-23T04:56:17.760" LastActivityDate="2014-10-23T04:56:17.760" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3510" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:57:38.603" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Bhavishya Purana (Sanskrit: भविष्य पुराण Bhaviṣya Purāṇa) is one of the eighteen major Hindu Puranas. It is written in Sanskrit and attributed to Rishi Vyasa, the compiler of the Vedas. The title Bhavishya Purana signifies a work that contains prophecies regarding the future (Sanskrit: bhaviṣya). Despite being labelled a Purana, purāṇa meaning &quot;tales of ancient times&quot;, the work relates only a few legends. It is one of several Puranas in which a list of royal dynasties of the &quot;past&quot; are followed by lists of kings predicted to rule in the future. The Padma Purana categorizes Bhavishya Purana as a Rajas Purana (Purana which represents passion). The text as it exists today is a composite of material ranging from very old to very recent. Portions of the extant text are drawn from the law book of Manu, including the account of Creation which it contains. The Bhavishya Purana is classified as one of the ten Shaiva puranas in the classification system used in the Śivarahasya-khaṇḍa of the Śaṅkara Saṃhitā. In the traditional system of classification according to the three gunas given in the Padma Purana, it is classified in the rajas category, which contains Puranas whose central deity is Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="849" LastEditDate="2014-10-22T17:02:56.283" LastActivityDate="2014-10-22T17:02:56.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3511" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-20T17:57:38.603" Score="0" Body="The Bhavishya Purana is one of the eighteen major Hindu Puranas, dealing specifically with the future." OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-21T11:13:12.393" LastActivityDate="2014-10-21T11:13:12.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3512" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3412" CreationDate="2014-10-21T04:52:30.877" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Perhaps The Goddess Shiva is portrayed topless because the human artists that depicted the images lived in a time where it was the norm in their societies. Early artists and writers- priests, would have had only stories and legends and scientific knowledges about these gods and goddesses and thus to portray an image of a god is to make the image what people will believe, understand and will make them unified and together in thought. It is only a psychological phenomena that many humans create for the enjoyment of others. And artists know that our gods should look like us in our art for the sake of speaking the same language. We are all together, spread out, and together!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="860" LastActivityDate="2014-10-21T04:52:30.877" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3516" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="909" CreationDate="2014-10-22T07:54:29.880" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where is the proof that Ayyappa is son of Hari- Hara or for that matter Hari or Hara or even  whether he is an incarnation of siva or vishnu or dattatreya? These are mere folk lores which have no basis in any Vedas, ithihasa, 18 main puranas or upa puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For your kind information, there is no mention or reference of Ayyappa by any of the Acharyas before 16&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century even by any renowned saiva or sakta acharyas forget about vaishnava acharyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My intention is not to offend any one, but where is the proof from the valid hindu scriptures. There are none which indicate even remotely the Ayyappa story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayyappa cult or story is more of a modern origin which has absolutely no valid proof in any Vedas, ithihasa, 18 main puranas or upa puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-22T11:12:33.077" LastActivityDate="2014-10-22T11:12:33.077" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3518" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5455" CreationDate="2014-10-22T12:15:21.817" Score="10" ViewCount="14692" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sahadeva&amp;amp;oldid=647093914&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;On Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;, it is given that Pandu asks his sons to eat his flesh and only Sahadeva does so because of which he gains ability to see the future but Krishna asks him not to reveal anything to anyone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard other stories for the same but with minor variations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is this real? Are there any references to this?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Eating human flesh and that too your own father's wouldn't be a sin?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: The section has been removed from wikipedia using this question as a reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sahadeva&amp;amp;oldid=647093914&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia Sahadeva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="23" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-09T01:33:19.587" LastActivityDate="2018-02-05T07:23:30.787" Title="Is Pandu's last wish, not to burn his body but eat it away, real?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|pandavas|sahadeva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3520" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3199" CreationDate="2014-10-22T13:24:35.187" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every south Indian girl is entitled to her precious pair of Marapachi&#xA;Bommais at the time of her marriage. Tradition dictates that the&#xA;bommais are brought out in display, every year, at the time of Navarathiri. The bride's parents present the bommais (dolls) to the bride and initiate the&#xA;yearly tradition of Navarathiri Gollu in her new home with her husband. These bommais come as couples dressed in their wedding attire, signifying the start of the bride's Gollu collection, which then grows over the years&#xA;with the addition of various clay dolls from the southern part of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marapachi bommais are special dolls from Tirupathi, the land of Lord&#xA;Venkateshwara. Some explain the word Marapachi as a special kind of&#xA;wood that has medicinal values and hence the name Marapachi Bommai - dolls made of marapachi. And like any age-old tradition, you can't help but&#xA;wonder, what is the significance of  Marapachi Bommais? Some believe that these dolls were presented to the bride and the groom at the time of marriage as toys for the couple. After all when two people, rather two children, get married at the age of ten what better gift than toys to keep them happy. So, it is reckoned that they were truly for enjoyment purposes to please the little couple.  My father brought yet another very interesting reason to my attention. He was told that these dolls dressed in their wedding attire helped in capturing the moment in the days where technology was clearly non-existent. In the absence of pictures, what better way to remember the way you looked when you were married !!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as for me today with technology at my fingertips, I still cherish&#xA;my marapachi couple more than any picture from my wedding album !!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="962" LastActivityDate="2014-10-22T13:24:35.187" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3523" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-23T01:37:55.947" Score="7" ViewCount="9872" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many greeting cards and wishes for Deepavali, I have seen people also wish a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dharwadkar.com/images/diwali&quot;&gt;Happy New Year&lt;/a&gt;.  The only New Year that I'm familiar with occurs around Holi in the springtime around March (Chaitra in the Vikram Samvat calendar).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali#New_Year_celebrations&quot;&gt;Looking on Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;, I see that a few regions celebrate their New Year on or around Deepavali (Marwari, Gujarati, and Nepali).  It seems that in aggregate, these groups would be a small percentage of the people both India-wide and worldwide that celebrate Deepavali, yet it is striking to me that the New Year wishes come from people I know who are not a part of any of these groups.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.diwalifestival.org/diwali-new-year.html&quot;&gt;Looking at other websites&lt;/a&gt;, I have found the claim:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Diwali or Deepawali, is not only festival of lights, but also marks&#xA;  the beginning of the Hindu new year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this referring the the 3 New Years celebrations from the Wikipedia article or other New Years celebrations?  How widespread is the acceptance that Deepavali is the beginning of the/a new year?  If Deepavali is the new year, what about the new year around Holi (in the springtime around March)?  Are these two New Years possible because they are from multiple calendars, or are they both within the same calendar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any clarifications on how this is so widespread are welcome answers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Happy Deepavali&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="267" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-23T05:31:19.340" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T08:15:02.720" Title="Is Deepavali a new year's celebration?" Tags="|festivals|customs|calendar|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3524" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3295" CreationDate="2014-10-23T04:50:27.903" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a good question because we all wonder it from time to time. How can Shri Krishna leave Vrindavan and His most beloved Radha and never meet Her again! Was this because He was a cheat (&lt;em&gt;chaliya&lt;/em&gt;)? No, it's not. The reason is something different. Even in the scripture (Brahmavaivarta Purana), the same question has been asked:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kathaṃ jagāma mathurāṃ tyaktvā vṛndāvanaṃ vanam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kathaṃ tatyāja gopīśca rādhāṃ prāṇādhikāṃ priyām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yaśodāṃ bāndhavādīṃśca nandaṃ va nandanandanaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 4.55.15,16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Why did He go to Mathura leaving Vrindavan? Why did He leave the gopis and Radharani who is dear to Him more than His life? And why did He leave Yasoda, Nanda, His kinsmen and His friends?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason is due to the effect of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/393/38&quot;&gt;a curse that Sridama had given to Radharani&lt;/a&gt;. As per that curse &lt;strong&gt;Radharani had to experience one hundred years of separation from Her beloved Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;. God never lets any form of ego or pride (&lt;em&gt;ahmakar&lt;/em&gt;) stay in His devotees. Then how could He have let any ego stay in the mind of Shri Radha, His most beloved, that She was the most special of all?:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;darpahā darpadaḥ so'pi sarveṣāṃ sarvadaḥ sadā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  babhañja rādhādarpaṃ ca sudāmnaḥ śāpakāraṇāt&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  prāṇādhikāyā rādhāyā anyeṣāmapi kā kathā&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 4.55.15,16,24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   He is the eternal extinguisher of pride of everyone and He broke the pride of Radha through the curse of Sudama. When He broke the pride of Radha, who is dear to Him more than His life, what to say about others?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in course of events, Shri Radharani got the curse and got separated from Him for hundred years as Shri Krishna left Vrindavan to never return. However, nobody can say the particular reason why Krishna did what He did. He is the Lord of all and who can know His reasons when even Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva fail to do so? So the scripture says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;durjñeyaṃ tadabhiprāyaṃ ko vā jānāti putraka&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yatprabhāvaṃ na jānanti brahmaviṣṇumaheśvarāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kathaṃ jānāmi tacceṣṭāmahaṃ vatsa sumandadhīḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 4.55.14,15]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   His intentions are difficult to know. Who knows it son, when whose powers are even unknown to Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesvara! So how can son a dull-witted like me know His intentions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, when hundreds of years were over the effect of the curse was gone. So Shri Krishna meets Radharani again at a religious place where the residents of Vraj and the &lt;em&gt;yadavas&lt;/em&gt; had gathered to perform some worships. In the Mahabharat, it happens in a place named Prabhasa, in this &lt;em&gt;Purana&lt;/em&gt;  the place has been referred to as &lt;em&gt;Siddhashrama&lt;/em&gt;. Thereafter the worship, Parvati says to Shri Radha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;śrīdāmnaḥ śāpanirmuktā śatavarṣāntare sati&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kuruṣva madreṇādya kṛṣṇena saha saṃgamam&lt;/em&gt;  [BVP - 4.124.51]   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   O Sati, getting free from the curse of Sridama after hundred years today you unite with Shri Krishna happily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That night Shri Krishna after taking permission from His father goes to meet Radharani, mother Yasoda, Nanda &lt;em&gt;baba&lt;/em&gt; and other relatives:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ityuktā bhagavānkṛṣṇaḥ pitroranumatenaca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jagāma rādhikāsthānaṃ nandaśca gokulam tathā&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 4.126.7] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus saying Lord Krishna took the permission from His father and went to the place of Radha, Nanda and where the people of Gokula were.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shri Krishna actually met Radharani again after the hundred years of separation was over. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="12071" LastEditDate="2018-03-08T13:32:39.017" LastActivityDate="2018-03-08T13:32:39.017" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3525" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-23T18:44:15.380" Score="1" ViewCount="50" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know, is it in some way possible that a couple can have 100 sons ? I am trying to focus more on it's scientific reason. If a marriage of a girl occurs say at 10 years of age, and let's say after every 9 months, she delivers a baby. Then it should take approx 900 months to give birth to 100 babies. That is around 75 years. Which is about 10+75 = 85 .  So, what actually happened?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="966" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-24T06:03:06.257" LastActivityDate="2014-10-24T06:03:06.257" Title="How much logical it seems when it's stated that in Mahabharata, queen Gandhari had 100 sons?" Tags="|mahabharata|gandhari|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-10-24T10:16:49.757" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3526" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-23T19:29:27.080" Score="1" ViewCount="87" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is their any explanation on how chakravyuha was created? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What were the rules of fighting in chakravyuha? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What exactly it was and purpose? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Were there any similar types of war structures that existed?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="966" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-24T06:05:10.713" LastActivityDate="2014-10-24T06:05:10.713" Title="What were the rules of fighting in &quot;Chakravyuha&quot;?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-10-25T18:38:40.327" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3527" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-24T02:13:30.277" Score="6" ViewCount="5310" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, Vaishampayana describes to Janamejeya the lineage of the gods, Asuras, and other beings, and in particular he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; about Sukracharya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The learned Sukra is Bhrigu's son. And the learned Sukra becoming a planet and engaged according to the command of the Self-existent in pouring and withholding rain, and in dispensing and remitting calamities, traverses, for sustaining the lives of all the creatures in the three worlds, through the skies. And the learned Sukra, of great intelligence and wisdom, of rigid vows, leading the life of a Brahmacharin, &lt;strong&gt;divided himself in twain [two] by power of asceticism, and became the spiritual guide of both the Daityas [Asuras] and the gods&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sukracharya is the guru of the Asuras and god of the planet Venus.  But my question is, why does Vaishampayana say that Sukracharya &quot;divided himself in [two]&quot; and became the guru &quot;of both the [Asuras] and the gods&quot;?  Isn't Brihaspati the guru of the gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This isn't the only indication that Sukracharya was on the side of the gods at some point. Multiple verses of the Vedas seem to indicate that Sukracharya was involved in the creation of Indra's Vajra or lightning-bolt weapon; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01051.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Rig Veda Book 1 Hymn 51 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The might which Uśanā [Sukracharya] hath formed for thee with might rends in its greatness and with strength both worlds apart....  When Indra hath rejoiced with Kāvya Uśanā [Sukracharya], he mounts his steeds who swerve wider and wider yet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01121.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Rig Veda Book 1 Hymn 121 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mount Indra, lover of the men thou guardest, the well-yoked horses of the wind, best bearers.&#xA;  The bolt which Kāvya Uśanā [Sukracharya] erst gave thee, strong, gladdening, Vṛtra-slaying, hath he fashioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So did Sukracharya ever serve as guru of the gods?  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2623/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, there was an occasion when Tvashta's son  Trisiras temporarily served as guru of the gods because Brihaspati had abandoned them.  But are there any other scriptures which say that Sukracharya played a similar role?  And what's the story of him splitting in two?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-07-06T04:59:52.753" Title="Was Sukracharya ever the guru of the gods?" Tags="|vedas|mahabharata|asuras|shukracharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3530" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-24T07:28:34.590" Score="19" ViewCount="17924" Body="&lt;p&gt;What was the mode of communication among the people at the time of Ramayana and Mahabharata? Was it Sanskrit?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Krishna, Pandavas and Kauravas (who I think had origins near the state of Bihar, where Maithili, Magahi, Angika, Bhojpuri are popular) also spoke Sanskrit?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="966" LastEditorUserId="3881" LastEditDate="2021-08-27T11:29:37.540" LastActivityDate="2021-08-27T11:29:37.540" Title="What language did people at the time of Ramayana and Mahabharata use to communicate? Sanskrit?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|gods|sanskrit|language|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3531" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-24T07:35:15.927" Score="8" ViewCount="4588" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why did Sanskrit decline in India ? What were the various reasons known, for the decline of this language ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="966" LastActivityDate="2014-10-25T13:57:05.453" Title="What were the various reasons of the decline of Sanskrit language in India ?" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-10-25T18:39:58.780" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3532" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2574" CreationDate="2014-10-24T08:07:52.910" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please read the Mahabharata carefully. Also, the puranas Srimad bhagavatham, Varaha Purana, Padma purana, Garuda Purana, Matsya Purana etc....In all these puranas there upmteen number of instances where Shiva Worshipped Vishnu or Krishna or Rama as the Supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata clearly says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mahAdevaH sarvamedhe mahAtmA hutvA AtmAnaM devadevo babhUva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This clearly indicates that Rudra Performed Sarvamedha yagna and prayed to Lord Vishnu to become Mahadeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata sAnti parva, Arjuna asks Krishna the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna &amp;mdash;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While felling the enemies with arrows in the battlefield, I find a&#xA;  Person standing ahead of me. He is brilliant like Agni, with a Trisula&#xA;  in the hand. In whichever direction he goes, my enemies in that&#xA;  direction are burnt and killed by him. I follow him and attack the&#xA;  same persons, who have already been attacked by him. Onlookers are&#xA;  unaware of this truth and think that my enemies have indeed been&#xA;  attacked and felled by me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To this, Krishna replies,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna &amp;mdash;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Under my protection, you have won a great victory in Battle. Know, O&#xA;  Son of Kunti, that he whom you saw going before you in battle was none&#xA;  other than Rudra also known as Devadeva and Kapardin. They say he is&#xA;  Kala (time or reckoner of death for souls), &lt;strong&gt;Born of my Wrath&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  Those foes you have slain were, in fact slain by him. Hence adore with&#xA;  a controlled mind, that Umapati, Devadeva, of immeasurable greatness,&#xA;  Maheswara, the Changeless (in yoga).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note the bolded words, “Born of my Wrath”. This shows again, as in many, many quotes, that Siva was born of nArAyaNa. Now, in all honesty, no one will deny the greatness Krishna ascribes to Siva. He is changeless in yoga, he is a great deva, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, it confirmed with the above stements that Rudra/Shiva's was born out of Vishnu's wrath. Please check the Santi parva of the Mahabharata for these quotes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma-Rudra dialogue in the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And again, in the Shanti Parva, we have the following incident where Brahma declares Siva is his son, and Siva again addressed Brahma as his father:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atrApy udAharantImam itihAsaM purAtanam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brahmaNA saha saMvAdaM tryambakasya vizAM pate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“In this connection is cited the old narrative of the discourse between Brahma, O king, and the Three-eyed Mahadeva.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(skipping a few verses that describe the Ocean of Milk and the mountain on which Brahma resides)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atha tatrAsatas tasya caturvaktrasya dhImataH&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  lalATaprabhavaH putraH ziva AgAd yadRcchayA&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  AkAzenaiva yogIzaH purA trinayanaH prabhuH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“While the four-faced Brahma of great intelligence was seated there, his son Siva, who had sprung from his forehead encountered him one day in course of his wanderings through the universe. In days of yore, the Three-eyed Siva endued with puissance and high Yoga, while proceeding along the sky, beheld Brahma seated on that mountain”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tataH khAn nipapAtAzu dharaNIdharamUrdhani&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  agrataz cAbhavat prIto vavande cApi pAdayoH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Therefore, he (Siva) dropped down quickly on its top. With a cheerful heart he presented himself (to Brahma) and worshipped at his (Brahma’s) feet.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;taM pAdayor nipatitaM dRSTvA savyena pANinA&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  utthApayAmAsa tadA prabhur ekaH prajApatiH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Beholding Mahadeva prostrated at his feet, Brahma took him up with his hand. Brahma, that puissant and one Lord of all creatures thus raised Mahadeva up, ”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;uvAca cainaM bhagavAMz cirasyAgatam Atmajam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  svAgataM te mahAbAho diSTyA prApto 'si me 'ntikam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kaccit te kuzalaM putra svAdhyAyatapasoH sadA&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nityam ugratapAs tvaM hi tataH pRcchAmi te punaH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“The Grandsire said, 'Welcome art thou, O thou of mighty arms. By good luck I see thee after such a long time come to my presence. I hope, O son, that everything is right with thy penances and thy Vedic studies and recitations. Thou art always observant of the austerest penances. Hence I ask thee about the progress and well-being of those penances of thine!”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, Rudra replies as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tvatprasAdena bhagavan svAdhyAyatapasor mama&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kuzalaM cAvyayaM caiva sarvasya jagatas tathA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudra said, 'O illustrious one, through thy grace, all is well with my penances and Vedic studies. It is all right, again, with the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Then Brahma explains to Rudra the meaning of ‘Purusha’. We find here two invaluable shlokas that show the supremacy of Sriman Narayana):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahmovAca&#xA;  zRNu putra yathA hy eSa puruSaH zAzvato 'vyayaH&#xA;  akSayaz cAprameyaz ca sarvagaz ca nirucyate&#xA;  na sa zakyas tvayA draSTuM mayAnyair vApi sattama&#xA;  saguNo nirguNo vizvo jJAnadRzyo hy asau smRtaH&#xA;  azarIraH zarIreSu sarveSu nivasaty asau&#xA;  vasann api zarIreSu na sa lipyati karmabhiH&#xA;  mamAntarAtmA tava ca ye cAnye dehasaMjJitAH&#xA;  sarveSAM sAkSibhUto 'sau na grAhyaH kena cit kva cit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Listen, O son, as to how that Purusha is indicated. He is eternal and immutable. He is undeteriorating and immeasurable. He pervades all things. O best of all creatures, that Purusha cannot be seen by thee, or me, or others. Those that are endued with the understanding and the senses but destitute of self-restraint and tranquility of soul cannot obtain a sight of him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Purusha is said to be one that can be seen with the aid of knowledge alone. Though divested of body, He dwells in every body. Though dwelling, again, in bodies, He is never touched by the acts accomplished by those bodies. He is my Antaratma (inner soul). He is thy inner soul. He is the all-seeing Witness dwelling within all embodied creatures and engaged in marking their acts. No one can grasp or comprehend him at any time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last two lines have been quoted by Sri Adi Shankara in Brahma Sutra Bhashya (2.1.1) showing that this section.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudra does not act without the approval of nArAyaNa, the supreme&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this, Brahma declares to Rudra who exactly this Purusha is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tatra yaH paramAtmA hi sa nityaM nirguNaH smRtaH&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sa hi nArAyaNo jJeyaH sarvAtmA puruSo hi saH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'The truth is that He who is the Supreme Soul is always devoid of Rajas and Tamas (nirguNa). He is nArAyaNa. He is the universal soul, and he is the one Purusha.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mahAbHArata contains the story of how 5 Indras were cursed by Shiva to be born as the 5 pAndavas. Shiva then, takes these Indras to nArAyaNa and asks approval for his actions as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;“Accompanied by all those Indras, the god Isana then went unto Narayana of immeasurable energy, the Infinite, the Immaterial, the Uncreate, the Old, the Eternal, and the Spirit of these universes without limits. Narayana approved of everything. Those Indras then were born in the world of men. And Hari (Narayana) took up two hairs from his body, one of which hairs was black and the other white. And those two hairs entered the wombs of two of the Yadu race, by name Devaki and Rohini.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note how nArAyaNa is described here as the supreme in relation to Rudra and Indra, whereas Isana (Rudra) does not enjoy such adjectives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The link for that incident is here. Readers can check the Sanskrit verses:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01200.htm&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01200.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;the mahAbhArata says that Siva came to BadarikAshramam and was engaged in a fierce fight with nara-nArAyaNa, which culminated in nArAyaNa strangling Rudra’s throat till it became black. Then, Brahma appeared and chastised Siva and told him to worship the sages Nara-nArAyaNa, who were avatArAs of the supreme brahman, Lord nArAyaNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vAlmiki rAmAyaNa does not contain a single instance of rAmA worshipping shiva. Rather, the following two statements are found:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;HanumAn tells rAvana thus: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahmaa vaa svayambhuuH chaturaananaH rudraa vaa triNetraH tripuraantakaHmahendraH vaa indraH suranaayakah na shaktaaH traatum raamavadhyamyudhi (~sundara khAnda – 51.45) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neither Brahma the self-existing god with four faces or Rudra with three eyes and the destroyer of Tripura or Mahendra the god of atmosphere and sky as also the lord of celestials would not be able to protect the one to be killed by Rama in battle.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Shanti Parva (12.328.5 onwards, dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brAhme rAtrikShaye prApte tasya hy amitatejasaH prasAdAtprAdurabhavatpadmaM padmanibhekShaNa tatra brahmA samabhavatsa tasyaiva prasAdajaH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the brahma muhurta, at the end of the night, due to the mercy of the extremely brilliant Lord, a lotus emerged from His navel and in that lotus, Brahma was born, ofcourse, due to His grace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ahnaH kShaye lalAtAchcha suto devasya vai tathA krodhAviShTasya sa~njaGYe rudraH saMhAra kArakaH etau dvau vibudhashreShThau prasAdakrodhajau smR^itau&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the day, the Lord [present as antaryAmi of Brahma *] created Rudra out of krodha-guna, to enable him to be the 'samhara-karta'. Thus, these two 'fine-among-wise', Brahma and Rudra, are known to have been born out of grace and anger respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tadAdeshita panthAnau sR^iShTi saMhAra kArakau nimittamAtraM tAvatra sarvaprAni varapradau&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, they carry out the instructed tasks of creation and destruction. However, they, the givers of boons to all the creatures, are just the agents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nArAyaNAtmako GYeyaH pANDaveya yuge yuge&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Arjuna, know that in every yuga, Rudra is 'nArAyaNAtmaka'. (This phrase can mean: one whose indweller is Narayana, one who is always immersed in Narayana.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasmin hi pUjyamAne vai devadeve maheshvare sampUjito bhavetpArtha devo nArAyaNaH prabhuH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the Lord, the prabhu, the Narayana &lt;em&gt;IN&lt;/em&gt; Maheshvara (the worshipable, the lord of the devas), who is actually worshiped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ahamAtmA hi lokAnAM vishvAnAM pANDunandana tasmAdAtmAnamevAgre rudraM sampUjayAmyaham yadyahaM nArchayeyaM vai IshAnaM varadaM shivam AtmAnaM nArchayetkashchiditi me bhAvitaM manaH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O son of Pandu, I am, indeed, the Atma, the indweller of this universe and the worlds. Therefore, I worship myself first, even when I worship Rudra. If I did not worship Rudra, the bestower of boons, in such a way (i.e., worshiping the indwelling Lord first), some would not worship Me, the indwelling Lord, at all - this is my opinion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mayA pramANaM hi kR^itaM lokaH samanuvartate pramAnAni hi pUjyAni tatastaM pUjayAmyaham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever I follow and give due worth as a pramaNa, the world follows that. Such pramanas have to be duly followed; therefore I follow them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yastaM vetti sa mAM vetti yo.anu taM sa hi mAm anu rudro nArAyaNashchaiva sattvamekaM dvidhAkR^itam loke charati kaunteya vyakti sthaM sarvakarmasu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whoever knows him, knows Me. Whoever follows him, follows Me. (Though) the world, in all its actions, worships two gods, Rudra and Narayana, it is actually one only who is worshiped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na hi me kenachid deyo varaH pANDavanandana iti sa~ncintya manasA purANaM vishvamIshvaram putrArthaM ArAdhitavAn AtmAnaM aham AtmanA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Son of Pandu, there is, of course, nobody who can grant Me boons. Knowing that well, I worhip Myself, Who am the beginningless and universal power, known as Sarveshvara, for the sake of getting sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na hi viShNuH pranamati kasmai chidvibudhAya tu R^ita AtmAnameveti tato rudraM bhajAmyaham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed Vishnu does not bow to any one and [even when He bows to Himself], for what sake, but for the sake of showing the path to the wise. Therefore, it is the truth that I worship myself even when I worship Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;With offerings I propitiate the branches of this swift-moving God, the bounteous Visnu. Hence Rudra gained his Rudra-strength: O Asvins, ye sought the house that hath celestial viands.&quot; (Rig Veda 7.40.5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the Banasura episode from Padma Purana - Uttarakhanda chapter 250 (Verses 21 onwards)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Verse 39 to 45)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having vanquished the three eyed god, Krishna blew his conch. Bana began to attack Krishna. Krishna employed sudarshana chakra which cut off the multiple arms of Bana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parvati the consort of Siva rushed with folded hands and started praying to Krishna as follows: (Verses 46 to 49)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Krishna, Narayana, Ocean of compassion, best of yadus, lord of gods, I (parvati) was your female servant previously and at that time you gave me a boon that I would be having the perpetual companionship of my husband living. All sages declared that I was blessed by you by taking one principle name of your thousand names. Govinda, Lord who rides Garuda, therefore please make that boon come true. Please give life to my husband, Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rudra said: (Verses 50 to 51)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Pleased with the prayer of Parvati, the lotus eyed lord Krishna withdrew the weapon which threw Siva into unconsciousness… Having freed by Krishna from the effects of the weapon, Siva woke up and joined his palms and started praying the Lord of worlds (Krishna)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Following this Siva worships and prays to Lord Vishnu/Krishna (Verses 52 onwards till the end of the chapter 250 of the Padma Purana, Uttara Khanda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;      &lt;p&gt;Please refer to the link &lt;a href=&quot;http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/puranas/padma_purana_6uttara.pdf&quot;&gt;http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/puranas/padma_purana_6uttara.pdf&lt;/a&gt; for original sanskrit text, chapter 250 for more details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, please refer to Bramhavaivarta Purana, Siva and Parvati worship to Lord Vishnu/Krishna to get a son. Lord Vishnu having been pleased by the prayers of Siva and Parvati grants them a boon that a valiant son will be born to them. This son is Ganesha/Vinayaka. Please read the original text for more information.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more such statements from scriptures where Siva and Parvati worshipped Lord Vishnu umpteen number of times. So questions and statements like Shiva never worshipped Vishnu are invalid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now, let us look at a few more verses from Padma Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva prays to vishNu thus in the padma purAna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;anyadevaM varaM dehi prasiddhaM sarvajantuShu |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;martyo bhUtvA bhavAneva mama sAdhaya keshava ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;mAM bhajasva cha devesha varaM matto gR^ihANa cha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;yenA.ahaM sarvabhUtAnAM pUjyAtpUjyataro.abhavam.h ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;      &lt;p&gt;Meaning : &quot;Please give me this boon. By incarnating on Earth, Oh Lord Kesava, worship me and get boons from me. From this, I will become worship-worthy to all the beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu grants this boon to Siva and says that he will make Rudra be known as  (bestower of boons) by worshipping Rudra in his avatArAs (in succeeding verses in Padma Purana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Similarly, the kurma purana and the Varaha Purana also mentions that Siva worshipped Vishnu and got a boon that Lord Vishnu will worship Rudra/Siva. Lord Vishnu grants this boon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is very clear that siva and parvati both had prayed to vishnu, many times. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I hope this clarifies why Lord Vishnu is the Supreme and not Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please don't watch some programs on TV or cartoons or movies and make your mind...Please go through the actual scriptures also and do due diligence before making wild claims.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following are the conclusions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva always worships Lord Vishnu. Vishnu alone is abode of Sattva guna and Siva is abode of Tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-Matsya Purana (See line 68 in page 216 in the link provided) . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sāttvikeṣu purāṇeṣu māhātmyamadhikaṃ hareḥ /&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rājaseṣu ca māhātmyam adhikaṃ brahmaṇo viduḥ // MatsP_53.68 //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tadvadagneśca māhātmyaṃ tāmaseṣu śivasya ca /&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Link : is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/puranas/matsya_purana.pdf&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This in turn means that only Vishnu is abode Sattva or All sattvik puranas glorify Lord Vishnu and Siva puranas are Tamasic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Bhanavad Gita, Arjuna himself calls Lord krishna as Vishnu in Vishwaroopa darshana chapter 11 and asks him to show his pleasant Chaturbhuja form..So, when you say that krishna never said he is supreme you are incorrect,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us consider the following verse, “brahmanam isam kamalasana-stham” from the vishwaroopa darshana chapter 11 verse 15.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the interpretations of the 3 acharyas from their respective Gita Bhasyas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankaracharya – “I see Brahma, the Lord of all Creatures (Isham), seated on the lotus”. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya - “I see Brahma and Siva who abides by the directions of the lotus seated Brahma”. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhvacharya – “I see Brahma and Siva who is seated in the lap of the lotus seated Brahma”. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, all the acharyas have clearly indicated all deities are there inside Lord Krishna including Bramha and Siva. Please read carefully, Lord Vishnu is not there or not mentioned to be within the Vishwaroopam form because, Lord Vishnu is Krishna. So, everything and anything abides in Lord Vishnu/Narayana/Krishna. So Lord Vishnu/Narayana/Krishna is the Supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lets look at a few more verses (this list is not exhaustive. read the BG for more verses)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 9, verse 11:avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mama bhūta-maheśvaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Clearly Krishna is saying that he is Supreme Lord (Sarva bhuta Maheshwaram) There are many such instances in Bhagavad Gita where Krishna Clearly indicates that he is the supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 11 Verse 24 : Arjuna pleads with Krishna and addresses him as Vishnu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 11 Verse 46 : Arjuna is requesting for the pleasant Chaturbhujha form&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 15 Verse 15: Lord Krishna says that he is the one to be known by the Vedas; i.e. the goal of the vedas, not Omkar or Bramha or Siva or any other deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 15 Verse 16,17, 18 – Lord Krishna clearly brings out he is beyond the perishable (Kshara) and imperishable (Akshara - Atma). He clearly brings out that he is the Ultimate Supreme Lord (Purushottama) beyond both Kshara and Akshara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more verses in the previous chapters where Krishna clearly brings out that he is the ultimate Supreme Goal. He is the Father, grandfather, mother, He is &quot;Aum&quot; in the vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 9 , Verse 17:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Pitahamaha sya jagato mata dhata pitamaha !&#xA;  Vedyam pavitra omkara rik sama yajur eva cha!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna is saying he is the omkara among the vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Lord Krishna/Vishnu is the SUPREME.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, to the grand episode of Shiva consuming Halahala for which many shaivas and shaktas, blow their false trumphets (i am just providing only information from Padma Purana. There are many more puranas like Garuda, Brahmanda where it exactly concurs with Padma purana) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana, Uttara Khanda , Section 6; Chapter 232,&lt;/strong&gt; Shiva says the following regarding the churning of the ocean and halahala or poison episode:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Then at that time when the great ocean was being churned, at first there came up the very strong Kalakuta poison which was very painful, very fierce, and which was like the fire of universal&#xA;    destruction. [&lt;em&gt;Verses 7-10&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Seeing (it), all gods and demons, being frightened,fled away. O you of beautiful eyes, then seeing the best gods frightened and fleeing away, I (Shiva) said to them: &quot;O you all hosts of gods, do not be afraid of the poison. I shall drink this strongpoison, Kalakuta.&quot; Thus addressed by me, all the gods, led by Indra and bowing, very much praised me with the words 'Well, Well'. On seeing the strong poison, like a cloud, having come up I (Shiva) meditated in my heart upon the eagle-bannered god Visnu, resembling the rising sun and holding a conch, a disc, and a mace.[&lt;em&gt;Verses 11-15&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Having meditated (i.e. when Shiva meditated) with a concentrated mind upon that lord along with Sri and Bhumi, having earrings of gold purified by fire, remover of all miseries, and on my having muttered the great hymn of the name and form (of Visnu) along with MahalaksmI, all that poison, which was very fierce, which was the first one, which was fearful to all, which was (capable of)  destroying all the worlds, was digested (by me i.e Shiva) due to the three names of Visnu, the omnipresent one. He who,being restrained, would devoutly mutter the three names of Visnu, viz. Acyuta, Ananta, Govinda, beginning with Pranava (i.e. Om) and (also) ending with Om, has no fear of death, so also the great fear due to poison, disease and fire. The wise, restrained one, who would mutter the great hymn—the three names—does not have fear of Death; then from where else (can he have it)? Thus with (the muttering of) the three names I (Shiva) drank that poison. [&lt;em&gt;Verses 16-21&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This shatters the myth behind the Halahala episode portraying the greatness of Shiva.  Shiva literally prayed and worshipped Lord Vishnu before consuming the poison because of which Shiva was able to control the poison.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unlike other Puranas, Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana, Vishnu purana, Padma Purana have not been plagiarised or interpolated to extent the other texts are. So how ever hard one can try their best by saying advaitha, nirguna bramhan, Bramha, Siva etc., but the principle outcome is Lord Vishnu/Narayana/Krishna alone is SUPREME, even according to the great Advaitha acharya Adi Shankara himself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read Shankara's Gita Bhasya and also for that matter his bhasyas on upanishads for more information.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All Vedas, ithihasa, puranas etc clearly indicate that Vishnu alone is abode of Sattva and Shiva is tamas...Shiva got the name Shiva i.e.auspicious and became great after bearing the Ganga on his head which has its origination in the foot of Lord Vishnu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vamana episode in Padma Purana, uttara khanda, section 6, Chapter 240&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;I (Shiva )held her (Ganga) on my head to purify myself. Having held (ganga on my head) the auspicious water of Ganga for a thousand divine years, I obtained bliss,and am adored in all worlds [&lt;em&gt;Verses 39-48&lt;/em&gt;]. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shiva further says&lt;/em&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;There is no doubt that he who would carry on his head the water of Ganga rising from Visnu's foot, or would drink it, would be respected by the world...[&lt;em&gt;Verse 49 onwards&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please read the puranas. Majority of the 18 puranas, ithihasa, Vedas Unequivocally uphold that Vishnu alone is Sattva and Siva is Tamas. This is not to deride anyone. But this is what is given in the scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All genuine scriptures and genuine acharyas, including Veda Vyasa and Adi Shankara also declare that &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Na daivam Keshavatparam&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (&lt;strong&gt;There is no Lord either superior or equal to Keshava&lt;/strong&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2015-06-08T23:29:19.297" LastActivityDate="2015-06-08T23:29:19.297" CommentCount="42" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3536" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="880" CreationDate="2014-10-24T10:14:41.263" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The back of the Cow is considered the most auspicious because, as per scriptures Goddess Lakshmi resides there. This is corroborated by Mahabharata also. That is the reason cow dung, urine is also considered very auspicious, not because of other stories. That is reason in all the temples in south India, when the temple doors are open early in the morning, Cow is made to enter with back facing the deity. This is because it is auspicious as Mother goddess Lakshmi resides there and sanctifies all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Goddess Lakshmi, the consort of Lord Vishnu is auspiciousness of all that is auspicious (She is the ulimate Shiva (auspiciousness)) That is why, in many temples, people praise the tail/back of a cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-24T11:17:26.203" LastActivityDate="2014-10-24T11:17:26.203" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3537" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3531" CreationDate="2014-10-24T14:24:08.170" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit's decline started from around the 11th century when vast parts of India came under Islamic rule. Persian and Arabic influenced Urdu became gradually language of governance after the establishment of Islamic rule. I have seen treaties between the British and the Indian rulers in the Victoria Memorial in English, Persian and Urdu.Then during British rule Sanskrit study (and Persian and Urdu) was basically proscribed and the study of English gained in importance. The reason given for the suppression of Sanskrit as a link language was that using such a language would encourage vile superstition while the English language as a link language was an incomparably better vehicle of progressive and scientific thought. After independence the nationalists acted further against Sanskrit by removing it as a compulsory subject. The Nehru government also stopped supporting traditional Hindu schools which also caused further damage to the study of Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit was still used by some even as late as the 17th century. Some of the output of the Kerala school of astronomy and Mathematics (14th to 16th century) was in Sanskrit.&#xA;The famous scholar Vijnanavikshu (probably around 16th century) also wrote his original works in Sanskrit. The famous 'Sarva Darsana Samgraha' by Madhavacharya written around 14th century was in Sanskrit. Vivekananda and Abhedananda wrote some of their works in Sanskrit in the late 19th and early 20th century. Nevertheless Sanskrit in its role as a link language was finished due to lack of political support. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2014-10-24T16:45:09.193" LastActivityDate="2014-10-24T16:45:09.193" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3538" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3445" CreationDate="2014-10-24T23:02:37.167" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some of the perspectives shared look very complicated and hard for a common man to understand. &#xA;My personal thought that God is the underlying principle of nature and life. God is seen as the creator, the protector and the destroyer. God is more of a concept mentioned as tatva rather than a person or a personality. In modern times several great saints have been referred as God. It all depends on your understanding of God and how one feels about who is God. Someone who has saved a life is considered God which is actually an act of God. The concept of God is more relative in the context. For people who have seen the acts of the saint Shirdi Sai Baba and they believe in his miracles , he is God but for everyone he continues to be a man who has done wonders to everyone and the society. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="972" LastActivityDate="2014-10-24T23:02:37.167" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3539" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-24T23:27:56.673" Score="2" ViewCount="8638" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know whether I can perform Puja to Lord Shiva during menstruation period of my sister in my home?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think, she cannot perform Puja but what about myself being a male member in her family?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-25T02:54:31.860" LastActivityDate="2019-12-01T10:45:20.237" Title="Can I perform Puja in home during menstruation of anyone in my home?" Tags="|shiva|women|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-01-15T22:43:37.037" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3540" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-25T06:30:41.357" Score="6" ViewCount="168" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it also practiced in new house opening ceremony? What does this act signify? Isn't it dosha towards Annapurna? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-11-14T05:25:27.130" LastActivityDate="2015-05-01T01:46:43.557" Title="What is the Importance of bride kicking grain bowl while entering in-laws house?" Tags="|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3541" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3531" CreationDate="2014-10-25T13:57:05.453" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit is not a dead language in the Western concept of a dead language. Sanskrit has not been a common spoken language for thousands of years. Even at the time of Buddha in 500 B.C., Sanskrit was no longer a common spoken language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, the Vedas are in Sanskrit. The Vedas have survived as the world's oldest scriptures without any altercations for thousands and thousands of years because they have been handed down in the original Sanskrit. The Vedas were revealed to man in Sanskrit. Many important commentaries on the scriptures have been and continue to be written in Sanskrit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said that all the people of India could be raised spiritually and culturally by the study of Sanskrit and actively encouraged the study of Sanskrit by everyone. Brahmin pundits and scholarly Sadhus are still proficient in both written and spoken Sanskrit. I have met Sadhus whose commentaries on the scriptures are still done in Sanskrit. There are Sanskrit libraries of old commentaries that are still kept and studied in different maths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many orders of Sadhus require the study and knowledge of Sanskrit before sannyas is given.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-10-25T13:57:05.453" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3546" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3432" CreationDate="2014-10-25T18:32:33.257" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes Vishnu had taken the form of a mighty bull to save the  Shiva along with Bramha as charioteer, during the fight with Tripurasura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Shiva is about to engage in fighting tripurasura, the chariot he was riding fell down and Shiva was defeated and neither siva nor bramha were able to pull it up. Then looking at the despondency of the devathas, the Supreme Lord Vishnu took the bull form and lifted the chariot carrying both siva and bramha by the horns and made a mighty sound.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just by the sound of the Lord Vishnu in the Bull form the demons become terrified..This is incident which is mentioned in HariVamsa purana and Matsya purana..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are excerpts, Sanskrit version of Hari Vamsa purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tato madhye divyashabdaH prAdurAsInmahIpate |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  R^iShINAM brahmaputrANAM mahatAmapi bhArata ||3-133-62&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sa eSha sha~NkarasyAgre ratho bhUmiM pratiShThitaH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ajeyo jayyatAM prAptaH sarvalokasya pashyataH ||3-133-63 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;O king! As Shiva was thus fighting the tripurAsuras, a loud noise came from the sky. In front of Maharishis, who are sons of Brahma, and Shankara, the chariot fell to the ground. In this manner, Lord Shiva, who is known to be undefeatable, was defeated in front of the whole universe to see.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasminnipatite rAjanrathAnAM pravare rathe |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nipetuH sarvabhUtAni bhUtale vasudhAdhipa ||3-133-64&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vicheluH parvatAgrANi chelushchaiva mahAdrumAH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vichukShubhuH samudrAshcha na rejushcha disho dasha ||3-133-65 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Along with that best chariot of chariots, all the living entities fell down to the earth. Due to the impact of this fall, even great mountains and biggest of trees swayed; oceans got agitated; and there was no light in the horizons of any of the ten directions.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vR^iddhAshcha brAhmaNAstatra jepushcha paramaM japam |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yattadbrahmamayaM tejaH sarvatra vijayaiShiNAm ||3-133-66&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  shAntyarthaM sarvabhUtAnAmiha loke paratra cha |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  samAdhAyAtmanA.a.atmAnaM yogaprAptena hetunA ||3-133-67&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rathantareNa sAmnAtha brahmabhUtena bhArata |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tejasA jvalayanviShNostryakShasya cha mahAtmanaH ||3-133-68&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarveShAM chaiva devAnAM balinAM kAmarUpiNAm |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  R^iShINAM tapasA.a.aDhyAnAM vasatAM vijane vane ||3-133-69 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mature (in knowledge, conduct, austerity, and splendor) brAhmaNas, at this juncture, performed a great japa, directed towards tEjas, which is of the form of brahmam. They, wishing victory (for the Devas), and wishing tranquility for all beings in this world and the next, with their yogic prowess and in their minds, worshiped the Supreme. (As a result of such worship), they - the wishful Devas, and the Rishis who perform austerities in secluded forests - made the divine tEjas of Vishnu shine inside the powerful three-eyed lord.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atha viShNurmahAyogI sarvatodR^ishya tattvataH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vR^iSharUpaM samAsthAya projjahAra rathottamam||3-133-70&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  samAkrAntaM devagaNaiH samagrabalapauruShaiH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  balavAMstolayitvA tu viShANAbhyAM mahAbalaH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nanAda prANayogena mathyamAna ivArnavaH ||3-133-71&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tR^itIyaM vAyuviShayaM samAkramya viShANavAn |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nanAda balavAnnAdaM samudra iva parvaNi ||3-133-72&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tato nAdena vitrastA daiteyA yuddhadurmadAH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  punaste kR^itasannAhA yuyudhuH sumahAbalAH ||3-133-73&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Then, Lord Vishnu, whose form is transcendental (aprAkRta), unseen by anyone, assumed the form of a Bull. With that form, He lifted up that chariot, which is unequal in power, surrounded by hordes of Devas. He (Lord Vishnu) of magnificent prowess, bearing the chariot with his horns, controlling with His breath (prANayOga), made a sound as if to churn up the ocean. Just by the sound of the One with great potency, which sounded like the ocean during parva time (full moon?), the demons, who were (until then) ferocious by their desire for war, became very afraid.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;then, the description of Shiva destroying the Tripura with the arrows comes. At the end of this chapter, the following is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hate cha tripure devairvAcho harShAtkileritAH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarvA~njahIti shatrUMstvaM pravR^idhdAnpuruShottama ||3-133-82&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  viShNureva mahayogI yogena prasmayanniva |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  stUyate brahmasadR^ishairR^iShibhiH sha~NkareNa cha |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brahmaNA sahitairdevaiH saMpannabalapauruShaiH ||3-133-83&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the three cities were destroyed thus, the following words were spoken by the Devas, in their delight: &quot;Our dear Purushottama! May you destroy all the enemies who have become great (in might)!&quot;. Thus praised, Vishnu, who is mahAyOgI, and who is always smiling due to his Yoga, alone is (fit to be) worshipped by (i) Rishis who are comparable to Brahma, (ii) Shankara, and (iii) other Devas who are possessed of various powers, along with (iv) Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-Here are the reference from Mahabharata Karna Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In consequence, however, of the pressure caused by the weight of Soma, Agni, and Vishnu that were in that shaft, as also of the pressure caused by the weight of Brahman and Rudra and the latter's bow, that car seemed to sink. Then Narayana, issuing out of the point of that shaft, assumed the form of a bull and raised that large car.&#xA;  (MahAbHArata, Karna Parva, Chapter 34) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/bhavishyaparva/hv_3_133_mpr.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Refer here for more details on Sanskrit verses&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T10:11:24.653" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T10:11:24.653" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3547" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2043" CreationDate="2014-10-26T07:33:52.433" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Krishna and his friends were trapped in the forest during the forest fire, Krishna saved them all by swallowing the fire wholly. This is his defeat of Agni. It is described here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/19&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/19&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And when the servant of Varuna dragged Nanda Maharaja to his court, Krishna rescued him from Varuna, thereby defeating Varuna. This is described here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/28&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/28&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="977" LastActivityDate="2014-10-26T07:33:52.433" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3548" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-27T02:00:55.660" Score="20" ViewCount="1411" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2043/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata describes how Krishna goes to Duryodhana on behalf of the Pandavas in order to try to negotiate peace and avert the Mahabharata war. When he hears that Krishna is coming, Duryodhana hatches a plan to kidnap and imprison Krishna. But Vidura &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;advises against it&lt;/a&gt;, because of how powerful Krishna is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Duryodhana, listen now to these words of mine. &lt;strong&gt;At the gates of Saubha, that foremost of monkeys, known by the name of Dvivida, covered Kesava with a mighty shower of stones.&lt;/strong&gt; Desirous of seizing Madhava by putting forth all his prowess and exertion, he did not yet succeed in seizing him. Seekest thou to apprehend that Kesava by force? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Dvivida was one of the major Vanaras in the Ramayana; along with his twin brother Mainda, he helped Rama in his war in Lanka.  As a result, he was blessed with a long life, which is why he was still alive at the time of Krishna.  But Dvivida did not have such a positive relationship with Rama's next birth Krishna.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2100/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, for some strange reason Dvivida was friends with the demon Narakasura, so when Krishna killed Narakasura (the reason behind Deepavali), Dvivida was furious.  The Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/67/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; the various things he did to take revenge on Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To avenge the death of his friend [Naraka], the ape Dvivida ravaged the land, setting fires that burned cities, villages, mines and cowherd dwellings.  Once Dvivida tore up a number of mountains and used them to devastate all the neighboring kingdoms, especially the province of Ānarta, wherein dwelt his friend’s killer, Lord Hari.  Another time he entered the ocean and, with the strength of ten thousand elephants, churned up its water with his arms and thus submerged the coastal regions.  The wicked ape tore down the trees in the hermitages of exalted sages and contaminated their sacrificial fires with his feces and urine.  Just as a wasp imprisons smaller insects, he arrogantly threw both men and women into caves in a mountain valley and sealed the caves shut with boulders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally Dvivida harassed a group of young women who were with Krishna's brother Balarama, so Balarama killed him after an epic battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what is the story of Dvivida trying to kidnap Krishna &quot;at the gates of Saubha&quot; as Vidura says?  Saubha was the floating iron city of the king Shalva; Krishna killed Shalva and destroyed Saubha when Shalva attacked Dwaraka, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/77/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what was Dvivida's role in Krishna's battle with Shalva?  Did he use Dwaraka being under attack as an opportunity to try to kidnap Krishna?  Or was Dvivida in league with Shalva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2022-06-29T18:06:10.547" Title="When did Dvivida the ape try to kidnap Krishna?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavata-purana|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3549" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3550" CreationDate="2014-10-27T02:57:35.583" Score="23" ViewCount="3326" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mahabharat is the world's largest poem containing around one &lt;em&gt;lakh&lt;/em&gt; (100000) verses composed by Vedavyasa. Because writing such a large text is a difficult task Vedavyasa took the help of lord Ganesha who wrote it for Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, Ganesha put the condition before Vedavyasa that his pen should never stop while writing, i.e. Vedavyasa should not stop reciting the verses even for a moment while Ganesha was writing. Vedavyasa agreed to it and put the condition before Ganesha that he should stop writing when he failed to comprehend or understand any verse. Ganesha agreed to it and the work of writing commenced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In course of narrating, Vedavyasa recited 8800 difficult verses that even lord Ganesha took some time to understand. In those times Vedavyasa would think and compose other verses. Those 8800 are very difficult verses which only few persons know and understand as per the Mahabharata. So is there a list of those 8800 difficult verses of Mahabharata somewhere?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot;&gt;Mahabhrat, Adi Parva - 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-28T05:27:18.317" LastActivityDate="2017-03-02T17:29:41.960" Title="Is there a list of the 8800 difficult verses of the Mahabharat?" Tags="|mahabharata|ganesha|vyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3550" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3549" CreationDate="2014-10-27T04:51:40.710" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is known exactly what these verses are - they are known by the illustrious name Jaya, meaning victory.  The Jaya is the core part of the Mahabharata, an 8800 verse poem within the larger epic consisting of the famous conversations between Dhritarashtra and his charioteer Sanjaya about the Pandavas' victory over the Kauravas in Kurukshetra.  Sanjaya had been gifted by Vyasa with divine vision, so that he could narrate the events of the Mahabharata war to Dhritashtra.  The Jaya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06013.htm&quot;&gt;begins&lt;/a&gt; in the Bhagavadgita Parva of the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata, when Sanjaya tells Dhritashtra that Bhishma has been defeated:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Possessing a knowledge of the past, the present and the future, and seeing all things as if present before his eyes, the learned son of Gavalgana, O Bharata, coming quickly from the field of battle, and rushing with grief (into the court) represented unto Dhritarashtra who was plunged in thought that Bhishma the grandsire of the Bharatas had been slain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it ends 8800 verses later in the Sauptika Parva of the Mahabharata, when Sanjaya tells Dhritarashtra how he lost his divine vision after the death of Duryodhana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Sanjaya said:] &quot;Casting off his griefs for all his (slain) kinsmen, he then gave up his life-breath. His soul ascended to sacred heaven, while his body only remained on earth. Even thus, O king, thy son Duryodhana breathed his last. Having provoked the battle first, he was slain by his foes at last. The three heroes repeatedly embraced the king and gazed steadfastly on him. They then ascended their cars. Having heard these piteous lamentations of Drona's son, I came away at early dawn towards the city. Even thus the armies of the Kurus and Pandavas have been destroyed. Great and terrible have been that carnage, O king, caused by thy evil policy. After thy son had ascended to heaven, I became afflicted with grief and the spiritual sight which the rishi gave hath been lost by me!&quot;  ... The king, hearing of his son's death, breathed long and hot sighs, and became plunged in great anxiety.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Sanjaya's words were divinely inspired, so even he may not have fully remembered what he had said to Dhritarashtra after the fact, which is why it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;I am (continued Sauti) acquainted with eight thousand and eight hundred verses, and so is Suka, and &lt;em&gt;perhaps&lt;/em&gt; Sanjaya.&quot;  (Shuka and Ugrashrava Sauti learned it formally, whereas Sanjaya was just recollecting his experience without trying to memorize it.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, it was after the composition of this Jaya that Vyasa went to Ganesha to have his epic written down, and that is when the poem grew from the 8800-verse Jaya to the 24000-verse Bharata.  The Bharata is the version of the poem that Vyasa's son Shuka told to Arjuna's grandson Parikshit.  Some time after his dictation to Ganesha, Vyasa expanded the poem even more, to the 100,000-verse epic poem we now call the Mahabharata.  (And it is said that he composed several hundred thousand more verses which he revealed only to the gods and other beings, perhaps dealing with the unseen events going on in other lokas while the Mahabharata war was going on, akin to what was happening in the Battle of the Ten Kings.)  This was the version that Vaishampayana told Parikshit's son Janamejaya, and the version that Ugrashrava Sauti told to the sage Shaunaka in the Naimisharanya forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-10-31T21:30:38.293" LastActivityDate="2014-10-31T21:30:38.293" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3551" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15557" CreationDate="2014-10-27T04:55:44.630" Score="4" ViewCount="528" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not sure about North India, but in South India House wives draw a beautiful &lt;em&gt;Rangoli&lt;/em&gt; (In south, &lt;em&gt;muggulu&lt;/em&gt;)  in the courtyard (&lt;em&gt;angan&lt;/em&gt;) of their house. Some women even use cow dung to design their courtyard. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/juxKU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Credit: blogspot.com&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of doing so? Are there any rituals to follow while designing the courtyard?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-10-30T10:00:07.523" LastActivityDate="2019-10-30T10:00:07.523" Title="What is the significance of designing the courtyard?" Tags="|rituals|culture|festivals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3552" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-27T05:35:42.487" Score="13" ViewCount="2958" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/59/2-3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; how Krishna flew on the back of Garuda to kill the demon Narakasura, which is the inspiration for the holiday Deepavali:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Bhauma [Narakasura] had stolen the earrings belonging to Indra’s mother [Aditi], along with Varuṇa’s umbrella and the demigods’ playground at the peak of Mandara mountain, Indra went to Lord Kṛṣṇa and informed Him of these misdeeds. The Lord, taking His wife Satyabhāmā with Him, then rode on Garuḍa to Prāgyotiṣa-pura, which was surrounded on all sides by fortifications consisting of hills, unmanned weapons, water, fire and wind, and by obstructions of mura-pāśa wire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is this the first time that Vishnu's incarnation Krishna met Vishnu's bird Garuda?  Or did he meet him earlier than that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A couple chapters earlier, there's a &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/57/19&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;description&lt;/a&gt; of Krishna's chariot already having a flag of Garuda on it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma mounted Kṛṣṇa’s chariot, which flew the flag of Garuḍa and was yoked with tremendously swift horses, and pursued Their elder’s murderer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When did Krishna first put Vishnu's Garuda flag on his chariot?  Did he use it ever since he started riding chariots in Mathura, since unlike Rama he always knew he was Vishnu?  Or did he start using it after some encounter with Garuda?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Garuda is referred to in the story of Krishna defeating the serpent Kalinga, but the two don't actually meet then.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(On a side note, Garuda also had an encounter with Vishnu's incarnation Rama, where he saves Rama and Lakshmana from the snake weapons of Indrajit, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2348/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-10-18T03:43:01.820" LastActivityDate="2021-10-18T03:43:01.820" Title="When did Krishna first meet Vishnu's bird Garuda?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|bhagavata-purana|garuda|harivamsa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3553" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3555" CreationDate="2014-10-27T15:14:08.377" Score="14" ViewCount="9485" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sita is the incarnation of the Goddess Lakshmi and is said to have been the reincarnation of Vedavati, also an incarnation of the Goddess Lakshmi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story about Vedavati seems like only a prelude to the story of Sita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other stories about Vedavati? If not, then why did Sita have a past life which was very similar to her present life? Also, why did the Goddess Lakshmi have to perform penance as Vedavati to become the wife of Lord Vishnu, when she was his wife already? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="677" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-26T12:00:23.260" LastActivityDate="2015-05-09T08:03:31.637" Title="Why did Sita have a past life?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|lakshmi|sita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3554" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="687" CreationDate="2014-10-27T16:38:00.520" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Had Lord Krishna used weapon in the war, the war would have won by his merits. He want Arjuna to fight, because it was his battle. Lord Krishna wanted to prove a point. The battle was won by Arjuna alone, with Krishna's divine assistance. He only wished to give moral support.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, battles aren't won by weapons alone, they also require tactics.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="984" LastEditorUserId="75" LastEditDate="2014-10-27T18:00:29.413" LastActivityDate="2014-10-27T18:00:29.413" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3555" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3553" CreationDate="2014-10-27T16:44:49.520" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Contrary to popular belief, Sita was not the next birth of Brihaspati's granddaughter Vedavati.  This confusion arises from an even more fundamental fact about the Ramayana that few people are familiar with: &lt;strong&gt;Sita was never kidnapped!&lt;/strong&gt;  That might seem shocking; in most people's understanding of the Ramayana, Ravana kidnaps Sita while Rama is lured away by Marichan in the form of a golden deer, and Rama goes to Lanka and rescues her from Ravana.  But that is not actually what happened; Vishnu himself describes the actual sequence of events in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/JuMd&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Venkatachala Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Formerly, in the auspicious Treta Yuga, I killed Ravana.  At that time the girl Vedavati rendered assistance to Sri (Sita).  Lakshmi appeared in the land of Janaka in the form of Sita.  In the Panchavati forest, when I went away to kill Maricha, my younger brother followed me on being urged by Sita.  In the meantime the king of Rakshasas came there to abduct Sita.  Fire-god present in the (place of) Agnihotra sacrifice knew (i.e. anticipated) the attempt of Ravana.  He took the real Sita to Patala and entrusted her to (his wife) Svaha.  There was a splendid lady named Vedavati.  Formerly, she was touched by the same Rakshasa (but not molested).  Yet she cast off her body in fire.  In order to kill Ravana she was created once again.  It was she who was abducted by Ravana and kept in custody in Lanka.  Afterwards when Ravana was killed, she entered fire once again.  Agni handed over Lakshmi, my Janaki, who had been kept in protective custody by Svaha and told me about the attendant accompanying Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedavati did all this to take revenge on Ravana, for what he had attempted to do to her.  So Rama crossed an ocean and fought a war to rescue Sita, when Sita was never in any actual danger.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now why do people think that Sita was the next birth of Vedavati?  It's because of the fact that the woman held in Lanka was genuinely Vedavati, since it was assumed that Sita was the woman held in Lanka, people thought that Sita and Vedavati were one and the same.  For instance, in the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, Ravana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga60/yuddhasans60.htm#Verse10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Further, I was formerly cursed by Vedavati when she was humiliated by me. The same Vedavati is born as the highly fortunate Seetha the daughter of Janaka.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in contrast to Sita, who was an incarnation of Vishnu's wife Lakshmi, Vedavati was an incarnation of Vishnu's other wife Bhumidevi.  And after Rama was reunited with Sita, he was asked to marry Vedavati, but he refused, &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/JuMd&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;saying&lt;/a&gt; that he can only marry one woman in this birth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing the words of Fire-god, the splendid (genuine) Sita told me: &quot;O Lord, this Vedavati has always done everything pleasing to me.  Hence she is a great devotee of the Lord.  Hence, O Lord, choose her (as wife).&quot;  I replied &quot;O goddess, I shall do so in the twenty-eighth Kali Yuga.  Till then let her stay in the world of Brahma and be adored by Devas.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vedavati was reborn in the Kali Yuga as the princess Padmavathi, daughter of Akasa Raja, and she finally married Vishnu as described in the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_Tirumala#Goddess_Padmavati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;story of Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt; (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, AKA Srinivasa or Balaji).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-05-09T08:03:31.637" LastActivityDate="2015-05-09T08:03:31.637" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3556" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3557" CreationDate="2014-10-28T05:28:36.877" Score="6" ViewCount="21185" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Ramayana, Dasharatha had 3 wives, but in some books they say he had 60,000 wives. Which one is true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="939" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-01-03T16:22:47.507" LastActivityDate="2020-04-09T17:02:29.117" Title="Did Dasharatha have 60,000 wives?" Tags="|ramayana|dasharatha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3557" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3556" CreationDate="2014-10-28T05:46:15.270" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The claim of Dasharatha having 60,000 wives is from later versions of the Ramayana, particularly the Kamba Ramayana.  But as far as the Valmiki Ramayana goes, Dasharatha has at least 350 wives, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga34/ayodhya_34_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Ayodhya Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That king Dasaratha, who speaks truth, whose mind is virtuous, who is like an ocean by his depth of character and who is blemish less like a sky, replied to Sumantra as follows: &quot;Oh, Sumantra! bring all my wives, who are here. Surrounded by all of them, I want to see the virtuous Rama.&quot;  Sumantra, after entering the gynaecium, spoke these words to those women as follows: &quot;Oh, the venerable ladies! The king is calling you. Go there without delay.&quot;  All those women, asked thus by Sumantra as per the king's orders, went to his palace, after knowing the instructions of their husband.  Encircling Kausalya, &lt;strong&gt;three hundred fifty women&lt;/strong&gt;, steadfast in their vow (of devotion to their husband), with their eyes reddened, went there slowly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that he tells his minister Sumantra to bring the wives &quot;who are here&quot;, so it's possible that Dasaratha had more wives who happened to not be present in the gynaecium [place for women].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, it's still true that he only had three queens, Kausalya, Kaikeyii, and Sumitra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-07T03:29:29.580" LastActivityDate="2015-12-07T03:29:29.580" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3558" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3551" CreationDate="2014-10-28T07:38:25.127" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to popular belief, Rangolis are drawn to welcome the Gods into the house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have not heard of the courtyard being designed with cow dung, but it is cleaned with cow dung. Early in the morning, women sweep the courtyard with cow dung, take a bath and then draw Rangoli.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A story I have heard (I have no reference) is that the Rangolis, usually designed using rice flour, attract sparrows and is food for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In South India, Rangolis are drawn every single day, though not as elaborate as the ones drawn during festivals. The swastika, Goddess Lakshmi and star designs are the most common. Women are hired solely to sweep the courtyard and draw Rangoli every day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: Seen it done every morning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="677" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T04:43:18.393" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T04:43:18.393" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3559" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3402" CreationDate="2014-10-28T15:27:13.803" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jesus Christ, Buddha, Muhammad are not the avatars of Vishnu but they are pure souls who have maintained their purity till their end of life. But they are not considered to be the supreme being who are responsible for the creation, ruling and destruction of the universe. They are not the ultimate truth or the purpose of being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are just like normal human beings, you and me but their souls are pure. They have done some good karma and gave some good philosophical teachings to the world like &lt;code&gt;Always speak the truth&lt;/code&gt; etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;As stated in the 7th Chapter, 21th Sloka by Lord Krishna,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whichever demigod a particular devotee faiths to worship, I surely&#xA;  sustain firmly that faith in him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These people can be called as demigods meaning of which when you pray them with faith your &lt;strong&gt;material desire&lt;/strong&gt; will be fulfilled. But in order to attain liberation (&lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;) one must pray to the Supreme being &lt;code&gt;Lord Krishna&lt;/code&gt; or &lt;code&gt;Siva&lt;/code&gt;. This is why most saints have Siva Namam on their forehead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, when you pray those gods, your desires will be fulfilled only by Lord Krishna.&#xA;According to &lt;strong&gt;Periya puranam&lt;/strong&gt;, there was a &lt;em&gt;Nayanar (a para-bhakta to Lord Siva)&lt;/em&gt; called &lt;em&gt;Manickavachagar&lt;/em&gt; who had an argument with a Buddhist guru.&#xA;Here is an excerpt from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/nayanar.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manickavachagar explained the principles of Saivism. The Buddhists&#xA;  could not offer counter-arguments. They went on repeating their&#xA;  arguments! Manickavachagar prayed to the Lord for help. At His&#xA;  instance, Devi Sarasvathi withdrew Her grace from the Buddhists, and&#xA;  they became dumb. The Buddhists were defeated in argument.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if they are the avatars of Vishnu, then they WILL be stated &lt;strong&gt;for sure&lt;/strong&gt; in the scriptures. Consider, Kalki Bhagavan for example, he is yet to come but still he is stated in the scriptures though Christ, Buddha, Muhammad have already born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if they were the avatars of Vishnu, they wouldn't be the founders of a religion. Why would Lord Vishnu didn't create a religions for each of his avatars (Rama, Krishna etc) and why only did he create for these avatars? It is because they are not the avatars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you said, that even leaf doesn't move without Lord's permission. How can a religion be created? How can it have conflicting opinions with Hinduism? Those religions say that their respective person is the only GOD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if they are the avatars of Vishnu they must also talk about other avatars, where are Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu stated in those religions? In Hinduism, as Lord Krishna says, moksha is different from going to heaven. If they are the avatars of Vishnu, why didn't he tell about moksha, the life's destination?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sins (bad karma) can be destroyed with good karma. But nullifying the karma is what that gives rise to moksha. Without following any of those religions, just doing good karma removes bad karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in order to attain moksha, one must always pray the Supreme being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you said, only Lord can establish a religion. But the thing is anyone who has a pure soul can. There is a difference between a &lt;strong&gt;pure soul&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;supreme being&lt;/strong&gt;. Anyone can become a &lt;strong&gt;pure soul&lt;/strong&gt; with perfection but cannot become &lt;strong&gt;supreme being&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the perfection of yoga you can be a Jesus, Muhammad, Guru Nanak but not &lt;strong&gt;Krishna or Siva&lt;/strong&gt;. You can be so, only when you realized him and when you do, you no longer will be with your body. That is why we say when some great sage passed away, we say they are not dead, instead we say that they became united with the Supreme being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does it mean by existing in all beings?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The energy of god exists in every being (both living and non-living entity). You can take your own form of worship (this is what Hinduism says). But the one whom you worship must be pure. You cannot worship the one who has negative energy.&#xA;In a normal being, both negative and positive energy exists. But in the path of spirituality, the negative energy (asuras) gets smashed and the positive energy is filled completely within the being. This one doesn't have any kind of desires, pleasures etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer to the 20,21,22,23 verses of Chapter 7 from Bhagavad Gita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-20.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-20.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-21.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-21.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-22.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-22.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-23.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-23.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="312" LastEditDate="2014-11-17T18:34:58.120" LastActivityDate="2014-11-17T18:34:58.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3560" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3187" CreationDate="2014-10-29T06:57:40.227" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The name Vasudeva appears in Vedic times it self and it refers to Lord Vishnu/Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The famous hymn known as Vishnu Gayatri appearing in the Taittiriya&#xA;Narayana Upanishad (Which is part of Taittiriya Aranyaka) states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Om nArAyaNAya vidmahe, vAsudevAya dhImahi, tanno viShNuH pracodayAt&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;We endeavour to Narayana, we meditate on Vasudeva and let Vishnu&#xA;bestow wisdom on us&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Vedic statement evidently reveals the identity of all the three&#xA;deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the post vedic period, the agamas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata,&#xA;the vaishnava puranas have used these names repeatedly to denote the same&#xA;one reality of the upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The term Vasudeva (derived from the root verb &amp;quot;vas&amp;quot; meaning to reside) is&#xA;interpreted by the Vishnupurana as one who abides everywhere and who is&#xA;also the source of everything emphasizing the all pervasive character of reality&#xA;as stated in the Taittriya Narayana Upanishad. The suffix &amp;quot;deva&amp;quot; added to &amp;quot;vasu&amp;quot; implies&#xA;that he shines forth untouched by any defects though he abides in everything.&#xA;It also signifies he enjoys himself with creation of universe which is a sport to him&#xA;and the celestial beings always sing his glory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus all the terms Vishnu, Vasudeva, Narayana bear the same import and denote the same&#xA;one ultimate reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, naturally, Lord Vasudeva being the Supreme being, is Lord of not only the 8 vasus but also, all Adityas, Vasus, Rudras etc...But, the other way is not correct, i.e. just because he is head of Vasus he is called Vasudeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name 'Vasudeva' brings out the meaning that all are 'in Him' ('Sarvam vasathi- Vasudeva&amp;quot;) and not just the 8 Vasus&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more details please read the book &amp;quot;Vaishnavism: Its philosophy, theology and religious discipline&amp;quot; by Dr. SMS Chari&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, naturally, Lord Vasudeva being the Supreme being, is Lord of not only the 8 vasus but also, all Adityas, Vasus, Rudras etc...But, the other way i.e. just because he is head of Vasus, hence he is called Vasudeva may not be correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name 'Vasudeva' brings out the meaning that all are 'in Him' ('Sarvam vasathi- Vasudeva&amp;quot;) and not just the 8 Vasus&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in the Vasudeva Upanishad (which talks about the application of Urdhva pundra) the name Lord Vasudeva appears.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name Lord Vasudeva appears in Mudgala and other upanishads also (i don't have the list)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T08:15:29.933" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3561" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="834" CreationDate="2014-10-29T07:02:31.877" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This story has no validity in any valid scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maybe it is there in Parasara Samhita, not sure, but this Samhita itself appears to be later day work and has lot of interpolations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there no validity in this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;First of all, Hanuman being a strict devotee of Raama, will never fight Raama nor did he ever fight Raama. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, if you look at Srimad Valmiki Ramayana, Hanuman himself says that neither bramha nor siva, nor Indra etc can wage a war and win against Raama. so, neither hanuman nor anyone can stand a chance against Raama in a war.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thirdly, in padma purana, Hanuman took on Lord Siva and his attendents and defeated all of them after the aswamedha yaga, when Siva and his retinue came to aid of a king who captured the Sacrificial Horse set loose by Lord Raama as part of Aswemedha yagna (remind you only Satrughna and Hanuman, Sugriva, Ayodhya army and Vanara army fought against Siva and his ganas. Raama, Lakshmana and Bharata were not there). This incident is in Padma Purana.&#xA;  Hanuman chastises Siva for fighting Satrughna and Ayodhya Army and bashes Siva and his ganas, though Siva was just trying to keep his word given to his devotee, the king who had captured the Horse. So, Hanuman, will never fight or agree to fight Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, it is very unlike, such a devote Hanuman will listen to his mother's promise about some dharma etc., and fight Raama whatever may be the reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is fictitious story just to convey a message that the name of Lord Vishnu/Rama is as powerful as the Lord himself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look at the Padma Purana, the very same Hanuman becomes unconciouness during a fight with Lava and Kusha, Raama's sons. Both Hanuman and Sugriva are captured by Lava and Kusha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, neither Hanuman nor anyone can stand a chance against Raama in a war. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this story has no validity in the valid Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-22T14:06:13.627" LastActivityDate="2016-02-22T14:06:13.627" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3562" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2840" CreationDate="2014-10-29T10:05:10.043" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;-This supplements the previous answers:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;-This information i got from Srivaishnavism blog spot&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The avatara of Hayagriva Bhagavan took place to restore the Vedas to Brahma. Lord Vishnu/Narayana had taught BrahmA the Creation through His breath of VedAs. Then, Brahma could understand how various kalpams had begun due to Lord’s grace. Brahma became extremely proud and head strong of his position as the creator and about his powers. Lord Narayana as usual wanted to teach him a lesson and decided to remove Brahma's pride. A couple of water droplets from the lotus seat of the Lord incarnated as two Asuras, Madhu and Kaitabha; kaitabha was of thamO guNA and the other (madhu) was of rajO guNA. &#xA;They stole the Vedas from Brahma. Lord Vishnu smiled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unable to carry on his work of creation without the Vedas, Brahma rushed to the Lord and pleaded Lord Narayana for mercy and saving Vedas. BrahmA prostrated to the Lord and said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vedas alone are my eyes; they are my wealth; They are my Lord. The whole world is surrounded by darkness due to the absence of Vedas. How am I to proceed on my creation without the Vedas ? Please arise from the Yoga nithrA and help me Lord! Please give me back my eyes which have been blinded by my own pride.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&quot;veda: mE paramam sakshI: veda: mE paramam paramveda: mE paramam dharma, veda: mE brahma sOtthamam&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Narayana incarnated as Hayagriva, appeared as the white Horse faced, faultless sphatika hued form, sattva form, with Divya tEjas, and lustrous form and destroyed the Asuras and restored the Vedas to Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With a lovely long nose, like the heaven surrounded by white bright stars, the asva siras (head of horse) illumined the whole world. The upper world and the lower world became His ears. The rays of Sun's brightest lustres are His hairs at the nape of His neck (pidari). BhUmi became His forhead; Ganga and Saraswathi became two lovely eyebrows; Chandra Sooryar (The Moon and the Sun) became His two eyes; SandhyA dEvathai became His nostrils; Pithru devathAs became His teeth; GolOkam and Brahma lOkam became His two lips; kalaraathri became His neck; The Divya tEjas Sathva form Sri Hayagreevan thus, in a grandest beautiful manner appeared. He rushed to PaathaaLa lOkam and raised His &quot;uthGitha&quot; in samavEdha swara and terrified Madhukaitabha asurAs; They hid the VedhAs (which were in the form of babies) and ran away from the scene.&#xA;  Lord Hayagreeva handed over the Vedas to BrahmA and went back. Madhukaitabha searched for the sound which terrified them earlier but found the Vedas missing. They rushed to BrahmA who in turn was terribly scared and sought the help of Lord Narayanan, again. Lord Hayagreeva fought with asurAs and killed them. BrahmA continued his work of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This avataara is described in VishNu puraaNam as &quot;mathsya kUrma varaaha ashva simha rUpaathibhi:&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-In BrahmANda purANam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During maheshwara-naradha samvaadham, Naradha describes this avthaar. Even when naradha praises Sri ranga kshetra in this PurANam, he says &quot;ashva sirasE namah:&quot;. That is why the Lord is called Madhusoodhanan. (for having killed madhu and kaitabha). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In MahAbharatham: Shanthi parvam, hayasira upaakhyaanam details Hayagreeva avathaara. Srimad Bhagawatham, too, describes Hayagreeva avtaara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is another version of this avtaar and killing of asurAs. When paraLaya was about to end, Lord Vishnu out of His dirt from the ear drum made two small solid balls and dropped on the Lotus leaf and BrahmA activated the PrANa vaayu, which gave life to these two, as madhu and kaitabha. These asurAs appeared and grew up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;BrahmA started off his creation and Vedhas were snatched away by these two asurAs. When the most compassionate Lord Vishnu, then wished to please the asurAs, without killing them, asked them as to what they want as a boon. These two asurAs said &quot;we can give You what You want&quot;. That is it! The Lord decided to kill them. They said &quot;Can You kill us only where there is no cover for the sky?&quot;. The Lord immediately took Hayagreeva avtaara and removed His cloth on the Thighs, put them on His thighs and killed them. Lord’s legs house the Earth and the space/sky. Since the Lord removed the cloth from His thighs and killed them, He still complied with what they challenged Him. What they thought was impossible to happen, He could make it happen with no effort. Lord Hayagreeva, thus saved the Vedas and the world.&#xA;    The moral is: thamas, rajas guNAs are to be destroyed to reach Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-There is yet another interesting &quot;different&quot; version in BrahmANda PuraaNam and Sri Devi Bhagawatham. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was a asurA, by name Hayagreeva (with horse face) who did his severe penance/ tapas on Parvathi Devi. Parvathi, pleased with his tapas, appeared in his front and the asurA asked for &quot;no death&quot;. She said &quot;Impossible-cannot be granted&quot;. Then the asurA amended the request and said &quot;Except for a horse faced one, no one else can kill me&quot;. (thinking, that it can never happen!). She consented. He became tremendously proud of his achievement and started harassing every deva and rishi. He troubles all three worlds. He snatched away the Vedas from BrahmA and disappeared. The Lord appeared as Hayagreeva and killed the asurA to save the world and bring back the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-There is yet another puraaNic narration on Hayagreevar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At Kanchi, Sage Agasthya was on severe penance on Lord Narayanan and the Lord appeared as Hayagreeva and was immensely pleased with his tapas. He blessed the muni with Devi mahaathmyam. This is described in BrahmANda puraaNam Sri Hayagreeva agasthya samvaadham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During Tripurasura samhaara to entice the asurAs, the Lord appeared as &quot;other religious&quot; saint (buddhism?) and appeared as Hayagreeva to mislead the asurAs from the Veda maargham (from the path of Vedic traditions and sayings). Thus, He made them lose their ability to get saved and the Lord won. (As also claimed and reported in Buddhism in a web site as follows: Like Mahakala, Hayagriva is one of the Eight Great Protectors of Buddhism, a guardian and a destroyer of obstacles to enlightenment(!). He is a popular personal, or tutelary, deity among the Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The terrific neigh that emanates from this horse's head is said to pierce through the illusory nature of reality. Although he was also popular in Tibet and China, Hayagriva's association with the horse may have had a particular appeal to the Mongols. (This, I read in the Net in some buddhism web site!) Scriptures on &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since, Lord Hayagreeva killed the asurAs, madhu and kaitapar, He is referred to as Madhusoodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In BrahmANda puraaNam, Sri RangarajamahAthmyam, Om namO VishnavE Deva MadhussodhanathE Namah: refers to Madhusoodhana Sri Hayagreeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Srimad Valmiki RamayaNam BalakaaNdam 76th sargam, 17th slOkam Parasuraama says to Rama &quot;akshayam madhuhanthaaram jaanaami tvaam surOtthamam&quot;. I realise that You are the DevaadhiDevan, immortal, MahAVishNu, the One who killed madhu,kaitapha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Also, when Rama (before proceeding for His PattabhishEkha), gets up in the wee hours, in Brahma muhUrtham, He performs His anushtaanam and pays obeisance to Lord Hayagreevan &quot;dhushtaava praNadhaischaiva sirasaa madhsoodhanam&quot; (6th sargam-7th slokam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-In Kishkinthaa kaanDam, Vaali tells Sri Rama &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Even if that rAvaNan hides SitA in PaathaaLa lOkam, no problem. You could have just told me so. I would have brought SitA back from anywhere wheresoever like Sri Hayagreevar brought the Vedas killing Madhukaitapar. (17th sargam-49th slOkam)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is one Upanishad called shveta ashvatara Upanishad and when it was in the shape of white female horse, this horse was stolen by Madhu and Kaitabha demon-brothers and later retrieved by Hayagreeva, another aspect of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Hanumaan went in search of sanjeevini, and other aushadhaas, he saw the place where chathurmukha brahmA worshipped Lord Hayagreeva. Commentators, are reported to have praised this slOkam as &quot;hayaananam, hayagreeva araadhana sthaanam&quot;, and &quot;hayaananam - BhagawathO Hayagreevasya sthaanam&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri MahAbhAratham, Santhi parvam mentions Haygreeva avataar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri HayagreevOpanishad, naturally elaborates the greatness of Haygreevar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Rk vEdam, &quot;vaagham bruNi sookhtham&quot;, &quot;apradhiratham&quot;, Yajur vEdham, &quot;yajnya prakaraNam&quot;, Saama vEdham, udgItam, AdharvaNa vEdham, Shanthikam, Bhaushtikam are all referring to the greatness of Lord Hayagreevar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-11T04:59:01.223" LastActivityDate="2018-09-11T04:59:01.223" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3563" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-29T10:25:43.850" Score="15" ViewCount="12409" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna is the supreme Being according to the Bhagavad Gita and is the giver of moksha. Also, can all the avatars of Vishnu give moksha? Like Lord Govinda, Lord Rama, Lord Lakshmi Narasimha, Lord Anantha Padmanaba, etc. And what about Lord Shiva? He gave moksha to the great Bhakta Kannappa and of course many others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about Lord Brahma and mother Parvathi Devi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about other gods like Lord Ganesha, Lord Ayyappa, etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-27T02:51:15.330" LastActivityDate="2023-11-07T16:47:06.563" Title="Who gives Moksha?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|gods|moksha|" AnswerCount="13" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3564" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-10-29T10:38:46.633" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Liberation (also called Moksha) is reaching the Ultimate consciousness (the abode of the Supreme God). One who attains liberation not reborn again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are several ways to attain liberation as stated in the Bhagavad Gita like&#xA;Bhakti Yoga, Dhyana Yoga, Karma Yoga etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="312" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T19:22:23.450" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T19:22:23.450" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3565" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-10-29T10:38:46.633" Score="0" Body="Liberation (also called Moksha) is reaching the Ultimate consciousness (the abode of the supreme god)." OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="312" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T19:22:10.497" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T19:22:10.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3568" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-10-29T20:23:57.473" Score="27" ViewCount="8744" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am confused about the life cycle in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the starting point of a soul?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, a soul exchanges bodies, but when does a soul take birth and how will fate be written to it (as it has no karma [no previous life actions recorded]). After the death of a body, the soul has three choices. One is heaven (if he/she did good), one is hell (if he/she did bad, he/she will be punished and given a second chance), and the last one is moksha (he had seven chances at life, and within these seven chances he has to do good and if he does he will go to heaven; if he does very well he will get moksha!; but if he doesn't, what happens?). Is this right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone explain the life of a soul (atma) in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-09T04:05:15.707" LastActivityDate="2019-10-27T10:45:19.100" Title="What is the life cycle of a soul (atma) in Hinduism?" Tags="|belief|karma|atma|rebirth|afterlife|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3569" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3568" CreationDate="2014-10-29T21:25:45.623" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can only try to point you towards Śrīmad-Bhagavad-gītā where the Lord Himself answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupadabooks.com/bg/2/20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bg 2.20&lt;/a&gt; Translation&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Purport&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Qualitatively, the small atomic fragmental part of the Supreme Spirit is one with the Supreme. He undergoes no changes like the body. Sometimes the soul is called the steady, or kūṭastha. The body is subject to six kinds of transformations. It takes its birth in the womb of the mother's body, remains for some time, grows, produces some effects, gradually dwindles, and at last vanishes into oblivion. The soul, however, does not go through such changes. The soul is not born, but, because he takes on a material body, the body takes its birth. The soul does not take birth there, and the soul does not die. Anything which has birth also has death. And because the soul has no birth, he therefore has no past, present or future. He is eternal, ever-existing, and primeval—that is, there is no trace in history of his coming into being. Under the impression of the body, we seek the history of birth, etc., of the soul. The soul does not at any time become old, as the body does. The so-called old man, therefore, feels himself to be in the same spirit as in his childhood or youth. The changes of the body do not affect the soul. The soul does not deteriorate like a tree, nor anything material. The soul has no by-product either. The by-products of the body, namely children, are also different individual souls; and, owing to the body, they appear as children of a particular man. The body develops because of the soul's presence, but the soul has neither offshoots nor change. Therefore, the soul is free from the six changes of the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Kaṭha Upaniṣad also we find a similar passage which reads:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;na jāyate mriyate vā vipaścin&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    nāyaṁ kutaścin na vibhūva kaścit&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ purāṇo&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    (Kaṭha 1.2.18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The meaning and purport of this verse is the same as in the Bhagavad-gītā, but here in this verse there is one special word, vipaścit, which means learned or with knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The soul is full of knowledge, or full always with consciousness. Therefore, consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Even if one does not find the soul within the heart, where he is situated, one can still understand the presence of the soul simply by the presence of consciousness. Sometimes we do not find the sun in the sky owing to clouds, or for some other reason, but the light of the sun is always there, and we are convinced that it is therefore daytime. As soon as there is a little light in the sky early in the morning, we can understand that the sun is in the sky. Similarly, since there is some consciousness in all bodies—whether man or animal—we can understand the presence of the soul. This consciousness of the soul is, however, different from the consciousness of the Supreme because the supreme consciousness is all-knowledge—past, present and future. The consciousness of the individual soul is prone to be forgetful. When he is forgetful of his real nature, he obtains education and enlightenment from the superior lessons of Kṛṣṇa. But Kṛṣṇa is not like the forgetful soul. If so, Kṛṣṇa's teachings of Bhagavad-gītā would be useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two kinds of souls—namely the minute particle soul (aṇu-ātmā) and the Supersoul (the vibhu-ātmā). This is also confirmed in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad in this way:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ātmāsya jantor nihito guhāyām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    tam akratuḥ paśyati vīta-śoko&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    dhātuḥ prasādān mahimānam ātmanaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    (Kaṭha 1.2.20)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Both the Supersoul [Paramātmā] and the atomic soul [jīvātmā] are situated on the same tree of the body within the same heart of the living being, and only one who has become free from all material desires as well as lamentations can, by the grace of the Supreme, understand the glories of the soul.&quot; Kṛṣṇa is the fountainhead of the Supersoul also, as it will be disclosed in the following chapters, and Arjuna is the atomic soul, forgetful of his real nature; therefore he requires to be enlightened by Kṛṣṇa, or by His bona fide representative (the spiritual master).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="991" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-10-29T22:24:55.607" LastActivityDate="2014-10-29T22:24:55.607" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3570" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3568" CreationDate="2014-10-30T01:31:27.227" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, &lt;strong&gt;there is no starting point for the soul&lt;/strong&gt;; &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here's&lt;/a&gt; what Krishna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be....  For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as to your claim that we only have seven births to get Moksha, that's not true, it can take as many births as necessary.  That's why Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/4/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells&lt;/a&gt; Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita &quot;Many, many births both you and I have passed.&quot;  And similarly he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; later on in the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And when the yogī engages himself with sincere endeavor in making further progress, being washed of all contaminations, then ultimately, achieving perfection after many, many births of practice, he attains the supreme goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, other than the seven chances part your description is largely accurate.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2049/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Garuda Paruna &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/gpu05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; in great detail what happens in the afterlife:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These followers of [Yama] the King of Justice know accurately all the virtues and vices of mankind, and the karma born of mind, speech and body.  To the man who pleases them by austerity, charity and truthful speech, they become benevolent, &lt;strong&gt;granting heaven and liberation&lt;/strong&gt;. Knowing the wicked actions of the sinful, those truth-speakers, relating them before the King of Justice, become dispensers of misery....  Then the cruel messengers, having beaten them, say, &quot;Go along, you sinner, to the very dreadful terrifying hells.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as you can see, some people who do good deeds go to Devaloka, other people who do good deeds get Moksha, and people who do bad deeds go to Asuraloka.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And of course going to Devaloka and Asuraloka isn't where the process ends; concerning good people the Garuda Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/gpu17.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;The righteous man having enjoyed heaven, is born in a stainless family.&quot;  And concerning bad people it &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/gpu07.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Those who are very sinful, having passed through dreadful hells produced by their great sins, are born here upon the exhaustion of their karma.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: You also asked &quot;Yes, a soul exchanges bodies, but when does a soul take birth and how will fate be written to it (as it has no karma [no previous life actions recorded]).&quot;  Adi Shankaracharya, in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, says this isn't problematic because the actions of the soul go infinitely far back:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[F]or although the activity of the soul is not independent, yet the soul does act. The Lord indeed causes it to act, but it acts itself. Moreover, the Lord in causing it to act now has regard to its former efforts, and he caused it to act in a former existence, having regard to its efforts previous to that existence; &lt;strong&gt;a regressus against which, considering the eternity of the samsâra, no objections can be raised&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-02-09T04:07:30.987" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3571" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3563" CreationDate="2014-10-30T02:56:52.857" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Basically it is Lord Vishnu who awards &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; are used interchangeably most of the times which basically means liberation from material mode of existence (but not in mimansa school of thought, for them &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; is attainmnet of heaven). So &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2200/38&quot;&gt;generally of five kinds&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Sārūpya, Sālokya, Sārṣṭi, Sāmīpya, Sāyujya&lt;/em&gt;) of which &lt;em&gt;Sāyujya mukti&lt;/em&gt; is equivalent to &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; where a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; merges into the absolute. But other than this the other four are said to be obtained by a devotee in Vaikuntha, the abode of Vishnu. So awarding liberation is basically the act of Vishnu or any of His &lt;em&gt;avataras&lt;/em&gt; as we know from many incidents from the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, other deities like Lord Shiva can also award liberation, but they do it with the power of Vishnu's name:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जासु नाम बल संकर कासी। देत सबहि सम गति अविनासी।। [RCM - 4.9]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -By the power of whose name Shankara of Kashi awards everyone &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; (It is said that whoever dies in Kashi, one of Lord Shiva's favorite places, gets &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Practically speaking, anyone who has the ability and power to do so can award someone liberation and any of the five primary deities (&lt;em&gt;pancha deva&lt;/em&gt;, viz. Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Ganesha, Surya) of the sects like Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta, etc. and their variants can award &lt;em&gt;bhukti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; (enjoyment and liberation). I don't know some of the gods you have mentioned but demigods or  gods of heaven or upper planes of existence cannot award liberation because it is not in their power. If it were, they would have liberated themselves at the first place and attained &lt;em&gt;mokhsa&lt;/em&gt;, the highest of all objectives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another thing I would like to add is that, apart from a deity awarding &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; (which basically happens as a result of worship or devotion), there exist other schools of thought like advaita which state that one can attain &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; by himself through &lt;em&gt;jnana&lt;/em&gt; (knowledge).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2014-10-30T04:32:33.447" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3572" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3568" CreationDate="2014-10-30T04:35:06.757" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The life cycle of a soul is very simple. In course of time it emerges from God, takes up material bodies and revolves in &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt; and back into God goes it again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yathā sudīptāt pāvakādvisphuliṅgāḥ sahasraśaḥ prabhavante sarūpāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tathā'kṣarādvividhāḥ somya bhāvāḥ prajāyante tatra caivāpi yanti&lt;/em&gt; [Mundak Up. 2.1.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Just like from a well blazing fire shoots forth thousands of sparks, so from God arise beings of different kinds and goes back to it again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the general life cycle of a soul starting from the inception of creation to its desolation, unless of course the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; attains &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; before the desolation of the universe. So either way or the other, a soul comes from God and goes back into God eventually. But if it has not attained mukti or cleared all of its Karma, then it will have to comeback again when creation takes place the next time:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kalpa-kṣaye punas tāni kalpādau visṛjāmy aham&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O son of Kuntī, at the end of the kalpa, all the beings and material nature (prakruti) enter into Me, and at the beginning of another kalpa, by My potency, I create them again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one thing to not here is that, &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; being part or energy of God, is also eternal like God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 15.7]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -The living entities in this conditioned world are My &lt;strong&gt;eternal&lt;/strong&gt; fragmental parts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So even when there was nothing, the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; was existent along with God in a suspended condition. It is only when the material creation takes place that it gains a material body as per its previous actions and till the existence lasts it revolves between heaven, hell, earth and many other realms unless it attains moksha, the permanent liberation. After getting liberation it doesn't automatically falls down to material mode of existence, but can come down to earth to do devotion of God as per its own will. Please see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2582/38&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; for more information regarding &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What happens if the jiva doesn't do very well?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;One thing to correct here is that, the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; doesn't get &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; only because he does very well or he does good works. The concept of &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; or salvation is different in Hinduism from other religions. Works of any kind, good or bad can only award heaven, hell or this mortal world, they can't award moksha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;puṇyena puṇyaṃ lokaṃ nayati pāpena pāpamubhābhyāmeva manuṣyalokam&lt;/em&gt; [Prsn Up - 3.7]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  By doing good works (&lt;em&gt;punya&lt;/em&gt;) one gets heaven, by doing sinful works (&lt;em&gt;papa&lt;/em&gt;) one gets hell and by doing a mixture of both kinds of work one gets earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only when one clears out all its karma by following the path of &lt;em&gt;karma yoga&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;bhakti yoga&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;jnana yoga&lt;/em&gt; that one gets liberation. Otherwise irrespective of what a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; does, he still remains in bondage.So if a jiva doesn't do very well, he will get birth again as per his actions and will continue its existence in &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2014-10-31T12:18:17.683" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3573" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3563" CreationDate="2014-10-30T05:45:24.000" Score="13" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ekam sat vipra buhudha vadanti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Truth is One, men call it by various names - The One Brahman is called by various names. Rig Veda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says (Gita VIII, 5-6) &amp;quot;And whoso, at the time of death, leaves his body remembering me alone and goes forth - he attains My being; concerning this there is no doubt. For whatever object a man thinks of at the final moment, when he leaves his body - that alone does he attain, O son of Kunti, being ever absorbed in the thought thereof.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Moksha were the result of Knowledge and were therefore endowed with a beginning, it would then come to an end. It would not be eternal. Arising from non-existence, it would again dissolve into nothingness. &amp;quot;Moksha cannot have a beginning and be eternal&amp;quot; (Mandukya Upanishad, Gaudapada Karika, IV. 30.) Liberation is therefore not something which is created, but is the realization of THAT which has existed from eternity but has hitherto been concealed from us. &amp;quot;All jivas are ever free from bondage and pure by nature. They are ever illumined and liberated from the very beginning.&amp;quot; (Mandukya Upansihad, Gaudapada Karika, IV. 98.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who knows the Self is liberated, even the gods cannot prevent his being so, because he has realized himself to be the very Atman of the gods (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad I. iv. 10.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;A man who thinks he is free becomes free; a man who thinks he is bound remains bound. This popular saying is quite true - 'as you think, so you become.'&amp;quot; (Astavakra Samhita, I. 11.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are free already. You only have to realize it. No one grants it to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-10-31T08:15:20.840" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3574" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="180" CreationDate="2014-10-30T06:46:31.610" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;For strict Vaishnavism adherents, Balarama is part and parcel of the Dashavataram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gautama Buddha of Buddhism is not an avatara of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As described in previous posts Lord Vishnu came as Buddha avatara to mislead asuras. &#xA;  There is valid proofs in Vishnu purana and other puranas that Vishnu had taken Buddha avatara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another version in Puranas is Lord Vishnu took the form of Buddha to mislead Tripurasura and thereby helped Siva in killing the Asura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;This Buddha is no way related to Gautama Buddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata and Vishnu Purana, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Narayana plucked out two strands of hairs.  One was black (Krishna) and one was white (Balarama). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Also, as per, Vaishnava texts, Lakshmana and Balarama are expansions of Sankarshana form of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, there is absolutely nothing wrong in counting Balarama as part of Dashavatara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the question remains there are many instances that Balarama is considered the avatara of Adisesha, the primordial devotee of Lord Narayana/Vishnu/Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Same Adisesha was Lakshmana in Rama avatara..So, still the question remains why &quot;Balarama&quot; is included in Dashavatara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One the reasons provided is that the kind of service that Adisesha provides to Lord Narayana/Vishnu/Krishna and as Lakshmana to Rama during Rama avatarama is and was unparalleled. Lord made him his elder brother during Krishna avatara, so that he can serve his elder brother. But, Lord being the Lord and Adi sesha being his primordial devotee, Krishna couldn't match the services provided by Adisesha and serve &quot;Balarama&quot; to the extent, &quot;Lakshmana&quot; served his elder brother &quot;Rama&quot;. So, to honor the services of Adisesha, &quot;Balarama&quot; is included in Dashavatara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found another excellent answers in one of the posting on Srivaishnvism on why Balarama is part of Dasavathara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another reason that is given:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vasudeva’s first wife was ROhiNi. The second wife was Devaki. For the 7th time, Devaki conceived and it was Balarama. But, Lord’s “YOga Maaya” transferred the Lord Balarama from the womb of Devaki to that of ROhiNi. With this background, we have to see the explanation of Andal (one of the Alwars). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Verse 17 of Tiruppavai “AmparamE…” while referring to Balarama, she says “Sempon kazhalaDi selvaa, Bala DEva”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentators explain that this expression heaps praise on the ‘TiruvaDI’ &quot;the feet&quot; of the elder Balarama. What did this feet do?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because Balarama was born earlier, he had cleansed the womb of Devaki with his feet to make it fit for the birth of Krishna .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But this was not the case with fate of the earlier 6 children of vasudeva and devaki.&#xA;  Thus, Lord Balarama saved Krishna by cleansing the Womb of Devaki with his feet. Balarama started serving the Lord even before Lord Avatar took place, unlike Lakshmana who started his service much later (Lakshmana was born much after Lord Rama and started serving him after tha) and earned the sobriquet &lt;strong&gt;“LakshmaNO Lakshmi sampanna:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, in recognition of this feat and “MahOPakaara’ of saving Lord KrishNa, Balarama is recognized as an Avataara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-01-03T05:41:22.257" LastActivityDate="2017-01-03T05:41:22.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3576" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2884" CreationDate="2014-10-30T13:04:06.363" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer your question, Alwars praised Vishnu temples at various places.&#xA;There are many in south India and also some in the North India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, the temples that Alwars sang need not necessarily be existing today and may not be following the tenents of Sri Vaishnavism or for that matter Vaishnavism it self, as of today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there are shrines standing today, need not necessarily be the ones which Alwars had visited or praised during their time.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example Naimisharanya in Uttar Pradesh is one of the 108 Vaishnava divya desam. Now the Lord there is in the form of forest. So no one knows whether there was any temple existing at the time of Alwars. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same goes with Badrinath shrine. The shrine that is existing now is built during the time of Adi Shankara. The main part of Badrinath is the Nara-Narayana mountain peaks and not the temple established by AdiShankara. Again whether any temple existed in the present Badrinath temple at the time of Alwars is highly debatable. Most of the temples in North India related to 108 vaishnava divya desam could be, non-srivaishnavaite, due various reasons like passage of times, invasions etc...&#xA;Even, the Muktinath kshtram in Nepal it seems has a Vishnu shrine where deity of Vishnu and Lakshmi along with Sri Ramanujacharya? is there. But it is maintained by buddhists is what I had read somewhere.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T13:13:45.753" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T13:13:45.753" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3578" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2816" CreationDate="2014-10-30T19:11:57.343" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Of course science and Hinduism contradict each other. But science contradicts every religion as far as both strive to explain the phenomena around as. Religion satisfies many other goals. But due to your question I focus my answer on the domain where both overlap.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Science proceeds according to the method of conjecture and refutation. A scientific theory is a coherent set of hypotheses, which are intersubjectively testable. Scientific theories are often refuted by the test. Or the next generation replaces them by more powerful theories. That's not a shame. Rather it is the reason for scientific progress. Science develops theoretical terms and schemes which often go far beyond our every-day concepts. They may even by counter-intuitive. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, religions take their explanations from times very far in the past. Religion are always eager to keep the original wording of the text. Changes are often considered a change to the worse. In addition, often religions take their concepts and models from every-day life and extrapolate. Many models are both anthropocentric and anthropomorphic. They are presented as myth. E.g., the beginning of the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad. There are fundamental statements of Hinduism where even the terms are difficult to grasp. &quot;Atman equals brahman&quot; is the source of endless discussion and evokes many subjective interpretations. But what does the equation explain, how to test it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Summing up: I consider Hinduism a fascinating culture. Full of colour and phantasy, more than any other culture I know. But it is of no use to discuss scientific questions on the base of a religion. Any attempt ends with defending religion by justifications which do not convince me. Some of the above answers provide examples.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastEditorUserId="967" LastEditDate="2014-11-10T20:33:35.033" LastActivityDate="2014-11-10T20:33:35.033" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3580" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2296" CreationDate="2014-10-31T14:54:54.247" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;At the age of 11, after the death of Ghanshyam's parents, he left his home to travel whole India. His 7 years journey focused on reestablishing the ideals of Hindu Sanatan Dharma. He took the name &lt;em&gt;Neelkanth Varni&lt;/em&gt; while on his journey. After he met Ramanand Swami, Ramanand Swami gave him diksha and renamed him Narayan Muni and Sahajanand Swami. Later he is known as Lord Swaminarayan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.baps.org/About-BAPS/TheFounder%E2%80%93BhagwanSwaminarayan/Life/TeenageYogi-NeelkanthVarni.aspx&quot;&gt;Teenage Yogi - Neelkanth Varni&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="68" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-05T07:00:59.370" LastActivityDate="2014-11-05T07:00:59.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3581" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3523" CreationDate="2014-10-31T16:11:21.930" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are (or rather, Wikipedia is) correct in assuming that in some parts of the country, Diwali is considered the beginning of the new year. However, this is not a very widespread concept, and if someone wishes you a Happy Diwali &lt;em&gt;and&lt;/em&gt; a Happy New Year, it is mostly because Diwali is kind of the last major festival of the present year. It is analogous to people wishing other people a Merry Christmas &lt;em&gt;and&lt;/em&gt; a Happy New Year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="999" LastActivityDate="2014-10-31T16:11:21.930" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3582" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3186" CreationDate="2014-10-31T16:17:45.810" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I can tell from my experience, you are not supposed to pick Tulsi leaves on Sundays. Some say you are not even supposed to water the plant or disturb it in any way on Sunday. You can, however, use leaves picked on any other day in puja on Sunday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's no specific protocol for picking the leaves; as long as you do not vandalize the plant, or be disrespectful. Also, you must obviously be bathed before you pick leaves or water the plant. I've seen people picking out one leaf at a time, but I'm not sure if that's an actual thing, or just their OCD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="999" LastActivityDate="2014-10-31T16:17:45.810" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3584" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8750" CreationDate="2014-11-01T13:25:36.357" Score="5" ViewCount="9846" Body="&lt;p&gt;What happens at the end of Vikram and Betal story? I did some searching and I found &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baital_Pachisi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;some info like&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vetala Panchavimshati (Sanskrit: वेतालपञ्चविंशति, IAST: vetālapañcaviṃśati or Baital Pachisi (Bengali) (&quot;Twenty-five (tales) of Baital&quot;), is a collection of tales and legends within a frame story, from India. It was originally written in Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I just want to know what the end of the story is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1002" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-11-02T06:12:00.063" LastActivityDate="2015-09-27T04:06:53.620" Title="What happens at the end of the Vikram and Betal story?" Tags="|history|vikramaditya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3585" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-02T22:45:50.703" Score="5" ViewCount="889" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am trying to find the literal translation of a word from &lt;em&gt;Book 9, Hymn 42&lt;/em&gt; of the &lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt;. I'm wondering whether the pronoun used for &quot;Soma&quot; is singular or plural. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Hebrew bible, the word for &quot;God&quot; is &quot;Elohim&quot; which actual translates as &quot;Gods&quot;. Therefore I'm wondering if the pronoun for &quot;Soma&quot; is similar. (I've highlighted the words below).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ENGENDERING the Sun in floods, engendering heaven's lights, green-hued,&#xA;Robed in the waters and the milk,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to primeval plan this Soma, with &lt;strong&gt;his&lt;/strong&gt; stream, effused&#xA;Flows purely on, a God for Gods.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For &lt;strong&gt;him&lt;/strong&gt; victorious, waxen great, the juices with a thousand powers&#xA;Are purified for winning spoil.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shedding the ancient fluid he is poured into the cleansing sieve:&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;He&lt;/strong&gt;, thundering, hath produced the Gods.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Soma, while purifying, sends hither all things to be desired,&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;He&lt;/strong&gt; sends the Gods who strengthen Law.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Soma, effused, pour on us wealth in kine, in heroes, steeds, and spoil,&#xA;Send us abundant store of food.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rig Veda Book 9 Hymn 42&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जनयन रोचना दिवो जनयन्नप्सु सूर्यम |&#xA;  वसानो गा अपोहरिः ||&#xA;  एष परत्नेन मन्मना देवो देवेभ्यस परि |&#xA;  धारया पवते सुतः ||&#xA;  वाव्र्धानाय तूर्वये पवन्ते वाजसातये |&#xA;  सोमाः सहस्रपाजसः ||&#xA;  दुहानः परत्नमित पयः पवित्रे परि षिच्यते |&#xA;  करन्दन देवानजीजनत ||&#xA;  अभि विश्वानि वार्याभि देवान रताव्र्धः |&#xA;  सोमः पुनानोर्षति ||&#xA;  गोमन नः सोम वीरवदश्वावद वाजवत सुतः |&#xA;  पवस्व बर्हतीरिषः ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;janayan rocanā divo janayannapsu sūryam |&#xA;  vasāno ghā apohariḥ ||&#xA;  eṣa pratnena manmanā devo devebhyas pari |&#xA;  dhārayā pavate sutaḥ ||&#xA;  vāvṛdhānāya tūrvaye pavante vājasātaye |&#xA;  somāḥ sahasrapājasaḥ ||&#xA;  duhānaḥ pratnamit payaḥ pavitre pari ṣicyate |&#xA;  krandan devānajījanat ||&#xA;  abhi viśvāni vāryābhi devān ṛtāvṛdhaḥ |&#xA;  somaḥ punānoarṣati ||&#xA;  ghoman naḥ soma vīravadaśvāvad vājavat sutaḥ |&#xA;  pavasva bṛhatīriṣaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1005" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-11-06T06:23:03.723" LastActivityDate="2014-11-07T07:00:26.137" Title="Translation of Sanskrit word in Veda" Tags="|translation-request|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3586" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-03T00:44:11.813" Score="1" ViewCount="74" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna taught Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna during the Great War of Mahabharat. It helped Arjuna to overcome his despond and fight against Kouravas. Then he should have remained an enlightened person for life. But that didn't happen. After the war when his son Babruvaha approached him and requested him to consider him and his mother as family, Arjuna insulted him by saying that, &quot;you must be the son of a prostitute since you are begging me to treat you as son. If you were my son you would have fought with me and asked me the same&quot;. My question is how and why did Arjuna forget the teachings of great Bhagavad Gita and behave with ego?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="996" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-03T03:27:57.353" LastActivityDate="2014-11-03T03:27:57.353" Title="Why did Arjuna forget teachings of Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|krishna|arjuna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2014-11-03T03:47:47.270" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3588" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-03T07:04:12.293" Score="9" ViewCount="2138" Body="&lt;p&gt;No offence, but;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why did Shiva have an extra-marital affair with Mohini and beheaded his own son Ganesh by mistake like a human, being a supreme god?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When Rama, the incarnation of the god Vishnu, lost his wife, he did not get her back with supernatural, authoritative power. He had to fight for her (although he did many other things with supernatural power). In the battle, when his brother got injured, Rama was helpless until a sage prescribed a Himalayan plant for his treatment. Rama, though he was god, was helpless to procure the plant; so Hanuman flew to the Himalayas and got the plant. Sita, Ram's wife offered vows to Ganga while praying for Ram's safety. When Rama wanted to kill Bali, a bad guy, he had to use stealth because Vali had a boon that he could draw half his opponent's power to himself. Rama could not nullify this boon. Similarly, Rama could not prevent Ravana's 10 heads from rejoining themselves to his neck whenever Rama beheaded him. Being a supreme incarnation of god why he did he fail to do all these things?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even in Mahabharata, Krishna behaves like a normal human being not using any supernatural powers. Why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What was god's intention in doing all these things? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is god's message to us from all his incarnations?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-28T19:58:27.217" LastActivityDate="2016-05-28T19:58:27.217" Title="Why did some Hindu gods behave helpless just like human beings?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|krishna|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3590" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3588" CreationDate="2014-11-03T13:27:55.213" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;In answer to the first question, Shiva behaved that way because the stories were written at a time when men behaved that way and men at the time would have understood behavior like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In answer to the second question, when God incarnates in human form He is taking form in maya and therefore accepts the limitations of maya. God is limitless in the spiritual realm. Everything is limited in maya. When He takes birth in maya, He accepts the limitations of maya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-03T13:27:55.213" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3591" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3530" CreationDate="2014-11-03T15:26:04.827" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a passage in Mahabharata Anusasana Parva Section XLI that states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the lady endeavoured to answer him. Vipula, however restrained&#xA;  the words she intended to utter. The words, therefore, that actually&#xA;  escaped her lips (under the influence of Vipula) were, ‘What is the&#xA;  reason of thy coming hither?’ These words adorned with grammatical&#xA;  refinements, issued out of her mouth that was as beautiful as the&#xA;  moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganguli, the translator, remarks that ‘Ladies spoke in Prakrita and not in Sanskrit. The latter is refined, the former is unrefined. Hence Indra’s surprise at hearing Sanskrit words from the lady’s lips.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2014-11-04T00:36:23.083" LastActivityDate="2014-11-04T00:36:23.083" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3594" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-04T07:29:10.677" Score="17" ViewCount="9300" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people use the practice of &lt;a href=&quot;http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.6:1:352.apte&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sati&lt;/a&gt; (सती) as a weapon against Hinduism to point out that it is full of bad practices. I have heard that it was limited to one particular community in one of the states where women sacrifice their life after the death of their husbands. As India has a culture with variability, there will be differences and uniquely strange practices among the various communities within this culture. But people against Hinduism use 'Sati' to defame the whole culture and they are thinking that the practice was common among all Hindus in India in past. Can someone clarify the things for the whole community? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a bit of history about our religion, but it is important to clarify the things among ourselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-06T09:14:59.043" LastActivityDate="2023-01-16T23:04:48.170" Title="What is the truth behind the practice of Sati? How is it related to Hinduism?" Tags="|practice|women|death|india|sati|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3595" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3585" CreationDate="2014-11-04T07:56:26.137" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is singular. According to Sanskrit dictionary - 'it is personified as one of the most important of Vedic gods, to whose praise all the 114 hymns of the 9th book of the Rg Veda besides 6 in other books....&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference - &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://sanskritdictionary.com&lt;/a&gt; - do a search on सोम&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-04T07:56:26.137" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3596" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3594" CreationDate="2014-11-04T08:13:59.920" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Swami Vivekananda the practice was limited and was outlawed in the mid 19&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century. He says that although the British took steps to formally outlaw it, it was already being condemned at the time by various Hindu intellectuals of the time and steps were being taken to stop the practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sathi was a cultural practice. It is not a religious practice. In all cultures there are practices that spring up under the heading of religion, but are in actuality cultural, not religious. Sathi was voluntary, it was never involuntary. It was also rare. A wife who wanted to commit Sathi had to first plunge her arm into the fire to show her commitment to doing it before it was she was allowed to do it completely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All religions have had various questionable practices in the past, there are no exceptions. It is difficult to judge the past by our present standards. Among Catholics there was the Spanish Inquisition. Among the Protestants, there was the wholesale slaughter of Jews in Europe during the middle ages as well as the burning of witches in the US.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is important when discussing religion to separate cultural practices, especially those of ages ago, from religious practices.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One reference: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_5/Epistles_-_First_Series/LXXXIX_Mother&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Complete works &gt; Vol 4 &gt;&gt; Mother&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-10-02T02:21:03.033" LastActivityDate="2018-10-02T02:21:03.033" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3597" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2776" CreationDate="2014-11-05T03:05:21.850" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;A time ago, Hindus observed that they weren't able to provide a living sacrifice to their Gods due to the pain and the negativity involved with it. They decided to use the coconut fruit as its replacement which made an excellent alternative due to the presence of a face upon it. That is why, it has been called the &quot;&lt;strong&gt;God's fruit&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1010" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-05T03:35:09.303" LastActivityDate="2014-11-05T03:35:09.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3598" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3402" CreationDate="2014-11-05T08:56:53.087" Score="2" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Background&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, I want to put all my due respect to the great Sages and Cosmic Forces which shaped the Hindu culture, science, and philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to make one point clear: Hinduism is not a religion as others perceive. It has deluded the followers of Sanatana Dharma. Is not a religion, but was made a religion by other religious sects to separate it from theirs like Christianity, or Islam etc. If they want us to wear the term Hindu and Hinduism to separate us from them, that's okay, let it be. We don't want to separate world based upon separate beliefs, but, if they want to differentiate us, then, it is essential to use this terms to make the concepts clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, we, the followers of the great culture of Sanatana Dharma, did not create religions or separate religions. If so, we can create INFINITE RELIGIONS: one for each Gods, each prophet, each sage, each guru! But, that doesn't mean Sanatana Dharma prevents others from creating a separate belief system! Does it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what Hinduism is? Is there a term or close term like Hinduism in Vedas or Upanishads or Puranas? Well, before that, what religion is? In current era, religion basically means a limited or strict set of beliefs you follow: like you only follow bible, or you only follow Quran, or you only follow a book or a person/prophet/god. Usually they have a fixed set of scriptures, and most of the times founder(s) of that religion. Hinduism, being an eternal religion, doesn't restrict one from accepting multiple beliefs, doesn't have a fixed founder, doesn't have a fixed scriptures, does not have a fixed belief system(you are free to create your own), hence doesn't fit well under the religion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example: take our sages, they respect sanatana dharma, they follow Vedas, and puranas, and they also respect bible and Quran. Not only that, they also read bible and quran and teach and preach good things written in bible, quran etc. So, does that make them christian or Muslim? No! They are above religion! So are we!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's unfortunate that many of us,  by not understanding our own culture, science, and philosophy, are diminishing our values and forgetting our true identities. Our culture is complex, our beliefs our unparalleled, such that many of us don't try to avoid the complexities, and try to find an easier answer. Hence, creating further doubts. But, Hinduism being an eternal concept, it encompasses all the cultures, beliefs, science, philosophies, religions, including the metaphysical aspects of the creation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example: a christian means he/she only adheres to bible, or muslim means he/she only adheres to quran. Or can a christian be muslim also? Will general Christians or their scriptures accept that? But, what about a Hindu? Can you be a follower of Sanatana Dharma and still give place of other belief systems in the world? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am proud to be part of this compassionate culture, in our culture there are infinite gods, infinite gurus, and prophets. And, we show our great respects to all of them. Because, Lord tells that &quot;I am in every living and non living&quot;. So, we respect all other religions and belief systems! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We, the followers of Sanatana Dharma, and our scriptures do not prevent us to accept other beliefs. In a sense, we do not have a concept of RELIGION, but we have a concept of DHARMA. And DHARMA is NOT equal to RELIGION. Sanatana Dharma is a broader concept. Dharma can be personal. In Bhagavad Geeta, Lord says that &quot;Only the person himself creates/believes/adheres to his Dharma&quot;. Basically, at personal level Dharma constitutes your responsibilities, duties, and your actions and even more -- so, each person has unique Dharma. When a situation occurs that is very deluding to you, we call it: DHARMA-SANKAT. So, that word &quot;Dharma-Sankat&quot; alone can tell a wise person that Dharma and Religion have separate meanings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, I am not a GURU, neither am an expert in any Religion, so, I cannot explain what I mean very well, but you might have grasped the idea. If so, you have to accept the fact that, Hinduism is not a religion. There is no comparable term or definition I can provide to explain the infinite aspects of Hinduism. With what I know, I can tell that &quot;Any definition or understanding of Hinduism will fall short because it is eternal, it is scientific, it is complex, and its implications are outside the time and space&quot;. Eternal - because, no starting or end point. Scientific - because the Maths, Astronomy, and Cosmological calculations match most closely with current scientific experiments/theories. It's complex-because, a mere human cannot grasp it easily. I don't think, I can ever understand it -- it's so complex. It talks about all those times from the creation of the universe to the passages of Yugas, Mahayugas, Kalpas, to life of Brahmas! The infinite Brahmas, and the infinite repetition of these Brahmas, the infinite incarnations of the supreme Lord! So, it is outside the time and space! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;In relation to the Question: &lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, in my opinion, it doesn't really make a difference, who is included or excluded from the list. Since, one is allowed to freely select their own god, create their own religion. Ultimately, what our sages or authors of those scriptures did is tried to come up with most significant figures they perceived. And they should have weighted some facts in doing so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example: we have most significant form of the lord, then, we have 10 most significant avatars, then 25 most significant forms, or 100 most significant forms etc. If Lord declared that &quot;He is inside everyone&quot;, then, you can see lord in Christ, or Mohammad, or Buddha, or Sai etc. Because our scriptures don't prevent one from doing so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, above that, I highly respect the Sages and writers, and there should be a strong reason behind their selection of most significant avatars. Also, it might not be a good idea to include every religion(set of beliefs) founder in the list of avatars.  There are hundreds of registered religions, and the list is growing like Eckanker is a new religion getting popularity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And above all, I do not have detailed knowledge, but, there are different forms of incarnations or avataras like: lilavatara, gunavatara, yugavatara, manavantaravatara. So, for normal human beings, it might be difficult to verify the fact that certain person born in this world can be linked to the time and characteristics of such avataras and claim that he is an avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As an aside, there are many people who claim to be of certain avatars, or who are claimed by others to be. For example: there are many people claiming Kalki Avatara. So, probably most humans do not have ability to know the true avataras. Even in the time of Lord Krishna, did everyone knew he was the form of Lord himself on this Earth? I doubt! Many people did not believe he was God. Same can go with Hanuman. Did everyone at that time knew he was an amshavatar or Lord Shiva? Or how many knew Lord Rama was an Avatara at his time? If all people knew he was Lord, then, most people at that time would be his devotee, but as we see, it was not so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1013" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-05T09:40:46.727" LastActivityDate="2014-11-05T09:40:46.727" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3599" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-05T09:17:52.303" Score="1" ViewCount="341" Body="&lt;p&gt;One thing I'm a bit confused about:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism says we must escape the cycle of birth and death and attain moksha. But how are we to do this and how is this related to karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If my actions are very negative in one lifetime will there be a chance to progress towards to this goal in the next lifetime?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Say I'm a very evil person in one life, surely, as a result of this bad karma, my next birth will see me in a worse situation/circumstances where it will be increasingly more difficult to attain this goal of Hinduism? Thus will I not essentially be in a downward spiral, never being able to progress spiritually?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone offer a &lt;strong&gt;non-theistic&lt;/strong&gt; explanation of how this works in Hindu philosophy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-05T09:41:22.370" LastActivityDate="2014-11-05T17:04:42.090" Title="How karma works in Hindu philosophy?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2014-11-06T06:24:43.873" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3600" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-11-05T10:00:46.063" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-11-05T10:00:46.063" LastActivityDate="2014-11-05T10:00:46.063" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3601" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-11-05T10:00:46.063" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-11-05T10:00:46.063" LastActivityDate="2014-11-05T10:00:46.063" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3602" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-11-05T10:02:36.443" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The asuras are a group of deities that often do battle with the devas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more information, see:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asura&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Asura&lt;/a&gt; on Wikipedia&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-11-05T16:53:53.483" LastActivityDate="2014-11-05T16:53:53.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3603" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-11-05T10:02:36.443" Score="0" Body="The asuras are a group of deities that often do battle with the [devas]." OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-11-05T16:55:27.447" LastActivityDate="2014-11-05T16:55:27.447" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3604" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3599" CreationDate="2014-11-05T17:04:42.090" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You need to understand Vedanta physiology first. A Person is considered to be an Atman covered by karana sarira (causal body), sukshma sarira (subtle body) and sthula sarira (the gross body). The gross body is the outermost covering of the Atman while the causal body is the final covering of the Atman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now that we understand the physiology, we have to know how one attains Moksha. According to the sage Vasishta in Mahabharata Santi Parva  Sectiom CCCVII:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When men of knowledge, conversant with the rules of Yoga, become as&#xA;  fixed as a stake of wood, and as immovable as a mountain, then are&#xA;  they said to be in Yoga. When one does not hear, and smell, and taste,&#xA;  and see; when one is not conscious of any touch; when one’s mind&#xA;  becomes perfectly free from every purpose; when one is not conscious&#xA;  of anything, when one cherishes no thought; when one becomes like a&#xA;  piece of wood, then is one called by the wise to be in perfect Yoga.&#xA;  At such a time one shines like a lamp that burns in a place where&#xA;  there is no wind; &lt;strong&gt;at such a time one becomes freed even from one’s&#xA;  subtle form,&lt;/strong&gt; and perfectly united with Brahma. When one attains to&#xA;  such progress, one has no longer to ascend or to fall among&#xA;  intermediate beings. When persons like ourselves say that there has&#xA;  been a complete identification of the Knower, the Known, and&#xA;  Knowledge, then is the Yogin said to behold the Supreme Soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me draw attention to the bolded portion 'freed from one's subtle form'. The main purpose of any spiritual practice is to go beyond the subtle form or to punch a hole through the subtle covering. This can be achieved through devotion to a Devata (theistic approach) or through knowledge of one's own nature (Jnana marga) or through one's own effort ( strict Buddhistic approach) or through mantra japa etc. After one has broken free of the subtle covering then one has to break free of the causal covering to reach the Atman. When one becomes freed from the subtle covering, the mind becomes an useless appendage and basically does not work. That is why they say that an Yogi has to fix one's mind when he does not notice anything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may be wondering what this has to do with bad Karma. What bad Karma does is to injure one's subtle covering so that it becomes very difficult to punch through that covering. Good Karma makes the job of breaking free from the subtle covering easier. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-11-05T17:04:42.090" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3605" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3594" CreationDate="2014-11-06T07:03:33.680" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before I go forward to my answer I would Like to clarify a specific word &lt;strong&gt;'SATI'&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SATI&lt;/strong&gt; : Pavitra ( meaning Pure ), anything or anyone in its purest form is called Sati, a female who is limited to her husband is considered as Sati, male are not considered for this name as males are born Impure ( sorry this is my personal view after knowing many things, do not take it personally, I can also be wrong.).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;WHY TO PERFORM SATI&lt;/strong&gt; : There is no reason to perform sati, none of our scriptures mention this in any manner, we will find sati majorly in two forms &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;DEVI SATI, SATITVA&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and other related words. Actually this question has nothing to do with religion its purely a cultural concept, and has a long history behind it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;WHY IT STARTED?&lt;/strong&gt; The SATI PRACTICE is not older than 800-1000 years back. It actually started after the invasion of the MUGHALS. Most of the mughals used to acquire woman forcefully, mostly raping and molesting them. This caused fear in most royal woman, not because of death, but to loose their &lt;em&gt;SATITVA&lt;/em&gt;, which even ends when a other male even touches them. It started with the royal woman, mostly in groups where the royal woman use to burn their bodies in fire to protect their &lt;em&gt;SATITVA&lt;/em&gt;. And by the years this came down to normal people, making it a ritual, mostly by the villagers to protect their females, and after that it became a ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the whole story &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153025641639027&amp;amp;set=a.10151656811404027.617296.594509026&amp;amp;type=1&amp;amp;fref=nf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastActivityDate="2014-11-06T07:03:33.680" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3606" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2969" CreationDate="2014-11-06T07:06:01.963" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In that Sloka the word &lt;code&gt;Vishnum&lt;/code&gt; is in second case(dvitiya) implying Vishnu as the nama (actual undeclined noun). This name comes from the dhatu (verbal root) vish meaning all pervading. This attribute of all pervasiveness can only be truly applied to Vishnutattva. You will see in many places in Gita how Lord Krishna declares this all pervading nature of His. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One example is Gita 9.4:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. &#xA;All beings are in Me, but I am not in them&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While I do not know exactly why people attribute it to Lord Ganesha, long time ago I was under the impression that it was for Lord Ganesha for the same reason given by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2976/467&quot;&gt;@jabahar&lt;/a&gt;. Lord Ganesha is generally worshiped before doing a religious activity in order to counteract any obstacles. Since this sloka has reference to the word vighna (obstacles) it is definitely a source of confusion to many. Ultimately Lord Ganesha gets his power to remove obstacles from Lord Krishna or Vishnu only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna in Gita 7.22 states:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Endowed with such a faith, he endeavors to worship a particular demigod and obtains his desires.&#xA;But in actuality these beneﬁts are bestowed by Me alone&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Brahma Samhita 5.50 Lord Brahma says&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;yat-pada-pallava-yugam vinidhaya kumbha-&#xA;dvandve pranama-samaye sa ganadhirajah&#xA;vighnan vihantum alam asya jagat-trayasya&#xA;govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami&#xA;I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, whose lotus feet are always held by Ganesa &#xA;upon the pair of tumuli protruding from his elephant head in order to obtain power&#xA;for his function of destroying all the obstacles on the path of progress of the three worlds.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, overall, the direct meaning refers only to Lord Vishnu and there is no need to go for indirect interpretations when the direct meaning is fully clear both from the nama (word Vishnu )and the attributes of all pervasiveness (Vish dhatu) and ultimate remover of obstacles (Vighnas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-11-06T07:10:48.733" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3607" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="829" CreationDate="2014-11-06T07:31:01.133" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The acarya of a particular institution will have the right to decide the matters based on scriptural injunctions. However, those who are faithful to that acarya will follow the ban and not others. Generally speaking, depending on an individual's nature and motivation he or she will worship a particular personality or energy. This topic is very ancient and Arjuna asks Krishna in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 17.1&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna inquired: O Kṛṣṇa, what is the situation of those who do not follow the&#xA;      principles of scripture but worship according to their own imagination? &#xA;      Are they in goodness, in passion or in ignorance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is described further that those in goodness worship various devatas (like Candra, Surya, Ganesa, Indra and so on). Those in passion worship some powerful persons including demons (raksasas). Those in ignorance worship ghosts and spirits (bhutas, pretas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To summarize: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;No, worship of humans is not denied in the scriptures but such type of worship is not considered on the same level of worship of devatas or the Supreme Vishnu tattvas. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think he has a valid reason since reference to Saibaba is not found in the major texts like Bhagavadgita, Ramayana, Mahabharata and other major puranas that are prevalent.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes, an acarya can ban like this for his followers because he is guided by scriptures for the goals he and his followers are after.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-26T19:07:02.330" LastActivityDate="2016-05-26T19:07:02.330" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3608" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3668" CreationDate="2014-11-06T07:33:50.883" Score="12" ViewCount="1653" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, each of the four Vedas consists of four portions: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas which consist of verses heard from the gods; Brahmanas, which provide instructions on the proper conducting of important rituals; Aranyakas, which provide a guide to rituals meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical message of the Vedas.  Traditionally there are said to be 108 Upanishads in total; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/advaitavedant/muktika.htm&amp;amp;date=2009-10-25%2016:10:32&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the canonical list of Upanishads given in the Muktika Upanishad of the Shukla Yajur Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads is notoriously unreliable, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3012/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, because it was passed down by a poor oral tradition process (as opposed to the painstakingly rigorous process used to preserve the Vedic Samhitas).  Students in the disciplic succession could freely add works to the list, some works in the list are very likely not genuine Upanishads, like the Kali Santarana Upanishad as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2606/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  So we can't be sure of the authenticity of an Upanishad just because it's included in the Muktika canon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other extreme, there are the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukhya_Upanishads&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mukhya Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;, the ten Upanishads that Adi Shankaracharya wrote commentaries on.  Adi Shankaracharya commented on the oldest of the Upanishads, so we can be confident in the authenticity of these ten.  But I'm wondering whether we can expand the set of confirmed Upanishads.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3198/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Vyasa, the sage who compiled the Vedas in the first place, also composed a work called the Brahma Sutras, a work summarizing and systematizing the philosophical teaching of the Upanishads.  The most popular school of Hindu philosophy, the Vedanta school, bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what are the Upanishads which are quoted from in the Brahma Sutras?  Vyasa, being the compiler of the Vedas, would presumably know exactly what the actual Upanishads are.  So if an Upanishad is quoted in the Brahma Sutras, there be little doubt about its authenticity.  You can read the Brahma Sutra &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, as well as Adi Shankaracharya's commentary on it (the Brahma Sutra Bhashya) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and Ramanujacharya's commentary (the Sri Bhashya) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  These commentaries give the source of each quote, but does anyone know if there's a definitive list of all the quotes or all the Upanishads from which quotes are taken?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T15:13:26.233" Title="Which Upanishads are quoted in sage Vyasa's Brahma Sutras?" Tags="|philosophy|upanishads|brahma-sutras|vedanta|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3609" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3186" CreationDate="2014-11-06T07:41:26.297" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question seemed to be discussed a lot and you can find some citations from Hari Bhakti Vilasa in the link below:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lotusimprints.com/new/blog/2008/12/14/qa-worship-of-tulasi-devi-on-dvadasi-17-other-questions/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.lotusimprints.com/new/blog/2008/12/14/qa-worship-of-tulasi-devi-on-dvadasi-17-other-questions/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The take away from the above link: Tulasi is a devotee of Lord Vishnu (Kesava priya) and she is said to practice vratam/fasting on Ekadasi and so as not to disturb her in potentially weak condition people don't pick her leaves on the following day. In some traditions days besides Ekadasi are also followed for various religious practices and the same rule seems to apply.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-11-06T07:41:26.297" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3611" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3648" CreationDate="2014-11-06T14:00:55.757" Score="12" ViewCount="5071" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who gave the names to the God like Lord Siva, Lord Vishnu, etc.? Are they the writers of the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did they ask the god to name them like this so that people can worship them by that name or the god himself said to worship him by that name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-26T13:19:48.967" LastActivityDate="2016-08-27T08:04:59.047" Title="Origins of God names - Lord Siva and Lord Vishnu" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|gods|name|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3612" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-06T14:13:47.317" Score="8" ViewCount="6000" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is the oldest form of god to be worshipped? Is it Lord Siva or Lord Vishnu or Goddess Shakthi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="312" LastEditDate="2014-11-07T13:39:14.750" LastActivityDate="2015-12-26T10:37:00.543" Title="Who is oldest form of God to be worshipped?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|shakti|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3613" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3621" CreationDate="2014-11-06T14:15:51.900" Score="4" ViewCount="541" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know if re-birth takes place on Earth always or on other planets too?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, if a person does bad karma on Earth, will he be re-born on Earth or it could be on any other planet?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-22T19:43:12.737" LastActivityDate="2017-02-22T19:47:28.150" Title="Does re-birth take place on Earth always?" Tags="|karma|rebirth|earth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3615" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2574" CreationDate="2014-11-06T15:29:12.747" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found that nearly every Purana states its main diety as the supreme one. And sometimes to support that they also say that the deity was there from the beginning and then he later gets incarnated into his physical incarnation, so considering all this what I assume is that there is one supreme God, which the Shiva Puran calls Sadashiva, Vishnupuran calls Mahavishnu, Bramhapuran calls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This supreme God might be nirakar, ajanma, etc. Then he created 3 main dieties Bramha, Vishnu and Rudra which are actually 3 powers of the supreme one only and then they further created, handled or destroyed all other creations. We have seen pictures of all of these 3 dieties to be meditating. Now, if anyone of them is supreme then why are they praying, so they must be praying the supreme God which we call by different names, i.e Sadashiva or Mahavishnu or Parabramha, etc. If we consider Muslim religion also, there is no physical God, its also that Nirakaar Supreme God which they call as Allah. Similarly, in Christianity also there was an invisible God whose only voice was heard and later Jesus was said to be the son of that God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;This is what I feel. Sorry, if I have hurt anyone's religious feelings but if we think this way then there would be no religious clashes/biases/etc.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-07T04:49:47.647" LastActivityDate="2014-11-07T04:49:47.647" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3617" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3618" CreationDate="2014-11-06T16:18:48.923" Score="14" ViewCount="5826" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that the Mahabharat was written by Ved-Vyas, but what many of us don't know is that Ved-Vyas was not the name of the person but the title. This title is given to the one who add/modify/delete the original Ved, Puranas and Epics. Ved-Vyas, the author of Mahabharat was actually named 'Krishna-Dwaipayan' and he got the title of Ved-Vyas. I want to know about who else were the other sages holding the same title. Please also specify the sources from where you get the information.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-05T14:46:30.597" LastActivityDate="2016-11-24T13:28:11.737" Title="Who all were the different Ved-Vyas?" Tags="|vedas|yuga|rishi|vyasa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3618" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3617" CreationDate="2014-11-06T16:36:22.347" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2771/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, how the Vedas originated is that from time immemorial, sages known as Dhristas have heard sacred verses directly from the gods during a state of Tapasya (deep meditation). And then in every Dwapara Yuga, a sage called the Veda Vyasa takes this set of mantras and divides into the four books we call the Vedas (or more precisely the Samhitas of the Vedas).  (By the way, contrary to what you said, the job of the Vyasa is just related to the Vedas; it's just that our current Vyasa did things other than that, like write the Mahabharata, Puranas, and Brahma Sutras.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Vishnu Purana, the current (Krishna Dwaipayana) Veda Vyasa's father Parashara &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin//vp/vp077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; all the Veda Vyasas in the current Vaivasvata Manvantara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Twenty-eight times have the Vedas been arranged by the great Rishis in the Vaivaswata Manwantara in the Dwápara age, and consequently eight and twenty Vyásas have passed away; by whom, in their respective periods, the Veda has been divided into four. In the first Dwápara age the distribution was made by Swayambhu (Brahmá) himself; in the second, the arranger of the Veda (Veda-vyása) was Prajápati (or Manu); in the third, Uśanas; in the fourth, Vrihaspati; in the fifth, Savitri; in the sixth, Mrityu (Death, or Yama); in the seventh, Indra; in the eighth, Vaśisht́ha; in the ninth, Sáraswata; in the tenth, Tridháman; in the eleventh, Trivrishan; in the twelfth, Bharadwája; in the thirteenth, Antaríksha; in the fourteenth, Vapra; in the fifteenth, Trayyáruńa 2; in the sixteenth, Dhananjaya; in the seventeenth, Kritanjaya; in the eighteenth, Rińa; in the nineteenth, Bharadwája; in the twentieth, Gotama; in the twenty-first, Uttama, also called Haryátmá; in the twenty-second, Veńa, who is likewise named Rájaśravas; in the twenty-third, Somaśushmápańa, also Trińavindu; in the twenty-fourth, Riksha, the descendant of Bhrigu, who is known also by the name Válmíki; in the twenty-fifth, my father Śakti was the Vyása; I was the Vyása of the twenty-sixth Dwápara, and was succeeded by Jaratkáru; the Vyása of the twenty-eighth, who followed him, was Krishńa Dwaipáyana. These are the twenty-eight elder Vyásas, by whom, in the preceding Dwápara ages, the Veda has been divided into four. In the next Dwápara, Drauńi (the son of Drońa) will be the Vyása, when my son, the Muni Krishńa Dwaipáyana, who is the actual Vyása, shall cease to be (in that character).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that we're currently living in the 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Kali Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara, so our Vyasa is Krishna Dwaipayana as you said.  And the next Vyasa will be Drona's son &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashwatthama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashwatthama&lt;/a&gt;, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2390/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-01-16T02:49:18.300" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3620" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2816" CreationDate="2014-11-06T19:52:43.383" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Very good question. I know you reserached some and posted as an answer but I want to add some points anyways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(1)Does Hinduism and science contradict each other?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes and No. There is a good level of agreement in many areas and we do disagree in several areas as well. For instance Vedic tradition accepts that there is soul in plants and life is a symptom of soul. Science (Jagdish Chandrabose) has proved that life exists in the plant. In the realm of cosmology there is agreement on the existence of different planets as well. However we diagree on the relative positions and some details. You can search on google and check for Richard L. Thompson's Vedic Comsology pdf and video for comparisons and contrasts in this area.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(2)You asked specifically about evolution theory.&lt;/strong&gt; In this area Vedic literature and view is actually in disagreement with Darwin. First of all Darwin's theory is not science. It is his speculation based on limited obseravation and intelligence. Science means you should be able to prove it through experiment. I have never seen in my experience monkeys becoming humans. Srila Prabhuada, one of the prominent Gaudiya Acaryas, suggests that Darwin might have taken some information from padma purana about various species and added his speculations to comeup with the theory. You can find the padma purana verse and translation here &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Puranas/THE_FIFTH_VEDA_PURANA/LESSON_FOUR_PART_2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Puranas/THE_FIFTH_VEDA_PURANA/LESSON_FOUR_PART_2.htm&lt;/a&gt; Basically there are 8,400,000 species and they are classified into different categories. However the evolution doesn't happen on a bodily level. It is not that monkey body changes to human body. The soul with in the body takes on different bodies. As stated in the Bhagavad Gita 2.22:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya navani grhnati naro ’parani tatha&#xA;  sarirani vihaya jirnany anyani samyati navani dehi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul&#xA;  similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless&#xA;  ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what kind of body we get in next life is dependent on our activities in this life. Similarly our present position is a reflection of our past activities. All this is determined bu the superior authorities just like a criminal's punishment or a good citizen's reward is judged by the government officials.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To support the above idea here is a reference from Srimad Bhagavatam&#xA;  3.31.1 by Lord Kapiladeva sri-bhagavan uvaca karmana daiva-netrena  jantur dehopapattaye striyah pravista udaram  pumso retah-kanasrayah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme&#xA;  Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the&#xA;  soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle&#xA;  of male semen to assume a particular type of body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand further we can use another example Lord Krishna gives in the gita 2.13. There He says 'As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.' So Krishna is saying we can see that the soul is taking on a new body even this life. According to science also the cells in our body are completely replaced after a certain period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in regards to this matter what Krishna says in Gita and our information from scriptures like Bhagavatam and Padma purana is more rich and logical than Darvin's speculative theory. In summary, on this matter, I find Vedic information to be more scientific since I can see in my own experience how my body is changing in this life and how I am suffering the results of my good and bad deeds in this life as well. Similarly the pheonmenon continues to next life and it seems logical as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(3) If I am a Hindu, does that mean that I cannot accept what science has researched?&lt;/strong&gt; We will accept only to the extent of it's validity. The computer you are working on, the motor cars etc. are all real even though temporary. So there is no blind criticism of science. The brain of a scientist is also a creation of God. Real point it how we use the scientific inventions. As long as they are used for the right purpose we are OK with it. The main thing we need to careful about is that there are so many scientific anamolies. That is science explains something and then realizes it was wrong. For instance the US government, based on science, encouraged a diet heavy in meat. Now they are promoting more greens and grains. In regards to those it is better to take information from Vedic sources. In the matters where science contradicts completely from Vedas it is better to take time tested Vedic information as long as it is not fanatically interpreted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(4)Does Hinduism itself make any mention of how to deal with scientific findings that may not line up with the Vedas?&lt;/strong&gt; Hinduism puts sastric injunctions as priority. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Gita 16.23 Lord Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own&#xA;  whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme&#xA;  destination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However sastra cannot be properly understood unless we recieve them from practicing authorities. There is a lot of room for misinterpretation. Therefore it is recommended as 'maha jano yena gatah sa pantha', we should walk the path of mahatmans who have preoprely realized the Vedas. See the scientific issue in question in the light of sastra (Scripture), sadhus (saints) and guru (specific saint, the spiritual teacher). Then decide on the level of your faith on what to do :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-11-06T19:52:43.383" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3621" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3613" CreationDate="2014-11-06T20:16:36.903" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It doesn't need to be earth planets. Depending on our activities we may go to different places.&#xA;Gita 14.18 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the&#xA;  higher planets; those in the mode of passion live on the earthly&#xA;  planets; and those in the abominable mode of ignorance go down to the&#xA;  hellish worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/18&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However after suffering or enjoying the reactions of our deeds we will come back to earth planet. In Gita 8.16 it is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;punar avartino ’rjuna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mam upetya tu kaunteya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;punar janma na vidyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all&#xA;  are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But&#xA;  one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;punar avartinah&lt;/code&gt; they come back, is important. We come back to the earth after our quota of enjoyment or suffering expires. However those who practice self realization and will go back to spiritual world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-07T04:42:09.947" LastActivityDate="2014-11-07T04:42:09.947" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3622" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="774" CreationDate="2014-11-07T00:34:57.013" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who wrote the Vedas and why?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas do not have a mundane mortal creater. They manifested from the Supreme Lord and they are eternal like the Supreme Lord. In Srimad Bhagavatam 6.1 yamadutas tell the Visnudutas &lt;code&gt;vedo narayanah saksat svayambhur iti susruma - 'The Vedas are directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana and are self-born. This we have heard from Yamarāja'&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in the first verse of Srimadbhagavatam Vyasadeva says &lt;code&gt;'om namo bhagavate vasudevaya ... ene brahma hrda ya adi-kavaye'&lt;/code&gt; He offers respects to &lt;code&gt;vāsudeva, the son of Devaki,&lt;/code&gt; and says He revealed &lt;code&gt;brahma&lt;/code&gt; (another name of Vedas) to &lt;code&gt;ādi-kavi&lt;/code&gt; (Lord Brahma) with in his  heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More clearly we find in Srimadbhagavatam 11.14.3 where &lt;code&gt;Lord Krishna&lt;/code&gt; tells &lt;code&gt;Uddhava&lt;/code&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;sri-bhagavan uvaca&#xA;kalena nasta pralaye&#xA; vaniyam veda-samjñita&#xA;mayadau brahmane prokta&#xA; dharmo yasyam mad-atmakah&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: By the influence of time, the&#xA;  transcendental sound of Vedic knowledge was lost at the time of&#xA;  annihilation. Therefore, when the subsequent creation took place, I&#xA;  spoke the Vedic knowledge to Brahmā because I Myself am the religious&#xA;  principles enunciated in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we know that they are eternal and came from the Supreme Lord, the purpose of the Vedas is like the manual of a product. They are the manuals to give us knowledge of this material world and also the means to attain the goal of human life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did the Vedas exist since their inception?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like I mentioned above they were transmitted to Brahma and came down in disciplic succession. From Brahma to Narada and other saints. Narada gave them to Vyasa. They existed in the sound form and from the time of Vyasa some form of transcription started. Unlike the modern idea that civilization is advancing the Vedic idea is that people are actually degrading as kali yuga progresses. Their memory is not as strong now. In the previous ages, due to practicing strict life of celibacy and austerities, the students of Vedas had sharp memories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where can we find the Vedas to read?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;This is not a trivial thing. Vedas cannot be understood with out the help of a teacher. This is given in the Vedas itself. While you can find some versions floating on the internet the authenticity of some of the content is questionable. Five hundred years ago the stalwart genius Jiva Gosvami wrote a detailed, logical, technical work called tattva sandarbha in which he addresses the issue of what constitutes Vedas and how should we approach them in this modern day. He points out the certain portions of the Vedas are actually not available now and there exists many confusing interpretations as well. &lt;code&gt;I found from a sanskrit scholar (Gopiparanadhana dasa) that at present only 11 samhita, 18 Brahmanas, 7 Aranyakas and 220 Upanishads are available. This constitutes only 6% of what is stated in Kurma Purana&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;So Jiva Gosvami says that the puranas and itihasas constitute much better, authentic and reliable knowledge. He cites Mahabharata adi-parva and the Manu Samhita whic states 'One should complete one's understanding of the Vedas with the help of puranas and itihasas'. Also it is said the Puranas are called by that name because they 'complete'. You cannot complete something which is not of the same nature so Puranas are actually part of Vedas.&lt;/code&gt; Jiva Gosvami addresses the concern some may have in considering puranas as Vedas. &lt;code&gt;He cites from the passage of Madhyandina Sruti, Brhad-aranyaka Upanishad 2.4.10 which states 'Thus indeed the breath of the Supreme Being constitues the Rg Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, Atharvangirasa Veda, Itihasa and Purana'&lt;/code&gt;. Bhagavatam says originally the Veda was one and Vyasa divided into four. He also cites several other sources like Skanda Purana. Interested can look up for 'Tattva Sandarbha' translation by Gopi Paranadhana Dasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam also calls Puranas as fifth Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;itihasa-puranani&#xA; pañcamam vedam isvarah&#xA;sarvebhya eva vaktrebhyah&#xA; sasrje sarva-darsanah&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then he created the fifth Veda — the Puranas and the histories — from&#xA;  all his mouths, since he could see all the past, present and future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So while you can find some texts of Rg, Yajur, Sama and Atharva by googling around, the contents will not complete and the interpretations/translations may not be fully accurate. You would be better off with some well known upanishads like Isopanishad and speific Vedanta Sutra citations in commentaries to texts like Bhagavata Purana. Best is to take the summary of all Vedas that is given by Vyasa in the top most Bhagavata Purana. You can find one commentary &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-31T13:04:10.810" LastActivityDate="2016-01-31T13:04:10.810" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3623" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3613" CreationDate="2014-11-07T04:32:52.763" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas are not clear on this point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Nikhilananda in his introduction to his translation of the Upanishads says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmanda, or Egg of Brahma, described by the Hindu seers, may be likened, without pressing the comparison to far, to the solar system. The name is derived from it's shape which is oval, like an egg, or, more precisely, elliptical. There are innumerable Brahmandas, which constantly appear and disappear in the Ocean of the Great Cause (Mahakarana). The Brahmanda (Cosmic Egg) of the Puranas may be likened to a single solar system. Each Brahmanda has it's own Lord, Its Governor or Controller, who, needless to say, is a manifestation, in maya, of Brahman, or the Absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if we stay with the same Brahma, then we would stay with this planet. If we don't stay with the same Brahma, then why not. I have also seen other interpretations that say that the Cosmic Egg is the universe, and Brahma is for this universe, not the solar system. In this other interpretation, there are an infinite number of universes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think a better translation of Gita 14.18 is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who are established in sattva go upward; those who are moved by rajas remain in the middle; and those who are steeped in tamas, being weighted down by the tendencies of the lowest guna, go downward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think a any translation with &lt;code&gt;planets&lt;/code&gt; is a stretch. This verse can refer to birth on a different plane of existence as well as birth in a lower life form on this plane. It may or may not refer to another planet. I also do not like the translation with any &lt;code&gt;hellish&lt;/code&gt; connotation. Hell is a Western religious concept with connotations of fire and damnation. I think a better translation is sub-human regions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A better translation of 8.16 is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The dwellers in all the worlds, from the realm of Brahma downward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, to use 'planet' is misleading, worlds refers to all planes of existence, not just this one plane.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One thing is true, be careful for what you wish for, because you will get it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-22T19:47:28.150" LastActivityDate="2017-02-22T19:47:28.150" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3624" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3612" CreationDate="2014-11-07T04:57:10.840" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The oldest &lt;em&gt;form&lt;/em&gt; of god to be worshiped. The answer is none of the above. From the earliest Vedas down to the present, water has been regarded as the tangible manifestation of the divine essence. &amp;quot;In the beginning, everything was like a sea without light&amp;quot; (Rig Veda X. 129.3, also Rig Veda X. 121.8 and Satapatha Brahmana XI 1.6.1). Even today, one of the most common and simplest forms of worship is some vessel filled with water which represents the divine presence and can serve in place of a image. The water, during worship, is regarded as the pitha of the god. Vedic alters always have some vessel with water in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirguna Brahman cannot be the object of meditation or worship, but Saguna Brahman can. Many people repeat the following in the morning as their first prayer of the day, it is a hymn to God as the one Guru of the universe:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;gurur brahma gurur vishnuh gurur devo mahesvarah;&#xA;gurur-eva param brahma tasmai sri guruave namah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;akhanda-mandala-karam vyaptam yena caracaram;&#xA;tat padam daristam yena tasmai sri gurave namah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The guru is Brahma, the Guru is Vishnu, the Guru is the Great God Siva,&#xA;The Guru alone is the Supreme Brahman, I salute Him, the holy Guru.&#xA;Who pervades the universe, moving and unmoving, of undivided form, as&#xA;the universe, Who reveals that state, Him I salute, the holy Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this prayer one can then do prayer and praise to one's Ishta Deva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says that after taking your seat, to first pray to all the prophets and saviors of the world and holy spirits in the universe to help you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In formal puja, Ganesha is often worshiped first.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are a severe Advaitist, you can follow Swami Vivekananda's words: &amp;quot;Repeating the Om continually is the only true worship. It is not a word, it is God Himself.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-11-11T04:58:26.403" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3626" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3594" CreationDate="2014-11-07T06:14:54.657" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In simple terms this was practiced because for a chaste wife the fire of separation from husband is much more difficult than giving up the body with the husband and there are also merits associated with it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Parasara Dharma Sastra, Chapter IV text 29 it says 'If a woman has led a continent life, after her lord departed this life, she wins a region of bliss after her death, like to the well-known male observers of a celibate life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next text, i.e text 30 says,'If a woman follows her departed lord, by burning  herself on the same funeral pile, she will dwell in heaven for as many years as there are hairs on the human frame, which reach the number of three crores and a half.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Two citations above are from the translation of Krishnakamal Bhattacarya, Formerly Professor Of Sanskrit in the Presidency College of Calcutta. Check &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/instituteofparas00parauoft#page/n3/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for a copy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above citations we can see that it is not a required act but there are merits available either way. We see that when Pandu died, one of his wife Madri gave up her body but the other Kuntidevi remained to take care of the children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However fanatic people started forcing women to practice what we know as sati and the insanity was later legally banned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-25T16:31:20.960" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3628" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3563" CreationDate="2014-11-07T06:35:06.113" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mukti, liberation can be given only by Lord Krishna and His various manifestations of Vishnu tattva or avataras that you included in the first part of your question&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Siva himself says mukti-pradātā sarveṣāṁ viṣṇur eva na saṁśayaḥ:&#xA;  “There is no doubt that Viṣṇu is the deliverer of liberation for&#xA;  everyone.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Liberation is not attained just by thinking we are liberated. It happens by surrendering to Lord Krishna and serving Him in devotion as He Himself says in the Gita 7.14:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;daivi hy esa guna-mayi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mama maya duratyaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mam eva ye prapadyante&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mayam etam taranti te&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material&#xA;  nature, is difﬁcult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto&#xA;  Me can easily cross beyond it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However Lord Siva can help us in attaining liberation by connecting us with Vishnu/Krishna as we see in the case of Pracetas in Srimad Bhagavatam 4th canto chapter 24. The same can apply to gurus and other devi-devatas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-11-07T06:35:06.113" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3629" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3585" CreationDate="2014-11-07T07:00:26.137" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the transliteration you provided there are six lines. Following forms of soma appear:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; 1. Line 3 has somāḥ &#xA; 2. Line 5 has somaḥ &#xA; 3. Line 6 has soma&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;code&gt;soma&lt;/code&gt; is the root word and two meanings that are used in the translation you supplied are &lt;code&gt;juice&lt;/code&gt; and a &lt;code&gt;person soma (moon).&lt;/code&gt; In sanskrit both of these are masculine nouns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;1. Line 1 somāḥ is bahuvacana(plural) prathama(sanskrit has singular dual and plural) meaning juices. Used as a subject in a sentence.&#xA; 2. Line 5 somaḥ which is ekavacana (singular) prathama. Meaning Moon god Soma, Used as a subject in a sentence.&#xA; 3. Line 6 soma. This is sambodhana singular. Meaning Moon god Soma. It is used when addressing some body.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-11-07T07:00:26.137" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3630" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-07T07:38:39.877" Score="3" ViewCount="180" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have some cats as pets. Does chanting mantras or name of God to them make any difference in their(animals or trees) life cycle?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the suggested methods in helping them to think about God or get a human life sooner? Not sure whether it is even possible, does any of our scriptures discuss this? Or is it completely depending on their karma? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-07T08:48:38.757" LastActivityDate="2014-11-10T05:32:51.380" Title="How can I help my pets to have a good birth or reincarnation?" Tags="|animals|avatars|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3631" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3634" CreationDate="2014-11-07T07:51:36.980" Score="9" ViewCount="1737" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; school.  Vedanta derives its teachings from three sources or authorities, known as the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthanatrayi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prasthanatrayi&lt;/a&gt; or three starting points:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Upanishads, texts traditionally included with the Vedas consisting of conversations between sages and their students which clarify the philosophical teachings of the Vedas.  In the Vedanta tradition they're referred to as the Shruti Prasthana, because the Vedas are Shruti or heard from the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavad Gita, which needs little introuction.  This is referred to as the Smriti Prasthana, because the Bhagavad Gita is part of Mahabharata which is a Smriti text, as it was composed by the sage Vyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Brahma Sutras, AKA the Vedanta Sutras, a work by Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical doctrines laid out in the Upanishads.  It is referred to Nyaya Prasthana, because Vyasa relies on Nyaya or logic to argue for his interpretation of the words of the Upanishads.  (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who developed this terminology of calling these texts the Prasthanatrayi or three starting points of philosophical knowledge?  Does Vyasa mention this in the Brahma Sutras?  Or was it invented by subsequent Vedantic thinkers like Adi Shankaracharya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This should go without saying, but just in case, I'm not looking for who are the author of these three. I'm asking who singled out these particular works as the three starting points of the Vedanta school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2015-11-18T10:46:56.960" LastActivityDate="2015-11-18T10:46:56.960" Title="Who developed the terminology of the Prasthanatrayi of the Vedanta school?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|upanishads|brahma-sutras|vedanta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3632" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-07T08:20:16.513" Score="6" ViewCount="19057" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently, I saw a track going on in TV serial &lt;code&gt;Devo Ke Dev Mahadev&lt;/code&gt; on LIfe OK channel. The track is about an ansha of Lord Shiva called Lohitansh, who was born from the blood of Shiva while he was teaching Tandava dance to Pushpadant. I wanted to know, which Purana/Scripture/Book actually contains this story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-21T15:03:40.687" LastActivityDate="2015-07-12T15:18:01.040" Title="Source book for story of Lohitansh/Lohitang" Tags="|shiva|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3633" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2713" CreationDate="2014-11-07T08:55:46.513" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganesh Ji was given the boon by Shiv Ji and other Devtas that he will be the first one to be worshiped and then any other God/Goddesses will be worshiped. This all came after an incident in which Shiv Ji cut the human head of Ganesh Ji and then later Mata Parvati got angry and asked to bring him back to life or else she will destroy everything. Shiv Ji arranged an elephant head and placed it on Ganesh Ji's body and brought him to life. After that Shiv Ji and all the devtas gave various boons and blessings to Ganesh Ji, which included the boon of being worshiped first as well. This all is stated in Shiv Purana. Thats why Ganesh Ji's idol is there in nearly every temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Hanuman Ji's statue, it might be because Hanuman Ji is the 11th Rudravtaar. But not sure if Hanumaan Ji is being shown with Shiv Ji. However, as per some texts again from Shiv Purana, sometimes Nandi used to be seen having a monkey face. This is seen in the incident when Demon King Ravana wanted to enter Kailash and Nandi tries to stop him. Ravan insults Nandi because of monkey like face and Nandi curses him that Monkeys will be responsible for his fall. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2014-11-07T11:06:19.157" LastActivityDate="2014-11-07T11:06:19.157" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3634" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3631" CreationDate="2014-11-07T10:50:20.777" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda refers to the 3 pillars several times in his writings. One reference is Vol 3, p 327-328 of his Complete Works (lecture entitled &quot;The Vedanta in All Its Phases&quot;). But he refers to it as something being more or less already self-evident and never references a source.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says &quot;All these Darshanas that you have ever seen or heard are based upon Upanishadic authority...And as I have said, all the sects of India now hold these &lt;em&gt;Vyasa-Sutras&lt;/em&gt; to be the greatest authority, and every new sect starts with a fresh commentary on the &lt;em&gt;Vyasa-Sutras&lt;/em&gt; according to it's light...Next in authority is the celebrated Gita. The great glory of Shankaracharya was his preaching of the Gita...And he has been followed by the founders of the orthodox sects in India, each of whom has written a commentary on the Gita.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I did some further research. The first reference I can find is a Vedanta philosopher named Sadananda, who lived probably in the middle of the fifteenth century. He wrote that the Vedanta consists of the Upanishads, the Brahma-Sutras, the Gita, and the commentaries on those texts. The specific reference is in his &lt;em&gt;Vedantasara&lt;/em&gt; 3 (The Essence of Vedanta). I will have to do some further research to see if he actually uses the term in question.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-11-08T15:46:59.340" LastActivityDate="2014-11-08T15:46:59.340" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3635" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-07T13:46:05.417" Score="5" ViewCount="657" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know how have those things happened as stated in the puranas. For example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Shiva Puranam, we talk about mother Parvathi's kalyanam (marriage). How did it take place? Did both Shiva and mother Parvathi take the shape of a humans like Lord Rama and Goddess Sita? Mother Parvathi is considered nature and Shiva is the energy which operates that. Now how can we imagine their marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And how can I imagine Goddess Shakthi getting into fire and Lord Shiva removing the nose of Goddess Saraswati and punishing several other gods for not doing anything?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-07-30T08:14:58.373" LastActivityDate="2016-07-30T08:14:58.373" Title="How can Shiva puranam and Vishnu puranam be interpreted?" Tags="|shiva-purana|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3636" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-07T13:58:29.793" Score="5" ViewCount="3041" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually, at the end of every Yuga, everything is said to be collapsed. But it is a wonder that the most of the scriptures and the Rama setu bridge hadn't been collapsed.&#xA;There might have been a lot of good people, pure souls like the gods of other religions in Dwapara Yuga, Treta Yuga etc but still we do not know them. We only know Rama, Krishna and some avatars related to them. But some how they are related to the Hindu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does these religions exist after the end of the yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-02T13:20:58.580" LastActivityDate="2015-09-21T12:17:41.583" Title="Are gods of religions like Islam, Christianity etc be remembered after the end of Yuga?" Tags="|yuga|other-religions|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3637" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="98" CreationDate="2014-11-07T16:12:53.217" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a story when all of the Yadavs were suppose to end themselves fighting with each other. I think this incident is pointing to that. All yadavs (or most of them) fought with each other and died. This included Pradyumna, Saamb, etc also who were Krishna's sons. That time there was lot of mourning. Balaram at that time was so depressed by all this that he left everything and ended his own life. I think Ghatapandita is being refered to Balram. But yes, he was elder. For that, I can say that many scriptures gets confused about who is elder and who is younger, eg, in case of Ganesh and Kartikeya, many scriptures say Kartikeya is elder while other says Ganesh is elder. So, same might have been the case here. If not then I know of only one cousin brother of Krishna called Udhav. May be they are referring him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-28T20:47:19.290" LastActivityDate="2015-07-28T20:47:19.290" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3639" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3630" CreationDate="2014-11-07T17:31:20.940" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several instances in the history where trees/animals would get liberation by the mercy of the Lord and His devotees. We hear of these from the pastimes of Lord Caitanya, Ramanujacarya and others. Below is some relevant information from Caitanya Caritamrta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu once asked Haridasa Ṭhakura how trees and&#xA;  plants could be delivered, and Haridasa Ṭhakura replied that the loud&#xA;  chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra would benefit not only trees&#xA;  and plants but insects and all other living beings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we chant a little loud any one who hears gets benefited. Another thing is when you feed them with prasada (sanctified food that is offered to Lord Krisha/Vishnu) that will also benefit them. Having said that animals don't get karma for their actions. Karma is there only for humans because in the human birth God has given us intelligence for self realization. If a dog jumps a red light no one cares but if we do we get a ticket.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-10T05:32:51.380" LastActivityDate="2014-11-10T05:32:51.380" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3640" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-07T17:42:48.533" Score="2" ViewCount="250" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu texts, we find that some people are said to be 'Chiranjivis', meaning that they will live till the end of the world or immortals. Can somebody let me know the names of all of them and where are they if they are still alive or any news about them in the recent past? Some of them I know are Ashwathama, Markandeya, Vashista, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T15:19:25.153" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T15:19:25.153" Title="Who all are said to be Chiranjivis and their whereabouts?" Tags="|life|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2014-11-07T20:30:04.290" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3630" CreationDate="2014-11-07T19:41:57.957" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karma in Hinduism is divided into 3 kinds:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sanchita - Our accumlated karma, rather like a bank balance. From&#xA;this we have&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Parabdha - The fruits of the actions we experience in this lifetime, &#xA;and&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kriyamana - The karma we are accumlating in this lifetime, which will&#xA;feed Sanchita&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since animals and plants cannot distinguish right from wrong, it is believed that they do not contribute to their kriyamana. Instead they will feel the effects of parabdha, until they are eligible for a human body again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for chanting holy names to influence their future birth, I'm not aware of anything in Hindu scripture that says this would have any effect. Animals are controlled by nature, and will continue in this cycle of life and death until they are ready to be human again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-10T05:32:01.060" LastActivityDate="2014-11-10T05:32:01.060" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3642" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3632" CreationDate="2014-11-07T20:12:25.910" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lohitanga, also known as Angaraka, Mangala, or Bhauma, is the god of the planet Mars.  The story of his birth is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/11Hj&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Rudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana, although it differs significantly from the story told in &quot;Devon Ke Dev Mahadev&quot;.  (TV serials tend to take quite a lot of artistic license.)  In this account, after the death of his first wife Shakti, Shiva is devastated so he engages in Tapasya (deep meditation) for several years.  Eventually he starts sweating out of exhaustion, and drops of sweat from his forehead fall onto the Earth, where they turn into a baby boy.  Since the boy was born on the earth, Bhumidevi the goddess of the earth raises the boy with Shiva's permission.  Thus the boy acquires the name Bhauma or son of Bhumidevi.  He then worships Shiva at Kashi (Varanasi) for a long time, and as a result Shiva makes him into the planet Mars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, from what I can gather, &quot;Devon Ke Dev Mahadeva&quot; also depicts Bhauma being raised by the demon Andhakasura.  I don't think there's any scriptural basis for that, but it's interesting to note that Andhakasura does have one connection to Bhauma: just as Bhauma was born out of Shiva's sweat, Andhakasura is said to be born out of Parvati's sweat.  (Another thing that was born from Parvati's sweat was the Bilva tree, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/876/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2014-11-07T20:12:25.910" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3643" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3612" CreationDate="2014-11-07T21:04:45.947" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(1)&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;From the Bhagavad Gita, the scripture accepted by all in the Vedic tradition we have the following information:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7.7 O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10.1 The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Listen again, O mighty-armed Arjuna. Because you are My dear friend, for your beneﬁt I&#xA;shall speak to you further, giving knowledge that is better than what&#xA;I have already explained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10.2 Neither the hosts of demigods nor the great sages know My origin or opulences, for, in every respect, I am the source of the demigods&#xA;and sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This fact is also realized by the best student of Gita, i.e, Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10.12-13 Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal,&#xA;transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the&#xA;great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala and Vyāsa confirm this truth&#xA;about You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(2)&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Some people, due to various motivations and reasons, consider impersonal brahman as the Supreme but as per Lord Krishna in the Gita He is the basis for brahman. Brahman is one of his aspect. Brahman is superior to this material world and considered transcendental but He is personal Brahman superior to impersonal Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;14.27 And I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman, which is immortal,&#xA;imperishable and eternal and is the constitutional position of&#xA;ultimate happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna says in 10.2 that even big sages and gods cannot properly understand Him. So the big big swamis who lack devotion to Krishna are confused in proper understanding with their speculative ideas. We also find from Bhagavatam that even Indra and Brahma got confused and considered Krishna as a mere boy of a village and Krishna crushed their pride and helped them realize the Truth. Ofcourse these pastimes also happen because the great gods want to establish that Krishna is the Supreme. There is also the incident of Krishna fighting with Banasura and Lord Siva fights on the side of Banasura but being defeated and having realized who Krishna is He says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10.63.38 You are the original person, one without a second, transcendental and&#xA;self-manifesting. Uncaused, you are the cause of all, and You are the&#xA;ultimate controller. You are nonetheless perceived in terms of the&#xA;transformations of matter effected by Your illusory energy —&#xA;transformations You sanction so that the various material qualities&#xA;can fully manifest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10.64.43 I, Lord Brahmā, the other demigods and the pure-minded sages have all surrendered wholeheartedly unto You, our dearmost Self and Lord&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(3)&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;However unless one has loving relationship and devotion to Krishna it is impossible to accept the above facts and tons of other information in the sastras. It takes a lot of humility and devotion to accept these facts and surrender to Him. The whole point of Bhagavadgita is to awaken our devotion to Him and surrender unto Him. Lord Krishna Himself says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;18.55 One can understand Me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead,&#xA;only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of&#xA;Me by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall&#xA;deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And when we talk of worship of Krishna it is also applicable to His various personal manifestations such as Rama, Narasihma, Narayana and other Vishnu forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-11-07T21:04:45.947" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3644" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3636" CreationDate="2014-11-08T02:37:46.213" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't have an accurate answer but here are some points that may help:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the end of yuga a sort of transition happens over a period called yuga sandhi. As we go into each yuga, dharma, the principles of religion decline by one quarter at a time. The devastation doesn't happen after each yuga but it happens after about 71 yuga-cycles (end of  each Manu) and 1000 yuga cycles (end of Brahma's day).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I see most of the non sanatana-dharma religions (including Buddhism) as temporary arrangements so their specific details may not be part of the great Vedic literarture. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;However Lord Buddha's incarnation is predicted in Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I heard some things like (yet to see specific scriptural citations) Jesus Christ is an avatar of Lord Siva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Didn't come across anything about Prophet Mohammad&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no word Hindu in Vedic literature and sanatana-dharma (correct replace term for Hinduism) deals mainly with impersonalism (brahman and paramatma aspects) and personalism (personal bhagavan aspect) as transcendental subjects. In that sense depending on what Christians and Muslims beleive they can also be counted in one of two. It seems mormons are just fruitive workers like some of the Vedic followers who want to go to svarga or have a position of Brahma. Some Christians believe in a personal eternal God and themselves as eternal servants. As far as I found with my contact with some Muslims they seem to be believe in an impersonal aspect of God. So when you say does these exist after the yuga the conceptions into which they fall always exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-11-08T02:37:46.213" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3645" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3611" CreationDate="2014-11-08T02:54:09.043" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the names of the administrative devatas are titles. Like Brahma, Indra, Manu etc. are not specific individuals in every creation but they are posts that can be occupied by any jivas in different periods. When there is no suitable Jiva a Vishnutattva incarnation occupies the position. Below is some reference from the commentary of Srila Prabhupada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.3.12 Purport: The administrative posts occupied by the demigods for maintaining the&#xA;  regulations of the material world are offered to the highly elevated&#xA;  pious living beings. When there is a scarcity of such pious living&#xA;  beings, the Lord incarnates Himself as Brahma, Prajapati, Indra, etc.,&#xA;  and takes up the charge. During the period of Svayambhuva Manu (the&#xA;  present period is of Vaivasvata Manu) there was no suitable living&#xA;  being who could occupy the post of Indra, the King of the Indraloka&#xA;  (heaven) planet. The Lord Himself at that time became Indra. Assisted&#xA;  by His own sons like Yama and other demigods, Lord Yajña ruled the&#xA;  administration of the universal affairs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Names of Vishnu-tattva like Vishnu, Krishna and His special manifestation Sada-Siva are eternal and Their names are as eternal as the Lord Himself, so the idea of who gave Him the names would be out of question since He is the source of everything else. However those name will have specific meaning that explains His features. Like Krishna means all attractive, Vishnu all pervading etc. Also we do see that when the Supreme Lord and His incarnations appear on the planet Their devotees give them names (which supposedly existed even before):&#xA; Srimad Bhagavatam 10.8.12:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.8.11 — Sukadeva Gosvami continued: Having thus been especially&#xA;  requested by Nanda Maharaja to do that which he already desired to do,&#xA;  Garga Muni performed the name-giving ceremony for Krsna and Balarama&#xA;  in a solitary place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.8.12 — Garga Muni said: This child, the son&#xA;  of Rohini, will give all happiness to His relatives and friends by His&#xA;  transcendental qualities. Therefore He will be known as Rama. And&#xA;  because He will manifest extraordinary bodily strength, He will also&#xA;  be known as Bala. Moreover, because He unites two families —&#xA;  Vasudeva’s family and the family of Nanda Maharaja — He will be known&#xA;  as Sankarsana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.8.13 — Your son Krsna appears as an incarnation&#xA;  in every millennium. In the past, He assumed three different colors —&#xA;  white, red and yellow — and now He has appeared in a blackish color.&#xA;  [In another Dvapara-yuga, He appeared (as Lord Ramacandra) in the&#xA;  color of suka, a parrot. All such incarnations have now assembled in&#xA;  Krsna.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly we see about Lord Siva in Srimad Bhagavatam third canto. After Brahma creates four Kumaras and they refuse to generate further population he becomes angry and Rudra comes out of him. Relevant information:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 3.12.7 — Although he tried to curb his anger, it came out from&#xA;  between his eyebrows, and a child mixed blue and red was immediately&#xA;  generated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 3.12.8 — After his birth he began to cry: O destiny maker, teacher&#xA;  of the universe, kindly designate my name and place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 3.12.9 — The all-powerful Brahma, who was born from the lotus&#xA;  flower, pacified the boy with gentle words, accepting his request, and&#xA;  said: Do not cry. I shall certainly do as you desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 3.12.10 — Thereafter Brahma said: O chief of the demigods, you&#xA;  shall be called by the name Rudra by all people because you have so&#xA;  anxiously cried.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 3.12.11 — My dear boy, I have already selected the following places&#xA;  for your residence: the heart, the senses, the air of life, the sky,&#xA;  the air, the fire, the water, the earth, the sun, the moon and&#xA;  austerity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 3.12.12 — Lord Brahma said: My dear boy Rudra, you have eleven&#xA;  other names: Manyu, Manu, Mahinasa, Mahan, Siva, Rtadhvaja, Ugrareta,&#xA;  Bhava, Kala, Vamadeva and Dhrtavrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note: Citations are from Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada's Srimad-Bhagavatam.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="1014" LastEditDate="2014-11-08T15:44:28.090" LastActivityDate="2014-11-08T15:44:28.090" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3648" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3611" CreationDate="2014-11-08T05:57:14.210" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva got most of his major names at birth, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/913/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  When Shiva was born, he immediately started to cry, and Brahma gave him numerous names to calm him down, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Brahma] said to him, 'My boy, why criest thou, when thou art born out&#xA;  of labour and trouble?' He said, 'Nay, but I am not freed from&#xA;  (guarded against) evil; I have no name given me: give me a name!'&#xA;  Hence one should give a name to the boy that is born, for thereby one&#xA;  frees him from evil;--even a second, even a third (name), for thereby&#xA;  one frees him from evil time after time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Rudra' And because he gave him that name,&#xA;  Agni became suchlike (or, that form), for Rudra is Agni: because he&#xA;  cried (rud) therefore he is Rudra. He said, 'Surely, I am mightier&#xA;  than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Sarva.' And because he gave the him that&#xA;  name, the waters became suchlike, for Sarva is the waters, inasmuch as&#xA;  from the water everything (sarva) here is produced. He said, 'Surely,&#xA;  I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Pasupati.' And because he gave him that&#xA;  name, the plants became suchlike, for Pasupati is the plants: hence&#xA;  when cattle (pasu) get plants, then they play the master 3 (patîy). He&#xA;  said, 'Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Ugra.' And because he gave him that name,&#xA;  Vâyu (the wind) became suchlike, for Ugra is Vâyu: hence when it blows&#xA;  strongly, they say 'Ugra is blowing.' He said, 'Surely, I am mightier&#xA;  than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Asani.' And because he gave him that name,&#xA;  the lightning became suchlike, for Asani is the lightning: hence they&#xA;  say of him whom the lightning strikes, 'Asani has smitten him.' He&#xA;  said, 'Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Bhava.' And because he gave him that name,&#xA;  Parganya (the rain-god) became suchlike; for Bhava is Parganya, since&#xA;  everything here comes (bhavati) from the rain-cloud. He said, 'Surely,&#xA;  I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Mahân Devah (the Great God).' And because he&#xA;  gave him that name, the moon became suchlike, for the moon is&#xA;  Pragâpati, and Pragâpati is the Great God. He said, 'Surely, I am&#xA;  mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Îsâna (the Ruler).' And because he gave him&#xA;  that name, the Sun became suchlike, for Îsâna is the Sun, since the&#xA;  Sun rules over this All. He said, 'So great indeed I am: give me no&#xA;  other name after that!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now this doesn't mention the name Shiva, but when the same story is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, the name Shiva is included:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was much anger generated in the mind of Brahmā, which he tried to control and not express. Although he tried to curb his anger, it came out from between his eyebrows, and a child mixed blue and red was immediately generated. After his birth he began to cry: O destiny maker, teacher of the universe, kindly designate my name and place. The all-powerful Brahmā, who was born from the lotus flower, pacified the boy with gentle words, accepting his request, and said: Do not cry. I shall certainly do as you desire. Thereafter Brahmā said: O chief of the demigods, you shall be called by the name Rudra by all people because you have so anxiously cried. My dear boy, I have already selected the following places for your residence: the heart, the senses, the air of life, the sky, the air, the fire, the water, the earth, the sun, the moon and austerity.... My dear boy Rudra, you have eleven other names: Manyu, Manu, Mahinasa, Mahān, Śiva, Ṛtadhvaja, Ugraretā, Bhava, Kāla, Vāmadeva and Dhṛtavrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as far as Vishnu goes, his names have been given all sorts of mystical meanings, but the meanings don't necessarily reflect the origins of the names.  The name Vishnu, itself, means the one who pervades.  But there are lots of gods who are omnipresent and thus pervade the universe.  So why is Vishnu alone called the pervader?  It's because &quot;Vishnu&quot; was originally a name of Vishnu's incarnation Vamana the dwarf, because he grew large enough that he pervaded the whole Universe.  That is why Krishna says &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; in the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of the Ādityas I am Viṣṇu, of lights I am the radiant sun, of the Maruts I am Marīci, and among the stars I am the moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It might seem strange to call Vishnu an Aditya or son of Aditi, especially since Vishnu is unborn and without beginning as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/259/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  But this is actually a reference to Vamana, who happens to be the youngest son of Kashyap and Aditi.  In any case, since Vamana was called Vishnu, that became a name of the god that Vamana was an incarnation of.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, Narayana means &quot;the one who resides in the water&quot;, which is certainly an accurate description of Vishnu (except he resides in milk, not water), but it originated as the name of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara-Narayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sage Narayana&lt;/a&gt;, an incarnation of Vishnu who was the son of Yama god of death and twin brother of the sage Nara.  (Nara and Narayana were the previous births of Arjuna and Krishna respectively.)  So people started calling Vishnu by the name Narayana because that was the name of his famous incarnation.  And sage Narayana really was a famous incarnation of Vishnu in ancient times, which is why the Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;opens&lt;/a&gt; with &quot;Om! Having bowed down to Narayana and Nara, the most exalted male being, and also to the goddess Saraswati, must the word Jaya be uttered.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2014-12-04T06:23:39.070" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3649" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3612" CreationDate="2014-11-08T07:28:59.050" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many forms of GOD which came into existence with GOD Stories, One GOD in Hinduism is believed to be &quot;Aadi&quot; Who had no form, GOD Shiva, who is believed to be &quot;Neerakar&quot; and his form is accepted as &quot;Jyotirlingam&quot;. This form is said to be the form of GOD before being &quot;Sakar&quot;. Lord Vishnu told once that Shiva Linga is eternal origin of all things. Whatever we see is a tree from that seed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many disputes between various sact, but Lord Vishnu him self declared Shiva's devotee in many avatars and Shiva declared Vishnu as his heart. In Krishna avatar he told that he is Shiva in Rudras in Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta, But both these forms are &quot;Sakar&quot; form. After they took birth these avatars were worshiped. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the story of dispute between Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu, all Hinduism people believe that Shiva and other trinity are manifestation of same GOD. and all them meditate upon each other. This trinity is everything to Hinduism. But Shiva Lingam is believed to be the form of GOD as &quot;Neerakar&quot; before being &quot;Sakar&quot;, that is why Lord Vishnu in all his avatars worshiped Shiva Lingam only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If Lord Vishnu gives an example of worshiping Shiva Lingam  (Rameshwara,Gopeshwara etc.), in Hinduism worshiping Shiva Lingam is standard worship. Lord Vishnu is GOD and whatever he says is obviously true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva and Shakti are not different, they both are one considered as &quot;Ardha Nareshwara&quot;, Worship of Shakthi came into existence when Shakti-Peethas came into existence, so it is also not oldest. Sati, the first incarnation of Shakthi, also worshiped Shiva Lingam only, so if gods worship shiva lingam then it should be the oldest. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is believed to be the most powerful GOD in Hinduism, and whatever Lord Vishnu says &quot;Hinduism&quot; is defined by that only. Lord Vishnu says worship is part of human life. If Lord Vishnu gives message to the world to worship Shiva Lingam then we have to obey him. Lord did not change oldest form of god to be worshiped even taking birth from Satiyuga to Kaliyuga, so he will not give wrong message. So worship of Shiva Lingam is oldest form of GOD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu after his manifestation heard the voice to do penance and started meditating upon &quot;Om Namah Shivay&quot;, so do you think Lord Vishnu who started just after the moment he manifested and did that in all his avatars is wrong? There are many proofs and many Strotra sung by Lord Vishnu in many avatars. Even Lord Vishnu got &quot;Sudarshana Chakra&quot; from Shiva worship only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama said &quot;No one can get me without worshiping Shiva Lingam, I give a boon that whoever with pure heart make Abhisheka of Ganga's water on this Rameshwara Mahadeva Jyotir lingam will get me after death for sure.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2632/are-there-any-strong-evidence-that-hinduism-religion-is-an-ancient-one/2712#2712&quot;&gt;Even archeologist found many Shiva Lingam in different areas of earth&lt;/a&gt;. These proofs made Hinduism the ancient religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-11-08T09:12:54.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3650" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3686" CreationDate="2014-11-08T08:00:06.787" Score="15" ViewCount="3502" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes or No Questions:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do Hindu scriptures say that we should build temples? (Yes &lt;strong&gt;|&lt;/strong&gt; No)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If I go to Lord Shiva's and Lord Hanuman's temple, but I also have the deities at home temple (&lt;em&gt;puja mandir&lt;/em&gt;), can I ignore going to the public temple? Is it necessary to visit a (public) temple which has &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prana_Pratishtha&quot;&gt;&quot;Pran Pratishtha&quot;&lt;/a&gt; instead of the normal temple at home where we pray and worship God but God goes away after worshiping? (Yes &lt;strong&gt;|&lt;/strong&gt; No)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are there any rules for home and public temples? If yes, what are they? Are the rules same for both or different based on the category? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it necessary for a Hindu to visit a temple at least once a day? (Yes &lt;strong&gt;|&lt;/strong&gt; No)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Did Hindu scriptures originate temples or is it the people (Brahmins/devotees)? (Scripture &lt;strong&gt;|&lt;/strong&gt; People)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question Requiring Explanation:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am interested in knowing what Hindu scriptures say about temples, I was not able to find out myself so can someone please share from any written content?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-01T21:04:06.227" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T10:59:38.073" Title="What do Hindu scriptures say about Hindu temples?" Tags="|belief|temple|scripture|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3651" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-08T10:13:49.063" Score="4" ViewCount="2268" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know how to destroy ego, fear and negative thoughts? I am not asking this question from a personality development perspective, instead in Hinduism there are some mantras, rituals related to destroying of several evils. What are those?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do we have to meditate like the saints for longer time to destroy all of those or are there any other ways?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-04T09:43:23.940" LastActivityDate="2016-11-04T09:43:23.940" Title="How to destroy ego and fear?" Tags="|rituals|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3652" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3651" CreationDate="2014-11-08T14:41:56.187" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;All these are a result of being entangled in the material modes, primarliy rajas and tamas. While there are multiple ways the best means that Vyasadeva gave us is Srimadbhagavatam. It is the purest form of literature and a natural summary and commentary of Vedas/Vedantasutra as mentioned in the scripture itself. There in it is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.7.5 — Due to this external energy, the living entity, although&#xA;  transcendental to the three modes of material nature, thinks of&#xA;  himself as a material product and thus undergoes the reactions of&#xA;  material miseries. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.7.6 — The material miseries of the living&#xA;  entity, which are superfluous to him, can be directly mitigated by the&#xA;  linking process of devotional service. But the mass of people do not&#xA;  know this, and therefore the learned Vyasadeva compiled this Vedic&#xA;  literature, which is in relation to the Supreme Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.7.7 —&#xA;  Simply by giving aural reception to this Vedic literature, the feeling&#xA;  for loving devotional service to Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality&#xA;  of Godhead, sprouts up at once to extinguish the fire of lamentation,&#xA;  illusion and fearfulness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So by reading the scripture bhagavatam under proper guidance and following/applying the instructions and begging for the mercy of the Lord is the best way. Other methods may give temporary relief but the permanent freedom from modes is attained only by surrendering to the Supreme Lord as stated in the bhagavad gita 7.14:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 7.14 - This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material&#xA;  nature, is difﬁcult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto&#xA;  Me can easily cross beyond it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note: Citations are from the translations of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-11-08T14:41:56.187" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3654" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3650" CreationDate="2014-11-08T16:54:46.053" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Temples as we know them have not always existed. Originally people prayed in their homes and would have occasional gatherings for different occasions and sacrifices. The first temples weren't so much a building that you could enter but were rather stupas or pillars, mostly small. People with more money would build bigger stupas or pillars. Even now, traveling sadhus will occasionally pile some rocks together at a certain place they think is auspicious. As civilization progressed, especially during the Buddhist period, temples and ceremonies became more and more elaborate. As Hinduism resurged, the influence of the Buddhist temples led to the development of elaborate Hindu temples. So in answer to your questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;No, scriptures do not say we should or should not build temples.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Visiting a public temple is entirely voluntary. Remember though that a place where there is a lot of prayer and has been visited by holy persons takes on an atmosphere of its own which lends itself to the divine presence and elevated thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;No rules in the Sruti. There maybe some rules in some Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;No.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The idea of temples originated from people's mind. There is nothing in Sruti. There are old texts that describe in detail how to build temples, but they are not scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-01T21:00:49.580" LastActivityDate="2016-04-01T21:00:49.580" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3655" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2429" CreationDate="2014-11-09T01:15:19.947" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've written down the missing ones from Book 8 and 9 except for 40-100 in book 8. &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/otvJP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1027" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-11-09T05:42:33.730" LastActivityDate="2014-11-09T05:42:33.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3656" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3651" CreationDate="2014-11-09T03:00:07.560" Score="3" Body="&lt;h1&gt;General View&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Probably the best and easiest way to kill ego is to practice devotion. It is because as long as you do anything else in someway or other it will indirectly affect your ego. But in devotion one considers himself as a mere servant of God and hence egoistic feelings will gradually decrease.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devotion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Ego is very difficult to overcome as it arises from the &amp;quot;I&amp;quot; consciousness. Hence it will always be there no matter what even though in a subtle amount as long as the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is alive. For example, when one will overcome desire, greed, etc. he will think I overcame desire, greed, anger etc. and the feeling of personal superiority or personal achievement will subconsciously boost the ego. So ego is very difficult and last to go. But in devotion, one practices to be humble and tolerant just like a grass and tree (&lt;em&gt;trnad api su-nicena taror iva sahisnuna&lt;/em&gt;). A devotee feels himself as the lowest of all just like the grass, so the ego feeling is checked and he advances in spiritual practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though there can be many paths to get rid of negative thoughts, devotion is the only way to obtain the purity of mind. Only when tears of emotion flow from the eye that the mind is truly purified from negative feelings. So the scripture says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kathaṁ vinā roma-harṣaṁ dravatā cetasā vinā&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;vinānandāśru-kalayā śudhyed bhaktyā vināśayaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.14.23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;If one’s hairs do not stand on end, how can the heart melt? And if the heart does not melt, how can tears of love flow from the eyes? If one does not cry in spiritual happiness, how can one render loving service to the Lord? And without such service, how can the consciousness be purified?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Association&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;But apart from practicing devotion one common way to overcome ego is to know or associate with people who are better than you about which you have the egoistic feeling. For example, if one has ego about his wealth, then he should know or find the people who are richer than him. If one is proud of knowledge he should come in contact with people who are more intelligent than him. The simple knowledge that there are people out there who are better than oneself will certainly help a person to keep a check on his ego. To give a practical example, I have come across two personalities in my life who are just omniscient. One can tell you every single verse of any scripture you name and the other knows past, present and the future of anything and everything. Some years back I felt a bit proud about myself that I know so many things, but after coming in contact with them I can never ever have even an iota of ego no matter how much things I know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding fear, it is true that there are &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; that can help one overcome fear of certain things like snakes, ghosts, untimely death, etc. but I think those are better to be learnt from a teacher. Some &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; like the Mrutyunjaya &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt; you already know which helps one overcome the fear of death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Deeper Analysis&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we analyse deeper, then we will find that fear and ego are the product of duality. Only then when the feeling and notion of others exist in the mind that any feelings of ego and fear can arise. But when through practice of devotion or practice of knowledge the non dual feeling that there exists nothing but only one supreme Brahman arises in the mind, the feelings of ego and fear automatically decrease. When there is nothing else but Me, whom to fear? When there is no one else but Me, who is superior or inferior? Thus the realization of non duality will also remove fear and ego. Hence, the scripture says in this regard:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yasmin sarvāṇi bhūtāny ātmaivābhūd vijānataḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;tatra ko mohaḥ kaḥ śoka ekatvam anupaśyataḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Iso Up. -7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-11-09T03:00:07.560" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3658" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14054" CreationDate="2014-11-09T07:20:05.353" Score="21" ViewCount="7493" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2231/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the divine architect Tvashta (AKA Vishwakarma) created two powerful bows, the Pinaka bow for Shiva and the Sharanga bow for Vishnu.  Brahma once got Vishnu and Shiva to fight each other to find out who was more powerful, and Vishnu won merely by saying the word &amp;quot;hum&amp;quot;, as described in the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once, all the gods were asking the Grandparent, Brahma, as to who is powerful and who is less powerful among the blue-throated Shiva and Vishnu, but the Grandparent Brahma on inferring the intent of gods started to create adversity among those two, Shiva and Vishnu, for the Grandparent is the best adherer of truthfulness, as truth cannot be demonstrated on hearsay evidence. Owing to their animosity then occurred a fierce and hair-raising war among Shiva and Vishnu, as each aspired victory for himself. By the 'hum' sound of Vishnu that ruinously overpowering longbow of Shiva is [fatigued], and the triple-eyed God, Mahadeva, is frozen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then gods along with the assemblages of sages and celestial caranas have come together and appealed to those two for appeasement in the matter of wielding authority, and then those two superior gods, Shiva and Vishnu, went into a state of amity. On seeing the bow of Shiva rendered inert by the mettlesomeness of Vishnu, from then on the gods along with the assemblages of sages deemed Vishnu to be the paramount.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Afterwards Shiva's Pinaka bow was given to the king Devarata of Mithila, and it was passed down by the kings of Mithila until it came into the possession of Sita's father Janaka.  It was the Pinaka bow that was famously broken by Vishnu's incarnation Rama to win Sita's hand in marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the Sharanga bow of Vishnu.  Vishnu gave the Sharanga bow to the sage Richika, who gave it to his son Jamadagni, who gave it to his son Parashurama, another incarnation of Vishnu.  Now when Parashurama found out that Rama had broken the Pinaka bow, he confronted Rama and demanded that he string the Sharanga bow.  Rama was successful, and afterwards Rama gave the Sharanga bow to Varuna the ocean god, as described in a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga77/bala_77_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the departure of Rama of Jamadagni, that most glorious Rama of Dasharatha is quietened at heart, and he gave away that longbow of Vishnu into the hand of inimitable Rain-god [Varuna].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what happened to the Sharanga bow after Varuna got it?  Krishna seems to have gotten it at some point; he used it, e.g. in his battle against the demon Shalva, as &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/77/15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śālva then managed to strike Lord Kṛṣṇa’s left arm, which held His bow Śārṅga, and, amazingly, Śārṅga fell from His hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how did Krishna get the Sharanga bow?  Did Varuna give him at some point? As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1991/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, when Arjuna and Krishna helped Agni fight against Indra, Varuna did give Krishna two weapons of Vishnu, the Sudarshana Chakra and the Kaumodaki mace.  But the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01228.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata doesn't mention the Sharanga bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2021-03-17T11:40:42.967" Title="How did Krishna get Vishnu's Sharanga Bow?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|krishna|weapon|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3659" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3651" CreationDate="2014-11-09T14:02:35.190" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The only way to kill ego and fear is to realize Brahman. To realize Brahman you need a guru. The Mundaka Upanishad (I. ii. 12) says: &quot;A Brahmana should resort to renunciation after examining the worlds acquired through karma, with the help of this maxim: 'There is nothing (here) that is not the result of karma; so what is the need of (performing) karma?' For knowing that Reality he should go, with sacrificial faggots in hand, only to a teacher versed in the Vedas and absorbed in Brahman.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;only to a teacher&quot; implies not to seek independently; thus according to Shankaracharya - &quot;Even though well-versed in the scriptures, one should not independently seek the Knowledge of Brahman.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramhamsa said: &quot;So I say that one must get instruction from a teacher...It is Satchidananda that comes to us in the form of the guru. If a man is initiated by a human guru he will not achieve anything if he regards his guru as a mere man. The guru should be regarded as the direct manifestation of God. Only then can the disciple have faith in the mantra given by the guru. Once a man has faith he has all...One attains God by following in the guru's instructions step by step. It is like reaching an object by following the trail of a thread.&quot;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-09T14:02:35.190" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3660" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3635" CreationDate="2014-11-09T14:18:32.060" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Puranas are Smriti they are not Sruti. The Puranas are first meant to teach us lessons, whether you accept them as historically true is unimportant. If they conflict with Sruti they should be rejected. Smriti was written by man, Sruti by God. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said: &quot;The one thing you need to do is realize God. Why do you bother so much about the world, creation, 'science', and all that? Your business is to eat mangoes. What need have you know how many hundreds of trees there are in the orchard, how many thousands of branches, and how many millions of of leaves? You have to come to the garden to eat mangoes. Go and eat them. Man is born in this world to realize God; it is not good to forget that and divert the mind to other things. You have come to eat mangoes. Eat the mangoes and be happy.&quot;     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-09T14:18:32.060" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3661" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3636" CreationDate="2014-11-09T15:13:28.953" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no destruction at the end of a Yuga, so yes they can survive. a complete cycle of all the Yugas is called a Mahayuga. 1,000 mahayugas (4,320,000,000 human years) constitute a single day of Brahma - a single kalpa. A day of Brahma starts with the creation or emanation of the universe and terminates with the dissolution back into the Absolute. The higher worlds survive. So religions can survive from Yuga to the next (It doesn't say if they actually will or not), but they cannot survive after a day of Brahma. The current Brahma survives for 100 Brahma years and then there is the grand dissolution where all spheres of beings dissolve into the Absolute. After a Brahma century of re-absorption, there is a new Brahma and a new emanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It would appear according to some interpretations that every new emanation has the same events occur again in the same manner and sequence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said that both Buddha and Jesus were incarnations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These different religions exist and moksha is possible but very difficult to attain through other religions. Swami Vivekananda said &quot;This Moksha-path is only in India and nowhere else. Hence is true the oft-repeated saying that Mukta souls are only here in India and in no other country. But it is equally true that in the future they will be in other countries as well; that is well and good, and a thing of great pleasure to us.&quot; (C.W. V. 5, p 446)       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-09T15:13:28.953" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3662" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3608" CreationDate="2014-11-09T15:55:18.247" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although often called the Vyasa Sutra, or the Vedanta Sutra, the Brahma Sutra was composed by Badarayana, not Vyasa. Swami Vireshwarananda points this out in the introduction to his and Swami Adidevananda's translation of the Brahma Sutras Sri-Bhasya. (Ramanuja's Sri-Bhasya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although there is no definitive list of all the Upanishad quotes in the Bhasyas, Vireshwarananda's translation has a list of abbreviations at the beginning of the book for the different scriptures referenced in the book. There are 29 different scriptures referenced, of which 14 are listed as Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sorry for the late edit, but have finished a review. The Upanishads quoted directly in the Brahma Sutras are the following (list includes the Brahma Sutra verse where it is quoted).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.1.3 - Taittiriya (III. 1.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.2.26 - Chandogya (V. xviii. 2.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.3.6 - Brhadaranyaka (I. iii. 7.) and Chandogya (I. ii. 7.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.3.24 - Chandogya  and Taittiriya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4.4.16 - Brhadaranyaka (IV. iii. 21)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2014-11-29T12:01:16.940" LastActivityDate="2014-11-29T12:01:16.940" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3663" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3611" CreationDate="2014-11-10T06:40:45.690" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is an excerpt from one of the posts on internet from very valid sources.&#xA;It also eloborates Why the name nArAyaNa is the essence all other names and is applicable only to Vishnu, though, this is not exactly what the question asks?.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name “nArAyaNa” has several meanings –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“One in whom all things inhere”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“One who is the resorted to by all”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“One whose abode is in the waters”, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of the “NakAra”, ALL these meanings denote the person commonly known by this name, which is of course, shrI vishNu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The proper noun makes the meanings of the word nArAyaNa denote only the person who is commonly referred to by the name. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the only one who is commonly referred to by the yaugika and rUDhi usage of the name is shrI mahA-vishNu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some ignorant of Sanskrit grammar and vaiShNava traditions mistakenly think we use only the meaning “He who lies in the waters” to identify vishNu with nArAyaNa. This is absolutely wrong. Due to paninian grammar, even the yaugika artha of “He in whom all things inhere” denote only mahA vishNu and not any other deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, nArAyaNa is a proper noun  because:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Panini says so.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All ancient vedAntins have accepted this. shrI yAmunAchArya&#xA;  explicitly states in stotra ratna – “what vaidika would deny nArAyaNa&#xA;  is the parabrahman?” showing that no vaidika – advaitin,&#xA;  vishishtadvaitin or dvaitin – ever contested this during his time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The context of the name in the veda itself indicates this.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;This nArAyaNa is viShNu and all meanings of the name denote only lakshmIpathi viShNu and no other deity because:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other deities have been declared as distinct from nArAyaNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Only viShNu is identified with nArAyaNa along with distinctive characteristics. This is proven both by using the “Na-kAra” rule (“pUrvapadAt saMj~nAyAm agaH”, aShTAdhyAyi of Panini; 8.4.3) and even without using it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It also rules out bizarre claims that nArAyaNa is nirguNa brahman, etc. Adi Shankara himself has only used the “nArAyaNa” with the “Na-kAra” showing that it denotes a specific entity, ie, saguNa brahman. Besides the fact that nirguNa brahman is devoid of names, the “Na-kAra” makes it impossible to attribute this to any entity besides lakShmIpati viShNu. And as seen earlier, even without “Na-kAra”, it denotes saguNa brahman, ie, viShNu.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other names are all common nouns including Indra, Chandra, Bramha, Siva, Sada-Siva, rudra, Ganesha etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nArAyaNa cannot be applied to common nouns but all common nouns are applied to nArAyaNa due to panini Sanskrit grammar rules. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastActivityDate="2014-11-10T06:40:45.690" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3664" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24879" CreationDate="2014-11-10T07:51:47.847" Score="7" ViewCount="4687" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2876/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Universe lasts for one Kalpa or day of Brahma.  Each Kalpa is divided into fourteen Manvantaras, periods where a given Manu governs the race of humans.  Now we are presently governed by Surya's son Vaivasvata Manu, but during the first Manvantara of the present Kalpa, humanity was governed by Brahma's son Swayambhuva Manu.  The Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; Swayambhuva Manu's children:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[I]n due course of time he [Manu] begot in Śatarūpā five children — two sons, Priyavrata and Uttānapāda, and three daughters, Ākūti, Devahūti and Prasūti.  &lt;strong&gt;The father, Manu, handed over his first daughter, Ākūti, to the sage Ruci&lt;/strong&gt;, the middle daughter, Devahūti, to the sage Kardama, and the youngest, Prasūti, to Dakṣa. From them, all the world filled with population.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devahuti's husband Kardama was a sage born from Brahma's shadow.  And Prasuti's husband Daksha was born from Brahma's thumb.  But my question is, who is this sage Ruchi who married Akuti?  He's presumably a son of Brahma, but the only named sages who had been created by Brahma are the four Sanat Kunaras, Kardama, and the Prajapatis.  Yet only ten Prajapatis who are listed &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;earlier on&lt;/a&gt; in the chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Marīci, Atri, Aṅgirā, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Bhṛgu, Vasiṣṭha, Dakṣa, and the tenth son, Nārada, were thus born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, Ruchi's status as a Prajapati is confirmed &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/1/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;later on&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam, in a description of Ruchi's son, the incarnation of Vishnu known as Yagna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ākūti had two brothers, but in spite of her brothers, King Svāyambhuva Manu handed her over to Prajāpati Ruci on the condition that the son born of her be returned to Manu as his son. This he did in consultation with his wife, Śatarūpā.  Ruci, who was very powerful in his brahminical qualifications and &lt;strong&gt;was appointed one of the progenitors of the living entities&lt;/strong&gt;, begot one son and one daughter by his wife, Ākūti.  Of the two children born of Ākūti, the male child was directly an incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and His name was Yajña, which is another name of Lord Viṣṇu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu incarnated as Ruchi's son Yagna in order to fill the position of Indra during the Manvanthara of Swayambhuva Manu.  So are there any scriptures which describe the birth of the father of this important incarnation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2018-03-08T04:27:57.237" Title="Who is Ruchi, father of Vishnu's incarnation Yagna?" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavata-purana|rishi|avatars|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3665" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3669" CreationDate="2014-11-10T10:28:37.473" Score="11" ViewCount="11646" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do we have any account of the afterlives of Vasudeva, Devaki, Nandagopa and Yashoda? I generally hear about Nandagopa and Yashoda's last incident to be while they were being separated from Krishna, i.e. Krishna going to Mathura. About Vasudeva and Devaki, the last thing I heard was that they were freed after Kamsa's killing and Vasudeva was made the Crown Prince under King Ugrasena. Do we have any further stories or incidents where they have a role to play and also how did they die?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T11:15:55.667" LastActivityDate="2017-12-21T11:15:55.667" Title="Afterlives of Vasudeva, Devaki, Nandagopa and Yashoda" Tags="|krishna|chandravansh|yadavas|yashoda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3666" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-10T10:32:58.337" Score="11" ViewCount="18052" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the best time to read Sri Rudram (Namakam Chamakam) and also the order in which we need to read. Are there any rituals that should be performed while reading Sri Rudram?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Great Sri Rudra Pasupathi Nayanar used to chant Sri Rudram standing in water with his neck deep. Do we also have to do like that? What if there is no river?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="10088" LastEditDate="2024-02-03T17:16:10.907" LastActivityDate="2024-02-03T17:16:10.907" Title="What is the best time to read Sri Rudram?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|shiva|yajur-veda|rudram|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3667" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-10T11:05:42.210" Score="8" ViewCount="377" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some people say that Jesus came to India and got the powers by meditating. I ask a general question, MOST of those saints meditate upon the Supreme being (Lord Krishna or Lord Shiva) and get the powers will not tell us about the supreme being and instead say that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pray me, &lt;strong&gt;I'll&lt;/strong&gt; kill your sins and fulfill your material desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why doesn't they say to &lt;strong&gt;pray the Supreme being (Lord Shiva or Lord Krishna)&lt;/strong&gt; who gave them the powers and why didn't they tell us the truth that it is because of the Supreme being they got the powers, and ask their disciples to worship that supreme being?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why do these many religions exist when the Supreme being has the POWER to inject faith in the people without the need of creating religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T10:22:55.880" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T15:24:28.563" Title="Why do these many religions exist?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|other-religions|avatars|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3668" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3608" CreationDate="2014-11-10T14:45:25.150" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Badarayana-Vyasa Brahma Sutras are a compilation of extremely terse Sutras. These Sutras are impossible to understand without the commentary attached to them. There is no direct quote from any Upanishad in any of these Sutras. These Sutras are often not even complete sentences. It is the commentaries that claim that the Sutras are talking about particular shlokas from specific Upanishads. The Upanishads quoted by Sri Sankaracharya to explain the various Sutras are Aitereya, Brhadaranyaka, Chandogya, Isavasya, Jabala, Katha, Kausitaki, Kena, Mandukya, Mundaka, Prasna, Svetasvatara and Tattiriya, a total of 13. The Upanishads quoted by Sri Ramanuja to explain the Sutras are Aitereya, Brhadaranyaka, Chandogya, Isavasya, Katha, Kausitaki, Kena, Mahanarayana, Mundaka, Mudgala, Prasna, Subala, Svetasvara and Taittiriya, a total of 14.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-11-10T14:45:25.150" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3669" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3665" CreationDate="2014-11-10T16:40:14.023" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The last time that Krishna saw Nandagopa was during a pilgrimage to Kurukshetra.  There was once a solar eclipse, so people from all over India made a pilgrimage to the Samanta Panchaka of five ponds of Kurukshetra.  The Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/82/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; Krishna and the Yadavas meeting Nandagopa and Yashoda there:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing Nanda, the Vṛṣṇis were delighted and stood up like dead bodies coming back to life. Having felt much distress at not seeing him for so long, they held him in a tight embrace.  Vasudeva embraced Nanda Mahārāja with great joy. Beside himself with ecstatic love, Vasudeva remembered the troubles Kaṁsa had caused him, forcing him to leave his sons in Gokula for Their safety.  O hero of the Kurus, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma embraced Their foster parents and bowed down to them, but Their throats were so choked up with tears of love that the two Lords could say nothing.  Raising their two sons onto their laps and holding Them in their arms, Nanda and saintly mother Yaśodā forgot their sorrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that was not the last time Krishna saw Yashoda.  When Yashoda was on her deathbed, Krishna came to visit her.  Yashoda told him that her one regret in life was that she never got to see any of Krishna's marriages.  So Krishna promised her that in a future birth she would see him get married.  Yashoda was reborn in the Kali Yuga as Vakuladevi, and she got to see the marriage of Venkateshwara (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, AKA Balaji or Srinivasa).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2939/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna died after being shot by a hunter who mistook his foot for the mouth of a deer.  And after Krishna's father Vasudeva heard the news, he gave up his body the next morning, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Mausala Parva of the Mahabharata: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna passed that night in the mansion of Keshava. He was suddenly overwhelmed with great grief and stupefaction. When morning dawned, Vasudeva of great energy and prowess attained, through the aid of Yoga, to the highest goal.  A loud and heart-rending sound of wailing was heard in Vasudeva’s mansion, uttered by the weeping ladies. They were seen with dishevelled hair and divested of ornaments and floral wreaths. Beating their breasts with their hands, they indulged in heart-rending lamentations. Those foremost of women, Devaki and Bhadra and Rohini and Madira threw themselves on the bodies of their lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then Vasudeva's four wives, including Devaki, threw themselves into the funeral pyre:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The body of the hero was followed by his wives decked in ornaments and surrounded by thousands of women and thousands of their daughters-in-law. The last rites were then performed at that spot which had been agreeable to him while he was alive. The four wives of that heroic son of Sura ascended the funeral pyre and were consumed with the body of their lord. All of them attained to those regions of felicity which were his.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-04-25T16:37:18.633" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3672" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-11T07:09:50.990" Score="9" ViewCount="657" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3187/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, in the Bala Kanda of Ramayana, Vishwamitra tells Rama and Lakshmana the famous story of the descent of the Ganga river to the Earth. As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga39/bala_39_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda, Rama's ancestor Sagara once conducted an Ashwamedha Yagna (horse ritual), and Indra, fearing that the yagna would make Sagara too powerful, stole the sacrificial horse so that Sagara couldn't complete the ritual. So Sagara sent his sons to look for the horse, and they scoured the earth trying to find it. As described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga40/bala_40_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt;, Sagara's sons finally found the horse near the ashram of the sage Kapila:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But all those great-souled and great-mighty ones with terrible dash have seen the Infinite Vasudeva in the form of sage Kapila there in the northeast, and oh, descendant of Raghu, they have also seen the ritual-horse moving nearby that sage Kapila, thus all of the sons of Sagara obtained a matchless delight....  'You the malicious one, you have indeed stolen our ritual-horse, and in fact, you should know that we who arrived here are the sons of Sagara.' Thus Sagara's sons shouted at sage Kapila....  Oh, Rama of Kakutstha, then that great-souled sage Kapila, rather Vishnu with unimaginable power, has rendered all of those sons of Sagara as heaps of ashes by virtue of his 'hum' sound. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was the quest to scatter the ashes of Sagara's sons in a holy body of water that motivated Sagara's descendant Bhagiratha's famous quest to bring the river Ganga from Devaloka to Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about this passage's reference to the sage Kapila.  For those who don't know, Kapila was an ancient incarnation of Vishnu, born to Brahma's son Kardama and Swayambhuva Manu's daughter Devahuti.  He was the founder of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sankhya&lt;/a&gt; school, one of the six Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, according to which the universe consists of Purushas or conscious beings interacting with Prakriti or unconscious matter.  The Bhagavad Gita is based in large part on a theistic version of Kapila's Sankhya philosophy.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, my question is, is the Ramayana the earliest Hindu scripture which refers to Kapila?  There are plenty of references to Kapila after the Ramayana; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/24/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and the subsequent chapters of the Srimad Bhagavatam describe the birth of Kapila and how he taught his mother Devahuti.  But are there any references to Kapila before the Ramayana?  Do the Vedas or Upanishads mention him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-10-16T04:59:32.940" Title="What is the earliest reference to Vishnu's incarnation Kapila?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|avatars|kapila|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3674" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-11T14:47:12.500" Score="4" ViewCount="2645" Body="&lt;p&gt;What does goddess Lakshmi symbolize. Does she represent &lt;strong&gt;happiness&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;wealth&lt;/strong&gt;. Most of the people say that she is &lt;strong&gt;wealth&lt;/strong&gt; but I refute it because, Lord Vishnu, the ruler of the life, her husband is the one who can make people happy and people can be happy even without wealth (there are also people who are poor but still happy). How can Lord Vishnu make one happy without giving them &lt;strong&gt;wealth&lt;/strong&gt; if wealth is goddess Lakshmi? She must be happiness which is the essence of life which is ruled by Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She gives wealth for the one who worships her. But what is the difference between god Kubera and her? Can't one get wealth by worshiping Kubera?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What did Vedas and Lord Krishna tell about it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-11-12T03:59:15.177" LastActivityDate="2014-11-14T07:35:06.210" Title="Is Goddess Lakshmi goddess of happiness or wealth?" Tags="|vishnu|worship|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3675" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-11T14:56:16.520" Score="5" ViewCount="280" Body="&lt;p&gt;God is one, the Supreme being (Lord Shiva, Lord Krishna, Lord Vishnu, Lord Rama and so on). All are the names of the supreme being who is not a human, but energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, can I put my own name for that Supreme being and my own symbol for worshiping him? Sometimes, I represent him as space. Will doing so give moksha, fulfill material desires etc?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I doesn't mean to represent them as demigods like Sun, Moon or gods of other religions. But in an entirely new name, a new representation (not Shiva Linga, not the way Lord Vishnu is represented). But entirely new.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I feel one must &lt;strong&gt;Love the Supreme Being&lt;/strong&gt; but not his &lt;strong&gt;name&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;the way he is represented&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;the gifts he is giving&lt;/strong&gt;. However, I still agree that the way they have been represented will induce bhakti but still, I am curious to know the answer imagining them in entirely new way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-12T03:52:51.940" LastActivityDate="2015-02-15T05:22:00.223" Title="Can I put my own name and symbol for the Supreme Being?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|krishna|worship|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3677" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-11T15:14:10.300" Score="3" ViewCount="326" Body="&lt;p&gt;God is represented in many ways with many names and symbols. Like Shiva, Vishnu, Krishna, Sun, Moon etc. However, the Supreme Being is still only one because the energy is inseparable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the reason behind these many gods like Lord Vishnu, Goddess Lakshmi, Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvathi, Ganesha, Karthikeya, Lord Bramha, Goddess Saraswati is giving a feeling of family to us? Like Lord Shiva is the father, Lord Vishnu is maternal uncle, Goddess Parvathi is mother, Ganesha is our elder brother, Karthikeya is our younger brother etc. Feeling of such fills a lot of courage, because we've got a POWERFUL family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what did Vedas and Lord Krishna tell about these many forms of the god?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-12-08T05:27:11.373" LastActivityDate="2015-01-08T03:20:35.873" Title="What is the reason behind the existence of those many God representations?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|vedas|parvati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-01-08T03:11:01.130" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3678" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3682" CreationDate="2014-11-11T15:16:14.257" Score="2" ViewCount="19059" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Peepal tree has grown on the terrace of my house. Now I know if it is not uprooted its roots will dig in deep into a room's ceiling below the terrace. I also know that Peepal tree has got religious value and is said to be sacred. I want to know is it OK if I directly uproot the tree or there has been some religious procedure described anywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-12T03:45:10.200" LastActivityDate="2014-11-13T03:46:35.690" Title="Is it OK to uproot Peepal tree?" Tags="|peepal-tree|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3679" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3684" CreationDate="2014-11-11T15:22:59.940" Score="14" ViewCount="1132" Body="&lt;p&gt;Great Saints are said to have lot of powers which come for their meditation. Like god Sai Baba removing out the intestines and cleaning them, and Sri Madvirat Pothuluri Veerabrahmendra Swamy telling the future etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, do they know &lt;strong&gt;everything&lt;/strong&gt;? I mean, physics, chemistry, maths, computer science, future, astrospace etc? Can they answer 'any' question related to those?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scientists are conducting lot of researches, sending spacecrafts into other planets spending lot of money. I think that the great saints have answers for all those that the scientists are intended to find out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T10:34:51.857" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T08:41:25.723" Title="Do great saints know everything?" Tags="|saint|siddhi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3681" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-11T18:42:31.810" Score="6" ViewCount="230" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer I am looking for is more from a perspective of &quot;What was the original purpose for which people used temples&quot; how has it changed and has it changed for the worse or for the good. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any citation to literature would be preferred, but I am looking for opinions from people who have had this thought in some form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I did have a look at (&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3650/what-does-hindu-scriptures-say-about-hindu-temples&quot;&gt;What do Hindu scriptures say about Hindu temples?&lt;/a&gt;), but I guess these are different in the purpose, I am primarily looking for what people feel was the purpose of it and most importantly the modern day purpose and its repercussions on the way Hinduism is perceived both by Hindus and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1041" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2018-04-20T03:56:31.573" Title="What is the purpose of having a temple?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3682" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3678" CreationDate="2014-11-11T18:57:06.737" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is an old practice in South India among Hindus, before cutting down the tree for various purposes, people ask permission of tree(not just peepal) and apologize. The power of our mind is great, actually it can speak even to trees, that's why such practices exist. Plants do have feelings. The great Indian scientist Jagadish Bose had proved this, but I guess our ancestors know this truth before ages and that's why they promoted Ahimsa, Jagadish Bose created an experimental device to measure about plant's feeling/responses. I guess that peepal tree can understand you. There are people still following this great practice, be with mother nature friend.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As it is a necessity, you can just apologize and move the tree to some other place. It will be better if you plant another tree as a compensation if you can't replant it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The practice which is mentioned here can be seen in this question, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3215/what-does-hinduism-say-about-protection-of-nature&quot;&gt;What does Hinduism say about protection of nature?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-13T03:46:35.690" LastActivityDate="2014-11-13T03:46:35.690" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3683" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3681" CreationDate="2014-11-11T19:43:39.790" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Temples were the earliest places for social gathering.  Morning Prayers, evening prayers and they help people gather and discuss their problems and thoughts(Speaking for the earliest reason).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bigger Temples were used by kings to hide their Gold assets(Kerala's padmanabh temple).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They were means to display there connection of king with god(Temples created by Raja Raja Cholan).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kings always try to display that they are supported by GOD to rule. Be it indian kings, romans, or egyptian.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1033" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-12T03:31:42.097" LastActivityDate="2014-11-12T03:31:42.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3684" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3679" CreationDate="2014-11-11T21:06:33.700" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here is one perspective about 'knowing everything' based on some scriptural statements:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think the saints, mystics or bhaktas would know &lt;strong&gt;everything&lt;/strong&gt; in the sense you have described. Only the Supreme Lord knows everything. The sages can know as much as He allows them to know for their service to Him. We see in Bhagavatam/Mahabharata that Arjuna had so many powers but on an occasion, right after Krishna left the planet, Arjuna says this (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/15/chapter-view&quot;&gt;copied from here&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have the very same Gandiva bow, the same arrows, the same chariot&#xA;  drawn by the same horses, and I use them as the same Arjuna to whom&#xA;  all the kings offered their due respects. But in the absence of Lord&#xA;  Krsna, all of them, at a moment’s notice, have become null and void.&#xA;  It is exactly like offering clarified butter on ashes, accumulating&#xA;  money with a magic wand or sowing seeds on barren land.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commenting on this vers Srila Prabhupda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As we have discussed more than once, one should not be puffed up by&#xA;  borrowed plumes. All energies and powers are derived from the supreme&#xA;  source, Lord Krsna, and they act as long as He desires and cease to&#xA;  function as soon as He withdraws.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the powers the yogis, siddhas or any one else can work only when He permits. The fact that Lord Krishna knows everything is confirmed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/26&quot;&gt;Gita 7.26&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything&#xA;  that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present,&#xA;  and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities;&#xA;  but Me no one knows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However it is also said, &lt;code&gt;Yasmin vijnate sarvam evam vijnatam bhavati&lt;/code&gt;: If we undertand Him we will understand everything. What He gives us depends on how much and with what intent one surrenders unto Him. That He says in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/11&quot;&gt;Gita 4.11&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ye yatha mam prapadyante&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tams tathaiva bhajamy aham &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the conclusion is the Supreme Lord knows everything and we can know as much as we understand Him and as much as He allows us to know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Regarding saints having answers to what scientists are trying to findout:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We hear about airplanes, inter planterory travel, traveling on sun-rays, brahmastra and many other mystical things in our Vedic literature. Science is about yantra (mechanical) but the yogic methods are more subtle and function with mantra (mental/verbal). While these existed and exist today the goal of scientists and the saints are generally the opposite. The scientists want to make this material world a comfortable place for sense enjoyment. It says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/8/15&quot;&gt;Gita&lt;/a&gt; 'duhkhalayam asasvatam' that material creation is temporary and a miserable place. The essence of Gita is to remind us this human life is meant for self realization and surrender unto the Supreme Lord. Eternal bliss is a by-product of that self realization. So it is natural that our saints emphasized more on spirituality while keeping the material needs to a minimum (needs verses wants). That is why we see that even though the saints were highly intelligent and possessed many powers they didn't care to exhibit them because their goal is non-material. Helping humans escape of millions of births of suffering is more important than giving some sense pleasure in this one lifetime.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="1014" LastEditDate="2014-11-11T22:34:00.610" LastActivityDate="2014-11-11T22:34:00.610" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3686" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3650" CreationDate="2014-11-11T23:04:10.060" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;General perspective on temple worship:&lt;/strong&gt; Deity worship was the main process in dvapara yuga. In kaliyuga the recommended process is chanting of the holy names of Lord Hari. You can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Shachinandana_Swami/The_Nectarean_Ocean_of_the_Holy_Name/Appendix/Sri_Harinamamrta-sloka-mala-satastaka/The_Holy_Name_is_the_yuga-dharma.htm&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; for more information on this point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do Hindu scriptures say that we should build temples? (Yes | No)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Building temples is beneficial for our own self and for the society. Couple of scriptural citations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who builds or helps to build a beautiful temple for the Lord will&#xA;  be freed from all sinful reactions and will enter the Vaikuntha&#xA;  planets. - [Narasimha Purana]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who offers the Deity gifts of land, markets, cities and villages&#xA;  so that the regular daily worship and special festivals of the Diety&#xA;  may go on will continually achieve opulence equal to My Own - [Srimad&#xA;  Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27/51&quot;&gt;11.27.51]&#xA;  &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If I go to Lord Shiva's and Lord Hanuman's temple, but I also have the deities at home temple (puja mandir), can I ignore going to the public temple? Is it necessary to visit a (public) temple which has &quot;Pran Pratishtha&quot; instead of the normal temple at home where we pray and worship God but God goes away after worshiping? (Yes | No)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally a temple where the deities are worshiped according to scriptural injunctions is more conducive for spiritual advancement. The atmosphere is clean and spiritual because the sole purpose of the place is to facilitate deity worship and other spiritual activities. Having said that in an advanced stage when our heart is filled with devotion we will be able to feel that sanctity all over and our worship-able Lord everywhere. However, this is not the position of normal people but highly elevated. So unless the temple is far away it is better to go to a temple regularly. If the temple is far, one can worship at home daily and visit temple on a regular basis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are there any rules for home and public temples? If yes, what are they?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I can only answer from Vaishnava perspective (Gaudiya Sampradaya) for worshiping Vishnu deities. This &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.deityworship.com/&quot;&gt;site&lt;/a&gt;, under 'Worship' menu has Temple and Home Worship sub sections. Under them you will see other sub sections.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is it necessary for a Hindu to visit a temple at least once a day? (Yes | No)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vedic scriptures don't make anything mandatory. They recommend the best things for us and it's up to us to seek and follow. If you do go to a temple, it elevates your consciousness and brings you closer to attaining self realization. If it is impractical to go daily make it a weekly or other suitable periodical visit. Also when you take up a spiritual path, it is your guru who can give you the best advice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Did Hindu scriptures originate temples or is it the people (Brahmans/devotees)? (Scripture | People)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There are ample references to temple and deity worship in Vedic scriptures. For one such instance read chapter 11.27 of Srimad Bhagavatam: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27/chapter-view&quot;&gt;Lord Krishna's Instructions on the Process of Deity Worship&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-01T20:57:15.433" LastActivityDate="2016-04-01T20:57:15.433" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3687" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3674" CreationDate="2014-11-12T03:11:20.253" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Happiness is of two kinds: Spiritual and Material. Material happiness arise from good health, wealth, no enemies, etc. So when material happiness is considered, it arises due to the grace of Lakshmi. So in the Vishnu Purana it has been said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;śarīrārogyamaiśvaryyamaripakṣakṣayaḥ sukham&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  devi tvadūdṛṣṭidṛṣṭānāṃ puruṣāṇāṃ na durllabham&lt;/em&gt;  [VP - 1.9.125]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Health, wealth, destruction of enemies and happiness are not difficult to attain for those men upon which, O Devi, you have your glance of grace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there are also people who are not wealthy but still happy because they are content with whatever they have and they are free from unnecessary desires. These kind of happiness and the happiness derived from the inner soul or God (generally known as bliss or spiritual happiness) are not dependent upon Maa Lakshmi. So worshipers of Vishnu or any other form of God can be with or without wealth but still be happy. It is generally the material happiness that one obtains from Maa Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubera&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kubera&lt;/a&gt;, he is just a demigod and chief of the &lt;em&gt;yakhsyas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaksha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yakshas&lt;/a&gt; are generally the protector of treasures hidden in the world. So Kubera is lord of all treasures and there are rituals and worships for him, but he is incomparable to Maa Lakshmi because Laksmhi in one way is the &lt;em&gt;adimata&lt;/em&gt; or the energy part of God (&lt;em&gt;śaktirlakṣmī&lt;/em&gt;). So She is one form of &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; Herself and superior to any other gods and goddesses. While other demigods and goddesses can award only material benefits, Maa Lakshmi can award spiritual benefits as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-11-12T03:11:20.253" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3689" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3702" CreationDate="2014-11-12T05:52:25.730" Score="7" ViewCount="1227" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;opens&lt;/a&gt; with this famous verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nārāyaṇaṃ namaskṛtya naraṃ caiva narottamam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;devīṃ sarasvatīṃ caiva tato jayamudīrayet ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om! Having bowed down to Narayana and Nara, the most exalted male being, and also to the goddess Saraswati, must the word Jaya be uttered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara-Narayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nara and Narayana&lt;/a&gt; were two ancient sages who were twin sons of Yama god of death and famously meditated in Badrikashrama.  Nara was the previous birth of Arjuna, whereas Narayana was an incarnation of Vishnu and thus the previous birth of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the word &amp;quot;narottamam&amp;quot;, which means &amp;quot;the best of men&amp;quot; or as the translation puts it, &amp;quot;the most exalted male being&amp;quot;.  Why is it that &amp;quot;narottamam&amp;quot; is referring to Nara and not to his brother Narayana?  After all, in the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;Narayana, again, became superior to Nara in consequence of many more qualities.&amp;quot;  Also, a common name of Vishnu is Purushottama, which also means &amp;quot;best of men&amp;quot;, so it seems like a logical epithet of Vishnu's incarnation Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it possible that Ganguli (&lt;em&gt;the translator&lt;/em&gt;) made an error, and that narottamam actually does refer to Narayana and not Nara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T22:07:02.403" Title="Who does the Mahabharata call the &quot;best of men&quot;, Nara or Narayana?" Tags="|mahabharata|avatars|vishnu|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3690" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6872" CreationDate="2014-11-12T08:13:40.723" Score="4" ViewCount="1288" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why all Temples, Mosques, Churches, Gurudwaras, etc have a structure such that the main area on the ground is broad and on top it is pointed something like '/\'. This upper part varies a bit in shape like rounded or conical according to the religion but they are almost similar and this particular upper part shape is not build for normal houses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my confusion is about this upper part of the temples. Is it just to make them different from normal houses or there is some significance of it for shaping it like this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-12T08:19:53.490" LastActivityDate="2015-03-30T04:28:18.507" Title="Upper shape of Temples" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3691" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3674" CreationDate="2014-11-12T08:31:44.333" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The One Suprme Divine Nature expresses Its will to redeem by assuming &#xA;a dual Spiritual Form - Narayana &amp;amp; Sri (Lakshmi) - these two aspects are philosophically inseparable but functionally distinct. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri (or Lakshmi) is related to Narayana as the fragrance is to a &#xA;  flower, or the rays of the sun to the Sun.&#xA;  Narayana with perfect justice rules the all the creation as supreme Father, but Sri His Eternal Consort resides within His heart as the embodiment of Saving Grace - the Universal Mother. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She ensures that the reign of righteousness is tempered by redemptive mercy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lord dispenses justice in accordance with the merit and demerit of &#xA;  the jiva and Lakshmi dependent upon the Lord, but through her Beauty and Grace she captivates the Lord and transforms his desire for justice (nigraha-shakti) into redemptive Grace (anugraha-shakti), she acts as the Mediatrix between the Lord and the jivas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lord Narayana too is innately gracious, but His Grace is an “initial” Grace called kripa which is common to all higher beings. By virtue of this Grace, one is impelled to seek refuge in the Lord and become a servant of the Lord. &#xA;  But the Grace of the Divine Mother (Sri or Lakshmi) is a specific Grace called prasada. It is the saving Grace; the response of ‘condescension’ of the Divine into the realm of being which permits the jiva to be liberated from Samsara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The great theologian and Acharya Sri Vedanta Desika (13th century) finds all this potential for salvation implicit in the very name of the Divine Mother itself. The great Achraya derives six different meanings from the name Sri:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;sriyate - she who is resorted to by the jivas&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;srayate - she who resorts to the Lord Narayana&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;srnoti - she who listens to prayers&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;sravayati - she who causes the Lord to listen&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;srnati - she who removes the past karma, faults and hindrances in the way of the spiritual aspirant.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;srinati - she who prepares the jivas for liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This brings out the essence of Sri Suktam which part of Rig Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that among women he is &quot;Sri&quot;, though the interpretation by acharyas may vary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kirtih srir vak ca narinam smrtir medha dhrtih ksama  (Chapter 10; verse 34)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Divine Universal mother Lakshmi/Sri grants both material and spiritual prosperity including moksha/liberation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the term Lakshmi appears in Rig Veda:Sri Suktam, Rig Veda 10.71.2, Purusha sukta, also in bhoo sukta etc in vedas. Some of the instances:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Purusha suktha (Yajurveda recension) 2.6: hrishcate laksmisca patnyau&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 10.71.2 : bhadraisam laksmirnihati vaci&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhoo suktam: Lakshmi Priya sakihm devim namam acyutha vallbham and so on&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmi is the term is popularly used to designate the consort of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yaska the author of Vedic etymology,Nirukta, provides seven meanings to the term Lakshmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Goddess is called lakshmi because she was acquired by Vishnu as his consort (laabhaa)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Goddess serves as an identification mark for Vishnu (lakshanat) i.e.  the eternal &#xA;  association of lakshmi with Vishnu makes the latter Supreme deity as distinguished from other vedic deities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmi is one who grace is sought for material prosperity (lapsyanaat)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Goddess expresses her permanent presence on the chest of Vishnu (laanchanaat)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Goddess illumines the whole world with her lustre (lasate)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Goddess is called lakshmi because of her everlasting association with Vishnu (lagyate)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Goddess is very modest in the sense that though she grants all the boons (material, spiritual and liberation) to the devotees, she feels she hasn’t done enough for them(lajjate) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same is echoed in Sri Stuti (verse 23) of the Great Acharya Sri Vedanta Desika (13 th century)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;MAtA Devi! Tvamasi BhagavAn VAsudeva: PitAmE &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;JAta SsOham Janani YuvayOrEkalakshyam DayAyA: II&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;DattO YuShmatparijanatayA DesikaIrapyatastvam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Kim TE Bhuya: Priyamatikila SmEravaktrA ViBhAsi II&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;      &lt;p&gt;Oh Lakshmi (Devi)! You are my mother. Bhagavan VAsudeva alone is my father. I am but one among the numerous who have secured your grace and been blessed with your mercy. My Acharyas have given me to you in the form of an eternal servant. You are smiling at me now simply because you are thinking &quot;what more is left that is befitting for Desika to &#xA;      accomplish?&quot; The tasks meant for me have been completed. This is what I infer from your smile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sayana interprets the term Lakshmi as the one who possess all the auspicious qualities (laksanavati)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The common accepted definition is that Lakshmi is the one who shows concern for all living beings (lakksayatiti laksmih)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The greatness of the goddess lakshmi cannot be fathomed. This is wonderfully summarized by the Great Acharya of Srivaishnavism Sri Yamunacharya in Chatusloki Verse 2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasyAstE mahimAnam Atmana iva tvadvallabhOapi prabhu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nAlam mAtumiyattayA niravadhim nityAnukUlam svata: | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tAm tvAm dAsa iti prapanna iti ca stOshyAmyaham nirbhaya: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;lOkaikeSvari lOkanAtha dayitE dAntE dayAm tE vidan || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Oh undisputed Empress of the Universe! Oh dearest consort of the Lord, who s the Supreme ! Oh most merciful mother! Your greatness is limitless, natural/intrinsic and supportive in all matters relating to the activities of Your Lord. Even that Lord of Yours is unable to comprehend fully Your auspicious attributes just as He Himself is not able to measure His own immeasurable/infinite auspicious attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Periya VaacchAn PiLLai and Sri Vedanta Desika have commented with great insight on this and other slokAs of Sri YaamunAachrya’s Catussloki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Summum bonum of all this is that, Goddess Lakshmi, the universal mother grants everything from material prosperity, spiritual prosperity to moksha/liberation from transmigration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kubera though is a one of the asta digpalaka's is a lower deity and he is more of a holder of treasurer post, who is himself dependent on the Divine Supreme couple, Lakshmi and Narayana's grace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2014-11-14T07:35:06.210" LastActivityDate="2014-11-14T07:35:06.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3692" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-12T10:04:52.453" Score="2" ViewCount="680" Body="&lt;p&gt;We generally feel that that a temple near our house is a normal temple while that on a particular hill is a special temple (may be because of some story behind it) and those on hill tops are said to be more wish fulfilling ones than the local ones. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reaching these distance wise and altitude wise far off places must have been all the more difficult in the times for the devotees when they were made than now. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It would have been even more difficult for the creators to get all the material gathered there. So, my question is why are the most famous temples situated on hills which are difficult to visit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-11-15T06:38:16.837" LastActivityDate="2014-11-15T06:41:16.887" Title="Why are most famous (or wish fulfiling) temples situated on hills?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3694" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3692" CreationDate="2014-11-12T14:41:32.607" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Its for multiple reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Religious Reasons :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It takes effort from individual to reach their, thus &lt;em&gt;reducing their sins&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Any form of festival/prayer &lt;em&gt;gets loud attentions&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When there's some special occasion like &lt;em&gt;Poornima&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Ammavasya&lt;/em&gt;, they are represented by using specialized flag to make local public aware from distance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scientific Reason : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;They cosmic energy level is &lt;em&gt;high&lt;/em&gt; on this altitude.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Aura&lt;/em&gt; (If you understand this term) at such altitudes is very positive.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atmosphere is much clean.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1033" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-11-15T06:41:16.887" LastActivityDate="2014-11-15T06:41:16.887" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3696" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3679" CreationDate="2014-11-12T14:53:19.167" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;They do not know 'everything'. Swami Vivekananda said that a realized soul knows the essence of Reality; it does not mean that he knows every particular aspect of It's infinite manifestations. To know clay does not mean that you know every form of clay. To know Brahman is to know everything as One without a second - without manifestation. To be conscious of the One, you cannot be aware of the many, and vice versa. He said that if you are seeing the rope as a snake, you only see the snake and not the rope. When you see the rope, you no longer see the snake. You cannot see both at the same time. Likewise if you see Brahman, you no longer see the world of maya; and vice versa.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also said that for a man who practices continence and meditation, it is very easy to concentrate on a subject and learn it very quickly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A knower of Brahman looks on knowledge of this world as an intelligent man of this world looks on the play of small children. He knows it is all foolishness and just play of no consequence. Or he looks on it as a man may look on the struggles of some ants; it is nothing compared to the knowledge of Brahman.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2014-11-12T15:11:43.610" LastActivityDate="2014-11-12T15:11:43.610" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3697" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3678" CreationDate="2014-11-12T15:43:09.143" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Such a weighty subject. Do you follow the precepts in the Chhandogya Upanishad (III. 17.) and (V. x. 9.)? Or the Taittiriya Upanishad (I. xi.)? Are you truthful all the time? Do you give alms to the poor? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Taittiriya Upanishad it says when the student is about to leave his teacher, he is told to asked among other things to protect his welfare and prosperity (I. xi.) Cutting the tree is protecting your possessions. If cutting down a Peepal tree is the only karma you have to answer for, you are a great soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your first duty is to your family's protection and welfare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-13T03:46:04.050" LastActivityDate="2014-11-13T03:46:04.050" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3698" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3675" CreationDate="2014-11-12T16:54:54.273" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;You wrote: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Now, can I put my own name for that Supreme being and my own symbol for worshiping him?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No you should not put your own name for the Supreme. There is great danger in this. Your ego will come to take your material body for God. Read Chhandogya Upanishad Part 8, Chapters 7-12. It tells the story of the Prajapati and Indra and how the demons took their body for the supreme Self.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is ok for some people to use their own symbol, for other people it is not. Your guru can instruct you on what is best for you.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You wrote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sometimes, I represent him as space. Will doing so give moksha, fulfill material desires etc?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Representing him as space is a form of meditation practiced in Juana yoga. Your guru can determine if juana yoga is the path for you.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Fulfilling material desires will not lead to moksha. Renunciation is the path to moksha.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-17T03:05:06.523" LastActivityDate="2014-11-17T03:05:06.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3699" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3667" CreationDate="2014-11-12T17:16:41.693" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;What you call religions are only maps. Real religion means to realize God. If you want to know why God created all these different religions, realize God and ask him. Have you seen God? Has your father or your grandfather? How do you know His name is Vishnu or Shiva? Realize God. Before that everything is only opinions. Hinduism is THE only religion that teaches that you can realize Him in this very lifetime. Not after death, Now. It is the only religion that tells you you must go beyond the scriptures. The scriptures are only guideposts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why are there these different religions? Why do you like Coke and I like Pepsi? People with different backgrounds, different cultures, have different ways of doing everything, whether it's cooking, or rules for driving, or just the way we think because we're all built differently. Your size shirt won't fit me. Why should your concept of God fit everyone else? Why shouldn't you accept my concept of God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have a finite mind - how can you presume to begin to comprehend the Infinite?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God has revealed Himself in different ways to different people. God is all of those concepts and many more that we can't even imagine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vivekananda hoped that there would be not be less, but more and more religions because that way more and more men would find their way to God.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2014-11-12T17:23:34.933" LastActivityDate="2014-11-12T17:23:34.933" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3702" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3689" CreationDate="2014-11-13T00:07:19.723" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The root words (namas) to consider here are nārāyaṇa, nara, devī and sarasvatī. All of them are used in the above verse in dvitiya(second case) serving as an object or as a qualifier to an existing object. Devīm is the qualifier for sarasvatīm. Now narottamam in the above case is applied to nara as a qualifier. I don't think it is a translation error while philosophical reasoning may differ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, because of your great question I looked up previous acaryas commentaries. Indeed Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura (VCT), commenting on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/2/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;verse 1.2.4&lt;/a&gt; of Srimad Bhagavatam (that is exactly same as this  but one word differs in some editions and VCT addresses this below), says &lt;code&gt;narottamam means Lord Sri Krishna&lt;/code&gt;. The Sankrit scanned copy of VCT and other commentaries is available &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/SrimadBhagavatamCanto01withMultipleSanskritCommentaries&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One translation of VCT commentary (Sarartha-darsini) into English is done by Bhanu Swami (only hard copies available) and what I type below is from his book. So VCT says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having offered respects to guru, SUta offers respects to devatA,&#xA;  presiding deity, etc.   Nara-nArAyaNa are designated as the presiding&#xA;  deities of this work since they have authority over the place. The&#xA;  devatA or subject of the BhAgavatam is KRSNa (narottamam).  SarasvatI&#xA;  is the Shakti.  The word ca indicates the RShi (sage) of the work,&#xA;  VyAsa.  Some editions have the word vyAsam instead of caiva. That&#xA;  makes the meaning clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, according to VCT, it seems Narayana and Nara refer to the presiding deities in Badikasrama where Vyasa first compiled Bhagavatam. Narottamam  refers to Krishna and Devim to Sarasvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T22:07:02.403" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T22:07:02.403" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3703" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3722" CreationDate="2014-11-13T01:40:25.213" Score="12" ViewCount="1312" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am aware that this question is more a parenting question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I ask the question is, to me and many young children around me, it was just told that idol worship in a temple is holy and wish-fulfilling. Some think is a very narrow definition of religion and feel there has to be a better way. Also, teaching them meditation and such may not be appropriate till they attain a reasonable age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While children don't question our opinions and will accept what we say, have any Hindu rishis, saints or gurus thought about this and found a mature way of introducing Hinduism to children in various stages of their upbringing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any of our scriptures also prescribe a way to do this i.e., how to introduce Hinduism to children?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: I'm not looking for personal opinions of users on this website!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1041" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T06:28:44.853" LastActivityDate="2017-01-13T09:53:47.570" Title="What do Hindu scriptures or Gurus say on How to Introduce Hinduism to Children?" Tags="|worship|practice|culture|parents|children|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3704" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3710" CreationDate="2014-11-13T07:37:25.677" Score="18" ViewCount="51182" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard of an incident in which Suryadev was once killed by Lord Shiva. Can somebody explain to me what is this incident and what Surya's mistake was? And also, please let me know how he became alive again. Please also include the source reference for this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-28T01:16:14.477" LastActivityDate="2023-08-22T04:49:22.713" Title="Why was Surya killed by Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|ganesha|surya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3705" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3689" CreationDate="2014-11-13T07:51:57.740" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here the extract from the Mahabharata tatparya nirnaya by Sri Madhvacharya for this verse from mahAbharata. Adiparva. 1.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jayo nAmetihAso.ayaM kR^ishhNadvaipAyaneritaH | &#xA;  vAyurnarottamo nAma devIti shrIrudIritA ||  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nArAyaNo vyAsa iti vAchyavaktR^isvarUpakaH | &#xA;  ekaH sa bhagavAnuktaH sAdhakesho narottamaH || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;upasAdhako narashchokto devI bhAgyAtmikA nR^iNAm | &#xA;  sarasvatI vAkyarUpA tasmAnnamyA hi te.akhilAH ||  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kR^ishhNau satyA bhImapArthau kR^ishhNetyuktA hi bhArate ||  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I shall proceed to narrate the (Bharatha) story called Jaya, after saluting Narayana, Sesha called Nara, Vayu who is referred as narotthama, the Devi (Universal mother Lakshmi), Saraswathi and Vedavyasa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Bharatha Itihasa composed by Krishna Dwaipayana is named Jaya. Vayu is called &#xA;Narothama. Sri Lakshmi is described as Devi. The one and the same Lord is known both &#xA;as Narayana and Vyasa in his two aspects of the author and the subject described. Vayu is &#xA;the highest of the exponents of this work and next to him in this task is Nara. Devi is the goddess of prosperity to all jivas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saraswathi is the presiding deity over this work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore all of them named in the Bharatha as also the two Krishnas (Yadava Krishna and Vasishta Krishna), Universal mother Lakshmi/Satyabhama, consort of Lord Narayana/Krishna (Devi), Bheema and Arjuna (Nara and Narothama) Krishna (Draupadi) deserve to be saluted. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastActivityDate="2014-11-13T07:51:57.740" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3706" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3428" CreationDate="2014-11-13T10:41:18.813" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Wikipedia the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khajuraho_Group_of_Monuments#Arts_and_sculpture&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;erotic sculptures at khajuraho&lt;/a&gt; represent less than 10% of the sculptures. It says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The relative layout of temples integrate masculine and feminine deities and symbols highlight the interdependence.[24] The art work symbolically highlight the four goals of life considered necessary and proper in Hinduism - dharma, kama, artha and moksha....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...The temples have a rich display of intricately carved statues. While they are famous for their erotic sculpture, sexual themes cover less than 10% of the temple sculpture.[29] Further, most erotic scene panels are neither prominent nor emphasized at the expense of the rest, rather they are in proportional balance with the non-sexual images.[30] The viewer has to look closely to find them, or be directed by a guide.[31] The arts cover numerous aspects of human life and values considered important in Hindu pantheon. Further, the images are arranged in a configuration to express central ideas of Hinduism. All three ideas from Agamas are richly expressed in Khajuraho temples - Avyakta, Vyaktavyakta and Vyakta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To put one's focus on the erotic aspects at the expense of the total is tamasic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-01-21T00:47:51.773" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3707" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3703" CreationDate="2014-11-13T10:50:57.050" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said he wanted children from an early age to be taught Advaita, not only worshiping murthis. There is an old story of a queen that rocked her children to sleep when they were babies with &quot;Soham, soham&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I myself started reading about Brahman and first tried meditating when I was 8 years old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My guru's father had him start memorizing the Upanishads when he was 4 or 5.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Children's minds are very pliable. You will be amazed at what they can start doing at an early age. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-13T10:50:57.050" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3708" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3428" CreationDate="2014-11-13T18:10:57.333" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to a study of erotic carvings in Hindu temples erotic sculptures serve the visitors to refresh the spirits by releasing suppressed feelings about sex when observing the sculptures on the temple:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These sexual images on the temple can serve as a means to yield cathartic feelings to the visitor who may feel better by releasing suppressed feelings about sex and sexuality when observing sexual images on the temples. From Tantrik perspectives, such sexual images serve as a stimulant messenger to convey the idea of creation, transformation, unity and harmony to the viewers. Moreover, these images teach the visitor to transcend the barrier of physical world by mastering sex and attain the blissful moment in the spiritual world through enlightenment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org/profiles/blogs/arts-for-peace-an-study-of#.VGTtJPnF-gg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Arts for Peace&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1037" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-19T12:25:45.213" LastActivityDate="2014-11-19T12:25:45.213" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3709" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3704" CreationDate="2014-11-13T19:09:26.197" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Suryadev was angry on King Vrisadhvaja (father of Tulas) for ignoring other Gods and only worshiping Shiva and cursed him that he word lose all his wealth and prosperity. &#xA;When Shiva heard this curse he got angry on Suryadev for cursing his greatest devotee and ran behind him to kill him. On this Suryadev got afraid and along with his father Kasyapa went to Vaikuntha. &#xA;Due to being afraid and with all the terror their throat started drying out (this is where surya was about to die), they went to the supreme god Narayana and he granted them abhaya (no fear).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch15.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch15.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1037" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-16T15:05:05.227" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T15:05:05.227" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3710" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3704" CreationDate="2014-11-14T02:01:32.550" Score="24" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Shiva (temporarily) killing Surya the sun god is told in the Ganesha Khanda of the Brahma Vaivarta Purana.  (See page 349 &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?ei=AWFlVKXhFLLesATsy4GIAQ&amp;amp;id=IpwlAQAAIAAJ&amp;amp;dq=%22He%20struck%20Surya%20with%20a%20trident%20and%20this%20made%22&amp;amp;focus=searchwithinvolume&amp;amp;q=%22He%20struck%20Surya%20with%20a%20trident%20and%20this%20made%22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3648/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the most prominent incarnations of Vishnu in ancient times was the sage Narayana, son of Yama god of death and twin brother of the sage Nara.  (Nara and Narayana were the prevous births of Arjuna and Krishna.)  In any case, in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana's account, the sage Narada asks Narayana about the birth of Ganesha, and then he asks how the remover of obstacles could have suffered such a big obstacle as losing his own head:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Ganesha is Vighnahara or Vighnesha, that is, the one who removes all impediments, how came he to incur an impediment?  Why did he have his head chopped off?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana responds that it was due to a curse that Shiva had incurred.  Once Surya the sun god tried to kill the evil Rakshasas (demons) Mali and Sumali.  But these Rakshasas were devotees of Shiva, so Shiva came to their rescue, piercing Surya with his trident and (temporarily) killing him.  The Sun immediately went dark, and the sage Kashyapa, Surya's father, was furious.  (Kashyapa is the son of Marichi, one of the mind-born sons of Brahma, and Surya is one of the Adityas, the sons of Kashyapa and his wife Aditi.)  Shiva restored Surya's life to pacify Kashyapa, but Kashyapa still put a curse on Shiva that he would kill his own son just as he had killed Kashyapa's son:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mali and Sumali were two demons who were devoted to Shiva.  The sun-god Surya did not like the demons and was about to kill them.  The demons prayed to Shiva and Shiva intervened. He struck Surya with a trident and this made the entire world plunge into darkness.   Surya was the sage Kashyapa's son and so, for this act, Kashyapa cursed Shiva.  &amp;quot;Just as you pierced my son's chest with a trident, your son's head will be chopped off one day,&amp;quot; said Kashyapa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/392/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Rakshasa Sumali had a daughter named Kaikeshi, who married the sage Vishravas.  Together they had several children, including Ravana, Kumbakarna, and Vibhishana.  So it's possible that if Shiva had allowed Surya to kill Sumali, Ravana might never have been born!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2023-08-22T04:49:22.713" LastActivityDate="2023-08-22T04:49:22.713" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3712" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-14T09:49:20.067" Score="11" ViewCount="1555" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3648/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the most prominent incarnations of Vishnu in ancient times was the sage &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara-Narayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narayana&lt;/a&gt;, twin brother of the sage Nara and son of Yama god of death.  Nara and Narayana were famous for engaging in Tapasya (deep meditation) in Badrikashrama.  When Indra tried to distract them with his Apsaras (nymphs), they created an Apsara even more beautiful, Urvashi.  And as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2395/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, when the king Dambhodbhava challenged them to battle they were easily able to humble him.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3689/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Nara and Narayana were famous enough to have the opening verse of the Mahabharata dedicated to them.  And they were reborn as two central characters in the Mahabharata, Arjuna and Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about something else that the sage Narayana is known for, &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44110.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purusha Nârâyana desired, 'Would that I overpassed all beings! would that I alone were everything here (this universe)!' He beheld this five-days’ sacrificial performance, the Purushamedha, and took it, and performed offering therewith; and having performed offering therewith, he overpassed all beings, and became everything here. And, verily, he who, knowing this, performs the Purushamedha, or who even knows this, overpasses all beings, and becomes everything here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, the Purushamedha Yagna is a Vedic Yagna (fire-ritual) where you pretend like you're preparing to do a human sacrifice, but then at the last minute you stop yourself from actually carrying it out.  Now since it took five night for Narayana to complete the Yagna, the ancient sect that worshipped Narayana came to be called the Pancharatra (five-night) sect; this sect was influential in the development of a Vaishnavism, with the sacred texts of the Pancharatra sect later becoming important Vaishnava scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what exactly was the result of Narayana's five-day Yagna that was so important that an entire sect of Hinduism was started around it?  What does it mean to say that &quot;he overpassed all beings, and became everything here&quot;?  Did he die and turn back into Vishnu when the Yagna was over?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, Narayana is the sage who heard the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purusha_sukta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purusha Sukta&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda from the gods.  (See Book 10 Hymn 90 in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  The Purusha Sukta is a hymn dedicated to Purusha, another form of Vishnu, and the hymn plays an important role in the Purushamedha Yagna; see verse 12 in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44111.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana.  Could his hearing the Purusha Sukta have some connection to his performance of the Purushamedha Yagna and its aftermath?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2016-02-20T21:59:20.997" Title="What happened to Vishnu's incarnation Narayana after his Pancharatra Yagna?" Tags="|vedas|avatars|vaishnavism|shatapatha-brahmana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3713" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3715" CreationDate="2014-11-14T10:20:39.947" Score="9" ViewCount="43279" Body="&lt;p&gt;How many days did Ravana keep Sita confined?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have searched many sites over the internet but wasn't able to find an answer to this question. Can anyone help me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1050" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-20T18:41:12.223" LastActivityDate="2016-12-21T18:19:13.860" Title="How many days did Ravana keep Sita confined?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|sita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3715" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3713" CreationDate="2014-11-14T11:18:16.070" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ravana kidnapped maa Sita in the season of &lt;em&gt;Hemanta&lt;/em&gt; (comes before winter) and had given Her twelve months time to make up Her decision to accept Ravana before his demons kill Her:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शृणु मैथिलि मत् वाक्यम् मासान् द्वादश भामिनि ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कालेन अनेन न अभ्येषि यदि माम् चारु हासिनि |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततः त्वाम् प्रातः आशा अर्थम् सूदाः छेत्स्यन्ति लेशशः || [VR - 3.56.24,25]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh, angry lady Maithili, listen to my words. A period of twelve months is given to you. And oh, smiley smiler, if you do not come nigh of me within that period, then the cooks will slice you to pieces for the purpose of a morning meal&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Hanuman met maa Sita in Panchavati (2nd September 7292 B.C.), She told him that only two months of Her life is left [VR - 5.58.106]. And just around 2 months later from the day of Hanuman's meeting with maa Sita (3rd  November 7292 B.C), the final war, to rescue maa Sita, had started.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Ravana kept maa Sita confined for around &lt;strong&gt;12 months&lt;/strong&gt; or roughly 365 days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/ramayan/rama_vartak.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/ramayan/rama_vartak.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-20T18:41:18.357" LastActivityDate="2015-11-20T18:41:18.357" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3716" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-14T16:34:16.413" Score="5" ViewCount="579" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna said..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yajante sattvika devan&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yaksa-raksamsi rajasah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pretan bhuta-ganams&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  canye yajante tamasa janah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;those in the mode of passion worship the yakshas and rakshasas;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;and those in the mode of ignorance &#xA;worship ghosts and spirits.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about Siddhis meditating on Supreme being? What is the difference between those Siddhis who meditate on the demigods and those who meditate on supreme being? Will there be any difference of the powers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="312" LastEditDate="2014-11-15T09:06:39.997" LastActivityDate="2015-04-06T04:49:59.467" Title="Difference between Siddhas meditating on demigods and on Supreme Being?" Tags="|yoga|siddhi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3717" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-14T16:48:05.073" Score="4" ViewCount="712" Body="&lt;p&gt;What forms of God are considered to be the Supreme Being? Lord Krishna says about demigods that who worship demigods will get material desires, but to get moksha one must worship me only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are Ganesha, Mother Parvathi, Mother Lakshmi, Karthikeya are also supreme beings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people say the five forms of god are considered Supreme. Some say that Lord Krishna is supreme. Some say that Lord Siva is supreme. I believe that both Lord Siva and Lord Vishnu (including his avatars) are supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which one is right and on what basis one can say that a Lord is supreme?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2015-01-12T03:48:46.673" Title="Which forms of God are considered Supreme?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|ganesha|lakshmi|parvati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2015-01-12T06:48:07.210" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3718" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-14T16:56:21.127" Score="3" ViewCount="1014" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the saints I have seen like Vishwamitra, Gautama Maharshi, Sri Madvirat Pothuluri Veerabrahmendra Swamy, Shirdi Sai Baba, Adi Sankaracharya etc put Shiva Namam on their forehead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it because they are saivites?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it because Lord Shiva gives powers faster than Lord Vishnu?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-19T12:29:50.157" LastActivityDate="2023-11-08T13:40:31.407" Title="Why do most saints put Shiva Namam on their forehead?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3719" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-14T17:06:17.777" Score="6" ViewCount="2308" Body="&lt;p&gt;To attain god people do a lot of meditation, some worship god by doing rituals with discipline, some do vedic sacrifices. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Consider the case of seeing him (not a material desire). Some people have to do a lot of meditation, but for some people he responds without doing much meditation. &lt;strong&gt;Does it depend on karma of when he has to respond?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the rakshasas do meditate to see Lord Siva, they will be with strict discipline in doing their meditation. But how will Lord Siva decide that it is the time to respond. He knows that the desire of Rakshasas will be evil. Why can't he just test more, the patience of them by taking a very long time? So that they get vexed and stop meditating?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2019-10-20T02:36:03.673" Title="When does God respond?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3720" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-14T17:08:45.887" Score="5" ViewCount="642" Body="&lt;p&gt;Attainment of liberation is clearing of all the karma (both good and bad). Now my question is will a man attain liberation, the second both his good and bad karma will get nullified i.e. his karma will be zero.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it is the case, can one attain liberation even at the age of a student?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2015-01-17T15:47:13.480" Title="Will a man attain liberation the moment his karma is nullified?" Tags="|karma|moksha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3721" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3723" CreationDate="2014-11-14T17:12:51.367" Score="7" ViewCount="3409" Body="&lt;p&gt;We see that some infants die just after they are born. Some were not born also. Why does that happen? If the reason of their birth is to experience the karma that they had in the previous birth, then why are they dying without experiencing their karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will they be re-born again? If so, will they die again like that? What could their previous karma could be? (good or bad).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does that mean that the result that they should get for their previous karma is just dying at the stage of infancy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2014-11-14T18:11:36.613" Title="Why do infants die? What about their karma?" Tags="|moksha|rebirth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3722" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3703" CreationDate="2014-11-14T18:05:31.997" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me start from the last question, YES, there is prescribed ways in our texts. Shodasa Sanskara is the answer for your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The parenting actually starts before the birth of your child. Because it is scientifically proven that the child learn when it is in the womb. The thoughts of mother at the time of pregnancy will deeply influence the child. Take the case of Prahlada, Rishi Narada told stories of Vishnu while Prahlada was in womb of his mother, which helped him to become a great bhaktha of Lord Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So according to Hindu culture there are some practices to be followed until the birth of the child when one women is pregnant. Actually the time of conceiving a child and mindset of husband and wife will influence the child.Most Brahmins communities used to follow these rituals in connection with major events in their lives, such as pregnancy, childbirth, education, marriage, and death. These are known as &lt;strong&gt;Shodasa Sanskara or 16 Samskaras.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The very first of these Sanskara have an important role in deciding your child's behavior, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;it is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)&lt;strong&gt;Garbhadhana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Literally it means, gifting the womb, is the act of conception. This is the first sacrament which followed immediately on every matrimonial union. There are a number of rites performed before conception. Brahmin community usually follow Shanthi Muhurtha, which is decided based on the astrology.When one child is conceived at a Uttama Shanti Muhurtha, he will have it's benefits and qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)&lt;strong&gt;Pumsavana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the second of the 16 Sanskaras and starts after the 2nd or 3rd month after the Garbhadhana. As the food of mother will effect and influence child, this sanskara instruct what food items and medicines to have during pregnancy. The pregnant woman should have a calm and quite mind. It instruct not to be angry, not to be listen or involve in any bad karmas. (Now in the modern era, they must avoid watching violence in films, serials, and any other activities including angry, sorrow, etc.).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)&lt;strong&gt;Simantonnayana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is performed for the right growth of the child and to have the pureness of the mind of pregnant woman. It starts at the 4th month of pregnancy. At this stage, child will form his/her body parts. During this period hearing good songs or keerthana will help the child to be an expert in art. This is like growing a plant, if you give enough water and fertilizers, you get beautiful flowers:).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are just a small summary of these practices, very short in fact. In Gharbadana Sanskara itself there are numerous practices such as eating sattwik food items, need of Brahmacharya before the marriage, etc. The above practices are related to parents rather than the children, so first of all parents must be aware of such practices and follow them. Fortunately, our ancestors was very keen in developing a good society by instructing to follow such practices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I can ask you why was Vivekanada born in India? Why was so many great saints and intellectuals born in India? You have your answer, don't you?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another question, Why was Brahmin people not involved in any violence compared to other communities? Because now also they follow Shodasa Sanskara practices as such, so the children are born with intelligence and good qualities. Yes, India have the power to change the world in it's culture. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was a one day class about these 16 Sanskaras in our area and it was taken by acharya Dr.Sreenath Karayatt(clinical hypno terapist(RMP) at Psychology), Kozhikode, Kerala. He works with Sreshtacharasabha in Kozhikode. It was very useful for all people, especially for young people who are yet to marry. He has represented India in international conferences regarding this subject. Here is his facebook &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002660031903&amp;amp;fref=ts&amp;amp;ref=br_tf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;profile&lt;/a&gt;, you may contact him for the details. I will request him to provide a detailed answer in the stackexchange if possible. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And for the young children around you, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let them hear &lt;strong&gt;stories&lt;/strong&gt; from their grand parents, let them hear stories from our puranas like Ramayana, Srimad Bhagavata, Mahabharatha,etc. Panchathanthra will be also helpful for small ones. It will make them capable of identifying what is good and bad in their life. It is not just for introducing them to Hinduism. Our stories introduce them to the Life. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let them develop the habit of reading &lt;strong&gt;books&lt;/strong&gt;, introduce great saints like &lt;strong&gt;Swami Vivekanda&lt;/strong&gt; through small books will be great. Then eventually give them the books like Bhagavat Geeta.(Keep them out of mobile and internet until they are capable of using them wisely. If they fall in love with the books, you don't need worry about that much).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Let them know the &lt;strong&gt;science in our culture&lt;/strong&gt;.  Make them aware of the benefits of &lt;strong&gt;Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;. Now most of the western countries insist to follow yoga for physical and mental health in schools. We don't need to look to west for that, but we need to realize ourselves and should follow such practices in our daily life.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Teach them to practice &lt;strong&gt;vrathas and fast&lt;/strong&gt; from the childhood. Explain them the benefits of those practices, you may not need to explain them first as children will not ask for them. When they ask explain them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3703/how-to-introduce-hinduism-to-children#comment8003_3703&quot;&gt;@sai has mentioned&lt;/a&gt;, teach them to chant Mantras like Gayathri Manthra. Introduce great words from Vedas and upanishads like 'Ahimsa Paramo Dharma' , 'Sathymeva Jayathe',etc. when possible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Most importantly SANSKRIT, help them to learn SANSKRIT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-11-24T12:59:30.253" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3723" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3721" CreationDate="2014-11-14T18:11:36.613" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We see that some infants die just after they are born. Some were not born also. Why does that happen?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Like you say later in your own question/post, in general, it is karma. Nothing happens with out the intervention of laws of nature or God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If the reason of their birth is to experience the karma that they had in the previous &#xA;birth, then why are they dying without experiencing their karma?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Experiencing of karma is there in the womb of the mother also, not just after the child comes out of the womb. How the child develops and undergoes pain in the womb is elaborately described by Lord Kapila to His mother Devahuti. See Lord Kapila's instructions &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Will they be re-born again? If so, will they die again like that? What could their previous karma could be? (good or bad).&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Laws of karma are complicated. Imagine your java conditional switch/if statement with tons of options based on certain criteria. In some cases the child may just born and die to burn out the last bit of karma and get liberated. In other cases he/she may be born again. For instance if some one is a mother who resorted to abortion she may need to go through same experience by being put in the womb and getting killed. So there is no specific answer, it varies based on a particular situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does that mean that the result that they should get for their previous karma is just dying at the stage of infancy?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;In general, yes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Special cases of karma&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Now, in addition to above cases, some of the situations are not just ordinary karma but could be special situations given by Krishna Himself (think of your Java exception handling or intervention of President in the generic government prison operations and granting special alternatives). One who surrenders to Krishna and engages in His bhakti  is not under the influence of karma as He says in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 18.66&lt;/a&gt;. But we see that those who engage in bhakti also suffer. Is this not like suffering of a typical person who suffers from karma? The answer is no. This is a special situation given by krishna Himself so that the devotee becomes free from all material attachments and can advance further in his devotion, of which liberation is just a by product. This we can understand from His statements in bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/88/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;from this verse on wards&lt;/a&gt; and other places as well: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-11-14T18:11:36.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3724" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3718" CreationDate="2014-11-14T18:21:17.417" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Of all the great saints that you have listed, Shankaracharya Bhagavatpada is considered an avatar of Shiva and hence it is quite natural that he would have had the &lt;code&gt;shiva namam&lt;/code&gt;(vibhuti as three horizontal lines) on his forehead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As for Shirdi sai baba, he lived his life as a muslim fakir and it is his Hindu bhaktas who prefer to put the mark on his forehead. You can have a look at his &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Baba_of_Shirdi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;photos&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As for all other saints, none of us have seen them in person hence it is difficult to determine whether they did put the mark of shiva on their forehead.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As for your second question, Shiva is known to be easily pleased but that may not be the only  reason for their applying vibhuti. But it is very common for proponents of Advaita to be devotees of Shiva externally as in the case of Shankaracharya Bhagavatpada. So maybe the saints you mentioned fit into this category.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1055" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-19T12:28:49.643" LastActivityDate="2014-11-19T12:28:49.643" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3726" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3677" CreationDate="2014-11-14T19:01:42.947" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the common themes echoed in the vedas and repeatedly told by Ramakrishna paramahamsa and Swami vivekananda and other advaitins is:&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ekam Sat viprah Bahuda vadanti&#xA;  &lt;br/&gt;[the truth is one which the wise call by many names]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eg:It is very difficult for a very mild mannered/soft person to worship a fiery deity like Aghora Veerabhadra,hence sages have prescribed different forms for easier worship and through that worship our mind becomes pure and sees God's true form&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1055" LastActivityDate="2014-11-14T19:01:42.947" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3727" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3716" CreationDate="2014-11-14T19:17:12.030" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Short answer&lt;/em&gt; : NO&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Detailed Answer&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The people with Siddhis are called as 'Siddhas'. Siddhis can be considered a &lt;em&gt;level&lt;/em&gt; in a person's spiritual development, hence the level is the same whoever you meditate on, just the manifestation may vary a little.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures talk about 8 Siddhis that can be attained like being heavier than a mountain, lighter than air etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People who worship demigods cannot very easily go beyond this level since prayers to demigods only satisfies one's &lt;em&gt;desire&lt;/em&gt; but to meditate on the Supreme one must go &lt;em&gt;beyond desire&lt;/em&gt;, hence great Siddhas normally don't pride themselves over their powers and concentrate on the attainment of the Supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Notable examples are Hanuman, Shankaracharya, Vivekananda, Ramakrishna etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1055" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-11-15T06:36:22.540" LastActivityDate="2014-11-15T06:36:22.540" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3729" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3438" CreationDate="2014-11-14T19:33:33.760" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The other wives are not reconciled to the LakshmiNarayana duality, They could in fact be like Vedavati in the Venkateshwara avatara.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedavati requested Rama that he take her as his wife to which the Lord replied that his incarnation as Rama was to demonstrate the concept of &lt;em&gt;Eka Patnitva&lt;/em&gt;(one wife) and other dharmas.Hence he told her that he would marry her in his future Avatara as Lord Balaji&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact Krishna's parents themselves got the good fortune of being his parents through intense Tapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also mentioned that great Rshis incarnated along with Krishna as the Gopikas to enjoy his divine Leela.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the other 7 wives could have been ardent devotees of The Supreme or great Brahma Jnanis who had the great boon of being the lord's consort in his most powerful Avatara(&lt;em&gt;PoornAvatara&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1055" LastActivityDate="2014-11-14T19:33:33.760" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3730" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3316" CreationDate="2014-11-14T19:46:42.510" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many reasons For karna's death,as given in Wikipedia&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Parashurama laid curse upon Karna that he would forget all the knowledge required to wield the divine weapon Brahmanda astra, at the moment of his greatest need.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna was also cursed by a Brahmin for killing his cow while practising his skills with bow and arrows.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;BhoomiDevi cursed him that at a very crucial moment in battle, his chariot wheel would be trapped tightly in the mud&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kunti extracted a boon from him that he would not kill anyone of her sons except Arjuna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kunti asked him not to use the nagastra more than once&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;His charioteer Salya deserted him at an important moment&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indra took away karna's &lt;em&gt;Kavacha Kundala&lt;/em&gt;(natural armour)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He exhausted the Vajrayudha he had reserved to kill Arjuna on Ghatotkatcha(Bheema's son)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna attained Svarga(heaven) not &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;(liberty) ,as all &lt;em&gt;Kshatriyas&lt;/em&gt;(warriors) who die in war are sure to attain heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna says in the Gita that war is like an open door to heaven for a kshatriya&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Here is the sloka fore reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yaddrchaya choppapannam svarga dvaaram apavrutam&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Sukhinaya Kshatriya Partha labhante yuddham idrsam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1055" LastActivityDate="2014-11-14T19:46:42.510" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3731" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3717" CreationDate="2014-11-15T01:09:42.143" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a Gaudiya Vaishnava perspective through scriptural basis. Anything said, in this matter, without the scriptural basis is useless so sorry if it is lengthy but it constitutes only tiny part of what I wanted to say :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will begin by quoting some Upanishad verses [All citations from &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;vedabase.com]&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Katha Upanisad 2.2.13 nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam eko bahunam yo&#xA;  vidadhati kaman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is the prime eternal among all eternals. He is the supreme living&#xA;  entity of all living entities, and He alone is maintaining all life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svetasvatara Upanisad (3.8–9) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vedaham etam purusam mahantam aditya-varnam tamasah parastat tam eva&#xA;  viditvati mrtyum eti nanyah pantha vidyate ’yanaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasmat param naparam asti kiñcid yasman naniyo no jyayo ’sti kiñcit&#xA;  vrksa iva stabdho divi tisthaty ekas tenedam purnam purusena sarvam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“I know that Supreme Personality of Godhead who is transcendental to&#xA;  all material conceptions of darkness. Only he who knows Him can&#xA;  transcend the bonds of birth and death. There is no way for liberation&#xA;  other than this knowledge of that Supreme Person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“There is no truth superior to that Supreme Person, because He is the&#xA;  supermost. He is smaller than the smallest, and He is greater than the&#xA;  greatest. He is situated as a silent tree, and He illumines the&#xA;  transcendental sky, and as a tree spreads its roots, He spreads His&#xA;  extensive energies.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, who is the Supreme among all living entities? In order to help us understand this Lord Krishna has descended on this planet and performed pastimes that are impossible for any human to perform and boldy declared that He is the Supreme Person. His declarions are intact in Bhagavad Gita. Here are some:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 10.8&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvam pravartate iti matva bhajante mam&#xA;  budha bhava-samanvitah I am the source of all spiritual and material&#xA;  worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this&#xA;  engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 7.7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mattah parataram nanyat kiñcid asti dhanañ-jaya mayi sarvam idam&#xA;  protam sutre mani-gana iva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything&#xA;  rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 10.2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na me viduh sura-ganah prabhavam na maharsayah aham adir hi devanam&#xA;  maharsinam ca sarvasah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Neither the hosts of demigods nor the great sages know My origin or&#xA;  opulences, for, in every respect, I am the source of the demigods and&#xA;  sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Krishna spoke 10+ chapters of the Gita, including above three, Arjuna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 10.12-13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;arjuna uvaca param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan purusam&#xA;  sasvatam divyam adi-devam ajam vibhum ahus tvam rsayah sarve devarsir&#xA;  naradas tatha asito devalo vyasah svayam caiva bravisi me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate&#xA;  abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal,&#xA;  transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the&#xA;  great sages such as Narada, Asita, Devala and Vyasa conﬁrm this truth&#xA;  about You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However Arjuna wanted a practical proof so that in future fools won't claim that they are Supreme. So Krishna shows His universal form in which He shows everything including all the devatas. While showing the form, Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 11.6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pasyadityan vasun rudran asvinau marutas tatha bahuny adrsta-purvani&#xA;  pasyascaryani bharata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O best of the Bharatas, see here the different manifestations of&#xA;  Adityas, Vasus, Rudras, Asvini-kumaras and all the other demigods.&#xA;  Behold the many wonderful things which no one has ever seen or heard&#xA;  of before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then He also shows the form of four handed Visnu form and finally His beautiful two handed form. Then He says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 11.54&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhaktya tv ananyaya sakya aham evam-vidho ’rjuna jñatum drastum ca&#xA;  tattvena pravestum ca paran-tapa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be&#xA;  understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen&#xA;  directly. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My&#xA;  understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Lord Krishna, right from the beginning, acted as the Supreme. When He was a couple of days old He killed Putana demon. When He was about 6 years old He lifted Govardhana hill. Inspite of His performing wonderful deeds, specifically saying that He is the Supreme and showing the universal form as well it is not easy to accept this and understand the mystery. That is why He says only by unalloyed devotional service can we understand Him. So for those who have are not surrendered, and not free from the false ego, they cannot engage in His bhakti. And with out being situated in His bhakti it is not possible to accept Krishna as the Supreme. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;However as far as the scriptures, as cited above, and Krishna's words are concerned He is the Supreme.&lt;/strong&gt; And when I say Krishna the Vishnu-tattva is included. But He is the primeval form from Whom other Vishnu-tattvas come as well (Remember Krishna has showed a sample four armed Vishnu form also outside of the Vishva-rupa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="1014" LastEditDate="2014-12-13T02:57:14.380" LastActivityDate="2014-12-13T02:57:14.380" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3732" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-15T06:47:52.433" Score="11" ViewCount="2655" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people are only familiar with the lunar dynasty king &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yayati&lt;/a&gt;, who was cursed with old age by Sukracharya (guru of the Asuras) and regained his youth by giving his old age to his youngest son Puru.  Puru, along with Yayati's eldest son Yadu, started two of the most famous royal families, the Pauravas and the Yadavas.   Less famous, however, is Yayati's father &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahusha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nahusha&lt;/a&gt;.  Nahusha was such a good king on Earth that when Indra temporarily abandoned his post, the gods chose Nahusha to serve as the new king of the three worlds.  But Nahusha was soon corrupted by his power, so the sage Agastya cursed him to become a large snake.  Nahusha was only freed from the curse when he had a conversation with the Pandava Yudishthira about the proper way he should have lived his life, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03180.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about Nahusha's wife.  I gather from several sources that his wife was Viraja, a mind-born daughter of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitris&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pitris&lt;/a&gt;, or ghosts of departed ancestors.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/hv_1_18.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Harivamsa says, for instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the ancestors of Kardama Prajapati are the descendants of Pulaha Prajapati, and these are the fatherly gods collectively termed as Susvadhas ... [T]he brainchild of this group of manes is lady Viraja who is the mother of king Yayati and the wife of King Nahusha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/hv_1_30.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Harivamsa says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;King Nahusha begot six sons through a damsel of fatherly gods, known as lady Viraja, or lady Suswadha, to wit, these six Indra-like sons are: Yati, Yayati, Samyati, Ayati, Bhava, and Suyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it's also mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/rdlY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Anushanga Pada of the Vayu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ayjapas were the Pitris of Kardama, the Prajapati, who was born of Pulaha.  They were born of him again....  Groups of Vaishyas who are desirous of benefit, revere these in Shraddha. Their mental daughter is famous by the name of Viraja.  The chaste lady was the wife of Nahusha and the mother of Yayati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what is the story of how a human king Nahusha married a daughter of the Pitris?  The group of Pitris that Viraja was born from is apparently only worshipped by Vaishyas, not Kshatriyas, so I don't know how Nahusha would have encountered these Pitris or their daughter.  Are there any scriptures that discuss this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2029/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, there is a story in the Padma Purana where instead of Viraja, Nahusha's wife is said to be Shiva and Parvati's daughter Ashokasundari.  But given all the scriptural evidence I've given above, that story might be an interpolation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T10:59:04.320" LastActivityDate="2017-12-21T10:59:04.320" Title="How did Nahusha marry Viraja, daughter of the Pitris?" Tags="|puranas|pitru|harivamsa|chandravansh|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3733" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3734" CreationDate="2014-11-15T07:06:46.187" Score="17" ViewCount="11441" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism, Reincarnation (Rebirth) does occur, but it is somewhat &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2249/&quot;&gt;related to Karma&lt;/a&gt;. Also, I felt that &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2714/124&quot;&gt;Human is ultimate species in Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;, so now the question arises that &lt;em&gt;does god create new souls anymore&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we see, the population of humans is increasing day by day, so either the souls are new or they are reincarnations of some other species. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if god does create new souls, then does those new souls take birth as humans or some other species? How is that decided? As there is nothing called karma for new souls so he cannot take avatar of any species.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="124" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-04-03T14:52:55.173" Title="Are new souls created?" Tags="|karma|rebirth|atma|afterlife|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2014-11-16T13:56:19.930" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3734" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3733" CreationDate="2014-11-15T07:52:39.113" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Souls are never actually created; &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Krishna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.... For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. &lt;strong&gt;He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being.&lt;/strong&gt; He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As to your question regarding what determines the experiences of a soul's first birth, Adi Shankaracharya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;provides an answer&lt;/a&gt; to this in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya: the issue never arises, because there is never a first birth for the soul.  The number of births of the soul is infinite, so the karma of each birth is determined by the actions of the soul in its previous birth, going infinitely far back in time:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[F]or although the activity of the soul is not independent, yet the soul does act. The Lord indeed causes it to act, but it acts itself. Moreover, the Lord in causing it to act now has regard to its former efforts, and he caused it to act in a former existence, having regard to its efforts previous to that existence; &lt;strong&gt;a regressus against which, considering the eternity of the samsâra, no objections can be raised&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up, there is never a time where the soul starts out with a &quot;blank slate&quot; and is put in circumstances it did not deserve.  The soul doesn't have a starting point, any more than Vishnu has a starting point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-03T14:52:55.173" LastActivityDate="2016-04-03T14:52:55.173" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3735" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3720" CreationDate="2014-11-15T09:06:54.200" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer of the question lies in the word &lt;strong&gt;ZERO&lt;/strong&gt;. According to &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;vedas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, the most prominent answer to define Param Atman is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shunya ( Zero )&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Another thing to help is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bhagwat Gita&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;em&gt;every action ( Karma ) has a response and that too equal in nature&lt;/em&gt;, meaning if your did good you'll get good in return not only in the same form but also in the same amount.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moving forward if you haven't done anything, you have actually &lt;em&gt;neither gained good or bad&lt;/em&gt;, you are in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Zero Karmic State&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, or Zero itself, &lt;em&gt;partially the Param Atman&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But There cannot be 2 Param Atmans, their only one exists and will always exist. In such case the 2 combine or merge to become one, which in results acts as liberation of the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bottom Note :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;No Karmas then No results, hence Liberation&lt;/em&gt;. And the soul's PARAM goal is to attain &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shunya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Param Atman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. And if you did Karmas you are destined to get results from it, whatever manner or intention you have applied to it. But if you do in manner of not doing its equal to Shunya ( or No Karma at all), this is considered under &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Akarmic States&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; of Soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Will a man attain liberation the moment his karma is nullified?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;YES&lt;/strong&gt;, whatever age he is in, student, mature or sadhu. Once the Atman is liberated it vanishes, you may only find body lying under, many would consider it death, and that could also be. There have been incidents when the world has lost people who were neither old, nor had any type of body deficiencies but died, those can be liberation but not death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastActivityDate="2014-11-15T09:06:54.200" CommentCount="22" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3736" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3738" CreationDate="2014-11-15T09:25:05.530" Score="7" ViewCount="5046" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know whether a devotee (be a Lord Krishna's or Lord Siva's) can do love marriage?&#xA;Because love can be a material desire and a devotee must not have such desires. But marriage is essential for the continuity of human life. If the devotee doesn't marry, how can he give birth to his Lord's devotees (his children, who will most certainly be)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will god agree for love marriage of his devotee, if the devotee is at strong will and fix in his mind about the marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will the god do some maya (like spoiling the relationship between he and his lover) and make sure that his devotee doesn't marry at all (because he doesn't want his devotee to get into the material desires).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it the same with case of both forms Lord Siva and Lord Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2015-10-17T02:54:22.857" Title="Can a devotee do love marriage?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|maya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3738" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3736" CreationDate="2014-11-15T11:17:57.017" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Love is eternal. Love is God himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Will god agree for love marriage of his devotee, if the devotee is at strong will and fix in his mind about the marriage?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes. Your Lord is your Guru, he will bless you with powers and purity to fulfill your duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Will the god do some maya (like spoiling the relationship between he and his lover) and make sure that his devotee doesn't marry at all (because he doesn't want his devotee to get into the material desires).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your Guru is &amp;quot;Antaryami&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Trikal Gyani&amp;quot; he knows what really you mean by Marriage. If you are going to marry for just sexual desires and if you will in future going to be bad than your Guru will never let you ruin your lover's life. Because she is also God's child. And for God all are same. You and she both are God's children. God will never let you ruin her life. And vice versa if she is having bad intentions like , she just needs your money. God will also not allow her to ruin your life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;HAVE FAITH IN YOUR GURU/GOD/LOVE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marriage is considered as sacred thread in Hinduism. Marriage itself is sacred. Hinduism is the religion that teaches what actually marriage means. Marriage is not in the hand of devotee, it is in the hand of GOD only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Janam(Birth), Maran(Death) and Paran(Mairrage) are not desired by you, they are predefined for you by GOD only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In hindu marriage, all gods becomes witness for two souls. Because Marriage is eternal love between two souls. This love has happened before and will last even after their death. No God agrees to be witness if this two people hates each other. This is not Marriage if they are done for some materialistic gains like money or something. In Hindu wedding ceremony wife is considered as &amp;quot;Lakshami&amp;quot; and Husband is considered as &amp;quot;Narayana&amp;quot;. Do you think they are eternal lovers? That is why GODs witness. GODs witness for your love only that you have made in past lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why it is called in Hinduism that husband and wife are bound by thread of marriage for 7 lives not 1 life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you can not see Lord in your lover or wife than you are not even true devotee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samoham Sarvabhuteshu....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in SBG means I am equally disposed in all living beings by Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even every Lord married. Look everything depends on you. God will take your exam to check whether you are ready to take responsibility of your wife and children or not. If you are not ready do not marry. But at least do not blame GOD for your separation or divorce with your lover.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, every pair is said to be prepared by GOD only. If you will marry it will be for your good future, If you will divorce, it will also be good for you. Sometimes separation also increases &amp;quot;Love&amp;quot; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Love is eternal, In Hinduism Marriage is symbol for true , pure love only. Love is everything. But make sure your love leads you to freedom instead of bondage. That is called purity of Love. Lack of love is greatest poverty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bliss of GOD is also a &amp;quot;Constant unchanged love&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism marraige is based on the &amp;quot;Len den&amp;quot;(Give - Gain) of two souls Karmas. Husband is called &amp;quot;Pati Parameshwara&amp;quot; because Lord Shiva when married Sati, the relation between human and God was defined by marriage only. marriage  is not show off it is promise of a man to keep her bride safe and respacted as always. That is why Lord Krishna married 16K wife to make them respected in society. All these 16 K women were boycotted by society due to Narkasura's kidnapping.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marriage is like UN-conditional duties that one decides to perform.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord will give you power to fulfill them, but decision is yours.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God never do bad to anybody's life. It was always we and our Karmas for which we suffer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can not decide your children will be devotee or demon, future is not in your hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your activities should neither be biased for fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karmnye vadhikaraste , Ma faleshu kadachana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can not wish for more until you fulfill what you have. If you are firm in your Brahmacharya you should never think for Gruhastha. You must have control on yourself. Every GOD in hinduism has weapon in hand. But they have &amp;quot;Ankusha&amp;quot;(Full control) over themselves. You also have to be firm and have full control of your thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you have love and marriage ideas, then you can not go for Brahmacharya, in such case you must marry. I insist you to marry. Because in Vedas, Marriage is also considered as a part of life and Man's duty towards society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna said I am the Kaama in the heart of the gentleman to rule the world-cycle. Means In Hinduism Kaam Sex is also considered as deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In SBG Shreemad Bhagwat Geeta...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A man reaches perfection by following his heart only..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marriage is a &amp;quot;Shubha&amp;quot; auspicious work. GOD always protects auspicious relations. Lord Ganesha is worshiped for every Shubha Karya. :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only for the sake of Lord Rama and Mother Sita's Marriage (Eternal Love), Lord Hanumanji fired the whole Lanka. GOD will protect you if you love and love without any wishes and conditions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A True devotee always understands what his Lord wants him to understand. And his heart will lead him towards God's will only. Just surrender unto your Guru and accept his will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is nothing like &amp;quot;Love Marriage&amp;quot; .. &amp;quot;Marriage itself is eternal Love.&amp;quot; Even though your lover is not physically with you she is your soul if she makes you perfect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why Radha is worshiped with Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Radhey Shyam.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Love means sacrifice. Love is a wish of heart for someone's happiness. Love does not mean to be perfect by having your lover physically with you by opposing everything. &lt;strong&gt;Love never needs marriage , but yes marriage needs love every moment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-11-15T11:50:42.157" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3739" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3719" CreationDate="2014-11-15T12:02:24.747" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Yogi's heart is in Sattva mode and his heart is clean GOD responds. GOD is your lover only. You need to call him with Love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who says God doesn't respond? You do not call him like Mirabai, Narasimha Mehta, Radha and Prahlada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Achutam Keshavam, Krishna Damodaram, Ram Narayanam, Janaki Vallabham&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Kaun kehte he bhagawan aate nahi, tum Mira ke jaise bulate nahi..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Rakshasa also become very innocent when they sit in meditation. This is power of God's name only. You must have love when you call anybody. For GOD every body is equal. Even Rakshasa or devata are equal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just check yourself. If someone calls you with pure love, can you stop yourself from going to him? Love is GOD. Love calls GOD. Sattva calls Love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2014-12-17T06:39:00.293" LastActivityDate="2014-12-17T06:39:00.293" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3741" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3539" CreationDate="2014-11-15T17:04:58.917" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As long as puja is done without any material expectations it can be done at any time and place when the mind is ready for it ☺&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The physical conditions of other people at home should be immaterial. On the other hand, it may not be acceptable to other people if your sister prepares offerings which are then distributed to people. But the divine should not have a problem with it.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the Upanishads,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarvam khalvidam brahma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;which includes your sister. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1059" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-12-01T10:45:20.237" LastActivityDate="2019-12-01T10:45:20.237" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3742" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2627" CreationDate="2014-11-15T17:20:52.523" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard during a lecture sometime ago that carnatic music has its roots in Sama veda. Also sama veda is considered to be the melodious among all vedas. The shloka included along with the Bhagwat gita text on one of the lines reads &quot;vedaisaanga padakramopanishadaihi gaayanthi yam saamagaaha&quot;. Saamagas actual chant the mantras of the sama veda. But here the vedas are referred to in general but the reference to saamaveda us due to its melody. I think Krishna also makes a similar reference in the Bhagwat gita. But I do not know the correct verse from the top of my head. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1059" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-20T07:12:29.603" LastActivityDate="2015-02-20T07:12:29.603" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3743" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3563" CreationDate="2014-11-16T03:29:54.017" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think moksha is given only by all Trimurthis together. Any of them can 'grant' moksha, but for it to be given 'all' of the Trimurthis must work together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha means simply not getting reborn. Which means that, to get moksha one's body must &lt;strong&gt;die&lt;/strong&gt; first and without Lord Shiva &lt;strong&gt;death&lt;/strong&gt; cannot take place. In a similar way, &lt;strong&gt;he&lt;/strong&gt; must not re-born, so &lt;strong&gt;Bramha&lt;/strong&gt; must not create a body for him again and foremost for anyone to get moksha, their Karma must be nullified which is only done when he is living with his body and he lives only because of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;. We cannot say that moksha will only be given by Lord Vishnu or Lord Shiva or Lord Bramha alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But they combined, grant the moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2014-11-16T03:29:54.017" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3744" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3736" CreationDate="2014-11-16T03:47:32.143" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;With unflinching love that seeks to marriage, combined with the Grace of Lord one must be able to change the life partner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because, whenever the devotee fixes in his mind, his life partner, then he already made her half of him according to the Lord Shiva's concept of wife/husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So whatever his character will be, it will be reflected on her too. Lord Krishna exists in everyone. But as the devotee has made her half of him, then only &lt;strong&gt;One Lord Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; exists for both. If the devotee is stubborn about loving her, marrying her without ever getting fallen for another girl, her character gets influenced by that. Because if his devotee is stubborn and sincere in his love and the desire to marry, why would he not get married?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the idea of loving someone must be incarnated by Lord Vishnu (after all it is a Vishnu maya), and Lord Vishnu knows the future. He knows that his devotee is going to marry her. And Lord Vishnu could never ever stop that marriage. He cannot incarnate the idea of love in his devotee on a girl who is unfit for his devotee's mind and at the same time he cannot also let the character of the girl change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because Lord Vishnu knows Love is not a game and that must not change on the basis of character of the life partner, for his devotee he will always ensure that he keeps several tests for him to test his devotees love, and if he passes all the tests (which is of course by grace of Lord), Lord Krishna will ensure that he gets married to her and also ensures a good marriage life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there is previous karma for any of the both that can lead to their separation, that Karma will be destroyed by the Lord Vishnu for the tests his devotee has passed i.e. for his unflinching love. Karma turns into ashes by the grace of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karma is something that one SHOULD NEVER BE FRIGHTENED ABOUT.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="312" LastEditDate="2014-11-16T03:56:59.347" LastActivityDate="2014-11-16T03:56:59.347" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3746" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3733" CreationDate="2014-11-16T07:34:41.590" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, as outlined by the other answers the souls is not created, but it is eternal. This is agreed upon by all the schools of Vedanta and has been commented on by Sankara, Bhaskara, Ramanuja, Madhva, and Vallabha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhava says that the Vedanta Sutras (II. iii. 11-50) that refer to its birth are in reference to its Upadhis, the body, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja says that souls have existed from all eternity as a mode (prakara) of Brahman. Sutra texts (II. iii. 17) that speak of their creation only mean the expansion of intelligence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhaskara interprets the same verse as meaning differentiation due to Upadhis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankara says the jiva is simply the appearance of Brahman in the individual but in reality they are one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upanishads deny any birth to the soul. See Katha (I. ii. 18) and Brhadaranyaka (IV. iv. 25)    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-24T03:42:05.250" LastActivityDate="2015-07-24T03:42:05.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3747" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3716" CreationDate="2014-11-16T07:56:35.730" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please read Kena Upanishad (I. 5-9). verse 5 says &quot;That which cannot be expressed by speech, but by which speech is expressed--That alone is Brahman, and not that which people here worship.&quot; 'not that which people here worship' refers to the good deities that people worship. They are not the real Brahman. You should not see Brahman in that which is not Brahman. By worshiping deities you can get siddhis, but not moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also see Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms (III. 51-55) on the Samyama to obtain moksha. The previous verses in the same chapter refer to the siddhis that can be obtained but do not lead to moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siddhis means powers. Siddha means a man who has attained success.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-16T07:56:35.730" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3748" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3736" CreationDate="2014-11-16T08:10:30.040" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda was against the idea of what you call love marriage for Hindus. He felt that the cultural tradition of arranged marriages strengthened Hindu society. He also saw and understood that love marriage was the tradition on the West, but said it also had many failings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Hindu man should either marry or take to sannyas. There is no tradition of being a bachelor as in the West.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-16T08:10:30.040" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3749" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3720" CreationDate="2014-11-16T08:28:19.927" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Previous karma that has been set in motion in this lifetime before liberation will continue. Swami Vivekananda says that for a jivamukta (liberated while living) it is like cutting the axle on a pair of wheels. There may be some inertia from before that keeps the wheel moving for some time, but because the axle has been cut, no new inertia (karma) is generated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any new actions that are done generate no new karma for that person -&quot;The fetters of the heart are broken, all doubts are resolved, and all works cease to bear fruit. &quot; (Mundaka Upanishad II. ii. 8)   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-16T08:28:19.927" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3750" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3703" CreationDate="2014-11-16T11:44:50.550" Score="6" Body="&lt;h2&gt;What it takes to be a Hindu?? Who is a &quot;Hindu&quot;??&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is he a man who worships idols, or meditates, or chants names of Hindu deities 16x108 times daily, or the one who is tolerant?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Notice that I am just talking about what a Hindu appears to do on the outside.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like when someone who wants to recreate a continuous function from discrete samples, you also want to recreate a &quot;Hindu&quot; by sampling as many physical traits, outward appearances of a &quot;Hindu&quot;. But believe me, there is NO &quot;sampling theorem&quot; valid for such recreation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if one mugs up all the verses in Upanishads, he can NOT exactly simulate a true &quot;Hindu brainwave&quot;. And this is why Hinduism is NOT like Christianity, or Islam. It is NOT a Religion, rather it's a way of life. It's NOT to be &quot;followed word-to-word&quot; either (like what Christian and Muslim scholars do), rather it's to be &quot;absorbed&quot; instead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the &quot;definition of religion&quot; is irrelevant here in case of a Hinduism. Many westerners have tried to &quot;define&quot; Hinduism, the same way they defined Abrahamic religions. But they ALL ended up in creating MORE confusion and false interpretations, about it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A child's brain is mostly plastic. &lt;strong&gt;He learns what he sees.&lt;/strong&gt; Indeed, &lt;strong&gt;the &quot;sampling&quot; of traits and habits, that I mentioned earlier, suits an immature mind (of a kid), and not to a grown up&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;strong&gt;first&lt;/strong&gt; you should ask yourself whether you ARE a &lt;strong&gt;real, &quot;mature&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; Hindu yourself, or Hinduism is just another &quot;good thing&quot; for you. Again, remember that one can NOT just read a bundle of pages and be Hindu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Frankly, there is NO &quot;prescribed way to do this in any of our literature&quot;, nor there can be such a thing. Because in Hinduism, Spiritual transformation of a human occurs ONLY through another human being (whom we call 'Guru') and NOT solely through some DEAD pile of text (which are just tools). All important is an enlightened Guru. And in fact, &lt;strong&gt;a Hindu is REALLY HARD to &quot;follow&quot;, but is REALLY EASY to &quot;see through&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let the kid see through you the light of Hinduism.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This one little idea in Hinduism, says that &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Whats Outside is JUST a reflection of our inner Self...&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is &quot;Outside&quot;? Its the overall perception due to the PRESENT (ONLY) and NOT whats due to the nostalgic memories of PAST, or Dreams and Desires for Future. Actually, Memories and Dreams are nothing but illusions.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;WHO is &quot;Self&quot;? The one who perceives.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this idea separates the perception from the perceiver. Just like water is a separate from the ripples or currents in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Why do people worship idols?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its root lies in the above mentioned idea itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A deep sea fish CAN ONLY notice the current in the water rather than the water itself.&lt;/strong&gt; Similarly, most beings can only perceive the ripples or currents in their inner Self, rather than the Self itself. And &lt;em&gt;Nashvar&lt;/em&gt; materials and the rituals associated with them (apart from mantras), are like &quot;tools&quot; to generate an intense &quot;current&quot; of spirituality in them. Thus making them rise and somehow come closer to the &quot;Self&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am NOT implying anything like e.g 'the description of Lord Vishnu in Hindu Texts is mere an imagination'. NO!! Rather I am only saying that the means to communicate with Him could be many, and one of them is &quot;through&quot; a &lt;em&gt;Vigrah&lt;/em&gt;. Because a Hindu &quot;upasana&quot; itself mean '&quot;sitting&quot; next to' a deity, and its ways could be many.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interestingly, its not just Hindus , who do that. ALL other religions have their own rituals JUST for the sake of the spiritual ripple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So worshiping Idols (or hating Idols) is not as narrow as you think. For some its the only way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few things for kids:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Make them learn Sanskrit.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sensor TV, Internet, and any other media.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastActivityDate="2014-11-16T11:44:50.550" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3751" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="882" CreationDate="2014-11-16T23:36:44.603" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all I am not sure what makes you think that this practice is 'added' at some point. There are references to adhika masa, also knows as Purusottama masa in parama purana as you can find &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/Other_Scriptures_by_Acharyas/Damodarashtakam_Kartika_Glories/Purushottama_Month.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and other places on the internet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seems it is clear to you on why this is practiced but for the sake of completeness I am including it here from the above site:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lunar year consists of 12 lunar months each consisting of 30&#xA;  tithis but this does not add up to 30 solar days since in the course&#xA;  of a lunar month a tithi will vary from about 19 hours to 26 hours&#xA;  with an average length of 23h 37m 28s. The lunar month would be&#xA;  29.530589 days. Because the Lunar year is 360 tithis long, that is only 354.36 solar days long after only three years it would be about&#xA;  one month out of phase with the solar year. However to keep it in&#xA;  phase with the solar year, and thus with the seasons and religious&#xA;  observances, a leap month (adhika-masa) is introduced. The&#xA;  introduction of the adhika-masa is not artificial, but a natural&#xA;  occurrence (Metonic cycle) because about every third year there will&#xA;  be experienced the phenomena of two new Moons while the Sun transits&#xA;  through one Rasi. And since the lunar month is defined as the length&#xA;  of time between successive new Moons and that there can only be one&#xA;  Lunar month corresponding to a solar month, the extra lunar month&#xA;  becomes a leap month. Thus the solar and lunar years would continue to&#xA;  stay in phase perpetually, their difference never being more than&#xA;  about 22 days. In the first year they would be out of phase by 11&#xA;  days, the second year out of phase by 22 days, the third year the leap&#xA;  month brings them back in phase, the fourth year out of phase by 11&#xA;  days, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now what happens if this practice is not followed. The site also addresses this saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'If the Vedic Lunar year were not linked to the solar year then within&#xA;  only a few years there would be very noticeable differences in a&#xA;  change of seasons in relation to the calendar. By an accumulation of&#xA;  about 11 days per year it would not take long before a festival&#xA;  associated with the summer such as Krishna Janmastami would be&#xA;  observed in the spring when Gaura Purnima should be observed. That&#xA;  would be absurd'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from the reference to Padma Purana and the consequences of not following it, it seems that this is natural part of Vedic calculations rather a later invention. Unless you cite proper references that it is added at a later time and how the consequences discussed above were dealt prior to it's introduction, the question of when it was introduced seems out of context.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-11-16T23:36:44.603" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3752" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-17T00:22:01.603" Score="5" ViewCount="5708" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Wikipedia entry on Kamasutra does say it is a Hindu religious text, but as Wikipedia cites two references both of which are not of Indian origin, and then there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kama_Sutra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another reference&lt;/a&gt; which says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Kamasutra is neither exclusively a sex manual nor, as also&#xA;  commonly used art, a sacred or religious work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While it is clear that &lt;em&gt;Vātsyāyana&lt;/em&gt; himself was a Hindu philosopher, I am trying to find if there is any evidence in any other religious text about Kamasutra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The origins of this question is from a comment on &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/697&quot;&gt;another question here&lt;/a&gt; where this was disputed and I felt its an injustice to leave the discussion without full clarity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1041" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2014-11-20T11:59:11.730" Title="Is Kamasutra a Hindu religious text?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3753" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3675" CreationDate="2014-11-17T00:34:04.417" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question Part 1: God is one, the Supreme being (Lord Shiva, Lord Krishna, Lord Vishnu, Lord Rama and so on). All are the names of the supreme being who is not a human, but energy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is incorrect to say that the Supreme is just energy. He possesses both form as well as energy. In the Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.11 it says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vadanti tat tattva-vidas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tattvam yaj jñanam advayam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahmeti paramatmeti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhagavan iti sabdyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this&#xA;  nondual substance Brahman, Paramatma or Bhagavan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Absolute Truth consists of Bhagavan (a form that is transcendental unlike a material form that we are used to), Paramatma ( a form that resides in every one's hearts, along with the Jiva) and Brahman (all pervading aspect that you refer as energy)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says Brahman is subordinate to Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahmano hi pratisthaham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;amrtasyavyayasya ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sasvatasya ca dharmasya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sukhasyaikantikasya ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And &lt;strong&gt;I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;, which is immortal,&#xA;  imperishable and eternal and is the constitutional position of&#xA;  ultimate happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same Bhagavad Gita 15.15, Lord Krishna says He is the paramatma in everyone's heart:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mattah smrtir jñanam apohanam ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I am seated in everyone’s heart&lt;/strong&gt;, and from Me come remembrance,&#xA;  knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known.&#xA;  Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the&#xA;  Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as I discuss in my answer to another question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3717/which-forms-of-god-are-considered-supreme/3731#3731&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the Supreme has a personality and Lord Krishna is that Supreme Person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question Part 2: Now, can I put my own name for that Supreme being and my own symbol for worshiping him? Sometimes, I represent him as space. Will doing so give moksha, fulfill material desires etc?&#xA;I doesn't mean to represent them as demigods like Sun, Moon or gods of other religions. But in an entirely new name, a new representation (not Shiva Linga, not the way Lord Vishnu is represented). But entirely new.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can do what ever you want. Jiva has free will to act as he/she wishes but then one has to face the results of his/her own activities. You will not get moksa or get material desires fulfilled by such means. If you are making an imaginary form that doesn't exist, how can you expect that imaginary form to bestow anything upon you? It is illogical and we do not see any evidence of any one attaining moksa by such means in the realm of Vedic scriptures. A perspective from Srimad Bhagavatam follows. Depending on the degree of advancement, those who are materially absorbed are recommended to worship the Virat rupa, a form of Vishnu that represents the whole universe. You can read that from Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who are more advanced are recommended to meditate on the four armed form of Vishnu who resides in every one's heart as Paramatma. This is found in the Srimad Bhagavatam in the next chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now those who are devotees, who accept the personal form of the Lord based on the sastra(sciptures) and sadhus(saints) worship deity forms, arca vigraha. These should not be of imaginary people, but they should be made as a replica of the form of the Lord as described in the scriptures. You see an example of this kind in Srimad Bhagavatam 4.2.17, in regards to Dhruva Maharaja's worship:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasyam visuddha-karanah siva-var vigahya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt; baddhvasanam jita-marun manasahrtaksah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sthule dadhara bhagavat-pratirupa etad&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt; dhyayams tad avyavahito vyasrjat samadhau&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Badarikasrama Dhruva Maharaja’s senses became completely purified&#xA;  because he bathed regularly in the crystal-clear, purified water. He&#xA;  fixed his sitting position and by yogic practice controlled the&#xA;  breathing process and the air of life; in this way his senses were&#xA;  completely withdrawn. Then he concentrated his mind on the&#xA;  arca-vigraha form of the Lord, which is the exact replica of the Lord&#xA;  and, thus meditating upon Him, entered into complete trance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;'sthule dadhara bhagavat-pratirupa'&lt;/code&gt; indicates he worshiped a physical form(sthula), which is made after the form of the Supreme Lord (bhagavat-pratirupe). This is the proper form of worship and not as per our own imaginations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question Part 3: I feel one must Love the Supreme Being but not his name or the way he is represented or the gifts he is giving. However, I still agree that the way they have been represented will induce bhakti but still, I am curious to know the answer imagining them in entirely new way.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the scriptural citations above we must worship in authorized ways only. Regarding His name, the names of the Lord are not material. They have full potency and infact the best means, in this age, for moksa and eternal service in Vaikhunta. The glories of the holy names are unlimted and here are a couple of references: (1)&lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/Compiled_and_Imp_Scriptures/Prema_Vivarta/20._The_Glories_of_the_Holy_Name.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Some citations from various scriptures&lt;/a&gt; and (2)&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wonderful story of a fallen Brahmana, Ajamila, being protected by chanting the holy name of Narayana, even indvartenty&lt;/a&gt; (the story continues in other chapters)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are serious about understanding Absolute Truth and attain moksa, Vedic epistemology of all schools of thought is through a guru and scripture and not by once imagination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note: Unreferenced citations from Vedabase.com&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2014-11-17T00:34:04.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3755" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3768" CreationDate="2014-11-17T07:54:52.107" Score="1" ViewCount="2563" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people are only familiar with the Bhagavad Gita, the conversation Krishna had with Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.  But this is not the only conversation that Krishna had concerning the proper way to live one's life; there's also the Anu Gita and the Uddhava Gita.  The Uddhava Gita is a conversation found in the Srimad Bhagavatam between Krishna and his relative Uddhava, shortly before Krishna departed the earth.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in one chapter of the Uddhava Gita, Krishna teaches Uddhava the proper way to worship him in idol form, and in particular he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27/30-31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The worshiper should bathe the Deity every day, as opulently as his assets permit, using waters scented with sandalwood, uśīra root, camphor, kuṅkuma and aguru. He should also chant various Vedic hymns, such as the anuvāka known as Svarṇa-gharma, &lt;strong&gt;the Mahāpuruṣa-vidyā&lt;/strong&gt;, the Puruṣa-sūkta and various songs of the Sāma Veda, such as the Rājana and the Rohiṇya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Purusha Sukta is a famous hymn to Vishnu from the Rig Veda, but my question is, what is the Mahapurusha Vidya?  &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=NkDn2QmGY-YC&amp;amp;lpg=PA254&amp;amp;dq=%22mahapurusa%20vidya%22&amp;amp;pg=PA254#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This book&lt;/a&gt; claims that it's just a name for the first verse of the Vishnu Purana.  Here is the Vishnu Purana's first verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jitaṃ te puṇḍarīkākṣa namas te viśvabhāvana |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;namas te 'stu hṛṣīkeśa mahāpuruṣa pūrvaja ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Victory be to thee, Puńd́aríkáksha; adoration be to thee, Víswabhávana; glory be to thee, Hrishikeśa, Mahápurusha, and Púrvaja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse does refer to the Mahapurusha name of Vishnu.  But is the author right that this is the Mahapurusha Vidya?  Or does it refer to something else?  Are there any other scriptures that use the term &quot;Mahapurusha Vidya&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-11-21T16:38:51.450" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T04:48:20.767" Title="What is the Mahapurusha Vidya recommended in the Uddhava Gita?" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavata-purana|mantras|vishnu-purana|uddhava-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3756" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-17T08:40:39.117" Score="6" ViewCount="1923" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across an information that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartikeya_Temple,_Pehowa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;there exists a temple for Lord Kartikeya in Kurukshetra&lt;/a&gt; where entry for women is prohibited. The reason for that is an incident in which there was a competition between Lord Kartikeya and Lord Ganesha (as described &lt;a href=&quot;http://taurian123.blogspot.in/2012/09/the-fear-of-kartikeyas-curse-lives-on.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) and that Lord Kartikeya was so much angry with his mother Parvati that he peeled off all his skin and only his skeleton was left.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone tell me which Hindu scripture states the above version of the story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The stories that I have read and heard till now were a bit different in which Kartikeya was just angry with Mata Parvati and he only moved away from her to South India but there was no incident of peeling off his skin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T05:42:48.407" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T05:42:48.407" Title="Source reference for Lord Kartikeya's peeling off skin incident" Tags="|shiva|ganesha|parvati|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3757" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3752" CreationDate="2014-11-17T10:08:18.910" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kamasutra is not a religious text. Religious texts talk of how to realize Brahman, what sacrifices to perform and how, hymns to the Devas, or Bhasyas on the preceding...to what Veda does the Kamasutra belong? To which school of Vedanta does it belong? Who has commented on it - Madhura, Ramanuja, Sankara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kamasutra was never considered a religious text in India until 19&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century Western orientalists came upon it and used it as another example of why Christianity was superior to 'pagan' Hinduism. The modern Western neo-orientalists in Western academia have continued this myth. They dare not do this to the Christians as they would lose their jobs and tenure. Some good Hindu arguments to see are in Chapter 8 'De-Spiritualizing Tantra' in &lt;em&gt;Invading The Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America&lt;/em&gt;. The entire book is available as a free download at &lt;a href=&quot;http://rajivmalhotra.com/books/invading-sacred/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://rajivmalhotra.com/books/invading-sacred/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the conclusions at the end of Chapter 8 are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;According to many members of the Hindu diaspora, the implications of the White-Doniger thesis for the study of India and Indic traditions has been disastrous. Malhotra summarizes the impact:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;White gives ammunition to those who attack Hinduism as being a collection of barbaric practices.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He tries to undermine Hinduism's spiritual claims and renders its philosophical texts as fake or hypocritical.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He feeds Hinduphobia in the minds of mainstream Americans who see everyday Hindu symbols as weird and/or as representing immoral practices.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;further on he states: &quot;What they [Hindu critics of this Western academics] do criticize is the attempt to reduce Hinduism to pornography and to wish away the profound spiritual component in Hinduism.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-18T01:34:51.010" LastActivityDate="2014-11-18T01:34:51.010" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3759" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6544" CreationDate="2014-11-17T12:11:56.507" Score="1" ViewCount="7340" Body="&lt;p&gt;During the festival of Onam, we worship &lt;code&gt;onathappan&lt;/code&gt;. Could someone explain what this &lt;code&gt;onathappan&lt;/code&gt; signifies? If it is Mahabali, then why are there three, along with one for Thrikkakarappan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1054" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-17T13:54:53.397" LastActivityDate="2015-08-19T11:55:51.357" Title="What is the significance of &quot;Onathappan&quot; during Onam?" Tags="|vishnu|festivals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3760" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="697" CreationDate="2014-11-17T16:47:36.477" Score="42" Body="&lt;p&gt;A glass can be looked on as half empty or half full. I think it is best to rephrase this  question by asking instead - What does Hinduism say about continence (self constraint in sexual matters)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Nikhilananda in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/moralprincipleso0000ansh/page/615/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;his writings on Hindu ethics&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides the objective duties based on the castes and stages of life, there are laid down the common duties of men, the sadharanadharma, which are the foundation of the moral life. Manu, the lawgiver, enumerates these common duties as follows: steadfastness (dhairya), forgiveness (kshama), &lt;strong&gt;good conduct (dama)&lt;/strong&gt;, avoidance of theft (chauryabhava), &lt;strong&gt;control of the senses (indriyanigraha)&lt;/strong&gt;, wisdom (dhi), learning (vidya), truthfulness (satya) and absense of anger (akrodha)...the aim of Hindu ethics is to enable a man ultimately to conquer his lower self and attain freedom from passion, desire, and attachment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All Hindu philosophers regardless of their conceptions of the supreme end of man, admit the empirical reality of the individual, endowed with volition, desire, will, conscience or consciousness of duty, emotion, etc. The goal of Hindu ethics is to train these faculties in such a way that they shall lead the individual to the realization of Moksha, or Liberation. Therefore all the schools of philosophy have described the virtues and their opposites in detail. &lt;strong&gt;It is expected of the moral agent that he should follow the former and shun the latter&lt;/strong&gt;. We propose to discuss the virtues and their opposites according to the classification of Nyaya and of Patanjali's system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vatsyayana, in his commentary on the Nyaya aphorisms, classifies will as impious (papatmika) and auspicious (subha). The impious will leads to unrighteousness (adharma), and the auspicious will, to righteousness (dharma). Righteousness, it is necessary to add, is conductive to the Highest Good, whereas unrighteousness produces evil. The purpose of ethics is to subdue the impious and to manifest the righteous will.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unrighteousness may take three forms, namely, physical, verbal, and mental, depending upon the condition of its functioning. Physical unrighteousness manifests itself as cruelty (himsa), theft (steya), and &lt;strong&gt;sexual perversion (pratisiddha maithuna)&lt;/strong&gt;; verbal unrighteousness, as falsehood (mithya), rudeness (katukti), insinuation (suchana), and gossip (asambaddha); mental unrighteousness, as ill-will (paradroha), covetousness (paradravyabhipsa), and irreverance (nastikya).&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali...describes the virtues that must be cultivated...chastity or continence...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The practice of continence, highly extolled by all the philosophers and mystics of India, implies, besides the literal meaning of the vow, &lt;strong&gt;abstention from lewdness in thought&lt;/strong&gt;, speech, and &lt;strong&gt;action through any of the sense-organs&lt;/strong&gt;. Through the practice of this virtue, one develops the capacity for subtle spiritual perception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2021-06-19T06:09:56.980" LastActivityDate="2021-06-19T06:09:56.980" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3761" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-17T22:18:07.190" Score="1" ViewCount="740" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is performing the &lt;em&gt;Kesh-Mundan&lt;/em&gt; of a 13 months old girl child in accordance with the Hindu religion and scriptures? We follow the south Indian traditions from Karnataka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1067" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-12-01T17:42:43.433" LastActivityDate="2016-08-16T16:19:41.153" Title="Should we perform Kesh-Mundan for 13 months old girl child" Tags="|practice|samskara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3762" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3761" CreationDate="2014-11-17T23:57:43.230" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is what R.B. Pandey says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/8To7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his paper &quot;The Hindu Sacraments (Samskaras)&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chudakarana (tonsure) is the eighth samskara[.]... According to the Grihya Sutras, the chudakarana ceremony should take place at the end of the first year or before the expiry of the third year, though later authorities extend the age to the seventh year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now different sutras may say different things on the subject, so it depends on which sutra is followed your family tradition.  For instance, I'm a Yajur Veda Brahmana (meaning my family helped preserve theYajur Veda), and my family specifically follows the Apastambha Sutra (a Sutra associated with the Krishna Yajur Veda), which says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe30/sbe30109.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the third year after his birth the Kaula (or tonsure is performed) under (the Nakshatra of) the two Punarvasus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So you might want to find out similar information concerning your family traditions in order to carry things out properly.  You can consult a family priest if you have one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-01-24T00:30:42.717" LastActivityDate="2015-01-24T00:30:42.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3765" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-18T09:32:11.910" Score="2" ViewCount="844" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3755/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Srimad Bhagavatam contains the Uddhava Gita, a discourse similar to the Bhagavad Gita between Krishna and his relative Uddhava on the proper way to live one's life.  And in the course of telling Uddhava how to worship him in idol form, Krishna says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27/30-31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The worshiper should bathe the Deity every day, as opulently as his assets permit, using waters scented with sandalwood, uśīra root, camphor, kuṅkuma and aguru. He should also chant various Vedic hymns, such as the &lt;strong&gt;anuvāka known as Svarṇa-gharma&lt;/strong&gt;, the Mahāpuruṣa-vidyā, the Puruṣa-sūkta and various songs of the Sāma Veda, such as the Rājana and the Rohiṇya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3755/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; I asked about the Mahapurusha Vidya, but now I'm interested in the Suvarna Gharma Anuvaka.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=NkDn2QmGY-YC&amp;amp;lpg=PA254&amp;amp;dq=%22mahapurusa%20vidya%22&amp;amp;pg=PA254#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This book&lt;/a&gt; claims that the hymn is lost, but I found it in the Taittiriya Aranyaka of the Yajur Veda (see Anuvaka 3-11-1 on page 50 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/yajurveda/ta-find.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF&lt;/a&gt;): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;suvarnam gharmam pariveda venam | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;indrasyatmanam dashadh carantam | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;antassamudre manasa carantam | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahma'nvavindaddashahotaramarne | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;antaha pravishtashasta jananam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekassanbahudha vicaraha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;shatam shukrani yatraikam bhavanti | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarve veda yatraikam bhavanti | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarve hotaro yatraikaM bhavanti |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa manasana atma jananam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what does this hymn mean?  Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a complete translation of the Taittiriya Aranyaka.  There is &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8120808681&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this translation&lt;/a&gt; of chapter 5, which deals with the Pravargya ritual.  And there are numerous translations of chapter 7-9, which constitute the Taittirya Upanishad, and of chapter 10, which is the Mahanarayana Upanishad.  But are there any translations of chapter 3, where this hymn is found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-12-16T03:56:10.033" Title="What does the Suvarna Gharma Anuvaka of the Taittiriya Aranyaka mean?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavata-purana|translation-request|uddhava-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3768" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3755" CreationDate="2014-11-18T13:41:10.467" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The first two verses you have mentioned from Vishnu purana is part of Jitante Stotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what is said about Jitante stotram in following web site&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jitante stotram is a Rigveda khilam meaning an infrequented portion. Just as Purushasuktam which propounds the tenets, exists in all Sruthis, so all so, this Jitante is proclaimed in the scripture and itihAsa purAnAs as a mahamantram and classified as confidential on par with tirumantram. This Jitante, being a portion of the Apourusheya vedas, it may be questioned as to how it exists in the other man-made works like ItihAsa and PurAnas. The answer is :- Khilam is a highly infrequented portion. The Sutrakaras have studied vedas with khilam portions. They have mentioned and included Jitante as a mantram in ItihAsa PurAnas as evidenced by the quotation &quot; Jitanta iti mantreNa &quot; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more details on Jitante stotram refer to the following site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.acharya.org/v/jitante/jitante01.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.acharya.org/v/jitante/jitante01.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My view is because it is referring to the Supreme Lord Vishnu, it might also be called Maha Purusha Vidya. But I am not sure about the origin or source of the name “Mahapurusha Vidya”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-11-19T17:32:43.153" LastActivityDate="2014-11-19T17:32:43.153" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3770" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2826" CreationDate="2014-11-19T05:44:53.000" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So my question is, who is the seer of the Isha Upanishad, i.e. the sage who heard it from the gods? If I had to guess, I would guess that it's the sage Yajnavkya, who's associated with the Vajasaneyi Samhita in general, but I'm not sure. Also, since the verses of the Vedas are usually addressed to some god or the other, who is the Isha Upanishad addressed to?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the commentary of Sri Raghavendra Swami &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/all_pdf/Ishaa_bhaashhya_Raghavendra.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the Rishi is Svayambhuva Manu and the Devata is Hari with the name 'Yajna.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Line number three of the document reads (after my transliteration to English)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;asyA upaniSadaH svAyambhuvo manu RSiH  yajnanAmA harirdevatA&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The last few verses are addressed to gods like Pushana and Agni, but who are the earlier verses addressed to?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not sure what all traditions consider like what you said above but at least according to Srila Prabhupada (Madhva Gaudiya Sampradaya) these prayers are to the Supreme Lord Himself as one can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/iso/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in his commentary to Isopanisad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-25T14:42:30.430" LastActivityDate="2015-11-25T14:42:30.430" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3771" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-19T10:35:41.107" Score="15" ViewCount="31316" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any particular order in which I should read the Vedas and Upanishads? If so, in which order should a starter read for better understanding of the aspects stated in them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="13" LastEditDate="2014-11-20T02:48:05.457" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T12:58:29.197" Title="What order should I read the Vedas and Upanishads in?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3773" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-19T10:52:38.243" Score="2" ViewCount="228" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dispassion means being free from material desires. That means the person doesn't have any desire for any object in this material world even for a living being. But I would like to know what is meant by a Samsaric being dispassionate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What does it mean being dispassionate towards one's wife and children? &#xA;Does that mean not caring about them or just caring very little about them or not doing Samsara with his wife (means not giving birth to children) or not loving her or taking it lightly when she has a problem or not thinking about her?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How can one be dispassionate towards his wife and children?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annamacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Great Annamayya&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pothuluru_Veerabrahmendra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Madhvirat Pothuluri Veerabramhendra Swamy&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannappa_Nayanar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kannappa Nayanar&lt;/a&gt; etc. were married and yet great sages. How could they also lead their married lives?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What did Lord Krishna teach about this?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What did the Vedas teach about it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-26T03:35:21.900" LastActivityDate="2016-01-26T03:35:21.900" Title="What is dispassion to a Samsaric?" Tags="|vedas|krishna|bhagavad-gita|life|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3774" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3771" CreationDate="2014-11-19T21:51:48.847" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no specific order in which you can read and understand but as far as my experience is concerned, these upanishads came from the vedas. The bottom-up approach says first read the upanishads and then the vedas. The top-down approach says first read the vedas and then the upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upanishads and Vedas are two terms that are often confused as one and the same thing. Actually they are two different subjects for that matter. In fact Upanishads are parts of Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva are the four Vedas. A Veda is divided into four parts, namely, Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka and Upanishad. It can be seen from the division that Upanishad forms the last part of a given Veda. Since Upanishad forms the end part of a Veda it is also called as Vedanta. The word ‘anta’ in Sanskrit means ‘end’. Hence the word ‘Vedanta’ means ‘the end portion of a Veda’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-upanishads-and-vs-vedas/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Difference Between Upanishads and Vedas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1077" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-20T07:16:22.847" LastActivityDate="2014-11-20T07:16:22.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3775" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-20T05:08:57.293" Score="6" ViewCount="304" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Seventh Kanda of the third Prapathaka of the Taittiriya Samhita of the Yajur Veda explains various Yagnas (Vedic fire-rituals), and in particular, the third Prapathaka of this Khanda provides some of the hymns required for the Ashwamedha Yagna (horse ritual).  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv07.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is one of those hymns:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hail! (To) meditation (I offer).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To that meditated upon hail!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hail! (To) that which we meditate on (I offer).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To mind hail! Hail! (To) mind (I offer).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To Prajapati hail! To Ka hail! To Who hail!' To Whoever (katamásmai) hail!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To Aditi hail! To Aditi the great hail! To Aditi the gentle hail!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To Sarasvati hail! To Sarasvati the mighty hail! To Sarasvati, the purifying hail!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To Pusan hail! To Pusan guardian of travellers hail! To Pusan watcher of men hail!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To Tvastr hail! To Tvastr the seminal hail! To Tvastr the multiform&#xA;hail!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To Visnu hail! To Visnu the Nikhuryapa hail! To Visnu the Nibhuyapa hail!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the last line, addressed to Vishnu.  My question is, why is Vishnu called the Nikhuryapa and the Nibhuyapa?  What do these words mean?  Sanskrit dictionaries don't provide any help (they just say it's a name of Vishnu), and I don't think the name is in the Vishnu Sahasranama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Sayana address this in his commentary on the Taittiriya Samhita?  He usually provides (sometimes fanciful) etymologies for the names of gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-05-08T19:04:27.317" LastActivityDate="2024-02-02T22:07:15.903" Title="Why does the Yajur Veda call Vishnu the Nikhuryapa and the Nibhuyapa?" Tags="|vedas|vishnu|name|yajur-veda|taittirya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3776" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-20T07:50:24.583" Score="3" ViewCount="4262" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do Hindu Gods share some similarity with the Gods of other religion? If yes, then are there any stories or traits that we can compare? I have heard that the Greek Gods are a bit similar to Hindu Gods, may be there are others too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-08-17T14:00:05.373" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T14:00:05.373" Title="Do Hindu Gods share some similarity with the Gods of other religion?" Tags="|gods|other-religions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3779" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-20T14:09:37.283" Score="2" ViewCount="154" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, chapter 1, Third Brahmana,  it is said that Asuras win against gods when one follows his natural inclinations such as wanting to eat something that tastes good etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana Maya also comes in the form of a desire. Then what is the difference between Narayana Maya and working of Asura in oneself?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T04:34:29.560" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T04:34:29.560" Title="What is the difference between Narayana Maya and Asuras?" Tags="|vishnu|asuras|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3781" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3588" CreationDate="2014-11-20T21:43:49.057" Score="3" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;These are just myths created to explain the existence of specific 'God' or 'Energy' or 'Power' that affects human life. For instance the joining of Shiva and Mohini (actually a female form of Vishnu), creates a God with the qualities of both Shiva and Vishnu (worshiped in South India as Hariharputra). See &lt;a href=&quot;http://thehindugods.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for an explanation of these myths (including that of Ganesha).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rama and Krishna behave like humans because that is what they are. They are also incarnations of Vishnu, meaning the divinity of Vishnu has descended into them making them divine. However they still remain human. Krishna was a more of a God ('Sampoorna Avatar') than Rama, so he did not have as many difficulties or was as helpless as Rama during his lifetime. It is the same as asking, if Jesus was a God how did he allow himself to be tortured and beaten.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gods intention in sending these Avatars like Rama and Krishna is to send them as teachers for humanity. Rama taught us as a role model of being a perfect human and Krishna taught us through his Geeta.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1079" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-25T16:25:51.133" LastActivityDate="2015-02-25T16:25:51.133" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3782" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3783" CreationDate="2014-11-21T04:41:59.070" Score="4" ViewCount="2178" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashwatthama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashwatthama&lt;/a&gt;, one of the seven immortals, is still alive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But can anyone tell where he is now? Many people claimed seeing him; he was much taller than an average man, peculiar was his physique too. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When will be his curse lifted? Can anyone tell?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(To see him, one has to be devoid of all physical comforts and all mundane existence and obviously should have the zeal for the omnipotent knowledge! Difficult, heh??) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1081" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-16T19:30:10.453" LastActivityDate="2017-01-16T19:30:10.453" Title="Where is Ashwatthama now and upto which age he will be alive?" Tags="|mahabharata|ashwatthama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2014-11-30T10:29:34.283" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3783" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3782" CreationDate="2014-11-21T05:09:14.673" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2390/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Sauptika Parva of the Mahabharata describes how after Ashwatthama launched a Brahmastra at the womb of Abhimanu's wife Uttara, Krishna put the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10016.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;following curse&lt;/a&gt; on Ashwatthama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As regards thyself, all wise men know thee for a coward and a sinful wretch! Always engaged in sinful acts, thou art the slayer of children. For this reason, thou must have to bear the fruit of these thy sins. For 3,000 years thou shalt wander over this earth, without a companion and without being able to talk with anyone. Alone and without anybody by thy side, thou shalt wander through diverse countries, O wretch, thou shalt have no place in the midst of men. The stench of pus and blood shall emanate from thee, and inaccessible forests and dreary moors shall be thy abode! Thou shalt wander over the Earth, O thou of sinful soul, with the weight of all diseases on thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So at least for the duration of the curse, the answer to the question &quot;Where is Ashwatthama&quot; is &quot;wandering all over the Earth&quot;.  But there's some reason to believe that the curse is over by now, because Krishna said that it would last 3000 years, and Krishna died in 3102 BC, so assuming Krishna was talking about normal years the curse ended over two millennia ago.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, Ashwatthama made clear what his plans would be after the end of the curse; he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10016.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;told&lt;/a&gt; the sage Vyasa &quot;With thyself among all men, O holy one, I shall live! Let the words of this illustrious and foremost of men become true!&quot; So he's presumably living with Vyasa now.  And as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3618/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the time he will have spent with Vyasa will enable him to become the Veda Vyasa (i.e. the compiler of the Vedas) in the next Dwapara Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-11-27T07:28:33.313" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3784" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2931" CreationDate="2014-11-21T05:22:04.967" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know this answer is coming very late and we have one good answer that was accepted as well. However I feel the most authentic and detailed information comes out of Srimad Bhagavatam which is the purest of the texts (as glorified in the text as well and other scriptures as well) and is the best preserved purana through parampara among various traditions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;summary to 11th canto Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt; gives an overview of the curse upon the Yadu dynasy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Sri Krsna expertly arranged the great Kuruksetra battle between&#xA;  the Kurus and the Pandavas and thus removed to a great extent the&#xA;  earth’s burden. But the Supreme Lord, whose influence is&#xA;  inconceivable, was not yet satisfied, because of the continued&#xA;  presence of the undefeatable Yadu family. The Lord desired to bring&#xA;  about the destruction of the Yadu dynasty so that He could completely&#xA;  wind up His pastimes on the earth and go back to His own abode. Using&#xA;  the pretense of a curse by an assembly of brahmanas, He withdrew His&#xA;  entire dynasty from the surface of the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Sri Krsna’s desire, many great sages, headed by Narada and&#xA;  Visvamitra, assembled at the holy place named Pindaraka, near the city&#xA;  of Dvaraka. The young boys of the Yadu family, absorbed in a playful&#xA;  mood, also arrived there. These boys dressed Samba in the guise of a&#xA;  pregnant woman about to give birth and inquired from the sages about&#xA;  the fruitfulness of Samba’s so-called pregnancy. The sages cursed the&#xA;  mocking boys by saying, “She will give birth to a club that will&#xA;  destroy your family.” The Yadus, frightened by this curse, immediately&#xA;  lifted the garment from Samba’s abdomen and found a club. Hurrying to&#xA;  the assembly of Ugrasena, the King of the Yadus, they offered a report&#xA;  of everything that had taken place. Fearing the brahmanas’ curse,&#xA;  Yaduraja Ugrasena ordered the club ground to powder and thrown into&#xA;  the ocean. Within the ocean, a fish swallowed the last remaining lump&#xA;  of iron, and the waves carried all the bits of ground powder to the&#xA;  shore, where they were implanted and eventually grew into a grove of&#xA;  canes. Fishermen caught the fish, and a hunter named Jara used the&#xA;  iron lump found in its belly to fashion an arrow. Although the&#xA;  Supersoul, Lord Sri Krsna, understood what was happening, He did not&#xA;  wish to do anything to counteract it. Rather, in the form of time He&#xA;  sanctioned these events.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Using the canes that grew from the powder of the club described above yadus attack each other and leave the world. The arrow the hunter Jara uses is also made from that lump of the club as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/30/33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;described here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just then a hunter named Jara, who had approached the place, mistook&#xA;  the Lord’s foot for a deer’s face. Thinking he had found his prey,&#xA;  Jara pierced the foot with his arrow, which he had fashioned from the&#xA;  remaining iron fragment of Samba’s club.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The specific disappearance pastime of Lord Krishna can be read in the Bhagavatam, specifically last two chapters of 11th canto talks about this: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/30/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/30/chapter-view&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/31/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/31/chapter-view&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some important things we should be consider are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Krishna's disappearance is not like the death of ordinary humans. So 'killed' and 'death' doesn't really apply like they do to ordinary humans. That is why we say He disappeared, i.e., He just left our vision.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Before the Lord was shot, He was in His four armed Vishnu form and He delivered the hunter who shot the arrow at His lotus feet. This shows His divinity as opposed to normal humans.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He already planned for all this as you can understand from reading the above chapters. So His being shot was not accidental but a clearly planned pastime.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sukadeva Gosvami, the speaker of Bhagavatam tells Maharaja Pariksit in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/31/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;the 11th canto chapter 31&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Krsna brought the son of His guru back from the planet of the&#xA;  lord of death in the boy’s selfsame body, and as the ultimate giver of&#xA;  protection He saved you also when you were burned by the brahmastra of&#xA;  Asvatthama. He conquered in battle even Lord Siva, who deals death to&#xA;  the agents of death, and He sent the hunter Jara directly to Vaikuntha&#xA;  in his human body. How could such a personality be unable to protect&#xA;  His own Self?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although Lord Krsna, being the possessor of infinite powers, is the&#xA;  only cause of the creation, maintenance and destruction of innumerable&#xA;  living beings, He simply did not desire to keep His body in this world&#xA;  any longer. Thus He revealed the destination of those fixed in the&#xA;  self and demonstrated that this mortal world is of no intrinsic value.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-11-21T05:22:04.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3788" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-21T14:48:28.947" Score="3" ViewCount="1325" Body="&lt;p&gt;Different people worship different forms of Lord. One worships Krishna while the other worships Lord Shiva. Does their previous karma related with the god they worship? If so, how&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, Arjuna hasn't recognized Lord Shiva and battled with him in his birth as one of the Pandavas and therefore he is later born as Bhakta Kannappa. In a similar way does everyone have a similar story like this in their previous birth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so, what about the people born in religions like Buddhism, Christianity etc. Moksha is available in Hinduism but how do these religion followers get moksha? Why aren't they given a chance to get moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-13T04:47:39.463" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T04:47:39.463" Title="Does karma have anything to do with the Lord we worship?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|moksha|other-religions|devi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3789" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3821" CreationDate="2014-11-21T14:54:39.327" Score="7" ViewCount="746" Body="&lt;p&gt;We are given some ways to worship like burning camphor, doing abhishekam etc. It is said that when we doesn't follow all these God will not be impressed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also said that when one prays with unflinching love, God accepts it just as in the case of the great Bhakta Kannapa who fed non-veg for Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Burning of camphor indicates burning of ego. If the devotee has surrendered his ego to the Supreme Lord, should he still have to burn the camphor? In a similar way, several practices represent surrendering of several bad qualities. If the devotee doesn't have those qualities, is it always necessary for them to do those practices?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is Lord strict about those rituals? Can love dis intensify his strictness? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2015-01-10T12:25:20.270" Title="Why should rules be followed while worshipping?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|rituals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3790" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3771" CreationDate="2014-11-22T05:48:09.190" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The order to read the Upanishads and Vedas is different for everyone and should be determined by your teacher. Two verses from the Mundaka Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(I. ii. 12.) - &quot;Let a brahmin, after having examined all these worlds&#xA;  that are gained by works, acquire freedom from desires: nothing that&#xA;  is eternal can be produced by what is not eternal. In order that he&#xA;  may understand that Eternal, let him, fuel in hand, approach a guru&#xA;  who is well versed in the Vedas and always devoted to Brahman.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(III. ii. 11.) - &quot;Thus the seer Angiras declared this truth in olden&#xA;  times. A man who has not performed the vow should not read it.&#xA;  Salutation to the great seers!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'performed the vow' and  'should not read it' - a man who has not done some purification should not read the Upanishads as the study of the non-dual Brahman can injure a person not ready for it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should seek out a teacher, perform service to the teacher, purify oneself through some austerities and renunciation, and then ask for the teacher's direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know one person who first did service to his teacher for many years and was required to first read other texts for several years and then listen to the Upanishads from the teacher and his commentary over several more years before being allowed to read the Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone is different. Seek your teacher first.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="187" LastEditDate="2014-11-22T08:31:13.400" LastActivityDate="2014-11-22T08:31:13.400" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3791" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-22T14:20:40.337" Score="5" ViewCount="565" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the difference between a good man and a devotee. A good man does good karma due to which his previous karma's effect gets reduced. In a similar way, a devotee's karma is also reduced by serving the Supreme being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then what is the difference between those two? Is a devotee more dearest to the supreme being than a good man? Sometimes, we see good people facing miseries in their lives, however it happens very rarely in the case of devotees. Is it right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can a great misery happen to a devotee? I am not talking about that when he is realized, he doesn't feel it is a misery which is his feeling. I am talking, in general can misery happen to devotee?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T15:45:16.643" Title="What is the difference between a good man and a devotee?" Tags="|karma|bhakti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3792" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3804" CreationDate="2014-11-22T14:26:38.900" Score="6" ViewCount="3278" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the people say, we need a guru in the path of spirituality to drive us in the way that we attain the abode of the supreme being. I would like to know &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Can't the supreme being drive the devotee to moksha by himself? Can the Lord be one's own Guru?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-22T06:55:35.750" LastActivityDate="2020-05-25T22:34:01.477" Title="Why do we need a guru? Can Lord be our Guru?" Tags="|gods|guru|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3793" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3924" CreationDate="2014-11-23T06:02:30.410" Score="1" ViewCount="381" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;strong&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;, senses drive towards the objects and the asuras will incarnate the sensual desires like wanting to eat something &lt;em&gt;tasty&lt;/em&gt;, wanted to see something &lt;em&gt;beautiful&lt;/em&gt; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, if we can control one sense, for example, restricting our self eating tasty food will ease the controlling of the other senses?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From my experience, I have found that, when I am able to control my mouth by stopping it to talk unnecessarily, I found it quite easy to control other senses. But I would like to know if this is explicitly stated in any Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I feel, it is because the asuras in oneself will lose their power as each sense is controlled. Am I right?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any particular order of controlling senses so that it will be easy for one to stop getting desires? For example, controlling mouth first, then tongue, nose, eyes, mind etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it also true that one who controls the senses are dearer to the Supreme being? Because, as restricting of desires is to make the God within oneself to win. So where the God wins, the Supreme being loves to be there?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2014-12-07T05:04:34.660" Title="Does controlling one sense ease controlling other senses?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|gods|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3794" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3797" CreationDate="2014-11-23T06:18:20.753" Score="9" ViewCount="4320" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many people who write commentaries on the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita etc. Whose commentaries is most followed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also where can I get all of those Upanishads and Vedas in English? Instead of commentaries, are there any direct translations of the Vedas and Upanishads in English? If so, where can I find them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any commentaries by one who is both Shaivite and Vaishnavite?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-19T20:42:59.973" LastActivityDate="2015-02-19T20:42:59.973" Title="Whose commentaries on the Vedas and Upanishads are most followed?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|philosophy|upanishads|vedanta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3795" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3796" CreationDate="2014-11-23T06:44:15.833" Score="17" ViewCount="6972" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the difference between a Smarta and an Advaitin? Both are the followers of Adi Sankaracharya only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People who worship Lord Shiva are called Shaivite and those who worship Lord Vishnu are called Vaishnavite. Then what is one called when he worships both &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-03-15T02:26:48.407" LastActivityDate="2022-03-15T02:26:48.407" Title="Difference between Smartas and Advaitins?" Tags="|philosophy|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|sects|smarta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3796" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3795" CreationDate="2014-11-23T08:16:20.437" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the word &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarta_Tradition&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smartha&lt;/a&gt; originally just meant &quot;follower of Smriti.  (Hinduism has two sets of scripture, Shruti or &quot;that which is heard&quot; and Smriti or &quot;that which is remembered.)  But the Smartha came to denote the followers of the sect founded by Adi Shankaracharya, which he did in order to create a more streamlined version of Hinduism.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Adi Shankaracharya's time, Buddhism and Jainism had great influence in India.  These two religions rejected the authority of the Vedas, and they attacked the Yagnas (fire-rituals) prescribed in the Vedas as cruel and barbaric.  Unfortunately, the Hindu philosophers of the day were woefully unprepared to defend their religion, because the dominant school of Hindu philosophy at the time was &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%ABm%C4%81%E1%B9%83s%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purva Mimamsa&lt;/a&gt;, a school which considered the Vedic hymns as eternal truths, but doubted the existence of the gods mentioned in those hymns!  So most Hindu philosophers at the time were just as atheistic as the Buddhists and Jains they were debating. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In contrast to the Purva Mimamsa school, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; school of Hindu philosophy accepted the existence of the gods as well as the abstract entity Brahman.  Adi Shankaracharya subscribed to a particular version of Vedanta called &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Advaita Vedanta&lt;/a&gt;, according to which the gods are just manifestations of Brahman, Brahman and the individual soul are identical, and the physical world is an illusion.  With this belief system he was better-equipped to defend Hinduism than the followers of Purva Mimamsa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there was a problem: Hinduism as it existed at the time was in Adi Shankaracharya's view too ritualistic and disorganized due to diverse parochial beliefs and customs.  So it was hard to defend Hinduism as it was actually practiced from Buddhist and Jain critiques.  This motivated Adi Shankaracharya to create a more streamlined version of Hinduism.  First of all, he tried to put an end to some traditional Hindu practices which he felt were justifiably criticized by non-Hindus (like animal sacrifice).  Second of all, since he believed in Advaita Vedanta and thus believed that all the gods were just manifestations of a single Brahman, he saw no reason why anyone would need to worship so many different gods.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he started to encourage people to worship just five gods, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchayatana_puja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchayatana&lt;/a&gt;: Shiva, Vishnu, Durga, Ganesha, and Surya.  Other than Surya, the other gods in this list are ones that are mainly emphasized in Smriti texts like the Puranas, so the Adi Shankaracharya's new sect soon came to be called Smartha.  Now you might have heard Smarthas simply being called Shaivites.  There are two reasons for this.  First of all, Advaitins tend to refer to the divine by the terms Ishwara and Parameshwara, which are often considered names of Shiva.  Second of all, while Smarthas are theoretically supposed to worship five gods, usually the one they put the most emphasis on is Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To sum up, Advaita Vedanta is a (sub-) school of Hindu philosophy and and Smartha is sect of Hinduism, but in practice people who subscribe to one subscribe to the other as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S.  You asked what to call someone who worships Vishnu and Shiva only.  Well, there's no major sect if Hinduism that does precisely that.  The closest you could come up with is follower of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harihara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harihara&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T10:41:09.357" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3797" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3794" CreationDate="2014-11-23T09:55:08.123" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; school, which derives its tenets from the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings laid out in the Upanishads.  It's not a verse-by-verse commentary of each Upanishad, but rather an explanation of many different Upanishads.  Insofar it's the defining text of the Vedanta school, it's doctrines are followed by the vast majority of Hindus.  You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; it consists of concise sayings that are often hard to decipher if you're not an expert on the Upanishads, so it's usually read with the assistance of a commentary.  The two most popular commentaries on the Brahma Sutras are the Brahma Sutra Bhashya of Adi Shankaracharya and the Sri Bhashya of Ramanujacharya, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as what commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads are widely followed, there are many different philsophies within the Vedanta school.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2327/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the key difference between these philosophies is the relationship between Jivatma, the individual soul, and Paramatma, the divine soul or supreme soul.  According to Adi Shankaracharya's Advaita philosophy they're identical, according to Madhvacharya's Dvaita philosophy they're totally separate, and according to Ramanujacharya's Vishishtadvaita philosophy Jivatmas are just small parts of the greater Paramarma.  Philosophers from each of these traditions have written commentaries.  Out of these philosophies, Advaita Vedanta is currently the most popular due to the work of Vivekananda and others, so Adi Shankaracharya's commentaries would be the most popular.  But Ramanujacharya's commentaries would be a close second.  In any case, you can read the four main Vaishnava commentaries (including Ramanujacharya's) on the Bhagavad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as where you can read the Vedas and Upanishads in English, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; the site &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sacred-texts.org&lt;/a&gt; is a good source.  Here's the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna Version&lt;/a&gt; of the Yajur Veda Samhita, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shukla version&lt;/a&gt; of the Yajur Veda Samhita, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sv.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sama Veda Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharvana Veda Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana&lt;/a&gt; of the Yajur Veda, some &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/upan/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;major Upanishads&lt;/a&gt; from various Vedas, and some &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/tmu/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;minor Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-01-21T06:24:43.730" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3798" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3776" CreationDate="2014-11-23T10:48:22.087" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Hindu gods do not 'map' to the Greek gods for several reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, Hindu gods are 'devas'. The exact translation is 'shining one'. 'god' is a loose and inexact translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second, the Greek gods were eternal, there was no other God above Zeus. But, they came to power by wrestling power away from another group of gods. Devas are not eternal, they are only for this cycle of creation. Brahman is the eternal One.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Third, devas are humans from another prior cycle. After the end of this cycle, they are reborn again according to their karma. Greek gods were eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fourth, the philosophy of the Greek gods was polytheistic. Hindus are (depending on the sect), advaita (non-dualist), vishishtadvaita (qualified non-dualists), or dvaita (dualist). None are polytheistic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is similarity between the triune god of the Rig veda (Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva) and the trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) of the Christian tradition. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like Brahma, God the Father is the Creator. After the creation, he is not heard of much similar to Brahma. God the Son is, like Vishnu, the sustainer of the creation. He is the one that incarnates (as Vishnu is the one that has incarnations) as a human to lead humans to the Way. The similarity breaks down with Shiva (the destroyer of the cycle) and God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is more described as the breath of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although similar, the triune god of the Rig Veda is not the eternal Brahman. The Christian Trinity is described as three persons in one God and is the eternal God.       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-23T10:48:22.087" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3803" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="706" CreationDate="2014-11-23T21:12:12.823" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you want to go by scriptures, then, as per Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;aśvamedhaṁ gavālambhaṁ&#xA;sannyāsaṁ pala-paitṛkam&#xA;devareṇa sutotpattiṁ&#xA;kalau pañca vivarjayet&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“ ‘In this Age of Kali, five acts are forbidden: the offering of a horse in sacrifice, the offering of a cow in sacrifice, the acceptance of the order of sannyāsa, the offering of oblations of flesh to the forefathers, and a man’s begetting children in his brother’s wife.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, sannyasa is forbidden for both men and women in this age of Kali, but under order of a bonafide guru in disciplic succession, one can, because a bonafide guru, who represents God to his disciple, can, in extreme circumstances, for the purposes of preaching, order the disciple to accept sannyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sannyasa, should never be accepted out of pride, or for peace of mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1093" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-24T03:24:44.370" LastActivityDate="2014-11-24T03:24:44.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3804" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3792" CreationDate="2014-11-23T22:24:56.223" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, you can assume anything or anyone as your Guru and how much faith and devotion you have to that anything or anyone will make all the difference. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru is for helping you and guiding you but ultimately it's you whose efforts will matter the most. Nature constantly pushes you and presents before you situations which are basically aimed at moving you in the right direction but not everybody will recognizes that, one who is really wise will only understand. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why it's said that pain is the hand of nature sculpting man to greatness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can even walk the spiritual path all alone but if you have a Guru your journey becomes easier. If you believe in past life and if actions in your past life were oriented towards  spirituality then in this life you will automatically go on the same path, it's the karma which will drive you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And of course if you have the unshakable faith in Supreme being, you will automatically attain moksha, but it requires tremendous faith, like a crazy person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1094" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-24T12:52:34.743" LastActivityDate="2014-11-24T12:52:34.743" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3805" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-23T22:48:18.220" Score="9" ViewCount="5771" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that one gets the human form after collecting a lot of good karma, then how the population has increased to such? As it is Kali yuga and good is very scanty and will go down even further as time goes by, number of human beings should be decreasing day by day. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1094" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-13T08:21:48.127" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T06:12:26.367" Title="Why is the population so high in Kali yuga?" Tags="|karma|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3806" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-24T07:35:24.497" Score="5" ViewCount="1318" Body="&lt;p&gt;The members of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivaishnava&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; sect of Hinduism, especially the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyengar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyengars&lt;/a&gt; (Sri Vaishnavas who are Brahmanas), are divided into two sub-sects, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thenkalai&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thenkalais&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadakalai&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vadakalais&lt;/a&gt;. These sub-sects both agree on the Visishtadvaita philosophy of Ramanujacharya that characterizes the Sri Vaishnava belief system, but they have several fine-grained but important doctrinal differences; my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2835/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; lays out the main points of dispute.  One such difference is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sreevaishnavam.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/vadakalai-thenkalai-doctrinal-differences/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this quote&lt;/a&gt; from a journal paper:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The power of Free (Nitya) and Freed (Mukta) Souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Vadakalais] say that the Free and the Freed Souls have no power to create, or, for example, make a kosmos.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Thenkalais] say that there are no such restrictions. Any Nitya or any Mukta is capable of doing anything by virtue of God’s commands.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is this journal paper right that Thenkalais believe that liberated souls have no limitations on their power and that they have powers of creation of the Universe and the like?  The reason I'm skeptical is that Thenkalais, like all Sri Vaishnavas subscribe to the philosophy of Visistadvata Vedanta, which is part of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy.  And the defining text of the Vedanta school is Vyasa's Brahma Sutras, which specifically say &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; near the end:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Topic-7: Acquisition of Divine Powers&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;17&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The released soul gets all the divine powers except that of running the universe (with its creation, continuance and dissolution),&#xA;  as is known from the context (which deals with God) and from the&#xA;  non-proximity (of the individual soul).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be held (that the powers of the liberated soul are unlimited) owing to direct scriptural declaration, then it is not so,&#xA;  since it is (the attainment) of Him (ie., God) who appoints others as&#xA;  lords of the spheres and resides in those spheres that is spoken of&#xA;  (in the Upanishad)....&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also from the indicatory mark in the Upanishads about the equality of experience alone (it is known that the liberated souls do&#xA;  not get unfettered powers).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That seems to state that liberated souls do not get unlimited powers, and that they can't do things like creation of the Universe.  And Ramanujacharya's commentary on the Brahmasutra, the Sri Bhashya, confirms this; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48568.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; it what he says about Sutra 17 above:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The released soul, freed from all that hides its true nature, possesses the power of intuitively beholding the pure Brahman, but does not possess the power of ruling and guiding the different forms of motion and rest belonging to animate and inanimate nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48570.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what he says about Sutra 19:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The meaning of the text stating that the Released freely move in all worlds, and similar texts, therefore is only that the released soul while conscious of Brahman with its manifestations experiences also the enjoyments, lying within the sphere of change, which abide in the world of Hiranyagarbha and similar beings; not that it possesses the world-energies--creative, ruling, and so on--which are the distinctive attribute of the highest Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how do Thenkalai thinkers square their beliefs with the clear words of the Brahmasutras and Ramanujacharya, the most important Acharya of Sri Vaishnavism?  Or is the journal paper mischaracterizing their views?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the interest of full disclosure, I should add that I'm an Iyengar (Sri Vaishnava Brahmana), my Dad is a Thenkalai and my Mom is Vadakalai.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So technically I'm a Thenkalai, and thus it might seem like I'm asking what I myself believe.  But that's not the case, because my personal beliefs tend to lean more toward the Vadakalai side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: To be clear, Muktas can do things like make planets in Vishnu's highest abode of Paramapadam, but what the Brahma Sutras and Sri Bhashya say is that Muktas do not have control of the world-energies, i.e. Vishnu's core function of creation, preservation, and destruction of the Universe inhabitated by Jivas.  Whereas Thenkalais say that Muktas have no restrictions on their powers, and can do everything Vishnu can do.  That's what I want to see reconciled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-10-12T01:28:46.710" LastActivityDate="2018-10-12T18:15:04.713" Title="Do Thenkalai Sri Vaishnavas believe that liberated souls have powers of creation of the material Universe?" Tags="|moksha|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|vadakalai|thenkalai|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3807" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3835" CreationDate="2014-11-24T07:54:54.047" Score="3" ViewCount="2736" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that there is a book called &lt;code&gt;Bhrigu Samhita&lt;/code&gt; somewhere in Hoshiyarpur, India, which can tell about any person's past, present and future births based on his/her janam kundli (astrological chart prepared at the time of birth). Is it true? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know what all is written in that book and how can one tell about a future/past life by looking at the present janam's kundli. Also, is there some other text/stories written in it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please provide  any online/downloadable version of the same book present with Hindi/English translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-26T10:32:26.173" LastActivityDate="2014-11-28T10:22:38.907" Title="What is actually there in Bhrigu Samhita?" Tags="|scripture|horoscopes|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3809" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7004" CreationDate="2014-11-24T14:26:37.297" Score="12" ViewCount="3909" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Shreemad Bhagavatam, we have read that infant Krishna was replaced by an infant girl by Vasudeva. This girl was the daughter of Nanda and Yashoda and when Kansa tried to kill that girl she changed to a goddess (not sure but I think Devi Durga or Yog Maya) and informed Kansa that his kaal is somewhere else. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my question is about this girl child. I wanted to know, if she is a goddess then which goddess and do we have any account of her afterlife, and if she came for just this role then what was the purpose of such a small role by a goddess?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We generally see Gods/Goddesses being reincarnated to do some important task but this task would have been done by even an Akashvaani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-30T15:47:30.477" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T15:47:30.477" Title="Do we have any account of Nand and Yashoda's daughter's afterlife?" Tags="|krishna|puranas|bhagavata-purana|yashoda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3813" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3792" CreationDate="2014-11-25T08:36:33.317" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;God is the only Guru but as humans we need the guidance initially of a human guru. A person who thinks he can go it alone either has tremendous faith or a tremendous ego - and most of the time it's a tremendous ego. After being on the path for a while, your mind will become your guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had human gurus. It is said sometimes that he didn't need gurus, but he had them to set the example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As indicated in some prior answers to some of your prior questions, I have given you specific scriptural verses that support this need for the human guru.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-25T08:36:33.317" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3814" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-25T11:58:36.343" Score="1" ViewCount="215" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu has taken many avatars as a human being. During his avatars like Ram and Krishna, he went to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurukula&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gurukul&lt;/a&gt; (school) like a normal human goes. Now being an avatar, he already has all the knowledge then what is the reason that an avatar needs to go to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurukula&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gurukul&lt;/a&gt; and learn like a normal human?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-02T16:28:07.610" LastActivityDate="2016-02-02T16:28:07.610" Title="Why does an avatar of God need to go to Gurukul (school)?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|gurukul|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3815" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3818" CreationDate="2014-11-25T13:59:45.740" Score="5" ViewCount="3612" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sometimes we say that God has said this to me. Sometimes we see brilliant escapes from the situations of adversity (&lt;em&gt;some people call it inner-voice&lt;/em&gt;). How can we identify it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, one day I felt like not going to college but I felt like someone said me to go which is actually against my opinion. I went according to my opinion only and later I found that, not because of going to college that day I am charged some fine for not paying the exam fee in time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I felt like the Lord said it to me. How can we differentiate what Lord has said and what we think? Is what Lord says is spontaneous? If so, we can also get spontaneous thoughts that lead to bad. Also what Lord says cannot &lt;em&gt;always&lt;/em&gt; be opposed to our opinions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in what we can we differentiate between God's opinion and ours?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then how can we know that a particular voice is the voice of the Lord?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2016-10-22T12:28:59.177" Title="How can we know that God has told us something?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3817" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3819" CreationDate="2014-11-26T02:47:39.123" Score="7" ViewCount="929" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did Lord Krishna get involved in the Mahabharata war? What I mean is, Lord Krishna was born and grew up in Vrindavana and was playing with Gopis throughout his childhood, so how did he actually get involved in big battles like the Kurukshetra war? What was the turn of events?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1110" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-07-06T05:06:08.100" LastActivityDate="2016-07-06T05:06:08.100" Title="How did Krishna go from being a mischievous kid to playing a major role in the Mahabharata war?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavata-purana|pandavas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3818" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3815" CreationDate="2014-11-26T04:07:43.750" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;God never tells anyone anything. I repeat it from time to time to whoever says God speaks through our inner voice. If it is God indeed who is talking as your inner voice, then whenever he does kindly ask him &quot;Oh dear God, you are nothing but omniscient. Kindly tell me where and in what constellation the planet of the aliens is present?&quot; The point is, ask a question the answer of which you do not know. &lt;strong&gt;If it is God indeed who is speaking, then He being omniscient should certainly be able to answer any questions you ask to Him.&lt;/strong&gt; If he cannot, then how is he God? How can God be not omniscient? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thing is, everyone of us has this inner conscience and knowledge of right and wrong that guides us from time to time. Sometimes those intuitions are right and sometimes they are not. It is only our delusion to take those up as the voice of God. The clearer and purer the mind is, the nobler will become the thoughts. And only then when the consciousness will attain Brahman that the true voice of God can be heard. At that time a person will become omniscient like God. Just like you know, without divine eyes, God cannot be seen, so also without divine ears God cannot be heard. I know this because I have come across omniscient personalities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So unless one has attained Brahmanhood, it is only the voice of the inner conscience that he hears. Taking it to be the voice of the omniscient God would only be our delusion. However, it wont be completely wrong to say it is the voice of God in the sense that these voices lead one to act differently which balance out actions and reactions. And secondly, when one practices true devotion this inner voice gives knowledge that as per the Gita comes from the Lord:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;teṣām evānukampārtham aham ajñāna-jaṁ tamaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nāśayāmy ātma-bhāva-stho jñāna-dīpena bhāsvatā&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 10.11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But nevertheless, this is only the knowledge of right and wrong and knowledge of proper actions to be done. It is never the knowledge of the omniscient Lord. So to answer your question know that it is only your conscience that is always speaking. You may take it up as the voice of God, but never remain under the delusion that it is the voice of the omniscient God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, even though I don't do it, I would suggest you to read the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flipkart.com/absolute-truth-english/p/itmdwkjvfkjafguy&quot;&gt;The Absolute Truth&lt;/a&gt;. It will clear up many of your queries. I am suggesting this because I notice you are interested in these things and asking questions through many posts and comments. I will try to post answers when I get time, but in the mean time that book can help you. Also from your age on your profile it seems you are a student, so let me know your address if you like so that I can send you a copy of the book instead of you buying it. And another thing is that, don't worry about God things much, just do your study or job properly and if possible follow a good guru or writings of saints and scriptures when you get time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-11-26T04:07:43.750" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3819" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3817" CreationDate="2014-11-26T06:38:34.210" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna wasn't actually born in Vrindavana.  As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, Krishna was born in Mathura to Vasudeva and Devaki, who had been imprisoned by Devaki's cousin Kamsa because he had heard a prophecy that the eighth son of Devaki would kill him.  To protect Krishna, Vasudeva smuggled him out of Kamsa's prison and gave him to Nandagopa and Yashoda.  It's after that time that Krishna grew up in Vrindavana and the surrounding areas stealing butter, performing miracles, playing with Gopis, etc.  Then he went back to Mathura, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/44&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;killing his evil uncle Kamsa&lt;/a&gt; and freeing his biological parents from prison.  Kamsa's father Ugrasena was restored as king (as Kamsa had deposed him earlier), Vasudeva was made crown prince, and ever since then Krishna lived as a prince in Mathura.  (And except for one or two occasions he never saw Nandagopa and Yashoda again, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3669/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's only after returning to Mathura that Krishna started getting involved in the events of the Mahabharata.  First of all, Vasudeva's sister was Kunti, mother of (some of) the Pandavas, so Krishna sent his advisor Akrura to Hastinapura to find out how his cousins the Pandavas were being treated by Dhritarashta, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/49&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.  And then Krishna and Balarama saw the Pandavas for the first time in the Swayamvara of Draupadi (recognizing them in spite of their disguises), and afterwards he talked to them, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01194.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Vasudeva approaching that foremost of virtuous men--the son of Kunti--and touching the feet of that prince of the Ajamida race, said, 'I am Krishna.'  And the son of Rohini (Valadeva) also approaching Yudhishthira, did the same. And the Pandavas, beholding Krishna and Valadeva, began to express great delight. And, O thou foremost of the Bharata race, those heroes of the Yadu race thereafter touched also the feet of Kunti, their father's sister. And Ajatasatru, that foremost of the Kuru race, beholding Krishna, enquired after his well-being and asked, 'How, O Vasudeva, hast thou been able to trace us, as we are living in disguise?' And Vasudeva, smilingly answered, 'O king, fire, even if it is covered, can be known. Who else among men than the Pandavas could exhibit such might?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And ever since then Krishna's association with the Pandavas grew.  Arjuna married Krishna's younger sister Subhadra, for instance.  (She's the mother of Arjuna's son Abhimanyu.)  Later Krishna and Arjuna helped Agni fight off Indra so he could burn down the Khandava forest as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1991/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  And shortly thereafter,  since Krishna was an incarnation of Vishnu, Yudishthira made him the chief guest of his Rajasuya Yagna.  Krishna continued to help the Pandavas, for instance saving Draupadi from being disrobed as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata.  And then after the Pandavas came back from exile, Krishna went as a peace envoy to the Kauravss on behalf of the Pandavas.  And last but not least, Krishna of course served as charioteer of Arjuna in the Kurukshetra war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up, the reason that Krishna's life changed so dramatically from his days as a cowherd was because he reclaimed his status as a prince once he went back to Mathura and killed Kamsa.  And the reason he became so intricately involved in the events of the Mahabharata is that the Pandavas were his cousins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-02-13T19:12:56.377" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3820" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-26T07:19:17.530" Score="13" ViewCount="5366" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Ayodhya Kanda of the Ramayana, Kaikeyii's evil servant Manthara convinces Kaikeyii to exile Rama and make her son Bharata as king.  Manthara &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga9/ayodhya_9_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;reminds Kaikeyii&lt;/a&gt; that she had received two boons from Dasharatha, because she had saved Dasharatha's life in a war:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Queen! Once upon a time, &lt;strong&gt;when there was a battle between celestials and demons, your husband Dasaratha went along with you and other holy kings to help Indra in battle, to a famous city called Vaijayanta in which the demon Timidhvaja lived in a southern direction in the forest of Dandaka. That great demon famously called shambara, who had several magic effects, defeated all the celestials and conferred battle upon Devendra.&lt;/strong&gt;  In that great battle, demons approached and forcefully killed men who were injured by arrows and also those who were sleeping at night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, king Dasaratha fought a great battle there. With their weapons, demons made into pieces the long armed Dasaratha. O Queen! You saved the life of your unconscious husband by taking him away from the battle field. There also, you again saved him, when beaten by demons with their weapons. O Kaikeyi with auspicious appearance! Getting delighted, he gave two boons to you. Then, you said, &amp;quot;I shall ask you whenever I require them&amp;quot;. He then agreed to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question isn't about Kaikieyii's infamous two boons, but rather about the war that Dasharatha was fighting in.  My question is, who is this Asura (demon) called Timidhwaja or Shambara whom Dasharatha and &amp;quot;other holy kings&amp;quot; helped Indra to fight?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one demon by the name of Shambara who was famously defeated by Indra to help the king Divodasa, as described in numerous hymns in the Rig Veda including &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04026.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this one&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the wild joy of Soma I demolished Śambara's forts, ninety-and-nine, together;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, utterly, the hundredth habitation, when helping Divodāsa Atithigva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Who the I is in this hymn is actually a complicated issue that I may discuss in a future question, but suffice it to say that it's about the deeds of Indra even though the &amp;quot;I&amp;quot; may not be Indra.)  So is this Shambara who had a hundred forts the same Shambara that Dasharatha helped fight?  Is this city of Vaijayanta in the Dandaka forest the hundredth fort of Shambara, which Indra &amp;quot;utterly demolished&amp;quot;?  That would explain why Rama didn't encounter any such city when he was exiled to the Dandaka forest many years later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, the Kamba Ramayana claims that Jatayu the bird fought alongside Dasharatha in the battle against Shambara, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3044/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2021-06-15T18:03:55.707" Title="Did Dasharatha fight against the same demon Shambara described in the Rig Veda?" Tags="|vedas|ramayana|indra|dasharatha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3821" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3789" CreationDate="2014-11-26T08:18:37.137" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;One should follow the rules of formal worship (karma) until unflinching love - parabhaki - is attained. Just because a devotee may think they have unflinching love doesn't mean they do. If you think you have unflinching love for God and you have not seen God, then it's only your ego, and not unflinching love. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should follow the rules not for God's edification (God is no fool to be taken in by camphor) but for our own good. We learn to love God through practice and repetition. Patanjali says in (Yoga sutra I. 13-14.) that practice is necessary. Formal worship teaches practice. It is through practice that we learn to control the mind and direct it to God. It is by long and constant practice. Vyasa said is repetition is necessary. See also Mundakya Upanishad (III. i. 5) &quot;...is attained through unceasing practice...&quot; Formal worship is practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When God is attained, formal worship is not necessary. See Gita (III. 17-18.).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When parabhakti is attained, formal worship will drop off by itself. There is a story in Ramakrishna Paramahamnsa Gospel that says: &quot;After the attainment of God, religious duties such as the sadyha drop away. One day some people were sitting on the bank of the Ganges performing the sandyha. But one of them abstained from it. On being asked the reason, he said: 'I am observing asoucha. I cannot perform the sandyha ceremony. In my case the defilement is due to both a birth and death. My mother, Ignorance, is dead, and my son, Self-Knowledge, has been born.'&quot;       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-26T08:18:37.137" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3822" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3773" CreationDate="2014-11-26T16:04:49.677" Score="1" Body="&lt;h2&gt;What it is to be &quot;passionate&quot; about something (or someone)?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is to associated THAT thing (or person) with your Past and Future (this is &lt;em&gt;Chitta-Vritti&lt;/em&gt;). When you let it water (emotions) your tree of Memories, or when you let it create castles of hopes, dreams, desires, expectations for your future, you are &quot;passionate&quot; about the thing (or person).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now what about the Present?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its the moment where the &quot;Gem&quot; lies, that every &lt;em&gt;Yogi&lt;/em&gt; aims to get, and thus becomes a blissful &lt;em&gt;SthitaPragya&lt;/em&gt;, that, in simple terms, is the one who lives ONLY in the moment of the divine Present. As its only the idea of Present thats absolute, and whether its the &quot;realities&quot; of Future, or perceptions about Past, it all CHANGES!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its that tiniest moment of Present that transforms the Future into the Past. Its THE point where Past and Future meet on the temporal landscape. Its like &lt;em&gt;Sandhya&lt;/em&gt;, the time when of a day meets night, and vice versa (its the MOST auspicious period of a day). Notice that the &lt;em&gt;Sandhya-Kaal&lt;/em&gt; is characterized by the color Saffron of the Sun (that signifies the 'Self'). And this same color represents Renunciation &amp;amp; Transformation too. (&lt;em&gt;Why do you think Sanyasis wear Saffron color robes?&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now practically speaking, &lt;em&gt;how long in span should the temporal sense of &quot;Present&quot; be, so that it remains tangible for an individual?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course it should be as small as possible. But how small? Is it 1 sec long span, or 1/2 sec, or 1/4 sec...? This series goes on indefinitely and never reaches Zero! You may have heard of Sages meditating for years. Actually they used to meditate (NOT concentrate), while keep on reducing the &quot;span of their idea of Present&quot; (like the afore mentioned infinite series) to an extent of a &lt;em&gt;Bindu&lt;/em&gt;, where the &lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt; (meaning &quot;Sum&quot;) of Past and Future happens, where &quot;Dvaita&quot; (i.e the perceptions) gets dissolved into &quot;Advaita&quot; (i.e the Awareness)...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;strong&gt;&quot;...what is meant by a Samsaric being dispassionate?&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indeed, to be dispassionate, you renunciate your clinging toward your own PAST and FUTURE, rather than any material objects or any worldly relation you may have.&lt;/strong&gt; ONLY when you ACTUALLY live in Present (with SHORTEST possible span), you are LEAST attached with this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Living in the tiniest (possible) span of your (absolute) Present, you AUTOMATICALLY follow &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, i.e walking the clear, unclogged (by emotions) path of awareness. Like when a wheel &quot;rolls&quot; on a plane surface it physically &quot;touches&quot; the surface only for a moment. Similarly &lt;strong&gt;being Dispassionate or Detached is to go on &quot;rolling like a Wheel&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can reach the answers to your other questions from here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastEditorUserId="910" LastEditDate="2014-11-27T02:56:26.647" LastActivityDate="2014-11-27T02:56:26.647" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3823" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3791" CreationDate="2014-11-27T01:19:20.920" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...does good karma due to which his previous karma's effect gets reduced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NO!&lt;/strong&gt; Accumulating Karma in itself is kinda &quot;BAD&quot;. &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; of an individual, in a situation, is the path of do Karma, WITHOUT even accumulating it. Hinduism is ALL about &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;, i.e breaking the Birth-Death Cycle. And till the time a being has &quot;unresolved&quot; Karma, s/he/it HAS TO TAKE BIRTH. &lt;strong&gt;WESTERN CONCEPT&lt;/strong&gt; of &quot;Good&quot; / &quot;Bad&quot; do not apply here in East.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...a devotee's karma is also reduced by serving the Supreme being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NO!&lt;/strong&gt; You're NOT here to serve, in the first place. &lt;strong&gt;Everyone born, is a convict of this intangible prison of &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. And remember that &lt;strong&gt;convicts are NOT Slaves of anybody else, by nature, BUT of their OWN Desires and Delusions.&lt;/strong&gt; Being a &quot;Das&quot; of someone is NOT an Indian / Hindu &quot;thing&quot;. Humans is Divine ONLY because s/he CAN actually realize HIS/HER OWN divinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its an Abrahamic Religious way of thinking, and &lt;strong&gt;unfortunately&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;Baptized Hinduism&quot; do exist, or say, was MADE to come into existence, first during Christian regime of British Rule, and then propagated by some &quot;Aahha-Hindus&quot; themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is a devotee more dearest to the supreme being than a good man?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NO!&lt;/strong&gt; God DOESN'T love or hate NOBODY. ALL he &quot;cares&quot; is Universal Balance!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;we see good people facing miseries in their lives, however it happens very rarely in the case of devotees. Can a great misery happen to a devotee?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you mean, the so called, &quot;devotees&quot; are being &quot;protected&quot; FROM their OWN Karma, then you are &lt;strong&gt;WRONG&lt;/strong&gt; again. Deity, Devotion, Awareness, Wisdom, etc. are ways to get STRENGTH to face the IMMINENT event of us &quot;colliding&quot; head-on with our own accumulated bulk of Karma. Nobody born, can dodge that, or is &quot;protected&quot; from that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE:&lt;/strong&gt; I seldom provide references in my posts, because looking up to a book every time you &quot;think!&quot;, is a again NOT a Hindu trait. Vedas were in souls of ancient sages, they have not mugged it up either. &lt;strong&gt;Reading Vedas should be a journey of Mind to soul, rather than of memory from one synapse to the other.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mind you, that there is a difference between Vedas and books of other religion. &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Vedas&quot; are NOT &quot;Holy&quot; as in &quot;Holy Bible&quot; or &quot;Holy Quran&quot;, but they can for sure bring out THE HOLY out of you.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastEditorUserId="910" LastEditDate="2014-11-27T03:07:28.513" LastActivityDate="2014-11-27T03:07:28.513" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3825" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3830" CreationDate="2014-11-27T07:38:48.990" Score="17" ViewCount="22264" Body="&lt;p&gt;I already have a PDF of 812 pages in Hindi language but I find that the language/words used are sometimes a bit tough to understand. I have visited some sites which have downloadable versions in English as well but there it seems to be a bit shortened. Through this site I came to know about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sacred-texts&lt;/a&gt;, etc., sites which have authentic versions and verse by verse translation so just wanted to know if any such translation is present for Shiva Purana. If yes then please provide me the links.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-27T07:54:37.963" LastActivityDate="2021-08-31T19:46:17.597" Title="Is the complete Shiva Purana available online in English?" Tags="|puranas|translation-request|shiva-purana|resource|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3827" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3814" CreationDate="2014-11-27T08:37:39.917" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The avatar of god, though The avatar is a god, he took it in form of human being, so God can't do violation of the modesty of a human being, The avatar has been taken for particular purposes, not for destroy the sinners or monsters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If The God wants to destroy sinners or monsters, then he can perform from where ever they are, no need to take avatar on earth, but not only for Destruction of monsters, but&#xA;To meliorate the society, show a true path to the people and many these kinds of reasons, God takes avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God Knows that further the people will follow me and my deeds, so The Avatar Of God goes to &lt;strong&gt;GURUKUL(school)&lt;/strong&gt; and shows, the importance of an education that Even a god has to go GURUKUL to be a mature or better person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This shows the power and importance of an education, that the education is very important to get better Sacrament and to be culture person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-27T09:47:49.803" LastActivityDate="2014-11-27T09:47:49.803" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3829" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-27T09:29:12.690" Score="7" ViewCount="35648" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read a story on a forum which is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama needed a bridge to be built across the ocean to reach Lanka, in order to defeat Ravana. The night before they started their preparations, he decided to conduct a Yagna to worship Shiva at Rameshwaram. As he was going to fight one of his most powerful adversaries, he needed the most scholarly priest to conduct the Yagna for him. He was informed that Ravana himself is the most learned scholar of all times. An invitation was sent to Ravana, who accepted it, arrived at Rameshwaram and conducted a Yagna with all holy rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Interestingly, the Yagna could be considered successfully completed only when Rama would sit with his wife Sita in the ceremony, who was held captive by Ravana in Lanka. Ravana not only brought Sita to the Yagna, he presided over the proper arrangements and completion of the Yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the Yagna got over, Rama sought Ravana's blessings in defeating him, to which Ravana replied, Tathastu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have never came across this story and believe that this should not be in Valmiki's Ramayana. I wanted to check whether this story is authentic or not and which scripture contains this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2018-05-04T10:43:41.303" Title="Is there any story where Ravana came to perform a Yagna for Lord Rama?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3830" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3825" CreationDate="2014-11-27T10:14:56.823" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I far as I know, the only unabridged translation of the Shiva Purana is the four-volume translation published by Motilal Banarsidass.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/siva-purana-complete-set-in-4-volumes-NAB424/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a link to the table of conents.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translation is available online on DSpace, the digital repository of the West Bengal Public Library Network.  Here are the links to all four volumes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20655&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/21319&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12959&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12960&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that DSpace breaks each book up into 80-page chunks. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2018-11-10T10:31:05.740" LastActivityDate="2018-11-10T10:31:05.740" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3831" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3792" CreationDate="2014-11-27T13:52:56.173" Score="0" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Can the Lord be one's own Guru?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Imagine yourself being a &quot;thing&quot; that ONLY re-acts to stimuli. That reaction could be due to different &quot;Laws&quot; governing your Physical, Psychological, Emotional, Hormonal and Spiritual, realms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, what would you be like? Nothing, but like a bouncing-bumping molecule, roaming around in space, that WAS ONCE, IN PAST, &quot;acted&quot; upon by someone &quot;alive&quot;, and is now ONLY REACTING to its environment based on some fixed laws...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now what probability one such molecule has, to come out of a large box, full of randomly moving molecules, through a small orifice in it? It would be hopelessly low, due to its short mean free path (i.e the path over which it doesn't &quot;re-act&quot; and thus moves a in straight line).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the chaotic &lt;em&gt;Kaliyuga&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Sansaar&lt;/em&gt; is quite the similar box, with one small way out, called &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;. With the prevalent, NIL, less, or weak self-control i.e &quot;&lt;em&gt;Chitta Vritti Nirodh&lt;/em&gt;&quot;, a significant number of people have developed, the same &quot;bumping-bouncing&quot; characteristic of a molecules, in their nature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They can now ONLY respond their animal Instincts. The Divine Intuition, or so called Wisdom, has now ceased to exist in Humans. Even the smallest &quot;acts of god&quot; now hold the potential to bring a fearsome beast out of a &quot;descent-looking&quot;, &quot;peace-talking&quot;, &quot;Democracy-loving&quot; person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EVERYBODY... literally EVERYBODY knows whats &quot;right&quot;. EVERYONE is looking for ways to 'lose their-&quot;Self&quot;'. Though unknowingly, but EVERYONE has a vague idea of &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;, our TRUE STATE. &lt;em&gt;AND STILL, we all REPEAT THE SAME mistakes again and again.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;WHY? Clearly, &lt;em&gt;OUR VERY OWN NATURE HAS BEEN CHANGED, over time!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that's all fine. It was all meant to happen. This is the final stage of Yuga-cycle, that corresponds to the final stage of Human life i.e Old age, when every thing material, including our own body, comes in conflict with each other, and consequently hurts (unless we take shelter of &lt;em&gt;Sannyas Ashram&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the question is, &lt;strong&gt;can we change ourselves, on our own?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apparently, its like asking &quot;Can we pull a carriage while sitting on it&quot;. So we need kind of a &lt;em&gt;spiritual psychiatrist&lt;/em&gt; to cure our &quot;sickness&quot;. Our options for the &quot;psychiatrist&quot; are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A Religion, with STRICT, UNQUESTIONED &quot;rules&quot; of so many &quot;DO's &amp;amp; DON'Ts&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That means...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Don't do this!...Don't do that!&quot;, OR &quot;That's Satanic...That brings&#xA;  hell fire on you!&quot; or &quot;Thats a sure ticket to Heaven, i.e a place of &lt;em&gt;Eternal pleasure...&lt;/em&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's all to ensure the isolated confinement of the bumpy &quot;molecules&quot; in their own &quot;conflict-free-Zones&quot;. In simple terms, it NEVER actually transforms a person from inside, rather just conflict-prevention mechanism (as like Democracy). Hinduism is NOT a Religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;An idea of a &quot;Supreme&quot; Being&lt;/em&gt; as in the &quot;Baptized-Hinduism&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That &quot;being&quot; is... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Aahha!&quot; SO FULL of OPULENCES and &quot;Aahha!&quot; he LOVES his devotees SO MUCH, that he (even &lt;em&gt;unfairly&lt;/em&gt;) favors them all the time. His devotees, who act like His estranged &quot;WIVES&quot;, are like royalties of the world. They are all well protect from their own PAST KARMA...like a cute, innocent new-born, wrapped in a warm, cozy PINK blanket. They are the SWEET &quot;Aahha!-Hindus&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So its ALL about creating a kind of delusion, like a &quot;fairy-tale&quot; for the &quot;immature kids&quot; is to stop &quot;crying&quot; and just &quot;sleep&quot;. It makes the bumpy &quot;molecules&quot; to &quot;forget moving&quot; at all, so that the &quot;Aahha!-Peace&quot; can be ensured.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good-Job, but this ALSO NEVER actually transforms a person from inside.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the last is...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;A Enlightened (human) Guru.&lt;/em&gt; (Indeed a RARE breed.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What he does is as trivial as...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Opening a knot...or Removing a block...And a SPONTANEOUS flow of positive change and transformation starts in his blessed disciple. And with proper tools of Scriptures, he can grow a healthy crop of wisdom, on his previously barren mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;How can a Guru does such &quot;magic&quot;?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's the reason WHY we say... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Guroor Brahma...Guroor Vishnu...Guroor Devo Maheshvara&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Imagine a scenario of Clouds over Earth, and its Raining!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is the Lord of &lt;em&gt;Tamasik-Prakriti&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt;, like Gravity, (on earth) is &lt;em&gt;Avyakta&lt;/em&gt; absolute. Not just gravity, but its also the molecular forces between molecule. Its the driving force of EVERYTHING! Its the 'WHY?' among questions, and the PAST in Tenses.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is the Lord of &lt;em&gt;Rajasik-Prakriti&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; is like Surface Tension in the water that's pouring down. It the TRANSFORMATION of the &lt;em&gt;Avyakta&lt;/em&gt; water molecules, into &lt;em&gt;Vyakta&lt;/em&gt; clods and droplets. Its the Self-Consciousness or &lt;em&gt;Ahankaar&lt;/em&gt;. Its the PRESENT in Tenses, and SO it's also the 'Existence' itself. Its the one 'IDEA' in the mind of a seeker, that reaches its 'Conclusion'.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma is the Lord of &lt;em&gt;Sattavik-Prakriti&lt;/em&gt;. Sattva here, is the Water, the material &lt;em&gt;Vyakta&lt;/em&gt; Absolute. Its the &quot;Purity&quot;. It is the innocent curiosity, and the FUTURE in Tenses. Notice that its the Consciousness of Rajas (Vishnu), that transforms the &lt;em&gt;Avyakta&lt;/em&gt; Tamas (Shiva), into the &lt;em&gt;Vyakta&lt;/em&gt; Sattav (Brahma). No wonder that Lord Brahma came out of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whole world is following the same pattern,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Avyakta&lt;/em&gt; ==&gt; &lt;em&gt;Vyakta&lt;/em&gt; ==&gt; &lt;em&gt;Avyakta&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where the start and end BOTH is &lt;em&gt;Maheshvar&lt;/em&gt; Shiva, and the transformations is due to Shri Hari. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Guroor Brahma&quot; =&gt; Guru realizes the RAW, &lt;em&gt;Vyakta&lt;/em&gt; potential of his disciple. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Guroor Vishnu&quot; =&gt; Guru nurtures the found qualities into the disciple's Identity.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Guroor Devo-Maheshvara&quot; =&gt; Guru acts like an ocean, an endless reservoir that absorbs, or fulfill for any imbalance, whatsoever, that may arise in his disciple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Remember ones First Guru is his/her Mother.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At last, you see your Lord can be either Brahma, Vishnu, or Mahesh, but a (human) Guru is ALL IN ONE! Choice is yours.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE:&lt;/strong&gt; I seldom provide references in my posts, because looking up to a book every time you &quot;think!&quot;, is a again NOT a Hindu trait. Vedas were in souls of ancient sages, they have not mugged it up either. &lt;em&gt;Reading Vedas should be a journey of Mind to soul, rather than of memory from one synapse to the other.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mind you, that there is a difference between Vedas and books of other religion. &quot;Vedas&quot; are NOT &quot;Holy&quot; as in &quot;Holy Bible&quot; or &quot;Holy Quran&quot;, but they can for sure bring THE HOLY out of you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-12-02T08:03:49.413" LastActivityDate="2014-12-02T08:03:49.413" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3833" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-28T05:22:17.327" Score="4" ViewCount="215" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know whether God works on the basis of certain Laws. For example, consider the chanting of mantras. People chant them in order to invoke certain deities. However, some people can read them wrongly (by mistake aka mispronouncing) unconsciously. People say that when we do so, God will not be pleased or you might invoke wrong entities like Rakshasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why should it happen? If the devotee incorrectly reads a mantra unconsciously why should he be punished for that? He has done it unknowingly, doesn't god know it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next, people say Lord Shiva likes Bel leaves, Lord Vishnu likes tulsi leaves. But it is said that there is nothing god specifically likes because everything is a manifestation of him. Can it be Bel leaves or leaves of some other plants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does God work on the basis of certain laws or act independently preserving the core laws? All of the Gods laws or deeds cannot be known by any Sage is right, but still can we at least assume that there are certain laws for him on which he does those deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, courage is positive energy and we are able to do things when we have it. When we are frightened we will not be able to do them. No matter whether his devotee is frightened or not, won't he receive help from the God? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Discourage and fear are negative energies and those who don't have it are said to be dearer to the Supreme being (as from Bhagavad Gita).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doesn't the man with fear get his desire fulfilled?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2016-10-22T12:04:36.527" Title="Does God work on the basis of Laws?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|parvati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3834" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3635" CreationDate="2014-11-28T07:56:13.767" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you have read Shiv Purana, you must have got your answer. There are stories in the book that says that Shiv is present in both physical form (kind of human form that lives on Kailash parvat) and the other form is the invisible form having no shape, etc. Similar are the forms of Shakti as well. The stories of marriage, death, etc are related with the physical form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2014-11-28T07:56:13.767" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3835" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3807" CreationDate="2014-11-28T09:41:43.153" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I searched on google and found a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhrigu_Samhita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wiki link&lt;/a&gt; for the same so thought of posting it here for the other people who are also in search of the answer. Another reason for posting here is that since wikipedia is open to people for changing the text, so there were chances that the information might be lost or modified. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhrigu Saṃhitā is an astrological (Jyotish) classic attributed to Maharishi Bhrigu during the Vedic period, Treta yuga. It is said that it was compiled by the Sage out of compassion for humanity so that humanity could cope with the pressures of its existence and move towards a more spiritual nature.[1] The Bhrigu Samhita is said to contain predictions on the current and future lives as well as information on the past life. These predictions will be accurate based on the actions (karma) of the questioner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Origin&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ashram of Maharishi was in present day Ballia (U.P.), India. Major part of Bhṛgu Saṃhitā was destroyed during Muslim Invasions of that time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharishi Bhrigu was the first compiler of predictive astrology. He compiled about 500,000 horoscopes and recorded the life details and events of various persons. This formed a database for further research and study. This study culminated in the birth of the science (Śāstra) of determining the quality of time (Horā) and is the Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Horoscopes were based upon the planetary positions of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Rāhu (North Node of the Moon) and Ketu (South Node of the Moon).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that, Maharishi Bhṛigu gave his predictions on different types of horoscopes compiled by him with the help of Lord Gaṇeśa in a brief and concise manner. The total permutations/possible horoscope charts that can be drawn with this is about 45 million. Maharishi taught this art of predictions to his son (Śukra) and other pupils.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Lost manuscript&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Currently the original Bhṛigu saṃhitā as a book is not available. During foreign invasions of India by Muslims from the northwest in the 12&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; and 13th&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; centuries, the brahmin community became dispersed all over India. The invaders captured these prime assets of the brahmins. Some parts of the 'Bhṛgu Saṃhitā' were taken away by them. The most unfortunate and destructive event was the destruction of the Nalanda university library by then Muslim rulers, where several thousands of the horoscopes compiled by Maharṣi Bhṛgu had been stored. Only a small percentage of the original horoscopes of Bhṛgu Saṃhitā remained with the Brahmin community which are now scattered throughout various parts of India. Many of the pages scattered in North of India were with Pt. Deshraj Sharma from Hoshiarpur, Punjab (North India) who also had this as an undertaking from government of India. The city of Hoshiarpur was famous for Bhrigu Shastris.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-28T10:22:38.907" LastActivityDate="2014-11-28T10:22:38.907" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3836" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-28T09:49:23.930" Score="2" ViewCount="13061" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why always Arjuna is considered as Supreme archer instead of Karna in Mahabharata? We can see his attribution in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/1982/who-gave-weapons-to-shri-krishna-and-balarama-and-how/1991#1991&quot;&gt;Who gave weapons to Shri Krishna and Balarama and how?&lt;/a&gt; and in many other articles. When we all know Karna clearly had edge on Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1118" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2020-01-14T15:03:55.123" Title="Why Arjuna is attributed as Supreme archer when infact Karna was much skillful than Arjuna?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|karna|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3838" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3833" CreationDate="2014-11-28T11:45:09.767" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Fear is tamasic. A man with a rajasic attitude gets his desires fulfilled. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God (the Supreme) is above all law; law only exists in maya, in this universe. If you are chanting mantras to gain some result within this universe, the mantra is not directed to God, it is directed to those forces or gods in this universe that can fulfill those desires. And then yes, the mantra has to be intoned and pronounced correctly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are making an offering to God - and it is being done with love, then God does not care if you make a mistake, God only wants love (Gita 18. 57-58, and Gita 9. 26)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-28T11:45:09.767" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3839" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3815" CreationDate="2014-11-28T12:04:52.480" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Realized souls have no doubt when God is talking to them, he appears more real than the world when he does. The Upanishad says 'it is more real than the fruit resting in the palm of your hand.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who are not realized can find out in other ways if God has directed them them in some way. First, and best, is to ask your guru, he will know if it was God or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second, if you think it was God, know God will never direct you to do something that will bring harm to another being. If what God tells you to do affects you and no one else, and is not immoral, then follow it - but never tell anyone. Follow it a thousand times. If you think He tells you to do something that affects another being, do not follow it. Know God will never direct you to do anything immoral or evil.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sarada Devi, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's wife, told her women disciples to never give up their chastity, even if God Himself came to them and directed them otherwise.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-11-28T12:04:52.480" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3841" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3842" CreationDate="2014-11-29T05:28:01.827" Score="2" ViewCount="3072" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been chanting that mantra every morning to today and don't have a clue of what it means. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I realize that the sound produced while chanting that mantra is the most important part; I still want to know its meaning. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1119" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-11-29T07:22:51.253" LastActivityDate="2016-08-31T10:40:52.787" Title="What is the actual meaning of Gayathri mantra?" Tags="|mantras|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3842" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3841" CreationDate="2014-11-29T06:46:36.567" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gayatri is Rig veda (III. lxii. 10.) Ralph Griffith's translation is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the God :&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  So May he stimulate our prayers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A better translation might be :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We meditate on the glory of that Being who has produced this universe.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  May He enlighten our minds&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-11-29T07:24:17.260" LastActivityDate="2014-11-29T07:24:17.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3843" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-29T08:20:05.090" Score="8" ViewCount="1775" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before the time of the sage Vyasa, people had a very different understanding of which gods were important than the understanding we have today.  The Vedic mantras had not yet been compiled into the four books we call the Vedas, but the mantras were still known among men, and they unfortunately led to a skewed perspective on things.  Most of the Vedic hymns were addressed to gods like Indra, Agni, Vayu, Surya, Chandra, etc., because they were the most relevant to the Soma Yagna, but people got the impression that those were the supreme gods.  It's only after Vyasa composed the Mahabharata and the Puranas that people got a correct view of the importance of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, etc.  Until then, they were often viewed as minor deities, and people didn't even realize that e.g. Matsya, Kurma, and Varaha were incarnations of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, it's interesting to trace the history of Vaishnavism (Vishnu-worship) before Vyasa came and cleared things up.  Vaishnavism came from many different strands.  First of all, there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Vishnuism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedic Vishnuism&lt;/a&gt;, the worship of Vishnu as he's described in the Vedas, which mostly involves his incarnation as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vamana the dwarf&lt;/a&gt;.  Then there is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pancharatra&lt;/a&gt; movement, which began with the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3712/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, apparently Narayana conducted a five-day (Pancharatra) Yagna and then became the entire universe, so people started following Pancharatra texts which gave detailed procedures to worship Narayana.  Then there is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata&lt;/a&gt; movement, which worshipped four forms of god, Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, and Airuddha.  Finally there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishnaism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishnaism&lt;/a&gt;, the worship of Krishna due to the various miracles he had performed in his time on Earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavatas and Panchartras eventually realized that Narayana was just an incarnation of the Bhagavata deity Vasudeva, so the two movements merged into one, and then the Bhagavatas realized that it wasn't a coinicdence that the four forms of god they worshipped shared the names of Krishna and his family members. And then finally, when people realized that Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu, Vaishnavism as we understand it today was born, since people now knew that Narayana, Vasudeva, and Vishnu were all the same god; the Mahanarayana Upanishad summarizes this insight in its famous verse, &quot;Om nArAyaNAya vidmahE, vAsudevAya dhImahi, tanno viShNu prachodayAt&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, we don't have any Pancharatra scriptures dating back to before the unification with the Bhagavatas.  But we do have Pancharatra texts dating back to the time when Pancharatras and Bhagavatas had become one, but before Krishna had entered into the mix.  The oldest of these is the Satvata Samhits, which I think was authored by Narayana himself.  So my question is, is the Satvata Samhita available online in English?  There is a hard copy translation &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/satvata-samhita-NAB771/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but is this translation online?  It would also be nice to have translations of three other Pancharatra texts almost as old, the Paushkara Samhita, the Ahirbudhnya Samhita, and the Jayakhya Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that this is a completely different text from the Satvata Tantra, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Pancharatra/Satvata_Tantra.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; that is a later Vaishnava text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-01-24T04:59:06.947" LastActivityDate="2018-01-24T04:59:06.947" Title="Is the Satvata Samhita, the oldest Pancharatra text, available online in English?" Tags="|scripture|history|vaishnavism|translation-request|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3844" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-29T08:23:03.807" Score="1" ViewCount="1312" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do swami Ayyappa images seem to have Namam symbol on the forehead? Is there any story behind that? He is the son for both Hari and Hara so shouldn't pattai be applied to swamy's forehead?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1120" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T05:53:37.363" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T05:53:37.363" Title="Why do Swami Ayyappa images have Namam symbol on the forehead?" Tags="|customs|tilak|ayyappa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3846" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-29T09:35:04.077" Score="1" ViewCount="242" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just need one simple answer, &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3445/2995&quot;&gt;Is Sai Baba of Shirdi really a God?&lt;/a&gt; [closed]&quot; and, if he is, then why is Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati (Shankaracharya of Dwarka peeth) having an issue with worshiping Sai Baba? If Sai Baba is not a God, then why has the Swami waited for at least 50 years to say this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in Sanatana Dharma do we have any restriction on who we can worship or can we worship any one (such as Sai Baba)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1121" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T22:42:21.783" Title="What exactly is the issue between Shankaracharya of Dwarka peeth and the Sai Trust?" Tags="|worship|sai|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2014-12-08T09:35:56.273" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3847" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-29T13:24:35.083" Score="2" ViewCount="216" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know whether we can change the working of mantras. For example, some mantras give fortune (wealth), some give good marriage life etc when chanted. Now, my question is whether we can change the result of a mantra to attain a specific desire by telling to the god or otherwise read a mantra without taking any results from it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, can anyone read a mantra but resist results from it? Also, can anyone read one mantra and get another benefit from it? If so how?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2014-12-02T22:01:45.047" Title="Can we change the working of mantras?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3848" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3853" CreationDate="2014-11-29T13:46:43.977" Score="13" ViewCount="14154" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know what is considered a lie in Hinduism? Sometimes we speak good but we speak the same thing in a different way which appears as a lie to the listener but it's not really a lie.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Hinduism, is speaking lie, adharma?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some situations however force us to speak lies in order to save the good people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, there is a story that i have heard in which a hunter hunting for an animal comes to a Sage and asks whether he has seen it or not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage says, &quot;what the eyes can see, the mouth can't speak and what the mouth can speak, the eyes can't see&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He didn't utter a lie because he was intelligent and he escaped from the situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But everyone may not exhibit such intelligence. Is speaking lie in that situation considered adharma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also, what about silly things like&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When someone asks what's the time, saying 9:00 when it is 8:58.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Showing answers to a friend (who might fail) in an exam.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pretending as speaking on phone inorder to make others believe that he is actually speaking on the phone (though he isn't lying to them explicitly, it is only a matter of perception of the one who sees). Is it adharma?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The above ones (lies) don't necessarily harm them, but still is it considered adharma?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do Vedas and Lord Krishna say about this?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-28T09:10:33.517" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T05:18:17.513" Title="In Hinduism, what exactly is a lie? And is lying adharma?" Tags="|scripture|krishna|dharma|sin|smriti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3849" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3836" CreationDate="2014-11-29T14:27:12.640" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There were four main and powerful archers in mahabharata at that time,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ganga Putr Bhishma,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Acharya Drona,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ang Raj Karna And&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arjun&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These men were perhaps the four greatest warriors of the era and were&#xA;  also well learned and had firm principles by which they lived.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among them &lt;strong&gt;Karan&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Arjun&lt;/strong&gt; are great competitors of each other,&#xA;It is very tough to compare all warriers,because every warrier has different different strength,limitation and situations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They lived their life by different values and their lives came to very different ends.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact no one can beat any one among them,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Karan&lt;/strong&gt; Though even Karan was a Great Archer,He is famous as a Great Donor&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karna was a great warrior, in many ways greater than Arjuna. They may&#xA;  have been equal as archers, but physically, Karna was by far the&#xA;  stronger of the two. And even in sticking to one’s principles, Karna&#xA;  appeared more steadfast compared with Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But in Karna’s life there was one fatal flaw. He made his friendship&#xA;  and loyalty to Duryodhan higher than anything else, even higher than&#xA;  right and wrong, and even higher than God. While loyalty is a great&#xA;  value in such cases when it overrides a sense of dharma and even the&#xA;  direct calling of the Divine in the form of Shri Krishna, such loyalty&#xA;  leads one to a tragic end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karna used all his strength to serve his friend Duryodhan, without&#xA;  even one selfish thought for himself. However, his loyalty was so&#xA;  blind that he would even follow his friend when he was doing something&#xA;  totally wrong, selfish and harmful to others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This shows that loyalty to another person can lead even a great man&#xA;  to a tragic end. Dharma, and the call of God, must always be greater&#xA;  than loyalty to another. Karna knew what he was doing was wrong and&#xA;  paid the price for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karna put loyalty to Duryodhan as his highest loyalty. His tragic&#xA;  story warns us to choose loyalties wisely. Only Krishna deserves such&#xA;  unflinching loyalty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;same situations with another two masters(drona and bhishma),they&#xA;  retained their duty, they also knew that they stood in behalf of&#xA;  Ungodliness(adharma),but they chosen death by performing their duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arjuna&lt;/strong&gt; was a great man. Yet he had weaknesses that were actually absent in Karna, Bhishma and Drona. He was in some ways foolhardy,&#xA;  saying and doing several stupid things that could have landed his&#xA;  brothers and himself in serious trouble.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This story illustrates that while Arjuna was far from perfect, he had&#xA;  one over riding quality which sets him above and apart from the&#xA;  others. To Arjuna, it was Krishna’s words that were absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He would follow Krishna’s words even at the expense of other&#xA;  principles or promises that he held dear. Therefore he had the grace&#xA;  and favour of Krishna’s guidance throughout his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore, Arjuna’s fate was to be the hero of the era in place of&#xA;  karan and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This shows to human beings that you have great energy,talent and&#xA;  strength but you uses theses at wrong places or negatively then your&#xA;  strengths become useless for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduhumanrights.info/why-did-krishna-choose-arjuna-instead-of-karna-drona-o-bhishma/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;www.hinduhumanrights.info/why-did-krishna-choose-arjuna-instead-of-karna-drona-o-bhishma/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Karan,Bhishma and Drona were right on their point of view where they stood, but when you have two right ways you have to choose one of them&#xA; which is best of two right ways,They chosen the another one which way&#xA; is also right but it was In protest of Religion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="1041" LastEditDate="2014-11-30T05:30:44.700" LastActivityDate="2014-11-30T05:30:44.700" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3850" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3851" CreationDate="2014-11-29T16:46:37.047" Score="13" ViewCount="8093" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, It seems my question is off-topic. But really it is not. As, On our side, In our village if a snake bites to someone, the first aid given to the person is that the victim is carried to the old wise person. And that old person chants some &lt;code&gt;mantras&lt;/code&gt; with &lt;code&gt;Neem (Azadirachta indica)&lt;/code&gt; leaves for 5-10 minutes. This process is to be done for 3-4 days and victim's wound gets cured. I'm totally surprised that how mantras can cure a snake bite. As &lt;code&gt;mantras&lt;/code&gt; work as &lt;code&gt;Antidote&lt;/code&gt; on snake poison. So, I'm confused If its a &lt;code&gt;black magic&lt;/code&gt; or kind of super powers like given by ancestors.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Secondly&lt;/strong&gt;, an incident happened in our neighbour that a snake came into their house. They called up an old wise man who knew the &lt;code&gt;mantras&lt;/code&gt;. He chanted some &lt;code&gt;mantras&lt;/code&gt; and suddenly the snake came out of their house. Snake didn't even bite anyone. And the thing I noticed that all the people who know these &lt;code&gt;mantras&lt;/code&gt; where &lt;code&gt;HINDU&lt;/code&gt; by &lt;code&gt;religion&lt;/code&gt;. I searched for this on &lt;code&gt;Google&lt;/code&gt; but didn't get any answer. So, please if anyone knows anything about this, make me understand this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="739" LastEditorUserId="739" LastEditDate="2016-05-17T07:54:10.403" LastActivityDate="2021-11-16T10:21:04.627" Title="What mantras are chanted when a snake bites?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3851" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3850" CreationDate="2014-11-30T06:18:54.543" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The main Hindu scripture that has mantras dealing with snake bites and warding off snakes is the Atharvana Veda.  Here are a few of the relevant hymns from it, along with the first verse of each:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av05013.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book V Hymn 13: A charm against snakes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Varuna, Sage of heaven, hath given me the gift: with spells of&#xA;      mighty power I draw thy poison out.    Dug up, not dug, adherent, I have seized it fast: low hath thy&#xA;      venom sunk like water in the sands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av07056.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book VII Hymn 56: A charm against poisonous bites and stings&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whether it came from viper, from black snake or snake with&#xA;     transverse stripes,&#xA;    Or Kankaparvan's bite, this herb hath made the poison powerless&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av07088.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book VII Hymn 88: A charm to cure a snake-bite&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1Depart! thou art a foe, a foe. Poison with poison hast thou&#xA;     mixt, yea, verily poison hast thou mixt.&#xA;    Go to the serpent: strike him dead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av10004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book X Hymn 4: A charm to destroy venomous serpents&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first of all is Indra's car, next is the chariot of the Gods&#xA;     the third is Varuna's alone.&#xA;    The last, the Serpents' chariot, struck the pillar and then sped&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, these are English translations of the hymns, and for them to work you need to say them in Sanskrit.  So &lt;a href=&quot;http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/atharva_veda/atharva_veda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Atharvana Veda in Sanskrit.  Note that the proper use of Vedic mantras is discussed in the Brahmanas of the Vedas, so &lt;a href=&quot;http://archive.org/download/gopathabrahmanao00gopauoft/gopathabrahmanao00gopauoft_bw.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Gopatha Brahmana of the Atharvana Veda in Sanskrit.  (Unfortunately, I don't think there are any online translations of the Gopatha Barhamana.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-08T17:48:17.063" LastActivityDate="2015-02-08T17:48:17.063" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3852" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="97" CreationDate="2014-11-30T07:41:07.660" Score="36" Body="&lt;p&gt;Killing of both ANIMALS and PLANTS is prohibited. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Vedic age, AGRICULTURE was not in vogue. People used to PLUCK fruits and vegetables from the naturally growing plants which does not amount to killing the plants. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the CEREALS, PULSES, OIL SEEDS which were withered from the plants were collected and used - which again does not amount to killing the plants. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Killing of Plants started with the introduction of Agriculture as means of food production when man used to cultivate food items of his choice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our forefathers &amp;amp; RISHIS were so sensitive to the feelings of the plants - that they generated VEDIC HYMNS to appease the plants before plucking their products - even though plucking does not harm the plants,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1122" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-11-30T08:02:42.727" LastActivityDate="2014-11-30T08:02:42.727" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3853" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3848" CreationDate="2014-11-30T14:54:10.230" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;First lying is adharma; although you may not be hurting someone else, you are hurting yourself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should always tell the truth, but one should never tell a harsh truth. A harsh truth is a truth that is hurtful or cause offense in some way or perhaps feeds your own ego (this is really being hurtful to your own self). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This does not mean you should lie. You can say something that can be interpreted in several ways, or an evasive answer, or reply with another question (example: 'Who am I to know about that?'), or you can be silent. This is supported in scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In your 3 examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) not a lie; unless you are gaining some unknown advantage by saying so. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Morally wrong. Completely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Depends on why you are doing. If you're trying to avoid a harsh truth, then no. If you're just lying with your actions instead of words, then yes it is a lie. A lie is a lie is a lie, doesn't matter if you use words or actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Nikhilananda in his writings on Hindu ethics says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Besides the objective duties based on the castes and stages of life, there are laid down the common duties of men, the sadharanadharma, which are the foundation of the moral life. Manu, the lawgiver, enumerates these common duties as follows: steadfastness (dhairya), forgiveness (kshama), good conduct (dama), avoidance of theft (chauryabhava), control of the senses (indriyanigraha), wisdom (dhi), learning (vidya), &lt;strong&gt;truthfulness (satya)&lt;/strong&gt; and absense of anger (akrodha)...the aim of Hindu ethics is to enable a man ultimately to conquer his lower self and attain freedom from passion, desire, and attachment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All Hindu philosophers regardless of their conceptions of the supreme end of man, admit the empirical reality of the individual, endowed with volition, desire, will, conscience or consciousness of duty, emotion, etc. The goal of Hindu ethics is to train these faculties in such a way that they shall lead the individual to the realization of Moksha, or Liberation. Therefore all the schools of philosophy have described the virtues and their opposites in detail. It is expected of the moral agent that he should follow the former and shun the latter. We propose to discuss the virtues and their opposites according to the classification of Nyaya and of Patanjali's system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vatsyayana, in his commentary on the Nyaya aphorisms, classifies will as impious (papatmika) and auspicious (subha). The impious will leads to unrighteousness (adharma), and the auspicious will, to righteousness (dharma). Righteousness, it is necessary to add, is conductive to the Highest Good, whereas unrighteousness produces evil. The purpose of ethics is to subdue the impious and to manifest the righteous will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Unrighteousness may take three forms, namely, physical, verbal, and mental, depending upon the condition of its functioning.&lt;/strong&gt; Physical unrighteousness manifests itself asa cruelty (himsa), theft (steya), and sexual perversion (pratisiddha maithuna); &lt;strong&gt;verbal unrighteousness, as falsehood (mithya), rudeness (katukti), insinuation (suchana), and gossip (asambaddha)&lt;/strong&gt;; mental unrighteousness, as ill-will (paradroha), covetousness (paradravyabhipsa), and irreverance (nastikya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The practice of continence, highly extolled by all the philosophers and mystics of India, implies, besides the literal meaning of the vow, &lt;strong&gt;abstention from lewdness in thought, speech, and action through any of the sense-organs&lt;/strong&gt;. Through the practice of this virtue, one develops the capacity for subtle spiritual perception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-28T22:03:29.240" LastActivityDate="2016-10-28T22:03:29.240" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3855" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-11-30T19:11:48.527" Score="4" ViewCount="1160" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharat there was a character Barbrik. &#xA;Can anyone share more details on this?&#xA;I understand that he had the powers to end the Mahabharat with 3 arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1116" LastEditorUserId="85" LastEditDate="2014-12-17T21:19:13.950" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T12:44:13.640" Title="Mahabharat eyewitness" Tags="|mahabharata|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3856" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-01T04:57:02.597" Score="5" ViewCount="644" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know whether we get the nature of those gods we worship. Lord Bramha is said to have Sattva guna, Lord Vishnu Raja guna and Lord Shiva Tama guna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the nature of the devotees of these gods? Are they one and the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Raja guna and Tama guna seem to be negative but why are they associated with Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva? In what we way could we understand this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T15:24:06.047" LastActivityDate="2015-08-01T23:20:42.097" Title="Do we get the nature of those gods whom we worship?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|gunas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3858" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3856" CreationDate="2014-12-01T10:00:52.863" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, to some extent we get the nature of the gods we worship. But &lt;strong&gt;it depends more upon the way we worship than whom we worship&lt;/strong&gt;. So depending upon the method and mentality of worship there can be devotees of different nature. For example, there are devotees of Shiva who are &lt;em&gt;satvic&lt;/em&gt;, but there are also devotees of Shiva like the &lt;em&gt;naga babas&lt;/em&gt; who are generally &lt;em&gt;tamasic&lt;/em&gt;. Hence, if one worships God with true devotion (without any personal desires), then instead of getting any of the three natures he gets beyond the three modes of material nature, viz. &lt;em&gt;satva&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;raja&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;tama&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;māṁ ca yo ’vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 14.26]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, it is the nature of the person that determines his likingness and preference regarding whom he worships:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yajante sāttvikā devān yakṣa-rakṣāṁsi rājasāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pretān bhūta-gaṇāṁś cānye yajante tāmasā janāḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 17.4]   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods; those in the mode of passion worship the demons; and those in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So God is beyond the three modes. All these modes are the product of &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; or material nature:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sattvaṃ rajastama iti prakṛterguṇāstair&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 1.2.23]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -  &lt;em&gt;Satva, raja, tama&lt;/em&gt; — these three are the qualities of &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; or material nature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sattvaṁ rajas tama iti guṇāḥ prakṛti-sambhavāḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 14.5]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - &lt;em&gt;Satva, raja, tama&lt;/em&gt; — these three originate from &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, taking something as positive or negative is just our own way of perceiving things. And depending upon our own preference we attribute different deities and gods to them. From one point of view there is nothing good or bad because one is complementary to the other. Hence, it is a common known fact that Vishnu and Shiva are two interdependent deities. One cannot do without the other. Creation cannot last forever, one day it will get destroyed. This destruction is attributed to Lord Shiva and we say destruction is &lt;em&gt;tamasic&lt;/em&gt;, but without it creation and its sustenance cannot happen again. So all are essential, it is the attitude we place towards them is what matters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T15:15:51.460" LastActivityDate="2015-03-04T15:15:51.460" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3859" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-01T10:17:23.043" Score="4" ViewCount="300" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the process of doing Lingabhishekam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the entities required?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the order of pouring those entities?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the best time to do? Can we do it any time?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-31T15:51:04.537" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T07:38:10.783" Title="What is the process of doing Lingabhishekam?" Tags="|shiva|rituals|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3860" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3863" CreationDate="2014-12-01T12:22:02.190" Score="8" ViewCount="397" Body="&lt;p&gt;Doesnt the Gadhimai massacre of countless animals in Nepal violate the principle of Ahimsa? Can it really be called a 'Hindu' ritual?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastActivityDate="2017-03-29T07:40:52.313" Title="Is the Gadhimai massacre a Hindu ritual?" Tags="|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3861" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-01T19:28:30.903" Score="5" ViewCount="7907" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a lady friend whom I have advised to meditate to Lord Shiva for 15-30 minutes daily. She is not practicing any formal sadhana and have some worldly desires that she tries to achieve by turning to western style &quot;how to become successful-teachers&quot; that demand a lot of money for their &quot;teachings&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I thought why not advice her go to the Lord directly and try to appease Him in order to achieve her desires. Her desires are the usual, get rich and materially happy etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any suggestions? Some nice prayers would be good and maybe advice on a short puja, she could try to get a murti of the Lord and make a simple offering daily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am a vaisnava myself but she is not very attracted to the path of renunciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1128" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-12-02T02:12:11.033" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T09:01:29.513" Title="Prayers to Lord Shiva for daily meditation" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|puja|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3862" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-01T23:56:04.253" Score="2" ViewCount="389" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why does hinduism has so many gods? With so many gods, how can one focus, are they not distracted? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1129" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T14:17:05.193" Title="Why does hinduism has so many gods?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2014-12-08T09:36:06.323" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3863" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3860" CreationDate="2014-12-02T01:37:52.970" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it does violate the principle of ahimsa. This is not for those who are interested in self realization. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below are couple of verses from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; spoken by Narada Muni:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.15.10 Upon seeing the person engaged in performing the sacrifice, animals meant to be sacrificed are extremely afraid, thinking, “This&#xA;  merciless performer of sacrifices, being ignorant of the purpose of&#xA;  sacrifice and being most satisfied by killing others, will surely kill&#xA;  us.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.28.26 That most unkind king, Purañjana, had killed many animals in various sacrifices. Now, taking advantage of this opportunity, all&#xA;  these animals began to pierce him with their horns. It was as though&#xA;  he were being cut to pieces by axes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Srila Prabhupada writes in the purport:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who are very enthusiastic about killing animals in the name of&#xA;  religion or for food must await similar punishment after death. The&#xA;  word mamsa, “meat,” indicates that those animals whom we kill will be&#xA;  given an opportunity to kill us. Although in actuality no living&#xA;  entity is killed, the pains of being pierced by the horns of animals&#xA;  will be experienced after death. Not knowing this, rascals&#xA;  unhesitatingly go on killing poor animals. So-called human&#xA;  civilization has opened many slaughterhouses for animals in the name&#xA;  of religion or food. Those who are a little religious kill animals in&#xA;  temples, mosques or synagogues, and those who are more fallen maintain&#xA;  various slaughterhouses. Just as in civilized human society the law is&#xA;  a life for a life, no living entity can encroach upon another living&#xA;  entity as far as the Supreme Lord is concerned. Everyone should be&#xA;  given freedom to live at the cost of the supreme father, and&#xA;  animal-killing — either for religion or for food — is always condemned&#xA;  by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However we cannot deny the authority of the Vedas which allow the sacrifice in a restricted manner for gradual advancement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for the Nepal event, such a mass slaughter definitely violates the idea of doing it in a 'restricted' manner so my take is it must be a concocted ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="1014" LastEditDate="2014-12-02T02:55:10.833" LastActivityDate="2014-12-02T02:55:10.833" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3865" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-02T04:03:38.893" Score="3" ViewCount="1154" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am aware that we have to experience the results of Karma done by us. If I have done a bad Karma under the influence Maaya or Agnana(With out consciousness), How to reduce the effect of bad Karma. If experiencing result of bad karma is inevitable how can I make it less painful?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1131" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T11:49:26.533" Title="How can we reduce the effect and pain while experiencing results of bad karma?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2014-12-18T18:29:29.117" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3866" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3847" CreationDate="2014-12-02T08:08:53.833" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mantras are based on sound (vibration). If the mantra is pronounced correctly it will create a certain vibration and that vibration sets in motion actions that deliver a certain result. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You cannot &lt;code&gt;change&lt;/code&gt; a mantra to do something else. All mantras must be pronounced correctly to deliver the correct result. If not pronounced correctly, some mantras will not deliver any result. Some mantras if not pronounced correctly will deliver harmful results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Think of when a song is sung. When it is done by a well trained voice, it can create subtle good feelings in those that hear it. Obversely, when the same song is sung by someone that is say, tone deaf, people turn away in pain. Same song, different vibrations being generated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's no &lt;code&gt;magic&lt;/code&gt; involved. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-12-02T08:23:55.020" LastActivityDate="2014-12-02T08:23:55.020" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3867" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3865" CreationDate="2014-12-02T08:23:00.707" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The human mind cannot hold two thoughts at the same time. You can only hold one thought at a time. If you are conscious of God, thinking of God, then there is no room for pain. If you are thinking of pain, then there is no room for love of God. Think of God, love God. Krishna says (Gita 18. 65-66):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fix your heart on Me, give your love to Me, worship Me, bow down before Me; so shall you come to Me. This is My pledge to you, for you are dear to Me. Abandon all dharmas and come to Me alone for shelter. I will deliver you from all sins; do not grieve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asthvarka Samhita says (1.11) - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A man who says he is bound remains bound; a man who says he is free becomes free. This popular saying is true: as you think so you become.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Be good and think of God alone and everything will vanish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-12-02T09:02:48.503" LastActivityDate="2014-12-02T09:02:48.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3868" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3860" CreationDate="2014-12-02T08:38:11.460" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Animal sacrifice is spoken of in the vedas. It belongs to another era. People that do animal sacrifices are, like people that do other types of sacrifice, trying to gain some worldly or heavenly (not brahmaloka) merit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Animal sacrifice is animal sacrifice - no matter what the actual number of animals that are involved. Goat sacrifices are still done by Brahmin priests at the Kalighat in Kolkata. It is a Shakti Peetha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If an animal sacrifice is done according to vedic rules by a Brahmin priest, then the results will be according to the vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a general rule for people, killing outside of the rules of the vedas is a sin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are no vedic sacrifices of animals that lead to brahmaloka.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-02T08:38:11.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3869" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-02T10:02:47.983" Score="15" ViewCount="14969" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some people say that Veda Vyasa is still alive with his body in the Himalayas. When I searched, I found &lt;a href=&quot;http://mukundagoswami.org/is-vyas-still-living,734/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt;. It is stated &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/12/6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; also. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But where can we find him and how can we recognize him?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also said that with the perfection of the mystic yoga, one can live as long as he wants (one of the siddhis). By the way who is Maru &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/12/6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T16:43:44.643" LastActivityDate="2021-11-01T15:33:18.800" Title="Is Veda Vyasa still alive? If yes, where is he? How can one recognize him?" Tags="|vyasa|siddhi|life-span|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3870" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3865" CreationDate="2014-12-02T10:59:21.813" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will share you my own experience, There is nothing as much effective as the name of Lord Maha Vishnu and Lord Shiva. One must continuously chant any name of Lord Maha Vishnu or Lord Shiva, you will get free from any bondage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Gam Ganeshay Namah&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Om Namah Shivay&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Om Ramay Namah&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Om Krishnay Namah&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Om Namo Bhagawate Vasudevay&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Om Ham Hanumate Namah&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Om Datatreya Namah&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Simple. Just chant the name of any Lord who is your Guru. Have faith in your Guru. Just stop giving importance to any other activity in your life and start chanting GOD's name. Only God's name chanting can save any one from pain or any other thing. But you have to continuously chant God's name. The rule is you have to chant GOD's name 24 by 7, even when you sleep , chant God's name and think that GOD is with you. You should not have any ideas in mind. Just chant GOD';s name, you will survive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By chanting you will enter in &lt;code&gt;Bhakti Yoga&lt;/code&gt;, as a result your heart will automatically &lt;strong&gt;surrender&lt;/strong&gt; unto GOD. Your only Goal is to chant Lord's name, by doing so you will reach your &lt;code&gt;GURU&lt;/code&gt; - The ultimate Truth / Supreme Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2014-12-02T10:59:21.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3871" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3861" CreationDate="2014-12-02T11:20:57.373" Score="4" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Shiva deity of Moskha(Liberation) and Death - Ultimate(Main) GOD(Ishwara/Allah)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no other way to fulfil worldly desires unless she visits Shiva Lingam everyday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one Shiva Lingam in Gujarat, which is known as &lt;code&gt;&quot;Kuber Bhandari&quot;&lt;/code&gt;, This shiva lingam is known for fulfilling money or financial issues of people. Devotees visit this Great Jyotiswaroop Shiva lingam with true faith, they request Lord to fulfill them with money. It is a strong belief of devotees that &lt;code&gt;&quot;Kuber Bhandari&quot;&lt;/code&gt; is master/owner of all money on earth. So they will be granted some money to be rich in materialized world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion is that, one does not need to do meditation to be rich. &lt;strong&gt;Happy people are happy rich/poor.&lt;/strong&gt; One must understand that even after being rich, one is only in charge of whatever they have. Having &quot;Moha&quot; is not good. But one if with true faith, requests GOD without &quot;Moha&quot;, wishes are always fulfilled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Better is let her go with western style meditation. She does not need GOD, she needs money only. So it is best to give her freedom whatever she feels is right. Meditation has nothing to do with materialized things. Meditation is for soul's peace, not for body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If she choose to be with Hindu &lt;code&gt;Sadhana&lt;/code&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prayers are Om Namah Shivaya Dhun, by sitting exactly in front of Shiva Lingam, sitting should be comfortable enough. Because one needs to forget body while meditation. &#xA;Other prayers are, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shiva 1000 names (Shiva Sahstra Namavali), &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu Sahastra Namavali and &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gayatri Mantra Dhun.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shiva mahimna strotra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Om namah shivay dhun&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All of them are available on You Tube. Download or play them when you sit in meditation, if you feel it is good to your heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sadhana requires concentration, any music that increase your concentration is good while meditation BUT &lt;strong&gt;DO NOT GIVE ATTENTION TO MUSIC WHILE MEDITATION.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The most effective in daily meditation according to me is &quot;Om Namah Shivaya Dhun&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Disclaimer:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;This prayers are chosen by me, they are not standardized ones. One can choose what one's heart feels good. This is my personal opinion based answer just to help questioner.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Prayer to GODDESS महालक्ष्मि&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can also seek money and get fulfillment by praying or chanting GODDESS महालक्ष्मि prayers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_lakshmi-mahalakshmi_ashtakam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;महालक्ष्मि अष्टकं &lt;/a&gt; Verse 10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एककाले पठेन्नित्यं महापापविनाशनम् ।&#xA;  द्विकालं यः पठेन्नित्यं धनधान्यसमन्वितः ॥१०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10.1: Reciting this Once Every Day will Destroy Great Sins,&#xA;10.2: Reciting this Twice Every Day will bestow one with Wealth and Foodgrains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if you chant this prayer 2 times, morning and evening, it is written over here that you will be granted with wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This one was important for your friend. Ask her to chant this prayer at morning and evening, 2 times a day. And check her status whether she gets wealth or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Shani Chalisa&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In shani chalisa, it says if you do this prayer on Saturday, &quot;Lakshmi Gruh Ave&quot; means money comes to your door.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Fire Pray&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you perform fire rituals, it is given in Vedas that one will have money issues solved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-05-30T09:01:29.513" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T09:01:29.513" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3872" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3836" CreationDate="2014-12-02T11:21:09.320" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your argument befit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See, we all perform our duties and it is our 'dharma'. Infact according to our religion it is every-ones responsibility, but it does not possible in every time and within every situation to perform our duties or our point of views are  pure religion oriented.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case we are watching specially in Indians movies, the police inspector kills his own brother or father or one of his family member or his friend. This shows the society that a man should prefer his duty first. In this case he chooses his duty and it is his religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karan was not a bad person. He was a great, excellent and donors person. He was also a great warrior like Arjun, but unfortunately he was in side of Duryodhan who was Libertine and immoral person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Lord Krishna knew it very well. Once he went to explain Karan and tried to convince him, but he refused and told to Lord Krishna that &lt;em&gt;&quot;I know that I am in behalf of untruth, and at the end of the day I will loss everything but I have to Endure my friendship.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not only that The Krishna was a supreme human but he was in behalf of truth, morality and religion. Pandawas were on the way of morality, religion and truth so Krishna was with Pandawas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna was a supreme human  though he did not participate in war, he just become a guide of arjun and we all know that karan was not a bad person but his side was wrong, we all have respect for karan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-09T15:13:55.170" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T15:13:55.170" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3877" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3862" CreationDate="2014-12-02T19:05:26.257" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;A brief classification of the expansion of the Supreme:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is one Supreme Person who is the source of everything and Lord&#xA;Krishna declares Himself as that Supreme Person in the Bhagavad&#xA;Gita (Example: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;10.2&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;10.8&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;7.7&lt;/a&gt;). This is also mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam as well. His&#xA;own expansions are all Vishnutattva and considered non-different&#xA;from Him. So when we speak of God with upper 'G' it is the&#xA;Vishnutattva. As far as why He has so many Vishnutattva forms He&#xA;does this for His own pleasure to interact with His devotees in&#xA;various rasas (mellows). Lord Siva is considered a special expansion&#xA;(like curd from milk) who is superior to Jivas but not the full&#xA;manifestation of the Supreme.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Another category is Jiva tattvas, who are seperated expansions and&#xA;demigods(what you call as gods) generally fall into this category.&#xA;They are there to take care of various universal affairs. Some times&#xA;the Supreme Lord himself accepts the postion of the devas like&#xA;Brahma when there is no suitable jiva to occupy the post.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In regards to worshiping various devis and devatas Lord Krishna clearly says that this is done by people whose intelligence is stolen (hrta jnana). They do so because they have material desires. These devotees of various demigods go to the demigods' planets but those who worship the Supreme Lord Krishna goes to His eternal abode. Even if people go to Brahma-loka, unless they receive the mercy of the Supreme Lord to go to impersonal Brahman or Vaikhunta, they have to come back to the material world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some relevant citations &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;from here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 7.20: Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires&#xA;  surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and&#xA;  regulations of worship according to their own natures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 7.24 Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their&#xA;  fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to&#xA;  the planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My&#xA;  supreme planet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 8.16: From the highest planet in the material world down to the&#xA;  lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take&#xA;  place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes&#xA;  birth again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is clear that Lord Krishna is recommending us to worship Him only. He clearly mentions this in several places and also asks us to give up other methods and just surrender unto Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.66: Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when people do not accept these instructions and have their own motivations they will not surrender to Krishna but worship various demigods. As far as Bhagavad Gita (teachings of the Supreme) and Srimad Bhagavatam (descriptions about the Supreme) is concerned they are as clear as the sun shine. Today is the auspicious day of Gita Jayanti and here is a relevant verse of Gita Mahatmya that glorifies Gita and Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekam sastram devaki-putra-gitam eko devo devaki-putra eva eko mantras&#xA;  tasya namani yani karmapy ekam tasya devasya seva (Gita Mahatmya 7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srila Prabhupada explaining the above verse states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this present day, people are very much eager to have one scripture,&#xA;  one God, one religion and one occupation. Therefore, ekam sastram&#xA;  devaki-putra-gitam: let there be one scripture only, one common&#xA;  scripture for the whole world – Bhagavad-gita. Eko devo devaki-putra&#xA;  eva: let there be one God for the whole world – Sri Krsna. Eko mantras&#xA;  tasya namani: and one hymn, one mantra, one prayer – the chanting of&#xA;  His name: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama,&#xA;  Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Karmapy ekam tasya devasya seva: and&#xA;  let there be one work only – the service of the Supreme Personality of&#xA;  Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You ask '&lt;em&gt;With so many gods, how can one focus, are they not distracted?&lt;/em&gt;' Those who get lost in Vedas are distracted as you say and get entangled in fruitive work forgetting the real goal of life. Hence you see in Srimad Bhagavatam that Vyasa was not happy even after dividing Vedas and writing Mahabharat as well. Narada Muni while telling the reason says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.5.8 — Sri Narada said: You have not actually broadcast the&#xA;  sublime and spotless glories of the Personality of Godhead. That&#xA;  philosophy which does not satisfy the transcendental senses of the&#xA;  Lord is considered worthless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the whole chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; but the essence is Vyasa in His mature meditation gives Srimad Bhagavatam, the ripen fruit and summary of all the Vedas. And according to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/3/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 2.3.10 — A person who has broader intelligence, whether he be full&#xA;  of all material desire, without any material desire, or desiring&#xA;  liberation, must by all means worship the supreme whole, the&#xA;  Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So those who take the Gita and Bhagavatam as it is are not distracted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="1014" LastEditDate="2014-12-03T14:17:05.193" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T14:17:05.193" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3879" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-02T22:12:38.790" Score="13" ViewCount="39421" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know one was Sati, the daughter of Daksha Prajapati, and the second was Parvati, daughter of Raja Himanchala. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How many others are there?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1116" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-12-29T02:40:45.977" LastActivityDate="2022-12-25T18:34:07.120" Title="How many wives did Lord Shiva have?" Tags="|shiva|parvati|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3880" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-03T00:33:03.817" Score="5" ViewCount="935" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for original Sanskrit texts of the Mahabharata, Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita. Is it possible to find scanned versions of these texts online?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1135" LastActivityDate="2017-02-15T15:05:20.780" Title="Original sanskrit texts" Tags="|ramayana|mahabharata|bhagavad-gita|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3882" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3865" CreationDate="2014-12-03T04:28:41.380" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Through three things: &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mantra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mani&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Medicine&lt;/strong&gt;. Bad karma generally causes problems in the physical and mental level. While mental level pain can be reduced through right knowledge and attitude like other fellow  users have pointed out, physical level pains can be avoided through medicine and other means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to past ignorance a misdeed has already been done, so that can't be undone. But God has given us knowledge and intelligence too through which we can try to minimize the effect. So for this the common three means are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mantra&lt;/strong&gt;: There are various mantras for propitiating planets that cause troubles in our life and there are also mantras for many other&#xA;  requirements. In the past people used to use mantras to get rid of&#xA;  pain and problems. Mantra's can be useful both for physical and mental&#xA;  level of pain when accompanied with proper procedure and ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mani&lt;/strong&gt;: There are various jewel stones and &lt;em&gt;ratnas&lt;/em&gt; (e.g. blue sapphire, red coral, etc.) which also help to some extent. So&#xA;  astrologers usually recommend certain stones as per a person's&#xA;  requirement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Medicine&lt;/strong&gt;: Irrespective of whether you experienced a physical pain due to an accident or past bad action, the present action should&#xA;  always be to take proper medicine to reduce the pain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to reduce the effect of inevitable bad actions, in the present any of the three should be used to lessen the pain. Regarding what &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;mani&lt;/em&gt; or medicine should be used, it is described in many scriptures but should always be consulted and understood from a guru or the right person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T04:28:41.380" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3884" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3879" CreationDate="2014-12-03T06:48:10.183" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord shiva had one wife named &lt;code&gt;sati&lt;/code&gt;, unfortunately sati took &lt;em&gt;Fire Cenotaph&lt;/em&gt; and she died, after a very long period of time Loard shiva got married with parvati, which was a form of sati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So sati and parvati both are the wives of Lord shiva, but we can't say that Lord shiva has two wives because they both did not at a time and parvati was the form of sati so both are same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;so, Lord shiva has one wife&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-12-03T07:06:09.130" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T07:06:09.130" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3885" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3879" CreationDate="2014-12-03T07:27:54.433" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has only one wife Named &lt;code&gt;Sati&lt;/code&gt;. Sati is an aspect of Adi Parashakti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Prajapati Daksha organized a &lt;code&gt;yagna&lt;/code&gt; , but he didn't invite Sati &amp;amp; Shiva. Sati thought being a daughter they don't require invitation so she asked Shiva to go for the yagna. Shiva advised her that since they are not invited, they shouldn't go for yagna. But Sati didnt listen to Shvia and went to yagna alone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the yagna prajapati daksha has arranged sitting arrangement for all the devtas &amp;amp; gods but not for Shiva. So sati asked her father where is the place for Shiva. Hearing this Prajapati Daksha insulted the Lord Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sati coundn't bear it so she invoked her yogic agni which was attained by her due to severe devotion or puja done by her and immolated herself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later on she took re-birth as Parvati and marry to Shiva again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wiki Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_%28goddess%29&quot;&gt;Sati&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T07:27:54.433" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3886" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3879" CreationDate="2014-12-03T07:28:23.390" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/913/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, when Shiva was born, he immediately started to cry, and Brahma gave him numerous names to calm him down, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter Brahmā said: &quot;O chief of the demigods, you shall be called by the name Rudra by all people because you have so anxiously cried.   My dear boy, I have already selected the following places for your residence: the heart, the senses, the air of life, the sky, the air, the fire, the water, the earth, the sun, the moon and austerity.&quot;  Lord Brahmā said: &quot;My dear boy Rudra, you have eleven other names: Manyu, Manu, Mahinasa, Mahān, Śiva, Ṛtadhvaja, Ugraretā, Bhava, Kāla, Vāmadeva and Dhṛtavrata.  &lt;strong&gt;O Rudra, you also have eleven wives, called the Rudrāṇīs, and they are as follows: Dhī, Dhṛti, Rasalā, Umā, Niyut, Sarpi, Ilā, Ambikā, Irāvatī, Svadhā and Dīkṣā.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; ... The most powerful Rudra, whose bodily color was blue mixed with red, created many offspring exactly resembling him in features, strength and furious nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if you notice, the fourth name on the list of eleven names is Shiva, and the fourth name on the list of eleven wives is Uma, a name of Shakti/Parvati.  That's not a coincidence; the &quot;many offspring&quot; of Shiva are part of a group of Vedic gods called the Rudras, and the eleven principal Rudras are denoted by the eleven names which Brahma gave to Shiva.  Out of the eleven principal Rudras, the chief Rudra is Shiva himself.  All the other Rudras are just manifestations of him.  In any case, the other ten wives that Brahma mentioned, the Rudranis, are married to the other ten principal Rudras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-02-07T12:16:06.160" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3887" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3923" CreationDate="2014-12-03T08:04:14.337" Score="7" ViewCount="4010" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3843/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important to the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu.  The Pancharatra movement eventually merged with the Bhagavata moevemebt, which worshipped four forms of god (Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha), and then the followers of this combined movement realized that it was no coincidence that the Bhagavata deities share the names of Krishna, his brother Balatama, his son Pradyumna, and his grandson Aniruddha.  And then when it was realized that Krishna was an incarnation of Vishnu, Vaishnavism as we understand it today was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, among the oldest Pancharatra texts are the Satvata Samhita, the Paushkara Samhita, the Ahirbudhnya Samhita, and the Jayakhya Samhita.  But there's another Pancharatra text that is popular among Gaudiya Vaishnavas, the Brahma Samhita.  Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the 16th century Vaishnava thinker and founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, is said to have discovered this text in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adikesava_Perumal_Temple,_Kanyakumari&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adikesava Perumal Vishnu Temple&lt;/a&gt; in Tamil Nadu.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/cc/madhya/9/en1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Chaitanya Charitamrita, the standard account of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's life, describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the temple of Adi-kesava, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu discussed spiritual matters among highly advanced devotees. While there, He found a chapter of the Brahma-samhita.  Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was greatly happy to find a chapter of that scripture, and symptoms of ecstatic transformation -- trembling, tears, perspiration, trance and jubilation -- were manifest in His body.  There is no scripture equal to the Brahma-samhita as far as the final spiritual conclusion is concerned. Indeed, that scripture is the supreme revelation of the glories of Lord Govinda, for it reveals the topmost knowledge about Him. Since all conclusions are briefly presented in the Brahma-samhita, it is essential among all the Vaishnava literatures.  Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu copied the Brahma-samhita, and then with great pleasure He went to a place known as Ananta Padmanabha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the Brahma Samhita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bs/5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; only chapter 5 of it survives, although it's claimed that it was originally 100 chapters long.  Western historians generally claim that due to the style of the language, it's likely a relatively late text.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the earliest reference to the Brahma Samhita?  Are there any records or scriptures dating back to before the time of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu which mention this text?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T20:33:21.063" Title="Are there any references to the Brahma Samhita before Chaitanya Mahprabhu?" Tags="|scripture|vaishnavism|pancharatra|gaudiya-vaishnavism|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3888" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3889" CreationDate="2014-12-03T09:10:16.130" Score="10" ViewCount="4153" Body="&lt;p&gt;What was the name of the Ganesha before beheading done by Lord Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1110" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-05-17T13:07:14.067" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T18:33:42.170" Title="What was the name of Ganesha before beheading done by Lord Shiva?" Tags="|ganesha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3889" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3888" CreationDate="2014-12-03T09:57:28.260" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Shiva Purana, Ganesha didn't have actually any name. Just like Shiva has servants or minions who are known as &lt;em&gt;gana&lt;/em&gt;, Parvati desired to have Her personal &lt;em&gt;gana&lt;/em&gt; who would keep Her door. So She created Ganesha out of the dirt from Her body and told him he was Her son and ordered him not to allow anyone into Her residence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha did as he was commanded and in course of events a battle ensued between him and Lord Shiva and his head was cutoff. Parvati got angry and hence the worlds started to face untimely anihilation. When sages requested Her to calm down, She demanded Her son to be brought back to life and crowned in a cheif position. So he became the chief of the &lt;em&gt;ganas&lt;/em&gt; and hence known as Ganesha: &lt;code&gt;Gana+Isha (ruler) = Ganesha&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Kartika Khanda Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T09:57:28.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3890" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3865" CreationDate="2014-12-03T10:15:15.190" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are you aware of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://augustocuginotti.com/imaginal-cells-caterpillars-job-to-resist-butterfly/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Imaginal Cells &amp;amp; The Caterpillar’s Job to Resist the Butterfly&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;inside&amp;quot;? Take this...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A caterpillar crunches its way through its ecosystem, cutting a swath of destruction by eating as much as hundreds of times its weight in a day, until it is too bloated to continue and hangs itself up, its skin then hardening  into a chrysalis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Inside this chrysalis, deep in the caterpillar’s body, tiny things biologists call &lt;strong&gt;‘imaginal disks’&lt;/strong&gt; begin to form. Not recognizing the newcomers, the caterpillar’s immune system snuffs them as they arise. But they keep coming faster and faster, then linking up with each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eventually the caterpillar’s immune system fails from the stress and the disks become &lt;strong&gt;imaginal cells&lt;/strong&gt; that build the butterfly by feeding on the soupy meltdown of the caterpillar’s body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It took a long time for biologists to understand the reason for the  immune system attack on the incipient butterfly cells, but eventually they discovered that the butterfly has its own unique genome, carried by the caterpillar, inherited from long ago in evolution, yet not part of it as such (Margulis &amp;amp; Sagan, Acquiring Genomes 2002).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thats the inevitable &lt;strong&gt;Transformation&lt;/strong&gt; my friend! And &lt;strong&gt;Pain&lt;/strong&gt; is when you resist it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Don't you think the caterpillar feels PAIN in the process? Yes indeed, but eventually, you see, its ALL about you evolving into a better &amp;quot;You&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything thats happening, is happening for the sake of 'Balance'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Believe me, the first thing you need to practice, is to &lt;strong&gt;consciously&lt;/strong&gt; BREATH, feel yourself, the air moving in, feel your fingers, limbs. Realize yourself in the &lt;em&gt;Present&lt;/em&gt;, because this where changes happen, this is where &amp;quot;YOU&amp;quot; exist, on this tiny &amp;quot;blue dot&amp;quot;, called Earth, that glows with LIFE in this endless, dark emptiness. The only one place that matters, is this moment, and you ought to be here, and in fact, you ARE here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So just &lt;strong&gt;Breath-in the Moment...Breath-out the Past&lt;/strong&gt;, and your Future will be free of bondage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And note that &lt;em&gt;Agyaan&lt;/em&gt;, is NOT being &amp;quot;without consciousness&amp;quot;, rather its about being &lt;em&gt;Without Awareness&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T10:20:35.363" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3891" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-03T10:23:40.343" Score="5" ViewCount="7628" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many Sadhu who grow their hair and never cut them, while there are some Pandits who shave their hair and just have a small pony tail. Both of them are devotees of God but have opposite traits for their hairs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adding more on this, Hindus have a custom/belief/superstition until 'Mundan ceremony' is done, people avoid making a child pass under the shade of a tree as his hairs have not been shaved and they are prone to catching spirits. Also, in jainism (which is a near hinduism religion) there are stories of people plucking all their hairs and attain Dikhsha for Sanyaas. In Hinduism, people shave their hairs when their parents die. People also get hairs shaved in some famous temples like Tirupati Balaji, Mata Chintpurani, etc. There is also a strong belief that while praying or doing something hawan, etc, we tend to cover our hairs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know if there is a reason/belief for growing or cutting of hairs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2014-12-04T09:42:03.683" LastActivityDate="2015-07-25T02:35:50.393" Title="Sadhus grow their hair while Pandits shave them. Why?" Tags="|customs|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3892" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3865" CreationDate="2014-12-03T10:42:57.080" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been recently reading the Upanishads (Chandogya and Kena) and have been in general exploring the vedantic texts. From my understanding, At this point my teacher would say that you should ask yourself that, What is the nature of the pain and suffering that you so fear? To a mind which has reached an identification with the Universal existence (brahman) for it pain and suffering is just another experience just as is Joy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1138" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-12-03T11:49:26.533" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T11:49:26.533" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3893" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3891" CreationDate="2014-12-03T10:53:54.370" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It has nothing to do with devotion. The reason is spiritual and I doubt if the reason is explicitly given in the standard scriptures. Nevertheless, let me share something I know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sadhus&lt;/em&gt; grow hair and it is known as &lt;em&gt;jata&lt;/em&gt; (it's the local term here). This helps them to communicate with spirits and other invisible beings and acts like an antenna. And &lt;em&gt;pundits&lt;/em&gt; keep a small tail like hair known as &lt;em&gt;chula&lt;/em&gt; which is said to be necessary so that &lt;em&gt;shradha&lt;/em&gt; and offerings made by them can be received by the &lt;em&gt;pitaras&lt;/em&gt; (manes or ancestors).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know this may sound illogical to us, but many spiritual things are like this and not openly present in the scriptures. So I am sorry I cannot provide any source, I just answered for the sake of sharing. You can verify its truthfulness if you would like by asking it to a &lt;em&gt;sadhu&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T10:53:54.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3894" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3879" CreationDate="2014-12-03T11:00:19.543" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The episode of Rudra's birth and his wives as given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 8 of Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt; is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the beginning of the Kalpa, as Brahmá purposed to create a son, who should be like himself, a youth of a purple complexion appeared, crying with a low cry, and running about&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmá, when he beheld him thus afflicted, said to him, &amp;quot;Why dost thou weep?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Give me a name,&amp;quot; replied the boy. &amp;quot;Rudra be thy name,&amp;quot; rejoined the great father of all creatures: &amp;quot;be composed; desist from tears.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, thus addressed, the boy still wept seven times, and Brahmá therefore gave to him seven other denominations; and to these eight persons regions and wives and posterity belong. The eight manifestations, then, are named Rudra, Bhava, Śarva, Iśána, Paśupati, Bhíma, Ugra, and Mahádeva, which were given to them by their great progenitor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bramha also assigned to them their respective stations, the sun, water, earth, air, fire, ether, the ministrant Brahman, and the moon; for these are their several forms.&#xA;The wives of the sun and the other manifestations, termed Rudra and the rest, were respectively, Suverchalá, Ushá, Vikesí, Sivá, Swáhá, Diśá, Díkshá, and Rohiní.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu Purana says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;It was the Rudra of this description that married Satí, who abandoned her corporeal existence in consequence of the displeasure of Daksha.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She afterwards was the daughter of Himaván (the snowy mountains) by Mená; and in that character, as the only Umá, the mighty Bhava again married her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T08:17:37.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3895" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3891" CreationDate="2014-12-03T11:46:36.180" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's all custom. Sometimes its the sannyas lineage, sometimes its what your guru did, and sometimes just personal choice. I know some that grow their hair for sometime and then shave it after so much time just to grow it again. The real point is not to take care of the body too much, not spend time and effort taking care of the body which is impermanent and always changing.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T11:46:36.180" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3898" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3902" CreationDate="2014-12-03T15:53:24.307" Score="6" ViewCount="8144" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a person is born in hindu religion, he will have some caste. And is there anything that mentioned about foreigners? There are some civilizations like babylon that started in mesopotamia, along with indus valley, and ever mixed. What caste those people come under?. Is there anything that mentioned about foreigners and other religions in our sacred texts? I know Hinduism is a way of living more than a religion! But people following a different way of living come under which caste?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-04-06T00:36:24.957" LastActivityDate="2018-04-06T00:36:24.957" Title="What caste are foreigners?" Tags="|vedas|history|belief|caste-system|other-religions|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3899" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3898" CreationDate="2014-12-03T16:28:09.027" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think the best guess is that foreign communities that accepted Hinduism were given one caste. Were foreigners accepted in Hinduism? Let me post Vivekananda's answer to a journalist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I want to see you Swami&quot;, I began, &quot;on this matter of receiving back&#xA;  into Hinduism those who have been perverted from it. Is it your&#xA;  opinion they should be received?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Certainly&quot;, said the Swami (Vivekananda),&quot; they can and aught to be&#xA;  taken.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He sat gravely for a moment, thinking, and then resumed, &quot;Besides,&quot; he&#xA;  said, &quot;we shall otherwise decrease in numbers. When the Mohammedans&#xA;  first came, we are said -- I think on the authority of Ferishta, the&#xA;  oldest Mohammedan historian --- to have been six hundred millions of&#xA;  Hindus. Now we are about two hundred millions. And then every man&#xA;  getting out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the&#xA;  more. Again the vast majority of Hindu perverts to Islam and&#xA;  Christianity are perverts by the sword, or to the descendents of&#xA;  these. It would be obviously unfair to subject these to disabilities&#xA;  of any kind. &lt;strong&gt;As to the case of born aliens, did you say? Why, born&#xA;  aliens have been converted in the past by crowds, and the process is&#xA;  still going on. In my own opinion, this statement not only applies to&#xA;  aboriginal tribes, to outlying nations, and to almost all our&#xA;  conquerors before the Mohammedan conquest, but also to all those&#xA;  castes who find a special origin in the Puranas. I hold that they have&#xA;  been aliens thus adopted.&lt;/strong&gt; Cermonies of expiation are no doubt&#xA;  suitable in the case of willing converts, returning to their Mother&#xA;  church, as it were; but on those who were alienated by conquest-- as&#xA;  in Kashmir and Nepal -- or on strangers wishing to join us, no penance&#xA;  should be imposed.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vivekananda (Complete Works V, p233, interview given in &quot;Prabuddha Bharat&quot;, April, 1899)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nowadays foreigners accepted into Hinduism do not have to accept any caste. Caste is a peculiar institution in India. I doubt if people like Julia Roberts who converted to Hinduism claim to be of any caste. I asked the Vice President of the Malibu Hindu temple about how they handle the gotra issue of American Hindus who offer Pujas in the temple.&#xA;He told me that the temple priests do not ask American Hindus their gotra for obvious reasons and just use the term 'natural gotra' in Pujas offered by them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T16:28:09.027" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3900" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3898" CreationDate="2014-12-03T19:56:41.897" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, &lt;strong&gt;Caste System is a NON-HINDU, widely propagated idea of Victorian age&lt;/strong&gt;, that is an &quot;exaggerations&quot; of the NON-HINDU, yet &lt;strong&gt;unfortunate&lt;/strong&gt; discriminations that some &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; had to face &lt;strong&gt;while&lt;/strong&gt; the oppressive Muslim regime in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You see, the division is called &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; System, which &lt;strong&gt;was&lt;/strong&gt; NEVER birth-based actually. It was all dependent on the Guru, that individual had taken his &lt;em&gt;deeksha&lt;/em&gt; from. (Note that, a &lt;strong&gt;Guru holds the highest position in a Hindu world&lt;/strong&gt;, equivalent to Gods). In the most common case, a person's OWN father was his Guru by default. So it was customary e.g, for a son of Brahman to be a Brahman etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BUT, the important thing to note is that, one was ABSOLUTELY FREE to seek discipleship of any person in this world. So with the grace of a Guru, a boy born in a Shudra family could also change into a Brahman, i.e a Varna that is supposed to be seeking &lt;em&gt;Brahmm&lt;/em&gt;, self-realization, and eventually &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;. OR a Brahman's child can become a &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt; too, by the grace of his &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt; Guru (one who imparts &quot;&lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt; skills&quot; in his disciples).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In all a Guru was the ONLY one, considered having the potential to &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Transform&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; his disciple into his own self. So under a (supposedly actual) Brahman Guru who teachs skills of self-realization, all his disciples, &lt;strong&gt;no matter what their ethnicity or &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; are&lt;/strong&gt;, become Brahmans themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, indeed things degraded, and like an Avalanche, &lt;strong&gt;starting from Brahmans&lt;/strong&gt;, whole Varna system eventually broke down to whats later came to be called as Caste System, by Britishers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ONLY thing &quot;fixed&quot; to any individual is his &lt;em&gt;Gotra&lt;/em&gt;. You &lt;strong&gt;can not&lt;/strong&gt; assign a &lt;em&gt;Gotra&lt;/em&gt; to a foreign coverts to Hinduism, or in fact anyone. Its strictly birth-based. Because that are linages from the Eight Mind-born &lt;em&gt;Sons&lt;/em&gt; of Brahma, called &lt;em&gt;Gotrakarin&lt;/em&gt;, meaning roots of Gotras. It is (believed to be) a way to ensure no Eunuchs are born as offspring, so that their family can grow further.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE:&lt;/strong&gt; I seldom provide references in my posts when I present my views on the subject, because I think looking up to a book every time you need to think &quot;think!&quot;, is a again NOT a Hindu trait. Vedas were in souls of ancient sages, they did not mug it up either. &lt;strong&gt;Reading Vedas should be a journey of Mind to soul, rather than of memory from one synapse to the other.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mind you, that there is a difference between Vedas and books of other religion. &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Vedas&quot; are NOT &quot;Holy&quot; as in &quot;Holy Bible&quot; or &quot;Holy Quran&quot;, but they can for sure MAKE YOU HOLY.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastActivityDate="2014-12-03T19:56:41.897" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3901" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3861" CreationDate="2014-12-03T23:06:23.307" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tell her that chanting mantras for the sake of attaining such mundane world desires is pointless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If she wants to earn money, given that she is a woman, she can rely on the oldest profession in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyway, if she wants to chant on Lord Shiva for evolving, ask her to chant &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_shiva-lingashtakam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lingashtakam&lt;/a&gt; to get started. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More Stotras on Lord Shiva are available &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/bharatavarsha/stotras/shiva_stotras.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, I have found the website &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;greenmesg.org&lt;/a&gt; to be very useful for other Stotras as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1135" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-25T10:14:32.393" LastActivityDate="2015-02-25T10:14:32.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3902" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3898" CreationDate="2014-12-04T00:25:59.913" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How is caste determined?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;What we call as caste in english is called &lt;em&gt;varṇa&lt;/em&gt; in sanskrit. One of the meanings of varṇa is color, specifically of the mind, i.e character or nature. &#xA;Though birth can play a significant role in shaping up one's nature, from the point of view of Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam, birth does not draw a hard line on what caste a person belongs to. In fact the emphasis is clearly on guṇa (nature) and karma (activities).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 4.13&lt;/a&gt; says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the three modes of material nature and the work&#xA;  associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created&#xA;  by Me. And although I am the creator of this system, you should know&#xA;  that I am yet the nondoer, being unchangeable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 18&lt;/a&gt; of the Gita the nature/activities of the varnas are further described as below: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 18.41 — Brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaisyas and sudras are distinguished&#xA;  by the qualities born of their own natures in accordance with the&#xA;  material modes, O chastiser of the enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 18.42 — Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance,&#xA;  honesty, knowledge, wisdom and religiousness – these are the natural&#xA;  qualities by which the brahmanas work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 18.43 — Heroism, power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in&#xA;  battle, generosity and leadership are the natural qualities of work&#xA;  for the ksatriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in Srimad Bhagavatam also this topic is discussed by Sri Narada Muni in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;canto 7 chapter 11&lt;/a&gt; . There his conclusion is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 7.11.35 — If one shows the symptoms of being a brahmana, ksatriya,&#xA;  vaisya or sudra, as described above, even if he has appeared in a&#xA;  different class, he should be accepted according to those symptoms of&#xA;  classification.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally I would like to mention that regardless of what varṇa one may belong to, it is not a hindrance for attaining the Supreme Lord. This fact is mentioned by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 9.32 — O son of Prtha, those who take shelter in Me, though they be&#xA;  of lower birth – women, vaisyas [merchants] and sudras [workers] – can&#xA;  attain the supreme destination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What caste do foreigners belong to?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;General Perspective:&lt;/em&gt; Since these people do not follow the varna system of Vedic culture the terms like mleccha and yauvana are used to describe them. These terms indicate they are less than sudras. You can find these in sanskrit dictionaries like Monier or Apte. A description of these races can be found in the purport of Srila Prabhupada to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/4/18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 2.4.18&lt;/a&gt;  where he connects the places outside modern India to the original Bharata Varsa using references from Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However when any of the foreigners take up the Vedic culture their classification wouldn't be any different than the Indian Hindus according to the Gita and Bhagavatam references above. Having a birth in different land or religion is not a barrier. This practice is prevalant in Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition where many brahmanas and sanyasins are from foriegn origin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-12-04T00:25:59.913" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3903" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-04T01:32:02.083" Score="2" ViewCount="549" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is cutting vegetables treated as sin according to Sanatana dharma?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If so, how can one purify oneself of the sin?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there some sort of prayer or respect one needs to offer the vegetables before we cut them?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Similarly, is there some sort of prayer or respect one needs to offer food before we consume food in general?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1135" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-21T07:40:06.360" LastActivityDate="2016-01-21T07:40:06.360" Title="Is cutting vegetables sin according to Sanatana dharma?" Tags="|practice|dharma|prayer|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3904" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2014-12-04T01:34:32.340" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2014-12-04T01:34:32.340" LastActivityDate="2014-12-04T01:34:32.340" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3905" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2014-12-04T01:34:32.340" Score="0" Body="Religious practices of Hinduism including rituals, prayers, poojas, worship, etc." OwnerUserId="1135" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-12-04T05:44:12.960" LastActivityDate="2014-12-04T05:44:12.960" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3906" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-04T01:56:12.890" Score="4" ViewCount="1221" Body="&lt;p&gt;I entered into a debate with my friend regarding origins of life and on why classifying objects as &quot;living&quot; and &quot;non-living&quot; is one of main problems of science, since this immediately raises the question of origins of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given that in Hinduism, people worship earth, sun, etc., which are considered &quot;non-living&quot; according to science, does Sanatana dharma also classify &quot;objects&quot; as those that possess life and those that do not possess life? Or does it say everything has &quot;life&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1135" LastActivityDate="2017-11-27T07:58:21.583" Title="Does Sanatana dharma differentiate between living and non-living entities?" Tags="|life|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3907" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3906" CreationDate="2014-12-04T04:29:28.700" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, it does.&lt;/strong&gt; But the thing is that, Santana dharma consists not of a single philosophy or doctrine but it is composed of many others. If you don't already known, then you will find it interesting that there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaisheshika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vaisesika School of thought&lt;/a&gt; which says objects are composed of atoms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like modern science that school of thought categories visible objects like earth, water, etc. as &lt;em&gt;bhutas&lt;/em&gt; and states that they are reducible to atoms. It holds atoms as the fundamental units of the universe which combine with each other impelled by an invisible force (&lt;em&gt;adrushta&lt;/em&gt;) to form the visible word. Please see &lt;em&gt;padartha&lt;/em&gt; in the Vaisesika School of thought and you will find substances that are differentiated from soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from that school of thought, also in Vedanta energies of God are classified into two categories known as &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;. Between these two &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; or nature is accepted as the inert energy which has no life of its own and the visible world is only the product of this &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;. A verse of Gita explains it breifly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat&lt;/em&gt;  [BG - 7.4,5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Earth, water, ﬁre, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego – all together these eight constitute My separated material energies. Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Santana dharma does classify and discriminate between objects having life and not. But people worship sun, water, etc as the visible form of gods present in heaven realms. Due to inter mixture of many beliefs, thoughts and philosophies the distinction has become unclear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2014-12-04T04:29:28.700" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3908" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3903" CreationDate="2014-12-04T04:40:45.303" Score="4" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes, taking life of any lifeform is a sin, but in order to live we must eat something. As Krishna says in the Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 3. 14-15&lt;/a&gt;: From food all creatures are born... and &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 6. 31&lt;/a&gt;: ...worships Me dwelling in all beings... &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/13/28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 13. 28&lt;/a&gt;: Because he sees the Lord present alike everywhere, he does not injure Self by self... and&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/48&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 18. 48&lt;/a&gt;: ...for all undertakings are beset with imperfections, as fire with smoke.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a very minor sin compared to the sin of destroying the health of a human body which has the greatest manifestation of the atman of any living creature. Better to live on the flesh of swine and chant the name of the Lord than to be a vegetarian and a rogue.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the only karma you are accountable for in this life is cutting vegetables, you are a great saint. Even Ramakrishna Parmahamsa would kill lice he found in his bedding.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;See everything as God. See the Gita quotes in 1 above.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Different sects have different prayers. See the food as prasad from God. One good prayer to say beforehand is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gita 4.24&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahma-karma-samādhinā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-21T07:39:41.353" LastActivityDate="2016-01-21T07:39:41.353" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3909" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3906" CreationDate="2014-12-04T05:08:42.510" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it does with a qualification. All living and non-living manifestations are Brahman. There is nothing which is not Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said that, the Prasna Upanishad (I. 4) says '...Prajapati the creator...created the pair, the moon (rayi) and the sun (prana). He said to Himself: &quot;These two should produce creatures for Me in manifold ways.&quot;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The moon (rayi) is food. Sun (prana) is the life principle and eater. Moon and Sun can also mean matter and life. So at the beginning the undifferentiated One first created matter and energy which in turn produce the various material entities. Prana, energy, being the life principle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You said above that &quot;Hindus worship the sun and earth which are non-living...&quot; This is not a true statement. Hindus worship the devas that are in charge of those entities or they are worshiping the One God through those entities. The Rig Veda says that Brahma makes His home in the Sun. This is why worship is directed to the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda was once asked by a Maharaja why people worship idols. He asked for one of the attendants to bring a photo of the Maharaja to them and then asked the attendant to spit on it. The attendant refused. Swami, said why, it is not the Maharaja, it is only paper. When asked why, the attendant said to do so would be the same as spitting on the Majaraja himself. Swami then explained to the Maharaja that idols represented God and just as the picture represented the Maharaja himself to the attendant, so idols represent God to us. Worship of the earth and sun remind us of God himself. To not treat these with reverence is the same as not treating God with reverence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remember that Sita (whose name means furrow in the earth) was born from the earth.        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-04T05:08:42.510" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3910" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3903" CreationDate="2014-12-04T05:31:54.610" Score="6" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;No, cutting vegetables is not a sin as eating them is allowed in the primary Hindu book of law:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is &lt;em&gt;sthavara&lt;/em&gt; (immovable i.e. vegetables, plants, etc.) is the food of &lt;em&gt;jangama&lt;/em&gt; (movable i.e. animals) [Manu Smruti - 5.29]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because it is not a sin, there are no prescribed purifications present for it in the scriptures as far as I know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But because it is a karma nevertheless, one can mentally show some respect to the vegetable and ask for forgiveness if one would like as done by saints and sadhus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are no fixed prayers for it, but food is mentally offered to the God you like. When I was a child I was told to use a mantra to chant before taking food and later on I found that verse to be present in Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ brahma-karma-samādhinā&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 4.24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-21T07:39:48.143" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3911" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3861" CreationDate="2014-12-04T07:34:27.137" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Meditating on Shiva for the attainment of worldly desires is pointless. Shiva is only attracted to pure love. He is not attracted to beggars - and that is what people are that pray to God for the fulfillment of worldly desires. He is not an accountant, you can't chant his name so many times and expect x in return. Do you think that God is a fool? He is only attracted to those that have yearning for Him alone. Her chanting and meditating is so much water thrown on a frying pan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If she wants worldly desires fulfilled, she should pray and do puja to a deva as directed by a Brahmin, or ask a Brahmin for some mantras. But those who do so attain that as described in the Gita (2. 42-44). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2014-12-04T07:40:46.693" LastActivityDate="2014-12-04T07:40:46.693" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3912" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-04T07:51:05.880" Score="11" ViewCount="10353" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this passage&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana, the various incarnations of Vishnu's wife Lakshmi are described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For in like manner as the lord of the world, the god of gods, Janárddana, descends amongst mankind (in various shapes), so does his coadjutrix Śrí. Thus when Hari was born as a dwarf, the son of Adití, Lakshmí appeared from a lotus (as Padmá, or Kamalá); &lt;strong&gt;when he was born as Ráma, of the race of Bhrigu (or Paraśuráma), she was Dharańí&lt;/strong&gt;; when he was Rághava (Rámachandra), she was Sítá; and when he was Krishńa, she became Rukminí. In the other descents of Vishńu, she is his associate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I asked about the wife of Vishnu's incarnation Vamana in the dwarf in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/559/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  But now I'm wondering about Vishnu's other incarnation Parashurama.  I had always assumed that Parashurama was either a Brahmachari or Sanyasi, but it looks like he was married.  My question is, what is the story of Parashurama's wife Dharani?  Who is she, and how did Parashurama marry her?  At what point during his life did he get married, and what was Dharani doing while Prashurama went around killing the kings of the world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only information I can find at first glance is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parashurama#Surya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt;, which mentions a brief incident involving Parashurama and Dharani:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parashurama once became annoyed with the sun god Surya for making too much heat. The warrior-sage shot several arrows into the sky, terrifying Surya. When Parashurama ran out of arrows and sent his wife Dharani to bring more, the sun god then focused his rays on her, causing her to collapse. Surya then appeared before Parashurama and gave him two inventions that have since been attributed to the avatar, sandals and an umbrella.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, are there any other scriptures which mention Dharani?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2022-03-02T15:08:29.397" Title="What is the story of Parashurama's wife Dharani?" Tags="|lakshmi|parashurama|vishnu-purana|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3917" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3918" CreationDate="2014-12-05T15:03:04.353" Score="1" ViewCount="1380" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question might seemed like I am atheist but no I am a believer in God. But this is a question kids nowadays use to ask. Here is what a kid told me: &quot;If God does good things for us, fine that our parents or friends also do, but we don't worship them, we just say 'Thank you' or show gratitude but we donot pray them again and again, then why should we pray God and what will God find good if we are just chanting his name again and again&quot; I find it tough to answer. So seek some help on making him understand why should we pray/worship/chant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1150" LastActivityDate="2014-12-05T16:13:42.847" Title="Why should we pray/worship God?" Tags="|worship|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2014-12-05T16:29:27.133" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3918" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3917" CreationDate="2014-12-05T15:38:44.073" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a good question and a difficult one too for making it understand to kids. Good that you have pointed it out. So, let me try to explain. I won't say that its written in books that Gods say worship me and that's the way you will attain Moksha. That might be correct but might not be a good answer for a kid. He/she might not understand what is Moksha and that will lead to another big confusion. Initially, kids are ignorant towards God and to make them inclined or to create their interest is to show them stories of Gods like Ramayana, or other adventure or moral stories. This will actually not burden them as now they are not doing it forcefully, they are just watching something which is close to what they like or what they watch usually. You can choose the format you like, ie, story telling, story books, small animation films or TV series, etc. Now, when they start taking interest or they started treating Gods like their hero, you can arrange a quiz between some of his friends and him and ask questions related to Gods and religion. This way he will remind himself of whatever he had seen/read/heard till now and will answer (in a way you are testing how much does he admire God now) and if other kids answer correctly then also he will learn from them (kids pay more attention to what other kids say rather than elders). Also, ask them what are the good qualities you find in a particular God, eg, Lord Rama. So, that way they will become interested and will try to find good qualities in their God. Then slowly slowly as the interest grows tell him about that we do lot of sins everyday and we should ask for forgiveness from Gods. Make some suitable time for him such that in morning, we should ask God to help us in dealing with the troubles all through the day (a form of praying), similarly at night before sleeping make him realize what troubles he could faced during the day but due to God's grace he was comfortable all through, make him thank God for that, if he has done something wrong during the day, ask him to seek forgiveness to God and to try not repeat the same mistake. At the eating time also, you can ask him to thank his mother for preparing food and when he is thanking mother, then let the mother say that this is by God's grace that we are able to have this food today else it was difficult (tell some problem), so we should thank God that we able to have this. This even if might be a false statement initially but this will tell the child in his way that he is not praying but actually thanking God. Slowly, he will learn thanking God or seeking his help. This all we are doing because we are going according to the child's mindset. We know of lot of things why we should pray God, God has created everything, he is our saviour, etc but these are a bit difficult for a child to understand by direct preaching. Hope this helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2014-12-05T15:54:06.630" LastActivityDate="2014-12-05T15:54:06.630" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3919" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3917" CreationDate="2014-12-05T16:13:42.847" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe you will get many answers and opinions in this matter.&#xA;Here is one such opinion :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kids are the new generation. Their minds are pliable and they listen to what parents and elders tell them (mostly). That does not mean one can put upon the child all the beliefs that One thinks is right. For instance, does the parent know for sure that one must pray to God? Does the parent know who God is? Does the parent know why one must pray? Then how can the parent/elder force upon the child these beliefs which he/she himself/herself is unsure of. This is the age to explore, to seek, to find, to follow. The duty of elders is to create the right platform for the children to explore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, think of a game. One likes one sport but someone else likes another. This is because when it comes to sports, parents give the right platform for their children to explore, to play different sports, to play what they like (without abusing others/themselves). That helps the children to grow into lovable beings. Sportsman spirit is developed. However when it comes to religion, parents always use words such as 'you SHOULD pray' 'God will PUNISH if you don't' etc. (Please note that this is in no way targetted towards the OP or any other specific parent).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many many paths to God. One of them (some say it is the best of all paths even!!) is Bhakti or doing prayer. Even in Bhakti there are various ways to do it. Pooja, Japa, Dhyana, Smarana, Vandana, Pada namaskar, Kirtan, Sharvana, Reading, Seva, etc. So the duty of the parent is to say &quot;Prayer is good, there are many ways to pray. You yourself pray and find out for yourself whether or not your quality of life changes, I will provide the right platform to do so.&quot; Provide right platform for child to seek and find out what prayer is and how it transforms the child, without abusing others/himself. :) Ensure that good values are being cultivated, like forbearance for others, patience, love for fellow man (and woman), respect for animals, service to humanity, right attitude towards knowledge (knowledge is continuous and evolving, but being knowledgible does not make one superior to others!), finally respect for all religions and ways of life. (in a childish note, God will be happier if His children are good but do not praise Him, rather than if they praise Him and cut the throat of another.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly lead by example. Seek for yourself, Who GOD is. What prayer is? Why should one pray. When you truly pray and seek God with your Heart, you will yourself be transformed isn't it? On seeing your efforts and seeing the transformation that occurs in YOU as a result of your prayers, the child will be naturally transformed :) All the best sir.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastActivityDate="2014-12-05T16:13:42.847" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3920" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="4014" CreationDate="2014-12-06T02:33:37.593" Score="6" ViewCount="1687" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gaudiya Vaishnavas, a sect that includes the popular organization ISKCON, believe that their founder Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was an incarnation of Vishnu.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://backtogodhead.in/vedic-evidence-that-sri-caitanya-mahaprabhu-is-the-supreme-lord/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; from ISKCON's publication Back to Godhead Magazine, a number of quotes are provided which purport to show that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's birth is prophesied in Hindu scripture.  Here is one of them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the middle of that lotus-city is a place called Mayapur, and in the middle of Mayapur is a place called Antardvipa. That place is the home of Lord Caitanya, the Supreme Personality of Godhead &lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanisad&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The quote is from the first verse of the Eighth Prapathaka of the Chandogya Upanishad.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01161.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; it is: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atha yadidamasminbrahmapure daharaṃ puṇḍarīkaṃ veśma&#xA;  daharo'sminnantarākāśastasminyadantastadanveṣṭavyaṃ&#xA;  tadvāva vijijñāsitavyamiti ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is this city of Brahman (the body), and in it the palace, the small lotus (of the heart), and in it that small ether. Now what exists within that small ether, that is to be sought for, that is to be understood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is the entire Khanda the verse is taken from, to give more context:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hari&lt;em&gt;h&lt;/em&gt;, Om. &lt;strong&gt;There is this city of Brahman (the body), and in it the palace, the small lotus (of the heart), and in it that small ether. Now what exists within that small ether, that is to be sought for, that is to be understood.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And if they should say to him: 'Now with regard to that city of Brahman, and the palace in it, i. e. the small lotus of the heart, and&#xA;  the small ether within the heart, what is there within it that&#xA;  deserves to be sought for, or that is to be understood?'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then he should say: 'As large as this ether (all space) is, so large is that ether within the heart. Both heaven and earth are&#xA;  contained within it, both fire and air, both sun and moon, both&#xA;  lightning and stars; and whatever there is of him (the Self) here in&#xA;  the world, and whatever is not (i. e. whatever has been or will be),&#xA;  all that is contained within it.'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And if they should say to him: 'If everything that exists is contained in that city of Brahman, all beings and all desires&#xA;  (whatever can be imagined or desired), then what is left of it, when&#xA;  old age reaches it and scatters it, or when it falls to pieces?'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then he should say: 'By the old age of the body, that (the ether, or Brahman within it) does not age; by the death of the body, that&#xA;  (the ether, or Brahman within it) is not killed. That (the Brahman) is the true Brahma-city (not the body 1). In it all desires are&#xA;  contained. It is the Self, free from sin, free from old age, from&#xA;  death and grief, from hunger and thirst, which desires nothing but&#xA;  what it ought to desire, and imagines nothing but what it ought to&#xA;  imagine. Now as here on earth people follow as they are commanded, and&#xA;  depend on the object which they are attached to, be it a country or a&#xA;  piece of land,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;'And as here on earth, whatever has been acquired by exertion, perishes, so perishes whatever is acquired for the next world by&#xA;  sacrifices and other good actions performed on earth. Those who depart from hence without having discovered the Self and those true desires,&#xA;  for them there is no freedom in all the worlds. But those who depart&#xA;  from hence, after having discovered the Self and those true desires,&#xA;  for them there is freedom in all the worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I could understand how if you just looked at the first verse in isolation, it might be possible to interpret it as referring to an actual physical location, like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's birthplace of Mayapur.  But it seems like given the context of the other verses, the Chandogya Upanishad is clearly referring to the body and the soul, not to a literal city, and it's referring to Brahman, not to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, how do Gaudiya Vaishnavas interpret the rest of the verses in this Khanda?  Do they think they all refer to some literal physical location?  Are there any Gaudiya Vaishnava commentaries on the Chandogya Upanishad that could shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-08T23:17:08.213" LastActivityDate="2016-05-08T23:17:08.213" Title="Does the Chandogya Upanishad foretell the birth of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu?" Tags="|vaishnavism|upanishads|chandogya-upanishad|gaudiya-vaishnavism|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3921" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-06T12:45:08.583" Score="4" ViewCount="547" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to us, everything is form of God, but without knowing this concept also people could be serving people. There are many people in the world who does not worship Gods or do not know about such concepts as they have no opportunity. Even though many of them could be serving devotees who actually worship God. How do this scenario is handled in Sanathana Dharma? What difference does this make? Which is considered best, serving devotee or directly serving God? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-12-07T08:03:52.843" LastActivityDate="2014-12-07T22:00:13.783" Title="What is the difference in serving devotees of God and serving God?" Tags="|gods|bhakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3922" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3921" CreationDate="2014-12-07T03:38:01.373" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no difference between serving a devotee and serving God. In fact the question need not even come up. Here is why:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is God? Where is He present?&#xA;Sri Krishna says thus in Bhagavad Gita 10:20:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am the Self, O Gudakesa, seated in the hearts of all creatures. I am&#xA;  the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So He is present in all. So there is no difference between serving one being vs another, whether they are devotees or God Himself, so long as one is aware of this fact that &lt;strong&gt;God resides in ALL&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, what is service? Does God need our service?&#xA;Sri Krishna says this in Bhagavad Gita 10:41 42&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know that all beautiful, glorious, and mighty creations spring from but a spark of My splendor.&#xA;  But what need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God can do everything. There is nothing He cannot do. Why does He need Our service? Who are we really serving. So there is no question of serving God. All service is merely gift or opportunity for us!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about serving devotees of the One:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says this in Gita 9:22 verse of assurance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form--to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Lord Himself takes care of all needs of His devotees, so what is the meaning of us serving them. This question too does not arise. We are serving no-one nor is there a need to serve His devotees, for God Himself takes care of Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally the last point, which is 'better' service of the two.&#xA;This means that there is a result for service. If the result of X is better than the result of Y, then X &gt; Y right? But Sri Krishna says this in His Bhagavad Gita 2:47&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thy right is to work only, but never with its fruits; let not the fruits of actions be thy motive, nor let thy attachment be to inaction&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So God says that there should not be any attachment or desire for rewards when performing actions. Such duty is liberating and therefore becomes best. So then which produces better fruits: serving devotee or serving God? Neither, for the best is to serve WITHOUT thinking of rewards/fruits, in other words, just go ahead and SERVE, do not think which is better.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SO there is no difference. Go ahead and serve all beings, fixing your mind on God (all forms are nothing but His Forms - God is One) and without expecting any fruits in return for such service, because after all there is NO SUCH THING as service, because God does not need it, nor do the devotees. All the best sir! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is just one possible interpretation from scriptures, and there may be many possible ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="1156" LastEditDate="2014-12-07T22:00:13.783" LastActivityDate="2014-12-07T22:00:13.783" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3923" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3887" CreationDate="2014-12-07T04:08:01.813" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have spent few days looking for any information on this and communicated with one reliable devotee of Sri Caitanya Maha Prabhu who spent several years in Vrindavana studying Sanskrit and some of the Gaudiya texts. The answer at this point is that there are no known records of reference to Brahma Samhita before Sri Caitanya Maha Prabhu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However this is not uncommon. There are several things that Madhvacarya cites which were not seen by others but Jiva Gosvami trusts him and cites on his authority. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for the Gaudiya Vaishnavas, since we have numerous references of Sri Chaitanya Maha Prabhu in puranas/upanishads and His personal pastimes revealing His identity, we accept Him as Krishna Himself. Among His followers there are prominent devotees from Ramanuja, Madhva and Sankaracarya sects. So his discovery of the text is accepted by us with full faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-12-07T04:08:01.813" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3924" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3793" CreationDate="2014-12-07T05:04:34.660" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(1)I feel, it is because the asuras in oneself will lose their power as each sense is controlled. Am I right?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Yes, you are right. once we control our senses we will gain real freedom from material modes. It is not true that letting the senses loose will satisfy them. Senses are like fire and the sense-pleasure is like ghee. The more you give the more it burns!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(2)Is there any particular order of controlling senses so that it will be easy for one to stop getting desires? For example, controlling mouth first, then tongue, nose, eyes, mind etc.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not exactly but from practical experience of myself and seeing numerous others, chanting the holy names can easily help us to control our sense. According to the scriptures chanting of Hari's names is the yuga dharma. So first use your speech for taking His names and eat prasadam of Vishnu (offer whatever you cook with satvik ingredients to Him). Then the rest will be easy. If you eat food that ignites your passion and ignorance you will be overcome by lusty desires. One who controls the senses is called gosvami (master of senses). In regard to sense control Srila Rupa Gosvami states in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/noi/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Upadesamrta&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A sober person who can tolerate the urge to speak, the mind’s demands,&#xA;  the actions of anger and the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals&#xA;  is qualiﬁed to make disciples all over the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ideal way to control all the senses is to try to use them in the service of Lord Krishna. One of the ideal example given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/4/18-20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; is that of Maharaja Ambarisa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maharaja Ambarisha always engaged his &lt;strong&gt;mind&lt;/strong&gt; in meditating upon the&#xA;  lotus feet of Krishna, his &lt;strong&gt;words&lt;/strong&gt; in describing the glories of the&#xA;  Lord, his &lt;strong&gt;hands&lt;/strong&gt; in cleansing the Lord's temple, and his &lt;strong&gt;ears&lt;/strong&gt; in&#xA;  hearing the words spoken by Krishna or about Krishna. He engaged his&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;eyes&lt;/strong&gt; in seeing the Deity of Krishna, Krishna's temples and Krishna's&#xA;  places like Mathura and Vrindavana, he engaged his &lt;strong&gt;sense of touch&lt;/strong&gt; in&#xA;  touching the bodies of the Lord's devotees, he engaged his sense of&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;smell&lt;/strong&gt; in smelling the fragrance of tulasi offered to the Lord, and he&#xA;  engaged his &lt;strong&gt;tongue&lt;/strong&gt; in tasting the Lord's prasada. He engaged his &lt;strong&gt;legs&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  in walking to the holy places and temples of the Lord, his &lt;strong&gt;head&lt;/strong&gt; in&#xA;  bowing down before the Lord, and all his &lt;strong&gt;desires&lt;/strong&gt; in serving the Lord,&#xA;  twenty-four hours a day. Indeed, Maharaja Ambarisha never desired&#xA;  anything for his own sense gratification. He engaged all his senses in&#xA;  devotional service, in various engagements related to the Lord. This&#xA;  is the way to increase attachment for the Lord and be completely free&#xA;  from all material desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(3)Is it also true that one who controls the senses are dearer to the Supreme being?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Yes, Lord Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/61&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 2.61&lt;/a&gt; One who restrains his senses, keeping them under full control, and&#xA;  ﬁxes his consciousness upon Me, is known as a man of steady&#xA;  intelligence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/5/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 5.7&lt;/a&gt; One who works in devotion, who is a pure soul, and who controls his&#xA;  mind and senses is dear to everyone, and everyone is dear to him.&#xA;  Though always working, such a man is never entangled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-12-07T05:04:34.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3925" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3926" CreationDate="2014-12-07T05:53:52.463" Score="11" ViewCount="69396" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know if re-birth take place immediately after the death according to Hinduism? Some people say, if the man has done some good karma, he will be gone to heaven and then enjoy the celestial pleasures there and then will be re born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How much time does it take for a soul to enter another body?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does this depend upon the karma he has done? For example, if he has done more good karma, he will be in the heaven for more time, so it will take more time for him to enter another body?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also, is heaven a planet that exists or an imagination? What is meant actually by enjoying the celestial pleasures offered by Indra? Is it enjoying them in the next birth on earth or before birth?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-09T12:17:43.820" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T08:33:55.193" Title="Does re-birth take place immediately after death according to Hinduism?" Tags="|karma|rebirth|death|atma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3926" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3925" CreationDate="2014-12-07T06:25:36.787" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, not immediately&lt;/strong&gt;. As per the scriptures, depending upon his good/virtuous and bad/sinful actions, the &lt;em&gt;jivatama&lt;/em&gt; will be taken to Yama and after judgement he will first experience the results of his actions accordingly either in heaven or hell [Agni Pu. - 203.5]. Only after he has experienced those that he will obtain another body on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to answer the questions 1 and 2, yes &lt;strong&gt;it depends upon the karma&lt;/strong&gt;. More good karma means more time in heaven and hence it will take more time until the &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; enters another body. Only after their stock of &lt;em&gt;punya&lt;/em&gt; is over that they fall down to earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;te taṁ bhuktvā svarga-lokaṁ viśālaṁ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.21]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  When they have thus enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasure and the results of their pious activities are exhausted, they return to this mortal planet again. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer the third question, heaven is a different realm of existence. It's not imagination and to enjoy it means enjoying them there in that specific realm before taking birth here again. Some people say heaven and hell are here only, on this very earth. But apart from this earth there exists other planes of existences and they are not imaginary. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, I would like to add that heaven, hell and many other realms of existence up to the topmost Brahmaloka, the abode of Brahma, are under the effect and influence of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;. Going there through penance, good action, etc. is nothing but only a waste of time as one has to ultimately return here anyway. Only by attaining the realm of God that one will never have to return and take birth in this mortal plane again. So the Gita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino 'rjuna&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mam upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 8.16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Update&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above post I said that it is a waste of time to go to upper planes of existence through penance, sacrifice, etc. as the end result is only but miserable bondage. But some people like Keshav below don't call it a waste of time. They argue that some people find that path very fulfilling. But Veda calls these kind of people as &lt;strong&gt;the supreme fools&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;iṣṭāpūrtaṃ manyamānā variṣṭhaṃ nānyacchreyo vedayante &lt;strong&gt;pramūḍhāḥ&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nākasya pṛṣṭhe te sukṛte'nubhūtvemaṃ lokaṃ hīnataraṃ vā viśanti&lt;/em&gt;  [Mund. Up. - 1.2.10]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  They are but supreme fools who believing the rites ordained by the Vedas &#xA;  to be the highest, do not understand the other thing &#xA;  that leads to liberation. They, having enjoyed the fruits of actions in &#xA;  higher heavens fall down to this world or even to a world lower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yām imāṁ puṣpitāṁ vācaṁ pravadanty avipaścitaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  veda-vāda-ratāḥ pārtha nānyad astīti vādinaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kāmātmānaḥ svarga-parā janma-karma-phala-pradām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kriyā-viśeṣa-bahulāṁ bhogaiśvarya-gatiṁ prati&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 2.42,43]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Men of small knowledge are very much attached to the ﬂowery words of the Vedas, which recommend various fruitive activities for elevation to heavenly planets, resultant good birth, power, and so forth. Being desirous of sense gratiﬁcation and opulent life, they say that there is nothing more than this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are people of different knowledge and nature who follow different kinds of philosophy. There are fools who do not know what's the best use of time and there are wise who know what's the best use of time. &lt;strong&gt;Is it not childish for someone to raise the argument that &quot;&lt;em&gt;It is not a waste of time because the foolish persons do it and find it fulfilling&lt;/em&gt;&quot;?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when I said it a waste of time, I didn't give my own view, I am hardly that wise! I only shared in in short the view of the scriptures as evident from the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 1.5.18]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Persons who are actually intelligent and philosophically inclined should endeavor only for that purposeful end which is not obtainable even by wandering from the topmost planet [Brahmaloka] down to the lowest planet [Pātāla]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;evaṁ hi lokāḥ kratubhiḥ kṛtā amī&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kṣayiṣṇavaḥ sātiśayā na nirmalāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tasmād adṛṣṭa-śruta-dūṣaṇaṁ paraṁ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhaktyoktayeśaṁ bhajatātma-labdhaye&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 7.7.40]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  It is learned from Vedic literature that by performing great sacrifices one may elevate himself to the heavenly planets. However, although life on the heavenly planets is hundreds and thousands of times more comfortable than life on earth, the heavenly planets are not pure [nirmalam], or free from the taint of material existence. The heavenly planets are also temporary, and therefore they are not the goal of life. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, has never been seen or heard to possess inebriety. Consequently, for your own benefit and self-realization, you must worship the Lord with great devotion, as described in the revealed scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not adding other verses that also share the view to lengthen the post, as from this update I hope I made it clear that it is not my personal view that going up only to return later and get entangled in karma in various life forms is only a waste of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-12-18T06:21:48.023" LastActivityDate="2014-12-18T06:21:48.023" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3927" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-07T13:36:26.677" Score="8" ViewCount="1668" Body="&lt;p&gt;If the heaven/hell aren't imaginary, can we go to those lokas with space crafts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Lord Krishna said in Bhagavad Gita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino 'rjuna mam upetya tu kaunteya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;punar janma na vidyate [BG - 8.16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the highest planet in the material world down to the&#xA;lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take&#xA;place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes&#xA;birth again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Here he talks about highest/lowest planet, can we go there in a space craft?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does this physical body stay for those conditions?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can siddhas go there? If so, should they have to leave their physical body here and go there?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can siddhas, if they wish, take others too to those lokas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2022-08-26T20:36:36.207" Title="Can we go to heaven in a space craft?" Tags="|lokas|siddhi|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3928" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-07T13:47:34.180" Score="3" ViewCount="651" Body="&lt;p&gt;The siddhas who have several mystic powers can do a lot of things that an ordinary man cannot do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, I would like to know whether they can travel in time too? Did Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita said about this or did any Vedas or Upanishads or Tantra Shastras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2014-12-08T13:57:19.160" Title="Can siddhas travel in time?" Tags="|siddhi|time|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ClosedDate="2017-02-21T03:42:35.283" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3929" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3962" CreationDate="2014-12-07T14:01:30.907" Score="3" ViewCount="1527" Body="&lt;p&gt;In meditation, we are said to leave the negative thoughts and not to react to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I do meditation, I keep getting some negative thoughts some of which I don't react to. But there are some thoughts which I feel, when not reacted to, put me in a dilemma that they are going to happen or I am not caring about them which pushes me in a state that, even if they come true I don't care. This is really horrible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I feel this is basically of the desires that I am having and thought is all about whether the desire doesn't come true. However, being devoid of such desires could be the solution, but what about an ordinary person with desires?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though I was able to recognize that they were only random thoughts, stopping reacting to them is hard for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it OK to leave these kind of thoughts? Does leaving them like that makes any problem?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2015-03-03T03:35:44.807" Title="Does leaving negative thoughts do any harm to us?" Tags="|meditation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3930" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-07T14:11:05.607" Score="10" ViewCount="28907" Body="&lt;p&gt;When the physical body of a soul which got moksha is no more, the soul is said to reach the abode of Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And abode is like being united with the ultimate consciousness. What will the soul do when it gets moksha? Does it take a physical form in the abode of Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next, if the soul doesn't get moksha, it is said to either go to heaven or hell depending upon the karma. Now, to either get the punishments of hell or to enjoy the celestial pleasures offered by Indra, the soul should enter a physical body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same way, though there are no pleasures and only bliss in the abode of Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu, does the soul need a physical body to enjoy that bliss?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What actually does the soul do in the abode? Does it meditate or what?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2018-06-02T03:12:44.113" Title="What will the soul do after moksha?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|moksha|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3931" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-07T16:05:59.973" Score="6" ViewCount="730" Body="&lt;p&gt;For Brahma loka it is Brahma, for Vaikunta it is Lord Vishnu and for Kailash it is Lord Shiva, for Heaven it is Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a similar way, who is the ruler of the Earth?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it Lord Vishnu because Earth is wife of Lord Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually Lord Vishnu is the ruler of the universe and Indra is his sub-ordinate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In a similar way, didn't Lord Vishnu appoint any sub-ordinates for the earth?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-19T13:07:46.350" LastActivityDate="2015-07-29T13:56:29.730" Title="Who is the ruler of Earth?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|lokas|indra|earth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3932" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-08T03:54:19.057" Score="6" ViewCount="260" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are said to be a lot of demigods (about 33 crores). Is this number constant? Are new demigods created by the supreme being?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do scriptures say about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-09T21:25:52.303" LastActivityDate="2017-01-09T21:25:52.303" Title="Are new demigods created?" Tags="|scripture|gods|demi-god|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3933" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-08T04:02:44.433" Score="4" ViewCount="1750" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know how many types of mukti are there. Also, is mukti the same thing as moksha? If not, what is the difference between those two?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there are different types of mukti, is any type considered superior over the other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2014-12-09T04:08:21.640" Title="How many types of mukti are there?" Tags="|moksha|mukti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3934" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3930" CreationDate="2014-12-08T04:09:43.600" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let us first try to understand what moksha means. Moksha is commonly translated as complete liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what are we being liberated from? For us to be liberated, we must be bound right? So what are we bound by (Bhagavad Gita 14:5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sattva, rajas and tamas—these qualities, O mighty-armed Arjuna, born of Nature, bind fast in the body, the embodied, the indestructible!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, basically Sri Krishna says that these gunas of Sattva (Goodness),. Rajas (Excitement) and Tamas (Laziness) bind and enslave the indestructible soul, which is embodied in the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So liberation is basically being liberated from these gunas. The one who is unattached, the one who is free of desire, free of the six enemies (kama, krobha, lobha, moha, madha, matsarya), He is liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such a man, who is thus liberated, exercises FREE WILL. so what is free will? People usuallly think that free will means being able to do what one wants, but many saints say that such will is not really free, but rather bound will. For example, when we decide to do something we want, if we look deep what is our reason for doing the same, it is usually either our desire to get something (influence of senses), fear of losing (influence of mind), hatred against some/something (influence of ego) or just plain 'if I dont do it now, I will not be able to do it later' (influence of attachment and greed). Then how can such action be called FREE ACTION.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So long as we are under control of mind and body attachment or ego-attachment, so long as we identify ourselves as 'X' name and 'Z' form, then we cannot claim to have free will, it will always be bound by nature and therefore it is actually BOUND will and not really FREE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the man who has been liberated, still performs action, but He is free of the bondages which bind him, in other words, He performs duty without attachment to fruits, as prescribed by Sri Krishna in Gita 2:51:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The wise give up the results of their actions and thus liberate themselves from the bondage of material birth and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Simply put, the realized being  now performs the truly FREE action, FREE will, Free from all desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, does this mean that the soul attains a so called 'abode' of Divine, which is a metaphorical plane of existence? That is interpreted differently by different schools of thought, Some believe that there is no such plane that liberated souls go to, because liberation itself is free-ing oneself from birth and death, therefore one who attains liberation is freed from all body-attachment and is therefore becomes ONE with God or His TRUE Self or Sri Krishna or Lord Shiva (whatever you want to call that Ultimate GOAL of life). According to other schools, one is REBORN in a so-called LOKA where He indulges in eternal play or Leela with Bhagavan or God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you specifically mean to ask what does the 'soul' do after moksha, rather than what kind of actions does one do once he attains moksha. Then the soul really 'does' what has always been doing = Being the Witness. Actions only happen in the relative plane. The soul is always unacttached and unaffected. The soul remains existence-knowledge-bliss (Sat chit ananda) as it always was.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankaracharya's Shivoham Mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Mano Buddhi Ahankara Chitta Ninaham&#xA;Nacha Shrotra Jihve Na Cha Ghrana Netre&#xA;Nacha Vyoma Bhoomir Na Tejo Na Vayu&#xA;Chidananda Rupa Shivoham Shivoham&#xA;&#xA;I am not mind, nor intellect, nor ego, &#xA;nor the reflections of mind-stuff (chitta).&#xA;I am not the five senses.&#xA;I am beyond that.&#xA;I am not the ether, nor the earth, &#xA;nor the fire, nor the wind (the five elements).&#xA;I am indeed, &#xA;That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,&#xA;love and pure consciousness.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically one realizes that He is not the body, not the mind, not the ego, but the SOUL (or Atma or Brahman or Vishnu or Shiva or a part of Brahman or a member of God's kingdom based on your school of thought). The SOUL is the witness and is never attached to actions, nor the enjoyer of its fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you meant what happens to the one (individual consciousness) once it reaches abode of Vishnu or Shiva (ultimate consciousness), then this is what Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa says about realization/moksha and what happens after:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. It wanted to&#xA;  tell others how deep the water was. But this it could never do, for no&#xA;  sooner did it get into the water than it dissolved. Now, who was there&#xA;  to report the ocean's depth? What Brahman is- cannot be described. In&#xA;  samadhi one attains the knowledge of Brahman -- one realises Brahman.&#xA;  In that state reasoning stops altogether, and man becomes mute. He has&#xA;  no power to describe the nature of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically from advaitic standpoint, nobody really knows what happens to individual consciousness once it merges in Absolute (once self-realization occurs or once one realizes that he is not the body, mind, ego, etc. but Atman/Brahman/Shiva/Vishnu/God). One can only speculate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2018-06-02T03:12:44.113" LastActivityDate="2018-06-02T03:12:44.113" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3935" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3931" CreationDate="2014-12-08T04:28:10.047" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The ruler of the Earth at any given time is known as the Manu, the father of mankind (the Manavas).  A Kalpa, or day of Brahma, is divided into 14 periods known as Manvantaras (consisting of about 71 Mahayugas each), and during each Manvantara a separate Manu rules.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/11/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Srimad Bhagavatam describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the end of Brahmā’s night, the creation of the three worlds begins again in the daytime of Brahmā, and they continue to exist through the life durations of fourteen consecutive Manus, or fathers of mankind.  Each and every Manu enjoys a life of a little more than seventy-one sets of four millenniums.  After the dissolution of each and every Manu, the next Manu comes in order, along with his descendants, who rule over the different [lands]; but the seven famous sages, and demigods like Indra and their followers, such as the Gandharvas, all appear simultaneously with Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/13/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, Brahma tells Swayambhuva Manu, the first Manu of the present Kalpa, what his job is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since you are my very obedient son, I ask you to beget children qualified like yourself in the womb of your wife. &lt;strong&gt;Rule the world in pursuance of the principles of devotional service unto [Vishnu]&lt;/strong&gt;, and thus worship the Lord by performances of yajña.  O King, if you can &lt;strong&gt;give proper protection to the living beings in the material world&lt;/strong&gt;, that will be the best service for me. When the Supreme Lord sees you to be a good protector of the conditioned souls, certainly the master of the senses will be very pleased with you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are currently living in the seventh Manvantara of the Shwetavaraha Kalpa, and our Manu is Surya's son Vaivasvata Manu, AKA Shraddhadeva, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/13/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The present Manu, who is named Śrāddhadeva, is the son of Vivasvān, the predominating deity on the sun planet. Śrāddhadeva is the seventh Manu. Now please hear from me as I describe his sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, Vaivasvata Manu is the son of Surya the son god and his wife Sanjana, whom I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/545/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2014-12-22T07:22:12.400" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3936" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-08T05:21:26.533" Score="32" ViewCount="9989" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3712/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the most prominent incarnations of Vishnu in ancient times was the sage Narayana, twin brother of the sage Nara and son of Yama god of death.  Nara and Narayana were famous for engaging in Tapasya (deep meditation) in Badrikashrama, and in the time of the Mahabharata they were reborn as Arjuna and Krishna.  In any case, apparently Narayana carried out a five-night (Pancharatra) Yagna and then became the entire universe, so people started following the so-called Pancharatra texts, scriptures originating from Narayana himself which gave detailed procedures for worshipping him.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3843/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Pancharatra texts were important in the development of Vaishnavism.  Among the oldest Pancharatra texts are the Satvata Samhita, the Paushkara Samhita, and the Jayakhya Samhita.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there's a Pancharatra text even older than these, and it is found within the Mahabharata!  Most people only know about the Bhagavad Gita, an 18-chapter religious discourse between Krishna and Arjuna found in the beginning of the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata.  But there is another 18-chapter religious discourse found at the end of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, the Narayaniya.  It is a Pancharatra text which takes the form of a dialogue between Yudhishtira and Bhishma as the latter is lying on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, and Yudhishtira asks him questions about the importance of worshipping Narayana/Vishnu.  (It goes from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c034.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c051.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; in the Shanti Parva; apparently the Bhagavad Gita and the Narayaniya divide the Mahabharata into three equal parts.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c034.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;first chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Narayaniya, Bhishma describes the birth of the sages Nara and Narayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I heard it from my sire that in the Krita age, O monarch, during the epoch of the Self-born Manu, the eternal Narayana, the Soul of the universe, took birth as the son of Dharma in a quadruple form, viz., as &lt;strong&gt;Nara, Narayana, Hari, and the Self-create Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;. Amongst them all, Narayana and Nara underwent the severest austerities by repairing to the Himalayan retreat known by the name of Vadari, by riding on their golden cars. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of Nara and Narayana's brothers Hari and Krishna?  The only other information the Narayaniya provides about them is Narada's statement that Hari and Krishna lived in Badrikashrama before Nara and Narayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That form took birth in four shapes for the expansion of the race of Dharma which have been reared by that deity. How wonderful it is that Dharma has thus been honoured by these four great deities viz., Nara, Narayana, and Hari and Krishna! In this spot Krishna and Hari dwelt formerly. The other two, however, viz., Nara and Narayana, are now dwelling here engaged in penances for the object of enhancing their merit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only other scriptural reference I could find to Hari and Krishna is in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/cQ-9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Vamana Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The divine body Dharma born from the heart of Brahma, had reproduced Hari, Krishna, Nara and Narayana sons by virtue of consummating with his wife Dakshayani.... Hari and Krishna engrossed themselves with exercise on Yoga.  Nara and Narayana the greatest among all ancient sages began austerity with Parabrahma at the ever broad bank of the sacred Ganges in Badrikashrama, a place situated in the great Himalaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So first of all, how did Hari and Krishna's practicing of Yoga differ from their brothers Nara and Narayana's practicing of Tapasya?  Second of all, what caused Hari and Krishna to leave Badrikashrama?  Did they die or something?  And in any case, what was Vishnu's purpose in incarnating as Hari and Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other Hindu scriptures which mention these two brothers?  Note that this Hari is different from Vishnu's incarnation Hari who rescued Gajendra, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6608/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-12-08T00:12:02.327" Title="What is the story of Nara and Narayana's brothers Hari and Krishna?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|avatars|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="24" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3938" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-08T07:24:05.330" Score="1" ViewCount="444" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it bad if the husband puts the thaali on the wife's neck multiple times during marriage because the wife likes to only wear the thaali for auspicious occasions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just to make it clear, it's always the same husband putting the thaali on the same wife.&#xA;I think sometimes in Hinduism, people say odd numbers are bad or something, So is it bad if your husband put the thaali on you 15 times for example?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1158" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-01-30T08:54:40.100" LastActivityDate="2015-05-30T10:22:57.683" Title="Hindu Marriage - THAALI" Tags="|marriage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3939" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3927" CreationDate="2014-12-08T08:52:12.730" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think yes, people can go and have gone to Heaven or other spacial realms. Some examples are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;King Muchukand, fought alongside Devas and later got the boon of having sleep where the person disturbing him will be burnt to ashes. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;King Kakudmi, father of Revati, went to meet Lord Bramha and later his daughter got married to Lord Balarama.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arjuna, ie, one of the Pandava brother went to heaven to meet Indra and learned Music and Dance from his Gandharva friend.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yudhisthir went to heaven when all Pandavas in the end of Mahabharta went to go directly in heaven. While other Pandavas and Draupadi died in between, Yudhisthir was the only successful one.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Meghnaad, son of Ravana, defeated Indra and was named Indrajeet.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There are examples of various Rishi, Munis who time to time went to heaven either to meet with some Deva or to discuss some problem.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bala Kand of Ramayana states that King Satyavrat, who was an ancestor of Lord Rama was also being taken to heaven by the powers of Rishi Vishwamtira but was thrown out by Indra. He was later known as 'Trishanku'.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There can be many more examples found in various books where people use to visit heaven but not sure everytime we will find any reference to any spacecraft being used for such visit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-07-20T11:54:14.347" LastActivityDate="2015-07-20T11:54:14.347" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3940" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3930" CreationDate="2014-12-08T10:42:23.683" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You wrote:&#xA;&quot;When the physical body of a soul which got moksha is no more, the soul is said to reach the abode of Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to various Puranas, depending on whether you are a Shavite or a Vashnavite. The Upanishads mention several lokas, the most common being Brahmaloka (abode of Brahma) and Prittiloka (abode of the fathers). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;And abode is like being united with the ultimate consciousness.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;abode = loka not moksha. Not final liberation according to advaita. But abode = liberation if Shavite or Vashnavite or Ramanuja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;What will the soul do when it gets moksha? Does it take a physical form in the abode of Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Upanishads a person has a fine body, which is the body survives after death and that will experience the different lokas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Next, if the soul doesn't get moksha, it is said to either go to heaven or hell depending upon the karma. Now, to either get the punishments of hell or to enjoy the celestial pleasures offered by Indra, the soul should enter a physical body.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;heaven = loka. Let's be exact in terms used. Celestial pleasures are experienced in your fine body, not a physical body according to the Upanishads. I am not sure what the puranas say, so this may conflict with a Vashnavite or Shavite teaching. As far as hell is concerned there is some conflict in the commentators on whether there is hell or not. Krishna says that it is birth in sub-humans on earth; i.e., plants, insects, mosquitoes, etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;In the same way, though there are no pleasures and only bliss in the abode of Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu, does the soul need a physical body to enjoy that bliss?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Again, according to Upanishads it is your fine body that experiences this, not a physical body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;What actually does the soul do in the abode? Does it meditate or what?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is some conflict among Upanishad commentators as to when final liberation is achieved. Some say it occurs when it is achieved. According to other commentators a person who is to get Moksha, final liberation in an advaitaic sense, after death goes first to Brahmaloka (not to return to the earth) and at the end of the current cycle is then released. While in Brahmaloka, they meditate on Brahman. It is said it is like being able to see Brahman, but a clear glass still separates the soul from Brahman until the end of the cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-08T10:42:23.683" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3941" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3927" CreationDate="2014-12-08T11:10:29.197" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lokas are planes of existence, not to be confused with physical planets. There are beings all around us living at different vibrational levels, you pass through them and they pass through you. When you die, you don't physically go anywhere. Your fine body is all that remains and it exists on a different vibrational level. All the lokas are around you all the time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the stories about this person or that person going here or there are in the Puranas. They are not in the Upanishads. The different myths in the Puranas are meant to teach, not meant to be taken literally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are you such a materialist that you can only believe in the physical world? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rather than arguing on whether this or that scripture is true, if this person or god did this or that, do your own austerities, realize God, and ask God directly what is true and not true. Trust no scripture, realize God for yourself. Scriptures are like maps of a city. Seeing a city for yourself is entirely different than looking at the map of the same city. Some maps look different that other maps for the same city. See God yourself, ask Him directly what is true and not true in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Follow the scriptures that most appeal to your heart, even if they conflict with others, but use them as a tool to realize God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-08T11:10:29.197" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3944" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-08T17:07:44.773" Score="11" ViewCount="3877" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the earliest account of apsaras/nymphs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How were they born?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How did they get the duty to dance in Indrasabha?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What all famous stories we have related to them?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1150" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T03:32:21.293" LastActivityDate="2024-03-02T11:08:28.530" Title="How did Apsaras come to exist?" Tags="|women|indra|apsaras|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3945" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3944" CreationDate="2014-12-08T17:46:56.847" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not sure but I think apsaras had came in from the Samudra-Manthan. During that time as division was going on so Devas got the apsaras. Some famous apsaras are Rambha, Menka, Urvashi. Some of their famous stories can be following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Menaka was sent to woo Rishi Vishwamitra such that he does not do penance and become Bramharishi. Rishi Vishwamitra was trapped in her scam and engaged himself with her. She then had a daughter with him named 'Shakuntala'. After the birth of 'Shakuntala', Menaka left Rishi Vishwamitra and returned back to Devlok. References : &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga63/bala_63_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bala kand of Valmiki Ramayan&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this wiki page&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Jamini Mahabharat, there is a story of Urvashi, when she insulted Rishi Durvasa. Rishi Durvasa the cursed her to become a mare. When she pleaded for forgiveness, Rishi reduced the curse such that she will become mare only in the daytime and in night she will regain her apsara form and will be only able to be in full form throughout the day only when 3 and a half vajras come together. Then a series of events occur after which she was relieved of the curse.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Urvashi is also said to be involved with King Pururava. They both fell in love and had a son. But as per a curse on her if the father and son meet, she had to return back to heaven. Later, Pururva helped Indra in a battle against Demons and Indra allowed Urvashi to stay with Pururva again. This story is covered in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana of Yajur veda&lt;/a&gt; and on &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urvashi_and_Pururavas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this wiki page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was also an apsara called Punjikasthala who had an affair with Pawandev. Once she insulted sage Durvasa and was cursed to become a female monkey. In her next incarnation she became Anjana, the mother of Lord Hanuman. This story is covered in &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/kishkindha/sarga66/kishkindha_66_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kishkindha kand of Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/a&gt; and could &#xA;also be found in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anjana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this wiki page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rambha was also sent to break the penance of Rishi Vishwamitra, but she was cursed by him to become a rock for 10,000 years till a Brahmin delivers her from the curse. This story is covered in &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga64/bala_64_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bala kand of Ramayana&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambha_%28apsara%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this wiki page.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rambha was wife of Kuber's son Nalkuber. She was once being voilated by Ravava. Ravana was then cursed that if he tried to voilate any other women his head will burst. This story is covered in Uttara kand of Ramayana &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/939/36&quot;&gt;as stated in this question&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambha_%28apsara%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this wiki page.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is also a story in Mahabharat about Urvashi according to which once Arjuna had visited heaven along with his Gandharva friend. There he was watching the dance performance of Urvashi. Later Indra asked Urvashi to spend some leasure time with Arjuna. She was also attracted towards him. But when she tried to lure him, he denied the proposal saying that she was the wife of one of his ancestor Pururva, so he respected her and can't accept her proposal. Furious on this Urvashi cursed Arjuna that as he has not behaved in a manly way with her therefore he will have to live as a female. It was because of this curse&#xA;that Arjuna had to later act as a female called 'Bhrehenala' in the last one year exile when they have to be hidden in disguise. This story is present in Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from these there can be more stories which other readers can tell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2014-12-19T16:52:18.323" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3946" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3930" CreationDate="2014-12-09T00:24:28.827" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavata says there are totally 14 material/semi-material planes(lokas), out of them 7 above bhuloka(earthly plane) and 7 are below.Brahma loka being highest and patala is lowest.Apart from that there are numerous hellish planets are there (Narakas). All these lokas are subjected laws of nature and subjected to dissolution during end of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavata says that , there is one region or plane , which is beyond all these mentioned lokas. This one is NOT subjected to laws of nature , it was never created and will never be destroyed.It is eternal and beyond everything.That is Vaikunta, that is where liberated souls go.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Liberated souls who come here, get a divine vaikunta bodies, which is exactly replica of Narayana(Vishnu).Once there soul is eternally goes beyond material births and deaths(in any plane). There is nothing beyond here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lets come back to your original question , what would soul do after moksha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Souls on earth would be consisting of 7 material or spiritual bodies.A soul which is worthy of vaikunta should loose all material impurities in bhakti(or using any other discipline) in all its bodies.  When it looses all these impurities , soul would so much like narayana, there would be hardly any separation. Mostly it would be thin line of separation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once in vaikunta, soul eternally experience celstial bliss along with narayana. There is still very few chances of falling though(like in the case of Jaya and Vijaya). But even if that is the case , they would come back to narayana in no time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastActivityDate="2014-12-09T00:24:28.827" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3947" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2942" CreationDate="2014-12-09T02:48:33.290" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There used to be two kind of weapons in ancient times:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Astra -  Weapons powered by Mantra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Shastra - Physical weapons&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can obtain astra only after pleasing the corresponding devata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For ex: brahmastra by pleasing brahma. Pashupatastra by pleasing shiva etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For many Astras, corresponding devatas used to have their Amsha in the body of person who obtain the astra. So in order to use astra one needed to have these thing&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Any physical object like bows, wood , blade of grass etc&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Corresponding devata (called astra devatas) in the body  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mantra for  the astra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose if devata leaves the body of the person , then even if knows the mantra, then it would be of no use . It happened to Arjuna , after krishna left physical world. He knew all mantras , but astra devatas started leaving his body. He left helpless unable to do anything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each Astras used to have its own peculiar properties. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For ex: Brahmastra could destroy any of the creation of brahma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In last yugas(Dwapara,treta,satya) , people used to have much better memory powers and physical strengths. They used to memorize everything and there wasn't much need for writing down any of these scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Astra Vidyas used to be taught in strict disciplistic succession and only right person used to be given this vidya to prevent misuse. It was never written down, when Kali yuga came.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also there is something called Yuga dharma. Just like we have basic law of physics, things used to work much differently in previous yugas. Kali is the time , where materialism dominates.  So these astras may not be suitable for this yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-19T14:48:31.043" LastActivityDate="2015-11-19T14:48:31.043" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3948" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3930" CreationDate="2014-12-09T03:34:25.300" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the impersonal view liberation means giving up this material existence and merging into Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the personalist view liberation means giving up this material existence and go to the Vaikhunta planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now from the point of view of Srimad Bhagavatam here is some relevant information on the personalist view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is mukti, liberation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/2/10/6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavatam 2.10.6&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;muktir hitvanyatha rupam  sva-rupena vyavasthitih&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Liberation is the permanent situation of the form of the living entity&#xA;  after he gives up the changeable gross and subtle material bodies&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note the reference to giving up anyatha rupam (the other form, i.e material form) and become situated in sva-rupa (the original form). So we have a spiritual form that is currently covered by this material form and liberation means uncovering our already existing form by getting out of the material clutches. This spiritual form is not made of matter but it is made of sat (eternity), cit(knowledge) and ananda(bliss). In a conditioned state is inconceivable on how a form can exist in this manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do we do once we go there?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We engage in the loving service of the Lord. In that service there is unlimited pleasure and devotees consider that pleasure of service to be uncomparable to any pleasure of svarga loka or merging into impesonal Brahman. We can get a peek of spiritual worlds from Bhagavatam. Here is some relevant information:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 2.9.9  — The Personality of Godhead, being thus very much satisfied&#xA;  with the penance of Lord Brahma, was pleased to manifest His personal&#xA;  abode, Vaikuntha, the supreme planet above all others. This&#xA;  transcendental abode of the Lord is adored by all self-realized&#xA;  persons freed from all kinds of miseries and fear of illusory&#xA;  existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 2.9.15  — Lord Brahma saw in the Vaikuntha planets the Personality&#xA;  of Godhead, who is the Lord of the entire devotee community, the Lord&#xA;  of the goddess of fortune, the Lord of all sacrifices, and the Lord of&#xA;  the universe, and who is served by the foremost servitors like Nanda,&#xA;  Sunanda, Prabala and Arhana, His immediate associates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in the third canto where Lord Brahma describes Vaikhunta, one of the things he says is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 3.15.14  — In the Vaikuntha planets all the residents are similar&#xA;  in form to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They all engage in&#xA;  devotional service to the Lord without desires for sense&#xA;  gratification.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read more &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;  and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="1014" LastEditDate="2014-12-09T03:41:38.270" LastActivityDate="2014-12-09T03:41:38.270" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3949" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2158" CreationDate="2014-12-09T03:53:48.737" Score="5" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhisma attained to the status of the Vasus.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Drona entered into Brihaspati&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kritavarma entered the Maruts. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pradyumna entered Sanatkumara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhritarashtra and Gandhari obtained the regions,that belong to the Lord of treasures&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pandu proceeded to the abode of the great Indra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Virata and Drupada, the king Dhrishtaketu, as also Nishatha, Akrura, Samva, Bhanukampa, and Viduratha, and Bhurishrava and Sala and king Bhuri, and Kansa, and Ugrasena, and Vasudeva, and Uttara, that foremost of men, with his brother Sankha  entered into deities&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Abhimanyu entered soma &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna entered Surya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shakuni obtained absorption into Dwapara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhrishtadyumna into the deity of fire&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The sons of Dhritarashtra were all Rakshasas of fierce might obtained heaven.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Both Kshattri and king Yudhishthira entered into the god of Righteousness(Yama?)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;16,000 women had been married to Vasudeva  transformed into apsaras&#xA;Ghatotkaca and others, who were slain in the great battle, attained to the status, some of gods and some of Yakshas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-24T09:01:16.643" LastActivityDate="2015-03-24T09:01:16.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3950" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3933" CreationDate="2014-12-09T04:08:21.640" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mukti and Moksa mean the same. The meaning is to cast off, abandon, release. It is the process of releasing the soul from the material bondage and hence the common word in english is liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Different kinds of liberation are discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/3/29/13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3, chapter 29, verse 13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A pure devotee does not accept any kind of liberation — salokya,&#xA;  sarsti, samipya, sarupya or ekatva — even though they are offered by&#xA;  the Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In regards to if one is considered to be higher than the others it depends on who you ask. A personalist(Vaishnava) doesn't desire ekatva, merging into the existence of the Supreme Lord or impersonal Brahman. From a Gaudiya Vaishnava perspective there are different mellows, rasas, a devotee exchanges with Lord. The mellow of servitude, friendship, parental and conjugal. It is said that the mellow of conjugal relationship like in the case of Radha and Krishna constitutes the highest and most intimate relationship with the Supreme Lord. Of course the nature of any relationship with the Lord is full of ecstasy and each devotee thinks himself to be an insignificant servant of the Lord and His servants, so a devotee doesn't think he is superior to others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-12-09T04:08:21.640" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3951" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3944" CreationDate="2014-12-09T04:26:05.817" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apsaras are born from Rishi Kashyapa and his one of wife called Muni as per Bhagavata Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like other celestial beings like devas , they live for a manvatara. They are typically seen women counterparts of gandharvas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However unlike devas , their number is not constant. Human beings with suitable penace can become gandharvas or apsaras.&#xA;For example : 16000 consorts of Krishna became apsaras &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MB Svargarohana Parva 18.5 says that&#xA;&quot;16,000 women had been married to Vasudeva as his wives. When the time came, O Janamejaya, they, plunged into the Sarasvati. Casting off their (human) bodies there, they re-ascended to Heaven and transformed into Apsaras&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastActivityDate="2014-12-09T04:26:05.817" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3952" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3932" CreationDate="2014-12-09T04:39:52.153" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a celestial hierarchy, devas gets created only once in a manvantara.During beginning of each manvantara, Samudra manthan do happen , devas drink nector to become deathless(for a manvatara).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devas though procreates, another deva will not be born. You can see illustrations of numerous human or non-human descendents of devas in the history. For example pandavas are descendent of devas, but they didnt become devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once manvatara is up, new devas would be chosen, based on different merits. Some devas , who is not satisfied of being deva for such a long time, tries  various ways to become deva again even in next manvatara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnupurana(Chap 15) has an interesting story about devas of past manvantara, who were trying to become deva in this current manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There were twelve celebrated deities in a former Manwantara, called&#xA;  Tushitas , who, upon the approach of the present period, or in the&#xA;  reign of the last Manu, Chákshusha, assembled, and said to one&#xA;  another, &quot;Come, let us quickly enter into the womb of Adití, that we&#xA;  may be born in the next Manwantara, for thereby we shall again enjoy&#xA;  the rank of devas&quot; and accordingly they were born the sons of Kaśyapa,&#xA;  the son of Maríchi, by Adití, the daughter of Daksha; thence named the&#xA;  twelve Ádityas[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp050.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp050.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-12-09T04:51:16.987" LastActivityDate="2014-12-09T04:51:16.987" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3953" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3968" CreationDate="2014-12-09T05:12:24.973" Score="8" ViewCount="439" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know what the significance of Space is in Hinduism as stated by the Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does space store everything, the past, present and the future?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also, is space associated with any god (like Sun, Fire, Water etc)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the relation between space and the chanting of mantras?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-13T04:32:36.107" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T01:32:28.120" Title="What is the significance of Space?" Tags="|gods|mantras|time|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3954" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3927" CreationDate="2014-12-09T05:33:46.827" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Short answer to your question is -- Yes. Then comes the question , how?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You needed to have special kind of vehicles for that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Trishanku travelled into svargaloka using celestial airplanes. &#xA;Same case with Arjuna . He travelled to svarga along with a deva called matali in a celestial chariot. When he is going to svarga in devayana(path of gods) , he encountered various strange things. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata briefly describes the travel as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;As they moved along the paths of the gods, Arjuna saw Siddhas, Charanas, rishis, Guhyakas and Apsaras. The region glowed with a brilliance born of the ascetic merits of such beings. Amazed, Arjuna inquired into their identities. The charioteer replied, &quot;These are pious persons, O son of Kunti, stationed in their respective spheres. You have seen their shining abodes from the earth as stars in the firmament.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vahini.org/Discourses/d9-arjunagoestoheaven.html&quot;&gt;http://vahini.org/Discourses/d9-arjunagoestoheaven.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastActivityDate="2014-12-09T05:33:46.827" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3955" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-09T06:03:30.430" Score="3" ViewCount="2973" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard several times of the word &lt;strong&gt;Vibrations&lt;/strong&gt; what does it mean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People say, some temples like Tirumala, Srikalahasthi etc are so powerful because of the vibrations present there. What does it mean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What are vibrations and what is their significance?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can vibrations be created by chanting mantras, realizing the self, thinking about God etc?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How can these vibrations protect us?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T02:46:59.630" Title="What are vibrations?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3956" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3960" CreationDate="2014-12-09T06:14:43.193" Score="8" ViewCount="1073" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know whether meditation can be a substitute to sleeping? I mean, can we meditate at night without sleeping?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Great &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.gaiam.com/quotes/authors/adi-sankaracharya/64655&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Adi Sankaracharya &lt;/a&gt;said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The witness of the three states of consciousness [waking, dream and&#xA;  deep sleep] and of the nature of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss is the&#xA;  Self&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do we really need sleep? Because in meditation too we are thoughtless and not doing any physical work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to know if there are any scriptural references to this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T20:58:51.413" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T07:07:20.887" Title="Can meditation be a substitute to sleeping?" Tags="|scripture|yoga|meditation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3957" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3958" CreationDate="2014-12-09T06:35:14.870" Score="3" ViewCount="1573" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know what is the use of reading the Upanishads. I ask this because, in order to realize the self and the Supreme being one must experience it. And all of those experiences are written in Upanishads. Merely learning the Upanishads without understanding them is of no use.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Except that, as Lord Krishna said, one who have learned them but not attained liberation will take re-birth in a Bramhin family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Puranas induce Bhakti and Vedas contain mantras in the praise of the Lord both are useful in coming closer to the supreme being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, Upanishads contain things which must be experienced. And we see that saints who have realized the self and the ultimate consciousness talk about things in the Upanishads without learning them explicitly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then why are some people said to learn those Upanishads when they should only experience them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2014-12-09T10:36:25.100" Title="What is the use of learning Upanishads?" Tags="|upanishads|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3958" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3957" CreationDate="2014-12-09T08:54:16.547" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Upanishads, Vedas, Purans all are need to be read. But Specially Upanishads are written is such a languages so that it can be easily understand by a person who is not pundit. Plus, Upanishads are written in Question-Answer form. Where one enthusiast ask question and Guru give answer from his experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Short, language used in Upanishads is simple but come from one experience and also include many simple interesting examples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as say, i found same experience when i read books on Shree Ramakrishna Paramahansa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, by reading Upanishads you actually get understand that this experience is true or imaginary. Ramana Maharshi not read any of this but he come at level and then he read Upanishads and Veda as what he fill during journey.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="312" LastEditDate="2014-12-09T10:36:25.100" LastActivityDate="2014-12-09T10:36:25.100" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3959" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3957" CreationDate="2014-12-09T09:46:48.187" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some people need to read the Upanishads, others do not. Everyone is different. Your guru can tell what is your way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the Gita (4.34) &quot; Learn it by prostration, by inquiry, and by service. The wise who have seen the Truth, will teach you that Knowledge.&quot; The wise are gurus who have the experience of Brahman and are knowledgeable of the vedas. You prostrate before them, you ask them questions, you do service to them. It does not say read the Upanishads. Pray to God to find your guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said &quot;The aim is to get rid of nature's control over us. That is the goal of all religions. Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this Divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy-by one or more or all of these-and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.&quot;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-09T09:46:48.187" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3960" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3956" CreationDate="2014-12-09T10:22:57.617" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are yogis who go without sleep. This is an elevated state that is learned by years of meditation. They have learned to have complete control over their minds and bodies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms. Chapters I and II. Especially I 10-15. and II 55.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three states you reference and the fourth state (Turiya) are in the Mandukya Upanishad and in Gaudapada's Karika of the Mandukya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-12-10T01:38:52.670" LastActivityDate="2014-12-10T01:38:52.670" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3961" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-09T10:35:40.020" Score="6" ViewCount="410" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have read about the use of &lt;em&gt;Sanjeevani Booti&lt;/em&gt; in Ramayana, which was used to cure Lakshmana and the Vanara army when they were unconscious and on death bed. I want to know what particular type of illness it could cure and is there any account of its existence in current time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think I read a newspaper article in &lt;em&gt;Rashtriya Sahara&lt;/em&gt; newspaper, Delhi around 10-15 years ago stating that there is supposed to be a similar herb found in the same regions (I think in China) called Ching-wa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The person who found that was told to have tried it on his dead father. He took out the corpse of his father from graveyard and put the body in water treated with Ching-wa and after sometime his father came back to life but it was said that he didn't remember anything and was behaving abnormally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The newspaper compared it with 'Sanjeevani' herb. Do we know of any such thing present in current time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T07:39:43.380" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T07:39:43.380" Title="Is 'Sanjeevani Booti' known to be present in current times as well?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3962" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3929" CreationDate="2014-12-09T17:17:39.413" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Consider the grand Epic Mahabharata. These were some main events that occurred in the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yudishtra succumbs to Shakuni and Duryodhana's taunts and loses game after game in dice, thereby giving up the kingdom, the brothers and even the wife.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pandavas now have to face war against Duryodhana and 99 other Kauravas. Not only that the teacher of Arjuna Dhronacharya, the great undefeatable Bhishma, the invincible Karna, the great warriors are present in the opposite side.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arjuna now goes and seeks Krishna for help, but what are the events that ensue. Sri Krishna says that He will not fight at all in this battle. The entire Krishna's army goes to Duryodhana whereas Lord Krishna comes to Pandavas side as a mere 'charioteer'.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: Mahabharata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we all know what happened at the end, Sri Krishna, by being the 'charioteer' guided and ensured that Pandavas and 'Dharma' came out trumps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is definitely an actual historical event. But there are also subtle messages that Sri Krishna wanted to convey. Here are some useful analogy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pandavas refer to the FIVE SENSES.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Duryodhana and Shakuni refers to the temptations and negative thoughts of the Mind.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Krishna refers to God in Man, the In Dweller!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With these in Mind let us go over the events in Mahabharata again:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The five senses (Pandavas) are constantly being tempted by the Mind's thoughts and fetters (Shakuni and Duryodhana) to indulge in activities (game of dice) that surely lead to trouble (loss of kingdom, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thus in order to obtain peace, it is necessary to indulge in this Holy War against the six enemies of kama, krodha, loba, moha, madha and matsarya. But alas, the entire army of the delusive nature of the Mind is on the other side, including great warriors like Bhishma and Karna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;So how to win? Let Sri krishna be your charioteer. Though He will not fight Himself the war for you, He will ensure victory. In some way or the other, although He does not fight physically, it is actually He who fights the war and wins it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No matter if Krishna's own army is on the other side, when He is on your side, how can you LOSE?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Start fighting, do not misdirect your senses towards unnecessary thoughts which are nothing but your Mind's delusive army. Instead let your senses by directed by God, or Sri Krishna. In other words, turn your senses inward. Listen to your Self.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References: Adapted from teachings of Sri Sai Baba, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Sri Ramana Maharishi and other saints/avatars/mahatmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how to not be mislead by senses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;By chanting God's name. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says (Sri Siksastakam - Text 2):&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benediction to living beings, and thus You have hundreds and millions of names like Krishna and Govinda. In these transcendental names You have invested all Your transcendental energies. There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting these names. O my Lord, out of kindness You enable us to easily approach You by Your holy names&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;By focusing on one thought and making it single-pointed. Swami Vivekananda says (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, &quot;Six Lessons on Raja Yoga&quot; part, Fourth Lesson):&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The easiest way to get hold of the mind is to sit quiet and let it drift where it will for a while. Hold fast to the idea, &quot;I am the witness watching my mind drifting. The mind is not I.&quot; Then see it think as if it were a thing entirely apart from yourself. Identify yourself with God, never with matter or with the mind. Picture the mind as a calm lake stretched before you and the thoughts that come and go as bubbles rising and breaking on its surface. Make no effort to control the thoughts, but watch them and follow them in imagination as they float away. This will gradually lessen the circles. For the mind ranges over wide circles of thought and those circles widen out into ever increasing circles, as in a pond when we throw a stone into it. We want to reverse the process and starting with a huge circle make it narrower until at last we can fix the mind on one point and make it stay there. Hold to the idea, &quot;I am not the mind, I see that I am thinking, I am watching my mind act', and each day the identification of yourself with thought and feeling will grow less, until at last you can entirely separate yourself from the mind and actually know it to be apart from yourself. When this is done, the mind is your servant to control as you will. The first stage of being a yogi is to go beyond the senses. When the mind is conquered, he has reached the highest stage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;By rendering selfless and unconditional love and service to all beings as manifestations of God. Swami Sivananda says (Essence of Divine Life by Sri Swami Sivananda, taken from the book Students, Spiritual Literature and Sivananda by Sri Swami Chidananda):&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The secret of Divine Life lies in the spirit of service and sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is just one possible meaning that can be inferred. There may be others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically saying when sitting in meditation, do not worry about negative thoughts (or any thoughts for that matter), believe that you are being guided by Lord Krishna (Lord Vishnu or Lord Shiva or Your own Conscience or God) and always focus your attention on God, ignoring all else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Initially it may seem like you are going to lose everything because you are not paying attention. But indeed His grace will save you from even the worst of calamities as illustrated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2014-12-10T14:31:02.060" LastActivityDate="2014-12-10T14:31:02.060" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3963" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3929" CreationDate="2014-12-09T18:27:40.287" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it harms. Every thought has signal strength which may be more or less but it has. Now when you have bad thought it has negative frequency so it effect your mind as well as if your negative thought has Strong frequency then it also affect others mind some time it disturb others aura. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By continuously thinking bad thought it created our aura black.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But for your condition if you don't give attention to bad thought it will become less strong and within time plus with meditation it will go away from mind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-03T03:35:44.807" LastActivityDate="2015-03-03T03:35:44.807" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3964" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3997" CreationDate="2014-12-09T19:22:42.740" Score="9" ViewCount="2166" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the saints or rishis we see are male. Are there any female saints (except devotees through Bhakti yoga)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why do we find female rishis only rarely? Is there any reason?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Through which yoga females can get moksha? Can they get moksha using yogas other than Karma yoga and Bhakti yoga?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is self-realization for women easier when compared to men?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2019-05-16T04:31:00.333" Title="Are there any female rishis?" Tags="|rishi|saint|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3965" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-09T19:33:40.333" Score="5" ViewCount="2734" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know whether moksha is guaranteed for everyone i.e. everyone at some point is liberated from the cycle of birth and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be clear, if not in this birth, he will be re-born and he can try it the next time. So this process continues on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, my question is how long does this process go on? Does it go on till the end of the yuga or a yuga cycle (i.e 1 cycle of 4 yugas) or one kalpa or one Bramha year or the life time of Bramha or as long as he realizes and get moksha no matter how many Bramhas are created?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is moksha guaranteed for everyone at some point?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2014-12-14T14:32:18.377" Title="Is moksha guaranteed for everyone?" Tags="|moksha|yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3966" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="54" CreationDate="2014-12-10T01:52:17.243" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have four Vedas each of which in turn has samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanisads. This is generally considered as Sruti. Then we have other texts like Dharma Sastras, Puranas and Itihasas. These are generally considered as Smrti. However very minute percent of the original Vedas is available now and most of those who get lost in Vedas are interested in fruitive gains like elevation to higher material planets for better sense enjoyment. However Lord Krishna says in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/bg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita&lt;/a&gt; that the purpose of Vedas is to know Him only and asks Arjuna to rise above the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.42-43: Men of small knowledge are very much attached to the&#xA;  flowery words of the Vedas, which recommend various fruitive&#xA;  activities for elevation to heavenly planets, resultant good birth,&#xA;  power, and so forth. Being desirous of sense gratification and opulent&#xA;  life, they say that there is nothing more than this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.45: The Vedas deal mainly with the subject of the three modes of&#xA;  material nature. O Arjuna, become transcendental to these three modes.&#xA;  Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety,&#xA;  and be established in the self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.53: When your mind is no longer disturbed by the flowery language&#xA;  of the Vedas, and when it remains fixed in the trance of&#xA;  self-realization, then you will have attained the divine&#xA;  consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 15.15: I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come&#xA;  remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be&#xA;  known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of&#xA;  the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However Bhagavad Gita is considered to be the essence of all Upanishads (which are part of Vedas) and it can give us the true knowledge of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarvopanisado gavo&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dogdha gopala-nandanah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;partho vatsah su-dhir bhokta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dugdham gitamrtam mahat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“This Gitopanisad, Bhagavad-gita, the essence of all the Upanisads, is&#xA;  just like a cow, and Lord Krsna, who is famous as a cowherd boy, is&#xA;  milking this cow. Arjuna is just like a calf, and learned scholars and&#xA;  pure devotees are to drink the nectarean milk of Bhagavad-gita.”&#xA;  (Gita-mahatmya 6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Therefore Gita is one such scripture that is very well suitable for the people of modern age and is accepted by all schools of transcendentalists (personal and impersonal)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the Gita is the hidden treasure in Mahabharata, Vyasadeva was not satisfied even after giving the Vedas and the Mahabharata. This we see in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.4.28-29: I have, under strict disciplinary vows, unpretentiously&#xA;  worshiped the Vedas, the spiritual master and the altar of sacrifice.&#xA;  I have also abided by the rulings and have shown the import of&#xA;  disciplic succession through the explanation of the Mahābhārata, by&#xA;  which even women, śūdras and others [friends of the twice-born] can&#xA;  see the path of religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.4.30: I am feeling incomplete, though I myself am fully equipped&#xA;  with everything required by the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At this point Narada, the guru of Vyasa, advises him to write Srimad Bhagavatam. This we see in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 5&lt;/a&gt; where the events leading to Bhagavatam were given:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.5.12: Knowledge of self-realization, even though free from all&#xA;  material affinity, does not look well if devoid of a conception of the&#xA;  Infallible [God]. What, then, is the use of fruitive activities, which&#xA;  are naturally painful from the very beginning and transient by nature,&#xA;  if they are not utilized for the devotional service of the Lord?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.5.13: O Vyāsadeva, your vision is completely perfect. Your good&#xA;  fame is spotless. You are firm in vow and situated in truthfulness.&#xA;  And thus you can think of the pastimes of the Lord in trance for the&#xA;  liberation of the people in general from all material bondage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further Bhagavatam is clear about it's purpose right from the beginning as we see below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.1.2 — Completely rejecting all religious activities which are&#xA;  materially motivated, this Bhagavata Purana propounds the highest&#xA;  truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in&#xA;  heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for&#xA;  the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This&#xA;  beautiful Bhagavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyasadeva [in his&#xA;  maturity], is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the&#xA;  need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and&#xA;  submissively hears the message of Bhagavatam, by this culture of&#xA;  knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.1.3 — O expert and thoughtful men, relish Srimad-Bhagavatam, the&#xA;  mature fruit of the desire tree of Vedic literatures. It emanated from&#xA;  the lips of Sri Sukadeva Gosvami. Therefore this fruit has become even&#xA;  more tasteful, although its nectarean juice was already relishable for&#xA;  all, including liberated souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Gita, towards the end, Lord Krisha says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja - Abandon all&#xA;  varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly bhagavatam start with &lt;code&gt;dharmah projjhita-kaitavo ’tra&lt;/code&gt; Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhagavata Purana propounds the highest truth. And it says further &lt;code&gt;srimad-bhagavate maha-muni-krte kim va parair&lt;/code&gt; This beautiful Bhagavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyasadeva [in his maturity], is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita tell us to surrender to Krishna and Bhagavatam tells us about glories of His name, qualities and pastimes. Bhagavatam contains the practical examples of how to surrender to Krishna and execute devotional service. Also Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu considered Bhagavatam as the natural commentary on Vedanta Sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Therefore these two scriptures Bhagavad Gita (Instructions of Krishna) and Srimad Bhagavatam (Descriptions about Krishna) are the essence of all Vedic literarture and are most suitable to guide us to ultimate perfection.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;What about doing whatever you want to do as suggested in Gita? Doesn't Hinduism tell us to do whatever we want to do?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 18.63 — Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more&#xA;  conﬁdential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to&#xA;  do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, Lord Krishna doesn't stop with that. The government let's people do what ever they want but it also punishes those when the violate the law. Similarly laws of nature will give us reactions when we act whimsically. While Lord Krishna tells Arjuna to do whatever he wants he can do that is not what the Lord recommends him to do. As a kind father of all living entities the Lord pours out his heart in the next verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 18.64 — Because you are My very dear friend, I am speaking to you&#xA;  My supreme instruction, the most conﬁdential knowledge of all. Hear&#xA;  this from Me, for it is for your beneﬁt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 18.65 — Always think of&#xA;  Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus&#xA;  you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are&#xA;  My very dear friend.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 18.66 — Abandon all varieties of religion and&#xA;  just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions.&#xA;  Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This last instruction is His most well-wishing, merciful and loving instruction for those who want to follow and as I said above Gita and Bhagavatam will help us follow this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-12-10T01:52:17.243" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3968" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3953" CreationDate="2014-12-10T02:24:01.980" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does space store everything, the past, present and the future?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;From a mundane perspective space can store data. Like we see a small electronic chip holding tera bytes of data. However when you talk of human memory this is a function of soul and subtle body rather than physical space. Some people can remember past lives but their gross body that occupies material space is completely changed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also, is space associated with any god (like Sun, Fire, Water etc)?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the subject matter of sankhya and described in Srimad Bhagavatam in different places. The best place where this is described is by Lord Kapila to His mother Devahuti in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Canto 3 Chapter 26&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 3.26.32 — When egoism in ignorance is agitated by the sex energy of&#xA;  the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the subtle element sound is&#xA;  manifested, and from sound come the ethereal sky and the sense of&#xA;  hearing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the sound is the basis of space and also other subsequent elements like air, fire, water, earth. Now later the form of Virata Purusa is described and for different organs there are different devatas that were described. Fire is associated with the mouth, Vayu(wind-god) with Nostrils, Sun with eyes and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 3.26.54 — First of all a mouth appeared in Him, and then came forth&#xA;  the organ of speech, and with it the god of fire, the deity who&#xA;  presides over that organ. Then a pair of nostrils appeared, and in&#xA;  them appeared the olfactory sense, as well as prana, the vital air.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 3.26.55 — In the wake of the olfactory sense came the wind-god, who&#xA;  presides over that sense. Thereafter a pair of eyes appeared in the&#xA;  universal form, and in them the sense of sight. In the wake of this&#xA;  sense came the sun-god, who presides over it. Next there appeared in&#xA;  Him a pair of ears, and in them the auditory sense and in its wake the&#xA;  Dig-devatas, or the deities who preside over the directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above descriptions the Dig-devatas preside over the directions and they are related to the sound (auditory sense) as well. So this gives us one association with space and a devata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the relation between space and the chanting of mantras?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;From the above Bhagavatam references we can understand that sound is the source of space and hence mantras(specific Vedic sounds) can deliver us from this material world which we perceive in terms of time and space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="1014" LastEditDate="2014-12-10T18:19:20.847" LastActivityDate="2014-12-10T18:19:20.847" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3969" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-10T04:48:30.430" Score="13" ViewCount="953" Body="&lt;p&gt;We are under classic assumption that a soul with lot of good karma do spend long time in heaven. It will take long time for it to be reincarnated back on earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also know that pandava heroes are generally had lot of good karmas in their credit.Especially Yudhistira is personification of truth and goodness.Logically speaking he is supposed to spend in heaven for long time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Svargarohana parva of mahabharata , indra invites yudhistira as to enjoy pleasentaries in svarga as&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18003.htm&quot;&gt;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18003.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O mighty-armed one, enjoy now those regions (svarga) which have&#xA;  become thine through the Rajasuya sacrifice performed by thee and&#xA;  whose felicities have been enhanced by the sacrificial scimitar&#xA;  employed by thee. Let the high fruits of thy penances be enjoyed by&#xA;  thee. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as everyone know , Mahabharata was narrated to janamejaya after death of parikshita. It is also quoted that Parikshita ruled for 60 years before his death.So it was around 60 years, before pandavas died.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now at the end of svargarohana parva , janamejaya asks sauti , what happened to pandava heroes after their time in svarga is over as below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18005.htm&quot;&gt;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18005.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;tell me for what period they remained in Heaven. O foremost of&#xA;  regenerate persons, was theirs an eternal place in Heaven? What was&#xA;  the end attained to by those foremost of men when their acts came to&#xA;  an end? &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Sauti explains in detail the final destination , after time in svarga came to end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Every one, O king of men, is not capable of returning to his own&#xA;  nature at the end of his deeds. It was explained (to us) by Vyasa of&#xA;  mighty energy,celestial vision and great prowess.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then he goes on explain , yudhistira entered into yama,Drona entered into Brihaspati , Kritavarma entered the Maruts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So now comes to question ,how exactly yudhistira  a personification of rightousness  , spent just 60 human years in heaven?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I consider 60 years is very less because, 360 human years = 1 year in svarga. So nearly he spent just Two divine months in svarga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on this logic , most of us common people , should spend much less time in svarga . Does it happen like that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have seen multiple modern day  books which details on past life experiences (for ex: &lt;strong&gt;Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Vol. I: Ten Cases in India. University of Virginia Press.. By Ian Stevenson&lt;/strong&gt;) clearly quotes , people are coming back to new life after 100s of years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I am wondering what I am missing in overall Story.??&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-05T10:34:16.147" LastActivityDate="2018-10-05T10:34:16.147" Title="Time spent in heavenly planets" Tags="|vedas|mahabharata|time|lokas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3970" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3955" CreationDate="2014-12-10T05:25:58.873" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The great God-realized yogis place great emphasis on vibrations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are the vibrations?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vibrations are some the manifestation of the supreme Sound of God (Aum). This Aum vibration exists at all times and is the seed of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in the Gita (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;8:13&lt;/a&gt;) that it is one of the ways to attain the Ultimate Goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;oḿ ity ekākṣaraḿ brahma&#xA;vyāharan mām anusmaran&#xA;yaḥ prayāti tyajan dehaḿ&#xA;sa yāti paramāḿ gatim&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The one who chants the Eternal mono-syllable OM, the vibration of Brahman, constantly remembering Me, leave their body and attain the Supreme Goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From this Aum come all other vibrations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Madhvacharya states in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-17-23/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; for Gita verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17/23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;17:23&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In all creation His transcendental sound vibration OM is the root of all sounds and all pervasively always vibrating within and without. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Swami Paramhansa Yogananda says about vibrations (Taken from Cosmic Chants by Paramahansa Yogananda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sound or vibration is the most powerful force in the universe. Music is a divine art, to be used not only for pleasure but as a path to God-realization. Vibrations resulting from devotional singing lead to attunement with the Cosmic Vibration&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fact that all vibrations link back to the Cosmic Vibration (AUM) gives it their supreme power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chanting sincerely naturally attunes one to the Real Self, by cleaning the senses and mind of unnecessary fears and thoughts!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Adi Shankarcharya says this about chanting the &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/adi-shankaracharya-explains-gayatri-mantra/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gayatri Mantra&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Sarvabudhi samgnanthah karana prkashakah sarva sakshi prethyagathma iti uccyathe&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By praying, chanting the Gayatri, all the inner organs, Gnanedriyas, Mans, Buddhi, Chitta and the Para Brahman in the Form of Witness reveal themselves,the first four being cleaned by the Gayathri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how chanting can be made powerful as said by Sri Yoganandaji (Taken from Cosmic Chants by Paramhansa Yogananda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Holding the attention unbrokenly on the real Cosmic Vibration, Aum or Om, not on an imaginary or an outward sound, is the beginning of real superconscious chanting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;About how can these vibrations protect us, Yoganandaji says (Taken from Cosmic Chants by Paramhansa Yogananda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Words that are saturated with sincerity, conviction, faith, and intuition are like highly explosive vibration bombs that have power to remove the rocks of difficulties and to create the change desired.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Basically saying that this superconscious attuning to the Divine Force or AUM causes removal of difficulties.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But how can a vibration remove difficulties or protect or guide or reach God? Sri Ramakrishna says (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, page 370-371 excerpts &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishna.org/om.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sound OM is Brahman. The rishis and sages practiced austerity to realize that Sound-Brahman. After attaining perfection one hears the sound of this eternal Word rising spontaneously from the navel. &quot;'What will you gain', some sages ask, 'by merely hearing this sound?' You hear the roar of the ocean from a distance. By following the roar you can reach the ocean. As long as there is the roar, there must also be the ocean. By following the trail of OM you attain Brahman, of which the Word is the symbol. That Brahman has been described by the Vedas as the ultimate goal.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is in other words saying it is like a trail. The sound allows you to naturally calm your mind, your restlessness (which is the root of all evil) and make it easy for you to listen to the voice of the Divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-01T21:12:45.827" LastActivityDate="2016-04-01T21:12:45.827" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3971" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-10T10:35:04.970" Score="6" ViewCount="1881" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana, we hear of many Vanaras (Monkeys) having various powers like Nal-Neel have the power of throwing anything in water and they will float, Angad having power of increasing his tail size and even making it to use like a chair or putting his leg  on ground such that no one could pull it up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Jambwant is also said to be able to fly to distant places in his young age and Lord Hanuman we all know. So, I just wanted to know what all other powers did Angad, Nal, Neel, Jambwant and Sugreeva actually had and also how did they get those powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2014-12-10T18:29:57.087" LastActivityDate="2014-12-10T18:29:57.087" Title="Powers of Sugreva, Jambwant, Nal, Neel and Angad" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3972" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3969" CreationDate="2014-12-10T11:47:20.860" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let's look at the some verses from Mahabharata (as available on link provided by you &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18005.htm&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaishampayana said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Every one, O king of men, is not capable of returning to his own nature at the end of his deeds. Whether this is so or not, is, indeed a good question asked by thee. Hear, O king, this which is a mystery of the gods, O chief of Bharata’s race. It was explained (to us) by Vyasa of mighty energy, celestial vision and great prowess, that ancient ascetic, O Kauravya, who is the son of Parasara and who always observes high vows, who is of immeasurable understanding, who is omniscient, and who, therefore knows the end attached to all acts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mark the words Vyasa of &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;immesurable understanding, who is omniscient, and who, therefore knows the end attached to all acts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we can construe that Vyasa has the power to fore see.&#xA;After the stay in Heaven or hell, Vyasa knew in advance what would happen to Yudhistra and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case of Krishna and Balarama, there is no Karma attached as they are the avataras of Supreme Lord Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The holy and illustrious Ananta (who had taken birth as Balarama) proceeded to the region below the Earth. Through the command of the Grandsire, he, aided by his Yoga power, supported the Earth. Vasudeva was a portion of that eternal god of gods called Narayana. Accordingly, he entered into Narayana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, how long the Lord stayed in Heaven etc doesn't make sense. It wouldn't apply for the Lord and Ananta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the rest Vyasa has foreseen the end, when Vaisampayana says Vyasa &amp;quot;therefore knows the end attached to all acts.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further it is said in the mahabharata Sauti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have now told everything that Vaishampayana narrated, at the command of Vyasa, unto the king at his snake sacrifice. Called a history, it is sacred, sanctifying and excellent. &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It has been composed by the ascetic Krishna (Vyasa), O Brahmana, of truthful speech. He is omniscient, conversant with all ordinances, possessed of a&#xA;knowledge of all duties, endued with piety, capable of perceiving what&#xA;is beyond the ken of the senses, pure, having a soul cleansed by&#xA;penances, possessed of the six high attributes, and devoted to Sankhya&#xA;Yoga. He has composed this, beholding everything with a celestial&#xA;eye&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; that has been cleansed (strengthened) by varied lore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mark the words in bold. Vyasa could foresee everything with his celestial eye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Keeping in mind all the above statements from Mahabharata, answer to your question is,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When sauti says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Yudhistira entered into yama,Drona entered into Brihaspati , Kritavarma entered the Maruts etc,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;it need not necessarily mean that they have spent only 60 human years in heaven. Vyasa has foreseen this part and drafted it into Mahabharata.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-12-10T11:56:49.813" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3973" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3953" CreationDate="2014-12-10T14:05:10.197" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Space = akasha. The literal translation of akasha is space or sky or ether. It is one of the 5 material elements. It is the first element to evolve from Saguna Brahman. It comes from Om, the initial manifestation of Brahman. From akasha come the other 4 elements. The 5 elements are unmixed and subtle. From these elements come all the subtle bodies of all beings and also the gross elements. Once the 5 elements are created, then Brahma is created. Everything in the created universe rests in akasha.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-10T14:05:10.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3974" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3965" CreationDate="2014-12-10T14:25:07.793" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, everyone gets moksha but how long it takes is up to you. If you do not get it by the end of a kalpa, your jiva gets 'recycled' to the next kalpa. There is no guarantee that it takes one or two or three or.....many kalpas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From an pure advaita standpoint, you are already free. You cannot attain that which is eternal if you yourself were not already that. &quot;Moksha cannot have a beginning and be eternal.&quot; (Mandukya Upanishad Gaudapada's Karika IV. 30.) Every soul (jiva) is a part of the Divine, none can be deprived or destroyed of what they really are. Everyone will attain to that which they are already.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a relative standpoint, everything in this world is the result of cause and effect, and all cause in this world is relative and there is no action that can result in a permanent reaction. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As long as a soul (jiva) has desires, rebirth will occur. (Gita 2. 42-44, 2. 62-63. and 3. 37.) There is no end to rebirth so long as the objects of the world are desired. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person who allows tamasic desires to take hold of him must go through even more innumerable births - Gita (16. 7-20.) &quot;...Having fallen into the wombs of the demons and being deluded from birth to birth, they never attain Me, O son of Kunti, but go farther down to the lowest state.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a wonderful story (Brahmavaivarta Purana, Krishna-janma Khanda 47. 50-161.) of a brahmin 'boy' who appeared at Indra's court one day. While talking together, a procession of ants made an appearance and walked across the floor in military fashion 4 meters wide. The 'boy' paused and stared at them and then starting laughing. When Indra asked him why he was laughing, the 'boy' replied that each one of the ants was a former Indra, but after many rebirths had become an ant. The army was an army of former Indras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How many births is up to you, how many kalpas is up to you. Give up desires.           &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2014-12-11T11:29:17.117" LastActivityDate="2014-12-11T11:29:17.117" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3975" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-10T16:32:18.943" Score="9" ViewCount="8128" Body="&lt;p&gt;We read many times that a particular deva/person/asura was given a boon that he could e.g., become invincible, no one can kill him or will get something or the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, some people are cursed that something bad will happen to them either immediately or after some time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wanted to know how can a person say something (good or bad) about another person and Gods/nature will fulfill that. In case of Gods, it is still ok to an extent that they can do anything, but for mortal persons to be able to give a boon or curse is something which is confusing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even in case of Gods, e.g., if they give a boon to someone that he cannot be defeated in a war, how will they make sure that he will only fight with ones who are less powerful than him and not stronger?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what do Gods/people do for their boon or curse to really work?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-07-11T19:24:18.480" LastActivityDate="2018-12-05T05:47:34.587" Title="How does a boon or curse work?" Tags="|gods|karma|curse|boon|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3976" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3975" CreationDate="2014-12-10T22:28:13.470" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can't back up my answers with clear cut quotes from scriptures for this question. But I can answer what I have deduced from indirect references in multiple scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Curse or boon is indirect karmic capacity you can transfer to another person. When you meditate, pray or do poojas you start accumulating good karma. When it reaches a certain limit you get the capability to do certain things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every time you curse or give away a boon, you would lose corresponding amount of your good karma. I faintly remember a story of seer, who gained certain amount of power after meditating in the forest, came back to live among normal people. He started giving boons to people he liked and cursing people he didn't. Very soon he exhausted all his good karma and was rendered powerless. In the process he also accumulated bad karma and had to suffer due to his recklessness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a person with low good karmic limit tries to curse a person with higher karmic limit, he can either avoid or change the curse. Hence everything boils down to the amount of good karma one has in his kit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T02:25:44.797" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T02:25:44.797" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3977" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-11T07:24:02.243" Score="4" ViewCount="5194" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3843/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important in the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu.  Since the Pancharatra texts originated from Narayana himself, they are followed by pretty much all mainstream Vaishnava Sampradayas, whether Sri Vaishnavas, Madhvas, Gaudiya Vaishnavas, etc.  In fact you can pretty much define Vaishnavism the belief in the supremacy of Vishnu as it's described in the Pancharatra texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is another group of Vishnu-worshippers who worship Vishnu according to the different set of texts, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_Venkateswara_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaikhanasas&lt;/a&gt;.  Vaikhanasas place more emphasis on rituals than in high-minded philosophy; while mainstream Vaishnavas are committed to elaborate Vedantic philosophical systems, like Dvaita or Visistadvaita, Vaikhanasa doctrines are more about the construction and worship of idols and the like.  The vast majority of Vishnu-worshippers are Vaishnavas, but there are a few Vaikhanasa temples in India.  In fact, the most popular Vishnu temple in the world, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_Venkateswara_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple&lt;/a&gt;, is a Vaikhanasa temple, not a Vaishnava temple, although since the time of Ramanujacharya (the Sri Vaishnava acharya) the Vaikhanasa priests have agreed to follow some Pancharatra customs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the origin of the Vaikhanasa tradition is recounted in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/XBiP&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from S. Rangachar's book &quot;Philosophy of Pancaratras&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma incarnated himself as Vikhanas in the Naimisharanya and then Vishnu Himself taught Brahma the mysteries of worship in the form of thirty two questions.  Since God, the Bhagavan himself taught this Agama to Brahma first, Vishnu Himself is the originator of the Agama also as in the case of Pancharatra Agama.  As it was Vikhanasa who gave this Agama to the world directly through his four disciples or Maharishis, namely Atri, Marichi, Kashyapa and Bhrigu, he is as said to be the Pravartaka of this Agama and hence the agama is called after him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of Brahma's incarnation Vikhanasa, founder of the Vaikhanasa tradition?  What was his ancestry and what else happened to him, apart from getting 32 questions answered by Vishnu and teaching his doctrines to four famous sages?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only information I could find in Hindu scripture about the origin of the Vaikhanasas is in the Narayaniya portion of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3936/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Narayaniya is a Pancharatra text that is part of the Mahabharata.  It's an 18-chapter religious dialogue between Yudishthira and Bhishma in the importance of worshipping Narayana/Vishnu, similar to the 18-chapter religious dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna we call the Bhagavad Gita.  In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c048.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Narayaniya, Narada describes the religion of Vishnu-worship was passed down in every Mahakalpa, and here is what he says about the first Mahakalpa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In that [Mahakalpa] when Brahma the Creator, O king, took his birth in the mind of Narayana and issued from the latter's mouth, Narayana himself performed, O Bharata, his Daiva and Paitra rites in accordance with this religion. Those Rishis that subsist upon the froth of water then obtained it from Narayana. From the froth-eating Rishis, this religion was obtained by those Rishis that go by the name of Vaikanasas. From the Vaikanasas, Shoma got it. Afterwards, it disappeared from the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So was Vikhanasa one of these &quot;Rishis that subsist upon the froth of water&quot;?  Are there any other scriptures that mention Vikhanasa's story?  Do the Vaikhanasas texts themselves discuss it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, do the 32 questions that Vikhanasa asked Vishnu still survive?  After listing the various Vaikhanasa texts, Rangachar says &quot;For all these, the Muladhara, the basic foundation is said to be the Thirty Two Sutras given out by Vaikhanasa himself.&quot;  So has this foundational text been preserved?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-06-05T00:53:48.070" Title="What is the story of Vikhanasa, founder of the Vaikhanasa school?" Tags="|vishnu|philosophy|vaishnavism|vaikhanasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3979" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3977" CreationDate="2014-12-11T12:39:34.107" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is believed that Sage Vikhanasa was created from the mind (Maanaseeka Udbhava) of Sriman NarayaNa, when many sages were reluctant to engage in the performance of AarAdhanam for Him in bhU lOkam because they were unsure of doing the right kind of ArAdhanam. They had no clue. Sriman NarAyaNa through viSEsha khananam (digging) created a new sage,named him VikhAnasa and  empowered him to perform ArAdhanams for Him in His Vibhava and archAvatArams through upadEsams on Veda, VedAntams and initiation into Gayatri/Saavitri mantrams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Vikhanasar arrived at NaimisAraNyam, where the Lord is present as a Forest. He arrived there withhis Nine sishyAs, Atri, Brughu, Mareechi, Kasyapa, Vasishta, Pulaha, Pulashtya Krathu and Angiras in the time of Swayambhuva (The 1st one)Manvantaram, Sukla Paksham, SrAvana Pournami, Monday, Simhalagnam with star of Sravanam according to Sage MarIchI's Ananda SamhitA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among them four sishyas Atri, Bhrigu, Marichi and KAsyapa has written the major portion of Sri Vaikhanasa Bhagavachhastram based on the teachings of Vikhanasa Maharshi. Sage Vikhanasa blessed the world with one and half crores of PramAnams in his Aagamam. The four sishyAs condensed these vast numbers of PramAnams to a smaller subset of four Lakhs of grantams to make it simpler for the human beings to follow for the worship of the Lord through  VaikhAnasa Aagamam (sUtram VikhanasA prOktam saardhakODi pramANakam, chaturlaksha pramANEna samkshipya prOchyatE adhunA).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vaikhanasas as a community are temple priests. They regard themselves as ordained by birth to be temple priests and they are enjoined not to follow other avocation in life. Vishnu himself is said to have declared that those who follow the Vaikhanasa Sutra are dearer to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a verse in Varaha Purana Lord Vishnu says that the Aswatha Tree, the Red Cows, the tulasi plant and the sage Vikhanasa (the ancestor of the community) are the four things that are dear to him, and that among the four, Sage Vikhanas is the dearest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ananda Samhitha (Marichi) states that the Sage Vikhanasa who prepared the Vaikhanasa Sutra according to a branch of Yajurveda was Brahma himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AdikAlEtu bhagavAn brahmA tu viKhanA muni: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yaju: shAkhAnusArE chakrE sUtra mahattaram ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kriyadhikara (Bhrigu) identifies Vikhanasa with Vishnu or with the first sage who appeared as an aspect of Vishnu (viz, Brahma), and says that the Sutra was taught by this sage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;viKhanAvai vishNu: tajjA vaiKhAnsA smritA: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vishNuvamsajaSva viKhAnA munInAm prathamO muni: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tEnOpadishta yatsUtram tatsUtrEshUttamam smritam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma, the creator, who was the offspring of Vishnu, was called the firstsage, and was called Vikhanasa, because he dug into his own mind (manasAh KhananAt) for creating the scriptural lore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;viKhanA iti prOkthO manasa: KhananAt suta: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;brahmaNA: suvisEshENa munInA prathamO muni: ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Digging up into (Khanana) appears to be in the background of the expression Vikhanas. Several shades of meaning have been projected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ananda Samhita speaks of Vishnu 'digging up' the essential import of the Upanishads before he gave the scriptural lore of the Vaikhanasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vEdAntatattvamImAmsAKhananam krutavan hari: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nAmnA viKhanasam chakrE tatpadAnvarthayOgata: ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Digging into the meaning of Veda or intense inquiry into the thrust of the Vedic corpus was said to have been accomplished by the first sage, who was therefore called as Vikhanasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;KhananAdviKhanA muni: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Khananam tatvamImAmsEtyAhu |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nigamArthAnAm KhananAditi na: Srutam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Digging out the hidden meaning of Vedas and revealing them to the human beings, according to Ananda Samhita, were the tasks that Vishnu accomplished and therefore he became known as Vikhanasa, and his offspring who was the progenitor of all was known as Vaikhanasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;antarhitAnAm KhananAdvEdAnAm tu visEshata: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sa vibhu: prOchyatE sarvairviKhanA brahmavAdibhi: ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vaiKhAnasaSva bhagavAn prOchyatE sa pithAmaha: ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the word Vikhanasa, in the background expression, is interpreted as referring to Brahma, the creator, a distinction is made in Nrisimha Purana, between the older Brahma (Agraja), who was born out of Vishnu's mind with only one head and who became the author of the Sutras, and the younger&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma (Anuja), who was born out of Vishnu's navel, with four faces, for producing the worlds and denizens in them. Vikhanasa, who was the 'older' Brahma, became the 'younger' Brahma after six incarnations (incarnation meaning 'Manvantharam' and now it's the 7th Manvantharam). The sages Bhrigu, Atri, Marichi and Kasyapa are said to have received the cult of Vishnu from the first Vikhanasa (viz., the older Brahma in Svayambhuva Manvantharam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The approach of the Vaikhanasa worship is described as peaceful (soumya).&#xA;Thus, the expression vikhanas (with its derived form Vaikhanasa) has many shades of meaning: the great god Vishnu himself, the creator Brahma who appeared from his navel-lotus,  the great sage who was mind born and who was instructed by Vishnu himself in the matter of worship, the sage who was the progenitor of the lines of the Vaikhanasa devotees, the divine author of the sutras known after him, and the hermit who was in the third stage of life. It is probable that the Vaikhanasa community was so called because of the involvement in all of these aspects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More importantly, Vaikhanasas are distinguished by their uncompromising adoption of the Vaikhanasa-Sutra, which is devoted in all its parts to Vishnu and which was initially communicated by Vishnu himself to the sage Vikhanasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AdikAlEtu bhagavAn brahmA tu viKhanA muni: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yaju: SAKhAnusArENa chakrE sUtram mahattaram |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tatsUtravidhyanushtAnAt smritA vaiKhAnasAstu tE |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yatsUtrAdyantamadhyEshu bhagavAn vishNuravyaya: ||  (from Atri's Pura-Tantram)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sage Vikhanas (or the primordial Vikhanasa) is adored by the community in its daily prayer as one who is sustained by Vishnu (achyutagam-srayAya), who is engaged in severe austerities (tapOgra-nishta), and who is the knower of the highest principle (brahma-darsin). He is described as an expert in the worship of Vishnu (Vishnu-pUjA-visArada), as four armed and seated upon a tortoise seat holding in his hands, the sacred water pot, rosary and ascetic's staff. He is worshipped as present on the right side of Vishnu's main idol 'Dhruva-bera'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vikhanasa is also described as having Vishnu as his father and Lakshmi as his mother, and sages like Bhrigu as his disciples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nArAyaNa: pithA yasya mAtA chApi hari priyA |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhrugvAdi munaya: SishyAstasmai viKhaNasE nama: ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atri Maharshi gives the story of how the Brahma obtained from Vishnu the Vaikhanasa sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the beginning of creation, Vishnu taught the creator Brahma, the method of worship according to the Vedic corpus. This teaching was a thousand crore of verses in extent ('sahasra-kOtibhis slokaih sAnKhyatAm bahu vistAram'). But this elaborate worship manual disappeared in course of time. Then Brahma went to Naimisa forest as an ascetic with matted hair on the head, and began to perform severe penance. He meditated for long years on Vishnu and by the power of penance perceived the Agama (scripture explaining the worship procedure) elaborately as it was once taught by Vishnu (apasyAd Vishnuktam Agamam vistArat tada). He was now known as Vikhanas or great sage. He abridged the elaborate teachings, retaining the most essential aspects (samkshipya sAram AdAya) and taught this version, which was like a well-carved gem (sanolliKhita-ratnAvat), to his sons, Marichi and others, who were hermits. This version was one and half crore of verses in extent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dhAtA viKhanasO nAma marIchyAdistutAnmunIn |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;abOdhayadidam ShAstram sArthakOti pramANata: ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages who received this abridged teaching were four in number; and asthey were the offsprings of Vikhanas, they came to be recognized as Vaikhanasas: Marichi, Bhrigu, Atri and Kasyapa. They recast and further condensed the teaching in four lakhs of verses ('chAturlaksheshu granthEsu samkshipya samhitah'). And they were responsible for the formation of the Vaikhansa community.According to Marichi, the arrival of Vikhanasa Maharshi in the Naimisa forest was on a Monday, when there was full moon and lagna was simha, during the bright half of the Sravana month, in the era which began with Swayambhuva Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sravanE srAvanE sukla pourNimA sOmavAsarE |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;simha lagnEcha samyuktE bhajE naimisamAgatam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Kriyadhikara' by Sage Bhrigu provides a more elaborative description on how the Vaikhanasa mode of worship was instituted. When Vishnu at the beginning of the Kalpa was absorbed in meditational slumber (yoga-nidra) upon the milky ocean, Brahma appeared, in the lotus, which sprang forth from Vishnu's navel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma, four faced, contemplated upon Vishnu as soon as he appeared, whereupon Vishnu directed him to create all the worlds and all the creatures in them, and gave him the Veda mantrAs to help him in the creation. Brahma created all things, all beings and all the gods, and worshipped Vishnu with the Vedic hymns. However, he became proud of his ability to create and became arrogant. Vishnu, in order to correct him, brought forth, two demons, Madhu and Kaitabha, who assaulted Brahma and snatched from him the VedAs, which they hid in the depths of the ocean. &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma with his power (Vedic Corpus) gone, became grief-stricken, and wondered how he should worship Vishnu now that the Vedic hymns were no longer available to him. Vishnu advised him to worship him for five days with the repetition of the twelve-lettered and eight-lettered mantras -dvAdasAksharam and ashtAksharam. This became what is known as the Pancharathra method of worship.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Vishnu decided to fight, and diving deep into the ocean killed the demons Madhu and Kaitabha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He brought the Vedas up and gave them to Brahma, who was overjoyed and began worshipping Vishnu again with the Vedic hymns (viz., in the Vaikhanasa way).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arrogance entered Brahma's mind a second time, and Vishnu, in order to correct him, created the demon Somaka, who attacked Brahma and took away the Vedas from him. Distraught, Brahma again approached Vishnu and asked him how he should be worshipped, now the Vedas having again gone out of his possession.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu advised him to worship without any mantras and in accordance with the Tantrik procedure. This is known as the Agneya mode of worship. Vishnu assumed the form of a great fish (Matsya), and killed the demon Somakasura with his great power. He brought back the Vedas and gave them to Brahma. Brahma was happy and he began again worshipping Vishnu with the Vedic hymns. Thus the Vaikhanasa mode of worship came to stay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vaikhanasas, tracing as they do their descent from Vishnu himself, regard themselves as Vishnu-devotees from their very birth (garbha-vaishnava- janmanam), not needing any other initiatory rites or diksha during their lives to make them Vishnu-devotees. The sacramental rites that are prevalent in a Vaikhanasa household include a symbolic ceremony, unique to this community, known as Vishnu-Bali (or garbha-chakra-samskaram). Prescribed to be performed during the bright half of the eighth month of pregnancy (garbhadhadyashtame masyeva sukla pakshe) in order to protect the individual within the womb of the prospective mother (asyah garbha-samrakshanartham).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu-bali is a sacrament which follows 'seemantha' (the ritual before child birth). The significance of this ritual is that an offering (Bali) is made to Vishnu (Vishnu-devatako balih upahriyate asmin); and even inside the mother's womb, the foetus acquires the status of a Vishnu-devotee (garbhastha sisoh garbhavaishnavatva siddhyartham). The ceremony involves a fire-ritual and offering to the pregnant lady, the sacrificial sweet rice-pudding (pAyasa) in which the emblems of Vishnu (Chakra and Sankha) has previously been dipped and a part offered to the fire. While the woman is drinking the remainder of the rice-pudding, the following mantra is recited.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tvatsutO bhAgyavAn dhanyO garbhavaishnava sangnita: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;aprAkrutO mahAtmAsau garbhachakrENa lAnchita: ||  (Sri Vaikhanasa Kalpa Sutram)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The belief is that Vishnu himself will brand on the arms of the individual to be born the marks of the conch and discus, which He carries in His own hands. Thus the person is a Vaishnava, even when he is born, and he is regarded as the offspring of Vishnu viz., Vaikhanasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The practical import of this ceremony is that the child born as a Vaikhansa is already sanctified and initiated by Vishnu himself and does not need any other sacrament or initiatory rite to make him a Vishnu-devotee or a qualified priest. He acquires the right to be a priest by his very birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is in contrast to the priests of other communities (as for eg. The Pancharathrins), for whom during the boyhood a formal ceremony of branding the arms with heated metallic images of Vishnu's conch and discus (tapta-mudrankana or samAsrayanam) is conducted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vaikhanasa know their scripture only as 'Bhavagachhastra'; their implicit acceptance of Vedic authority was well known even to the ancient smriti-karas like Baudhayana, idol worship was not for them a substitute for the Vedic ritual, but was itself in their view, a Vedic ritual. Hence the sutra prescription,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tasmAdagnau nityahOmAntE vishnurnityArchA gruhE dEvAyatanE bhaktyA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhagavantam nArAyanamarchayEt ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is an intriguing verse in Vishnu-Purana, which has been cited and explained by Srinivasa-Deekshita in his Tatparya-Chintamani (Uttama brahma vidya saram),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yajvabhiryagnapurushO vAsudEvaSva sAtvatau: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vEdAntavEdibhirvishnu: prOchyatE yO natOsmi tam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Godhead here is described as what the sacrificers (viz. the Vedic ritualists) worship as Yajna-Purusha (viz. the personification of sacrifice), the Sattvatas (viz, the Pancharathras) regards as Vasudeva, and the knowers of the final import of the Veda (viz. the Vaikhanasas) as Vishnu. Srinivasa-Deekshita (or Srinivasa-Makhin) distinguishes between the 'sacrificers' (viz. the knowers of the Veda,'vEda vidbhih Vaikhanasaih' also a group among the Vaikhanasas, devoted to the idol less rituals prescribed in the Veda, 'amUrtArchanam') and the knowers of Vedanta (viz. worshippers of idol representations of Vishnu, 'samUrta-bhagavadyajanam'), who are also Vaikhanasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These details are available at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/srirangasri/archives/nov08/pdflBmp5PRZAW.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-03-12T13:14:25.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3981" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-11T16:57:06.693" Score="2" ViewCount="119" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally people don't compare the intellects of saints. But sometimes when they talk about them, they say great saints. What does it mean by great saints?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does any saint has high intellect or know more about the Supreme being over the other?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If every enlightened saint has experienced the bliss then why does intellect vary between saints?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do they have more enthusiasm to experience the supreme being?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do they love the supreme being more than others?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do they be in samadhi for more time than the others?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Take Vyasa Maharshi for example, he is the Guru of the Gurus, the greatest saint living. In a similar cadre are Patanjali, the Sapta Rishis etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All saints achieve the thoughtless state and in the state everyone are one and the same. Then why does some saints have more intellect. Is it true to say so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2014-12-11T16:57:06.693" Title="Can one saint be more intellectual than the other?" Tags="|rishi|saint|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2014-12-11T19:32:55.973" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3982" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-11T17:04:02.570" Score="5" ViewCount="611" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know whether the ultimate consciousness is finite or infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone know the supreme being &lt;strong&gt;completely&lt;/strong&gt; or even for the liberated souls, there would be something still they should learn about the supreme being?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what does it mean to learn completely about him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it understanding how he pervades the universe?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it understanding all of his deeds/powers?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-19T16:59:21.203" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T09:24:08.897" Title="Is the ultimate consciousness infinite?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahman|consciousness|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3983" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3988" CreationDate="2014-12-11T17:33:07.763" Score="6" ViewCount="120" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know whether saints can get back to the normal state like us after realization? I mean like us with desires, fear and dualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can they get back to state of normal people after God realization? After &#xA;self-realization?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If so, why do they get? Do they have to make will to be back (which they don't mostly, of course)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T10:26:20.583" LastActivityDate="2016-04-09T10:26:20.583" Title="Can saints get back to normal state?" Tags="|brahman|saint|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3984" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3805" CreationDate="2014-12-12T01:47:36.667" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who gets human form on this earth?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally, the cases are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Some one could be evolving upwards from lower species of life.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Some one may have fallen from higher planets after enjoying the results of good&#xA;karma as stated in the Gita verse below.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When they have thus enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasure and the&#xA;results of their pious activities are exhausted, they return to this&#xA;mortal planet again. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/bg/9/21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagvad Gita 9.21&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we cannot assume that population must decrease in Kali yuga. There is exit and entry going on continously.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also kali-yuga is not all bad for those interested in self realization. According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/1/17/38&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhavatam 1.17.38&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/1/17/39&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1.17.39&lt;/a&gt; influence of Kali is there only in places where gambling, drinking, prostitution, animal slaughter and accumulation of gold (for material enjoyment) is there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The process of self-realization in kali yuga is also very easy. Just by chanting the holy names of Krishna one can attain perfection. This is confirmed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/12/3/51&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.51&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kaler dosa-nidhe rajann&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;asti hy eko mahan gunah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kirtanad eva krsnasya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; mukta-sangah param vrajet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still&#xA;one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Krsna&#xA;maha-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted&#xA;to the transcendental kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-12-12T01:47:36.667" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3985" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3792" CreationDate="2014-12-12T02:24:38.147" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why do we need a guru?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We need a guru so that we can receive spiritual knowledge and enlightenment. This is the recommended process of receiving spiritual knowledge. Lord Krishna talks about this in Gita and several other scriptures say the same thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic&#xA;  succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in&#xA;  course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as&#xA;  it is appears to be lost. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/bg/4/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 4.2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire&#xA;  from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized&#xA;  souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/bg/4/34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 4.34&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Can Lord be our Guru?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;He is the original Guru and all other gurus are His representatives. Lord Krishna, Rama, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and various acaryas all accepted a guru. Our guru and the Lord, both of them can instruct and inspire us at various times. Lord Krishna says in the Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/bg/10/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;10 and 11&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give&#xA;  the understanding by which they can come to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with&#xA;  the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So by the mercy of Guru we get Krishna who will help us further in our spiritual journey.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-12-12T02:24:38.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3986" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-12T05:37:05.330" Score="9" ViewCount="573" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before you do any Hindu ritual, you're supposed to begin by saying the Sankalpam, a formulaic utterance in which you tell the gods where you're located in the universe, the time and date when you're performing the ritual, what ritual you'd like to do, the purpose of the ritual, etc. Hindus of all sects say the Sankalpam in an almost identical fashion, except for a single line. (See page 2 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.avaniavittam.org/images/AvaniAvittam%20For%20Yajur%20Upaakarma%20Sankalmpam%20(%20iyengar).pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF&lt;/a&gt;). The line begins with the words &quot;Sri Bhagavat Agna&quot;, meaning (I do this ritual) by the command of Bhagavan or God (similar to the Latin expression &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annuit_c%C5%93ptis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Annuit Coeptis&lt;/a&gt;).  But how the line is continued depends on what sect you belong to and the philosophical beliefs of that sect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you belong to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarta_Tradition&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smartha&lt;/a&gt; sect founded by Adi Shankaracharya, then you would continue the line by saying something like &quot;Parvati Parameshwara Preethiyartham&quot; or just &quot;Parameshwara Preethiyartham&quot;, meaning that you are doing this ritual for the pleasure of Parameshwara (a name of Shiva).  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/799/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivaishnava&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnavas&lt;/a&gt; say different things depending on their subsect; Vadakalais say &quot;Sriman Narayana Preethiyartham&quot;, meaning you are doing the ritual for the pleasure of Narayana (a name of Vishnu), whereas Thenkalais say &quot;Bhagavat Kainkarya Roopam&quot;, meaning the ritual is just a form of work for Bhagavan or God.  (This seems to reflect a philosophical difference between these two subjects.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what do members of other sects say after the line &quot;Sri Bhagavat Agna&quot;?  What do Madhvas say, for instance, or Gaudiya Vaishnavas, or Vaikhanasas?  What did Hindus use to say before the time of Adi Shankaracharya, when these sects weren't so popular?  What would a non-Vedantic Hindu say (for instance a follower of Purva Mimamsa)?  What about members of movements like Arya Samaj?  I want to compile as many different completions of this line as possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, the preamble to the Vishnu Sahasrananam says &quot;Mahavishnu Preethiyarthe&quot;, so are there any sects of Hinduism that follow &quot;Sri Bhagavat Agna&quot; with &quot;Mahavishnu Preethiyartham&quot; (as opposed to &quot;Sriman Narayana Preethiyartham as some Sri Vaishnavas say)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-10-14T19:05:49.637" Title="How do the different Hindu sects complete the line &quot;Sri Bhagavat Agna&quot;?" Tags="|rituals|vaishnavism|philosophy|sects|sankalpa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3987" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-12T07:03:55.953" Score="1" ViewCount="76" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know how old Hinduism is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please provide proper details, references for your answers. Any substantial details with supporting fact or reference is welcome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1173" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-12-12T08:29:04.620" LastActivityDate="2014-12-12T08:29:04.620" Title="How old is Hindu religion?" Tags="|rituals|worship|history|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2014-12-12T15:53:19.847" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3988" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3983" CreationDate="2014-12-12T11:58:00.010" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;You asked if a person who has become realized can get back to state of 'normal' people again. What you are really asking is: Once a person becomes dehypnotized can he become hypnotized again? No.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (IV. iv. 23.) says &quot;This is the eternal glory of a knower of Brahman: it never increases or decreases by work. [Therefore] one should know the nature of that alone. Knowing it one is not touched by evil action. Therefore he who knows it as such becomes self-controlled, calm, withdrawn into himself, enduring, and concentrated, and sees the Self in his own body; he sees all as the Self. Evil does not overtake him, but he transcends all evil. Evil does not trouble him, [but] he consumes all evil. He becomes sinless, taintless, free from doubts, and a knower of Brahman.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad (IV. 18.) says: &quot;When the Light has risen, there is no day, no night, neither existence nor non-existence; the Blessed One alone is there. That is the eternal, the adorable light of the Sun-and the ancient wisdom proceeded thence.&quot; Once you see Brahman, you see Him alone. Nothing else is there to go back to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mundakya Upanishad (III. ii. 8.) says: &quot;As flowing rivers disappear in the sea, losing their names and forms, so a wise man, freed from name and form, attains the Purusha, who is greater than the great.&quot; Once the small ego melts into Brahman, how can it come back? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A realized soul has no fear. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (I. iv. 2.) says: &quot;For what was there to fear? It is from a second entity that fear comes.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna describes the realized soul in the Gita (II. 54-59.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said it was like a man walking in the desert who sees the phenomenon called the mirage. If you have never seen before when you first see it it looks real. Once you know what the nature of a mirage is, you are never fooled again. Every time after when you see a mirage you know it is not real, just a mirage. Likewise the realized soul is not fooled by the mirage of the world once he knows the true nature of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Narendra (later Swami Vivekananda) first met Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Narendra asked him if he saw God. Ramakrishna said yes, but in a more intense manner than he saw him (Narendra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said once you touch the granny stone, you are out of the game.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-12T11:58:00.010" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3989" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3982" CreationDate="2014-12-12T12:24:48.017" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Infinite and non-infinite are both qualities, upadhis. Qualities can only arise in maya. Describing the ultimate consciousness as infinite is like describing the ocean by the outline of the seashore. The Ultimate is neither infinite nor is it non-infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mandukya Upanishad (VII.) says: &quot;Turiya is not that which is conscious of the inner (subjective) world, nor that which is conscious of the outer (objective) world, nor that which is conscious of both, no that which is a mass of consciousness. It is not simple consciousness nor is It unconsciousness. It is unperceived, unrelated, incomprehensible, uninferable, unthinkable, and indescribable. The essence of the Consciousness manifesting as the self [in the three states], It is the cessation of all phenomena; It is all peace, all bliss, and non-dual. This is what is known as the Fourth (Turiya). This is Atman, and this has to be realized.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'uninferable' - attributes such as existence, knowledge, infinity are not positive attributes  of Turiya, They only indicate that Turiya is other than non-existence, non-consciousness, non-infinity. To make an inference requires a common feature, which presupposes an object more than one. Turiya is one without a second (ekamvadvitiyam); it is therefore uninferable. There is nothing in maya that can infer Turiya. All that can be said of It is neti, neti, not this, not this.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-12T12:24:48.017" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3990" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3991" CreationDate="2014-12-12T13:59:10.633" Score="0" ViewCount="166" Body="&lt;p&gt;I find it intriguing that in English, nature is used in two interesting ways; that is Nature as in the world around around and all living things; and human nature, which is that conmmon to humanity; ie consciousness expressed as man. One might posit this as a microcosm/macrocosm distinction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there similar terms in Hindu or Sanskrit that align with this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="713" LastActivityDate="2014-12-12T14:21:26.120" Title="Is there a sanskrit term that covers the distinction/similarity between human &amp; non-human nature?" Tags="|philosophy|sanskrit|language|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3991" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3990" CreationDate="2014-12-12T14:08:35.740" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, the same is also the case in Sanskrit and the term is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prak%E1%B9%9Bti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Prakruti&lt;/a&gt;. It is used both as human nature and the nature around us, that is the material nature of God [BG - 13.19]. It is also same as &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;māyāṃ tu prakṛtiṃ vidyānmāyinaṃ tu maheśvaraṃ&lt;/em&gt; [Sve. Up. - 4.10]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Know that &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; is Prakruti and the lord of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; is God&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In scriptures, the human nature are classified under three categories as &lt;em&gt;satva&lt;/em&gt; (goodness), &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;(passion) and &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; (ignorance). And these three human natures origin from the material nature which you can consider as the macrocosm:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sattvaṃ rajastama iti prakṛterguṇāstair&lt;/em&gt; [SB – 1.2.23]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -&lt;em&gt;satva, rajas, tama&lt;/em&gt; are the three qualities of material nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-12-12T14:21:26.120" LastActivityDate="2014-12-12T14:21:26.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3993" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="4079" CreationDate="2014-12-12T18:03:34.047" Score="7" ViewCount="481" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know if there are video materials of explained Vedic texts (knowledge) on the internet? Specifically the knowledge about states of consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1176" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-09T01:07:13.973" LastActivityDate="2016-01-09T01:07:13.973" Title="Are there video materials of Vedic scriptures describing states of consciousness?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|dream|mind|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3994" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="3995" CreationDate="2014-12-12T18:27:06.800" Score="6" ViewCount="721" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know what is karma to a person in samadhi. Because, anyone in samadhi isn't involved in the worldly activities and Karma relates with those worldly activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, consider that his Karma has to let him be cheated in a business. However, this man, with the practice of yoga went into samadhi and isn't wishing to come out of it. Now will he get his karma? If so, how?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will he get out of samadhi willingly abiding to the law of karma, do business and get cheated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2015-01-28T11:40:43.253" Title="What is karma to a person in samadhi?" Tags="|karma|samadhi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3995" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3994" CreationDate="2014-12-12T22:48:01.017" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In order to know what is karma to a person in samadhi and how it works for such a person, it is first important to understand also this (most of this answer would be advaitic i.e. based on the tenet that God is One and the Jiva is not different from Paramatma): &lt;strong&gt;what is samadhi?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samadhi refers to the state of thought-lessness with instant destruction of causation and dissolution of the mind. Sri Swamiji Sivananda says in &quot;Raja Yoga by Swami Sivananda&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yogi in this supreme state loses all external consciousness, all awareness of duality and multiplicity; he loses even the I-idea (Asmita) in Asamprajnata Samadhi. That is the Supreme State where the Seer (Purusha) is established in His own Svarupa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two (actually there are many classifications) kinds of samadhi, sabikalpa samadhi and nirvikalpa samadhi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sabikalpa samadhi&lt;/strong&gt; - This is like sleep. The sadhaka goes into the thoughtless state at times and then returns to the thoughtful state at times. He is like a man who is craving sleep. He differentiates something as 'World' and something as 'God'. He cannot remain completely in the thoughtless state, because the potency of His karmas is strong enough to pull him back to the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Paramahansa Yogananda says in Autobiography of a Yogi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two stages of samadhi. In the first, the consciousness merges into the Infinite during meditation. The yogi cannot preserve that state, however, once he comes out of his meditation. That state is known as sabikalpa samadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nirvikalpa samadhi&lt;/strong&gt; - This is like love. The sadhaka is constantly and completely immersed in the thought-less state. There is no time when he is not in that state. For him there is no difference between 'World' and 'God'. In this state he moves about in the world like an ordinary man but he is internally completely immersed in the Satchidananda Brahman, or he may choose to shed the body, it doesn't matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramhansa Yogananda says in Autobiography of a Yogi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The next state is called nirbikalpa samadhi. In this state of consciousness you maintain your divine realization even while working or speaking or moving about in this world. Nirbikalpa is the highest realization. Once attaining that, there is no further possibility of falling back into delusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;strong&gt;what kind of karma affects such a person who has attained the highest state&lt;/strong&gt;? Does he get affected by any karma at all?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prarabhda karma is typically known as the in-escapable karma that one MUST GET in one life or another. The sadhaka, on attaining the highest realization, all karmas are now meaningless and ineffective on Him. Some saints say that Prarabhda karma still exists, but Shankaracharya says that all actions are removed, including prarabhdha, for such a state. In Aparokshanubhuti by Adi Shankaracharya, he says (Shloka 98)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And all the actions of a man perish when he realizes that (Atman) which is both the higher and the lower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in the Gita that a yogi who surrenders all actions to Him, Sri Krishna will himself remove all sinful reactions (karmas) of the soul Gita 18:66.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Renounce all dharmas and surrender to Me alone, I will deliver you from all sinful reactions, do not despair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In this state he MAY or MAY NOT follow the law of karma.&lt;/strong&gt; Everything He does in this state is only for Divine Will. What is Divine Will, it is that which is not motivated by any personal desires or wants. He moves about teaching others, doing karma for others, showing others how to live, how to love and how to enjoy life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna says in &quot;Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&quot; that though this state of Brahman or Nirvikalpa samadhi is thought-less and is like total merger with Ultimate Consciousness, many still 'choose' to come back from that state in order to teach others, or in order to act according to Divine Will:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are some who come down, as it were, after attaining the Knowledge of Brahman - after samadhi - and retain the 'ego of Knowledge' or the 'ego of Devotion', just as there are people who, of their own sweet will, stay in the market-place after the market breaks up. This was the case with sages like Narada. They kept the 'ego of Devotion' for the purpose of teaching men. Sankaracharya kept the 'ego of Knowledge' for the same purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in short, there are two samadhis. In one the sadhaka is still under the law of karma, but is partly in control and partly karma controls him. In the second state, the sadhaka has transcended every possible karmic law and debt. The only reason he may still choose to abide by that law of karma (like Rama or Krishna who at during key events abided by the law of karma) is due to Divine Will or will that is not motivated by any personal desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So now as for your example, if suppose a man was to be cheated in a business, but before the karma takes effect, he attains the Highest STATE of COMPLETE samadhi. Then if He does return back to the world, then it is upto Him. He may, for example, in order to show others that cheating is not good for others, willingly go through the reaction. Or He may, in order to show others that God is above and beyond Karma law, willingly remove all reactions of that. Thus it is upto God what He wants to do. The one who has realized himself as God and then returns back to the world for the sake of others, is verily God Himself come down amongst us (avatar purush), isn't it! God is above and beyond karma but still he may choose to follow it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-01-28T11:40:43.253" LastActivityDate="2015-01-28T11:40:43.253" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3996" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3438" CreationDate="2014-12-13T01:21:04.333" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the spiritual world, Govinda, Lord Krishna is served by hundreds and thousands of Laksmis. This is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahma Samhita&lt;/a&gt; 5.29 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;cintamani-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vrksa-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;laksavrtesu surabhir abhipalayantam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;laksmi-sahasra-sata-sambhrama-sevyamanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the first progenitor who is&#xA;  tending the cows, yielding all desire, in abodes built with spiritual&#xA;  gems, surrounded by millions of purpose trees, always served with&#xA;  great reverence and affection by hundreds of thousands of laksmis or&#xA;  gopis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Radharani is the chief among all the above Laksmis. All Laksmis are Her expansions and She is mentioned in the Brhad-gautamiya-tantra and cited in Caitanya Caritamrta Adi lila 4.83&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;devi krsna-mayi prokta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;radhika para-devata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarva-laksmi-mayi sarva-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kantih sammohini para&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The transcendental goddess Srimati Radharani is the direct&#xA;  counterpart of Lord Sri Krsna. She is the central figure for all the&#xA;  goddesses of fortune. She possesses all the attractiveness to attract&#xA;  the all-attractive Personality of Godhead. She is the primeval&#xA;  internal potency of the Lord.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further more it is stated in Caitanya Caritamrta Adi lila 4.77 that the queens of Krishna are reflections of Her image.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Adi 4.77 — The goddesses of fortune are partial manifestations of&#xA;  Srimati Radhika, and the queens are reflections of Her image.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-12-13T01:21:04.333" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3997" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3964" CreationDate="2014-12-13T02:12:52.883" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Most of the saints or rishis we see are male. Are there any female saints (except devotees through Bhakti yoga)?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We see that many females also follow their husbands, serve them and partake in their tapasya. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; When Dhrtarastra and Gandhari are missing from the palace Narada Muni tells this to Maharaja Yudhisitira:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.13.53 — On the banks at Saptasrota, Dhrtarastra is now engaged in&#xA;  beginning astanga-yoga by bathing three times daily, in the morning,&#xA;  noon and evening, by performing the Agni-hotra sacrifice with fire and&#xA;  by drinking only water. This helps one control the mind and the senses&#xA;  and frees one completely from thoughts of familial affection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.13.57 — O King, he will quit his body, most probably on the fifth&#xA;  day from today. And his body will turn to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.13.58 — While outside observing her husband, who will burn in the&#xA;  fire of mystic power along with his thatched cottage, his chaste wife&#xA;  will enter the fire with rapt attention.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly we also see this in this case of Arci, wife of Maharaja Prthu (incarnation of Vishnu) also:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 4.23.19 — The Queen, the wife of Prthu Maharaja, whose name was&#xA;  Arci, followed her husband into the forest. Since she was a queen, her&#xA;  body was very delicate. Although she did not deserve to live in the&#xA;  forest, she voluntarily touched her lotus feet to the ground. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 4.23.20 — Although she was not accustomed to such difficulties, Queen Arci followed her husband in the regulative principles of living in&#xA;  the forest like great sages. She lay down on the ground and ate only&#xA;  fruits, flowers and leaves, and because she was not fit for these&#xA;  activities, she became frail and thin. Yet because of the pleasure she&#xA;  derived in serving her husband, she did not feel any difficulties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 4.23.21 — When Queen Arci saw that her husband, who had been so merciful to her and the earth, no longer showed symptoms of life, she&#xA;  lamented for a little while and then built a fiery pyre on top of a&#xA;  hill and placed the body of her husband on it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 4.23.22 — After&#xA;  this, the Queen executed the necessary funerary functions and offered&#xA;  oblations of water. After bathing in the river, she offered obeisances&#xA;  to various demigods situated in the sky in the different planetary&#xA;  systems. She then circumambulated the fire and, while thinking of the&#xA;  lotus feet of her husband, entered its flames.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 4.23.23 — After&#xA;  observing this brave act performed by the chaste wife Arci, the wife&#xA;  of the great King Prthu, many thousands of the wives of the demigods,&#xA;  along with their husbands, offered prayers to the Queen, for they were&#xA;  very much satisfied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devahuti, Lord Kapila's mother also performed tapasya as explained &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/33&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Else where we also hear about the austerities of mother Vedavati, mother Parvati and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why do we find female rishis only rarely? Is there any reason?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally women are considered to be like children who need protection. So they are with father in their child hood, husband in their married life and with children when their husband takes sannyasa and leave home. In some cases as above we see that women follow their husbands for tapasya and give up their body with them. In those cases they go where ever their husbands go. Chaste women share the results of their husbands' austerities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Through which yoga females can get moksha? Can they get moksha using yogas other than Karma yoga and Bhakti yoga?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While in previous yugas they shared their husbands path, as above, in kali-yuga the only effective ways is by chanting the holy names of Hari (bhakti yoga). Whether men or women this is the most effective way. Below is a verse from Brhan - Naradiya Purana as cited by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;harer nama harer nama&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;harer namaiva kevalam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kalau nasty eva nasty eva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nasty eva gatir anyatha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“ ‘For spiritual progress in this Age of Kali, there is no&#xA;  alternative, there is no alternative, there is no alternative to the&#xA;  holy name, the holy name, the holy name of the Lord.’ Caitanya&#xA;  Caritamrta Adi 7.76 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/7/76&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/7/76&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is self-realization for women easier when compared to men?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Not necessarily, regardless of who it is if they surrender to Krishna they can attain perfection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bg 9.32 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/32&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/32&lt;/a&gt;) — O son of Prtha, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth – women, vaisyas [merchants] and sudras [workers] – can attain the supreme destination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One thing to note is generally women have softer nature, so those who take advantage of it can surrender little easily. My observation is that more women in India do pujas than men but at the same time they may not be as serious as the men who do take up some spiritual path. So it all depends on individual's sincerity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="1014" LastEditDate="2014-12-13T14:46:56.497" LastActivityDate="2014-12-13T14:46:56.497" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="3998" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="368" CreationDate="2014-12-13T07:16:51.217" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;God is one and does not take birth he is away from death as well.but he often comes to earth lives like we live in the middle of us whom we say a  Avatar. The Avatar is like human being but its his last birth.its was not his first birth although. He was like us but for last many births he has been creating &amp;amp; restoring immense love and strong urge for GOD who is the creator for everything.then one last day comes in his life when he feels the power of God enters him and he becomes super human God like man or Avtar. Ram, Krishna, Vashishta, and many were same Avatar of past yugas and Kabeer, Fareed, Guru Nanak were in kalyuga.&#xA;Now what are devis devtas? They are saguna part of god(materialistic forms the top most devtas are Vishnu ji ,Shiva ji and Brahma ji or Dharam Raj ji. After this there are many like Indra deva , Agni deva, Vayu deva , many devis in which mainly we know Ganga devi, Laxmi devi, Sarasvati  which are sub-categories of Durga and Kali. Many Bir like Hanumanta bir , Bhairo Bir , Patla Bir and ......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1178" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2023-01-21T10:34:38.350" LastActivityDate="2023-01-21T10:34:38.350" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="3999" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-13T08:21:59.877" Score="12" ViewCount="3266" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/a&gt;, a work by Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; they consist of concise sayings that people often consider hard to understand without a commentary.  In any case, near the end of the Adhyaya 2 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;43&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(The individual souls are) parts of God because of the mention that they are different, also because some read otherwise of (Brahman’s) identity with fishermen, slaves, gamblers and others.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This follows from the words of the mantras also.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And this is also stated in the Smriti (Gita).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is about Sutra 45, which refers to the Bhagavad Gita.  Note that the parenthetical mention of &quot;Gita&quot; was added by the translator; the Sanskrit just says &quot;api smaryate&quot; or &quot;thus it is stated in the Smriti&quot;.  (The Bhagavad Gita is a part of the Mahabharata, which is a Smriti text.)  In any case, that Sutra is clearly referring to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/15/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is confirmed in both Adi Shankaracharya's commentary the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38046.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmasutra Bhashya&lt;/a&gt; and in Ramanujacharya's commentary the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48290.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Bhashya&lt;/a&gt;.  So this suggests that the Bhagavad Gita is older than the Brahma Sutra Bhashya.  Now here is where things get weird.  In another chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/13/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That knowledge of the ﬁeld of activities and of the knower of activities is described by various sages in various Vedic writings. &lt;strong&gt;It is especially presented in Vedānta-sūtra with all reasoning as to cause and effect.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the translator says &quot;Vedanta-Sutras&quot;, an alternate name for the Brahma Sutras, but in any case the Sanskrit says &quot;Brahma Sutras&quot;.  So to sum up, the Brahma Sutras refer to Bhagavad Gita, a text that refers back to the Brahma Sutras!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, how is it possible for these two texts to have references to each other?  Which text came first?  Could it be that one or both of these references are interpolations?  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sankeertanam.com/brahma_sutras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This web pages&lt;/a&gt; argues that they're not:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It might be argued that at least one text has had spurious insertions made into it to apparently refer to the other[.]... However, it is not found that the various rescensions of the Brahma-sUtra are different, with some not having the questionable references; all copies of the Brahma-sUtra as obtained from a variety of sources carry them. Moreover, considering the flow of the discourse in the Bhagavad-Gita and the Brahma-sUtra, it seems very unlikely that the references are spurious insertions; they fit in well with the general background of the discussion, and do not stand out as later insertions presumably would.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is webpage's alternate explanation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[T]he same author could very well have written both works in any order; he could add a reference to an as-yet-unwritten text, knowing that he was going to write it, and also knowing what he was going to write in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's one problem with this explanation though: Vyasa may have composed the Mahabharata as a whole, but Bhagavad Gita constitutes the words of Krishna himself on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.  The Bhagavad Gita is part of the 8800-verse core of the Mahabharata Known as the Jaya, and as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3550/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; the Jaya is a record of Sanjaya's narration of the Mahabharata war to Dhritarashtra.  So Vyasa did not insert any content into the Bhagavad Gita, and thus this wouldn't explain things if the Bhagavad Gita came after the Brahma Sutras&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could it be that Vyasa, being a Trikalanyani, knew what Krishna was going to say in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, or could it be that the Mahabharata war had already happened by the time of the composition of the Brahma Sutras, but Vyasa hadn't finalized the Mahabharata yet?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2018-05-05T01:08:32.003" Title="How do the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras refer to each other?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|brahma-sutras|vyasa|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="27" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4000" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-13T09:42:02.310" Score="4" ViewCount="577" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know if a person in spiritual path gets his worldly desires fulfilled. Because in the path of spirituality, the person gets away from desires slowly, however if he wills to stick to a particular desire, then that will be an obstacle for him in the path of spirituality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This man is said to have vital energy which he uses for spiritual destiny. Now, can that energy be used or help him to fulfill his material desire?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2014-12-13T19:18:44.463" Title="Does a person in spiritual path gets his worldly desires fulfilled?" Tags="|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4001" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="4003" CreationDate="2014-12-13T14:05:35.163" Score="1" ViewCount="686" Body="&lt;p&gt;'Maya' as used in the Bengali language, in ordinary usage, as 'affection'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it connected to the philosophic notion of Maya ie delusion/illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Bengali dictionary I looked at there were several grades of love that maya covered:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;affection&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;love&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;infatuation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;delusion&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could we say that the two senses are connected by 'love of the world'?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="713" LastActivityDate="2020-07-16T04:02:48.980" Title="Is maya connected to the notion of love?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4002" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4001" CreationDate="2014-12-13T14:17:05.653" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bengali is not Sanskrit. The philosophical notion of maya referred to in scripture is Sanskrit - not Bengali. Love of the world is not a valid interpretation of the Sanskrit maya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-13T14:17:05.653" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4003" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4001" CreationDate="2014-12-13T15:08:11.393" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is a connection between the Bengali term Maya and the philosophical term Maya. The Bengali term maya means affection or love only towards one's relatives and friends. This limited or selfish love is equivalent to the philosophical term Maya. One goes beyond philosophical maya when one loves the entire world selflessly and not just one's relatives and friends. This love for the entire world, compassion, is called in Bengali daya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A DEVOTEE: &amp;quot;Sir, you met Pundit Vidyasagar. What did you think of&#xA;him?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MASTER: &amp;quot;Vidyasagar has both scholarship and charity, but he lacks&#xA;inner vision. Gold lies hidden within him. Had he but found it out,&#xA;his activities would have been reduced; finally they would have&#xA;stopped altogether. Had he but known that God resides in his heart,&#xA;his mind would have been directed to God in thought and meditation.&#xA;Some persons must perform selfless work a long time before they can&#xA;practise dispassion and direct their minds to the spiritual ideal and&#xA;at last be absorbed in God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The activities that Vidyasagar is engaged in are good. Charity is&#xA;very noble. &lt;strong&gt;There is a great deal of difference between daya,&#xA;compassion, and maya, attachment. Daya is good, but not maya. Maya is&#xA;love tor one's relatives — one's wife, children, brother, sister,&#xA;nephew, father, and mother. But daya is the same love for all created&#xA;beings without any distinction.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;M: &amp;quot;Is daya also a bondage?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MASTER: &amp;quot;Yes, it is. But that concept is something far beyond the&#xA;ordinary man. Daya springs from sattva. Sattva preserves, rajas&#xA;creates, and tamas destroys. But Brahman is beyond the three gunas. It&#xA;is beyond Prakriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Chapter 12, The festival at Panihati, July 22, 1883&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2020-07-16T04:02:48.980" LastActivityDate="2020-07-16T04:02:48.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="4004" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="4007" CreationDate="2014-12-13T18:03:31.110" Score="6" ViewCount="690" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said to chant mantra with faith and sincerity. But what does it exactly mean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it mean uttering the mantra by recalling the image of the corresponding god or uttering it slowly or uttering it with a discipline (for example, we thought to chant it 108 times, is it doing so without any disturbance?). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or if we are chanting the mantra to get a desire fulfilled, is it chanting the mantra by visualizing a mental image of the desire being fulfilled? or chanting the mantra in the thoughtless state or does it mean chanting the mantra by recalling the meaning of the mantra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what is chanting with faith for a person who expects nothing in return from the mantra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastActivityDate="2014-12-14T02:30:51.023" Title="What is meant by chanting a mantra with faith?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4005" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4000" CreationDate="2014-12-13T19:18:44.463" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;All desires are ultimately bestowed by the Supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Katha Upanishad 2.2.13: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nityo nityanam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;cetanas cetananam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;eko bahunam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yo vidadhati kaman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is the prime eternal among all eternals. He is the supreme living&#xA;  entity of all living entities, and He alone is maintaining all life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If some one is on the spiritual path and yet desires material things He will fulfill the desires of a devotee in such a way that the devotee gradually loses interest in any more material things. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/19/27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 5.19.27&lt;/a&gt; it is mentioned that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead fulfills the material desires of a&#xA;  devotee who approaches Him with such motives, but He does not bestow&#xA;  benedictions upon the devotee that will cause him to demand more&#xA;  benedictions again. However, the Lord willingly gives the devotee&#xA;  shelter at His own lotus feet, even though such a person does not&#xA;  aspire for it, and that shelter satisfies all his desires. That is the&#xA;  Supreme Personality’s special mercy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commenting on the above verse Srila Prabhupada writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Whether one is freed from all material desires, is full of material&#xA;  desires, or desires to become one with the Supreme, he should engage&#xA;  in devotional service.” (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/3/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavatam 2.3.20&lt;/a&gt;) In this way, not only will the devotee’s&#xA;  desires be fulfilled, but the day will come when he&#xA;  will have no other desire than to serve the lotus feet of the Lord.&#xA;  One who engages in the service of the Lord with some motive is called&#xA;  a sakama-bhakta, and one who serves the Lord without any motives is&#xA;  called an akama-bhakta. Krsna is so merciful that He turns a&#xA;  sakama-bhakta into an akama-bhakta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We see this in the example of Dhruva where he performs austerities for material opulence but he later loses interest in material things. Kardama also performs tapasya to get a wife and Lord Vishnu grants Him the boon to get Devahuti as his wife. The Lord also personally becomes his son as Kapila. Later both Kardama and Devahuti attain perfection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-12-13T19:18:44.463" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4006" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2522" CreationDate="2014-12-14T01:05:58.900" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(1)History of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Hare Krishna Maha Mantra was specifically popularized by Sri Caitanya Maha Prabhu in the 16th Century and later, on His order, His followers spread it all over the world. Lord Caitanaya is considered &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/9/38&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Channa Avatar (disguised incarnation)&lt;/a&gt; and only after His appearance His identity became known through His own revealing it to His devotees and exploring various Vedic literature by His devotees. For some references you can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/2/22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Prabhupada's commentary on Caitanya Caritamrta here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://krishna.com/chaitanya-mahaprabhu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;some other references here&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/5/31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 11.5.31 and 32&lt;/a&gt; it is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O King, in this way people in Dvapara-yuga glorified the Lord of the&#xA;  universe. In Kali-yuga also people worship the Supreme Personality of&#xA;  Godhead by following various regulations of the revealed scriptures.&#xA;  Now kindly hear of this from me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational&#xA;  chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings&#xA;  the names of Krsna. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is&#xA;  Krsna Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons&#xA;  and confidential companions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gaudiya Vaishnavas consider this incarnation to be Sri Caitanya Maha Prabhu and the chanting of name of Krishna to be specifically the Hare Krishna maha mantra He popularized. The importance of chanting Krishna's name in the Kali Yuga is also mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/51&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.51 and 52&lt;/a&gt; where it is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still&#xA;  one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Krsna&#xA;  maha-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted&#xA;  to the transcendental kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Visnu, in&#xA;  Treta-yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dvapara-yuga by serving&#xA;  the Lord’s lotus feet can be obtained in Kali-yuga simply by chanting&#xA;  the Hare Krsna maha-mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When this maha mantra was popularized by Lord Caitanya, initially Muslims didn't like it. There was also resistance from local Hindus who didn't want the mantra to be chanted by who they considered as lower class people. They lodged a complaint with the local muslim ruler, Kazi, as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Caitanya Caritamrta Adilila Chapter 17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Adi 17.211  — “ ‘Now the lower classes are chanting the Hare Krsna&#xA;  maha-mantra again and again. For this sinful activity, the entire city&#xA;  of Navadvipa will become deserted.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Adi 17.212  — “ ‘According to Hindu scripture, God’s name is the&#xA;  most powerful hymn. If everyone hears the chanting of the name, the&#xA;  potency of the hymn will be lost.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Adi 17.213  — “ ‘Sir, you are the ruler of this town. Whether Hindu&#xA;  or Muslim, everyone is under your protection. Therefore please call&#xA;  Nimai Pandita and make Him leave the town.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this Kazi passes an order to stop sankirtana. Lord Caitanya defies this order, carries on Sankirtana with hundreds and thousands of people and the whole Sankirtana party goes to Kazi's house. There the Lord debates with Kazi. Kazi realizes Lord Caitanya's identity as the Supreme Lord, becomes His devotee and passes an order that none of his successors should prevent Sankirtana. Kazi also reveals how Lord Narasimha was in his dream and threatened him not to stop Sankirtana. To this day Muslims in that area live in harmony with local Hindus. Also to note here is that you will not find any resistance to Hare Krishna mantra in general, but only to chanting it loudly and giving it freely to what some considered as lower class people. So we cannot assume that people didn't knew about this mantra prior to Maha Prabhu, they just didn't want it publicized widely. Lord Caitanya travelled extensively for six years and there was no controversy, I know of, that was documented over the authenticity of the mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(2)References to the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kali-santarara Upanisad of Krishna Yajur Veda states follows: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare hare rama hare&#xA;  rama rama rama hare hare iti sodasakam namnam kali-kalmasa-nasanam&#xA;  natah parataropayah sarva-vedesu drsyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The sixteen names of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra: hare krishna hare&#xA;  krishna krishna krishna hare hare, hare rama hare rama rama rama hare&#xA;  hare destroy all the inauspiciousness of the age of Kali. This is the&#xA;  conclusion of all the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other texts like Sri Ananta-samhita, Agni Purana, Padma Purana and Brahmanda Purana are also said to have references to it, which are cited in certain books of Gaudiya authors, and you can find them in these links:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Verses/Gaudiya_Kanthahara/Naam-tattva.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Verses/Gaudiya_Kanthahara/Naam-tattva.htm&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.salagram.net/Yuga-Dharma-The.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.salagram.net/Yuga-Dharma-The.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(3) Importance of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in terms of the Significance of the names Jagadananda Pandita (one of the associates of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu), in a book called Prema Vivarta,  citing  Padma Purana and Brahmanda Purana says as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;visnor-ekaika-namapi sarva-vedadhikam matam tadrk nama-sahasrena&#xA;  rama-nama-samamsmrtam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Each name of Lord Visnu is greater and more potent than the entire&#xA;  Vedas; and Lord Rama's name alone is superior to a thousand names of&#xA;  Lord Visnu. - Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Dear devotees of the Lord, please continuously chant, &quot;Krsna, Krsna,&#xA;  Krsna, Krsna, Krsna, Krsna, he!&quot; And also chant, &quot;Hare Krsna, Hare&#xA;  Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare; Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare&#xA;  Hare'. This mantra consisting of sixteen names is perfect in every&#xA;  respect, and chanting this mantra gives one the highest benefit and&#xA;  perfection in spiritual life&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sahasra-namnam punyanam triravrttya tu yat phalam eka vrttya tu&#xA;  krsnasya namaikam tat prayacchati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The spiritual result one obtains from chanting a thousand names of&#xA;  Visnu three times is attained by chanting Lord Krsna's holy name once.&#xA;  - Brahmanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The citations above can be found in the ebook here on page 70. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://ebooks.iskcondesiretree.info/pdf/Gaudiya_Books%20/Jagadananda_Pandita/Jagadananda_Pandita_Prema_Vivarta.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://ebooks.iskcondesiretree.info/pdf/Gaudiya_Books%20/Jagadananda_Pandita/Jagadananda_Pandita_Prema_Vivarta.pdf&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-10T00:00:35.267" LastActivityDate="2016-04-10T00:00:35.267" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4007" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4004" CreationDate="2014-12-14T02:30:51.023" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Below is one perspective based on a Gaudiya scripture and mostly my own explanation based on some experience in regular chanting, under guidance of some senior teachers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally Sraddha is the word used for faith and in it's highest degree, Lord Caitanya equates it with dhrda Visvasa (firm conviction) in Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu explains Sraddha as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 22.62 — “Sraddha is confident, firm faith that by rendering&#xA;  transcendental loving service to Krsna one automatically performs all&#xA;  subsidiary activities. Such faith is favorable to the discharge of&#xA;  devotional service.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Faith:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;In terms of chanting, we hear from sadhu, sastra about the importance of holy names. We may have never chanted before but we read from scriptures, see the sadhus chanting, find out about the practical impact on people's lives and start chanting. This is a demonstration of faith. As you chant more, based on your personal experience and scriptural knowledge your faith increases. Faith in its highest stage is firmly beleiving and execute with firm conviction as cited by Caitanya Mahaprabhu above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sincerety&lt;/strong&gt;:&#xA;A simple dictionary meaning is &quot;free from pretense or deceit; proceeding from genuine feelings&quot;. Sometimes this is also used to mean how comitted we are to the practice. Say I make a commitment to chant, I claim I have faith that this is the most important thing but I always keep it on the low priority of my 'to do' list. I get up, read news, play, go to office and when there is nothing else to do I chant. This means I am not sincere, I made a pledge of faith that it is most important but it is not genuine. If it was most important I would have done it at the first available opportunity, i.e, in the morning before doing other tasks and not kept it to the end of the day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Process of chanting:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Chant at earliest possible time, like in the morning before sunrise. First we focus on hearing the syllables of the mantra distinctly.  We chant little loudly so that we can hear the sound of our own chanting. This way our tongue and ears are both engaged in the holy name. The holy name is very powerful and as it enters our heart through our ears it can eventually reveal the form and pastimes of the Lord. It is said the name will eventually reveal the form and pastimes of the Lord. We do not force our selves to think of the form but just focus on hearing. We can chant in front of the deities of Radha-Krishna, Sita-Rama, Laksmi-Narayana etc. so our eyes are also engaged in seeing Their beautiful forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also, what is chanting with faith for a person who expects nothing in return from the mantra?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't fully understand your question but it seems you are asking about the faith in the highest stage. A person who attained highest faith in the name of the Lord doesn't see the Lord and His name to be different. They are not afraid of any impediments put in their chanting. Faith of Haridas Thakura (an associate of Caitanya Maha Prabhu) is an example of this. He was beaten to death but he didn't give up chanting and the Lord saved him. You can read the story &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/haridasa_thakura.htm&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; We also see this in the case of Prahlada, who was threatened by his demoniac father Hiranya Kasipu but the body didn't give up His devotion to the Lord. Lord Hanuman is also another good example who has firm faith in the name of Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1014" LastActivityDate="2014-12-14T02:30:51.023" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4008" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-14T03:03:52.593" Score="6" ViewCount="152" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm curious to know if throughout my rebirths I have stayed the same religion, race, etc. or if I was of a different classification? I wonder this because Hinduism is an all-embracing religion and so it is not necessary for one to be Hindu to be graced and/or blessed by God? I am Hindu myself and would never change that, but I really do wonder if/how identities that are derived from social constructs traverse through all of the rebirths? I thought only our soul travels through rebirths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1181" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-06T04:09:29.327" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T20:42:28.947" Title="Rebirth Pertaining to Religion" Tags="|rebirth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4009" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-14T06:24:52.230" Score="15" ViewCount="15037" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a few questions about Purascharana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can Purascharana be initiated even without a guru?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Should the mantra be repeated fixed number of times daily? What if there is a variation in the no. of times every day?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What if he repeats without doing a sankalpa of the number of times daily?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can he repeat the mantra in any posture, circumstance or place?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Should the speed of repeating the mantra be uniform or is it enough if the mantra is pronounced with clarity?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can he recall the mantra even within him (without speaking out)? Does this count?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If one chants the mantra by habit unconsciously, does this count towards Purasacharana?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can he eat meat while doing Purasacharana? Doesn't this habit drop by itself when he reaches a certain stage?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I feel each of these questions are too minute to be posted individually, I packaged them into one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the questions above have single line answers with references, so the question isn't too broad to be answered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="458" LastEditDate="2015-08-04T05:06:52.140" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T17:37:07.407" Title="What is Purascharana and how is it done?" Tags="|practice|mantras|terminology|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4010" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-14T08:47:06.793" Score="14" ViewCount="7540" Body="&lt;p&gt;Puranas say that these species are born from different wives of Maharshi Kashyapa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Kashyapa + Danu = Danavas&#xA;Kashyapa + Diti = Daityas&#xA;Kashyapa + Krodhavasa = Pisachas&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hymn 87 of the tenth mandala of the Rig Veda says that, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma was asleep rakshasas are created by breath at the end of satya yuga.When they are created , they were filled with bloodlust , they started eating brahma himself.Brahma shouted &quot;Rakshama!&quot;, Vishnu came to his aid, banishing to Earth all Rakshasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also bhagavata purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/5/24/en&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;5.24.30&lt;/a&gt; says that danavas and daityas live in rasathala .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it's not clear,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What exactly are the differences among these species?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who is more powerful?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are their basic natures, cultures etc?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Couldn't get answer in this Related: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/270/difference-between-devas-daevas-asuras-and-rakshasa&quot;&gt;Difference between Devas, Daevas, Asuras and Rakshasa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-12-05T04:43:00.597" LastActivityDate="2018-12-05T04:43:00.597" Title="What are the differences among Rakshasas, Daityas, Danawas, Pisachas?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|asuras|ghosts|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="4011" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3999" CreationDate="2014-12-14T11:25:24.950" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The verse in the Gita (13.5) does not specifically refer to the 'Brahma Sutras'. Three different advaita sources use similar language for 13.5 (which is in some versions is 13.4 as there is in opening verse not included in all versions) - &quot;All this has been sung by sages in many and different ways, in various distinctive hymns, and also in well reasoned and convincing passages indicative of Brahman.&quot; - There is no reference to the book 'Brahma Sutras' specifically in these versions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of your confusion may be translation. The Sanskrit for this verse refers to brahma sutra, but the sanskrit is &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; to a specific book, but &lt;em&gt;ALL sutras about Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (meaning samhitas, upanishads, etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Vashnavite version translation with several different Vashnavite commentators also refers in Sanskrit to brahma sutra in the verse 13.5, but the Vashnavite commentators do not refer to the 'Brahma Sutras' specifically in their translation and commentary to this verse. From the commentaries they seem to interpret the same verse as the advaita commentators and refer to Upanishads in their commentaries on this verse...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only one version, the version by A.C. Bahktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON, does refer to the 'Brahma Sutras' in his translation of 13.5. He has in his version, Bhagavad Gita As It Is - &quot;...-especially in the Vedanta-sutra-...&quot; It would appear that this is a interpolation by him, not supported by either other Vashnavite or Advaita translations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his introduction to his translation of 'Brahma Sutra Sri Bhasya', Swami Vireswarananda refers to the text as 'Brahma-Sutras' or 'Sariraka-Sutras'. The same text also goes by the name of Vedanta Sutras and Vyasa Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given all of the above, I do not think there is any reference in the Gita to the text we call the 'Brhama Sutras' specifically. There is no circular referral. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-14T11:25:24.950" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4014" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3920" CreationDate="2014-12-15T08:21:45.433" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've come to the conclusion that the Chandogya Upanishad is definitely not referring to the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, even from a Gaudiya Vaishnava perspective.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The defining text of the Vedanta school of philosophy, which Gaudiya Vaishnavas and the vast majority of Hindus in general belong to, is the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3608/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  Now the Brahma Sutras refer to lines from a lot of different Upanishads, and one of them is the Chandogya Upanishad.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Brahma Sutras say about the Chandogya Upanishad quote we're interested in:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;14&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The small space (dahara akasa) is Brahman, on account of the subsequent reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From the facts of going and the use of the word (Brahma-loka), (it follows that the small Space is Brahman); likewise it is seen in other Upanishads and an indicatory mark is also present.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And owing to the fact of holding (the worlds) in place, (the small Space must be God); for this glory is noticed (in other texts) as pertaining to Him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And because of familiar use.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be argued that the other one (viz., the individual soul) should be the small Space, since it is alluded to (at the end), then not so, for that is impossible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be argued that the small Space is the individual soul, because of the subsequent reference to it (in the same chapter), then we say: rather it is spoken of there in its own revealed nature.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, the reference (to the individual soul in the complementary passage) is meant for a different purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be argued that from the Upanishadic mention of smallness, (the small space must be the individual being), then this has been repudiated earlier.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa seems to be clearly saying that the Chandogya Upanishad passage is about Brahman, not about some physical location.  But we don't need to rely on my interpretation of Vyasa's words.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Govinda Bhashya by Baladeva Vidyabhushana is the standard Gaudiya Vaishnava commentary on the Brahma Sutras, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/10-07/editorials2150.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what is says about Sutra 14 above:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The small sky here is Lord Vishnu. Why? The sutra says uttarebhyah, which means &quot;because of the description given in the remainder of the text.&quot; The descriptions used here to describe the small sky, such as &quot;as great as the sky,&quot; &quot;maintaining everything,&quot; and &quot;free from all sin,&quot; cannot be used to describe either the element sky or the jiva soul. &lt;strong&gt;The &quot;great city&quot; described in this Upanishad is the body of the devotee. The &quot;lotus&quot; is the heart in the body. The &quot;palace&quot; is the abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/strong&gt; The word &quot;small sky&quot; is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who should be meditated upon and sought after, and who possesses a host of transcendental qualities, including being always free of all sin. The passage should be interpreted in this way. Therefore the small sky here is Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So even Gaudiya Vaishnavas, the followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, say that the city refers to the body of the devotee, the lotus is the heart, etc.  I'm not sure why the ISKCON publication said otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-07-16T02:12:58.053" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4015" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-15T08:37:25.077" Score="15" ViewCount="12007" Body="&lt;p&gt;I saw a story in Ramanand Sagar's TV serial 'Krishna' (and this story should be from Shreemad Bhagavatam) which goes as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakudmi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;King Kakudmi&lt;/a&gt; and his daughter Revati came back from Bramhalok, to meet Lord Balarama, for marrying Revati with him, the height of Kakudmi and Revati was much greater than people in Dwapar Yuga, so Balarama had to touch his plough on Revati to get her down to his size. The difference in height was reasoned at the time as Kakudmi and Revati actually belonged to Satya yuga or Treta Yug.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is whether there is anything written in Hindu texts which explains the average height &amp;amp; weight of people in different yugas and also any reason why people are becoming shorter in height with each yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T05:44:27.967" LastActivityDate="2019-06-17T09:01:30.127" Title="Difference in height of people in different yugas" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|yuga|balarama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4016" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3523" CreationDate="2014-12-16T15:13:44.263" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to hindu calendar, our new year falls on the first day in the month of chaitra(usually in the month of April), Chaitra is the first month in the Indian calendar as per panchang.&#xA;It is celebrated by different names in India Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh &amp;amp; Karnataka, Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra, chaitti in himachal pradesh, Puthandu in Tamil nadu.&#xA;Diwali signifies the triumph of good over evil. As evident from mythology it is the day when lord krishna relieved the demon narakasura from the earth, lord rama returned victorious to ayodhya. It marks the beginning of a new era for the people of gujarat after narakasura was killed.&#xA;Diwali is popularly known as festival of lights. The light dispels away the darkness in ourselves and give us a new ray of hope. &#xA;The celebration of new year on the day of diwali can be considered from the philosophical point of view as it gives us hope by driving away the darkness of ignorance for a new beginning and is celebrated with revelation and joy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastActivityDate="2014-12-16T15:13:44.263" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4017" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3836" CreationDate="2014-12-16T19:31:38.773" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shrimad Bhagawat Geeta has your answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Shrimad Bhagawat Geeta&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-30.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;SBG Lord Krishna says this Chapter 9/30&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Api Chetsuduracharo Bhrajate MamannyaBhak&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Sadhurevsamantavyah samygvyasito hi sah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;means any person who worships me is gentleman even though he is worst by deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-10-15.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;SBG Chapter 10/17&lt;/a&gt; that he continuously worships Lord Krishna in his mind every moment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Katham Vidhyamaham Yogistavam sada parichintayan....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every energy is divine form of Lord Krishna only, whether he is Karna or Arjuna, they all are form of GOD Only,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-29.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter 9 Verse 29&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samoham Sarvabhuteshu.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means &lt;strong&gt;I am equally disposed in every living being&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna or Karna both are form of Hari(Lord Krishna) only... But Lord Krishna told Arjuna that Lord Krishna is Arjuna in Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-10-35.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;SBG Chapter 10 Verse 37&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vrushinam vasudevosmi pandavanam dhanamjaya...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means in Yadava density I am vasudeva, and &lt;strong&gt;in Pandavas I am Arjuna&lt;/strong&gt;..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even after Lord Krishna's death Arjuna was unable to string his bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna is knowledge. Because of Lord's will only Arjuna got knowledge of archery, similarly Karna got from Parshurama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it is Lord's will to put this knowledge then only because of his will, one will get fame and the other will not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fame is not made of materials, it is eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna &quot;one strongly willing to get the fame of BEST ARCHER&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to SBG, one who does not free desire of fruit, can not be best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-02-46.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;SBG Chapter 2, Verse 47&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karmanyevadhikaraste Ma Faleshu Kadachana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna has nothing to do with fruits. He was just a believer of belief that &quot;I will do only (work)karma, and GOD will give me fruits&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Arjuna was following is heart only, where as Karna was full of &quot;Jealousy&quot; and &quot;Moha of fame&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-18-43.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter 18 Verse 43&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Man reaches perfection only following his heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why Arjuna reached Perfection. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Guru's blessings&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru Drona blessed Arjuna that he will be the best archer. Guru's blessings are surety for any student, no doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Please share your doubts/feedback/ideas.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2014-12-16T19:38:09.130" LastActivityDate="2014-12-16T19:38:09.130" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4018" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-16T21:52:14.737" Score="22" ViewCount="7849" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm just curious to know, How old is earth according to hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As of science it is  4,500,000,000.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we calculate this 4.5 billion years into Hinduism, 1041 Mahayugas, which is equal to 1 kalpa i.e 1 day of lord Brahma. But as of Hinduism, 50 years of lord Brahma have elapsed and this is the first 'day' of the 51&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; year. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism calculations based on age of lord brahma, age of earth must be 155,521,972,949,115 years. If lord brahma created earth on his first day of his birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found one &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_date1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; which states, according to Hinduism earth is created and destroyed for regular intervals of time. Is that true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are there any texts that mention about age of earth in Hinduism? Or&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Did Hinduism mention when and where it was created (any belief)? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please give brief explanation on this topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-10T02:44:44.010" LastActivityDate="2016-04-10T02:44:44.010" Title="How old is earth according to Hinduism?" Tags="|belief|scripture|yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4019" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3836" CreationDate="2014-12-17T02:23:09.833" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are few instances when Arjuna defeated Karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;virata parva Arjuna defeated Karna&lt;/strong&gt; and the Kuru army single handedly.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also at the time of &lt;strong&gt;Draupadi's svayamvar&lt;/strong&gt; he withheld the force of Karna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These incidents show that Arjuna was a superior archer than Karna, there is no such incident in the Mahabharata where Karna became victorious against Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the battlefield Karna loses his power to launch the weapons due to the &lt;strong&gt;curse of his guru Parashurama&lt;/strong&gt; for hiding his identity and faced similar &lt;strong&gt;curses from a brahman, bhoo devi which ultimately led to his downfall.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna is no doubt a great archer. If he had fought for the right cause he would have emerged victorious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-12-18T06:04:30.257" LastActivityDate="2014-12-18T06:04:30.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4020" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="4031" CreationDate="2014-12-17T04:48:03.100" Score="10" ViewCount="3382" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is not a duplicate of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/180/is-buddha-an-avatar-of-lord-vishnu&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Is Buddha an avatar of Lord Vishnu?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; I am posting totally different question below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_goddesses/buddha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;www.sanatansociety.org&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, Buddha is regarded as the ninth incarnation of Vishnu following Rama and Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is there a separate religion (Buddhism) for Buddha if Buddha is a Hindu god?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1110" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2019-12-23T14:04:22.913" Title="Why is there a separate religion for Buddha, if Buddha is a Hindu god?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|other-religions|buddhism|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4021" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4020" CreationDate="2014-12-17T05:11:31.830" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I should start out by saying that there are some people who believe that Buddha is not an incarnation of Vishnu, and that any scriptural references to Buddha are a later interpolation.  Now among the people who do believe that Buddha is an incarnation, the reason that Buddhists and Hindus have different beliefs is because of the fundamental purpose of Vishnu's incarnation as Buddha: to lead people astray from following the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Buddha's incarnation is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp092.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana.  The Asuras (demons) decide to engage in Tapasya (deep meditation) in accordance with Vedic principles, and as a result the gods unable to harm them, so they turn to Vishnu to help.  Vishnu incarnates as Buddha in order to lead the Asuras astray from the teachings of the Vedas, so that the gods could defeat them in battle:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this, the great delusion, having proceeded to earth, beheld the Daityas engaged in ascetic penances upon the banks of the Narmadá river; and approaching them in the semblance of a naked mendicant, with his head shaven, and carrying a bunch of peacock's feathers 2, he thus addressed them[.]...   By such persuasions, and by many specious arguments, did this delusive being mislead the Daityas from the tenets of the Vedas; teaching that the same thing might be for the sake of virtue and of vice; might be, and might not be; might or might not contribute to liberation; might be the supreme object, and not the supreme object; might be effect, and not be effect; might be manifest, or not be manifest; might be the duty of those who go naked, or who go clothed in much raiment[.]...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the same deluder, putting on garments of a red colour, assuming a benevolent aspect, and speaking in soft and agreeable tones, addressed others of the same family, and said to them, &amp;quot;If; mighty demons, you cherish a desire either for heaven or for final repose, desist from the iniquitous massacre of animals (for sacrifice), and hear from me what you should do. Know that all that exists is composed of discriminative knowledge. Understand my words, for they have been uttered by the wise. This world subsists without support, and engaged in the pursuit of error, which it mistakes for knowledge, as well as vitiated by passion and the rest, revolves in the straits of existence.&amp;quot; In this manner, exclaiming to them, &amp;quot;Know!&amp;quot; (Budhyadwam), and they replying, &amp;quot;It is known&amp;quot; (Budhyate), these Daityas were induced by the arch deceiver to deviate from their religious duties (and become Bauddhas), by his repeated arguments and variously urged persuasions, When they had abandoned their own faith, they persuaded others to do the same, and the heresy spread, and many deserted the practices enjoined by the Vedas and the laws.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the reason the followers of an incarnation of a Vedic god like Vishnu could deny the Vedas would be that Vishnu intentionally spread doctrines that were contrary to the Vedas.  And insofar as Hindus believe that the truths embodied in the Vedas are of divine origin, there is naturally a divergence in the beliefs of Hindus and Buddhists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-12-17T18:15:31.730" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4022" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="4029" CreationDate="2014-12-17T05:46:40.067" Score="9" ViewCount="4967" Body="&lt;p&gt;Popularly belief is that SriRamnanujacharya is the avatara (incarnation) of Sankarshana/Balarama/Lakshmana/Adisesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is whose avatara is Sri Ramanujacharya and is there any specific references in puranas and any other texts written before 15th century?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2014-12-22T03:36:54.230" LastActivityDate="2018-04-10T16:09:27.720" Title="Whose avatara is Sri Ramanujacharya?" Tags="|avatars|sri-vaishnava|ramanujacharya|adisesha|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4023" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4022" CreationDate="2014-12-17T08:26:23.670" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=Zn4szeEn23IC&amp;amp;lpg=PA178&amp;amp;ots=dGbasgpmcE&amp;amp;dq=%22golden%20lives%20of%20the%20east%22&amp;amp;pg=PA44#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This book&lt;/a&gt; lists two scriptural citations which prophesy Ramanujacharya.  The first is from the Vriddha Padma Purana (I'm not sure if it's different from the regular Padma Purana):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Long, long afterwards, the Lord himself will come down on earth as a Tridanda  Sanyasin, to restore the good law.  At that time heretics and men of perverted  intellects will confuse the minds of the people.  Asuric Sastras, based upon  fallacious arguments and various schools of thought, very attractive and almost  indistinguishable from the Vedanta, will turn away mens' hearts from Vishnu and  cause them to forget His glory.  That glorious incarnation will, through the  good fortune of the Lord's devotees, come down upon earth, to explain and  amplify the teachings of the great Sage Badaraayana and the divine singer of  the Gita.  The holy one would compose a Bhashya on the Vyasa Sutras, to save  men from the confusion and despair caused by spurious doctrines and lead them to  the True faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a reference to Ramanujacharya's composition of the Sri Bhashya, his famous commentary on the Brahma Sutras.  In any case, note that this does not contradict Ramanujacharya being an incarnation of Adiseshan, because as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2820/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; Balarama has the same property.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other citation is from the Yadavachala Mahatmya (AKA the Yadavagiri Mahatmya) of the Narada Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;His primal manifestation was as Ananta; his second as Lakshmana, the younger brother of Rama; his third as Balabhadra the elder brother of Krishna; and once again he will come down on Earth in the Kali Yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to the Puranic references, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srivaishnava.org/scholars/agovind/panca.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt; quotes two Pancharatra texts which refer to Ramanujacharya.  First there's the Ishwara Samhita, where Vishnu tells Balarama this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Son of Yadu-race (BalarAma) ! thou hast clean (or pure) devotion (or love) for Me. Thou, first as S'esha didst the great service for Me. Then next didst thou worship me as Lakshmana. Thou art now serving me as Balabharada. Thou shalt again in Kali age be born as a great BrAhmana (=RAmAnuja), and shalt worship me with many things of joy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then there is the Brihad-Brahma Samhita, which mentions Ramanujacharya by name:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My Samkarshana part (O Sri),' says NArAyan, 'is the form of a BrAhmana, by the name RAmAnuja, which it is going to take, after the  DvApara age and in the kAli age, to expound the Vishnu-dharma (=BhAgavata Religion), when the world will be full of heretics or renegades (pAsanda). Know that RAmAnuja will be the specially favoured of S'riRanga (-natha) and he will show the way to the Realm known as Viakuntha. The One-pointed Religion exclusively to be rendered to Thee and Me (=Sriman NArAyana) the religion which delivers (creatures) from the bonds of samsAra (material existance) becomes dimmed by age, O fair faced one ! According to the requirements of the age, I take many forms, and act by means of My devotees such as Vishvaksena, Sathakopa, etc., and RAmAnuja in the Kali age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-15T19:30:03.227" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T19:30:03.227" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4025" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="179" CreationDate="2014-12-17T10:10:11.287" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Govindaraja Swamy is the elder brother of Lord Venkateswara. He took a loan from Kubera for performing Venkateswara Swamy's marriage. So He looks after the money and loan to be paid for Kubera. That's the reason why you can see the idol with money measuring jar as his cushion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1168" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-04-01T14:49:31.360" LastActivityDate="2015-04-01T14:49:31.360" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4026" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4009" CreationDate="2014-12-17T13:12:18.207" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Purascharana is repetition of a mantra. A mantra must necessarily be obtained from a guru alone. No shortcut to this. The guru who initiates you into a mantra will instruct you on its purascharana and praxis. A meat-eater is not eligible for mantropadesa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2014-12-19T08:44:23.163" LastActivityDate="2014-12-19T08:44:23.163" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4029" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4022" CreationDate="2014-12-17T13:58:13.803" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramanujacharya is popularly believed by all as Sankarshana/Balarama/Sesha avatara (incarnation of Adisesha). But let us delve a bit and understand who Ramanujacharya actually is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let’s look at the name Ramanuja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means Raama + Anuja i.e. the younger brother of Lord Raama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is this younger brother?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People jump to the conclusion that it is Lakshmana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, It applies to Lakshmana also.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, what it actually means is that Ramaanuja is the younger brother of Balaraama i.e. Lord Krishna, himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Already, Keshav Srinivasan has provided some proofs from puranas and a few more texts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will try to supplement and complement it with proofs from others texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the biography of Ramanujacharya (12th -13 th century); it is clearly mentioned as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kEsava sOmayAji (father of Ramanujacharya) came and worshipped rukmiNi samEtha vEnkatakrishna (Lord Parthasarathy) and performed puthra kAmEshti yAgam to beget a child. Lord Parthasarathy (Krishna) appeared to him and told him that he will himself take birth as his child. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, thiruvallikkENi (one of 108 vaishnava kshtras),  &lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna himself came as Sri Ramanujacharya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let’s look at the works of Tiruvarangath Amudanar (11 th-12th century - who was disciple of Kuresa who in turn was direct disciple of SriRamanujacharya)  raamanujaNootrandhadhi in tamil and works of great acharya like Vedanta desika (13th century)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verses from rammanujaNootrandhadhi of Tiruarangath Amudhanar (11th-12th century)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;adaiyAr kamalaththu alarmagaL kELvan * kai Azhi ennum&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;padaiyOdu nAndhagamum padar thaNdum ** oN sArngka villum&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pudaiyAr purisangkamum indhap bUthalam kAppadhaRku * enRu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;idaiyE * irAmAnusa muni Ayina innilaththE (verse 33)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; :The Lord of lotus-dame Lakshmi wields the discus sudarsana, the dagger Nandaki, the mace kaumodaki, the bow sarnga, and the dextral conch Panchajanya. To protect the good, they have come into this world in the form of a Muni called Ramanuja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;adal koNda nEmiyan Aruyir nAthan * anRAraNach sol&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kadal koNda oNporuL kaNdaLippa ** pinnum kAsiniyOr&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;idarin kaN vIzhndhidath thAnum avvoNporuL koNdu * avar pin&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;padarum guNan * em irAmAnusan than padi idhuvE (verse 36)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; :Then in the yore, the lord of all souls, wielder of the discus, brought out the hidden meaning of Vedic texts to Arjuna. Even then, seeing the impatient worldly ones trapped in despair, the lord followed ones trapped in despair, the lord's followed them with good advice. That is how our Ramanuja came to be!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;adiyaith thodarndhezhum aivargatkAy * anRu bArathap pOr&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mudiyap * parinedunthEr vidum kOnai ** muzhudhuNarndha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;adiyarkkamudham irAmAnusan * ennai ALa vandhu ip&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;padiyil piRandhadhu * maRRillai kAraNam pArththidilE ( Verse 51 )  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; : Then in the yore the lord drove the steed-driven chariot for the five devoted Pandavas in the Bharata war. Now he has taken birth again as Ramanuja, the sweet ambrosia of devotees, for my upliftment alone, I can see no other reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, from the above three verses it is very clear that Lord Krishna/Narayana himself came down as Sri Ramanujacharya. When Lord comes all his paraphernalia like weapons come along with him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here in above verses it says Ramanujacharya was all in one (Lord Krishna +  all his weapons)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us look at another more verses from rammanujaNootrandhadhi of Amudhanar (11th -12 th century)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jnAnam kanindha nalam koNdu * nAL thoRum naibavarkku&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vAnam koduppadhu mAdhavan ** valvinaiyEn manaththil&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Inam kadindha irAmAnusan * thannai eydhinarkku ath&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;thAnam koduppadhu * than thagavennum charaN koduththE (verse 66)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; :For those who offer worship everyday with a heart mellowed by knowledge the Lord Madhava (Lord Narayana/Krishna) grants the sky world of Moksha. Ramanuja, who removed the inadequacies of my heart, gives that same position to those who approach him, through compassion for the refuge-seekers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;saraNam adaindha dharumanukkA * paNdu nURRuvarai&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;maraNam adaiviththa mAyavan ** thannai vaNangka vaiththa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;karaNam ivai umakkanRenRu irAmAnusan * uyirgatku&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;araN angkamaiththilanEl * araNAr maRRu ivvAruyirkkE?  (verse 67)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; :The wonder-Lord caused victory over the hundred for Dharmaputra who took refuge in him. Ramanuja taught us that these limbs are not for personal use but for service to the lord. But for him, who would have provided refuge to these suffering souls?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ar enakkinRu nigar sollil? * mAyan anRu aivar dheyvath&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;thErinil seppiya * gIthaiyin semmaip ** poruL theriyap&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pArinil sonna irAmAnusanaip paNiyum nallOr *&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sIrinil senRu paNindhadhu * en Aviyum sindhaiyumE (Verse 68)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; :Then in the yore the wonder Lord gave the Gita driving the chariot for Arjuna in the battle. Our master Ramanuja expounded its meaning to the world, with a lucid commentary. My heart and soul forever bathe in the goodness of his devotees. Come to say, who is my peer?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;thErAr maRaiyin thiRam enRu * mAyavan thIyavaraik&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kUrAzhi koNdu kuRaippadhu ** koNdal anaiya vaNmai&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ErAr guNaththu em irAmAnusan * avvezhil maRaiyil&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sErAdhavaraich sidhaippadhu * appOdhu oru sinthai seydhE (Verse 74)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: With his fierce discus of time, the wonder Lord wipes out the wicked ones that do not follow the Vedic path, whereas the cool-as-the-raincloud Ramanuja convinces them through reason and brings them into the radiant Vedic path.&#xA;  kali mikka sennel kazhanik kuRaiyal * kalaip perumAn&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;oli mikka pAdalai uNdu * than uLLam thadiththu ** adhanAl&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vali mikka sIyam irAmAnusan * maRai vAdhiyarAm&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pulimikkadhenRu * ipbuvanaththil vandhamai pORRuvanE &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; : When the tigers of heretic thoughts roamed everywhere freely, Ramanuja came as a lion unto them, strengthened of heart by the Pann-based songs of fertile Kuraiyalur's king kalikanri. I bow to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaLarndha vengkOpa madangkalonRAy * anRu vAL avuNan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kiLarndha * pon Agam kizhiththavan ** kIrththip payir ezhundhu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;viLaindhidum sindhai irAmAnusan * endhan meyvinai nOy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kaLaindhu nan njAnam aLiththanan * kaiyil kani ennalE (Verse103 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; :Then in the yore the Lord appeared as a huge, terribly angry man-lion and tore the mighty golden chest of the heavily armed Hiranya. His glory grows in the fertile fields of Ramanuja's heart. Pulling out the weeds of my karmic birth, he gives me a good harvest of ripe knowledge. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kaiyil kani ennak kaNNanaik kAttith tharilum * undhan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;meyyil piRangkiya * sIr anRi vENdilan yAn ** nirayath&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;thoyyil kidakkilum sOdhi viN sErilum ivvaruL nI *&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;seyyil tharippan * irAmAnusa! en sezhung koNdalE! (verse 104 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; : O Ramanuja! My ripe rain-cloud! Even if you give me Krishna like a fruit in my hands, I still seek the glory that flows from your frame only, Whether I fall into the dungeon of hell or whether I attain the glorious high heaven, you must give me this, or else I shall not live. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let’s look at the similarity between the Lord and Ramanujacharya in the above mentioned verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;1) It is clear that Lord Madhava gives moksha. Ramanujacharya also gives moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;2) Lord Krishna gave refuge to Yudhistitra and got a victory to him in the Mahabharata war. Ramanujacharya provides refuge to lakhs and thousands of suffering souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;3) Lord Krishna gave bhagavad gita to Arjuna (soul). Sri Ramanujacharya gave the ultimate true meaning meaning of Bhagavad gita to the suffering souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;4) Lord wipes of the wicked by his discus, Sri Ramanujacharya sweeps (convinces) them through reason and brings them to the royal vedic path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;5) Lord came as Naarasimha and destroyed Hiranyakasipu and liberated Prahalada. Sri Ramanujacharya came and destroyed the karmas of the suffering souls and thereby liberated them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Finally, Amdhunar concludes saying that even if Lord Krishna himself comes to him and provides succor, he will not accept him. He will accept Lord Krishna only when he comes in Sri Ramanujacharya’s form and provides him relief from the samsaric ills.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Yatiraja saptati of great poet and philosopher Vedanta Desika (13 th century):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;1)  Ramanujacharya is an incarnation of the Lord’s five weapons (Verse 12),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;2) and of Vishvaksena, the commander-in-chief of the Lord’s army in Vaikuntha (Verse 32), &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;3) and the Lord Himself (verse 63).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the verse 13 of Yatiraja saptati, Sri Vedanta Desika (13th century) says as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samithodaya sankaradi garvaha &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Ramanujacharya strongly refuted the advaita philosophy of Shankara and others, similar to lord Krishna who sudued Siva during the Banasura episode, subduing Indra and Bramha)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Svabaladudruta Yadavaprakakasaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Ramanujacharya disproved Yadavaprakasa who was an advaitin guru and accepted him as his disciple. This is similar to Lord Krishna defeating Kamsa and providing peace to Yadavas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Avaropithavan SrutheyapiParthan &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Ramanujacharya gave the correct interpretations of Vedanta sutras there by removing all the mis representations and removing all the fears. This is similar to the Krishna  removing the fears of Arjuna (the word ApiParthan should be broken as Api + parthan meaning like Lord Krishna destroyed the enemies of arjuna and protected pandavas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nanu ramavarajaha sa yesha bhuyaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(It is great fortune that Lord Krishna himself come as SriRamanujacharya)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, Sri Ramanujacharya is Supreme Lord Narayana/Krishna/Vishnu, himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his work, Garudapanchasath – Garudadandakam archanaavyakyanam (in telugu) the author, Sriman I. Bhasyakaracharyaulu, in the introduction provides, references of Garuda and greatness  from various sources like Vedas, ithihasas (Ramayana, Mahabharata) and Puranas. The author says that in &lt;strong&gt;madhuramangala mahatyam (dakshina madhura) of Bramhavaivarta purana&lt;/strong&gt;, it is mentioned as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Evam vivardhamnesya  mahatmayam vividhey buddhahaa !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chintaavisheshanaa mugraanam smitadranstravaseeyujaam !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaminibhogina masya pratyaneekathayaa sadaa !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarpa?syasparshagenaapi samsara vishanashanat !!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Raamanuja priyatvacha srisasya vahanad sada !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Amrutapaharanaachapi sarvshaamapi yachatham!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anumanai grahisyanthi bahudaasya kageysatham !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Lord Narayana appeared in front of Garuda and told him go to earth during Kaliyuga in form of govinda bhattar (Embar; Cousin brother of Ramanujacharya) become a disciple of Ramanujacharya and help in propagation of sampradayam.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We all know, Garuda always serves the Lord exclusively. In his avataram as Embar or Govinda bhattar, he served Ramanujacharya. &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;This also is strong proof that Sri Ramanujacharya is Lord Vasudeva/Narayana/Krishna/Vishnu himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let’s look at the a few Vishnu sahasranama verses and see how they refer to Sri Ramanujacharya perfectly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;570 - sahishnuh  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;a) He who is endowed with enormous patience – Ramanujacharya was endowed with great patience and went on to extent of giving the Aastakshari mantra to one and all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;b) He who forgives – He forgave his own guru who wanted to planned to kill and made him a great Acharya and also forgave Kulothunga Chola who prosecuted vaishnavas. He also forgave those who tried to poison him and made them his principle disciples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;c) He who conquers His foes – Ramanujacharya conquered all by his reasoning and by his writing with vedas as pramana and made them follow the path of Saranagathy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;e) He who willingly accepts the offerings of His devotees - When tikurrukapiran pillan (one of close disciples) wrote the first commentary on  Alwars divya prabhandham, Ramanujacharya accepted it and gave his approval. There are many more instances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;570&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;gati-sattamah  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;a) The best instructor in the path of dharma – Acharya literally instructed the best path towards moksha and for serving the Lord&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;b) The Best among the refuges to be sought – Acharya was refuge to all including great philosophers, Kings (Vishnuvardhana of Hoyasala kingdom ) etc. Lord Krishna himself took refuge in him and in his avatara as Ramanujacharya, he became Acharya of Lord Krishna/Venkateshwara, by providing conch and discus to him in Tirumala temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;c) The Ultimate Support for all the suffering souls – By providing the Astakshari mantra to all easily and showing the path of prapatti Ramanujacharya became the ultimate support for the suffering souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;587&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;sannyasa-krt  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;a) He who cuts asunder the bonds when desires are renounced – Ramanujacharya made the path of surrender available to all and there cut the bonds of desires of his suffering souls&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;b) The Institutor of the samnyasa asrama for the attainment of moksha – As described in Vriddha Padma purana Ramanujacharya was the tridandi sanysasi and provided the royal path for attainment for moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;c) He Who shows the path of Saranagati to His devotee – This is self explanatory&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;588&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Samah  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;a) He who instructs on how to control anger etc – Ramanujacharya didn’t show any anger and was full of control when Kulothunga chola was prosecuting Vaishnavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;b) Ramanujacharya instructs that control of mind is the principal dharma for samnyasin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;c) Ramanujacharya put an end to the darkness in His devotees' mind  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;737&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Suvarna-varnah &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya is “Golden Coloured” for He is, in the form of Lord’s devotee, he is crystal pure ;&#xA;    Mundaka Upanishad declares: “When the Seer sees Him of Golden- hue.” Upon witnessing the Self-Effulgent (Golden) Being, the seer’s realization is completely transforming, and “then that wise one, shaking off all deeds of merits and demerits, becomes stainless, and attains the supreme State of Equipoise.” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hemaangah &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;“One who has limbs of Gold.” Ramanujacharya’s  limbs are brilliant and pure&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;739&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Varaangah &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;“With beautiful limbs.” Ramanujacharya has beautiful limbs.  Also, Vara can take the meaning “lovable,” therefore, Ramanujacharya is described here as “One whose form (limbs) is supremely “lovable” to the devotees.” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All these clearly and lucidly prove that Sri Ramanujacharya is Lord Narayana/Krishna/Vishnu, himself. He is in fact BalaRaamanuja, the younger brother of Balarama, i.e. Lord Krishna/Narayana/Vishnu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2014-12-18T07:55:20.750" LastActivityDate="2014-12-18T07:55:20.750" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4030" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-17T15:11:49.630" Score="7" ViewCount="687" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt; contains some deeds of the Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu respectively which had happened. Both Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu exist even today, now they might be doing some deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now why aren't the current deeds of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu written? To be more precise, why aren't &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt; updated with the latest deeds of the Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, Lord Shiva's marriage with Goddess Parvathi, the birth of Lord Karthikeya, Lord Ganesha. In a similar way, what is currently going on now?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is any rishi writing them currently? Are they updated every yuga with the latest deeds? What is current status of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="312" LastEditorUserId="312" LastEditDate="2014-12-17T15:21:02.627" LastActivityDate="2015-11-01T23:02:01.850" Title="Why aren't Shiva Purana and Vishnu Purana updated?" Tags="|shiva-purana|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4031" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4020" CreationDate="2014-12-17T15:43:02.577" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is because the discrimination of religions as it has come to be is mostly &lt;strong&gt;based upon the primary scripture or teachings&lt;/strong&gt; of the prophet or god rather than who the god is or who the proponent is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So irrespective of whether Buddha is a Hindu god or not, the message he preached and spread is different than that of Hindu/Vedic beliefs. For example while Hindus, who accept the authority of the Vedas, believe in the existence of individual souls and a Supreme God, the Buddhists do not. Buddha did not accept the authority of the Vedas and spread a tenant opposite to it shunning &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt;, animal sacrifice, etc. So due to the difference in the core beliefs it has come to be known as a separate religion having its own sub-sects over the course of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, having said that I would also like to say Buddhism, Jainism, etc. were considered as different philosophies and schools of thought rather than separate religions. They belong to the &lt;em&gt;nastika&lt;/em&gt; (heterodox) schools of thought in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_philosophy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Philosophy&lt;/a&gt;. These schools of thought came to flourish in India where there were no such thing as religion as that term means today. Even there is no word for religion in Indian languages and it is commonly translated as &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; which can mean many different things depending upon the context. Only in course of time as other religions started to flourish in different parts of the world that the distinction became more. So even if Buddhism is considered and categorised as a separate religion, many would agree (and of course some wouldn't) that it is just a different &lt;em&gt;darshana&lt;/em&gt; (philosophy) and way of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="10329" LastEditDate="2019-11-27T01:51:17.027" LastActivityDate="2019-11-27T01:51:17.027" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="4033" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3855" CreationDate="2014-12-17T19:07:18.807" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Barbrik was the grandson of Bheem. He, by the virtue of his Worship of Lord Shiva, had 3 arrows in his quiver. He had the blessings that he could finish anything with his 3 arrows. Since, the pandavas were weaker in terms of army size, Barbrik had promised his mother that he would fight from the losing side, thinking that the Pandavas would be losing and would need his help. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Krishna got to know about him, he challenged Barbrik to burn all the leaves of a tree. While Barbrik was doing this, Krishna hid one leaf under his foot. Barbrik's arrow marked all the leaves and then started pricking Krishna's foot. Knowing his strength and his resolve to fight from the losing side, Krishna convinced Barbrik to cut his head and placed it on the same tree so that he could witness the entire battle as per his last wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the war, Pandavas were discussing who had the most impact and Krishna suggested them to check with Barbrik. Barbrik said, he could only see one person fighting all the while and that was lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="85" LastEditorUserId="85" LastEditDate="2014-12-18T11:04:05.837" LastActivityDate="2014-12-18T11:04:05.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4034" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-18T03:28:18.600" Score="7" ViewCount="876" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which is oldest known sacred place of Hindus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have found several temples &amp;amp; sacred places of the Hindu religion to be told as many thousand years old. Which of them is oldest known such temple or sacred place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1173" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-21T19:49:10.300" LastActivityDate="2015-07-23T11:14:14.467" Title="Which is oldest known sacred place of Hindus?" Tags="|worship|temple|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4035" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-18T03:35:22.110" Score="3" ViewCount="516" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, it is almost like tradition to match Kundli for marriages. What is exact science behind the Kundli matching?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How people are able to predict match without even meeting people based on time of birth &amp;amp; place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1173" LastActivityDate="2014-12-18T03:35:22.110" Title="What's the science behind Kundli Matching for marriages?" Tags="|astrology|kundali|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-03-10T09:24:35.927" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4036" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4034" CreationDate="2014-12-18T05:15:36.200" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The oldest sacred place in Hinduism is probably Kurukshetra.  Most people today know it as the location of the Mahabharata war, but long before then, it was the site of a Yagna (fire-ritual) performed by the gods.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44117.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how it's described in the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The gods Agni, Indra, Soma, Makha, Vishnu, and the Visve Devâh, except the two Asvins, performed a sacrificial session.  Their place of divine worship was Kurukshetra.. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore people say that Kurukshetra is the gods’ place of divine worship: hence wherever in Kurukshetra one settles there one thinks, 'This is a place for divine worship;'&lt;/strong&gt; for it was the gods’ place of divine worship....  They spake, 'Whoever of us, through austerity, fervour, faith, sacrifice, and oblations, shall first compass the end of the sacrifice, he shall be the most excellent of us, and shall then be in common to us all.' 'So be it,' they said.  Vishnu first attained it, and he became the most excellent of the gods; whence people say, 'Vishnu is the most excellent of the gods.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So long before later texts like the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas described a wide variety of sacred places, we have a declaration from the sage Yajnavalkya (the sage of the Shukla Yajur Veda) that Kurukshetra is &quot;a place of divine worship&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Kurukshetra's holiness was recognized throughout the ages; as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3669/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna was reunited with his foster parents Nandagopa and Yashoda because people from all over India made a pilgrimage to Kurukshetra during a solar eclipse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-02-14T08:55:42.927" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4037" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4018" CreationDate="2014-12-18T06:16:37.423" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Time between begining of creation and beginign of destruction is kalpa (day of brahma) &lt;strong&gt;= 4.32 billion years&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Age of earth according to modern radiometric data is around &lt;strong&gt;4.54 billion years&lt;/strong&gt;(As you have quoted)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Puranas quotes that currently we are in  7 th manvantara , 28th mahayuga of current kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So age of earth =  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;= 6 * Years for Manvantara + 28 * Years for mahayuga&#xA;= 6 * 306.72mil            + 28 * 4.32 mil &#xA;= 1.92 billion years&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I am not sure , why it would be roughly half estimated time by science.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastActivityDate="2014-12-18T06:16:37.423" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4038" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="4042" CreationDate="2014-12-18T09:48:01.287" Score="13" ViewCount="7377" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have recently read somewhere that atheism is the pillar of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Hindus don't believe in God then why do they worship Lord Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Kali etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is atheism followed by all Hindus or only a particular caste (e.g., Brahmin)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can you also cite the Vedas or Upanishads which talk about atheism in Hindu religion?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="117" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-22T18:35:28.573" LastActivityDate="2016-07-03T18:19:38.853" Title="What is the relationship between Hinduism and atheism?" Tags="|belief|history|practice|culture|atheism|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4039" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4034" CreationDate="2014-12-18T11:41:51.643" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most evidence of temples show that they arose after the Buddhistic era. There have been found the ruins of public gathering places that were probably used for worship purposes at Mohenjo-Daro dating from about the 3rd millennium B.C. (&lt;em&gt;Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization&lt;/em&gt; by Heinrich Zimmer)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The earliest place of worship was the cave of the heart. The upanishads reference that the Atman dwells in the cave of the heart and is about the size of a thumb.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Lakshmidhara wrote his compendium of &lt;em&gt;tirthas&lt;/em&gt; in the twelfth&#xA;  century, he seemed to emphasize, at the outset, that real &lt;em&gt;tirthas&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  are not the places alone, or the sacred waters alone. The real&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;tirthas&lt;/em&gt; are truth, charity, patience, self-control, celibacy, and wisdom--these are the &lt;em&gt;tirthas&lt;/em&gt; of the heart on which one must bathe.&#xA;  He quotes from the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Purana&lt;/em&gt;: If merely going to a &lt;em&gt;tirtha&lt;/em&gt; is&#xA;  enough to purify, then the fish of the Ganga and the birds who roost&#xA;  in the temple towers would be instantly purified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;em&gt;India: A Sacred Geography&lt;/em&gt; by Diane L. Eck)    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-14T08:55:18.633" LastActivityDate="2015-02-14T08:55:18.633" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4040" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4038" CreationDate="2014-12-18T12:02:17.127" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although the Purva Mimamsa school is sometimes identified as being athiest, it is not. It is just silent on the existence of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was also an old school of nihilists that believed in only the material world. They did not worship the gods or God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gaudapada's Karika of the Mandukya Upanishad has specific arguments against nihilists and materialists. The Karika's second, third, and fourth chapters prove by means of reason and argument the reality of Turiya and gives opposing arguments of nihilists. The first chapter uses scripture as authority, the second, third, and fourth, do not, they use only reason as authority.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-18T12:02:17.127" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4041" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4038" CreationDate="2014-12-18T12:14:09.127" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is doctrinal freedom in Hinduism. Gita 18.63, for example, says.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'...Reflecting on this entire teaching do as you think fit.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atheism arises naturally from this freedom. Abrahamic faiths like Christianity and Islam do not allow its followers such freedom. A Christian or a Muslim must believe in the doctrines and dogmas of their religion. Islamic Hadith recommends the death penalty to a Muslim who ceases to believe. Thus atheism is not an option for Christians or Muslims.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2014-12-18T12:14:09.127" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4042" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4038" CreationDate="2014-12-18T12:50:37.427" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Atheism is not the pillar of Hinduism, but only a part of Hinduism. Moreover, the term &lt;em&gt;nastika&lt;/em&gt; (atheist) means different in Hinduism than its usual meaning. Generally atheist means a person who doesn't believe in God, afterlife, etc. But &lt;strong&gt;in Hinduism atheist means a person who doesn't accept the authority of the Vedas&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;veda neendako nastika&lt;/em&gt;), that is, a person who doesn't accept words of the Vedas as the infallible truth. After that it is only optional whether he believes in the existence of God or not. So &lt;strong&gt;in Hinduism one may not believe God but still be called as a theist as long as he believes the Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now you may wonder how it is possible for someone to believe the Vedas but not believe in God? Well, this is because the Vedas don not maintain a consistent theory about who or what the God is and even statements that are skeptic of existence of a Supreme Being are present in the Vedas. So how can be the truth ascertained? That's where logic and philosophy comes in. Sages have tried to reconcile the different message of the Vedas accepting different kinds of proofs and given their own conclusion regarding the existence of God. So out of the six primary schools of thought in Hinduism, three say God, the supreme being, doesn't exist and three say God exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nyāya School of Thought&lt;/strong&gt;  - God exists&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sage Gautam was the founder of this school of thought and it says in favour of God's existence. It laid out foundations of logic and arguments basing upon which the truthfulness of a certain thing can be ascertained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mimasa School of Thought (purva mīmāṃsā)&lt;/strong&gt; - God doesn't exist&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sage Jaimini was the founder of this school of thought. They accepted Vedas as the personal experiences of the ultimate reality by various sages in the form of sound patterns. Hence, Vedas not being the creation of any person are called as apauruṣeya. Just like there was no need for an author to compose the Vedas, they argue, there was no need for a God to create the universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mimansakas&lt;/em&gt; hold the belief that &lt;strong&gt;the gods named in the Vedas have no independent or separate existence other than the &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; that mention their names&lt;/strong&gt;. It is only the power of these mantras which is considered as the power of the God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaishesika School of Thought&lt;/strong&gt; - God doesn't exist&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sage Kaṇāda was the founder of this school of thought. Just like the modern scientist, they speculated the existence of an unseen force that binds the atoms together but never gave it any human like attributes. So from the perspective of their area of research, Vaiśeṣika School didn’t accept the existence of any personal God or God with attributes. But it can’t be said for sure that they rejected the possibility of His existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sāṃkhya School of Thought&lt;/strong&gt; - God doesn't exist&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sage Kapila’s sāṃkhya school of thought did not accept the doctrine of a creator God. It contributed many useful concepts to Indian philosophy but argued against the presence of a creator being. It holds primordial nature (&lt;em&gt;pradhāna&lt;/em&gt;) as the root from which everything originates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yoga School of Thought&lt;/strong&gt; - God exists&lt;br&gt;&#xA; Sage Patanjali was the proponent of this school of thought. They believe in the existence of God along with all the other twenty five elements of existence postulated by the system of sāṃkhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedanta School of Thought (uttara mīmāṃsā)&lt;/strong&gt; -  God exists&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sage Badarāyana was the founder of this school of thought. This school of thought is widely known and it argues in favor of the existence of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as you can see, &lt;strong&gt;believing God is only but optional depending upon the school of thought one follows&lt;/strong&gt; and it is not limited to any &lt;em&gt;varna&lt;/em&gt; or cast like Brahmins etc.   Although it is another thing that each school of thought argues and tries to refute the tenets of the other and the Vedanta school of thought is the most popular one. It is however another thing that the Vedanta schools of thought also have varying philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Please Note: I only tried to answer in brief due to shortage of time as this is a very long concept. I'll add and update this answer with verses and quotations as soon as I get time (possibly tomorrow). I hope this post provides some insight in the mean time regarding atheism in Hinduism&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Update&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atheist is generally translated as &lt;em&gt;nastika&lt;/em&gt; in Sanskrit or Hindi language. People have different idea regarding what &lt;em&gt;nastika&lt;/em&gt; means the most common one being one who doesn't believe in God. Well, that's ok, &lt;strong&gt;but in Hinduism due to existence of different schools of thought (some of which don't even accept the existence of a creator God), the definition of &lt;em&gt;nastika&lt;/em&gt; is one who rejects the authority of the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt; Some people (like Hindu who has commented below) out of love and admiration deny this definition to be of Hindu thought. But that's only their love speaking, the scriptures do speak of this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;nāstiko vedanindakaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Manu Smrt. - 2.11]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;sarvataḥ pāpadarśī ca nāstiko vedanindakaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Mahabharat - 12.162.8]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;vedavādāpaviddhāṃs tu tān viddhi bhṛśanāstikān&lt;/em&gt; [MB - 12.12.4]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Know them for downright atheists that reject the declaration of the Vedas &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many other instances where the &lt;em&gt;nastikas&lt;/em&gt; have been mentioned and often their characteristics are given as ignorant people and who are sinful. But it is true that, this kind of people were not always there everywhere and their number has increased in the course of time . For example, during the time of Lord Rama there were no atheists in Ayodhya as the Ramayana describes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kāmī vā na kadaryo vā nṛśaṃsaḥ puruṣaḥ kvacit&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  draṣṭum śakyam ayodhyāyām na avidvān na ca nāstikaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [VR- 1.6.8]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The lustful persons, the miserly, the unscholarly and the atheists were not seen in that city of Ayodhya anywhere. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reagrding the philosophical systems rejecting God, it should be known as the Supreme Being. That is, the God with attributes. In Hinduism God is defined both with and without attributes. And philosophical schools like Samkhya deny the existence of any such creator God with attributes. They either don't deny or keep silent or describe it differently regarding the existence of the supreme entity. For example, the Vaisesika school calls the unknown force as &lt;em&gt;adrishta&lt;/em&gt; rather than giving it God like attributes. Please see &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_in_Hinduism&quot;&gt;this wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; for some more information as I am struggling with time to update this post.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-12-19T11:38:48.937" LastActivityDate="2014-12-19T11:38:48.937" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4043" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-19T00:32:28.417" Score="9" ViewCount="4367" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the qualities and requirements needed to be a &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice)#Pativrata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;pathivrata&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Draupadi is considered to be one of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchakanya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchkannyas&lt;/a&gt;, and a great pathivrata too. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/231/why-did-all-the-pandavas-marry-draupadi/%22link%22&quot;&gt;This link&lt;/a&gt; says why Draupadi married 5 persons (the Pandavas). Is that sacred or pure? Does it have any effect on the pathivrata state?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there's nothing wrong, according to Hindu scripture (forget current law), can a Hindu woman marry more than one person at a time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, briefly explain the Hinduism and Veda perspective on polyandry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can a woman achieve pathivrata state even though she marries more than one person at a time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(P.S. My main question is about the Veda perspective on polyandry; my other questions and statements were made in support of the main question. Please answer this considering Draupadi as an example and the Hindu woman in real time)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-02-02T18:04:02.857" LastActivityDate="2018-02-02T18:04:02.857" Title="How can Draupadi be a pathivrata (dutiful wife) while being married to 5 men?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|women|draupadi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4045" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4034" CreationDate="2014-12-19T15:06:07.987" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Rig Veda, in order to settle the dispute between Lord Bramha and Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva is said to have manifested as a column of light, and then the form of Arunachala. Arunachala hills in Tamil Nadu is said to be that place. Reference can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Rig Veda and Shiva Purana, the oldest inhabited place known would be Kashi (ie, Banaras or Varanasi) which was build by Shiva and Shakti, when they create Purush and Prakriti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following extract from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanasi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; wikipedia article also throws more light on this from the archaeological point of view:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The earliest known archaeological evidence suggests that settlement around Varanasi in the Ganga valley (the seat of Vedic religion and philosophy) began in the 11th or 12th century BC, placing it among the world's oldest continually inhabited cities. These archaeological remains suggest that the Varanasi area was populated by Vedic people. However, the Atharvaveda (the oldest known text referencing the city), which dates to approximately the same period, suggests that the area was populated by indigenous tribes. It is possible that archaeological evidence of these previous inhabitants has yet to be discovered. Recent excavations at Aktha and Ramnagar, two sites very near to Varanasi, show them to be from 1800 BC, suggesting Varanasi started to be inhabited by that time too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2014-12-19T15:13:51.877" LastActivityDate="2014-12-19T15:13:51.877" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4047" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1961" CreationDate="2014-12-19T15:50:26.363" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The famous Maharshi Atri was the mind born son of Brahma. The rishi was acknowledged as someone who is on par and even greater than his own father Brahma. He was an exalted sage who went beyond the three modes of existence (trigunas - Sattva, Rajas, Tamas) and the three states of experience (jagruth, sushupti and swapna). He was called Atri because he was a trigunaatheetha (beyond the three states). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He once had a queer desire. He knew that Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra are responsible for creation, sustenance and dissolution of the rahmandas. But there must be someone or something that puts these three (i.e Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma) into action in order to carry on their duties. So, the maharshi went into penance, with the desire to witness the consciousness (paramjyoti) that is the source of the Trimurtis and the entire creation of universe. Anasuya devi, his wife, also performed penance along with him, so that God may shower bountiful grace on mankind. The penance performed by Athri maharshi and his wife went on for thousands of years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the fruit of his penance, Athri maharshi witnessed a bright light (paramjyoti) encompassing the entire universe and that light take the form of a 16 year old child. That 16 year child spoke so, &quot;I am the cause of all causes, the source, and the embodiment of trinity (Brahma, Vishnu and Mahehswara). I am pleased with your penance. I shall take birth as your son.&quot; This was the first appearance of Dattatreya that occured within the mental vision of the famous Athri maharshi as result of his tiring penance.  In reality, the child had no name. He was an embodiment of parabrahma in the saguna form. The indescribable and unqualified Brahman without name and form had given itself to the great sage as a child. And hence was called Datta. Datta literally means &quot;that which is given&quot;. Since the brahman has gifted itself as a child to the sage Athri, he was called Dattatreya (Datta + athreya = given to Athri). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since the trinity - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are solely responsible for all activities of existence, anything that comes into being must come via these three only. In reality, the brahman is beyond existence at all levels but even for such all pervading brahman to condense and come into existence within the creation, would imply that he (it) will have to come via Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva only. Hence, the actual birth of Dattatreya took place via the mode of Maha Vishnu and hence the Bhagavatha describes him as the avatar of Maha Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even before Dattatreya was born, the trinity profusely blessed the couple that the three of them would be born to them as children. The incident behind this boon is another well known story from the puranas. The avatar of Dattatreya is very ancient and even predates the Kurma avatar. According to the puranas, it took place hundreds of crores of years back in a different aeon and different age of time. Later on, Lord Dattatreya assumed various forms and avatars such as the Avadhoota and Anagha. This is a brief description of details that lead to the mysterious birth of Dattatreya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1168" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T13:19:38.290" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T13:19:38.290" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4048" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3982" CreationDate="2014-12-19T16:33:03.033" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;For your question 'Can anyone know the supreme being completely', if talking about scriptures, we can find one such reference in Shiva Purana. There is a story in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20655/5/Part1_Chapter3_161-240p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt;, where once Sage Narad does a very deep penance, and he gets equal to Parabramha. But then after being awake he became proud and started praising himself by using the words 'Aham Bramhasmi' meaning that 'I am Parabramha now'. Lords then played a trick on him, after which he realizes his mistake. So, moral of the story is that:&#xA;1. Even after knowing the supreme being, you can still be out of ultimate consciousness and therefore prone to mistakes.&#xA;2. Supreme being is still supreme being, you can try equal him, but when you actually realize you will know that he is still above all and you are just nothing in front of him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2014-12-19T17:59:00.583" LastActivityDate="2014-12-19T17:59:00.583" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4049" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3993" CreationDate="2014-12-19T17:21:21.877" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many videos floating on You-tube. I am not sure whether they are explaining it correctly or not but here are few of them. I will try to explore more if you want. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The complete Vedas - Part 1:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgR9sdy6y8A&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgR9sdy6y8A&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda - Complete chanting:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCQCSN38KYY&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCQCSN38KYY&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Vedas- With English Meanings:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUsuqT-ziig&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUsuqT-ziig&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedic theories of the universe !!! ( ancient indian scriptures ):&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEca1MiE4GA&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEca1MiE4GA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge--Full Length:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud1oEFfOrbQ&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud1oEFfOrbQ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedas - Universe Creation:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofdJ5sZIVbI&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofdJ5sZIVbI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Human Creation according to Vedas:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRjmmZIU-mY&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRjmmZIU-mY&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedic Path to Health - Improve your Memory and Intellect:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKn2wP6JCFQ&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKn2wP6JCFQ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2014-12-19T17:52:04.263" LastActivityDate="2014-12-19T17:52:04.263" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4050" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-20T08:04:13.587" Score="9" ViewCount="962" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me preface this by saying that I don't intend to question the wisdom of the divine Upanishads; I'm just trying to resolve my confusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Anukramani I provided in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the sage who heard most of the hymns in the Fourth Mandala of the Rig Veda was the sage Vamadeva, son of the sage Gotama (hence Gautama).  Two of the hymns of this Mandala deal mainly with Garuda's theft of the Soma/Amrita (nectar of immortality) from Devaloka.  But the beginning of these hymns are considered by the Upanishads to be of profound significance. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04026.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Hymn 26 of the Fourth Mandala begins:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I was aforetime Manu, I was Sūrya: I am the sage Kakṣīvān, holy singer. Kutsa the son of Ārjuni I master. I am the sapient Uśanā&#xA;behold me.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I have bestowed the earth upon the Ārya, and rain upon the man who brings oblation. I guided forth the loudly-roaring waters, and the&#xA;Gods moved according to my pleasure.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the wild joy of Soma I demolished Śambara's forts, ninety-and-nine, together; And, utterly, the hundredth habitation,&#xA;when helping Divodāsa Atithigva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second and third verses describe the deeds of Indra, such as killing the demon Shambara, so it seems natural to assume that Indra is the speaker in this triplet.  Yet &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15055.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verily in the beginning this was Brahman, that Brahman knew (its) Self only, saying, 'I am Brahman.' From it all this sprang. Thus, whatever Deva was awakened (so as to know Brahman), he indeed became that (Brahman); and the same with Rishis and men. &lt;strong&gt;The Rishi Vâmadeva saw and understood it, singing, 'I was Manu (moon), I was the sun.'&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore now also he who thus knows that he is Brahman, becomes all this, and even the Devas cannot prevent it, for he himself is their Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So according to the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Vamadeva is speaking about himself, and he is making a profound statement of self-realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04027.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how hymn 27 of the Fourth Mandala begins:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I, As I lay within the womb, considered all generations of these Gods in order.&#xA;A hundred iron fortresses confined me but forth I flew with rapid speed a Falcon.&#xA;2. Not at his own free pleasure did he bear me: he conquered with his strength and manly courage.&#xA;Straightway the Bold One left the fiends behind him and passed the winds as he grew yet more mighty.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, it seems like the speaker in these verses is Chandra, who is the god of the divine drink Soma which is protected by the fortifications of Devaloka but is then stolen by Garuda.  But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01225.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Aitareya Upanishad interprets it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And this has been declared by a Rishi (Rv. IV, 27, 1): 'While dwelling in the womb, I discovered all the births of these Devas. A hundred iron strongholds kept me, but I escaped quickly down like a falcon.' Vâmadeva, lying in the womb, has thus declared this.**  And having this knowledge he stepped forth, after this dissolution of the body, and having obtained all his desires in that heavenly world, became immortal, yea, he became immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Aitareya Upanishads is claiming that the speaker is once again Vamadeva, and that he is speaking of his experiences of self-realization from within the womb.  And the Rig Veda Anukramani agrees that the person being referred to is Vamadeva in both cases; see the Anukramani for hymns IV.26 and IV.27 in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, have there been any arguments made for why the speaker must be Vamadeva?  Indra and Chandra seem more natural choices given the context and meaning.  Why would Vamadeva arbitrarily start talking about his philosophical realizations before relating a story of Garuda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The authors of the newly-released Oxford English translation of the Rig Veda also believe that the Anukramani misinterpreted these verses.  See &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/F6nl&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/kzBD&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt;, where they call the first three verses of Hymn 26 an Atmastuti (self-praise) of Indra and the first two verses of Hymn 27 an Atmastuti of Chandra.  And it isn't only Western Indologists who have this view; the first three verses of Hymn 26 are discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/sfJr&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Brihaddevata, a work by the ancient sage Shaunaka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I (&lt;em&gt;aham&lt;/em&gt;: iv.26) is self-praise in a triplet, for there is praise (in it) as if of him (Indra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shaunaka also seems to think that this triplet is an Atmastuti of Indra.  In any case, has anyone made any arguments to refute the claim that the speakers are Indra and Chandra?  Do any commentators present arguments about this issue?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me reiterate that it's not my intention to question the wisdom of the Upanishads.  I am a Sri Vaishnava, and Sri Vaishnavism is part of the Vedanta school, which holds the Upanishads as a divine authority.  And the sages of the Aitareya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishads are the ancient sages Aitareya and Yajnavalkya.  So I'm not accusing them of misinterpreting the Rig Veda.  I am just trying to understand the logic behind their interpretation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="20829" LastEditDate="2020-07-12T12:43:29.470" LastActivityDate="2023-08-04T06:59:03.610" Title="Do the Aitareya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishads correctly interpret two hymns of Vamadeva?" Tags="|rig-veda|upanishads|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="4051" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-20T08:51:10.247" Score="7" ViewCount="743" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is marijuana sacred among some Hindus such as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashanami_Sampradaya#Naga_Sadhus&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Naga Sadhu&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva plays a role in this but does marijuana aid in obtaining moksha or does it have any spiritual benefits?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="334" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-03T16:06:30.513" LastActivityDate="2021-09-30T20:30:14.967" Title="Is marijuana still sacred?" Tags="|shiva|belief|superstitions|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4052" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-20T09:03:34.993" Score="23" ViewCount="2175" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we are God, then why are we, the human race, so corrupt, violent and confused?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It seems that, if we all were God, we would not be so destructive and brute beings such as you see on this planet.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we are all God, then why are we not perfect in virtue all the way through?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we are God, why do we have to obtain moksha? If we are God, we should be moksha all the way, all the time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please do not just down vote my question. I have been struggling with this, I am sincerely seeking an enlightened answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="334" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-03-27T03:24:44.010" LastActivityDate="2018-03-27T03:24:44.010" Title="Are we really God?" Tags="|belief|vedanta|advaita|moksha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4053" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4052" CreationDate="2014-12-20T11:16:59.487" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is obvious, &lt;strong&gt;it is because we are not exactly the God&lt;/strong&gt;, we are &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;, an energy of God. And because we are an energy of God, we are called as God by some. Just like fire and a spark of fire are essentially the same, so also God(Brahman) and us(Jiva) are essentially the same. But, just like fire is huge than a spark of fire and has more heat or energy, so also there are differences between us and God. Hence, to say we are God would not be absolutely correct. Now let's talk about the cause of corruption, violence, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from &lt;em&gt;jiva shakti&lt;/em&gt; (which is us), there is another kind of energy of God known as &lt;em&gt;maya shakti&lt;/em&gt; (illusory potency). This &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; is also known as &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; whose product are the three modes of material nature known as &lt;em&gt;satva&lt;/em&gt;(goodness), &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;(passion), &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;(ignorance). And the major difference between God and us is that, &lt;strong&gt;God is &lt;em&gt;mayadhish&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (the Lord of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;)[Sve. Up - 4.10] but &lt;strong&gt;we are &lt;em&gt;mayadhin&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (under the influence of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;). So &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; cannot even stand before God ashamed of Her position, but those who are under it's influence get bewildered by it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vilajjamānayā yasya sthātum īkṣā-pathe ’muyā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vimohitā vikatthante mamāham iti durdhiyaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 2.5.13]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The illusory energy of the Lord cannot take precedence over the Lord, being ashamed of her position, but those who are bewildered by her always talk nonsense, being absorbed in thoughts of “It is I” and “It is mine.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So being influenced by the three modes of material nature in the course of time we get affected by corruption, viloence, etc. If we were God, then we would be free from these effects. But because we are not we are afflicted by these things and only by approaching God that we can get &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;, liberation, etc. which is getting rid of this divine energy of God known as &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 7.14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difﬁcult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now there are certain schools of thought (&lt;em&gt;advaita&lt;/em&gt; of Shankara for example) that say &lt;em&gt;jiva brahmaiva na parah&lt;/em&gt;. That is, &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is Brahman itself, not different. And followers of that tenet strongly cite statements like &lt;em&gt;aham brahmasmi&lt;/em&gt;,etc. to say we are Brahman or God. But one should clearly understand &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2330/38&quot;&gt;what kind of Brahman we are&lt;/a&gt; and who are eligible to say I am Brahman. And secondly, saying that jiva is Brahman itself is only a partial view of the truth. &lt;strong&gt;In the Vedas there are both kinds of statements which say &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is Brahman and &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is not Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence, different schools of thought have arisen in course of time giving importance to different statements of the Vedas. But the truth is, &lt;strong&gt;there are both similarities and disimilarites between God and us&lt;/strong&gt; (I am skipping verses to keep the post short) and we are God only in the sense that we are energies of God [BG - 15.7]. But because we are under the influence of different modes of nature caused by &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;, we act in corrupted ways and need liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2014-12-20T11:24:03.530" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4054" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3806" CreationDate="2014-12-21T03:11:50.647" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;You must understand that the author of the journal article is Alkondavilli Govindacharya, a descendant of Alkondavilli Jiyar, one of the 74 disciples enjoined by Ramanuja himself. The answer to this question is in the Pancaratra Agama and Tiruvaimozhi and not in Brahmasutras. I may direct you to read about the &quot;anukaraNas&quot; used in the 'Kadal Jnalam' thiruvaimozhi and refer to the commentary where Thirumangai Azhvar says 'thammaiyE okka aruL seyvAr' in the Periya Thirumozhi. These finer aspects are too nuanced for me to elaborate here. The final point is that you cannot bring your reason/logic approach of vedanta and try and understand the Thiruvaimozhi or the finer Srivaishnava sampradhaya tenets. So, I would request you peruse one of its vyakhyanams, preferably the Eedu, for the decad mentioned above without the rationalist hat. That way, you'll be able to understand why Alkondavilli Govindacharya says jivas too possess powers of creation. By the way, Sri herself is a Jivatma, according to the Thenkalai school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Sai talks above regarding the devolution of the powers is explained in Parayathadhikarana (2-3-41) in Sri Bhashya. But the devolution of powers does not cover jagat srishti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1211" LastEditorUserId="1211" LastEditDate="2014-12-21T03:19:32.317" LastActivityDate="2014-12-21T03:19:32.317" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4055" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-21T06:12:33.173" Score="10" ViewCount="5349" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like the 5 pandavas, Karna is also a son of deva. But he is mentioned as having more qualities than any single Pandava or even as having all the qualities of 5 Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the question is :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What makes Karna special compared to other Pandavas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna is always called as Suryaputhra while defining his qualities. If that is the reason,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is Surya special among devas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1123" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-05T06:23:23.170" LastActivityDate="2021-02-15T13:48:49.653" Title="Why is Karna special in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|surya|karna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4056" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4052" CreationDate="2014-12-21T08:01:50.280" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;So are we really God?&#xA;Who are we?&#xA;Who is God?&#xA;What is our relation with God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Different schools of Hinduism say different things about this concept.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Advaita (commonly called Non-Dualism) - Sri Adi Shankaracharya (believed to be incarnation of Lord Shiva)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this school of thought, there is only One who exists in this world, and that is God. There is no 'we' so the question 'I am God' does not arise. The answer is There is no 'I' and there is only God. In other words I-ness is a consequence of EGO or AHAMKAR. This Ego is illusory and not real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://archives.amritapuri.org/matruvani/vol-02/sep02/02mv09reality.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shri Adi Shankaracharya says that&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahma satyam jagan mithya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jivo brahmaiva napara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman alone is real, the universe is illusory&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Jiva is none other than Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the Self is Brahman. So does this mean 'we' are 'God'? NO. This means the notion of 'we' is false, or imaginary. Thus 'God' IS. There is nothing else to be called 'we'. That is the perception of an individual 'Jiva' is itself imaginary, therefore there can be no such statement as 'I am God', it is rather like God alone exists and all else is illiusory. This is Advaitic phiolosophy, contrary to the belief that many have on Advaitins that 'they think they are God'. Rather they think 'what we perceive as ourselves is only Ego and not real' and 'the only thing that is real is God'. Thus the declaration 'I am GOd' by Advaitins is not an egotistic assertion of equating the Jiva with Brahman, but rather it is the destruction of all ego, by the removal of Jiva and replacing it with Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says on 'The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda', Volume 1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the non-dualists say, &quot;This universe does not exist at all; it is all illusion. The whole of this universe, these Devas, gods, angels, and all the other beings born and dying, all this infinite number of souls coming up and going down, are all dreams.&quot; There is no Jiva at all. How can there be many? It is the one Infinity. As the one sun, reflected on various pieces of water, appears to be many, and millions of globules of water reflect so many millions of suns, and in each globule will be a perfect image of the sun, yet there is only one sun, so are all these Jivas but reflections in different minds. These different minds are like so many different globules, reflecting this one Being. God is being reflected in all these different Jivas. But a dream cannot be without a reality, and that reality is that one Infinite Existence. You, as body, mind, or soul, are a dream, but what you really are, is Existence, Knowledge, Bliss&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commonly held analogy of advaitins is the dream. Imagine a dream. There are multiple friends, enemies and yourself in the dream. There is a realistic looking scenario. However upon waking up, it is realized that none of these entities were actually real. All of it was just a play or a dream. Similarly this world is an illusion or a dream where God himself plays various different parts. Thus what is moksha? Moksha is realizing that we are not what we think we are (i.e) body, mind or ego, but rather we are the Atman, which is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Adi Shankaracharya says in Shivohum Mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mano buddhya-hankara chittani naham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na cha shrotra jihve, na cha ghrana netre&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na cha vyoma bhumirna tejo na vayuhu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chidananda rupah shivoham shivoham &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am not the mind, intellect, thought, ego, or some form of the supreme being; I neither have ears, nor tongue and I neither have nose (nostrils) nor eyes; I am not the sky, earth, light or the wind; I am the fortunate, joyful, supreme being who is the very emblem of truth, knowledge and eternal bliss. I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva, I am Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in short according to Advaita, &lt;strong&gt;'we' are not 'God'&lt;/strong&gt;, 'God' is 'God'. There is no one else.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Achintyabhedabheda - Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (believed to be incarnation of Lord Krishna)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this school of thought, we are not different from God, but still we are different from God. Thus the scholars in this school commonly classify jivatma as being an eternal energy of paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is stated in Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita Adi lila 2:37 that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The material world, full of conditioned souls trying to lord it over matter, is a manifestation of the external energy of the Supreme Lord, and the spiritual world, full of perfect servitors of the Lord, is a manifestation of His internal energy. Since all living entities are minute sparks of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is the Supreme Soul in both the material and spiritual worlds. The Vaisnavas following Lord Caitanya stress the doctrine of acintya-bhedabheda-tattva, which states that the Supreme Lord, being the cause and effect of everything, is inconceivably, simultaneously one with His manifestations of energy and different from them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Jiva Goswami says in Bhagavat Sandarbha 16:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is one Supreme Being.  He is naturally endowed with inconceivable energies. Through these energies he exists eternally in four states: His own form, His spiritual expansions, the jiva  and pradhana (matter). These four states may be compared to the sun's power, the sun globe, the sun's rays and the sun's effulgence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus an analogy to understand this school is 'Moonlight' and its 'rays'. Moonlight is the source of the rays. However when we use the term Moonlight, we do not differentiate it from its rays, although the rays are not technically the moonlight. The rays are in a way dependent on Moonlight. Jivas are dependent on God. Similarly jivas are the energies of God or the 'rays' of God. Thus they are inseparable, although different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in short, according to Achintyabhedabheda, &lt;strong&gt;we are not God&lt;/strong&gt;, we are energies of God.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishistadvaita (commonly known as Qualified Non-Dualism or Qualified Dualism) - Sri Ramanujacharya (believed to be incarnation of Balarama or Lord Krishna)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this school of thought, there is the One and then the Many. However there is a qualifier. This One is the whole and the many are its parts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramanuja says in His commentary of Vedanta Sutras II.3.43&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'One part (quarter) of it are all beings, three feet (quarters) of it are the Immortal in heaven' (Kh. Up. III, 12, 6)--on account of this mantra also the soul must be held to be a part of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Nikhilananda says in The Schools of Vedanta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Ramanuja, the upholder of Visistadvaita, or Qualified Non-dualism, the Reality is Brahman; but the individual souls and the universe are also real, being parts of Brahman or modes of His manifestation. Brahman, with the universe and the individual souls, constitutes the whole of Reality. This is illustrated by the philosophers of this school with the metaphor of the pomegranate fruit. The seeds are the living souls and the rind is the universe. One cannot think of the fruit without the seeds and the rind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus each jiva is a part of Vishnu who is the one who lives in All and All lives in God or Sri Narayana. Thus according to this philosophy 'we' are not 'God', but we are 'parts of God' or 'attributes of God'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha according to this school is the event when Vishnu, who is believed to be the Brahman, by His own Grace, offers Moksha to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some Vishishtadvaitins believe that a positive act of Surrender (called Sharanagati) is required for Sri Vishnu to offer Moksha to us because other techniques for liberation are very difficult, while others believe that even this act of Surrender is difficult and the jivas are so powerless that even this cannot give Moksha and only Sri Vishnu only can give it. (Although in a way this can also be called surrender of all notions, including that of surrender)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2831/what-is-the-difference-between-thenkalai-and-vadakalai-sects-of-vaishnavites&quot;&gt;Keshav's fantastic answer here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Regarding the means of Bhakti and Prapatti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vadakalai View: Accept both as the direct means but Bhakti is more difficult and dilatory while Prapatti is easy and immediate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tenkalai View: Do not accept any means because Jeevatma is so utterly dependent as to be incapable of adopting either Bhakti or Prapatti as a means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishishtadvaita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki reference&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramanuja and (some sects of) the Vishishtadvata tradition accept Saranagati, total surrender at the Lord's lotus feet alone as the sole means to moksha, liberation from samsara and going to Vaikuntha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in short, according to Vishishtadvaita, &lt;strong&gt;we are not God&lt;/strong&gt;, but rather parts or attributes of God.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dvaita (commonly known as Dualism) - Sri Madhvacharaya (believed to be incanation of Vayu after Hanuman, Bhima)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this school of thought, there is One and then the Many, with no further qualifications. Jiva is totally different from the Brahman or God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Trivikram Acharaya says about Sri Madhvacharya's great dvaita vedanta philosophy in Tattva Pradipa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The scriptures' direct perception and inference are its testimony.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There exists a five-fold eternal relation between Bhagavan, the human souls and matter.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The world of matter is real.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The individual souls are servants of Hari.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There is a gradation of fitness among atomic souls.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Divine Hari is the highest conception of Godhead, the Supreme Truth of all and the world.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Realization of Godhead Hari is possible by following the whole body of the scriptures.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;To unfold the eternal function true to his proper nature brings about the emancipation of each soul.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The practice of performing this pure function is called Bhakti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus according to Dvaita, &lt;strong&gt;we are not God&lt;/strong&gt;, we are jivas, God is Brahman and the two are eternally real and separate.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus each school has a different take on its realtionship between jiva and God, however &lt;strong&gt;none of the school says we are God&lt;/strong&gt;. Advaita says there is only God and nothing else. Achintyabhedabheda says we are energies of God. Vishishtadvaita says we are parts of God. While Dvaita says we are separate and God is separate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now sir, instead of giving me an answer to my question, you have further confused me with four different philosophies. Which one is valid? Which one do I believe?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each person says His philosophy is superior to the other's, just as children argue that 'their gift is superior to other's gift'. But let us take a closer analysis on ONE SIMILARITY between what each philosophy really says.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Advaita says give up the attachment that you are the body, you are the mind, you are the ego. you are not the one you think you are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogananda.com.au/upa/gaudapada_karika.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gaudapada Karika on Mandukya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atman as Neti, neti—&quot;Not this, not this.&quot; (Br. Up. II. iii. 6.) Thus dissociating from Atman such adjectives as happy or unhappy, which would make It an object (vishaya), scripture indirectly helps to establish It as the eternal subject or substantive. The negation of attributes reveals the real nature of Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vishistadvaita says give up all attempts to reach God by your own effort and realize that you are really incapable of reaching Lord Narayana and SURRENDER to Sri Vishnu. He will of His own compassion liberate you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagawad Sri Yamunacharya states in Sri Alavandhar Stotram/Stotra Ratnam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na Dharma Nishthosmi Na Cha Atmavedi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na BhaktimansTvat Charanaravinde&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Akinchanonanyagati Sharanyam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tvat Padamoolam Sharanam Prapadye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Lord, I do not know Dharma, I do not know Dnyana, I do not have Bhakti in your divine Lotus Feet. All I have is I am Akinchan (one who does not have anything), and Ananyagati (One who is totally dependent ONLY on You). This akinchan and ananyagati soul is surrendered to your Lotus Feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Achintyabhedabheda says give up every single attachment and just chant the name of Sri Krishna of Gokula, what greater liberation than playing with Him eternally&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srila Prabhupada says with &lt;a href=&quot;http://backtogodhead.in/lord-caitanya-the-golden-avatara-by-his-divine-grace-a-c-bhaktivedanta-swami-srila-prabhupada/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Caitanya:&lt;/a&gt; The Golden Avatara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Simply by chanting, one can have self-realization, God realization, and when there is God realization, then nature realization is included also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dvaita says give up your own selfish efforts and serve Sri Vishnu, only then He will admit you into Vaikunta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhvacharya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;According to Madhvacharya's philosophy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The only way for the jīva to escape the world is divine grace, which can only be gained through selfless devotional service to God, or bhakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Notice that each one says different things, but all of them ask us to do one thing. That is 'give up the attachment' or 'renounciation' or 'sacrifice' or 'self-lessness' or 'surrender'. That is the essence of all scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=6_JXJsWxuCcC&amp;amp;pg=PT17&amp;amp;lpg=PT17&amp;amp;dq=sri%20ramakrishna%20tagi&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=BKzfRBLEH1&amp;amp;sig=BlTvY9u8omqy2VREeFSea7TBbzI&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=knuWVLGtJ8OdNuGThLgH&amp;amp;ved=0CEkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=sri%20ramakrishna%20tagi&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Ramakrishna says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is the significance of the Gita? It is what you find by repeating the word ten times. It is then reversed into tagi (or tyagi), which means a person who has renounced everything for God. And the lesson of the Gita is: O man, renounce everything and seek God alone&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically saying that the &lt;strong&gt;one common sentiment in all the schools of philosophy is the idea of renunciation of selfish thoughts and desires&lt;/strong&gt; or surrender of all notions of self-effort or egotistic tendencies. Advaitins do it in an effort to realize Who they are. Dvaitins call it selfless service to God in an effort to enter Vaikunta to serve Sri Krishna/Sri Narayana. Vishistadvaitins call it SURRENDER to God because everything else is futile. While achintabhedabeda's do it by chanting Hare Krishna and thereby giving up every other selfish desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2014-12-21T19:57:42.650" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4057" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-21T08:33:16.463" Score="7" ViewCount="1228" Body="&lt;p&gt;In modern times, Vishnu's most popular incarnations are Rama and Krishna.  But that was not always the case; in ancient times Vishnu was most popularly associated with his incarnation as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vamana the dwarf&lt;/a&gt;.  The story of Vamana is told in the most detail in the Puranas, for instance at the end of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Eighth Skanda&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.  Just to refresh people's memories, the story goes roughly as follows: the Asura (demon) &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabali&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabali&lt;/a&gt;, grandson of Prahlada, took over the three worlds by conducting a hundred Ashwamedha Yagnas (horse rituals).  Indra went to Vishnu for help, so Vishnu incarnated as Vamana, the youngest son of Indra's parents Kashyapa and Aditi, and then he went to Mahabali's Ashwamedha Yagna.  He asked Mahabali for three steps of land, and then he grew gigantic and used those steps to take back the three worlds for Indra and the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story isn't told in so much detail in older scriptures, however.  In the Vedas, Vishnu is famous for having taken three steps, but there's not much detail beyond that.  For instance, as you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Book 1 Hymn 154 of the Rig Veda is addresses to Vishnu, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01154.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how it opens:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I WILL declare the mighty deeds of Viṣṇu, of him who measured out the earthly regions, who propped the highest place of congregation, thrice setting down his footstep, widely striding.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;For this his mighty deed is Viṣṇu lauded, like some wild beast, dread, prowling, mountain-roaming; he within whose three wide-extended paces all living creatures have their habitation.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there is at least the fact that Vishnu's steps covered the three worlds, but that's pretty much it.  My question is, what is the oldest scripture which mentions the demon Mahabali?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brahmanas of the Vedas mention the fact that Vamana took the world from the Asuras, but they don't seem to mention which Asuras were involved.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/gJit&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda says, for instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Indra and Vishnu] said &quot;Let us make an arrangement.'  The Asuras said &quot;Be it so.&quot;  Indra said &quot;So much as Vishnu three times traverses, so much be ours; let the rest be yours.&quot;  He traversed these worlds, then the Vedas, then speech.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1211.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentions&lt;/a&gt; the involvement of these unnamed Asuras:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They then said: &quot;Let us share in this earth along with yourselves! Let a part of it be ours!&quot; The Asuras replied rather grudgingly: 'As much as this Vishnu lies upon, and no more, we give you!' Now Vishnu was a dwarf....  By it they obtained (sam-vid) this entire earth; and because they obtained by it this entire (earth), therefore it (the sacrificial ground) is called vedi (the altar). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The earliest reference to Mahabali I could find is in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga29/bala_29_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, where Vishwamitra narrates to Rama and Lakshmana the story of Vamana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That great resplendent Vishnu then adopting a semblance of a dwarf emerged from Aditi, and that dwarfish ascetic boy approached Emperor Bali, the son of Virochana. &#xA;  That dwarf ascetic boy Vaamana begged and received a space that can be covered in three strides, but strode all the three worlds in those three steps for the purpose of saving worlds, as he is interested in the welfare of all the worlds. Vishnu gave the earth back to Indra restraining Emperor Bali with his vitality. Thus that great resplendent Vishnu made the three worlds to come under the control of Indra again. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is this the earliest reference to Mahabali, or is he mentioned in any earlier texts?  Mahabali's father Virochana, son of Prahlada, is mentioned in verse 22 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av08010.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this hymn&lt;/a&gt; of the Atharvana Veda.  So I don't see why Mahabali couldn't be mentioned somewhere in the Vedas as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-01-18T14:03:15.110" Title="What is the earliest reference to the Asura Mahabali?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|rig-veda|vamana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4058" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3806" CreationDate="2014-12-21T19:09:08.563" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before I set out to elaborate my explanations to your questions to my limited capacity, there are a few things I would like to state outright:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) The Srivaishanavite scholars claim a perfect concordance between the conclusions f the Srutis and Dhivya Prabandhas. This is just an embellished claim, and while there are considerable similarities, there are significant departures as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) The departures arise neither because of Azhvar's word being less reliable than the Vedic seers or otherwise. The Ubhaya Vedanta path, that subsumes the Vedic and Agamic path, represent two different approaches. The Sri Bhashya is a commentary on the Brahma sutras that formalize the conflicting ideas of the Upanisads. The approach taken there is totally rational/logical, and the epistemological tools applied to derive conclusions there have to stand the test of reason. On the other hand, such strictures become less relevant as we transcend into the mystic world of the Azhvars. The divine love, the consummation, and the subsequent pangs of separation, do not follow any strict logic. The divine outpourings represent a emotional journey of ups and downs, alternating between conflicting states of mind. While the conclusions of reality does not change in such a state, the interaction between the soul and the Divine, and the resulting experience takes on a myriad of hues. The fact that Srivaishnavite preceptors have tried to philosophize this experience is their significant and unparalled contribution to theology. I need to write a book if I have to elaborate this aspect in detail :-) .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(3) The audience for Sri Bhashya and Bhagavad vishaya/Rahasyas are very different. A work like Sri Bhashya is aimed at an academic audience, is limited by the sources it can draw upon for reference. The Prapatti marga, which the Srivaishnavites proudly espouse, has no basis in the Vedanta (but for the sole instance of 'Nyasa Vidya' in one of the upanisads). While offering his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, Ramanuja talks about Prapatti as a limb of Bhakti, and his whole commentary revolves around bhakti and not prapatti. It should be clear that prapatti or acharya abhimana are not for the academic audience but for the followers of the Srivaishnavite tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(4) The links to Thiruvaimozhi and Periya Thirumozhi you have provided there are from amateur literal translations. They are not worth wasting one's time upon. The real meaning of Azhvar pasurams come from perusing the original commentaries of Nampillai (for Thiruvaimozhi) and Periya Vachan Pillai (for the remaining Dhivya prabandhas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1212" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-12-22T04:13:42.470" LastActivityDate="2014-12-22T04:13:42.470" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4059" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3806" CreationDate="2014-12-21T19:43:05.737" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like I mentioned before, the parayathadhikarana (2-3-41) in Brahma Sutras discusses the issue of agency in great detail. The central question of this topic is whether the jiva possesses free will. The conclusions drawn there suggest that even though the agency of an action is with the jiva, it is the Lord who directs him as the antaryamin. Similarly, if we have to assume the hypothetical case of jiva being vested with the powers of creation, such devolution of powers have to come from the Lord Himself. So, devolving powers of creation to a jiva does not undermine the supremacy of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Periya Thirumozhi (11-3-5) translation you provided there falls into the typical trap of every translator. The word 'okka' does not mean the 'literal' equal. Periyavachan Pillai commentary states &quot;bhavanatraya rahidyam svata eva (i.e. ownership of the world triad of heaven, atmosphere and earth) tammaip polE aam padi kRpai pannuvAr.&quot; This does not rule out the powers of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 'anukaraNas' that I mentioned in the previous reply related to 'Kadal Jnalam' thiruvaimozhi is essentially this role playing. Azhvar assumes Himself to be the creator, vested with the powers to create, dissolve and recreate the universe. I need to refer to the book to draw the exact quotations that justify it. Will share it with you in due course.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1212" LastEditorUserId="1212" LastEditDate="2014-12-21T20:03:00.997" LastActivityDate="2014-12-21T20:03:00.997" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4060" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2756" CreationDate="2014-12-21T19:51:47.400" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the dhivya desams mentioned in the Azhvar pasurams carry their archaic names and hence are different from the names that existed during the Acharyas time. Periyavachan Pillai is the first to record the exact locations of these dhivya desams in his commentaries. There is also a Pillaipperumal Iyengar who has done a work titled '108 Tiruppati Andadi' which identifies these locations. However, there is debate whether he lived prior to Periyavachan Pillai's time or after him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, one can safely say what these people codified was available as oral knowledge to them and hence should have been a part of tradition. As to who was the first to compile them, one may be tempted to say Nathamuni, but there is no conclusive proof to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1212" LastActivityDate="2014-12-21T19:51:47.400" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4062" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-22T07:08:51.317" Score="4" ViewCount="561" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3843/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important in the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the son of Yama god of death and twin brother of the sage Nara.  Since the Pancharatra texts originated from Narayana himself, they are followed by pretty much all mainstream Vaishnava Sampradayas, whether Sri Vaishnavas, Gaudiya Vaishnavas, etc.  Among the most oldest Pancharatra texts are the Satvata Samhita, Paushkara, Samhita, and Jayakhya Samhita.  But there is a Pancharatra text even older than these, and it is found within the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata!  It's called the Narayaniya, and it's an 18-chapter religious dialogue between Yudishthira and Bhishma on the importance of worshipping Narayana/Vishnu, similar to the Bhagavad Gita, an 18-chapter religious discourse between Krishna and Arjuna found in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, one of the topics discussed in the Narayaniya is the issue of animal sacrifice, which the text has a negative view of.  For instance, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Narayaniya, the ancient king Uparichara Vasu is praised for conducting an Ashwamedha Yagna (horse-ritual) without sacrificing animals:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In that great sacrifice, O monarch, all the requisite articles were collected. No animals were slain in it. The king had ordained it so. He was full of compassion. Of pure and liberal mind, he had cast off all desires, and was well-conversant with all rites. The requisites of that sacrifice all consisted of the products of the wilderness. The ancient God of gods (viz., Hari), became highly gratified with the king on account of that sacrifice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Narayaniya makes the prohibition even clearer.  It relates to a dispute between the sages and the gods over the statement in the Vedas that &quot;Ajas&quot; must be sacrificed in a Yagna (fire-ritual).  The gods said Ajas are goats,  while the sages said the Ajas were vegetable seeds, and Uparichara Vasu was cursed for incorrectly siding with the gods:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The gods, once on a time, addressing many foremost of Brahmanas, said unto them that sacrifices should be performed by offering up Ajas as victims. By the word Aja should be understood the goat and no other animal.' The Rishis said, The Vedic Sruti declares that in sacrifices the offerings should consist of (vegetable) seeds. Seeds are called Ajas. It behoveth you not to slay goats. Ye deities, that cannot be the religion of good and righteous people in which slaughter of animals is laid down. This, again, is the Krita age. How can animals be slaughtered in this epoch of righteousness?' ... Learning what the opinion was that was entertained by the deities, Vasu, moved by partiality for them, said that sacrifices should be performed with animals. At this answer, all the Rishis, endued with the splendour of the Sun, became very angry. Addressing Vasu who was seated on his car and who had (wrongly) taken up the side of the deities, they said unto him,--Since thou hast (wrongly) taken up the side of the deities, do thou fall down from heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from all this it's clear that animal sacrifice is prohibited according to Pancharatra principles, which means that it's prohibited by mainstream Vaishnvaism.  But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3977/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, not all Vishnu-worshippers follow the Pancharatra texts.  There is a small sect of Hinduism called the Vaikhanasas who worship Vishnu according to a different set of texts.  The Vaikhanasa texts place less emphasis on the philosophical concerns of mainstream Vaishnavism, and more emphasis on ritualism and idol worship. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what do the Vaikhanasa texts say about animal sacrifice?  Do they forbid it like Pancharatra texts do?  I know that Vaikhanasa texts say you don't have to perform Yagnas as long as you worship Vishnu in his idol form, but do they say that you can perform animal sacrifice in Yagnas if you want?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-01-08T07:40:28.870" Title="Do the Vaikhanasa texts allow animal sacrifice?" Tags="|practice|vaishnavism|yajna|ahimsa|vaikhanasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4063" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="951" CreationDate="2014-12-22T09:29:41.353" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think it could be because of the same reference story as in case of Lord Kartikeya's Kurukshetra temple. It was about a competition between Lord Kartikeya and his brother Lord Ganesha and its after effects. I have already discussed about this in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3756/source-reference-for-lord-kartikeys-peeling-off-skin-incident&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2014-12-22T09:29:41.353" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4064" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14779" CreationDate="2014-12-22T13:11:35.757" Score="24" ViewCount="10322" Body="&lt;p&gt;I hear these terms Dvaita, Advaita, Vishistadvaita, Shuddhadvaita, and may be any other XYZdvaita, etc in most of the questions but I am not very sure what do they refer to. Are these some communities driven by a particular group of people just like we have Valmiki-samaj, etc or they are just thinkings/philosophies. What is the difference between them and whether people following them do/perform anything in different manners. Do we also have some texts from Vedas or Puranas which divide them. If there is then please provide examples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-19T05:05:24.720" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T16:26:39.843" Title="Dvaita vs Advaita vs Vishistadvaita vs Shuddhadvaita vs any other" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|advaita|vishishtadvaita|dvaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4066" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="68" CreationDate="2014-12-23T01:40:00.307" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Cārvāka philosophy is a non-vedantic, nastika school of thought that was widely known in ancient India. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The notions of divine/scriptural authority, religious rituals, and an afterlife are rejected. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Heaven/Hell, gods and demons were rejected as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To call it &lt;code&gt;hinduism&lt;/code&gt; or not is just semantics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1218" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-12-23T03:46:25.153" LastActivityDate="2014-12-23T03:46:25.153" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4067" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-23T04:44:25.820" Score="16" ViewCount="1363" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3843/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important in the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the son of Yama god of death and twin brother of the sage Nara.  Among the oldest Pancharatra texts are the Satvata Samhita, Paushkara Samhita, and Jayakhya Samhita.  But there's another Pancharatra text even older than those, and it is found within the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata! It's called the Narayaniya, and it's an 18-chapter religious dialogue between Yudishthira and Bhishma on the importance of worshipping Narayana/Vishnu, similar to the Bhagavad Gita, another 18-chapter religious discourse between Krishna and Arjuna found in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Narayaniya describes a dispute that a bunch of sages once had with the gods, over the meaning of the word &quot;Aja&quot;.  One of the Yagnas (fire-rituals) described in the Vedas is called the Ajamedha Yagna, in which you're supposed to sacrifice &quot;Ajas&quot;.  But the Sanskrit word &quot;Aja&quot; can either mean goat or vegetable seed, so there was an argument about which one you had to sacrifice; the gods said it meant goats and the sages said it meant vegetable seeds.  The king Uparichara Vasu came by and said that the gods were right, so the sages cursed him for incorrectly siding with the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The gods, once on a time, addressing many foremost of Brahmanas, said unto them that sacrifices should be performed by offering up Ajas as victims. By the word Aja should be understood the goat and no other animal.' The Rishis said, '&lt;strong&gt;The Vedic Sruti declares that in sacrifices the offerings should consist of (vegetable) seeds. Seeds are called Ajas.&lt;/strong&gt; It behoveth you not to slay goats. Ye deities, that cannot be the religion of good and righteous people in which slaughter of animals is laid down. This, again, is the Krita age. How can animals be slaughtered in this epoch of righteousness?' ... Learning what the opinion was that was entertained by the deities, Vasu, moved by partiality for them, said that sacrifices should be performed with animals. At this answer, all the Rishis, endued with the splendour of the Sun, became very angry. Addressing Vasu who was seated on his car and who had (wrongly) taken up the side of the deities, they said unto him,--Since thou hast (wrongly) taken up the side of the deities, do thou fall down from heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The clear implication from the text is that the sages were right after all, and that Ajas does indeed refer to vegetable seeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the sages' statement that &quot;[t]he Vedic Sruti declares that in sacrifices the offerings should consist of (vegetable) seeds.&quot;  Where in the Vedas is the statement that the offerings should be vegetable seeds rather than goats?  And first of all, where in the Vedas is the description of Ajamedha Yagna itself?  That might be the best place to look.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2022-12-12T15:07:18.740" Title="Where do the Vedas mention sacrificing vegetable seeds rather than goats?" Tags="|vedas|mahabharata|yajna|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4068" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-23T07:36:46.813" Score="11" ViewCount="1553" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/G2pU&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Vidyeshwara Samhita of the Shiva Purana relates a famous story involving a contest between Brahma and Vishnu.  (To read the whole Shiva Purana, see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3830/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)   In this account, Brahma and Vishnu argue about who is superior until this argument turns into a battle. To stop the conflict, Shiva turns into a pillar of fire that seems to go forever in both directions. Brahma turns into a swan to go to the top, and Vishnu turns into a boar to go to the bottom. Brahma lies that he went to the top, presenting a Ketaki flower that arose from the middle of the pillar and claiming it's from the top. Vishnu concedes defeat, but then Shiva appears, Vishnu touches Shiva's feet, and as a result Shiva declares Vishnu the winner. Shiva then creates the demon Kala Bhairava to cut off Brahma's fifth head, but Vishnu persuades Shiva to take mercy on Brahma, so Shiva instead just curses Brahma that he can't be worshiped in temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/267/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, there's some reason to believe the particular version of the story found in the Shiva Purana is a later interpolation.  (For instance, the more commonly attested reason for why Brahma can't be worshipped is a curse by the sage Brighu, not Shiva.)  But in any case, the contest between Brahma and Vishnu is believed to have taken place at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachala&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arunachala hill&lt;/a&gt; in Thiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu.  A.R. Natarajan's book about this hill is called &quot;Arunachala: From Rigveda to Ramana Maharshi&quot;, and in his introduction he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/arunachala-from-rigveda-to-ramana-maharshi-NAE818/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; to justify the &quot;From Rigveda&quot; part:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Again in Rigveda ‘Brahmana’ there is reference to a dispute between the Creator Brahma and Preserver Vishnu as to which of them was superior. Lord Siva appeared before them as a effulgence, a column of light or jyotisthambha which is the symbol or linga of Siva. Later in response to their prayer he took the form of Arunachala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, where in the Rig Veda Brahmanas is this story of the contest? For those who don't know, each of the four Vedas is divided into four parts: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas consisting of mantras heard by sages directly from the gods; Brahmanas, or commentaries on the Samhitas which give stories and tell how to do common rituals; Aranyakas, which tell how to do esoteric rituals; and Upanishads, which clarify the philosophical teachings of the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rig Veda has two Brahmanas, the Kaushitaki Brahmana and the Aitareya Brahmana (they're from two different Rig Veda Shakhas or recensions).  You can read both of them &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/rigvedabrahmana00keitgoog&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; at first glance I don't see the story in either one of these texts.  So is A.R. Natarajan mistaken in his claim that the story goes back to the Brahmanas of the Rig Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T01:45:48.613" LastActivityDate="2021-01-30T04:08:15.790" Title="Do the Brahmanas of the Rig Veda mention Brahma and Vishnu's contest?" Tags="|shiva|vedas|rig-veda|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4069" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4050" CreationDate="2014-12-23T08:30:16.290" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, these 2 Upanishads were not composed by Yajnavalka and Aitareya. The Upanishads are the revealed word of God. They were revealed by God to certain sages who then recorded them. There may be stories in the Vedas (and Upanishads) that do not have to be taken literally, it is what they are meant to teach us that is important. The Vedas are the &lt;em&gt;only&lt;/em&gt; scriptures in the world that were not composed by humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Swami Gambhirananda's translation with Shankaracarya's commentary and Swami Nikhilananda's translation and commentary both show the reference to Vamadeva. The following should be noted:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) The Aitareya verse is clearly not Indra. The reason it says 'while lying in the womb, I came to know' means that he has come to know this as a result of meditation in many previous births. The verse is meant to show what has come to Vamadeva - an individual jiva - through Self-Knowledge, because the Knowledge alluded to can only have come through previous births. Indra, although a deva, is only a deva for the current cycle and will be subject to rebirth at the end of the cycle. Indra does not have Self-Knowledge. Devas cannot attain to Knowledge of Brahman in their birth as a deva. Only human birth can.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) It should also be noted that the chapter ends with Vamadeva and the first verse of the next chapter starts out with again a reference to Vamadeva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) The reference to Vamadeva in the Brihadaranyaka is again, a reference to what an individual jiva can attain to. So it makes perfect sense that it would have a human name and not a deva name as an example of one who has realized the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, I am very wary of any supposed interpretations or commentaries by Western Sanskrit scholars. They learn their Sanskrit from other Westerners and are Christian or Atheists in their own philosophies and have their own agendas in their translations. Most see Vedanta as a polytheistic religion and see the religious texts as mythology to be interpreted as such.               &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-05-04T01:14:16.780" LastActivityDate="2015-05-04T01:14:16.780" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4070" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4051" CreationDate="2014-12-23T09:55:01.210" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms (IV. 1.) says: &quot;The Siddhis (powers) are attained by birth, chemical means, power of words, mortification, or concentration.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganja (and some other drugs) can open up - temporarily - some chakras in some people. But when you do, it is only temporary and results in a fall just as dramatic. The best way to open these chakras and control it is through meditation and concentration - not through drugs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When opened temporarily, a person can sometimes access certain powers temporarily. Accessing these Siddhis, however, is a diversion from Self-Realization and can easily put you back farther.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nagas will smoke it for several reasons, one for the reason above, another as it can put off the feeling of hunger when you are starving, and third, they are just not that sincere as sadhus and enjoy being drugged.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-23T09:55:01.210" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4071" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="346" CreationDate="2014-12-23T10:43:02.510" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Remember, Kamsa was son-in-law of Jarasandha and who inturn was very very powerful. Jarasanndha was supported by many asuras. Just imagine all these asuras coming together (Jarasandha, Kamsa, Narakasura etc) and fighting the Kurus..Bhisma et al would have been laid down flat in no time, however strong they might have been.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna and Balarama eliminated all these asuras directly or indirectly before Kurushetra war. Otherwise all the asuras would have sided Duryodhana in all probability and Pandavas couldn't have dreamt of a victory. Then Lord and his elder brother himself would have been forced to take up their weapons to destroy all these and fight them all simultaneouly in Kurushetra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, we know, Lord Krishna or Balarama didn't kill Jarasandha too, even though Jarasandha was at the mercy of Balarama 17 times, he was pardoned by Krishna and Balarama. Jarasandha was killed by Bheema only because of Lord Krishna's help. Otherwise, even Bhima cannot kill him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, firstly it is not easy to kill Kamsa in proper war, as all asuras might have come together and no Bheesma would have been sufficient to face and kill them all. May be the entire Kuru race would have destroyed, even before pandavas or Kauravas were born had bhisma waged a proper war against Kamsa and other powerful asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, it was destined that Kamsa should be killed by Lord Krishna. Only, Krishna could kill Kamsa and not any one. This was one of prime reasons for Krishna avatara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-12-23T10:43:02.510" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4072" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3225" CreationDate="2014-12-23T13:10:08.860" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why should they?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatana Dharma does not need to adopt any other religion's doctrines. It is complete in itself. What makes you think Sanatana Dharma does not have concepts you list?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Belief in one God  - What do you think our Vedas propound? It is just one Brahma Padartham. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Belief in Prophets - We don't need prophets. However, Sanatana Dharma's foundation is upheld and strengthened by Rishis and sages who have, through tapas, envisioned the ultimate truth (this is called darshana) and have passed on the ultimate truth and keep doing so even now. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Belief in Hereafter  - Err.. why do you think this is missing in Sanatana Dharma? We are continuously extolled to practise dharma in the pursuit of punya and eventually moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Belief in angels - We have 33 types of devtas - all superior to angels.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Belief in revealed books  - Vedas and mantras are always revealed to a tapasa.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Belief in divine predestination  - Read Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We don't need any new reformers for Sanatana Dharma . It is enough if we can even partially understand rishi hrudayam and practise dharma as outlined by the rishis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Islam is not and need not be adopted as a sub-religion of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-11-02T06:16:54.173" LastActivityDate="2017-11-02T06:16:54.173" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4073" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4055" CreationDate="2014-12-23T16:42:38.880" Score="7" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna was son of Surya and kunti.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was first son born to Kunti before her marriage.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;His guru is called lord Parshurama.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was son of two mothers(Kunti and Radha) like lord Krishna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He had special powers especially his shield and earrings.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He gave more respect to friendship(with Duryodhana ) than anything else.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He donated many more things including his shield. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because &lt;em&gt;he sacrificed his soul for his brothers.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="747" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-04T11:48:34.863" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T11:48:34.863" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4076" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3906" CreationDate="2014-12-24T01:53:58.080" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.starsai.com/lalithambigai-goddess-lalithasahasranamam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;LalitA sahasra nAma&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; states that she is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चितशक्ति चेतना रूपा जड शक्ति जडात्मिका ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chitsakthi Chethana roopa Jada shakthi Jadathmikha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;cicchaktis cEtanA rUpA jaDassaktir jaDAtmika&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Chitsakthi)-She who is the strength of holy knowledge ,(Chethana&#xA;  roopa) -She who is the personification of the power behind action&#xA;  ,(Jada shakthi)-  She who is the strength of the immobile&#xA;  ,(Jadathmikha) - She who is the world of immobile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So brahman is present in non-living things as potential energy. Even our day-to-day lives we clearly see the fact that matter and energy are inter-convertible. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-11-27T07:58:21.583" LastActivityDate="2017-11-27T07:58:21.583" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4077" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3328" CreationDate="2014-12-24T05:26:02.557" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There was a horse-faced Rakshasa who had a boon to be slain only by someone who was also horse-faced. Maha Vishnu had to assume the form of Hayagriva to slay the Rakshasa. This story is from &lt;code&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2014-12-29T11:41:06.510" LastActivityDate="2014-12-29T11:41:06.510" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4078" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2002" CreationDate="2014-12-24T05:35:35.503" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Rama is a kshatriya and kshatriyas are sanctioned to eat meat. For, meat increases rajas and tamas in the body which are required in warfare. Ramayana (Aranya KAnda) clearly states that he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga68/aranyasans68.htm#Verse32&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;hunted for a deer&lt;/a&gt; and they offered it as naivEdyam (offering to God made  during ritual worship) when they first set up their hermitage. In Sundara KAnDa also, Hanuman &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga36/sundarasans36.htm#Verse41&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells&lt;/a&gt; Sita that Rama has taken no pleasure in meat or madhu since being separated from her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Caution for sanctioned meat-eaters is that meat should be consumed only on some days. For e.g., they should eschew eating meat on Sundays.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama did not violate scriptural injunctions or dharma by consuming meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-15T22:53:35.993" LastActivityDate="2017-02-15T22:53:35.993" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4079" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3993" CreationDate="2014-12-24T07:41:46.717" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The states of consciousness you're looking for are described in the Mandukya Upanishad of the Atharvana Veda, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/mandukya.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;All this is certainly Brahman. This Self is Brahman. This Self, as such, is possessed of four quarters.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(The Self) seated in the waking state and called Vaisvanara who, possessed of the consciousness of the exterior, and seven limbs and nineteen mouths, enjoys the gross objects, is the first quarter. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(The Self) seated in the state of dream and called Taijasa who, possessed of the consciousness of the interior, and seven limbs and nineteen mouths, enjoys the subtle objects, is the second quarter.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Where the sleeper desires not a thing of enjoyment and sees not any dream, that state is deep sleep. (The Self) seated in the state of deep sleep and called Prajna, in whom everything is unified, who is dense with consciousness, who is full of bliss, who is certainly the enjoyer of bliss, and who is the door to the knowledge (of the preceding two states), is the third quarter.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This is the Lord of all; this is omniscient; this is the in-dwelling controller (of all); this is the source and indeed the origin and dissolution of all beings.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Fourth is thought of as that which is not conscious of the internal world, nor conscious of the external world, nor conscious of both the worlds, nor dense with consciousness, nor simple consciousness, nor unconsciousness, which is unseen, actionless, incomprehensible, uninferable, unthinkable, indescribable, whose proof consists in the identity of the Self (in all states), in which all phenomena come to a cessation, and which is unchanging, auspicious, and non-dual. That is the Self; that is to be known.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Fourth&quot; state, known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turiya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Turiya&lt;/a&gt;, is what is sometimes called &quot;supeconsciousness&quot;.  In any case, naturally the videos that would describe these states of consciousness are videos that explain the Mandukya Upanishad.  Note that the vast majority of such videos will be made by members of the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, because they are the ones that give the most importance to the Mundakya Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So without further ado, here are some videos that give explanations of the Mandukya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://youtu.be/hqWXsj2xZg4?list=PLEF1719C37C7BA62E&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This series&lt;/a&gt; of eight lectures on the Mandukya Upanishad by the late yogi Swami Rama&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://youtu.be/eGKFTUuJppU&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This lecture&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://youtu.be/F0dugc4TrlE&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this lecture&lt;/a&gt; on the Mandukya Upanishad by Swami Sarvapriyananda &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;http://youtu.be/ildR9YOkaTQ?list=PLWjpkY4mU2RCNFihyi0mVZPW7yY2GmO5Z&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;series of lectures&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://youtu.be/TKWipKRJCC8?list=PLWjpkY4mU2RBzpYlH0n-d0Vq7lL_GElOB&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this series of lectures&lt;/a&gt; by Swamini Atmaprakashananda on chapters 3 and 4 of Gaudapada's Advaita commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Out of these, number 2 is the shortest.  By the way, I also found &lt;a href=&quot;http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TcX-CBrF9m4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; which claims to discuss how to achieve superconsciousness through meditation, but it may be of dubious accuracy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-01-10T03:57:23.497" LastActivityDate="2015-01-10T03:57:23.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4081" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-24T12:03:50.957" Score="1" ViewCount="757" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is modern Hinduism's perspectives on polygamy (by modern, say within the last 35 years)? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the practice of polygamy consistent with any principles in the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1225" LastEditorUserId="3458" LastEditDate="2015-09-05T15:10:44.493" LastActivityDate="2015-11-04T17:10:37.373" Title="What is the status of polygamy in contemporary Hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|marriage|vedanta|sex|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2016-07-19T11:23:57.350" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4087" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="574" CreationDate="2014-12-24T18:07:36.383" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;We may have to be careful not to inject too much cultural/societal specificity into what is arguably primarily meant to be a spiritual allegory. We know from many saints (contemporary and of the past) that caste is not an outward thing primarily, but of inward status. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nityananda of Ganeshpuri stated in his gnostic utterances (Chidakash) that, &quot;The one with envy and pride, not a dark skin or worn-out clothes, is an outcaste. The one wearing silken headgear, having wrist watch, crisp expensive clothes but having segregatory attitude (Bheda bhudi), is an outcaste.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is hard to imagine that such great personages as Drona would be subject to narrow notions of outward caste. A consideration could be that Drona recognized a tendency inside Ekalavya of lacking discrimination such as someone with the inward status of Kshatriya would possess. Also, it was evident that Drona did not reject as disciple Ekalavya, even as he did not reject Kauravas as his disciples. So perhaps demanding Ekalavya's thumb was in fact a preemptive act of war. Although, there are caveats to this theory also, as Drona himself ended up on the Kauravas' side in battle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1229" LastActivityDate="2014-12-24T18:07:36.383" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4088" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-25T01:36:44.100" Score="15" ViewCount="5817" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'd like to know more about the ancient book Rigveda. However, I think I need some basic information on this book first before I start to read it - so any shortcuts on what would be some good introduction, basic facts and a summary of what the Rigveda is about?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1230" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-04T10:02:39.263" LastActivityDate="2021-03-29T14:32:30.110" Title="What are the basic facts and summary of what the Rigveda is about?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4089" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-25T07:17:48.873" Score="13" ViewCount="7298" Body="&lt;p&gt;Each person born as a Hindu has some caste attached to him. As per my understanding he remains in the same caste throughout his life. Currently, I don't think anybody can change his/her caste, but was it possible in the early days of civilization?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Hinduism is a &lt;em&gt;open&lt;/em&gt; religion. It allows you to choose your favorite God, the way you want to worship, the custom you want to follow. You can even be an atheist while following Hinduism. Then &lt;strong&gt;why is Hinduism so strict with the caste system?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="133" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-23T19:31:53.200" LastActivityDate="2018-03-21T10:25:36.360" Title="Can a person change his caste in Hinduism?" Tags="|history|philosophy|caste-system|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4090" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4089" CreationDate="2014-12-25T12:39:04.743" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was and is never possible to change caste unless you are a super tApasa and realise brahman like Sage Viswamitra did. He was born a kshatriya but attained brahmarshi status through penance. You can attain brahman from any caste by following swadharma, but for the purpose of leading a dharmic life in this world, you have to live with the caste you were born into. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-08-07T12:15:50.827" LastActivityDate="2015-08-07T12:15:50.827" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4092" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3817" CreationDate="2014-12-25T15:28:02.257" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna was involved officially in the Mahabharata when Arjuna and Duryodhana went to Lord Krishna's palace to seek his help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna told that he would help both of them and gave his options &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Those want him to be on their side, but he wouldn't use any of his weapons.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And those who want to have his huge &lt;strong&gt;narayani sena&lt;/strong&gt; to be on their side.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna gave his first choice to arjuna as he came first and he sat at lord's feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna chose Lord Krishna to be on his side, in-spite of his assertion that he wouldn't use any weapons and whereas duryodhana got the narayani sena.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-15T08:09:28.160" LastActivityDate="2015-07-15T08:09:28.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4093" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="4096" CreationDate="2014-12-25T15:44:03.987" Score="11" ViewCount="11423" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva doesn't exist without Shakthi. Shiva and shakthi are one. I recently visited a temple of Mother Kali. I was purplexed to see lord shiva in a smiling face is under the feet of angry Mother Kali. What does this signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1232" LastEditorUserId="26679" LastEditDate="2022-12-25T08:50:35.803" LastActivityDate="2022-12-25T08:50:35.803" Title="Why do we see Lord Shiva under the feet of Mother Kali?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|kali|interpretation|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4095" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2899" CreationDate="2014-12-25T20:53:15.627" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There can be two context I can refer immortality&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)Soul Context&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)Bodily Context&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Soul context every soul is immortal .It is never born and never going to die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bodily context, Immortalism can equate to either chiranjeevi or amara in hinduism.&#xA;Chiranjeevi is someone who is long living. Amara is the one who is deathless.We all know about samdra manthan and people who could drink nector  became amara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But amara  jeevas are NOT deathless . They live up to end of manvantara.&#xA;Chiranjeevis would live until end of time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastActivityDate="2014-12-25T20:53:15.627" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4096" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4093" CreationDate="2014-12-25T21:22:03.017" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Paramhansa Yogananda says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://thecosmicmother.org/home/kali/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Paramhansa Yogananda, from The Essence of Self-Realization, Ways in Which God Can be Worshiped&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kali represents Mother Nature. She is Aum, the cosmic vibration. In Aum everything exists—all matter, all energy, and the thoughts of all conscious beings. Hence, Her garland of heads, to show that She is invisibly present in all minds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The play of life and death expresses Her activity in Nature: creation, preservation, and destruction. Hence the sword, the head, and a third hand extended, bestowing life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Her energy is omnipresent; hence Her streaming hair, representing energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva, Her husband, represents God in His vibrationless state, beyond&#xA;creation. Thus, He is depicted as supine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically that Kali being the Shakti, creates, preserves and liberates the Universe. All this She does on behalf (because they are both One) of Lord Shiva, who is the vibrationless, Nirguna Brahman, motionless, undescribable, bliss and without attributes. Thus Shiva lays motionless and smiling in bliss, while God Kali performs the acts on His behalf.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa says in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna – (page 271 – 2):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever you perceive in the universe is the outcome of the union of Purusha and Prakriti. Take the image of Shiva and Kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kali stands on the bosom of Shiva; Shiva lies under Her feet like a&#xA;corpse; Kali looks at Shiva. All this denotes the union of Purusha and&#xA;Prakriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purusha is inactive; therefore Shiva lies on the ground like a corpse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prakriti performs all Her activities in conjunction with Purusha. Thus&#xA;She creates, preserves, and destroys.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Kali represents the vibration or Aum which is responsible for creation, preservation and liberation, while Shiva is the absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This does not mean that Kali is not Nirguna or that Lord Shiva is not Saguna. This is the symbolism with which one can understand this particular depiction of the Gods. Each depiction can have multiple interpretations and multiple meanings. All Gods are One. The one manifests itself in various forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogananda.com.au/upa/Upanishads01.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upanishad statements on Truth/Brahman/GOd-realization&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti (Rig Veda (1.164.46))&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Reality (Truth) is one: the wise call It by various names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sarvam khalvidam brahma. (Chandogya Upanishad 3.14.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All this is Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2014-12-25T21:22:03.017" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4097" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-25T21:29:45.610" Score="28" ViewCount="2147" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am having confusion that, whenever divine beings incarnate on earth, do they also continue to exist in their original abode?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us take the example of Narayana, the supreme god. It is said that whole world is just his dream.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's been said that, only some amsha of Hari came on earth as different avatars (all dasha avatars). Even when the avatar was on earth, Vishnu was still there in Vaikunta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes different avatars were there simultaneously. For example, both Krishna and Parashurama attended Yudhishtira's Rajasuya yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us take the example of Lord Shiva. I faintly remember a Puranic story, &lt;strong&gt;where Shiva used Pashupatastra&lt;/strong&gt; on his own incarnation. But the astra recognized the incarnation as Shiva himself and returned without harming him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That solidified the fact that, even when Shiva's incarnation was just amsa of Lord Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is also confusion on, at the end of Dwapara, all Devas and Brahma came to Krishna and spoke to him as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O You Foundation of Everything, for You there is no longer an&#xA;obligation to the godly, and the remaining part of the dynasty has&#xA;virtually been annihilated by this curse of the brahmins . Therefore&#xA;we ask You &lt;strong&gt;whether You intend to leave for Your Supreme Abode&lt;/strong&gt; and if&#xA;You please want to continue with us, the protectors of all worlds and&#xA;their inhabitants, &lt;strong&gt;to protect the servants of Vaikunthha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/canto11/chapter6.html#Text%2026-27&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimadbhagavatam 11.6.26-27&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here they literally urge him to return to Vaikunta and protect them.  &lt;strong&gt;Now this causes the confusion that Vishnu was not present in Vaikunta?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, we have seen numerous other instances of Devas coming to earth as incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, Bhishma was a one of Asta Vasu (named Prabhasa), was cursed to born on earth. It's said that, once he left earthly body, he became Vasu again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vasus are elemental gods, who are responsible for the basic 8 elements, Prabhasa being responsible for the Sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So the question is, if the whole soul of Prabhasa was cursed to be born on earth, not just his amsa, then who was responsible for the sky during his time on earth?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Or is it lesser gods or demi gods like Prabhasa-Bhishma who have full incarnations but only supreme gods like Vishnu or Shiva have a partial incarnation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pandavas, Karna etc., were clearly called sons of different Devas, not incarnations. But for Bhishma, his incarnation was due to a curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2021-11-02T14:51:24.743" Title="Partial and full incarnations: When divine beings incarnate on earth, do they continue to exist in their original abode?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|krishna|avatars|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4098" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2899" CreationDate="2014-12-26T01:02:29.670" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Immortal is brahman. So lifespan of someone who has attained brahman is that of brahman. And this is not containable or measurable using our physical frames of reference for time or space. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Dattatreya says to not even bother attempting to understand the beginning of time and creation. Sage VyAsa says the same in the brahma sUtrAs. Therefore, it is inferred that the magnitude is immeasurable using our earthly  units of physics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may also refer to Upanishad slOkas that are chanted before prostrating in front of a yatIswara. They indicate that the state of brahman is beyond the wordly realm. They start as &quot;na karmaNA , na prajaya, dhanEna, tyAgEnaikE amRtatva mAnusuhu&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is one &lt;a href=&quot;http://chinmayabirmingham.org/sites/default/files/images/InitialPrayers.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; to the chant and its translation. Look at the table on page 1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2014-12-26T01:02:29.670" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4099" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4089" CreationDate="2014-12-26T09:35:25.707" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the second paragraph, you probably meant to say: &quot;Even you can be an &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;atheistic&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; person... &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the early days of civilization, the caste system was not as rigid as it seems now or seemed a few centuries back. First, the caste system was not built up just for the sake of it, in fact, it had a scientific reason. The main rationale for this was the concept of &quot;Division of Labour&quot;. Some people were assigned to be of some caste so that they perform some pre-allocated tasks in the society. Some were to worship, some were to be soldiers etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second, the caste system was not imposed upon on birth. It was not like that the child should be in a particular caste just because his parents were.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All castes were deemed equal. There was no concept of a lower or an upper caste. This notion got &lt;em&gt;developed&lt;/em&gt; later on so that a few people (the so-called &lt;strong&gt;upper&lt;/strong&gt; caste) could take advantage on others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for whether one can change a caste or not after being assigned to one, I am not sure, but probably it was allowed in the early ages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1235" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-12-26T09:48:25.357" LastActivityDate="2014-12-26T09:48:25.357" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4100" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="4144" CreationDate="2014-12-26T17:22:00.440" Score="8" ViewCount="29299" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read some stories in North India where Lord Kartikeya is said to have vowed not to marry, while in South India, he is seen along with 2 wives. I wanted to know, who are the wives of Lord Kartikeya and which texts contain the story of his marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-30T14:03:19.247" LastActivityDate="2020-10-19T13:20:55.880" Title="Wives of Lord Kartikeya" Tags="|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4101" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="4115" CreationDate="2014-12-27T02:15:24.560" Score="10" ViewCount="6135" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, is it a &lt;em&gt;sin&lt;/em&gt; if a couple decided to have no children?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am 25 years old and leading a worse life throughout my life. I always wished I wasn't born here. When I think of my child, things pop up in my mind are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Unemployment&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Poor wages&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Unethical workplaces&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so forth (&lt;s&gt;unless she/he is the most brilliant child in Asia&lt;/s&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can't choose to remain unmarried since I am just a normal human.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1237" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-12-28T02:14:44.423" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T04:35:54.863" Title="Is it necessary for one to have children?" Tags="|sin|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4102" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4022" CreationDate="2014-12-27T05:30:26.247" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya is the avatara of Lakshmana and Balarama . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmana and Balarama are themselves an avatara of the Sesha Nag on which Vishnu is lying down . &#xA;The Sesha Nag was incarnated as the brother of Vishnu each time he was born on Earth .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence Ramanujacharya is an avatar of AdiSeshan .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's a Temple near Sri Perambadur , the birth place of Ramanujacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1168" LastActivityDate="2014-12-27T05:30:26.247" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4103" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4101" CreationDate="2014-12-27T06:40:00.193" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is. In Hinduism it is a commonly known concept that everyone who is born on earth remains indebted to at least three things. These are known as the three types of &lt;em&gt;rinas&lt;/em&gt; (debts). They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;deva rina&lt;/em&gt; (debt owed to gods for providing us light, water, air, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;rishi rina&lt;/em&gt; (debt owed to sages for providing their knowledge)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;pitru rina&lt;/em&gt; (debt owed to forefathers for continuing the lineage).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other such debts like &lt;em&gt;bhuta rin&lt;/em&gt;, but those three are primary. In Hinduism it is necessary for one to repay these debts so that he/she can be free. Without paying off these three debts one cannot attain liberation and will only fall down:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When he has paid the three debts, let him apply his mind to (the attainment of) final liberation; he who seeks it without having paid (his debts) sinks downwards. [Manu Smrt - 6.35]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a privilege unlike any other to be born as a human and to be brought up by parents. So we all have a debt towards our parents and forefathers who continued our lineage. This debt is known as &lt;em&gt;pitru rina&lt;/em&gt; and it can be repaid by procreating off springs and continuing the lineage. So &lt;strong&gt;without having children one cannot get rid of the &lt;em&gt;pitru rina&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. So generally in Hinduism one is required to have children. The scripture also says the importance of a &lt;em&gt;putra&lt;/em&gt; (son) as he saves the father from a hell named &lt;em&gt;put&lt;/em&gt; [Manu - 9.138].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said that it is worth mentioning that this law doesn't apply for someone who is a pure devotee of the Lord. &lt;strong&gt;One who abandoning all material desires and attachment only performs devotion of Lord Shri Krishna gets free from all these kind of debts&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;devarṣi-bhūtāpta-nṛṇāṁ pitṝṇāṁ na kiṅkaro nāyam ṛṇī ca rājan&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;sarvātmanā yaḥ śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyaṁ gato mukundaṁ parihṛtya kartam&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.5.41]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;O King, one who has given up all material duties and has taken full shelter of the lotus feet of Mukunda, who offers shelter to all, is not indebted to the demigods, great sages, ordinary living beings, relatives, friends, mankind or even one’s forefathers who have passed away. Since all such classes of living entities are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, one who has surrendered to the Lord’s service has no need to serve such persons separately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can understand your views since I also marched towards a direction of unmarried life pondering over the futility of the worldly life. Having seen so much imperfection here not a single day goes by when I don't want to change things the way they are and make them better. But I would only say that, &lt;strong&gt;trying to not have children just because things are tough is not a proper and reasonable step&lt;/strong&gt;. If conditions are too tough then you can take spiritual aid. Please take time and think over it wisely as decisions like these are very important in life and once the time goes away not any amount of later repentance can fill the hole in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Update&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have nothing against what other answers and comments are saying, but have everything against the statement &lt;code&gt;forget scripture, follow your heart&lt;/code&gt;. It is one thing to be not able to follow the laws and rules set in the scriptures due to the age of &lt;em&gt;kali&lt;/em&gt; and it is another to forget and discard them completely to follow whatever the heart says. &lt;strong&gt;Following the heart is good, but following the heart forgetting or undermining the scriptures is not good.&lt;/strong&gt; But who am I to say what's good and what's not? It is the job of the scriptures to say that. So the Gita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims&lt;/strong&gt; attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination. [BG - 16.23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One should therefore understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the scriptures&lt;/strong&gt;. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should act so that he may gradually be elevated.[BG - 16.24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is good to follow the heart, but one should also consider the scriptures in doing so and determining his duty accordingly. The sages know better, hence even the God incarnates follow the words of the sages. So we should not forget or disregard the scriptures and law books of Hinduism like Manu Smruti which contain the words of the sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-01-05T03:41:41.710" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4104" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4089" CreationDate="2014-12-27T08:29:32.840" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his writings (Complete Works), Vivekananda gives examples of people whose caste has changed. Vivekananda said it was possible in 3 ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Another caste offers and accepts you as a member of their caste. This is done when the members of the caste think it will bring prestige to their caste to have a particular person a member of their caste. This is a group decision.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A caste decides as a group to change their caste. The whole caste changes caste as a group, not an individual.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Finally, it is possible for a Brahmin to lose his caste. If a Brahmin accepts work that is not fitting for a Brahmin then he and his family lose their caste and assume the caste of the work they are doing. I think that Vivekananda said it was 16 years of non-Brahmin work. There is an example of this in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna also.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may look in The Laws of Manu. He may have something on this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can't give exact passages for the above, it would take too much time to scour through to find and the question is not worth the time.        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T19:46:56.910" LastActivityDate="2016-01-25T19:46:56.910" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4107" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-27T19:13:59.623" Score="10" ViewCount="9293" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is widely known that Mahabharata was written by Lord Ganesha under the dictation of Sage Vyasa. Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata#Textual_history_and_structure&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first section of the Mahabharata states that it was Ganesha who&#xA;  wrote down the text to Vyasa's dictation. Ganesha is said to have&#xA;  agreed to write it only if Vyasa never paused in his recitation. Vyasa&#xA;  agrees on condition that Ganesha takes the time to understand what was&#xA;  said before writing it down.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Vyasa already knew the complete chain of events. So, he could have written them all by himself. But he didn't. Is there any &lt;em&gt;specific reason&lt;/em&gt; why Lord Ganesha had to write the Mahabharata instead of Vyasa writing it by himself?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-11-27T06:42:09.287" LastActivityDate="2020-07-21T04:52:21.430" Title="Why did Vyasa seek the help of Lord Ganesha?" Tags="|mahabharata|ganesha|vyasa|itihasa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4108" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2674" CreationDate="2014-12-28T01:57:52.203" Score="2" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to latest research on the dates of Saraswati river and Rama Setu, both these are older than 1700 BCE (NASA's research stated this and I don't currently have links to it.)Therefore ,it is incorrect to date Rig Veda, which existed prior to Rama Avatar, to 1700-1100 BC. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The currently-used savitR Gayatri Mantra was revealed to sage Viswamitra who pre-dated Rama. (Age of Rama Setu is &gt;1,750,000 years, see &lt;a href=&quot;http://krishna.org/nasa-images-discover-ancient-bridge-between-india-and-sri-lanka/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Prior to savitR (or Sun) gAyatri, people worshipped Indra gAyatri&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And prior to Indra gAyatri, people worshipped brahma gAyatri.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Points 3 and 4 were researched and revealed by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Kavya_Kantha_Vasistha_Ganapati_Muni&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;kAvya kanTha gaNapati muni&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In essence, it is not possible to date the gayatri mantra. We just need to remember that the Supreme pre-dates us and has continually manifested/revealed itself in various forms (mantra, avatAra etc.) since time immemorial. Modern science is too green and immature to help us understand what exists here and beyond. A lot more research by modern scientists (some of whom are rishis themselves - I consider Einstein, Bohr etc. rishis) is needed for us to even get some semblance of an understanding. kEnOpanishad states that brahman is beyond the known and the unknown. So it may very well be that science will never mature to a state where all is explained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref:&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vidyavrikshah.org/scripture/upanishads/kena1.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vidyavrikshah.org/scripture/upanishads/kena1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="20" LastEditDate="2014-12-29T18:08:32.620" LastActivityDate="2014-12-29T18:08:32.620" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4109" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4107" CreationDate="2014-12-28T02:49:37.977" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Mahabharata, it was Brahma who suggested Vyasa to take help of Ganehsa. Veda Vyasa had conceived the whole poem in His mind but he was in anxiety regarding how to propagate it to his disciples. Brahma seeing Vyasa's anxiety came to Him and said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I esteem thee for thy knowledge of divine mysteries, before the whole body of celebrated Munis distinguished for the sanctity of their lives. I know thou hast revealed the divine word, even from its first utterance, in the language of truth. Thou hast called thy present work a poem, wherefore it shall be a poem. There shall be no poets whose works may equal the descriptions of this poem, even, as the three other modes called Asrama are ever unequal in merit to the domestic Asrama. &lt;strong&gt;Let Ganesha be thought of, O Muni, for the purpose of writing the poem&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharat doesn't give any specific reason why Ganesha was thought of for writing and not any other god, but Veda Vyasa did thought of Ganesha as he is the remover of obstacles and then narrated him the poem to be written:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Vyasa began to call to mind Ganesha. And Ganesha, &lt;strong&gt;remover of obstacles, ready to fulfill the desires of his votaries&lt;/strong&gt;, was no sooner thought of, than he repaired to the place where Vyasa was seated. And when he had been saluted, and was seated, Vyasa addressed him thus, 'O guide of the Ganas! be thou the writer of the Bharata which I have formed in my imagination, and which I am about to repeat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taking the help of lord Ganesha for writing was certainly faster than the time Vyasa would have taken to write the whole poem Himself. It is because, lord Ganesha's pen didn't even stop writing for a moment apart from some difficult verses that Vyasa intentionally narrated. So apart from any other reasons, &lt;strong&gt;faster completion of such a huge work&lt;/strong&gt; is certainly one reason why Veda Vyasa took the help of Ganesha, the god of knowledge and education.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot;&gt;Mahabharat, Adi Parva, 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2014-12-28T02:55:32.620" LastActivityDate="2014-12-28T02:55:32.620" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4110" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4107" CreationDate="2014-12-28T04:06:38.863" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Ganesha writing the Mahabharata is told in the first chapter of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata.  Vyasa asked Brahma to recommend someone to write his epic poem, because &quot;no writer of this work is to be found on earth&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O divine Brahma, by me a poem hath been composed which is greatly respected. The mystery of the Veda, and what other subjects have been explained by me; the various rituals of the Upanishads with the Angas; the compilation of the Puranas and history formed by me and named after the three divisions of time, past, present, and future; the determination of the nature of decay, fear, disease, existence, and non-existence, a description of creeds and of the various modes of life; rule for the four castes, and the import of all the Puranas; an account of asceticism and of the duties of a religious student; the dimensions of the sun and moon, the planets, constellations, and stars, together with the duration of the four ages; the Rik, Sama and Yajur Vedas; also the Adhyatma; the sciences called Nyaya, Orthœphy and Treatment of diseases; charity and Pasupatadharma; birth celestial and human, for particular purposes; also a description of places of pilgrimage and other holy places of rivers, mountains, forests, the ocean, of heavenly cities and the kalpas; the art of war; the different kinds of nations and languages: the nature of the manners of the people; and the all-pervading spirit;--all these have been represented. &lt;strong&gt;But, after all, no writer of this work is to be found on earth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I see two ways we can interpret that statement:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No one on Earth can possibly write it&lt;/strong&gt; - Writing was a very rare skill in ancient times; if you go back far enough the only people who were literate were professional scribes.  So it could be that Vyasa couldn't find anyone who was literate.  Or it could be that no one on Earth had the stamina to write a work that was a hundred thousand verses long, plus many hundreds of thousands of verses which were only revealed in worlds other than Earth.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No one on Earth should write it&lt;/strong&gt; - Given that right before making that statement, Vyasa is describing the divine content of his work, he could be saying that no one on Earth, even Vyasa himself, is worthy of writing down such a divine work.  Or at least that no one on Earth is worthy of committing such a divine work to writing for the first time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of these, the second interpretation seems more plausible to me, because there probably was &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt; writer in the world who could write down hundreds of thousands of verses.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-01-12T17:02:35.733" LastActivityDate="2017-01-12T17:02:35.733" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4112" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-28T12:31:49.557" Score="6" ViewCount="839" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are three karmas: Sanchitha, Praarabdha and Aagaami.  It is my understanding that how and where we are born and other things happen in a particular life is based on the Praarabdha Karmas, which are supposed to be ripened sanchita karmas for this life.  We would still carry the old sanchita karmas and take rebirths as they ripe.&#xA;My belief is not all sanchita karmas become praarabdha karmas at the same time.  Each one takes its own time based on its intensity.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can some one explain how sanchita karma becomes praarabdha karma and what decides when it should be done?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why does not the sanchita karma become praarabdha karma immediately for next life in that case we will have only aagami karmas (if we do not follow karma yoga) to carry to next life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1243" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-12-28T13:26:09.850" LastActivityDate="2017-03-13T03:02:26.573" Title="When does Sanchitha Karma becomes Praarabdha Karma? What decides its transformation?" Tags="|karma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4115" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4101" CreationDate="2014-12-29T07:30:50.907" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Use your common sense&lt;/strong&gt;. If you cannot afford to take care of a child properly, do not have a child. There will be greater bad karma bringing into this world a child that you cannot take care of properly than whatever karma gained from having a child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Forget scripture, follow your heart. &lt;strike&gt;Remember what Jesus Christ said - &quot;What you do to the least among you, you do to Me.&quot; &lt;/strike&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adopt a child. There are many orphans and street children. Look upon the child as baby Gopala. You can realize God in this way. The karma gained from taking care of one of these poor miscreants will go a lot farther than any bad karma in not having a child of your own. Anything you can provide one of these will mean a total different life for them than the life they may have as a orphan.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2015-04-19T04:27:41.703" LastActivityDate="2015-04-19T04:27:41.703" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4116" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-29T08:38:42.557" Score="4" ViewCount="247" Body="&lt;p&gt;We see today that there are many authors who write novels which contain fantasies (imaginary stories). I haven't really heard of such thing's in past. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If people can imagine now then why can't in the past? This thinking also takes me wonder if the Puranas (stories about Gods and Vedas) are actually saying the real things or they are fiction based novels. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please don't consider me an atheist, I am a true believer of God but this is a confusion I am having. If there were known novels/fantasies then may be we can decide by comparing the writing style, story telling style, or event description, etc with that of religious texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the reply is that similar stories being covered in many books so it should be true and not fantasy, then that can be also be true in case of novels. For example, there was a famous novel series &lt;em&gt;Chandrakanta Santati&lt;/em&gt; and upon it's success many other series were made by other writers by taking the same theme and mostly the same characters as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-01-04T06:31:56.753" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T08:12:19.103" Title="Are there any known fantasy works in Hinduism Literature?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4117" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2632" CreationDate="2014-12-29T11:51:37.327" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can also refer to another question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/4034/which-is-oldest-known-sacred-place-of-hindus&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for the places referenced in oldest scriptures and the oldest populated places according to archeological view also. Accordingly, Kashi (also called Banaras or Varanasi) is said to be the oldest populated place. Here is the reference extract from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanasi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; on Banaras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The earliest known archaeological evidence suggests that settlement around Varanasi in the Ganga valley (the seat of Vedic religion and philosophy) began in the 11th or 12th century BC, placing it among the world's oldest continually inhabited cities. These archaeological remains suggest that the Varanasi area was populated by Vedic people. However, the Atharvaveda (the oldest known text referencing the city), which dates to approximately the same period, suggests that the area was populated by indigenous tribes. It is possible that archaeological evidence of these previous inhabitants has yet to be discovered. Recent excavations at Aktha and Ramnagar, two sites very near to Varanasi, show them to be from 1800 BC, suggesting Varanasi started to be inhabited by that time too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2014-12-29T16:01:20.363" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4118" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-29T16:03:08.550" Score="11" ViewCount="3649" Body="&lt;p&gt;I had always assumed that the Advaitin philosopher &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/a&gt; opposed animal sacrifice in Vedic Yagnas (fire-rituals).  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://voices-and-visions.com/2011/10/09/animal-sacrifice-is-not-part-of-hinduism/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this blog post&lt;/a&gt; says, for instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the 7th century A.D. the great philosopher Adi Shankara stopped animal sacrifice wherever he went – from Pashupatinath in Nepal to Kanchi Kamakshi in the south (he walked all over India). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now I've found reason to believe otherwise. As a proponent of Advaita, Adi Shankaracharya was part of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy.  And as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3608/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the defining text of the Vedanta school is the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.  You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, Vyasa &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;discusses&lt;/a&gt; the issue of animal sacrifice in Adhyaya 3 Pada 1 of the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;25&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If it be argued that rites (invoking killing of animals) are unholy, we say, no, since they are sanctioned by scriptures.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says about this Sutra in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We proceed to refute the remark made by the pûrvapakshin that sacrificial works are unholy because involving harm done to animals ... Now from scripture we derive the certain knowledge that the gyotishtoma-sacrifice, which involves harm done to animals (i.e. the animal sacrifice), &amp;amp;c., is an act of duty; how then can it be called unholy?--&lt;strong&gt;But does not the scriptural precept, 'Do not harm any creature,' intimate that to do harm to any being is an act contrary to duty?--True, but that is a general rule, while the precept, 'Let him offer an animal to Agnîshomau,' embodies an exception; and general rule and exception have different spheres of application.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does that mean that Adi Shankarcharya was actually in favor of animal sacrifice?  Is the claim that he went around stopping animal sacrifice incorrect?  Or was he in favor of animal sacrifice at one point in his life and against it at another?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2018-04-01T16:51:43.113" Title="Did Adi Shankaracharya support animal sacrifice?" Tags="|practice|brahma-sutras|vedanta|adi-shankaracharya|yajna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4120" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7026" CreationDate="2014-12-29T17:24:36.367" Score="4" ViewCount="3756" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gayatri mantra starts with &quot;&lt;em&gt;Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. It praises god Savitr (Sun God) for illuminating worlds Bhu (Earth), Bhuva, Svah (Svarga).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We all know that , there are seven lokas above earth as enumerated below :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhu (Our Earth)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhuva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Svah (Svarga/Heaven)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahar Loka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jana Loka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tapa Loka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satya Loka (Abode of Brahma)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why Sun god just illuminates only three upper lokas(planes)? Why didn't they mention other Lokas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I completely understand, there can be different interpretations for the very same words. For example, &lt;a href=&quot;http://gayatri.awgp.org/ImportanceofGayatri/TheMeaningofGayatriMantra/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;they translate&lt;/a&gt; Bhu, Bhuvah and Svah as :- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhu - Embodiment of Vital Spiritual Energy (Pran)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhuvah - Destroyer of Sufferings&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Svah - Embodiment of Happiness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Vedas contains multiple layers for very same words, I believe there is something in first interpretation too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T10:05:26.357" LastActivityDate="2023-05-11T18:55:34.520" Title="Gayatri mantra and three Lokas (planes)" Tags="|vedas|lokas|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4121" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4112" CreationDate="2014-12-30T03:10:18.393" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gita says &lt;em&gt;gahana karmano gatih&lt;/em&gt; [4.17] (karma goes very deep). So the concept of Karma is so complicated that hardly anyone can explain all its implications describing what leads to what. But because you already have an idea about the three types of karma, I'll try to explain the question from my understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thing is, Sanchita Karma is the total stored up karmas whose results have not yet been experienced. So &lt;strong&gt;it builds up life after life&lt;/strong&gt; unless the results of each karma is duely experienced. Whenever there is some karma left out unexperienced in any life, it will get stored up as &lt;em&gt;sanchita karma&lt;/em&gt;, later a portion of which is experienced as &lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt;.  So &lt;em&gt;sanchita karma&lt;/em&gt; takes effect or comes into the picture when an individual fails to experience the results of all his actions in his life.  Now lets discuss the reasons for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The problem is, time of life is limited for everyone. And just like it takes time for a seed to grow up and become a full tree, it takes time for actions to mature and be experienced as results. But it cannot be said for sure whether the person will be alive by the time his actions mature to be experienced. So if he is not alive to experience the results, then it will get added up as Sanchita Karma so that it can be experienced in some later life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Why doesn't &lt;em&gt;sanchita karma&lt;/em&gt; become &lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, &lt;em&gt;sanchita karma&lt;/em&gt; does become &lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt;, but its amount is so big that not all &lt;em&gt;sanchita karmas&lt;/em&gt; can be experienced and canceled out in just one life. Hence only a portion of &lt;em&gt;sanchita karma&lt;/em&gt; is experienced in one life and that small portion is named as &lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Life is not ordained only by &lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;agami karma&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;kriyamana karma&lt;/em&gt; also plays a part. So if for some reason a person commits suicide as a result of &lt;em&gt;kriyamana karma&lt;/em&gt; or or dies an untimely death due to some past bad actions as a result of &lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt;, then he will certainly have unexperienced karmas of that life which will get stored up as &lt;em&gt;sanchita karma&lt;/em&gt;. Hence, even if all &lt;em&gt;sanchita karma&lt;/em&gt; becomes &lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt; in one life, it cannot be said for sure that all of that karma can be experienced by the person in the same life. So &lt;strong&gt;the left out &lt;em&gt;karmas&lt;/em&gt; get piled up life after life and become &lt;em&gt;sanchita karma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please take a look at the following posts which will also be helpful to know about karma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2251/38&quot;&gt;Does karma of previous life affect new life?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2407/38&quot;&gt;Is our destiny pre determined? If yes, then why do our actions affect our karma?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-06T12:00:57.770" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4122" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4116" CreationDate="2014-12-30T08:35:19.530" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vivekananda said that all the world religions have their philosophical, ritualistic, and mythological parts - including Hinduism. Whether you accept the puranas (myths) portions as historically accurate or not is not important. What you should accept is they are the embodiment of the philosophical principles and were given to us to teach us how to apply those philosophical principles into our daily lives.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2014-12-30T08:35:19.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4123" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4118" CreationDate="2014-12-30T09:12:38.613" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;He was not saying he was in favor. What he is saying is &quot;knowledge of virtue and vice is derived from the scriptures. The scriptures alone are the source for knowing that such an act is virtuous, and another not virtuous; for merit and demerit are super-sensuous realities and they are not invariable for all space, time, and environment. Any deed that is performed as virtuous in relation to certain time, place and circumstances, becomes non-virtuous in relation to other places, times, and circumstances...and it is ascertained from the scriptures that the Jyotistoma sacrifice, involving injury, favour, etc., is virtuous.. So how can it be declared to be impure?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures outline what sacrifices can be done to attain certain ends. If you want that end attained by the Jyotistoma sacrifice, it can be yours. They are not saying to do it, they are merely outlining what is to do to attain a certain desired end result. Be careful what you ask for because it can be the rat hole of endless rebirth......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankar is saying that in this one particular instance animal sacrifice is permitted. It is not a general rule for any or all times, places, or circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Brihdaranyaka Upanishad it also tells of the horse sacrifice. It also, however, tells how to do the sacrifice through symbolic meditation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-04-19T15:54:39.887" LastActivityDate="2015-04-19T15:54:39.887" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4124" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3259" CreationDate="2014-12-30T13:19:29.683" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Those believe in Hinduism trust that the Planets in the sky rule the world. When there is movement of SUN from one Raasi to another Raasi, there are changes like calamities, accidents etc. The Hindus believe the Full Moon and New Moon. Many people don't perform marriages or other auspicious ceremonies on New Moon because Moon is weak. Moon rules one's mind and that's why the psychiatric patients behave differently. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the age of science. The position of planets in the sky is Astronomy and it is science.&#xA;Muslims see the moon's appearance for their festivals. Like that we have to give importance to all planets including shadow planets Rahu and Ketu. Astrology is related to Astronomy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people don't believe in Astrology. They don't see Kundali and horoscope matching. Blindly they perform the marriages. May be they are successful because of their Sanchit Karmas. If they are not successful unfortunately, then they realise that there is some mistake done by their parents or themselves. At that time they search for Astrologer/s and spend lot of money for remedies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the people are not alike. The Astrologer can say that the person belongs to which Raasi on seeing him. He can say his future on seeing his time of birth, place of birth and date of birth. The longitudes and latitudes of the place are taken into account. It is science. Even two persons born at the same time also do not have the same future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Horoscope matching/Kundali matching is nothing but matching of the behaviours, attitudes, friendship, enmity and other compatibility factors of man and woman. These factors give whether they lead full life without any hurdles. Not only people cause hurdles in one's life, but the movement of planets cause hurdles. Why people are afraid of Saturn and it's Dasha antardasha, sade sathi, asthama sani, arthastami sani? Saturn is bad planet, but it is Nyaya Devata. Saturn makes us learn discipline, hard work, patience and justice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So matching of Horoscopes of two prospective bride and bridegroom are necessary for analyzing their future life. In love marriages may be some people don't match horoscopes. But now a days a literate person is more conscious of match making. That's why many divorce cases are being filed in the Courts. In India also, many people are following Western culture. So they argue that there is no need to see Horscope matching.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Lord Rama and Maa Sita they are puran purushas. Their avatar is for some purpose. If Ravan has not done Apaharan, she may be with Lord Rama and Ravan can't be killed. We have to think only what is the story in Ramayana. It is only my opinion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1255" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2014-12-30T15:02:56.523" LastActivityDate="2014-12-30T15:02:56.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4125" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2014-12-31T02:12:15.253" Score="3" ViewCount="2379" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3039/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Sri Vaishnava sect of Hinduism (of which I'm a member) was founded by Nathamuni, based on the beliefs and principles embodied in the poems of the Alwars, a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu.  But at the time of Nathamuni, Sri Vaishnavism was just a small cult in the town of Sri Rangam in Tamil Nadu.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2835/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Sri Vaishnavism only became a major sect of Hinduism after the time of Ramanujacharya, by far the most famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Sri Vaishnavism, Ramanujacharya was an incarnation of Adiseshan and a reincarnation of Balarama.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/4023/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, I discuss numerous Hindu scriptures that mention Ramanujacharya.  But there is one mention of him that I'm trying to track down.  In his book &quot;The Life and Teachings of Sri Ramanujacharya&quot;,  C. R. Sreenivasa Ayyangar &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=Zn4szeEn23IC&amp;amp;lpg=PA178&amp;amp;ots=dGbasgpmcE&amp;amp;dq=%22golden%20lives%20of%20the%20east%22&amp;amp;pg=PA44#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;gives a quote&lt;/a&gt; from the Narada Purana which prophesies the birth of Ramanujacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;His primal manifestation was as Ananta [Adiseshan]; his second as Lakshmana, the younger brother of Rama; his third as Balabhadra the elder brother of Krishna; and once again he will come down on Earth in the Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, where in the Narada Purana is this quote found?  The book says it's from the Yadavachala Mahatmya of the Narada Purana, and I've heard other people saying the quote comes from the Yadavagiri Mahatmya of the Narada Purana.  Either way, the phrase means &quot;Greatness of the Yadava mountain&quot;, a hill in Melukote, Tamil Nadu which is the site of the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheluvanarayana_Swamy_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Cheluvanarayana Swami Vishnu Temple&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I can't find a section with that name in the Narada Purana.  You can read the table of contents to the Narada Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/narada-purana-5-volumes-IDE885/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And you can read the Narada Purana via DSpace, the digital repository of the West Bengal Public Library Network; here are links to all five volumes (in English):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12945&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20659&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/21516&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 3&lt;/a&gt;   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12976&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 4&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12978&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So which of these volumes has the Yadavachala Mahatmya?  And does anyone know specifically where the quote I'm lookingg for is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-07-01T00:47:44.677" Title="Where in the Narada Purana is the prophecy of Ramanujacharya?" Tags="|puranas|adisesha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4127" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="4142" CreationDate="2014-12-31T14:33:11.440" Score="10" ViewCount="8735" Body="&lt;p&gt;Both the Shiva Purana and the Linga Purana are books on Lord Shiva. I have read Shiva Purana. Can somebody please explain what is extra or differently told in the Linga Purana? Also, if possible please add a link of verse by verse English translation of the Linga Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-22T14:23:09.943" LastActivityDate="2022-05-19T17:29:39.770" Title="Difference between the Shiva Purana and the Linga Purana" Tags="|puranas|shiva-purana|translation-request|linga-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4134" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3540" CreationDate="2014-12-31T18:04:47.107" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It embodies the belief of prosperity. The ritual is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.quora.com/In-the-Hindu-custom-brides-push-a-bowl-of-rice-with-their-foot-and-then-step-into-a-plate-of-kumkum-after-which-they-take-their-first-step-into-their-new-household-What-does-the-ritual-signify&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Griha pravesh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-traditions/griha-pravesh.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;(Additional link)&lt;/a&gt; (minor edit on source from comment). The symbolism is that when a new bride comes she should bring prosperity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1262" LastEditorDisplayName="user1262" LastEditDate="2015-01-01T00:07:37.233" LastActivityDate="2015-01-01T00:07:37.233" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4135" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2365" CreationDate="2015-01-02T10:06:43.273" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I haven't heard about the version you wrote, but there are other 2 versions also famous. Both suggest that Abhimanyu was belonging to &quot;&lt;em&gt;Raakshasha&lt;/em&gt;&quot; (Demon like) clan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;A defeated demon entering Subhadra's womb&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.boloji.com/articles/1187/bheel-mahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bheel Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna had captured this Danava and he entered Subhadra's womb. The danava was extremely strong &amp;amp; mighty (may be little less than Bhima's grandson &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalambar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yalamber&lt;/a&gt;). Even before entering the Chakravyuha, Abhimanyu praises few things about his own powers which might be &quot;not so inspiring&quot; for his fans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;A cursed demon by Durvasa&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/09-12/features2590.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Harekrsna - Abhimanyu chapter&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, according to one South Indian tradition, it is a curse from Durvasa that makes Abhimanyu a Rakshasa in his current birth. In a former life he was a gatekeeper at Rama's palace, and Durvasa cursed him to be born as a Rakshasa in his future life because he refused entry to the sage into Rama's court.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, the reason for Krishna desiring Abhimanyu's death may not be exactly because he was a &lt;em&gt;Raakshasa&lt;/em&gt;, but &lt;em&gt;may be&lt;/em&gt; because Abhimanyu's capability of killing the entire Kaurava+Pandava clan all alone (assumption).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-02-21T01:11:09.167" LastActivityDate="2020-02-21T01:11:09.167" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="4136" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-02T12:33:46.730" Score="5" ViewCount="80" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently I heard that a Shaka can be started only by a Chakravarti Samrat. E.g. Shalivan Shaka, Shiva shaka, Yudhishthir Shaka, etc. Also it was said that such Samrat who wants to start a shaka must not have a debt of even a penny. So how a person must be to start a shaka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastActivityDate="2015-01-02T12:33:46.730" Title="Who can start a Shaka?" Tags="|calendar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4139" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4120" CreationDate="2015-01-03T16:41:30.000" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is found in proper analysis of Gayathri Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayathri Mantra contains the seed of everything around and within us. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We all know of Gayathri Devi as source of Gayathri Mantra. But not many know of Vishwakarma, the male counterpart of Gayathri Devi. It appears the current teachings/teachers of today have omitted this other half required to complete the Gayathri Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishwakarma here is not the shilpy which is what you will get by google search. Vishwakarma here is the Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gayathri mantra we know today is just the most basic (kindergarten) meter (akshara).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Akshara means algebra :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Bhur Bhuvah Svah is not Gayathri. &#xA;It is kavach.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tat Savitur Varenyam&#xA;Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi&#xA;Deeyo yona prachodayat .. is Gayathri&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayathri Devi is energy. Vishwakarma Brahma is structure. Knowing how to channel energy is how you and me are here breathing. The lokas (worlds) you refer to is not what it is meant to be; forgivable blunder. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pick up any (Shruti) text, loka is not refered to as planets which we all have come to understand. The correct sanskrit word is Patala. Patalas that are off spring from Vishwakarma Brahma are called Nakshatra.&#xA;So what is the meaning of Loka? The closest english word is &quot;consciousness&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Western science do not accept the concept of consciousness. It is a para-science known as psychology. Until Jung lobbied for his research, the best cure for a mentally unstable person was lobotomy ( a surgical procedure of removing a part of your brain to cut off all sensory perception). This was the &quot;science&quot; that was practiced till 1980's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Consciousness&quot; in sanskritic-meaning-english-reverse-translation would mean &quot;Aura&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aura is the energy field that is on the external of the body functioning as a cover (Kavach). The etymology of the english word &quot;Cover&quot; is a loan from the sanskrit word &quot;Kavach&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does Aura come about? It is emitted from the respective Chakras ( also refuted by western science)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to emit Aura from Chakras? Through Gayatri Mantra upasana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, lokas means aura that is manifested from the chakras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are countless galaxies and universes mentioned in scriptures (Shruti), which today proved true, so Gayathri Mantra's reference is definitely not just about 7 planets. Also there are 9 planets that has effect on the human body according to Jyotish, one of the Vedanga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the above pointers further negates any remote reference that Gayathri Mantras reference of lokas means planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What it means is the 7 layers of aura which is being broadcasted  from the sahasra chakra in harmony with the rest of the chakras. The surya namaskar is an activator of the pineal glad which produces ojas of which you put into vibratory motion in sandhyavandhan using Gayathri. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, one anga of Gayathri Mantra upasana is Suryanamaskar. This is the Surya reference that the Gayatri Mantra gives. The Surya that is an activator of the ojas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So just because it mentions Surya, one cannot conclude that the rest of the sloka would double-mean references to planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Western science has understood this recently, embraced rather, and have built the Particle Accelerator (CERN), where a matter (atom) is excited by energy (Surya for the human body) and let to exhaust itself by &quot;dancing&quot; around a given trajectory [chakras (lokas) in human body] and then to fuse itself in the process with electrons (ojas with Gayatri Mantra) so as to produce anti-matter ( Shakti ~ Gayatri Mata )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course CERN is unsuccessful, as no mantra (vibration) in certain fixed patterns (algebra) was used. While every initiated Hindu goes through this cycle every morning in Suryanamaskar followed by Sandhyavandan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, matter is Gayatri Devi and anti matter is Vishwakarma Brahma; proven millenias ago. This is the upadesh that is revealed in Gayatri Vidya by a proper Guru ( a handful exist).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This truth is further embodied in the Sri Chakra, the physical manifestation of the Gayathri. When it is manifested in 3 dimensional as the Meru, it is completed as perfect, as the 7 layers of &quot;loka&quot;, consciousness is establised.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The white man Macaulfie is responsible for this mistranslation of loka to patala, from which all current modern literature on this subject has been based on. He linked bharata-vasara to bhu loka. This science is taught in Srimad Bhagavatam by Sri Vishwakarma's son to Brihaspati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further proof: in the sankalpa stanza one can find &quot;bharata vasara&quot; mentioned. This is the correct patala (i.e. Earth). The names of the rest of the patalas can be found in the same Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To gain deeper understanding how Gayathri is manifested, one has to seek Purusha Suktam [i.e. the vigyan (science) of cause: creation, preservation and destruction]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advancing into the subject; there are 11 akshara variations. The secret starts off with the first akshara seque.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1265" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-01-08T13:06:52.180" LastActivityDate="2015-01-08T13:06:52.180" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4140" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3975" CreationDate="2015-01-03T21:42:39.373" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;To add to the other answer, everything happens with the will of God, including a boon/curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is just a reason or a cause for things to happen in a destined manner. It is not something that creates a deviation for the upcoming future, but just a part of it. Hence the person or God giving a boon/curse doesn't have to really go out and control the outcome of a war or a fight. The outcome will be the same and the boon/curse is a cause for the result.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also one more reasoning is that, the Gods and many Saints have awareness of the three periods the past, the present and the future. So they already know what is going to happen and a boon/curse is also a part of that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more way of understanding it is, the boon/curse is received based on a persons karma. Like people undergo severe penance to obtain a boon. Or the curse is given because of a wrong doing. So based on such a karma that person has to get the result. The boon or curse is an result that signifies this karma and it has to happen, irrespective of a person/God giving a boon or a curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to answer the question, it is generally not required to control the outcome. Then in rare instances, the Gods do interfere to make sure things happen the way it should. For instance, Kamadeva interrupting Shiva's meditation to kill Tarakasur, or Indra, in the form of a Brahman asking for Karna's shields.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1123" LastActivityDate="2015-01-03T21:42:39.373" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4141" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4120" CreationDate="2015-01-04T05:14:17.513" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gayatri mantra is Rig Veda III. lxii. 10. It is also covered in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad V. xiv. 1. and VI. iii. 6.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svah (earth, sky, heaven) are called the Vyahritis. They are three syllables. According to the Brihadaranyaka U. (V. xiv. 1.)  - &quot;The words Bhumi (earth), Antariksha (sky), and Dyaus (heaven) form eight syllables, and the first foot of the Gayatri consists of eight syllables. So the three worlds constitute the first foot of the Gayatri. Whosoever knows this about the [first] foot of the Gayatri wins all that is in the three worlds.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although there are several lokas or heavens, the heavens referred to in the Gayatri is inclusive of all the heavens.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-01-08T08:47:31.903" LastActivityDate="2015-01-08T08:47:31.903" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4142" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4127" CreationDate="2015-01-04T05:37:48.603" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The difference between the Shiva Purana and the Linga Purana is analogous to the difference between the Vishnu Purana and the Srimad Bhagavatam; the Vishnu Purana is an older work, focusing on Vishnu in general rather than Krishna in particular, whereas the Srimad Bhagavatam puts more emphasis on Krishna, although it still recounts Vishnu stories unconnected to Krishna.  Similarly, the Shiva Purana is a work dealing with Shiva in general.  It was composed by the sage Parashara, Vyasa's father, and it was condensed by Vyasa into a much shorter work, with some or all of the removed parts put into the Vayu Purana.  The Linga Purana, on the other hand, was composed later and puts more emphasis on Shiva's Linga form, how to worship a Shiva Linga, etc., although it still recounts stories of Shiva unconnected to the Shiva Linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, the only unabridged translation of the Linga Purana is the two-volume translation published by Motilal Banarsidass.  Here are links to the two volumes in PDF format:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20660&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/JgM2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Volume 1 is on DSpace, the digital repository of the West Bengal Public Library Network.  I found Volume 2 on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dli.ernet.in&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Digital Library of India&lt;/a&gt;, and then I downloaded it as a PDF file using the program DLI downloader, and I uploaded it to Google Drive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2022-05-19T17:29:39.770" LastActivityDate="2022-05-19T17:29:39.770" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="4143" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-04T06:23:08.220" Score="7" ViewCount="856" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people have only heard of the lunar dynasty king Yayati, who was cursed with old age by Sukracharya (guru of the Asuras) and temporarily regained his youth by giving his old age to his youngest son Puru. Puru, along with Yayati's eldest son Yadu, started two of the most famous royal families, the Pauravas (which include both the Pandavas and Kauravas) and the Yadavas (which include Krishna). Less famous, however, is Yayati's father Nahusha.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3732/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Nahusha was such a good king on Earth that when Indra temporarily abandoned his post, the gods chose Nahusha to serve as the new king of the three worlds. But Nahusha was soon corrupted by his power, so the sage Agastya cursed him to become a large snake. Nahusha was only freed from the curse when he had a conversation with the Pandava Yudishthira about the proper way he should have lived his life, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03180.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, before he got corrupted, Nahusha was such a religious person that he was able to engage in Tapasya (deep meditation) and get Vedic verses directly from the gods.  As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani compiled in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Nahusha was the one who heard verses 7-9 of Rig Veda Book 9 Hymn 101 (which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv09101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) from the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, why is Nahusha listed as &quot;Nahusha Manava&quot;?  The term &quot;Manava&quot; is nowadays used to mean human, but here it's being used as a patronymic, i.e. it means &quot;patrilineal descendant of Manu&quot;.  But the thing is, as far as I can tell Nahusha wasn't a patrilineal descendant of Manu.  Nahusha was the son of the king Ayu, who was the son of the king Puruavas.  Puruavas' parents were Budha, god of the planet Mercury and son of Chandra the moon god, and Ila.  Now Ila was an individual who kept changing between being a man and being a woman, but either way Ila was the child of Vaivasvata Manu.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why would Nahusha have the patronymic Manava, if only his paternal grandmother  was a descendant of Vaivasvata Manu?  Shouldn't Nahusha's patronymic be related to his patrilineal ancestors like Ayu, Budha, Chandra, and Chandra's father Atri?  The only source I found which addresses Nahusha's patronymic is &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=bHIpvQDlazAC&amp;amp;lpg=PA124&amp;amp;dq=nahusha%20manava%20%22manu%20samvarana%22&amp;amp;pg=PA124#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;, which says &quot;Nahusha is said to be the son of the King Manu Samvarana&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is this Manu Samvarana?  Is he different from Vaivasvata Manu?  Is it another name for the king Ayu?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2019-08-24T10:53:11.473" Title="Why is Nahusha's last name Manava?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|manu|ancestry|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4144" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4100" CreationDate="2015-01-04T08:03:27.043" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to South Indian tradition, &lt;strong&gt;Kartikeya has two wives, Valli and Devasena&lt;/strong&gt; (AKA Devanai). As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3466/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, while Valli isn't really mentioned much in Hindu scripture, Devasena definitely is.  Her story is told in the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata.  Once Devasena was kidnapped by the Asura Keshi, and after being rescued by Indra she told him &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03223.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am a daughter of Prajapati (the lord of all creatures, Brahma) and my name is Devasena. My sister Daityasena has ere this been ravished by Kesin. We two sisters with our maids habitually used to come to these Manasa mountains for pleasures with the permission of Prajapati. And the great Asura Kesin used daily to pay his court to us. Daityasena, O conqueror of Paka, listened to him, but I did not. Daityasena was, therefore, taken away by him, but, O illustrious one, thou hast rescued me with thy might. And now, O lord of the celestials, I desire that thou shouldst select an invincible husband for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that translator thinks that Prajapati refers to Brahma here, but I think it actually refers to Brahma's son Daksha, who is also a Prajapati.  In any case, before Indra had met Devasena, he had been trying to find a Deva-senapati, i.e. a general for the gods.  And then Devasena told Indra that she wanted husband with the following qualities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O hero with long arms, I am Avala (weak) but my husband must be powerful. And by the potency of my father's boon, he will be respected by gods and Asuras alike.  That manly and famous and powerful being devoted to Brahma, who is able to conquer all the celestials, Asuras, Yakshas, Kinnaras, Uragas, Rakshasas, and the evil-minded Daityas and to subdue all the worlds with thee, shall be my husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After consultation with Brahma, Indra decided that the only suitable Devasena-pati, or husband for Devasena, would be someone fit to be the Deva-senapati, the general of the gods.  And so he tried to bring about the birth of such an individual.  In any case, after Kartikeya was born and had proven his prowess in battle, Indra made him general of the gods and then &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03228.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;gave him Devasena's hand in marriage&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Performer of a thousand sacrifices then thought of Devasena, whom he has rescued before. And considering that this being (Skanda) was undoubtedly destined to be the husband of this lady by Brahma himself, he had her brought there, dressed her with the best apparel. And the vanquisher of Vala then said to Skanda, 'O foremost of gods, this lady was, even before thy birth, destined to be thy bride by that Self-existent Being [Brahma].  Therefore do thou duly accept her lotus-like beautiful right hand with invocation of the (marital) hymns.' Thus told, he duly married her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So that is how Kartikeya married Devasena.  Now as far as Valli goes, as I said she isn't mentioned much in Hindu scripture, but in South Indian tradition her story goes roughly as follows, as described e.g. in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valli&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://pongi.org/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the official website&lt;/a&gt; of the location of Valli's wedding.  Valli was the daughter of Nambi Raja, a tribal chieftain of a people called the Veddars or Kuravars.  She prayed to Kartikeya devoutly, so one day Kartikeya appeared to her pretending to be a Veddar hunter, but she spurned his romantic advances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qgUMW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kartikeya played many more tricks like that, until finally he had his brother Ganesha turn into a large elephant and chase Valli.  Valli ran to an old man and asked for help; the old man said he would only help her if she agreed to marry him.  She finally agreed, and Kartikeya revealed who he really was.  They got married in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallimalai&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vallimallai, Tamil Nadu&lt;/a&gt; shortly thereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7mNO1.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-05-07T20:36:52.107" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4145" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-04T21:07:10.577" Score="7" ViewCount="2392" Body="&lt;p&gt;I learned  that, Hrudayam](&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3031/what-is-the-use-of-chanting-aditya-hridayam&quot;&gt;What is the use of chanting Aditya Hridayam?&lt;/a&gt;) gives power to win over enemies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How ever is it applicable to only external and physical enemies or is it applicable for internal and mental enemies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can I chant Aditya Hrudayam to win over my internal enemies like Lust, Anger, Fear, Tension, Laziness and Ego?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1131" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-10-22T14:10:22.793" Title="Does Aditya Hrudayam helps to win over internal enemies?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4146" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-06T08:18:50.253" Score="9" ViewCount="1817" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which is the oldest known Hindu Calendar? Do we have any details about how much similar or different it was as against the current Gregorian Calendar that we use. Comparisons can be made like based on like number of day in a week, month and year, lunar or solar basis, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, do we have any details as to which calendar was being used in the life times of Lord Rama or Lord Krishna. I heard people's age in hundreds and thousands of years in earlier time. But if calendar details are confirmed then that would prove the fact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-01-06T10:22:16.823" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T15:39:52.400" Title="Which is the oldest known Hindu Calendar?" Tags="|krishna|rama|calendar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4148" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="4150" CreationDate="2015-01-06T16:08:00.710" Score="17" ViewCount="10078" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have observed that many Hindus today put a strong focus on liturgy (rituals, cracking coconuts, offering flowers, lighting diyas etc) and narratives (Hindu mythological stories,Puranas, Ramayana,Mahabharat etc). Whilst these aspects of Hinduism may be important, can they be said to be essence of Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a rich spiritual philosophy within the Vedas, Upanishads, and the Gita. However I have seen that many Hindus today have little interest or knowledge on these topics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand that Hinduism is very diverse and pluralistic and every person will choose a path suitable for them. But having said this what is the true goal of Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you say it is moksha, or self realization then why does there appear to be so little focus on this? Why is there so much attention to the more superficial aspects of Hinduism? What are today's Hindus trying to achieve by being Hindu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Hinduism really 'just a way of life' with no real purpose or meaning?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastActivityDate="2015-09-09T05:11:36.113" Title="What is the ultimate goal of Hinduism?" Tags="|philosophy|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4149" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-06T17:15:57.450" Score="8" ViewCount="1626" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it written in any Purana about the benefits of worshiping Lord Shiva in the Parad (&lt;em&gt;mercury&lt;/em&gt;) Shiva linga form? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so, can someone pass on the excerpts from the purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also, can someone please tell the difference between worshiping spatika linga and parada Shiva lingam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1232" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-31T15:48:19.913" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T06:34:06.627" Title="What are the benefits of Parad Shiva Linga?" Tags="|shiva|worship|puranas|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="4150" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4148" CreationDate="2015-01-06T17:54:10.820" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;To be frank, there is no single ultimate goal of Hinduism. Why? Because, Hinduism has different philosophical systems and even within different systems there are different schools of thought. Every school of thought has its own ultimate goal or objective defined for life which contradict to one another. Hence, &lt;em&gt;there is no single ultimate goal that is shared by all Hindus&lt;/em&gt;. So &lt;strong&gt;the true goal of Hinduism is determined and dependent upon the school of thought one follows&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many would say the four &lt;em&gt;purusarthas&lt;/em&gt; (dharma, artha, kama and moksha) are the objective of Hinduism. Well, while that's mostly true, when we come to the &lt;em&gt;bhkati&lt;/em&gt; school of thought, they are rejected outright from the beginning. Take Shrimad Bhagavatam for example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavḥ&lt;/em&gt;  — Completely rejecting all religious activities (&lt;em&gt;dharma, artha, kama, moksha&lt;/em&gt;) which are materially motivated, this Bhāgavata Purāṇa propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. [SB - 1.1.2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's consider the Vedas, upon which Hinduism is mostly based. The Vedas itself consist of mutually opposing sections. The &lt;em&gt;Karma Kanda&lt;/em&gt; suggests methods and ways to perform sacrifice etc. to attain heaven and other higher planes but the &lt;em&gt;Jnana Kanda&lt;/em&gt; suggests to go beyond all these rituals and realize the true Self. So what will one chose? It simply depends upon the nature of the people:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus, due to the great variety of desires and natures among human beings, there are many different theistic philosophies of life, which are handed down through tradition, custom and disciplic succession. There are other teachers who directly support atheistic viewpoints. [SB - 11.14.8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is the natural religion. It is because it takes into account the real nature of people (categorises them into &lt;em&gt;satva&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;) and instead of imposing one single way for all, it  suggests different ways for people of different nature and different needs. Hence, some people worship gods, perform rituals etc. to accumulate &lt;em&gt;punya&lt;/em&gt; and go to heaven, while some others gain knowledge, realize the true Self or worship the Supreme either with or without a form:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods; those in the mode of passion worship the demons; and those in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits. [BG - 17.4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Reason behind rituals&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is not only a religion of hereafter, but also a religion focused on the present which you can say as a way of life. So apart from different philosophies that preach the absolute truth, there are also branches of knowledge in it like &lt;em&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, etc. which deal with removing obstacles, pain, etc. in this life. So &lt;strong&gt;many people although are not interested in the ultimate objective of life, are certainly interested in living a happy life here with all material comforts.&lt;/strong&gt; So they perform many small and big rituals for that purpose which are supposed to bring auspiciousness, increase wealth, remove obstacles, etc. and thus make one happy. Due to &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; or ignorance people do not know where the true happiness is. Hence, they focus on the superficial aspect of Hinduism:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O best among men, the intelligence of human beings is bewildered by My illusory potency, and thus, according to their own activities and whims, they speak in innumerable ways about what is actually good for people. [SB - 11.14.9]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some say that people will be happy by performing pious religious activities. Others say that happiness is attained through fame, sense gratification, truthfulness, self-control, peace, self-interest, political influence, opulence, renunciation, consumption, sacrifice, penance, charity, vows, regulated duties or strict disciplinary regulation. Each process has its proponents. [SB - 11.14.10]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Reason behind narrating stories&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from people who are only interested in the materialistic mode of life, there are also people who are interested in God and the higher goods. But they may not be spiritually advanced. For such people the activity and pastimes of God and His many incarnations as described in Ramayana, Mahabharat, etc. provide faith, belief and interest. &lt;strong&gt;By hearing God's activity and pastimes through stories they obtain devotion through hearing which is known as &lt;em&gt;shravana bhakati&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Hence, many scriptures describe the benefit of at least hearing or reading God's activities in it if one is not able to do anything else spiritual. As hearing stories is easy and doesn't require much effort, many persons narrate them and give &lt;em&gt;pravachan&lt;/em&gt; etc. which others listen. But this is not the essence of Hinduism. Neither by giving &lt;em&gt;pravachan&lt;/em&gt; (discourses) nor by listening to stories God or the Self is achieved:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Self is neither obtained through discourses, nor through much hearing and not even through knowledge and intelligence. [Katha. Up. - 1.2.23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narrating and hearing stories is only good in the sense that something is better than nothing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is Hinduism really 'just a way of life'?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, it's not. It's way more than that. How? Because when we say just a way of life we mean life on earth alone, or any other higher material plane. But Hinduism is not just limited to that. Not only it shows the ways up, but also it preaches the real blissful nature of our true Self and motivates us to attain that supreme goal going where one will never have to come back here again. So it's not just a system that shows how to live life here, but also states the value of human life and urges us to make the best use of it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varānnibodhata&lt;/em&gt; [Kath. Up - 3.14]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   — Arise awake and understand the boon (of human life) you have attained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The doors of liberation are opened wide to one who has achieved human life. But if a human being simply devotes himself to family life like the foolish bird in this story, then he is to be considered as one who has climbed to a high place only to trip and fall down. [SB - 11.7.74]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;To sum it up philosophically&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Philosophically, to sum it up, most systems in Hinduism (Nyaya, Samkhya, Yoga.. .the five) consider &lt;em&gt;dukha nivritti&lt;/em&gt; (avoiding suffering) as the goal of life and so they invent and preach various ways for this. But the Vedanta school of thought preaches &lt;em&gt;ananda prapti&lt;/em&gt; (attaining bliss) is the ultimate goal of life as by attaining bliss suffering will itself cease. And it shows attaining God, who Himself is always blissful, as the only way of attaining such ever lasting bliss. But then as God is both with and without form and qualities, there are different methods and schools of thought regarding this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To sum it up in one line, &lt;strong&gt;attaining eternal happiness or bliss, which is synonymous with God, &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;, liberation, etc. is the ultimate objective that every one shares&lt;/strong&gt;, but the definition of God, &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;, etc. drastically changes by the school of though one follows.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-01-07T00:57:55.397" LastActivityDate="2015-01-07T00:57:55.397" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5149" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4148" CreationDate="2015-01-07T04:51:41.153" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a good question. The aim of human life is union with God. What this union means depends upon what one's view of God is. All views of God are true. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said &quot;God is both dualistic and non-dualistic..and many more things also.&quot; Regardless of your view of God, only a few souls attain to this. It says that out of a lakh of people maybe a thousand strive for liberation, and out of a thousand that strive, only a few gain it. But Krishna says in the Gita that no effort in this direction is ever lost. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most people are engrossed in the world and the religion they practice is for worldly gain or rewards in the heavens of the gods. Krishna says (Gita II. 42-44) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Partha, no resolute and unwavering thought is formed in the minds&#xA;  of those who are deeply attached to pleasure and power; who allow&#xA;  their discrimination to be stolen away by the flowery words of the&#xA;  unwise; who permit their souls to be ridden with desires; who regard&#xA;  the attainment of heaven as the highest goal; and who take great&#xA;  delight in quoting the panegyric [ritualistic] texts of the Vedas and&#xA;  declare that besides these there is nothing. These texts promise&#xA;  rebirths as the reward of their action and lay down specific rites for&#xA;  the attainment of pleasure and power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in verse 45 - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas deal with the three gunas. Be free, O Arjuna, from the three&#xA;  gunas...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vast majority of people that go to temples or do rituals do so for the reasons stated by Lord Krishna himself. They go there as beggars, for their own gain, not out of love for God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vast majority of the adherents of any religion are worldly people who give lip service to religious practices for their own worldly gain. The adherents today are no different than those of the past. Every age looks on previous ages as golden ages, but they were no different. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said (Complete Works VIII., p 34) - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...we need to free ourselves from the superstition of believing&#xA;  because &quot;it is in the books&quot;. To try to make everything--science, religion,&#xA;  philosophy, and all--conform to what any book says, is a most horrible&#xA;  tyranny. Book-worship is the worst kind of idolatry...We hear the&#xA;  'bugle sound' of the laws laid down in the books, habits and old&#xA;  superstitions lay hold of us; and before we know it, we are fast bound&#xA;  and forget our real nature which is freedom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The essence of Hinduism is to realize God--while living--and that God dwells in the heart of every person. No other religion teaches that God can be realized in this very lifetime. Swami Vivekananda says (Complete Works I. p 257) - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The aim is to get rid of nature's control over us. That is the goal of&#xA;  all religions. Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to&#xA;  manifest this Divinity within, by controlling nature, external and&#xA;  internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or&#xA;  philosophy--by one or more or all of these--and be free. This is the&#xA;  whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or&#xA;  temples, or forms, are but secondary details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Realize God. Escape the rat-hole of endless births...            &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-09-09T05:11:36.113" LastActivityDate="2015-09-09T05:11:36.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5150" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-07T12:15:27.107" Score="3" ViewCount="672" Body="&lt;p&gt;From what I know of...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A boon bestowed upon Lord Ganpati made mandatory that first &lt;code&gt;shloka&lt;/code&gt;(verse) of any religious book should start with &lt;code&gt;shree ganeshaya namaha&lt;/code&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But after reading &lt;code&gt;mahabharta&lt;/code&gt; in its original form, its first verse starts with:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नारायणं नमस्कृत्य नरं चैव नरॊत्तमम &lt;br&gt; देवीं सरस्वतीं चैव ततॊ जयम&#xA;  उदीरयेत &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nārāyaṇaṃ namaskṛtya naraṃ caiva narottamam &lt;br&gt; devīṃ sarasvatīṃ caiva tato jayam udīrayet&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bowing to Lord Nārāyaṇa (Kṛṣṇa), to Nara, the best of men [namely Arjuna],   and to the Goddess [of knowledge] Sarasvatī, then may one&#xA;  commence the [lore called] Jaya (Victory).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This slightly amazed me! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How Lord Ganpati was unknown till time of &lt;code&gt;mahabharta&lt;/code&gt;? That obviously means at time of &lt;code&gt;Ramayana&lt;/code&gt; too, since it happened before &lt;code&gt;mahabharta&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs01001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt; For &lt;code&gt;Mahabharta&lt;/code&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2287" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-19T05:18:01.303" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T11:47:26.910" Title="When was Lord Ganpati Discovered?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|belief|ganesha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5151" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4148" CreationDate="2015-01-07T12:19:50.310" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The ultimate goal of Hinduism is to attain Paramathma (supreme soul), eternity. All Athma (soul) will be born in different forms until it attains or reaches the birthless state(merging with the supreme soul) i.e attaining Paramathma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2288" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-01-07T13:51:18.247" LastActivityDate="2015-01-07T13:51:18.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5154" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3932" CreationDate="2015-01-08T06:41:42.623" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Devas or demigods, as we know them, are basically positions and powers which are taken up by suitable &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt;. For example, the position of Indra is taken up by different personalities. So just like in the parliament the number of seats is fixed, the number of devas are also fixed. Some say the number is 33 crore, some say its 33 &lt;em&gt;koti&lt;/em&gt; meaning 33 types and so on. In the Vedas there is a conversation in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad where the rishi Yajnyavalkya says it's the number is 33 and other known gods numbering to 3306 are just their powers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कतमेतेत्रयश्च त्रीच शतात्रयश्च त्रीच सहस्रेति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Which are the three hundred three and three thousand three gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सहोवाच महिमान एवइषामेते,त्रयस्त्रिंशत्त्वेवदेवाइति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    He (Yajnavalkya) said, &quot;Those are their powers, but gods are only thirty three.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कतमेतेत्रयस्त्रिंशदित्य्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Which are the thirty three?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अष्टउवसव ,एकादश रुद्रा ,द्वादशादित्यास् , तएकत्रिंशद् , इन्द्रश्चैवप्रजापतिश्च त्रयस्त्रिंशाविति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;Eight Vasus, eleven Rudras, twelve Adityas&lt;/strong&gt;. These are thirty one, &lt;strong&gt;Indra and Prajapati&lt;/strong&gt; make it thirty three.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At some other places like the Satapatha Brahmana even Heaven and Earth are considered as the &lt;em&gt;devas&lt;/em&gt; and Prajapati as a separate deva numbering 34. So the number of such positions is constant. And even though the demigods may have off springs like many mentioned in the puranas, they are not given the status of a &lt;em&gt;deva&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-01-08T06:41:42.623" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5156" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3986" CreationDate="2015-01-08T07:26:07.520" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are the ones I've found so far:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Smartha sect of Adi Shankaracharya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shaivam.org/siddhanta/fesbaktp.html&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Sri Parameshwara Prityartam&quot; or &quot;Parvati Parameshwara Prityartam&quot;, meaning for the pleasure of Sri Parameshwara or Parvati Parameshwara, both names of Shiva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Thenkalai sub-sect of the Sri Vaishnava sect &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.avaniavittam.org/images/AvaniAvittam%20For%20Yajur%20Upaakarma%20Sankalmpam%20(%20iyengar).pdf&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Sri Bhagavat Agna, Bhagavat Kainkarya Rupam&quot;, meaning by the command of Sri Bhagavan (God) and for the pleasure of Bhagavan.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Vadakalai sub-sect of the Sri Vaishnava sect &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.avaniavittam.org/images/AvaniAvittam%20For%20Yajur%20Upaakarma%20Sankalmpam%20(%20iyengar).pdf&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Sri Bhagavat Agna, Sriman Narayana Prityartam&quot;, meaning by the command of Sri Bhagavan (God) and for the pleasure of Sriman Narayana, a name of Vishnu.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Gaudiya Vaishnava sect, which includes ISKCON, &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Deity_Worship/Upakarma_Procedure.htm&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Prityartam&quot;, meaning for the pleasure of Sri Sri Gauranga the Guru, i.e. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu the founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Dvaita school of Madhvacharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/TatvavAda-Upload1/yajursandhyavandana_djvu.txt&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Sri Lakshmi Narayana Prityartam&quot;, meaning for the pleasure of Sri Lakshmi Narayana, a name of Vishnu.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vast majority of Hindus belong to one of these sects, but I hope to find more lines from other sects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-01-10T03:54:16.897" LastActivityDate="2015-01-10T03:54:16.897" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5157" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3552" CreationDate="2015-01-08T09:40:26.880" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Harivamsam, a part of the Mahabharata, gives us the story when Krishna and Balarama try to save the kingdom from Jarasandha. In the process, their grandfather (Kamsa's father and king) advises them to proceed from the south. In this process, they encounter Parasurama who them guides them to a place where Garuda provides them with weapons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-01-10T03:51:58.060" LastActivityDate="2015-01-10T03:51:58.060" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5159" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-08T12:15:09.723" Score="12" ViewCount="23401" Body="&lt;p&gt;How does one define a mantra? Does it have any specific attributes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some mantras are purported to have some effect on the invoker. For example, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahamrityunjaya_Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahamrityunjaya mantra&lt;/a&gt; is supposed to bring good health.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How should I believe this? It's like believing in spells and magic. Is it just a question of faith?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-20T19:12:16.773" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T09:40:38.617" Title="What is a mantra? Do mantras really have any power?" Tags="|belief|mantras|yoga|meditation|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5161" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5159" CreationDate="2015-01-08T18:40:48.193" Score="17" Body="&lt;h1&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is a Mantra?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=525&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The definition of Mantra is&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mananat Trayate Iti Mantrah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The repetition of which protects or liberates one is called a Mantra (one of many possible translations)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Traditionally Mantra's are the ones commonly chanted by priests. But most saints say that the most powerful mantra is just chanting the name of your Ishta Deva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says in The Secret of Bhakti Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name is a verbal expression of the conception of the Supreme Being, who is known by different names and forms, in different climes and times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without the name of the beloved none may hope to cross the sea of samsara (worldly existence). The Lord's name is the lasting medicine against any kind of ailment. You cannot be overtaken by sorrows, sins, troubles, sicknesses if you take refuge in the Lord's name. Repetition of the Lord's name dispels all fears and evil thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are the (general) benefits of chanting Mantras?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chanting mantra has three fold benefit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Physical benefits:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By constant chanting and repetition of a mantra, your body gets purified and unwanted toxins are removed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/10/the-power-of-chanting-melanie-cooper/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Power of Chanting by Melanie Cooper&lt;/a&gt;, she paraphrases &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shiftyourlife.com/2010/the-science-behind-mantra-chanting-by-jonathan-goldman/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jonathan Goldman's words in His article, the Science behind Mantra Chanting&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He lists physical benefits (of mantra chanting) firstly as relaxation, it lowers heart beat, calms brain waves and relaxes the breath. Chanting balances the functioning of the two sides of the brain and oxygenates the brain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How?&#xA;Because by constant repetition of the mantra, one is knowingly (or unknowingly) regulating one's breathing patterns and heart-rate. Prana, which is another name for the life-force, is very important for proper functioning of the body-mind complex. By regulating your breath and your prana, you are automatically getting physical benefits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says in The Science of Pranayama&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one controls the breath or Prana, the mind also is controlled. He who has controlled his mind has also controlled his breath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who practises Pranayama will have good appetite, cheerfulness, handsome figure, good strength, courage, enthusiasm, a high standard of health, vigour and vitality and good concentration of mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Pranayama here refers to the specific Yogic technique where the breath is consciously and specifically controlled and regulated. This must not be experimented without guidance by Guru as it could have bad side effects if not done accurately. However, by chanting mantras constantly and sincerely, this regulating of breath and prana occurs naturally and thus does not have any negative side effects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Mental benefits:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By constant chanting and repetition of a mantra, you begin to get pure thoughts, good positive energy flows into your Mind. With great positive thoughts, pure thoughts, divine thoughts, your Mind gets purified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the Mind is purified, all the six enemies of the mind - lust, anger, greed, pride, delusion and jealousy - get weakened and lose their grip over you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How?&#xA;Because each Mantra has a meaning and is associated with God. Thus by chanting the Mantra one is knowingly (or unknowingly) thinking benign and positive thoughts, divine thoughts, thereby creating a strong positive force.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda expounds about the Gayatri mantra repetition in Gayatri Japa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mind is purified by constant worship. It is filled with good and pure thoughts. Repetition of worship strengthens the good Samskaras. &amp;quot;As a man thinks, that he becomes. &amp;quot; This is the psychological law. The mind of a man who trains himself in thinking good, holy thoughts, develops a tendency to think of good thoughts. His character is moulded and transformed by continued good thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Spiritual benefits:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By constant repetition of a Mantra, one develops renunciation, which leads to liberation, which leads to self-realization or to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramhansa Yogananda says in Cosmic Chants:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Holding the attention unbrokenly on the real Cosmic Vibration, Aum or Om, not on an imaginary or an outward sound, is the beginning of real superconscious chanting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gradually the subconscious repetition will change into superconscious realization, bringing the actual perception of God. One must chant deeper and deeper until the chanting changes into subconscious and then superconscious realization, bringing one into the Divine Presence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How?&#xA;Because by chanting a Mantra with sincerity and devotion, one is knowingly (or unknowingly) putting focus on the Mantra or on God. By putting focus on God, the focus on the World is lost. This leads one to detachment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No longer concerned about the wins and defeats in life, one goes on merrily chanting the Mantra, putting the focus on God. Thus by forgetting the world, one remembers God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a jnanic perspective, this is self-realization (negating the unreal and realizing the real), from a bhakti perspective, this is madhurya bhava (unconcerned about the world and concerned only with God), from a karma perspective, this is vairagya (detachment to fruits). This leads to moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramhansa Yogananda says in His works &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogananda.com.au/gurus/yogananda_quotes33concentration.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;about concentration and its effect&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a person by unshakable concentration can visualise any image or object with closed eyes, he gradually learns to do the same with open eyes. Then by further development of concentration, he can connect with God’s all-powerful consciousness and can materialise his thought into an object, perceived not only by himself but by others also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Concentration consists in freeing the attention from distractions and in focusing it on any thought in which one may be interested.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also other benefits, like providing good karma by chanting, removal of bad karma, quick progress in spirituality, getting desires fulfilled, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How am I to believe this?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Just examples) Mrityumjaya mantra helps to overcome fear.&#xA;Gayatri mantra helps to become discriminate and detached.&#xA;Omkara helps to balance all states of the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is this possible? Is it like some kind of magic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Analogy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the users here are computer scientists, i.e. they know how to code. So let's take a analogy of computers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We write computer programs. When we write something like &lt;code&gt;printf (&amp;quot;Hello Dear Divine sparks&amp;quot;);&lt;/code&gt;. The computer prints it out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is this possible?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;The computer itself is incapable of understanding our words. It can only understand&#xA;machine code isn't it? Therefore in order to communicate with the computer we have&#xA;something called the programming language. When the syntax of the programming&#xA;language is properly followed, it is possible for communicating with the computer.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Using just coding, computers can be made to UNBELIEVABLE, SUPERB things, isn't it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same goes for the body. The body is like a machine, it can only understand machine-level language. Thus is it not possible to issue statements to the body such as 'become hotter' or 'become colder' and expect the body to respond to that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to communicate with the body-mind complex, the programming language called the Mind is needed. The Mind is the programming language that helps to communicate with the body. Then who is the programmer? The programmer is the soul or jiva or individual consciousness or I-consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;In order to instruct the body in an efficient manner, the syntax of the programming language must be used.&#xA;This syntax is the Mantra. By properly following the syntax of the programming language (don't miss any semi-colon!! or don't make logical error)&#xA;the computer's true inherent abilites can be used. Similarly by proper pronunciation, proper meaning and proper techniques,&#xA;the inherent abilities of the body-mind complex can be brought to unfold.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda on Practical Aid to Japa in 'Japa Yoga'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pronounce the Mantra distinctly and without any mistakes. Repeat it neither too slowly nor too fast. Increase the speed only when the mind wanders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as different programming languages have their own syntax, different languages have their own mantras. Thus sticking to the Sanskrit language for chanting Sanskrit mantras is beneficial.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How important is proper pronunciation and proper chanting for liberation:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, this is only if you want the specific worldly and physical benefits of the mantra. For the one who desires LIBERATION, the good karma and other benefits or siddhis provided by these mantras are simply obstacles on the way to Self-Realization or Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gurbani.org/articles/webart63.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhaagavata 11.15.33&lt;/a&gt; it says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most wise ones say that those who are engaged in the cultivation of the sublime path of Bhakti (Devotion) or Giaan (Self-knowledge), and who are trying to link with Me (i.e., God), for them all these Sidhis are obstacle; because of these Sidhis, they end up uselessly wasting there time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the sadhaka who desires moksha does not chant in order to get these worldly benefits, He chants in order to get closer to God. Thus the first three benefits apply to the sadhaka desiring Moksha, while the worldly benefits, such as gaining siddhis (supernatural abilities), getting money, getting fame, etc. do NOT interest him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna says in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People of small intellect seek occult powers—powers to cure disease, win a lawsuit, walk on water, and such things. But the genuine devotees of God don't want anything except His Lotus Feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For such sadhaka, it is not necessary to follow any strict rules for realization. For such a sadhaka, chanting the GOd's name with FAITH, FOCUS and LOVE is alone enough (although a Mantra initiated by the Guru will do Wonders on His growth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.writespirit.net/spirituality/articles-son-spiritual-figures/ramakrishna-soul-of-the-east/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Approach the Divine as a child approaches his mother, with the same purity, sincerity, ardent love, and faith, and the Mother will come to you! Call ‘Ma, Ma’; call again and again. The Mother is bound to come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is it is not necessary to use complex punctuations and tongue twisting incantations to call upon the Lord of the Universe Sri Krishna, all that is needed is Love and Faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-01-12T19:49:35.857" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5162" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5159" CreationDate="2015-01-08T20:41:24.570" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me answer scientifically..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantras are some kind of sounds produced vocally. Mantra effects one who both chants and hears them including objects.&#xA;As @Sai said how it effects humans, in the same way it effects objects also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Resonance:&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;the state of a system in which an abnormally large vibration is produced in response to an external stimulus, occurring when the frequency of the stimulus is the same, or nearly the same, as the natural vibration frequency of the system.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to vibrations produced by sounds many bridges and buildings have fallen down due to the effects of resonance – or to be more precise, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_resonance#Resonance_disaster&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;mechanical resonance&lt;/a&gt;. This is the susceptibility of a structure to respond at an increased amplitude when the frequency of its oscillations matches its natural frequency of vibration. In other words, this means that if a structure begins to vibrate in a violent manner, it’s liable to fail mechanically and this can quickly lead to its total destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So sounds can cause destruction of materials. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Resonance disaster:&lt;/strong&gt; An individual resonance is the condition when a natural frequency of a structure or material and the frequency at which it is being excited are equal or very nearly equal. This results in the structure or material vibrating strongly and is the classical resonance state. This resonance state can often lead to unexpected behaviour of the structure or material.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When an singer vibrates a glass with their voice, they have matched the resonant frequency of the glass. As the singer increases the volume of their sound, the resonance becomes too great for the forces that hold the glass together and it shatters. Modern medicine now uses sound waves to break up kidney stones and gallstones.&#xA;Every object, every organ, every bone, every cell in the body has its own resonant frequency. Together they make up a composite frequency like the instruments of an orchestra. When one organ in the body is out of tune it will affect the whole body. Through sound healing it may be possible to bring the diseased organ into harmony with the rest of the body,hence avoiding the need for drugs or surgery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantras are a collection of definite sounds (energy waves, emphasis is laid on the proper pronunciation, when implemented starts bringing about a change in the body) meant for specific purpose, which when practiced has the capacity to bring about the desired change. As in lot of hindu myths they do structural destructions with mantras. But it is pretty hard to collapse huge structures with the voice produced vocally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We might have a question like why mantras doesn't show effect as it shown in myth's?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i don't know exactly,(appreciate if someone tells) but it minimum effect. May be frequency and intensity variation in chanting. we don't know what frequency and intensity was.The voiced speech of a typical adult male will have a fundamental frequency from 85 to 180 Hz.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sorry for sound lectures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymatics&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cymatics:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Cymatics (from Greek: κῦμα &quot;wave&quot;) is the study of visible sound co vibration, a subset of modal phenomena. Typically the surface of a plate, diaphragm, or membrane is vibrated, and regions of maximum and minimum displacement are made visible in a thin coating of particles, paste, or liquid.&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_resonance#Resonance_disaster&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; Different patterns emerge in the excitatory medium depending on the geometry of the plate and the driving frequency.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The science of cymatics shows us how sound vibrations can now be visualized.It is also able to reveal the beautiful, transformational patterns that ancient mantras create when their vibrations pass through water. Beautiful patterns emerge, and as the music changes the water responds.  Evan Grant, a cymatologist, says, “Sound does have form and we have seen that it can affect matter and cause form within matter.”&#xA;check some cymatic patterns of sacred mantras in youtube. Mantras cymatic patterns  are showing &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.world-mysteries.com/newgw/sci_blueprint4.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;chakras&lt;/a&gt; of cosmic body. Some sounds are even used in dna healing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sorry for sound lecture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mantras:&lt;/strong&gt; A mantra is a word, phrase, sound, or set of words that seekers use. Voice should never be looked upon merely as ‘air’ emitted by the mouth. In fact it is like a potent material via which many types of aims can be fulfilled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pravivipadwach urmi na sindhuhu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;…………….Rig Veda (9/96/7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MEANING: Just as waves appear in the ocean, in the same way the waves of Vak (speech) also along with vibrations appear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prajapatirva idamek adhitasya vageva stamasit vag dwitiya sa ekshate mameva vach visrija. Iyam va id sarva vibhavavatyeshyatit.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;………….Tandya Brahman (20/14/2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MEANING: Prajapati or creator was alone. Apart from him only Vak was the wealth he possessed. He made a wish that he create this Vak. This Vak shall become everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tadayat kincharvachinam brahmanastad vageva sarvam.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Brahman (cosmic consciousness/God) whatever exists is Vak.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vag via twashta&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;………………….Aitereya Upanishad (2/4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MEANING: Vak itself is Twashta deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vak vaivishwakarmarshihi vachahid sarvam kritam.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;……………Shatpath (8/1/2/9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MEANING: This Vak itself is Vishwakarma Rishi who designed (‘engineered’) this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yo vai tam vacham veda yasma eva vikaraha sa sampratividakari vai sarva vak.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;…………….Aitereya Brahman (2/3/6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MEANING: Those who know this primeval fount Vak are called Sidha Purushas (self/God realized saints) and knower of true wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;P.S.&lt;/strong&gt; This might not be an answer. But it's my opinion and it will support answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: various sites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastActivityDate="2015-01-08T20:41:24.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5163" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2771" CreationDate="2015-01-09T03:02:23.393" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is because kali yuga is the time when humans are manda bhAgya ( of poor fortune and capacity to attain brahman) , manda buddhi(of poor intellect) and alpa Ayushkas (people with short lifespans). They are incapable of learning all the vEdas and shastras , preserving them and propagating them and, benefiting from their entirety. So, in order to benefit people of kali yuga and to preserve the sanctity  and extant of the vEdas, and to allow people of kali to continue to have a relationship with the divine through the vEda, Vyasa who is an avatar of Vishnu, analysed and synthesised them into smaller, more easily consumable capsules. You can check for the validity of the nature of kali people in the bhAgavta purAna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-26T15:29:03.133" LastActivityDate="2015-06-26T15:29:03.133" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5164" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5159" CreationDate="2015-01-09T08:26:47.140" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mantras are sanskrit texts. Depending upon which sanskrit texts are repeated will depend upon the effect. To get the effect, a mantra must be pronounced and intoned in the proper manner. Just as singing a song needs to be pronounced and intoned properly to give pleasure to those listening, a mantra must be intoned and pronounced correctly to deliver the proper vibrations and the desired effect. Just as singing a song sets up a series of vibrations which can be either pleasurable or unpleasurable depending upon the talent of the singer, so repeating a mantra properly sets up a series of vibrations, both physical and subtle. Different mantra vibrations deliver different effects just as different songs (also vibrations) can put a hearer's mind in different moods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are different types of mantras. The Atharva Veda is filled with mantras for wealth, progeny, marriage, etc. Brahmin priests are trained in the proper intonation and pronunciation of these different mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Certain mantras ('power of words') can give a person siddhis (powers) - Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms (IV. 1.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fruition of these mantras, those for wealth, progeny, Siddhis, etc., is in this universe and only in this universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other mantras help one to realize God. The repetition of these mantras sets up vibrations which purify the nerve currents and the mind. Swami Virajananda (disciple of Swami Vivekananda) says in his book (Paramartha Prasanga - Towards the Goal Supreme, p 201-202) - &quot;Japa of the Mantra [diksha mantra or bija mantra] or the holy name of God, meditation and worship have been prescribed in order that, by constant repetition and by the habit of continued practice, this thinking and remembrance of God may take firm root in the mind. For this reason alone it is necessary to repeat mentally the holy Mantra of the Chosen Ideal [Ishta] over and over again daily, for a long time. The things with which we are continually occupied, or which we constantly reflect upon, leave their impression on the mind. Though they appear to melt away from the mind, they remain there in a subtle state, in the form of Samskaras, or ingrained tendencies of the past; and as soon as they find a favorable atmosphere they prompt men unawares to thought or action--in an evil way, if the bad tendencies are strong, in a good way , if the tendencies are good. It is therefore seen that evil-doers gradually engage even more in evil deeds, and those who are diligently struggling for spiritual progress advance rapidly in that direction.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upanishads teach the repetition of Om for Knowledge of Brahman. Swami Vivekananda said (Complete Works VII. p 62) - &quot;Repeating the Om continually is the only true worship. It is not a word, it is God Himself.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also many holy mantras spread throughout the vedas and different scriptures. Repetition of these mantras are used to help the mind think of God.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-01-09T08:26:47.140" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5168" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3789" CreationDate="2015-01-10T12:25:20.270" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not necessary to follow rules while worshiping, BUT, &lt;strong&gt;whether to follow rules or not   depends completely upon whom you are worshiping&lt;/strong&gt;. If you are worshiping some god or &lt;em&gt;deva&lt;/em&gt; and any other higher or other realm beings, then following rules is necessary because without proper process they will not be able to take your offerings. And the second reason is that, most worships are done to have some material gain or fulfillment of some desires. These are effects, and for them to take place there has to be proper cause in terms of the process of the worship. So there are many do's (&lt;em&gt;vidhi&lt;/em&gt;) and don'ts(&lt;em&gt;nisedh&lt;/em&gt;) laid out for worships. But for God, the supreme being, the case is different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are worshiping God, the supreme being, then there is no requirement of following rules if you are doing pure and &lt;em&gt;niskama bhakti&lt;/em&gt;, that is, you are worshiping Him without any personal desires. This type of devotion is called as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;raganuga bhakti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, which is done out of love. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But a person's heart needs to be clean and pure to a certain level until he can love and worship God for no reason at all. So in the beginning there are certain rules and regulations to be followed which act as a set of practices and increases the person's attachment towards God. This type of devotion done following proper rules of &lt;em&gt;vidhi&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;nisedh&lt;/em&gt; as laid out in the scriptures is known as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;vedi bhakti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. But at the end of the day, any such injunctions for worshiping God only server the purpose that you remember Him always and don't forget Him. So says the Padma Purana :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;smartavyah satatam vishnur vismartavyo na jatucit&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarve vidhi-nishedhah syur etayor eva kinkarah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;Remember Shri Vishnu always, do not forget Him at any time.&quot; All injunctions and prohibitions of the scriptures are only but its subservient.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Camphor is not burnt to burn ego&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know it's said like this that we burn this or that for this and that, but that's hardly the actual reason. Camphor is burned because of its fragrance giving essence which purifies the air and the surrounding atmosphere of the place of worship. And there is a relationship between the air element and &lt;em&gt;puja&lt;/em&gt;. The purer the air, the easier it would be to convey your worships to the realm of gods and higher beings.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/653/38&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/653/38&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-01-10T12:25:20.270" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5169" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-10T14:18:07.897" Score="22" ViewCount="14621" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have gone through Hindu Mythological books and found that Bhagwat Gita is told only to Arjuna by Lord Krishna at Kurukshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any specific reason of not telling Bhagwat Gita to anyone else other than Arjuna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Bhagwat Gita is complete knowledge of KARMA then why didn't Lord Krishna give that knowledge to all Kauravas and Pandavas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-09T04:30:50.347" LastActivityDate="2022-03-02T23:25:37.870" Title="Why did Lord Krishna tell Bhagwat Gita only to Arjuna and not anyone else?" Tags="|krishna|karma|bhagavad-gita|pandavas|kauravas|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5170" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5171" CreationDate="2015-01-11T02:50:43.670" Score="26" ViewCount="131905" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have not found any specific reference to the age of each of the Pandavas, like Arjuna and Bheema when they fought the epic Mahabharata battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It will be also interesting to know the age of Bhishma pitamah during the Mahabharata war as he saw many generations of his own family unfold in front of his own eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their ages were not mentioned in various TV episodes of Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-11-28T05:01:36.473" LastActivityDate="2019-12-30T14:09:34.080" Title="What were the ages of Pandavas &amp; other characters during the Mahabharata war?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|history|pandavas|war|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="5171" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5170" CreationDate="2015-01-11T03:42:47.797" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/mahabharat/mahab_patnaik.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this research article&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharat timeline, Yudhisthira was 91 years old at the time of Mahabharat war. And since all other pandava brothers were younger nearly by one year successively (excluding Sahadeva), there ages at the time of war would have been as below approximately:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhistihra - 91 yrs, Bhima - 90 yrs, Arjuna - 89 yrs, Nakula and Sahadeva - 88 yrs&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/longevity-of-bhishma-and-vyasa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this other site&lt;/a&gt; states the age of Yudhistira as 49 years and Devavrata as 140 years. But the first site calculations seem to be more perfect than this one although that doesn't says Bhisma or Devavrata's age. I have found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.geni.com/people/BHEESHMA-DEVAVRATA-SHANTANU/6000000018288936308&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt; while searching today which also says the age of Bhisma was nearly 140 while dying as per his year of birth and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-01-11T03:42:47.797" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5172" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5170" CreationDate="2015-01-11T04:02:58.173" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://web.archive.org/web/20060220065610/http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/mahabharat/mahab_patnaik.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This web page&lt;/a&gt; gives a detailed timeline of the Mahabharata, based on the text of the Mahabharata and its associated commentaries.  Here is the basic method of calculating the ages of the Pandavas.  First of all, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2939/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna departed the Earth after he was shot by a hunter who mistook his foot for the mouth of a deer.  This event marks the beginning of the Kali Yuga, and it took place in 3102 BC.  Now we use the description of the birth of Yudhisthira given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01124.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the handsome Kunti was united (in intercourse) with the god of justice in his spiritual form and obtained from him a son devoted to the good of all creatures. And she brought his excellent child, who lived to acquire a great fame, at the eighth Muhurta called Abhijit, of the hour of noon of that very auspicious day of the seventh month (Kartika), viz., the fifth of the lighted fortnight, when the star Jyeshtha in conjunction with the moon was ascendant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can be determined using astrological calculation that this took place in 3229 BC, 127 years before the start of the Kali Yuga.  So Yudhisthira was 127 years old at the time of Krishna's death.  But we know from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sauptika Parva&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahabharata that Krishna died 36 years after the Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Yudhisthira was 91 years old at the time of the Mahabharata war.  And each of the Pandavas were born a year apart.  So at the time of Mahabharata war, &lt;strong&gt;Yudhisthira was 91 years old, Bhima was 90 years old, Arjuna was 89 years old, and Nakula and Sahadeva were 88 years old&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/942/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Matsya Purana says that Krishna was 89 years old at the time of the Mahabharata war, making him younger than Yudhisthira and Bhima, the same age as Arjuna, and older than Nakula and Sahdeva.  That is confirmed by the relations of respect &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/58/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the Lord bowed down at the feet of Yudhiṣṭhira and Bhīma and firmly embraced Arjuna, He accepted obeisances from the twin brothers, Nakula and Sahadeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, using similar astrological calculations, it can be shown that Bhishma was born in 3278 BC, and was thus 140 years old at the time of the Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, it may seem odd to you that everyone was so old, but you have to keep in mind that people were much longer-lived in the Dwapara Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2019-12-30T14:09:34.080" LastActivityDate="2019-12-30T14:09:34.080" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="5173" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3720" CreationDate="2015-01-11T05:18:19.613" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, one can attain liberation even at the age of a student. Age is no barrier for liberation. The fire of knowledge burns all actions good and bad whenever it takes effect. So the Gita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yathaidhāṁsi samiddho ’gnir bhasma-sāt kurute ’rjuna&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jñānāgniḥ sarva-karmāṇi bhasma-sāt kurute tathā&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 4.37]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  As a blazing ﬁre turns ﬁrewood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the ﬁre of knowledge burn to ashes all reactions to material activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So age is not a barrier and one can find many examples where many persons at the age of student got liberated. But mostly it happens that they have tried for liberation through various ways in their past lives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when actions become zero due to realisation of the Self, the body doesn't fall off. It still remains due tot he effect of Prarabdha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;utpanne tattvavijñāne prārabdhaṃ naiva muñcati&lt;/em&gt; [NadaBindu Up. - 22]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - &lt;em&gt;Prarabdha&lt;/em&gt; doesn't go away at the advent of knowledge of the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;jñānenājñānakāryasya samūlasya layo yadi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tiṣṭhatyayaṃ kathaṃ deha iti śaṅkāvato jaḍān&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  samādhātuṃ bāhyadṛṣṭyā prārabdhaṃ vadati śrutiḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Adhyatma Up. - 59,60]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The ignorant person asks, &quot;If the actions done out of ignorance get destoryed completely upon the advent of knowldge, then how can the body exist?&quot;. The Shruti in a superficial manner says its due to &lt;em&gt;prarabdha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such a liberated person is called a &lt;em&gt;jivan mukta&lt;/em&gt; who spends rest of his existence in the bliss of the Self. Some symptoms of that state are:  discrimination will go away, desires will go away, thoughts will vanish, even concept of liberation will go away. There will be nothing to know. The person will always feel blissful. One great example of such a personality is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shriman Ramana Maharshi&lt;/a&gt; who got liberated while at the age of a student.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-01-11T05:18:19.613" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5169" CreationDate="2015-01-11T10:11:38.490" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is mentioned in Bhagavat Geeta itself that, 'Bhagavat Geeta' was first revealed/told to the Sun god by The Lord Sri Krishna himself and The Sun god told it to the Manu and then Manu told it to Iksvaku, but the line/chain was discontinued, and again Sri Krishna told it to Arjuna when it was the right time to reveal the Bhagavat Geeta. Sanjaya, who got Divyadrishti (Divine Vision) from Sage Ved Vyasa, also listened the Bhagavat Geeta told by Lord Krishna to Arjuna using his Divyadrishti and narrated the same to Dritharashtra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2313" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-10-27T10:53:35.377" LastActivityDate="2015-10-27T10:53:35.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5176" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5169" CreationDate="2015-01-11T14:32:51.280" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Due to two reasons. First one is, &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna asked Shri Krishna as a disciple surrendering to Him&lt;/strong&gt;, but others like the Kauravas or other Pandavs didn't ask Him like a disciple:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kārpaṇya-doṣopahata-svabhāvaḥ pṛcchāmi tvāṁ dharma-sammūḍha-cetāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yac chreyaḥ syān niścitaṁ brūhi tan me śiṣyas te ’haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam&lt;/em&gt; [BG -2.7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of miserly weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me for certain what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And like Vishu has pointed out in his answer, Shri Krishna did tell the &lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt; to Sun god and then the Sun god to his son Vaivasvata Manu and so on, but it got lost in course of time [BG - 4.1,2].  So He again told that secret yoga only to Arjuna because &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna was both a friend and devotee of Him&lt;/strong&gt;. The Gita gives this specific reason in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sa evāyaṁ mayā te ’dya yogaḥ proktaḥ purātanaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhakto ’si me sakhā ceti rahasyaṁ hy etad uttamam&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 4.3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That very ancient &lt;em&gt;yoga&lt;/em&gt; is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-01-11T14:52:22.997" LastActivityDate="2015-01-11T14:52:22.997" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5177" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5170" CreationDate="2015-01-12T10:27:01.597" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;Below I have reproduced the timeline &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/mahabharat/mahab_patnaik.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;found here&lt;/a&gt;. Names of years and months can be found on the source of this information - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yudhishthir - 91 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bheem - 90 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arjun - 89 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nakul &amp;amp; Sahdev - 88 years.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;INTERESTING FACT: Yudhishthir ruled for 72 years in his 127 years of life!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The number in brackets is the time in years from Yudhishthir's birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[-16] Karna's Birth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[0] Yudhisthira was born. That was just [127-5-25] prior to Kaliyug&#xA;[roughly 3229-8-15 B.C]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[1] Bhima's Birth&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[2] Arjun's Birth [Phalguna Full Moon Day]. Lord Krishna's birth&#xA;[Shravana Dark 8th day] who was 6 months older to Arjun.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[3] Nakula's and Sahadev's Birth&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[1] Duryodhana's Birth : Just one day after Bhima's birth. From that&#xA;day onwards everyday the rest 99 Kauravas and their sister were born.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[16] Pandu died&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[29] Pandavas were brought to and stayed in Hastinapur for 13 years.&#xA;They learnt archery under Drona.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[31] King Drupada was taken captive. Yudhishthira was made&#xA;Crown-Prince.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[36] Pandavas stayed at Hastinapur for yrs. 5-4-20&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[37] The Lac Palace was set on fire.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[38] Demon Hidimba was slain. Ghatotkacha was born and he grew up as&#xA;an adult immediately.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;[39] Demon Baka was slain. Princess Draupadi's Swayamvaram took place.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;[40] In Panchala Kingdom, Pandavas stayed there for yr. 1-0-15 days&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;[45] Pandavas were received in Hastinapur. They stayed in Hastinapur&#xA;for 5 years and 6 months. Indraprastha City was being built during&#xA;this period.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;[46] Yudhisthira was coronated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;[58] Arjuna went on pilgrimage for 12 years. He married Subhadra, and&#xA;Abhimanyu was born. The Khandava Forest was burnt down. Mayasabha&#xA;took yrs. 1-2-0 days for construction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;[60] Pandavas entered Mayasabha&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;[76] Rule in Indraprastha for 16 years. Wrestling started between&#xA;Bhima and Jarasandh continued for 14 days, and Jarasandh was killed&#xA;on 14th evening. The Rajasooya Yajna began. The two dice-plays were&#xA;played in an interval of 4 days.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Pandavas ruled for a period of yrs. 36-6-20 days&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[76] Forest Life : Forest life started. 12 years forest exile and 1&#xA;year anonymity&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[89] Pandavas declared their identity&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[91] Shri Krishna's Peace talks&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[91] The Great Mahabharata War started, Lord Krishna's famous Bhagavad&#xA;Geeta discourse with Arjuna. Yudhishthira was crowned again.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[92] Ashwamedha Yajna began.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[127] Yudhishthir ruled for yrs. 36-2-15 days. Kaliyug started and&#xA;Krishna finished his Avatar. [B.C 3102-2-20 at 2-27-30 P.M]. Seven&#xA;days later, Dwarka city was submerged by the Ocean.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[128] Pandavas started for their final End. Parikshit, 36 years old,&#xA;was coronated on the same day at Hastinapur.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;[188] Parikshit ruled for 60 years, coronated his 25 year old son&#xA;Janamajeya, and died.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="747" LastEditorUserId="9250" LastEditDate="2019-05-24T04:06:02.557" LastActivityDate="2019-05-24T04:06:02.557" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="5178" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5189" CreationDate="2015-01-12T11:04:30.723" Score="4" ViewCount="9139" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you can see in many pictures of god and goddess sitting or standing on lotus flower.&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/X5BvI.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4AmSJ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any specific reason on sitting or standing on lotus flower?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in some pictures of god and goddess shows folded one of their leg while sitting on their respective vahana or on lotus flower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c1hOD.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does this signifies?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-01-12T11:50:06.960" LastActivityDate="2015-01-13T12:08:03.220" Title="Why some of God and goddess sitting on Lotus flower?" Tags="|gods|symbolism|goddess|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5179" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-12T11:34:51.383" Score="3" ViewCount="1822" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can somebody provide a list of Hindu Vedas, Purana, Up-Puranas, Upnishads, etc in a chronological manner and also provide their creation dates (if they could be dated by any means)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2015-01-13T07:55:55.920" Title="Can somebody provide list of Hindu texts chronologically?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-05-03T08:04:01.950" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5180" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5178" CreationDate="2015-01-12T11:54:48.197" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lotus used as an example of divine &lt;strong&gt;beauty and purity&lt;/strong&gt;, Vishnu is often described as the &quot;Lotus-Eyed One&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;he lotus blooms uncovering the creator god Brahma in lotus position.Its unfolding petals suggest the expansion of the soul.&lt;/code&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The growth of its pure beauty from the mud of its origin holds a benign spiritual promise. Particularly Brahma and Lakshmi, the divinities of potency and wealth, have the lotus symbol associated with them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="747" LastActivityDate="2015-01-12T11:54:48.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5181" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5179" CreationDate="2015-01-12T12:27:22.607" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I feel that listing them by their accurate creation dates i.e. the dates when they were put down into writing, would be hard because they are hardly known. But modern researchers may have made some chronology, but that too are not accurate and only waving the stick in the dark. For example, Rig Veda is said to be composed from 1500–1200 BCE  by some and some others believe it to be 1700–1100 BCE. Similarly Samaveda is said to be &#xA;from around 1700BCE and Yajur from 1200–1000 BCE. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rigveda, 1500 – 1100 BCE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Samaveda, 1500 - 500 BCE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yajurveda, 1500 - 500 BCE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Atharvaveda, 1500 - 500 BCE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Upanishads, 1200 - 500 BCE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Bhagavad Gita, 500 BCE - 200 BCE &#xA;  Ramayana, 400 BCE - 400 CE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Mahabharata, 400 BCE - 400 CE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Mimamsa Sutra, 300-200 BCE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Arthashastra, 400 BCE - 200 CE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Nyaya Sutra, 2nd century BCE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vaiseshika Sutra, 2nd century BCE&#xA;  Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 100 BCE - 500 CE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Puranas, 3rd - 16th century CE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shiva Sutras, 8th century CE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abhinavabharati, 950 - 1020 CE&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yoga Vasistha, 10th - 14th century CE  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(you can view &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hindu_texts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipeida page&lt;/a&gt; for the list of their research source).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So no researcher or scholar actually knows their accurate creation dates. So they cannot be trusted completely. I don't mean to say they are wrong, just that they might not be accurate to be trustworthy completely. I am no researcher or expert, so only sharing here what I know from scriptures about their order so that it may be useful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2929/38&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;  for the chronology of the 18 major &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt; as mentioned in the Vishnu Purana. But it doesn't mentions the exact date of creation, only their sequence. Similarly, the Muktika Upanishad [from verse 30 to 40] lists a sequence of 108 upanishads as below without their date of creation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Isa &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kena &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Katha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prasna &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Munda &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mandukya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Taittiri &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aitareya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chandogya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brihadaranyaka &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaivalya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jabala &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Svetasva &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hamsa &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aruni &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Garbha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Narayana &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paramahamsa &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Amritabindu &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Amritanada &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atahrvasirah &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atharvasikha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maitrayini &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaushitakibrahmana &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brihajjabala &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nrisimhatapini &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalagnirudra &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maitreya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Subala &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kshurika &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mantrika &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sarvasara &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Niralamba &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sukarahasya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vajrasuchika &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tejobindu &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nadabindu &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhyanabindu &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmavidya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yogatattva &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atmabodha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Naradaparivrajaka &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Trisikhi &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sita &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yogachudamani &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nirvana &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mandalabrahmana &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dakshinamurti &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sarabha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Skanda &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tripadvibhuti-Mahanarayana &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Advayataraka &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ramarahasya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ramatapani &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vasudeva &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mudgala &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sandilya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paingala &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhiksu &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahat &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sariraka &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yogasikha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Turiyatita &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sannyasa &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paramahamsaparivrajaka &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Akshamalika &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Avyakta &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ekakshara &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Annapurna &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Surya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Akshi &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Adhyatma &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kundika &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Savitri &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atma &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pasupata &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Parabrahma &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Avadhutaka &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tripuratapini &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Devi &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tripura &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Katharudra &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhavana &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rudrahridaya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yoga-kundali &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhasma &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rudraksha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ganapati &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Darsana &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tarasara &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahavakya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Panchabrahma &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pranagnihotra &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gopalatapini &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yajnavalkya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satyayani &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hayagriva &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dattatreya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Garuda &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalisamtarana &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jabali &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saubhagyalakshmi &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sarasvatirahasya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bahvricha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Muktika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And regarding &lt;em&gt;upapuranas&lt;/em&gt; I don't know any order. Sharing the order of &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt; again here for ease of reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhagavata Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Narada Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Agni Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhavisya Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmavaivarta Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Linga Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vamana Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mastya Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmanda Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I didn't notice you said etc. in your question. If you meant a list off all Hindu texts, not just the spiritual ones, then that would be too broad. But, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historic_Indian_texts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this wikipeida page&lt;/a&gt; will be helpful for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-01-12T13:01:18.817" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5182" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5169" CreationDate="2015-01-12T12:33:07.927" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;THREE&lt;/strong&gt; others were &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Hanumaan on Flag of the chariot.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Barbarika (son of Ghatotkacha) witnessed the complete 18 days of action at Kurukshetra. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sanjaya , by virtue of the Sri Veda vyasa`s boon. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="747" LastActivityDate="2015-01-12T12:33:07.927" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5185" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-13T06:07:10.733" Score="4" ViewCount="1527" Body="&lt;p&gt;When worshiping a vehicle I have seen many times that a red piece of cloth is tied to it. What is the actual reason behind tying a red colored cloth and some bangles with it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please share answers only on scriptural basis and don't post pseudoscience answers like it's because red has highest wavelength or something, it wards of evils, prevents accidents, etc.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-02-19T08:50:29.697" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T08:50:29.697" Title="Why is a red piece of cloth tied to the vehicle?" Tags="|practice|puja|superstitions|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5186" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5179" CreationDate="2015-01-13T07:55:55.920" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;All dates regarding the chronological order of texts (including scripture) is western academic conjecture. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says in numerous places, and this is only one place (IV. v. 11.) - &quot;As from a fire kindled with wet fuel various [kinds of] smoke issue forth, even so, my dear, the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Atharvangirasa, history (itihasa), mythology (purana), the arts (vidya), Upanishads, verses (slokas), aphorisms (sutras), elucidations (anuvyakhyanas), explanations (vyakhyanas), sacrifices, oblations in the fire, food, drink, this world, the next world, and all beings are all [like] the breath of this infinite Reality. From this [Supreme Self] are all these, indeed, breathed forth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also VI. v. 1-4.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All were breathed forth from Brahman at the same time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-01-13T07:55:55.920" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5187" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-13T09:44:52.037" Score="3" ViewCount="6609" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Brahmastra&lt;/strong&gt; was a weapon created by &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;. It was considered a very destructive weapon. The Brahmastra never missed its mark. In the Mahabharata, a few Maharathis possessed the knowledge to invoke the Brahmastra. So what are the other types of weapons called &lt;strong&gt;Brahmashirsha astra&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Brahmanda astra&lt;/strong&gt;? Any one knows any information about theses type of weapons?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="747" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T05:50:16.503" LastActivityDate="2021-04-28T14:06:51.063" Title="What are Brahmashirsha and Brahmanda astras?" Tags="|mahabharata|brahma|weapon|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5188" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3982" CreationDate="2015-01-13T11:59:42.933" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Quoting from a book called  ‘Principal Upanishads” - by Dr.Anantha Rangachary which based on the sanskrit commentary of Sri Rangaramanuja muni (16&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The author refers to Anandavalli section (Anandamaya Vidya) of Taittiriya upanishad and provides the following meaning for &amp;quot;Anantham&amp;quot;, for the aphorism&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Satyam Jnanam anatham brahma&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The author says  &amp;quot;the Anadavalli  which expounds the nature of supreme reality, the goal and the way is introduced with the words&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“the knower of the brahman attains the highest&amp;quot; (Brahmavidhapnoti param).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bramhavid means one who meditates upon Brahman which is infinitely great by its nature and also on account of its qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning of Anantham:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word “Anantham” signifies that it is not limited spacially, temporally or with reference to a substance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is here, not elsewhere is the form of “desaparicheda”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is now, not at any other time is the form of “Kalaparicheda”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is not this” is “Vastuparicheda”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Brahman has “sarvavastu  samanadhikaranyarhatva” and so is without any limitations related to the substance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This non-limited nature in respect of substance also means infinite excellence of qualities on account of which it is without an equal or a superior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning of the word “Anantham” also means the infinite nature of its auspicious qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the Vedas claim too-that he knows the Lord’s greatness to be unknowable. This is borne out by the Anandavalli vAkya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“YatO vAchO nivartantE, aprApya manasA saha”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Veda Vakyas, which set out to describe fully at least one attribute of the Parama Purusha , return vanquished, unable to fathom the full depth of each auspicious quality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Ramanujacharya, Brahman is defined as anantham or infinite because it is omniscient, it exists at all time and it pervades all other objects in the universe. This charaterestic of Brahman distinguishes it from the nitya jivas or the eternally free souls because the later are monadic in character (Anu), whereas brahman is Vibhu or all pervasive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Madhvacharya, the term anantam or infinity means that which is not conditioned by space, time and gunas (desakalaguna aparichinnatvam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as per the Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya, BRAHMAN is Qualified by Satyatva, Jnanatva and Anatatva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Shankaracharya, the three terms convey the bramasvarupa, i.e. Brahman doesn't possess these characteristics, but it is itself reality, pure knowledge and infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as per Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya, in a nutshell, the only way of comprehending the ParamAtmA’s grandeur is to realize that it is beyond comprehension, being infinite on characharacter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more details refer to Philosophy of Upanishads by Dr.S.M.Srinivasachari&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T09:24:08.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5189" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5178" CreationDate="2015-01-13T12:08:03.220" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Out of the cosmic Being came a single lotus of pure gold and with a thousand petals which puts out Brahma who is seated in the center of the golden lotus. In the book &lt;em&gt;Myths and Symbols of Indian Art and Civilization&lt;/em&gt; it says that the lotus of Brahma represents the highest form of the earth. The filaments of the lotus are the mountains of the world, the outer petals the other continents. In the center of the pericap is the continent of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Various gods are shown sitting with one foot down. The foot is down so that devotees can approach the god to offer worship to the particular god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmi or Shri is the Lotus Goddess. She first appears in a hymn appended to the Rig Veda. She is associated with the lotus in every way. She is lotus born, lotus standing, lotus colored, lotus thighed, lotus eyed, decked with lotus garlands, etc. Her two sons Mud (kardama) and Moisture (ciklita) are the ingredients for rich soil.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The atman in every person is described as residing in the lotus or cave of the heart. It is said to resemble a closed lotus. When the heart chakra is opened, the golden lotus of the heart opens and the Ishta shines forth.           &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-01-13T12:08:03.220" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5191" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="744" CreationDate="2015-01-14T17:15:15.157" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have got a link that consists good reasons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since my childhood, I have been hearing from my parents that we should&#xA;not cut hair or nails on Saturday. You should not shave also on this&#xA;day. When asked why, they used to tell me that it brings bad luck as&#xA;it brings anger of Planet Shani (Saturn) upon us. We lose money and&#xA;peace of mind in our life. This belief is very common amongst Hindus,&#xA;and hence, most of the Hindus do not cut hair or nails on Saturday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer seems reasonable for those who believe in Astrology and do not like to question the traditions. Those who are not satisfied by the answer always try to find the actual scientific reasons behind such things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Possible reasons behind not cutting hair on Saturdays:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is believed that cutting hair/nail would bring bad luck to the person because it would attract the anger of Planet Shani, which is considered as a deity. In Indian Astrology, Shani has great importance in terms of human life. It is believed that all the bad things that happen to us are because of Planet Shani. Especially, in Kali Yuga, Shani is very powerful and even deities have to suffer from his anger. Hence, it is advisable that one should get his/her hair/nails cut on Saturdays.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The second most probable and logical reason could be that in old times, the people from barber caste used to do the job of cutting hair and they had no weekly offs. Hence, in that way, they used to get a weekly off on Saturday. Plus, many people in India prefer to cut hair/nails on Sundays. In general, there used to be only one or two barbers in a village. Therefore, on Sunday the workload would be maximum and therefore, they were able to relax and prepare themselves for the rest of the week.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There could be many other reasons behind it. We cannot tell anything&#xA;certainly today. I have seen many people cutting their hair and/or&#xA;nails on Saturday and nothing bad happens in their lives. Many&#xA;businessmen and executives have to shave everyday; still they are&#xA;earning heavily and living a good life. Problems will always be there&#xA;in our lives whether you cut your hair on Saturday or not. It is our&#xA;attitude that matters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We should remember one that things change with time. This tradition could be right for the old time. There could be some reason behind it but now a day, it seems useless. Hence, we should get off such things from our minds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the reference link: &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduismfacts.org/2012/07/why-hindus-do-not-cut-hairnails-on-saturdays/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Why hindus do not cut hairnails on saturdays?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2318" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-01-21T08:47:48.633" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5193" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="744" CreationDate="2015-01-14T19:28:20.583" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, I really do not believe of not doing these activities on certain days. Everything we have heard of to do or not to do on a certain day might be because, so that we do not overdo them. No non-vegetarian food on a Tuesday or a Saturday, some say it is due to Gods special days but he has created equal. Doing things over might hurt us. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fasting is another activity which I see as a religious thing very similar to above activities. Gods do become happy when we control our senses against some attractions of human-made but the actual reason, we must actually not become their servants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1010" LastActivityDate="2015-01-14T19:28:20.583" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5196" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-14T23:58:00.917" Score="4" ViewCount="322" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarimala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shabarimala&lt;/a&gt; is popular Hindu pilgrimage in South India. Here on &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makar_Sankranti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Makara Sankranthi&lt;/a&gt;,  a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makara_Jyothi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;jyothi&lt;/a&gt; (light) appears at the top of hill. A lot of people go there to see that jyothi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that jyothi a man-made fire or a real star that appears only on Sankranthi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And is there any mention of this Makara Jyothi in Hindu texts or Lord Ayyappa history?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T05:46:35.807" LastActivityDate="2015-12-28T18:44:44.613" Title="Is Makara Jyothi on Makara Sankranthi in Shabarimala real?" Tags="|belief|temple|history|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5198" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-15T16:17:15.217" Score="1" ViewCount="3994" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can someone please give me a brief analysis of who Karna was and what legacy he left behind?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is he representative of anything (i.e., any symbolism attached to him) in Indian mythology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2329" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-27T18:17:56.160" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T18:17:56.160" Title="Need a brief analysis of Karna. Is he representative of anything in Indian mythology?" Tags="|mahabharata|symbolism|karna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5199" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5198" CreationDate="2015-01-15T17:15:35.857" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;KARNA is one of the most fascinating characters of MAHABHARAT, the longest Sanskrit epic written two millennium ago.  Besides being an invincible warrior he was known for his generosity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Story behind Karna's Birth:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Karna was the son of Surya (a solar deity) and Kunti. He was born to Kunti before her marriage with Pandu. The story is that Kunti, while still very young, had occasion to serve Rishi (sage) Durvasha. She looked after him with great dedication. Durvasha was highly pleased. He gave Kunti a mantra(chant) and said that whichever God she would think of after reciting the mantra, would appear before her and bless her with a son endowed with his own godly qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kunti got scared and wanted the Sun God to go away, but he pleaded his helplessness against the power of mantra. Surya however assured Kunti that even after being blessed with a son, she would still remain a virgin and would not have to suffer any opprobrium. And so Karna was born with kavach and kundal (armor which would make him invincible). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nurturing of Karna:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Kunti was nevertheless afraid of social stigma and therefore she abandoned the child. She put Karna in a basket and placed the same in the Ganges river, the basket was seen by Adhirath, a charioteer, who had no issues. He picked up the baby and brought him up. That is why Karna is also sometimes referred to as Sarathiputra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Education:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Karna was keen to acquire the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmastra&lt;/strong&gt; mantra from the great teacher &lt;strong&gt;Parshuram&lt;/strong&gt;.  However, he knew that Parshuram gave instructions to Brahmins (the priestly tribe)  only.  So he disguised as a Brahmin and beseeched  Parshuram to accept him as a shishya(disciple).  Parshuram accepted him as such and started giving him instructions.  One day when Parshuram was resting in Karnas lap, it so happened that a bee stung Karna on the lower portion of his thigh.  It was very painful and he started bleeding.  However, fearing that if he moved his legs, he would awaken Parshuram, he did not move at all and continued to suffer.  When Parshuram woke up, he saw Karna bleeding.  He asked, Son, tell me truthfully who you are? A Brahmin cannot suffer so much physical pain.  Only a kshattriya (the warrior tribe) can endure so much discomfort.  Karna was obliged to disclose his identity.  Parshuram was greatly annoyed because he was a sworn enemy of Kshattriyas.  He therefore cursed Karna that as he had learnt through deceit, he shall forget the vidya (skill) which Parshuram had taught him at the crucial juncture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ultimate warrior:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Arjuna had killed Karna's son, Vrishasena, in order to make Karna experience the pain that he himself had borne when Abhimanyu was brutally executed. But Karna refused to grieve his son's death and continued to fight Arjuna in order to keep his word and fulfill Duryodhana's destiny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally when Karna and Arjuna came face to face, a serpent called Naga Ashwasena secretly entered Karna's quiver. This serpent was the one whose mother was relentlessly burnt when Arjuna had set Khandava-prastha ablaze. Ashwasena, being in his mother's womb at that time, was able to save himself from getting charred. Destined to avenge his mother's death by killing Arjuna, he transformed himself into an arrow and waited his turn. Karna unknowingly released Naga Ashwasena at Arjuna. Realizing that this was no ordinary arrow, Lord Krishna, Arjuna's charioteer, in his bid to save Arjuna's life, sunk the wheel of his chariot in the ground by pressing his feet against its floor. This made the Naga, who was speedily advancing like a thunderbolt, missed his target and hit Arjuna's crown instead, causing it to fall on the ground. Disheartened, Naga Ashwasena returned to Karna and asked him to fire him towards Arjuna once again, this time making a promise that he would definitely not miss his target. After hearing Ashwasena's words, this is what the mighty AngaRaj said to him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;It is beneath my stature as a warrior to shoot the same arrow twice. Find some other way to avenge your family's death.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saddened by Karna's words, Ashwasena tried to kill Arjuna on his own but failed miserably. Arjuna was able to finish him off in a single stroke.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who knows what would have happened had Karna released Ashwasena for the second time. He even might have killed Arjuna or at least would have injured him. But he upheld his principles and did not use the presented opportunity. Such was the character of AngaRaj. He was the man of his words and the epitome of morality. He was the ultimate warrior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Greatest DaanVeer ever:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Duryodhan, in fact, built him up as a counterweight to Arjuna.  On the eve of the famous Mahabharata battle, Lord Indra, the rain God and king of heavens,  disguised as an old Brahmin went to Karna and asked for his Kavach and Kundal in daan (donation).  Indra was apprehensive that Karna, by virtue of his phenomenal skills as a warrior,  may be able to overwhelm Arjuna.  He  therefore asked for this gift so as to reduce his strength.  Karna had been cautioned by the Sun God that Lord Indra was going to make some such move. But Karna was so large hearted that he could not refuse anyone.  Knowing fully well, that Indra was playing a trick on him disguised as a Brahmin, he yet parted with his Kavach and Kundal, which were parts of his body since birth and which made him invincible.  Lord Indra was taken aback at Karna's capacity to give away anything asked for.  He said, Karna, what you have done today, no ordinary mortal could have done.  I am immensely pleased with your generosity.  You can ask for any vardaan.   Karna said, If you are really pleased with me, then you may kindly give me your weapon Shakti which has the potential to destroy any enemy.  Lord Indra gave Shakti to Karna with the proviso however that he could use it only once and that thereafter the weapon shall return to him (Lord Indra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One more story about his charity:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;When Karna was on his death bed, Krishna came to test him. He disguised himself as a Brahmin saint , and asked Karna for some offering in the name of Dharma.Karna cited his debilitated condition and asked Krishna, &quot;O Lord Brahmin, what can i offer you in this capitulated condition&quot;. Krishna teased him ,&quot;I thought you were the greatest philanthropist on earth, are you not going to offer anything to this old brahmin?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Karna thought for a while and then grabbed a stone from his macabre surroundings. He then thwarted the stone into his mouth and although his brutally beaten frame was cursing every movement he was afflicting upon himself, he kept doing that continuously. Meanwhile Krishna was surprised as well as awed by courage of this great warrior. After many strong blows, Karna was able to break two golden teeth he had, and offered them to the disguised Krishna.Krishna being extremely impressed by the valor of this great warrior , did not show any visible emotions. Instead he cursed Karna(to test him again) on how he was offering such saliva ridden teeth to such a pious brahmin. Karna deeply engraved by this statement, tried to crawl up to his bow and arrow. His bow was in tatters and the thread supporting it was nowhere to be seen. He cursed himself upon the defeat he faced to Arjuna in the earlier part of the day, and kept crawling to find an auxiliary thread to support his bow. Luckily he found one a few feet away from him. Every inch that he crawled made his wounds even more blood stained, and he was slowly losing his consciousness.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But he kept crawling as the legend of Karna will not have an apt ending if this saint would not be satiated by him. Finally having reached the supporting thread he drew the thread in his bow. Meanwhile his hand continued to bleed profusely, and his nerves were  on the verge of bursting up.He finally launched the final assault on his body and caressed the final arrow of his life into the ground. Subsequently, a stream of water came bursting out of the ground. He washed those saliva and blood stained teeth in  this pristine stream of water and offered them to the disguised saint. Krishna embarrassed and visibly taken aback, gave up his disguised identity and came in his original form.    Bowing to the great warrior he said, &quot;Karna, if you want i can make you alive at this moment and make the world bow at your feet, Until you are there at the face of this earth , i am assured that Adharma shall never ever reign on this planet&quot;.Karna replied. &quot;O Lord Krishna ,you are the creator and are omnipresent everywhere. Don't insult me by bowing in front of me. I have had enough of travails and hardships in my life, so much  so that even the most ebullient luxuries are not able to lure me back into this life again. Let me die in peace and assure me that the legend of Karna may inspire generations to come. I beg forgiveness for all the wrongs that i have done unintentionally. Let the world turn into a righteous place, where the reign of Dharma shall ensure prosperity to everyone irrespective of their not caste and their not so noble beginnings”. Krishna silently nodded in agreement and blessed the warrior prince.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In short HE WAS REAL HERO.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More reading resources:- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2014/02/the-son-of-the-sun-part-1/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The spiritual scientist-part-1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2014/02/the-son-of-the-sun-part-2/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The spiritual scientist-part-2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2014/02/the-son-of-the-sun-part-3/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The spiritual scientist-part-3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2330" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-27T10:29:01.497" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T10:29:01.497" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5201" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-16T03:56:42.533" Score="3" ViewCount="323" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many Vishnu or Vaishnavism temples, the Navagraham deities are not installed. You may find them in some temples, but in at least 70% of Vishnu temples, you would not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a specific reason behind this?  I am aware that Sri Vaishnavism, Narayanan is considered the ultimate saviour, but is it the only reason for the Navagrahams to lose their place? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="757" LastEditorUserId="5486" LastEditDate="2016-05-28T13:17:43.283" LastActivityDate="2016-05-28T13:17:43.283" Title="Navagraham in Vishnu temples" Tags="|vishnu|temple|vaishnavism|navagraha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5202" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2784" CreationDate="2015-01-16T06:25:04.880" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It occurs in the Veda itself. In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduonline.co/vedicreserve/upanishads/011_brahma_upan.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahmopanishad&lt;/a&gt; of Krishna Yajur Veda I found it mentioned. Please look in the 3rd line just after where the 2nd verse ends in the attached file. The two complete lines go like below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;hṛdi caitanye tiṣṭhati &lt;strong&gt;yajñopavītaṃ paramaṃ pavitraṃ prajāpateryatsahajaṃ purastāt&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  āyuṣyamagrapaṃ pratimuñca śubhraṃ yajñopavītaṃ balamastu tejaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found this accidentally while browsing, so can't say the story how Prajapati was born with it. It is not present in that upanishad though.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-01-16T06:25:04.880" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5203" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-16T11:44:08.983" Score="8" ViewCount="2481" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm currently visiting India, and I just passed by a Vishnu temple in the town of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiruparkadal#&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thiruparkadal&lt;/a&gt; in Tamil Nadu.  Thiruparkadal is Tamil for &quot;ocean of milk&quot; (Kshirsagara in Sanskrit), referring to the divine abode of Vishnu; the reason it's called that is that it has a Ranganatha temple, depicting Vishnu lying down on the serpent Adiseshan just as he does in the real ocean of milk.  But the more famous Vishnu temple in Thiruparkadal is the one next to it, the Prasanna Venkatesha Temple, which curiously depicts Vishnu coming out of a Shiva Lingam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7LIpq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7LIpq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of the temple as I understand it goes roughly as follows (the Wikipedia article has a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiruparkadal#Vishnu_Stands_on_Sivan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;similar story&lt;/a&gt;.)  The sage Pundarika once went to Thiruparkadal to see the Ranganatha Vishnu temple.  When he arrived, he was hungry, but he had a policy that he would only eat once he got Prasadam from a Vishnu temple.  But all he could find were Shiva temples.  So he resigned himself to starvation and sat under a tree waiting to die.  Just then, a little boy offered to take him to a Vishnu temple nearby.  The boy led Pundarika to a temple which had Nandis on the outside, and Pundarika asked &quot;Are you sure this is a Vishnu temple?  It has Shiva's bull Nandi.&quot;  But the boy insisted so Pundarika went into the temple, where he saw a huge Shiva Lingam.  He told the boy that he wanted Vishnu, not Shiva, but the boy insisted that it was Vishnu.  And suddenly Pundarika saw the Linga burst into pieces, and out of it appeared Venkateshwara (the Vishnu deity worshipped in Tirupati, AKA Balaji or Srinivasa).  The deity came to be known as Prasanna (appearing) Venkatesa, because he appeared out of the Linga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who was this sage Pundarika whom Vishnu appeared before?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is he mentioned in any Hindu scriptures?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did he attain Moksha after seeing Vishnu?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-12-19T16:57:16.073" LastActivityDate="2021-04-10T14:02:35.240" Title="Who is the sage Pundarika who saw Vishnu coming out of a Shiva Linga?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva-lingam|venkateshwara|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="5205" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="744" CreationDate="2015-01-17T08:50:20.470" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question has nothing to do with the Hindu religion. This is all superstition. Superstition is not religion, nor is it Hindu. This is in not in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said (Complete Works VIII. p 184-187) &amp;quot;We &lt;em&gt;may&lt;/em&gt; be under planetary influence but it should not matter much to us. Buddha says 'Those that get a living by calculation of the stars by such art and other lying tricks are to be avoided.'...Let stars come, what harm is there? If a star disturbs my life, it would not be worth a cent. You will find that astrology and all these mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind; therefore as soon as they are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food, and rest. If you can get an explanation of a phenomenon from within its own nature, it is nonsense to look for an explanation from outside... I lay down as the first essential in all I teach: anything that brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feet. Religion is the manifestation of the natural strength that is in man...You can swallow the stars by handfuls if you want; such is your real nature. Be strong, get beyond all superstitions, and be free.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-07-16T04:15:10.353" LastActivityDate="2022-07-16T04:15:10.353" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="5206" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5214" CreationDate="2015-01-17T11:29:59.907" Score="10" ViewCount="43383" Body="&lt;p&gt;At the end of each chapter of Bhagwat gita, I found &quot;Om Tat Sat&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What Is the meaning of Om Tat sat Or Hari Om Tat Sat?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the significance of writting this at the end?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-01-22T06:08:55.393" LastActivityDate="2016-07-25T09:59:22.770" Title="What is the meaning of Om Tat Sat?" Tags="|mantras|bhagavad-gita|om|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5207" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-17T12:04:55.490" Score="8" ViewCount="17123" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm currently visiting India, and in the Vishnu temple in my native village of Poondi, I saw a shrine dedicated to Chakrathalwar.  For those who don't know, that is the Sri Vaishnava name for Sudarshana, the deity of the Sudarshana Chakra, the famous discus weapon of Vishnu.  (I discuss the origins of the Sudarshana Chakra and how Vishnu acquired it in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2181/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, and how Krishna got it in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1991/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.)  Sudarshana is generally depicted with 16 hands holding various weapons.  But what's interesting is on the other side of images of Sudarshana is an image of Yoga Narasimha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JxEyB.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yoga Narasimha is a form of Vishnu's incarnation as Narasimha the man lion, seated cross-legged in a Yogic posture.  Here is how Wikipedia describes the story of Yoga Narasimha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the 87th chapter of the Uttara Kanda of the Brahmanda Purana says the sage did penance on the banks of the Padma Thadagam, as it was filled with lotus flowers, near the Gaja Giri Kshetram (the present Anaimalai) seeking progeny, and wanted the Lord to appear in His Narasimha avatar. The Lord appeared as Ugra Narasimha and the heat that emanated from Him was unbearable. Even the celestials were affected by it and they all came to Gaja Giri Kshetram and prayed to the Lord to calm down. The Lord could not be pacified and then they sought the help of Prahlada, whose arrival quietened Him to some extent. They prayed to the Goddess Mahalakshmi, who also took Her abode in Him as Narasingavalli, after which He became Yoga Narasimha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, why is Yoga Narasimha depicted on the back of images of Sudarshana?  I've seen various symbolic justifications for this, like Yoga Narasimha being the Shakti behind the Sudarshana Chakra, or Yoga Narasimha and Sudarshana representing Purusha and Prakriti, but what does Hindu scripture say on the subject?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only scriptural citation I've found which seems to explicitly discuss the reason is from &lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120722201321AAAXei2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; on Yahoo! Answers, which quotes the Ahibudhnya Samhita, one of the Pancharatra texts which were foundational in the development of Vaishnavism.  (For more information on Pancharatra texts, see my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3843/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  Here is what the Ahirbudhhnya Samhita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoganarasimha: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tanmadhye yoganrsimhalekhanam  tanmadhye yogapattena pinaddhaggam&#xA;  sanatanam |  narasimham caturbahum catuscakradharam param || 26-62 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;samasinam asokasya mule kalanaladyutim |  sarvabharana samyuktam&#xA;  sarvabhaktartiharinam || 26-63 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;apara samkhya kalyana guna purnamaharnavam |  bhaktanukampinam nityam&#xA;  sarvalokaika nayakam || 26-64 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekatra kalpita sudarsana narasimha-  manyatra kevala&#xA;  sudarsanamujjvalaggam | (Some text has 'kalpita' for 'kevala') &#xA;  samkalpitobhayamukham ghatitastrajalam  srivisnupajjaragatam&#xA;  yutamantrajalam || 25-25&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sudarsana Murti; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atasca bhagavan visnuscakrarupi vyavasthitaḥ |  hanyante tena cakreṇa&#xA;  visve daiteyadanavah || 30-16&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;astrani tani nirjagmurviṣṇurupat sudarsanat |  amoghani tato'straṇi&#xA;  bhisanani mahanti ca || 30-19&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prajah srastum manascakre cakrarupi jagatpatiḥ |  sraṣṭumastrani&#xA;  sarvani svasmadrupanmahamune || 30-20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Meaning in essence: Sri Sudarsana Murti and Sri Yoga Narasimha Murti&#xA;  are here with a dual combination. The Sudatsana Murti is in violent form&#xA;  with 16 hands. Sri Narasimha has four hands. Both save bhaktas from&#xA;  the actions of enemies, diseases and save from Graha Doshas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone provide a fuller translation of this passage?  It might contain the explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;http://qr.ae/3XjdP&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; on Quora also claims that the Pancharatra texts address this question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to [Pancharatra] Aagama Sastras - there is a need for Sudarshana Azhwar to be always backed up by some form of energy. Ideally, it is supposed to be a &quot;Simha [Lion] Moorthy&quot;- any Simha Moorthy for that matter - for the same purposes as mentioned that the Sudarshana derives his energy from Yoga Narasimha - although no mention has been made of the Avatar. It has been put into practice by our acharyas and guru's who decided to modify the aagama slightly (or could have crept in)  - that Narasimha would be the most apt Moorthy behind the Sudarshanazhwar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So where in the Pancharatra texts does it say that you should put a lion on the back of images of Sudarshana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know any other scriptures which explicitly address why Yoga Narasimha is put on the back?  And on a side note, does Vishnu's actual Sudarshana Chakra have a carving of Yoga Narasimha on it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-11-09T07:37:56.937" Title="Why do images of Sudarshana have Yoga Narasimha on the other side?" Tags="|vishnu|weapon|idols|pancharatra|narasimha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5208" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-17T12:17:10.543" Score="5" ViewCount="14990" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know Lord Rama was exiled for 14 years by obeying his father's command in the Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why was Lord Rama exiled for exactly 14 years? Why not more or less than 14 years? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same as in Mahabharata, the Pandavas were exiled for 13 years. 12 years of Aranyawas and 1 year of Agnyatwas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is significance of respective years of exile in both case?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-01T18:21:49.737" LastActivityDate="2015-03-09T19:40:20.657" Title="Why was Lord Rama exiled for 14 years in the Ramayana? Why not 13 or 15?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|rama|pandavas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5209" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5216" CreationDate="2015-01-17T12:32:17.590" Score="4" ViewCount="1478" Body="&lt;p&gt;My Questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the meaning of Manasa Puja?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How to perfom Manasa Puja of a deity ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is right time to do this?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-01-22T06:01:13.653" LastActivityDate="2015-02-13T09:36:15.253" Title="What is Manasa Puja?" Tags="|gods|puja|time|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5210" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5208" CreationDate="2015-01-17T14:37:27.483" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the case of the Ramayana, the exile was 14 years so that Bharata would have enough time to grow close to the people, since previously Rama was beloved by the people and Bharata had been living away from Ayodhya with his maternal uncle; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga9/ayodhyasans9.htm#Verse20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Manthara tells Kaikeyii in the Ayodhya Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hence, you have to stop, by force, the arrangements being made for Rama's coronation.  You ask your husband as two boons, anointing Bharata for princely kingdom and sending Rama to exile for fourteen years.  If you send Rama to forest for fourteen years, your son Bharata will get intimate association in the hearts of the people and will get stabilised in kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as far as the Mahabharata goes, Shakuni provides no justification for why he chooses this particular stakes 12 years plus 1 year incognito for the game of dice; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02075.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; is all he says about the stakes in the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, O bull of the Bharata race, listen to me, there is a stake of great value. Either defeated by ye at dice, dressed in deer skins we shall enter the great forest and live there for twelve years passing the whole of the thirteenth year in some inhabited region, unrecognised, and if recognised return to an exile of another twelve years; or vanquished by us, dressed in deer skins ye shall, with Krishna, live for twelve years in the woods passing the whole of the thirteenth year unrecognised, in some inhabited region. If recognised, an exile of another twelve years is to be the consequence. On the expiry of the thirteenth year, each is to have his kingdom surrendered by the other. O Yudhishthira, with this resolution, play with us, O Bharata, casting the dice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the winning side would either enjoy the kingdom for 13 or 25 years depending on whether the losers are recognized while in their year of hiding.  Like I said Shakuni doesn't say why he chose these numbers, but we can surmise that just as in the case of the Ramayana, they were chosen so that the winning side would have quite a long time to become close to the people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-09T19:40:20.657" LastActivityDate="2015-03-09T19:40:20.657" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5214" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5206" CreationDate="2015-01-17T16:53:32.557" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The meaning of &quot;Om Tat Sat&quot; is given by Shri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/749/38&quot;&gt;Om denotes Brahman&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Tat&lt;/em&gt; (that) also means Brahman like in the popular &lt;em&gt;mahavakya&lt;/em&gt; of the Upanishad &lt;em&gt;Tat twam asi&lt;/em&gt; (you are That), and &lt;em&gt;Sat&lt;/em&gt; (truth) also means Brahman. So these are the three names of Brahman, the absolute truth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;oṁ tat sad iti nirdeśo brahmaṇas tri-vidhaḥ smṛtaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brāhmaṇās tena vedāś ca yajñāś ca vihitāḥ purā&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 17.23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  From the beginning of creation, the three words oṁ tat sat were used to indicate the Supreme Absolute Truth. These three symbolic representations were used by brāhmaṇas while chanting the hymns of the Vedas and during sacriﬁces for the satisfaction of the Supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in that verse Shri Krishna says &quot;Om Tat Sat&quot; is used during &lt;em&gt;yajnas&lt;/em&gt; (sacrifices) and He explains on the verses following it (24,25,26,27) what the names mean. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And because &lt;strong&gt;reciting Gita is a &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt; or sacrifice itself&lt;/strong&gt; (BG - 18.70), at the end of each chapter &quot;Om Tat Sat&quot; is used just like any other &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt; as explained by Shri Krishna in the above verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-01-17T18:13:42.187" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5215" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5311" CreationDate="2015-01-17T18:55:44.393" Score="4" ViewCount="429" Body="&lt;p&gt;I started reading Bhagavad Gita from &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7T0zBCVuV7cUDRJNTJIX01obG8/view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita Press link&lt;/a&gt; (free) but the first shloka refers to a conversation between Dhritarashtra and Sanjaya. I thought that it should only contain the words of God (i.e., Krishna) which is not the case. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me know if I missed understanding the book correctly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/owC52.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/owC52.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="315" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T17:58:20.070" LastActivityDate="2017-01-13T17:58:20.070" Title="Have the currently available Bhagavad Gita versions somehow changed over time?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5216" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5209" CreationDate="2015-01-18T04:58:54.800" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Manasa Puja&lt;/em&gt; means mental worship of the deity. This is one of the eight forms through which the deity can be worshipped (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;SB - 11.27.12&lt;/a&gt; ). This is essepcially done by the &lt;em&gt;niskama bhaktas&lt;/em&gt; only out of love for the God and without any material desires. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The process and time is basically similar to general outward worship of the deity, but the idol, puja articles etc. are imagined in the mind by the devotee:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dravyaiḥ prasiddhair mad-yāgaḥ pratimādiṣv amāyinaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhaktasya ca yathā-labdhair hṛdi bhāvena caiva hi&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.27.15]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One should worship Me in My Deity forms by offering the most excellent paraphernalia. But a devotee completely freed from material desire may worship Me with whatever he is able to obtain, and may even worship Me within his heart with mental paraphernalia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And because it is based on the devotees imagination and devotion, he has no limitation regarding how to decorate the deity, what items to use for worship, what process to follow and so on. This is generally the primary mode of worship for those who follow the &lt;em&gt;raganuga bhakti&lt;/em&gt; tradition. When devotion and love for the diety becomes stronger there remains no constraint of time for the puja and the devotee does it at any time and even throughout the whole day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-01-18T04:58:54.800" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5218" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="179" CreationDate="2015-01-18T13:19:08.370" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Govindaraja is the God of the place Tirupathi. Venkateswara came to Tirupathi lately. If there are two Vishnu temples in one place, the one who was established first will be called as elder brother of the one who came lately. That's how govindaraja become elder brother of venkateswara.&#xA;This is followed in many places like, in Kanchipuram Lord Varadharaja is known to be younger brother of Lord Yathokthakari perumal as varadharaja came after Yathokthakari perumal.&#xA;Lord govindaraja was called by devas to be the witness for the agreement that Lord venkateswara's loan with kubera. Lord govindaraja verified all the money and jewels that was lent to Lord venkateswara. The amount was so huge that he became tired by that task so he lied there by making thr measuring jar as his pillow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="970" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-20T14:31:00.463" LastActivityDate="2015-08-20T14:31:00.463" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5219" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-18T15:46:58.977" Score="3" ViewCount="355" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have sees from my childhood my mother always force us to do following activities&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After Nature Call you have to  take bath  up to waist or change the cloth for later cleaning.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I somebody dies in your vansh and any baby born you have to change the janeu.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a girl is in Mensuration period, then she will sleeping on mat which should not be touched by anybody. She will alienated for three days.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;No low caste people should be allowed to cook your food or do your household activities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In india Thread ceremony has been differently performed in different places and it is very difficult to find the same pandit from your state to do the thread &#xA;change for you during &lt;strong&gt;Mitrika&lt;/strong&gt;( During Child birth) and &lt;strong&gt;Chhutrika&lt;/strong&gt;( If somebody dies in your vansh).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please tell me how many of the above are justified or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have seen many relatives who are matric fail, but still gives boastful statement of they are brahmin. Don't you think they should be demoted from brahmin to some other caste? Those who can't protect Vedant knowledge or pass through the correct knowledge to next generation should not be regarded as brahmin. Their brahmin license should be canceled.&#xA;Some authority should be there who should  keep track all the varna management&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please suggest a correct procedure for my question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2344" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2015-01-22T10:47:56.050" LastActivityDate="2015-01-22T10:47:56.050" Title="Why there is Untouchability in Hindu religion?" Tags="|rituals|tradition|untouchability|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-01-22T05:15:40.480" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5221" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-19T06:35:25.957" Score="4" ViewCount="2243" Body="&lt;p&gt;(I’m re-posting the question in more suitable form and shall provide an answer with some more facts; please refute if you feel but let this be alive for people to see and comment/answer. I’m just an enthusiast, definitely not a spammer.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we match recent/current society with the description gave in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this section of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; by the great Muni Markandeya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The description sounds very familiar – looks like it gives almost identical account of the various characteristics world has demonstrated over the last century or so. Isn’t it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can easily verify most of the facts, like collapse of four orders into a common order, the whole world having one kind of food, rulers robbing their subjects by all means, both men and women becoming perfectly free in their behaviour and not tolerating one another's acts, girls themselves choosing their husbands, men ceasing to trust one another, people falsely bearing the marks of religion, men abandoning the countries and directions and towns and cities of their occupation, seeking for new ones, one after another...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It’s not necessary that every fact has to be occurring as is as it might be symbolic to something else, but things like girls of five or six years of age will bring forth children really struck the skeptic in me. However, soon I found that this in fact &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_youngest_birth_mothers&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;became reality in 1930s&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As most of us would know from childhood that we’re in Kaliyug – about 5 thousand years have elapsed – it would take another 432 thousand years for Kaliyug to reach to its end. What if this figure is actually symbolic to something else? What if we’re living during the end period of Kaliyug? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ask from readers of this question is to provide facts in favor or against of this theory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2343" LastEditorUserId="2343" LastEditDate="2015-01-19T08:21:24.667" LastActivityDate="2015-01-20T15:38:08.340" Title="Some sources say End of Kaliyuga is near" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ClosedDate="2015-01-19T07:40:29.360" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5222" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5221" CreationDate="2015-01-19T06:40:28.213" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently stumbled upon &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/DMisraB6.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this research paper&lt;/a&gt; which I can consider the most important and scientific sort of research regarding yugas that can dispel the myth of Kaliyug having 432 thousand years. As per the paper the four yugas are in fact 3 thousand years each and there are descending and ascending full yuga cycles (each full cycle having 12 thousand Earth years). The paper estimates the end of ascending Kaliyug in 2025. Note: the researcher isn't a working geologist, but rather a technologist. But I found the paper based on good number of facts and therefore I can consider it credible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then I also found a &lt;a href=&quot;http://veerabrahmendraswami-biography.blogspot.in/2010/03/chapter-2-nandikonda-papaghni-muth.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;book on Veerabrahmendra&lt;/a&gt; – a divine saint born around 1200/1300C, the most interesting thing is the Kalagyana written by him and it has prophecies related to period during the end of Kaliyuga (most of which have already been manifested like world wars ETC). Swami Brahmendra is considered a precursor to lord Kalki and he himself described his time of arrival as Lord Kalki. &#xA;I’m still going through the book. A comment on that page noted:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;According to book, if we calculate, Kaliyug started in 3130BC. BrahmamGaru (Kalki) will born in year 2024-2025AD.. However he will known to World as Kalki in year 2040-2041Ad. He is married at 18 years in year 2042-2043AD. And from 2070AD, Kalki rules the world in his terms.&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar prediction is made on National discovery channel’s blog from a seemingly different though not disclosed source:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;According to Ajay, the end of the world is not so far from us. The world will end within 2085 AD.&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did the Mayan’s calendar actually refer to the end of Kaliyug (which people has incorrectly interpreted as end of world)? May be, yes. There are lot of convincing evidence from different, independent sources!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2343" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2015-01-20T15:38:08.340" LastActivityDate="2015-01-20T15:38:08.340" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5223" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1976" CreationDate="2015-01-19T10:13:51.533" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;As mentioned by Keshav - the following appears in Ramayana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;...the Thousand-eyed Indra kind-heartedly gave you a choicest boon saying that your death occurs only by your own volition.&quot; and so on and so forth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Varuna granted him the boon that for millions of years he would not die from his noose or from water&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the immortality or chiranjeevathva doesn't mean freedom from death or re births. &#xA;It just means that Hanuman and for that matter the remaining 6 chiranjeevis (Vibhishana, Bali, Aswatthama etc.) will live till the end of this multiple Manvantaras? i.e. for millions of years? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Hanuman is supposed to become next chatur mukha brahma, and finally he will also move away, as it always happens and another Chaturmukha Brahma will come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Bali who is also a chiranjeevi is supposed to become the next Indra in the some future Manvantara as per boon granted by Lord Vishnu during Trivikrama avatara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the only meaningful outcome is that Chiranjeevi doesn't mean immortality in true sense. It is not state of moksha but mere increased longivity of the subject in discussion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-31T16:29:31.990" LastActivityDate="2015-12-31T16:29:31.990" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5224" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5226" CreationDate="2015-01-19T11:00:08.147" Score="7" ViewCount="4086" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the people goes to temple or Ashram to take a darshan of a god or a spiritual enlightened person(guru) respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know Darshan is different from &quot;To See&quot; or &quot;To meet&quot; from the answer of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2612/why-do-people-close-their-eyes-in-temple-during-darshan&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;. It is a &quot;&lt;em&gt;Akriya avasta of Man&lt;/em&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What does actually happens internally to a devotee during darshan of a god or a spiritual  enlightened person?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the result of any darshan?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;UPDATE:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How can a person know that he had just taken a Darshan of a God or a Spiritual enlightened person? Is their any proof of it? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why I am asking this, as many times I have gone through &quot;crying&quot; experience during Darshana of a God and I always little confused that &lt;em&gt;why I am crying&lt;/em&gt;? and Same thing happens while reading Bhagwat gita or reciting a mantra respectively.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Is this(Crying) a sign of Darshana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-03-04T04:49:40.497" Title="What is result of God's Darshan?" Tags="|temple|gods|guru|bhakti|darshan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5225" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5206" CreationDate="2015-01-19T11:01:50.007" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om is the sound Brahman, the sphota. It was what projected out of Brahman that the whole universe came from. Om &lt;strong&gt;is&lt;/strong&gt; Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tat is 'That' - the way to refer to Brahman as there are no words to directly describe Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sat is Reality or Existence Absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om [is] That Reality [Existence Absolute]. Om Tat Sat is [The] Lord Om [is] That Reality [Existence Absolute].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said &amp;quot;Repeating the Om continually is the only true worship. It is not a word, it is God Himself.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-01-21T08:55:09.193" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5226" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5224" CreationDate="2015-01-19T17:19:44.303" Score="4" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Darshan&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Darshan implies being in the (or feeling the) presence of God (or saint). The power of darshan is extraordinary and can transform the heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what happened to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cosmicharmony.com/Sp/Ramana/Ramana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;S.S. Cohen upon the&lt;/a&gt; first darshan with &lt;strong&gt;Sri Ramana Maharishi&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was alone in the Hall with him. Joy and peace suffused my being - such a delightful feeling of purity and well-being at the mere proximity of a man, I never had before. My mind was already in deep contemplation of him - him not as flesh, although that was exquisitely formed and featured, but as an unsubstantial principle which could make itself so profoundly felt despite the handicap of a heavy material vehicle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sun by its very nature gives out light, similarly the great masters by the nature of their realization give out energy, this energy can be received by the seekers. Just as how the earth receives sunlight from the Sun, but a cloud can cover this light from the sun, similarly the student can receive the energy from the Guru, but some unwanted karmas and tendencies prevent this from happening. That is why not all get the same result from Darshan. thus purification is important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this does not necessarily happen to everybody. Not everybody has the same impact upon darshan of a yogi, a saint, an avatar or God. Different types of devotees get different results for darshan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What happens internally?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this book &amp;quot;What is Hinduism?&amp;quot; by From the Editors of Hinduism Today:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Darshan is the vibration that emanates from the illumined soul as a result of his inner attainment, be he a yogi, pandit, swami, guru or a rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Darshan from a great soul, like the pollen of the flowers, can stimulate healthy sneezing and cleansing if one's subconscious happens to be congested.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The guru's darshan lifts repressed subconscious patterns that have been out of the flow of the cosmic patter of regenerative life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically darshan is like entering a strongly flowing river or immersing oneself in the ocean. Just as how the flow of water cleanses the body of all impurities, the flow of energy/vibrations from the Lord/Sadhu floods the mind of the sadhaka and removes all the unnecessary tendencies, negative feelings, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Sakamya Bhakti (Devotion with desires)&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the bhakta's who feel that seeing God (or having His darshan) should bring them some benefit (as if seeing Him is not a benefit in itself!).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita&lt;/strong&gt; 7:16 that there are four such devotees:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O best among the Bharatas, four kinds of pious men begin to render devotional service unto Me—the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the result of having His darshan is according to the desire that the devotee has.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The distressed experiences great healing, their diseases are reduced or even removed!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The desirer of wealth get wealth, they obtain the necessary wealth and property or whatever it is that they seek.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The inquisitive get their doubts clarified and they get mental satisfaction.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The one who seeks knowledge of the Absolute, gets it :).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How much of disease gets removed, how many doubts get clarified, how much wealth is obtained, how much knowledge of Self is obtained, depends on various factors such as karma of the individual, level of realization/devotion of the devotee and ofcourse God's Grace :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this is all only if you want something from that Darshan. What if you want nothing at all in return for Darshan of The One.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Nishkamya Bhakti (Devotion without any conditions)&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These bhaktas desire nothing from the Lord. Having darshan is verily their purpose, journey and goal. Start is darshan, middle is darshan and end is also darshan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When you already have what you want (being in God's presence), what else does one require? This is their attitude.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An example of such a devotee is &lt;strong&gt;Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Chaitanya Deva says in Sri Sikshastakam Text 8:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;ashlishya va pada-ratam pinashtu mam&#xA;adarshanan marma-hatam karotu va&#xA;yatha tatha va vidadhatu lampato&#xA;mat-prana-nathas tu sa eva naparah&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know no one but Krishna as my Lord, and He shall remain so even if He handles me roughly by His embrace or makes me brokenhearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything and everything, for He is always my worshipful Lord unconditionally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are no desires and no conditions in this devotion, thus Darshan is constant and always uninterrupted with no requirement of any kind of good or bad results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/strong&gt; mentions in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/bhaktiyoga.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhakti Yoga&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever you want the Lord will certainly give you, if your Bhakti is intense and if your prayers are sincerely offered from the bottom of your heart. But you will not get supreme satisfaction, immortality and Moksha through Sakamya Bhakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aspire for Nishkamya Bhakti. Your heart will be purified and the Divine Grace will descend upon you. Be in communion with the Lord, you will become one with the Lord and you will enjoy all the Divine Aisvaryas (Divine attributes like wisdom, renunciation, power, etc.). All the Vibhutis (Special forms in which the Lord manifests) of the Lord He will give you. He will give you Darsan. He will help you to dwell in Him. At the same time He will give you all the Divine Aisvaryas also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, the one who desires nothing from God, but God Himself, that devotee of the Lord is already liberated, already realized and already in Truth. Because he is in Supreme Bliss, he does not need anything else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For such bhakta's every moment is darshan. In fact having association with such bhakta's is darshan for other devotees! All the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-01-21T17:55:32.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5228" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2456" CreationDate="2015-01-20T04:39:26.383" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara not only advocated idol worship but he was also responsible for streamlining the various sects of Hinduism as six major groups: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saivam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaishnavam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saktam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sauryam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Koumaram &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ganapatyam &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, Shakti, Surya, Karthikeya and Ganesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As to why the Advaita Acharya promoted idol worship and worship to personal Gods, it is because one cannot teach the advanced concepts of Advaita to an unfocused mind.&#xA;It will be like trying to teach doctoral programs to a pre-k.g student; It simply is not possible. Even the Advaita approach, can be explained in terms of steps of increasing complexity:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There are many atmas and one paramatma (First step - Easy to understand; Many souls, One higher power)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is one jivatma and one paramatma (Second step - The many souls are interlinked as a single soul - jivatma )&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One supreme reality that pervades everything. Nothing is different from this reality.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2348" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-11T08:54:37.387" LastActivityDate="2015-02-11T08:54:37.387" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5229" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="270" CreationDate="2015-01-20T18:44:16.117" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From Kashmir, which belongs square within the Vedic world, comes&#xA;  crucial evidence regarding a three-way division consisting of devas,&#xA;  asuras, and daevas. The scheme reflects the three fundamental gunas of&#xA;  Indian thought: sattva, rajas, and tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Deva, or devata (sattva): power related to understanding&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Asura (rajas): power related to activity&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Daeva (tamas): power related to acquisitiveness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;--Subhash Kak&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/connections/Vedic-Iran.php]&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/connections/Vedic-Iran.php]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2353" LastActivityDate="2015-01-20T18:44:16.117" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5230" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-21T09:24:21.930" Score="7" ViewCount="5312" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many Upanishads. I just want to know: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the source of creation according to Upanishads?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is exactly written on the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2356" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-18T20:50:18.337" LastActivityDate="2019-10-03T05:14:18.903" Title="What is the source of creation according to Upanishads?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|creation|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5231" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5230" CreationDate="2015-01-21T10:51:54.673" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you want to know what the source of creation is according to the Upanishads, that can be answered in a single word: Brahman.  In fact, that is how Varuna the ocean god &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains&lt;/a&gt; Brahman to the sage Bhrigu in the Third Valli of the Taittirya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhrigu Vâruni went to his father Varuna, saying: &quot;Sir, teach me Brahman.&quot; He told him this, viz. Food, breath, the eye, the ear, mind, speech.  Then he said again to him: '&lt;strong&gt;That from whence these beings are born, that by which, when born, they live, that into which they enter at their death, try to know that. That is Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(I'm not clear on why Varuna is referred to as Bhrigu's father, which is why I asked &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3461/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.). This is the quotation that Vyasa uses in the beginning of his Brahma Sutras to define Brahman (see Sutra 2 of the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I suspect that what you really want is not just the source of creation, but rather what the story of creation is according to the Upanishads.  Well, three of the oldest Upanishads have famous creation accounts, each focusing on different aspects of creation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The initial chapters of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad contain a creation account copied word-for-word from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe43/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda.  In particular, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15055.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Agni Brahmana of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the beginning there was nothing (to be perceived) here whatsoever. By Death indeed all this was concealed,--by hunger; for death is hunger. Death (the first being) thought, 'Let me have a body.' Then he moved about, worshipping. From him thus worshipping water was produced.... And what was there as the froth of the water, that was hardened, and became the earth. On that earth he (Death) rested, and from him, thus resting and heated, Agni (Virâg) proceeded, full of light.  That being divided itself threefold, Âditya (the sun) as the third, and Vâyu (the air) as the third.  That spirit (prâna) became threefold. The head was the Eastern quarter, and the arms this and that quarter (i. e. the N. E. and S. E., on the left and right sides). Then the tail was the Western quarter, and the two legs this and that quarter (i. e. the N. W. and S. W.) The sides were the Southern and Northern quarters, the back heaven, the belly the sky, the dust the earth. Thus he (Mrityu, as arka) stands firm in the water... He desired 'Let a second body be born of me,' and he (Death or Hunger) embraced Speech in his mind. Then the seed became the year. Before that time there was no year. Speech bore him so long as a year, and after that time sent him forth. Then when he was born, he (Death) opened his mouth, as if to swallow him. He cried Bhân! and that became speech He thought, 'If I kill him, I shall have but little food.' He therefore brought forth by that speech and by that body (the year) all whatsoever exists, the Rik, the Yagus, the Sâman, the metres, the sacrifices, men, and animals....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He desired to sacrifice again with a greater sacrifice. He toiled and performed penance. And while he toiled and performed penance, glorious power went out of him. Verily glorious power means the senses (prâna). Then when the senses had gone out, the body took to swelling (sva-yitum), and mind was in the body.  He desired that this body should be fit for sacrifice (medhya), and that he should be embodied by it. Then he became a horse (asva), because it swelled (asvat), and was fit for sacrifice (medhya)... Then, letting the horse free, he thought, and at the end of a year he offered it up for himself, while he gave up the (other) animals to the deities. Verily the shining sun is the Asvamedha-sacrifice, and his body is the year; Agni is the sacrificial fire (arka), and these worlds are his bodies. These two are the sacrificial fire and the Asvamedha-sacrifice, and they are again one deity, viz. Death. He (who knows this) overcomes another death, death does not reach him, death is his Self, he becomes one of those deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15055.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purushavidha Brahmana&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka describes the creation of living things, but above is the description of the creation of the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Chandogya Upanishad discusses creation in two places.  First, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what it says in the Third Prapathaka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the beginning this was non-existent.  It became existent, it grew. It turned into an egg. The egg lay for the time of a year. The egg broke open. The two halves were one of silver, the other of gold. The silver one became this earth, the golden one the sky, the thick membrane (of the white) the mountains, the thin membrane (of the yoke) the mist with the clouds, the small veins the rivers, the fluid the sea.  And what was born from it that was Âditya, the sun. When he was born shouts of hurrah arose, and all beings arose, and all things which they desired.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01120.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what it says in the Sixth Prapathaka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How could that which is, be born of that which is not? No, my dear, only that which is, was in the beginning, one only, without a second.  It thought, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth fire.  That fire thought, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth water....  Water thought, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth earth (food)....  That Being (i. e. that which had produced fire, water, and earth) thought, let me now enter those three beings 5 (fire, water, earth) with this living Self (gîva âtmâ), and let me then reveal (develop) names and forms. 'Then that Being having said, Let me make each of these three tripartite (so that fire, water, and earth should each have itself for its principal ingredient, besides an admixture of the other two) entered into those three beings (devatâ) with this living self only, and revealed names and forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01222.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the First Khanda of the Aitareya Upanishad says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verily, in the beginning all this was Self, one only; there was nothing else blinking 2 whatsoever. He thought: 'Shall I send forth worlds?' He sent forth these worlds, Ambhas (water), Marîki (light), Mara (mortal), and Ap (water). That Ambhas (water) is above the heaven, and it is heaven, the support. The Marîkis (the lights) are the sky. The Mara (mortal) is the earth, and the waters under the earth are the Ap world. He thought: 'There are these worlds; shall I send forth guardians of the worlds?' He then formed the Purusha (the person), taking him forth from the water.  He brooded on him, and when that person had thus been brooded on, a mouth burst forth 4 like an egg. From the mouth proceeded speech, from speech Agni (fire) Nostrils burst forth. From the nostrils proceeded scent (prâna), from scent Vâyu (air). Eyes burst forth. From the eyes proceeded sight, from sight Âditya (sun). Ears burst forth. From the ears proceeded hearing, from hearing the Dis (quarters of the world), Skin burst forth. From the skin proceeded hairs (sense of touch), from the hairs shrubs and trees. The heart burst forth. From the heart proceeded mind, from mind Kandramas (moon). The navel burst forth. From the navel proceeded the Apâna (the down-breathing), from Apâna death. The generative organ burst forth. From the organ proceeded seed, from seed water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-01-27T01:24:29.843" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5232" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5198" CreationDate="2015-01-21T14:48:20.497" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is basic info about karna: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KARNA&lt;/strong&gt; is one of the most fascinating characters of &lt;strong&gt;MAHABHARAT&lt;/strong&gt;, the&#xA;longest Sanskrit epic written two millennium ago. Besides being an invincible warrior he   was known for his generosity. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna was the son of &lt;strong&gt;Kunti&lt;/strong&gt; from the Sun God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna was born with kavach and kundal (armor which would make him invincible).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna was keen to acquire the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmastra&lt;/strong&gt; mantra from the great teacher  &lt;strong&gt;Parashuram&lt;/strong&gt;. he disguised as a Brahmin and beseeched  Parshuram to accept him as a &lt;strong&gt;shishya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After lot of events happened within his relations.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Finally he died in Kurukshetra war.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more information &lt;strong&gt;GOOGLE&lt;/strong&gt; it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="747" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-27T09:51:23.457" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T09:51:23.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5234" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5230" CreationDate="2015-01-22T10:55:35.567" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The source of creation has been named as &lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; in the upanishads. It is said as Brahman because it expands or increases itself and makes others increase too:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yasmācca bṛhati bṛṃhayati ca sarvaṃ tasmāducyate paraṃbrahmeti&lt;/em&gt; [Shandilya Up. - 3.2]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  —  Because He increases and caused everything to increase, it is called supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is interesting how the above definition matches with the ever expanding state of the universe. Anyway, pointing out that Brahman is the singularity and the ultimate substratum for creation, sustenance and desolation, the Taittiriya Upanishad states like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante yena jātāni jīvanti yatprayantyabhisaṃviśanti tadvijijñāsasva tadbrahmeti&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up. - 3.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That from which all these beings are born, having born by which they live, That into which having departed they enter, seek to know That, That is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in the beginning Brahman alone was there. Then it desired to become many. And getting heated in austerity it created a pair (matter and life) which became many beings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;brahma vā idam agra āsīt&lt;/em&gt; [Brh. Up. - 1.4.10]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  —Brahma, the absolute, was alone at the beginning.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;so 'kāmayata . bahu syāṃ prajāyeyeti&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up. - 2.6]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  — He desired. &quot;May I be many,may I grow forth&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sa tapastaptvā mithunamutpādayate rayiṃca prāṇaṃceti&#xA;  etau me bahudhā prajāḥ kariṣyata iti&lt;/em&gt; [Prsn. Up. - 1.4]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  — After getting heated by austerity He produced a pair, matter and life, thinking, “These two will create many beings for Me”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it terms of matter or the &lt;em&gt;bhutas&lt;/em&gt;, from that single entity arose fire, water, etc. and ultimately man in the following order:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tasmādvā etasmādātmana ākāśaḥ saṃbhūtaḥ ākāśādvāyuḥ vāayoragniḥ agnerāpaḥ  adabhyaḥ pṛthivī  pṛthivyā oṣadhayaḥ oṣadhībhyonnam annātpuruṣaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up. - 2.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Verily from this Self arose the space; from space air, from air fire, from fire water, from water earth, from earth minerals, from minerals vegetation and from vegetation man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then having created everything, it entered into everything and that single nondual Brahman became everything that there is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tatsṛṣṭvā tadevānuprabiśat | tadanuprabiśya sacca tyaccābhabat | niruktaṃ cāniraktaṃ ca | nilayanaṃ cānilayanaṃ ca | vijñānaṃ cāvijñānaṃ ca | satyaṃ cānṛtaṃ ca | satyaṃbhabat yadidaṃ kinca | tatsatyamityācakṣate |&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up. - 2.6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Having created it entered into it. Having entered it became manifest and unmanifest, defined and undefined, supported and unsupported, sentient and insentient, real and unreal. The &lt;em&gt;Satya&lt;/em&gt; became all these that there is. Hence, That is called as Satya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So also many other upanishads name Brahman as the root cause of creation, destruction, etc. as the other answers state. But the account and description about Brahman and the creation vary to certain extent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some say &quot;there is no creation in Hinduism&quot;, but that is partially wrong. In Hinduism there is both concept of creation and projection. Followers of &lt;em&gt;adviata&lt;/em&gt; school state there is only projection. But in the statement &lt;em&gt;tatsṛṣṭvā tadevānuprabiśat&lt;/em&gt;, the word &lt;em&gt;sṛṣṭvā&lt;/em&gt; clearly states creation. Also in statements of Gita like &lt;em&gt;visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ&lt;/em&gt; the word &lt;em&gt;sṛjanā&lt;/em&gt; simply means creation of something new, not projection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-01-23T12:05:35.690" LastActivityDate="2015-01-23T12:05:35.690" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5235" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4145" CreationDate="2015-01-22T11:15:04.083" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aditya Hrudayam is a very sacred stotram revealed by the Sage Agastya to Rama in the battle field. Whatever approach Rama took to kill Ravana it was impossible for him to kill Ravana as he was a MahaBrahmana and then the Sage Agastya revealed the esoteric secret lore of the Vedic Aryans and taught Rama about this stotram through which he was able to kill Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Raama Raama mahaabaaho shrnu guhyam sanaatanam yena sarvaanariinvatsa samare vijayishhyasi. 3&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oh Rama, mighty-armed Rama, listen to this eternal secret, which will help you destroy all your enemies in battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Aaditya hrudayam punyam sarva shatru vinaashanam Jayaavaham japennityam akshayyam paramam shivam. 4&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This holy hymn dedicated to the Sun deity will result in destroying  all enemies and bring you victory and never ending supreme bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sarvamangalamaangalyam sarvapaapapranaashanam. Chintaashokaprashamanam aayurvardhanamuttamam. 5&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This hymn is supreme and is a guarantee of complete prosperity and is  the destroyer of sin, anxiety, anguish and is the bestower of  longevity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="167" LastEditorUserId="2333" LastEditDate="2015-05-25T11:55:05.637" LastActivityDate="2015-05-25T11:55:05.637" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5236" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5238" CreationDate="2015-01-22T11:16:26.030" Score="7" ViewCount="1683" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across some Titles of Spiritual Teachers(Guru):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Abhaya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Acharya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Avdhoota&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bharathi  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maharaj   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maharshi  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paramahamsa       &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sant  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shankaracharya    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saraswati &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yogi  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it a complete list of Titles Of Spiritual Teachers? If no, can anyone please provide?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which one is the highest among them?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who gives this Title to whom?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of the Title?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the difference among them??briefly&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is difference among Sadguru,Paramguru and Jagatguru?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference&lt;a href=&quot;http://:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hindu_gurus_and_saints&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-06T11:47:08.427" LastActivityDate="2015-02-06T11:47:08.427" Title="What is the significance of the Titles of Spiritual Teachers?" Tags="|guru|vedanta|saint|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5237" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5230" CreationDate="2015-01-22T15:14:37.857" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, you need to be exact in your terms so there is no confusion. You asked about the sources of 'creation'. There is no creation of something out of nothing as is popularly believed in Christianity. There is no creation in Hinduism. The sanskrit word translates as projection. The universe is projected from Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Maitrayani Upanishad (VI. 17.) says &quot;In Me the universe has its origin, in Me alone the whole subsists, in Me it is lost: this Brahman, the Limitless--It is I Myself.&quot; Krishna says in the Gita (IX. 7.) &quot;At the end of a cycle all beings, O Son of Kunti, enter into My prakriti, and at the beginning of a cycle I generate them again.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Nikhilananda says in his introduction to his translation of the Upanishads:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;In the beginning--that is to say, before the evolution of names and forms, time and space--Atman, or Brahman, alone exists. Then it becomes conditioned by maya, Its own inscrutable power. At that time Brahman is called Saguna Brahman--Mahesvara, or the Great Lord. The idea of creation arises in His mind. &lt;em&gt;Sa aikshata&lt;/em&gt;--&quot;He thought.&quot; Then Brahman, on account of maya, forgets, as it were, Its infinite nature and regards Itself as an individual entity. It says 'I am one; I shall be many.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Three 'moments' are to be distinguished in creation: First, the Supreme Brahman accepts the limitations of maya and becomes Mahesvara. Second, the desire for creation arises in His mind. Third, He feels His loneliness and decides to multiply Himself. Then with the help of maya, He creates akasa, air, and the other elements.&quot; [out of akasa come the other subtle elements, earth, fire, etc. Out of these subtle elements come the gross elements we identify with the material world]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Mahesvara, who is the Ruler of all the Brahmandas, is thus the First Person in creation. Hiranyagarbha, or Brahma, who as a result of spiritual disciplines practiced in a previous cycle, becomes the Ruler of a Brahmanda, is the Second Person. Though possessed of an individuality, He identifies Himself with the whole universe; He is described in the Vedas as endowed with innumerable heads, innumerable eyes, and innumerable feet. And the Godhead dwelling in every heart is the Third Person. He is Antaryamin, or the Inner Guide.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a summation by Nikhilananda of Aitareya Upanishad I. i.-iii.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his commentary to verse Aitareya II. i. 1., Sankaracarya says that all these descriptions of the 'creation' in Part 1 and Part 2 can be taken allegorically, they do not have to be taken literally. His opponent argues that how can Brahman think, etc. Sankaracarya says that the only thing sought to be taught is Knowledge of the Self (Brahman). Sankara says &quot;Or a better explanation is that the the Deity, who is omniscient and omnipotent and is a great conjurer, created all this like a magician; but the parable etc. are elaborated here for the sake of easy instruction and comprehension just as it is done in ordinary life. For the mere acquaintance with the anecdotes regarding creation etc. leads to no useful result, whereas it is well known in all the Upanishads that from the knowledge of the unity of the Self follows immortality as a result, and the same fact is in evidence in the Smritis like the Gita in such sentences as '(He sees who sees), the Lord Supreme, existing in all beings, (deathless in the dying)' (Gita XIII. 27.)&quot;          &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-01-26T08:15:58.337" LastActivityDate="2015-01-26T08:15:58.337" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5238" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5236" CreationDate="2015-01-22T17:26:15.070" Score="10" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Who gives titles to whom?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Guru gives the title to His student in most of the cases[a]. Sometimes the saint Himself gives Himself a name. Sometimes the disciples give the name. There is no hard and fast rule for this. For example, Sri Ramana Maharishi did not receive His name from any Guru, but rather He was affectionately called so by His devotees on account of the Transecendental Experiences he narrated and the Silence with which He transformed all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Which one is the highest among them?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Going by pure translation and by definition the highest is Satguru[b]. The Satguru is automatically a Paramhansa, a saint and a Avatar. he is the highest of the highest. He is the indwelling Antaryamin and the Great Parameshwara Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that does not mean anything. Because the titles are usually given by others. Thus in most cases titles are just used as an honorary to the saint, and there is no need to demarcate one saint as greater than the other!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is the significance of the title?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To the devotee of the saint, the title is his expression of love for the saint. When we say 'My dear Sri Sri Sri Maharishi Guru maharaj' it sends a thrill down our spine with the thought of the Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To the non-devotee, the title has no other significance than a name, a way of referring to the saint, in honor of His holiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is the difference among them (briefly)?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just going by pure definition and translation, here are some titles and some saints who are called by this title (in no way that means one saint is inferior or superior to the other, it just example of one who is called by that title, that's it all the best)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Acharya - Teacher (of any field, not necessarily spirituality). Example: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drona&quot;&gt;Dhronacharya&lt;/a&gt;, the teacher of Arjuna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shankaracharya&quot;&gt;Shankaracharya&lt;/a&gt; - A monk of the ashrams established by Sri Adi Shankarcharya. Example: Chandrasekharendra Saraswati.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Godman - A God-realized saint, or an avatar, i.e. A man who is believed to be God Himself. (It is usually used as a negative term thus I have no examples).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Guru - A spiritual teacher or spiritual master. Example: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukteswar_Giri&quot;&gt;Sri Yukteshwar Giri&lt;/a&gt; Swami was the Guru of Swami Paramhansa Yogananda.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagadguru&quot;&gt;Jagad Guru&lt;/a&gt; - A spiritual teacher for the whole world. That is He distributes His teaching freely to all, nobody needs to receive initiation for receiving His teachings! Example: Sri Krishna whose bhagavad gita is available to all.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maharishi - A great sage. Example: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Maharshi_Vyasa&quot;&gt;Maharishi Vyasa&lt;/a&gt;, whose greatness requires no description either.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandit&quot;&gt;Pandit&lt;/a&gt; - A learned man.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paramhansa - A God-realized Supreme Saint. He has transcended the Three Gunas. Example: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ramakrishna&quot;&gt;Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paramguru - The Guru of Gurus. Example: Adi Shankaracharya is the Param Guru for all the shankaracharyas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajarshi&quot;&gt;Rajarishi&lt;/a&gt; - A great sage who is a King as well as a sage. Example: Vishwamitra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rishi - A great sage. Example: Agastya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sadhaka - A spiritual aspirant. Example: you and me.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saint - A holy man. Example: So many saints are there.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sannyasa - A renunciate or monk. Example: Shankaracharya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satguru - The God Himself come as a human, Ishvara in human form is Satguru. Example: Sri Krishna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami&quot;&gt;Swami&lt;/a&gt; - A monk of the order of Swami's established by Shankaracharya. (Although I believe other also uses it)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yogi - A human who practices yoga and attains realization through Yogic principles. Example: Kriya Yogis.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[a]: Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramhansa Yogananda, Chapter 1, footnote 3.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[b]: Satguru is God manifested in man, according to 'Rebirth is Optional' by  Om Khera.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastActivityDate="2015-01-22T17:26:15.070" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5239" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5241" CreationDate="2015-01-22T20:48:40.480" Score="9" ViewCount="10748" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've always heard about the mother of the devas or precisely Indra that is Aditi. But who according to Hinduism is the father of Indra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2361" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-11-30T09:52:50.760" LastActivityDate="2024-01-31T21:24:59.153" Title="Who is the father of Indra?" Tags="|vedas|indra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5240" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-22T23:23:24.543" Score="10" ViewCount="2476" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alwars&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Alwars&lt;/a&gt; (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the development of Vaishnavism; it is the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Vaishnava&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; sect (of which I'm a member).  The Alwars praised many Vishnu temples and other sacred places of Vishnu in their poetry; a sacred place of Vishnu that was praised by at least one Alwar is called a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_desam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Divya Desam&lt;/a&gt;, and there are 108 of them;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_desam#List_of_Divya_Desams&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the list. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the 108 Divya Desams is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiruvidandai&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thiruvidanthai&lt;/a&gt; near Chennai, the site of the Lakshmi Varahaswami temple, AKA the Nithya Kalyana Perumal Vishnu temple:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bdr50.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is where Vishnu's incarnation &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varaha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha the boar&lt;/a&gt; appeared to the sage Galava and married his 360 daughters, all of whom were incarnations of Vishnu's wife Lakshmi.  They all merged into a single woman, Komalavali, who appears on Varaha's lap above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;https://sites.google.com/site/divyaprabhandam/divya-desam/thondai-naadu-kanchi-chennai-&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt; says that Vishnu also appeared to another sage in this location; for Thiruvidanthai it says &quot;Prathyaksham to Markandeyar&quot;.  Prathyaksham is a term for a god appearing directly before someone's eyes.  So my question is, what is the story of Vishnu appearing before the sage Markandeya in this place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Markandeya is a famous sage who was saved from Yama god of death by Shiva because of his devotion to Shiva.  But Markandeya is also a great devotee of Vishnu; the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uppiliappan_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upillaiappan Vishnu Temple&lt;/a&gt; near Kumbakonam is due to Vishnu appearing before Markandeya in his Venkateshwara form and marrying Markandeya's daughter.  But does anyone know the story of Vishnu appearing before Markandeya in Thiruvidanthai?  Is this before or after his interactions with Upillaiappan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-24T09:59:16.363" LastActivityDate="2018-04-24T09:59:16.363" Title="What is the story of Vishnu appearing to sage Markandeya in Thiruvidanthai?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|darshan|markandeya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5241" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5239" CreationDate="2015-01-23T00:04:50.820" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra's father is the sage Kashyapa, son of the sage Marichi who is one of the mind-born sons of Brahma.  Kashyapa married numerous daughters of Brahma's other son Daksha, including Aditi, mother of the twelve Adityas which include Indra.  This is confirmed in numerous scriptures.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/aranya/sarga14/aranya_14_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Aranya Kanda of the Ramayana says, for instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of them Kashyapa accepted eight slender-waisted daughters of Daksha Prajapati, namely Aditi, Diti, Danu, Kaalakaa and Taamra, Krodhavasha, also thus Manu and even Anala also as wives. Then Kashyapa is gladdened and said to those young wives, &quot;You all shall deliver sons similar to me and who can sustain the three worlds.&quot; ... Aditi gave birth to &lt;strong&gt;twelve Adityas&lt;/strong&gt;, the Sun-gods, eight Vasu-s, the Terrestrials-gods, eleven Rudraas, the Fury-gods, and two Ashvinis, the medicine-gods, total thirty-three of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01076.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And [Dakaha] bestowed ten of his daughters on Dharma, and thirteen on Kasyapa. And he gave twenty-seven to Chandra, who are all engaged in indicating time. And Kasyapa, the son of Marichi, begat on the eldest of his thirteen wives, &lt;strong&gt;the Adityas, the celestials endued with great energy and having Indra as their head&lt;/strong&gt; and also Vivaswat (the Sun).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/6/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Srimad Bhagavatam says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Daksha] gave ten daughters in charity to Dharmarāja [Yamarāja], thirteen to Kaśyapa [first twelve and then one more], twenty-seven to the moon-god, and two each to Aṅgirā, Kṛśāśva and Bhūta. The other four daughters were given to Kaśyapa.... O King Parīkṣit, now please hear from me the names of Kaśyapa’s wives, from whose wombs the population of the entire universe has come. They are the mothers of almost all the population of the entire universe, and their names are very auspicious to hear. They are Aditi, Diti, Danu, Kāṣṭhā, Ariṣṭā, Surasā, Ilā, Muni, Krodhavaśā, Tāmrā, Surabhi, Saramā and Timi.... Now please hear me as I describe the descendants of Aditi in chronological order. In this dynasty the Supreme Personality of Godhead Nārāyaṇa descended by His plenary expansion. The names of the sons of Aditi are as follows: Vivasvān, Aryamā, Pūṣā, Tvaṣṭā, Savitā, Bhaga, Dhātā, Vidhātā, Varuṇa, Mitra, &lt;strong&gt;Śatru&lt;/strong&gt; and Urukrama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shatru is another name for Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-09T01:56:27.793" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T01:56:27.793" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5242" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="321" CreationDate="2015-01-23T06:17:46.230" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you answered your own question. Because the sacred book, i.e., Bhagavatam says so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's most likely to be the answer as why people who practice Hinduism does it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand if you're really interested in why would any animal would be considered sacred in a particular (sub)culture, then the economic/utilitarian argument together with the formalization of such truths into some system of beliefs would be closer to the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2349" LastActivityDate="2015-01-23T06:17:46.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5243" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="117" CreationDate="2015-01-23T07:04:18.303" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There seems to be a continuum from polytheism to monotheism. Different cultures stand at different stages at different times but it's clear that the trend has been unidirectional from poly to mono-theism, see &lt;a href=&quot;https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/732/which-came-first-polytheism-or-monotheism&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As explained &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henotheism#Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; the term Henotheism was used to describe a stage in which the culture is predominantly monotheistic but still incorporates certain aspects of polytheism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The term was specifically coined to describe the practices of the predecessor of modern Hinduism, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Vedic_religion&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rigvedic religion&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the Indian culture evolves I think it's pretty likely that they will converge to monotheism, a more sophisticated form of religious belief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2349" LastActivityDate="2015-01-23T07:04:18.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5245" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5396" CreationDate="2015-01-23T08:08:45.093" Score="9" ViewCount="1399" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Taittiriya Upanishad constitutes the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Vallis (sections) of the Taittiriya Aranyaka of the Yajur Veda.  The last of these is known as the Bhrigu Valli, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15052.htm&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how it ends:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who knows this, when he has departed this world, after reaching and comprehending the Self which consists of food, the Self which consists of breath, the Self which consists of mind, the Self which consists of understanding, the Self which consists of bliss, enters and takes possession of these worlds, and having as much food as he likes, and assuming as many forms as he likes, &lt;strong&gt;he sits down singing this Sâman (of Brahman): &quot;Hâvu, hâvu, hâvu!  I am food (object), I am food, I am food! I am the eater of food (subject), I am the eater of food, I am the eater of food! I am the poet (who joins the two together), I am the poet, I am the poet! I am the first-born of the Right (rita). Before the Devas I was in the centre of all that is immortal. He who gives me away, he alone preserves me: him who eats food, I eat as food.  I overcome the whole world, I, endowed with golden light.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;  This is the Upanishad&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Saman is a term generally used to refer to the hymns of the Sama Veda, which are set to musical melody unlike the hymns of other Vedas.  So my question is, is the Taittiriya Upanishad quoting some hymn of the Sama Veda here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://saranagathi.org/blogs/sadagopan-iyengar/the-song-celestial/&quot;&gt;This webpage&lt;/a&gt; claims that it is from the Sama Veda, and that it's a hymn that's used by the gods to venerate Vishnu in Vaikuntha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sama Veda is almost entirely musical, and is most pleasing to hear-this Veda is sung and not recited, as is indicated by the usage, “SAma gAnam”. The Taittiriya Upanishad attests to the fact that the Nitya Suris in Sri Vaikuntam please the Lord through melodious singing of SAma mantras- “Etat SAma gAyan AstE”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://kirtimukha.com/chinnamma/sahasra/sloka106.htm&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt; claims that Parashara Bhattar, a famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya said the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SrI BhaTTar uses the above interpretation and explains the nAma as &quot;One&#xA;  Who has the mukta-s or the Released souls singing the sAma hymns in praise&#xA;  of Him once they have attained Him&quot; – sva-prApti madhu pAnena &quot;hAvu hAvu&#xA;  hAvu&quot; iti sAmAni gAyamAno muktaH asya asti iti sAma-gAyanaH. He gives the&#xA;  quote from taittirIya Upanishad – &quot;etat sAma gayannAste&quot; – (The released soul&#xA;  or mukta) will be singing this sAma chant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But at first glance I can't find this hymn in the Sama Veda; you can read the Sama Veda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sv.htm&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  If it helps, here is the hymn in Sanskrit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hā 3 vu hā 3 vu hā 3 vu |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ahamannamahamannamahamannam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ahamannādo3'hamannādo3|āhamannādaḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aham̐ ślokakṛdaham̐ ślokakṛdaham̐ ślokakṛt |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ahamasmi prathamajā ṛtā3sya |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pūrvaṃ devebhyo'mṛtasya nā3bhāyi |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yo mā dadāti sa ideva mā3''vāḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ahamannamannamadantamā3dmi |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ahaṃ viśvaṃ bhuvanamabhyabhavā3m |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;suvarna jyotīḥ | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ya evaṃ veda |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It looks like this hymn is also chanted in the famous Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple in Tirupati when giving the Venkateshwara statue an Abhishekha (bath); see &lt;a href=&quot;http://youtu.be/ytpsXOTY-UA?t=30s&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; starting from about the 30 second mark, where the priests are clearly singing it in the style of Sama Veda chanting.  That lends some credence to the notion that it's a hymn from the Sama Veda which is chanted in praise of Vishnu in Vaikuntha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know whether this hymn occurs in the Sama Veda, and if so where iin the Sama Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-02T13:59:08.617" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T01:01:58.593" Title="Does the Taittiriya Upanishad quote a hymn of the Sama Veda?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|upanishads|sama-veda|taittirya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5248" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-23T19:30:37.087" Score="10" ViewCount="113983" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently had a death in the family. My paternal grandmother (father's side) died at the ripe old age of 87 after a short battle with cancer. We are Hindu/Iyengaars. I am supposed to marry my fiance (who is American and non-hindu) in June but this untimely and unfortunate death of my grandmother will probably postpone our wedding by a year as per &lt;em&gt;some people&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have been looking around for official texts or something close to an official text that would tell me if and when a marriage would need to be postponed post a death in the family and what &quot;kriyas&quot; or acts may be performed to circumvent this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Would anyone know something about this, perhaps pertinent to the iyengar belief system?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2366" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-01-24T01:44:27.907" LastActivityDate="2018-03-13T10:56:55.417" Title="Death in family - does a marriage need to be postponed?" Tags="|death|marriage|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5249" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5248" CreationDate="2015-01-24T05:08:41.683" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;If there is a death on the paternal side, then all Subha karyas, including visit to kshetras, tirthas etc., except marriage of female offspring, need to be abandoned for a year i.e. till the samvatsara sraddha is performed. This is not &quot;according to some people&quot; but according to dharma. Such dharmas can be found in 1. Dharma Sindhu 2. Nirnaya Sindhu 3. Parasara Samhita 4. Varaha Purana 5. Anusasanika Parva of Mahabharata etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not wise to challenge wisdom of ancients because it comes in the way of our material comforts. Seeking validation for every small dharma that is out there will dissipate one's time and energy, and  even then, one lifetime is not sufficient to verify everything before choosing to implement it. Just as we rely on the scholarship of doctors to treat us, engineers to build us houses, lawyers to defend us in the legal system, it is good to rely on the scholarship of pundits on scriptural and dharmic matters. i.e. if dharma is important to you. Else, you can exercise your free-will; but remember there are consequences for all that we say, do, and even think. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-01-24T11:26:03.787" LastActivityDate="2015-01-24T11:26:03.787" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5251" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5206" CreationDate="2015-01-24T08:05:52.353" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Om Tat Sat can be translated to mean the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;‘Supreme Absolute Truth’&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, or more literally ‘all that is’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Om refers to the Supreme Infinite Spirit or Person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tat refers to‘that’, or ‘all that is’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sat refers to ‘truth’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Om Tat Sat&amp;quot; is related to the English &lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;&amp;quot;Him That is&amp;quot;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om tat sat is the mantra for salvation (getting true god who frees you from repeated birth and death in different life forms).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="747" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-01-24T08:05:52.353" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5252" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5253" CreationDate="2015-01-24T09:59:08.653" Score="11" ViewCount="13912" Body="&lt;p&gt;How many days are there in one Yuga (each of the four Yugas)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2368" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-02T05:09:24.753" LastActivityDate="2015-02-02T05:09:24.753" Title="How many days are there in one Yuga?" Tags="|yuga|time|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5253" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5252" CreationDate="2015-01-24T10:38:15.853" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure why you're interested in the number of days as opposed to the number of years, but in any case it's simple arithmetic.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp037.htm&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Vishnu Purana describes the lengths of the four Yugas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They are thus distributed: the Krita age has four thousand divine years; the Tretá three thousand; the Dwápara two thousand; and the Kali age one thousand: so those acquainted with antiquity have declared. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we need to convert divine years into human years, and then human years into human days.  Thankfully the Vishnu Purana gives us the relevant information &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp037.htm&quot;&gt;immediately before&lt;/a&gt; the quote above:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thirty Muhúrttas constitute a day and night of mortals: thirty such days make a month, divided into two half-months: six months form an Ayana (the period of the sun's progress north or south of the ecliptic): and two Ayanas compose a year.  The southern Ayana is a night, and the northern a day of the gods. Twelve thousand divine years, each composed of (three hundred and sixty) such days, constitute the period of the four Yugas, or ages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So a year of the gods is 360 days of the gods, and a day of the gods is 1 human year.  So we need multiply the above figures by 360 to get the length of the Yugas in human years: the Satya Yuga is 1,440,000 years, the Treta Yuga is 1,080,000 years, the Dwapara Yuga is 720,000 years, and the Kali Yuga is 360,000 years.  If we factor in the the Sandhya and Sandhyansa periods that come before and after each Yuga, we get that the Satya Yuga is 1,728,000 years, the Treta Yuga is 1,296,000 years, the Dwapara Yuga is 864,000 years, and the Kali Yuga is 432,000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now a human year is said to be two Ayanas, which works out to 360 days.  So if we convert the above figures to days, we get that, &lt;strong&gt;the Satya Yuga is 622,080,000 days, the Treta Yuga is 466,560,000 days, the Dwapara Yuga is 311,040,000 days, and the Kali Yuga is 155,520,000 days&lt;/strong&gt;.  Whew!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-01-24T16:20:25.200" LastActivityDate="2015-01-24T16:20:25.200" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5254" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5252" CreationDate="2015-01-24T10:46:08.737" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The number of years varies in the four yugas as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The duration of the Satya millennium equals 4,800 years of the years of the demigods; the duration of the Dvapara millennium equals 2,400 years; and that of the Kali millennium is 1,200 years of the demigods. [SB - 3.11.19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And calculating those god years in human years (1 god year = 360 human years) and similarly taking one year roughly to be 360 days would have the following values:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satya Yuga   - (1,728,000 solar years) - 622,080,000 days&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Treta Yuga   - (1,296,000 solar years) - 466,560,000 days&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Dvapara Yuga - (864,000 solar years) - 311,040,000 days&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Kali Yuga    - (432,000 solar years)     - 155,520,000 days&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More Reference:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-01-24T10:51:41.597" LastActivityDate="2015-01-24T10:51:41.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5255" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-24T12:27:54.857" Score="2" ViewCount="1358" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu Vaishnava theology the stories concerning the gopis are said to exemplify Suddha-bhakti which is described as &lt;em&gt;The highest form of unconditional love for God&lt;/em&gt; (Krishna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as old Epics and shastra said that those are wifes of krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2369" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-01-24T15:27:59.160" LastActivityDate="2023-07-06T13:07:04.087" Title="Was Lord Krishna husband of 16000 Gopis as per Krishna charit?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5258" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5255" CreationDate="2015-01-25T00:24:52.217" Score="2" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The 16000 wives of Krishna were not the Gopis of Brindavan. They were princesses captured by Narakasura and freed by Krishna in battle. ref: Bhagavata purana &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gopis do exemplify Suddha bhakti and their relationship to Krishna is not that of the material world. It is divine, esoteric and can be understood through study and penance. Many commentators on the Bhagavata purana have expounded on gopi bhakti/rasa leela etc. as sublime , divine communion of the jeevatma with the paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the concept of madhura bhakti,  all creatures (male and female) are wives of the paramAtma because we are representative of prakRti and are sustained by paramAtma. Also, it is the nearest equivalent of the closest human relationship one can imagine.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-07-17T17:01:59.617" LastActivityDate="2015-07-17T17:01:59.617" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5259" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-25T08:59:06.320" Score="4" ViewCount="5853" Body="&lt;p&gt;Everyone knows One of the most famous Dattatreya Peethas, is associated with Shri Narasimha Saraswati Swami, an incarnation of Lord Dattatreya at Shri Kshetra Gangapur in Karnataka. Where devotees worships Nirgun Paduka of Shri Narsihma Saraswati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wyp6x.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning of Nirgun Paduka?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is significance of worshiping Gurus Nirgun Paduka? Spritually.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Except this location(Shri Kshetra Gangapur),Is there any other place having Nirgun Paduka ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastActivityDate="2016-03-10T10:59:17.030" Title="What is the meaning of Nirgun Paduka?" Tags="|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5260" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-25T19:22:00.100" Score="0" ViewCount="448" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not interested in the modern status of women in Hinduism practitioners, instead I'd like to know what the Hindu doctrine says about it. For example, for religions like Christianity there are certain norms dictated by their bible such as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. - See more at: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.project-reason.org/scripture_project/The_Bible:1_Corinthians_11/#3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.project-reason.org/scripture_project/The_Bible:1_Corinthians_11/#3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wether or not modern Christians enforce such norm is not relevant to this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2349" LastActivityDate="2015-02-05T11:47:50.863" Title="Are there Hindu-specific rules/norms for the status of women?" Tags="|women|gender|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5261" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-25T19:46:10.273" Score="0" ViewCount="111" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard/read that in some cases a marriage is forbidden on the basis of mismatching kundalis/gunas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some other cases it's forbidden because of caste incompatibility.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically my question has three parts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any relationship between the two practices?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are the any Hinduism references that explain how kundalis/gunas work?&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I just want to know how it works not if it works in real-life.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are the any Hinduism references that explain how the caste system works?&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to wikipedia the caste system is in part the result of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India#History&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;British Colonialism&lt;/a&gt; but my Indian friends tell me that the caste system has been around longer than that but that it's not clear if it's or not part of the doctrine.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you don't have an answer but can point me to reliable sources I would very much appreciate it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2349" LastEditorUserId="2349" LastEditDate="2015-02-03T07:55:50.373" LastActivityDate="2015-02-03T07:55:50.373" Title="What is the relationship between caste system and kundalis and gunas?" Tags="|marriage|caste-system|kundali|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="19" ClosedDate="2015-01-28T07:48:47.857" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5262" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="627" CreationDate="2015-01-26T08:18:02.187" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The clockwise pradakshina is applicable only in the Northern hemisphere of the earth. If one in the Southern hemisphere one must perform the pradakshina in anti-clockwise. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise we are not supposed to sleep with head in the North side. In the Southern hemisphere one must not sleep with one's head to the South. It just makes the brain loaded with blood, makes it hyperactive and disturbs the sleep or worst one may die with brain hemorrhage. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2376" LastActivityDate="2015-01-26T08:18:02.187" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5263" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5255" CreationDate="2015-01-26T14:28:29.563" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna had mainly &lt;strong&gt;eight wives&lt;/strong&gt; , So he was called as &lt;strong&gt;Ashtabharya&lt;/strong&gt; (ashta=eight, bharya=wife) because of that. Different  scriptures list their names differently. According to Bhagavata purana names of the eight wives in order were &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rukmini, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satyabhama,  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jambavati,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalindi, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mitravinda, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nagnajiti, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhadra and &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lakshmana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The demon king &lt;strong&gt;Narakasura&lt;/strong&gt; had kidnapped &lt;strong&gt;16,100&lt;/strong&gt; (some sources say 16,000 probably for the sake of ease) women and held them in his captivity in his capital &lt;strong&gt;Pragjyotisha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After krishna released 16,100 women that Narakasura had in captivity. When krishna asked them to return to their houses, they refused. They were aware that the society of that age would not take back those who were taken by another man. So they were left with nowhere to go.When Krishna asked them what they wanted to do, &lt;strong&gt;they all wanted Krishna to marry them&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna married them all at the same auspicious time assuming that many bodies, so they could gain status of married women and live in the society with honor again. Krishna constructed them each a palace with huge gardens full of colorful flowers, It was impossible to live with each of them so he created 16100 forms of himself so that he could treat them all in the same manner as his 8 wives. Scriptures say that each of them had &lt;strong&gt;10 sons and 1 daughter.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="747" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-04-27T14:49:00.677" LastActivityDate="2015-04-27T14:49:00.677" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5264" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-26T14:42:50.653" Score="2" ViewCount="456" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there solid proof of Hindu scripture--namely, the Sruti (श्रुति) scriptures like the Vedas (वेदाः) and the upanishads (उपनिषदः)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do we know what they say is correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of you might say--&quot;Hindu scripture agrees perfectly with science and has references to several modern scientific discoveries.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This may be true, but this does NOT prove the theological validity of Hindu scripture. So is there any proof of such a kind?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2378" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2015-01-26T18:03:12.863" LastActivityDate="2015-01-26T18:03:12.863" Title="Is there solid proof of Hindu scripture?" Tags="|gods|upanishads|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-01-26T18:02:21.237" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5265" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5264" CreationDate="2015-01-26T16:49:46.290" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is actually a great question!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The plain answer is YOU DON't KNOW what they say is correct but you can EXPERIENCE its Truth!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But let me ask you this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How do you know that what you read in your physics book is correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, all physics books say that there are different phenomenon such as E = MC2 isn't it? Have you yourself physically converted the mass into its energy and conducted experiments? Then how do you believe that it is valid?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is you trust in the physics book that these text books contain actual results of various scientists who performed their investigation and you accept it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar with scriptures Hindus place their trust in the ancient wisdom of the sages who were able to write down with great detail and accuracy that it is indeed valid.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How do you know that you love your parents?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, everybody says that they love their parents isn't it? But how do you know that you love your parents? Have you seen that Love? Have you touched it? Have you smelt it? Have you tasted it? Have you even heard of it? NO. But still you know without even 2% doubt that everyone loves their parents (there are exceptions ofcourse) THIS IS BECAUSE you have experienced it yourself! Thus you know without a doubt that it is indeed true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar it is with the Hindu scriptures. The Truth that they speak of, cannot (generally) be seen, hear, touched, smelt etc. However it can be EXPERIENCED! The advanced Hindus and other Bhaktas have directly experienced the Truth (partially or completely) and thus they know without a doubt that it is indeed True.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Thus what is the solid proof for Hindu scripture?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like any other book, the solid proof of scripture lies in:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Trusting in the wisdom of the sages and then carrying out experiments to experience the Truth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Experiencing theTruth directly, thereby dispelling all doubts, All the best Sir!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;But HOW does one carry out these experiments? How does one experience the Reality?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How will I verify? How to be happy? How to realize God? What is the practical way?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jnana Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this path, one does self-introspection. One asks oneself questions such as: &quot;Who really am I?&quot;, &quot;How long will money stay with me?&quot;, &quot;Wherein does lie true happiness? Is it external to me? Or is it internal?&quot;, &quot;What is the cause of suffering?&quot;, &quot;What is it that if I will understand, I can be always free and happy at all times&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such knowledge that arises liberates one from bondage giving one the taste of supreme bliss. [Bhagavad Gita 7:16, 17, 18, 19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this path, one performs actions but without desire for the rewards of such service. By performing such actions, one gets liberated from all sufferings and obtains a direct experience of the Ultimate Bliss. [Bhagavad Gita 3:5-17]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhakti Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this path, one loves God, with heart, mind and soul (sounds familiar?) and is constantly engaged in worship of the Lord. By praying and serving God always, one obtains the direct experience of Supreme Bliss. [Bhagavad Gita 6:40-47]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE: some would say that one path is inferior and another path is superior to the other. Let us not get into such arguments unnecessarily. Obviously one is free to believe that His path is the best of all paths. But let us not deride others and their paths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus basically crux to the whole answer is: indeed the scriptures cannot be verified by using senses, but they can be verified by following the various paths mentioned above. All the best. By following these paths one will be able to understand the reality of scriptures. One will obtain ultimate bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2015-01-26T17:49:47.900" LastActivityDate="2015-01-26T17:49:47.900" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5269" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4009" CreationDate="2015-01-27T12:12:56.427" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, it is &quot;Punahcharana&quot; not Puracharana. &quot;Punah&quot; means repetition and &quot;Ucharana&quot; means speaking/ enchanting. Together it will be Punah + Ucharana = Punahacharan, which means, repeating the enchanting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is mainly used as a revision exercise in ancient days of schooling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In earlier/ ancient days of schooling, where there are no books, the study of vedas and other related subjects were through the Guru only. The Guru teaches the mantras, slokas as part of the education. Though he explains in detail, the meaning of every mantra and sloka, sometimes it will be hard to remember. So, they usually divide the students into groups, based on their remembering power. Ekasandyagrahi (Eka (one) + Sandya (time) + Grahi (who can memorize)) is a student who remembers everything even though he is listening it for the first time. Dwisandyagrahi (Dwi = two) need one more repetition of the teaching, and so on. Now, once the guru completes his teaching, these Ekasandhyagrahi's will repeat again the same so that Dwisanyagrahi's can takeover from there, and so on. Once in a while, the students group together and do the &quot;Punahcharana&quot; to revise the past teachings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, let me answer your questions as far as I know. Anybody can correct me if I'm wrong in any of the point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;1. Can Purascharana be initiated even without a guru?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ans&lt;/strong&gt;: As per my previous explanation, yes. One can initiate a Punahcharana without a guru. But to correct if he is doing a mistake, doing a &quot;Punahcharana&quot; should be done in front of the Guru/ the Teacher. Especially, in the case of mantras where the phonetics play a vital role, the presence of Guru is a must.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;2. Should the mantra be repeated fixed number of times daily? What if there is a variation in the no. of times every day?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ans&lt;/strong&gt;: &quot;Punahcharana&quot; is a revision exercise. For mantras, the student has to obtain the complete knowledge behind it and acquire the power of it. Until then there is no limit. For example, the great &quot;Gayathri Mantra&quot;, generally, as a common practice, will be enchanted for 108 times a day. But you won't lose anything if you do it for more than 108 times. Sometimes, some brahmins will sit and do for more than a few thousands a day, to complete 1 Lakh times. Do you think the god will count while you are chanting. I don't think the gods will not curse you, if you miss for a few times. Our great Gurus created these numbers to improve the dedication towards the process. The bottom line is, it doesn't matter how many times you did it. The only thing matters is how you did it and what you got out of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;3. What if he repeats without doing a sankalpa of the number of times daily?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ans&lt;/strong&gt;: In practical, as the name suggests &quot;Sankalpa&quot; is a dedication to do something. In a way, you are initialising a vedic ritual. If you keenly observe the &quot;Sankalpa&quot; process and it's meaning, you will come to know that it says for what purpose you are doing this ritual and which god/ goddess you are decided to worship during it. It is to create a feel in what you are doing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;4. Can he repeat the mantra in any posture, circumstance or place?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ans&lt;/strong&gt;: These are some important aspect in the doing any important work. Can you do a 4-5 hours ritual without sitting? During that, will you be able to concentrate after half an hour? Will you be able to concentrate on the process, if you are getting a pungent bad smell? Will you be able to sit without moving, if the place is not clean and its a place for insects (ants, cockroaches, etc.)? Considering all such situations, our scriptures created some rules on these aspects. Moreover, if you observe most of these postures are related to yoga, meditation and kundalini etc. If you have arthritis, you can do it in you home by creating some clean place where there is no disturbances from outside world. You simply lit a light and a incense stick to give a pleasant and peaceful mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;5. Should the speed of repeating the mantra be uniform or is it enough if the mantra is pronounced with clarity?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ans&lt;/strong&gt;: Clarity and phonetics are very important for mantras. What you want to gain by speeding up the enchanting? What you want to gain out of it? If you have other important things than this, enchant for less number of times till when you have concentration. Or don't do it at all if you are unable to concentrate. No problem. The dedication towards the god and the process is important, nothing else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;6. Can he recall the mantra even within him (without speaking out)? Does this count?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ans&lt;/strong&gt;: He can recollect it anywhere and any time. Regarding the count, I have a question. What you want to do with the count? Think about about how many times you are awakening yourself with that knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;7. If one chants the mantra by habit unconsciously, does this count towards Purasacharana?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ans&lt;/strong&gt;: Consiously or Unconsciously, whenever you are doing a revision of what you learned, you can call it a &quot;Punahcharana&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;8. Can he eat meat while doing Purasacharana? Doesn't this habit drop by itself when he reaches a certain stage?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ans&lt;/strong&gt;: Meat is not a &quot;Sathvik&quot; food as per the scriptures. They say that the person who want to do some vedic practices should not eat food which is not &quot;Sathvik&quot;. Because, as per their experiences, if you want to control you body and your mind, you should eat only &quot;Sathvik&quot; food. And for the second part of your question, I don't think the habits will fade away just like that without that person's dedication. If you know what you are eating and if you are OK with it's effects, you may continue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, sorry for the lengthy post.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2385" LastActivityDate="2015-01-27T12:12:56.427" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5270" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5271" CreationDate="2015-01-27T12:16:56.147" Score="6" ViewCount="6365" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, why are Arjuna and his brothers called Pandavas and Duryodhana and his brothers called Kauravas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any reason to call them like that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1186" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-16T03:58:18.953" LastActivityDate="2016-01-23T15:37:45.270" Title="Why are they called Pandavas and Kauravas?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|kauravas|name|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5271" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5270" CreationDate="2015-01-27T12:57:30.357" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kuru was an ancient lunar dynasty king of Hastinapura and an ancestor of Shantanu.  The patronymic (i.e. last name form) of the name Kuru is Kaurava, so in a broad sense you could say that everyone descended from Kuru is a Kaurava, which includes both the sons of Pandu and the sons of Dhritarashtra.  But the way Vedic patronymics worked was as follows: if X is the eldest son of man Y, then the sons of X adopt the same patronymic that Y had.  But if X is a younger son of man Y, the sons of X just use X's name to form a patroymic. (Except when Y's elder sons have no children, in which case X's sons constitute the senior branch of the family.)  Shantanu was called Shantanu Kaurava, his sons were called Vichitravirya Kaurava and Chitrangada Kaurava, and Vichitravirya's two sons were called Dhritarashtra Kaurava and Pandu Kaurava. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Dhritarashtra's sons would be called Duryodhana Kaurava and the like, but the sons of Pandu, being the sons of a younger son, would adopt Pandu's name as their patroynmic.  So they would be referred to as Yudhishtra Pandava, Bhima Pandava, etc.  That is why the sons of Dhritarashtra are Kauravas and the sons of Pandu are Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, it should be noted that all this stuff about ancestry and descent is not necessarily about actual biological relations.  For instance Dhritarashtra and Pandu are actually the biological sons of Vyasa, not Vichitravirya, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3061/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  And the Pandavas are the biological sons of the gods Yama, Vayu, Indra, and the Ashwini Kumaras, not Pandu.  But they're still considered these people's adopted sons, as per the practice of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niyoga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Niyoga&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-10-12T16:57:29.790" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5272" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-27T14:44:51.877" Score="1" ViewCount="2068" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to combine my two mantras into one.  Can Hindu mantras be combined to create on mantra, such as adding and removing words of a certain mantra?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Om Gam Kleem Shreem Brezee Aim Ganapataye Namaha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want money, friends, a lover soulmate and all resistance &amp;amp; obstacles removed so I can get there.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My intentions are to wrap it all up as one and have it be just as effective and chanting them separate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2387" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-01-28T07:44:29.270" LastActivityDate="2015-01-28T07:44:52.663" Title="Combining and mixing mantras" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5273" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-27T16:24:11.167" Score="12" ViewCount="2551" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of my Sri Lankan friends claims that Ravana spoke &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinhalese_language&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sinhalese&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Is there any place in the Ramayana where the sage Valmiki mentioned about the language of Ravana and his people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2389" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-06-12T15:36:51.903" LastActivityDate="2016-06-12T15:36:51.903" Title="Did Ravan speak Sanskrit?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|sanskrit|language|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5274" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5272" CreationDate="2015-01-27T16:30:51.517" Score="1" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Combining Mantras can have harmful effects&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people say that the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sciencebehindmantras.blogspot.com/2013/01/beej-mantras.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;seed Mantras&lt;/a&gt; like Aum, Haym, Kleem, etc can be combined. However this is NOT RECOMMENDED without guidance from a Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Combining and mixing mantras is very very dangerous. Imagine combining a random set of chemicals in order to combine their advantages. What happens ultimately? Nobody knows!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar it is with combining and mixing mantras. Mantras are very useful if chanted rightly, but they can be very dangerous if not! That is why it is safe to chant mantras which one knows and also better yet chant the mantra under guidance of one's Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stutimandal.com/gif_devi/kshamaa_praarthanaa.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kshama Prarthana&lt;/a&gt; is chanted by some devotees after recitation just to expiate the possible harmful effects of wrongly chanting mantras. Imagine then combining them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;God will Himself take care of the one who has surrendered to Him&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However there is an easier way to achieve the same effect that you need. You want money, friends, a lover and all resistance and obstacles removed. The best solution for that is to surrender all of these and control over your life to God (you can call him by any name you want - Sri Krishna, Rama, Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu, etc [Gita 10:20]).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gita 9:22&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form--to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-01-28T07:44:52.663" LastActivityDate="2015-01-28T07:44:52.663" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5275" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-01-27T16:47:23.783" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-01-27T16:47:23.783" LastActivityDate="2015-01-27T16:47:23.783" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5276" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-01-27T16:47:23.783" Score="0" Body="The Brahma sūtras, also known as the Vedānta Sūtras, are one of the three canonical texts of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy." OwnerUserId="1176" LastEditorUserId="1176" LastEditDate="2015-01-28T00:27:41.250" LastActivityDate="2015-01-28T00:27:41.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5277" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-27T20:04:30.383" Score="-2" ViewCount="9852" Body="&lt;p&gt;I watched the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lRjGsTUUlQ&amp;amp;sns=em&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;video&lt;/a&gt; by Dr. Pillai and two others explaining that chanting &lt;em&gt;AIM&lt;/em&gt; will bring about a male companion, as opposed to &lt;em&gt;KLEEM&lt;/em&gt; attracting females. This intrigued me.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know why this information isn't prevalent. When I research about &lt;em&gt;AIM&lt;/em&gt;, it states that it brings about wisdom, knowledge, education. I can't find any reputable information that &lt;em&gt;AIM&lt;/em&gt; attracts men except from this one video. Why?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, I would like to chant this mantra. How should I chant?  &lt;em&gt;OM AIM&lt;/em&gt; does not roll off my tongue. Can I chant &lt;em&gt;OM SHREEM BRZEE AIM NAMAHA&lt;/em&gt;?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2387" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-28T18:32:33.737" LastActivityDate="2016-01-28T18:32:33.737" Title="Mantras to attract a male" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2015-01-28T07:40:42.887" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5281" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5273" CreationDate="2015-01-28T00:53:31.883" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Ravana did speak Sanskrit.&lt;/strong&gt;  In fact, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga30/sundara_30_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Sundara Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, Hanuman hesitates before speaking to Sita in Lanka, because he's afraid that Sita will mistake him for Ravana, since Hanuman spoke the same educated Sanskrit that Ravana spoke, as Ravana was a Brahmana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If I use Sanskrit language like a brahmin, Seetha will get frightened, thinking me as Ravana. Especially, how can a monkey speak it? ... Thereafter, this large-eyed Seetha who is full of mind, thinking me as Ravana who can assume any form at will, may shout loudly, engendered by fear.... If I eulogize Rama, who is unwearied in action and a good relation, I shall not frighten her, whose mind is directed towards that relation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-10T13:37:52.103" LastActivityDate="2016-01-10T13:37:52.103" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5282" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5277" CreationDate="2015-01-28T03:33:35.993" Score="6" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mantras are to be given by a learned guru and are not to be openly chanted.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mantras are given only to deserving people (those who have graduated to a certain level of spirituality through observance of certain discipline prior)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What Dr. Pillai is doing is wrong and will have negative effects. You should also not take refuge in false gurus who do not respect the sanctity of mantras. A mantra is effective only if the corresponding rules are followed. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Aim is the saraswati(learning) beeja not kAma (desire) beeja. And as I mentioned in a previous response/comment, there is no such thing as &quot;brzee&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For a mantra to be effective, the chanter also has to follow certain rules such as celibacy, strict diet, sleeping on the floor etc. This may not be possible for all.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Above all, women are not supposed to chant mantras. They should not even hear certain mantras when they are pregnant or menstruating. So it is impossible for a true guru to initiate a woman into a mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the reasons one is unable to pronounce the mantras (and chanting with proper intonation is supreme because of the sound vibrations set forth by the mantra) properly is being a meat-eater. Meat thickens the tongue and renders it difficult to pronounce certain words. There are other reasons such as influence of one's native language etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, people &#xA;who are constrained by all the above, should keep chanting &quot;namah sivaaya&quot; or &quot; sri krishnaaya namaha&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are no restrictions to chanting the names of the lord except that one must be clean (in body and mind) when chanting. It is better to chant while sitting in a cleaned, quiet place. Make sure you sit on a mat and not on the floor when you chant. Alternatively, every morning, after a bath, face the Sun God and pray to Him in your own language. Use the same prayer every day. All your righteous desires will be fulfilled. Good luck. Remember respect for the divine is paramount.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-01-29T14:36:29.857" LastActivityDate="2015-01-29T14:36:29.857" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5283" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5277" CreationDate="2015-01-28T05:33:06.823" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aim is a bija (seed) word which should only be intoned when given directly by an enlightened guru to a disciple. The 'power' of the vibration is only gained when the sound intonation is received directly from one's guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also used in certain prayers in pujas - by priests and sadhus who are trained in proper pronunciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are mantras for a woman to obtain a husband (Atharva Veda Book II) or to win a man's love (Atharva Veda Book VI). If one wishes to use these mantras, they should be done with the help of a brahmin priest who is a priest of the Atharva Veda (brahmins specialize in different Vedas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To intone a mantra without proper training will result in no results or negative results. If someone sings a song completely off-key but knows all the words, are the vibrations that reach your ear the same as a person professionally trained as a singer?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is best to stay away from people in the West who profess to Westerners that they are experts in mantras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-01-28T05:33:06.823" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5284" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5260" CreationDate="2015-01-28T05:55:11.723" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why single out women? There are norms for both men and women. Like all other countries, the norms are mostly based on custom and local superstition and not religion. The Laws of Manu give some guidance as to the norms for men and women. The Vedas, Brahmanas and Upanishads also give guidance as to what an individual's (man and woman) norms should be throughout life. Especially the 4 stages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who want to pursue a worldly life, the Vedas give directions to both men and women. As a general saying for women, women are told to &quot;Be Sita&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-01-28T05:55:11.723" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5287" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="411" CreationDate="2015-01-28T12:40:14.523" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahmacharyam means celibacy. I would like to clarify that marrying a woman will not disqualify anyone to become brahmachari (celibate). The man who do not discharge (veerya skalanam) his semen is called brahmachari. Even after the marriage a man can be bhrahmachari without having intercourse with wife. This is a very deep subject and one needs lot of wisdom to understand this concept. A man can be brahmachari even after having intercourse with a woman. There are many perfect brahmacharis in Hindu scriptures, Bhishma and Hanuma are best among them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2396" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T02:45:02.187" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T02:45:02.187" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5289" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5290" CreationDate="2015-01-28T18:24:55.747" Score="1" ViewCount="5210" Body="&lt;p&gt;I remember some sage cursed Lord Hanuman for misusing his great powers and Hanuman forgot that he had special powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But how did he break the curse? How did he get to know that he has special powers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2399" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-01-29T02:17:01.397" LastActivityDate="2015-01-29T02:17:01.397" Title="How does Lord Hanuman recalls his special powers?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-01-29T09:34:42.643" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5290" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5289" CreationDate="2015-01-28T23:19:58.483" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Hanuman did &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1966/38&quot;&gt;forget his special powers&lt;/a&gt; due to the curse of the sages. But when the sages cursed Hanuman, they had also added the clause that &lt;strong&gt;whenever anyone would remind Hanuman of his glory, his powers will again arise&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yadā te smāryate kīrtistadā te vardhate balam&lt;/em&gt;  [VR - 7.36.35]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - When you will be reminded of your glory, then your powers will increase.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when during the search for maa Sita the time came to cross the ocean, Jambavan said among them Hanuman is only able to cross the ocean and reminded him how he was born of Vayu and how he has special powers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स त्वम् केसरिणः पुत्रः क्षेत्रजो भीम विक्रमः ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मारुतस्य औरसः पुत्रः तेजसा च अपि तत् समः |  त्वम् हि वायु सुतो वत्स प्लवने च अपि तत् समः ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वयम् अद्य गत प्राणा भवान् अस्मासु सांप्रतम् | दाक्ष्य विक्रम संपन्नः कपि राज इव अपरः || [VR - 4.66.29,30,31]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Such as you are, you are Kesari's son through his wife, oh, frightful pugilist, and you are the lineal son of Air-god, and even by your gusting you are selfsame to Air-god, and even by your flying also you are his selfsame to Air-god, in all respects.Presently we are as good as dead, and among us presently you are the only one rife with competence and valiance, you are the other Sugreeva, the king of monkeys, to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So after Jambavan &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga66/kishkindha_66_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;reminded Hanuman of his powers&lt;/a&gt; and glory, as per the statement of the sages, the curse broke and His powers again increased.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-01-28T23:19:58.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5291" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5292" CreationDate="2015-01-29T09:36:44.450" Score="6" ViewCount="931" Body="&lt;p&gt;Everyone knows there are 16 Sanskar in Hinduism. In this 16 Sanskar, Antyesthi (Cremation) is the final Sanskar performed after death (of a person) by his or her descendents.But I came to know that the person (who wants to take Sanyasa from Vanaprastha) before taking Sanyasa have to perform his own Antyesthi (Cremation). If it is true,then&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the Purpose of Own Antyesthi (Cremation) before taking Sanyasa?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And I came across that respective Guru gives a different(new) name to Sanyasi or Shishya (Disciple). Like: Swami Vivekananda (Narendra Nath Datta) name has given by his Guru Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On which Basis(Spiritual Qualities) does Guru gives a new name to Sanyasi or Shishya(Disciple)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any Co-relation of above two questions?(Own Cremation and a New name)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-02T13:36:22.280" LastActivityDate="2015-03-02T13:36:22.280" Title="What is the Purpose of own Antyesthi (Cremation) before taking Sanyasa?" Tags="|guru|samskara|cremation|sanyasi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5292" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5291" CreationDate="2015-01-29T16:21:16.000" Score="2" Body="&lt;h1&gt;What is the Purpose of Own Antyesthi (Cremation) before taking Sanyasa?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is because the rites are performed when the body dies. Similarly when one takes up Sannyasa, it is symbolic that His body attachment is now dead. That is one has cut off all ties with His physical body. Therefore the cremation rites are performed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramahansa Yogananda describes this in Autobiography of a Yogi, Chapter 24:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bibidisa or elaborate initiation into swamiship includes a fire ceremony, during which symbolical funeral rites are performed. The physical body of the disciple is represented as dead, cremated in the flame of wisdom. The newly-made swami is then given a chant, such as: &amp;quot;This atma is Brahma&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Thou art That&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;I am He.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However some saints do not perform such initiation. For example, Paramahansa Yogananda did not do this ceremony, because Sri Yukteshwarji (His Guru) decided that is was not needed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramahansa Yogananda describes this in Autobiography of a Yogi, Chapter 24:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Yukteswar, however, with his love of simplicity, dispensed with all formal rites and merely asked me to select a new name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: This DOES NOT implies that these rituals are NOT NECESSARY AT ALL. This is just example to show that not all saints need to follow these rituals. User moonstar2001 brought the issue in comments below, thus I am clarifying it here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think that also would answer your other question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;On which Basis(Spiritual Qualities) does Guru gives a new name to Sanyasi or Shishya(Disciple)?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a general guideline for this based on Dashanami tradition for monks of Shankara's order of swami's. Paramhansa Yogananda describes this in Autobiography of a Yogi, Chapter 24:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to his new name, usually ending in ananda, the swami takes a title which indicates his formal connection with one of the ten subdivisions of the Swami Order. These dasanamis or ten agnomens include the Giri (mountain), to which Sri Yukteswar, and hence myself, belong. Among the other branches are the Sagar (sea), Bharati (land), Aranya (forest), Puri (tract), Tirtha (place of pilgrimage), and Saraswati (wisdom of nature).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I think you mean to ask for: based on these guidelines, how exactly the name is chosen? For example, how did Sri Yuktheswarji choose 'Yogananda' as the title? How did Sri Ramakrishna choose 'Vivekananda' as the title? How did 'Chandrasekharendra Saraswati' get his title?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no rule for this. The Guru simply follows His Intuition or inner Guidance or Dharma. Whatever you call it. Usually Guru gives the name to His disciples, but sometimes the Guru also asks the disciple to choose it Himself! For example, Paramhansa Yogananda was asked to choose His own spiritual Title:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramahansa Yogananda describes this in Autobiography of a Yogi, Chapter 24:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I will give you the privilege of choosing it yourself,&amp;quot; he said, smiling.&#xA;&amp;quot;Yogananda,&amp;quot; I replied, after a moment's thought. The name literally means &amp;quot;Bliss (ananda) through divine union (yoga).&amp;quot;&#xA;&amp;quot;Be it so. Forsaking your family name of Mukunda Lal Ghosh, henceforth you shall be called Yogananda of the Giri branch of the Swami Order.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is there any Co-relation of above two:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only correlation is that only the One who has give up all ties to body and physical differences can take up the name of Swami. Thus the two are actually correlated in the sense one is a pre-requisite for the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramhansa Yogananda describes the qualities of Sannyasis in Autobiography of a Yogi Chapter 24:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ideal of selfless service to all mankind, and of renunciation of personal ties and ambitions, leads the majority of swamis to engage actively in humanitarian and educational work in India, or occasionally in foreign lands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Imbuing his waking and sleeping consciousness with the thought, &amp;quot;I am He,&amp;quot; he roams contentedly, in the world but not of it. Thus only may he justify his title of swami one who seeks to achieve union with the Swa or Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is needless to add that not all formally titled swamis are equally successful in reaching their high goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;How about Swami Vivekananda?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda, after Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's Mahasamadhi, took up Sannyaas with eight other disciples, and thus took the title of Sri Swami Vivekananda which means the Bliss of Viveka (or Discrimination).[ &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBhuyan200310-63&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;: Wikipedia (Not sure how accurate this is though)]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-01-29T20:40:07.777" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5294" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-30T06:38:42.980" Score="7" ViewCount="1011" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm currently visiting India, and I went to the town of Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu.  It contains a place called Thiruvahindram, one of the 108 Divya Desams.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_desam#List_of_Divya_Desams&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;,  the Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the development of Vaishnavism; it is the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member). The Alwars praised many Vishnu temples and other sacred places of Vishnu in their poetry; a sacred place of Vishnu that was praised by at least one Alwar is called a Divya Desam, and there are 108 of them; see the list &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_desam#List_of_Divya_Desams&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, there are many special things about Thiruvahindrapuram.  The main Vishnu deity is called Devanatha Perumal:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WKOxg.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once the gods needed help to defeat some Asuras, so they prayed to Vishnu in Thiruvahindrapuram.  Vishnu appeared and killed the Asuras with his Sudarshana Chakra (discus weapon).  Afterwards he wanted water, so his bird vehicle Garuda started digging for water with his beak, creating a body of water known as Garuda Theertham.  But he was taking too long, so Vishnu's serpent Adiseshan used his tail to quickly dig a well for Vishnu.  Another thing about this place is that right next to the Devanatha Perumal temple is a hill, formed from a part of Mount Oushadi which fell while Hanuman was carrying it.  (I discuss that story in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2348/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  And on top of that hill is a temple to Vishnu's incarnation Hayagriva, who appeared before the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I could ask so many questions about this sacred place, but for now let me just ask one.  The priest of the Devantaha Perumal Vishnu temple said that the sage Markandeya and Bhumidevi engaged in Tapasya (deep meditation) here, and Vishnu appeared before them.  When I heard this, at first I just assumed that this was about Vishnu's wife Bhumidevi, goddess of the earth; Vishnu married her after she engaged in Tapasya.  But then I went to the famous Upillaiappan Vishnu Temple near Kumbakonam.  That is where Vishnu, in his Venkateshwara form, married the sage Markandeya's daughter.  Markandeya's daughter was an incarnation of Lakshmi and her name was Bhumadevi.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, who is it that Vishnu appeared before in Thiruvahindrapuram?  Did he appear before Bhumidevi goddesss of the Earth, or before Bhumadevi daughter of Markandeya?  The latter seems more plausible to me, since it would make sense that Markandeya and his daughter would together engage in Tapasya in order to get Vishnu as a groom.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2018-12-17T13:38:43.267" Title="Who did Vishnu appear before in Thiruvahindrapuram, Bhumidevi or Bhumadevi?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|venkateshwara|bhumi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5295" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5299" CreationDate="2015-01-30T06:40:35.030" Score="1" ViewCount="112" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am planning to build a list of good website or online links about God's stories. My kids everyday ask me to tell story in the night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can you suggest good list here ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2408" LastActivityDate="2015-01-30T12:15:00.603" Title="list of good websites / videos for kids about Hinduism?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-01-31T19:37:14.003" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5296" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3938" CreationDate="2015-01-30T08:12:07.987" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Thaali is a symbol which a man ties to his wife's neck to show everyone that he guards her from her head to toe. Not wearing it used to be looked down up on as if it was sacrilege by the woman. But times have changed and people no longer think of it as an important entity, and it is more like an accessory. Some women remove it when going to bed as they find it uncomfortable, and she wears it herself the next day. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this number of times thing seems to be superstitious, so can't be told as if something wrong might occur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="444" LastActivityDate="2015-01-30T08:12:07.987" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5297" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5295" CreationDate="2015-01-30T10:09:16.020" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sister Nivedita, disciple of Swami Vivekananda, wrote a book called &lt;em&gt;Cradle Tales of Hinduism&lt;/em&gt;. It was written under Swami Vivekananda's guidance and help (you can see this from Vivekananda's Complete Works, as some of his correspondence with her refers to his reading and corrections of stories to her). It is still available as a book, not sure if it is available softcopy. Google 'Cradle Tales of Hinduism'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It has Hindu stories of gods and heroes to be read to small children. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-01-30T10:09:16.020" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5298" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5294" CreationDate="2015-01-30T11:46:31.697" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found these details on web site ramanuja.org where a devotee narrates the experiences during his/her travel to Tiruvahindrapuram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The devotee says that based on reading of the book on 108 divya Desams published by TTD Devasthanams by Miss.S.Ramesh, the following are the sthala puranas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Once upon a time ,in Thirupapuliyur,Lord Shiva was praying to Lord &#xA;Devanatha (Lord Vishnu) when an asareeri advised him to proceed to Garuda nadi and continue his penance. Lord Shiva followed the asereeri,and within short time Lord Devanatha (Lord Vishnu) appeared before him and he granted the help as requested by Shiva to kill the asura Triprasuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With Lord Brahma as charioteer, Mt Meru as bow, Bhoomi as chariot, Chandra &#xA;+Surya as wheels, Vasuki as bow string rope,4 oceans as quiver, vedas as horses,Lord Vishnu as arrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fierce battle resulted in the asuras being vanquished while at the &#xA;same time Lord Shiva was being swept away by the river which was in spate.&#xA;As always, Lord Devanatha (Lord Vishnu) came to the rescue by playing the divine flute on the river banks-the result;Samudraraja was pacified,lord Shiva was back on the shores safe and sound.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even to this day on Masi Pournami the Theerthavari utsavam is &#xA;celebrated wherin Lord Siva of Thirupapuliyur and Lord Devanatha (Lord Vishnu) get into the sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the great Srivaishnava achayas, Swami Vedanta Desika refers to this in his Desika Sukti - 'masi kadal adi mazhindu varuvare',i.e.have a sea bath in Masi and be happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Concering the revealation of Lord Vishnu as the Trinity:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet another battle between the devas and the asuras with the former &#xA;being helped by our Lord  Vishnu and the latter by Lord Shiva.&#xA;Sudharshan chakra destroyed the enemies and returned victorious.&#xA;In fact Lord Siva's 3rd eye also was no match at all to the dazzle of Sudharshana chakra of Lord Vishnu-it seems it was like lighting a candle in broad daylight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu had enough of the war when he recalled Sudarshana and pacifying him by revealing himself in his beautiful form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was at this juncture that the Trinity form of Lord Devanatha was also seen by Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Trinity form had both Shankara and his consort Parvati as a part, Goddess Lakshmi was seated on His chest of Lord Devanatha, while Lord Brahma arose from his navel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devas, Brahmins, kings, and all people were part of the form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition,in his body, God also revealed the Ekadasa Rudras i.e.manifestation of Lord Shiva in 11 forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva requested Lord Devanatha to stay at Thiruvahindrapuram and &#xA;also to permit him to stay at Thirupapuliyur-both these wishes were granted by Lord Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)The Lord felt thirsty after this fierce batle and hence sent both &#xA;Garuda and Adishesha to fetch waterto quench his thirst. Adishesha hit into the earth and water came gushing out. He took that water to the Lord&#xA;who was very pleased and said that the water would be reffered to as &#xA;Shesha Theertham. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile,Garuda who had gone to collect water from Viraja Nadhi entered Madhu vanam where a rishi was engrossed in deep penance.The muni had in his kamandala the Viraja Thirtham seeing which Garuda automatically tilted the same and diverted the water inside towards Oushada giri where the Lord was waiting to quench his thirst. But Garuda became disappointed on realising that Adishesha had already obtained water for the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The great Lord Devanatha, who cheers up one and all, found an appropriate solution by declaring that henceforth Shesha theertham would fulfill the wishes of all people who bathe in it while the river brought by Garuda would be known as Garuda Nadhi and will be considered equivalent to the Holy Ganges.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that the water brought by Adishesha was Patala Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even till this day the Shesha theertha is located in the premises of the temple and the temple kitchen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4)Another story related to the temple goes thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brighu maharshi found a girl child on a lotus whom he reared with &#xA;love and affection. He named the child as Bharghavi(daughter of Brighu). Note that there are only 2 placeswhere the Goddess is named Bharghavi-Thiruvahindrapuram and at Adanoor. The Thayar was also called Hemambujanayaki(which stays on as the official name!)as she was found on a golden lotus. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From childhood, the girl was always thinking of her Lord and finally&#xA;Lord Narayana himself came to Brighu Maharishi for permission to marry &#xA;Bharghavi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To save Brighu from the sadness of separation from his foster daughter the Lord permitted him to continue to stay at that place with Lord Devanatha and his daughter which is why in Thiruvahindrapuram Bhrighu maharishi is seen to the left of Lord Devanatha in the temple sanctum santorium.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastActivityDate="2015-01-30T11:46:31.697" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5299" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5295" CreationDate="2015-01-30T12:15:00.603" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Check &lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.baps.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; website. In there visit section &lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.baps.org/thingstoknow/festival/23.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Things to Know&lt;/a&gt;. It has sub-sections regarding Satsang, Festivals, Scriptures, Hinduism and Sacred Places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are &lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.baps.org/storytime/hindustories.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;animated stories&lt;/a&gt; (flash videos) under Story Time:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.baps.org/storytime/satsangstories.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Satsang&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.baps.org/storytime/hindustories.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.baps.org/storytime/moralstories.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Moral&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there is much more let your kids explore the website.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="73" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-01-30T12:15:00.603" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5300" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-30T14:56:09.003" Score="10" ViewCount="7526" Body="&lt;p&gt;I checked wikipedia and according to it there is no scriptual reference of Santoshi Mata in Hindu texts and she just gained popularity after 1960 movie 'Jai Santoshi Maa'. After reading the wiki article it seems as if she is a self created new goddess. Can somebody please explain which hindu texts contains the story of Santoshi Mata and about her other legends ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-11-11T16:28:52.423" LastActivityDate="2022-04-02T17:00:10.047" Title="Which Hindu texts contains the story of Santoshi Mata and about her other legends?" Tags="|belief|goddess|santoshi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5301" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-31T03:38:32.307" Score="4" ViewCount="517" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know about the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt; form of Vishnu (AKA Balaji or Srinivasa) in connection to the deity of the world-renowned &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_Venkateswara_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple&lt;/a&gt; in Tirupati.  But that is not the first time that Vishnu has come to earth in his Venkateshwara form; he came earlier as Upilliappan, the deity of the great &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5301/where-is-the-story-of-upillaiappan-in-the-brahmanda-purana&quot;&gt;Upilliappan Vishnu Temple&lt;/a&gt; near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu.  The story as I understand it goes roughly as follows.  Once the sage Markandeya prayed that he would have Lakshmi as a daughter and Vishnu as a son-in-law.  Sure enough, Lakshmi took an incarnation as a baby born from the earth, whom Markandeya named Bhumadevi (not to be confused with Vishnu's wife Bhumidevi goddess of the earth).  When Bhumadevi became a young girl, Vishnu went in his Venkateshwara form to Markandeya and asked for his daughter's hand in marriage.  Markandeya said that his daughter was so young, and that she didn't even know how to put salt in her cooking.  But Vishnu said that he was willing to eat without salt, for which he came to be known as Upilliappan or the lord without salt.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about the story itself, but rather what scripture the story is found in.  I just visited the Upillaiappan Vishnu Temple, and this is what the Sthala Purana (temple scripture) of the temple says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;History of the holy place found in Brahmanda Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada's prayer to Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once Narada prayed to Brahma to enlighten him on the history and and greatness of the holy Markandeya kshetra that will also be for the benefit of humanity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing this, Brahma started narrating the greatness of Tiruvinnagar and its presiding deity, whose glory can not be described even by Adisesha with his 1000 tongues.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then it proceeds to tell the story of Upillaiappan in far more detail than I gave above.  My question is, where in the Brahmanda Purana does this story occur?  Here are all five volumes of the Motilal Banarsidass translation of the Brahmanda Purana, most of the links being taken from DSpace, the digital repository of the West Bengal Public Library network:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/21603&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/16203&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12922&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://issuu.com/nitai/docs/brahmanda_pu_iv&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/16455&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But at first glance I can't find the story there; here's the &lt;a href=&quot;http://tinyurl.com/kqrhhvs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;table of contents&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://tinyurl.com/laxj5a5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;index&lt;/a&gt; of the Brahmanda Purana.  Does anyone know where it is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-01-09T01:06:10.473" Title="Where is the story of Upilliappan in the Brahmanda Purana?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|venkateshwara|brahmanda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5302" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-31T06:22:04.660" Score="6" ViewCount="1329" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was recently watching a &lt;a href=&quot;http://youtu.be/t7EAlTcZFwY?t=46m30s&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;documentary&lt;/a&gt; about symbolism in ancient culture on YouTube.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It proclaims that Karthiyeka and Mars are same, which per my information is a new concept. Can someone corroborate the claim? Does the story of Skanda tell such a comparison between the two seemingly separate gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-11T23:41:47.810" LastActivityDate="2019-03-11T00:17:08.027" Title="Are Karthikeya and Mars same?" Tags="|symbolism|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5304" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-31T09:07:51.157" Score="2" ViewCount="541" Body="&lt;p&gt;When a day selected for any auspicious work fulfils in full all the auspicious elements in a Muhurtha e.g strong lagna, tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana, + auspicious Tarabala, Chandrabala &amp;amp; Panchanga, zodiac but the vakya almanac shows Marana Yoga ( as opposed to the other Yoga mentioned which indicates Vishikambha), will this Marana Yoga make the Muhurtha totally inauspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many learned scholars say the above mentioned Marana Yoga doest have much negative influence and thus need not to be overly worried about.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please comment with detail expiations when a Marana Yoga must take precedence?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2414" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-01-31T10:55:23.423" LastActivityDate="2015-01-31T10:55:23.423" Title="Muhurtha for Auspicious Ceremonies" Tags="|astrology|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5305" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-01-31T15:50:44.457" Score="0" ViewCount="74" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can someone please quote verses Or Vedas where Hindu religion acknowledges existence of other religion and guides to respect in their form?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2415" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-12-06T16:10:01.723" LastActivityDate="2017-12-06T16:10:01.723" Title="Do hindu Vedas refer Or and respect to religions?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|other-religions|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2015-01-31T17:00:54.947" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5306" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5291" CreationDate="2015-01-31T17:03:35.143" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Having received sannyas and being of Vivekananda's lineage, let me clarify a few points. Sai's answer is good and mostly true. Vivekananda and the direct disciples of Ramakrishna received their sannyas robes from Ramakrishna, they did not receive their names from him. Vivekananda actually used several names before deciding himself to take the name of Vivekananda. While wandering through India he used several names including Sachchidananda and Vividishananda (source: Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda). The direct disciples of Ramakrishna choose their own names. Ramakrishna received his sannyas from Tota Puri, so all sannyas descendants of Ramakrishna are Govardhana math lineage (one of the 4 established by Shankaracharya). There are several sannyas lineages from different direct disciples of Ramakrishna.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Traditionally, the sannyas name is supposed to start with the same vowel as one's birth name, but this practice is not followed much of the time anymore. Most of the time the name is given by the sadhu initiating one into sannyas (one's sannyas guru), but it is not a hard and fast rule. It is not uncommon for some to receive their sannyas from one guru and their name from another. I have also heard of others that have picked their names also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Names are supposed to represent a special aspect of the individual receiving it. As you may be aware, however, a Sanskrit word can have multiple meanings (depending on the context) or sound similar to another word with a not so good meaning. So names can sometimes point out both a divine or sattvic element as well as a worldly or tamasic element of the individual receiving it. This is often a source of laughter and jokes between sadhus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When one receives sannyas, one becomes dead to the world (hence the wearing of orange robes). As you are becoming dead to the world, you do your own death rites, relieving others from having to do yours later. At the same time, you do the death rites for your parents if they are still living, relieving you of having to do the rites later as you are becoming dead to the world and are not supposed to do any more obligatory rites. These are done by a brahmin priest with your participation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the rites are completed, one then does the rites of sannyas (again by a brahmin priest). After that one puts on the robes and receives the sannyas mantras from the sannyas guru. There are small unimportant variations depending upon whether you are alone or together with others receiving sannyas. There are a few mantras that are given at that time. There is some variation depending on which math your lineage belongs to (giri, puri, etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sivananda of Divine Life also had a 'multi-step' sannyas. I don't remember the details, but I think they are on the Divine Life website.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have met sadhus that went through no ceremonies, only walked away from the world and put the gerua cloth on themselves and gave themselves their own name. Others that received their robes from a sadhu but never did the ceremonies. Others who had no name until they were given it by followers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The circumstances and events surrounding each person's sannyas are very personal and different. When looking back, everyone feels they have been personally touched by the Divine Mother Herself in a different and personal way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-01-31T17:03:35.143" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5307" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5327" CreationDate="2015-01-31T21:48:13.680" Score="12" ViewCount="3508" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Padma Purana mentions that the eighteen Puranas are divided into three groups of six: Sattvika, Rajasika, and Tamasika. Why do the Rajasika and Tamasika Puranas exist at all? Does the Padma Purana explain this division, is there another Hindu scripture that explains this, or has a Hindu philosopher explained this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Should only the Sattvika Puranas be taken as valid scripture and the Rajasika and Tamasika Puranas ignored?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not looking for wishy-washy answers like &quot;the Puranas encourage Hindus to worship their Ishta Devata; therefore, all the Puranas are valid.&quot; I want a scriptural or a traditional philosophical explanation of this statement of the Padma Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE:&lt;/strong&gt; Sai has helped me a lot in gaining an understanding of the nature of the Puranas and their classification and Hindu scripture in general. However, I am still looking for other views. These are definitely welcome and will help me a lot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-29T23:00:45.127" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T17:26:53.737" Title="Why are there different classes of पुराणs (Puranas)?" Tags="|puranas|scripture|philosophy|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5311" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5215" CreationDate="2015-02-01T17:17:35.310" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt; is a conversation between &lt;em&gt;Arjuna&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Kṛṣṇa&lt;/em&gt; on the battlefield of &lt;em&gt;Kurukṣetra&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Sañjaya&lt;/em&gt; is narrating the details of the battle to &lt;em&gt;Dhṛtarāṣṭra&lt;/em&gt;. As such, the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt; begins with &lt;em&gt;Dhṛtarāṣṭra&lt;/em&gt; asking about the war (&quot;&lt;em&gt;dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca&lt;/em&gt;&quot;), and &lt;em&gt;Sañjaya&lt;/em&gt; responding, and quoting (chiefly) the words of &lt;em&gt;Arjuna&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Kṛṣṇa&lt;/em&gt;, who had a conversation at &lt;em&gt;Kurukṣetra&lt;/em&gt;. In fact, the entire war is not presented directly in the &lt;em&gt;Mahābhārata&lt;/em&gt;, the source of the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt; (beginning with &lt;em&gt;Mahābhārata&lt;/em&gt; 6.23), but rather narrated as a &quot;story-within-a-story&quot; between &lt;em&gt;Dhṛtarāṣṭra&lt;/em&gt;, who is asking about the details of the war (that's why the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt; begins with &lt;em&gt;Dhṛtarāṣṭra&lt;/em&gt; asking about what his sons and the &lt;em&gt;Pāṇḍava&lt;/em&gt;s did at &lt;em&gt;Kurukṣetra&lt;/em&gt;).  &lt;em&gt;Arjuna&lt;/em&gt; is grieving and frightened over the prospects of the war; &lt;em&gt;Kṛṣṇa&lt;/em&gt; comforts him with spiritual advice that applies as equally to &lt;em&gt;Arjuna&lt;/em&gt; as it does today to every human. This spiritual advice is known as the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt; is not changed in any way. The original Sanskrit version was the same version that has always existed. Only the translations vary. &lt;strong&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt; is a conversation on multiple levels (the conversation between &lt;em&gt;Dhṛtarāṣṭra&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Sañjaya&lt;/em&gt;, with a &quot;sub-conversation&quot; between &lt;em&gt;Kṛṣṇa&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Arjuna&lt;/em&gt; that is the most important part of the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt;), not a monologue by &lt;em&gt;Kṛṣṇa&lt;/em&gt;, and it has not changed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE:&lt;/strong&gt; Upon further examination, I found out that the BORI critical edition of the &lt;em&gt;Mahābhārata&lt;/em&gt; does not consider &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt; 13.1 (which would be &lt;em&gt;Mahābhārata&lt;/em&gt; 6.35.1 if it existed in the critical edition) to be a valid verse. This verse hardly matters, however. It is just &lt;em&gt;Arjuna&lt;/em&gt; expressing his desire for knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastEditorUserId="2382" LastEditDate="2015-02-15T23:35:59.440" LastActivityDate="2015-02-15T23:35:59.440" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5316" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-02T13:13:01.000" Score="1" ViewCount="1612" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the the Hindu Trimurti  (Brahma - Vishnu - Mahesh) the same as the the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are these 3 sides of one god?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2423" LastActivityDate="2015-02-26T22:25:04.920" Title="Is the the Hindu Trimurti (Brahma - Vishnu - Mahesh) the same as the the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity?" Tags="|scripture|gods|other-religions|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5319" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5316" CreationDate="2015-02-02T19:00:28.247" Score="3" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Summary&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the Hindu concept of the &lt;em&gt;trimūrti&lt;/em&gt; may &lt;strong&gt;superficially resemble&lt;/strong&gt; the Christian Trinity in that both involve three members of a single Godhead, &lt;strong&gt;the concepts are far more different than similar&lt;/strong&gt;. The individual members of the Hindu &lt;em&gt;trimūrti&lt;/em&gt; are just illusory ways of conceiving the one same divine spirit of &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, and one can say that they are three sides to the same God, whereas the Christian Trinity involves three substantially different persons from the same Godhead that are one in will, action, knowledge (for the most part), and essence--the three persons of the Christian Trinity are not three aspects or faces of the same God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Full Explanation&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The concept of the &lt;em&gt;trimūrti&lt;/em&gt; (which does not belong to all Hindu ways of thought) is not exactly like the Christian concept of the Trinity. While in Hindu thought, the three members of the trimūrti are three sides to one God or Spirit, the three persons of the Christian Trinity are NOT three &quot;aspects&quot; or &quot;sides&quot; to one God--they are substantially distinct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)  The Christian Trinity has three different persons, with real differences between each person. However, the Hindu conception of the &lt;em&gt;trimūrti&lt;/em&gt; is similar to the Christian heresy of Sabellianism or modalism—that is, &lt;em&gt;Viṣṇu&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Brahmā&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;Śiva&lt;/em&gt; are different aspects of &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, rather than being distinct persons, or different ways of conceiving the same &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, who acts in different roles at different times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Christian Trinity, God the Son is begotten of God the Father, but not made from him; the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father through the Son, so to speak. They are different persons of the same God, with substantial differences—the Threeness of God is not some kind of illusion in Christianity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;trimūrti&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Viṣṇu&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Brahmā&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;Śiva&lt;/em&gt; are three sides to the same “Spirit&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;) but they are just different conceptions/aspects/faces/modes/parts. Swami Vishwananda, who commented above on your question, said it perfectly: &quot;The Hindu &lt;em&gt;trimūrti&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;saguṇa brahman&lt;/em&gt;) is the &lt;em&gt;nirguṇa brahman&lt;/em&gt; when seen from the aspect of māyā. In reality, there is no difference.&quot; However, the Christian Trinity involves the supreme harmony and cooperation of three distinct persons of the same God, who have different familial relationships.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)  &lt;em&gt;Viṣṇu&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Brahmā&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;Śiva&lt;/em&gt;, when acting as members of the &lt;em&gt;trimūrti&lt;/em&gt;, do not always cooperate, according to some parts of Hindu scripture. However, the three persons of the Christian God always cooperate and share the same attributes—omniscience, omnipotence, &lt;em&gt;et cetera&lt;/em&gt;--although God the Son may have had some qualities limited, or voluntarily limited some qualities, like his omniscience and his omnipresence, subsequent to the hypostatic union (that is, the union of the divine nature and will of God the Son with his human nature and will).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) The roles of the members of each triad do not correspond. &lt;em&gt;Viṣṇu&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; in the role of preservation, &lt;em&gt;Brahmā&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; in the role of creation/generation, and &lt;em&gt;Śiva&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; in the role of (impermanent) destruction. In Christianity, God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit ALL are involved in any action by God. Their wills are tied together (with God the Son, his divine will is tied together with the will of God; his human will is separate and unrelated) always, and so is their knowledge (except in some cases where God the Son chose to limit his omniscience--for example, regarding the timing of his Second Coming).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastEditorUserId="2382" LastEditDate="2015-02-26T22:25:04.920" LastActivityDate="2015-02-26T22:25:04.920" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5320" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-02T23:12:40.717" Score="5" ViewCount="157" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do any of the texts talk about the higher mind versus the human mind of a person and how to tell the difference?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not talking about communication with God. I'm talking about where do you draw the line between the spiritual mind and the physical mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T05:12:38.637" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T05:12:38.637" Title="Higher mind versus a human mind and how to differentiate between them?" Tags="|scripture|consciousness|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5321" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5326" CreationDate="2015-02-02T23:17:15.717" Score="5" ViewCount="1401" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How do Vaishnavites understand the &lt;em&gt;Rudrahṛdayopaniṣad&lt;/em&gt;? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/rudrahridayaupanishad.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;English translation&lt;/a&gt; of this &lt;em&gt;upaniṣad&lt;/em&gt; says: “Rudra is the embodiment of all devas. All devas are merely different manifestations of Sri Rudra Himself. Rudra is the generator of the seed. Vishnu is the embryo of the seed. The root is Lord Shiva. The effect is Vishnu. The action is Brahma. The cause is Shiva. For the benefit of the worlds, Rudra has taken these three forms.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do Vaishnavites reconcile these words with their own faith, and what other parts of Hindu scripture do they use to do so? Specifically, I am asking about a &lt;em&gt;Dvaita&lt;/em&gt; conception of this &lt;em&gt;upaniṣad&lt;/em&gt; that does not generally allow for something like the concept of the &lt;em&gt;trimūrti&lt;/em&gt; or the idea that all the devas are aspects of &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (so please don’t give these answers).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE:&lt;/strong&gt; I would very much appreciate it also if you could link me to a word-by-word or line-by-line translation of the original Sanskrit version of the &lt;em&gt;Rudrahṛdayopaniṣad&lt;/em&gt;. If you know (enough) Sanskrit and can do translate it word-by-word or line-by-line, that would be perfect! I have also found the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shaivam.org/sanskrit/ssurudrahridaya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;original Sanskrit version&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;em&gt;Rudrahṛdayopaniṣad&lt;/em&gt; so you can use that. Specifically, I want the lines that I quoted above translated from original Sanskrit version word-by-word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-06T10:49:35.980" LastActivityDate="2017-11-07T18:23:29.677" Title="How do Vaishnavites understand the Rudrahṛdayopaniṣad?" Tags="|shiva|vaishnavism|upanishads|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5322" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="262" CreationDate="2015-02-03T00:28:59.150" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As senshin mentions above, there is no fixed canon of Hindu scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, if  you are referring to Hindu scripture whose authenticity is not held to be infallible, the &lt;em&gt;smṛti&lt;/em&gt; parts of Hindu scripture might fit that description--in particular, the &lt;em&gt;purāṇa&lt;/em&gt;s, which are very sectarian scripture and have very obvious contradictions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I recommend that you research the difference between &lt;em&gt;śruti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;smṛti&lt;/em&gt; Hindu scripture, but keep in mind that not all Hindus (as with any point of Hindu faith!) make this distinction, or make this distinction as it is widely held.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt; itself technically falls into the &lt;em&gt;śruti&lt;/em&gt; class of Hindu scripture, but this does not mean that it is not true or valid in any way. It simply signifies that the words are of human origin (but this does not mean the words are not divinely inspired).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I think the best answer is that there is nothing like the Biblical Apocrypha in Hindu scripture, particularly in the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt;. There is only one Sanskrit version of the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt;. Only the translations, and sometimes the structuring of the lines, may vary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T16:13:57.560" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T16:13:57.560" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5323" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2993" CreationDate="2015-02-03T00:50:25.020" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindia.com/book/details/five-principal-upanishads-exhaustive-commentary-in-english-on-ishavasya-kena-katha-taittiriya-mundaka-upanishads-with-original-sanskrit-transliteration-translation-exposition-and-annotations-based-on-ramanuja-school-IHG016/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; that has a book (but it apparently costs $50!) containing commentaries on five Upanishads, including the Ishopanishad, by a Visitadvaita scholar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is where I found that link from: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=11030&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=11030&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastActivityDate="2015-02-03T00:50:25.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5325" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5320" CreationDate="2015-02-03T08:11:19.423" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are numerous texts that deal with this subject. The Upanishads go into this in detail as well as Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms. Before plunging head first, you should get a foundation so that you will understand terms and concepts of other more difficult texts. In the East, there is no spiritual mind vs physical mind. There are 5 'sheaths'. There is the physical body-which includes the physical mind/brain, and then there are the other finer sheaths, including that which is called super-consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want a beginning list of books to start with, I would suggest Jnana Yoga by Swami Vivekananda followed by Raja Yoga (includes Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms) by Swami Vivekananda, and then the Mandukya Upanishad (which deals with the three states of the soul -waking, dream, and dreamless -and the fourth state, Turiya -corresponding to super consciousness. These will give a good foundation for more difficult texts that include the Upanishads and the writings of Sankaracharya.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-02-03T08:11:19.423" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5326" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5321" CreationDate="2015-02-03T08:50:31.563" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The same question was asked, on &lt;a href=&quot;http://narayanastra.blogspot.in/p/the-absurdity-of-shakta-interpretations.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Vaishnavaite&lt;/a&gt;  website. I am just reproducing the same answer that was provided there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudra Hridaya Upanishad is inauthentic because it contradicts many statements in the Vedas that declare Mahavishnu as supreme and aprAkRta (eg., Narayana Upanishad, Mahopanishad, Subala Upanishad, Narayana Suktam, Purusha Suktam, etc. etc.). This also contradicts many statements in the two itihAsas -- Srimad Valmiki Ramayana and Mahabharata -- where there are innumerable statements of Vishnu's supremacy over Brahma and Siva.&#xA;We can reinterpret these same “Upanishads” in a manner that actually refutes their opinions!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: These Upanishads are indeed bogus and must be discarded as pramAna. We are only interpreting them as a establishment of our stance and to close off these arguments once and for all. That way, even spurious texts will not be used to give distorted meanings of shAstra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“aa umaa saa svaya.n vishhNuh |” (text “Rudra Hridayopanishad” 1:05)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shaiva/Shakta interpretation: “Uma Herself is in the form of Vishnu”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaidika Interpretation: Fame or Yashas (Uma) is verily VishNu. “Uma” means “yashas” and is the ability to grant brahmAnandam or the ability to mingle with those lesser than himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sarvadevaatmako rudraH sarve devaaH shivaatmakaaH .&#xA;rudrasya dakshiNe paarshve ravirbrahmaa trayo.agnayaH .. 4..(text “Rudra-ridayOpanishad”)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaidika Interpretation: Narasimha who is the destroyer of the disease of samsara (Rudra) is the inner self of all the devas, and the devas are always immersed in bhakti (of nArAyaNa) of an auspicious nature (shivAtmaka). On his left (skilful) side are the Sun like eye, the quality of greatness (Brahmatva) and Sacrifice symbolised by the three agnis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purusha Sukta says “ahO rAtrE pArshvE” – day and night are at his sides. In other words, bhagavAn nArAyaNa reconciles contradictions. He has both grace and anger, a snake and an eagle as his servants, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, here, the mantra describes his two sides. Starting with dakShina pArshvE, it talks about his three characteristics by which he is terrifying to the asurAs. “DakshiNa” means left, but also means “skilful”, so it could be a play on how his actions are both potent and skilful. The 3 characteristics of “vinAshAya ca duskrtAm” are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His sun like eye that is full of anger against hiranyakasipu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His brahmatva or absolute supremacy which frightens the asurAs and enables him to punish them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His actions, signified by sacrifice, that destroy the asurAs. BhagavAn’s deeds are often referred to as sacrifice, tapas, etc in the shAstra. Because his acts are a means by which he saves his devotees, just as yajna is a means to an end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vaamapaarshve umaa devii vishhNuH somo.api te trayaH&#xA;yaa umaa saa svaya.n vishhNuryo vishhNuH sa hi chandramaaH (text “Rudra-HridayOpanishad”)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaidika Interpretation: On his right (auspicious) side, there is Lakshmi who possesses the fame (of quenching his anger), his all-pervasiveness (by which he appeared in the pillar instantly to save prahlAda) and the nectarine auspicious attributes (somA). The fame (of sousIlyam or granting brahmAnandam) is verily vishNu and this vishNu is verily lustrous (as a result of this).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is his graceful side. “vAma” also means auspicious or beautiful and hence once again is a play on words. The 3 attributes are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmi, who suggested PrahlAda pacify Narasimha and thus saved the worlds from his anger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His all-pervasiveness by which he appears swiftly at the call of his devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His nectarine auspicious attributes. Soma is a name of vishNu as per the sahasranAmA (sOmapO amrtapa sOmaH). “Uma” means yaShas or fame. It refers to his guNam of mingling with others lesser than him or granting brahmAnandam. “ChandrAmso” occurs in the sahasranAmA and refers to his lustre.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yo rudraH sa svayaM brahmaa yo brahmaa sa hutaashanaH&#xA;brahmavishhNumayo rudra agniishhomaatka.n jagat.h .(text “Rudra-HridayOpaniShad”)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaidika Interpretation: Which Rudra, well-known in the sAstra as Narasimha, is verily the Veda (signified by Brahma), which Supreme Brahman (Brahma), well-known in the sAstra as Narasimha, is verily of the form of fire (ie, jwAla narasimha). This rudra (destroyer of the disease of samsara) possessor (maya) of “VishNuBrahma”, ie, the jivAtma whose essential nature is great (brahma) due to possession of 8 auspicious qualities beginning with apahatapApma and whose attributive knowledge is all-pervasive in mOksha (vishNu). The Universe is verily full of sacrifice of the form of “nama:” salutations to Brahman (agni) and objects of enjoyment such as  long age, wealth, etc (sOmA), which are required for upAsaNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BrahmI, Brahma, etc are names occurring in the sahasranAma and Parasara Bhattar’s interpretation for these names were used here. The first “Brahma” refers to the Veda. BrahmI means “he who possesses all that goes by the term brahman – prakrti, purusha, ishvara, jivA, etc and this name is used to interpret “brahmavishNu maya” here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;rudramagnimayaM vidyAdviShnuH somAtmakaH smritaH&#xA;agnIShomAtmakam chaivA jagatsthAvara jangamam (HarivamSha 2-125-35)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Know that Rudra is full of (ie, immersed in) the sacrifice ie, meditation, offerings of “nama:”salutations and remember that vishNu is of the nature of nectar, ie, characterised by auspicious attributes (sOmAtmaka) to be meditated on by upAsakAs like Rudra. The Universe is verily full of sacrifice of the form of “nama:” salutations to Brahman (agni) and objects of enjoyment such as  long age, wealth, etc (sOmA), which are required for upAsaNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;umA shankarayOgO yaH sa yOgO vishNuruchyatE..( text “Rudra-HridayOpanishad”)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interpretation: By the meditation (yogO) of his own fame, ie, the sousIlya guNa of mingling with others lesser than himself (umA), (the desire) to perform auspicious acts for his devotees and destroy asurAs (shankara), VishNu delights the jivAs (uchyatE) with (such a nature) of being the definite and indestructible means to liberation (sa yOga).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vyakta.n sarvamumaaruupamavyakta.n tu maheshvaram. (text “Rudra-HridayOpanishad”)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaidika Interpretation: All the forms (of bhagavAn) that are manifest (vyaktAn) are of the form (ie, manifestations of his) fame, ie, sousIlyam, desire to mingle with others lesser than himself (umA). nArAyaNa who is the Lord of the Worlds (mahEshwara) is called avyakta because in his avatArAs, his true nature is not manifest to everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;========================&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Added on 06 Feb 2015:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;========================&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please refer to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://narayanastra.blogspot.com/p/sankarshana-narasimha-worshipped-by.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Rudra&quot; debate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also got the following information from  a brilliant, well versed and well learnt Sri Vaishnava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The narasimha tApanIya Upanishad contains the following enlightening statement:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;rudra-japaka-shatam ekam ekena atharvashirah-shikha-adhyapakena tatsamam atharvashirah- shikha-adhyapaka shatam ekam ekena tapaniyopanishad adhyapakena tatsamam tapaniyopanishad-adhyapaka-shatam ekam ekena mantraraja-adhyapakena tatsamam (~Narasimha pUrva tApanIya upanishad).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This says that the mantrarAja pada stOtram is superior to japam of the Rudram, Atharvashika, Atharvasiras and the Narasimha tApanIya itself. This is similar to “srI rAma rAma rAmEti…” in the sahasranAma, which asserts that all the kalyAna guNams described in the sahasranama can be seen in the name of rAma itself. It does not mean the other portions are inferior, but only means that the mantra rAja pada stOtram is the essence of these portions just as “rAma nAmam” is the essence of sahasranAma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above part of Narasimha Purva Tapaniya has been accepted by Advaitins also, and a commentary ascribed to Shankara exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maheshvara Tirtha, an ancient advaitic commentator on Sri Ramayana has interpreted &quot;rudrAya vapuShaye&quot; as a pointer to narasimhAvatAra, while explaining the Aditya Hridayam as a Vishnu-stuti (and not a stuti on sUrya as popularly held today).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And advaitins including Shankara, Sureshvara, etc. have interpreted shvetAshvatara upaniShad in a Vaishnava manner only, and that this shvetAshvatara itself contains mantras from Rudram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2016-12-22T06:05:57.930" LastActivityDate="2016-12-22T06:05:57.930" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5327" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5307" CreationDate="2015-02-03T10:10:07.237" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This again is sourced from a excellent vaishnavaite web site, &lt;a href=&quot;http://narayanastra.blogspot.in/p/blog-page_9.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://narayanastra.blogspot.in/p/blog-page_9.html&lt;/a&gt;. I am reproducing the same here. Hope it helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sattvik Puranas always begin with a neutral question. For example, consider the Bhagavata Purana: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Please, therefore, being blessed with many years, explain to us, in an easily understandable way, what you have ascertained to be the absolute and ultimate good for the people in general. (Bhagavata Purana) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now, consider the Skanda Purana: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Please narrate to us the greatness of Lord Shiva, who carries a trident in his hand. We would like to hear about the merit achieved by worshiping him and meditating upon his pastimes. (Skanda Purana) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, the Bhagavata begins with a question that is quite general, ie, what is the greatest good for all and then only goes on to talk about vAsudevA, the son of devaki. But in the Skanda Purana, the rishis asked a specific question, rather than a general one, and had a biased opinion about Shiva already in their mind, so they started with a question asking the greatness of Shiva rather than an unbiased enquiry of the ultimate truth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the introduction to Shiva Purana, where the sages pose the question to Romaharshana: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You have taught us a lot, but we are still not satisfied.  You have had the fortune of studying under Vedavyasa and there is nothing that you do not know, past, present or future.  Tell us about Shiva, we do not know very much about Shiva. (Shiva Purana) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same biased inquiry again. This proves that the nature of brahma jignyAsa in the tAmasa purAnAs is not proper and tAmasic as opposed to the sAttvika purAnAs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since knowledge gained by a biased question is obviously biased and hence a form of tAmas, these purAnAs are classified as ‘tAmasa purAnAs’.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4) The confusion of the tAmasa purAnAs &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same tAmasa purAnAs that also contain statements like ‘In Sri Vaikunta, the supreme abode, the liberated serve the Lord and his devotees’ (shiva purAnA)’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly many statements like ‘Achyuta is superior to Brahma and Rudra’ occur in other tAmasa purAnAs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This shows that these purAnAs are confused with respect to the knowledge they advocate. They mix the right meanings of ShAstra (such as the above quotes) now and then with the largely tAmasic portions. In contrast, the sAttvika purAnAs like Vishnu and Bhagavata PurAnAs are consistent with respect to the supremacy of Vishnu.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since confusion arises from and is a form of tAmas, these purAnAs are classified as ‘tAmasa purAnAs’. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; In this context, I would like to point out the following extract from Madhva's Brahma Sutra Bhashya (Translation by Prof. Pandurangi) first adhyaya, first pada, first sutra (1.1.1) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Also in the Skanda Purana celebrating the supremacy of Siva, this is said: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'O, Undecaying One, the moment thou shouldst, in wrath, turn thy face away from them, Brahma, Isana, and other gods would be doomed to miseries worse than those inflicted upon the basest of the base'; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana which seeks to extol Brahma, it is said: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Neither I nor Siva nor others can lay claim to even a small fraction of his power. As a child sports with its toys, so does Achyuta with us.' &#xA;  And no such statement is to be found in the works declaring the supremacy of Vishnu,...   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5) Following the path of the wise with respect to the purAnAs  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavad Gita states that it is not enough if the shAstra states something. One must first look to see if great personalities accept this and follow it in practice. Then, one must emulate such mahAtmAs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In accordance to this, one can clearly see that Sri Adi Shankara has never used the tAmasa purAnAs in his bhAshyas as authority. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; By this, Adi Shankara, in his prasthAna traya bhAShyas where any discussion of the nature of Brahman is taken up, never uses the sections in Tamasa Puranas that celebrate the supremacy of brahma, Siva and others, such as Shankara Samhita, Suta Samhita, Shiva Gita, Shiva Sahasranama, Devi Mahatmya, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No vedAntin, with the exception of Appayya Dikshita (whose theories were soundly refuted) have ever given weight to the absurd stories contained in the tAmasa purAnAs nor given them authority. And nobody has opposed their decision to do so as well, which shows that such a practice was well accepted at that time as traditional. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this does not mean we must reject the tAmasa purAns wholly. They are authoritative so long as they do not contradict shruti.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Puranas are classified into Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. The Rajas and Tamas puranas are not authentic because they are veda virodha. But this does not mean they are entirely to be rejected. There are often sattvik portions in rajasa and tamasa puranas which are accepted. Examples include the ones stated in point 4) of this article, such as praise of Vishnu as parabrahman as well as some portions such as Sri VenkatAchala mAhAtmyam and BrindAranya Kshetra mAhAtmyam in BrahmAnda purAna and others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, sri rAmAnuja, sri parAshara bhattar as well as srI mAdhva have quoted these sAttvic portions from the tAmasa purAnAs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the sAttvik puranas are not of the form of pure sattva, but only mishra sattva (sattva mixed with rajas and tamas). So, even the sAttvik puranas may contain a little amount of Rajas and Tamas. For instance, some chapters of Padma Purana are veda virodha. But for the greater part, that purana is sattvik. Since the tamasic and rAjasic portion of this purAnA are minimal, and sAttvik portion is greater, the purAnA is classified as ‘sAttvik’ overall.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tamasic purANas are not authoritative, and hence can not be used to understand the Vedas. This has been very well spelled out not only in Padma Purana, but also in the Matsya Purana. Ramanujacharya and even prior to that Yamunacharya has quoted the following verse from it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;agneḥ śivasya māhātmyaṃ tāmaseṣu prakīrtyate /&#xA;  rājaseṣu ca māhātmyam adhikaṃ brahmaṇo viduḥ //&#xA;  sāttvikeṣu ca kalpeṣu māhātmyam adhikaṃ hareḥ /&#xA;  teṣv eva yogasaṃsiddhā gamiṣyanti parāṃ gatim //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above Puranic verse quoted by Ramanuja is authentic is to be found in the current editions of Matsya Purana hosted on following link &lt;a href=&quot;http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/puranas/matsya_purana.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/puranas/matsya_purana.pdf&lt;/a&gt;. See line 68 in page 216 here. The reading is slightly different, but the meaning is the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sāttvikeṣu purāṇeṣu māhātmyamadhikaṃ hareḥ /&#xA;  rājaseṣu ca māhātmyam adhikaṃ brahmaṇo viduḥ // MatsP_53.68 //&#xA;  .tadvadagneśca māhātmyaṃ tāmaseṣu śivasya ca /&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to the three-fold division of Puranas into sAtvika, rAjasa, and tAmasa conveyed by the above verse, prAchIna advaita AcAryas such as Adi Shankara never quoted any verse from these Tamasic purANas , but quotes only the passages which show Vishnu as supreme in all his bhAShyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-08-31T15:27:14.567" LastActivityDate="2016-08-31T15:27:14.567" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5331" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2993" CreationDate="2015-02-03T11:37:59.870" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Uttamur Veeraraghavacharya has written a commentary in Sanskrit by name &lt;strong&gt;Acharya bhasya tatparya&lt;/strong&gt; on Sri Vedanta Desika’s Isayasya Upanishad bhasya. I am not sure whether it is available online.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a copy of Isavasya upanishad by Swami Vedanta Desika, translated into english by Dr. K.C. Varadachary and Dr. T.Tatachary, printed by TTD, available online for download &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4zy5h3qqpxLdENIUzVPZXRoSUE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;gdurl.com/zZZt/download&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dr N.S. Anatha Rangachar has written a book by name &lt;strong&gt;Principal Upanishads Vol -1&lt;/strong&gt; containing the sanskrit verses of the Upanishads and English translation which is mostly based on the Swami Ranga Ramanuja muni’s (16 th century) commentaries on Upanishads from Srivaishnava perspective. The Principal Upanishads Vol-1 contains Isha, Kena, Katha, prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya, Mahanarayana, Svetasvatara Upanidhads. Again, not sure whether this available online, but hard copy can be purchased from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.haristore.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Haristore&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;You can check &lt;a href=&quot;http://nsa.co.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more details for the Dr N.S.Anatha Ranchar's works and other details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2015-09-11T18:54:47.217" LastActivityDate="2015-09-11T18:54:47.217" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5332" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2456" CreationDate="2015-02-03T12:43:37.027" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I feel My reality is whatever I can perceive and comprehend. The state of the being determines the reality that it can perceive. I am a Hindu and I do visit the temples see the different forms as representations of the different properties of the infinite.&#xA;As a child I was told to worship Ganesha first, Saraswathi for knowledge, Lakshmi for wealth and Parvathi for strength. As I grew up I had my own questions of what it is that I am worshiping. Do the idols have the power to grant what ever I ask for. I mean is the duality exist always or it is non-dual sometimes. May be I might get to know the real I  ( which I can only comprehend logically now )  and someday internalize it and become that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One question that humbled me is during a visit to Thirupathi, my son asked if we can see the real god during the Darshan. My son is only 10. I said yes if you have the true love to see god you will and showed the picture of how Hathiramji was playing dice with Balaji.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With my current understanding and perception I believe there is a transition from Dvaitha, Visista-Advaitha and finally Advaitha which I have observed based on how my thinking is moving. Going by the steps to find the real &quot;I&quot;, The body conscious I that I am now do logically see that the &quot;I&quot; should be the infinite one that has taken the form of me to experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe, Until I realize the true I. Its the mind and interpretations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2426" LastEditorUserId="2426" LastEditDate="2015-02-03T14:01:11.000" LastActivityDate="2015-02-03T14:01:11.000" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5335" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5337" CreationDate="2015-02-01T12:01:23.270" Score="5" ViewCount="27031" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Translation &amp;amp; quest for an English online reference&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2007-September/019370.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;a post&lt;/a&gt; of a certain online discussion group called Advaita-L, Ramesh Krishnamurthy found a reference for the following Sanskrit words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;code&gt;sā vidyā yā vimuktaye&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (which I found translated as &quot;&lt;code&gt;knowledge is one that liberates&lt;/code&gt;&quot;, as a quote of a certain non-linguistic natural science publication).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is &quot;&lt;code&gt;knowledge is one that liberates&lt;/code&gt;&quot; the most literal translation possible?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reference mentioned above is a 1910 edition (Bombay: Venkatesvara Steam Press) of the text called &lt;strong&gt;विष्णु पुराण (Viṣṇu Purāṇa)&lt;/strong&gt;, which is ascribed to &lt;em&gt;पराशर ऋषि (Parāśara)&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The text can be found in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/3_purana/visnup_u.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;a document&lt;/a&gt; in the online GRETIL-register of the university of Göttingen, as inputted by members of the SANSKNET-project.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does one perhaps know of a better (more reliable and/or better lay-outed) reference/online edition available of the Sanskrit source text, containing this shloka? Perhaps at DSpace.wbpublibnet.gov.in or at the Digital Library of India (DLI)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The full shloka is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;tatkarma yan na bandhāya sā vidyā yā vimuktaye |&#xA;āyāsāyāparaṃ karma vidyānyā śilpanaipuṇam || ViP_1,19.41 ||&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Might I ask for your help to translate these surrounding sentences as well, i.e. the full shloka?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How would one write the full shloka without the transliteration, i.e. in the original Sanskrit alphabet?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hoped to find the translation e.g. in the &lt;strong&gt;Viṣṇu Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; at sacred-texts.com, archive.org, DSpace.wbpublibnet.gov.in or at Digital Library of India (DLI).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can a free English translation of the &lt;strong&gt;Viṣṇu Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt;, containing this shloka, be found online? Or perhaps, with a lot of luck: does a bilingual edition exists?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Location of the authorship&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A final question is about the authorship of the &lt;strong&gt;Viṣṇu Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; / &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, which Wikipedia ascribes to &lt;em&gt;पराशर ऋषि (Parāśara / Parashara)&lt;/em&gt; as a first narrator. Is it known where the stories were first narrated by him / where this first was written? Would India in general be correct and is a more specific geographic location known?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2418" OwnerDisplayName="Vincent Verheyen" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T21:02:21.040" Title="Sanskrit: Full shloka of &quot;sā vidyā yā vimuktaye&quot; (translation &amp; English online reference &amp; oral and written author location)" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5336" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5335" CreationDate="2015-02-01T18:04:08.107" Score="1" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Online reference to a digital English translation of the source text &lt;code&gt;Viṣṇu Purāṇa&lt;/code&gt;containing the complete shloka:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, with all your help, I have managed to find the shloka translated in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1840 translation of the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Viṣṇu Purāṇa&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; by Horace Hayman Wilson&lt;/a&gt;, which can be found at sacred-texts.com.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The text right before the shloka:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... The notion that ignorance is knowledge arises, father, from ignorance. Does not the child, king of the Asuras, imagine the fire-fly to be a spark of fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Shloka &lt;em&gt;sā vidyā yā vimuktaye&lt;/em&gt; / &quot;&lt;em&gt;ViP 1,19.41&lt;/em&gt;&quot;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That is active duty, which is not for our bondage; that is knowledge, which is for our liberation: all other duty is good only unto weariness; all other knowledge is only the cleverness of an artist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The text right after the shloka:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Knowing this, I look upon all such acquirement as profitless. That which is really profitable hear me, oh mighty monarch, thus prostrate before thee, proclaim. He who cares not for dominion, he who cares not for wealth, shall assuredly obtain both in a life to come. ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Some more translating help:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(from the &lt;em&gt;reference post&lt;/em&gt; at &lt;em&gt;Общество ревнителей санскрита&lt;/em&gt;, &#xA;&lt;em&gt;cf. my comment @Yellow Sky above):&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Narayan Prasad&lt;/strong&gt; referred to &lt;a href=&quot;https://samskrtam.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BE-%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE-%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE-%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%AF%E0%A5%87/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;a post (from 11/2/2011) about this shloka&lt;/a&gt; on samskrtam.wordpress.com, which for starters has a slightly different transliterated shloka. Even though I have no clue of Sanskrit, I would trust this better than the GRETIL-version referred to above, since this latter source states irregularities might be present due to an automatic translation conversion. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to decipher the source edition of the book the following shloka comes from (even though it seems to have the same numbering &lt;code&gt;1-19-41&lt;/code&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;tatkarma yanna bandhāaya sā vidyā yā vimuktaye|&#xA;āyāsāyāparaṁ karma vidya’nyā śilpanaipuṇam||1-19-41||&#xA;—śrīviṣṇupurāṇe prathamaskandhe ekonaviṁśo’dhyāyaḥ&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Corrections by user &lt;a href=&quot;https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/users/8069/dib&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dib&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The version there actually has a small mistake. I cannot comment on your post as I don't yet have enough &quot;reputation&quot;. In the second line, it appears &lt;code&gt;विद्यऽन्या&lt;/code&gt; and in transcription &quot;&lt;code&gt;vidya’nyā&lt;/code&gt;&quot;. It should be either &lt;code&gt;विद्यान्या/vidyānyā&lt;/code&gt; like I used, or &lt;code&gt;विद्याऽन्या/vidyā'nyā&lt;/code&gt;, apparently what the post in &lt;em&gt;samskrtam.wordpress.com&lt;/em&gt; was going for. They are both equally right, the second version is actually more readable, but &lt;em&gt;wordpress&lt;/em&gt;'s version with a short &lt;code&gt;a&lt;/code&gt; in &lt;code&gt;vidya&lt;/code&gt; is incorrect.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;bandhāaya&lt;/code&gt; has to be &lt;code&gt;bandhāya&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Also, it uses the nonstandard character &lt;code&gt;ṁ&lt;/code&gt;, while IAST prescribes &lt;code&gt;ṃ&lt;/code&gt; (dot below &lt;code&gt;m&lt;/code&gt;).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They offer the following Sanskrit text in &quot;&lt;em&gt;Devanāgarī&lt;/em&gt;&quot;-script:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;तत्कर्म यन्न बन्धाय सा विद्या या विमुक्तये।&#xA;आयासायापरं कर्म विद्यऽन्या शिल्पनैपुणम्॥१-१९-४१॥&#xA;—श्रीविष्णुपुराणे प्रथमस्कन्धे एकोनविंशोऽध्याय&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their English translation looks as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;That is action, which does not promote attachment; That is knowledge which liberates [one from bondage]. All other action is mere [pointless] effort/hardship; all other knowledge is merely another skill/craftsmanship.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Radim Navyan&lt;/strong&gt; posted a similar Sanskrit translation (also &quot;&lt;em&gt;Devanāgarī&lt;/em&gt;&quot;-scripted):&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;तत् कर्म यत् न बन्धाय, सा विद्या या विमुक्तये।आयासाय अपरं कर्म, विद्या अन्या शिल्प–नौपुणम्॥&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Radim Navyan&lt;/strong&gt; replied to my question about the script-type:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There's no &quot;standard&quot; for Devanagari writing. I've used sandhi-free type of writing, making your reading more comfort, whereas linked text is a &quot;gentelman's agreement&quot; now-a-day. In scriptures the latter one is customary, not mine.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;to which he added a Russian translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Карма - то, что не спутывает, видья та, что выпутывает.&#xA;Прочая карма - чтоб тусоваться, прочая видья -  умелость артиста.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2418" OwnerDisplayName="Vincent Verheyen" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:54:11.453" LastActivityDate="2015-02-03T21:24:09.290" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5337" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5335" CreationDate="2015-02-01T18:44:52.540" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is my first post in this forum. I am happy that I have stumbled upon it. Anyways, I was the one who replied in the Wordreference thread: &lt;a href=&quot;http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2962626&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2962626&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I'll simply copy my answer from there for easy reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;==============&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am sorry, I cannot help you with the references. Unfortunately, I am generally not familiar with Puranic literature. But I'll help you with a step by step translation of the verse your quoted, going from literal to idiomatic and also an attempt at a philosophical interpretation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;=====&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tat karma yan na bandhāya =&gt; That (tat) is 'work' (karma), which (yat) is not (na) for the bondage (bandhāya).&lt;/strong&gt; The expression &quot;is for something&quot; is often used in Sanskrit idiomatically to mean &quot;leads to something&quot;, &quot;causes something&quot; or &quot;transforms into something&quot;. Thus, a more idiomatic reading here would be &quot;(Only) that is (real) 'work', which does not lead to bondage.&quot; Philosophically, this invokes the doctrine of performing one's duties, remaining detached from its results, and for that matter from everything else. The idea is that 'work' (karman), or performance of one's duties, is worth only if it is done observing proper detachment, and thus does not lead to attachment (i.e. &quot;bondage&quot;) to this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sā vidyā yā vimuktaye =&gt; That (sā) is 'knowledge' (vidyā), which (yā) is for the liberation (vimuktaye).&lt;/strong&gt; Again, this uses the same idiom as before, and thus really means: &quot;(Only) that is (real) knowledge, which leads to liberation.&quot; Philosophically speaking, the liberation (vimukti/mokṣa) here refers to, at the very basic, to the emancipation from the cycle of (re-)birth and death. Thus the idea is that only that kind of knowledge and skill are worth, which lead to liberation from the worldly cycles of birth and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;āyāsāyāparaṃ karma =&gt; For hardship/effort (āyāsāya) is the 'other work' (aparaṃ karma).&lt;/strong&gt; As familiar to us by now, this really means: &quot;All other kinds of work lead to hardship,&quot; i.e. works and duties performed with attachment (i.e. hoping for a certain result, or for the love of someone/something) lead, in the long run, to sufferings. There is a little bit more to add about the choice of the word &quot;apara-&quot;. I translate it here as &quot;other&quot;, which is indeed one of this common meanings, and also a relevant reading as will be apparent from the next part of the verse, but it also has another usage especially in philosophical contexts where it serves as the antonym to &quot;para-&quot; (absolute, higher, etc.) Thus, a typical usage is &quot;parā vidyā&quot; = the &quot;higher knowledge&quot;, which refers to the transcendental/spiritual knowledge (that leads to vimukti), and in contrast, &quot;aparā vidyā&quot; = the other/lower knowledge, which refers to our worldly knowledge (which often leads to &quot;bondage&quot;). Thus, in this context both readings - &quot;other/worldly duties/works&quot; will be appropriate for &quot;aparaṃ karma&quot;, without any real difference in the philosophical interpretation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vidyānyā śilpanaipuṇam =&gt; The other (anyā) knowledge (vidyā) is skills in art/craft/etc. (śilpa-naipuṇam)&lt;/strong&gt;, i.e. the other kinds of knowledge are mere worldly skills, and hence are probably not even worth being called knowledge/vidyā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;====&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not the most philosophically inclined person. My knowledge of Hindu philosophy is mostly limited to normal cultural heritage knowledge, slightly augmented, maybe, by my relative acquaintance with the Sanskrit language, and to some limited extent with its literary works. My primary interest in Sanskrit is linguistic. So, please, don't consider my philosophical interpretations as the final words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How would one write the complete shloka without the transliteration, i.e. in the original Sanskrit alphabet?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just to be clear (forgive me if I sound preachy, I am not trying to chastise you for a &quot;mistake&quot;, I just want to clarify this point), there is no &quot;Sanskrit&quot; alphabet. Sanskrit has traditionally been written in dozens of scripts in various places and periods... and that too only after having had a millenium or more of oral-only existence before that. However, most modern publications use Devanāgarī as the default script. In that script it would look:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;तत्कर्म यन्न बन्धाय सा विद्या या विमुक्तये।&#xA;आयासायापरं कर्म विद्यान्या शिल्पनैपुणम्‌॥&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2429" OwnerDisplayName="Dib" LastActivityDate="2015-02-01T18:44:52.540" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5338" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5335" CreationDate="2015-02-03T16:39:54.047" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Regarding location :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;India, in general is correct&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rishis usually reside alongside the Ganga river or in the Himalayas or Kasi(Varanasi)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Parasara met Satyavati who would carry their child, Sage Vyasa, on the banks of the Yamuna. So, it is conceivable that Parasara visited regions around Delhi at least once&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Puranas (which were passed on from Vyasa  - who may have received them from Parasara) were expounded upon by Suta Maha Muni to Sounaka etc. rishis in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naimisaranya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Naimisaranya&lt;/a&gt;. In general, this is the starting point of the propagation of puranas into the world.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2015-02-03T16:39:54.047" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5343" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5347" CreationDate="2015-02-04T11:31:46.823" Score="12" ViewCount="1944" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of you might know, we have to experience the result of any karma(Prarabdha karma)done by us. Any Prarabdha Karma is inevitable. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Sri Swami Sivananda: &quot;Prarabdha is that portion of the past karma which is responsible for the present body. That portion of the sanchita karma which influences human life in the present incarnation is called prarabdha. It is ripe for reaping. It cannot be avoided or changed. It is only exhausted by being experienced. You pay your past debts. Prarabdha karma is that which has begun and is actually bearing fruit. It is selected out of the mass of the sanchita karma.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mostly we assume that whatever is happening in awake state(state of consciousness) that is a result of our Prarabdha Karma. I would like to know about Prarabdha Karma while sleeping.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What does happens to Prarabdha Karma while sleeping? Or Is sleeping itself a result of Prarabdha Karma?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastActivityDate="2015-02-05T21:05:59.300" Title="What does happens to Prarabdha Karma while sleeping?" Tags="|karma|dream|mind|samadhi|consciousness|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5344" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5343" CreationDate="2015-02-04T14:03:18.020" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;These questions are dealt with in detail in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV. iii. 10-34. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 15 says that &quot;...He remains unaffected by whatever he sees in that [dream] state, for this infinite being is unattached.&quot; - Whatever happens in the dream state has no effect on a person's karma, you are unattached to your body and organs and there is no activity produced by them in the dream state. There is no good or bad karma generated. Karma is only generated in the waking state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 11 says &quot;The effulgent infinite being who travels alone, makes the body insensible in sleep but himself remains awake, and taking with him the luminous particles of the organs, watches those which lie dormant. Again, he comes to the waking state.&quot; - your prarabdha karma remains dormant while you are in the dream state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 34 says &quot;That entity (the self), after enjoying himself and roaming in the dream state and merely witnessing [the results of] merits and demerits, hastens back in the reverse way to the former condition, the waking state.&quot; - former condition means the prarabdha karma becomes active.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the verses between 10-34 deal with these and similar questions about this.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-02-04T14:03:18.020" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5346" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2604" CreationDate="2015-02-04T14:35:20.420" Score="0" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Don't know the actual hymn but the word &quot;sanAtanam&quot;, if that is what is present in it, also means eternal. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.In general,  nobody and no entity is capable of calculating back to time t=0 when creation first took place, i.e, when Nirguna  parabrahma first had the sankalpa to create. Therefore, no matter how far back we go, there is always something preceding it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-02-04T14:50:39.460" LastActivityDate="2015-02-04T14:50:39.460" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5347" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5343" CreationDate="2015-02-04T16:42:22.823" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swamiji has quoted great verses in support that waking state karma does not get meted out in dreams state. But as moonstar2001 has commented, there are differing views on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since you mentioned Sri Swami Sivananda's quotes, let us see what the great saint Sri Swami Sivananda Himself has said about this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Does dream actions result in karma getting generated?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/messages/dream.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;'Dream' by Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dreamer is not affected by any result whatever of the good and the evil he sees in the dream state. Because in dream the dreamer does not actually do what is holy or evil, he is not chained by either; for, good or evil actions and their consequences are not imputed to the mere spectator of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No one regards himself a sinner on account of the sins committed in dreams. Nor do people who have heard of them condemn or shun the person on that account. Hence he is not touched by them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is He tells us that dream actions do not result in karma in waking state. However do they result in karma in dreaming state? That is a great question. However that is unrelated to this question so let us not digress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Does real-world karma affect us in dreaming state?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda in 'Dream' by Sri Swami Sivananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dream objects are created by the Lord as fruition of the minor works of the Jiva. In order to reward the soul for very minor Karmas, the Lord creates the dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Universal Soul is the creator of dreams and not the individual soul; for, had it been possible for the latter to shape his dreams, he would never have dreamt a bad dream, but would always have dreamt only propitious ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Swamiji says that basically the very minor karmas are meted out in dream state. However no new karma is created (in the waking world) because of actions done in the dream world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Anusasana Parva, Section VII&lt;/a&gt; (thanks Keshav for the link), Bhishma says that fruits of those actions done with the mind are experienced in dreaming state while those actions done with body are experienced in waking state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;for example, the fruits of actions done with mind are enjoyed at the time of dreams, and those of actions performed physically are enjoyed in the working state physically.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;How about Susupti or deep sleep state? Does any karma get meted out there?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In deep sleep there is nothing but undifferentiated mass of conciousness. There are no desires, no objects to enjoy and no actions that can be performed. Thus there can be no karma either generated or meted out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mandukya Upanishad verse 5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The third quarter is prājña, where one asleep neither desires anything nor beholds any dream: that is deep sleep. In this field of dreamless sleep, one becomes undivided, an undifferentiated mass of consciousness, consisting of bliss and feeding on bliss. His mouth is consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically in conclusion, everybody agrees that actions performed in dreams do not generate any karma, however with respect to waking state karmas affecting dream state, some saints say that minor karmas do get exhausted in the dreaming state while others say that they do not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is sleeping itself result of karma?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well sleeping is because of partial exhaustion of karma. That is when the jiva in waking state performs all actions and eventually Mind and body gets exhausted by experience. That causes sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ofcourse this is obvious and no reference is required for this! But still just to follow site guidelines, Sri Swami Sivananda describes &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=830&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the philosophy of sleep by Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as a kite which flies up in the sky at the dawn of the day and roams about here and there in the high regions in search of food throughout the day, takes complete rest in its own nest on the tree at night, so also the Jiva or the individual soul after having wandered in the dense forest of sense-objects all day long, gets into its abode called the Karana Sarira and enjoys the bliss of Sushupti or deep sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-05T21:05:59.300" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5348" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-04T19:42:43.693" Score="7" ViewCount="502" Body="&lt;p&gt;As in title. Is it by birth? Especially righteous ones like Prahalada, Bali and to some extend Ravana. And many of them are sons of saints. So what defines an Asura?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1123" LastActivityDate="2021-11-29T17:57:01.553" Title="What makes an Asura an Asura?" Tags="|asuras|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5349" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="572" CreationDate="2015-02-04T20:34:28.847" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Raja Janmeja invited 18 high ranking brahim priests to a Jaagu, for a blessing. Brahmins and Sadhu's of India carried their unshorn hair on their head as a top-knot. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Raja Janmeja and his Rani were serving the brahmins with food. For a reason related to the clothes of the Rani, the brahmins broke out in laughter. The Raja felt humiliated and got annoyed with the invited brahmins to a point that he wanted to assassinate all of the high ranking priests. The Raja's adviser told him that this act for blessing would turn into a sinful act. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The adviser told the Raja to spare the brahmins but to assassinate their unshorn hair instead. At conclusion of the Jaagu the brahmins hatched a plan to justify their shaven heads with a small tuft/bodi/ sikha of unshorn hair. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upon their return they preached that at this great spiritual gathering it has been revealed to them that hair should be shaved as an act of purification. The tradition of shaving the head was instigated amongst the followers.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2438" LastActivityDate="2015-02-04T20:34:28.847" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5350" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5348" CreationDate="2015-02-05T09:09:53.307" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lets understand the difference between Asura and Rakshasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Asura&lt;/strong&gt; : is not with birth, anyone who is not righteous can be termed as asura, its more related to the deeds of any living entity, even animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rakshasa&lt;/strong&gt;: is a kind of yoni altogether, it is a species who is like human, has brains but is carnivorous, they can be good or bad, like good one being Prahalad and Bali, they have same nature and motive as humans, to find the Supreme Being, the only difference is there eating habits which make them more dangerous and Tamsik than humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-05T10:19:52.893" LastActivityDate="2015-02-05T10:19:52.893" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5351" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5348" CreationDate="2015-02-05T10:59:12.793" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally &lt;em&gt;asura&lt;/em&gt; means someone who is opposite or anti of the &lt;em&gt;suras&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Sura&lt;/em&gt; means the &lt;em&gt;devas&lt;/em&gt; and are called so because they took Varuni (goddess of wine or &lt;em&gt;sura&lt;/em&gt;) when she emerged from the churning of the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;em&gt;Asuras&lt;/em&gt; are &lt;em&gt;danavas&lt;/em&gt; or demons and they are such &lt;strong&gt;by their birth&lt;/strong&gt; as they were born of Danu, a wife of &lt;em&gt;rishi&lt;/em&gt; Kashyapa. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; narrates about them and lists names of some well known asuras including Prahlada. Prahlada, as an &lt;em&gt;asura&lt;/em&gt;, although should have been envious to Vishnu, was however very devoted to Him for which his father wanted to kill Prahlada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Puranas like Shrimad Bhagavatam there is also mention of Brahma creating the gods and the asuras. And one nature of them is given that they are very fond of copulation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Brahmā then gave birth to the demons from his buttocks, and they were very fond of sex. Because they were too lustful, they approached him for copulation. [SB - 3.20.23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-02-05T10:59:12.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5352" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5260" CreationDate="2015-02-05T11:47:50.863" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before I can go forward I will brief out what is a Women in Hinduism is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Female&lt;/strong&gt; : According to Hinduism, female is the purest form of Nature, If you delve into deep, hinduism states the Supreme Being divided himself into two parts Prakruti ( Nature or Matter ) and Purusha ( I might call it Anti-Matter, but there are no real theories related to that ), As female contains both parts of Nature, meaning the XX chromosome, where X-chromosome depicts Prakruti and Y-chromosome depicts Purusha, its complete, therefore stated as pure in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women&lt;/strong&gt; : The human form of this Female entity is woman. As I stated, women are considered as purest form of nature, they are termed as Sati ( Pure ) in Hinduism, they are the regenerator of new lives, and take carer of the existing ones. Women don't need males as much as males need them, because males are not as pure and they seek purity or completeness through woman, and this can also be the reason behind the high number of bisexual females to be found.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Status of Women&lt;/strong&gt; : In Hinduism, the status of woman is considered slightly higher than males. Actually Hinduism doesn't differentiates between both much, but because of the purity of woman and the ability of her to give birth makes it more important and higher than men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastActivityDate="2015-02-05T11:47:50.863" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5353" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5320" CreationDate="2015-02-05T12:03:20.257" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, many texts talk about it. But the Bhagavad Gita narrates it very beautifully. The quality of such a spiritual mind or consciousness is given as thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When your mind is no longer disturbed by the ﬂowery language of the Vedas, and when it remains ﬁxed in the trance of self-realization, then you will have attained the divine consciousness. [BG - 2.53]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And any person who has attained such consciousness is called a &lt;em&gt;sthita prajna&lt;/em&gt;. But how to tell the difference? How to know if a person has become such stable minded? What are the characteristics of such a person? These same questions were also asked by Arjuna to Shri Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna said: O Kṛṣṇa, what are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is thus merged in transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he sit, and how does he walk?  [BG - 2.54]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in reply Shri Krishna gives the distinguishing marks of such a person which I like very much. They are as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O Pārtha, when a man &lt;strong&gt;gives up all varieties of desire&lt;/strong&gt; for sense gratiﬁcation, which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind, thus puriﬁed, &lt;strong&gt;ﬁnds satisfaction in the self alone&lt;/strong&gt;, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness.  [BG - 2.55]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who is &lt;strong&gt;not disturbed in mind&lt;/strong&gt; even amidst the threefold miseries or elated when there is happiness, and who is &lt;strong&gt;free from attachment, fear and anger&lt;/strong&gt;, is called a sage of steady mind. [BG - 2.56]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the material world, one who is &lt;strong&gt;unaffected by whatever good or evil he may obtain&lt;/strong&gt;, neither praising it nor despising it, is ﬁrmly ﬁxed in perfect knowledge. [BG - 2.57]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who is &lt;strong&gt;able to withdraw his senses from sense objects&lt;/strong&gt;, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell, is ﬁrmly ﬁxed in perfect consciousness. [BG - 2.58]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though the embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by &lt;strong&gt;experiencing a higher taste&lt;/strong&gt;, he is ﬁxed in consciousness. [BG - 2.59]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who &lt;strong&gt;restrains his senses, keeping them under full control, and ﬁxes his consciousness upon Me&lt;/strong&gt;, is known as a man of steady intelligence. [BG - 2.61]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So these are some activities and qualities that draw the line between a spiritually inclined mind and a mind that is inclined materially or physically.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-05T12:03:20.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5354" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-05T13:13:06.780" Score="7" ViewCount="520" Body="&lt;p&gt;Thoughts are continuously created by us in &lt;em&gt;Manomay kosa&lt;/em&gt; at Awaking state(state of consciousness). There are no thoughts while sleeping.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What does it mean? Then who goes for sleep?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is our Body (Pancha Jyanendriya and Pancha Karmendriya) goes for sleep? Or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is our Mind and Brain(Man and Buddhi) goes for sleep? Or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is our Soul (JeevAtma) goes for sleep?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some possibilities :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Body (Pancha Jyanendriya and Pancha Karmendriya)  goes for sleep then, our Mind and Brain will awake us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Mind and Brain(Mana and Buddhi) goes for sleep then, our(JivAtma) soul will awake us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Soul (JivAtma)  goes for sleep then, everyone should have a same kind of sleep and its result. Then,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(1) &lt;strong&gt;Who goes for sleeping?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Sleeping differs from a person to person. Like: one gets sleep quickly,another takes an hours and hours to gets sleep.One wakes up early and another wakes up very late.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;(2) &lt;strong&gt;On which sleeping is depended?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;या देवी सर्वभुतेषु निद्रारूपेण संस्थिता ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः ॥९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yaa Devii Sarva-Bhutessu Nidraa-Ruupenna Samsthitaa |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Namas-Tasyai Namas-Tasyai Namas-Tasyai Namo Namah ||9||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9.1: To that Devi Who in All Beings is Abiding in the Form of Sleep,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9.2: Salutations to Her, Salutations to Her, Salutations to Her, Salutations again and again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses says that Goddess Durga itself is in a form of nidra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;(3) &lt;strong&gt;What does it means?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone knows when we wake from sleep, it results in to Fresh and Fully charged body. Then&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;(4) &lt;strong&gt;Where does our body gets charged during sleep?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_durga-ya_devi_sarvabhutesu.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference for shloka&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-03-02T12:52:09.630" Title="Yaa Devii Sarva-Bhutessu Nidraa-Ruupenna Samsthitaa" Tags="|atma|mind|consciousness|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5355" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3031" CreationDate="2015-02-05T15:38:14.987" Score="3" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How to chant?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Take a bath early in the morning, face the Sun God and chant it. Make sure you do the namaskara mudra because Surya Deva is the lover of , and, easily appeased by namaskaram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How it helps in life?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every word/phrase in the stotra tells us the greatness of both the Sun God and the benefits of worshipping him. But, in the introduction Sage Agastya says:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;sarvanarin vatsa samare vijayishyasi ||&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It bestows victory in battle&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;sarva shatru-vinashanam |&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It destroys all enemies (it has been extrapolated that it destroys all internal and external enemies as Surya is also the giver of knowledge)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;jayavaham&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It produces triumph&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;akshayyam paramam shivam&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It grants everlasting (never deteriorating) supreme auspiciousness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;sarvamangala-mangalyam&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;sarva papa pranashanam&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It imparts auspiciousness to all that is auspicious. It destroys all sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;chintashoka-prashamanam&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It alleviates worry and sorrow&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: the prefix &amp;quot;pra&amp;quot; is used to indicate comparative/superlative effect and , when used, means that the job is done in a particularly glorious and most effective fashion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;ayurvardhanam-uttamam&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This hymn that is of the highest order increases longevity ( life-span)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The stotram begins after this with &amp;quot;raSmimantam&amp;quot;. However, it is better to chant the preceding verses as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the concluding part, sage Agastya teaches Rama the specific phala sruti (i.e. list of benefits) and this has been explained by Keshav&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, the Sun God is the visible parabrahma, pratyaksha nArAyaNa. Sun worship bestows health, wealth, knowledge as well as liberation. In particular, Sun is worshiped for good health and the Aditya Hrdayam is the easy means to achieving all these goals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the story behind this?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Already answered by Keshav. To add, Rama felt slightly tired after fighting of the last and most dangerous of Ravana's battalions, his mUla sainya. Sage Agastya appeared before him and granted him the Aditya Hrdaya. Upon receiving the initiation, Rama performed &amp;quot;Acamana&amp;quot; , chanted the hymn and killed Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-08T14:14:32.637" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5356" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-05T17:22:00.460" Score="4" ViewCount="752" Body="&lt;p&gt;In most Vishnu temples, the statue of Vishnu is in the center of the shrine, with his wife Lakshmi (and sometimes his wife Bhumidevi) at his side.  But I recently went to a famous Vishnu temple near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu that's quite different.  It's technically called the Narayur Nambi Vishnu temple, but it's more commonly known simply as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachiyar_Koil&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nachiyar Koil&lt;/a&gt;, or &quot;Lakshmi temple&quot;.  It has a famous stone Garuda statue which magically gets heavier as it leaves the temple in processions.  But more importantly for our purposes, the main shrine has Lakshmi at the center, with Vishnu off to the side!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OMLxK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;image of  Nachiyar Koil temple &quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story as I understand it goes roughly as follows.  The sage Medhavi once prayed that he would have Lakshmi as a daughter.  Sure enough, Lakshmi took an incarnation as a baby appearing under a Vanchula tree, whom Medhavi named Vanchulavalli.  When Vanchullavalli grew up, Vishnu came in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt; form to Medhavi's house, accompanied by Krishna's brother Sankarshana (Balarama), Krishna's son Pradyumna, Krishna's grandson Aniruddha, and Krishna's great-grandson Puroshotthama.  (It's not clear to me whether they came in the flesh, or they just appeared there.)  Vishnu asked for Vanchulavalli's hand in marriage, but Medhavi was reluctant to part with her, so Vishnu agreed to stay in Medhavi's house.  Thus despite being a Vishnu temple, Lakshmi is the one in charge of the household because it's her father's house.  Her statue even holds the keys!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is this story discussed in any Hindu scriptures?  The reason I ask is that the sage Medhavi seems to be mentioned in the Bhavishyottara Purana, as quoted in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/03-06/features245.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt;.  (I can't verify the quote, because I haven't found the Bhavishyottara Purana online, as discussed in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/753/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.). The quote discusses a sage named Medhavi son of Chyavana who was engaging in Tapasya, but was distracted by a dancing girl, and then repented for his sin by following the Papamochani Ekadashi fast.  Is this the same sage Medhavi?  Are there any scriptures that mention him having a daughter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, it's said that the reason Sankarshana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, and Puroshotthama came is that along with the main deity (Vasudeva), they constitute Vishnu's &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra#Divine_Manifestation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vyuha&lt;/a&gt; forms.  But Vishnu only has four Vyuha forms: Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha.  (I discuss Aniruddha in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6534/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.). So what is the role of Puroshotthama in the Vyuha forms of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T15:22:52.567" Title="What scriptures describe the story of Vishnu's &quot;subservience&quot; to Lakshmi in the Nachiyar Koil temple?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|lakshmi|bhavishya-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5360" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-06T07:56:30.017" Score="8" ViewCount="7117" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was Lord Venkateshwara's second wife Bibi Nanchari really a Muslim?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I searched &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;the wiki&lt;/a&gt;, but didn't find any answer to my question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2444" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2020-07-13T08:03:24.527" LastActivityDate="2020-07-13T10:31:24.830" Title="Was Lord Venkateshwara's second wife Bibi Nanchari really a Muslim?" Tags="|history|other-religions|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5366" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4055" CreationDate="2015-02-06T16:03:34.547" Score="2" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Karna in his previous birth was a rAkshasa who was a great , almost undefeated warrior and was subdued by Nara and Narayana. The Rakshasa (I forget his name) had an armor with 1000 chinks. Nara and Narayana each performed penance for a 1000 years and fought him for the next 1000 years. They alternated their penance and battle. Each such 1000-year battle merely chipped off 1 chink from the rakshasa's armor. This occurred 999 times and one chink still remained. Narayana stated that the rakshasa will be defeated/killed in his next birth and their next avatara. This same rakshasa with one remaining chink in his super-armor was born as Karna with vestigial armor and earrings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sun God is praktyaksha nArAyana, sarva sAkshi and the bestower of health, wealth, wisdom and self-realization. Anyone who has received his grace is certainly a force to reckon with. Even Lord Hanuman received his formal education from Sun God. Karna was born by the grace of the great sage Durvasa and the grace of the Sun God.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is a warrior non-pareil. It is said the Karna was defeated in battle only after 6 forces combined against him. These 6 are Krishna, Arjuna, Salya, Indra (who appropriated his armor and earrings), kunti (who asked him to spare her sons), mother earth (who cursed him)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;His generosity and charity are extolled even by the Gods (e.g. Indra)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is a loyal friend.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Had Krishna not intervened, he would have won Draupadi in the matsya yantra test conducted for her prospective groom. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;His dedication to his cause is indeed praiseworthy. He is said to have vowed to give up liquor and meat till he defeated (or was defeated by) Arjuna&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, he lied to Parasurama about his caste and received his curse and heckled at Draupadi. These are particularly tragic in this warrior's history.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of Nara/Narayana and the rakshasa and other stories about Karna can be found in the BHagavata and Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-02-07T14:45:13.087" LastActivityDate="2015-02-07T14:45:13.087" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5370" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3398" CreationDate="2015-02-07T15:43:12.307" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This tradition is called &quot;akshatArOpaNa&quot; and is a regional practice. Not all cultures have this as part of their wedding-ritual-set. Various scholars give various interpretations but in general, this is the popular opinion based on the accompanying mantras of this ritual:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among the 9 grahas that influence us, the moon governs the manas (mind,spirit). Rice is the corresponding grain of the Moon God. The bride and groom shower rice mixed with turmeric (turmeric signifies auspiciousness) to express their desire and wish/bless their partner for progeny and wedded bliss. IOW, the rice symbolises their desire for emotional and spiritual well-being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rice also is the means by which the human body grows and survives. In the Hindu theory of evolution, earth gives rise to annam and annam is the causal agent for human life/physical body. Therefore, blessing each other with rice also signifies their desire for physical strength and prosperity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a beautiful sloka related to this episode in the Sita-kalyana. It goes as follows:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jAnakyAh kamalAnjali puTeya padmarAgAyitA nyastA rAghava mastakEca vilasat kunda prasUnAyaTAh srastA syAmalakAyakAnti kalitAyA yA indranIlAyitAh muktAh tAra subhadA bhavantu bhavatAm zri rAma vaivAkikAyAh&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sita and Rama used pearls instead of rice for akshatArOpanam because they are princely and also because pearl is the gemstone corresponding to the Moon god (They did not violate popular dharma :-) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a  rough translation with annotations in parentheses:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot; The radiant pearls that took on the color of rubies in Sita's hands (because her palms have a beautiful rose color), assumed the looks of jasmine flowers  when dropping from Rama's head (Rama is a kshatriya prince who would traditionally wear white headgear in weddings.) and , slipping off his dark-complexioned body, transformed into blue sapphires during their wedding ceremony, shall bestow grace upon you&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a popular benediction and is said to be taken from Sri Rama KarnamRtam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-02-08T05:23:21.240" LastActivityDate="2015-02-08T05:23:21.240" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5371" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-08T09:45:11.573" Score="5" ViewCount="426" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why they depicted sex positions on temples?&#xA;we all know temples are considered as holy places, even footwear not allowed,&#xA;then Why they depicted sex positions on temples?&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/iBKOp.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2457" LastActivityDate="2015-02-08T09:45:11.573" Title="Why they depicted sex positions on temples?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-02-08T10:59:40.250" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5372" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3969" CreationDate="2015-02-08T14:22:47.180" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will answer this one aspect:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;I am wondering what I am missing in overall Story.??&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Time in heavens is not meant to be a punishment. It is a reward for those who are interested in that kind of rewards. But all five pandavas were vaisnavas, and vaisnavas often consider the heavenly pleasures a disturbance and try to avoid them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-02-42.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-gītā 2.42-45&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; unequivocally derides (&lt;em&gt;avipašcitah&lt;/em&gt;) those who try to go to heaven and explicitly tells Arjuna to abandon this idea: &lt;em&gt;&quot;nistraigunyo bhavārjuna&quot;&lt;/em&gt;. Heavenly planets are part of the material world, meant for misery, to reform the sinners (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-08-15.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 8.15-16&lt;/a&gt;). These are places for the non-liberated conditioned beings who are bound to matter (three gunas). Above the platform of material bondage is the platform of liberation and above liberation is personal association with the Lord (liberation alone, in the passive impersonal state is inferior). As an eternal associate of the Lord (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-04-03.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 4.3&lt;/a&gt;) Arjuna and the other pāndavas are already above the state of liberation, they don't have to waste time in the heavenly planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was already able to defeat Indra, the king of the heavenly planets (when burning the Khandava forest, near the end of the Ādi parva, Mahābhārata). He had already traveled outside the coverings of the material universe and met with Vishnu, when recovering the lost sons of a brāhmana. He had already seen the universal form, which includes the entire universe (Bhagavad-gītā, chapter 11), and preferred the personal form (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-11-42.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 11.45&lt;/a&gt;). Facilities equal to the heavenly were already available to pāndavas in Indraprastha, so it is not too surprising that they themselves were not interested in spending time on the heavenly planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="214" LastActivityDate="2015-02-08T14:22:47.180" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5373" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-08T17:16:29.953" Score="5" ViewCount="4547" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yesterday I was thinking about donating some money to charity who help people. But at the same time a thought come that if that money will be used for things other than help, say in bad things, then am I responsible for that bad karma done by the charity? And if the money is used in good way, then again upto which level am I responsible for that good karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2015-02-11T14:36:07.620" LastActivityDate="2017-11-07T04:52:48.213" Title="If I donate at some place is it considered as good karma (Punya)?" Tags="|karma|sin|punyam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5375" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4116" CreationDate="2015-02-08T19:01:21.373" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scripture and fantasy are mutually exclusive terms. So you will not find works of fantasy in scriptural literature. Also, fiction in the form of kAvyA (poetic composition), prabandhA, nATakA (drama) seems to be a uniquely kali-yuga-phenomenon. The earliest forms of such fantasy were also inspired by scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For e.g.,  Kalidasa's Abhignyana Sakuntalam takes a story from the Mahabharata and modifies it with generous poetic license. Kalidasa's Kumara Sambhavam also decorates the scriptural passage with poetry albeit remaining true to the original story. Many such examples can be cited: Bharavi's kirAtArjunIyam, Harsha's Naishadha kAvya etc. Several such works exist in regional languages as well. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that sastra/veda instructs like a king, purAna advises one like a well-wisher, and a kAvya speaks like a beloved. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So , when speaking of Hindu religious literature, one may conclude (with maybe an exception or two) that the spirit of the topic is retained regardless of the style in which it is narrated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-02-09T04:01:22.240" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T04:01:22.240" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5376" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5408" CreationDate="2015-02-08T20:49:26.167" Score="15" ViewCount="8180" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;&quot;Gurur brahmaa gurur vishnuh&#xA; gurur devo maheshvarah&#xA; gurur saakshaat parabrahma&#xA; tasmai shree gurave namah.&quot;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: Know the Guru to be Brahma himself. He is Vishnu. He is also Shiva. Know Him to be the Supreme Brahman, and offer the adorations unto that peerless Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why is Guru equal to brahma, vishnu and maheshwara?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the exact meaning of &quot;Guru&quot; in this poem?  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And In Hinduism had some stories like, If God and Guru appears together, first touch Guru's feet and pray him before you pray God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is Guru so special in hinduism? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also I would like to know source of this famous sloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-04-21T07:25:21.307" LastActivityDate="2020-01-17T03:46:39.507" Title="Why &quot;GURU&quot; is equal to &quot;supreme GODS&quot;?" Tags="|vedas|belief|rituals|guru|" AnswerCount="10" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5378" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-09T03:44:48.547" Score="7" ViewCount="6222" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ravana was Lord Shiva's devotee. Lord Shiva was impressed with Ravana's tapasya and fulfilled his dream. My question is, Ravana was evil and took Sita from Rama, then why did Lord Shiva help him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I saw this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2039/was-ravana-actually-a-villain-or-a-devotee-of-lord-vishnu&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; where OP is asking something different, whether Ravana worshiped Vishnu or not, but it's not related to this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2457" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T11:56:57.960" Title="Why does Lord Shiva fulfill wishes of evil people also?" Tags="|shiva|ramayana|ravana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5380" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5378" CreationDate="2015-02-09T03:57:58.167" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every action, thought  and word has consequences. Which is why it is imperative that we adhere to dharma every waking moment, if one is to avoid negative consequences for oneself and the universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a rowdy student works hard and does brilliantly in an examination, is the teacher not obligated to give them good marks? It is the same principle here. When a rakshasa does tapasya, if the tapasya is meritorious, the rakshasa will be given the fruits of his labor. However, when they use these fruits to wreak havoc, that action is countered by other means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, it was Brahma who gave boons to Ravana on account of his penance. Not Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-02-09T04:06:30.577" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T04:06:30.577" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5381" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-09T04:10:33.117" Score="2" ViewCount="1953" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is lord &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Venkateshwara&lt;/a&gt; name not listed in avatar of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2458" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-01-24T18:17:49.207" LastActivityDate="2018-01-24T18:17:49.207" Title="Why lord Venkateshwara's name is not listed in the avatars of vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|venkateshwara|tirupati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2015-02-09T08:24:31.730" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5382" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-09T04:17:35.900" Score="4" ViewCount="2270" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are Simhadri Appanna &amp;amp; Narasimha same gods or different? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narasimha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narasimha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2458" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-05-10T14:16:10.473" LastActivityDate="2017-05-10T14:16:10.473" Title="Are Simhadri Appanna &amp; Narasimha swamy same?" Tags="|vishnu|narasimha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5383" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-09T04:29:58.350" Score="4" ViewCount="3422" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why should a person sprinkle water on himself, if he sneezes at a door entrance (Gadapa)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2458" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-11T02:01:56.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-17T15:11:08.137" Title="Why should a person sprinkle water on himself, if he sneezes at a door entrance (Gadapa)?" Tags="|belief|culture|superstitions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5385" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-09T05:06:04.817" Score="3" ViewCount="347" Body="&lt;p&gt;i have one hindu friend, he tied with holy thread on his wrist i asked him what about thread, he replied: this thread belongs to Muslim Religion.  &amp;amp; it look like this: &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zlRcH.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2459" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T05:06:04.817" Title="Why Hindu Person hand tied with Muslim holy thread?" Tags="|belief|other-religions|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-02-09T05:08:18.563" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5386" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-09T05:11:15.660" Score="3" ViewCount="6688" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do Hindus worship vehicles on the day of Dussehra (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayadashami&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;vijaya dasami&lt;/a&gt;)? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2459" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-02-10T03:22:56.170" LastActivityDate="2015-09-18T16:47:31.883" Title="Why do Hindus worship vehicles on the day of Dussehra?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5388" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2278" CreationDate="2015-02-09T05:20:11.380" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, depends on how one look at it. if you look at it as feelings poured by many generations, distorted then answer is NO.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one is truly open minded, and seeking for real truth, without any pre conceive and pre poured ideas from generations and traditions...then one can find Answer YES.&#xA;Before there was no universe formed , there was just ONE spirit. Which is Origin, Param, &#xA;and It was AOM/OM...Spirit...The whole..., Just that and it is Shiva.&#xA;Once the AUM/OM energy , which is part of AUM/OM Spirit, universe was formed, Western philosophy describes it Bang theory, Eastern Sound AUM/OM. Both are same, both energy of various Frequency...Light/Fire force, sound/vibration force, wind/Air force, water/moving force, Earth/gravitational force. and manage these Trinity of Brahama, Vishnu &amp;amp; Mahesh was formed, but as Sihiv wanted companion (Shakti / Energy which is called Shakti Maa, Maha Shakti. As Eastern way to describe Shiv &amp;amp; Shakti/Shivji/Shankara, western describes as Spirit/Shiva &amp;amp; Holy Spirit/ Shak=nkara/Shakti.&#xA;Shiva is Whole, Shankara is part of Whole, but not whole...so all Shakti's in various names and forms we are used to call them God, Bhagwan, Ishwer they all are Shakti's/Holy Spirits but no one is whole....So we say there is ONE GOD, it is suppose to mean Spirit/Shiva....but &#xA;over the many generation, we established all avataras/ incarnations of Holy spirit whether we call Ram, Krishna, Shanker, Brahma, Vishnnu, Jesus ...etc, all are Holy Spirit but not Spirit /Shiva/Whole/Param?Original/Ultimate.....&#xA;In this sence and simplicity, Shiva and Shakera are not one, Shiva is ONE but Shanakara is part of ONE...but prominent of one with Shivlinga as sysmbole...symbole of Unity of Shiva &amp;amp; Shankara, or Unity of Spirit &amp;amp; Holy Spirit....&#xA;Our ultimate goal to be Free, Nirvana....should be with Spirit, but with help of or through Holy Spirit/Shankera/Any shakti, no mater what name one is aligned to.&#xA;Then why bother who follow, or devoted to whom, as long as goal is Spirit...&#xA;If this is clear , then there is no fight for way of salvation, as it is for all, as they wish to take path, and mostly assigned by Spirit giving birth in particular family, and their rituals and belief system....one must follow, without any taking interest converting to others in their own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short follow your Inner Spirit. Listen to Holy spirit, Guru, parents etc, but then analysis with mind and intellect, which are special gift to each Human soul to use it with freewill. Do not blindly follow any one or any religion, use mind and intellect wisely, un bias, purely, truthfully as they are spirit of Origin engraved in each of us, for just for our own salvation, uniquely designed for each of us as He has designed our face uniquely....not others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2460" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2015-02-09T05:35:41.650" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T05:35:41.650" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5390" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-09T05:41:27.010" Score="6" ViewCount="309" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Mata&quot;&gt;Bharat Matha&lt;/a&gt; exist in hindu dieties or it was created for Indian Freedom Movement? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2458" LastActivityDate="2015-02-10T06:55:31.033" Title="Does Bharat Matha exist in hindu dieties?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5393" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5376" CreationDate="2015-02-09T09:36:15.600" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;A better translation is The Guru is Brahma, the Guru is Vishnu, the Guru is the great God Siva. The Guru alone is the Supreme Brahman, I salute Him the holy Guru. Who pervades the universe, moving and unmoving, of undivided form, as the universe, who reveals that state, Him I salute the holy Guru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a hymn is praise of God as Guru. God is the only Guru (teacher). God is the teacher of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One's own guru should be treated as the special manifestation of God to teach you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A spiritual teacher, Guru, is not unique to Hinduism. Buddhists have gurus also but they use another term. Christian monks also have a tradition of having a spiritual teacher for learning Christian mysticism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T09:36:15.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5394" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5395" CreationDate="2015-02-09T10:51:29.987" Score="10" ViewCount="1606" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read many incidents in which the Brahmastra was invoked and then later revoked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But was a Brahmastra ever fired on Vishnu, Shiva or Brahma or it came close to being fired on one of them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it was never fired, what would happen if it's fired on one of the Trimurti and not revoked?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2368" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T07:39:11.220" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T07:39:11.220" Title="Was a Brahmastra ever fired on Vishnu, Shiva or Brahma? If not, what would happen if fired on them?" Tags="|weapon|brahmastra|trinity|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5395" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5394" CreationDate="2015-02-09T11:46:40.610" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nothing will  happen to any of these Gods. The brahmastra was ineffective even  with Anjaneya (reference. Sundara Kanda) and Garutmanta(reference. Amritapaharana)   These two heroes chose to respect it by pretending to be bound by it and offering a feather for the Astra to nominally serve its purpose. So, the brahmastra will be ineffectual with the trinity too if someone does indeed exhibit the temerity to launch it against them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-02-10T01:49:58.667" LastActivityDate="2015-02-10T01:49:58.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5396" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5245" CreationDate="2015-02-09T12:25:10.710" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I finally found where the Sama Veda quote is from.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/sv-kauthuma.itx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the Sama Veda in Sanskrit.  Near the beginning of the Aranya Archikah, Aranya Kandam section, the following verse occurs:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ahamasmi prathamajā ṛtasya pūrvaṃ devebhyo amṛtasya nāma |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yo mā dadāti sa idevamāvadahamannamannamadantamadmi || 594&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedmandir.com/content/questions-answers-march-11-2011&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt; translates the verse&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have been created before the creation of devtas and nobody can survive without consuming me. Those who donate me in Yagna etc., I protect them and bestow them with the result of pious deeds [punya].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apparently this verse was turned into a Sama Veda song called Svargyam Sethushama, AKA Purushagati.  You can listen to the song &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskrit.safire.com/SamaVeda.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; I highly recommend it if you haven't heard Sama Veda singing before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The preamble to the hymn provides useful information about the verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svargyam Sethushama Purushagathirva Prajapati Rishihi Trishtup Chandaha Atma Devata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of [the hymn called] Svargyam Sethushama [or] Purushagathi, the sage [who heard it from the gods] is Prajapati, the meter is Trishtup, the deity [whom it's addressed to] is Atma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I assume that the mantra was first heard by Brahma (Prajapati), and that it was said in praise of Vishnu (Paramatma), based on the information in my question about its use in Vaikuntha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-03-02T13:23:32.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5397" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5376" CreationDate="2015-02-09T14:54:52.910" Score="5" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The source of this sloka is Guru Gita imparted by Lord Shiva to Devi Parvati and it appears in the Skanda Purana. Once Lord Shiva was holding court when all the other deities were paying their respects to him when he suddenly stood up, turned and offered namaskaram. Devi Parvati was surprised and asked him who it was that was the recipient of the namaskaram of the Great God to whom everyone else pays obeisance. Shiva then spoke to her and said he was honoring the Guru and proceeded to explain the Guru tatva (essence of guru) to her in the form of Guru Gita slokas. In the same Guru Gita, Lord Siva himself states that if Siva gets angry, Guru saves us; but if Guru is angry with us, even Siva cannot save us.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The word Guru means one who dispels darkness. gu means darkness/ignorance and ru sabda(root word) stands for dispelling. Guru also means heavy and pregnant. A guru is heavy because, having realised parabrahma, he carries it within him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A guru is superior to even God because, only with the grace of a Guru do we get to know God. Without a Guru, we remain godless and wallow in the cycle of birth and death. A guru imparts knowledge and it is only with knowledge/jnyAna, does one attain mOksha. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahma creates; similarly the Guru sows the seed of knowledge within us.  Vishnu sustains; the Guru cultivates knowledge within us. Maheswara does laya; Guru's grace helps us become one with the parabrahma.  I paraphrased this explanation of &quot;Guru brahma, guruh vishnuh, gurur devo maheswarah&quot; given by a learned sanyasi.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T14:54:52.910" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5398" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5390" CreationDate="2015-02-09T15:49:50.303" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bharat Mata is not actually a goddess, but a land where we live. It was named after King Bharat. Bharat has been a country for thousands of years. It has witnessed many wars with others such as Sri Lanka (Ravana), Greeks (Kalyavana), etc. People living in India have been bounded by Ramayana and Mahabharata from east to west as well as north to south. It might be true that the pictorial form of Bharat Mata is recent one, but Bharat mata has been since many millennia. Hence Arjun is called Bharatvanshaj (Descendant of Bharat) by Krishna. That is the reason why there are 52 shaktipeethas all spread across Bharat. Even Shankaracharya travelled whole country and placed peethas in the 4 directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T15:49:50.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5400" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2392" CreationDate="2015-02-09T16:29:23.067" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मोक्षकारणसामग्रहयां भक्तिरेव गरीयसी |&lt;br&gt; स्वस्वरूपानुसन्धानं&#xA;  भक्तिरित्यभिधीयते ||32|| &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;mOksha kAraNa sAmagryAm bhaktirEva garIyasi&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  SwaSwarupaNuSanDhaaNam BhaktiRityaBhidhiYate - &lt;strong&gt;Sankaracharya in&#xA;  Vivekachudamani&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: Among all tools available in the attainment of mOksha&#xA;  (salvation), bhakti is the most important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said that, our mind and soul steer towards a particular path based on the practices done in previous lives and the one in which we are deficient. All four are required for mOksha and excellence in one path leads to the realization of the others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-08-09T05:31:44.040" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T05:31:44.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5402" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3241" CreationDate="2015-02-09T16:48:50.450" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Those who have undergone upanayanam do a special mantra before eating. Those who do not have this adhikara, may chant:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;annapUrnE sadA purNE sankara prANa vallabE&#xA;  jnyAna vairagya siddhyartham bhikshAm dehi cha pArvati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ashivapooja.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Meaning&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Annapurna, who is full of food, the beloved life-force of Lord Sankara (Shiva), O' Parvathi - grant me alms that I be firmly established in knowledge and renunciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and remember &quot;govinda&quot; while eating and after finishing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who have had upanayana samskAra (at least brahmins- I am not aware of rituals for others) do another mantra and uttara OupOsana at the end of the meal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T01:50:53.027" LastActivityDate="2016-03-21T01:50:53.027" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5403" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5390" CreationDate="2015-02-09T17:04:30.303" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bharat Mata is the metaphoric representation by Indian citizens towards their motherland India which is also called 'Bharat' in Hindi language. India, the country is being treated as a mother here as it performs the duties of a mother. The country as a mother, gives us food, shelter, atmosphere to live, protection, nurtures us, makes us learn different things, etc. Also, as a son/daughter has responsibility of taking care of their mother, similarly Indian citizens are motivated to take care and do everything possible for the betterment of the country. The word 'Motherland' is being used in English also in many countries to represent the same feelings of faith and duty between a country and countrymen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-02-10T06:55:31.033" LastActivityDate="2015-02-10T06:55:31.033" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5404" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5415" CreationDate="2015-02-09T17:24:37.883" Score="27" ViewCount="76643" Body="&lt;p&gt;I always wanted to read Bhagavad Gita but didn't get time. Recently one of my friend suggested to read it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have the following questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can anybody suggest me how to get started with Bhagavad Gita?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know it is a sequence of dialogues between Arjuna and Lord Krishna. Do I have to go through the Mahabharata to understand Bhagavad Gita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In which language should I read?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know it was originally written in Sanskrit, but I'm not comfortable with it. Hindi or English would be fine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How Bhagavad Gita will change my life?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not too religious but have a deep respect for our ancient teachings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2314" LastEditorUserId="2314" LastEditDate="2020-02-06T05:40:32.153" LastActivityDate="2023-10-28T06:19:25.400" Title="How to start reading Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="5405" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5187" CreationDate="2015-02-09T17:37:11.763" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read complete mahabharata translated by KM Ganguly and Rajgopalchary separately and have gone through various articles posted and updated by many persons in different web pages. I have come to a conclusion that there were only Brahmastra,Brahmashirsha Astra,and Brahmadanda. Knowledge of Bhahmastra was known to manya great warriors and gurus like Guru Parashurama,Guru Drona, Guru Kripacharya, Bhisma,Arjuna, Krisna, Satyaki,Pradumna, Annirudhha, Asswatthama,ofcourse Karna with the curse that he will forget it when he needed it the most against an equivalent opponent. However Brahmashirsha Weapon having 4 heads of Lord Brahma is more powerful and destructive than Bhahmastra probably evolution of the latter. This knowledge was imparted to Arjuna and Aswatthama through Guru Drona. Though Aswatthama was having the knowledge of invoking the weapon but not revoking one unlike Arjuna. Drona purposefully didn't want to impart the full knowledge to Aswatthama as he didn't trust him as he had on Arjuna because the person having both the knowledge can hurl the missile as many times as he wants and Drona didn't want that option to be availabe with Aswatthama. There is no mention having Bhisma, Karna, Kripa,Satyaki having or using this weapon. However the weapon Brahmadanda was given to only Brahmins eg: Vasista, Parsurama, Drona etc, which is capable of engulfing both Brahmastra and Brahmashirsha astra which was not imparted to any of the khatriya warriors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2467" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T17:37:11.763" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5406" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5404" CreationDate="2015-02-09T18:26:06.137" Score="4" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;You dont have to read the entire Mahabharata but knowing the back-story will help. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The gita traditionally is started from a different chapter than the first. The first is Arjuna vishada yoga and there is  a belief that gitA parayana should not be started with this yoga. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;You can read the translations into English or Hindi. Look for Gita Gnyana Yagnas in your locality. Samskrta Bharati conducts these in addition to Chinmaya Mission. Check them out FWIW.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What do you hope to get out of reading the Gita? In general, any deeply philosophical work, if one has the yoga, will shake one to their roots and at the very least make one re-examine their life. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2015-02-09T18:26:06.137" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5408" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5376" CreationDate="2015-02-09T18:54:45.857" Score="19" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Why is Guru equal to Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshvara&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is because Guru is God Himself come in Human form. The Guru is the guide who knows the way to take the jiva to the top, which is re-union with God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/gurutattva.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says in 'Guru Tattva'&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Guru is God Himself manifesting in a personal form to guide the aspirant. Grace of God takes the form of Guru. To see the Guru is to see God. The Guru is united with God. He inspires devotion in others. His presence purifies all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is He equal to Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshvara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaitically speaking, the Guru has realized His true self. He has realized His true nature as Satchidananda or God. Thus verily He is God Himself come to help the jiva to this same realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dualistically, He is equal to God, because it is God who sends the Guru to the aspirant. Thus He is a representative of God Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogananda.com.au/pyr/pyr_guru2.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Paramhansa Yogananda Swami says that&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a devotee prays intensely to God to know truth, God sends him a true guru to guide him. This divine grace comes to the devotee when he demonstrates his desire for liberation by sincere constancy in supplication to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus it is evident that Guru comes to guide the seeker, He is sent by God (Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshvara) to guide Him. Thus in essence, he is equal to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is the exact meaning of this Shloka?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swamiji and also moonstar2001 have given some good possible translations of this Shloka, here is another one&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru is the source (brahma), the sustenance (vishnu) and end&#xA;(mahesvara) of My existence. I surrender to My Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Why Guru is special in Hinduism?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You want to go to Mount Kailash to see Maheshvara. But you do not know the way. You have to traverse through multiple forests and traps. It is filled with dangers of samsara. How to get there?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now suppose you meet a guide, who has already been to Kailash, and He agrees to take you to Kailash. Then you would be able to easily get there isn't it. There is no need to worry, for the guide has already been there before! This is the importance of Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says in 'Guru Tattva' by Sri Swami Sivananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a beginner in the spiritual path, a Guru is necessary. To light a candle, you need a burning candled Even so, an illumined soul alone can enlighten another soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words following Guru and His teachings is the greatest of all Yogas. It is the easiest of all paths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says in 'Guru Tattva':&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru-Bhakti Yoga is a Yoga by itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yoga of Guru-Bhakti is the real safe Yoga which can be practised without any fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Grace of Guru is the end or goal of Guru-Bhakti Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Who is the real Guru?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In reality, there is no Guru, other than God Himself. As swamiji has said, this Shloka can also be translated in the reverse, that Brahma, Vishnu, Mahehvara, they are the only Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa says Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna = that Satchidananda is the only Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satchidananda alone is the Guru. If a man in the form of a guru awakens spiritual consciousness in you, then know for certain that it is God the Absolute who has assumed that human form for your sake. The guru is like a companion who leads you by the hand. After the realization of God, one loses the distinction between the guru and the disciple. ‘That creates a very difficult situation; there the guru and the disciple do not see each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in other words, there is no difference between God and Guru. From the disciple's point of view, Guru is God Himself. Because it is through Him that one reaches God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the point of view of the Guru, the Guru is merely an instrument. It is God who is doing the teaching. The Guru has no ego whatsoever that He is the 'teacher' of any kind. he simply serves God. It is really God, Satchidananda who transforms and liberates the individual. All the best!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T14:21:56.413" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5409" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-09T19:41:41.697" Score="2" ViewCount="209" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2118/fulfilled-prophecies-in-hinduism#comment3277_2151&quot;&gt;this comment&lt;/a&gt;, Ramaprakasha says, &quot;historicity is deep immaturity according to Hinduism.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Hinduism take a stance on what methods of studying history are valid and what ones are not? Does it take a stance on how important it is to study history (or not to)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="458" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-10-17T12:19:55.230" Title="Is there a Hindu view of historiography?" Tags="|history|philosophy|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5410" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5409" CreationDate="2015-02-10T00:47:48.027" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;sargasya prati sargasya vamso manvantarAnicha vamsAnucharitam chaiva purANam pancha lakshaNam&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism does not look down on or invalidate history or its study. The opposite is true, as is evidenced by purana. A purana is supposed to have five attributes.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puranam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia &lt;/a&gt; translates these as:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sarga: the creation of the universe.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pratisarga: secondary creations, mostly re-creations after dissolution.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vamśa: genealogy of the gods and sages.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Manvañtara: the creation of the human race and the first human beings. The epoch of    the Manus' rule, 71 celestial Maha Yugas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vamśānucaritam: the histories of the patriarchs of the lunar and solar dynasties.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So preserving history is not only practised but scripturally sanctioned. Wikipedia also states&#xA;&quot;The Puranas also lay emphasis on keeping a record of genealogies&quot;, as the Vayu Purana says, &quot;to preserve the genealogies of gods, sages and glorious kings and the traditions of great men.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also have &quot;iti haasa&quot; : &quot;it happened thus&quot; which is the direct definition  of &quot;history&quot;. Ramayana and mahabharata are itihasa or historical accounts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-10-17T12:19:55.230" LastActivityDate="2015-10-17T12:19:55.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5413" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3400" CreationDate="2015-02-10T02:28:19.933" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;All our powers are a result of our unswerving spiritual practices. Gandhari's spiritual practice consisted of pativrata dharma (the way of a chaste wife) by way of forfeiting what her husband did not have (her husband DhrtarAshTra was blind). Since she withdrew her visual sense from the world, and turned it inwards, her visual faculty attained certain supernatural powers. She wanted to use this power to benefit her son. The way to shower visual power is to to physically see the target. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, practising a dharma or truth will give one power over that faculty. For e.g., if you practise speaking the truth alone and nothing but the truth for a few years, your speech will attain the power of making what you say come true. This is called vAk siddhi. The moment you go lax on speaking the truth, you will lose this power. And if you use it for evil, then also the power will be lost and one will have to suffer the consequences of inflicting pain on the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2015-02-10T02:28:19.933" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5414" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5404" CreationDate="2015-02-10T02:53:57.570" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's very nice that you want to start reading the Bhagavad Gita, one of the best scriptures that there is. You don't need much time to read it, a chapter a day starting from the first one is also enough and would require at most 15-20 minutes of your time. Now regarding your questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do I've to go through the Mahabharata ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, you don't need to go through the Mahabharata to read the Gita. Unless you want to know the details of the characters mentioned in the first chapter of the Gita, going through the Mahabharata is not required.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In which language should I read it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You read it in any language you are most comfortable with. But one fact is that when the original work is translated to any other language by different persons variations do occur. So original is always the best followed by translations done by saints.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How it will change my life?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reading Gita will not change your life unless you try to put into practice the things you learn from it. Nevertheless, Gita being the summary of the Upanishads contains unmatching knowledge and philosophy understanding which will give you happiness and peace. The second chapter of the Gita is very important as it speaks of the eternal soul dwelling in the body; and this knowledge of the soul is the starting point of all spiritualism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are a spiritual seeker of you really give your mind to it, the discussion between Shri Krisha and Arjuna is so interesting that you will try to read and finish it in one go. But even after reading it, it will take time until you realize and understand it correctly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since you are comfortable with Hindi, I would suggest reading &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gitapress.org/Download_Hin_pdf.htm&quot;&gt;Gita Sadhak Sanjivani&lt;/a&gt; by Swami Ramsukh Das. I find that very good for any spiritual aspirant. If you just want to read the English translations you can do so at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But just note that Bhagavad Gita - As it is was primarily meant for westerns who were not familiar or literate about our philosophy and religious tradition. Hence, it is not that knowledge rich, but good for beginners. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also if you have an Android phone you can install this &lt;a href=&quot;https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pratyush.android.bhagavadgita&amp;amp;hl=en&quot;&gt;Gita App&lt;/a&gt; which contains translations from different saints including Sankaracharya, Sivananda, Ramsukh Das and many others. This one is very good if you want to just read the Gita verses in your desired language without reading purport, explanations etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-27T09:06:30.807" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T09:06:30.807" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5415" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5404" CreationDate="2015-02-10T07:14:14.227" Score="35" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gita is one of the 3 pillars of modern Vedanta (the other two being the Upanishads and the Brahma-Sutras). There are many translations in many different languages. Read in the language that you are comfortable with. Chanting in Sanskrit is ok, but if you do not study it in a language that you understand, it is the same as a parrot mimicking human speech. Your aim is to to understand Krishna's message in the Gita, not to intone Sanskrit correctly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Bhagavad-Gita.with.the.Commentary.of.Sri.Shankaracharya#page/n533/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita 18. 70-71&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And he who will study this sacred dialogue of ours--by him shall I have been worshiped through knowledge as a sacrifice; such is My judgement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the man who hears this, full of faith and free from malice--even he, liberated from sin, shall attain the happy regions of the righteous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are several ways to study the Gita;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, a daily reading of either a chapter or the 24 verses/full chapter method. Many people do this in the morning as part of their morning daily devotions. Read without commentaries. There are 700 verses in the Gita, the 24 verse/full chapter method means you will complete 1 reading in 1 lunar month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second, study some commentary on the meaning of the Gita, but not as part of your daily reading.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Third, pick out those verses that have the most meaning to you. Make a list.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fourth, memorize some or all of those verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fifth, if you are ambitious, memorize the entire Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even more ambitious? Learn Sanskrit and read in Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A daily reading will give you strength and after many readings a deeper insight into its subtle meanings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-12T17:35:39.970" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5416" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-10T09:12:22.330" Score="5" ViewCount="543" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across a term &quot;Yoganidra&quot; in one of spiritual book. And I came to know that &quot;Yoganidra&quot; can experience during Meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning of &quot;Yoganidra&quot;? Are there any Types of &quot;Yoganidra&quot;? Briefly &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How to perform &quot;Yoganidra&quot;? Can I get a spiritual reference for it?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can we perform &quot;Yoganidra&quot; by Own or Does we need a spiritual &quot;GURU&quot; for this?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What exactly happens to Prarabhdha karma while performing &quot;Yoganidra&quot; in meditation?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of &quot;Yoganidra&quot; in Spiritual Growth (Adhyatmik pragati) of a sadhaka?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are there any benefits doing &quot;Yoganidra&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And I found that &quot;Yoganidra&quot; is different from sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it means that we can't experience &quot;Yoganidra&quot; while sleeping? If Yes/No How to know it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastActivityDate="2015-02-13T16:14:17.443" Title="What exactly happens to Prarabhdha karma while performing &quot;Yoganidra&quot; in Meditation?" Tags="|practice|karma|yoga|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5418" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-10T10:42:51.663" Score="3" ViewCount="482" Body="&lt;p&gt;Janeu the sacred Yagyopavita thread is worn by any dwija who wishes to follow some set of rules. So,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;what are those rules and in which scripture they  are described? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In what circumstances a Yajyopavit has to be changed?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-05-29T18:47:09.227" LastActivityDate="2016-05-29T18:47:09.227" Title="In what circumstances Yagnopavita must be changed?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2018-07-17T11:38:23.223" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5420" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-10T13:09:35.220" Score="2" ViewCount="410" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been going to Shivalayam (Shiva temple) and noticed that all People who circumambulate Shiva temple go a full circle, where as people circumambulating just the Shiva ling which is open for all to perform abhishekam just do a half a circle or so. I see people doing a full circle, but many just go half. Can someone please enlighten?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1232" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2015-02-11T14:47:53.393" LastActivityDate="2015-02-11T14:47:53.393" Title="What is the difference between Shiva Temple Pradhikshina and just Shiva lingam pradhikshina?" Tags="|shiva|temple|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2016-10-17T05:21:47.900" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5423" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1968" CreationDate="2015-02-11T03:31:33.260" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How can I confess if I did something wrong?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If that wrong affected someone in someway, the confession has to be done to that affected person. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additionally: You can ask him/her, to give you chance for expiation &quot;&lt;em&gt;Prayashchit ka mauka&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. If that affected soul satisfied with you expiation, nothing will affect your karma. &#xA;Think of it like this way, The wrong someway had to balance. You can neither create &lt;em&gt;paap aur punya&lt;/em&gt; nor destroy &lt;em&gt;paap aur punya&lt;/em&gt;. You only can exchange it, by balancing them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;or against the god in Hinduism?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example you ate beef unknowingly? If your soul (&lt;em&gt;antar-atma&lt;/em&gt;) claims you haven't done it knowingly. Then there is no questioning. As &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1993/467&quot;&gt;@Shiv&lt;/a&gt; said &quot;The realization of the mistake done itself is Confession.&quot; We do have &lt;em&gt;shuddhi karan&lt;/em&gt; and vairious methods for purifying our souls. Ganga &lt;em&gt;snann&lt;/em&gt; is also a way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are only two things matter, first, whether your deed had affected your soul or other. Hence, you do need to confess and purify accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="230" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-02-11T03:38:55.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5425" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5376" CreationDate="2015-02-11T04:31:01.237" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;First thing is that, &lt;strong&gt;Guru is not equal to God, Guru Is the God&lt;/strong&gt;. The question of equality comes when there are two different things, but Guru and God are non-different. So the Bhagavatam says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;acaryam mam vijaniyan navanmanyeta karhicit&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  na martya-buddhyasuyeta sarva-deva-mayo guruh&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.17.27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One should know the acarya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The problem in understanding the identity of Guru and God is that when we think of the Guru we think of the physical body and qualities of the guru, but when the scripture (Guru Gita / Skanda Purana) talks about Guru being Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva himself &lt;strong&gt;it talks about the &lt;em&gt;guru tatva&lt;/em&gt; or the essence, not just the physical guru&lt;/strong&gt;. So the text defines the word Guru as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;gukāraṃ ca guṇātītaṃ rūkāraṃ rūpavarjitam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  guṇātītamarūpaṃ ca yo dadyāt sa guruḥ smṛtaḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The letter &lt;em&gt;gu&lt;/em&gt; means &lt;em&gt;guṇātīta&lt;/em&gt; (beyond qualities) and &lt;em&gt;ru&lt;/em&gt; means &lt;em&gt;rūpavarjita&lt;/em&gt; (without any form). He who gives this formless and qualityless state is said to be the Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since the text is talking about the essence of guru, not exactly the physical guru, there should be no confusion regarding guru's identity with the supreme gods. Otherwise there would be so many different Brahma, Visnus, etc. on earth as there are so many gurus and  each of their disciples and followers address them as the God. So &lt;strong&gt;guru as a &lt;em&gt;tatva&lt;/em&gt; or essence is same in all God realised Gurus even though the physical bodies differ&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because Guru Himself is God realised or &lt;em&gt;brahman vid&lt;/em&gt; (knower of Brahman), he is Brahman Himself. And from the point of essence whether we say Brahman, Vishnu, or Shiva &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/136/38&quot;&gt;all are ultimately but one&lt;/a&gt;. So the text says Guru is Brahma, Guru is Vishnu...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like God has a form, so also the guru has the physical form of a human. So  pointing out the identity of Guru and the gods (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) from the point of view of the essence, the text explains how the Guru is different from those well known gods physically:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;atrinetraḥ śivaḥ sākṣāt dvibāhuśca hariḥ smṛtaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yo'caturvadano brahmā śrīguruḥ kathitaḥ priye&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Guru is Shiva directly without the three eyes and is said to be Vishnu with two hands. O beloved (Parvati), guru is said to be Brahma without the four faces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now that we have this much understanding, we can answer the questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Why is Guru equal to brahma, vishnu and maheshwara?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, becaue &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2397/38&quot;&gt;Guru is someone who is &lt;em&gt;brahmanistha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;em&gt;brahmavid&lt;/em&gt;, He is Brahman himself (&lt;em&gt;brahmavid brahmaiva bhavati&lt;/em&gt; [Mun. Up. - 3.2.9]). And because Brahman in His different temperaments is commonly known as Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, the text also equates guru to those Gods. But the thing to keep in mind is that the text mostly talks about the &lt;em&gt;guru tatva&lt;/em&gt;, not just the physical guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is the exact meaning of &quot;Guru&quot; in this poem?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru can mean many different things depending upon how it is interpreted. The text itself gives different meanings of  the word guru which are as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;1st meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;gukāraścāndhakāro hi rukārasteja ucyate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ajñānagrāsakaṃ brahma gurureva na saṃśayaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The letter &lt;em&gt;gu&lt;/em&gt; is indeed darkness and the letter &lt;em&gt;ru&lt;/em&gt; is said to be light. There is no doubt that Guru only is the darkness destroying Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;2nd meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;gukāro bhavarogaḥ syāt rukārastannirodhakṛt&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhavarogaharatyācca gururityabhidhīyate&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The letter &lt;em&gt;gu&lt;/em&gt; is like disease of wordly attachment and the letter &lt;em&gt;ru&lt;/em&gt; prevents that. The guru is known as he who takes away the disease of wordly attachment. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;3rd meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;gukāraḥ prathamo varṇo māyādiguṇabhāsakaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rukāro'sti paraṃ brahma māyābhrāntivimocanam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The letter 'Gu' is the first syllable which expresses &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; and its material natures (&lt;em&gt;satva, rajas, tamas&lt;/em&gt;). The letter &lt;em&gt;ru&lt;/em&gt; is supreme Brahman which releases from the illusions of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Why is Guru so special in Hinduism?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not just in Hinduism, guru is special in every case. But it is only Hinduism which states Guru as non different from God and teaches to respect Guru just like God (&lt;em&gt;yasya deve para bhaktir, yatha deve tatha gurau&lt;/em&gt;). The reason is simple because our sages and saints had realized the ultimate truth and known the essence of all. They knew that the ultimate essence, known as God, can only be known upon the grace and instruction of the guru. So it is always instructed to get knowledge from the &lt;em&gt;tatvadarshis&lt;/em&gt; or the knowers of the truth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 4.34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Since it is the guru who helps the seeker realize God in the first place, Guru is more important than God&lt;/strong&gt;. Only after following the instructions of a guru that one meets God, so when both of them come at once, it is the Guru whose feet should be touched first.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, in Hinduism knowledge (vedas, puranas,etc.) has been obtained from one person to another in a successive order (&lt;em&gt;guru parmpara&lt;/em&gt;) starting from Brahma. And Brahma himself got knowledge from the supreme God. So there is the statement &lt;em&gt;Krishnam vande jagadgurum&lt;/em&gt;. When one will realize the truth he will be able to see how exactly Guru is God Himself and then the following statment of the text will make sense to him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yo guruḥ sa śivaḥ prokto yaḥ śivaḥ sa guruḥ smṛtaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - He who is guru is said as Shiva, He who is Shiva is remembered as Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-02-11T04:45:15.057" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5427" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5409" CreationDate="2015-02-11T08:16:08.347" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two kinds of knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first is knowledge gained through the sense organs and corroborated by extensions of the sense organs. This knowledge is gained by what is generally termed 1) the scientific method and 2) evidence. Both these methods involve the sense organs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second kind of knowledge is transcendental knowledge which is not gained through the sense organs but can be gained through the spiritual disciplines of yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The knowledge of the Vedas was gained through transcendental knowledge and not through the academic or scientific disciplines (sense organs). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Historicity is a term used in reference to knowledge gained through the senses. It is not a term used in knowledge gained transcendentally. Hinduism is a belief in the Vedas as the revealed word of God. Knowledge gained through the senses does not fall under the purvey of Hinduism as it is not the revealed word of God. The ultimate goal of the Vedas (and therefore Hinduism) is to teach men how to realize God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There may be from time to time apparent inconsistencies between the two kinds of knowledge. This is all due to Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankaracharya said that all the stories in the Vedas did not have to be taken as factual, some were meant as parables to teach a lesson. Also understand that our view from the sensual side changes all the time also. What scientists thought was the nature of the universe 200 years ago is different from 100 years ago is different from now and will be different 100 years from now. Historical evidence has changed also during the same time periods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fulfill the aim of the Vedas; realize God in your own heart and ask Him directly why there is an inconsistency between the two. Until you realize Him directly there will always be inconsistencies; this is the nature of Maya. &quot;Lectures are for the learned, not for Realization.&quot; - Sankaracharya         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-02-11T08:39:52.940" LastActivityDate="2015-02-11T08:39:52.940" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5429" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5373" CreationDate="2015-02-11T09:29:25.010" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Donation is a very good thing, in fact a man should donate 1/3 of his earnings. According to Gurus, charity is not only good karma but it brings a lot of peace inside. A person donating to get good karma will not get the fruits of his deed.&#xA;But,if you do it selflessly or unconditionally i,e. not expecting a return out of it, then, the good karma is stored.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Intention is key here. If your intention is good, then good karma will come, but if your intention is bad or conditional, then your good karma will not become active.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="598" LastActivityDate="2015-02-11T09:29:25.010" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5430" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2912" CreationDate="2015-02-11T09:50:38.497" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Cannot comment on poems but I can cite two stories related to the virtues of serving parents:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;dharmavyAdha , the butcher, from mahabhArata. Kousika, the brahmana ascetic, was directed by a virtuous housewife (on whom his wrathful looks had no effect owing to the power of her kula stree dharma) to visit dharmavyAdha and understand the  true nature of swadharma and penance. dharmavyAdha immediately knew who kousika was, the purpose of his visit as well as details of the person who referred kousika to him. This astounded the sadhaka; dharmavyAdha revealed that his supreme duty was towards his parents and he served them with devotion and love and hence his yogic superiority.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;punDarIka, the brAhmana, for whom, pAnDu ranga of panDaripUr descended on the earth. punDarIka was a great devotee of Krishna , who graced him with his darshan when punDarIka was in the midst of serving his father who was trying to sleep. punDarIka threw a brick near Krishna and asked him to wait till his father was fully asleep and he could get up from his act of massaging his father's legs. pAnDuranga deferred to the supreme dharma of serving one's parents and dutifully stood on the brick and waited for punDarIka. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can try looking them up some more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2015-02-11T09:50:38.497" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5431" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3273" CreationDate="2015-02-11T14:31:55.190" Score="2" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is the Nahusha Prasna episode in the MahaBharata Vana Parva and also appears in Bhagavatam. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And of course there is the &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=583&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;prasnOpanishad&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritebooks.org/2009/04/prasnottara-ratna-malika-of-sankaracharya-sanskrit-english/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;prasnOttara ratna mAlika by Sankaracharya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2015-02-11T14:31:55.190" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5432" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3352" CreationDate="2015-02-11T15:01:54.673" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You don't need upadesa to chant panchakshari (namah sivaya) but you do need upadesa to chant pranava panchakshari ( panchakshari appended to omkaara). No upadesa is needed for naama parayana/sankeertana.  Anything with a beejakshara (such as Om etc.) requires upadesa by a guru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2015-02-11T15:01:54.673" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5434" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="732" CreationDate="2015-02-12T02:44:37.157" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to teachers, dharma, How things work and how people should behave is eternal,  existing with Creation itself. All religions including Hinduism emerged out of this one dharma as described in Vedas.  But Vedas do not prescribe any religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2483" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-12T04:40:31.563" LastActivityDate="2015-02-12T04:40:31.563" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5435" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-12T12:17:45.260" Score="9" ViewCount="7584" Body="&lt;p&gt;Diwali the festival of lights is mainly celebrated as on this day Lord Rama came back to Ayodhya after completing their 14 year exile. But generally everywhere we find that we worship Lord Ganesha and Lakshmi mata on Diwali. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is this so?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any story behind their worship on this day?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-12T13:15:56.900" LastActivityDate="2019-04-30T11:33:30.237" Title="Why do we worship Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesh on Diwali?" Tags="|ganesha|festivals|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5436" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-12T13:07:06.447" Score="2" ViewCount="1125" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually I am very curious to know who created the difference between Thenkalai and Vadakalai sects of Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2485" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-12T13:15:01.263" LastActivityDate="2015-02-12T13:15:01.263" Title="Who created the difference between Thenkalai and Vadakalai sects?" Tags="|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|vadakalai|thenkalai|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5437" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3791" CreationDate="2015-02-12T14:58:31.083" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The major difference between a good man and a devotee is that, a good man does everything for his own self where as a devotee does everything for his Lord. Selfless service of God is the mark of a true devotee. Therefore, while a good man has to take care of his karmic balance himself, the Lord takes care of it for the devotee and bears his necessities giving what he needs and preserving what he has:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form – to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So a devotee is superior because while a good man can get entangled in the &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; and karma of the world and fall down, a devotee never perishes. No matter what, someway or the other the Lord will help his devotee. So Shri Krishna makes this declaration openly in the Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.31]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - O son of Kuntī, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the most important point is that a good man by his actions, however good they may be, can never get over &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;. It is because the divine &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; of Lord is very difficult to overcome and only the devotees who surrender to Him get across it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 7.14] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difﬁcult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So a non-devotee will only be wandering between higher and lower planes of existences as per his karma without getting liberation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And another point is that, a good man can mitigate his sins by performing expiatory actions if available, but it is very hard and taking care of karma is a very delicate and risky business. However, a devotee gets liberation from his past sins easily by fully surrendering to God: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 18.66]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is a devotee more dearest to the supreme being than a good man?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, he is. Generally God is impartial and He is same to everyone. But because a devotee loves Him and serves Him, a devotee is more dearer to God than any other person:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;samo ’haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu na me dveṣyo ’sti na priyaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā mayi te teṣu cāpy aham&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.29]   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;na hy asyāsti priyaḥ kaścin nāpriyo vāsty amāninaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nottamo nādhamo vāpi sa-mānasyāsamo ’pi vā&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 10.46.37]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  For Him no one is especially dear or despicable, superior or inferior, and yet He is not indifferent to anyone. He is free from all desire for respect and yet gives respect to all others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How much God loves His true devotees can be guessed from what Shri Krishna once told to Uddhav thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;na tathā me priyatama ātma-yonir na śaṅkaraḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  na ca saṅkarṣaṇo na śrīr naivātmā ca yathā bhavān&lt;/em&gt;  [SB - 11.14.15]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  My dear Uddhava, neither Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa, the goddess of fortune nor indeed My own self are as dear to Me as you are. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God loves His devotees so much that He wants to make the whole world pure by the dust of the feet His true devotees and always walks behind them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;nirapekṣaṁ muniṁ śāntaṁ nirvairaṁ sama-darśanam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  anuvrajāmy ahaṁ nityaṁ pūyeyety aṅghri-reṇubhiḥ&lt;/em&gt;  [SB - 11.14.16]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  With the dust of My devotees’ lotus feet I desire to purify the material worlds, which are situated within Me. Thus, I always follow the footsteps of My pure devotees, who are free from all personal desire, rapt in thought of My pastimes, peaceful, without any feelings of enmity, and of equal disposition everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Can a great misery happen to a devotee?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, as long as &lt;em&gt;prarabdha&lt;/em&gt; karma is in effect anything can happen to a devotee as per his past actions. Someone may have become a devotee in the present life, but he still has many past actions to experience. Hence, as effects of the past actions any kind of misery can happen to a devotee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if there is no misery in &lt;em&gt;prarabdha karma&lt;/em&gt;, a devotee may have to face difficulties as a test from the Lord. In Bhagavatam Shri Krishna says how He bereaves His devotees from material wealth, friends, etc. Also if we see the life of saints many of them faced difficulties in life. But all these are in the primary stages or &lt;em&gt;sadhana&lt;/em&gt; stages. Once a devotee becomes God-realized, a devotee can get rid of any misery if he wants just by praying to God and the Lord also always protects him. Nevertheless, &lt;strong&gt;be it God or a devotee, all respect the laws of Karma and face results of their actions accordingly&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-26T15:45:16.643" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T15:45:16.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5438" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-12T17:24:05.950" Score="11" ViewCount="4641" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do same events repeat in every &quot;Yuga&quot; ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I mean I heard that Ramayana occurs in every &quot;Treta Yuga&quot; several times in vast time cycles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same way for example, will Michael Jackson be born in every &quot;Kaliyug&quot;? Or for that matter every event that is happening now has been happening since ages and will repeat the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so, then where is the point of Karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it predestined or can we influence the changes by our own deeds? If so how is it applicable? Please any one explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2486" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-03-13T12:42:49.653" LastActivityDate="2018-03-13T12:42:49.653" Title="Do same events repeat in every Yuga?" Tags="|yuga|time|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5439" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-13T03:44:40.677" Score="4" ViewCount="607" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the following dialogues between Shri Hanuman and Vibhishana while going through Sundara Kand of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/ramacharitamanas/sundar745-804.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shri Ramcharit Manasa&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. And I came to know that Vibhishana is a true devotee of Lord Shri Rama and he was masterless going by the verses below. Because he was masterless, Lord Shri Rama graced him by sending Lord Hanuman ('the saint' in the verses).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुनहु पवनसुत रहनि हमारी। जिमि दसनन्हि महुँ जीभ बिचारी॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तात कबहुँ मोहि जानि अनाथा। करिहहिं कृपा भानुकुल नाथा॥1॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sunahu pavanasuta rahani hamåri, jimi dasananhi mahu jeebha bichari.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tåta kabahu mohi jåni anåthå, karihahi krupå bhånukula nåthå.1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तामस तनु कछु साधन नाहीं। प्रीत न पद सरोज मन माहीं॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अब मोहि भा भरोस हनुमंता। बिनु हरिकृपा मिलहिं नहिं संता॥2॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tåmasa tanu kachu sådhana nåhi, preeti na pada saroja mana måhi.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  aba mohi bhå bharosa hanumantå, binu harikrupå milahi nahi santå.2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जौं रघुबीर अनुग्रह कीन्हा। तौ तुम्ह मोहि दरसु हठि दीन्हा॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुनहु बिभीषन प्रभु कै रीती। करहिं सदा सेवक पर प्रीति॥3॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jau raghubira anugraha kinhå, tau tumha mohi darasu hathi dinhå.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sunahu bibhishana prabhu kai riti, karahi sadå sevaka para preeti.3.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भावार्थ:-(विभीषणजी ने कहा-) हे पवनपुत्र! मेरी रहनी सुनो। मैं यहाँ वैसे ही रहता हूँ जैसे दाँतों के बीच में बेचारी जीभ। हे तात! मुझे अनाथ जानकर सूर्यकुल के नाथ श्री रामचंद्रजी क्या कभी मुझ पर कृपा करेंगे?॥1॥&#xA;  तामसी (राक्षस) शरीर होने से साधन तो कुछ बनता नहीं और न मन में श्री रामचंद्रजी के चरणकमलों में प्रेम ही है, परंतु हे हनुमान्‌! अब मुझे विश्वास हो गया कि श्री रामजी की मुझ पर कृपा है, क्योंकि हरि की कृपा के बिना संत नहीं मिलते॥2॥श्री रघुवीर ने कृपा की है, तभी तो आपने मुझे हठ करके (अपनी ओर से) दर्शन दिए हैं। (हनुमान्‌जी ने कहा-) हे विभीषणजी! सुनिए, प्रभु की यही रीति है कि वे सेवक पर सदा ही प्रेम किया करते हैं॥3॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hear, O son of the wind-god, how I am living here: my plight is similar to that of the poor tongue, that lives in the midst of the teeth. Will the Lord of the solar race, dear friend, ever show His grace to me, knowing me to be masterless? Endowed as I am with a sinful (demoniac) form, I am incapable of doing any Sådhana (striving for God Realization); and my heart cherishes no love for the Lord's lotus-feet. But I am now confident, Hanumån, that lord Råma will shower His grace on me; for one can never meet a saint without lor∂ Hari's grace. It is only because the Hero of Raghu's race has been kind to me that you have blessed me with your sight unsolicited.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Listen, Vibhisana: the Lord is ever affectionate to His servants; for such is His wont. Tell me what superior birth can I claim-a frivolous monkey vile in everyway, so much so that if anyone mentions our name early in the morning he is sure to go without any food that day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does this mean Lord Hanuman is the spiritual guru of Vibhishana?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why I'm assuming this is because, God himself knows who needs a guru and sends a guru to his true devotee. Getting a guru only happens by God's grace. Actually, it is not the disciple who finds the guru, it is the guru who finds the disciple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Lord Hanuman is not the spiritual guru of Vibhishana then: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who was the guru of Vibhishana?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any reference available on this?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References :&lt;br&gt;&#xA; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/ramacharitamanas/sundar745-804.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Astrojyoti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindi.webdunia.com/religion/religion/hindu/ramcharitmanas/SunderKand/4.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Webdunia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T05:46:50.713" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T05:46:50.713" Title="Who was the guru of Vibhishana?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|guru|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5440" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5449" CreationDate="2015-02-13T07:53:49.427" Score="7" ViewCount="9581" Body="&lt;p&gt;When a soul can not affect by sadness or happiness then how after death it will feels pleasure or sorrow in heaven or hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna said: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter-2 Verse 23&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि नैनं दहति पावकः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुतः ||२.२३||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nainaṃ chindanti śastrāṇi nainaṃ dahati pāvakaḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   na cainaṃ kledayantyāpo na śoṣayati mārutaḥ ||2.23||   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:- The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But still in the same scripture He is saying that after death people will go either to hell or heaven according to their &quot;Karma&quot; and there they will enjoy a lot of happiness and share the joy whatever god/Deva used to enjoy. If soul can't be affected by these thing, how can it enjoy or suffer from these things?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2436" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-21T08:48:15.377" LastActivityDate="2018-07-17T16:04:51.103" Title="How can a soul enjoy or suffer when it is not harmed by anything?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|atma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5442" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5440" CreationDate="2015-02-13T12:01:34.570" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The soul is by nature Sat (Eternal), Chit (Conscious) and Ananda (Blissful). However, when the soul takes a material body, either gross or subtle, it suffers or enjoys as per the pains and pleasures of that body. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, when someone after giving up the current body goes to the Heavenly planets, then a suitable subtle body is given so that he can enjoy the heavenly pleasures. Similarly, when he goes to the Hellish planets, a suitable subtle body is awarded to suffer the punishments in Hell. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, Lord Krishna recommends that we rise above both good and bad, and be situated in transcendence. And what is this transcendence? It is loving devotional service to the Lord.&#xA;The Lord promises that when one leaves the body, situated thus, he does not return to the material world, but instead enters the spiritual kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following verse from Bhagavad Gita will substantiate the above:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;punar avartino ’rjuna&lt;br&gt;&#xA;mam upetya tu kaunteya&lt;br&gt;&#xA;punar janma na vidyate (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Eight verse 16)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna said: From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My Supreme abode, O Arjuna, never takes birth again&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2488" LastActivityDate="2015-02-13T12:01:34.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5444" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5440" CreationDate="2015-02-13T15:05:17.743" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;You need to look at the context of this verse in relation to the other verses immediately before it, specifically verses, 18-22. The 'soul' referenced is the Supreme Soul, the Atman. It does not refer to the individual soul, or jiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See also Gita 15. 15. (&quot;And I am seated in the hearts of all....&quot;) and Gita 18. 61. (&quot;The Lord dwells in the hearts of all beings...&quot;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-02-13T15:45:08.700" LastActivityDate="2015-02-13T15:45:08.700" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5445" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5438" CreationDate="2015-02-13T15:42:04.337" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, cycles repeat themselves. There is scriptural evidence that says this. But there is one change. The 'jiva' that is inhabiting your body in this life is not the same jiva from your life in the previous cycle nor will it be the same jiva in the next cycle. So although your body will repeat its actions, the jiva experiencing 'your life' in the next cycle will be a new jiva whose karma is then suited for birth in your body. Your jiva will have already accumulated new karma and taken birth in another higher/lower body (or your jiva may be in a heaven or better yet attained Liberation). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda in Jnana Yoga gives the example of the ferris wheel. The ferris wheel goes round and round and when it stops it lets the passengers (jivas) out of the cars and takes on new (jivas) passengers in the same cars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagwat Gita (2.12) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor these kings of men. Never will there be a time hereafter when any of us shall cease to be.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagwat Gita (9.7) says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;At the end of a cycle all beings, O son of Kunti, enter into My prakriti, and at the beginning of a cycle I generate them again.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brahma Sutra (1.3.29) says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;And because of the sameness of names and forms (in every fresh cycle) there is no contradiction (to the eternity of these Vedic words) even in the revolving of world cycles, as is seen from the Sruti and the Smriti.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Purana (I. v. 65.) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;As in the rotation of the seasons, the very same signs of the different season are see repeated, so also at the beginning of a cycle the various things are created as in the previous cycle.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda (but I don't remember the verse #) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The Lord creates in this cycle the sun and the moon as they existed in the previous cycle.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In one of the puranas, in his Boar incarnation, Vishnu turns around and says to the goddess Earth &quot;&lt;em&gt;Every time I carry you this way...&quot; referring to the fact that He has done the same in prior cycles&lt;/em&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is why some people have the mental ability to foretell the 'future'. It is not so much a case of being able to see the future, it is more a case of understanding the past - the prior cycle. Although they can see the past (or future) of a body, they cannot see the future of your jiva. What you do with your mind in this birth is your own making. You cannot escape the karma of the body you have (Gita 18. 60. '&lt;em&gt;you shall do even against your own will&lt;/em&gt;.') but you can put your mind and heart towards God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a certain way, your body is eternal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only sure method is to realize God and escape the endless round of birth and death.....      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-18T07:57:48.293" LastActivityDate="2015-02-18T07:57:48.293" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5446" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5416" CreationDate="2015-02-13T16:08:08.233" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yoga nidra is another way of expressing what in Patanajali's Yoga Aphorisms is called Dharana and Dhyana - steadfast concentration and meditation.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See also Gita Chapter 6, The Way of Meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To get the best results for these requires the guidance of one's Guru. It can be dangerous to go too deep without the Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The significance to a sadhaka is that (in conjunction with the other steps of yoga called Yama) it purifies the heart. When the heart is purified, one can see the Lord. Swami Vivekananda said &quot;Control the mind, cut off the senses, then you are a Yogi; after that, all the rest will come...&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What it means by burning away one's karma is this - perhaps your karma was to have a severe accident with a large life threatening wound. Instead, as a result of burning away your karma in meditation and japam, you have the accident, but instead of the large wound you get a pinprick only. You cannot escape your karma, but you can lessen it's effects.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-02-13T16:14:17.443" LastActivityDate="2015-02-13T16:14:17.443" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5447" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5448" CreationDate="2015-02-13T16:28:08.120" Score="9" ViewCount="3128" Body="&lt;p&gt;With current progress in science and technology it's a known fact that there are &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe#Extrapolation_from_number_of_stars&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;more than 10^22 stars&lt;/a&gt; in the visible universe. Many of them are much bigger, brighter than our Sun and exist even before. Our Sun is just medium sized and one of the many stars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Shri Krishna himself is a form of supreme god, he must know that our Sun alone cannot lighten the whole universe. But in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/13/34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter-13, Verse-34&lt;/a&gt; he still says so:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yathā prakāśayaty ekaḥ kṛtsnaṁ lokam imaṁ raviḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kṣetraṁ kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṁ&#xA;  prakāśayati bhārata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Bharata, as the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so does the living entity, one within the body, illuminate the entire&#xA;  body by consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I see the similar translation everywhere. But god cannot make such mistake irrespective of the era of scientific knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does that mean that the word &lt;strong&gt;lokam&lt;/strong&gt; refers to the earth alone? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2019-02-17T15:27:22.297" LastActivityDate="2019-02-17T15:46:03.910" Title="Chapter-13, Verse-34: Why Lord Krishna says &quot;... Sun alone lightens the whole universe ...&quot;?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|translation-request|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="5448" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5447" CreationDate="2015-02-13T19:40:11.130" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's just a case of translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's see what other commentaries contain&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramanuja's commentary of the same verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the ‘one sun’ illumines ‘all this world’ by his radiance, so the ‘knower of the body’ illumines the entire Ksetra, i.e., the body, by Its own knowledge, within and without and from head to toe, by conceiving ‘This my body is of this nature.’ This self of the said nature is totally different from the body, because It is the knower of the body. The body is the object of Its knowledge and is therefore different from It, even as the illuminating sun is totally different from the illumined world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Shankaracharya's commentary of the gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yatha, as; ekam, the one; ravih, sun; prakasayati, illumines; imam, this; krtsnam, whole; lokam, world tatha, similarly;-who?-ksetri, the Knower of the field, i.e. the supreme Self, though one; prakasayati, illumines; krtsnam, the whole; ksetram, field, from the ‘great elements’ to ‘fortitude’ (cf. 5-6). Here the illustration of the sun serves to highlight two aspects of the Self, viz that, like the sun, the Self is one in all the fields, and that It remains unaffected. This verse is meant for summarizing the idea of the whole of this chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita as it is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Bharata, as the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so does the living entity, one within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So basically loka means 'world' in sanskrit. However the word 'world' does not have any one specific meaning. World could mean planet which in this case is Earth, it could mean this Universe, or it could mean anything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the list of possible meanings of the word 'world' [reference: wiki]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the earth, together with all of its countries, peoples, and natural features.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;all of the people, societies, and institutions on the earth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the material universe or all that exists; everything.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;group of living things.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the people, places, and activities to do with a particular thing.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now you tell me, what did Sri Krishna mean when He said 'world'? Since you already know that the Sun illumines the Earth, and not the Universe, and as you rightly said, Sri Krishna knows everything, so here are the two possible answers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The word 'loka' does not refer to Universe in this specific context.    or&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Sun referred to here is not the Physical sun, but rather the more general Sun-concept (for example, we say each solar system has its own Sun, but actually each solar system has its own 'Star'. It is only the star in our system that is called the 'Sun' but still we use it interchangeably).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2015-02-13T21:37:38.063" LastActivityDate="2015-02-13T21:37:38.063" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5449" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5440" CreationDate="2015-02-13T20:32:19.397" Score="7" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Can the Soul take birth in higher planes or lower planes?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The soul is never born and it never dies. The soul is indivisible, eternal and invincible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in Gita 2:20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The soul never takes birth and never dies at any time nor does it come into being again when the body is created. The soul is birthless, eternal, imperishable and timeless and is never destroyed when the body is destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Then who is it that takes birth?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the body takes birth and not the soul. As you have quoted already that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in Gita 2:22&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as a man giving up old worn out garments accepts other new apparel, in the same way the embodied soul giving up old and worn out bodies verily accepts new bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Then who is enjoying and suffering in the various planes of existence?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The one who is in ignorance is the one who suffers. The one who thinks He is the body, that person is the one who suffers in all the worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in Gita 2:71&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That person attains peace who giving up all material desires for sense gratification lives free from attachment, free from false ego and sense of proprietorship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So basically in other words, the one who has realized that He is the Soul, knows that all suffering DOES NOT HARM him in any way. All the sufferings are only at body-level and the soul is unaffected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the one in ignorance, who thinks that he is the body, undergoes various suffering, because he is mistaken his true identity. He seeks sense gratification, because sense gratification pleases the body and He thinks He is the body. Thus in His endeavour for sense gratification, He is put through several turmoils due to the working of the various gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in Gita 2:42,43&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Arjuna, men of limited understanding presume speculative interpretations of the Vedic scriptures, advocating that there is no divine principle in creation; full of lascivious desires, aiming to attain the lush heavnly worlds; they glorify only the statements in the Vedas which are pleasing to their &lt;strong&gt;senses; performing numerous ostentatious rituals productive of good birth, wealth and power insuring sense enjoyment and worldly pleasures&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus they suffer because they think they are the body, and not the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastActivityDate="2015-02-13T20:32:19.397" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5450" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-02-13T21:26:15.973" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80tman_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hindu philosophy, especially in the Vedanta school of Hinduism, Ātman is the first principle, the true self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena, the essence of an individual. In order to attain liberation, a human being must acquire self-knowledge (atma jnana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-14T11:55:16.217" LastActivityDate="2015-02-14T11:55:16.217" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5451" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-02-13T21:26:15.973" Score="0" Body="Atma or Atman means our soul (Jivatma) or the supreme soul (Paramatma)" OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-13T21:32:15.070" LastActivityDate="2015-02-13T21:32:15.070" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5452" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5270" CreationDate="2015-02-14T03:44:36.600" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Historically Kauravas and Paandavas both belong to the &quot;Kuru&quot; dynasty. For example, Duryodhana + brothers are &quot;Kauravas&quot;. While Yudhishtira + brothers are &quot;Kauravas&quot; as well as &quot;Paandavas&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryabhatt.com/geeta/geetaCt10.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter 10&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna himself says that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verse-19   &quot;O Best among the &lt;strong&gt;Kurus&lt;/strong&gt; (Arjuna), I shall relate to you&#xA;  about my divine manifestations which are prominently conspicuous, for&#xA;  there is no end to my expansion.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verse-37   &quot;I am Vasudeva among the Vishnus (they are a branch of&#xA;  Yadava-clan to which Krishna belonged), I am Arjuna among&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Pandavas&lt;/strong&gt;, I am Vyasa among the sages and also among poets I am Ushra (also called Shukracharya &quot;The teacher of the demons&quot;&#xA;  (Rakshasas).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From queen Satyavati's blood line (&quot;biological kids&quot; point of view), Duryodhana + brothers were actually Kauravas. But Yudhishtir + brothers + Karna were neither Kauravas nor Paandavas, as they were born out of a boon given to Kunti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe the term Kaurava and Paandava would have been used during or sometime before the Mahaabhaarata war had begun to merely distinguish between the cousins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-23T15:37:45.270" LastActivityDate="2016-01-23T15:37:45.270" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5453" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5378" CreationDate="2015-02-14T09:41:58.467" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Short Question&lt;/strong&gt;: Why Lord Shiva fulfilled wishes for evil people also?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Because, Everyone is entitled to get all their wishes fulfilled!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva is another name of Supreme Brahman, &amp;amp; everything is part of that Brahman including good &amp;amp; evil. Shiva fulfilling Raavana's wish is as good as, Brahman itself wishing &amp;amp; fulfilling itself.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now here &quot;Lord Shiva&quot;, one should refer to &quot;&lt;em&gt;Any&lt;/em&gt; simple/easygoing (भोला) form of God&quot;, because Shiva like God should not be just limited to traditional Hinduism. Such lord is equal for everyone inside/outside the earth before, during, beyond religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Short Answer&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;strike&gt;Why&lt;/strike&gt; Lord &lt;strike&gt;Shiva&lt;/strike&gt; fulfills&lt;strike&gt;ed&lt;/strike&gt; &lt;strike&gt;wishes&lt;/strike&gt; &lt;em&gt;desires&lt;/em&gt; for &lt;strike&gt;evil&lt;/strike&gt; &lt;em&gt;all&lt;/em&gt; people always &lt;strike&gt;also&lt;/strike&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, if the current human population of 7 billion humans desire that &quot;I want to become the richest person on the earth for X years&quot;, then it can happen for all the 7 billion for sure!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yes, it will take due time depending on one's &lt;em&gt;Praarabdha Karma&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Other Karma&lt;/em&gt;. His/her wish is bound to be fulfilled in this birth or the births afterwards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once the desires are attached to Soul (जीव/Jiva), its current/upcoming body will also deviate its efforts towards fulfilling that desire.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A soul will take body after body to fulfill the wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such philosophy would spawn various questions. Will refer the answers from the &lt;strong&gt;Bhagvad Gita&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;em&gt;So we should go into a different direction from the actual question asked to explain the same.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question 1&lt;/strong&gt;. For fulfillment of the permutations/combination (योग/Yoga) for so many souls' so many desires would require (nearly) infinite time duration. Isn't it impractical?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From our point of view, the required time is infinite, but if look into the overall picture, God indeed has plenty of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter-8 Verse-17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together form the duration&#xA;  of Brahmā’s one day. And such also is the duration of his night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter-8 Verse-18&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the beginning of Brahmā’s day, all living entities become manifest&#xA;  from the unmanifest state, and thereafter, when the night falls, they&#xA;  are merged into the unmanifest again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter-8 Verse-19&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Again and again, when Brahmā’s day arrives, all living entities come&#xA;  into being, and with the arrival of Brahmā’s night they are helplessly&#xA;  annihilated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;People have different opinion about human age (i.e. युग/Yuga), but&lt;br&gt;&#xA;definitely the 1 day &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manvantara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;duration of Bhrahma is quite&lt;br&gt;&#xA;large&lt;/a&gt; by human standard.&#xA;We    don't know how many such Bhrahma days have passed and would&#xA;pass.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;With the visible universe having 10^22 stars, there can be many more&#xA;earth like planets existing for execution of desires.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Soul can have all kind of desires and God has large amount of birthplaces (योनि/Yoni)&#xA;for fulfillment&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In brief God has enough amount of &lt;em&gt;1-time, 2-resource&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;3-bandwidth&lt;/em&gt; to fulfill each and every desire of each and every Soul.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What we are today is result of our Karma and Desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question-2&lt;/strong&gt;. If every desire is going to be fulfilled, then it doesn't&#xA;  seem like an achievement. Then why should I desire for something?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, you are right. Ideally one shouldn't desire for material things but to get rid of birth/death cycle. :-)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter-8 Verse-16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all&#xA;  are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But&#xA;  one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There can be many good wishes:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;being powerful/rich man,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;having beautiful spouse,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;getting 1st rank in exams,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;able to invent something new,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;earning money in a game show,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;always loved and respected for being generous,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;getting appreciated for one's profession,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;being expert and knowledgeable,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;have great holiday with family or friends,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;getting awarded of being most beautiful/handsome,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;having a child which is admired by everyone&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;getting employed in the best firm&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;having maximum followers of your own religion!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There can be many bad wishes:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;getting assassinated by a dear friend in any birth,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;earning money for years and loosing in days,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;getting killed from the highest peak in the world,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;getting exploded in any kind of aircraft,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;join a company as a CEO and bring it down,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;become a country dictator and cause havoc in world ,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;taking amplified revenge for someone's misdeed,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;becoming a cause of whole stock market crash&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;murder highest number of people so far&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;cuckolding someone or being cuckolded&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;having maximum followers of your own religion!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's consider Soul's desire of being the most rich/powerful person. This can primarily be fulfilled in 2 ways based on Karma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[A] Getting birth in the family of the most rich/powerful and taking the&#xA;    legacy forward. Now here, one cannot appreciate own greatness due to lack of experiencing the lower levels and the misery comes when the body start feeling being trapped in a golden cage. It soon starts envying some of the trivial happiness other normal people feel.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[B] Getting birth in lower family and carving out the way to become the most&#xA;    rich/powerful person. But those people also have to go through boring schools, work for day and night, listen to people's taunts, health/family compromises.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above are just examples. They may or may not occur to individual Soul. But the misery will come in one or other form. The ultimate misery will come when the Soul realizes, &lt;em&gt;&quot;Ok, I have become the most rich/powerful, so what?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question-3&lt;/strong&gt;. How to get rid of having desires and liberated from birth &amp;amp; death cycle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With body having 3 virtues (त्रिगुण / 3 Gunas) of &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Illumination/Enlightenment (Satva)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Attachment/Passion  (Rajas)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Delusion/Ignorance (Tamas)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The desires may get generated and we act accordingly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter-14 Verse-5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Material nature consists of three modes – goodness, passion and&#xA;  ignorance. When the eternal living entity comes in contact with&#xA;  nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he becomes conditioned by these modes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The subsequent verses describe about those 3 elements from which one may derive a conclusion:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Illumination (Good) &gt; Attachment (Bad) &gt; Delusion (Ugly)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that doesn't mean that &quot;Goodness&quot; should be maximum to get liberated. With any % combination, a soul can get liberated provided following ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/22-25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter-14 Verse-22,23,24,25&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O son of Pāṇḍu, he who does&#xA;  not hate illumination, attachment and delusion when they are present&#xA;  or long for them when they disappear; who is unwavering and&#xA;  undisturbed through all these reactions of the material qualities,&#xA;  remaining neutral and transcendental, knowing that the modes alone are&#xA;  active; who is situated in the self and regards alike happiness and&#xA;  distress; who looks upon a lump of earth, a stone and a piece of gold&#xA;  with an equal eye; who is equal toward the desirable and the&#xA;  undesirable; who is steady, situated equally well in praise and blame,&#xA;  honor and dishonor; who treats alike both friend and enemy; and who&#xA;  has renounced all material activities – such a person is said to have&#xA;  transcended the modes of nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's not trivial for everyone to live without desires. But one should control by &lt;em&gt;not getting associated&lt;/em&gt; to it. The moment you &lt;em&gt;get associated&lt;/em&gt; to it, you make your case stronger for next birth/death ;-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g. If a person desires richness/power, then might get associated depending on those 3 virtues (&lt;strong&gt;just&lt;/strong&gt; examples/situations):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;More % Illuminated: I want to become rich/powerful by honesty and hard work&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;More % Passionate: I have to become rich/powerful and I will&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;More % Ignorance: I am rich by my standards&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the 1st, 2nd case, god may help you becoming rich/powerful but finally you may go through misery as discussed in the Question-2 [A] and [B] respectively.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the 3rd case, you may go through misery when God makes you realize that actually either you were not the most rich/powerful or you haven't properly defined the most rich/powerful in your dictionary.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The number of births would increase until you realize the misery!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the liberated soul, the richness/power doesn't matter.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Exactly like how the dust on the road we are walking doesn't matter. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If it has rained, the dust will smell pleasant; (good)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If it's windy, one may put his palm in front of the eyes to protect;&#xA;(bad)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If it's dirty, it may spoil cloths when a vehicle passes by;&#xA;(ugly)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in all the cases for a common man, it won't matter. The moment you start cherishing the smell or complaining the dusty wind on your eyes or start laughing at someone's spoiled cloths, you &lt;em&gt;probably might&lt;/em&gt; have associated yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question-4&lt;/strong&gt;. &quot;Not associated&quot; leads to actually &quot;not doing anything&quot;. So should we not do any deed (Karma) or go to some lonely place or be&#xA;  idle or suicide?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Absolutely NO!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/47&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter-2 Verse-47&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not&#xA;  entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of&#xA;  the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing&#xA;  your duty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the previous &lt;em&gt;common man&lt;/em&gt; example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If dust smells good or bad then one may inhale it or close the&#xA;nose, but doesn't stop breathing in any case. Breathing is one's duty&#xA;and should not be stopped because something is good or bad.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If dust is windy then one may protect eyes or slow down or stop or&#xA;return. But shouldn't repent on self for reaching late or not&#xA;reaching for interview. It was not destined to reach on time.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If dust is gross and has spoiled someone's cloths by some vehicle&#xA;then laugh at him/her only if you are ready to be in his/her place&#xA;at any point of time. Shout at the driver or curse him only if you&#xA;are ready to be such driver at any point of time. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Depending on the situations, one shall act based on own conscience, but no strings attached.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before concluding this answer, I will list down some of the famous historic &quot;wish fulfillment&quot; by Lord Shiva, which worked against the seeker:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Raavana&lt;/strong&gt;: He was awarded immortality in form of nectar in his navel&lt;br&gt;&#xA;and supremacy against other gods, beasts, serpents, raakshashas but&lt;br&gt;&#xA;except mortal men. Finally he got killed by Shri Ram (human form) and&#xA;ended up loosing all his wealth+power. Still today he is remembered&#xA;for bad reasons despite of having many noble qualities and people&#xA;burn his effigy on Dussera, which is non-sense.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Draupadi&lt;/strong&gt;: She insisted for a husband with 14 qualities. In her&#xA;afterbirth, she had to marry 5 Paandavas to get it but was taunted with&#xA;insults of practicing polyandry during Mahabharata era. Till&#xA;today I hear jokes about her, which is bad.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ashwatthama&lt;/strong&gt;: To protect the remaining Paandava's army, Krishna appointed a raakshasha (form of Shiva) as a guard during the night he&#xA;was going out with 5 Paandavas. But Ashwatthama with mind of full of&#xA;vengeance, pleased that form of Shiva and even dilute that rakshasha&#xA;powers inside him to create havoc over the huge Paandava army. He&#xA;killed many warriors, sons of Paandava while they were sleeping. This&#xA;was a great sin during that time. He even wanted to kill the granson&#xA;of Arjuna who was still an unborn infant. But it failed and&#xA;ultimately ended up getting curse from Krishna. Till today it's said&#xA;that he roams around the world without any help for his sufferings,&#xA;which is sad.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-04-26T06:01:43.640" LastActivityDate="2017-04-26T06:01:43.640" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5455" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3518" CreationDate="2015-02-14T18:13:57.327" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;This story is not mentioned in the Mahabharata, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01128.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is all the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata says about the funeral of Pandu and his wife Madri:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At last they came to a romantic wood on the banks of the Ganga. There they laid down the hearse on which the truthful and lion-hearted prince and his spouse lay. Then they brought water in many golden vessels, washed the prince's body besmeared before with several kinds of fragrant paste, and again smeared it over with sandal paste. They then dressed it in a white dress made of indigenous fabrics. And with the new suit on, the king seemed as if he was living and only sleeping on a costly bed.  When the other funeral ceremonies also were finished in consonance with the directions of the priests, the Kauravas set fire to the dead bodies of the king and the queen, bringing lotuses, sandal-paste, and other fragrant substances to the pyre.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then seeing the bodies aflame, Kausalya [Ambalika] burst out, 'O my son, my son!'--and fell down senseless on the ground. And seeing her down the citizens and the inhabitants of the provinces began to wail from grief and affection for their king. And the birds of the air and the beasts of the field were touched by the lamentations of Kunti. And Bhishma, the son of Santanu, and the wise Vidura, and the others also that were there, became disconsolate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus weeping, Bhishma, Vidura, Dhritarashtra, the Pandavas and the Kuru ladies, all performed the watery ceremony of the king. And when all this was over, the people, themselves filled with sorrow, began to console the bereaved sons of Pandu. And the Pandavas with their friends began to sleep on the ground. Seeing this the Brahmanas and the other citizens also renounced their beds. Young and old, all the citizens grieved on account of the sons of king Pandu, and passed twelve days in mourning with the weeping Pandavas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The part in bold is the only mention of any role of the Pandavas in the funeral.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of flesh-eating is apparently an addition to the Mahabharata found in Telugu folklore, as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/1118&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this journal paper&lt;/a&gt; by T.V. Subba Rao:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The folk created a peculiar story which gives the reason for the tremendous intelligence and immortality of Krishna. Pandu Raja, when he was on his death bed, ordered his sons not to burn his body but to eat it away so that they would become immortal, intelligent and be able to know the future. As soon as he died Krishna arrived on the scene and stopped the Pandavas from eating the dead body. He ridiculed the horrible act of eating one’s own father's corpse and sent them away. The Pandavas left the place keeping Sahadeva near the corpse. Then Krishna entered the dead body without the notice of Sahadeva and began eating it slowly. Meanwhile, Sahadeva was tempted and ate the little finger of the corpse. At once he could know the mischief of Sri Krishna and warned him. By that time, Krishna from within could eat all the parts of the body except the toe of the leg. He came out and cursed Sahadeva like this: &amp;quot;If you reveal my act to anybody, your head will break into thousand pieces!&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Krishna became immortal and shrewdly intelligent knowing all the past, future and present. As he had no time to eat the toe, an ordinary hunter could kill him by piercing an arrow into his toe. Among all the Pandavas, Sahadeva was intelligent because he ate the little finger of the corpse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in this version, Sahadeva eats the little finger and Krishna eat almost the entire rest of the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, this whole story seems implausible to me for multiple reasons.  First of all, in the Mahabharata's account Pandu's body seems to be intact at the time of cremation.  Second of all, this story seems entirely contrived to explain three facts which need little explanation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Krishna's intelligence&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sahadeva's intelligence&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Krishna being shot by the hunter Jara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna's intelligence needs no explanation; he's an incarnation of Vishnu, after all.  Sahadeva's intelligence can be explained by the Ashwini Kumaras' association with intelligence.  And the causes of Krishna being shot by the hunter Jara have been extensively described in the Mahabharata, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2939/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-06T22:25:23.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5456" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-14T20:13:59.533" Score="0" ViewCount="104" Body="&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/180/is-buddha-an-avatar-of-lord-vishnu&quot;&gt;linked&lt;/a&gt; answer took me a long way towards solving this riddle but didn't quite answer it. According to it, Shrimad Bhagvat clearly states that the purpose of Vishnu's incarnation as Buddha was to delude &lt;strong&gt;the people who are envious to the Gods&lt;/strong&gt; (read athiests):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tataḥ kalau sampravṛtte sammohāya sura-dviṣām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      buddho nāmnāñjana-sutaḥ kīkaṭeṣu bhaviṣyati [SB - 1.3.24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This view is also prominent among many other schools of Hindu Philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I'm not challenging the existing scriptures, but simply trying to understand why. What sense would it make to &quot;delude&quot; some people by denying moksha, if they aren't going to get it in the first place? More over, seeing what Buddha has brought into the world (non-violence, meditation, etc.), that doesn't seem to be delusional at all. How do you explain that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2498" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-01-31T06:59:50.190" LastActivityDate="2018-01-31T06:59:50.190" Title="Was Vishnu's 9th avatara (Buddha) really about deluding the athiests? If so, then why?" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2015-02-16T11:59:53.480" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5457" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="593" CreationDate="2015-02-15T01:02:31.507" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavatha says there are innumerable universes contained in spherical shell, separated by layers of elemental matters. Region within this called brahmanda or brahma egg.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you compare the size of brahmanda to that of modern day size of our milkyway galaxy, it would be roughly about 1/10 the size of milkyway galaxy. Brahmanda is surrounded by 7 spherical layers of elemental matter with each being 10 times thick as one preceding it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each brahmanda has its own brahma, vishnu , shiva, the creator, sustainer, destroyer. These are the three aspects present in all other innumerable universes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then comes the question, what exactly controls all these innumerable brahmandas. The superior force which permeates innumerable brahmandas are called mahavishnu. It is also called as absolute eternal para-brahman in purusha sookta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fifth canto of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;bhagavata&lt;/a&gt; describes all the thing, I said above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T09:27:34.310" LastActivityDate="2015-03-04T09:27:34.310" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5458" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5460" CreationDate="2015-02-15T01:32:37.030" Score="4" ViewCount="516" Body="&lt;p&gt;I find this is quite a confusing situation in India during marriage proposals. When a girl is manglik people don't proceed to marriage. I just wanted understand the effects of this manglik thing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some astrology apps i find manglik got a category too like High,Medium and Low&#xA;How this affects? Does manglik marriages don't sustain or how it goes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Someone please explain me about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2482" LastActivityDate="2020-03-13T08:56:05.890" Title="Should we bother about Manglik in marriage?" Tags="|belief|history|practice|marriage|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5459" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2968" CreationDate="2015-02-15T06:32:10.040" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purananam is a great satvika purana about the  glory of  Lord Vishnu. It also contains a lot of theological part and many useful mantras and shlokas. It also contains pretakalpa recited after a death takes place. Nonetheless it can be read or studied  at any time. It will only add to your religious merit(punya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2498" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-02T11:38:54.563" LastActivityDate="2015-03-02T11:38:54.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5460" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5458" CreationDate="2015-02-15T09:35:10.150" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mangal Dosha is an astrological combination that occurs if Mars (Mangal Grha) is present in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, or 12th house of the ascendant chart. A person born in the presence of this condition is termed a manglik.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people believe that manglik cause discomfort and tension in relationship, leading to severe disharmony among the spouses and eventually to other bigger problems. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there are many easy solutions to overcome that. There is  an astrological solution to nullify the bad luck of being Manglik. You just need to do a symbolic marriage to a peepal tree, before the main marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2500" LastActivityDate="2015-02-15T09:35:10.150" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5463" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5465" CreationDate="2015-02-16T00:05:46.483" Score="5" ViewCount="990" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have gone several posts here, Lord Krishna says if you want to stay out of this all materialistic life surrender to me alone. But all these social culture forces us to get trapped again to this what our ancestors did. Seems like an never ending process to me. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If someone gets married and after some years he leaves everything and surrenders to god, is it a right thing? Will not be a sin that he left his family (wife) alone to struggle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mythologically, is it really mandatory for someone to get married? If yes then &#xA;What is the right way to surrender to God? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2482" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-17T14:36:42.410" LastActivityDate="2023-04-26T12:15:53.840" Title="How to surrender to God alone?" Tags="|vishnu|belief|krishna|practice|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5464" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-16T04:08:35.513" Score="0" ViewCount="164" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my childhood, I heard a myth that Goddess &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Parashakti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Adishakthi&lt;/a&gt; created Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu (I am familiar with this myth).  But now I am listening new myth such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt; is the one who made Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which one of them is true? or have I misunderstood?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How were Trimurti (Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu) formed? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="2521" LastEditDate="2015-02-23T13:17:03.433" LastActivityDate="2015-02-23T13:17:03.433" Title="Who has created Trimurti? Adishakthi or Brahman?" Tags="|vedas|brahman|durga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-02-23T14:08:06.057" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5465" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5463" CreationDate="2015-02-16T05:36:10.643" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scriptures say that if you are going to live in the world then you should marry. If you do not want to marry, take up sannyas, surrender to God. Krishna says in the Gita (XVIII. 66.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Abandon all dharmas and come to Me alone for shelter. I will deliver you from all sins; do not grieve.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankaracharya says that one should take to sannyas when one has the longing to do so, one should not wait. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gives the following example: A man was told by his wife that he should become a better man by following the example of his neighbor who was renouncing things slowly, bit by bit. The man turned to his wife and said 'I will show you real renunciation' and threw down his towel and walked away never to return.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are already married, then to take to sannyas and leaving your wife may be a great sin. One must make sure that one is running towards God and not simply running away from his worldly responsibilities. The wife should be provided for. In such a case it is best to have a Guru and to take the Guru's advice. Every case in such an instance is different. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2018-03-17T05:00:00.917" LastActivityDate="2018-03-17T05:00:00.917" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5466" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5467" CreationDate="2015-02-16T06:45:44.503" Score="2" ViewCount="262" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayanam Lord SriRama asks about river ganga, Siddhaashram,about tathaka rakshas, about sage Vishwamitra etc. as written in BalaKanda, Lord SriRama is an incarnation of Lord MahaVishnu itself so why the god asks when he is the creator?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2326" LastActivityDate="2015-02-18T08:00:00.653" Title="Questions asked by Lord SriRama?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5467" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5466" CreationDate="2015-02-16T14:57:52.953" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is true that Lord Sri Rama is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu but he was born as an ideal human. You have seen in various places of Ramayana that he have never broken any rules of human beings. He was denoted as &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Marayada Purushotam&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. That's why he acted as he did not know anything in his childhood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-18T08:00:00.653" LastActivityDate="2015-02-18T08:00:00.653" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5468" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-16T15:10:00.133" Score="4" ViewCount="982" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who was the preceptor of Seeradhwaj King Janak &amp;amp; what is the &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Vidya&lt;/strong&gt; that he taught to him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why does Shri Krishna cite Seeradhwaj Janak as an illustrious example of the &lt;strong&gt;Karma yoga&lt;/strong&gt; in &lt;strong&gt;Bhagawat Gita Chapter 3 Verse 20:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karmanaiva Hi Samsiddhim&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asthita Janakadayah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Loka-Sangraham Evapi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sampasyan Kartum Arhasi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;karmaṇā—by work; eva—even; hi—certainly; saṁsiddhim—perfection; āsthitāḥ—situated; janaka-ādayaḥ—kings like Janaka and others; loka-saṅgraham—educating the people in general; eva—also; api—for the sake of; sampaśyan—by considering; kartum—to act; arhasi—deserve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-02-19T04:58:07.003" Title="Who was the preceptor of Seeradhwaj King Janak?" Tags="|ramayana|bhagavad-gita|rishi|guru|janaka|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5469" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5481" CreationDate="2015-02-16T15:25:29.543" Score="0" ViewCount="190" Body="&lt;p&gt;How does perception occur in humans and what is the advantage of retention?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Perception and retention are related to &lt;em&gt;dharana&lt;/em&gt; (concentration of the mind) which is part of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C4%81ja_yoga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Astangik Yoga&lt;/a&gt;. It is mentioned in the Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-29T19:11:06.347" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T19:11:06.347" Title="Astangik Yoga: How does perception occur in humans?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5471" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6500" CreationDate="2015-02-16T17:57:23.767" Score="8" ViewCount="20079" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please someone translate the following mantras of Atharva veda Book 6- hymn 21, hymn 30,31, hymn 136,137 to English prose from Sanskrit?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I don't know sanskrit. I read online that they promote hair growth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How to chant these mantras? or &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the complete procedure to recite it effectively?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2326" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-05-05T14:23:59.860" LastActivityDate="2020-03-04T06:41:19.093" Title="Charm to promote hair growth Atharva veda" Tags="|vedas|mantras|translation-request|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5472" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5474" CreationDate="2015-02-16T19:30:30.293" Score="8" ViewCount="1169" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sāmaveda&lt;/em&gt; 1.6.1.4.5 (the 527&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; verse of the &lt;em&gt;Sāmaveda&lt;/em&gt;) reads:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सोमः पवते जनिता मतीनां जनिता दिवो जनिता पृथिव्याः ।&#xA;  जनिताग्नेर्जनिता सूर्यस्य जनितेन्द्रस्य जनितोत विष्णोः ।।&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;sōmaḥ pavate janitā matīnāṃ janitā divo janitā pṛthivyāḥ / janitāgnerjanitā sūryasya janitendrasya janitota viṣṇoḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;which Ralph T. H. Griffiths translates as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Father of holy hymns Soma flows onward, the father of the earth, father of heaven; Father of Agni, Surya's generator, the father who begat Indra and Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I thought that &lt;em&gt;soma&lt;/em&gt; was some kind of ritual drink that the &lt;em&gt;Veda&lt;/em&gt;s mentioned. What does this verse mean that &lt;em&gt;soma&lt;/em&gt; &quot;begat&quot; the gods and all of Creation? I understand that the &lt;em&gt;Veda&lt;/em&gt;s ascribe great importance to &lt;em&gt;soma&lt;/em&gt; -- what is the reason for this? The &lt;em&gt;Veda&lt;/em&gt;s also almost speak of &lt;em&gt;soma&lt;/em&gt; as a deity -- is the verse to be understood in that context? And why is the deity &lt;em&gt;Soma&lt;/em&gt; never worshiped then? How can Vishnu be worshiped as Supreme, or for that matter, Shiva, if they are generated by &lt;em&gt;Soma&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-10T20:51:51.157" LastActivityDate="2016-06-06T14:18:12.407" Title="What does Samaveda verse 1.6.1.4.5 mean?" Tags="|vedas|sama-veda|surya|chandra|soma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5473" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-16T21:12:46.167" Score="4" ViewCount="274" Body="&lt;p&gt;All of us are aware that brahma is the creator of every living being. But,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Was there or will there be a situation when he will be taking a break from this?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Doesn't he have any vacations? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How long will he be creating?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2512" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-17T04:36:00.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-25T21:38:12.357" Title="Will there be a day when lord brahma stops creating us?" Tags="|brahma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5474" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5472" CreationDate="2015-02-16T23:38:05.753" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, it's true that Soma is a sacred drink that crucial in the performance of Vedic Yagnas, at least before Hindus lost the identity of the plant that produced it.  (It's thought to be ephedra by most modern scholars.). But this verse isn't dedicated to an inanimate object, but rather to the god of the Soma drink, often called Soma but more commonly known as Chandra the moon god.  Chandra is certainly an important Vedic deity, being an incarnation of Brahma and the son of the sage Atri; see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1984/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as to the verse itself, most of the verses of the Sama Veda are taken from the Rig Veda, and this verse is no exception.  (But I found one verse that's not in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5396/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5443/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  Sama Veda verse 527 is originally verse 5 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv09096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 9 Hymn 96&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda.  As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani compiled in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, this hymn was heard from the gods by Pratardana, son of the famous king Divodasa.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as to the content of the verse, Yaska's Nirukta provides two interpretations, one of which is that Soma is being equated with Surya the sun god who generates rays to serve different purposes, and another interpretation relating to the soul.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=H7AIAAAAQAAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA94&amp;amp;ots=jOY2FIVfq1&amp;amp;dq=%22somaH%20pavate%20janitA%22&amp;amp;pg=PA94#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Yaska says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Soma is purified. Soma is 'surya' (the sun), from generating (prasavanat). &#xA;  He is the generator of hymns (or thoughts), i.e. of those solar rays &#xA;  whose function it is to reveal ; of the Sky, i.e of those solar rays whose &#xA;  function it is to shine; of the Earth, i.e. of those solar rays whose &#xA;  function it is to spread ; of Agni, i.e. of those solar rays whose function &#xA;  it is to move ; of Surya, i.e. of those solar rays whose function it is to &#xA;  appropriate (svikarana) ; of Indra, i.e. of those solar rays whose function &#xA;  is sovereignty ; of Vishnu, i.e. of those solar rays whose function is &#xA;  diffusion : such is the mythological explanation. Now follows the &#xA;  spiritual interpretation, i.e. that which refers to soul. Soma is also &#xA;  the soul ; and for this cause he is the generator of the senses : such is &#xA;  the meaning. Or, he thus declares the course of the soul, that it is &#xA;  variously modified by all its changing manifestations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sage Shaunaka, in the Brihaddevata, &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=3qzmn-mq8VgC&amp;amp;pg=PA245#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;supports&lt;/a&gt; Yaska's interpretations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;136&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;[T]hree (deities) are mentioned with these three (verses), each containing a couplet ... or rather it is Soma who is (here) praised as (representing) the Sun and the Soul.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three deities being Soma, Surya, and the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, it should be noted that most references to Vishnu in the Rig Veda are references to Vishnu's incarnation as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vamana the dwarf&lt;/a&gt;.  That's why he's so often mentioned in the same breath as Indra, since Vamana is Indra's little brother (they're both sons of Kashyap and Aditi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-06-06T14:18:12.407" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5475" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-17T02:32:41.657" Score="4" ViewCount="996" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rigveda mentions in several places that Vishnu measured out the Earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rigveda 1.154.1–3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 &quot;I will declare the mighty deeds of Viṣṇu, of him who measured out the earthly regions,&#xA;  Who propped the highest place of congregation, thrice setting down his footstep, widely striding.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 &quot;For this his mighty deed is Viṣṇu lauded, like some wild beast, dread, prowling, mountain-roaming;&#xA;  He within whose three wide-extended paces all living creatures have their habitation.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 &quot;Let the hymn lift itself as strength to Viṣṇu, the Bull far-striding, dwelling on the mountains,&#xA;  Him who alone with triple step hath measured this common dwelling-place, long, far extended.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact, the measuring out of the Earth by Vishnu with three steps is a motif that occurs in many, many places in the Yajurveda, and the Samaveda, and also in many &lt;em&gt;other&lt;/em&gt; places in the Rigveda itself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, these Rigvedic verses indicate that it was Varuna, not Vishnu, who measured out the Earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rigveda 5.85.5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I will declare this mighty deed of magic, of glorious Varuṇa the Lord Immortal,&#xA;  Who standing in the firmament hath meted the earth out with the Sun as with a measure.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rigveda 8.42.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Lord of all wealth, the Asura propped the heavens, and measured out the broad earth's wide expanses.&#xA;  He, King supreme, approached all living creatures. All these are Varuṇa's holy operations.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So who measured out the Earth? Was it Vishnu with his three steps, or was it Varuna? (I was reading one of Keshav Srinivasan's questions: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2120/36&quot;&gt;&quot;Who is addressed as &quot;the step of Vishnu&quot; in the Yajur Veda?&quot;&lt;/a&gt; He said that the three steps of Vishnu refer to an avatar of Vishnu--Vamana the dwarf--who &quot;made the Earth safe for humanity&quot; by defeating the demon Mahabali by taking three steps. Does this have something to do with the answer to my question?) Or did Vishnu assign the task of measuring out the Earth to Varuna? This seems unlikely, since the Vedas say that Vishnu himself took three steps to measure out the Earth. Or was Varuna the one who measured out the Earth, and all references to Vishnu references to Vamana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, as a side question: why does Rigveda 8.42.1 refer to Varuna as an asura?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2019-12-30T06:14:01.270" Title="Did Vishnu or Varuna measure out the Earth?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|rig-veda|varuna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5478" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5473" CreationDate="2015-02-17T04:31:45.563" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, the process of creation will cease upon the annihilation of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita 8.17–19:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(17) By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together is the duration of Brahma's one day. And such also is the duration of his night. (18) When Brahma's day is manifest, this multitude of living entities comes into being, and at the arrival of Brahma's night they are all annihilated. (19) Again and again the day comes, and this host of beings is active; and again the night falls, O Partha, and they are helplessly dissolved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the Bhagavad Gita explains, the universe is annihilated and created cyclically. Upon the annihilation of the universe, Brahma himself ceases to exist, since Brahma is a created being whom Vishnu created. The Bhagavata Purana explains:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavata Purana 1.3.1–3:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) Sûta said: &amp;quot;In the beginning the Supreme Lord assumed, for the creation of the worlds, the form of the Original Person[: the integrity of the material realm] composed of the sixteen elements [of the ten knowing and working senses, the mind and the five elements] and the cosmic intelligence and such. (2) Resting in His meditative slumber in that water, out of the lotus that spread from the lake of His navel, Brahmâ was manifested, the master of the progenitors in the universe. (3) One believes the different worlds [as expansions] to be part of the form of the Fortunate One that constitutes the excellence of the purest existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Vishnu inaugurated the universe, He created Brahma to continue the process of creation to ensure the &amp;quot;self-sufficiency&amp;quot; of the universe without involving Himself. Brahma continues to create. The Bhagavata Purana later explains:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavata Purana 12.4.1–7:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) S'rî S'uka said: 'Time beginning with the smallest of the atom and culminating in the two halves [or parârdhas] of the life of Brahmâ, o King has been described [in 3.11] together with the duration of the yugas; now listen to the annihilation of the kalpa. (2) A thousand cycles of four yugas is said to be a kalpa, a day of Brahmâ, in which there are fourteen original progenitors of mankind [Manus]. (3) When they are done there is the dissolution described as the night of Brahmâ that is of the same duration; the three worlds remain dissolved till the end of that time. (4) This is said to be the occasional annihilation [or naimittika pralaya] in which [Nârâyana] the creator of the universe lies down upon His bed Ananta, to absorb the universe including Lord Brahmâ. (5) After the completion of two parârdhas [viz. the two half life times] of the highest situated living being, Lord Brahmâ, are the seven elements [mahat, ahamkâra and the tanmâtras], subject to destruction. (6) This, o King, constitutes the elemental annihilation. Therafter this universal egg, this aggregate [of these seven universal principles] reaching the time of its disruption, will dissolve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As long as it is the day of Brahma, the universe continues to exist. When it becomes the night of Brahma, the world is annihilated and remains in its dissolved state as long as it is the night of Brahma. The Bhagavata Purana explains (as one can see above) that the night of Brahma is of the same duration as the day of Brahma. Therefore, there is a time at which Brahma will not be creating, and that time is during the dissolution of the universe, which lasts for as long as the universe exists. After this period of dissolution, the universe will again become manifest, as per scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the life of Brahma (100 years of Brahma), he will die. The period of his death will last as long as his life. The cycles of the universe (the life of Brahma) will then begin again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-25T21:38:12.357" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5479" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5473" CreationDate="2015-02-17T04:40:18.523" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do you mean by 'us'? I am the Atman. Brahma creates bodies, he does not create atmans. If you identify yourself with your body, then a body you will remain. &quot;He who considers himself free is free indeed, he who considers himself bound remains bound. This popular saying is true: As one thinks so you become.&quot; Astavakra Samhita (I. 11.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Understand that Brhama is a jiva who has the 'post' of Brahma for 1 cycle. After a cycle ends, there is a period of rest. After that a new cycle starts with a new Brahma (a new jiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-02-17T05:22:08.610" LastActivityDate="2015-02-17T05:22:08.610" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5480" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5471" CreationDate="2015-02-17T04:44:55.327" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chanting of mantras such as these must be done in Sanskrit to be effective. Chanting them in English is of no consequence. The intonations in Sanskrit must be done correctly or they may have a detrimental and sometimes opposite effect. It is best to get the assistance of a Brahmin priest who is well versed in the Atharva Veda. Not all are.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-02-17T04:44:55.327" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5481" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5469" CreationDate="2015-02-17T05:11:47.173" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Simply retaining the breath alone is not pranayama. There are three parts to pranayama, restraining being only one. I read recently that there is a European man who holds what is considered the world record and can hold his breath underwater for 23 minutes. So at 3.5 minutes you have a long way to go.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Patanjali in his Yoga Aphorisms, the first step in yoga is Yama. Yama consists of 5 things. 1) Non-injury, 2) Truthfulness 3) Non-covetousness 4) Chastity 5) Sinlessness. The second step is Asana. Learning to have a correct posture while seated, firm, erect. The third step is Pranayama - suspending, restraining, and controlling the breath. The fourth step is Pratyahara - restraining the organs of sense from outward objects and directing them inward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 3 other steps after this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When trying to do Pranayama it should be done under the direction of your Guru. Doing it without your Guru's guidance can do more harm than good. It can lead to uncontrolled lust and your downfall.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason for Pranayama is that it is the 'flywheel' in the body to learn to control your prana. Once you learn pranayama correctly, you get hold of the thread that gets hold of the string that gets hold of the rope that controls the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Control the mind, cut off the senses, then you are a Yogi; after that, all the rest will come...&quot; - Swami Vivekananda      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-02-17T05:11:47.173" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5482" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-17T05:55:26.433" Score="1" ViewCount="5180" Body="&lt;p&gt;1 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;day&lt;/a&gt; of Brahma equals about 8.6 Billion Years or 2 Kalpas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this the day itself or 1 Kalpa is just 4.3 Billion Years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our Universe should be destroyed during the night of Brahma or for the 2nd Kalpa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the current Universe should only be 4.3 Billion Years old. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the current Universe is about &lt;code&gt;13 Billion&lt;/code&gt; Years old according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Science&lt;/a&gt;. How's does this match with science?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, it goes on to say that this is 1st Day of the 51st year of Brahma which is equal to approx. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;155 Trillion Years. But again, the Universe is just 13 Billion Years according to Science. So should we say that science is just talking about the current universe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does this calculation match with science?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="365" LastEditDate="2015-11-05T12:31:49.347" LastActivityDate="2022-04-27T15:11:21.060" Title="Age of Brahma, 1 day of Brahma and Science" Tags="|brahma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5483" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="5486" CreationDate="2015-02-17T06:44:43.883" Score="11" ViewCount="2521" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every year we celebrate &lt;strong&gt;Maha Shiva Ratri&lt;/strong&gt; Festival and every time one question roaming in my mind and that is &quot;Why&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why do we celebrate this festival? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every Festival have its meaning but I don't know very much about this festival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is story behind this festival?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="772" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-02-22T06:34:08.823" LastActivityDate="2020-02-22T06:34:08.823" Title="Why do we celebrate Maha shivratri festival?" Tags="|shiva|festivals|shivaratri|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5486" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5483" CreationDate="2015-02-17T07:17:29.443" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahashivratri is the day, Lord Shiva was married to Godess Parvathi.&lt;/strong&gt; Maha Shivaratri is celebrated on the Krishna Paksha Chaturdashi of Hindu calendar month Maagha as per Amavasya-ant month calculation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that the benefits of powerful ancient Sanskrit mantras such as Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra increase greatly on this night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The festival is principally celebrated by offerings of Bael leaves to Shiva, all-day fasting and an all-night-vigil (jagaran). All through the day, devotees chant &quot;Om Namah Shivaya&quot;, the sacred mantra of Shiva. Penances are performed in order to gain boons in the practice of Yoga and meditation, in order to reach life's highest good steadily and swiftly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source Wiki : &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maha_Shivaratri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahashivratri&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2015-02-17T15:27:51.420" LastActivityDate="2015-02-17T15:27:51.420" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5487" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5435" CreationDate="2015-02-17T08:24:39.530" Score="0" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The scientific reason for lighting on Diwali is, this is &lt;b&gt; Darkest Night (Dark Moon Night)&lt;/b&gt; in the year that's  why we lightning everywhere.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Ganesha got worship by his father that&lt;b&gt; before worship to any god or goddess lord ganesha should pray first so we pray Lord Ganesha&lt;/b&gt; before start anything (Even Praying to other Lords).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Diwali is festival of  wealth and lord Laxmi is goddess of wealth&lt;/b&gt; so on this festival we worship lord Laxmi.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt; Lord Ram Come back from Lanka (Shri Lanka) with lots of wealth (Gold)&lt;/b&gt; from Lanka (Initially Sri Lanka was named as sone-ki-lanka means golden Lanka) so that is belongs to wealth so we worship to Lord Laxmi.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why not Lord Ram worship on that day ? so on the same day Lord Ram took a &quot;Agni Pariksha&quot; to his wife Goddess Sita and which is not acceptable by human mankind.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="772" LastActivityDate="2015-02-17T08:24:39.530" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="5488" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-17T09:24:02.187" Score="38" ViewCount="61553" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I was going through &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3568/what-is-the-life-cycle-of-a-soul-athma-in-hinduism&quot;&gt;this question &lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3103/how-to-understand-the-dead-persons-future-based-on-the-life-energy-left-through&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; I found out that after the death of a body, the soul has three choices: heaven, hell and moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that if soul/atma left the body through bramha randra then the person may attain Mukti/Moksha/liberation. But those who have done any type (Bad or Good) of karma in their lifetime (current birth) will leave their physical body through one of the nava randhra marg and get a new life (next birth/re-birth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want know about those souls who will get a new life (next birth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 16 sanskar (sacraments of life) described in the great texts of Hinduism. In that first three sanskars are related to Pregnancy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How does a soul enter in a new body? Is there any way to know?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does a soul enter from the same Nav randhra marg that it left from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In which month of pregnancy a soul enters into a new body (foetus)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any possibility of a soul choosing the wrong? If yes, then what happens?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What are the basic things (like the genetics of both parents) required for a soul to enter a new body?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What things come from the last birth into the new life? (like education, duration of life, etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does any Hindu text explain this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I came to know that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.avpayurveda.com/dmdocuments/JFM90-4.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Punsavana&lt;/a&gt; (seeking birth of a male child) or Strisavana (seeking birth of a female child) sanskar is done in the third month after conception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does this mean that a soul enters after the third month of pregnancy?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I got Strisavana (seeking birth of a female child) sanskar information from Ayurvedic books.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-06-08T20:02:02.663" LastActivityDate="2023-06-08T20:02:02.663" Title="In which month of pregnancy does a soul enter a new body (foetus)?" Tags="|belief|atma|rebirth|samskara|pregnancy|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="5489" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5488" CreationDate="2015-02-17T12:08:12.887" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ayurvedic texts are not Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Chhandogya Upanishad (V. x. 5-6.) answers this question directly. It says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having dwelt there [in the lunar world] till their [good] works are consumed, they return again the same way they came. They [first] reach the akasha, and from the akasha the air. Having become air, they become smoke; having become smoke, they become mist;&#xA;  Having become mist, they become cloud; having become cloud, they fall as rain-water. Then they are born as rice and barley, herbs and trees, sesamum and beans. Thence the exit is more difficult; for whoever [capable of begetting children] eats that food and injects semen, they become like unto him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankaracharya's commentary is rather extensive on this verse. To sum up, birth as a human is rather difficult. Having fallen as rain, one may fall into a million places and not be absorbed by a plant that is eaten. One can stagnate for years before rebirth. Water can make it to the ocean without ever reaching a plant. Even when absorbed by a plant, it may be eaten by a brahmachari, children, or even an animal. &quot;...like unto him&quot; means the birth is the same as the father, i.e., if the father is human, the birth is human, if the father is an animal, you become the same species as the father. Sankaracharya says &quot;For these reasons an exit from this state is extremely difficult.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your soul (jiva) enters the mother's womb in your father's semen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What carries over from your last life are your samskaras. Impressions only.       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-02-17T12:08:12.887" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6489" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-17T14:45:42.890" Score="13" ViewCount="1556" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shivaratri&lt;/strong&gt; comes every month and &lt;strong&gt;Maha Shivaratri&lt;/strong&gt; comes once a year. Many people offer prayers to Lord Shiva on that night without sleeping. Are there any specific rituals that one must do while offering prayers during Maha Shivaratri? If yes, what are their significance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2019-03-02T17:50:23.920" LastActivityDate="2019-03-02T17:50:23.920" Title="Rituals to be performed during Shiv Ratri and their significance" Tags="|shiva|rituals|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6490" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5378" CreationDate="2015-02-17T15:06:40.607" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Now, I can ask why does Agni &lt;em&gt;Deva&lt;/em&gt; burn good people too? Isn't Agni Deva supposed to be merciful to them because those are good and innocent people? The answer is &lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devas and God are impartial. If you seek the blessing of god, you can get it by true devotion alone. Ravana was a great (probably the greatest of his time) devotee of Lord Shiva (or at least, that is what I understand from Ramayana). So, he earned the blessings of Lord Shiva through his pure devotion towards the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your devotion is pure, you will always have God's blessings. It is as simple as that. But, of course, your karma has a great influence over your life. I don't mean to say that you can escape from the effects of your karma if you are devoted to God. You should note that even though Ravana was a great devotee of Lord Shiva and he received boundless boons from Lord Shiva, he indeed paid with his life for all the atrocities he committed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="81" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T21:53:33.020" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T21:53:33.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6491" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-17T15:27:41.747" Score="10" ViewCount="6380" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07103.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rigveda 7.103&lt;/a&gt; is a hymn dedicated to frogs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 They who lay quiet for a year, the Brahmans who fulfil their vows,&#xA;  The Frogs have lifted up their voice, the voice Parjanya hath inspired.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 What time on these, as on a dry skin lying in the pool's bed, the floods of heaven descended,&#xA;  The music of the Frogs comes forth in concert like the cows lowing with their calves beside them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 When at the coming of the Rains the water has poured upon them as they yearned and thirsted,&#xA;  One seeks another as he talks and greets him with cries of pleasure as a son his father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 Each of these twain receives the other kindly, while they are revelling in the flow of waters,&#xA;  When the Frog moistened by the rain springs forward, and Green and Spotty both combine their voices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5 When one of these repeats the other's language, as he who learns the lesson of the teacher,&#xA;  Your every limb seems to be growing larger as ye converse with eloquence on the waters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 Onc is Cow-bellow and Goat-bleat the other, one Frog is Green and one of them is Spotty.&#xA;  They bear one common name, and yet they vary, and, talking, modulate the voice diversely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 As Brahmans, sitting round the brimful vessel, talk at the Soma-rite of Atiratra,&#xA;  So, Frogs, ye gather round the pool to honour this day of all the year, the first of Rain-time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8 These Brahmans with the Soma juice, performing their year-long rite, have lifted up their voices;&#xA;  And these Adhvaryus, sweating with their kettles, come forth and show themselves, and none are hidden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9 They keep the twelve month's God-appointed order, and never do the men neglect the season.&#xA;  Soon as the Rain-time in the year returneth, these who were heated kettles gain their freedom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10 Cow-bellow and Goat-bleat have granted riches, and Green and Spotty have vouchsafed us treasure.&#xA;  The Frogs who give us cows in hundreds lengthen our lives in this most fertilizing season.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In particular, I had a question about the meaning of verse 10: what does it mean that the frogs have granted riches, cows, and longevity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as almost all of the Rigvedic hymns are dedicated to the devas, there must be a special reason why one hymn is dedicated to frogs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only other mentions of frogs in the Vedas that I have found is in the Yajur Veda Taittiriya Samhita 4.6.1, requesting a female frog to sanctify the yajna, and in Atharva Veda 4.15.14, in a prayer to hasten the rain (frogs are universally considered a sign of the rain). Atharva Veda 4.15.13 also mentions frogs, but it is a repeat of Rigveda 7.103.1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jstor.org/stable/592920?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;American Oriental Society article&lt;/a&gt; from 1917 mentions the possibility that the Rigvedic hymn was comparing the frogs to Brahmanas, since the frogs were considered auspicious. But why were they considered auspicious in the first place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beyond this, is there any special reason why frogs are mentioned in the Vedas? Why are frogs held auspicious? If the Vedas were handed down from God, why would God choose to mention such a mundane and worldly thing in scripture--something that does not concern spirituality but seems firmly rooted in the environment of those who first recorded the Vedas in this age? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastEditorUserId="2382" LastEditDate="2015-03-20T20:57:42.347" LastActivityDate="2020-06-19T04:10:15.827" Title="What is the significance of frogs in the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6492" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-17T15:40:06.343" Score="4" ViewCount="4767" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Brahma Sutra admits two main commentaries, one by Shankara and one other by Ramanuja.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt;: What are the difference between these two commentaries?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20" LastActivityDate="2015-02-18T05:06:30.327" Title="What are the difference between Shankara and Ramanuja commentaries of the Brahma Sutra?" Tags="|brahma-sutras|adi-shankaracharya|advaita|ramanujacharya|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6493" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3880" CreationDate="2015-02-17T16:20:40.287" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The original Sanskrit version of the Bhagavadgita is not hard to find: just look on &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavad-gita.org&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;bhagavad-gita.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit version of the Mahabharata (the BORI critical edition, which is probably the most accurate version) can be found here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-01.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-02.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-03.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-04.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-05.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-06.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-07.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-08.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-09.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-10.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-11.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 11&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-12.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-13.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-14.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-15.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 15&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-16.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-17.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/pdf/mbh-18.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 18&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sacred-texts.com has the same BORI critical edition of the Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; but with a Roman transliteration. Actually, it also has the Devanagari, but there are several rendering issues, so I recommend you use the PDFs above for the Devanagari and sacred-texts.com for the transliteration if you need it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for the Ramayana: &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/ramayana/valmiki.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this website&lt;/a&gt; has the Baroda critical edition (again, the most accurate version of the Ramayana that I know of). Simply enter the book (kanda) and the chapter at the very bottom of the webpage, and it will give you the entire chapter. You can even change from the Devanagari version and change it to a Roman transliteration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's important to note that with the Ramayana and Mahabharata, there is no such thing as the &quot;original&quot; version. There are several recensions, but both have critical editions that are the most accurate versions, for which I have given links.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastEditorUserId="2382" LastEditDate="2015-02-22T14:58:31.087" LastActivityDate="2015-02-22T14:58:31.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6494" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7600" CreationDate="2015-02-17T16:39:03.693" Score="9" ViewCount="2233" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that Ravana thought to do some good things to this world, specifically three things. I remember only one which is &lt;em&gt;removing salt from oceans and making the water drinkable&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard that these thoughts were before he abducts Goddess Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone please list those three things which Ravana thought to do? and also why he didn't do those things? (&lt;em&gt;Was he got diverted somehow?&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2015-04-04T17:21:31.580" LastActivityDate="2022-01-29T09:16:19.863" Title="What were the three good things Ravana thought to do?" Tags="|ravana|sita|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6496" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5386" CreationDate="2015-02-17T16:48:28.280" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's just a custom to show respect for the technology that has bettered our lives. Hindus of different trades honor their respective tools and implements (a soldier might, for example, honor his weapons).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think that the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayudha_Puja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; sufficiently explains the origins of the custom. Read the first section under the Wikipedia article (&quot;Legend&quot;) which explains the two chief mythological and legendary reasons for this puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastActivityDate="2015-02-17T16:48:28.280" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6498" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5471" CreationDate="2015-02-17T18:13:58.767" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before starting &quot;chanting&quot; or repeating mentally (manasa japa) a mantra, you should learn basically the rules for correct pronunciation of sanskrit letters and combination of them. So you should know the differences from a short vocal or a long one (u for example has a short form and can form the hu.m seed-mantra also has a long form and can form huu.m mantra, which denotes another form of energy or deity). I use Velthuis system above for transliteration to mark such a distinctive vowel use. Then there are combinations of vowels like a+u=o, a+i=e in some mantra. Then there are other consonants and semi-vowels. After you have this basic knowledge (which contains visarga .h, used as last sign in some mantra, and .m used also in the end of some common seed-mantra) you can start practicing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2516" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-17T19:12:51.677" LastActivityDate="2015-02-17T19:12:51.677" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6499" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4097" CreationDate="2015-02-17T19:33:45.597" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01022.htm&quot;&gt;Rigveda 1.22&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(17) Through all this world strode Viṣṇu; thrice his foot he planted, and the whole&#xA;  Was gathered in his footstep's dust.&#xA;  (18) Viṣṇu, the Guardian, he whom none deceiveth, made three steps; thenceforth&#xA;  Establishing his high decrees.&#xA;  (19) Look ye on Viṣṇu's works, whereby the Friend of Indra, close-allied,&#xA;  Hath let his holy ways be seen.&#xA;  (20) The princes evermore behold that loftiest place where Viṣṇu is,&#xA;  Laid as it were an eye in heaven.&#xA;  (21) This, Viṣṇu's station most sublime, the singers, ever vigilant,&#xA;  Lovers of holy song, light up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we see in this hymn that Vishnu is taking three steps through the world. Now, the fifth avatara of Vishnu was Vamana the dwarf, who defeated the demon king Mahabali by taking three steps. This Vedic hymn is a clear reference to the fifth avatara of Vishnu. In fact, the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, and the Atharvaveda all include several references to this story, and references to this story are a recurring motif in the Vedas. This event is explained in full in the Puranas--in particular, in the Vamana Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having understood that Rigveda 1.22 refers to an avatara of Vishnu, what can we understand? Look at Rigveda 1.22.20: &quot;The princes evermore behold that loftiest place of Vishnu, like an eye extended through the heavens.&quot; We see that Vishnu is beheld in the heavens, and thus He is present in the heavens at the same time He is on earth. In Rigveda 1.22.19, we see that Vishnu is mentioned as being an ally of Indra. When Vishnu descended as Vamana, he took three steps to defeat Mahabali and restore power to Indra. In the very next verse, we see that Vishnu is beheld throughout the heavens. We can conclude, therefore, that Vishnu, when on Earth as Vamana, was also in heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But we can also use Rigveda 1.22.20 in and of itself to show that Vishnu always remains in heaven: the verse uses the word &quot;evermore,&quot; meaning &quot;always.&quot; In the original Sanskrit, the word &quot;सदा,&quot; meaning &quot;always,&quot; is used. Therefore, Vishnu always is in heaven, no matter whether or not He has an avatara on Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/89&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 10.89&lt;/a&gt;, in which Arjuna and Krishna visit the abode of Vishnu and Krishna and Vishnu come face-to-face and actually meet each other. The Srimad Bhagavatam describes how Krishna actually offers homage to Himself in the form of Vishnu (Srimad Bhagavatam 10.89.57). The avatar Krishna and Vishnu are therefore present at the same time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the Bhagavata Purana verses that you quoted: the essence of the Bhagavata Purana is the sovereignty of Vishnu, who is Brahman Himself (विष्णुर्ब्रह्मैवास्ति). While Vishnu is always in Vaikuntha, the devas are addressing the avatara of Vishnu, who is not in Vaikuntha. They are telling the avatara Krishna that He can now end his earthly existence in that form and return to Vishnu; they are &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; saying that Krishna must physically return to Vaikuntha to protect them. The translation that you gave of the Bhagavata Purana used the word &quot;return&quot; but the original Sanskrit word is &quot;विशस्व,&quot; which is a command formed from the verb &quot;विश्,&quot; simply meaning &quot;enter,&quot; without connotations of a physical return. Therefore, the devas are saying to Krishna that He may now enter Vaikuntha and He can unite with Vishnu and they are &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; saying that He should physically return to Vaikuntha because He is not protecting them. The devas also say to Vishnu &quot;पाहि,&quot; another command formed from the verb &quot;पा,&quot; meaning &quot;protect.&quot; This does not imply that Vishnu was not in heaven protecting the devas before and was not protecting the devas at the time they were speaking to Krishna right at the moment; it simply expresses gratitude in a way for His protection by requesting His protection, showing that they do not take Vishnu's protection for granted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastEditorUserId="2382" LastEditDate="2015-02-19T03:49:27.167" LastActivityDate="2015-02-19T03:49:27.167" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6500" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5471" CreationDate="2015-02-17T19:56:55.550" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are the hymns of Atharvana Veda Book 6 pertaining to hair growth in Sanskrit, along with links to their English translations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av06021.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 6 Hymn 21: A charm to strengthen hair and promote its growth&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;imā́ yā́s tisráḥ pr̥tʰivī́s tā́sāṃ ha bʰū́mir uttamā́ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tā́sām ádʰi tvacó aháṃ bʰeṣajáṃ sám u jagrabʰam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śréṣṭʰam asi bʰeṣajā́nāṃ vásiṣṭʰaṃ vī́rudʰānām |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sómo bʰága iva yā́meṣu devéṣu váruṇo yátʰā ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;révatīr ánādʰr̥ṣaḥ siṣāsávaḥ siṣāsatʰa |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;utá stʰá keśadŕ̥ṁhaṇīr átʰo ha keśavárdʰanīḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av06030.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 6 Hymn 30: A charm to promote the growth of hair&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;devā́ imáṃ mádʰunā sáṃyutaṃ yávaṃ sárasvatyām ádʰi maṇā́v acarkr̥ṣuḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;índra āsīt sī́rapatiḥ śatákratuḥ kīnā́śā āsan marútaḥ sudā́navaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yás te mádo 'vakeśó vikeśó yénābʰihásyaṃ púruṣaṃ kr̥ṇóṣi |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ārā́t tvád anyā́ vánāni vr̥kṣi tváṃ śami śatávalśā ví roha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bŕ̥hatpalāśe súbʰage várṣavr̥ddʰa ŕ̥tāvari |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mātéva putrébʰyo mr̥ḍa kéśebʰyaḥ śami ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av06136.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 6 Hymn 136: A charm to promote the growth of hair&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;devī́ devyā́m ádʰi jātā́ pr̥tʰivyā́m asy oṣadʰe |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tā́ṃ tvā nitatni kéśebʰyo dŕ̥ṃhaṇāya kʰanāmasi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dŕ̥ṃha pratnā́n janáyā́jātān jātā́n u várṣīyasas kr̥dʰi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yás te kéśo 'vapádyate sámūlo yáś ca vr̥ścáte |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;idáṃ táṃ viśvábʰeṣajyābʰí ṣiñcāmi vīrúdʰā ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av06137.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 6 Hymn 137: A charm to promote the growth of hair&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yā́ṃ jamádagnir ákʰanad duhitré keśavárdʰanīm |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tā́ṃ vītáhavya ā́bʰarad ásitasya gr̥hébʰyaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;abʰī́śunā méyā āsan vyāménānuméyāḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kéśā naḍā́ iva vardʰantāṃ śīrṣṇás te asitā́ḥ pári ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dŕ̥ṃha mū́lam ā́graṃ yacʰa ví mádʰyaṃ yāmayauṣadʰe |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kéśā naḍā́ iva vardʰantām śīrṣṇás te asitā́ḥ pári ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the proper use of Vedic mantras is discussed in the Brahmanas of the Vedas, but Gopatha Brahmana of the Atharvana Veda in Sanskrit is only &lt;a href=&quot;http://archive.org/download/gopathabrahmanao00gopauoft/gopathabrahmanao00gopauoft_bw.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;available in Sanskrit&lt;/a&gt; as far as I can tell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And more importantly, as others have pointed out chanting these mantras on your own without someone (a Guru or priest) to instruct you in person on proper procedure is vanishingly unlikely to lead to the positive effects you're looking for, and it may well lead to negative effects.  So this answer is for informational purposes only, not a guide on how to do it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-17T19:56:55.550" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6501" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-18T04:19:19.450" Score="5" ViewCount="10944" Body="&lt;p&gt;We are buying a new house and planning for a &lt;em&gt;Griha Pravesh&lt;/em&gt; pooja on 2nd march, but we are getting conflicting opinions from friends and families. Some people say that we should do it after Holi, and some say that it's ok to do it before Holi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Short of paying a pundit for advice (which I would still doubt), is there a reference available to guide me whether it's auspicious to do Griha Pravesh before Holi or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="629" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T17:53:07.353" LastActivityDate="2017-02-02T08:22:00.310" Title="Auspicious date for Griha Pravesh - before Holi or after Holi?" Tags="|astrology|festivals|customs|scripture|vastu-shastra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6502" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5482" CreationDate="2015-02-18T04:39:05.257" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas say that Brahma lives in the Sun. Some commentators have said that Brahma is for this solar system only as he resides in the Sun. If there is life on other systems outside our own, they would have their own Brahmas. If you accept this, then the age of 1 day of Brahma maps pretty good to the lifetime of the Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankaracharya has also said that these stories do not have to be taken literally as true. They can be taken as parables. They were done in this manner to make a complex situation understandable to ignorant people. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reagrdless as to which story you think is better, all point to Brahman as the sole cause of this universe. All point to Brahman being the only true Reality. Realize God and ask Him directly what is true. Arguing over which story is true is pointless, it is the same as arguing over the husk and letting the rice be gone. As Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said, we are here to enjoy mangoes, not to count how many leaves are on each mange tree.... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You should be a little less hesitant to accept science as absolute. What science was saying 200 years ago is different from what science was saying 100 years ago is different from what science says today and will be different from what science will be saying in 100 years. Less that 100 years ago it was still generally accepted that there was only 1 galaxy. I saw on the internet last week a new paper by some astrophysicists that says there was no big bang; the universe is expanding in both directions (past and future)...    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-02-18T04:39:05.257" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6503" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6492" CreationDate="2015-02-18T05:06:30.327" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vireswarananda has done 2 translations of the Brhama-Sutras with Sanskrit text, English rendering, and commentary. One is a translation of Sankaracharya's Brahma-Sutra and the other is the Brahma-Sutra Sri-Bhasya of Ramanujacharya. In the Sri-Bhasya translation, he has an Introduction where he explains in detail the agreements and differences between the two, Shankara's Brahma-Sutras and Ramanuja's Brahma-Sutras. It is 50 pages in length so I won't go into a lot of detail. The books are still in print. If you are interested I can tell you where to order from, depending upon what country you're in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will quote only the first paragraph of one of the last sections of the Introduction: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the previous sections we find that all the Vedantic schools more or less agree on certain points, especially in their attacks against non-Vedantic schools. All agree that Brahman, the ultimate reality, is the cause of the world; that a knowledge of It leads to release, which is the &lt;em&gt;summum bonum&lt;/em&gt; of life; that Brahman can be known only through the Scriptures and not through mere reasoning or other means of knowledge, the Scriptures being the sole authority with respect to It. But they differ among themselves as to the nature of Brahman, Its causality in respect of the world, the nature of the soul and its relation to Brahman, and the condition of the soul on release.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope that helps. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-02-18T05:06:30.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6504" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-18T14:14:25.173" Score="10" ViewCount="8799" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know about the Venkateshwara form of Vishnu (AKA Balaji or Srinivasa) in connection to the deity of the world-renowned Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple in Tirupati. But that is not the first time that Vishnu has come to earth in his Venkateshwara form. He came earlier as Upilliappan, the deity of the Upilliappan Vishnu Temple near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu, in order to marry Bhumadevi, daughter of sage Markandeya, who was an incarnation of Vishnu's wife Lakshmi.  Markandeya was hesitant, since his daughter was so young that she didn't even know how to put salt in her cooking, but Vishnu said that he was willing to eat without salt, for which he came to be known as Upilliappan or the lord without salt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about the story of Upilliappan, but rather about the statue itself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TKSpR.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, there is writing on his (lower) right hand.  It says &amp;quot;Mam Ekam Saranam Vraja&amp;quot;, which is part of a famous verse of the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya &lt;strong&gt;mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of religion and &lt;strong&gt;just surrender unto Me&lt;/strong&gt;. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Vaishnavas call this verse the Charama Shloka, and it is one of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srivaishnavan.com/faqs/ans_secrets.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rahasya Traya&lt;/a&gt; or three secrets of Sri Vaishnavism, because it explains the path to Moksha known as Saranagati or Prapatti, which involves surrendering to the lotus feet of Vishnu.  Since Upilliappan has a part of the Charama Shloka written on his right hand, pointed toward his feet indicating to devotees where to surrender, he is known as the lord of Saranagati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, why does Upilliappan alone have &amp;quot;Mam Ekam Saranam Vraja&amp;quot; written on his hand?  Why don't other Vishnu statues have it?  In particular, why is it that the famous Venkateshwara deity in Tirupati, who also has his right hand pointed toward his feet, does not have the words written on his hand?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Upilliappan have the words on his hand when he came to Earth, or were they later written on his hand by humans?  If the latter, when were they written?  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2755/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Vaishnava saint Nammalwar talks in one of his poems about uniting with the lotus feet of Upilliappan.  Is this a result of &amp;quot;Mam Ekam Saranam Vraja&amp;quot; being written on his hand, or were the words written later to reflect the sentiment of Nammalwar's poem?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2023-01-29T04:26:46.760" Title="Why does only Uppiliappan have &quot;Mam Ekam Saranam Vraja&quot; written on his hand?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|bhagavad-gita|venkateshwara|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6505" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-18T16:57:19.033" Score="4" ViewCount="2209" Body="&lt;p&gt;When it comes to meditation, &lt;em&gt;Hinduism&lt;/em&gt; gets divided in many different concepts and practices. While there is a Patanjali's Yoga Aphorism of &lt;em&gt;Yama, Niyama, Asana, etc.&lt;/em&gt; leading up to &lt;em&gt;Dhyana and Samadhi&lt;/em&gt;, there are also various teachings in advaita vendanta that leads to a totally different kind of meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And what constitutes the meaning of the word &lt;em&gt;tapas&lt;/em&gt; as given in the scriptures, do all forms of meditations (dhyana) come under tapas and eligible for punya? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about the Buddhist &lt;em&gt;vipassana&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;samatha&lt;/em&gt; meditations, do we get punya by performing that also? (after all Buddha was an avatara (incarnation) of Lord Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, what advice would you give to a meditation beginner who wants to do it as per &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt; tradition?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2522" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-19T15:01:08.393" LastActivityDate="2019-06-12T15:45:17.090" Title="What is the difference between Tapas and Dhyana?" Tags="|scripture|tradition|buddhism|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6506" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6505" CreationDate="2015-02-18T18:03:53.290" Score="2" Body="&lt;h1&gt;What is tapas?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word tapas means austerity. What constitutes austerity? Any act of self-discipline, ranging from controlling senses to controlling the Mind all of this is tapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/rajayoga.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Raja Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt; that all kind of spiritual disciplines come under tapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tapas is austerity. Egolessness and selfless service are the greatest forms of Tapas. Humility and desirelessness are the greatest forms of austerity. Practice these through ceaseless, untiring, selfless service. Practice the three kinds of Tapas mentioned in the Gita. Disciplinary practices like fasting, etc., also come under Tapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Do all forms of meditation come under tapas and result in punya?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meditation can mean sitting in an asan, and praying to God, repeating God's name, or it could also mean being absorbed in yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in the Gita 6:12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sitting and concentrating the mind on a single object, controlling the thoughts and the activities of the senses, let the yogi practice meditation for self-purification.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Sri Krishna says that meditation yields self-purification.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Patanjali Yoga Aphorisms, Chapter III, verse 2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mind tries to think of one object, to hold itself to one particular spot, as the top of the head, the heart, etc., and if the mind succeeds in receiving the sensations only through that part of the body, and through no other part, that would be Dharana, and when the mind succeeds in keeping itself in that state for some time, it is called Dhyana (mediation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus in the advanced stages of Meditation is the state where one goes above punya and papa. That is He is absorbed in Himself, thus neither punya nor papa can touch Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in Gita 6:20-22&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the mind disciplined by the practice of meditation becomes steady, One becomes content in the Self by beholding Him With (purified) intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One feels infinite bliss that is perceivable only through the intellect, and is beyond the reach of the senses. After realizing Brahman, One is never separated from absolute reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Self-Realization, One does not regard any other gain superior to Self-Realization. Established in Self-Realization, One is not moved even by the greatest calamity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically upon reaching the final stages of meditation, the question of punya and papa will not occur and nothing will be able to affect the One.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What advice would you give to a meditation beginner who wants to do it as per Hindu tradition?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda in '&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/gurubhaktiyoga.htm#_VPID_31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Guru-Bhakti Yoga&lt;/a&gt;':&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Guru is necessary for every aspirant in the spiritual path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is only a Guru who will be able to unveil the mystery and meaning of real life and show the way to God-realisation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru will be able to awaken the hidden divine power in the innermost core of disciple’s heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without the help of Guru one cannot attain the knowledge of the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meditation on Guru is the pathway to Divinity. It is the royal road to Kingdom of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So basically that the highly complicated techniques may or may not lead to self-realization. But following the path of the Guru is the sure way. In other words, all the meditation etc that is done is only to get the grace of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So whatever meditation technique is followed, please be sincere and steadfast, then Guru's grace will surely follow. All the best sir!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-18T18:03:53.290" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6508" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6512" CreationDate="2015-02-19T09:52:14.423" Score="17" ViewCount="10835" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the oldest idol of any Hindu God being found anywhere in the world?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If possible provide some details about how much old it was.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How did it look like? And what material was it made of?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please provide any image of the same if possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-27T07:51:49.170" LastActivityDate="2020-06-11T08:03:17.063" Title="Do we have any details about the oldest idol of any Hindu God found anywhere in the world?" Tags="|temple|history|idols|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6509" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1976" CreationDate="2015-02-19T12:07:33.253" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is one thing which I also found while researching which is &lt;strong&gt;BRAHMACHARYA&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shree Hanuman is BRAHMACHARI it makes him immortal. Other example is Bhisma pitamah who also got a boon as 'he will only die when he wish' he is also BRAHMACHARI, and point to include is he got this bless after he took oath for BRAHMACHARYA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When you follow all the rules which are describled for BRAHMACHARYA then it make you strong as Physically as well as mentally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T15:01:14.773" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T15:01:14.773" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6511" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6508" CreationDate="2015-02-19T12:20:18.143" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some of the oldest have been found at three archaeological sites called Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, and Chanhu-Daro (about 2-3,000 B.C.). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Items found are mostly of stone, a little of metal. Anything made of anything else (like wood) decayed long ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the items included a phallus, indicative of Shiva worship; a goddess with a lotus in her hair, probably Lakshmi; a deity seated in a lotus position, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book that I have, &lt;em&gt;Myth and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization&lt;/em&gt; by Heinrich Zimmer, has many plates with pictures. You can Google the three city names above for more information and pictures.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-26T21:52:33.790" LastActivityDate="2016-02-26T21:52:33.790" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6512" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6508" CreationDate="2015-02-19T12:44:54.527" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before the Kali Yuga, idols were few and far between, because the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra#Divine_Manifestation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Archa&lt;/a&gt; form of gods hadn't really been established yet.  Still, there are many idols that date back to the periods of the Ramayana and Mahabharata.  But there are other idols even older than those.  Here are three contenders for the oldest idol:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/267/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Shiva Purana relates a famous story about a contest that Brahma and Vishnu had, in which they raced to the top and bottom of a pillar of fire that Shiva had turned into.  It's unclear when this contest took place; the Shiva Purana suggests that it happened close to the time of creation, but there's reason to believe that the account found in the Shiva Purana is a later interpolation.  There are also claims that the story is old enough to be mentioned in the Brahmanas of the Rig Veda, but as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4068/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, I haven't been able to find such a mention.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regardless of when the contest took place, it's clear where it took place: the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arunachala&lt;/a&gt; hill in the town of Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu.  After the contest was over, Shiva transformed his form as a pillar of fire into a Shiva Linga, the famous Arunachaleshwara Lingam, which you can see here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BRGpK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that this isn't the only occasion where Shiva appeared as a pillar of light; he appeared in 12 other places, the sites of the famous Jyotirlingas, for instance the Tryambakeshwara linga whose story I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2572/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  You can see pictures of all 12 Jyotirlingas &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.walkthroughindia.com/festivals/the-12-jyotirlingas-of-the-great-god-of-gods-lord-shiva/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but I think those appearances of Shiva all happened after his appearance in Arunachala.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most people only know the story of Vishnu's incarnation as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varaha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha the boa&lt;/a&gt;r up to the part where he defeats the demon Hiranyaksha and rescues the earth from the water. But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2086/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, afterwards he came down and started living on the Earth for the benefit of his devotees, and in fact &lt;strong&gt;Varaha is still alive to this day&lt;/strong&gt;, on the western bank of the Swamipushkarini lake near Tirupati. (In fact the original name of the Tirupati area is Adi Varaha Kshetra - the place of the first Varaha.)  Devotees of the Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple in Tirupati, located on the southern bank of Swamipushkarini, are supposed to first worship Varaha in the western bank.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, since Varaha lives in that area, there is a temple for him on the western bank, the great &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tirumala.org/ptv_tm_varaha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha Swami temple&lt;/a&gt;, and it contains a Swayambhu (divinely created) statue of Varaha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8N3ep.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Vishnu's incarnation as Varaha happened at the beginning of the Kalpa; in fact that is why the present Kalpa is called Shwetavaraha Kalpa, or the Kalpa of white Varaha.  So this idol is certainly one of the oldest idols.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now we come to what I think is the real oldest idol in existence.  Shortly after the birth of Brahma, which I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/259/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Brahma started praying to Vishnu (perhaps with the hymn Purushagati, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5396/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  As a result, Vishnu appeared before him and gave Brahma a divine statue of Vishnu lying down on the serpent Adiseshan.  Much later, Surya the sun god began to worship it, and then Surya's grandson Ikshvaku had the statue brought to Ayodhya so that he could continue worship it.  The statue was passed down through the kings of Ayodhya, until it came to the possession of Rama.  Rama gave it to Ravana's brother Vibhishana, who planned to install it in Lanka.  But on his journey from Ayodhya to Lanka, Vibhishana put the statue down in the island of Sri Rangam in the middle of the Kaveri river, so that he could bathe in the holy Kaveri.  When he came back, he found that he could not pick up the statue with all his might - Vishnu wanted to stay in Sri Rangam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This statue is the idol of the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Ranganathaswamy_Temple,_Srirangam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ranaganatha temple&lt;/a&gt; in Sri Rangam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JFXFM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Considering that it was worshipped by Brahma from the time he was born, Ranganatha is probably the oldest statue on Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-03-01T13:53:13.603" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6513" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18" CreationDate="2015-02-19T12:46:08.297" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is not as much of a &quot;Religion&quot; as a conglomerate of different philosophies mixed in. These philosophies include Samkhya shastra, Advaita vedanta, Dwaita vendanta, etc. and even some nastika schools like Buddhist and Jain philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;code&gt;Hindu&lt;/code&gt; in fact is used by foreigners to describe the people who stayed across the &lt;code&gt;Sindhu&lt;/code&gt; river. So yes, throughout history, Hindu religion has been the one to mutually interact with other lots of other religions and cultures including the Greeks and Persians. Because of its outstanding religious tolerance and its own integrated (though diverse) social structure like the varana-ashram system, Hinduism has survived the onslaught of myriad of foreign invasions throughout its History.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2522" LastActivityDate="2015-02-19T12:46:08.297" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6515" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2574" CreationDate="2015-02-19T15:38:58.380" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva addressed his wife, Parvati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sri rama rama rameti rame rame manorame; sahasra nama tat tulyam rama nama varanane&#xA;&quot;O Varanana (lovely-faced woman), I chant the holy name of Rama, Rama, Rama and thus constantly enjoy this beautiful sound. This holy name of Ramachandra is equal to one thousand holy names of Lord Vishnu.&quot; (Brhad-visnu-sahasranama-stotra, Uttara-khanda, Padma Purana 72.335)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva always meditates on the supreme Narayana.&#xA;The supreme had taken many avatars but only a few important named as dasavatara became prominent. When ever the supreme incarnated he performed the activities in respect of the law of nature and of the materialistic world, to set an example for the human generations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva and shakthi are responsible for this materialistic creation and lord vishnu is the original seed giving father(supersoul or the paramatman) of the living beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord shiva worshipped krishna and danced with him as a gopi name Gopeeshvara.&#xA;Lord shiva served Lord ram in his rudra avatar as lord hanuman.&#xA;Lord shiva lost battle to lord krishna in the battle against banasur and many more incidents are there which support lord narayans supremacy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But lord vishnu and lord siva are non-different, Lord narayana had taken the mode of tamas for the destruction of the creation and he incarnated as lord shiva, and similarly he had taken the mode of rajas for the purpose of creation and he was called lord brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This view can be easily understood from the idol of anantha padmanabha swamy in trivandrum.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastActivityDate="2015-02-19T15:38:58.380" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6516" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-02-20T04:05:06.720" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Uttara Kanda tells the story of Valmiki's early life, as a highway robber named Ratnakar, who used to rob people after killing them. Once, the robber tried to rob the divine sage Narada for the benefit of his family. Narada asked him if his family would share the sin he was incurring due to the robbery. The robber replied positively, but Narada told him to confirm this with his family. The robber asked his family, but none agreed to bear the burden of sin. Dejected, the robber finally understood the truth of life and asked for Narada's forgiveness. Narada taught the robber the mantra for salvation. But, the mantra in question, the name of Lord Rama, was not to be given to murderers and the like. Narada thus told Valmiki to chant &quot;Mara&quot; the phonetic anagram of &quot;Rama&quot; instead to circumvent this restriction. The robber meditated for many years, so much so that ant-hills grew around his body. Finally, a divine voice declared his penance successful, bestowing him with the name &quot;Valmiki&quot;: &quot;one born out of ant-hills&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śrī Rāma met Vālmīki during his period of exile and interacted with him. Vālmīki gave shelter to Sītā in his hermitage when Rama banished her. Kuśa and Lava the twin sons of Sri Rama were born to Sītā in this hermitage.Vālmīki taught Rāmāyaṇa to Kuśa and Lava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valmiki&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Valmiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-20T10:29:04.660" LastActivityDate="2015-02-20T10:29:04.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6517" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-02-20T04:05:06.720" Score="0" Body="Valmiki (Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि Vālmīki) is the harbinger-poet and author of epic Ramayana." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-20T07:13:27.480" LastActivityDate="2015-02-20T07:13:27.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6518" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-02-20T04:07:22.390" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-02-20T04:07:22.390" LastActivityDate="2015-02-20T04:07:22.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6519" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-02-20T04:07:22.390" Score="0" Body="The Brahmanda Purana (Sanskrit: ब्रह्माण्ड पुराण) is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts and has been assigned the eighteenth place in almost all the lists of the Puranas." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-20T10:28:12.850" LastActivityDate="2015-02-20T10:28:12.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6520" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-02-20T04:14:06.693" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-02-20T04:14:06.693" LastActivityDate="2015-02-20T04:14:06.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6521" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-02-20T04:14:06.693" Score="0" Body="Questions related to death." OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T12:27:56.760" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:27:56.760" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6522" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-20T07:14:11.180" Score="3" ViewCount="581" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Hindu calendar is based on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunisolar_calendar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lunisolar calendar.&lt;/a&gt; There are 12 months in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_calendar#Months_of_the_lunisolar_calendar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Month names of Lunisolar calendar&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chaitra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaiśākha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jyeṣṭha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Āṣhāḍha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Śhrāvaṇa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhādrapada &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Āśhvina&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kārtika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mārgaśīrṣa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pauṣya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Māgha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Phālguna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the origin of these names of Lunar month?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning of each one?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is Lunisolar calendar derived from any Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who has given these names to each Lunar month?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the difference between Adhika masa and Nija masa?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-21T12:57:58.047" LastActivityDate="2015-04-22T13:28:24.430" Title="Origin of Hindu calendar" Tags="|vedas|terminology|calendar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6523" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6522" CreationDate="2015-02-20T08:02:10.610" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Hindu calendar is not a lunar calendar but a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunisolar_calendar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lunisolar calendar&lt;/a&gt;. The year is always calculated based on Sun. Some regional calendars calculate both month and the nakshatra based on Moon, where as some calculate even months based on Sun and only the nakshatra based on Moon. You can check the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_calendar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wiki link&lt;/a&gt; to get more details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1123" LastActivityDate="2015-02-20T08:02:10.610" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6524" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11186" CreationDate="2015-02-20T10:09:50.753" Score="8" ViewCount="6307" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is known from research/work of several organizations in the world, one in ten people have at least had one Out-of-body experience (OBE).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OBE by &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; definition  is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE) is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body (autos-copy).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An excellent image describing the experience is something like &lt;a href=&quot;http://photos2.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/d/5/f/highres_19672575.jpeg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this one&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any references or explanations in Hindu texts about these experiences that humans can have?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: Also, while OBEs may feel like dreams, they are not. So question is not about dreams or interpretating them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2521" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-02-20T10:53:03.830" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T15:27:54.333" Title="Are there references to Out of Body experiences in Hinduism or its texts in detail?" Tags="|scripture|atma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6525" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6527" CreationDate="2015-02-20T11:51:38.343" Score="23" ViewCount="28386" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have not found any specific reference in the Ramayana about:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What was the age of Dasharatha when Lord Rama was born?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What was the age difference amongst the four brothers (Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What were the ages of Lord Rama and Ravana during the Ramayana war?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What were the ages of Lava and Kusha and Lord Rama when they met each other for the first time?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-09T14:31:19.533" LastActivityDate="2017-05-03T06:47:49.930" Title="Ages of Ramayana's characters" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ravana|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6526" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2057" CreationDate="2015-02-20T12:44:59.237" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Women can be priests too. In Ancient India, girls graduating out of gurukul(yes!) either chose to become Brahmavadinis(seekers of knowledge) or get married. &#xA;In vedic tradition, there is nothing like wife following the husband... as it preaches equality and friendship between the partners. (So, please, do some thorough reading than blindy following hear-say interpretations of &quot;dharma.&quot; Knowledge is meant for mankind - the human race. Jnana and Vairagya - both these journeys are carried out independently by every individual.  Simple!     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2527" LastActivityDate="2015-02-20T12:44:59.237" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6527" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6525" CreationDate="2015-02-20T13:47:37.763" Score="23" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you probably know, the birth of Rama and his brothers was caused by Dasharatha's wives drinking divine Payasa obtained from the fire of the Putrakameshti Yagna (ritual for having sons).  As a result, the births occurred very close together, with Rama being just one day older than Bharata, Lakshmana, and Shatrugna, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga18/bala_18_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On completion of the ritual, six seasons have passed by; then in the twelfth month, i.e., in chaitra mAsa, and &lt;strong&gt;on the ninth day of that chaitra month&lt;/strong&gt; [April-May], when it is punarvasu nakshatra yukta navamI tithi, i.e., when the ruling star of that ninth day is punarvasu, for which Aditi is the presiding deity; and when five of the nine planets - sUrya, kuja, guru, shukra, shani are in ucCha sthAna-s, namely, when those planets are in ascension in their respective houses - meSha, makara, karkaTa, mIna, tula - rAshI-s; and when chandra yukta guru, karkaTa lagne - Jupiter in conjuction with Moon is ascendant in Cancer, and when day is advancing, Queen Kausalya gave birth to a son with all the divine attributes like lotus-red eyes, lengthy arms, roseate lips, voice like drumbeat, and who took birth to delight the Ikshwaku dynasty and adored by all the worlds, and who is the greatly blessed epitome of Vishnu, namely Rama....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;With the dawn of sun on the next day, fair-minded Bharata is born under Pisces where puSyami is the star of day, later the sons of Sumitra, namely Lakshmana and Shatrughna are born under Cancer, where aaSreSa is the star of the day, i.e., the tenth of chaitra month.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as Dasharatha's age goes, when Vishwamitra comes and asks for Rama's help in defeating the demoness Thataka, Dasharatha objects, saying &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga20/balasans20.htm#Verse10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sixty thousand years have passed from my birth&lt;/strong&gt;, oh! Vishvamitra, and this Rama is engendered at this age, that too with tribulations, hence taking Rama with you will be inappropriate of you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This may seem like an astronomically large number, but people in earlier Yugas lived much longer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Rama's age when he fought Ravana, in the Aranya Kanda of the Ramayana Sita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/aranya/sarga47/aranyaitrans47.htm#Verse10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells Ravana&lt;/a&gt; (who is pretending to be a priest) the ages of Rama and her at the time they were exiled to the forest:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My great-resplendent husband was of &lt;strong&gt;twenty-five years of age at that time&lt;/strong&gt;, and to me, eighteen years are reckoned up from my birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Rama's 14-year exile ended at about the same time as his battle with Ravana (as discussed in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/434/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), Rama was about 39 years old when he fought Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as Lava and Kusha go, Rama and Sita spent 10,000 years ruling Ayodhya before Sita became pregnant, as described in this chapter of the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sita and Raghava thus spent their days happily. And thus was spent the delightful winter giving all enjoyments. Enjoying various things the high souled Rama and Sita spent ten thousand years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once on a time, having performed all the religious ceremonies, in the fore part of the day, Rama, to spend the evening, entered the inner apartment. Sita, too, having performed all religious ceremonies, at first attended to the service of her mothers in law. Thereupon wearing a beautifully coloured cloth and being adorned with various ornaments Sita appeared before Rama like unto Sachi approaching the king of Devas in heaven. And beholding the auspicious signs of pregnancy in his spouse Rama attained to excessive delight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sita went to the forest shortly thereafter, and she gave birth to Lava and Kusha in Valmiki's ashram, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3140/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  Now while Lava and Kusha were born, Rama's brother Shatrugna was also at Valmiki's ashram on his way to kill Lavanasura the demon who was ruling Mathura.  After killing Lavanasura, Shatrugna ruled Mathura for twelve years before paying another visit to Valmiki's ashram, as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-84&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uttara Kanda.  And shortly thereafter Rama decided to conduct the Ashwamedha Yagna that would lead to him meeting Lava and Kusha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So at the time they met, Lava and Kusha were 12 years old and Rama was 10,000 years old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as Ravana goes, his age is never explicitly mentioned in the Ramayana, but for one thing, we know that he engaged in Tapasya for 10,000 years, as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2324/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But he's far, far older than that because he actually defeated Rama's distant ancestor Anaranya in battle, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/xbgY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana. (Ravana was going around challenging kings to battle to conquer their kingdoms, as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/433/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  Now as you can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikshvaku_dynasty&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Anaranya ruled Ayodhya 27 generations before Rama.  Considering how long people lived back then, that would make Ravana inordinately old at the time of his famous battle with Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Hanuman, he was born, along with many of the other Vanaras, shortly after Kausalya became pregnant with Rama, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga17/bala_17_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Vishnu attained the sonship of the great-souled king Dasharatha, then Brahma the self-created addressed all of the gods this way. &amp;quot;Let mighty and guise changing helpmates be procreated to that truth abiding and valorous Vishnu who is the well-wisher of all of us.&amp;quot; . When Brahma addressed them thus, those gods have agreed to his order and accordingly started to parent sons in the semblance of monkeys.  The direct son of Air-god is the marvellous and adventurous Hanuman with an indestructible body, and one identical in the speed of lady Vinata's son, namely Garuda, the divine eagle vehicle of Vishnu, and among all monkey chiefs he is the intelligent and the indefatigable one too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDiT: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27480/62f_chapter_20_1.pdf#toolbar=0&amp;amp;pagemode=none&amp;amp;view=FitBH&amp;amp;page=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Prabhasa Kanda of the Skanda Purana says that Ravana ruled for 56.16 million years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-05-03T06:47:49.930" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6528" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3461" CreationDate="2015-02-20T18:24:33.633" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Varuna mentioned here is not the Varuna deva but a sage called Varuna who was one of the disciples of Sage Veda Vyasa. Bhrigu was son of this sage Varuna. This Bhrigu became a disciple of Vaisampayana and learnt the Tattiriya upanishad from his acharya Vaisampayana along with sage trishanku and others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the sage Bhrigu mentioned in Taittiriya upanishad who is son of Sage Varuna is different from famous Bhrigu maharishi (the sage who cursed Brahma and Siva) and who obtained Goddess Sri as his daughter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2015-07-20T23:53:03.997" LastActivityDate="2015-07-20T23:53:03.997" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6529" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6524" CreationDate="2015-02-20T18:33:39.640" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;An out of body experience (OBE) would be nothing special according to Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, it is said that each jiva (an individual being) has three bodies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;1. Gross Body&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This body is the physical body, it is made of five elements. It is made from matter and disintegrates into the matter again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The physical body is produced out of the gross forms of the five basic elements (ether, air, water, fire, and earth), and is subject to a sixfold change: birth, subsistence, growth, maturity, decay, and death. At death the physical body perishes and its five constituent elements are dissolved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;2. Subtle Body&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This body is the form body, which is made of prana (called life-breath/something similar) and is made of subtle elements. The subtle body is an exact replica of the physical body but it is made of subtle elements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The subtle body is made of the subtle forms of the five basic elements that produced the physical body. It is the receptacle of thoughts and memories and continues to exist after death, serving as the vehicle of transmigration. A human individual enters this world with a bundle of thoughts in the form of his mind, and he also exits with a bundle of thoughts, some old and some new.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;3. Causal Body&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This body is the idea body, which is made of ideas and thoughts. it is finer than the subtle body and in advaitic terms, this body is verily the ignorance or avidhya that causes the jiva to think it is separate consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The causal body, characterized by ego sense only, is finer than the subtle body. All three bodies are for the fulfillment of desires, gross and subtle. The soul is different from these three bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All quotes are from HINDUISM: THE &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishna.org/activities/message/weekly_message40.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;HUMAN INDIVIDUAL&lt;/a&gt; by Swami Adiswarananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is there something beyond the three bodies?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Atman or the Soul is beyond the three bodies, the soul is responsible for the existence itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda describes the Atman in 'Atman is Distinct from the Three Bodies':&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Atman is entirely distinct from the three bodies. He who has realised his Atman and who knows that he is entirely distinct from the three bodies is an emancipated person. He has crossed this ocean of Samsara. He is Brahman Himself. He is adored in the three worlds. His glory is indescribable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is death?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Death is simply a change of one gross body to another gross body. The subtle body remains intact during death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is out of body experience?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So an out of body experience (as you have described it in the question) would simply be a case where the subtle body comes out and witnesses the gross body. There are plenty of instances where that has happened in Hinduism sometimes it is voluntary (using Yogic techniques), sometimes it is pre-destined (when common people get it without intending to get it) and sometimes it is just permanent (called as death or transmigration).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are looking for some examples of such out of body experience here is one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Adi Shankaracharya is said to have changed his body from one to another, in order to study certain worldly disciplines, for a debate against &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sringeri.net/history/sri-adi-shankaracharya/biography/abridged-madhaviya-shankara-digvijayam/part-3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Udhaya Bharati&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Shankara and his disciples, all masters of Yogic powers, traveled along the skies and located a dead body, that of king Amaruka. Sri Shankara discussed with his disciples about the prospect of entering the King’s body, study the effects of the forces of love by remaining a witness, and then re-enter his body which would have to be safeguarded by his disciples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is an even greater out of body experience than the one you mentioned. It is out of body-consciousness experience. it is called Samadhi. in this experience, the subtle, causal, and gross bodies all get detached from the True Withness or the Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are looking for an example of such an occurrence here is one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharishi is said to have went through this out of body experience when He was young thus attaining the Highest Advaita Realization. It is described in &amp;quot;More on Bhagavan's death experience&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the vision of death, though all the senses were benumbed, the aham sphurana (Self-awareness) was clearly evident, and so I realised that it was that awareness that we call &amp;quot;I&amp;quot;, and not the body. This Self-awareness never decays. It is unrelated to anything. It is Self-luminous. Even if this body is burnt, it will not be affected. Hence, I realised on that very day so clearly that that was &amp;quot;I&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus in conclusion, out of body experience as you described it, is very common and explained in Hinduism through the three body theory while the highest state Samadhi is the final out of body experience, where all body-consciousness is removed and one realizes one's true Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best!! Please do let know whether if more information is required.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T14:39:19.530" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6530" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2278" CreationDate="2015-02-21T01:47:05.873" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shanker   is Avatar of God to pray and meditate on most hard condition and stay vigilant with snack on his neck and anger in third eye &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva is not a Human avatar  it is symbol of Vibration with bright light on collision of atom and devine for ever without death or vanish in dark  with symbol of shivaling as worship instrument.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2529" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-21T01:53:40.420" LastActivityDate="2015-02-21T01:53:40.420" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6531" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-21T13:26:42.253" Score="2" ViewCount="731" Body="&lt;p&gt;I saw many time idols are getting cleaned by priests. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is used to cleanup the idols? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Just water or something else? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any timing for cleaning?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2015-02-24T20:25:34.073" LastActivityDate="2015-02-24T20:25:34.073" Title="How and when are idols cleaned in temples?" Tags="|temple|customs|idols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6533" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6536" CreationDate="2015-02-23T07:45:44.613" Score="6" ViewCount="1854" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before coming to this site, I only knew of one King Manu who was chosen by Lord Vishnu's Matsya avatar to save some of the different type of species to start the life again after the Pralaya. But after coming to this site I came to know that there were some other Manus also with similar roles. So, can someone throw light on who all were the different Manus, their background and their story of how they were chosen for this role.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-21T05:05:19.813" LastActivityDate="2016-06-21T05:05:19.813" Title="How many Manus have been there?" Tags="|time|pralaya|manu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6534" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-23T12:32:02.457" Score="7" ViewCount="2194" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3843/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important to the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the son of Yama god of death and twin brother of the sage Nara.  (Nara and Narayana were the previous births of Arjuna and Krishna respectively.)  One of the key doctrines articulated in the Pancharatra texts is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancaratra#Divine_Manifestation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vyuha&lt;/a&gt; doctrine, according to which Vishnu has four main forms or manifestations: Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha.  These are (not coincidentally) also the names of Vishnu's incarnation Krishna, Krishna's brother Balarama, Krishna's son Pradyumna, and Krishna's grandson Aniruddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about Aniruddha.  For those who don't know, he is a Sahasrashirsha (thousand-armed) form of Vishnu who gave birth to Brahma.  (I discuss the birth of Brahma in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/259/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  In any case, the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, in the Narayaniya section which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3936/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, describes how the sage Narada once went to a White Island in the middle of Vishnu's ocean of milk and prayed to Vishnu there.  As a result, Vishnu appeared before him in his Aniruddha form.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c039.htm#fr_246&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Aniruddha's appearance is described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus hymned with names that were not known to others, the Divine Narayana having the universe for his form showed himself to the ascetic Narada. His form was somewhat purer than the moon and differed from the moon in some respects. He somewhat resembled a blazing fire in complexion. The puissant Lord was somewhat of the form of Vishti. He resembled in some respects the feathers of the parrot, and in some a mass of pure crystal. He resembled in some respects a hill of antimony and in some a mass of pure gold. His complexion somewhat resembled the coral when first formed, and was somewhat white. In some respects that complexion resembled the hue of gold and in some that of the lapis lazuli. In some respects it resembled the hue of the blue lapis lazuli and in some that of sapphire. In some respects it resembled the hue of the peacock's neck, and in some that of a string of pearls. Bearing these diverse kinds of hues on his person, the eternal Deity appeared before Narada. He had a thousand eyes and was possessed of great beauty. He had a hundred heads and a hundred feet. He had a thousand stomachs and a thousand arms. He seemed to be still inconceivable to the mind. With one of his mouths he uttered the syllable Om and then the Gayatri following Om. With mind under complete control, the great Deity, called by the names of Hari and Narayana, by his other mouths, multitudinous in number, uttered many mantras from the four Vedas which are known by the name of Aranyaka. &lt;strong&gt;The Lord of all the deities, the great God who is adorned in sacrifices, held in his hands a sacrificial altar, a Kamandalu, few white gems, a pair of sandal, a bundle of Kusa blades, a deer-skin, a toothstick, and a little blazing fire.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the last sentence of the description.  The items listed are the traditional things a Brahmachari (celibate student) carries around when he's in an ashram, in order to perform Yagnas (fire-rituals).  So my question is, why does Vishnu carry the accoutrements of a Brahmachari in his Aniruddha form?  What special connection does Aniruddha have to these things?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know if any other scriptures describe this aspect of Aniruddha's appearance and/or explain the reason for it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2021-07-22T19:32:07.470" Title="Why does Vishnu's thousand-armed Aniruddha form carry the equipment of a student?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|vaishnavism|pancharatra|narada|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6535" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6539" CreationDate="2015-02-23T12:57:57.080" Score="6" ViewCount="2192" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have the &quot;Vivekachudamani&quot; of Adi Sankaracharya in Sanskrit language with word-by-word meaning in Hindi but still I am finding very difficult to understand it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any Online site (for Hard copy/ soft copy) available in English/Hindi translation or commentaries of &quot;Vivekachudamani&quot; in order to understand it's Adhyatmik rahashya? or&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does any YouTube link available on this(for easy reference)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per one of spiritual enlightened person said that, &quot;Vivekachudamani (famous Sanskrit poem) is one of most perfect book to find a perfect Guru (By knowing his qualities) and become a prominent disciple and finally leads to (those who want/aspirant for) MOKSHA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vivekachudamani describes developing Viveka—the human faculty of discrimination— as the central task in the spiritual life and calls it the crown jewel among the essentials for Moksha. The title Vivekachudamani translates to &lt;strong&gt;Crest Jewel of Discrimination&lt;/strong&gt;. It has the form of dialogue between the master and the disciple, where the master explains to the disciple the nature of the Atman and the ways to research and know the Atman. The book takes the disciple on a step by step instructions to reach Brahman. It then expounds the significance of Self Realisation, ways to reach it, and the characteristics of a Guru. It teaches the disciple the ways to attain Self-realization, methods of meditation (dhyana) and introspection of the Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivekachudamani&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-20T14:37:51.693" LastActivityDate="2016-06-20T15:39:11.403" Title="Vivekachudamani Of Adi Sankaracharya" Tags="|philosophy|translation-request|vedanta|adi-shankaracharya|advaita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6536" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6533" CreationDate="2015-02-23T13:24:15.310" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, let's go over the relevant timescales.  (See my answers &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2876/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5253/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more details.). The four Yugas together make up one Mahayuga.  1000 Mahayugas make up one Kalpa, which is one day in the life of Brahma.  After the Kalpa is over Brahma goes to sleep, and there's a Pralaya which destroys the three worlds, at the end of which Brahma wakes up and creates the world anew.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in addition to being divided into 1000 Mahayugas, a Kalpa is also divided into 14 periods known as Manvantaras, in which a figure known as a Manu rules over humanity.  Since there are 14 Manus who rule in a given Kalpa, each Manu rules for about 71 Mahayugas.  Note that during each Manvantara, a new person is chosen for the post of Indra (king of the gods), and a new set of Saptarishis (seven sages) are also chosen.  The Srimad Bhagavatam, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/1/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/5/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;, describes the reign of the previous Manus of the Shwetavaraha Kalpa (the present Kalpa):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the present kalpa there have already been six Manus. I have described to you Svāyambhuva Manu and the appearance of many demigods. In this kalpa of Brahmā, Svāyambhuva is the first Manu.  Svāyambhuva Manu had two daughters, named Ākūti and Devahūti. From their wombs, the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared as two sons named Yajñamūrti and Kapila respectively. ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The son of Agni named Svārociṣa became the second Manu.  The son of Agni named Svārociṣa became the second Manu. His several sons were headed by Dyumat, Suṣeṇa and Rociṣmat....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O King, the third Manu, Uttama, was the son of King Priyavrata. Among the sons of this Manu were Pavana, Sṛñjaya and Yajñahotra....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The brother of the third Manu, Uttama, was celebrated by the name Tāmasa, and he became the fourth Manu. Tāmasa had ten sons, headed by Pṛthu, Khyāti, Nara and Ketu....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The brother of Tāmasa Manu was the fifth Manu, named Raivata. His sons were headed by Arjuna, Bali and Vindhya....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The son of Cakṣu known as Cākṣuṣa was the sixth Manu. He had many sons, headed by Pūru, Pūruṣa and Sudyumna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the chapters for additional information, like who occupied the post of Indra, who were the Saptarishis, and what Vishnu's main incarnation was.  Now &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/13/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Srimad Bhagavatam's description of the Vaivasvata Manvanthara, which is the one we're living in:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The present Manu, who is named Śrāddhadeva, is the son of Vivasvān, the predominating deity on the sun planet. Śrāddhadeva is the seventh Manu. Now please hear from me as I describe his sons.  O King Parīkṣit, among the ten sons of Manu are Ikṣvāku, Nabhaga, Dhṛṣṭa, Śaryāti, Nariṣyanta and Nābhāga. The seventh son is known as Diṣṭa. Then come Tarūṣa and Pṛṣadhra, and the tenth son is known as Vasumān. In this manvantara, O King, the Ādityas, the Vasus, the Rudras, the Viśvedevas, the Maruts, the two Aśvinī-kumāra brothers and the Ṛbhus are the demigods. Their head king [Indra] is Purandara.  Kaśyapa, Atri, Vasiṣṭha, Viśvāmitra, Gautama, Jamadagni and Bharadvāja are known as the seven sages. In this manvantara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared as the youngest of all the Ādityas, known as Vāmana, the dwarf. His father was Kaśyapa and His mother Aditi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The chapter also contains information on future Manvantharas if you're interested.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that contrary to popular belief, Vaivasvata Manu was not actually saved by Vishnu's incarnation Matsya.  Matsya saved Vaivasvata Manu's previous birth Satyavrata, a king who lived during the Chakshusha Manvanthara; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/24/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You also asked about how people become Manus.  Well, Hindu scripture doesn't say explicitly how Manus are chosen.  But we do know that Swayambhuva Manu was chosen by his father Brahma shortly after he was born, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3935/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. I assume the other Manus are chosen by the gods based on the merits of their deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-23T13:24:15.310" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6539" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6535" CreationDate="2015-02-23T13:52:57.223" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universaltheosophy.com/sacred-texts/crest-jewel-of-wisdom/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This website&lt;/a&gt; provides three translations of the Vivekachudamani.  And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.realization.org/down/sankara.vivekachudamani.chaitanya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is one more translation, in PDF format.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as commentaries go, you can watch &lt;a href=&quot;https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkpR1TQMei4Xo6N56szmxsAhH3KL9-koS&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; series of lectures on YouTube, or you can listen to &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/AudioLibrary/Discources/CommentaryonVivekachudamaniParamarthananda.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; audio commentary by Swami Paramarthananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-26T21:42:54.343" LastActivityDate="2015-02-26T21:42:54.343" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6540" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5468" CreationDate="2015-02-23T14:03:21.247" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;He was the student of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajnavalkya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yajnavalkya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following pages also confirm the fact: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindu-blog.com/2008/05/story-of-true-knower-of-brahman-king.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Story of true knower of brahman king&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://pages.rediff.com/janaka/987910&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Janaka&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2521" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-11T12:12:41.030" LastActivityDate="2015-03-11T12:12:41.030" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6541" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-23T17:32:59.297" Score="0" ViewCount="880" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was wondering if there is any reference to giving of tithe (a certain percentage of ones income) in Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is dana same as tithe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2538" LastActivityDate="2015-02-24T06:06:13.523" Title="Reference of Tithe in Vedas" Tags="|vedas|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6542" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3690" CreationDate="2015-02-24T02:59:25.833" Score="1" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The upper portion is a typically an excellent representation of a Shikhara/Summit - a highest abode.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;/\ shape is on the top Sanctum Sanctorum - a way of ensuring there is no floor/higher person who could be placed over it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In Kaliyuga, it allowed one to see the temple's highest point from a far-off distance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2521" LastActivityDate="2015-02-24T02:59:25.833" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6543" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-24T03:03:45.317" Score="11" ViewCount="8426" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it ok to have pets in Hinduism and if so, what pets are ok and which are not ok?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, is there a proper protocol for raising pets? In general, views from Shastras would be very helpful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2521" LastEditorUserId="5101" LastEditDate="2017-08-19T07:55:28.567" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T04:52:43.093" Title="What are some of the practices of having pets as per Hinduism?" Tags="|culture|animals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6544" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3759" CreationDate="2015-02-24T03:32:49.723" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Excerpt from this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vaikhari.org/thrikkakara.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; explains in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First, Thrikkakara Temple is one of the few temples in India dedicated&#xA;  to Lord Vamana the fifth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. It is situated in&#xA;  Thrikkakara, 2 kilometers east of Idapally near Cochi. The name&#xA;  Thrikkakkara means the holy place where Lord placed His foot.&#xA;  Thiru-kal-kari later became Thrikkakara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The legend is closely linked with the story of Mahabali and Lord&#xA;  Vishnu's Vamana or Trivikrama incarnation. Mahabali was an efficient&#xA;  and popular Asura king. His kingdom stretched the earth, the patala&#xA;  (the underground), and was threatening the skies. The gods (suras)&#xA;  grew worried of Mahabali's rule and popularity. Vishnu, in his avatar&#xA;  as Vamana, asked Mahabali for a piece of land only three paces wide.&#xA;  Bali, ever the generous king, granted this wish, whereupon Vamana grew&#xA;  to an immense size and covered the heavens with one step and the earth&#xA;  with another. There was no space left for Vamana to measure his third&#xA;  pace. &quot;Where is my third foot of space?&quot; asked Vamana. Tricked by this&#xA;  deceit, but as one who would never go back on his promises. Mahabali&#xA;  offered his own head for Vamana to place his third step. These events&#xA;  were happened at this place. As he was pushed down into Suthala, King&#xA;  Bali made a last request. He requested that he be allowed to visit&#xA;  Kerala once in a year to ensure that his people were still happy, well&#xA;  fed and content. Lord Vishnu was pleased to grant Mahabali his wish.&#xA;  Mahabali comes to visit his people and his land during Onam. This is&#xA;  the legend behind the Onam festival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, Onathappan is a representation of Mahabali visiting once a year, as a way of showing mutual care for the people and the land he once ruled.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2521" LastActivityDate="2015-02-24T03:32:49.723" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6545" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6541" CreationDate="2015-02-24T06:06:13.523" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Nikhilananda in talking about Hindu ethics says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A few words may be said here to explain why objective morality or social welfare has been relegated to a secondary position in Hindu ethics. It is individuals, after all, who constitute society. If individuals perfection is emphasized, so the Hindu philosophers argued, social welfare will follow automatically. Secondarily, Hindu society, in olden times, was prosperous. The people as a rule, prized spiritual values...The general moral tone was high. Everyman was expected to follow his dharma, or duty. Men were generous and charitable. No great need was felt for organized charity, which even in European society became prominent only in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. And lastly, according to the dominant Hindu philosophical view, the empirical world is not ultimate reality. All values here are impermanent...Hence moral laws have only an instrumental, and not an intrinsic value...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tithe is a Christian term for giving to a church. There are no churches in Hinduism. There are brahmins. What should be given to brahmins is outlined in the Laws of Manu. Read Chapter III. The most pertinent verses 91 - 129 in Chapter III., although there are relevant verses after verse 129 also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other verses in late chapters  of the Laws of Manu that deal with charity in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda in his poem &lt;em&gt;The Living God&lt;/em&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who is in you and outside you,&#xA;  Who works through all hands,&#xA;  Who walks on all feet,&#xA;  Whose body are all ye,&#xA;  Him worship, and break all other idols!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who is at once the high and low,&#xA;  The sinner and the saint,&#xA;  Both God and worm,&#xA;  Him worship--visible, knowable, real, omnipresent,&#xA;  Break all other idols!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and later in the same poem...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ye fools who neglect the living God,&#xA;  And His infinite reflections with which the world is full.&#xA;  While ye run after imaginary shadows,&#xA;  That lead to fights and quarrels,&#xA;  Him worship, the only visible!&#xA;  Break all other idols!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Charity is to worship the living God, omnipresent everywhere, in all beings. If you truly love God, what will you not give to Him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-02-24T06:06:13.523" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6546" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-24T11:34:43.437" Score="9" ViewCount="4049" Body="&lt;p&gt;I sometimes read that Lord Ganesha's wives were 'Siddhi' and 'Buddhi' and sometimes 'Riddhi' and 'Siddhi' and also sometimes that all 3 'Riddhi', 'Siddhi' and 'Buddhi' were his wives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can anyone please verify from texts regarding who were actually his wives?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Whose daughters were these? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How did the marriage happen? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In which Hindu text are all these mentioned?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-06-30T05:42:37.233" LastActivityDate="2020-06-30T05:42:37.233" Title="Who are the wives of Lord Ganesha?" Tags="|puranas|ganesha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6547" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-24T11:37:06.387" Score="8" ViewCount="4013" Body="&lt;p&gt;As most of you might know that in Hinduism, it is believed that you and every other living thing consist of two things one is &quot;a soul&quot; which is indestructible, true and reality. No harm can be done to the soul. The other is your &quot;body&quot; which is illusion. It is destroyed after you die. Your soul then gets free from your body when your body dies and goes to another body it calls rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every soul has to pass through several species as per evolutionary process.  According to Padma Purana, the different types of life-forms in the universe are &lt;strong&gt;8,400,000&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  900,000 of which are aquatic ones;   &#xA;2,000,000 are trees and plants;  &#xA;1,100,000 are small living species (like- insects and reptiles);  &#xA;1,000,000 are birds;  &#xA;3,000,000 are beasts and  &#xA;  400,000 are human species. &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only after passing through all of the above forms will a soul get its human form. As we can say the soul inside of a human is the same as that of a soul inside of an ant or an elephant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cycle of birth and death continues on until it is merged with the Supreme One called &quot;Paramatma&quot; (or a soul gets free from the cycle of rebirth). This is called &quot;Moksha&quot;. The time taken for the Moksha will depend upon one's &quot;Karma&quot; and &quot;Dharma&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, as we know for the sake of food, a Tiger kills a Deer, Plants are killed by Elephants, a Snake kills a Rat, and we, humans, also kill many things like plants and animals for food (or for habitat) and so on. As per my knowledge the above all have done the same karma or sin. But as we know if human's karmic account is not clean, he will only be wandering in different planes of existence in different kinds of bodies suffering or enjoying different kinds of pain and pleasure depending upon his actions (karma) respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does it mean the 8,400,000 forms are created simultaneously at one time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If yes, then, does it mean some souls are coming directly to human-form?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If not, then, why is a specific number of life-forms given in Padma Purana? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does Karma apply to all life-forms? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E.g., can the soul of a tiger take birth as tiger only or can it go to a lower life-form according to its karma (by killing a animal for the sake of food)? Or will it always gain a higher life-form of the evolutionary process? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How to know that it's their result of karma or it's their own way of life (it means no prarabdha karma generated and they will go direct to higher life-form)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any possibility of skipping one life-form of evolutionary process and go upward or downward? Specially, does this happen in humans i.e., going to a lower life-form? (Higher simply means attaining moksha, as per my knowledge)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does this karma only apply to humans?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptural references for any of this?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE&lt;/strong&gt;: Added one more question related to this topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-11T17:07:41.617" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T17:07:41.617" Title="Does Karma (going from a higher life-form to a lower one) only apply to humans?" Tags="|karma|moksha|puranas|rebirth|atma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6548" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6551" CreationDate="2015-02-24T13:58:57.330" Score="8" ViewCount="12698" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karna as we know gave up his &lt;strong&gt;grace&lt;/strong&gt; (his blessings, which he got from the donations and charity all his life) to lord Krishna during the final stages of his life, and only then did he become too weak to be taken out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So all his life's work of charity is gone and only thing remains is the bad things he did in the name of Friendship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is he in heaven or hell?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2540" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-05-09T08:00:43.983" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T13:40:02.303" Title="Where is Karna in the afterlife?" Tags="|mahabharata|afterlife|karna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6549" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2142" CreationDate="2015-02-24T14:09:37.963" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, family bonds include bonds with parents, brothers, sisters, in-laws, children, other relatives. Dharma towards each bond  is different and so is dharma towards a particular person in different circumstances. For example, it is just as important a dharma to love and defend your child as it is to discipline them when they stray. Rama lived by all dharmas towards all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, if you examine the Ramayana closely, you will notice Rama comes across as a sensitive, loyal, selfless  and brave husband and lover. He dissuades Sita from accompanying him to the forests. She scolds him roundly and he does not retaliate because he is no old fashioned chauvinist. He defends her against all danger starting with Viradha. He states that he cannot bear the thought of separation from her .   He was not to be tempted by other women including surpanakha. He strove to fulfill his wife's wishes and went after the fantastic golden deer. He suffered severe pangs of separation after Sita was kidnapped. He waged war to save her. For some trivia, In the beginning of the yuddha Kanda, there is an episode where he is lying flat on his back remembering his wife as he looks at the moon. This is a tender moment which inspired kalidasa to compose meghasandesam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the above are testimony to Rama's superiority as a  husband. Now coming to abandoning Sita towards the end of their avatar, the previous responder has already highlighted raja dharma(ethics of an ideal king ). He remained loyal to her even after the incident. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2015-02-24T14:09:37.963" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6551" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6548" CreationDate="2015-02-24T15:14:57.000" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Karna no longer exists as a distinct being.&lt;/strong&gt;  Let me explain.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Swargarohanika Parva of the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira arrives in Devaloka in his own body (which he did by successfully going on the Swargarohini mountain path, unlike his brothers and Draupadi who fell off).  He is initially presented a false vision of the Pandavas, Karna, and Draupadi all residing in Asuraloka, but that was just a test to see if Yudhisthira was willing to reside in Asuraloka with his loved ones, which he passed.  Yudhisthira is then shown the truth, which is that his loved ones are in Devaloka after all.  In particular, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sees Karna:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In another place, the delighter of the Kurus beheld Karna, that foremost one among all wielders of weapons, resembling a dozen Suryas in splendour. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Karna didn't live in Devaloka forever; since he was an incarnation of his father Surya, he eventually merged with Surya, as described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Swargarohanika Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Slain on the field of battle, O foremost of men, Karna entered Surya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, even if Karna had exhausted his previous punya, he still died a noble warrior's death on the battlefield, which is enough punya for a Kshatriya to go to Devaloka. That's how Duryodhana managed to go to Devaloka despite his sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T13:35:10.543" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T13:35:10.543" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6552" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-24T16:18:19.827" Score="1" ViewCount="9220" Body="&lt;p&gt;Typically we bathe in the morning, go to work and come back home in the evening and plan to do Puja. However, it may not be possible to bathe in the evening for reasons like health, timing, water scarcity, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it okay to do Puja without bathing?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What can we done to &quot;purify&quot; ourselves, is putting Vibhuti solution some other alternative?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2541" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-25T06:12:11.820" LastActivityDate="2015-02-25T06:12:11.820" Title="Is bathing required if puja is done in the evening?" Tags="|practice|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6554" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6552" CreationDate="2015-02-24T18:48:17.860" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally, physical purity (&lt;em&gt;suchi&lt;/em&gt;) is a common requirement for doing &lt;em&gt;pujas&lt;/em&gt; which is done by bathing as water acts as a purifier. But apart from bathing &lt;em&gt;pranayama&lt;/em&gt; is also an purifier. A simple method for puja is said in Bhagavatam as thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After cleansing oneself, purifying the body by prāṇāyāma, bhūta-śuddhi and other processes, and marking the body with sacred tilaka for protection, one should sit in front of the Deity and worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead. [SB - 11.3.49]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But mental purity is the best. So puja can also be done even without bathing. To do so one can &lt;strong&gt;sprinkle some Ganga water upon himself&lt;/strong&gt; and by chanting the following mantra  with mentally remembering Vishnu one can proceed to worship:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;om apavitraḥ pavitro vā sarvāvasthāṁ gato ’pi vā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ sa bahyābhyantara-śuciḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there is no scope for bathing, even by doing these minimum things one can proceed to do &lt;em&gt;puja&lt;/em&gt; in the evening. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-02-24T18:55:50.727" LastActivityDate="2015-02-24T18:55:50.727" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6555" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6557" CreationDate="2015-02-24T20:20:54.960" Score="10" ViewCount="2329" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read that there was a debate between Maṇḍana Miśra, an exponent of Mīmāmsā, and Ādi Śankara, an exponent of Advaita, in which Maṇḍana Miśra's wife was the judge. Ādi Śankara won the debate and Maṇḍana became an Advaitin and a disciple of Ādi Śankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the original source of this account? Is there an English translation of it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-30T02:31:56.387" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T18:49:30.487" Title="Debate between Maṇḍana Miśra and Ādi Śankara" Tags="|history|philosophy|translation-request|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6556" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6555" CreationDate="2015-02-24T20:51:16.677" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/sankara-vijayam.html&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; website, there are a number of biographies of Shankaracharya called shankara vijaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The oldest among them is the Madhaviya Shankara Vijaya, by Vidyaranya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mAdhavIya Sankaravijaya - The mAdhavIya is probably the oldest available, and also the most authentic and widely known among the different Sankaravijayas today. It is certainly the most popular such text in the advaita tradition, and is also known as the sam.kshepa Sankarajaya. The popularity of this work derives from the fame of its author, mAdhava, who is usually identified with vidyAraNya, the 14th century maThAdhipati at Sringeri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it's possible that this would be held as the most original source of this account.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book 'SRI SHANKARA DIGVIJAYAM, AN CONCISE ENGLISH TRANSLATION ADAPTED FROM&#xA;SRI MADHAVIYA SHANKARA DIGVIJAYAM BY SRI VIDYARANYA' is available online and it is a english translation 'adapted' from the same book. I am not sure what they mean by 'adapted from sri madhaviya shankara digvijayam' but there you go.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is how it describes the account of the debate:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mandana, however, still had some questions regarding the aphorisms of Jaimini and their&#xA;  relation to the Absolute Truth, as propounded by Sri Shankara. When Sri Shankara clarified, Mandana prostrated and said, ‘You are the nature of pure consciousness, yet for the sake of ignorant men you have assumed this human body. You have saved all with the single statement - Tat tvam asi, and explained the great soul indicated in the Upanishads, the crest-jewel of the Vedas, as indestructible and one without a second.’ Praising thus, Mandana then surrendered himself at the feet of Sri Shankara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story is famous by all advaitins and most of the Advaita saints have narrated this story when describes Shankaracharya's life History. The moral is mostly about how debates in the olden days were done in good spirits and not with any ego. Sometimes it is about the moral values of Mandana Mishra's wife Udhaya Bharati, which is a story by itself. All the best!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastActivityDate="2015-02-24T20:51:16.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6557" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6555" CreationDate="2015-02-24T20:59:01.430" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The traditional biography of Adi Shankaracharya is the Madhaviya Shankara Digvijaya, composed by Vidyaranya, brother of the famous Vedic commentator Sayana.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sringeri.net/history/sri-adi-shankaracharya/biography/abridged-madhaviya-shankara-digvijayam/part-3&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Vidyaranya says about the debate with Mandana Misra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankara entered Mandana’s house and saw him cleaning the holy feet of Sages Vyasa and Jaimini, whom Mandana was able to bring there on account of his penance, for the conduct of a ceremony performed by him as per the Sastras. Mandana, who disliked Sanyasins, entered into a violent wordy duel with Shankara. The sages pacified Mandana and then he welcomed Sri Shankara’s challenge along with the condition that the loser of the debate would become the disciple of the victor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mandana fixed the next day for the debate and requested Jaimini and Vyasa to be the judges. But they said that Mandana’s wife Ubhaya Bharati, accepted as an incarnation of Goddess Saraswati shall judge the debate. The following day, Sri Shankara initiated the debate, announcing his proposition of the unity of all existence as follows:&#xA;  ‘Brahman, the Existence-Conscious-Bliss Absolute (Sat-chit-ananda) is the one ultimate Truth. It is He who appears as the entire world owing to ignorance, just as a shell appears as silver. When the illusion gets dispelled, the silver dissolves into the substratum, the shell. Similarly, when ignorance is erased the whole world dissolves into its substratum Brahman, which is the same as Atman. This is the supreme knowledge, as also Moksha (liberation from births and deaths); and the Upanishads are the authority for this proposition.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mandana made his proposition, emphasising the tenets of his faith thus: ‘The non-Vedantic part of the Veda dealing with effects produced by Karma is the real authority; actions alone (Karma) constitute the steps leading to Moksha and embodied beings have to perform action till the end of their lives.’&#xA;  Ubhaya Bharati put a garland of flowers on the neck of the two contestants, declaring that the person whose garland withers will be considered defeated. The debate went on for several days. Ubhaya Bharati accepted that the cogent arguments of Shankara had overcome the contentions of Mandana and gave her verdict subjecting Mandana to defeat. The flower wreath on Mandana’s neck also faded. Mandana adopted Sanyasa in accordance with the wager. Ubhaya Bharati gave Bhiksha to both Sri Shankara and Mandana, indicating that her husband was now a Sanyasin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mandana, however, still had some questions regarding the aphorisms of Jaimini and their relation to the Absolute Truth, as propounded by Sri Shankara. When Sri Shankara clarified, Mandana prostrated and said, ‘You are the nature of pure consciousness, yet for the sake of ignorant men you have assumed this human body. You have saved all with the single statement - Tat tvam asi, and explained the great soul indicated in the Upanishads, the crest-jewel of the Vedas, as indestructible and one without a second.’ Praising thus, Mandana then surrendered himself at the feet of Sri Shankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-02-25T22:11:45.233" LastActivityDate="2015-02-25T22:11:45.233" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6558" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6564" CreationDate="2015-02-25T05:57:40.290" Score="6" ViewCount="1452" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; they consist of concise sayings, so people usually read them with the help of a commentary.  Numerous commentaries have been written on them, by proponents of various Vedantic philosophies.  The commentary of the Sri Vaishnava sect, for instance, is the Sri Bhashya of Ramanujacharya, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the commentary of Adi Shankaracharya, which written from the perspective of Advaita.  Specifically, the commentary on the following Sutra (Adhayaya 1, Pada 1, Sutra 12):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ānanda-mayo 'bhyāsāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(The Self) consisting of bliss (is the highest Self) on account of the&#xA;  repetition (of the word 'bliss,' as denoting the highest Self).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Concerning this Sutra, Adi Shankaracharya says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Taittirîya-upanishad (II, 1-5), after having enumerated the Self&#xA;  consisting of food, the Self consisting of the vital airs, the Self&#xA;  consisting of mind, and the Self consisting of understanding, says,&#xA;  'Different from this which consists of understanding is the other&#xA;  inner Self which consists of bliss.' Here the doubt arises whether the&#xA;  phrase, 'that which consists of bliss,' denotes the highest Brahman of&#xA;  which it had been said previously, that 'It is true Being, Knowledge,&#xA;  without end,' or something different from Brahman, just as the Self&#xA;  consisting of food, &amp;amp;c., is different from it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And he argues that the first option is the correct one.  From this, two facts seem clear:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya is saying that this Sutra is about the quote &quot;Different from this which consists of understanding is the other inner Self which consists of bliss&quot; from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15038.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 5&lt;/a&gt; of the Anandavalli of Taittiriya Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya is saying that the quote I mentioned above is referring to the highest Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason these are significant is that chapters 2-5 of the Anandavalli of the  Taittiriya Upanishad are generally considered to be a description of the Pancha Kosha.  For those who don't know, an embodied being is thought to be made up of five layers or selves: the Annamaya self consisting of food, the Pranamaya self consisting of breath, the Manomaya self consisting of mind, the Vijnanamaya self consisting of understanding, and the Annandamaya self consisting of bliss.  The first is called the gross body, the middle three are said to be part of the subtle body, and the Annandamaya self is considered the causal body.  Advaitins generally seem to believe that Brahman is not the same as any of these five, because they think that it is deeper than even the causal body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And yet it seems like Adi Shankaracharya is adopting a different viewpoint in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras.  Assuming I am right about statements 1 and 2, and right again in assuming that the Taittiriya Upanishad chapter in question is referring to the Anandamaya self, the clear implication is that Adi Shankaracharya is equating Brahman with the causal body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can think of three ways to avoid this conclusion: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A.  Arguing that Adi Shankaracharya is not talking about that chapter of the Taittiriya Upanishad.  That seems untenable because Adi Shankaracharya specifically says that he is discussing that quote.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;B.  Arguing that Adi Shankaracharya is not saying that the thing he is talking about is the highest Brahman.  That seems even more implausible, because he explicitly says that it is the highest Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;C.  Arguing that Adi Shankaracharya is merely saying that bliss is Brahman, and that he is not at all that the Anandamaya self or causal body is Brahman.  That seems implausible to me, because in Adi Shankaracharya's commentary on that chapter of the Taittiriya Upanishad, he apparently says that that chapter is about the Anandamaya Kosha. So assuming statements 1 and 2 are correct, that would imply that in the Brahma Sutra he is saying that the Anandamaya self is the highest Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So where am I going wrong?  How can we reconcile Adi Shankaracharya's statements in the Brahma Sutra Bhashya with his statements elsewhere (like his commentary on the Taittiriya Upanishads) and the common Advaitin view concerning Brahman transcending the Anandamaya self?  Are there any subcommentaries (i.e. commentaries on Adi Shankaracharya's commentary) that address this issue?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-06-04T13:07:16.187" Title="Does Adi Shankaracharya equate Brahman with the causal body in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya?" Tags="|philosophy|brahma-sutras|adi-shankaracharya|vedanta|advaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6559" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-25T09:33:42.900" Score="12" ViewCount="8687" Body="&lt;p&gt;How according to Krishna's teaching to Arjuna, was the war between the two sides justified? Isn't fighting over a kingdom petty compared to the lives that would be lost? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isn't killing (be it human or animal) against the basic tenets of Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My understanding of the principle of Karma is that when you kill someone, you're interfering with their cycle of life and death, and you end up tarnishing your own soul, earning yourself 'bad' Karma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this understanding incorrect?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2544" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-09-04T03:57:44.140" LastActivityDate="2022-10-27T05:49:45.163" Title="Is killing justified in the Bhagwad Gita?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|karma|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6560" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6559" CreationDate="2015-02-25T14:16:21.800" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagawan Sri Krishna answers all the questions you pose in Chapter II of the Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the first 30 verses He outlines why the conducting of the war is not important from the standpoint of the Ultimate Reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In verses 31-38, the Divine Lord outlines why from Arjuna's personal standpoint the war is righteous and why it is it is Arjuna's personal dharma&#xA;(Swadharma) to Fight and how he can gain heaven and the world by doing so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From verse 39 until the end of the chapter, Sri Krishna then outlines how from the standpoint of one desiring Liberation, through yoga, one can attain Liberation while still conducting one's worldly duties (see especially verse 47 and 48). Arjuna is about to kill many people, and the Lord shows how to do so and still practice the yoga of Liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Lord through the Gita shows how, even in what appears to us as the worst of circumstances and events, a person can still attain Liberation. Here we are in our daily lives - which for most of us - the mental and physical circumstances are nowhere near as extreme as those on the battlefield of the Gita. Each one of us must then look in his or her own heart and ask - Why cannot I put forth the effort for Liberation? I have been born in a most propitious life.....          &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T17:52:28.517" LastActivityDate="2016-04-09T17:52:28.517" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6561" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3861" CreationDate="2015-02-25T15:32:45.980" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Meditation leads to &lt;strong&gt;moksha&lt;/strong&gt; but on what one should meditate , many meditate on lord &lt;strong&gt;shiva&lt;/strong&gt; which is indeed useful.&#xA;but the question arises that on what &lt;strong&gt;Adiyogi&lt;/strong&gt;(Shiva) meditates on, &#xA;he meditates on himself considering him to be all that is truth, this is true yoga.&#xA;because yoga means &lt;strong&gt;unification&lt;/strong&gt;,so one should always consider that he is everything which is truth this way we unify ourselves to the &lt;strong&gt;satya&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;Therefore one should meditate on oneself reciting &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SHIVOHAM&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(meaning, I am Shiva) to achieve samadhi the ultimate goal of yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2545" LastActivityDate="2015-02-25T15:32:45.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6564" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6558" CreationDate="2015-02-25T21:18:20.683" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is what could find about this sutra,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Have other saints commented on Shankara's commentary for this sutra?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am looking for such commentaries on commentaries, I found this one, where Swami Sivananda has commented on Shankara's views in his Brahma Sutra commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In BRAHMA SUTRAS by &lt;strong&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/strong&gt;, Page 32, in His commentary on Sutra I.1.12,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, the Sutra establishes that Anandamaya is Brahman. But the commentator Sankara has a new orientation of outlook in this regard. The Archarya says that Anandamaya cannot be Brahman because Anandamaya is one of the five sheaths or Koshas of the individual, the other four being Annamaya (physical body), Pranamaya (vital body), Manomaya (mental body), and Vijnanamaya (intellectual body). The Anandamaya is actually the causal body which determines the functions of the other sheathes. The individual enters into the Anandamaya sheath in deep sleep and enjoys bliss there, which is the reason why this sheath is called Anandamaya (bliss-filled). A coverage of individuality cannot be regarded as Brahman. Further, if Anandamaya had been Brahman itself, the individual in deep sleep will be united with Brahman in that condition. But this does not happen since one who goes to sleep returns to ordinary waking experience. Hence the Anandamaya is not Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what &lt;strong&gt;Swami Vishweshwarananda&lt;/strong&gt; says about that translation (which you and Swamiji already have read but anyway for other readers reproduced here below):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankara objects to this interpretation of the Sutras and says that Anandamaya cannot be the highest Brahman. First of all, there is no justification, for suddenly changing the interpretation of the suffix 'mayat' from modification in the case of Vijnanamaya, Pranamaya, etc. in the preceding passages to abundance in the case of Anandamaya, so as to make this word refer to Brahman. Again the very idea of preponderance or abundance of bliss suggests there is also misery in it, however slight. Such an idea with respect to Brahman is absurd. So Sankara replaces this interpretation of the Sutras, which Anandagir attributes to the Vrittikara, by another, which we have reproduced above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;here is what &lt;strong&gt;Dr. George Thibaut&lt;/strong&gt; (the one whose translation is provided in vedantabase I guess) says about Shankaracharya's commentary (I have removed some of His own opinion from the quote so that it makes it bit more neutral)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adhik. VI (12-19) raises the question whether the anandamaya, mentioned in Taittriya Upanishad II, 5, is merely a transmigrating individual soul or the highest Self. Sankara begins by explaining the Sutras on the latter supposition... gives, however, finally the preference to a different explanation according to which the Sutras teach that the anandamaya is not Brahman, since the Upanishad expressly says that Brahman is the tail or support of the anandamaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: The Vedanta Sutras by Dr. George Thibaut.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is another source where &lt;strong&gt;Swami Nikhilananda&lt;/strong&gt; displays knowledge of Shankara's disagreement that Anandamaya kosha is the Supreme Brahman itself (from Swami Nikhilananda’s translation of the Taittiriya):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be noted that the Taittiriya Upanishad itself stops its descriptions of the successive ‘selves’ with the Anandamaya kosha. There is therefore the implication that this is the ‘highest’ Self, i.e. that it is not itself a ‘covering’ of something further. This doubt is raised in the Brahma Sutra Topic 6 (Anandamayo.bhyAsAt – I.1.12 – 19). The doubt raised is that Anandamaya cannot be the paramAtman because it has the form of the body, has parts (head, tail etc) and has joy, whereas the Self is formless, partless and limitless. The sutra concludes that it is Brahman, because Ananda is repeatedly uses as an ‘indicator’ or ‘characteristic’ of Brahman. The Taittiriya concludes that ‘Ananda is Brahman’ (II.6.1) and the Brihadaranyaka says that ‘Knowledge and bliss is Brahman’ (II.9.27) so the ‘Self made of bliss’ must be Brahman also. It is the most subtle in the series of increasing levels of subtlety pointed out in the metaphor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankara disagrees and states that Anandamaya is not Brahman but the last of the five sheaths. It is the ‘causal body’ for the other four. We enjoy bliss in deep sleep but we are clearly not ‘united’ with Brahman because we return to ordinary waking afterwards.  Anandamaya is the fluctuating bodily enjoyment or ‘reflection of’ the real Ananda, whereas Ananda itself is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: Swami Nikhilananda’s translation of the Taittiriya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Has Adi Shankara provided His knowledge about the Anandamaya Kosha in His other works?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us see what &lt;strong&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/strong&gt; says in Vivekachudamani, 207&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The blissful sheath (Anandamaya Kosha) is that modification of Nescience which manifests itself catching a reflection of the Atman which is Bliss Absolute; whose attributes are pleasure and the rest; and which appears in view when some object agreeable to oneself presents itself. It makes itself spontaneously felt by the fortunate during the fruition of their virtuous deeds; from which every corporeal being derives great joy without the least effort.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Vivekachudamani, 209&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nor is the blissful sheath the Supreme Self, because it is endowed with the changeful attributes, is a modification of the Prakriti, is the effect of past good deeds, and imbedded in the other sheaths which are modifications.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So everybody seems to be aware of the fact that Shankaracharya believed that Anandamaya kosha is not Brahman. Also everyone refers to the fact that Shankaracharya in His Brahma Sutra Bashya expressed the interpretation that Anandamaya Kosha is not Brahman. Now comes the question, where in the Sutra does Shankaracharya actually refute that Anandamaya is not Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Where in the Sutra does He actually provide His arguments against the traditional interpretation of the Sutra&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It turns out that all this information is present in His commentary on Sutra 19 - I.1.19. I am not sure if it is present in the Internet link which you showed me. But in the book that I am looking at, which is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'VEDÂNTA-SUTRAS With the Commentary by SAÑKARÂCHÂRYA Translated by GEORGE THIBAUT'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;it is very clear what Shankaracharya is saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, in reality, the following remarks have to be made concerning the true meaning of&#xA;the word 'ânandamaya[111].' On what grounds, we ask, can it be maintained that the&#xA;affix 'maya' after having, in the series of compounds beginning with annamaya and&#xA;ending with vijńânamaya, denoted mere modifications, should all at once, in the word&#xA;ânandamaya, which belongs to the same series, denote abundance, so that ânandamaya&#xA;would refer to Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and also&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We therefore must conclude that the affix maya, in the word ânandamaya, does not&#xA;denote abundance, but expresses a mere effect, just as it does in the words annamaya&#xA;and the subsequent similar compounds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and also&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as Brahman is the cause, it cannot at the same time be called the member, in the literal sense of the word, of the Self of bliss, which is nothing but one of Brahman's effects. The other Sutras also (which refer to the Self of bliss[114]) are to be considered, as well as they may, as conveying a knowledge of Brahman, which (Brahman) is referred to in the passage about the tail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it were a settled matter that Brahman is denoted by the term, 'the Self consisting of bliss,' then we could assume that in the subsequent passages, where merely the word 'bliss' is employed, the term 'consisting of bliss' is meant to be repeated; but that the Self consisting of bliss is not Brahman, we have already proved by means of the reason of joy being its head, and so on. Hence, as in another scriptural passage, viz. 'Brahman is knowledge and bliss' (Bri. Up. III, 9, 28), the mere word 'bliss' denotes Brahman, we must conclude that also in such passages as, 'If that bliss existed not in the ether,' the word bliss is used with reference to Brahman, and is not meant to repeat the term 'consisting of bliss.' The repetition of the full compound, 'consisting of bliss,' which occurs in the passage, 'He reaches that Self consisting of bliss' (Taitt. Up. II, 8), does not refer to Brahman, as it is contained in the enumeration of Non-Selfs, comprising the Self of food, &amp;amp;c., all of which are mere effects, and all of which are represented as things to be reached.-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is all very heavy stuff. So let me provide what I understood from it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is basically saying that while the repitition of the word 'bliss' would imply that Bliss is Brahman that does not mean that the 'Self consisting of Bliss' denotes it. He is saying that the sentence 'consisting of bliss' implies that the term bliss is in this context an effect of the Self. Thus the Self is above it. If 'Self consisting of bliss' was the Highest Brahman, then the sentence 'consisting of bliss' would be repeated over scripture to denote Brahman. But that is not so, only bliss is repeated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire commentary gives a detailed refutation. However, I do not want to quote everything here. The book is available on Google. All the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-06-04T13:07:16.187" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6566" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5404" CreationDate="2015-02-26T10:05:42.267" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my humble opinion,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavath Gita is a nectarian, wonderful and most miraculously blissful pond of knowledge which guides the suffering to understand basic questions of life, such as :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who am I? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who is God? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the relationship of Almighty God with me? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the purpose in life?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there many Gods or is God one?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How should one act in his life to be achieve the goal of life?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the question,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Can anybody suggest me how to get started with it?&#xA;I know it's a sequence of dialogues between Arjuna and Lord Krishna. Do I've to go through the Mahabharata in order to understand Bhagavad Gita?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not necessary to read mahabharatha to understand the Gita. Gita literally means the song of God. It is sung by the supreme God to all living entities and as such can be read by any person in any walk of life at any point of time without any prior information. However it is very much necessary to read the bhagavad gita &lt;strong&gt;IN PROPER ORDER&lt;/strong&gt;. we cannot skip one chapter or start from a middle chapter. That would be like skipping first grade and studying Quantum physics. Please read in the order in which Srimad Bhagavad Gita has been sung by the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In which language should I read ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many translated versions available in ENGLISH, HINDI. But it is also necessary to understand that anyone who has written the translation must come through specific parampara otherwise the translation is not authentic. (This link might be helpful : bhagavad-gita.org/DiscipleSuccession/)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are a few versions available in English are good/ understandable, websites are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a fantastic source where the explanations given by prominent acharyas in a valid parampara are provided for each verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;www.bhagavad-gita.org/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is another good site, which provides great translations and purports:&#xA;asitis.com&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some  hard copy sellers:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.madhwakart.com/shop/geeta-bhashya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.madhwakart.com/shop/geeta-bhashya/&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flipkart.com/bhagavad-gita/p/itme3dhz4eztwyw5?pid=9789171494375&amp;amp;otracker=from-search&amp;amp;srno=t_1&amp;amp;query=bhagavad+gita&amp;amp;ref=c9533ce6-43b7-479b-9b62-28089eabaaea&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.flipkart.com/bhagavad-gita/p/itme3dhz4eztwyw5?pid=9789171494375&amp;amp;otracker=from-search&amp;amp;srno=t_1&amp;amp;query=bhagavad+gita&amp;amp;ref=c9533ce6-43b7-479b-9b62-28089eabaaea&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion the other Bhagavad gita translations that I've read were not as fulfilling/ understandable as the above two and as such I am quoting the ones I could understand ( The second one even has a supportive word by word sanskrit to english translation, which most others read but I don't) . Also many books have their own philosophy into the translations which completely changes the meaning of the Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How will Bhagavad Gita change my life?I am not too religious but believe in things that makes sense.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Bhagavad Gita is heard (or read) by a &lt;strong&gt;faithful&lt;/strong&gt; person from a Guru &lt;strong&gt;who is self realized&lt;/strong&gt;, then it will be all auspicious for the reader. And one of the main focal points to have while reading is the faith. And believe me, the Bhagavath Gita makes total sense, in a way nothing much else in the world can make sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1224" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-27T09:30:47.900" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T09:30:47.900" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6567" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-26T18:04:28.427" Score="4" ViewCount="193" Body="&lt;p&gt;i am doing a project on Hiddhuism and i am searching for it,but i cannot really understand in what hinduists believe in...Also it would be useful if someone can clarify in what hinduists believe in as far after life is concerned!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2550" LastActivityDate="2015-02-26T19:34:15.940" Title="What exactly Hinduists believe in?" Tags="|teaching|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2015-02-26T19:55:12.107" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6568" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6567" CreationDate="2015-02-26T18:44:27.187" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;These are the main concepts that all Hindus believe in which is traditionally different from what modern philosophy and science seem to suggest:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;1. Rebirth and Reincarnation:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All Hindus believe that under general conditions all souls generally pass through endless rebirth i.e., they are born in the world and die again, then they are born again and again. The cycle ends with Moksha (in most Hindu schools)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna Chapter 4, Verse 3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna said: Many births of Mine and also of yours have passed O Arjuna; I am knowledgeable of all of them but you are not knowing&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;2. The Doctrine of Karma:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All Hindus believe that under general conditions all souls are subject to the law of cause and effect. They believe that all events that occur in lives of humans are a result of deeds that were done in previous lives (or previously in the current life) of their existence. What is done comes back. This is called karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.5-6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as a man is like this or like that, according as he acts and according as he behaves, so will he be: a man of good acts will become good, a man of bad acts, bad. He becomes pure by pure deeds, bad by bad deeds. And here they say that a person consists of desires. And as is his desire, so is his will; and as is his will, so is his deed; and whatever deed he does, that he will reap. And here there is this verse: &amp;quot;To whatever object a man's own mind is attached, to that he goes strenuously together with his deed; and having obtained the end (the last results) of whatever deed he does here on earth, he returns again from that world (which is the temporary reward of his deed) to this world of action. So much for the man who desires.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;3. The existence of Immortal Atma or Soul:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All Hindus believe that this physical existence with body, and in this world, is only temporary. There is a real immortal existence behind all this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is called the Atma. Similarly there is Ultimate Being who is the controller of all. He is God or Brahman. Some say that Atma and Brahman are one. Some say they are different. But everyone believes in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna Chapter 13, Verse 32&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Paramatma is beginningless, immutable, devoid of any material quality O Arjuna; although situated within the body it never does anything nor is it influenced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna 2:20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The soul never takes birth and never dies at any time nor does it come into being again when the body is created. The soul is birthless, eternal, imperishable and timeless and is never destroyed when the body is destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The traditional belief is that to be truly happy, one must reach this Ultimate Soul or Paramatma. There are different techniques to get there. But knowing that the world is temporary and Atma is permanent, knowing that all that happens is based on Karma, and that there have been infinite births before this, will help in getting there for sure!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;After death beliefs&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are four possibilities after death:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Higher birth (born in a Heavenly planet, born as Deva, born in Brahma Loka, etc)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lower birth&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Same birth again&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Moksha (or end of all births)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in Gita Chapter 18, 12:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The results of the three-fold actions characterized as righteous and unrighteous are: undesriable actions lead to lower births (eg animals, etc), desirable actions lead to higher births (eg devas, etc), and mix of both lead to human birth again. These results accrue after the death of the body of those who have not renounced. But never at anytime they accrue for the renunciate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in Gita Chapter 8, 16:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All beings in the lokas (worlds) right from the highest (Brahma Loka) are subject to rebirth. But the one who reaches Me is free from rebirth O Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So basically Sri Krishna is saying that there are many worlds, and souls can be born in any one of those worlds. But the goal is to reach Him, whereby one never dies. This is sometimes believed to be a physical Kingdom of God or a metaphorical one where reaching God means to realize who we really Are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the common beliefs that I can think of among Hindus. Other than this,there may be others that are missed. I am sure other answers will highlight those differences. All the best for your project sir!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-02-26T19:34:15.940" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6569" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4145" CreationDate="2015-02-27T06:04:38.383" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The above answer states that lord RAMA was not capable of killing Ravana without Chanting Aditya hridayam. This interpretation is very much wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama chanted Aditya hrudayam to give the mantra to the universe(people) who want to overcome internal/external enemies/evils. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Rama was not capable to kill ravana without Aditya hrudayam, then it will show impotency of LORD who is sarvashakta(omnipotent). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also FYI, Aditya hrudayam is not mantra on aditya(sun), it is about hrudayam(heart) of aditya(sun) again the lord Narayana(Rama himself).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2553" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T06:04:38.383" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6570" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4064" CreationDate="2015-02-27T06:31:12.670" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Firstly, Lord Vedavyasa wrote Brahmasutra, brahma(supreme) sutra(tool/formula) for understanding of vedas, which needs to be used when deep diving into vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For this &quot;Brahmasutra&quot; there are 22 commentaries. 20 commentary was from Shankaracharya(interpreted as Mayavaada(every thing is illusion) now known as advaita( also it says there is no difference between soul and brahma the supreme power)). 21&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt;  commentary was from Ramanujaacharya whose interpretation of vedas was like(non differential difference) and the 22&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt; commentary (final) was from Acharya Madhwa(who interpreted this as differential difference that means, everything in the universe is different in many manners) , also he is the one who declared that the world/universe(Jagath) is satya(true, not maya illusion). So you can do a research on all three and choose which ever is convenient to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2553" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-27T07:10:20.463" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T07:10:20.463" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6571" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-27T08:29:48.213" Score="6" ViewCount="6408" Body="&lt;p&gt;What happens during Moksha, the end of all deaths? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know already that the higher death is when the soul is reborn in a heavenly place but &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What about Moksha? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What happens and what really Moksha is?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2550" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-02-27T15:43:15.087" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T16:25:56.083" Title="What happens during Moksha?" Tags="|moksha|death|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6572" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6571" CreationDate="2015-02-27T10:26:04.220" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha is also called vimoksha, vimukti and mukti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksh means free, let go, release, liberate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more click the below link&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moksha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Moksh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha-Sanyas Yog&#xA;Moksha in Hinduism and Jainism generally mean the same! In Christianity moksha is termed salvation...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The deeper meaning of moksha in Hinduism simply means liberation of the Atman soul from the cycle of birth and death forever! The moment human beings reached the stage of enlightenment (kaivalya jnana)... one finally gained moksha (salvation) in that lifetime!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cessation of all karma in entirety results from reaching the stage of enlightenment... never before! Traveling the path of jnana yoga... assimilating the pearls of wisdom contained in sacred Bhagavad Gita of Hinduism... human beings finally emancipated forever from the cycle of birth and death... reached the stage of enlightenment (kaivalya jnana) and finally moksha (salvation)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning of moksha as per Hindu traditions means gaining Mukti... liberation from the bondage of karma... from the vicious cycle of birth and death forever! This becomes possible when human beings after establishing absolute control over five senses and mind reached the stage of Nirvikalpa Samadhi... the stage of nothingness... the stage of absolute wisdom!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2554" LastEditorUserId="2554" LastEditDate="2015-02-27T10:41:54.247" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T10:41:54.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6576" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6571" CreationDate="2015-02-27T11:46:15.007" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha is final liberation for an individual soul (jiva) from the cycle of birth and death. What moksha is exactly is defined differently by different philosophical schools of Hinduism, or more properly--Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those that follow the dualistic sects (dvaita), believe that moksha means the soul is liberated from the cycle of birth and death and are united in heaven for eternity with  a Personal God. Some sects believe that Shiva is the ultimate Godhead, others believe that Vishnu is the ultimate Godhead. The soul remains an individual entity for eternity living in peace and bliss with the personal Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those that are qualified non-dualistic (visistadvaita) believe that the soul follows a different outcome in moksha. Professor P. N. Srinivasachari (in &lt;em&gt;The Spiritual Heritage of India&lt;/em&gt;) describes it as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Release is not freedom in embodiment but freedom from embodiment; it refers to the return of the prakara or mukta [released soul] to his home in the absolute. [Ramanuja's absolute, however, is not the Absolute proper--but a personal God.] Mukti [freedom] is beyond the range of materialism and mentalism and involves the intuition of the infinite as well as its attainment. The finite has its roots in the infinite and in mukti there is the coalescence of content without the abolition of existence...The finite remains, but the fetters of finitude and individualism are removed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the soul realizes it is a part of the infinite Godhead, but remains eternally separate from the Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those that follow the other school, the non-dualistic or advaita, believe that when moksha is attained the individual soul merges or dissolves into the Absolute Godhead. The individual soul ceases to exist. It is like a drop of water falling into the ocean. The nature of the advaita Godhead is Pure Consciousness. There is no more awareness of the universe of name and form. The universe ceases; there is only infinite peace, infinite bliss.       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T11:46:15.007" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6577" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-27T12:27:13.167" Score="3" ViewCount="196" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.raghavendramutt.org/about/shri-vijayeendra-teertharu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Vijayeendra Tirtha&lt;/a&gt; (Paramaguru of Sri Raghavendra Tirtha)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Explains through a simple analogy or Upamaanam. Â Mahan Sri Vijayeendra Tirthar jestingly asks: Â &quot;Will a mother willingly and knowingly give poison to her child and, then also give an anti-dote for the poison? The answer is NO. Similarly, would anyone knowingly enter/ jumpÂ into dirt and then clean oneselves up from dirt? The answer is NO. So, why would the Lord create Jivatmas and knowingly put Avidya, Agyanam into them that then makes them think that they are different from the Paramatma which supposedly they are not, Then why would the Lord also give them ways (i.e., study of scriptures, atma vichaara etc. etc.) by sending a messenger, as an anti-dote to overcome this Avidya? Similarly, why would the Jivaatmas enter into dirt knowingly if they were originally unsullied that makes them deluded and, then later study scriptures to realise that they are the same as Brahman??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So definitely Jivatma and Paramatma are totally seperate . Whats your comments?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2324" LastEditorUserId="2324" LastEditDate="2015-02-28T15:12:47.427" LastActivityDate="2015-02-28T15:12:47.427" Title="Jivatma and Paramatma are totally seperate" Tags="|vaishnavism|advaita|brahman|dvaita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2015-02-27T12:35:18.843" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6578" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-27T13:35:11.213" Score="8" ViewCount="1040" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, how the Vedas originated is that from time immemorial, sages known as Dhristas have heard sacred verses directly from the gods during a state of Tapasya (deep meditation).  And then in the Dwapara Yuga, a sage named Krishna Dwaipayana Vedavyasa (or Vyasa for short) compiled these verses into a set of four books we call the Vedas. (Technically Vyasa only compiled the Rig, Yajur, and Sama Veda; the Atharvana Veda was compiled by the sage Atharva and Angiras).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2429/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I compiled information from the Anukramanis (indices) of the Rig Veda, specifying which sage heard each verse from the gods.  As you can see, one who heard most of the hymns in Rig Veda Book 7 is the famous sage Vashishta. (His last name is Maitravaruni because he was reborn as the son of the gods Mitra and Varuna.)  But two of the hymns of Book 7, hymn 101 and hymn 102, are attributed to &quot;Vashishta Maitravaruni or Kumara Agneya.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, who is this Kumara who may have heard Book 7 Hymns 101 and 102 from the gods?  His last name is given as Agneya, or descendant of Agni the fire god, so I think it's possible that it's the god &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartikeya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kartikeya&lt;/a&gt; (AKA Skanda or Muruga).  This may seem strange at first glance, since Kartikeya is the son of Shiva, not Agni.  But if you remember the story of Kartikeya, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga37/bala_37_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, Kartikeya was born from Shiva's fiery seed, which was carried by Agni and then deposited into the Ganga river.  As a result, Agni is often considered as an adopted father of Kartikeya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any scriptures that describe Kartikeya as the seer of two hymns of the Rig Veda?  The hymns themselves don't provide much of a clue; they're just dedicated to Parjanya god of rain:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 7 Hymn 101&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Speak forth three words, the words which light precedeth, which milk this udder that produceth nectar.&#xA;  Quickly made manifest, the Bull hath bellowed, engendering the germ of plants, the Infant.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Giver of growth to plants, the God who ruleth over the waters and all moving creatures,&#xA;  Vouchsafe us triple shelter for our refuge, and threefold light to succour and befriend us.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Now he is sterile, now begetteth offspring, even as he willeth doth he change his figure.&#xA;  The Father's genial flow bedews the Mother; therewith the Sire, therewith the son is nourished.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In him all living creatures have their being, and the three heavens with triply-flowing waters.&#xA;  Three reservoirs that sprinkle down their treasure shed their sweet streams around him with a murmur.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;May this my song to Sovran Lord Parjanya come near unto his heart and give him pleasure.&#xA;  May we obtain the showers that bring enjoyment, and God-protected plants with goodly fruitage.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He is the Bull of all, and their impregner: he holds the life of all things fixed and moving.&#xA;  May this rite save me till my hundredth autumn. Preserve us evermore, ye Gods, with blessings.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07102.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 7 Hymn 102&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;SING forth and laud Parjanya, son of Heaven, who sends the gift of rain&#xA;  May he provide our pasturage.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Parjanya is the God who forms in kine, in mares, in plants of earth,&#xA;  And womankind, the germ of life.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Offer and pour into his mouth oblation rich in savoury juice:&#xA;  May he for ever give us food.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only connection I could find is the fact that the Vishnu Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; Parjanya is the presiding deity of the month of Kartika, when Kartikeya was born.  But are there any scriptures describing Kartikeya worshipping Parjanya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2020-05-24T14:06:45.700" Title="Is Shiva's son Kartikeya the rishi of two hymns of the Rig Veda?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6579" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3956" CreationDate="2015-02-27T14:23:12.890" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Bhagavad Gita meditation &lt;em&gt;may&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; be a substitute for sleep:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter-6 Verse-16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no possibility of one’s becoming a yogī, O Arjuna, if one&#xA;  eats too much or eats too little, sleeps too much or does &lt;strong&gt;not sleep&#xA;  enough&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter-6 Verse-17&lt;/a&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who is regulated in his habits of eating, &lt;strong&gt;sleeping&lt;/strong&gt;, recreation and&#xA;  work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However it should also depends on what level of meditation is being performed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T14:23:12.890" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6580" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6571" CreationDate="2015-02-27T15:31:57.647" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You got it right. Moksha means getting rid of life and death cycle and never to be reborn in any species (yoni) and living forever in heavenly abode. That is the only way one can truely get rid of all the pains and sorrows of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu scriptures describe ways to attain moksha. If you have seen any of 'Ramcharitmanas' or 'Ramayan', there is a character called 'Jatayu' (a bird) who got moksha or mukti from lord Ram because of his supreme sacrifice for good of others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All of this is based on personal experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2555" LastActivityDate="2015-02-27T15:31:57.647" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6582" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-28T04:58:55.593" Score="4" ViewCount="1400" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Taittiriya Upanishad ends with a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15052.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;description&lt;/a&gt; of what happens to souls after they attain Moksha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[H]e sits down singing this Sâman&#xA;  (of Brahman): &quot;Hâvu, hâvu, hâvu! I am food (object), I am food, I am&#xA;  food! I am the eater of food (subject), I am the eater of food, I am&#xA;  the eater of food! I am the poet (who joins the two together), I am&#xA;  the poet, I am the poet! I am the first-born of the Right (rita).&#xA;  Before the Devas I was in the centre of all that is immortal. He who&#xA;  gives me away, he alone preserves me: him who eats food, I eat as&#xA;  food. I overcome the whole world, I, endowed with golden light.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, &lt;em&gt;Saman&lt;/em&gt; is a term generally used to refer to hymns of the Sama Veda, so I asked &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5245/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; to find out where in the Sama Veda this quote from. In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5396/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, I traced it back to verse 594 of the Sama Veda Samhita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ahamasmi prathamajā ṛtasya pūrvaṃ devebhyo amṛtasya nāma |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yo mā dadāti sa idevamāvadahamannamannamadantamadmi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have been created before the creation of devtas and nobody can&#xA;  survive without consuming me. Those who donate me in Yagna etc., I&#xA;  protect them and bestow them with the result of pious deeds [punya].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the Sama Veda is musical, this verse was turned into a Sama Veda song called Purushagati, which is apparently used by the gods to pray to Vishnu, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5443/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about the use of the verse in singing, but rather the origin of the verse itself.  Most verses of the Sama Veda Samhita originate from other Vedas, and I think this verse originated in the Taittiriya Barhamana of the Yajur Veda. Let me explain.  Each of the four Vedas is divided into four parts: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas which consist of verses heard from the gods; Brahmanas, commentaries on the Samhitas which provide instructions for important rituals; Aranyakas, which provide a guide to rituals meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical message of the Vedas. But the Yajur Veda has seem peculiarities in its organization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, the Yajur Veda comes in two versions, the Shukla or &quot;white&quot; version, and the Krishna or &quot;dark&quot; version.  The Shukla Yajur Veda has its own peculiarities, but as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3247/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; the Krishna Yajur Veda is even weirder: its Samhita, known as the Taittiriya Samhita contains not only mantras heard from the gods, as you'd expect a Samhita to have, but also instructions on performing rituals, like a Brahmana would have.  And similarly, the Taittiriya Brahmana also consists of mantra portions and Brahmana portions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now chapter 2.8.8 of the Taittiriya Brahmana is one of the mantra portions of the text, and as you can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/yajurveda/tb-find.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, it begins with the Sama Veda verse I'm interested in:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ahamasmi prathamaja rtasya. piirvam devebhyo amrtasya nabhih. yo ma daddti sa ideva ma' 'vah. ahamannamannamadantamadmi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;purvamagnerapi dahatyannam. yattau&#xA;  ha' 'sate ahamuttaresu. vyattamasya pasavah sujambham.&#xA;  pasyanti dhirah pracaranti pakah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jahamyanyam na jahdmyanyam. ahamannam vasamiccarami. samanamartham paryemi bhunjat. ko mdmannam manusyo dayeta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;parake annarh nihitam loka etat. visvairdevaih pitrbhirguptamannam. yadadyate lupyate yatparopyate. satatami sd tanurme babhuva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mahdntau cam sakrddugdhena paprau. divanca prsni prthivim ca sakam. tatsampibanto na minanti vedhasah.&#xA;  naitadbhuyo bhavati no kaniyah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;annam pranamannamapanamahuh. anharh mrtyurh tamu jivatumahuh. annam brahmano jarasam vadanti.&#xA;  annamahuh prajananam prajanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;moghamannam vindate apracetah. satyam bravimi vadha itsa tasya. ndry'amanam pusyati no sakhdyam. kevalagho bhavati kevaladi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aham meghastanayanvarsannasmi. mdmadantyahamadmyanydn. aham sadamrto bhavdmi. madadityd adhisarve tapanti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See pages 2-5 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cpsindia.org/dl/annam/ABK%20English/Chapter%208.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF&lt;/a&gt; for an English translation of the hymn.  It seems to be about Anna Devata god of food, who talks about how he rewards people who share their food with others and punishes people who eat food without sharing it.  But my question is, who is the sage who heard this hymn from the gods?  Did Anna Devata himself hear it, or did someone else?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Information like who heard what verse of the Vedas from the gods is found in the Anukramanis (indices) of the Vedas.  I compiled Anukramani information for the Rig Veda Samhita in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and I requested the Anukramani for the Shukla Tajur Veda Samhita &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2906/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But does anyone know if the Anukramani information for the Krishna Yajur Veda Samhita, i.e, the Taittiriya Samhita, is available online in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-01-19T12:44:43.893" Title="Who is the seer of the &quot;food hymn&quot; of the Yajur Veda?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|yajur-veda|sama-veda|taittirya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6584" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7125" CreationDate="2015-02-28T10:57:57.187" Score="2" ViewCount="2084" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am searching for authentic Bengali translation of Padma Purana with Sanskrit sources, specifically the portion of Uttar Khand containing Glorification of Srimadvagabad Gita (Chapter 175-192, Part.VIII &amp;amp; IX of N.A.Deshpande's English translation). I have uploaded the relevant portion (English) &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5q8Hf9kt6y4Y043OFd2YVVrUHc/view?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. If Bengali translation is unavailable online then can any linguistic scholar help me by translating it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2560" LastEditorUserId="2560" LastEditDate="2015-03-01T17:37:29.283" LastActivityDate="2015-11-14T16:54:34.880" Title="Is the Bengali translation of Padma Purana available online" Tags="|puranas|translation-request|gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6585" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6584" CreationDate="2015-02-28T13:39:30.460" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apparently &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.oneallah.org/downloads/PadmaPuran.zip&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this ZIP file&lt;/a&gt; contains a Bengali translation of the Padma Purana in PDF format; I can't tell, because I can't read either Bengali or Devanagari script.  Also, the Bhagavad Gita Mahatmya of the Padma Purana is available in Bengali as a physical book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiabbt.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&amp;amp;flypage=flypage.tpl&amp;amp;product_id=417&amp;amp;category_id=7&amp;amp;option=com_virtuemart&amp;amp;Itemid=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2015-02-28T13:39:30.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6586" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-02-28T14:48:00.647" Score="11" ViewCount="1818" Body="&lt;p&gt;The main Yagna (fire-ritual) described in the Vedas is the Soma Yagna, where a drink taken from a plant (whose identity was lost) is offered.  But the Vedas also describe some less important Yagnas, and in the Taittiriya Samhita of the Yajur Veda, the Fourth Prathaka of the Third Khanda describes some Yagnas that are optional.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv03.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is one of the verses chanted during such a Yagna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;iii. 4. 5. a Agni overlord of creatures, may he help me; Indra of powers, Yama of earth, Vayu of the atmosphere, Surya of the sky, Candramas of Naksatras, Brhaspati of holy power, Mitra of truths, Varuna of waters, the ocean of streams, food of lordships overlord, may it help me; Soma of plants, Savitr of instigations, Rudra of cattle, Tvastr of forms, &lt;strong&gt;Visnu of mountains&lt;/strong&gt;, the Maruts of troops overlords, may they help me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of these are understandable, like Surya the Sun god being overlord of the sky, Chandra the Moon god being overlord of stars (as described in the Bhagavad Gita), and Shiva being overlord of cattle (which is why he's called Pashupati).  But my question is, why is Vishnu described as overlord of mountains?  What connection does Vishnu have to mountains in particular?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could this be related to the Rig Veda describing Vishnu as a mountain-roaming bull, which I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3432/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;?  Or could this be related to Venkateshwara (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, AKA Balaji or Srinivasa), who is called the lord of seven hills?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2019-09-19T07:14:47.867" Title="Why does the Yajur Veda call Vishnu overlord of the mountains?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6587" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="774" CreationDate="2015-02-28T17:01:49.190" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Even before mankind, the Vedas existed. Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'aham eva vedya': I know Vedas and mankind knows me from Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas are &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apauru%E1%B9%A3ey%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;'apauruSheya'&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavata says Vedas were there in all yugas. Vedas are to be found by meditating and propagating what is found. It's not prayers. Like how Vishwamitra found the Gayatri and it became known as the Vishwamitra Gayatri (Mantra) and himself became a Rishi for that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vEdaasthe nityavinnathvaachruthayaashaakhilai: shrutE: |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Amnaaya anyathaapaataadheesha bhudhisthita sada ||- Iti varahe &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This smrithi says that Vedas existed all the time and were not written by any single person or by a collection of people. They have always existed in the mind of Lord all the time! So Vedas are as ancient as God. They were not created by God and they just existed with him. That's why Krishna says Vedas are by which you can know me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2324" LastEditorUserId="2324" LastEditDate="2018-10-04T08:36:36.703" LastActivityDate="2018-10-04T08:36:36.703" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6589" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-01T11:02:51.030" Score="1" ViewCount="779" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are different duration for the major 4 yuga (Sat, Tretaa, Dvaapara, Kali) found in internet. With recent (one of the) study it is believed that Ramayana happend 7k years back and Mahabharata 5k years back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the internet sites suggest lacs(100k) of years for various yugas, but that's not convincing with above study and also sidelines the theory of human evolution, ice age etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any logical clarification on that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T15:27:02.630" LastActivityDate="2015-03-04T15:27:02.630" Title="What is the correct duration of every yuga?" Tags="|scripture|yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-12-12T07:03:04.077" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6591" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5373" CreationDate="2015-03-01T17:51:38.050" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, donation is a good karma. In fact donation or charity is the primary virtue of this age of kali:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tapaḥ paraṃ kṛtayuge tretāyāṃ jñānaṃ ucyate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dvāpare yajñaṃ evāhurdānaṃ ekaṃ kalau yuge&lt;/em&gt; [Manu - 1.86]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Austerity is the supreme virtue in the age of Satya and &lt;em&gt;jnana&lt;/em&gt; (knowledge) is said to be supreme in Tretaya. Yajna is supreme in the age of Dwapara and &lt;em&gt;dana&lt;/em&gt; alone  in the Kali age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But even if donation by default is a good karma and awards &lt;em&gt;punya&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;strong&gt;result of donation actually depends upon the cause for which the money is donated&lt;/strong&gt;. For example, someone may donate money without expecting anything in return to support a party or organisation which does bad works or harms others with that money. Then by the law of karma one will get the corresponding negative effects instead of acquiring merit. So &lt;strong&gt;it is the responsibility of the donor to see whether he is donating to the &lt;em&gt;right person&lt;/em&gt; or organisation and whether his &lt;em&gt;intentions&lt;/em&gt; for donating are also good&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, depending upon these &lt;em&gt;dana&lt;/em&gt; becomes of three kinds which Shri Krishna explains as below in the Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Satvic Dana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (when done to right person without expecting anything, gives no results)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Charity given out of duty, without expectation of return, at the proper time and place, and to a worthy person is considered to be in the mode of goodness. [BG - 17.20]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rajasic Dana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (when done to right person with expectations of return, &lt;em&gt;punya&lt;/em&gt;, etc. )   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But charity performed with the expectation of some return, or with a desire for fruitive results, or in a grudging mood is said to be charity in the mode of passion. [BG - 17.21]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Tamasic Dana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (when done to wrong person in wrong way, can give negative results)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And charity performed at an impure place, at an improper time, to unworthy persons, or without proper attention and respect is said to be in the mode of ignorance. [BG - 17.22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Kali Yuga however people are very much greedy and don't donate or donate very little. So even if donation is done to a wrong person unknowingly, this act of donation certainly does something good for the donor and at the least makes him a little free from greediness. Hence, saint Tulsidas writes in the Ramcharit Manas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रगट चारि पद धर्म के कलि महुँ एक प्रधान।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जेन केन बिधि दीन्हें दान करइ कल्यान।। [RCM - 7.103]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There are four legs of &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;satya, daya, tapa, dana&lt;/em&gt;), and in Kali one is the chief. Donation done in whatever way and in whatever form always causes benefit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Update&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Satvic Dana&lt;/em&gt; is that which is done from a sense of duty (&lt;em&gt;dātavyam iti yad dānaṁ&lt;/em&gt;) without expectations hence it becomes &lt;em&gt;karma yoga&lt;/em&gt; and doesn't bind the person with &lt;em&gt;papa&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;punya&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-07T04:52:48.213" LastActivityDate="2017-11-07T04:52:48.213" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6592" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6589" CreationDate="2015-03-02T05:36:00.053" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Astrology and DoomsDay&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Time between Sunrise to another sunrise is known as Savan DAY. Time taken by sun to complete one degree of zodiac is known as &lt;code&gt;solar day- saur dina&lt;/code&gt;. Time taken between one star rise to another is known as &lt;code&gt;Nakshatra dina&lt;/code&gt;. Time taken to complete one tithi is known as &lt;code&gt;Lunar day-Chandra dina&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So ,when will be the dooms day? According to &lt;strong&gt;Jyotish Shastra&lt;/strong&gt; ,  a day is a &lt;code&gt;savan day&lt;/code&gt;. There are 365/15/30/22/30 days in a solar year. A savan year is 360 days only. Such 360 days constitute one day for the &lt;code&gt;Devatas in Swarga&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;hence 360X360=1 Devamana Year;&#xA;1000 such devmana years is the span of kaliyuga;&#xA;2000 years (devamana) is Dwapara yuga;&#xA;3000 years make              Tretayuga ;&#xA;4000 years make               Kritayuga;&#xA;each yuga has a sandhi period.As one yuga ends abrubtly another yuga does not take&#xA;over .&#xA;There is smooth transition of yuga effects from one to another through transition&#xA;period(sandhi) of 1/10 th of each yuga. ie kaliyuga is preceded and succeded by&#xA;1/10th of 1000 years ie 100 years before and after kaliyuga. similarly dwapar is                        &#xA;preceded by 200 years etc.&#xA;&#xA;kritayuga is  4800 years = 4800X360 =1728000 human years.&#xA;Tretayuga is 3600 years = 3600X360 =1296000 human years.&#xA;Dwapara  is  2400years = 2400X360 =  864000 human years.&#xA;Kaliyuga   is  1200 years = 1200X360 = 432000 human years.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;One Mahayuga is the cycle of four yugas 12000X360 = 4320000 human years .&#xA;1000 + 1000 mahayugas equals a day and a night for Bramha in BramhaLoka.&#xA;There are 14 Manus in one Bramha day .&#xA;Each Manu lives for  308571428.57142857142857142857143 human years. This is known as &#xA;Manvantara. There is a mini pralaya ( involving Swarga bhuvarloka and Bhuloka-  &#xA;BhurBhuvaSwa) in 308571428 . 57142857142857142857143 years .&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This pralaya can be called as doomsday for humans on earth and heaven. But this is not the dooms day for the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Universe ends after BRAMHA COMPLETES 100 YEARS . ie&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;2000X 4320000X360 X100 = 311040000000000 human years .&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;of which BRAMHA has completed 50 years , in his fifty first year he is in his first day , completed 13 ghatikas ,42 palas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;we have still half way to go for a dooms day. In his morning of next half , we have completed 6 Manvantaras&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;This is seventh VAIVASVATA MANVANTARA .OF SEVENTY ONE MAHAYUGAS WE HAVE COMPLETED&#xA;TWENTY SEVEN MAHAYUGAS AND IN TWENTYEIGTH , WE HAVE FINISHED KRITA-TRETA-DWAPARA AND&#xA;IN KALIYUGA WE HAVE COMPLETED 5109 YEARS OUT OF 432000 YEARS. WE STILL HAVE 426891&#xA;YEARS TO GO BEFORE THIS KALIYUGA ENDS&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="340" LastEditorUserId="340" LastEditDate="2015-03-02T12:20:54.010" LastActivityDate="2015-03-02T12:20:54.010" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6593" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-02T07:22:39.413" Score="4" ViewCount="419" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas are called shruti. But they are seen by Rishis, called DrushTAras. Since the Rishis saw the Vedas in some form, then Vedas should be called Drushya instead of shruti. Or the Rishis have to be called ShrOtRu. Why is not that usage in vogue?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="340" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-02-13T08:12:41.697" LastActivityDate="2018-05-31T09:05:51.070" Title="Why are Vedas not called Drushya rather than Shruti?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6594" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-02T08:22:51.533" Score="4" ViewCount="747" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read a book on Krishna written by K.M. Munshi called &quot;KRISHNAVATAR&quot; in which author wrote that, Satyabhama's father had a parasmani(Gold Stone), and with proper pooja of that stone turn anything into gold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am sure that, the Mani was not destroyed. So does anybody know where is that Mani now?  I also heard from lore that, that Mani way curse object. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T03:33:46.677" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T03:33:46.677" Title="Where is the Parsamani(Gold Stone) which Satyabhama's father had?" Tags="|krishna|satyabhama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6595" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-02T10:32:32.977" Score="12" ViewCount="4357" Body="&lt;p&gt;King Hiranyakashipu tried many ways to kill his son Prahlada. Holika was his sister with a boon that a fire can not burn/harm her. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To kill Prahlada in fire, Hiranyakashipu asked her sister's help. She suggested that she will sit in fire with Prahlada in her lap, so this way the fire will burn the Prahlada. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when the fire was finished, Holika was burned into fire while nothing has happened to Prahlada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, My question is Why Holika got burned in fire even when she was having a boon not to get burned in the fire? In other words why the boon didn't work?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EFgIz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Image of Prahlada sitting in the lap of Holika in fire.&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/363/467&quot;&gt;Topic of this week is holi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-26T10:07:44.953" LastActivityDate="2019-03-15T11:06:06.707" Title="Why Holika died inside fire, in spite of a boon?" Tags="|festivals|boon|prahlada|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6596" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-03-02T10:36:52.087" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-03-02T10:36:52.087" LastActivityDate="2015-03-02T10:36:52.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6597" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-03-02T10:36:52.087" Score="0" Body="Holika (Sanskrit: होलिका) was the sister of King Hiranyakashipu and aunt of Prahlad, and was burnt to death with help of God Vishnu." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-02T13:26:15.717" LastActivityDate="2015-03-02T13:26:15.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6598" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4022" CreationDate="2015-03-02T10:42:38.977" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The only way to say that somebody is an avataara of somebody, is through &lt;strong&gt;Agama pramANa&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;If it is not supported by Agama pramANa, it is just blind belief - be it in case of Sri Krishna being Vishnu's avatara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are conflicting pramanas even for the ones that we accept. But that does not mean we resort to blind belief&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Instead, we should resort to thorough analysis i.e. determine the relative strength of contradicting pramanas, and arrive at the correct tenet. For example, consider the tenet that Bhimasena  is a vAyu-avataara.  If one line in Mahabharata says that he is vAyu's avatAra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vAyur bhImo bhImanAdo&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in another verse, bhIma says that he will win against jImuuta by the prasAda of mahAdeva (Rudra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So do we give more importance to the first pramANa and say that the mahAdeva actually refers to Vishnu by yaugikaartha OR do we give more importance to the second pramANa and hold that Bhima is not vAyu's avatAra (or that vAyu is inferior to rudra)? .This kind of analysis is inevitable, especially for those who are not satisfied with just assertions from scholars, swamijis etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="340" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-10T16:09:27.720" LastActivityDate="2018-04-10T16:09:27.720" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6599" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5354" CreationDate="2015-03-02T12:39:28.877" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is one world &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatvas#J.C3.B1.C4.81nendriya_-_5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tatva&lt;/a&gt; (base) please remember it. when person have basic knowledge of anything its called Tatva Gyan (Elementary knowledge). Which is become the principal knowledge. Like in science whatever you see are made from pure or compound of Elements; Elements are made of Particles Electron, Neutron and proton; hence whatever you see are made from Electron, proton and Neutron. (refer: periodic chart). Similarly for the Human they are do all karma. All Karma are done by three things; Mind, Body and Speech. Body do acts(karma) by 5 Gyanendriyas (organs of knowledge) and 5 Karmendriyas(organs of senses).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is require to understand mind, beyond being mind. Mind have five states. These are 5 states of consciousness in human forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Jagruti - Waking&#xA;Swapna - Dreaming&#xA;Sushupti - Deep Sleep (slumber)&#xA;Turiya - Underlying state in all the above states&#xA;Unmani or Turyateeta - State of enlightened beings where the cosmos is experienced as oneness.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when mind is working its jagruti, when we are sleeping their are two possibilities, one either deep sleep when we have no thoughts, that give rest to mind like body have rest without it working, Turiya is stage when Consciousness of mind is become more higher. Dhyan (Meditation) is stage when the mind is in jagruti(alive, awaken) but which is not thinking. Like we awaken but in rest our body is not making movement, the Consciousness is possible, when mind is awaken but its not thinking on anything which give great rest to the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) Who goes for sleeping?&#xA;As per above answer you understand that sleeping is one of the five stage of consciousness of mind. sleeping is our mind is not working and no thoughts, dream is different stage of mind. No thoughts in mind is the deep sleep stage of the consciousness, and we feel rest of mind on second day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) On which sleeping is depended?&#xA;Mind; It is said &lt;em&gt;Man hi karta Man hi Bhokta&lt;/em&gt;, means Everything is done by mind, and Mind what feel. Like science whatever we see, smell, taste are determined by mind, mind is what make you feel, same way in Spirituality too, Mind is what feel each and everything. All Sences organs are different but the karma of them is feel by mind. so whatever you see, feel, taste, hear, speak is what the mind is doing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(3) What does it means?&#xA;God has made us and given lots grace, if there was no sleeping, people could never rest in their life. All things appear is Maya(illusion). So by giving Nindra(sleep) we thanks to divine. Like we can thanks for water, rain, air, Human body. We thanks to divine and feel grace, that they give it to us. If you have bulb in your house and you think about the Edison, and think if there was not invented you immediate feel grace (thankfulness) to him, like we thanks for giving Nindra(sleeping) so we can feel rest of mind and freshness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(4) Where does our body gets charged during sleep?&#xA;The Mind, If we run for 1 km or work for whole day we feel so much tired, and we feel to give rest to the body right, same way sleep is the consciousness of mind which give us the Rest. Meditation is the process which learn that in awaken (Jagruti) stage, we have to give rest to our mind, by not thinking on miscellaneous things. This is possible by the Meditation. The practice of which make you capable to avoid unnecessary thinking possible, and to give rest to mind by not thinking on anything. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The senses and Body can be rest even we are not sleeping, just sit in rest that's it. Jivatma is always witness of everything. and All what we acts are only mind, Hence all Karmendriyas(organs of action) and Gyanendriyas(organs of sense) are ultimately feel by mind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2568" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-02T12:52:09.630" LastActivityDate="2015-03-02T12:52:09.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6547" CreationDate="2015-03-03T06:56:08.063" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tiger kills deer for food. Same way snake kills rat for food. They mostly never kill the prey for fun. I have heard the stories, where even if anyone go near to tiger without disturbing it, when its stomach is full, it would not attack them. Whole ecosystem is created and balanced by different types of creatures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As long as tiger kills deer for basic survival, then it is NOT a sin. Same way if human kills plant for basic survival  it is not Not sin. But if he kills unnecessarily for fun or just to show of power, then it is sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me answer to your questions,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;// Is this means 8,400,000 yonis created simultaneously at one time?&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8,400,000 are different type of species, not number of yonis.Each species have unknown number of yonis.&#xA;Soul can get incarnated in any of these species based on its karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;// Is this karma apply's to all yoni (life-forms)?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only abode Lord vishnu is free of karma. All other lokas people do karma. That's how souls do migrate between lokas. But in some lokas, soul can live long long duration, before taking next lifeform.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;//Like, Is a soul of tiger will take birth as tiger only or lower yoni to mete its previous karma (by killing a animal for sake of food)? Or will it gain a upper yoni of the evolutionary process?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do you think, if tiger cannot accrue karma, it can climb up evolutionary ladder?&#xA;Have you heard about story about a dog, which became sun god vivasvan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;//Is there any possibility of miss one yoni(Life -form) of evolutionary process and go upward or downward? Specially, is this happens in human form goes to downwards yoni(Life-form)?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moving up and down in the spiritual ladder is very common. Some people do pious work in order to attain spiritual realms, but after gaining that, they becomes egotists, neglect god and descend back to lower realms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Attaining moksa or higher realm is possible even in lower forms. But it is easiest in human form than in animal form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of examples of animals attaining higher realms are due to them having non-animal instincts due to their previous lifes .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Ex: In Gajendra moksa - he could completely remember his past lives and could able to recite Hari kirtana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharata chakravarti could able to remember his past lifes while in the form of deer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-03T07:54:25.307" LastActivityDate="2015-03-03T07:54:25.307" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6603" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-03T10:57:48.527" Score="7" ViewCount="6407" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagwat gita Chapter 1, verses. 3 to 9.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pashyaitaam paanduputraanaam aachaarya mahateem chamoom;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vyoodhaam drupadaputrena tava shishyena dheemataa.3.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Behold, O Teacher, this mighty army of the sons of Pandu, arraged by the son of&#xA;  Drupada, thy wise disciple!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atra shooraa maheshwaasaa bheemaarjunasamaa yudhi;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yuyudhaano viraatashcha drupadashcha mahaarathah.4.&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Here are heroes, mighty archers, equal in battle to Bhima and Arjuna, Yuyudhana,&#xA;  Virata and Drupada, of the great car (mighty warriors).   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dhrishtaketush chekitaanah kaashiraajashcha veeryavaan;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Purujit kuntibhojashcha shaibyashcha narapungavah.5.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Drishtaketu, Chekitana and the valiant king of Kasi, Purujit, and Kuntibhoja and Saibya,&#xA;  the best of men,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yudhaamanyushcha vikraanta uttamaujaashcha veeryavaan;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Saubhadro draupadeyaashcha sarva eva mahaarathaah.6.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The strong Yudhamanyu and the brave Uttamaujas, the son of Subhadra (Abhimanyu,&#xA;  the son of Arjuna), and the sons of Draupadi, all of great chariots (great heroes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Asmaakam tu vishishtaa ye taan nibodha dwijottama;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Naayakaah mama sainyasya samjnaartham taan braveemi te.7.&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Know also, O best among the twice-born, the names of those who are the most&#xA;  distinguished amongst ourselves, the leaders of my army! These I name to thee for thy information.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhavaan bheeshmashcha karnashcha kripashcha samitinjayah;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ashwatthaamaa vikarnashcha saumadattis tathaiva cha.8.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Thyself and Bhishma, and Karna and Kripa, the victorious in war; Asvatthama, Vikarna,&#xA;  and Jayadratha, the son of Somadatta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anye cha bahavah shooraa madarthe tyaktajeevitaah;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Naanaashastrapraharanaah sarve yuddhavishaaradaah.9.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“And also many other heroes who have given up their lives for my sake, armed with&#xA;  various weapons and missiles, all well skilled in battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In above verses, King Duryodhana went to his teacher(Dhronacharya) and began to speak the following words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;O my teacher, behold the great army of &lt;strong&gt;the sons of Pandu&lt;/strong&gt;, so expertly arranged by your intelligent disciple, the son of Drupada(&lt;strong&gt;Dhrishtadumnya&lt;/strong&gt;). Here in this army there are many heroic bowmen equal in fighting to &lt;strong&gt;Bhima&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna&lt;/strong&gt;; there are also great fighters like &lt;strong&gt;Yuyudhana, Virata  and Drupada&lt;/strong&gt;. There are also great, heroic, powerful fighters like &lt;strong&gt;Dhristaketu, Cekitana, Kasiraja, Purujit, Kuntibhoja and Saibya.&lt;/strong&gt; There are the mighty &lt;strong&gt;Yudhamanyu&lt;/strong&gt;, the very powerful &lt;strong&gt;Uttamauja&lt;/strong&gt;, the son of Subhadra (&lt;strong&gt;Abhimanyu&lt;/strong&gt;) and &lt;strong&gt;the sons of Draupadi&lt;/strong&gt;. All these warriors are great chariot fighters. O best of the brahmanas, for your information, let me tell you about the captains who are especially qualified to lead my military force. There are personalities like yourself(&lt;strong&gt;Dhronacharya), Bhisma, Karna, Kripa, Asvatthama, Vikarna&lt;/strong&gt; and the son of Somadatta called &lt;strong&gt;Bhurisrava&lt;/strong&gt;, who are always victorious in battle. There are many other heroes who are prepared to lay down their lives for my sake. All of them are well equipped with different kinds of weapons, and all are experienced in military science.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What was the purpose of Duryodhana to mention these specific warrior names in above verses?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of above mentioned warriors in Mahabharata war? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As I know about how Dhrishtadumnya, Virata, Drupada, Kasiraja, Kuntibhoja, Dhronacharya, Karna, Kripa, Asvatthama, Vikarna, Dhristaketu,and Yuyudhana related to &lt;strong&gt;KURU's&lt;/strong&gt; but I want to know about the relation of kurus with Cekitana, Purujit, Saibya, Yudhamanyu, Uttamauja and Bhurisrava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How did they related to Kurus?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As all of you might know that the Bhagwat gita is the conversations in between Lord Krishna and Arjuna. Where Lord krishna is giving the knowledge of Karma to Arjuna then,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What was the need to include above names in the Bhagwat Gita chapter-1? Is lord wants to give any kind of message from this?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-08T14:25:40.973" LastActivityDate="2018-01-06T13:56:24.367" Title="Why did Duryodhana mention specific warrior names in the Bhagwat Gita, Chapter-1?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavad-gita|pandavas|kauravas|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6604" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6609" CreationDate="2015-03-03T11:25:06.180" Score="17" ViewCount="6375" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that there were some people who changed sides from the Pandavas' army to the Kauravas' army and vice versa during or just before the battle. Can anyone please name all such people and also the reason for the change?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-09T15:11:52.053" LastActivityDate="2016-05-29T15:33:59.757" Title="Who all changed sides in the Mahabharata battle?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|kauravas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6605" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-03-03T11:32:42.157" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-03-03T11:32:42.157" LastActivityDate="2015-03-03T11:32:42.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6606" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-03-03T11:32:42.157" Score="0" Body="Sraddha  (Sanskrit: श्राद्ध) is the ritual that one performs to pay homage to one’s 'ancestors', especially to one’s dead parents." OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-03T12:58:45.407" LastActivityDate="2015-03-03T12:58:45.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6607" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6547" CreationDate="2015-03-03T13:55:15.423" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Non-human forms don't have freedom of choice as their are slaves of their gross as well as subtle senses. These forms are given to &quot;burn&quot; your karma, either by getting pleasure or sufferings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why the Vedas are insisting on the importance of using this human body to search for the Absolute Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;athato brahma jijnasa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Now one should inquire about Brahman&quot; (Vedanta-sutra 1.1.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You get a new body according to 2 things: your past deeds (karma, which means literally &quot;action&quot;) and your last desire just before leaving your actual body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of these two things, you will have to live through different pleasures and suffering. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for the later, you may consume a part of your &quot;bad&quot; karma in what we may call &quot;Hell&quot;, then take birth on some lower (&quot;infernal&quot;) planetary system, and finally, by taking birth as a lower form of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2570" LastActivityDate="2015-03-03T13:55:15.423" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6608" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-03T17:45:06.197" Score="15" ViewCount="6120" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous stories of Vishnu is the Gajendra Moksham episode, described the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Eighth Skanda&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.  For those who don't know, once a king named Indradyumna, who was a great devotee of Vishnu, was cursed to be born as an elephant named Gajendra.  Gajendra's leg was once caught by a crocodile (originally a Gandharva king Huhu but was suffering under a similar curse).  So Gajendra, remembering the greatness of Vishnu from his time as a human, started praying to him for help.  So Vishnu came riding on Garuda, killing the crocodile with his Sudarshana Chakra and granting Moksha to his elephant devotee Gajendra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/x8HFK.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about the story of Gajendra, but rather about the one who saved him.  Strictly speaking, it was not Vishnu himself who saved Gajendra, but rather Vishnu's incarnation Hari, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O King, in the Tāmasa manvantara the sons of Vidhṛti, who were known as the Vaidhṛtis, also became demigods. Since in course of time the Vedic authority was lost, these demigods, by their own powers, protected the Vedic authority. Also in this manvantara, &lt;strong&gt;the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, took birth from the womb of Hariṇī, the wife of Harimedhā, and He was known as Hari. Hari saved His devotee Gajendra, the King of the elephants, from the mouth of a crocodile.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what is the story of Vishnu's incarnation Hari?  First of all, who are Harimedha and Harini?  And what else happened in his life besides rescuing Gajendra? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know that Hari rode on Vishnu's bird Garuda, although that's not so unusual since Krishna also rode Garuda, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3552/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  (Rama didn't ride Garuda, but he did meet him; see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2348/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another piece of information is that Hari apparently had the ability to travel to Vishnu's abode of Vaikuntha; the Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/4/13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; him taking Gajendra.  But do we know anything else about him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that this Hari is different from Vishnu's other incarnation Hari, brother of Vishnu's incarnations Nara and Narayana, whom I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3936/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="18974" LastEditDate="2020-07-14T06:55:29.740" LastActivityDate="2020-07-14T06:55:29.740" Title="What is the story of Vishnu's incarnation Hari, who rescued the elephant Gajendra?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|avatars|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6609" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6604" CreationDate="2015-03-03T19:39:40.463" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can think of three people who switched sides right before the war: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yuyutsu:&lt;/strong&gt; He was the son of Dhritarashtra and a Vaishya woman.  As I discuss in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3282/36&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt; about the birth of the Kauravas, Gandhari was pregnant with the hundred Kauravas for two years.  Dhritarashtra was worried that Gandhari would never give birth, so as a precaution he decided to have a son with a Vaishya women, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01116.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, Yuyutsu felt that his brother Duryodhana's actions were wrong, and that the Pandava side was righteous.  So in the beginning of the battle, when Yudhishthira proclaimed that anyone who wanted to could join the Pandava side, Yuyutsu decided to join, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then amid all the warriors the eldest son of Pandu, loudly exclaimed,--He who will choose us, him we shall choose for our ally!--Casting his eyes then upon them, Yuyutsu said these words, with a cheerful heart, unto Kunti's son king Yudhishthira the Just,--I will fight under thee in battle, for the sake of you all, with the sons of Dhritarashtra, if, O king, thou wilt accept me, sinless one.'  Yudhishthira said, 'Come, come, all of us will fight with thy foolish brothers. O Yuyutsu, both Vasudeva and we all say to thee--I accept thee, O thou of mighty arms, fight for my cause. On thee rests, it seems, the thread of Dhritarashtra's line as also his funeral cake. O prince, O thou of great splendour, accept us that accept thee. The wrathful Duryodhana of wicked understanding will cease to live.'  ... Yuvutsu then, abandoning the Kurus thy sons, went over to the army of the Pandavas, with beat of drums and cymbals. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Yuyutsu survived the war, and when the Pandavas gave the throne of Hastinapura to Arjuna's grandson Parikshit, Yuyutsu served as one of Parikshit's two regents, governing the kingdom in Parikshit's name since Parikshit was too young.  (The other regent was Parikshit's grandmother Subhadra, wife of Arjuna and sister of Krishna.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satyaki:&lt;/strong&gt;. He was a valiant Yadava warrior and relative of Krishna.  As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, Duryodhana and Arjuna both approached Krishna and asked for the help of him and his army in the upcoming war.  Krishna gave them each a choice as to whether they wanted him or the Yadava army.  Arjuna chose Krishna, and Duryodhana got the help of the Yadava army.  So that meant Satyaki was pledged to the Kaurava side, but he still chose to fight for the Pandavas, because he was so passionate about their cause, as described in a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05081.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satyaki said, 'The high-souled Sahadeva, O thou of mighty arms, hath spoken the truth. The rage I feel towards Duryodhana can be appeased only by his death. Dost thou not remember the rage thou too hadst felt upon beholding in the woods the distressed Pandavas clad in rags and deer-skins? Therefore, O foremost of men, all the warriors assembled here unanimously subscribe to what the heroic son of Madri, fierce in battle, hath said!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satyaki survived the war, but was ultimately killed when the Yadavas killed each other, which I describe in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2939/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shalya:&lt;/strong&gt; He was the king of Madra and brother of Pandu's wife Madri, so naturally he wanted to fight on the Pandava side.  But when Shalya and his army came, they were greeted by Duryodhana's men, who provided them with food, lodging, and entertainment.  Shalya assumed that Yudhisthira was responsible for all this, so he wanted to reward him for the hospitality.  But then he found out that Duryodhana was the one responsible, so he was forced out of a sense of honor to reward Duryodhana, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And when Salya was exceedingly pleased and ready to grant even his life, Duryodhana, who had remained concealed, came forward and showed himself to his maternal uncle. And the kind of the Madras saw him and understood that it was Duryodhana who had taken all the trouble to receive him. And Salya embraced Duryodhana and said, 'Accept something that you may desire.'  Duryodhana thereupon said, 'O thou auspicious one, let thy word be true, grant me a boon. I ask thee to be the leader of all my army.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shalya was tricked into fighting on the Kaurava side, despite his love for the Pandavas.  In the course of the war, he killed Abhimanyu's brother-in-law Uttara (as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3059/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;), served as charioteer of Karna, and finally became the general of the Kaurava side after Karna died.  Ultimately Yudishthira was forced to kill Shalya, which must have been an agonizing decision.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's important to note that even while fighting for the Kaurava side, Shalya still supported the Pandavas, and while driving Karna's chariot he tried to demoralize Karna as much as possible.  Shalya was fundamentally a good person put into a terrible situation, forced to fight his own nephews even though he knew their cause was just.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-05-29T15:33:59.757" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6610" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6621" CreationDate="2015-03-03T21:49:12.637" Score="15" ViewCount="6119" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does any one know what this(Shakti Visishtadvaita) philosophy is all about? I know what are dvaita, advaita philosophies but this is new one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2332" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-12T18:16:13.993" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T15:19:40.930" Title="What is Shakti Visishtadvaita philosophy?" Tags="|shiva|philosophy|vedanta|shaivism|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6611" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-04T03:09:16.107" Score="11" ViewCount="36890" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tasya sanjanayan harsham kuruvriddhah pitaamahah;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Simhanaadam vinadyocchaih shankham dadhmau prataapavaan. 12.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;His glorious grandsire (Bhishma), the eldest of the Kauravas, in order to cheer Duryodhana, now roared like a lion and blew his conch. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tatah shankhaashcha bheryashcha panavaanakagomukhaah;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sahasaivaabhyahanyanta sa shabdastumulo’bhavat. 13.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then (following Bhishma), conches and kettle-drums, tabors, drums and cow-horns blared forth quite suddenly (from the side of the Kauravas); and the sound was tremendous. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tatah shvetair hayair yukte mahati syandane sthitau;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Maadhavah paandavashchaiva divyau shankhau pradadhmatuh. 14.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then also, Madhava (Krishna), and the son of Pandu (Arjuna), seated in their magnificent chariot yoked with white horses, blew their divine conches.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Paanchajanyam hrisheekesho devadattam dhananjayah;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Paundram dadhmau mahaashankham bheemakarmaa vrikodarah. 15.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hrishikesa blew the “Panchajanya” and Arjuna blew the “Devadatta”, and Bhima, the doer of terrible deeds, blew the great conch, “Paundra”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anantavijayam raajaa kunteeputro yudhishthirah;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Nakulah sahadevashcha sughoshamanipushpakau. 16.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira, the son of Kunti, blew the “Anantavijaya”; and Sahadeva and Nakula blew the “Manipushpaka” and “Sughosha” conches.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kaashyashcha parameshwaasah shikhandee cha mahaarathah;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Dhrishtadyumno viraatashcha saatyakishchaaparaajitah. 17.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The king of Kasi, an excellent archer, Sikhandi, the mighty car-warrior, Dhristadyumna and Virata and Satyaki, the unconquered, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Drupado draupadeyaashcha sarvashah prithiveepate;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Saubhadrashcha mahaabaahuh shankhaan dadhmuh prithak prithak.18.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Drupada and the sons of Draupadi, O Lord of the Earth, and the son of Subhadra, the mighty-armed, all blew their respective conches!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagwat gita chapter -1, verses 12 to 18, most of all (above mentioned fighters name) blew (to sound) their transcendental conch-shells (shankas) start of the Kurukshetra war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What was the significance of blowing (sounding of) the transcendental conch-shells by respective warriors? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-10T06:21:58.860" LastActivityDate="2018-12-04T19:29:17.847" Title="What was the significance of blowing (sounding of) the transcendental conch-shells in the Kurukshetra war?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavad-gita|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6612" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6634" CreationDate="2015-03-04T05:10:18.923" Score="11" ViewCount="798" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna has told Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna on the first day of Bhishma Parva at Kurukshetra (before starting the war). And Karna was not present in Bhishma Parva as Karna had taken an oath not to fight till Bhishma is alive and acting as the Chief General of the Kaurava army. But Karna was explicitly mentioned by Duryodhana in the below verse from the Bhagavad-Gita Upa-parva of Bhishma Parva (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-1-8/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG  1.8&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhavaan bheeshmashcha karnashcha kripashcha samitinjayah;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ashwatthaamaa vikarnashcha saumadattis tathaiva cha.8.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Thyself(Dhronacharya) and Bhishma, and Karna and Kripa, the victorious in war; Asvatthama, Vikarna and Jayadratha, the son of Somadatta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this mean Karna was present in the battlefield during Bhishma Parva and while Bhishma was still the acting General but he wasn't just involved in the war? If not, then why did Duryodhana mention Karna's name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-02T02:12:58.723" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T02:12:58.723" Title="Was Karna in the Bhishma parva?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavad-gita|karna|bhishma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6613" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-04T11:09:05.717" Score="4" ViewCount="470" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;Giridhara&quot; literally means Holder of the Mountain. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Shri Krishna wanted to break the ego of Indra, Shri Krishna lifted Govardhan mountain on his finger. After this He was given the name Giridhara - the one who holds a mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selaginella_bryopteris&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;, when Ravana's son Indrajit hurls a powerful weapon at Lakshmana, Lakshmana is badly wounded and is nearly killed by Indrajit. Hanuman was called upon to fetch &lt;em&gt;Sanjivani buti&lt;/em&gt; from Himalayas. After reaching the mountain, &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman unable to identify the herb lifted the entire Dronagiri mountain and brought it to the battlefield. Hanumaan too lifted the mountain Dronagiri.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Krishna lifted mountain Govardhana, He is called GiriDhara. &lt;strong&gt;But why is not Hanumaan called GiriDhara? Or are there any references calling Him GiriDhara- Holder of Mountain?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-11-13T17:47:58.097" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T17:47:58.097" Title="Any scriptural references of Hanuman being known as Giridhara- Upholder of Mountain?" Tags="|krishna|ramayana|hanuman|name|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6617" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3856" CreationDate="2015-03-04T14:47:28.870" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. but it is depend on which &lt;strong&gt;SVAROOP&lt;/strong&gt; of god you're doing worship to and based on this you can also change your whole nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, is one example of my friend which i show. He was some what more emotional then other as for such simple thing he not speak with us until we said sorry to him. one of older friend of us told him to worship shiv &lt;strong&gt;RUDRA SVAROOP&lt;/strong&gt; just for POOJA not intention for this emotional things. and my friend also like to worship shiv so he started &lt;strong&gt;RUDRA SVAROOP&lt;/strong&gt; worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;after time we found that he got some of changes like, many times he don't care about things which are even big issue, he almost come-out from night fear (dark fear he also had) and some other things like not to take bath(!). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So yes totally. but be careful to choose about SVAROOP as some time is has side effect (like my friend become some sort of unhappy when we ask him to take bath even after a week). I also found that some some people who worship SHREE RAM without proper intention they have problem (directly or indirectly) with parent as most cases i also found that they are not living together even after the respect and love each other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And one other thing why people give advice to not think about bad people or worship of bad people just because you eventually get that type of nature if you worship or think about them more and more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-04T15:16:21.360" LastActivityDate="2015-03-04T15:16:21.360" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6620" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6635" CreationDate="2015-03-04T17:27:23.627" Score="2" ViewCount="347" Body="&lt;p&gt;Followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu worship Krishna in a small stone form (Govardhana sila) representing Mount Govardhan. The question  is Why Govardhan Hill is considered a form of Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastActivityDate="2015-03-07T10:34:43.923" Title="Why Govardhan Hill is considered a form of Krishna?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6621" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6610" CreationDate="2015-03-05T02:04:45.970" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shakti Vishishtadvaita is the philosophy of a Shaivite sect known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingayatism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lingayatism&lt;/a&gt;, AKA Virashaivism, founded by the 12th century philosopher &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basava&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Basava&lt;/a&gt;.  Note that the term &amp;quot;Shaivite&amp;quot; actually means something here; there are a lot of people who call themselves Shaivites, like &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyer&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyers&lt;/a&gt; for instance, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) and simply adopt Shiva as their personal god.  The Lingayatas, on the other hand, are actual Shaivites, in the sense that they really view Shiva as the supreme being, and not just one among a number of equally valid ways to conceptualize Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the Shakti Vishishtadvaita philosophy of the Lingayata sect is a variant of the Vishishtadvaita Vedanta philosophy of the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).  The fundamental difference between different Vedantic philosophies is the relationship between Jivatatmas (individual souls) and Paramatma (the supreme soul or supersoul).  According to Adi Shankaracharya's philosophy of Advaita, Jivatma and Paramatma are one and the same, and according to Madhvacharya's philosophy of Dvaita, Jivatma and Parmatma are completely seperate.  The standard version of Vishishtadvaita, or &amp;quot;qualified monism&amp;quot;, takes a middle view: it says where there is one big unified whole called Paramatma, but within that there are still distinct parts like Jivatmas, akin to how an unborn baby is part of the body of a pregnant woman, but the pregnant woman's body extends beyond the baby (what Western thinkers would call panentheism).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shakti Vishishtadvaita, or &amp;quot;monism qualified by Shakti&amp;quot;, is a modification of this view, where Shiva is not merely united with seperate beings called Jivatmas, but rather he transforms himself into Jivatmas and the world, so that the Jivatmas and the world exist but are still have &amp;quot;Shiva-ness&amp;quot;.  This transformation is done through the power of Shakti, Shiva's energy, who is considered non-different from Shiva himself.  Here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.virashaiva.com/shakti-vishista-advait/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this website&lt;/a&gt; characterizes the philosophy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vimarsha Shakti exists in Shiva by the relation of Samarasya or identity, just as heat and light exist by the relation of identity in the fire and the sun. In other words, between the substance and the attribute there is an inseparable union or essential identity which points to reality that continues to remain in the character of individual organic Whole. It is for this reason that Siddanta Shikhamani speaks of intrinsic and ever abiding in Shiva. Hence he is characterized and distinguished by his self-conscious power to work wonders. This is Shaktivishistadvaita. Here Vishista does not suggest any inseparable union of two or more entities like soul, world and God of the Ramanuya system or of South Indian Shaivism. Vishistattva simply connotes the nature of Vimarsha, namely the self-conscious power of Shiva. Because of this Divine energy or Chit-shakti which has the power of doing, undoing and doing otherwise, Shiva transforms Himself into the world without ceasing Himself to be. Hence, Veerashaivism maintains Shivaparinamavada....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the case of Sankhya and Ramanuja, it is Prakrti Parinamavada but in Veerashaivism it is Shiva Brahma parinamavada. The world comes out of the very essence of Shiva and not from maya, or body or even power of God as found in the other systems. In upholding the doctrine of the transformation of essence (svarupa parinamavada), Veerashaivism remains most faithful to the Scriptural authority. God happens to be both the material and efficient cause of the world, though God becomes the world by the process of modification. He does not suffer any change within Himself. The world is the Sat-aspect of God and therefore a real manifestation of Him and not an illusion. It is non-different from Him; the relation between the two is that of the identity of cause and effect. The world gives us an idea of the greatness of God, and those who realize this greatness cannot but worship Him. In the words of Hegel, the reality of the world supplies the individual with the religion of majesty in which the reflecting mind is overwhelmed by the contemplation of the manifestation of the Divine Being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the best ways to understand a Vedantic philosophy is through its commentary on the Brahma Sutras, the defining text of the Vedanta school as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3608/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So for more information about Shakti Vishishtadvaita, you might want to read C. Hayavadana Rao's introduction to the Shrikara Bhashya, the Shakti Vishistadvaita commentary on the Brahma Sutras.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/KCqf/download&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; it is in PDF format. (I downloaded it from the Digital Library of India and then re-uploaded it to Google Drive.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-05-07T04:37:05.773" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6622" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-05T05:12:14.533" Score="1" ViewCount="1221" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several tasks (karma's) a human being can do.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does sin is associated with the task that human is performing? or it is associated with the thoughts of the human being, who is performing the task?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will illustrate with an example, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;let us assume two persons named F,N. Suppose F believes a set of rules and follow them accordingly without fail. But N believes that no task in this universe is wrong unless the particular person thinks that it is wrong. So, both are performing karma by fully believing they are performing correct karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who is performing sins? Both are strongly believing in their thoughts and performing karma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is bad/good associated with karma or with thoughts ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If bad/good associates with karma, then if N believes strongly a bad karma as good one and performs his karma, then is he committed sin?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Simple instantiate: F believes killing anyway is bad task, but N believes strongly that killing others for self survival is very good task.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-03-23T06:12:49.483" LastActivityDate="2019-03-23T06:12:49.483" Title="Is sin associated with karma or karma along with thoughts?" Tags="|karma|sin|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6623" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-05T06:12:18.793" Score="21" ViewCount="7347" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3843/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important in the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the son of Yama god of death and twin brother of the sage Nara. (Nara and Narayana were the previous births of Arjuna and Krishna respectively.)  Among the oldest Pancharatra texts we have are the Satvata Samhita, Paushkara Samhita, and Jayakhya Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there are some Pancharatra texts that are part of other Hindu scriptures.  For instance, a Pancharatra text called the Narayaniya is embedded in the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3936/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  Similarly, there's a Pancharatra text called the Vasudeva Mahatmya in the Skanda Purana, which is the subject of my question.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/GPWA&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Vasudeva Mahatmya, Vishnu tells Brahma about the various incarnations he is planning to take, and here are the last ones he mentions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By becoming Buddha, I shall delude by the use of fallacious reasoning and deceit the Asuras who adopting Vedic practices will harass the three worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When the Asuras killed by me as Krishna and by Arjuna in the battles, will promote and establish Adharma (unrighteous practices) on the earth, I, sage Narayana, shall be born on the earth from my devotee Dharmadeva in the land of Koshala, as a Brahmana singer of Saman hymns. O Aja (Brahma), establishing the boly Dharma I shall be the protector of sages who will be born as men by the curse of Munis (other sages) as well as Uddhava, O child.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of Kali I shall incarnate as Kalki.  Riding a divine horse, I shall kill highly sinful people of Mleccha origin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss Buddha being an incarnation of Vishnu in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/4021/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and I discuss Kalki in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2876/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is, who is the incarnation of Vishnu mentioned between Buddha and Kalki, the &amp;quot;Brahmana singer of Saman hymns&amp;quot; who would be born in Koshala to Dharmadeva?  And who are the sages were cursed to be born as ordinary men?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apparently the Swaminarayan sect believes that this text is a prophecy about their founder &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swaminarayan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swaminarayan&lt;/a&gt;, whom they consider to be an incarnation of Vishnu.  They reach this conclusion because Swaminarayan was born a short distance from Ayodhya, capital of Koshala, and his father is sometimes called Dharmadev.  I don't want to speculate about whether their claims are correct or not, but let me just ask, have other Hindus come up with any alternative interpretations of this passage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T23:42:01.683" Title="Who is the Samaveda-singing Brahmin incarnation of Vishnu prophesied in the Skanda Purana?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|pancharatra|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6624" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6622" CreationDate="2015-03-05T07:02:09.503" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several things that come into play. The main question, is what is task? Is the task helping or harming people,nature,plants,living beings,things around him? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the task is to help people who are in need then both thoughts and deeds are considered good. Because this is changing your state of mind into something positive. Basically, moving into satvic state, purifying one's mind. But if you can do something good and but intentionally avoid then you are building guilt.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if the task is to cause grief to others by giving or taking away, then such thoughts are considered negative and going into wrong direction. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a fine line sometimes, you have to do your best for better/greater good and with best intentions and in positive frame of mind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, whose rules are we talking about here? Basic rules, ethics of life are common. But the rules again vary for plants and animals. Animals hunt to kill and eat. They are just doing what they are supposed to do, for feeding themselves and not for sport/fun. But humans who hunt for fun are definitely wrong. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Main Rule: live simple and think high. Most of the problems come, if people stray from this simple rule.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="272" LastActivityDate="2015-03-05T07:02:09.503" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6625" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6645" CreationDate="2015-03-05T07:07:15.917" Score="5" ViewCount="1120" Body="&lt;p&gt;I myself am an admirer of the Bhagavad Gita, and am a strong believer of its teachings. There is something, however, that still raises a question in my mind, that I cannot answer fully. I however believe that it arises because I have not yet fully understood its essence. It is said in Gita, that the Aatma (soul) is supreme, in the sense that it cannot be scorched by the fire, pierced by the weapon, dried by the wind,or soaked by the water. In other words, in its very true form, it is unaffected by any sort of external physical force. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is it then the situation, that when it resides in a mortal body, it forgets its true nature and falls prey to the trigunas (sattva, raja, tama) of maya? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this did not happen, then there would not be any necessity for the Lord Himself to be incarnated and teach the supreme lesson to the trapped soul! Or, is it something, that is beyond the limits of our thoughts? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2576" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-05T09:53:13.807" LastActivityDate="2015-12-01T07:51:19.193" Title="Why does the soul fall prey to maya, when it resides in the body?" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6626" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6622" CreationDate="2015-03-05T07:13:09.390" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the Great Writer in Gujarat Mr.Thakkar has written a good book to understand the Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Karma is Done by Body, Mind and Speech.&#xA;Body have 10 Senses Known as; 5 karmendriyas  (Organs of Actions) and 5 Gyanendriyas (organs of Senses) All Karma are done by that, by body. &#xA;Mind have Buddhi  (intellect), Ahamkara  (Ego) and Mind have five consciousness. There is require to understand mind, beyond being mind. Mind have five states of consciousness in human forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jagruti - Waking &#xA;Swapna - Dreaming &#xA;Sushupti - Deep Sleep (slumber) &#xA;Turiya - Underlying state in all the above states &#xA;Unmani or Turyateeta - State of enlightened beings where the cosmos is experienced as oneness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Third One is Speech.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, refer Gunas; Which are also known as prakriti. There are Three Gunas. These three gunas are called: [sattva] (goodness, constructive, harmonious), [rajas] (passion, active, confused), and [tamas] (darkness, destructive, chaotic). In short Satva is Positive create Punya  (Righteousness), Rajas is Neutral neither create punya  (Righteousness) or Pap  (sin) and Tamas only creates pap  (Sin).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These three Gunas are the base of all the activities we done. Only Karma is not have its fruit, its depend on the Gunas. The Example Given by Mr.Thakkar were not totally show true picture, but its lead to right understanding of Karma and its Gati  (Result). There is Karma and its Fal (Fruits) which are as per Gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;For Example: For Doing Karma. Like if it is stated that A will kill B&#xA;--Now Sattva People will join military or police and for stopping the B from doing Illegal Act A fire a Gun and B will Die, As per the mental feeling of A have Virtues, So A do its Karma and also Gain Punya (righteousness).&#xA;--If There is Rajas Karma, A will try to clear its Gun, and sudden that fire and kill B, it this action (karma) the feeling of the A is neither right nor to do something wrong, its neutral, so that will neither create righteousness nor sin.&#xA;--If there is Tamas karma, A would be either thief or to gain something by illegal way, kill B, The mental feeling is to do something wrong, so in result, A Do Karma as its written that A will do it, and also create the Sin.&#xA;&#xA;So By doing Karma, A if do Satva, do karma and have righteousness, if Rajas neither righteousness nor sin, If Tamas do karma and create the Sin (for which he pay the price).&#xA;&#xA;Now see how Fruit are received by Satva, Rajas And Tamas. It is said that A must die by Gun Shot&#xA;-- Now if A is to gain Good Fruit by even facing the Fruit of its past karma, A will join the military, or police and Get the shot and as he had feeling to do something good, as fulfilling duty, He get the Fruit, and also create righteousness.&#xA;-- If he has to get result as Rajas, he try to clean the gun and suddenly bullet fired from gun, as the mind of the A is neutral and he neither want to do right nor wrong he will neither get righteousness nor sin in his account of Karma and Fruit.&#xA;--If There is Tamas Karma, A will try to theft or do wrong thing and get shot by police, and that will create sin.&#xA;&#xA;So As per three Gunas the person do Karma, and also get the fruit.&#xA;&#xA;If There is decided that, as per karma of the A he will Get Rs.1,00,000/-; If he want to act as Satva, he would do some prestigious work and will get honour price, so he get the money and also create righteousness. if he get by lottery or from some place, as person have neutral mind and feeling, neither righteousness nor sin will created in Karma Account, If person would act under effect of Tamas he would do some wrong act, theft the money, or by extortion, and create sin.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma are connected with the Gunas and Mental Status. Karma are depend on feeling  (bhava) like Hug to Mother, Hug to Wife or Hug to Daughter is Act of Hug, but the feeling are different and create different righteousness or Sin in Karma Account. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2568" LastEditorUserId="2568" LastEditDate="2015-03-06T18:42:48.993" LastActivityDate="2015-03-06T18:42:48.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6627" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6631" CreationDate="2015-03-05T07:33:26.850" Score="8" ViewCount="4036" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Was the name &quot;Ramayana&quot; given to Ramayana by sage Valmiki or is it people who just call it by that name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If not, then what was the name given by Valmiki?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is the Ramayana book written by the sage Valmiki still available?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If not, then what is the oldest book/scriptures/source of Ramayanam?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Was it divided into 5 or 7 kandas by Valmiki himself?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also, was it Valmiki himself, who gave the names/titles to the volumes (e.g., &quot;Bala Kanda&quot;)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, was the name &quot;Mahabharata&quot; given by sage Krishna Dwaipayana (Veda Vyasa)?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Was it divided and named as the various parvas by the sage himself?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What's the oldest source of the Mahabharata?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I know that Bhagavad Gita is a part of the Mahabharata. But was the name 'Bhagavad Gita' given by Veda Vyasa?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If not, then how did the name 'Bhagavad Gita' come into usage?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2326" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-04T10:39:54.073" LastActivityDate="2016-03-13T18:52:38.480" Title="Original Ramayana and Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|bhagavad-gita|vyasa|valmiki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2018-12-08T16:34:14.560" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6628" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6625" CreationDate="2015-03-05T09:00:28.013" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The thing is, it is not the soul or &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; which is bound by &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;, but it is the &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; which falls prey to it. Atma means the true self devoid of mind, body and senses and &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; means &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; along with mind, body, senses, etc. which can be gross or subtle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind. [BG - 15.7] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; can be considered as a spark of God which is eternal and ever free, but apart from this &lt;em&gt;jiva shakti&lt;/em&gt;, God has another energy potency known as &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Jiva shakti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;maya shakti&lt;/em&gt; being energies of God are also eternal. And from this &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; alone originate the mind, senses, etc. When these two energies associate &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; is formed and because mind is made from &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; it has natural attraction and inclination towards &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. Hence, it is the mind alone who is naturally a prey of maya, not the &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt;. That is why it is said, mind alone is the cause of bondage and liberation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mana eva manuṣyāṇāṃ kāraṇaṃ bandhamokṣayoḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Brahmabindu Up. - 2]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Mind alone is the cause of bondage and liberation of man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in brief, the soul is ever free as it is irrespective of whether it lies in the body or somewhere else. It is the mind which is in bondage. So when Gita speaks of the indestructibility of the soul it is referring to &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; and else where when it is said the soul is in bondage it means &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt;, the embodied being. Please contemplate over the verses of chapter 13 and the following verses of Gita as well: 7.4-5, 15.8-9. Also please refer to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2055/38&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; for some more info about &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; and how it affects the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And regarding God taking incarnations, there are multiple reasons behind it apart from teaching lessons to the &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; which you can read in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/268/38&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-03-05T09:00:28.013" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6629" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="138" CreationDate="2015-03-05T09:22:17.800" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;(note: I have answer this in other thread and I hope it would be helpful here, so copy and paste it here)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the Great Writer in Gujarat Mr.Thakkar has written good book for understand the Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Karma is Done by Body, Mind and Speech Body have 10 Senses Known as; 5 karmendriyas(Organs of Actions) and 5 Gyanendriyas (organs of Senses) All Kardma are done by that, by body. Mind have Buddhi(intelact), Ahamkara(Ego) and Mind have five consciousness. There is require to understand mind, beyond being mind. Mind have five states. These are 5 states of consciousness in human forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jagruti - Waking Swapna - Dreaming Sushupti - Deep Sleep (slumber) Turiya - Underlying state in all the above states Unmani or Turyateeta - State of enlightened beings where the cosmos is experienced as oneness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Third One is Speech.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, refer Gunas; Which are also known as prakriti. There are Three Gunas. These three gunas are called: [sattva] (goodness, constructive, harmonious), [rajas] (passion, active, confused), and [tamas] (darkness, destructive, chaotic). In short Satva is Possitive create Punya(Righteousness), Rajas is Neutral neither creat punya(Righteousness) or Pap(sin) and Tamas only creates pap(Sin)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Three Gunas are the base of all the activities we done. Only Karma is not have its fruit, its depend on the Gunas. The Example Given by Mr.Thakkar were not totally show true picture, but its lead to right understanding of Karma and its Gati(Result). There is Karma and its Fal(Fruits) which are as per Gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eg. For Doing Karma: Like if it is stated that A will kill B --Now Sattva People will join military or police and for stoping the B from doing Illegal Act A fire a Gun and B will Die, As per the mental feeling of A have Virtues,So A do its Karma and also Gain Punya(righteousness) --If There is Rajas Karma, A will try to clear its Gun, and sudden that fire and kill B, it this action(karma) the feeling of the A is neither right nor to do something wrong, its neutral, so that will neither creat righteousness nor sin. --If there is Tamas karma, A would be either thief or to gain something by illegal way, kill B, The mental feeling is to do something wrong, so in result, A Do Karma as its written that A will do it, and also create the Sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So By doing Karma, A if do Satva, do karma and have righteousness, if Rajas neither righteousness nor sin, If Tamas do karma and create the Sin.(for which he pay the price.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now see how Fruit are received by Satva, Rajas And Tamas it is said that A must die by Gun Shot -- Now if A is to gain Good Fruit by even facing the Fruit of its past karma, A will join the military, or police and Get the shot and as he had feeling to do something good, as fulfilling duty, He get the Fruit, and also create righteousness -- If he has to get result as Rajas, he try to clean the gun and suddenly bullet fired from gun, as the mind of the A is neutral and he neither want to do right nor wrong he will neither get righteousness nor sin in his account of Karma and Fruit --If There is Tamas Karma, A will try to theft or do wrong thing and get shot by police, and that will create sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So As per three Gunas the person do Karma, and also get the fruit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If There is decided that, as per karma of the A he will Get Rs.1,00,000/-; If he want to act as Satva, he would do some prestigious work and will get honour price, so he get the money and also create righteousness. if he get by lottery or from some place, as person have neutral mind and feeling, neither righteousness nor sin will created in Karma Account, If person would act under effect of Tamas he would do some wrong act, theft the money, or by extortion, and create sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma are connected with the Gunas and Mental Status. Karma are depend on feeling(bhava) like Hug to Mother, Hug to Wife or Hug to Daughter is Act of Hug, but the feeling are different and create different righteousness or Sin in Karma Account.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2568" LastActivityDate="2015-03-05T09:22:17.800" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6630" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3133" CreationDate="2015-03-05T10:17:10.657" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well there is first to know the significance of the Mudaras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gheranda Samhita is a manual of yoga taught by Gheranda to Chanda Kapali. Unlike other hatha yoga texts, the Gheranda Samhita speaks of a sevenfold yoga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shatkarma for purification&lt;br&gt;&#xA; Asana for strengthening&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Mudra for steadying&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA; Pratyahara for calming&lt;br&gt;&#xA; Pranayama for lightness&lt;br&gt;&#xA; Dhyana for perception&lt;br&gt;&#xA; Samādhi for isolation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;more over &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mudras_(yoga)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; in which there are number of mudras are said. which are given as under.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Main Mudras&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hasta (hand mudras)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mana (head mudras)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaya (postural mudras)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bandha (lock mudras)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Adhara (perineal mudras)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hasta (hand mudras)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hasta mudras are conducive for meditation, and help in internalisation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Name in Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt; -- &lt;strong&gt;Translation(s) in English&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Anjali Mudra  - Gesture of reverence&#xA;Dhyana Mudra  - Psychic gesture of meditation&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vāyu Mudra    - Psychic gesture of air&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shunya Mudra  - Psychic gesture of void or empty&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Prithvi Mudra - Psychic gesture of earth&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Varuna Mudra  - Psychic gesture of Rain&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shakti Mudra  - Psychic gesture of Power&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Apāna Mudra   - Psychic gesture of life force&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Gyana Mudra   - Psychic gesture of knowledge&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chin Mudra    - Psychic gesture of consciousness&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chinmya Mudra -&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Dhyana Mudra  -&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yoni Mudra    - Attitude of the womb or source&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Bhairav Mudra - Fierce or terrifying attitude&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hridaya Mudra - Heart gesture   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mana (head mudras)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mana mudras are an important part of Kundalini yoga, and many are important meditation techniques in their own right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Name in Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt; -- &lt;strong&gt;Translation(s) in English&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shambhavi Mudra   - Eyebrow centre gazing&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Nasikagra Drishti - Nosetip gazing&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Khecarī mudrā     - Tongue lock&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Kaki mudra        - The crow's beak&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Bhuangini Mudra   - Cobra respiration&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Bhoochari Mudra   - Gazing into nothingness&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Akashi mudra      - Awareness of inner space&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shanmukhi mudra   - Closing the seven gates&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Unmani Mudra      - The attitude of mindlessness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kaya (postural mudras)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kaya mudras combine physical postures with breathing and concentration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Name in Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt; -- &lt;strong&gt;Translation(s) in English&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prana Mudra             - Invocation of energy&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vipareeta Karani Mudra  - Inverted psychic attitude&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yoga Mudra              - Attitude of psychic union&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Pashinee Mudra          - Folded psychic attitude&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Manduki Mudra           - Gesture of the frog&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Tadagi Mudra            - Barrelled abdomen technique&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bandha (lock mudras)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bandha mudras combine mudra and bandha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Name in Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt; -- &lt;strong&gt;Translation(s) in English&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;Maha Mudra         - Great psychic attitude&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Maha Bheda Mudra   - The great separating attitude&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Maha Vedha Mudra   - The great piercing attitude&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adhara (perineal mudras)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adhara mudras redirect prana from the lower centres to the brain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Name in Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt; -- &lt;strong&gt;Translation(s) in English&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;Ashwini Mudra          - Horse gesture&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vajroli/Sahajoli Mudra - Thunderbolt/Spontaneous psychic attitude&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2568" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-02T09:28:07.230" LastActivityDate="2018-02-02T09:28:07.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6631" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6627" CreationDate="2015-03-05T10:21:51.123" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me discuss each of the three names separately:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramayana:&lt;/strong&gt; As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga4/balaitrans4.htm#Verse7&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, after Valmiki composed his famous epic poem (a story I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/760/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), he gave it three names: Ramayana, Sitayascharitam Mahat, and Paulastya Vadha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That sage with observed sacred vows has rendered the entire epic in the name of 'Ramayana', 'Sublime Legend of Seetha' and 'elimination of Ravana'. [1-4-7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata:&lt;/strong&gt; As described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;first chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, when Vyasa asks Ganesha to write down the Mahabharata for him, he calls it simply the Bharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Vyasa began to call to mind Ganesa. And Ganesa, obviator of obstacles, ready to fulfil the desires of his votaries, was no sooner thought of, than he repaired to the place where Vyasa was seated. And when he had been saluted, and was seated, Vyasa addressed him thus, 'O guide of the Ganas! be thou the writer of &lt;strong&gt;the Bharata&lt;/strong&gt; which I have formed in my imagination, and which I am about to repeat.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How it got the appellation &quot;Mahabharata&quot; is that it was found to be &quot;heavier&quot; than the Vedas, as described later on in the same chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In former days, having placed the four Vedas on one side and the Bharata on the other, these were weighed in the balance by the celestials assembled for that purpose. And as the latter weighed heavier than the four Vedas with their mysteries, from that period it hath been called in the world Mahabharata (the great Bharata). &lt;strong&gt;Being esteemed superior both in substance and gravity of import it is denominated Mahabharata on account of such substance and gravity of import.&lt;/strong&gt; He that knoweth its meaning is saved from all his sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/strong&gt; Vyasa's disciple Vaishampayana calls Krishna's discourse to Arjuna the &quot;Hari Gita&quot; in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c048.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Narayaniya section of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the beginning of the Treta Yuga, Vivaswat imparted the knowledge of this cult to Manu. Manu, for the protection and support of all the worlds, then gave it to his son Ikshaku. 2 Promulgated by Ikshaku, that cult over-spreads the whole world. When the universal destruction comes, it will once more return to Narayana and be merged in Him. The religion which is followed and practised by the Yatis, has, O best of kings, been narrated to thee before this in &lt;strong&gt;the Hari Gita&lt;/strong&gt;, with all its ordinances in brief. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's just a synonym for the Bhagavad Gita, because both Bhagavan and Hari are terms for Vishnu.  In any case, the title of the section of the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata where the Bhagavad Gita occurs is the Bhagavad Gita Parva; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You also wanted to know about original texts.  Well, despite Ganesha writing down the Mahabharata, writing is not the primary way the Ramayana and Mahabharata were passed down; like the Vedas they were initially passed down via oral tradition, and only passed down in written form much later.  So we don't really have &quot;original texts&quot; in that sense.  But if you want to read them in the original Sanskrit, you can read the Ramayana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and the Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-11-08T22:23:14.730" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6632" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6644" CreationDate="2015-03-05T10:42:49.970" Score="8" ViewCount="5765" Body="&lt;p&gt;As clearly said by Krishna to Arjuna in Bhagwat Gita, that, &quot;&lt;em&gt;I remember all my previous births but you don't&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. Then question arises is &lt;strong&gt;why God only has that Extra privilege, and why normal human beings are deprived of it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may argue that why normal people need to know? If it is known, then at least people will understand the direct cause-and-effect principle.&lt;br&gt;Also people will automatically start behaving more humanly as they will know that if they misbehave, their next birth will be one heck of hell. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The memory from last births will act as a deterrence to avoid bad karma in current birth as humans are known to learn from their mistakes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, when people suffers in current birth, and some sage or someone tells them that it is because of sins or bad karma of your previous birth, it becomes impossible for that person to digest it, specially if he/she does not believe in past life or reincarnation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What could be the reason why God kept this seemingly obvious thing away from mere mortals?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2015-03-05T10:49:31.070" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T23:40:53.467" Title="Why previous births are only known to God and not to humans?" Tags="|gods|karma|bhagavad-gita|rebirth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6633" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6586" CreationDate="2015-03-05T18:03:05.657" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is the meaning provided in Shamkara bhasya for the NarasimhaPoorvatapaniyaupanishad. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5WgDv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankarabhasya is as follows: Hope this helps:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cHHdv.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As discussed with a well versed srivaishnava friend of mine, the following is the general  english translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is the Antaryami of all.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also, Giri: means,  Vedas, so the it also means that &quot;Lord Vishnu is&#xA;the one who praised by Vedas&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another, meaning would be girisanta, the Lord Vishnu is the Supreme Lord prounpounded by Vedanta i.e. Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another meaning which is not in the bhasya is girisanta”, ie, the  source, end, limit or origin of Girisha (pArvati pati rudradeva). So, Lord Vishnu/Narasimha is the source, origin and limit for Lord Rudra or Parvatipati (Girisha)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sayana bhasya for the Tatittiriya samhita 3.4.5 verse, regarding Vishnu goes as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnuhu parvatanaam govardanadhi namadhi patihi !! (meaning is self evident)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I checked with a well versed srivaishnava and the following is the meaning provided for the &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnuhu parvatanaam govardanadhi namadhi patihi !!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord is antaryAmI of gOvardhanam and all the mountains. In Badri Kshetram also, Lord Vishnu/Narayana is in mountain form. Lord is also antaryAmI of thirumalai as per Azhwars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adding the actual verses from taittiriya samhita 3.4.5 (Krishna Yajurveda) and its  meaning by sayanaacharya, in sanskrit as per sayanacharya bhasya...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xAIkF.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning in sanskrit as per sayanacharya bhasya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PB4XL.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2015-03-08T08:02:21.927" LastActivityDate="2015-03-08T08:02:21.927" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6634" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6612" CreationDate="2015-03-05T20:25:43.717" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Karna was on the battlefield.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavad Gita chapter you're quoting from is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 25&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabarata.  In a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhishma Parva, right before the battle begins Krishna approaches Karna on the battlefield and asks him to fight for the Pandavas until Bhishma dies, an offer Karna refuses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vasudeva then went to Radha's son on the field of battle. And the elder brother of Gada, for the sake of the Pandavas, then said to Karna,--It hath been heard by me, O Karna, that from hatred of Bhishma thou wilt not fight. Come to our side, O son of Radha, and (stay with us) as long as Bhishma is not slain. After Bhishma is slain, O son of Radha, thou mayst then again engage in battle on Duryodhana's side, if thou hast no preference for any of the parties.--'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna said, 'I will not do anything that is disagreeable to Dhritarashtra's son, O Kesava. Devoted to Duryodhana's good, know that I have cast off my life (for him).'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, this is right before Duryodhana's half-brother Yuyutsu switches to the Pandava side, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6609/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, to answer your question, Karna was on the battlefield, watching but not fighting out of respect for Bhishma's wishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-03-05T20:25:43.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6635" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6620" CreationDate="2015-03-06T02:26:16.357" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Govardhana hill is considered a form of Krishna because Shri Krishna had declared it Himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kṛṣṇas tv anyatamaṁ rūpaṁ gopa-viśrambhaṇaṁ gataḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śailo ’smīti bruvan bhūribalim ādad bṛhad-vapuḥ&lt;/em&gt;  [SB - 10.24.35]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kṛṣṇa then assumed an unprecedented, huge form to instill faith in the cowherd men. Declaring “&lt;strong&gt;I am Govardhana Mountain&lt;/strong&gt;!” He ate the abundant offerings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And because Shri Krishna had told it Himself, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also respected and directed to worship Govardhan Sila:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;prabhu kahe, — “ei śilā kṛṣṇera vigraha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  iṅhāra sevā kara tumi kariyā āgraha&lt;/em&gt; [CC - 3.6.294]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, “This stone is the form of Lord Shri Krishna. You worship this with great eagerness.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-03-07T10:34:43.923" LastActivityDate="2015-03-07T10:34:43.923" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6636" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6640" CreationDate="2015-03-06T04:56:19.760" Score="1" ViewCount="252" Body="&lt;p&gt;While Astanga yoga speaks much about reality and nature is much detailed fashion , I hardly see any reference that can qualify theism. Is it an agnostic philosophy or I am just getting it all wrong? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2332" LastActivityDate="2015-03-06T10:47:10.427" Title="Astanga yoga never talks about theism. Is it agnostic philosophy?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6637" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6636" CreationDate="2015-03-06T05:16:59.317" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, the yoga school of thought that prescribes the &lt;em&gt;astanga yoga&lt;/em&gt; is theistic in nature and accepts the existence of God. Sage Patanjali  was the prooponent of the yoga school of thought and in his yoga sutras he talks about meditation on God (&lt;em&gt;iśvara praṇidhānāt vā&lt;/em&gt; - 1.23 ) and defines God in the following way:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Lord is that special person who is not affected by troubles, actions, developments or by subconscious  motivations. [PYS - 1.24]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In God, the seed of omniscience is unsurpassed. [PYS - 1.25] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Not being conditioned by time, God is the teacher of even the ancients. [PYS - 1.26]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The yoga school of thought accepts all the principle and philosophy of Sankhya School of Thought which is atheistic in nature, but adds another element to it, &lt;em&gt;Iswara&lt;/em&gt;, making it a theistic school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-03-06T05:16:59.317" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6639" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6656" CreationDate="2015-03-06T10:23:33.387" Score="11" ViewCount="4131" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that shooting the first arrow to start the battle is very important to every battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who shot the first arrow to start the battles of Ramayana and Mahabharata respectively?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-07-28T08:27:16.197" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T08:19:11.303" Title="Who shot the first arrows to start the battles of the Ramayana and Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6640" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6636" CreationDate="2015-03-06T10:47:10.427" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word Yoga itself means to unite with the absolute or Brahman.  Therefore, any form of Yoga cannot be agnostic by nature.  However, the definition of Brahman can be very broad and all-encompassing.  Because of this, people practicing Ashtanga Yoga can have doubts whether it is atheistic.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Although one of the basics (Yamas-Niyamas) require one to follow Brahmacharya (celibacy; one who follows the Brahman) and Ishvarapranidhana (surrender to God), the path of Asthanga Yoga gears more for the actual &quot;practitioner&quot; as opposed to &quot;believer&quot;.  The path of Bhakti (devotion) is purely based on higher love for the divine however Asthanga Yoga is based on practical; which means if you do this and this you will naturally head in this direction.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In order to answer your question, one must first define what really is &quot;theism&quot;.  If your understanding of &quot;theism&quot; is simply blind-belief then obviously NO - Ashtanga Yoga is nothing close to blind-beliefs.  It is a path, one must practice the path if one wishes to attain results.  But the one who has unshakable faith in the one beyond the 3 worlds, he will definitely progress faster in the path of Spirituality (any path of Yoga).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I see that you have specifically coined the phrase &quot;agnostic philosophy&quot;.  So the answer would be absolutely no.  Because Yoga is not philosophy, it is like science.  One gains/attains the fruit of his sadhana (practice), of this there is no doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2581" LastActivityDate="2015-03-06T10:47:10.427" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6632" CreationDate="2015-03-06T11:09:15.497" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The way I have understood it is as follows - &#xA;Absolute formless GOD (Nirakar Prabrahma) has always and will always exist.&#xA;The Ego of Formless God is the Avatara (God-with-Form).&#xA;The Ego of the Avatara manifests other things and eventually the ego of that is the result of the human soul.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The human soul (although part of the divine), is not the first making.  The human soul is like a Child of the Father (God).   Our existence is only due to the grace of the almighty GOD.  We are like the (inferior) aspect, if you like.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now - one obviously logical answer as to why human beings (or infact any other lifeforms) do not recollect past lives is because to keep things FAIR.  Say, in your past life, if you had done lots of bad deeds, you do not want to remember all of that - it will hinder in your spiritual life, because your Sanskaras (mental impressions) will be 10 times more than what you already have accumulated in this life.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If you had done good deeds in your past life, yes, you would benefit.  What you need to understand is that we already do benefit - if we did lots of bad karmas in our past lives, we would be born in families with lots of difficulty, if we did good deeds, we are born in more pious families.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;To deal and remove Sanskaras is NOT an easy thing to overcome, my friend.  I know this very well and I know how difficult it is to eliminate Sanskaras.  It is only the grace of the Divine that has helped us with this.  People think it would be cool to remember all lives, but the mind can go crazy.  Therefore, only people at a high level of spiritual practice are able to &quot;tame&quot; the mind and these people have received grace of the divine to see past lives through intense meditation, chanting, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This video from Spiritual Science Research Foundation (SSRF) should clarify your doubts further &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/classrooms/classroom-destiny-and-karma/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/classrooms/classroom-destiny-and-karma/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Best Wishes,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2581" LastActivityDate="2015-03-06T11:09:15.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6642" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6625" CreationDate="2015-03-06T11:28:33.250" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Good question.  My understanding is this - the only thing in this universe that is eternal and free from illusion is God himself.  It is him doing everything.  It is him who has created this illusory world of Maya.  And it is him who is experiencing the world through &quot;You&quot; and &quot;Me&quot;.  Truth is - it is only &quot;him&quot; yet we are in the illusion of thinking &quot;I&quot;, &quot;I&quot; and &quot;I&quot;.  Do you get what I am saying here?  This whole lila is of God himself.  It is him who is acting as our Guru, it is him who is punishing us when we do wrong things, because he is the Great Observer as well.  The main purpose of the soul is to therefore learn to detach from this illusory world of &quot;Maya&quot; and follow the path of Dharma, righteousness, so that this mind-body can recognise, understand and appreciate the greatness of the one and only GOD, who is the creator, maintainer and destructor of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2581" LastActivityDate="2015-03-06T11:28:33.250" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6643" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6620" CreationDate="2015-03-06T11:40:29.263" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said the Lord Krishna carried Govardhana Hill and saved Vrindavan from the wrath of Indra deva.  Govardhana Hill was very dear to Shri Krishna - he justified it in the Bhagavatam when he said that (they) should worship Govardhana because it gives grass to the cows, land and shelter to live, everything that the village used was more likely dependent upon Govardhana.  Govardhana Hill was dear to Krishna, therefore it became of form of Krishna or divine love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The truth is, why only Govardhana Hill?  Not only Govardhana Hill but any place (even your own heart), can be dear to Krishna.  And anything that is dear to Krishna, can be considered a form of Krishna.  This is because Krishna resides in the hearts of his dear ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2581" LastActivityDate="2015-03-06T11:40:29.263" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6644" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6632" CreationDate="2015-03-06T12:12:05.407" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;God does not keep it from you, you keep it from you. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali tells how a person can remember their previous births in his Yoga Aphorisms. Swami Vivekananda was asked if he remembered his previous births, and he replied yes, but would give no details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ordinary memory is a function of the mind. Most people cannot remember most of the events of this life. How many can remember when they were babies? If you cannot remember even this life, how can you remember prior lives?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mind can be trained to remember all the events of this life as well as prior lives, just as the mind can be trained to read other minds. If you want to memorize a poem, do you say &quot;I want to memorize this poem' and expect the mind to suddenly memorize it? Or do you study the poem, repeating it many times, and slowly start to remember it? If you want to know your past lives, you need to train the mind on how to do so, just as you would train your mind in any other mental endeavor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God has given your soul human birth, you have a mind capable of remembering its past lives or realizing Brahman. Which one do you want? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The real question is - will knowing my past lives help me to realize Brahman? Will this power help me to escape the endless round of birth and death? The answer is no, it will only bind you further.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-03-06T12:12:05.407" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6645" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6625" CreationDate="2015-03-06T12:35:54.023" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are not in the body, you are only apparently in the body. There is no need for the Lord to do anything, you are already free. You cannot become something which you are not. If you were not already free, you could never become free. The Asthvakra Samhita (1.11) says - &quot;A man who considers himself free is free indeed, a man who considers himself bound remains bound. This popular saying is true - as one thinks so one becomes.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Questions such as why...? can only be asked in the relative universe. There are no questions, no why, from an Absolute standpoint.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From an advaitic standpoint, you only apparently exist in a body. This is called vivarta vada - apparent manifestation. The universe only apparently exists. Does the lake in a mirage wet the earth below? A cloud only apparently covers the Sun...can a cloud of a few hundred meters really cover something which is millions of miles in diameter?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-03-06T12:35:54.023" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6646" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6622" CreationDate="2015-03-06T16:05:27.577" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are no absolutes in this universe. Everything is relative. What is considered good at one time, place, or circumstance can be considered bad at another time, place, or circumstance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Vivekananda says: &quot;Every selfish action, therefore, retards our reaching the goal [God/Brahman], and every unselfish action takes us towards the goal; that is why the only definition that can be given of morality is this: &lt;em&gt;That which is selfish is immoral, and that which is unselfish is moral.&lt;/em&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankaracharya agrees with this. He says in &lt;em&gt;Upadesa Sahasri&lt;/em&gt; (XV. 54.) &quot;A man gets liberated if he discards the ideas of 'me' and 'mine' in all respects and gets the perfect conviction in the etherlike goal [Brahman] devoid of (the gross and the subtle) bodies, described here according to right inference and the scriptures well-studied.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This can be seen directly in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt;. Arjuna is a kshatriya, it is his duty to protect people, and if that means killing, then he should kill. Arjuna tries to give in &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; I. why he should not fight, not kill. But he is trying to raise the banner of non-injury out of his own sense of cowardice, not benevolence. In &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; II. Lord Krishna tells him why he should fight and kill. Further, in &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; XVIII. 4-11. and 23., Lord Krishna says what acts and duties should be performed. Swami Vivekananda has said this also. He states that it is the duty of the sadhu to not injure anyone; but it is the duty of the householder to raise his sword if necessary to defend his family, for a householder to plea non-injury in such a circumstance is simply cowardice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You give as your final question &quot;F believes killing anyway is bad task, but N believes strongly that killing others for self survival is very good task.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It does not matter what F or N believe. What matters is what Sruti says, what the Vedas say is good/bad or moral/immoral. What Sruti says decides whether or not good or bad karma arises from certain actions. As an example, the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutra&lt;/em&gt; 3.1.25 says &quot;If it be said (that the sacrifices in which animals are killed) are unholy, (we say) not so, on account of scriptural authority.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, harming or injuring another in thought, word, or deed, leads to bad karma. But there are exceptions, and those exceptions are stated in Sruti and it does not matter what you personally believe.          &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-03-06T16:05:27.577" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6647" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6652" CreationDate="2015-03-06T17:26:28.393" Score="8" ViewCount="1789" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bhagwad Gita in Chapter-2 Verse-46,47&lt;/em&gt; says ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, But you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Dhananjay (Winner of Wealth), perform action, abandoning attachment, beaing steadfast in yog, and balanced is success and failure. Evenness of mind is called Yog.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is how can we perform actions without expecting results, when it's the result who will decide our fate?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2314" LastEditorUserId="2314" LastEditDate="2019-10-17T06:01:57.503" LastActivityDate="2019-10-17T08:37:02.670" Title="Understanding Bhagavad Gita 2.46, 2.47" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6648" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2933" CreationDate="2015-03-06T17:37:03.187" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I agree with the previous statement that the true Valampuri is a sinistral (whorls turning anti-clockwise fashion) variety of the species Turbinella pyrum L. It shows three to seven plaits or folds in the conch cavity (generally three to three and half). The best way is to do X Ray examination of the conch anatomy.  It is essential since many fake Valampuri shells  are floating in the market made by cut and paste method and then covering skilfully by the conch skin or greenish periostracum. True Valampuri is generally sold on the weight basis. It is charged in the range of Rs. 1500/- to Rs. 3500/- per gram.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2584" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-06T18:20:35.873" LastActivityDate="2015-03-06T18:20:35.873" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6651" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6504" CreationDate="2015-03-07T05:11:22.577" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4g8yq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4g8yq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Very old image of Sri uppiliappan perumal&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;(source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.southdreamz.com/wp-content/uploads/temple/thirunageswaram-a.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;southdreamz.com&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a quite an old image of Sri Uppiliappan perumal, which is present at our home as well, and it does not have the &amp;quot;Charama sloka&amp;quot; printed on the right palm of the perumal. It&#xA;might be that, his palm facing us indicating the sloka implicitly(which is why tirumalai perumual doesn't have the sloka on his right palm) and like you said, his fingers pointing down indicates where to surrender. But when it was written and why are good questions. We have to visit the temple and seek those history.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2588" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2023-01-29T04:26:46.760" LastActivityDate="2023-01-29T04:26:46.760" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6652" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6647" CreationDate="2015-03-07T05:39:50.203" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two paths open to every human being as expounded by the Vedas. One path is for those who want to reap the fruits of their actions, this is the path of the fathers. By rightful living one can gain wealth in this life as well as heaven after death. Krishna expounds on this path to Arjuna in verses 31-38. On this path, after reaping the fruits of the karma generated in heaven, one is born again in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In verses 39-72 (and verses 46-47 you referenced) Krishna now expounds the second path open to human beings outlined in the Vedas, the path to Brahmaloka, to Liberation. These verses explain the path of yoga which is the means to attain Liberation and the ending of the rounds of ceaseless birth and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is up to you whether you want to follow the path of yoga or not. The Vedas and the Gita also show the other path that is open to human birth - gains in this world and in the various heavens. It is entirely up to you which you want to follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Up to you, but as Lord Krishna explains in verses 42-44, the path that leads to pleasure and power only promise rebirths, which is an endless rathole. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One does not get over the feeling of attachments to such things as success and failure, etc. by wishing it away overnight. It takes daily practice and daily endeavor. Only with sustained daily practice does it go away. Vyasa says repetition is necessary to attain perfection. When you travel from Delhi to Mumbai, the farther away you get from Delhi, the closer you get to Mumbai. The more you practice spiritual practices, the farther away will the feelings of success and failure become.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Stop worrying whether you have the feelings of success and failure. Practice spiritual practices daily, they will give you up when the time is ripe.           &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-03-07T05:39:50.203" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6653" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6658" CreationDate="2015-03-07T06:30:50.310" Score="17" ViewCount="6910" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that through &lt;code&gt;Yoga&lt;/code&gt; a person can achieve inner peace and happiness. I know that It requires lots of practice to take actual benefits from yoga. I have also heard from plenty of sources (&lt;code&gt;Osho&lt;/code&gt; also says) that, through Yoga, a person can detach his soul from his body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it possible to detach your soul from your body ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes then how does it feel and what person will achieve by doing this&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How to differentiate Yoga from Dream ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After doing yoga and coming to your senses, How would you differentiate that what you just did was yoga, not the dream. The same question I asked to one of my friends and he said (and I quote) &quot;You Would Know&quot; with a smile on his face. He didn't say anything more. What was he trying to say, I didn't understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2314" LastEditorUserId="2314" LastEditDate="2019-10-17T05:18:07.317" LastActivityDate="2019-10-19T16:03:40.330" Title="Is it possible to separate Soul from the body through Yoga" Tags="|yoga|atma|meditation|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6654" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18" CreationDate="2015-03-07T08:13:50.257" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The teachings of Ramakrishna And his disciple Swami Vivekananda , have explained how Hindus should treat people of other religions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu belief ,God is one but there are many ways of reaching Him .Just as the Ocean is one ,but there are many rivers falling into it from many different countries and many different directions.Ramakrishna himself practiced many faiths -- including Islam and Christianity -- and finally discovered that they lead to the same experience. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Theoretically Hinduism does not make any distinction between different faiths -- treating them like different rivers trying to reach the Ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In practice , Hindus do make a distinction -- between rivers (faiths) that will one day end up in the Ocean (God) and rivers (faiths) which might end up in a Desert and dry out (Suicidal paths) .Use of Force and Violence is Justified in dealing with people following Anti-social and Suicidal paths --to make them Socially useful.This is described in the &quot; Bhagavat Gita&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-03-07T10:39:56.843" LastActivityDate="2015-03-07T10:39:56.843" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6655" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6559" CreationDate="2015-03-07T08:25:55.113" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna ( Guru of Swami Vivekananda) , gives the example of a Doctor treating Patients. &lt;br/&gt; Mostly , he cures with the help of Medicines .This is like the use of Ahimsa , non-violent method of transforming or training others . &lt;br/&gt; But for some patients , he has to take recourse to Surgery --to cure the Disease or Broken Bones or other Ailments . This is like using Violence for Human Transformation. &lt;br/&gt; This is a simplified explanation of the discussions between Arjuna and Krishna in the Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2015-03-07T08:25:55.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6656" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6639" CreationDate="2015-03-07T08:50:23.913" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me address each of these two battles seperately:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramayana:&lt;/strong&gt; The first fighting in the battle of Lanka started shortly after Rama and the Vanaras arrived at the gates of the city.  Sugriva saw Ravana, and he immediately he challenged him to fight, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga40/yuddha_5F40_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On seeing Ravana, Sugreeva got up all at once, while Rama and the chiefs of the army of monkeys were looking on. Gathering up his strength and courage, Sugreeva, in an impulse of fury, bounded from the summit of the mountain and then sprang to the top of the gate (where Ravana was).... The two warriors, Sugreeva and Ravana, who were skilled in wrestling, executed innumerable and myriad evolutions, taking up diverse postures, moving in a curved line like an ox's urine, coming and going, stepping side ways, having a retrograde motion to avoid blows, turning about abandoning the attack, dashing towards each other, leaping, standing firm and erect, retreated, turned sideways, rushed in a bent posture, ran lifting their foot to kick the opponent and by letting go or stealing away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this was just a wrestling match, with no weapons involved.  The first time an arrow being shot is explicitly mentioned is when the Vanara Sampati fights the Rakshasa Prajangha, as described in a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga43/yuddha_43_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sampati, who was struck by Prajangha with three arrows, killed Prajangha by an Ashvakarna tree, at the zenith of the combat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata:&lt;/strong&gt; The fighting in the Battle of Kurukshetra commenced when Duryodhana and his brothers started launching arrows at Bhima as he was approaching them, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And roaring like a deep mass of clouds, and assuming an awful form, that hero [Bhima] frightened thy sons and fell upon them. Thereupon the brothers, viz., thy sons Duryodhana, and Durmukha and Dussaha, and that mighty car-warrior Dussasana, and Durmarshana, O king, and Vivingsati, and Chitrasena, and the great car-warrior Vikarna and also Purumitra, and Jaya, and Bhoja, and the valorous son of Somadatta, shaking their splendid bows like masses of clouds exhibiting the lightning's flashes, and taking out (of their quivers) long arrows resembling snakes that have just cast off their sloughs, surrounded that mighty bowman rushing (towards them) covering him with flights of arrows like the clouds shrouding the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it doesn't say which of the 100 Kauravas shot the first arrow.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is interesting to note, by the way, that in both cases, the bad guys were the ones who shot the first arrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T14:11:43.710" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T14:11:43.710" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6657" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-07T09:44:07.420" Score="11" ViewCount="4134" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Hindu texts are replete with references (in Puranas) of deities using a particular animal as their primary vehicle (Vahana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ganesha - the Mouse.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shiva - an Ox (Nandi).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Karthikeyan - the Peacock.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Saraswathi - the Swan.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Durga - the Tiger.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Lakshmi -  an Owl.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vishnu - an Eagle&lt;br&gt;&#xA;and many &lt;a href=&quot;http://tamilandvedas.com/2012/10/26/who-rides-what-vahana-animal-or-bird/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;more.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here it is interesting to note that all the Hindu Gods and Goddesses have animals as their vehicle or Vahana. But Kubera is sometimes depicted riding a Nara or a Man. While some sources mention a Goat as the vahana of Kubera. Some sources say Parrot or Horse. And some mention an Elephant. Dharmashastra and Apastamba describes &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubera&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kubera&lt;/a&gt; as a man. Only the Grihyasutras of Shankhayana and Hiranyakesin calls him a god. There are different views on the vahana of Kubera. What could be the reason for gods except Kubera not choosing human as their vahana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why isn't a human the vahana of above mentioned Gods?    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is only Kubera associated with a man as his vahana?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T06:05:16.547" LastActivityDate="2021-09-14T06:45:56.640" Title="Why isn't a human the vahana (vehicle) of any God?" Tags="|gods|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6658" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6653" CreationDate="2015-03-07T10:30:23.130" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer to your question is: yes, it is possible to to separate the soul or &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; from the body. Even one can enter another body through this process:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the bonds of the mind caused by action have been loosened, one may enter the body of another by knowledge of how the nerve-currents function. [PYS - 3.37]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But from your question it seems you have some wrong information about yoga which needs to be corrected. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First is, yoga is that state where all the activity of the mind ceases (PYS - 1.2). So the idea that in yoga one must be somewhere thinking something is incorrect. If one is thinking something then he might be practicing yoga, but he is not in yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And secondly, not only detaching the soul, but there are other such &lt;em&gt;siddhis&lt;/em&gt; (skills) which automatically arise when one practices yoga. Even one can go to other planes of existence and interact with other beings. But all these are not the purpose of yoga and are simply obstacles on the way because the yogi may get diverted from the true purpose on the achievement of these things:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To the outward turned mind, the sensory organs are perfections, but are obstacles to realization. [PYS - 3.36]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding how does it feel, I have not felt it but it can't be expressed just like we can't express how sweetness feels, it has to be felt by oneself. And by freeing the soul from the body the yogis can achieve &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; voluntarily or go to the plane of existence they would like. There are many examples of such saints and yogis in &lt;em&gt;puranas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now regarding differentiating yoga from dream, you don't need to use a totem as they did in the movie Inception (&lt;em&gt;just kidding&lt;/em&gt;);  you would be able to know it yourself. How? Because there are four fundamental states that a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; goes through, wakefulness, dream, sleep and &lt;em&gt;turiya&lt;/em&gt;. Apart from the last state, every other state is simply not yoga. And just like you are able to differentiate wakefulness from sleep and dream, you will be able to differentiate the state of yoga.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a sidenote, it is better to know and learn about Yoga from a qualified teacher. Forming ideas by listening to and reading text of unqualified persons can be harmful. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yogasutr.htm&quot;&gt;Patanjali Yoga Sutras&lt;/a&gt; has a lot of information in a condensed form. One can know the right things by understanding it from a guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-03-07T10:30:23.130" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6660" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-07T12:10:17.633" Score="1" ViewCount="17153" Body="&lt;p&gt;A recent photograph of some Hindu protesters demanding a ban on beef and other non-vegetarian food made me sit and take notice of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe that these protesters are ignorant of what their religion preaches. They are simply going against their own religious scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some verses from Hindu scriptures that seem to support beef eating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Manusmriti (5.30)&lt;/em&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is not sinful to eat meat of eatable animals,for God has created&#xA;  both the eaters and the eatables.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Aapastanba Grishsutram(1/3/10)&lt;/em&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The cow should be slaughtered on the arrival of a guest, on the&#xA;  occasion of 'Shraaddha of ancestors and on the occasion of a&#xA;  marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rigveda (10/85/13)&lt;/em&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the occasion of a girls marriage oxen and cows are slaughtered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rigveda (6/17/1)&lt;/em&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra used to eat the meat of cow, calf, horse and buffalo.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vashishta Dharmasutra (11/34) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a Brahmin refuses to eat the meat offered to him on the occasion of, 'Shraaddha' he goes to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hinduism's great propagator Swami Vivekananda&lt;/em&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You will be surprised to know that according to ancient Hindu rite&#xA;  and rituals, a man cannot be a good Hindu who does not eat beef.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(&lt;em&gt;The complete works of Swami Vivekananda vol 3/5/36&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book &quot;The history and culture of the Indian people&quot; published by&#xA;Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay and edited by renowned historian R C&#xA;Majumdar (vol 2 ,page 18) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is said in the mahabharata that&#xA;  &quot;king Ratinder used to kill 2000 other animals in addition to 2000&#xA;  cows daily in order to give their meat in charity&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Adi Shankaracharya commentary on Brhadaranyakopanishad 6/4/18&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Odaan' rice mixed with meat is called 'maansodan' on being asked&#xA;  whose meat it should be, he answers 'Uksha' is used for an ox, which&#xA;  is capable to produce semen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strike&gt;What should we follow? Religious books or communal political parties?&lt;/strike&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why is that Hindus today are not allowed to eat beef despite scriptures themselves sanctioning it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2592" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-10-22T21:31:16.037" LastActivityDate="2020-09-16T06:18:12.247" Title="Why are Hindus not allowed to eat beef when scriptures seem to indicate otherwise?" Tags="|practice|food|non-vegetarian|cows|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2018-02-12T13:22:11.033" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6661" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="110" CreationDate="2015-03-07T19:04:21.197" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I agree with K.Raghunathan , that since the Hindu Religious Texts were written at least 3000 years back ,there is no mention of other Religions , including Buddhsm . &lt;br/&gt; Later day Saints like Guru Nanak ,Sant Kabir, Ramakrishna , Sai Baba of Siridi ,do make reference to other religions. &lt;br/&gt; Sant Kabir &amp;amp; Saibaba of Siridi allowed both Hindus and Muslims to be their disciples. &lt;br/&gt; Ramakrishna had teachers from Christianity and Islam for Spiritual Realisation. &lt;br/&gt; All these teachers say that GOD is ONE ---but there are different ways of reaching Him .God is compared to the Ocean and the religions to various Rivers that are moving &amp;amp; trying to reach the Ocean. &lt;br/&gt; Violence and Bloodshed , in trying to popularising one's beliefs , should be avoided .That comes out as the common theme of the preaching of these Saints.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2015-03-07T19:04:21.197" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6664" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-08T23:09:39.553" Score="7" ViewCount="6890" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have seen ancient sages of India bore  multiple titles like Brahmarshi,  Maharishi, Rajarshi and Devarishi.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Quick internet search resulted in as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Brahmarshi - a sage who has understood the meaning of Brahman(Brahmajnana)&#xA;Maharishi - A great sage&#xA;Rajarshi  - Royal saint&#xA;Devarishi - Celestial sage(like Narada)&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have seen the example of vishvamitra transcending from  &lt;strong&gt;king-&gt;rajarshi-&gt;rishi-&gt;maharshi-&gt;brahmarshi&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The text merely quotes penance of thousand years before stepping up to new title.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wanted to know, what exactly make anyone qualify their titles?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is line of demarcation, where one would transform from type of rishi to another?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a similar question over here, but doesn't have much description . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2516/what-are-different-types-of-rishis&quot;&gt;What are different types of Rishis?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-12-20T18:40:50.947" Title="Brahmarshi Maharishi Rajarshi Devarishi" Tags="|vedas|rishi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6666" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6710" CreationDate="2015-03-09T11:19:22.750" Score="2" ViewCount="11556" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can you please tell me the rules to follow while reading/Listening to the Bhagavat Gita and The Ramayanam? are they mandatory for every caste? because when I visited a Priest's home he didn't read in the evening for the reason of the sandhya vandhanam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;are there any rules, timings, Prerequisites, particular days and etc. to either read or listen to the great epics Viz. The MahaBharatha-(The Bhagavat Gita) and The Ramayanam? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I already started reading The Ramayanam. I do not read it- while eating, before bath and Sandhya times(as I mentioned the priest didn't read so I am not reading it at Sandhya times).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2326" LastEditorUserId="2326" LastEditDate="2015-04-15T04:32:12.870" LastActivityDate="2015-04-15T04:32:12.870" Title="Rules to read bhagavth geeta and Ramayanam" Tags="|belief|mahabharata|ramayana|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6667" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6668" CreationDate="2015-03-09T13:59:29.260" Score="10" ViewCount="7240" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was going through &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2080/are-there-any-temples-for-matsya-kurma-and-varaha-avatars/2086?noredirect=1#comment13168_2086&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; post answered by @Keshav Srinivasan , the following photograph (2nd in the answer)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6WUFw.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Depicts Shriman Narayana with his two wives, now begins my question is the goddess are wearing a Yagyopavit (yes look closely near nabhi/solar-plexus)!! Is there any scripture mentioning this or it is just an artistic imagination , depicting empowered women at the time of creation of this sculptor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2019-01-29T20:54:10.680" LastActivityDate="2019-01-29T20:54:10.680" Title="Rules for wearing yagyopavit by women (yes it is possible)" Tags="|vishnu|women|lakshmi|vedic-rituals|samskara|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6668" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6667" CreationDate="2015-03-09T14:50:54.960" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;In ancient times, most women would have no education in the Vedas, and they would just become housewives.  But in contrast to these women, known as Sadyovadinis, there was a very small number of women, known as Brahmavadini, who would abandon the material lifestyle that was the norm for women and instead went to a Ashram and learn the Vedas just as men did.  For these women, the Harita Smriti prescribes the Upanayanam or sacred thread ceremony, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=idERT6Tg4MMC&amp;amp;lpg=PA39&amp;amp;dq=brahmavadini%20sacred%20thread&amp;amp;pg=PA39#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Harita Dharma-Sutra the sacred-thread ceremony has been declared necessary for brahma-vadini or girl-students. They should beg also from their homes while studying Vedas and performing sacrifices, etc. (Harita Dharma-Sutra 30-21.22) Ladies having no sacred thread were called 'Sadyo-vadhu' and thus they remained unpolished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A lot of wives of sages, like Agastya's wife Lopamudra and Yajnavalkya's wife Maitreyi were Brahmavadini.  In fact Lopamudra and Maitreyi were actually two of the seers of verses in the Rig Veda; see the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-12-08T06:51:17.830" LastActivityDate="2017-12-08T06:51:17.830" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6669" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-09T20:10:00.243" Score="3" ViewCount="873" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading following line from  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15061.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; link&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'As all waters find their centre in the sea, all touches in the skin, all tastes in the tongue, all smells in the nose, all colours in the eye, all sounds in the ear, all percepts in the mind, all knowledge in the heart, all actions in the hands, all movements in the feet, and all the Vedas in speech&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says all knowledge at heart (it's clear that heart doesn't mean heart the organ), then what is heart here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also is there any difference(s) between &lt;code&gt;buddhi&lt;/code&gt;,&lt;code&gt;chitta&lt;/code&gt;,&lt;code&gt;smriti&lt;/code&gt;,&lt;code&gt;mana&lt;/code&gt;,&lt;code&gt;pragya&lt;/code&gt;. What are these differences (please give answer with definitions for each).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T19:38:29.477" Title="What is meaning of heart here?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6670" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6669" CreationDate="2015-03-09T21:57:58.427" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can read Adi Shankaracharya's commentary on the this Brihadaranyaka Upanishad chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc117950.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  This is what he says about &quot;all touches in the skin&quot; part; the other parts of the quote are analogous:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Likewise as the skin is the one goal of all kinds of touch such as&#xA;  soft or hard, rough or smooth, which are identical in nature with air.&#xA;  By the word ‘skin,’ touch in general, which is perceived by the skin,&#xA;  is meant; in it different kinds of touch are merged, like different&#xA;  kinds of water in the ocean, and become nonentities without it, for&#xA;  they were merely its modifications. Similarly that touch in general,&#xA;  denoted by the word ‘skin,’ is merged in the deliberation of the&#xA;  Manas, that is to say, in a general consideration by it, just as&#xA;  different kinds of touch are included in touch in general perceived by&#xA;  the skin; without this consideration by the Manas it becomes a&#xA;  nonentity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Adi Shankaracharya, the word &quot;skin&quot; is being used as an analogy for touch in general, because touch in general is perceived in the skin.  So he's saying that it means that all different kinds of touches are dissolved into the general category of touch by the act of contemplation.  In the same way, the &quot;all knowledge in the heart&quot; part would mean that all different kinds of knowledge are dissolved into the general category of knowledge by the act of contemplation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So now the only question is why the word &quot;heart&quot; is being used as a metaphor for the general category of knowledge.  Well, in analogy to the touch case, it would have to be because knowledge in general is perceived in the heart.  And what does that mean?  It's probably a reference to the fact that the heart is the dwelling-place of the soul.  This is attested in multiple places, for in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15012.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Katha Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are the two, drinking their reward in the world of their own works, entered into the cave (of the heart), dwelling on the highest summit (the ether in the heart). Those who know Brahman call them shade and light; likewise, those householders who perform the Trinâkiketa sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01161.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chandogya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is this city of Brahman (the body), and in it the palace, the small lotus (of the heart), and in it that small ether. Now what exists within that small ether, that is to be sought for, that is to be understood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(I discuss that Chandogya Upanishad quote in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3920/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, because some people claim that it's a prophecy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-03-09T21:57:58.427" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6672" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-10T03:44:00.837" Score="14" ViewCount="15143" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know of occasions in which two different incarnations of Vishnu met, for instance the encounter of Rama and Parashurama as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga74/bala_74_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana.  What is not as well known, however, is that Vishnu's incarnation Krishna once met Vishnu himself!  The story is described in both the Harivamsa and the Srimad Bhagavatam.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sY3IU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once when Arjuna was visiting Dwaraka, he saw a Brahmana complain that all his sons were dying as soon as they were born.  So Arjuna offered to stand guard and prevent any more of his children from being taken away by Yama god of death.  But when the next child was born, it magically floated up into the sky.  Arjuna was baffled by this, and he asked for Krishna's help in retrieving the Brahmana's sons from the afterlife.  Krishna obliged and took Arjuna in his chariot.  They left the realms of Man until they came to a region of darkness.  Krishna cut through the darkness with the illumination of his Sudarshana Chakra, and soon they entered the brilliance of Brahman, after which they finally encountered Vishnu himself.  Vishnu explained that he was the one who took away the Brahmin's sons, just to get Krishna and Arjuna to come there, as they were the next births of his incarnation Narayana and his twin brother Nara (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3712/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3936/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  Finally Krishna and Arjuna returned to Dwaraka with the Brahmana's sons restored to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about the story of how they met Vishnu, but rather about how Vishnu looked.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/89/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Srimad Bhagavatam describes him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna then saw the omnipresent and omnipotent Supreme Personality of Godhead, Mahā-Viṣṇu, sitting at ease on the serpent bed. His bluish complexion was the color of a dense rain cloud, He wore a beautiful yellow garment, His face looked charming, His broad eyes were most attractive, and &lt;strong&gt;He had eight long, handsome arms&lt;/strong&gt;. His profuse locks of hair were bathed on all sides in the brilliance reflected from the clusters of precious jewels decorating His crown and earrings. He wore the Kaustubha gem, the mark of Śrīvatsa and a garland of forest flowers. Serving that topmost of all Lords were His personal attendants, headed by Sunanda and Nanda; His cakra and other weapons in their personified forms; His consort potencies Puṣṭi, Śrī, Kīrti and Ajā; and all His various mystic powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why is Vishnu described as having eight arms?  He is usually described in Hindu scripture as having four arms, not eight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this one of Vishnu's manifestations, like the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra#Divine_Manifestation&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vyuha&lt;/a&gt; forms of Vishnu discussed in Pancharatra texts?  Are there any other scriptures that describe an eight-armed form of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/8/12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;another verse&lt;/a&gt; from the Srimad Bhagavatam that mentions Vishnu having eight arms.  It's from the Narayana Kavacham, a famous prayer to Vishnu that I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2623/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Lord, who sits on the back of the bird Garuḍa, touching him with His lotus feet, holds eight weapons — the conchshell, disc, shield, sword, club, arrows, bow and ropes. May that Supreme Personality of Godhead protect me at all times with His eight arms. He is all-powerful because He fully possesses the eight mystic powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2021-02-03T18:04:44.780" Title="Why does Vishnu have eight arms when Krishna and Arjuna go to see him?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|puranas|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6675" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-10T11:49:04.710" Score="11" ViewCount="9516" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that Lord Rama was born at afternoon 12 O'clock (In day time) in Treta yuga. Same as in Dwapara yuga, Lord Krishna was born at mid night 12 O'clock (In night time). Both Lord Rama and Lord Krishna were avatara of Lord Vishnu, then what is the need of choosing specific time? They can born anytime, time never bond to gods as per my understanding.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why did Lord Rama and Lord Krishna choose to born at 12 O'clock in day and in night time respectively?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is significance of birth timing in both case?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We commonly perform Krishnastami pooja and Ramnavami pooja at same time which I mentioned. I have heard from my elders, &lt;em&gt;those people, who are in &quot;Bhojan or external desires&quot; were unaware of Lord Rama's birth and those people, who are in &quot;Kama bhog&quot; were unaware of Lord Krishna's birth.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I got birth time (12 O'clock) details of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna from one of the article based on &quot;Stotra mantranche vignyan&quot;(page no.25) by Parampujya Swami Savitanand which is published by Prasad prakashan, Pune. Soft copy link for this is not available online, but from &lt;a href=&quot;http://bookganga.com/eBooks/Books/Details/5586247400647207423&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; get the hard copy. Scriptures are only defining that Lord Rama was born at mid-day and Lord Krishna was born at Midnight. Beside this I did not find any scriptural reference of exact birth time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-15T08:50:32.157" LastActivityDate="2017-11-25T10:24:21.050" Title="Why did Lord Rama and Lord Krishna choose to born at (12 O'clock) day and night time respectively?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|krishna|bhagavata-purana|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6676" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-10T12:10:49.463" Score="11" ViewCount="10416" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why does Lord Krishna wear peacock feather on His head?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the significance of playing Basuri/Flute by Lord Krishna?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any reference that took place that made Lord Krishna to wear peacock feather on His head and Flute in His hand respectively?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4yicy.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-14T01:36:17.957" LastActivityDate="2017-11-14T01:36:17.957" Title="Why does Lord Krishna wear peacock feather on His head?" Tags="|krishna|symbolism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6678" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6669" CreationDate="2015-03-10T17:42:42.040" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following is another perspective for this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Does Heart mean the physical heart?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually the Heart mentioned by the text does not mean literally the physical blood pumping organ in the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rather it means the spiritual heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Sri Ramana Maharishi says in this matter&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/diction/ramana.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; [Reference]&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The Heart] is the Centre of spiritual experience according to the testimony of Sages. The spiritual Heart-centre is quite different from the blood- propelling, muscular organ known by the same name. The spiritual Heart-centre is not an organ of the body. All that you can say of the Heart is that it is the very Core of your being, that [with] which you are really identical (as the word in Sanskrit literally means), whether you are awake, asleep or dreaming, whether you are engaged in work or immersed in Samadhi. (Ramana Maharshi, MG, 73.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Heart … is different from the blood vessel, so called, and is not the Anahata Chakra in the middle of the chest, one of the six centres spoken of in books on Yoga. (Ramana Maharshi, KOL, 150.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This heart is different from the physical heart; beating is the function of the latter. The former is the seat of spiritual experience. That is all that can be said of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;So what does the Heart as the center or cause of all knowledge?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in other words Heart here does not refer to the physical heart, but the Heart of our being. The spiritual heart. It is actually the consciousness which is the core of our being, thus it is called as Heart since it is the cause of all causes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now why is it that knowledge finds its seat in the Heart?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is because it is from consciousness that all knowledge arises. If you do not know that you exist, then you cannot know anything else. Thus this consciousness is the core and the cause of all knowledge. This consciousness is the Heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Krishnananda says in the Philosophy of Life, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/phil/phil_05.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Theory of Perception as that&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The real seer and the senser of things is this consciousness which is at the background of the perceiving subject as its existence and essence. The ultimate knower of the world is an absolute being whose presence is established by the nature of knowledge itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is the difference between Manas, Buddhi, Chitta and Prajna?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Buddhi&lt;/a&gt; - Buddhi means the intellect. It is the Mind engaging in analysis and discrimination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manas_%28early_Buddhism%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manas&lt;/a&gt; - Manas implies the emotional nature of the Mind. The Mind with its thoughts and emotions is called Manas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/chitta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chitta&lt;/a&gt; - Chitta essentially means the subconscious mind. It is literally translated 'mind-stuff'. It is the Mind which penetrates into a very subtle realms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prajna_%28Vedic%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prajna&lt;/a&gt; - Prajna is pure wisdom. According to Mandukya Upanishad, the causal body (karana sarira) where the Mind-stuffs dissolves and only a mass of consciousness remains, is called Prajna. In this state there is an abundance of bliss called anandamaya. This is called Prajna. [Mandukya Upanishad, 5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Essentially speaking, manas, buddhi and chitta all refer to the Mind. But they are used to highlight various modes or functions of the Mind. In essence there is only the Mind. This Mind when it engages in intellectual stuff is called Buddhi, when emotional, it is called Manas, and when generally speaking, it is called chitta. [Here is more information about these various faculties - &lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/antahkarana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Various modes of Mind]&#xA;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;All the best!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-03-10T18:39:18.850" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6679" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="336" CreationDate="2015-03-10T18:36:59.760" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There  is  a  great  difference  between  a  religion  and  a  dharma.  A  religion  is  something  that  is  founded  by  someone.  A  religion  is  where  a  large  group  of  people  share  a  common  symbol,  a  common  religious  text,  a  common  GOD  and  a  common  founder.  A  religion  is  something  that  consists  of  a  group  of  followers  who  earlier  followed  a  different  faith  but  now  are  following  a  certain  faith  that  they  now  believe  in.  A  religion  is  one  which  was  founded  by  a  religious  movement.  A  religion  has  a  date  of  origin.  A  religion  is  a  set  of  belief  systems.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma  on  the  other  hand  is  more  of  a  way  of  living  or  a  way  of  life  followed  since  antiquity,  i.e.,  since  the  start  of  civilisation.  Dharma  was  a  kind  of  education  or  knowledge  imparted  to  a  person  to  lead  a  life  in  a  certain  way.  Dharma  is  also  sometimes  considered  as  a  complete  and  continuous  education.  Dharma  is  based  on  the  principle  of  truth.  Dharma  is  based  on  various  stages  that  a  man  passes  through  in  his  lifetime,  i.e.,  birth,  childhood,  youth,  old  age  and  death.  Dharma  is  the  truth  or  Dharma  is  the  righteousness.  If  Karma  is  the  righteous  action,  Dharma  is  the  righteous  decision.  Dharma  is  not  preached.  Dharma  is  learnt,  followed  and  practised.  Dharma  is  the  role  you  play.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-blogs/seekers/philosophy/difference-between-religion-and-dharma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Difference between Religion and Dharma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2604" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-11T02:52:01.723" LastActivityDate="2015-03-11T02:52:01.723" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6680" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6672" CreationDate="2015-03-10T23:51:56.830" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna is considered avatar of Vishnu. Vishnu is  personal expansion of Mahavishnu for our brahmanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As your text mentions, krishna met Mahavishnu (not vishnu). Mahavishnu sometimes depicted as the one with eight arms. There is one such depiction in Angkor Wat in cambodia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g297390-d317907-i49783251-Angkor_Wat-Siem_Reap_Siem_Reap_Province.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g297390-d317907-i49783251-Angkor_Wat-Siem_Reap_Siem_Reap_Province.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-04T13:03:55.577" LastActivityDate="2015-06-04T13:03:55.577" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6682" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-11T04:53:09.323" Score="17" ViewCount="9612" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's well-known that the Pandavas were all sons of gods: Yudhishthira was the son of Yama god of death, Bhima was the son of Vayu the wind god, Arjuna was the son of Indra king of the gods, and Nakula and Sahadeva were sons of the twin Ashwini Kumaras.  But these weren't the only gods they were incarnations of.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01200.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata describes how the gods were once conducting a Yagna when they saw a golden lotus floating in the Ganga river.  Indra traced the lotus back to the source of the Ganga, where he saw a woman weeping while her tears being transformed into golden lotuses.  When he asked her why she was crying, she took him to a mountain in the Himalayas where a young man and a woman were playing dice.  Indra tried to introduce himself as the lord of the Universe, but the young man showed no interest in it.  Indra angrily repeated his statement, when suddenly the young man revealed himself to be Shiva.  To punish Indra for his arrogance, Shiva forced Indra into an underground cave, which contained other five people.  It turns out that Shiva had given the same test to five previous Indras as well, and he imprisoned them because they failed it.  But Shiva offered the Indras a way to redemption:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those that are of disposition like thine never obtain my grace. These others (within the cave) had at one time been like thee. Enter thou this cave, therefore, and lie there for some time. The fate of you all shall certainly be the same. All of you shall have to take your birth in the world of men, where, having achieved many difficult feats and slaying a large number of men, ye shall again by the merits of your respective deeds, regain the valued region of Indra. Ye shall accomplish all I have said and much more besides, of other kinds of work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a result, the five previous Indras were born as the five Pandavas.  The present Indra served as the father of one of them, Arjuna, to redeem himself as well.  And the weeping woman, referred to in the text as Sri or Lakshmi, incarnated as the Pandavas' wife Draupadi.  (Madhvacharya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dvaipayana.net/mbtn-trans/chapter_18_prabhanjanacharya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that this isn't Vishnu's wife Lakshmi, however, but rather an almagamation of the goddesses  Syamala, Bharati, Sachi and Ushas, denoted as Sri because of their opulence.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, who were the five previous Indras who were born as the Pandavas?  All the Mahabharata tells us is that their names were &quot;Vishwabhuk, Bhutadhaman, Sivi of great energy, Santi the fourth, and Tejaswin&quot;.  But what were their life stories, and when did they live?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are fourteen Manvantaras in a Kalpa, and during each Manvantara a different Indra rules the three worlds.  As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/1/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/5/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, before the current Indra (named  Purandara or Sakra), the previous Indras of the present Kalpa were Yagna (an incarnation of Vishnu), Rochana, Satyajit, Trishikha, Vibhu, and Mantradruma.  None of these seem close to the names of the five cursed Indras.  So did they rule in a previous Kalpa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-25T20:08:02.210" LastActivityDate="2021-02-03T02:05:18.150" Title="Who were the previous Indras that incarnated as the Pandavas?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|indra|manu|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6683" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="411" CreationDate="2015-03-11T07:46:42.803" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do not know of any stories regarding the marriage of Hanuman to a daughter of Sun God. There are various stories created by different writers in India regarding the lives of Mythological Characters which have a local circulation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One need not comment on them. The story of Hanuman marrying Sun God's daughter, is not accepted all over India. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of Hanuman remaining unmarried is, however, common knowledge. It is believed that Hanuman lives as a Spirit for Ever  to help distressed Souls .Bodies that live for Eternity like the Earth and Nine Planets and Stars in Heaven, are all lonely bodies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is believed in Hindu Philosophy, that all those who live for Eternity, should be Lonely Characters. The existence of Twin Stars, which co-exist by revolving around a common centre, was not known to the Philosophers of the Past.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-05-25T06:11:55.367" LastActivityDate="2015-05-25T06:11:55.367" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6686" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-11T08:24:08.557" Score="7" ViewCount="2485" Body="&lt;p&gt;Members of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivaishnava&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnava sect&lt;/a&gt; of Hinduism, especially the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyengar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyengars&lt;/a&gt; (Sri Vaishnavas who are Brahmanas), are divided into two sub-sects, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thenkalai&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thenkalais&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadakalai&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vadakalais&lt;/a&gt;. These two sub-sects both agree on the Visishtadvaita philosophy of Ramanujacharya that characterizes the Sri Vaishnava belief system, but they have several fine-grained but important doctrinal differences; my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2835/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; lays out the main points of dispute. In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3806/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, I asked about one such difference.  Now I'd like to ask about another difference, described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sriramanujar.tripod.com/tVsv.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Kaivalya    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vadakalai View&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(i) Kaivalya is inferior to Paramapada&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(ii) Kaivalya is not eternal&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(iii) Kaivalya is situated Outside Paramapada&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Tenkalai View&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(i) Accepted&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(ii) Kaivalya is eternal&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(iii) Kaivalya is within Paramapada but in its outermost parts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://sreevaishnavam.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/vadakalai-thenkalai-doctrinal-differences/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt; quoting from a journal paper:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;18&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kaivalya (Isolation)-Moksa (or Soul-sight or Soul actualization; or the State of Atomic-aloofness).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Vadakalais] say that this state is temporary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Thenkalais] say it is perennial. The soul wished for it, strove for it, and got it. What it got is eternal, by its own making. Where, then, is extrication from this state? Being a spiritual state, return to material planes is cut off. Being a soul-state, rising to Divine-planes or God-state is shut off.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Kaivalya, AKA Ekatva, is a conception of Moksha where an individual completely realizes the nature of his Atma and achieves a state of abstract and impersonal self-actualization.  It is the highest goal for followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Advaita Vedanta.  Vaishnavas, in contrast, think that even higher than Kaivalya is the attainment of Vishnu in his abode of Paramapada.  (According to Advaita, the individual's Atma is the same as Paramatma, but in Visistadvaita they're not the same, which means that an individual who tried to realize his Atma would fall short of attaining Vishnu.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the issue under consideration is, do souls who follow Advaita and attain Kaivalya ultimately return to the cycle of birth and death, or do they remain in Kaivalya eternally?  Vadakalais say that Kaivalya is temporary and that souls ultimately return to Samsara where they'll have further opportunity to attain Paramapada.  Thenkalais, on the other hand, say that souls who attain Kaivalya never leave it, and are thus unable to progress to the inner parts of Paramapada where Vishnu is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my questions are, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why do Vadakalai Sri Vaishnavas believe that Kaivalya liberation is not eternal?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What arguments have Vadakalai Acharyas like Vedanta Desikan made on this subject?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there any scriptures that Vadakalais believe demonstrate the temporary nature of Kaivalya?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2018-08-01T00:01:54.483" Title="Why do Vadakalai Sri Vaishnavas believe that Advaita liberation is not eternal?" Tags="|philosophy|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|vadakalai|thenkalai|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="50" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6687" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6653" CreationDate="2015-03-11T08:38:29.417" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Study the life of Ramakrishna -- to know that it is possible to detach one's soul from the body and bring it back.Ramakrishna , however , discouraged his disciple Swami Vivekananda ( Naren) from experimenting with this exercise --because he believed that Naren may not be able to come back to his body after separating the soul from the body. &lt;br/&gt; The details of Spiritual Practices and Experiences are given in Patanjali Yoga Darsana . &lt;br/&gt; There is no difference between Hallucinations ,Schizophrenic Experiences and Yogic Experiences.The objective of Yoga , is to Unite the three states of consciousness --the Waking ,The Dream and the Deep Sleep states .Uncotrolled combination of these three states of consciousness ,gives rise to Hallucinations , Schizophrenia and Insanity. &lt;br/&gt; Yogic Exercises are like experimentations with Insanity . That is why a Guru is needed. &lt;br/&gt;The Eternal Sleep or Maha Nidra refers to the Death State .Mother Earth is the ultimate Death State --also is the source of all creations.Identifying oneself with the Earth or merging the soul with Earth ( Prakriti) leads one to permanent Bliss . &lt;br/&gt; Merging the Soul with Shunya ( Infinite Space,Purusha) give Mukti ,Nirvana or Ultimate freedom . &lt;br/&gt; What about merging the Soul with Sun God ? Not much is said about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-07-16T15:53:03.150" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T15:53:03.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6688" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-11T10:25:18.783" Score="0" ViewCount="80" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) translated the Sanskrit word &quot;deva&quot; as &quot;demigod&quot; in his literature when the term referred to a God other than the Supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Source: Wikipedia | &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demigod#Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Demigod&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Demigod first emerged from the west and Swami Prabhupada was the first to adopt this name for his Sanskrit to English translation. So according to Wikipedia he used this word to refer &lt;em&gt;deva&lt;/em&gt; as &lt;em&gt;demigod&lt;/em&gt;, but how could one use that word in this way because &lt;em&gt;deva&lt;/em&gt; simply means a complete god, while &lt;em&gt;demigod&lt;/em&gt; is half human and half god (something like &lt;em&gt;Arjuna&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Bhima&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Yudishtira&lt;/em&gt; who are generally not considered as Hindu gods or &lt;em&gt;devas&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is quite confusing. Any answers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="91" LastActivityDate="2015-03-13T15:28:00.650" Title="Was Demigod's concept misused?" Tags="|gods|demi-god|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2015-03-13T15:58:22.803" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6689" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6691" CreationDate="2015-03-11T10:48:07.073" Score="21" ViewCount="45563" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;li&gt;Jivatma – Soul&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atma– Self&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paramatma - God&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jivatma is the individual, and Atma and Paramatma are Universal.&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;What is difference between Aatma, Jeevatma and Paramatma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-13T23:43:39.633" LastActivityDate="2016-02-14T06:26:31.300" Title="What is difference between Aatma, Jeevatma and Paramatma?" Tags="|atma|jiva|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6691" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6689" CreationDate="2015-03-11T12:24:20.137" Score="22" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Aatma&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; simply means one's true Self. This is the root or fundamental entity of anything or any being that is eternal, unchangeable, unmodifiable and so on. &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; can mean different things depending upon the context it is used. For living beings like us, &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; means the soul about which Shri Krishna explains in the Gita using the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain. [BG - 2.20]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by ﬁre, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. [BG - 2.23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; can even mean Brahman or God also as He is the soul of everything. So when it is said only the &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; was there in the beginning, &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; there means God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ātmā vā idameka evāgra āsīt&lt;/em&gt; [Ait. Up -1]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; alone was there in the beginning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Jivatma&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; which is quality-less and attribute-less when gets combined with &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, forms different kinds of senses (both subtle and gross) and gets different material natures. This combination of &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; and qualities arising from &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt; is called as &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 7.5]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Besides these (insentient matter), O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the jivatma which resides in the physical body and in many other subtle bodies after casting off of the gross one. Jivatma or the jivas are sentient and eternal energy fragments of God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 15.7]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Paramatma&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Paramatma&lt;/em&gt; means supreme soul. If the self of the body is the soul, then Parmatma is the self of the soul. That is, the soul of the soul is the supreme soul:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ānandaṁ paramātmānam ātma-sthaṁ&lt;/em&gt;  [SB - 11.26.1]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - &lt;em&gt;Paramatma&lt;/em&gt; is the reservoir of all pleasure situated within the soul of every living being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God basically has three forms or modes. Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 1.2.11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among these three, in Barhman no attribute, no activity, no power is exhibited. Parmatma exhibits only few more powers and dwells in the heart or soul of every being. But in Bhagavan all power, all &lt;em&gt;lila&lt;/em&gt;(pastimes) and all attributes are exhibited.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the major difference between &lt;em&gt;Jivatma&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Paramatma&lt;/em&gt; is that, Jivatma is &lt;em&gt;mayadhin&lt;/em&gt;, that is, he is under the influence of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;. But Paramatma is &lt;em&gt;mayadhis&lt;/em&gt;, that is, He is the Lord of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;. And both over the &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; rules one Lord who is known as God, Bhagavan, parmatma, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kṣaraṃ pradhānamamṛtākṣaraṃ haraḥ kṣarātmānāvīśate deva ekaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [Sve. Up - 1.10]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Matter is perishable, immortal and imperishable is the soul. Both over the perishable and the soul rules one God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-03-11T12:24:20.137" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6692" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-11T13:16:09.923" Score="4" ViewCount="463" Body="&lt;p&gt;1-Bṛhan-nāradīya Purāṇa 3.8.126 and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2-Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 6.3.24.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here it is told to chant the names of the lord but I am confused because I do not know the names? Is it &quot;VishnuSahasraNamam&quot;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2326" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T06:46:37.623" LastActivityDate="2018-10-12T21:50:40.793" Title="Meaning of the slokas from Naradiya Purana and Srimad Bhagavatam" Tags="|belief|puranas|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6696" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-12T01:35:52.057" Score="4" ViewCount="683" Body="&lt;p&gt;1 Kalpa (4.3 Billion Years)of Brahma matches the age of earth approx. which is 4.54 Billion Years. But in the 2nd Kalpa or the night of Brahma (after 4.3 Billion Years), Brahma sleeps and there is total annihilation. So in that case, after this age of earth, the earth should be totally destroyed again? But we are all still alive? Why so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T18:21:50.127" Title="1 Kalpa of Brahma" Tags="|brahma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6698" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-12T01:52:10.160" Score="5" ViewCount="8433" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said in the Kalki Purana --&gt; &quot;According to Kalki Purana, Kali demon will rule the earth and bring sin and misery to the people. When the first stage of the Kali Yuga begins, the varna system will deteriorate. Soon after this, the second, third, and fourth stages of the Kali Yuga begin. During the second and third portions, men will forget the name of God and no longer offer Yagna to the Devas.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why would Kali demon rule earch and bring sin and misery? For what reason?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-21T17:20:54.610" LastActivityDate="2016-06-21T17:20:54.610" Title="Why would Kali Demon cause misery?" Tags="|puranas|yuga|time|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6699" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6698" CreationDate="2015-03-12T02:30:57.113" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's part of the demon Kali's fundamental nature to be evil, considering his lineage, which described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/8/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another son of Lord Brahmā was Irreligion, whose wife’s name was Falsity. From their combination were born two demons named Dambha, or Bluffing, and Māyā, or Cheating. These two demons were taken by a demon named Nirṛti, who had no children. O great soul, from Dambha and Māyā were born Greed and Nikṛti, or Cunning. From their combination came children named Krodha [Anger] and Hiṁsā [Envy], and &lt;strong&gt;from their combination were born Kali and his sister Durukti (Harsh Speech)&lt;/strong&gt;. O greatest of all good men, by the combination of Kali and Harsh Speech were born children named Mṛtyu (Death) and Bhīti (Fear). From the combination of Mṛtyu and Bhīti came children named Yātanā (Excessive Pain) and Niraya (Hell).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Kali certainly lived up to his pedigree; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/17/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam describes how Kali was trying to destroy the last leg of the bull of Dharma.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3092/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for a description of the four legs.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, it should be noted that the sinful nature of Kali aside, the Kali Yuga is not all negative; see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2150/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for the benefits of living in the Kali Yuga, such it made Vyasa shout out &quot;Excellent, excellent, is the Kali age!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-03-12T02:30:57.113" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6700" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="248" CreationDate="2015-03-12T07:14:05.630" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That&lt;/strong&gt; which becomes God also takes the form of a prostitute.  And the place where &lt;strong&gt;That&lt;/strong&gt; resides also becomes a holy place.   Which is why the idol of Kali is made from elements which come from the whole of Universe thus that idol representing whole of Universe irrespective of  differentiation of moral or immoral, paap or punya.   But only the one which has become &lt;strong&gt;That&lt;/strong&gt; can comprehend this philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2614" LastActivityDate="2015-03-12T07:14:05.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6701" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6703" CreationDate="2015-03-12T09:55:26.000" Score="2" ViewCount="971" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Verse 34 of chapter 3 in  &lt;strong&gt;Srimadbhagwadgita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Attraction and repulsion are rooted in all sense-objects.  man should never allow himself to be swayed by them,   because they are the two principal enemies standing in the way of his redemption.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone describe the major relation between Attraction(राग) and repulsion(द्वेष)?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2015-03-14T20:33:16.187" LastActivityDate="2015-03-14T20:33:16.187" Title="What is the relation between Attraction(राग) and Repulsion(द्वेष)?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|darshan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6702" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6707" CreationDate="2015-03-12T12:22:59.700" Score="17" ViewCount="11662" Body="&lt;p&gt;We hear a lot about incarnations of Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva and other Gods, but were there any incarnations of Lord Bramha too?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-05T15:48:24.960" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T21:18:40.293" Title="Were there any incarnations of Lord Brahma?" Tags="|avatars|brahma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6703" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6701" CreationDate="2015-03-12T12:36:55.540" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Raga&lt;/em&gt; means attachment, liking or desire for something and &lt;em&gt;dvesa&lt;/em&gt; means aversion, dislike or hatred for something. So the relation between the two is that &lt;strong&gt;they are opposite to each other&lt;/strong&gt;. But because the world is filled with dualities like hot-cold, pleasure-pain, etc., &lt;em&gt;liking for something can automatically create dislike for the opposite of that thing&lt;/em&gt;. For example, if one likes hot coffee and tasty food then he will dislike cold coffee and tasteless food. If one has a liking for winter season, then he may dislike the others. Similarly, if one dislikes the winter season, then he will like any other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So whether it is &lt;em&gt;raga&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;dvesa&lt;/em&gt;, one can lead to another because the world is filled with objects of both kinds called as &lt;em&gt;dvanda&lt;/em&gt; in the scriptures.. So Shri Krishna instructs to get rid of both of them. Whatever may it be, &lt;em&gt;raga&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;dvesa&lt;/em&gt;, when one has it for certain person or certain being, he is bound to think about it all the time. If a person likes someone then he will think about him, and if a person hates someone, then also the person will think about him. So either of them is bad. Both has to be get rid of to fix the mind on God. Generally spiritual practitioners develop attachment towards God but in the way they tend to dislike &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt; or the material world. But that is wrong, there should not be liking or disliking for anything in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In that verse (BG 3.34) Shri Krishna tells that, this &lt;em&gt;raga&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;dvesa&lt;/em&gt; exist in the senses because through the senses that the objects of the world is felt. And due to the nature of the world, while certain things are pleasurebale to the senses certain things are not. Due to the three fold material nature every one has liking and disliking for certain things as per their own nature. Every body is born into this delusion of dualities of the world:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;iccha-dvesha-samutthena dvandva-mohena bharata&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarva-bhutani sammoham sarge yanti parantapa&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 7.27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O scion of Bharata, O conqueror of the foe, all living entities are born into delusion, bewildered by dualities arisen from desire and hate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But because either of it causes attachment to material things and not God, Shri Krishna instructs to get rid of both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-03-12T12:36:55.540" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6706" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-12T19:22:49.273" Score="8" ViewCount="2888" Body="&lt;p&gt;Akashic Records are defined by some hindus and theosophists as  a compendium of thoughts, events, and emotions  encoded in a non-physical plane of existence known as the astral plane.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its been believed that , nothing actually lost in the world.Each thought , event , all books are perfectly recorded in this infinite medium. Only few people who are capable of reading it can access it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One recent example is , pandit subbaraya shastri , who accessed portions of vaimanika shastra( written by sage Bharadvaja) , which was supposed to be lost.But I couldn't find any references or quotes of its existence in any of books I have read.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does any one aware of explicit references of such things in any hindu scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastActivityDate="2015-09-19T19:03:56.267" Title="akashic records and Hinduism" Tags="|vedas|krishna|puranas|brahma|rishi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6707" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6702" CreationDate="2015-03-13T04:26:40.193" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Brahma has taken incarnations&lt;/strong&gt;.  Here are two of them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chandra:&lt;/strong&gt; As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1984/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, there was once a Brahmana named Kaushika who received a curse from the sage Mandavya that he would die at sunrise.  As a result Kaushika's wife, who had magical powers, stopped the sun from rising.  So the world was engulfed in darkness, and the gods turned Anusaya, wife of the sage Atri who was a mind-born son of Brahma, for help.  Anusaya convinced Kaushika's wife to allow the sun to rise in exchange for Anusaya using her magical powers to save Kaushika's life.  The gods were pleased with Anusaya and offered her a boon.  Anusaya asked that Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva should all be born as her sons.  They agreed, and soon enough Brahma incarnated as Chandra the Moon god (AKA Soma), Vishnu, incarnated as Dattatreya, and Shiva incarnated as the angry sage Durvasa.  Here is how their births are described in chapter 16 of the Markandeya Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The moon, the stay of the life of all creatures, was born as the mind begotten son of the patriarch Atri.&lt;/strong&gt; Well-pleased the high-souled Vishnu was born from his own body as the best of the twice-born, Dattatreya permeated by the quality of goodness. Incarnating himself Vishnu was born as the second son of Atri known under the name of Dattatreya who sucked the breast of Anusuya.... Then was born Durvasa, a portion of Rudra impregnated with the quality of darkness. Thus Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva were born as her three sons. By virtue of the boon conferred upon her by the celestials Brahma was born at the moon, Vishnu as Dattatreya and Sankara as Durvasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vikhanasa:&lt;/strong&gt; Mainstream Vaishnavism is based on a set of scriptures known as Pancharatra.  The Pancharatra texts consist detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu and twin brother of the sage Nara.  (Arjuna and Krishna were reincarnations of Nara and Narayana respectively.) Since the Pancharatra texts originated from Vishnu himself, they are followed by pretty much all mainstream Vaishnava Sampradayas, whether Sri Vaishnavas, Madhvas, Gaudiya Vaishnavas, etc.  (For more information on the Panharatra texts, see my questions &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/pancharatra&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3977/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, there is another group of Vishnu-worshippers who worship Vishnu according to a different set of texts, the Vaikhanasas.  They're a tiny minority among worshippers of Vishnu, but for instance they're in charge of the famous Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple.  In any case, the Vaikhanasa tradition was founded by Brahma's incarnation Vikhanasa, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/XBiP&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from S. Rangachar's book &quot;Philosophy of Pancaratras&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma incarnated himself as Vikhanas in the Naimisharanya and then Vishnu Himself taught Brahma the mysteries of worship in the form of thirty two questions. Since God, the Bhagavan himself taught this Agama to Brahma first, Vishnu Himself is the originator of the Agama also as in the case of Pancharatra Agama. As it was Vikhanasa who gave this Agama to the world directly through his four disciples or Maharishis, namely Atri, Marichi, Kashyapa and Bhrigu, he is as said to be the Pravartaka of this Agama and hence the agama is called after him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then those four sages are said to have composed texts of their own in the Vaikhanasa tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, putting these two stories together, we get the interesting conclusion that Atri was the father of one incarnation of Brahma and the student of another, all the while being the son of Brahma himself!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T21:18:40.293" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6708" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="213" CreationDate="2015-03-13T04:55:00.857" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;@AksharRoop and @Tejesh Alimilli  has already explained two mythological stories which tells us how Lord Ganesha became the 'Pratham pujya' (the one who is worshiped first).&#xA;I want to give one more reason for why Lord Ganesha is worshiped before starting any task.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yogic Belief:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the yogic perspective, the presiding deity for the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muladhara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Muladhara Chakra &lt;/a&gt; is Shri Ganesha, the Eternal Child (of Adi Shakti)). He is the embodiment of innocence and He guards His Mother Kundalini (Adi Shakti) and Her instrument with great alertness and uncompromising zeal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/ganapatiupanishad.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganapati Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesha is eternal and appeared even before the creation of nature (prakriti) and consciousness (purusha). which means He appeared even before the process of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adishakti.org/subtle_system/mooladhara_chakra.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Before human beings were created, before the Earth and sky, long before the sun, the moon, and the galaxies, I (Shri Ganesha) filled everything with holiness and innocence. Single-handedly the Mother Holy Spirit, Adi Shakti, created Me (Shri Ganesha) first to guard and protect Her everywhere. My total surrender to Her (Adi Shakti) and My exclusive alliance to Her can remove any obstacle. In your body I am innocence, wisdom and spontaneity. &lt;strong&gt;I am the sanctity of the marriage union and the blessing of saintly children. When Kundalini awakens My presence in you,&lt;/strong&gt; you regain your lost innocence. She overcomes all of His enemies outside, as well as those within your being. I am the Everlasting Child and the sparkles of My innocence radiate the universe in a constant flow of bliss.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Ganesha was created by the Adi Shakti, the Primordial Power of God Almighty, without the cause of male-female principle. Being born out of the&#xA;  Primordial Mother, He is with Her all the times and in Muladhara Chakra in the human being. He is the embodiment of innocence, purity, and chastity in creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This might be one of reason for people worshipping lord Ganesha before they start off with marriage proceedings, and on marriage invitation cards. As well as keep idols of lord Ganesha in their cars, home entrances, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adwaitjoshi.com/atharvashirsha.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganapati Atharvashirsha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; says: Shri Ganesha always reside in the &quot;MULADHARA&quot; Chakra of our body and having the Power of trinity (Creative Maintaining &amp;amp; Destructive Powers). He is trigunatmak by having 3 'GUNAS', (Satva: Pure, Rajas: Activating &amp;amp; Tamas: Dull). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tvam Guna Traya Atitaha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tvam Deha Treya Atitaha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tvam Kala Treya Atitaha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tvam Avastreya Atitaha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tvam Muladhar Stiti Yosi Nityam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tvam Shakti Treya Atmakaha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tvam Yogino Dhayayanti Nityam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tvam Bramhastvan, Vishnustvam, Rudrastvam, Indrastvam Agnistvam, Vayustvam, Suryastvam, Chndramastvam, Bramha Bhur Bhuva Svorom || 6 ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Meaning:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You(Shri Ganesha) are beyond the 3 'GUNAS', (Satva: Pure, Rajas: Activating &amp;amp; Tamas: Dull)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are beyond the 3 Bodies; (Gross, Subtle &amp;amp; Casual)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are beyond Past, Present &amp;amp; Future (3 State of Time)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are beyond 3 states of being; (Awake, dream &amp;amp; Deep Sleep)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You always Reside in the &quot;MULADHARA&quot; Chakra&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are the trinity of Power; (Creative Maintaining &amp;amp; Destructive Powers)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sages always Meditate on you&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are the creator. Sustainer, Destroyer, The Lord of 3 worlds, Fire, Air, Sun, Moon, You are all inclusive &amp;amp; all Pervading || 6 ||    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://prasadkurundkar.blogspot.in/2010/05/shlok-1.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramdas swami Manache shlok 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;: Ramdas swami also states that Shri Ganesha is stays in Muladhar chakra of ones body, where kundalini shakti sleeps here, waiting to be aroused with blessings of lord Ganesha and it reaches up to Brahman (the absolute).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ganadhish jo ish sarwa gunancha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Mularambh arambh to nirgunacha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Namu sharada mul chatwar wacha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Gamu panth aanat ya raghawacha || 1 ||   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning :Lets prey the god Ganapati, who is the leader of all gana (ganadhish), who is the lord of serveral devine virtues (uttam gun), &lt;strong&gt;who is starting element of non-physical existance (nirgun)&lt;/strong&gt;. We pray to lord Ganapati to seek success in our task (of setting us on to a life of betterment). We then pray Maa Saraswati, who is the pioneer energy to the universe for its operation which is in the form of four sound levels (chatwar wacha : para, pashyanti, madhyma and waikhari). With the prayer to Ganadhish and Sharada (after understanding their forms : knowledge and energy respectively). We seek their grace (aashirwad) to enable us go by the ideal life (as demonstrated by lord Ram in his avataar). We wish to walk our life by the path (panth) as shown by Lord Ram (raghav) and endlessly (aanant).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anything we do has to fall under one of the two categories: material or spiritual.  As we know Lord Ganesha rules the 'Muladhara chakra' of our body. 'Muladhara chakra' is the interface between the material and the spiritual worlds. Lord Ganesha is said to control both these worlds. He is the one who gives the material enjoyments in this world and He is the one who liberates us from the endless cycle of birth and death. &lt;strong&gt;Our material life as well as our spiritual journey starts from the 'Muladhara chakra' which is controlled by Lord Ganesha. It is He who informs Kundalini when it is time to awaken and to reach nirgun nirakar swarup(brahman). Hence, to complete our life cycle without any obstacles, we need the blessings of Lord Ganesha.&lt;/strong&gt; Since He is the one who gets rid off all the obstacles from our lives, that is why we worship Lord Ganesha before beginning any important work/task.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2019-10-25T06:30:34.873" LastActivityDate="2019-10-25T06:30:34.873" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6710" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6666" CreationDate="2015-03-13T08:32:43.970" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahansa --Guru of Swami  Vivekananda , has said that there are no Rules or Timings regarding the study of Religious Texts . This is also the statement of Swami Vivekananda. &lt;br/&gt; Since the study of Religious Texts are for Self Improvement ,every individual should find his/her own convenient place and time , when/where he/she study the texts Undisturbed and with Full Concentration. &lt;br/&gt; Swami Vivekananda gives the example of Sun Light falling on a paper. It is bright enough to study the writings on the paper .But if  a Convex Lens is placed between the paper and Sunlight , so that the light is Focused on the paper ,the concentrated Sunlight  may burn the paper. &lt;br/&gt; Concentrated study , similarly can Destroy one's Sins or the outer covering of Maya and enable one to know that Atma and Paramatma are One. &quot; Aham Brahmasmi &quot;. This is the objective of all spiritual texts--to teach that the Individual Soul is Potentially or Inherently Divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2015-03-13T08:32:43.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6711" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6647" CreationDate="2015-03-13T09:08:06.160" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;(1) &quot;Karmanyeva-dhikara:ste  ma phalesu kadachana&quot;---You have control over your actions , but no control of the fruits of actions. &lt;br/&gt; For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (with some time delay). When you get into some action (karma) , there is bound to be a reaction . But since you are acting on the Universe ,the reaction also comes from the Universe --but with some time delay .Since we know only  a small part of the Universe , we believe that the Reactions (Karma Phala) come from this small region --which is only partially true. It is difficult , therefore , to predict with certainty and accuracy, what will be the Reactions (Karma Phala) and when you will receive it . &lt;br/&gt; (2) &quot;Ma Karma phala-hetu:rvu ,Ma te sango:stu-avikarmani&quot; ---Do not act with the hope of a specific reward ,do not get involved in Bad Activities. &lt;br/&gt; We act with the hope of a specific reward. An employee works for an organization , with the hope of getting a salary at the end of the month.There is a high probability that he will get his expected salary at the end of the month --but no one can guarantee it. &lt;br/&gt; Some times you get more than what you have expected ,sometimes less and at other times , the opposite of your expectations.Because of the uncertainty and unpredictability associated with the fruits of actions , it is better to avoid Bad Actions --which are likely to harm you and others .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2015-03-13T09:08:06.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6712" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6719" CreationDate="2015-03-13T12:58:21.267" Score="5" ViewCount="119" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can Anyone Describe that&#xA;What is the role of &quot;sect&quot; in Hinduism ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2620" LastActivityDate="2018-05-20T16:01:48.837" Title="What is the role of &quot;sect&quot; in Hinduism?" Tags="|sects|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6713" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6723" CreationDate="2015-03-13T13:13:47.770" Score="4" ViewCount="220" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read about the women place in Hinduism that  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A woman is compared to the Divine Mother &#xA;    (Shakti) who has given birth to all creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;But Now i Want to know that.&#xA;  What is the place of man in Hinduism?&lt;/em&gt;        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2620" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T08:06:48.037" Title="What is the place of man in Hinduism?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6715" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6717" CreationDate="2015-03-13T18:24:46.333" Score="6" ViewCount="1393" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the earliest reference for idol worship in Hinduism? It seems like, there is no direct indication or advice of idol worship in any of the religious texts. If there are no references how did it come in to practice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1123" LastActivityDate="2019-01-30T00:44:25.380" Title="Idol worship in Hinduism" Tags="|worship|idols|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6717" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6715" CreationDate="2015-03-14T00:31:39.867" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, it is not true. There are plenty of references in the religious texts regarding worshiping God through idols and images.For example, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhagavata Mahapuran Shri Krishna speaks about idol worship in brief:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Deity form of the Lord is said to appear in eight varieties — stone, wood, metal, earth, paint, sand, the mind or jewels. [SB - 11.27.12]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not just that, other puranas like Garuda, Agni, etc. talk about process of establishing idols, way of worshiping them and so on. But the scriptures that talk about the process of idol worship, temples, etc. in detail are the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pancharatras&lt;/a&gt;. In the vedas it is mentioned that vedas and puranas first originated from the Lord making the puranas the earliest reference containing idol worship. Otherwise, the Pancharatra texts are the earliest ones to talk about idol worship in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Shri Kirshna says in the above mentioned chapter, the Lord can be worshiped in three ways, Vedic, Tantric and a mixture of both. During ancient times like Satya and Tretaya people were mentally and spiritually advanced, so they were able to perform &lt;em&gt;yajnas&lt;/em&gt; perfectly without needing to resort to idol worships. But as time passed people became more and more mentally and spiritually declined. Hence, properly following the scriptural injunctions of the Vedas became difficult and the practice of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/665/38&quot;&gt;idol worship&lt;/a&gt; increased. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-03-14T00:31:39.867" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6718" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-14T04:08:27.653" Score="3" ViewCount="211" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata, during one of the nights of the war Bhishma tries to convince Duryodhana to make peace with the Pandavas, arguing that they're invincible since they have Krishna on their side.  To prove his point, Bhishma tells Duryodhana a hymn to Vishnu that was once said by Brahma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hear from me, O king, this hymn that was uttered by Brahman himself. This hymn was in days of old communicated by regenerate Rishis and the gods (to men) on Earth-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'&lt;strong&gt;Narada described thee as the Master and the Lord of the god of gods and all the Sadhyas and the celestials, and as one acquainted with the nature of the Creator of the worlds. Markandeya spoke of thee as the Past, the Present, and the Future, and the sacrifice of sacrifices, and the austerity of austerities. The illustrious Bhrigu said of thee that thou art the God of the gods, that thine is the ancient form of Vishnu. Dwaipayana said of thee that thou art Vasudeva of the Vasus, the establisher of Sakra, and the God of gods and all creatures. In days of old on the occasion of procreating creatures, the sages spoke of thee as Daksha, the Father of creation. Angiras said that thou art the creator of all beings. Devala said of thee that the unmanifest all is thy body, and the manifest is in thy mind, and that the gods are all the result of thy breath. With thy heads is pervaded the heavens, and thy two arms support the Earth. In thy stomach are three worlds and thou art the Eternal Being. Even thus do men exalted by asceticism know thee. Thou art the Sat of Sat, with Rishis gratified with sight of Self. With royal sages of liberal minds, never retreating from battle and having morality for their highest end, thou, O slayer of Madhu, art, the sole refuse.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even thus is that illustrious and Supreme Being, viz., Hari, adored and worshipped by Sanatkumar and other ascetics endued with Yoga. The truth about Kesava, O sire, is now narrated to thee, both in brief and detail. Turn thy heart in love to Kesava.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the course of this hymn, the sages Narada, Markandeya, Bhrigu, Vyasa, Angiras, and Devala are all quoted by Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, where are these quotes taken from?  Are these just things these sages said, or are they taken from works they're the seers or authors of?  Some of these sages are seers of hymns of the Vedas; see the Rig Veda Anukramani compiled in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So could these quotes actually be Vedic verses?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, this isn't the only example of a hymn from Brahma addressed to Vishnu; see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5396/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for another notable example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T18:12:17.033" Title="Where do the quotes from sages in Brahma's hymn to Vishnu come from?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|vedas|brahma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6719" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6712" CreationDate="2015-03-14T08:02:15.100" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The role of sects is to provide different paths for men to reach God. Different paths (sects) are made to suit the different tastes and temperaments of different people. Some people like fried food, some like spicy food. Some people like meat, some don't. There is no one food that suits all tastes and stomachs. The Mahimnah-stotra says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their waters in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they may appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You must stick to one path with all your strength. A man can reach the roof of a house by stone stairs or a ladder or a rope-ladder or a rope or even a bamboo pole. But he cannot reach the roof if he sets foot now on one and now on another. He should firmly follow one path. Likewise, in order to realize God a man must follow one path with all his strength. But you must regard other views as so many paths to God. You should not feel that your path is the only right path and that other paths are wrong. You mustn't bear malice towards others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-03-14T15:52:25.703" LastActivityDate="2015-03-14T15:52:25.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6720" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6794" CreationDate="2015-03-14T09:17:03.903" Score="5" ViewCount="4286" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to what I have studied yet the 23rd incarnation of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; is (ईशान) Ishan (&lt;strong&gt;The ruler&lt;/strong&gt;).&#xA;The story related to this incarnation is not described much deeper or it can be my fault that I have not found a good reference yet. Can anybody help me with brief story to clear my doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-13T23:35:47.470" LastActivityDate="2017-04-16T04:05:55.713" Title="What is the story of Siva's Incarnation (ईशान) Ishan?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|avatars|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6722" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6603" CreationDate="2015-03-14T23:22:15.477" Score="3" Body="&lt;h2&gt; 1.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The purpose of Duryodhana to mention these specific warrior names in above verse is that Duryodhana Has never letdown the power of a Gallant in any places of the Mahabharata, And it's a big aspect of a warrior.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt; 2.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All warriors like Arjuna, Bhima, Nakula, Sahdeva ,Yudhisthira, Bhisma, Drona, Vikarna, Duryodhana and various others of both sides are great warriors with strange skills but they are bounded by either there king's wish or there oath or something like that but all of them had war somewhere inside there heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt; 3.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chekitana&lt;/strong&gt; was a yadav maharathi and one of the seven commanders of &lt;strong&gt;pandavas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purujit&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Kuntibhoj&lt;/strong&gt; are brothers of &lt;strong&gt;Kunti&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saibya&lt;/strong&gt; was the father in law of &lt;strong&gt;Yudhisthira&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yudhamanyu&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Uttamauja&lt;/strong&gt; were two brothers and princes of &lt;strong&gt;Panchal&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhurishrava the son of &lt;strong&gt;Somedatta&lt;/strong&gt; was the grandson of King &lt;strong&gt;Santanu&lt;/strong&gt;'s elder brother.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt; 4.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first chapter of &lt;strong&gt;Bhagwat Gita&lt;/strong&gt; is named &lt;strong&gt;Arjunvisadyoga&lt;/strong&gt; and in this chapter mainly the disenchant of Arjuna is described. All of the warriors have some &lt;strong&gt;specific skills&lt;/strong&gt; but they are &lt;strong&gt;still mislead due to disenchant&lt;/strong&gt;.The aim mentioning there names here is to describe &lt;strong&gt;the darkness of disenchant&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-15T11:17:03.523" LastActivityDate="2015-03-15T11:17:03.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6723" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6713" CreationDate="2015-03-15T00:18:41.440" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The place of &lt;strong&gt;Man&lt;/strong&gt; in Hinduism is as well as a &lt;strong&gt;Women&lt;/strong&gt; place .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If A &lt;strong&gt;Women&lt;/strong&gt; Compared to the Divine Mother &lt;strong&gt;Shakti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;who has given birth to all creation,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then a Man also compared to&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;the &lt;strong&gt;Peerless&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;Festerer&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Preserver&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Srimadbhagavad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Gita&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;it has been told by &lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; and has been explained In Sanskrit Commentary By &lt;strong&gt;Sri Shankaracharya&lt;/strong&gt; In &lt;strong&gt;ShankarBhasya&lt;/strong&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Shrimad Bhagwad Gita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is The Main Sloka From &lt;strong&gt;GITA 8:4&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अधिभूतं क्षरो भावः पुरुषश्चाधिदैवतम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अधियज्ञोऽहमेवात्र देहे देहभृतां वर।।8.4।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The which exists in the physical plane is the mutable entity, and what exists in the divine plane is the Person. O best among the embodied beings, I Myself am the entity that exists in the sacrifice in this body.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Explanation Of Shankaracharya:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुरुष: पूर्णम् अनेन सर्वम् इति पुरि शयनाद&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वा पुरुष आदित्यान्तगर्तो हिरण्यगर्भ:सर्व -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रनिकरणानाम् अनुग्राहक: स: अधिदैवतम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Purusah means the Person, derived in the sense of he by whom all things are pervaded; or, he who lies in every heart. He is Hiranyagarbha, who resides in the Sun and sustains the organs of all creatures. He is the principle of subjective existence, the entity existing in the divine plane.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T08:06:48.037" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6725" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6728" CreationDate="2015-03-15T12:57:03.123" Score="5" ViewCount="5919" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard something about Rantideva that he was a king but I don't know the full story of King Rantideva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can you help me with the story related to the King Rantideva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2630" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T03:34:21.370" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T03:34:21.370" Title="Who was the King Rantideva?" Tags="|vishnu|kings|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6726" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-15T13:13:00.313" Score="13" ViewCount="2239" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just completed reading Bhagavad Gita. I used &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Bhagavad-Gita-Hindi-C-Bhaktivedanta-Swami-Prabhupada/dp/9382176330/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1426424739&amp;amp;sr=1-1&amp;amp;keywords=bhagwad%20geeta%20in%20hindi&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; publication to read Bhagavad Gita. I really find this publication a truly convincing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to start reading Vedas. I started searching online but could not identify which is the right publication for this. Can anyone tell:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What should be the sequence to read Vedas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which is the right publication for Vedas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2632" LastActivityDate="2015-03-18T15:25:54.943" Title="Start reading Hindu Vedas" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2019-05-06T07:12:19.440" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6728" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6725" CreationDate="2015-03-15T16:35:35.183" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OadKl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Image of Rantideva&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name Rantideva brings back memories of reading Amar Chitra Kathas! See &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/UW3V&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Amar Chitra Katha comic book &amp;quot;Tales of Vishnu&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rantideva was a king of the Bharata dynasty.  He was a descendant of the sage Bharadvaja, who was originally the son of Brihaspati guru of the gods but was later adopted by the king Bharata, whom India is named after.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/21/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Srimad Bhagavatam describes Rantideva's lineage:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The son of Vitatha [Bharadwaja] was Manyu, and from Manyu came five sons — Bṛhatkṣatra, Jaya, Mahāvīrya, Nara and Garga. Of these five, the one known as Nara had a son named Saṅkṛti....  Saṅkṛti had two sons, named Guru and Rantideva.  Rantideva is famous in both this world and the next, for he is glorified not only in human society but also in the society of the demigods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rantideva was a great king and a pious devotee of Vishnu.  He once did such a great Yagna (fire-ritual) that the blood from the sacrificed cattle formed a river, the Charmanvati (the modern-day Chambal river), as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Drona Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The king gave away unto the Brahmanas his wealth acquired by righteous means. Having studied the Vedas, he subjugated his foes in fair fight. Of rigid vows and always engaged in due performance of sacrifices, countless animals, desirous of going to heaven, used to come to him of their own accord. So large was the number of animals sacrificed in the Agnihotra of that king that the secretions flowing from his kitchen from the heaps of skins deposited there caused a veritable river which from this circumstance, came to be called the Charmanwati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later his kingdom suffered famine and drought, so he gave away all his possessions to feed his subjects, and then he went to the forest to engage in fasting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it's not his magnanimous deeds as king that Rantideva is known for, but rather his devotion to Vishnu.  The gods once went to Vishnu and asked him who his greatest devotee was.  Vishnu said that it was Rantideva, and the gods were shocked that a king could be such a great devotee.  At the time Rantideva had fasted for 48 days, and he was just about to break his fast.  So the gods took the form as various people and asked him for his food.  The Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/21/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; what happened next:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rantideva never endeavored to earn anything. He would enjoy whatever he got by the arrangement of providence, but when guests came he would give them everything. Thus he underwent considerable suffering, along with the members of his family. Indeed, he and his family members shivered for want of food and water, yet Rantideva always remained sober.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once, after fasting for forty-eight days, in the morning Rantideva received some water and some foodstuffs made with milk and ghee, but when he and his family were about to eat, a brāhmaṇa guest arrived.  Because Rantideva perceived the presence of the Supreme Godhead everywhere, and in every living entity, he received the guest with faith and respect and gave him a share of the food. The brāhmaṇa guest ate his share and then went away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, having divided the remaining food with his relatives, Rantideva was just about to eat his own share when a śūdra guest arrived. Seeing the śūdra in relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, King Rantideva gave him also a share of the food.  When the śūdra went away, another guest arrived, surrounded by dogs, and said, “O King, I and my company of dogs are very hungry. Please give us something to eat.”  With great respect, King Rantideva offered the balance of the food to the dogs and the master of the dogs, who had come as guests. The King offered them all respects and obeisances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, only the drinking water remained, and there was only enough to satisfy one person, but when the King was just about to drink it, a caṇḍāla appeared and said, “O King, although I am lowborn, kindly give me some drinking water.”  Aggrieved at hearing the pitiable words of the poor fatigued caṇḍāla, Mahārāja Rantideva spoke the following nectarean words.   I do not pray to the Supreme Personality of Godhead for the eight perfections of mystic yoga, nor for salvation from repeated birth and death. I want only to stay among all the living entities and suffer all distresses on their behalf, so that they may be freed from suffering.   By offering my water to maintain the life of this poor caṇḍāla, who is struggling to live, I have been freed from all hunger, thirst, fatigue, trembling of the body, moroseness, distress, lamentation and illusion.&amp;quot; Having spoken thus, King Rantideva, although on the verge of death because of thirst, gave his own portion of water to the caṇḍāla without hesitation, for the King was naturally very kind and sober.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Demigods like Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, who can satisfy all materially ambitious men by giving them the rewards they desire, then manifested their own identities before King Rantideva, for it was they who had presented themselves as the brāhmaṇa, śūdra, caṇḍāla and so on.  King Rantideva had no ambition to enjoy material benefits from the demigods. He offered them obeisances, but because he was factually attached to Lord Viṣṇu, Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he fixed his mind at Lord Viṣṇu’s lotus feet.... [B]ecause King Rantideva was a pure devotee, always [fixing his mind on Vishnu] and free from all material desires, the Lord’s illusory energy, māyā, could not exhibit herself before him. On the contrary, for him māyā entirely vanished, exactly like a dream.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So finally, after passing the test of the gods, Rantideva was granted Moksha by Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T15:22:44.270" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6729" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6732" CreationDate="2015-03-15T20:39:22.803" Score="6" ViewCount="2800" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad  Gita Chapter 8 Verse 1: Arjuna asked it to Krishna that What called Adibhuta(Matter)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;किं तद्ब्रह्म किमध्यात्मं किं कर्म पुरुषोत्तम |&#xA;  अधिभूतं च किं प्रोक्तमधिदैवं किमुच्यते || 1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Translation:-&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;Arjun said: O Supreme Lord, what is Brahman (Absolute Reality), what is adhyātma (the individual soul), and what is karma? What is said to be adhibhūta, and who is said to be Adhidaiva?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But lord Krishna define it briefly in &lt;strong&gt;:SBG:&lt;/strong&gt; Chapter 8 Verse 4:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अधिभूतं क्षरो भाव: पुरुषश्चाधिदैवतम् |&#xA;अधियज्ञोऽहमेवात्र देहे देहभृतां वर || 4||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;O best of the embodied souls, the physical manifestation that is constantly changing is called adhibhūta;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;code&gt;the universal form of God, which presides over the celestial gods in this creation, is called adhidaiva; I, who dwell in the heart of every living being, am called Adhiyajña, or the Lord of all sacrifices.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Question is that is there any complete definition of Aadibhuta(Matter) in any hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2015-12-29T18:25:48.810" LastActivityDate="2017-11-18T22:15:22.510" Title="What is called Adhibhuta (Matter)?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6730" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6729" CreationDate="2015-03-15T21:24:33.807" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;You're right, the term Adhibhuta is briefly described in the Bhagavad Gita, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/8/4/en1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter 8 Verse 4&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O best of the embodied beings, the physical nature, which is constantly changing, is called adhibhuta [the material manifestation]. The universal form of the Lord, which includes all the demigods, like those of the sun and moon, is called adhidaiva. And I, the Supreme Lord, represented as the Supersoul in the heart of every embodied being, am called adhiyajna [the Lord of sacrifice].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Adhibhuta consists of entities of the material universe, which are fundamentally transitory and impermanent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more elaboration we can turn to the commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-8-4/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says, for instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adhibhutam, that which exists in the physical plane, i.e. that which exists by comprising all creatures;-what is it?-it consists of the ksarah bhavah, mutable entity. Ksarah is that which is mutable, which is destructible; bhavah means anything whatsoever that has orgination. This is meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-08-04.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Ramanujacharya says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the word adhibhutam or those things pertaining to physical objects sought after by aisvaryarthis or fortune seekers are those things of a perishable nature including the supra subtle principles of sound, sight, smell etc. which are latent in their elements of ether, fire, earth etc and develop therefrom into their support system being the senses. All these things must certainly be comprehended and contemplated by them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhvacharya's commentary on this verse is rather long, but it contains some useful quotes from other scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Gita Kalpa states: &quot;The Supreme Being dwelling within the physical body of all sentient beings is known as adhiyagna. Creation is a natural propensity of the Supreme Lord. It is the manifestation of His Divine will. &lt;strong&gt;Adhibhuta is the manifestation of temporary physical forms in the material existence.&lt;/strong&gt; The jivas or embodied beings are a manifestation of adhyatma. The Supreme Lord's expansions such as Sankarsana or Hiranyagarbha are known as adhidaivam. The Supreme Lord Krishna is the Lord of all gods even Narayana the Lord of the spiritual worlds in Vaikuntha is an expansion of Lord Krishna.&quot; The Skanda Purana states: &quot;That which is dwelling within exercising complete authority over the atma or soul is called adhyatmam. That which is external and separate from the physical body is called adhidaivam. &lt;strong&gt;Everything else which is different are the cause of gross, physical creatures therefore such activity is known as adhibutam.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; The Maha Kurma Purana states: &quot;Adhyatma is that which being beneficial to the pure atma or soul extends unto the bodily limit. &lt;strong&gt;That which becomes useful to the jivas along with their physical bodies and other gross elements is adhibhutam.&lt;/strong&gt; Beyond the scope of maya or illusory impressions superimposed upon the mind which is beneficial to divinity is adhidaivam.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To look at it from a more philosophical perspective, according to Samkhya, the Universe consists of Purushas, or conscious beings, and Prakriti, or unconscious matter.  Prakriti by itself is formless, but in the presence of a conscious being it takes on forms.  Initially it only takes on Sukshma or subtle forms, imperceptible to the senses, but then it takes on gross forms, i.e. the ordinary physical matter we perceive around us with our senses and which make up the physical bodies.  It is the latter form of Prakriti, the substrate of the sensible domain, that is called Adhibhuta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(On a side note, I recently wrote a dialogue exploring why the Samkhya school of philosophy ignores the existence of a supreme being, despite being founded by Kapila an incarnation of Vishnu.  You can read it &lt;a href=&quot;https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ev0XgyKjqu1iktUfgRIWhXnjor6KoWOuvRiGCb9_AYU/edit?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-02-12T06:16:36.983" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:16:36.983" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6731" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6733" CreationDate="2015-03-15T22:27:45.420" Score="7" ViewCount="9270" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Samādhi is the highest state of consciousness that a human can reach in life. It is the goal of our spiritual journey on earth.&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Samadhi has been divided into two parts: Samprajnata and Asamprajnata.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the difference between the two?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it true that in Samadhi a human can control Nature? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-19T20:03:53.660" LastActivityDate="2016-03-23T14:16:00.170" Title="Difference between Samprajnata and Asamprajnata Samadhi?" Tags="|yoga|samadhi|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6732" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6729" CreationDate="2015-03-15T22:43:51.947" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Adhibhuta&lt;/em&gt; simply means the material nature of which all matter and objects are made of. It is made up of the two words &lt;em&gt;adhi&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;bhuta&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Adhi&lt;/em&gt; signifies the excess or upper to something and here it means as the subtle upper nature of the &lt;em&gt;bhutas&lt;/em&gt; or the &lt;em&gt;bhutas&lt;/em&gt; as an whole entity.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bhuta&lt;/em&gt; means that which is created or which manifests or appears. And all matter is simply composed of the 5 elements (fire,water,sky..) called as &lt;em&gt;pancha mahabhuta&lt;/em&gt;. All the five elements were nonexistent in the beginning and appeared from Brahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tasmādvā etasmādātmana ākāśaḥ saṃbhūtaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ākāśādvāyuḥ vāayoragniḥ agnerāpaḥ  adabhyaḥ pṛthivī&lt;/em&gt; [Tait. Up. - 2.1]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Verily from this Self arose the space; from space air, from air fire, from fire water, from water earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since they were not originally there and  only manifested during creation they are called as &lt;em&gt;bhuta&lt;/em&gt;. And &lt;strong&gt;that which was not always there, will not always exist&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, the nature of matter is that it is perishable. So in the Gita Shri Krishna defines &lt;em&gt;adhibhuta&lt;/em&gt; as something which is perishable in nature:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;adhibhūtaṁ kṣaro bhāvaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 8.4]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - The nature of matter is that it is perishable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-03-15T22:43:51.947" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6733" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6731" CreationDate="2015-03-15T23:21:07.637" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;In meditation there are two different states depending upon the consciousness of the yogi. That &lt;em&gt;samadhi&lt;/em&gt; where the consciousness of the yogi retains his sense of I'ness, that is, his nature, personality, etc. remains is called as &lt;em&gt;samprajnata samadhi&lt;/em&gt;. In it there remains analysis, deliberation, sense of the outer world, along with feeling of happiness. So the Patnatjali yoga sutra defines as thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vitarkavicārānandāsmitārūpānugamātsaṃprajñātaḥ&lt;/em&gt;   [PYS - 1.17]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Cognitive meditation is accompanied by reasoning, discrimination, bliss and the sense of 'I am.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But other than it where the personal I'ness doesn't remain, that is, the individuality is lost and the mind is free of analysis, reflection, sense of the world, etc. is called as &lt;em&gt;asamprajnata samadhi&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;virāmapratyayābhyāsapūrvaḥ saṃskāraśeṣo'nyaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [PYS - 1.18]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - There is another meditation which is attained by the practice of alert mental suspension until only subtle impressions remain. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Controlling nature doesn't happen in &lt;em&gt;samprajnata&lt;/em&gt; state, but in the advanced &lt;em&gt;asamprajnata&lt;/em&gt; state when the yogi concentrates upon different objects the power of that object he gains. Also there are other &lt;em&gt;siddhis&lt;/em&gt; obtained about which the &lt;em&gt;Bibhuti Pada&lt;/em&gt; of the yoga sutras describe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-03-15T23:21:07.637" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6734" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6731" CreationDate="2015-03-15T23:25:42.587" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Roughly speaking, Samprajnata Samadhi refers to conscious or concrete meditation, whereas Asamprajnata Samadhi refers to unconscious or abstract meditation.  These terms &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yogasutr.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;originate&lt;/a&gt; in the First Pada of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.17. Cognitive meditation is accompanied by reasoning, discrimination, bliss and the sense of 'I am.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.18. There is another meditation which is attained by the practice of alert mental suspension until only subtle impressions remain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Yoga Sutras consist of extremely concise aphorisms, so for more detail on the subject we need to turn to a commentary.  Thankfully, the sage Vyasa himself composed a commentary on the Yoga Sutras, the famous Yoga Bhashya.  Here is what Vyasa says about the two Sutras above in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Fumo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Yoga Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Question : — &quot; When the agent has suppressed his internal  organ&#xA;  through the two means (just described ), how can the  meditation be&#xA;  said to be Conscious ? &quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;( Answer ) : — &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sutra (17) : — Conscious, because attended with the  forms of&#xA;  argumentation, deliberation, joy, and egoism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Com. : —(1)&quot; Argumentation &quot; is the gross perception of  the internal&#xA;  organ, with regard to its object : whereas  (2) &quot; Deliberation &quot; is&#xA;  subtle in its nature. (3) &quot;Joy&quot; is  delight. (4) &quot; Egoism &quot; is the&#xA;  partial cognition of identity....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now, what is the nature of Unconscious or Abstract  meditation and&#xA;  what are the means to it ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Reply: — &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sutra (18): — The other, preceded by the practice of  the cause of&#xA;  suspension, is that in which the residua alone remain behind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Com: — When all the functions have been suspended and  the residua&#xA;  alone remain behind, then we have a suppression  of the internal organ,&#xA;  which constitutes (a form of) meditation, called the Unconscious or&#xA;  Abstract. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of this the means is the highest] form of Dispassion (see  above).&#xA;  And, because an exercise based on an object would  not be capable of&#xA;  being fit for its accomplishment, therefore the  objectless (or&#xA;  immaterial) cause of suspension is made the basis  here ; and this&#xA;  cause is devoid of any material object. (Consequently) the internal&#xA;  organ, preceded by the practice thereof,  becomes immaterial, as if&#xA;  non-existing. This Immaterial or  seedless meditation is what is&#xA;  called the Unconscious or  the Abstract.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To sum up, in Samprajnata Samadhi, your attention is from you as an individual onto a particular concrete thing.  In Asamprajnata Samadhi, on the other hand, both the sense of individuality disappears as well, and the concrete thing being meditated upon.  So it's a more abstract and impersonal experience, and it's highest aspiration it leads to Kaivalya, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6686/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-03-23T14:14:30.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6735" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6736" CreationDate="2015-03-16T02:23:46.823" Score="3" ViewCount="24915" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've had a question for quite a while now, but no one seems to know the answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is my understanding that Diwali is the Indian New Year, but no one seems to know the number of the year. (It isn't 2015.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before the British invaded India and switched them to the British calendar system, Indians must have kept the date in years in some type of Indian system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in China they use the British calendar system, but they also have a Chinese one.  Currently the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-chinese.html#anchor-chinese-calendar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chinese year is 4713&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am unable to find anything similar for the Indian Calendar. India had lots of astronomers and mathematicians in the past, so it doesn't make sense to me that they wouldn't have devised a time keeping system that adequately described years for the past and for the future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I would appreciate it if someone could tell me what year it is, with references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2634" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-26T13:19:33.123" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T16:50:42.510" Title="What year is it according to the Hindu Lunar Calendar?" Tags="|astrology|time|calendar|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6736" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6735" CreationDate="2015-03-16T03:24:08.743" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, there isn't really such a thing as &quot;the Hindu calendar&quot;.  Most Hindu calendars are based on the system described in the Surya Siddhanta, an ancient astronomical treatise, but then subsequently a lot of regional variations on the Surya Siddhanta system developed.  Still, most Hindu calendars are lunisolar, in the sense that they have lunar months and sidereal solar days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as far as the zero year goes, different Hindu calendar systems have different zero years, but these are the most prominent:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3102 BC&lt;/strong&gt; - This is the zero year of the so-called Yudhishthira Samvat calendar, believed to have originated with the king Yudhisthira (although I'm not sure if Yudhisthira's involvement is mentioned in scriptures).  It is the year when Krishna departed the Earth (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2939/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and for that reason it is also the start of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kali Yuga&lt;/a&gt;.  In religious contexts, this is the zero year that's most often used.  For instance, people might say &quot;Ramanujacharya was born on such-and-such year of the Kali Yuga.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;56 BC&lt;/strong&gt; - This is the zero year of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikram_Samvat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vikram Samvat&lt;/a&gt;, created by the king Vikramaditya to commemorate his victory against the Scythians.  This is the calendar commonly used in North India.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;78 AD&lt;/strong&gt; - This is the zero year of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_national_calendar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shalivahana Samvat&lt;/a&gt; calendar, AKA, the Saka calendar, instituted by the king Gautamiputra Satakarni to celebrate his own victory against the Scythians.  (It looks like nothing much changed in a hundred years!)  This has been adopted as the national calendar of India.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Notwithstanding all this, if you were to walk up to an educated Hindu and ask him what the zero year of the Hindu calendar is, they would most likely say 3102 BC.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-03-06T15:05:01.050" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6738" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6751" CreationDate="2015-03-16T05:22:53.557" Score="6" ViewCount="5437" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am trying to find a proper English translation of Brahmanda Purana. I have seen one in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.archive.org/stream/BrahmandaPurana/BrahmandaPuI_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;archive.org&lt;/a&gt;. The translation is done by author Dr. G.V. Tagare. But it has omitted multiple verses saying defective text (e.g., 17-28).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also its translation is pretty horrible and very difficult to understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I could not get any other translation other than the one above even after extensive googling. It would be really great help, if someone can point towards right translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-01T17:16:24.100" LastActivityDate="2019-06-25T07:14:48.630" Title="Brahmanda Purana English translation" Tags="|puranas|brahma|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6740" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-16T06:57:06.140" Score="6" ViewCount="1964" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do Hindu scriptures say anything about the responsibility of parenthood?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Specific references to verses from Hindu books would be highly appreciated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2621" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T19:02:20.853" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T19:11:33.483" Title="What is the duty of parents towards their own children?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|dharma-shastras|smriti|parents|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6741" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19255" CreationDate="2015-03-16T07:29:09.957" Score="17" ViewCount="2133" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read in ACK Mahabharata-3 that Pandu convinces Kunti to have sons with Gods by giving reason that Polyandry was allowed in earlier times and it was Rishi Shwetaketu (son of Rishi Uddhalak) who has made rule for a women to not follow polyandry. He did so as his mother also use to follow polyandry and he was not happy with that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know whether this story is correct and were there any other examples of Polyandry prior to this story. Also, who were Rishi Shwetaketu and Rishi Ullapad. Have they did any major work. I mean they were so influential that they made such a rule and it was followed till today so they must be real influential people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2022-07-24T18:03:47.637" Title="Was Polyandry allowed prior to Mahabharata?" Tags="|belief|mahabharata|women|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6743" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3716" CreationDate="2015-03-16T09:33:58.883" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-gita 17.4&lt;/a&gt;. This &lt;em&gt;shloka&lt;/em&gt; talks about worship in different &lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt; of material nature. But &lt;em&gt;Ishvara&lt;/em&gt;, the Supreme Being, is said to be above the &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; of material nature, as said right in the previous &lt;em&gt;shloka&lt;/em&gt;, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;7.13&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People who worship the Supreme Being do not get any &lt;em&gt;siddhi&lt;/em&gt;, if &lt;em&gt;Ishvara&lt;/em&gt; considers it unnecessary for their service. However, obviously, He &lt;em&gt;can&lt;/em&gt; grant &lt;em&gt;anything&lt;/em&gt; to the one worshiping Him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The important difference is, relationship with the Supreme Lord is completely above the material world. If you depend on some material stuff, then He will give you that, be it &lt;em&gt;siddhi&lt;/em&gt; (supernatural powers), &lt;em&gt;kama&lt;/em&gt; (satisfaction of the senses) or &lt;em&gt;artha&lt;/em&gt; (prosperity), but the goal of relationships with Him is complete detachment from anything material not related to the devotional service. It's not even &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worshipping the &lt;em&gt;devas&lt;/em&gt; like Indra or Brahma or any other &lt;em&gt;deva&lt;/em&gt; can benefit you in the area covered by this &lt;em&gt;deva&lt;/em&gt;, but those blessings will stay within the material world, meaning, they'll end when you inevitably die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="578" LastEditorUserId="578" LastEditDate="2015-04-06T04:49:59.467" LastActivityDate="2015-04-06T04:49:59.467" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6744" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6731" CreationDate="2015-03-16T10:59:31.893" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his translation and commentary on the Yoga Sutras, Swami Vivekananda commenting on I. 17. says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...In the Samprajnata Samadhi come all the powers of controlling nature. It is of four varieties [he then gives details of the four varieties]...There is no liberation in getting powers. It is a worldly search after enjoyments, and there is no enjoyment in this life; All search for enjoyment is vain; this is the old lesson which man finds so hard to learn. When he does learns it, he gets out of the universe and becomes free. The possession of what are called occult powers is only intensifying the world, and in the end, intensifying suffering. Though as a scientist Patanjali is bound to point out the possibilities of this science, he never misses a an opportunity to warn us against these powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To become free, liberated, the seedless Samadhi of verse 18 is recommended. A person who gets the powers of verse 17 is barred from liberation and must face rebirth and the consequent karma generated by those powers....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-03-16T10:59:31.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6745" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-16T11:31:03.053" Score="9" ViewCount="3437" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is one type of sadhu called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aghori&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aghori&lt;/a&gt;, which also has one sub-type called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapalika&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kapalik&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While reading a book on &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pujya_Mota&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pujya Mota&lt;/a&gt;, I found that a Kapalik used a bad spell on Pujya Mota to make him, his Sishya (student). I also found similar stories in other books and came across people who believe in these spells. So how do these spells actually work? How it possible that one just speaks a tantrik mantra and it hurts others?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T02:28:33.903" LastActivityDate="2023-11-09T17:24:26.127" Title="How does a bad spell (Tantra or Maran Vidhya) work?" Tags="|tantra|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6747" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6731" CreationDate="2015-03-16T12:39:31.457" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Raj Yoga divides Samadhi into two parts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samprajnata&lt;/strong&gt; : Samprajnata Samadhi also known as sa-bija samadhi - &lt;em&gt;'with support'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Asamprajnata&lt;/strong&gt; : Asamprajnata Samadhi also known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirb%C4%ABja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;nir-bija&lt;/a&gt; samadhi - &lt;em&gt;'without support'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main difference between two is Samprajnata Samadhi need an objective support to meditate until final stage of Samprajnata attained. Asamprajnata has no objective support.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: The Yoga Book - Stephen Sturgess&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-03-23T14:16:00.170" LastActivityDate="2016-03-23T14:16:00.170" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6748" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-16T14:52:59.900" Score="1" ViewCount="202" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the relationship between &lt;strong&gt;spiritual&lt;/strong&gt; path, &lt;strong&gt;sectarian&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;affiliation&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;ascetic&lt;/strong&gt; mode?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T12:56:58.917" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T12:56:58.917" Title="What is the relationship between spiritual path, sectarian affiliation, and ascetic mode?" Tags="|yoga|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6749" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-16T18:40:52.063" Score="1" ViewCount="1107" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0CB0QtwIwAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCpDipi1Nbtw&amp;amp;ei=HCIHVY3OD5SWuATR84GIAQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNGNZ70Sv47TRWJOlG3HPA4j9xFBcA&amp;amp;sig2=91bEWwM_igznzpPcdLMUTg&amp;amp;bvm=bv.88198703,d.c2E&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pauman Abhishek&lt;/a&gt; like Rudra abhishek or Abhishek by Purusha Suktam. I don't know what is Pauman Strotra, like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0CB0QtwIwAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DH4hLtzCeVds&amp;amp;ei=6yIHVbilFtCxuATf6oHwCw&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNHlzz5ilXZOi43W_LVj2SssImc26g&amp;amp;sig2=LQjnWFGp7GyEv6I_nBwmdg&amp;amp;bvm=bv.88198703,d.c2E&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rudradyaya&lt;/a&gt; from Rigveda, it's origins and any resource giving the mantra (samhita). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am also confused about weather pauman could be used for abhishek of any god or godess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/pavamana.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; is pauman in &lt;em&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-01-05T18:17:08.743" LastActivityDate="2016-01-05T18:17:08.743" Title="What is pauman (is it stotra or method)" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2018-09-07T17:15:48.820" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6750" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-16T18:55:37.827" Score="6" ViewCount="570" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do many Hindu women put a red dot(Bindi) near the middle of their forehead?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the reason behind it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any benefit of Dot(Bindi)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2642" LastEditorUserId="677" LastEditDate="2015-09-22T08:39:01.617" LastActivityDate="2015-11-22T05:03:36.530" Title="Why do many Hindu women put a red dot near the middle of their forehead?" Tags="|practice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6751" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6738" CreationDate="2015-03-16T19:07:31.213" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;For better or worse, the only unabridged English translation of the Brahmanda Purana is the one by G.V. Tagare, published by Motilal Banarsidass.  But what you linked to is just Volume 1 of Tagare's translation.  In my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5301/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I gave links to all five volumes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/rjgr/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt; (from DLI)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/MGEB/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt; (from DLI)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12922&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 3&lt;/a&gt; (DSpace)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://issuu.com/nitai/docs/brahmanda_pu_iv&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 4&lt;/a&gt; (ISSUU)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/CAK5/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 5&lt;/a&gt; (from DLI)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://tinyurl.com/kqrhhvs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;table of contents&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://tinyurl.com/laxj5a5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;index&lt;/a&gt; for the translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The online proofread version of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brahmanda-purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmanda-Purana&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/lalitopakhyana-lalita-mahatmya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lalitopakhyana&lt;/a&gt; also includes an interwoven Puranic glossary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that volumes 1, 2, and 5 were taken from the Digital Library of India (DLI), downloaded as PDF's and then uploaded to Google Drive; if you're interested you can see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/792/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for details on how to download books from DLI in PDF format.  Also the link for Volume 3 is on DSpace, the digital repository for the West Bengal Public Library Network.  Unfortunately the West Bengal Public Library website is down at the moment, but hopefully it will be back soon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, if you don't like Tagare's translation, you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gita-society.com/section3/HinduPuranas16.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this extremely abbreviated translation&lt;/a&gt; of the Brahmanda Purana (and the other 17 Mahapuranas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5384" LastEditDate="2019-06-25T07:14:48.630" LastActivityDate="2019-06-25T07:14:48.630" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6752" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6757" CreationDate="2015-03-17T01:33:25.367" Score="1" ViewCount="1277" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that worship is only possible in a sitting posture?&#xA; why we can't worship in sleeping posture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2642" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T07:02:17.203" Title="Why is worship only possible in a sitting posture?" Tags="|worship|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6753" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-17T02:36:00.907" Score="9" ViewCount="1376" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous stories found in the Vedas is the story of Shunashepa, which is recited during the famous Rajasuya Yagna (the Vedic ritual for becoming an emperor).  The story is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/pmGa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda.  There was once an ancient solar dynasty king, variously identified as Harishchandra or Ambarisha, who was childless, so on the sage Narada's advice he prayed to Varuna the ocean god.  Varuna appeared before him and agreed to give him a son, on the condition that he would have to sacrifice the child to Varuna after he was born. Harishchandra agreed, and sure enough he soon got a son named Rohita.  But when Varuna came for him, Harishchandra kept delaying giving up his son until his son grew up.  Finally he could delay his promise no longer, and told his son that he had to be sacrificed.  Rohita refused and ran away to the forest, where he met a starving Brahmin named Ajigarta.  He offered him a hundred cattle for one of his sons.  Out of desperation, Ajigarta gave up his son Shunashepa.  Rohita returned to the kingdom with the boy, and Harishchandra prepared to sacrifice him to Varuna.  But while tied up to the sacrificial post, Shunashepa prayed devoutly to the gods, reciting large number of Vedic mantras, and as a result his life was spared.  Shunashepa was later adopted by the sage Vishwamitra, who was officiating the ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But question isn't about the story itself, but rather the mantras that Shunashepa chanted.  The Bala Kanda of the Ramayana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga62/balaitrans62.htm#Verse25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; two of the hymns he chanted:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Shunashepa is tied to ritual post he immensely pleased two gods, namely Indra and Upendra as well, with those two hymns he got from Vishvamitra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think it's clear what the hymn to Indra is in reference to: as you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani provided in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Shunashepa son of Ajigarta is listed as the seer of Rig Veda Book 1 Hymns 24-30.  And several of those hymns, either in whole or in part, are addressed to Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what is the other hymn mentioned in the Bala Kanda, the one addressed to &quot;Upendra&quot;?  For those who don't know, Upendra is a name of Vishnu, referring to the fact that in his incarnation as Vamana the dwarf he was was the little brother of Indra.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So where is Shunashepa's hymn to Vishnu?  It's not mentioned in the excerpt from the Aitareya Brahmana I linked to above, and I don't see any hymns to Vishnu listed in the Rig Veda Anukramani for which Shunashepa son of Ajigarta was the seer.  Does anyone know if it's in the Rig Veda or one of the other Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T08:50:17.477" Title="What is the hymn to Vishnu that Shunashepa said to save his life?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|rig-veda|aitareya-brahmana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6754" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6756" CreationDate="2015-03-17T05:54:08.830" Score="9" ViewCount="3670" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've read about Bharatavarsha in many books, but only found the origin of the term &lt;em&gt;Bharatavarsha&lt;/em&gt;. Is there a description of Bharatavarsha (i.e., what constitutes Bharatavarsha), in a holy book?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2620" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-18T09:53:08.303" LastActivityDate="2022-04-22T12:04:09.247" Title="Is there any description of Bharatavarsha in Hindu Scriptures?" Tags="|india|itihasa|geography|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6755" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6726" CreationDate="2015-03-17T06:05:17.810" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;One should not just start reading the scriptures without guidance. The scriptures are called Sruti, which literally means &quot;that which is heard&quot; the hearing being from a competent teacher.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the very start of his Sri Bhyasya (I.I.1.), Ramanuja in his commentary on the first verse quotes the Mundakya Upanishad (I.ii.12.) &quot;To know that he...must approach a guru&quot; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his writing Upadesa Sahasri, Sankaracharya says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the &lt;em&gt;Srutis&lt;/em&gt; say, &quot;A man having a teacher can know &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;,&quot; [Chhandogya Upanishad 6.14.2.] &quot;Knowledge received from a teacher alone (becomes perfect).&quot; {Chhandogya Upanishad 4.9.3.] &quot;The teacher is the pilot&quot; &quot;Right Knowledge is called in this world a raft,&quot; etc. The &lt;em&gt;Smriti&lt;/em&gt; [Bhagavad Gita 4.34] also says &quot;knowledge will be imparted to you&quot; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says this story about Ramakrishna Paramahamsa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Many years ago, I visited a great sage of our own country, a very holy man. We talked of our revealed book, the Vedas, of your Bible, of the Koran, and of revealed books in general. At the close of our talk, this good man asked me to go to the table and take up a book; it was a book which, among other things, contained a forecast of the rain during the year. The sage said, &quot;Read that.&quot; And I read out the quantity of rain that was to fall. He said, &quot;Now take the book and squeeze it.&quot; I did so and he said, 'Why, my boy, not a drop of water comes out. Until the water comes out, it is all book, book. So until your religion makes you realize God, it is useless. He who only studies books for religion reminds one of the fable of the ass which carried a heavy load of sugar on its back, but did not know the sweetness of it.&quot; (Complete Works I. p 326)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Find a teacher and he will guide you on what to read and when.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-03-17T06:05:17.810" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6756" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6754" CreationDate="2015-03-17T07:44:56.393" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;You said you already know the origin of the name Bharata Varsha, but for those who don't, the reason the Indian subcontinent is called Bharata Varsha is because it was conquered by the empire of the ancient king Bharata, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/7/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Formerly this [land] was known as Ajanābha-varṣa, but since Mahārāja Bharata’s reign it has become known as Bhārata-varṣa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bharata referenced in the Srimad Bhagavatam was the son of Rishabha, the founder of Jainism.  But more recently India may have been named after another Bharata, who was the son of the king Dushyanta and Shakuntala, daughter of the sage Vishwamitra.  (Shakuntala was a product of Vishwamitra's dalliance with the Apsara Menaka, which is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga63/bala_63_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana.)  Note that Bharata didn't do all the conquests; the Bharata dynasty only solidified its control after the Battle of Ten Kings, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/823/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, to answer your question, yes, there are numerous scriptures which contain descriptions of the labs of Bharata Varsha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/19&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Srimad Bhagavatam describes Bharata Varsha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the tract of land known as Bhārata-varṣa, as in Ilāvṛta-varṣa, there are many mountains and rivers. Some of the mountains are known as Malaya, Maṅgala-prastha, Maināka, Trikūṭa, Ṛṣabha, Kūṭaka, Kollaka, Sahya, Devagiri, Ṛṣyamūka, Śrī-śaila, Veṅkaṭa, Mahendra, Vāridhāra, Vindhya, Śuktimān, Ṛkṣagiri, Pāriyātra, Droṇa, Citrakūṭa, Govardhana, Raivataka, Kakubha, Nīla, Gokāmukha, Indrakīla and Kāmagiri. Besides these, there are many other hills, with many large and small rivers flowing from their slopes.  Two of the rivers — the Brahmaputra and the Śoṇa — are called nadas, or main rivers. These are other great rivers that are very prominent: Candravasā, Tāmraparṇī, Avaṭodā, Kṛtamālā, Vaihāyasī, Kāverī, Veṇī, Payasvinī, Śarkarāvartā, Tuṅgabhadrā, Kṛṣṇāveṇyā, Bhīmarathī, Godāvarī, Nirvindhyā, Payoṣṇī, Tāpī, Revā, Surasā, Narmadā, Carmaṇvatī, Mahānadī, Vedasmṛti, Ṛṣikulyā, Trisāmā, Kauśikī, Mandākinī, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, Dṛṣadvatī, Gomatī, Sarayū, Rodhasvatī, Saptavatī, Suṣomā, Śatadrū, Candrabhāgā, Marudvṛdhā, Vitastā, Asiknī and Viśvā. The inhabitants of Bhārata-varṣa are purified because they always remember these rivers. Sometimes they chant the names of these rivers as mantras, and sometimes they go directly to the rivers to touch them and bathe in them. Thus the inhabitants of Bhārata-varṣa become purified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The people who take birth in this tract of land are divided according to the qualities of material nature — the modes of goodness [sattva-guṇa], passion [rajo-guṇa], and ignorance [tamo-guṇa]. Some of them are born as exalted personalities, some are ordinary human beings, and some are extremely abominable, for in Bhārata-varṣa one takes birth exactly according to one’s past karma. If one’s position is ascertained by a bona fide spiritual master and one is properly trained to engage in the service of Lord Viṣṇu according to the four social divisions [brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra] and the four spiritual divisions [brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa], one’s life becomes perfect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp060.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana contains a similar description to that of the Srimad Bhagavatam: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Bhárata-varsha it is that the succession of four Yugas, or ages, the Krita, the Treta, the Dwápara, and Kali, takes place; that pious ascetics engage in rigorous penance; that devout men offer sacrifices; and that gifts are distributed; all for the sake of another world. In Jambu-dwípa, Vishńu, consisting of sacrifice, is worshipped, as the male of sacrificial rites, with sacrificial ceremonies: he is adored under other forms elsewhere. Bhárata is therefore the best of the divisions of Jambu-dwípa, because it is the land of works: the others are places of enjoyment alone. It is only after many thousand births, and the aggregation of much merit, that living beings are sometimes born in Bhárata as men. The gods themselves exclaim, &quot;Happy are those who are born, even from the condition of gods, as men in Bhárata-varsha, as that is the way to the pleasures of Paradise, or the greater blessing of final liberation. Happy are they who, consigning all the unheeded rewards of their acts to the supreme and eternal Vishńu, obtain existence in that land of works, as their path to him. We know not, when the acts that have obtained us heaven shall have been fully recompensed 7, where we shall renew corporeal confinement; but we know that those men are fortunate who are born with perfect faculties 8 in Bhárata-varsha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Sanjaya describes Bharata Varsha to Dhritarashtra in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I will now, O chastiser of foes, describe to thee that country as I have heard of it. Listen to me, O king, as I speak of what thou hast asked me. Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Suktimat, Rakshavat, Vindhya, and Paripatra,--these seven are the Kala-mountains 1 (of Bharatvarsha). Besides these, O king, there are thousands of mountains that are unknown, of hard make, huge, and having excellent valleys. Besides these there are many other smaller mountains inhabited by barbarous tribes. Aryans and Mlecchas, O Kauravya, and many races, O lord, mixed of the two elements, drink the waters of the following rivers, viz., magnificent Ganga, Sindhu, and Saraswati; of Godavari, and Narmada, and the large river called Yamuna... and Mandakini, and Supunya, Sarvasanga, O Bharata, are all mothers of the universe and productive of great merit. Besides these, there are rivers, by hundreds and thousands, that are not known (by names), I have now recounted to thee, O king, all the rivers as far as I remember.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After this, listen to the names of the provinces as I mention them. They are the Kuru-Panchalas, the Salwas, the Madreyas, the Jangalas, the Surasena, the Kalingas, the Vodhas, the Malas, the Matsyas, the Sauvalyas, the Kuntalas, the Kasi-kosalas, the Chedis, the Karushas, the Bhojas, the Sindhus, the Pulindakas, the Uttamas, the Dasarnas, the Mekalas, the Utkalas; the Panchalas, the Kausijas, the Nikarprishthas, Dhurandharas; the Sodhas, the Madrabhujingas, the Kasis, and the further-Kasis; the Jatharas, the Kukuras, O Bharata; the Kuntis, the Avantis, and the further-Kuntis; the Gomantas, the Mandakas, the Shandas, the Vidarbhas, the Rupavahikas; the Aswakas, the Pansurashtras, the Goparashtras, and the Karityas; the Adhirjayas, the Kuladyas, the Mallarashtras, the Keralas, the Varatrasyas, the Apavahas, the Chakras, the Vakratapas, the Sakas; the Videhas, the Magadhas, the Swakshas, the Malayas, the Vijayas, the Angas, the Vangas, the Kalingas, the Yakrillomans; the Mallas, the Suddellas, the Pranradas, the Mahikas, the Sasikas; the Valhikas, the Vatadhanas, the Abhiras, the Kalajoshakas; the Aparantas, the Parantas, the Pahnabhas, the Charmamandalas; the Atavisikharas, the Mahabhutas, O sire; the Upavrittas, the Anupavrittas, the Surashatras, Kekayas; the Kutas, the Maheyas, the Kakshas, the Samudranishkutas; the Andhras, and, O king, many hilly tribes, and many tribes residing on lands laying at the foot of the hills, and the Angamalajas, and the Manavanjakas; the Pravisheyas, and the Bhargavas, O king; the Pundras, the Bhargas, the Kiratas, the Sudeshnas, and the Yamunas, the Sakas, the Nishadhas, the Anartas, the Nairitas, the Durgalas, the Pratimasyas, the Kuntalas, and the Kusalas; the Tiragrahas, the Ijakas, the Kanyakagunas, the Tilabharas, the Samiras, the Madhumattas, the Sukandakas; the Kasmiras, the Sindhusauviras, the Gandharvas, and the Darsakas; the Abhisaras, the Utulas, the Saivalas, and the Valhikas; the Darvis, the Vanavadarvas, the Vatagas, the Amarathas, and the Uragas; the Vahuvadhas, the Kauravyas, the Sudamanas, the Sumalikas; the Vadhras, the Karishakas, the Kalindas, and the Upatyakas; the Vatayanas, the Romanas, and the Kusavindas; the Kacchas, the Gopalkacchas, the Kuruvarnakas; the Kiratas, the Varvasas, the Siddhas, the Vaidehas, and the Tamraliptas; the Aundras, the Paundras, the Saisikatas, and the Parvatiyas, O sire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are other kingdoms, O bull of Bharata's race, in the south. They are the Dravidas, the Keralas, the Prachyas, the Mushikas, and the Vanavashikas; the Karanatakas, the Mahishakas, the Vikalpas, and also the Mushakas; the Jhillikas, the Kuntalas, the Saunridas, and the Nalakananas; the Kankutakas, the Cholas, and the Malavayakas; the Samangas, the Kanakas, the Kukkuras, and the Angara-marishas; the Samangas, the Karakas, the Kukuras, the Angaras, the Marishas: the Dhwajinis, the Utsavas, the Sanketas, the Trigartas, and the Salwasena; the Vakas, the Kokarakas, the Pashtris, and the Lamavegavasas; the Vindhyachulakas, the Pulindas, and the Valkalas; the Malavas, the Vallavas, the further-Vallavas, the Kulindas, the Kalavas, the Kuntaukas, and the Karatas; the Mrishakas, the Tanavalas, the Saniyas; the Alidas, the Pasivatas, the Tanayas, and the Sulanyas; the Rishikas, the Vidarbhas, the Kakas, the Tanganas, and the further-Tanganas. Among the tribes of the north are the Mlecchas, and the Kruras, O best of the Bharatas; the Yavanas, the Chinas, the Kamvojas, the Darunas, and many Mleccha tribes; the Sukritvahas, the Kulatthas, the Hunas, and the Parasikas; the Ramanas, and the Dasamalikas. These countries are, besides, the abodes of many Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra tribes. Then again there are the Sudra-abhiras, the Dardas, the Kasmiras, and the Pattis; the Khasiras; the Atreyas, the Bharadwajas, the Stanaposhikas, the Poshakas, the Kalingas, and diverse tribes of Kiratas; the Tomaras, the Hansamargas, and the Karamanjakas. These and other kingdoms are on the east and on the north. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whew! That's what I call thorough knowledge of geography.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-10-09T16:56:56.847" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6757" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6752" CreationDate="2015-03-17T07:56:32.013" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is scripture. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutras IV. I. 7-10. Verse 7 reads: &quot;(One should meditate) in a sitting posture; because (in that way alone) meditation is possible.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita VI. 11-12. &quot;Having established in a clean spot a firm seat...there sitting on that seat...he should practice yoga...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svetashvatara Upanishad II. 8. &quot;Placing the body in a straight posture, with the chest, the throat, and the head held erect, making the organs enter the mind,...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mind will tend to sleep when done is a sleep position. If you try to do so standing, part of the mind must be kept aware of balance, full concentration is not possible. When done is a sitting position as described above, the mind is able to lose it's awareness of the body and the mind is able to concentrate all of its power internally.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-03-17T08:08:38.387" LastActivityDate="2015-03-17T08:08:38.387" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6758" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6787" CreationDate="2015-03-17T10:30:33.927" Score="27" ViewCount="16558" Body="&lt;p&gt;A human is identified in terms of 3 bodies, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5354/yaa-devii-sarva-bhutessu-nidraa-ruupenna-samsthitaa/6599#6599&quot;&gt;3 States &lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3073/what-are-five-layers-pancha-kosha-of-human/3074#3074&quot;&gt;5 Koshas or Sheaths&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Atman or soul is covered by three bodies, which are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karana sharira (Causal body), &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sukshma sarira (Subtle body) and &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sthula sharira (Gross body). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thekundaliniyoga.org/vedanta/3_types_of_bodies_gross_body_sthula_sharira_subtle_astral_body_linga_sharira_causal_body_karana_sharira.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hinduism&lt;/a&gt; human individual has three bodies: a Physical or Gross body (Sthula Sharira), a Subtle body (Linga/Sukshma Sharira), and  a Causal body (Karana Sharira).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The life span of each of the bodies is different. The Gross body depends on gross food therefore has short life span, compared to subtle body that depends upon thoughts and feelings, therefore can survive longer. The Causal body survives the longest since it needs only peace. The soul is different from these three bodies. The soul does not need anything since it is the experiencer, observer and therefore it is eternal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The term which we call death is the fall of the gross body. Once the soul is completely detached from its causal body it goes to the abode of God. The soul survives along with the subtle and causal body where samskaras are stored. A man must take birth again and again with the help of a gross body till all the Samskaras are consumed. You can consume Samskara (karma-phala) only in a human life with the help of conscious living and power of will. This is not possible in any other life and that is why a human life is considered as extremely important from a liberation point of view. (There are three things which are indeed rare and are due to the grace of the God. They are 1) human birth, 2) longing for liberation and 3) protecting care of a perfected sage – The Guru.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/esHB2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gross body is the outermost covering of the Atman and the Subtle body is the middle covering of the Atman while the causal body is the final/innermost covering of the Atman. At the time of death, both the Causal and Subtle body (that remain together but) separate from the physical body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Where does a Soul attach to these bodies?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Where and how does the &lt;strong&gt;physical&lt;/strong&gt; body, the &lt;strong&gt;subtle&lt;/strong&gt; body and the &lt;strong&gt;causal&lt;/strong&gt; body attach to each other? Specially, attachment of Sukshma sharira (Subtle body) and Sthula sharira (the Gross body).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can a spiritually-enlightened person see Karana sharira (Causal body) and Sukshma sharira (Subtle body) of ours with his/her naked eyes or with Divya dhristi? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can we see our own Karana sharira (Causal body) and Sukshma sharira (Subtle body) through meditation?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why is the life-span of each of the bodies different in different people?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why does Sukshma sharira (Subtle body) called as Linga sharira?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can living beings other than humans also consist of these 3 bodies?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="15718" LastEditDate="2019-02-25T06:49:15.063" LastActivityDate="2021-06-02T12:18:34.833" Title="Where does a Soul attach to the Body?" Tags="|atma|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6759" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6772" CreationDate="2015-03-17T10:53:05.207" Score="11" ViewCount="883" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any story about how Lord Dattatreya acquired the knowledge of Yoga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-05-20T05:29:58.950" LastActivityDate="2018-05-20T05:29:58.950" Title="How did Lord Dattatreya acquire the knowledge of Yoga?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|guru|dattatreya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6760" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-17T11:39:57.363" Score="7" ViewCount="1556" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I am going through &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ananda.org/autobiography/#chap43&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Autobiography of a Yogi Chapter -3 The Saint With Two Bodies&#xA;&lt;/a&gt; which is suggested by one of our SE fellow Bhrahmagnani in one of his comment to my question. Which tells about Swami Pranabananda, An Exalted Disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya. who has created two bodies by the grace of his guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How does a yogi creates a new physical body? Was this happened with his karmic sharir? or something else? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Was there anyone (except Swami Pranabananda), who also did the similar thing creating a new body of own?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is this possible to create a new body of others as Swami Pranabananda created his own?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-17T12:43:44.093" LastActivityDate="2015-03-17T14:55:42.567" Title="How does a yogi creates a new physical body?" Tags="|yoga|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6761" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6763" CreationDate="2015-03-17T11:47:36.107" Score="7" ViewCount="29340" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone explain the specific skills of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata? For example Arjuna is known for his bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2440" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-12T18:01:04.150" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T15:19:41.040" Title="What were the specific skills of the Pandavas?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6762" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6726" CreationDate="2015-03-17T12:10:57.373" Score="3" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Which is the right publication for Vedas?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As i have no answer of your First Question, I would like you to prefer, Gayatri Pariwar Vedas, they are available, as well as can be downloaded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, there are Two Happiness(Anand) for which we did everything, First is Bhautik Sukha (Material world happiness) and Second one is AdiBhautik (Spiritual world). There is Para Vidhya and Apara Vidhya. The Gita is Apara which is for people who sick liberation or to know about it beyond this material world truth, where as Vedas are somehow Paravidhya mostly for getting happiness by Bhautik sukha(Material Happiness) so I prefer instead read Vedas go for the Upanishads, and Shankaracharya scriptures, kshatdarshan which are made for Apara Vidhya, for Liberation the Param sukha (ultimate happiness). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2568" LastEditorUserId="2568" LastEditDate="2015-03-17T12:23:32.243" LastActivityDate="2015-03-17T12:23:32.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6763" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6761" CreationDate="2015-03-17T12:47:08.493" Score="8" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;                            Skills Of Pandavas&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Yudhishtira&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was ingenious, dedicated to the path of &lt;strong&gt;Dharma&lt;/strong&gt; and hence he was called &lt;strong&gt;Dharmaraja&lt;/strong&gt; and a prudent politician.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Bhima&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was Fearless and Brave. His physical power was unmatchable at that time.&#xA;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01129.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat Shambhav Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In fact, those princes were no match for Bhima in pugilistic encounters, in speed, or in skill. Bhima used to make a display of his strength by thus tormenting them in childishness but not from malice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Arjuna&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was a great archer and most of his archery knowledge was taught to him later by &lt;strong&gt;Devas&lt;/strong&gt; which was unique at that time.Here is a story from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6761/what-were-the-specific-skills-of-the-pandavas/6763#6763&quot;&gt;Mahabharat Sambhava Parva: The eye of a Bird&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son, stand here with bow and arrow for an instant.' Thus addressed, Arjuna stood aiming at the bird as desired by his preceptor, with his bow bent. An instant after Drona asked him as in the case of others, 'Seest thou, O Arjuna, the bird there, the tree, and myself?' Arjuna replied, 'I see the bird only, but nor the tree, or thyself.' Then the irrepressible Drona, well-pleased with Arjuna, the instant after, again said unto that mighty car-warrior amongst the Pandavas, 'If thou seest the vulture, then describe it to me.' Arjuna said, I see only the head of the vulture, not its body.' At these words of Arjuna, the hair (on Drona's body) stood on end from delight. He then said to Partha, 'Shoot.' And the latter instantly let fly (his arrow) and with his sharp shaft speedily struck off the head of the vulture on the tree and brought it down to the ground. No sooner was the deed done than Drona clasped Phalguna to his bosom and thought Drupada with his friends had already been vanquished in fight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Nakula&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was a good trainer of animals.He was compared to Kamadeva due to his good looks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Sahadeva&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He had a great knowledge of astrology. He was the main tactical planner among the pandavas.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sahadeva replied, &quot;I will become a keeper of the kine of Virata's king. I am skilled in milking kine and taking their history as well as in taming their fierceness. Passing under the name of Tantripal, I shall perform my duties deftly. Let thy heart's fever be dispelled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/dutt/maha01.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; Is the Skills Of Pandavas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthir, the eldest son of Pandu, was a man of truth and piety; Bhima, the second, was a stalwart fighter; and Arjun, the third son, distinguished himself above all the other princes in arms. The two youngest brothers, Nakula and Sahadeva, were twins. Duryodhan was the eldest son of Dhrita-rashtra and was jealous of his cousins, the sons of Pandu. A tournament was held, and in the course of the day a warrior named Karna., of unknown origin, appeared on the scene and proved himself a worthy rival of Arjun. The rivalry between Arjun and Karna is the leading thought of the Epic, as the rivalry between Achilles and Hector is the leading thought of the Iliad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T15:19:41.040" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6764" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6773" CreationDate="2015-03-17T12:52:06.823" Score="8" ViewCount="2958" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is Kriya Yoga?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is main purpose of Kriya Yoga?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How is Kriya Yoga different from other yoga like Karma Yoga, Gyana Yoga, Raja Yoga and Bhakti Yoga?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-18T12:13:33.500" LastActivityDate="2019-06-08T16:30:54.127" Title="What is Kriya Yoga?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6765" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6761" CreationDate="2015-03-17T14:20:08.637" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The skills of each of the Pandavas are briefly described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01135.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, in reference to their education under Drona:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Two of Drona's pupils became very much accomplished in the use of mace. These were Duryodhana and Bhima, who were, however, always jealous of each other. Aswatthaman excelled everyone (in the mysteries of the science of arms). The twins (Nakula and Sahadeva) excelled everybody in handling the sword. Yudhishthira surpassed everybody as a car-warrior; but Arjuna, however, outdistanced everyone in every respect--in intelligence, resourcefulness, strength and perseverance. Accomplished in all weapons, Arjuna became the foremost of even the foremost of car-warriors; and his fame spread all over the earth to the verge of the sea. And although the instruction was the same, the mighty Arjuna excelled all (the princes in lightness of hand). Indeed, in weapons as in devotion to his preceptor, he became the foremost of them all. And amongst all the princes, Arjuna alone became an Atiratha (a car-warrior capable of fighting at one time with sixty thousand foes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Bhima was known for the mace, Yudhishthira was known for his chariot-fighting, Nakuka and Sahadeva for the sword, and Arjuna was good at pretty much everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more details we can turn to one of the people who knew the Pandavas the best, their wife Draupadi.  Once while the Pandavas were living in the forest, Draupadi was kidnapped by the king Jayadratha.  (He was the husband of Dhritarasthtra's daughter Duhsala, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3282/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) When the Pandavas are approaching to rescue Draupadi, Jayadratha asks Draupadi to describe her husbands.  This is what she says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03268.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata (I've split it up into separate paragraphs for each of the Panadavas):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That warrior at the top of whose flagstaff two handsome and sonorous tabours called Nanda and Upananda are constantly played upon,--he, O Sauvira chief, hath a correct knowledge of the morality of his own acts. Men that have attained success always walk in his train. With a complexion like that of pure gold, possessed of a prominent nose and large eyes, and endued with a slender make, that husband of mine is known among people by the name of Yudhishthira, the son of Dharma and the foremost of the Kuru race. That virtuous prince of men granteth life to even a foe that yields. Therefore, O fool, throwing down thy arms and joining thy hands, run to him for thy good, to seek his protection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that other man whom thou seest with long arms and tall as the full-grown Sala tree, seated on his chariot, biting his lips, and contracting his forehead so as to bring the two eye-brows together, is he,--my husband Vrikodara! Steeds of the noblest breed, plump and strong, well-trained and endued with great might, draw the cars of that warrior! His achievements are superhuman. He is known, therefore, by the name of Bhima on earth. They that offend him are never suffered to live. He never forgetteth a foe. On some pretext or other he wrecketh his vengeance. Nor is he pacified even after he has wrecked a signal vengeance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there, that foremost of bowmen, endued with intelligence and renown, with senses under complete control and reverence for the old--that brother and disciple of Yudhishthira--is my husband Dhananjaya [Arjuna]! Virtue he never forsaketh, from lust or fear or anger! Nor doth he ever commit a deed that is cruel. Endued with the energy of fire and capable of withstanding every foe, that grinder of enemies is the son of Kunti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that other youth, versed in every question of morality and profit, who ever dispelleth the fears of the affrighted, who is endued with high wisdom, who is considered as the handsomest person in the whole world and who is protected by all the sons of Pandu, being regarded by them as dearer to them than their own lives for his unflinching devotion to them, is my husband Nakula possessed of great prowess. Endued with high wisdom and having Sahadeva for his second, possessed of exceeding lightness of hand, he fighteth with the sword, making dexterous passes therewith. Thou, foolish man, shall witness today his performances on the field of battle, like unto those of Indra amid the ranks of Daityas!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that hero skilled in weapons and possessed of intelligence and wisdom, and intent on doing what is agreeable to the son of Dharma, that favourite and youngest born of the Pandavas, is my husband Sahadeva! Heroic, intelligent, wise and ever wrathful there is not another man equal unto him in intelligence or in eloquence amid assemblies of the wise. Dearer to Kunti than her own soul, he is always mindful of the duties of Kshatriyas, and would much sooner rush into fire or sacrifice his own life than say anything that is opposed to religion and morals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in Draupadi's view, Yudhisthira is known for his morality, Bhima for his vengeance, Arjuna for his archery, Nakula for his swordsmanship, and Sahadeva for his intelligence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-12-26T12:09:29.333" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6766" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6764" CreationDate="2015-03-17T14:40:46.560" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kriya Yoga is defined in Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms II. 1. - &quot;Mortification, study, and surrendering fruits of work are called Kriya-yoga.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mortification - keeping the mind under proper control.&#xA;Study - Study of books that teach Liberation.&#xA;Surrendering fruits... - Taking neither credit or blame, surrendering all fruits of action to God. (See also Gita II. 47-51. and IX. 27-28.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kriya Yoga is an underlying yoga that permeates all the other yogas. It is a preliminary discipline that encompasses all the other yogas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer taken from Swami Vivekananda's translation of Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms and his commentary.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-03-17T14:40:46.560" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6767" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6760" CreationDate="2015-03-17T14:55:42.567" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The method is detailed in Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms III. 39. and IV. 4.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In III. 39. it tells how a yogi and enter into another's body or even a dead body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his commentary on IV. 4. Swami Vivekananda explains how the verse tells how a yogi can create another body or a group of bodies (Kaya-vyuha) to exhaust karma quickly.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-03-17T14:55:42.567" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6768" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6748" CreationDate="2015-03-17T15:42:15.847" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Cannot be described perfectly as you request as these are not exactly defined terms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The easiest is sectarian affiliation, which simply means which sect do you identify with or belong to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Spiritual path is a vague term, not used or defined in scripture. It can mean mean many things. Sometimes the religion you follow, or sect you belong to, or yoga methods you do, or philosophical school, or a combination, or other things as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tapasya are the spiritual practices that you do to purify your mind to help you realize God. Again in general it is those things you do to control your mind and senses. It can mean many things in practice and what may be tapasya for you may not be tapasya for another person.. Practicing meditation is tapasya. Practicing silence is also. Fasting is tapasya. Japam is tapasya. The same general tapasyas are practiced across different sects and different religions.             &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-03-17T15:42:15.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6770" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10099" CreationDate="2015-03-17T17:16:31.330" Score="0" ViewCount="1361" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp041.htm#page_49&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here &lt;/a&gt; I have read something &#xA;but I didn't find a better reference related to &lt;strong&gt;Sage Pulaha&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;I only know that he married a daughter of &lt;strong&gt;Daksha&lt;/strong&gt; named &lt;strong&gt;Kshamā&lt;/strong&gt; (Patience), by whom he had three sons. &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BpMyi.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BpMyi.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;SaptRishis&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-01-07T11:44:30.950" LastActivityDate="2016-01-31T06:34:50.553" Title="What is the story of sage Pulaha?" Tags="|rishi|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6771" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3776" CreationDate="2015-03-17T18:02:12.777" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are similar questions like &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2237/is-jesus-avatar-of-lord-vishnu/2322#2322&quot;&gt;Is Jesus an avatar of Lord Vishnu?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/881/can-one-be-a-hindu-that-worships-through-christ/905#905&quot;&gt;Can one be a Hindu that worships through Christ?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/142/did-hindu-scriptures-predict-muhammad-and-or-jesus/148#148&quot;&gt;Did Hindu scriptures predict Muhammad and/or Jesus?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these concluded that Jesus or Mohammad are nothing like the concept of God in Hinduism. The God(ultimate reality) in Abrahamic faiths is a personal God who is a jealous God. That is, HE is jealous of other Gods and thus proclaims he alone is the true God while rest are false Gods. In Hinduism there is no such claims by any God. For most Hindu schools, ultimate reality is not such a male personal God. The holy-trinity of Christianity is a false equivalence with the trimurti of Hinduism. The acceptance of this theory is derived from an inculturation attempt by Missionaries according to whom Hinduism itself is derived from Christianity through Apostle Thomas. &lt;a href=&quot;http://indiafacts.co.in/christian-inculturation-tamil-nadu-blasphemes-thirukkural/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; article talks about such inculturation attempts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism bears a close relationship with Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism's supreme God Ahura Mazda bears resemblance to Purusha of the Vedas. There are several common deities which are described this paper &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/zoro.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedic Elements in the Ancient Iranian Religion of Zarathushtra&lt;/a&gt; by Subhash Kak.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to the Greeks. @Swami Vishwananda's answer provides some contrasts. The book &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/indiaingreeceort00poco&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;India in Greece:Truth in Mythology&lt;/a&gt; by Edward Pococke mentions about Hindu-Buddhist influence on Greek thought and theology which could be a reason for similarity in the gods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism shares a lot commonalities with Buddhism &amp;amp; Jainism as they co-evolved in the same geography. For example Yama the deva of death is also deva of death in Buddhism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-03-18T17:36:56.573" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6772" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6759" CreationDate="2015-03-17T19:08:01.573" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1984/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Dattatreya was the son of the sage Atri, one of the mind-born sons of Brahma, and his wife Anasuya, who had received a boon that Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva would be born as her sons.  And sure enough, Brahma incarnated as her son Chandra the moon god, Vishnu incarnated as Datta AKA Dattatreya, and Shiva incarnated as the short-tempered sage Durvasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as to your question concerning how Dattatreya acquired his knowledge of Yoga, the ancient king Yadu, founder of the Yadava dynasty that Krishna was a member of, once asked Dattatreya that very question, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/7/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O brāhmaṇa, I see that you are not engaged in any practical religious activity, and yet you have acquired a most expert understanding of all things and all people within this world. Kindly tell me, sir, how did you acquire this extraordinary intelligence, and why are you traveling freely throughout the world behaving as if you were a child?  Generally human beings work hard to cultivate religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and also knowledge of the soul, and their usual motive is to increase the duration of their lives, acquire fame and enjoy material opulence.  You, however, although capable, learned, expert, handsome and most eloquent, are not engaged in doing anything, nor do you desire anything; rather, you appear stupefied and maddened as if you were a ghostly creature.  Although all people within the material world are burning in the great forest fire of lust and greed, you remain free and are not burned by that fire. You are just like an elephant who takes shelter from a forest fire by standing within the water of the Ganges River.   O brāhmaṇa, we see that you are devoid of any contact with material enjoyment and that you are traveling alone, without any companions or family members. Therefore, because we are sincerely inquiring from you, please tell us the cause of the great ecstasy that you are feeling within yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dattatreya responded that he did not acquire his knowledge from any actual Guru, but rather he achieved an enlightened state by observing various people, animals, and elements of nature, and taking their lessons to heart:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King, with my intelligence I have taken shelter of many spiritual masters. Having gained transcendental understanding from them, I now wander about the earth in a liberated condition. Please listen as I describe them to you.  O King, I have taken shelter of twenty-four gurus, who are the following: the earth, air, sky, water, fire, moon, sun, pigeon and python; the sea, moth, honeybee, elephant and honey thief; the deer, the fish, the prostitute Piṅgalā, the kurara bird and the child; and the young girl, arrow maker, serpent, spider and wasp. My dear King, by studying their activities I have learned the science of the self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the lessons he learned from each of his 24 &quot;Gurus&quot; in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/7/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/8/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.  It would make the answer too long to quote all 24 lessons, but for instance here is what he learned from the sky:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A thoughtful sage, even while living within a material body, should understand himself to be pure spirit soul. Similarly, one should see that the spirit soul enters within all forms of life, both moving and nonmoving, and that the individual souls are thus all-pervading. The sage should further observe that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as the Supersoul, is simultaneously present within all things. Both the individual soul and the Supersoul can be understood by comparing them to the nature of the sky: although the sky extends everywhere and everything rests within the sky, the sky does not mix with anything, nor can it be divided by anything.  Although the mighty wind blows clouds and storms across the sky, the sky is never implicated or affected by these activities. Similarly, the spirit soul is not actually changed or affected by contact with the material nature. Although the living entity enters within a body made of earth, water and fire, and although he is impelled by the three modes of nature created by eternal time, his eternal spiritual nature is never actually affected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the three chapters I linked to are part of the Uddhava Gita, a Bhagavad Gita-like religious discourse between Krishna and his relative Uddhava which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3765/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Here's a picture summarizing the 24 lessons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://web.archive.org/web/20150521191330/http://manimandala.com/wp-content/maps/srimad-bhagavatam-canto-11/Srimad-Bhagavatam-Canto-11-Chart-04-Chapter-01-to-31.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-11-04T19:55:11.060" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6773" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6764" CreationDate="2015-03-17T20:55:57.140" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since you have mentioned in another question that you are reading Autobiography of a Yogi, I do not want to play spoiler. The information is contained in the same book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is Kriya Yoga?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kriya Yoga is a yogic meditation technique by which the senses, body, mind, all come under the control of the seeker.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramahansa Yogananda describes &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/chap26.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kriya Yoga:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit root of Kriya is kri, to do, to act and react; the same root is found in the word karma, the natural principle of cause and effect. Kriya Yoga is thus &amp;quot;union (yoga) with the Infinite through a certain action or rite.&amp;quot; A yogi who faithfully follows its technique is gradually freed from karma or the universal chain of causation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/chap26.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Patanjali also refers to the same or a similar technique in His Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kriya Yoga is mentioned twice by the ancient sage Patanjali, foremost exponent of yoga, who wrote: &amp;quot;Kriya Yoga consists of body discipline, mental control, and meditating on Aum.&amp;quot; Patanjali speaks of God as the actual Cosmic Sound of Aum heard in meditation. Aum is the Creative Word, the sound of the Vibratory Motor. Even the yoga-beginner soon inwardly hears the wondrous sound of Aum. Receiving this blissful spiritual encouragement, the devotee becomes assured that he is in actual touch with divine realms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in other words, Kriya Yoga is a kind of meditation and Yoga technique focusing on Self Discipline, Pranayama, and Meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is the main purpose of Kriya Yoga?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purpose of Kriya Yoga, like any other 'Yoga', is in the meaning of the word Yoga. Yoga means Divine Union. In other words, union with God. Kriya Yoga has as its goal the union with God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramahansa Yogananda says about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/chap26.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kriya Yoga&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the initial states of God-contact (savikalpa samadhi) the devotee's consciousness merges with the Cosmic Spirit; his life force is withdrawn from the body, which appears &amp;quot;dead,&amp;quot; or motionless and rigid. The yogi is fully aware of his bodily condition of suspended animation. As he progresses to higher spiritual states (nirvikalpa samadhi), however, he communes with God without bodily fixation, and in his ordinary waking consciousness, even in the midst of exacting worldly duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in other words, the goal is to obtain that peerless state called as Samadhi where the seeker comes in contact with God or Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;How is Kriya Yoga different from other Yoga?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So There are basically four classifications of Yoga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhakti Yoga (Path of devotion to God)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jnana Yoga (Path of Wisdom)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karma Yoga (Path of Action)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Raja Yoga (The Royal Path)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kriya Yoga is a type of Raja Yoga. Here is some information about Raja Yoga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sivananda describes &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/rajayoga.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Raja Yoga is the king of Yogas. It concerns directly with the mind. In this Yoga there is no struggling with Prana or physical body. There are no Hatha Yogic Kriyas. The Yogi seats at ease, watches his mind and silences the bubbling thoughts. He stills the mind, restraints the thought-waves and enters into the thoughtless state or Asamprajnata Samadhi. Hence the name Raja Yoga. Though Raja Yoga is a dualistic philosophy and treats of Prakriti and Purusha, it helps the student in Advaitic Realization of oneness eventually. Though there is the mention of Purusha, ultimately the Purusha becomes identical with Highest Self or Purusha, or Brahman of Upanishads. Raja Yoga pushes the student to the highest rung of the spiritual ladder of Advaitic realization of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Self-Realization Fellowship describes &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogananda-srf.org/kriya_yoga_path_of_meditation.aspx#.VQiTso7F9KI&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kriya Yoga&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kriya is an advanced Raja Yoga technique of pranayama (life-energy control). Kriya reinforces and revitalizes subtle currents of life energy (prana) in the spine and brain. The ancient seers of India (rishis) perceived the brain and spine as the tree of life. Out of the subtle cerebrospinal centers of life and consciousness (chakras) flow the energies that enliven all the nerves and every organ and tissue of the body. The yogis discovered that by revolving the life current continuously up and down the spine by the special technique of Kriya Yoga, it is possible to greatly accelerate one's spiritual evolution and awareness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Can anyone learn Kriya Yoga?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kriya Yoga being a type of Pranayama and Kundalini Yoga, is very dangerous and risky, if not done right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any form of Pranayama and Kundalini Yoga, Kriya Yoga, etc. have to be learned from a qualified teacher. The one who attempts to do it at home by reading a book or watching a TV show is taking a big risk of harming himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramahansa Yogananda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/chap26.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; this briefly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of certain ancient yogic injunctions, I cannot give a full explanation of Kriya Yoga in the pages of a book intended for the general public. The actual technique must be learned from a Kriyavan or Kriya Yogi; here a broad reference must suffice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus these points in the answer are only an information and they MUST NOT BE attempted without proper initiation into Kriya Yoga. As long as there is a burning desire for Self Realization, the path (Karma, Jnana, Bhakti, Raja) will unfold by itself. All paths are One.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ekam Sat Viprah Bahuda Vadanti. [Rig Veda, 1-164-46]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Truth is One, Sages call it by different Names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-06-08T16:30:54.127" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6774" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6740" CreationDate="2015-03-18T07:18:36.340" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The position of the mother is the highest in the world, as it is the one place in which to learn and exercise the greatest unselfishness. The love of God is the only love that is higher than a mother's love; all others are lower. &lt;strong&gt;It is the duty of the mother to think of her children first and then of herself&lt;/strong&gt;. But, instead of that, if the parents are always thinking of themselves first, the result is that the relation between parents and children becomes the same as that between birds and their offspring which, as soon as they are fledged, do not recognize any parents. Blessed, indeed, is the man who is able to look upon woman as the representative of the motherhood of God. Blessed, indeed, is the woman to whom man represents the fatherhood of God. Blessed are the children who look upon their parents as Divinity manifested on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/kyog/kyog04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Karma-Yoga by Swami Vivekananda (1921) at sacred-texts.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2440" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T19:04:43.377" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T19:04:43.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6776" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6754" CreationDate="2015-03-18T08:10:06.507" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Definition of Bharatvarsh  By The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thevedicfoundation.org/bhartiya_history/definition.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedik&lt;/a&gt; Foundation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the scriptural description of the brahmand the entire earth planet is called Bharatvarsh, but particularly the area of the continent that lies south of the Himalayas is called Bharatvarsh. It is also called Aryavart. The inhabitants of Aryavart are called the Aryans as referred to in the Rigved. Thus, the words Bhartiya or Aryans were both used for the inhabitants of Bharatvarsh or Aryavart, however, the words Bharatiya and Bharatvarsh were more popular. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Here is what agnideva says in the chapter 118th Description of Bharatvarsha  in AgniPurana:-&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agnideva Says&lt;/strong&gt; :-     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The country situated in the north of sea and south of Himlayas is called Bharat.Area of that country is about nine thousand Yojans (45 thousand kilometers).This is Karmabhumi(Workplace) for the people with wishes of Swarg(Heaven) and Apwarg. Mahendra,Malay,Sahya,Shuktiman,Himalay,Vindhya and Pariyatra,These are total seven Paravat here.IndraDeep,Kasheru,Tamrawarn Gabhastiman,Nagdeep,Soumya,Gandhrav and Warun these are eight islands here.Bharat is the ninth island surrounded by sea.Bharat island is thousands of killometer long from south to north. Bharat have nine parts.Bharat island is situated in the middle.In it Kirats are in the easterns side and yamans are in the western side. Middle of Bharat island is for Brahmans and similar casts. From Pariyatra Hill rivers like Veda-Smriti are generated.From Vindhyanchal Hill rivers like Narmada are generated.From Sahya Hill Tapti,Payoshni,Godavari,Bheemrathi and Krishnaveta rivers are generated.&#xA;  From Malay rivers like Kritmasa and From Mahendra Rivers like Trimasa are generate d.From Suktiman rivers like Kumari and From Himalaya rivers like chandrabhaga are generated.In the west part of Bharat island Kuru,Panchal and Madhyadesh are situated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-01-02T04:52:27.853" LastActivityDate="2016-01-02T04:52:27.853" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6777" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6812" CreationDate="2015-03-18T09:59:32.380" Score="22" ViewCount="17690" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently, I watched a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tktvu_J1grI&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;video&lt;/a&gt; in which the author claims that there is a sloka in praise of Lord Krishna which results in the value of &quot;pi&quot; up to 30 decimal places, in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katapayadi_system&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;katapayadi system&lt;/a&gt;. Here is the sloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gopi bhagya madhuvrata &lt;br&gt; &#xA;      srngiso dadhi sandhiga &lt;br&gt; &#xA;      khala jivita khatava &lt;br&gt; &#xA;      gala hala rasandara &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-26T04:34:23.273" LastActivityDate="2022-09-02T15:13:48.127" Title="Was value of pi really defined in a sloka?" Tags="|shloka|mathematics|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6778" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6779" CreationDate="2015-03-18T09:59:42.177" Score="2" ViewCount="1024" Body="&lt;p&gt;How many divisions of time in the Hindu Scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2642" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-03-18T11:36:53.253" LastActivityDate="2016-02-13T23:16:18.890" Title="What is the puranic divisions of time?" Tags="|puranas|time|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6779" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6778" CreationDate="2015-03-18T10:27:29.253" Score="2" Body="&lt;h1&gt;THE PURĀNIC DIVISIONS OF TIME&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In Hinduism there are three main divisions of the time employed in the Hindu Scriptures are&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yugas-Yuga in Hinduism is an era within a four age cycle.It's Starts with Krita Yuga further Treta Yuga then Dvapara Yuga afterall Kalyuga(current).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manvantaras-it is a Sanskrit word, a compound of manu and antara, manu-antara or manvantara, verbatim it mean the duration of a Manu, or his life length.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalpas-a kalpa is the period of time between the creation and recreation of a world or universe. 1 kalpas=4.32 billion years.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp37.htm#fr_312&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the source&#xA;There are four Yugas, which together increase to 12,000 divine years.Their respective duration is as follows:—*&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Krita Yuga       = 4,800 divine years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Tretā Yuga       = 3,600 „ „&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Dvāpara Yuga     = 2,400 „ „&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Kāli Yuga        = 1,200 „ „&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The one day of god is equal to the one year of human beings.&quot; As 360 is taken as the number of days in the year—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Krita Yuga = 4,800 x 360 = 1,728,000 years of mortals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Tretā, Yuga = 3,600 x 360 = 1,296,000 „ „&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Dvāpara Yuga = 2,400 x 360 = 864,000 „ „&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Kāli Yuga = 1,200 x 360 = 432,000 „ „&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;*One Mahāyuga, or Great Age, including the four lesser Yugas, therefore, being 12,000 divine years = 4,320,000 years of mortals. &quot;A thousand such Mahāyugas are a day of Brahmā,&quot; and his nights are of equal duration; a Kalpa, therefore, or Day, of Brahmā extends over 4,320,000,000 ordinary years. &quot;Within each Kalpa 14 Manus reign; a Manvantara, or period of a Manu, therefore, is consequently one-fourteenth part of a Kalpa, or day of Brahmā.**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In the present Kalpa, six Manus, of whom Swyambhuva was the first, have already passed away; the present being Vaivasata. In each Manvantara (period of a Manu), seven Rishis, certain deities, an Indra and a Manu, and the kings, his sons, are created and perish. A thousand systems of the four Yugas occur coincidentally with these fourteen Manvantaras, and consequently about 71 systems of four Yugas elapse during each Manvantara, and measure the lives of the Manus and the deities of the period. At the close of this day of Brahmā, a collapse of the universe takes place, which lasts through a night of Brahmā, equal in duration to his day, during which period the worlds are converted into one great ocean, when the lotus-born god (Brahmā), expanded by his deglutition of the universe, and contemplated by the Yogis and gods in Janaloka, sleeps on the serpent Sesha. At the end of that night he awakes and creates anew.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;A year of Brahmā is composed of the proper number of such days and nights, and a hundred of such years constitute his whole life. The period of his life is called Para, and the half of it Parārddha, or the half of a Para. One Parārddha, or half of Brahmā's existence, has now expired, terminating with the great Kalpa called the Padma Kalpa. The now existing Kalpa, or day of Brahmā, called Varāha (or that of the boar), is the first of the second Parārddha of Brahmā's existence. The dissolution which occurs at the end of each Kalpa, or day of Brahmā, is called naimittika, incidental, occasional, or contingent.&quot; *&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also read it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dharmakshetra.com/articles3/Time%20Measurements%20described%20in%20the%20Vedas.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is one more source :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Puranas describe a number of time cycles within cycles. Discussions of these cycles can become confusing because different cycles are measured in different types of units. For example, the cycles are often described in units of deva years&#xA;          ( years in the higher planets ), each of which equals 360 human years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following description starts with the smaller cycles and works up to the larger ones. The length of each cycle is given in ordinary human (earth) years, as well other units where appropriate. Large numbers are described using the conventions of American English: thus, a million is a thousand thousand, a billion is a thousand million, a trillion is a thousand billion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-13T23:16:18.890" LastActivityDate="2016-02-13T23:16:18.890" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6780" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6778" CreationDate="2015-03-18T10:42:52.287" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, the division of time is based upon the movement of atom over space and starts from the &lt;strong&gt;smallest unit called &lt;em&gt;paramanu&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; to the larger ones called &lt;em&gt;yuga&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;mahayuga&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;manvantara&lt;/em&gt;, etc. up to the &lt;strong&gt;largest one called &lt;em&gt;Mahakalpa&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sa kālaḥ paramāṇur vai yo bhuṅkte paramāṇutām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sato ’viśeṣa-bhug yas tu sa kālaḥ paramo mahān&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 3.11.4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Atomic time is measured according to its covering a particular atomic space. That time which covers the unmanifest aggregate of atoms is called the great time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;3.11 chapter of the Bhagavata&lt;/a&gt; contains a description of the smallest units of time which can be listed as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Paramāṇu       - 26.3 µs&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Aṇu     - 57.7 µs&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Trasareṇu   -   158 µs&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Truṭi   -   474 µs&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vedha   -   47.4 ms&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lava    -   0.14 s&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Nimeṣa  -   0.43 s&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kṣaṇa   -   1.28 s&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kāṣṭhā  -   6.4 s&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Laghu   -   1.6 min&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Danda   -   24 min&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Muhūrta -   48 min&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ahorātram (Day) -   24 h  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then there are &lt;em&gt;masa&lt;/em&gt;(month), &lt;em&gt;varsa&lt;/em&gt;(year / solar year), &lt;em&gt;devavarsa (divine years)&lt;/em&gt;, etc. which constitute &lt;em&gt;yugas&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Satya Yuga   - (1,728,000 solar years)  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Treta Yuga   - (1,296,000 solar years)   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dvapara Yuga - (864,000 solar years)  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kali Yuga    - (432,000 solar years)   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then there are &lt;em&gt;Mahayugas&lt;/em&gt; up to &lt;em&gt;Mahakalpa&lt;/em&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;12,000 divine years = 4 Yugas (= 4,320,000 human years) = 1 Mahā-Yuga   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;1008 Mahā-Yugas = 1 Kalpa = 1 day (day only) of Brahma   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;30 days of Brahma = 1 month of Brahma (259.2 billion human years)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;12 months of Brahma = 1 year of Brahma (3.1104 trillion human years)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;50 years of Brahma = 1 Parārdha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;2 parardhas = 100 years of Brahma = 1 Para = 1 Mahā-Kalpa &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The interesting point about the division of time in Hinduism is that it talks about relativity of time thousands of years ago. So we can only guess how spiritually advanced the sages are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;More Reference:&lt;/a&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-18T11:21:23.610" LastActivityDate="2015-03-18T11:21:23.610" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6781" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7361" CreationDate="2015-03-18T14:17:26.563" Score="1" ViewCount="747" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wanted to know if anybody has tried dating the book 'Shri Shani Mahatmya'? Is there a version in Hindi/English available online?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-18T16:23:52.760" LastActivityDate="2015-05-21T15:43:59.903" Title="Is there any dating available for the book Shri Shani Mahatmya?" Tags="|scripture|shani|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6782" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6726" CreationDate="2015-03-18T15:25:54.943" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Reading the entire Vedas is a mammoth task, one that could take you a very long time. The text is difficult to read and understand without the assistance of an expert and you really need to ask yourself what you are looking to gain by reading.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since you have just read the Gita, the next logical step for you in my opinion would be to read the Upanishads instead. These are essentially the philosophic heart of the Vedas, and you find it a lot easier to find books with useful commentaries. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it really is the Vedas you are interested in, you will find many books which will summarise the contents instead. My personal favourite is &lt;a href=&quot;http://amzn.to/1xeGow3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt; Discovering The Vedas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastActivityDate="2015-03-18T15:25:54.943" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6787" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6758" CreationDate="2015-03-18T17:18:00.507" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is an interesting question. It would be best to first clarify a few points you make before answering your questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You wrote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Human is identified in terms of 3 Bodies, 3 States and 5 Koshas or Sheaths. An Atman/soul covered by three bodies, Which are Karana sharira (Causal body), Sukshma sarira (Subtle body) and Sthula sharira (the Gross body).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ‘causal body’ does not really exist on an individual level. There are 3 upadhis (not states as you refer to) that make the Atman appear to be something than what it is. These upadhis are the gross, subtle, and causal bodies. The causal body, however, exists on a universal level and refers to the collective &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; out of which the universe is created – it does not  exist on an individual level as the gross and subtle do. Sankara says “&lt;em&gt;Avidya, or nescience, indescribable and beginningless, is called the cause, which is an upadhi superimposed on Atman.&lt;/em&gt;” (&lt;em&gt;Atmabodha&lt;/em&gt; 13.)  Sankaracharya describes these 3 upadhis in &lt;em&gt;Atmabodha&lt;/em&gt; 11-13.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not a ‘human’ who is identified in terms of 3 bodies, it is the atman which appears to identify with the subtle and gross bodies as a result of the 3 upadhis.  Out of the subtle bodies all living creatures are formed, not just human. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You wrote:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Where does a Soul attached to these Body?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer:&lt;br&gt;&#xA; The ‘Soul’ when seen from universal standpoint is often referred to as the Atman. The Soul when seen from an individual standpoint is often referred to as the atman (small 'a' denotes the Atman in the individual). The individual jiva is Pure Consciousness limited by the upadhi of the vijnanamayakosa. It is also said to be the reflection of Pure Consciousness. “...(the individual soul) is intelligence itself.” (&lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 2.8.18) The &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; (2.8.19-22.) say that it is ‘atomic’ in size. It is said to reside in the cave of the heart (&lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 2.8.24)  - “He sees the Person dwelling in the heart who is supreme, higher than the individual souls” (&lt;em&gt;Prasna Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; V.5., see also &lt;em&gt;Chhandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; VIII. i. 1-5.). The heart is interpreted to mean the buddhi, the intellect. The cave being the innermost part. See also &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 1.3.12-13 and 2.8.18-50. “Though all-pervading,...It is manifest in the buddhi…” (&lt;em&gt;Atmabodha&lt;/em&gt; 16.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You wrote:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Where and How does the Physical body, the Subtle body and the Causal body attached to each other? Specially attachment of Sukshma sharira (Subtle body) and Sthula sharira (the Gross body).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;They are not ‘attached’ to each other, one is enclosed with the others&lt;/strong&gt;, that is why they are kosas, or ‘sheaths’, because they cover the Atman like a sheath. Each kosa is finer and finer. Each kosa permeates the more grosser sheaths. The annamayakosa (physical body) is the least fine so it does not permeate any other sheath. The pranamayakosa is finer than the physical and therefore permeates it. The manomayakosa is finer than the pranas and permeates it. The vijnanamayakosa is still finer and permeates the manomayakosa. Finest is the anandamayakosa. I don’t know what you mean by ‘astral body’. This is not a Hindu term. The causal body I referred to previously to above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You wrote:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Can Spiritual enlightened person see Karana sharira (Causal body) and Sukshma sarira (Subtle body) of ours with his/her naked eyes or with Divya dhristi?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer:&lt;br&gt;&#xA; A spiritually enlightened person may see the Causal Body as Maya. Some highly enlightened persons can see their subtle bodies with their physical eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You wrote:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Can we see our own Karana sharira (Causal body) and Sukshma sarira (Subtle body) through meditation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As answered in other parts of this question, there is no individual causal body. You can see your own subtle body. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa describes this in &lt;em&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You wrote:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Why does the Life span of each of the bodies is different in different people?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer: Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You wrote:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Why does Sukshma sharira (Subtle body) called as Linga Sharira?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer: They refer to two slightly different things. The Linga Shariras consist of seventeen component parts; the five organs of perception, the intellect, the mind, the five organs of action, and the five vital forces (&lt;em&gt;Vedantasara&lt;/em&gt; 61-64.). These make up the parts of the three sheaths that compose the Sukshma Sharira (subtle body). The subtle body consists of three parts - the vijnanamayakosa, the manomayakosa, and the pranamayakosa. The vijnanamayakosa consists of the intellect (buddhi) and the five organs of perception. The manomayakosa consists of  the mind (manas) and the organs of perception. The pranamayakosa consists of the five vital forces and the five organs of action. (&lt;em&gt;Atmabodha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Vedantasara&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You wrote:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Can living beings other than human also consist of these 3 Bodies?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer: Yes. The &lt;em&gt;Chhandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (V.x.5-6.) says yes. In these verses are outlined the jiva’s path to rebirth on earth.  After falling as rainwater the jiva is born as rice, barley, plants, trees, etc.  Then - “…whosoever [capable of begetting children] eats that food and injects semen, they become like him.” - What the verse is saying is that if a male cow eats the plant, you are born as a cow. If a human eats the plant you are born human. Now, plants and animals (especially plants) have a limited or non-existent physical brain. So, you do not have the same ‘awareness’ of the physical plane as you do as a human. Plant life is more akin to a dream world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think there needs to be clarification on two other points you write. You wrote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Man must take birth again and again with the help of gross body till all the Samskaras are consumed. You can consume Samskara (karma-phala) only in human life with the help of conscious living and power of will. It is not possible in any other life and that is why human life is considered as extremely important from the liberation point of view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not exactly. First, you take birth until you achieve Liberation. When you achieve Liberation, the only karma remaining is the karma of the present birth, the prarabdha karma, the karma that has already started to bear fruit. The accumulated karma still remaining, the sanchita karma, is destroyed, not consumed. Second, human life is the only life where &lt;em&gt;NEW&lt;/em&gt; karma is made - not consumed. You can consume prior karma in other than human lives. For example, if you have very good karma, you can go to one of the heavens until the good karma that got you there is consumed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-03-19T09:56:45.147" LastActivityDate="2015-03-19T09:56:45.147" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6789" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6793" CreationDate="2015-03-18T23:28:16.650" Score="10" ViewCount="8036" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma, the creator of the universe, is depicted as having four heads. Is there a story behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WfXJo.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WfXJo.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-23T17:17:25.293" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T03:47:18.040" Title="What is the origin of Brahma's four heads?" Tags="|brahma|shiva-purana|shatapatha-brahmana|matsya-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6790" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6791" CreationDate="2015-03-19T01:05:07.183" Score="5" ViewCount="167" Body="&lt;p&gt;I find that yoga is one of the most relaxing and powerful activities I can do for myself, yet how exactly did yoga become yoga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2651" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-03-19T05:06:01.830" LastActivityDate="2015-03-19T05:06:01.830" Title="How did Yoga develop into a religious practice?" Tags="|history|practice|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6791" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6790" CreationDate="2015-03-19T02:06:53.933" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yoga is not a religious practice, it is a spiritual practice. The sages in the ancient times meditated and deliberated on the nature of reality, of this world, of its origin, causes and so on. They identified Brahman as the root cause of this world which is of the nature of pure bliss (Tait. Up. 3.6). And only by uniting with Brahman that man become blissful. So they devised or perfected techniques like meditation, concentration, etc. to unite with Brahman. This process of union is called as Yoga. Yoga is a Sanskrit word derived from the root &lt;em&gt;yuj&lt;/em&gt; which means to unite. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Through meditation they had found that in the body itself that Brahman resides:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;svadehamaraṇiṃ kṛtvā praṇavaṃ cottarāraṇiṃ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dhyānanirmathanābhyāsāddevaṃ paśyennigūḍhavat&lt;/em&gt; [Sve. Up. - 1.14] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Making own body the lower wood, AUM (OM) is made the upper, Churning in meditation through practice, the divine is seen hidden under.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like scientists perfect the techniques and methods they invent, the sages in the earlier times kept on perfecting different techniques of Yoga. Then Patanjali Rishi systematized things by forming the Yoga school of thought of which self restraint, meditation, concentration, &lt;em&gt;samadhi&lt;/em&gt;, etc. were the eight limbs:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yama niyama āsana prāṇāyāma pratyāhāra&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dhāraṇā dhyāna samādhayaḥ aṣṭau aṅgāni&lt;/em&gt;  [PYS - 2.29]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The eight limbs of Union are self-restraint in actions, fixed observance, posture, regulation of energy, mind-control in sense engagements, concentration, meditation, and realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in course of time different kinds of meditation techniques and physical practices were perfected by different sages and saints. They taught their discovered techniques to their disciples and formed a branch of Yoga. From Adinath originated the Hata Yoga techniques, sages like Shandilya and Narada advocated Bhakti Yoga (union with Brahman or God through devotion) and some saints like Sankaracharya advocated Jnana Yoga and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And when all things got inter mixed by people and teachers of modern times who are not much advanced in spiritually, they gave it a religious outlook mixing one thing with the other. Even to that extent that simple physical exercises are now branded and called as Yoga. But anyway that's just obvious due to the effect of time. Over time the true value of things and knowledge tend to get extinct. And the thing is,  one is not bound to believe in many religious stuff to follow the path of Yoga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-03-19T02:06:53.933" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6792" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6660" CreationDate="2015-03-19T02:20:33.453" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Two sides of a coin there are, I thought only one,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I put my bet all on that, and alas I lost my chance!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What you have mentioned is like one side of the coin. In Hinduism no action is inherently good or bad. Whether something is a sin or not depends also upon the context of the action rather than the action itself. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/72/38&quot;&gt;This answer&lt;/a&gt; discusses about the eating of meats and when it is allowed to eat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;One may eat meat when it has been sprinkled with water, while&#xA;  Mantras were recited, when Brahmanas desire (one's doing it), when&#xA;  one is engaged (in the performance of a rite) according to the law,&#xA;  and when one's life is in danger. [Manu Smriti - 5.27]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who eats meat, when he honours the gods and manes, commits no&#xA;  sin, whether he has bought it, or himself has killed (the animal),&#xA;  or has received it as a present from others. [Manu Smriti - 5.32]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nowhere it has been suggested or encouraged to kill animals for the purpose of satiating one's tongue. For purposes like &lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;sradha&lt;/em&gt;, etc. animals were sacrificed, about which most of your quoted verses are. People who know spiritual things know that &lt;strong&gt;in those sacrifices first it is made sure that the animal gets a higher birth, otherwise the killer will only get a load of bad karma&lt;/strong&gt;. And secondly, whenever it was required to partake such sacrifices it was done so by chanting proper &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; to mitigate the bad effect of eating such food. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But without chanting proper mantras and offering it to the gods, if one eats meat then he will have to suffer the consequences as stated in the scriptures. So the question to ask is, how many people know the proper way of these things? And if people don't know the things correctly, then following blindly will only cause harm. One should see and analyze all the sides. Little knowledge is dangerous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-21T15:30:57.587" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T15:30:57.587" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6793" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6789" CreationDate="2015-03-19T02:28:52.017" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of how Brahma got four heads is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/o5in&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Matsya Purana.  When Brahma created Saraswati, he immediately fell in love with her, and she evaded him by going in different directions, but he sprouted a head in each of the four directions until finally she went above him and he grew a fifth head pointed towards Devaloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma, after creating His manasa putras, was not quite &#xA;  satisfied with the work of His creation. He set about devising some &#xA;  plan which would carry on the work of creation and would relieve Him &#xA;  of the task. With this view, He began to invoke Gayatri. After some &#xA;  time the goddess Gayatri, known under different names, viz. — Satarupa, &#xA;  Savitri, Sarasvati, Brahmani, &amp;amp;c, — appeared in the form of a girl from &#xA;  the half portion of Brahma's body who at the first sight mistakenly &#xA;  took Her for His daughter. Afterwards, the Creator, seeing that form &#xA;  of exquisite beauty, was fired with love and repeatedly uttered, &quot; What &#xA;  an enchanting form!&quot; At this, the MAnasa putras of Brahma, i.e., Vasishtha, etc., taking Savitri for their sister, began to express their feelings of seething indignation and contempt at the attitude of Their Father (Lord Brahma), but He was so much absorbed in love that He did not heed anything in the least. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma continued uttering, &quot; Oh ! what an enchanting form ! &#xA;  oh ! what an enchanting form !&quot; in His love for the goddess Savitri, and &#xA;  the latter, after saluting Him, began to circumambulate Him in reverence. &#xA;  Brahma fixed his gaze on Savitri and could not distract Himself from Her. As she was circumambulating Him, He felt shy of turning &#xA;  His head each time to Her direction, as His Mftnasa putras were standing &#xA;  close by. He therefore created four heads, each pointed to a direction, &#xA;  in order that He may see Savitri undisturbed, without having to turn His &#xA;  head each time in course of Her circumambulations. Seeing Brahma in &#xA;  such a condition, Satarupa went to heaven with the Manas sons of the &#xA;  Creator, and as she was travelling towards heaven, Brahma put on a fifth &#xA;  head right on top which afterwards He covered with His long matted hair. &#xA;  This is how Brahma came to have five heads. After this, Brahma lost his &#xA;  powers that He had acquired by practicing asceticism, owing to His &#xA;  not controlling His mind and falling into the snares of Cupid. Then &#xA;  Brahma dispersed His sons, after directing them to carry on the work &#xA;  of Creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sons of Brahma, in obedience to His instructions, set themselves to complete the work of creation, and afterwards they took leave Of Brahma with salutations. Brahma, fired with passion in Her company, married Satarupa and began to pass His days in enjoyment inside a lotus. He enjoyed the company of Savitri for hundred years, and after a long time Manu was born to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Saraswati, although she's often called by the name Shatarupa, is not the same as Shatarupa wife of Swayambhuva Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, this passage doesn't discuss how Brahma lost his fifth head. It was cut off by Shiva in his incarnation as Kala Bhairava; here is how the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda describes it: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pragâpati conceived a passion for his own daughter... 'May I pair with her!' thus (thinking) he united with her. This, assuredly, was a sin in the eyes of the gods. 'He who acts thus towards his own daughter, our sister, [commits a sin],' they thought. The gods then said to this god who rules over the beasts (Rudra), 'This one, surely, commits a sin who acts thus towards his own daughter, our sister. Pierce him!' Rudra, taking aim, pierced him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's an extremely abbreviated telling, but the Jnana Samhita of the Shiva Purana provides more detail (Jnana Samhita 49:65-80):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma desired Sarasvati and went to her, asking her to stay with him. She, being his daughter, was furious at this and said, 'Your mouth speaks inauspiciously and so you will always speak in a contrary way.' From that day, Brahma's fifth head always spoke evilly and coarsely. Therefore one day when Siva was wandering about with Parvati and came to see Brahma, Brahma's four heads praised Siva but the fifth made an evil sound. Siva, displeased with the fifth head, cut it off. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it's after losing the fifth head that Brahma got the well-known four-headed form he has today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T03:47:18.040" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T03:47:18.040" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6794" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6720" CreationDate="2015-03-19T03:25:24.087" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Shiva's incarnation &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/rqoR&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shatarudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana.  (You can read the Shiva Purana using the links in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3830/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  In this account, Brahma prays to Shiva in the Vishwarupa Kalpa, and as a result Saraswati manifests herself as his daughter Vishwarupa and Shuva manifests himself as his son &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; instructs Brahma, and then has four sons of his own:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Brahma, desirous of sons, meditated on Shiva mentally, Saraswati of great sound manifested herself.  She was Vishwarupa (Universe-formed).  &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; of such renowned features, supreme lord of crystal-like pure brilliance and bedecked in all ornaments manifested himself.  On seeing &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; the unborn lord, all pervading, all-bestowing, the all-in-all, of good forms as well as well as form, Brahma bowed to him.  Lord &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; after instructing the path of the good to Brahma, created four auspicious sons in collaboration with his Energy.  They were born Jatin, Mundin, Sikhandin, and Ardhamunda.  By means of Yoga they imparted good virtue and attained the goal of Yoga.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I assume &quot;goal of yoga&quot; means Kaivalya liberation, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6686/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story is also told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/0ZvH&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Linga Purana.  (You can read the rest if the Linga Purana &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/4142/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  This account provides more detail about the prayer that Brahma says as well as what &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; teaches Brahma (it's about the fundamental nature of Saraswati).  It also provides the detail that Saraswati's incarnation Vishwarupa is a cow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-11-14T14:51:20.680" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6795" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-19T04:02:51.953" Score="6" ViewCount="640" Body="&lt;p&gt;Somebody answered &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6698/36&quot;&gt;one my question's on Kali Demon&lt;/a&gt; and said the following:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another son of Lord Brahmā was Irreligion, whose wife’s name was Falsity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why would Lord Brahma create a son called as Irreligion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why would any God create something bad anyways?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-09-29T12:13:45.563" Title="Why would Brahma create a son called as Irreligion" Tags="|brahma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6796" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6795" CreationDate="2015-03-19T05:24:11.353" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;If &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; is what God wants us to follow, if for the sake of establishing &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; that the Lord has to take birth here again and again (BG - 4.7), then what ignorance caused Brahma, the reservoir of all knowledge, to have a son like &lt;em&gt;adharma&lt;/em&gt;? Wouldn't the world have been a better place if God Brahma didn't create this Son? Yes, it would have been. So what's the reason? Why would God create anything bad at all?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well the thing is, stories of the scriptures are not to be always taken literally. Many of them are symbolic in nature and have esoteric meanings. For example, Kali has the wife named Durukti (harsh speech). It means harsh speech is the companion of the age of Kali just like a wife is a companion of a husband. So in Kali Yuga people won't won't be humble, instead they will say harsh words to others and will cause quarrels. Similarly, the mixing of &lt;em&gt;kali&lt;/em&gt; (quarrel) and &lt;em&gt;durukti&lt;/em&gt; (harsh speech) gives rise to death, fear, etc. which are described as their sons. In the very same way, &lt;em&gt;adharma&lt;/em&gt; has been stated as the son of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In reality, no God would create anything bad so that He will have to work for restoring the good again. No one is that fool. The manifestation of good and bad is natural and spontaneous because God is both &lt;em&gt;sat&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;asat&lt;/em&gt; Himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sadasaccāhamarjuna&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 9.19]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   -  Arjuna, I am both &lt;em&gt;sat&lt;/em&gt; (good) and &lt;em&gt;asat&lt;/em&gt; (bad).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in the beginning when creation occurs, God Himself enters the creation as good and bad and manifests as different material nature:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sa evedaḿ sasarjāgre bhagavān ātma-māyayā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sad-asad-rūpayā cāsau guṇamayāguṇo vibhuḥ&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 1.2.30]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He at the beginning of creation through His own illusive power transformed into both good and evil. Although He is attributes less, He became endowed with attributes and qualities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then people as per their actions good or bad give rise to corresponding situations. Sages and saints describe it in many ways through stories and different philosophies. When one advances in spiritual practice through devotion, inquiry, etc. he will be able to know and realize the truth. The truth that, all is this merely a &lt;em&gt;lila&lt;/em&gt; (sport / pastime) of God: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;lokavat tu lila kaivalyam&lt;/em&gt; [Brh. Su. - 2.1.33]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   - The creation is merely a sport of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was also troubled by similar kinds of question, but it went away upon my realization of &lt;a href=&quot;http://shunyavada.com/&quot;&gt;Shunya Vada&lt;/a&gt; by following the path of devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-03-19T05:24:11.353" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6802" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6807" CreationDate="2015-03-19T15:08:36.997" Score="20" ViewCount="8299" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why are brahmins represented by names of Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, a person &lt;strong&gt;x&lt;/strong&gt; is a brahmin of some &lt;strong&gt;y&lt;/strong&gt; class (Kanyakubja/ Kokanstha/Deshastha etc.) Then person &lt;strong&gt;x&lt;/strong&gt; will be introduced or called as &lt;strong&gt;x&lt;/strong&gt; person is a &lt;strong&gt;y&lt;/strong&gt; class - Sama, Yajur or Rig - vedi brahmin e.g., let's assume him to be a rigvedi. So, he will be referred to as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;x is a y-class rigvedi brahmin &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;x is a rigvedi &lt;strong&gt;y&lt;/strong&gt;-class brahmin &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of calling Brahmins by Veda names, do they study or specialize in that Veda alone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so, what about Atharva Veda, I've never heard someone called an Atharva-Vedi brahmin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T14:15:00.903" LastActivityDate="2021-04-22T20:07:22.390" Title="Why are brahmins represented by names of Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|history|brahmins|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6803" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6805" CreationDate="2015-03-19T16:41:45.657" Score="4" ViewCount="3035" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why all the gods insulted their sage &lt;strong&gt;Brihaspati&lt;/strong&gt;? Mostly Devraj Indra insulted Brihaspati in Amaravati, which is the Capital of Devaloka. What is the reason behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-24T14:40:15.873" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T14:40:15.873" Title="Why Brihaspati got insulted by Gods?" Tags="|indra|brihaspati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6804" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6802" CreationDate="2015-03-19T18:50:55.830" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kanyakubja, Konkanastha, Deshastha are geological regions in which the ancestors of those Brahmins lived. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each Brahmin family specialized in a particular Veda. Their lineage thus took the name of the Veda of their specialization. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some Brahmins specialized in more than one Veda. Dwivedis specialized in 2 Vedas. Trivedis specialzied in 3 Vedas and Chaturvedis specialized in all the 4 Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some Brahmins specialized in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smriti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smriti&lt;/a&gt; instead of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Aruti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shruthi&lt;/a&gt; (Vedas). They were called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarta_Tradition&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smarthas&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the geological origin and the Veda they specialized in are given as part of a Brahmin's lineage. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-13T22:48:33.973" LastActivityDate="2015-11-13T22:48:33.973" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6805" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6803" CreationDate="2015-03-19T20:15:43.387" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/7/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam. Once Indra was seated in his court at Amaravati, capital of Devaloka, when Brihaspati guru of the gods came.  But out of arrogance concerning his rule of the three worlds, Indra didn't welcome him or even get up from his seat, which greatly offended Brihaspati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O King, once upon a time, the King of heaven, Indra, being extremely proud because of his great opulence of the three worlds, transgressed the law of Vedic etiquette. Seated on his throne, he was surrounded by the Maruts, Vasus, Rudras, Ādityas, Ṛbhus, Viśvadevas, Sādhyas, Aśvinī-kumāras, Siddhas, Cāraṇas and Gandharvas and by great saintly persons. Also surrounding him were the Vidyādharas, Apsarās, Kinnaras, Patagas [birds] and Uragas [snakes]. All of them were offering Indra their respects and services, and the Apsarās and Gandharvas were dancing and singing with very sweet musical instruments. Over Indra’s head was a white umbrella as effulgent as the full moon. Fanned by yak-tail whisks and served with all the paraphernalia of a great king, Indra was sitting with his wife, Śacīdevī, who occupied half the throne, when the great sage Bṛhaspati appeared in that assembly. Bṛhaspati, the best of the sages, was the spiritual master of Indra and the demigods and was respected by the demigods and demons alike. Nevertheless, although Indra saw his spiritual master before him, he did not rise from his own seat or offer a seat to his spiritual master, nor did Indra offer him a respectful welcome. Indra did nothing to show him respect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bṛhaspati knew everything that would happen in the future. Seeing Indra’s transgression of etiquette, he completely understood that Indra was puffed up by his material opulence. Although able to curse Indra, he did not do so. Instead, he left the assembly and in silence returned to his home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra realized his mistake and wanted to go and apologize to his guru, but Brihaspati made himself invisible so Indra wouldn't find him.  In the mean time, the Asuras attacked and without the benefit of their guru, the gods lost against them.  So Indra and the gods consulted Brahma, told them to get a new guru, Trisiras, the three-headed son of the divine architect Tvashta.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2623/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Trisiras taught Indra the famous Narayana Kavacha, a prayer to Vishnu, which allowed the gods to defeat the Asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But ultimately Indra grew suspicious of Trisiras, since he was related to both the gods and the Asuras, so as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2408/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Indra killed Trisiras by cutting off his three heads.  This made Trisiras' father Tvashta furious, and he created the demon Vritrasura to take revenge on Indra.  It is Indra's defeat of Vritrasura that Indra most known for in ancient times.  And Brihaspati was back at Indra's side by the time Vritrasura came, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk06ch03.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Devi Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-03-19T20:15:43.387" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6806" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-20T02:35:10.590" Score="0" ViewCount="83" Body="&lt;p&gt;(What if) I realized I had committed a sin and now I fear after the outcome of it? &#xA;I fear it will definitely bring sorrow at some point of my life/ in course of life cycles.  &lt;br/&gt;How do I get relieved from this fear factor? &#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;My thoughts are now filled with fear than feeling repent/paschatap!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2015-03-20T03:04:51.700" Title="how to get rid of the sin I committed?" Tags="|life|afterlife|sin|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-03-20T03:04:58.587" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6807" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6802" CreationDate="2015-03-20T03:02:05.547" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt; They basically indicate the occupations that Brahmanas used to have back when they were officiating Vedic Yagnas rather than being temple priests and the like.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to understand what it means for someone to be a Rig Veda Brahmana and so on, you need to understand the nature of the Vedas.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, how the Vedas originated is that from time immemorial, sages known as Dhristas have heard sacred verses directly from the gods during a state of Tapasya (deep meditation). And then in the Dwapara Yuga, a sage named Krishna Dwaipayana Vedavyasa (or Vyasa for short) compiled these verses into a set of four books we call the Vedas. (Technically Vyasa only compiled the Rig, Yajur, and Sama Veda - the Atharvana Veda was compiled by the sage Atharva and Angiras.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Vyasa didn't just divide them in an arbitrary way; he organized the verses according to their function.  The verses of the Vedas have a purpose, and that is to be used in the performance of Yagnas (fire rituals).  A traditional Vedic Yagna would be conducted by &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_priesthood#Chief_priests&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;three main priests&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Hotar, the priest who would chanting Richas, i.e. the Vedic mantras in the original form they had when they were heard from the gods&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Adhvaryu, the priest in charge of carrying out the actual detailed rituals of the Yagna and reciting the appropriate Yajush, a sacred utterance which is a modification of a Richa and which is designed to accompany each ritual action they're performing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Udgatri, the priest in charge of singing Samans, or songs which are adaptations of one or more Richas set to music&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In earlier Yugas, families just had to struggle to maintain their own traditions to know which verses to say and under what circumstances.  So what Vyasa did is he compiled the Vedic verses into books that each kind of priest would have to learn: he compiled all the Richas that a Hotar would use into a book called the Rig Veda Samhita, he compiled the Yajushes for the Adhvaryu into the Yajur Veda Samhita, and he compiled the Samans for the Udgatri into the Sama Veda Samhita.  And then he taught these Samhitas to a bunch of different disciples; here is how the Vishnu Purana describes how the Rig Veda was passed down:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the first place, Paila divided the Rig-veda, and gave the two Sanhitás (or collections of hymns) to Indrapramati and to Báshkali. Báshkali 6 subdivided his Sanhitá into four, which he gave to his disciples Baudhya, Agnimát́hara, Yajnawalka, and Paráśara; and they taught these secondary shoots from the primitive branch. Indrapramati imparted his Sanhitá to his son Mańd́ukeya, and it thence descended through successive generations, as well as disciples 7. Vedamitra, called also Śákalya, studied the same Sanhitá, but he divided it into five Sanhitás, which he distributed amongst as many disciples, named severally Mudgala, Goswalu, Vátsya, Śálíya, and Śiśira 8. Sákapúrńi made a different division of the original Sanhitá into three portions, and added a glossary (Nirukta), constituting a fourth 9. The three Sanhitás were given to his three pupils, Krauncha, Vaitálaki, and Valáka; and a fourth, (thence named) Niruktakrit, had the glossary. In this way branch sprang from branch. Another Báshkali composed three other Sanhitás, which he taught to his disciples Káláyani, Gárgya, and Kathájava. These are they by whom the principal divisions of the Richa’s have been promulgated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus a bunch of parallel schools or Shakhas emerged, each with their own recension of the Rig Veda Samhita, and similarly for the other Samhitas.  And then different Brahmana families started affiliating themselves with different Shakhas, sending each generation of children to Gurus following that Shakha.  So in a nutshell, the term &amp;quot;Rig Veda Brahmana family&amp;quot; really means &amp;quot;family of Hotar priests&amp;quot;, but because (after the time of Vyasa) families of Hotar priests would make their children learn the Rig Veda, they came to be known as Rig Veda Brahmanas, and similarly for the other Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now you also asked about the Atharvana Veda.  As I mentioned above, the Atharvana Veda Samhita was compiled by the sages Atharva and Angiras, not Vyasa.  But Vyasa incorporated the Atharvana Veda into his tradition, by creating a role for the Atharvana Veda in Yagnas: in addition to the Hotar, Adhvaryu, and Udgatri, Vyasa created a new position called by the generic term &amp;quot;Brahmana.&amp;quot;  Vyasa made the Brahmana responsible for making sure the Yagna is going properly, and for uttering mantras from the Atharvana Veda to correct for mistakes done by the other priests.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp078.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Vishnu Purana describes Vyasa's new four-priest Yagna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyása instituted the sacrificial rite that is administered by four kinds of priests: in which it was the duty of the Adhwaryu to recite the prayers (Yajush) (or direct the ceremony); of the Hotri, to repeat the hymns (Richas); of the Udgátri, to chant other hymns (Sáma); and of the Brahman, to pronounce the formulæ called Atharva. Then the Muni, having collected together the hymns called Richas, compiled the Rigveda; with the prayers and directions termed Yajushas he formed the Yajur-veda; with those called Sáma, Sáma-veda; and with the Atharvas he composed the rules of all the ceremonies suited to kings, and the function of the Brahman agreeably to practice .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa similarly instituted Shakhas for the Atharvana Veda, and families that used to be Hotars, Adhvaryus, and Udgatris started switching to becoming Atharvana Veda Brahmanas.  Unfortunately, most of the Shakhas of the Atharvana Veda have died out, for multiple reasons.  First of all, the Brahmana position that Vyasa created was so limited that it was not perceived to be useful.  And second of all, the Atharvana Veda acquired a negative stigma, because it contains things like magical spells and the like.  As a result, only two Shakhas remain, and even they are dying.  So there are few Atharvana Veda Brahmanas left, outside of Odisha, Benares, and Gokarna.  But not all hope is lost!  In South India the problem of Atharvana Veda extinction has been recognized, and there are efforts to preserve the traditions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, you may be wondering why most Rig Veda Brahmanas are no longer Hotars, Yajur Veda Brahmanas are no longer Adhvaryus, etc.  It's not because people are abandoning their Varna Dharmas due to the evil of the Kali Yuga.  It's because Yagnas have become a less popular form of religious activity, in favor of devotional activities like idol worship and the like.  This is a scripturally sanctioned move; for instance the Vaikhanasa texts, which I discuss here, describe how worshiping a statue of Vishnu is an acceptable alternative to conducting a Yagna.  The Pancharatra texts (which I discuss in my questions &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/pancharatra&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), texts that are fundamental to mainstream Vaishnavism, contain similar statements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2021-04-22T20:07:22.390" LastActivityDate="2021-04-22T20:07:22.390" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6808" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4093" CreationDate="2015-03-20T06:54:33.950" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;One day the demon Raktbeej was fighting with the Gods with his armies. The Gods were can't fight with Raktbeej. Goddess Parvati was very angry and she was transformed into her incarnation Kali. Goddess Kali was the Goddess of ghosts. Raktbeej was fighting with Kali. She was trying to kill Raktbeej with her weapon but when Raktbeej's blood was falling,it was transformed into another Raktbeej. Kali was eating Raktbeej's blood. She was too much angry and she was also trying to destroy the Earth. Kali killed Raktbeej and she was wearing many Raktbeej's heads. Suddenly Kali saw she was standing on Lord Shiva his husband. She opened her tongue because she was standing on her husband and also she was feeling shame. Kali became calm and she was transformed into Goddess Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2655" LastActivityDate="2015-03-20T06:54:33.950" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6811" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-20T20:47:31.380" Score="8" ViewCount="1535" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their devotional poetry in praise of Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it's the beliefs and principles embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the Alwars was a Brahmana priest called Perialwar.  He was in charge of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivilliputhur&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srivilliputtur Vishnu Temple&lt;/a&gt; and the father of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andal&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Andal&lt;/a&gt;, the famous female Alwar who fell in love with Vishnu.  In any case, here is one of Perialwar's poems concerning the birth of Krishna, which occurs near the beginning of the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam (see &lt;a href=&quot;http://srivaishnavam.com/4000%20english/Divyaprabandham%201-947.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF&lt;/a&gt;):   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;13&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kaṇṇan, Kesavan, the lovely child, was born in Thirukkoṭṭiyur filled with beautiful palaces.&lt;/strong&gt; When the cowherds sprinkled oil and&#xA;  turmeric powder mixed with fragrance on each other in front of&#xA;  Kaṇṇan’s house they made the front yards of the houses muddy&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When cowherds heard that the divine child was born, they ran, fell and shouted in joy. They searched for the baby and asked everyone,&#xA;  “Where is our dear one?” They beat the drums, sang, danced and joy&#xA;  spread everywhere in their village.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When the glorious child was born the cowherds entered with love into Yashoda’s house, saw him and praised him, saying, “See! Among all&#xA;  men there is no equal to this child. He was born under the Thiruvoṇam&#xA;  star and will rule the world.”&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The women of the cowherd village took the pots from the uri, rolled them in front of their houses and danced. The fragrant ghee,&#xA;  milk and yogurt spilled all over and they became crazy with joy and&#xA;  their thick soft hair became loose.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When the cowherds who carry the uri, sharp mazhu weapons, staffs for grazing the cows and who have palm-leaf beds to sleep on heard the&#xA;  divine child was born, they joined happily together and laughed with&#xA;  their jasmine flower-like teeth. They smeared oil on themselves and&#xA;  jumped into the water to bathe.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The cowherdess Yashoda massaged the baby’s hands and legs and gently poured fresh turmeric water on his body from the pot and bathed&#xA;  him. When she cleaned his lovely tongue, he opened his mouth and she&#xA;  saw all the seven worlds inside. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The beautiful cowherd women who saw the worlds in his mouth wondered and praised him, “This is no cowherd child. He is the supreme&#xA;  god. This wonderful child is really is a Maayan!”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The cowherds planted poles of victory in all directions on the twelfth day after the child was born and gave him a name of the god&#xA;  who lifted up the huge Govardhana mountain. They carried him in their&#xA;  arms and rejoiced.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yashoda said, “If I put him in the cradle, he will kick and tear the cloth of the cradle. If I take him in my hands, he will hurt my&#xA;  waist. If I embrace him tightly, he will kick my stomach. I don’t have&#xA;  strength anymore to deal with him. I am tired, my friends!”&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vishṇuchithan who wore a shining sacred thread composed the poems that describe the birth of omnipresent Narayaṇan, Purushothaman in&#xA;  Thirukkoṭṭiyur, surrounded with flourishing paddy fields. All the sins&#xA;  of the devotees who recite these poems will go away.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is about the first verse of the poem, which says that Krishna &quot;was born in Thirukkoṭṭiyur filled with beautiful palaces&quot;.  For those who don't know, Thirukottiyur, AKA Thirukoshtiyur, is a village in Tamil Nadu, home to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirukoshtiyur#Sri_Sowmya_Narayana_Perumal_Thirukovil&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sowmya Narayana Perumal Vishnu Temple&lt;/a&gt;.  But obviously Krishna wasn't born in Tamil Nadu at all; he was born in Mathura in North India.  So my question is, why does Perialwar say that Krishna was born in Thirukottiyur?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirukoshtiyur#Sri_Sowmya_Narayana_Perumal_Thirukovil&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; on the Thirukottiyur temple says that it has a statue of Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The shrine for Narayana is constructed in form of three stages, similar to that of three floors in a building. This interprets as Boologam (earth), Thiruparkadal, Vaikundham.  Narayana appears in three stages in three forms. &lt;strong&gt;In Ground floor as Krishna in dancing posture.&lt;/strong&gt; Next level he is sayana thirukolam (sayana = reclining, thirukolam = posture), a posture resting on Adhisesha. And top most level in standing posture as Sri Sowmya Narayana Perumal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So did Perialwar just say that Krishna was born in Thirukottiyur out of his devotion to the Krishna deity there?  Or did he mean something else by it?  &lt;a href=&quot;http://sritochi.blogspot.com/2006/08/vanna-maadangal-krishna-jayanthi.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This blogpost&lt;/a&gt; claims that it's because Thirukottiyur is where Vishnu appeared before the gods and agreed to incarnate as Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why does periyaazhwar say that Kannan ws born in Thirukkoshtiyoor? Does the aazhwar not know that the Lord was born in Mathura?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The puranas say that Thirukkoshtiyoor is the place where the Lord held counsel with the Devas tormented by Kamsa and He decided to be born as Krishna on the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since this was the place where the Lord decided to be born, aazhwar says that this was the birth place of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know if this is mentioned in the Puranas?  The Srimad Bhagavatam only &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/1/19&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentions&lt;/a&gt; the gods going to the shore of Vishnu's ocean of milk (called Thiruparkadal in Tamil).  The Adi Parva of the Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01065.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; the same thing].  But is it possible that they also had a meeting on Earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-27T05:33:49.890" LastActivityDate="2020-08-22T12:36:10.247" Title="Why does Periyalwar say that Krishna was born in Thirukottiyur rather than Mathura?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|temple|alwar|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6812" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6777" CreationDate="2015-03-20T21:19:38.377" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;It looks this shloka originates from Bharati Krishna Tirthaji's system of so-called &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_Mathematics_%28book%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;Vedic Mathematics&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt;.  Note that despite its name, it's widely agreed that Tirthaji's system isn't actually Vedic in origin;  Tirthaji claimed that his 16 Sutras were from the Parishishta of the Atharvana Veda, but they're not actually found there.  (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tifr.res.in/%7Evahia/dani-vmsm.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt; a good paper discussing the provenance of Tirthaji's Vedic Mathematics system.  For the real mathematics of the Vedic period see &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mathematics#Vedic_period&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  And the supposed shloka in question isn't even a correct Katapayadi translation of pi; here is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=ykAFEZSy1nAC&amp;amp;lpg=PA63&amp;amp;ots=in5HPsGfsX&amp;amp;dq=%22gopi%20bhagya%20madhuvrata%22&amp;amp;pg=PA63#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we know enough about the authentic Katapayadi system to identify the origin of the Guru [Tirthaji]'s verse...  According to the guru [Tirthaji], decoding the verse produces the following number:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;31415 92653 58969 32384 62643 38327 92&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this number we recognize the first 31 decimals of pi... In the authentic Katapayadi system, the decimals are encoded in reverse order.  So according to the authentic system, the verse is decoded as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;29723 83346 26483 23979 85356 29514 13.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We conclude that the verse is not medieval, and certainly not Vedic.  In all likelihood, the guru [Tirthaji] is the author of the verse&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-23T04:26:15.053" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6813" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-21T02:55:47.477" Score="5" ViewCount="1681" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;lokavat tu lila kaivalyam [Brahma Sutras - 2.1.33]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The creation is merely a sport of Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does it look like God created us for fun?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-03-24T14:24:20.003" LastActivityDate="2019-06-26T11:26:48.200" Title="lokavat tu lila kaivalyam [Brh. Su. - 2.1.33] - The creation is merely a sport of Brahman" Tags="|philosophy|brahma-sutras|vedanta|brahman|creation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6814" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6813" CreationDate="2015-03-21T04:57:38.597" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Adi Shankaracharya said that creation is a mere sport of Brahman, without a deeper motive behind it; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34172.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what he says in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Analogously, the activity of the Lord also may be supposed to be mere sport, proceeding from his own nature 1, without reference to any purpose. For on the ground neither of reason nor of Scripture can we construe any other purpose of the Lord. Nor can his nature be questioned 2--Although the creation of this world appears to us a weighty and difficult undertaking, it is mere play to the Lord, whose power is unlimited. And if in ordinary life we might possibly, by close scrutiny, detect some subtle motive, even for sportful action, we cannot do so with regard to the actions of the Lord, all whose wishes are fulfilled, as Scripture says.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be kept in mind, however, that in Advaita the physical world is illusory, so this sport wouldn't represent the true nature of reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramnujacharya also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48202.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;, in his Sri Bhashyam, that it's a sport without motive:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The motive which prompts Brahman--all whose wishes are fulfilled and who is perfect in himself--to the creation of a world comprising all kinds of sentient and non-sentient beings dependent on his volition, is nothing else but sport, play. We see in ordinary life how some great king, ruling this earth with its seven dvîpas, and possessing perfect strength, valour, and so on, has a game at balls, or the like, from no other motive than to amuse himself; hence there is no objection to the view that sport only is the motive prompting Brahman to the creation, sustentation, and destruction of this world which is easily fashioned by his mere will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But from this it should not be concluded that Brahman is being capricious in giving us different life experiences.  That is to say, although Brahman has no motive in creating the world, he still has some criteria, particularly the law of Karma that determine who experiences what rewards and punishment.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34173.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says in his commentary on the next Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lord, we reply, cannot be reproached with inequality of dispensation and cruelty, &quot;because he is bound by regards.&quot; If the Lord on his own account, without any extraneous regards, produced this unequal creation, he would expose himself to blame; but the fact is, that in creating he is bound by certain regards, i. e. he has to look to merit and demerit. Hence the circumstance of the creation being unequal is due to the merit and demerit of the living creatures created, and is not a fault for which the Lord is to blame. The position of the Lord is to be looked on as analogous to that of Parganya, the Giver of rain. For as Parganya is the common cause of the production of rice, barley, and other plants, while the difference between the various species is due to the various potentialities lying hidden in the respective seeds, so the Lord is the common cause of the creation of gods, men, &amp;amp;c., while the differences between these classes of beings are due to the different merit belonging to the individual souls. Hence the Lord, being bound by regards, cannot be reproached with inequality of dispensation and cruelty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the assumption of his having actually created the world would lay him open to the charge of partiality, in so far as the world contains beings of high, middle, and low station--gods, men, animals, immovable beings; and to that of cruelty, in so far as he would be instrumental in making his creatures experience pain of the most dreadful kind.--The reply to this is 'not so, on account of there being regard'; i.e. 'on account of the inequality of creation depending on the deeds of the intelligent beings, gods, and so on, about to be created.'--Sruti and Smriti alike declare that the connexion of the individual souls with bodies of different kinds--divine, human, animal, and so on--depends on the karman of those souls&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that insofar as we may have been created without a motive, that's just a natural consequence of the fact that Brahman has no unfulfilled desires, and thus does not have motives.  It does not mean that our life is without meaning or purpose.  It does have meaning, insofar as the Lila of Brahman is divine in its excellence and beauty, and we are privileged to participate in it.  And we do have a purpose - to attain Moksha (liberation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-04-18T06:06:43.973" LastActivityDate="2015-04-18T06:06:43.973" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6815" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6833" CreationDate="2015-03-21T06:38:28.933" Score="7" ViewCount="24910" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Lord Shiva dead? Where is he? Is he still in Shiva Avatar or has engaged in a new Avatar for Kaliyuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6815/born-and-death-of-lord-shiva#comment13629_6815&quot;&gt;@keshav said in comment&lt;/a&gt; that he's the one that runs each Pralaya while Brahma is asleep, than what after the Pralaya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Brahma dies after each Mahakalpa, what happens to Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I checked the wikipedia link of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva&lt;/a&gt; but didn't find the answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2656" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2020-06-18T20:40:57.290" LastActivityDate="2020-06-18T20:40:57.290" Title="Death of Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|death|time|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6818" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6821" CreationDate="2015-03-21T15:03:31.667" Score="11" ViewCount="2797" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why purva mimansa school did not believe in existence of vedic gods but were strict believers of Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-03-15T08:00:23.790" LastActivityDate="2017-03-15T08:00:23.790" Title="Was the Purva mimansa an atheist school?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|sects|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6819" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6818" CreationDate="2015-03-21T17:02:38.763" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Purva Mimamsa was a school of philosophy founded by the sage Jaimini whose central dogma was that the Vedas were Apaurusheya or authorless.  Other schools also believed that the Vedas were Apaurusheya in the sense that they had no human author, but Purva Mimamsa went one step further in saying that they had no connection to any divine source either: they were just eternal truths that that could be heard by sages when they were in a state of Tapasya (deep meditation).  The followers of Purva Mimamsa thought that the law of Karma was like a law of nature, unconnected to any divine or supernatural agency, and that if you performed Yagnas in line with the eternal truths of the Vedas, you would be automatically rewarded due to the Law of Karma.  They viewed these rewards as the only purpose of Yagnas; they didn't think that they were making offerings to any gods.  Here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=LkE_8uch5P0C&amp;amp;lpg=PA114&amp;amp;vq=Mimamsa&amp;amp;pg=PA114#v=snippet&amp;amp;q=Mimamsa&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; describes their philosophy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantras of the Vedas, therefore, are not words coined by humans.... The Vedas, as the collection of mantras, are not about everyday things.  Rather, they give us negative and positive commands concerning ethical action in life that represent the eternal principles of rita for ourselves and the universe around us....  Only the meaning content of the Vedic mantras can teach us the required continuous ethical action and enjoyment of its fruits that are the end goal of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the Mimamsathe ultimate reality is nothing other than the eternal words of the Vedas.  They did not accept the existence of a single supreme  creator god, who might have composed the Veda.  &lt;strong&gt;According to the Mimamsa, the gods named in the Vedas have no separate existence apart from the mantras that speaker their name.&lt;/strong&gt;  The power of the gods, then, is nothing other than the power of the mantras that name them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that not all followers of Purva Mimamsa were atheists.  Some believed that the gods existed, but they were just functionaries who were bound to follow the law of Karma, rather than having an independent power to choose to reward or punish people.  Others believed that when the Vedas spoke of the gods doing things in response to people performing Yagnas, that was really just a metaphor for the power of the mantras delivering rewards to people.  So the first group would say that Indra was forced to make rain come for those who did the appropriate Yagna, whereas the second group believed that rain would just come of its own accord for those who did the appropriate Yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna (perhaps insincerely) articulates the beliefs of the first group to the people of Vrindavana when he convinces them to stop worshiping Indra and worship Govardhana Giri instead, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/24/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is by the force of karma that a living entity takes birth, and it is by karma alone that he meets his destruction. His happiness, distress, fear and sense of security all arise as the effects of karma.  Even if there is some supreme controller who awards all others the results of their activities, He must also depend upon a performer’s engaging in activity. After all, there is no question of being the bestower of fruitive results unless fruitive activities have actually been performed.  Living beings in this world are forced to experience the consequences of their own particular previous work. Since Lord Indra cannot in any way change the destiny of human beings, which is born of their own nature, why should people worship him? Every individual is under the control of his own conditioned nature, and thus he must follow that nature. This entire universe, with all its demigods, demons and human beings, is based on the conditioned nature of the living entities.  Because it is karma that causes the conditioned living entity to accept and then give up different high- and low-grade material bodies, this karma is his enemy, friend and neutral witness, his spiritual master and controlling lord. Therefore one should seriously worship work itself. A person should remain in the position corresponding to his nature and should perform his own duty. Indeed, that by which we may live nicely is really our worshipable deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note also Purva Mimamsa was nothing like the materialist forms of atheism we have today.  It accepted the existence of the soul, the afterlife, Karma, reincarnation, Dharma, etc.  It just wasn't committed to the existence of gods, although it allowed for the possibility and some of its adherents believed in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want a better understanding of how people adopted such a strange set of beliefs, you can read Jaimini's Mimamsa Sutras, the foundational text of the Purva Mimamsa school, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/mimamsasutra00jaimuoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/HxAh&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Shabara's commentary on the Mimamsa Sutras should clarify the Purva Mimamsa's school's view of the gods:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one opinion that by the term 'deity' we understand those beings, Ani and the rest, who are described in Itihasas and Puranas as living in heaven....  The other opinion  is that &amp;quot;by the term 'devata' ('Deity') are meant just those to whom the name 'Deity' has been applied in the Mantra and Brahmana texts such as, - 'Agni is the Deity' - 'Vata is the Deity' - 'Surya is the Deity' - 'Chandrama is the Deity'&amp;quot;...  [Both these opinions are rejected for various reasons.] For these reasons we conclude that Deities are those who are Sukta-bhak (to whom Hymns are addressed) and Havir-bhak (Recipients of offerings).... [T]hat 'recipient of offerings' should be the 'Deity' for whose sake the offering is made.  Similarly with 'Sukta-bhak'.... [T]he character of 'Deity' becomes applicable to all those beings that are spoken of as those to whom anything is offered - be they corporeal or incorporeal, sentient or insentient[.]... [T]hat being becomes the 'Deity' of an offering, by whose name the Sacrificer makes the determination 'I shall present the offering to so and so'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[I]t is not in its material form that the Deity helps the accomplishment of the sacrifice - it does so in its verbal form; just as the Adhvaryu helps it with his hands, the Deity helps it with the name.  Just as when ... though the action bears directly upon his hands, yet it is the Hotar priest himself that is regarded as helping the sacrifice - in the same manner, even though help is rendered by the Deity through the name connected with itself, yet it is the Deity itself that is regarded as helping the sacrifice.... [T]he word is not pronounced for the purpose of bringing about the notion of the thing denoted[.]...  This is what has been explained by the Vrittikara - 'The notion of the thing denoted is not preceded by the word; hence the existence of the thing has been established (as apart from the word).' ... &lt;strong&gt;Says the Opponent - &amp;quot;In that case it is the word that becomes the Deity.&amp;quot; Answer - This is an idea that it is not for us to refute; because such an idea, if expressed, does not militate against our view&lt;/strong&gt;; on the contrary it lends all the more strength to the view [that different names of the same god should not be substituted for one another].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shabara doesn't endorse outright the view that the gods are nothing but words uttered in Yagnas, but he does not feel the need to refute that view, since he doesn't think that view would undermine any of the Purva Mimamsa school's doctrines.  Other Mimamsakas, however, push back against that view more strongly; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/HxAh&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this journal paper&lt;/a&gt; for details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a side note, Shabara quotes from the Vrittikara, i.e. the ancient commentator Upavarsha who wrote a Vritti or commentary on both the Purva Mimamsa Sutras and the Brahma Sutras as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14552/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Upavarsha seems to be saying something like &amp;quot;Because the utterance of the names of gods during Yagnas does not bring about the thought of the gods, the gods exist independent of their names being uttered.&amp;quot;  That's certainly more theistic than what you typically hear about Purva Mimamsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-01T20:19:07.697" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6820" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-21T17:11:56.780" Score="3" ViewCount="238" Body="&lt;p&gt;Posting it on a day of Guḍhī Pāḍavā or Ugadi.&lt;br&gt; I was reading the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gudi_Padwa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; link about this Hindu Festival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was mentioned in that link that on this day, Brahma created the universe as per Brahma Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can this be validated and what could be the significance of this particular day or &quot;Tithi&quot;?&lt;br&gt; If this day is such an important day (because the universe itself was created), why in other parts of India (and not the other parts of world) this is NOT celebrated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, it would be interesting to know if there is any other day as per Hinduism which is considered as the &quot;day of universe creation&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2015-03-22T05:07:38.353" LastActivityDate="2015-03-25T10:14:14.960" Title="Guḍhī Pāḍavā or Ugadi: Day on which Universe is created?" Tags="|puranas|brahma|festivals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6821" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6818" CreationDate="2015-03-21T17:19:40.950" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Technically speaking Purava Mimasma was not an  &lt;em&gt;nastika&lt;/em&gt; (atheistic) system as per definition of &lt;em&gt;nastika&lt;/em&gt; in our scriptures. Only those which didn't accept the authority of the Vedas are called as &lt;em&gt;nastika&lt;/em&gt; irrespective of whether they believe in afterlife, God, etc. But yes, like the general meaning of atheism, Mimamsa School didn't believe in the existence of any creator God or the gods mentioned in the Vedas but accepted the authority of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the reason for accepting the Vedas is that Mimasa School believed in the system of Karma to fulfill man's desires. And what actions (rituals) to do and not to do, for what purposes have been ordered in the Vedas. As per Mimasa School, carrying out these orders or injunctions is &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; (Mim. Su. 1.1.2) by following which properly man can fulfil his desires and ascend to higher existences like heaven. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now the question arises, why they accepted Vedas as authoritative to order what to do and what not to do, why not any other text or book? And the reason is, they accepted Vedas a &lt;em&gt;apauruseya&lt;/em&gt; (not the creation of any man). Because even if the disciple succession is intact, no one remembers who first authored the Vedas. And even if &lt;em&gt;pauruseya&lt;/em&gt; means &lt;em&gt;Isvara&lt;/em&gt; narrated the Vedas to someone, then it will mean Isvara just recited it as any guru does, but the Vedas were present even before the recitation of Iswara. And also by some other arguments they defend that Vedas are &lt;em&gt;apuruseya&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ok, now if they accept the Vedas, then why don't they accept the existence of the gods mentioned in them? It's because as per them the gods have no separate independent existence other than the &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt;. That is, if someone has an independent existence then he can do as he likes irrespective of other factors, but the gods in the Vedas are bound to show grace and give the desired result due to the performance of actions mentioned in the Vedas. So it's just like cause and effect of a mechanical system. Hence, the effect produced by chanting of the mantras is personified as a god or the power of the god, but other than the mantra they have no independent existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To test the validity of something proofs like direct perception, inference, Logic, etc. are employed. And Mimasa School accepted 5-6 such proofs by which they hold their views and the words of the Vedas are a proof itself (&lt;em&gt;swatah praman&lt;/em&gt;) by them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-08-11T04:54:08.427" LastActivityDate="2015-08-11T04:54:08.427" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6822" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-22T07:37:16.177" Score="5" ViewCount="570" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read that Dwarka, the city of Lord Krishna, emerged from sea and later again submerged into sea. So is there any investigation ever done to find the remains of the ancient city and is anything being found yet?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also is there any mention of any of the residents who survived and shifted to any other place before it got submerged?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2015-03-24T06:04:05.153" Title="Are there any remains of ancient Dwarka city being found ever?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6827" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-23T03:28:34.553" Score="9" ViewCount="4878" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous incidents of Krishna's childhood is the story of how he kicked over a heavy cart when he was a baby.  In popular versions of the story, Krishna's evil uncle Kamsa sends a demon named Sakatasura to take the form of a large hand-cart (sakata) and kill Krishna, but Krishna gives a kick to the cart, destroying it and thus killing the demon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/18kht.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/7/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here's&lt;/a&gt; how the story of the cart is described in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The liberal mother Yaśodā, absorbed in celebrating the utthāna ceremony, was busy receiving guests, worshiping them with all respect and offering them clothing, cows, garlands and grains. Thus she could not hear the child crying for His mother. At that time, the child Kṛṣṇa, demanding to drink the milk of His mother’s breast, angrily threw His legs upward.  Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was lying down underneath the handcart in one corner of the courtyard, and although His little legs were as soft as leaves, when He struck the cart with His legs, it turned over violently and collapsed. The wheels separated from the axle, the hubs and spokes fell apart, and the pole of the handcart broke. On the cart there were many little utensils made of various metals, and all of them scattered hither and thither.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, there's no mention of the cart actually being a demon in disguise.  So my question is, are there any scriptures that explicitly state the cart was a demon?  Or is it a later addition with no scriptural basis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-14T14:43:24.913" LastActivityDate="2019-03-24T17:42:17.263" Title="What scriptures mention Krishna killing Sakatasura the cart demon as a baby?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|bhagavata-purana|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6829" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-23T16:06:20.763" Score="2" ViewCount="3425" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6512/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the oldest Vishnu statue in the world, and probably the oldest Hindu statue in the world period, is the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Ranganathaswamy_Temple,_Srirangam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ranganatha&lt;/a&gt; statue in Sri Rangam.  The story of Ranganatha goes roughly as follows.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shortly after the birth of Brahma (which I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/259/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;), Brahma started praying to Vishnu (perhaps with either &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5396/36&quot;&gt;this hymn&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6718/36&quot;&gt;this hymn&lt;/a&gt;). As a result, Vishnu appeared before him and gave Brahma a divine statue of Vishnu lying down on the serpent Adiseshan. Much later, Surya the sun god began to worship it, and then Surya's grandson Ikshvaku had the statue brought to Ayodhya so that he could continue worship it. The statue was passed down through the kings of Ayodhya, until it came to the possession of Rama. Rama gave it to Ravana's brother Vibhishana, who planned to install it in Lanka. But on his journey from Ayodhya to Lanka, Vibhishana put the statue down in the island of Sri Rangam in the middle of the Kaveri river, so that he could bathe in the holy Kaveri. When he came back, he found that he could not pick up the statue with all his might - Vishnu wanted to stay in Sri Rangam.  And that is where the statue remains to this day, in the illustrious &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Ranganathaswamy_Temple,_Srirangam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ranganatha temple&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JFXFM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about the statue itself, but about one of his festivals.  Last Saturday was the day of Panguni Revati, i.e. the day that that the Nakshatra Revati occurs in the month of Phalguna.  Every year on this day, the Sri Rangam temple celebrates the &quot;birthday&quot; of Ranganatha.  My question is, what exactly does this mean?  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/259/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu is unborn and beginningless, so it can't refer to Vishnu's birth.  So what event does it celebrate?  The day Brahma received the Ranganatha statue from Vishnu? The day Ikshvaku brought it to Earth?  The day Vibhishana brought it to Sri Rangam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sripedia.appspot.com/group/srirangasri/archives/mar2012/00120&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This forum post&lt;/a&gt; claims that it was the day that Ranaganatha came to Sri Rangam, but does this have any scriptural basis?  For that matter, where in Hindu scripture does the story of Ranganatha occur?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, the Lakshmi statue in the temple, known as Ranganachiyar or Ranganayaki, has her &quot;birthday&quot; celebrated on the day of  Panguni Uttaram.  What does this mean, and does it have any relation to the fact that this was the day Venkateshwara and Padmavathi got married?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-08-09T20:02:22.337" Title="Why is Panguni Revati considered the &quot;birthday&quot; of Vishnu's Ranganatha form?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|idols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6833" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6815" CreationDate="2015-03-23T18:31:03.730" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is unborn and eternal. There is no birth and no death for Him. Lord Shiva is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharatha&lt;/a&gt; says about Lord Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahadeva is &lt;strong&gt;Eternal&lt;/strong&gt; Brahman. Persons endued with Yoga; Yoga's achievements are unable to know in even a hundred years, the glory and puissance of the great Deity in their entirety. Verily, the beginning, middle or end of Mahadeva cannot be apprehended by the very deities. Indeed, when the case is such, who is there O Madhava, that can recite the attributes of Mahadeva in their entirety?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03270.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Supreme Spirit&lt;/strong&gt; hath three conditions. In the form of Brahma, he is the Creator, and in the form of Vishnu he is the Preserver, and in his form as Rudra, he is the Destroyer of the Universe!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Sri Swami Sivananda says about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/lordsiva.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siva means that which is eternally happy or auspicious, Parama-Mangala. Om and Siva are one. Mandukya Upanishad says: Santam Sivam Advaitam. Even an outcaste can meditate on the Name of Lord Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Siva is the Supreme Reality. He is &lt;strong&gt;eternal&lt;/strong&gt;, formless, independent, omnipresent, one without a second, beginningless, causeless, taintless, self-existent, ever free, ever pure. He is not limited by time. He is infinite bliss and infinite intelligence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Sri Adi Shankaracharya says about The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swamij.com/shankara-atma-shatakam.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahman or the Supreme Spirit&lt;/a&gt;, synonymous with Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neither can I be termed as energy (prana), nor five types of breath (vayus), nor the seven material essences, nor the five coverings (pancha-kosha). Neither am I the five instruments of elimination, procreation, motion, grasping, or speaking. I am indeed, That &lt;strong&gt;eternal&lt;/strong&gt; knowing and bliss, Shiva, love and pure consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa says about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/maya-sha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The truth established in the Vedas, the Puranas and the Tantras is but one Satchdananda. In the Vedas it is called Brahman, in the Puranas it is called Rama, and in the Tantras it is called Shiva. One Satchidananda is called Brahman, Rama and Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The formless God is real , and equally real is God with form. It is like an infinite ocean, water everywhere, to the right, left, above, below. Water enveloped in water. It is the water of the great cause, motionless. Waves spring up when it becomes active. Its activities are creation(Brahma), preservation(Vishnu) and dissolution(Shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in conclusion, Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva are eternal and never born, they never die. They are the two modes of the Supreme Spirit Brahman. Thus Being Ishvara, they are eternal and supreme. This is Advaita. All the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-03-23T18:31:03.730" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6837" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-24T04:19:44.220" Score="5" ViewCount="339" Body="&lt;p&gt;Somebody said --&gt; Nobody is really suffering. Nobody is really ignorant or anything. It is just a movie. We suffer because we think it is real. The moment we realize the Truth, we are happy and always enjoy the illusion show. Advaita perspective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does that mean if nobody is suffering, we can harm anyone? Why would GOD want us to harm anyone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-03-24T04:34:27.930" LastActivityDate="2015-08-26T12:52:45.137" Title="If nobody is really suffering, does that mean we can harm anyone?" Tags="|advaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6838" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6822" CreationDate="2015-03-24T06:04:05.153" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes there are in the Bay of Cambay:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to marine scientists in India, archaeological remains of&#xA;  this lost city have been discovered 36 metres (120 feet) underwater in&#xA;  the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India. And carbon dating&#xA;  says that they are 9,500 years old. It's speculated to be termed Dwarka, or the ‘Golden City.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source ( &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spiritofmaat.com/announce/oldcity.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1768109.stm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://weburbanist.com/2007/09/12/underwater-urban-archeology-7-submerged-wonders-of-the-world/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastActivityDate="2015-03-24T06:04:05.153" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6840" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6611" CreationDate="2015-03-24T10:42:57.027" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pāñcajanya (or Panchjanya) is the name of the conch (Shankha) in Hindu mythology which was blown by Krishna at the start of the Mahabharata War between the Kauravas and Pandavas at Kurukshetra, which was a Dharam-yudha (sacred war for the righteous) between the usurper King Dhritrashtra's hundred sons, the eldest being Duryodhana, and the five Pandavas (the cousins) supported by Lord Krishna himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Panchjanya when blown by Lord Krishna symbolised the war was won by the righteous Pandavas. Panchjanya is the udghosh, the sound of righteousness to be heard by the people of the world. Panchjanya is mentioned in the text 15 of the first chapter of Bhagavad Gita. Panchjanya, the great conch was a token of gift taken from Panchjana, the navigator in whose ship Srikrishna voyaged to rescue Sandipani's son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that when Krishna blows on His transcendental conchshell, the wives of the demons become subject to abortions, and the wives of the demigods become blessed with all auspiciousness. In this way, the sound of Krishna's conchshell used to vibrate and circulate all over the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2440" LastActivityDate="2015-03-24T10:42:57.027" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6841" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6682" CreationDate="2015-03-24T11:39:06.220" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya of Madhvacharya, these Indras are referred with the following names &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;When he lifted the hill he saw these four demi-gods. They were all Indra’s in previous Manvantara’s. Vayu by name Rochana, Yama by name Satyajith, Ashwini Gods by name Trishala and Vibhu respectively occupied the post of Indra in Swaar&#xA;ochisha, Uttama, Raivata and Tapas Manwantara&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the Indras referred as Vishwabhuk, Bhutadhaman, Sivi of great energy, Santi the fourth, and Tejaswin&quot; Should be Vayu by name Rochana, Yama by name Satyajith, Ashwini Gods by name Trishala and Vibhu respectively occupied the post of Indra in Swaarochisha, Uttama, Raivata and Tapas Manwantara&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the exact mapping is not given.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The link for the Mbh tatparya nirnaya is given below &lt;a href=&quot;http://here&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.dvaipayana.net/mbtn-trans/chapter_18_prabhanjanacharya.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-13T07:55:06.500" LastActivityDate="2016-11-13T07:55:06.500" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6842" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6837" CreationDate="2015-03-24T17:51:49.093" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Good question!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Short Answer&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. Because from a relative perspective, saying 'nobody is suffering' is different from &lt;em&gt;knowing&lt;/em&gt; it, just as saying 'Kailash', 'Kailash' a hundred times does not make it equal to visiting Kailash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Long Answer&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Advaita Perspective&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Nobody is really suffering.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma satyam jagat mithya (Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivekachudamani&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman is the only truth, the world is unreal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Why?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because the true identity of each person is the soul, not the body. The soul can never be subject to suffering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in Gita 2:16, 18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the unreal there is no duration and in the real there is no cessation; indeed the conclusion between both the two has been analyzed by knowers of the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But know that by whom this entire body is prevaded (Atma), is &lt;em&gt;indestructible&lt;/em&gt;. No one is able to cause the destruction of the &lt;em&gt;imperishable&lt;/em&gt; soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Then can I harm anyone?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can harm no-one because their atma is just as eternal as yours. How can you harm the atma? The Atma is invinvible and cannot be harmed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in Gita 2: 19, 21&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyone who thinks the soul is the slayer and anyone who thinks the soul is slain both of them are in ignorance; the soul never slays nor is slain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Arjuna, one who knows the soul as eternal, unborn, undeteriorating and indestructable; how does that person cause death to anyone and whom does he slay?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Then who is suffering?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the body that suffers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 2:18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The material &lt;em&gt;body&lt;/em&gt; of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is sure to come to an &lt;em&gt;end&lt;/em&gt;; therefore, fight, O descendant of Bharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 2:14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;If we are not really suffering then why do we feel that we are suffering?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is because of wrong association. Avidhya. We think we are the body, thus we suffer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Adiswarananda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishna.org/activities/message/weekly_message41.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali (the teacher of the Yoga system), in one of his aphorisms, describes the causes of suffering as five: ignorance, &lt;em&gt;ego-sense&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;attachment&lt;/em&gt;, aversion, and clinging to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in other words, all suffering is due to the attachment to our false identity. Our true identity is Atma. But we think we are the body (there are actually several layers of bodies, called three upadhis and five sheaths).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;But I know now that I am not the body, then why do I feel that I am suffering?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reading something does not mean that you have realized it. You have now read that you are not the body. But still you have not realized it. In other words, your knowledge is merely a theoretical knowledge and not a practical knowledge. Here is an example to understand. Suppose your friend reads a hundred books about how to drive a car. Will you then give him your car and say 'drive me to Kodaikannal'? Generally, the answer is No. Why? because even though He has read it, still He needs practice isn't it? His theoretical knowledge is not good enough. Practical knowledge is necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly you have read that you are not the body. But now it is time to realize it. Practical knowledge is necessary to remove suffering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also remember that the law of karma is not cessated until practical realization dawns. Merely knowing intellectually (without practical) that 'I am not the body' and then harming others, will bring about similar harm back to the jiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vishwananda says in the comment that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would only add that it is correct that you cannot 'ultimately' harm anyone. But so long as you see the world as real, then if you do harm, you will suffer the karma. To have the intellectual understanding that no one suffers and to cause suffering is tamasic. One should have the practical understanding that to cause suffering to another is actually causing suffering to your own self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Then how to practice and end this suffering?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By realizing who we really are which is the indestructible atma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to realize this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga or Karma Yoga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhakti Yoga - By practising love for God and service to all because God resides in all. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/bhaktiyoga.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt; 'Bhakti Yoga' by Sri Swami Sivananda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jnana Yoga - By investigating into the Truth about our true identity and by practising the feeling of detachment and renunciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma Yoga - By helping all, without any desire for fruits. [Reference: Gita 2:47]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which of these paths have the words 'harm others'? None of these. In other words, in order to practically realize who we really are, a certain amount of discipline, goodness and virtues are helpful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can we harm other people in Bhakti?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/bhaktiyoga.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; that good conduct is absolutely necessary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good conduct which is in accordance with perfect moral law is an auxiliary to pure Bhakti and it follows the true Bhakta wherever he goes. One cannot develop true devotion to God if he is crooked in his heart, if he has got objects of love in this world, if he is tempted by charming worldly thing... Perfect detachment from all objects is a preliminary to real devotion. Vairagya is the product of real love for God. One who has love for the world cannot have love for God. Where there is Kama, there cannot be Rama and where there is Rama there cannot be Kama. Love for the world and love for God are diametrically opposite things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How about other paths?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda, &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/swami_vivekananda_sayings_quotes/character-service.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; the importance of service and doing good (not causing harm):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My children, the secret of religion is not in theories but in practice. To be good and to do good---that is the whole of religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you harm the body of others, then you can not realize the truth that you are that Atma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Why?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer lies here, - intention. Why do you harm others? To gain money? Then you are attached to money. To gain victory? Then you are proud. So long as you have:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lust&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anger&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Greed&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Delusion&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pride&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Envy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;you cannot realize the Truth.&lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/arishadvarga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; [Arishadvargas&lt;/a&gt; ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These six enemies of Man, blind us and make us believe that we are the 'body'. Then we get feeling that we can harm other bodies. But in truth we are the eternal Atma. We cannot be harmed, and we cannot harm others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna asked Arjuna to fight Mahabharata war. Again the reason is intention. Arjuna was not motivated by His own selfishness at that time. But rather He was fighting to rid the world of adharma. To show to the world that Dharma always wins! Therefore intention matters. All the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Summary&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from an Absolute standpoint, you cannot harm others, because they too are the immortal Atma, just as you are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a relative standpoint, you cannot harm others, because your attachment to the body grows because of that. Then you can not be free of your ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-03-25T15:23:55.653" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6845" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-25T02:48:10.847" Score="6" ViewCount="1555" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6512/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the oldest Vishnu statue in the world, and probably the oldest Hindu statue in the world, is the famous Ranganatha statue in Sri Rangam. The story of Ranganatha goes roughly as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shortly after the birth of Brahma, which I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/259/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Brahma started praying to Vishnu (perhaps with either &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5396/36&quot;&gt;this hymn&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6718/36&quot;&gt;this hymn&lt;/a&gt;). As a result, Vishnu appeared before him and gave Brahma a divine statue of Vishnu lying down on the serpent Adiseshan. Much later, Surya the sun god began to worship it, and then Surya's grandson Ikshvaku had the statue brought to Ayodhya so that he could continue worship it. The statue was passed down through the kings of Ayodhya, until it came to the possession of Rama. Rama gave it to Ravana's brother Vibhishana, who planned to install it in Lanka. But on his journey from Ayodhya to Lanka, Vibhishana put the statue down in the island of Sri Rangam in the middle of the Kaveri river, so that he could bathe in the holy Kaveri. When he came back, he found that he could not pick up the statue with all his might - Vishnu wanted to stay in Sri Rangam. And that is where the statue remains to this day, in the illustrious &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Ranganathaswamy_Temple,_Srirangam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ranganatha temple&lt;/a&gt; of Sri Rangam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about the story itself, but rather about the source of the story.  The story is found in the Koil Olugu, the temple records of the Sri Rangam temple which you can read (in abridged form) &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Koil-Olugu-English-1954&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is, what Hindu scriptures describe the story of Ranganatha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've seen claims that the story of Ranganatha occurs in two Puranas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Sri Ranga Mahatmya of the Brahmanda Purana, also known as the Dasadhyayi or &quot;ten-chapter section&quot;.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/srirangamahatyam015413mbp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This Telegu work&lt;/a&gt; by the 18th century king Vijayarangachokkanatha claims to be a translation of the Dasadhyayi.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Sri Ranga Mahatmya of the Garuda Purana, also known as the Shatadhyayi or &quot;hundred-chapter section&quot; (although it's said to contain 108 chapters).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet I can't seem to find the Sri Ranga Mahatmya in either one of these Puranas; in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6751/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I provided links to all five volumes of the Brahmanda Purana.  I've also checked the Garuda Purana, and I can't find either the Dasadhyayi or the Satadhyayi in these Puranas. Does anyone know where they are?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2019-01-09T16:53:34.737" Title="What scriptures describe the story of Vishnu's Ranganatha statue?" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|temple|puranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6848" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6813" CreationDate="2015-03-25T09:55:19.840" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Modern Scientific thinking is in line with this thinking . &lt;br/&gt; The Visible Universe contains about a hundred billion Galaxies . Each Galaxy may contain a hundred billion stars , similar to the Sun . The Sun is 3.3 lakhs as massive as the Earth . There may be many more Universes like Ours , which are Invisible to us. &lt;br/&gt; What does this show ? All Human activities on Earth have no impact on, and are of no use to , the Universe. So why has  God or Nature ,  created this complex web of life on Earth ? There seems to be no motive . &quot; Akarana&quot;. &lt;br/&gt; &quot;Na-me Partha:sti Katavyam Trishu Lokeshu Kinchana : Nanavaptam Avaptavyam , Varta-eva cha Karmani &quot; --Geeta . &lt;br/&gt; &quot;Arjuna-I have no Duty , nothing to Achieve , nothing impossible to achieve .Still I keep  myself busy --to serve as a model to others.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-01T00:47:49.467" LastActivityDate="2015-07-01T00:47:49.467" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6850" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6777" CreationDate="2015-03-25T11:34:27.110" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually the approximate value of pi was known in the Shulba Sutras in ancient India (not in the Vedas per se). Obviously knowing it to 32 places of decimal is impossible without the usage of modern numerical methods applied to analytical expressions unknown at the time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See here:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.co.za/books?id=MMMPBwAAQBAJ&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://books.google.co.za/books?id=MMMPBwAAQBAJ&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;page 185&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The motivations for estimating pi in the Shulba Sutras was the construction of circular fire altars (which will obviously require at least a rough estimate of the ratio of the circumference to the diameter). They certainly determined that the ratio was universal, though estimating it to any degree of accuracy beyond 3.1416 was highly unlikely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Contrary to the claims made by some of the posters, there was little transmigration to India from the Middle East between the Vedic period and the common era, so knowledge transmission from &quot;older&quot; (not really) Semitic societies is highly unlikely. Claims of middle eastern transmigrations were made by British scholars in the 19th century and have largely been discredited outside Britain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should qualify this remark by saying that I'm excluding those periods and/or parts of the middle east that were under Hittite, Indo-Greek, Selucid, Graeco-Bactrian or Achemeneid-Persian control during the period in question, and I'm excluding Afghanistan and Iran from my definition of the &quot;middle east&quot;, since those societies were predominantly Indo-European like Northern and Central India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2681" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-11T14:16:10.510" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T14:16:10.510" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6852" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6660" CreationDate="2015-03-25T12:08:12.287" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedicgranth.org/misconceptions-on-vedas/misconception-3---violence-against-animals-meet-eating-etc&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.vedicgranth.org/misconceptions-on-vedas/misconception-3---violence-against-animals-meet-eating-etc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MISCONCEPTION 3:- Violence against animals; meet eating, etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A) Rigveda (10/85/13) declares, “On the occasion of a girl’s marriage&#xA;oxen and cows are slaughtered.” Fact: The mantra states that in&#xA;winter, the rays of sun get weakened and then get strong again in&#xA;spring. The word used for sun-rays in ‘Go’ which also means cow and&#xA;hence the mantra can also be translated by making ‘cow’ and not&#xA;‘sun-rays’ as the subject. The word used for ‘weakened’ is ‘Hanyate’&#xA;which can also mean killing. But if that be so, why would the mantra&#xA;go further and state in next line (which is deliberately not&#xA;translated) that in spring, they start regaining their original form.&#xA;How can a cow killed in winter regain its health in spring? This amply&#xA;proves how ignorant and biased communists malign Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;B) Rigveda (6/17/1) states that “Indra used to eat the meat of cow,&#xA;calf, horse and buffalo.” (translation by Avatar Gill and group)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fact: The mantra states that brilliant scholars enlighten the world in&#xA;the manner that wood enhances the fire of Yajna. We fail to understand&#xA;from where did Avtar Gill and his friends discover Indra, cow, calf,&#xA;horse and buffalo in this mantra! Also, there is a word &amp;quot;Gavyam&amp;quot;,&#xA;which are five in numbers according to Aayurved-cow's milk, curd,&#xA;butter, Mutra and Apashisht. Where does the flesh come into the&#xA;picture? Mantra clearly says that the king should be well built&#xA;through Saatvik bhojan like Ghrit, so that he can defend his country&#xA;and kill the monsters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;C)Manusmriti contains violence against animals Fact:- Unfortunately,&#xA;most of the vedic texts in the last 1000 years have been adulterated.&#xA;Though much work has been done in cleansing these texts in the last&#xA;100 years, still the adulterated ones remain in circulation. These&#xA;adulterated texts are great source of misconceptions. Purana and&#xA;Bhaagvat (not bhagvad geeta) is perhaps the most adulterated (we doubt&#xA;even its basic writing as many portions of it are Avedic), which is&#xA;beyond repair. Any reference to such cannot be taken as proof of Vedic&#xA;Granth containing barbarism.   Example, you would come accross some&#xA;reference from adulterated Manusmriti, containing Violence against&#xA;animals like:-   Manusmriti (Chapter 5 / Verse 30) says, “It is not&#xA;sinful to eat meat of eatable animals, for Brahma has created both the&#xA;eaters and the eatables.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manusmriti (5 / 35) states: When a man who is properly engaged in a&#xA;ritual does not eat meat, after his death he will become a sacrificial&#xA;animal during twenty-one rebirths. These are additional shlokas are&#xA;either from adulterated Manu Smriti or misinterpreted by twisting of&#xA;words. We recommend them to read Manu Smriti by Dr Surendra Kumar&#xA;which is available from &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicbooks.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://vedicbooks.com&lt;/a&gt;    D) Ramayan contains&#xA;Violence in Ashwamedha Fact:- The Ramayan we get today is a much&#xA;interpolated text. Many verses have been added later on and that can&#xA;be checked with a close scrutiny. The Uttar Ramayan, which contains&#xA;the reference to Ashwamedha, can be proved to be a later addition by&#xA;even a layman. No mantra in Vedas refer to any form of animal&#xA;sacrifice. All those mantras which are alleged to have animal&#xA;sacrifice, can be easily proved to mean something else, if we look at&#xA;context and root meanings of the words, as used in ancient texts of&#xA;grammar and vocabulary. Many of these come from misinterpretation from&#xA;translations of Sayana and Mahidhar who were born in around 15th&#xA;century. These translations were then publicized by western&#xA;indologists. But if you look at ancient translations, and references&#xA;in other books like Shatpath, Nirukta, Nighantu etc, one can easily&#xA;understand the truth. Infact, Ashwamedha means efforts to make nation&#xA;better and has nothing to do with horse.   E) Some Hindu Philosophers&#xA;have told that Hinduism permit meat eating  Fact:- Many people quote&#xA;those, who may be good though one subject (like Yoga) but may not have&#xA;credible understanding of the Vedas. These quotations are widely used&#xA;to prove that Vedas prescribe barbaric things like Violence against&#xA;animals and women, etc but the users of these quotations are unable to&#xA;provide real proofs (directly from the Vedas and Vedic Granth). Also,&#xA;we are not sure that these people have really made such comments or&#xA;not:- • Swami Vivekanand said: “You will be surprised to know that&#xA;according to ancient Hindu rites and rituals, a man cannot be a good&#xA;Hindu who does not eat beef”. (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekanand,&#xA;vol.3, p. 536). • Mukandilal writes in his book ‘Cow Slaughter – Horns&#xA;of a Dilemma’, page 18: “In ancient India, cow-slaughter was&#xA;considered auspicious on the occasions of some ceremonies. Bride and&#xA;groom used to sit on the hide of a red ox in front of the ‘Vedi’&#xA;(alter).” • A scholar of scriptures Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane says,&#xA;“Bajsancyi Samhita sanctifies beef-eating because of its purity”.&#xA;(Dharmashastra Vichar Marathi, page 180) • Adi Shankaracharya’&#xA;commentary on Brihdaranyakopanishad 6/4/18 says : ‘Odan’ (rice) mixed&#xA;with meat is called ‘Mansodan’. On being asked whose meat it should&#xA;be, he answers ‘Uksha’. ‘Uksha’ is used for an ox, which is capable to&#xA;produce semen. • The book ‘The History and Culture of the Indian&#xA;People’, published by Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, Bombay and edited by&#xA;renowned historian R.C.Majumdar (Vol.2, page 578) says: “this is said&#xA;in the Mahabharat that King Rantidev used to kill two thousand other&#xA;animals in addition to two thousand cows daily in order to give their&#xA;meat in charity”.   Some translators have fallen prey to wrong&#xA;interpretation of the language. A typical example of foul play by some&#xA;hell-bent on justifying their obsession with beef in ancient texts, is&#xA;to translate Mansa as ‘meat’. In reality, ‘Mansa’ is a generic word&#xA;used to denote pulp. Meat is called ‘Mansa’ because it is pulpy. So&#xA;mere presence of ‘Mansa’ does not mean it refers to meat. Now, lets&#xA;see, how a pure mind would read the following lines from Shatpath&#xA;Brahmin (3/1/2/21) by Maharishi Yagyavalkya:-  “I eat Mansa because it&#xA;is very soft and delicious.” Infact, reading the whole passage&#xA;containing this verse, one would know that the passage is factually&#xA;opposing meat eating.   Similar injustice can be found, after reading&#xA;with a pure mind and correct reference, on the following&#xA;misconceptions:- Apastamb Grihsutram (1/3/10) says, “The cow should be&#xA;slaughtered on the arrival of a guest, on the occasion of ‘Shraddha’&#xA;of ancestors and on the occasion of a marriage.” Vashistha Dharmasutra&#xA;(11/34) writes, “If a Brahmin refuses to eat the meat offered to him&#xA;on the occasion of ‘Shraddha’ or worship, he goes to hell.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;F) Ashwa Medha, Gomedha Yajna and Naramedha Yajna are example of&#xA;violence Fact:- One of the biggest accusation of cattle and cow&#xA;slaughter comes in the context of the Yajnas that derived their names&#xA;from different cattle like the Ashwamedh Yajna, the Gomedha Yajna and&#xA;the Nar-medh Yajna. Even by the wildest stretch of the imagination the&#xA;word Medha would not mean slaughter in this context.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It’s interesting to note what Yajurveda says about a horse&#xA;——————————————————– Imam ma himsirekashafam pashum kanikradam vaajinam&#xA;vaajineshu Yajurveda 13.48. Do not slaughter this one hoofed animal&#xA;that neighs and who goes with a speed faster than most of the animals.&#xA;———————————————————-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aswamedha does not mean horse sacrifice at Yajna. Instead the&#xA;Yajurveda clearly mentions that a horse ought not to be slaughtered.&#xA;In Shathapatha, Ashwa is a word for the nation or empire. The word&#xA;medha does not mean slaughter. It denotes an act done in accordance to&#xA;the intellect Alternatively it could mean consolidation, as evident&#xA;from the root meaning of medha i.e. medhru san-ga-me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Raashtram vaa ashwamedhah Annam hi gau Agnirvaa ashwah Aajyam medhah&#xA;(Shatpath 13.1.6.3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Dayananda Saraswati wrote in his Light of Truth:A Yajna&#xA;dedicated to the glory, wellbeing and prosperity of the Rashtra the&#xA;nation or empire is known as the Ashwamedh yajna. “To keep the food&#xA;pure or to keep the senses under control, or to make the food pure or&#xA;to make a good use of the rays of Sun or keep the earth free from&#xA;impurities[clean] is called Gomedha Yajna”. “The word Gau also means&#xA;the Earth and the yajna dedicated to keep the Earth the environment&#xA;clean is called Gomedha Yajna”. “The cremation of the body of a dead&#xA;person in accordance with the principles laid down in the Vedas is&#xA;called Naramedha Yajna”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;G) Honey and Milk are animal products, so why not meat?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another type of misconception has aroused because of change in the&#xA;technique of doing things. For example, it is common to see violence&#xA;on Cows (injection, etc) whilst extracting milk. This experience read&#xA;with Vedas saying that &amp;quot;Milk is good&amp;quot; will create confusion in the&#xA;minds of the ignorant. Vedas not only suggests on extracting the milk&#xA;from Cow, but also suggests to do so with love and care. Another&#xA;example would be honey. Extracting honey is like snatching away bees'&#xA;food. But that's not the intent. Honey can be extracted without&#xA;harming the bees [For large scale production, honey is collected in a&#xA;smart way. There are wooden boxes of certain height and bees collect&#xA;their honey inside it. As soon as level of honey reaches the height of&#xA;box, it starts flowing down through the outer wall of box and is&#xA;collected. So only extra honey, which was not essential for bees is&#xA;collected and thus it can be consumed.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meat on the other hand cannot be obtained by love and care from living&#xA;animals. Moreover, according to the ayurveda, human body is suitable&#xA;for only vegetarian food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2682" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-09-16T06:18:12.247" LastActivityDate="2020-09-16T06:18:12.247" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6853" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6858" CreationDate="2015-03-25T12:26:53.597" Score="6" ViewCount="26234" Body="&lt;p&gt;Name all the one hundred Kauravas (Dhritarashtra's sons) who were born in pots.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2440" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-13T03:38:53.943" LastActivityDate="2021-02-03T03:52:52.063" Title="Name all the hundred Kauravas in Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|kauravas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6854" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6853" CreationDate="2015-03-25T12:51:21.060" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaurava&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Duryodhana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yuyutsu(half-brother, Dhritirashtra and Vysya servant's son) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dushasana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vikarna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vivinsati&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Durmukha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Duhsalan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jalagandha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vindha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anuvindha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chitrasena&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Durdarsha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Durmarsha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dussaha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Durmada&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dushkarna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Durdhara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Durmarshana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Durvishaha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Durvimochana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dushpradharsha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Durjaya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dushparajaya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jaitra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhurivala&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ravi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jayatsena&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sujata&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Srutavan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Srutanta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jaya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chitra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Upachitra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Charuchitra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chitraksha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sarasana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chitrayudha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chitravarman&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Suvarma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sudarsana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhanurgraha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vivitsu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Subaahu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nanda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Upananda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kratha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vatavega&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nishagin&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kavashin&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paasi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vikata&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Soma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Suvarchasas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhanurdhara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ayobaahu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahabaahu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chithraamga&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chithrakundala&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bheemaratha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bheemavega&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bheemabela&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ugraayudha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kundhaadhara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vrindaaraka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dridhavarma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dridhakshathra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dridhasandha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jaraasandha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sathyasandha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sadaasuvaak&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ugrasravas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ugrasena&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Senaany&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aparaajitha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kundhasaai&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dridhahastha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Suhastha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Suvarcha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aadithyakethu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ugrasaai&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kavachy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kradhana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kundhy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bheemavikra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Alolupa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Abhaya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhridhakarmaavu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhridharathaasraya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anaadhrushya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kundhabhedy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Viraavy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pradhama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Amapramaadhy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Deerkharoma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Suveeryavaan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dheerkhabaahu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaanchanadhwaja&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kundhaasy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Virajass&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dussala(Daughter)&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-06T15:03:18.877" LastActivityDate="2015-10-06T15:03:18.877" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6855" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-25T13:09:30.283" Score="26" ViewCount="4616" Body="&lt;p&gt;If God is a force of good then why is there so much suffering in this world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I thought I had understood the answer to this question after watching &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io6_FZwK2do&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt;. Basically it says that if we conceptualize God as a principle, i.e. Brahman as a cosmic principle, then we can accept that the nature of universe is like this. In the same way we do not blame gravity for bringing objects to the earth, we cannot blame Brahman for the suffering in this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, my problem with this answer is this. I learnt yesterday that in the Aitareya Upanishad it says &lt;em&gt;Prajnanam Brahma&lt;/em&gt;, commonly translated as &quot;Brahman is conciousness&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how can an entity with conciousness equate to a principle? Does it not imply that there is some intelligence behind the suffering we see today?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-29T13:13:16.680" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T14:20:24.307" Title="Why does God allow us to suffer?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|upanishads|brahman|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6856" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6855" CreationDate="2015-03-25T15:18:46.660" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prajnanam Brahma which translates to &quot;Brahma is Consciousness&quot; does not imply that Brahman is an entity. A conscious Being is an entity. Consciousness is not an entity. What Consciousness is by itself can not be defined in any way. This idea is well expressed by a passage preserved only in Sankara's commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'&quot;Sir,&quot; said a pupil to his master, &quot;teach me the nature of Brahman.&quot;&#xA;  The master did not reply. When a second and a third time he was&#xA;  importuned, he answered: &quot;I teach you indeed, but you do not follow.&#xA;  His name is silence.&quot;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: quoted in 'The Spiritual Heritage of India' by Swami Prabhavananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus one can not link suffering in this dualistic universe with Brahman as Consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T14:20:24.307" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T14:20:24.307" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6857" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6855" CreationDate="2015-03-25T15:40:26.137" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's true that Brahman is conscious, and that Brahman is the one that gives both rewards and punishments, so in that sense it is the efficient cause of all suffering.  But it is not being cruel or capricious in doing this; it is doing this in accordance with the law of Karma.  Here is what Adi Shankaracharya says in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Lord, we reply, cannot be reproached with inequality of dispensation and cruelty, &amp;quot;because he is bound by regards.&amp;quot; If the Lord on his own account, without any extraneous regards, produced this unequal creation, he would expose himself to blame; but the fact is, that in creating he is bound by certain regards, i. e. he has to look to merit and demerit. Hence the circumstance of the creation being unequal is due to the merit and demerit of the living creatures created, and is not a fault for which the Lord is to blame. The position of the Lord is to be looked on as analogous to that of Parganya, the Giver of rain. For as Parganya is the common cause of the production of rice, barley, and other plants, while the difference between the various species is due to the various potentialities lying hidden in the respective seeds, so the Lord is the common cause of the creation of gods, men, &amp;amp;c., while the differences between these classes of beings are due to the different merit belonging to the individual souls. Hence the Lord, being bound by regards, cannot be reproached with inequality of dispensation and cruelty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya says the same thing in the Sri Bhashya, his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the assumption of his having actually created the world would lay him open to the charge of partiality, in so far as the world contains beings of high, middle, and low station--gods, men, animals, immovable beings; and to that of cruelty, in so far as he would be instrumental in making his creatures experience pain of the most dreadful kind.--The reply to this is 'not so, on account of there being regard'; i.e. 'on account of the inequality of creation depending on the deeds of the intelligent beings, gods, and so on, about to be created.'--Sruti and Smriti alike declare that the connexion of the individual souls with bodies of different kinds--divine, human, animal, and so on--depends on the karman of those souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in some sense the real question is not &amp;quot;Why does Brahman make us suffer?&amp;quot; but rather &amp;quot;Why do we bring suffering on ourselves?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To end things on a happy note, there is a way to escape the suffering that arises from our actions: Saranagati (AKA Prapati), or complete surrender to the lotus feet of Vishnu.  This is described in the famous Charama Shloka of the Bhagavad Gita (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6504/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in an even deeper sense, the real question isn't even &amp;quot;Why do we bring suffering on ourselves?&amp;quot; but rather &amp;quot;Why haven't we surrendered to the supreme lord of all the worlds yet?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-25T00:04:14.657" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6858" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6853" CreationDate="2015-03-25T16:04:55.280" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01118.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, Vaishampayana tells Arjuna's great-grandson Janamejaya all 101 sons of Dhritarashtra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Their names, O king, according to the order of birth, are Duryodhana, &lt;strong&gt;Yuyutsu&lt;/strong&gt;, Duhsasana, Duhsaha, &lt;strong&gt;Duhsala&lt;/strong&gt;, Jalasandha, Sama, Saha, Vinda and Anuvinda, Durdharsha, Suvahu, Dushpradharshana, Durmarshana and Durmukha, Dushkarna, and Karna; Vivinsati and Vikarna, Sala, Satwa, Sulochana, Chitra and Upachitra, Chitraksha, Charuchitra, Sarasana, Durmada and Durvigaha, Vivitsu, Vikatanana; Urnanabha and Sunabha, then Nandaka and Upanandaka; Chitravana, Chitravarman, Suvarman, Durvimochana; Ayovahu, Mahavahu, Chitranga, Chitrakundala, Bhimavega, Bhimavala, Balaki, Balavardhana, Ugrayudha; Bhima, Karna, Kanakaya, Dridhayudha, Dridhavarman, Dridhakshatra, Somakitri, Anudara; Dridhasandha, Jarasandha, Satyasandha, Sada, Suvak, Ugrasravas, Ugrasena, Senani, Dushparajaya, Aparajita, Kundasayin, Visalaksha, Duradhara; Dridhahasta, Suhasta, Vatavega, and Suvarchas; Adityaketu, Vahvashin, Nagadatta, Agrayayin; Kavachin, Krathana, Kunda, Kundadhara, Dhanurdhara; the heroes, Ugra and Bhimaratha, Viravahu, Alolupa; Abhaya, and Raudrakarman, and Dridharatha; Anadhrishya, Kundabhedin, Viravi, Dhirghalochana Pramatha, and Pramathi and the powerful Dhirgharoma; Dirghavahu, Mahavahu, Vyudhoru, Kanakadhvaja; Kundasi and Virajas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And yes, I said &lt;em&gt;101&lt;/em&gt; sons, not 100, because in addition to the hundred Kauravas, Dhritarashtra had one additional son, Yuyutsu, with a Vaishya woman.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3282/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; about the birth of the Kauravas, Gandhari was pregnant with the Kauravas for two years. Dhritarashtra was worried that Gandhari would never give birth, so as a precaution he decided to have a son with a Vaishya woman, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01116.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata.  In any case, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6609/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Yuyutsu was a virtuous individual who decided to switch to the Pandava side in the Mahabharata war, and he served as a regent when the Pandavas left their kingdom to Arjuna's grandson Parikshit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in addition to his 101 sons, Dhritarashtra also had a daughter named Duhsala.  She was born the same way as the 100 Kauravas, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3282/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. And she married Jayadratha, a king who fought on the Kaurava side, infamous for blocking the Pandavas from rescuing Arjuna's son Abhimanyu during the Mahabharata war. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T14:41:11.280" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6859" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-25T16:45:12.057" Score="6" ViewCount="719" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it is the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, one of the Alwars was a Chera king called Kulashekhara Alwar, who was an incarnation of Vishnu's Kaustubha gem.  He is most famous for his Perumal Tirumoli, the collection of his Tamil poetry in praise of Vishnu, which is included in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham.  (I discuss one poem in the Perumal Tirumoli &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2597/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But I just found out that in addition to his Tamil poems, he also composed a Sanskrit poem, known as the Mukunda Mala Stotram, i.e. a poem meant as a garland for Krishna.  You can read it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/mm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; it's quite beautiful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, was Kulasekhara Alwar the only Alwar who praised Vishnu in Sanskrit, or are there Sanskrit poems composed by other Alwars as well?  One of the Alwars, Periyalwar (whose work I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6811/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), was the chief priest of the Srivilliputtur Temple, so he would have been quite educated.  So did he or any of the other Alwars manage to write in Sanskrit, or were their poems limited to Tamil?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-07-16T17:06:34.543" Title="Which Alwars praised Vishnu in Sanskrit?" Tags="|vishnu|sri-vaishnava|sanskrit|alwar|tamil|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6860" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6865" CreationDate="2015-03-25T19:23:04.237" Score="4" ViewCount="267" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भयद्सग्निस्तपति भयात्तपति सूर्यः ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भयादिन्द्रश्च वायुश्च मृतुर्धावति पञ्चम: ||३||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kathopanishad Chapter 2 valli (shloka/verse) 3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From fear of bramhan fire burns, from fear(of bramhan) the sun shines, from fear Indra, Vayu, Death, and the fifth, run.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I think 'The fifth' means :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fifth element here might represent, Akasha (Ether/space) because agni(fire), vayu(air) are explicitly mentioned and from Indra -&amp;gt; varuna (water) is indirectly  mentioned and bhoomi (earth) cannot run.&#xA;So this is what I conclude on basis of  omnipotence and importance of akasha element.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think there is more to &lt;code&gt;the fifth&lt;/code&gt; in this verse, so I ask you(reader) to convince and prove(with literature) meaning of &lt;code&gt;&amp;quot;The Fifth&amp;quot;&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-29T15:31:04.943" Title="What is the meaning of 'fifth' in the following shloka?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|brahman|katha-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6865" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6860" CreationDate="2015-03-25T21:51:48.460" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The meaning is much simpler than that: the fifth refers to Death.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15015.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the verse says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From terror of Brahman fire burns, from terror the sun burns, from terror Indra and Vâyu, and Death, as the fifth, run away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse is listing five things: fire, the Sun, Indra, Vayu, and Death.  So all it's saying is that Death is the fifth item in the list.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya says the same thing in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/IJoV&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Katha Upanishad:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How the world lives from fear, of him, is explained. The fire burns from fear of him, the lord of all; the sun shines from fear; from fear, Indra and Wind; &lt;strong&gt;and Death, the fifth, runs&lt;/strong&gt;; for, if Brahman did not exist as controller of the competent protectors of the world, like one with the thunderbolt &#xA;  uplifted in his hand, their well-regulated activity, as that of the servants trembling from fear of the master would not be possible.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a side note, in this verse Yama is actually paraphrasing a quote from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15041.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Taittiriya Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-18T19:17:00.637" LastActivityDate="2015-08-18T19:17:00.637" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6867" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-26T08:22:41.737" Score="2" ViewCount="1665" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it is the beliefs and principles embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the first four Alwars were known as Poigai Alwar, Bhoothath Alwar, Pey Alwar, and Tirumazhisai Alwar.  Of these, the first three are famous for an occasion when they met one another.  They were caught in a lightning storm, so they all went into a small cave for shelter.  It soon became clear to them, however, that there was a fourth person in the cave: Vishnu.  They couldn't get a good look at his face because it was dark, so all three of them started praying that the lightning would continue to strike and illuminate the face of Vishnu.  It was in the course of this prayer that Poigai Alwar, Bhoothath Alwar, and Pey Alwar each spontaneously composed 100 verses in praise of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about when these Alwars lived.  Poigai Alwar, Bhoothath Alwar, and Pey Alwar were born on three consecutive days, and Tirumazhisai Alwar was born later that year.  But what's more interesting is the year: according to traditional Sri Vaishnava accounts, they were born in the Dwapara Yuga, in the year 4203 BC!  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Western historians tend to dispute these dates, of course.  But my question is, assuming Sri Vaishnava accounts are correct, are there any stories of the first four Alwars meeting any prominent Dwapara Yuga figures?  After all, the Dwapara Yuga was the time of Krishna, the Pandavas, Vyasa, etc. Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5172/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Yudhisthira was born in 3229 BC, which would make him almost a thousand years younger than the first four Alwars.  But people lived longer in earlier Yugas, so is it possible that they were still alive in the time of Yudhisthira and Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My guess is that they were alive during or after the time of Krishna, because their poetry evinces knowledge of Krishna; &lt;a href=&quot;http://dravidaveda.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=2681&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is one of the verses of Bhoothath Alwar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Earth-striding lord then came as a child and drank the breast poison of the ogress with relish.&lt;/strong&gt; My hands will salute none other than him. My lips will not praise anyone else. My eyes will not see, other than his form.  Other than his names, my ears will not hear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is an allusion to Krishna killing the demoness Putana as a child, and considering that Bhoothath Alwar composed his verses during the cave incident, that suggests that the cave incident happened during Krishna's lifetime.  So could it be that it was Vishnu's incarnation Krishna, rather than Vishnu himself, who appeared before the Alwars in the cave?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T08:57:05.800" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T08:57:05.800" Title="Did the first four Alwars meet Krishna or any other Mahabharata characters?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|krishna|alwar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6870" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-26T19:08:41.407" Score="22" ViewCount="4539" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've recently come by an excellent research on how the understanding of Shiva has been evolving through the ages and I wonder whether such a research has been made with respect to Vishnu. The book I am referring to is &lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.pl/books?id=yMFwMHH4HzMC&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahadev Chakravarti's book&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is what sphere did he initially preside over and which spheres, possibly belonging to some non-Vedic deities, were further added to his domain? Like in the example of Shiva, to the Vedic Rudra image the death-fertility compound was added, stemming from the Dravidian culture according to the above-mentioned source. What I'm interested here are those spheres of governance themselves, their evolution and the possible changes in stress between them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have a hard time trying to describe Vishnu in terms: as god of x. It is as if he suddenly became god of &quot;all&quot;, advancing from a mere swift warrior in Indra's army.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2688" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-30T11:33:47.077" LastActivityDate="2021-08-10T15:32:55.220" Title="How has Lord Vishnu's understanding developed and what was his role initially?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|history|vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6871" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6870" CreationDate="2015-03-27T08:35:33.313" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not sure where to begin. The book you are quoting seems to be misguided, and as one of the comments says, a hangover from the pre-independence English Indologists, more often referred to as Orientalists, who nurtured a view of Hinduism as a polytheistic religion of savages. Modern Western academicians, sometimes referred to as Neo-Orientalists, have continued this tradition wrapping it in modern Western universalism.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Hindu gods, like all concepts of God across different cultures, have evolved as man evolved culturally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva, as part of the trimurti Godhead, is the god of destruction (and consequently death). This was not an add-on by the Dravidian culture as the other author connotes. There is ample evidence of this in the Aryan ruins at Mahenjo-Daro between 2,000-4,000 BC. Heinrich Zimmer says in &lt;em&gt;Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization&lt;/em&gt; p 126:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Already in Mohenjo-Daro the lingum occurs, side by side with other important symbols similar to those employed in later Hindu iconography.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu was also part of the trimurti Godhead. He was the sustainer of creation. Later Vishnu came to represent the Supreme Godhead. Again, Heinrich Zimmer sees this development as part of the Vedic period and as an outcome of the the development of the Aryan during the Vedic period and not due to Dravidian.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a myth as to the Dravidian being a separate culture and language from the rest of Indian culture. This was first fostered by the early English Orientalists of the 1800's. The history of this is covered in extensive detail in Chapter 6 entitled 'Inventing the Dravidian Race' of &lt;em&gt;Breaking India&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would suggest for further reading:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Myths and Symbols in Indian Arts and Civilization&lt;/em&gt; by Heinrich Zimmer and &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines&lt;/em&gt; by Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-20T07:18:04.053" LastActivityDate="2016-01-20T07:18:04.053" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6872" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3690" CreationDate="2015-03-27T12:51:58.970" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usually, ^ shaped is like pyramid, most of temple use this shape in top.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pyramid&lt;/strong&gt; is absorb energy, it sign of Peace ,Impressive and consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So that temple top shared as ^ like &lt;strong&gt;pyramid&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are also benefit and reasons for this shape, Building a temple in the shape of a &lt;strong&gt;pyramid&lt;/strong&gt; can increase the occupants' lifespan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vasthusastra.com/power_pyramid.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;More benefits are here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="989" LastEditorUserId="989" LastEditDate="2015-03-30T04:28:18.507" LastActivityDate="2015-03-30T04:28:18.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6874" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4093" CreationDate="2015-03-27T19:27:37.573" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is like that once upon a time Devi Kali got very angry from devils and start killing everyone. No one was able stop her who is source of energy and power. Only Lord Shiva knows how to stop her. He is husband of Devi Shakti and Devi Kali is a form of Devi Shakti so she would also behave like a wife of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva lay down on the way of Devi kali and once she putted her feet on him realize that its totally wrong and she went calm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2693" LastActivityDate="2015-03-27T19:27:37.573" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6875" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6855" CreationDate="2015-03-27T20:59:03.840" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;God never gives us any pain or trouble to suffer. It's our own work which creates atmosphere for us which may be in favour or against of us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism, the idea of complete annihilation of the soul&#xA;  after death is inconsistent with the concept of a moral order in the&#xA;  universe. If everything ends with death, then there is no meaning to&#xA;  life. Nor is the view that the soul is created at birth and then&#xA;  becomes eternal at death reasonable, for anything that has a beginning&#xA;  will also have an end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference link is below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishna.org/activities/message/weekly_message41.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.ramakrishna.org/activities/message/weekly_message41.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2693" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-18T03:39:36.763" LastActivityDate="2015-08-18T03:39:36.763" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6879" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-28T16:33:36.250" Score="3" ViewCount="522" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please guide me.Thanks in advance&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2698" LastEditorUserId="2698" LastEditDate="2015-03-28T17:23:40.410" LastActivityDate="2015-11-23T10:31:49.627" Title="What are the effects of Pranayamam according to Hindu scripture?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6880" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6672" CreationDate="2015-03-28T17:52:39.013" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Lord Vishnu had eight arms? Well, being the supreme Lord can have 2,4,8,32,... thousands of hands. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu (one of the 108 divya desams) in Kanchi, where Lord Vishnu is called Astabhujar, the Lord having eight arms. The Sthala purana says, He took this form to subdue and control Goddess Kali who on instigation by Saraswati was keen to disturb Lord Brahma's Yagna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord first protected the Yagna performed by Brahma, from the wrath of saraswati, by obstructing the flow of goddess saraswati in the form of Vegavati river (another Divya Desam called Yathokthakari temple) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next, when, goddess Sarawati out of frustation, sent Goddess Kali to disturb Lord Brahma's Yagna. Lord Vishnu took the eight handed form and subdued Goddess Kali and also a few other creatures and demons sent by saraswati, thereby protected the yagna of Lord Brahma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Brahma completed the yagna, successfully, due to the grace of Lord Vishnu, Lord Vishnu himself emerged as Lord Varadaraja (the famous temple of kanchi)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there many famous temples where Lord Narasimha has 16, 32 etc arms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://saranathantg.blogspot.in/2008/11/bg-1136.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;page&lt;/a&gt; here provides more details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-07T05:01:15.170" LastActivityDate="2015-10-07T05:01:15.170" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6882" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-28T20:13:58.200" Score="2" ViewCount="159" Body="&lt;p&gt;Often times I have seen many Hindu based gatherings via the internet where live elephants are involved. One thing I have seen is a sort of paint creating a very beautiful design on the elephant's face. I wish to know if this symbolizes anything for Hinduism or if it is a regional practice. Because I have wished to incorporate that into my own artwork and I don't want to make anything offensive. Does the paint hold any religious significance and will I not anger several people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2700" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-11T23:41:40.383" LastActivityDate="2016-01-11T23:41:40.383" Title="What does painting on an elephant's face in religious events signify?" Tags="|rituals|history|practice|culture|symbolism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6883" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6886" CreationDate="2015-03-29T00:23:41.977" Score="7" ViewCount="7236" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across this term in hit TV series Shivam which is a Tamil dub version of Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev. Shiva confronts the personification of Apasmara to aid in Parvathi's efforts to realize her true self - Adi Shakthi - as part of Ashtanga Yoga. I would like to know the origin, source and exact nature of Apasmara as described in the scriptures and the prescribed way to tame it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-04T15:32:33.693" LastActivityDate="2020-10-07T04:16:08.380" Title="What is Apasmara?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6884" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6882" CreationDate="2015-03-29T00:43:35.717" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far I know most of the time the paintings are done as a decoration. You may see a few symbols like Ohm or Swastika or a Naama(thilak) which do hold religious significance, but mostly they are are nice designs like flowers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to make use of them in your artwork, you may stick to the non-religious symbols if you are not certain, but the general painting of elephants itself is not a religious ceremony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, you may want to take a look at decorated cows and oxen as well (from south India). We sometimes even use balloons and glitter papers. It is just an expression of happiness and affection mostly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2694" LastActivityDate="2015-03-29T00:43:35.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6885" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6879" CreationDate="2015-03-29T03:05:04.153" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why are you practicing these things without the guidance of a teacher or guru? &lt;em&gt;Pranayama&lt;/em&gt; has many good effects and when done properly can give you calmness of mind, freedom from diseases and so on. But when done incorrectly the effects can be the opposite, including headache like what you have experienced. So the HataYoga Pradipika says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;prāṇāyāmena yuktena sarvarogakṣayo bhavet&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;ayuktābhyāsayogena sarvarogasamudgamaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [2.16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Through the proper practice of &lt;em&gt;pranayama&lt;/em&gt; all diseases perish, but by the improper practice of &lt;em&gt;paranayama&lt;/em&gt; all diseases arise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;hikkā śvāsaśca kāsaśca śiraḥkarṇākṣivedanāḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;bhavanti vividhāḥ rogāḥ pavanasya prakopataḥ&lt;/em&gt; [2.17]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Hiccup, asthma, cough, pain in the head, ear, eyes and many other diseases arise due to the improper regulation of air/breath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't mean to discourage you, but in yoga it is better to know what you are doing otherwise there can be negative consequences. If your purpose is to attain enlightenment, knowledge or liberation then that can also be achieved by practice of devotion which doesn't have these side effects. Otherwise, take the help of a teacher and he will guide you about &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;pranayama&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-03-29T03:05:04.153" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6886" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6883" CreationDate="2015-03-29T03:10:06.687" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apasmara, AKA Muyalaka, is the demon crushed under Shiva's foot in his form as Nataraja the king of dance.  He is a dwarf who symbolizes ignorance and/or evil, and Shiva is portrayed as crushing him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PKRRF.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as far as I'm aware, the story of Nataraja isn't described in Hindu scripture, but &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=E_6-JbUiHB4C&amp;amp;lpg=PA109&amp;amp;dq=apasmara%20purana&amp;amp;pg=PA109#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how it's described in South Indian folklore:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Followers of the orthodox Brahmin school of Mimamsa tried to destroy Shiva by successively creating a fierce tiger, a serpent, and an elephant whom Shiva killed.  Finally they sent the embodiment of evil in the form of a dwarf, Muyalaka, the Apasmara purusha to overthrow Shiva - but Shiva began his cosmic-dance (tandava), subduing the dwarf and thereby liberating the world.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure why followers of Purva Mimamsa (whixh I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) are portrayed as bad guys here; perhaps this version of the story was written by Advaitins or other opponents of Mimamsa.  In any case, as you can see there is no mention of Parvati here, so I think that is just creative license on the part of the TV show writers.  I think their intent was to show that even Parvati herself turned Shiva to crush her ignorance, making it all the more imperative for ordinary humans to do likewise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T17:39:03.087" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6889" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-29T05:14:21.217" Score="7" ViewCount="5403" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which book is the original sanskrit account of Vignana Bhairava Tantra?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the story/events surrounding the time this Yoga method was introduced to the world?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which is the best available English translation of the same? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-06T04:54:08.687" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T04:54:08.687" Title="What is the most authoritative book/translation on Vignana Bhairava Tantra?" Tags="|yoga|tantra|book-recommendation|kashmiri-shaivism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6892" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6879" CreationDate="2015-03-29T11:58:28.233" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Except for preliminary pranayama, one should not try to practice without the guidance of a guru. Doing so can bring uncontrollable urges. In the Preface to his book, &lt;em&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt; (which includes his translation of &lt;em&gt;Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt;), Swami Vivekananda gives the following warning (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda&lt;/em&gt; V1. p123):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the first part some simple and specific directions are given for the student who wants to practice, &lt;em&gt;but all such are especially and earnestly reminded that, with few exceptions, Yoga can only be safely learnt by direct contact with a teacher&lt;/em&gt;. If these conversations succeed in awakening a desire for further information on the subject, the teacher will not be wanting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pranayama is learning to suspend, control, and restrain the breath. By learning to control the breath, we learn to control prana. Prana is the energy that permeates your body. The universe is made up entirely of Akasha and Prana, matter and force. Most people interpret pranayama as learning to control the breath, but this is only the start of what is meant by pranayama. By learning to control the breath, you learn to control the nerve-endings. By learning to control the nerve-endings you learn to control prana throughout the body. By learning to control prana, you control the senses. By learning to control the senses, you control the mind, with this you can realize Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By learning to control the breath we are really learning to control the Ida and Pingala, and this is the main objective of learning to control the breath (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt; V2 p30).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Patanjali, Pranayama is taken up after the student has taken up Yama, Niyama, and Asana. The &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt; give some direction as to pranayama.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali in his Yoga Aphorisms outlines the steps, warnings, and results of following the steps of his Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankaracharya, however, gives a slightly different alternative to the &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt;. He agrees that all the steps are necessary, but says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The restraint of all the senses by means of such knowledge as &quot;All is Brahman&quot; is rightly called Yama, which should be practiced again and again. The continuous flow of only one kind of thought to the exclusion of all other thoughts, is called Niyama, which is verily the supreme bliss and is regularly practiced by the wise. (&lt;em&gt;Aparoksanubhuti&lt;/em&gt;, verses 104-105.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, meditation on Brahman, practiced regularly, covers Yama and Niyama. By practicing meditation, all the steps of yama and niyama will occur naturally without any effort on your part. By practicing meditation regularly, pranayama, control of prana, will comes of itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said &quot;The greatest help to spiritual life is meditation.&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt; V2 p37). Indeed, he further states &quot;No breathing, no physical training of Yoga, nothing is of any use until you reach the idea, I am the Witness.&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt; V4 p254)    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-03-29T11:58:28.233" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6894" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6938" CreationDate="2015-03-30T00:02:51.267" Score="7" ViewCount="2593" Body="&lt;p&gt;Asuras and Devas both trace their lineage back to Rishi Kashyapa - Asuras being the sons of Kashyapa and Diti while Devas being the sons of Kashyapa and Aditi. So why did the Asuras choose the path of Adharma (with exceptions like Mahabali) and Devas choose Dharma and gained administratorship over the cosmos as well as Amrutha?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2015-04-04T02:26:34.193" Title="What is the story behind the nature of Asuras and Devas?" Tags="|asuras|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6895" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-30T02:30:10.877" Score="5" ViewCount="347" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning of Maarga Dharshan? In what context is it used and who is the one eligible to provide this Dharshan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T09:34:30.803" Title="What is the meaning of Maarga Dharshan?" Tags="|darshan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6896" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6870" CreationDate="2015-03-30T03:54:38.623" Score="33" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, to answer your side question, yes, there is something that is more particular to Vishnu that both Vaishnavite and Shaivites would acknowledge about him, and that is that he is the god of preservation.  That is to say, Vaishnavites would say that Vishnu is the preserver but he is also ultimately responsible for the origination and destruction of the Universe, even though they might be instrumentally handled by other deities.  And similarly a Shaivite would say that Shiva is the destroyer, but he is also ultimately responsible for the other functions like creation and preservation.  But the one thing that Hindus of pretty much all sects can agree on is that Vishnu is at least instrumentally responsible for preservation, and that Shiva is at least instrumentally responsible for destruction, whatever else might lie behind their power to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This core property of Vishnu, concerning his role in preserving the Universe and its virtuous inhabitants from Adharma, is summarized in a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;famous verse&lt;/a&gt; from the Bhagavad Gita:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let me tackle your main question, concerning the evolution in our understanding of Vishnu.  Note that this isn't about an evolution in Vishnu himself, who has always been the same regardless of human misconceptions, and this isn't even an evolution for certain Trikalajnani sages, who presumably understood Vishnu correctly at all times.  But it is true that society's understanding of Vishnu has evolved.  Let me explain.  (This is an expanded version of what I said in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3843/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before the time of the sage Vyasa, people had a very different understanding of which gods were important than the understanding we have today. The Vedic mantras had not yet been compiled into the four books we call the Vedas, but the mantras were still known among men, and they unfortunately led to a skewed perspective on things. Most of the Vedic hymns were addressed to gods like Indra, Agni, Vayu, Surya, Chandra, etc., because they were the most relevant to the Soma Yagna, but people got the impression that those were the supreme gods. It's only after Vyasa composed the Mahabharata and the Puranas that people got a correct view of the importance of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, etc. Until then, they were often viewed as minor deities, and people didn't even realize that e.g. Matsya, Kurma, and Varaha were incarnations of Vishnu!  (For instance, there's no mention of Vishnu in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1234.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;story of Matsya&lt;/a&gt; in the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, it's interesting to trace the history of Vaishnavism (Vishnu-worship) before Vyasa came and cleared things up. Vaishnavism came from many different strands, which I'll identify by the name of Vishnu they venerated the most:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; - There is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Vishnuism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedic Vishnuism&lt;/a&gt;, the worship of Vishnu as he's described in the Vedas, which mostly involves his incarnation as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vamana the dwarf&lt;/a&gt;.  (I give quotes from the Vedas concerning Vamana in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4057/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  Because Vamana is known for his taking three steps of land in order to restore rule of the three-worlds to Indra, it was incorrectly assumed that being Indra's helper was the general role of Vishnu.  But there are still small references to the other attributes of Vishnu that would become more widely known later on.  For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01156.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book I Hymn 156&lt;/a&gt; describes his various opulences:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;FAR-SHINING, widely famed, going thy wonted way, fed with the oil, be helpful. Mitra-like, to us.&#xA;  So, Viṣṇu, e’en the wise must swell thy song of praise, and he who hath oblations pay thee solemn rites.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who brings gifts to him &lt;strong&gt;the Ancient and the Last&lt;/strong&gt;, to Viṣṇu who ordains, &lt;strong&gt;together with his Spouse&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  Who tells the lofty birth of him the Lofty One, shall verily surpass in glory e’en his peer.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Him have ye satisfied, singers, as well as ye know, &lt;strong&gt;primeval germ of Order&lt;/strong&gt; even from his birth.&#xA;  Ye, knowing e’en his name, have told it forth: may we, Viṣṇu, enjoy the grace of thee the Mighty One.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the birth is about the birth of Vamana, not Vishnu, but in any case we see here a reference to the power of Vishnu's name.  And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01154.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book I Hymn 154&lt;/a&gt; describes his role in upholding the Cosmos:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Him whose three places that are filled with sweetness, imperishable, joy as it may list them,&#xA;  Who verily alone upholds the threefold, the earth, the heaven, and all living creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;May I attain to that his well-loved mansion where men devoted to the Gods are happy.&#xA;  For there springs, close akin to the Wide-Strider, the well of meath in Viṣṇu's highest footstep.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Fain would we go unto your dwelling-places where there are many-horned and nimble oxen,&#xA;  For mightily, there, shineth down upon us the widely-striding Bull's sublimest mansion.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And verse 6 explicitly refers to Paramapadam, the supreme abode of Vishnu.  The Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda describes another property of Vishnu which would become more widely known later on, namely his role as the Yagna Purusha or lord of sacrifice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu first attained [the sacrifice], and he became the most excellent of the gods; whence people say, '&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu is the most excellent of the gods&lt;/strong&gt;.' Now &lt;strong&gt;he who is this Vishnu is the sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;; and he who is this sacrifice is yonder Âditya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that he is called an Aditya because Vamana is the son of Kashyap and Aditi; it's the same reason that in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says &quot;Of the Adityas I am Vishnu&quot;.  In any case, the fact that Vishnu is the Yagna Purusha would become more important later on; it's the reason that Vaikhanasas and others felt justified in replacing the daily performance of Yagnas with idol worship of Vishnu, because by worshipping Vishnu they were still effectively doing a Yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Narayana&lt;/strong&gt; - There is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pancharatra&lt;/a&gt; movement, which began with the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the son of Yama god of death and twin brother of the sage Nara.  (Nara and Narayana were previous births of Arjuna and Krishna.)  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3712/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44110.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; Narayana conducting a five-day (Pancharatra) Yagna and then becoming the entire universe:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purusha Nârâyana desired, 'Would that I overpassed all beings! would that I alone were everything here (this universe)!' He beheld this five-days’ sacrificial performance, the Purushamedha, and took it, and performed offering therewith; and having performed offering therewith, he overpassed all beings, and became everything here. And, verily, he who, knowing this, performs the Purushamedha, or who even knows this, overpasses all beings, and becomes everything here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The being that Narayana venerated/turned into is described in the famous Purusha Sukta, and the end portion of the Purusha Sukta in the Shukla Yajur Veda (known as the Uttara-Narayana) &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/wyvbk31.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; Narayana himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;17&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the beginning he was formed, collected from waters, earth,&#xA;  and Visvakarman's essence.&#xA;  Fixing the form thereof Tvashtar proceedeth. This was at&#xA;  first the mortal's birth and godhead.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I know this mighty Purusha whose colour is like the Sun,&#xA;  beyond the reach of darkness.&#xA;  He only who knows him leaves Death behind him. There is&#xA;  no path save this alone to travel.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the womb moves Prajâpati: he, never becoming born, is&#xA;  born in sundry figures.&#xA;  The wise discern the womb from which he springeth. In&#xA;  him alone stand all existing creatures.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who gives light and heat to Gods, first, foremost Agent&#xA;  of the Gods,&#xA;  Born ere the Gods—to him the bright, the holy One, be&#xA;  reverence&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Thus spake the Gods at first, as they begat the bright and&#xA;  holy One:&#xA;  The Brahman who may know thee thus shall have the Gods&#xA;  in his control.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Beauty and Fortune are thy wives: each side of thee are&#xA;  Day and Night.&#xA;  The constellations are thy form: the Asvins are thine open&#xA;  jaws.&#xA;  Wishing, wish yonder world for me, wish that the Universe&#xA;  be mine.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that in verse 22 Narayana's wives are called &quot;Hri and Lakshmi&quot;.  In any case, because Narayana peformed a five-night (Pancharatra) Yagna and became all things, people started following so-called Pancharatra texts which gave detailed procedures to worship Narayana. Among the oldest standalone Pancharatra texts we have are the Satvata Samhita, the Jayakhya Samhita, and the Ahirbudhnya Samhita.  But there's a Pancharatra text even older than these, and it's part of the Mahabharata!  (I discuss the Narayaniya &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3936/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  It's called the Narayaniya, and it's an 18-chapter religious discourse between Yudhishthira and Bhishma in the Shanti Parva in the Mahabharata, specifically chapters 335-352.  (It's similar to the Bhagavad Gita, an 18-chapter religious discourse between Krishna and Arjuna, and that's no coincidence: the Bhagavad Gita is also considered a Pancharatra text, but it's become so universally accepted by Hindus that people forget its sectarian association.) But it is believed by some that the Pancharatra tradition did not originate in the Pancharatra Agamas we have now, but rather in a now-extinct Vedic Shakha (recension), known as the Ekayana Shakha of the Shukla Yajur Veda, which would have been founded by the sage Narayana.  That would explain why the description of Narayana's deeds is in the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Shukla Yajur Veda, and the Uttara-Narayana hymn is in the Shukla Yajur Veda itself.  But as far as I can tell the existence of the Ekayana Shakha hasn't been conclusively established.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the Pancharatra texts advocate the worship of Narayana through Pancharatra Yagnas (apparently free of animal sacrifice); through Karma Yoga (action without desiring a fruit); through recital of the Ashtakshari mantra (Namo Narayanaya), which Narayana is said to have taught his brother Nara; and through idol worship (akin to Vaikhanasas), although this may have originated with the Bhagavata movements.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vasudeva&lt;/strong&gt; - There is the Bhagavata movement, which worshipped four forms of god, Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha. known as the four &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra#Divine_Manifestation&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vyuha&lt;/a&gt; forms.  (These are also the names of Krishna, his brother Balarama, his son Pradyumna, and his grandson Aniruddha, but this wasn't recognized at the time.)  The Bhagavatas were originally distinct from the Pancharatras, but these groups merged and now it's hard to tell what their unique characteristics were.  Idol worship in temples was probably one of them though; Yamunacharya's Agama Pramanya quotes the sage Atri condemning the Bhagavatas along with other Brahmanas who work in temples for money:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Avalukas, Devalakas, Kalpadevalakas, Ganabhogadevalakas, and fourthly those of the Bhagavata profession are corrupt Brahmins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(I see five groups, not four, but who's counting?)  Most of what we can gleam about the Bhagavatas are in the criticisms of them; for instance, in his commentary on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34218.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Sutra&lt;/a&gt; and the following Sutras of the Brahma Sutras, Adi Shankaracharya interprets the Brahma Sutras to be criticizing the views of the Bhagavatas with respect to the Vyuha theory.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; - there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishnaism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishnaism&lt;/a&gt;, the worship of Krishna due to the various miracles he had performed in his time on Earth, particularly those he performed as a child growing up in Vrindavana and the like.  When Krishna's great-grandson Vajra came back to Mathura after the flood of Dwaraka, he promulgated the cult of Krishnaism, focusing on Krishna and his various relatives like Balarama, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, and Samba.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavatas and Panchartras eventually realized that Narayana was just an incarnation of the Bhagavata deity Vasudeva, so the two movements merged into one, and then the Bhagavatas realized that it wasn't a coinicdence that the four forms of god they worshipped shared the names of Krishna and his family members. And then finally, when people realized that Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu, Vaishnavism as we understand it today was born, since people now knew that Narayana, Vasudeva, and Vishnu were all the same god; the Mahanarayana Upanishad summarizes this insight in its famous verse, &quot;Narayanaya Vidmahe, Vasudevaya Dhimahi, Tano Vishnu Prachodayat&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more information, I suggest you read books on the history of Vaishnavism, for instance Suvira Jaiswal's book &quot;The Origin and Development of Vaisnavism&quot; and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar's &quot;Early History of Vaishnavism in South India&quot;.  (Those aren't necessarily my favorite books on the history of Vaishnavism, they're just the first two ebooks I found in my computer's hard drive on the subject.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-03-09T07:54:33.520" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6900" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-30T23:23:28.610" Score="4" ViewCount="945" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although we know that the Axe carried by Lord Parashurama was provided to him by Lord Shiva, it is not mentioned clearly whether it is Pashupatastra which has similar features. is it the same as Pashupatastra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-14T17:58:39.123" LastActivityDate="2018-12-14T17:58:39.123" Title="Is Lord Parashurama's axe Pashupatastra?" Tags="|shiva|weapon|parashurama|pashupatastra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6901" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-31T02:34:35.783" Score="3" ViewCount="212" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/IAi2q&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Brahma Purana, the sage Vyasa describes the various incarnations of Vishnu.  After summarizing the story of the Ramayana, he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The people who are conversant with ancient legends sing &lt;strong&gt;the following popular folk song&lt;/strong&gt; thus - &quot;People had a close and real bond of love with Rama.  The intelligent lord had greatness.  He was a young man with red eyes and refulgent face.  He spoke with limitation and restraint.  His arms extended upto his knees.  He had a gentle face.  He had great arms and leonine shoulders.  He ruled over the earth for ten thousand years.  There were the following sounds continuously in his kingdom - the sound of the chanting of Riks, Saman and Yajus Mantras; the twanging sound of the bow.  This sound never ceased viz. &quot;Let this be given, let this be eaten.&quot;  Rama the son of Dasharatha richly possessed Sattva attributes and other qualities.  He shone with his own brilliance, more brilliantly than the moon and the sun.  He performed hundreds of holy sacrifices at the conclusion of which excellent gifts were offered to the Brahmins.  He of great strength left Ayodhya and went to heaven.  It was in this manner that the lord of great arms, the scion of the family of Ikshvaku killed Ravana along with his attendants and went of to heaven.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is this &quot;popular folk song&quot; quoted by Vyasa?   Vyasa composed the Puranas near the end of the Dwapara Yuga or the beginning of the Kali Yuga, and yet even he says that this song is sung by &quot;the people who are conversant with ancient legends&quot;.  So that would make it an extremely ancient folk song.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know how old it is?  Are there any other scriptures, for instance other Puranas, that refer to this folk song?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-04-05T16:35:46.447" LastActivityDate="2015-04-05T16:35:46.447" Title="What is the &quot;folk song&quot; about Rama described in the Brahma Purana?" Tags="|ramayana|puranas|rama|brahma-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6904" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-03-31T09:50:43.490" Score="2" ViewCount="2232" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that Bhagavad Gita helps Albert Einsteen to discover E=mc^2 .&#xA;Is that true ?&#xA;Does Bhagavad Gita helps him to become success in his life ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2715" LastEditorUserId="2715" LastEditDate="2015-03-31T09:59:17.627" LastActivityDate="2015-03-31T09:59:17.627" Title="Does Albert Einsteen Really Read Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|ramayana|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2015-03-31T13:37:05.893" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6905" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2187" CreationDate="2015-03-31T17:12:11.543" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story in the article below might answer your question. I'm not able to find a citation for this story from the original text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1074991&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1074991&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once Ravan attacked vaikunth lok. Garuda, the chariot of Vishnu, ran away being terrified. Then Vishnu attacked Ravan with his Sudharshan Chakra. Ravan was so powerful that he made Sudharshan of Vishnu powerless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-07T19:56:33.607" LastActivityDate="2016-01-07T19:56:33.607" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6906" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6923" CreationDate="2015-03-31T17:31:22.707" Score="23" ViewCount="7029" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the Shiva Purana, there is a main God Shiva who is Nirakara and thereafter his physical manifestation who is known as Shankara. I know that different Hindu texts about different Gods treat their God as the Supreme nirakaar God, e.g. Mahavishnu, Parabramha, Devi Shakti, etc who created the other Gods and started the universe. I wanted to know whether such story exists in the case of Lord Vishnu as well that there is a Mahavishnu and then there is (are) Vishnu(s). I think such story exists but I have not read such Lord Vishnu-related texts. Can anybody please let me know if there is such extract anywhere in Hindu texts which tells the existence of both MahaVishnu and Vishnu? Also, please don't confuse Vishnu with his later incarnations such as Lord Rama or Lord Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-07-26T15:30:23.397" LastActivityDate="2016-07-27T06:21:40.363" Title="Is there any scripture that tells story about Lord Vishnu and MahaVishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|philosophy|vaishnavism|brahman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6907" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6908" CreationDate="2015-03-31T20:05:06.477" Score="0" ViewCount="251" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आदित्यवर्णेतपसोधिजात: वनस्पति: तव वव्रिक्शोथ बिल्व​:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;aadityavarnetapasodhijataha vanaspati tava vrikhsoth bilwahaa (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegle_marmelos&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bel/Bilwa&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vanaspati : the one who gives fruit without flowers (Manusmriti chap 1 verse 47)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपुषपा फलन्वितो ये ते वनस्पतय स्मृता&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;apushpa falanato ye te vanaspatayaa smrita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vriksha(Tree) : which gives flower as well as fruit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुषपिण: फलिनशचैव व्रुक्शास्तुभयत: स्म्रुता:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pushpinaa falinashiva vrikshastubhayatahaa smrita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is it possible that the bilwa vriksha is a vanaspati(Plant/Vegetation) as well as a vriksha (Tree)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-04-01T06:27:40.307" LastActivityDate="2015-04-07T20:01:08.660" Title="Word clash in shri suktam" Tags="|vedas|scripture|plants|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-04-01T08:11:39.643" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6908" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6907" CreationDate="2015-03-31T21:07:07.087" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/giirvaani/giirvaani/ss/ss.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is Desiraju Hanumanta Rao's word-for-word translation of this Sri Suktam verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AdityavarNe tapaso.adhijAto vanaspatistava vR^ikSo.atha bilvaH |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasya phalAni tapasAnudantumAyAntarAyAshcha bAhyA alakSmIH || 6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hè  Aditya varNe= oh, in sun's splendour, glittering forth - oh, one dazzling in the cerise splendour of rising sun;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tava tapasaH adhijAtaH= by your, hermitic austerities, those that are born; such as;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vanaspatiH= plants, herbs, trees - that give fruits without flower-bearing - [here bilva tree yielding auspicious bilva fruits;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atha= here atha is shubhakara vAchaka, shubhAkshara - those that are auspicious;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;bilvaH vR^ikSaH [asti] = bilva, trees [are there, isn't it];&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasya phalAni= its, fruits - bilva fruit of bilva tree;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tapasA= [by the power of your] hermitic austerities;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mA= in my respect - those [a+laskhmi-s] that are available in me;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yA antarA= those, that are inside;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yAH cha bAhyA= those, or else, that are peripheral on my body;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a+lakSmIH= those penuries;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nudantu = cast aside - let those fruits of bilva cast out miseries available either inside or outside of my being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Oh, shrI-devi, floridly splendorous like rising Sun, there emerged a vanaspati called bilva tree, for the sake of your undertaking hermetic practises under its shade, isn't it. Let those auspicious bilva fruits cast out penuries available either inside or outside of my being, for they are ripened with the radiance of your austerities... &quot;; such as it is, oh, jAtaveda, this prayer of mine may please be communicated to that numen of plenitude, namely shrI... [6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bilva fruits have emerged as j~nAna phalA-s of pArameshvara j~nAnam, where parameshvara is j~nAnamayam where His knowledge itself is tapas - yasya j~nAnamayam tapaH. Hence bilva fruits are called as shrI phala, and trees as shrI vR^iksha-s, and held auspicious. Because those trees have emerged from no les than parameshvara - sA hi sR^IramR^itA - goddess lakshmi chose them for her austerities. Those fruits are chitta doSha hara, remove mental imbalances to madness; shArIra doSha hara, remove bodily problems from skin allergies to leprosy, and they are j~nAna-pradA-s, yielding intellect, thus enabling internal and external plenitude of health. Hence this prayer is for well-being, through bilva media, for their cChAya, dala, phala-s - shade, leaves, and fruits are lively - shrI yukta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I said, I think the term &quot;Bilva Vriksha&quot; is just a common appellation for Bilva, because it looks like a tree (Vriksha), even if it doesn't technically meet the Sanskrit definition of Vriksha.  So it is called Vriksha by virtue of its appearance, and Vanaspati by virtue of its actual characteristics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-04-07T20:01:08.660" LastActivityDate="2015-04-07T20:01:08.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6909" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6941" CreationDate="2015-04-01T00:29:54.623" Score="11" ViewCount="8491" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which Purana talks about Sahasrakavacha (one who has a thousand armors) - the purva janmam (past life) of Karna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-27T19:57:17.020" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T19:57:17.020" Title="Which Purana talks about Sahasrakavacha, the past life of Karna?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|karna|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6910" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-01T00:38:34.753" Score="6" ViewCount="6510" Body="&lt;p&gt;What exactly are Dig Vijayas and what are the campaigns that lead to Karna attaining the 4 Dig Vijayas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T14:52:53.463" LastActivityDate="2021-01-03T22:59:23.410" Title="What are the 4 Dig Vijayas conquered by Karna?" Tags="|mahabharata|karna|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6911" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6909" CreationDate="2015-04-01T03:11:09.460" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt; There is no scriptural evidence for Sahasrakavacha being the previous birth of Karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I'm aware, the only place in Hindu scripture that discusses Dambodhbhava, AKA Sahasrakavacha, is the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata. As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2395/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, when Krishna went as an envoy of the Pandavas to the Kauravas' palace, the Kauravas remained silent after Krishna made his offer of peace. So Vishnu's other incarnation Parashurama, who happened to be in palace at the time, admonished them by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;recounting the story of Dambhodbhava&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was a king of yore named Dambhodbhava, who was the Head of the&#xA;  earth. It hath been heard by us that his sovereignty extended over the&#xA;  whole world. And that mighty car-warrior, rising every morning after&#xA;  the night had passed away, called the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas&#xA;  unto himself and asked them, saying, &quot;Be he a Sudra, a Vaisya, a&#xA;  Kshatriya, or a Brahmana, is there any one who is superior or even&#xA;  equal to me in battle?&quot; ... And some high-souled Brahmanas then ...&#xA;  told him, &quot;There are two persons who are foremost of all men and who&#xA;  are always victorious in battle. Thou, O king, wilt by no means be&#xA;  equal to them if thou seekest an encounter with any one of them.&quot; ...&#xA;  And the two Rishis received the king hospitably, with fruits and&#xA;  roots, and a seat and water.... [T]he king said unto them the same&#xA;  words that he was in the habit of saying unto all. And he said, &quot;The&#xA;  whole earth has been conquered by the might of my arms. All my foes&#xA;  have been slain. Desiring a battle with you both I have come to this&#xA;  mountain. Offer me this hospitality. I have been cherishing this wish&#xA;  from a long time.&quot; Thus addressed, Nara and Narayana said, &quot;O best of&#xA;  kings, wrath and covetousness have no place in this retreat. How can a&#xA;  battle, therefore, be possible here? There are no weapons here, and&#xA;  nothing of unrighteousness and malice. Seek battle elsewhere. There&#xA;  are many Kshatriyas on earth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although thus addressed, the king still pressed them for giving him&#xA;  battle. The Rishis, however, continually soothed him and overlooked&#xA;  his importunity. King Dambhodbhava, still desirous of battle,&#xA;  repeatedly summoned those Rishis to fight. Nara, then, O Bharata,&#xA;  taking up a handful of grass-blades, said, &quot;Desirous of battle as thou&#xA;  art, come, O Kshatriya, and fight! Take up all thy arms, and array thy&#xA;  troops. I will curb thy eagerness for battle hereafter!&quot; ...&#xA;  Dambhodbhava with all his troops, desirous of slaying that ascetic,&#xA;  covered all sides with a shower of arrows. That ascetic, however, by&#xA;  means of those blades of grass, baffled all those terrible shafts of&#xA;  the king that were capable of mangling the bodies of hostile warriors.&#xA;  The invincible Rishi then let off towards the king his own terrible&#xA;  weapon made of grass-blades and which was incapable of being&#xA;  counteracted. And highly wonderful was that which happened, for that&#xA;  ascetic, incapable of missing his aim, pierced and cut off, by those&#xA;  grass-blades alone, the eyes and ears and noses of the hostile&#xA;  warriors, aided also by his power of illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And beholding the entire welkin whitened by those grass-blades, the&#xA;  king fell at the feet of the Rishi and said, 'Let me be blessed!&quot; Ever&#xA;  inclined to grant protection unto those that sought it, Nara then, O&#xA;  king, said unto that monarch, &quot;Be obedient to the Brahmanas and be&#xA;  virtuous. Never do so again.... Blessed be thou, and with our leave,&#xA;  go hence, and never again behave in this way. At our command, enquire&#xA;  thou always of the Brahmanas as to what is for thy good!&quot; The king&#xA;  then, worshipping the feet of those two illustrious Rishis, returned&#xA;  to his city, and from that time began to practise righteousness. Great&#xA;  indeed, was that feat achieved of old by Nara. Narayana, again, became&#xA;  superior to Nara in consequence of many more qualities. They that were&#xA;  Nara and Narayana in days of yore are now Arjuna and Kesava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Reminds you a bit of Snow White, doesn't it?) As you can see, there's no mention of Dambhodhbhava reincarnating as anyone, only about Nara and Narayana reincarnating as Arjuna and Krishna.  And there's not even a mention of him having 1000 coats of armor, which is the whole reason people call him Sahasrakavacha.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One work that does mention the thousand coats of armor is the Narayaneeyam, a medieval poem summarizing the Srimad Bhagavatam; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.narayaneeyam-firststep.org/dashaka16.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what it says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Asura known as Sahasrakavacha, had one thousand coats of armour. One who did penance for a thousand years and also fought with the Asura for a thousand years, simultaniously, only could pierce the armours. Thou as Naaraayan along with Nara did the required in turns and all the coats of the Asura were destroyed but one remained. Then Thou killed him effortlessly, as a sport.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But again, here too there's no mention of Karna.  As far as I can tell, the earliest suggestion that he was reborn as Karna is in the Tatpara Nirnaya, Madhvacharya's commentary on the Mahabharata.  Madhvacharya says &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/mbtntrans/mbtn_dhr_chapter11.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because of the stigma attached to him in his becoming instrumental to eliminate his own brother vaali, sugriiva took birth as karNa, &lt;strong&gt;together with the lifeforce of a demon named sahasra-varman&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm not sure where Madhvacharya got this story from.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-04-01T03:11:09.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6912" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-01T05:36:21.067" Score="10" ViewCount="1034" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Agama Pramanya is a work by the famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya Yamunacharya arguing that the Pancharatra texts, which are foundational to mainstream Vaishnavism as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, are legitimate Hindu scriptures.  (He also composed another work on a related subject which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7422/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  In the course of doing so, he presents the views of various schools of Hindu philosophy on this issue, and in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/QSIp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; he presents the views of a follower of the Nyaya school, an ancient school of Hindu philosophy which used logical reasoning to try to prove the validity of the Vedas and the existence of a supreme being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Nyaya philosopher says that the Vedas are authored by the supreme being (Vishnu), so another text composed by that same being, i.e. the Pancharatra texts, would be equally valid.  But the Purva Mimamsa school of Hindu philosophy, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, says that the Vedas are authorless, in the sense of not even originating from a divine source.  So in the excerpt I linked to, someone from the Purva Mimamsa school raises the objection that the Pancharatra texts talk about Dharma and Adharma (good and evil), but Vishnu can't know what is right and wrong (!), because that knowledge can only be found in an authorless text.  The Nyaya philosopher responds to this objection by saying that Vishnu has to know about Dharma and Adharma because he needs that information in order to create the Universe:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;OBJECTION. But does [Bhagavan's] intuition or perception also encompass dharma and adharma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;REPLY. Certainly. How else would the Bhagavan&#xA;  be able to give rise to such effects as body, world etc.?&#xA;  For the maker of such effects must be one who is&#xA;  capable of perceiving their material and instrumental&#xA;  causes. &lt;strong&gt;Now, dharma and adharma are the instrumental&#xA;  causes of the world; this is also the consensus of the&#xA;  Mimamsakas.&lt;/strong&gt; Consequently we must postulate a certain person who has this perceptual knowledge, and&#xA;  that person must also be the one who created the Veda&#xA;  at the beginning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one contends that such entities as&#xA;  mountains, earth and the like are not effects, the&#xA;  answer is as follows: The entities in question, earth etc., are effects, because they have a complex construction, like a king’s palace....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It being thus established that earth etc. are indeed&#xA;  effects, on the grounds adduced above, it follows that&#xA;  the Bhagavan has knowledge of dharma and adharma&#xA;  which are the instrumental causes of origination and&#xA;  annihilation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The logical structure of the argument seems to be as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Earth and other objects are complex constructions.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thus these objects must be effects.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The instrumental causes of all effects in the Universe are Dharma and Adharma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A being who produces an effect must know about the instrumental causes of the effect.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thus Vishnu, who produces the Earth and other objects, must know about Dharma and Adharma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The follower of Purva Mimamsa subsequently criticizes steps 2 and 4, but I'm interested in step 3 of the argument.  The Nyaya philosopher says &quot;Now, dharma and adharma are the instrumental causes of the world; this is also the consensus of the Mimamsakas.&quot;  The &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/leG5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;footnotes&lt;/a&gt; explain what this means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This envisages the world as the sum-total of the fruits (phala)  brought about by the observance or non-observance of dharma, which is thus instrumental to world-creation.... This is the Mimamsa view which holds that the dharma and adharma as instruments in creation are always the dharma and adharma of a particular intelligent being[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea seems to be that everything that happens in the Universe, including the formation of the Earth and mountains and so on, is a product of the law of Karma, being the phala or fruit of some good deed or bad deed that some person committed in the past.  (In the case of the Earth's creation it would have to be someone living in an earlier age on a previous planet Earth.)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the justification for this assertion?  It seems like such a controversial point, yet the Nyaya philosopher takes it for granted, such that he casually goes from &quot;The Earth is an effect&quot; to &quot;The instrumental causes of the Earth are Dharma and Adharma.&quot;  The whole point of the Nyaya school is to use logical arguments to prove the beliefs of Hinduism.  So what is the Nyaya school's argument for Dharma and Adharma being the instrumental cause of everything in the Universe?  Do any Nyaya works address this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-07-27T13:32:01.507" Title="What is the Nyaya argument for Karma being the instrumental cause of the Universe?" Tags="|karma|philosophy|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6913" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-01T10:52:55.010" Score="6" ViewCount="16913" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I am going through Balakand of Valmiki Ramayana, I came across the following.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sage Vishvamitra asks King Dasharatha to send Rama to protect the Vedic ritual that is being conducted by him,&#xA;  from the demons namely Mareecha and Subaahu that are constantly disrupting it by drenching the Altar of Fire &#xA;  with streams of meat and blood, from the sky. The sage asserts that King Dasharatha and the other sages&#xA;  in Dasharatha's court know the capabilities of Rama and though Rama is in his adolescence, he can easily kill the demons.&#xA;  The ire of sage Vishvamitra is shown towards king Dasharatha. To pacify sage Vishvamitra, sage Vashishta intervenes and convinces king Dasharatha to send Rama with sage Vishvamitra. While doing so, sage Vashishta enumerates the capabilities of sage Vishvamitra and&#xA;  his knowledge of weaponry. Vashishta also hints that all those weapons will be given to Rama, if Rama is dispatched with Vishvamitra. At last, Dasharatha agrees to send Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As most of you might know, Vishvamitra was an emperor who left off everything. He was primarily a Raajarshi (kingly sage) who later became Brahmarshi and performed moksha kaamesthi. That is the highest asceticism for achieving salvation. All the missiles are known to Vishvamitra. He had complete  knowledge of weaponry and God Shiva gave weapons/missiles to Vishvamitra when he was ruling his kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What kind of Vedic ritual was Vishvamitra performing? Was he performing the moksha kaamesthi yag?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why didn't Vishvamitra kill those mighty demons himself?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most interesting thing is, Vishvamitra, can as well kill (control) those demons (Mareecha and Subaahu) himself as he was an emperor and had the knowledge of weaponry. But he did not kill them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why didn't Vishvamitra approach Parashurama?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we know, one more incarnation of Lord Vishnu, Parashurama, was also there in Treta yuga. Instead of asking Lord Rama who was still too young (only 12 years old) to kill those mighty demons, Vishvamitra could have approached Lord Parashurama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why didn't Vishvamitra approach Dasharatha (as he was a king of Ayodhya) to kill the demons?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why did Vishvamitra need only Lord Rama to kill the demons?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I was thinking was, to kill demons like Mareecha and Subaahu one needs rajasic guna and Vishvamitra (as he became a Brahma Rishi from being an emperor) lost his Rajasic guna and became Sattvic guna in the process of Brahma Rishi. As Lord Rama was born as Kshatriya and having Rajasic guna, it could be the reason why he needed Lord Rama. &lt;strong&gt;Or&lt;/strong&gt; it might be Lord Rama's wish that Vishvamitra take him to a Vedic place to kill the demons and learn the knowledge of weapons from Vishvamitra to prepare himself (for the final battle) to kill Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-05-02T21:29:12.260" LastActivityDate="2020-05-03T02:15:58.247" Title="Why did Vishwamitra approach only Lord Rama to kill Mareecha and Subaahu?" Tags="|ramayana|rituals|rama|parashurama|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="6914" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6916" CreationDate="2015-04-01T11:11:49.237" Score="4" ViewCount="1157" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I am going through the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga20/bala_20_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bala kanda of Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;, came across the four names of demons &lt;strong&gt;Mareecha and Subaahu&lt;/strong&gt; who were killed by Lord Rama. And they were the descendants of the earliest demons and subverters of rituals, namely &lt;strong&gt;Sunda and Upasunda&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ काल उपमौ युद्धे सुतौ सुन्दोपसुन्दयोः || १-२०-२५&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यज्ञ विघ्न करौ तौ ते न एव दास्यामि पुत्रकम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Further, those saboteurs of your ritual namely Mareecha and Subaahu, are similar to Death-god and the descendents of the earliest demons and subverters of rituals, namely Sunda and Upasunda, no, I cannot spare my son, in any case. [1-20-25b, 26a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who were Mareecha and Subaahu? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who were Sunda and Upasunda?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How did they(all four) related to Ravana?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastActivityDate="2015-04-01T12:39:18.943" Title="Who were Sunda and Upasunda?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6916" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6914" CreationDate="2015-04-01T12:39:18.943" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This episode of Sunda and Upasunda is given in Mahabharta Adi Parva wherein Janemejaya questions Vaisampayana as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did pandava's wife Draupadi obey all of them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is that no disputes arose amongst those illustrious rulers of men (pandavas), all attached to one wife (draupadi)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To this Vaisampayana says, Once Sage Narada visted the pandavas and addressed the pandavas to establish a rule among themselves, so that no disputes may arise amongst the pandavas on account of Draupadi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Narada Says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There were, in former days, celebrated throughout the three worlds, two brothers named Sunda and Upasunda living together and incapable of being slain by anybody unless each slew the other. They ruled the same kingdom, lived in the same house, slept on the same bed, sat on the same seat, and ate from the same dish. And yet they killed each for the sake of Tilottama. Therefore, O Yudhishthira, preserve your friendship for one another and do that which may not produce disunion amongst you.'the similar question was asked by, Yudhishthira to Sage Narada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Narada goes on to describe the story of Sunda and Upasunda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing these words of Yudhishthira, Narada replied, 'O son of Pritha, listen with thy brothers to me as I recite this old story, O Yudhishthira, exactly as everything happened. In olden days, a mighty Daitya named Nikumbha, endued with great energy and strength was born in the race of the great Asura, Hiranyakasipu. Unto this Nikumbha, were born two sons called Sunda and Upasunda. Both of them were mighty Asuras endued with great energy and terrible prowess. The brothers were both fierce and possessed of wicked hearts. And those Daityas were both of the same resolution, and ever engaged in achieving the same tasks and ends. They were ever sharers with each other in happiness as well as in woe. Each speaking and doing what was agreeable to the other, the brothers never were unless they were together, and never went anywhere unless together. Of exactly the same disposition and habits, they seemed to be one individual divided into two parts. Endued with great energy and ever of the same resolution in everything they undertook, the brothers gradually grew up. Always entertaining the same purpose, desirous of subjugating the three worlds, the brothers, after due initiation, went to the mountains of Vindhya. And severe were the ascetic penances they performed there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord brahma , ever seeking the welfare of all, came unto those great Asuras and asked them to solicit the boon they desired. Then the brothers Sunda and Upasunda, both of great prowess, beholding the Grandsire, rose from their seats and waited with joined palms. And the brothers both said unto the God, 'O Grandsire, if thou hast been pleased with these our ascetic austerities, and art, O lord, propitious unto us, then let us have knowledge of all weapons and of all powers of illusion. Let us be endued with great strength, and let us be able to assume any form at will. And last of all, let us also be immortal.' Hearing these words of theirs, Brahman said, 'Except the immortality you ask for, you shall be given all that you desire. Solicit you some form of death by which you may still be equal unto the immortals. And since you have undergone these severe ascetic austerities from desire of sovereignty alone I cannot confer on you the boon of immortality. You have performed your ascetic penances even for the subjugation of the three worlds. It is for this, O mighty Daityas, that I cannot grant you what you desire.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Narada continued :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Hearing these words of Brahman, Sunda and Upasunda said, 'O Grandsire, let us have no fear then from any created thing, mobile or immobile, in the three worlds, except only from each other!' The Grandsire then said, 'I grant you what you have asked for, even this your desire'. And granting them this boon, the Grandsire made them desist from their asceticism, and returned to his own region. Then the brothers, those mighty Daityas, having received those several boons became incapable of being slain by anybody in the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These two daityas, Sunda and Upasunda fought against each other on account of Apsara Tillotama, who was created by Lord brahma, so that the two asura brothers will fight each other to death in order to possess tillotama. For more details please refer to this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01212.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to Mareecha and Subahu, the following is description given in Wikipedia:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maricha was the son of the demon Sunda (son of Jamba or Jharjha) and Yaksha female Tataka. Tataka was daughter of the yaksha king Suketu, who had gained her as a blessing from Brahma. Maricha also had a younger brother Subahu. The siblings were very handsome and noble in character. They became skilled in sorcery. Once, Sunda attacked the ashram (hermitage) of the sage Agastya in an intoxicated state. The angry Agastya burnt him by his meditative powers. When Tataka came to know of Sunda's death, she and her sons attacked Agastya to wreak vengeance on the sage. The sage cursed Tataka, Maricha and Subahu, transforming them into wicked, hideous, demonic rakshasas. Tataka and her sons then went to Patala (underworld) to seek aid from Sumali, the patriarch of the rakshasas. Sumali took them to his grandson, Ravana, the rakshasa king of Lanka. Ravana helped the trio capture the states of Malada and Karusha, situated on the banks of the river Sarayu near its confluence with the Ganges. The trio destroyed the states and turned them into a dense forest, which became known as the forest of Tataka. They terrorized the people, devouring anyone who dared to venture in that forest. The gods, demons and men, as well as even the sun and the clouds did not dare to enter the territory of Tataka and her sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-04-01T12:39:18.943" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6923" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6906" CreationDate="2015-04-02T02:33:30.970" Score="26" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, yes, there is a notion of a greater Vishnu and a lesser Vishnu.  This concept is expressed in simplest terms in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Affecting then the quality of activity, Hari, the lord of all, himself becoming Brahmá, engaged in the creation of the universe. Vishńu with the quality of goodness, and of immeasurable power, preserves created things through successive ages, until the close of the period termed a Kalpa; when the same mighty deity, Janárddana, invested with the quality of darkness, assumes the awful form of Rudra, and swallows up the universe. Having thus devoured all things, and converted the world into one vast ocean, the Supreme reposes upon his mighty serpent couch amidst the deep: he awakes after a season, and again, as Brahmá, becomes the author of creation.  &lt;strong&gt;Thus the one only god, Janárddana, takes the designation of Brahmá, Vishńu, and Śiva, accordingly as he creates, preserves, or destroys.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we have a supreme Vishnu who reposes upon a serpent couch, and he manifests himself as a lesser Vishnu, the god of preservation (and as Brahma and Shiva as well).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But for more precision on all this we must turn to Pancharatra philosophy, which lies at the heart of mainstream Vaishnavism.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Pancharatra movement began with the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the son of Yama god of death and twin brother of the sage Nara.  Narayana is said to have &quot;become all things&quot; after doing a five-day (Pancharatra) Yagna, so people started following Pancharatra texts to worship him.  Since the Pancharatra texts originated with Narayana, they are fundamental to pretty much all mainstream Vaishnava sects. Among the oldest Pancharatra texts are the Satvata Samhita, the Jayakhya Samhita, and the Ahirbudhyna Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there's a Pancharatra text that's even older than these and it's found in the Mahabharata!  It's called the Narayaniya, and it's an 18-chapter religious discourse between Yudhisthira and Bhishma found in the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, similar to the Bhagavad Gita, another 18-chapter discourse between Arjuna and Krishna found in the Bhishma Parva.  In any case, here is what Vishnu tells Narada in the Narayaniya portion of the Shanti Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Assuming a form that is manifest, I dwell, at present, in the heavens. At the end of a thousand Yugas I shall once more with-draw the universe into myself. Having withdrawn all creatures, mobile and immobile into myself, I shall exist all alone with knowledge only for my companion. After the lapse of ages I shall again create the universe, with the aid of that knowledge. That which is my fourth form creates the indestructible Sesha. That Sesha is called by the name of Sankarshana. Sankarshana creates Pradyumna. From Pradyumna I take birth myself as Aniruddha. I create (myself) repeatedly. From Aniruddha springs Brahma. The latter takes birth from Aniruddha's navel. From Brahma spring all creatures mobile and immobile. Know that Creation springs in this way repeatedly at the beginning of every Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a good delineation of the various forms of Vishnu (see &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; for more details).  First of all, there is the supreme Vishnu known as Para Vasudeva, who dwells in Vishnu's highest abode of Paramapadam.  From him manifests the four Vyuha forms of Vishnu: Vyuha Vasudeva, who dwells in the ocean of milk and is visible to the gods; Sankarshana, from whom emerges Vishnu's serpent Adiseshan and who is ultimately responsible for the destruction of the Universe (the Srimad Bhagavatam calls him the heart of Shiva); Pradyumna, who is responsible for the day-to-day preservation of the Universe; and Aniruddha (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6534/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), the thousand-armed form of Vishnu from whose navel came the lotus flower containing Brahma.  Note that it's not a coincidence that these are the names of Krishna, his brother Balarama, his son Pradyumna, and his grandson Aniruddha; all four Vyuha forms incarnated in the Yadava race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pancharatra distinction I described above are the ones universally accepted across the different sects of Vaishnavism, but I should mention that the Gaudiya Vaishnava sect, which includes the popular organization ISKCON, makes further distinctions.  This is based on a Gaudiya Vaishnava text called the Satvata Tantra, which says &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Pancharatra/Satvata_Tantra/Patala_One_Avatara-nimitta-kathana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu has three forms called purusas.  The first, Maha-Vishnu, is the creator of the total material energy (mahat), the second is Garbhodasayi, who is situated within each universe, and the third is Ksirodasyi, who lives in the heart of every living being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the idea is that you have countless Brahmandas or Universe, each ruled by its own Garbhodasayi Vishnu, and all these Vishnus are manifested from one being called Mahavishnu (whom Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe is himself an expansion of Krishna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, you also asked whether Vishnu has a formless aspect.  Yes, he does; in the chapter of the Shanti Parva I linked to above, Vishnu also tells Narada &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c039.htm#fr_246&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am known as Purusha. Without acts, I am the Twenty-fifth. Transcending attributes, I am entire and indivisible. I am above all pairs of opposite attributes and freed from all attachments. This, O Narada, thou wilt fail to understand. &lt;strong&gt;Thou beholdest me as endued with a form. In a moment, if the wish arises, I can dissolve this form.&lt;/strong&gt; I am the Supreme Lord and the Preceptor of the universe. That which thou beholdest of me, O Narada, is only an illusion of mine. I now seem to be endued with the attributes of all created things. Thou art not competent to know me. I have disclosed to thee duly my quadruple form. I am, O Narada, the Doer, I am Cause, and I am Effect. I am the sum-total of all living creatures. All living creatures have their refuge in me. Let not the thought be thine that thou hast seen the Kshetrajna. I pervade all things. O Brahmana, and am the Jiva-Soul of all creatures. When the bodies of all creatures, however, are destroyed, I am not destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-07-27T06:21:40.363" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6924" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-02T05:30:31.843" Score="12" ViewCount="697" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda makes a passing remark in one of his lectures (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, V2 p90) of the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the by, it may interest some of you to know that there are theories on the Vedic philosophy about the origin of life on this earth very similar to those which have been advanced by some modern European scientists. You, of course, all know that there is a theory that life came from other planets. It is a settled doctrine with some Vedic philosophers that life comes in this way from the moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, can someone give me a reference to which Vedic philosophers and what commentary Swamiji is referring to? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-14T14:28:49.480" LastActivityDate="2016-02-23T04:24:34.193" Title="Reference request for Swami Vivekananda's quote on life coming from the moon" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|vedanta|life|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6925" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6924" CreationDate="2015-04-02T07:59:57.817" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think he may be referring to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01104.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chandogya Upanishad, where the king Pravahana Jaibili tells the sage Uddalaka Aruni about the journey of a virtuous soul if it is reincarnating:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But they who living in a village practise (a life of) sacrifices, works of public utility, and alms, they go to the smoke, from smoke to night, from night to the dark half of the moon, from the dark half of the moon to the six months when the sun goes to the south. But they do not reach the year.  From the months they go to the world of the fathers, from the world of the fathers to the ether, &lt;strong&gt;from the ether to the moon&lt;/strong&gt;. That is Soma, the king. Here they are loved (eaten) by the Devas, yes, the Devas love (eat) them&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having dwelt there, till their (good) works are consumed, they return again that way as they came, to the ether, from the ether to the air. Then the sacrificer, having become air, becomes smoke, having become smoke, he becomes mist, having become mist, he becomes a cloud, having become a cloud, he rains down. Then he is born as rice and corn, herbs and trees, sesamum. and beans. From thence the escape is beset with most difficulties. For whoever the persons may be that eat the food, and beget offspring, he henceforth becomes like unto them. Those whose conduct has been good, will quickly attain some good birth, the birth of a Brâhmana, or a Kshatriya, or a Vaisya. But those whose conduct has been evil, will quickly attain an evil birth, the birth of a dog, or a hog, or a Kandâla.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of Pravahana and Uddalaka Aruni is originally from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15095.htm#&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, and Pravahana says the same thing there too:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But they who conquer the worlds (future states) by means of sacrifice, charity, and austerity, go to smoke, from smoke to night, from night to the decreasing half of the moon, from the decreasing half of the moon to the six months when the sun goes to the south, from these months to the world of the fathers, from the world of the fathers &lt;strong&gt;to the moon&lt;/strong&gt;. Having reached the moon, they become food, and then the Devas feed on them there, as sacrificers feed on Soma, as it increases and decreases 1. But when this (the result of their good works on earth) ceases, they return again to that ether, from ether to the air, from the air to rain, from rain to the earth. And when they have reached the earth, they become food, they are offered again in the altar-fire, which is man, and thence are born in the fire of woman. Thus they rise up towards the worlds, and go the same round as before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So insofar as the defining characteristic of life is the fact that it is animated by an atma, and insofar as the souls of virtuous individuals enjoy themselves in the Moon before they come down to the Earth as rain, it can be said that living things &amp;quot;come from the Moon&amp;quot;.  This isn't the same as saying that the biological material (DNA and cells) that living things are made of come from the moon, but I think it's what Vivekananda was getting at.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The one thing that militates against this interpretation of Vivekananda's words, however, is that it's not true that all souls go through the Moon before coming to Earth; Adhyaya 3, Pada 1, Sutra 13 of the Brahma Sutras says that that the souls of unholy individuals do not go to the moon.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38089.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says about this Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is not true that all men go to the moon.&lt;/strong&gt; For the ascent to the moon is for the purpose of enjoyment only; it is neither without a special purpose nor for the mere purpose of subsequent re-descent. Just as a man climbs on a tree for the purpose of breaking fruit or blossoms, not either without any aim or for the mere purpose of coming down again. Now it has been admitted already that for those who do not offer sacrifices there is not any enjoyment in the moon; hence those only who perform sacrifices rise to the moon, not any other persons. &lt;strong&gt;The latter descend to Samyamana, the abode of Yama, suffer there the torments of Yama corresponding to their evil deeds, and then again re-ascend to this world.&lt;/strong&gt; Such is their ascent and descent; as we maintain on the ground of such a course being declared by scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-23T04:24:34.193" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6928" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-02T17:14:41.057" Score="1" ViewCount="470" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there any elements/materials which remain unaffected by the eclipse? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why do we put dharba/dried grass on eatables? Why &amp;amp; how they remain unaffected/unperished by the protection of dharba. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know much about the prohibitions taken during &amp;amp; after any eclipse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Should the stored water &amp;amp; cooked food be thrown away after the eclipse?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I live in a city so, if all the stored water is thrown away then how can I take bath after the eclipse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2731" LastEditorUserId="65" LastEditDate="2015-04-10T08:55:08.517" LastActivityDate="2015-04-10T08:55:08.517" Title="How to understand solar and lunar eclipse?" Tags="|belief|practice|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-04-10T06:22:03.570" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6929" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-02T17:25:11.360" Score="5" ViewCount="877" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras describes the Brahma Vidyas, 32 lessons found in the various Upanishads which can each lead you to Brahman if you meditate upon them.  You can see the full list of 32 Vidyas &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of these Brahma Vidyas is known as the Panchagni Vidya, and it's found in the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads.  It deals with the transmigration of souls in the afterlife, both for souls that reincarnate and for souls that go to Brahmaloka.  It was imparted to the sage Uddalaka Aruni and his son Shwetaketu by Pravahana Jaibili, king of Panchala (the kingdom where Draupadi was from). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about the Panchagni Vidya itself, but rather it's origins.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15095.htm#&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Pravahana tells the sage Uddalaka Aruni that this Vidya has never before been in the possession of Brahmins: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The king said: 'Do not be offended with us, neither you nor your forefathers, because this knowledge has before now never dwelt with any Brâhmana.  But I shall tell it to you, for who could refuse you when you speak thus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pravahana's statement is given a bit more specificity in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chandogya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As (to what) you have said to me, [Uddalaka Aruni], this knowledge did not go to any Brâhmana before you, and therefore this teaching belonged in all the worlds to the Kshatra class alone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, where did Pravahana learn the Panchagni Vidya?  He says that it belonged to the Kshatriyas alone, so was it passed down among the kings of Panchala (similar to how the Bhagavad Gita was orignally passed down among the kings of Ayodhya in the Treta Yuga), or did he get it from some other king, or what?  Are there any scriptures that mention Pravahana's guru?  It would be nice to see Pravahana's whole Guru Paramapara, to trace the exact origins of the Panchagni Vidya.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T02:51:51.047" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T02:51:51.047" Title="What kings passed on the Panchagni Vidya of the Upanishads?" Tags="|philosophy|upanishads|vedanta|chandogya-upanishad|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6930" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-03T01:42:36.533" Score="2" ViewCount="187" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do some hindu men wear black strings around their waists?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even i do, but i don't know the significance of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T18:05:23.850" Title="Why do some hindu men wear black strings around their waists?" Tags="|practice|culture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6931" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19501" CreationDate="2015-04-03T03:18:43.783" Score="8" ViewCount="1655" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know about the Vishnu Sahasranamam, the famous hymn of the thousand names of Vishnu.  But the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, the same Parva which contains the Vishnu Sahasranamam, also contains a Shiva Sahasranamam in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;.  It's told to Krishna by the sage Upamanyu, a devotee of Shiva, and after Upamanyu recites it he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells Krishna the origins&lt;/a&gt; of the Shiva Sahasranamam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It formerly resided in the breast of Brahma the Creator. Brahma imparted it unto Sakra. Sakra imparted unto Mrityu. Mrityu imparted it unto the Rudras. From the Rudras Tandi got it. Indeed Tandi acquired it in the region of Brahman as the reward of his severe austerities. Tandi communicated it to Sukra, and Sukra of Bhrigu's race communicated it to Gautama. Gautama in his turn, O descendant of Madhu, communicated it to Vaivaswata-Manu. &lt;strong&gt;Manu communicated it unto Narayana of great intelligence, numbered among the Sadhyas and held exceedingly dear by him. The illustrious Narayana, numbered among the Sadhyas and possessed of glory that knows no diminution, communicated it to Yama.&lt;/strong&gt; Vaivaswat Yama communicated it to Nachiketa. Nachiketa, O thou of Vrishni's race, communicated to Markandeya. From Markandeya, O Janarddana, I obtained it as the reward of my vows and fasts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who is this Narayana who is &quot;numbered among the Sadhyas&quot;? Apparently the Sadhyas are a group of 12 Vedic gods who are the sons of Daksha and his wife Sadhya. As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/62/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, in the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, after the battle of Lanka is over Brahma addresses Rama using numerous appellations of Vishnu and his incarnations. In particular he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga117/yuddhaitrans117.htm#Verse8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are the eighth Rudra among (eleven) Rudras and the fifth (Viryavan by name) among the Sadhyas (a particular class of celestials belonging to Gana Devata).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So could this Viryavan, fifth among the Sadhyas, be the same as the Narayana figure mentioned by Upamanyu?  Are there any scriptures that describe the story of Vishnu's incarnation as a Sadhya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/545/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, both Vaivasvata Manu and Yama are sons of Surya the sun god and his wife Sanjana.  So whoever this Narayana is, he seems to have passed the Shiva Sahasranamam between one brother and another!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-07-09T16:49:15.663" Title="Who is Narayana among the Sadhyas?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|mahabharata|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6935" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-03T23:54:51.833" Score="1" ViewCount="2468" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the title 'Vishnu Sahasranama' a later addition or originally attributed to Lord Vishnu? The question arises because the names Brahma, Ishwar, Siva, Durga etc also find mention in the Sahasranama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-04-07T04:49:58.080" LastActivityDate="2015-08-03T06:24:52.120" Title="Is the Sahasranama recited by Bhisma Pitamaha to Yudhistra attributed to ParaBrahm or Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|vishnu-sahasranama|bhishma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6936" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6935" CreationDate="2015-04-04T01:37:53.740" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In introducing the Vishnu Sahasranamam, Bhishma specifically &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b114.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that he is going to recite the thousand names of Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasya lokapradhānasya jagan nāthasya bhūpate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;viṣṇor nāma sahasraṃ me śṛṇu pāpabhayāpaham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hear, O king, the thousand names, possessed of great efficacy in destroying sins, of that foremost one in all the worlds that Master of the universe, viz., Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He makes a similar statement after he finishes reciting it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even thus have I recited to thee, without any exception, the thousand excellent names of the high-souled Kesava whose glory should always be sung....  This hymn in praise of the illustrious Vishnu composed by Vyasa, should be recited by that person who wishes to acquire happiness and that which is the highest benefit (viz., emancipation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as whether its original name is the Vishnu Sahasranamam, not exactly.  As opposed to the rest of the Mahabharata, the Vishnu Sahasranmam consists of mantras, not shlokas, and thus it is said with a preamble, which says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;asya sri viśṇūr divya sahasranāma stotra mahā mantrasya|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sri vedavyāso bhagavān Rśiḥ|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;anuśṭup candaḥ|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sri mahāviśṇu paramātmā sriman nārāyaṇo devatā|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of the great mantra called the &lt;strong&gt;Sri Vishnor Divya Sahasranama Stotra&lt;/strong&gt;, the sage [who heard it from the gods] is Sri Vedavyasa Bhagavan, the meter is Anushtup, the deity [whom it is about] is Sri Mahavishnu Paramatma Sriman Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it's technically known as the Sri Vishnu Divya Sahasranama Stotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As to why names of other gods are included, in some cases it might seem like it's the proper name of some familiar god, but it's actually being used with its literal meaning.  So for instance, the name Ishwara is often used as a personal name of Shiva, but literally it just means &quot;the lord&quot; and is thus applicable to Vishnu.  In other cases, names of other gods are used intentionally to denote that as Paramatma (the supreme soul), Vishnu dwells as the Antaryami of all the gods.  As the Vishnu Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp160.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;, &quot;The term Vásudeva means that all beings abide in that supreme being, and that he abides in all beings.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, there are also Sahasranamams for other gods.  In fact the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, which contains the Vishnu Sahasranamam, also contains a Shiva Sahasranamam, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6931/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  (It's not recited by Bhishma though.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-08-03T06:24:52.120" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6937" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-04T02:16:52.240" Score="4" ViewCount="167" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Dharmic belief system, Pralaya is used in the context of natural cataclysms on the earthly plane that bring about the end of one Mahayuga and the beginning of next one. But is there a specific name for the Pralaya that brings about the end of the all creation(Shristi) that is equivalent of the Big Crunch? According to the puranas, What will be the event or events that triggers this final pralaya and who/what exists beyond the final pralaya? What are the timescales involved?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2015-04-04T02:16:52.240" Title="Which Pralaya is the final destruction of the Universe(big crunch)?" Tags="|pralaya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-04-04T02:29:23.747" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6938" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6894" CreationDate="2015-04-04T02:26:34.193" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The nature of &lt;em&gt;asuras&lt;/em&gt; is such because they were conceived in the womb of Diti at an improper time. Desiring to have children and overcome by lust Diti approached sage Kashyapa at the evening time when ghosts, demons, etc. were wandering lead by Shiva, the lord of ghosts. So Kashyapa told Diti to wait for sometime because that time was inauspicious:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This particular time is most inauspicious because at this time the horrible-looking ghosts and constant companions of the lord of the ghosts are visible. [SB - 3.14.23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as struck by lust, Diti approached sage Kashyapa neverthless. Knowing the course of fate Sage Kashyapa fulfilled the desire of Diti but after it he told her the consequence of it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The learned Kasyapa said: Because of your mind's being polluted, because of defilement of the particular time, because of your negligence of my directions, and because of your being apathetic to the demigods, everything was inauspicious. [SB - 3.14.38]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O haughty one, you will have two contemptuous sons born of your condemned womb. Unlucky woman, they will cause constant lamentation to all the three worlds! [SB - 3.14.39]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So two demons Hiranyaksa and Hiranyakasipu were born to her from which the race of the &lt;em&gt;asuras&lt;/em&gt; grew. But as Diti regretted and because she had faith in the Lord, Sage Kashyapa told that her grandson would be a great devotee of the Lord:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The learned Kasyapa said: Because of your lamentation, penitence and proper deliberation, and also because of your unflinching faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead and your adoration for Lord Siva and me, one of the sons [Prahlada] of your son [Hiranyakasipu] will be an approved devotee of the Lord, and his fame will be broadcast equally with that of the Personality of Godhead.  [SB - 3.14.44,45]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Prahlada, although was born in the race of the &lt;em&gt;asuras&lt;/em&gt; was a great devotee and some of his attributes were also present in king Bali, the grandson of Prahlada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-04-04T02:26:34.193" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6939" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6940" CreationDate="2015-04-04T03:09:07.220" Score="2" ViewCount="2673" Body="&lt;p&gt;I learned from a Jain acquaintance that their version of Harivamsa purana and stories surrounding Mahabharatha war, Life of Krishna etc are significantly different from Hindu version of the same. Some notable differences are the following,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to Jain Harivamsa purana, Krishna goes to hell for his role in Mahabharatha war and in his next life he becomes a Thirthankara.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Draupadi has only one husband - Arjuna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In general Jain belief system, Trimurthis and the existence of ParaBrahm are not acknowledged. Also, only Individual Self exists, but Universal self does not exist.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is do these difference in Jain and Hindu accounts of epics arise from the time of Rishabha himself or from a much later period?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-04-28T17:50:13.997" LastActivityDate="2017-01-05T15:44:52.333" Title="Differences between Hindu and Jain Harivamsa Purana?" Tags="|mahabharata|other-religions|harivamsa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6940" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6939" CreationDate="2015-04-04T03:45:53.493" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several Jain Harivamsas, but the oldest of them is the one by Jinasena, an eight-century Acharya of the Digambar sect of Jainism.  (Note that he's completely different from the founder of Jainism, Rishabha, who is often called Jina.) Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=n0-4RJh5FgoC&amp;amp;lpg=PA92&amp;amp;ots=-RcQMvgNTA&amp;amp;dq=harivamsa%20jinasena&amp;amp;pg=PA92#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among the many Jaina versions of Harivamsa reference should be made to the work with that title, by Jinasena (A.D. 783-784).  It is &quot;one of the most important books of the secondary canon of the Digambaras,&quot; containing more than nine thousand shlokas, divided into sixty-six sargas.  By means of a number of introductory chapters and several digressions throughout, Jinasena expands the brahmanic Harivamsa into a complete world-history and a compendium of Jaina doctrine, cosmography, mythology, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So presumably the differences you mentioned are part of Jinasena's addition to the original Harivamsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2015-04-04T03:45:53.493" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6941" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6909" CreationDate="2015-04-04T03:47:29.997" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Padma Puran&lt;/strong&gt; talks about Sahashrakavacham, the previous birth of Karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During a fight between Shiva and Brahma, Shiva chopped off Brahma's head and some drops of sweat appeared on the forehead of Brahma out of anger. When he wiped out those drops of sweat out of it was born Sahasrakavacha (the person with thousand armors):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;svedataḥ kunḍalī jajñe sa dhanuṣkomaheṣudhiḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sahasrakavaca viraḥ kimkaromityuvācaha&lt;/em&gt; [Pdm. Pu. - 1.14.4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  From the sweat wiped by Brahma was born a person with bow and thousand armors. Then he asked, &quot;What shall I do?&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story is a bit long, but in short Brahma told Sahashrakavaca to fight with Shiva. So Shiva went to Vishnu for asking help. Then in some course of events Vishnu produced another warrior with thousand hands from a skull hold by Shiva  by filling it with His blood. He named this person as Nara and he started fighting with Sahasrakavacha. The fighting continued until only last kavacha of Karna and two hands of Nara remained. Then Vishnu went to Brahma and told who will win. Brahma told Nara will win in the next birth as Arjuna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the fighting stopped as both were told to be given the chance for fight in the next birth. Vishnu then told Sun to cause the birth of Karna through Kunti and Indra to cause birth of Arjuna. So this is the story of previous birth of Karna in short. I'll add more when get time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-04-04T03:47:29.997" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6942" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2367" CreationDate="2015-04-04T04:31:52.533" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Sahashrakavacha, the previous birth of Karna, is as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6941/38&quot;&gt;in this short story&lt;/a&gt; told in the Padma Purana. Indra objected to cause Arjuna's birth because, as Rama, Shri Vishnu had previously killed Vali, the son of Indra in the Treta yuga, by taking side of Sugriva, the son of Sun. So Vishnu gave word to Indra that He would take care of Arjuna in Dwapara yuga and aid him in killing Karna, the son of Sun:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;avatāraṃkariṣyāmi martyaloketvahaṃprabho&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  suryaputrasyanāśārtha jayārthamātmajasyate&lt;/em&gt; [Pdm. Pu. - 1.14.71]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O lord of the gods, I will descend on Earth to cause victory of the son born of you (Arjuna) and for destruction of the son of Sun (Karna). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in one way the destruction of Karna was pre-settled. And in the same birth as Karna, he also committed faults like learning the art of war by lying to his guru which led him to get curses that eventually played a vital role in getting him killed in the battlefield.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T20:02:08.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6943" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-04T07:33:09.287" Score="14" ViewCount="1861" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Vaishnavism, there are six kinds of liberation from Samsara (the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth). They're each defined in relation to Vishnu, since Vaishnavas consider Vishnu to be the supreme goal:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ekatva, or oneness with the Atma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Salokya, or living in the same world as Vishnu &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sarshti, or having the same opulences as Vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Samipya, or being a personal associate of Vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sarupya, or having the same form as Vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sayujya, or having the same experiences as Vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss Ekatva in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6686/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But the real goal for Vaishnavas is Sayujya, where one has the privilege of eternal service to Vishnu and one has the same blissful experiences that Vishnu himself has.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/29/13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, the sage Kapila says that a devotee of Vishnu should reject the other five forms of liberation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A pure devotee does not accept any kind of liberation — sālokya, sārṣṭi, sāmīpya, sārūpya or ekatva — even though they are offered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But apparently this isn't the only Srimad Bhagavatam verse that makes this point.  In his work the Virodha Parihara, the Sri Vashnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.oocities.org/sarojram18/RamanujandDesika/virodhaparihara1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;quotes another verse&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is said in Bhagavatha,  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ḻokeśu viśnūh nivasanthi kecith&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;samīpam rccanthi ca kecidhanye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;anye thu rupam sadhrsam bhajanthe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sāyujyam anye sa thu mūkśaukthah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'[S]ome live in the same realm with&#xA;  the Lord which is sAlOkya; others live very close to Him, that is,&#xA;  sAmeepya; Yet others acquire a form similar to Him known as sArupyam;&#xA;  Some others enjoy the same pleasures with the Lord, that is sAyujya&#xA;  which alone is called mOksha.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, where is this verse in the Srimad Bhagavatam?  At first glance I'm not able to find it. Are there any translations or commentaries on this work of Vedanta Desikan that provide a verse number for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-07-08T04:47:22.123" Title="Where is this Srimad Bhagavatam verse about the different forms of Moksha?" Tags="|philosophy|bhagavata-purana|vaishnavism|moksha|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6945" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3612" CreationDate="2015-04-04T10:27:18.997" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna is nothing he is not god..god is only Rudra brahman let see vedic upanishad (svetasvatara upanishad),&#xA;about Rudra brahman. The non-dual Ensnarer rules by His powers. Remaining one and the same, He rules by His powers all the worlds during their manifestation and continued existence. They who know this become immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2&#xA;Rudra is truly one; for the knowers of Brahman do not admit the existence of a second, He alone rules all the worlds by His powers. He dwells as the inner Self of every living being. After having created all the worlds, He, their Protector, takes them back into Himself at the end of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3&#xA;His eyes are everywhere, His faces everywhere, His arms everywhere, everywhere His feet. It is He, who endows men with arms, birds with feet and wings and men likewise with feet. Having produced heaven and earth, He remains as their non-dual manifester.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4&#xA;He, the omniscient Rudra, the creator of the gods and the bestower of their powers, the support of the universe, He who, in the beginning, gave birth to Hiranyagarbha-may He endow us with clear intellect!(svetasvatara upanishad)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2737" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-04-04T19:33:13.993" LastActivityDate="2015-04-04T19:33:13.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6947" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-04T11:31:17.017" Score="9" ViewCount="2769" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many type of mudras as described &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mudras_%28yoga%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; but I am unable to conclude which is best one, for developing concentration.Which in turn will give better results in meditation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are the pictures of mudras which I found are important in meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/R6TiP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pmnpN.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-18T18:37:45.897" LastActivityDate="2016-02-18T18:37:45.897" Title="Which is the best mudra for meditation (likely to help in concentration)?" Tags="|meditation|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6948" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6935" CreationDate="2015-04-04T16:00:46.123" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu sahasranama refers to 1000 names of Lord Vishnu , who is infact the Para Brahman. Let us see the nature of the question raised which leads to revelation Vishnu sahasranama by Bheeshma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira raises real fundamental questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kimekam daivatham lokay kim vapyekam parayanam !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sthuvantham kam kamarchanthaha prapnuyurmanavaha shubham!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ko dharmaha sarva dharmanam bhavathaha paramo mathaha !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kim japan muchayatey janthurjanmasamsara bandhanath!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira is basically asking questions which means &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot; Who is the supreme Lord who when worshipped provides provides succor, auspiciousness etc and also the ultimate deliverance from cycle of life and death. Who is such ultimate supreme?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No where yudhisthira has mentioned any deity. To this Bheeshma says it is Lord Vishnu who provides moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bheeshma then goes on to describe the thousand names of the supreme lord which is famous as  Vishnu sahasranama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such a background is not there for sahasranamas of other deities, in the sense like the unique and generic questions raised by Yudhisthira.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Vishnu Sahasranama alone describes the ultimate Para brahma, who is known as Lord Vishnu\Narayana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because, Vishnu sahasranama talks about the original Supreme Lord , so all names like sambhu, siva, sthanu etc also apply to Lord Vishnu only. Moreover, the names like Siva, Sambhu, Isana, Sthanu are all common nouns which are very apt for Lord Vishnu only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2015-04-04T16:12:36.357" LastActivityDate="2015-04-04T16:12:36.357" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6950" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-04T18:06:45.177" Score="11" ViewCount="493" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Brahmanda purana, brahma commensed creation in this following chronological order [Bh Purana - Quote 25 - 50].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prākrta Creations (pertaining to Prakruti)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahat -- Great Principle&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tanmatras -- Subtle Elements&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaikārika -- Creation pertaining to Sense organs&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaikrta -Mediated creations&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mukhya Sarga  --  Insentients or immobiles&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tiryak srota [Beings whose digestive fluids flows obliquely]  -- Animals and lower creatures.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ūrddhva Srotas [Beings whose digestive fluids flows upwards]  -- Devas, Gandharvas etc&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arvāksrotas [Beings whose digestive fluids flows Downwards]  -- Human beings &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mind born sons of brahmas are classified separately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devas are repeatedly mentioned in various scriptures that they are free from death (till manvantara), hunger and diseases. Also in vedas they quote that, Indra and other devatas drink copious amount of somarasa. All picturization of devas looks to be having humane form in divine bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Question is, why does devas are classified as Ūrddhva Srotas?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Intensive googling didn't help me out on this aspect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-14T09:19:30.110" LastActivityDate="2024-03-31T11:05:35.680" Title="Devas(Gods) and their digestive system" Tags="|vedas|puranas|brahma|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6951" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-04T18:11:21.443" Score="11" ViewCount="10820" Body="&lt;p&gt;At the end of most of Mantras from Vedas &amp;amp; Upanishads, we find &lt;strong&gt;Om Shanti Shanti Shanti&lt;/strong&gt;. As in the end of this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/vedas-om_asato_ma_sadgamaya.php&quot;&gt;Mantra&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om Asato Maa Sad-Gamaya |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tamaso Maa Jyotir-Gamaya |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Mrtyor-Maa Amrtam Gamaya |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  1: Om, Lead us from Unreality (of Transitory Existence) to the Reality (of the Eternal Self),&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2: Lead us from the Darkness (of Ignorance) to the Light (of Spiritual Knowledge),&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3: Lead us from the Fear of Death to the Knowledge of Immortality.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  4: Om Peace, Peace, Peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I want to know, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the purpose of adding &lt;strong&gt;om shanti shanti shanti&lt;/strong&gt; at the end of most mantras?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the meaning of &lt;strong&gt;om shanti shanti shanti&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why does it written Only for three times? Why not more or less than three times? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-11-12T15:37:47.290" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T15:39:37.640" Title="Why do mantras usually end with Shantih Shantih Shantih (3 times)?" Tags="|mantras|om|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6954" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6951" CreationDate="2015-04-05T06:06:37.163" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is repeated three times to bring safety to the individual chanting it. It is for &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;safety from wild animals (tigers, bears, etc.), &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;safety from natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, etc.), &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;safety from diseases and other afflictions of the body. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Safety from these three allows a person to worship and meditate in peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Nikhilananda says in his explanation of one of the Peace Chants from the Upanishads (the different chants that are done at the start and end of each Upanishad):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word is thrice repeated in order to remove the three possible obstacles that both the teacher and the disciple may meet with, namely, physical illness, natural calamity, and injury from harmful animals. The Supreme Lord [OM] is invoked at the commencement and the termination of the study of the Vedas and other scriptures for the removal of all faults committed intentionally, unintentionally, carelessly, or through excitement, oversight, or non-observance of the proper rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The earliest reference to the three &lt;em&gt;Duhkhas&lt;/em&gt; (for which shanti is chanted three times) is by Kapila in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sak/sak1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sankhya Aphorisms (I.1.)&lt;/a&gt; and are defined:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;due to one's self (&lt;strong&gt;ádhyátmika&lt;/strong&gt;),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;due to products of the elements (&lt;strong&gt;ádhibhautika&lt;/strong&gt;), and&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;due to supernatural causes (&lt;strong&gt;ádhidaivika&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-11-12T15:39:37.640" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T15:39:37.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6955" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3296" CreationDate="2015-04-05T11:12:38.520" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In any Purana nobody mentioned about where to grow trees. Growing Bilva Vriksha or nagavalli vrikasha, arjuna vriksha like many sacred trees is very good source of positive energy. Without any doubt in mind you just let it grow in your house. But remember they should not be in your north east side of your home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2741" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-04-05T12:26:18.530" LastActivityDate="2015-04-05T12:26:18.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6956" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-05T16:53:58.730" Score="5" ViewCount="1049" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that in Satya yuga people were a lot larger than today in Kali yuga. And it is said in Bhagavata purana and in several other places that when Kalki avatara will destroy all sinners at the end of Kali yuga, then all saints which will be still alive at that time will feel a great relief and thus a next Satya yuga will begin. But the people in Kali yuga are really small compared to Satyua yuga standards! Will these survivors suddenly increase in height?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="578" LastActivityDate="2016-06-19T17:15:18.290" Title="Will size of people increase when Kali yuga will change to Satya yuga?" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6957" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-05T17:00:54.227" Score="2" ViewCount="1316" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a feeling that all puranas which describe events happened in Satya yuga talk about events happened in other lokas, different from Bhumi (our planet). I personally know only one purana which talks about events which &lt;em&gt;for sure&lt;/em&gt; happened in Satya yuga: Bhagavata purana, canto 7, talks about Narasimha avatara, and events there presumably happened here on Earth, but I am not sure. Ramayana is about Treta yuga, and Mahabaharata together with Bhagavata purana canto 10 talks about Dvapara yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I wrong? Are there any other puranas which talk about events happened in Satya yuga here on Earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="578" LastActivityDate="2015-04-05T18:53:02.753" Title="Are there any puranas about Satya Yuga?" Tags="|puranas|bhagavata-purana|yuga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6961" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6889" CreationDate="2015-04-06T05:07:27.517" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;OSHO's discourse on Vigyan Bhairav Tantra is a masterpiece. He has done a detailed analysis on all the 112 meditation techniques of Vigyan Bhairav Tantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are two volumes of ebook of OSHO's Vigyan Bhairav Tantra: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.oshoworld.com/e-books/eng_discourses.asp?pdf_id=148_Vigyan_Bhairav_Tantra_Vol1.pdf&amp;amp;download=Yes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot; title=&quot;Vigyan Bhairav Tantra - Vol 1&quot;&gt;Vigyan Bhairav Tantra - Vol 1&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.oshoworld.com/e-books/eng_discourses.asp?pdf_id=149_Vigyan_Bhairav_Tantra_Vol%202.pdf&amp;amp;download=Yes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot; title=&quot;Vigyan Bhairav Tantra - Vol 2&quot;&gt;Vigyan Bhairav Tantra - Vol 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Book of the Secrets: A New Commentary, The original series of 80&#xA;  discourses were simply called ”Vigyan Bhairav Tantra”. For publication&#xA;  as books they were divided up into 5 volumes, called the ”The Book of&#xA;  the Secrets Volume 1 - 5” (16 discourses each).The books were later&#xA;  published as ”Vigyan Bhairav Tantra Volumes 1 and 2”,(40 discourses&#xA;  each). The two volumes also came with a deck of 112 cards to represent&#xA;  the various meditations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Talks given from 01/10/72 pm to 01/03/73 pm&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the Audio Discourse of it: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.oshoworld.com/discourses/audio_eng.asp?album_id=38&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.oshoworld.com/discourses/audio_eng.asp?album_id=38&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2746" LastEditorUserId="2746" LastEditDate="2015-04-07T04:47:09.287" LastActivityDate="2015-04-07T04:47:09.287" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6962" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6951" CreationDate="2015-04-06T05:48:39.993" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the English translation (translated by Mahadeva sastry) of commentary of Taittiriya Upanishad based on Shankaracharya, Sureshwara and Sayana the following is the reason provided for doing the &quot;peace&quot; chant thrice, during santhi matras –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The uttering of the word  'peace ' three times is intended to ward off the troubles that occur on the path to wisdom owing to causes operating in the individual organism, in the external beings, and in the region of&#xA;Devas or Cosmic Intelligences. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The student who studies the vedas, contemplates by means of Praanava, on Antaryamin, the Ruler within the self, and prays for the removal of obstacles &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are three kinds of troubles: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;the Adhyatmika, those which arise from causes operating in the&#xA;  student's own body, namely, fever, pain in the head, and so on &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;the adhidaivika the troubles from the Devas etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;the Adhibhautika, troubles arising from Yakshas, Rakshasas,etc&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the cessation of these three kinds of troubles, the word ' peace' is uttered thrice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(I, think, same meaning is provided by SriRangaRamanuja muni (16 th century) in his Upaanishad Bhasya as per Vishistadvaita. The same meaning is provided by Sri U Ve.Uruppattur Dr. Rajagopalachariar Swamin in his Taittiriya upanishad upanyasam, in tamil, which is available on you tube)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastActivityDate="2015-04-06T05:48:39.993" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6963" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-06T10:47:13.550" Score="9" ViewCount="4882" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his book Jaya, Devdutt Patanaik mentions the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/R7Y1G.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/R7Y1G.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;(From: Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata By Devdutt Pattanaik)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scriptural references to support this claim?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who are all the men who didn't have nipples and why didn't they have them?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2368" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-24T09:40:50.280" LastActivityDate="2018-04-24T09:40:50.280" Title="Do scriptures talk about some men not having nipples?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|men|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2017-07-29T07:02:46.663" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6965" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-06T23:58:26.750" Score="3" ViewCount="2208" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read in an article that Hinduism promotes individualism. According to wiki,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or&#xA;  social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How does Hinduism promotes individualism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Don't other religions (like Islam and Christianity) follow individualism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="117" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-04-07T07:33:46.700" LastActivityDate="2020-02-08T16:41:26.517" Title="How does Hinduism encourages individualism?" Tags="|worship|philosophy|other-religions|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6966" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-07T02:40:31.887" Score="8" ViewCount="511" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many Vedic Yagnas (fire-rituals) would last for months or even years, so it was customary to take breaks at regular intervals, and during those breaks a story would often be recited.  In fact, it was during a 12-year Sarpa Yagna (ritual to kill snakes) that Arjuna's great-grandson Janamejaya heard the story of the Mahabharata from Vyasa's disciple Vaishampayana.  But I'm interested in the stories told during another kind of Yagna.  In the Ashwamedha Yagna or horse-ritual, a horse was allowed to roam free for one year.  In the meantime, priests would conduct the procedures of the Yagna, and they would take a scheduled break known as the Pariplava every 10 days, during which stories were told.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Purva Mimamsa school tried to argue that these stories are nine other than thee stories found in the Upanishads, and thus that the Upanishad's teachings should be dismissed as meaningless utterances redired during the Pariplava.  But in Adhyaya 4 Pada 1 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa refutes the notion that the Upanishads are recited during the Pariplava break, on the grounds that the The Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44104.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;specifies&lt;/a&gt; exactly what stories should be told during the Pariplava, or it at least mentions who the main character is in each story:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'King Manu Vaivasvata,' he says;--'his people are Men' ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'King Yama Vaivasvata,' he (the Hotri) says, 'his people are the Fathers' ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'King Varuna Âditya,' he says; 'his people are the Gandharvas' ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'King Soma Vaishnava,' he says; 'his people are the Apsaras' ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'King Arbuda Kâdraveya,' he says; 'his people are the Snakes' ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'King Kubera Vaisravana,' he says; 'his people are the Rakshas' ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'King Asita Dhânva,' he says; 'his people are the Asura' ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'King Matsya Sâmmada,' he says; 'his people are the water-dwellers' ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'King Târkshya Vaipasyata,' he says; 'his people are the Birds' ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'King Dharma Indra,' he says; 'his people are the Gods'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what exactly are these stories?  Most of these names are familiar, like Vaivasvata Manu (i.e. the present Manu), Yama god of death, Varuna the ocean god, Chandra (AKA Soma) the moon good, Arbuda the Naga, Kubera god of wealth, etc.  But what is the specific story about each of these gods that is supposed to be recited?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know if these stories are contained in some scripture, perhaps in the Shatapatha Brahmana itself?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T04:23:08.747" Title="What were the Vedic stories recited during the Ashwamedha Yagna?" Tags="|vedas|yajur-veda|yajna|shatapatha-brahmana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6968" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-07T04:14:31.037" Score="3" ViewCount="307" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata ,most people married more than once. Then why is there a Hindu law now which prevents Hindus from marrying more than once?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastActivityDate="2015-07-19T04:15:50.597" Title="Polygamy and Hindu Marriages" Tags="|marriage|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-07-19T05:38:44.587" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6969" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-07T04:20:05.310" Score="4" ViewCount="333" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Satya Yuga, Manu creates a boat to save the 7 sages from the great deluge/flood and Lord Vishnu assumes the avatar called as Matsya avatar and pulls the boat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why does the great deluge/flood happen?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T15:01:08.567" Title="Manu and the great deluge" Tags="|vishnu|yuga|manu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6971" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6965" CreationDate="2015-04-07T04:42:31.383" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is a religious and philosophical teaching, it is not a social or economic teaching. When talking about individualism it is important to be clear as to what type you are referring to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are social customs around Indian culture, such as caste, and those social institutions are socialistic, not individualistic. Indian culture is socialistic, not individualistic, as are many of its social institutions and social constructs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a religious/philosophical perspective, Hinduism is individualistic. People are allowed to follow their own individual beliefs and follow their own interpretations of scripture and religious practices. A person adapts his own Ishta which may or may not be those of his family. New sects are arising all the time within Hinduism.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The West is the opposite. In the West people are very individualistic in their social customs and many of their social institutions. When it comes to religion, however, people are expected to follow the practices of the 'established' churches which have established practices.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-04-07T04:42:31.383" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6972" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6968" CreationDate="2015-04-07T05:05:49.260" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Even after Mahabharata for several hundreds of years the polygamy was allowed. We still see the property cases mostly happening in outskirts/villages in some part of India, where a (Hindu) husband has multiple kids through polygamy and the land is into a court dispute!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After independence of India when the country became democratic, the abuse of polygamy got much due attention. Usually the polygamy was seen as quite unjust to the female counterpart in times of equal rights. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On other note, just imagine a society where female foeticide is so high and the gender ratio is significantly low; now if the people start marrying multiple women then it will just add to the imbalance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the reason why such provisions are made. Also refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_Marriage_Act#Conditions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu Marriage Act, Conditions&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-04-07T05:05:49.260" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6973" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3236" CreationDate="2015-04-07T08:44:37.390" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Still as per various available &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asi_%28Mahabharata%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;texts&lt;/a&gt;, Asi lastly appeared to Nakula (&lt;em&gt;Son of Madravti&lt;/em&gt;) and then later on no information available on it.  Regarding Parikshit (&lt;em&gt;the son of Abhimanyu&lt;/em&gt;) he took over the kingdom but he left the capital Hastinapur and formed a new capital Parikshitgarh around 29 Kms (&lt;em&gt;18 miles&lt;/em&gt;) from Hastinapur currently located in tehsil Mawana (Both Hastinapur &amp;amp; Parikshitgarh), Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2754" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T08:26:06.813" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T08:26:06.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6974" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-07T11:46:35.017" Score="14" ViewCount="21202" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many mantras have &amp;quot;swaha&amp;quot; Or &amp;quot;Namah&amp;quot;  at the end of them. I know that, we chant Swaha at the end of some mantra while performing  &amp;quot;havana&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;homam&amp;quot;&#xA;(as some sort of havan ahuti) like &lt;em&gt;om shrim maha lakshmiyei swaha&lt;/em&gt;. And Namah type mantra is also use to chant at the end of some mantras like &lt;em&gt;om gam ganapataye namah.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I am going through Devi ARGALA STOTRAM (THE HYMNS OF ARGALA) came across Swadha term with swaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Jayanti Mangala kali Bhadrakali Kapalini Durga Kshama Shiva dhatri swaha swadha namostute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: O Goddess Jayanti (who wins everyone), Mangala (who gives salvation), Kali, Bhadrakali (who is benevolent to devotees), kapalini. Durga, Kshama (who tolerates everyone) Shiva, Dhatri, Swaha and swadha, salutations to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the difference between &lt;strong&gt;Swaha&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Namaha&lt;/strong&gt; type mantras?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the meaning of &lt;strong&gt;Swadha&lt;/strong&gt;? Where does it used for?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the meaning of &lt;strong&gt;Swaha&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Swadha&lt;/strong&gt; in Devi Stotram?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2022-06-25T12:58:52.423" Title="What is the meaning of Swadha?" Tags="|mantras|goddess|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6979" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6974" CreationDate="2015-04-07T13:34:59.753" Score="10" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mantras are classified as either masculine, feminine or neuter. Swaha type mantras are feminine and Namaha type are neuter.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Swaha is used in &lt;em&gt;havi&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;homa&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;yajnas&lt;/em&gt; to offer oblations to gods where as Swadha is used to offer oblations to &lt;em&gt;pitars&lt;/em&gt; or manes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;svāha devahavirdāne praśastā sarva karmasu piturdāne svadhā&lt;/em&gt;  [BVP - 2.40.6]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Swaha is well accepted in every work regarding offering oblations to the gods and Swadha for the manes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brahma Vaivarta Purana contains the description regarding the origin of Swaha and Swadha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Swaha and Swadha both has originated from Prakurti as a part:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;prakrutiḥ kalayā caiva sarvaśaktisvarupiṇī&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  babhuba dāhika śaktiragneḥ svahāsvarupiṇī&lt;/em&gt;  [BVP - 2.40.15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  As a part of Prakruti endowed with all energy Swaha originated as the burning power of fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;viśuddha prakruteraṃśāṃ sasmitāṃ varadāṃ śubhām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  svadhābhidhānāṃ sudatīṃ lakṣmīṃ lkṣaṇasamyutām&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 2.41.11] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Pure and part of Prakruti, auspicious with beautiful smile, Swadha named girl came into being with beautiful teeth and qualities of Laxmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since both Swaha and Swadha have orignated from Prakruti which is nothing but the &lt;em&gt;adishakti&lt;/em&gt; or the Devi Herself, in the hymn the Devi has been referred and prayed as Swaha and Swadha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, the breif story regarding the origin of Swaha and Swadha is as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After creating the devas Brahma ordained the Brahmanas to offer them oblations. But the oblations offered to them didn't reaash the gods. So they informed Brahma who then asked help from Lord Krishna. Shri Krishna then became Yajna and later on by His instruction Brahma worshiped Prakruti who then manifested as Swaha and became wife of god Agni. After that by uttering Swaha gods got the offerings in Yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly after creating the manes, the oblations offered to them didn't reach. So Brahma created Swadha mentally as a part of Prakruti after which the problem was solved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-04-07T13:34:59.753" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6980" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6986" CreationDate="2015-04-07T14:06:41.500" Score="12" ViewCount="2293" Body="&lt;p&gt;The general belief about Nandi (related to Lord Shiva) is that he is a bull who is generally in human form but at times changes into the form of a bull. But after reading Shiva Purana, I feel that Nandi is not the bull but a person who has an appearance similar to Lord Shiva. See the below snapshot from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12960/9/Chapter7_2053-2093p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Purana- Vayuviya Samhita II Chapter 41&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/60250.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in some instances I found that both Nandi and the Bull present at the same time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can someone please confirm whether he is a bull or not?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If he is not the bull then, who is the bull who is often seen with Lord Shiva?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-28T14:38:02.757" LastActivityDate="2016-05-28T14:38:02.757" Title="Was Nandi really a bull?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|shiva-purana|nandi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6981" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2801" CreationDate="2015-04-07T17:38:28.997" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Predictions of the appearance of Lord Caitanya can be found in many Vedic texts. One of the oldest prophecies concerning Sri Caitanya’s appearance in this world is found in the Atharva-veda verse, starting as: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ito ‘ham krita-sannyaso ‘vatarisyami.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“I will descend as a sannyasi, a tall, fair, and saintly brahmana devotee, after four to five thousand years of Kali-yuga have passed. I will appear on earth near the Ganges shore and with all the signs of an exalted person, free from material desires. I will always chant the holy names of the Lord, and, thus, taste the sweetness of My own devotional service. Only other advanced devotees will understand Me.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in a verse from the Sama-veda, starting as: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tathaham krita-sannyaso bhu-girbanah avatarisye,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Being says that He will descend to earth as a brahmana-sannyasi at a place on the shore of the Ganges. Again and again He will chant the names of the Lord in the company of His associates to rescue the people who are devoured by sins in the age of Kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mundaka Upanishad (3.3) also relates the prophecy of Sri Caitanya in a different way. It states, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“When one realizes the golden form of Lord Gauranga, who is the&#xA;  ultimate actor and the source of the Supreme Brahman, he attains the&#xA;  highest knowledge. He transcends both pious and impious activities,&#xA;  becomes free from worldly bondage, and enters the divine abode of the&#xA;  Lord.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another prophecy of the appearance of Sri Caitanya is found in two verses in the Bhavishya Purana. It states: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ajayadhvamaja yadhvam na sansayah kalau sankirtana rambhe bhavisyami&#xA;  saci sutah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Supreme Lord said: 'In Kali-yuga, I will appear as the son of Saci, and inaugurate the sankirtana movement. There is no doubt about this.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;anandasru-kala-roma-harsa-purnam tapo-dhana sarve mam eva draksyanti&#xA;  kalau sannyasa-rupinam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;O sage whose wealth is austerity, in the Kali-yuga everyone will see My form as a sannyasi, a form filled with tears of bliss and bodily hairs standing erect in ecstasy.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another is from the Svetasvatara Upanishad (3.12):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mahan praburvai purushah sattvasyaisha pravartakah&#xA;  sunirmalamimam praptim ishano jyotiravyayaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'He is the most Benevolent Supreme Divinity [Mahaprabhu or the great master], as [through sankirtana] He graciously instigates [or bestows] intuitive wisdom in the jiva soul unto its fully developed cognition or purest attainment. This attainment of purest state or immortality is possible only by His grace as He is the Supreme Propeller and Imperishable Transcendental Enlightening Force.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another is from the Vayu Purana: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In the age of Kali I shall descend as the son of Sachidevi to&#xA;  inaugurate the sankirtana movement.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also confirmed in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.5.32) where it states: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational&#xA;  chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings&#xA;  the names of Krishna. Although His complexion is not blackish [like&#xA;  that of Lord Krishna], He is Krishna Himself. He is accompanied by His&#xA;  associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/sri_caitanya_mahaprabhu.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/sri_caitanya_mahaprabhu.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T10:02:32.623" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T10:02:32.623" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6983" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6988" CreationDate="2015-04-08T04:35:08.637" Score="11" ViewCount="13981" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharatha epic Bhishma waits on the bed of arrows for 40 days towards the auspicious day of Uttarayana to leave his body in order to attain Mukthi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are the following.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the significance of Magha Shukla Ashtami and Bhishma Ekadasi? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the planetary positions that makes this day a auspicious time to achieve Mukthi?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-04-10T06:21:39.363" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T18:16:51.430" Title="Why is Bhishma's time of Death (Uttarayana) considered auspicious?" Tags="|mahabharata|astrology|bhishma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6985" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6974" CreationDate="2015-04-08T06:03:11.113" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Svadha is a mantra (sanskrit word) that is used when making an offering to the god of fire. It is mentioned in Chhandogya Upanishad II. xxii. 2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A man should sing, wishing that by his song he may secure immortality for the gods: 'May I obtain by my song oblations (svadha) for the Manes, hope for men, grass and water for cattle, heaven for the sacrificer, and food for myself.' Thus reflecting on these in his mind, he (the udgatri priest) should chant the praises without making mistakes [in pronunciation etc.]. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Chhandogya Upanishad IV. xvii. 4-6. it mentions the saying of Svaha if a sacrifice is injured in various ways. It is one of the words used when a brahmin priest asks for forgiveness or penance in not following their duties correctly when doing a sacrifice. He is saluting the god of fire asking for forgiveness if there is some error in the offering. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Namah is simply 'salutations' or 'salute' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-04-08T06:03:11.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6986" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6980" CreationDate="2015-04-08T06:35:04.430" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/IAVx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shatarudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana describes the birth of Nandi and how he became the leader of Shiva's Ganas.  He is not referred to as a bull at all; here's how Nandi describes his appearance at birth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On seeing me the boy with three eyes, four arms and lustre like that of Yama, sun and fire and clad with matted hair and coronet, [Nandi's father] Shilada was delighted.  I was in the form of Rudra in every respect with the trident and other weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After he is appointed by Shiva, he acquires six more arms:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Brahmin, as soon as that garland adorned my neck I became three-eyed and ten armed like another Shiva.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Shiva is already referred to as the &quot;bull-bannered lord&quot; in this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandi_(bull)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt;, it's only recently that Nandi has been conflated with Shiva's bull:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The application of the name Nandi to the bull (Sanskrit: vṛṣabha) is in fact a development of recent centuries, as Gouriswar Bhattacharya has documented in an illustrated article entitled &quot;Nandin and Vṛṣabha&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But unfortunately I couldn't find Bhattacharya's article.  But I did find one reference to Nandi being Shiva's bull in the Srimad Bhagavatam.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2231/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna and Shiva once fought each other, because Krishna was fighting the demon Banasura who was a devotee of Shiva.  In any case, Shiva is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/63/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; as riding on Nandi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Rudra, accompanied by his son Kārtikeya and the Pramathas, came &lt;strong&gt;riding on Nandi, his bull carrier,&lt;/strong&gt; to fight Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa on Bāṇa’s behalf.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it's possible this verse is an interpolation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You also wanted to know about Shiva's bull.  Its story is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata.  The divine cow Surabhi emerges from the mouth of Brahma's son Daksha.  It produces a number of offspring, who spray their froth onto Shiva, who becomes furious and curses them to change color.  Daksha pacifies Shiva by telling him that the froth of cows is holy, and then he gives Shiva a bull and a few other cows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having said these words, the lord of creatures, Daksha, made a present unto Mahadeva of a bull with certain kine. Daksha gratified the heart of Rudra, O Bharata, with that present, Mahadeva, thus gratified, made that bull his vehicle. And it was after the form of that bull that Mahadeva adopted the device on the standard floating on his battle-car. For this reason it is that Rudra came to be known as the bull-bannered deity. It was on that occasion also that the celestials, uniting together, made Mahadeva the lord of animals. Indeed, the great Rudra became the Master of kine and is named as the bull-signed deity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/0XH6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Brahma Khanda of the Brahma Vaivarta Puranas, Surabhi is said to have emerged from the body of Vishnu, not Daksha, and it is Vishnu who gives Shiva his bull.  (Perhaps one of these stories is an interpolation.) In any case, one thing is clear: Shiva's bull is a descendant of the divine cow Surabhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-10-19T03:18:50.543" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6988" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6983" CreationDate="2015-04-08T06:46:58.940" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually Bhishma's time of death is not considered auspicious, it is just that on an auspicious time Bhishma left his body as he had the boon of &lt;em&gt;ichha mrityu&lt;/em&gt; (death at will). And in remembrance of that this specific day is celebrated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are these two paths known as *pitru yāna * and &lt;em&gt;deva yāna&lt;/em&gt; through which an eligible &lt;em&gt;jivatma&lt;/em&gt; goes to the upper worlds after leaving the body. Of these two deva yāna leads to the world of Brahman reaching where one doesn't return and pitru yāna leads to the world of manes or chandra loka from where one has to return after the end of the merits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the sun is ascending the northern course in the sky it is called as Uttarayana which opens the path of &lt;em&gt;deva yāna&lt;/em&gt; and when the sun is moving southern it is called as &lt;em&gt;Dakhinayana&lt;/em&gt; opening the path of &lt;em&gt;pitru yāna&lt;/em&gt;. Shri Krishna describes these two paths as below in the Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;agnir jyotir ahaḥ śuklaḥ ṣaṇ-māsā uttarāyaṇam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tatra prayātā gacchanti brahma brahma-vido janāḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 8.24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Those who know the Supreme Brahman attain that Supreme by passing away from the world during the inﬂuence of the ﬁery god, in the light, at an auspicious moment of the day, during the fortnight of the waxing moon, or during the six months when the sun travels in the north.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dhūmo rātris tathā kṛṣṇaḥ ṣaṇ-māsā dakṣiṇāyanam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tatra cāndramasaṁ jyotir yogī prāpya nivartate&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 8.25]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The mystic who passes away from this world during the smoke, the night, the fortnight of the waning moon, or the six months when the sun passes to the south reaches the moon planet but again comes back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The yogis take the first path and reaching the abode of Brahman they do not return here again. Bhisma was aware of this. Hence even though he fell down shot by arrows on Margasirah Krishna Saptami, he waited till Magha Sukla Ekadashi to leave his body. Because only then that the auspicious moment for leaving the body through &lt;em&gt;deva yāna&lt;/em&gt; was going to open.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding planetary positions I don't think these two paths are dependent on them because they cannot be same every year where as such movement of Sun happens every year. The paths have something to do with the day, month, year and sun as described in the Chandogya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who know this and those who with faith and austerity worship in the forest – they go to light; from light to the day, from the day to the bright fortnight (&lt;em&gt;sukla paksha&lt;/em&gt;), from the bright fortnight to those six months during which the sun travels northward  (&lt;em&gt;uttarayana&lt;/em&gt;); from the months to the year, from the year into the sun, from the sun into the moon and from the moon into the lightning. There exists a non-human person, who leads them to attain Brahman. This is the path of the gods (&lt;em&gt;deva yāna&lt;/em&gt;). [Chg. Up. - 5.10.1,2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T18:16:51.430" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T18:16:51.430" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6991" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="6992" CreationDate="2015-04-08T09:45:05.987" Score="3" ViewCount="1970" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata book Karna is god's son. So he had good attitude and character also and he also stronger than Arjuna. But he's bad luck he need to be friend with opposite parties. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna god made few cheats to take down karan like mother son relationship, armor, bug bite, fight with friend (who drive) in war zone  etc,.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If someone want to win then he can make more cheats to win&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that happen in Karna life or i said something wrong than explain me Karna life and what's moral about him&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2765" LastActivityDate="2015-04-08T10:29:08.113" Title="In mahabharata what Karna life said or moral? a good man take down by cheats is that correct?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|history|bhagavad-gita|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-04-08T14:08:54.017" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6992" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6991" CreationDate="2015-04-08T10:29:08.113" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Strictly speaking it was &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6942/38&quot;&gt;already settled&lt;/a&gt; that Karna would get defeated and slain by Arjuna through the help of Shri Krishna. But even then there were many things done wrong by Karna in his life for which killing him unrighteously was not cheating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna was more powerful, he was a great donor, but these virtues alone doesn't make  one a good man. He knowingly took the side of Kauravas to maintain the loyalty of friendship even by knowing that his friend is treading the path of unrighteousness. So by siding with the evil party he had made his destiny clear. Moreover, he learnt the art of war from his guru basing upon a lie that he is a Brahmin. So when in the battle his chariot sunk into earth he asked Arjuna for a fair fight and told him to wait for sometime. But Shri Krishna asked Karna where was his sense of virtue while doing many wrong things in the past. Reminding of his past wrong doings Shri Krishna said as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Vasudeva, stationed on the car, addressed Karna, saying, &amp;quot;By good luck it is, O son of Radha, that thou rememberest virtue! &lt;strong&gt;It is generally seen that they that are mean, when they sink into distress, rail at Providence but never at their own misdeeds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thyself and Duryodhana and Duhshasana and Shakuni, the son of Subala, had caused Draupadi, clad in a single piece of raiment, to be brought into the midst of the assembly. On that occasion, O Karna, this virtue of thine did not manifest itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When at the assembly Shakuni, an adept in dice, vanquished Kunti's son Yudhishthira who was unacquainted with it, whither had this virtue of thine gone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the Kuru king (Duryodhana), acting under thy counsels, treated Bhimasena in that way with the aid of snakes and poisoned food, whither had this virtue of thine then gone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the period of exile into the woods was over as also the thirteenth year, thou didst not make over to the Pandavas their kingdom. Whither had this virtue of thine then gone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thou didst set fire to the house of lac at Varanavata for burning to death the sleeping Pandavas. Whither then, O son of Radha, had this virtue of thine gone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thou laughedest at Draupadi while she stood in the midst of the assembly, scantily dressed because in her season and obedient to Duhshasana's will, whither, then, O Karna, had this virtue of thine gone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When from the apartment reserved for the females innocent Draupadi was dragged, thou didst not interfere. Whither, O son of Radha, had this virtue of thine gone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thyself addressing the princess Draupadi, that lady whose tread is as dignified as that of the elephant, in these words, viz., 'The Pandavas, O Krishna, are lost. They have sunk into eternal hell. Do thou choose another husband!' thou lookedest on the scene with delight. Whither then, O Karna, had this virtue of thine gone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Covetous of kingdom and relying on the ruler of the Gandharvas, thou summonedest the Pandavas (to a match of dice). Whither then had this virtue of thine gone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When many mighty car-warriors, encompassing the boy Abhimanyu in battle, slew him, whither had this virtue of thine then gone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this virtue that thou now invokest was nowhere on those occasions, what is the use then of parching thy palate now, by uttering that word? Thou art now for the practice of virtue, O Suta, but thou shalt not escape with life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Realizing his fault Karna didn't give any answer and bowed down his head in shame. Raged with anger he then tried to fight but in course of events got killed by Arjuna. So for the reasons pointed out by Shri Krishna it was no cheating to kill Karna unfairly because he himself did unfair things first siding with the Kauravas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat 8.91&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-04-08T10:29:08.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6993" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-08T22:40:10.653" Score="3" ViewCount="90" Body="&lt;p&gt;Following on from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/425/what-is-the-significance-of-pouring-milk-on-the-shivling&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For how long has the tradition of pouring milk on the shivling been going on? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the earliest historical records of such a practice?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-04-09T17:10:33.080" Title="For how long has the tradition of pouring milk on shivling been going on?" Tags="|history|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6994" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-09T03:16:37.480" Score="3" ViewCount="2034" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Drona Parva of the Mahabharata describes how Drona's son Ashwatthama, desperate to avenge his father's death, launched the Narayanastra, the illustrious weapon of Vishnu.  The Narayanastra wreaked great havock on the Pandava army by making countless weapons rain down from the heavens, until Krishna told the secret of surviving it: laying down your own weapons and surrendering to its power.  The Pandavas promptly did this, but out of arrogance Bhima refused and tried to fight against the Narayanastra.  It was about to destroy him when Krishna and Arjuna forced Bhima to put down his weapons, at which point the Narayanastra was finally pacified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about the story, but about the weapon itself.  Here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narayanastra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt; describes the Narayanastra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When it was used, &lt;strong&gt;Ekadasha (Eleven) Rudras appeared in the sky to destroy Pandavas.&lt;/strong&gt; Millions of types of weapons like Chakra, Gadha, ultra sharp arrows appeared in rage to destroy them.Who ever tried to offend were destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, the Rudras are a group of 11 Vedic gods associated with Shiva, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3886/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/62/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So my question is, is it true that the Narayanastra summons the Rudras to fight against your opponents?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I couldn't find such a claim in the Mahabharata; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07196.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Drona Parva of the Mahabharata describes the effects of Ashwatthama using the Narayanastra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Drona's son, aiming at the host of the Pandavas and the Panchalas, invoked the weapon called Narayana. Then thousands of arrows with blazing mouths appeared in the welkin, resembling snakes of fiery mouths, that continued to agitate the Pandavas. In that dreadful battle, those shafts, O king, like the very rays of the sun in a moment shrouded all the points of the compass, the welkin, and the troops. Innumerable iron balls also, O king, then appeared, like resplendent luminaries in the clear firmament. Sataghnis, some equipped with four and some with two wheels, and innumerable maces, and discs, with edges sharp as razor and resplendent like the sun, also appeared there. Beholding the welkin densely shrouded with those weapons, O bull of Bharata's race, the Pandavas, the Panchalas, and the Srinjayas, became exceedingly agitated. In all those places, O ruler of men, where the great car-warriors of the Pandavas contended in battle, that weapon became exceedingly powerful. Slaughtered by the Narayana weapon, as if consumed by a conflagration, the Pandava troops were exceedingly afflicted all over the field in that battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it just describes weapons coming from the sky, not being launched by the Rudras.  Vishnu describes the Narayanastra in similar terms to Ashwatthama in an &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07192.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;earlier chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With the aid of this weapon, thou too shalt pour diverse showers of celestial weapons in battle and blaze with energy in consequence of it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does anyone know if there are any scriptures that say that the Narayanastra summons the Rudras?  And more importantly, if it is true then what is the reason for it?  Why would a weapon of Vishnu summon gods associated with Shiva?  If it's because Vishnu is the soul of the gods, then why would only the Rudras be summoned? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2019-11-18T02:49:26.333" Title="Does the Narayanastra weapon of Vishnu summon the Rudras?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|vedic-gods|weapon|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6998" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7000" CreationDate="2015-04-09T13:35:15.890" Score="12" ViewCount="91418" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Will anyone please tell me the origin of Kali Maa?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the relation between Shiva and Parvati?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2772" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-25T22:27:54.313" LastActivityDate="2018-08-18T02:45:05.907" Title="What is the story of &quot;Kali Maa&quot;?" Tags="|shiva|goddess|parvati|kali|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="6999" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-10T03:16:59.843" Score="3" ViewCount="287" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Puranas, Rahu and Ketu don't have corresponding planets, but manifest during Grahana(eclipse). If this is the case,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is Rahu Kaala?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How is the effect of Rahu felt during this time?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-04-10T04:03:33.927" LastActivityDate="2019-01-23T04:22:54.480" Title="What is Rahu kaala?" Tags="|navagraha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7000" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6998" CreationDate="2015-04-10T05:30:52.883" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of the goddess Kali is told in the Devi Mahatmya of the Markandeya Purana.  She is an incarnation of the goddess Durga.  For those who don't know, Durga was created from the combined powers of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva in order to defeat the demon Mahishasura.  But she is generally viewed be the consort of Shiva, because she is considered an incarnation of Shiva's wife Parvati.  (Or if you're a follower of the Shakta sect, then you'd view Durga to be a manifestation of the same Adi Parashakti of which Shiva's wives Shakti and Parvati were both incarnations.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the story of Kali happened after Durga's victory over Mahishasura.  Once the demons Shumba and Nishumba defeated the gods in battle and took over the three worlds, so the gods went to mount Kailash to ask Durga for help.  After they said a prayer to Durga, Shiva's wife Parvati came by, and out of her body came a form of Durga known as Ambika or Kaushiki.  During Ambika's battle with the Shumba and Nishumbha's Asura army, she was confronted by a pair of Asura generals named Chanda and Munda.  To defeat them, Ambika created Kali out of her forehead, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://182.18.131.45/idurga/saptshati/chapter7/saptshati25.htm&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Devi Mahatmya of the Markandeya Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereupon Ambika became terribly angry with those foes, and her anger her countenance then became dark as ink.  Out from the surface of her forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with a sword and noose.  Bearing the strange skull-topped staff, decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger’s skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep-sunk reddish eyes and filling the regions of the sky with her roars, and falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great asuras in that army, she devoured those hosts of the foes of the devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kali defeated Chanda and Munda and brought Ambika their heads, for which she is known as Chamunda or Chamundeshwari.  And she was instrumental in helping Ambika defeat Shumbha and Nishumbha and restore rule of the three worlds to Indra and the gods.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-04-15T08:08:49.090" LastActivityDate="2015-04-15T08:08:49.090" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7001" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5483" CreationDate="2015-04-10T06:10:46.570" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Once Lord Brahma's son Prajapati Daksha gave a curse to Lord Chandra that his body will destroy. Chandra's wives Rohini and Revati were very worried and his parents Sage Atri and Anusurya were also worried. Lord Chandra's body started to destroy. Lord Shiva was very angry and he took his incarnation Rudra. Lord Vishnu told Daksha to make a new planet in the place of Planet Moon. Daksha told Sati to bring some soil from Saraswati River. Goddess Lakshmi was transformed into Sati and took some soil and went to Daksha's palace. Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma were transformed into sages and gave Sati a Shiva Linga and also told her to hold the Shiva Linga. They worshipped Sati and the Shiva Linga. Then Lord Shiva became calm. Lord Narad told Sati how to rescue Lord Chandra from her father's curse. Narad took Sati to a sage and the sage gave her Maha Mrityunjay Mantra. Sati took the Shiva Linga and went to the place where Lord Chandra's body was destroying. With Sati all the devotees of Lord Shiva went to rescue Lord Chandra. Daksha was making a new planet in the place of Planet Moon. Sati and all the devotees of Lord Shiva were chanting Maha Mrityunjay Mantra. Lord Shiva came to met with his followers and also rescued Lord Chandra. Before some days Daksha gave a curse to Shiva that people will not worship him. In that day when Shiva rescued Chandra,he was also free from Daksha's curse. After that people able to worship Lord Shiva. Lord Chandra was thankful to Shiva because Shiva rescued him. After that Shiva's all devotees worshipped him. Lord Shiva took the Planet Moon in his head. Daksha's new planet had destroyed. Vishnu and Brahma were named Shiva Somnath because he had Moon in his head and Lord Chandra's another name was Som that's why Shiva was named Somnath by Vishnu and Brahma. After that day when Shiva was named Somnath by Brahma and Vishnu,people were also started to celebrate Maha Shivratri Festival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2655" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-06-21T14:57:42.067" LastActivityDate="2015-06-21T14:57:42.067" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7002" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-10T06:12:30.300" Score="18" ViewCount="1760" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7000/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the demons Shumbha and Nishumbha once defeated the gods and took over the three worlds.  The gods went to Mount Kailash to ask Durga for help.  After they said a prayer to Durga, Shiva's wife Parvati walked by, and out of her body came a form of Durga known as Ambika, AKA Kaushiki, who defeated Shumbha and Nishumbha in battle and restored the rule of the three worlds to Indra and the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://182.18.131.45/idurga/saptshati/chapter11/saptshati40.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Devi Mahatmya of the Markandeya Purana, after the battle, Durga tells the gods about her future incarnations, and in particular, she says this about an incarnation in the present Mahayuga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;40-41. The Devi said: 'When the twenty-eighth age has arrived during Vaivasvata Manu, two other great asuras, Shumbha and Nishumbha will be born. Then born from the womb of Yasoda, in the home of cowherd Nanda, and dwelling on the Vindhya mountains, I will destroy them both.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, around the same time that Krishna was born to Vasudeva and Devaki, a daughter was born to Nandagopa and Yashoda.  She was an incarnation of Yogamaya, the illusory power of Vishnu who is often associated with Durga.  When Vasudeva brought Krishna to Nandagopa and Yashoda, he took Yashoda's daughter back to the prison and presented her to Kamsa as the eighth son of Devaki.  When Kamsa tried to kill the baby girl, she revealed herself as a goddess and said something like &amp;quot;Fool!  The eighth son of Devaki is still alive and he'll kill you!&amp;quot; And then she flew up into the sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Afterward, this goddess is said to have gone to the Vindhya mountains, which is why she is known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindhyavasini&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vindhyavasini&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is, what is the story of her fighting the rebirths of the demons Shumbha and Nishumbha?  Who were they reborn as?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures that describe this story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2022-11-30T14:42:28.323" LastActivityDate="2022-11-30T14:42:28.323" Title="What is the story of Yashoda's daughter fighting the rebirths of the demons Shumbha and Nishumbha?" Tags="|puranas|krishna|durga|markandeya-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7003" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7008" CreationDate="2015-04-10T09:07:04.730" Score="6" ViewCount="554" Body="&lt;p&gt;Only Arjuna and Sanjaya could hear the Gita messages, that were said by Krishna in Kurukshetra. After that, Arjuna was involved in the war of Mahabharata. Anywhere I have never heard that Arjuna writing or dictating Bhagawad Gita after the war was over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the current Gita we read/hear today, exactly same as it was uttered by Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2779" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-04-04T13:17:57.287" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T13:17:57.287" Title="Is the current form of Gita is authentic as what Krishna actually said or interpolated?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7004" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3809" CreationDate="2015-04-10T09:12:16.413" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer your first question, Yashoda's daughter was an incarnation of Yogamaya, the illusory power of Vishnu who is often associated with Durga; here is what Vishnu tells Yogamaya in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/2/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O all-auspicious Yoga-māyā, I shall then appear with My full six opulences as the son of Devakī, and &lt;strong&gt;you will appear as the daughter of mother Yaśodā&lt;/strong&gt;, the queen of Mahārāja Nanda.  By sacrifices of animals, ordinary human beings will worship you gorgeously, with various paraphernalia, because you are supreme in fulfilling the material desires of everyone.  Lord Kṛṣṇa blessed Māyādevī by saying: In different places on the surface of the earth, people will give you different names, such as Durgā, Bhadrakālī, Vijayā, Vaiṣṇavī, Kumudā, Caṇḍikā, Kṛṣṇā, Mādhavī, Kanyakā, Māyā, Nārāyaṇī, Īśānī, Śāradā and Ambikā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as what happened to her after Kamsa tries to kill her, she rose up into the heavens and then started residing in the Vindhya mountains, which is why she is known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindhyavasini&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vindhyavasini&lt;/a&gt;; in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_002.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Harivamsa, Vishnu tells Yogamaya what she'll do:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Catching your legs, he will try to smash you against a stone. You will slip out (of his hands), arise in the sky, and will attain an eternal place.&#xA;  You will have the same complexion, dark, as mine. Your face will be similar to saMkarshaNa. In the sky you will appear with vastly spread arms like mine.&#xA;  In your four arms, you will carry a trident, a sword with golden handle, a pot filled with honey (madhu) and a pure lotus.&#xA;  You will wear blue silk and a yellow silk shawl. Your bosom will be adorned by a white necklace shining brightly like moon rays.&#xA;  Your ears will be decorated with divine earrings. You will shine with your face, beautiful like moon.&#xA;  You will shine with an exquisite crown and a beautiful hair style. With your vast arms beautiful like the hood of a serpent you will enchant the ten directions.&#xA;  You will shine with a flag adorned with peacock feathers. You will dazzle with armlets decorated with peacock feathers.&#xA;  Always surrounded by terrifying bhUtagaNa-s, you will follow my orders. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Taking a vow of celebacy (kaumAraM vrataM) you will go to heaven.&#xA;  There the thousand eyed indra, along with deva-s will perform your abhiSheka, according to my order in the prescribed manner.&#xA;  Then indra will formally accept you as his sister. As you are connected with the lineage of kushika, you will become known as kaushikI.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;indra will allot you a permanent place in the best among the mountains, vindhya&lt;/strong&gt;. Afterwards, you will glorify the earth with thousand installations.p&#xA;  You will travel in all three worlds and any prayer to you will be fruitful. You will assume any form at your will and grant boons.&#xA;  There, fixing me in your mind, &lt;strong&gt;you will destroy two mountain-living dAnava-s shumbha and nishumbha, along with their followers&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Shumbha and Nishambha were two Asuras who took over the three worlds and were defeated by Ambika, a form of Durga, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7000/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  Apparently Vindhyavasini fought a rebirth of these demons, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://182.18.131.45/idurga/saptshati/chapter11/saptshati40.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Devi Mahatmya of the markandeya Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;40-41. The Devi said : 'When the twenty-eighth age has arrived during the period of Vaivasvata Manu, two other great asuras, Shumbha and Nishumbha will be born. Then born from the womb of Yasoda, in the home of cowherd Nanda, and dwelling on the Vindhya mountains, I will destroy them both.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I haven't found the details of this story, which is why I asked &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7002/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-04-10T09:12:16.413" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7005" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6998" CreationDate="2015-04-10T10:27:15.673" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Divine Mother Kali is worshiped by Saktas as the embodiment of Sakti, the Divine Power. Kali is the embodiment of Maya. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says in &lt;em&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt; (pp 134-135):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus Brahman and Sakti are identical. If you accept the one, you must accept the other. It is like fire and its power to burn. If you see fire, you must recognize its power to burn also. You cannot think of fire without its power to burn nor can you think of the power to burn without fire. You cannot conceive of the sun's rays without the sun nor can you conceive of the sun without its rays.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus one cannot think of Brahman without Sakti, or of Sakti without Brahman. One cannot think of the Absolute without the Relative, or of the Relative without the Absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Primordial Power is ever at play. She is creating, preserving, and destroying in play, as it were. This Power is called Kali. Kali is verily Brahman, and Brahman is verily Kali. It is one and the same Reality. When we think of It as inactive, that is to say, not engaged in the acts of creation, preservation, and destruction, then we call It Brahman. But when It engages in these activities, then we call It Kali or Sakti. The Reality is one and the same; the difference is in name and form. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-04-10T10:27:15.673" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7007" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-10T10:56:21.313" Score="2" ViewCount="193" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5291/what-is-the-purpose-of-own-antyesthi-cremation-before-taking-sanyasa&quot;&gt;one of my questions&lt;/a&gt; I asked about Sanyasa and its related things. In Sanyasa ashram, a sanyasi wears saffrons robs and removes or keeps panchkeshi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was under the impression that Sanyasa is the final state but later on from one spiritual book, I came to know that there is one more state after sanyasa. But I didn't find what is it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the next stage after Sanyasa?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the purpose of having a next stage after Sanyasa?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-03-28T15:55:55.783" Title="What is the next stage after Sanyasa?" Tags="|samskara|sanyasi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7008" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7003" CreationDate="2015-04-10T11:05:42.177" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Maha Acharya Veda Vyasa was also witness to the Bhagavad Gita through telekinesis. His work called the Jaya an 18 chapter sacred hindu text constitutes the Bhagavad Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa through his divine sight describes the universe, planets and stars in vivid detail. He also talks of several tribes, clans and cultures across the world. The Jaya deals with these diverse subjects of geography, history, warfare, religion and morality. In it is mentioned the Mahabaratha and the gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this answered your question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2781" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-04-11T12:35:35.907" LastActivityDate="2015-04-11T12:35:35.907" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7009" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7012" CreationDate="2015-04-10T12:03:28.567" Score="7" ViewCount="24548" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the names of the five villages that Krishna offers the Kauravas to give the Pandavas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can anyone please give me the present day locations and names of those places (villages)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2779" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-20T15:04:32.753" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T13:42:48.273" Title="What are the names of the Five villages that Krishna offers Kauravas to give Pandavas?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|pandavas|kauravas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7010" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7009" CreationDate="2015-04-10T15:03:19.283" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira wrote: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I prayed for only five villages, viz, Avishthala, Vrikasthala, Makandi, Varanavata, with any other as the fifth;--Grant us, we said, five villages or towns where we five may dwell in union&quot; (5,72) (5,82).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indraprastha - Delhi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Panprastha -Panipat&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sonprastha - Sonipat&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tilprastha - Tilpat&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vyagprastha  - Baghpat&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-07-22T02:06:00.357" LastActivityDate="2015-07-22T02:06:00.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7012" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7009" CreationDate="2015-04-11T03:16:28.143" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05031.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira sends an offer of peace to Duryodhana, and in the course of doing so he names the five villages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are desirous of peace; give us even a single province of the empire. Give us even &lt;strong&gt;Kusasthala, Vrikasthala, Makandi, Varanavata, and for the fifth any other that thou likest&lt;/strong&gt;. Even this will end the quarrel. O Suyodhana, give unto thy five brothers at least five villages,--O Sanjaya, O thou of great wisdom, let there be peace between us and our cousins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he even left one village up to the choice of Duryodhana.  In a &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05072.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva, Yudhisthira laments that they weren't able to get a peaceful resolution to the conflict, and he again names the villages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having the Kasis, the Panchalas, the Chedis, and the Matsyas, for my allies and with thee, O slayer of Madhu, for my protector, I prayed for only five villages, etc., &lt;strong&gt;Avishthala, Vrikasthala, Makandi, Varanavata, with any other, O Govinda, as the fifth&lt;/strong&gt;;--Grant us, we said, five villages or towns, O sire, where we five may dwell in union, for we do not desire the destruction of the Bharatas.--The wicked-minded son of Dhritarashtra, however, regarding the lordship of the world to be; in him, doth not agree to even that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I assume that Avishthala is the same as Kusasthala, which according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=18IUAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA30&amp;amp;ots=96e5P3veWe&amp;amp;dq=kusasthala&amp;amp;pg=PA30#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; is more commonly known Kanyakubja, or the modern-day city of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannauj&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kannauj&lt;/a&gt;.  As far as where the other three named villages are, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_kingdom_%28Mahabharata%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt; provides some information as to their current location, although it doesn't cite the sources of this information:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Varanavata was the ancient capital of the Kuru kings and their forefathers. It lies on the foothills of the Himalayas, like the capital of northern Panchala viz Ahichatra. &lt;strong&gt;This city could be a place called Shibpuri to the north-east of Rishikesh in Uttarakhand.&lt;/strong&gt; It was north of Hastinapura and Pramanakoti....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vrikasthala province and town were situated in the southern part of Kuru Kingdom....   Bidding them farewell Krishna reached the town of Vrikasthala (&lt;strong&gt;in Gurgaon district of Hariyana&lt;/strong&gt;) by evening and camped there that night (5,84).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Makandi was central a province running &lt;strong&gt;along the banks of the Ganges, south of Hastinapura&lt;/strong&gt;. The province extended to southern Panchala Kingdom, also with the same name. Kampilya, the capital city of Panchala, was situated in the Makandi province within the southern Panchala kingdom (1,140).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-26T13:57:42.447" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7013" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7007" CreationDate="2015-04-11T05:17:10.797" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no recognized or formal stage after sannyas. Individual maths or individual gurus may give some title or other such thing, but there is no generally accepted stage after sannyas nor is there anything in scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are different sects of sadhus and different sects will wear different colors. Most people when they think of sannyas, think of those whose lineage traces to the maths started by Sankara, and they wear saffron. But there are other sects and those sadhus do not always wear saffron.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Go to Kankhal, you see a lot of saffron - but you can also see many many different colors there!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-04-11T05:17:10.797" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7015" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-12T02:49:10.887" Score="12" ViewCount="568" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/774/how-did-the-vedas-in-hinduism-come-into-existence/781#781&quot;&gt;in this&lt;/a&gt; answer, each of the four Vedas consists of four portions: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas consisting of verses heard from the gods; Brahmanas, which provide instructions on the proper performance of important rituals; Aranyakas, which provide a guide to rituals meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical message of the Vedas.  But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3014/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Shukla Yajur Veda is organized differently.  In particular, one of its Upanishads, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, is actually the last part of its Brahmana, the Shatapatha Brahamna.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Shukla Yajur Veda is associated with the sage Yajnavalkya, and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15099.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;last chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (i.e. the last chapter of the Shatapatha Brahmana) tells the &lt;a href=&quot;http://gaudiyahistory.iskcondesiretree.com/disciplic-sucession/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;disciplic succession&lt;/a&gt; by which Yajnavalkya got the knowledge embodied in the text:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;40&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yâgñavalkya [learned it] from Uddâlaka,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Uddâlaka from Aruna,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Aruna from Upavesi,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Upavesi from Kusri,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kusri from Vâgasravas,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vâgasravas from Gihvâvat Vâdhyoga,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gihvâvat Vâdhyoga from Asita Vârshagana,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Asita Vârshagana from Harita Kasyapa,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Harita Kasyapa from Silpa Kasyapa,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Silpa Kasyapa from Kasyapa Naidhruvi,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kasyapa Naidhruvi from Vâk,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vâk from Ambhinî,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ambhinî from Âditya, the Sun.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, it eventually goes back to the sage Kashyapa who learned it from Vak goddess of speech, more commonly known as Saraswati.  But my question is, who is this &quot;Ambhini&quot; figure, who apparently learned the knowledge from Surya the sun god and taught it to Saraswati?  Is Ambhini a goddess? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found one possible clue.  As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Saraswati is the seer of one of the hymns in the Rig Veda, specifically &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10125.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 125&lt;/a&gt;.  Her name is listed there as &quot;Vak Ambhrina&quot; (which would mean daughter of Ambhrini or Ambhrina).  Could this last name &quot;Ambhrina&quot; have some connection to &quot;Ambhini&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures that describe Ambhini?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I found a reference to Vak Ambhrina in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800807.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/33/items/TheBaudhayanaSrauta-sutra-VedicRitualText/The%20Baudhayana%20Srauta-sutra%20-%20Vedic%20Ritual%20Text/The_Baudhayana_Srauta-Sutra_Vol_III_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=The_Baudhayana_Srauta-Sutra_Vol_III_jp2/The_Baudhayana_Srauta-Sutra_Vol_III_0460.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Baudhayana Shrauta Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vak, daughter of Ambhrina, desired, &quot;May I attain immeasurable glory.&quot; She perceived this sacrifice, she fetched, she performed it. Thereby she attained immeasurable glory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-07T05:39:30.337" LastActivityDate="2019-12-03T06:01:30.193" Title="Who is Saraswati's guru &quot;Ambhini&quot;?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|saraswati|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7016" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7069" CreationDate="2015-04-12T07:40:26.447" Score="4" ViewCount="6340" Body="&lt;p&gt;There seems to be a confusion (may be, because of lack of citation so far), about who was telling the secret of Chakravyuha to Subhadra? Krishna or Arjuna!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was going through &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2365/was-abhimanyus-death-a-plot?rq=1&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question, and came across different views about who was telling the secret of Chakravyuha to Subhadra. Was it Krishna or Arjuna? It seems both views didn't give citations to support their claim.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-04T07:11:34.170" LastActivityDate="2018-10-04T07:11:34.170" Title="Who was telling secret of Chakravyuha to Subhadra? Krishna or Arjuna?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|subhadra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7017" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3836" CreationDate="2015-04-12T08:41:27.180" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I feel like in this discussion we are shifting slightly into the realm of personalized Dharma. Dharma is uniform for all situations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna met the same fate that everyone who supported Adharma met. Dharma is not defined by paternal emotions or loyalties toward a friend or even one's own wishes or vows. Dharma for a Kshatirya which Karna was, is to uphold societal harmony and protect those being faced with injustice at no cost. As a Kshatriya his should have never allowed the Pandavas to be driven from their lands and even more so protected them from Duryodana's miscreants. He failed to do so.  However, in the end even Karna says that he knows Duryodhana is Adharma but he would rather not be considered a traitor to his friend than be called for supporting Adharma. That was a choice he made like Bheeshma, Drona, Krupa and the lot. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabarata is a story of that very same duality in life of overcoming personal ambitions and affiliations for the greater good. Which is where the bagavad gita comes into play in defining the scope of Dharma. In fact in Rajatantra Sastra is well defined that relations maybe sacrificed for the sake of the betterment of the nation. A village maybe forfeit if that would mean the rest of the country would be safer and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Ramayana, Ravana was a supreme being with enormous knowledge of the Vedas and extreme virtuosity as a ruler. However, Adharma in the form of hindering Sages in their work and besieging the Devas repeated for sadistic pleasures earned him the fate he did. Even he in the end accepts his misdeeds but says i would rather die with the fame that vishnu himself had to come to dispose of me but i will never give up in war. That was a choice he made. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2781" LastActivityDate="2015-04-12T08:41:27.180" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7018" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7016" CreationDate="2015-04-12T08:51:51.923" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It has to be Krishna, because when the Pandavas were exiled to the forests Subhadra is taken back to Dwarka by Balarama in the pretext so as to alleviate the stress on the already struggling Pandavas. But the truth is she is pregnant and Balarama did not permit her being in such harsh conditions. Balarama finds it sole purpose to avoid forest exiles in this avatar. Subadra was with Krishna when she was pregnant. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Arjuna never sees Abhimanyu till he is fully grown when he returns from hiding in Viratnagar. It is during this period Abhimanyu grows under the guidance of Krishna, who is also his guru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2781" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-04-12T20:07:15.610" LastActivityDate="2015-04-12T20:07:15.610" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7021" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-12T16:58:59.463" Score="2" ViewCount="222" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Puranas, there are at least two stories that describe the difference between the human stature in Treta Yuga and Dwapara Yuga - the story of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muchukunda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Muchukunda&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Revati&lt;/a&gt; and Kakudmi . In these stories the central characters from Treta Yuga observe that in the Dwapara yuga humans have decrease in stature and their metal and spiritual process are markedly declined. But, contrary to these stories in the Vamana Avatar of Vishnu, which is said to reflect the evolution of life from animals to various stages of human development, the human form is that of a midget. Is there a contradiction between these stories?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T04:02:17.053" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T04:02:17.053" Title="Stature of humans throughout the four Yugas" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|yuga|avatars|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7022" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-12T17:08:06.213" Score="6" ViewCount="444" Body="&lt;p&gt;The names of Manus during the previous and future Manvantras are &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manvantara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;known&lt;/a&gt;, but are there any scriptures, puranas from previous manvantras that survived the pralaya? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from the pre-ordained Yuga cycles and human actions that are characteristics of the Chatur Yugas, do the characters and stories repeat in each Manvantra or are they unique everytime?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-01T10:51:51.207" LastActivityDate="2018-02-13T07:34:13.183" Title="Scriptures and characters from previous Manvantras" Tags="|scripture|puranas|yuga|time|manvantara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7024" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-13T03:40:58.870" Score="4" ViewCount="353" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3712/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the most prominent incarnations of Vishnu in ancient times was the sage Narayana, twin brother of the sage Nara and son of Yama god of death. Nara and Narayana were famous for engaging in Tapasya (deep meditation) in Badrikashrama, and at the time of the Mahabharata they were reborn as Arjuna and Krishna. Apparently Narayana carried out a five-night (Pancharatra) Yagna and then became the entire universe, so people started following so-called Pancharatra texts, scriptures originating from Narayana himself which gave detailed procedures for worshipping him. As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Pancharatra texts were extremely important in the development of mainstream Vaishnavism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about Narayana himself.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=r4I-FsZCzJEC&amp;amp;lpg=PA78&amp;amp;ots=ScTuEFsohk&amp;amp;dq=asian%20mythology%20narayana%20wives&amp;amp;pg=PA79#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this encyclopedia article&lt;/a&gt;, Madeleine Beardeau makes a rather curious claim about him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Simultaneously an ascetic in the forest and a householder &lt;strong&gt;with his wives&lt;/strong&gt; and his sacrificial fires, he provides the mythic model for the vanaprastha, the one who has settled in the forest, the theoretical stage in every human life between the stage of the householder and that of the total renunciant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is Beardeau right that sage Narayana was married?  If so who were his &quot;wives&quot;?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Presumably if he was married, he'd be married to an incarnation of Lakshmi (or Bhumidevi); as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/559/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; the Vishnu Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp044.htm#fr_239&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;For in like manner as the lord of the world, the god of gods, Janárddana, descends amongst mankind (in various shapes), so does his coadjutrix Śrí.&quot;  But are there any scriptures that's describe Narayana having wives?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-03-30T13:38:59.613" Title="Was Vishnu's incarnation sage Narayana married?" Tags="|vishnu|lakshmi|avatars|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7026" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4120" CreationDate="2015-04-13T05:05:29.573" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Looks like I got the answer to my old question. Here is quote from Bhagavata (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/20/37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;5.20.37&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the supreme will of Krishna, the mountain known as Lokāloka has&#xA;  been installed as the outer border of the three worlds—Bhūrloka,&#xA;  Bhuvarloka and Svarloka—to control the rays of the sun throughout the&#xA;  universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the luminaries, from the sun up to Dhruvaloka, distribute their&#xA;  rays throughout the three worlds, but only within the boundary formed&#xA;  by this mountain. Because it is extremely high, extending even higher&#xA;  than Dhruvaloka, it blocks the rays of the luminaries, which therefore&#xA;  can never extend beyond it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is very clear. Sun rays goes only upto svarga loka. Lokaloka mountain blocks the sun rays from going up further.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayatri mantra is very right in mentioning only earth,bhuvar,svarga loka as lokas sun rays would reach.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-04-13T05:54:43.447" LastActivityDate="2015-04-13T05:54:43.447" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7027" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="67" CreationDate="2015-04-13T05:49:33.673" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu dharma it is allowed to kill some animal species, but only if it is done in accordance with the strict regulations of the scriptures, as in the sacrifices, as indicated in Manu-smriti and other scriptures.&#xA;However cows is explicitly forbidden to kill! There are explicit statements in the scriptures about it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ācāryaṃ ca pravaktāraṃ pitaraṃ mātaraṃ gurum /&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;na hiṃsyād&lt;/strong&gt; brāhmaṇān gāś ca sarvāṃś caiva tapasvinaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let him &lt;strong&gt;never offend (or injure)&lt;/strong&gt; the teacher who initiated him,&#xA;nor him who explained the Veda, nor his father and mother, nor (any&#xA;other) Guru, nor &lt;strong&gt;cows&lt;/strong&gt;, nor Brahmanas, nor any men performing&#xA;austerities. (Manu smriti 4.162)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above quotation from the Manu-smriti expression &lt;em&gt;na hiṃsyād&lt;/em&gt; is translated as &amp;quot;never offend&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;never injure&amp;quot;. So this verse is an evidence from the scriptures that killing of cows is not allowed!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a prayer in the Vishnu Purana 1.19.65:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Lord Krishna, You are the well-wisher of the cows and the Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this verse cows and Brahmanas stand out as especially favored by the Lord, and thus they are especially sacred. Compare this with the above Manu-smriti verse where it is said that some people (Guru, father and mother, teacher who explained the Veda, Brahmanas), and cows should never be killed, and that is because of their special holiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said in the Bhagavad gita 18.44:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kṛṣi-&lt;strong&gt;go-rakṣya&lt;/strong&gt;-vāṇijyaḿ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Farming, cow protection and business are the natural work for the&#xA;vaiśyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this verse phrase &lt;em&gt;go-rakṣya&lt;/em&gt; was used, which means &amp;quot;cow protection&amp;quot;. As we can see from this verse, in the varnashrama dharma cow protection is one of the primary activities. We are not supposed to kill those who we should protect! Right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said in the Srimad Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana) 8.19.43 that in time of danger one should be engaged in &lt;em&gt;go-brāhmaṇa-arthe&lt;/em&gt; &amp;quot;protecting cows and brahminical culture&amp;quot; (paraphrased).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavatam cows and Brahmanas again stand out in the canto 10, chapter 24 &amp;quot;Worshiping Govardhana Hill&amp;quot; where Lord Krishna encourages his father to perform a sacrifice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/10/24/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://vedabase.com/sb/10/24/en&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.24.25: Therefore may &lt;strong&gt;a sacrifice for the pleasure of the cows,&#xA;the brāhmaṇas and Govardhana Hill&lt;/strong&gt; begin! With all the paraphernalia&#xA;collected for worshiping Indra, let this sacrifice be performed&#xA;instead. ...&#xA;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.24.29: After everyone has eaten to his satisfaction, you should&#xA;all dress and decorate yourselves handsomely, smear your bodies with&#xA;sandalwood paste &lt;strong&gt;and then circumambulate the cows, the brāhmaṇas, the&#xA;sacrificial fires and Govardhana Hill&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.24.30: This is My idea, O father, and you may carry it out if it&#xA;appeals to you. &lt;strong&gt;Such a sacrifice will be very dear to the cows, the&#xA;brāhmaṇas and Govardhana Hill, and also to Me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above verses we see that the Vedic sacrifice should be done for the pleasure of the Lord Krishna, cows, Govardhana Hill, and Brahmanas!&#xA;All of them must be that much especially sacred then.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many such verses in the scriptures that speak of a particular sanctity of cows and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:16:45.643" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7028" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-13T05:55:59.143" Score="0" ViewCount="553" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whats the main purpose of our life,its not to be just earn money reputation in society and there need to be something else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there is any description about that in geeta or any holy book,please help me with that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and I am not asking &quot;Is the ultimate purpose of life only to serve God?&quot;&#xA;I am asking is &quot;What would be ultimate purpose of life?&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2772" LastEditorUserId="2772" LastEditDate="2015-04-13T06:44:44.000" LastActivityDate="2015-04-14T14:36:34.727" Title="What would be the motto to live a life?according to &quot;GEETA&quot; or any holy book?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|life|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2015-04-13T06:05:07.087" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7029" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7028" CreationDate="2015-04-13T06:28:22.630" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all have to live life and we can not escape from it because it is a life cycle where one depends on another and vice-versa. It is quite simple, The Children depend on their parents and further the parents depend on their children. We all here to perform our duty and a part of universal life cycle. If one does not perform his duty or responsibility, there will a disturbance in the life cycle, he will get hatred, loathing and infamy. And if One performs his duty or responsibility very well then he will get reputation, honour, fame and glory and it also affects to his Reincarnation. So the luck of Reincarnation depends on the deeds of the previous birth or current birth too. And this is the base of 'GEETA'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So In short the purpose of our lives is to perform our duties and responsibilities (Law of Karma). We are the part of life cycle and society and to continue it we all need to live our life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If one does not perform his duty or responsibility But what if someone take sanyasa? that will also disturb the life cycle, but taking sanyasa is not also a bad thing right?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It depends on situations such as If a person is already married and he has one or more children who really rely on the person. In such case A person takes Monasticism (sanyasa) definitely, it will disturb the life cycle. In that case the sanyasa of that person is just like a Suicide. If anyone who wants to do like this then he or she should not get marry. A person should not run away from his/her responsibility.&#xA;A person is associated with so may responsibilities towards his parents, wife, children, brothers-sisters.. If A person has performed all his duties or taking sanyasa does not affect anyone in his family then it is worth to take sanyasa for that person.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="500" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-04-14T14:36:34.727" LastActivityDate="2015-04-14T14:36:34.727" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7032" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7033" CreationDate="2015-04-13T11:28:09.707" Score="2" ViewCount="10165" Body="&lt;p&gt;In every Shiva temple&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two statue before the entrance of lord shiva temple inner side&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tortoise &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nandi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whats the reason behind this?Is there any kind of story belong to this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2772" LastActivityDate="2015-04-14T05:15:07.420" Title="What's the reason behind the tortoise statue and the nandi statue in shiva temples?" Tags="|shiva|temple|history|nandi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-04-13T14:08:21.753" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7033" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7032" CreationDate="2015-04-13T11:56:32.537" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tortoise&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;About Tortoise&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/728/what-is-the-story-of-tortoise-which-is-just-in-front-of-nandi-in-lord-shiv-templ&quot;&gt;Link1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://fullnfenil7.blogspot.in/2012/10/why-is-tortoise-placed-in-shivs-temple.html#.VSygoJNf3IU&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Link2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A tortoise in Shiva Temples has a symbolic significance to inspire&#xA;the devotees in their spiritual practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A tortoise has the ability to withdraw all its limbs and head&#xA;completely within its shell. This symbolically inspires a spiritual&#xA;aspirant to withdraw all his senses from the material world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further when a tortoise lays eggs, it has a peculiar way of hatching&#xA;them. She does not sit on top of them to hatch them but focuses her&#xA;attention by constantly looking at them. The energy from her eyes&#xA;hatches the eggs. This inspires a spiritual aspirant to focus all his&#xA;attention one pointedly towards Lord Shiva. Also the importance&#xA;of 'Darshan', focussing ones attention on the image or the Lingam of&#xA;Shiva, is explained by the symbolic use of a tortoise in the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You might have also noticed a bull in all Shiva temples. It&#xA;is 'Nandi', Shiva's vehicle. Nandi is a symbol of 'Dharma' or&#xA;righteous living. It also symbolizes 'Will Power' and 'Strength'&#xA;which help in one's spiritual practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You must have noticed that the tortoise idol is generally placed near the Nandi (Bull) idol.Nandi is total devotion. That is “Bhakti”. A tortoise on the other hand represents detachment. That is “Vairagya”. Devotion and detachment together lead us to the path of god. Here is how the tortoise represents detachment:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A tortoise can totally cocoon itself in its shell. A yogi when meditates cocoons himself from the world too and gets inside his meditative shell.  He renounces material possessions or even the thought of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nandi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Lord Shiva was in deep meditation , and a great calamity was about to befall.  Everybody tried to shake off Lord Shiva from his deep Turiya meditation—and we unsuccessful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva’s son Ganesha used his initiative and whispered into Nandi’s ear and Shiva was woken up.  It shows that Nandi is a medium to reach Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nandi is the name for the bull which serves as the mount of the god Shiva and as the gatekeeper of Shiva and Parvati. In Hindu Religion, he is the chief guru of eighteen masters including Patanjali and Thirumular. Temples venerating Shiva display stone images of a seated Nandi, generally facing the main shrine. There are also a number of temples dedicated solely to Nandi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will get deep understanding by look into below link:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindumythologyforgennext.blogspot.in/2011/12/nandi-vehicle-of-lord-shiva.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Full Story&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2554" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-04-14T05:15:07.420" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7034" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-13T14:08:11.403" Score="2" ViewCount="451" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know more about Brahm Bhatt Brahmins/Pandits. Who are Brahm Bhatt Brahmins? Is there any difference between Bhatt and Bhaat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2793" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-14T09:14:40.920" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T09:14:40.920" Title="Who are Brahm Bhatt Brahmins?" Tags="|brahmins|ancestry|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7035" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-14T03:41:37.630" Score="2" ViewCount="149" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who are kaala-veditha? Is this is a class of humans or higher beings or is there a definite source for such information?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2794" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-01T06:46:09.527" LastActivityDate="2018-02-01T06:46:09.527" Title="Who are the Kaala-Veditha?" Tags="|scripture|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7037" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4143" CreationDate="2015-04-14T08:53:09.837" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Vedas, Manu Vaivasvata was the unanimous father of human race. According to Satapatha Brahmana, after the great deluge, only Manu survived and desirous of offspring he obtained Ila by sacrifice. Then, by Ila's assistance Manu obtained his descendants by ritual and sacrifice. The account of Puranas appear legendary at several ocassions as it is with the case of Soma and his son Budha. Further, if Manu was the only one surviving the flood, a second patriach in the form of Atri &amp;amp; Som during Manu's time is contradictory.  It is most likely therefore that the Puranic accounts are faulty. In my opinion, Pururavas and his descendants must be direct patrilineal descendants of Manu Vaivasvata. The descendants of Nahusha, the 5 tribes of Yayati are also proudly referred as descendants of Manu in the Rigveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2795" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-28T14:45:10.480" LastActivityDate="2015-07-28T14:45:10.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7038" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16462" CreationDate="2015-04-14T11:27:25.857" Score="6" ViewCount="1074" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read somewhere that in the process of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_manthan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sagar-Manthan&lt;/a&gt;, along with Goddess Lakshmi came her sister Alakshmi. Opposite of Lakshmi, Alakshmi is the goddess of misfortune. There are some other stories also that tell us that she resides in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_religiosa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Peepal tree&lt;/a&gt; on Sundays and that's why Peepal tree is not worshipped on Sundays.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, I want to know the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any scriptural basis for Alakshmi?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the story of her birth? I am not talking about Sagar-Manthan. Goddess Lakshmi existed before Sagar Manthan, she just disappeared because of curse of Rishi Durvasa and later came back from Sagar Manthan. If Alakshmi is her sister then she might have existed earlier as well.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there any other stories related to Alakshmi and their source?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-06T20:35:02.650" LastActivityDate="2016-12-21T18:18:07.553" Title="What is the story of Alakshmi?" Tags="|scripture|lakshmi|samudra-manthan|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7039" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7044" CreationDate="2015-04-14T13:02:43.930" Score="29" ViewCount="41210" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a very interesting story about Karna being an Asura named as &lt;strong&gt;Dambhodbhava&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Quora: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.quora.com/Who-was-Karna-in-his-previous-birth&quot;&gt;Who was Karna in his previous birth?&lt;/a&gt;. Arjuna-Krishna being Nara-Narayana kids, who fought with Dambhodbhava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is also a story about Draupadi's previous birth where she asked&#xA;for a husband with 14 qualities and end up marrying the 5 Pandavas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhishma being a Vasu.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shishupala being Raavana (or Vishnu's gatekeeper)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shikhandi being princess Ambaa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any sources for the other key characters' previous births like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satyavati &amp;amp; Muni Veda Vyasa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhritarashtra, Pandu, &amp;amp; Vidura&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Other Pandavas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Duryodhana, Dushashana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Abhimanyu, Ghatotkacha, Upapandavas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Drona &amp;amp; Ashwathama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shakuni, Shalya, Drupada, Dhrishtadyumna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-20T06:32:42.727" LastActivityDate="2022-09-24T03:34:17.813" Title="What were the previous births of the characters of Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|avatars|rebirth|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7040" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-14T13:14:47.377" Score="2" ViewCount="1226" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Azhagiya sarasa sanja slokas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzqR2BUt1O8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this youtube video&lt;/a&gt; telling the name of this slokam at 10:55 min to 11:06 min. This slokas will be help for our &lt;strong&gt;speech&lt;/strong&gt;. I need this slokas for improving &lt;strong&gt;speech&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2797" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-04-14T14:36:29.617" LastActivityDate="2015-11-08T12:55:49.647" Title="Hayagriva slokam needed" Tags="|vishnu|mantras|vaishnavism|shloka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7041" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6947" CreationDate="2015-04-14T17:46:04.957" Score="3" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;GYAN MUDRA – FOR WISDOM&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;VAAYU MUDRA – FOR CALMNESS&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;AAKASH MUDRA – FOR LIGHTNESS&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;SHUNYA MUDRA – FOR PAIN RELIEF&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;PRITHVI MUDRA – FOR STRENGTH&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;SURYA MUDRA – FOR WEIGHT LOSS&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;VARUN MUDRA – FOR MOISTURIZATION&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;JAL SHAAMAK MUDRA – FOR STABILITY&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thease are the very usefull mudras&#xA;For the detail description please refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://workouttrends.com/mudras-hand-gestures-yoga-and-meditation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the meditation,&#xA;These both mudras are best you can't define best one out of both,it depends on person who gets it very useful, some can meditate with first mudra and other with second one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to know more about it here is &lt;a href=&quot;https://yogainternational.com/article/view/2-meditation-mudras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;another link&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2772" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-04-16T01:12:46.763" LastActivityDate="2015-04-16T01:12:46.763" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7042" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-14T17:47:29.333" Score="3" ViewCount="6284" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do the seven doors of Vaikuntam symbolize for us? I couldn't find any answer. I heard it in a movie that humans should cross the seven doors to finally reach the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also read in an article from the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam magazine that we should climb/cross the 7 hills of the Lord Venkateshwara to reach him. 7 hills representing 7 traits like greed, lust, anger, ego etc. but no scriptures were referenced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So may I know which scriptures mention the 7 doors and what do they symbolize?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2326" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-11T02:51:55.830" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T21:19:55.410" Title="Seven doors or seven hills of Lord Vishnu (Venkateshwara)" Tags="|vaishnavism|moksha|venkateshwara|vishnu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7043" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-14T19:14:41.060" Score="6" ViewCount="2935" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found a really interesting discussion named &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5239/father-of-indra&quot;&gt;Father of Indra&lt;/a&gt;, which I never thought about the birth of Indra and Sun god. Credits to the user. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here my question is, according to &lt;code&gt;sanatana dharma&lt;/code&gt; it is known fact that a person is not supposed to marry his sister. But it contradicts when we relate this with the story of Sage Kashyap marrying 13 daughters of prajapati Dakhsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kashyap, son of Marichi who is one of the mind-born son of Lord Brahma. And Prajapati Daksha, son of Lord Brahma. As the relation between Marichi and Daksha is a kind of brother relation, so Kashyap can be considered as son of Daksha and eventually Daksha's daughters should be Kashyap's sisters. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though Marichi might be a mind-born son, somehow they both relate as brothers. Then, how does it related with Kashyap's marriage. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, how different is the births of Marichi and Daksha?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="47" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-18T09:56:03.093" LastActivityDate="2022-06-03T19:12:44.763" Title="How can Sage Kashyap marry daughters of Daksha, even they are parallel cousins?" Tags="|marriage|indra|kashyapa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7044" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7039" CreationDate="2015-04-15T05:11:18.883" Score="31" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata describes exactly who incarnated as each of the major characters in the Mahabharata.  It's too long a chapter to quote the whole thing here, so let me just address some important people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss the previous births of Draupadi and the Pandavas &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6682/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  As you said, Bhishma was an incarnation of one of the Vasus, a group of eight Vedic gods controlling various aspects of nature, but more specifically he was the Vasu known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyaus&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dyaus Pita&lt;/a&gt;, AKA Prabhasa, god of the sky.  And as you said Shishupala was an incarnation of Vishnu's gatekeeper Jaya, who had previously been born Hiranyakashipu and Ravana, while Shishupala's brother Dantavakra was an incarnation of Vijaya, who had previously been born as Hiranyaksha and Kumbhakarn, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2042/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Bhishma's father Shantanu was a rebirth of Mahabhisha, a king of the Ikshvaku dynasty.  After Mahabhisha died, he went to Devaloka, where on one occasion he stared at the goddess Ganga when her robe slipped by accident.  As a result, he was cursed by Brahma to be born on earth and to be tormented by Ganga, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahbharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day the celestials had assembled together and were worshipping Brahman. Many royal sages and king Mahabhisha also were present on the spot. And Ganga, the queen of rivers, also came there to pay her adorations to the Grandsire. And her garments white as the beams of the moon was displaced by the action of the wind. And as her person became exposed, the celestials bent down their heads. But the royal sage Mahabhisha rudely stared at the queen of rivers. And Mahabhisha was for this cursed by Brahman, who said, 'Wretch, as thou hast forgotten thyself at the sight of Ganga, thou shalt be re-born on earth. But thou shall again and again attain to these regions. And she, too, shall be born in the world of men and shall do thee injuries. But when thy wrath shall be provoked, thou shalt then be freed from my curse.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shantanu's second wife Satyavati, who was the daughter of the king Uparichara Vasu but raised by fishermen, was the next birth of Acchoda, mind-born daughter of the Pitris or ghosts of departed ancestors.  (I discuss another mind-born daughter of the Pitris in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3732/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.) Acchoda was caught admiring Uparichara Vasu, so the Pitris gave her the following curse, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/hv_1_18.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Harivamsa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have just now seen an air-voyager, isn't it... he is called uparichara-vasu... when he takes birth in human world, then you will become his daughter... while remaining a virgin you will deliver the son of sage parAshara, which son of yours, namely veda-vyAsa, will ramify veda canons... still remaining a virgin you will return to your own abode, that which is unachievable otherwise...  Later you will auspiciously give rise to two sons of mahAbhiSha, namely king shantanu; one boy will be the glorious vichitraviirya, while the other will be the righteous chitrA~Ngada; and later, on your begetting them you will return to your abode; thus you have to undergo this wretched life on earth because you sidestepped from the morals of manes...  will become the daughter of that king vasu through lady adrika, whom you have just now seen along with uparichara-vasu on aircraft... all this happens in twenty-eight dwApara era... then you will emerge as the daughter of a fish, namely from this lady  adrika who by then transfigures as a fish&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satyavati's son Krishna Dwaipayana Veda Vyasa (or Vyasa for short) was an incarnation of Vishnu, but he was also the next birth of the sage Aparantamas, an earlier compiler of the Vedas described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c049.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa's son Pandu was apparently the incarnation of the god of Purity, while Vidura was the incarnation of Yama god of death, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahbharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Dhritarashtra's] younger brother who was possessed of great strength and was really a great being known as Pandu, devoted to truth and virtue, was Purity's self. And, O king, thou shouldst know that he who was known on earth as Vidura, who was the first of all virtuous men ... was the god of Justice himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's no information in that chapter as to Dhritarashtra's previous birth, but as far as the Kauravas go, Duryodhana was the incarnation of Kali (the demon of the Kali Yuga) and his brothers were incarnations of Rakshasas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The evil-minded and wicked king Duryodhana, the destroyer of the fair fame of the Kurus, was born of a portion of Kali on earth. He it was who caused all creatures to be slain and the earth to be wasted; and he it was who fanned the flame of hostility that ultimately consumed all. They who had been the sons of Pulastya (the Rakshasas) were born on earth among men of Duryodhana's brothers, that century of wicked individuals commencing with Duhasasana as their first.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna's son Abhimanyu was an incarnation of Varchas, son of Chandra the moon god, and the reason he died so early is that Chandra didn't want him to be gone too long:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And he who was known as the mighty Varchas, the son of Soma, became Abhimanyu of wonderful deeds, the son of Arjuna. And before his incarnation, O king, the god Soma had said these words to the celestials, 'I cannot give (part with) my son. He is dearer to me than life itself. Let this be the compact and let it be not transgressed. The destruction of the Asuras on earth is the work of the celestials, and, therefore, it is our work as well. Let this Varchas, therefore, go thither, but let him not stay there long.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upapandavas were incarnations of the Vishwadevas, Dristadyumna was an incarnation of Agni, Amba/Sikhandi was the incarnation of a demon, and the Upapandavas are incarnations of the Vishwadevas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Know also, O monarch, that the mighty car-warrior Dhrishtadyumna was a portion of Agni. And know also that Sikhandin, who was at first a female, was (the incarnation of) a Rakshasa. And, O bull in Bharata's race, they who became the five sons of Draupadi, those bulls amongst the Bharata princes, were the celestials known as the Viswas. Their names were Pritivindhya, Sutasoma, Srutakirti, Satanika, Nakula, and Srutasena, endued with mighty energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kripacharya was an incarnation of the Rudras, Shakuni was an incarnation of Dwapara (embodiment of the Dwapara Yuga), and Satyaki and Drupada were incarnations of the Maruts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, O king, that Brahman sage who, on earth, was known by the name of Kripa and was the embodiment of all manliness was born of the tribe of the Rudras. And the mighty chariot-fighter and king who on earth was known by the name of Sakuni, that crusher of foes, thou shouldst know, O king, was Dwapara himself (the third yuga). And he who was Satyaki of sure aim, that upholder of the pride of Vrishni race, that oppressor of foes, begotten of the portion of gods called the Maruts. And that royal sage Drupada who on earth was a monarch, the first among all persons bearing arms, was also born of the same tribe of the celestials.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashwatthama was an incarnation of Shiva; see the Shiva Purana.  And Shalya was an incarnation of Prahlada's brother Sanhlada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who had been known as Samhlada, the younger brother of Prahlada, became among men the famous Salya, that bull amongst Valhikas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being a Vaishnava, I'd like to end with one last individual:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And he, called Vasudeva [Krishna], endued with great valour, was among men a portion of him called Narayana--the god of gods--eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2022-01-22T09:47:59.513" LastActivityDate="2022-01-22T09:47:59.513" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7047" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7049" CreationDate="2015-04-15T16:59:05.433" Score="12" ViewCount="2642" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why were all the Upapandavas killed the same day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why was no one, including Lord Krishna, able to save them? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why was only Parikshit saved by Krishna from Uttara's womb?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was there any story behind their short lifespan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2802" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-23T05:05:23.887" LastActivityDate="2016-05-23T05:05:23.887" Title="Upapandavas: Why were they killed?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|pandavas|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7049" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7047" CreationDate="2015-04-16T03:38:42.160" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The superficial reason as to why the Upapandavas (the five sons of Draupadi) were killed is simply that Krishna and Pandavas weren't at the camp the night Ashwatthama attacked, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Sauptika Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Through fear of the Parthas, O son of Kuru's race, Ashvatthama could not achieve such a feat then. &lt;strong&gt;It was owing to the absence of the Parthas and the intelligent Keshava as also of Satyaki, that Drona's son could accomplish it.&lt;/strong&gt; Who is there, the lord Indra unexcepted, that is competent to slay them in the presence of these heroes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the ultimate cause of their death is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/sy7G&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Markandeya Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous Vedic kings was Harischandra, a solar dynasty king whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6753/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Similar to the story of Job in the Bible, the gods once decided to test Harischandra's virtue by depriving him of everything he had. In particular, the sage Vishwamitra asked Harischandra for his entire kingdom, and out of a sense of duty he agreed to give it up.  Now five of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visvedevas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishwadevas&lt;/a&gt;, a group of Vedic gods, saw what was going on and were appalled that Vishwamitra would torment such a righteous king, so they spoke out against him.  Vishwamitra was enraged by their words, so he cursed them to be born on earth, but he lessened it by allowing them to return to Devaloka before they got married or had kids. Thus they were born as the Upapandavas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then spoke five Vishwadevas in pity, &amp;quot;This Vishwamitra is very wicked; what worlds will he obtain, who has uprooted this best of sacrificers from his throne?  By whose funeral ceremony further shall the soma juice expressed at the great sacrifice by purified, by drinking which shall we reach the exhilaration that is preceded by incantations?&amp;quot; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having heard their remark, the sage of the Kaushika race, exceedingly enraged, cursed them -- &amp;quot;Ye shall all assume human form.&amp;quot;  And propitiated by them, the great Muni added, &amp;quot;Although in human form, ye shall have no offspring.  There shall be neither marriage nor wives for you, nor hostility: freed from love and anger ye shall be gods again.&amp;quot;  Thereupon those gods descended to the mansion of the Kurus with their own portions; they were born from the womb of Drauapdi as the five grandchildren of Pandu.  Hence the five heroic Pandaveyas did not take to themselves wives, through the curse of that great Muni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-09T19:53:50.830" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7050" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-16T11:59:05.633" Score="1" ViewCount="263" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following are my questions on this topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What are the Navabhashanas in the Palani Murugan Idol consecrated by Siddhar Bogar?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Where are the ingredients of Navabhashana sourced from and what is their physical and metaphysical significance? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the best available Scientific understanding of process of solidifying the Navabhashanas? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also, Is there any original(or earliest) photos of the Palani Idol available before it was ravaged with scratches and etchings by devotees and alternative medicine seekers?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2015-07-12T07:19:11.333" Title="Navabhashanam in Palani Murugan Idol?" Tags="|temple|idols|tamil|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2018-09-07T16:37:43.560" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7053" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="97" CreationDate="2015-04-16T15:45:41.483" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/iso/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Isopanishad says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;īśāvāsyam idam sarvaṁ  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat &lt;br&gt;&#xA;tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā &lt;br&gt;&#xA;mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The quota mentioned above is also decided as per Hindu Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kings are allowed to eat meat. Lord Rama ate deer meat. Sita cooked it as per Ramayana. Sage Agasthya ate meat during a ritual where Pitru Karma is performed. During Pitru Karma or performing rituals of the dead, eating meat was allowed in olden days but not in kaliyuga. That's way when sage Agasthya ate meat he digested Vatapi with his saying &amp;quot;Jeernam Jeernam Vatapi Jeernam&amp;quot;. Likewise dharma varies based on the time and period. It has to be taken wisely to eat meat or not. So it depends on time and period and based on one's conscience. Now a days it is very tough for people to give proper dharma on eating non veg in this Kaliyuga. But it is very much advisable to avoid it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2802" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T23:00:54.043" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7055" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-16T17:58:44.867" Score="8" ViewCount="2799" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of you might know according to Upanishads, there are the four fundamental states (4 states of consciousness) that a Jiva goes through...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Waking (conscious),   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dreaming (Unconscious),   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Deep sleep (Subconscious) and    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Turiya (consciousness /Absolute)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Bfjts.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first 3 states are what are experienced by us as living beings and able to differentiate wakefulness from sleep and dream. The 4&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; state (Turiya) is the consciousness of Brahman, which is simply experienced through yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Where does these four states of consciousness occurs in an individual?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-04-17T16:23:40.023" LastActivityDate="2023-08-12T16:31:10.157" Title="Where does the four states of consciousness occurs in an individual?" Tags="|mind|dream|consciousness|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7056" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-16T19:56:46.220" Score="4" ViewCount="547" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I would Like to mention/recommend that If you are a vedagya-वेदज्ञ(A person who studied vedic samhitas and now knows about everything written in them)then only answer my question&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was reading &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitayoga.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Yoga-Shiva-Samhita.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiva-Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, and when I read from verse-4 to verse-16 I  was awestruck because it described exactly what's in a mind of reader when he reads text (i.e. he/reader wants physical/working attainment of goals not just empty philosophical thoughts).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think Philosophies are only good when applied in real world and realized that is what yoga do. Yoga unites you with your true-self, so I am not offending any one who just believes in philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also include bhakti-marga in my list because without knowing the first step you cannot think of reaching the goal of self realization which is bhakti. Also bhakti is too far because first we need to discipline our body then comes discipline of mind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any mentioning/praising of yoga-marga/yogic path in vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-04-17T16:35:57.403" LastActivityDate="2015-04-17T16:35:57.403" Title="What does veda have to say about yoga-marga?" Tags="|vedas|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7057" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7055" CreationDate="2015-04-17T00:49:02.843" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;These are the four states of consciousness that exist as they are and a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; experiences them one after another in a cyclic manner. Just like a person experiences the changing seasons around him, he experiences the first three states  almost daily cyclically. But to experience the turiya state a jiva has to raise his consciousness in the waking state, the only state where any action is possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like to perceive and experience things external and internal organs are required, to perceive these states the mind is required. So these states of consciousness occur in the mind of a &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;. These states are nothing but reflections of different states of consciousness on the mind (&lt;em&gt;antahkarana&lt;/em&gt;). So the Paingala Upanishad says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;antaḥkaraṇapratibimbitacaitanyaṃ  yattadevāvasthātrayabhāgbhavati&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Consciousness being reflected on the &lt;em&gt;antahkarana&lt;/em&gt; becomes the three states.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And to be more specific, Adi Sankaracharya says it is in the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;vijnanamaya kosha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (intellectual sheath) that the different states happen:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अस्यैव विज्ञानमयस्य जाग्रतस्वप्नाद्यवस्थाः सुखःदुखःभोगः [Vivk. Chd. - 187]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - The states like waking, dreaming, etc. and the expereience of happiness and distress belong to this intellectual sheath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the consciousness reflected is of the waking state the jiva perceives the world and other worlds through senses organs and  also through &lt;em&gt;buddhi&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;chitta&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;ahankara&lt;/em&gt;. But when it is of the sleeping state only &lt;em&gt;chitta&lt;/em&gt; is functioning and all other organs at rest. And in the &lt;em&gt;turiya&lt;/em&gt; state there is experience of only one consciousness and nothing else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the location of the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; in the body during these states the Brahma Upanishad sayas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;netrasthaṃ jāgrataṃ vidyātkaṇṭhe svapnaṃ vinirdiṣet&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  suṣuptaṃ hṛdayasthaṃ tu turīyaṃ mūrdhni saṃsthitam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Know that in the waking state the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is situated in the eye, in the throat in the dreaming state, in the heart in the sleeping state and at the top of the head in the &lt;em&gt;turiya&lt;/em&gt; state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, this doesn't mean that the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; exists only in those locations in the four states. It means the &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; primarily resides at those locations during the corresponding states and from there it pervades the whole body. For example, the jiva dwells between the eyebrows in the waking state and from there pervades the whole body (&lt;em&gt;tatra bhrūmadhyaṃ gato jīva āpādamastakaṃ vyāpya&lt;/em&gt; - Paingala Up.) like light pervades all the room irrespective of where the bulb is located.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-04-24T11:27:08.923" LastActivityDate="2015-04-24T11:27:08.923" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7058" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7055" CreationDate="2015-04-17T05:25:43.550" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;By occurring in an individual I assume you mean where in the physical body do these states occur. There seems to be some confusion as to terms. So lets be exact. Please see my answer to this question - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6758/where-does-a-soul-attached-to-the-body/6787#6787&quot;&gt;Where does a Soul attach to the Body?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ‘Soul’ when seen from universal standpoint is often referred to as the Atman. The Soul when seen from an individual standpoint is often referred to as the atman (small 'a' denotes the Atman in the individual). &lt;em&gt;The individual jiva is Pure Consciousness limited by the upadhi of the vijnanamayakosa&lt;/em&gt;. It is also said to be the reflection of Pure Consciousness. “...(the individual soul) is intelligence itself.” (Brahma Sutras 2.8.18) The Brahma Sutras (2.8.19-22.) say that it is ‘atomic’ in size. It is said to reside in the cave of the heart (Brahma Sutras 2.8.24) - “He sees the Person dwelling in the heart who is supreme, higher than the individual souls” (Prasna Upanishad V.5., see also Chhandogya Upanishad VIII. i. 1-5.). The heart is interpreted to mean the buddhi, the intellect. The cave being the innermost part. See also Brahma Sutras 1.3.12-13 and 2.8.18-50. “Though all-pervading,...It is manifest in the buddhi…” (Atmabodha 16.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Jiva (the individual soul) identifies itself with the subtle body and the physical body, the annamayakosa. The subtle body consists of the pranamayakosa, the manomayakosa, and the vijnanamayakosa. The jiva does not move around the body. The vast majority of people, people who have not practiced yoga for some time, cannot distinguish between the different kosas. They perceive them all as one. So when it is said that the jiva is residing in a particular place in the physical body, it means that the jiva is identifying itself with that physical location at that particular time - but it does not move. The different kosas of the subtle body are each enclosed within the gross body, and not at a particular location within the gross body. This is why they are called sheaths.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his Introduction to Sankara's Saundarya-Lahari, Swami Tapasyananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whether these Yogic nerves are to be identified with what are known to the anatomist as the afferent and the efferent nerves and the Central Canalis is a moot question. It is better to conceive them as psychic factors relating to the subtle body and having some correspondence with their physical counterparts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the three states of consciousness, waking, dream, and dreamless sleep all occur in the subtle body, although there is 'some correspondence' of the manommayakosa and the vijanamayakosa to the physical brain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the fourth state, Turiya, is not experienced by the jiva. The Turiya is Brahman. When the jiva reaches the fourth state which may be said to have 'some correspondence' to the top of the head, the jiva is destroyed - all that remains is Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-04-17T05:25:43.550" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7060" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7065" CreationDate="2015-04-17T06:28:02.093" Score="6" ViewCount="414" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a Hindu. Up to the age of 15 I was living without any set of questions. But now (27) I have started looking for facts behind religious sayings/texts. I do not believe so much in Hinduism nor in any other religion (Buddhism, Sikhism etc.) but I do follow a few things from many of them and that comprises my one god. Overall I am trying to become a good person. Every religion is like a teacher to me. Some have said and set so many things (way of living), some of them have said it in brief. I like 'briefs' (summaries, being a modern cultural person) but after getting the brief I try to find the basis behind that saying/textual information. Given that, I want to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it an ultimate way the Hinduism has adopted to tell the truth of life to us? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Am I totally free to do what I want to do (while staying under the shadow of Hinduism)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2810" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T06:47:27.037" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T06:47:27.037" Title="What does Hinduism say about reading/knowing other religions?" Tags="|other-religions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7061" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7056" CreationDate="2015-04-17T06:34:30.823" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, I am not a Vedajna. In fact no one in this world except God Himself is a true Vedajna even if many claim or act as if they are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the entire world no one but Me actually understands the confidential purpose of Vedic knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;. Thus people do not know what the Vedas are actually prescribing in the ritualistic injunctions of karma-kāṇḍa, or what object is actually being indicated in the formulas of worship found in the upāsanā-kāṇḍa, or that which is elaborately discussed through various hypotheses in the jñāna-kāṇḍa section of the Vedas. [SB - 11.21.42]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But by the grace of God and my gurus I could know the essence of the scriptures and know enough to answer your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are &lt;strong&gt;only three paths&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;yogas&lt;/em&gt;) of &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;jnana&lt;/em&gt; for the spiritual advancement of a person:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yogās trayo mayā proktā nṝṇāṁ śreyo-vidhitsayā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jñānaṁ karma ca bhaktiś ca nopāyo ’nyo ’sti kutracit&lt;/em&gt; [SB - 11.20.6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Uddhava, because I desire that human beings may achieve perfection, I have presented three paths of advancement — the path of knowledge, the path of work and the path of devotion. Besides these three there is absolutely no other means of elevation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So by following anyone as per one's ability one can eventually come to the realization of his identity with Brahman. The thing is, jiva has similarities with Brahman and essentially both are one. But due to ignorance &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; identifies himself with the body and all other material attributes without realizing his true self. This ignorance is &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; and whenever this &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; in the form of &lt;em&gt;avidya&lt;/em&gt; is  is crossed the realization occurs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So irrespective of the path followed if one acquires the right knowledge he realizes aham brahmasmi. This is where various philosophy and methods come into action. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;To destroy ignorance some suggest acquiring knowledge through self inquiry and repeated contemplation on the truth that the self is Brahman - this is the path of Jnana. So the Veda says this &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; alone should be heard, seen and thought upon:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ātmā vā are draṣṭavyaḥ śrotavyo mantavyo nididhyāsitavyo&lt;/em&gt; [Brh. Up - 2.4.5]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -Verily it is the Self alone that should be seen, heard, thought and pondered over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some suggest ceasing the mental activity and fixing it upon God alone - this is the path of yoga/&lt;em&gt;dhyana&lt;/em&gt; yoga constituting eight limbs of yama, niyama, etc. Even by practicing this one gains the knowledge of oneness of God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarvabhūtasthamātmānaṃ sarvabhūtāni cātmani&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  īkṣate yogayuktātmā sarvatra samadarśanaḥ&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 6.29]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The yogi sees his own self in every being and sees every being in his own self. He sees everywhere the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some suggest practicing devotion of God and through his grace the devotee automatically gains knowledge without any inquiry, etc:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;teṣāṃ satatayuktānāṃ bhajatāṃ prītipūrvakam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dadāmi buddhiyogaṃ taṃ yena māmupayānti te&lt;/em&gt; [BG - 10.10]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  To those who constantly practice devotion to Me with love, I give them the knowledge by which they come to Me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But because the nature and interest of people are different, different kinds of philosophies (&lt;em&gt;samkhya, mimansa, yoga, vaishesika,&lt;/em&gt; etc.) and their corresponding paths have come into existence including atheistic ones:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus, due to the great variety of desires and natures among human beings, there are many different theistic philosophies of life, which are handed down through tradition, custom and disciplic succession. There are other teachers who directly support atheistic viewpoints. [SB - 11.14.8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And about these plethora of philosophies and practices that the Shiva Samhita talks about in those verses. It is the nature of all scriptures of a particular system to shun other systems and paths so that the seeker may not get bewildered by trying to follow different paths of opposite views. It doesn't mean other two paths are wrong or less important. But the warning is valid because apart from the accepted philosophy and systems there are also systems like Charvak which are faulty and wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like Shiva Samhita being a yoga text encourages Yoga alone as the right path, Shrimad Bhagavatam being a Bhakti text encourages Bhakti alone as the surest path. Uddhav asks similar questions like you regarding what is the presecribed path of the Vedas. And Shri Krishna in response &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;clears his doubts&lt;/a&gt; answering his questions one by one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Uddhava said: My dear Kṛṣṇa, the learned sages who explain Vedic literature recommend various processes for perfecting one’s life. Considering these varieties of viewpoint, my Lord, please tell me whether all these processes are equally important, or whether one of them is supreme. [SB - 11.14.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: By the influence of time, the transcendental sound of Vedic knowledge was lost at the time of annihilation. Therefore, when the subsequent creation took place, I spoke the Vedic knowledge to Brahmā because I Myself am the religious principles enunciated in the Vedas. [SB - 11.14.3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O best among men, the intelligence of human beings is bewildered by My illusory potency, and thus, according to their own activities and whims, they speak in innumerable ways about what is actually good for people.[SB - 11.14.9]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some say that people will be happy by performing pious religious activities. Others say that happiness is attained through fame, sense gratification, truthfulness, self-control, peace, self-interest, political influence, opulence, renunciation, consumption, sacrifice, penance, charity, vows, regulated duties or strict disciplinary regulation. Each process has its proponents. [SB - 11.14.10 ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the persons I have just mentioned obtain temporary fruits from their material work. Indeed, the meager and miserable situations they achieve bring future unhappiness and are based on ignorance. Even while enjoying the fruits of their work, such persons are filled with lamentation. [SB - 11.14.11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O learned Uddhava, those who fix their consciousness on Me, giving up all material desires, share with Me a happiness that cannot possibly be experienced by those engaged in sense gratification. [SB - 11.14.12]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who does not desire anything within this world, who has achieved peace by controlling his senses, whose consciousness is equal in all conditions and whose mind is completely satisfied in Me finds only happiness wherever he goes. [SB - 11.14.13]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;Please read that complete conversation and also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this one&lt;/a&gt;  and your doubts will be cleared&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Philosophy is nothing but a set of ideas and theories that gives an idea about the object and ways of life. It is a theory that puts the questioning mind into rest. But a philosophy can also have a practical aspect to it without following which dry philosophy is of no use. For example, yoga school of thought enjoins the practice of the eight limbs of yoga. The system of Bhakti enjoins practice of chanting, singing, etc. Vedanta school of thought enjoins contemplation upon Brahman and so on. So most philosophies have practical aspects also which should be followed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...and what about discipline? Well, discipline is the minimum thing that everyone should follow irrespective of whether one is spiritual or not. In the path of &lt;em&gt;jnana&lt;/em&gt; it is mandatory to live a disciplined life. In the path of Bhakti it is mandatory to remember God always whether you are disciplined or not. But at the end of the day, discipline is the foremost requirement for any spiritual practice. &lt;strong&gt;A disciplined life is a spiritual life, otherwise it's not.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is there any mentioning/praising of yoga-marga/yogic path in vedas?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, there are many Upanishads like Nadabindu, Tejobindu, Yogasikha, etc. that are classified as Yoga Upanishads. In them the path of yoga has been mentioned and praised.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="38" LastEditDate="2015-04-17T11:32:02.367" LastActivityDate="2015-04-17T11:32:02.367" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7063" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7066" CreationDate="2015-04-17T10:10:33.803" Score="7" ViewCount="535" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7056/what-does-veda-have-to-say-about-yoga-marga/7061#7061&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question I asked about philosophies and in the answer Be-Happy writes following lines&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the warning is valid because apart from the accepted philosophy and systems there are also systems like &lt;strong&gt;Charvak which are faulty and wrong&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why is charvaka-philosophy of bhoga marga (i.e. enjoyment of all samsaric things) considered wrong by us/advaitins?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="10452" LastEditDate="2023-01-21T10:34:42.393" LastActivityDate="2023-01-21T10:34:42.393" Title="Why is charvaka system considered wrong by Advaitins?" Tags="|philosophy|charvaka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7065" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7060" CreationDate="2015-04-17T11:00:16.283" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;You say &quot;...staying under the shadow of Hinduism&quot; means that you accept the Vedas as the revealed word of God. If you do not accept the Vedas as such, you are not under the shadow of Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no harm in reading other religious texts or other religions. Krishna says in the Gita (VII. 7.) &quot;...All is strung on Me as a row of gems on a thread.&quot; There is only one Religion - God. What you call religions are just sects of the one Religion. All religions belong to God; God does not belong to one religion. Swami Vivekananda said that as a result of understanding Advaita, he understood other religions better. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again Krishna says in the Gita (VII. 21.) &quot;Whatever may be the form a devotee seeks to worship with faith--in that form alone I make his faith unwavering.&quot; Swami Vivekananda said that every man is his own sect, meaning that every person sees God in a different way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You also ask if you are totally free to do what you want to do. What do you mean by freedom? If you mean freedom of the senses, no. My guru used to say that what we want is freedom &lt;em&gt;from&lt;/em&gt; the senses, not freedom &lt;em&gt;of&lt;/em&gt; the senses. Again, Krishna says in the Gita (XVI. 23-24.):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who discards the injunctions of the scriptures and acts upon the impulse of desire attains neither perfection nor happiness nor the Supreme Goal. Therefore let the scriptures be your authority in determining what ought to be done and what ought not to be done. Having learnt the injunctions of the scriptures, you should do your work in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures, the Vedas, are a guide as to how to live. So you are not free to do whatever you want under the shadow of Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramakishna Paramahamsa said to go out and mix with others, say yea to all, but in the evening go to your own room. In other words, mingle with others, read about other religions, but in your heart worship your own Ishta and follow the guide of the scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-04-17T11:00:16.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7066" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7063" CreationDate="2015-04-17T13:06:04.703" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Charvak philosophy is faulty and wrong not just because it is hedonistic in nature but mainly because it rejects the Vedas and mocks the concept of Shradha, Yajna, afterlife, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Charvak school of thought accepts direct perception as the only source of knowledge. Hence, it says there is no soul, no God, no afterlife, etc. as they are not directly perceivable. All these system of &lt;em&gt;sradha&lt;/em&gt;, yajna, puja, etc. are invention of the frauds to earn their living. Death is the final liberation hence one should take pleasure here while alive even by borrowing money from others. And there are many other such views that the followers of the system used to hold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the problem is that &lt;strong&gt;direct perception alone is not a valid source of true knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;. The earth appears flat by direct perception, the sun appears to move around earth by direct perception, but these are wrong. Hence, other methods of proof like inference, comparison, scriptural testimony, etc. are taken into consideration to find out the truth. And by those standards other philosophical systems like Mimansa, Vedanta, etc. came to exist and they refuted the Charvak system. The origin of such a system was only to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/70/38&quot;&gt;lure people away&lt;/a&gt; from the Vedic path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-04-17T13:06:04.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7067" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7071" CreationDate="2015-04-17T19:13:31.023" Score="2" ViewCount="132" Body="&lt;p&gt;Were there any Sanyasi's in our ancient history prior to Jagadguru Sankaracharya? Can someone provide references of one existing in the B.C period who are as famous as Jagadguru Sankaracharya who provided Kanakadhara Sthotram at an age of around 5 years?    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2802" LastActivityDate="2015-04-18T11:30:16.313" Title="Sanyasa Vratham: Was there a stage called Sanyasa prior to Jagadguru Sankaracharya?" Tags="|history|guru|sanyasi|gurukul|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7068" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-18T03:55:48.447" Score="1" ViewCount="128" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aputhrasya gathir nasthi? Does it really mean a family without a male child is not eligible for moksha? What about families with only girl childs? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2802" LastActivityDate="2015-04-18T03:55:48.447" Title="Is a person without a male child not eligible for Moksha?" Tags="|moksha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-04-18T04:35:31.303" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7069" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7016" CreationDate="2015-04-18T05:34:04.333" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is possible that either Shri Krishna or Arjuna told about Chakravyuha to Subhadra because Subhadra had stayed both with Arjuna and Shri Kirshna at different times during his pregnancy period and both Krishna and Arjuna knew about Chakravyuha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But having said that, it is Abhimanyu who makes it clear from whom he learned that specific art of war. Seeing the Chakravyuha arrangement Yudhisthira says to Abhimanyu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तवं वार्जुनॊ वा कृष्णॊ वा भिन्द्यात परद्युम्न एव वा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   चक्रव्यूहं महाबाहॊ पञ्चमॊ ऽनयॊ न विद्यते [MB - 7.34.15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thyself, or Arjuna or Krishna, or Pradyumna, can pierce that array. O mighty-armed one, no fifth person can be found (to achieve that teat).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then in reply Abhimanyu says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दरॊणस्य दृढम अव्यग्रम अनीक परवरं युधि&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   पितॄणां जयम आकाङ्क्षन्न अवगाहे भिनद्मि च&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   उपदिष्टॊ हि मे पित्रा यॊगॊ ऽनीकस्य भेदने&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   नॊत्सहे तु विनिर्गन्तुम अहं कस्यां चिद आपदि   [MB - 7.34.18,19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abhimanyu said, 'Desiring victory to my sires, soon shall I in battle penetrate into that firm, fierce and foremost of arrays formed by Drona. &lt;strong&gt;I have been taught by my father&lt;/strong&gt; the method of (penetrating and) smiting this kind of array. I shall not be able, however, to come out if any kind of danger overtakes me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from the words of Abhimanyu it is clear that it was Arjuna from whom he learned the secret.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="38" LastActivityDate="2015-04-18T05:34:04.333" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7070" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14028" CreationDate="2015-04-18T10:23:46.847" Score="11" ViewCount="16644" Body="&lt;p&gt;Long ago I have heard the story about Pashupatinath temple located in nepal, it was related to Mahabharata, when the Pandavas were on their way to Heaven, they wanted to find lord Shiva and lord shiva was in form of bull in group of bulls, and when Pandavas detected which bull is shiva than Bhima tried to catch shiva and shiva went inside the soil (ground) and his head came out from nepal (which is now called the Pashupatinath temple), is this story right or just a tale? want to know more about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt; : Also tell why the Pandavas were in search of Lord Shiva? And why lord Shiva was hiding from them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2656" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-10T11:10:44.387" LastActivityDate="2016-07-10T11:11:48.933" Title="The story behind Pashupatinath temple in Nepal" Tags="|mahabharata|shiva|scripture|temple|pandavas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7071" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7067" CreationDate="2015-04-18T11:30:16.313" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;To distinguish the original Sankaracharya from others (The heads of the Sankara maths are given the title Sankaracharya) he is referred to Adi-Sankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi-Sankara is traditionally thought to have established four maths, at Sringeri, Dwarka, Badari, and Puri; but this has been a source of contention among historians. The orders of Dasanami Sannyasins hold their allegiances to these four maths, but the four maths do not have any control or affiliation over the orders. Puris, Bharatis, and Saraswathis Sannyasins are aligned with the Sringeri Math. Giris, Aranyas, and Vanas Sannyasins are aligned with the Jyoti Math. Ashramas and Tirthas Sannyasins are aligned with the Dwaraka Math. Parvatas and Sagaras Sannyasins are aligned with the Puri Math. It is not known whether the Dasanami orders came into existence at the time of Adi-Sankara or at a later date. It has been the Dasanami Sannyasins that have spread the popularity of Advaita and sannyas more so than the four maths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi-Sankara himself received sannyas. Sannyas is one of the four asramas, stages, of life described in the Vedas (brahmacharya, garhasthya, vanaprastha, and sannyas). People have been taking to sannyas for thousands of years, it was not new to Adi-Sankara. Sannyas is taught in the Brahma Sutras (3.4.17) as well as the Upanishads (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.22, Mundaka Upanishad 1.2.11, and Chhandogya Upanishad 5.10.1) and the Gita (VI. 1., and XVIII. 2.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A sannyas who lived in the B.C. period as famous as Adi-Sankara? - the man who came to be known as the Buddha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-04-18T11:30:16.313" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7073" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-18T15:05:12.937" Score="2" ViewCount="235" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard from my grandmother that there was a war fought by the people of srirangam most of whom are Iyengars to get the idol of the srirangam temple deity from the Delhi sultan. I know that there are generally two deities in the temple : The stone one (serpant) and the bronze idol. I also heard that there is actually one more statue which was made when the original was taken away. Also that there is a place in the temple dedicated to the Muslim princess- the daughter of the Sultan. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;What exactly is the story behind this temple ? I mean right from the start : Who got the idol done in the first place and was there really  a war fought by the people of Srirangam ? There are a few accounts online which I've read and alos the mahatmyam. But none of them are comprehensive. I would be glad if someone can give a &lt;strong&gt;comprehensive view of the entire story.&lt;/strong&gt; If possible, please do add the source of your information so that it can be verified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2673" LastActivityDate="2015-12-23T08:11:43.560" Title="Did the people of Srirangam really fight a war ?" Tags="|temple|history|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7074" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-18T16:58:21.380" Score="5" ViewCount="1270" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7044/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata describes exactly who incarnated as each of the major characters in the Mahabharata.  Concerning Kripacharya, guru of the Pandavas and Kauravas, it says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And, O king, that Brahman sage who, on earth, was known by the name of Kripa and was the embodiment of all manliness was born of the tribe of the Rudras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, the Rudras are a group of 11 Vedic gods associated with Shiva, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3886/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/62/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In several scriptures including &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, their names are given as Manyu, Manu, Mahinasa, Mahān, Śiva, Ṛtadhvaja, Ugraretā, Bhava, Kāla, Vāmadeva and Dhṛtavrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, which of the Rudras was Kripacharya an incarnation of?  Was he an incarnation of Shiva, or one of the other Rudras?  Are there any scriptures that discuss this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-01-22T13:44:31.780" Title="Which of Shiva's Rudras was Kripacharya an incarnation of?" Tags="|shiva|mahabharata|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7075" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-18T18:22:04.457" Score="7" ViewCount="2195" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the relation or connection of Saraswati (Vak - Vani) with the River Saraswati and with the Hindu Trinity or Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2820" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-14T10:11:25.657" LastActivityDate="2018-02-14T10:11:25.657" Title="What is the relation of Saraswati (Vak) with the River Saraswati and Trinity or Brahman?" Tags="|vedas|brahma|rig-veda|saraswati|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7077" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-19T05:13:45.047" Score="2" ViewCount="353" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is the biggest god in hinduism? I mean the god who is not created by other god or the god who exist before all of other gods? The purpose to ask this question is to identify the the biggest character in Hinduism. As other religious peoples consider the God is the one not created by others and he is the one existing before each and every creation. So the answer may help to identify who is the god in hinduism equal to the god in other religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1082" LastEditorUserId="1082" LastEditDate="2015-04-21T18:14:54.983" LastActivityDate="2015-04-21T18:14:54.983" Title="Who is the biggest god in hinduism?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2015-04-19T05:19:22.963" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7078" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2255" CreationDate="2015-04-19T07:51:09.367" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me tell you something. Please pay attention. We are here from the beginning of the universe. Our Atma is eternal or Amar. Our body is like a dress that we wear. Every birth, we wear a dress and when we die, we leave the dress or open the dress. Now, you would be thinking what happens after death. Well, all our karma is counted, bad or evil, good or bad etc. The Atma never ever dies. When we have enough good karma or we have realised the purpose of our birth, the Atma gets promoted to a higher dimension or what many say heaven. We get mukti or moksha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="598" LastEditorUserId="467" LastEditDate="2015-04-19T14:31:20.443" LastActivityDate="2015-04-19T14:31:20.443" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7079" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2612" CreationDate="2015-04-19T11:18:06.140" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;We Close our eyes in temple because when we were small. Our parents use to tell us to close our eyes when praying, or go to the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the people are also not interested to know about the reason . I also don't know the reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But what i think when we go to temple when we see beautiful statue of&#xA;  god and then when we closes our eyes and then we are trying to imagine&#xA;  the same god live in our mind.  So that we could be with him whole day&#xA;  and it create more devotion also..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="594" LastActivityDate="2015-04-19T11:18:06.140" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7082" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7075" CreationDate="2015-04-20T03:14:13.303" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They're all one and the same.&lt;/strong&gt;  That is to say, Brahma's wife, who has a variety of names including Saraswati and Vak, is both the goddess of the Saraswati river and the goddess of speech/learning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To demonstrate that Saraswati and Vak are one and the same, &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/o5in&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is an excerpt from the Matsya Purana which describes the birth of Saraswati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma, after creating His manasa putras, was not quite satisfied with the work of His creation.... After some time the goddess Gayatri, known under different names, viz. — Satarupa, Savitrf, &lt;strong&gt;Sarasvati&lt;/strong&gt;, Brahmani, etc, — appeared in the form of a girl from the half portion of Brahma's body.... Afterwards, the Creator, seeing that form of exquisite beauty, was fired with love and repeatedly uttered, &amp;quot; What an enchanting form!&amp;quot; At this, the Manas putras of Brahma, i.e., Vasishtha, etc., taking Savitri for their sister, began to express their feelings of seething indignation and contempt at the attitude of Their Father (Lord Brahma), but He was so much absorbed in love that He did not heed anything in the least.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is related to why Brahma has four heads, by the way; see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6793/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Now &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is a description of the same story from the Srimad Bhagavatam, except this time she's called Vak:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Vidura, we have heard that Brahmā had a daughter named &lt;strong&gt;Vāk&lt;/strong&gt; who was born from his body and who attracted his mind toward sex, although she was not sexually inclined towards him.  Thus, finding their father so deluded in an act of immorality, the sages headed by Marīci, all sons of Brahmā, spoke [against it].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So these are just different names for the same goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as far as the Saraswati river goes, Brahma's wife Saraswati took the form as a river as a way of dealing with the famous Vadavagni fire, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/1UBI&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/q4Gs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Prabhasa Khanda of the Skanda Purana.  Most people only know about Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama, the brahmana who killed the kings over the world 21 times because the evil king Kartavirya had Parashurama's father Jamadagni killed.  But Kartavirya Arjuna and his Haihaya army had been tormenting Parashurama's tribe, the Bhargava Brahmanas, for a long time before that incident.  Once, before Parashurama was even born, a Bhargava sage decided to fight back, by creating an immensely powerful fiery horse called Vadvagani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vadavagni was virtually uncontrollable, and it decided that it wanted to destroy the three worlds with its fire, starting with the gods. The gods turned to Brahma for help, and Brahma (as usual) turned to Vishnu. Vishnu went to Vadavagni and persuaded it that it would be impractical to kill all the gods at once, so it would be better to kill them one at a time, and he suggested that it should start by killing Varuna the ocean god.  Vadavagni agreed and asked to be carried to the ocean.  But none of the existing rivers were willing to carry it, because they were afraid of being consumed by its fire. So Vishnu persuaded Brahma's wife Saraswati to turn into a river in order to carry Vadavagni to the ocean, which she agreed to do after asking Brahma's permission:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Janardana, the Lord of Devas, spoke to Sarasvati: &amp;quot;0 auspicious one, you yourself go over to the west of the briny sea. If this is carried out, all the Suras will be rid of their fear. Otherwise they will be burned by the Vaclava through its refulgence. So, save Vibudhas (Suras) from this terrible fear. 0 lady of excellent waist, like a mother you alone can bestow freedom from fear on the Suras.&amp;quot;  On being told thus by Vishnu, the powerful one, she said: &amp;quot;I am not free. My father, the ancient one, is waiting. Being a daughter and having Vratas to be performed, I can only do what he orders. A daughter is never independent in the past, present and future. So learned men say. 0 Hari, without the specific command of my father, I will not move even a step. So, may some other means be thought of.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having known her attitude, Vasudeva approached Pitamaha (Brahma) and said: &amp;quot;This is the task of Devas. Carry it out. Excepting this virgin daughter of yours, without any apparent defect, no one else can carry the Vadava fire of great prowess.&amp;quot;  On hearing the words uttered by Vispu, the Great-grandfather sniffed the head of his virgin daughter and said lovingly:  &amp;quot;0 fair lady, do go. Save all the Devas caught in the midst of fearful danger. Take this Vadava with you and cast it into the salt sea.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Saraswati carried it on a long journey to the ocean, and at the end Vadavagni was so grateful that it offered Saraswati for a boon.  On Vishnu's advice, Saraswati asked that Vadavagni's mouth become very small, that way it would never be able to consume the whole ocean.  So to this day, the fiery horse Vadavagni dwells somewhere deep within the ocean, causing small amounts of ocean water to evaporate with its flames.  It is said that when Kalki comes, Vadavagni will be Kalki's horse, which he'll use to rid the world of evil as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2876/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T06:43:32.893" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7083" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7085" CreationDate="2015-04-20T04:43:27.780" Score="4" ViewCount="607" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dara Shikoh's translations of 50 out of 108 Upanishads is said to be the most authentic source of the Upanishads available to date. Which is the best book available in the market which compiles all of Dara Shikoh's works on the Upanishads?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-04-26T14:59:42.583" LastActivityDate="2016-03-27T07:25:21.547" Title="Is there any English versions available for Dara Shikoh's 50 Upanishadic translations?" Tags="|upanishads|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7084" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-20T05:35:15.623" Score="3" ViewCount="1386" Body="&lt;p&gt;The shortest of all the Upanishads is known as the Mandukya Upanishad.  It's only twelve verses long, and it isn't mentioned much in Hindu scripture, but it grew into prominence after Gaudapada, the early Advaita Acharya who was Adi Shankaracharya's guru's guru, composed a famous Karika or commentary on it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Madhvacharya, exponent of the Dvaita school, believed that at least the first chapter of what is considered as Gaudapada's Karika wasn't composed by Gaudapada at all.  Instead, he thought that it was composed by Brahma, who was commenting on the Mandukya Upanishad as it was originally being recited by Varuna the ocean god; &lt;a href=&quot;http://nageshsonde.com/images/Sri_Madhva_Mandukya_Upanishad.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Madhvacharya says in his commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the form of a Manduka (a frog), Varuna eulogized the four-fold Sriman Narayana, meditating on Sriman Narayana, encompassed by Aum, Varuna, praised immutable Sri Hari, thus has it been said in Padma Purana.... Thus did Varuna himself, in the form of Manduka (frog) realize himself. Thus has it been mentioned in Harivamsha....  The man~ which were „seen’ by Brahma are the premises, O Lord of the Waters (Varuna). „A~Oto Slaaok:‟ thus is spoken piece by piece. Thus has it been said in Garuda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what is the basis of Madhvacharya's claim that the seer of the Mandukya Upanishad is Varuna the ocean god in the form of a frog (Manduka), and that the commentator is Brahma?  He cites quotes from the Padma Purana, Harivamsa, and Garuda Purana, but does anyone know where exactly they are in those texts?  The quotes are written out in Devanagari script in pages 1 and 2 &lt;a href=&quot;http://nageshsonde.com/images/Sri_Madhva_Mandukya_Upanishad.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; if that helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a side note I'm a Sri Vaishnava, and it seems that at least some Sri Vaishnava Acharyas have similar beliefs about the beginning of Gaudapada's Karika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-01T19:13:46.827" LastActivityDate="2017-05-01T19:13:46.827" Title="Does Madhvacharya correctly attribute the Mandukya Upanishad and Gaudapada's commentary to Varuna and Brahma?" Tags="|upanishads|advaita|madhvacharya|mandukya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7085" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7083" CreationDate="2015-04-20T05:45:42.047" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I can tell, there are no direct English translations of Dara Shikoh's translation.  But it looks like in the late 1700's, Anquetil Duperron translated Shikoh's Persian translation into Latin, as described &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01010.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In that year Anquetil Duperron, the famous traveller and discoverer of the Zend-avesta, received one MS. of the Persian translation of the Upanishads, sent to him by M. Gentil, the French resident at the court of Shuja ud daula, and brought to France by M. Bernier. After receiving another MS., Anquetil Duperron collated the two, and translated the Persian translation 2 into French (not published), and into Latin. That Latin translation was published in 1801 and 1802, under the title of 'Oupnek'hat,'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flipkart.com/oupnek-hat-english/p/itmdrqm8jgzzgaf4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This book&lt;/a&gt; seems to be the only English translation available of the Oupnek'hat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-27T07:25:21.547" LastActivityDate="2016-03-27T07:25:21.547" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7086" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-20T07:46:35.983" Score="2" ViewCount="3687" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Devon Ke Dev Mahadev serial, I see that Shathabisha was rejected from entering the Brahma Lok to meet Brahma Dev.&#xA;He and his father tries to harm Daksha Prajapati.&#xA;His father organizes a Ritual and invites Sati to be present for that.&#xA;While Sati was in her journey with her sisters (Diti and Aditi), Shathabisha tries to kill them by sending Snakes.&#xA;Later he sends some armed people to kill her and Siva continuously protects Her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know whether the Shathabisha was the Asterism or some other Brahman / King with that name and who was his father?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2825" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T05:46:41.467" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T05:46:41.467" Title="Who is the father of Shathabisha, the king who tried to kill Sati?" Tags="|shiva-purana|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7088" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7095" CreationDate="2015-04-20T11:05:03.377" Score="5" ViewCount="2584" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is an incident in Mahabharata when Bhishma was destroying the Pandava army furiously and Arjuna was still not fighting with high spirits. At that time, Krishna became furious with Arjuna and he used a wheel of a chariot as his chakra and spoke angrily to Arjuna that if he isn't willing to kill Bhishma, he will have to do the job himself. This is what I have seen/read in TV serials/comic books based on the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is, even if Krishna wanted to kill Bhishma, he couldn't have, because of the &lt;em&gt;ichcha-mrityu&lt;/em&gt; (death at will) boon of Bhishma, so why would Krishna even attempt to do such a thing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="193" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-11-12T18:04:49.377" LastActivityDate="2020-10-02T21:30:01.200" Title="How could Lord Krishna kill Bhishma even if he wanted to?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhishma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7089" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-20T11:06:44.687" Score="4" ViewCount="406" Body="&lt;p&gt;After the marriage of Devaki, there was an &lt;em&gt;Akashvani&lt;/em&gt; (voice of sky) warning Kamsa (Devaki's Brother) that her eight son would kill him. When Kamsa tried to kill Devaki, Devaki's husband stopped Kamsa assuring him that he will give Kamsa all eight sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is: If birth of Krishna was a preplanned agenda and Krishna was going to kill Kamsa, what was the point of warning Kamsa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. If I misinterpreted &lt;em&gt;Akashvani&lt;/em&gt; as &lt;em&gt;Voice of Sky&lt;/em&gt;, please correct me. If it meant Prophecy, then whose voice was it? And, why did he/she/it reveals the plan to Kamsa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2828" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-04-20T12:14:07.383" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T12:55:10.210" Title="Why did Akash (sky) betray the gods?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7091" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2318" CreationDate="2015-04-20T16:51:16.430" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do Hindus worship different Gods if they believe in only one God which is parabrahma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This question it self is STUPID one, Worshiping is for MAINTAIN good Healthy Body (Neutral) and Pure the Mind (Negative), Like Universe, Like Electricity Our Human Body is concerned with Param Atma or Para Brahman as The Supreme God EXISTS in ALL as ONE in ALL and ALL in ONE in FORMLESS Status and Who does not belong to any Individual and WHO is COMMON to all, EQUAL to All, and IMPARTIAL to All, When An Independent Positive Energy (Shiv) ATTRACTS and INTER ACT and If Energy (Shiv) is transformed into Neutral (Vishnu) of Negative (Shakti) then at certain point of time (approximately 45 days after Female Nensus Period stopped) Life Force (Supreme God) enters through Navel Point Hole (Body=Vishnu or Neutral)into Neutral(Uterus or Womb = Vishnu) and for Human Female it can be confirmed through Urine Test as Positive (means Pregnant and Life Force Entered), In Neutral (Vishnu - Uterus or Womb) itself the Rest of the Formalities are going on as Preserved, Generated and Converted and FORMED as a Child and it means, While at the time of Life Force Entered from that time Brahma(life force of universe)is Incarnated and on the same time the Contrast Nature of Rudra (mind of universe) is Incarnated and once the Vishnu (Body of the Universe) Formed (approximately 10 months or 300 days for growth for human child) and at the time of Delivery Mind Force (Shakti) activates Indirectly or Negatively electric charged the Rudra (Mind) and Neutral Force (Vishnu = Body it self its own Neutral force) Activating the Body and Both Mind Force &amp;amp; Neutral Force are Attached with each other as Inter=Dependent, Inter-Related and Inseparable as TWINS, Where Vishnu is Elder Brother and Shakti is Younger Sister. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Firstly, Param Shiv (Energy)an independent positive energy= Male Gender God's Energy is Transformed First into Neutral (Vishnu) of Negative (Shakti) = Female Gender God and then only at certain point of time The Supreme God (Life Force) into Vishnu (Neutral) an attachment of Shakti(Negative) and Brahma = Universal Life Force, Rudra = Universal Mind and Maha Vishnu = Universal Body are all Incarnated in the Neutral (Vishnu) of Negative (Shakti) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Universal Body as Maha Vishnu Formed with Brahma (Formless) as Universal Life Force  and Rudra (Formless Negative) as Universal Mind (Destiny) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma (Universal Soul) is Directly Activated by Param Shiv (Positive Energy) and Rudra (Universal Mind  is Indirectly activated by Para Shakti (Mind FOrce) and Maha Vishnu being the Universal Body and Neutral Force on his own Neutralize or Balance Both positive (SHiv) and Negative (Shakti), Kindly Refer Medical Science for How Human Babies or CHild are formed? and Vedas is Traditional Science and its duty to Unleash the truth and done it.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;past 4000 years ago all of us were following Vedas or Sanatana Dharma and there was no religion at all, suddenly One Individual Formed Judaism as one Religion and in that updated the Following Points Which are False, Fabricated and Devoid from the Truths :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Supreme God is One and Only One&#xA;Yes The Supreme God as Para Brahman or Param Atman (as the Life Force) is One and Only One and that makes the difference as Who is Life Force as One and Only to all. Can Universe, All its existing Bodies and we the Humans etc., etc.,  can Exist and  Formed with Visible or Physical Bodies? The Universe, All its Existing Things, We the Humans etc., etc., are  Existing with Life Force (Supreme God) since Who is the Supreme Nature of Ever Existing Life Force, but that alone can not make the said above thing into Live and Visible Conditions, and Mind &amp;amp; Body (Formed Physical or Visible Body) attached together for Existence and either if Mind or Body collapse then The Universe or Human Body is Destroyed, and Mind Departures to Uncertainty.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So The Vedas clearly says The Supreme God is one as the Supreme Life Force, but Positive Energy or Spiritual Energy(Shiv) is also One as the Universal Father and Negative Energy(Mind Force) or Material Energy (Para Shakti &amp;amp; Vishnu attached together with two different Nature of Formless Negative &amp;amp; Formed Body) and when Shive Transformed his Positive Energy into Neutral (Vishnu) an attachment of Shakti (Negative) then First Life Force (Brahma) Enters and so Brahma is Incarnated, then Rudra Contrast to Life Force as Mind is Incarnated and finally Maha Vishnu (Greater Body) is Formed and delivered as the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;So The Universe ( Matter) is Not Created by The Supreme God, but Formed by Anti Matter (Energy (+ve) = Param Shiv) and Matter (Parashakti &amp;amp; Vishnu attached - Negative &amp;amp; Neutral). The Universal Truth is MALE GENDER CAN ONLY TRANSFORM ENERGY BUT CAN NOT FORM CREATE ANYTHING ON ITS OWN, AND FEMALE GENDER DOES NOT OWN ANY ENERGY EXCEPT IF IT IS TRANSFORMED INTO ITS NEUTRAL THEN IT CAN FORM AND DELIVER THE MATTER,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2829" LastActivityDate="2015-04-20T16:51:16.430" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7093" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-21T05:14:37.733" Score="8" ViewCount="2279" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said in all Vedas and Puranas that everything happened in and around India during Treta Yuga and Dwapara Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then what about the rest of the world during that time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was it barren? Was nobody living there?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard about the Aztec World and the Pyramids of Egypt. Were they present the same time as Treta and Dwapara Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in Satya Yuga, who lived? Were there human beings or just Manu and the 7 sages? And did they live on Earth or somewhere else or spread across the entire universe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T05:37:49.913" LastActivityDate="2019-02-24T12:44:18.940" Title="Living in Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga and Dwapara Yuga" Tags="|yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7095" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7088" CreationDate="2015-04-21T08:12:47.410" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to me, even if Bhishma couldn't be killed but still there were other ways of stopping him. If you know about the story of Samudra Manthan and what happened afterwards with Rahu, you can probably imagine what could Lord Krishna might have done. As per the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata the following describes what happened with Rahu after he drank Amrit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And all the gods at that time of great fright drank the Amrita with&#xA;  delight, receiving it from Vishnu. And while the gods were partaking&#xA;  of it, after which they had so much hankered, a Danava named Rahu was&#xA;  also drinking it among them in the guise of a god. And when the Amrita&#xA;  had reached Rahu's throat only, Surya and Soma (recognised him and)&#xA;  intimated the fact to the gods. And Narayana instantly cut off with&#xA;  his discus the well-adorned head of the Danava who was drinking the&#xA;  Amrita without permission. And the huge head of the Danava, cut off by&#xA;  the discus and resembling a mountain peak, then rose up to the sky and&#xA;  began to utter dreadful cries. And the Danava's headless trunk,&#xA;  falling upon the ground and rolling thereon, made the Earth tremble&#xA;  with her mountains, forests and islands. And from that time there is a&#xA;  long-standing quarrel between Rahu's head and Surya and Soma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as we can see, Rahu had consumed Amrit so he could have been a problem as he became immortal but still Lord Vishnu cut him off, disabling him to create any major troubles. Lord Krishna had used Wheel in the form of Charka, so i believe he might be trying to do the same here. If Bhishma's head would be cut off then he won't be able to fight but can still be alive. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have another example of the same act with Barbarik (son of Ghatotkach), who could have proven to be a problem for both Pandav and Kaurav army, so Lord Krishna also used the same technique with him, i.e., he discussed with Barbarik and it was mutually agreed that Barbarik's head will be cut off so that he couldn't participate in the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-04-21T08:18:12.910" LastActivityDate="2015-04-21T08:18:12.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7097" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2002" CreationDate="2015-04-21T16:10:10.500" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is the verse from Ramayana that Rama left eating meat for 14 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चतुर्दश हि वर्षाणि वत्स्यामि विजने वने | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;मधु मूल फलैः जीवन् हित्वा मुनिवद् आमिषम् || २-२०-२९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I shall live in a solitary forest like a sage for fourteen years, leaving off meat and living with roots, fruits and honey.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama Chandra, even being a king, stood on his oath and left eating non-vegetarian food for 14 years.&#xA;So I think, today's Hindus should learn from it to avoid eating meat as there is no more a system of a king ruling a kingdom. Exception should be only for a few like soldiers, sports persons and laborers etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sundarakanda, Hanuma is telling Sita and she is listening with a lot of happiness filled in her eyes. I am writing here with utmost respect towards Rama Chandra prabhu. Hanuma is telling about, then current condition of Rama as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न मांसं राघवो भुङ्क्ते न चापि मधुसेवते | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;वन्यं सुविहितं नित्यं भक्तमश्नाति पञ्चमम् || ५-३६-४१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: He is not eating meat anymore, nor indulging in liquor (not even spiritual liquor) and he is just eating the fruits available from forest which are well arranged for him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/iso/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Isopanishad says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;īśāvāsyam idam sarvaṁ  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat &lt;br&gt;&#xA;tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā &lt;br&gt;&#xA;mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kings are allowed to eat meat. Lord Rama ate Deer meat. Sita cooked it as per Ramayana. Sage Agasthya ate meat during a ritual where Pitru Karma is performed. During Pitru Karma or performing rituals of the dead, eating meat was allowed in olden days but not in kaliyuga. That's why when sage Agasthya ate meat he digested Vatapi with his saying &amp;quot;Jeernam Jeernam Vatapi Jeernam&amp;quot;. Likewise Dharma varies based on the time and period. It has to be taken wisely to eat meat or not. So it depends on time and period and based on one's conscience. Nowadays it is very tough for people to give proper Dharma on eating meat in this Kaliyuga. But it is very much advisable to avoid it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2802" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-19T16:54:48.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7098" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-21T18:29:00.797" Score="6" ViewCount="1767" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Hindu planetary system, Rahu and Ketu take an invisible place. But we use to find their periodic presence in houses. In modern science, asteroid belts are  between Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids are basically the ones which failed to form as a planet or parts of destroyed planet. Rahu and Ketu also destroyed individual in the shape of snake. Asteroid belt is also a ring around the sun with dust and stones. Is this asteroid belt considered as invisible Rahu and Ketu in our ancient Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1082" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-05-07T20:34:42.750" LastActivityDate="2018-10-02T00:52:01.263" Title="Rahu and Ketu in planetary location" Tags="|astrology|navagraha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7099" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7098" CreationDate="2015-04-21T20:33:28.923" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, Rahu and Ketu are not related to the asteroid belt.&lt;/strong&gt;  Rather, they denote the two &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_node#Names_and_symbols&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;lunar nodes&lt;/a&gt;, the points where the Moon's orbit around the Earth crosses the ecliptic, the path of the Sun in the sky.  Here is what this book says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[T]he orbit of the Moon intersects with the ecliptic at two points[.]...  These two points are referred to as the ascending and descending nodes of the Moon.  They are called Rahu and Ketu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when the Sun or Moon passes through one of the lunar nodes, an eclipse occurs.  This is Rahu and Ketu's revenge on the gods Surya and Chandra, as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/491/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-05-01T03:28:00.550" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7101" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-22T01:52:09.623" Score="1" ViewCount="157" Body="&lt;p&gt;Somebody said in one of my other questions &quot;In the beginning when creation occurs, God Himself enters the creation as good and bad and manifests as different material nature&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why would God Himself enter the creation as BAD? Was it just because God wanted to have some fun? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-10T01:47:35.907" LastActivityDate="2016-04-10T01:47:35.907" Title="Good and Bad Creation" Tags="|brahman|creation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7102" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-22T02:06:46.370" Score="6" ViewCount="1481" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard about the 4 Yugas, the Mahayuga and how Brahma created everything and how many human years is equivalent to Brahma's 1 single day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But to which Yuga did the Dinosaurs belong to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T03:19:32.790" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T03:19:32.790" Title="Yugas and Dinosaurs" Tags="|yuga|brahma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="35" ClosedDate="2017-09-13T12:08:18.120" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7104" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-22T05:45:05.240" Score="19" ViewCount="2094" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most prominent thinker of the Advaita Vedanta school is Adi Shankaracharaya, but he wasn't the founder of Advaita; Adi Shankaracharaya's guru Govinda and Govinda's guru Gaudapada were also Advaitins.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7084/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Gaudapada is famous for his commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad.  But I'm interested in Gaudapada himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Guru_Parampar%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, according to Advaitin tradition Gaudapada was the student of the sage Shuka, son of the sage Vyasa, and then the Advaita Sampradaya is traced back through Shuka's ancestors: Vyasa, Parashara, Shakti, Vashishta, Brahma, and ultimately Vishnu.  My question is, what is the story of how Gaudapada met the sage Shuka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've found one possible story which is from a seventeenth-century work called the Patanjali Charitam.  In this account Gaudapada starts out as a student of Patanjali, the ancient grammarian and author of the Yoga Sutras. But Gaudapada displeases Patanjali, who curses him to turn into a Brahmarakshasa or cannibalistic demon.  The only way for Gaudapada to be free from the curse is for someone to correctly answer a Sanskrit grammar question.  After many years of roaming the forest as a Brahmrakshasa, Gaudapada finally comes across Govinda, a boy who correctly answers the question.  Gaudapada then proceeds to teach the boy all about Sanskrit grammar, and this finally frees Gaudapada from the curse.  After he returns to his human form, Gaudapada goes to Badarikashrama, where he meets the sage Shuka and becomes his disciple. Then years later, Govinda goes to Badarikashrama and finds out that Gaudapada is now an Advaita Acharya, so he decides to become his disciple (taken from this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2012-February/030925.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;forum post&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Gaudapada taught the boy, he was released from the curse. He then went northward searching for a guru. Having heard that Sukadeva was identified with the entire universe, he felt a desire to become his sishya and learn from him. After a long search he met Suka at Badari and was initiated by him into Advaita Darshana....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After searching in various places, [Govinda] finally went to Badari and met his old guru who had taught him grammar. He learnt that Gaudapada had become a sannyasi. He too took sannyasa from him. From then on, he was called Govinda Bhagavadpada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any older works that confirm the story given in the Patanjali Charitam?  Are there any alternate accounts of how Gaudapada and Shuka met?  I'd like to try to find the oldest known story of their meeting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-10-02T08:01:42.890" Title="How did the Advaita Acharya Gaudapada meet Vyasa's son Shuka?" Tags="|history|vedanta|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="30" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7108" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19905" CreationDate="2015-04-22T15:05:28.963" Score="6" ViewCount="333" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read an article on the french version of Wikipedia where it was said that &lt;strong&gt;Ahimsâ&lt;/strong&gt; was personified as a goddess with &lt;strong&gt;Ahimsâ dévî&lt;/strong&gt;, wife of the &lt;strong&gt;Dharma&lt;/strong&gt; god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand what Ahimsâ is but I have trouble understanding the relation between Ahimsâ and Dharma because for me they are concepts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone explain me who is exactly &lt;strong&gt;Ahimsâ dévî&lt;/strong&gt; and if there is traditional representation of her for exemple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimsa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;french wikipedia link&lt;/a&gt; (part &lt;strong&gt;Personnification&lt;/strong&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dans la mythologie hindoue, ahiṃsā est personnifiée par Ahimsâ dévî, la déesse de la non-violence : elle est l'épouse du dieu Dharma (devoir universel), et est donc sa Shakti ; elle est la mère du dieu Vishnou.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English translation :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hindu mythology, is personified by Ahimsa Ahimsa Devi, the goddess of non-violence: it is the wife of the god Dharma (universal duty), and so is his Shakti; she is the mother of the god Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2841" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2018-02-20T07:11:40.267" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T07:11:40.267" Title="Who was Ahimsâ dévî?" Tags="|goddess|ahimsa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7109" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7101" CreationDate="2015-04-23T05:40:56.023" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda V3 p 94-95 or &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We may well say that we are all playing in this universe. Just as children play their games, just as the most glorious kings and emperors play their own games, so is the Beloved Lord Himself in sport with this universe. He is perfect; He does not want anything. Why should He create? Activity is always with us for the fulfilment of a certain want, and want always presupposes imperfection. God is perfect; He has no wants. Why should He go on with this work of an ever-active creation? What purpose has He in view? The stories about God creating this world for some end or other that we imagine are good as stories, but not otherwise. It is all really in sport; the universe is His play going on. The whole universe must after all be a big piece of pleasing fun to Him. If you are poor, enjoy that as fun; if you are rich, enjoy the fun of being rich; if dangers come, it is also good fun; if happiness comes, there is more good fun. The world is just a playground, and we are here having good fun, having a game; and God is with us playing all the while, and we are with Him playing. God is our eternal playmate. How beautifully He is playing! The play is finished when the cycle: comes to an end. There is rest for a shorter or longer time; again all come out and play. It is only when you forget that it is all play and that you are also helping in the play, it is only then that misery and sorrows come. Then the heart becomes heavy, then the world weighs upon you with tremendous power. But as soon as you give up the serious idea of reality as the characteristic of the changing incidents of the three minutes of life and know it to be but a stage on which we are playing, helping Him to play, at once misery ceases for you. He plays in every atom; He is playing when He is building up earths, and suns, and moons; He is playing with the human heart, with animals, with plants. We are His chessmen; He puts the chessmen on the board and shakes them up. He arranges us first in one way and then in another, and we are consciously or unconsciously helping in His play. And, oh, bliss! we are His playmates!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You learn to see evil or bad. Small babies see no evil. The Astavakra Samhita (I.7) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Virtue and vice, pleasure and pain, are of the mind, not of you, O all-pervading one. You are neither doer nor enjoyer. Verily you are ever free.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in I.11:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who considers himself free is free indeed, and he who considers himself bound remains bound. 'As one thinks, so one becomes' is a popular saying in this world, and is quite true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Light shines on everything, so the Lord is in everything. See the Lord shining in everything. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the Gita (II. 14)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Notions of heat and cold, of pain and pleasure, arise, O son of Kunti, only from contact of the senses with their objects. They come and go; they are impermanent. Endure them, O Bharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in II. 19:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who looks on the Self as the slayer, and he who looks on the Self as the slain--neither of these apprehends aright. The Self slays not nor is slain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All notions of bad and good are only in your mind. Remove the thorn of tamas with the thorn of sattva. Then throw both away. Your mind cannot see two things at the same time. You can only see one thing at a time. If you are seeing evil, then you are not seeing God. If you see God, you cannot see evil. You cannot change the world, but you can change your mind. See God in everything. The world will become transformed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vivekananda says in V5 p 254 or &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_5/vol_5_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_5/vol_5_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No breathing, no physical training of Yoga, nothing is of any use until you reach to the idea, &quot;I am the Witness.&quot; Say, when the tyrant hand is on your neck, &quot;I am the Witness! I am the Witness!&quot; Say, &quot;I am the Spirit! Nothing external can touch me.&quot; When evil thoughts arise, repeat that, give that sledge-hammer blow on their heads, &quot;I am the Spirit! I am the Witness, the Ever-Blessed! I have no reason to do, no reason to suffer, I have finished with everything, I am the Witness. I am in my picture gallery — this universe is my museum, I am looking at these successive paintings. They are all beautiful. Whether good or evil. I see the marvellous skill, but it is all one. Infinite flames of the Great Painter!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-04-23T05:40:56.023" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7110" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7111" CreationDate="2015-04-23T06:05:05.643" Score="12" ViewCount="3046" Body="&lt;p&gt;While on Shiva Temple, we does not walk full clockwise around the temple, why? What is the reason behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2843" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-04-23T11:20:31.130" LastActivityDate="2019-05-05T12:38:11.657" Title="Why can't we walk full clockwise in shiva temple?" Tags="|shiva|practice|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7111" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7110" CreationDate="2015-04-23T10:53:57.177" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, I have heard something like this :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is always an outlet (opening for letting out the &quot;Theerth&quot;) on one side of the platform or room where the deity is embarked. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have you ever noticed that it points to the North (If located in India) ? &#xA;That means logically it is an opening or passage to Mount Kailas (in the northest part of India). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that &quot;BhoothGana&quot; come and go out frequently to visit the Lord, using this passage. So it is supposed that we block their path when we walk in a full circle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is why we just turn back when we reach this outlet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2845" LastEditorUserId="2845" LastEditDate="2015-05-04T17:39:08.957" LastActivityDate="2015-05-04T17:39:08.957" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7112" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-23T12:21:34.877" Score="2" ViewCount="556" Body="&lt;p&gt;It has been established that Ateshgah temple in Baku, Azerbaijan is indeed a Hindu temple and not a Zoroastrian temple with discovery of Sanskrit inscriptions praising Lord Shiva and Lord Ganesha as shown in &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ateshgah_of_Baku#History&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; wiki article. My questions are as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any proof to the popular perception that it is one of the 54 Shakti Peeth? The association is made with Shakti Peeth because the Baku temple resembles the Jwalamukhi Shakti Peeth in Himachal Pradesh where one can find the 'eternal flames' as well. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any records of pilgrimage to the Baku temple either during the medieval ages or later, in any western or Indian historical archives?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the estimated data of construction of the temple? It must have been a time when Paganism/Hinduism had considerable influence in Central Asia which must push the date well before 1000 AD. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-17T10:12:33.290" LastActivityDate="2018-02-17T10:12:33.290" Title="Ateshgah of Baku, Azerbaijan - A Shakthi Peetha in Central Asia?" Tags="|temple|shakti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7115" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-24T03:44:26.213" Score="2" ViewCount="186" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, Bhishma gives advice to Yudishthira and the Pandavas concerning how to be a good king and how to be good person, while he is lying on a bed of arrows after the end of the Kurukshetra war.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a060.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;, Bhishma tells Yudhisthira about the duties of each of the four stages of life, namely Brahmachari (celibate student), Grihasthi (householder), Vanaprasthi (forest dweller), and Sanyasi (ascetic).  Here is Bhishma says about the Grihasta stage of life:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The person leading the Garhasthya mode of life should, after studying the Vedas, accomplish all the religious acts laid down for him. He should beget children and enjoy pleasures and comforts. With careful attention he should accomplish all the duties of this mode of life that is applauded by ascetics and that is extremely difficult to go through (without transgressions). He should be satisfied with his own wedded wife and should never approach her except her season. He should observe the ordinances of the scriptures, should not be cunning and deceitful. He should be abstemious in diet, devoted to the gods, grateful, mild, destitute of cruelty, and forgiving. He should be of a tranquil heart, tractable and attentive in making offerings to the gods and the Pitris. He should always be hospitable to the Brahmanas. He should be without pride, and his charity should not be confined to any one sect. He should also be always devoted to the performance of the Vedic rites. &lt;strong&gt;In this connection, the illustrious and great Rishis cite a verse sung by Narayana himself, of grave import and endued with high ascetic merit. Listen to me as I repeat it.--'By truth, simplicity, worship of guests, acquisition of morality and profit, and enjoyment of one's own wedded wives, one should enjoy diverse kinds of happiness both here and hereafter.'&lt;/strong&gt; The great Rishis have said that support of sons and wives, and study of the Vedas, form the duties of those that lead this high mode of life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about these duties themselves, but rather the portion in bold, where Bhishma quotes a verse which was &quot;sung by Narayana himself.&quot; My question is, where is this verse from?  Is it a verse of the Vedas?  And when Bhishma says that it was sung by Narayana, does he mean Vishnu himself or does he mean Vishnu's incarnation sage Narayana, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fact that he says &quot;endued with high ascetic merit&quot; suggests that he's referring to the sage Narayana.  And Narayana was the seer of the famous Purusha Sukta of the Rig Veda (see Book 10 Hymn 90 in the Rig Veda Anukramani &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), so it's possible that this is another verse of the Vedas heard from the gods by Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-03-19T14:13:08.663" Title="Where is Narayana's verse about the duties of householders?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|mahabharata|avatars|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7116" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-24T07:07:11.610" Score="3" ViewCount="140" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here's the plot, according to Hindu mythology and the dashavatharas, chronologically, Lord Vamana incarnated before Lord Parushurama. According to the popular folklore and existing beliefs in Kerala, King Mahabali was said to have to have ruled over the land now called Kerala. He is still remembered as one of the greatest rulers who have ever taken throne. Therefore, he's still remembered during the festival of &quot;Onam&quot;. And it is said that Lord Vamana was the one who sentenced Mahabali to his eternal exile. &#xA; But, it is also said that Lord Parusharama is the one who forged the Land of Kerala from his mighty axe. According to Dahshavaratha, chronologically, Lord Vishnu is said to have taken the form of Lord Vamana before that of Lord Parushurama. How? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2852" LastActivityDate="2015-04-24T07:07:11.610" Title="The incarnations of Lord Vamana and Lord Parushurama" Tags="|vishnu|vamana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7117" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7118" CreationDate="2015-04-24T07:20:32.107" Score="-5" ViewCount="309" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the earliest use of modern-day caste system in India? Where is this documented so I can reference it?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;CLARIFICATIONS: These clarifications respond to questions and apparent confusions about what is a simple question. If there is no answer please say so. If down voting, please indicate your reasons. Since caste system is one of the great by-products of Hinduism, it is a valid topic of inquiry. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Modern-day, I meant as we currently understand. I wanted to exclude any ancient categories, such gods or demi-gods or other non-human categories. If I knew anymore about the evolution of castes, I probably won't be asking this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By documented, I meant justification for maintaining those categories into modern age, which includes recent colonial periods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By reference, I meant any other resources besides bibliographic. I kept this deliberately open knowing Hinduism's strong oral tradition. It need not be restricted to scriptures or religious canons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2794" LastEditorUserId="2794" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T14:17:42.903" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T14:17:42.903" Title="Earliest documented use of caste system?" Tags="|caste-system|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="16" ClosedDate="2015-04-25T05:20:31.360" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7118" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7117" CreationDate="2015-04-24T12:56:03.257" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Assuming that you are talking about Indian caste-system. &lt;br&gt;There are several theories regarding the origins of the Indian caste system. One posits that the Indian and Aryan classes (&quot;pistras&quot;) show similarity wherein the priests are Brahmins, the warriors are Kshatriya, the merchants are Vaishya, and the artisans are Shudras.Another theory is that of Georges Dumézil, who formulated thetrifunctional hypothesis of social class. According to the Dumézil theory, ancient societies had three main classes, each with distinct functions: the first judicial and priestly, the second connected with the military and war, and the third class focused on production, agriculture, craft and commerce. Dumézil proposed that Rex-Flamen of the Roman Empire is etymologically similar to Raj-Brahman of ancient India and that they made offerings to deus and deva respectively, each with statutes of conduct, dress and behaviour that were similar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Caste used to be considered as an ancient fact of Hindu life, but various contemporary scholars have argued that the caste system as it exists today is the result of the British colonial regime, which made caste organisation a central mechanism of administration.According to scholars such as the anthropologist Nicholas Dirks, before colonialism caste affiliation was quite loose and fluid, but the British regime enforced caste affiliation rigorously, and constructed a much more strict hierarchy than existed previously, with some castes being criminalised and others being given preferential treatment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2826" LastEditorUserId="2826" LastEditDate="2015-04-24T13:01:21.790" LastActivityDate="2015-04-24T13:01:21.790" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7121" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7146" CreationDate="2015-04-25T20:59:16.987" Score="4" ViewCount="4540" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many Hindu temples have a board which says 'only Hindus allowed beyond this point.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was there a historical event which led to this kind of rule in Hindu temples? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Examples of signboards:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9lcL3m.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9lcL3m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fdgs2m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dRLncm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dRLncm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-16T22:53:28.093" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T22:53:28.093" Title="Why are non-Hindus not allowed inside temples?" Tags="|history|temple|worship|culture|other-religions|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7122" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-25T21:01:41.480" Score="5" ViewCount="615" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, Bhishma gives advice to Yudishthira and the Pandavas concerning how to be a good king and how to be good person, while he's lying on a bed of arrows after the end of the Kurukshetra war.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a034.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;, Bhishma tells Yudhishthira about the importance of giving respect to Brahmanas.  He recounts a number of occasions where Brahmanas used their magical powers to defeat Kshatriyas in battle:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The energy and might of those Kshatriyas who scorch everything with their energy and might become neutralised when they encounter the Brahmanas. The Bhrigus conquered the Talajanghas. The son of Angiras conquered the Nipas. Bharadwaja conquered the Vitahavyas as also the Ailas. O chief of Bharata's race. Although all these Kshatriyas were capable of using diverse kinds of arms, yet the Brahmanas named, owning only black deer skins for their emblems, succeeded in conquering them effectually. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what are the stories of all these incidents alluded to by Bhishma?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhrigus defeating Talajanghas is clearly a reference to Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama, who was a Brahmana descended from Bhrigu and who defeated the king Kartavirya Arjuna and his Haihaiya army. (The Talajanghas are a tribe of the Haihaiyas.) And the sage Bharadwaja defeating the Vitahivyas is a reference to the story of how Bharadwaja went into the body of the prince Pratardana in order to fight the Vitahavyas, described in an &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a030.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;earlier chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when did the sage Bharadwaja fight the Ailas?  For those who don'f know, Ailas are more commonly known as the kings of the Lunar dynasty, who are called Ailas because they are descended from Ila, grandson of Chandra the moon god.  It seems strange that Bharadwaja would fight them, considering that he was raised by the Lunar dynasty king Bharata (after whom India was named) and was the ancestor of a lot of Lunar dynasty kings, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6728/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And when did the son of the sage Angiras fight the Nepas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2022-04-07T22:55:39.013" Title="What are the stories of Brahmanas defeating Kshatriyas mentioned by Bhishma?" Tags="|mahabharata|parashurama|brahmins|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7123" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-26T04:06:37.457" Score="9" ViewCount="456" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, different sages tell Yudhishthira about the benefits they received by praying to Shiva. In particular, the sage Valmiki, author of the Ramayana, says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once upon a time, in course of a dialectical disputation, certain ascetics that were possessors of the homa fire denounced me as one guilty of Brahmanicide. As soon as they had denounced me as such, the sin of Brahmanicide, O Bharata, possessed me. I then, for cleansing myself, sought the protection of the sinless Isana who is irresistible in energy. I become cleansed of all my sins. That dispeller of all sorrows, viz., the destroyer of the triple city of the Asuras, said unto me,--Thy fame shall be great in the world&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is this story of Valmiki being accused of killing a Brahmin?  And did he actually commit the crime?  Valmiki was originally the son of Varuna the ocean god, but he was raised by robbers and became a robber himself, so is it possible that he killed some Brahmana along the way?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if he was innocent, did some &quot;ascetics that were possessors of the homa fire&quot; falsely accuse him just to win a debate against him?  What was this debate about?  Are there any other scriptures which describe this story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T19:30:42.367" LastActivityDate="2024-03-24T06:06:30.820" Title="When was sage Valmiki accused of killing a Brahmin?" Tags="|shiva|mahabharata|ramayana|valmiki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7124" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-26T05:49:14.007" Score="3" ViewCount="441" Body="&lt;p&gt;What does the Vedas and Upanishads say about the nature of Ayam and Atma and how are they different from Purusha and Prakriti?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2015-04-26T05:49:14.007" Title="What does the Vedas and Upanishads say about Ayam and Atma?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7125" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6584" CreationDate="2015-04-26T12:30:17.210" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Atlast I got a physical copy of authentic book of Padmapurana with both Sanskrit verses and corresponding Bengali translations. It matches with the English version I uploaded earlier. I have scanned &amp;amp; uploaded the relevant portion &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5q8Hf9kt6y4ZkFCUzVGQjBBckU/view?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; as I reasonably feel the copyright has expired. Gradually I have uploaded the contents in Unicode Bengali in my Hindu religious &lt;a href=&quot;http://bengali-gita.blogspot.com/2015/04/padmapuran-1.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;blog&lt;/a&gt;. So my main question is now fully answered. Thank you Keshav'ji for helping me get the answer. The complete reference is:-&#xA;&quot;Padmapuran, Uttarkhanda (Bengali)&quot; by Veda Vyas, translated by Sri Tarakanta Debasharrma, Krishnadas Shastri and Sriramdas Shastri, edited by Pandit Panchanan Tarkaratna. Bangabasi-Electro-machine edition, 1915. Published &amp;amp; printed by Sri Natabar Chakraborty for Bangabasi Karyalay, 38/2 Bhabanicaran Datta Street, Kolkata. First Nababharat Edition, 2013 (with identical page layout). Nababharat Publishers, 72 D, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Kolkata-700009. 1062p.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2560" LastEditorUserId="2560" LastEditDate="2015-11-14T16:54:34.880" LastActivityDate="2015-11-14T16:54:34.880" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7126" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7128" CreationDate="2015-04-26T14:21:17.050" Score="2" ViewCount="879" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came to know &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varaha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Varaha deity&lt;/a&gt; in Srimushnam temple taken in procession during festival times. Can anyone confirm this and explain the reason behind this act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another important temple is the Bhuvarahaswami Temple in Srimushnam&#xA;  town, to the northeast of Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu. It was built in the&#xA;  late 16th century by Krishnappa II, a Thanjavur Nayak ruler. The&#xA;  image of Varaha is considered a swayambhu (self manifested) image, one&#xA;  of the eight self-manifested Swayamvyakta Vaishnava kshetras. An&#xA;  inscription in the prakaram (circumambulating passage around the main&#xA;  shrine) quoting from the legend of the Srimushna Mahatmaya (a local&#xA;  legend) mentions the piety one derives in observing festivals during&#xA;  the 12 months of the year when the sun enters a particular zodiacal&#xA;  sign. This temple is venerated by Hindus and Muslims alike. Both&#xA;  communities take the utsava murti (festival image) in procession in&#xA;  the annual temple festival in the Tamil month of Masi&#xA;  (February–March). The deity is credited with many miracles and called&#xA;  Varaha saheb by Muslims.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="327" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-09T13:48:15.410" LastActivityDate="2015-06-09T13:48:15.410" Title="Varaha Deity and Muslim" Tags="|vishnu|temple|varaha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7127" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7129" CreationDate="2015-04-26T14:23:02.647" Score="4" ViewCount="4789" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard and experienced that many literature books of Hinduism are altered/manipulated by non-authors and selfish persons, &lt;a href=&quot;http://agniveer.com/manu-smriti-and-shudras/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; is one example regarding manu-smriti(that I also have experienced). There are more examples but coming to the point, how can I know that vedas are protected from all this corruption.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there are authentic vedas, where would I get/buy them (I don't want mere translations I want devanagari-script vedas with swara matrikas(swara indications)). I would be very grateful if any-one can tell me where could I learn the sawra gyana(knowledge of swaras) and chanting of vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: I am not an atheist, and I want to know more than &lt;a href=&quot;http://agniveer.com/no-textual-corruption-in-vedas/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-08T02:32:29.200" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T20:02:42.030" Title="How can I trust that Vedas are available in their authentic form (yathaswaroop)" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7128" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7126" CreationDate="2015-04-26T15:11:43.173" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason that Bhuvaraha, the Varaha deity in Srimushnam, is venerated by Musllims is that there was a Muslim feudal lord who was cured of cancer after praying to Bhuvaraha.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/fr/2002/03/08/stories/2002030801510600.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; from The Hindu says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, it is pertinent to point out an interesting feature. Evidenced by relics and records, a Muslim feudal lord by name Syed Rahamathullah Suthari of Thaickal, near Killai, was suffering from a painful tumour on his back. On the advice of Killai Uppu Venkata Rao, a tahsildar, the Muslim lord prayed to Lord Bhuvaraha. The God appeared in his dream and he was rid of his ailment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the ruler who had been childless for long, was blessed with a child. Syed Rahamathullah Suthari donated 30 acres of land to Uppu Venkata Rao who built a mandapam at Killai.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Masi Makam Day (February-March), Lord Bhuvaraha is carried on a palanquin from Srimushnam to Killai. At a place called Thaickal, near Killai, (which has a predominant Muslim population) the Lord is carried, to the accompaniment of music, through the streets, housing a mosque and a dargha of the late Syed Rahamathullah. In fact, the descendants of Syed Rahamathullah receive the Lord! The floral garland of the deity is laid on the dargha of the departed soul! At the dargha the Kazi recites from the Quran and prays for peace and prosperity of society. The Hindus also take part in this worship along with the descendants of Syed Rahamathullah. Thus the small sea-side village of Killai remains a shining example of communal harmony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://m.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/religion/symbolising-religious-unity/article3404308.ece/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Another article&lt;/a&gt; from The Hindu provides more detail about how Muslims venerate the statue:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A speciality of the festival at Srimushnam is that the Chariot sports a Muslim flag, symbolising the Hindu-Muslim unity. In fact, every year in the Tamil month of Maasi, the utsava deity goes on a 20-day procession to Killai and other villages near Chidambaram. Another interesting feature is that the Muslims in the area offer prasadams to the Lord Yagyavaraha and in return they take the flowers of the Lord and offer it to Allah. The Muslim devotees are said to thank Allah for having brought Varaha Swamy to their place. The Bhoo Varaha Swamy temple in Srimushnum is the only temple that boasts of such a unity between Muslims and Hindus and this event continues to this day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-05-01T14:08:27.220" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7129" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7127" CreationDate="2015-04-26T16:16:40.177" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The website you linked to actually has all four Vedas with swara indications:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://agniveer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/rv.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://agniveer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/shukla_yajur_veda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shukla Yajur Veda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://agniveer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/sama_veda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sama Veda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://agniveer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/atharva_veda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharvana Veda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, you can trust these PDF files, but I would take the articles on this website with a grain of salt.  They tend to interpret Hindu scripture in order to make it conform to modern sensibilities, in a way that in my view distorts their meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, this website only has the Shukla Yajur Veda Samhita, i.e. the Vajasaneyi Samhita, in Sanskrit.  (The Yajur Veda comes in two versions, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3247/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/yajurveda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is another website that gives the Sanskrit with swara indications for the first chapter of the Krishna Yajur Veda Samhita, i.e. the Taittiriya Samhita, and all of the Taittiriya Brahmana.  I mention the Taittiriya Brahmana because as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6582/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, unlike other Brahmanas part of it consists of mantras heard from the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-04-26T16:25:21.770" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7130" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-26T18:00:05.883" Score="6" ViewCount="165" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3247/what-parts-of-the-taittirya-samhita-of-the-yajur-veda-are-shruti&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; question describes about the 4 sections of each veda and the third section which is aranayaka is guide of rituals and it is said to be ment only for forest-dwellers and sanyasin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since there are many yagnas and other rituals which are performed by grahistas like the Rudra Abhishekam , Soma yagna etc, why is the guide only ment for Sanyasin's.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-12-14T02:47:00.020" Title="Why is Aranaykas section of vedas only ment for hermits and forest-dwellers(sanyasis)" Tags="|vedas|aranyaka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7132" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3235" CreationDate="2015-04-27T06:50:56.627" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a very interesting question.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It seems that we do not cease to be the kind of person that we were, and we do not start from zero again!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There is a confirmation for this in the scriptures. See for example the Bhagavad gita (translation from vedabase at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 6.43: On taking such a birth, he revives the divine consciousness&#xA;  of his previous life, and he again tries to make further progress in&#xA;  order to achieve complete success, O son of Kuru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 6.44: By virtue of the divine consciousness of his previous life,&#xA;  he automatically becomes attracted to the yogic principles — even&#xA;  without seeking them. Such an inquisitive transcendentalist stands&#xA;  always above the ritualistic principles of the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 6.45: And when the yogī engages himself with sincere endeavor in&#xA;  making further progress, being washed of all contaminations, then&#xA;  ultimately, achieving perfection after many, many births of practice,&#xA;  he attains the supreme goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a description of a yogi who still did not achieve spiritual perfection, so in the next life he will be impelled from within his heart to continue his strive for perfection of yoga: &quot; ... he revives the divine consciousness of his previous life, and he again tries to make further progress ... ... By virtue of the divine consciousness of his previous life, he automatically becomes attracted to the yogic principles ... ... the yogī engages himself with sincere endeavor in making further progress, ..., then ultimately, achieving perfection after many, many births of practice, he attains the supreme goal.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus a yogi will be impelled from within his heart to continue his strive for perfection in future lives. This tells that he does not start his next lives from zero again, he is not as if wiped like a clean slate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="2790" LastEditDate="2016-10-09T21:32:59.473" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T21:32:59.473" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7133" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7070" CreationDate="2015-04-27T10:11:27.713" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the answer on wikipedia link about &lt;code&gt;panch kedar&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pandavas defeated and killed their cousins — the Kauravas in the&#xA;  epic Kurukshetra war. They wished to atone for the sins of committing&#xA;  fratricide (gotra hatya) and Brāhmanahatya (killing of Brahmins — the&#xA;  priest class) during the war. Thus, they handed over the reigns of&#xA;  their kingdom to their kin and left in search of the god Shiva and to&#xA;  seek his blessings. First, they went to the holy city of Varanasi&#xA;  (Kashi), believed to Shiva's favourite city and famous for its Shiva&#xA;  temple. But, Shiva wanted to avoid them as he was deeply incensed by&#xA;  the death and dishonesty at the Kurukshetra war and was, therefore,&#xA;  insensitive to Pandavas' prayers. Therefore, he assumed the form of a&#xA;  bull (Nandi) and hid in the Garhwal region.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Not finding Shiva in Varanasi, the Pandavas went to Garhwal Himalayas.&#xA;  Bhima, the second of the five Pandava brothers, then standing astride&#xA;  two mountains started to look for Shiva. He saw a bull grazing near&#xA;  Guptakashi (“hidden Kashi” — the name derived from the hiding act of&#xA;  Shiva). Bhima immediately recognized the bull to be Shiva. Bhima&#xA;  caught hold of the bull by its tail and hind legs. But the bull-formed&#xA;  Shiva disappeared into the ground to later reappear in parts, with the&#xA;  hump raising in Kedarnath, the arms appearing in Tunganath, the nabhi&#xA;  (navel) and stomach surfacing in Madhyamaheshwar, the face showing up&#xA;  at Rudranath and the hair and the head appearing in Kalpeshwar. The&#xA;  Pandavas pleased with this reappearance in five different forms, built&#xA;  temples at the five places for venerating and worshipping Shiva. The&#xA;  Pandavas were thus freed from their sins. It is also believed that the&#xA;  fore portions of Shiva appeared at Pashupatinath, Kathmandu — the&#xA;  capital of Nepal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A variant of the tale credits Bhima of not only catching the bull, but&#xA;  also stopping it from disappearing. Consequently, the bull was torn&#xA;  asunder into five parts and appeared at five locations in the Kedar&#xA;  Khand of Garhwal region of the Himalayas.[7] After building the Panch&#xA;  Kedar temples, the Pandavas mediated at Kedarnath for salvation,&#xA;  performed yagna (fire sacrifice) and then through the heavenly path&#xA;  called the Mahapanth (also called Swargarohini), attained heaven or&#xA;  salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After completing the pilgrimage of Lord Shiva's darshan at the Panch&#xA;  Kedar temples, it is an unwritten religious rite to visit Lord Vishnu&#xA;  at the Badrinath Temple, as a final affirmatory proof by the devotee&#xA;  that he has sought blessings of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;further reading can be found here : &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panch_Kedar&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;details about panch kedar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a little different version I found on other site says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the Pandavs went to the&#xA;  Himalayas, Shiv avoided them because they had killed so many people in&#xA;  the war. To avoid them He ran in the form of a Bull, and Bhim chased&#xA;  him. On being followed, the colossal Bull dived into the ground to&#xA;  resurface at other places. He left his hump at Kedarnath. But when he&#xA;  resurfaced, it seems that he had assumed human form and emerged at&#xA;  different areas in these mountains. His Face resurfaced at Rudranath.&#xA;  His Arms resurfaced at Tungnath. His Naval (torso, I guess) emerged at&#xA;  Madha Maheshwar. His Hair emerged at Kalpeshwar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;further reading &lt;a href=&quot;http://wikitravel.org/en/Panch_Kedar&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2656" LastActivityDate="2015-04-27T10:11:27.713" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7134" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-27T10:18:03.360" Score="1" ViewCount="1684" Body="&lt;p&gt;In this post,  &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6546/who-were-the-wives-of-lord-ganesha&quot;&gt;Who were the wives of Lord Ganesha?&lt;/a&gt;, I know that Lord Ganesha is married. Are there any specific temple for Lord Ganesha along with his wives?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2861" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-03-28T10:19:32.593" LastActivityDate="2018-03-28T10:19:32.593" Title="Where are the temples for Lord Ganesha along with his wives?" Tags="|temple|ganesha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7136" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7127" CreationDate="2015-04-27T12:08:03.770" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you truly want to be sure that the teaching is authentic, forget about the books. Vedic knowledge is being passed down by &lt;em&gt;parampara&lt;/em&gt;, from one &lt;em&gt;guru&lt;/em&gt; to another, starting from &lt;em&gt;Garbhodakashai Visnu&lt;/em&gt; to &lt;em&gt;Brahma&lt;/em&gt; and so on. Any literature work is only a supplement for people who for one reason or another cannot accept and hear the &lt;em&gt;guru&lt;/em&gt; personally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To protect the authenticity of the knowledge, in &lt;em&gt;Gaudia Vaishnava&lt;/em&gt; tradition there exist three-fold assurance: you cross-reference the literature (&lt;em&gt;shastra&lt;/em&gt;), teachings from your &lt;em&gt;guru&lt;/em&gt;, and what other devoted believers in the same tradition as you are following are saying (&lt;em&gt;sadhu&lt;/em&gt;). This is probably the only way to be sure now in &lt;em&gt;Kali Yuga&lt;/em&gt;. Books can and will be corrupted, that's the reason &lt;em&gt;Ishvara&lt;/em&gt; has to come in each &lt;em&gt;Yuga&lt;/em&gt; to restore the religion in first place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="578" LastActivityDate="2015-04-27T12:08:03.770" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7138" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-28T03:55:36.583" Score="6" ViewCount="1344" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, just like in the Shanti Parva, Bhishma gives advice to Yudishthira and concerning how to be a good king and how to be good person, while he is lying on a bed of arrows after the end of the Kurukshetra war.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;, Bhishma describes the various worlds people can attain in the afterlife, by telling the following story.  There was once a pious Brahmana named Gautama, who raised an orphan elephant after its mother died.  One day Indra decided to test Gautama by taking the form of a king, who seized the elephant and tried to take it away.  Gautama protested, saying that whichever world the king would go to when he died, Gautama would follow him there and take back the elephant!  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the course of the dialogue, Gautama mentions the various worlds you can attain in the afterlife.  Basically Gautama says something like &quot;If you go to this world, I'll go there and get the elephant back.&quot;  Then the king says &quot;I will surely attain a higher region than that&quot;, so Gautama mentions an even higher world, and so on.  The regions Gauatama mentions from lowest to highest are: the world of Yama god of death; Mandakini the region of Kubera god of wealth; the peak of Mount Meru; the forest of Narada; the land of the Uttarakurus; the world of Chandra the moon god; the world of Surya the sun god; the world of Varuna the ocean god; the world of Indra; the world of the Prajapatis; Goloka the world of cows; and Brahmaloka the world of Brahma.  And then Gautama mentions a world even higher than those:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There where the foremost of Rathantaras is sung, where altars are strewn with the sacred Kusa blades, for the performance of Pundarika sacrifices, there where Soma-drinking Brahmanas go on vehicles drawn by excellent steeds, proceeding even thither I shall force thee to yield up this elephant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rathantara is the name of a hymn in the Sama Veda.  But my question is, what is the world being described here?  Is it a description Vishnu's abode of Vaikuntha?  The reason I ask is that in the Vishnu Sahasranama, Vishnu is described as Trisama, or the one who is praised by three Sama hymns, and I think one of the three is Rathanthara.  Are there any descriptions of Pundarika Yagnas (lotus sacrifices) being done in Vaikuntha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. Not to keep you in suspense, Gautama eventually realized the king was Indra, and then Indra took Gautama and the elephant to Devaloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-09T12:42:08.430" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T21:52:20.627" Title="What is the Loka higher than Brahmaloka, where the Rathantara hymn is sung?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|afterlife|lokas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7139" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-28T05:13:52.647" Score="5" ViewCount="2440" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the story, Jayadratha encashed a boon granted by Lord Shiva, where he can hold back all the Pãndavas except Arjuna for a whole day during war. Thus, during the 13th day of the war he became indirectly responsible as he stopped all Pãndavas (except Arjuna and Lord Krishna), when Abhimanyu was being slain by multiple Kaurava warriors in a deceitful way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it's important to note that Jayadratha was neither present during Abhimanyu's death nor did he participate in the cheating. In fact, attacking the lone son of Arjuna was decided on the spot observing his invincibility.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later on, instead of taking an oath to kill the Kaurava warriors most responsible for Abhimanyu's death, Arjuna went for &quot;Mission Jayadratha&quot;! Had he failed, he would have burned himself on the battlefield in front of all the warriors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What wrong did Jayadratha do to face the wrath and animosity from Arjuna? Or was it just pure emotions which led Arjuna to take such an unwanted risk?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Side question&lt;/em&gt;: Before Jayadratha's death, there was a Solar eclipse in the sky to make it dark, which resulted temporarily in declaring end of the day. How long did the Solar eclipse (dark) last?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-14T05:19:16.923" LastActivityDate="2016-09-04T14:09:18.447" Title="Jayadratha followed his duty by stopping Pãndavas during Mahãbhãrata war; Why did Arjuna harbor grudge against him?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7141" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4145" CreationDate="2015-04-28T07:53:21.447" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It helps gain control yourself first, which is why you gain capability to win over others. so YES.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance, as stated in the Aditya Hridayam itself, Lord Rama couldn't makeup his mind for his battle against Raavana, Lord Raama then chanted Aditya Hridayam and proceeded to battlefield and gained victory over Raavana. Lord Raama was always capable of defeating Raavana, but it was his inner-self suppressing his abilities, chanting Aditya Hridayam unleashed it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2867" LastEditorUserId="2867" LastEditDate="2015-05-04T07:02:37.403" LastActivityDate="2015-05-04T07:02:37.403" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7142" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-28T08:09:53.970" Score="0" ViewCount="8787" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is &quot;Sakkarai palam&quot; (called in English)? (Anyone from Tamil Nadu must have heard about it).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any references to the fruit in ayurveda? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="261" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-19T03:55:34.943" LastActivityDate="2017-07-09T10:34:58.220" Title="Are there any references to &quot;Sakkarai Palam&quot; in Ayurveda?" Tags="|tamil|ayurveda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7143" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7121" CreationDate="2015-04-28T10:28:09.467" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hindus, a temple is a place of sanctity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is supposed to be clean, peaceful, calm and silent&#xA;with a serene atmosphere.&#xA;Hindus normally go to temple after taking bath, after &#xA;brushing the teeth and in neat and clean dress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They also refrain from taking nonvegetarian food&#xA;before going to temple. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Non-Hindu is not expected to go like discussed above, since they won't be aware of these things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is one of the reasons for which they are kept back from entering temples from olden times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But a believer should be allowed entry provided he approaches a temple as expected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2845" LastActivityDate="2015-04-28T10:28:09.467" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7144" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7148" CreationDate="2015-04-28T11:36:52.177" Score="2" ViewCount="736" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know or having belief that japa can wipe out bad karmas we deed knowing or unknowingly in past or present life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But going through one of the website, i came accross information that :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Japa not only cleans bad karma but also cleans effects of good karma so that we dont have to take birth again to enjoy the effects of good karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wanted to know is it true philosophy???&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastActivityDate="2015-04-29T06:04:06.650" Title="Does Japa wipes good karma also" Tags="|belief|gods|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7146" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7121" CreationDate="2015-04-28T19:44:23.227" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Temples are sacred places and there are certain rules to be followed before entering temple. These rules are known as Pancha Shuddhi (5 kinds of purity). According to this 5 types of shuddhi is needed before going to temple: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sharira (bathe body)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ahara (Satvic food)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manas (mind)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaak (Speech)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karma (deed)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not just a non-hindu, even hindus are not allowed inside temples if they does not posses one of this shuddhi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have seen such boards in some temples and this could be mainly due to their(non-hindus) way of living. Non-hindus often consume non-vegetarian food and in their living culture they are not required to bath before going to their prayer centers. As no one is allowed inside temples without pancha shuddhi, some temples are taking precautions by using such boards. This is not questioning anyone's freedom/ right to equality, it just points out that people are required to respect other's culture and should not intervene in their freedom of worship if they are not ready to follow set of rules within hindu religion.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many other temples which does not have these kinds of boards and allow non-hindus(by birth) for prayers (not for excursion). But in such temples also people are required to follow pancha shuddhi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in famous Sree Ayyappa temple, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sabarimala.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sabarimala&lt;/a&gt;, non-hindus are allowed for the pilgrimage. See this quote from the website. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Certain customs are to be strictly observed if one has to undertake a&#xA;  pilgrimage to Sabarimala. A pilgrim attending the Mandalapooja should&#xA;  observe austerities for 41 days. During this period, the pilgrim&#xA;  should abstain himself from non vegetarian food and carnal pleasures.&#xA;  Pilgrims set out in groups under a leader, and each carry a cloth&#xA;  bundle called Irumudi kettu containing traditional offerings. Unlike&#xA;  certain Hindu temples, Sabarimala temple has no restrictions of caste&#xA;  or creed. The temple is open to males of all age groups and to women&#xA;  who have either passed their fertility age and those before reaching&#xA;  the stage of puberty. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also see this &lt;a href=&quot;http://sabarimala.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=92&amp;amp;Itemid=94&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;. It emphasize the need to follow the customs and there is no restriction if they are followed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually we need to be hindus by our karma (like Swami Vivekanda mentioned about Brahmin), in that sense everyone following the customs can visit these temples.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorDisplayName="user11" LastEditDate="2015-04-28T20:24:28.103" LastActivityDate="2015-04-28T20:24:28.103" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7148" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7144" CreationDate="2015-04-29T06:04:06.650" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Japam in and of itself does not wipe out good karma. What Japam does is purify the body and soul. Sarada Devi, the holy consort of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As wind removes the cloud, so the Name of God destroys the cloud of worldliness...Do you know the significance of Japa and other spiritual practices? By these, the power of the sense organs is subdued...One has to suffer the consequences of one's deeds. But by repeating the Name of God, you can lessen its intensity...The effect of karma can be counteracted to a great extent by Japa and austerities...Japa will eventually bring spiritual realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By subduing the sense organs, realization comes. The Katha Upanishad (II. iii. 14-15.) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;14&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When all the desires that dwell in the heart fall away, then the mortal becomes immortal and here attains Brahman.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When all the ties of the heart are severed here on earth, then the mortal becomes immortal. This much alone is the teaching.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many people want to get rid of the effects of bad karma, but good karma can bind one to rebirth also. Thus when all desires, good and bad, and all ties of the heart, good and bad, are wiped out the soul is purified. When the soul is purified, then realization comes and both good and bad karmas are wiped out. Good karma, just as bad karma, lies within the realm of maya.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the Gita (II. 50.) &quot;Endued with evenness of mind, one casts off, in this very life, both good deeds and evil deeds. Therefore strive for yoga. Yoga is skill in action.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-04-29T06:04:06.650" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7149" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6689" CreationDate="2015-04-29T06:55:55.610" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I understand in common man language, there are three elements in the world JAGAT, JEEV, PARMATAMA. &#xA;Life is provided by PARMATAMA to the body which consists 5 elements plus MAN, BUDHI and AHANKAR in a set proportion -it becomes JEEV or JEEV ATMA with the DHARNA SHAKTI called ATMA (SOUL) . Since soul is an ANSH of PARMATAMA as such has DHARNA SHAKTI in individual capacity to hold the body. Which comes and go and again take rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2873" LastActivityDate="2015-04-29T06:55:55.610" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7151" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7121" CreationDate="2015-04-29T09:07:39.693" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism was the way of life of Indians .Hindus believe in many &lt;em&gt;Gurus&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Prophets&lt;/em&gt;. The &lt;strong&gt;Buddha&lt;/strong&gt; was one such &lt;em&gt;Guru&lt;/em&gt; .So &lt;em&gt;Buddhism&lt;/em&gt; in India was not considered as a &lt;em&gt;different religion&lt;/em&gt; . &lt;br/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Hinduism was considered a separate religion after the spread of Islam in India&lt;/strong&gt; . &lt;br/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Muslims do not believe in Idol worship . So they used to enter Hindu Temples to break the Idols inside&lt;/strong&gt; . &lt;br/&gt; These restriction of not allowing &lt;em&gt;Non-Hindus&lt;/em&gt; to &lt;em&gt;Hindu Temples&lt;/em&gt; came after the spread of &lt;em&gt;Islam&lt;/em&gt; in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2015-04-29T09:07:39.693" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7152" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7139" CreationDate="2015-04-29T09:49:07.910" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jayadrata was involved in killing of Abhimanyu. ( Reference : VyasaBharata by Narayanachar). Hence Arjuna took revenge to kill him. And as everyone knows Abhimanyu was killed in Adharma way. It was the firt wrong(adharma) killing in Mahabharata war.(Start of kali yuga)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eclipse lasted for around 10 mins. I could not find any authentic source to put here. Hence it is my guess. &#xA;But the war was not yet called off for the day. Jayadrata himself assumed that sun is set and the war is over for day.Hence paid the price.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-04-29T09:49:07.910" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7153" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7155" CreationDate="2015-04-29T09:51:24.753" Score="9" ViewCount="636" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it necessary that I should chant the holy name for example &lt;code&gt;shrirama&lt;/code&gt; at a holy place and with specific methodology (sit on &lt;code&gt;asana&lt;/code&gt;, etc) only?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will it not show its effects if I chant it while walking on street, travelling or doing any other worldly activity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I chant &lt;code&gt;shrirama&lt;/code&gt; while walking on street then does it become a good / &lt;code&gt;punnya&lt;/code&gt; karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="13268" LastEditDate="2022-06-22T08:30:58.213" LastActivityDate="2022-06-22T08:30:58.213" Title="Is there a time, place or method for chanting the holy name?" Tags="|gods|belief|karma|worship|harinam-sankirtan|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7154" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2109" CreationDate="2015-04-29T10:03:50.947" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Same way as we forget the advice given to us by elders. And here Krishna speaks of brahma jnana. Most difficult of all which gives us realization.&#xA;Was Arjuna mentally prepared to understand all those which Krishna taught?&#xA;Bhagavad Gita itself mentions that Arjuna could not hold a lot of teachings and hence asks for simpler ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example : We cannot learn medicine directly. First we must read lower classes and then mature gradually. Similarly to understand what Krishna taught, Arjuna did not had that maturity to undertsand and adopt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-04-29T10:03:50.947" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7155" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7153" CreationDate="2015-04-29T10:10:41.950" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can do Japa(chanting of Holy names of GOD) at anytime anywhere. No restriction for that.&#xA;Please note that good karma doesnt come if you chant few times a day. Chanting must be part of your life just like how you breathe. And the best benefit you get is your mind will become calm. Hence you will have better control over anger, lust, greed etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ultimately it will induce Bhakti in you(over a long period, sometimes maybe in next lifetime) and will help you in spiritual enlightenment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But be careful if you want to do Japa like Gayatri Mantra. You CANNOT do it anywhere /anytime. There is a mathod for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-04-29T10:10:41.950" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7158" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-04-30T06:49:22.043" Score="2" ViewCount="88" Body="&lt;p&gt;All we hear about &quot;Shakuni&quot; is that he's a very bad person. Some also say he is the reason behind the Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I just want to know the real facts about him. Was he good or evil? If he was evil, was he always evil or circumstances forced him to turn evil?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2772" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-16T01:08:49.233" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T05:44:16.957" Title="In the Mahabharata, was Shakuni a good person or an evil person by nature?" Tags="|mahabharata|evil|shakuni|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-11-16T05:44:27.637" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7160" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7425" CreationDate="2015-04-30T20:35:36.410" Score="6" ViewCount="2879" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The 4000 verses of the Alwars were compiled by the Vaishnava Acharya Nathamuni into a book called the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, which is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it is the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that Nathamuni used to found what we now call the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Alwars are believed to be incarnations of various attendants and attributes of Vishnu; for instance the Alwar Nammalwar is considered an incarnation of Vishwaksena, the general of Vishnu's army.  But the early Sri Vaishnava Acharyas are also considered to be incarnations of gods, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://alwarsandacharyas.blogspot.com/2007/02/senai-nathan-vishwaksena.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this website&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gajaananar is a nityasuri in Sri Vaikuntham who is an assistant of&#xA;  Vishwaksenar along with Kumudan, KumudAkshar and Harivaktrar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gajaananar took avataaram as Nathamuni&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kumudan took avataaram as Uyyakondar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kumudaakshar took avataaram as Manakaal Nambi and &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Harivakktrar took avataaram as Yamunacharya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, Nathamuni is believed to be an incarnation of Gajanana, an elephant-headed god who is an attendant of Vishnu's general Vishwaksena.  My question is, is this Gajanana the same as Shiva's son Ganesha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In most Hindu temples, there is a statue of Ganesha in the front, because he is the remover of obstacles.  But in very conservative Sri Vaishnava temples, this is replaced by a statue of Gajanana (called Tumbikkai Alwar in Tamil).  Similarly, while most Hindus have Ganesha in mind when they say &quot;Suklambharadaram Vishnum...&quot;, a lot of Sri Vaishnavas consider it to be a prayer to Vishwaksena.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there seems to be at least some connection between Ganesha and Vishwaksena's attendant Gajanana, insofar as they play similar roles.  But are there any scriptures or works by Sri Vaishnava Acharyas which say whether the two figures are the same or different?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-05-02T07:17:43.247" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T00:56:30.853" Title="Was the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Nathamuni an incarnation of Ganesha?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|ganesha|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7162" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7160" CreationDate="2015-05-01T12:39:54.590" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gajanana who is considered as one of the attendents of Lord Viswaksena in Vaikunta is not Vinayaka or Ganesha, son of Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In book called Isvara samhita by M.A. Lakshmithathachar ( containing the sanskrit moolam and english translation), revised by V.Varadachari, having both the sanskrit verses, commentary by Sri Alasinga Bhatta it is clearly mentioned that Viswaksena, has four lieutenants viz,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gajananana, having face of an elephant, four tusks, 3 eyes, shell neck, four hands and has the radiance of full moon&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;jayatsena has face of horse and is brilliant lime the rubies. His eyes are like molten gold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Harivaktra has his head spread over his manes. His comexion is melted gold. His face is like that of a lion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kalaprakriti form is like a hill of collyrium. His eyes is frightful witb large teeth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This description is given in Pauskara Samhita 20.39-51 verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, it clearly mentioned, Ganesa referred is Gajanana, is one of the four attendants of Viswaksena and NO WHERE any of the Pancharatra texts refers to Ganesa alias Gajanana as son of Siva or Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthet, the Isavara samhita book says, this Gajanana the lieutenant of Lord Viswaksena sprung from the anger of Lord Aniruddha as given in Pancharatra text, Padma samhita. Carya.31.5b.7a&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pradyumnasthairithi proktham kruddhassamrakthslochanaha!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kopatasya samudbhutam samyak stambheramananaha!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanjatham bhaddhanjaliputam kurvanam taha puramstitham !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tam drustva gajavaktram provacchedam vachastadha!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Vinayaka, son of parvati,  has only one tusk, where as the attendent Gajananan is considered to have more than one tusk, as per Vaishnava sampradayam and Pancharatra works.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tumbikai Alwar has no existense in Srivaishnava philosophy. It is some story cooked up by some non vaishnavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, coming to having elephant headed sculptures in Vaishnava temples, as per vaishnava agamas also, all the deities like Siva, Brahma etc. are depicted as part of the temple architecture. That doesn't mean srivaishnavas worship Siva, Brahma, Vinayaka etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding, &amp;quot;Shuklam bharadaram vishnum...&amp;quot;, there is absolutely no mention of any anthromorphic figures like vinayaka, ganesa etc. Ask any person who is sane, unbiased and has some sanskrit knowledge and he will agree that the sloka doesn't refer to Vinayaka at all. It refers to Lord Vishnu alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is unfortunate that some biased people claim that the sloka refers to Vinayaka/Ganesa, which is nothing but falsehood and lies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-06-02T11:04:59.363" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7163" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7164" CreationDate="2015-05-01T15:14:21.870" Score="3" ViewCount="1046" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read in manu-smriti that the yajurveda is ment for humans rigveda is for devtas (gods and demigods) and samveda is for pitrigana's(ancestral spirits).&#xA;So if samgayan (chanting of samveda) is happening you cannot read or chant any of the hynms of Yajurveda or Rigveda (i.e Andhaya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-30T14:08:09.893" LastActivityDate="2015-06-30T14:08:09.893" Title="Why is Samaveda considered inauspicious" Tags="|vedas|sama-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7164" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7163" CreationDate="2015-05-01T17:18:23.523" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 4&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti doesn't say that only the Yajur Veda is meant for humans. All the Vedas are meant to be chanted among men, it's just a question of whom each Veda is sacred to:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;123&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let him never recite the Rig-veda or the Yagur-veda while the Saman (melodies) are heard; (let him stop all Veda-study for a day and a night) after finishing a Veda or after reciting an Aranyaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Rig-veda is declared to be sacred to the gods, the Yagur-veda sacred to men, and the Sama-veda sacred to the manes; hence the sound of the latter is impure (as it were).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is to say, the Rig Veda is concerned with praise of the gods, the Yajur Veda is concerned with the details of Yagnas that benefit Man, and the Samaveda consists of songs some of which are used to venerate the spirits of ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now far as whether the Sama Veda is impure, the word impure is just being used metaphorically, in the sense that customs regarding the Sama Veda are similar to customs regarding impure things.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=xTQpAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA148&amp;amp;ots=NosVF4JT1v&amp;amp;dq=%22while%20the%20Saman%20(melodies)%20are%20heard%22&amp;amp;pg=PA148#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Medhatithi says in his commentary on the Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not really impure, but when it is heard, one must not study, just as in the presence of some impure thing or person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-05-01T17:18:23.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7165" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-02T04:26:53.670" Score="0" ViewCount="201" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the story goes in the Purunas, Lord Vishnu and Brahma compete to find the beginning or end of the Agni Linga to establish who is the superior deity. At the end of the competition Brahma and the witness Ketaki flower become ineligible for worship. My questions are as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) What or who exactly is the swaroopa of Agni Linga? Is it Lord Shiva or ParaBrahm? What does it Signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Is this story just a fabricated legend or is there any mention of this in the authentic Puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mahashivratri.org/legend-of-shiva-linga.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.mahashivratri.org/legend-of-shiva-linga.html&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2015-05-02T04:26:53.670" Title="What is the story behind the Agni Lingam?" Tags="|puranas|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-05-02T04:44:03.613" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7166" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="153" CreationDate="2015-05-02T04:49:34.467" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Matsya&lt;/strong&gt; Aquatic lifeform. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Koorma&lt;/strong&gt; Semi-Aquatic lifeform.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Varaha&lt;/strong&gt; First Mammal&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Narashimha&lt;/strong&gt; Half man-Half Human.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vamana&lt;/strong&gt; Dwarf. The act of stepping on MahaBali(Asura) and burying him in the ground signifies suppression of animal tendencies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ParashuRama&lt;/strong&gt; The Parashu(axe) signifies Hunter-Gatherer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BhargavaRama&lt;/strong&gt; The Plough signifies Agriculture and of man settling down after the nomadic phase of Hunter-Gatherer's life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama&lt;/strong&gt; A ruler or King and able administrator of a Kingdom. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; Complete evolution of &quot;Buddhi&quot; aspect and strategist of war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Buddha/Ayyapa/Christ&lt;/strong&gt; Depending on whom people choose to believe as the ninth avatar - a Tapasi, Renunciate, Healer, Preacher of Love(Love thy enemy as you would love your friend).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kalki&lt;/strong&gt; Final stage of evolution with the white horse signifying purity.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="2362" LastEditDate="2015-05-02T05:02:59.053" LastActivityDate="2015-05-02T05:02:59.053" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7168" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7142" CreationDate="2015-05-02T07:38:27.707" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sakkarai Palam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Binomial Name : Grewia hirsute &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Family        : [Tiliaceae] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xQTKl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Tiliaceae&quot;&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May Be something like this, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.avpayurveda.com/dmdocuments/OND05.7.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;I Found Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2893" LastActivityDate="2015-05-02T07:38:27.707" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7173" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-03T08:54:17.937" Score="6" ViewCount="1123" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indonesia is the country with largest Muslim population but majority of people in Bali islands are Hindus. I want to know whether there are any cultural and religious differences or similarities between Bali and Indian Hinduism? Do Bali Hindus worship Trimurti i.e. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="117" LastEditorUserId="819" LastEditDate="2015-07-10T01:46:54.780" LastActivityDate="2017-05-20T16:10:24.580" Title="What are the cultural and religious differences between Hindus in India and Bali?" Tags="|worship|culture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7175" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7189" CreationDate="2015-05-03T16:57:23.193" Score="39" ViewCount="12528" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata war has been given a date of around 3300 BC by back-tracing planetary positions from scriptural references (archeo-astronomy). The Ramayana is speculated to be anywhere between a few generations prior to the Mahabharata to a few millennia before. But is there any reference in the Puranas that affirms that both these stories happened in the current Yuga cycle we are living in? Because, do planetary positions repeat themselves in each Yuga cycle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-31T19:30:46.553" LastActivityDate="2018-08-08T20:21:40.740" Title="Did the Mahabharata and the Ramayana happen in the current Yuga cycle in the current Manvantara?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|puranas|time|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7177" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-03T22:04:48.847" Score="8" ViewCount="190" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm a truth seeker and because Hinduism has brought me closer to the truth I'd like to ask a question that is important to me. My being is calmer with yoga and meditation, but a question has popped from my head and I can't answer it fully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you calm your being, no pain can hurt you, so no matter what others do to you... you are complete. But what is stopping &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;YOU&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; from hurting others? If you are complete and you hurt others, it will not hurt you. I know its a horrible question but if I want to go further with yoga I must clear all my doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I meditate and am doing yoga with all my being, I feel that I am somehow isolated from others happiness and sadness; and, as a result, I'm now afraid to go further.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I was young I did things like every normal kid has done; like saying stupid things which were hurtful to people around me. But now that I'm more aware, it hurts me to think about how I may have hurt others...and I don't want to hurt me or others...I think you know where I'm pointing to :) So this is kinda my answer. I want to become aware of others pain, so there will be no question for me to ever hurt anyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think you can never become independent of others feeling, because if you are independent there is no difference in hurting or loving others. So it seems that even when you reach the highest level of awareness you can never completely isolate yourself from other feelings if they are true. I think that when you become fully aware you will feel even more the feelings of others (their true feelings).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm afraid that if I were to develop some strange anger energy while being in this isolated mode that I would do things which I would regret after this life finishes. But this should not happen if I can feel the pain and happiness of others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;So how can I in my lifetime achieve a higher state of awareness of others pain and happiness while meditating - so that if I live for another 10000 years, I will only want to bring people happiness and no pain or suffering?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2578" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-05-04T11:37:15.337" LastActivityDate="2015-10-01T14:42:49.957" Title="How to feel pain or happiness of other beings in true form?" Tags="|yoga|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7178" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-04T04:13:08.110" Score="1" ViewCount="70" Body="&lt;p&gt;Being part of a Vaishnava family, I had undergone a ceremony for having Guru when I was 10 years old. The only duty I followed after that is to wear &quot;kanthi&quot; so I wanted to know what are the other duties or customs that I should follow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="669" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T05:43:59.030" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T05:43:59.030" Title="What are the duties to be followed after initiation under a Vaishnava Guru?" Tags="|customs|guru|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7179" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7278" CreationDate="2015-05-04T06:29:55.967" Score="2" ViewCount="493" Body="&lt;p&gt;With the reference to famous shlok in Bhagwat Gita :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should do karma without expectations of fruits in return.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what happens if I make all good karmas with the expectations of good will come in return to me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does that karma becomes void? Or will it definitely give me good fruits one or another time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-05-07T12:45:54.640" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T02:33:05.063" Title="What happens with karma with expectations of fruits?" Tags="|karma|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7182" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7177" CreationDate="2015-05-04T12:21:41.773" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his book &lt;em&gt;Adventures in Religious Life&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Yatiswarananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the universalist, the goal to be reached is the happiness not only of the individual but also of the community...the universalist holds that no individual must count as more than one, and the happiness aimed at should be the greatest to the greatest number.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Altruistic eudaemonism, or pursuit of the happiness of others even at the expense of one's own, is another attitude. Self-denial leads to self-fulfillment on a higher plane. Through self-sacrifice, the doer of good comes to attain inner happiness. When the mind becomes pure, it reflects the individual's inner light and bliss. This type of inner happiness, which is still egocentric, springs from the &lt;em&gt;Ananda-mayakosa&lt;/em&gt; &quot;sheath of bliss&quot; which individualizes consciousness and makes the soul feel distinct from others. According to Vedanta, the soul is part, or better, a reflection of the Infinite Spirit, &lt;em&gt;Sat-Chit-Ananda&lt;/em&gt;, Infinite Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. The individual soul, as distinct from the body, senses, and mind, possesses its own bliss, limited though it is. As we shall see later, the highest form of happiness is that which comes from perfect desirelessness and spiritual experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the Gita (VI. 32.) -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Him I hold to be a supreme yogi, O Arjuna, who looks on the pleasure and &#xA;  pain of all beings as he looks on them in himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But to have as your goal the happiness of other beings, is an egotistic goal. To realize th highest, one must go beyond pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. All pairs of opposites only exist in maya; and maya always was and always will be. Thus the Katha Upanishad (V. 12.) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That one Supreme Ruler, the Self of all beings, who makes His form manifold -- those wise ones who perceive Him as existing in their own soul, to them belongs eternal happiness and to none else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See also Gita (V. 21-22 and 24.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;True happiness consists of realizing your oneness with Brahman. One should see oneself in others and treat others as oneself, but to hold this as the highest goal is another form of egoism. One must go beyond all feelings of happiness and pain. The pairs of opposites exist in maya only, they do not exist in Brahman.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-05-04T12:21:41.773" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7184" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3197" CreationDate="2015-05-04T18:57:35.910" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are five separate elements in Hindu Philosophy- Jiva, Ishwara, Maya, Akshara Bramha and Para Bramha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jiva and Ishwara are within Maya, the two elements beyond Maya are Akshara Bramhan and Para Bramha, but please note that Bramha, Vishnu and Mahesh are like caretakers of each universe that Parabramha creates. Para Brahma creates infinite Universes and each Universe has it's own Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Akshara Bramha is the &quot;dham&quot; of Para Bramha, who has a very particular form and is in no way formless. Note that Bramha in trio and Akshara Bramha which is sometimes referred to as Bramha are two entirely different elements. Every universe has a Brahma while Akshara Bramha is one and irreplaceable and Para Bramha is the the reason for all reasons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Akshara Bramha and Para Bramha have a specific form and Para Bramha has two forms and they are &quot;Anvay&quot; and &quot;Vyeterat&quot;. Anvay is Him residing in every Jiva as Jiva is in body and Vyerate is his specific form in his Akshardham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Upanishads, it is said that Para Bramha is devoid of hands and feet, that is mayak hands and feet. It is said to represent that Para Bramha is an entirely different elements who has a form like that of a 17 yr old man and dark in skin tone but extremely luminous, self luminous. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to answer your question, if Bramha, Vishnu and Mahesh are like rulers of states of India, Para Bramha is like the king of the galaxy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2909" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-02-20T11:28:04.870" LastActivityDate="2016-02-20T11:28:04.870" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7186" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-04T21:25:31.550" Score="4" ViewCount="323" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras describes the Brahma Vidyas, 32 lessons found in the various Upanishads which can each lead you to Brahman if you meditate on them. You can see the full list of 32 Vidyas &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of these Brahma Vidyas is known as the Paryanka Vidyas, and it's described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01239.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;first chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Kaushitaki Brahmana.  Part of the chapter describes soul seeking Moksha and his conversation with Brahman (although Advaitins would say that this is merely Saguna Brahman or Ishwara, AKA Sriman Narayana.) Here is part of that conversation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman says to him: 'Who am I?' He shall answer: 'That which is, the true' (Sat-tyam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman asks: 'What is the true?' He says to him: 'What is different from the gods and from the senses (prâna) that is Sat, but the gods and the senses are Tyam. Therefore by that name Sattya (true) is called all this whatever there is. All this thou art.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is also declared by a verse: 'This great Rishi, whose belly is the Yagus, the head the Sâman, the form the Rik, is to be known as being imperishable, as being Brahman.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, where is this verse from?  Is it a verse from the Vedas, or somewhere else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I'm not asking for the meaning of the verse; that's presumably discussed in the various commentaries on the Upanisahad.  I'm just looking for the origins of the verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajūdaraḥ sāmaśirā asāvṛṅmūrtiravyayaḥ ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Sa brahmeti hi vijñeya ṛṣirbrahmamayo mahāniti ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-03-21T13:43:26.660" Title="Where is the verse quoted in the Kaushitaki Upanishad about the Vedas as body parts of Brahman?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|upanishads|brahman|kaushitaki-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7187" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7196" CreationDate="2015-05-05T09:31:27.503" Score="7" ViewCount="43820" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many people tell that before the Kurukshetra war in Mahabharata, no war was fought between Karna and Arjuna. But some people also tell that there had been various wars between Karna and Arjuna before the Kurukshetra war in which Arjuna defeated Karna many times. What is the truth? Who was considered more powerful between the two and on which basis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1044" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-16T12:28:57.177" LastActivityDate="2020-05-03T05:02:08.170" Title="War between Karna and Arjuna - Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|karna|" AnswerCount="10" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7188" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7187" CreationDate="2015-05-05T11:01:21.527" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since there seems to be too many varying opinions, I would like to add the concrete points of comparison. I will list my points objectively and give my conclusion later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Teachers and Education&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was taught by Kripacharya and Dhronacharya in all the arts and politics needed for a prince. Meanwhile Karna was rejected by Dhrona and learnt everything on his own with his brother by appointing Lord Surya as his guru. The famous eye shot account of Arjuna in which he could see only the eye of the bird which was his target is known. When Karna heard of this, he hung a bird =, strung two arrows and shot both eyes of the bird in dark, since he always practises in the after hours.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Weapons, Boons and Curses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was taught to use the astras by Indira who also gifted him with his Vajra. He could also use the astras of all the devas and the major astras including Brahmastra and Pasupathastra. He wielded Gandipa created by Brahma and rode a chariot gifted by Lord Agni with Lord Hanuman as the flag protecting him from everything. He also had Lord Krishna on his side protecting him from all the dangers that could ever harm him. Arjuna was also one of the two people who could use Brahmadhanda, a weapon 4 times more powerful than Brahmastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna was born with earrings and armor which would protect him from all harm. Lord Indira disguised as a Brahmin asked for them as alms and Karna gave them away, thereby loosing his most powerful defense. In retrospect, Indra gave him his most powerful weapon to be used only once, but Karna was forced to use it to slay Kadochgadha. He trained under Parasurama but was cursed with the inability to use Brahmastra when he needed it the most. The curse of chariot getting stuck in mud has already been told.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The reference to Adhiratha and Maharatha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhisma knew about the ancestory of Karna and he did not want him to enter battle. He knew he will fall in the war and wanted someone to protect Duryodhana when he is gone. Thus he insulted Karna and made him enter the battle only when he was gone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Looking at all the things said above, it would look like Arjuna is the greatest warrior. Even without Lord Krishna, he had many powerful astras and an almost indestructible chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what does a warrior make? Is it his brute strength or just skill with weapons?  If yes, Karna is superior to Arjuna in even that facet. One the sixteenth day of battle, Karna defeats all the Pandavas in battle. He destroys all the weapons thrown at him by Arjuna and disarms him completely. Arjuna is saved by the end of the battle day since it was the ethics that both sides observed to not fight after the decided time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Arjuna and Karna are warriors of equal skill and forte. Either one of them could have easily destroyed each other on equal footing. But for me, Karna is the best warrior of the two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna did not have the upbringing or the status of Arjuna. Arjuna was taught by the best teachers while Karna learnt every basic skill himself. Arjuna was praised and welcomed where ever he went while Karna was always shunned because of his birth. Karna was not invincible. He did not have a god protecting him, nor an indestructible chariot which could stand against any attack. Arjuna had the best of everything, upgringing, education and blessings. Still Karna was able to fight on equal footing with Arjuna and cut his bowstrings and even managing to disarm him while Arjuna killed Karna only because of all the curses on him , tricks of Krishna and the repercussions of his alliance with Duryodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was one of the best warriors and without doubt THE best warrior on the side of Pandavas. But for the above reasons, Karna is the greater warrior of the two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Who's more powerful?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the piece of Karna Vs Arjuna is taken  in Mahabharatha it shows clearly how a person better in all aspects can end up losing because of his choice of right or wrong !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if you take Dharma out of the equation, Karna is better than Arjuna. But Dharma being the multiplying factor can multiply or diminish strengths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna never suffered ! He is the paramatma himself who ran all the show ! He is a factor to be considered outside the Mahabharatha equation !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further the so called tricks are not tricks and the fall of Yadava empire is due to a different story and certainly not due to the &quot;tricks&quot; played by Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia: Karna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjun&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia: Arjun&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dollsofindia.com/library/karna-arjuna/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Karna and Arjuna - Valiant Brothers at War (by Priya Viswanathan)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2554" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T20:44:12.883" LastActivityDate="2016-03-21T20:44:12.883" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7189" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7175" CreationDate="2015-05-05T15:28:06.273" Score="29" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata happened in the present Vaivasvata Manvantara.&lt;/strong&gt;. Let me address each one separately.  Keep in mind that we're currently living in the 28th Kali Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=nckrAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;pg=PA138#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Matysa Purana says, while enumerating various incarnations of Vishnu in the Vaivasvata Manvantara in chronological order:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the 24th Treta Yuga, the seventh manifestation was that of Sri Ramchandra, as the son of Dasharatha, and with Vasishta as the priest, to kill Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=Jmnm-smZm6oC&amp;amp;lpg=PA76&amp;amp;dq=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;pg=PA76#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the Vayu Purana says the same thing.  And the Skanda Purana says the same thing &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=DfNjAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;q=%22twenty-fourth%20treta%22&amp;amp;dq=%22twenty-fourth%20treta%22&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=n-BIVZzmCI_EgwTu8IGgAw&amp;amp;ved=0CCYQ6AEwAg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;:  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Ixm9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shatarudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana, in the course of describing the various Dwapara Yugas of the Vaivasvata Manvantara, says this about Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the twenty-eighth aeon of Dwapara, there will be Dwaipayana Vyasa, the son of Parashara, and the most excellent of Purushas [Vishnu] shall be born as Krishna with his one-sixth part, as the foremost of the sons of Vasudeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the Shiva Purana excerpt I linked to also describes an incarnation of Shiva named Lakulisha, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2481/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-12-31T16:31:30.083" CommentCount="46" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7191" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-05T16:49:18.743" Score="3" ViewCount="779" Body="&lt;p&gt;In jyotish (vedic astrology), each sign (rasi) is ruled by a planet (graha).  &lt;strong&gt;How is the assignment made?&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand the relationship between the signs and their ruling planets, for example, leo (simha) is ruled by the sun (surya), and they share similar traits (e.g., Fire).  But I do not understand what the original correlation is.  &lt;strong&gt;What is it that caused us to assign a certain planet to rule a certain sign?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand that the assignments are correlated with the order of the planets beginning with the sun (surya) and moon (chandra), then moving outward ending with saturn (shani) ruling aquarius (kumbha) and capricorn (makara).  But I do not understand:   &lt;strong&gt;How/why does the sun (surya) originally become ruler of leo (simha).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does the sun (surya) and leo (simha) share a significant position in the sky that marks their assignment to each other?&lt;/strong&gt;  For example, aries (mesha) marks the beginning of the zodiac because it (at some point in time) correlates with Spring Equinox and the sun, so this part makes sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I appreciate any clarification/guidance about sign and planet rulership.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2916" LastEditorUserId="2916" LastEditDate="2015-05-05T16:56:52.460" LastActivityDate="2016-01-24T02:22:42.590" Title="In jyotish (vedic astrology), how is a sign (rasi) ruled by a planet (graha)" Tags="|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7192" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-05T16:58:23.933" Score="26" ViewCount="1882" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=nckrAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;pg=PA138#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Matsya Purana enumerates various incarnations that Vishnu has taken during the course of the Vaivasvata Manvantara (i.e. the present Manvantara).  But along with each incarnation, it also lists an &quot;officiating priest&quot;.  Here are the priests listed for the different incarnations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;Avatara of Vishnu &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Officiating Priest&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dharma &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Narasimha &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Rudra&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vamana &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Dharma&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dattatreya &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Markandeya&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mandhata &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Uttanga&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Parashurama &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Vishwamitra&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rama &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Vasishta&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dwaipayana Vedavyasa &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Jatukarnya&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Buddha &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Dwaipayana Vedavyasa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kalki &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Parasharya Vedavyasa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why is there an &quot;officiating priest&quot; for each incarnation of Vishnu?  What exactly is their role?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can understand Vasishta's association with Rama, since he was Rama's guru, but for instance why is the sage Markandeya considered the officiating priest of Dattatreya (whom I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1984/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;), and why is Yama god of death considered the officiating priest of Vamana the dwarf?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2018-03-18T06:24:14.510" Title="Why does each incarnation of Vishnu need an &quot;officiating priest&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|avatars|matsya-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7194" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-06T05:15:10.980" Score="4" ViewCount="1157" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7192/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the Matsya Purana &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=nckrAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;pg=PA138#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; various incarnations that Vishnu has taken in the Vaivasvata Manvantara (i.e. the present Manvantara).  In particular, here is what it says about an incarnation of Vishnu that took place at the time when the Chakshusha Manvantara was ending and the Vaivasvata Manvantara was beginning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In accordance with that ordinance of Brahma, there was a partial incarnation of Narayana as Dharma at the end of the Chakshusha Manvantara, when the Devas performed a sacrifice in the beginning of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  At this incarnation Brahma was the officiating priest.  This was the first incarnation [of the Vaivasvata Manvantara].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27478/62f_chapter_19_2.pdf#toolbar=0&amp;amp;pagemode=none&amp;amp;view=FitBH&amp;amp;page=1%22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Prabhasa Khanda of the Skanda Purana says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He took the incarnation to establish piety (Dharma).  Narayana should be realized through Dharma (piety).  He was then born in the Chakshusha Manvantara.  He propagated Yagna in the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  At the time of his manifestation, Brahma became his priest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss this &amp;quot;officiating priest&amp;quot; business &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7192/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but my question is, what is he story of Vishnu's incarnation Dharma?  Who were his parents, and how did he &amp;quot;propagate Yagna&amp;quot;?  Is that related to his involvement in the Yagna conducted by the gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it possible that he's the same as Yama god of death, who I think was born in the Chakshusha Manvantara?  Is Yama ever described as an incarnation of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2023-06-23T15:07:43.190" Title="What is the story of Vishnu's incarnation Dharma who &quot;propagated Yagna&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|avatars|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7195" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-06T10:55:10.963" Score="1" ViewCount="105" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading this short story of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajamila&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ajamila&lt;/a&gt; from hindu purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was clearly stating that :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yamadutas were bewildered. &quot;Why are these effulgent and beautiful personalities checking our action? It's our duty to take sinful men to Yamaraja for punishment; then they are awarded another material body for the next life so that they can get the result of their sinful activity.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is this mean we get punish by yamaduta after death also and get results of sinful act in new birth also?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why these two kinds of punishments? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-05-07T12:26:54.370" LastActivityDate="2015-05-07T12:26:54.370" Title="Punishment for bad karma after death also and after getting new body also?" Tags="|karma|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-05-06T13:42:51.920" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7196" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7187" CreationDate="2015-05-06T13:30:55.400" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.boloji.com/articles/1435/karna-and-arjuna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the article&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;Karna and Arjuna&amp;quot; by Dr. Madhu Guptan and his comments under the article:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the basis of evidence from the Mahabharata Arjuna emerges as the greatest warrior. Arjuna humbles Karna many times before Mahabharata war like &lt;em&gt;Draupadi Svayamvar, Virata war and in the killing of Jayadrath. Karna ,Gandharva's attack,&lt;/em&gt;  in spite of all his boasting, is neither able to save Jayadrath from Arjuna nor Duhshasana from Bhima. In the Virata war, Arjuna single handedly defeats the entire Kaurava army. Arjuna also has a greater character than Karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Karna too has great and admirable qualities, as mentioned in my article like friendship, loyalty and charity. That is the beauty and complexity of Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2880" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-11-01T16:26:54.257" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7199" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7208" CreationDate="2015-05-07T00:03:51.180" Score="4" ViewCount="710" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/3CYZ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his book &amp;quot;Spiritual Heritage of India&amp;quot;, Swami Prabhavananda quotes a number of passages from the Upanishads concerning the indescribability of Brahman.  In particular, he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And again, in a passage preserved only in Shankara's commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'&amp;quot;Sir,&amp;quot; said a pupil to his master, &amp;quot;teach me the nature of Brahman.&amp;quot; The master did not reply. When a second and a third time he was importuned, he answered: &amp;quot;I teach you indeed, but you do not follow. His name is silence.&amp;quot;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, I'd preferably like to know what Upanishad this passage is taken from, even if the actual text of this Upanishad is no longer available.  But failing that, my question is, where in the works of Adi Shankaracharya is this passage quoted?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says that it's preserved in &amp;quot;Shankara's commentary&amp;quot;.  Does that mean one of his commentaries on the principal Upanishads, or his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, or what? I can't seem to find the quote outside of Swami Prabhavananda's book (or sources that cite it).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-06-21T15:01:48.673" Title="Where is the passage about silence and Brahman preserved by Adi Shankaracharya?" Tags="|philosophy|upanishads|vedanta|brahman|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7200" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7276" CreationDate="2015-05-07T04:57:39.787" Score="3" ViewCount="171" Body="&lt;p&gt;By doing good kind of rajasi karma we gets good fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question, is that fruits also has categories or we can get any kind of fruit?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example If someone does the charity in terms of money (as a rajasi karma [with expectation in return]) then is he going to get returns in terms of money only or any kind of good fruit as a return he can get in his life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If someone does seva of old age persons (same as rajasi karma) then is he going to get same fruit means good old age days in return or he may get another things?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means do we get fruits according to category of karma we does or any thing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-05-07T12:18:25.987" LastActivityDate="2015-05-14T04:57:52.840" Title="Does fruits of rajasi or tamasi karma also has categories?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7203" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7204" CreationDate="2015-05-07T06:55:08.080" Score="0" ViewCount="1211" Body="&lt;p&gt;How many wives and sons did Arjuna have?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard about a son called Babruvahana. Who was he &amp;amp; where was he gone? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was he very powerful like Arjuna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1044" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T21:50:25.967" LastActivityDate="2016-03-21T21:50:25.967" Title="How many sons did Arjuna have?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-05-07T12:53:03.560" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7204" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7203" CreationDate="2015-05-07T09:57:32.243" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna had 4 wives- Draupadi, Subhadra, Chitrangada and Uloopi. The respective sons are: Srutakirti, Abhimanyu, Babhruvahana and Iravan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The son you mention is most likely Babhruvahana and his maternal grandfather (whose kingdom he inherited) was the King of present day Manipur.&#xA;He was trained in the martial arts by his step mother, Uloopi, who inspired him to achieve the feats of his father.&#xA;He could be considered to be even more powerful than Arjuna as he actually kills him in battle (it's linked to a boon that the Vasus obtain from Ganga after Arjuna fatally wounds Bhishma during the war). However, Uloopi arrives after Arjuna's death and revives him with a mystical Naga gem.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2927" LastActivityDate="2015-05-07T09:57:32.243" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7205" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2220" CreationDate="2015-05-07T16:08:56.150" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;@Sébastien Palcoux, Sri Yukteswar might be speaking in the terminology of demi-gods. One year of demi-gods is equal to 360 years of human beings, for more information read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/11/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. If you convert it in a human being year, then your answer will be equal to the traditional theory (kali yuga - 432,000 years; as given in @Yogi's answer). Sri Yukteswar in terms of demi-god years might be correct, and didn't find a circumstantial evidence about Yukteswar denying the theory of demi-god (divine) years. Appreciate if someone could add reference to his rejection of divine years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I differ with the answer given by Parth Trivedi, it may be the opinion of &lt;code&gt;Brahmakumaris&lt;/code&gt; but your logic is perplexing. You said, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yuga is measurement for years. If the 4 yugas are measured with&#xA;  different number of days then it is not proper unit!!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can't say it is not a proper unit, moreover yuga is not a unit of measurement (like kilometers or meters). If you consider it as a unit, then we need to draw some calculations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism the nature of humans is made of 3&#xA;  properties(गुण).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Accordingly, if we relate 3 properties(satva, rajas, tamas) as an unit of measurement. These 3 units must be equal in all humans as they are not. So, we can't generalize it to all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="47" LastEditorUserId="47" LastEditDate="2017-02-21T16:34:55.527" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T16:34:55.527" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7206" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-07T18:51:43.057" Score="3" ViewCount="377" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm writing a paper about Rajput self-sacrifice in ancient battles. I'm looking into the motivation for sacrifice and for fighting in general and I have this question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that a Rajput's dharma is to sacrifice themselves in battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is this correct? What reliable source is there for this?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sacrificing myself is basically dying. How can my dharma be to die in battle? Isn't it a little dependent on others? I need my enemy to kill me for me to die. I thought dharma was traditionally about decision and right ways. How does relying on another for fulfillment work here?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2929" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-05-08T05:54:01.213" LastActivityDate="2021-01-06T15:21:24.260" Title="Traditional Rajput dharma is to sacrifice themselves in battle - can dharma be passive?" Tags="|philosophy|dharma|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7207" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7211" CreationDate="2015-05-07T19:56:06.183" Score="4" ViewCount="1544" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard this long time back that one should not immediately turn back after praying, instead take at least 2 or 3 steps back and then turn around. The reason is one should not make their back face the deity immediately after praying. Is this true? If so why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2886" LastEditorUserId="819" LastEditDate="2015-07-10T01:45:25.880" LastActivityDate="2015-07-10T01:45:25.880" Title="Why is it not recommended to turn back immediately after praying in a temple?" Tags="|belief|temple|gods|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7208" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7199" CreationDate="2015-05-07T21:08:18.283" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The quote is from Brahma Sutra Bhashya,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Third Adhyaya, Second Pada, Sutra 17&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That Brahman is without any difference is proved by &lt;strong&gt;those scriptural passages also which expressly deny that it possesses any other characteristics&lt;/strong&gt;; so, e.g. 'Next follows the teaching by No, no' (Bri. Up. II, 3, 6); 'It is different from the known, it is also above the unknown' (Ke. Up. I, 4); 'From whence all speech, with the mind, turns away unable to reach it' (Taitt. Up. II, 9).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of a similar purport is that scriptural passage which relates how &lt;strong&gt;Bâhva, being questioned about Brahman by Vashkalin, explained it to him by silence, 'He said to him, &amp;quot;Learn Brahman, O friend,&amp;quot; and became silent. Then, on a second and third question, he replied, &amp;quot;I am teaching you indeed, but you do not understand. Silent is that Self.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same teaching is conveyed by those Smriti-texts which deny of Brahman all other characteristics; so, e.g. 'I will proclaim that which is the object of knowledge, knowing which one reaches immortality; the highest Brahman without either beginning or end, which cannot be said either to be or not to be' (Bha. Gîtâ XIII, 12).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of a similar purport is another Smriti-passage, according to which the omniform Nârâyana instructed Nârada, 'The cause, O Nârada, of your seeing me endowed with the qualities of all beings is the Mâyâ emitted by me; do not cognize me as being such (in reality).'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-05-14T14:00:55.513" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7210" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8557" CreationDate="2015-05-08T04:13:37.283" Score="6" ViewCount="1005" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of Vishnu's most famous incarnations is that of Vamana the dwarf.  The story is told throughout Hindu scripture, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4057/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  Just to refresh people's memories, the story goes roughly as follows: the Asura (demon) Mahabali, grandson of Vishnu's devotee Prahlada, took over the three worlds by conducting a hundred Ashwamedha Yagnas (horse rituals). Indra went to Vishnu for help, so Vishnu incarnated as Vamana, the youngest son of Indra's parents Kashyapa and Aditi, and then he went to Mahabali's hundredth Ashwamedha Yagna. He asked Mahabali for three steps of land, and then he grew gigantic and used those steps to take back the three worlds for Indra and the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But according to Rupa Goswami, an Acharya of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sect (which the popular organization ISKCON is a part of), this isn't the first time that Vishnu has incarnated as a dwarf; &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Rupa_Goswami/Laghu-Bhagavatamrta/Part_One_Sri_Krsnamrta_-_The_Nectar_of_Sri_Krsna.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what he says in his Laghu-Bhagavatamrita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Vamana appeared three times in this kalpa. During the reign of the&#xA;  first (Svayambhuva) Manu, He visited the sacrifice performed by Vaskala, the king of the danavas. Then, in the reign of Vaivasvata Manu, and visited the sacrifice performed by Dhundhu. Then, in the seventh catur-yuga of that&#xA;  manvantara, He appeared as the son of Kasyapa and Aditi. In this way, to&#xA;  accept a donation, He appeared three times as Lord Trivikrama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The third incarnation is the famous one I discussed above.  But my question is, what is the story of Vishnu's two earlier Vamana incarnations, involving Vashkala and Dhundhu?  Are these described in Hindu scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any commentaries on Rupa Goswami's work that shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-09-14T17:17:56.047" Title="Did Vishnu have three Vamana incarnations as Rupa Goswami says?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|vamana|gaudiya-vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7211" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7207" CreationDate="2015-05-08T07:54:54.153" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;God is everywhere, but Tirthas, holy places of pilgrimage and temples have a greater manifestation of God then other places. It is because they have been made holy by innumerable visits of pilgrims and holy men and women. The places can sometimes vibrate with holiness. When standing before a human king, the custom has been in many countries to back away from the king so as not to show your backside to the king as it was considered an insult to show your backside instead of your face to the king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is with a murthi in a temple. The murthi is the representation of God. It literally vibrates with God's presence. Why not give the same consideration to the King or Queen of the universe as you would to an earthly king?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most people show humility before those then consider their superiors. The same courtesy should be shown to God. God will not hate us or get angry if we do not, the humility helps us to learn to love God.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-05-08T07:54:54.153" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7213" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-05-08T09:29:13.537" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-05-08T09:29:13.537" LastActivityDate="2015-05-08T09:29:13.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7214" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-05-08T09:29:13.537" Score="0" Body="The part of the Vedas consisting of commentaries on the original Samhitas of the Vedas." OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-05-08T14:55:26.447" LastActivityDate="2015-05-08T14:55:26.447" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7219" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-09T00:12:29.867" Score="11" ViewCount="677" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the ancient Hindu literature including the puranas were first written down in Sanskrit. But is there any mention of other languages like Tamil in the Puranas..? Does Skandha Purana mention Tamil in reference to ancient Chola King conferring the title of 'Murugan' on Karthikeyan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2015-05-09T00:12:29.867" Title="Mention of Tamil and other languages in ancient sanskrit Hindu texts" Tags="|puranas|tamil|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7221" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-09T06:17:26.997" Score="10" ViewCount="1963" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know about Vishnu's incarnation Rama, who was a king of the solar dynasty.  But many generations before Rama, Vishnu incarnated as another solar dynasty king, known as Mandhata (AKA Mandhatri).  The story of Mandhata's birth is told in numerous Hindu scriptures, including &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03126.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp094.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/6/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.  It goes roughly as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was once a king of Ayodhya named Yuvanshva who had numerous wives but no children, so he conducted a Yagna to have a son.  The priests gave him a pot of water and told him to instruct one of his wives to drink it in order to become pregnabtt. But in the middle of the night, Yuvanshva was thirsty and accidentally drank the water himself.  So despite being a man, he became pregnant!  The Ashwini Kumaras, gods associated with medicine, helped deliver the child, named Mandhata, and then Indra provided it with milk from his finger.  Mandhata grew up to be a great emperor who apparently conquered the three worlds.  He had numerous daughters, who married the sage Saubhari, and he had illustrious sons like Muchukunda and Ambarisha (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2648/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what is the purpose of Vishnu incarnating as Mandhata?  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7189/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Matsya Purana describes various incarnations of Vishnu in the present Vaivasvata Manvantara, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=nckrAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;pg=PA138#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is all it says about the Mandhata incarnation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fifth incarnation was that of the world-Emperor, Mandhatri, which took place in the fifteenth Treta, when Uttanga was the officiating priest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27478/62f_chapter_19_2.pdf#toolbar=0&amp;amp;pagemode=none&amp;amp;view=FitBH&amp;amp;page=1%22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Prabhasa Khanda of the Skanda Purana says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fifth incarnation was in the fifteenth Treta Yuga.  He was Mandhata, the emperor, along with Uthathya (as preceptor).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So was the purpose of this incarnation simply to become emperor of the world, or was there more to it than that?  I first heard about Mandhata when I was a little kid, while reading Devdutt Pattanaik's book &amp;quot;Vishnu: an Introduction&amp;quot; (which I recommend if you want a good basic understanding of things). Pattanaik claims that Mandhata was the first king to propagate the system of Varnashrama Dharma, or the system of castes and stages of life.  Pattanaik is known to take artistic license, though, so is there any scriptural basis for that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2019-02-09T07:02:10.443" Title="What was the purpose of Vishnu's incarnation as Rama's ancestor Mandhata?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7222" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-09T07:06:22.300" Score="6" ViewCount="7526" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Ramayana, Rama had 3 named brothers, Bharata, Lakshmana and Shatrughna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Rama is exiled, Bharata goes to Rama and asks him to come back to Ayodhya but Rama refuses. Though deeply disappointed, Bharata returned to Ayodhya after receiving a promise from Rama that he would return promptly at the end of the fourteen-year exile and ascend the throne.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Hanuman Chalisa verse, तुम मम प्रिय भरतहि सम भाई (meaning, You are as dear to me as my brother Bharata) which clearly shows deep Love between Rama and Bharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshman is the younger brother of Rama and close companion of the god Rama, Lakshman serves Rama and Sita reverently during the exile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmana is especially attached to Rama, and when Rama marries Sita, Lakshmana marries Sita's younger sister Urmila. Later, when Rama goes on exile for fourteen years on the insistence of Kaikeyi, Lakshmana leaves his wife Urmila and joins Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshman also built hut for Rama and Sita to live in Panchvati, as per &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt; Link.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This indicates how close and dear Lakshman was to Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a similar incident/occasion in Ramayana that shows Love/closeness between Rama and Shatrughna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How was the relationship between Rama and Shatrughna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="21895" LastEditDate="2021-12-27T00:18:45.700" LastActivityDate="2021-12-27T00:18:45.700" Title="How was the relationship between Rama and Shatrughna?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7223" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-09T13:13:52.937" Score="1" ViewCount="80" Body="&lt;p&gt;After Mahabharata war, where did the Kauravas and Pandavas end after death. Heaven or Hell? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2938" LastActivityDate="2015-05-09T13:13:52.937" Title="Did Kauravas end in Heaven after death?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|kauravas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-05-09T15:13:16.787" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7227" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-10T11:37:41.770" Score="9" ViewCount="7998" Body="&lt;p&gt;What could be the religious reasons for avoiding inter-caste marriages?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read in a newspaper that even though the person was handsome, no one came forward to marry him as his parents are from two different castes. So that person got so angry that he killed his mother by hitting hard on her head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there really any need to discourage such marriages?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1239" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-09T03:15:08.877" LastActivityDate="2022-05-12T17:41:52.827" Title="Why Hinduism won't encourage inter-caste marriages?" Tags="|belief|marriage|caste-system|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7229" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7227" CreationDate="2015-05-10T14:52:19.907" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are no religious reasons. Swami Vivekananda in his lecture 'The Religion We Are Born In' (&lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Complete Works, V3, p 455&lt;/a&gt;) said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Then as to customs also, various differences are known to exist. The Jâts are not outcasted even if they marry among the Mohammedans and Christians. They can enter into any Hindu temple without hindrance. In many villages in the Punjab, one who does not eat swine will hardly be considered a Hindu. In Nepal, a Brâhmin can marry in the four Varnas; while in Bengal, a Brahmin cannot marry even among the subdivisions of his own caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is all local custom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-10-03T09:14:03.940" LastActivityDate="2019-10-03T09:14:03.940" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7230" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-10T17:48:36.613" Score="6" ViewCount="2075" Body="&lt;p&gt;From my &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhakti_movement&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;understanding&lt;/a&gt; the Bhakti movement did not start until around 700 - 1000 CE in Tamil Nadu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My understanding of Bhakti is that it is a pure, selfless love towards a deity. A path which can ultimately lead to self realisation, as described in the Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There have obviously been great proponents of bhakti yoga since this period. &#xA;E.g. Vallabha Acharya, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to me,it's clear this was a post vedic movement. But as a concept is there any origin in the Vedic age?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vedas mentions worship of primal gods such as Agni, Vayu, Indra etc. But was this really the same bhakti as described in the Gita? To me, worship in the vedic age was to appease gods, so as to receive their benefaction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any reference to bhakti as a concept in the vedic age, with the same meaning as described in the Gita? I.e. as a path that can lead to knowledge of the Self, and not merely for appeasement?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastActivityDate="2023-08-08T15:36:14.497" Title="What are the earliest references to Bhakti Yoga?" Tags="|vedas|bhakti|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7234" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8018" CreationDate="2015-05-11T04:46:19.287" Score="14" ViewCount="10486" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every kalpa has 14 manvantaras and each manvantara has an Indra. Name of current Indra is Purandhara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anybody knows, previous life of the current Indra Purandara? &#xA;How exactly he became qualified to become Indra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-09T21:04:34.960" LastActivityDate="2021-04-24T14:19:47.657" Title="Story of Purandara Indra" Tags="|puranas|time|indra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7236" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8002" CreationDate="2015-05-11T05:57:38.420" Score="9" ViewCount="16272" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can you please tell what is complete shloka of Vishnu with meaning that is below &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shaantaakaaram bhujagashayanam padmanaabham suresham &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vishwaa dharam Gagana Sadrusham Megha Varnam Subhangam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lakshmi kantam kamalanayanam yogibhir dhyaana gamyam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vande vishnum bhava bhaya haram sarva lokaika naatham. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2779" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T06:50:55.433" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T09:23:30.670" Title="What is the complete shloka for Vishnu with meaning?" Tags="|vishnu|shloka|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7237" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7230" CreationDate="2015-05-11T07:21:59.717" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Don't confuse the Bhakti movement with Bhakti Yoga. Bhakti Yoga is not of  post-Vedic origin. Many Western scholars have claimed a post A.D. origin for Bhakti - this was originally done by 19th century Western academics. It was done so that they could claim that Bhakti was originally Christian, and not Hindu, and that the Hindus derived their Bhakti from Christian sources. This claim has been around a long time, long enough that even Swami Vivekananda commented on it and refuted it by showing that Bhakti Yoga was in the Vedas. Vivekananda's comments are in his lecture 'Vedanta and Indian Life' (V3, pp 230-231) and also here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There were Bhakti movements in the past before the modern ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada, the author of &lt;em&gt;Narada's Bhakti Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, one of the seminal works on Bhakti, is mentioned in the Chhandogya Upanishad (Chapter VII). In the Chhandogya he is seeking knowledge of Brahman and goes as a student to the enlightened sage Sanatkumar. Narada is mentioned in numerous other texts.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-05-11T11:13:26.687" LastActivityDate="2015-05-11T11:13:26.687" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7238" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2875" CreationDate="2015-05-11T09:21:46.050" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Yuga Time Period&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kritha Yuga 17,28,000 human years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tretha Yuga 12,96,000 human years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dwapara Yuga 8,64,000 human years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kali Yuga 4,32,000 human years&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;(As on today we are approximately over 5000 years into Kali Yuga)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tgaE9.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the four yugas combined together is called a Maha Yuga. One Maha Yuga comprises of 43,20,000 years. 1000 maha yugas are equivalent to the day time of the Brahma. Brahma’s night is also of the same time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Brahma’s one full day is equivalent to 864,00,00,000 human years. Brahma’s one second is equivalent to 1,00,000 human years on earth. Brahma lives like this for 100 years (in human years 864,00,00,00 x 365 days x 100 years), and the entire life time of brahma is equivalent to one breath of Sri Maha Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that when Sri Maha Vishnu exhilirates, the entire world is created, and when he annihilates the entire world is destroyed. The timespan between his exhiliration and annihilation is equivalent to 100 years for Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Purana states that at the end of the daytime period of Brahma, a dreadful drought will occur that will last 100 years, and all the waters will dry up. The Sun will change into seven Suns, and the three worlds (Bhurloka or Earth, Bhuvarloka or the lowest heaven, and Svargloka or the next higher heaven) and the underworlds will be burned bare of life. The inhabitants of Bhuvarloka and Svargloka flee to the next higher heaven, Mahaloka, to escape the heat; and then to the next higher heaven, Janaloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then mighty clouds will form and the three worlds will be completely flooded with water. Lord Vishnu reposes on the waters in meditative rest for another whole kalpa (4.32 billion years) before renewing the creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The destruction that takes place at the end of a daytime of Brahma is referred to as 'naimittika', which is incidental or occasional. The characteristic of this destruction is that the three worlds continue to exist but are made uninhabitable. The souls of individuals also continue to exist to be reincarnated in the next daytime of Brahma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2946" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-17T19:42:57.103" LastActivityDate="2015-09-17T19:42:57.103" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7239" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3280" CreationDate="2015-05-11T09:36:11.580" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gandhari was married to Dhritarashtra she wrapped a bandage over her&#xA;  eyes and vowed to share the darkness that her husband lived in.&#xA;  Gandhari's brother Shakuni came to live with them to look after the&#xA;  interests of Gandhari. Once Sage Vyasa came to visit Gandhari in&#xA;  Hastinapur. She took great care of the comforts of the great saint and&#xA;  saw that he had a pleasant stay in Hastinapur. The saint was pleased&#xA;  with Gandhari and granted her a boon. Gandhari wished for one hundred&#xA;  sons who would be as powerful as her husband. Vyasa granted her the&#xA;  boon and in due course of time Gandhari found herself to be pregnant.&#xA;  But two years passed and still the baby was not born. Meanwhile Kunti&#xA;  received a son from god Yama whom she called Yudhisthira. After two&#xA;  years of pregnancy, Gandhari gave birth to a hard piece of lifeless&#xA;  flesh that was not a baby at all. Gandhari was devastated as she had&#xA;  expected a hundred sons according to the blessing of Rishi Vyas. She&#xA;  was about to throw away the piece of flesh when Rishi Vyas appeared&#xA;  and told her that his blessings could not have been in vain and asked&#xA;  Gandhari to arrange for one hundred jars to be filled with Ghee. He&#xA;  told Gandhari that he would cut the piece of flesh into hundred pieces&#xA;  and place them in the jars, which would then develop into the one&#xA;  hundred sons that she so desired. Gandhari told Vyas then that she&#xA;  also wanted to have a daughter. Vyas agreed and cut the piece of flesh&#xA;  into one hundred and one pieces and placed them each in the jars.&#xA;  After two more years of patient waiting the jars were ready to be&#xA;  opened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaurava#The_Birth_of_the_Kauravas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;In the true sense Gandhari didn't give birth to 100 children. It was at the time when Kunti and Gandhari were both pregnant but Gandhari's pregnancy continued for a very long time which was unnatural. Meanwhile Yudhishthira was born to Kunti and Gandhari was furious as Kunti's son would now be the heir to the throne. In frustration she started beating her womb; the side effects of which, she gave birth to a lump of flesh. All were disappointed. Then Vyasa cut the flesh into 100 pieces and kept each one in a pot(immersed in ghee as mostly said). these pots were buried underground and after an year each piece was born as a son.&#xA;If viewed under scientific light!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2946" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-28T15:27:28.723" LastActivityDate="2015-06-28T15:27:28.723" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7242" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7222" CreationDate="2015-05-11T12:07:41.670" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shatrughna was the twin brother of Lakshmana, ie, he and Lakshama were born by Sumitra. Although, he was more inclined towards Bharat but still he also had good relations with Lord Rama and Lakshama. This can be seen from the fact that he tried to kill Manthara on knowing that she has provoked Kaikeyi to send Lord Rama on exile. Later, on Kaikeyi's request, Bharat stopped him saying that killing a women won't be acceptable to Lord Rama. As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatrughna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manthara appears only once in the Ramayan after Rama's banishment. Having been rewarded by Kaikeyi with costly clothing and jewels, she is walking in the palace gardens when Bharata and his half-brother Shatrughna come upon her. Seeing her, Shatrughna flies into a violent rage over Rama's banishment and assaults her murderously. Kaikeyi begs Bharata to save her, which he does, telling Shatrughna that it is a sin to kill a woman and that Rama would be furious with them both if he does such a thing. He relents and the brothers leave, while Kaikeyi attempts to comfort Manthara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shatrughna also went along with Bharat to bring Lord Rama and Lakshmana back to Ayodhya. When they refused coming back, Bharat was supposed to be the king but Bharat instead placed Lord Rama's Charan-paduka on throne and started living in a hut on the banks of Sarayu river. It was Shatrughna at that time, who was actually looking after the administration of the kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, he is supposed to be the reincarnation of Vishnu's sacred Conch and when Lord Rama completed his lifetime on earth and submerged in River Sarayu to return to his eternal MahaVishnu form, Shartughana and Bharat also followed him by submerging at the same time thus merging into MahaVishnu..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-05-11T12:17:22.070" LastActivityDate="2015-05-11T12:17:22.070" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7243" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7262" CreationDate="2015-05-11T12:48:09.980" Score="10" ViewCount="2884" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although it might look a bit kiddish I am curious to know is there any description present in any of the Hindu scriptures that tells us about where the heaven and hell actually are. I have heard sometime that it's closer to Himalayas, or it's just a plain thought. Also, I have heard that there are various realms in both heaven and hell where a person ascends/descends based on his karma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some texts which tell the distance between the earth and the sun like 'Yug Sahastra Yojan par bhanu' in Hanuman Chalisa. Is there any such text about Heaven and Hell's distance from earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-24T14:55:22.903" LastActivityDate="2016-03-04T22:38:45.137" Title="Where are Heaven and Hell?" Tags="|karma|lokas|afterlife|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7244" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7243" CreationDate="2015-05-11T12:59:40.157" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well in Puranas you will get a detailed description of both heaven and hell. Heaven is attained when you do good karma here and hell when you end up in bad karmas. &#xA;Example: Yudhistira saw hell for his 'Ashwathama hatha kunjaraha' comment, and them came to heaven to be with his family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the point to be noted here is that there is NO mention of both Heaven and Hell's distance from earth.&#xA;Also to be noted here is that Upanishads neither speak of heaven or hell. They speak of Brahman which is beyond both heaven and hell(positives's and negative's)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-22T21:59:29.920" LastActivityDate="2015-06-22T21:59:29.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7245" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7173" CreationDate="2015-05-11T13:03:39.547" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;During the time of Cholas, Hinduism spread across Indonesia. &#xA;Hence they have connection to Hindus here as their culture can be traced to India. &#xA;Example : Their national epic is Ramayana(tale is a bit different compared to Indian Ramayana).&#xA;Yes they do worship trimurti's&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-05-11T13:03:39.547" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7246" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14882" CreationDate="2015-05-11T13:49:59.490" Score="7" ViewCount="326" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where did the 10 forms of Durga known as the Mahavidyas originate from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why are they lesser known and not worshipped as much as the traditional 'Navadurga'?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-19T09:22:31.267" LastActivityDate="2018-01-19T09:22:31.267" Title="What are the Mahavidya deities?" Tags="|scripture|devi|durga|dasha-mahavidya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7247" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="117" CreationDate="2015-05-11T15:06:14.353" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism could be regarded as both Atheistic and Animistic / Pantheistic, depending on how one defines the word &quot;God&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;An Atheistic perspective on Consciousness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_biology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;evolutionary biology&lt;/a&gt; that multi-celled organisms evolved from single-celled organisms. It is unclear to what degree single-celled organisms gave up their autonomy to be able to act as a single organism and it is reasonable to suggest that our individual cells have maintained some degree of autonomy (consciousness) that we are totally unaware of.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A lot of human behavior is associated with subconscious processes in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefrontal_cortex&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;prefrontal cortex&lt;/a&gt; that psycho-analysts refer to as the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;super-ego&lt;/a&gt;. This super-ego reflects the internalization of cultural rules in the form of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;memes&lt;/a&gt;. Such memes often influence human behavior in ways individuals barely realize and can be considered a form of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_consciousness&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;collective consciousness&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A group of humans that is connected by means of memes can act as a single conscious organism, much like a cell of our body can act as a single conscious organism. This and many other factoids directly imply that consciousness is not so much a product of our brains but rather &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-theory-of-consciousness/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;a product of complexity and connectivity&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From that perspective, the concept of consciousness can both be reduced to the molecular level and expanded to the universe as a whole, with the universe as a very complex &lt;a href=&quot;http://motherboard.vice.com/read/there-is-growing-evidence-that-our-universe-is-a-giant-hologram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;holographic&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://cds.cern.ch/record/412531/files/9912088.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;quantum computer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The relationship with Hinduism and Animism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, death is understood as the collapse of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80tman_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ātman&lt;/a&gt; (individual consciousness) and its dissolution into many different other components that make up the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt; (universal consciousness).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look consider the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimurti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Trimurti&lt;/a&gt; (the Hindu triniti), one can clearly see them as anthropomorphic representations of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;nature&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;) and its two fundamental opposite forces: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;emergence&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahma&lt;/a&gt;) and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;entropy&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;). Similarly, many other &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Devas&lt;/a&gt; (Gods) are mere anthropomorphic representations of lesser natural phenomena.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same applies to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kami&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kami&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shinto&lt;/a&gt; religion or equivalents in other &quot;polytheistic&quot; religions. One could easily argue that all &quot;polytheistic&quot; religions are really &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Animistic&lt;/a&gt; religions, which are perfectly compatible with the Atheistic framework depending on how one defines concepts like &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Consciousness&lt;/a&gt;&quot; or &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Soul&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pantheism and Shamanism as forms of Animism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pantheism&lt;/a&gt; is a simplified version of animism, which removes all &quot;Gods&quot; from the picture except &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;nature&lt;/a&gt;). &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Advaita Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; is a form of Hinduism that belongs to this category. Many other religions (eg. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_neopaganism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Germanic paganism&lt;/a&gt;) have a Pantheistic variation, although these advanced forms of religion are rarely known beyond a small &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esotericism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;esoteric&lt;/a&gt; circle of initiates. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditionalist_School&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Traditionalist School&lt;/a&gt; is a school of philosophers from the early 20th century that attempted to explore these esoteric religions and discover a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_philosophy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;perennial philosophy&lt;/a&gt; running throughout all religions. Like Animism, Pantheism is also perfectly compatible with Atheism, again depending on how one defines concepts like &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Consciousness&lt;/a&gt;&quot; or &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Soul&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shamanism&lt;/a&gt; is a variation of animism that involves the notion that the chemical modification of one's consciousness provides access to higher knowledge that is otherwise filtered from our perception. Shamanic practices do not require a belief in any &quot;Gods&quot; and are not uncommon among Atheist intellectuals, especially since the popularization of LSD and Mescaline in the '60s. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Aldous Huxley&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_J%C3%BCnger&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ernst Jünger&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Shulgin&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Alexander Shulgin&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Timothy Leary&lt;/a&gt;  and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Terence McKenna&lt;/a&gt; are among the more prominent shamans in Western culture, although not all of them would use the term &quot;shamanism&quot; in reference to their chemically induced self-exploratory consciousness expanding sessions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The link between Shamanism and Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Much of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu&lt;/a&gt; belief and practice grew out of the use of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Soma&lt;/a&gt;, a god, plant, and drink which is the focus of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rigveda&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The continued entheogenic use of drugs such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Cannabis&lt;/a&gt; is not uncommon among various Hindu sects. Cannabis is connected with the god &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiva&lt;/a&gt; who is said to have rested in the shade of the Cannabis plant on a particularly hot day. In gratitude Shiva gave the plant to mankind.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Often the drink &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhang&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhang&lt;/a&gt; is drunk in Shiva's honor, it is a tea typically cooked with milk, spices, cannabis leaves and flowers. The leaves of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kratom&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kratom&lt;/a&gt; tree have also been used traditionally as an ingredient in a tea with mild stimulant and opioid properties. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Pantheistic &quot;God&quot; concept from the Atheist's perspective&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Atheistic naturalistic position of the universe as a very complex quantum computer is pretty much the same as the Pantheistic position of the universe as one highly advanced mind. The differences between Atheist naturalism and Pantheism are really more a matter of different semantics and different cultural bias than a difference in concept.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one considers the notion that the clock ticks of a computer and awareness are basicly of the same nature (which is a perfectly reasonable consideration), the following statements would mean the exact same thing :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The universe is God. By being a part of God, all matter and living beings are essentially divine. Time is our perception of his thinking process. God's thinking processes comprise of all our thinking processes and all other processes of the universe combined. Our awareness is a tiny fraction of divine awareness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The universe is a giant computer. By being operating systems somewhat autonomicly operating a part of that computer, all living beings are components of the same computer. Time is our perception of the giant computer sequentially processing information. The computer's sequential processing comprises of all our thinking processes and all other processes in the universe combined. Our awareness is but a tiny fraction of the universe's operating system.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if time = awareness = clock ticks, I can't distinguish between those two statements. Conceptually they mean exactly the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The disconnect between Atheists and Theists largely stems from using very different semantical contexts to really describe the same perspective. If we were to adjust our semantics more to each other, many of us might see more similarities than they ever held possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2940" LastEditorUserId="2940" LastEditDate="2015-05-11T18:01:30.433" LastActivityDate="2015-05-11T18:01:30.433" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7249" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2139" CreationDate="2015-05-11T16:21:39.480" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Saraswati river did exist and it use to flow in now a part of Pakistan and not Afghnistan. It had Jhelum and Sutluj as its tributaries. It got dried up with time as it is suppose to have taken a huge toll from Mahabharata war. It was a nuclear war and the heat spread like fire. Most of the ancient civilisation was lost and so was the river. The ones who stayed on the right were the Aryans and the ones on the left became the Muslim race later on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2948" LastActivityDate="2015-05-11T16:21:39.480" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7251" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3563" CreationDate="2015-05-12T06:21:07.540" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha is a state which goes beyond Mind. Its inappropriate to think who gives moksha because that question itself will not arise since seer and seen is one here(Advaita). Moreover as scriptures say by remembering God at the time of death, you will get Moksha(Whichever God it may be.)&#xA;But fundamental question here is, will you be able to remember God in that dying state? We dont know what our mind thinks next moment. Its so flickering. Hence we must prepare NOW itself by thinking about god in all our work.&#xA;Best way is the chant holy names all the time(atleast try in Mind when you you are working in office outside).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-05-12T06:21:07.540" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7253" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7243" CreationDate="2015-05-12T07:32:40.793" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Upanishads do speak of heavens (lokas), the heaven of brahma and the heaven of the fathers. Some people believe that the lokas referred to in scripture are actual places that exist in the material universe. Others believe that the lokas exist on a different vibrational level than the material universe, as you go there in a subtle body. If it is a different vibrational level, the heavens are all around us, you don't go anywhere. You just don't have the subtle senses developed to see them. For instance, some commentators when translating chandraloka, translate it as the loka of the moon plane and not the loka on the moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regardless, if here or there, you go there in your subtle body not your material body.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-05-12T07:32:40.793" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7254" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-12T07:41:24.210" Score="1" ViewCount="110" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know what is true meaning for forgive &amp;amp; forget. How can one truly&#xA;understand the meaning of this words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2578" LastActivityDate="2015-05-12T07:48:46.563" Title="The true meaning of forgive &amp; forget" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2015-05-12T12:49:15.223" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7255" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7254" CreationDate="2015-05-12T07:42:33.397" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I discover this while I was doing yoga. And I think It's quite true :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;FOR&lt;/strong&gt; you to &lt;strong&gt;GIVE&lt;/strong&gt;, you must to &lt;strong&gt;FORGIVE.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;FOR&lt;/strong&gt; you to &lt;strong&gt;GET&lt;/strong&gt;, you must to &lt;strong&gt;FORGET.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;FOR | GIVE&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;FOR | GET&lt;/strong&gt;, you must to &lt;strong&gt;FORGIVE &amp;amp; FORGET&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2578" LastEditorDisplayName="user2578" LastEditDate="2015-05-12T07:48:46.563" LastActivityDate="2015-05-12T07:48:46.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7259" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7243" CreationDate="2015-05-12T10:26:22.730" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;For this kind of questions, you get 'N' number of answers. All the answers&#xA; are to their perspectives and their experience gained. Neither i&#xA; gained nor experienced more about it. But i want to share something&#xA; interesting and weird scripts written in &lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The journey to hell or heaven takes almost 48 days with our&#xA;  subtle body or so called soul. So in this journey, we will find 12&#xA;  suns of burning heat and also need to cross &lt;strong&gt;Sowparnika River&lt;/strong&gt; which&#xA;  is made up of complete blood,flesh and bones of human. And also while&#xA;  attaining this journey, there is also plenty of punishments as stated&#xA;  in it for every sin. So after completion of this 48 journey, Man will re-take the birth again. Its a chain...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So according to me, Heaven or Hell is Invisible to our bare eyes either it is found here near Himalayas or somewhere else outside the earth or an different planet. Nobody sure, all talks are scriptless and proofless. And each person's experience cannot be explained and also just cant be ignored. Science may daily evolve, but nature and its mystery always ranks on top of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2953" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-29T14:41:40.300" LastActivityDate="2015-06-29T14:41:40.300" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7261" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-12T12:57:08.737" Score="1" ViewCount="61" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the significant points that can be captured from the teachings of Sri Shankaracharya and Sri Madvacharya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are these concepts purely philosophical or are they religious?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If they are religious, what are they derived from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2956" LastActivityDate="2015-05-12T12:57:08.737" Title="Dwaita and adwaita: What do they mean?" Tags="|philosophy|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2015-05-12T13:03:40.660" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7262" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7243" CreationDate="2015-05-12T14:04:03.660" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp065.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana describes the distances to the various Lokas above the Earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sphere of the earth (or Bhúr-loka), comprehending its oceans, mountains, and rivers, extends as far as it is illuminated by the rays of the sun and moon; and to the same extent, both in diameter and circumference, the sphere of the sky (Bhuvar-loka) spreads above it (as far upwards as to the planetary sphere, or Swar-loka).  The solar orb is situated a hundred thousand leagues from the earth; and that of the moon an equal distance from the sun. At the same interval above the moon occurs the orbit of all the lunar constellations. The planet Budha (Mercury) is two hundred thousand leagues above the lunar mansions. Śukra (Venus) is at the same distance from Mercury. Angáraka (Mars) is as far above Venus; and the priest of the gods (Vrihaspati, or Jupiter) as far from Mars: whilst Saturn (Sani) is two hundred and fifty thousand leagues beyond Jupiter. The sphere of the seven Rishis (Ursa Major) is a hundred thousand leagues above Saturn; and at a similar height above the seven Rishis is Dhruva (the pole-star), the pivot or axis of the whole planetary circle. Such, Maitreya, is the elevation of the three spheres (Bhúr, Bhuvar, Swar) which form the region of the consequences of works. The region of works is here (or in the land of Bhárata).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above Dhruva, at the distance of ton million leagues, lies the sphere of saints, or Mahar-loka, the inhabitants of which dwell in it throughout a Kalpa, or day of Brahmá. At twice that distance is situated Janaloka, where Sanandana and other pure-minded sons of Brahmá, reside. At four times the distance, between the two last, lies the Tapo-loka (the sphere of penance), inhabited by the deities called Vaibhrájas, who are unconsumable by fire. At six times the distance (or twelve Crores, a hundred and twenty millions of leagues) is situated Satya-loka, the sphere of truth, the inhabitants of which never again know death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that &amp;quot;league&amp;quot; is just how they're translating the word &amp;quot;Yojana&amp;quot;.  Also, the order of these Lokas from lowest to highest is Bhuloka (where we live), Bhuvarloka, Svarga (i.e. Devaloka or heaven), Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka, and Satyaloka (i.e. Brahmaloka).  (These are the seven Lokas we mention in the Pranayamam mantra, if you've ever done Sandhyavandanam.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, if we go by what the translator tells us in a footnote, then the realm of Devaloka extends from a distance of 100,000 Yojanas all the way up to the pole star.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp063.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; describes the seven Patala Lokas beneath the Earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The extent of the surface of the earth has been thus described to you, Maitreya. Its depth below the surface is said to be seventy thousand Yojanas, each of the seven regions of Pátála extending downwards ten thousand.... Below the seven Pátálas is the form of Vishńu, proceeding from the quality of darkness, which is called Śesha, the excellencies of which neither Daityas nor Dánavas can fully enumerate. This being is called Ananta by the spirits of heaven, and is worshipped by sages and by gods. He has a thousand heads, which are embellished with the pure and visible mystic sign: and the thousand jewels in his crests give light to all the regions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; describes the realms of Yamaloka, where people are punished for sins, and which lie below the seven Patala Lokas and Vishnu's serpent Adiseshan:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will now, great Muni, give you an account of the hells which are situated beneath the earth and beneath the waters, and into which sinners are finally sent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The names of the different Narakas are as follows: Raurava, Śúkara, Rodha, Tála, Viśasana, Mahájwála, Taptakumbha, Lavańa, Vimohana, Rudhirándha, Vaitaraní, Krimíśa, Krimibhojana, Asipatravana, Krishńa, Lálábhaksha, Dáruńa, Púyaváha, Pápa, Vahnijwála, Adhośiras, Sandansa, Kálasútra, Tamas, Avíchi, Śwabhojana, Apratisht́ha, and another Avíchi. These and many other fearful hells are the awful provinces of the kingdom of Yama, terrible with instruments of torture and with fire; into which are hurled all those who are addicted when alive to sinful practices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's also worth noting that Yamaloka is described as lying to the South, whatever that means.  For instance, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/kishkindha/sarga40/kishkindha_40_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Kishkindha Khanda of the Ramayana, when Sugriva gives instructions to the Vanaras on how to search for Sita in different directions, he says that if they keep proceeding South they'll eventually reach Yamaloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that, farther from earth there is the most dreadful world of manes, namely the abode of Yama, the Terminator, and you need not consider going there. You can go or search only up to this point, oh, the best braving vanara-s, as that world of manes will be encompassed with an alarming darkness, and it is the capital city of Yama, the Terminator. After that there is no entry into the abode of Yama for the mortals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should add that while these passages discuss spatial separations, personally I don't think these Lokas are actually in our physical universe; in addition to spatial separation they might also be located in separate universes, but that's just speculation on my part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-04T22:38:45.137" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7265" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7266" CreationDate="2015-05-13T05:11:02.210" Score="12" ViewCount="8403" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to split question into two parts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Ubhaya Bharati was appointed the judge between Adi Shankaracharya and Mandana Mishra. After Mandana accepts defeat from Shankaracharya, why was Ubhaya Bharati allowed to ask question? &#xA;Example: An umpire in a cricket game cannot play the winner of two opponents. His job is just to give a fair decision. In such a case, why was Ubhaya Bharati allowed to ask a question? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Adi Shankaracharya was an expert in Advaita, religion and philosophy. Why was it necessary for Shankaracharya  to answer a question related to Kama? &#xA;Example: An expert in physics need not answer a question related to surgery. Moreover in a seminar of physics, people will not entertain question unrelated to that topic. Hence Shankaracharya  could have simply bypassed the question as it was not related to the topic of discussion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T17:33:20.297" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T11:23:00.840" Title="Was Ubhaya Bharati right in asking a question related to Kama Sutra?" Tags="|history|philosophy|vedanta|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7266" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7265" CreationDate="2015-05-13T05:52:11.183" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's because it was a separate debate.&lt;/strong&gt;  It's true that Mandana Misra's wife Ubhaya Bharati is said to have been the referree of the debate between Adi Shankaracharya and Mandana Misra.  But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sringeri.net/history/sri-adi-shankaracharya/biography/abridged-madhaviya-shankara-digvijayam/part-3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Madhaviya Shankara Digvijaya, the traditional biography of Adi Shankaracharya, describes how after the debate is over, Ubhaya Bharati is resentful of the fact that her husband declared Adi Shankaracharya to be his intellectual superior.  So she challenges Adi Shankaracharya to a new debate, and it is during this debate that the subject of Kama is brought up:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ubhaya Bharati too praised Sri Shankara but then added ‘You cannot claim complete success over my husband until I, his better half, have been defeated by you. Though you are an embodiment of divinity, I have a desire to debate with you.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ubhaya Bharati convinced Sri Shankara to agree to a debate. For seventeen days a protracted debate continued. Finding Sri Shankara invincible in Vedic lore, philosophies and other Sastras, Ubhaya Bharati struck on the idea of questioning him on Kama Sastra, the science and art of love between the sexes, knowing that Sri Shankara was a celibate from boyhood. Sri Shankara accepted the challenge but requested a month’s time to resume the discussions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then of course we have the famous story of how Adi Shankaracharya goes into the body of a king and learns all about Kama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up, only the debate with Mandana Mishra is about Purva Mimamsa vs. Vedanta.  The debate with Ubhaya Bharati has a more general scope.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-05-13T05:52:11.183" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7274" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="179" CreationDate="2015-05-14T04:24:48.460" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;So according to sthalapurana (local story) when lord Venkateswara come to Tirupathi hills, he visited Vakuladevi, and she became his foster mother. As you already explained this is linked to Dwapara yuga where Krishna promises Yashoda that in next life he will let her do his marriage, and Yashoda reborn as Vakuladevi. Vakuladevi is a maiden and did not have any sons. One story is Krishna's elder brother Balarama reborn as Govindaraja. Govindaraja helped in organising all the money for Srinivasa's marriage. He is also foster son of Vakuladevi. I'm still trying to get more information on his whereabouts. Hope this answers your question atleast partly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2967" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-14T09:03:26.943" LastActivityDate="2015-12-14T09:03:26.943" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7276" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7200" CreationDate="2015-05-14T04:57:52.840" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Fruit is based on the type of Karma done. If karma done is sattvika, then the fruit will also be sattvika. But no guarantee that it will be the same as what you did. &#xA;In your example above, if you donate 50 rupees to a beggar, it doesn't mean you will get 50 rupees back from someone else. But that karma will yield result in some other way, may be something like you might get a free meal somewhere in a strange city when you need the most. &#xA;Also the fruit need not be enjoyed in earth only. By doing good karma, you can earn a good fortune to spend in heaven after death. So there in no guarantee in what form it comes back to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-05-14T04:57:52.840" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7278" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7179" CreationDate="2015-05-14T06:20:40.057" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No karma becomes void unless truth is realized. Hence for mortals like us this option does not arise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to your fundamental question, karmas can be divided into many categories like nishkama karma, kamya karma etc. Karma associated with your question falls under Kamya karma which means a person desires something from his karma. No issues from doing such karma, instead its good too but not the best because Nishkama karma is the best. If good deeds are done, definitively good fruits will come to you, but might not be always as below example illustrates. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example:Person X goes to office with a sweet box. On the way, in road he sees a poor man Y who is about to die. Feeling pity on him, X gives a sweet and then goes. After eating sweet, Y dies as he was suffering from acute diabetes. Now X did a good karma with good intention but result was not good. &#xA;Hence a person must do Karmas without desires. Also karmas done without desires purify your mind and will help in spiritual progress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources:According to book &quot;eternal laws&quot; (published by Sringeri Mutt publications)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-05-14T06:20:40.057" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7279" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-14T08:32:12.430" Score="1" ViewCount="2688" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jesus Christ always considered himself as the son of God - &quot;The Father of Universe&quot;. In Gita Bhagavat, Lord Krishna revealed himself - &quot;The Father of All Kinds and Beings&quot; throughout the conversation with Arjun at War. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question here - &quot;Is Lord Krishna &quot;The Father of Universe&quot; as revealed by Jesus Christ?&quot; Or, Lord Krishna is the indication as mentioned by Jesus Christ. Please clarify the connection if any one has valid answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2971" LastActivityDate="2015-05-14T08:32:12.430" Title="Is Lord Krishna &quot;The Father of Universe&quot; as revealed by Jesus Christ?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-05-14T13:53:09.503" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7281" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-14T08:58:40.280" Score="2" ViewCount="124" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do the Gods do every time? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do they spend their leisure time? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does God watch us everyone and listen to each of our prayers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God's complete satisfaction is the prayers and devotion we offer to him/her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please provide me the answer about Prayers, Devotion and Love to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2971" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-28T06:55:45.253" LastActivityDate="2018-11-28T06:57:37.950" Title="Relationships between prayers and devotion" Tags="|gods|bhakti|prayer|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2018-11-28T06:56:12.543" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7282" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-14T09:10:02.760" Score="8" ViewCount="1215" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know the story of how Devi Tara feed her milk to Shiva to make him conscious again after drinking poison but why did in all the pictures she is shown standing over Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know why Kali depicted with foot over Shiva but why did Tara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastActivityDate="2020-03-07T05:02:35.333" Title="Why Devi Tara is shown standing over Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|tara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7283" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-14T09:32:02.677" Score="6" ViewCount="2024" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Dattatreya is referred to as बालोन्मत्त्पिशाच&#xA; in many &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/dattaatreyaupanishad.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;scriptures&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word itself is made up of three words  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) बाल-&#xA;  Literally meaning the child (It is a jeevanmukta lakshana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) उन्मत्त​- &#xA;  Meaning the one who acts like a enthusiastic crazy person (Jeevanmukta Lakshana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3) पिशाच-&#xA;  Demonic , It is a special type of bhoga-yoni created for people with bad karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A pisacha is one with deteriorated human body which is bleeding from many sides and is decomposing, they eat humans and other dead animals, they have very big nails and totally black skin and a continuous bad odour from their body.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is why is lord dattatreya is called a &lt;code&gt;पिशाच&lt;/code&gt; he is jeevanmukta and an avatar of lord Vishnu, so how can he be in pishacha yoni which is meant for people with heavy load of bad karma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-20T09:26:39.050" LastActivityDate="2019-03-16T10:52:41.843" Title="Why is lord Dattatreya called Pisacha" Tags="|upanishads|dattatreya|dattaopnishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7284" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7281" CreationDate="2015-05-14T12:08:27.330" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will try to answer your question into two parts&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Part 1: When we assume gods are like us.&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;When gods are assumed like us , they can do anything like us.They play sports &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lila_%28Hinduism%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lila_%28Hinduism%29&lt;/a&gt; indulge in wars etc. &#xA;Puranas are based on these assumption. Here we assume that gods are just like us. Hence we involve them in stories and give them anger, lust, greed etc. This is how a lot of purana stories got evolved. &#xA;Example : Indra lusts, war between Gods and Demigods as mentioned here &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_mythology#Wars_between_the_gods_and_the_Asuras_.28Devasura_Yuddha.29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_mythology#Wars_between_the_gods_and_the_Asuras_.28Devasura_Yuddha.29&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But the drawback or narrow mindedness here is why do we think Gods are like us Humans? Humans cannot perceive anything beyond third dimensions. But that doesn't mean that other dimensions doesn't exist. Hence when we think gods are like us, we are putting a limit to their infinite power. Hence these puranas are for moral ethical education rather than reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Part 2 : According to Vedanta Philosophy&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Here we believe All gods are just different names and forms of ONE SINGLE god. And Vedas call him Nirakara (No akara or No form). If he is nirakara, then we cannot perceive what he does all the time. Moreover according to Vedanta philosophy of Advaita, he and us are same at Nirvikalpa Samadhi state. (When seer and seen are ONE). Hence that awareness is none other than us. &lt;strong&gt;Hence the above questions do not arise.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then why do we pray to god's form(like photographs) in our homes or temples? Because normal human brain cannot perceive something like nirakara or advaita. to understand them we need spiritual maturity . Hence they say find a guru to know these. Until then start praying for these forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-05-14T12:08:27.330" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7285" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7230" CreationDate="2015-05-15T01:51:47.653" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It seems to me that you think about the question that you have asked in an inappropriate manner, so therefore you're looking for some confirmation of the existence of bhakti in the Vedas. &#xA;As far as I can see from your question your assumption is that the Vedas actually are the Vedic Samhitas which are the oldest, and only later emerged the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures in which we see quite explicitly clarified and defined in detail the doctrine of bhakti. So you differentiate between the earlier Vedic age from the later post Vedic age. &#xA;These are all the views and attitudes that come from the scientific community. But I must emphasize that all these views and attitudes the tradition has never agreed with, nor it is so presented in the Hindu dharma scriptures. What the tradition and scriptures teach is something completely different than that. Here I will try to illustrate what is the traditional view of these matters. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all we should know it is said that the Vedas are eternal. There are many statements in the scriptures that talk about that. Here is an example from the Manu-smriti, chapter 12:&lt;br&gt;&#xA; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;94&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Veda is the &lt;strong&gt;eternal&lt;/strong&gt; eye of the manes, gods, and men&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;99&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&quot;The &lt;strong&gt;eternal&lt;/strong&gt; lore of the Veda upholds all created beings&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the translator used appropriate term &quot;lore&quot; meaning &quot;accumulated knowledge or beliefs held by a group about a subject, especially when passed from generation to generation by oral tradition&quot;. &#xA;Here the term &quot;Veda&quot; refers to all Shruti texts, which means that it refers to the Upanishads also. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The passage from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.4.10 speaks about the origins of the scriptures:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15061.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15061.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;As clouds of smoke proceed by themselves out of a lighted fire&#xA;  kindled with damp fuel, thus, verily, O Maitreyî, has been breathed&#xA;  forth from this great Being what we have as Rig-veda, Yagur-veda,&#xA;  Sama-veda, Atharvâṅgirasas, &lt;strong&gt;Itihâsa&lt;/strong&gt; (legends), &lt;strong&gt;Purâna&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  (cosmogonies), Vidyâ (knowledge), the Upanishads, Slokas (verses),&#xA;  Sûtras (prose rules), Anuvyâkhyânas (glosses), Vyâkhyânas&#xA;  (commentaries). From him alone all these were breathed forth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from the above verses not only we learn that the Vedas are eternal, but that they came out of the Lord's breath. All these scriptures actually has no human authors, and even the gods in heaven are not their source, but it is the Supreme Lord who revealed vedic knowledge in all these scriptures to the gods and men. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Puranas are even mentioned in the Atharva Veda 11.7.24:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av11007.htm&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Verses, and Songs, and magic hymns, &lt;strong&gt;Purāna&lt;/strong&gt;, sacrificial text.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even from the fact that the Puranas and Itihasas were mentioned in the above verses from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and Atharva Veda speaks of the eternal nature of these Puranas and Itihasas. Since Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and Atharva Veda are eternal Shruti texts per the Manu-smriti verses stated above, it follows that the Puranas and Itihasas scriptures mentioned in these Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and Atharva Veda verses are also eternal scriptures! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, knowledge revealed in all these scriptures is actually eternal knowledge, and so is the knowledge of bhakti also eternal knowledge. That knowledge as its origin does not have humans nor gods, but the Lord. In the Upanishads and Puranas and Itihasas including the Bhagavad gita there are clear references to bhakti. Here I will not mention these examples on bhakti because I guess you heard about them. Even in the Rig Veda we can find verses that can be interpreted as references to bhakti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This would be from the traditional point of view. Knowledge of bhakti were not created supposedly later, but it is eternal knowledge about the relationship between the soul and the Lord. It is the knowledge of Sanatana Dharma which means eternal religion of the relationship between the living being and the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2015-05-15T01:51:47.653" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7288" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-15T08:09:52.400" Score="3" ViewCount="82" Body="&lt;p&gt;Stories like the Ramayana and Mahabharata show people serving their elders such as brothers, parents or grandparents by:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pressing their elders' legs while they are sleeping.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Guarding them while they are sleeping.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Serving food and doing other things as they were given guidance by the elders.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I see the same kind of tradition even in the present time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: if the younger one is serving all the elders then who should serve the younger one? Or is there no one to serve him/her other than their spouse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="458" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T20:48:08.393" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T20:48:08.393" Title="Who serves the young in a family?" Tags="|tradition|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7291" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-15T09:20:14.413" Score="1" ViewCount="67" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva - Kailash Parvat, Himalayas, Snow&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu - Resting on Sheshnaag above Ocean Water&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma - Resting on Lotus Flower, Air (It may be correct or not)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any ideas? Any connection to the God Nature or Personality Traits or any other reasoning. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2971" LastActivityDate="2015-05-15T09:20:14.413" Title="Perceived Areas of Hindu God's Position" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|vedas|mahabharata|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-08-25T14:15:32.220" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7292" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7070" CreationDate="2015-05-15T09:33:55.000" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashupatinath_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashupatinath_Temple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Myths are much about Pashupatinath. But, there is truth in Lord Shiva, in his presence and there is much peace inside the temple. Experience is incredible and  amazing during the Aarati in the evenings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2971" LastActivityDate="2015-05-15T09:33:55.000" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7293" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-15T11:57:12.820" Score="0" ViewCount="44" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which are the base pillars of Hindu culture?&#xA;As per my knowledge, there are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagvat Geeta,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4 Vedas (Please add names)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;18 Puranas (Please add names)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;16 Shastras (please add name)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Smarities,and more...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will you please complete these? and where can I get all these scriptures to learn?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1159" LastActivityDate="2015-05-15T11:57:12.820" Title="Base pillars of hinduism" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2015-05-15T15:24:23.530" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7295" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7298" CreationDate="2015-05-15T15:00:21.677" Score="18" ViewCount="7836" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhakti is intense devotion and supreme love for God. There is no expectation of anything in Bhakti marga. This higher feeling is indescribable in words. It has to be sincerely experienced by the devotee (Bhakta). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As in one of the Pravachan, said that there are the nine different ways of Bhakti and the five kinds of Bhavas in bhakti. The nine modes of Bhakti are the ways in which a devotee attains the Supreme Ideal of life. A devotee can take up any of these paths and reach the highest state. I only know about &lt;strong&gt;Atmanivedana&lt;/strong&gt; (absolute surrender to the Lord).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions on this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the Navavidha Bhakti(The nine modes of Bhakti)? Is there any examples who attained supreme god from these 9 ways of bhakti?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the Bhavas? and What are it's five types?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard that about Navavidha Bhakti has already stated in Srimad Bhagvatam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In which canto of Srimad Bhagvatam states about Navavidha Bhakti and Bhavas?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any Spiritual book (Of any saint) which explains about Bhakti marg for more detail?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-05-16T02:40:53.227" LastActivityDate="2019-06-04T16:54:56.427" Title="What is the Navavidha Bhakti?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|brahman|bhakti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7296" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-05-15T15:06:26.413" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedanta comes from the words &quot;veda&quot; meaning knowledge and &quot;anta&quot; meaning end. Vedanta is one of the six āstika (orthodox) schools of Hindu philosophy. Vedanta is considered the last segment of knowledge in the Vedas. There are various sub-schools of Vedanta primarily Advaita, Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="819" LastEditDate="2015-05-15T15:12:06.933" LastActivityDate="2015-05-15T15:12:06.933" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7297" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-05-15T15:06:26.413" Score="0" Body="Vedanta is one of the āstika schools of Hindu philosophy, based on the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras." OwnerUserId="819" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-05-15T15:11:59.637" LastActivityDate="2015-05-15T15:11:59.637" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7298" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7295" CreationDate="2015-05-15T15:34:06.373" Score="17" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Navavidha Bhakti&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/7/5/23/en2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavatam 7.5:23-24&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sri-prahrada uvaca&#xA;  sravanam kirtanam visnoh&#xA;  smaranam pada-sevanam&#xA;  arcanam vandanam dasyam&#xA;  sakhyam atma-nivedanam&#xA;  iti pumsarpita visnau&#xA;  bhaktis cen nava-laksana&#xA;  kriyeta bhagavaty addha&#xA;  tan manye 'dhitam uttamam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prahlada Maharaja said: Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Visnu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord, becoming His servant, considering the Lord one's best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words) -- these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service. One who has dedicated his life to the service of Krsna through these nine methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has acquired complete knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From this it is clear about the meaning of nava-vidha bhakti. It is the various ways in which Lord can be worshipped. Here are some examples I can think of for such devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shravanam - Listening - example: Parkishit Maharaj, who attained liberation, by listening to the glory of Lord Krishna towards the end of His days on Earth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kirtanam - Singing - example: Lord Chaitanya, who spread the worship through Sankritana of Hare Rama Hare Krishna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu Smaranam - Thinking of God day and night - example: Lord Hanuman, whose every hair was found to be vibrating with the name of Lord Rama.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pada sevanam - Servitude to the feet of the Guru/God - example: Lakshmana, whose service to His brother Sri Rama is unparalleled.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Archanam - Adoring the beauty of God - example: Gopikas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vandanam - Worshipping God - example: Prahlada&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dasyam - Having the attitude of a servant to His master.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sakhyam - Having the attitude of a friend toward God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atma Nivedhanam - Complete self-surrender toward God. (Example: Sri Radha)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Five Bhavas&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/Spiritual_Questions___Answers/Pre-2007_QnA_Swami_Gaurangapada/bahudha_bhakti-rasabhinartakah.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita 19.185&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, madhura-rasa naya&#xA;  krishna-bhakti-rasa madhye ei pa-ca pradhana&#xA;  &quot;The chief transcendental mellows experienced with the Supreme Personality of Godhead are five — santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya and madhura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shanta Bhava - attitude of saint, a peaceful attitude towards God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sannyasi Bhaktas have Santa Bhava. A Bhakta of Santa Bhava type is not emotional. He does not exhibit much emotions. He cannot dance and weep and yet his heart is full of intense devotion. Sri Aurobindo Maharaj prefers this type and considers dancing and weeping as a kind of weakness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vatsalya Bhava - attitude of a parent toward God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Vatsalya Bhava, the devotee takes Lord Krishna as his son, a boy of ten years. The attractive features of this Bhava is that the devotee gets rid of all fears as he is the father of Krishna and destroys all kinds of selfish motives as he cannot expect anything from his small son. The followers of Vallabhacharya entertain Vatsalya Bhava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dasya Bhava - attitude of a servant toward God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Dasya Bhava, the devotee thinks that he is the servant and Lord Krishna or Rama is his master. Sri Hanuman had this Bhava. In Ayodhya the vast majority of persons have this Bhava. They have their names as Ram Das, Sitaram Das, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sakhya Bhava - attitude of a friend toward God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Sakhya Bhava, the devotee takes Lord Krishna as his friend. This Bhava demands purity, boldness, understanding and courage. Ordinary people will find it difficult to have this Bhava. But when Bhakti develops and matures, the Bhava comes by itself. Arjuna had this Bhava. There is equality in this Bhava between the worshipper and the worshipped. Sakhya Bhava is a mild type of Vedantic meditation. It will culminate in identity. Then the devotee says: &quot;Gopaloham-I am Gopala.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madurya Bhava - attitude of a beloved toward God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Madhurya Bhava, the Bhaktas entertain the idea of the lover and the beloved. He regards himself as the wife of Rama or Krishna. The Mohammedan sufis also entertain this kind of mental attitude. In Brindavan, Mathura and Nadiad, you will find a large number of Bhaktas with Madhurya Bhava. They dress themselves like ladies and behave and speak exactly like ladies also. They dance a lot till they get Murchha Avastha (swoon) and fall down in great exhaustion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All quotes are from Sri Swami Sivananda from the reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=681&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhava in Bhakti by Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Which spiritual book (of any saint) discusses Bhakti marg in more detail&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gospel Of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/bhaktiyoga.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhakti Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;References: (Thanks to Keshav)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please refer to Keshav's links below for more relevant resources and more examples of the nine types of devotion and five types of bhava. Thanks Keshav !!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-06-04T15:43:09.487" LastActivityDate="2019-06-04T15:43:09.487" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7299" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11410" CreationDate="2015-05-16T03:48:57.747" Score="16" ViewCount="1555" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know of occasions in which two different incarnations of Vishnu met, for instance the encounter between Rama and Parashurama in the Ramayana.  What is not as well known, however, is that Vishnu's incarnation Krishna (along with Arjuna) once met Vishnu himself, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6672/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  But apparently this isn't the only such incident.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/US4e&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from a journal paper published by Asiatic Researches in 1810 recounts a story it says is in the Patala Kanda of Padma Purana, about an occasion when Rama, accompanied by Shiva, goes to Vaikuntha, the abode of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Padma Purana, section of Patala, or the infernal regions, Suta is introduced relating the most wonderful exploits, and mighty deeds of Ramachandra, who came originally from the White Island, as we have seen before[.]...  Ramachandra, having the advantage of a self-moving car, performed in a few days, in company with Mahadeva....  He then advanced towards the Lokaloka mountains, and Shambu or Shiva ... ascended his vimana, or vehicle, and with wonderful speed, soon overtook Rama.  They then descried the Lokaloka mountain, on the summit of which are the paths of the planets.... Thus assisted with the refulgence of Shambhu, they arrived into the land of darkness, where there are no living creatures.  There, one hundred millions of Yojanas from the limits of light, in that land of darkness, is Maharajatabhumi[.]. In the middle of it is Narayanapura, resplendent like one hundred millions of suns.  Rama was astonished at this wonderful sight, in the land of the blessed, and the paradise of Vishnu....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama ... immediately made puja to Achyuta, or the incorruptible god.... Vishnu and Lakshmi, with myriads of yogis, came out to meet their guests, no having worshipped them, carried them to Narayanapura.  Vishnu asked, &amp;quot;How have you come to this place inaccessible to mortals?&amp;quot; ... Shambhu answered &amp;quot;He is a portion of your essence: we saw a path, and we followed it, and he wishes very much to see your consort.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama is eager to see Lakshmi, as Sita has apparently died already, but he leaves quickly because he has taken an Ekapatni Vrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is not about the story itself, but rather about where it's from.  The journal paper claims it's from the Patala Kanda of the Padma Purana.  You can read the Padma Purana using the links in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/792/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; I can't seem to find the story at first glance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does anyone know what chapter it's in, or whether it's found in other scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-29T15:30:58.327" Title="What scriptures describe the story of Rama visiting Vishnu in Vaikuntha?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|puranas|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7301" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7319" CreationDate="2015-05-16T08:28:10.087" Score="3" ViewCount="1769" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is great ask about &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/97/why-can-we-eat-living-plants-but-not-living-animals&quot;&gt;what should we eat?&lt;/a&gt; But I was always strugling how should one eat his food, sitting and thinking while eating a food. I see on my self that I don't respect food as much as I need to (want to). I sustain this body just because of the food I eat...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, how one should behave, do, think, (do every thing) while eating a food to show respect to his life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2578" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:16:11.167" Title="What one should do while eating a food?" Tags="|food|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7302" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7306" CreationDate="2015-05-16T10:20:21.547" Score="8" ViewCount="5803" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know that who was the father of Kishkindha King Vali &amp;amp; how did he get the boon the while fighting, his enemy's half of the power will go to Vali ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1044" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-20T05:31:25.593" LastActivityDate="2016-02-20T05:31:25.593" Title="Who was the father of Vali?" Tags="|ramayana|vali|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7303" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7227" CreationDate="2015-05-16T10:40:41.087" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;From ancient time, work has been divided between people according to the cast. As Kshatriya for defence system, bramins for knowledgeable things like yagya, worship, &amp;amp; other religious things which needs deep knowledge, etc. With this system, the work they &amp;amp; their ancesstors did goes into their DNA. So, as the child born in Kshatriya family will be good in wars &amp;amp; same as of bramins, shudras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As, Karna was born from a Kshatriya woman, he got the DNA &amp;amp; tolerance power of Kshatriyas. By looking at the tolerance power of Karna, Acharya Parshuram called him a Kshatriya &amp;amp; told  that he cheated him &amp;amp; given the curse. According to him, only Kshatriya contains this much power of tolerance. So, as Karna was a born Kshatriya, he became a great warrior, since it is in his DNA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, from ancient time, people do marriage in their own caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1044" LastActivityDate="2015-05-16T10:40:41.087" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7304" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-16T10:46:48.467" Score="3" ViewCount="62" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know that how did Lord Shiv, Lord Brahma &amp;amp; Lord Vishnu came to the world, before them, what was present ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1044" LastActivityDate="2015-05-16T10:46:48.467" Title="How did Lord Shiv came to the world" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-05-16T14:36:14.057" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7305" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7321" CreationDate="2015-05-16T11:59:14.800" Score="3" ViewCount="142" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that one who put ash to their forehead will go for Kailasa after death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This belief is trusted by smartha brahmins community&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2953" LastActivityDate="2018-08-11T03:56:45.190" Title="Is it true that one who put ash to their forehead will go for Kailas after death?" Tags="|rebirth|brahman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7306" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7302" CreationDate="2015-05-16T15:25:36.407" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The father of Vali was Indra.&lt;/strong&gt; In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga17/bala_17_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, Brahma tells the gods to have children with Vanaras, so that there will be powerful Vanaras to help Vishnu's incarnation Rama who is about to be born:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let mighty and guise changing helpmates be procreated to that truth abiding and valorous Vishnu who is the well-wisher of all of us.  Let monkey-shaped progeny equalling Vishnu's valour be procreated from the physiques of prominent apsara-s and gandharva-s, from the girls of yaksha-s and pannaga-s, and also thus from the bodies of kinnaraa-s, she-vidyaadharaa-s, she-riksha-s and she-monkeys, and they shall be wizards of miracles and audacious ones, in travel they shall have air's speed, bestowed with intellect they shall be the knowers of ideation, and with their divine physique they shall be ineliminable, they shall be endowed with all the assaultive aspects of all missiles, and they shall be untiring in their efforts, like you who thrive on amrita, the ambrosia, unmindful of thirst and hunger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So then Indra and Surya both have children with the same Vanara woman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra procreated the lord of vanara-s, namely Vali, who by his physique is like Mt. Mahendra, and the highest humidifier among all the humidifiers, namely the Sun, procreated Sugreeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as far as Vali having a boon to take half of his enemy's strength, as far as I know that has no basis in Hindu scripture.  The Kishkindha Kanda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/kishkindha/sarga17/kishkindhaitrans17.htm#Verse5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentions&lt;/a&gt; Vali having a pendant keeping him alive, but it doesn't describe its power:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That superb and gem-studded golden pendent given by Indra sustained that monkey chief's lives, resplendence and brilliance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the translator says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/kishkindha/sarga17/kishkindhaitrans17.htm#Verse48&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama is aware of the boon given by Brahma to Vali aahuuya vaalinam brahmaa dadau varam anuttamam | pratiipavarti nobhuuyaat artha balam arindama ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Summoning Vali, Brahma gave an unexcelling boon... any combatant will loose half of his strength to Vali shall he confront Vali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But again, I don't think it's mentioned in Hindu scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-05-28T17:22:42.950" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7309" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-16T17:37:07.973" Score="5" ViewCount="4011" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any authentic data captured by a reputed institute or organization, that clearly shows which Hindu God/Deity has highest no. of temples in India?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does any Government body or NGO keep track of this information?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know it is challenging to categorize what is a temple and what is not, but I feel there has to be some standard to define this and have this info. kept somewhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why am I asking this question? Here is my rationale.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This information can throw up interesting insight into the minds of those who are not much familiar with Hindu religion. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;For example: Why is there a God like Brahma who is a well-known figure in Trinity, but whose temples are rare to find?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It may generate more interest in a god whose temple count is more and people may want to explore more info. about the god. This way, stories will be exchanged and discussion may begin bringing more info. to the surface!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any hints?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T14:43:07.327" LastActivityDate="2023-06-20T05:06:10.283" Title="Which Hindu god/deity has most temples?" Tags="|gods|temple|india|goddess|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7310" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-16T18:20:03.927" Score="13" ViewCount="15828" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every one knows the story of Lord Ganesha, how he got Elephant head but one doubt comes to my mind,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why wasn't Lord Shiva who is so powerful able to put back the original head of Lord Ganesha? Why he has so helpless?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why couldn't Godess Parvati create another Ganesha like how she had created earlier?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not criticizing, I have less knowledge in Hinduism so just like to know the reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2985" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-10-03T07:15:51.553" LastActivityDate="2015-11-11T17:51:10.717" Title="Why didn't Lord Shiva put back the original head of Lord Ganesha?" Tags="|shiva|ganesha|parvati|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7311" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-17T06:35:18.177" Score="23" ViewCount="5370" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read in multiple forums, which talks about Hanumana being rewarded as future Brahma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone point out, where exactly it is mentioned that he is going to be future Brahma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-05-17T06:59:18.617" LastActivityDate="2023-08-12T20:15:28.863" Title="Is Hanuman going to be future Brahma?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|brahma|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7313" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18198" CreationDate="2015-05-17T15:50:18.223" Score="4" ViewCount="571" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my interpretation of the message of the Bhagwad Geeta, the soul is eternal. The birth and death of the body are incidental and material. If this applies for mortals, then why does the birth of a deity considered a special occasion? Shouldn't it be considered an ordinary event?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2987" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T16:52:10.490" Title="Why is Janmashtami an important festival in Hinduism?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7314" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="877" CreationDate="2015-05-17T16:01:21.293" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;108 * diameter of the moon is distance between earth and the moon. And 108 diameters of the sun is the distance between sun and the earth... I don't know if this is true or not but I heard Sadhguru saying this... ~ &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqb_UxLrwUI&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Video (2.17)&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2578" LastActivityDate="2015-05-17T16:01:21.293" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7318" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6603" CreationDate="2015-05-18T00:49:40.193" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following is translated from the Bhagavad Gita lectures of Shri Bannanje Govindacharya (who is a highly respected scholar belonging to the Madhwacharya lineage) in Kannada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first chapter has been wrongly named by modern commentators as Arjuna-vishaada yoga -- there is nothing yogic about &quot;vishaada&quot; and the chapter starts with a brilliant exposition on the fear and despondency of Duryodhana. In fact, Madhwa's Gita-Bhaashya does not refer to this chapter as Arjuna-vishaada yoga or by any other name. This chapter is an exposition on psychology and utterly exposes Duryodhana's mental state before the start of the war.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duyodhana names these warriors because he is scared and fully upset. He cannot believe his eyes when he sees them in the Pandava army and he believes some of them should have been fighting on his side. Let's see why.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhima, Arjuna, and Krishna were the only warriors capable of lifting the gANDiva bow. By comparing everyone to Bhima and Arjuna (bhimaarjuna samaH yudiH), he shows his fear of the Pandavas, and especially, his fear of Bhima and Arjuna. Ultimately, it was Bhima who killed him. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He starts off by naming the &quot;son of Drupada&quot; who was Drona's student. Drupada and Drona were once great friends. However, when DroNa went to Drupada (who at the time was a great king)and asked him for a cow so that he could give his son some milk, Drupada made fun of him and said that he could not be friends with Drona (who was a poor brahmaNa at that time). Drona, then with the help of the Pandavas (who were his students) snatched half of Drupada's kingdom. Drupada, then sent his son, Dhrishtadumnya to study under Drona and Drona taught him everything he knew! Also, Drupada had given his daughter Draupadi to the Pandavas, and thus, he was fighting alongside the Pandavas. Duryodhana names Drupada and Dhrishtadumnya to spite Drona and remind him of his past with Drupada and the fact that he taught his enemy's son everything he knew! &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Drishtiketu was the son of Shishupala and we know that Shishupala was killed by Krishna in the rAjasUya yagna. Then why on earth is his son fighting on Krishna;s side? Again, this question is killing Duryodhana internally.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shaibya was the king of Shibi. Shaibya's son and Jayadrata tried to kidnap Draupadi, and was subsequently killed by Bhima. Under such circumstances, shouldn't he side with the Kauravas? No -- he fights for the Pandavas and this does not go down well with Duryodhana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yuyudhaana (Saataki) and Chekitana were bound to the words of Balarama who declared that he will not fight in the war and went away on a pilgrimage. However, they were fighting for the Pandavas and this did not seem right to Duryodhana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kashiraja : Kashi at that time had two kings (rulers of the two lands of VaraNa and Asi) -- one who was Bhima's father-in-law and the other was Duryodhana's father-in-law. Duryodhana's father-in-law had been killed by Krishna in an earlier war, and thus, the Kashiraja being mentioned here is Bheema's father-in-law. He feels sad that his father-in-law (and army) is not with him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Purujit and Kuntibhoja belonged to the land of Kunti. Kunti's original name was Pratu and she was Vasudeva's sister. She was adopted by the king of Kunti (kunti-desha) and due to this relationship, Purujit and Kuntibhoja were fighting for the Pandavas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Virata was ruling under the fear of Keechaka. Bheema killed Keechaka and liberated Virata, else that entire army would have been with Duryodhana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yudhamanyu and Uttamauja were sons of Drupada too. Abhimanyu and the five sons of Draupadi were approximately 13-18 years old at the time of the war. Duryodhana refers to them as maharathas despite their young age and his tremendous experience in battle. This goes to show how mentally disturbed he was at that time.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the Kauravas, Duryodhana names Dronacharya, Bhisma, Karna, Kripa, Asvatthama, Vikarna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;10&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Drona, Bheeshma, Kripacharya and Asvatthama are all Brahmanas (despite fighting like kshtriyas). Duryodhana is scared that they will abandon their posts in light of their brahminical duties (after all, timely prayers and yagnas are the duties of of a brahmaNa). The other side is glittering with kshtriyas, whereas I (Duryodhana) am going into battle with four brahmaNas!!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ashwattama also tried hard to stop the war and offered to mediate with the Pandavas and now Duryodhana had to go into battle with him! Ashwattama's innocence and brahminical qualities were displayed when he once went and requested Krishna for the Sudharshan chakra because he had heard that Krishna could only be killed by that! &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna having been insulted by Bheeshma, had vowed not to fight until Bheeshma died. Now, how does one go into battle with such a friend?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vikarna is Duryodhana's brother. So, why does Duryodhana name VikarNa and not his 98 other brothers? It comes in the Mahabharatha, that while Draupadi's vastra-haraNa was taking place, the only Kaurava to object loudly was Vikarna, who was nothing but an attention-seeker. He felt, that if he vocally objects to this act, he will be considered a wise person. Duryodhana remembers that occassion and thinks to himself, &quot;If this Vikarna decides to drop his weapons, and denounces the war just to seek false attention, then what will I do?&quot;. That is why Duryodhana names Vikarna. This again establishes the mental state of Duryodhana as that of a completely defeated and heart-broken person. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Subsequent to this, Duryodhana has a complete breakdown in the 10th shloka, where he says that the Kaurava army is inadequate despite having 11 akshohinis and the Pandava army is well-equipped despite having only 7 akshohinis. Very often, this shloka is translated is wrongly (with the word aparyaptam being translated as undefeatable) [please refer to Raghavendra Tirtha's Gita Vivrutti (16th century), where he notes this verse is often wrongly translated]. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita goes to show what fear and self-doubt can do to a person. It also shows that Duryodhana was mentally defeated even before the war began. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Citation: &#xA;Bannanje Govindacharya's lectures on the Bhagavad Gita in Kannada (especially parts 1 - 5 that deal with this question) can be found here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kannadaaudio.com/Songs/Discourses/home/Bhagavadgeeta-1.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.kannadaaudio.com/Songs/Discourses/home/Bhagavadgeeta-1.php&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2990" LastEditorUserId="2990" LastEditDate="2015-05-18T01:08:07.253" LastActivityDate="2015-05-18T01:08:07.253" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7319" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7301" CreationDate="2015-05-18T03:05:55.677" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a popular mantra amongst some bhaktas, that could be of information to you sir. This is an advaitic perspective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ramdass.org/blessing-our-food-part-of-god/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here is a link&lt;/a&gt; This is from Shrimad Bhagavad Gita by Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmarpanam Brahma Havir Brahmagnau Brahmana Hutam Brahmaiva Tena Ghantavyam Brahmakarma Samadhina [Bhagavad Gita 4:24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Zoqiy.png&quot; alt=&quot;The bramharpanam shloka in sanskrit&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The act of offering is Brahman. The offering itself is Brahman. The offering is done by Brahman in the sacred fire which is Brahman. He alone attains Brahman who, in all actions, is fully absorbed in Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means that the act of eating, the object being eaten, and the one who eats. These three are One. These three are none other than Brahman. Remembering this prayer before every meal is what some bhaktas do in order to remind them of the One Unity behind the apparent phenomenal world. All the best!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2015-08-02T03:42:14.143" LastActivityDate="2015-08-02T03:42:14.143" CommentCount="35" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7320" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9625" CreationDate="2015-05-18T05:14:05.967" Score="2" ViewCount="535" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is &lt;code&gt;nadi jyotish&lt;/code&gt;(nāḍi jyotiṣa) in Hindu astrology?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How much the predictions  exactly true? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone have any idea about that temple's name ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How &lt;code&gt;nadi jyotish&lt;/code&gt; is different from &lt;code&gt;kundli&lt;/code&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2333" LastEditorUserId="2333" LastEditDate="2015-05-18T17:37:20.783" LastActivityDate="2022-10-30T12:59:23.833" Title="what is Nadi Astrology(nāḍi jyotiṣa) in Hindu astrology" Tags="|temple|practice|astrology|teaching|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7321" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7305" CreationDate="2015-05-18T08:06:13.230" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question itself answers that this is a belief. If you have true faith in this belief, follow it. But is it the only criteria? Definitely no.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Realization is what separates us mortals from the one residing in Kailasa. To attain realization or libertaion, you must follow 8 fold paths in Yoga of patanjali (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali#The_eight_limbs_of_Yoga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali#The_eight_limbs_of_Yoga&lt;/a&gt;)&#xA;and attain Nirvikalpa samadhi. This is possible only under a guidance of a guru. Hence first find a guru for your as per your spiritual and materialistic needs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-05-18T08:06:13.230" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7322" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7309" CreationDate="2015-05-18T08:17:42.377" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Even though i don't have exact numbers with me, Vishnu has the more temples (consider all forms of Vishnu). I got this rough information from a government department. Since they don't have any online presence, i cannot give you link. But each state government owns a muzrai department where they govern the govt. owned temples. These department are further divided according to district wise. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given below is the address of Karnataka Muzrai department office:&#xA;Religious endownment commissioner office, &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Near Appex bank,&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;chamarajpet,&lt;br/&gt; Bangalore &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-05-18T08:17:42.377" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7323" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7330" CreationDate="2015-05-18T08:21:50.837" Score="8" ViewCount="1682" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can recall that I read in a question that Prahalad once attacked Devaloka and maybe won over Indra. I wanted to know if it is true or not and if true, then what is the story behind this and why did Prahalad, being a devotee of Lord Vishnu and good natured, attack the Devatas? Also, whether the Tridevs applied any trick/battle with him to help Indra get back his throne.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-30T22:35:24.613" LastActivityDate="2021-11-02T20:55:51.877" Title="Did Prahalad attack Devaloka in his lifetime?" Tags="|vishnu|gods|asuras|lokas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7326" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23959" CreationDate="2015-05-18T16:41:43.870" Score="2" ViewCount="508" Body="&lt;p&gt;If it is believed that only Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the supreme gods, why do we worship other gods like Rama, Krishna, Sai baba etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These days some people are saying that Sai baba is not a god, and some people are saying he is incarnation of Lord Shiva so instead of worshipping Sai, it is better to worship only Lord Shiva right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I mean anyway as Sai is incarnation of Lord Shiva, if one worships only Lord Shiva, it reaches to Lord Sai baba also, am I wrong?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is if a person worships a human being believing(wrongly) him to be some god's incarnation, then he wont get mukti or moksha right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I like all gods either sai baba or even others&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1239" LastEditorUserId="1239" LastEditDate="2015-10-14T19:08:51.707" LastActivityDate="2018-02-02T05:02:44.483" Title="Why do hindus need to worship more gods?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7327" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7328" CreationDate="2015-05-19T04:17:58.753" Score="5" ViewCount="2083" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why people are afraid of Aghoris?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that because of their face and living style or do they have any supernatural powers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard irrespective of religion, anyone can become Aghori. Is that true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the Significance of Aghoris?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do they work on Black Magic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2953" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T10:45:02.803" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T10:45:02.803" Title="Why people are afraid of Aghoris?" Tags="|shiva|saint|tantra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7328" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7327" CreationDate="2015-05-19T04:36:38.437" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;People are scared of Aghoris because of traditional myths associated with them..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people believe that they have black magic powers, some believe that they eat human flesh, some believe that they are favourite devotes of lord shiva and they have &quot;Saath Khoon Maaf&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not all Aghoris are really Aghoris.. Majority of them are just wanted criminals from different region of the country and living unidentified life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the real Aghoris have to find a GURU to become an Aghori. It is a process of 14 years.. where your GURU teaches you all the tricks and tips of a successful Aghori.. In the initial years of training they have to find a human skull from the carnation grounds and turn it into a bowl and eat in that bowl everyday. They also rub ashes on their body to keep them warm and make them look like lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aghoris do eat dead human body because they think its a &quot;PRASAD&quot; from lord shiva. Some people find it Taboo but some find it as blessing if their loved one's dead body get eaten by an Aghori.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2996" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T08:21:20.000" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T08:21:20.000" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7330" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7323" CreationDate="2015-05-19T05:11:26.617" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Prahlada did conquer Devaloka.&lt;/strong&gt; People don't generally discuss Prahlada's adult life, because it's not nearly as inspiring as the story of his childhood.  He maintained his devotion to Vishnu and his good character, considering that he instilled both in his grandson Mahabali, but like Mahabali he seems to have had a desire to have the Asuras take over the three worlds, perhaps out of loyalty to his own Asura race.  And he succeeded, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In days of yore, the Daitya Prahlada, by the merit of his behaviour, snatched from the high-souled Indra his sovereignty and reduced the three worlds to subjection. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In response, Indra disguised himself as a Brahmin and approached Prahlada, asking him how he managed to conquer the three worlds.  Prahlada responded that it was because of his virtuous behavior:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I do not, O regenerate one, feel any pride in consequence of my being a king, nor do I cherish any hostile feelings towards the Brahmanas. On the other hand, I accept and follow the counsels of policy they declare unto Me based upon the teachings of Sukra. In complete trustfulness they say unto me what they wish to say, and restrain me from courses that are unrighteous or improper. I am ever obedient to the teachings of Sukra. I wait upon and serve the Brahmanas and my seniors. I bear no malice. I am of righteous soul. I have conquered wrath. I am self-restrained, and all my senses are under my control. These regenerate ones that are my instructors pour beneficial instructions upon me like bees dropping honey into the cells of their comb. I taste the nectar dropped by those learned men, and like the Moon among the constellations I live among the members of my race. Even this is nectar on earth, even this is the clearest eye, viz., listening to the teaching of Sukra from the lips of Brahmanas and acting according to them. In these consists the good of a man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prahlada was impressed that the Brahmana was patiently listening to all this, so he offered him a boon. Indra asked Prahlada to give him his good behavior.  Prahlada agreed, and his good behavior left him in the form of a god.  After that, gods associated with righteousness, truth, good deeds, might, and prosperity all left Prahlada and entered Indra.  Thus rule of the three worlds was restored to Indra and the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, this isn't the only occasion where Indra approached Prahlada for wisdom; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b049.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata describes another such occasion, and it's effusive in its praise of Prahlada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The chief of the Daityas, viz., Prahlada, was unattached to all worldly objects. His sins had been washed away. Of respectable parentage, he was possessed of great learning. Free from stupefaction and pride, ever observant of the quality of goodness, and devoted to various vows, he took praise and censure equally. Possessed of self-restraint, he was then passing his time in an empty chamber. Conversant with the origin and the destruction of all created objects, mobile and immobile, he was never angry with things that displeased him and never rejoiced at the accession of objects that were agreeable. He cast an equal eye upon gold and a clump of earth. Steadily engaged in study of the Soul and in acquiring Emancipation, and firm in knowledge, he had arrived at fixed conclusions in respect of truth. Acquainted with what is supreme and what is not so among all things, omniscient and of universal sight, as he was seated one day in a solitary chamber with his senses under complete control.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another notable incident in Prahlada's adult life is when he fought the sages Nara and Narayana, not knowing they were incarnations of Vishnu, because he thought they were violating dharma by carrying weapons, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk04ch09.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Devi Bhagavatam.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, Prahlada ultimately entered Patalaloka with his grandson Mahabali, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, and he later attained Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-29T04:03:04.817" LastActivityDate="2016-02-29T04:03:04.817" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7331" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-19T05:59:00.633" Score="11" ViewCount="47927" Body="&lt;p&gt;After reading &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7262/2656&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, I am curious to know how many kilometers or miles are equal to one &lt;code&gt;yojana&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is some of the information taken from the above &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7262/2656&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;. Here a &lt;code&gt;league&lt;/code&gt; equals one &lt;code&gt;yojana&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sphere of the earth (or Bhúr-loka), comprehending its oceans,&#xA;  mountains, and rivers, extends as far as it is illuminated by the rays&#xA;  of the sun and moon; and to the same extent, both in diameter and&#xA;  circumference, the sphere of the sky (Bhuvar-loka) spreads above it&#xA;  (as far upwards as to the planetary sphere, or Swar-loka). The solar&#xA;  orb is situated a hundred thousand leagues from the earth; and that of&#xA;  the moon an equal distance from the sun. At the same interval above&#xA;  the moon occurs the orbit of all the lunar constellations. The planet&#xA;  Budha (Mercury) is two hundred thousand leagues above the lunar&#xA;  mansions. Śukra (Venus) is at the same distance from Mercury. Angáraka&#xA;  (Mars) is as far above Venus; and the priest of the gods (Vrihaspati,&#xA;  or Jupiter) as far from Mars: whilst Saturn (Sani) is two hundred and&#xA;  fifty thousand leagues beyond Jupiter. The sphere of the seven Rishis&#xA;  (Ursa Major) is a hundred thousand leagues above Saturn; and at a&#xA;  similar height above the seven Rishis is Dhruva (the pole-star), the&#xA;  pivot or axis of the whole planetary circle. Such, Maitreya, is the&#xA;  elevation of the three spheres (Bhúr, Bhuvar, Swar) which form the&#xA;  region of the consequences of works. The region of works is here (or&#xA;  in the land of Bhárata).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am very desperate to know how much our ancients know about mathematics, I want to compare those calculations with the current ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2656" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2021-08-24T05:40:27.687" Title="How many kilometers equals to a Yojana" Tags="|puranas|astrology|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7332" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-19T06:07:21.473" Score="6" ViewCount="4628" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that there are 8 immortals as per Hindu scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(e.g Ashwaththama, Mahabali, Vyasa, Hanuman, Vibhishan, Kripacharya,&#xA;  Parshurama, Markandeya)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, is Lord Ganesha immortal? If not, is there any story of his death? Otherwise, how did he become immortal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How about his brother Lord Kartikeya? Is there any story about them? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2656" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T13:07:26.073" LastActivityDate="2020-06-17T13:07:26.073" Title="Is Lord Ganesha immortal?" Tags="|ganesha|immortality|chiranjivi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7336" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2956" CreationDate="2015-05-19T07:06:28.227" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Once a demon Vithrasur was trying to kill Goddess Sati before her marriage with Lord Shiva. Sage Dadhichi was trying to save Sati from Vithrasur. Sati was very worried. Vithrasur was hitting Dadhichi with his powers. Dadhichi was injured. Then Lord Shiva had saved Sati from Vithrasur. Lord Shiva had blessed Dadhichi that his bones will become a weapon. One day in the time of Goddess Parvati,Lord Shiva had requested Dadhichi to donate his body for killing Vithrasur. Dadhichi had donated his body and he had died. Lord Indra had made a weapon with Dadhichi's bones. Shiva had named the weapon Vajra. Then Indra had killed Vithrasur with his Vajra. So,Vajra was a weapon of Lord Indra which was made with Sage Dadhichi's bones after his death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2862" LastEditorUserId="2862" LastEditDate="2015-05-22T10:32:11.297" LastActivityDate="2015-05-22T10:32:11.297" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7337" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-19T07:48:47.067" Score="2" ViewCount="35" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some of the pictures of Lord Ganesha has trunk on left side, while in some other images, its on right side. I know that there is a symbolic meaning to it as my grandfather used to say, but i forgot. Can anyone please explain me the difference between trunk on left side versus trunk on right side?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-05-19T07:48:47.067" Title="What is the symbolic meaning of Lord Ganesha's trunk?" Tags="|puranas|ganesha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-05-19T11:41:49.100" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7338" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-19T07:48:58.310" Score="3" ViewCount="223" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;1 . Is jIiva completely independent?&#xA;2 . completely dependent?&#xA;3 . Partial Independent?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If jIiva is completely independent, then what is role of &lt;strong&gt;Vidhi Nishedas&lt;/strong&gt;? what about &lt;strong&gt;nitya karmas&lt;/strong&gt;?. if jIiva has no limit to his KARMAS, then he is independent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;if jIiva is completely dependent, does it mean jIiva doesn't have &lt;strong&gt;independence&lt;/strong&gt; to his actions? For suppose if one has to drink water, he would just take a water bottle and drink water. So is there anything which is &lt;strong&gt;controlling&lt;/strong&gt; him to drink water? On the other side there should be some external force to trigger his mind to think of drinking water. So which is correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;if jIiva is partial independent, does it mean independency &lt;strong&gt;only on&lt;/strong&gt; non-living objects(jAda)? for suppose moving a non-ling object from one place to another. Here the non-living object is dependent on jIiva. And jIiva is independent w.r.t non-living object. Here jIiva has &lt;strong&gt;constraint of independency&lt;/strong&gt; for non-living objects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My question is&lt;/strong&gt; - What are the suitable sources in veda, upanishads and puranas for jIiva dependability and independability. Or suitable BG verses which specifies the same. And what does philosoplical background says about dependability and independability&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="340" LastEditorUserId="340" LastEditDate="2015-05-21T04:40:18.200" LastActivityDate="2015-10-26T09:28:34.790" Title="Dependability and Independability of jIiva" Tags="|vedas|karma|upanishads|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7339" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7326" CreationDate="2015-05-19T07:58:46.703" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Its the choice given to people. You can choose a deity of your choice and worship him. Its just as simple as that. Swami Virajeshwara (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-virajeshwara.com/&quot;&gt;http://www.swami-virajeshwara.com/&lt;/a&gt;)  says that any deity worshipped with immense bhakti yields results. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then why do have so many gods? Let me try to explain with an example.&#xA;Person X likes Jalebi, Y likes Burfi and Z likes Jamoon. Now the contents of all sweets are almost same(sugar,powder,elaichi etc.) Just the process is different. Similarly your taste and my taste differs in all the aspects including spirituality &amp;amp; religion. I might like Lord Krishna whereas you might like Lord Ganesha. At the end all are same. But the process of worship and attaining bhakti is different. That is the beauty of Hinduism. No one forces you to follow one person or one God. You are free to create your own god. At the end, it just merges to one single God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-05-19T07:58:46.703" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7341" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7331" CreationDate="2015-05-19T11:19:03.113" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yojana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Yojana (Sanskrit : योजन ) is a Vedic measure of distance that was used in ancient India. It is equivalent to about 8.0 km (5 mi) as per modern measures of distance, although the exact value is disputed among scholars (between 8 and 13 km (5 and 8 mi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3001" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-05-19T13:14:48.787" LastActivityDate="2015-05-19T13:14:48.787" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7342" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8177" CreationDate="2015-05-19T13:03:16.840" Score="7" ViewCount="20192" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that cow has 33 crores gods in it? If so, where it is written and what are all the names of those 33 crores gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2953" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T15:00:28.660" Title="Is it true that cow has 33 crores god in it?" Tags="|belief|gods|cows|superstitions|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2016-08-27T11:30:01.363" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7343" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7332" CreationDate="2015-05-19T15:37:43.573" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Advaita perspective:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Lord Ganesha is a form of the Eternal Brahman. Therefore He is eternal. The stories relating to the birth of Lord Ganesha are also of a deep spiritual significance. Here is what Veda and some saints have said about Lord Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Symbolic meaning of Lord Ganesha&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesha is a form of the eternal Brahman. The form and stories of Lord Ganesha has a deep spiritual significance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Sri Swami Sivananda says about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/religions/ganesha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Ganesha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesha is an &lt;strong&gt;embodiment of wisdom and bliss&lt;/strong&gt;. He is the Lord of Brahmacharins. He is the foremost among Brahmacharins or celibates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He rides on the Vahana, the small mouse. He is the Presiding Deity of the Muladhara Chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the Lord who removes all obstacles in the spiritual path and brings worldly success. So He is called Vighna Vinayaka. His Bijakshara is Gang. He is the Lord of harmony and peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Ganesha represents OM or the Pranava.&lt;/strong&gt; Pranava is the chief Mantra of the Hindus. Nothing can be done without uttering it. Hence the practice of invoking Lord Ganesha before beginning any rite or work. The two feet are His Jnana Sakti and Kriya Sakti. Lord Ganesha has the elephant-head as that is the one figure in nature which is of the form of Pranava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Riding on the mouse represents that He has killed egoism. He holds Ankusa. This represents that He is the Ruler of the world. This is the emblem of Divine Royalty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganesha is the first God, Adi-Deva.&lt;/strong&gt; Mouse is a small creature. Elephant is the biggest of all animals. Riding on a mouse and wearing the head of an elephant denote that He is the Creator of all creatures, from the biggest elephant to the smallest mouse. Elephants are very wise. Wearing the head of an elephant indicates that Lord Ganesha is an embodiment of wisdom. It also denotes the process of evolution. The mouse gradually evolves into an elephant and finally becomes a man. That is the reason why Ganesha has a human body, the head of an elephant, and mouse as His vehicle. This is the symbolic philosophy of His form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the Lord of Ganas or groups, such as the group of elements, the group of senses, the group of Tattwas. He is the head of the followers of Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Ganesha as eternal Brahman&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/Ganapati-Atharvasirsha-2.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganapathi Atharvasirsha&lt;/a&gt; says that Lord Ganesha is the imperishable Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tvam vaangmayastvam chinmayah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tvamaanandamayastvam brahmamayah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tvam sachchidaanandaadvitiiyosi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tvam pratyaksham brahmaasi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tvam jnaanamayo vijnaanamayosi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are the word, deed and thought . You are the truth, consciousness and bliss. You are the One only and non-dual Universal Self. You are the personified Brahma, appearing before us. You are the entire knowledge and wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Sri Shankaracharya on Lord Ganesha&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sri Shankaracharya's work &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/texts/shankara_works.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganesh Bhujangam&lt;/a&gt;, he says that Sri Ganesha is beginningless and Pranava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yamae Kaa Ksharam Nirmalam Nirvi Kalpam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gunaa Teeta Maa Nanda Maa Kaara Shoonyam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Param Paara Mom Kaara Maan Maaya Garbham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vathanthi Prakalpam Puraanam Tameed (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stutimandal.com/gif_ganesh/ganesh_bhujangam.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit version&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhajanlyricsworld.com/2013/09/ganesha-bhujangam-lyrics.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;English version&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I praise that &lt;strong&gt;Ganesha&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is the &lt;strong&gt;beginning of the universe&lt;/strong&gt;, Who is pure,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is free from differences, &lt;strong&gt;Who is beyond the qualities&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is pure bliss, Who is formless, Who is beyond everything,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who is OMkar&lt;/strong&gt;, Who is the creator of illusions, and Whom eminent Purana sing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from advaita perspective, Lord Ganesha symbolizes the Eternal Omkara or Pranava, which is not different from Brahman Himself. All the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-05-19T19:12:31.277" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7344" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3563" CreationDate="2015-05-19T17:10:09.960" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dear friends i am neither a vaishnavite nor shaivite, i am a hindu, god is one, god is genderless he/she may be  shiva,vishnu,krishna,bramha,ganesh or devi etc its the choice of devotee, if vishnu only grants moksha then shaivites or shaktas are wasting their time no no..for shaivites god is shiva he can grants moksha he is supreme for shaktas god is devi/durga/parvati..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3002" LastActivityDate="2015-05-19T17:10:09.960" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7346" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7342" CreationDate="2015-05-20T04:47:49.160" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whether it's a myth or truth cannot be judged. It all depends on faith. In Hinduism, there are a total of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_deities&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;33 crore gods&lt;/a&gt;. And these are symbolically represented in cows as we derive so many benefits from a cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same analogy you can apply to any animal as well as to a human.&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Example: God related to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishvanara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vaishnavara&lt;/a&gt;. Every living being will contain this in the form of digestive 'agni'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then why Lord Krishna refers to Kamadhenu in Bhagavad Geetha? Because it is a wish fulfilling cow. Just like how a deity fulfills all our desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-23T19:00:16.993" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T19:00:16.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7351" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7342" CreationDate="2015-05-20T12:15:21.097" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word 'Gods' is a misnomer here. The 33 crore numbers refers to devathas that administer the functioning of the universe. In scriptures posit that the microcosm(human body) is a reflection of the macrocosm(universe). The 33 crore Devathas thus also represent 33 crore gene functions/characteristics in human beings. Every Devatha has an name associated mantra for invocation and propitiation. You can read through chapter 2 and 3 in &lt;a href=&quot;http://agasthyayug.blogspot.com/2014/02/agasthya-yug-english.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; for more on this. The reference to the cow in this context is possibly to the host these genes common between humans and cows with different degrees of dormancy and active states of these genes in the two species. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2015-05-20T12:15:21.097" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7352" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7353" CreationDate="2015-05-20T14:52:08.557" Score="3" ViewCount="4526" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did Dhritarashtra die in the Mahabharata? I couldn't get the answer in Wikipedia unfortunately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2802" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T03:35:34.593" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T03:35:34.593" Title="Dhritarashtra's role and the way he died in the Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|dhritarashtra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7353" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7352" CreationDate="2015-05-20T15:15:09.287" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The death of Dhritarashtra is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m15/m15037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Ashramavasika Parva of the Mahabharata.  Fifteen years after the Mahabharata war, Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, Kunti, Vidura, and Sanjaya all went to the ashram (hermitage) of the sage Vyasa in order to become Sanyasis, in order to escape the sorrows they had suffered.  Vidura died first in the ashram.  After that, the rest of them decided to go to Gangadwara (modern day Haridwar) and engage in Tapasya on the banks of Ganga river.  one day there was a forest fire, and Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, and Kunti all &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m15/m15037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;allowed themselves to be consumed&lt;/a&gt; because fire is a fitting death for Sanyasis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day, that best of kings proceeded to a spot on the margin of Ganga. He then bathed in the sacred stream and finishing his ablutions turned his face towards his retreat. The wind rose high. A fierce forest-conflagration set in. It began to burn that forest all around. When the herds of animals were being burnt all around, as also the snakes that inhabited that region, herds of wild boars began to take themselves to the nearest marshes and waters. When that forest was thus afflicted on all sides and such distress came upon all the living creatures residing there, the king, who had taken no food, was incapable of moving or exerting himself at all. Thy two mothers also, exceedingly emaciated, were unable to move. The king, seeing the conflagration approach him from all sides, addressed the Suta Sanjaya, that foremost of skilful charioteers, saying,--'Go, O Sanjaya, to such a place where the fire may not burn thee. As regards ourselves, we shall suffer our bodies to be destroyed by this fire and attain to the highest goal.' Unto him, Sanjaya, that foremost of speakers, said,--'O king, this death, brought on by a fire that is not sacred, will prove calamitous to thee. I do not, however, see any means by which thou canst escape from this conflagration. That which should next be done should be indicated by thee.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus addressed by Sanjaya the king once more said,--'This death cannot be calamitous to us, for we have left our home of our own accord. Water, fire, wind, and abstention from food, (as means of death), are laudable for ascetics. Do thou, therefore, leave us, O Sanjaya, without any delay. Having said these words to Sanjaya, the king concentrated his mind. Facing the east, he sat down, with Gandhari and Kunti. Beholding him in that attitude, Sanjaya walked round him. Endued with intelligence, Sanjaya said,--'Do thou concentrate thy soul, O puissant one.' The son of a Rishi, and himself possessed of great wisdom, the king acted as he was told. Restraining all the senses, he remained like a post of wood. The highly blessed Gandhari, and thy mother Pritha too, remained in the same attitude. Then thy royal sire was overtaken by the forest-conflagration. Sanjaya, his minister, succeeded in escaping from that conflagration:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So only Dhritarashtra's minister and charioteer Sanjaya survived.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-07-28T01:17:36.790" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7354" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-20T16:09:06.053" Score="9" ViewCount="3954" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have recently taken some particular interest in how avatars are depicted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I see Rama is almost always depicted in Gouravarna or in any humane color with bright aura behind.&#xA;But Krishna almost always in blue color.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard krishna was little dark colored(Hence name krishna), but why depict him in blue?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastActivityDate="2021-12-23T09:54:36.923" Title="Depiction of Rama and Krishna" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|mahabharata|krishna|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7355" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-21T01:20:21.957" Score="0" ViewCount="155" Body="&lt;p&gt;If there was no war in Mahabharata, there would be no Bhagwad Gita. Since Bhagwad Gita is a good thing born out of something bad (the war), should we be thankful that the Mahabharata war took place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2987" LastActivityDate="2015-05-21T05:25:42.317" Title="About the conception of the Bhagwad Gita" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-05-22T11:22:21.483" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7356" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10951" CreationDate="2015-05-21T01:51:28.363" Score="16" ViewCount="2038" Body="&lt;p&gt;With popular belief Krishna advices Yudhisthira to tell lie to Drona about &amp;quot;Killing of Ashwatthama&amp;quot; for the sake of saving remaining Paandava army from being annihilated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07187.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this text&lt;/a&gt;, it appears much broader:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Govinda, knowing that Drona, that foremost of warriors, was capable of sweeping all the Pandavas off the face of the earth, became much distressed. Addressing Yudhishthira he said, 'If Drona fighteth, filled with rage, for even half-a-day, I tell thee truly, thy army will then be annihilated. Save us, then, from Drona. under such circumstances, falsehood is better than truth. By telling an untruth for saving a life, one is not touched by sin. &lt;strong&gt;There is no sin in untruth spoken unto women, or in marriages&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;em&gt;or for saving king, or for rescuing a Brahmana.&lt;/em&gt; 1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Footnote 1: This verse is omitted in the Bombay text. There can be no doubt, however, about its genuineness.`&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the part shown in bold really authentic? If yes, why women and marriages are covered?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-11-18T02:15:25.327" Title="Meaning of Krishna's advice to Yudhisthira before Drona Vadh" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|marriage|women|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7357" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7362" CreationDate="2015-05-21T03:48:02.947" Score="21" ViewCount="2602" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was watching a TV show in which &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_manthan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samudra-manthan&lt;/a&gt; was in progress. In that when the poison came out of the sea, Lord Shiv has to drink it but he didn't swallow it. Because if he swallows it, he will die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna has once said that only those things die which have taken birth but things which haven't taken birth will never die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Shri Krishna is right then why didn't Lord Shiv just swallow the poison as he has not taken birth (शिव अजन्मा है)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true that Lord Shiv would have died if he had swallowed the poison? If yes, then does it mean Shri Krishna is wrong?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I personally feel that both are correct but both are contrasting each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="480" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-01-23T06:16:13.623" LastActivityDate="2020-12-23T08:21:23.180" Title="Why did Shiva not swallow the poison arising from Samudra Manthan?" Tags="|shiva|krishna|bhagavata-purana|samudra-manthan|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7359" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7355" CreationDate="2015-05-21T05:25:42.317" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;B.Gita came because of confusion to Arjuna between Dharma and Karma one has to perform. So even if war would not taken place, gita would have come through some other means. Because all these confusions are occured in day to day life. Its not just in battlefield, but in offices and personal life too. Moreover our internal life too has wars between good and bad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also to note here is that Krishna gave not just B.Gita but so many other gitas like Uddhava Gita which did gave during peace time to Uddhava (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsa_Gita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsa_Gita&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-05-21T05:25:42.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7361" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6781" CreationDate="2015-05-21T15:43:59.903" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Shani Mahatmya is a Marathi folktale and according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://2ndlook.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/folk-worship-in-india-shani-mahatmya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this website&lt;/a&gt;, it's &quot;not from Vedas, puranas, upanishads, or any vedic sanskrit text&quot;.  But apart from that, I'm not sure about its dating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, as far as I know the only English translation of the Shani Mahatmya is Anand Gopte's translation, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://anand-gupte.tripod.com/shani.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2015-05-21T15:43:59.903" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7362" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7357" CreationDate="2015-05-21T16:35:00.570" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to stories given in Shiva Purana, there is one Lord Shiva who is the main GOD and then Lord Rudra, who is a manifestation of Lord Shiva born from eyebrows of Lord Bramha. The TV serials hardly show this. This Rudra form is actually the one who resides on Mount Kailash and is also the one who married Mata Parvati. But, in most of the stories the name Shiva, Shankar, Mahadev, Rudra, etc are used interchangeably for both of them. So, we cannot be sure that the one who drank the poison is Lord Shiva or Lord Rudra. If he is Lord Rudra then I think since he is born out of Lord Bramha's eyebrows therefore he is not immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Vishnu Purana and Shrimad Bhagvatam also, Lord Rudra was created by Lord Bramha but I think in these books Lord Visnhu/Lord Krishna has been shown as the main GOD instead of Lord Shiva and don't think they talk about 2 forms of Lord Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following is the text from &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/chapter-view&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagvatam&lt;/a&gt; that describes the birth of Lord Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was much anger generated in the mind of Brahmā, which he tried to control and not express. Although he tried to curb his anger, it came out from between his eyebrows, and a child mixed blue and red was immediately generated. After his birth he began to cry: O destiny maker, teacher of the universe, kindly designate my name and place. The all-powerful Brahmā, who was born from the lotus flower, pacified the boy with gentle words, accepting his request, and said: Do not cry. I shall certainly do as you desire. Thereafter Brahmā said: O chief of the demigods, you shall be called by the name Rudra by all people because you have so anxiously cried. My dear boy, I have already selected the following places for your residence: the heart, the senses, the air of life, the sky, the air, the fire, the water, the earth, the sun, the moon and austerity.... My dear boy Rudra, you have eleven other names: Manyu, Manu, Mahinasa, Mahān, Śiva, Ṛtadhvaja, Ugraretā, Bhava, Kāla, Vāmadeva and Dhṛtavrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I believe Lord Rudra might not be immortal but definitely being a param yogi and one of the main Gods, he has control over his body and senses. He was still capable enough to hold/control the poison in his throat. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2015-05-21T16:35:00.570" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7363" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-21T18:55:46.963" Score="8" ViewCount="1023" Body="&lt;p&gt;Edward Moor's book &quot;The Hindu Pantheon&quot;, published in 1810, provides numerous pictures of Hindu gods.  Here's one such picture, depicting Shiva and Parvati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JuifL.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who is the small figure depicted between them, holding two lotus flowers?  Is that one of Shiva's Ganas, or Shiva's son Kartikeya (aka Muruga or Skanda)?  Could it be Nandi, who's described in anthropomorphic terms as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6986/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I ask is that Moor says &quot;the lower central little gentlemen (fig. 6) I am not acquainted with&quot;, but considering that he was writing in a period when the Europeans were just starting to become acquainted with Hinduism, we may have more information about this figure.  Are there any descriptions in Hindu scripture of Kartikeya or Shiva's Ganas holding two lotus flowers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, another odd thing about the picture is that Shiva is holding a bull in his hand!  Now Shiva is known as Pashupati, the lord of animals, and he rides on a bull and has a bull on his flag, but has anyone ever seen him holding a bull?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-06-29T10:10:35.603" Title="Who is this figure depicted between Shiva and Parvati?" Tags="|shiva|kartikeya|parvati|identification-request|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7367" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="824" CreationDate="2015-05-22T11:16:27.620" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Once Lord Brahma had granted a boon to the demon Hiranyakshyap that any God,any Demon,any Human or any Animal cannot be kill him and he will not die in Earth or Space and he will not die in his home or outside and he will be not kill with any weapon and he will not die on day and night. That's why Lord Vishnu took his incarnation Narasimha for saving Hiranyakshyap's son Prahallad who was a follower of him and Narasimha was not a God,not a Demon,not an Animal and not a human,he was a half lion and half human and he had killed Hiranyakshyap not in his home and not in outside,he had killed him in the middle of his home and outside and he had not killed him with any weapon,he had killed him with his nails and he had not killed him in the Earth or Space,he had had kept him in his lap and killed him and he had not killed him on day and night,he had killed him on evening. This is the reason that why Lord Vishnu take on an incarnation that was half human and half lion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2862" LastEditorUserId="2862" LastEditDate="2015-05-22T11:23:25.380" LastActivityDate="2015-05-22T11:23:25.380" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7368" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6706" CreationDate="2015-05-22T17:06:11.817" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Akashic records&quot; was first used by Theosophists in the 1800s. The word itself was created from the Sanskrit &quot;akasha&quot;, but that in and of itself does not mean that it's origin lies in any Sanskrit literature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Philosophically it is entirely reasonable to assume that the thoughts of every being are imprinted onto the fabric of our Universe in the realm of the citta. The same thing happens to our subtle body as the four functions of the mind (manas, citta, ahankara and buddhi) interact to create what we perceive as consciousness. So, universally speaking, the same must happen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this does not mean that there are &quot;keepers&quot; of these records and all of the other things that go along with it. Those assumptions are not stipulated in any shastra, so they are merely speculations. Of course one could access the thoughts of others through this medium, but one must be careful to simply equate this faculty with the &quot;Akashic records&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An important point to mention is that the Upanishads are &quot;heard&quot; (sruti) by those who are qualified (and subsequently passed on). But this &quot;sound&quot; is part of the fabric of the Universe itself, and isn't due to the thoughts of (deceased) living entities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for your example...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;One recent example is , pandit subbaraya shastri , who accessed portions of vaimanika shastra( written by sage Bharadvaja) &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The argument can be made that this knowledge was &quot;encoded&quot; within the very Universe at its creation, or subsequently by a Deva, and then accessed by someone who was qualified. Another possibility is that it was received directly from another living entity. No need for (man made) Akashic records.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A clear distinction between &quot;encoded into the fabric of the Universe&quot; and &quot;recorded thoughts of living entities&quot; must thus be made. As all of us will hopefully attest, many of the thoughts of living entities are quite useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One could therefore make another strong argument that &quot;everything&quot; isn't stored, as this would result in a lot of &quot;noise&quot; which would drown out the useful information or higher knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The point was made that all actions are recorded by Yamaraja. Obviously someone has to take care of the administrative aspect of karma. Only novice (and mostly Western) students of Hinduism are so naive as to think that matter moves itself. But does that have anything to do with the Akashic records? In truth, not at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So go back to what the Akashic records are proposed to be, &quot;records of the past and future of human thought and action&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've given a long reply to your question, because I believe the this is yet another case of modern speculation being equated with the knowledge received from the ancients. It's a dangerous game to play.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3020" LastActivityDate="2015-05-22T17:06:11.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7375" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-24T03:15:51.843" Score="6" ViewCount="1269" Body="&lt;p&gt;Among the eighteen Mahapuranas, perhaps the most popular one among Vaishnavas today is the Bhagavata Purana, AKA the Srimad Bhagavatam.  Yet Ramanujacharya, the most prominent member of the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) doesn't quote from it at all in his writings.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Various explanations of this have been proposed, e.g. that the Bhagavatam was viewed as having Advaita overtones until the time of Madhvacharya, or that the Bhagavatam was a devotional text and thus not suited for Ramunjacharya's philosophical arguments with his opponents.  Still, a lot of Western Indologists use this fact to argue that the Srimad Bhagavatam was a later work composed after the time of Ramanujacharya, and that all the passages in Hindu scripture (e.g. in other Puranas and the Mahabharata) which refer to the Bhagavatam are later interpolations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my purpose here isn't to adjudicate this dispute, other then to say that as a Sri Vaishnava I personally accept the Srimad Bhagavatam as an authentic work composed by Vyasa. My question is, who was the first Sri Vaishnava Acharya who actually quoted from the Srimad Bhagavatam in his works?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I'm not looking for allusions to stories that happen to be in the Srimad Bhagavatam.  I'm looking for direct quotes from the text of the Bhagavatam.  And I'm specifically interested in Sri Vaishnava Acharyas, since the Bhagavatam now plays such a prominent role in the Sri Vaishnava sect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-01T05:18:20.437" LastActivityDate="2016-10-04T04:10:18.660" Title="Who was the first Sri Vaishnava Acharya to quote from the Srimad Bhagavatam?" Tags="|history|puranas|bhagavata-purana|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7376" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16608" CreationDate="2015-05-24T03:59:56.310" Score="14" ViewCount="5262" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lots of questions can be spawned from this 'never before read' Mahãbhãrata story, but above is the major one.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Until now my perception was that, Nãrãyana was an equivalent God to Shiva and does not require austerities to get power even while in human form, but this story debunks it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Preface&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After unjust killing of Drona, his son Ashwathama in rage invokes various celestial weapons to destroy Pãndava army. Final is Agneyastra. Though it kills 1 Akshouhini, it couldn't even touch Arjun &amp;amp; Keshava. Frustrated with that he leaves the battlefield and goes to Vyãsa for its complete answer. He learns that, he himself was part form of Rudra who himself given a boon to Nãrãyana (Keshava &amp;amp; hence Arjuna) to have ability to win over him during war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07197.htm&quot;&gt;Relevant Quote&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Laying aside his bow, then, the son of Drona speedily alighted from his car, and saying, 'O fie, fie! Every thing is untrue,' he ran away from the fight. On his way he met Vyasa, ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The son of Drona with voice choked in grief, and like one exceedingly cheerless, saluted him and said, &quot;O sire, O sire, is this an illusion ... Why, indeed, hath my weapon become fruitless? What breach (has there been in the method of invocation)? Or, is it something abnormal, or, is it a victory over Nature (achieved by the two Krishnas) since they are yet alive?&quot; ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vyãsa said, &quot;... He that is called Narayana is older than the oldest ones. For accomplishing some purpose, that creator of the universe took his birth as the son of Dharma. On the mountain of Himavat &lt;strong&gt;he underwent the severest ascetic austerities&lt;/strong&gt;. ... he emaciated himself there for sixty-six thousand years, subsisting all the while upon air alone. Once more undergoing severe &lt;strong&gt;austerities of another kind for twice that period&lt;/strong&gt;, he filled the space between earth and heaven with his energy. When by those austerities, O sire, &lt;strong&gt;he became like Brahma he then beheld the Master, Origin, and Guardian of the Universe, the Lord of all the gods, the Supreme Deity, who is exceedingly difficult of being gazed at, who is minuter than the minutest and larger than, the largest, who is called &lt;em&gt;Rudra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;{(skipping) desription of Shankar}&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Having saluted Rudra, that destroyer of the Asura Andhaka, the lotus eyed Narayana, with emotion filling his heart, began to praise the Three-eyed one&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;{(skipping) similar words for Rudra resembling the description of Krishna himself from Gita}&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I am thy devoted adorer,--be graceful unto me. Do not injure me, by causing evil thoughts to penetrate my heart. ... Adored by me, &lt;strong&gt;grant me the boons I desire but which are difficult of acquisition.&lt;/strong&gt; Do not hide thyself in thy illusion.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vyasa continued, 'The blue-throated God, of inconceivable soul, that wielder of Pinaka, that divine Lord ever praised by the Rishis, then gave boons unto Vasudeva who deserved them all. The great God said, 'O NarayAna with my grace, amongst men, gods, and Gandharvas, thou shalt be of immeasurable might and soul. Neither gods, nor Asuras, nor great Uragas, nor Pisachas, nor Gandharvas, nor men, nor Rakshasas, nor birds, nor Nagas, nor any creatures in the Universe, shall ever be able to bear thy prowess. No one amongst even the celestials shall be able to vanquish thee in battle. Through my grace, none shall ever be able to cause thee pain by the weapon of thunderbolt or with any object that is wet or dry, or with any mobile or immobile thing. Thou shalt be superior to myself if thou ever goest to battle against me.' Thus were these boons acquired by Sauri in days of yore. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Even that God&lt;/em&gt; now walketh the earth (as Vasudeva), beguiling the universe by his illusion.*&lt;/strong&gt; From Narayana's asceticism was born a great Muni of the name of Nara, equal to Narayana himself. Know that Arjuna is none else than that Nara. Those two Rishis, said to be older than the oldest gods, take their births in every Yuga for serving the purposes of the world. Thyself also, O thou of great heart, hast been born as a portion of Rudra ...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This article suggests that the capabilities of Krishna were due to those austerity worth thousands of years towards Rudra/Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Questions:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why in this story, Vishnu is depicted as &quot;that (one of the) God(s)&quot; rather than equivalent to Shiva if not more?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Vishnu is supreme on his own rights then why is there a need of austerity to get supreme powers (note that this particular wasn't the normal austerity, but rather once and for all)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-05-25T10:14:54.277" LastActivityDate="2022-01-21T16:38:36.887" Title="Why Nãrãyana (Vishnu) had to pray Rudra (Shiva) to obtain supreme powers? (excerpt from Mahãbhãrata)" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|mahabharata|krishna|vyasa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7377" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="411" CreationDate="2015-05-24T18:56:54.153" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is right that Lord HANUMAN was married to SUVARCHALA. As sun means rule &quot;niyam&quot; and out of 8 kala only 3 could be given to unmarried so for the rest 5 sun himself suggested this option to HANUMAN. The marriage was just for the name sake and did not resulted in further activities of marriage or dissolution of brahsmashcharya for Lord HANUMAN. Lord sun himself was witness to the marriage and also for the purity and non-involvement of Lord HANUMAN in the normal aspect of marriage. So the marriage was just name sake to maintain the rule of giving the knowledge of 5kala to Lord HANUMAN. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3028" LastActivityDate="2015-05-24T18:56:54.153" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7378" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7338" CreationDate="2015-05-25T12:22:10.080" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedanta sutras discuss in connection with the kartritva (doer ship) of jiva ,whether jiva acts independently or its activity is dependent on paramatma and is handled in a separate adhikarana called “Paraayattaadhikarana” in Vedanta sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is an important issue related to the theory of free will and determinism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The prima facie view is that jiva is totally free without depending on paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer this, Badarayana (Vyasa) the author of Vedanta sutras introduces a sutra called &lt;strong&gt;“Paraat tu tat sruteh”&lt;/strong&gt; (Vedanta sutra 2-3-41)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Badarayana refutes the above prima facie view and affirms that the activity of jiva is prompted by Isvara because, it is declared so by the scripture. The &lt;strong&gt;“tu”&lt;/strong&gt; in the sutra distinguishes the view of Badarayana from that of the prima facie view.  “Parat means from the paramatma or the highest self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, coming to the Principle Bhasyakaras (Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva) commentaries on Vedanta Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As per Shankara, it implies that Supreme being impels to act – &lt;strong&gt;“Isvara tad anujnayaa siddhih”&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;The bondage of jiva as well as its liberation is caused by Paramatma.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Ramanuja, the word “parat” means that the activity of jiva takes place on account of Paramatma – &lt;strong&gt;“Kartritvam asya jivasya Paramatmanaa eva heto bhavati”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Antaryami Brahmana says that ‘&lt;em&gt;Paramatma abides in jivatma and controls it from within.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Taittriya Aranyaka -3-11-10, indicates &lt;em&gt;Paramatma enter into all beings and  controls them&lt;/em&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 9- verse 29) also clearly says that the paramatma resides in the heart of all being and their by controls them .  Also, the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 15 – Verse 15), Lord Krishna says that “&lt;em&gt;I am seated in the hearts of all. From me, memory, knowledge and their loss arise”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Madhva , the word “parat” means that the god has implanted this power to act in jiva, and it is in that sense power is intrinsic to it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though there is a slight variation in the meaning of word “parat”, Badarayana clearly says that the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;kartritva of Jiva is prompted by paramatma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swami Vedanta Desika, great philosopher, belonging to Srivaishnava sampradaya ( 13-14th century) in his work Adhikara Saaravali, indicates that Jiva is dependent for all its activities on several  factors  such as karma in form of punya and papa accruing from deeds of the past, indriyas (sense organs), Kala (time), nature,  unseen potency. But, none of these affect  the kartritva (doer ship) of the Jiva.   Similarly, if Isvara being the controller of all,  prompts jiva to act, the doer ship of jiva is not affected.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two types of kartritva,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prayojaka kartritva&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;em&gt;Paramatma impels the Jiva to act&lt;/em&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prayojya Kartritva&lt;/strong&gt;  : &lt;em&gt;Jiva acts being impelled by paramatma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though divine influence is accepted in respect of kartritva,  Badarayana further clarifies that god’s will operate in accordance with the effort made by an individual in accordance with his former actions (krita prayatnaapeksastu), so that the injunctions and prohibitions of sastras are not rendered futile. This also absolves the god of criticism of cruelty and partiality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, according to Badarayana, Jiva as a karta (agent of action), is prompted to act by god, who is the inner controller, in accordance with the past karma of the Jiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(The details provided here are gleaned from the following works of &lt;strong&gt;Dr.S.M.Srinivasachari&lt;/strong&gt;, (1) &lt;em&gt;The philosophy of Vedanta Sutras&lt;/em&gt; and (2)&lt;em&gt;Philosophy of Visistadvaita&lt;/em&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2015-10-26T09:28:34.790" LastActivityDate="2015-10-26T09:28:34.790" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7379" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-25T16:42:45.743" Score="5" ViewCount="703" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the Puranic inscriptions regarding birth of Surya. How sun planet was created? When it was created? Why he is sometimes considered as direct expansion of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-03T14:54:45.683" LastActivityDate="2016-10-03T14:54:45.683" Title="What is the story regarding birth of Surya" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|puranas|upanishads|surya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7380" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-25T18:35:30.547" Score="14" ViewCount="4126" Body="&lt;p&gt;As all of you know, Valmiki is the author of Ramayana which depicts the life of SriRama. The epic Mahabharata was written by Vyasa and Krishna plays the important role in there. As per the Puranas both of these stories happened in two different yugas, Treta yuga and Dwapara yuga. So obviously there could have been a long interval. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the question is, did the author of Ramayana- Valmiki wrote anything about the the incarnation of SriKrishna in Dwapara yuga? Is there any scriptures written by Valmiki about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question has another version too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was there any scriptures predicting the 'Srikrishna incarnation' during the time of SriRama?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-16T14:21:05.923" LastActivityDate="2015-07-16T14:21:05.923" Title="Did Valmiki - Ramayana author, write about Lord Krishna?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|ramayana|valmiki|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7381" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7380" CreationDate="2015-05-26T01:01:18.023" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;There's only one reference to Krishna in the Ramayana.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-63&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uttara Kanda, Rama asks Lakshmana to find out whether anyone is waiting to see him, because Rama was distraught over Sita's exile and thus wasn't seeing any subjects for the past few days.  Rama tells Lakshmana that it is very important for a king to see his subjects promptly.  He cites a story about the ancient king Nriga, who was cursed to turn into a lizard by two Brahmanas who were waiting to see him.  Here is what the Brahmanas said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since thou hast not granted us an interview though we have been waiting here for a long time, thou shalt, by our curse, remain invisible, being a lizard...  &lt;strong&gt;When Vishnu assuming a human person shall be born in the Vasudeva family of Yaduvas and enhance their glory he shall liberate thee from the curse. Immediately befere the advent of the Kali Yuga the Rishi Nara Narayana gifted with great prowess shall descend upon earth to relieve her of the burden.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So that's a prophecy of the birth of Krishna and Arjuna.  And indeed Krishna did free Nriga from the curse, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/64/chapter-view&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the Uttara Kanda does have some interpolations, so it's possible that this chapter is a later addition after the time of Krishna.  (In fact, some people even call the Uttara Kanda itself a later addition to the Ramayana, but I don't think that's correct.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as other scriptures go, there are lots of incidents in the Puranas taking place long before even the time of Rama which prophesy the birth of Krishna, but I'm not aware of any scriptures older than the Ramayana prophesying him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2015-05-26T01:01:18.023" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7382" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7310" CreationDate="2015-05-26T04:46:42.453" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The trideva always tried not to play with the rules which they embodied in the system. They always had a strict notion, to follow the rules. The best example being, whenever any one of them was angry or not happy with how the rules are making things happen and wanted a sudden change, the other two would console the one to not to do the same, as the universe is a string with bodies connected, a small string moved will change how the universe behaves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Believe me, there is no magic, people ask such things as that is a simple thing to do and in a jiffy it can be done, however powerful you are you cannot restrain the laws created by the trinity, neither the trinity themselves. Everything in every book, we see even the trinity is helpless in many cases, because they always need to find a way to fight the problem where their own laws are not hindered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why wasn't Lord Shiva who is so powerful god able to put back the original head of Ganesha? Why was he so helpless?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Coming to Lord Ganesha, there are many rare points which people don't know.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ganesha's head was completely destroyed, it wasn't only detached but completely destroyed, no skin left; all burnt to ashes.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;There was an elephant which prayed to Lord Shiva and wanted to be his son, the same elephant gave his head to Lord Shiva, which was put on Ganesha's body.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ganesha being only the part of Prakruti (as Ganesha was solely born from Parvati) was not perfect and needed a Purusha part also, by attaching the elephant's head, Lord Shiva completed Ganesha with the Purusha part too.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why couldn't Parvati create another Ganesha like how she had created earlier?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;It's not about new creations, she's a mother, and she had to have a mother's feeling in her. Ganesha being Parvati's son, when he died, it implanted a huge amount of pain and anger in Parvati's heart, this pain cannot be undone, it's a binding of a mother to the child, a universal law, which cannot be ruled out or bluffed. Every mother can give birth to a new child that doesn't mean she should stop lamenting on her dead child, a dead child is like loosing a part of your soul and it can be understood only by a mother, men are feeble creatures in that. &lt;strong&gt;Afterwards, Parvati did have another child&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt; : I cannot provide scripture references as I don't remember much. Secondly, my knowledge is limited to things I listened from Gurus and a general logical understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-03T08:11:13.860" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T08:11:13.860" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7383" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7310" CreationDate="2015-05-26T07:15:19.077" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;it is because of &lt;strong&gt;lord shiva's boon to elephant demon GAJASURA&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;read the story below...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The demon Gajasura (also knows as Nila ) was a friend of Andhaka's. Nila took the form of an elephant and attacked Shiva, but&#xA;  was killed by one of Shiva's attendants. Two representations of Shiva&#xA;  from this battle, often combined, are Shiva Andhakasuravadha (impaling&#xA;  Andhaka) and Shiva Gajasamharara (dancing on Nila's decapitated head&#xA;  or underneath his butchered skin).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gajaharamurti is said to have been sent by sages of Darukavana to kill Siva for seducing their wives as Bhikshatana. Siva killed the&#xA;  elephant and opened his head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another story of Gajasura explains that the rakshasa called Gajasura was an ardent devotee of Lord Siva who underwent penance for&#xA;  many years to receive special boons. Siva, who is easily pleased by&#xA;  prayers, was moved by Gajasura's devotion, and offered a boon.&#xA;  Gajasura asked Siva to reside in his belly, and Siva agreed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile on Mount Kailash, Parvati was anxious to know the whereabouts of her husband and finally approached Lord Vishnu for&#xA;  help. Vishnu disguised himself in the form of a street player along&#xA;  with Nandi, Siva's bull carrier, and the two set out in search of&#xA;  Shanker (Siva). In Gajasura's kingdom, Nandi performed a dance to&#xA;  please the demon. In thanks, Gajasura let Siva out of his stomach, but&#xA;  prayed that he would be allowed to be immortal in the memories of&#xA;  people. To fulfill this wish, Lord Siva severed Gajasura's head and&#xA;  freed him from the cycle of birth and death. He carries the head along&#xA;  with him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On Mount Kailash, Parvati comes to know of Vishnu's victory and is very happy. She creates a doll out of the dough that she uses&#xA;  in her bath, and calls him Vinayak - the one who puts off all&#xA;  obstacles. This boy having never seen Siva, prevents his entry into&#xA;  the palace. In a fit of fury Shiva beheads the boy and enters the&#xA;  palace. Parvati is unaware of the happenings and receives Siva with&#xA;  warmth, for he had returned after a long period. During the course of&#xA;  their conversation, Siva mentions the incident at the palace gates and&#xA;  tells her about severing the child's head. Parvati is shocked to hear&#xA;  the news and pleads with Siva to bring the child back to life for he&#xA;  is like a son to her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva who had with him the head of Gajasura, immediately puts it on the torso of the dead child, thus bringing him back to life and&#xA;  blessing him with a boon that the entire world would worship him in&#xA;  remembrance of that day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sources : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/philosophy/associates/demons/siva/gajasura.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.harekrsna.com/philosophy/associates/demons/siva/gajasura.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gajasura&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gajasura&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gajasurasamhara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gajasurasamhara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note : Lord shiva is &lt;code&gt;Trikaldarshi&lt;/code&gt;, he knows everything.. what happened, what is happening and what will happen..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2656" LastActivityDate="2015-05-26T07:15:19.077" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7384" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7387" CreationDate="2015-05-26T08:16:11.810" Score="6" ViewCount="3266" Body="&lt;p&gt;From a purely philosophical standpoint, is there any any difference between Shuddhadvaita and Advaita philosophy? If yes, can anyone please point me to the changes between the two philosophies and references to them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already searched a couple of forums including stackexchange and couldn't find what I was looking for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-04-26T20:09:09.840" LastActivityDate="2023-04-26T23:59:23.737" Title="Is there any difference between Shuddhadvaita and Advaita Philosophy?" Tags="|vedanta|shuddhadvaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7385" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-26T08:40:04.337" Score="6" ViewCount="4894" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know where is the city that Bakasura (from Mahabharata) lived? I've looked everywhere and can't find any answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3032" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T03:40:23.920" LastActivityDate="2020-10-07T09:25:42.813" Title="Where is the city that the demon Bakasura lived?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7387" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7384" CreationDate="2015-05-26T11:38:05.540" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shuddha-advaita is a school of Vaishnavism. The sect is known as Rudra or Rudza. It was founded by Vallabha (first half 16th century). It differs from the Advaita school followed today primarily known through Adi Sankara's teachings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hinduism Today&lt;/em&gt; magazine (July 2008 issue and available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduismtoday.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduismtoday.com/&lt;/a&gt;) states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This valuable summary is drawn from The Sri-Krsna Temple at Udupi, by B. N. Hebbar, who notes that “all five schools [of Vaishnavism] are theistic and realistic reactions to the absolutistic idealism of Shankara’s Advaita Vedanta…. The first two are South Indian and follow the aishvarya bhakti-marga (Master-servant relationship between the Lord and His&#xA;  devotee), while the latter three [including the Rudra sect] are North Indian and adhere to the madhurya bhakti-marga (Lover-beloved relationship between the Lord and His devotee). Also, while the Lakshmi-Narayana concept predominates South Indian Vaishnavism, the Radha-Krishna element pervades the three North Indian Vaishnava sects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically, being a Vaishnavite, Vallabha sees the universe as real and rejects the concept of Maya (or Vivarta Vada, apparent manifestation) of Sankara. Although Vallabha admits of spiritual union with Brahman, being a Vaishnava sect, it sees the love of Krishna and the mystical union with Krishna as the highest spiritual goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two articles in &lt;em&gt;Hinduism Today&lt;/em&gt;. On their website do a search for 'shuddhadvaita'. There is also a 1 page summary of Vallabha and the Rudra sect in &lt;em&gt;The Spiritual Heritage of India&lt;/em&gt; by Swami Prabhavananda. You might also try a Wikipedia search on 'Vallabha' although the info here is historical and not philosophical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another very good source I remembered. Swami Vireswarananda's translation of the &lt;em&gt;Brahma-Sutras Sri Bhasya&lt;/em&gt; has an excellent and long introduction (80 pages) where he goes into the different commentators (Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Nimbarka, Vallabha, Bhaskara) differences in their specific interpretations of Brahman, the Soul, and release from this world and how each commentator uses specific Sutras to support their individual positions. I do not know of a softcopy on the internet.        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-05-27T10:23:06.123" LastActivityDate="2015-05-27T10:23:06.123" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7388" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7385" CreationDate="2015-05-26T13:06:49.890" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01159.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata just calls the village Ekachakra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa then said ... &amp;quot;Listen to me! Not far off before you is a delightful town where no danger can overtake you. Live ye there in disguise, waiting for my return.&amp;quot; ... Vyasa, the son of Satyavati, thus comforting the Pandavas, led them into the town of Ekachakra....  And the island-born Rishi, addressing the eldest of the Pandavas, said, 'Wait here for me! I will come back to you! By adapting yourselves to the country and the occasion you will succeed in becoming very happy.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as the location of Ekachakra, it's unclear, but &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakasura&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; discusses some possibilities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is rumored that the city of Ekachakra is a small village near the town of Rampurhat in the state of West Bengal. It is in this city that the Pandavas were staying during their exile. According to some historians and historical folklores the town of Pandaveswar near Durgapur in the district of Burdwan is the site where that village existed and a well known temple having several ancient Shiva Lingams, said to have been established by the Pandavas and their mother Kunti, exists there near the banks of the river Ajay. The said temple is partly controlled by the Mahants of the Nimbarka sect. A Mutt of that sect, established by the erstwhile Zamindar of Ukhra, exists in the locality of Ukhra near Pandaveswar. The site of the slaying of Bakasura is said to be in a place called Bhimgara situated on the other side of the river Ajay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per other sources, the city of Ekachakra (Ekchakra-nagari) is attributed to a contemporary village Erandol, Jalgaon district, Maharashtra. Today, tourists on the outskirts of Erandol can see the fallen rice markings of that era and a nearby water pond. Nearby Padmalay Ganesh temple on the hills is also an important tourist and pilgrim destination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pratapgarh district in Uttar Pradesh is ancient religious site Bhayaharan Nath Dham's legends said Bakasura monster was killed in South Pratapgarh which was called &amp;quot;Dwaitwan&amp;quot;. Here remains were found of several Pandav sculptures. After Bhima killed the demon cannibal Bakasura, a Shiva Lingam was established here, which today is well known and famed as &amp;quot;Bhayaharan Nath Dham&amp;quot;, with the story of the Pandavas and Bakasura, the indelible marks of history. This Lord Shiva temple of the Mahabharata epic times is a magnificent venue and is very important to see, where people have come from every corner of country.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Wikipedia doesn't cite any sources for these claims, so take it with a grain of salt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-05-26T13:06:49.890" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7390" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7400" CreationDate="2015-05-27T02:21:17.423" Score="6" ViewCount="1028" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's well known that the Sri Vaishnava sect, which subscribes to the Visishtadvaita philosophy of Ramanujacharya, is divided into two sects, the Thenkalais and Vadakalais as I discuss here.  Less well-known, however, is that Adi Shankaracharya's Advaita Sampradayam is also divided into two schools, the Bhamati school of Vachaspati Misra and the Vivarana school of Prakasatman.  These schools differ in their views on epistemology and other minor issues, but their main difference is on the locus of Avidya or ignorance.  Advaitins of all stripes believe that it's because of Avidya that there is an illusion that the Jivatma is different from Brahman.  The difference is that the Bhamati school attributes this Avidya to the Jiva, since Brahman is perfect and thus free of all Avidya.  The Vivarana school, on the other hand, believes that Brahman is the locus of the Avidya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is about the Vivarana view.  Do followers of the Vivarana school believe that Brahman genuinely posesses Avidya, or like the Bhamati school do they believe that Avidya is itself illusory?  If they believe that Brahman genuinely acquires Avidya and then rids itself of Avidya through Moksha, how do they reconcile this with the notion that time itself is part of Maya?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I'm interested in the Vivarana view about reality, not their view about what seems to be the case within the illusory world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it helps, here are three books on the Vivarana school that I've downloaded from the Digital Library of India (using the program I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/792/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), converted to PDF, and then uploaded to Google Drive:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/oi1o/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchapadika Vivarana&lt;/a&gt; of Prakasatman, the original work of the Vivarana school.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/vyNP/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vivaranaprameya Sangraha&lt;/a&gt;, a work variously attributed to the Sringeri Shankaracharyas Bharatitirtha and Vidyaranya, composed near the beginning of the Vijayanagara Empire&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The book &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/xHwP&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;A Critique on the Vivarana School&quot;&lt;/a&gt; by Bratindra Kumar Sengupta, a modern academic analysis of Vivarana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I haven't read any of these books myself, but I expect that between the three of them they almost certainly contain the answer to my question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T06:16:17.607" Title="What does the Vivarana school of Advaita believe about the nature of Avidya?" Tags="|philosophy|brahman|vedanta|advaita|maya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7391" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-27T07:35:05.270" Score="6" ViewCount="10349" Body="&lt;p&gt;By reading &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2331/why-didnt-lord-hanuman-help-sugriva-to-kill-vali/6881#comment13761_6881&quot;&gt;@krishna's comment&lt;/a&gt; on &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6881/2656&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, come to know that lord Hanuman was not that powerful to fight with Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when did Hanuman fight with Ravana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read the comment below&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuman fell into a swoon when hit by Ravana and when by Hanuman,&#xA;  Ravana recovered quickly and got up to fight again. Hanuman salutes&#xA;  Ravana for his energy and strength and declines to fight Ravana any&#xA;  further.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another thing I want to ask is Did Vali have the power of 60,000 elephants? If so How did he get such power?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I already know about the boon to take half of the energy of his opponents, but power of 60,000 elephants is a different thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another question would be when did Vali fight with Ravana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaali, just plucked Ravana and put him in his arm pits and roamed&#xA;  around the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2656" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2019-03-14T19:47:28.120" Title="When did lord Hanuman fight with Ravana?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|ravana|vali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7392" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-27T10:50:47.347" Score="7" ViewCount="5166" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that there is a practice prevalent among some Iyengars of Tamil Nadu in which they take a vow to either avoid worshiping Lord Shiva or not recognize him as a deity. Who started this practice and does it have any connection with Daksha Prajapathi's vow along similar lines? Which sects of Iyengars follow this practice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="16773" LastEditDate="2019-01-18T07:59:43.387" LastActivityDate="2019-01-19T17:45:00.117" Title="Do certain Vaishnavites take ceremonial vows to never worship Lord Shiva?" Tags="|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|gaudiya-vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7393" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7391" CreationDate="2015-05-27T17:38:00.923" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please read the Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda, Sarga 59.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the process, Ravana defeats Hanuman, Sugreeva, Gavaksha, Gavaya, Sushena, Rishabha, Jyotimukha ,  Nala,  Nila and  Lakshmana also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, Lord Rama alone defeated Ravana in that war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Check this link for more details &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga59/yuddha_59_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga59/yuddha_59_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding, Vali defeating Ravana, please read the canto 34 of Uttara Khanda of Valmiki Ramayana. Vali just toys with Ravana, unlike any one else. Ravana couldnt even fight him. Vali pressed Ravana in his arm pit and flew over four oceans and performed his sandhya prayers. Vali flew thousands of yojanas arresting Ravana in his arm pit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Looking at the superior might of Vali, Ravana makes friendship with Vali with fire as the witness (Similar to friendship made between Sugreeva and Lord SriRama)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana and Vali agree that they will both enjoy all kingdoms, luxuries, food etc. Ravana declares that all these will be jointly held and ruled by both Ravana and Vali. All these are clearly, described in Uttara Khanda of Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the link provided by Keshav Srinivasan to the Vali and Ravana episode in Uttara Khanda of Valmiki Ramayana : &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-39&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-39&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2015-05-28T17:04:08.190" LastActivityDate="2015-05-28T17:04:08.190" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7394" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7392" CreationDate="2015-05-27T18:36:55.350" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The ceremonies have got nothing to do with or against Siva or Daksha. Don't get carried away by foolish serials, which depict every thing in wrong fashion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prapatti or Saranagati or bharasamarpanam is called Nyasa Vidya.  This is total surrender. Infact, no other exclusive deity worship is to be performed for any gain, except to Sriman Narayana (his avataras) and his immediate parivara devathas, Alwars and Sri Vaishnava acharyas. That doesn't mean that veda mantras containing other deity names will not be recited or spelled. Veda mantras are common for all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For vaishnavas, and in general also all veda mantras  always applies to the Antaryami, Lord Narayana (Sarva deva namaskaraha keshavam pratigachati). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Desikan (13 th century) one of the famous and renowned SriVaishnava acharya, clearly says in his works, that those verses in Vedas which seem to indicate Hiranyagarbha, prajapati, Rudra, Siva, Indra, Aditya, Agni, Vayu, Varuna and other devatas which are mandated in Homams, Yagnas and rituals have to be recited because antaryami of all devatas is LORD VISHNU only. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, those critics are ignoramuses who think that vaishnavas or Sri Vaishnavas never recite Vedic verses except those related to Lord Vishnu/Narayana or his immediate parivara devatas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To explain further, the Accessories or Angas of Prapatti or Self Surrender or saranagathy are (From Nyaasa Vimshati consisting of 22 shlokas in sragdhara metre):-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Aanukulya Sankalpam: Resolve to act only in accordance with the directives of the Lord and which would , therefore, be pleasurable to him. This includes-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following the duties enunciated for  Ashrama (i.e) Nitya and Naimittika karmas&#xA;Respecting the devotees of the Lord (Bhagavatas and Acharyas) with the same ardor as while respecting the Lord himself.&#xA;Exceptional and Unconditional devotion to Sriman Narayana only to the exclusion of all other deities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Praatikulya Varjanam: Resolve to scrupulously avoid all actions not pleasurable to the Lord (i.e) those opposed to the ones stated under (1) above.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maha Viwasam: Absolute faith and confidence that the Lord will surely protect the soul and certainly grant Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Karpanyam : Realizing the utter inability of the soul to do anything except surrendering at the feet of the Lord. This 'Self effacing' confession eliminates the ego, pride, possessiveness and such other defects in the individual&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Goptrutva Varanam  : A formal expression of one's total dependence on the Lord for salvation&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atma nikshEpam- entrusting the burden of protection of the individual self &#xA;to the care of the Lord- is considered to be the angi, while the five are &#xA;called angas. Atma nikshepam- act of self surrender is included and is &#xA;called as six fold discipline in Ahirbudhnya smahithA, while Lakshmi Tantra &#xA;while defining Atma nikshepam, (also known as Saranagathi or nyAsam) speaks&#xA;of five components. There is however no conflict &#xA;between the two. In Ahirbudhnya samhitha Atmanikshepam is incldued with the &#xA;five; while Lakshmi tantram separately mentions it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a part of Anukulya sankalpam and Praatikulya Varjanam, all Srivaishnavas exclusively worship SrimanNarayana or Vishnu and his avataras alone, excluding all other deities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the accessories are common to all the srivaishnavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Details of these five angas (called as panchaangas as used by Swami Desikan in Nyaasa Vimshati) is given in chapter 17 of Lakshmi Tantra, a Paancharatra Agamas text and &lt;a href=&quot;http://swamydesika.tripod.com/srts3a.html?#top&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ADHIKARA 11: PARIKARA VIBHAGA ADHIKARA from &lt;em&gt;Rahasya Traya Saara&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2019-01-18T10:41:46.433" LastActivityDate="2019-01-18T10:41:46.433" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7395" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7552" CreationDate="2015-05-27T20:18:43.787" Score="10" ViewCount="5085" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishwakarma, AKA Tvashta, is the architect of the gods.  He built, among other things, Indra's city of Amaravati, Krishna's city of Dwaraka, and Ravana's city of Lanka.  His daughter Sanjana married Surya the sun god, as I discuss here, and his son Trisiras temporarily served as the guru of the gods, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2958/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6805/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And he's responsible for the creation of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vritra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vritrasura&lt;/a&gt;, a famous demon that Indra is known for defeating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm interested in another story involving Vishwakarma.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/blWx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda describes the benefits that various kings have derived from performing the Rajasuya Yagna, and here is what it says about Vishwakarma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With this great anointing of Indra Kashyapa anointed Vishvakarman Bhauvana.  Therefore Vishvakarman Bhauvana went round the Earth completely, conquering on every side, and offered the horse in sacrifice.  The earth sang, they tell:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'No man whatsoever ought to give me,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Vishvakarman Bhauvana, thou hast been fain to give me;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I shall plunge into the middle of the water;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vain was this thy compact with Kashyapa.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Bhauvana means son of the Earth.)  &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44112.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Visvakarman Bhauvana once performed this sacrifice, and having performed it he overpassed all beings, and became everything here; and verily he who, knowing this, performs the Sarvamedha, or who even knows this, overpasses all beings, and becomes everything here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was Kasyapa who officiated in his sacrifice, and it was concerning this that the Earth also sang the stanza;--'No mortal must give me away; thou wast foolish, Visvakarman Bhauvana: she (the earth) will sink into the midst of the water; vain is this thy promise unto Kasyapa.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it seems that Vishwakarma, as part of a Sarvamedha Yagna, gave away all his possessions, which included the Earth itself, to the sage Kashyapa who had conducted the Yagna.  But Bhumidevi the goddess of the Earth told him that no one was allowed to give her away, so she said she would submerge herself into the water so that Vishwakarma wouldn't fulfill his promise to Kashyapa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what ultimately happened?  Did the Earth get submerged, and if so how did emerge from the water?  Was this similar to the occasion that Vishnu's incarnation Varaha retrieved the Earth from the water?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other scriptures that discuss this story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-04-23T07:25:06.540" Title="Did the divine architect Vishwakarma cause the Earth to submerge?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|shatapatha-brahmana|vishwakarma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7396" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-27T21:30:10.107" Score="8" ViewCount="10862" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the difference between yagna, yaaga and Homam? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2802" LastActivityDate="2016-07-11T20:09:01.813" Title="Difference between Yagna, Homam and Yagam?" Tags="|yajna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7397" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="31490" CreationDate="2015-05-28T12:55:49.913" Score="11" ViewCount="3867" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2939/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna departed the Earth after he was shot by a hunter named Jara.  Now there's a popular story that this Jara was actually the next birth of Sugriva's brother Vali, whom Rama shot from behind.  (Rama shooting Vali was fully morally justified, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/246/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  So the story goes that either through a boon of Rama or a curse of Vali (depending on the version), it was decided that Vali would shoot Rama from behind in a future birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, does this story have any scriptural basis?  It isn't mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayana.  Is it there in some Purana?  The only thing I could find is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=0z02cZe8PU8C&amp;amp;lpg=PA152&amp;amp;ots=NjGr4IqHtw&amp;amp;dq=arjuna%20%22krishna&amp;#39;s%20body%22&amp;amp;pg=PA150#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;local Orissa legend&lt;/a&gt; which says that Jara's previous birth was Vali's son Angada, not Vali himself.  But the explanation given is the same: Angada is said to have been reborn to avenge his father's death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures that describe the previous birth of Jara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2018-12-19T10:00:05.273" Title="Do any scriptures say that the hunter Jara was a rebirth of Vali?" Tags="|krishna|ramayana|rebirth|vali|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7398" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7302" CreationDate="2015-05-28T21:03:20.187" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rksaraja, the king of all monkeys was the father of Vali and Sugriva. This info is provided in Uttara Khanda of Valmiki Ramayana, Canto 36, Verses 37 onwards. Just like Hanuman was born with amsa of Wind god to Kesari and Anjana who were Vanaras, Vali (Amsa of Indra) and Sugriva(amsa of Sun god) were born to the suzerian King of all Vanaras called, Rksaraja. After the death of Rksaraja, Vali became the suzerian king of all vanaras and Sugriva was appointed as the prince. From, childhood Sugriva and Hanuman developed unwavering and unwarying friendship, just like the friendship of wind and fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-16T13:11:40.570" LastActivityDate="2016-01-16T13:11:40.570" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7400" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7390" CreationDate="2015-05-29T05:25:20.313" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I say in my comment to your question I have never heard as these being ‘the’ two schools of Advaita. None of my teachers have ever mentioned these as schools. I did however find one reference to the two schools and their differences so I will reproduce it contents below. I don’t pretend to be a great scholar of the Advaita or to have read every book or commentator out there. Most commentators and modern teachers either comment on Sankara and his teachings directly or use the commentaries of their modern lineage.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Having said that, let me first reference the commentary I found on the two schools and then try to formulate how I think most modern Advaitists would answer your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Introduction to Swami Swahananda’s translation of Sri Vidyaranya Swami’s &lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt; (Vidyaranya was the Sankaracharya of the Sringeri Math from 1377-1386) is written by T. M. P. Mahadevan, Director, Centre of Advanced Study in Philosophy, University of Madras. In it he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In what manner is the appearance of the jiva to be understood? In regard to this question, there is some difference of opinion between the two main post-Sankara Advaita Schools—the &lt;em&gt;Vivarana&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;Bhamati&lt;/em&gt;. According to the &lt;em&gt;Vivarana&lt;/em&gt; view, the jiva is a reflection of Brahman in Nescience, and Brahman as the prototype reflected is Isvara. This view is known as &lt;em&gt;pratibimba-vada&lt;/em&gt;. The &lt;em&gt;Bhamati&lt;/em&gt; view, which is called &lt;em&gt;avaccheda-vada&lt;/em&gt;, is that the jiva is Brahman as defined or delimited by nescience [Avidya or Maya]. The analogy for the former view is the reflection of the face in the mirror; that for the latter view is the delimitation of ether by pot, etc. Sri Vidyaranya who follows mainly the &lt;em&gt;Vivarana&lt;/em&gt; tradition, teaches a modified form of the reflection-theory which is referred to as &lt;em&gt;abhasa-vada&lt;/em&gt;. While the &lt;em&gt;Vivarana&lt;/em&gt; view regards the reflection as real and as identical with the prototype, the theory sponsored in the &lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt; holds that the reflection (&lt;em&gt;abhasa&lt;/em&gt;) is mere appearance, an illusory manifestation. The apposition between the jiva and Brahman, according to this view, is through sublation (&lt;em&gt;badha&lt;/em&gt;), and not through identification (&lt;em&gt;aikya&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…What is the immediate instrument of release? Is it &lt;em&gt;sravana&lt;/em&gt; of the &lt;em&gt;mahavakya&lt;/em&gt; ‘That thou art’? Or, is it continued meditation (also called &lt;em&gt;prasamkhyana&lt;/em&gt;)? On this question, the two post-Sankara Advaita schools, already referred to, are divided. According to the &lt;em&gt;Bhamati&lt;/em&gt; view, verbal testimony (&lt;em&gt;sabda&lt;/em&gt;) of which the &lt;em&gt;mahavakyas&lt;/em&gt; form part, can yield only mediate knowledge, and not immediate or direct knowledge. If the mediate knowledge gained from verbal testimony is to be transformed into immediate experience, there should be continued meditation till this is achieved; and this is possible because the mind which is the instrument in meditation is a sense organ (&lt;em&gt;indriya&lt;/em&gt;). The &lt;em&gt;Vivarana&lt;/em&gt; view maintains that the mind is not a sense organ, as it is an auxiliary to all &lt;em&gt;pramanas&lt;/em&gt; and that verbal testimony can yield immediate knowledge…Thus verbal testimony can convey immediate knowledge if the object is immediate. There is no object more immediate than the Self. Hence, the &lt;em&gt;mahavakya&lt;/em&gt; ‘That thou art’ imparts to the competent hearer the direct experience of the non-dual Self. Giving a citation from the &lt;em&gt;Vakyavrttii&lt;/em&gt; Sri Vidyaranya says, “The major texts are for the sake of imparting direct knowledge of Brahman. In regard to this there is no room for doubt” (&lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt; VII, 70)…Meditation, however, is not without its great use. In chapter IX, &lt;em&gt;Dhyana-dipa&lt;/em&gt;, Sri Vidyaranya compares it to &lt;em&gt;samvadi-bhrama&lt;/em&gt;, delusion which culminates in a fruitful result…Thus, for those who are not qualified for gaining true knowledge through enquiry, Sri Vidyaranya recommends the Yoga of meditation (&lt;em&gt;dhyana&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the first paragraph you will note that Professor Mahadevan calls the teaching of Vidyaranya Swami a modified Vivarana called &lt;em&gt;abhasha-vada&lt;/em&gt;. From my own experience, my opinion is that this is the view held and taught by most modern Advaitists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankara says in his &lt;em&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;108&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Avidya. (Nescience) or Maya, called also the Undifferentiated, is the power of the Lord. She is without beginning, is made up of the three Gunas and is superior to the effects (as their cause). She is to be inferred by one of clear intellect only from the effects She produces. It is She who brings forth this whole universe.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;She is neither existent nor non-existent nor partaking of both characters; neither same nor different nor both; neither composed of parts nor an indivisible whole nor both; She is most wonderful and cannot be described in words.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Sankara, Brahman has nothing to do with Avidya. The example of the snake and the rope is given (&lt;em&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/em&gt; 246). Does a rope have anything to do with the fact that an observer sees a snake instead of a rope? No – the illusion of the snake lies entirely with the observer. The illusion is only on the part of the observer. Your statement that “Brahman is the locus of Avidya” is true – insofar that without the existence of the rope, there could be no illusion of the snake projected onto it. But to infer that Brahman is the ‘cause’ of the illusion or possesses Avidya is not true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankara says further (&lt;em&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;179&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Man’s transmigration is due to the evil of superimposition, and the bondage of superimposition is created by the mind alone. It is this that causes the misery of birth, etc., for the man of non-discrimination who is tainted by Rajas and Tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hence sages who have fathomed its secret have designated the mind as Avidya or Ignorance, by which alone the universe is moved to and fro, like masses of clouds by the wind.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;241-242.  If thus the Sruti, in the dictum “Thou art That” (Tat-Tvam-Asi), repeatedly establishes the absolute identity of Brahman (or Isvara) and Jiva, denoted by the terms That (Tat) and Thou (Tvam) respectively, divesting these terms of their relative associations,--then it is the identity of their implied, not literal, meanings which is sought to be inculcated, for they are of contradictory attributes to each other—like the sun and a glow-worm, the king and a servant, the ocean and a well, or Mount Meru and an atom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;243&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This contradiction between them is created by superimposition, and is not something real. This superimposition, in the case of Isvara (the Lord), is Maya, or Nescience, which is the cause of Mahat and the rest,--and in the case of the Jiva (the individual soul), listen,--the five sheaths, which are the effects of Maya, stand for it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;These two are the superimpositions of the Isvara and the Jiva respectively, and when these are perfectly eliminated there is neither Isvara nor Jiva. A kingdom is the symbol of a king, and a shield of the soldier, and when these are taken away there is neither king nor soldier.   &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Whatever a deluded man perceives through mistake, is Brahman and Brahman alone: The silver is nothing but the mother-of-pearl. It is Brahman which is always considered as this universe, whereas that which is superimposed on the Brahman, viz., the universe, is merely a name.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maya is not illusion as it is properly interpreted. Maya is real, yet it is not real. It is real in that the Real is behind it and gives it its appearance of reality. That which is real in Maya is the Reality in and through Maya. Yet the Reality is never seen; and hence that which is seen is unreal, and it has no real independent existence of itself, but is dependent upon the Real for its existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maya then is a paradox—real, yet not real, an illusion, yet not an illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who knows the Real sees in Maya not illusion, but reality. He who knows not the Real sees in Maya illusion and thinks it real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maya is called anirvachanya – inexpressible. Hence its description by Sankara as vivarta-vada, an ‘apparent manifestation’ It is neither real nor is it unreal. Brahman is not affected by it nor is it a part of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-05-29T05:25:20.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7401" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7489" CreationDate="2015-05-29T07:40:18.660" Score="4" ViewCount="169" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that during Samudra Manthan, appeared the wish fulfilling tree called Kalpavriksha. It was later taken by Devas. But, is there any more description of this tree, how it looked like, was it different from other trees, were there any fruits on it. Also, does it existed prior to Samudra Manthan as well, how it fulfilled wishes. Also, do we have any stories where anyone used this tree to get anything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-06-01T06:56:11.027" LastActivityDate="2015-06-08T15:46:34.500" Title="Is there any description available of Kalpavriksh?" Tags="|samudra-manthan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7404" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-29T15:29:56.567" Score="4" ViewCount="1105" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna said after Karna fired his Sakti weapon at Ghatotkasha that even his Sudarsha Chakra was incapable of stopping the Sakti Weapon. My question is: Why Krishna, being the Lord of the universe, was incapable of stopping a weapon given to Karna by Indra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T02:05:15.090" Title="Karna's Sakti Weapon" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="28" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7411" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-31T05:23:35.513" Score="3" ViewCount="586" Body="&lt;p&gt;in which yuga Narkasura was born in Dwapara Yuga or Treta Yuga?&#xA;Who Killed Narkasura?Was Narkasura son of Bhumi and Varaha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-01-04T09:03:36.263" LastActivityDate="2016-01-04T09:03:36.263" Title="In which Yuga Narkasura was born?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7413" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7445" CreationDate="2015-05-31T15:40:20.690" Score="9" ViewCount="241" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was searching for stories before humanity in Hindu texts. But found none. Can you tell me if any exists?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3056" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-12-04T16:16:46.370" LastActivityDate="2018-12-04T16:16:46.370" Title="Are there any stories or descriptions in Hindu writings about the Universe and the Earth before humanity was born?" Tags="|history|earth|universe|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7414" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7380" CreationDate="2015-05-31T17:51:42.643" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the explanation of Swami Nirmalanda Giri Maharaj in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l5l84V_OAQ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;talk&lt;/a&gt;, the answer for the question is YES. (The talk is in Malayalam as he is from the state of Kerala.) This is explained on minute 4:39 in the video.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the scripture, &lt;strong&gt;YogaVasistha&lt;/strong&gt; which is written by Valimiki in Treta yuga, there is predictions of Dwapara Yuga. It is given as Vasistha's answer to Lord Rama's questions. In Arjunopakhyana, Valmiki wrote about the advises given to Arjuna by Krishna which clearly indicate that the predication had made by Valimiki in YogaVasistha which contains 32000 slokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: I have not added online ref. for the same, please add if you find the online resource for YogaVasistha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-19T13:15:12.623" LastActivityDate="2015-06-19T13:15:12.623" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7415" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-31T19:54:24.540" Score="4" ViewCount="696" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05048.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, Arjuna delivers a message to Duryodhana, urging him to reach a peaceful resolution to avert the impending war.  Arjuna says that if they go to war, the Pandavas will surely win because they have Krishna on their side.  He recounts the wondrous deeds of Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[T]hat Vasudeva, viz., who having mowed down in battle by main force all the royal warriors of the Bhoja race, had carried off on a single car Rukmini of great fame for making her his wife; and by her was afterwards born Pradyumna of high soul. &lt;strong&gt;It was this favourite of the gods, who, having speedily smashed the Gandharas and conquered all the sons of Nagnajit, forcibly liberated from confinement king Sudarsana of great energy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss Krishna's so-called &amp;quot;kidnapping&amp;quot; of Rukmini &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/333/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but my question is, what is the story of Krishna rescuing the king Sudarshana from &amp;quot;the Gandharas and ... the sons of Nagnajit&amp;quot;?  The only Nagnajit I'm familiar with is the king who was the father of Krishna's queen Satya, but &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=FRzcSZPahZ0C&amp;amp;lpg=PA302&amp;amp;ots=MIILoTHBHq&amp;amp;dq=king%20sudarshana%20krishna&amp;amp;pg=PA302#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says that this is a different Nagnajit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Nagnajit was a king of Gandhara and had imprisoned Sudarshana and other kings.  Krishna liberated them.  There is yet another Nagnajit, who was king of Koshala.  Krishna married his daughter Satya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And indeed, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata mentions a king of Gandhara named Nagnajit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then was born the disciple of Prahlada, viz., Nagnajit, and also Suvala. And from Suvala was born a son, Sakuni, who from the curse of the gods became the slayer of creatures and the foe of virtue. And unto him was also born a daughter (Gandhari), the mother of Duryodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So that makes Nagnajit Shakuni's uncle.  In any case, why did Nagnajit kidnap a bunch of kings, and how did Krishna get involved in freeing them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other scriptures that discuss this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Nagnajit of Gandhara is also mentioned in the Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda, see my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8007/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-26T14:43:37.477" Title="What is the story of Krishna rescuing kings abducted by Shakuni's uncle Nagnajit?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|shakuni|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7416" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-05-31T23:12:45.700" Score="5" ViewCount="1374" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does a girl born on a new moon have to get married to a guy born on a new moon too? They say if a girl is born on a new moon and marries someone born on other days except the new moon, the groom has a shorter life and dies early.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any truth behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3059" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-06-19T14:35:18.930" LastActivityDate="2022-06-19T15:25:05.647" Title="Hindu marriage in regards to the new moon" Tags="|astrology|superstitions|amavasya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7417" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-01T04:20:27.877" Score="1" ViewCount="215" Body="&lt;p&gt;From what I have read so far, I have found that according to Hinduism, everything is transitory and keeps changing. Even Brahmas change and so do Indras. Even Vedas and Puranas change. The very fact that Life is a Sport for GOD and we have to imagine it to be a theatre where GOD has created both villains and heros and everything can change anytime, makes me feel that there is no one solid truth or only path that we can follow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does one follow anything then?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastActivityDate="2018-04-03T19:56:14.773" Title="Transitory nature of Vedas, Puranas, GODs" Tags="|vedas|gods|puranas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7418" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-01T15:18:16.893" Score="12" ViewCount="30627" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Ramayana war, Rama killed Ravana with a weapon given to him by sage Vasishtha. What was the name of the weapon?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-12T14:19:32.190" LastActivityDate="2018-04-05T03:31:24.057" Title="Weapon with which Rama killed Ravana" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7419" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7418" CreationDate="2015-06-01T16:42:09.223" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama killed Ravana by using the weapon presided over by brahma, which was given by Sage Agastya. Please check the verses from verses 2 onwards sarga 108, Yuddha Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Check the Verse 3 from the link &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddha_108_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddha_108_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Then, the valiant Rama, who was reminded thus by Matali, took hold of a blazing arrow, which was given by Brahma and which in turn was given to him by the glorious sage, Agastya earlier in the battle-field and which looked like a hissing serpent. (Canto-6; Sarga-108; Verse 3)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-04T06:31:42.157" LastActivityDate="2018-04-04T06:31:42.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7420" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7418" CreationDate="2015-06-01T16:46:32.907" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama did not kill Ravana with Vasishta's weapon.&lt;/strong&gt;. As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2945/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Rama killed Ravana with a Brahmastra, and it was given to him by the sage Agastya, not his guru Vasishta.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddha_108_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, the valiant Rama, who was reminded thus by Matali, took hold of a blazing arrow, which was given by Brahma and which in turn was given to him by the glorious sage, Agastya earlier in the battle-field and which looked like a hissing serpent. Having been made formerly for Indra, the lord of celestials by Brahma, the lord of creation of infinite strength, it was bestowed in the past on the ruler of gods, who was desirous of conquering the three worlds....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Making it sacred by a special formula as per the procedure specified in scriptures, Rama who was endowed with an extraordinary strength then fixed that arrow which was the foremost among the three worlds, capable of removing the fear of Ikshwaku dynasty, taking away the glory of the enemies and bestowing joy to one's own self on his bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While that excellent arrow was being fixed by Rama, all the beings were frightened and the earth trembled. That enraged Rama, stretching his bow well and with an attentive mind, hurled that arrow which can tear off the vitals, towards Ravana. That arrow, which was inviolable as a thunderbolt hurled by the arms of Indra and irresistible as Yama the lord of Death, fell upon Ravana's chest. That arrow, released with great speed and which was capable of destroying the body, tore off the heart of that evil-minded Ravana. That arrow, which was capable of causing death to the body, after taking away the life of Ravana and having been anointed with blood, penetrated the earth.... Having lost his life, that king of demons for his part, who was endowed with terrible swiftness and invested with great splendour, fell down from the chariot to the ground, like Vritra the demon when the latter was struck down by the thunderbolt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That line at the end, by the way, is an allusion to story of Indra killing Veitrasura, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6805/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-06-01T16:46:32.907" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7421" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5159" CreationDate="2015-06-01T17:51:10.283" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;definition of mantra: sound, word or collection of words (sentences) which have a positive or neutral meaning attached to them. for example the word &quot;peace&quot; or &quot;sun&quot; can be a mantra, but not &quot;hate&quot; as the last word has negativ energy attached to it. relate this answer to the famous japanese scientist¨s (I cannot remember his name now) research into how water crystals reacted to the different frequencies/energies put forth from from spoken or written words. Relate this answer to how plants respond differently to music (in the study I read plants liked classical music, but responded badly to rock music). Relate this answer to how music can break glass, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;practice a mantra yourself to experience the benefit. the first mantra I ever practiced was &quot;buddho&quot;. it gave me nothing but a calm mind sometimes (which is of course enough). in this case I believe the mantra was a tool to achieve concentration.increased concentration led to calm. apart from that the mantra did nothing for me, as I could perceive at least. later I learned a mantra called kunci which is several sentences long. upon practicing it, I got some very strange experiences. today I continue to have these experiences in day to day life. in this case the mantra behaved like an &quot;activator&quot;. the mantra activated something within me, or, the mantra opened a door between me and something else. anyway it opened up communication of some sorts between me and that something else. another effect of this mantra was inflow or outflow, or perhaps both, of energy above my head. that happens from time to time. the strange thing is that this particular mantra gave results very quickly. so regardless what people think I have my own proof now that mantras work. but mantras work differently. in any case a mantra will help still the mind, which is good. wanting to have mystical experiences is not a good motivator to start with a mantra, even though a mantra can give you that. because mantras should be used to attain peace. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;believe whatever you want. experience is always the best teacher in my eyes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3064" LastActivityDate="2015-06-01T17:51:10.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7422" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-01T20:18:58.123" Score="14" ViewCount="1214" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important to the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts or Agamas consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu. Since the Pancharatra Agamas originated from Narayana himself, they're followed by pretty much all mainstream Vaishnavas today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there was a time when some people, particularly the Purva Mimamsa school of Hindu philosophy, rejected the Pancharatra Agamas because they believed that the Vedas were the only legitimate Hindu scriptures.  So as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6912/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the early Sri Vaishnava Acharya Yamunacharya composed a work called the Agama Pramanya to defend the scriptural authority of the Pancharatra Agamas.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That isn't the only work that Yamunacharya composed, however.  He also composed a work called the Kashmir Agama Pramanya, which is now lost.  But Yamunacharya alludes to it in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Kfid&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his (regular) Agama Pramanya, in the course of refuting the argument that the customs of Pancharatra-following Brahmins are contrary to Vedic practices:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who perform the forty sacraments which are enjoined by the Ekayana scripture ... properly follow the rules laid down by the grihyasutras of their own shakha and do not abdicate their brahminhood because they fail to follow the rites of a different shakha[.]... It follows that the non-observance of certain rites enjoined by different shakhas does not mean that either one forfeits his brahminhood - &lt;strong&gt;that the Ekayana shakha is preterpersonal scripture has been enlarged upon in the &lt;em&gt;Treatise on the Validity of Kashmira Agama&lt;/em&gt;, and is therefore here not further discussed&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; some people believe that the Pancharatra tradition originated in a now-extinct Shakha or recension of the Shukla Yajur Veda known as the Ekayana Shakha.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information about Vedic Shakhas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, my question is, what are these &quot;Kashmira Agamas&quot; that were defended by Yamunacharya's lost work?  The only Agamic texts from Kashmir I'm familiar with are the Shaiva Agamas, which are used in Kashmir Shaivism, but it would be strange for a Sri Vaishnava Acharya to write a defense of Shaiva Agamas.  Are there any Vaishnava Agamas from Kashmir, and was Yamunacharya's work a defense of those?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And what is the connection of the Kashmira Agamas to the Ekayana Shakha, given that Yamunacharya wrote a defense of the scriptural validity of the Ekayana Shakha in his Kashmira Agama Pramanya? If both the Pancharatra Agamas and the Kashmira Agamas originated from the Ekayana Shakha, what is the difference between them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-02-09T06:09:55.197" Title="What are the Kashmir Agamas defended in Yamunacharya's lost work?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7423" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7422" CreationDate="2015-06-01T21:12:22.857" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Kashmiraagamapramanya, a lost work of Sri Yamunacharya, is said to establish the revealed character(Apauruseyatva) of Ekayanasakha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ekayana is itself alluded to Sukla Yajurveda. Yamunacharya has reffered to this Ekayana thrice in Agama pramanya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another, scholar and writer Nagesa identified this Ekayanasakha with Kanva recension of Sukla yajurveda in his work entitled Kanvasakhamahimasangraha. The author gives the following as synonym of Ekayana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Iyam suddhayajussakha prathametyabhidhiyate!&#xA;mulasakheti capyuktam tatha caikayaaniti ca!&#xA;Ayaatayamayajusa tatha mokshaikasadhikaa!&#xA;Ityadyanekanamani santyasyastatra tatra vai!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chadogya upanishad passage &#xA;&quot; rgvedam bhagavo dhyemi....ekaayanam&quot; indicates that ekayanam was a valid source.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some scholars hold that Ekayanasakha might have been a scripture on bhakti and consisted of mantras from Vedas, brahmanas and other matters quiet independently. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among Vedas Yajurveda formed the large part of its content. For e.g. Sattvata samhita ( Chapter 25, verse 94) supports the above statement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in Jayakhya samhita ( Chap 1 Verses 109, 111, 115 and 116) admits that the pancharatra agama should have had special relation with Kanva sakha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verses from Jayakhya samhita given above, indicates that the followers of Pancharatra mainly adopt the kanva sakha for their rituals and many of the pancharatra acharyas belong to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The home of Pancharatra agama must have been Kashmir. There are internal evidence in the Pancharatra texts in support of Kashmir having been the home. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agamadambara, a work by Jayanta bhatta(880AD) of Kashmir refers to the practices of followers of Pancharatra system. The birch bark which grows primarily in kashmir is enjoined in the early pancharatra text viz Lakhmi tantra, Ahirbhudanya samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, paushkara samhita, refers to waters from rivers to be brought for giving bath to deity. The region with reference to directions from which water is to be brought indicates Kashmir only. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The passages from pancharatra texts are quoted by Utpala (850AD) in his work Spandapradipika.&#xA;Svacchandatantra a monistic saivagama nelonging to kashmir mentions that pancharatra agama is Veda itself. Kshemaraja (1000 AD) of kashmir comments on this and shows the parity between Pancharatra and Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Pancharatra texts which were considered to be part of the earliest phase of Pancharatra system belonging to Kashmir are Jayakhya, Sattvata, Pauskara, Lakmi tantra and Ahirbhudanya samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the above evidences indicate and prove beyond doubt that Kashmir must have been the home of Pancharatra system and earliest works of Pancharatra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, slightly digressing a slightly, we all know that Shankara in his brahmasutrabhasya in utpattyasambhavat adhikarana, concedes that there are elements in pancharatra which are completely acceptable such as that Narayana is Supreme reality, that he has manifested himself in varied ways, and that he is to be worshipped through single minded devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amalananda sarawati, follower of Adi Shankara defends Pancharatra vyuha theory, which was main point of criticism levelled on Pancharatra by Adi Shankara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a section of advaitins who hold that the pancharatra vyuha theory shouldn't be understood literally as explained by Shankara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amalananda saraswarti, the famous adavaitin and author of commentary called vedantakalpataru on bhamati of vachaspati, which is in turn a commentary on Shankara's bramha sutra bhasya refutes the criticism of Pancharatra vyuha theory made by Shankara and upholds the pancharatra vyuha theory, very against his other fellow advatins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(The contents are assembled from a book called Contribution of Yamunacharya to Vusistadvaita by Dr.M.Narsimhacharya)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2015-09-12T10:47:04.333" LastActivityDate="2015-09-12T10:47:04.333" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7424" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-02T02:21:37.143" Score="10" ViewCount="3606" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, the births of various notable characters are described.  Here is what it says about Duryodhana's uncle Shakuni:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then was born the disciple of Prahlada, viz., Nagnajit, and also Suvala. And from Suvala was born a son, &lt;strong&gt;Sakuni, who from the curse of the gods became the slayer of creatures and the foe of virtue.&lt;/strong&gt; And unto him was also born a daughter (Gandhari), the mother of Duryodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss Shakuni's uncle Nagnajit in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7415/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but now I'm interested in the statement that Shakuni became an evil-doer due to &quot;the curse of the gods&quot;.  My question is, why exactly did the gods curse him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7044/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Shakuni was an incarnation of Dwapara, the embodiment of the Dwapara Yuga.  Now the embodiment of the Kali Yuga is a demon, but perhaps Dwapara is a god.  In any case, are there any scriptures that describe the gods putting a curse on Dwapara?  Or was the curse put on him after he was born as Shakuni?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could this just be a figure of speech, indicating that he was destined in the divine plan to be an evil-doer, rather than alluding to a specific curse from the gods?  It could be similar to how in the Bible, God is said to have hardened the Pharaoh's heart. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2020-11-13T14:07:30.780" Title="Why was Shakuni cursed by the gods to be evil?" Tags="|mahabharata|shakuni|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7425" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7160" CreationDate="2015-06-02T04:09:20.687" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Even Sri Viraraghavacharya's( a Srivaishnava) commentary on that verse says that Vinayaka is Vishvaksena parshada. &#xA;To explain this verse, Sri Jiva Goswami comments on this verse by citing Padma Purana:&#xA;&quot;satyAcyutAnanta durga vishvaksenam gajananam sarve pare dhamni...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satya, Acyuta ,Ananta, Durga(Vishnu Durga/ Yogamaya) and Gajanana all reside in the para dhama(Vaikuntha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The relevant Bhagavata verses are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;durgam vinayakam vyasam&#xA;visvaksenam gurun suran&#xA;sve sve sthane tv abhimukhan&#xA;pujayet proksanadibhih (~Bhagavatam(11.27.29))&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation-With offerings such as proksana one should worship Durga, Vinayaka, Vyasa, Visvaksena, the gurus and the various devas(or nitya parshadas). All these personalities should be in their proper places facing the Deity of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question was whether this &quot;Vinayakam&quot; referred to here in this verse is Ganesha(son of Siva and Parvati),who is popularly referred to by that name or is this referring to someone else.&#xA;The Pancharatragamas and the Padma Purana talk about an eternal associate of Sri Narayana in Vaikuntha who has an elephantine face and said to be one of the main generals of Sri Vishvaksena. It is to be observed that this nitya suri is not the son of Shiva and nor did he take an avatara as the son of Shiva as no such pramana is found in the shastras.&#xA;The aforementioned personality is Sri Gajanana as mentioned in the Ishvara samhita and Paushkara samhita as well as in the Padma Purana verse starting with &quot;satyAcyutAnanta&quot;&#xA;Regarding the identity of &quot;Vinayaka&quot; in Srimad Bhagavatam, it is not necessarily Ganesha but since this Vinayaka is mentioned with Vishvaksena Viraraghavacharya comments on this verse and says that Vinayaka here is Vishvaksena-pArshada. Regarding Jivagoswami's commentary on this verse, he quotes a verse from Padma purana explaining that Durga and Vinayaka mentioned here are not the consort and son of Shiva but nitya parshadas serving Narayana in Vaikuntha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is another comment from a Srivaishnava bhakta in the internet regarding this issue:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I asked a friend of mine, who is an erudite scholar on the issue. He&#xA;  says that he does not have the vIrarAghava bhAshyam either, but has&#xA;  interpreted the sloka from his own knowledge for me as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;durgam vinayakam vyasam visvaksenam gurun suran sve sve sthane tv&#xA;  abhimukhan pujayet proksanadibhih&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this sloka, &quot;durgam&quot; refers to vishNu durga only. The sloka is&#xA;  meant for offering respects and this is part of nitya karmas. vishNu&#xA;  durga, who obtained a boon from Krishna, is present in many vishNu&#xA;  temples facing bhagavAn and hence, respect is given to her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now comes the part which surprised me. Vinayaka mentioned here is&#xA;  indeed gajanana! The relevant sloka as under, interpreted in this way&#xA;  by srI parAsara bhattar in his vishnu sahasranAma bhAshya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasya dviradavaktraadyaaH paariShadyaaH paraH shatam . vighnaM&#xA;  nighnanti satataM viShvakasenaM tamaashraye'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:  gajAnana (the double-tusked elephant-faced nitya-sUri in&#xA;  vaikuntam) an hundreds of such sUris, who always remove all obstacles,&#xA;  form the members of the army commanded by Vishvaksena. I take resort&#xA;  to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As you can see, GajAnana is interpreted to be the remover of&#xA;  obstacles, in addition to Vishwaksena, and hence, Vinayaka describes&#xA;  Gajanana. My friend says that in all vaishnava temples, there is a&#xA;  deity known in tamil as &quot;thumbikkai azhwar&quot; (meaning: devotee (azhwar)&#xA;  with a trunk) on the pillar facing the sanctum of bhagavan. Indeed, I&#xA;  have seen this myself in Thiruvallikeni near srI narasimha sannidhi.&#xA;  This &quot;thumbikkai azhwar&quot; is Gajanana, the remover of obstacles and a&#xA;  part of Vishvaksena's army.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, my earlier observation that Vinayaka is not a name of Gajanana was&#xA;  obviously wrong as per my friend's observation and I retract that&#xA;  statement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Durga, Gajanana, Vishvaksena are all seen to surround Vishnu in his&#xA;  temples, that is certainly a fact I have observed for myself. In place&#xA;  of vyAsa, we sri vaishnavas normally consecrate srI rAmAnuja, the&#xA;  azhwars and achAryAs. That is more than acceptable, obviously, for us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The revelant web page is as given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?12075-Adi-shankarAchArya-s-views-on-anya-devata-worship/page3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?12075-Adi-shankarAchArya-s-views-on-anya-devata-worship/page3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3065" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-02T14:36:00.930" LastActivityDate="2015-06-02T14:36:00.930" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7427" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-02T04:59:26.240" Score="4" ViewCount="8218" Body="&lt;p&gt;What role did sage Vashishta play in the Ramayana? He was Rama's guru, but then, is there any other significant role? What weapons did he give Rama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" OwnerDisplayName="Indu Bhusan Nath" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T19:46:49.077" LastActivityDate="2022-01-12T08:05:30.210" Title="What was Vashishta's role in Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|vashishta|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7428" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6855" CreationDate="2015-06-02T06:50:32.783" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sometimes suffering happens due to lack of wisdom. At times due to making wrong choices, at times due to making wrong assumptions.  Yet other times suffering happens due to accidents. And there are times wherein suffering is due to uncontrollable factors.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This world is an ocean. One needs to swim through it wisely avoiding the sharks of temptations and immature people.  Yes reading the Vedas and Upanishads can impart wisdom.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Acceptance of what is helps one sail through life and helps us come to terms with suffering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An attitude of gratitude lessens the suffering.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not judging anothet person helps us prevent the suffering of hurting another person. accepting people for who they are relieved the suffering from conflicts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And forgiveness brings about harmony, peace and joy.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;You are a wonderful youngster to be reading Upanishads.  You are every mother's dream child.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3066" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-29T18:49:31.080" LastActivityDate="2015-09-29T18:49:31.080" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7429" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7417" CreationDate="2015-06-02T08:27:26.203" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;No there is a slight change in truth from what you mentioned above. &#xA;Yes, everything is transitory,except &lt;strong&gt;Truth&lt;/strong&gt;. This is the statement of not just Hindus but Buddhism, jainism etc. (&lt;em&gt;Refer book &quot;Tibetan boom of Living and dying&quot; for more details&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If everything is transitory and changes with time, then what is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;that&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (truth as refferred above) which doesn't change with time? That is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;atman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; alone.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Refer here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Hence all paths whatever temporary it may be, leads you to that &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Lets take an example of Sankhya Philosophy. It is a purely dualist philosophy and hardly anyone follows that philosophy to attain moksha(&lt;strong&gt;that atman&lt;/strong&gt;) now. But for a long time around 1000 years BC, people were following that philosophy to reach ultimate goal. Time has made that philosophy invalid but not &lt;strong&gt;Ultimate goal&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence what we follow now, is true for now. &lt;strong&gt;But Ultimate goal was always true, is always true and will be&lt;/strong&gt;, but the path may change. Hence puranas change, brahmas change, indras change &lt;strong&gt;but not end result&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence changing with time is also important which is why Hinduism(also its sister religions like Buddhism, Jainism etc.) always adapts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-06-02T08:27:26.203" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7433" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-02T15:57:18.093" Score="3" ViewCount="77" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no possibility to synchronize time of whole universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now question is- how super soul/nature synchronize the time of universe and follow reincarnation theory if it is true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="585" LastActivityDate="2015-06-03T16:38:12.797" Title="Current time of Universe and reincarnation" Tags="|gods|time|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7434" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-02T19:33:33.363" Score="6" ViewCount="2647" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does any of the Gods or Goddesses ever cry even up to this very day like we humans do? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3071" LastActivityDate="2019-06-04T09:38:21.373" Title="Does any of the gods or goddesses ever cry?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7435" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="270" CreationDate="2015-06-02T21:24:42.010" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not a member here, but I was doing some research and came upon this thread, so I thought I would contribute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm a Eastern philosophies scholar and a Shakta and Advaita Vedantist. My swami and religious instructor is a Dharmic teacher, teaching almost 50 years. I asked him this same question once.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suras and Asuras were originally ways to describe behavior more than identity in the Vedic literature. The suras were those beings who upheld the Dharma and order. The asuras were beings who typically worked against order. Both were necessary to maintain balance, but the asuras tended to be more troublesome than not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the line between the two is not absolute. In the Vedas, some of the gods are often described as asuras based on their behavior. And some of the asuras were known to be devotees of the Mahadevas, particularly Brahma and Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A deva is a sura (or possibly asura) who is worshiped as a god (representative of the Dharma) by other beings. Eventually, deva became the title of choice in Sanatana Dharma for the maintainers of order and karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daevas are not of India origin, they are an Iranian concept which was borrowed from the Hindu devas in a indirect way. The word &quot;daeva&quot; may in fact be a corruption of a rare term in Sanskrit, &quot;adeva&quot;, which is basically described as a &quot;false god&quot; or a god who has gone against the the natural order and promote chaos or disorder. These may have existed in pre-Vedic lore, but there are no known adevas in the Vedas or other scriptures. The closest you can get is Indra who on occasion was a bit of a trickster, and even in one case, a murderer. This &quot;adharma&quot; activity on his part almost led to the destruction of the gods by the hands of some powerful asuras and required the intervention of Mahadevi to set things right again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3072" LastActivityDate="2015-06-02T21:24:42.010" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7437" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7427" CreationDate="2015-06-03T01:23:22.093" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was in Vasishta's gurukula that Rama did his education. Also, Vashishtha was the one who impressed upon Dasaratha to send Rama with Vishwamitra to the forest for slaying the rakshasas who were not allowing the sages to perform  yagna. This later also led to the marriage of Rama with Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3008" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-07-29T12:46:55.363" LastActivityDate="2015-07-29T12:46:55.363" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7438" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7417" CreationDate="2015-06-03T04:36:35.113" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, the Vedas do not change. The Vedas are the eternal truths about God. They are the revealed word of God and are not subject to change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism you have to be more exact when talking about God. The English word God has different connotations in Hinduism which are very different from those in the West. In the West, the term usually refers to a dualistic personal Godhead who sits on a throne in heaven and is the creator. In Hinduism, there are different concepts of the Godhead, some personal, some impersonal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most Hindus do agree on four major points, however. First, they all believe in God. Second, they all believe that the Vedas are the eternal revealed words of God. Third, they all believe in cycles - the universe does not just happen once, there were unnumbered universes before this one and there will be unnumbered ones after this one. Fourth, they believe in the reincarnation of the soul until it finally achieves either union with Brahman or the eternal presence of the soul with the Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rig Veda says that &quot;Truth is One, men call it by various names&quot; - there is no 'one' path for everyone. As a mother will prepare different food to suit the stomachs of her different children, so the Lord has prepared different paths for people to follow. One should look into the different ways to approach God and decide which one suits your taste the best. Find a teacher. Once you decide, follow it with all your heart. For every step you take towards God, God will take 10 steps toward you.           &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-03T04:36:35.113" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7439" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7434" CreationDate="2015-06-03T09:36:29.427" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Its difficult to answer straight forward because it involves different ways of looking and believing god &#xA;1) If we see from the angle of Puranas, then answer is Yes. We have lots of references. One example is Suchi, the queen of former Indra cries, for help when new Indra Nahusha lust for her. You can read the story &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahusha#Nahusha_became_an_Indra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;2) If we see God from Vedantic perspective, then answer is unknown. Because he is everywhere. In a drop of water, even in sad and happiness. Because he is Vishwaroopa. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishvarupa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;3) If we look from the angle of &lt;strong&gt;Swarga Loka&lt;/strong&gt; , then no Gods/Godess will ever cry there because it is the paradise of pleasure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So answer to this question depends on the belief you follow and the philosophy close to your heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also cry&lt;/strong&gt; can be classified into many types, primarily due to &lt;strong&gt;Sad&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;extreme happiness&lt;/strong&gt;. So 'Cry' in above question refers to what needs clarity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-06-03T09:36:29.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7442" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7443" CreationDate="2015-06-03T12:36:29.417" Score="6" ViewCount="11695" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhishma had the boon &quot;Ichchha-Mrutyu&quot; (one who can decide when to die). So he saw four generations of his family. I just want to know, what was the age difference between Bhishma &amp;amp; Abhimanyu in the Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="467" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T17:41:33.040" LastActivityDate="2020-04-08T06:25:24.160" Title="Age difference between Bhishma &amp; Abhimanyu" Tags="|mahabharata|bhishma|abhimanyu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7443" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7442" CreationDate="2015-06-03T14:13:35.097" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5172/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; the age of various Mahabharata characters.  In particular, Bhishma was 140 years old at the time of the Mahabharata war.  Now as you can see in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/mahabharat/mahab_patnaik.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt;, Abhimanyu was born 12 years after Yudhishthira's coronation in Indraprastha, and Yudhishthira was coronated at the age of 46.  So since (as I discuss in that answer) Yudhishthira was 91 years old at the time of the Mahabharata war, Abhimanyu was 33 years old at the time of the war (contrary to the popular belief that he was 16).  &lt;strong&gt;So Bhishma was 107 years older than Abhimanyu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-06-04T22:46:02.723" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7445" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7413" CreationDate="2015-06-03T16:44:55.547" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Purana narrates on this topic. Parasara sage tells: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maitreya, listen attentively, how this deity, the lord of all, created&#xA;  the gods and other beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whilst he (Brahmá) formerly, in the beginning of the Kalpas, was.&#xA;  meditating on creation, there appeared a creation beginning with&#xA;  ignorance, and consisting of darkness. From that great being appeared&#xA;  five fold Ignorance, consisting of obscurity, illusion, extreme&#xA;  illusion, gloom, utter darkness. The creation of the creator thus&#xA;  plunged in abstraction, was the five fold (immovable) world, without&#xA;  intellect or reflection, void of perception or sensation, incapable of&#xA;  feeling, and destitute of motion. Since immovable things were first&#xA;  created, this is called the first creation. Brahmá, beholding that it&#xA;  was defective, designed another; and whilst he thus meditated, the&#xA;  animal creation was manifested, to the products of which the term&#xA;  Tiryaksrotas is applied, from their nutriment following a winding&#xA;  course. These were called beasts, &amp;amp;c., and their characteristic was&#xA;  the quality of darkness, they being destitute of knowledge,&#xA;  uncontrolled in their conduct, and mistaking error for wisdom; being&#xA;  formed of egotism and self-esteem, labouring under the twenty-eight&#xA;  kinds of imperfection, manifesting inward sensations, and associating&#xA;  with each other (according to their kinds).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beholding this creation also imperfect, Brahmá again meditated, and a&#xA;  third creation appeared, abounding with the quality of goodness,&#xA;  termed Úrddhasrotas.  The beings thus produced in the Úrddhasrotas&#xA;  creation were endowed with pleasure and enjoyment, unencumbered&#xA;  internally or externally, and luminous within and without. This,&#xA;  termed the creation of immortals, was the third performance of Brahmá,&#xA;  who, although well pleased with it, still found it incompetent to&#xA;  fulfil his end. Continuing therefore his meditations, there sprang, in&#xA;  consequence of his infallible purpose, the creation termed&#xA;  Arváksrotas, from indiscreet nature. The products of this are termed&#xA;  Arváksrotasas, from the downward current (of their nutriment). They&#xA;  abound with the light of knowledge, but the qualities of darkness and&#xA;  of foulness predominate. Hence they are afflicted by evil, and are&#xA;  repeatedly impelled to action. They have knowledge both externally and&#xA;  internally, and are the instruments (of accomplishing the object of&#xA;  creation, the liberation of soul). These creatures were mankind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have thus explained to you, excellent Muni, six creations. The first&#xA;  creation was that of Mahat or Intellect, which is also called the&#xA;  creation of Brahmá. The second was that of the rudimentary principles&#xA;  (Tanmátras), thence termed the elemental creation (Bhúta serga). The&#xA;  third was the modified form of egotism, termed the organic creation,&#xA;  or creation of the senses (Aindríyaka). These three were the Prákrita&#xA;  creations, the developments of indiscrete nature, preceded by the&#xA;  indiscreet principle. The fourth or fundamental creation (of&#xA;  perceptible things) was that of inanimate bodies. The fifth, the&#xA;  Tairyag yonya creation, was that of animals. The sixth was the&#xA;  Úrddhasrotas creation, or that of the divinities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The creation of the&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arváksrotas beings was the seventh, and was that of man. There is an&#xA;  eighth creation, termed Anugraha, which possesses both the qualities&#xA;  of goodness and darkness. Of these creations, five are secondary, and&#xA;  three are primary. But there is a ninth,the Kaumára creation, which is&#xA;  both primary and secondary. These are the nine creations of the great&#xA;  progenitor of all, and, both as primary and secondary, are the radical&#xA;  causes of the world, proceeding from the sovereign creator. What else&#xA;  dost thou desire to hear?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp039.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp039.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3069" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-23T14:29:52.277" LastActivityDate="2016-10-23T14:29:52.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7446" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="667" CreationDate="2015-06-03T16:51:03.053" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Purusha Suktham and Sri Vishnu Sahasra namas say the earth His feet. That is why we bow to the earth, as it amounts to touching the Lord. Another reason is Bhoomi or Bhoomadevi is the consort Sri Mahavishnu - Both the Bhagavatha Purana and Sshasranama tells about this. Mahavishnu is called Madhini pathi (husband of Bhooma devi). It is like touching the feet of one's own mother. For mother gets the top priority in the order of reverence (mathru devo bhava, next comes father Pirthu devo bhava, next comes the teacher Acharya devo Bhava and lastly the God.&#xA;Mother is the own who gave you the biological form, father leads by example, teacher shows the world and lastly God enables you to merge with Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3069" LastActivityDate="2015-06-03T16:51:03.053" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7448" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="416" CreationDate="2015-06-04T11:40:05.347" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pradhosham is observed once in 15 days on the trayodasi (13th day) of a paksha - Shukla Paksha and Krishna Paksha. However one comes before the Amavasya is considered holy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact every day between 4.30 p.m. and 6.00 p.m. is called Pradhosha vela or samayam. Praying during pradosha will mitigate our papa (sinsa) and paves way seeking Lord Mahadeva’s blessings for  good life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said the Lord danced between the horns of the Nandhi  (holy bull) the during the pradosha vela. It is auspicious for us to visualise the scene and chant the bhagavn nama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During Prodhosha Abhisheka to Shiva with the following is considered fruitful:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Milk long life;  Ghee Moksha:  Curd good children;  Honey melodious voice;  Rice powder          frees  from debts;  Sugar cane juice good health: Panchamruth abundant wealth; lemon removes      fear of death; Sugar  removes  enmity;  coconut water  gives enjoyment;  Annam majestic life; Sandal               gives  Lakshmi's grace. Source: Siva Purana    &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3069" LastActivityDate="2015-06-04T11:40:05.347" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7449" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2228" CreationDate="2015-06-04T11:47:17.650" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Taking darshan by touching the feet is an old vedic tradition. The Laws of Manu say:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;II. 71. At the beginning and at the end of (a lesson in the) Veda he must always clasp both the feet of his teacher, (and)...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;II. 72. With crossed hands he must clasp (the feet) of the teacher, and touch the left (foot) with his left (hand), the right (foot) with his right (hand).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was over time extended to others one should consider as superiors as well.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-04T11:47:17.650" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7451" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17103" CreationDate="2015-06-05T05:18:11.370" Score="3" ViewCount="3265" Body="&lt;p&gt;What practices shall be followed to master Sri Vidya Sadhana?&#xA;What does each mantra of Sri Vidya Sadhana mean? I've taken Sri Vidya Deeksha from a Guru, I want to understand the meaning of each mantra, to have the emotion while I recite the matra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="51" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T11:56:52.760" Title="How to master Sri Vidya Sadhana" Tags="|meditation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7452" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-05T05:55:55.467" Score="8" ViewCount="37469" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know if the Karma of parents has any effect on their children?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or are they independent and have to realize their own Karma (prārabdha/sañcita)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3082" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-11-22T17:35:15.147" LastActivityDate="2020-03-10T21:44:38.353" Title="Does Karma of parents affect their children?" Tags="|karma|parents|children|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7453" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-05T06:31:30.537" Score="4" ViewCount="293" Body="&lt;p&gt;An &quot;Adhik Maas&quot; is an extra month in the Hindu calendar. What is the month after this month? There are texts on it but people have different opinion. I am confused.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="148" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-13T16:44:03.283" LastActivityDate="2017-10-31T16:11:33.327" Title="Which month follows the Adhik Maas?" Tags="|calendar|panchang|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7454" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-05T06:39:31.287" Score="5" ViewCount="1242" Body="&lt;p&gt;We often say that there is no remedy for Mahapapam/Panch pahapapam, but the Ramraksha Stotra and Shree Ganesh Atharvasheersha both very clearly mention that reciting them would help us get rid of the sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following is the excerpt :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama Raksha Stotram, right at the start mentions (Translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Sri_Rama_Raksha_Stotram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindupedia&lt;/a&gt; -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Charitam Raghunathasya , shata koti pravistaram&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ekaikam aksharam punsam, mahapataka nashanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The story of Rama is written in four billions words,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;But reading even one letter of that&lt;/strong&gt;, destroys all great sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Shree Ganesh Atharvasheersha mentions Translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/stotras/ganesha/ganapati_atharvashirsha.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;greenmesg.org&lt;/a&gt;–  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Etadarvasheerha yodhite, sa brahma bhuyaye kalpate,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sa sarvatah sukhmedhate, sa panch maha papat pramuchayate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who studies this Atharvashirsha (with Shraddha), will become fit to realize Brahman,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He will not be (permanently) tied down by any obstacles (and his consciousness will become clearer), &#xA;  (Permanent) Happiness will increase within his consciousness, wherever he is (i.e. at all times),&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He will get freed from the five grave Sins&lt;/strong&gt; (the memory of sins tend to create permanent obstacles within the consciousness for the jivas to sense the Paramatman),  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if one has indulged in a maha pataka, can reciting these mantras or reading and listening to the stories help get rid of the sin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3082" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-08T05:12:38.070" LastActivityDate="2018-09-08T05:12:38.070" Title="Can chanting certain mantras and reading stories rid us of mahapatak/maha papam (great sins)?" Tags="|mantras|sin|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7456" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-05T11:24:55.117" Score="18" ViewCount="17401" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I was looking at &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7357/confusion-between-shiv-and-krishna&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, I got another question in my mind that why didn't Lord Vishnu drink the poison that came out from the churning of ocean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is also powerful to consume the poison, but he asked Lord Shiva to hold the poison in his throat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was there any reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2656" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2022-11-10T15:47:55.240" Title="Why didn't Lord Vishnu drink the poison that came out from the churning of ocean?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|bhagavata-purana|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7457" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-05T11:45:09.977" Score="9" ViewCount="20037" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the actual meaning of &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Na tasya pratima asti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (Yajurveda 32.3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am searching for the precise answer but unable to find it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3086" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-01-01T05:05:29.670" LastActivityDate="2023-01-01T14:41:29.147" Title="I want to know the actual meaning of 'Na tasya pratima asti' (Yajurveda 32.3)" Tags="|vedas|translation-request|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7461" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7457" CreationDate="2015-06-05T15:23:04.300" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;What you're referring to is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/wyvbk32.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 32 Verse 3&lt;/a&gt; of the Shukla Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;na tasya॑ prati॒mā a॑sti॒ yasya॒ nāma॑ ma॒hadyaśaḥ॑&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hi॑raṇyaga॒rbha itye॒ṣaḥ ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mā mā॑ him̐sī॒ditye॒ṣā ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yasmā॒nna jā॒ta itye॒ṣa ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no counterpart of him whose glory verily is great.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;In the beginning rose Hiranyagarbha, etc. Let not him&#xA;harm me, etc. Than whom there is no other born, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 10 of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/mahanarayana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahanarayana Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; of the Krishna Yajur Veda contains a paraphrase of this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nainamūrdhvaṃ na tiryañcaṃ na madhye parijagrabhat ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;na tasyeśe kaścana tasya nāma mahadyaśaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No person ever grasped by his understanding the upward limit of this Paramatman, nor His limit across, nor His middle portion. &lt;strong&gt;His name is ‘great glory’ for no one limits His nature by definition.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In essence the verse is about how Vishnu, described in Shukla Yajur Veda Book 32 as Purusha and described in the Mahanarayana Upanishad as Narayana,  is so glorious that he can't even be compared to anything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-10T04:51:55.160" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7462" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-05T16:29:02.157" Score="0" ViewCount="56" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, there is a mention of Bhisma defeating Parashuram in a battle that ensued over Bhisma not accepting Amba as his wife even after requested by Parashuram himself. This seems to be ridiculous as Parashuram is an incarnation of Vishnu, while, Bhisma was more or less a human being. So, how can a human being become more powerful than a Godly incarnation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastActivityDate="2015-06-05T16:29:02.157" Title="Bhisma defeating Parashuram" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2015-06-05T16:35:14.140" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7464" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-06T03:54:53.980" Score="5" ViewCount="570" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard/read that in some cases a marriage is forbidden on the basis of mismatching kundalis/gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some other cases it's forbidden because of caste incompatibility.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any relationship at all between the two practices?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My understanding is that in the case of the caste system marriage among different castes is discouraged because some castes are deemed socially superior than others. This seems to be similar to the way marriage among different social classes is discouraged in western societies, e.g. millionaires rarely if ever marry a homeless person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the case of kundalis matching, the practice is based on the belief that astrological events can affect the marriage, hence certain matches are discouraged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the case of gunas matching, the practice seems to be based on the observation that different people have different behavioural tendencies, therefore it makes sense to discourage certain matches with undesirable people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To me it seems that there's not relationship between them except for the fact that it's practiced by Indian people which also happen to practice Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For that matter, it looks like none of these practices has any basis in the Hindu doctrine. They seem more like cultural practices specific to certain parts of India in which people also happen to practice Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2349" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T16:42:34.937" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T10:48:07.817" Title="Is there any relationship between the caste system and kundalis/gunas matching as it relates to marriage?" Tags="|marriage|caste-system|kundali|gunas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7465" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-06T04:16:44.980" Score="8" ViewCount="948" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer to this question: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/642/2349&quot;&gt;What is the significance of Kundali in Hindu Family&lt;/a&gt;  seems to indicate that Hindu astrology is a core component of the Hindu doctrine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My understanding is that the core texts of the Hindu doctrine are the Rigveda and according to this article &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_astrology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_astrology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... historical documentation shows that horoscopic astrology in the Indian subcontinent came from Hellenistic influences, post-dating the Vedic period.[4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which seems to suggest that Hindu astrology may have been assimilated later on into the Hindu doctrine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It seems that kundalis is something practiced by families that believe in Hindu astrology but since that was a later addition to the Hindu doctrine it is not a core component but rather a historical accident.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that in this SE site, western sources are frowned upon, so I would like to request more reliable sources to understand if indeed the idea of kundalis matching has any basis in the Hindu doctrine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2349" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T03:09:55.313" Title="Is the practice of kundalis matching part of the core Hindu doctrine?" Tags="|rig-veda|astrology|kundali|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7467" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7474" CreationDate="2015-06-06T16:51:24.607" Score="0" ViewCount="4124" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the Puranas, one can infer that the meaning refers to either the spiritual aura of a person, facial expressiveness that exudes confidence, vigor or valor, etc. Real Gurus are said be endowed with the ability to judge a wannabe-disciple's worthiness by just observing his/her Tejas. In absolute spiritual terms, what exactly does Tejas mean? Which state or evolution of which Kosha among the five koshas - Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya and Anadhamaya does Tejas indicate?     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2015-06-07T06:50:30.920" Title="Exact meaning of the word &quot;Tejas&quot;?" Tags="|puranas|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7469" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-06T19:04:37.293" Score="4" ViewCount="1557" Body="&lt;p&gt;The questions related to the title are multifold as follows,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhakticharuswami.com/2014/01/05/the-origin-of-western-religions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article the late Suhotra Swami quotes Bhavishya Purana saying that Mlecchas are descended from Adama and Havyavathi who are children of Rishi Kardama. Are the above claims about &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mleccha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mlecchas&lt;/a&gt; and their religion and lineage of prophets prophets really present in the Bhavishya Purana? Is there a authentic verison of this Purana available online? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any other Purana which talks about the origins of Mlecchas and about Adama, Havayavathi lineage? Does Bhagavata Purana or Mahabharatha has references to the same?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharatha, many Mleccha tribes are mentioned like  Sakas, Huns, Yavanas(Greek), Kambojas, Pahlavas, Bahlikas, Rishikas, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chinas&lt;/a&gt;(China), etc, etc. Are connections made to Greeks, Syrians, Chinese, etc mere conjecture or has the Mahabharatha mentioned any Capital cities, traditions, languages or practices which directly like these Mleccha tribes to the present day nation states?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Here] is an (&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindudharma.quora.com/Rarely-known-secrets-about-Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://hindudharma.quora.com/Rarely-known-secrets-about-Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;) interesting read on this regard which prompted some of the above question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2017-05-16T09:13:54.173" Title="Origin and location of Mleccha tribes in Mahabharatha" Tags="|puranas|bhagavata-purana|bhavishya-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7470" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-06T20:35:45.167" Score="4" ViewCount="1373" Body="&lt;p&gt;The role of distinguished characters occupying the seat of Prajapathi are attributed to many things ranging from King of Booloka, Law giver, maker and protector of forests and the species in them, etc. My questions are the following,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are all Prajapathi's Brahmakumaras?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the exact role/dominion of Prajapathis? Is it only a few aspects of &lt;em&gt;Shristi Paripalanam&lt;/em&gt; or complete sovereignty over the same?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the difference between the role of Prajapathi and Manu(both being described as law givers)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How often does the occupier of the title of Prajapati  change?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there only one Prajapathi for each age or many? The following text from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indianmirror.com/history/mythological-stories/kardama-devahuti.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page seems to indicate that many Prajapathis exist in at a given time.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Naradha, Brahma, the four Sanatkumaras and the nine Prajapatis, all&#xA;  came to visit Kardama and Devahuti and the lord in the disguise of&#xA;  Kapila. Now with great joy Kardama gave all his nine daughters in&#xA;  marriage to the nine Prajapatis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="2362" LastEditDate="2015-06-06T20:41:50.430" LastActivityDate="2017-12-22T18:31:42.177" Title="Role of Prajapathi" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|manu|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7472" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-07T05:10:00.170" Score="10" ViewCount="15366" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a mention in the Ramayana that Vali defeated Ravana badly. When and how did it happen? During the duel, why didn't Ravana use any of his divine weapons? I think Vali did not possess any divine weapon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T23:18:32.707" LastActivityDate="2017-08-28T06:50:33.687" Title="How did Vali defeat Ravana? What's the story?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|vali|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7474" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7467" CreationDate="2015-06-07T06:50:30.920" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tejas means heat. When prana becomes active, it generates heat - tejas. Tejas is one of the fine elements (Akasha, Vayu, Tejas, etc.). There is both a cosmic as well as a personal aspect to the meaning. When the cosmic Akasha is repeatedly given blows by Prana, Tejas (heat) arises (Swami Vivekananda). From a raja yoga aspect, repeated blows to the Kundalini awakens the Kundalini. The movement of the Kundalini gives rise to Tejas - heat. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tejas can thus mean spiritual heat, or power generated by the Kundalini. When it is said that a real teacher can observe an aspiring student's tejas, it means that the preceptor can perceive how much effort needs to be done on the student's part to awaken the Kundalini. With tejas, the Kundalini can arise and open up spiritual vistas to the student.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-07T06:50:30.920" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7476" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3314" CreationDate="2015-06-08T05:54:13.343" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think people who are thinking that god enter into a human body are wrong. I'm saying it because I have learnt many thing about this. This is totally a drama, because how can god enter into a body?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have seen this drama in my own home, then I searched about it. When they started the drama, the body started moving, it's also part of an acting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's physiological disease. That time, you put your hand on the head and easily thinking positively that they are related to god. One more thing, of course god is in earth, as a positive thinking. God is in you, in me, in other, so use him in your work. They help you too much.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3097" LastEditorUserId="2461" LastEditDate="2015-06-08T11:41:54.640" LastActivityDate="2015-06-08T11:41:54.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7479" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2246" CreationDate="2015-06-08T08:17:07.057" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jaganatha is actually a Buddhist deity, may be a preceptor of the Buddhist pantheon. According to common perception worshipers were regarded as Brahmin priests. But about the evidence as claimed to have seen by Bharati Krushna Tirtha cannot be ignored because we do not have access into the corresponding temple record. It is a fact that then during the life time of Jesus Puri was an important seat of knowledge and spiritualism. And the place had foreign connection both in the east and middle east from 261 BC and then Puri was a famous trade center too which has been testified from discovery of Kushan coins. Thus historically visit of Jesus cannot be regarded as mere hypothesis. Yet scholars are attempting to collect striking evidences.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3100" LastActivityDate="2015-06-08T08:17:07.057" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7480" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="708" CreationDate="2015-06-08T08:32:28.750" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Bell which you see here are seen in Siva temples, not in other temples. Thus bells are sounded in Siva temple while entering to awaken rather draw the kid attention of the benevolent God who remains in deep meditation all through. Besides small bells are sounded at the time of offerings of consecrated foods (also incense and lamp) for(a) not to disturb the deity by external noise and (b) for his pleasure. Further a special type of bell is sounded when the deities move in journeys outside the sanctum or the waving of lamps are ceremonially performed. In some prominent temples local resident used to take heir meals only after their revered god is offered with foods. Here cymbals are sounded near the gates of the temples to make others know that now the god is enjoying his food and hence they can either go for food cooked in their houses or can collect Prasad from the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3100" LastActivityDate="2015-06-08T08:32:28.750" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7482" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7456" CreationDate="2015-06-08T08:53:27.927" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why didn’t Lord Vishnu himself consume the poison during the churning of the ocean and allowed Shiva to do it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer to this is because Shiva, had performed severe austerities to attain the position of the lord of the Devas and by virtue of the merits accrued due to severe penances Shiva was utilized as vessel by Lord Vishnu to consume poison. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many of these details are from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://narayanastra.blogspot.in/2012/03/keshi-suktam-and-sharabha-narasimha.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this blog&lt;/a&gt;  and also from Padma Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please check the above link for more details on this episode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following details:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mahAbhArata records this as follows –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mahAdEva: sarvamEdhEMahAthmAhuthvaa aathmAnam dEvadEvO BhabhUva visvAn lOkAn vyApya vishtabhya keerthyA virAjathE dhyuthimAn KrutthivAsa: --&lt;strong&gt;MahAbhAratha: Shanthi Parva 20.12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Meaning): The noble soul known as “mahAdeva” (shiva) performed the sarvamEdha yAga , where He offered Himself as Havis and became the greatest among DevAs. He shines brilliantly in all the worlds with His jnAna, took on eight kinds of radiant forms (ashtamUrthy) and became renowned (keerthimAn ,DhyutimAn virAjathE).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Shiva had acquired merit, the gracious bhagavAn Vishnu fulfilled the fruits of his penances by allowing him to swallow the poison and thus lead the Devas as their head. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it should be understood that Shiva was a vibhUti and the actual act of containing the poison was done by Lord Vishnu only through the medium of Shiva. This is stated by Shiva himself in the following pramAnAs, which serve as upabrahmaNas for the keSi sUkta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;taMdR^iShTvA ghora saN^kAshaM prAdurbhUtaM mahAviSham.h | dhyAtvA nArAyaNaM devaM hR^idaye garuDadhvajam.h || (&lt;strong&gt;~BrahmAndapurANa&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Meaning): Seeing that terrible poison emerging, (Shiva) meditated on the Lord Vishnu, Garudadhvaja, residing in his heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Shiva tells Parvati&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aprakAshamidaM devi guhyAd guhyataraM padam.h | purAham abdhimathane patagendra viShAvaham.h | avadhyaM garalaM ghoramaJNbhujam amR^itaMyathA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Meaning): O Devi, this is not a well known fact. At the time of samudra-mathana, before consuming poison, I meditated on the Lord. (It is due to his mercy that ) I was able to drink it as easily as I had the nectar (amR^ita)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This one is well known in the mantra-shAstras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;achyutAnanta govinda mantrato.apsushubhaM param.h | OM iti sampuTIkR^ity ajapan viShadharo.aharat.h ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Meaning): Lord Shiva did 'abhimantraNa' of the poison with the most auspicious mantra: OM achyutAnantagovinda OM' and then consumed the poison.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nAmatraya prabhAvAchcha viShNossarvagatasyavai |viShaM tadabhavajjIrNaM lokasamhArakAraNam.h |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Meaning): Due to the chanting of the 'nAmatraya' (three names) of that all-pervading Vishnu, that terrible poison, which could have destroyed the worlds, was digested ('jIrNam.h').&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Uttara Khanda&lt;/strong&gt; , &lt;strong&gt;Section 6&lt;/strong&gt;; &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 232&lt;/strong&gt;, Shiva says the following regarding the churning of the ocean and halahala or poison episode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then at that time when the great ocean was being churned, at first there came up the very strong Kalakuta poison which was very painful, very fierce, and which was like the fire of universal&#xA;  destruction. [&lt;em&gt;Verses 7-10&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing (it), all gods and demons, being frightened,fled away. O you of beautiful eyes, then seeing the best gods frightened and fleeing away, I (Shiva) said to them: &quot;O you all hosts of gods, do not be afraid of the poison. I shall drink this strongpoison, Kalakuta.&quot; Thus addressed by me, all the gods, led by Indra and bowing, very much praised me with the words 'Well, Well'. On seeing the strong poison, like a cloud, having come up I (Shiva) meditated in my heart upon the eagle-bannered god Vishnu, resembling the rising sun and holding a conch, a disc, and a mace.[&lt;em&gt;Verses 11-15&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having meditated (i.e. when Shiva meditated) with a concentrated mind upon that lord along with Sri and Bhumi, having earrings of gold purified by fire, remover of all miseries, and on my having muttered the great hymn of the name and form (of Vishnu) along with MahalaksmI, all that poison, which was very fierce, which was the first one, which was fearful to all, which was (capable of)  destroying all the worlds, was digested (by me i.e Shiva) due to the three names of Vishnu, the omnipresent one. He who,being restrained, would devoutly mutter the three names of Visnu, viz. Acyuta, Ananta, Govinda, beginning with Pranava (i.e. Om) and (also) ending with Om, has no fear of death, so also the great fear due to poison, disease and fire. The wise, restrained one, who would mutter the great hymn—the three names—does not have fear of Death; then from where else (can he have it)? Thus with (the muttering of) the three names(of Vishnu) I (Shiva) drank that poison. [&lt;em&gt;Verses 16-21&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, all these clearly, indicate that Shiva was able to consume the poison only due Lord Vishnu's grace i.e. it was Lord Vishnu as the inner self of Shiva made it possible for Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2020-06-08T17:13:32.247" LastActivityDate="2020-06-08T17:13:32.247" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7483" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3314" CreationDate="2015-06-08T09:01:35.740" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let's first talk about religion view:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is possible that GOD(but in most cases there will be goddess) can come inside of person's(Again in most cases person will be 'she') body. But this happen at &lt;strong&gt;specific time&lt;/strong&gt;(like sandhya means evening time) and with &lt;strong&gt;specific environment&lt;/strong&gt;(where doop, nagara, tons of agarbatti's smoke like typical devi-mandir but all are too much!). This will be the normal scenario when you find goddess come inside of human body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, let's talk about scientific view(Bases on what I search):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When you agree for some god, and you pray for long time, you get some of god's characteristics in side of you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, when you get environment which i just describe above, it will make vibration inside of your body and active one of seven chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But your body is not capable of taking power of this active chakra, so that your body started to vibrate and all this &lt;em&gt;head moves in circle&lt;/em&gt; things happen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And seems your chakra is active(for that short time only), you get power of say, to able to view of some future events. (and telling about future answer is what we call goddess's speak)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But here, I want to mention that, not every one can active chakra even for specific time, in most cases people are doing for money.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One fun thing: There was lady who did these type of things and identifies herself as 'MATAJI', but we know that she was totally faking. So, one day what my friend did, when she is doing this(as &lt;em&gt;mataji come inside here&lt;/em&gt;) my friend made fake call on his cell phone and spoke loudly as 'what dipak is in hospital?', now dipak is her son, and she suddenly stop and take cellphone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this we never go at her home(because if we go we will she and her family definitely hit us), so did other people(because they knew that she is lying).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-06-08T09:01:35.740" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7486" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7487" CreationDate="2015-06-08T09:46:45.290" Score="6" ViewCount="295" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have myself observed it, all the things b/w north and south are very different, may it be the language, eating habits and in terms of religion both consider themselves as Hindu but have different ways of expressing prayers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Certain observations:&#xA; 1. In south temples the prasada is different (mainly rice).&#xA; 2. The deities are avatars of same God but quiet different like venkateshwara, tirupati which are not famous in north.&#xA; 3. Eating habits(religious) like non veg is mainly eaten in south and rare in north.&#xA; 4. in south temples everytime someone offers prasada to God, they lit the diya and ring bells and do short aarti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a vast difference b/w the festivals, even same festivals are celebrated in completely different ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marriage: In north people don't marry there cousins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kundali matching technique and precautions also different in north/south(not sure)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is much more then this , mainly in north tulsidasa scriptures are preferred over old Sanskrit ones I think because it's close to Hindi, where as south Indians have different languages like Kannada, Tamil etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tamil and Sanskrit both claims to be oldest languages of world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-06-25T13:21:44.877" LastActivityDate="2023-08-21T18:49:19.733" Title="Why is there so much diversity b/w north and south and still both hindu" Tags="|culture|festivals|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7487" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7486" CreationDate="2015-06-08T11:50:08.123" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;All the differences you observe are superficial, local customs that have developed over many ages. In their essences they remain the same. See Swami Vivekananda's lectures entitled &quot;Aryans and Tamilians&quot; and &quot;Reply to the Madras Address&quot;. You can read here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt; - Both lectures are under the section titled &quot;Writings: Prose&quot;. The second one, &quot;Reply to the Madras Address&quot; is the most relevant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-08T11:50:08.123" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7488" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7451" CreationDate="2015-06-08T11:57:13.473" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Always a sadhak requires a Guru. Without a guru, it is almost impossible as he guides you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since you have already taken a deeksha from a Guru, is it not better to find the meanings of those mantras from the same guru?&#xA;Because a word has many meanings and he will explain with a meaning which will suit your attitude and temper better.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Still for information on Sri Vidya, you can refer these websites&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;1) &lt;a href=&quot;http://srividyasadhana.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://srividyasadhana.com/&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;2) Audio's on Sri Vidya by SriM&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2015-06-08T11:57:13.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7489" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7401" CreationDate="2015-06-08T15:46:34.500" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per what i know, i only remember of Lord Shiv and Goddess Parvati getting their daughter Ashok sundari from kalpavriksha. I am not sure but i think this is given under Padma Purana. But i donot know which verse, etc says about this incident. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1150" LastActivityDate="2015-06-08T15:46:34.500" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7491" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-09T04:58:29.943" Score="4" ViewCount="1407" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Vishnu created Brahma, Brahma opened the Golden Egg and created the Universe and the Heaven. He also created the 4 children from his brain or head. He then created 9 Prajapatis and 14 Manus. If that's the case what is the difference between the roles of Prajapatis and Manus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, can we say that the 4 children from the brain or head of Brahma are the 4 Vedas and the 9 Prajapatis are the 9 planets? If that's the case, what about the rest of the Universe? Are there other Prajapatis for other parts of the Universe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T11:22:25.317" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T11:22:25.317" Title="What is difference between the roles of Manu and Prajapati?" Tags="|brahma|creation|manu|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7492" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-09T05:53:32.660" Score="6" ViewCount="7784" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kali yuga started 5000 years back is a well known fact. My question is did it start immediately on the day Lord Krishna ended His avatar or some time after that? I read some where that after Lord Krishna, a period of Yuga Sandhi existed for some time and only after that did Kali Yuga start. Can some one clarify based on scriptural evidence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3105" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-08T15:10:18.257" LastActivityDate="2018-03-19T09:45:14.210" Title="How many years have passed since the departure of Lord Krishna to the start of Kali Yuga?" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7493" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7492" CreationDate="2015-06-09T09:22:00.860" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the mythological stories, the Kaliyuga did not start immediately after Krishna's death, but it started during the period of Parikshit's (Arjun's grandson) death.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From this wikipedia article on &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parikshit#Death&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pariskhit&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Once Parikshit went hunting in the forest. The demon Kali, the embodiment of Kali Yuga, appeared before him and asked permission to enter his kingdom, which the king denied. Upon insisting, Parikshit allowed him five places to reside: where there is gambling, alcohol consumption, prostitution, animal slaughter and gold. &lt;strong&gt;Kali smartly entered into Parikshit's golden crown&lt;/strong&gt; and spoiled his thoughts.&#xA;  Parikshit entered the hut of a sage named Shamika as he was thirsty. He found the sage in deep meditation. He bowed to him several times but as there was no response he took a dead snake and threw it around the sage's neck. Later when the sage's son, Sringin, heard of this incident he cursed the &lt;strong&gt;king to die of snake bite on the 7th day&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However I cannot say that after how many years of Krishna's death, did Parikshit die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also one interesting fact which I have read from other sources: Duryodhana was embodiment of Kaliyuga. Due to his death, the Kaliyuga was &lt;em&gt;at least&lt;/em&gt; delayed for 35 more years during which Yudhishtira was the king. This is analogical to to the modern time fact that, we have already crossed the time for the next &lt;em&gt;ice age&lt;/em&gt;; but due to &lt;a href=&quot;http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090903-arctic-warming-ice-age.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;global warming, it's being delayed&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-06-09T09:22:00.860" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7494" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7424" CreationDate="2015-06-09T10:48:47.813" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not sure if the concept of &quot;embodiment&quot; of whole yuga into single person is something genuine. Mostly it's symbolic. The wikipedia article about &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakuni&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shakuni&lt;/a&gt; discusses the mostly acceptable theory about him, though without any solid reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will not copy paste all the relevant parts as it's mostly known by the people, but below sentence is important:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hastinapur conquered Gandhar, killed the king Achala Suvala, and imprisoned all the male members of his line, saying that line was &lt;strong&gt;full of adharma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Something full of evil would be subject to curse by the Devatas (Gods); same would have applied to Gandharas and hence Shakuni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides, I don't see him as a pure evil. Rather he was probably filled with some of the natural human vices, like &lt;em&gt;Revenge&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Immoral partiality&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's not that he always drove Duryodhana to wrong direction. Look at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02047.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this passage&lt;/a&gt;, where he gives good piece of advice to Duryodhana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sakuni said.--'O Duryodhana, thou &lt;strong&gt;shouldst not be jealous of Yudhishthira&lt;/strong&gt;. The sons of Pandu are enjoying what they deserve in consequence of their own good fortune. ... having inherited the paternal share of the kingdom without being deprived of it they have grown in consequence of their own energy. What is there to make thee sorry for this?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-06-09T10:48:47.813" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7495" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9276" CreationDate="2015-06-09T15:36:27.823" Score="12" ViewCount="4316" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know about the fact the famous sage Vasishta, guru of Rama, was one of the mind-born sons of Brahma.  What's not as well-known, however, is the fact that Vasishta is no longer the son of Brahma!  In fact if you look at the Anukramani for Rig Veda Book 7 in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, you'll find Vasishta listed not as Vasishta son of Brahma, but rather &amp;quot;Vasishta Maitravaruni&amp;quot;, i.e. Vasishta son of Mitra and Varuna.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once the ancient king Nimi, ancestor of Janaka, wanted to conduct a Yagna, so he asked the sage Vasishta to be his priest.  Vasishta told Nimi that he had already promised to conduct a Yagna for Indra, so he would conduct Nimi's Yagna afterward.  But Nimi didn't want to wait, so he hired someone else to be his priest.  When Vasishta found out about this, he was furious, and cursed Nimi to have his soul separated from his body.  In response, Nimi uttered the same curse back to Vasishta, so Vasishta's body died and Vasishta's soul was left to wander.  Finally, when the gods Mitra (god of friendship) and Varuna (the ocean god) produced two children out of attraction to the Apsara Urvashi, Vasishta was reborn as one of those children, the other being the famous sage Agastya.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/13/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Srimad Bhagavatam describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After beginning sacrifices, Mahārāja Nimi, the son of Ikṣvāku, requested the great sage Vasiṣṭha to take the post of chief priest. At that time, Vasiṣṭha replied, “My dear Mahārāja Nimi, I have already accepted the same post in a sacrifice begun by Lord Indra.  I shall return here after finishing the yajña for Indra. Kindly wait for me until then.” Mahārāja Nimi remained silent, and Vasiṣṭha began to perform the sacrifice for Lord Indra.  Mahārāja Nimi, being a self-realized soul, considered that this life is flickering. Therefore, instead of waiting long for Vasiṣṭha, he began performing the sacrifice with other priests.  After completing the sacrificial performance for King Indra, the spiritual master Vasiṣṭha returned and found that his disciple Mahārāja Nimi had disobeyed his instructions. Thus Vasiṣṭha cursed him, saying, “May the material body of Nimi, who considers himself learned, immediately fall.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For unnecessarily cursing him when he had committed no offense, Mahārāja Nimi countercursed his spiritual master. “For the sake of getting contributions from the King of heaven,” he said, “you have lost your religious intelligence. Therefore I pronounce this curse: your body also will fall.  After saying this, Mahārāja Nimi, who was expert in the science of spiritual knowledge, gave up his body. Vasiṣṭha, the great-grandfather, gave up his body also, but through the semen discharged by Mitra and Varuṇa when they saw Urvaśī, he was born again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/18/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This earlier chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam provides a bit more detail about the birth of Vasishta and Agastya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agastya and Vasiṣṭha Ṛṣis were the common sons of Varuṇa and Mitra, the tenth son of Aditi.  Upon seeing Urvaśī, the celestial society girl, both Mitra and Varuṇa discharged semen, which they preserved in an earthen pot. The two sons Agastya and Vasiṣṭha later appeared from that pot, and they are therefore the common sons of Mitra and Varuṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, was this the main birth of the sage Agastya?  Given that Vasishta was originally a sage born from Brahma and then later reborn as the son of Mitra and Varuna, is it possible that something similar happened in Agastya's case?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any scriptures describe a previous birth of Agastya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-01-16T11:11:49.443" Title="Did Vasishta's brother sage Agastya have a previous birth?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|rebirth|vashishta|agastya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="26" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7497" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-10T16:40:32.177" Score="4" ViewCount="459" Body="&lt;p&gt;Trisiras (AKA Vishwarupa) was the three-headed son of the divine architect Tvashta (AKA Vishakarma).  He was an extremely devout sage, and as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6805/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; he even served as temporary guru of the gods when Brihaspati had abandoned them out of anger.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2623/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Trisiras taught Indra the famous Narayana Kavacha, a prayer to Vishnu, which allowed the gods to defeat the Asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But ultimately Indra grew suspicious of Trisiras, since he was related to both the gods and the Asuras, so as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2408/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Indra killed Trisiras by cutting off his three heads. This made Trisiras' father Tvashta furious, and he created the demon Vritrasura to take revenge on Indra. And it is Indra's defeat of Vritrasura that Indra most known for in ancient times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about something related to the death of Trisiras.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata describes how after Indra killed Trisiras, Indra was not at peace, because Trisiras' body was still glowing.  So he enlisted the help of a nearby wood-cutter to cut off the three heads of Trisiras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And beholding him slain by the thunderbolt, and lying down huge as a hill, the chief of the celestials found no peace, and felt as if scorched by the effulgent appearance of the dead; for though slain, he had a blazing and effulgent appearance and looked like one alive. And, strange to say, though lifeless, his heads seemed to be alive as they were beheld lying low on the field. And exceedingly afraid of that lustre, Indra remained plunged in thought. And at that time, O great king, bearing an axe on his shoulder, a carpenter came to the forest and approached the spot where lay that being. And Indra, the lord of Sachi, who was afraid, saw the carpenter come there by chance. And the chastiser of Paka said unto him immediately, 'Do this my behest. Quickly cut off this one's heads.' The carpenter thereupon said, 'His shoulders are broad: this axe will not be able to cut them off. Nor shall I be able to do what is condemned by righteous persons.' And Indra said, 'Do not fear, quickly do what I say. At my command thy axe shall equal the thunderbolt.' The carpenter said, 'Whom am I to take thee to be who hast done this frightful deed today? This I wish to learn, tell me the exact truth.' And Indra said, 'O carpenter, I am Indra, the chief of the gods. Let this be known to thee. Do thou act just as I have told thee. Do not hesitate, O carpenter! The carpenter said, 'O Indra, how is it that thou art not ashamed of this thy inhuman act? How it is that thou hast no dread of the sin of slaying a Brahmana, after having slain this son of a saint?' Indra said, 'I shall afterwards perform some religious ceremony of a rigorous kind to purify myself from this taint. This was a powerful enemy of mine whom I have killed with my thunderbolt. Even now I am uneasy, O carpenter; I, indeed, dread him even now. &lt;strong&gt;Do thou quickly cut off his heads, I shall bestow my favour upon thee. In sacrifices, men will give thee the head of the sacrificial beast as thy share. This is the favour I confer on thee. Do thou quickly perform what I desire.&lt;/strong&gt;' ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing this, the carpenter, at the request of the great Indra, immediately severed the heads of the three-headed one with his axe. And when the heads were cut off, out flew therefrom a number of birds, viz., partridges, quails and sparrows. And from the mouth wherewith he used to recite the Vedas and to drink the Soma-juice, came out partridges in quick succession. And, O king, O son of Pandu, from the mouth with which he used to look at the cardinal points as if absorbing them all, a number of quails came forth. And from that mouth of the three-headed being which used to drink wine, out flew a number of sparrows and hawks. And the heads having been cut off Indra was freed from his trepidation, and went to heaven, glad at heart. And the carpenter also went back to his house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, did Indra keep his word to the wood-cutter?  Is it true that the head of every sacrificial offering is offered to this wood-cutter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so, is this wood-cutter famous now in Yagnas?  Who is he?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-23T12:40:09.917" Title="Who is the wood-cutter Indra promised would be honored in every Yagna?" Tags="|mahabharata|vedas|asuras|indra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7498" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="236" CreationDate="2015-06-10T16:42:09.723" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Kamba Ramayana, it is Lakshman who answers this question. Actually this question was posed by Vaali as he was lying on the ground after he was felled by Raamas arrow. Raama does not answer Vaali. Instead Lakshman answers. As per Lakshman, Raama had agreed to protect and support Sugrivan. If Raama had come face to face with Vaali, then Vaali would have prostrated before Raama as he would have realized that Raama was an avatar of Vishnu. Then it would have been difficult for Raama to kill Vaali and not keep his promise to Sugrivan. Hence, Raama hid behind a tree and killed Vaali. Refer Dr. Va Shubha Manickams lecture on Kamba Ramayanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3113" LastEditorUserId="3113" LastEditDate="2015-06-11T20:13:33.030" LastActivityDate="2015-06-11T20:13:33.030" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7501" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-10T21:24:41.530" Score="11" ViewCount="849" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/64/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Hindu scripture is made up of two categories, Shruti or that which is heard from the gods, and Smriti or that which is composed by humans authors and passed down from teacher to student via oral tradition.  It's well-known that Smriti encompasses many different categories of texts, like the Puranas, Itihasas (Ramayana and Mahabharata), Dharma Shastras, etc.  What is not as well-known, however, is that Shruti also has two categories - Nigamas aka the Vedas which primarily focus on performing Yagnas (fire-rituals), and Agamas which focus on worshipping the gods through idol worship and other means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The divide between these two categories isn't always so clear-cut, however.  Pretty much all mainstream Vaishnavas follow a set of Agamic texts known as the Pancharatra Agamas, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7422/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, many people believe that the Pancharatra Agamas actually originate from a now-extinct Shakha (recension) of the Shukla Yajur Veda, known as the Ekayana Shakha, founded by Vishnu's incarnation sage Narayana.    (I discuss the Vedic Shakhas more generally &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.). Similarly, the Vaikhanasa Agamas, which are followed by a tiny minority of Vishnu-worshippers, are believed to originate from a branch of the Krishna Yajur Veda founded by Brahma's incarnation Vikhanasa, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6707/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, do people make any similar claims about non-Vaishnava Agamas?  In addition to the Vaishnava Agamas I discussed above, there are also Shaiva Agamas and Shakta Agamas, more commonly known as Tantras.  (Ignore the modern connotations of the word.)  Are there any claims by followers of those Agamas that they originate from some Vedic Shakha?  Does Kashmiri Shaivism or Shaiva Siddhanta, for instance, claim that their respective Tantric texts originate from a Shakha of the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I'm not just looking for generic claims that an Agama is Vedic in origin; I want a claim of a specific Shakha of the Vedas.  Also, the purpose of my question isn't to adjudicate the validity of these claims, simply to find out if any such claims exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-06-29T01:04:15.137" Title="Do any non-Vaishnava Agamas trace their origins to a Vedic Shakha?" Tags="|vedas|vaishnavism|pancharatra|shaivism|agamas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7502" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6535" CreationDate="2015-06-10T23:07:12.827" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I highly recommend the translation included in this book:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universaltheosophy.com/kshetra-books/#vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.universaltheosophy.com/kshetra-books/#vedanta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also includes other works of Sankaracharya (Atma Bodha, Tattva Bodha, Atmanatma-viveka, etc.), along with articles on the Vedanta Philosophy. Really helps to get a grasp on the main concepts of Advaita Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3116" LastActivityDate="2015-06-10T23:07:12.827" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7503" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7501" CreationDate="2015-06-11T05:42:34.793" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said (Complete Works V4, p 335-336 -&quot;Reply to the Madras Address&quot;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The three Prasthanas, (&quot;Courses, viz, the Upanishad, (Shruti), the Gita, and the &lt;em&gt;Shariraka-Sutras&lt;/em&gt;.) then, in their different explanations, as Dvaita, Vishishadvaita, or Advaita, with a few minor recessions, form the &quot;authorities&quot; of the Hindu religion. The Puranas, the modern representations of the ancient Narasamsi (anecdote portion of the Vedas), supply the mythology, and the Tantras, the modern representations of the Brahmanas (ritual and explanatory portion of the Vedas), supply the ritual. Thus the three Prasthanas, as authorities, are common to all the sects; but as to the Puranas and Tantras, each sect has its own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Tantras, as we have said, represent the Vedic rituals in a modified form; and before anyone jumps into the most absurd conclusions about them, I will advise him to read the Tantras in conjunction with the Brahmanas, especially the Adhvaryu portion. And most of the Mantras, used in the Tantras, will be found taken verbatim from their Brahmanas. As to their influence, apart from the Sharuta and Smarta rituals, all the forms of the rituals in vogue from the Himalayas to the Comorin have been taken from the Tantras, and they direct the worship of the Shakta, or Shaiva, or Vaishnava, and all others alike.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-11T05:42:34.793" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7505" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7506" CreationDate="2015-06-11T16:13:54.400" Score="12" ViewCount="1010" Body="&lt;p&gt;I remember having heard the story in my childhood days. The basic plot of the story goes something like this: there is a poor dog which comes near a meditating rishi who takes pity and converts it into a lion. After some time, the rishi converts the lion into a dragon. In the end the dragon tries to eat the Rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone remember the complete story? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3120" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-05-21T12:08:42.330" LastActivityDate="2018-05-21T12:08:42.330" Title="Story of a rishi converting a dog to a dragon that tries to eat the same rishi" Tags="|mahabharata|rishi|animals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7506" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7505" CreationDate="2015-06-11T17:34:29.093" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a115.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a116.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata.  Bhishma heard it from his guru, Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama.  (Bhishma and Parashurama later fought a battle against each other, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2178/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) There was once a Rishi who lived in the forest and by virtue of his Tapasya (deep meditation), he became a friend of all the animals.  In particular, a dog became his constant companion.  One day a leopard came, and the dog sought the Rishi's protection, so the Rishi transformed the dog into a stronger leopard.  Then another day a stampeding elephant came, and the dog-turned-leopard again sought the Rishi's protection, so the Rishi transformed it into a stronger elephant.  Then a lion came to eat the elephant, so the Rishi transformed it into a stronger lion.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, a Sharabha came to the ashram.  For those who don't know, a Sharabha is a legendary half-lion half-bird creature which kills lions.  As I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2479/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Shiva is said to have turned into a Sharabha in an attempt to subdue Vishnu's incarnation Narasimha.  In any case, the dog-turned-lion again sought the Rishi's protection, so the Rishi turned it into an even more powerful Sharabha.  Now the dog-turned-Sharabha became so bloodthirsty that it wanted to eat the Rishi himself.  The Rishi was able to sense this, so he cursed the Sharabha to turn back into the dog, and then he chased the dog out of his ashram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma tells Yudhishthira this story, while lying down on a bed of arrows at the end of the Mahabharata war, in order to teach him to be careful in choosing which servants to give power to, because they can easily betray you:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An intelligent king should, guided by this precedent, appoint servants, each fit for the office assigned to him, and exercise proper supervision over them, having first ascertained their qualifications in respect of truthfulness and purity, sincerity, general disposition, knowledge of the scripture, conduct, birth, self-restraint, compassion, strength, energy, dignity, and forgiveness. A king should never take a minister without first having examined him. If a king gathers round him persons of low birth, he can never be happy. A person of high birth, even if persecuted without any fault by his royal master, never sets his heart, in consequence of the respectability of his blood, upon injuring his master. An individual, however, that is mean and of low birth, having obtained even great affluence from his connection with some honest man, becomes an enemy of the latter if only he is reproached in words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And indeed, it was a bad choice of minister that ultimately led to the end of the illustrious Kuru dynasty; the last Kuru king Kshemaka, a descendant of Arjuna's great-grandson Janamejaya, was killed by his minister who took over the kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-04-06T14:10:56.083" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7507" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7508" CreationDate="2015-06-11T23:46:02.407" Score="17" ViewCount="1009" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b112.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, Shiva extols the great qualities of Vishnu.  In particular, he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The illustrious Hari, the puissant Narayana, is verily, the foremost of all beings in Heaven. &lt;strong&gt;Adored, he adores, and honoured he honours; unto them that make offerings to him, he makes offerings in return. Worshipped, he worships in return, if seen always, he sees the seers always. If one seeks His refuge and protection, He seeks the seeker as his refuge in return. Ye foremost of all righteous ones, if adored and worshipped, He adores and worships in return.&lt;/strong&gt; Even this is the high practice of the faultless Vishnu. Even this is the vow that is practised by all righteous people, of that first of all deities, that puissant Lord of all creatures. He is always worshipped in the world. Verily, that Eternal Being is worshipped by even the deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what does Shiva mean by saying that Vishnu worships those who worship him, seeks the protection of those who seek his protection, etc.?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this just a roundabout way of saying that he does good to and loves those who worship him?  That would fit with the line about &quot;this is the vow that is practised by all righteous people&quot;, i.e. gratitude to those who have helped you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, are there any commentaries on the Mahabharata that explain this quote?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-02T07:06:43.410" LastActivityDate="2018-03-02T05:36:50.613" Title="What does it mean to say that Vishnu worships those who worship him?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|shiva|bhakti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7508" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7507" CreationDate="2015-06-12T05:49:23.853" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a recurring theme throughout the scriptures. Krishna says in the Uddhava Gita (Chapter 9):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;15&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Neither Brahma, nor Shiva, nor Balarama, nor Lakshmi, nor My own form is so dear to Me as you. [addressing Uddhava, who Krishna says is the supreme devotee of the Lord]&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;With a view to purifying Myself by the dust of his feet, I always follow the sage who cares for nothing, is calm, bears enmity to none, and is even-minded.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O Uddhava, neither Yoga,  nor knowledge, nor piety, nor study, nor austerity, nor renunciation captivates Me so much as a heightened devotion to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VI. 30. He who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, to him I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VI. 31. He who having been established in oneness, worships Me dwelling in all beings--that yogi, in whatever way he leads his life, lives in Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VII. 17. ...For supremely dear am I to the man of wisdom, and he is dear to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;IX. 29. I am the same to all beings; to Me there is none hateful or dear. But those who worship Me with devotion--they are in Me, and I too am in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Lord cannot resist true Bhakti, true love which asks for nothing in return. He is drawn to true love as iron is drawn to a magnet. Thus, as it says in the Uddhava Gita, he follows a true sage in order to get the dust of his feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Shakta tradition, the Divine Mother is sometimes shown with dust on Her - this is the dust of the feet of Her true devotees, as She will lay on the ground so that they may walk over Her so that She can collect the dust of true love.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-16T17:53:42.577" LastActivityDate="2015-09-16T17:53:42.577" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7509" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7512" CreationDate="2015-06-12T06:30:01.003" Score="1" ViewCount="373" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the stories/facts behind the &lt;strong&gt;origin of word Hindu&lt;/strong&gt;? &#xA;Another Question , &lt;strong&gt;What is the life vision of a Hindu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3122" LastEditorUserId="3122" LastEditDate="2015-06-12T09:33:24.057" LastActivityDate="2015-06-12T09:40:18.770" Title="The origin and meaning of word Hindu?" Tags="|history|philosophy|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-06-14T05:21:36.550" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7510" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7509" CreationDate="2015-06-12T08:42:33.230" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word Hindu is derived from the Sanskrit Word 'Sindhu', a river which flows through present day Pakistan and India. The river Sindhu is also known as Indus river. But there is also a claim that the name Hindu is derived from the Hindu Kush mountain range.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="473" LastActivityDate="2015-06-12T08:42:33.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7512" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7509" CreationDate="2015-06-12T08:58:33.390" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindus didn't call themselves Hindu. It was the name given by Islamic invaders. To them everyone living beyond the river Sindhu were Hindus including Buddhists, Jains &amp;amp; animistic tribals. Sindhu becomes Hindu in Persian and Indus in English. And the land of these people beyond Sindhu became Hindustan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To the native, i.e ancestors of today's Hindus, their religion was just called Dharma. Dharma came in many flavors like Sanathana Dharma with it's various sects, Buddha Dharma &amp;amp; Jina Dharma with their sects..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/65/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-hindu/75#75&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2368" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-06-12T08:58:33.390" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7514" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7509" CreationDate="2015-06-12T09:40:18.770" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;With regard to your first question, Swami Vivekananda said (Complete Works, V3, &quot;Vedantism&quot; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word Hindu, by which it is the fashion nowadays to style ourselves, has lost all its meaning, for this word merely meant those who lived on the other side of the river Indus (in Sanskrit, Sindhu). This name was murdered into Hindu by the ancient Persians, and all people living on the other side of the river Sindhu were called by them Hindus. Thus this word has come down to us; and during the Mohammedan rule we took up the word ourselves. There may not be any harm in using the word of course; but, as I have said, it has lost its significance, for you may mark that all the people who live on this side of the Indus in modern times do not follow the same religion as they did in ancient times. The word, therefore, covers not only Hindus proper, but Mohammedans, Christians, Jains, and other people who live in India. I therefore, would not use the word Hindu. What word should we use then? The other words which alone we can use are either the Vaidikas, followers of the Vedas, or better still, the Vedantists, followers of the Vedanta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With regard to your second question, the &quot;life vision&quot; of a Hindu is escape from this endless round of births and deaths. What is meant by this escape varies between the different sects. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-12T09:40:18.770" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7520" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7610" CreationDate="2015-06-13T04:26:10.183" Score="10" ViewCount="810" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many blogs which claims that Taj Mahal was a Shiva temple in the past.&#xA;Links for few those blogs are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/modern/taj_oak.html&quot;&gt;1. The Tajmahal is Tejomahalay, A Hindu Temple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/Taj-Mahal-a-Shiv-Temple-1.aspx&quot;&gt;2. Taj Mahal A Shiv Temple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scripture/text or evidence available in our history that can prove this claim correct or anything related to this that can contradict these claims?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2368" LastActivityDate="2015-08-29T11:34:50.653" Title="Is Taj Mahal really a Shiva Temple in the past?" Tags="|vedas|shiva|history|shiva-lingam|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7521" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-13T05:43:06.913" Score="9" ViewCount="11422" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why was Dhritarashtra blind?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was it to do with something in his past life? I have heard that his mother closed her eyes during niyog and therefore he became blind. Is that the only reason or something to do with his past life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastActivityDate="2017-12-28T10:56:11.720" Title="Why was Dhritarashtra blind?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7526" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7411" CreationDate="2015-06-13T12:50:53.630" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Narakasura or Bhaumasura belongs to Dvapara Yuga according to the 10th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. Please check this website for more information: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://krsnabook.com/ch59.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://krsnabook.com/ch59.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3133" LastActivityDate="2015-06-13T12:50:53.630" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7527" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7392" CreationDate="2015-06-13T13:10:57.270" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Sambhuh (Siva) is addressed as the greatest of all Vaisnavas according to Srimad Bhagavatam 12.13.16. Though Visnu is the main focus of worship and Smaranam for Vaisnavas, disrespecting Lord Siva should not be done to avoid Vaisnava Aparadha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nimna-gānāṁ yathā gaṅgā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   devānām acyuto yathā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   purāṇānām idam tathā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as the Gaṅgā is the greatest of all rivers, Lord Acyuta the supreme among deities and Lord Śambhu [Śiva] the greatest of Vaiṣṇavas, so Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the greatest of all Purāṇas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3133" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-14T10:37:49.540" LastActivityDate="2017-04-14T10:37:49.540" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7528" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7521" CreationDate="2015-06-13T20:57:28.573" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dhritarashtra was born to Ambika and Veda Vyas through Niyoga method as her husband Vichitravirya died by that time. During that process Ambika closed her eyes looking at the appearance of Rishi Veda Vyas. Because of this reason he was born as blind. His brothers were Pandu king and Vidura who were also born to Veda Vyas. Ambalika gave birth to pandu and during that time she was also scared looking at Ved Vyas, but she did not close her eyes, though she was shocked .. that's why pandu was born in pale color. While Ambalika servant Parishrami, felt so happy to be blessed to have a child through Veda Vyas and participated in niyoga with complete acceptance . For which she was blessed with a most dharmik son Vidura. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhritarashtra is one of the many snakes incarnation. He was the son of Kadruva in the form of snake. He along with all his brothers were cursed by her mom Kadruva for not obeying the words of her. &quot;Sesha was born first, and then Vasuki. (Then were born) Airavata, Takshaka, Karkotaka, Dhananjaya, ... Dhritarashtra, Sankhapinda, Virajas, Suvahu, Salipinda, Prabhakara, etc were born. These are the names described in the Aadi Parva: &quot;Sesha was born first, and then Vasuki. (Then were born) Airavata, Takshaka, Karkotaka, Dhananjaya, Kalakeya, the serpent Mani, Purana, Pinjaraka, and Elapatra, Vamana, Nila, Anila, Kalmasha, Savala, Aryaka, Ugra, Kalasapotaka, Suramukha, Dadhimukha, Vimalapindaka, Apta, Karotaka, Samkha, Valisikha, Nisthanaka, Hemaguha, Nahusha, Pingala, Vahyakarna, Hastipada, Mudgarapindaka, Kamvala Aswatara, Kaliyaka, Vritta, Samvartaka, Padma, Mahapadma, Sankhamukha, Kushmandaka, Kshemaka, Pindaraka, Karavira, Pushpadanshtraka, Vilwaka, Vilwapandara, Mushikada, Sankhasiras, Purnabhadra, Haridraka, Aparajita, Jyotika, Srivaha, Kauravya, Dhritarashtra, Sankhapinda, Virajas, Suvahu, Salipinda, Prabhakara, Hastipinda, Pitharaka, Sumuksha, Kaunapashana, Kuthara, Kunjara, Kumuda, Kumudaksha, Tittri, Halika, Kardama, Vahumulaka, Karkara, Akarkara, Kundodara, and Mahodara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2802" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-12-28T10:56:11.720" LastActivityDate="2017-12-28T10:56:11.720" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7530" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="599" CreationDate="2015-06-14T04:48:50.067" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sages of old that were married did so after becoming sages, not before, and did so because that was the way the world was then, thousands and thousands of years ago. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says (Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, chapter 39, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a man enjoys the Bliss of God, he doesn't enjoy the world. Having tasted divine bliss, he finds the world insipid. If a man gets a shawl, he doesn't care for broadcloth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...People talk about leading a religious life in the world. But if they once taste the bliss of God they will not enjoy anything else. Their attachment to worldly duties declines. As their spiritual joy becomes deeper, they simply cannot perform worldly duties. More and more they seek that joy. Can worldly pleasures and sex pleasures be compared to the bliss of God? If a man once tastes that bliss, he runs after it ever afterwards. It matters very little to him whether the world remains or disappears.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People say that they will hold to both God and the world. After drinking an ounce of wine, a man may be pleasantly intoxicated and also conscious of the world; but can he be both when he has drunk a great deal more?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the bliss of God nothing else tastes good. Then talk of &quot;women and gold' stabs the heart, as it were. (&lt;em&gt;Intoning&lt;/em&gt;) 'I cannot enjoy the talk of worldly people.' When a man becomes mad for God, he doesn't enjoy money or such things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[question: can an man lead a spiritual life in the world?] Yes, he can. But such a man should first of all attain Knowledge and then live on the world. First he should realize God. Then 'he can swim in a sea of slander and not be stained.' After realizing God, a man can live in the world like a mudfish. The world he lives in after attaining God is the world of vidya. In it he sees neither women nor gold. He finds there only devotion, devotee, and God.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-14T04:48:50.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7531" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3062" CreationDate="2015-06-14T09:37:45.407" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story goes like, Shakuni was the youngest of hundred children, Gandhari being his sibling. Gandhari was predicted to have a 2 marriage in her future. To avoid this her father king of Gandhar, married her to a goat. Which was killed later, Bhishma and family knew this fact only post her marriage to Dhritrashtra. Hence the entire Gandhar royal family was jailed. They were given only single grain to eat daily.&#xA;Instead of having it, they gave it to young Shakuni to become strong and take revenge.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Also Shakuni's father made dice from his hip bone which was later used in the game leading to the epic war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata, The(Illustrated)&#xA;By Rao, Shanta Rameshwar&lt;/em&gt; (Page 65)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3138" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-07-02T04:14:12.400" LastActivityDate="2018-07-02T04:14:12.400" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7540" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4020" CreationDate="2015-06-14T17:14:09.823" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;both are not same !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tatah kalau sampravritte sammohaya sura-dvisham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;buddho namnanjana-sutaha kikateshu bhavishyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Srimad Bhagavatam, 1.3.24)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Anjana, in the province of Gaya2 (Bihar) just for the purpose of infatuating those who are envious of the faithful demigods.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3142" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-11-11T05:59:26.130" LastActivityDate="2016-11-11T05:59:26.130" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7545" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-14T22:18:42.767" Score="11" ViewCount="4104" Body="&lt;p&gt;Throughout Hindu scripture, the order of the Yugas is given as Satya, Treta, Dwapara, Kali.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2876/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information on Hindu timescales.). Yet in his ISKCON commentary on the Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/4/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a chronological order of the four millenniums, namely Satya, Dvāpara, Tretā and Kali. But sometimes there is overlapping. During the regime of Vaivasvata Manu, there was an overlapping of the twenty-eighth round of the four millenniums, and the third millennium appeared prior to the second. In that particular millennium, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa also descends, and because of this there was some particular alteration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Prabhupada seems to be suggesting that in most Mahayugas, the order of the Yugas is Satya, Dwapara, Treta, Kali, but in the 28th Mahayuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara (the present Mahayuga), the order is Satya, Treta, Dwapara, Kali.  And this seems to be a common belief in Gaudiya Vaishnavism (the sect that Prabhupada and ISKCON belong to).  For instance, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/NITAAI_Yoga_Forums/Ask_Spiritual_Question(s)/Yugas.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt; Swami Gaurangapada says that the order of Yugas is reversed in the present Mahayuga so that Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (whom Gaudiya Vaishnavas consider an incarnation of Vishnu) could be born close together:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a confidential reason for why the cycle of yugas was changed in this Chatur Yuga with Treta Yuga coming before Dvapara Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So even though normally Dvapara comes after Satya Yuga and before&#xA;Treta, He reversed the order of the Yugas and Dvapara now came after&#xA;Treta and before Kali Yuga. This is because Lord Krishna wanted to&#xA;distribute His Vrindavana love to all conditioned souls in the form of&#xA;Lord Gauranga [Chaitanya Mahaprabhu] without a big time difference between these two advents of His so that the Vrindavana pastimes are still fresh in the hearts and minds of the people so that when He distributes them as Lord Gauranga, people will accept this love very easily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what is the reason that Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe that the Dwapara Yuga usually comes before the Treta Yuga, and that our Mahayuga was some unusual exception?  Is it mentioned in the Chaitanya Charitamrita or some other Gaudiya Vaishnava work?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could the reason for this belief be the fact that the root of the word Dwapara is &amp;quot;two&amp;quot; and the root of the word Treta is &amp;quot;three&amp;quot;?  My understanding is that the names of the Yugas derive from the names of dice rolls.  In the traditional Vedic game of dice, the best roll you could get was a 4, known as Krita, the second-best was a 3 or Treta, the third-best was a 2 or Dwapara, and the worst possible roll was a 1 or Kali.  But perhaps Gaudiya Vaishnavas don't accept this etymology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2023-07-29T14:29:28.797" Title="Why do Gaudiya Vaishnavas think the order of the Yugas is Satya, Dwapara, Treta, Kali?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|vaishnavism|yuga|time|gaudiya-vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7546" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7668" CreationDate="2015-06-15T09:02:21.727" Score="9" ViewCount="2537" Body="&lt;p&gt;So far I have primarily heard about Nandi and Veerbhadra, about how they were born and about their other deeds but are there any other ganas being described in any texts regarding their birth stories or how they became ganas of Lord Shiva or any other stories having their specific role. Also, is there any other details about how was there life style. Since they were involved in battles also, were they trained warriors? In that case who use to train them or provide weapons,etc. Also, want to know whether they had families, ie, wife and children or they remain single.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-06-18T08:22:45.910" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T11:47:42.643" Title="Is there any account of life stories/life styles of ganas of Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7548" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3209" CreationDate="2015-06-16T01:16:40.143" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Saturn governs the hair of the body and hence sacrifice of hair on a Saturday is like minimizing the effects of Saturn whether good or bad. Thursday belongs to Jupiter, the planet of EXPANSION and GROWTH.One should not shave or cut hair on this day because it may diminish one's progress. This is especially true if in the native's birth chart Jupiter is afflicted. Saturn holds back hence if Saturn (hair) is cut, it will be less effective in holding back Jupiter. Tuesday is a day for Mars, a cruel planet..cutting the holding back power of Saturn ( cutting hair/shaving) would give a free reign to Mars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3149" LastActivityDate="2015-06-16T01:16:40.143" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7549" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7602" CreationDate="2015-06-16T02:27:07.453" Score="1" ViewCount="1738" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please cite texts from where you write something as well if possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3150" LastActivityDate="2015-06-23T16:36:43.483" Title="Why many worships, pujas and even yoga recommend sleeping on the floor?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7550" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-16T02:35:50.633" Score="2" ViewCount="436" Body="&lt;p&gt;Texts like Gherenda Samhita discourage activities like fasting, taking bath in the morning, long travel(pilgrimage) etc which are in opposition with what other worships recommend. Why is that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3150" LastActivityDate="2015-06-27T18:41:47.543" Title="Why yoga discourages cold water bath in the morning but many hindus do it as a part of their devotion/purification?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7552" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7395" CreationDate="2015-06-16T20:09:26.557" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kashyapa was able to retrieve the Earth.&lt;/strong&gt; I found the answer in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.new1.dli.ernet.in/data9/upload/0298/969/PTIFF/00000487.tif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shankhayana Shrauta Sutras, a text associated with the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Visvakarman the son of Bhuvana performed this as his last sacrifice.  Him the Earth addressed, &quot;Let no mortal give me away, O Visvakarman son of Bhuvana, thou hast wished to give me away! I shall dive into the midst of the ocean, vain is thy promise unto Kashyapa.&quot;  &lt;strong&gt;Her (the earth) Kashyapa lifted up (out of the ocean).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03114.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata provides more detail on this.  When the Pandavas were in exile, they visited a variety of holy places.  In particular, they visited the forest of Vishwakarma, which the sage Lomasha told them the story of:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O king, this is the divine forest of the Self-existent One, which hath now come to our view. There, O king, Viswakarma of a dreaded name performed religious rites. On the mighty occasion of that sacrifice, the Self-existent One made a gift of this entire earth with all its hilly and forest tracts, to Kasyapa, by way of gratuity, for ministering as a priest. And then, O Kuru's son, as soon as that goddess Earth was giving away, she became sad at heart, and wrathfully spake the following words to that great lord, the ruler of the worlds, 'O mighty god, it is unworthy of thee to give me away to an ordinary mortal. And this act of gift on thy part will come to nothing; (for) here am I going to descend into the bottom of the nether world.' &lt;strong&gt;Then when the blessed saint Kasyapa beheld the goddess Earth, despondent and sad, he, O protector of men, performed a propitiatory act calculated to appease her wrath. And then, O Pandu's son, the Earth was pleased with his pious deed. And she uprose again from within the waters, and showed herself in the form of a sacred altar.&lt;/strong&gt; This, O king, is the spot which distinctly manifests the form of an altar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure where this forest is located, though.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, surprisingly this is not the only occasion when Kashyapa raised the Earth back up!  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/433/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, when Parashurama killed the kings of the Earth, the Earth sank because Bhumidevi couldn't stand all the evil that was being done in the world in the absence of kings.  So the sage Kashyapa lifted the Earth up and then he gave the Earth to the rule of kings again.  (Kashyapa had been gifted the Earth by Parashurama.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-09-30T14:41:43.203" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7553" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7554" CreationDate="2015-06-16T15:31:39.027" Score="10" ViewCount="292" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am currently reading Swami Prabhavananda &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_Heritage_of_India_%28book%29&quot;&gt;The Spiritual Heritage of India&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (1962) and find it very clear and informative (better than e.g. Heinrich Zimmer's &lt;em&gt;Philosophies of India&lt;/em&gt; so far). Early on it explains that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the gods of the Hindu, or devas as he calls them, must always be&#xA;  sharply distinguished from God. God is the one supreme being, the&#xA;  uncreated, while the gods, through supernatural, belong (together with&#xA;  many other orders of supernatural beings) among the creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[...]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;perhaps the highest conception of the gods with concrete names is&#xA;  Hiranyagarbha: Before the universe appeared, there first appeared&#xA;  Hiranyagarbha. He, being manifest, became the one lord of the&#xA;  manifested universe. Out of himself came the invisible world, out of&#xA;  himself came the sky and the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now with that a large notion of gods (specifically including ones that existed before the universe existed) Hinduism could perhaps argue that Christianity's deity is just another &lt;em&gt;god&lt;/em&gt;, but not &lt;em&gt;God&lt;/em&gt; (tad ekam). It could then perhaps argue that many of Christianity's myths and symbols fit inside its own umbrella like many others do. (In doing so, it would choose to ignore Christianity's particular &quot;myth&quot; of monotheism.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have serious branches of Indian philosophy (i.e. Hinduism's &quot;theology&quot;) ever argued in this way, or is Hinduism perhaps not interested in establishing such hegemony over foreign religions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3155" OwnerDisplayName="Drux" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-21T21:36:32.813" LastActivityDate="2016-12-21T21:36:32.813" Title="Has Hinduism ever tried to enfold Christianity (or other semitic religions)?" Tags="|gods|philosophy|brahman|other-religions|christianity|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7554" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7553" CreationDate="2015-06-17T04:58:09.353" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda has said that the difference between the Hindu religion and other religions, including the Christian religion, is that the Hindu religion is founded upon the impersonal and eternal spiritual principles found in the Vedas and is not founded upon one personality, as other religions are. The universal principles of the Vedas can be applied to all religions. The Christian scriptures are much the same as the Hindu puranas; stories of personalities and myths. They are useful as they teach morality and rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From an Advaitic standpoint, Shankara says that the creation stories are &quot;likely stories&quot;, as from the aspect of Brahman, there was no creation. One creation story is as good as another. Prabhavananda has a good translation of the Nasadiya hymn (the hymn of creation) from the Rig Veda in his book you are currently reading. btw, monotheism is an aspect of many sects of Hinduism. All streams lead to the ocean. What God truly is cannot be comprehended by the human intellect.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you may be aware, John's gospel starts out with &quot;In the beginning was the Word...&quot; an analysis of Hindu scripture has the universe starting out as a vibration, or sound, or word, from Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hiranyagarbha, or Brahma, most closely maps to God the Father. Heinrich Zimmer's other book &lt;em&gt;Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization&lt;/em&gt; edited by Joseph Campbell is a good read.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-17T04:58:09.353" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7555" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1968" CreationDate="2015-06-17T05:10:09.720" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the Gita (Chapter 18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;62&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Take refuge in Him alone with all your soul, O Bharata. By His grace will you gain Supreme Peace and the Everlasting Abode.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Fix your heart on Me, give your love to Me, worship Me, bow down before Me; so shall you come to Me. This is My pledge to you, for you are dear to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Abandon all dharmas and come to Me alone for shelter. I will deliver you from all sins; do not grieve.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you take shelter in the Lord, it is the same as the Christian confession. As Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said, what good are austerities if one has no love of God? What need of austerities if one has love of God?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-06-17T08:21:35.327" LastActivityDate="2015-06-17T08:21:35.327" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7556" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-17T05:58:38.640" Score="4" ViewCount="1493" Body="&lt;p&gt;This link talks about Karna's past life and the story of Dambodbhava who has a fight with Narayana rishi - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2367/which-previous-karma-made-karna-life-full-of-sorrow-despite-of-his-benevolent-na/2372?noredirect=1#comment15569_2372&quot;&gt;Which previous karma made Karna&amp;#39;s life full of sorrow despite his benevolent nature?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are --&gt; If this is in Treta Yuga. Which Treta Yuga are you talking about? Because there is no mention of such an avatar of Vishnu (Nara and Narayana) in this Tetra Yuga? Nara and Narayana are beyond the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu... Also why did Nara and Narayana both did not do penance together for 1000 years? Why did only Narayana do it? They could have done the penance together right? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this blog --&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindumythologyforgennext.blogspot.com/2012/09/karnas-karma.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://hindumythologyforgennext.blogspot.com/2012/09/karnas-karma.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To fulfil the promise to destroying Sahasrakavacha, Narayana and Nara were reborn – this time as Krishna and Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can that be possible? Krishna was born because of Kansa...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Arjuna was born along with his four brothers then where is this story coming from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Nara's story is true, what was the past life for the other 4 brothers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-02T06:54:32.470" LastActivityDate="2018-02-08T11:21:39.447" Title="Doubts regarding Nara-Narayana &amp; previous lives of Pandavs" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|avatars|arjuna|pandavas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7558" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7545" CreationDate="2015-06-17T16:35:24.113" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, as far as I know, Ahalya, the wife of Gautam Muni was cursed by Gautam Muni in rage to turn into a stone since he thought that she had extra-marital affairs  with Indra. Ahalya's son (cant remember his name) knew the truth and reported the same to his father,Gautama. Gautama was pacified and thus he reassured him that Ahalya will be freed when Sri Rama in tretayuga stepped on her. But Ahalya's son was unsatisfied since it was only Satyayuga and dwapara was still to left pass. So he went to Sri Hari and urged him to swap the yugas only for the present kalpa. Sri Hari agreed and this is the apparent reason.&#xA;Presently I don't have any reference for this story. But it seems to be written in some Purana. I have been often told this story in my childhood, so I thought of sharing this here. Of course I may be wrong too.And yes, you're right in saying that dwapara (dwa-2) and treta (tri-3).&#xA;BTW...the dice analogy may be true too. You should ask a traditional Gaudiya vaishnava Acharya about this.Personally,I don't trust ISKCON books. If you want my advice please contact Sri Satyanarayana Das in this website:&#xA;jiva.org&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3158" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-01T07:33:15.947" LastActivityDate="2015-12-01T07:33:15.947" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7559" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-17T18:09:09.700" Score="4" ViewCount="155" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard about Kundlini powers but nobody talks about these powers on a public platform nor have I ever heard about these powers by any religious guru or Yogi. I am curious to know if Kundlini Powers really exist Or is it a part of Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3159" LastEditorUserId="677" LastEditDate="2015-09-22T07:04:42.723" LastActivityDate="2015-10-22T07:53:13.827" Title="Does Kundlini power chakra exist?" Tags="|yoga|meditation|om|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7560" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16199" CreationDate="2015-06-18T00:55:34.233" Score="7" ViewCount="890" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, we know that Drona was a Brahmin. He would refuse to teach any Shudra student citing that it is not their Dharma to become a warrior.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same vein, was it not wrong on Drona's part to learn warrior skills and then imparting skills to Kshatriya (Pandavas/Kauravas) despite himself being a Brahmin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wasn't he breaking the rules of his Dharma when he acquired warrior skills from Parashurama or even when he actively participated in the Kurukshetra war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-12T16:36:29.940" LastActivityDate="2016-12-03T04:01:27.307" Title="Drona and his dharma" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|brahmins|dronacharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7561" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-18T01:06:01.677" Score="4" ViewCount="957" Body="&lt;p&gt;While going through the definition of each of these (&lt;strong&gt;rebirth, karma and caste&lt;/strong&gt;), it becomes quite clear that they are highly inter connected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scripture mentioning that they are inter related?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, Why is it difficult to accept caste system ?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="56" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2016-04-24T06:27:08.260" LastActivityDate="2017-07-24T16:22:56.883" Title="Are rebirth, karma and caste inter related?" Tags="|karma|dharma|rebirth|caste-system|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7562" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-18T04:57:22.810" Score="8" ViewCount="2044" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The 4000 verses of the Alwars were compiled by the Vaishnava Acharya Nathamuni into a book called the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, which is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. It is the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that Nathamuni used to found what we now call the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, however, Nathamuni is said to have also composed at least two other works: a work on logic called the Nyaya Tattva and a work in Yoga called the Yoga Rahasya.  (He's often credited with the Purusha Nirnaya, although that's sometimes ascribed to his grandson Yamunacharya whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7423/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) These works have lost for centuries, but if you go to a bookstore, you may find a book called &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=fm-MIgAACAAJ&amp;amp;dq=yoga%20rahasya&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=qjWCVbH5C8fksASyj4rACQ&amp;amp;ved=0CCYQ6AEwAA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Nathamuni's Yoga Rahasya&quot;&lt;/a&gt; by T. Krishnamacharya!  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, T. Krishnamacharya is one of the fathers of modern Yoga; he was the teacher of B.K.S. Iyengar, founder of the well- known &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Iyengar_Yoga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyengar Yoga&lt;/a&gt;.  What is not as well-known is where the techniques of Iyengar Yoga come from.  You see, T. Krishnamacharya was a descendant of Nathamuni, and he claims that he had a dream where Nathamuni told him to go to Alwar Thirunagari, the town where Nathamuni received the poems of the Alwars as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3039/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  When he went there, he claims to have experienced a trance where Nathamuni taught him the verses of his lost work, the Yoga Rahasya.  That's the purported origin of the verses published in T. Krishnamacharya' book &quot;Nathamuni's Yoga Rahasya&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now some people doubt T. Krishnamacharya's claims; his son T.K.V. Desikachariar suggests that the book may have been his father's own composition:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“My father never acknowledged that he discovered anything even when I have seen that it was he who discovered. He has discovered postures but he would say that it was his teacher who taught him. Rarely has he said that it was his “original” work....  I tend to think that the Nathamuni’s Yoga Rahasya that he taught us is quite likely to be a combination of his own commentary and the lessons he received though he would not accept it.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.healingyoga.org/pdf/MyFathersYoga.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this essay&lt;/a&gt; Desikachariar says that it's genuinely the work Nathamuni:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yoga-Rahasya has unfortunately never been published but there is enough proof to be sure that Nathamuni is definitely the author.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, has anyone examined the Sanskrit verses in Krishnamacharya's book and determined whether they're the work of Nathamuni?  Like does the style of the Sanskrit match Nathamuni's era?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And what is Desikachariar alluding to when he says there's &quot;enough proof&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2018-03-04T16:57:08.250" Title="Is Iyengar Yoga really based on Nathamuni's Yoga Rahasya?" Tags="|history|vaishnavism|yoga|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7564" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-18T08:01:35.057" Score="6" ViewCount="850" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it is the beliefs and principles embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most historians believe that the 12 Alwars from the 6th century AD to the 9th century AD.  But traditional Sri Vaishnava accounts assign them far older dates.  For instance, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6867/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; the first four Alwars are said to have been born in the Dwapara Yuga, all the way back in 4203 BC!  (That's a thousand years before the Pandavas were born.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about another Alwar, Sadagopan aka Nammalwar, one of the most famous Alwars. (The Sadari in Sri Vaishnava temples represents Nammalwar, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;http://%20(The%20Sadari%20in%20Sri%20Vaishnava%20temples%20represents&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) He is said to have been born in the beginning of the Kali Yuga, right after Krishna had departed the Earth.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=2e4ZAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=%22born%20six%20weeks%20late%22&amp;amp;pg=PA115#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Alkoṇḍavilli Govindāchārya in his book &quot;The Divine Wisdom of the Dravida Saints&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;St. Nammazhvar who was born just forty five days after the Ascension of Lord Krishna, groaned thus from love: &quot;Sinful man that I am, I have been born six weeks late! Ah! that what had reathed the lip (i.e., Krishna) hath slipped away!!&quot; ... [&quot;Piranda&quot; v-10]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, where does Nammalwar say that he was born six weeks too late to see Krishna?  Govindacharya cites Nammalwar's poem &quot;Pirandha&quot;, which is indeed poem V-10 of Nammalwar's Thiruvaimozhi.  But you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/tvm/tvm5-x.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this translation&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://thiruvaymozhi-5th-6thdecad.blogspot.ae/p/pirandhavarum.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this translation&lt;/a&gt; of the poem; I don't see anything resembling the quote above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So did Govindacharya cite the wrong poem or what?  Does anyone know of some other poem of Nammalwar where he regrets being born slightly too late to see Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-06-11T18:39:44.273" Title="Where does Nammalwar say that he was born right after Krishna departed the Earth?" Tags="|krishna|history|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7565" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7561" CreationDate="2015-06-18T11:56:29.657" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;II. 42-44. O Partha, no resolute and unwavering thought is formed in the minds of those who are deeply attached to pleasure and power; who allow their discrimination to be stolen by away by the flowery words of the unwise; who permit their souls to be ridden with desires; who regard the attainment of heaven as the highest goal; and who take great delight in quoting the panegyric texts of the Vedas [ritualistic sections of the Vedas] and declare that besides these there is nothing. These texts promise rebirths as the reward of their action and lay down specific rites for the attainment of pleasure and power.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;IX. 20. Those who know the three Vedas and drink the soma-juice and are purified from sin worship Me with sacrifices and pray for passage to heaven. They reach the holy world of Indra and enjoy in heaven the celestial pleasures of the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;21&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Having enjoyed the vast heavenly world, they come back to the world of mortals when their merit is exhausted. Thus abiding by the injunctions of the three Vedas and desiring desires, they are subject to death and rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those who worship the gods go to the gods, those who worship the manes go to the manes, those who worship the spirits go to the spirits, and those who worship Me come to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For those who take refuge in Me, O Partha, though they be of sinful birth--women, vasiyas, and sudras--even they attain the Supreme Goal. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Krishna indicates, anyone can attain to Moksha. If you do not work towards Moksha, but instead work for heaven, then rebirth is promised and there are no guarantees as to whether you will slowly rise up or slowly go down or stay the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See also Gita IV.21, IV.36, VIII.5-6., IX.20-21., IX.25, IX.28-30 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-18T11:56:29.657" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7570" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7589" CreationDate="2015-06-19T07:39:23.737" Score="2" ViewCount="776" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7553/has-hinduism-ever-tried-to-enfold-christianity-or-other-semitic-religions&quot;&gt;another&lt;/a&gt; quote from Swami Prabhavananda &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_Heritage_of_India_%28book%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Spiritual Heritage of India&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (1962) that offers a fascinating view on the physical world we life in:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This process of creation and dissolution goes on for ever and ever,&#xA;  for it is as endless as it is beginningless. Eternity is witness, not&#xA;  of one universe only -- that, for example, of which we are now a part&#xA;  -- but of an infinite succession of universes. The birth, life, and destruction of a universe continues a cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[...]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Against the background of these conceptions the orthodox view of the&#xA;  origin of the Vedas may be quickly sketched. At the very beginning of&#xA;  each cycle, holy seers are born into the world, men who in previous&#xA;  universes have ascended far towards the supreme goal and are therefore&#xA;  especially capable of perceiving divine truth. These blessed saints --&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;rsis&lt;/em&gt;, the Hindus call them -- meditate on God, and while so meditating&#xA;  discern the everlasting laws of the spirit; and is the concrete record&#xA;  of these laws, so discerned, that constitutes in each cycle, the most&#xA;  authoritative of sacred writings. The record of the meditations of the&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;rsis&lt;/em&gt; born at the beginning of our own cycle is, then, what we know as&#xA;  the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is this: Does Hinduism say anything about whether it would be possible to find out specifics about past or future universes (in addition to those general principles in the Vedas)? E.g. would &lt;em&gt;rsis&lt;/em&gt; have been able to remember about those parts of their distant earlier lives (say, whether the laws of Physics in a previous universe were all the same).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question comes to mind because there is an obvious parallel between elements of (old) Indian philosophy and (new) cosmological theories, so I'm curious about that part of ancient thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3155" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-06-21T14:50:54.057" Title="What specifics can be known about past or future universes according to Hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|cosmology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7574" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="686" CreationDate="2015-06-19T11:35:25.710" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Hanuman did have a son called Makardhwaja. The story goes like this, after setting Lanka on fire after meeting Sita, he dipped into a river to cool down. During cleansing, Hanuman's seed fell into the water and was consumed by a reptile named Makardhwaja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ahiravana, brother of Ravana and king of the nether world, in search on Hanuman came across this reptile and killed it. During the process, they found a child inside the reptile and called it Makardhwaja as well. On witnessing his strength and skill they appointed him as the guard of the nether world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, when Hanuman was trying to save Rama and Lakshmana from Ahiravana. He faced Makardhwaja in front of the gates of the nether world. In order to save his master, Hanuman defeated his own son in battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source. &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.ishtadevata.com/hanuman-vs-makardhwaja.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://blog.ishtadevata.com/hanuman-vs-makardhwaja.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3156" LastActivityDate="2015-06-19T11:35:25.710" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7575" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7561" CreationDate="2015-06-19T11:52:59.747" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can say one thing for sure that cast you are born in has nothing to do with your eligibility for attaining moksha on that very birth . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This I would like to support with the Vyadha gita (part of mahabharata) where a Vyadha (Bucher) enlightens a yogi on the subject of Karma yoga . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the link to it : &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=tTLVPYKTyFMC&amp;amp;pg=PA49&amp;amp;hl=en#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=tTLVPYKTyFMC&amp;amp;pg=PA49&amp;amp;hl=en#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3171" LastActivityDate="2015-06-19T11:52:59.747" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7576" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7594" CreationDate="2015-06-19T13:03:49.783" Score="9" ViewCount="4279" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahman , the all prevailing , the endless , the formless , the all-loving and merciful the seed soul of us all . And Brahma , Vishnu and Mahesh are just the names given by us to HIM performing his duties of creation (Brahma) , protection (Vishnu) and Destruction (Mahesh) as and when necessary . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While I was listening to Morari Bapus katha , he took a topic of whether Lord Rama was a human or Brahman (a question asked by mata Parvati to Mahadev) to which lord replies with the story of how the lord took human form for destruction of evil (Esp. Ravana) and said (in simple language) - I along with all the Devtas were worried about what to do with Ravana and then we approached Brahma , for he had given boons to Ravana , he too was helpless . Then we decided to approach Brahmana for solution of this trouble and as he is all prevailing we meditated upon him with love as He listens where love and selflessness is and ...... (Fast forwarding) Rama was born . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as Rama (also Krsna) is Brahman himself and all the three god heads meditate upon him lord Shiva to serve him took form of Lord Hanumana .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the conclusion I have reached after reading upanishads and Gita (Vedas are too high level for me yet) . Also I have read on certain forums that in ancient times the three god heads were not worshiped (or were not there at all) and were created (either in reality or in names) for humans of kalyuga so as to help them worship God (&quot;one who is subtler than subtle&quot; as upanishads state).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please answer my question dropping your natural inclinations , I too was inclined towards Lord Shiva and during that phase (few years back) refused to accept any other God being greater than Him .  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3171" LastEditorUserId="3171" LastEditDate="2015-06-19T15:48:47.900" LastActivityDate="2021-12-28T09:49:28.783" Title="Are Rama and Krishna incarnations of Vishnu or Brahman?" Tags="|vishnu|moksha|brahman|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7579" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7562" CreationDate="2015-06-19T19:34:52.353" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a work called &quot;Arayar Sevai&quot; by 'Sri Rama Bharati', the following is said about the Yoga Rahasya of Sri Nathamuni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the Alwars in their works have something called phalasruti, which vouchsafe certain definite benifits that accrue from singing their songs or pasurams. This might have led to Sri Nathamuni, the compiler of the Nalayaram divya prabhandham (which is also called tamil veda), to propound the essentials of well being in the work called Yoga Rahasya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The harmonising of body, mind and spirit acheived by worship through song forms the basis of this Yoga. It restores health to the sick and happiness to the healthy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given this explanation, the claim of Krishnamacharya swamy receiving the Yoga rahasya in trace at Alwar tirunagari is &quot;the original Yoga Rahasya&quot; of Sri Nathamuni, is questionable. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is doubtful that, the Yoga Rahasya work which was not available to Ramanuja, Vedanta Desika, Pillai Lokacharya and other stalwarts of Sri Vaishnavism, could have been discovered by a person of current century.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-06-22T21:42:55.243" LastActivityDate="2015-06-22T21:42:55.243" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7580" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-19T20:58:39.037" Score="2" ViewCount="1403" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a GREAT talk of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaggi_Vasudev&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev&lt;/a&gt; about an important yoga practice: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc9g8u77g24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhuta Shuddhi&lt;/a&gt;, and I want to know more about this practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it ok to do this process alone (if no, why not)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who started it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Where is the origin of this practice?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The best process steps to do it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The best book about Bhuta Shuddhi (for a more detailed reading).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;And most importantly how to understand the steps in this process, so one would not do it blindly without knowing why he is doing it the way he is.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2578" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-20T08:02:03.467" LastActivityDate="2018-11-20T08:02:03.467" Title="Everything about Bhuta Shuddhi" Tags="|yoga|siddhi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7583" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7497" CreationDate="2015-06-20T20:04:41.200" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=WLSeAwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT151&amp;amp;lpg=PT151&amp;amp;dq=taksha+indra&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=nqHcsCdzfu&amp;amp;sig=MJsl4uHRyBx2IvxJyf21MmR_FwE&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=TMSFVbvPNdSgugT_i4KACA&amp;amp;ved=0CC0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=taksha%20indra&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=WLSeAwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT151&amp;amp;lpg=PT151&amp;amp;dq=taksha+indra&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=nqHcsCdzfu&amp;amp;sig=MJsl4uHRyBx2IvxJyf21MmR_FwE&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ei=TMSFVbvPNdSgugT_i4KACA&amp;amp;ved=0CC0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=taksha%20indra&amp;amp;f=false&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This book mentions the name of the wood cutter as Taksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3177" LastActivityDate="2015-06-20T20:04:41.200" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7584" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-21T04:49:23.723" Score="8" ViewCount="34847" Body="&lt;p&gt;Would like to know what pratikriya (remedy) should we do if we accidentally kill an animal e.g., a car hitting a cow or deer accidentally or car running over a snake?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in the case of a vehicle killing an animal should we change the vehicle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3180" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-10-23T06:52:54.230" LastActivityDate="2019-10-23T06:52:54.230" Title="What should we do when we accidentally kill an animal?" Tags="|rituals|customs|prayaschitta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7585" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7580" CreationDate="2015-06-21T05:09:51.297" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;He teaches hatha yoga. He is a hatha yoga teacher. Hatha yoga is not Vedanta. It is a physical exercise. Krishna condemns hatha practices in the &lt;em&gt;Uddhava Gita&lt;/em&gt; (XXIII. 41-42.) as placing to much emphasis on the material body. Sankara recommends in his &lt;em&gt;Aparoksanubhuti&lt;/em&gt; (143.) only for beginners and only in conjunction with raja yoga as a means to help teach the body to sit for long periods of time for meditation, but not as a practice in itself or to be done for years and years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also gives in the video a somewhat muddled account of the 5 elements. the annamayakosa, the physical body, is made up of the gross physical elements, not the 5 subtle elements per se as explained by him. The gross physical elements are made up of combinations of the subtle elements, but the physical body is not composed of the 5 subtle elements in the simplistic way he is explaining it. For example, the gross element we call water does not directly equate to the subtle element called water.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-21T05:09:51.297" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7586" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-21T06:45:47.347" Score="5" ViewCount="1428" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here in the Bhagavatam it is quoted that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In that planet of Satyaloka, there is neither bereavement, nor old age nor death.&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/2/2/27/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/2/2/27/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But here in the Bhagavad-Gita, it is clearly mentioned that, there is birth and death from lowest to highest material planets (including Satyaloka which is the highest)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-08-16.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-08-16.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So which one is right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2018-11-20T02:26:36.970" LastActivityDate="2018-11-20T02:26:36.970" Title="Contradictory statements in the Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-Gita?" Tags="|krishna|puranas|bhagavad-gita|bhagavata-purana|lokas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7587" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-21T06:59:52.533" Score="4" ViewCount="340" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we all know Ramayana was written by Valmiki Maharshi and Mahabharata was written by Veda Vyasa. Some say that Veda Vyasa narrated the Mahabharata story to Lord Ganesha who wrote it. Is that true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, scientifically, where exactly are the Ramayana and Mahabharata scripts (in written form) believed to exist? I know there are lots of evidence like stones, places etc., but I want to know about the actual scripts. Are they in any museum or some other place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am very eager to know this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2953" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-03T04:29:31.707" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T04:29:31.707" Title="Where exactly are the Ramayana &amp; Mahabharata scripts preserved?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|ramayana|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-10-26T07:38:42.507" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7588" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7586" CreationDate="2015-06-21T14:31:20.250" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is death in Satyaloka.&lt;/strong&gt; Let's examine the verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/2/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;in context&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The duration of life in Satyaloka is calculated to be 15,480,000,000,000 years.  In ... Satyaloka, there is neither bereavement, nor old age nor death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in Satyaloka, the world of Brahma, life is not eternal.  It is just that while Satyaloka itself exists, there is no death there.  But eventually Satyaloka itself is destroyed, and that's when its inhabitants finally die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me explain the figure &amp;quot;15,480,000,000,000 years&amp;quot;, by the way.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2876/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the four Yugas make up one Mahayuga, and 1000 Mahayugas make up a Kalpa.  Now a Kalpa is one day for Brahma, who goes to sleep at the end of the Kalpa after which a Pralaya or period of destruction ensues.  And then Brahma wakes up and creates the world anew.  Now if a Kalpa is one day for Brahma, just imagine how long a hundred years for Brahma is!  That is called a Mahakalpa.  At the end of a Mahakalpa, Brahma dies, and then there is a period of even greater destruction called a Mahapralaya.  And then a new Brahma is born from Vishnu and the process starts all over again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when Brahma dies, so do the inhabitants of Satyaloka who were worshipping him, and Brahma and those inhabitants all attain Moksha together, as described in a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/32/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worshipers of the Hiraṇyagarbha expansion of the Personality of Godhead remain within this material world until the end of two parārdhas, when Lord Brahmā also dies.  After experiencing the inhabitable time of the three modes of material nature, known as two parārdhas, Lord Brahmā closes the material universe, which is covered by layers of earth, water, air, fire, ether, mind, ego, etc., and goes back to Godhead.  The yogīs who become detached from the material world by practice of breathing exercises and control of the mind reach the planet of Brahmā, which is far, far away. After giving up their bodies, they enter into the body of Lord Brahmā, and therefore when Brahmā is liberated and goes to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the Supreme Brahman, such yogīs can also enter into the kingdom of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So that's the meaning of the duration of life given in that verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-07-21T13:50:36.737" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7589" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7570" CreationDate="2015-06-21T14:50:54.057" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;A story from the &lt;em&gt;Brahmavaivarta Purana&lt;/em&gt; is told in &lt;em&gt;Myths and Symbols in Indian Arts and Civilization&lt;/em&gt; by Heinrich Zimmer that tells of a divine child who says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the universes side by side an any given moment, each harboring a Brahma and an Indra: who will estimate the number of these? Beyond the farthest vision, crowding outer space, the universes come and go, an innumerable host. Like delicate boats they float on the fathomless, pure waters that form the body of Vishnu. Out of every hair-pore of that body a universe bubbles and breaks. Will you presume to count them? Will you number the gods in all those worlds--the worlds present and the worlds past?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The universe as we know it will repeat again also. The Upanishads say this, in fact Brahma knows how to create the universe because of the eternity of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can specifics of past or future universes be known? Swami Vivekananda says in his lecture &quot;Immortality&quot; in &lt;em&gt;Jnana Yoga&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V2, pp 229-231, also here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_2/vol_2_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_2/vol_2_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the question of immortality is not yet settled. We have seen that everything in this universe is indestructible. There is nothing new; there will be nothing new. The same series of manifestations are presenting themselves alternately like a wheel, coming up and going down. All motion in this universe is in the form of waves, successively rising and falling. Systems after systems are coming out of fine forms, evolving themselves, and taking grosser forms, again melting down, as it were, and going back to the fine forms. Again they rise out of that, evolving for a certain period and slowly going back to the cause. So with all life. Each manifestation of life is coming up and then going back again. What goes down? The form. The form breaks to pieces, but it comes up again. In one sense bodies and forms even are eternal. How? Suppose we take a number of dice and throw them, and they fall in this ratio — 6 — 5 — 3 — 4. We take the dice up and throw them again and again; there must be a time when the same numbers will come again; the same combination must come. Now each particle, each atom, that is in this universe, I take for such a die, and these are being thrown out and combined again and again. All these forms before you are one combination. Here are the forms of a glass, a table, a pitcher of water, and so forth. This is one combination; in time, it will all break. But there must come a time when exactly the same combination comes again, when you will be here, and this form will be here, this subject will be talked, and this pitcher will be here. An infinite number of times this has been, and an infinite number of times this will be repeated. Thus far with the physical forms. What do we find? That even the combination of physical forms is eternally repeated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A most interesting conclusion that follows from this theory is the explanation of facts such as these: Some of you, perhaps, have seen a man who can read the past life of others and foretell the future. How is it possible for any one to see what the future will be, unless there is a regulated future? Effects of the past will recur in the future, and we see that it is so. You have seen the big Ferris Wheel* in Chicago. The wheel revolves, and the little rooms in the wheel are regularly coming one after another; one set of persons gets into these, and after they have gone round the circle, they get out, and a fresh batch of people gets in. Each one of these batches is like one of these manifestations, from the lowest animals to the highest man. Nature is like the chain of the Ferris Wheel, endless and infinite, and these little carriages are the bodies or forms in which fresh batches of souls are riding, going up higher and higher until they become perfect and come out of the wheel. But the wheel goes on. And so long as the bodies are in the wheel, it can be absolutely and mathematically foretold where they will go, but not so of the souls. Thus it is possible to read the past and the future of nature with precision. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-21T14:50:54.057" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7590" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-21T19:45:56.110" Score="2" ViewCount="214" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is another quote from Swami Prabhavananda &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_Heritage_of_India_%28book%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Spiritual Heritage of India&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (1962; from a section on the Ramayana and Rama) concerning truth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This extreme devotion to truth is to be understood in the light of the&#xA;  characteristic Hindu belief that it is this quality by which God&#xA;  himself is chiefly known. God is, above all, truth [...] All other&#xA;  crimes can be forgiven, for they represent faults that can be&#xA;  overcome, but not so untruthfulness. This alone, for the Hindu, is the&#xA;  unpardonable sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this undisputed and if so, how does it bear out in contemporary India, e.g. its the state's code of law or in what one could witness in daily life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3155" LastEditorUserId="3155" LastEditDate="2015-06-22T08:27:04.680" LastActivityDate="2015-11-02T16:26:14.377" Title="Untruthfulness as the unpardonable sin?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7591" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-22T04:01:35.817" Score="15" ViewCount="3019" Body="&lt;p&gt;The pretext of this question is Sati(from Swayambhuva Manvantra) is mentioned in the Vedas, but Parvati(of the current Vaivasvata Manvantra) is not. Correlating the absence of characters who come in the later Manvantra(after Swayambhuva manvantra) with the perceived time of compilation the Vedas(In the beginning of each Kalpa) it seems like the timelines do add up. The aim of the question is to ascertain that no characters who come in later Manvantras find mention in the Vedas(specifically Rig Vedas), except in cases where the Vedas may predict the arrival of an Avatar or other prominent characters in later Manvantras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the above given pretext, my questions are the following.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it true that the name Parvati does not appear explicitly in the Vedas? American Sanskrit scholar Edward Hopkins notes that While the word Umā appears in earlier Upanisads, the earliest known explicit use of the name Pārvatī occurs in late Haṃsa Upanishad (Yoga / Shukla Yajurveda) [1]. Does this mean that Yajurveda was compiled much later than the Rig Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does any character in Ramayana/Mahabharatha find mention in Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since the first written collection of Rig Veda was compiled by Rishi Vyasa, was it updated to include characters in the time between the first Manvantra and time of compilation?  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parvati&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parvati&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-13T12:46:38.503" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T14:46:15.837" Title="Is Parvati mentioned in the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|history|parvati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7592" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-22T04:08:33.377" Score="3" ViewCount="674" Body="&lt;p&gt;My assumption was Vedas contain only Srutis or eternal truths(an enshrined in the Mantras) and that stories and Dharma bhodhanas are a subject of Vedanta and Puranas. But the following verse(if not a later interpolation) casts doubts on that assumption. Are there any other stories of a similar nature in the rest of the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Lopamudra's plea to her husband, Agastya&#xA;&quot;For many long years in the past, both by day and by night,&#xA;And in the mornings, have I wearied myself serving you;&#xA;Now decay impairs the beauty of my limbs;&#xA;What then?—Let husbands approach their wives.&#xA;The ancient sages who attained truth,&#xA;And talked of truth with the very gods,&#xA;They did beget children, but did not break their penance&#xA;Therefore should the wives be approached by their husbands.&quot; (Rg Veda i, 179, 1-2)&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2015-10-21T06:34:48.013" Title="Do Vedas contain stories and instructions on Dharma or only Hymns and mantras?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7594" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7576" CreationDate="2015-06-22T10:30:21.483" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Prabhavananda's The Spiritual Heritage of India (1962) contains this (emphasis mine):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Rama&lt;/strong&gt; and Sita, according to the Adhyatma Ramayana, we behold the&#xA;  embodiment of &lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; in his dual aspect, the unmanifest and the&#xA;  manifest [...] Ravana, even, hating Rama as he does, robbing him of Sita and fighting against him -- even Ravana worships them. Indeed, his very enemity is a form of worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there you have an answer: Rama is an embodiment of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is one similar passage on Krsna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And in the Gita we find stress laid not on &lt;strong&gt;Krsna&lt;/strong&gt; as an individual&#xA;  personality, but on Krsna in his transcendental aspect, as the Soul of&#xA;  all souls, as the great 'I AM' [...]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. I am frequently citing this book these days, because I am still reading.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3155" LastActivityDate="2015-06-22T10:30:21.483" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7595" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-22T14:49:20.033" Score="5" ViewCount="2893" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please pardon me for creating this duplicate topic, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;as I am confused with the answer already given on this topic &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7175/did-the-mahabharata-and-the-ramayana-happen-in-the-current-yuga-cycle-in-the-cur?rq=1&quot;&gt;Did the Mahabharata and the Ramayana happen in the current Yuga cycle in the current Manvantara?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please help me out in understanding this, If you believe I am breaking the forum rules please close this topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in the above topic it is mentioned that ramayana was in 24th treta yugam and then comes 24th Dwapara yugam ,but Mahabarata actually took place in 28th Dwapara yugam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this means that mahabharata actually took place after 3 cycles of  4 yugams ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also if this is true, was there ramayana repeated in the 28th cycle too ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please help in understanding this ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also what is the current yugam cycle going on (it is 28th in above answer means if ramayana was repeated in 28th we are immediate in ramayana-28,mahabharata-28 and kaliyuga-28)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T15:49:14.363" Title="Ramayana and Mahabharata in immediate yuga or after 3 cycles" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7597" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7592" CreationDate="2015-06-23T05:08:41.857" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As Keshav points out in his comment the Samhitas are the mantras portion of the Vedas. The Upanishads, which are Sruti and part of the Vedas, do contain stories; albeit the stories are not as rich or detailed as the stories in the Puranas. Some of the more famous stories in the Upanishads include the Brihadaranyaka with stories of Yajnavalkya, the Chhandogya with stories of Satyakama, and the Katha with the story of Nachiketa. These stories are meant as instructions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-23T05:08:41.857" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7598" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3078" CreationDate="2015-06-23T06:50:18.477" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to my understanding the all 4 Yugam will be repeated for 1000 times , that will form 1 kalpa, one day of Brahama will end ,and after 360x100 Kalpa (100 years) that is mahakalpa one Life of brahma will end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In 1 kalpa that is 4000 yugas or 1000 cycle of 4 yuga, the yugs are repeated, one cycle is known as mahayuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are currently in 28th mahayuga .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma is 51 years old means 49 years are left before his life to end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana take place in 24th tretayuga of one kalpa.&#xA;Mahabharata take place in 28th dwaparayuga of one kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Reference see this answer by Keshav&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7175/did-the-mahabharata-and-the-ramayana-happen-in-the-current-yuga-cycle-in-the-cur?rq=1&quot;&gt;Did the Mahabharata and the Ramayana happen in the current Yuga cycle in the current Manvantara?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-08-04T07:13:35.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7599" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-23T07:49:14.750" Score="2" ViewCount="246" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can any one shed light on Mrit Sanjeevni Mantra and how it came in existence, is it any way related to sanjeevni plant that is in Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the sanjeevni plant just medicine effect like &quot;jadi booti&quot; or has some magical effects which can cure almost anything or bring someone back to life, or it has only selected medical effect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it can bring back to life, is there a time limitation to be before the Sun Rise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did these went extinct, can mrit sanjeevni mantra be used to bring some one to Life back ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastActivityDate="2015-06-23T07:49:14.750" Title="Story of Mrit Sanjeevni Mantra and Sanjeevni Plant" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6494" CreationDate="2015-06-23T13:20:48.423" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Raavan thought to do the following 4 things:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Making sea water drinkable &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Making Moon Scarless &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Building staircase from earth to heaven &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Making Fire smoke free.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard these from many saints in satsangs. Sorry, I don't have many references but I am attaching this YouTube video link (starts from 7.31 min) of this &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/YEuc1iigOQY?t=7m31s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;brahmagyani saint&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3192" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2015-06-23T14:38:52.620" LastActivityDate="2015-06-23T14:38:52.620" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7601" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-23T15:28:53.320" Score="6" ViewCount="792" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/64/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Hindu scripture is made up of two categories, Shruti or that which is heard from the gods, and Smriti or that which is composed by humans authors and passed down from teacher to student via oral tradition. It's well-known that Smriti encompasses many different categories of texts, like the Puranas, Itihasas (the Ramayana and Mahabharata), Dharma Shastras, etc. What's not as well-known, however, is that Shruti also has two categories - Nigamas aka the Vedas which primarily focus on performing Yagnas (fire-rituals), and Agamas which focus on worshipping the gods through idol worship and other means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the vast majority of mainstream Vaishnavas follow a set of Agamic texts known as the Pancharatra Agamas, which I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  And as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3977/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, there's a small minority of Vishnu-worshippers that follow another set of Agamas called the Vaikhanasa templs.  For instance, the most popular Vishnu temple in the world, the Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple, is run by Vaikhanasa priests.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I assumed that these were the only types of Vaishnava Agamas, but &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=575&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; essay by Swami Sivananda says otherwise:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vaishnava Agamas are of four kinds: the Vaikhanasa, Pancharatra, Pratishthasara and Vijnanalalita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lots of other websites make the same claim.  So my question is, what are the Pratishthasara Agamas and the Vijnanalalita Agamas?  Are there any Vishnu temples that follow them?  Are there Vaishnava sects that follow them?  It would have to be some pretty tiny sects, given that the overwhelming majority of Vaishnavas follow Pancharatra Agamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what are the origins of these Agamas?  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7501/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Pancharatra Agamas are said to originate from a Shakha or recession of the Shukla Yajur Veda, and the Vaikhanas are said to originate from a Shakha of the Krishna Yajur Vedas.  Do the Pratishthasara and Vijnanalalita Agamas also originate from Vedic Shakhas?  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information on Vedic Shakhas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-26T06:05:03.703" LastActivityDate="2018-02-26T06:05:03.703" Title="What are the Pratishthasara and Vijnanalalita Agamas of Vaishnavism?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|vaishnavism|sects|agamas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7602" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7549" CreationDate="2015-06-23T16:36:43.483" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said in the Manu-smriti 2.108:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Let an Aryan who has been initiated, (daily) offer fuel in the sacred&#xA;  fire, beg food, &lt;strong&gt;sleep on the ground&lt;/strong&gt; and do what is beneficial to&#xA;  this teacher&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is an example from the Manu-smriti 6.26 which says that an ascetic should sleep on the ground:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Making no effort (to procure) things that give pleasure, chaste,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;sleeping on the bare ground&lt;/strong&gt;, not caring for any shelter, dwelling at the roots of trees.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See also Manu-smriti 6.23 and 24: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In summer let him expose himself to the heat of five fires, during&#xA;  the rainy season live under the open sky, and in winter be dressed in&#xA;  wet clothes, (thus) gradually increasing (the rigour of) his&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;austerities&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;When he bathes at the three Savanas (sunrise, midday, and sunset),&#xA;  let him offer libations of water to the manes and the gods, and&#xA;  practising harsher and harsher &lt;strong&gt;austerities&lt;/strong&gt;, let him dry up his bodily&#xA;  frame.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why are all those austerities required? This is answered in the verses Manu-smriti 6.74-75:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He who possesses the true insight (into the nature of the world), is&#xA;  not fettered by his deeds; but he who is destitute of that insight, is&#xA;  drawn into the circle of births and deaths.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;By not injuring any creatures, by detaching the senses (from objects&#xA;  of enjoyment), by the rites prescribed in the Veda, and by rigorously&#xA;  practising austerities, (men) gain that state (even) in this (world).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the answer would be that the austerities such as sleeping on the bare ground, etc, are needed for a person in order to become free from the consequences of his own deeds, namely karma, and in order to achieve liberation from this world, ie that is the liberation from the circle of births and deaths. So to speak, those austerities are a religious practice that leads to the final liberation (mukti or moksha). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is yet another reason why austerities should be practiced as a religious practice in one's life. &#xA;It serves as a kind of a reminder that life in this world is not a life in a place intended for a comfort and enjoyment, but this world is a place of discomfort and suffering. &#xA;One who sleeps on the bare ground, etc, will feel how that is uncomfortable, and thus he will be constantly reminded that in general the nature of life in this world is discomfort, pain and misery. And this will lead him to something that is called &lt;em&gt;vairāgya&lt;/em&gt; &quot;renunciation&quot;, ie the renunciation from sensuality, or you can call it renunciation from this world. The idea is that one realizes the nature of life in this world as discomfort and suffering, which will help him to abandon any desire for the sensuality and enjoyment in this world. This is a very important concept because precisely because of desire for the sensuality and enjoyment in a variety of objects for sense gratification in this world people continue their lives in this world in the circle of births and deaths, which is the world of material miseries. &#xA; How much important this is can be seen from the above mentioned verse from the Manu-smriti 6.75 &quot; ... by detaching the senses (from objects of enjoyment), ... , (men) gain that state (even) in this (world).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;See quotes from the Manu-smriti at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2015-06-23T16:36:43.483" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7603" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7607" CreationDate="2015-06-24T02:13:26.300" Score="9" ViewCount="89275" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am wondering if there are examples of incest relationships such as between Father/Daughter, Brother/Sister in Hindu mythology? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would be thankful if you could mention the source. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3194" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-05T07:29:23.500" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T07:44:20.370" Title="Are there any examples of incest in Hindu mythology?" Tags="|practice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7604" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-24T06:12:14.607" Score="9" ViewCount="2552" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, Shiva disguises himself as a hunter and fights with Arjuna.  Finally Shiva reveals himself, and tells Arjuna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03040.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;about Arjuna's past birth&lt;/a&gt; as the sage Nara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou wert in thy former life Nara, the friend of Narayana. In Vadari wert thou engaged in fierce ascetic austerities for several thousands of years. In thee as well as in Vishnu--that first of male beings--dwelleth great might. Ye both, by your might, hold the universe; &lt;strong&gt;O lord, taking up that fierce bow whose twang resembled the deep roar of the clouds, thou, as well as Krishna, chastisedest the Danavas during the coronation of Indra.  Even this Gandiva is that bow, O son of Pritha, fit for thy hands.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, the sage Nara was the twin brother of the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the son of Yama god of death and the founder of the Pancharatra movement which was a precursor to modern Vaishnavism, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what is the story of Nara and Narayana fighting the Asuras at the time of Indra's coronation, with Nara using the Gandiva bow?  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Virata Parva of the Mahabharata, Arjuna lists some of the previous owners of the Gandiva bow:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva held it first for a thousand years. Afterwards Prajapati held it for five hundred and three years. After that Sakra, for five and eighty years. And then Soma held it for five hundred years. And after that Varuna held it for a hundred years. And finally Partha, surnamed Swetavahana, hath held it for five and sixty years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So did one of these gods give the Gandiva bow to the sage Nara in order to fight the Asuras?  By the way, I do know one occasion where Nara and Narayana fought the Asuras, described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01020.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, but that was after the churning of the ocean, not Indra's coronation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, I discuss how Arjuna obtained the Gandiva bow in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1991/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Alongside the Gandiva bow, Arjuna also received a chariot belonging to Chandra the moon god, which I asked about &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3101/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-04-28T09:40:04.013" Title="What is the story of Arjuna's previous birth sage Nara fighting with the Gandiva bow?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|arjuna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7605" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6494" CreationDate="2015-06-24T09:37:36.497" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is related to only what I have heard in Childhood ,no Links for 3rd one, these are the 3 things Ravana has wished for , &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note these links may not be reliable source&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/1/3/22/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Stair case to heaven from Lanka&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaidyanath_Jyotirlinga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bringing Shiva to Lanka&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bring Very Nice Smell/Fragnance to Lanka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His bringing Shiva to Lanka is failed and we have Jyotir Lingam story related to that which is known as VaidyaNath Jyotir Lingam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-02-12T06:16:39.993" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:16:39.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7606" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-24T15:24:29.667" Score="4" ViewCount="1782" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for a right answer, why did the Akashvani said that Kamsa was going to be killed by the 8th son of Devaki and Vasudev. He loved his sister so deeply that he himself drove the chariot. He married Devaki with such a pompous way that anyone could imagine, Well to say. None of the text reveal that kamsa was evil and cruel before akashvani. He used to go out for wars every now and then, that was his ambition but there is nothing I read about reason that made such a horrifying announcement by Akashvaani? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3199" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-08-04T09:35:20.173" LastActivityDate="2016-08-04T09:35:20.173" Title="Why this kind of Akashvani for Kamsa?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7607" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7603" CreationDate="2015-06-24T15:37:52.067" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two famous cases of incest or attempted incest in Hindu scripture, and in both cases the practice is unequivocally condemned:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma and Saraswati&lt;/strong&gt;: As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6793/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, when Brahma created Saraswati, he immediately fell in love with her, and she evaded him by going in different directions, but he sprouted a head in each of the four directions until finally she went above him and he grew a fifth head pointed up toward Devaloka.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1233.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda describes what happened next:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pragâpati [Brahma] conceived a passion for his own daughter... 'May I pair with her!' thus (thinking) he united with her. This, assuredly, was a sin in the eyes of the gods. 'He who acts thus towards his own daughter, our sister, [commits a sin],' they thought. The gods then said to this god who rules over the beasts (Rudra), '&lt;strong&gt;This one, surely, commits a sin who acts thus towards his own daughter,&lt;/strong&gt; our sister. Pierce him!' Rudra [i.e. Shiva], taking aim, pierced him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shiva cut off Brahma's fifth head, which is why he only has four heads today.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yama and Yami&lt;/strong&gt;: As discussed in the scriptures in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/545/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Yama god of death and Yami goddess of the Yamuna river were twin children of Surya the sun god and his wife Sanjana.  Yet Yamuna developed a desire to marry Yama, on the bizarre grounds that they slept together in the womb, and thus they should do likewise outside the womb.  But Yama refused her advances, as described in Book 10 Hymnn 10 of the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I will not fold mine arms about thy body: &lt;strong&gt;they call it sin when one comes near his sister&lt;/strong&gt;. Not me,—prepare thy pleasures with another: thy brother seeks not this from thee, O fair one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides those two instances, there are various examples of cousin marriage and uncle-niece marriage, but those aren't considered incest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-17T17:16:29.587" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T17:16:29.587" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7608" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7520" CreationDate="2015-06-24T17:25:07.270" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tajmahal&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A place where Mumtaj is buried as we know. But actually it is not the case, because Mumtaj is not buried Agra, its somewhere else(Burhanpur, Maharashtra). According to many Muslim scholars, and according to Islam, a body cannot be reburied in different places, it is &quot;haram&quot; to do so.Still some muslim scholar's argue on &lt;a href=&quot;http://According%20to%20Peter%20Mundy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;About Tajmahal ,Shahjhan only re-sized it &lt;a href=&quot;http://According%20to%20Peter%20Mundy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;According to Peter Mundy about Tajmahal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3159" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-08-26T07:12:19.160" LastActivityDate="2015-08-26T07:12:19.160" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7610" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7520" CreationDate="2015-06-24T21:10:07.687" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know the this Taj Mahal as Shiva temple theory was propagated by a self taught, self proclaimed historian P N Oak. I am not discarding his theory because he did not have proper training but his evidence and logic does seem to be pretty shaky. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will not go into specific details on this answer but Indologist Dr. Koenraad Elst has deconstructed all his arguments &lt;a href=&quot;http://koenraadelst.blogspot.com/2010/06/incurable-hindu-fondness-for-pn-oak.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Salient points for the record:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Textbooks of Hindu temple building are pretty well written. None of them would recognize Taj Mahal as a temple. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The very fact that a lot of the actual builders and masons employed could have been Hindu, their influence on finer details is to be expected but that does not make the whol building Hindu. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At any rate, even if standing on a Hindu site, the Taj Mahal is absolutely no Hindu building. It entirely follows the conventions of Indo-Saracenic architecture, with domes and arches borrowed by the first Muslims in West-Asia from the Byzantines, with no Hindu connection in sight anywhere. As a grave, too, it is wildly contrary to Hindu sensibilities. Only accomplished (jivanmukta) sages are buried, other human bodies are cremated or, in related (Parsi, Tibetan) traditions, left to disintegrate under the impact of animals and the elements. The idea of keeping decomposing human bodies close to human centres of habitation in graveyards is repulsive to the Hindu mind. It is a sign of Hindus’ estrangements from their roots that they insist on claiming this un-Hindu site, probably because (Brahmachari writes as much) it is applauded world-wide. Well, proud Hindus don’t care for the poor taste of Western tourists and may point out that the Taj Mahal is bland and vulgar when compared with Ajanta and Ellora, the Meenakshi temple or the Elephanta caves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In defence of his thesis, Brahmachari challenges the sceptics to explain one particular inscription dedicating an unspecified marble temple in the area to Vishnu. It is not clear from the inscription as given by him that one of the temples stood at the very site of the Taj Mahal. According to his own data, at any rate, the inscription is from ca. 1150 AD. That is well before the destruction of just about every temple in North India by Ghori and Aibak in 1192-94 and by their successors in the Delhi Sultanate. Especially in Agra, lying on the main route of Muslim advance and a sometime Muslim capital, no sizable temple could have been left standing in that orgy of iconoclasm. So there is some 500 years between the destruction of the said marble temples and the appearance of the Taj Mahal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3194" LastActivityDate="2015-06-24T21:10:07.687" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7611" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-25T01:37:38.187" Score="22" ViewCount="2529" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Aryan_migration_theory&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aryan Migration theory&lt;/a&gt; is a hotly contested topic. The proponents of the theory cite Vedic verses which talk of ancestors recording their memories of a cold desolate homeland and their fear of fauna like foxes therein (Central Asia) and also the importance of pole star in the their marriage rituals. They also talk of the similarities between Indo-Iranian languages and similarities between Zoroastrian and Brahmin customs and traditions—especially the similarity between the Brahmin Yagnopavita and Zoroastrian &lt;a href=&quot;http://delhiparsis.com/2007/08/19/the-sudreh-and-kusti-what-they-symbolise/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sudreh&lt;/a&gt; and word by word similarities between some &lt;a href=&quot;http://indigyan.blogspot.com/2011/04/india-in-1100-bc-atharva-veda-iranian.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Zend Avestan&lt;/a&gt; and Vedic verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The supporters of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Aryans&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Out of India theory (OIT)&lt;/a&gt; on the other hand suggest that the presence of names of rivers like Saraswati, Ganga, Yamuna, etc in the Vedas are indicative of an early Indian ancestry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among the Migration theorists there are different variations—that it was a peaceful and gradual migration, like immigration and cultural diffusion; that it was violent and pushed Dravidians southward; that Aryans were nomads in Central Asia and composed the Vedas and developed high culture only after they came to India; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without dwelling into the multitude of investigative tools like genetic evidence, archaeology, linguistics, etc and &lt;strong&gt;sticking only to the Vedas, where do the verses point to in terms of our ancestry?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="10329" LastEditDate="2018-10-14T01:44:12.430" LastActivityDate="2023-05-05T08:56:23.047" Title="Aryan Migration theory—evidence for and against it in the Vedas" Tags="|vedas|ancestry|arya|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7612" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-25T05:21:19.540" Score="4" ViewCount="266" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his commentary on Adhyaya 4 Pada 1 Sutra 3 of the Brahma Sutras, Adi Shankaracharya presents a number of scriptural quotes to support his Advaita view that the individual soul of jivatma is the same as Brahman.  In particular, he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38264.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The highest Lord must be understood as the Self. For in a chapter treating of the highest Lord the Gâbâlas acknowledge him to be the Self, &lt;strong&gt;'Thou indeed I am. O holy divinity; I indeed thou art, O divinity!'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the text of &quot;the Jabalas&quot; that is quoted here?  I assume the Jabalas were a Vedic Shakha or school related the sage Jabili, who tried to use atheist arguments to convince Rama to come back to Ayodhya, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga108/ayodhya_108_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the Ayodhya Kanda of the Ramayana.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information on Vedic Shakhas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now there is an Upanishad called the Jabala Upsnishad, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedarahasya.net/jabala.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and a Shaivite Upanishad called the Brihadjabala Upanishad, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/vedicsection/upanishads/brihadjabala.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but neither one of them contain the verse I'm looking for.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I did find the verse in a Vaishnava Upanishad called the Varaha Upanishad, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/tmu/tmu29.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prostrations—prostrations to me who am in all the elements, who am the Chiḍāṭmā (viz., Āṭmā of the nature of wisdom) that is eternal and free and who am the Praṭyagāṭmā. &lt;strong&gt;O Ḍevaṭā, you are I. I am you.&lt;/strong&gt; Prostrations on account of myself and yourself who are infinite and who are Chiḍāṭmā, myself being the supreme Īśa (Lord) and yourself being Śiva (of a beneficent nature).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it's unlikely this is the text that Adi Shankaracharya was quoting from, since it has nothing to with the Jabalas.  The Varaha Upanishad may be quoting some older text here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should add that this verse is also quoted in Adi Shankacharya's commentary on the Vishnu Sahasranamam, Vidyaranya's work the Brahmavid-Ashirvada, and Ramanujacharya's commentary on the Brahma Sutras (see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48500.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  If it helps, here is the verse in Sanskrit: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tvaṁ vā ahamasmi bhagavō dēvatē'haṁ vai tvamasi &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-07-17T05:11:08.867" Title="What is the (potentially lost) text of the Jabalas quoted by Adi Shankaracharya?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|upanishads|adi-shankaracharya|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7613" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-25T08:14:46.093" Score="3" ViewCount="886" Body="&lt;p&gt;I generally hear that one will get the aftereffects of his/her karma either in afterlife (i.e., after death he will either go to heaven or hell) or in his next birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: &lt;strong&gt;Why don't we get the results in the same life itself where the good or bad karma is done?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think if a person gets punished for his bad deeds within the same life, then the person may have a change of mindset so that he now decides to always do good and not bad as now he has gained practical experience. If instead one gets to suffer all his life without doing anything wrong only because of his previous birth's karma then he might be disillusioned and think that even when he is doing all good in current life, he is still not getting any good in return. This might in a way make him disbelieve God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T16:31:16.467" LastActivityDate="2022-08-20T01:19:21.547" Title="Why are effects of karma seen after death or in the next birth?" Tags="|belief|karma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7619" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-25T14:24:07.797" Score="0" ViewCount="599" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu religion, we have separate Gods for the five prime elements of nature (land, water, air, ether or sky and fire) as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancha_Bhoota_Stalam#Pancha_Bhootam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Bhoota' means a ghost. 'Pancha' means the number 5. So 'Pancha Bhoota' represents God or good spirit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what I want to know: Why a good spirit like God is represented by 'bhoota' (ghost or bad spirit). In &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancha_Bhoota_Stalam#Pancha_Bhootam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;the wikipedia reference&lt;/a&gt; 'bhoota' means elements. Why do we have so many meanings for the single word &lt;strong&gt;bhoota&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2765" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-02-28T06:22:58.597" LastActivityDate="2016-02-28T06:22:58.597" Title="Why the word Pancha Bhoota conflicts with Good spirit vs. Bad spirit" Tags="|panchabhoota|nature|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7620" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-25T15:47:04.813" Score="2" ViewCount="6694" Body="&lt;p&gt;Within the context of Hinduism, how would one break a curse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3207" LastEditorUserId="3207" LastEditDate="2015-06-25T16:10:48.143" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T16:39:04.983" Title="How would one break a curse in Hinduism?" Tags="|krishna|rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7621" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7434" CreationDate="2015-06-25T18:38:14.700" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Following are some instances which I can think of. I will extend the answer if I find more details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rudraksh tree and its beads actually emerged out of tears of Lord Shiva when he saw that Tarakasur's sons are again turning towards Adharma. According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudraksha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia article on Rudraksh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Creation of the rudraksha tree from the tears of grief shed by Shankar (or Shiva) upon seeing the unrighteous conduct of demon Tarakasur’s sons, and their destruction by Shiva :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Through their righteous conduct and devotion unto Shiva, Tarakasur’s sons Tadinmali, Tarakaksh and Kamalaksh, attained divinity. After some time, seeing that they have returned to their original unrighteous conduct, Shankar was grief-stricken, and His eyes were filled with tears. A few of these tears fell onto the earth; a tree sprang up from these, which came to be known as the rudraksha tree. Later, Shiva destroyed the sons of Tarakasur.&amp;quot; -Gurudev Dr. Kateswamiji&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In Ramayana, when Ravana kidnapped Devi Sita, Lord Rama cried during the time he was searching her. Sorry but I don't know where it is written in Ramayana but I think it is there. I think there might be some other instances also in Ramayana, like when he heard the news of death of King Dashrath, or when Lakshaman became unconscious by Meghnad's arrow, or when Devi Sita got submerged in the earth. There might be some other instances in Ramayana as well.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1150" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-06-25T18:38:14.700" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7622" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7434" CreationDate="2015-06-25T21:25:26.927" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmavaivarta Purana, Krishna Janma Khanda, Chapter 43&lt;/strong&gt;, refers to Lord Shiva crying and lamenting the death of Dakshayini alias Sati.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva was in such a deep grief that he is in literal tears due to pain of separation from Sati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu had to literally hold Shiva and console him. By grace and words of Lord Vishnu, Shiva's pain was reduced and peace returned to Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, in Aranya khanda, Canto 58&lt;/strong&gt; onwards, Sri Raama laments and cries due to kidnapping of Sita by Ravana. Raama almost starts talking to all the things like animals, trees in the forest and even requests, godavari river to tell what has happened to Sita. Valmiki says due to fear of Ravana, river Godavari didn't answer Raama. Raama due to anger says that he will destroy all the worlds. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, Lakshmana, the wonderful, brother of Raama, prays to Raama and reminds him that Raama being so powerful, that he can annihilate every thing, consoles him and cools down Raama (&lt;strong&gt;Canto 65 onwards in Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Khanda&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Yuddha Kanda, Valmiki Ramayana, Canto 101, Verses 9 to 22&lt;/strong&gt;, Raama laments when Lakshmana becomes unconscious on battlefield being hit by Shakti astra by Ravana. Raama goes to the extent of saying what is the use of victory and Kingdom, without Lakshmana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Raama says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;wives may be found and kinsmen too can be had everywhere, but not a brother like Lakshmana can be had by anyone, anywhere&lt;/em&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This shows Raama's deep love towards Lakshmana is unfathomable and he held lakshmana dearer than his own life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Srimad bhagavatham,&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;Dashama skandha (Book 10), chapter 77, verse 22 onwards&lt;/strong&gt;) there is only one incident where Lord Krishna laments. When fighting Salva, Salva creates illusory vasudeva (father of Lord Krisha) and executes him. Seeing this Lord krishna for a moment laments then immediately sees through the illusion of  salva and eliminates salva with his chakra Ayudha. This act of Lord   Krishna is considered to be a leela.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2016-12-11T16:47:52.217" LastActivityDate="2016-12-11T16:47:52.217" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7623" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3930" CreationDate="2015-06-26T00:34:02.247" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;For example all electric appliances can function only in the presence of electricity (Energy). Similarly Energy in the form heat, gravitation etc is the reason for functioning of earth itself. So we human beings are also functioning with the Soul ( which is our energy). If one has no function to perform, energy has no purpose and hence it is existing in the wholesome universe without any form. This stage of existing in the wholesome without any form and function is Mokshaa. So you remain as a driving force and energy in the universe but don't take any form theron&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3209" LastActivityDate="2015-06-26T00:34:02.247" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7624" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7613" CreationDate="2015-06-26T01:24:50.897" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;We determine our everyday success hence our everyday karma pays off then and there. The person you become when you die is the person who has evolved out of deeds you have done throughout your life. So you carry forward your deeds and wish to take a form that will allow you continue these as a continuation for fulfilment. That is the reason it is very important that we always make right choices of deeds in our lives. Every Life we get is one step towards reaching God the ULTIMATE!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3209" LastActivityDate="2015-06-26T01:24:50.897" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7625" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-26T01:35:57.023" Score="8" ViewCount="5993" Body="&lt;p&gt;Niyoga (Sanskrit: नियोग) is an ancient Hindu tradition, in which a woman (whose husband is either incapable of fatherhood or has died without having a child) would request and appoint a person for helping her bear a child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know which scripture basically defines the rules of Niyoga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I am interested in following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does this tradition have roots in any pre-Hindu period?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there similar parallels in other religions, tribes etc.? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3194" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-25T07:01:44.537" LastActivityDate="2017-12-10T18:29:05.447" Title="Which Hindu text generally describes the rules of Niyoga?" Tags="|scripture|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7626" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-26T01:41:24.877" Score="1" ViewCount="104" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question refers to Yoga as a form of physical exercise, breathing exercise with spiritual elements and not the word itself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3194" LastActivityDate="2018-02-10T18:42:53.537" Title="How old is Yoga as a form of physical and breathing exercises?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7627" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7631" CreationDate="2015-06-26T02:03:23.453" Score="3" ViewCount="3568" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many instances of dead reanimated in Hinduism. Satyavan seems to be the most prominent example. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any instances of a dead corpse reanimated while losing its earlier personality?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3194" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T10:59:05.823" LastActivityDate="2020-03-09T10:59:05.823" Title="Is there a concept of Zombie in Hindu religion?" Tags="|death|body|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7628" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7625" CreationDate="2015-06-26T02:18:08.203" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Niyoga is the practice where a woman has a man other than her husband father a child with her, either because her husband is unable to father children or because he's dead. The child is considered the adopted child of the husband.  The Mahabharata describes two famous examples of Niyoga.  The first is when fathered children with Vichitraviry's wives Ambika and Ambalika after Vichitravirya's premature death, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3061/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  That is how Dhritarashtra and Pandu were born.  The second example is when the gods Yama, Vayu, Indra, and the Ashwini Kumaras fathered children with Pandu's wives Kunti and Madri, since Pandu was unable to father children due to a curse he had received.  That is how he Pandavas were born, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5271/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, to answer you question, the main place in Hindu scripture where the rules of Niyoga are described is in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu09.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;59&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On failure of issue (by her husband) a woman who has been authorised, may obtain, (in the) proper (manner prescribed), the desired offspring by (cohabitation with) a brother-in-law or (with some other) Sapinda (of the husband).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He (who is) appointed to (cohabit with) the widow shall (approach her) at night anointed with clarified butter and silent, (and) beget one son, by no means a second.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some (sages), versed in the law, considering the purpose of the appointment not to have been attained by those two (on the birth of the first), think that a second (son) may be lawfully procreated on (such) women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But when the purpose of the appointment to (cohabit with) the widow bas been attained in accordance with the law, those two shall behave towards each other like a father and a daughter-in-law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If those two (being thus) appointed deviate from the rule and act from carnal desire, they will both become outcasts, (as men) who defile the bed of a daughter-in-law or of a Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;By twice-born men a widow must not be appointed to (cohabit with) any other (than her husband); for they who appoint (her) to another (man), will violate the eternal law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the sacred texts which refer to marriage the appointment (of widows) is nowhere mentioned, nor is the re-marriage of widows prescribed in the rules concerning marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This practice which is reprehended by the learned of the twice-born castes as fit for cattle is said (to have occurred) even among men, while Vena ruled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;That chief of royal sages who formerly possessed the whole world, caused a confusion of the castes (varna), his intellect being destroyed by lust.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since that (time) the virtuous censure that (man) who in his folly appoints a woman, whose husband died, to (bear) children (to another man).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-22T07:39:38.460" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7629" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-26T06:09:06.290" Score="11" ViewCount="4582" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ravana was a great devotee of Lord Shiva and Parashurama is an avatar of Lord Vishnu and also a devotee of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know TV serials/comic stories are just baseless so I want to know if Ravana has come into contact with Parashurama during his childhood or his early life before Ramayana took place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know one incident where Parashurama kills &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartavirya_Arjuna&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sahasrabahu&lt;/a&gt; (Kartavirya Arjuna with 1000 arms) who in turn is known for defeating Ravana once.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So did Ravana and Parashurama ever meet? If yes, how/what was the relation between the two and which Hindu scriptures talk about it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-11T08:06:49.977" LastActivityDate="2019-09-19T01:01:20.167" Title="Did Ravana ever meet Parashurama?" Tags="|ravana|parashurama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7631" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7627" CreationDate="2015-06-26T07:14:00.560" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes and no. No in the sense of what you think of in the Western concept of the term. However, Patanjali says in his &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt; (III. 39):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the cause of bondage of the Chitta has become loosened, the Yogi, by his knowledge of its channels of activity (the nerves), enters another's body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Swami Vivekananda's comment on this verse is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yogi can enter a dead body and make it get up and move, even while he himself is working in another body. Or he can enter a living body and hold that man's mind and organs in check, and for the time being act through the body of that man. That is done by the Yogi coming to this discrimination of the Purusha and nature. If he wants to enter another's body, he makes a Samyama on that body and enters it, because not only is his soul omnipresent, but his mind also, as the Yogi teaches. It is one bit of the universal mind. Now, however, it can only work through the nerve currents in this body, but when the Yogi has loosened himself from the nerve currents, he can work through other things. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-06-26T07:14:00.560" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7632" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7627" CreationDate="2015-06-26T08:26:06.763" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;If by Satayavan you mean dead coming to life again then yes there are many examples. Following are some of them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to Shiva Purana, Daksha Prajapati, father of Devi Sati, was killed by Veerbhadra. Later on request of his wife and other Devtas, Lord Shiva placed the head of a Goat on Daksha's body and made him alive again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesha's head was cut by Lord Shiva and he was dead but then he was brought to life again by Lord Shiva by placing an elephant's head on his body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the story of Ghushmeshwara Jyotirling, Ghushma's son was killed by her sister but he was again brought back to life by Lord Shiva. See this text from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghushmeshwar,_Rajasthan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki article&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is by its worshippers hailed as 12th Jyotirlinga of lord Shiva on the basis of a plethora of evidence deducated from location, folk tales and architectural and geographical facts enshired in ' puranas' legend has it that a Brahmin, by name Sudharma lived in distant past in vicinity of Devagiri hills, whose wife Sudeha, had not been blessed with offspring. She is therefore, got her younger sister Ghushma married to her husband. Ghusma was a devotee of lord Shiv, whose devotion to Great Loard mahadeva got her the birth of a son from her husband. Sudeha, her elder sister, got envious of Ghusma's honour and happiness, which unlitmately resulted in assassination of newly married son of Ghusma whose used to dispose the parthiva Shiv Lingas everyday after worshipping. By the next morning when the bride found the bed os her mother-in-law. On information Ghusma did not lose her temper and she kept worshipping as usual. The following day Lord shiva gave his 'Darshan' by appearing before Ghushma when she was immersing idols of Lord Shiva after worship. pleased by her devotion Lord Shiva not only resurrected her son but also granted a boon to her that he would always abide in this place as 'Ghushmeshwar' after the name of Ghushma. This Legend is in Shivpuran kotirudra sahinta adhyay 32–33&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to Bhagwat Purana, Lord Krishna and Balarama once brought back their Guru Sandipani's dead son from Yamlok. Here is the text from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandipani&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki article&lt;/a&gt; that confirms this:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Bhāgavata-Purāṇa , Śaṅkhāsura inhabited a beautiful conch named, &amp;quot;pāñca-jana&amp;quot;:&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandipani&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; (literally, &amp;quot;Five-People,&amp;quot; mentioned in the Aitireya Brāhmaṇa as the name of a group of inimical tribes, but which may also be connected with the constellation, Boötes, which resembles a conch shell), lived under the waters in the shape of a conch. Not finding the son within the conch, Sri Krishna and Balarama took the conch and went to Yama (who is also likely associated with Boötes), and blew the conch. Yama worshipped both of them saying, ‘O Viṣṇu (One Who Pervades the Universe), disguised as a human being by way of līlā Lila (Hinduism) (play), what can we do for you both?’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kṛṣṇa replied: ‘Impelled by My command, O great ruler, fetch my guru's son, who was brought here as a result of his own karma.’ Being brought back to life, they returned Saṁdīpanī's son. It was thus in the process of rescuing his guru's disciple from the clutches of Death-personified (Yama) that Śrī Kṛṣṇa acquired his famous conch, Pañca-Jana, from Śaṅkhāsura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Asura King Bali and his army was killed in a battle with Devas. He and Asura army was brought back to life by Shukracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharat, according to a story, Arjun was killed by his son Babhruvahan/Vabhruvahan. He was later brought back to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharat again, head of Barbareek, son of Ghatotkach and grandson of Bheem, was chopped before the battle so that he couldnot participate and later rejoined after the battle. However, his head was still said to be conscious even after being chopped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharat, yet again, Bheem was killed in his childhood by giving him poison and drowning him in a river. But he was taken to the Snake kingdom and was brought back to life by the Snake King.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There might be several other examples which I might not recall now but if I would then I will add here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Sorry, read your question more clearly now, so if you want instances of a person changing personality after being brought back to life then examples of Daksha and Lord Ganesha seems to be kind of matching that. Prior to being dead they had a  different mindset(enmity) towards Lord Shiva but after coming back to life they were changed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-06-26T08:31:15.567" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7633" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-26T08:28:32.457" Score="4" ViewCount="1109" Body="&lt;p&gt;From my reading of Mahabharata Yadavas do not appear to be a strong or prominent clan in India prior to the rise of Shri Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rather most other high houses of bharata seems to look at Yadavas with a bit of disdain. Is it true? Does anyone know why ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3194" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T11:01:06.363" LastActivityDate="2022-09-24T19:14:54.883" Title="What is the historical origin of Yadavas?" Tags="|krishna|history|chandravansh|yadavas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7634" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-26T08:52:40.497" Score="5" ViewCount="199" Body="&lt;p&gt;A lot of evidence points to the fact that Nagas and Nagaloka etc. in Mahabharata might be losely connected with modern day Nagas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do we know if Garuda also maps to some tribe ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3194" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T08:16:01.067" LastActivityDate="2020-03-09T08:16:01.067" Title="Nagas are believed to be a real tribe what about Garuda?" Tags="|garuda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7635" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7626" CreationDate="2015-06-26T13:22:18.033" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yoga is a very broad term, the one which is known popularly is Hatha Yoga. This is different from Gyana Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and all the other forms desribed in various scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is credited with propunding Hatha Yoga, interestingly the fish which overheard him instructing Devi Parvati on the details later became a siddha known as Matsyendranath. Matsyendranath was a historical figure dating back to the early parts of 10th century CE. He was the teacher of Gorakhnath alongwith whom he is said to have founded Hatha Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the asanas and breathing exercises that make up popular Hatha Yoga today were mentioned by Patanjali as two of the limbs of Yoga in his sutras. This dates back to the 2nd century BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3213" LastActivityDate="2015-06-26T13:22:18.033" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7636" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7620" CreationDate="2015-06-26T13:26:28.890" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Keeping various Hindu Stories in mind the Curse or Boon once given can not be broken (because of respect towards the person who has given the boon/curse), &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;it has to take place in some form but if the person who is cursed realizes his mistake, or the Curse was given out of mistake there is always a soft way or the curse can be taken in your favorable way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However also we consider that every major thing is in God's Maya (master plan), so you may see many curses internally relates them with other curse or helps them in fulling them , Like jaya and vijaya were to be killed by avatar of Lord Vishnu and all the curse that Ravana has been given accelerates that situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like sage Bhrigu has given curse to vishnu (matsya purana) that he has to take birth at earth , this curse is one of most important for the birth of all earthly avatars of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Almost every story relates with some or the other curse, may it be jaya/vijaya ,ahalya etc, and all these curses/boons promotes the God's plan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like for Jaya Vijaya God says the curse was in his plan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O brāhmaṇas, know that the punishment you inflicted on them was originally ordained by Me&#xA;  -SB 3.16.26&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although God can Nullify the cause of that curse as he says here&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though I am capable of nullifying the brāhmaṇas’ curse, I would not do so. On the contrary, it has My approval.&#xA;  SB 3.16.29&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri SitaRama also Killed bali from back side and killed ravana in human form being the incarnation of Supreme Lord himself , because he has to respect all the boon/Curses which were given to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastActivityDate="2015-06-26T13:26:28.890" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7637" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-26T13:58:48.073" Score="4" ViewCount="73" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pardon me if this question does not comply with the forum rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some stories/events like Ramayana and Mahabharata took place on earth but others related to non-worldly deities like Shiva, Karthikeya, Ganesha took place in Kailash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, some events like the birth of Saraswati, the curse of Jaya-Vijaya at Vishnu's place may happen in space or some other place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since these events didn't take place on earth, is it likely that the planning of new avatars is taking place right now?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is it possible that the events that took place after the books were written, and those that are happening currently will be in the next version of Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some say that, in Kaliyuga, probably no one is capable of getting that information. But in the next yugas some Rishi's or Veda Vyas may get that information and add it to the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or are these events unlikely to happen because the whole Kalpa which is repeating is already compiled in to the currently available scriptures and just the number will change in the next set of scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-13T07:49:16.880" LastActivityDate="2015-10-13T07:49:16.880" Title="Is it possible that new events are going on and will be added in next scriptures" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7638" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7301" CreationDate="2015-06-26T15:01:43.947" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Chinmayananda text books teachings say that,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If you are born as human being you cannot survive without killing even if its just vegetarian like plants, grains. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Only way to avoid the karma of killing plants is through a prayer or offering to god before consuming. The &quot;Brahmaarpanam&quot; (Its in Gita 9th chapter) is the one prescribed in Chinmayananda books.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3208" LastActivityDate="2015-06-26T15:01:43.947" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7633" CreationDate="2015-06-27T19:22:45.713" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is provided in Vishnu purana, book 4, Chapter 10 onwards (may be also in other puranas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Nahusha had six valiant sons: Yati, Yayati, Sanyati, Ayati, Viyati and Kriti. Yati the first born declined the sovereignity. Yayati became the king. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yayati had two sons, Yadu and Turvasu through his wife Devayani. He had three more sons, Druhyu, Anu and Puru, through his another wife Sarmista.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to curse of Usanas, Yayati became old and infirm before time. Having appeased his father in law, Yayati obtained permission to transfer his old age to anyone who consent to take it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yayati requested the eldest son, Yadu, to take his old age for 1000 yrs and transfer the youth of Yadu to him. Yadu declined his father's request. Yayati cursed Yadu that he and his descendants will not posses dominion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, when Yayati's request was declined by his other sons Druhyu, Turvasu and Anu, they were also cursed. The youngest son, Puru accepted his father, Yayati's request and transferred his youth to Yayati and in turn took over the old age of Yayati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After 1000 yrs of enjoyment of loaned youth from Puru, Yayati realised futility of all the material pleasures and restored the youth of his youngest son,Puru and installed him as the supreme monarch of the kingdom. To Turvasu, Yayati consigned the south west provinces; the west to Druhyu; South to Yadu and North to Anu.   All the brothers Yadu, Druhyu, Turvasu and Anu were to govern only as viceroys under Puru, who was appointed the monarch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to tbe curse of Yayati, the descendents of Yadu were denied the rights of being full fledged kings. The descendents of Yadu are called Yadavas. In this lineage of Yadu was born Supreme Lord Vishnu as Lord Krishna and Lord Balaraama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2015-06-27T20:00:45.083" LastActivityDate="2015-06-27T20:00:45.083" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7642" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-27T21:41:33.593" Score="9" ViewCount="11384" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe most learned Hindus understand re-incarnation as a continuous process till the Jivatma attains the qualifications required for Moksha. But there seems to be some traditions within Hinduism where people believe that there are only 7 lives for a human being. For example consider the Tamil adage ஏழேழு ஜென்மன் (&lt;em&gt;Yezhlezhu Jenmam&lt;/em&gt; meaning for seven lives to come). My question is does adages like this have any ancient philosophical roots or are they distortions of the concept of reincarnation? In any case does any Hindu scripture talk of the concept of 7 reincarnations for man?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the Buddhist concept of 4 stages of enlightenment described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_enlightenment#Stream-enterer&quot;&gt;this &lt;/a&gt; wiki page seems to have the concept of 7 lives as quoted below. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A stream-enterer reaches arahantship within seven rebirths upon&#xA;  opening the eye of the Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="2362" LastEditDate="2015-06-27T21:48:40.137" LastActivityDate="2019-09-04T22:52:49.133" Title="Unlimited reincarnations before moksha or only 7?" Tags="|moksha|rebirth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7643" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-28T00:24:22.813" Score="11" ViewCount="5570" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Chaitanya Charitamrita, the traditional biography of Gaudiya Vaishnava founder Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a Muslim Kazi asks Chaianya Mahaprabhu about the Gomedha Yagna, a Vedic fire-ritual where cows were sacrificed.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/17/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is his response:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a learned scholar, the Kazi challenged Caitanya Mahāprabhu, “In Your Vedic scriptures there is an injunction for killing a cow. On the strength of this injunction, great sages performed sacrifices involving cow-killing.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refuting the Kazi’s statement, the Lord immediately replied, “The Vedas clearly enjoin that cows should not be killed. Therefore every Hindu, whoever he may be, avoids indulging in cow-killing.  &lt;strong&gt;In the Vedas and Purāṇas there are injunctions declaring that if one can revive a living being, one can kill it for experimental purposes.  Therefore the great sages sometimes killed old cows, and by chanting Vedic hymns they brought them back to life for perfection.  The killing and rejuvenation of such old and invalid cows was not truly killing but an act of great benefit.&lt;/strong&gt;  Formerly there were powerful brāhmaṇas who could make such experiments using Vedic hymns, but now, because of the Kali-yuga, brāhmaṇas are not so powerful. Therefore the killing of cows and bulls for rejuvenation is forbidden.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why does Chaitanya Mahaprabhu say that cows sacrificed in the Gomedha Yagna were brought back to life?  Is he right that there are references &amp;quot;in the Vedas and Puranas?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This seems rather strange to me, because the Vedas have plenty of descriptions of the afterlife of the sacrificed animal.  The Sri Vaishnava Acaharya Ramanujacharya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48342.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;cites&lt;/a&gt; various such Vedic verses in the Sri Bhashya, his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Scripture declares that the killing of sacrificial animals makes them to go up to the heavenly world, and therefore is not of the nature of harm. This is declared in the text, 'The animal killed at the sacrifice having assumed a divine body goes to the heavenly world'; 'with a golden body it ascends to the heavenly world.' An action which is the means of supreme exaltation is not of the nature of harm, even if it involves some little pain; it rather is of beneficial nature.--With this the mantra also agrees: 'Thou dost not die, thou goest to the gods on easy paths; where virtuous men go, not evil-doers, there the divine Savitri may lead thee.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It seems odd that those scriptural passages wouldn't mention the soul of the sacrificed animal coming back into its own body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07064.htm#fn_108&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva of the Mahabharata says the same thing about the Yagnas of the great king Rantideva (whom I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6728/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of rigid vows and always engaged in due performance of sacrifices, &lt;strong&gt;countless animals, desirous of going to heaven, used to come to him of their own accord&lt;/strong&gt;. So large was the number of animals sacrificed in the Agnihotra of that king that the secretions flowing from his kitchen from the heaps of skins deposited there caused a veritable river which from this circumstance, came to be called the Charmanwati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So clearly the animals didn't come back to life if their skins were heaped up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, does anyone know what scriptures Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had in mind when he made his statement?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-04T15:52:34.117" Title="Were cows sacrificed in Gomedha Yagnas brought back to life as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says?" Tags="|vaishnavism|gaudiya-vaishnavism|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7645" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21228" CreationDate="2015-06-28T06:02:18.990" Score="11" ViewCount="760" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01241.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 3&lt;/a&gt; of the Kaushitaki Upanishad, the prince Pratardana, son of the famous king Divodasa and seer of a Vedic hymn as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5474/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, dies and goes to Devaloka (heaven), where he meets Indra.  Indra offers him a boon, and Pratardana asks Indra to give him whatever boon is most beneficial.  So Indra decides to tell him about Indra himself!  (This isn't as absurd as it sounds, because Brahman is the soul of the gods and thus truly understanding Indra will allow you to understand Brahman.)  In particular, Indra says this about himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know me only; that is what I deem most beneficial for man, that he should know me. I slew the three-headed son of Tvashtri; &lt;strong&gt;I delivered the Arunmukhas, the devotees, to the wolves (sâlâvrika)&lt;/strong&gt;; breaking many treaties, I killed the people of Prahlâda in heaven, the people of Puloma in the sky, the people of Kâlakañga on earth. And not one hair of me was harmed there. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=DSgYAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA314&amp;amp;ots=2vUD0edpzT&amp;amp;dq=%22killed%20the%20arurmaghas%22&amp;amp;pg=PA314#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; the same thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the gods excluded Indra (saying) 'He hath misused Vishvarupa, Tvastri's son, he hath laid low Vritra, he hath given the Yatis [Sanyasis] to the hyaenas, he hath killed the Arurmaghas, he hath contended with Brhaspati', then Indra was deprived of the Soma drinking[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of Indra delivering the &quot;devotees&quot; or Sanyasis known as the Arunmukhas to the wolves?  Presumably that means they were devoured by wolves.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sayana, the famous commentator on the Vedas &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.de/books?id=KP4IAAAAQAAJ&amp;amp;hl=de&amp;amp;pg=PA161#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that the Arunmukhas were actually Asuras in the disguise of Sanyasis, and he characterizes them as &quot;those in whose mouths the reading of the Vedas is not&quot;.  He also says &quot;their skulls were turned into the thorns of the desert which remain to this day&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does anyone know if this story is described in any Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-09-30T18:31:10.520" Title="Why did Indra deliver Sanyasis to the wolves as the Kaushitaki Upanishad says?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|indra|kaushitaki-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7649" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-28T16:56:43.307" Score="3" ViewCount="3507" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do the use the items they do such as &lt;em&gt;Arshina&lt;/em&gt;, sandalwood, milk, yogurt, Honey, bananas etc?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3226" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2015-06-29T05:45:09.423" LastActivityDate="2019-11-03T19:29:44.257" Title="What is the Significance of Abhishekam?" Tags="|ganesha|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7650" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-28T18:07:38.800" Score="2" ViewCount="1334" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can we visit Shani temple after visiting the main Deity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We went to Batu caves and had darshan of Lord Subramanya. While coming down we saw another temple which we thought was of a goddess but it was a Shani Temple.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Somehow I'm disturbed that I should not have visited that. Is there any thing in the scriptures forbidding this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3227" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2015-06-29T05:37:27.317" LastActivityDate="2021-02-17T15:00:02.433" Title="Visiting Shani Temple" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7651" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5472" CreationDate="2015-06-29T03:44:21.493" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Unsurprisingly, it depends on whom you ask. As you've anticipated in your question, this verse (which, as Keshav notes, is found in Ṛgveda 9.96.5, and also in Sāmaveda 2.3.1.19) has been used polemically by Advaitins like Appayya Dīkṣita to argue against the Vaishnavite position. One relatively well-known Vaishnavite counter-interpretation can be found in the Mādhva scholar Śrīnivāsatīrtha's 17th century &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books/about/Pad%C4%81rthaprak%C4%81%C5%9Bik%C4%81_n%C4%81m%C4%81_R%CC%A5gbh%C4%81%E1%B9%A3.html?id=zmBCrgEACAAJ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayatirtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Jayatīrtha&lt;/a&gt;'s Ṛgbhāṣyaṭīkā, which in turn is (as the name indicates) a commentary on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhvacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mādhva&lt;/a&gt;'s Ṛgbhāṣya, though I've heard it from several non-Mādhvas as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तथा च सोमलताविशेषो विष्णोः सोमसवनं कर्तुं यजमानस्य जनिता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  याजमान्यस्य सोमाधीनात्वाद् इति सम्भावितदोषवान् यजमान एव विष्णुशब्देन उच्यते न विष्णु: इत्याहुः ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वस्तुतस्तु मखो विष्णुरिन्दुः इति यज्ञनामसु विष्णुशब्दस्य पटितत्वात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विष्णोर्यज्ञस्य सोमलतारूपो जनिता जज्ञस्य सोमाधीनोत्पत्तिकत्वाद् इत्यर्थो द्रष्टव्यः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Similarly, the particular soma creeper used in the act of soma pressing is the generator&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198610250.001.0001/acref-9780198610250-e-2763&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;patron of the sacrifice&lt;/a&gt;. &quot;The quality of being the patron is dependent on the soma&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;&quot; –­ this is a sentence that indicates a potential flaw in the patron, so what is called &quot;&lt;em&gt;viṣṇu&lt;/em&gt;&quot; is actually the patron, not [the god] Viṣṇu – that is what is meant here. Strictly speaking, in &quot;the sacrifice&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; is &lt;em&gt;viṣṇu&lt;/em&gt;&quot; it should be understood that &lt;em&gt;viṣṇu&lt;/em&gt; is a synonym for the sacrifice.&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;  The meaning seen here is that the generator&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; of &lt;em&gt;viṣṇu&lt;/em&gt; (that is, the sacrifice) is the soma creeper, because the sacrifice&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt; is dependent on the soma creeper.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The obvious objection is that this is a rather motivated reading of the text. As Keshav noted, the rest of the sūkta treats Soma as a personified deity. Far from objecting to this characterization, Śrīnivāsatīrtha would embrace it: the works from Mādhva and Jayatīrtha that he's commenting on explicitly defend interpreting sentences that indicate a potential flaw (&lt;em&gt;sambhāvitadoṣa&lt;/em&gt;) in Viṣṇu in an alternative way, such that the flaw is ascribed to another entity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition, the interpretation isn't entirely ad hoc: the verse in question says that the soma &quot;flows&quot; (&lt;em&gt;pavate&lt;/em&gt;), indicating the ritual drink, and the identification of Viṣṇu with &lt;em&gt;yajña&lt;/em&gt; is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajna_(avatar)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;common one&lt;/a&gt; throughout the &lt;em&gt;smṛti&lt;/em&gt; literature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;em&gt;janitā&lt;/em&gt; – This is the word used with respect to Diva, Pṛthu, Sūrya, Indra, and Viṣṇu in the verse, despite Griffiths's &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Elegant_variation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;elegant variation&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;[2] Because the &lt;em&gt;yajamāna&lt;/em&gt; has to drink soma.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;[3] &lt;em&gt;makha&lt;/em&gt; – see &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/nighantuniruktao00yaskuoft#page/n61/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nighaṇṭu 3.17&lt;/a&gt;, but see Max Müller's &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=R1dFAQAAIAAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA33&amp;amp;pg=PA33#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;alternative interpretation&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;[4] &lt;em&gt;yajña&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3231" LastEditorUserId="3231" LastEditDate="2015-06-29T05:04:21.177" LastActivityDate="2015-06-29T05:04:21.177" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7652" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7650" CreationDate="2015-06-29T06:12:15.963" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;AFAIK, there is no harm in visiting Shani temple. It is similar to visiting other God or Goddesses temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though, in some places there will be conditions like you need to visit a temple after visiting the other Gods temple. For example, &amp;quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srisailamonline.com/sakshi-ganapathi.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sakshi ganapathi&lt;/a&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The traditional beliefs is that the Ganapathi in this temple keeps regular account of all the pilgrims to tender “Sakshyam” (evidence) of their visit to this kshetram and so named as Sakshi Ganapathi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there could be traditions to follow but there is no harm if you don't follow those traditions and visit the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2021-02-17T15:00:02.433" LastActivityDate="2021-02-17T15:00:02.433" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7653" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-29T07:49:49.637" Score="11" ViewCount="15888" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu mythology it is said Ekadashi is said to be most auspicious day among the fifteen days of of krishna paksha or shukla paksha and it is very good to perform any fasting or any ritual or pooja on this day. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the importance of Ekadashi(eleventh day) among the fifteen days of krishna paksha or shukla paksha?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is it so important day as compared to other days?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the reason and story behind this?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="2310" LastEditDate="2015-06-29T10:16:32.247" LastActivityDate="2022-06-10T16:00:30.657" Title="What is the importance of Ekadashi?" Tags="|vishnu|rituals|puja|fasting|ekadashi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7654" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7661" CreationDate="2015-06-29T09:16:40.920" Score="18" ViewCount="15748" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know how the 'Vishwa Virat Swaroop' of Lord Krishna was described in the Mahabharata. It was shown by Lord Krishna to Arjuna while he was giving the Gita Upadesha to Arjuna before the great battle. I have seen some images showing this in which he has a lot of heads, each head is of a different God, many hands, holding other weapons, but that differs from picture to picture. Hence, I wanted to know how this looked as per the Mahabharata or the Bhagavad Gita or wherever it is described.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I would like to know whether this Swaroop was ever shown to anybody else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2022-11-14T13:01:03.803" LastActivityDate="2023-01-24T17:07:51.673" Title="How is 'Vishwa Virat Swaroop' of Lord Krishna described in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7658" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7603" CreationDate="2015-06-29T11:35:47.933" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Incest means &lt;strong&gt;sexual activity between closed blood relatives&lt;/strong&gt;. It doesn't strictly limit to immediate family members like, father/mother, dauther/son. According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; article, at 3rd degree relatives, the common genes are 12.5%.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now above is scientific meaning. According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest#Hindu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;, the rules are bit changed. e.g. &lt;em&gt;Gotra of a female changes upon marriage&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sexual relation via marriage between 5th/6th degree cousins/relatives are generally acceptable and are not considered incest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On main question, I can remember only 1 proven incest relationship (scientific way) which was between &lt;strong&gt;Arjun and Subhadra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Arjun was biological son of Kunti and fathered by Lord Indra. Subhadra was biological daughter of Vasudev. Vasudev and Kunti were real brother-sister, hence Arjun and Subhadra were 1st cousins. With their mating they had son Abhimanyu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also came across another incest example between a (Yudhishtira like) righteous Brahmin and her biological granddaughter. This is found in Telugu Mahabharata during &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telugubhakti.com/telugupages/monthly/mahabharat/content1301.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Anushasana Parva&lt;/a&gt;, during which Bhisma lying on bed gives some moral advises to Yudhishtira &amp;amp; brothers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Later Sudarsanaa was given in marriage to Agni. Agni and Sudarsanaa&#xA;  begot a son called Sudarsana. After marriage, Sudarsana begot a son&#xA;  called Oghavanta. Oghavanta begot a son and daughter called Ogharadha&#xA;  and Oghavati respectively. Oghavati attained marriageable age.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Oghavathi was given in marriage to Sudarsana, who is no other than her&#xA;  grand father.&lt;/strong&gt; After marriage, Sudarsana took a vow that he will&#xA;  conquer death while adopting Grihastha dharma...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Afterwards, the &lt;em&gt;Dharamadev&lt;/em&gt; tests the Sudarasana by going to his house in absence but disguised as a guest and asking to share bed with his wife. After lot of turmoil, the wife (i.e. granddaughter) agrees to sleep with the guest. When the Sudarasana returns home, he calls for his wife. But figures out the situation behind the closed doors. Sudarasana feels happy that he and his wife are able to serve the guest appropriately. With that &lt;em&gt;Dharama&lt;/em&gt; takes his original form and says that he has conquered death and is eligible to go to higher worlds with physical body. His wife was intact and her half would flow as a river Oghavati through Kurukshetra and half would join along with him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-10-12T05:33:59.287" LastActivityDate="2015-10-12T05:33:59.287" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7661" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7654" CreationDate="2015-06-29T13:56:55.117" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu's Vishwarupa form, AKA his Sahasrashirsha or Aniruddha form, is described in many different places in Hindu scripture:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The earliest reference to Vishnu's Vishwarupa is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purusha Sukta&lt;/a&gt;, a hymn from the Rig Veda:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A thousand heads hath Puruṣa, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet.&#xA;On every side pervading earth he fills a space ten fingers wide.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This Puruṣa is all that yet hath been and all that is to be;&#xA;The Lord of Immortality which waxes greater still by food.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;So mighty is his greatness; yea, greater than this is Puruṣa.&#xA;All creatures are one-fourth of him, three-fourths eternal life in heaven.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;With three-fourths Puruṣa went up: one-fourth of him again was here.&#xA;Thence he strode out to every side over what cats not and what cats.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From him, Virāj was born[.]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 5 is a reference to Brahma being born from Vishnu's Vishwarupa.  (People often assume that it was Vishnu's four-armed form that gave birth to Brahma, but it was the Vishwarupa form that lied down at the end of the Mahapralaya on Vishnu's serpent Adiseshan.) The rest of the hymn talks about how Vishnu in his Vishwarupa form offered himself to be sacrificed in a cosmic Yagna, so Brahma could turn his body into the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should add that the Purusha Sukta was heard from the gods by the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who found the Pancharatra movement which was influential in the development of Vaishnavism, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata describes how Narada once visited the sages Nara and Narayana (the incarnation of Vishnu I discussed above), who were engaging in Tapasya in Badarikashrama.  Narada asked them what god they could possibly be worshipping, given that they were such illustrious divine beings themselves.  They answered that they were worshipping Vishnu, who lies at the core of their soul.  So Narada proceeded Vishnu's ocean of milk to see Vishnu himself.  Initially he couldn't find him, so he spontaneously composed a hymn of praise to Vishnu, and then Vishnu &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c039.htm#fr_246&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;appeared before him&lt;/a&gt; in his Vishwarupa form:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus hymned with names that were not known to others, the Divine Narayana having the universe for his form showed himself to the ascetic Narada. His form was somewhat purer than the moon and differed from the moon in some respects. He somewhat resembled a blazing fire in complexion. The puissant Lord was somewhat of the form of Vishti. He resembled in some respects the feathers of the parrot, and in some a mass of pure crystal. He resembled in some respects a hill of antimony and in some a mass of pure gold. His complexion somewhat resembled the coral when first formed, and was somewhat white. In some respects that complexion resembled the hue of gold and in some that of the lapis lazuli. In some respects it resembled the hue of the blue lapis lazuli and in some that of sapphire. In some respects it resembled the hue of the peacock's neck, and in some that of a string of pearls. Bearing these diverse kinds of hues on his person, the eternal Deity appeared before Narada. He had a thousand eyes and was possessed of great beauty. He had a hundred heads and a hundred feet. He had a thousand stomachs and a thousand arms. He seemed to be still inconceivable to the mind. With one of his mouths he uttered the syllable Om and then the Gayatri following Om. With mind under complete control, the great Deity, called by the names of Hari and Narayana, by his other mouths, multitudinous in number, uttered many mantras from the four Vedas which are known by the name of Aranyaka. The Lord of all the deities, the great God who is adorned in sacrifices, held in his hands a sacrificial altar, a Kamandalu, few white gems, a pair of sandal, a bundle of Kusa blades, a deer-skin, a toothstick, and a little blazing fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, I'm not sure why he was holding the objects described at the end, which is why I asked &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6534/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, when Krishna goes to Duryodhana's court as an envoy of the Pandavas, Duryodhana tries to imprison Krishna.  So Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05131.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;reveals his Vishwarupa form&lt;/a&gt; to everyone in the court, to show the Kauravas what they're up against if they choose to go to war with the Pandavas:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kesava, that slayer of hostile divisions, endued with great energy, addressed Dhritarashtra's son, Duryodhana, and said, &amp;quot;From delusion, O Suyodhana, thou regardest me to be alone, and it is for this, O thou of little understanding, that thou seekest to make me a captive after vanquishing me by violence. Here, however, are all the Pandavas and all the Vrishnis and Andhakas. Here are all the Adityas, the Rudras, and the Vasus, with all the great Rishis.&amp;quot; Saying this Kesava, that slayer of hostile heroes burst out into a loud laughter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as the high-souled Sauri laughed, from his body, that resembled a blazing fire, issued myriads of gods, each of lightning effulgence, and not bigger than the thumb. And on his forehead appeared Brahman, and on his breast Rudra. And on his arms appeared the regents of the world, and from his mouth issued Agni, the Adityas, the Sadhyas, the Vasus, the Aswins, the Marutas, with Indra, and the Viswedevas. And myriads of Yakshas, and the Gandharvas, and Rakshasas also, of the same measure and form, issued thence. And from his two arms issued Sankarshana and Dhananjaya. And Arjuna stood on his right, bow in hand, and Rama stood on his left, armed with the plough. And behind him stood Bhima, and Yudhishthira, and the two sons of Madri, and before him were all the Andhakas and the Vrishnis with Pradyumna and other chiefs bearing mighty weapons upraised. And on his diverse arms were seen the conch, the discus, the mace, the bow called Saranga, the plough, the javelin, the Nandaka, and every other weapon, all shining with effulgence, and upraised for striking. And from his eyes and nose and ears and every part of his body, issued fierce sparks of fire mixed with smoke. And from the pores of his body issued sparks of fire like unto the rays of the sun. And beholding that awful form of the high-souled Kesava, all the kings closed their eyes with affrighted hearts, except Drona, and Bhishma, and Vidura, endued with great intelligence, greatly blessed Sanjaya, and the Rishis, possessed of wealth of asceticism, for the divine Janardana gave unto them this divine sight on the occasion. And beholding in the (Kuru) court that highly wonderful sight, celestial drums beat (in the sky) and a floral shower fell (upon him). And the whole Earth trembled (at the time) and the oceans were agitated. And, O bull of the Bharata's race, all the denizens of the earth were filled with great wonder. Then that tiger among men, that chastiser of foes, withdrew that divine and highly wonderful, and extremely varied and auspicious form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Most famously, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 11&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhagavad Gita, after hearing Krishna describe his glorious qualities, Arjuna asks to see the form that Vishnu had in the beginning of creation (as described in the Purusha Sukta above).  So Krishna gives Arjuna divine eyes to see his Vishwarupa form:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O King, having spoken thus, the Supreme Lord of all mystic power, the Personality of Godhead, displayed His universal form to Arjuna.  Arjuna saw in that universal form unlimited mouths, unlimited eyes, unlimited wonderful visions. The form was decorated with many celestial ornaments and bore many divine upraised weapons. He wore celestial garlands and garments, and many divine scents were smeared over His body. All was wondrous, brilliant, unlimited, all-expanding. If hundreds of thousands of suns were to rise at once into the sky, their radiance might resemble the effulgence of the Supreme Person in that universal form.  At that time Arjuna could see in the universal form of the Lord the unlimited expansions of the universe situated in one place although divided into many, many thousands. Then, bewildered and astonished, his hair standing on end, Arjuna bowed his head to offer obeisances and with folded hands began to pray to the Supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna said: &amp;quot;My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, I see assembled in Your body all the demigods and various other living entities. I see Brahmā sitting on the lotus ﬂower, as well as Lord Śiva and all the sages and divine serpents.  O Lord of the universe, O universal form, I see in Your body many, many arms, bellies, mouths and eyes, expanded everywhere, without limit. I see in You no end, no middle and no beginning.  Your form is difﬁcult to see because of its glaring effulgence, spreading on all sides, like blazing ﬁre or the immeasurable radiance of the sun. Yet I see this glowing form everywhere, adorned with various crowns, clubs and discs.  You are the supreme primal objective. You are the ultimate resting place of all this universe. You are inexhaustible, and You are the oldest. You are the maintainer of the eternal religion, the Personality of Godhead. This is my opinion.  You are without origin, middle or end. Your glory is unlimited. You have numberless arms, and the sun and moon are Your eyes. I see You with blazing ﬁre coming forth from Your mouth, burning this entire universe by Your own radiance.  Although You are one, You spread throughout the sky and the planets and all space between. O great one, seeing this wondrous and terrible form, all the planetary systems are perturbed.  All the hosts of demigods are surrendering before You and entering into You. Some of them, very much afraid, are offering prayers with folded hands. Hosts of great sages and perfected beings, crying “All peace!” are praying to You by singing the Vedic hymns.  All the various manifestations of Lord Śiva, the Ādityas, the Vasus, the Sādhyas, the Viśvedevas, the two Aśvīs, the Maruts, the forefathers, the Gandharvas, the Yakṣas, the Asuras and the perfected demigods are beholding You in wonder.  O mighty-armed one, all the planets with their demigods are disturbed at seeing Your great form, with its many faces, eyes, arms, thighs, legs and bellies and Your many terrible teeth; and as they are disturbed, so am I.  O all-pervading Viṣṇu, seeing You with Your many radiant colors touching the sky, Your gaping mouths, and Your great glowing eyes, my mind is perturbed by fear. I can no longer maintain my steadiness or equilibrium of mind.  O Lord of lords, O refuge of the worlds, please be gracious to me. I cannot keep my balance seeing thus Your blazing deathlike faces and awful teeth. In all directions I am bewildered.  All the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, along with their allied kings, and Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Karṇa – and our chief soldiers also – are rushing into Your fearful mouths. And some I see trapped with heads smashed between Your teeth.  As the many waves of the rivers ﬂow into the ocean, so do all these great warriors enter blazing into Your mouths. I see all people rushing full speed into Your mouths, as moths dash to destruction in a blazing ﬁre.&#xA;O Viṣṇu, I see You devouring all people from all sides with Your ﬂaming mouths. Covering all the universe with Your effulgence, You are manifest with terrible, scorching rays.  O Lord of lords, so ﬁerce of form, please tell me who You are. I offer my obeisances unto You; please be gracious to me. You are the primal Lord. I want to know about You, for I do not know what Your mission is.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: &amp;quot;Time I am, the great destroyer of the worlds, and I have come here to destroy all people. With the exception of you [the Pāṇḍavas], all the soldiers here on both sides will be slain. Therefore get up. Prepare to ﬁght and win glory. Conquer your enemies and enjoy a ﬂourishing kingdom. They are already put to death by My arrangement, and you, O Savyasācī, can be but an instrument in the ﬁght.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2022-11-14T13:01:25.487" LastActivityDate="2022-11-14T13:01:25.487" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7662" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-29T13:59:17.117" Score="12" ViewCount="25691" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know Sri Krishna was a Kshatriya. Besides He had weapons with Him which were used to hunt animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can we hence categorically state that he was a non-vegetarian? If so, why do we offer vegetarian food to Him at home (like butter and seedai)? Do we know anything about His favourite non-veg item from Puranas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3233" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-21T08:35:29.627" LastActivityDate="2023-08-26T18:50:27.120" Title="Was Krishna a non-vegetarian?" Tags="|krishna|puranas|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7664" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-29T14:23:31.570" Score="3" ViewCount="376" Body="&lt;p&gt;The key difference between Advaita and Visishtadvaita is the latter's teaching that the Brahman has special attributes compared to the Atman. What are these attributes? Are there any other differences between the two philosophies?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3233" LastActivityDate="2015-06-30T18:04:13.797" Title="Special attributes of Brahman in Vishishtadvaita?" Tags="|advaita|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7665" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7643" CreationDate="2015-06-29T15:29:30.787" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read this reply by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu earlier also but I wasn't convinced earlier and even now also. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Rigveda (6/17/1) Indra loves Cow/Bull/Buffalo/horse meat. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Indra used to eat the meat of cow, calf, horse and buffalo&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if that's true then cow/animal sacrifice is, in a way, the food being offered to God, so no question of cow getting alive again if it is consumed. In case of Ashwamedha yagna also, the main queen was said to cut the horse in parts which was later consumed by Rishis. Again, if it is consumed, then how will the animal be resurrected again. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we look into Jainism, Neminath (cousin of Lord Krishna) was getting married and he saw that different animals were to be slaughtered for the marriage feast. He empathized with them, cancelled his marriage, renounced the worldly affairs and took Sanyas. Same is depicted under the following section of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neminatha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wiki article&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to both religions, Krishna negotiated his marriage with Rajamati, the daughter of Ugrasena, but Neminatha, empathizing with the animals which were to be slaughtered for the marriage feast, left the procession suddenly and renounced the world. Some writers of the Jain scriptures say that Tirthankara Neminatha was the master of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence here also animal slaughter was for consumption and if animals were to be made alive again then Neminatha wouldn't have taken Sanyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, if it is known that cow/animal will be set alive after the yagna then what is the use of killing it at first instance. Sacrifice means that we are getting away with something (animal in our case), but if we know that we will get it back again, it will not be a sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, either there might be different beliefs prevailing in ancient times where one group believes that animal should not be sacrificed and consumed while other group believes the vice versa. Or there might be written something else in texts which was later changed. If we take the latter one into consideration then might be Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is correct but looking at the current textual references it seems that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was not correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-14T21:51:04.253" LastActivityDate="2015-09-14T21:51:04.253" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7667" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7664" CreationDate="2015-06-30T06:14:12.183" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You could write a book on the subject – indeed, several people have. Regarding the attributes of Brahman, perhaps the best you could do is excerpt some of the numerous definitions provided by Rāmānuja himself. One such definition can be found in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Sribhashya_of_Ramanuja-VS_Abhyankar_Parts_1_2/SribhashyaOfRamanuja-VsAbhyankar-Part11914#page/n17/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Śrībhāṣya 1.1.1&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the word &quot;Brahman&quot; is denoted the Supreme Person [Puruṣottama], who is by inherent nature [svabhāvataḥ] free from all imperfections [doṣa] and possesses hosts of auspicious qualities [kalyāṇaguṇa] which are countless and of matchless excellence [anavadhikātiśaya]. In all contexts the term &quot;Brahman&quot; is applied to whatever possesses the quality of greatness [bṛhattva], but its primary and most significant meaning is that Being whose greatness is of matchless excellence, both in His essential nature and in His other qualities. It is only the Lord of all [Sarveśvara] who is such a Being. Therefore the word &quot;Brahman&quot; is primarily used only to signify him.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (John Braisted Carman, trans.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another definitional passage can be found at Bhagavadgītābhāṣya 18.42:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भगवान्पुरुषोत्तमो वासुदेवः परब्रह्मशब्दाभिदेयो निरस्तनिखिलदोषगन्धः स्वाभाविकानवधिकातिशयज्ञानशक्त्याद्यसङ्ख्येयकल्याणगुणगणो निखिलवेदवेदान्तवेद्यः । स एव निखिलजगदेककारणं निखिलजगदाधारभूतः । निखिलस्य स एव प्रवर्तयिता । तदाराधनभूतं च वैदिकं कृत्स्नं कर्म । तैस्तैराराधितो धर्मार्थकाममोक्षाख्यं फलं प्रयच्छतीत्यस्यार्थस्य सत्यतानिश्चय आस्तिक्यम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That which is expressed with the term &quot;Supreme Brahman&quot; is the Lord [Bhagavān], the Supreme Person [Puruṣottama] and Vāsudeva [Krishna]. He is removed beyond any trace [literally &quot;scent&quot;] of evil. He possesses a host of auspicious qualities such as knowledge and power, which are natural to Him and of matchless excellence. He is the one who is to be known through all the Vedas and Upaniṣads. He is the sole cause of the entire universe and is its support. He causes all things ot function. All duties enjoined by the Vedas constitute the worship of Him. Being worshipped through these various duties He grants, according to the petition, the fruit of the nature of dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (John Braisted Carman, trans.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another pithier summary can be found in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/VedantaSaraOfRamanujacharya/vedanta_sara_ramanujacharya#page/n43/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;dedicatory verse&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;em&gt;maṅgalaśloka&lt;/em&gt;) of the Vedāntadīpa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समस्तचिदचिद्वस्तुशरीरायाखिलात्मने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  श्रीमते निर्मलानन्दोदन्वते विष्णवे नम: ॥  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I bow unto Viṣṇu, who has as his body all the sentient and non-sentient beings, who is the self of all objects, who is associated with Śrī and who is the ocean of bliss untainted with impurity.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (M.B. Narasimha Ayyangar, trans.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see here what you might call the central doctrine of Viśiṣṭādvaita:  all objects in the universe stand in the same relation to Brahman as the body does to the soul. A similar point is made in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/VedarthaSangraha/vedartha_samgraha#page/n15/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;maṅgalaśloka&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; of the Vedārthasaṃgraha, which Keshav linked in a comment above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for differences with Advaita, perhaps the biggest is that Rāmānuja strongly defends the reality of the individual jīvātma, and a theistic (or maybe more precisely, panentheistic) conception of Brahman. A full exposition would take a lot of space, but in Vedārthasaṃgraha para. 81 we find:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इत्यादिवेदविदग्रेसरवालमोकि - पराशर – द्वैपायनवचोभिश्च, परस्य ब्रह्मणः सर्वस्य आत्मत्वावगमात्, चिदचिदात्मकस्य वस्तुनः तच्छरिरत्वावगमाच्च, शरीरस्य च शरीरिणं प्रति प्रकारतयैव पआर्थत्वात्, शरीरशरीरिणोश्च धर्मभेदेऽपि  तयोरसङ्करात्, सर्वशरीरं ब्रह्मेति ब्रह्मणो वैभवं प्रतिपादयभ्दिः सामानाधिकरण्यादिभिः सुख्यवृत्तैः सर्वचेतनाचेतप्रकारं ब्रह्मैव अभिधीयते ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Such are the words of the sages, like Vālmīki, Parāśara and Dvaipāyana, who are the best among the knowers of the Vedas. From both the Vedas and the words of the sages, emerges the following teaching: The supreme Brahman is the self of all. The sentient and non-sentient entities constitute its body. The body is an entity and has being only by virtue of its being the mode of the soul of which it is the body. The body and soul, though characterized by different attributes, do not get mixed up. From all this follows the central teaching that Brahman, with all the non-sentient and sentient entities as its modes [prakāras], is the ultimate. The scriptures declare this glory of Brahman by saying that Brahman has the whole universe as its body. They also identify Brahman and the world in the manner of co-ordinate predication, which bears in this connection direct and primary meaning.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (S.S. Raghavachar, trans.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in paragraph 117:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवं च सति, अभेदो वा भेदो वा द्व्यात्मकता व वेदान्तवेद्यः कोऽयमर्थः समर्थितो भवति? सर्वस्य वेदवेद्यत्वात् सर्वं समर्थितम् । सर्वशरीतया सर्वप्रकारं ब्रह्मैव अवस्थितमिति, अभेदः समर्थितः; एकमेव ब्रह्म नानाभूतचिदचिद्वस्तुप्रकारं नानात्वे अवस्थितम् इति भेदाभेदौ; अचिद्वस्तुनश्च ईश्वरस्य च स्वरूपस्वभाववैलक्षण्यात् असङ्कराच्च भेदः समर्थितः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It may be asked, 'What is your final position? Do you uphold unity or plurality or both unity and plurality? Which of these three forms the substance of the Vedānta on your interpretation?' We reply that we uphold all the three as they are all affirmed in the Veda. We uphold unity because Brahman alone exists, with all other entities as its modes. We uphold both unity and plurality, as the one Brahman itself has all the spiritual and physical substances as its modes and thus exists qualified by a plurality. We uphold plurality as the three categories, sentient selves and non-sentient existents and the Supreme Lord, are mutually distinct in their substantive nature and attributes and there is no mutual transpostion of their characteristics.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (S.S. Raghavachar, trans.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you're looking for further reading in English online, you can find (Rāmānuja's characterization of) the Advaita position in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Great Pūrvapakṣa&lt;/a&gt; of his Śrībhāṣya, followed by Rāmānuja's rejoinder. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy also has a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iep.utm.edu/ramanuja/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;short summary&lt;/a&gt; of Rāmānuja's position. Plus if you can make your question more specific, I can try and give you a more focused answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3231" LastEditorUserId="3231" LastEditDate="2015-06-30T18:04:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-06-30T18:04:13.797" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7668" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7546" CreationDate="2015-06-30T10:46:30.210" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found some information on 3 of the Shiva ganas Bhringi, Chandeshwar and Tandu so sharing here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Accordingly, Bhringi is said to be actually Andhaka, the demon who was born when Goddess Parvati once playfully closed the eyes of Lord Shiva with her hands. Due to this world came into darkness for a few seconds and a drop of sweat produced from the heat produced by Goddess Parvati's hands and lord Shiva's eyes, fell on the ground thus generating the baby Andhaka. Andhaka was blind from birth as he was born from Lord Shiva when his eyes were closed. He was later given to Asura king Hiranyaksh and his wife who were praying to Lord Shiva for a son. Later, when Andhak became young he attained divine vision and in further course of events, he battled Lord Shiva so that he can marry Goddess Parvati. Lord Shiva and his army fought with Andhaka and his army and Andhaka was defeated and nearly killed in the end. Andhaka was hanged on Lord Shiva's Trident for a long time. It was then that he realized his mistake and pleaded Lord Shiva for forgiveness. Lord shiva forgave him making him free from his trident. He was then made the chief of Shiva ganas and was later known as Bhringi. [Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andhaka&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia article]&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one more story around Bhringi discussed in another &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhringi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki article&lt;/a&gt; but I am not sure whether he is the same Bhringi or some other sage:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu mythology, Bhringi was an ancient sage (rishi), and a great devotee of Shiva,&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andhaka&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; the Hindu God of destruction and rejuvenation. According to mythology, all the rishis paid homage to both Shiva and Parvati,consort of Shiva, but Bhringi would not worship Parvati and dedicated himself solely to Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story goes that Bhringi one day, came to Mount Kailas, the abode of Shiva, and expressed his desire to go around Shiva. As he was going around, Shiva’s consort, Shakti, said, “You cannot just go around him. You have to go around me too. We are two halves of the same truth.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhringi, however, was so focussed on Shiva that he had no desire to go around Shakti. Seeing this, Shakti sat on Shiva’s lap making it difficult for Bhringi to go around Shiva alone. Bhringi, determined to go around Shiva took the form of a snake and tried to slip in between the two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amused by this, Shiva made Shakti one half of his body – the famous Ardhanarishvara form of Shiva. This was God whose one half is the Goddess. But Bhringi was adamant. He would go around Shiva alone. So he took the form of a rat, some say a bee, and tried to gnaw his way between the two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This annoyed the Goddess so much that she said, “May Bhringi lose all parts of the body that come from the mother.” In Tantra, the Indian school of alchemy, it is believed that the tough and rigid parts of the body such as nerves and bones come from the father while the soft and fluid parts of the body such as flesh and blood come from the mother. Instantly, Bhringi lost all flesh and blood and he became a bag of bones. He collapsed on the floor, unable to get up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhringi realized his folly. Shiva and Shakti make up the whole. They are not independent entities. One cannot exist without the other. Without either there is neither. He apologized.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the world never forgets this lesson. Bhringi was denied flesh and blood forever. To enable him to stand upright he was given a third leg, so that his legs served as a tripod.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above story in short along with the reference of Andhaka is also quoted &lt;a href=&quot;http://mailerindia.com/god/hindu/index.php?siva12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second gana Chandeshwara is an aspect of Chandi in human form later elevated to the status of divinity, to signify the connection between Siva and Chandi, or Durga. According to the same above &lt;a href=&quot;http://mailerindia.com/god/hindu/index.php?siva12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt;, following are the details about him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is an aspect of Chandi in human form later elevated to the status of divinity, to signify the connection between Siva and Chandi, or Durga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandesvara is a ferocious god, holding weapons of war and ready to do battle for a divine cause. His images are generally found in a corner in all the Siva temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another attendant of Lord Shiva is Tandu. His reference is associated with Lord Shiva's Tandava dance. Below is the passage from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandava&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; on Tandava dance which talks about him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Tandava takes its name from Tandu (तण्डु taṇḍu), the attendant of Shiva, who instructed Bharata (author of the Natya Shastra) in the use of Angaharas and Karanas, modes of the Tandava at Shiva's order. Some scholars consider that Tandu himself must have been the author of an earlier work on the dramatic arts, which was incorporated into the Natya Shastra. Indeed, the classical arts of dance, music and song may derive from the mudras and rituals of Shaiva tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will add more details if I get more info.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1150" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-06T11:55:57.917" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7670" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-06-30T12:17:58.827" Score="7" ViewCount="4671" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna stood along with the Pandavas during the battle at Kurukshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the exact reason for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3239" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-06T05:09:05.060" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T06:31:03.763" Title="Why did Lord Krishna side with the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra battle?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|pandavas|kauravas|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7671" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7670" CreationDate="2015-06-30T13:33:17.617" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am answering this question with the assumption that O.P wanted to know what the story was which resulted in &lt;code&gt;Krishna&lt;/code&gt; siding with the &lt;code&gt;Pandavas&lt;/code&gt; and not the &lt;code&gt;Kauravas&lt;/code&gt; during the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;~ While there is more than one variant to this story, I like the following best.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was part of the rendition of the epic as a &lt;code&gt;TV series on DD1&lt;/code&gt;. The scene is played out in the following manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just before the start of war both Arjuna and Duryodhana decide to visit Krishna to convince him to join their respective sides.&#xA;      Duryodhana reaches Krishna's palace first and finds Krishna sleeping. He decides to wait for him to wake up and sits on a stool beside Krishna's head. Arjuna enters a few minutes later, finds Krishna sleeping and also decides to wait. He finds a seat near Krishna's feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna wakes up after a while and his eyes fall on Arjuna first as he had been sitting in the direction of his eye sight. And Krishna immediately upon waking up asks Arjuna about the reason for his visit. Arjuna requests that Krishna and his massive Yadava army join hands with the Pandavas during the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Duryodhana, who by then understands that Krishna might say yes before asking him why he had come, interrupts the conversation and tells Krishna that even he had the same request. And since he had come there first Krishna must entertain his request first. Krishna, who in his heart has already decided to side with the Pandavas, comes up with an ingenious way of reaching a settlement. Krishna says he will divide the requested item into 2 parts and will let them choose which part each one wants to have during the war. This, he tells Duryodhana, is because he is trying to accommodate the request of both his cousins. One part is Krishna alone (who will wield no arms and not strike a single blow on the battlefield). The other part is the entire Yadava army with weapons of all kinds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He also tells Duryodhana that it has been unfortunate that upon waking up his eyes first fell on Arjuna, and as he had already asked Arjuna for the reason for his presence, and hence he was honour bound to give Arjuna first choice. Duryodhana reluctantly agrees to this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna chooses Krishna and tells him that he willings agrees to his condition of not taking up arms during the battle. Duryodhana, at this point, is unable to believe his luck. He feels that Arjuna has made the biggest mistake of his life. He thanks Krishna for his offer and gleefully leaves the room. Krishna is seen with a gentle and enigmatic smile playing on his lips.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hope it helps :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2333" LastEditorUserId="2333" LastEditDate="2016-11-04T11:58:18.500" LastActivityDate="2016-11-04T11:58:18.500" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7673" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2784" CreationDate="2015-06-30T18:01:40.340" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know if there's an earlier source, or if there are any scriptures elucidating what &lt;em&gt;prajāpateryat sahajaṃ&lt;/em&gt; refers to, but the verse is found in &lt;a href=&quot;http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/ind/aind/ved/yvw/pargs/pargst.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pāraskara Gṛhyasūtra 2.2.11&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3231" LastActivityDate="2015-06-30T18:01:40.340" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7675" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7679" CreationDate="2015-07-01T05:08:39.873" Score="5" ViewCount="12139" Body="&lt;p&gt;What was the size of Sugriva's army that fought against Ravana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the strength of Ravana's army?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What kind of weapons did the Vanaras use?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3241" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-07-11T22:18:37.250" LastActivityDate="2018-02-18T13:00:48.033" Title="What was the size of Sugriva's army that fought against Ravana alongside Rama?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|war|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7677" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="153" CreationDate="2015-07-01T07:53:32.027" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Evolution can be seen from 2 different aspects, the cosmic and the particular. From a particular standpoint I mean evolution as it occurs in man and in nature. Patanjali is his &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt; (IV. 2-3.) says that evolution is caused by the infilling of nature. Here are the two verses with the translation and commentary of Swami Vivekananda (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V1 pp 291-292, and here under the title of &lt;em&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The change into another species is by the filling in of nature.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Patanjali has advanced the proposition that these powers come by birth, sometimes by chemical means, or through mortification. He also admits that this body can be kept for any length of time. Now he goes on to state what is the cause of the change of the body into another species. He says this is done by the filling in of nature, which he explains in the next aphorism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Good and bad deeds are not the direct causes in the transformations of nature, but they act as breakers of obstacles to the evolutions of nature: as a farmer breaks the obstacles to the course of water, which then runs down by its own nature.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The water for irrigation of fields is already in the canal, only shut in by gates. The farmer opens these gates, and the water flows in by itself, by the law of gravitation. So all progress and power are already in every man; perfection is man's nature, only it is barred in and prevented from taking its proper course. If anyone can take the bar off, in rushes nature. Then the man attains the powers which are his already. Those we call wicked become saints, as soon as the bar is broken and nature rushes in. It is nature that is driving us towards perfection, and eventually she will bring everyone there. All these practices and struggles to become religious are only negative work, to take off the bars, and open the doors to that perfection which is our birthright, our nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Today the evolution theory of the ancient Yogis will be better understood in the light of modern research. And yet the theory of the Yogis is a better explanation. The two causes of evolution advanced by the moderns, viz sexual selection and survival of the fittest, are inadequate. Suppose human knowledge to have advanced so much as to eliminate competition, both from the function of acquiring physical sustenance and of acquiring a mate. Then, according to the moderns, human progress will stop and the race will die. The result of this theory is to furnish every oppressor with an argument to calm the qualms of conscience. Men are not lacking, who, posing as philosophers, want to kill out all wicked and incompetent persons (they are, of course, the only judges of competency) and thus preserve the human race! But the great ancient evolutionist, Patanjali, declares that the true secret of evolution is the manifestation of the perfection which is already in every being; that this perfection has been barred and the infinite tide behind is struggling to express itself. These struggles and competitions are but the results of our ignorance, because we do not know the proper way to unlock the gate and let the water in. This infinite tide behind must express itself; it is the cause of all manifestation. Competitions for life or sex-gratification are only momentary, unnecessary, extraneous effects, caused by ignorance. Even when all competition has ceased, this perfect nature behind will make us go forward until everyone has become perfect. Therefore there is no reason to believe that competition is necessary to progress. In the animal the man was suppressed, but as soon as the door was opened, out rushed man. So in man there is the potential god, kept in by the locks and bars of ignorance. When knowledge breaks these bars, the god becomes manifest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other evolution that is occurring is on the cosmic scale. Did intelligence evolve from non-intelligence or did intelligence come first? This is the classical chicken and egg problem - what came first the chicken or the egg? If you think in a straight line, then you are always going back infinitum. There were an infinite number of universes before our universe, adn there will be an infinite number after this universe is destroyed. Who can then say which is first? Swami Vivekananda comments on this (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V1 pp 252-253) in his lengthy commentary to another verse in Patanjali's &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt; (II. 19.) He says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Next &quot;the indicated only&quot; means the Buddhi, the intellect. &quot;The indicated only&quot; is the first manifestation of nature; from it all other manifestations proceed. The last is &quot;the signless&quot;. There seems to be a great difference between modern science and all religions at this point. Every religion has the idea that the universe comes out of intelligence. The theory of God, taking it in its psychological significance, apart from all ideas of personality, is that intelligence is first in the order of creation, and that out of intelligence comes what we call gross matter. Modern philosophers say that intelligence is the last to come. They say that unintelligent things slowly evolve into animals, and from animals into men. They claim that instead of everything coming out of intelligence, intelligence itself is the last to come. Both the religious and the scientific statements, though seeming directly opposed to each other are true. Take an infinite series, A—B—A—B —A—B. etc. The question is — which is first, A or B? If you take the series as A—B. you will say that A is first, but if you take it as B—A, you will say that B is first. It depends upon the way we look at it. Intelligence undergoes modification and becomes the gross matter, this again merges into intelligence, and thus the process goes on. The Sankhyas, and other religionists, put intelligence first, and the series becomes intelligence, then matter. The scientific man puts his finger on matter, and says matter, then intelligence. They both indicate the same chain. Indian philosophy, however, goes beyond both intelligence and matter, and finds a Purusha, or Self, which is beyond intelligence, of which intelligence is but the borrowed light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neither intelligence nor non-intelligence came first, Brahman came first. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-01T07:53:32.027" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7678" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7670" CreationDate="2015-07-01T08:19:28.257" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is another story :&#xA;Arjuna and Krishna are often referred to as Nara-Narayana in the Mahabharata and are considered part incarnations of Nara and Narayana respectively, according to the Bhagavata Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a previous life, the duo were born as the sages Nara and Narayana, and who performed great penances at the holy spot of Badrinath. Nara and Narayana were the Fifth Avatar of Lord Vishnu. The twins were sons of Dharma, the son of Brahma and his wife Murti (Daughter Of Daksha) or Ahimsa. They live at Badrika performing severe austerities and meditation for the welfare of the world. &lt;strong&gt;These two inseparable sages took avatars on earth for the welfare of mankind&lt;/strong&gt; .Legend has it that once Lord Shiva tried to bring the fame of Nara and Narayana before the entire world. To do that, he hurled his own potent weapon Paashupathastra at the meditating rishis. The power of their meditation was so intense that the astra lost its power before them. Lord Shiva stated that this happened since the duo were jnanis of the first order constantly in the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As it says they were inseparable, therefore Krishna stood with pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara-Narayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara-Narayana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3186" LastActivityDate="2015-07-01T08:19:28.257" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7679" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7675" CreationDate="2015-07-01T08:53:39.377" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Valmiki Ramayana, there were approximately &lt;strong&gt;90 crore&lt;/strong&gt; vanaras in Sugriva's army, and most of them used mace (&lt;strong&gt;gada&lt;/strong&gt;) as their weapon. Some even used &lt;strong&gt;fingernails&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;teeth&lt;/strong&gt; to fight Ravanas' army.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3224" LastActivityDate="2015-07-01T08:53:39.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7680" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="213" CreationDate="2015-07-01T10:16:23.683" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Great article. Very Informative. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I have come across is that many devotees don't know why they worship &lt;strong&gt;Lord Ganesha&lt;/strong&gt; before other deities. Many seem to know the legend behind the elephant head. Once Lord Shiva came to know who Ganesha was and in order to pacify his wife, Parvathi, Lord Shiva graced Ganesha with the boon that all the devotees will worship him before anyone else. Hence, he is considered to &lt;strong&gt;the God of new endeavors&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.ishtadevata.com/ganesha-god-new-endeavors.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Read More&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3204" LastActivityDate="2015-07-01T10:16:23.683" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7682" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7692" CreationDate="2015-07-01T10:38:30.450" Score="16" ViewCount="10217" Body="&lt;p&gt;All stories related to Lord Shiva I have read till now seem to be in the Satyayuga, Treta or Dwapara. The last one I heard is I think in Dwapara, when Lord Shiva was testing Arjuna. I want to know whether there are any stories related to Lord Shiva from the Kaliyuga also. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-09T23:56:24.060" LastActivityDate="2020-01-09T09:38:29.970" Title="Are there any stories related to Lord Shiva from the Kaliyuga?" Tags="|shiva|yuga|time|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7683" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-01T11:47:23.203" Score="-2" ViewCount="13576" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do Hindu religious scriptures strictly forbid worshiping and making idols/images of God?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who started making idols and images of God for the first time and why?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If God forbids making idols/images then why were these made and worshiped?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If God does not like his images or idols then why do you make these?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who is the ultimate authority in bringing such big changes in religion - man or God?&lt;br&gt;Who decides the way of worship - man or God?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are some references from Bhagavat Gita, Yajur Veda, Rig Veda and a few Upanishads that forbid worshiping idols and images of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavat Gita 7-[19-21]:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All those who do idol worship, All those who worship demigods are materialistic people. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita 7:20:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavat Gita 7-22:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Endowed with such a faith, he endeavors to worship a particular demigod and obtains his desires. But in actuality these benefits are bestowed by Me alone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purport: The demigods cannot award benedictions to their devotees without the permission of the Supreme Lord. The less intelligent living entity does not know this, and therefore he foolishly goes to the demigods for some benefit. But the pure devotee, when in need of something, pray only to the Supreme Lord. A living entity goes to the demigods usually because he is mad to fulfill his lust [for material things]. Devotional service to the Supreme Lord and the worship of a demigod cannot be on the same platform, because worship of a demigod is material and devotional service to the Supreme Lord is completely spiritual. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavat Gita 7-23:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme planet. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purport: Some commentators on the BG say that one who worships a demigod can reach the Supreme Lord, but here it is clearly stated that the worshipers of demigods go to the different planetary systems where various demigods are situated, just as a worshiper of the sun achieves the sun or a worshiper of the demigod of the moon achieves the moon. It is not that everyone, regardless of whatever demigod is worshiped, will reach the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is denied here, for it is clearly stated that the worshipers of demigods go to different planets in the material world but the devotee of the Supreme Lord goes directly to the supreme planet of the Personality of Godhead. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavat Gita 7-24:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ignorant believe that un-manifest Para Brahma (One God) incarnates or takes manifestations, because they do not completely understand My highest, immutable, incomparable, and transcendental existence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda 3:32:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Of that God you cannot make any images. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda 32:3:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;na tasya pratima asti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There is no image of Him.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  God is formless and bodiless&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda 40:8:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;shudhama poapvidham&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He is bodyless and pure.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  All those who worship the uncreated things, they are in darkness, and you'll enter more into darkness if you worship the created things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda 40:9:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Andhatama pravishanti ye asambhuti mupaste&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  They enter darkness, those who worship the natural elements (Air, Water, Fire, etc.)&#xA;  They sink deeper in darkness, those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example table, chair, idol, etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda, Vol.6,45:16:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is only One God, worship Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda, Vol.8,1:1:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All Praise are to Him alone&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad 6:2:1:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ekam evadvitiyam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He is One only without a second.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:19: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Na tasya pratima asti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There is no likeness of Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:20: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Na samdrse tisthati rupam asya, na caksusa pasyati kas canainam.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  His form is not to be seen; no one sees Him with the eye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad 6:9: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Na casya kascij janita na cadhipah.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Of Him there are neither parents nor lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3244" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-20T07:21:47.750" LastActivityDate="2016-01-20T11:27:52.667" Title="Does Hinduism forbid worshiping idols or images of God as some of its scriptures suggest?" Tags="|vedas|belief|bhagavad-gita|upanishads|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7684" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7683" CreationDate="2015-07-01T14:00:51.040" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his book, &lt;em&gt;Vivekananda: A Biography&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Nikhilananda relates a story about when Vivekananda met a Maharaja in Alwar in 1891. He says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Next, the Maharaja ridiculed the worship of images, which to him were nothing but figures of stone, clay, or metal. The Swami tried in vain to explain to him that Hindus worshiped God alone, using the images as symbols. The Prince was not convinced. Thereupon the Swami asked the Prime Minister to take down a picture of the Maharaja, hanging on the wall, and spit on it. Everyone present was horror struck at this effrontery. The Swami turned to the Prince and said that though the picture was not the Maharaja himself, in flesh and blood, yet it reminded everyone of his person and thus was held in high respect; likewise the image brought to the devotee's mind the presence of the Deity and was therefore helpful for concentration, especially at the beginning of his spiritual life. The Maharaja apologized for his rudeness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Idols are not God, they represent, they are symbols of God.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-01T14:00:51.040" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7686" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19799" CreationDate="2015-07-01T16:54:35.223" Score="11" ViewCount="597" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important in the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consist of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the son of Yama god of death and twin brother of the sage Nara. Among the oldest Pancharatra texts are the Satvata Samhita, Paushkara Samhita, and Jayakhya Samhita. But there is another Pancharatra text even older than those, and it's found within the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata! It's called the Narayaniya, and it is an 18-chapter religious dialogue between Yudishthira and Bhishma, similar to the Bhagavad Gita, another 18-chapter religious discourse between Krishna and Arjuna found in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Narayaniya section describes how three sages who were brothers, named Ekata, Dwita, and Trita, decided to go to the White Island in the middle of Vishnu's ocean of milk in order to see Vishnu.  They engaged in Tapasya for a long time, but Vishnu didn't appear before him.  Finally, Vishnu spoke to them as an invisible voice, and told them only those with true devotion could see him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Go hence, ye Munis, to the place whence ye have come. That great Deity is incapable of being ever seen by one that is destitute of devotion. Incapable of being seen in consequence of his dazzling effulgence, that illustrious Deity can be beheld by only those persons that in course of long ages succeed in devoting themselves wholly and solely to Him. Ye foremost of regenerate one, ye have a great duty to per-form. &lt;strong&gt;After the expiration of this the Krita age, when the Treta age comes in course of the Vivaswat cycle [Manvantara], a great calamity will overtake the worlds. Ye Munis, ye shall then have to become the allies of the deities (for dispelling that calamity).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, how did Ekata, Dwita, and Trita help the gods overcome &quot;a great calamity&quot; in a Treta Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manavantara?  We are currently living in the 28th Kali Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara, so this must have happened some time in the present Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only story I've heard involving these three sages is the story of how Trita was abandoned in a well by his brothers Ekata and Dwita, and got himself out by performing a Yagna in the bottom of the well, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shalya Parva of the Mahabharata.  (It's also alluded to in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01105.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this hymn&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda, which was heard from the gods by Trita as you can see in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know of any scriptures that describe them helping the gods in a time of calamity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-12-15T08:47:15.897" Title="How did sages Ekata, Dwita, and Trita help the gods in a calamity in the Treta Yuga?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7687" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7683" CreationDate="2015-07-01T17:52:24.813" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita 7- Verse 24&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayakta vyaktAmapanam manyantey maamabhuddhayaha!&#xA;Param bhavamajananto maamaavyayamanutamam !!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Not knowing my higher nature, immutable and unsurpassed, the ignorant think of me as an unmanifested entity who is now become manifest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Krishna is saying that fools and ignorant people do not know his higher nature, immutable and unsurpassed. They dont know that it is I (Krishna), who is worshipped through tne rites, who is Lord of all and whose nature is beyond speech and mind, that has incarnated as son of vasudeva, without abandoning my divine nature, out of supreme compassion for those who resort to me and in order that i may be refuge of all. They (fools) consider me as just a worldly prince who was not manifest before and who has now become manifest by karma and has secured a special form. Therefore, they dont resort to me, nor do they worship me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where does this verse say idol worship is invalid? In fact it is just saying the other way, i.e. fools deride Krishna as some prince, but in truth it he the unmanifest, unmuttable supreme who has manifested as Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;BG verse 19&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bahunaam janmanamantey jnanavan mam prapadhyatey !&#xA;Vasudevaha sarvamiti sa mahthma sudurlabaha!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning : At the end of many births, the man of knoqledge finds refuge in me, realising that VASUDEVA IS ALL. It is very hard to find such a great souled person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly BG verses 20, 21 doesnt talk about any idol worship being invalid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;None of the verses from BG verses 19-21 has got anything to do with invalidation of idol worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Infact, BG is clearly advocating saguna form of worship only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastActivityDate="2015-07-01T17:52:24.813" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7689" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-02T17:24:21.150" Score="5" ViewCount="217" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important in the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu. Since the Pancharatra texts originated from Narayana himself, they are followed by pretty much all Vaishnavas today.  But there was a time when some people, especially those of the Purva Mimamsa school, questioned the validity of the Pancharatra texts because they believed that the Vedas were the only legitimate Hindu scriptures. So as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6912/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the early Sri Vaishnava Acharya Yamunacharya composed a work called the Agama Pramanya to defend the scriptural authority of the Pancharatra texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Purva Mimamsa school believed that Vishnu was not competent to compose a scripture (!), because he wouldn' have the requisite knowledge to do so.  So in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Elqw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Agama Pramanya, Yamunacharya demonstrates the omniscience of Vishnu by quoting various scriptures which describe Vishnu as Paramatma or the supreme soul.  In particular, he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That He is the Supreme Soul we learn also from the statements of Dvaipayana [Vyasa], Parashara, Narada, and other great seers.  Thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Know thou, O tormentor of thy foes, that the entire world rests on Vishnu.  The great Vishnu creates the totality of creatures, moving and unmoving.  In him they go to their reabsorption, from Him they originate.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The glorious sage Narayana, without beginning or end, is the sovereign Lord.  He creates the creatures, those that stand still and those that move.  That he is the supreme Brahman is also learnt elsewhere.  Keshava, O best of the Bharatas, is the sovereign, the supreme soul, the entire universe: thus it stands revealed in many places of the scripture.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;For those who seek to know the supreme principle by many-sided reasonings Hari alone is the Principle, the great Yogin, Narayana the Lord.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures are these three quotes by sages from?  The second one is probably from the Mahabharata, since it says &amp;quot;O best of the Bharatas&amp;quot;, so it's probably someone addressing one of the Pandavas.  And the first quote may also be from the Mahabharata, since it says &amp;quot;O tormentor of thy foes&amp;quot;, so it's probably addressed to some king. Or they could be from the Srimad Bhagavatam, since it consists of a narration to Arjuna's son Parikshit. But where is the third quote from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone recognize any of these quotes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T06:56:31.667" Title="Where are the statements by sages praising Vishnu quoted by Yamunacharya?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7690" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7693" CreationDate="2015-07-02T21:50:55.060" Score="13" ViewCount="3939" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to many different scriptures (Vedas, Upanishads, Gita) that I have read, I am having a hard time understanding the general consensus for the path towards God-realization. Each book has a slightly different view. Is there any form of general consensus on the best past towards God-realization?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3251" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2015-07-22T05:30:02.613" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T16:23:59.347" Title="What is the best way to attain Moksha (God-realization) in Hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|upanishads|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7692" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7682" CreationDate="2015-07-03T06:01:28.003" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me preface this by saying that since most of our scriptures were composed or compiled by Vyasa at the end of the Dwapara Yuga or the beginning of the Kali Yuga, most descriptions of Shiva's activities in the Kali Yuga would be in the form of prophecies.  But here are at least some potential activities that Shiva may have done in the Kali Yuga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One thing we know for sure that Shiva did in the Kali Yuga was attend the wedding of Venkateshwara (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, aka Balaji or Srinivasa.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/NYLQ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Venkatachala Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then [Venkateshwara] proceeded towards Narayanapuri accompanied by Brahma, &lt;strong&gt;Isha [Shiva]&lt;/strong&gt;, Varuna, Yama, Yakshesha, Vasishta and other eminent sages, Sanaka and other Yogins as well as devotees and loyal followers of the Lord.  The chieftains of Gandharvas sang.  The groups of celestial damsels danced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And when Vishnu took a loan from Kubera to pay for the wedding expenses, Shiva was one of the witnesses, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/RDex&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Sthala Purana (temple scripture) of Tirupati (which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/753/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The entire Universe is at your beck and call.  All my money is yours.  I have no control over it.  You are its master&quot; said Kubera [to Vishnu].  Finally, Kubera agreed to lend the money required if the necessary document was executed by the debtor.  Brahma then dictated a promissory note. The note was executed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;This, the 7th day of the bright-fortnight of the month of Vysakha in Kaliyuga, The debtor is Srinivasa, the creditor is Dhaneswara.  Purpose: marriage of the loanee.  Amount of loan fourteen lakhs in Ramamudra coins.  The loanee should repay it with interest in one thousand years after the loanee's marriage.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;Brahma and Siva attested as witnesses.&lt;/strong&gt;  The scribe was the loanee himself.  After accepting the promissory note, Kubera paid the amount in cash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The loan was handled by another incarnation of Vishnu named Govindaraja, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/179/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  By the way, The &quot;one thousand years&quot; means years of the gods, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5253/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; it basically means that the period of the loan would be the entire Kali Yuga.  That is why the Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple in Tirupati created the custom of having an Hundi, a box where people could donate money in order to pay off the interest on Kubera's loan.  Of course, other temples realized that it was a valuable way to fund temple operations, and nowadays Hundia are a standard feature in Hindu temples.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many people believe that Adi Shankaracharya, the famous proponent of Advaita Vedanta, was an incarnation of Shiva.  Some people dispute this because of the story of Shiva appearing before Adi Shankaracharya as a Chandala.  But in any case, there are three quotes from Hindu scripture that various people cite as prophecies of Adi Shankaracharya.  The first is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.new1.dli.ernet.in/data8/upload/0256/420/PTIFF/00000253.tif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Kurma Purana, which describes the Kali Yuga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankara, Nilalohita, will take up incarnations for the purpose of establishing the Shrauta (Vedic) and Smarta (belonging to the Smritis) rites, with a desire for the welfare of his devotees.  He will teach his disiciples the knowledge pertaining to the Brahman.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then there are two quotes from the Padma Purana, which if genuine and if correctly identified with Adi Shankaracharya, would paint Advaita Vedanta in a negative light.  The first is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/B_Nn&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Padma Purana, where Vishnu says this to Shiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Being born in the ages like Dvapara and among men in the Kali Yuga make the people averse to me with the sacred texts prepared by you.  So also censure me so that the world become better and better.  I shall produce this delusion which will delude people.  You too, O mighty-armed Rudra, produce sacred texts that would delude people.  O you of great arms, produce (the texts) that are false and spurious.  Manifest thyself and keep me hidden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Genuine or not, I think it's possible that this verse is referring to Shiva's incarnation Lakukisha, whom I discuss below, rather than Adi Shankaracharya.  But in any case, by far the most famous quote that people claim to be a prophecy of Adi Shankaracharya is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/lcwa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttara Kanda of the Padma Purana, where Shiva says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu of the form of Buddha proclaimed the false Buddhist doctrine and those of the naked and wearing dark blue garments for the destruction of demons.  The doctrine of Maya (illusion) is a wicked doctrine and said to be pseudo-Buddhist. I myself, of the form of a brAhmana, proclaimed it in Kali (age).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It shows the meaninglessness of the words of the holy texts and is condemned&#xA;  in the world. In this (doctrine) only the giving up of one's own duties is&#xA;  expounded. And that is said to be religiousness by those who have fallen from all duties. I have propounded the identity of the Highest Lord and the&#xA;  (individual) soul. I stated this Brahman's nature to be qualityless. O goddess, I myself have conceived, for the destruction of the worlds, and for deluding the world in this Kali age, the great doctrine resembling the purport of the Vedas, (but) non-Vedic due to the principle of Maya (illusion) (present in it). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, Advaitins would dispute the authenticity of these verses, and I'm inclined to agree with them.  Still, there's an interesting analytical point here, which is that Advaita bears some similarity to Buddhist thought.  In fact, some scholars believe that Adi Shankaracharya's guru's guru Gaudapada was originally a Yogachara Buddhist, although as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7104/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; Advaita tradition identifies Gaudapada's guru as Vyasa's son Shuka.  In any case, for more information on how Vaishnavism views Advaita, see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6686/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Ixm9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shatarudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana, Shiva tells Brahma about his various Yogeshwara incarnations, which he takes once every Mahayuga.  Here is what he says about the present Mahayuga: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the twenty-eighth aeon of Dvapara, there will be Dvaipayana Vyasa, the son of Parashara ,and the most excellent of Purushas [Vishnu] shall be born as Krishna with his one-sixth part, as the foremost of the sons of Vasudeva. Then I too shall be born with the body of a Brahmachari and the soul of a Yogi by means of Yogic Maya to the great surprise of the worlds. On seeing a dead body forsaken in the cremation ground I shall enter into it and make it free from ailments by means of Yogic Maya for the welfare or Brahmins. Then I will enter the holy divine cavern of Meru along with you and Vishnu. O Brahma, I shall then be known as Lakulin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakulin, also known as Lakulisha, was a famous Shaivite thinker who introduced Pashupata, an ancient sect of Shaivism which among other things involves smearing ash all over your body; Shiva is described as the originator of the Pashupati vow in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b112.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c049.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it's not clear to me what Lakulisha's life story is, or whether he lived during the Dwapara Yuga or the Kali Yuga, that is why I asked &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2481/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me just add that apart from these three, there are probably other stories involving Shiva in the Kali Yuga. Just as the Alwars, the 12 Vaishnava poet-saints I discuss in my questions &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/alwar&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, are said to have encountered Vishnu on various occasions, I expect that if you looked at the life stories of the 63 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayanars&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nayanars&lt;/a&gt;, Shaivite poets living at about the same time, you may find stories of various run-ins with Shiva.  But I'm not sure if Hindu scripture contains any prophecies of the Nayanars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T14:25:58.720" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T14:25:58.720" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7693" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7690" CreationDate="2015-07-03T07:13:03.017" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many paths as there are many different temperaments of people and different understandings. There is no 'one' way. All the scriptures enjoin upon you to find your teacher - your teacher is the one that knows the path that is best suited for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/em&gt; (IV. 34):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Learn it by prostration, by inquiry, and by service. The wise, who have seen the Truth, will teach you that Knowledge&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankara says in his &lt;em&gt;Vivekachudmani&lt;/em&gt; (3.):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are three things which are rare indeed and are due to the grace of God--namely, a human birth, the longing for Liberation, and the protecting care of a perfected sage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to realize God, find your teacher. Finding your teacher and following his advice is the general consensus in all the scriptures of Hinduism as to how to realize God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-03T07:13:03.017" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7695" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-07-03T14:29:46.040" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-07-03T14:29:46.040" LastActivityDate="2015-07-03T14:29:46.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7696" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-07-03T14:29:46.040" Score="0" Body="Ekadasi is a day which comes twice in a lunar month. Many people maintain viradha, (not eat anything) on this day. It is a special day for vishnu." OwnerUserId="3254" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:54:08.143" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:54:08.143" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7697" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7690" CreationDate="2015-07-03T18:03:14.337" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sankaracharya&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;satsangatve nissangantvam; nissangatve nirmohatvam; nirmohatve&#xA;  nischala tatvam; nischala tatve jeevanmuktihi \&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;From the company of good people comes non-attachment, from&#xA;  non-attachment comes freedom from delusion, which leads to&#xA;  self-steadiness. From steadiness of the self comes salvation of the&#xA;  soul.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-07-05T05:03:13.837" LastActivityDate="2015-07-05T05:03:13.837" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7698" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13933" CreationDate="2015-07-04T02:22:20.133" Score="13" ViewCount="2045" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important to the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu.  Since the Pancharatra texts originated from Narayana himself, they're followed by pretty much all Vaishnavas today. But there was a time when some people, especially those belonging to the Purva Mimamsa school, questioned the validity of the Pancharatra texts because they believed the Vedas were the only legitimate Hindu scriptures. So as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6912/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the early Sri Vaishnava Acharya Yamunacharya, who was Ramanujacharya's guru's guru, composed a work called the Agama Pramanya to defend the scriptural authority of the Pancharatra texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Purva Mimamsa school believed that Vishnu is not competent to compose a scripture (!), because he would not have the requisite knowledge to do so. So in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/D4YX&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Agama Pramanya, Yamunacharya demonstrates the omniscience of Vishnu by quoting various scriptures which describe Vishnu as the supreme soul or Paramatma.  Some of these scriptures are Vaishnava texts like the Vishnu Purana and the Narasimha Tapaniya Upanishad, which you'd expect to speak favorably of Vishnu.  But interestingly, Yamunacharya also quotes the Linga Purana!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise in the Linga Purana,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Janardana is the sole spirit, the highest One, the Supreme Soul, from whom Brahma was born; from Him Rudra and from Him all the world.&amp;quot; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise in the Linga Purana,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;For there is no recourse ordained but Vishnu; this the Vedas constantly declare no doubt about it.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's shocking to me that the Linga Purana, a quintessentially Shaiva Purana, would praise Vishnu as the supreme soul and the only recourse ordained by the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, where exactly are these two quotes in the Linga Purana?  You can read the Linga Purana through the links in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/4142/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2021-05-05T21:44:52.303" Title="Where does the Linga Purana declare Vishnu to be the supreme soul?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|linga-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7700" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-04T09:50:30.467" Score="6" ViewCount="16341" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the method of calculating  &lt;strong&gt;Tithi, Vara, Nakshatra, Yoga&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Karana&lt;/strong&gt; AKA &lt;strong&gt;Panchanga&lt;/strong&gt;  of a specific day . Does anybody know it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please be in mind that I'm not asking any websites/apps for calculating panchanga , but I just want to know the mathematical formula/way of calculating panchanga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="187" LastEditDate="2015-07-06T06:29:08.437" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T12:20:33.690" Title="How to calculate Panchang?" Tags="|panchang|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7701" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-07-04T10:16:57.437" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;A panchanga  is a Hindu calendar and almanac, which follows traditional units of Indian timekeeping, and presents important dates and their calculations in a tabulated form. It is sometimes spelled &lt;em&gt;Pancanga, Panchanga, Panchaanga,&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Panchanga&lt;/em&gt;, and is pronounced Panchānga. Pachangas are used in &lt;em&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt; (Jyotiṣa).In Eastern India, including Assam, Bengal, Orisa the Panchangam is referred to as &lt;strong&gt;Panjika.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Panchangams are published in India by many learned authors, societies, academies, and universities. Different publications differ only minutely, at least for a casual or un-trained reader. They forecast celestial phenomena such as solar eclipses, forecast weather (rain, dryspells) as well as more mundane occurrences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The study of Panchangams involves understanding &lt;strong&gt;Rasi phala&lt;/strong&gt; (also pronounced 'Rashi phala'), the impact of the signs of the zodiac on the individual. Astrologers consult the Panchāngam to set auspicious dates for weddings, corporate mergers, and other worldly activities as per religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The actual casting of a Panchāngam involves elaborate mathematical work involving high level of spherical geometry and sound understanding of astronomical phenomena, such as sidereal movements of heavenly bodies. However, in practice the tabulation is done on the basis of short-cut formulations as propounded by ancient Vedic sages and scholars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A typical Panchangam may state tabulations of positions of Sun, Moon, and other planets for every day of the year on a fixed place (longitude, latitude) and time of day (in 24-hour format IST). The users calculate the remaining data using the their relative difference from this fixed place and time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are several panchangas that contain information for more than&#xA;  one year. There is one Vishvavijaya Panchāngam that is for 100 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The theories propounded in the two scriptures, Surya Siddhanta and Grahalaghava formed the basis for the myriad calendars or Panchāngas in the past in different regions of the country - a culturally complex system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Grahalaghava&lt;/em&gt; was compiled some &lt;strong&gt;600 years&lt;/strong&gt; ago and Surya Siddhanta was available ages before that. But these had become outdated and did not tally with actual astronomical events and did not tally with each other also. Hence, a committee was appointed by the Government of India with experts in the field drawn from various parts of the country who were involved with preparation of Panchangam in local languages to draw up a reliable Panchangam in which the mathematical calculations provides the positions of &lt;em&gt;grahas (the planets)&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;nakshatras (constellations)&lt;/em&gt; in the sky as they are observed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, the Government of India has prepared the National Panchanga or the &lt;em&gt;Indian national calendar in 1957&lt;/em&gt; (was proposed by Saha and Lahiri in 1952), which is used in predictive astrology. The &lt;em&gt;Lahiris Ephemeris&lt;/em&gt; published annually is the most widely used English almanac in Vedic astrology apart from the many Panchangas published in local languages, which are mostly based on the National Panchanga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The basic purpose of Hindu Panchāngam is to check various Hindu festivals and auspicious time (election- Muhurta). In the Hindu system of election, various element of Panchāngam constitute auspicious and inauspicious moments (Yogas) by combination of weekday-Tithi, weekday-constellation, weekdays-Tithis-constellations. In addition, individual weekdays, Tithis, constellations, Yoga and Karanas have been prescribed for specific activities which fructify during their currency.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;There are three popular meanings of panchangam:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Vedic astrology, meaning &quot;five attributes&quot; of the day. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tithi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tithi&lt;/a&gt; - Ending Moment (EM) of elongation of the Moon, the lunar day,&#xA;the angular relationship between Sun and Moon ( Apparent Moon minus&#xA;Apparent Sun). One Tithi equals 12 degree difference between Moon and&#xA;Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakshatra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nakshatra&lt;/a&gt; - EM of asterism of the day, that is, the stellar mansion&#xA;in which Moon is located for an observer at the center of the Earth.&#xA;One Nakshatra equals 13 degrees:20 minutes. There are 27 Nakshatra in&#xA;360 degrees.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yoga - EM of the angular relationship between Sun and Moon( Apparent&#xA;Moon plus Apparent Sun). One Yoga equals 13 degrees:20 minutes. There&#xA;are 27 Yogas in 360 degrees.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Karana - EM of half of a Tithi. One Karaṇa equals 6 degree difference&#xA;between Moon and Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weekday&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Var&lt;/a&gt; weekday the seven weekdays.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;An &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almanac&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;almanac&lt;/a&gt; that contains the astronomical / astrological daily details also came to be called a panchangam because of the importance of five attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Panchanga-pūjan, which is a part of Ganesh-Ambika-pujan.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Thithi&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;Lunar&lt;/strong&gt; day is an important concept in Hindu Astrology. It means &lt;strong&gt;lunation&lt;/strong&gt;. There are &lt;strong&gt;thirty Thithis&lt;/strong&gt; in a Lunar month distributed in the 360 degrees of the Zodiac and each Thithi is completed when the longitude of the &lt;em&gt;Moon&lt;/em&gt; gains exactly &lt;strong&gt;12 degrees&lt;/strong&gt; or its multiple on that of the Sun. By name there are only &lt;strong&gt;15 thithis&lt;/strong&gt; repeating in the two half’s of the month – &lt;em&gt;Shukla 1 to Shukla 15&lt;/em&gt; (known as &lt;em&gt;Poornima&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Full Moon&lt;/em&gt;) and &lt;strong&gt;Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; 1 to 15 (known as &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;New Moon&lt;/em&gt;). In astrological parlance Thithi has great significance in the fact that each Thithi from &lt;em&gt;1 to 14&lt;/em&gt; in both Pakshas has what are called &lt;em&gt;Daghda rasis&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Burnt Rasis&lt;/em&gt; – two rasis for each Thithi except &lt;em&gt;Chaturdasi&lt;/em&gt; which has &lt;em&gt;four Daghda rasis&lt;/em&gt;. But New Moon and Full Moon have no Dagdha Rasis. The Thithis are divided into five groups as under.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nanda (Ananda or Joyous) thithi - Prathipada (1st), Shasti (6th) and&#xA;Ekadashi (11th);&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhadra (Arogya or Mangala or Healthy) thithis on – Dwitiya (2nd),&#xA;Saptami (7th) and Dwadashi (12th);&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jaya (Victory) Thithi –Tuesday- Tritiya (3rd), Ashtami (8th ) and&#xA;Trayodashi (13th);&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rikktha (Loss or Nashta) Thitihis – Saturday - Chathurthi (4th)&#xA;Navami (9th) and Chaturdasi (14th);&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Poorna (Sampoorna - Full Moon or New Moon) Thithis –Thursday&#xA;Panchami (5th), Dashami (10th) and Amavasya (New Moon) or Poornima.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A unique Vedic system is followed in &lt;em&gt;Muhurtha Astrology, Horary Astrology&lt;/em&gt; and predictive astrology, which envisages grouping of Nakshtaras (Stars) into nine sub-groups. Each sub-group covers three stars and has a specific name of ‘&lt;strong&gt;Tara&lt;/strong&gt;’ proceeded by a word defining benefic or malefic nature. These are found to be extremely useful in Vedic Astrology which is widely practiced in India. The &lt;strong&gt;nine Taras&lt;/strong&gt; (Stars)by their individual names are elaborated below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Janma (Birth) Tara – The Janma (birth star) Nakshatra, the 10th from&#xA;Janma nakshatra also known as Karna nakshatra and the 19th from&#xA;Janma nakshatra known as Adhana nakshatra constitute this Tara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sampat Tara – The 2nd the 11th and the 20th Nakshatras counted from&#xA;Janma nakshatra constitute this Tara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vipat Tara – The 3rd, the 12th and the 21st stars counted from Janma&#xA;nakshatra constitute this Tara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kshema Tara – The 4th, the 13th and the 22nd Nakshatras counted from&#xA;the janama nakshatra constitute this Tara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pratyak Tara – The 5t, the 14th, and the 23rd nakshatras from Janma&#xA;nakshatra constitutes this Tara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sadhaka Tara – The 6th, the 15th, and the 24th nakshatras from Janma&#xA;nakshatra constitutes this tara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nidhana Tara – The 7th, the 16th, and the 25th nakshatras from the&#xA;Janma nakshatra constitutes this tara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mitra Tara – The 8th, the 17th and the 26th nakshatras from Janma&#xA;nakshatra constitute this tara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ati or Parama Mitra Tara – The 9th, the 18th and the 27th nakshatras&#xA;from Janma nakshatra constitutes this tara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Uses&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For selecting an auspicious moment Panchangam Shuddhi (purified-time) is fundamental. In addition favourable transits, purified ascendant, absence of malefic yogas, favourable Dasha (Hindu progression), name of doer, propitiations, chanting of Mantras, place of activity, social customs, omens, mode of breathing are also examined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="187" LastEditDate="2015-07-04T22:27:43.490" LastActivityDate="2015-07-04T22:27:43.490" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7702" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-07-04T10:16:57.437" Score="0" Body="A panchanga  is a Hindu calendar and almanac, which follows traditional units of Indian timekeeping, and presents important dates and their calculations in a tabulated form. It is sometimes spelled Pancanga, Panchanga, Panchaanga, or Panchānga, and is pronounced Panchānga. Pachangas are used in Jyotisha (Jyotiṣa)." OwnerUserId="187" LastEditorUserId="187" LastEditDate="2015-07-04T22:27:48.703" LastActivityDate="2015-07-04T22:27:48.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7703" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-04T14:56:45.217" Score="6" ViewCount="913" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras describes the Brahma Vidyas, 32 lessons found in various Upanishads which can each lead you to Brahman if you meditate on it. You can see the full list of 32 Vidyas &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6929/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the 32 Brahma Vidyas is known as the Panchagni Vidya, and it's found in the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads.  Among other things, it describes the path of souls going to Brahmaloka.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15095.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Brihadaranyaka Upanishads describes this journey:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who thus know this, and those who in the forest worship faith and the True, go to light (arkis), from light to day, from day to the increasing half, from the increasing half to the six months when the sun goes to the north, from those six months to the world of the Devas (Devaloka), from the world of the Devas to the sun, from the sun to the place of lightning. &lt;strong&gt;When they have thus reached the place of lightning a spirit comes near them, and leads them to the worlds of the (conditioned) Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; In these worlds of Brahman they dwell exalted for ages. There is no returning for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Sanskrit used to describe this spirit is Manasa, meaning created by the mind.  Now the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01104.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;description&lt;/a&gt; in the Chandogya Upanishad is virtually identical, except for one significant change:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who know this and those who in the forest follow faith and austerities go to light (arkis), from light to day, from day to the light half of the moon, from the light half of the moon to the six months when the sun goes to the north, from the six months when the sun goes to the north to the year, from the year to the sun, from the sun to the moon, from the moon to the lightning. &lt;strong&gt;There is a person not human, He leads them to Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; (the conditioned Brahman).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the Sanskrit word used is &quot;Amanava&quot; or not human, instead of &quot;Manasa&quot;.  So my question is, who is this being that escorts you to Brahmaloka?  And is he Amanava or Manasa or both?  Is it possible that the manuscripts of one of these Upanishads have an error, where the &quot;va&quot; was replaced by &quot;sa&quot; or vice versa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only information I have found on the identity of this being is &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=Zn4szeEn23IC&amp;amp;dq=archiradi%20amanava&amp;amp;pg=PA292#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;, which describes him as an incarnation of Vishnu who leads souls to Vishnu's highest abode of Paramapadam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From thence he proceeds to Paramapada through a dark spot in the sun.  Supreme wisdom attained by Yoga directs him along the Path and the Ativahikas, bearers in transit, lead him on; they are certain holy souls named Archi, Ahas, Purvapaksha, Uttarayana, Samvatsara, Aditya, Chandra, Vaidyuta, Varuna, Indra, Prajapati, and &lt;strong&gt;lastly an incarnation of Vishnu, named Amanava&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any scriptures that describe this being as an incarnation of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-01-18T03:18:25.990" Title="Who is the deity who escorts you to Brahmaloka?" Tags="|vishnu|upanishads|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|chandogya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7704" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4030" CreationDate="2015-07-04T19:12:28.643" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namasthe.  From an English translation of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; I read a while back....&#xA;In every Manvantara, before the beginning of Kali yuga (at end of Dvâpara Yuga), Sri Maha Vishnu takes the avatar of Veda Vyasa.   Since, the people in Kali Yuga do not have the patience or longivity, etc to realize God, he simplifies the sacred texts by dividing the (one) Veda into four parts and expounding the Purânas duly to preserve the religion. &#xA;In other words, these texts are written at a specific point in the yuga cycle and then re-written.   So I assume updates do happen.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a philosphical note (personal comment), Puranas which document the deeds of Gods should be interpreted with help of a learned person.  So it is not the comprehensiveness of all the deeds of God, but rather the divinty of those deeds which need to be internalized and meditated on and dovetailed with Yogic (Bhagavad Gita) way of living.  So if the deeds are enough to move your heart to love God, then I feel there is no need to keep appending.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3260" LastActivityDate="2015-07-04T19:12:28.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7706" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-05T09:55:03.270" Score="3" ViewCount="161" Body="&lt;p&gt;I´m writing an article about pictures of afterlife/heaven in different religions. As I understood, Moksha is the biggest destination in Hinduism. But I wasn´t able to find pictures, paintings etc. of Moksha.&#xA;Are there pictures of Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3263" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-07-06T16:29:25.740" LastActivityDate="2015-07-06T16:29:25.740" Title="Are there pictures/paintings of moksha?" Tags="|moksha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7709" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2117" CreationDate="2015-07-05T11:07:20.793" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=5262&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;an excellent article&lt;/a&gt; on animal sacrifice in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bali&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bali&lt;/a&gt; (Indonesia) on the &lt;em&gt;Hinduism Today&lt;/em&gt; magazine website. It is from the April/May/June 2012 issue and is titled &lt;em&gt;The Reality of Animal Sacrifice&lt;/em&gt;. The article states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Animal sacrifice, called bhuta yajna in Sanskrit and caru in Balinese, is widely accepted in Bali--much more than in India. No report on Balinese Hinduism would be complete without addressing the issue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I did not witness this practice during my two-week stay, which included visits to many of the most prominent temples, but nearly everyone I spoke with supported it. However, priest Ida Rsi made it clear that this is not an everyday occurrence; rather, it is limited to certain occasions: &quot;It is a special ceremony, performed only during special pujas, such as temple festivals and new year festivities. It is not a part of daily puja.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Strong Local Tradition&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indian-born Puneet Malhotra, a resident of Bali for seven years, owns the Queen's Tandoor restaurant in Kuta. He shares his experience: &quot;Animal sacrifice is done in a big way here, close to the culture prevailing in Bengal. When we opened our restaurant, Balinese Hindu priests conducted the ceremony, which began with killing and burying a dog out in front. Then a pig was roasted, grilled, worshiped and buried. They killed fifty chickens, burying them in the various corners of the building. I had requested all of this not be done, but I was told it had to be done according to the local traditions, that animal sacrifice is an integral part of any big ceremony. We had to follow the customs; we were told that if we did not, and something untoward were to happen later on, we would be blamed for it.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In his book &lt;em&gt;Bali: Sekala and Niskala&lt;/em&gt;, journalist Fred Eiseman, Jr., explains the basic philosophical premise: &quot;In the Hindu faith, one must take the bad with the good, and while the Gods must be worshiped, the demons--in respect for their great power--must be placated. And the demons, the leering and fanged bhutas and kalas, have great and gross appetites.&quot; He describes the range in magnitude of sacrifices: &quot;Caru range from a fairly simple offering requiring the sacrifice of a single chicken, to elaborate ceremonies involving the slaughter of dozens of animals.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While most Indian Hindus oppose animal sacrifice (and eating meat) based on the prevailing Hindu principle of ahimsa, nonviolence, only a few Balinese Hindus seem to share this view. From students to high priests, nearly everyone I interviewed endorsed animal sacrifice, believing it leads to the attainment of a human birth for the animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ida Rsi disclosed, &quot;I have a book by Romila Thapar. She is not liked in India, and people say she is wrong. But I find her to be correct. She mentions that in ancient times, Hindu kings and nobles ate beef, though only on special occasions. This practice continues in Bali until now, where beef is offered as part of our big ceremony every hundred years and smaller ceremonies every ten years.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I felt compelled to ask about the sacredness of the cow, an idea that is so strong in India. If cows are sacred, shouldn't they be protected instead of sacrificed? Prof. Phagunadi responded, &quot;We are not as strict about the cow as you are in India. In Bali, the cow is treated as a holy animal, but not as a sacred animal. We consider holy and sacred to be different. Holy means something we respect. Sacred means something we cannot touch.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Phagunadi continued, &quot;Hinduism in Bali is most ancient. Here we practice Tantric Saiva Siddhanta, as opposed to the Vedantic Saiva Siddhanta of India. Most of our temples are tantric, and that is the reason we carry out animal sacrifice.&quot; He elaborated on the local customs: &quot;We follow Durga and Siva, who are two sides of the same coin. We worship Durga if we want something magical. She is extremely popular in Bali, and every home worships Her every fifteen days with animal sacrifice. Every hundred years we have to perform the Ekadasa Rudra festival in which more than 200 kinds of animals are offered.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though most people I interviewed avoided this question, I gathered that a family may typically offer between five and two /dozen animals per year in various ceremonies, according to its means, to say nothing of the animals they eat without formally sacrificing them. With a population just under four million, any number must pale in comparison to the 59 billion animals killed in 2009 to feed the US's population of 312 million.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedic Controversy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Proponents of animal sacrifice usually cite the &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt;, the oldest of Hinduism's revealed scriptures. Certain of its verses could be interpreted to support the practice, but scholars differ: Should those words be taken literally, or do they have a deeper, mystical meaning?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some Vedic commentators, such as Udgita, Ananda Tirtha, Atmananda and Sayana, refer to &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt; verse 10.86.14, in which Indra says, &quot;They cook for me 15 plus 20 oxen,&quot; and verse 8.43.11, which describes Agni as one whose food is the ox and the barren cow. These verses, they say, mean that these animals should be offered in yajnas. Vedic-Agamic scholar and priest Dr. S.P. Sabharathnam Sivachariyar says these verses should not be interpreted literally. He asserts that the true meaning is symbolic: &quot;The tenth mandala of the Rig Veda states that the words of the Veda mantras are concealed words, encapsulating deeper meanings. Therefore the reader should never take the meaning literally.&quot; Hinduism is full of symbolism, perhaps more than any other religion; and Dr. Sabharathnam explains that various animals mentioned in the context of sacrifices are actually representative of our inner faculties, qualities, emotions and external and internal organs. &quot;Killing a horse refers to suppressing the human/animal side of our life-energy and transmuting it to the Divine. Similarly in all other contexts.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pandit Vamadeva Shastri amplifies the mystical viewpoint: &quot;The Vedic yajna has an inner side, with the offerings of speech, mind and prana, such as outlined in the fourth chapter of the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt;, and as reflected in many Vedic mantras. The practice of yoga itself arose from the inner sacrifice.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Along these lines, Sabharathnam offers an alternate translation for one of the above-mentioned verses: &quot;Agni, who maintains the order of the universe and the inner faculties of the human body, makes the ox (pingala nadi, the human masculine-aggressive current) and the cow (ida nadi, the feminine passive-emotional current) his tools and bears the soma-delight (attainable in the sahasrara chakra) on his back (to distribute it to the seekers).&quot; As a whole, he maintains, the hymn is speaking to the aspirant about deeply mystical practices. &quot;No doubt the literal translation starts 'Agni whose food is the ox and the barren cow...' but this is not correct according to the context of the hymn.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Agamas do not prescribe animal sacrifice. Sabharathnam asks, &quot;How is it that one set of revelations (Agamas) do not speak of animal sacrifice, while another set of revelations (Vedas) from the same Lord could? The &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt; itself states that the Veda mantras should be understood against the background of the Agamas. The two sets of scriptures complement each other.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vamadeva adds, &quot;It would be wrong to say that the Vedas do not allow any animal sacrifice. However, animal sacrifice was generally regarded as an inferior sacrifice for less-evolved souls, in whom the gunas [qualities] of rajas [agitation] and tamas [lethargy] are still powerful. For those of inner vision, more sattvic [pure] in nature, the animal was symbolic of certain states of mind to be offered to the Deity. So, it is also wrong to say that the Vedas had a high regard for animal sacrifice and thought it to be equal to the other types of sacrifice.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sabharathnam remarks, &quot;I am not saying that sacrifices were not conducted externally. The grains, vegetables, plants, sweets and other such items the Vedas enjoin us to sacrifice should be considered representative of the animals. It was never the actual animals that were intended to be sacrificed. It was in this way that the Vedic yajnas were conducted in the earlier periods, before the Brahmanas and Aranyakas were written. Certain Vedic pandits took the literal meaning and wrote treatises prescribing the sacrifice of actual animals. Unfortunately, their writings were widely read, and genuine yajnas came to be considered a lesser form of worship.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vamadeva points out the rarity of references to animal sacrifice in the Vedas: &quot;Of substance-based offerings, dairy products like ghee and milk are the most common, and Soma, which usually had a plant basis, is said to be the highest of all offerings. Actual references to animal sacrifices in Vedic texts do exist but are relatively rare. I have found no more than a handful of such potential references in the entire Rig Veda, whereas offerings of ghee, honey and Soma can be found in great abundance.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Sabharathnam, the &lt;em&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; established that the Vedic sacrifices are intended to be spiritual, that they do not involve the killing of animals. &quot;In fact, many Upanishads were the result of sages' efforts to expose the spiritual side of the Vedic yajnas, to be performed internally.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Historical Perspective&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Phagunadi maintains, &quot;Animal sacrifice is right as per the Vedas. It is discussed in the Mahabharata as well. Orthodox [ancient] Hinduism is completely different than what Hindus practice in India now.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swami Harshananda's &lt;em&gt;A Concise Encyclopaedia of Hinduism&lt;/em&gt; offers this opinion: &quot;Sacrificing an animal to please a supernatural Deity is a common feature found in many cultures, including that of Hinduism, during the early part of their development. Though formal animal sacrifices of the early Vedic period gradually lost their importance, due to the reformatory movements of the Upanishadic sages, Jainism and Buddhism, a new type of animal sacrifice got into the fabric of Hinduism during later ages as aboriginal cultures got integrated into the Hindu fold. The Deity was invariably an aspect of Durga or Kali and the rituals were very simple. Buffaloes, goats, sheep and cockerels were the usual sacrificial victims. It was believed that these victims would go to heaven.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hinduism came to Bali 1,200-1,500 years ago. At that time, the practice of animal sacrifice may have been more prevalent in India than it is now. According to Vamadeva, animal sacrifice occurs today not only in Bali but in the Himalayas, Assam and the northeast of India, as well parts of Orissa and Bengal, Nepal and a few places in Panjab.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dwi Rupini Andayani, Ida Rsi's daughter, concludes, &quot;I visited India as a small child with my father in 1999 and have taken around twenty tour groups there in recent years. The Indian way of worshiping is mainly different from ours in that they do not have such an elaborate system of offerings, including the rituals of animal sacrifice. In some ways, Bali's Hinduism is closer to that of Nepal than of India.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-25T20:36:24.963" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T20:36:24.963" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7710" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8605" CreationDate="2015-07-06T06:15:13.063" Score="15" ViewCount="13222" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read the Mahabharata and it seems that unrighteous behaviour or adharma is followed by Krishna in many places, but most people do not care about Krishna's character/behaviour and righteousness, because he is a god. I know that Duryodhana and his colleagues should have been killed because of their character plot, but how can people say that Krishna is good-God (one with righteous behaviour), and follows dharma? Shouldn't He be called 'adharma' God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have listed below few instances of inappropriate behaviour of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The characters mentioned below were killed not as per rule/tradition/dharma, and all of it was planned by Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Killing of Jarasandha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Killing of Drona&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Killing of Karna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Killing of Bhisma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Killing of Duryodhana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2864" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-14T15:36:33.317" LastActivityDate="2021-11-05T23:08:55.503" Title="Should Krishna be considered good or bad?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|dharma|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7711" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7715" CreationDate="2015-07-06T06:27:59.700" Score="8" ViewCount="4776" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, Yudhisthira was true of character in all his life, except when he obeyed krishna's word. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why Yudhisthira went to hell? &#xA;    Will a true/good person be tested until he follows untruth? &#xA;    Will a good person be punished until his death? &#xA;    If yes, why one has to follow truth- to fall in hell? even duriyodhana was in heaven at the time Yudhisthira was in hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2864" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-07T07:46:34.420" LastActivityDate="2021-05-23T21:31:40.687" Title="Why Yudhisthira went to hell?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7712" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-06T07:53:38.383" Score="0" ViewCount="71" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, we see that Pandava brothers have suffered a lot. Even when they were suppose to rule, they had to spend their large part of life in forests or fighting their own cousins or family members or watching their sons getting killed. I wonder why they had to suffer this much. Do they have any previous births and they were redeeming for the bad karmas of their previous birth. Till now I only know of only Arjuna's previous birth, ie, Sage Nara from Nara-Narayan duo. But in that life too, I don't think he has done any evil. Do we have any reference to previous births of other Pandava brothers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2015-07-06T07:53:38.383" Title="Do we have any information about previous births of Yudishthir, Bheem, Nakul and Sehdev?" Tags="|mahabharata|karma|pandavas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2015-07-06T16:06:42.663" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7713" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7690" CreationDate="2015-07-06T11:53:32.123" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The best way to attain the God- realisation which i presume you mean is one attaining self-realisation is as mentioned by the great realised soul &quot;Sri Ramana Maharishi&quot; of Arunachala, South India is to realise your true &quot;I&quot;. The usual &quot;I&quot; we are aware of and which is asking all these questions and which we identify ourselves with the gross world is a result of false identification with ego &quot;I&quot;. Sri Ramana Maharishi quoted several times in &quot;Talks with Ramana Maharishi&quot; that ‘Who Am I?’ I am pure Awareness. This Awareness is by its very nature Being-Consciousness-Bliss (Sat-Chit-Ananda).However, this is not a state according to ramana maharishi which needs to be attained as all are in that state only but all that is needed from each is to trace the root of ego. Once you start the self enquiry &quot;Who am I&quot; and not let any other though wander in the mind you can attain the self realisation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each time one gets any other thought , one is required to carefully question mind &quot;from where does this thought arise&quot; and seek its root. This technique is very clearly mentioned in &quot;Who Am I&quot; a book composed by Sivaprakasham Pillai who once asked Ramana Maharishi series of questions about atma Jnana and Atma Vichara, Nature of humans and the responses are published in the book. If you can google for &quot;ramana maharshi who am i pdf&quot; you would get a free pdf.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the same is mentioned in Suta Samhita of Skanda Puranam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To conclude as mentioned by Ramana Maharishi ... &#xA;&quot; Silence is the true upadesa. It is the perfect upadesa. It is suited only for the most advanced seeker. The others are unable to draw full inspiration from it. Therefore, they require words to explain the truth. But truth is beyond words; it does not warrant explanation. All that is possible is to indicate It. How is that to be done?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3252" LastActivityDate="2015-07-06T11:53:32.123" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7714" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-06T12:42:02.300" Score="2" ViewCount="3809" Body="&lt;p&gt;The god in the Ahobila temple is called 'Malolan'. Can someone with the knowledge of Sanskrit enlighten me on what the word means?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3267" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-08T04:49:03.950" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T07:36:37.660" Title="What is the meaning of the name 'Malolan'?" Tags="|temple|sanskrit|name|narasimha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7715" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7711" CreationDate="2015-07-06T13:02:48.597" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yudhishthir was taken to hell and had heard all his brothers, wife and sons screaming out of pain there but that was just an illusion created by the Gods only for a small amount of time so that he suffers a bit mentally and due to that his only sin of being untruthful at the time of Drona's killing, can be redeemed. According to Chapter 5 of Mahabharata's Swargarohanika Parva, following is what is told to Yudhishthir after he sees his brothers, wife, etc suffering in hell:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O son of Pritha, thy brothers, O king, were not such as to deserve Hell. All this has been an illusion created by the chief of the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O king, that desirous of doing thee good, I caused thee to be sent for having a view of Hell. Thou hadst, by a pretence, deceived Drona in the matter of his son. Thou hast, in consequence thereof, been shown Hell by an act of deception. After the manner of thyself, Bhima and Arjuna, and Draupadi, have all been shown the place of sinners by an act of deception. Come, O chief of men, all of them have been cleansed of their sins. All those kings who had aided thee and who have been slain in battle, have all attained to Heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Duryodhana, he has in heaven not because he has been untruthful, but because it is said that if a Kshatriya dies while fighting in a battle, he attains heaven because this is Kshatriya dharma. He died during battle performing his duties therefore he was ought to get heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-07-06T13:02:48.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7716" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-06T13:10:01.470" Score="1" ViewCount="232" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sada Shiva is eternal . Sada shiva and lalitha devi are parents of Universe.&#xA;At the start of every kalpan Vishnu borns .From Vishnu brahma borns. From brahma's anger rudra(incarnation of shiva.) emerges from his forehead.&#xA;Brahma has life span of 100 brahma years (each brahma day is a kalpa).&#xA;Vishnu has a life of 1000 brahma life spans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sada Shiva is eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3142" LastActivityDate="2015-07-07T06:46:47.997" Title="Sada shiva is eternal" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2015-07-07T07:45:04.327" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7717" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7714" CreationDate="2015-07-06T14:59:15.733" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;It means &quot;beloved of Lakshmi&quot; as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ahobilamutt.org/us/information/visitingahobilam.asp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in the official website of Ahobilam Matam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nearly two kilometres from the main temple of Upper Ahobilam, is the famous shrine of Malola Narasimha Swamy. The deity here appears in 'soumya' (graceful) form. As Lord Narasimha is seen with his consort, Lakshmi, He is known as Malola Narasimha Swamy. &lt;strong&gt;The word 'Malola' means beloved to Lakshmi (Ma=Lakshmi, Lola= beloved).&lt;/strong&gt; It is said that the 'utsavamoorthi' of the Lord appeared to Srimath Adivan Satakopa Jeeyar, the first Jeeyar of Ahobila Mutt. Right from the founder, i.e., the first Jeeyar of Ahobila Mutt down to the 44th pontiff, Srivan Satakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatheendra Mahadesika, the present jeeyar, the utsavamoorthi of Malola Narasirnha Swamy is worshipped and it is taken by them whenever they are on religious tours, visiting the villages every year. Recently, the 45th Jeeyar Srivan Satakopa Sri Narayana Yatheendra Mahadesikan has taken over the worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2015-07-06T14:59:15.733" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7719" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7716" CreationDate="2015-07-07T06:35:08.893" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Depends upon various sects of hinduism, some belief that vishnu is eternal, some believe shiva and some that lalitha devi is eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;however one common term used for eternal one is saguna brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;by the way what is &quot;kalpan&quot; is it equal to 100kalpa(1 brhma life)x1000  ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sources&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna in Mahabharata,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The ancestors&#xA;  of civilization, and entities such as Shiva, were created by Me. They&#xA;  do not know of this because they are illusioned by My cosmic material&#xA;  energies.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;also&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Neither the hosts of gods nor the great sages know My origin or&#xA;  opulences, for, in every respect, I am the source of the gods and&#xA;  sages. He who knows Me as the unborn, as the beginningless, as the&#xA;  Supreme Lord of all the worlds – he only, undeluded among men, is&#xA;  freed from all sins.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;but no doubt some sects may believe krishna himself was illusioned as eternal and was came from lalita-sadasiva as you say.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3272" LastEditorUserId="3272" LastEditDate="2015-07-07T06:46:47.997" LastActivityDate="2015-07-07T06:46:47.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7720" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-07T05:35:54.127" Score="3" ViewCount="1766" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to the original couplet for Bhavabhuti's &#xA;Time is infinite, Earth is big.&#xA;Thank you&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="A.B.Kundargi" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-07T16:07:51.037" LastActivityDate="2015-08-08T17:44:52.413" Title="What is Bhavabhuti's original Sanskrit quotation &quot;Time is infinite,earth is huge&quot;?" Tags="|history|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7721" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7751" CreationDate="2015-07-07T07:03:04.203" Score="7" ViewCount="1340" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we go through various sections of the Mahabharata, we can see that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Although it's not encouraged, a Kshatriya can force sex upon a woman and marry her as explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/924/2995&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/916/does-hinduism-forbid-sexual-intercourse-before-marriage&quot;&gt;Does Hinduism forbid sexual intercourse before marriage?&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sages state that the first four are approved (in the case) of a Brahmana, one, the Rakshasa (rite in the case) of a Kshatriya, and the Asura (marriage in that) of a Vaisya and of a Sudra. But in these (Institutes of the sacred law) three of the five (last) are declared to be lawful and two unlawful; the Paisaka and the Asura (rites) must never be used. &lt;strong&gt;For Kshatriyas those before-mentioned two rites, the Gandharva and the Rakshasa, whether separate or mixed, are permitted by the sacred tradition.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So &quot;the sages&quot;, whoever they are, apparently say that the Gandharva marriage is forbidden for everyone, but the Manu Smriti is saying that they're wrong, and that &lt;strong&gt;a Gandharva marriage is actually permitted for Kshatriyas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A Kshatriya will go to heaven if he dies fighting in battle no matter which side he was on, as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7715/2995&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7711/why-yudhisthira-went-to-hell&quot;&gt;Why Yudhisthira went to hell?&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Regarding Duryodhana, he was in heaven not because he has been&#xA;  untruthful, but because it is said that if a Kshatriya dies while&#xA;  fighting in a battle, he attains heaven because this is Kshatriya&#xA;  dharma. He died during battle performing his duties therefore he was&#xA;  ought to get heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,  in general, is Hinduism a bit partial to Kshatriyas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2021-11-01T13:18:07.960" Title="Is Hinduism a bit partial to Kshatriyas?" Tags="|mahabharata|marriage|dharma|kshatriya|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7722" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7720" CreationDate="2015-07-07T08:07:58.353" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's from verse 19 of Bhavabhuti's Subhashita, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_subhaashita/yavarga1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ye nAma kechidiha prathayanyavaGYAm.h&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jAnantu te kimapi tAnprati naishha yatnaH |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;utpasyate sati mama ko.api samAnadharmA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kAlo hyaya.n niravadhirvipulA cha pR^ithvI ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gist of it is that even if the present reader doesn't appreciate his work, space and time are infinite so at some point the work will find its intended audience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-07-07T08:07:58.353" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7723" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23869" CreationDate="2015-07-07T09:57:46.720" Score="9" ViewCount="3422" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have 4 major caste in Hinduism, ie Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. Is there any rulebook present in Hinduism (and I am sure there must be) which lays down the rights, permissions, rules and duties for Kshatriyas. Also, is the present days caste 'Khatri' actually the same Kshatriya caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-30T06:54:49.410" LastActivityDate="2018-01-30T08:36:02.653" Title="What were the set of rights, permissions, duties or rules prescribed for Kshatriya caste?" Tags="|caste-system|dharma-shastras|varna|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7724" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-07T10:08:59.457" Score="8" ViewCount="1896" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, why is it forbidden to marry a person with the same Gotra? Is it mentioned in the scriptures somewhere? Does it make sense to overlook the restrictions in today's world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="298" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-27T19:48:23.087" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T19:48:23.087" Title="Why is it forbidden to marry a person with the same Gotra?" Tags="|practice|marriage|caste-system|ancestry|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7725" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-07T10:48:04.033" Score="3" ViewCount="935" Body="&lt;p&gt;How many people survived the great war in the Mahabharata? Obviously, the Pandavas, Krishna, Ashwaththama, Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Draupadi come to mind. Are these the only ones?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="298" LastActivityDate="2017-05-14T13:47:24.537" Title="Who were the people who survived the Kurukshetra war?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7726" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-07T13:08:04.500" Score="3" ViewCount="13126" Body="&lt;p&gt;As a follow-up to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/418/what-is-the-significance-of-the-janeva-sacred-thread&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, why does the number of threads in Yagnopaveetham increase to six after marriage? Does it also increase with each child born? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are these guidelines present in our scriptures? It will be helpful if you could cite them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="298" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-05-21T09:27:42.753" Title="Why have six threads after marriage in Yagnopaveetham (Poonal or Janeu)?" Tags="|rituals|practice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7727" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-07T13:16:08.730" Score="9" ViewCount="7370" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/418/what-is-the-significance-of-the-janeva-sacred-thread&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; it is said that the three strands of the poonal signify the debts to parents, teachers and sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so, aren't these debts also meant for women?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is it that women do not wear Poonal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="298" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T09:29:19.590" Title="Why do women not wear Yagnopaveetham (Janeu or Poonal)?" Tags="|practice|women|customs|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7729" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-07T17:34:29.827" Score="16" ViewCount="1976" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras describes the Brahma Vidyas, 32 lessons found in the various Upanishads which can each lead you to Brahman if you meditate upon them. You can see the full list of 32 Vidyas &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now one of the 32 Brahma Vidyas is known as the Madhu Vidya, or &quot;honey wisdom&quot;. It's found in the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads, and it has the power to bring a person back from the dead.  The story of the Madhu Vidya is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44117.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda.  The sage Dadhichi, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2527/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, knew the Madhu Vidya, and Indra threatened to cut off his head if he ever revealed it to anyone else.  But the Ashwini Kumaras, the twin gods who were the fathers of Nakula and Sahadeva, were eager to learn it, so they conspired with Dadhichi to replace Dadhichi's head with a horse head.  Then Dadhichi with a horse head taught the Ashwini Kumaras the Madhu Vidya.  When Indra found out about this he was furious, so he cut off Dadhichi's horse head.  Then the Ashwini Kumaras replaced it with his human head, using the Madhu Vidya to bring him back to life.   It is ultimately because of the Ashwini Kumaras that the Madhu Vidya became publicly available in the Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about how the Madhu Vidya was passed down before Dadhichi.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15063.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;47&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dadhyak [Dadhichi] Âtharvana [learned it] from Atharvan Daiva,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Atharvan Daiva from Mrityu Prâdhvamsana,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mrityu Prâdhvamsana from Prâdhvamsana,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prâdhvamsana from Ekarshi,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ekarshi from Viprakitti &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Viprakitti from Vyashti,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vyashti from Sanâru,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sanâru from Sanâtana,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sanâtana from Sanaga,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sanaga from Parameshthin,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Parameshthin from Brahman,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahman is Svayambhu, self-existent.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adoration to Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it looks like Dadhichi learned the Madhu Vidya from his ancestor Atharvan, another name for the sage Bhrigu. But who is this &quot;Mrityu Pradhavamsana&quot; that Bhrigu learned it from?  Mrityu means death and Pradhavamsana means destroyer, so did Bhrigu learn it from Yama god of death?  And who is this &quot;Ekarishi&quot;, which means &quot;one sage&quot;, that Pradhvamsana learned it from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then Ekarishi learned it from Viprachitti, who was a demon that Indra killed.  And Viprachitti learned it from someone named &quot;Vyashti&quot;, who learned it from the Sanatkumaras, who learned it from Brahma, who learned it from Vishnu.  But who is this Vyashti who learned it from the Sanatkumaras and taught it to the demon Viprachitti?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures that describe who all these people are?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2019-08-15T14:01:30.180" Title="How was the Madhu Vidya passed down before Dadhichi?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|vedanta|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7731" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3523" CreationDate="2015-07-08T01:13:27.647" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In India people celebrate New Years in different days of a year. But most of these festivals coincide with specific days either during Harvest festivals or in March-April belt, Holi or Diwali. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is an incomplete list of New Year Days celebrated across various Indian states.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Belt 1:&lt;/strong&gt; Holi – Phalguna Pournami (15 days before Ugadi) – In M.P, Rajastan, Bihar, U.P, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Belt 2&lt;/strong&gt;: Ugadi/GudiPadwa/SajibuNongmaPanba,Cheiraoba/Navreh/ Thapna/ Chaitti  – celebrated on  Chaitra Suddha Padyami – sometimes coincides with 1st day of Spring accross the world – Karnataka, AP, Telangana/Maharashtra, Goa/Manipur/Hindus of J&amp;amp;K/Marwari people of Rajasthan, Haryana, most of the people in H.P.&#xA;Cheti Chand – one day after Ugadi – Celebrated as New Year by Sindhis.&#xA;Interestingly, Neypi is the new year of Balanese people in Indonesia which falls on the same day as Ugadi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Belt 3:&lt;/strong&gt; Bihu/ Puthnadu/Vishu/Mahabishuba Sankranti/Vaisakhi/Jude-Sheetal/Poila Boishakh– April 14th, 15th -  in Assam/ T.N/ Kerala/ Orissa/ Punjab, Haryana/ Maithili people in Nepal and India/ West Bengal and Bangladesh&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All those states which have a culture of following Solar calendar (T.N, Kerala, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam, etc.), have their new year in Mid-April. The 3rd belt as shown above. &#xA;This calendar is followed in few other Asian countries hence this day also coincides with the traditional new year in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Thailand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All  those whose follow lunisolar calendar, which majority of India follows, have new year as shown above in belt 1, belt 2, belt 4. But why does these dates differ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is because, though everybody following lunisolar calendar, it is either based on Vikrama samvatsaram (Bikram Samvat) started by king Vikramaditya or the Shaka samwat started by king Shalivahana so the day they regard as first day is different. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Differences:&#xA;Saka Samvat and Vikram Samvat are two commonly used calendars in India. Saka Samvat has been adopted as an official civil calendar by India. Saka Samvat starts from 78 AD, whereas Vikram Samvat starts from 57 BC.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first two belts of people follow the Sakha calendar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the people who celebrate Holi as first day, the end of month is after the full moon day (Pournami) instead of New moon day (Amavasya). Hence the 15 day gap between the New Years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the 2nd belt of people, the month ends with an Amavasya, and that is the reason why many people across India celebrate the Chaitra suddha Padyami as the New Year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One exception is the Gujaratis, who follow Vikrama samvatsaram. According to the 2nd belt of people the month of Karthika or the day after Diwali is the middle day of the year i.e 6 months have already passed. But some cultures like the Gujaratis have this day as the first day and the Chaitra month as the middle month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence. only Gujaratis celebrate Diwali as New Year. Most others either celebrate on Holi or Ugadi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3277" LastActivityDate="2015-07-08T01:13:27.647" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7732" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7710" CreationDate="2015-07-08T05:08:36.537" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;God is both good and bad. Swami Vivekananda says (Complete Works V6 pp 116-117):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the same man the mother sees a son, while the wife at the same time sees differently with different results. The wicked see in God wickedness. The virtuous see in Him virtue. He admits of all forms. He can be moulded according to the imagination of each person. Water assumes various shapes in various vessels. But water is in all of them. Hence all religions are true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;God is cruel and not cruel. He is all being and not being at the same time. Hence He is all contradictions. Nature also is nothing but a mass of contradictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We see our own self when we look at our visions of God. Pray that you no longer see wickedness and only virtue. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-08T05:08:36.537" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7734" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3887" CreationDate="2015-07-08T10:01:11.620" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently I was browsing through the notes I gathered during the reading over the past years and I came across a few of them that gave me an idea to write the answer to this question. While I was reading a book, Brahma-vaivarta puranam, Translated into English by Rajendra Nath Sen, Published 1920 by Panini Office in Allahabad&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.archive.org/stream/brahmavaivartapu04allauoft#page/8/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.archive.org/stream/brahmavaivartapu04allauoft#page/8/mode/2up&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I noted one interesting detail I encountered. There, in the last chapter at the end of the Brahma-vaivarta Purana, at the end of the Krishna Janma Khanda or 4th canto, p. 565, there is a verse about five Samhita books on the subject of the Lord Krishna: &quot;Five codes of law (Samhita) dealing with faith in Hari and composed by Brahma, Shiva, Prahlada, Gautama and Sanat-Kumara have likewise been announced by savants.&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;That can easily be a reference to the Brahma Samhita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then again in the book in the same Krishna Janma Khanda section, chapter CXXIX, p. 554, where various sages, gods and scriptures called Lord Krishna in various ways, we read: &quot;Brahma, the dispenser of the world, calls him the cause of all causes.&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It seems that this is a particular way Brahma prefers to call the Lord Krishna as &quot;the cause of all causes&quot;, and it became his distinguished mark to call the Lord Krishna in this way. It is interesting to note that Brahma calls the Lord Krishna in this way precisely in the Brahma Samhita, in its opening verse. See verse 5.1 there:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bs/5/1/en&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://vedabase.com/bs/5/1/en&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Kṛṣṇa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an&#xA;  eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no&#xA;  other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found yet another note in my notes. It comes from Shyam Chand Mukherji (Univ. of Calcutta [1966]), probably from a book, and says Brahma Samhita is a Vaishnava Tantra. Like many Vaishnava works, it was current in South India. It is said that Sri Caitanya brought this to Bengal from the south. The present MS (manuscript), written in Newari script bears the date 315 in the Newari era, which is equivalent to 1195 A.D. It may be observed here that this Tantric work was not only extant in Nepal, but also in Bengal. The work is also known as Vishnurahasya, or 'the secrets of the worship of Vishnu'. Colophon of folio 13B, records it as Vishnuprokta Samhita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think all this suggests that the Brahma Samhita is a genuine Lord Brahma's account of the Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-02-12T06:16:51.480" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:16:51.480" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7735" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7740" CreationDate="2015-07-08T10:01:56.230" Score="4" ViewCount="62746" Body="&lt;p&gt;Should Sankalpam change depending on where it is taken? Which words of the Sankalpam should change if it performed in the US/UK? I refer to terms like Jambo dweepe, Bharatha varshe, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="298" LastActivityDate="2017-11-25T16:14:42.003" Title="Sankalpam: Replacing terms like 'Jambo dweepe', 'Bharata varshe', etc" Tags="|rituals|sankalpa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7736" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-08T10:34:05.830" Score="5" ViewCount="537" Body="&lt;p&gt;Suppose we believe that the Ramayana actually reported events that unfolded in that era. How do we explain the presence of Vanaras that could fly, that could communicate with human beings, that could help build bridges, etc? Like the Dwarka city found submerged, are there evidences of fossils that give evidence to the existence of such monkeys in those ages? Or do we have evidence for coexistence of two different species of men, of which Vanaras were a less evolved version?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More generally, if we believe in the occurrence of the events in Ramayana, how do we justify the Vanaras to a skeptic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="298" LastActivityDate="2016-12-30T06:53:01.617" Title="Does the presence of Vanaras render the Ramayana a work of fiction?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-12-30T06:53:41.580" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7737" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7736" CreationDate="2015-07-08T11:18:49.103" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda has said that these are actually the tribal peoples that lived in the forests at the time, over time they became to be referred to as monkeys. It is not important whether or not you accept the historicity of all the events in the Ramayana. It can be taken in an allegorical way. Swami Vivekananda says (Complete Works, V5 pp 207-208; also available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_5/vol_5_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_5/vol_5_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt; - under &quot;Interviews&quot; and then under &quot;With the Swami Vivekananda at Madura&quot;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Question. — Here and there attempts are made to import into the Purânas hidden ideas which are said to have been allegorically represented. Sometimes it is said that the Puranas need not contain any historical truth, but are mere representations of the highest ideals illustrated with fictitious characters. Take for instance, Vishnupurâna, Râmâyana, or Bhârata. Do they contain historical veracity or are they mere allegorical representations of metaphysical truths, or are they representations of the highest ideals for the conduct of humanity, or are they mere epic poems such as those of Homer?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Answer. — Some historical truth is the nucleus of every Purana. The object of the Puranas is to teach mankind the sublime truth in various forms; and even if they do not contain any historical truth, they form a great authority for us in respect of the highest truth which they inculcate. Take the Râmâyana, for illustration, and for viewing it as an authority on building character, it is not even necessary that one like Rama should have ever lived. The sublimity of the law propounded by Ramayana or Bharata does not depend upon the truth of any personality like Rama or Krishna, and one can even hold that such personages never lived, and at the same time take those writings as high authorities in respect of the grand ideas which they place before mankind. Our philosophy does not depend upon any personality for its truth. Thus Krishna did not teach anything new or original to the world, nor does Ramayana profess anything which is not contained in the Scriptures. It is to be noted that Christianity cannot stand without Christ, Mohammedanism without Mohammed, and Buddhism without Buddha, but Hinduism stands independent of any man, and for the purpose of estimating the philosophical truth contained in any Purana, we need not consider the question whether the personages treated of therein were really material men or were fictitious characters. The object of the Puranas was the education of mankind, and the sages who constructed them contrived to find some historical personages and to superimpose upon them all the best or worst qualities just as they wanted to, and laid down the rules of morals for the conduct of mankind. Is it necessary that a demon with ten heads (Dashamukha) should have actually lived as stated in the Ramayana? It is the representation of some truth which deserves to be studied, apart from the question whether Dashamukha was a real or fictitious character. You can now depict Krishna in a still more attractive manner, and the description depends upon the sublimity of your ideal, but there stands the grand philosophy contained in the Puranas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-08T11:18:49.103" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7738" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7700" CreationDate="2015-07-08T11:37:07.033" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Panchang is a Hindu calendar and almanac, which follows traditional units of Indian timekeeping, and presents important dates and their calculations in a tabulated form. The word Panchang is basically made up of 2 words&#xA;ie, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Panch (meaning Five)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ang (meaning Parts)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the word 'Panchang' basically refers to a system of calculating and keeping a date into 5 parts. These 5 parts that make up a particular date are: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tithi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Day&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nakshatra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yog &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Tithi&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Thithi is calculated with help of position of Sun and Moon in transit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tithi = (Moon Longitude - Sun Longitude) / 12 . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the calculated result is greater than 15, we have to subtract 15 from the result. The net result is Tithi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TITHI VRIDHI is the tithi present at Sunrise on first day anas well as on the second day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Day&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seven days of the week are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday &amp;amp; Saturday. In Hindi, they are referred as Ravivaar, Somvaar, Mangalvaar, Buddhvaar, Brihaspativaar/Guruvaar, Shukravaar and Shanivaar resp.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Nakshatras&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 360 degrees zodiac is divided into 27 parts to acheive a single nakshatra i.e. of 13 degrees 20 min. There are 27 Nakshatras, Every nakshatra is further divided into four periods (CHARAN) i.e. 3 degree 20 min. A Rashi consists of Two and a quarter of the Nakshatras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Calculation of NAKSHATRA&#xA;Nakshatra = Moon Longitude / 13 deg. 20 min&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Yog&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 27 Yogas named as Vishkumbh, Preeti, Aayushman, Saubhagya, Shobhan, Atigand, Sukarma, Dhriti, Shool, Gand, Vridhi, Dhruv, Vyaghat, Harshan, Vajra, Sidhi, Vyatipat, Variyaan, Parigh, Shiv, Sidh, Sadhya, Shubh, Shukla, Brahm, Ainder and Vaidhriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Calculation of YOG :&#xA;Yog = (Moon Longitude + Sun Longitude) / 13 deg. 20 min&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Karan&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One tithi consists of two karans. there are total 11 Karan, among them seven Char karans are named as Vav, Valav, Kaulav, Taitil, Gar, Vanij, Vishti. Four are fixed Karans named as Shakuni, Chatushpad, Naag kinstughan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Calculation of KARAN&#xA;Karan = (Tithi) / 2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.askganesha.com/panchang/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;link]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Btw, if you want to read the in depth explanation of tithi calculation along with calculations regarding solar/lunar eclipses and why these factors are used you can read through &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tifr.res.in/~vahia/tithi-calculations.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF document&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-07-08T12:01:05.193" LastActivityDate="2015-07-08T12:01:05.193" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7739" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7736" CreationDate="2015-07-08T12:22:44.577" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana and Mahabharata are called ithihasas, history as it happenned. Moreover Ramayana happened in tretaYuga which is millions of years in past.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some critics call that vanaras  are tribals. There is absolutely no proof for it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;VALMIKI RAMAYANA IS considered least interpolated even by modern historians and skeptics compared to Puranas and Mahabharata, except maybe certain sections like Aditya hridayam in Yuddha Khanda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;VANARAS are not just oridinary monkeys of today. They were born with amsas of demi gods and were having masssive strength and power. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If, skeptics dont want to believe,let them not believe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding non availability of archeological evidence, dont you think it is very difficult to get any meaningful evidence of events that happened in tretayuga which is millions of years in the past, unlike Dwaraka etc which are some 5000 yrs back. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, What is the proof of existence Jesus or for that matter the biblical events, and other such things which are only some thousand years from the current time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastActivityDate="2015-07-08T12:22:44.577" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7740" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7735" CreationDate="2015-07-08T13:26:34.907" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, jambu dweepe, bharata varshe, dandakaranye, godavaryah dakshine teere, etc. denote the location.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are two pages with substitutes for USA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110406091823AA7IX1K&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110406091823AA7IX1K&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ammas.com/q&amp;amp;a/Sankalpa-Mantras-at-USA-vis-a-vis-as-at-India/q/176673&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.ammas.com/q&amp;amp;a/Sankalpa-Mantras-at-USA-vis-a-vis-as-at-India/q/176673&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the USA:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krouncha Dweepe: In the island called Krouncha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ramanaka Varshe: In the region called Ramanaka Varsha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aindra Khande: In the continent called Aindra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prasantha Saagare: Near the Pacific Ocean&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pushkara Kshetre: In the locale known as Pushkara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rocky - mickelny Parvatayor Madhye: Between Rockey and Mickelny&#xA;mountains&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Misissipi- Missouri Ityadhi Aneka Shodasa Jeeva Nadeenam sameepa&#xA;stite: The place that is surrounded by such perenniel rivers like&#xA;Mississipi, Missouri and 16 other rivers&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://krishna-arpanam.blogspot.in/2010/08/yajur-upakarma-2010aavani-avittam-24th.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a page with substitute for UK region.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shalmali dhweepe vinyaschitha paschima dhik bage&#xA;  samudra madyasthitha brihadharanya kshethre &#xA;  London maanagare (replace with any city in the UK you live in)&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3273" LastEditorUserId="3273" LastEditDate="2015-07-08T14:31:34.647" LastActivityDate="2015-07-08T14:31:34.647" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7741" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7043" CreationDate="2015-07-08T14:00:09.043" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think ,marriage between blood relations is common in ancient times..&#xA;Not only this story,got many story like this..such lord chandra married with 27 daughters of prasuti..that means he married his own aunts..lord chandra is son of anusuya..anusuya is daughter of devahuti..prasuti and devahuti is sisters..that means the 27 daughters of prasuti is cousin sisters for anusuya..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3280" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2015-07-09T00:50:22.683" LastActivityDate="2015-07-09T00:50:22.683" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7742" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-08T14:43:10.927" Score="3" ViewCount="4350" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Tamil book, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tamilvu.org/library/l3800/html/l3800ind.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Villibharatham&lt;/a&gt;, it is mentioned that it was Lord Krishna who disguised himself as a Brahmin to obtain the kavach and kundala of Karna. This view is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p_jFe__O-A&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;made popular&lt;/a&gt; by this movie song as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However I have read contrasting view that it was Indra, Arjuna's father who went to Karna disguised as a Brahmin. Which of these is correct as per the original scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="298" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-28T12:01:53.263" LastActivityDate="2016-07-28T12:01:53.263" Title="Who obtained Karna's kavach and kundala?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|indra|karna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7744" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-08T23:48:01.900" Score="3" ViewCount="283" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Hinduism formulate the rules and regulations for a King or a government?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the core values of Rajya Dharma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which scriptures mention those values?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="90" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-03T22:55:38.873" LastActivityDate="2015-11-03T22:55:38.873" Title="Rajya Dharma and its core values?" Tags="|dharma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7746" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-09T05:27:31.583" Score="2" ViewCount="86" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across the following verse which was claimed to be from Yajur Veda which I'm unable to transliterate or find reference for. The Verse is for summoning an Army. The following pronunciation might be incorrect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abbārtha Sura Rakshasī Vedi Sada&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/-aSbqiC6Sio?t=938&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://youtu.be/-aSbqiC6Sio?t=938&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any help with identifying the meaning and reference for this verse is appreciated!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T05:38:47.680" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T05:38:47.680" Title="Reference for the Yajur Vedic verse to summon an army" Tags="|vedas|identification-request|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7747" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-09T06:14:30.097" Score="9" ViewCount="3040" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the following compilation of the genealogy of the Pandavas, but I am unable to verify its authenticity or find its sources. In known literature there seems to be no knowledge of the descendants of Ashwamedhadatta, the son of Janamajeya and later kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/medieval/kings_chron.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/medieval/kings_chron.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any historical records that mention the kings that come after Ashwamedhadatta?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-28T14:57:18.353" LastActivityDate="2015-11-03T18:34:17.413" Title="Lineage of Pandavas?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|pandavas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7749" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7747" CreationDate="2015-07-09T07:46:02.823" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The descendants of the Pandavas are listed by the sage Parashara in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp114.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana, starting with Arjuna's grandson Parikshit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I WILL now enumerate the kings who, will reign in future periods The present monarch, Paríkshit, will have four sons, Janamejaya, Śrutasena, Ugrasena, and Bhímasena. The son of Janamejaya will be Śatáníka, who will study the Vedas under Yájnyawalkya, and military science with Kripa; but becoming dissatisfied with sensual enjoyments, he will acquire spiritual knowledge from the instructions of Śaunaka, and ultimately obtain salvation. His son will be Aswamedhadatta (a son given by the gods in reward for the sacrifice of a horse); his son will be Asíma-krishńa; his son will be Nichakra, who will remove the capital to Kauśámbí, in consequence of Hastinápura being washed away by the Ganges; his son will be Ushńa; his son will be Chitraratha; his son will be Vrishńimat; his son will be Susheńa; his son will be Sunítha; his son will be Richa; his son will be Nrichakshu; his son will be Sukhíhala; his son will be Pariplava; his son will be Sunaya; his son will be Medhávin; his son will be Nripanjaya; his son will be Mridu; his son will be Tigma; his son will be Vrihadratha; his son will be Vasudána; and his son will be another Śatáníka; his son will be Udayana; his son will be Ahínara; his son will be Khańd́apáni; his son will be Niramitra; his son will be Kshemaka: of him this verse is recited; &quot;The race which gave origin to Brahmans and Kshatriyas, and which was purified by regal sages, terminated with Kshemaka; in the Kali age.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna's descendant Kshemaka was killed by his minister, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7506/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  Thus ended the glorious Kuru dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-11-03T18:34:17.413" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7751" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7721" CreationDate="2015-07-09T08:56:31.417" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;Hinduism&quot; (a &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; and it's &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; same as a religion) is &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; about any &lt;strong&gt;impermanent&lt;/strong&gt; worldly systems/customs/relations e.g., the &lt;em&gt;varna&lt;/em&gt;-system. It is &lt;strong&gt;ultimately&lt;/strong&gt; about &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; i.e salvation, and before that, to lead a life of &lt;em&gt;OM&lt;/em&gt;, by performing &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; as per &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;, that rather is the &lt;strong&gt;most personal&lt;/strong&gt; thing for each human being. The only things that are universal are the laws like that of &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;, rebirth etc., and the natural phenomenon governed by the divine elements, or other divine beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as I said, the &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; &quot;Hinduism&quot; is absolutely personal, it's absurd to attach a general notion with it, like asking what you have asked. The river &lt;em&gt;Ganga&lt;/em&gt;, never cares whether the person coming to her would worship her, or spit into her. Similarly, Hinduism doesn't care about the &lt;em&gt;varna&lt;/em&gt;, rather it's the opposite i.e., it's according to their own &lt;em&gt;varna&lt;/em&gt;, people tend to act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; defines a state of a living &quot;brain&quot;. Like &lt;em&gt;Kshatriyas&lt;/em&gt; are the humans who have &quot;&lt;em&gt;dvaita&lt;/em&gt; state of brain&quot;, as they emphasize on the separation of their inner self from &lt;em&gt;Brahmm&lt;/em&gt;. They realize the &quot;link&quot; of wisdom connecting the &lt;em&gt;Brahmm&lt;/em&gt; and the inner self. They are most fit to be kings and leaders, because they are wise, (a quality different from intelligence) and for both &lt;em&gt;vaishya&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;shudra&lt;/em&gt;, they are like links to the absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the &lt;em&gt;Kaliyuga&lt;/em&gt; era, and &lt;strong&gt;today, everyone is a &lt;em&gt;shudra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, with a state that just knows how to &quot;react&quot;, sometimes to internal void, and sometimes to external lure. This state of mind is binary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your statement and understanding:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kshatriya can do &lt;strong&gt;force&lt;/strong&gt; sex and marry (however not encouraged)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;is same as saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;because some humans are cannibals, humans can do cannibalism (however not encouraged) OR because some people do incest, so whole humanity is fine with it (however not encouraged)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the reference you gave takes help of the &lt;strong&gt;most&lt;/strong&gt; non-trustworthy source of information about Hinduism. You should know that &lt;strong&gt;most&lt;/strong&gt; resources that are on Internet are most likely to be forged/misinterpreted. No document about Hinduism on the Internet, is older than 200-300 years, and they were all of some European source. This should make you more skeptical about their genuineness, because that was the Victorian Period of aggressive Catholic movements. They were all, (more or less) evangelist in the form of historians, &quot;scholars&quot; of Hindu texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's a pity that because of this Western site's policies, and because of the &lt;em&gt;shudra&lt;/em&gt; thinking behind it, only &quot;written texts&quot; (which are mostly Victorian), are considered &quot;authentic&quot;. I wish that someone soon starts a pure Indian site like this one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now, what is a life of &lt;em&gt;OM&lt;/em&gt;? What's &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Your second perception that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kshatriya will go to heaven if he dies fighting in battle, without the matter that he was on which side...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...is consistent, but &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; just with respect to &lt;em&gt;kshatriya&lt;/em&gt;, rather with all &lt;em&gt;varnas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea to grasp here is that, &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;judged&quot; in similar terms, as prevalent in modern context, i.e., by taking its &quot;effect&quot; into account. Rather it is judged &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; by taking its &quot;cause&quot; into consideration. If a &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; is done because of attachment, then it's &lt;em&gt;vikarma&lt;/em&gt;, in &quot;simple&quot; terms &quot;bad karma&quot;, and vice versa. This whole &lt;em&gt;prakriti&lt;/em&gt;, along with everything in it, is changeable, and to fall into it's &lt;em&gt;moha&lt;/em&gt;, and in that spree, to decide &quot;good&quot; and &quot;evil&quot; is considered non-nonsensical in Hindu philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Compare a person killing hundreds, in a battle between two nations, with a murderer killing one person, for sake of his lust. Which one of them would you find &quot;guilty&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To &quot;flow&quot; unattached like a river is &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;. It is like to &quot;live &lt;em&gt;OM&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. Whoever, irrespective of whatever he does, if is unattached, gets salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And finally, like the unbiased Mother Ganga, Hinduism also &lt;strong&gt;never&lt;/strong&gt; takes sides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; I seldom provide references in my posts, because I think looking up to a book every time you &quot;think!&quot;, is again &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; a Hindu trait. Vedas were in the souls of ancient sages, they have not mugged it up either. Reading Vedas should be a journey of mind to soul, rather than of memory from one synapse to the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mind you, that there is a difference between the Vedas and books of other religions. The &quot;Vedas&quot; are not &quot;holy&quot; as in &quot;Holy Bible&quot; or &quot;Holy Quran&quot;, but they can for sure &lt;strong&gt;make you holy&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="910" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-26T03:35:17.030" LastActivityDate="2016-01-26T03:35:17.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7754" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13614" CreationDate="2015-07-10T08:09:49.800" Score="25" ViewCount="14871" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there different types of avatars: &lt;strong&gt;anshavatar&lt;/strong&gt; (partial incarnation), &lt;strong&gt;purnavatar&lt;/strong&gt; (complete incarnation) etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of my friends told me sage Bharadwaja and Parashurama were anshavatars of Vishnu but Krishna and Rama are purnavatars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman is known as an ansh of Shiva, does that mean he is an anshavatar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A simple Google search tells us that;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Purna Avatar: Complete incarnation &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Anshavatar: Partial incarnation &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Naimittik Avtar: Casual incarnation &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nittya Avatar: Mundane incarnation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(something like that, cannot access that website now)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another search result says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama was 14 kala sampurna but Krishna was 16 kala sampurna thus Krishna is purnavatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scriptural basis for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can you give anymore examples with explanation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-20T19:10:57.837" LastActivityDate="2022-12-22T06:47:32.847" Title="Anshavatar and Purnavatar - are there different types of avatars?" Tags="|krishna|rama|avatars|parashurama|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7755" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-10T09:36:55.907" Score="2" ViewCount="405" Body="&lt;p&gt;False swearing on Bhagavadgita. I know its the at most sin. I lied my date of birth in the court. I am feeling worst guiltness for that.&#xA;is there no way of getting closer to lord Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3292" LastActivityDate="2015-07-10T09:36:55.907" Title="false swearing on Bhagavadgita" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|bhagavata-purana|vishnu-purana|sin|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-07-10T15:22:50.283" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7756" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7742" CreationDate="2015-07-10T09:38:02.207" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know from which movie you saw Lord Krishna disguised and got Kavasa Kundala. It was Indra who disguised as an Old Man and got Karna's own wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, Lord Krishna disguised to get all the boons from Karna in the battlefield.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3291" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2015-07-11T01:56:44.680" LastActivityDate="2015-07-11T01:56:44.680" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7760" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6689" CreationDate="2015-07-11T09:17:48.983" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question should be in different type........it should be as that, &quot;What is the different between the Jeeva, Aatam, Jeevatma and Parmaatama?&#xA;Ans. All four term can be differentiate according to their ability of guna(virtue). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Jeeva is the symbol of Maya. Further it can be said that Jeeva is the part of Maya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atma is the symbol of Paramaatama. Thus it is also known as the part of the Paramaatma(Supreme God).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jeevatma, it is the most important element many are confused in this. These are all known by self-realization. When the Jeeva and Aatma meets takes the form known as Jeevatma. At the first time, at meeting point of God and Maya, All the universe are exist in the form, all lives takes the form. Thus in the spirituality, this meeting point known as manthan(to have a wish for Dharma, i.e. Truth.), as soon as manthan starts Jeevatma's takes forms. Science also says that the universe is spreading. In the universe we know this manthan as methun(sex). Both two part when meets in dark room with the wish of sex generation takes palace. Thus in short methun(sex) drived from manthan(thought). And in this process Jeevatma takes palace.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paramaatma-Paramatma is the supreme soul. Its composed by two words i.e. par+Aatmaa. Means it has the supreme from all souls and It has the supremacy over all Souls. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One word is rest to elaborate known as Maya. Maya is the darkness self.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Maya and Paramaatma are to pole. We can understand them as Paramaatma(Positive energy) And Maya(Negative Energy).&#xA;Reason of Universe-When the Brahm(God) or light meets with Maya(Darkness), the universe takes palace. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3297" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2015-07-19T04:03:34.720" LastActivityDate="2015-07-19T04:03:34.720" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7761" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7744" CreationDate="2015-07-11T10:22:55.793" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The rules for a king and government are written in the Laws of Manu. Chapters VII and VIII. VII. 1. says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I will declare the duties of kings, (and) show how a king should conduct himself, how he was created, and how (he can obtain) highest success.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And ends with VIII. 420.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;420&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A king who thus brings to a conclusion. all the legal business enumerated above, and removes all sin, reaches the highest state (of bliss).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I won't put all the verses in the answer because together they are 646 verses. The Laws of Manu are available here -  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-11T10:22:55.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7762" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6761" CreationDate="2015-07-11T17:20:13.170" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yudhisthira:&lt;/strong&gt; is best known as a person who has no aggression, and always upheld justice.  His non-aggression came to use when he had to fight with Shalya&#xA;who had a unique ability to obtain slightly more prowess then whomever he is about to fight.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhima:&lt;/strong&gt; is a fast runner, has a huge bold body, and is tall.  Like wind he loves and gives freedom.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arjuna:&lt;/strong&gt; the most noble and humble and saintly and mostly loved by the lord Krishna.  His saintly attitude allows him to become the master of warriors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nakula:&lt;/strong&gt; apart from his prowess for riding horses and skillfulness in swordsmanship,  he also has the ability to ride his horses in the rain without getting wet.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sahadeva:&lt;/strong&gt; is also an expert swordsman, and has the ability to predict the future.  But he's cursed so that if he tells others about the future his mind can blow away.  That's why he has also the ability to sustain in worse situations and remain calm and silent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every character in Mahabharata has special qualities.  Not only the Pandavas, but everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3300" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-27T08:30:53.380" LastActivityDate="2015-12-27T08:30:53.380" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7767" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11150" CreationDate="2015-07-13T10:37:28.497" Score="21" ViewCount="11534" Body="&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana and Tulsidasa's Ram Charit Manas are 2 books containing the story of life of Lord Rama and other sub stories. While Valmiki Ramayana is considered to be the original source of Lord Rama's story, Ram Charit Manas is said to be written by Tulsidas, as heard from Lord Hanuman directly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I wanted to know what are the major differences in main/sub stories between the 2 books. Also, if there are any stories, may be related or not related to Lord Rama, which are not covered in Valmiki's Ramayana, then please let me know the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-07-14T13:24:42.737" LastActivityDate="2021-04-02T09:44:26.107" Title="What are the main differences between Valmiki Ramayana and Ram Charit Manas" Tags="|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7769" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-13T11:34:22.777" Score="2" ViewCount="1187" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am confusing between &lt;strong&gt;Pushkara&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Kumbha Mela&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;From Wikipedia I understand &lt;strong&gt;Pushkara&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Kumbha Mela&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pushkara&lt;/strong&gt;: Each river is associated with a zodiac sign, and the river for each&#xA;   year's festival is based on which zodiac sign the planet Jupiter&#xA;   (Bṛhaspati) is in at that time.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kumbha Mela&lt;/strong&gt;: is held at each of these four places every twelfth year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are they correlated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="902" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-07-15T03:56:55.947" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T04:23:06.777" Title="Are Kumbha Mela and Pushkara same?" Tags="|terminology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7770" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-13T15:11:49.730" Score="12" ViewCount="861" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp054.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana, Prahlada is thrown off a cliff and into the sea by Hiranyakashipu's men.  Unfazed by this, he prays to Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I glorify the supreme deity Vishńu, the universal witness, who seated internally, beholds the good and ill of all. Glory to that Vishńu from whom this world is not distinct. May he, ever to be meditated upon as the beginning of the universe, have compassion upon me: may he, the supporter of all, in whom every thing is warped and woven, undecaying, imperishable, have compassion upon me. Glory, again and again, to that being to whom all returns, from whom all proceeds; who is all, and in whom all things are: to him whom I also am; for he is every where; and through whom all things are from me. I am all things: all things are in me, who am everlasting. I am undecayable, ever enduring, the receptacle of the spirit of the supreme. Brahma is my name; the supreme soul, that is before all things, that is after the end of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At least superficially, this sounds like a statement of Adi Shankaracharya's philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, which equates the Jivatma, or individual soul, with Paramatma or the supreme soul.  And the next chapter even says &quot;Thus meditating upon Vishńu, as identical with his own spirit, Prahláda became as one with him, and finally regarded himself as the divinity: he forgot entirely his own individuality, and was conscious of nothing else than his being the inexhaustible, eternal, supreme soul&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Ramanujacharya's philosophy of Visishtadvaita Vedanta, according to which Jivatma and Paramatma have a body-soul relationship, has a way handling Advaita-sounding statements like this.  Here is how Ramanujacharya interprets the passage in the Sri Bhashya, his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[T]he highest Self has the indiviual souls for its body, and ... hence words such as 'I' and 'thou,' which denote individual beings, extend in their connotation up to the highest Self&lt;/strong&gt;... As the Rishi Vâmadeva perceiving that Brahman is the inner Self of all, that all things constitute its body, and that the meaning of words denoting a body extends up to the principle embodied, denotes with the word 'I' the highest Brahman to which he himself stands in the relation of a body, and then predicates of this 'I' Manu Sûrya and other beings--'Seeing this the Rishi. Vâmadeva understood, I am Manu, I am Sûrya' (Bri. Up. I, 4, 10). &lt;strong&gt;Similarly Prahlâda says, 'As the Infinite one abides within all, he constitutes my &quot;I&quot; also; all is from me, I am all, within me is all.' (Vi. Pu. I, 19, 85.)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss Vamadeva's statements &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4050/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, by the way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, how is this passage interpreted in the Dvaita philosophy of Madhvacharya, according to which Jivatmas are totally separate from Paramatma?  I have two guesses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dvaitins could interpret in a similar fashion as they interpret the &quot;Aham Brahmasmi&quot; statement of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2327/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), where it's interpreted as a statement of Brahman about himself, rather than a statement of an individual soul about Brahman.  I'm not sure how that interpretation would square with the &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dvaitins could interpret it by saying that since Vishnu is the supreme controller and guide, the names of all beings are ultimately glorifications of Vishnu.  This is how Madhvacharya interprets other Advaita-sounding statements in this excerpt from his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sastra means ... the ruler within, the Lord Vishnu.  The Padmapurana says, &quot;Vishnu is declared by all the name of different things, for the reason that He rules all. There is no word whatever that names a thing without declaring Puroshothama (the Lord of Lords).  Like the declarations of Vamadeva &quot;I was Manu and Surya, etc.,&quot; Indra's speech is to be understood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss Vamadeva's statement &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4050/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and Indra's statement &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7645/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, by the way.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, are there any works of Madhvacharya or works or subsequent Dvaitins which interpret this statement of Prahlada in the Vishnu Purana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-07-26T14:49:21.253" Title="How do Dvaitins interpret the Advaita-sounding prayer of Prahlada?" Tags="|puranas|philosophy|advaita|vishnu-purana|dvaita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7775" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8297" CreationDate="2015-07-14T06:07:54.203" Score="7" ViewCount="978" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wish to know everything about these two terms. If these are related to destroying everything except yourself then what good I should learn from these terms, instead of getting afraid of these?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2810" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-08-28T13:00:39.487" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T19:20:12.997" Title="What is Shiva Tandava &amp; Tandava dance?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7776" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="36" CreationDate="2015-07-14T08:48:23.600" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Cremation became a practice because of the diseases the scavengers bring as there population increase in the burial areas pollution of water was another issue as well remembering the body leads to more trauma. The best option was cremating the body with rituals that will extinguish doubts and let people live happily.&#xA;Beliefs are the recommended strong habits if someone doubts it he has to live a lifetime again searching for answers such as taking bath is a ritual performed by many but any explanation of the same practice can be to ward off skin diseases. &#xA;Practice it understand it enquire about it but do believe the sages who wandered the earth for a purpose named unity and divinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3316" LastEditorUserId="3316" LastEditDate="2015-07-14T09:00:16.293" LastActivityDate="2015-07-14T09:00:16.293" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7779" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-14T20:17:10.633" Score="5" ViewCount="332" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sita believed that Rama was lord Himself and accepted his wish by taking the pledge, why did she took such a pledge which would eventually end her life and separate her forever from Rama while she could have easily taken some other pledge and could have lived with Rama further.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3241" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T03:06:34.980" Title="Why did Sita had to end her life in the way she did?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|sita|valmiki|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7780" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="51967" CreationDate="2015-07-14T22:01:20.447" Score="5" ViewCount="1523" Body="&lt;p&gt;I currently live in an area which has a high Indian population. I've noticed a number of Indian men and women with various marks and dots on their foreheads but have never asked about the significance behind these for fear of offending them. I genuinely want to know what they mean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's what I've seen:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A single black dot (quite small)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A single red dot (quite small)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A single red dot (much larger)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A single red dot (smudged and near the hairline)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A yellow vertical line&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A white vertical line&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A white vertical line with hairline red dot&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do these all mean, and are there others that I may not be aware of?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I guess I'm more wondering if there is a more &lt;em&gt;modern&lt;/em&gt; context to these markings than the &amp;quot;third-eye&amp;quot; or channeling chakras, etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3324" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-06-26T03:34:58.277" LastActivityDate="2022-06-26T03:36:49.630" Title="What do the various forehead dots and marks signify?" Tags="|practice|culture|tilak|symbols|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7782" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="820" CreationDate="2015-07-15T07:16:30.977" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Puranas are a gain lesser importance with respect to Smirti granthas. Mahabharata which of course is a Smriti grantha, because Badarayana often quotes Vyasas BhagavadGita as smriti pramana in his SharirakaSutras (Vedanta Sutras) [1-2-25,1-3-23 etc]. But moreover it is considered as Panchama Veda (abridged Veda for all). Hence Smriti Mantras are more powerfull and nearer to Veda than Purana Mantras. So Indian saints from all castes have always preferred Vishnu Sahasranama of Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="438" LastActivityDate="2015-07-15T07:16:30.977" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7783" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="579" CreationDate="2015-07-15T10:26:09.393" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord has to come on Indian soil with the name of Kalki, in village Shambhal Gram and people will call Him with many different community names. In Agastya Samhitā, Agastya Rishi called Him with 1000 different names. Vārāha Purāna, Chapter 48, Page No 94 called with 7 (seven) different names, Mahabharat, Vana Parva called Him with the name of Kalki Vishnu Yasha and Shrimad Bhagawata Maha Purana has also called Him with different name i.e. secret.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since He is King of Kings, GOD of Gods and Universal thus He cannot be for one particular religion. He is for Hindu, He is for Islamic people, He is for Christian and at the same time He is for Sikh also. There is no God except Him. One is He, no partner hath He. Exalted is He alone, and praise be to Lord Kalki only, and there is no deity except Lord Kalki, and Lord Kalki is the Greatest. And there is no might nor power except in &lt;a href=&quot;http://kalkimahaavatar.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lord Kalki&lt;/a&gt;, the Most High, the Most Great. He gives life and causes death, and He is Living, who will not die, never. He of Majesty and Munificence. Within His Hand is (all) good. And He is, upon everything, Able (to exert His Will).&#xA;For more info visit our website : kalkimahaavatar.in&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3326" LastEditorUserId="8021" LastEditDate="2016-10-24T22:04:20.027" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T22:04:20.027" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7784" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7619" CreationDate="2015-07-15T16:15:51.120" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually, bootha doesn't necessarily mean &quot;ghost.&quot; The pancha boothas are the five temples of shiva. Each of them represent the five prime elements of nature: like you said land, water, air, sky, and fire. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3327" LastActivityDate="2015-07-15T16:15:51.120" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7787" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7798" CreationDate="2015-07-16T02:25:47.473" Score="15" ViewCount="8643" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've read Shiva referred to as &quot;tamasic&quot;, and Brahma seems to be a suitable embodiment of sattva. However, rajas doesn't fit very well here. I'm not sure how to match the energy/activity aspects of rajas with Vishnu as &quot;the preserver&quot;, but rajas does seem to fit both Shiva as &quot;the transformer&quot; and Brahma as &quot;the creator&quot;. Also, Vishnu as &quot;the preserver&quot; seems to support the tamasic concepts of inertia and resistance to change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are these two trios of concepts related at all?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Thanks for the answers so far. For some reason I automatically connected sattva with Brahma and rajas with Vishnu, maybe because they are normally listed &quot;Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva&quot; and &quot;sattva, rajas, tamas&quot; so I followed that order. And it didn't really fit. Switching the first two makes much more sense!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3331" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-30T03:35:12.137" LastActivityDate="2021-12-05T20:01:20.870" Title="Do the Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva) cleanly map onto the 3 gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas)?" Tags="|gods|philosophy|gunas|trinity|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7788" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7789" CreationDate="2015-07-16T09:00:53.683" Score="9" ViewCount="1315" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know that there is the so  many kaliyug in kalpa, so i want  to know whether all kaliyug were same like current one with various other religions, technology ans so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2015-07-17T01:18:41.047" LastActivityDate="2015-07-17T05:53:24.227" Title="All the kaliyug was same like current kaliyug?" Tags="|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7789" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7788" CreationDate="2015-07-16T10:08:41.430" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;No,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;mahaYugs inside same kalpa are not same like ramayan was in 24th mahayug , so it is missing in other mahayugs of same kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But It is possible that same kaliyug was in previous kalpa 28th mahayug.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;you can read further at these questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7595/ramayana-and-mahabharata-in-immediate-yuga-or-after-3-cycles&quot;&gt;Ramayana and Mahabharata in immediate yuga or after 3 cycles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3078/time-and-yugas-in-hinduism?rq=1&quot;&gt;Time and yugas in hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5438/does-same-events-repeat-in-every-yuga?rq=1&quot;&gt;Does same events repeat in every Yuga?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2771/why-do-the-vedas-need-to-be-recompiled-in-every-dwapara-yuga?rq=1&quot;&gt;Why do the Vedas need to be recompiled every Dwapara Yuga?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scriptural reference to matsya purana available in this question&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7175/did-the-mahabharata-and-the-ramayana-happen-in-the-current-yuga-cycle-in-the-cur?rq=1&quot;&gt;Did the Mahabharata and the Ramayana happen in the current Yuga cycle in the current Manvantara?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My answer may conflict with above questions answers, this is purely based on given matsya purana texts and my own understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-07-17T05:53:24.227" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7790" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7795" CreationDate="2015-07-16T11:09:06.187" Score="12" ViewCount="7212" Body="&lt;p&gt;Has the length of a man's life already been determined in advance, even before a person is born?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer this question, please be sure to furnish quotations from the scriptures and explain how you see your quotes give the answer to this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-07-22T20:32:31.727" LastActivityDate="2016-04-16T05:17:18.767" Title="Is the length of a man's life predetermined?" Tags="|karma|philosophy|life-span|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7791" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2316" CreationDate="2015-07-16T12:00:45.537" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ishta&lt;/em&gt; comes from the word &lt;em&gt;Ish&lt;/em&gt; - to desire. The &lt;em&gt;Ishta&lt;/em&gt; (Chosen Ideal) is the form of God that the aspirant desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says (&lt;em&gt;Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;, Chapter 8, also here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter08.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter08.htm&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MR.  CHOUDHURY: &quot;Sir, is it not possible to have the vision of God without the help of a guru?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MASTER: &quot;Satchidananda Himself is the Guru.  At the end of the Shavasadhana, just when the vision of the Ishta is about to take place, the guru appears before the aspirant and says to him, 'Behold! There is your Ishta.' Saying this, the guru merges in the Ishta.  He who is the guru is also the Ishta.  The guru is the thread that leads to God.  Women perform a ritualistic worship known as the 'Ananta-vrata', the object of worship being the Infinite.  But actually the Deity worshipped is Vishnu.  In Him are the 'infinite' forms of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(To Ram and the other devotees) &quot;If you asked me which form of God you should meditate upon, I should say: Fix your attention on that form which appeals to you most; but know for certain that all forms are the forms of one God alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your Ishta is the form that appeals to you most; if you are not sure your guru can confirm who your ideal is. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V4, &lt;em&gt;Addresses on Bhakti Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;The Ishta&lt;/em&gt;, also here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This theory of Ishta, therefore, means allowing a man to choose his own religion. One man should not force another to worship what he worships...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So in religion — more so — I must teach myself religion. What right has my father to put all sorts of nonsense into my head? What right has my master or society to put things into my head? Perhaps they are good, but they may not be my way. Think of the appalling evil that is in the world today, of the millions and millions of innocent children perverted by wrong ways of teaching. How many beautiful things which would have become wonderful spiritual truths have been nipped in the bud by this horrible idea of a family religion, a social religion, a national religion, and so forth. Think of what a mass of superstition is in your head just now about your childhood's religion, or your country's religion, and what an amount of evil it does, or can do. Man does not know what a potent power lies behind each thought and action. The old saying is true that, &quot;Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.&quot; This should be kept in view from the very first. How? By this belief in Ishta. There are so many ideals; I have no right to say what shall be your ideal, to force any ideal on you. My duty should be to lay before you all the ideals I know of and enable you to see by your own constitution what you like best, and which is most fitted to you. Take up that one which suits you best and persevere in it. This is your Ishta, your special ideal.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-16T12:00:45.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7792" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-16T12:03:34.967" Score="3" ViewCount="338" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am always intrigued by how similar the stories of Jesus Christ and Krishna are. Both had to take shelter from evil forces and both were brought up care taker parents. The only difference is Krishna was born 5000 years ago and Jesus about 2000 years ago. I believe there are lot of practices in Christianity which seem to have been taken from Hinduism. What other practices might have been taken from Hinduism ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its common to borrow the good practices from other religions, but if you borrow something and don't give due credit and start labeling the religions as pagan then there is a problem. Case in point is the decoration of Christmas tree - it was borrowed from the so-called pagan religion without giving due credit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3120" LastEditorUserId="3120" LastEditDate="2015-07-20T10:55:06.117" LastActivityDate="2021-01-14T20:46:24.460" Title="Are Christian practices deeply influenced from Hinduism" Tags="|christianity|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7794" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7787" CreationDate="2015-07-16T14:14:09.327" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;To an extent they are related. Swami Nikhilananda says in his book The Upanishads (V1, p 59):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With reference to His [Saguna Brahman] three activities of creation, preservation, and destruction, Saguna Brahman is known as, respectively, as Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra, or Siva. These form the Trimurti, the trinity of Hinduism. The influence of rajas is seen in creation, of sattva in preservation, and of tamas in destruction. Kalidasa, the great Hindu dramatist writes: &quot;That which, before creation, is the non-dual Brahman becomes subject to maya and assumes, in association with the three upadhis [gunas], the forms of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-16T14:14:09.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7795" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7790" CreationDate="2015-07-16T14:16:56.390" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, it is predetermined.&lt;/strong&gt; Right when a person is a foetus in the womb, his span of life is already determined based on his past karma.  Here's what chapter 32 of the Uttara Kanda of the Garuda Purana says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Tarksya, thus, man is born in the mortal world as a result of his own actions. &lt;strong&gt;The five characteristics, viz. the span of life, action, wealth, learning and death are created in men even as they are in the womb.&lt;/strong&gt;  The life is born as they are in the womb. The life is born as a result of action; it is dissolved as a result of action. Happiness or misery, fear or welfare are the results of actions. The foetus lies in the womb with the feet up and the face downwards.  The foetus lies in the womb with the feet up and the face downwards. The life takes its birth with its association brought about by its own actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/vXW0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Bhumi Kanda of the Padma Purana says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Of the fetus in the womb these five are seen: (span of) life, acts, wealth, learning and death.&lt;/strong&gt; As the doer does (i.e. fashions different images from) a lump of clay, similarly acts that are performed grasp the doer. A being reached the state of a god or a human being or a beast or a bird or a lower animal or an immobile thing due to his acts only. He always enjoys in accordance with what is done by himself. He, having acquired the bed (in the form) of the womb enjoys pleasure or pain ordained by himself (and due to acts) in the former body (i.e. existence).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the rest of the Padma Purana &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/792/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, it might seem strange that even a person's actions would be fixed from the time they're just a foetus, but it doesn't mean that people don't act and make choices.  Rather, as the Brahma Sutras discuss,  people genuinely act, but it is still the case that Brahman causes them to act; see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3734/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-04-16T05:17:18.767" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7796" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7792" CreationDate="2015-07-16T14:44:57.107" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several correlations or similarities between the two lives, but I think plagiarism is too strong a word. I think the Lord manifested Himself in both persons and choose to make the lives similar. One could also argue the scientific axiom &quot;Correlation is not causation&quot; - simply because two events exhibit similarities does not mean that one is the cause of the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V1, &lt;em&gt;Lectures and Discourses&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt; also here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A few words about the life of Krishna. There is a great deal of similarity between the lives of Jesus and Krishna. A discussion is going on as to which borrowed of the other. There was the tyrannical king in both places. Both were born in a manger. The parents were bound in both cases. Both were saved by angels. In both cases all the boys born in that year were killed. The childhood is the same. ... Again, in the end, both were killed. Krishna was killed by accident; he took the man who killed him to heaven. Christ was killed, and blessed the robber and took him to heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are a great many similarities in of the New Testament and the Gita. The human thought goes the same way. ... I will find you the answer in the words of Krishna himself: &quot;Whenever virtue subsides and irreligion prevails, I come down. Again and again I come. Therefore, whenever thou seest a great soul struggling to uplift mankind, know that I am come, and worship. ...&quot;(Gita IV. 8; X. 41.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the same time, if he comes as Jesus or as Buddha, why is there so much schism? The preachings must be followed! A Hindu devotee would say: It is God himself who became Christ and Krishna and Buddha and all these [great teachers]. A Hindu philosopher would say: These are the great souls; they are already free. And though free, they refuse to accept their liberation while the whole world is suffering. They come again and again, take a human embodiment and help mankind. They know from their childhood what they are and what they come for. ... They do not come through bondage like we do. ... They come out of their own free will, and cannot help having tremendous spiritual power. We cannot resist it. The vast mass of mankind is dragged into the whirlpool of spirituality, and the vibration goes on and on because one of these [great souls] gives a push. So it continues until all mankind is liberated and the play of this planet is finished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people have seen similarities between some of the practices also. It is difficult to say if one is derived from the other as any evidence has been lost in time and there is a certain commonality to the human experience. But as some examples, Christians have their Eucharist which in their ceremony food is offered to God and then given to the individuals to eat. In pujas, Hindus offer food to God and then it is given to them to eat as prasadam. Additionally, there are all the other elaborate elements of ritualistic worship that are similar (incense, lights, etc.).      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-16T14:44:57.107" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7798" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7787" CreationDate="2015-07-16T15:16:45.220" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are different perspectives. This is an advaita perspective (the belief that all Gods are One.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What are the three gunas&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three gunas are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Tamas - this is the quality of laziness, darkness (ignorance) and inertia.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1163&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tamas process&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tamas is inertia or inaction or darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tamas binds man to heedlessness (Pramada), laziness (Alasya) and sleep (Nidra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes Tamas prevails and the man becomes slothful. He feels lazy, indolent and lethargic. He is dull and feels sleepy. When Tamas prevails, Sattva and Rajas are overpowered for the time being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tamasic action is ignorance. Those who are established in Sattva rise upwards. The Rajasic people occupy a middle place and the Tamasic people go downwards, shrouded in the vilest of qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Rajas - this is the quality of activity, energy, agitation and excitation.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=878&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;raja guna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rajasic mind always wants new sensations and variety. It likes certain persons, objects and places now and, after some time, it becomes disgusted with them and wants new persons for company, new vegetables to eat, new books to read and new places to see (finds pleasure in sightseeing).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Sattva - this is the quality of goodness, balance, purity and peacefulness.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=878&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sattva guna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Sattvic mind is always steady. It finds delight internally. It may stick to one place indefinitely. It keeps friendship with persons for a long, long time. It can read the Gita or the Yogavasishtha any number of days. It can live on Dal-roti for years together without any grumbling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Who is Trimurthi&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Advaita, the Trimurthi are not three different Gods with distinct identities, but rather they are One and the same God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/religions/siva.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Shiva by Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma represents the creative aspect, Vishnu the preservative aspect, and Siva the destructive aspect of Paramatma. This is just like your wearing different garbs on different occasions. When you do the function of a judge, you put on one kind of dress. At home, you wear another kind of dress. When you do worship in the temple, you wear another kind of dress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Brahma is the creation aspect, Narayana is the protection aspect and Paremeshwara is the destruction aspect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;How do they map onto the three gunas?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the common and popular way to map the three Hindu trimurthis onto one of the gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma - Rajas - because creation implies activity and energy.&#xA;Narayana - Sattva - because protection or sustenance is a state of continuity or balance&#xA;Tamas - Destruction - because destruction implies death. and death is a product of tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/religions/siva.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Shiva by Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You exhibit different kinds of temperament on different occasions. Even so, the Lord does the function of creation when He is associated with Rajas and He is called Brahma. He preserves the world when He is associated with Sattva Guna, and He is called Vishnu. He destroys the world when He is associated with Tamo Guna, and He is called Siva or Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma, Vishnu and Siva have been correlated to the three Avasthas or states of consciousness. During the waking state, Sattva predominates; during the dream state, Rajas predominates; and, during the deep-sleep state, Tamas predominates. Hence Vishnu, Brahma and Siva are the Murtis of Jagrat, Svapna and Sushupti states of consciousness respectively. The Turiya or the fourth state is Para Brahman. The Turiya state is immediately next to the deep sleep state. Worship of Siva will lead quickly to the attainment of the fourth state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However I have also seen the following interpretations (I am still looking for some online/scriptural references to these. If anyone has come across this, then please comment and I will be happy to edit it)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Example 1, creation as tamas&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Creation is a result of ignorance. In reality (advaitic terms), there is no creation. The perception of creation is only ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Example 2, destruction as sattva&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva - Sattva - here Lord Shiva is seen as the destroyer of ignorance or ego. Thus liberation or the final goal of life leads to equanimity, steadfastness, peace, bliss and unity with God. Thus in this sense Lord Shiva is seen as Sattva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So basically it depends on how you view things. If you view creation as a positive thing, you would say that creation is sattva. If you view destruction as a positive thing you would say destruction is sattva. If you view protection as a positive thing you would say protection is sattva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;The reality (in terms of advaita) - God is beyond all Gunas&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God or Brahman is above and beyond all gunas. He is nirguna and nirakara. These gunas are simply ways in which we have interpreted the Lord. But the Lord Himself is unattached and beyond the gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita 7.13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tribhir guṇa-mayair bhāvair&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ebhiḥ sarvam idaḿ jagat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mohitaḿ nābhijānāti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Deluded by the three modes [goodness, passion and ignorance], the whole world does not know Me, who am above the modes and inexhaustible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-07-16T15:25:53.227" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7799" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-17T05:02:05.210" Score="3" ViewCount="455" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading stories of Samudra Manthan in Bhagavata Purana. It has been described that, Indra had insulted sage Durvasa and was cursed in return to loose all his material opulence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That time, they also started losing battle with asuras and some devas getting killed in battle. Samudra manthan was done to extract nectar to make them immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following link says that, it happened in Chakshusha Manvantara, with Mantradruma as Indra.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/8/5/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://vedabase.com/sb/8/5/en&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it mean that, previously all devas were NOT immortal? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about in current manvantara ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-05T05:25:11.640" LastActivityDate="2018-10-05T05:25:11.640" Title="Samudra Manthan and Immortality" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|samudra-manthan|immortality|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7800" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9137" CreationDate="2015-07-17T05:14:38.547" Score="15" ViewCount="2806" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people know about Radha, who is said to be Krishna's lover and his favorite among the Gopis, whom Krishna spent time with during his childhood in Vrindavan and Gokulam.  She's revered by many Vaishnavas, particularly those of the Gaudiya and Nimbarka Sampradayams.  Yet the Sri Vaishnava Sampradayam (of which I'm a member) doesn't emphasize Radha.  In part that's because Sri Vaishnavas focus on the Vishnu Purana and the Srimad Bhagavatam, neither of which even mention Radha's name. Yet Sri Vaishnavas do recognize a figure similar to Radha.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it is the beliefs and principles embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the Alwars discuss a figure named Nappinnai, daughter of Yashoda's brother Kumbagan.  It is said that Krishna married Nappinai after  defeating the seven bulls of Kumbagan.  Sri Vaishnavas believe that Nappinnai is an incarnation of Vishnu's wife Nila Devi.  Most people only know about Vishnu's wives Sri Devi, aka Lakshmi, and Bhu Devi, aka Bhumidevi, but according to Sri Vaishnavism Vishnu has a third wife named Niladevi; the Nila Sukta of the Yajur Veda is addressed to her:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O thou of the three-and-thirtyfold Stoma, lady of the world,&#xA;  Breathed on by Vivasvant, do thou be gracious to us;&#xA;  Rich in ghee, O Savitr, through thy overlordship,&#xA;  Be the bounteous region rich in milk, for us.&#xA;  The firm among the quarters, lady of Visnu, the mild,&#xA;  Ruling over this strength, the desirable,&#xA;  Brhaspati, Matarisvan, Vayu,&#xA;  The winds blowing together be gracious to us.&#xA;  Prop of the sky, supporter of the earth,&#xA;  Ruling this world, lady of Visnu,&#xA;  All-extending, seeking food, with prosperity,&#xA;  May Aditi be auspicious to us in her life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, my question is, apart from the Alwars' poems, are there any scriptures which discuss the story of Nappinnai?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/58/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam describes how Krishna wins the hand of his queen Satya after defeating the seven bulls of Satya's father king Nagnajit (not to be confused with &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7415/36&quot;&gt;this king Nagnajit&lt;/a&gt;).  This is exactly how Krishna won the hand of Nappinnai.  So does this have some relation to the story of Napinnai?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I've heard that Yashoda's brother Kumbagan is mentioned in the Harivamsa.  Does anyone know if that's correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-02-18T04:01:15.913" Title="What scriptures describe Krishna's lover Nappinnai?" Tags="|krishna|sri-vaishnava|alwar|radha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7801" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7853" CreationDate="2015-07-17T05:28:14.133" Score="2" ViewCount="2794" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why was the Mahabharata battle fought in Kurukshetra and not at any other place? Was there any reason behind that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="677" LastEditDate="2015-07-17T09:16:49.880" LastActivityDate="2016-03-15T12:33:01.230" Title="Why Mahabharata battle was fought in Kurukshetra?" Tags="|mahabharata|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7802" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3298" CreationDate="2015-07-17T07:32:03.950" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it's indeed wonderful to think about 85+ years of people fighting during the Mahabharata with such a fierce war. Few points:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; food habits, cleaner environment, exercise rituals, Yogic culture -- can be attributed for such stronger bodies at 80+ years.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Like other answers, We can assume that the people of those times would be eating &lt;em&gt;sAtvika&lt;/em&gt; food and performing Yoga. Here is a source:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 17.8 - Foods that &lt;strong&gt;increase life, firmness of mind, strength, health&lt;/strong&gt;, happiness and delight, and which are succulent, oleaginous, substantial and agreeable, are dear to one endowed with &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Comparing current time, the pollution and  good adulteration has increased. It's quite possible that during Mahabharata times such issues would not have persisted&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the contrary, even in today's time, it's possible to many instances of super human abilities; e.g. Samruai warriors of Japan, certain martial artistes; In such case today &amp;amp; ancient Mahabharata times are comparable&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Earlier due to stronger division system, the marriages use to happen within same &lt;em&gt;gotra&lt;/em&gt;/castes of Kshatriyas. Which helped the genetic print of their children to become stronger with every passing generation. Such gene pools may or may not retain when people marry in hybrid fashion in modern times.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Opposing argument&lt;/strong&gt;: According to the sources the majority of the main characters were beyond 85 years. Despite that, there is no mention about the regular soldiers. In comparison of all the warriors (Kurus + Kings + Soldiers + ...), such handful of main characters can be simply discounted as special cases.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-06-05T08:51:15.863" LastActivityDate="2017-06-05T08:51:15.863" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7803" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-17T09:41:14.043" Score="11" ViewCount="2308" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the duty of Indra given by God &amp;amp; what is in Indraloka that all rakhshasas and asuras want to win Indraloka? Do they get any power if they win Indraloka or is there anything like whoever wins Indraloka also rule Prithviloka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-08-21T17:27:41.553" LastActivityDate="2019-03-27T18:57:36.200" Title="What is the duty of Indra? What is Indraloka?" Tags="|indra|lokas|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7804" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-17T10:37:36.850" Score="1" ViewCount="100" Body="&lt;p&gt;The world knows that Zero was invented/discovered by the Indians. It is profound thought process that led to the birth of Zero / Shunya. I would like to know if there was any part played by the Hinduism in the discovery of Shunya or was it a total random event which could have happened anywhere in the world ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3120" LastActivityDate="2016-03-15T12:35:21.757" Title="Is there any religious significance for the Invention of Zero?" Tags="|numerology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7805" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7819" CreationDate="2015-07-17T10:48:11.027" Score="12" ViewCount="3872" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a question which has bothered me for a while. If we know that God exists why doesn't he want to be seen? Why is it that no human being has a true description of the God? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3120" LastEditorUserId="677" LastEditDate="2015-07-18T11:59:24.620" LastActivityDate="2019-05-27T11:25:27.030" Title="If God exists why doesn't he want to be seen?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7806" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-17T10:52:14.003" Score="7" ViewCount="149" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the actual description of the Heaven according to Hinduism. Is it a static place or does it change with the times?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do you think there would science related things in Heaven example - cars, planes, iphones etc ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3120" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-07-09T05:08:53.537" LastActivityDate="2022-07-09T05:08:53.537" Title="Is Heaven a static place or is it constantly changing?" Tags="|time|swarga|heaven|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7809" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-17T16:02:57.723" Score="2" ViewCount="91" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adiseshu wipes out all others except Nara and Narayana who become as incarnations of Arjuna and Krishna. As the story unfolds only Krishna and Arjuna match wave lengths. Can any one  give more clarity to this topic on which I have a vague Idea. I am very keen to know it from anybody&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3340" LastActivityDate="2015-07-17T16:02:57.723" Title="Ancetode behind the incarnation of Nara and Narayana vis a vis Arjuna and Krishna" Tags="|krishna|avatars|vishnu|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2018-01-31T16:18:31.817" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7810" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7805" CreationDate="2015-07-17T21:05:03.603" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;God's description, his deeds as well as his very own lessons to humanity (Bhagavad gita) exist in form of books. If one desires to know about him its only as far as few months of reading some books. Of-course such delicate and subtle topic cant be completely understood just by reading books. There are people who already have a thorough understanding in this field, they would gladly help if anyone seeks for the knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not really appropriate to say that god doesn't wants to be seen where there is so much information lying about him. As a matter of fact in out cut through competitive world we hardly get any time to spare for God, that is perhaps the reason why we know so little about him. Its us not willing to go to great lengths to know about god, rather than him not wanting us to know about him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the basis of kali yuga actually, humans grow insensitive towards subtler spiritual knowledge and try to seek mundane material knowledge and pleasures. In the past yugas there were lot of gurus who would teach about god and philosophy, singers sang songs of god, children were told stories of god. While now thats not the case, we prefer a lot of other things over the knowledge of god. That is the reason out modern society is so ignorant about god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3343" LastActivityDate="2015-07-17T21:05:03.603" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7811" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7452" CreationDate="2015-07-17T21:13:18.180" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The short answer is &quot;yes&quot; and &quot;no.&quot; A more descriptive &quot;short&quot; answer is that the &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; of the parents in their past life affects the &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; of the child, but the &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; of the parents in the current life does not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are linked by &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; to everyone else in the world, because the actions and abilities of others do, quite obviously and factually, affect us. When the &lt;em&gt;jīva&lt;/em&gt; takes a body as the child of a certain set of parents, it is not randomly. Because the parents' &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; determines their place in life, and that situation in life will affect the upbringing of the child and the child's current and future actions, behavior, attitude, conduct, and life situation, the child's &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;  is affected by the parents' karma in their past life--their &quot;karmic debt&quot; is affected by their place in life and their sufferings as a result of their parents' place in life. This is simply a logical deduction. If, of course, you have any objections to this, feel free to let me know, because I know this may be imperfect in several ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wendy Doniger (controversial, I know) says in her book &lt;em&gt;On Hinduism&lt;/em&gt; on page 104  (this book wasn't the one that was banned):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...the transmigrating soul is said to mix its own inherited karma with the karma of each of the new parents to form the cumulative karma of the new child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To support this statement, she gives a reference to some other work or maybe even Hindu scripture in the endnotes--however, I am unable to access the reference because I could only obtain a preview from Google Books. I encourage anyone with the full version to leave a comment informing me of the reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, what the parents do in the current life &lt;strong&gt;does not&lt;/strong&gt; affect the &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; of the child in the current life, except by indirect means (if the parents instill bad values in the child by setting a bad example, the child may commit wrongdoing later in life). But a theft, for example, by one of the parents will not affect the child. There is no reason to think it would. Philosophically, it creates some extremely obvious problems. As far as I know (and there's a really good chance I might be wrong here), the scriptures doesn't explicitly deny this idea, but see &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgītā&lt;/em&gt; 5.13:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarvakarmāṇi manasā sannyasyāste sukhaṃ vaśī&lt;/em&gt; |&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;navadvāre pure dehī naiva kurvanna kārayan&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This may be translated very, very literally as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having [completely] forsaken all actions mentally, that which is embodied [&lt;em&gt;i.e.&lt;/em&gt;, the soul] happily remains one who has control (&lt;em&gt;i.e.&lt;/em&gt;, the controller)  in the city of nine gates (&lt;em&gt;i.e.&lt;/em&gt;, the body), not doing, not causing [anyone] to do [anything].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if renunciation means that the soul becomes the controller, and no action will take place, then the parents' current actions cannot affect the child's current &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;. Otherwise, religious renunciation could take place, but the soul would not become the controller and it could not be said to be in true &quot;inaction&quot; (as described in this verse) because it still would be accumulating &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;. Thus, the parents' &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; in the current life does not affect the child's &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; unless the child chooses to follow in the steps of the parents and commit some crime.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2382" LastEditorUserId="2382" LastEditDate="2015-07-17T21:29:38.477" LastActivityDate="2015-07-17T21:29:38.477" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7812" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13936" CreationDate="2015-07-18T06:25:05.157" Score="8" ViewCount="15000" Body="&lt;p&gt;In some prays to God Shiva, Like &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindudevotionalblog.com/2008/08/shiva-aksharamala-stotram-shri-samba.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiva Aksharmala&lt;/a&gt;&quot;, there is prefix &quot;Samba&quot; (in Sanskrit सांब) is mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It seems the meaning of word &quot;Samba&quot; (सांब) is &quot;attended by ambA&quot;  &lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt;: This &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=sAmba&amp;amp;script=&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;link=yes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if we go purely by above meaning, then (सांब ) means one who is attended (probably means accompanied ) by Goddess &quot;ambA&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this understanding correct and is there exist any scriptures where Lord Shiva is described as a &quot;Saamba&quot; (सांब)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-02-23T18:30:06.047" LastActivityDate="2018-03-21T15:28:00.837" Title="Meaning of साम्ब (&quot;Samba&quot;) with Sadashiva" Tags="|scripture|shiva|name|durga|devi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7816" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5259" CreationDate="2015-07-19T01:46:47.443" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu spiritual quest begins with Saguna(Form) nature of God  and transcends slowly to Nirguna(Formless) as one progresses in his sadhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Datta &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.good-will.ch/pdf/Sripada_Srivallabha_Charitaamrutam_e.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;declares&lt;/a&gt; that &quot;All the thirty three crore Gods, all the living beings, and endless crores of worlds are within Me and because of Myself they become dynamic and because of My presence, will have different kinds of powers. The ultimate refuge of all the rivers is the ocean. Whichever God is&#xA;worshipped, the worship reaches Me. If I am worshipped, one will get the fruit of worshipping all Gods. The worlds which manifest coming out of My ‘Parabrahma’ tatwam, are My images only. The thing, coming out of My ‘Parabrahma tatwam’ as universe, is My image only.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means Datta is beyond 33 crore Gods and the Trimurty(Brahma,Vishnu and Maheswara) who represent Trigunas(Satva,Rajas,Tamo).Thus Datta(‘nirguna’) transcends all the three ‘gunas’.His Padukas are therefor called as Nirguna Padukas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting the description given &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/hinduism-not-a-religion-but-a-way-of-life&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot; According to Vedānta, the highest aim of existence is the realization of the identity or union of the individual’s ātman (Innermost Self) with the Ultimate Reality. Although Vedānta states that this ultimate reality is beyond name, the word Brahman is used to refer to it. Brahman is formless, infinite and eternal.&#xA;Despite having the abstract concept of Brahman, Hindus worship the Saguna Brahman in his personal forms every day. Brahman, as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Nirguna&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, has no attributes (&lt;em&gt;is formless and unmanifested&lt;/em&gt;), whereas as Saguna (or Iswara) is manifested and with attributes. Saguna Brahman is also called Ishvara. Saguna Brahman — that is, Brahman with attributes — generally takes the form of one of Trimurti (three main Hindu deities): Brahmā, Vishnu, or Shiva (Maheshwara). These personified forms of Brahman correspond to three stages in the cycle of the universe. Brahmā corresponds to the creative spirit from which the universe arises. Vishnu corresponds to the force of order that sustains the universe. Shiva corresponds to the force that brings a cycle to an end — destruction acting as a prelude to transformation, leaving pure consciousness from which the universe is reborn after destruction.&#xA;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please see the description here &lt;a href=&quot;http://srikshetraganagapur.com/shri-padukas-at-ganagapur.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://srikshetraganagapur.com/shri-padukas-at-ganagapur.asp&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://forumforhinduawakening.org/dharma/blog/lord-dattatreya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://forumforhinduawakening.org/dharma/blog/lord-dattatreya/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3353" LastEditorUserId="3353" LastEditDate="2015-07-22T16:03:41.167" LastActivityDate="2015-07-22T16:03:41.167" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7817" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6968" CreationDate="2015-07-19T04:15:50.597" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu cannon comes in two forms Shruti and Smriti. Shruti is divine revelation while Smritis are human constructs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Human laws or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma%C5%9B%C4%81stra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dharmashashtras&lt;/a&gt; are part of Smriti. There are many dharmashastras including the one by Manu, Vishnu, Narada etc. Smritis are context dependent and becomes obsolete after a &lt;em&gt;'yuga'&lt;/em&gt; has passed. The current constitution can also be considered a dharmashastra for the current &lt;em&gt;yuga&lt;/em&gt; written by enlightened men of our age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the legality of polygamy/polyandry in Hinduism is decided by the current dharmasastra which happens to be Indian constitution, which we all know forbids a man or women to have multiple partners.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2015-07-19T04:15:50.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7818" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-19T04:44:50.540" Score="5" ViewCount="1407" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that there are 72,000 Nadis in the Human body. Is there any sophisticated Map indicating the Chakras, important Nadis and Marma points in the Human anatomical diagram ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2023-09-03T06:55:23.647" LastActivityDate="2023-09-03T06:55:23.647" Title="Map of Nadis, Chakras and Marmas in Human body" Tags="|body|ayurveda|nadi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7819" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7805" CreationDate="2015-07-19T11:34:42.933" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Lord is all around you, but you cannot see God because you have since the instance of your birth been bombarded by your senses to perceive the world. Your senses have been bombarding you to see the outer world and not God. Your mind has been hypnotized into seeing this world alone, what is needed is to be de-hypnotized. This hypnotization is called &lt;em&gt;Adhyasa&lt;/em&gt;, or superimposition. We see Reality, but it is distorted through maya. In many scriptural instances it is compared to silver in mother-of-pearl. The shell is real, but the silver on the shell is not real.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankara says that it is not through learning, or scriptural study, that the Lord is seen, but only through an intense hankering. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa told the story (&lt;em&gt;Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;) of the man who asked his guru what was necessary to see God. The guru took him to a river and had him stand in it next to him. The guru then suddenly pushed the man's head under water. After a while, he let him above the water. The guru said &quot;What did you feel?&quot; The man replied &quot;The intense desire for a breath of air completely consumed me.&quot; and the guru responded &quot;When you have the same longing for God as you had for a breath of air, you will see God.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Mundaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (III. ii. 3.) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Self is not attained through study, nor through intellect, nor through much hearing. By the very fact that he (the aspirant) seeks for It [&lt;em&gt;vrnute tena&lt;/em&gt; - seeks to reach by that fact of hankering], does It become attainable; of him this Self reveals Its own nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Shivananda (disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa) says (&lt;em&gt;For Seekers of God&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Spiritual efforts without sincere love of God are fruitless. Sincere love is what counts. The Master [Ramakrishna] used to say that when the three attachments--that of a devoted wife to her husband, of a mother for her child, and of a miser for his wealth--become one, then one realizes God. If anyone feels the same intense longing as would result if these three attachments were united, only then does he have God-vision. Sincere love brings God-realization and in that alone is genuine peace and joy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is there no human description of God? Because God is beyond description. There are no words to describe God. Krishna says (Gita XI. 12.):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst forth at once in the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have sincere love for God, hanker after God alone, then say whether or not you can see Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-19T11:34:42.933" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7820" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7818" CreationDate="2015-07-19T12:14:12.737" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;em&gt;Saundarya Lahari of Sri Sankaracarya&lt;/em&gt; by Swami Tapasyananda there is an an Appendix II titled &lt;em&gt;Anatomical and Physiological Basis of Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt; by Dr. J. K. Sarkar. In it he gives a detailed map showing how the yogic centers and chakras relate to the human body. Among some of the results he states the following correspondences for the lotuses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Muladhara--Inferior Hypogastric Plexus (pelvicplexus).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Svadhisthana--Superior Hypogastric Plexus.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Manipura--Coeliac or Solar Plexus.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Anahata--Cardiac Plexus.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Visuddha--plexuses connecting superior, middle and inferior cervical ganglia.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ajna--Interior carotid plexus.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sahasrara--Pineal Gland.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-19T12:14:12.737" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7822" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7331" CreationDate="2015-07-19T17:20:11.233" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Different Values have been interpreted for yojana from our ancient texts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The British set it at 5 miles which was felt smaller. There have been various contradictory conclusions ranging from 5 miles to 8 miles. A good history about multiple values are present at &lt;a href=&quot;http://sizes.com/units/yojana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Arthaśāstra (4th century BCE) says that 1 yojana = 4 gorutas; 1 goruta = 1000 dhanus; 1 dhanu = 96 angulas. Taking the angula as ¾ inch makes the yojana about 4.54 statute miles. During the colonial period the British administration set the yojana at 5 miles; however, this seems to be smaller than its usual value. The ancient commentator on the Arthaśāstra says the goruta is 2000 dhanus, which would make the yojana about 9 miles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;T. W. Rhys Davids complied a list of occurrences of the term and compared each with distances on modern maps. He concluded:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The conclusion to which I come is that we have no data as yet for determining the sense in which the word yojana is used in the Three Piṭakas; that in fifth-century Páli literature it means between seven and eight miles, and that the traditions preserved by Ceylon authors of that date as to distances in North India in the time of Gautama agree pretty well, except in the cases of Kapilavastu and Sankassa, with the sites fixed by General Cunningham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="972" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-12-23T17:05:58.140" LastActivityDate="2018-12-23T17:05:58.140" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7824" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-19T18:10:33.350" Score="5" ViewCount="1701" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of Krishna's most famous deeds is the killing of the demon Narakasura, which is the inspiration of the festival Deepavali.  Narakasura was tormenting the gods and had even stolen the earrings of Indra's mother Aditi, so Indra sought the help of Krishna.  As I discuss in this &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/59/2-3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna rode on Garuda, accompanied by his wife Satyabhama, and defeated Narakasura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narakasura&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt; claims that in addition to Indra reaching out  to Krishna, Indra's mother Aditi also approached Krishna's wife Satyabhama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the Devas, led by Indra went to Vishnu, to ask him to deliver them from Narakasura. Vishnu promised them that he would attend to this matter, when he would be incarnated as Krishna. As promised to Mother Earth, Narakasura was allowed to enjoy a long reign. At last Vishnu was born as Krishna. &lt;strong&gt;Aditi, who was a relative of Krishna's wife Satyabhama&lt;/strong&gt; (believed to be an Avatar of Bhudevi - Narakasura' mother), approached Satyabhama for help. When Satyabhama heard of the Narakasura's ill treatment of women and his behaviour with Aditi, she was enraged. Satyabhama approached Lord Krishna for permission to wage a war against Narakasura. As promised to the Devas and Aditi, Krishna attacked the great fortress of Narakasura, riding his mount Garuda with wife Satyabhama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=oMnsAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;q=satyabhama%20aditi%20relative&amp;amp;dq=satyabhama%20aditi%20relative&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0CCYQ6AEwAmoVChMI9JbX7cznxgIViRkeCh3WZQYA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This book&lt;/a&gt; says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During a war he defeated Lord Indra and snatched away the magnificent earrings of Mother Goddess Aditi who was not only the ruler of Suraloka but also a &lt;strong&gt;relative of Lord Krishna's wife, Satyabhama&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is it true that Satyabhama was related to Aditi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Satyabhama was the daughter of Satrajit, a Yadava who obtained the famous Syamantaka gem after worshipping Surya the sun god.  Satrajit accused Krishna of stealing the gem, and when it was discovered that Krishna had nothing to do with it, Satrajit gave Krishna his daughter's hand in marriage.  In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp106.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana describes the ancestry of Satrajit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sons of Satwata were Bhajina, Bhajamána, Divya, Andhaka, Devávriddha, Mahábhoja, and Vrishńi.... Vrishńi had two sons, Sumitra and Yudhájit; from the former Anamitra and Śini were born.  The son of Anamitra was Nighna, who had two sons, Prasena and Satrájit. The divine Áditya, the sun, was the friend of the latter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And for completeness &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp105.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the previous chapter&lt;/a&gt; describes how Satrajit's ancestor Satvata descended from Yadu, the founder of the Yadava race whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6772/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I don't see how Satrajit was related to Aditi, who is the daughter of Brahma's son Daksha and the wife of the sage Kashyapa.  Is it possible that Satyabhama was related to Aditi on her mother's side?  Who was Satrajit's wife?  Also, Satyabhama was the incarnation of Vishnu's wife Bhumidevi, goddess of the Earth, so is it possible that Wikipedia is referring to Bhumidevi as the relative of Aditi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T13:18:30.433" Title="How was Krishna's wife Satyabhama related to Indra's mother Aditi?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|gods|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7825" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7828" CreationDate="2015-07-20T07:32:44.770" Score="6" ViewCount="2485" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of wearing dhoti during puja and other rituals ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3177" LastActivityDate="2023-01-01T09:54:51.820" Title="What is the significance of wearing dhoti during puja and other rituals?" Tags="|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7826" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-21T00:26:40.070" Score="2" ViewCount="281" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The 4000 verses of the Alwars were compiled by the Vaishnava Acharya Nathamuni into a book called the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, which is considered by many to be the &amp;quot;Dravida Veda&amp;quot;, or South Indian Veda. It's the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that Nathamuni used to found what we now call the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I am a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Nathamuni's grandson was also a Sri Vaishnava Acharya, known as Yamunacharya or Alavandar, whom I discuss in my questions &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/search?q=Yamunacharya%20user%3A36%20is%3Aquestion&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Among other things, Yamunacharya composed a famous hymn to Vishnu known as the Stotra Ratna.  It is revered even by non-Sri Vaishnavas, and it is this poem that inspired the famous Ramanujacharya to become a Sri Vaishnava in the first place!  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bvml.org/VS/Y_stotra-ratna.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a verse from it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us submit one piece of information before You, dear Lord. It is not at all false, but it is full of meaning. It is this: If You are not merciful upon us, then it will be very, very difficult to find more suitable candidates for Your mercy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I read this verse, I was reminded of a poem of one of the Alwars, known as Thirumangai Alwar, who once visited the town of Indaloor to see the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parimala_Ranganatha_Perumal_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parimala Raganatha Perumal&lt;/a&gt; Vishnu temple.  But when he arrived, the temple was closed, and Thirumangai Alwar was so eager to see Vishnu that he spontaneously composed &lt;a href=&quot;https://periyathirumozhi-4thdecad.blogspot.com/p/nummaith-thozhudhom.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this paraclausithyron poem&lt;/a&gt; expressing his frustration that Vishnu would not allow Thirumangai Alwar to see him.  In particular, he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oh! indaLooreerE [lord of Indaloor]! I want to say something to You. I shall certainly express it now. I cannot keep quiet. Listen. You think I am one of Your numerous dAsas. I am not. You know who are good and who are bad. In fact You know everything. But You don’t know one thing i.e. me!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In both verses, the devotee claims to be presenting Vishnu with a new piece of information, and that piece of information is that the devotee is unique among the devotees of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, was Yamunacharya's verse in the Stotra Ratna inspired by the verse of Thirumangai Alwar?  It wouldn't be too surprising, considering that Yamunacharya was part of the Sri Vaishnava Sampradayam, and Sri Vaishnavas place a high value on the poetry of the Alwars.  And considering the Yamnunacharya was the grandson of Nathamuni who compiled the poems of the Alwars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know of any commentaries on the Stotra Ratna which connect the verse to the Thirumangai Alwar verse I quoted?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2022-07-31T13:31:30.127" LastActivityDate="2022-07-31T13:31:30.127" Title="Was one of Yamunacharya's verses to Vishnu inspired by a verse of Thirumangai Alwar?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|bhakti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7828" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7825" CreationDate="2015-07-21T05:09:51.473" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;It is mentioned in the Shastras that one should always wear a sacred/fresh (clean, washed and pure white) cloth while doing Puja everyday and 'Dhoti' is the purest forms of cloth. It is made to and can be be washed and easily dried up to wear every next day. Also the word itself means 'Dho' + 'Ti' a cloth that one can 'Dho'(a hindi/sanskrit word meaning wash) and wear a-fresh every day.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other reasons to believe by many others which are similar to that it is one of the simplest of clothes without any stitching and costly embroidery. Also there is a thinking that a proper Dhoti wearing does not involve any knot tied, hence simple wear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Deriving one possible spiritual explanation out of this is that a type of cloth, i.e. dhoti, could be THAT simplest forms of cloth which is made to cover the body in the most simplest forms and which is its real purpose or to say which fulfills the ‘Need’ for what it is made mainly FOR and also there on, one can cross the fine line between the ‘Need’ and ‘Greed’ where the skillful designing, stitching and decoration like embroideries could take you away from the path of eternal bliss, which eventually has no end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedicvaani.com/readymade-dhoti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedicvaani.com/readymade-dhoti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3361" LastEditorUserId="3177" LastEditDate="2020-09-17T12:06:39.467" LastActivityDate="2020-09-17T12:06:39.467" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7830" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-21T08:26:49.460" Score="3" ViewCount="45" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Prabhavananda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Swami Prabhavananda&lt;/a&gt;'s &lt;em&gt;The Spiritual Heritage of India&lt;/em&gt; (1962) quotes &quot;the physicist Joseph Kaplan&quot; several times (in the chapter on the Samkhya system). For instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus the molecule is not something which takes on successive states,&#xA;  but it is the states themselves. So dice are the sum of possible was&#xA;  in which they can fall. The principle is known as the principle of&#xA;  superposition. So the three gunas represent the universe, and as the&#xA;  three occur in various relative intensities, so the properties of&#xA;  things are determined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The atomic theory is the product of the Western mind. In his native&#xA;  way the Western scientist generalizes the experience that one can&#xA;  subdivide matter until one meets an ultimate particle into an atomic&#xA;  theory assuming many elements. The Hindu philosopher goes much further&#xA;  and reduces everything to one element.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is/was this Joseph Kaplan (for his is a fairly common name) and did he publish any books (perhaps also on spiritual topics) by himself? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3155" LastActivityDate="2015-07-21T08:26:49.460" Title="Joseph Kaplan as quoted by Swami Prabhavananda?" Tags="|philosophy|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7831" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-21T08:39:05.130" Score="1" ViewCount="145" Body="&lt;p&gt;As Stephen Hawking launches search for Aliens, I would like to know whether any of our Vedas have mentioned Aliens or any other living being living in different planet, who could be more intellectual than us. Please enlighten me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3363" LastActivityDate="2015-07-21T08:39:05.130" Title="Are Aliens mentioned in Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-07-21T13:19:14.920" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7832" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7844" CreationDate="2015-07-21T12:35:23.393" Score="6" ViewCount="5348" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are Thor in Norse mythology and Indra in Hindu mythology the same? Do the people of that particular area know  Indra as Thor? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I had seen ancient aliens Program in history channel About Thor they compare Indra with Thor thats why I asked the Questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T08:28:58.727" LastActivityDate="2020-03-09T08:28:58.727" Title="Are Thor and Indra the same?" Tags="|indra|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2018-08-22T07:17:41.843" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7834" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-21T16:37:29.290" Score="11" ViewCount="442" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm still converting to Hinduism from Christianity and I'm needing more than a little help. Where I'm from, it would be a miracle to find another Hindu, much less a guru. I need to know where I can find one for free who can help me. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3367" LastActivityDate="2015-10-02T21:04:38.517" Title="Where can I find a guru?" Tags="|guru|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2018-06-03T04:43:06.283" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7835" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-21T16:47:22.740" Score="4" ViewCount="1168" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that Nara and Narayana were two avatars of Vishnu and their another birth are Arjuna and Krishna. Everyone knows that Krishna was an avatar of Lord Vishnu but Arjuna also? I am asking this question because if Nara was Vishnu,so Arjuna was also Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3368" LastEditorUserId="3368" LastEditDate="2015-07-25T14:42:17.210" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T15:09:30.343" Title="Arjuna's previous birth was Sage Nara the incarnation of Vishnu. So,this means Arjuna was also an incarnation of Vishnu?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-09-14T11:17:51.953" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7836" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7834" CreationDate="2015-07-21T17:08:21.613" Score="11" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Who is a Guru?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru is the God come in human form to help you realize Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Guru is God Himself manifesting in a personal form to guide the aspirant.&lt;/strong&gt; Grace of God takes the form of the Guru. To see the Guru is to see God. The Guru is united with God. He inspires devotion in others. His presence purifies all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Guru is verily a link between the individual and the immortal. He is a being who has raised himself from this into That, and thus has free and unhampered access into both the realms. He stands, as it were, upon the threshold of immortality; and, bending down he raises the struggling individuals with his one hand, and with the other lifts them up into the empyrean of everlasting joy and infinite Truth-Consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no difference between Guru and God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is the need for Guru?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as a guide can take you easily to your destination, the Guru will take you to God (or Himself, for Guru is no different from God).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For a beginner in the spiritual path, a Guru is necessary.&lt;/strong&gt; To light a candle, you need a burning candle. Even an illumined soul alone can enlighten another soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some do meditation for some years independently. Later on, they actually feel the necessity of a Guru. They come across some obstacles in the way. They are unable to know how to obviate these impediments or stumbling blocks. Then they begin to search for a Master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only the man who has already been to Badrinath will be able to tell you the road. In the case of the spiritual path, it is still more difficult to find your way. The mind will mislead you very often. The Guru will be able to remove pitfalls and obstacles, and lead you along the right path. He will tell you: &amp;quot;This road leads you to Moksha (liberation); this one leads to bondage&amp;quot;. Without this guidance, you might want to go to Badrinath, but find yourself in Delhi!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures are like a forest. There are ambiguous passages. There are passages which are apparently contradictory. There are passages which have esoteric meanings, diverse significance, and hidden explanations. There are cross-references. You are in need of a Guru or Preceptor who will explain to you the right meaning, who will remove doubts and ambiguities, who will place before you the essence of the teachings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Finding a Guru&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sincerity counts. The one who sincerely seeks to know God will find His Guru because He knows that the Guru is the way to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you find peace in the presence of a Mahatma (great soul), if you are inspired by his speeches, if he is able to clear your doubts, if he is free, from greed, anger, and lust, if he is selfless, loving, and I-less, you can take him as your Guru. He who is able to clear your doubts, he who is sympathetic in your Sadhana, he who does not disturb your beliefs but helps you on from where you are, he in whose very presence you feel spiritually elevated-he is your Guru. Once you choose Your Guru, implicitly follow him. God will guide you through the Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do not use your reason too much in the selection of your Guru. You will fail if you do so. If you fail to get a first-class Guru, try to follow the instructions of the Sadhu (a spiritual person) who is treading the path for some years, who has purity and other virtuous qualities, and who has some knowledge of the scriptures. Just as a student of the Intermediate class will be able to teach a student of Third Form when a professor with M.A. qualification is not available, just as a sub-assistant surgeon will be able to attend on a patient when the civil surgeon is not available, this second- class type of Guru will be able to help you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are not able to find out even this second-class type of Guru, you can follow the teachings contained in the books written by realised saints like Sri Sankara, Dattatreya, and others. You can keep a photo of such a realised Guru, if available, and worship the same with faith and devotion. Gradually you will get inspiration, and the Guru may appear in dream and initiate and inspire you at the proper time. &lt;strong&gt;For a sincere Sadhak (aspirant), help comes in a mysterious manner. When the time is ripe, the Guru and the disciple are brought together by the Lord in a mysterious way.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All quotations are from the saint Sri Swami Sivananda's loving teachings about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/guru.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Guru and the way to reach Guru&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;The Reality - There is no Guru other than Your Self (Advaita)&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although these above tips are indeed true, the Absolute Truth is that there is no Guru other than Your True Self or Satchidananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramana Maharishi says in Talks with Sri Ramana Maharishi that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;D.: Is not Grace the gift of the Guru?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharishi : &lt;strong&gt;God, Grace and Guru are all synonymous and also eternal and immanent.&lt;/strong&gt; Is not the Self already within? Is it for the Guru to bestow It by his look? If a Guru thinks so, he does not deserve the name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The books say that there are so many kinds of initiations – by hand, by touch, by eyes and by mind. They also say that the Guru makes some rites with fire, water, japa, mantras, etc., and call such fantastic performances Initiation, as if the disciple becomes ripe only after such processes are gone through by the Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the individual is sought he is nowhere to be found. Such is the Guru. Such is Dakshinamurti. What did he do? He was silent; the disciples appeared before him. He maintained silence; the doubts of the disciples were dispelled, which means that they lost their individual identities. That is wisdom  and not all the verbiage usually associated with it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Silence is the most potent form of work. However vast and emphatic the scripttures may be, they fail in their effect. The Guru is quiet and peace prevails in all. His silence is vaster and more emphatic than all the scriptures put together. These questions arise because of the feeling, that having been here so long, heard so much, exerted so hard, one has not gained anything. The work proceeding within is not apparent. In fact the Guru is always within you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa says that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satchidananda alone is the Guru.&lt;/strong&gt; If a man in the form of a guru awakens spiritual consciousness in you, then know for certain that it is God the Absolute who has assumed that human form for your sake. &lt;strong&gt;The guru is like a companion who leads you by the hand&lt;/strong&gt;. After the realization of God, one loses the distinction between the guru and the disciple. ‘That creates a very difficult situation; there the guru and the disciple do not see each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-07-21T17:08:21.613" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7837" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7840" CreationDate="2015-07-22T02:20:25.630" Score="10" ViewCount="6321" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many religions have stated clearly that indulgence in sin, specifically sin related to lust in some way is detrimental to spiritual growth. Is there anything in Hinduism that provides a way to prevent oneself from being lustful? Is there a way to seek forgiveness for lustful actions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3251" LastActivityDate="2019-03-28T03:42:36.873" Title="Avoiding Lust in Hinduism?" Tags="|sin|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7838" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-22T03:01:38.190" Score="11" ViewCount="2299" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Nalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it's the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7160/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Alwars are believed by Sri Vaishnavas to be incarnations of various attendants and attributes of Vishnu; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvars#Summary&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is who each Alwar is an incarnation of:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Poigai Alwar - Vishnu's Panchajanya Shankha&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhoothath Alwar - Vishnu's Kaumodaki mace&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pey Alwar - Vishnu's Nandaka sword&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thirumazhisai Alwar - Vishnu's Sudarshana Chakra&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nammalwar - Vishnu's general Vishwaksena&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Madhurakavi Alwar - Vishnu's bird Garuda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kulasekhara Alwar - Vishnu's Kaustubha gem&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Periyalwar - Vishnu's bird Garuda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Andal - Vishnu's wife Bhumidevi goddess of the Earth&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thondaradippodi Alwar - Vishnu's Vanamala garland&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thiruppan Alwar - Vishnu's Srivatsa mark&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thirumangai Alwar - Vishnu's Sharanga bow&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now since the Alwars' poems are in praise of Vishnu, you'd naturally expect them to contain references to numerous attributes and attendants of Vishnu.  So my question is, which of the Alwars mention the gods that they themselves are incarnations of.  For instance, does Nammalwar (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7564/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) ever mention Vishwaksena, the general of Vishnu's army whom he incarnated from?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I ask is that I'm wondering if the Alwars tried to avoid mentioning the gods they were incarnated from.  For instance, Periyalwar's famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://4000divyaprabandam.blogspot.com/p/thiru-pallandu_25.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thirupallandu&lt;/a&gt; poem praises various attributes of Vishnu, but it neglects to mention Garuda.  Perhaps that's because Periyalwar did not want to praise himself.  Also, it might shed light on why Sri Vaishnavas associate each Alwar with a specific god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, the compilation of all the Alwars' poems, &lt;a href=&quot;http://4000divyaprabandam.blogspot.com&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2021-10-29T06:25:53.330" Title="Which Alwars mention the gods whom they're incarnations of?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7839" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7837" CreationDate="2015-07-22T05:21:32.507" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer in Hinduism, is at best gray. Sex in Hinduism is definitely not a sin, but lust (&lt;em&gt;Kaama&lt;/em&gt;; which is best translated as 'wanting') can be considered as one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Humans of all &lt;em&gt;varna&lt;/em&gt; have 4 &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puru%E1%B9%A3%C4%81rtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;purushartha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (or duties to perform) which are &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dharma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (righteousness, moral values), &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Artha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (prosperity, economic values), &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C4%81ma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kāma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (pleasure, love, psychological values) and &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mok%E1%B9%A3a&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mokṣa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (liberation, spiritual values). So, &lt;em&gt;Kaama&lt;/em&gt; is one of the duties which one has to fulfill without which his life hasn't been complete. All four &lt;em&gt;Purusarthas&lt;/em&gt; are important, but in cases of conflict, Dharma is considered more important than &lt;em&gt;Artha&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Kaama&lt;/em&gt; in Hindu philosophy. &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; is considered the ultimate ideal of human life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, that being said overindulgence is what is detested in Hinduism as in Buddhism. Vyasa, the commentator of the Yoga Sutras, however, defines &lt;em&gt;brahmacharya&lt;/em&gt; as the control of the organ of generation and the giving up of all forms of lust. This means not only abstaining from gross sexual indulgence but also thinking, willing, seeing, talking, observing and indulging in sexual entertainment, mentally or through other senses. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=4055&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although, not a religious scripture, in Kamasutra &lt;em&gt;Vatsyayana&lt;/em&gt; claims Kaama is never in conflict with &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Artha&lt;/em&gt;, rather all three coexist and &lt;em&gt;kaama&lt;/em&gt; results from the other two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A man practicing &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Artha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Kaama&lt;/em&gt; enjoys happiness now and in&#xA;  future. Any action which conduces to the practice of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Artha&lt;/em&gt; and&#xA;  Kama together, or of any two, or even one of them should be performed.&#xA;  But an action which conduces to the practice of one of them at the&#xA;  expense of the remaining two should not be performed.&#xA;      —&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/kama/kama102.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vatsyayana, The Kama sutra, Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the morality in Hinduism is kind of subjective and context dependent. Lust is not outrightly rejected, rather it's accepted as an important part of Human psyche. The only precondition being a person's acts shouldn't solely be for Lust and must also take into account his &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2015-07-22T05:42:49.297" LastActivityDate="2015-07-22T05:42:49.297" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7840" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7837" CreationDate="2015-07-22T05:42:08.410" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the need of austerities if you have Love for God? What are the use of austerities if you have no Love for God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Sri Ramakrishna ponted out;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The farther you walk West, the farther away are you from the East. Walk towards God and the farther away you will be from lust. The more you worry about lust, the more it will consume you. Walk towards God and lust will leave by itself. If you must lust, lust for God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the Gita (XVIII. 65-66):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fix your heart on Me, give your love to Me, worship Me, bow down before Me; so shall you come to Me. This is My pledge to you, for you are dear to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandon all dharmas and come to Me alone for shelter. I will deliver you from all sins; do not grieve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in Gita (IX. 30-32)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even the most sinful man, if he worships Me with unswerving devotion, must be regarded as righteous; for he has formed the right resolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He soon becomes righteous and attains eternal peace. Proclaim it boldly, O son of Kunti, that My devotee never perishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For those who take refuge in Me, O Partha, though they be of sinful birth--women, vasiyas, and sudras--even they attain the Supreme Goal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorDisplayName="user17294" LastEditDate="2019-03-28T03:42:36.873" LastActivityDate="2019-03-28T03:42:36.873" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7842" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7861" CreationDate="2015-07-22T08:15:32.130" Score="10" ViewCount="3261" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard/read somewhere that there were 8 major wives of Lord Krishna. Also there were some approx. 16,000 girls that Lord Krishna freed from Narakasura and as no one would marry them, therefore Lord Krishna married them all. However, out of the 8 major wives, I currently know of only Rukmini, Satyabhama and Jambavati and their stories. Can someone please tell me who the other ones are out of the 8 major ones?  Also, please let me know their stories related to how they got married to Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-07T14:58:23.097" LastActivityDate="2023-06-12T13:07:22.513" Title="Lesser known but main wives of Lord Krishna apart from Rukmini, Satyabhama and Jambavati?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7843" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="705" CreationDate="2015-07-22T10:06:27.887" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from the sacred text, I can better explain the uniqueness of the holy ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the very old faith that a teacher is above all on this whole planet. A teacher can only educate someone better when he attains purity in his soul. It says, a person who teaches and carries a pure soul would incredibly be the most unique and best person on planet and is considered to be the universal GURU (Teacher).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following 2 reasons will explain how mother ganges is the best guru on whole planet. Why Iam calling her a Mother, will explain it to you in the end..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nobeler and purer:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The water of the Ganga is extremely pure and sanctifying. No germs can flourish in this. This has been tested by various scientists in the laboratory. Rich in minerals this water cures almost all kinds of diseases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ganga is saturated with antiseptic minerals. Even in the West, doctors prescribe Ganga water for rubbing in the treatment of diseases of the skin. Ganga is not merely a river. It is a sacred Tirtha. It is possessed of mysterious powers which are not found in any other river of the world. Even scientists have admitted the efficacy of the Ganga water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dr. F.C. Harrison of McGill University, Canada writes: “A peculiar fact which has never been satisfactorily explained is the quick death, in three or five hours, of the cholera vibrio in the waters of the Ganga. When one remembers sewage by numerous corpses of natives, often cholera casualties, and by the bathing of thousands of natives, it seems remarkable that the belief of the Hindus, that the water of this river is pure and cannot be defiled and that they can safely drink it and bathe in it, should be confirmed by means of modern bacteriological research”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A well-known French physician, Dr. D. Herelle, made similar investigations into the mystery of the Ganga. He observed some of the floating corpses of men dead of dysentery and cholera, and was surprised to find “that only a few feet below the bodies where one would expect to find millions of these dysentery and cholera germs, there were no germs at all”. He then grew germs from patients having the disease, and to these cultures added water from the Ganga. When he incubated the mixture for a period, much to his surprise, the germs were completely destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A British physician, Dr. C.E. Nelson, F.R.C.S., tells us of another striking fact. He says that “ships leaving Calcutta for England take their water from the Hooghly river which is one of the mouths of the filthy Ganga and this Ganga water will remain fresh all the way to England . On the other hand, ships leaving England for India find that the water they take on in London will not stay fresh till they reach Bombay, the nearest Indian port, which is a week closer to England than Calcutta. They must replenish their water-supply at Port Said , Suez or at Aden on the Read Sea”. It is no wonder that the Indian people should hold that the Ganga is very sacred and possessed of mysterious powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A silent Teacher:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ganga starts from Gangotri in Himalayas. She encounters many obstacles on her way, but she finally reaches the goal—the ocean. Similarly, the Sadhaka should never give up his struggle, however insurmountable the obstacles in the path may appear to be. All difficulties and obstacles will be removed through the grace of the Lord if he is sincere in his Yogic practices, and he will reach the goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mother Nature:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is only the ganga river which has made half of India a most fertile land on earth.&#xA;It barely gets flooded and never took the lives even when get over flooded. It has helped manliness to settle down across its bank with prosperity and cheerfulness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ganga gives you always cool, pure water. It does not expect anything from you in return. The sun sheds its light on all without anticipating any reward. Derive lessons from them. Always give and Ask nothing in return. Expect nothing in return. Do not expect even appreciation, approbation, or recognition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A rogue and a saint can drink the water of the Ganga. The sun sheds its light on the wicked and the virtuous. The mango tree gives its fruits both for the caretaker and the man who cuts its branches. Develop equal vision like the Ganga, the sun and the mango tree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O friend! Follow the lines of Mother Ganga. &#xA;Be pure. Be adaptable. Be tolerant. Be forgiving. Be sweet. &#xA;Pour out your love on all. &#xA;Share what you have-physical labour for humanity and support change for betterment, moral, mental and spiritual—with the whole of humanity. The more you give the more you get. Give without any selfish motive, without expecting any reward. Embrace all. Cultivate equal vision.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All glory be unto Mother Ganga, the giver of life, light and love. Worship Her with faith, devotion and piety. Adore Her with flowers of purity, love, self-restraint and equal vision. Sing Her Names. Remrmber Her grace. May Mother Ganga bless you all! May She help you in practicing good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I love Ganga and the Himalayas.&#xA;Ganga is my Mother Divine.&#xA;Himalayas is my Father Divine.&#xA;They inspire and guide me.&#xA;I take bath in Ganga.&#xA;I pray to Ganga.&#xA;I do salutations to Ganga.&#xA;I sing the glory of Ganga. &#xA;I write about the grandeur and glory of Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganga has nourished me. Ganga has comforted me. Ganga has taught me the truths of the Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3372" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2015-07-22T12:30:12.513" LastActivityDate="2015-07-22T12:30:12.513" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7844" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7832" CreationDate="2015-07-22T11:29:28.877" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra and Thor are different if we compare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indra is the supreme god (King) of heaven, Thor is not the king of Valhalla.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indra has Vajra as his weapon made from the bones of the sage Dadhichi, where as Thor owns a  different weapon.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indra is carried by Airavata (five-headed Divine Elephant), Thor does not have this.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Common thing is that both are  associated with thunder, lightning, storms so is Zeus in the Greek mythology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3374" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2018-03-16T08:28:22.687" LastActivityDate="2018-03-16T08:28:22.687" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7847" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-22T12:28:40.267" Score="8" ViewCount="217" Body="&lt;p&gt;In this times It is really energy consuming to learn from different organization or modern man about spiritual guidence and to have all the time this filter in the head filtering the nonsense and conflicting actions from their preaching and life that they are living.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And more and more people are suffering after many years of learning from someone who is showing conflicts in their life and preaching. For example Swamis that are exploiting devoties etc... I know that if one rotten fruit is in the basket you can't expect that are all rotten, but still if you don't have nose or eyes that could see, you can't test them untill you bite them and see for your self if you are sick.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So with all that I want to ask:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What kind of quidance systems hinduism provide in a mater of this question, so that one can enter and walks spiritual, with a safe and well defined matter, alone and independent.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What dusty old books would you suggest so they will be good replacement for the guru from Himalaya, that have as little distortion from modern men as possible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2578" LastEditorDisplayName="user2578" LastEditDate="2015-07-26T12:17:34.980" LastActivityDate="2015-08-25T13:41:02.607" Title="How to plan your own spiritual path" Tags="|vedas|scripture|yoga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-02-14T10:20:07.260" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7848" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-22T13:04:40.567" Score="5" ViewCount="207" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any eye who is watching us continuously and keeping record of our what we did?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know about any written thing in Vedas and any story about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3198" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T08:21:22.817" Title="Is anyone watching us?" Tags="|belief|atma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7849" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-22T15:12:06.937" Score="4" ViewCount="122" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Somnath Temple have a direct gateway to heaven. I heard about this story in TV Serial Devon ke dev Mahadev. I want to know about the story and whether it is a written story or a folklore. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3375" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T06:54:34.137" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T06:54:34.137" Title="Did Somnath Temple ever have a direct gateway to heaven?" Tags="|shiva|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7850" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-22T15:55:04.640" Score="2" ViewCount="1818" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do Hindu texts say about sleep paralysis? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any stories related to sleep paralysis in Hindu texts? Is it like an omen?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2018-12-18T05:30:05.307" LastActivityDate="2018-12-18T05:30:05.307" Title="What do Hindu texts say about sleep paralysis?" Tags="|belief|omens|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7851" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-22T16:01:59.237" Score="11" ViewCount="9499" Body="&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana was the son of a king and should be made the next king but still generally all people consider Yudhishthira to be the righteous owner of the throne. Why should Yudhishthira be the crown prince when Pandu and his wives had already left their kingdom and appointed Dhritarashtra as the king?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Yudhishthira was not a direct son of Pandu. Pandu himself was not the righteous owner of the throne. He got the throne because Bhishma said that Dhritarashtra will have problems due to his blindness, but later on also he became the king. So, it was Dhritarashtra's right to be king and later on he became the king and therefore rightful owner to succeed him should be Duryodhana. I also think, between Yudhishthira and Duryodhana, if there was no such confusion as to who should be the next king, then there wouldn't have been any Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3375" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-08-01T05:00:24.693" LastActivityDate="2020-11-25T16:12:02.357" Title="After Dhritarashtra, why was Yudhishthira and not Duryodhana considered the next in line to be the king?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|yudhisthira|duryodhana|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7852" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-22T16:07:01.150" Score="3" ViewCount="122" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that there is a jyotirlinga that from starting till now floats in air. Please tell me which jyotirlinga is that and what is the reason of its floating in air. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3375" LastActivityDate="2016-07-27T11:04:41.680" Title="Is it true that there is some Jyotirling that still floats on air?" Tags="|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7853" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7801" CreationDate="2015-07-22T16:22:47.577" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before the war of Kurukshetra, Krishna and Arjuna went to find a place suitable for the war.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At one place one farmer was leading water into his fields. That farmer searched for a big stone to stop the flow of water. Meanwhile the farmer’s son came with food for his father. After eating food, the farmer cut his son’s head with a sword and put that head to obstruct the flow of water. The father who was cutting and the son whose head was being cut, were not having any type of emotion during the act of cutting the head. Food is required for feeding the community. The farmer’s aim is to see that the crop grows. The farmer did that job without expecting any return. Sri Krishna choose that place as ‘dharma kshetra’ suitable as ‘war zone’ (yudda kshetra) for the future war between&#xA;Kauravas and Pandavas.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source:-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.good-will.ch/pdf/Sripada_Srivallabha_Charitaamrutam_e.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sripada SriVallabha Charithamrutham&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3353" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-03-15T12:33:01.230" LastActivityDate="2016-03-15T12:33:01.230" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7854" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7852" CreationDate="2015-07-22T16:29:52.763" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was in Somnath at Gujarat.It floats due to smart use of construction materials.It does not float anymore due to destruction caused by Islamic invaders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;@Vineet Menon&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find a brief description at this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/lesser-known-facts-about-somnath-temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;.Alternatively,the &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Jai_Somnath.html?id=5FVnJ47N1pkC&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;book&lt;/a&gt; Jai Somnath by K.M.Munshi -ISBN:9788184617696 is providing a detailed account of the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3353" LastEditorUserId="3353" LastEditDate="2016-07-27T11:04:41.680" LastActivityDate="2016-07-27T11:04:41.680" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7855" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2118" CreationDate="2015-07-22T16:52:26.503" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many of these things were made known by Veda Vyasa Maharshi&#xA;in his ‘Bhavishya Purana’.Prediction of Jesus Christ ,Profet Mohammed etc were made.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3353" LastActivityDate="2015-07-22T16:52:26.503" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7856" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7851" CreationDate="2015-07-22T19:25:54.380" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This was the initial conflict and mostly politics up until this point in my opinion. Reason for Mahabharat was not just this conflict of interest, this was a starting point, yes, but this was not the entire reason. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhan started to get antagonized after he insulted Draupadi and had Pandavas exiled. This not only earned pandavas more sympathy, but also more credibility for living as laymen in exile. Having Krishna on their side didn't hurt them either. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhan may have been in line of inheritance, but his actions made him unsuitable (not to mention unpopular) choice to be king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3377" LastActivityDate="2015-07-22T19:25:54.380" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7857" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-23T01:06:25.140" Score="1" ViewCount="202" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to this, there are 4.32 billion years in one Brahma day, i.e. age of the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each Brahma day goes through yuga cycle of Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali, which adds up to 4.32 billions years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But according to several pictures of the 4 yugas, the total cycle adds up to 24,000 years, i.e. 11,500BC to 12,500AD is 24,000 years, is it not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I am really confused. Is this one Brahma day? Because I thought at the end of Kali yuga the Universe is destroyed and reborn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please explain this perspective according to Hindu beliefs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lhOhS.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lhOhS.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And according to this &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qc4gz4bIdM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;slide from YouTUBE&lt;/a&gt;, here are the durations, but I don't understand how it adds up to 24,000 human years ~~~ totally confused!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xRQYw.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xRQYw.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="3378" LastEditDate="2015-07-23T01:25:17.350" LastActivityDate="2015-07-23T01:25:17.350" Title="How many yuga cycles in one Brahma day" Tags="|yuga|brahma|creation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-12-01T06:07:46.143" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7858" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7847" CreationDate="2015-07-23T02:37:40.080" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most sacred scripture that teaches humans all about life and right from wrong. Personally it gives me great peace when I listen to it. To live up to lord Krishna's standards these days might seem impossible however atleast if you try and follow your moral compass. It will not only make you feel good about yourself, but also give you great inner peace. Always try to do what is right and do it for yourself not for rewards and not for praise. And always remember if you do something wrong, and realize it, if you confess to God and make a genuine effect not to reapet it, he will always forgive you. Always. And that is what makes god different from humans...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3327" LastActivityDate="2015-07-23T02:37:40.080" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7859" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7848" CreationDate="2015-07-23T02:44:27.530" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are watching yourself. Forget God etc. you always know what you are doing and always try to be a good human being... Not for God or for anyone... Be a good human being for yourself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, according to the Vedas etc. Yama tracks all of your sins and the good things you did. After death you will get rewarded for your good deeds and punished for your sins (read the Bhagavad Gita for the types of sins you get for types of mistakes). And then you get reincarnated again... Unles you were a very good human being, then you get moksha (you become a part of god and get real eased from the cycle of rebirth and death). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3327" LastActivityDate="2015-07-23T02:44:27.530" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7860" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-23T06:11:47.393" Score="8" ViewCount="6542" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently, I had a discussion with my friend regarding which civilization of the world is the most ancient. We've been through some Wiki links according to which more or less Sindhu Civilization is one of the most or (one and only) ancient civilization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I would like to know are there any chapters, &lt;em&gt;shlokas&lt;/em&gt; or poetry which mention any religion or civilization other than Hinduism?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can see Ravana is not from India, he is from Sri Lanka and he was a devotee of Lord Shiva which in turn they call it as Hindu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone explain with links or trusted facts that if any Hindu related books like Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, etc mention any other religion or civilization?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why we had this doubt is because Lord Rama was rich and powerful king of that time. Why did he ever try to invade or explore other places in the world ? Also in Mahabharata, Kauravas always want Pandavas part?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is it that in those times no other kingdom existed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3380" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-03T11:31:15.460" LastActivityDate="2018-05-23T22:35:51.757" Title="Is any other religion or civilization mentioned in Mahabharata, Ramayana or other Hindu holy books?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|history|other-religions|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7861" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7842" CreationDate="2015-07-23T06:12:15.360" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me discuss how Krishna married each of his Ashtabharya (eight queens):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rukmini&lt;/strong&gt; - She was the incarnation of Lakshmi and the daughter of Bhishmaka king of Vidarbha.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/333/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Rukmini heard about Krishna's great qualities and wanted to marry him, but her brother Rukmi made arrangements for her to marry Krishna's enemy Shishupala.  So as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/10/52/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, Rukmini sent a message to Krishna asking him to &quot; kidnap&quot; her:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O beauty of the worlds, having heard of Your qualities, which enter the ears of those who hear and remove their bodily distress, and having also heard of Your beauty, which fulfills all the visual desires of those who see, I have fixed my shameless mind upon You, O Kṛṣṇa. O Mukunda, You are equal only to Yourself in lineage, character, beauty, knowledge, youthfulness, wealth and influence. O lion among men, You delight the minds of all mankind. What aristocratic, sober-minded and marriageable girl of a good family would not choose You as her husband when the proper time has come? Therefore, my dear Lord, I have chosen You as my husband, and I surrender myself to You. Please come swiftly, O almighty one, and make me Your wife. My dear lotus-eyed Lord, let Śiśupāla never touch the hero’s portion like a jackal stealing the property of a lion.... O unconquerable one, tomorrow when my marriage ceremony is about to begin, You should arrive unseen in Vidarbha and surround Yourself with the leaders of Your army. Then crush the forces of Caidya and Magadhendra and marry me in the Rākṣasa style, winning me with Your valor. Since I will be staying within the inner chambers of the palace, You may wonder, “How can I carry you away without killing some of your relatives?” But I shall tell You a way.... If I cannot obtain Your mercy, I shall simply give up my vital force&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Rakshasa marriage is a type of marriage I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/924/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, by the way.  In any case, Krishna went to Vidarbha, rescued Rukmini, and defeated the forces of Rukmini's brother Rukmi.  They then went back to Dwaraka, where Krishna and Rukmini got married, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/54/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.  Their eldest son was Pradyumna, whose son was Aniruddha, whose son was Vajra.  It was Vajra who became king of the Yadavas after the massacre of the Yadavas and Krishna's departure from the Earth, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2939/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jambavati&lt;/strong&gt; - She was the daughter of Jambavan, the bear who helped Rama during the Ramayana, and whom Rama blessed with long life as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2100/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  There was once a Yadava living in Dwaraka named Satrajit, whom I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7824/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  Satrajit was a great devotee of Surya the sun god, so Surya gave his the famous Syamantaka gem, which bestows wealth on whoever wears it.  Krishna advised Satrajit to give it to Ugrasena, king of Dwaraka, but Satrajit refused.  Then the Syamantaka gem went missing, and Satrajit accused Krishna of stealing it.  To clear his name, Krishna tracked down the gem to the mountain cave of Jambavan, who had found the gem but had given it to his son to play with.  So Krishna fought Jamabavan to get the gem back. Jamabavan realized that Krishna was an incarnation of Vishnu, and thus a rebirth of Rama whom Jamabavan had the utmost loyalty to &#xA;So he gave Krishna the Syamantaka gem, and he also gave him his daughter Jambavati's hand in marriage, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/56/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Kṛṣṇa then addressed the king of the bears, who had understood the truth. The lotus-eyed Personality of Godhead, the son of Devakī, touched Jāmbavān with His hand, which bestows all blessings, and spoke to His devotee with sublime compassion, His grave voice deeply resounding like a cloud. &quot;It is for this jewel, O lord of the bears, that we have come to your cave. I intend to use the jewel to disprove the false accusations against Me.&quot;  Thus addressed, Jāmbavān happily honored Lord Kṛṣṇa by offering Him his maiden daughter, Jāmbavatī, together with the jewel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, Krishna and Jambavati had a son named Samba, who was responsible for the destruction of the Yadava race as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2939/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satyabhama&lt;/strong&gt; - She was the incarnation of Bhumidevi goddess of the Earth and daughter of the Yadava Satrajit I discuss above.  When Krishna came back to Dwaraka upon marrying Jambavati, he returned the Syamantaka gem to Satrajit.  Satrajit felt guilty that he had falsely accused Krishna, so he gave Krishna his daughter Satyabhama's hand in marriage, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/56/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pondering over his grievous offense and worried about the possibility of conflict with the Lord’s mighty devotees, King Satrājit thought, “How can I cleanse myself of my contamination, and how may Lord Acyuta become satisfied with me? What can I do to regain my good fortune and avoid being cursed by the populace for being so short-sighted, miserly, foolish and avaricious? I shall give my daughter, the jewel of all women, to the Lord, together with the Syamantaka jewel. That, indeed, is the only proper way to pacify Him.” Having thus intelligently made up his mind, King Satrājit personally arranged to present Lord Kṛṣṇa with his fair daughter and the Syamantaka jewel. The Lord married Satyabhāmā in proper religious fashion. Possessed of excellent behavior, along with beauty, broad-mindedness and all other good qualities, she had been sought by many men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna refused the Syamantaka gem, by the way.  But ultimately Satrajit was murdered by the gem by fellow Yadavas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kalindi&lt;/strong&gt; - She is the goddess of the Yamuna river, and daughter of Surya the sun god as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/443/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Once Krishna and Arjuna went hunting on the banks of the Yamuna river, when they came across a beautiful woman.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/58/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam describes what happened next:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great warriors then saw an attractive young girl walking nearby.  Sent by his friend, Arjuna approached the exceptional young woman, who possessed beautiful hips, fine teeth and a lovely face, and inquired from her as follows: &quot;Who are you, O fine-waisted lady? Whose daughter are you, and where do you come from? What are you doing here? I think you must be looking for a husband. Please explain everything, O beautiful one.&quot; Śrī Kālindī said: &quot;I am the daughter of the sun-god. I desire to get as my husband the most excellent and munificent Lord Viṣṇu, and to that end I am performing severe penances. I will accept no husband other than Him, the abode of the goddess of fortune. May that Mukunda, the Supreme Personality, the shelter of the helpless, be pleased with me.  I am known as Kālindī, and I live in a mansion my father built for me within the water of the Yamunā. There I will stay until I meet Lord Acyuta.&quot; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Lord Kṛṣṇa, given leave by Arjuna and other well-wishing relatives and friends, returned to Dvārakā with Sātyaki and the rest of His entourage.  The supremely auspicious Lord then married Kālindī on a day when the season, the lunar asterism and the configurations of the sun and other heavenly bodies were all propitious. In this way He brought the greatest pleasure to His devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mitravinda&lt;/strong&gt; - She was the princess of Avanti and daughter of Vasudeva's sister Rajadhidevi.  Mitravinda was attracted to Krishna but her brothers objected to the marriage because they were allies of Duryodhana.  So Krishna kidnapped Mitravinda from her Swayamvara, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/58/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vindya and Anuvindya, who shared the throne of Avantī, were followers of Duryodhana’s. When the time came for their sister [Mitravindā] to select her husband in the svayaṁvara ceremony, they forbade her to choose Kṛṣṇa, although she was attracted to Him. My dear King, Lord Kṛṣṇa forcibly took away Princess Mitravindā, the daughter of His aunt Rājādhidevī, before the eyes of the rival kings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satya&lt;/strong&gt; - Also known as Nagnajiti, she was the daughter of Nagnajit king of Ayodhya, not to be confused with Shakuni's uncle Nagnajit whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7415/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Krishna went to Ayodhya to attend Satya's Swayamvara.  Satya was eager to marry Krishna and Nagnajit was eager to have him as a son-in-law, but Nagnajit had previously imposed the requirement that suitors would have to subdue his seven ferocious bulls.  Krishna defeated them easily and then married Satya, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/58/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upon hearing these terms, the Lord tightened His clothing, expanded Himself into seven forms and easily subdued the bulls.  Lord Śauri tied up the bulls, whose pride and strength were now broken, and pulled them with ropes just as a child playfully pulls wooden toy bulls. Then King Nagnajit, pleased and astonished, presented his daughter to Lord Kṛṣṇa. The Supreme Personality of Godhead accepted this suitable bride in the proper Vedic fashion.  The King’s wives felt the greatest ecstasy upon attaining Lord Kṛṣṇa as the dear husband of the royal princess, and a mood of great festivity arose. Conchshells, horns and drums resounded, along with vocal and instrumental music and the sounds of brāhmaṇas, invoking blessings. The joyful men and women adorned themselves with fine clothing and garlands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then with with the help of Arjuna, Krishna fought off the rival suitors who tried to stop him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhadra&lt;/strong&gt; - She was the princess of Kaikeya and daughter of Vasudeva's sister Shrutakirti.  Krishna was voluntarily given Bhadra's hand in marriage by her brothers, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/58/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhadrā was a princess of the Kaikeya kingdom and the daughter of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s paternal aunt Śrutakīrti. The Lord married Bhadrā when her brothers, headed by Santardana, offered her to Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lakshmana&lt;/strong&gt; - She was the princess of Madra, and she was kidnapped by Krishna, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/58/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the Lord married Lakṣmaṇā, the daughter of the King of Madra. Kṛṣṇa appeared alone at her svayaṁvara ceremony and took her away, just as Garuḍa once stole the demigods’ nectar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you said, in addition to these eight queens, Krishna also had another 16,100 wives, women who had been kidnapped by the demon Narakasura and who married Adrianna after Krishna killed Narakasura.  (They were incarnations of Apsaras.). That would bring Krishna's total number of wives to 16,108.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I'm a Sri Vaishnava, so I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Sri Vaishnavas believe that Krishna had one more wife, back when he was in Vrindavana and Gokulam: Nappinnai, daughter of Yashoda's brother Kumbagan, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7800/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Krishna married Nappinnai after subduing the seven bulls of Kumbagan, which is also said to have won his queen Satya.  Nappinnai is believed to be an incarnation of Vishnu's wife Nila Devi.  In any case, Napinnai may be the original basis of the story of Radha, whose name is not even mentioned in the Vishnu Purana or the Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-09-06T12:25:39.797" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7862" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2609" CreationDate="2015-07-23T09:08:34.317" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am trying to answer one weapon at a time for want of correct references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trishul:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sreepadasreevallabhapithapuram.org/charitramrutam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;SREE PADA SREEVALLABHA CHARITHAMRUTHAM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siva has the ‘&lt;strong&gt;Trishul&lt;/strong&gt;’ as the main weapon. Trishul has three sharp spikes&#xA;at the end. They will be in the form of ‘agni’ flames. Those three will unite at the base and&#xA;the stem of Trishul will be a single hand. Those three spikes indicate three qualities,&#xA;Satva, Rajas and Tamo gunas. The combined form is really beyond these three qualities.&#xA;There is another meaning. The breath flows through the nerves ‘Ida and Pingala’ and&#xA;reaches the place between the two eye brows. The center, where the three nerves Ida,&#xA;Pingala and Sushumna reach is called ‘Triveni’ sangamam. This is the center of Brahma&#xA;Jnana. This is the inner meaning of Trishul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Demon' in this context is imbalance of Trigunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3353" LastActivityDate="2015-07-23T09:08:34.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7864" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7848" CreationDate="2015-07-23T10:01:34.487" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are as many answers to this question as there are different schools in Hindu philosophy. I'll cite a few of them,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Rgveda&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasadiya_Sukta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nasadiya Sukta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;को अद्धा वेद क इह प्र वोचत्कुत आजाता कुत इयं विसृष्टिः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्वाग्देवा अस्य विसर्जनेनाथा को वेद यत आबभूव ॥६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, after all, who knows, and who can say Whence it all came, and how&#xA;  creation happened? the gods themselves are later than creation, so who&#xA;  knows truly whence it has arisen?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इयं विसृष्टिर्यत आबभूव यदि वा दधे यदि वा न ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो अस्याध्यक्षः परमे व्योमन्त्सो अङ्ग वेद यदि वा न वेद ॥७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whence all creation had its origin, he, whether he fashioned it or&#xA;  whether he did not, he, who surveys it all from highest heaven, he&#xA;  knows - or maybe even he does not know. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clear indication of acceptance of the unknown including accepting the ignorance of what happens with your own &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/4/21/27/en2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अस्ति यज्ञ-पतिर् नाम | केषाञ्चिद् अर्ह-सत्तमाः ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इहामुत्र च लक्ष्यन्ते | ज्योत्स्नावत्यः क्वचिद् भुवः ||  4.21.27&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear respectable ladies and gentlemen, according to the&#xA;  authoritative statements of śāstra, there must be a supreme authority&#xA;  who is able to award the respective benefits of our present&#xA;  activities. Otherwise, why should there be persons who are unusually&#xA;  beautiful and powerful both in this life and in the life after death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clear indication of a tradition where your conscious actions are taken very seriously. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Adi Shankara in his bhashya on the Brahma sutras&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2010-August/025268.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;4.1.13-15&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;both the past sins and merits as well as future sins and merits will be destroyed by &lt;em&gt;jnana&lt;/em&gt;. The karma, both good and bad, that is accumulated from the past but that has not yet begun to yield results is also called &lt;em&gt;sanchita karma&lt;/em&gt;. The karma, both good and bad, of the present life, that will yield results in the future is called &lt;em&gt;agami karma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pointing a tradition where papa and punya dictates your future but without any intervention by God, rather through karma and can be overcome through jnana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-02-12T06:16:15.167" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:16:15.167" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7865" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7860" CreationDate="2015-07-23T10:47:35.557" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to your last line, you want to ask why Lord Ram or any other great Ancient kings of India never attacked other places?&#xA;That is because of our culture and philosophy. Our philosophy was &quot;Live and let others live&quot;. We wanted to win other with our wisdom. That's why we were called &quot;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagadguru&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;JagatGuru&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (Guru of the world).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other religion:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For this you have to know what is &quot;religion&quot;. Most of the people link it with &quot;Dharma&quot;, although Dharma is a Sanskrit world which means &quot;how to live the life&quot;. So according to our philosophy in whole world there is only one dharma, but many religions (panths or ways). In ancient times there as only sanatan way of living life. These religions (Muslims, Hindu, Christian, Jain, Buddha) came very recently (in a span of last 3000 years). So in our scriptures, you will not find any other religion name. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/puran_bhavishya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhavishya Puran&lt;/a&gt;, there is a mention of Pagambar Mohammad. It says that in future there will be a person called(Mahamad), who will born in a desert place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other civilizations:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Civilization is not related with religion. Civilization is more related to geographical location. So we generally hear about civilizations mostly related to some river. because A river can provide you everything for your social and personal needs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3382" LastActivityDate="2015-07-23T10:47:35.557" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7866" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4034" CreationDate="2015-07-23T11:14:14.467" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rameshwaram is one of the oldest and a holy place in India. It dates back to the Hindu epic of Ramayana which took place in 15000BC. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rameshwaram, as the name suggest was the place where Lord Rama prayed to God Shiva (Ishwar). Unsurprisingly, there are two different tales that revolves around this event. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One legend mentions that Ram prayed to God Shiva before his army built the Ram Sethu Bridge to reach Lanka to save Sita and defeat Ravana. Another tale mentions that, once Rama killed Ravana who is a brahmin, he prayed to Shiva to wash away his sins for killing a brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rameshwaram, till date is considered as one of the most sacred place among Hindus. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ishtadevata.com/blog/ravan-prayed-ram-sita.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.ishtadevata.com/blog/ravan-prayed-ram-sita.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3381" LastActivityDate="2015-07-23T11:14:14.467" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7867" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-23T11:18:21.703" Score="4" ViewCount="1941" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7842/lesser-known-but-main-wives-of-lord-krishna-apart-from-rukmini-satyabhama-and-j&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, it is clear that Lord Krishna has many wives and he has not taken 'Ekapatni vrata' like Lord Rama. My question is regarding the girls of Vrindavan and friends of Radha, who were also in love with Lord Krishna. I know of one major one, ie, Lalita, but there were several others too. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand why Lord Krishna don't marry Radha because of a curse as described in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/393/1018&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;, but my question is why couldn't he not marry the other ones. I remember that he was such a favourite among all gopies that they all prayed to Goddess Parvati for getting him as their husband, this incident later caused the Maha-raas where Lord Krishna manifested himself into multiple bodies to be with each of the Gopies. But that was only for that particular incident. In the later part of his life he married various other women some of whom, he just married because the women prayed/wished to marry him. Lord Krishna's figure is such that he grants everyone what he/she wants if he/she is dedicated to him. So, why he hasn't considered Gopies for marriage. Is there some other story/curse like Radha in case of Gopies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T07:15:44.690" Title="Why Lord Krishna didn't marry any of the Gopies?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7870" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2187" CreationDate="2015-07-23T16:35:26.847" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is what I infer from the below story quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.puja.net/Pages/Yagyas/Journal/05Events/05Dec/NaraSudarshana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Since Ravana was defeated by Kartavirya Arjuna an Incarnation of Vishnu's Sudharshana Chakra, scars &lt;em&gt;could be&lt;/em&gt; battle wounds inflicted by him. &lt;em&gt;It is only my guess and I'm not certain about it.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sage Narada was once visiting Vaikunta, the abode of Lord Vishnu. He&#xA;  extolled the Lord in very colorful terms. Vishnu's major weapon was&#xA;  the 'Chakra' (sharp-edged spinning wheel) known as 'Sudarshana&#xA;  Chakra'. So far none could face it and come out of the attack&#xA;  victorious. The Chakra had a deity associated with it and he used to&#xA;  boast that all the powers the Lord had were due to him and He couldn't&#xA;  kill the demons without his help. Narada's praising of Vishnu angered&#xA;  him; he was sore that Narada had ignored his prowess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Learning of this, Vishnu called him and said 'Dear Sudarshana, it is&#xA;  true I defeated the Asuras with your help. Go to earth and be born a&#xA;  thousand-armed hero; I will come and appear as the son of a sage. Let&#xA;  us match our strength there!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sudarshana Chakra could no longer remain in Vaikunta and came down&#xA;  to earth. Kritaveerya, belonging to the Lunar Race, was childless for&#xA;  a long time and later a son without arms was born to him. However, he&#xA;  acquired one thousand arms and invincibility by the grace of Lord&#xA;  Dattatreya.But this arrogant man, Kartaveeryarjuna, and faced&#xA;  Parashurama in battle and died.The Sudarshana Chakra was thus subdued.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kartavirya's power is popularly told in the Ramayana. He was the&#xA;  contemporary of Ravana.Kartavirya became so powerful that he was even&#xA;  able to defeat and imprison the demon king Ravana at the Godavari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3353" LastEditorUserId="5012" LastEditDate="2016-08-12T06:39:37.267" LastActivityDate="2016-08-12T06:39:37.267" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7872" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-23T18:07:21.527" Score="2" ViewCount="6894" Body="&lt;p&gt;A man told me that the Shiva Linga of Tarakeshwar had grown automatically; what is the real story? And why is the Linga’s name Taraknath?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3368" LastEditorUserId="238" LastEditDate="2015-07-25T22:39:46.677" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T04:02:52.333" Title="What is the story of the Tarakeshwar Temple in West Bengal?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7874" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-23T22:33:34.690" Score="8" ViewCount="762" Body="&lt;p&gt;When a mantra is given in the Puranas, it's usually preceded by a Dhyanam, which describes the appearance of the god whom you're supposed to meditate upon before reciting the mantra.  For instance, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/36/keshav-srinivasan&quot;&gt;my profile page&lt;/a&gt; I quote the Sri Vishnu Stuti, which is part of the Dhyana shlokas of the Vishnu Sahasranamam.  But now I'm interested in the Dhyana of another mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/cU2M&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Narada Purana describes a mantra called the Keshava Nyasa, a hymn to Vishnu which was heard from the gods by the sage Narayana, an incarnation of Vishnu whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3648/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Here's the appearance of Vishnu you're supposed to meditate upon before reciting it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On should worship Hari who is equipped with discus and other weapons, &lt;strong&gt;who is holding a vessel and a mirror&lt;/strong&gt;.  He is accompanied by Lakshmi who has the brilliance of lightning and who is adorned with a lot of ornaments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why is Vishnu described as &quot;holding a vessel and a mirror&quot;?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, what does &quot;vessel&quot; mean here?  Does it mean a ship or a container of some kind?  I'm not sure what Sanskrit word is being translated as vessel, but if someone can look in the Sanskrit version of the Narada Purana, available &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicilluminations.com/downloads/Puranas/Narada%20Purana/narada_purana_purva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicilluminations.com/downloads/Puranas/Narada%20Purana/narada_purana_uttara.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I'd appreciate it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other scriptures which mention Vishnu holding a vessel and a mirror, and/or explain their significance?  I suppose the mirror could signify that the individual soul is reflected in Vishnu, or something along those lines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2019-09-05T03:02:30.633" Title="Why is Vishnu described as holding a vessel and a mirror?" Tags="|vishnu|mantras|symbolism|narada-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7876" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7860" CreationDate="2015-07-24T02:38:23.647" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Srimad Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana) verse 2.4.18 and also in the purport a detailed description of several civilizations is given (please read synonyms and purport at the link below):&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/2/4/18/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://vedabase.com/sb/2/4/18/en&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Kirāta, Hūṇa, Āndhra, Pulinda, Pulkaśa, Ābhīra, Śumbha, Yavana,&#xA;  members of the Khasa races and even others addicted to sinful acts can&#xA;  be purified by taking shelter of the devotees of the Lord, due to His&#xA;  being the supreme power. I beg to offer my respectful obeisances unto&#xA;  Him.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as far as other religions is concerned, a religion established by Buddha is mentioned in the Bhagavatam 2.7.37:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/2/7/37/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://vedabase.com/sb/2/7/37/en&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;When the atheists, after being well versed in the Vedic scientific&#xA;  knowledge, annihilate inhabitants of different planets, flying unseen&#xA;  in the sky on well-built rockets prepared by the great scientist Maya,&#xA;  the Lord will bewilder their minds by dressing Himself attractively as&#xA;  Buddha and will preach on subreligious principles.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-02-12T06:16:27.180" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:16:27.180" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7881" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7710" CreationDate="2015-07-24T08:31:38.927" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna is normal human with great powers.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I respect him. I see that when i asked, Krishna is good or bad. Everyone seems to tell that i have a bad thought, i am criticzing krishna, why dont you take the good things of krishna and all. I don't accepted those because i believe if he is god(escpecially god of life saver), then he should save people, even he can kill people(to save people) in a right manner, which i don't see in Mahabharatha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For all the bad things done by krishna, he has been punished.&lt;/strong&gt; not just krishna but everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Lord Krishna said to have died because of the unintentional action of a hunter, who stuck an arrow in his toe, mistaking it to be a rabbit, as a consequences of his own act of killing Vaali from behind a tree in a deceptive manner in his previous incarnation as Lord Rama. Ref: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausala_Parva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mausala Parva&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2939/2864&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I consider that being Venkateswara, is the punishment for his behaviour in Mahabharatha.&lt;/strong&gt; I think it should be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is &lt;strong&gt;KARMA&lt;/strong&gt;, which never forgets your good and bad deeds, and everyone will reep of their own behaviour. There is no escape, &lt;strong&gt;Everyone&lt;/strong&gt; has to go through &lt;strong&gt;KARMA&lt;/strong&gt;, lord himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Knowing this, Should i consider Krishna good or bad?, He is both good and bad. whatever he is, KARMA which drives things. People don't cares about Krishna misthings but KARMA does.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For this question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7732/2864&quot;&gt;Vishwanandha&lt;/a&gt; said God is both good and bad but this just not withstand the point, since i described krishna followed adharma and there is not cross verification on adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2864" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-08-06T04:28:40.380" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7883" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7710" CreationDate="2015-07-24T10:32:31.177" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;When you are in the fight/war with someone, you do not have have to only protect Dharma but you also have to protect people who you feel are righteous. I agree carrying out Dharma is is important but you also have to see the cost of it. If Lord Krishna haven't helped Pandavas in unusual ways then they couldn't have won. May be they all could have been killed and then unrighteous people like Duryodhana would have ruled. So, instead of letting this happen Lord choose to getting things done even by Adharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if you know that your enemy has got special powers, so he is no way equal to the other one and has definitely got an upper hand. Now, how will you defeat/kill the one who has got special powers. There are only 2 ways either you increase your power or you decrease other's powers. If we take the 1st case then Pandavas did that already, they were God's sons, Bheem and Arjuna were extra-ordinary talents in case or power or archery, on top of that they even had got several boons and divine weapons, etc. but even after having it all they couldn't kill their opponents as they had special boons with them like in case of Jarasandha, Jayadratha, Karna, Bheeshma or even Duryodhana in the end. If they remain alive then Pandavas could not win and and Dharma cannot be established. So, the latter approach was taken, ie, to reduce the powers of the opponent. Now, a power cannot be directly taken away, so some sort of faking things was necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, please bear in mind, Jarasandha attacked Mathura 17 times and was defeated by Lord Krishna and everytime he was forgiven. He could have been killed but Lord gave him chances so that he can change but he didn't. Karna was told that by killing Ghatotkatcha, he has fulfilled his duties towards Duryodhana's friendship and he do not owe anything now but still he fought again for Duryodhana. Bheeshma has got the boon of 'Ichchamrityu' and also Amba had got boon of being the reason for Bheeshma's death, so by bringing in Shikhandi(rebirth of Amba), both of these boons can be settled. Similarly, fate of Drona was also predecided, that he will be killed by Drishtadyumna, who was born with the same reason. (ie, Drupad did a yagna for getting a son who could kill Drona and Drishtadyumna was born out of the Yagna fire). Finally, Duryodhana was about to get the boon of having a harmless body and Lord Krishna tricked him to cover his thighs and genital area. Just compare this to the incident of Ramayana, where Kumbhakarna was about to ask for Indrasan and Gods tricked him to say that he wanted to sleep. Hadn't it be wrong if Kumbhakarna had asked correctly and he would got that. Similar is the case here, if Duryodhana cannot be killed battle couldn't have been won, and if Duryodhana had won then Dharma wouldn't be established.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, one thing I wanted to ask, what personal profit had Lord Krishna got out of doing all this. Nothing. Whatever, he did the profit of that was for Pandavas not Him. On the contrary, he lost his own army which he had given to Kauravas and more important than that he got a curse from Gandhari, about the destruction of his clan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if you see on higher level, all this mainly happened in order to settle the boons and curses and mainly for establishment of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Sorry I couldn't cite any sources here as I don't know where the exact text is written.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2015-07-24T10:32:31.177" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7884" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-24T10:44:28.733" Score="3" ViewCount="499" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know what is difference between ishwar &amp;amp; bhagwan? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3373" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-08-12T13:54:06.617" LastActivityDate="2019-08-12T13:54:06.617" Title="What is the difference between ISHWAR AND BHAGWAN?" Tags="|terminology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-07-24T14:35:34.533" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7885" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7884" CreationDate="2015-07-24T11:25:20.853" Score="2" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;may be  following link help full for  your questions  &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/678/differences-between-ishwar-and-bhagvan&quot;&gt;difference between ISHWAR AND BHAGWAN?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-07-24T11:25:20.853" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7886" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-24T11:36:35.907" Score="1" ViewCount="2424" Body="&lt;p&gt;While listening to today's Garuda Purana disclosure found a beautiful chapter 15 (An Account of the Coming to Birth of People who have done Good) .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this chapter The Purana in detail explains how and when the seed of&#xA;  birth to be sowed to get good child and also explains the details on&#xA;  how the embryo becomes child. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is the technology still medical science is not able to crack&#xA;  which has been cracked by Indians thousands and thousands of years&#xA;  ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It even explains beyond first&#xA;  anatomy of an pregnant women so called done by Leaonordo DA VINCI&#xA;  similarly all other chapter are excellent and give details of life and&#xA;  death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beyond death some people say it is fantasy but one who sees&#xA;  the chapter 15 with science will agree that this is fact known by&#xA;  Hindus Thousands of years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2953" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T04:22:43.910" Title="Interesting things in Garuda Purana chapter 15" Tags="|puranas|karma|death|life|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2015-08-09T14:32:25.517" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7887" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3891" CreationDate="2015-07-24T14:50:11.717" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me tell you guys why brahmins started cutting hair...there was a king janmeja who organised a big feast and invited all the brahmins and rishis. When kings wife was distributing food she did sum mistake and all the brahmins laughed at her.when king saw this he ordered his guards to kill brahmins right away..guards killed some of the brahmins but then kings own purohit stopped king by telling tht this is a very big sin...king asked purohit what other most horrible punishment could b for brahmins...purohit said cut their hair...they all had long unshorn hair. Its the time when there was rishi Vyaas ji too...its the time when kalyug started.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3391" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2015-07-25T02:35:50.393" LastActivityDate="2015-07-25T02:35:50.393" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7889" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-24T15:32:22.063" Score="1" ViewCount="681" Body="&lt;p&gt;We consider Indra, Varuna, Ganesha as bhagavan. And Matsya to Kalki are bhagavan and also they are Avatar of bhagavant. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is what is the difference between bhagavan and bhagavant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I just read in Bhagavat Geeta, Bhagavant is the one who created this universe (Can you please eloberate this?), then who are bhagavan??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1159" LastActivityDate="2019-03-28T11:11:41.913" Title="What is difference between &quot;Bhagvan&quot; and &quot;Bhagavant&quot;?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7890" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16226" CreationDate="2015-07-24T15:44:40.250" Score="17" ViewCount="6643" Body="&lt;p&gt;I learned from internet that there  are 16 shastras, But I didn't find valid source for list of those shastras.&#xA;Can you tell me please the what are those 16 shastras?&#xA;Are there any upa-shastras (sub-shastras) like upavedas and upapuranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1159" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-08-06T05:59:51.390" LastActivityDate="2023-06-17T04:36:39.043" Title="What are 16 shastras?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7891" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3891" CreationDate="2015-07-24T22:20:11.013" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sadhus are Sanyasis, they are the person who want the things which needs to be alive like water,air and food thats it, they dont think about people, family, property, social life. In the same way they don't fulfill their personal requirements also. So they don't cut hairs, nails and don't bother also. Their goal is to attain Moksh by meditation and worship of lord shiva, so they becomes Vairagi, a person who have left everything related to the world's luxurious life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pandit are those who has learned proper Sanskrit chanting, Vedas, Purans, Hindu rituals. They are well educated persons, teachers, masters in Sanskrit Language. Pandits are knowledgeable person, they teach people and do prayers at their home as well as other's home also. They believes to be neat, clean and pure. They do worship of god but they have not left anything to be a Vairagi. So they cut hairs, nails as like everyone do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3393" LastActivityDate="2015-07-24T22:20:11.013" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7892" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15174" CreationDate="2015-07-25T04:48:57.643" Score="18" ViewCount="6225" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard from Parama Pujya &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morari_Bapu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Morari Bapu&lt;/a&gt;'s Rama Katha that starting from our birth we have parents supporting us in every situation until they become old. And we have our friends and family members also supporting us. They help us make right decisions in our life. But as we age, we become alone and we need a partner to continue making right decisions in each others' lives, that's why we have to marry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But I want to know what our scriptures say about marriage. Why should we marry?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-11T22:40:19.993" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T10:44:40.643" Title="What does our scripture say about marriage? Why should we marry?" Tags="|marriage|scripture|shatapatha-brahmana|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7893" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7901" CreationDate="2015-07-25T05:02:40.593" Score="9" ViewCount="1169" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that many scriptures in Hinduism emphasize the guru as the path to God, and the importance of finding a guru that will truly help you achieve your goal. I am having an issue with my current guru, though, because I cannot tell if he is truly god-realized? How will I know if he is truly a god-realized guru? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His philosophy has a heavy focus on doing one's duties on Earth in a proper way according to scriptures, but there is not a heavy emphasis on bhakti (even though there is a strong emphasis on prayer).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3251" LastActivityDate="2018-05-01T22:25:38.623" Title="How to tell if your guru is god-realized?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|guru|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7895" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-25T06:37:40.957" Score="7" ViewCount="6749" Body="&lt;p&gt;My friend told me that Lord Rama's brother Shatrughna was an avatar of Lord Vishnu's Sudarshan Chakra. Is this real?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3368" LastActivityDate="2020-05-04T15:40:37.807" Title="Was Shatrughna an avatar of Vishnu's Sudarshan Chakra?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7896" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13945" CreationDate="2015-07-25T06:51:32.997" Score="12" ViewCount="3267" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most popular forms of Shiva worshipped in South India is the sage Dakshinamurthi, whose name literally means &quot;the South-facing form&quot;.  Dakshinamurthi is the subject of the famous Dakshinamurthu Stotram, a hymn commonly attributed to Adi Shankarcharya (although this is disputed) which says &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakshinamurthy_Stotram#Appendix&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is strange to see the very old disciples and the very young teacher,&#xA;  who sit under a banyan tree, with the teacher always observing silence, and the students getting all the doubts cleared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ajTIDm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ajTIDm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story as I understand it is that Shiva incarnated as a young sage named Dakahinamurthi, who sat under a banyan tree and silently imparted wisdom to the Sanatkumaras, four sages who are mind-born sons of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures mention the sage Dakshinamurthi?  I assume he's mentioned in various Shaiva Agamas, but it's very hard to date Agamic texts.  And he is discussed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/dast/dast16.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dakshinamurthi Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;, but that's believed by many to be a late text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is he discussed in the Puranas?  All I've found is a passing reference in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/f2dg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Narada Purana, which says that a hymn to Shiva called the Shiva Nyasa was heard from the gods by Dakshinamurthi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The deity of this (nyasa) is Ardhanarisha, the sage Dakshinamurti and the metre is Gayatri.  The application of this mantra is for attaining everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suppose it's akin to how the sage Narayana, an incarnation of Vishnu, was the seer of mantras to Vishnu like the Purusha Sukta of the Rig Veda, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7661/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.arunachala-ramana.org/forum/index.php?topic=2589.0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this forum post&lt;/a&gt; claims that Dakshinamurthi is discussed in the &quot;Suta Samhita&quot; of the Skanda Purana, but the Motilal Banarsidass translation of the Skanda Purana is divided into Khandas, not Samhitas, so I'm not sure what part of the text constitutes the Suta Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know any other scriptures which discuss Dakshinamurthi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-09T04:42:53.850" LastActivityDate="2023-05-30T13:09:46.017" Title="What scriptures mention Shiva's Dakshinamurthi form?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|avatars|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7898" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-25T10:19:00.427" Score="6" ViewCount="1300" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know, What is a dream and how they relay in sleep only? How much night's fourth quarter dreams are true? If yes, then how much time they take place in dreamer's life? If no, why these dreams come during sleep ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3373" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-12-16T11:54:51.530" LastActivityDate="2022-03-28T22:27:35.690" Title="Why do dreams come and what are their results?" Tags="|dream|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7901" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7893" CreationDate="2015-07-25T13:51:31.113" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says in &lt;em&gt;Bhakti Yoga&lt;/em&gt; that there are certain qualifications to be a teacher, just as there are qualifications to be a disciple. He mentions three qualifications for a teacher. He says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V3, &lt;em&gt;Bhakti Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Qualifications of the Aspirant and the Teacher&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...The teachers whose wisdom and truth shine like the light of the sun are the very greatest the world has known, and they are worshipped as God by the major portion of mankind. But we may get help from comparatively lesser ones also; only we ourselves do not possess intuition enough to judge properly of the man from whom we receive teaching and guidance; so there ought to be certain tests, certain conditions, for the teacher to satisfy, as there are also for the taught. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In regard to the teacher, we must see that he knows the spirit of the scriptures. The whole world reads Bibles, Vedas, and Korans; but they are all only words, syntax, etymology, philology, the dry bones of religion. The teacher who deals too much in words and allows the mind to be carried away by the force of words loses the spirit. It is the knowledge of the spirit of the scriptures alone that constitutes the true religious teacher. The network of the words of the scriptures is like a huge forest in which the human mind often loses itself and finds no way out.  — &quot;The network of words is a big forest; it is the cause of a curious wandering of the mind.&quot; &quot;The various methods of joining words, the various methods of speaking in beautiful language, the various methods of explaining the diction of the scriptures are only for the disputations and enjoyment of the learned, they do not conduce to the development of spiritual perception&quot;... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The second condition necessary in the teacher is — sinlessness. The question is often asked, &quot;Why should we look into the character and personality of a teacher? We have only to judge of what he says, and take that up.&quot; This is not right. If a man wants to teach me something of dynamics, or chemistry, or any other physical science, he may be anything he likes, because what the physical sciences require is merely an intellectual equipment; but in the spiritual sciences it is impossible from first to last that there can be any spiritual light in the soul that is impure. What religion can an impure man teach? The sine qua non of acquiring spiritual truth for one's self or for imparting it to others is the purity of heart and soul. A vision of God or a glimpse of the beyond never comes until the soul is pure. Hence with the teacher of religion we must see first what he is, and then what he says. He must be perfectly pure, and then alone comes the value of his words, because he is only then the true &quot;transmitter&quot;. What can he transmit if he has not spiritual power in himself? There must be the worthy vibration of spirituality in the mind of the teacher, so that it may be sympathetically conveyed to the mind of the taught. The function of the teacher is indeed an affair of the transference of something, and not one of mere stimulation of the existing intellectual or other faculties in the taught. Something real and appreciable as an influence comes from the teacher and goes to the taught. Therefore the teacher must be pure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The third condition is in regard to the motive. The teacher must not teach with any ulterior selfish motive — for money, name, or fame; his work must be simply out of love, out of pure love for mankind at large. The only medium through which spiritual force can be transmitted is love. Any selfish motive, such as the desire for gain or for name, will immediately destroy this conveying median. God is love, and only he who has known God as love can be a teacher of godliness and God to man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When you see that in your teacher these conditions are all fulfilled, you are safe; if they are not, it is unsafe to allow yourself to be taught by him, for there is the great danger that, if he cannot convey goodness to your heart, he may convey wickedness. This danger must by all means be guarded against.  — &quot;He who is learned in the scriptures, sinless, unpolluted by lust, and is the greatest knower of the Brahman&quot; is the real teacher.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vivekananda iterates these three qualifications again in another lecture. He says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V3, &lt;em&gt;Lectures from Colombo to Almora&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;The Vedanta in all its phases&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is a Guru? Let us go back to the Shrutis — &quot;He who knows the secret of the Vedas&quot;, not bookworms, not grammarians, not Pandits in general, but he who knows the meaning. - An ass laden with a load of sandalwood knows only the weight of the wood, but not its precious qualities&quot;; so are these Pandits. We do not want such. What can they teach if they have no realisation? When I was a boy here, in this city of Calcutta, I used to go from place to place in search of religion, and everywhere I asked the lecturer after hearing very big lectures, &quot;Have you seen God?&quot; The man was taken aback at the idea of seeing God; and the only man who told me, &quot;I have&quot;, was Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and not only so, but he said, &quot;I will put you in the way of seeing Him too&quot;. The Guru is not a man who twists and tortures texts — &quot;Different ways of throwing out words, different ways of explaining texts of the scriptures, these are for the enjoyment of the learned, not for freedom.&quot; Shrotriya, he who knows the secret of the Shrutis, Avrijina, the sinless, and Akâmahata, unpierced by desire — he who does not want to make money by teaching you — he is the Shânta, the Sâdhu, who comes as the spring which brings the leaves and blossoms to various plants but does not ask anything from the plant, for its very nature is to do good. It does good and there it is. Such is the Guru, — &quot;Who has himself crossed this terrible ocean of life, and without any idea of gain to himself, helps others also to cross the ocean.&quot; This is the Guru, and mark that none else can be a Guru, for — &quot;Themselves steeped in darkness, but in the pride of their hearts, thinking they know everything, the fools want to help others, and they go round and round in many crooked ways, staggering to and fro, and thus like the blind leading the blind, both fall into the ditch.&quot; Thus say the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Vivekananda says, if your teacher has these three qualifications, then you are safe.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-25T13:51:31.113" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7905" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-25T21:24:22.360" Score="0" ViewCount="280" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where is Aum positioned in the Devnagari alphabet? I had assumed that its position was before the vowels and consonants to signify its significance as a sacred syllable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, Panini, as far as I know was the first systemiser of Sansktit grammar how did he account for Aum? I mean, unlike the Roman alphabet, Devnagari is is systematic in its layout, and I'm assuming that this is either due to him or his influence indirectly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="713" LastActivityDate="2018-08-23T08:58:11.183" Title="Where is Aum positioned in Devanagari?" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2021-04-02T23:48:32.857" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7906" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7837" CreationDate="2015-07-26T12:04:19.553" Score="5" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The varnasrama dharma in Hinduism is aimed at minimising the negative impact of such physical phenomena. Acceptance of grihastasrama (the life of a householder) and subsequent monogamy are recommended.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Madalasa's advice to her son , Alarka ,(from Dattatreya charitra) is the following:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;a. Companionship (sanga) is the root of evil. If you must seek &#xA;   it, seek sat-sanga, i.e.,the companionship of those who strive to &#xA;   be in &quot;sat&quot;&#xA;&#xA;b. Exactly the same that @SwamiVishwananda states - &quot;If you must &#xA;   lust, lust for God&quot;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2015-07-26T12:04:19.553" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7908" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7835" CreationDate="2015-07-26T12:27:30.180" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes,Arjuna was an another incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Because if Sage Nara was incarnation of Vishnu,so this means Arjuna was also incarnation of Vishnu as they two was a power of Vishnu. In Bhagavat Gita Lord Krishna said ''I am Arjuna&quot;. What does it mean? See,Krishna was an incarnation of Vishnu and Arjuna also. So,this means that they two were same and if they were same,so they were incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Another reason is why Lord Agni gave the 'Gandiv' bow to Arjuna but not someone else. Because Sage Nara had fought with Gandiv bow in his previous birth and his next birth he was Arjuna. That's why Lord Agni gave the bow to Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3305" LastActivityDate="2015-07-26T12:27:30.180" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7910" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7905" CreationDate="2015-07-26T20:48:40.607" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;1) The following link from Encyclopedia Britannica shows the Devanagari alphabet. Pleae note that OM = AUM is a syllable, not a single letter. Hence OM is not part of the Devanagari alphabet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.britannica.com/topic/Devanagari&quot;&gt;http://www.britannica.com/topic/Devanagari&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Panini was a grammarian not a literature scholar. The meaning of OM is unknown. I have never heard that Panini gave an explanation of the meaning of OM. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My personal conjecture derived from the beginning of the Chandogya Upanishad: OM is a vocalise.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastActivityDate="2015-07-26T20:48:40.607" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7911" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-27T02:07:53.530" Score="15" ViewCount="1899" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are various Gitas described in scriptures like Bhagavad Gita (revealed by Lord Krishna to Arjuna), Astavakkra Gita, Rudra Gita, Uddhava Gita ( again revealed by Lord Krishna to Uddhava) devi gita? and may be many more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is why Bhagavad Gita is so famous than all other gita's?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You find that most of famous acharyas like Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Vedanta Desika, Madhusudana Saraswati etc all have written commentary on Bhagavad Gita of Lord Krishna only. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One simple answer that comes instantaneously is that it was told by Supreme Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, are there any other specific reasons. I dont want wild speculations. Is there any specific reason or reasons mentioned by acharyas as to why Bhagavad Gita is the ultimate gita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T14:45:56.973" LastActivityDate="2019-01-25T11:49:09.800" Title="Why is Bhagavad Gita of Lord Krishna considered as the ultimate Gita?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|gita|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7914" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7892" CreationDate="2015-07-27T03:53:00.110" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For scriptures marriage or no marriage is immaterial. Males represent reasoning. Females represent emotion.  Both should manifest in each other for soul to progress to next level.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Marriage is a social custom and the prescribed age difference is with logic, when male becomes old, the female being younger is atleast able to serve or take care of her husband or partner.  The female (mother) is to be taken care by son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The society has laid down responsibility to take care of parents by children - repeat male children.  In societies, where male population is less, females are given the right.   So within India, you have patriach family(rest of India) and matriach family (eastern India).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To attach any significance to patriach or matriach society is ignorance&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The practise of property going to male children is due to the fact that the parents bestow their earned property to  son / daughter (depending upon society norms) as a way to repay the services bestowed, and it is not the right of the children to claim !!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The hindu custom of giving property share to daughters at the time of marriage is another beautiful instance that our society did not differentiate between son or daughter.  As son is likely to stay till last breath of parents, the property rights are given in the end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ignorant people have unfortunately, assigned the term &quot;dowry&quot; to property share of daughter.  As per original Hindu customs and practises, giving share of property is voluntary affair not a birth right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marriage is more of social convenience than any thing else.  A saint is supposed to be unmarried, but has more children (all disciples and followers) than a married person !!!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Marriage is to be seen as union of thoughts rather than physical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Marriage is a social or society practise&#xA;2) Marriage is a custome to sustain old age and all the laws of property surround&#xA;   on karma and its &quot;zero&quot; sum if practised properly as per scriptures&#xA;3) Monism as stated by certain scriptures is more of lessening the karma balance&#xA;4) Lord Budha, at one stage, enforced, that people can join him only when he/she&#xA;   gets his/her family permission&#xA;5) That is why Sri Adi Shankara had to play the &quot;divine&quot; scene of crocodile &#xA;   catching him and his mother allowing him to be &quot;sanyasin&quot;.  Crocodile&#xA;   is representative of wordly attractions.&#xA;6) Read and understand &quot;Gajendra Moksham&quot; which resembles to Sri Adi shankara's&#xA;   known episode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-12T15:32:34.447" LastActivityDate="2015-08-12T15:32:34.447" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7915" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7889" CreationDate="2015-07-27T04:01:48.353" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All hindu gods (countless gods !!) often confuse average minds, when god is ONE, hinduism has numerous gods.   Gods are representative of nadis in the human body. Nadi is a sensitive neuro zone, but it is more of spiritual center.  If all these nadis are intact, then it gives raise to kundalini and other spiritual chakras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A farmer is interested in rains, so he prays Lord Indra. A terrorized person may invoke Lord Narasimha to get instant help !!(so long he is calm &amp;amp; concentrating on lord).  A student may pray to Goddess Saraswati for knowledge and doing good in exams, while a qualified graduate going for job interview may pray to Lord Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So each hindu god is represents a nadi (spiritual force center), when the mantra is recited with concentration, that nadi gets activated&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayatri mantra is supreme and activates all nadis at a time, so it is most powerful mantra.  By reciting this single mantra, it is assumed or equivalent to all other mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in short there is no difference between terminology of bhavan and bhagavant. These are human terms, cannot transcend the gods or demi gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T04:01:48.353" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7916" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7892" CreationDate="2015-07-27T04:02:00.293" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to BHagavad Gita, Krishna says kamo aham asmi that I am that sex life in according to religious principles so two main reason as to why Krishna says like this or one should marry&lt;br&gt;&#xA;1. To advance in Spiritual life otherwise their Will be chaos in society or it will be a kind of animalistic society.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2. To give birth to a good progeny and to train them in religious principles. &#xA;This way one can attain salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3401" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2015-07-27T21:48:15.830" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T21:48:15.830" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7917" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7886" CreationDate="2015-07-27T04:05:51.467" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do you not find it interesting that modern day science confirms that soul enters the embroyo in the month FIVE ? and that is why, it is welcomed by reciting slokas and hymns (i.e. the woman attaining that status participates in a ancient hindu sanskara called - Srimantum).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What modern science confirmed now, is written in Garuda purana in much more detailed and structured way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Happy that you read that portion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T04:05:51.467" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7920" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7886" CreationDate="2015-07-27T04:22:43.910" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Soul enters womb the moment seamen of men meets that of Women. This is very scientific and hope you will appreciate. &#xA;What ever we eat end product is seamen. There are million of souls who are waiting to get a human form of body. It is said these souls millions in number through rains enter into grains and are residing in seamen of men which enter into women's womb. &#xA;Based on once karma one is awarded this human form that is one out of million gets human form.&#xA;That's why it's said human form is most precious gift of nature and it is so rare. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3401" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T04:22:43.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7921" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7769" CreationDate="2015-07-27T04:23:06.777" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;both are same.  South Indians term it as Pushkaralu and North Indians term it Kumbha Mela.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This pushkaralu or kumbh mela is a gathering point for various saints and sages to assemble and exchange views.  The ordinary public can gain in terms of associating or gathering in the holy saints/sages presence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saints are able to see the astral light of each person called aura.  In that wide public gathering, the saint/sage sees a bright light and calls that soul to him and directs further spiritual counselling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa identified Swami Vivekananda from such gathering, though that time Swami Vivekananda was still unrefined soul named as Narendra, but due to the strong aura and light, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa identified him as a potential spiritual giant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T04:23:06.777" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7922" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7867" CreationDate="2015-07-27T04:44:33.283" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you know Brmha Vimohan leela where Lord Bramha doubts krishna and steel all cows and gopa friends for the time that corresponded to one year according to earthly planet to check whether Krishna is supreme Lord or not. Krishna expanded himself as many as cows and gopas were there and when Bramha ji comes he is bewildered to see the cows and gopas which he stole later he comes to an understanding that Krishna is supreme of all gods even Lord Vishnu. &#xA;It happened during this period of one year that all gopas got married so in one sense it was Krishna who got married to all gopis of Braj. &#xA;reason why Rasa dance is spiritually topmost thing and why Krishna is not so much in physical association of gopis :1. Krishna is known as RasaRaja enjoyer of all mellows so spiritually what is topmost materially that is most perverted thing. Gopis dancing with Krishna represents their topmost surrender as a devotees that how one should leave everything and just surrender to Supreme... However such thing in material circle is most perverted thing. &#xA;2. Gopis were in their spiritual bodies.&#xA;3. Rasa leela is glorified by many sages&#xA;4. gopis of brajbhumi were experiencing highest form of love in seperation.&#xA;Moreover marriage is not a physical affair in Spiritual circle it means dedication of one body mind and soul so in that sense any devotee is married to Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3401" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T04:44:33.283" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7924" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-27T05:16:04.307" Score="3" ViewCount="550" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/11/31/28/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;the ISKCON commentary&lt;/a&gt; on the Srimad Bhagavatam, various scriptural quotes are given in support of Gaudiya Vaishnava beliefs about the forms of Vishnu and his incarnations.  In particular, this quote from the Vishnu Sahasranamam is given:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Also from the Mahābhārata: amṛtāḿśo 'mṛta-vapuḥ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means that Vishnu is Amritamsha, or he whose incarnations are eternal, and Amritavapuh, or he whose body is eternal.  And indeed, this quote is found in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs13135.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BORI critical&lt;/a&gt; edition of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;100 kumudaḥ kuṃdaraḥ kundaḥ parjanyaḥ pavano 'nilaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;amṛtāṃśo 'mṛtavapuḥ&lt;/strong&gt; sarvajñaḥ sarvato mukhaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/mbhK/txt/mbhK13.itx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Southern recension&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahabharata says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kumudaH kundaraH kundaH parjanyaH pavano.anilaH. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;amR^itAMsho.amR^itavapuH&lt;/strong&gt; sarvaj~naH sarvatomukhaH.. 13-254-102&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Despite all that, I have reason to believe that the verse actually says &quot;amritasho amritavapuh&quot; rather than &quot;amritamsho amritavapuh&quot;.  That is to say, I think it's possible that Vishnu is described &quot;Amritasha&quot;, which means he that consumes or gives nectar, rather than Amritamsha.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I suspect this is that all the commentaries on the Vishnu Sahasranamam I've come across say that it's Amritasha.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/ApKM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Adi Shankaracharya's commentary says, for instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;813&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The drinker of nectar (Amritashah)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Being himself the source of nectar; or he who gave the nectar to Devas and himself participated in it; i.e. the nectar obtained by the churning (of the ocean of milk); or whose desire is for Amrita, i.e., immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=ge5ZAAAAIAAJ&amp;amp;dq=editions%3AnbeESiN3DVEC&amp;amp;focus=searchwithinvolume&amp;amp;q=819&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Sri Vaishnava commentator Parashara Bhattar says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;819&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Amritaasah— He Who feeds with Nectar. He feeds His devotees with the Nectar viz, His auspicious qualities.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://kirtimukha.com/chinnamma/sahasra/sloka87.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Gaudiya Vaishnava commentator Baladeva Vidyabhushana says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;amRtam &#xA;  ayAcitam moksham ASayati bhojayati bhkatAn iti amRtASah – He Who &#xA;  feeds – bestows moksham to His devotees unasked, is amRtASah. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what's going on here?  Did all the commentators get the verse wrong?  Or is the verse given in the BORI critical edition and the Southern recension of the Mahabharata incorrect?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know whether there are other manuscripts or recessions of the Mahabharata which say &quot;amritasho&quot; rather than &quot;amritamsho&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-18T09:59:28.370" LastActivityDate="2018-11-18T09:59:28.370" Title="Does the Vishnu Sahasranamam call Vishnu Amaritasha or Amritamsha?" Tags="|mahabharata|vishnu|history|name|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7929" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3408" CreationDate="2015-07-27T10:09:08.243" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is clearly NO.  There is no carbon dating on those archaeological sites.  According to certain exalted hindu saints and Yogis of highest order, Ramayana &amp;amp; Mahabharata are mystic stories, did not actually happen, symbolic of every day in every human body.&#xA;Pandavas = five senses, Draupadi = sixth sense&#xA;Kauravas = 100 bad vices&#xA;Karna = human ego &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T10:09:08.243" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7930" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7889" CreationDate="2015-07-27T10:23:31.783" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagvan and Bhagvanta words hold same meaning but Sanskrit is such a language that it's meaning is contextual. Here I am presenting point wise contextual meaning of bhagvan.&#xA;1. According to parashara Muni father of Veda vyasa bhagvan(fortunate one) roots itself from bhagyawaan which means one who has six oppulences in full namely wealth, strength, power, beauty, fame and renunciation. So at times it has a referral meaning in relation to Krishna and other Vishnu tattvas.&#xA;2. Also used for very powerful beings like demigods indra varuna Chandra etc. Please note these are just posts like prime minister of India is just a post  so any bhagyawaan person can qualify to this. However one can never take position of Vishnu tattva and Lord shiva. So Vishnu always remains the supreme Lord and others are subordinate to him.&#xA;3. Also used in context for powerful rishis who exibhit oppulence of renunciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3401" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T10:23:31.783" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7933" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-27T11:44:54.657" Score="10" ViewCount="742" Body="&lt;p&gt;In conversation between Yayati and Ashtaka while Yayati was falling down from heaven, Ashtaka mentions Yayati flourished in Krita age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can you please let me know when was Yayati born? If Yayati was born in Krita age, when did his sons Puru and Yadu take birth?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2341" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-05-05T19:36:02.083" LastActivityDate="2023-05-05T19:36:02.083" Title="In which Yuga was Yayati born?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|yuga|chandravansh|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7935" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7911" CreationDate="2015-07-27T14:08:05.003" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Gambhirananda says in his introduction to his translation of the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavad Gita with Adi Shankaracharya's commentary&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Gita is part of what is called the three-fold canon (&lt;em&gt;Prasthana-traya&lt;/em&gt;) of Hinduism, the other two being the Upanishads and the &lt;em&gt;Brahma-Sutras&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Gita is ranked among the greatest religious books of the world, and in India it occupies a position next only to the Upanisads. In fact, it Is considered as a summing up of the Upanisads; in certain places it quotes from them almost verbatim. There is a commonly known verse which says, ‘All the Upanisads are cows, the milker is Sri Krsna, the calf is Arjuna, the enjoyers are the wise ones and the milk is the fine nectar that the Gita is.’ The book has been translated into all the widely spoken Iangauges in India as also into the principal languages of the world. As early as the time of Akbar (1556-1605) the book was translated into Persian separately by Abu-‘l- Fazl and Faizi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;About the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavad-Gita&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;Encyclopaedia Britannica&lt;/em&gt; (vol. viii, pp. 937-8) writes: ‘The influence of the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavad-Gita&lt;/em&gt; has been profound. It was a popular text open to all who would listen and fundamental for all later Hinduism.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The importance of the Gita for the Hindu public is proved by the fact that almost all the religious leaders following Sankaracarya have interpreted the Gita according to their own schools of thought. Among them Ramanujacarya (eleventh century A.D.), Madhvacarya (1199-1276), Vallabhacarya (1479), Kesava Kasmiri, a follower of Nimbarkacarya (1162), Vijnana Bhiksu, Jnaneswar and Tukaram wrote commentaries or elucidations on the Gita. In modern times also, such annotations have been written by B.G. Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo among others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;About the influence of the Gita on other countries and religions Radhakrishnan writes, ‘The Gita has exercised an influence that extended in early times from China and Japan, and lately to the lands of the &#xA;  West. The two chief works of Mahayana Buddhism, &lt;em&gt;Mahayana-sraddhotpatti&lt;/em&gt; (The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana) and &lt;em&gt;Saddharma-pundarika&lt;/em&gt; (The Lotus of the True Law) are deeply indebted to the teaching of the Gita. It is interesting to observe that the official exponent of the “German Faith”, J. W. Hauer, a Sanskrit scholar who served for some years as a missionary in India, gives to the Gita a central place in the German faith.’ (&lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgita&lt;/em&gt;, p. 11.) Dara Shuko was enamoured of the Gita. We have already indicated that the Gita travelled to Persia during the Mughal Age. In recent times it has been appreciated by eminent men and scholars like Dr. L. D. Jarnett, Warren Hastings, Charles Wilkins (who translated the Gita into English in 1758), Carlyle and Aldous Huxley.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gambhirananda quotes Sankarcharya's introduction to his commentary on the Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedavyasa, who was omniscient and possessed of godly qualities, set forth in seven hundred verses under the name of Gita, that dharma as it was instructed by the Lord. This scripture called the Gita, which is such, is the collection of the quintessence of all the teachings of the Vedas, and its meaning is difficult to understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All of the commentators when doing their commentaries on the Upanishads and the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; extensively quote from the Gita to support their interpretations. As Shankaracharya said above, the Gita is the &quot;quintessence of all the teachings of the Vedas.&quot;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-01-25T07:19:08.327" LastActivityDate="2019-01-25T07:19:08.327" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7936" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2564" CreationDate="2015-07-27T16:22:45.087" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rudra Gita from Varaha Purana refers to origin of river Godavari. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudra gita is from Chapter 70 onwards of Varaha Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudra explains the origin of pashupata religion and in the process the origin of River Godavari occurs in Rudra gita in Varaha purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The details are from the following blog&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://narayanastra.blogspot.in/2012/05/sri-rudra-gita-varaha-purana.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://narayanastra.blogspot.in/2012/05/sri-rudra-gita-varaha-purana.html?m=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;rudra uvAcha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;asti bhAratavarSheNa vanaM daNDakasaMj~nitam |tatra tIvraM tapo ghoraM gautamo nAma vai dvijaH || chakAra tasya brahmA tu paritoShaM gataH prabhuH |uvAcha taM muniM brahmA varaM brUhi tapodhana || 71.(10-11)||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Rudra said -  In Bharatavarsha, there is a forest called Dandaka. A brahmaNa named Gautama was performing severe penances there. On account of his penances, Brahma was pleased and asked him to seek a boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;evamuktastadA tena brahmaNA lokakartR^iNA |uvAcha sadyaH pa~NktiM me dhAnyAnAM dehi padmaja || 71.12||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asked by Brahma, the Creator of the Worlds thus, Gautama said, “O lotus born! Give me an abundance of grains!”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;evamukto dadau tasya tamevArthaM pitAmahaH |labdhvA tu taM varaM vipraH shatashrR^i~Nge mahAshramam ||chakAra tasyoShasi cha pAkAnte shAlayo dvijAH |lUyante tena muninA madhyAhne pachyate tathA |sarvAtithyamasau vipro brAhmaNebhyo dadAtyalam || 71.(13-14||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Having asked this boon, Pitamaha (Brahma) granted it, and the rSi built a great Ashram in SatashRnga. Every morning, the rSi could reap the grain, cook it at noon and offer it to all his guests including the rSis  and brahmaNas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kasyachit tvatha kAlasya mahati dvAdashAbdikA |anAvR^iShTirdvijavarA abhavallomaharShiNI || tAM dR^iShTvA munayaH sarve anAvR^iShTiM vanecharAH |kShudhayA pIDyamAmAstu prayayurgautamaM tadA || 71.(15-16)||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: The rSi became accustomed to this routine. However, a great drought occurred which lasted for 12 years. Distressed by the lack of food and drought, the rSis  living in the forest went to Gautama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;atha tAnAgatAn dR^iShTvA gautamaH shirasA nataH |uvAcha sthIyatAM mahyaM gR^ihe munivarAtmajAH ||evamuktAstu te tena tasthurvividhabhojanam |bhu~njamAnA anAvR^iShTiryAvat sA nivR^itA.abhavat || bhu~njamAnA anAvR^iShTiryAvat sA nivR^itA.abhavat||nivR^ittAyAM tu vai tasyAmanAvR^iShTyAM tu te dvijAH |tIrthayAtrAnimittaM tu prayAtuM manaso.abhavan || 71.(17-19)||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Seeing the approaching rSis , Gautama paid respects to them and asked those sons of munis to stay at his Ashram. Having told thus (by Gautama), the rSis  stayed there eating a variety of foods until the drought was over. Once the drought ended, those brahmaNas desired to undertake a tIrtha-yAtra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tatra shANDilyanAmAnaM tApasaM munisattamam |pratyuvAcheti saMchintya mIrIchaH paramo muniH || 71.20||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Then, the great muni mArIcha spoke regarding this matter to one going by the name of Shandilya, who was the best among munis doing penances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mArIcha uvAcha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;shANDilya shobhanaM vakShye pitA te gautamo muniH |tamanuktvA na gachChAmastapashchartuM tapovanam ||evamukte.atha jahasuH sarve te munayastadA |kimasmAbhiH svako deho vikrIto.asyAnnabhakShaNAt || 71.(21-22)||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Maricha said - O Shandilya! Gautama muni is like a virtuous father (to us). We should not leave this tapOvaNaM (place of penance) seeking other places without telling him.When spoken to in this manner, all the munis then laughed, saying, “Have we sold ourselves to him (Gautama) for partaking of his food?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;evamuktvA punashchochuH sopAdhigamanaM prati |kR^itvA mAyAmayIM gAM tu tachChAlau te vyasarjayan || 71.23||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Having spoken thus, they talked of leaving the place again and decided to go, creating a wondrous (illusory) cow, letting it loose in the Ashram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tAM charantIM tato dR^iShTvA shAlau gAM gautamo muniH |gR^ihItvA salilaM pANau yAhi rudretyabhAShata |tato mAyAmayI sA gauH papAta jalabindubhiH || 71.24||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: When Gautama Muni saw that cow wandering around in his Ashram, he took some water in his hands and splashed it on his body. Then that illusory cow fell down even as a drop of water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nihatAM tAM tato dR^iShTvA munIn jigamiShUMstathA |uvAcha gautamo dhImAMstAn munIn praNataH sthitaH || kimarthaM gamyate viprAH sAdhu shaMsata mAchiram |mAM vihAya sadA bhaktaM praNataM cha visheShataH || 71.(25-26)||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Seeing that cow slain thus, the munis proceeded to leave. Gautama, turning around, bowed to those munis and asked them, “For what purpose are you going so quickly, O rSis , leaving me, who is ever your devotee, who is always obedient to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;R^iShaya UchuH |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;govadhyeyamiha brahman yAvat tava sharIragA |tAvadannaM na bhu~njAmo bhavato.annaM mahAmune || 71.27||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: The rSis  said - “O mahA muni! So long as the sin of cow slaughter remains with you, we shall not eat your food”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;evamukto gautamo.atha tAn munIn prAha dharmavit |prAyashchittaM govadhyAyA dIyatAM me tapodhanAH || 71.28||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Hearing them speak thus, Gautama, who was conversant with dharma, asked the munis – “You who possess the wealth of penance give me (instructions) as to the prAyaschitta for killing the cow”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;iyaM gauramR^itA brahman mUrchChiteva vyavasthitA |ga~NgAjalaplutA cheyamutthAsyati na saMshayaH ||prAyashchittaM mR^itAyAH syAdamR^itAyAH kR^itaM tvidam |vrataM vA mA kR^ithAH kopamityuktvA prayayustu te || 71.(29-30)||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: “This cow is not dead but only unconscious. If it is bathed in the waters of the Ganga, it will rise up, there is no doubt. prAyaschittaM is for actual killing. For this sin, the mere performance of this vrata will suffice. Please do not be angry (about our leaving on this account)”. So saying, they left.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;gataistairgautamo dhImAn himavantaM mahAgirim |mAmArAdhayiShuH prAyAt taptuM chAshu mahat tapaH ||shatamekaM tu varShANAmahamArAdhito.abhavam |tuShTena cha mayA prokto varaM varaya suvrata || 71.(31-32)||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: When they left, the intelligent Gautama went to the mighty Himalayas, where he undertook a great penance to worship me (Rudra). I was worshipped by him for 100 years and pleased with such penance, I asked him to seek a boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so.abravInmAM jakaTAsaMsthAM dehi ga~NgAM tapasvinIm |mayA sArdhaM prayAtveShA puNyA bhAgIrathI nadI ||evamukte jaTAkhaNDamekaM sa pradadau shivaH |tAM gR^ihya gatavAn so.api yatrAste sA tu gaurmR^itA || 71.(33-34)||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: He asked me to give him Ganga of great ascetic merit held in my matted locksand to let go half of that sacred bhAgirathI river to follow him. Being asked thus, I granted him that auspicious river from one part of my matted locks. And he led the river to his place where the cow still remained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note – Ganga is called “puNya” as it arises from the lotus feet of vishNu, which Rudra received on his head. The river is also already called bhAgIrathi here. However, this incident can be construed as happening before bhagIratha brought the Ganga to Earth, because otherwise Gautama did not need to do penance. Since the narrator is Rudra, he calls this river “bhAgIrathi” to show that it was the same Ganga requested by bhagIratha as well. This is actually the origin of the godAvari river.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tajjalaplAvitA sA gaurgatA chotthAya bhAminI |nadI cha mahatI jAtA puNyatoyA shuchihradA|| taM dR^iShTvA mahadAshcharyaM tatra saptarShayo.amalAH | AjagmuH khe vimAnasthAH sAdhuH sAdhviti vAdinaH || 71.(35-36)||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Washed by that water, the cow rose up as a beautiful woman. The river became great and passed through sacred places. Seeing that phenomenon with wonder, the sinless saptarSis  came there in their vimAna-s saying “very good”!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note – It should be understood that this Ganga is not the celestial Ganga, making bhagIratha’s penance a necessity to bring it back to Earth. This part of Ganga became known as the Godavari)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastActivityDate="2015-07-27T16:22:45.087" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7938" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7924" CreationDate="2015-07-27T21:14:19.920" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, given the fact that there were many manuscripts of the Mahabharata spread across India it can easily be that in some of them it's said &lt;strong&gt;amṛtāśōmṛtavapuḥ&lt;/strong&gt; with &lt;strong&gt;Amṛtāśaḥ&lt;/strong&gt;, while in others it is said &lt;strong&gt;amṛtāṃśo 'mṛtavapuḥ&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It seems that Ganguli who gave a translation of the Mahabharata into English in his manuscripts of Sanskrit text also saw &lt;strong&gt;Amṛtāśaḥ&lt;/strong&gt;. See at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b114.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b114.htm&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... &lt;strong&gt;He that drank nectar&lt;/strong&gt;; He that has an undying body; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganguli says in preface, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01001.htm&lt;/a&gt; that he has consulted several Sanskrit manuscripts, of the Bombay edition, and several Bengal editions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is important to note that Ganguli translated the text at the end of the 19th century when there was no a critical edition of the Mahabharata yet. He specifically states that he noticed that the text in the individual manuscripts differ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-03T10:29:35.857" LastActivityDate="2015-08-03T10:29:35.857" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7939" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-27T23:32:03.017" Score="0" ViewCount="398" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have met a couple of shaivites who have vaishnavite names ( ramakrishna, giri, venkatraman) though I have never encountered a vaishnavite family with predominately shaivaite names. Is there any reference in any of our scriptures to this? What is the reason behind this - I.e. Shaivites naming their children after God Vishnu? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3410" LastActivityDate="2019-09-05T12:03:00.380" Title="Shaivites with vaishnavite names" Tags="|practice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7940" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8101" CreationDate="2015-07-28T06:34:48.067" Score="4" ViewCount="2504" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana tells us how a son should respect his parents by means of &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shravan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sravana Kumar&lt;/a&gt;&quot; character.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also tells how a wife should respect her husband by means of &quot;Sita&quot; character.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And how a brother should respect his elder brother by means of &quot;Laxmana&quot; character.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also how a devotee should respect God by means of &quot;Hanuman&quot; &amp;amp; &quot;Shabari&quot; characters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are so many other characters like the above from Ramayana which continue to influence us, but still Bhagavad Gita is considered more prominent than Ramayana, why is it so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3411" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-16T21:01:15.533" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T02:20:44.273" Title="Why is Bhagavad Gita considered more prominent than Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ClosedDate="2017-02-27T08:19:59.597" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7941" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7898" CreationDate="2015-07-28T11:13:24.870" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Mandukya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; speaks of 4 states of consciousness, the waking, dream, dreamless, and the &lt;em&gt;Turiya&lt;/em&gt; (which is the Supreme Reality, Pure Consciousness). The second state, the dream state, is called &lt;em&gt;Taijasa&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Mandukya&lt;/em&gt; IV). The objects seen in the dream state are impressions from the waking state. They are nothing but the internal workings of the mind. They are nothing more than internal mental states. The &lt;em&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (IV. iii. 9) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then [when he falls asleep] after having taken away with him [a portion of the] impressions from the world during the waking state, [destroying and building up again] he experiences dreams by his own light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gaudapada goes into greater detail in Chapter II of his &lt;em&gt;Karkika&lt;/em&gt; (commentary on the &lt;em&gt;Mandukya&lt;/em&gt; U. as to why dreams are unreal and unassociated with events in the waking state (Also &lt;em&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; IV. iii. 10).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only time that a dream may be real is when the Lord himself comes to you in a dream, sometimes in the form of your guru or a very holy saint, to give you spiritual instruction.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-07-28T11:13:24.870" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7943" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-28T18:27:35.290" Score="1" ViewCount="60" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am very much intrested in reading every hindu mythology scriptures. I know that in my life time it may not be possible. But would like to cover as many as possible. My daily schedule is very busy. So i would like to understand if there is any sin in reading scriptures in office ( in break of free time, wearing shoes ) and reading them before sleeping ( reading while lying on bed etc) or while travelling or any odd time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2341" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-18T09:58:05.153" LastActivityDate="2020-06-18T09:58:05.153" Title="Rules for Reading scriptures" Tags="|scripture|puranas|practice|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-11-28T11:04:47.570" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7944" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-28T19:30:38.230" Score="3" ViewCount="815" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was initiated with yagopavita 2 years back, I was told it was required for performing rituals and to study the scriptures. Now I had(and still) have 2 questions in my mind - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;What is meaning of wearing a yagopavita while many realized persons don't wear it ?? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scriptures can be studied without it, purity of rituals can be maintained without it, then Why should we wear yagopavita, just as fashion or there is more deep and more justified factual meaning ('other than keeping the body fluids intact while urinating' fact) to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many yogis and great saints like Swami Vivekananda, Shri RamKrishna etc didn't wear yagopavita so I feel no necessity of it to become a yogi or to become realized with vedic knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also if Shiva, Krishna ,&amp;amp; Rama are realized beings then why do they wear yagopavit they should drop it(or atleast should be potrayed to do so).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;How to dispose it off without hurting environment and also without &#xA;  breaking vedic laws .&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have to usually change yagopavita within 4 months or atleast once a year and there are massive number of people who wear and throw it in a river or flowing water body saying &lt;code&gt;समुद्रम् गच्छ स्वाहा&lt;/code&gt; &#xA;meaning we are throwing it to go into ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in reality the water body is polluted by such acts, the thread is non-biodegradable and insoluble in water and it stays there for nearly 500 years, similarly if it is thrown out of water body it pollutes soil by mixing in it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the wole point is If it is necessary to wear yagopavita then &#xA;  how and where should we dispose it off so that it can be done without &#xA;  hurting envrionment or without breaking or changing the rules of disposal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-07-28T20:46:51.583" LastActivityDate="2015-07-28T20:46:51.583" Title="What is meaning of wearing yagopavita and its disposal techniques" Tags="|rituals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7945" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-28T20:10:17.030" Score="3" ViewCount="85" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmaup.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; I encountered following line from verse 2 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And that state which he does not give up for a next one is called the waking state. (He carries all these states within himself) just as a (Vedic) deity bears the eight sacrificial cups simultaneously.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have not seen any deity (especially vedic deity) carrying cups For e.g. following image of Rudra&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OawQf.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OawQf.gif&quot; alt=&quot;Rudra&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2015-07-28T20:10:17.030" Title="What are 8 sacrificial cups with a vedic deity" Tags="|upanishads|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7947" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-28T21:53:01.460" Score="9" ViewCount="912" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, Vyasa discusses the issue of animal sacrifice near the end of Adhyaya 3 Pada 1 of the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;25&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If it be argued that rites (invoking killing of animals) are unholy, we say, no, since they are sanctioned by scriptures.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And all the commentators I have come across take this to be a statement that animal sacrifice is not immoral and does not generate bad karma.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says about this in his Advaita commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We proceed to refute the remark made by the pûrvapakshin that sacrificial works are unholy because involving harm done to animals ... Now from scripture we derive the certain knowledge that the gyotishtoma-sacrifice, which involves harm done to animals (i.e. the animal sacrifice), &amp;amp;c., is an act of duty; how then can it be called unholy?--But does not the scriptural precept, 'Do not harm any creature,' intimate that to do harm to any being is an act contrary to duty?--True, but that is a general rule, while the precept, 'Let him offer an animal to Agnîshomau,' embodies an exception; and general rule and exception have different spheres of application.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48342.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Ramanujacharya says in the Sri Bhashya, his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;it is not so, on account of scriptural statement. For Scripture declares that the killing of sacrificial animals makes them to go up to the heavenly world, and therefore is not of the nature of harm. This is declared in the text, 'The animal killed at the sacrifice having assumed a divine body goes to the heavenly world'; 'with a golden body it ascends to the heavenly world.' An action which is the means of supreme exaltation is not of the nature of harm, even if it involves some little pain; it rather is of beneficial nature.--With this the mantra also agrees: 'Thou dost not die, thou goest to the gods on easy paths; where virtuous men go, not evil-doers, there the divine Savitri may lead thee.' An act which has a healing tendency, although it may cause a transitory pain, men of insight declare to be preservative and beneficial.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here's what Madhvacharya says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/y85J&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Dvaita commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It may be said that sacrificial work involves injury to life, and as such it is productive of sin and consequently of misery, and that, therefore, it is not to be performed. But this objection is to be refuted on the ground that the injury to life involved in holy duties is permitted by the word (scripture); for the Varahapurana says, &quot;To do harm to any life except as enjoined by scripture is really productive of sin and evil consequences; on the other hand, no evil consequences possibly arise from the act of killing permitted by the Vedas.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here's what Baladeva Vidyabhushana says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/A3Dr&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Gaudiya Vaishnava commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because piety and impiety is known only from the Vedas’ statements, the Vedas’ order to commit violence must be understood to be actually kind and pious. Therefore the orders of the Vedas are never impure. The prohibitions “Never commit violence to anyone,” and “Violence is a sin,” are the general rules decreed by the Vedas; and the statement, “One should sacrifice an animal in an agnisomiya- yajña,” is an exception to that general rule. A general rule and a specific exception to that rule need not contradict each other. There is scope for each. For these reasons, therefore, the scriptures’ description that the fallen soul takes birth as a rice plant or similar being is metaphorical and not literal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, are there any commentaries on the Brahma Sutras that interpret this Sutra in a different way?  Or do all the commentaries agree that this Sutra is a statement that animal sacrifice in Vedic Yagnas is not immoral/does not generate bad karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suspect that all or almost all the commentaries are in agreement on this point, which makes it all the more strange that a lot of modern Hindus believe that animal sacrifice is unequivocally immoral, especially considering that almost all Hindus belong to sects which subscribe to the Vedanta school of philosophy, and the Brahma Sutras are the defining text of the Vedanta school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-11-22T07:40:44.450" Title="Do any commentaries on the Brahma Sutras say that animal sacrifice is immoral?" Tags="|practice|philosophy|vedanta|brahma-sutras|yajna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7948" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7939" CreationDate="2015-07-28T22:55:23.103" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is safe to say people whom you are referring to are actually Smarthas. Orthodox Shaivaites are rare in modern days. Smarthas on the other hand, are more inclined to follow Smrithi (the Vedas) and accept all forms of god as supreme and equal. Vaishnavism/Vaishnavam/Sri Vaishnavam that Sriman Narayana (Vishnu is his avatar) is the only supreme being (aka Brahman) and other gods are actually Devathas who has Vishnu as their antharyami (paramathma - one who resides inside athmas and is the supreme). So, the answer to your question is that they are Smarthas who are more liberal in naming their children since they worship all gods equally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3415" LastActivityDate="2015-07-28T22:55:23.103" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7951" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-29T12:21:51.450" Score="5" ViewCount="245" Body="&lt;p&gt;We often hear of various weapons used by various Gods and different other people, which are said to be almost undefeatable. I want to know is there anything written in texts describing these weapons such as Sudarshana Chakra, Lord Shiva's trishul, Lord Shiva's bow, Pashupatastra, Narayanastra, Bramhastra, Indra's Vajra, etc. I mean how they were structured, how much destructive they were, who was their creator, what all were required to operate them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-20T15:09:54.830" LastActivityDate="2021-05-22T16:06:25.677" Title="How much destructive the earlier weapons were?" Tags="|weapon|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7952" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3931" CreationDate="2015-07-29T13:56:29.730" Score="2" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kashyapa received the earth, obtained by Parashurama's conquest of King Kartavirya Arjuna and henceforth, earth came to be known as &quot;Kashyapai&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashyapa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sage Kshyapa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Earth or Bhumi (in cow form) is wife of lord Vishnu as per this sanskrit slok:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समुद्र वसने देवी पर्वतस्तनमंडले। विष्णु पत्नी नमस्तुभ्यं पादस्पर्शं&#xA;  क्षमस्व मे।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Smudra vasne devi parwat stan mandle| Vishnu patni namastubhyam&#xA;  padsparsham shamashwme||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This make Lord Vishnu husband and he own define form of Earch&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3374" LastActivityDate="2015-07-29T13:56:29.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7953" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3186" CreationDate="2015-07-29T15:04:19.973" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedic religion is a science based religion and most of our ancient Rishi's could be considered as researchers and scientists. With that said, there is special significance of each day of the week thus aligned to name of the 7 planets which was later adopted by the western calendars. Tulsi leaves are a great source of Mercury that can be consumed to help you keep healthy. I believe not disturbing it on Sunday has to be something related to that only. Exactly what I do not know either but would be curious to find out. I derived the analogy based on my understanding and knowledge. Appreciate further enlightenment by learned members.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3418" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-07-30T06:43:52.303" LastActivityDate="2015-07-30T06:43:52.303" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7954" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-29T18:19:37.140" Score="20" ViewCount="4776" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Maha Vishnu is the protector of whole universe and he said that he will take avatars whenever there is degradation of righteousness on this planet. &#xA;Famous dashavatars are the avatars of Lord Maha Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/19-avatars-of-lord-shiva&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; lists about 19 avatars of Lord Shiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Piplaad Avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nandi&lt;/strong&gt; Avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Veerbhadra Avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhairava Avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ashwatthama&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sharabha avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Grihapati Avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Durvasa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hanuman&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rishabh Avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yatinath Avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Krishna Darshan Avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhikshuvarya Avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sureshwar Avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keerat&lt;/strong&gt; Avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sunatnartak&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahmachari&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yaksheshwar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Avdhut avatar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my point is, in the supreme Trinity, Lord Brahma is the Creator, Lord Vishnu is the Protector or Guardian and Lord Shiva is the Destroyer of the whole universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If this is true, then, why is there any need for the incarnation of Lord Shiva and that too, 44 avatars (out of which 19 are considered the main incarnations)?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If he has to just destroy the universe why does he have to take any avatars like Ishan, Hanuman etc.?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although Hanuman is justified as he had to help his &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%ADa-devat%C4%81_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;iṣṭa-devatā&lt;/a&gt; Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If anyone has any knowledge about the &lt;strong&gt;purpose&lt;/strong&gt; of the 19 major Shiva avatars, then, please mention it in your answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The number of avatars is subject to change according to different belief systems but according to Shiva Mahapurana, Shiva avatars are 44 and 19 of them are considered major avatars. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/19-avatars-of-lord-shiva&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-01-08T08:13:59.313" LastActivityDate="2018-11-12T18:20:57.383" Title="Why did Lord Shiva take 44 avatars if his primary role is to be the destroyer?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|puranas|avatars|trinity|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7955" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-29T18:20:18.287" Score="5" ViewCount="469" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question is related to when (e.g., 500 BC or 100 BC or 10,000 BC) did Valmiki, the creator of the Ramayana, live?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I saw a discrepancy in this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valmiki&amp;amp;oldid=671258190#Writer_of_the_R.C4.81m.C4.81ya.E1.B9.87a&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa is dated variously from 500 BC to 100 BC ... He is the author of the epic Rāmāyaṇa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is also known that Valmiki lived in the era of Ramayana, as he met Sita and taught Ramayana to Lava and Kusha. Here is the discrepancy, because Ramayana is quoted &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/ramayan/rama_vartak.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (by Dr. P. V. Vartak) to have taken place in 7600 BC:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, Ramayana must have occurred 9600 years ago, which is 7600 B.C approximately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question: How can Valmiki write Ramayana in 200-500 BC when he was also present during Ramayana in 9600 BC? Isn't it a huge discrepancy of about 9000 years?!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3420" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-08-31T12:04:00.390" Title="Discrepancy with Valmiki's era" Tags="|ramayana|history|valmiki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7956" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7958" CreationDate="2015-07-30T04:10:35.063" Score="12" ViewCount="23080" Body="&lt;p&gt;I love the Bhagavad Gita's take on everything and I am very pro-Krishnaism, however I am slightly confused on the Gita's view on other religions. Does the Gita claim that the &quot;god&quot; described in Christianity, Islam, etc. is ultimately the same in the form of the Supreme Godhead? Is this interpretation correct? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3251" LastActivityDate="2020-11-27T03:37:01.910" Title="Bhagavad Gita and views on other religions?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|other-religions|christianity|islam|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7958" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7956" CreationDate="2015-07-30T07:47:28.203" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;@Krishna's comment above to your question is right; the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; was spoken long before any of the other great world religions were around.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says (&lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; IV. 7-8):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whenever there is a decline of dharma, O Bharata, and a rise of adharma, I incarnate Myself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked, and for the establishment of dharma, I am born in every age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Krishna says that he will incarnate Himself again and again when needed; many people believe that Krishna Himself incarnated as Christ. To answer your question, yes, the same God worshiped in other religions is the same Supreme Godhead of the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; IV. 11:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In whatsoever way men approach Me, even so do I reward them; for it is My path, O Partha, that men follow in all things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God does not belong to one religion, all religions belong to God. You can approach Him through all paths, all religions lead to Him. Different approaches will have different views of the same thing, one view does not invalidate the other. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said (&lt;em&gt;Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who is called Krishna is also called Siva, and bears the name of the Primal Energy, Jesus, and Allah as well--the same Rama with a thousand names. A lake has several ghats. At one the Hindus take water in pitchers and call it 'jal'; at another the Mussalmans take water in leather bags and call 'pani'. At a third the Christians call it 'water'. Can we imagine that it is not 'jal' but only 'pani' or 'water'? How ridiculous! The substance is One under different names, and everyone is seeking the same substance; only climate, temperament, and name create differences. &lt;strong&gt;Let each man follow his own path.&lt;/strong&gt; If he sincerely and ardently wishes to know God, peace be unto him! He will surely realize Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; (VII. 7):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There exists nothing whatsoever higher than I am, O Dhanajaya. All is strung on Me as a row of gems on a thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the different religions are simply gems strung around the Supreme Godhead. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-09T14:44:10.917" LastActivityDate="2016-12-09T14:44:10.917" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7960" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7956" CreationDate="2015-07-30T13:40:03.447" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;First addressing your confusion about Gita's view on other religions.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Gita has never opinionated on any religion&lt;/strong&gt;; not even Hinduism! Historically the term &amp;quot;Hindu&amp;quot; itself was &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu#Etymology&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;originated in Iran&lt;/a&gt;. Ofcourse, Hinduism carried the Gita forward. (Don't mistake &amp;quot;Hinduism&amp;quot; to be a religion, it's a &amp;quot;way of life&amp;quot;, according to Indian Supreme Court.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only (falsely interpreted) mention about other &amp;quot;Religions&amp;quot; is here:&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/66&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter-18, Verse-66&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarva-&lt;strong&gt;dharmān&lt;/strong&gt; parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja ahaṁ tvāṁ&#xA;sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of &lt;strong&gt;religions&lt;/strong&gt; and just surrender unto Me. I shall&#xA;deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since there is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;no single word translation in western language for &lt;strong&gt;Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, people often label &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;Religion&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot; as &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot; which not right, though Religion plays important part in defining Dharma. Dharma can be appx termed as &amp;quot;Conformance of own duties with righteousness&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now answering your question:&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;NO Gita does Not &lt;em&gt;claim&lt;/em&gt; that god described in Christianity and Islam are ultimately same in form of Supreme Godhead&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For below reasons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Islam &amp;amp; Christianity did not exist when Gita was said. Though some&#xA;scholars  like Zakir Naik has claimed that Islam existed with&#xA;beginning of humanity, there is no evidence of that.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gita advocates that &amp;quot;Formful God&amp;quot; is easier to achieve than&#xA;&amp;quot;Formless God&amp;quot;. It directly contradicts with Islam. You may refer&#xA;beginning of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter-12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;With respect to Christianity, many concepts are matching with&#xA;Hinduism like Oneness of god who created everything, trinity,&#xA;multiple gods. But again, there is no such &lt;em&gt;claim&lt;/em&gt; in Gita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-07-30T13:40:03.447" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7961" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-30T14:19:59.200" Score="33" ViewCount="6089" Body="&lt;p&gt;I see that many people (including me) remain confused about who is the Supreme God. The main reason for confusion is that in different Puranas, different Gods are shown as Supreme God, e.g., in Shiva Purana, Shiva is said to be the starter of everything and same is said in Vishnu Purana regarding Lord Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, in Mahabharata, Vyasa showed Lord Krishna as the Supreme God. If all these are written by the same Vyasa, i.e, Krishna Dwaipayan, then why is it so or is it that they were written by different Vyasas or other people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-04T16:02:38.777" LastActivityDate="2024-03-29T09:09:09.537" Title="Why did Vyasa depict different Supreme Gods in different Puranas?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|shiva-purana|vyasa|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="27" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7962" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-30T15:11:24.793" Score="5" ViewCount="105" Body="&lt;p&gt;Piśṭa paśu is said to be the replacement of animals with images of animals made of corn-flour in Vedic rituals. My question is, in which scripture is this practice mentioned and what are the details associated with the practice. Also, is the practice an internal evolution within Hinduism or was it mainly due to &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=aktdBheKI-IC&amp;amp;pg=PA17&amp;amp;lpg=PA17&amp;amp;dq=pista%20pasu&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=GeAXJIf5qc&amp;amp;sig=v5R5mTSY9z_sbuC1y4II3lMc7Ew&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0CCIQ6AEwAmoVChMIieis9Y6DxwIVwaSUCh2jbg9d#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=pista%20pasu&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jain&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=4UG2_fvimjMC&amp;amp;pg=PA24&amp;amp;lpg=PA24&amp;amp;dq=pista%20pasu&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=HgYllbHEGw&amp;amp;sig=jLpI2Ewht8Z0c5yP4Iaat2fdM7U&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0CCUQ6AEwA2oVChMIieis9Y6DxwIVwaSUCh2jbg9d#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=pista%20pasu&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Buddhist&lt;/a&gt; influence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-10-01T21:20:11.453" LastActivityDate="2020-10-01T21:20:11.453" Title="Origin of the practice of Piśṭa paśu in Vedic Yajnas?" Tags="|vedas|other-religions|animals|yajna|vedic-rituals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7963" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11892" CreationDate="2015-07-30T16:46:19.153" Score="3" ViewCount="950" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across these terminology,can someone tell me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is called an Avadhoota ?&#xA;What is the meaning of Avadhoota chintana ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3353" LastEditorUserId="2868" LastEditDate="2015-08-03T13:13:09.897" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T08:36:59.967" Title="What is the meaning of Avadhoota?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7965" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7890" CreationDate="2015-07-31T02:29:54.360" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The shastras refer to the various religious books of Hinduism. Thus the vedas are one type of shastra (Vedas are the most important as well). There are more than 16 types of shastras. I cant list them all at the moment. But by adding all the religious books of Hinduism together you can find it out. I.e 4 vedas + 108 upanishads + 2 itihasas + 1 gita.... etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3427" LastActivityDate="2015-07-31T02:29:54.360" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7966" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7711" CreationDate="2015-07-31T02:41:04.320" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There's a rule for kings in Hinduism. That is that all kings will go to hell once in their &quot;lifetime.&quot; Yudhistir went to hell because of this rule as he was the King of Hastinapur after the Mahabharata and not because of what he did. If that rule wasn't there, he wouldn't have gone to hell. That is what I was taught.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3427" LastActivityDate="2015-07-31T02:41:04.320" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7967" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7969" CreationDate="2015-07-31T04:49:40.003" Score="5" ViewCount="6526" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know who are the seven sages (Sapta Rishis) of current Manvantara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-01T21:45:56.767" LastActivityDate="2018-01-18T21:40:57.477" Title="Who are the seven sages (Sapta Rishis) of current Manvantara?" Tags="|rishi|time|manu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7968" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-07-31T05:47:21.743" Score="14" ViewCount="2278" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Importance of Soma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An entire vedaic mandal is named after soma (a special type of drink), the soma mandal of Rigveda. Now my question is why is soma given so much importance why in vedic suktas like Shri Suktam, Shri Rudram, etc. Soma is mentioned with so much importance.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2604/36&quot;&gt;Soma mandal of rigveda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which rituals need Soma, how to create it and how to use it in rituals? &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If soma &lt;em&gt;ras&lt;/em&gt; (juice) is so important then how do we create it (some say original plant is lost, if so, then what is it's substitute today). If created somehow, how and where should we use it, and what are its benefits in spiritual development?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why and how did Hindus lose such important piece of knowledge?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that vedic knowledge and verses cannot be tampered with or corrupted then how is knowledge of making soma juice lost?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-03-18T05:44:18.757" Title="Which rituals need Soma? If the Soma plant is extinct, is there any substitute for it?" Tags="|vedas|yajna|vedic-rituals|soma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7969" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7967" CreationDate="2015-07-31T07:00:01.553" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Sapta Rishis of the present Vaivasvata Manvantara are described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/13/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The present Manu, who is named Śrāddhadeva, is the son of Vivasvān, the predominating deity on the sun planet. Śrāddhadeva is the seventh Manu. Now please hear from me as I describe his sons. O King Parīkṣit, among the ten sons of Manu are Ikṣvāku, Nabhaga, Dhṛṣṭa, Śaryāti, Nariṣyanta and Nābhāga. The seventh son is known as Diṣṭa. Then come Tarūṣa and Pṛṣadhra, and the tenth son is known as Vasumān. In this manvantara, O King, the Ādityas, the Vasus, the Rudras, the Viśvedevas, the Maruts, the two Aśvinī-kumāra brothers and the Ṛbhus are the demigods. Their head king [Indra] is Purandara. &lt;strong&gt;Kaśyapa, Atri, Vasiṣṭha, Viśvāmitra, Gautama, Jamadagni and Bharadvāja are known as the seven sages.&lt;/strong&gt; In this manvantara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared as the youngest of all the Ādityas, known as Vāmana, the dwarf. His father was Kaśyapa and His mother Aditi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sapta Rishis are: Kashyapa, son of Brahma's son Marichi's and father of numerous beings, including Indra as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5239/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; Atri, mins-born son of Brahma and father of Chandra, Dattatreya, and Durvasa as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1984/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; Vasishta, who was originally the son of Brahma but later became the son of Mitra and Varuna, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7495/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; Vishwamitra, the irritable king-turned-sage who took Rama to the forest and gave him weapons; Gautama, husband of Ahalya whom Rama saved, and originator of the Godavari river as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2572/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; Jamadagni, father of Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama; and Bharadwaja, son of Brihaspati and adopted son of the great king Bharata whom India is named after, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7122/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So unlike in the Swayambuuva Manvantara, most of the Sapta Rishis in the current Vaivasvata Manavantara are not mind-born sons of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-08-21T15:09:57.200" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7970" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5376" CreationDate="2015-07-31T16:16:44.127" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Guru is the way that lead us to the lord Krishna, who will make us his servant by his glance , and make us pure, who do not have any material bussiness, he have only one bussiness to help us to make progress in spirtual path. Guru do not need your money, or anything from you but he has always have some instruction of the lord krishna for us. &#xA;may lord bless you and me by introducing us to such real guru ji, so that whole world can come to the same plateform together and enjoy this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3430" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2015-08-01T03:42:27.393" LastActivityDate="2015-08-01T03:42:27.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7973" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7301" CreationDate="2015-07-31T21:53:57.380" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here I will give an answer to your question as Vaishnavas tend to do. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, a Vaishnava does not take any food just like that, just to take it and begins to eat, but he takes a food with the intention that he will offer it first to the Lord Krishna. Basically there are two main reasons for that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) One reason is that the Lord asks to be offered the food before we eat it. This is nicely seen from the Bhagavad gita 9.26:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/9/26/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://vedabase.com/bg/9/26/en&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or&#xA;  water, I will accept it.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See, Lord Krishna does not think that we should take and eat some food if we have not first offered it to Him! In fact He specifically says that we should offer food to Him with love and devotion (bhaktyā, bhakti-upahṛtam). The idea is that we offer food to Him with an attitude like that we serve some great and important exalted guest -- a guest who will accept our offering, as He says &quot;I will accept it&quot;. It is a kind of service that we offer for His satisfaction, but it is also the way of developing a relationship with Him, giving with devotion (bhakti) -- accepting.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Then the Lord takes the food and it is considered that the food is left for us to eat it and venerate (regard with great respect; revere), as if that were food remnants that are left over after the Lord took the food. Those remnants are called the Lord's &lt;em&gt;prasāda&lt;/em&gt; &quot;mercy&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) And secondly there are karmic reasons. It is said in the Bhagavad gita 3.13:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/bg/3/13/en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://vedabase.com/bg/3/13/en&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because&#xA;  they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who&#xA;  prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here it is said that offering the food to the Lord is, like, a  participation in the sacrifice, and because of this sacrifice the food is free of sin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, first we offer Him food in sacrifice and then partake of the remnants that are literally called His prasāda &quot;mercy&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus you can meditate on all of that mentioned above when you offer the food and later when you eat the food you can appreciate and enjoy the Lord's remnants, the Lord's prasāda &quot;mercy&quot;, and thus you can venerate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-02-12T06:16:11.167" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:16:11.167" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7974" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7976" CreationDate="2015-07-31T22:23:19.767" Score="4" ViewCount="184" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;शतधा रमुत्समक्षी जमानम विपस्थितम वितारम वक्वानाम |&#xA;हेलिम्दनतम वित्रो रुपस्थेतम्रो जतिपिप्रतम सत्यवाचम ||&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sorry for the spelling mistakes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="823" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-07T13:15:21.180" LastActivityDate="2016-06-07T13:15:21.180" Title="could you please translate the following hymn? and also where is it in veda?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|rig-veda|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7976" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7974" CreationDate="2015-08-01T02:18:47.680" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It took some effort, but I've found the verse you're referring to.  It's verse 9 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv03026.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 3 Hymn 26&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śatadhāramutsamakṣīyamāṇaṃ vipaścitaṃ pitaraṃ vaktvānām |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meḷiṃ madantaṃ pitrorupasthe taṃ rodasī pipṛtaṃ satyavācam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Spring that fails not with a hundred streamlets, Father inspired of prayers that men should utter,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sparkler, joyous in his Parents' bosorn, him, the Truth-speaker, sate ye, Earth and Heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translation isn't very clear, so for more explanation we can turn to the Anukramani information given in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  As you can see, Rig Veda Book 3 Hymn 26 was heard by the gods by the sage Vishwamitra, and is addressed to Agni the fire god.  But there's additional complication when it comes to verse 9.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what sage Shaunaka says about verse 9 in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/TMty&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Brihaddevata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last (stanza), 'With a hundred streams' (&lt;em&gt;śatadhāram&lt;/em&gt;: iii.26.9), is in praise of a preceptor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which preceptor is it in praise of?    For that we can turn to Sayana's commentary on the Rig Veda, which says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Heaven and earth be kind to that sage who is as it were a many-&#xA;channelled and inexhaustible stream(of knowledge); the parent (of his disciples),&#xA;the collater of holy texts, rejoicing on the lap of his parents,, whosewords are&#xA;truth. [That sage: That is, Vis'va_mitra himself; in consequence of his&#xA;discovery that vais'va_nara is para-brahma the supreme spirit]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, whereas the rest of the hymn was heard from the gods by the sage Vishwamitra and is in praise of Agni the fire god, this verse was heard from the gods by Agni the fire god and is in praise of Vishwamitra!  Vishwamitra is being praised for discovering that the being that lies at the heart of Agni the fire god is Brahman.  It's similar to what the Upanishads say about the sage Vamadeva, whom I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4050/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I imagine that these subtleties are ignored in the Yagna you heard, and the entire hymn is just recited as a hymn to Agni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-09-12T13:01:42.257" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7977" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-01T05:20:05.300" Score="13" ViewCount="363" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know who are Aśvinī-kumāra brothers? What are their names and what is the role of Aśvins or Ashwini Kumaras in our mythology? Are they demigods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2019-11-19T14:58:59.043" LastActivityDate="2019-11-19T14:58:59.043" Title="Who are the Aśvinī-kumāra brothers?" Tags="|gods|name|demi-god|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7978" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-01T10:11:59.983" Score="2" ViewCount="268" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sai Baba is said to have stayed in a dilapidated mosque in Shirdi chanting 'Allah Malik'for 50 years. How did he come to be associated with Hindu beliefs? Did Sai Baba himself hold any beliefs about Shiva, Vishnu, Hanuman, etc?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T12:23:28.550" Title="Sai Baba's association with Hinduism" Tags="|sai|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-07-04T20:13:23.990" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7979" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-01T18:02:14.267" Score="10" ViewCount="4141" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Aranya Kanda of the Ramayana, Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita are on the way to the ashram of the famous sage Agastya when they first &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/aranya/sarga11/aranya_11_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;stop by&lt;/a&gt; at the ashram of another sage:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While viewing beautiful forests, cloud-like mountains, lakes, and rivers that are flowing following the pathways, Rama happily journeyed on the pathway indicated by sage Suteekshna, then he gladly spoke this sentence to Lakshmana. &amp;quot;Definitely this alone appears to be the hermitage of Sage Agastya's brother, one with great soul and pious deeds. As how thousands of trees are bowing under the weight of flowers and fruit on the pathway, thereby I perceive it to be the hermitage of Agastya's bother.&amp;quot; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Raghava spent one night there when that sage received him well and when they dined on tubers and fruits. Raghava spent that night there and when sun rose in solar orbit he took leave of the brother of Sage Agastya saying the following.  &amp;quot;Oh, godly sage, we stayed in the night comfortably, I now make an obeisance and bid farewell to you, as I wish to proceed to see your mentor and elder brother Agastya. When the brother of Agastya said, &amp;quot;you may go,&amp;quot; Rama the legatee of Raghu journeyed on the pathways as directed by Suteekshna[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who is this brother of Agastya that Rama visits in the forest?  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7495/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the sages Agastya and Vasishta are the sons of Mitra god of friendship and Varuna the ocean god.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/18/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Srimad Bhagavatam describes their birth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agastya and Vasiṣṭha Ṛṣis were the common sons of Varuṇa and Mitra, the tenth son of Aditi. Upon seeing Urvaśī, the celestial society girl, both Mitra and Varuṇa discharged semen, which they preserved in an earthen pot. The two sons Agastya and Vasiṣṭha later appeared from that pot, and they are therefore the common sons of Mitra and Varuṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clearly the sage Rama met wasn't Vasishta, since Vasishta lived in Ayodhya.  So how could Agastya have another brother? Would he also be a son of Mitra and Varuna, and if so how was he born?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ramayana translator just says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/aranya/sarga11/aranyaitrans11.htm#Verse73&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name of this brother of Agastya is Sudarshana. But none calls him by that name and he is just called &lt;em&gt;agastya bhraata&lt;/em&gt;, Agastya's brother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any other scriptures that discuss Agastya's brother Sudarshana?  And what text gives his name as Sudarshana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/25958/51f_chapter_13.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Setu Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana describes the death of Agastya's brother.  In this account, Agastya's brother prays to Shiva for Moksha, and Shiva appears before him and tells him to bathe in the Amritavapi Tirtha, located in what is now the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thangachimadam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ekantharama Temple&lt;/a&gt; near Rameshwaram.  He does so, and he attains Moksha.  But the Skanda Purana doesn't provide any biographical information about him, just that he is the &amp;quot;brother of the Pot-born Sage&amp;quot;.  So I'm still trying to find how Agastya, being born in a pot along with Vasishta, could have an additional brother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2023-11-21T13:27:25.220" Title="Who is Agastya's brother in the Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|gods|rishi|agastya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7981" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-01T22:20:36.557" Score="7" ViewCount="2842" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why are women not permitted to practice the Saashthaanga Namaskaram but are permitted Angapradikshana? I refer to these two practices in particular as I was told that a woman's womb is holy and may not touch the ground.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3410" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-01-31T07:29:28.070" LastActivityDate="2019-08-04T13:10:55.727" Title="Why permit Anga pradakshina but not Saashtaanga Namaskaram for women?" Tags="|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7982" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6675" CreationDate="2015-08-02T03:15:27.933" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, I wouldn't say they were born at 12 o'clock. Rather they were born when the sun was highest in the sky (Rama) and at the darkest part of night (Krishna). We often say 12 o'clock because that is usually when the sun is the highest in the sky or the darkest part of night, but not always. &#xA;I don't think there is a reason for Rama, but there is one for Lord Krishna. Krishna was least likely to be seen while being transported across the Yamuna river at the darkest hour so he was born in the darkest hour to refrain from being seen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3427" LastActivityDate="2015-08-02T03:15:27.933" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7983" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7799" CreationDate="2015-08-02T04:14:05.870" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The devtas were born to Aditi, and so the law of the universe applied to them. &quot;All things born must die.&quot; They were able to go against this law by drinking the amrit. However God was immortal. The devtas are not equal to god. They are rather the attendants of God who fulfill several necessary tasks in the God's absence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3427" LastActivityDate="2015-08-02T04:14:05.870" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7984" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-02T06:26:47.957" Score="7" ViewCount="6421" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have this confusion from a long time as to why other texts categorize Shiva Purana as a Taamasic Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;None of the holy books say bad things, same is with this book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have read this and I don't find any reason for calling it as Taamasic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Can anyone please let me know the reason?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="7961" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2019-08-31T07:32:05.897" LastActivityDate="2023-01-07T17:33:28.863" Title="Why is Shiva purana called a Tamasic purana?" Tags="|shiva-purana|gunas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7985" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7987" CreationDate="2015-08-03T04:25:42.453" Score="13" ViewCount="10923" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the question says, are there any taboos/guidelines or any references to authoritative texts or incidents where a younger groom marries an elder woman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2019-06-02T07:53:19.503" LastActivityDate="2020-12-11T18:14:52.533" Title="Is there a taboo about a younger groom marrying an elder bride? Any references where a younger groom marries an elder woman?" Tags="|practice|marriage|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7986" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-03T05:14:29.417" Score="6" ViewCount="284" Body="&lt;p&gt;Its been questioned many times in this forum  about “why vyasa had to divide vedas in every dwapara yuga.” When I was reading brahmanda purana I have got indirect reference to characteristics of same yuga in different mahayuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Perhaps Same yuga in different mahayuga might be slightly different in characteristics&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the verses of Chapter 32 of brahmanda purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 114-119 quotes that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever occurs in one set of four Yugas happens in the others also in the same manner and in the same order.In the same manner, differences also are produced in every creation. They are restricted to thirty-five and they are remem­bered as neither less nor more. “&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 126-127 quotes that &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus the lord always evolves the classification of castes and stages of life in the former Yugas and arranges the intrinsic features of the Yugas.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it implies that , there are 35 different varients for each yuga for different mahayuga ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-08T06:21:14.043" LastActivityDate="2018-06-08T06:21:14.043" Title="Each yuga in all mahayuga is different/same?" Tags="|puranas|yuga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7987" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7985" CreationDate="2015-08-03T05:56:23.073" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, there is a scriptural basis for the restriction.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Krishna says to Uddhava in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/17/39&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;eleventh  chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uddhava Gita of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who desires to establish family life should marry a wife of his own caste, who is beyond reproach and &lt;strong&gt;younger in age&lt;/strong&gt;. If one desires to accept many wives he must marry them after the first marriage, and each wife should be of a successively lower caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2019-06-01T10:54:47.827" LastActivityDate="2019-06-01T10:54:47.827" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7988" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-03T06:10:24.410" Score="4" ViewCount="448" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do the Scriptures mention anything about Spiritual Possession of other beings or objects? If so, then how to exorcise?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="57" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-12T17:16:00.683" LastActivityDate="2018-09-18T18:33:09.800" Title="Do the Scriptures say anything about Spiritual Possession?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7990" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7993" CreationDate="2015-08-03T14:09:25.483" Score="17" ViewCount="8292" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that at the end of every Dwapara yuga, Vyasa compiles the events of the yugas into various puranas. These puranas sometimes contains stories and other details about Kritayuga, Dwapara Yuga and Treta Yuga of different Mahayugas also. But I wonder why I have not come across any stories from any previous Kaliyuga. At the most, what we read about is the stories around starting of Kaliyuga like those related to Parikshit or Janamejaya, etc but not later part of Kaliyuga. Do we know why is it so? Is it that there are no incarnations in later part of any previous Kaliyuga, therefore there were no stories, or are there any stories which I am unaware of?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-22T05:14:58.660" LastActivityDate="2023-07-26T08:58:19.213" Title="Do we have any record of events in any previous Kaliyuga?" Tags="|puranas|yuga|time|vyasa|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7993" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7990" CreationDate="2015-08-04T02:01:12.823" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are multiple incarnations of Vishnu which took place during previous Kali Yugas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pramati&lt;/strong&gt;: Just as Vishnu'e incarnation Kalki will come at the end of the present Kali Yuga and kill all the evil people, during one of the Kali Yugas of the Swayambhuva Manvantara Vishnu incarnated as a king named Pramati and killed all the evil people, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/KrG5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Matsya Purana:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Pramati of the Bhrigu family and Chandramasa gotra was born at the end of Swayambhuva Manu in the Sandhyamsha period, to inflict proper punishment on the sinners.  That king travelled all over the earth for 30 years and collected arms and ammunitions, elephants,&#xA;horses and chariots and marched with a vast army consisting of horses&#xA;and elephants and accompanied by 100,000 Brahmana soldiers armed&#xA;with various kinds of weapons, against the Mlecchas and destroyed&#xA;them. After killing all the Sudra kings he annihilated all the hypocrites&#xA;After destroying all the sinners and subduing the people living in&#xA;the North, central regions, the mountaineers, the inhabitants in the East&#xA;and West, the residents on the Vindhyas, the Deccanis, the Dravidians,&#xA;the Singhalese, the inhabitants of the Mleccha countnes...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Pramati was born of Vishnu's part in Manu's family and was famous as Chandramasa.  He roamed about the Earth for 20 years and killed all the wicked men in his 32nd year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parashurama&lt;/strong&gt;: Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama killed the kings of the earth 21 times, thereby bringing about the end of the Kali Yuga and beginning of the Satya Yuga, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the great ascetic Rama, the hero worshipped by all heroes, that son of Jamadagni, of great fame, will die, without being contented (with the period of his life). &lt;strong&gt;Rooting out all evils from the earth, he caused the primeval Yuga to set in.&lt;/strong&gt; Having obtained unrivalled prosperity, no fault could be seen in him. His father having been slain and his calf having been stolen by the Kshatriyas, he without any boast, slew Kartavirya who had never been vanquished before by foes. With his bow he slew four and sixty times ten thousand Kshatriyas already within the jaws of death. In that slaughter were included fourteen thousand Brahmana-hating Kshatriyas of the Dantakura country, all of whom he slew. Of the Haihayas, he slew a thousand with his short club, a thousand with his sword, and a thousand by hanging. Heroic warriors, with their cars, steeds, and elephants, lay dead on the field, slain by the wise son of Jamadagni, enraged at the slaughter of his father. And Rama, on that occasion, slew ten thousand Kshatriyas with his axe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/433/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for what happened after Parashurama killed all those kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Matsya&lt;/strong&gt;: In the last Kali Yuga of the Chakshusha Manvantara, Vishnu's incarnation Matsya the fish rescued the king Satyavrata, also known as Vaivasvata Manu, from a flood that comes at the end of every Manavantara, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/24/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When King Satyavrata spoke in this way, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who at the end of the yuga had assumed the form of a fish to benefit His devotee and enjoy His pastimes in the water of inundation, responded as follows. The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: &amp;quot;O King, who can subdue your enemies, on the seventh day from today the three worlds — Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ and Svaḥ — will all merge into the water of inundation.  When all the three worlds merge into the water, a large boat sent by Me will appear before you.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Expect this, this chapter of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc423657.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; mentiones about King Ama, who lived at one of previous Dwapara-Kali yuga transtition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12-13. Now, when the &lt;strong&gt;advent of Kali Age was imminent, at the end of Dvāpara&lt;/strong&gt;, when Kali had not yet started, there was a king named Āma who became the ruler of Kānyakubja. He was glorious, a knower of Dharma, calm, self-controlled, eager to maintain justice, of good conduct and devoted to truth and piety, O excellent king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer your other question, the reason why our scriptures only discuss the beginning of the present Kali Yuga is that that's when the Puranas were composed. So any description of events after that are only in the form of prophecies, for instance the Vishnu Purana's prophecy of the Janamajeaya's descendants discussed in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7749/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, the chronologically latest event described (in the past tense) in Hindu scripture, excluding Tamil scripture like the Alwars' poems, is a Yagna conducted during the reign of Janamejaya's great-grandson Adisimakrishna, which is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/u-GX&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Vayu Purana.  In fact, it is during this Yagna that the Vayu Purana was recited by Ugrashrava (aka Suta).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="25676" LastEditDate="2023-07-26T08:58:19.213" LastActivityDate="2023-07-26T08:58:19.213" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7994" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7996" CreationDate="2015-08-04T03:29:47.003" Score="2" ViewCount="1732" Body="&lt;p&gt;While performing &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhyavandanam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sandhyavandanam&lt;/a&gt; during noon, a particular &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mudra&lt;/a&gt; is used in the upasthaanam part to see the sun.  An exhaustive list of mudras are given at &lt;a href=&quot;http://mudraguide.com/index.php/mudras/other-mudras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;MudraGuide.com&lt;/a&gt; but it does not cover the one I am asking about.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shamelessly I took this image from Google search:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ign4l.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ign4l.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the name of that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mudra&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-04T00:45:28.403" LastActivityDate="2016-07-01T14:53:18.677" Title="What is the name of the mudra which is used in upasthaanam portion of maadhyanika sandhyavandhanam?" Tags="|vedas|rituals|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7995" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-04T03:52:15.800" Score="3" ViewCount="1212" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchangam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchangm&lt;/a&gt;, the Hindu almanac is called so because it comprises of five parts (panch - five, ang - part).  The five parts are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thithi (ex: Ekadeshi, prathamai, panchami etc)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaaram (Bhaanu-Sunday, Indhu-Monday, Sthira-Saturday etc)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nakshathram (Ashwini, Abhabarani, Sathabishak etc)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yogam (sidha, marana, amirtha etc)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karanam (kowlava, karasai, badhirai etc)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In sankaplam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    hariH om tat &#xA;    SrI govinda govinda govinda!&#xA;&#xA;    asya SrI-bhagavato mahApurushasya &#xA;    vishNor AjnayA pravartamAnasya&#xA;    adya brahmaNe dvitIya-parArdhe SrI-Sveta-varAha-kalpe&#xA;    vaivasvata-manvantare kaliyuge prathamapAde&#xA;    jambudvIpe, bhAratavarshe, bharatakhaNDe,&#xA;    SakAbde, meror dakshiNe pArSve&#xA;    asmin vartamAnAnAm vyAvahArikANAm&#xA;    prabhavAdi shashTi samvatsarANAm madhye&#xA;    vRsha nAma samvatsare&#xA;    dakshiNAyane, grIshma Rtau, SrAvaNa mAse, Sukla pakshe,&#xA;    paurNamAsyAm Subha-tithau(1), &#xA;&#xA;    Sthira-vAsara(2)-sravaNa-nakshatra(3) yuktAyAm,&#xA;&#xA;    SrI-vishnu-yoga(4) SrI-vishnu-karaNa(5) Subha-yoga Subha-karaNa&#xA;    evam guNa-viSeshaNa viSishTAyAm, &#xA;    asyAm Subha-tithau,&#xA;    ...&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The aspects of the panchangam of the time of the performance of the sankalpam are used. However it is always said &lt;code&gt;vishnu yoga&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;vishnu karana&lt;/code&gt; instead of the yogam and karnam of that moment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is this so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-08T23:51:48.667" Title="Why yogam and karnam are always vishnu in sankalpam?" Tags="|sankalpa|panchang|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7996" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7994" CreationDate="2015-08-04T03:57:23.827" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pages 7-8 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://static1.squarespace.com/static/51b952f8e4b0326fb7d42d55/t/51ba693fe4b09da04a431e3d/1371171135432/Sandhyavandhanam+-+Jun+13%2C+2013%2C+9-33+AM.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF&lt;/a&gt; call it the &quot;Galini mudra&quot;, while &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.samskaaram.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=34:vadakalai&amp;amp;catid=3&amp;amp;lang=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt; and page 19 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://acharya.org/kr/sandhyavandanam/SrivaishnavaSandhyavandanam-eng.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF&lt;/a&gt; call it the &quot;Vyoma mudra&quot;.  But in all cases the mudra depicted is the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lMewq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lMewq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regardless of what you call it, I think the purpose of this Mudra is to get as clear a sight as possible of Surya the sun god, who is a Pratyaksha devata or visible deity, without risking blinding yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-07-01T14:53:18.677" LastActivityDate="2016-07-01T14:53:18.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="7998" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="7999" CreationDate="2015-08-04T04:55:22.557" Score="4" ViewCount="568" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do we consider only the day of Brahma as a kalpa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 kalpa = One day of Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2 kalpa = One day + Night of Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Accordingly, &amp;quot;2 kalpa = One day + Night of Brahma&amp;quot; we are in the 101st Kalpa of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could someone please tell me why we consider only the day kalpa of Brahma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2020-06-19T04:30:08.910" LastActivityDate="2020-06-19T04:30:08.910" Title="Why do we not consider Brahma's night as a kalpa?" Tags="|yuga|time|kalpa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="7999" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7998" CreationDate="2015-08-04T06:07:33.737" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Few points to answer your question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Day time of brahma is known as the Kalpa which is equal to 1000 mahayug .&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Night time of brahma is known as Pralaya which is also equal to 1000 mahayug.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;any way we are not in 51 kalpa or 101 (kalpa+pralaya) of brahma, as he is 51 years old that means (51 x 360 day and night)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Current Date according to WikiPedia article (which says just like you 1 full day = 2kalpa)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is the first 'day' of the 51st year.[4] This Brahma's day, Kalpa,&#xA;  is named as ShvetaVaraha Kalpa. Within this Day, six Manvantaras have&#xA;  already elapsed[5] and this is the seventh Manvantara, named as –&#xA;  Vaivasvatha Manvantara (or Sraddhadeva Manvantara). Within the&#xA;  Vaivasvatha Manvantara, 27 Mahayugas[5] (4 Yugas together is a&#xA;  Mahayuga), and the Krita,[6] Treta and Dwapara Yugas of the 28th&#xA;  Mahayuga have elapsed. This Kaliyuga is in the 28th Mahayuga. This&#xA;  Kaliyuga began in the year 3102 BC in the proleptic Julian&#xA;  Calendar.[7] Since 50 years of Brahma have already elapsed, this is&#xA;  the second Parardha, also called as Dvithiya Parardha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="3102" LastEditDate="2015-08-04T07:19:00.860" LastActivityDate="2015-08-04T07:19:00.860" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8001" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8022" CreationDate="2015-08-04T08:42:32.193" Score="9" ViewCount="1314" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know why Hanumana wanted to the eat sun ? &#xA;I've heard one story from our Gujrati loksahitya kalakar(Artist) by the name Ishardan Gadhvi in his program that Hanumana's mother got curse that her son would die before sun set on the day he was born. Hanumana wanted to eat sun as he didn't want the sun to set.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that true ? Or is there any other reason for Hanumana wanting to eat the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T13:54:49.513" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T13:54:49.513" Title="Why did Hanumana want to eat the sun?" Tags="|hanuman|surya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8002" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7236" CreationDate="2015-08-04T11:46:05.403" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shantakaram: Embodiment of Peace&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhujaga Shayanam: Reclining on a Serpent&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Padmanabham: Who has a lotus flower coming from his navel, from which Brahma was born&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suresham: The Lord of the gods&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishwadharam: Sustainer of all things&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gagana Sadrusham: Pervading the whole cosmos&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Megha Varnam: Whose skin is dark blue like rain clouds&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shubhangam: With a pure and flawless body&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lakshmi Kantam: Husband of the goddess Lakshmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kamala Nayanam: Whose eyes are like lotus flowers&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yogibhir Dhyana Gamyam: The one who practitioners of Yoga try to reach through meditation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vande Vishnum: I worship Vishnu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhava Bhaya Haram: Remover of the fears of life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarva Lokaika Natham: Lord of all of all worlds and universes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I take this from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/36/keshav-srinivasan&quot;&gt; Keshav Srinivasan profile page &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2779" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T06:57:02.697" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T06:57:02.697" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8003" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16638" CreationDate="2015-08-04T12:16:17.820" Score="6" ViewCount="1122" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does any Hindu mythology has spoken about existence of ice age or dinosaurs or any other nature related historical stage? As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yugas&lt;/a&gt;, is there any reference of proof available to cite that these events happened on which era as per &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_evolutionary_history_of_life&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;timeline of evolution&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2721" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T05:30:13.413" Title="Earth era description in Hindu mythology" Tags="|vedas|scripture|yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2017-01-05T16:17:48.730" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8004" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8198" CreationDate="2015-08-04T12:58:15.230" Score="2" ViewCount="220" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am asking this question because after death how can be yama punished the soul. Because no fire can burn the soul , and no water can wet the soul. So how can the yama punished the soul after death . According to his bad thing that he done. When alive .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2779" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-08-12T13:53:00.417" LastActivityDate="2019-08-12T13:53:00.417" Title="How can anyone punished after death" Tags="|atma|afterlife|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8007" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-04T15:47:00.890" Score="5" ViewCount="397" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7395/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I discussed an excerpt from the Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda which lists various kings who have performed the Rajasuya Yagna, the ritual to become an emperor.  Now &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/MRS5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is another excerpt from the Aitareya Brahmana which lists various kings who have performed the Rajasuya Yagna, along with the priests who officiated:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This food Rama Margaveya proclaimed to Vishvanta Saushadamana... This also Tura Kavasheya proclaimed to Janamejaya Parikshita; this Parvata and Narada proclaimed to Somaka Sahadevya, to Sahadeva Sarnjaya, Babhru Daivavridha, Bhima of Vidarbha, Nagnajit of Gandhara; &lt;strong&gt;this Agni proclaimed to Sanshruta Arimdama and to Kratuvid Janaki&lt;/strong&gt;; this Vasishta proclaimed to Sudas Paijavana.  All of them attained greatness having partaken of this food.  All of them were great kings; like Aditya, established in prosperity, they gave heat obtaining tribute from all the quarters.  Like Aditya, established in prosperity, he gives heat, from all the quarters he obtains tribute, dread his sway and unassailable, who as a Kshatriyas when sacrificing partakes thus of this food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Proclaiming the food&quot; is a description of one of the parts of the Rajasuya Yagna, by the way.  In any case, some of these kings are regognizable; Janamajeya son of Parikshit was Arjuna's great-grandson, Nagnajit of Gandhara was Shakuni's uncle as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7415/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and Sudas Paijavana was the victor of the famous Battle of Ten Kings as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/823/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about Sanashruta Arindama and Kratuvid Janaki.  Who are these two kings, and why would Agni the fire god serve as the priest for their Rajasuya Yagnas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kratuvid Janaki might be related to Sita's father Janaka.  But do any other scriptures mention Sanashruta and Kratuvid, and/or describe their interaction with Agni the fire god?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2018-10-19T18:35:55.703" Title="Why did Agni serve as the priest for two kings?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|agni|aitareya-brahmana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8008" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7890" CreationDate="2015-08-04T17:55:16.487" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 18 Vidyasthanas (Indian knowledge systems or Branches of knowledge)  These 18 vidyasthanas are as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The four most important basic branches of knowledge are the four vedas &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rigveda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yajurveda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Saama veda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Atharva veda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are called &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Angi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; or the main sources of knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The six &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;angas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; or ancillary or subsidary aspects of the vedas are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shiksha (śikṣā): phonetics, phonology and morphophonology (sandhi). Science of pronunciation&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kalpa (kalpa):the procedure to perform vedic ritual and other related aspects&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vyakarana (vyākaraṇa): grammar; The science that informs the right and wrong words and their usages including the science of &#xA;  linguistics.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nirukta (nirukta): Meanings of words used in Vedic sanskrit along with etymology&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chandas (chandas): meter (relating to the poetry both vedic and non-vedic)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jyotisha (jyotiṣa): Time measurement, forecasting movement of Sun, Moon and planetary movement, astronomy, astrology&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The four &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;upa-angas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; or sub-subsidary aspects are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;11&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mimamsa shatra (Purva and Uttara mimamsa)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya - Vistara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Puranas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dharma shastras&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to these are four more &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Upa-Vedas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, each related to one of the  four main vedas. These are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;15&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ayurveda (Subsidary of Rgveda)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dhanurveda ( Subsidary of Yajurveda)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gandharveda (Subsidary of Saamaveda)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Arthasastra (Subsidary of Athrvaveda)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in total there are 18 vidyasthanas or Indian knowledge systems. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, one need to be conversant with 18 vidyasthanas to understand the entire gamut of brahma sutras or vedanta sutras or any of the bhasyas on brahma sutras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2016-11-27T17:03:45.863" LastActivityDate="2016-11-27T17:03:45.863" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8009" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-04T19:47:37.097" Score="10" ViewCount="16497" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the following: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who is Lord Swaminarayan? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is his story?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Was he an incarnation of any God?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any mention of him in any old Hindu texts?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-08-05T18:53:01.230" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T00:08:30.633" Title="Is Swaminarayan an incarnation of any God?" Tags="|scripture|saint|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8011" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8012" CreationDate="2015-08-05T08:54:43.920" Score="3" ViewCount="1461" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was in visit to Kerala of my christian friend. There I was asked many questions about Hindu mythology. They asked me  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;why we not give any clothes when we cremate anybody.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I had no answer but I gave one common thought that because we are born without clothes. Then again they asked me what does it means that you earn knowledge when you grew. What I want to know &lt;em&gt;Is there any documentary proof in the scriptures about this&lt;/em&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2779" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T10:14:37.157" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T10:14:37.157" Title="Why Hindus don't give clothes to the body of dead at time of cremation?" Tags="|garuda-purana|cremation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8012" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8011" CreationDate="2015-08-05T11:16:46.467" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu death and cremation rites are fairly standard throughout India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Christians believe their souls will be reunited with the body at their final judgment, hence they see clothes as important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus see the body as being returned to the elements as the jiva has left it forever never to be reunited with it again. So clothes are not important. The body is simply wrapped in a white clothes (sometimes orange) as respect, but it no longer holds the jiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two good articles on Hindu death customs here  -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1667&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1667&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=5215&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=5215&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-06T06:03:46.213" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8013" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8023" CreationDate="2015-08-05T14:53:07.340" Score="6" ViewCount="1498" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is Vaak shudddi ? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How does one achieve it ? and &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why is it&#xA;important ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am looking for some literature references&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3353" LastActivityDate="2015-08-07T03:49:24.663" Title="What is Vaak shudddi?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8015" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7710" CreationDate="2015-08-05T16:29:22.400" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;What I think on this is reason behind the birth of Krishna is due to sadness about the Karma. Let's consider for some moment that Krishna is not God. But I strongly think that he needs to be come on Earth. Because of Dharma? No! If you see around Mahabharata then you find that there are many people who strongly follow Dharma like Bhisma, Yudhisthira, and many others. Plus they were pillar of dharma at that time, then why we need Krishna? We need Krishna because these all are just talking about what Dharma say and so on but they were step-back from Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna is consider as god because he give priority to Karma than Dharma which is more important. If Krishna also live based on Dharma then there were rule of Kauravas and we never know about Pandvas. Karma Is more important than Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also want to include one small story from Swami Dayanandji's life:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One person asked to Swami: If mosquito bite me then should I have to&#xA;  hit it? Swami: Definitely!  Person: What you say! You are telling me&#xA;  to hurt Jiva and this is seen.  Swami: I Hate this type of dumb&#xA;  people who wear clothes of non-violence because they are not brave enough to challenge it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Plus just want mention that, Krishna knew 16 type of sadhna for samdhi. If person know only one way and get to the point of samadhi he come to the place god, then what you say about the person who know 16 ways!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-08-06T05:57:54.647" LastActivityDate="2015-08-06T05:57:54.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8016" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7710" CreationDate="2015-08-05T18:51:06.523" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is good or bad??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In life when we deal with a situation efficiently we call it good handling, if we fail to do so we call it bad. For e.g. Yudhisthira's behaviour was forgetful and selfless he was efficient in handling situations like with Yaksha. While Duryodhana's Behaviour was full of greed and selfishness he had no respsect for his elder brother Yudhisthira nor even for Lord Krishna(his only intrest was his narayani Sena of 100 million solders). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna is known as Yogeshwara the god of yoga, because he re-propagated the Veda Sara (essence of Vedic Knowledge/Yoga) in the form of Shrimad Bhagwad-Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now As he is God of Yoga himself and as a yogi, he must follow path of yoga at every point of his life, in every decision of his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question arises &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) What is Yoga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) What is Path of Yoga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Lord Maharishi Patanjali Yoga is as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;योगशचित्तव्रुत्तिनिरोध:&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Quietning of mind is yoga&#xA;  When we stop (ignore/pause/remove) Vritti's forming in our chitta it is called Yoga/Quitening of mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vrittis ignored,paused stopped removed depend on the amount of practice done and the state in which you are placed, when you attain Samadhi the vrittis are stopped from chitta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More on &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=870&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chitta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So In other words when we stop disturbances inside us we see our true self i.e atman or soul, as manifestation of Bramhan krishna naturally possessed such qualities.So Krishna Did everything that was appropriate in his situation without getting influenced by either his mind or external aspects, So before questioning Krishna we have to become a yogi with cessation of vritti's and then get the answers to the question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as for now while you are asking specifically for some points I will highlight some situations for you to analyse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jarasandha&lt;/strong&gt; was killed by bhima because that was his prarabdha no one not even Krishna could kill although he had all the powers because he had respect Divine law of Karma and followed like a normal Human Being.&#xA;If you say killing of Jarasandha was unrighteous, then he killed so many people in war 17 times with yadava's just to take revenge of kansa's killing. He also abducted 95 kings forcibly for a sacrifice/Yagna that could disturb a massive population at that time to avoid this krishna had no choice but to kill him.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarasandha#Death&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Death of Jarasandha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dronacharya&lt;/strong&gt; was killed because he was alongside Duryodhana and was one of the biggest obstacle in killing of Duryodhana or ending the unrighteous side, and it is said that one who is on unrighteous side is equally unrighteous, so killing was mandatory and in favour of Dharma or righteousness. [Also due to Eklavya episode dronacharya had grown bad karma for him]. Most Importantly he was nearly immortal and to avoid breaking of natural laws his death was very important.&#xA;More on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drona#Modern_assessment&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dronacharya&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Karana&lt;/strong&gt; was similar obstacle as Dronacharya was because he was standing alongside Duryodhana knowing that he was on wrong or unrighteous side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhishma&lt;/strong&gt; was similar to Dronacharya as he was immortal, and due to his vow he had to stand in the way of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Duryodhana&lt;/strong&gt; had done so much Adharma that due to him and shakuni even good people like Karna, Bhishma, etc were killed, and sparing him would mean allowing the torture to pandavas and other people. Also Duryodhana Wanted Throne of Hastinapur and Indraprastha as well which would mean giving the power in hands of undeserving one while Yudhishtira was more than eligible he was Ideal for throne.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although Duryodhana was dying Lord Krishna didn't hate him he answered all his questions pleasantly when no one can understand him, this tells us he was unaffected by the external factors and was helpful to even duryodhana until his time to death&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duryodhana#Duryodhana.E2.80.99s_dilemmas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Duryodhana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-08-06T06:21:31.350" LastActivityDate="2015-08-06T06:21:31.350" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8018" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7234" CreationDate="2015-08-06T00:09:06.920" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;The present Indra became king of the three worlds by performing a 100 Ashwamedha Yagnas (horse rituals), as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is heard, O Partha, that the gods and the Asuras fought against each other. The Asuras were the elder, and the gods the younger brothers. Covetous of prosperity, fierce was the battle fought between them. The fight lasted for two and thirty thousand years. Making the earth one vast expanse of blood, the gods slew the Daityas and gained possession of heaven. Having obtained possession of the earth, a (large) number of Brahmanas, conversant with the Vedas, armed themselves, stupefied with pride, with the Danavas for giving them help in the fight. They were known by the name of Salavrika and numbered eight and eighty thousand. All of them, however, were slain by the gods....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Horse-sacrifice, that grand rite, has been indicated as an expiation for thee. Make preparations for that sacrifice, O monarch, and thou shalt be freed from thy sins. &lt;strong&gt;The divine chastiser of Paka, having vanquished his foes with the assistance of the Maruts, gradually performed a hundred sacrifices and became Satakratu. Freed from sin, possessed of heaven, and having obtained many regions of bliss and great happiness and prosperity, Sakra, surrounded by the Maruts, is shining in beauty, and illuminating all the quarters with his splendour.&lt;/strong&gt; The lord of Sachi is adored in the heavens by the Apsaras. The Rishis and the other gods all worship him with reverence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So first the gods, specifically the Adityas, i.e. the sons of Kashyapa and Aditi, conquered Devaloka, and then Indra performed a hundred Ashwamedha Yagnas in order to become worthy of being the king of the three worlds. (That is why Indra is known as Shatakratu, or one who has performed a hundred Yagnas.) Then a grand coronation and Rajasuya Yagna was performed for Indra, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=DSgYAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA314&amp;amp;ots=2vUD0edpzT&amp;amp;dq=%22killed%20the%20arurmaghas%22&amp;amp;pg=PA329#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=Anointing&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and subsequent chapters of the Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And ever since Indra became king of the three worlds, he's tried to make sure that no one else performs a 100 Ashwamedha Yagnas.  That's why he tried to steal the horses from the Ashwamedha Yagnas of Rama's ancestor Sagara and Vishnu's incarnation Prithu, and that's why he sought Vishnu's help when Mahabali completed his hundredth Ashwamedha Yagna (which was the impetus for Vishnu's Vamana incarnation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, Indra has always succeeded in protecting his throne from performers of Ashwamedha Yagnas.  He has lost his throne militarily on a number of occasions, however; he lost it to Vishnu's incarnation Mandhata as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7221/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, to Vishnu's devotee Prahlada as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7330/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and to the demons Shumbha and Nishumbha as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7000/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And he once abdicated the throne which led to Yayati's father Nahusha taking over Yet he always manages to get out of these situations, perhaps because of his devotion to Vishnu; the Vishnu Sahasranamam calls Vishnu &amp;quot;Indrakarma&amp;quot;, or one who does great deeds for Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-09T05:21:20.707" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8019" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5159" CreationDate="2015-08-06T08:15:19.400" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mantra recitation might be said to be the mother of meditation. With the recitation of a mantra, the mind promptly concentrates on a solitary thought expediting transcendence (consciousness past the mind). By presenting the mantra, smooth meditation is upgraded even while doing ordinary tasks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we meet a higher conscious being as a saint, yogi, or even camouflaged as a cab driver, we realize that we are inspired by the expressions, activity or basically the minor presence of that individual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantras serve as an extension of consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The point at which we accept the mantra from a guru, we have to comprehend the importance of this to be a start in which we are in eternity joined in consciousness with the guru. By recounting the mantra, the seeker has the ability to move above states of consciousness and turn into the expert.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each time we recite our mantra, we are conjuring the presence of our guru. An illuminated ace’s vicinity in our lives is securing, nurturing and managing. Bit by bit, our own particular consciousness turns into the presence of the master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reciting the mantra stirs the state of euphoria.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we chant the mantra, we transcend the points of confinement of the mind. Reciting mantras cause delight because of the mind slipping far from its past energy and getting the anxiety free ‘now’ minute. We stir to the now minute without stressing about the past or future, when the mind is repressed to the ever present congruity in the center of our being. We have the ability to experience a state of happiness inside the mantra that the sages of days of yore experienced. Hold on to the state of delights inserted inside the mantra, and start to broaden this state of satisfaction in our being. Through mantras we can transform the patterns of our past thinking.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can’t simply practise a mantra, by understanding it out of a book. The Guru is an individual, who has picked up dominance over the specific mantra and the Guru will start you into the mantra by whispering it, into your right ear, and likewise do chant it once on the Mala (rosary) we plan on using. There are mantras which are practised by individuals alone and they too can indicate results. However, it is arguably better to get the mantra from a skilled Guru, as the mantra has come to be “animated” by his practise, and he passes this down to us and we will be able to understand the way it can be recited.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ishtadevata.com/blog/the-significance-of-a-mantra.html#sthash.hkCqOYSi.dpuf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.ishtadevata.com/blog/the-significance-of-a-mantra.html#sthash.hkCqOYSi.dpuf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3381" LastActivityDate="2015-08-06T08:15:19.400" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8020" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5159" CreationDate="2015-08-06T09:50:50.320" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mantra is a vehicle used for mind to attain a target. Just like you are far away from a target, but you use your bow and arrow to attain target, so is the mantra. If the mind is focused on a mantra, in itself, that will not be wise. Instead understand the target and focus on it, using mantra just to bound the thoughts from bondage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2516" LastActivityDate="2015-08-06T09:50:50.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8022" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8001" CreationDate="2015-08-06T13:32:22.087" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As it is said that lord Hanuman was very mischievous during his childhood. One day he saw Sun through the leaves of a tree and thought of it as a fruit, so he flew in order to eat it. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  It has nothing to do with any curse. Rather, he was hit by Indra's vajra when he refused to release Surya and later on was given many boons by different Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: Hanuman Chalisa by Goswami Tulsidas . &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जुग सहस्र जोजन पर भानू।&#xA;  लील्यो ताहि मधुर फल जानू॥ १८ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sun is at thousand &lt;em&gt;yojanas&lt;/em&gt; (a unit of measurement of distance), and thought of it as a sweet fruit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Source :Sankatmochan Hanumaashtak &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बाल समय रवि भक्षी लियो तब,&#xA;  तीनहुं लोक भयो अंधियारों ।&lt;br&gt; ताहि सों त्रास भयो जग को,&#xA;  यह संकट काहु सों जात  न टारो । &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  देवन आनि करी बिनती तब,&#xA;  छाड़ी दियो रवि कष्ट निवारो I &#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During your childhood, you engulfed the Sun and it caused darkness in three worlds (Swarg, Prithvi, Pataal)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The worlds were in havoc, this panic was not controlled by anyone.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Gods came to you and prayed(requested), then you let Sun go free and eased the problem.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="314" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-08-25T19:05:33.553" LastActivityDate="2015-08-25T19:05:33.553" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8023" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8013" CreationDate="2015-08-06T17:39:12.370" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;1) Vaak Shuddhi comes from Purity of Thought , Mind and Heart. &#xA;Vaak is the as articulated sound and when the uchharan -spoken is clean and correct it can be considered as Pure i.e. Shuddhi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) To achieve this  only Discipline (Abhyasa) and Bhakti will help in development; ultimately it is Mata Vaak Devis, Shree Saraswati's Anugraha Kripa alone that takes us ahead in this and it is thus also a Kala-speaking ability, with grace and fluency etc.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Character lies in in thought- Words and deeds. So the first two are extremely important i.e. Manas Shuddhi + Vaak Shuddhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref 2 above on Shree Mata Saraswati this may be noted for Sadhana to Vaak Devi Shree Saraswati:&#xA;She is also described as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vagdevi                              – Goddess of Speech&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jihvagravasni                     – Dwelling at the tip of the tongue&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kavijih Vagravasini              – Dwelling on the tongue of Poets&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shabdavasini                      – She who dwells in Sound&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vagisha                              – Mistress of Speech&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahavani                            – Of great wisdom in Speech&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Smriti-Sakti                        – Power of Memory&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jnana-Sakti                        – Power of Knowledge&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Buddhi Sakti Swarupini      –       Whose form is the Power of Intellect&#xA;Kalpana Sakti                     – Who is the Power of Forming ideas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pratibha Sakti                    – Intelligence&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Veda Garbha                       – the womb-source of Vedas Knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sarva Vidya Swarupini        – All forms of Knowledge&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sarva Sastravasini              – Dwelling in the Shastras (Books of Shastra)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Granthakarini                     – Who creates the Books.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3457" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-07T03:49:24.663" LastActivityDate="2015-08-07T03:49:24.663" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8024" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-06T17:39:48.707" Score="5" ViewCount="2089" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have always wondered if there is any god with multiple legs ?  It may seem silly but I don't quite understand the need of multiple hands ( considering them as supreme being why do they need it ?). No gods in other religion have multiple hands and heads, only demons do. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any description about multiple hands and heads in any holy scriptures ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3394" LastActivityDate="2018-10-21T10:55:48.523" Title="Why Hindu gods are always depicted with multiple hands and heads but not legs?" Tags="|vedas|gods|idols|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8025" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11669" CreationDate="2015-08-06T18:09:56.650" Score="5" ViewCount="8656" Body="&lt;p&gt;In almost all Hindu temples there is a Hundi (money pot) where people deposit money or offer it to God during an &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;aarthi&lt;/a&gt;. Are they giving money to God? If yes, why? God creates everything, why would He need anything from us? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One thing which often confuses me is the fact that money and prosperity is depicted by Goddess Lakshmi. Do we see money as a gift from goddess or goddess herself. If it's a gift why would we offer this to a different god? Isn't this offending other gods or morally wrong?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does Hindu scripture say about the offerings given to god (or in the name of god)? Is it only money which needs to be given at temples? What are other ways to thank god apart from giving money?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: In most temples if you don't give money to the priest doing aarthi, either he neglects you or frowns upon you. I find this very sad and very disturbing. That is the reason I am asking this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3394" LastEditorUserId="3394" LastEditDate="2018-09-22T21:34:58.727" LastActivityDate="2018-09-22T21:34:58.727" Title="How do Hindus justify depositing money in a Temple Hundi or giving money during Aarthi?" Tags="|belief|temple|culture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8027" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8030" CreationDate="2015-08-07T07:03:48.807" Score="10" ViewCount="2072" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can a person attain Moksha, if he/she do not pray or worship God but still continually does good work throughout his life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2015-08-24T15:49:00.170" Title="Can a person get Moksha without worshipping God but doing good all his life?" Tags="|moksha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8028" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-07T08:25:07.760" Score="17" ViewCount="6342" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know about how Ekalavya, the Nishada prince, was rejected by the Pandavas' teacher Dronacharya and then willingly cut off his own thumb at Dronacharya's request.  What's not as well-known, however, is how Ekalavya died.  The story I've always heard goes roughly as follows.  The Nishadas were loyal to the evil king Jarasandha.  So when Bhima killed Jarasansha with Krishna's help, Ekalavya wanted to take revenge on Krishna.  So he tried to attack Dwaraka, but Krishna was able to kill him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekalavya#Later_life_and_death&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt; how Wikipedia describes it:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He was later killed by Krishna when he was on his campaign to destroy every Yadava in Dwaraka and Kuntibhoj for avenging Jarasandha's demise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe this story of Krishna killing Ekalavya after Ekalavya tries to avenge the death of Jarasandha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fact that Krishna killed Ekalavya is mentioned multiple times in the Mahabharata.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05048.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ekalavya, the king of the Nishadas, always used to challenge this one to battle; but slain by Krishna he lay dead like the Asura Jambha violently thrashed on a hillock.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07178.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva of the Mahabharata, Krishna tells Arjuna that he killed Ekalavya for Arjuna's benefit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O best of men! for thy good, the Nishada's son also, of prowess incapable of being baffled, was, by an act of guile, deprived of his thumb by Drona, assuming the position of his preceptor. Proud and endued with steady prowess, the Nishada's son, with fingers cased in leathern gloves, looked resplendent like a second Rama. Undeprived of thumb, Ekalavya, O Partha, was incapable of being vanquished in battle by the gods, the Danavas, the Rakshasas, and the Uragas (together). Of firm grasp, accomplished in weapons, and capable of shooting incessantly day and night, he was incapable of being looked at by mere men. &lt;strong&gt;For thy good, he was slain by me on the field of battle.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any scriptures describing the specific circumstances of Ekalavya's death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T15:50:14.833" LastActivityDate="2021-11-11T22:26:00.030" Title="What scriptures describe the story of Krishna killing Ekalavya?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|pandavas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8029" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-07T10:51:24.263" Score="12" ViewCount="1806" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know what are the meanings of yugas' names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why are they called  satya , treta , dwapara and kali ? Are there any reasons for such names of the yugas ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do our scriptures say about the names of yugas ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also I want to know that if the yuga's name is satya yuga &#xA;then why the asura and rakhshsa like (Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha) existed in satya yuga&#xA;,so why its call satya yuga ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-14T08:26:46.470" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T15:59:31.360" Title="Why the names of yugas are satya, treta, dwapara and kali?" Tags="|scripture|yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8030" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8027" CreationDate="2015-08-07T15:25:47.403" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes absolutely yes! It is possible to get Moksha by simply doing good deeds all your life. How?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma yoga implies performing good deeds (or any deeds for that matter) without expecting anything in return. This is the path exemplified by the great Lord Buddha. He neither believed nor advocated a belief in God. He simply asked everyone to follow the Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna says in the Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore, without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty, for by working without attachment one attains the Supreme. [Gita 3:19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in the Gita, Lord Sri Krishna says (thanks @KeshavSrinivasan for the reference)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. [Gita, 2:47]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Why?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to understand this, there are two sub questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What is the cause of suffering ?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cause of suffering is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Expectations (AKA desires AKA attachments).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, when you are in an examination, suppose that you didn't study anything. If you get 80%. You are overjoyed. But at the same time, suppose you studied everything. If you get 90% still you will be sad because you expected 100%. This is a simple scenario which can be extended upwards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Vivekananda says that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is our desire that binds us. If we take the results of actions, whether good or evil, we will have to bear them. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swamivivekanandaquotes.org/2013/12/swami-vivekanandas-quotes-on-desire.html&quot;&gt;Several quotes about desire by Swami Vivekananda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bad Karma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All that you do, comes back to You. This is the law of Karma. Thus if you do good deeds to others, good things come back to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/80592.Swami_Vivekananda&quot;&gt;Sri Swami Vivekananda on the importance of right action:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in the future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What is the meaning of Moksha ?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha simply means that cessation of suffering. The destruction of the cause of suffering, leads to permanent happiness. By destruction of desires, there is no more karma in this world and therefore birth and death ceases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda on Karma Yoga (selfless service without desires)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the practice of Nishkama Karma Yoga, there is no loss of effort. There is no harm. There is no transgression also. Even a little of this practice can protect you from great fear of rebirth, of death with its concomitant evils. You will reap the fruits of Karma Yoga, viz. Jnana. There is no uncertainty here. The path of Karma Yoga eventually leads to the attainment of Bliss of the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Is there an example of a karma yogi?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Buddha set an example for humans along the path of Karma Yoga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/karmayoga.htm&quot;&gt;karma Yoga by Sri Swami Sivannada&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you really want to grow in the spiritual path you must do all sorts of service daily till the end of your life. Then only you are safe. Do not stop doing service when you have become a famous Yogi. The spirit of service must enter every nerve, cell, tissue and bone of your body. It must become ingrained in you. Then only you will become a real, full-blown, practical Vedantin. Is there any greater Vedantin or Karma Yogi than Lord Buddha ? He still lives in our hearts, because that spirit of service was ingrained in him and he spent his whole life in serving others in a variety of ways. He is indeed a magnanimous soul, one without a second. You can also become a Buddha if you apply yourself diligently to selfless service with the right mental attitude.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in conclusion, by doing good deeds without attachment of results, we are attacking the two cause of suffering:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karma (by doing good deeds)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Moha (by removing attachment)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2015-08-07T15:54:13.693" LastActivityDate="2015-08-07T15:54:13.693" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8031" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8032" CreationDate="2015-08-08T04:28:58.570" Score="5" ViewCount="1333" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it's the beliefs and principles embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2755/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the most famous Alwars was Nammalwar, who spent his short life under a Tamarind tree in the town of Kurugur, modern-day Alwar Thirunagari.  Despite his young age, however, Nammalwar had a disciple, another Alwar called Madhurakavi Alwar, who was an old man.  One of their notable stories goes roughly as follows.  One day Madhurakavi Alwar asked Nammalwar for a small statue of Nammalwar so he could remember him.  Nammalwar instructed him to boil water from the nearby Tamaraparni river, and when Madhurakavi Alwar did so a statue emerged.  Nammalwar said that the statue was of a future Vaishnava Acharya who would follow in Nammalwar's disciplic succession.  To this day, the statue is there in the Bhavishyadacharya (future Acharya) temple in Alwar Thirunagari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Vaishnavas believe that the statue is of the famous Sri Vaishnava Achararya Ramanujacharya; he was taught by five disciples of Yamunacharya, grandson of Nathamuni, who is said to have been a shishya of Nammalwar as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3039/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  My question is, how much does the statue resemble Ramanujacharya?  Thankfully, Ramanujacharya's body has been preserved in the famous Udayavar Sannidhi in the Sri Rangam temple, so it's possible to easily compare the two with photos.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-12-23T11:21:07.790" Title="How much does the divinely created statue of Ramanujacharya resemble him?" Tags="|history|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8032" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8031" CreationDate="2015-08-08T04:28:58.570" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They're pretty close.&lt;/strong&gt; They have the same long low-hanging ears, round face, and thick fingers.  Here is the statue found in the Bhavishyadacharya statue in Alwar Thirunagari:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/U0278.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/U0278.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is the actual body of Ramanujacharya preserved in the Udayavar Sannidhi in Sri Rangam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rj7kO.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rj7kO.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the statue is quite small.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-12T17:19:06.667" LastActivityDate="2015-08-12T17:19:06.667" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8035" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8051" CreationDate="2015-08-08T14:19:42.043" Score="1" ViewCount="1653" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just want to ask that is there any university in India or outside India which is able to award Ph.D. in Hinduism. As whatever I searched on Google, there is no university in the India. Please suggest if there is any.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3471" LastActivityDate="2015-08-08T18:48:10.813" Title="How can I get PhD in Hinduism" Tags="|history|vedanta|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8038" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8035" CreationDate="2015-08-08T16:52:13.730" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;the topic of religion comes under term &quot;Philosophy&quot; and there are many Indian universities offering doctoral studies on any subject including Hinduism. You need google using the key word &quot;Phd + Philosophy&quot;. alternatively you can also search using term &quot;Indologist'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can browse the weblink apaonline.org/?page=gradguide which has data on philosophy education programs primarily in USA and other locations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-08-08T16:52:13.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8042" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7720" CreationDate="2015-08-08T17:44:52.413" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Coincidentally, I &lt;a href=&quot;https://shreevatsa.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/bhavabhuti-on-finding-a-reader/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;posted&lt;/a&gt; about this verse roughly three weeks before this question. The verse is originally from Bhavabhūti's play &lt;em&gt;Mālatīmādhava&lt;/em&gt;, but also appears in various anthologies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the text as it occurs in the &lt;em&gt;Mālatī-mādhava&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ये नाम केचिदिह नः प्रथयन्त्यवज्ञां&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जानन्ति ते किमपि तान्प्रति नैष यत्नः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उत्पत्स्यते तु मम कोऽपि समानधर्मा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कालो ह्ययं निरवधिर्विपुला च पृथ्वी ॥  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Transliterated into IAST, with sandhi split:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ye nāma kecit iha naḥ prathayanti avajñām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jānanti te kim api tān prati na eṣa yatnaḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  utpatsyate tu mama ko api samāna-dharmā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kālo hi ayaṃ niravadhiḥ vipulā ca pṛthvī ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The particular &quot;Time is infinite, Earth is big&quot; you wanted corresponds to the last line, &quot;कालो ह्ययं निरवधिर्विपुला च पृथ्वी&quot; — it's in the popular Vasanta-tilakā metre, famously used in various Suprabhāta works.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Variants&lt;/strong&gt;: In most quotations of the verse (in &lt;em&gt;subhāṣita&lt;/em&gt; collections, works of literary criticism (&lt;em&gt;alaṃkāra-śāstra&lt;/em&gt;) etc.), the third &lt;em&gt;pāda&lt;/em&gt; is quoted as &quot;utpatsyate 'sti&quot; instead of &quot;utpatsyate tu&quot;. In Vidyākara’s collection called the &lt;em&gt;Subhāṣita-ratna-kośa&lt;/em&gt;, the last &lt;em&gt;pāda&lt;/em&gt; ends with: &quot;vipulā ca lakṣmīḥ&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can look at &lt;a href=&quot;https://shreevatsa.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/bhavabhuti-on-finding-a-reader/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;the post I mentioned&lt;/a&gt; for a little more about this verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="55" LastActivityDate="2015-08-08T17:44:52.413" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8046" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8025" CreationDate="2015-08-08T18:16:04.560" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;1) The money put in &quot;Hundi&quot; is for temple maintenance&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Money put on &quot;arati&quot; plate is for the temple priest sustenance&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) In good old days, the temples were taken care by the King / Rulers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4) With changing times, there are no rules, so the &quot;hundi&quot; system came into being&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5) With dwindling donations, the priest to sustain their own daily living has&#xA;   become an issue&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6) A good priest to sustain, the &quot;donations&quot; made through &quot;aarti platter' is like&#xA;   rewarding someone for an good or holy act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7) Supporting the holy people, does good to the society&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8) Caution is to be exercised for there are many fake babas &amp;amp; swami's in society&#xA;   bringing bad name to Hinduism&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9) Best is to trust spiritual organizations established by &#xA;   Sri Adi shankaracharya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any donation or money (material contribution) is to done with detachment. It is immaterial how much one has donated to Priest or Temple, so long it is done with a detachment results are same.  The first and foremost thing to remember, is to forget all the good deeds that you might have done since birth, to gain return benefits.  Death occurs when your present karma gets exhausted or &quot;power&quot; in one's nadi get depleted.  The demarcating line between karmic benefits of good and bad actions of present birth &amp;amp; next birth is death.  In death, one loses all memory to the extent that even if mind is &quot;shaken&quot; with a hammer, one cannot recollect things of past.&#xA;So instant forgetfulness of any good or bad karmic act is beneficial.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A donation to temple (larger society) or to an individual priest, hindu scriptures says god is ominipresent in all, further, scriptures also say - &quot;manava dharma, madhava dharma&quot;.  Serving or helping or donating to people is equivalent to serving the god, who is inherent in every animate and inanimate being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-11T04:39:50.537" LastActivityDate="2015-08-11T04:39:50.537" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8050" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8009" CreationDate="2015-08-08T18:44:28.120" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;1) Swami Swaminarayan is a Gujarat based saint &amp;amp; yogi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Hindus have tendency to name every saint &amp;amp; yogi as a incarnation, without&#xA;   understanding the terms.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) The term or titles are given to saints &amp;amp; yogis, only by their gurus or other exalted saints, not by common men like us.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4) Gujaratis consider him to be an incarnation  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5) Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, specially chose Swami Vivekananda, for in an instances, states the merits of &quot;Swamiji's soul origin coming from Nakshatra loka.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6) Lord Buddha is also given title or mantle of Lord Vishnu's incarnation. &#xA;    Which when analysed correctly with timelines, it was given subsequently, &#xA;    else there are certain major differences between Lord Buddha's preachings&#xA;    &amp;amp; Hinduism.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7) That is why, Sri Adi Sankaracharya came and revived the original Hinduism and enforced authority of Vedas &amp;amp; Upanishad, relegated to an extent by Buddhism.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8) Sri Adi Shankaracharya brought clarity of scriptures and its importance.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9) Being given the title &amp;amp; mantle of &quot;Jagat Guru&quot; he is the true saint &amp;amp; yogi taking birth on mother earth.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10) Lord Buddha addressed few points on suffering....etc. &amp;amp; its eradication.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11) Sri Adi Shankaracharya touched the philosophical aspects and gave picture of creation itself unlike any other saint or Yogi, hence, while reading the buddhist &amp;amp; advaita texts, one can note the clarity of Sri Adi Shankaracharya ofcourse, it is not to diminish that this is superior or inferior, but a scholarly  comparison, which an ordinary man should not be concerned with unless he reaches that mental stage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-30T16:38:02.457" LastActivityDate="2017-05-30T16:38:02.457" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8051" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8035" CreationDate="2015-08-08T18:48:10.813" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Hindu University of America offers a Doctoral Degree in Hinduism: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hua.edu/doctorate_programs.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.hua.edu/doctorate_programs.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2916" LastActivityDate="2015-08-08T18:48:10.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8052" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4018" CreationDate="2015-08-08T18:54:11.907" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;1) In scriptures it is written that Lord Shiva has 27 skulls, each skull &#xA;   representing one cycle of creation&#xA;2) The description of god is mentioned elaborately in vedas, upanishad and&#xA;    bramhasutra&#xA;3) The god created this universe / creation, in his own &quot;image&quot;.  So for&#xA;   simplicity, it can be said, god is similar to human being&#xA;4) First there was &quot;thought&quot; and &quot;thought&quot; was with God.  So as a human being&#xA;   one is surrounded by many thoughts (lowest level).  The god being supreme&#xA;   being his &quot;thought&quot; is more powerful&#xA;5) the thought, has a word, the word was with god (Sound = Aum).&#xA;6) the thought is like a movie coming out of a cinema projector&#xA;7) when projector is switched off, the movie is finished&#xA;8) In this case, it is &quot;pralaya&quot; or with drawing of a creation&#xA;9) then god has capacity to create a new thought and new creation (new movie)&#xA;10) Lord Shiva is shown with 27 skulls, hence, 27 creations (movies) were &#xA;    completed and we are in 28&#xA;11) the length of each creation is unknown to anyone and everyting that is &#xA;    written is pure contemplation and it is better left best to exalted saints &amp;amp;&#xA;    yogis to know and comment &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-08-08T18:54:11.907" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8053" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-08T18:54:28.947" Score="4" ViewCount="63" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where can I locate/download/purchase a sanksrit copy of the tara ashtakam (तर अष्तकं)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've seen several english translations and even &lt;a href=&quot;http://pedia.desibantu.com/tara-ashtakam/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; sanskrit translation, which seems to contain errors and who's authenticity I'm uncertain of, but no concrete, accurate sanskrit copy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2916" LastEditorUserId="2916" LastEditDate="2015-08-11T18:16:08.297" LastActivityDate="2015-08-11T18:16:08.297" Title="Where can I locate/download/purchase the &quot;Tara Ashtakam&quot;" Tags="|sanskrit|tara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8055" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3765" CreationDate="2015-08-08T19:10:32.533" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;sarve vedā yatraikaṃ bhavanti&quot; means &quot;where all the Vedas become one&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rest is incomplete. I'm not an expert. I've just collected references for now; will come back and try to make sense of it later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, the text itself, from Taittirīya-Āraṇyaka, Prapāṭhaka (=Praśna?) 3, Anuvāka 11. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/yajurveda/ta-find.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;In Roman script&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/yajurveda/ta-deva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;in Devanagari script&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QRFLV.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QRFLV.png&quot; alt=&quot;Roman script&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OP8e6.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OP8e6.png&quot; alt=&quot;Devanagari script&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commentary by Sāyaṇācārya (Sāyaṇa-bhāṣya) is available &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Anandashram_Samskrita_Granthavali_Anandashram_Sanskrit_Series&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. The same commentary (same scan even), and also the commentary of Bhatta Bhaskara, are available &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/taittiriya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. See the bottom right of &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/taittiriya/taittiriya_aranyaka_sayana_01#page/n181/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt;, and the bottom left of &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/taittiriya/taittiriya_aranyaka_bhaskara_01#page/n277/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="55" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-16T03:56:10.033" LastActivityDate="2015-12-16T03:56:10.033" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8057" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-08T19:36:17.830" Score="2" ViewCount="1074" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh present or these are just different forms taken by Brahman as per the action that needed to be performed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3474" LastActivityDate="2015-08-14T18:44:15.180" Title="Are Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh seperate or just different forms of Brahman?" Tags="|vishnu|brahman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-08-12T19:26:19.143" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8059" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21576" CreationDate="2015-08-09T05:08:30.923" Score="9" ViewCount="2851" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/CsZ4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Narada Purana describes a certain mantra called the Ganesha Nyasa, a hymn to Ganesha.  Here's the preamble to that mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The matrikas of Ganesha have &lt;strong&gt;Ganaka as its sage&lt;/strong&gt;, the meter is nivrit gayatri, the lord is Shakti Ganeshwara.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who is this sage Ganaka who heard the Ganesha Nyasa from the gods?  This isn't the only Ganesha mantra heard by Ganaka.  Here is what the Ganapati Atharvashirsha Upanishad, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3012/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, says about the famous Mahaganapati mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ga is the first syllable, after that the first letter, beyond that m, then the half-moon all together. Joined with m, this is the mantra form.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The letter ga is the first form, letter a the middle form, m the last form. bindu the higher form, nada the joining together, samhita the junction. This is the vidya of Lord Ganesha.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganaka is the seer&lt;/strong&gt;, nricad-gayatri the metre, Shri Mahaganapati the devata.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So who is this sage Ganaka who heard these mantras to Ganesha from the gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Considering the similarity of their names, I suspect Ganaka is an incarnation of Ganesha himself.  This isn't without precedent; Vishnu's incarnation sage Narayana heard the Purusha Sukta, a famous hymn to Vishnu which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7661/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Similarly, Shiva's incarnation sage Dakshinamurthy heard a Shiva mantra called the Shiva Nyasa, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So is it possible that Ganesha took an incarnation as a sage and heard mantras about himself?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other scriptures that describe the identity of the sage the sage Ganaka?  Was he the seer of any Vedic mantras?  References to Ganesha in ancient Hindu scripture are few and far between, because he only rose to popularity later, so it may be hard to find.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-14T21:36:47.250" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T18:17:50.220" Title="Who is sage Ganaka, the seer of so many mantras to Ganesha?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|ganesha|narada-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8060" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8057" CreationDate="2015-08-09T05:09:09.403" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;How are your two questions contradictory? The trinity are present and are just the different forms of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the standpoint of duality, i.e. from the standpoint of objective Universe, the trinity of Brahma, vishnu and Shiva are understood as representing three phenomenons/functions of manifestation, preservation and dissolution. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, from a higher standpoint, Brahman alone exist. It is Brahman who has manifested as Brahma, as Vishnu and as Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the absolute standpoint of Brahman, Brahman alone exist. No duality, hence no independent creation exists. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it all depends upon from what standpoint, are you approaching the concept of trinity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For reference, see Taittiriya Upanishad (3.1.1), which says, &quot;Know that as Brahman, from which the Universe has manifested, in which it exists and into which it dissolves.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="3477" LastEditDate="2015-08-14T18:44:15.180" LastActivityDate="2015-08-14T18:44:15.180" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8061" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-09T05:47:14.717" Score="5" ViewCount="2898" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Lord Krishna was a human being with qualities of God, thus Lord Krishna has a special place in sanatana dharma. I would like to understand, if Veday Vyasa has written Mahabharata, whether he has seen Lord Krishna and therefore he was able to write so much about Lord Krishna in Mahabharata and later in Bhagavatham. I also have read that Veda Vyasa is also known as 'Krishna Dwaipayan'. Does it mean that Veda Vyasa himself is krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3478" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T10:19:29.130" LastActivityDate="2021-10-31T20:36:02.667" Title="Has Veda Vyasa seen Lord Krishna?" Tags="|krishna|vyasa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8062" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-09T16:14:00.837" Score="2" ViewCount="665" Body="&lt;p&gt;I haven't read much but from what I have read I have come to understand that Hinduism is not just one religion but a wholesome bunch of all kinds of beliefs. It includes faith in different Gods and the Goddess (Vaishnavs, Shaivs, Shaakts) and even the absence of faith in any God (where only karma matters). All the books are inter-related and acknowledge the role of their contemporaries. My confusion is regarding the selection of the sect by a person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Firstly, our gotra decides our lineage which goes up to the seven (or eight) ancient sages. My first question is, are all the people from a gotra devoted to the same faith (Shaiv, Vaishnav, Shaakt)? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, if a person belongs to a particular caste, is there a text which tells them which faith they belong to? For example, Gaur Brahmans can be Shaivs as well as Vaishnavs. Because that is a broad spectrum, how to know which Shaiv or Vaishnav sect they belong to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thirdly, according to Jyotish, every person has an Isht Dev. Does a person's Isht Dev always coincide with their God (the faith that the family follows)?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; says, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;A gotra must be distinguished from a kula. A kula is a set of people&#xA;  following similar cultural rituals, often worshiping the same divinity&#xA;  (the Kula-Devata, god of the clan). Kula does not relate to lineage or&#xA;  caste. In fact, it is possible to change one's kula, based on one's&#xA;  faith or Iṣṭa-devatā.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, how would one know where they belong? I am sorry if something is not clear because I am looking for clarity. Using the above three how can we decide which sect we belong to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3454" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T08:36:15.947" LastActivityDate="2018-09-06T05:16:17.373" Title="How to select your religious sect - using faith, caste or Ishta Deva as per astrology?" Tags="|caste-system|astrology|sects|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8063" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-09T16:31:10.233" Score="7" ViewCount="1527" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana and Mahabharatha happened Before Christ. We are aware of Ramayana &amp;amp; Mahabharatha happened in Hindu Land. But i wonder what about the rest of the population in the world at that time. Whether there were people existing in the globe, rest of Asia like in European countries? If they did exist, who was their GOD and whom were they following? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2953" LastEditorUserId="2953" LastEditDate="2019-10-29T04:41:56.223" LastActivityDate="2019-10-30T13:54:08.990" Title="In the time of Ramayana &amp; Mahabharata, which gods were worshipped outside India?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|history|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8064" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-09T17:50:14.577" Score="6" ViewCount="503" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7874/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, when a mantra is given in the Puranas, it is usually preceded by a Dhyanam, which describes the appearance of the god whom you're supposed to meditate upon before reciting the mantra. For instance, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/36/keshav-srinivasan&quot;&gt;my profile page&lt;/a&gt; I quote the Sri Vishnu Stuti, which is part of the Dhyana shlokas of the Vishnu Sahasranamam, and in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7874/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; I quoted a Dhyanam for another Vishnu mantra.  Now I'm interested in another Dhyana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/9THJ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Narada Purana, a Dhyana shloka is given for a Ganesha mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He shall offer six hundred to Ganesha the lord of words (Vak) who is possessed of his consort &lt;strong&gt;riding on an elephant&lt;/strong&gt; and whose hands shine with noose, goad, the vessel of nectar and sweets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why does the Narada Puranas describe Ganesha as riding an elephant?  Ganesha is usually described as mushika-vahana, the one who rides on a mouse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I have found pictures of Ganesha riding on an elephant, like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pZHfa.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pZHfa.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any scriptures that describe him riding an elephant, and/or discuss who this elephant is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-07-19T17:19:47.093" Title="What scriptures describe Ganesha riding an elephant?" Tags="|puranas|ganesha|narada-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8065" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="29028" CreationDate="2015-08-10T06:18:05.953" Score="6" ViewCount="17737" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the difference between astra &amp;amp; Shastra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and What type of astra &amp;amp; Shastra use in Mahabharata &amp;amp; Ramayana ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastActivityDate="2022-10-26T11:14:55.413" Title="what is the difference between astra &amp; Shastra?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|weapon|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8066" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8065" CreationDate="2015-08-10T07:18:29.130" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do not have a pranaamam (authentic reference) but I am just repeating what I heard in a religious discourse by &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/nadadoor.ammal&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri. Karunakaracharyar&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sastras are the arrows that are used without any mantra. In the sense that they do not have any power other than obeying physics.  Astras are the divine arrows that are obtained by praying against certain gods.  They may not be available in the archer's &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiver&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;quiver&lt;/a&gt; but can be obtained by chanting the relevant mantra. These astras seems to defy many physical laws like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;They multiply&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;They act like guided weapon chasing the target&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;They invoke destructive force beyond just physical force etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Any object can be invoked as astra; when Rama was lying with his head on Sita's lap, he was not having any of his weapons with him. However when he understood the evil intentions of the crow, he used a blade of grass to invoke the most powerful weapon brahmastra, just by uttering the required mantra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu's Chakra is considered to be the master of all weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="2552" LastEditDate="2015-09-04T06:06:02.400" LastActivityDate="2015-09-04T06:06:02.400" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8067" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8078" CreationDate="2015-08-10T09:27:26.680" Score="4" ViewCount="110" Body="&lt;p&gt;Even though Hinduism teaches us about a lot of aspects of life I was curious to know which ones of them are the most influential in our daily life ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2974" LastActivityDate="2015-08-10T13:04:58.867" Title="Most important lesson" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|ramayana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2015-08-12T19:27:05.780" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8068" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-08-10T10:10:05.053" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-08-10T10:10:05.053" LastActivityDate="2015-08-10T10:10:05.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8069" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-08-10T10:10:05.053" Score="0" Body="Literally non-duality; a school of the Vedanta philosophy that declares the oneness of God, soul, and the universe. " OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-08-11T04:14:17.847" LastActivityDate="2015-08-11T04:14:17.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8070" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7040" CreationDate="2015-08-10T10:23:21.853" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;here is hayagreeva mantra's image this may help you :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KHNFx.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KHNFx.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;hayagreeva mantra&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastActivityDate="2015-08-10T10:23:21.853" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8071" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8067" CreationDate="2015-08-10T10:43:56.543" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answers are highly subjective. In my case, I would say that &lt;code&gt;What you sow is what you reap&lt;/code&gt; together with life after death is the most important lesson. All other aspects can be considered as a ramification of this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastActivityDate="2015-08-10T10:43:56.543" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8072" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-10T11:04:42.483" Score="8" ViewCount="5857" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shanta Karam Bhujaga Shayanam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Padmanabham Suresham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishvadharam Gagana Sadrusham,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Megha Varnam Shubhangam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lakshmi Kantam Kamala Nayanam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yogibhir Dhyana Gamyam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vande Vishnum Bhava Bhaya Haram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarva Lokaia Kanatham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this shloka, Lord Vishnu is referred &lt;strong&gt;Kamala Nayan&lt;/strong&gt;. Is there any story behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2368" LastEditorUserId="2880" LastEditDate="2015-08-10T12:48:20.967" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T04:32:10.030" Title="Why Lord Vishnu is called &quot;Kamala Nayanam&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8073" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-10T11:37:27.263" Score="10" ViewCount="1124" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been told that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yali_(mythology)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yali&lt;/a&gt; is a fierce animal of ancient times. I have seen this in temple sculptures:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oFNm0.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oFNm0.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NsaMm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NsaMm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is beyond doubt that this animal is extinct now, but my questions are as below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which Hindu scriptures mention this creature Yali?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the its characteristics?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who controls it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Another fascinating point is that this animal seems to be sculptured only in dravidian (in Tamil Nadu) style temples and not others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-19T01:30:46.003" LastActivityDate="2024-02-22T22:14:04.533" Title="What is this ancient animal called Yali?" Tags="|scripture|animals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8074" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-10T11:50:43.483" Score="5" ViewCount="310" Body="&lt;p&gt;Foods that have salt and ones that are made from grains or pulses are not supposed to be consumed during fasting. What is the reason for such a practice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="148" LastActivityDate="2015-08-23T12:25:44.527" Title="Why is salty food and food from grains not consumed in Fasting?" Tags="|food|fasting|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8075" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-10T12:27:57.573" Score="5" ViewCount="6545" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rock salt is given special preference in fasting, while there are several parts of India where no form of salt is consumed during fasts. What is its importance and why it is not followed everywhere in India?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rock Salt is known as Sendha Namak in Hindi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="148" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2021-10-19T00:56:09.023" LastActivityDate="2021-10-19T00:56:09.023" Title="What is the importance of rock salt (sendha namak) in fasting?" Tags="|practice|food|ayurveda|fasting|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8076" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8072" CreationDate="2015-08-10T12:29:02.240" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Shiva purana and other sacred scripts narrate an incident where Vishnu prays Shiva for a powerful weapon &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chakra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; to fight against the demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was advised to offer 1000 &lt;strong&gt;Neelkamals&lt;/strong&gt; (Blue Lotuses) in performing Pooja so that Shiva would be pleased to grant the boon as desired. Vishnu collects the Neelkamals and offers these Neelkamals one after the other. But surprisingly there was one short of a thousand. He could offer 999 lotuses only. Immediately Vishnu took out one of his eyes and offered it as the thousandth Neelkamal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva was pleased with the sincere Pooja of Vishnu. Since Vishnu offered his eye in place of lotus Shiva named Vishnu as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;‘Kamal Nayan’&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; to mean one who has eyes like lotus. Shiva gave a Chakra to Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2880" LastActivityDate="2015-08-10T12:29:02.240" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8077" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8074" CreationDate="2015-08-10T12:29:29.193" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Fasting is a way of stomach + mind purification. In a philosophical way it's also &quot;Tyaag&quot;; i.e. giving away (certain) desires. Ideally during fasting, foods itself are not allowed. But in modern times, we have taken some liberties. At least those consumable foods are prescribed to be of &quot;Saatvik&quot; nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Salty/Spicy food are of &quot;Rajasic&quot; nature which stimulates desires, and  kills the very purpose of fasting!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Lord Krishna from Bhagavad Gita, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter 17.9&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and&#xA;  burning are dear to those in the mode of passion. Such foods cause&#xA;  distress, misery and disease.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-08-10T12:29:29.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8078" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8067" CreationDate="2015-08-10T13:04:58.867" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ofcourse, Bhagavad Gita is the most important lesson or message to the mankind. This has been even told by the current PM of India while gifting Gita to the Japanese prime minister. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita has been &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;revealed more than once&lt;/a&gt;. What Krishna told to Arjuna was the latest version which got famous through current Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be specific within Gita, the most important message &lt;em&gt;should be&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Renunciation of the fruits of actions.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This particular message has been described multiple times in Gita itself.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The most famous of them are:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/47&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter 2.47&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are &lt;strong&gt;not&#xA;  entitled to the fruits of action&lt;/strong&gt;. Never consider yourself the cause of&#xA;  the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing&#xA;  your duty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/12/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter 12.12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you cannot take to this practice, then engage yourself in the&#xA;  cultivation of knowledge. Better than knowledge, however, is&#xA;  meditation, and better than meditation is &lt;strong&gt;renunciation of the fruits&#xA;  of action&lt;/strong&gt;, for by such renunciation one can attain peace of mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-08-10T13:04:58.867" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8081" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-11T05:24:33.703" Score="3" ViewCount="493" Body="&lt;p&gt;During childhood, I used to get excited (not happy though) seeing Raavana's effigy being burnt. People around used to dance and cheer. But for many years, not only I find it idiotic but also non-human. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Raavana did some bad Karma for which he (was privileged to) got killed by Lord Rama. Considering today's crimes, what he did is relatively less.   Some may argue that in those times, it was unpardonable. But it can be counter-argued that, the effigies are being burnt in today's time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We may assume that, actual &quot;Raavana Dahan&quot; is a symbol of burning out 10 bad qualities within ourselves. In such case neither there is a need of personifying Raavan alone nor such &quot;insights&quot; are conveyed to the people (dancing &amp;amp; cheering) around.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How many years old is this tradition?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In which scripture or book, is it prescribed to celebrate this event?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why such celebrations don't happen for others; e.g. Duryodhana?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-08-11T05:42:16.377" LastActivityDate="2015-11-21T23:00:46.700" Title="Isn't it non-human to burn Raavan's effigy (Raavan Dahan) during Dussera?" Tags="|practice|tradition|ravana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8082" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-11T05:26:42.197" Score="13" ViewCount="1538" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read that by raising kundalini the serpent power to crown chakra , one can attain state of samadhi , which leads to liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is , how exactly this liberation compares with 6 type of liberations(like sarupya , sayujya etc) mentioned in vaishnava scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastActivityDate="2018-04-04T12:21:52.540" Title="Yogic liberation like raising kundalini vs Bhakti path" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|krishna|puranas|yoga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8083" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-11T05:31:49.147" Score="4" ViewCount="599" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8059/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the sage who heard many Ganesha mantras from gods was Ganaka, who I speculated may have been an incarnation of Ganesha himself.  Now I have found a mantra to Ganesha that seems to have been heard from the gods by another sage: the famous Vakratunda mantra.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/FLBf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Narada Purana says about it: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhargava is its sage&lt;/strong&gt;, the metre is anushtup, the lord is Ganadhipa.  (he who) is called Vakratunda is the Bija (the seed), Vam is Shakti and Kavacha (coat of mail).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who is the &quot;Bhargava&quot; sage who heard the Vakratunda mantra from the gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Bhargava just means descendant of the sage Bhrigu, which encompasses one seventh of all the Brahmins in the world.  It applies to Sukracharya guru of the Asuras (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3527/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3434/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), the sage Dadhichi (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2527/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7729/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama, and me!  (I'm a Vathula Gotra Brahmana.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So which descendant of Bhrigu are we talking about here?  Are there any other scriptures which describe the Vakratunda mantra and the sage who heard it from the gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-08-19T02:20:10.833" Title="Who is the descendant of Bhrigu who heard the famous Vakratunda mantra to Ganesha from the gods?" Tags="|puranas|mantras|ganesha|narada-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8084" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-08-11T14:30:02.817" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-08-11T14:30:02.817" LastActivityDate="2015-08-11T14:30:02.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8085" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-08-11T14:30:02.817" Score="0" Body="The Brahma Purana is one of the major eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of Hindu religious texts. The extant text comprises 246 chapters. It is divided into two parts: the Purvabhaga and the Uttarabhaga." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T12:17:55.710" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T12:17:55.710" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8086" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-11T14:48:41.593" Score="3" ViewCount="135" Body="&lt;p&gt;In one of the stories from Brahma purana about Indradhyumna, it is mentioned that in Satya yuga, a king built a temple where Vishwakarma in disguise built three statues: Balarama, Krishna and Subathirai (Krishna's sister). All these three characters appear only in Dwapara yuga, in that case how come they could be mentioned in Satya yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3490" LastActivityDate="2015-08-11T17:38:45.000" Title="How could Subathirai and Balarama are mentioned in Satya yuga (Krita yuga) in Brahma purana while they belong in Dwapara yuga?" Tags="|brahma-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8091" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8064" CreationDate="2015-08-11T18:07:55.493" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Our representation of hindu gods &amp;amp; goddesses is riddled in deep mysticism.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;All the thousands of gods &amp;amp; goddesses represented in hindu scriptures are all&#xA;related to &quot;nadis' in human body.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Each mantra invokes a nadi in the body.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Ganesh is a god for removing obstacles, a ordinary student has exams &#xA;and pessimistic of exams, fear of elders.. etc, so chanting of Lord Ganesha&#xA;removes the minor obstacles, similarly applicble for elders also.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Elephant represents memory, for elephants can communicate with its other &#xA;elephants in short waves, to an distance of 15 kms away.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Goddess shown riding lionness or tiger.  Lionness / Tiger = represents fury.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Riding on any animal = control of that representative animal emotion.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-04-20T13:26:23.920" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T13:26:23.920" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8092" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8062" CreationDate="2015-08-11T18:20:02.350" Score="1" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The so called castes as known today, were representative of career &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is distinction of castes in vedas or in any hindu scriptures&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The child born (Satyakama) to mother &quot;Jabala&quot; ask her mother, who is her father (or his gotra), she says she served many rishis and do not know who is the father, if anyone asks, just say  you are son of &quot;jabala&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Chandogya Upanishad Chapter IV, Satyakama Jabala, in his quest for    knowledge approaches Sage Gautam (exalted sage), when asked about his gotra, he introducing himself as son of Jabala.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The sage accepts him as a disciple for being truthful &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This instance shows that there is no discrmination in entire hindu scriptures   for anyone seeking knowledge and there were no castes no barriers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Any person with a thinking mind is a brahmins, body builders required to &#xA;protect the society were kshatriyas, businessmen were vyasyas and workers&#xA;are shudras&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vishwamitra was kshatriya became brahmin&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sage Parashurama, was a brahmin, took up kshatriya type activity of killing all vicious rulers of that times&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;So the caste is not by birth, but by practice.  A shudra can also be born &#xA;in brahmin family and vice versa (example of Saint kabir, born to ordinary&#xA;worker family)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are many such examples  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-06T05:16:17.373" LastActivityDate="2018-09-06T05:16:17.373" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8093" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9442" CreationDate="2015-08-11T20:37:58.140" Score="4" ViewCount="1520" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7790/is-the-length-of-a-mans-life-predetermined&quot;&gt;&quot;Is the length of a man's life predetermined?&quot;&lt;/a&gt; I asked on whether the length of a man's life has already been determined in advance, even before a person is born, and now I ask the question which is related to it.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The answer to this preceding question was that &quot;Yes, it is predetermined&quot;, and the answer was furnished with quotations from the scriptures and explanation of how the quotes give the answer to the question. &#xA;Here I expect the same, to answer this question, please be sure to furnish quotations from the scriptures and explain how you see your quotes give the answer to this question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the question here is the following one: If the length of a man's life has already been determined in advance, even before a person is born, then can it happen that the length of a man's life somehow becomes reduced during a man's lifetime, and so one has to die before he was destined initially?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If the answer to the question is &quot;Yes&quot;, then give an explanation of what are the possible reasons for the reducing of a man's destined  length of lifetime. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2021-11-10T01:09:08.840" Title="Can it happen that the length of a man's life somehow becomes reduced during a man's lifetime, and so one has to die before he was destined initially?" Tags="|philosophy|karma|life-span|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8094" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="646" CreationDate="2015-08-12T07:22:31.183" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came to know of some sons of Lord Vishnu but they were not with Goddess Lakshmi but with some other women. According to Chapter 22, verse 47 of ShataRudraSamhita in the Shiva Purana, Lord Vishnu had begot sons with some damsels (apsaras) born after the Samudra Manthan. These sons created a lot of havoc on earth and in heaven causing misery to all, therefore on request of Gods, Lord Shiva later killed them all by taking an incarnation of a bull. Here is the extract from the ShataRudraSamhita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uDa8A.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uDa8A.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-01T09:44:48.417" LastActivityDate="2016-01-01T09:44:48.417" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8095" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-12T09:42:41.827" Score="16" ViewCount="14827" Body="&lt;p&gt;I visited many of non Hindu sites that they argue that Prophet Muhammad is mentioned in our(Hindu) scriptures and they mention some sloka , I find one sloka in Bhavishya  Purana that they mention &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i2boV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i2boV.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;BHavishya&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in above image and sloka line is महामद  इति  ख्यात:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;they mention महामद as Prophet Muhammad but महामद is a Sanskrit word with its own meaning like&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महामद   mahAmada    m.  elephant in strong rut   मजबूत लीक में हाथी&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    महामद   mahAmada    m.  excessive or violent rut    अत्यधिक या हिंसक लीक&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    महामद   mahAmada    m.  fever       महामद   mahAmada    m.  great pride or&#xA;  intoxication(drunkenness)  means मादकता  and  नशा  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=mahAmada&amp;amp;script=&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;link=yes&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;महामद&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ख्यात:  meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ख्यात   khyAta  adj.    denominated नामित&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ख्यात   khyAta  adj.    told    कहा था&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ख्यात   khyAta  adj.    well known  अच्छी तरह से जाना जाता है&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ख्यात   khyAta  adj. ppp.   called  कहा जाता है&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ख्यात   khyAta  adj. ppp.   celebrated   मशहूर&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ख्यात   khyAta  adj. ppp.   notorious   कुख्यात&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ख्यात   khyAta  adj. ppp.   well-known  रूढ़&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ख्यात   khyAta  adj. ppp.   named नामित  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=khyAta&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;choice=yes&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ख्यात&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;महामद  इति  ख्यात: means who ()well known or called) as drunkenness (intoxication) or many other above describe meaning and it's not talking about prophet Muhammad!  It is talking  about mleccha म्लेच्छ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mleccha म्लेच्छ has own meaning     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;म्लेच्छ   mleccha m.  man of an outcast race  एक निर्वासित जाति का आदमी&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  म्लेच्छ   mleccha m.  person who does not speak Sanskrit   संस्कृत बात&#xA;  नहीं   करता जो व्यक्ति    म्लेच्छ mleccha m.  foreigner   अन्यदेशीय&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  म्लेच्छ   mleccha m.  barbarian   असभ्य   &amp;amp; जंगली , अशिष्ट, गँवारू,&#xA;  असंस्कृत      म्लेच्छ mleccha m.  non-Aryan   गैर आर्यन&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  म्लेच्छ   mleccha m.  ignorance of Sanskrit संस्कृत की अज्ञानता   who&#xA;  does not know Sanskrit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=HK&amp;amp;beginning=0+&amp;amp;tinput=mleccha&amp;amp;trans=Translate&amp;amp;direction=AU&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;म्लेच्छ&lt;/a&gt; means who does not know Sanskrit  or barbarian (असभ्य   &amp;amp; जंगली , अशिष्ट, गँवारू, असंस्कृत) etc.. and  धर्म  means manner or nature ,that time no other religious exist    so धर्म&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्म   dharma  m.  manner&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धर्म   dharma  m.  nature&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=HK&amp;amp;beginning=0+&amp;amp;tinput=dharma+&amp;amp;trans=Translate&amp;amp;direction=AU&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;धर्म&lt;/a&gt; so,  म्लेच्छधर्म    means  barbarian manner or nature , अन्यदेशीय धर्म  , जंगली nature (swabhav)  etc above describe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is why other religions(islam) argue that prophet Muhammad is in our scriptures ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2021-02-15T09:23:52.883" LastActivityDate="2021-02-15T09:23:52.883" Title="महामद is not Islamic Muhammad, its a Sanskrit word and it has its own meaning?" Tags="|scripture|other-religions|bhavishya-purana|islam|truth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2019-03-17T05:08:45.020" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8096" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8097" CreationDate="2015-08-12T11:17:03.697" Score="15" ViewCount="3756" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read in a question about the fact that the Asura King Bali will be the next Indra and that he is still alive. Untill now, I have only heard of the story of the Vamana incarnation of Lord Vishnu taking the 3 worlds from him but I didn't know of this boon. Can somebody please explain how King Bali got this boon and how he is alive untill now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-07-01T14:54:12.253" LastActivityDate="2016-07-01T14:54:12.253" Title="When was Mahabali (Asura King Bali) booned about being the next Indra?" Tags="|vishnu|time|indra|vamana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8097" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8096" CreationDate="2015-08-12T14:39:27.837" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/22/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.  Most people only know about how Vishnu's incarnation Vamana the dwarf took two steps, and then told Mahabali that there was no room for the third step, whereupon Mahabali offered his own head for the third step.  What is not as well-known, however, is that Vishnu was so pleased at Mahabali's devotion and honesty that he granted him a boon that he would become the Indra of the next Manvantara.  Here's what Vishnu says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bali Mahārāja has become the most famous among the demons and nonbelievers, for in spite of being bereft of all material opulences, he is fixed in his devotional service.  Although bereft of his riches, fallen from his original position, defeated and arrested by his enemies, rebuked and deserted by his relatives and friends, although suffering the pain of being bound and although rebuked and cursed by his spiritual master, Bali Mahārāja, being fixed in his vow, did not give up his truthfulness. It was certainly with pretension that I spoke about religious principles, but he did not give up religious principles, for he is true to his word.  Because of his great tolerance, I have given him a place not obtainable even by the demigods. &lt;strong&gt;He will become King of the heavenly planets during the period of the Manu known as Sāvarṇi.&lt;/strong&gt; Until Bali Mahārāja achieves the position of King of heaven, he shall live on the planet Sutala, which was made by Viśvakarmā according to My order. Because it is especially protected by Me, it is free from mental and bodily miseries, fatigue, dizziness, defeat and all other disturbances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bali Mahārāja, you may now go live there peacefully. O Bali Mahārāja [Indrasena], now you may go to the planet Sutala, which is desired even by the demigods. Live there peacefully, surrounded by your friends and relatives. All good fortune unto you. On the planet Sutala, not even the predominating deities of other planets, what to speak of ordinary people, will be able to conquer you. As far as the demons are concerned, if they transgress your rule, My disc will kill them. O great hero, I shall always be with you and give you protection in all respects along with your associates and paraphernalia. Moreover, you will always be able to see Me there.  Because there you will see My supreme prowess, your materialistic ideas and anxieties that have arisen from your association with the demons and Dānavas will immediately be vanquished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;True to his word, from then on Vamana became Mahabali's personal bodyguard in his palace at Sutalaloka, as described in numerous scriptures including the Vamana Purana and the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-09-19T14:13:04.223" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8099" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8063" CreationDate="2015-08-12T14:58:46.760" Score="1" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Question is interesting and hypothetical&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;India appears to be the only country which had continuous human habitants&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The only reason could be only those law &amp;amp; god abiding shall surive holocaust written in every religious scriptures&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;While excavations &amp;amp; studies are being done in western sphere, think it is&#xA;directioinless, luckless, and difficult to find any answer to your question&#xA;raised.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2017-12-22T09:45:33.843" LastActivityDate="2017-12-22T09:45:33.843" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8101" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7940" CreationDate="2015-08-12T15:16:52.327" Score="4" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana is about &quot;maryada purushottam&quot; Sri Ram, as a ideal man, showing how&#xA;to behave in adverse conditions and to set as an example&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gita is about explaining different paths to salvation, God-Devottee relation&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gita is a condensed &quot;sweet milk&quot; from all vedas, upanishad, brahma sutra &amp;amp;&#xA;puranas (Ramayana is one of the 18 puranas)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-27T02:20:44.273" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T02:20:44.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8103" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8028" CreationDate="2015-08-12T15:38:28.813" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna mentions in the Gita that he has already defeated or killed the maharathis fighting on behalf of Kauravas, and it is symbolic killing only to be completed by Arjuna.  This statement cannot be interpreted as Lord Krishna took weapons (astras) in his own had.  Recall in Bhishma parva, when Arjuna unable to fight with Grandpa Bhishma, Lord Krishna takes his &lt;em&gt;sudarshana chakra&lt;/em&gt; to kill Bhishma and Bhishma being an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu recognizes the avatar of Lord Krishna and comes down from his chariot and bows for the final action. Arjuna comes running and pleads to Lord Krishna for his further action violates the oath taken by him. Hence mentioning Lord Krishna killing Ekalavya is violation &amp;amp; understanding of sequences, as detailed by Ved Vyasa in Mahabharat, the most authentic text better than Wiki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-22T04:57:26.977" LastActivityDate="2016-01-22T04:57:26.977" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8104" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8063" CreationDate="2015-08-12T15:56:58.020" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is my attempt to answer. Note: the following content is based on searches on internet so correction may be need or the content may be all wrong. But I thing it is better with incorrect sources than nothing, so someone in future will correct it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While searching for timeline of Ramayana as per &lt;a href=&quot;https://web.archive.org/web/20150924030215/http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/ramayan/rama_vartak.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot; title=&quot;Dr. Vartak&quot;&gt;Dr. Vartak&lt;/a&gt; the time period of Ramayana at least 9000 years ago so that means some time around 7000 BC.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we know that some of the old cultures in the world are Egypt, Greece, Iran. While search for Greece I &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.in2greece.com/english/historymyth/ancient_hist_and_myth.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot; title=&quot;Greece at 7000BC&quot;&gt;found that&lt;/a&gt; the Neolithic period dated approximately 7,000 - 3,000 B.C. So we can safely say, that was a start time of human civilization coming in shape so it may be a case that people were not doing any type of worship of god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2019-10-29T03:08:20.030" LastActivityDate="2019-10-29T03:08:20.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8106" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8024" CreationDate="2015-08-12T18:45:58.170" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a picture of &lt;strong&gt;Mahakali , which has multiple heads, multiple hands and multiple legs&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hinduism believes that the Gods you worship ,are images which help you to progress Materially and Spiritually .So there is no restriction on the images you worship or the Mantras you recite.&lt;br&gt; This is given in &lt;strong&gt;&quot; Yoga Darshana&quot; by Patanjali&lt;/strong&gt;. I will give the exact &quot;Shlokas&quot; at a later time.&lt;br&gt; Life Stories  of &lt;strong&gt;Ramakrishna and Shiridi Sai Baba&lt;/strong&gt; , are examples of a saint &lt;strong&gt;worshipping many forms of Gods&lt;/strong&gt; , which may include images from other religions.&lt;br&gt; The image of &quot;Chhinnamasta&quot; is another example of an image that does not make sense.It is believed that worship of &lt;strong&gt;Chhinnamasta&lt;/strong&gt; removes &lt;strong&gt;suicidal thoughts&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2015-08-12T18:45:58.170" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8107" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7985" CreationDate="2015-08-13T00:31:58.047" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that a man shall marry a maiden who is much younger than him.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;See about that in the Vishnu Purana: Book III: Chapter X:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp084.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp084.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If he marry, he must select a maiden who is of a third of his age&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-08-21T18:05:32.860" LastActivityDate="2015-08-21T18:05:32.860" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8108" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8093" CreationDate="2015-08-13T02:38:17.953" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me preface this by stating my view that your question, as stated, doesn't make sense; that which is preordained by Vishnu is guaranteed to happen no matter what.  There are certainly cases, like the story of Markandeya, where Yama god of death assumes that a person is destined to die at a particular time but the person does not end up dying.  But that's not a case of destiny failing to be correct; rather, it's a case of Yama being mistaken about what is actually destined to occur.  Vishnu would still know all along when the person is actually destined to die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now having said all that, I think &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/6289&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Garuda Purana addresses the intent behind your question.  Garuda asks Vishnu why the Rig Veda says that humans live for hundred years, when humans in the Kali Yuga often live for shorter than that.  Vishnu responds that there are various sinful actions that a human can do that reduce his length of life below a hundred years:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is true that a man lives for a hundred years as stated in the Vedas, but due to the influence of his misdeeds he dies a premature death.  Now, people do not make a regular study of the Vedas; they do not follow the traditional conduct; they commit sins and due to idleness forsake their duties. They take food from any house they visit.  They are fond of other men's wives.  All these reduce their longevity....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the actions of previous birth ripen, man succumbs to death.  From the time of conception to the fifth year even a slight sin may cause death.   It is due to major sins that man dies after the fifth year.  Usually, he completes the allotted span of life, dies and is born again.  It is as a result of sacred rites and gifts that he is able to complete his life's term.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me reiterate that this is about the kind of actions which can reduce a person's life relative to the 100 years allotted by the Vedas.  These action do not reduce the length of life relative to what is destined to occur, however; as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7795/36&quot;&gt;my answer&lt;/a&gt; to your previous question, the person's actual length of life is predetermined at birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-13T15:06:54.297" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8109" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-13T04:28:47.953" Score="9" ViewCount="5483" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usually at the end of the any rituals it is said as &lt;code&gt;sarvam sree krishnaarpanam&lt;/code&gt; (all the outcomes belongs to Krishna - a crude translation) and Krishna name is chanted thrice or ten times.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaishnavites use a prayer called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/jun2000/0075.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;saathivk thyagam&lt;/a&gt; (sacrifice of all outcome of the efforts) in which it is said to offered to Baghavan and none in specific.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is that it is dedicated to Krishna and why not Rama etc. I mean is there any specific reason behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastActivityDate="2018-03-24T12:28:26.407" Title="Why at the end all the fruits of the efforts are offered to Krishna and not Rama etc?" Tags="|krishna|rituals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8112" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-13T07:46:23.610" Score="6" ViewCount="324" Body="&lt;p&gt;Common names of these Gramadevathas are Ankamma, Poleramma etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is their relation to Lord Shiva?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can we Worship Lord Shiva along with Gramadevathas? See this &lt;a href=&quot;http://mudiraja.com/mudiraju_ankamma.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-12-31T12:51:29.123" LastActivityDate="2015-12-31T12:53:39.627" Title="Who are Gramadevathas found especially in South India?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|culture|parvati|shakti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8113" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-13T09:33:08.567" Score="6" ViewCount="2756" Body="&lt;p&gt;I head that Planets and nakshatra's are entirely different things in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_astrology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Indian astrology&lt;/a&gt;. Is that right? But I think in modern &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;astronomy&lt;/a&gt; (science), Planet and nakshatra are related. Can anyone tell how Planet and nakshatra are related to or different from each other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3499" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-29T03:29:45.503" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T13:58:09.097" Title="What is the difference between Planet and nakshatra in astrology?" Tags="|astrology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8114" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="893" CreationDate="2015-08-13T10:50:35.253" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Anjana ( Hanuman's mother) was worshipping Shiva, the King Dasharatha of Ayodhya was also performing the ritual of Putrakama yagna in order to have children. As a result, he received some sacred pudding (payasam) to be shared by his three wives, whic lead to birth of Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughna. By divine ordinance, a kite snatched a fragment of that pudding and dropped it while flying over the forest where Anjana was engaged in worship. Vayu, the Hindu deity of the wind, delivered the falling pudding to the outstretched hands of Anjana, who consumed it. Hanuman was born to her as a result. And hence Hanuman is also called &quot;pawan putra' (Son of Wind)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3501" LastActivityDate="2015-08-13T10:50:35.253" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8117" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7988" CreationDate="2015-08-13T11:36:13.997" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Advanced Yogis are able to perform this function of able to control thoughts of other beings.  Sri Paramahansa Yogananda in his first public speech, felt little &#xA;nervous, then suddenly his body was taken by his Guru to deliver a soul stirring&#xA;speech, which Sri Paramahansa Yoganda discreetly asked others to get to know what&#xA;transpired during the event&#xA;Similary, the mother (Yogini Mira Alfasa) disciple of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh states in her sayings &quot;manifestations&quot;&#xA;Similarly, it happened with Sri Swami Vivekananda   &amp;amp; Sri Adi Shankaracharya when he entered in to the dead body of local king, to know about palace life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such things can only be by advanced spiritual masters who got siddhis, through yogic or spiritual practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-12T17:16:18.613" LastActivityDate="2018-09-12T17:16:18.613" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8118" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7984" CreationDate="2015-08-13T11:44:11.753" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand it, one require to know the mysticim in hindu scriptures.&#xA;Devatas = Law abiding&#xA;Rakshas = Radicals&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Rakshasas (radicals) wanted power, prayed to Lord Shiva to get all their wishes &amp;amp; special astral weapons.  So for things related to &quot;Shakti&quot;, Lord Shiva is to be worshipped&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For sustaining the ever changing &quot;time / kaal&quot;,  worshipping Lord Vishnu is seen&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For getting knowledge (jnana) Lord Bramha and / or Goddess Saraswati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Tamsic, Rajasic, Satvic = Trinity &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeking boons on &quot;shakti&quot; primarily to defeat &quot;others&quot; falls under tamasic nature unlike jnana where a person is seeking knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Adi Shankara prayed Lord Shiva &amp;amp; Goddess Durga (Mother), extensively as seeen from his writings, his seeking &quot;shakti&quot; was to invoke jnana in their followers or disciples (Professor seeking power to transform his students)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shakti can be sought in different forms (Ravana vs Sri Adi Shankara contrast)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On corollary, when all desires die, one obtains moksha !!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In astrology, 3H, 7H, 11H (H=House/Bhava) are for desires, primarily lead to material desires and hence give raise to &quot;tamasic nature&quot;, person is out to  obtain it by sheer determination.&#xA;Lord Shiva controls the burial grounds, for the restless souls need to be &quot;contained&quot; so that other normal souls can leave in peace !!&#xA;In entire Shiva Purana, the stories are all about Rakshas seeking invisible &amp;amp; undefeatable powers, primarily less of bhakti than showing their superiority (in superficial comparison), unlike in Bhagatavam where primarily Lord Vishnu predominates, is all about devotee's obstacles, &amp;amp; lord helping them through his showering grace &#xA;Object to rule (Shiva purana) (Tamsic) vs Object to divine surrender (Bhagavatam) (Rajasic)&#xA;Rajasic = control over self&#xA;Tamasic = control over self (little less) + dominate over others (predominant)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="3397" LastEditDate="2015-08-15T02:11:39.890" LastActivityDate="2015-08-15T02:11:39.890" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8120" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7331" CreationDate="2015-08-13T14:25:03.240" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'll stick to 1 yojana = 8 miles because Hanuman chalisa gives the distance between earth and sun as - जुग सहस्र योजन पर भानू. लील्यो त्याही मधुर फल जानू. (Sun's जुग सहस्र योजन away.)&#xA;जुग = 12,000&#xA;सहस्र = 1,000&#xA;Thus 12,000 * 1,000 = 12,000,000 yojana. Sun is approx 96,000,000 miles away. Thus we can conclude that 1 yojana = 8 miles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="657" LastActivityDate="2015-08-13T14:25:03.240" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8121" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-13T15:04:47.500" Score="6" ViewCount="5164" Body="&lt;p&gt;The God Hanuman is such a strict celibate, I wonder whether his disciples too should follow his path. Can someone please illuminate on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3503" LastActivityDate="2015-08-13T17:36:54.070" Title="Do followers of Hanuman have to be celibate?" Tags="|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8123" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-13T17:33:10.867" Score="22" ViewCount="6388" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of Krishna's most famous deeds is his killing of the demon Narakasura, which is the inspiration of the holiday Deepavali. Narakasura was tormenting the gods and had even stolen the earrings of Indra's mother Aditi, so Indra sought the help of Krishna. As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3552/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna rode on Garuda, accompanied by his wife Satyabhama, to Narakasura's capital of Pragjyotishpura and defeated him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about Narakasura's past. Narakasura is also known as Bhauma, or son of Bhumidevi goddess of the Earth.  He was born to Bhumidevi and Vishnu's incarnation Varaha in a place called Kokamukha in modern-day Nepal, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/WYWt&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Brahma Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chaya, the Earth conceived by lord Boar generated asura Naraka known also by the name Bhauma. Lord Vishnu gave him Pragjyotisha, the capital city of Kamarupa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, how did the son of Vishnu's incarnation Varaha become so evil, to the point where Vishnu's incarnation Krishna had to kill him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only potential explanation I've found is the one described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=zrk0AwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PT807&amp;amp;dq=narakasura%20janaka%20kalika&amp;amp;pg=PT807#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to ... the Kalika Purana and other texts, he was the son of Bhumi or Bhudevi (Prithvi) and of the god Vishnu in his Varaha form.  The baby was left on the sacrificial ground of King Janaka of Mithila, and brought up by the kings, along with his sons.... He went to Pragjyotisha (Assam) and Naraka conquered the region ... and was made king by Vishnu.  Vishnu asked him to worship goddess Kamakhya, and none other.  Naraka was a wise and good ruler, but after he came in contact with Bana, king of Shonitapura, he began to pray to Shiva.  He neglected the goddess and oppressed his subjects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Banasura was the son of Mahabali and king of Shonitapura.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2231/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna's grandson Aniruddha fell in love with Bana's daughter Usha, and when Bana found out he kidnapped Aniruddha.  So Krishna went to Shonitapura and fought with Bana, with Shiva fighting on Bana's side because Bana was a devotee of Shiva.  Finally, the situation was resolved and Aniruddha and Usha got married.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any other scriptures that mention that it was Banasura who corrupted Narakasura?  The Kalika Purana is only an Upapurana (minor Purana), so preferably I'd like confirmation of this story from one of the 18 Mahapuranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T09:26:15.080" LastActivityDate="2024-01-26T12:17:28.747" Title="How did Varaha's son Narakasura become evil?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|asuras|varaha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8124" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8121" CreationDate="2015-08-13T17:36:54.070" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman is the God of family, he protects the family just like he saved Lord Ram's family. So, it is not that a devotee of Shri Hanuman cannot have a family.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The answer to this questions is yes&lt;/strong&gt;, Hanumaan bhakt (disciples) must celibate but this is until they get married. While they are into kishoravastha (youth), they should take fasts on Tuesday, celibate and pray to Lord Ram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sources: Personal experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="314" LastActivityDate="2015-08-13T17:36:54.070" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8126" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-13T19:28:05.853" Score="3" ViewCount="915" Body="&lt;p&gt;Judeo christian religious traditions has got a concept that , each person on earth has got a guardian angel to take care of his/her need. They keep monitoring each person ,  help their spiritual progress and try to communicate with him/her with different signs. If person is spiritually more evolved he can communicate with them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand that hinduism has got 33 crore devas , upadevas, gandharvas , kinnaras and other divine beings. But I could not find any reference to the concept of having an angel assigned to each person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the take of hinduism on guardian angel?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-06-02T06:03:01.333" LastActivityDate="2019-06-05T11:23:46.787" Title="Guardian Angels and Hinduism" Tags="|other-religions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8127" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-13T21:07:56.480" Score="5" ViewCount="577" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga41/yuddha_41_frame.htm&quot;&gt;Rama sends Angada to Ravana, to expostulate him and to bring him back to &lt;strong&gt;reason&lt;/strong&gt;. Angada tries his best to convince Ravana, but in vain.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; This, after knowing that Hanuma and Vibhishana tried doing the same and failed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why didn't Rama follow the same standard in Vali's case. Is it because he already promised Sugreeva that he would kill Vali? What is (if there is) Rama's standard for sparing or punishing your enemy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2015-08-19T07:23:43.583" Title="Why didn't Rama try to convince Vali, give a second chance before killing him" Tags="|ramayana|rama|vali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2015-11-09T19:55:44.640" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8129" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8135" CreationDate="2015-08-14T03:20:24.870" Score="4" ViewCount="734" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that the word Vendanta has two parts 'Veda' and 'Anta'. Anta means end. I have read that Vedanta is nothing but Updanishads. I have seen people using the term Veda and Vedanta as if they are same. Please can someone clarify why Upanishands are called Vendanta (If so!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3478" LastEditorUserId="3478" LastEditDate="2018-11-29T10:26:36.973" LastActivityDate="2018-11-29T10:26:36.973" Title="Why is Vedanta called so and what is its relationship with Upanishads?" Tags="|vedanta|upanishads|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8133" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-14T07:05:38.383" Score="18" ViewCount="31805" Body="&lt;p&gt;What to do when a vow of controlled (self-imposed) brahmacharya has been broken? The vow is not actually a vow of celibacy (as in the case of a Sannyasin). Here the aspirant controlled himself by this vow for a month by thinking about Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now what kind of punishment must the aspirant undergo for the breakage of such a self-imposed vow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3513" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-03T21:24:28.537" LastActivityDate="2020-07-18T12:50:15.883" Title="What to do when a self-imposed vow is broken? Is there a punishment?" Tags="|karma|sin|indriyas|brahmacharya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8134" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8133" CreationDate="2015-08-14T08:44:15.317" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/47&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 2 Verse 47&lt;/a&gt; divided:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(1) You have a right to perform action&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (2) Not the fruits of action&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (3) &lt;strong&gt;Don't be the cause of the fruits (generated from action)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (4) Never be attached to inaction&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the vow is broken, then think of it as God's grace or will. Whatever comes on way, be it punishment, just accept it.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In your perspective:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Your duty is to give up masturbation as per intuition. Whatever smaller amount of time, you can control that desire, it's worth. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Suppose you broke that vow even after convincingly trying hard, then&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;don't credit on yourself&lt;/strong&gt;; Continue towards what you decided&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Again if the vow gets broken early/late, just leave those fruits on&#xA;god and keep trying&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Don't demoralize yourself not to continue your perseverance&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just act based on natural intuition (thoughts from your conscience) and don't worry about its fruits. Disallow self from any kind of harm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my personal opinion, taking a &quot;vow&quot; is an unnatural thing, because it binds you. One should make certain action/inaction in practice. Usually a &quot;vow&quot; attaches one with the material world. But as all &quot;attachments&quot; are ought to be broken, all the &quot;vows&quot; are also meant to be broken. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 6.24 — That &lt;em&gt;yoga&lt;/em&gt; (with god) to be practiced without deviation;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;All &lt;em&gt;Sankalpa&lt;/em&gt; (vows) born out of desires should be given up&#xA;  completely&lt;/strong&gt;; All senses from all sides should be regulated by mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna broke the vow of raising weapons during Kurukshetra war when he decided to kill the indefeasible Bhishma.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Arjuna also broke a vow (upon Krishna's advice) by Not killing Yudhishtira. The vow can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna, casting his eyes on Yudhishthira, and breathing like an angry snake, said unto Govinda, &quot;I would cut off the head of that man who would tell me 'Give thy Gandiva to another person.&quot; Even this is my secret vow. Those words have been spoken by this king, O thou of immeasurable prowess, in thy presence, O Govinda! I dare not forgive them. I will for that slay this king who himself fears the slightest falling from virtue. Slaying this best of men, I will keep my vow. It is for this that I have drawn the sword, O delighter of the Yadus. Even I, slaying Yudhishthira, will pay off my debt to truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is not to suggest, &quot;make &amp;amp; break&quot; a vows. Rather, it's better to be away from them. If it has to be taken in unavoidable circumstances, then one should also be ready to break it in unavoidable circumstances. Let your conscience define: avoidable vs unavoidable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-03-15T08:52:54.253" LastActivityDate="2016-03-15T08:52:54.253" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8135" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8129" CreationDate="2015-08-14T10:52:48.657" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedanta means end of the Vedas, it is the cumulation of the Vedas. The Upanishads which teach the Vedanta are spread throughout different parts of different Vedas. Lord Sri Rama says in the Muktika Upanishad (Adhyaya I):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Hanuman, listen to Me. I shall truly describe to you the nature of the Vedanta. The Vedas were generated manifold through the exhalation of my breath as Vishnu. Like the oil in sesamum seed, Vedanta is latent in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and later:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of this there is no doubt. O son of Vayu, these 108 Upanishads, which are the essence of all Upanishads and are capable of destroying all sins through their mere study, have been imparted by Me to you as a disciple. This science of the 108 Upanishads taught by Me, is an occult one and will free persons from bondage, whether they read them with or without knowledge. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-08-14T10:52:48.657" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8136" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-14T13:58:29.333" Score="2" ViewCount="1518" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do we worship ‘Tulsi’ plant at homes and Peepal Tree at Temple&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3461" LastActivityDate="2015-08-14T18:37:45.037" Title="Why do we worship ‘Tulsi’ plant and Peepal Tree?" Tags="|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-08-16T19:59:41.803" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8138" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-14T14:05:16.590" Score="7" ViewCount="1471" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I was travelling in train, I saw some people throwing coins in the river, so why do people throw them in the river? Is there any reason behind doing this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3461" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-18T09:59:55.280" LastActivityDate="2020-06-18T09:59:55.280" Title="Why do people throw coins in the river?" Tags="|belief|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8139" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8136" CreationDate="2015-08-14T18:28:40.577" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Various trees have been associated with various deities. Ashwatta or Peepal tree has been specially associated with Lord Krishna. In Gita (10.26), he declares that among the trees, he is the “Ashwatta”. Similarly, Rudraksha (meaning Rudra’s eyes) seeds are associated with Shiva, Banyan tree is associated with Brahma, Ashoka tree is associated with Kaama (God of Love) and Palasha tree is associated with Soma or Moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Almost all Hindu deities are associated with one plant or the other. This association must be understood properly. Trees like Peepal and Banyan are living representation of the Gods. Hence, those Gods can be worshiped directly through the trees without having to invoke Gods into an idol or fire. It is for this reason that Lord Krishna says he is the Peepal among the Trees, denoting that Peepal tree is home to Vishnu-tattva. Hence, a worship of Peepal is same as worshiping Vishnu in an idol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Trees and plants can be worshiped as a direct manifestation of various deities, or as objects conducive to the worship of those deities. Another way of worshiping the trees is by showing reverence to their life-force.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may like to read my full article on this- &quot;Why we worship Trees?&quot; here- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newsgram.com/natural-oneness-why-trees-are-revered-in-hinduism/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.newsgram.com/natural-oneness-why-trees-are-revered-in-hinduism/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="3477" LastEditDate="2015-08-14T18:37:45.037" LastActivityDate="2015-08-14T18:37:45.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8140" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8129" CreationDate="2015-08-14T19:04:56.363" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas or Sruti basically consists of two parts- karma-khanda about rituals and Jnana-khanda about ultimate Knowledge. The upanishads which deal with Brahma-Jnana (God realization) is called the end of Vedas, because it deal with the final attainment of Moksha, where as Karmakhanda deal with Dharma and other purushartas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;End of Vedas here refer to attainment of ultimate goal of life- Moksha. Hence, Upanishads are called as end of Vedas or Vedanta. Also the philosophy and world-view based on these Upanishads are called as &quot;Vedanta&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-08-14T19:04:56.363" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8143" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8129" CreationDate="2015-08-15T07:18:46.133" Score="0" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva are the four Vedas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A Veda is divided into four parts, namely, Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka and Upanishad.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can be seen from the division that Upanishad forms the last part of a given Veda. Since Upanishad forms the end part of a Veda it is also called as Vedanta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3525" LastActivityDate="2015-08-15T07:18:46.133" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8144" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7790" CreationDate="2015-08-15T17:44:30.120" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, the answer needs a proper understanding of the concept of Karma. Hindu philosophy divides Karma into - Prarabdha, Sanchita and Agami. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanchita Karma is the store house of all past Karmas. It is our Causal body/Karana sharira.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prarabdha Karma refers to those Karmas which has started to give results. A person gets a birth, takes on a body based on this Prarabdha Karma. Hence, even at the time of birth, the fruits of actions which a person is supposed to face is already decided including the lifeline of a person. But, this is not static. This does not mean there is no role for free Will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fruits of Prarabdha Karmas manifest as various situations that a person faces, as various people that a person meets through rina, and as various mental impressions that govern one's decisions. But, inspite of all this, a person has a &quot;Free-Will&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The exertion of free will is called &quot;Agami Karma&quot; and it may give fruit in this life itself or may be stored as Sanchita to give fruits in future lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, though, a general lifeline of a person is decided right at birth, by free will, a person can elongate or shorten it. Example, Markandeya had very short life, but his devotion to Shiva, which was exertion of free will, resulted in Shiva granting him immortality. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, a person who performs too much adharma and cause sorrow to others, may also have his life shortened. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-16T03:16:35.390" LastActivityDate="2016-04-16T03:16:35.390" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8147" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-16T13:50:05.720" Score="3" ViewCount="3452" Body="&lt;p&gt;A number of people have opined that the Israelite/Jewish nation descended from the Yadu clan (Yadavas), and that the Mahabharata 'proves' this (such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://viewzone2.com/nephilim.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-398075&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://ramanan50.wordpress.com/tag/mahabharata-war/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com.au/books?id=WOQ5bucsDyAC&amp;amp;pg=PA23&amp;amp;lpg=PA23&amp;amp;dq=jews+mahabharata&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=oKm-XZWKzX&amp;amp;sig=n6DbucqDSvz7gesaQv_kE9OQFH8&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0CEkQ6AEwCWoVChMIoZHLkdutxwIVaHxyCh0whgwc#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=jews%20mahabharata&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;). E.g., some argue &quot;Ram&quot; is a variation of &quot;Abraham&quot;, Jews' spiritual impact on the world is due to their connection with Sri Krishna, etc. It all sounds rather thinly-supported to me, but are there any authorities or texts that support this interpretation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3458" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T11:06:21.667" LastActivityDate="2019-09-02T22:24:12.970" Title="Israelites/Jews descended from the Yadu?" Tags="|mahabharata|rama|chandravansh|yadavas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8150" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8109" CreationDate="2015-08-16T19:21:53.680" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna and rama are same but krishna is called purnavatar(full incarnation).&#xA;Every thing and every partical of this universe is Krishna. Krishna is inside us we are within Krishna.&#xA;One interesting thing you should know that Rama and krishna were exactly copy of each other except their eyes.&#xA;राम कृष्णा दोउ एक हैं, अंतर नहीं निमेष।&#xA;इनके नयन गंभीर हैं, उनके चपल विशेष।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3532" LastActivityDate="2015-08-16T19:21:53.680" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8151" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3191" CreationDate="2015-08-16T20:31:48.223" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;No one knows anything. The devotees of Vishnu say Lord Shiva meditates upon him, the devotees of Mata Shakti (Aadishakti) say he meditates on her. Different people have different opinions because no one wants to see their favourite deity look small in front of other but the truth is he doesn't meditate upon any other deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who says meditation is only done upon somebody? No it's not. Some people who are atheistic also meditate. They don't meditate upon anyone. As you know there are three primary deities: Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. Do you know why Shiva is called 'Mahesh'? What does it mean? 'Maha' + 'Ish' means Mahan Ishwar or you could say '&lt;em&gt;sabse bade&lt;/em&gt; Ishwar', above whom there is nothing, beyond whom there is nothing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's an order of power. From all deities to King of deities Devraj Indra. If he couldn't handle anything they go to Lord Brahma and if he can't handle something, he refers them to Lord Vishnu and if the problem still seems uncontrollable, they are referred to the Supreme God; The one who is Mahadev (Devo ke Dev). Whom all worship, humans, deities, even demons and ghosts: Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the question why he meditates? Whom upon he meditates? Answer is NO ONE. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He doesn't need to meditate upon anyone. He is the Supreme Soul. Aadi Shakti is his powers he is the controller. He meditates to control Yuga. He meditates to create situations and meaningful examples for our life like Ram and Ravan, Maa Durga and Shumb Nishumb etc. Every situation what happened what we read in Puranas and Upanishads was created by him only to give us a hidden message. He meditates to control the whole Universe and that is from within only. Whatever we see is him only and whatever that doesn't exist is also in him only. When there was nothing, it was him only. And when there will be nothing, only he will be present there. He is &lt;em&gt;anadi&lt;/em&gt;, he is &lt;em&gt;anant&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All deities even Lord Vishnu also worships him in all his avatars. And that is not hidden, all know Rama was Shiva bhakth, Parashuram was Shiva bhakth and even Krishna got boon of sons from him. He is beyond time cycle and everything he never takes birth like other Lords and there is a misunderstanding that Hanuman was his avatar. No he wasn't. He was his Ansh avatar not him. Now many would say Krishna said he is the supreme one in Gita. If you see what Gita is all about what Lord Krishna was trying to tell, you will see it's &quot;atma&quot; which is the supreme soul. What can't be killed what does not take birth. Because we all atma's are a part of parmatma. He gave knowledge of atma, knowledge of Gita on supreme soul's behalf..because he himself is a part of him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And yes now some of you must be thinking if Lord Shiva is the supreme power than why he needed Lord Vishnu to save his life from Bhasmasur I know some must be thinking. But no one knows about this incident exactly. The boon was given to him of burning anyone instantly if he puts his hand on that person's head. If Shiva wanted to kill him himself couldn't he kill by his trident (trishul) without letting him put his hand on his head? If Vishnu wanted to kill Bhasmasur couldn't he kill him by his disc (Sudarshan Chakra)? He could. They could. But still they didn't. Why? Have anyone of you try to understand why they didn't they kill him by their weapons? Why by dancing move? Let me tell you why. Because whatever happens has a hidden message behind it. And in that case this incident took place to show all of us an example that same boon (&lt;em&gt;vardhan&lt;/em&gt;) what we ask for and try to misuse after getting can turn into curse (&lt;em&gt;shrap&lt;/em&gt;) that was an example for all of us. We are very small creatures with too small minds to understand his leela.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm requesting to you all worship who you want to pray to Shiva, Krishna or Rama or anyone just don't try to show your favorite deity superior to Lord Shiva. Because your favorite deity themselves don't like it that you are insulting the one who they themselves worship. No matter which God you worship, you worship him only you can worship to yourself also because you are also a part of him. You are not distinct. It's written in Vedas: Shivoham (I am Shiva) Aham Bharmasami (&lt;em&gt;mein hi param brahma hu&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3534" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-18T22:46:58.660" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T22:46:58.660" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8153" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-17T08:46:04.250" Score="9" ViewCount="3130" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu, through his avatars, teaches us how to live. I was wondering what is the purpose of Krishna's elder brother Balarama. Also, it seems very odd from the other avatars of Vishnu, because each of the other avatars was born in a different yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the purpose of the Balarama avatara? And why did Vishnu decide to take two avatars in the same yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-19T16:12:54.197" LastActivityDate="2019-08-15T13:58:37.310" Title="What is the purpose of Balarama's avatara?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|balarama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8158" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22500" CreationDate="2015-08-17T11:53:22.533" Score="8" ViewCount="5205" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Brahmakumaris Hindu organization? Why do they claim that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.brahmakumari.net/the-end-1996-2000-2012-or-2036&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2036 will be end&lt;/a&gt; of world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They claim that flood will take place and then ice age will come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recently Scientists said that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/12/mini-ice-age-likely-from-2030-to-2040-european-sci/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;around 2030 to 2040 mini ice age will come&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recently I visited them they say natural calamities will end the world. America and Russia will raise world war. Is it true? One earthquake will destroy the entire america and another will destroy whole china.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmakumaris say we do not have much time, 2036 is very long period. but it is estimated that it can be very short. It is unexpected to predict when the war will start.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so according to them this is time to pray. They say leave everything and pray to Shiva. This is time to go back to Paramdham, which is home to souls this world is not home of souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is this true that 2036 will be the end of the world?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="13268" LastEditDate="2021-05-28T06:55:21.623" LastActivityDate="2021-05-28T06:55:21.623" Title="Is Brahmakumaris Hindu organization? Why Brahmakumaris say 2036 is end or the judgement day ? is it true?" Tags="|belief|calendar|brahmakumaris|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8160" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-17T15:37:40.143" Score="3" ViewCount="381" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Tamil TV serial &amp;quot;Ramanujar&amp;quot; is about the life story of Ramanujacharya, the most famous Acharya of the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member). (You can watch past episodes &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLelnUIRHiYy9b_CAoKsekKxHQqFNNFMyn&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; it's a great show.) In one recent episode, Ramanujacharya as a boy is learning the Vedas from his father when his father mentions that the Vedas begin with the Pranava, i.e. the word Om, which is made of the letters A, U, and M.  Ramanunacharya responds that the first three lines of Nammalwar's Thiruvaimozhi also begin with the letters A, U, and M.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, the Alwars are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu.  The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism, it is the beliefs and principles embodied in the Alwars' poems that gave his rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2755/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the most famous Alwars was Nammalwar, who spent his life under a banyan tree.  The collection of his poems, the Thiruvaimozhi, is often called the &amp;quot;Dravida Veda&amp;quot;, or South Indian Veda.  Here's the first verse of the Thiruvaimozhi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;U&lt;/strong&gt;yarvu aRa      uyar nalam    udaiyavan       yavan avan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;M&lt;/strong&gt;ayarvu aRa           madhi nalam             aruLinan    yavan avan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A&lt;/strong&gt;yarvu aRum        amarargaL           athipathi            yavan  avan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;thuyaraRu                 sudar adi          thozhuthezhu  enmananE!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Higher than the highest good - it's posessor - who    He&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remover of ignorance, giver of true knowledge, and grace - who    He&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remebering always -the liberated souls- their Supreme Lord - who    He&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Dispeller of sadness, with luminous feet: prostrate before them and get uplifted - Oh my mind&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, the first letters of the first three lines can be rearranged to spell out AUM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, does the first verse of Nammalwar's Thriuvaimozhi intentionally spell out AUM as the TV serial suggests, or is it just a coincidence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;http://divyaprabandham.koyil.org/index.php/2015/03/thiruvaimozhi-1-1-1-uyarvara-uyarnalam/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;web page&lt;/a&gt; contains information from a lot of different commentaries on the Thiruvaimozhi, but it doesn't mention this fact.  Are there any other commentaries or works by Sri Vaishnava Acharyas which say that the verse spells out AUM?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-05-31T19:59:15.637" LastActivityDate="2023-05-31T19:59:23.640" Title="Does the first verse of Nammalwar's Thiruvaimozhi intentionally spell out AUM?" Tags="|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|om|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8162" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="28308" CreationDate="2015-08-17T18:04:23.767" Score="10" ViewCount="7144" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read that maharishi Bhrigu was choosing which diety to invite to their maha-yagna and he was testing the tri-murties (Shiva,Vishnu, Brahma ).  During his test he was disappointed with Shiva and Brahma. He eventually cursed Shiva and Brahma. I wonder how is this even possible. Bhrigu is said to be son of Brahma. A man who was born on earth has such power to put curses on the creator and the destroyer. Or what I read is wrong ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-07-18T06:46:20.467" LastActivityDate="2018-07-22T09:46:40.483" Title="Why Maharishi Bhrigu was so powerful?" Tags="|puranas|rishi|bhrigu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8163" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8165" CreationDate="2015-08-17T18:37:37.297" Score="10" ViewCount="399" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lNUX8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lNUX8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know the name of this Hindu deity? Any help would be most appreciated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3541" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-09-01T07:19:07.110" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T06:52:18.837" Title="Does anyone know the name of this Hindu deity?" Tags="|gods|identification-request|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8164" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-17T19:17:12.613" Score="23" ViewCount="19821" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was Rama aware that he is an avatar of Vishnu (during his lifetime) and acted as normal or he just tried to be good human being?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3543" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-14T03:42:10.747" LastActivityDate="2022-03-30T17:41:50.370" Title="During his lifetime, did Rama know that he was a God?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|rama|avatars|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8165" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8163" CreationDate="2015-08-17T21:10:59.327" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Narasimha, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu with a Lion's face and a human body is worshipped across India. &lt;a href=&quot;http://hampi.in/story-of-narasimha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a reference for the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Tqz8A.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Tqz8A.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The serpent is Lord Adi Sesha or the divine thousand hooded snake, on whom Lord Vishnu rests.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="2880" LastEditDate="2015-08-18T11:45:40.240" LastActivityDate="2015-08-18T11:45:40.240" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8167" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8163" CreationDate="2015-08-18T01:22:35.610" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The deity shown may be that of Yakshagana for the murti is shown as holding / writing an manuscript.  Vijayanagara empire is known in history for encouraging literature, knowledge &amp;amp; arts.  Yakshagana are known to be quiz masters of hindu mythology &amp;amp; knowledge. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-08-18T01:22:35.610" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8168" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8153" CreationDate="2015-08-18T01:33:36.730" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Avatar purush when they take birth, they bring their supplementary ecosystem also.  In Ramayana, brother Laxmana is shown suspicious or apprehensive of schemy step mother Kaikeyi &amp;amp; her son Bharat.  Eldest brother Lord Rama always overrides such fears and being devoted brother, Laxmana obeyed it, but always nursed grouse if he had been elder brother, he would have done this and avoided that....etc..&#xA;To that statement, Lord Rama said that opportunity would be coming in next avatar rebirth i.e. Lord Krishna' elder brother Balarama.&#xA;In both cases, he had to either take orders from elder brother who had better understanding of the nature laws and rules, while in subsequent role, Lord Krishna displayed superior logic and compliance to the eternal destiny, so Balarama had no choice but to accept it.&#xA;So to say Balarama is an avatar (smaller / lesser), is ok, to the extent of his relation with Lord Krishna&#xA;In contrast, Balarama (Mahabharata) had more of family life, which he voluntarily forgone to serve his elder brother during the exile (Ramayana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-08-18T01:33:36.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8172" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7559" CreationDate="2015-08-18T02:20:21.473" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the seven chakras in human body are of spiritual awakening, each endowed with certain siddhis and these siddhis are spiritual siddhis come naturally with each awakened chakra automatically &#xA;These chakras give power to the individual to see what is generally unseeable. &#xA;i.e. ability to see beyond four concrete walls, through divine X-ray eyes, knowledge of future happenings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To a person holding knife or gun may be powerful.  However, the power in spirituality is to see things beyond the capability of normal human being &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-08-18T02:20:21.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8174" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8272" CreationDate="2015-08-18T07:10:00.390" Score="7" ViewCount="1094" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question is related to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1978/3499&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; , As a Hindu I also believe in life after &#xA;death and  rebirth. My question is where will be our soul in between death and  rebirth. Does it stay with the last life? I am asking because a sage said me about an unnatural death of a girl. Her father's death was also some thing unnatural. The sage said like she and her father soul is not standing together and they are so powerful to do some karma . Is it true? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edited&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What happens at Devaloka or Swarg?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3499" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T08:34:05.713" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T08:34:05.713" Title="Life after death" Tags="|atma|death|afterlife|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8175" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8164" CreationDate="2015-08-18T07:28:51.063" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Lord Rama knew that he was an incarnation. There is an incident at the time of Sita Swayamvar where when he accidently broke Lord Shiva's bow. Lord Parshuram, who was also an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, came to know of this and came there started talking angrily about who has broken the bow.When Lord Rama came forward to calm him down, Parshurama asked Lord Rama to show who he actually is. And then Lord Rama showed him his Vishnu form and thus Parshurama calmed down and returned back. This incident is there in Valmiki's Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was also an incident in Uttara kanda of Ramayana described &lt;a href=&quot;https://doc-0k-bc-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/ha0ro937gcuc7l7deffksulhg5h7mbp1/03qf6qh1i1pmfrpu9c58v160jkcm4t2j/1500962400000/02058467015715614041/*/0ByTrbPQHgxJdTFVOc1RodXVDSEE&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, where Lord Yamraj came in disguise of a sage to tell Lord Rama that His time is over on earth and if He wants to stay more or end His life as human being. Following is the extract of what Yamaraj said to Lord Rama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou didst use to protect the deities whenever they were assailed by any calamity. O lord of the universe, it is for that reason, on beholding the destruction of creatures thou wert born on earth to slay the Ten-necked demon. And at that time thou didst promise that thou wouldst live in the land of mortals for eleven thousand years. Thereupon thou didst assume a human form to carry out thine desire. Now that period is ripe and this is the proper time to inform thee of it. O great king, do thou wait in this land of mortals if dost thou wish to govern people for some time more. And if dost thou wish to repair to the region of immortals, do thou again lord over the deities in thy Vishnu form and let them be freed from anxiety.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama then agreed to depart the earth soon, for the welfare of the gods. So this clearly shows that Lord Rama knows about that He is God. Btw, this story is explained in detail in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2111/1018&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this, there are certain other instances also which might have let him know that he is not a normal being, eg, He was appointed to free Ahalya from her curse, He was being worshipped (not only being helped) by Lord Hanuman, Vibhishana, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-25T07:58:48.443" LastActivityDate="2017-07-25T07:58:48.443" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8177" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7342" CreationDate="2015-08-18T13:37:07.290" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sanskrit there are two meaning of the word &lt;strong&gt;Koti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Crore&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Type&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, we are making mistakes and interpret as a Crore rather than to interpret Type.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="526" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-08-19T06:07:10.517" LastActivityDate="2015-08-19T06:07:10.517" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8179" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-18T18:18:40.693" Score="1" ViewCount="147" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far I have read we have been only associated with radha only during the young years of Shree Krishna so my question say is what happened to her during later years?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2974" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-01-17T09:39:36.400" LastActivityDate="2018-01-17T09:39:36.400" Title="Where did radha go?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|radha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2018-02-01T08:51:54.777" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8180" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-18T18:27:13.633" Score="11" ViewCount="1302" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any short Mantra that shows its effect so that one can feel the visible change?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I mean is &lt;strong&gt;by chanting the mantra, some visible physical change has to happen immediately&lt;/strong&gt; (not so much time taking).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there is no such mantra, my doubt is that &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Are all Mantras only for mental change with no physical significance?&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2019-11-10T07:00:09.973" LastActivityDate="2019-11-10T07:00:09.973" Title="Any short mantra causing spontaneous visible physical change?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8181" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="574" CreationDate="2015-08-18T18:30:58.690" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;This answer is not my own but one I heard from a guru on the topic of 'samskaaramu' (manners) in &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/Y9vsnkHvBhk?t=1645&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this YouTube video&lt;/a&gt; (the language spoken is Telugu). His reasoning is something like the following. I found &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekalavya#Guru_dakshina&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;a similar explanation on wiki&lt;/a&gt; as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dronacharya is a learned person. A guru. Back then, not everyone was entitled to become a guru/teacher. Today anyone and everyone can become a teacher. You only need to pass an exam to prove your technical skills. There are no exams on ethics, even if there were, people would learn how to crack them. Also, back then, gurus picked their sishyas/disciples/students based not just on their eagerness to learn but also their character/eligibility/qualification.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A dog's dharma is to bark. It may bark when it faces strangers and even when it faces the owner himself with a mask covering his face not recognizing that he is the owner. When Dronacharya saw that Ekalavya used excessive force on a dog in the way that he did using 12 arrows, 6 from the top of the mouth and 6 from the bottom to seal the dog's mouth so it cannot bark again, he thought that &lt;strong&gt;someone who is not qualified to possess a skill has somehow acquired that skill&lt;/strong&gt; and may pose danger to the community. He foresees that Ekalavya if left unchecked, may pose a threat to everyone, hence asks for his thumb as gurudakshina for the general good of the public.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-28T05:55:54.843" LastActivityDate="2016-01-28T05:55:54.843" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8182" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-18T18:55:01.337" Score="2" ViewCount="216" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is this a Hindu Goddess?  If yes which one and what do they represent? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RAiCA.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3550" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-09-01T07:19:15.773" LastActivityDate="2018-08-01T12:40:05.923" Title="Is this a Hindu deity?" Tags="|goddess|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8183" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2331" CreationDate="2015-08-18T19:43:10.923" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;People, this is not even a debate. Are we really discussing whether a child, who mistook the Sun as a fruit and went on grab and eat it, is all powerful or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vali, Ravan or anyone except the almighty himself are no match for him. It is theoretically impossible to defeat Hanuman. He is one of five immortals, so simply no one can kill him. He has a boon from Brahma that no one can kill him with any weapon in war. His body is tougher than Vajra (the toughest material in the world, better than Adamantium I can assure you. :) ). He is faster than wind, water can't drown him (courtesy of Varundev), fire can't burn him (courtesy of Agnidev), he can shapeshift (courtesy of Suryadev) and he is a nishkam yogi so women cannot manipulate him. (This was actually the reason why Vali and Ravana were punished in the first place.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the reasons why Hanuman didn't kill Vali is because only Ikshwaku descendants, who were the rulers of the region, had the rights to punish Vali for his misdeeds. Hanuman wouldn't disobey Ram. After all, he is an ideal devotee and &quot;das&quot; of Rama which is his topmost power \ weapon. Rama wouldn't let any harm come to his Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who need a reference, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman#Honours&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here it is&lt;/a&gt;. We all know this to be true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3549" LastActivityDate="2015-08-18T19:43:10.923" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8184" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3130" CreationDate="2015-08-19T01:01:07.973" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all not all Brahmins use same mantras for Achamanam.Example under Smartha Brahmin tradition it is as below naming names of 3 vedas.&#xA;Om Rigvedaya namah&#xA;Om Yajurvedaya namah&#xA;Om Samavavedaya namah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't believe you can point these practices to any specific authentic shastras as most are defendant on various traditions that they are following most likely has root in some Rishi parampara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3551" LastActivityDate="2015-08-19T01:01:07.973" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8185" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7804" CreationDate="2015-08-19T01:08:21.907" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most likely zero originated from this mantra of Upanishads describing the nature of supreme deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पुर्णमुदच्यते&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पूर्णश्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Puurnnam-Adah Puurnnam-Idam Puurnnaat-Purnnam-Udacyate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Puurnnashya Puurnnam-Aadaaya Puurnnam-Eva-Avashissyate ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; Om, That is complete (full, perfect, whole), This is complete (full, perfect, whole), From the completeness comes the completeness If completeness is taken away from completeness, Only completeness remains Om, Peace, peace, peace&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3551" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-15T12:35:21.757" LastActivityDate="2016-03-15T12:35:21.757" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8186" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6750" CreationDate="2015-08-19T01:13:22.227" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not just women many men put red do in between eyebrows too. However for men practice has been restricted to Devi worshipers, traditional poojaris.&#xA;It is believed that Aajna chakra is in between eyebrows also signified by Shiva's 3rd eye upon which it is customary to meditate for Moksha and Jnana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3551" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-08-19T06:07:49.367" LastActivityDate="2015-08-19T06:07:49.367" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8187" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6593" CreationDate="2015-08-19T01:20:16.950" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Name shruti came from user's perspective not from drustara's perspective.&#xA;As Shurti mean one which is learned only though listening and repeating from Guru.While Smriti by reading from book/something written.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;see below sloka on rules for learning Veda's. One of them is &quot;Likitapaathakaa:&quot; chanting mantras by reading from book!.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;geetI, shIGrI, shira:kaMpi, tathaa liKitapaaThaka: |&#xA;anarthajnO,alpakaMThashcha paDEtE paaThakaadhamaa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3551" LastActivityDate="2015-08-19T01:20:16.950" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8188" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8180" CreationDate="2015-08-19T04:16:07.743" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will try to describe the utility of mantra and how it works. Though &lt;em&gt;Sai, has already suggested a very good resource to understand Mantras.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mantra :&lt;/strong&gt; I will not discuss the definition. A Mantra is not what is written on a scripture, though Sanskrit being a versatile language to give most close assumption of how a word should sound. Any word on earth has significant important values like pitch,frequency,volume,echo, taal and many other factors. A mantra is a complete combination of all these, not only words or as they are written in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mantra Siddhi :&lt;/strong&gt; This is important to understand to clear your question. &lt;em&gt;A Mantra Siddhi is recognition or remembrance of all the values of sound required for a mantra to work perfectly&lt;/em&gt;. It is like remembering a song and reproducing it as close as possible( that's why songs are given so importance in path of spirituality in Hinduism ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Example&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;code&gt;Om Yum Namah&lt;/code&gt;, mostly suggested to cure meager cancers. Here we know we have to start the Mantra with Om, but we don't know how long each word is to be said, and at what pitch or frequency, and or what combinations of sur and taal are required for the Mantra. We will bluntly read the Mantra as it is. Though reading it thousands of time, there will be situations where we would be close to the actual nature of Mantra and by time we might heal the cancer too, but that would not be quick.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though a person who gains Siddhi, as learned at what pitch,frequency, sur and taal the mantra would work best, and the person with Siddhi when performs this mantra the result would be much quicker as expected, may be at an instant depending upon the level of Sidhhi he sought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are all mantras only for mental change ?&lt;/strong&gt; All Mantras work on sound energy, none of the Mantra is sought through reading, all Mantras are mandatory to recite, as sound energy is involved in a Mantra, Mantras are mostly for Physical and Spiritual change only, though mental health depends on physical behavior of body and spiritual integrity of mind thus mental change is influenced accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summing Up :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;code&gt;Whether a Mantra will be quick or take time, depends on two factors, the nature of Mantra and the Nature of the person who's reciting it&lt;/code&gt;. A person with a Siddhi for a particular Mantra will make a Mantra's response much faster than a person without it. And a Mantra which is made slow in response will always react slowly for the Siddhi gained human, but will be enormously slow for a normal person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="3703" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T08:28:03.170" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T08:28:03.170" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8190" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-19T04:37:13.167" Score="3" ViewCount="103" Body="&lt;p&gt;In some Hindu communities, on death of father, son removes his own hair and keep a choti (a small bundle of hair on head at tail part.). What is the reason for  shaving the hair?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3461" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-08-19T16:05:04.977" LastActivityDate="2015-08-19T16:12:51.293" Title="Why people donate hair on funeral of relatives?" Tags="|belief|customs|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-12-28T10:12:00.753" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8191" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15856" CreationDate="2015-08-19T05:11:43.377" Score="7" ViewCount="2437" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are some examples of forgiveness, endurance, patience and restraint from Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One story that comes to my mind is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga32/bala_32_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;story of Kushanaabha and his 100 daughters&lt;/a&gt; whose self-control maybe the reason why we are breathing &lt;code&gt;vayu&lt;/code&gt; and are alive today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-08-19T15:04:27.470" LastActivityDate="2016-11-12T23:09:38.337" Title="What are some examples of forgiveness, endurance, patience and restraint from Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8192" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8127" CreationDate="2015-08-19T07:23:43.583" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are a lot of differences in both the cases&#xA;But in the end Dharma is the seed for any/all of Rama's decisions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please think along the following lines:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Case 1: Vali and Sugreeva -&#xA;Vali and Sugreeva are own brothers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vali did ill things to Sugreeva in an unprovoked manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vali was not any stranger to Sugreeva (which is the case with Ravana and Rama). He lusted for his own brother's wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And not just that - a brother also snatching all the material, emotional and social belongings of his own brother is in itself a crime.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the water had reached well above the nose - and hence it was a clear decision to make there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Case 2- On Ravana and Rama&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana was a stranger, equally established, devotee and powerful emperor as was Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana might have been provoked by what was done to his sister.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana was a mighty king himself and hence Rama spared him a chance to get educated...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And before sending Angada - Hanuma was sent to assess the strength of Ravana.&#xA;And according to Hanuma - Ravana has not touched Sita at all - and he was willing to wait till Sita accepts him, by all means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Had Rama approached Vali - he could have got Sita very easily, as Ravana got defeated by Vali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Rama chose Dharma and hence chose Sugreeva for help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3555" LastActivityDate="2015-08-19T07:23:43.583" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8193" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-19T11:46:08.120" Score="5" ViewCount="1434" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaishnavism&lt;/strong&gt; people claim that &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; is Superior where as &lt;strong&gt;Saivism&lt;/strong&gt; people claim that &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; is. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These people have proof of their &lt;strong&gt;puranas&lt;/strong&gt; which backs-up their claims.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any strong proof which can clear this doubt (obviously not &lt;strong&gt;Purana&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read many scriptures regarding this doubt.All are giving me different opinions. Then I found out this website related to Hinduism. I have been reading answers here too but still it's not clear for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everywhere I found some blind followers who do not even care to listen the complete question, get offended and said &lt;strong&gt;their&lt;/strong&gt; lord is superior and gave rude opinions about others. They do not care for feeling of others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do their &lt;strong&gt;lord&lt;/strong&gt; and their &lt;strong&gt;purana&lt;/strong&gt; teaches them &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-&gt; To be rude to others who don't believe their &lt;strong&gt;lords&lt;/strong&gt; is superior?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-&gt; To insult others &lt;strong&gt;lords&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3558" LastActivityDate="2015-08-19T13:39:38.650" Title="Who is superior? Shiva or Vishnu or Brahma?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|puranas|brahma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ClosedDate="2015-08-19T14:21:27.077" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8194" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3759" CreationDate="2015-08-19T11:55:51.357" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Throwing of axe into the sea is just an allegory. Parasurama fought the land with Axe, from malayars(mountain people) and thirayyars(coastal people) and donated it to the brahmins who later settled as namboothris in kerala.He donated the land to brahmins in order to clean the sin of killing Kshatriyas. Before Parasurama avatar(6th avatar), it was the Vamana avatar(5th avatar). Vamana punished Mahabali Chakravarthy by sending him to Suthala. But made him the ruler of Suthala loka. Yes,Mahabali did yagna on Narmada banks. He was a not a king, but Chakravarthy who is 10 times powerful and superior than a king. His ruling area was vast, having Kerala as his Capital !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3559" LastActivityDate="2015-08-19T11:55:51.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8196" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8193" CreationDate="2015-08-19T13:39:38.650" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;First you need to understand the concept that SHIVA, VISHNU AND BRAHMA are not human forms with four heads, six hands, snakes around neck and three eyed!&#xA;SHIVA,VISHNU, BRAHMA are MORPHOGENIC COSMIC FIELDS which produce enormous energy and vibration like magnetic and electric fields! Their forms are just depicted in human forms for easier understanding. For example: The third eye of shiva represents the awakening of pineal gland. The snakes around neck represents raised kundalini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. Avatars were the awakened beings who walked on this earth for real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3560" LastActivityDate="2015-08-19T13:39:38.650" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8198" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8004" CreationDate="2015-08-19T20:43:28.470" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;To understand this you should know the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3073/what-are-five-layers-pancha-kosha-of-human&quot;&gt;Five Layers of Human body&lt;/a&gt;, though its been described &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3073/what-are-five-layers-pancha-kosha-of-human&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I will just put the brief overview of them, and will talk only about the two which are related to your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The five layers being&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Annamaya kośa — Food filled sheath  ------------------------ GROSS BODY&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prāṇamaya kośa — Life air filled sheath -------------------- SUBTLE BODY&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manōmaya kośa — Mind filled sheath ------------------------- SUBTLE BODY&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vijñānamaya kośa — Knowledge filled sheath (Intellect)-- SUBTLE BODY&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ānandamaya kośa — Bliss filled sheath ---------------------- CAUSAL BODY&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The body in which we are currently living into is GROSS BODY or Annamaya Kosa, &lt;em&gt;when we die ( mostly said as Pran left the body ), is equivalent to the SUBTLE BODY AND THE CAUSAL BODY leaving the GROSS BODY&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To better understand, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;the soul actually reside in the CAUSAL BODY&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, when someone dies, only the GROSS PART of the BODY dies, hence the SUBTLE PART AND THE CAUSAL PART are still alive. The Manomaya Kosa of Subtle body is responsible for keeping memories and Vijnanamaya Kosa for keeping the intellect, they both go with the dead non GROSS part of the body. The Subtle body being Subtle in nature, remembers the shape and form of the originial body ie. Anamaya Kosa or Gross body, hence takes the form when leaving it, that's why the Ghost possess the same shape as the Gross part of them( when they were alive ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DEAD part of the body, I will call as SUBTLE+CAUSAL&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, actually goes through heaven or hells depending on the Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though different scholars possess different views.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The scholars according to whom, the heaven and hell is just another dimension of earth, quote as the SUBTLE+CAUSAL to go equally through them without alterations and cut there Karma, either bad or good. The Manomaya Kosa remembers the pain or happiness the DEAD part goes through, and the Vijnanamay Kosh keeps trained the DEAD part for future.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is another branch of scholars which believe that Heaven and Hells are all different planetary systems, with different rules to govern and different society of people living there. Hence according to the Karma, the DEAD part of the body, gets a new Annamaya Kosh or GROSS BODY ( alternatively called as gets birth ) in heaven or hell, and then they go through the happiness and pain accordingly. It is same as taking birth in another planet, the only difference being the habitat and prosperity of the planet.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For complete liberation of the soul, it has to come out of all the FIVE layers of body, which is not done by death. &lt;strong&gt;Death is just liberation from ANNAMAYA KOSA.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-20T05:33:10.473" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8199" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="598" CreationDate="2015-08-20T02:01:12.877" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Saraswati was not born from Bramha's relationship with any other woman. She was created by Bramha just the way he created everything else. I mean if he created Himalaya and if he created Shiva then isn't Shiva, Parvati's uncle? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Incest is a very modern concept probably derived from practical experience than inbreeding leads to defects. I dont think it can be applied in a mythological structure like this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3194" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-08-20T11:14:58.273" LastActivityDate="2015-08-20T11:14:58.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8203" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-20T08:14:17.760" Score="7" ViewCount="662" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Narasimha and Lord Varaha are incarnations of Lord Vishnu but unlike other incarnations eg, Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Nara-Narayana, Lord Vamana, etc, I do not see them to be having a full life span. They seem to be incarnations for fulfilling a purpose and as soon as that purpose is fulfilled we donot find what more happened in their life. Ofcourse there is a story of Lord Narasimha fighting Lord Shiva who was in Sharabha form but not more than that. Do we have any account of lives of Lord Narasimha and Lord Varaha apart from their main incidents of killing of Hiranyakashyapa and Hiranyaksh and the one I briefed above. Also, is their any mention of whether they are still alive or about their death or submerging into Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2015-09-02T13:36:23.733" Title="After lives of Lord Narasimha and Lord Varaha" Tags="|vishnu|narasimha|varaha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8206" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8218" CreationDate="2015-08-20T10:22:17.697" Score="17" ViewCount="3983" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there something in scriptures which compels a Brahmin to be a pure vegetarian or can he eat non-vegetarian food if his health forces him to do so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="314" LastActivityDate="2019-03-07T19:38:06.683" Title="Should a Brahmin be vegetarian?" Tags="|food|brahmins|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8207" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-20T16:08:58.553" Score="5" ViewCount="737" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am assuming present time which we are living as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;kali yuga&lt;/a&gt; and also it is the last of the four yugas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These words were taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://openrevolt.info/2012/09/01/kalki-the-next-avatar-of-god-and-the-end-of-kali-yuga/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is said that everyone will become godless. Whatever devotees,&#xA;  bhaktas, and sages are left on the planet will be so unique in&#xA;  character and peculiar compared with the rest of society that they&#xA;  will be ridiculed and hunted down in the cities for sport like&#xA;  animals.Thus, they will flee the cities to live underground in caves&#xA;  or high up in the mountains, or simply disengage from the earthly&#xA;  plane of existence. In this way, they will disappear from the face of&#xA;  the earth. That is the time when the dark influence of the age of&#xA;  Kali-yuga will become so dominant that its full influence will&#xA;  manifest without hindrance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know we cant prevent the ultimate fall to dark ages but Is there any duties which a Hindu or a human being should follow in this yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="117" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T17:38:37.630" LastActivityDate="2019-01-18T15:17:34.163" Title="What are the do's and don'ts a Hindu (or any human being) should follow in Kali Yuga?" Tags="|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8208" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-20T18:42:41.017" Score="6" ViewCount="289" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have always noticed how a Christian wedding and an Islamic Nikaah both mandate that the consent of both the parties be given for the union to be sanctioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, I haven't seen anything similar in a traditional Hindu wedding. Do we have something similar? If so, I'd like to know more about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3567" LastEditorUserId="238" LastEditDate="2015-08-21T11:00:34.483" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T06:51:43.110" Title="Is there a ritual of &quot;consent&quot; for both the parties in a traditional Hindu marriage?" Tags="|marriage|christianity|islam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8209" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8230" CreationDate="2015-08-20T20:01:06.640" Score="7" ViewCount="2188" Body="&lt;p&gt;Today I read that Ekalavya (student of Dronacharya who practiced in front of Dronacharya's statue) is the cousin of Lord Krishna and Krishna killed him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How are they cousins?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3053" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-15T06:10:47.857" LastActivityDate="2018-01-15T06:10:47.857" Title="Was Ekalavya the cousin of Krishna?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|chandravansh|yadavas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8210" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-20T21:17:38.420" Score="7" ViewCount="1792" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any references in Vedas, ithihasas and puranas or any scriptures about birth of Siva or Rudra? Also, shiva purana says that Siva also has incarnations. So are all these incarnations still alive or some of them died and merged with Siva? Also are there any instances that he died or merged with supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Request to please provide references from genuine scriptures(Vedas, upanishads, ithihasas, puranas etc) as support and not some wild fantacies or speculations or allegations as answers or comments&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-09T08:17:11.160" LastActivityDate="2023-12-03T12:34:21.727" Title="Is Shiva or Rudra born and is he still alive? Was he killed or merged with supreme brahman at any point of time?" Tags="|shiva|vedas|scripture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8211" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8528" CreationDate="2015-08-20T23:04:59.563" Score="9" ViewCount="1943" Body="&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Khanda says, that King sagara of Ikshwaku dynasty had two wives. The elder wife of King Sagara is referred as Kesini, daughter of King of Vidarbha . Asamanja, was born to her. Asamanja's son was Anshuman. Asamanja was banished from the kingdom by his father King Sagara, as Asamanja used to indulge in otracious act of throwing little children into waters of sarayu and see them struggle and die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The younger wife of King Sagara is named Sumati. She is referred as daughter of Sage Kashyapa( Aristanemi). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana further says , this Sumati is verily the sister of Suparna or Garuda, the celestial carrier of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sumati gave birth to 60000 valiant sons who were later burnt to ashes by the great sage Kapila (Avatara of Lord Vishnu), when they went in search of the sacrificial horse to the lower worlds. Bhagaritha brought ganga for emancipation of these 60000 dead sons of Sumati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have heard and many know that Garuda was born to Sage Kashyapa prajapati and Vinata. Another son born to them was Anoora or Arunaa?, the elder brother of Garuda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the question is &quot;Was Sumati the daughter of Vinata?(the divine mother of Garuda)&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptural references which say that Sumati was daughter of Vinata and Kashyapa?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Otherwise, Why is Sumati referred as sister of Garuda in Valmiki Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-13T15:00:28.497" LastActivityDate="2015-09-13T15:00:28.497" Title="How is Queen Sumati, the younger wife of King Sagara of Ikshwaku dynasty related to Suparna a.k.a Garuda?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8212" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-21T02:32:55.123" Score="2" ViewCount="398" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why did asuras like Ravana, Narakasura, Kansa, Tarakasura pray to Brahma only and why did Brahma give so many boons to them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shouldn't the asuras not be given any boons knowing that they are asuras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-03-20T16:47:43.417" LastActivityDate="2017-03-20T16:47:43.417" Title="Brahma giving boons to asuras" Tags="|brahma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8213" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-21T02:38:36.020" Score="4" ViewCount="3618" Body="&lt;p&gt;In which Yuga was Tarakasur born?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was he born in Satya Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, Tetra Yuga and which Maha Yuga of which Manavtar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T19:20:51.527" LastActivityDate="2021-10-28T20:48:34.533" Title="In which Yuga was Tarakasur born?" Tags="|yuga|time|asuras|birth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8214" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-21T02:44:44.907" Score="4" ViewCount="1316" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tarkasura got a boon from Brahma that only Shiva's son could kill him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that Tarkasura defeated Vishnu in that fight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can Vishnu get defeated? He is the Supreme Being and everything revolves round him. So how can he be defeated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone is an ANSH of Vishnu. So Vishnu should be able to control his own ANSH. Isn't it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="2514" LastEditDate="2015-08-22T05:02:40.747" LastActivityDate="2018-08-18T08:57:04.553" Title="Tarkasura's fight with Ganesha, Kartikeya and Vishnu" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8215" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-21T05:06:20.940" Score="5" ViewCount="18999" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was looking at some facebook posts and below is a pic I found in a post.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/LK15w.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/LK15w.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do we have any providence about this in hindu puranas??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or someone has just put this without any knowledge or for fun or getting likes on facebook?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2656" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T13:55:49.967" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T13:55:49.967" Title="Height of lord shiva?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8216" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8215" CreationDate="2015-08-21T05:52:10.460" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think all this stuff about height about Shivji is misguided.&#xA;As Shiv puran has it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Vishnu and Brahma couldn't decide who was greater among them, they saw a pillar. Its end couldn't be seen. So it was decided that the first one to find its end would be greater amongst the two Gods.&#xA;  Actually God Shiva appeared as in an infinite linga (pillar). And Vishnuji tried to find the bottom of the Linga while Bramhaji tried to find its top. Both couldn't and Brahma ji lied about finding the end and was cursed. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lord Shiva tells them that it's his true form. He has no beginning and no end. He was never born nor could he die. Thus infinite pillar conveys the infinite nature of Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, anything about the height of Lord Shiv is completely stupid. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="314" LastActivityDate="2015-08-21T05:52:10.460" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8217" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2970" CreationDate="2015-08-21T08:37:26.937" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Regard less of true story of Moraya Gosavi, that doesn't make anysense to say &quot;Ganpati Bappa Moraya&quot;... Actually splitting the word Moraya as &quot;Mhora ya&quot; means &quot;come ahead and bless us&quot; make sense here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus &lt;em&gt;&quot;Ganapati Bappa Moraya&quot;&lt;/em&gt; means &lt;em&gt;&quot;Lord Ganesha Bless us&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;(Here Bappa is used for Lord...)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If in case you're interested in reading one of the famous prayers with english translation, follow the link. &lt;a href=&quot;http://kedar.nitty-witty.com/blog/ganapati-aarti-sukhkarta-dukhharta-with-english-translation-free-download-mp3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganpati Aarti (with Translation)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3568" LastEditorUserId="3568" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T15:04:39.763" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T15:04:39.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8218" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8206" CreationDate="2015-08-21T09:26:57.307" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many of our scripture are the inverse of rationality, especially in today's time. Respecting this sites rules, I will refer the text from Bhagavad Gita (BG), which I feel still relevant to this date (not saying that it's the only relevant text). I would refer links from Vedabase website, but it's recommended to understand Sanskrit or read other similar sources as there are some mistranslation in their English.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Brahmin&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, we need to be on the same level of the definition of &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Brahmin&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. The 4 sections of society are created by lord:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 4.13&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the three modes of &lt;strong&gt;material nature &amp;amp; the work&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  associated with them, the &lt;em&gt;four divisions&lt;/em&gt; of human society are&#xA;  created by Me. And although I am the creator of this system, you&#xA;  should know that I am yet the wonder, being unchangeable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahmin &gt; Kshatriya &gt; Vaishya &gt; Shudra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;divisions are based on their &lt;em&gt;nature &amp;amp; work&lt;/em&gt;. &quot;Nature&quot; is derived from an arbitrary combination of &lt;em&gt;Satva + Rajas + Tamas&lt;/em&gt; and &quot;Work&quot; is derived from one's &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So leave behind the mooted notion that the division system is based on surnames/caste/family. After that, you would be able to accept the divisional superiority (as indicated above) without any controversy!  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In today's time, we can over-simplistically divide the people as below based on &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahmin: Seekers.&lt;/em&gt;==&gt; scientists, teachers, spirituals, philosophers &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kshatriya: Warriors.&lt;/em&gt;==&gt; army, police/security, politicians, sportsmen&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vaishya: Traders.&lt;/em&gt;==&gt; businessmen, merchants, artists&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shudra: Workers.&lt;/em&gt;==&gt; social servers, all jobs in various fields&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One might have a genuine doubt, ultimately teacher/scientist is also employed, then is he Brahmin or Shudra? A politician makes so much money, is he Kshatriya or Vaishya.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So here comes the division based on &lt;em&gt;Nature&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahmin&lt;/em&gt;: works for &lt;em&gt;Enlightenment&lt;/em&gt; of self/society&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt;: works for &lt;em&gt;Pride&lt;/em&gt; of self/society&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt;: works for &lt;em&gt;Fulfilment&lt;/em&gt; of self/society&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt;: works for &lt;em&gt;Service&lt;/em&gt; of self/society&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the 4 divisions are respectable and required for any society to run. This is how, you can divide the whole world into 4 sections irrespective of religion. e.g. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam being a Muslim is more Brahmin than Mangal Pandey (born in Brahmin family) who was in British military and fought later against it in 1857.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Today, we are living in a &lt;strong&gt;hybrid society&lt;/strong&gt; which was worried by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/1/40&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arjuna&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/24&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna&lt;/a&gt; both during the discourse of Gita.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Non-vegetarian food&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Looking at how a Brahmin would behave like, do you feel he needs to eat non-vegetarian?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A person who is a seeker of truth &amp;amp; knowledge and who works for enlightenment would not care for the fulfilment of taste buds and level of bank balance. There is nothing wrong if he does, but then he is more of a Vaishya than a Brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Counter questions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Forget scriptures. What if the question of survival?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yes, in such case it can be appropriate to consume meat. But remember, that it should be really for survival, as good as Eskimos! A very famous event of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Andes_flight_disaster#Cannibalism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1972 Andes flight distaster&lt;/a&gt;, where some of the passengers survived based on dead human flesh in Icy mountains. People looked at them with disgust at first, but then they were accepted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Forget survival. How about nutrition?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There are so many superior veg options easily available for protein, e.g. Soya-bean, Tofu, Paneer(Indian Cheese), Chheno (milk product), Broccoli. They are better in many health and nutrition aspects compared to chicken/mutton/beef/fish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Forget nutrition. What's wrong with fulfilment of taste-buds?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It's quite expensive for others. When you eat non-veg, virtually imagine that 3 hungry kids somewhere in India/Africa looking at you with merciful eyes. The amount of land required for animal farming is 4 times than the cultivation of vegetable plants.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Also think about: animal cruelty, CO2 emission, greenhouse effect, health risks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Conclusion&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not appropriate to consume non-veg food&lt;/strong&gt; in general especially in today's time when options are so vast.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those we call &lt;em&gt;demigods&lt;/em&gt; in our scriptures are the embodiment of various nature elements like water, wind, earth, fire and so on. Today nature's cycle is highly disturbed due to human intervention. That's equivalent to betraying those demigods.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If we snatch away the animals/vegetation from nature, but cannot repay its debt back then, Lord Krishna has called such people as &lt;em&gt;Thieves&lt;/em&gt;, be it for veg or non-veg.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.11&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The demigods, being pleased by sacriﬁces, will also please you, and&#xA;  thus, by cooperation between men and demigods, prosperity will reign&#xA;  for all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In charge of the various necessities of life, the demigods, being&#xA;  satisﬁed by the performance of yajña [sacriﬁce], will supply all&#xA;  necessities to you. But he who enjoys such gifts without offering them&#xA;  to the demigods in return is certainly a &lt;strong&gt;thief&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because&#xA;  they eat food which is offered ﬁrst for sacriﬁce. &lt;strong&gt;Others, who prepare&#xA;  food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2016-07-27T09:51:59.803" LastActivityDate="2016-07-27T09:51:59.803" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8220" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="125" CreationDate="2015-08-21T11:32:36.467" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think because married women have to always look good and as they liked to be well groomed for their husband they do wear these symbols. In past Bindi (tilak) and earrings were mandatory for men too but as the civilisations developed women's eagerness to always look well groomed increased and in men it deceased. Thats why women wear so many things: mangalsutra, sindoor, bindi, earrings, colourful bagles and toe rings etc. and slowly made them a standard for a married women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3571" LastActivityDate="2015-08-21T11:32:36.467" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8221" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-21T15:52:31.157" Score="17" ViewCount="628" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rahasyatraya Sara is a work by the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan, concerning the meaning of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srivaishnavan.com/faqs/ans_secrets.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rahasya Traya&lt;/a&gt; or three secrets of the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).  (One of the secrets is the Dvaya mantra used to surrender to Vishnu, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7971/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/t3CW&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from that work, Vedanta Desikan discusses the importance of a guru choosing his disciples wisely:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the episodes of Raikwa (and others) it is evident that the guru who does not reveal spiritual truths immediately even to those shishyas who are of excellent character will not be adversely affected in his spiritual life.  If, on the other hand, the guru reveals these spiritual truths to any and every disciple in the belief that the shishya that sought him must be good, he will be adversely affect; for, in such cases, it is said that the sins of the disciple become the sins of the guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This may be seen from the story of Brahma.  Without careful inquiry (into his fitness) he revealed truths to Indra.  As a consequence Brahma forgot his divine knowledge and had to be taught again by Bhagavan through the agency of Narada, Brahma's very disciple.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of Brahma losing his divine knowledge after teaching it to Indra, and then his son Narada restoring it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada is an incarnation of Vishnu, so this is similar to Vishnu's incarnation Hayagriva teaching Brahma the Vedas after they'd been stolen from him.  In any case, the only reference I've found to this story is in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/religion/god-tests-us/article2826025.ece&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma failed to test Indra, when the latter came to Brahma for instruction. Because Brahma taught Brahma vidya to an undeserving student, Brahma forgot the Brahma vidya!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does anyone know what scripture this story comes from?  There's a story in the Chandogya Upanishad about Brahma instructing Indra and the Asura Virochana (son of Prahlada), but in the end of that story Indra turned out to be a more worthy disciple than Virochana.  But is it possible that he still wasn't sufficiently worthy to be taught by Brahma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-04-02T06:57:55.743" Title="What is the story of Brahma forgetting his knowledge after teaching Indra?" Tags="|vishnu|sri-vaishnava|brahma|indra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8222" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-21T17:13:53.740" Score="4" ViewCount="546" Body="&lt;p&gt;To my knowledge, mantra if chanted by knowing the meaning gives more result than chanting it without knowing the meaning. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do we know what will happen if a particular mantra is not pronounced (chanted)  properly by us?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the other things we need to learn before we actually start chanting it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What if we learnt mantra with wrong syllables from the teacher (not taking asking about spiritually enlightened guru)? Who has to face the consequences? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2015-08-22T06:07:40.113" Title="What are best practices in chanting a mantra?" Tags="|mantras|sadhana|sin|punyam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8223" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-21T17:24:51.937" Score="3" ViewCount="477" Body="&lt;p&gt;What may happen if mantra chanting is stopped for few days because of busy life schedule? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will the punya or power earned by chanting it will be lost if chanted irregularly? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-08-23T06:39:52.260" LastActivityDate="2015-08-24T04:30:48.547" Title="What happens if upadesha mantra is not chanted regularly?" Tags="|mantras|sadhana|sin|punyam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8224" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-21T17:32:07.270" Score="3" ViewCount="430" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any limit to number of mantras one can take as upadesha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any checklist of mandates to be fulfilled before we take new mantra as upadesha? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that fine to stop chanting of old mantra as new mantra upadesha is taken? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-08-23T06:37:59.530" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T10:31:44.397" Title="How many mantras one can take as upadesha?" Tags="|mantras|sadhana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8225" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-21T19:55:59.703" Score="5" ViewCount="13229" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just had this doubt and I'm not asking this in a bad sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama and Sita get married and later they go to forest for 14 years. Then they come back to Ayodhya. Sita is then sent away when she was pregnant. My question is why did it take so long for them to have children? Thank you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3575" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-12-27T16:21:01.273" LastActivityDate="2020-01-10T15:38:00.237" Title="Why did Rama and Sita wait so long to have kids?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|sita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8226" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-21T20:26:35.973" Score="7" ViewCount="296" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just finished reading the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/em&gt;, my first Hindu read.  The concept of karma has captured my interest.  Can one's thoughts contribute to their karma?  For instance, if one thinks bad thoughts will bad things happen to them in this life or the next? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3576" LastActivityDate="2015-08-29T12:33:30.273" Title="Karma pertaining to thoughts" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8227" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8226" CreationDate="2015-08-22T04:43:32.963" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Thought is everything. Swami Vivekananda tells the following story (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V8, &lt;em&gt;Discourses on Jnana Yoga&lt;/em&gt; VI, available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_8/vol_8_frame.htm&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_8/vol_8_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thought is all important, for &quot;what we think we become&quot;. There was once a Sannyâsin, a holy man, who sat under a tree and taught the people. He drank milk, and ate only fruit, and made endless &quot;Prânâyâmas&quot;, and felt himself to be very holy. In the same village lived an evil woman. Every day the Sannyasin went and warned her that her wickedness would lead her to hell. The poor woman, unable to change her method of life which was her only means of livelihood, was still much moved by the terrible future depicted by the Sannyasin. She wept and prayed to the Lord, begging Him to forgive her because she could not help herself. By and by both the holy man and the evil woman died. The angels came and bore her to heaven, while the demons claimed the soul of the Sannyasin. &quot;Why is this!&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;have I not lived a most holy life, and preached holiness to everybody? Why should I be taken to hell while this wicked woman is taken to heaven?&quot; &quot;Because,&quot; answered the demons, &quot;while she was forced to commit unholy acts, her mind was always fixed on the Lord and she sought deliverance, which has now come to her. But you, on the contrary, while you performed only holy acts, had your mind always fixed on the wickedness of others. You saw only sin, and thought only of sin, so now you have to go to that place where only sin is.&quot; The moral of the story is obvious: The outer life avails little. The heart must be pure and the pure heart sees only good, never evil. We should never try to be guardians of mankind, or to stand on a pedestal as saints reforming sinners. Let us rather purify ourselves, and the result must be that in so doing we shall help others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-08-22T04:43:32.963" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8228" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12373" CreationDate="2015-08-22T05:12:38.013" Score="8" ViewCount="2447" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want Manu Smriti with Sanskrit slokas and their Hindi translation. Where can I find it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-27T22:15:37.833" LastActivityDate="2016-11-29T21:48:09.440" Title="Where can I find Manu Smriti with Sanskrit &amp; Hindi translation?" Tags="|scripture|translation-request|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8229" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8222" CreationDate="2015-08-22T06:07:40.113" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mantras work whether you know their meaning or not. Mantras are vibrations, that is why their proper intonation is important. If I am tone deaf but know all the words to a song, your ears will still not find my singing appealing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a mantra is given by an enlightened person, they put some power into the transmission to you when you hear it. Many people who have received a mantra from an enlightened person and were ready for spiritual practices, remember that instance and the exact intonation for the rest of their lives. Such is the power from an enlightened person. The mantra that is given is the vibration that is best suited to match your own vibrations and bring your personal vibrations into harmony with the divine vibration.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a story in the &lt;em&gt;Taittiriya Samhita&lt;/em&gt; (II. iv. 12.) showing the adverse effects of not intoning a mantra correctly. A god, Tvashtri, in pronouncing the word Indra-satru, he accented the first instead of the last syllable. In short, instead of taking away power from Indra, he gave Indra more power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also the story of Ratnakara, the highwayman who was given the mantra '&lt;em&gt;Rama&lt;/em&gt;' to say by Narada. Such was his tamasic nature of his mind at the time that he could not remember how to pronounce it correctly. So he started to say 'mara' (which means death in Bengali) instead of 'Rama'. But he persevered and kept on chanting it continually, until it became ma-rama-rama-ra..... and thus from having a sincere heart and perseverance, was transformed into the sage Valmiki, the author of the &lt;em&gt;Ramayana&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sincerity of heart and perseverance and the Lord Himself will clear your path.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-08-22T06:07:40.113" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8230" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8209" CreationDate="2015-08-22T07:32:42.133" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Ekalavya was Krishna's cousin.&lt;/strong&gt;  Specifically, he was the son of Vasudeva's brother Devashrava, but he was raised by the Nishadas, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/hv_1_34.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Harivamsa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fourth brother of Vasudeva, namely AnAdhR^iShTi begot on his wife Ashmaki an illustrious son by name NivR^ittashatru, and Devashrava, the third brother of Vasudeva, begat a son by name Shatrughna.  There is hearsay that Devashrava had another son who for some reason is discarded in his infant stage, and brought up by tribal people and they call him as Ekalavya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's not clear, at least to me, why Devashrava abandoned Ekalavya as a baby though.  In any case, this makes it all the more tragic that Krishna had to kill Ekalavya as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8028/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T14:23:23.187" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8233" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-22T19:03:57.657" Score="6" ViewCount="198" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a married woman is initiated with one guru and her husband follows a different guru, which guru should the woman follow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3574" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T05:37:23.580" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T05:37:23.580" Title="Can husband and wife follow different gurus?" Tags="|scripture|guru|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8236" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="598" CreationDate="2015-08-23T00:46:42.257" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe, nowhere in the puranas is mentioned that &lt;code&gt;Saraswati&lt;/code&gt; is a daughter of &lt;code&gt;Brahma&lt;/code&gt;. Most of the people confuse it for &lt;code&gt;Prakriti&lt;/code&gt; as &lt;code&gt;Saraswati&lt;/code&gt;. Brahma created Prakriti, out of his thoughts and I've no answer if you ask me how. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Brahmanda Purana&lt;/code&gt; mentions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma splits himself and the left-half forms a woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's how we relate &lt;code&gt;husband-wife&lt;/code&gt; relation, likewise Parvati is the left-half with Shiva. So, there is nothing incest in it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some scriptures say &lt;code&gt;Saraswati&lt;/code&gt; is born from Brahma's thoughts, that doesn't mean incest. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, you envision a person in your dream and suddenly you get to see that person. That doesn't mean the person is your son/daughter. And moreover, it is not incest.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="47" LastEditorUserId="47" LastEditDate="2015-08-23T15:39:48.650" LastActivityDate="2015-08-23T15:39:48.650" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8237" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8223" CreationDate="2015-08-23T08:38:14.520" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several different aspects to this question. First, consider what happens to you if you do not wash one day, or do brush your teeth. Your body will not die nor will your teeth fall out, but you do feel a little dirtier - you are a little more immersed in the world. Likewise with your japam. If you do not do japam for one day or a few days, your become a little more immersed in the world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You do not lose the japam that you have already done; as Krishna says (Gita VI. 40):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Partha, there is no destruction for him either in this world or the next; no evil, My son, befalls a man who does good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise, you do accumulate any bad karma for &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; doing Japam. Sankara says in his commentary to verse IV. 18 in the Gita (Swami Gambhirananda translation):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nor even can any evil, which is an entity, arise from the &lt;em&gt;non-performance&lt;/em&gt; of &lt;em&gt;nityakarmas&lt;/em&gt; [daily obligatory duties] which is a non-entity, for there is the statement, 'Of the unreal there is no being' (Gita 2.16), and (in the Upanishad) it has been pointed out 'How can existence originate from non-existence?' (Chhandogya U. 4.2.2). Since emergence of the existent from the non-existent has been denied, therefore anyone's assertion that the existent originates from the non-existent will amount to saying that a non-entity becomes an entity, and an entity becomes a non-entity! And that is not rational because it runs counter to all the means of valid knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Further, the scriptures cannot enjoin fruitless actions, they being naturally painful; and it is illogical that what is painful should be done intentionally. Also, if it is admitted that falling into hell results from their non-performance (i.e. of the &lt;em&gt;nityakarmas&lt;/em&gt;), then that too is surely a source of evil. In either case, whether one undertakes them or not, the scriptures will be imagined to be useless. And there will be a contradiction with your own standpoint when, after holding that the &lt;em&gt;nityakarmas&lt;/em&gt; are fruitless, you assert that they lead to Liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said all that, what then will happen if you do not do for a few days? Like not walking or exercising for a few days, you will gradually use the strength that your mind has built up in doing the austerity on a daily basis. Your mind will get a little lazy and convince you that a few days is not so bad - you can build up your strength again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What to do? You need not sit and do the Japam, can you not do it while walking, or bathing, or eating? Put part of your mind while doing your other daily activities and you can still do your daily Japam. I am sure you still find time for eating and bathing! Do Japam while doing other things!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a Zen Buddhist saying: Meditate for 15 minutes every day. On days that you do not have time to meditate for 15 minutes, meditate for 1 hour.         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-08-24T04:30:48.547" LastActivityDate="2015-08-24T04:30:48.547" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8242" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11155" CreationDate="2015-08-23T14:41:49.443" Score="17" ViewCount="15865" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रभु भल कीन्ह मोहि सिख दीन्हीं।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मरजादा पुनि तुम्हरी कीन्हीं॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ढोल गवाँर शूद्र पशु नारी।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सकल ताड़ना के अधिकारी॥&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Drums, the illiterate, &lt;strong&gt;lower caste&lt;/strong&gt;, animals and &lt;strong&gt;women&lt;/strong&gt; deserve a beating to straighten up and get the acts together. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is written in Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas. Similar &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.quora.com/Dhol-Ganwar-Shudra-Pashu-Nari-Sakal-Taadana-Ke-Adhikari-What-does-Tulsidas-precisely-mean-by-this-quote&quot;&gt;post from Quora&lt;/a&gt; discusses, how this was said by Sea deity to Lord Rama before creating Ramsetu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without criticizing anyone, I would like to know how is this quote relevant in today's time and what could have lead an intellectual like Tulsidas to write such a verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Note: From a source, I also heard that Chaanakya had approved this quote.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-06T04:44:29.857" LastActivityDate="2022-05-27T10:05:45.130" Title="Relevance of &quot;Dhol Ganwar Shudra Pashu Nari, Sakal Taadana Ke Adhikari&quot;" Tags="|belief|caste-system|women|ramcharitmanas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8244" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6698" CreationDate="2015-08-23T16:37:52.020" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whatever answer you all gave are analogical. Here is right answer:&#xA;In his past life king kali was a Gandharba. Gandharba means the children of demigods(demigods are in charge of universal administration residing in higher planets. So kali was a very powerful gandharba. He loved another damsel who was filled with all devine qualities. But instead of kali she preferred to marry a human, who was ruling over earth. (Kali had some other name that time). Due to this kali became envious and harrased them badly. The king lost everything and begged even for a piece of cloth. Finally the lady curshed kali to become degraded. &#xA;So kali now came as a ruller in his age and has a aim to take revenge on humans. &#xA;He have power to control orhers mind and he makes every human fight in the name of religion and color and kill each other. Do all wrong and go to hell.&#xA;Kali has only two weaknesses. One: He can not harm a person who regularly reads Bhagavatam. 2nd weakness is still unknown and hidden in Bhagavatam itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3586" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2015-08-23T16:54:49.200" LastActivityDate="2015-08-23T16:54:49.200" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8245" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11261" CreationDate="2015-08-24T07:03:37.647" Score="14" ViewCount="15712" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard recently about Guru Siyag who chanted 3 lac Gayatri Mantra(I don't know exact number) and attained &quot;siddhi&quot; according to him and his followers. Check out any youtube video of Guru siyag. He says he removes cancer from people who follows his &quot;sidhdha&quot; meditation!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is how can one achieve &quot;siddhi&quot;? How many types of &quot;siddhi&quot; are? Is it true by chanting mantras &quot;siddhi&quot; come?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does God gives supreme powers? is this &quot;siddhi&quot;? How and When? If I chant some x mantras will I be able to hold powers from GOD? How many mantras in day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-28T18:36:53.170" LastActivityDate="2019-01-31T06:14:37.463" Title="How can one achieve &quot;siddhi&quot; in Hinduism?" Tags="|mantras|siddhi|japa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8251" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19947" CreationDate="2015-08-24T12:39:44.830" Score="4" ViewCount="489" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2178/76&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, I got to know that during the fight between Parashurama and Bhishma, the spirits of Parashurama's ancestors told him to stop fighting, because he wasn't supposed to act like a Kshatriya anymore. But why wasn't Parashurama supposed to act like a Kshatriya anymore?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3157/can-a-brahmana-raise-a-war-or-kill-someone&quot;&gt;This question&lt;/a&gt; is too generic and I want to know the answer from the character's perspective only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-18T06:21:12.643" LastActivityDate="2017-12-18T06:21:12.643" Title="Why wasn't Parashurama supposed to act like a Kshatriya anymore?" Tags="|mahabharata|parashurama|bhishma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8252" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8256" CreationDate="2015-08-24T12:46:48.123" Score="3" ViewCount="1595" Body="&lt;p&gt;I got to know about a tale, of Ganga's curse to Amba to become a river without water or something similar to that because of her attempt to kill Bhishma. What was that exact curse and in which parva of the Mahabharata it's mentioned or is it from some other Hindu scripture or folktale? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-10-04T15:42:30.933" LastActivityDate="2016-10-04T15:42:30.933" Title="In which parva of Mahabharata was Ganga's curse to Amba is mentioned?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhishma|ganga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8253" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8259" CreationDate="2015-08-24T13:04:12.913" Score="5" ViewCount="8923" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vichitravirya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;, it is mentioned that Vichitravirya died of tuberculosis. But how did he even get diagnosed in that early era?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know Wikipedia can't be trusted but I am interested to know what is mentioned about the cause of Vichitravirya's death in scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-27T14:04:29.223" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T14:42:52.630" Title="How did Vichitravirya die?" Tags="|mahabharata|ayurveda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8255" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-24T16:36:02.787" Score="4" ViewCount="181" Body="&lt;p&gt;We as Hindus(vedic knowledge) know that god is one and the variety in Hinduism are different representation of god him/her/it self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same is the concept of Christianity the holy trinity is one god.Jesus himself claims that &quot;me and father are one and the same&quot; also he claims that &quot;no one gets to father except through him&quot; (my understanding is that he said this in the context where the people of Israel were seeking God but the religion at that time was already corrupt so he points out the message he carries is the only way since bible also claims he is the word itself). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Christianity and Hindu concepts are same but divided by the saviour's names , in Christianity we need to be born again through spirit (realize that you have a holy spirit to guide you), similarly in Hinduism we attain eternity by realizing our true nature (born again - changing our ways of thinking by realizing our soul and paramathma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many other places where i find similarities. Some verses are read out of context and gives different meaning and misleads many.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every thing sounds similar but different saviour,s even if they are reincarnation of one God without God's motive nothing happens so why there is division in religions are we prepared for something?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3593" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2015-08-25T00:28:00.293" LastActivityDate="2015-08-25T00:28:00.293" Title="If God is one why is there isolation and why God allowed this?" Tags="|vedas|gods|christianity|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2017-01-23T17:36:02.570" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8256" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8252" CreationDate="2015-08-25T01:30:10.410" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05180.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, when Bhishma refused to marry Amba, Amba sought the help of Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama, who was Bhishma's guru, to force Bhishma to marry her.  Bhishma and Parashurama fought an eighteen-day war in Kurukshetra, mirroring the Mahabharata war that would happen generations later in the same place, but ultimately Parashurama was convinced to stop fighting.  Parashurama tried to reason with Amba, but Amba wasn't interested in anything but revenge at this point.  So she started engaging in Tapasya (deep meditation) with the goal of killing Bhishma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Ganga, goddess of the Ganga river and mother of Bhishma, appeared before her and asked why she was engaging in Tapasya.  Amba said she was trying to kill Bhishma.  Here's how Ganga responded:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing these words of hers, the Ocean-going (river Ganga) replied unto her, saying, &amp;quot;O lady, thou art acting crookedly! O weak girl, this wish of thine thou shalt not be able to achieve, O faultless one? if, O princess of Kasi, thou observest these vows for destruction of Bhishma, and if thou takest leave of thy body while observing them, thou shalt (in thy next birth) become a river, crooked in her course and of water only during the rains! All the bathing places along thy course will be difficult of approach, and filled only during the rains, thou shalt be dry for eight months (during the year)! Full of terrible alligators, and creatures of frightful mien thou shalt inspire fear in all creatures!&amp;quot; Addressing her thus, O king, my mother, that highly-blessed lady, in seeming smiles, dismissed the princess of Kasi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That highly fair damsel then once more began to practise vows, foregoing all food, aye, even water, sometimes for eight months and sometimes for ten months! And the daughter of the king of Kasi, wandering hither and thither for her passionate desire of tirthas, once more came back, O Kauravya, to Vatsabhumi. &lt;strong&gt;And it is there, O Bharata, that she is known to have become a river, filled only during the rainy seasons, abounding with crocodiles, crooked in her course, and destitute of easy access to her water. And, O king, in consequence of her ascetic merit only half her body became such a river in Vatsabhumi, while with the other half, she remained a maiden as before!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So half of Amba remained in human form, and she continued to engage in Tapasya.  Finally Shiva appeared before her, and Amba asked that she be reborn as a man so that she could kill Bhishma. Shiva granted her the boon, and she immediately jumped into a fire. She was reborn as Draupadi's brother Shikhandi, who was instrumental in Bhishma's death, because Bhishma was unwilling to fight someone who had been a woman in a past life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T14:38:31.977" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8257" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-25T02:21:44.773" Score="6" ViewCount="2055" Body="&lt;p&gt;If GODS (Indra, Varuna, Yama, Kubera) lived in heaven, how come asuras lived on earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand that Vishnu and Shiva assumed different forms and came down to earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then, shouldn't asuras assume different forms rather than coming down on earth as Asuras themselves?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if asuras come down to earth without form and live on earth, why GODS (Indra, Varuna, Yama, Kubera) lived in heaven and never lived on earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-09-13T05:37:35.343" LastActivityDate="2018-09-20T12:30:56.263" Title="Why did Asuras live on Earth &amp; Devas did not?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|asuras|indra|yama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8259" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8253" CreationDate="2015-08-25T02:31:52.097" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vichitravirya's death is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01103.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And though Vichitravirya was virtuous and abstemious, yet, proud of youth and beauty, he soon became lustful after his marriage. And both Ambika and Ambalika were of tall stature, and of the complexion of molten gold. And their heads were covered with black curly hair, and their finger-nails were high and red; their hips were fat and round, and their breasts full and deep. And endued with every auspicious mark, the amiable young ladies considered themselves to be wedded to a husband who was every way worthy of themselves, and extremely loved and respected Vichitravirya. And Vichitravirya also, endued with the prowess of the celestials and the beauty of the twin Aswins, could steal the heart of any beautiful woman.  And the prince passed seven years uninterruptedly in the company of his wives. &lt;strong&gt;He was attacked while yet in the prime of youth, with phthisis.&lt;/strong&gt; Friends and relatives in consultation with one another tried to effect a cure. But in spite of all efforts, the Kuru prince died, setting like the evening sun. The virtuous Bhishma then became plunged into anxiety and grief, and in consultation with Satyavati caused the obsequial rites of the deceased to be performed by learned priests and the several of the Kuru race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Phthisis is another word for pulmonary tuberculosis.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs01096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt; the original Sanskrit verse if you're interested:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tābhyāṃ saha samāḥ sapta viharan pṛthivīpatiḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vicitravīryas taruṇo &lt;strong&gt;yakṣmāṇaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; samapadyata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yakshma is the Sanskrit word for tuberculosis.  In any case, the Mahabharata passage suggests that Vichitravirya's death was ultimately caused by his overindulgence in amorous pursuits.  You see, Ayurveda utilizes the theory of bodily humors or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Doshas&lt;/a&gt;, and associates tuberculosis with a specific imbalance of those Doshas which can be caused by an over-indulgence in amorous pursuits.  (In the Greek theory of humors, this would be classified as an excess of blood, but the Ayurvedic theory is more complicated, and it may be an excess of one of the Kapha Doshas as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=dvrPz_y03jYC&amp;amp;pg=PA5&amp;amp;dq=kapha%20yakshma&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0CDUQ6AEwA2oVChMIzPbm7JjDxwIVRjw-Ch3xQQ2P#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-09T14:10:05.587" LastActivityDate="2015-09-09T14:10:05.587" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8261" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2632" CreationDate="2015-08-25T05:21:17.527" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my knowledge, the oldest reference to the word Hinduism comes from the Prithviraj Raso, a historical romance attributed to Chanda Bardai where the word Hindus and Turks can be seen for the first time in certain versions of it. In &quot;Geeta&quot; as well, there is no reference to the word Hinduism. Instead, &quot;Sanatana Dharma&quot; has been used there. So, there is no clear reference to it being a religion but there are references of it being ethno-geographical. It has been used by Persians to differentiate themselves from the people living beyond Indus river. So, it has been a source of great debate for a long time as to who invented Hinduism. Britishers claim its invention and construction after 18th century AD but the topic is still highly debatable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3597" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-08-25T06:50:57.323" LastActivityDate="2015-08-25T06:50:57.323" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8264" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8265" CreationDate="2015-08-25T11:01:24.903" Score="16" ViewCount="36026" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Lord Hanuman has got Ashta-Siddhi (Eight divine powers) and Nav-Nidhi (9 more powers). I want to know what all powers are included in the Ashta-Siddhi and Nav-Nidhi. Also, who all were the other people who have got these powers apart from Lord Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-08-26T07:14:46.350" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T02:07:51.997" Title="What is Ashta-Siddhi and Nav-Nidhi?" Tags="|hanuman|siddhi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8265" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8264" CreationDate="2015-08-25T12:17:20.203" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Siddha has no equivalent in english language, it can be understood as combination of perfection and establishment(when both are used simultaneously i.e. Perfection+Established or perfectly established).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In hanuman chalisa the &lt;code&gt;siddhi&lt;/code&gt; word means that person has attained such qualities by establishing himself into perfect self or atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, eight siddhis (Ashta Siddhi) or Eight great perfections (mahasiddhi) are described as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अणिमा Aṇimā&lt;/strong&gt;: reducing one's body even to the size of an atom&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;महिमा Mahima&lt;/strong&gt;: expanding one's body to an infinitely large size&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गरिमा Garima&lt;/strong&gt;: becoming infinitely heavy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;लघिमा Laghima&lt;/strong&gt;: becoming almost weightless&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्र्राप्ति Prāpti&lt;/strong&gt;: having unrestricted access to all place&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्राकाम्या Prākāmya&lt;/strong&gt;: realizing whatever one desires&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ईशत्व​ Iṣṭva&lt;/strong&gt;: possessing absolute lordship&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वस्तव Vaśtva&lt;/strong&gt;: the power to subjugate all&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source Shrimad Bhagwat MahaPurana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The masters of yoga speak of eighteen mystical perfections [siddhis] and meditations [leading to siddhis]. Eight of them are [primary and] prominent in Me and ten of them [are secondary and] originate from the quality [of goodness]. Oh! gentle one, the eight mystical perfections consist of the&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ability to get, as for the form, into the smallest [animâ],the biggest [mahimâ] or the lightest [laghimâ relative to garimâ, the heaviest], the ability to acquire whatever material object [prâpti], the ability to enjoy sensually whatever can be seen or heard [prâkâmya], the ability to have the upper hand in employing the forces [îs'itâ or îs'itvâ], the ability to be in control by means of magic unobstructed by the modes [vas'itvâ] and the ability to answer to any desire that seeks [His] favor [kâmâvasâyitâ].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavata.org/canto11/chapter15.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;More on Siddhi's&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nidhi&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;In Sanskrit Nidhi means treasure there are 9 (primary)types of treasures or valuable possessions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The nine nidi's are viz&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;mahapadma&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;great lotus flower&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;padma&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;lotus flower&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;shankha&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;conch&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;makara&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;crocodile&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kachchhapa&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;tortoise&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kumud&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;a particular precious stone&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kunda&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;jasmine&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;nila&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;sapphire&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kharva&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;dwarf&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarakosha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Primary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nidhi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Secondary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://navanidhi.blogspot.in/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;More&lt;/a&gt; on nava nidhis&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Possession of Siddhis and Nidhi's:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siddhi's can be acquired by anybody in this universe who has enough Sadhana Balam or Tapobalam (certain spiritual height/depth of realization of practitioner), &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=525&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is a way to posses mantra siddhi also if you are a bramhin(by karma) you can posses gyatri siddhi by doing n number of mahapurascharana's, but it is just a waste of time if you want to get out of the cycle of life or samsara see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/4148/what-is-the-ultimate-goal-of-hinduism&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer for more on ultimate goals in hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There were many siddhas in past who possesed such abilities, they still exist and they are innumerable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nidhi's are primarily possessed by Kuber because he is prime minister of Goddess Laxmi (Goddess of wealth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-05T19:18:08.107" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8266" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-25T12:43:27.970" Score="3" ViewCount="9167" Body="&lt;p&gt;How to know whether I've attained mantra siddhi? &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;How do I understand that how far I'm in attaining it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2018-01-10T09:36:38.590" Title="How to know level of mantra siddhi?" Tags="|mantras|sadhana|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8267" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7847" CreationDate="2015-08-25T13:41:02.607" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The living tradition of Gurus are like a guiding light that has shown the path from time immemorial. Just because few fake Godmen are at fault, does not mean all Guru's are fake. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures ask people to examine a guru well before accepting him but have unflinching shraddha/faith after accepting a Guru subsequent to a proper examination. So, that is one path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If, that is not suitable, then you can read works of past Guru's like Bhagavad gita, works of Adi Shankara etc. and practice their teachings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are bent towards devotion by temperament, you should practice devotional practies like japa, fire ritual etc. The God himself/herself will guide you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a website which provides simple procedures for performing Homam to various deities- &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicastrologer.org/homam/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://vedicastrologer.org/homam/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regards,&#xA;Nithin&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-08-25T13:41:02.607" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8268" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8266" CreationDate="2015-08-25T13:55:00.193" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Its important to understand what &quot;Siddhi&quot; means. Siddhi which means accomplishment may refer to different things based on context. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a mantra sadhana is done for fulfillment of specific sankalpa/vow taken, then accomplishment of that sankalpa is considered the siddhi of the mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a mantra sadhana is done with a desire to attain the shakti/power associated with that mantra/deity, then accomplishment of such power is considered as Siddhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the real siddhi is when, the mantra which is practiced will lead to the realization of the Deity, and when one finally merges with the deity. God realization is the ultimate siddhi of any mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, there are no definite steps or levels to evaluate, if you are making spiritual progress, you will notice that, you will become more detached, less anger and you will feel contentment. If these are happening, then there is a definite progress. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the Japa makes progress, ultimately a stage will come when japa will become ajapa. That is, you will practice repetition of mantra spontaneously without any voluntary efforts. Then, the mantra will be playing in the background 24*7. That can be considered as a major step in the spiritual progress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-08-25T13:55:00.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8269" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8226" CreationDate="2015-08-25T14:08:37.660" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karmas are at three levels of body, speech and mind. So, yes, one's thoughts contribute to one's Karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Chapter 12, verse 5-8, Manu Smriti describes various kinds of sins (adharma/pApam) that a person commits. It classifies the sins into those committed through body, through speech and through mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It further says that the adharma committed through mind are- lusting after other’s wealth, wishing harm for others and adherence to falsehood. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, karma is not just limited to the final actions but also to the words spoken and the thoughts that one indulges in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-08-25T14:08:37.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8270" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8207" CreationDate="2015-08-25T14:20:47.957" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Samanya dharma common to every one in every yuga are- Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Shaucham and Indriya Nigraha. Manu Smriti mentions these as the Samanya dharma. Many other also give simlar list.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For details regarding practice of each tenet, you may see here- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newsgram.com/?s=gleanings+from+Hindu+Scriptures&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.newsgram.com/?s=gleanings+from+Hindu+Scriptures&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-08-25T14:20:47.957" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8271" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="101" CreationDate="2015-08-25T14:30:50.540" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will try to answer the question what exactly Shiva Linga means. Hopefully this will answer your question as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am copy-pasting from a blog I wrote about Shiva Linga-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Linga means “Shiva’s Symbol”. Here Shiva refers to Para-Brahman. Adi Shankara defines the word Shiva as “the very nature of Chit &amp;amp; Anand”. Hence, Shiva refers to Para-Brahman, who is One without a second, without form and without attributes. And this Nirguna Brahman is worshiped through a symbol- the Linga. Further, the Linga is not only a Symbol of Para-Brahman, it is Brahman itself. Linga Purana says “Lingas sakshaan Maheshwarah”. In other-words, Shiva Linga is Para-Brahman itself which is available as Linga (Saguna Brahman) for worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shiva Linga can be divided into two portions-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The vertical Shaft that is called as Linga&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Horizontal Platform that is called as Yoni or Adishtana&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are broadly three ways in which the symbolism of Linga and Yoni and their mutual relationship can be understood-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The more popular understanding is that, the Yoni or pedastal represents Shakti and the Linga/Shaft represents Shiva- “linga vedi mahadevi lingam sakshat maheshwarah”. Hence, Shiva Linga denotes the Union of Shiva-Shakti or Purusha-Prakriti. Hence, Shiva-Linga as a whole is Para-Brahman itself who is depicted in his Saguna aspect as Shiva &amp;amp; Shakti in Cosmic Union.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to another interpretation, the Shaft/Linga portion is called as “Rudra Bhaga”, the Adhishtana portion is called as Vishnu Bhaga and the portion hidden below the Pedastal is called as Brahma-Bhaga. Hence, Shiva-Linga as a whole represents Para-Brahman itself which manifests as the trinity in Saguna aspect. Upanishads say that the Universe is born out of Brahman, is sustained in Brahman and finally dissolves in Brahman. Hence, Shiva Linga represents Para-Brahman who is creator (Brahma), sustainer (Vishnu) &amp;amp; destroyer (Rudra) of Universe. Linga purana also says that “layanaal lingam ity uktam”.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The third interpretation is a Samkhyan interpretation. According to this view, “Linga” is another name for Prakriti or Pradhana. Hence, the Shaft/Linga represents Prakriti and the Adhishtana represents Purusha. This Purusha is called as “Lingin”- the bearer/supporter of Linga/Prakriti. In Vedanta, the Prakriti is called “Maya” and is described as “Ishwara-Aashrita” i.e. supported by Ishwara. Hence, Shiva Linga as a whole represents Para-Brahman in Saguna aspect as Purusha who is bearer of Prakriti or Shiva/Ishwara who is bearer of Shakti/Maya. The Shaft portion signifies that the whole Universe which is Prakriti is born out of &amp;amp; sustained in Brahman, who is the substratum of Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, in all three interpretations, the imagery of Shiva-Linga represents Para-Brahman who is Nirguna &amp;amp; beyond perception but has himself manifested as Linga- a perceivable form (i.e. as Saguna). It is to be noted that the interpretation of Linga=Phallus and Yoni=Vagina has practical application only in certain Tantric Sadhanas like Shiva lata mudra. In such Sadhanas, the Sadhaka self identifies himself with Bhairava &amp;amp; his partner with Bhairavi. And their Sexual Union leads to Samadhi. Only in such Sadhana, that the first symbolism of Cosmic Union of Shiva &amp;amp; Shakti translates practically into Sexual Union of Bhairava &amp;amp; Bhairavi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Link to the blogpost- &lt;a href=&quot;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/random-musings-part-32-the-worship-of-shiva-linga/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;nithinsridhar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="10017" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T12:19:36.103" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T12:19:36.103" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8272" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8174" CreationDate="2015-08-25T14:41:08.747" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The fate of the spirit after the death of the body highly depends on the Individual spirit/soul. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Broadly speaking, there are four possibilities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The soul may go to devaloka/swargaloka or towards the realm of ishta devata, if a person has practiced dharma and devotion through out his life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The soul may go to pitr loka or realms of manes, if a person has performed dharma, but not much of devotion. If one has practiced dharma and proper death rituals are performed, then high chances that such a person will go to pitr loka. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those who have committed adharma and harmed many people, will either go to various narakas/hells and then take rebirth into lower creatures like animals or plants to undergo suffering.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;At times, when death happens unnaturally or in a sudden improper manner, for example, death through choking, or through accidents or due to black magic etc. especially in cases of painful deaths, the souls may get stuck in earthly realm itself as a spirit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, practice of dharma leads one to higher realms, practice of adharma leads to suffering. That is the broad rule that governs birth, death and rebirth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Manu Smriti, Bhagavad Purana, or Garuda Purana you will get more details. Even upanishads speak about devayana and pitryana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-08-25T14:41:08.747" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8273" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-25T15:08:47.867" Score="2" ViewCount="89" Body="&lt;p&gt;The various tenets of Samanya dharma like Satya, Ahimsa, Shaucha, Asteya and Indriya Nigraha etc. are present in various Smritis, Puranas, and even Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anybody give references to them individually or collectively in Sruti- Veda Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka or in Upanishads?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you,&#xA;Nithin&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-08-25T15:08:47.867" Title="References to tenets of Samanya dharma in Sruti" Tags="|dharma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8276" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-26T02:53:09.600" Score="2" ViewCount="165" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rahasyatraya Sara is a work by the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan, concerning the meaning of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srivaishnavan.com/faqs/ans_secrets.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rahasya Traya&lt;/a&gt; or three secrets of the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member). (One of these secrets is the Dvaya mantra used to surrender to Vishnu, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7971/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wCHnw.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Rahasyatraya Sara, Vedanta Desikan discusses how the Jiva benefits from having a guru:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;His gurus reveal to the Jiva the intimate relation existing between him and Narayana, the Lord of Lakshmi, who rules with his scepter the earth surrounded by the turbulent ocean and the world of Vaikunta without even the least exception.  Do not the shastras say &lt;strong&gt;&quot;The soul is neither God nor man, neither beast nor tree.  Its essential nature is knowledge and bliss and it is entirely dependent on the Supreme Being and exists solely for his purposes (Sesha)&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; and again &quot;The souls are indeed servants by nature of the supreme Supreme Being&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second quote is from verse 11 of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://murpriya.blogspot.com/2010/09/mantra-raja-patha-stotram-with-meening.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mantra Raja Pada Stotram&lt;/a&gt;, a hymn to Narasimha from a Pancharatra text called the Ahirbudhnya Samhita.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information on the Pancharatra texts.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what scripture does the first quote come from, the one which says &quot;The soul is neither God nor man...&quot;?  It seems like an interesting quote, so I'd like to see the passage it's from.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any commentaries on Vedanta Desikan's work who address this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T05:17:55.817" Title="What scripture says &quot;the soul is neither God nor man&quot;?" Tags="|philosophy|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|atma|vedanta-desika|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8277" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-26T03:19:02.920" Score="6" ViewCount="6181" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the history behind the name &lt;code&gt;Lakshmi Ganapathi&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is it said that to keep idol of Lakshmi Ganapathi inside the house such that Ganapathi won't allow Lakshmi to leave the house? What was the history behind that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3604" LastActivityDate="2023-07-11T12:48:46.393" Title="History behind the name Lakshmi Ganapathi" Tags="|gods|ganesha|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8278" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8277" CreationDate="2015-08-26T04:55:30.907" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I happen to search Internet and the first few Google results seems to lead to this text in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.truthstar.com/diwali/why-lakshmi-ganesha-worshiped-together.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Why Lakshmi Ganesha worshiped together?&#xA;&#xA;On the day of Diwali Lord Ganesha is worshiped with Goddess Lakshmi instead Lord Vishnu. There are many questions arises, why Lord Vishnu is not worshiped with Goddess Lakshmi and what is the relation between Lakshmi and Ganesha? The answers of all these questions can be answered by one mythological story. &#xA;&#xA;Mythological Story&#xA;&#xA;Once upon a time Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakhmi were having conversation in heaven and Goddess Lakshmi was praising herself and telling Lord Vishnu that she is the most worship worthy in the world and by her grace, a person can get all the pleasures of this world and becomes happiest person. By hearing the self praising by Goddess Laksmi, Lord Vishnu said to her for reducing her ego, “You are having all the qualities, still you did not feel the joy of motherhood till now and for a lady, the motherhood joy is the most important thing in this universe.” &#xA;&#xA;The comment from Lord Vishnu made Goddess Lakhmi become disheartened and in this pain she went to her friend Goddess Parvati. After listing the problem of Goddess Lakhmi, Parvati asked her, “How can I help you?” Goddess Lakshmi said, “You are having two sons and if you could give me your one son you will still have one son and I could get the grace of motherhood. So, in this situation you can help me out.”&#xA;&#xA;By listing her Goddess Parvati said to her, “I'm having two sons Kartikeya and Ganesha. Kartikeya is having six mouths (Faces) and because of this he needs to eat all the time. My second son Ganesha is very naughty, if I missed to keep eye on him for a bit, he ruined everything. And you cannot stay at one place for a long, so tell me how can you take care of my sons?&#xA;&#xA;By hearing this Goddess Lakshmi said to her, “I'll keep your sons close to my heart and will shower my all love on them either Kartikeya or Ganesha. I can take care both of them. All the servants of heaven will serve them day and night so please give me one of them as my adopted child.”&#xA;&#xA;Maa Parvati knew her both the sons very well so she gave Lord Ganesha to Goddess Lakhmi as her adopted son. Goddess Lakshmi became very happy and said to Goddess Parvati, “From today onwards I'm giving my all accomplishments, luxury and prosperity to my son Ganesha. Also, Riddhi and Siddhi Lord Brahma’s daughters are alike my daughters will be married soon for which I give my word to you. &#xA;&#xA;I will fulfill all the desires of Ganesha. In all the three loks which person shall not worship Lord Ganesha and do back biting, I will be miles away from him. Whenever my worship will be performed, Lord Ganesha’a worship will be a must. Who will not worship Shri Ganesha along with me, he cannot get Shree or myself. By listening this Maa Parvati become too much happy and handed over her son Ganesh to Laxmi Ji. As such at Deepawali Poojan or Luxmi Poojan, Ganesh Poojan is a must.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though I just reproduced the text as it is from that site, I (please read this as my opinion and my belief) would like to stop believing what ever being read or said. One of the strength of the Hinduism is the vedas which as become its Achilles heel as well due to its limited reach and interpretative nature.  Due to this many customs and mores are born and with passage of time these becomes authoritative. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I always believe in Vedas as the authoritative text though I am unable to interpret it. I have to lay my belief on individuals whom I consider as aacharya or gurus. So, I would not believe this explanation given in the site and also do not worship Lakshmi and Ganapathi together as described in the site as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastActivityDate="2015-08-26T04:55:30.907" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8279" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="737" CreationDate="2015-08-26T05:57:22.297" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Om is a mantra, or vibration, that is traditionally chanted during any Hindu Ritual. Originated from the Hindu scriptures, the mantra is considered to have high spiritual and creative power but despite this, it is a mantra that can be recited by anyone. It’s both a sound and a symbol rich in meaning and depth and when pronounced correctly it is actually AUM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;HOW IS IT CHANTED?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantra OM or AUM consist of 4 syllables: A, U, M, and the silent syllable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The first syllable is A, pronounced as a “awe” which is sustained for a short time period. The sound originates from the back of your throat and is stretched out. You will start feeling your solar plexus and chest vibrating.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The next syllable is U, pronounced as a prolonged “oo,” with the vibration and the sound will gradually move along your upper palate and you will slowly start to feel your throat vibrate.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The third syllable is M, pronounced as a prolonged “mmmm”. While pronouncing this syllable, your teeth must be gently touching each other. As you enunciate, the top of your throat will begin to vibrate.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The final syllable is the deep silence of the Infinite. As intelligence rises from the deep silence, you have to merge your chant from the ‘M’ to the deep silence.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three syllables of of AUM is said to embody the divine energy which is more commonly known as Shakti, and the 3 main characteristics are creation, preservation and liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;WHY DO WE CHANT IT?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything in the universe is said to be pulsating and vibrating. Nothing in the universe is a constant. When the mantra Om is chanted, the frequency at which it vibrates is 432 Hz. Incidentally, it is the same vibrational frequency of everything present in the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AUM is considered to be the sound of the universe, and it is believed that by chanting the mantra, we are physically and spiritually in sync with the various elements of nature and the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can reap positive benefits by chanting the mantra. While chanting the OM, the body’s nervous system slows down and creates a calming effect on the mind which is also caused by meditation. By doing so, the condition of the heart improves as a direct result of a relaxed mind and decreasing blood pressure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally it is also a way to delineate the time of our practice from the rest of our day and signify that this is a special time in which to care for ourselves and practice being mindful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ishtadevata.com/blog/understanding-mantra-om.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.ishtadevata.com/blog/understanding-mantra-om.html#sthash.uJpzRO1d.dpuf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3381" LastActivityDate="2015-08-26T05:57:22.297" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8280" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-26T07:31:35.317" Score="3" ViewCount="205" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can someone provide me exact translation of Ganesha Aarti in English?&#xA;How it came into existence?&#xA;Also since when Lord Ganesha is known as Vighnaharta? Is there any story behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3605" LastActivityDate="2015-10-25T15:37:43.403" Title="Where can I get translation of Ganesha Aarti" Tags="|ganesha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8281" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8277" CreationDate="2015-08-26T08:25:22.950" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;For me Hindu worship is completely symbolic and so are all our Gods and Deities. Lakshmi Ganesha being worshipped together means worshipping wealth along with tolerance and patience. Lakshmi signifies Wealth and Ganpati is symbolic for &quot;vivek' and &quot;vighna-harta&quot;. If only wealth is accompanied by these characters it will truly fruitify, or else it can lead to devastation. That's my take!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3606" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-08-26T10:48:42.413" LastActivityDate="2015-08-26T10:48:42.413" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8282" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8287" CreationDate="2015-08-26T12:28:43.037" Score="6" ViewCount="2190" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shakti Ganapati is a concept wherein Ganesha is accompanied along with Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some modern temples especially in Southern India, which attribute Shakti as wife of Ganapati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even, the deity has Shakti (sitting on the left thigh of Vinayaka, i.e. Vama bhaga, which is normally attributed to place where wife is associated).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, is there any proof in the Puranas regarding Shakti to be consort of Ganapati or Ganesha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T14:41:42.547" LastActivityDate="2020-03-21T12:09:14.900" Title="What is the concept or History behind Shakti Ganapati?" Tags="|puranas|temple|ganesha|shakti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8283" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6837" CreationDate="2015-08-26T12:52:45.137" Score="3" Body="&lt;h2&gt;&quot;nobody is really suffering&quot;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;may be inapplicable to most of our viewpoints&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- on the other hand, it may be 'applicable', but not helpful at all.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The term &quot;nobody&quot; of course contains &quot;body&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If you consider the body to be a purely material thing, without any consciousness of its own,&lt;br&gt; that thing would not be capable of suffering&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- like you would think, a wooden stick would be incapable of suffering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xA;Now think again: &quot;Is there really a purely material body, without consciousness(, anywhere)?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would argue, that there is a least one conscious unit connected to each living body...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;that would suffer if you harmed that body...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you have a little experience with injuries,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;you may know, that there can be injuries, that hurt very much,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;but more severe injuries, may perhaps not hurt at all - you would not feel pain [at that moment].&lt;br&gt;&#xA;You may still miss the body part, you just lost (in such a case)...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Events that would cause &lt;b&gt;sudden&lt;/b&gt; death, may &lt;i&gt;perhaps&lt;/i&gt; not imply much &quot;physical&quot; pain&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(and you may not even have time enough to moan),&lt;br&gt;&#xA;but that does not mean no damage was done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The being whose body was just killed may be in a terrible condition because of that sudden event:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Perhaps very confused, now incapable of really communicating with his loved ones...,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;incapable of working to reach the hopefully noble goals he set...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There may be a lot of people, now missing him,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;relatives and acquaintances mourning the loss,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;now missing his presence, love, friendship, support, ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;now incapable of really communicating with him.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There may be some special knowledge, he hadn't gotten to tell anyone yet,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;that's absence might cause anything between some insignificant inconvenience to some mayor life threatening problems to the ones who should know about...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Observers of the event may feel bad (in multiple ways)...,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;even if they did not even know that man before.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Such may even be true about the perpetrator (assuming there was one).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course the circumstances can be quite diverse.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(Some souls may recover rather quickly from a sudden death...&lt;br&gt;&#xA; may perhaps manage to communicate (at least some important information) to their loved ones... - I should think that would also depend upon, if those people are up to receive that communication...)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A man thrown into the sea, may drown, because he doesn't know how to swim,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;he may enjoy a little swim,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;he may be eaten by sharks,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;he may be rescued by dolphins,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;he may drown in spite of his basic capability to swim and the absence of sharks,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;because&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the water is freezing cold, so he could not move (for long),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;he was to sick or exhausted to begin with&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;he was unprepared for the extreme surprise and therefore in shock...,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;he was hurt by the hard impact on the surface (fell a great hight),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;...&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Our karma is what we create - our world is what we make it&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&quot;If nobody is really suffering, does that mean we can harm anyone?&quot;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe there is this &lt;i&gt;basic law&lt;/i&gt;, we hopefully should be able to agree upon:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;to&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;b&gt;do no harm&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doing harm means to make the world a worse place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The world is the obvious aspect where we are connected with another.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(Perhaps you could replace the &quot;world&quot; with the &quot;universe&quot;.)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The world is the common place where we exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doing harm to anyone, is doing harm to the whole.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If any part of your body is harmed, that means harm to the body as such.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;That may endanger the survival of all other body parts as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe there is something to the idea that:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;i&gt;If anyone of us is suffering, we all are suffering&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I plead for making the world a better place, where it is fun living,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;not a worse place, where life would be unbearable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3610" LastActivityDate="2015-08-26T12:52:45.137" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8284" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8266" CreationDate="2015-08-26T13:57:29.630" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think it also depends on the person. Some people feel the energy of the mantra differently. It may be a peace, or a vibration, tingling or some other way. You will know as you progress how the feeling of the mantra changes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3612" LastActivityDate="2015-08-26T13:57:29.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8285" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8280" CreationDate="2015-08-26T14:10:47.140" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer your first question it's just as easy as find it on Google &lt;a href=&quot;http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ganpati%20aarti%20with%20english%20translation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Click here to learn how to!&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Following is the popular marathi aarti &lt;a href=&quot;http://kedar.nitty-witty.com/blog/ganapati-aarti-sukhkarta-dukhharta-with-english-translation-free-download-mp3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sukhkarta dukhharta (Marathi to English Translation)&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This aarti was created by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samarth_Ramdas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Samarth Ramdas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and another popular we hear in most pandals is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_ganesha-jai_ganesh_jai_ganesh_aarti.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Jai ganesh Jai ganesh (Hindi to English Translation&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;(I'm not sure of origin for this!)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Still looking forward for the story of the title &quot;vighnaharta&quot;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3568" LastActivityDate="2015-08-26T14:10:47.140" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8287" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8282" CreationDate="2015-08-26T14:51:51.683" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The only thing I could find is &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/m8CRd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Narada Purana, which gives the Ganesha Gayatri Mantra along with the associated Dhyana Shloka for Ganesha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I meditate upon the deity who resembles the rising sun, who is the cause of maintenance and dissolution of the world.  &lt;strong&gt;He is accompanied with Shakti&lt;/strong&gt;, well-adorned and has lifted up chakra (discus) and tooth (danta).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This should be taken with a grain of salt though, because the Narada Purana is considered to have a lot of interpolations, and because references to Ganesha in ancient Hindu scripture are few and far between, since he only rose to popularity later on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, I doubt that this Shakti is Parvati; it may just be the Shakti or energy of Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-01T16:30:09.803" LastActivityDate="2015-09-01T16:30:09.803" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8288" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-26T15:58:17.563" Score="8" ViewCount="1379" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can you worship a statue (idol) of Lord Shiva? Not just the Shiva linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3613" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-08-27T05:14:19.713" LastActivityDate="2015-11-15T13:00:04.880" Title="Can you worship an idol of Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8289" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-26T16:00:20.017" Score="3" ViewCount="3014" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shri Rudram or RudraPrashna is a part of yajurveda it is generally recited during abhishek/consecration of Lord Shiva or even just to worship him it is stuti of Lord Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is if Rudraprashna is part of yajurveda and it is also recited during Shravan even on restricted tithis, so is it okay because Manu Smriti restricts it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Restricted tithis&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Restricted tithis are the days when one cannot recite or study vedas.&#xA;The days are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Ashtami: Eighth day from every full-moon/no-moon day &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)Poornima/Purnami: Fullmoon day&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Krishna Paksha Chaturdashi: one day before no-moon day&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4) Amavasya: No-moon day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also there are some more restrictions defined, but do they apply to shri Rudram or any other vedic stutis(which are derived from vedas).&#xA;other Vedic Stutis are Ganpati Atharavashirsha, Purusha Suktam, Bramhanaspati Suktam,Shri Suktam etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-08-27T05:31:48.127" LastActivityDate="2015-10-26T05:49:11.993" Title="Restrictions on shri rudram or other vedic stutis" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8290" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-26T21:16:33.647" Score="8" ViewCount="654" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gayatri Panjara, AKA the Savitri Panjara, is a hymn to Gayatri, five-headed wife of Brahma and goddess of the Vedas.  Here is the preamble to the hymn given in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/C1tIO.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Narada Purana: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The sage of the Panjara is So'ham&lt;/strong&gt;, the metre is vikriti.  The great Hamsa is the deity and the great Brahman etc. are the deities, its utility and application is for the attainment of virtue, wealth, desire and salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what does it mean to say that the sage who heard the Gayatri Panjara from the gods is &quot;So'ham&quot;?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, So'ham is Sanskrit for &quot;I am That&quot;.  It's an expression taken from the Isha Upanishad, and in Adi Shankaracharya's philosophy of Advaita it's taken to be a central insight revealing the individual soul and Brahman as one and the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why would &quot;I am That&quot; be listed as the seer of a mantra?  Who was the actual seer of the Gayatri Panjara?  &lt;a href=&quot;https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Malayaleeweekly/conversations/topics/3865&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This forum post&lt;/a&gt; claims that it &quot;was given to Lord Brahma at the time of creation of universe by Lord Narayana Himself&quot;.  So is Vishnu the one being described as &quot;So'ham&quot;, since he is the Supreme Soul or Paramatma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know if there are any other scriptures which discuss the seer of the Gayatri Panjara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-23T15:39:32.907" LastActivityDate="2016-06-23T15:39:32.907" Title="Why is the rishi of the Gayatri Panjara hymn listed as &quot;So 'ham&quot; - &quot;I am That&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|mantras|advaita|narada-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8291" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8289" CreationDate="2015-08-27T05:45:00.790" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a time period which is called &lt;code&gt;ana-adhyanayana period&lt;/code&gt; in which vedas are not taught or practiced and the students and gurus will indulge themselves in practicing other saatvic activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During these time period of a year, in present times, other chant-able texts are adopted. This practice varies from group to group. What can be chanted and what not also varies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As an exception, when performing brahmayagyam, one has to chant a prashnam of one's shaaka. This has to be done on daily basis even during this period and that includes all the part of vedas the question covers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastActivityDate="2015-08-27T05:45:00.790" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8293" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-27T15:18:52.340" Score="4" ViewCount="211" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rahasyatraya Sara is a work by the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan, concerning the meaning of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srivaishnavan.com/faqs/ans_secrets.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rahasya Traya&lt;/a&gt; or three secrets of the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I am a member). (One of these secrets is the Dvaya mantra used to surrender to Vishnu, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7971/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JzYHb.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Rahasyatraya Sara, Vedanta Desikan discusses the philosophy of Visishtadvaita, according to which Jivatmas (individual souls) and matter are part of Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as Iswara [Vishnu] is the abode, ashraya or adhara (support) of the attributes which define His essential nature (svarupa viz. Satyam, Jnanam, Anandam, and the like) and of the other qualities possessed by Him with his essential nature so defined (qualities like compassion and accessibility), He is also the inseparable and direct support (ashraya or adhara) of all substances (sentient or non-sentient) other than Himself.  He is also the support, through these substances ((i.e.) indirectly), of the qualities that pertain to them.  &lt;strong&gt;There are some who hold that Iswara is the support, through the jivas, of the bodies supported by the jivas.  Some Acharyas say (on the other hand) that both directly by His essential nature and indirectly through the jivas, He is the support of these bodies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So everyone agrees that the Jivatma or individual soul sustains the body, because the body can't live without the soul.  But the question is how Vishnu sustains the body.  It seems that some believe that Vishnu only sustains the body indirectly, through the Jivatma.  Others believe that in addition to sustaining the body through the Jivatma, Vishnu also sustains the body directly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, which of these two views does the Sri Vaishnava sect subscribe to?  Is this something that different Sri Vaishnava Acharyas disagree about?  Is this a difference between Thenkalais and Vadakalais, the two main sub-sects of the Sri Vaishnava sect?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-08-04T08:28:55.517" Title="Do Sri Vaishnavas believe Vishnu is the direct or indirect sustainer of the body?" Tags="|vishnu|philosophy|sri-vaishnava|vedanta|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8294" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7576" CreationDate="2015-08-28T03:30:54.877" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;no one can find origin of lord hari due to various type of works he the lord without beginning or end assumes various forms. as shastra clearly mention that there are inuumerable forms of lord hari in unlimited type of universes no one can count the number of these universes.these universes have own brahma , shiv and vishnu and comes under material world made of panch tatva or persihible tatva bt there are three main forms of vishnu in material world 1st is aadinarayan who created unlimted universe through his supreme power mahamaya. mahamaya united with concousness to create mahatatva this concoiusness is called aadishambhu or mahashiv these two powers created mahatatva 24 elements panch mahabhut and other basic elemnts as shiv puran also mention and vishnu and brahma's fight is later added by some ignorant peoples . brahma was born in lotus bud of viraat purush not palankarta vishnu so it was imposible for brahma to see his origin then how can he converse with and fight with that supreme power this make no sence and not match with orignal teaching of ved and other puran but lingodbhav story is true and indicates how lord'maya and lord's gyan swarup shiv created basic of universes and then aadinarayan created unlimited big universes from his body.and enter into each universes through his second form virat purush which is mentioned in ved as sahstrasheersa purush who created brahma from his navel and then due to anger of brahma avtaar of shiv named rudra appear and then lord himself created his replica and named as palankarta vishnu then this vishnu enter into each atom of universe as parmatma or anteryami and in visible form created palce name swetdweep vaikunth in material world on the bank of khseer sagaar. here virat purush reside in each universe with his three primary forms brahma shiv and his own swarup vishnu . abbove this material world there are seven layers which is also called seven void or shunya above there is unlimited sea of spiritual water called virja sagar or karan sagar here aadinarayan resides alone without any shesh or lakshmi he is bigger than biggest above there unlimtied world of light some yogis merge into this light after moksha bt there is another world above that which is called spiritual world of lord and our eternal home. there are unlimted palnnets each one is more bigger than our universe their exist innumerable incarnation or avtaars of lord and each one is called mahavaikunth in fact spiritual world is real and material world is tempoarary here are many divya loks like mahaviakunth of lord hari , mahashivlok of lord sadashiva who is none bt mahavishnu himself. goddess durga in manipur are these lok are parbrahm lok when avtaar appears in material world then avtaar comes from this world aadivishnu or aadimahavishnu who is source of all avtaars himself comes in material world in the three form only lord narsingh , lord krishna, lord ram . then it is called parbrahm has taken avtaar &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3621" LastActivityDate="2015-08-28T03:30:54.877" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8296" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7576" CreationDate="2015-08-28T09:54:57.283" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In some kalp &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; assumes the form of &lt;strong&gt;Ram&lt;/strong&gt; and in one kalp supreme Form of Vishnu which is Called &lt;strong&gt;Parambrahm&lt;/strong&gt; himself appear as Ram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu and Ram are nondiffrent so this create more confusion that is called Lord's maya which can delude greatest Gods like Brahma, Shiva, Sati/Parvati, Garud, Narad, Indra etc then how we short minded kaliyug soul can understand this so our all saints of kaliyug have been said that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hari anant Hari katha ananta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kalp kalp lihi Hari avtaara ramayan shatkoti apara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To simplify ultimate truth Lord Shiv show hint in &lt;strong&gt;Ramacharitmanas&lt;/strong&gt; in which Lord Shiv told about Ram avtaar of 4 different kalp:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In one kalp ramavtaar happened due to sharap of sankadi to jai vijay then Vaikunthnath Vishnu who is beyond all universes himself appeared as Ram then Aadishesh became Lakshman shankh and chakra became bharat and shatrughan this ramvataar refer to ramvataar of padam kalp mention in padam puran.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In 2nd kalp ramavtaar happened due to moh of narad muni then shivgan became rakshass and here swetdwweep vishnu came as Ram , sheshnaag cames as Lakshman, shatrughan and bharat was shankh and chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In 3rd kalp ramavtaar happened due to shrap of tulsi and jalandhar became Ravan and again swetdweep Vishnu appear as Ram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in 4th kalp manu and shatrupa do tapasya to see the god in his ultimate orignal form which is cause of all causes who is parbrahm who is MahaVishnu who is seed of all bhagvat swarups and avtaars in which lord shiv always meditated who is origin of unlimted Shiva Brahmas and Vishnu. For this reason they do difficult strong tap for 12000 divya years, in that point Brahma Shiva and vishnu appears before manu shatrupa to stop tap and ask any boon from them in for take thier pariksha but manu and shatrupa didnot open their eyes then at last rahm vani begin in sky and by this amaritvani they became again youth and more beautifull. then akshvani ask them to take any boon then they replied we want to see the orignal form of Lord who created unlimted Brahma shiva and himself became Vishnu who is called neti neti in vedas who is called nirakaar then finaly they saw the ultimate parabrahm form of god then they lost thier consiousness after seeing the form of GOD which can not be measure by mind, eyes. then lord again ask take your var then manu and shatrupa replied i want son like you. then lord smiled then say none is simillar to me in both material and spiitual world so i will come as your son in future then my parashakti will also come . Till that time go to amravati of Indra then you will Dashrath and kaushalya and I will come as your son. In this kalp pratapbhanu became Ravan and devta pray to supreme lord  hari to remove dukh of dharti ma. then through akashvani lord the paratpar parbrahm said to all dev that dont worry I will himself come to punish these evil rakshashs with my ansh. then question arrise who are these ansh. Then see the namkaran of Ram Lakshman Bharat Shatrughan. Vasishta muni said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vishva bharan kar joi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;means who is palankarta of whole world he appears as Bharat so palankarta vishnu became bharat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;then&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;shubh lakshan ke dham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;means kalyankari means shiva appear as Lakshman in this kalp lord Hanuman was avtaar of Vayu, saprun vedon k parakshak shatrughan and finaly in the fist who is ultimate goal of all yogis means paramanand jo sabhi ko swayam me ramate hain wo Ram kahayenge this indicates here Parbrahm appeard as Ram and Vishnu appear as Bharat here tridev appeared to do seva of parbrahma mahavishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This reference is from Ramcharitmans and Padam Puran and some other text also give hint other more reason for Ram avtaar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3623" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2021-12-28T09:48:10.807" LastActivityDate="2021-12-28T09:48:10.807" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8297" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7775" CreationDate="2015-08-28T12:55:22.743" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tandava is the divine dance performed by Lord Shiva. In Shaiva Siddhanta tradition, Lord Shiva in the form of 'Nataraja' is considered the supreme lord of dance. The Tandava takes its name from 'Tandu', the attendant of Lord Shiva, who instructed Bharata (author of the Natya Shastra) in the use of Angaharas and Karanas, modes of the Tandava at Shiva's order.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to wiki article:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 32 Angaharas and 108 Karanas are discussed by Bharata in the 4th chapter of the Natya Shastra, Tandava Lakshanam. Karana is the combination of hand gestures with feet to form a dance posture. Angahara is composed of seven or more Karanas. 108 karanas included in Tandava could be employed in the course of dance, fight, and personal combats and in other special movements like strolling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dance is a pictorial allegory of the five principal manifestations of eternal energy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Srishti' (सृष्टि) - creation, evolution&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Sthiti' (स्थिति) - preservation, support&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Samhara' (संहार) - destruction, evolution&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Tirobhava' (तिरोभाव) - illusion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Anugraha' (अनुग्रह) - release, emancipation, grace&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Tandava symbolizes the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, as well as the daily rhythm of birth and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tandava is not always the voilent one. There are mainly 2 types of Tandavas, ie, Ananda Tandava and Rudra Tandava. However, in some sources there are 7 to 16 types of Tandavas. While Rudra Tandav is the voilent one which causes destruction, Ananda Tandava on the other hand is the non-voilent one, which Lord Shiva performs out of his joy. Ananda Tandava is sometimes practised by Him along with Goddess Parvati. Goddess Parvati's dance form is called Lasya which she performs in response to Lord Shiva's Tandava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Tandava is not only practised by Lord Shiva only. There are other Gods and Goddesses also performing Tandava, e.g., Goddess Kali, Lord Ganesha, Lord Krishna, Indra, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandava&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki Article&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-09-01T08:58:50.283" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8298" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8309" CreationDate="2015-08-28T14:12:56.540" Score="5" ViewCount="4085" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm going through a really dark phase in my life and I constantly think about killing myself. However, I don't want to repeat the cycle of life-death and so on. And I believe, suicide is an action that will definitely impact my karma and put me in the lower realms of the journey to enlightenment. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've been through a lot and finally understood that desire is the cause of all worries and pain in this material world. I just want to &quot;wake up&quot; and free myself from this illusion. Therefore, I'm thinking of renouncing this material world, my family, relationships and live a life of deep meditation on the realization of God. Is this something that will be accepted by God? I know the path is not easy but I'd like to truly surrender unto God. I'm tired of living a meaningless life accumulating wealth, career and other material desires. I'd like to concentrate all my desires and thoughts to God selflessly. (no desire for moksha too.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3628" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-08-28T18:46:09.513" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T12:26:47.677" Title="Can a 24 year old renounce the material world and live a life solely dedicated to realization of God through meditation?" Tags="|moksha|meditation|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="12" ClosedDate="2015-09-01T00:40:47.283" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8299" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8298" CreationDate="2015-08-28T15:08:39.257" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am sorry to hear you are going through a crisis. You are already wise and correct in realising that suicide will impact your karma negatively. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Life is a gift and should be lived joyously as though you are grateful for this gift and enjoy it as gifts are meant to be enjoyed. You need not renounce the world either in order to love and serve God. Remember, the world and everyone/everything in it is yet another skew of that which you are attempting to seek. Vairagya as a result of sadness or darkness in life is only temporary and is not true renunciation. So , give yourself some time to see if you feel this way even after a couple of years. Meanwhile, surround yourself with people who love you, get into some physical activity - a hard sport or regular workouts at the gym, all the while trying to find a guru. I am wary of suggesting that one should find a guru because there are several false gurus at every street corner these days. Learn to play a musical instrument. Nada yoga can lead to salvation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there are several yoga and meditation practices that will help you achieve the best of both worlds- iha and para. As a start you can do the following:- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Find a quiet place and close your eyes, utter a small prayer to your favorite deity and observe your breath. Do this at the same time every day and regularly for 21 days. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doing anything for 21 days is said to be habit-forming. If necessary, please seek medical help for depression. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Life is precious. It is not ours to take. It was given to us by parents , our ancestors and God. It is our dharma to strive to be worthy of it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Be well. God bless. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-09-03T12:26:47.677" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T12:26:47.677" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8300" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8306" CreationDate="2015-08-28T17:41:46.663" Score="5" ViewCount="477" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any references in Vedas or Yogic scriptures about techniques for meditation. We keep hearing how &lt;code&gt;Siddha Yogis&lt;/code&gt; are able to meditate constantly without attending the needs of the physical body. How can one attain the spiritual level of such yogis? How are they able to overcome bodily needs which can be fatal if ignored (by a normal human being), after a certain period of time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this spiritual knowledge available in the scriptures? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One such example is &quot;Ram Bahadur Bomjon&quot;. Although he is a Buddhist Monk,but there are plenty of yogis in Sanatana Dharma, who have been able to achieve same heights. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to Wikipedia,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h1&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ram Bahadur Bomjon&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ram Bahadur Bomjon (Sanskrit: राम बहादुर बामजान) (born c. 9 April&#xA;  1990, sometimes spelled Bomjan, Banjan, or Bamjan), also known as&#xA;  Palden Dorje (his monastic name) and now Dharma Sangha, is from&#xA;  Ratanapuri, Bara district, Nepal. Some of his supporters have claimed&#xA;  that he is a reincarnation of Gautama Buddha, but Ram himself has&#xA;  denied this, and many practitioners of Buddhism agree that the Gautama&#xA;  Buddha has entered nirvana and cannot be reborn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He drew thousands of visitors and media attention by spending months in meditation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wyZDG.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wyZDG.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;The Buddha Boy&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3628" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-08-28T18:43:09.240" LastActivityDate="2015-08-29T11:37:34.647" Title="Yogic techniques to meditate for an indefinite period of time without any needs?" Tags="|yoga|meditation|vedic-rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8301" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11268" CreationDate="2015-08-28T21:36:29.057" Score="6" ViewCount="3607" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some sources indicate that Rama shot Ravana in the navel and not the chest. What is accurate? Do all the different versions of the Ramayana have the same story regarding this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, do Valmiki Ramayan and Tulsidas Ramayan have the same story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3547" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-04T14:47:32.723" LastActivityDate="2024-04-01T04:38:18.300" Title="Did Rama shoot Ravana in the navel or chest?" Tags="|ramayana|scripture|rama|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8302" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8333" CreationDate="2015-08-29T10:10:24.527" Score="3" ViewCount="27134" Body="&lt;p&gt;My grandparents used to tell me: &quot;You should have empty stomach before going to a Temple&quot;. When I was a child, we used to do the same. We visit a temple first and then have breakfast. But now my parents say it's not a problem, you can visit a temple after having breakfast.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Is it okay if I go temple after eating something? If yes, than can I eat non-veg and visit a temple? Why? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(I think I get 99% No to this question but still curious. And for clarity I'm not asking this question to do it. Sometimes you take non-veg at lunch and you will get an unplanned event that you should go to temple that day.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="110" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-08-30T07:58:42.077" LastActivityDate="2015-08-31T18:46:02.430" Title="Can we eat food before we visit a temple?" Tags="|belief|food|non-vegetarian|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8303" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-29T10:51:04.207" Score="4" ViewCount="68273" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yamraj is regarded as the God of Death? He is the son of SUN and brother of Shani DEV. To whom was he married? Yami or Yamuna is considered to be her sister.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3630" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-09T05:23:32.017" LastActivityDate="2017-09-09T18:53:22.160" Title="What is the name of YamRaj's wife ? Why Yamraj is considered to be a demi god or Yaksha?" Tags="|yama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8304" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-29T10:54:52.430" Score="5" ViewCount="949" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are various sources of Vedas available online but I'd like to know what is the most authentic source of Vedas, which haven't been manipulated and are complete to the best of our knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if these are available online in Hindi + English along with the original Sanskrit text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3628" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-08-31T11:07:53.473" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T13:26:53.950" Title="Where can I find the authentic and complete Vedas online? [Hindi + English]" Tags="|vedas|translation-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-12-01T06:06:03.967" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8305" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7520" CreationDate="2015-08-29T11:29:49.193" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes,Taj Mahal was really a Shiva temple in the past because there was a temple of Lord Shiva in Agra and the Mughal Empire Shah Jahan was a Muslim and everyone knows that Muslims hate Hindus. Shah Jahan told the people who had made the Taj Mahal to break the Shiva temple and make his Taj Mahal in the place of the Shiva temple and the people of Shah Jahan had broken this Shiva temple and after that they had made Taj Mahal. That's why Empire Babur's family had came to an end after Shah Jahan's son Empire Aurangzeb. I think this was the punishment of Lord Shiva for the Empire Shah Jahan because of his misdeeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3368" LastEditorUserId="3368" LastEditDate="2015-08-29T11:34:50.653" LastActivityDate="2015-08-29T11:34:50.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8306" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8300" CreationDate="2015-08-29T11:37:34.647" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Such spiritual/yogic stamina is developed over years of practice, sometimes even lifetimes of practice. Reading books will not bestow this upon one. Please be wary of anyone(i.e. the false gurus) who promise the sun,moon and stars overnight. Patanjali yoga sutras detail all the stepping stones to attaining such spiritual heights. But it takes, discipline , faith ,forbearance and patient perseverance to get there. And being under the care of the right guru is imperative. I would advise against getting sucked into the charming vortices of popular, media-savvy &quot;gurus&quot; of today. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Specifically for you @Navik, I would recommend visiting Sringeri Sarada Muth once and having darshan of the Jagadgurus. A lot of your confusion will be resolved. If you are not an adherent to Smartha sampradaya, but are of Vaishnava faith, then the Ahobila Muth and the resident pontiff's darshan will help you. There are similar ancient mathas which have preserved the sanctity of sages over centuries, in all faiths. Visit them and you will certainly attain some level of peace. Best wishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2015-08-29T11:37:34.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8308" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-29T15:12:51.003" Score="4" ViewCount="411" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a confusion over Hanuman being killed by Vajra of Indra, after Hanuman eating the sun. I have read several versions, and in most of these, it was mentioned that Hanuman became unconscious, and was not killed, as shown in the Mahabali Hanuman TV serial. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us analyze it further. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman was an avatar of Lord Shiva, who cannot be killed by anyone in the universe. Hanuman also ate up the entire sun, which is more energetic than the Vajra. So, how Hanuman lost his life on the Vajra hitting him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-08-30T07:54:04.513" LastActivityDate="2015-09-02T16:40:32.717" Title="Vajra killing Hanuman" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8309" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8298" CreationDate="2015-08-29T15:56:22.137" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says (&lt;em&gt;Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;, Chapter 8):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are three or four varieties of renunciation. Afflicted with miseries at home, one may put on the ochre cloth of a monk; but that renunciation doesn't last long. Again, a man out of work puts on an ochre wearing-cloth and goes off to Benares. After three months he writes home: 'I have found a job here. I shall come home in a few days. Don't worry about me.' Again, a man may have everything he wants. He lacks nothing, yet he does not enjoy his possessions. He weeps for God alone. That is real renunciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a saying when it comes to renouncing the world - 'Better too late than too soon.' What it means is it is better to renounce later rather than too soon - you don't want to renounce and then discover that you have a deep hankering for some worldly desire, and rather than thinking of God, your heart and mind are filled with unfulfilled desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many monastic orders require new members to spend many years as a brahmachari living with fellow monks before granting final vows so that a person can wrestle with the idea of what true renunciation means. This also allows the mind to adapt itself to the daily regime of being a renunciate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One suggestion is to go to a math for a month or two and see if you find the life of a renunciate fulfilling.         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-08-29T15:56:22.137" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8310" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-29T17:44:28.240" Score="2" ViewCount="190" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can people who are not (and cannot be) brothers and sisters wish each other &lt;em&gt;Happy Raksha Bandhan&lt;/em&gt; without tying Rakhis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People like friends, lovers, spouse etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3604" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-08-30T08:00:34.757" LastActivityDate="2015-08-30T08:00:34.757" Title="Can non brother sisters wish each other Happy Raksha Bandhan?" Tags="|belief|philosophy|culture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8311" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8310" CreationDate="2015-08-29T18:17:41.643" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Raksha Bandhan is not based on any religious scriptures, but from an incident in indian history, symbol of platonic relation.  So long the individuals involved are true to their intentions in core of their heart, it can extend beyond boundaries of blood relation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some stories are told on the origins of this raksha bandhan in hindu mythology, however, they do not stand technical scrutiny (Goddess Laxmi &amp;amp; King Bali,  Lord Krishna &amp;amp; Drapaudi).  Mythological instances are possible, however, the symbolic thread wrapping is not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-08-29T18:17:41.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8312" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8298" CreationDate="2015-08-29T19:19:10.053" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read what you asked for and also the comments. It seemed to me that you are clearly depressed my friend, you feel like you need to cry but the tears holding back beyond those eye balls, I know its getting tough for you but consider this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;There are other important people in your life who love you more than anything else, since you was born&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the thought of suicide is the worst of the solutions of the pain you are going through,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You will lose one of the precious gift of the universe, a Human life.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Your loved ones will have to go through the grief of your departure from their lives. Believe me, its hard when some mother's son die, and die of suicide.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Its good that you want to be spiritual, but at the same time you need to have hope in life lighting you up.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What if its not working out, she, her parents or whatever reason, but that does not shut down the world for you. You are the wonderful creation of the Almighty, we all are; follow spirituality, remain enlightened, practice meditation, join some activity, read books, accept the fact and make yourself strong. There is still someone out there for you, who will be yours one day. Wait for her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Just open your arms to life, Life will accept you.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Love everyone, love souls, develop interests, have a puppy or kitten or whatever pet you like, spent sometime with them daily. I assure you they will not feel dishonest to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Everything happens for a reason, and the reason will unfold itself when the right time will arrive.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="754" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-08-29T21:08:31.270" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8313" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-29T22:54:23.090" Score="4" ViewCount="340" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rahasyatraya Sara is a work by the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan, concerning the meaning of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srivaishnavan.com/faqs/ans_secrets.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rahasya Traya&lt;/a&gt; or three secrets of the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member). In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/p6akt.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Rahasyatraya Sara, Vedanta Desikan discusses why Hindu scripture describes other gods as aids to attaining Moksha, when Vishnu is described as the sole path to Moksha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If, in some places, these gods are spoken of as assisting in the attainment of moksha, it should be understood to mean that they, like Acharyas, assist by imparting knowledge and in other such ways.  This is also the purport of the following passage; &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;The man who is a devotee of the god of the sun (Surya) will, after seven more births, become a devotee of Rudra by the Sun's grace.  He who is a devotee of Sankara will, after seven more births, become a devotee of Vishnu by the grace of Sankara.&amp;quot; And again:- &amp;quot;He who is a devotee of Vasudeva will, after those seven births, become one with Vasudeva by His grace.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scripture contains these quotes about a Saura (devotee of Surya) becoming a Shaivite after seven births, a Shaivite becoming a Vaishnava after seven more births, and a Vaishnava attaining Moksha after yet another seven births?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I expect it's from one of the Puranas, but I'm not sure which one.  Are there any commentaries on Vedanta Desikan's work which address this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2022-05-13T05:28:59.463" Title="What scripture says devotees of other gods eventually become devotees of Vishnu in future births?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|shaivism|vedanta-desika|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8316" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8303" CreationDate="2015-08-30T09:48:23.247" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Yamadharma raj wife's name is Shyamala (Garuda Purana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-08-30T22:12:08.433" LastActivityDate="2015-08-30T22:12:08.433" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8318" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8325" CreationDate="2015-08-30T14:11:59.303" Score="12" ViewCount="13223" Body="&lt;p&gt;I grew up watching Ramayana and Mahabharata TV series which was telecasted on Dhoordharshan channel. I vaguely remember my grandma say that Hanuman is an avatar of Shiva to help Vishnu (Ram) to destroy the evil. Is this true? Is Lord Hanuman a form of Shiva ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-03T15:08:17.273" LastActivityDate="2019-03-13T02:05:47.137" Title="Is Hanuman an avatar of Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8322" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="25007" CreationDate="2015-08-30T22:26:25.833" Score="4" ViewCount="22444" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the story of Lord Venkateshwara, He had taken loan from Kuber in order to marry Padmavati. Kubera gave the loan on the condition that Vishnu cannot return to Vaikuntha (heavenly abode) without paying off the debt. Lord Vishnu resides at Tirumala as Tirupati Venkateswara without returning to Vaikuntha until the payment is made. To help him repay his debt, devotees offer him wealth and in return Lord Vishnu fulfills their prayers. Through a facebook post, I came to know that daily contributions in Tirupati Temple is approx INR 8 crore. I want to know how much was the loan given by Kuber to Lord Venkateshwara and looking at the contributions whether the loan is still pending and if yes then how much is still pending?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-14T19:39:39.330" LastActivityDate="2019-04-10T16:33:08.160" Title="How much loan was given to Lord Venkateshwara by Kuber?" Tags="|vishnu|venkateshwara|tirupati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8324" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="820" CreationDate="2015-08-31T06:21:46.473" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wasn't aware that Vishnu Sahasranama has many versions until I read this question.  So, I am unable to verify and compare them to answer. However, I remember a view point of one of the upanyasakar (person who delivers religious discourses) that this sahasranama is great because:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is asked by Dharmaputra who was a great person following dharma to the core.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It was asked to a great purusha - Beeshma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And more importantly, it was witnessed by the Lord Krishna himself when Dharmaputra asked those 6 questions and Beeshma answered explicitly mentioning the Lord Krishna while all the three connected were physically present together.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The upanyasakar said that Krishna endorsed the answers of Bheesma and hence this is the superior of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastActivityDate="2015-08-31T06:21:46.473" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8325" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8318" CreationDate="2015-08-31T06:51:17.377" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Lord Hanuman is Rudra avatar of Lord Shiva as per shiva puran. Mother of Lord Hanuman Pleased Vayu devata and Lord Shiva to have son. Vayu devata gave her boon of son and Lord Shiva was asked to give son who is exactly like him. So Lord Shiva granted Anjanimata boon that his 11th Rudra will take birth as her son and Lord Hanuman born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In hanuman chalisa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankar suvan kesri Nandan&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tej pratap maha jag vandan     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a descendant of Lord Shankar, you are a comfort and pride of Shri Kesari. With the lustre of your Vast Sway, you are propitiated all over the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mandir.webmauritius.com/hanumanchalisatranslation.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hanuman Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2017-02-04T05:41:32.833" LastActivityDate="2017-02-04T05:41:32.833" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8326" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8318" CreationDate="2015-08-31T08:41:47.477" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as Valmiki Ramayana is concerned Hanuman is son of Wind god. There is absolutely no mention of Hanuman being Siva amsa or Avatara. Even Uttara khanda of Valmiki indicates Hanuman as son of wind god only. Infact Valmiki Ramayana reinforces that Hanuman is avatara of wind god only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana does refer to Hanuman as avatara of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  famous tamil Ramayana i.e.  Kamba Ramayana of 9 th century A.D. says that Hanuman was son of Wind god (Vayu) who intially invested his energy in Hanuman. Later, Siva also invested his energy in Hanuman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastActivityDate="2015-08-31T08:41:47.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8327" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-08-31T08:48:42.040" Score="7" ViewCount="453" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valmiki-Pratibha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki-Pratibha&lt;/a&gt;, an opera by Rabindranath Tagore, Valmiki is depicted as a robber &amp;amp; murderer who becomes a pious ascetic. I have heard that this story is taken from the Uttara Khanda of Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How accurate is the depiction? Can there be any debate about it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-26T05:21:38.557" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T02:30:52.177" Title="How accurate is the depiction of Valmiki in Valmiki-Pratibha?" Tags="|ramayana|valmiki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8328" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7653" CreationDate="2015-08-31T11:26:33.550" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Brahma-vaivarta Purana it is said that one who observes fasting on Ekadasi day is freed from all kinds of reactions to sinful activities and advances in pious life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Origin of Ekadasi&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the fourteenth chapter of &lt;code&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/code&gt;, in the section named &lt;code&gt;Kriya-sagara-sara&lt;/code&gt;, Srila Vyasadeva explains the origin of Ekadasi to Sage Jaimini as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the beginning of the material creation, the Supreme Lord, for the purpose of punishing the sinful human beings, created a personality whose form was the embodiment of sin (Papapurusha). The different limbs of this personality were constructed of the various sinful activities. In order to control Papapurusha, the personality known as Yamaraja came into existence along with the different hellish planetary systems. Those living entities that are very sinful are sent after death to Yamaraja, who will in turn, according to their sins, send them to a hellish region to suffer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The living entities, according to their karmic activities thus began to enjoy or suffer. Seeing so many souls suffer in hellish condition, the compassionate Lord began to feel sorry for them. In order to help them He manifested from His own form the deity of the lunar day Ekadasi. Thus, Ekadasi is the personification of the vow to fast on the eleventh day of the lunar month. Therefore Ekadasi is the selfsame form of the Supreme Lord Vishnu. Sri Ekadasi is the utmost pious activity and is situated at the head among all vows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Afterwards the different sinful living entities began to follow the vow of Ekadasi and were then elevated quickly to the abode of Vaikuntha. Following the ascension of Sri Ekadasi, Papapurusha (sin personified) gradually saw that his own existence was being threatened. He approached Lord Vishnu praying that, ‘O Lord, I am your created progeny, and it is through me that you wanted distress given to the living entities who are very sinful. But now, by the influence of Sri Ekadasi, I have become all but destroyed. You please save me from the fear of Ekadasi. No type of pious activity can bind me. But Ekadasi only, being Your own manifested form, can impede me. I cannot find a place where I can be free from fear of Sri Ekadasi. Oh my Master! I am a product of Your creation, so therefore very mercifully direct me to a place where I can reside&#xA;  fearlessly.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After this, Lord Vishnu, observing the condition of the Papapurusha began to speak thus: ‘Oh Papapurusha! Rise up! Don’t lament any longer. Just listen, and I’ll tell you where you can stay on the auspicious lunar day of Ekadasi. On the day of Ekadasi, which is the benefactor of the three worlds, you can take shelter of foodstuff in the form of grains. There is no reason to worry about this any more, because My form as Sri Ekadasi Devi will no longer impede you.’ After giving direction to the Papapurusha, the Supreme Lord Vishnu disappeared and the Papapurusha returned to the performance of his own activities. According to the instructions of Lord Vishnu, every kind of sinful activity that can be found in the material world takes its residence in this place of foodstuff (grains). Therefore those persons who are serious about the ultimate benefit for the soul will never eat grains on the Ekadasi day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the story behind ekadashi vrat puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we all know its importance is fasting on ekadashi may free you from sins. Different Ekadashi has different story behind it. Common is some sage suggests some x person to fast on x ekadashi to free from x sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Web Reference &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedicgiftshop.com/misc/ekadashi-vrat-vratham-importance/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Origin of Ekadashi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2015-08-31T11:36:42.737" LastActivityDate="2015-08-31T11:36:42.737" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8329" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7363" CreationDate="2015-08-31T11:47:05.743" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The picture you have shown is showing names with the figures, but the number 6 is not named. So there is a possibility that the boy is kartikeya. But as Lord kartikeya has 6 heads, this can be some Shiva Gana or randomely the author has put this figure. Nandhi is also one possibility.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any devotee of Lord Shiva can go to Shiva temple and offer Lotus Flowers to Shiva Lingam, so maybe the boy is for decoration purpose only. There is nothing special to be acquainted with him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Deer is right thing shiva holds in hand it is not bull it is deer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2015-08-31T11:53:36.263" LastActivityDate="2015-08-31T11:53:36.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8331" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8388" CreationDate="2015-08-31T13:44:00.180" Score="6" ViewCount="4264" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are a lot of mantras in our scriptures. Some of these mantras are used to invoke a particular deity, activity or a life-event. Some are mantras for longevity, some for knowledge, immortality, liberation and so on. Some of the highly notable mantras are Gayatri mantra, Hare Krishna Mahamantra and 'Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya' which was used by Dhruva during his penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gayatri Mantra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ॐ भूर्भुवस्व: | तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यम् | भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि | धियो यो न: प्रचोदयात्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oṁ Bhūr Bhuva~Swah' Tat Savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhīmahi dhiyo yo naḥ prachodayāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Let us meditate on that excellent glory of the divine Light (Vivifier, Sun). May he stimulate our understandings (knowledge, intellectual illumination).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hare Krishna Mantra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे | हरे रामा हरे रामा रामा रामा हरे हरे ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare | Hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Oh energy of the Lord, please engage me in the loving service of Lord Krishna.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;O my Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, is there &lt;strong&gt;one universal Mantra / Mahamantra&lt;/strong&gt; which can be chanted by a devotee, irrespective of his Varna, gotra, phase of life which takes him to the highest realm of God realization? Is it one of the above mantras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3628" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2022-09-16T13:55:36.033" Title="Universal mantra of all mantras for attaining the highest level of God realization?" Tags="|mantras|moksha|meditation|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8333" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8302" CreationDate="2015-08-31T18:28:57.627" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Temples are sacred places and there are certain rules to be followed before entering temple. These rules are known as Pancha Shuddhi (5 kinds of purity). According to this 5 types of shuddhi needed before going to temple: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sharira (bathe body)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ahara (Satvic food)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manas (mind)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaak (Speech)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karma (deed)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two questions asked, first one 'Is it okay if I go temple after eating something?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the second rule Ahara Shuddhi(purity of food items), only Satwik food items are allowed before visiting the temple. Even some of the food items like &lt;strong&gt;onion, coffee, tea, overly spicy food, salty food&lt;/strong&gt;, etc are not Satwik. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it is a long pilgrimage, there can be exceptions but you should be aware to choose the Satwik food items. Usually during the pilgrimage, we depend on hotels. Make sure that it is a vegetarian hotel otherwise they may have mixed up all food items.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one more aspect to the Satwik food. The purity of food items also &lt;strong&gt;depend on the people who cook&lt;/strong&gt;. It depend on their purity of body, mind, speech and deed. If you are having homely food, then you can almost ensure this. But in most of the hotels, the case could be much worse.  Even Satwik food become Tamasik or Rajaswik food depending on this aspect, but you never get a chance to realize this. Brahmins know this fact very well and hence they try to avoid outside food because of this reason.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So your grandparents are right and it is better to have no food as we can not ensure the purity of the food items even if those are vegetarian food items. See this question and answer for the details &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2659/what-are-tamasic-rajasic-and-sattvic-foods?rq=1&quot;&gt;What are Tamasic, Rajasic and Sattvic foods?&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also your question can be related to the question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7121/why-are-non-hindus-not-allowed-inside-temples/7146#7146&quot;&gt;Why are non-Hindus not allowed inside temples?&lt;/a&gt;. Many of the temples have restrictions for non-hindus because of the above reasons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rule is applicable to all people (even if you are hindu) and hence the answer for your second question 'can I eat non-veg and visit a temple?' is definitely a NO. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not aware of any unplanned events in temples. Usually all events in temples are planned and if you had non-veg food, you should not go to temple. Actually it will be an insult to other people who follow these rules. Temple also will need to have it's standard procedures to clean the atmosphere if there is any kind of impurity. It is known as 'Shuddhi Kalasam' in Kerala. See this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vaikhari.org/rituals.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;. The responsibility and it's deed is upon you for sure.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-08-31T18:46:02.430" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8334" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9516" CreationDate="2015-08-31T18:58:45.040" Score="8" ViewCount="802" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha (liberation) is the ultimate goal of a jivā (soul). So, If I've understood it correctly, when a jivā attains moksha, it is freed from the cycle of life and death, being absorbed into the 'Source'. So, it makes sense that this should be the highest goal of a jivā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, I'm curious to find out &lt;strong&gt;if this is highest level achievable&lt;/strong&gt; by a soul. Is there anything above Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason why I'm intrigued is after reading the story of &lt;strong&gt;Dhruva&lt;/strong&gt;,  King Uttānapāda &lt;em&gt;(the son of Svayambhuva Manu)&lt;/em&gt; and his wife Suniti &lt;em&gt;(or Sunrita, the daughter of Dharma)&lt;/em&gt; meditated on Lord Vishnu with fierce determination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhruv started his meditation, and went without food and water for six months, his mind fixed on the Lord. The austerity of his tapasya shook the heavens and the Lord appeared before him, but the child would not open his eyes because he was still merged in his inner vision of Vishnu's form described to him by Narada. Lord Vishnu had to adopt a strategy of causing that inner vision to disappear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Vishnu was pleased with Dhruva's tapasya and asked him to ask for a varadān (grant of wishes), Dhruv said that he (being an uneducated child) did not know how to sing the praise of Lord Vishnu, and therefore asked the varadān of a knowledge of stuti (hymn in the praise of Vishnu). &lt;strong&gt;Other persons would have asked for worldly or heavenly pleasures, or for moksha at most, but Dhruva had no personal desire.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having spent a long time in the Lord's remembrance he even forgot the objective of his tapasya, and only asked for a life in memory of the Lord. Pleased by his tapasya and by his stuti, Vishnu granted his wish and further decreed that the lad would attain Dhruvapada - the state where he would become a celestial body which would not even be touched by the Maha Pralaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The legend of Dhruva is detailed in Vishnu Purana, Chapter XI&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As evident by the above, Dhruva could have been offered Moksha, as being the ultimate goal of a soul. But, because Dhruva didn't have a desire for Moksha too, he attained a place really close to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this makes me wonder if a jivā could possible attain a similar level of God consciousness which would be revered even higher than Moksha? What if a jivā eligible for Moksha would refuse Moksha (most politely) and instead ask for something else - like being in a state of constant meditation of God in a secluded state for an indefinite period of time (Eternal devotion to God)? Would this be considered as being 'inferior' to Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OR&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is 'Moksha' the ONLY highest achievable goal?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3628" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-17T16:15:00.380" Title="Is Moksha (liberation) the highest attainable level for a jivā (soul)? Is there anything above Moksha?" Tags="|moksha|meditation|mukti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8335" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22925" CreationDate="2015-09-01T07:44:33.417" Score="16" ViewCount="12961" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have heard and read lot of stories involving Yakshas like Kuber was a Yaksha, there was an encounter of Yudhisthir with Yaksha who asked seven questions to him(ofcourse that was revealed to be Dharmaraj later). My question is who are Yakshas and how were they different from normal human beings. Do they possess any powers. Do they have any responsibilities towards anything? Also how come Kuber be a Yaksha when his father sage Vishrawa was a Brahmin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-24T11:05:17.447" LastActivityDate="2019-10-04T05:22:27.020" Title="Who are Yakshas?" Tags="|yakshas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8337" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8335" CreationDate="2015-09-01T11:11:52.113" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yaksha&lt;/em&gt; is very similar to &lt;em&gt;Jinn&lt;/em&gt; (or Ginny). They are usually &lt;strong&gt;demonic entities&lt;/strong&gt; (as per ISKCON) or &lt;strong&gt;Ogres&lt;/strong&gt; (as per Gambhirananda). Though they are similar, they are different from the &lt;em&gt;Rakshasa&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaksha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yaksha (Sanskrit yakṣa, Pali yakkha) is the name of a broad class of&#xA;  nature-spirits (or demons), usually benevolent, who are caretakers of the natural&#xA;  treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots. They appear in Hindu,&#xA;  Jain and Buddhist texts. The feminine form of the word is yakṣī or&#xA;  Yakshini (yakṣiṇī).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist texts, the yakṣa has a dual personality.&#xA;  On the one hand, a yakṣa may be an inoffensive nature-fairy,&#xA;  associated with woods and mountains; but there is also a darker&#xA;  version of the yakṣa, which is a kind of ghost (bhuta) that haunts the&#xA;  wilderness and waylays and devours travelers, similar to the rakṣasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Gita, the people with &lt;em&gt;Rajasic&lt;/em&gt; nature worship them.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यजन्ते सात्त्विका देवान्यक्षरक्षांसि राजसाः। प्रेतान्भूतगणांश्चान्ये यजन्ते तामसा जनाः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 17.4 - Those with sattva, worship the deva-s; those having rajas, worship the ogres (yaksha) and monsters (rAkshasa); Other people possessed of tamas, worship ghosts and the spirits&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-22T16:34:58.447" LastActivityDate="2017-12-22T16:34:58.447" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8338" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8331" CreationDate="2015-09-01T11:22:53.677" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt; V7 p 62, also here under &lt;em&gt;Inspired Talks&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Sunday July 21&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_7/vol_7_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_7/vol_7_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Repeating the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;ॐ(Aum)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; continually is the only true worship. It is not a word, it is God Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas say that the Om (pronounced AUM, and better represented as AUM) is the sound (vibration) that was first projected out of Brahman. It is from this initial vibration that the entire universe is created. As it is the manifestation of Brahman in the universe it is equated with Brahman. It is referred to as such throughout many many places in the Vedas. As it is equated with Brahman, both literally and figuratively, prayers are always started by first pronouncing AUM. Some examples are first the &lt;em&gt;Prasna Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; fifth chapter. A few verses from this chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He replied: O Satyakama, the syllable AUM is the Supreme Brahman [Nirguna Brahman] and also the other Brahman [Saguna Brahman]. Therefore he who knows it attains, with its support, the one or the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Again, he who meditates on the Highest Person [Saguna Brahman] through this syllable AUM consisting of three letters, becomes united with the effulgent sun. As a snake is freed from its skin, even so he is freed from sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...And also through the syllable AUM he realizes that which is tranquil, free from decay, death, and fear, and which is the Highest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and the &lt;em&gt;Mandukya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (I.) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Harih AUM! AUM, the word, is all this [i.e. the whole universe]. A clear explanation of it is as follows: All that is past, present, and future is, indeed, AUM. And whatever else there is, beyond the three-fold division of time--that also is truly AUM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;other examples include &lt;em&gt;Katha Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (I. ii. 15) &quot;It is AUM&quot;; Katha Upanishad (I. ii. 17) &quot;This AUM is the best support&quot;; &lt;em&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (I. viii. 1) &quot;AUM this word is Brahman.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-09-03T04:51:42.917" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T04:51:42.917" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8339" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11" CreationDate="2015-09-01T13:35:16.200" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Aryan theory is trusted by Westerners on Indians. One may keep quoting un-endingly on this, the fact remains, Aryans do not exist.  If Aryans were a superior race or civilization,  there should exist a civilization older than Hinduism, the truth is - none exists better than Hindu civilization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Request the readers to read &quot;Holy Science&quot; of Sri Yukteswar Giriji who is an exalted saint &amp;amp; yogi with divine knowledge, who explicitly denounced the Aryan theory. So do Sri Aurobindo in &quot;In defense of Hindu Civilization&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-12-15T07:08:52.087" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T07:08:52.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8340" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20267" CreationDate="2015-09-01T13:51:09.000" Score="4" ViewCount="3356" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read that Kumbini was the half sister of Surpanakha, but I haven't read anything more about her. How she was a half sister of Surpanakha, and in what terms she was a half sister of Surpanakha. Can anyone give and explain her character in detail please.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are the links where I had read her name for the first time and any details about her. But haven't found anything more about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surpanakha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surpanakha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindutav.com/surpanakha-untold-facts/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.hindutav.com/surpanakha-untold-facts/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="934" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-01T14:08:31.920" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T11:03:35.230" Title="Details about Kumbini-The Half Sister of Surpanakha" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8341" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-01T16:48:30.273" Score="6" ViewCount="500" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that Sugreeva's elder brother Vaali was stronger than Lord Rama himself?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is it possible for a vanara to be more powerful than a God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-02T18:38:39.723" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T21:49:41.010" Title="The strength of Vaali" Tags="|ramayana|rama|vali|sugriva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8345" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-02T02:21:49.057" Score="5" ViewCount="276" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is a soul? Does it exist in all living things? If yes, then what is difference between;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Souls of two human beings&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Souls of a human being and another living thing&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3645" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-28T14:12:18.747" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T14:12:18.747" Title="What is a soul? Does it exist in all living things?" Tags="|atma|jiva|human|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8346" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-02T03:30:12.247" Score="4" ViewCount="358" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read somewhere that souls are never created nor destroyed. How is that possible? If souls are never created nor destroyed , how did all of us come into existence and how is the population of the world increasing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastActivityDate="2015-09-02T12:39:44.667" Title="Souls and Population" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8347" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7580" CreationDate="2015-09-02T03:37:10.287" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The practice of Bhutha Shuddhi as thought by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is perfectly safe and effective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can be done alone, meaning you can do it alone by yourself, if that is what you mean. You can do it as a practice by itself in case you are unable to do other forms of yoga like Hatha Yoga or Pranayam due to limitations with your body, etc.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Replying to Swamy Vishwananda, By the way, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is not just a Hatha Yoga teacher, it is just a part of the offered teachings of Isha Foundation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3646" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-02T04:07:05.213" LastActivityDate="2015-09-02T04:07:05.213" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8349" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-02T03:42:48.187" Score="2" ViewCount="401" Body="&lt;p&gt;When the souls are created by GOD for the first time, are they neutral souls since they have not had any good or bad deeds to give them a birth of a animal or an insect vs giving them birth as a good human being?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If they are neutral souls, then what is neutral? Is it a good human being with a normal life a neutral soul?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastActivityDate="2015-09-02T05:32:43.220" Title="Soul Creation For The First Time" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-09-06T10:48:35.697" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8350" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8356" CreationDate="2015-09-02T04:29:01.457" Score="11" ViewCount="4454" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know who has written our Puranas? Where in our scriptures, is it mentioned about the author? Are the Puranas created and composed ('put together out of existing material') by the same person(s)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-19T19:51:31.583" LastActivityDate="2020-06-23T01:18:06.837" Title="Who wrote or composed (put together) the Puranas?" Tags="|puranas|vyasa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8351" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8349" CreationDate="2015-09-02T05:32:43.220" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Souls are not created, they are emanations of the Eternal Being and have no more a beginning than God Himself. Swami Vivekananda writes (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt; V6, p 85 and here under &lt;em&gt;Notes of Class Talks and Lectures&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Notes on Vedanta&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_6/vol_6_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_6/vol_6_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas teach that the soul of man is immortal. The body is subject to the law of birth and decay; what grows must of necessity decay. But the indwelling spirit is related to the infinite and eternal life; it never had a beginning and it will never have an end. One of the chief distinctions between the Vedic and Christian religion is that the Christian religion teaches that each human soul had its beginning at its birth into this world; wheras the Vedic religion asserts that the spirit of man is an emanation of the Eternal Being and had no more a beginning than God Himself. Innumerable have been and will be its manifestations in its passage from one personality to another, subject to the great law of spiritual evolution, until its reaches perfection, when there is no more change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-09-02T05:32:43.220" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8352" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-02T05:37:35.367" Score="8" ViewCount="15589" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know how is semen helpful in Self-realisation?&#xA;Some people masturbate and waste a lot of semen. If it is preserved, what kind of benefit do they get over the people who masturbate ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can a person who masturbate be a maharshi? What is the difference betweeen Maharshi and Paramahamsa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3648" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2015-09-06T12:15:16.790" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T14:31:21.673" Title="How is semen helpful in Self Realisation?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8354" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8359" CreationDate="2015-09-02T05:44:24.163" Score="11" ViewCount="5448" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was Ganga Devi married to someone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is she a wife of Lord Shiva, because he adorns Ganga Devi on his head which could mean that she is Shiva's wife?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've also heard that Bhishma Pitamaha from Mahābhārata is the son of Ganga but unfortunately I've forgotten his father's name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3577" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-11T08:46:55.500" LastActivityDate="2018-01-11T11:23:16.973" Title="What is Ganga Devi's marital status?" Tags="|shiva|mahabharata|puranas|bhishma|ganga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8355" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7872" CreationDate="2015-09-02T06:23:45.933" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Tarakeshwar temple was built in 1729 AD. In the temple, there is a tank named Dudhpukur which is believed to fulfill the prayers of those who taking a dip in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per local legends, this temple was built after knowing about it in a dream. This dream led the mendicant brother of Raja Vishnu Das to a Linga in the jungles near Tarakeshwar which is located in Hooghly, West Bengal. This temple was later built around a Swayambhu Linga, referred as Baba Taraknath in 1729 AD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nowadays, in the Shravan month, people go to Tarakeshwar by walking from Kolkata which is the capital of West Bengal and did abhishek of Baba Taraknath in Tarakeshwar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3649" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T04:02:52.333" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T04:02:52.333" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8356" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8350" CreationDate="2015-09-02T06:44:20.613" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I googled and I got &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindisahityadarpan.in/2013/03/sanskrit-shlokas-subhashit-quotes-5.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अष्टादशपुराणानां सारं व्यासेन कीर्तितम् |&#xA;  परोपकार: पुण्याय पापाय परपीडनम् ||&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;हिंदी अनुवाद&lt;/strong&gt;:&#xA;  कीर्तिस्वरूप अठारह पुराणों के सार के रूप में महर्षि व्यास ने सिर्फ दो बातें कहीं !! दूसरो का उपकार करने से पुण्य होता है और दुःख देने से पाप । एक प्रचलित कहावत भी है -परहित सरिस धरम नहि भाई, परपीड़ा सम नहि अधिकाई । &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation&lt;/strong&gt;:&#xA;  Amidst all the 18 Puranas, know only two gospels of Maharshi Vyas to be true, that doing good to others conduces to merit and doing harm to them leads to Sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Maharshi Vyasa wrote the Puranas according to above shloka. But I didn't find which of our scriptures mention this shloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-20T04:44:52.150" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T04:44:52.150" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8357" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-02T07:22:09.893" Score="3" ViewCount="446" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although a similar question is asked &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2802/do-the-same-avatars-repeat-in-each-chaturyug&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. I have not found the answer for the question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the purpose of repetition of events of every yuga in every&#xA; Chaturyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are only important events like ramayana, Mahabharata are repeated or&#xA;event of me posting here is also an repetition from the previous Chaturyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the Chaturyuga is destroyed at the end of cycle, how come the naga lok is not destroyed, since it has Lord Rama's rings from previous treta yugas, which are indeed of previous Chaturyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-24T09:03:03.790" LastActivityDate="2018-11-24T09:03:03.790" Title="What is the purpose of repetition of events of every yuga in every Chaturyuga" Tags="|puranas|yuga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8358" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8477" CreationDate="2015-09-02T07:39:31.773" Score="3" ViewCount="19452" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, I am a great admirer of Karna and can prove that he is the only person in Mahabharata epic to follow dharma in his entire life but the only question I have is why did he ran from the battle with Chitrasena abandoning Duryodhana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His first dharma was protecting Duryodhana. Why did he flee saving his own life (which was not necessary as he had Kavacha-Kundala with him). Karna fans argue that he was drunk at that time and was not in a position to use his full capabilities. But I'm not convinced. If a drunk person commits a crime he is still a criminal. Moreover, it is not mentioned (in Sacred-Texts.com, from where I read it) that he was drunk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having Kavacha-Kundala on him, Karna was invincible still he fled from the battle abandoning the friend whom he promised to protect him against any cause, if required with his life, why he fled away? Did he want to protect his prestige of not becoming captive to any power or remain undefeated throughout his life? Even if it is so, running from a battle would also be considered a defeat. What is the truth? Did he run or not? If he did, why did he do that? Is &lt;a href=&quot;http://Sacred-Texts.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sacred-Texts.com&lt;/a&gt; legitimate? For I know Karna would never flee for his life abandoning his best friend Duryodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the Gandharvas then, desirous of slaying Karna, rushed together by&#xA;hundreds and thousands towards Karna. And those mighty warriors,&#xA;desirous of slaying the Suta's son, surrounded him on all sides, with&#xA;swords and battle-axes and spears. And some cut down the yoke of his&#xA;car, and some his flagstaff, and some the shaft of his car, and some&#xA;his horses, and some his charioteer. And some cut down his umbrella&#xA;and some the wooden fender round his car and some the joints of his&#xA;car. It was thus that many thousands of Gandharvas, together attacking&#xA;his car, broke it into minute fragments. And while his car was thus&#xA;attacked, Karna leaped therefrom with sword and shield in hand, and&#xA;mounting on Vikarna's car, urged the steeds for saving himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03239.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sacred-texts.com - The Mahabharata, Vana Parva, Sec. CCXXXIX&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3611" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-03-12T00:38:05.140" Title="Why did Karna flee from battle with Chitrasena (Gandharvas)?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|karna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8359" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8354" CreationDate="2015-09-02T07:46:09.250" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganga Devi is wife of King Shantanu. Ganga devi's sister Parvati is wife of Lord Shiva. From texts in Mahabharata epic it is clear that Ganga Devi is wife of King Shantanu. Thus Ganga Devi's marital status is married. But Ganga devi had a deal with King Shantanu that he will never doubt her or question her actions. Before Bhishma 7 children(Vasus) were born to Ganga Devi who died in flood But when Bheeshma born King Shantanu doubted Ganga devi that she will also take the son away in flood and he will die. So Ganga devi separated with King Shantanu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally Ganga Devi's marital status has been changed to Separated from married.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2015-09-02T09:20:26.813" LastActivityDate="2015-09-02T09:20:26.813" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8360" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8354" CreationDate="2015-09-02T09:15:15.957" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the Hindu scriptures like Skanda Purana, the goddess&#xA;  Ganga is foster-mother to Karttikeya(Subrahmanya, Murugan), who was&#xA;  actually a son of Shiva and Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parvati who created an image of Ganesha out of her bodily impurities&#xA;  but which became endowed with life after immersion in the sacred&#xA;  waters of the Ganges. Therefore Ganesha is said to have two&#xA;  mothers Parvati and Ganga and hence called Dvaimatura and also&#xA;  Gangeya(the son of Ganga).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Hindu epic, Mahabharata tells that the Vasus, cursed by Vashishta&#xA;  had requested Ganga to be their mother. Ganga incarnated and became&#xA;  the wife of King Shantanu on condition that at no stage shall he&#xA;  question her actions, or she would leave him. As seven Vasus were born&#xA;  as their children, one after the other, Ganga drowned them in her own&#xA;  waters, freeing them from their punishment and the king made no&#xA;  opposition. Only when the eighth was born did the king finally oppose&#xA;  his wife, who therefore left him. So the eighth son, Dyaus incarnated,&#xA;  remained alive, imprisoned in mortal form, and later became known in&#xA;  his mortal incarnation as Bhishma(Devavrata), who is one of the most&#xA;  respected characters of the Mahābhārata. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Wikipedia article: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges_in_Hinduism#Other_Religious_Associations&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ganges in Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, see &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges_in_Hinduism#Descent_To_Earth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ganga's Descent To Earth&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-18T00:30:41.807" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T00:30:41.807" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8361" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-02T09:29:12.560" Score="1" ViewCount="339" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sahasranamam&lt;/strong&gt; has 1000 names of a God, but why is it necessary. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the prominence of it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2015-09-02T09:57:20.377" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T20:04:52.020" Title="What is the significance of Sahasranamam?" Tags="|vishnu|belief|gods|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8362" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-02T11:38:54.203" Score="10" ViewCount="34853" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen animals sacrificing for  Kali mata. I am not brahmin by birth but had developed interest towards Lord Siva. I read Shiva Purana but there are no references for devotees of Shiva. I have read story of Bhaktha kannappa. Can Shaivaites eat meat?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-04-21T09:28:37.760" LastActivityDate="2023-11-24T14:17:50.160" Title="Can Shaivaites or Devotees of Shiva eat meat?" Tags="|shiva|belief|food|shaivism|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8363" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13" CreationDate="2015-09-02T11:55:37.873" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism has vast literature and every component of &quot;universe&quot; is explained in detail and to go through such literature, one requires many births and then to understand it many many more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Christianity &amp;amp; Islam are preachings of a single person i.e. single awakened person, within a very very limited life span&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To make mountain of such preachings and to talk of &quot;entire universe&quot; with a single book, is far fetched.   Gita is also a small book, however, the depth of sacred text mentioned in GITA is far superior to Bible and / or Islam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nothing in Hindu society nor practises of any hindu individuals is influenced either by Christianity or Islam.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saint / Sage Ramanuja himself &quot;converted&quot; shudras to brahmin, saying there is no casteism defined in hinduism (i.e. no cultural discrimination of any type) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-09-02T11:55:37.873" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8366" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8362" CreationDate="2015-09-02T12:27:48.030" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kashmiri Pandits worship a variation of Shiva known as Batuka Bhairava - with fish and meat. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vamachara maarg of Tantra is inclined towards the Five M's - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Madya (wine)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mamsa (meat)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matsya (fish)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mudra (cereal)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maithuna (sexual intercourse)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here we can understand it is meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in Ashwamedh and Purushmedh yagna sacrifices are made and deities are offered meats. So we can consider Shiva may eat meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in Ramayana Later, Sita said to Ravana (disguised as a sage):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Āgamiṣyati me bharta vanyamādāya puṣkalam z&#xA;  Rurūṇ godhān varāhāñca hatvā ādāyāmiṣaṃ vahu  zz&#xA;  Sa tvaṃ nāma ca gotraṃ kulamācakṣava tatvataḥ z &#xA;  Ekaśca daṇḍakāraṇye kimartha carasi dvija zz&quot;  (Araṇya/47/23-24)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;My husband Ram will come back soon with many kinds of wild fruits and plentiful of meat by hunting ruru (a kind of deer), varaha (wild boar) and godha (iguana). Now you please be kind and tell me your name, your gotra (clan or lineage) to which you belong and what you are roaming in this lonely forest for?&quot; (tr. Ibid, p-323).   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are several other verses that suggest that Ram was not vegetarian. This is also one proof that GODs eat meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God is so simple, He is our Aid /wellwisher, who accepts whatever we offer Him with LOVE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In most of the stories or myths related to temples it could be seen that when the installation of the idol is completed the related people worship the idol with whatever they have in their home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, people staying near sea and depending on the sea for their living, naturally will have dried fish as a stock of food at their home. If this community installs an idol in their village, definitely, this dried fish can be expected as an offering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2015-09-03T06:07:37.590" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T06:07:37.590" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8368" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8346" CreationDate="2015-09-02T12:39:44.667" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God created the universe as thought and as &quot;leela&quot;, as per scriptures.  In his creation there are many forms of energy depending upon its manifestation, it is can be birds, animals or human beings or stones also.  These forms can interchange just like a magician doing a trick, however, in god's creation there is no magic everything goes as per defined nature's laws (nature laws= simplified term for all writings in vedas &amp;amp; upanishads).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ancient days, there were many birds, animals which became extinct as man invented industrialization and destroyed them.  However, soul can/may return as human beings.  In short there is mass balance &amp;amp; equilibrium in mother nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand the creation and understand the soul, one need to read holy scriptures, then only further discussion can be held.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-09-02T12:39:44.667" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8374" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6559" CreationDate="2015-09-02T15:21:14.873" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no killing whatsoever. I would like to answer this question indirectly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://The%20Sudarshana%20Chakra%20is%20a%20spinning,%20disk-like%20weapon%20with%20108%20serrated%20edges%20used%20by%20the%20Hindu%20god%20Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sudharshana&lt;/a&gt; chakra is the single most powerful weapon Lord Vishnu uses to kill bad people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now what does that actually mean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Sudarshana is derived from two Sanskrit words – Su(सु)&#xA;meaning &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;good/auspicious&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; and Darshana (दर्शन) meaning&#xA;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;vision&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Vishnu kills bad people &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;using a weapon named good vision&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; &amp;quot;.Isnt it strange to name your weapon &amp;quot;good vision.&amp;quot;&#xA;Unless ofcourse Sudharshan ie Good vision is used to kill evil thoughts not people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata is not a war fighting over a kingdom.Mahabharata is a war within oneself-a war that we all have to fight,within our own conscience,between the right and the wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The symbolic chariot in Bhagavad Gita is a very powerful metaphor. The chariot is our body itself and our intellect is its driver. Our mind is the rope and the five sense organs are the five horses pulling the chariot in the battlefield. The horses i.e., the sense organs travel through the senses. The sum total of the combination of various experiences involving sound, touch, form, taste and smell constitute life in this world. For example, the horse of ‘ear’ travels through the path of sound. The path of smell is reserved for the nose. Likewise, each sense organ is associated with its corresponding sense object.In this travel, if we have the intellect as the charioteer, there will be no trouble. But in many a time, the fickle mind will try to take decisions pretending to be the intellect. We must be able to detect this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3652" LastEditorUserId="3652" LastEditDate="2022-10-26T14:08:29.520" LastActivityDate="2022-10-26T14:08:29.520" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8375" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8308" CreationDate="2015-09-02T16:40:32.717" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mythological stories are like &lt;em&gt;Fairy tales&lt;/em&gt;. The objective of these stories , is to inculcate some moral principles in the mind of the reader. You cannot apply strictly &lt;em&gt;scientific methods&lt;/em&gt; to analyze them .&lt;strong&gt;The moral priciples that they teach may be questioned&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; Recently ,there is going on a &lt;strong&gt;TV Serial&lt;/strong&gt; , in &lt;em&gt;Colours channel&lt;/em&gt; in Indian TV---which shows the life and activities of &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;br/&gt; The problem you are referring to , has been shown and discussed in detail there.You may watch that serial .&lt;br/&gt; Since there is no public criticism of the events shown in this serial ,it may be assumed the story is consistent with the description of &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt; .&lt;br/&gt; While bringing out the &lt;em&gt;new reprints of the original Puranas in Sanskrit&lt;/em&gt; or their &lt;em&gt;translated version in local languages&lt;/em&gt; ,the writers take the liberty of &lt;em&gt;modifying their contents, to suit to the requirement of the times&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2015-09-02T16:40:32.717" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8377" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2986" CreationDate="2015-09-03T07:10:27.370" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person's destiny is fixed by number of breath, hence our Yoga is all about breath control and the way forward to increase longevity.  More food in stomach more oxygen required through breathing, so person likely to die before his age !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A human being has family, takes birth within a community, community lives in a society, society lives in a state then country....etc..  All of them collectively contribute to the good or bad karma and this in turn may increase or decrease the life span.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagirath did penance and brought mother Ganga to earth and also brought salvation to all his ancestors, who were &quot;burnt to ashes&quot;, there getting blessing from &quot;pitrus&quot; and also longevity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is in recorded history that Mughal emperor prayed for his son Akbar's life in return Babar himself expired shortly afterwards, while Akbar survived to rule till his old age... Akbar with no options gave away his kingdom to the spoilt kid Humayun of anarkali fame.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many instances in recorded history, where parents prayed and increased children's longevity and vice-versa.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those knowledge in jyotisha sastra would be able to throw much more light with evidences.  Prayers help in increasing longevity (Mahamrityunjaya mantra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The elder brothers of Lord Krishna for various other known reasons, had to die in hands of his Uncle Kamsa i.e. brought sorrow to their parents (Devaki-Vasudeva), whereas Lord Krishna brought relief, release, ananda &amp;amp; moksha to his parents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Children born during month of April, when planet Sun is exalted is likely to give longevity to parents, while births in October, when Sun is debilitated may reduce longevity&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why in India, there are certain beliefs on children born during amavasya, purnima (mother's longevity issues), eclipse period (lunar / solar), lunar = mother longevity, solar -father's longevity.   This has astrological basis and astrology is one of the limbs of Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, family, community, society, state &amp;amp; country shall determine the fate of an individual, at the same time living style, individual karma &amp;amp; family/ parents karma also contribute to longevity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-03T07:29:17.657" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T07:29:17.657" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8379" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4081" CreationDate="2015-09-03T07:47:53.557" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no direct or indirect reference of any sort on polygamy in Hindu scriptures (Manu smriti).  Vedas primarily deal with God &amp;amp; Ultimate Truth.&#xA;Marriage &amp;amp; society practises are defined by &amp;amp; in Manu Smriti, which forms basis of a society &amp;amp; its laws consistent with other hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A king is &quot;permitted&quot; three wifes - first for interests of his kingdom, second for his parents, third of his choice.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna's marriage to devi rukmini is of his own choice, while with Satyabhama was that for kingdom and with Jambava was as a token of his long standing disciple Jambavanth from Ramayana era.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism focusses on attaining the ultimate truth, which is also termed as moksha.  Rest all are all rules, practises, leading to that path in which practises in a social society are again based on certain rules &amp;amp; laws of mother nature&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindusim is replete with single minded devotion - &quot;Sati&quot; (Chastity) and to even think of polygamy in the context of hinduism is sheer ignorance and is a &quot;paap&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="3397" LastEditDate="2015-09-03T07:53:54.690" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T07:53:54.690" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8380" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7452" CreationDate="2015-09-03T08:32:29.413" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Children are born a couple based on the combined net effect of their karma. It is said in jyotisha sastra that the happening (often bad if any) child's first four years are result of mother's own karma, the next four years that of father's, the next four years of that individual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Children can give and take life of their parents i.e. children born on amavasya when Moon is merged in sun, indicates, loss of maternal love &amp;amp; affection, hence considered to be a bad omen by some.  Similarly children  in purnima when sun &amp;amp; moon are bright reflects parents affection in plenty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moon represents mother, Sun represents father.  If either of them afflicted then that karaka suffers, say like a child born during eclipse, depending it lunar or solar eclipse, one would suffer for Rahu would be in close degrees with Moon/Sun. Rahu = shadow&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every individual brings his own fate &amp;amp; destiny.  It is a beauty of nature's law that using jyotisha sastra, with one horrorscope, presuming the jyotish is a learned one, one can predict three generations before &amp;amp; after ... i.e. one can predict on father/mother, grandfather/grandmother, children &amp;amp; grand children, prosperity of brothers/sisters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devaki-Vasudev prayed and got children, seven got killed by Kamsa, eight child survived (Lord Krishna) who gave moksha to his parents.  However, the first seven children brought grief &amp;amp; sorrow to their parents.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every soul of an animate or inanimate, has its own individual karma, plus its family karma (Bhagirath who brought goddess mother ganga to mother earth), community karma &amp;amp; state, country karma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Person born in America enjoys better privileges than an African born = country karma.  Similarly extend it for other segments too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-03T09:04:26.567" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T09:04:26.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8381" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6999" CreationDate="2015-09-03T10:31:13.457" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rahu kaalam is a calculated time of that day (unique &amp;amp; applicable to each day), considered to be unaustipious time for doing any religious activity.  Muhurta is calculated generally for religious activities relating to do good to the society.  Primarily muhurta is arrived to know about planetary positions to ensure that they are in proper state/position to accept offerings made during puja or religious ceremonies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With changing times, instead of religious activities, it has become fashion to apply those principles to individuals for joining a new job or starting a new work...etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being defined as unauspicious, work started or initiated during this period are generally considered unsuccessful.   Unfortunately, know few people approach jyotish for fixing muhurta for taking bribes (real, no jokes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, for doinig regular work there is no need for muhurta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-01-23T04:22:54.480" LastActivityDate="2019-01-23T04:22:54.480" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8382" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7726" CreationDate="2015-09-03T10:39:15.897" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Threads in janeyu are indicative of number of debts that one has to clear prior to his soul ascendance to higher planes.  The threads do not increase by proportionate number of children.  A thread represents a child and there is no further counts on that parameter&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nowadays, apart from parents, there is &quot;godfathers&quot; / &quot;godmothers&quot;, step mother, foster sons....etc..  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T10:39:15.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8384" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8352" CreationDate="2015-09-03T10:50:30.127" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chastity is a necessary prerequisite for Self-Realization. This is expounded in many of the scriptures. In Patanjali's &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt;, it is said that the first stage of Yoga is the practice of Yama and Niyama (do a search on Hinduism SE, these have been defined in prior questions). One of the practices of Yama is perfect chastity in thought, word, and deed. He further says in II. 38:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the establishment of continence energy is gained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is this energy? Swami Vivekananda says in his book &lt;em&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt; which includes his translation of the &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt; with his commentary (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V1 p 169-170, and available here under &lt;em&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt; subsection &lt;em&gt;The Control of Psychic Prana&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yogi alone has the Sushumna open. When this Sushumna current opens, and begins to rise, we get beyond the sense, our minds become supersensuous, superconscious — we get beyond even the intellect, where reasoning cannot reach. To open that Sushumna is the prime object of the Yogi. According to him, along this Sushumna are ranged these centres, or, in more figurative language, these lotuses, as they are called. The lowest one is at the lower end of the spinal cord, and is called Mulâdhâra, the next higher is called Svâdhishthâna, the third Manipura, the fourth Anâhata, the fifth Vishuddha, the sixth Âjnâ and the last, which is in the brain, is the Sahasrâra, or &quot;the thousand-petalled&quot;. Of these we have to take cognition just now of two centres only, the lowest, the Muladhara, and the highest, the Sahasrara. All energy has to be taken up from its seat in the Muladhara and brought to the Sahasrara. The Yogis claim that of all the energies that are in the human body the highest is what they call &quot;Ojas&quot;. Now this Ojas is stored up in the brain, and the more Ojas is in a man's head, the more powerful he is, the more intellectual, the more spiritually strong. One man may speak beautiful language and beautiful thoughts, but they, do not impress people; another man speaks neither beautiful language nor beautiful thoughts, yet his words charm. Every movement of his is powerful. That is the power of Ojas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now in every man there is more or less of this Ojas stored up. All the forces that are working in the body in their highest become Ojas. You must remember that it is only a question of transformation. The same force which is working outside as electricity or magnetism will become changed into inner force; the same forces that are working as muscular energy will be changed into Ojas. The Yogis say that that part of the human energy which is expressed as sex energy, in sexual thought, when checked and controlled, easily becomes changed into Ojas, and as the Muladhara guides these, the Yogi pays particular attention to that centre. He tries to take up all his sexual energy and convert it into Ojas. It is only the chaste man or woman who can make the Ojas rise and store it in the brain; that is why chastity has always been considered the highest virtue. A man feels that if he is unchaste, spirituality goes away, he loses mental vigour and moral stamina. That is why in all the religious orders in the world which have produced spiritual giants you will always find absolute chastity insisted upon. That is why the monks came into existence, giving up marriage. There must be perfect chastity in thought, word, and deed; without it the practice of Raja-Yoga is dangerous, and may lead to insanity. If people practice Raja-Yoga and at the same time lead an impure life, how can they expect to become Yogis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna also expounds continence as necessary for Self Realization in Chapter 6 of the Gita, especially verses 5-15. Verse 14 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He should remain seated with a placid mind, free from fear, firm in the vow of a celibate, and with the mind fixed on Me by controlling it through concentration, having Me as the supreme Goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brahma Sutras also make reference to chastity as being necessary.  Brahma-Sutras (3.4.17) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And (knowledge belongs) to those who are celibates; indeed (this is so) declared in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commentary then gives several Upanishad references for this verse. And further in verse 3.4.19:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They are to be practiced, Badarayana thinks; for the scriptural text refers equally to all the stages of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse says that continence is not only for sannyasins, but also for other asramas of life. Several Upanishad verses are also given in support of this verse in the commentary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is a &lt;em&gt;Maharishi&lt;/em&gt;? It is simply an honorific given to some yogis (and sometimes just given by themselves to themselves!). &lt;em&gt;Maha&lt;/em&gt; means great, &lt;em&gt;rishi&lt;/em&gt; means seer of mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Paramahamsa&lt;/em&gt; means great swan. It refers to a person who has attained the highest realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-09-07T07:58:56.070" LastActivityDate="2015-09-07T07:58:56.070" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8385" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3788" CreationDate="2015-09-03T11:05:32.747" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the soul elevates / ascends itself in each birth, through karmic good actions, teachers / gurus corresponding to the state of mind, would summon to guide you further.  Worshipping the same god or different god has no specific relevance for there is no conflict between Gods and conflict is within human mind and heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha is word often used in its diluted state nowadays.  One attains moksha or liberation after 84 lakhs of birth &amp;amp; rebirths (based on certain assumptions, as per Kathopanishad).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are seven more lokas or astral worlds, after clearing debts in one world, the soul migrates to next world and has to nullify karma of that world to go to next.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After clearing all 7 lokas, then what happens is mokhsa final merging with Ultimate truth or god himself.  This final stage is called moksha and not one promotion to another world/loka...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On cursory look, Gautam Buddha, Moses, Jesus, got realization after/within 40 days of penance.  Looks simple and easy.  But to reach to that stage, they have went many births / rebirths that their punya got &quot;phal&quot; (fructified).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a lighter note, one day penance by a modern day person will land him 40 days of hospitalization, such is our body state.  Think of those saints, sitting under tree, motionless, meditating with concentration with no link or feel of external world around them, while we cannot concentrate on our text books without switching off the radio FM music !! see the contrast in concentration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God has no form and yet he is in every form !!  God has no religion, he visits all humble seekers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just a kindergarten child with each passing year moves to next class with new teachers, similarly, as soul ascends, teachers come to play their role.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once, you reach an yogic state, then the Guru would remain same across different lokas for a true guru is a god realized soul  (read Sri Paramahansa Yogananda - Autobiography of a Yogi), which explains beautifully these aspects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3397" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T11:05:32.747" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8387" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24838" CreationDate="2015-09-03T12:14:43.340" Score="9" ViewCount="1478" Body="&lt;p&gt;Two days ago, I saw the series &quot;Sankat Mochan Hanuman&quot; on Sony TV. In&#xA;that Lord Hanuman got lots of blessings from Devtas &amp;amp; Lord Shiva. At that time, one of the Devta told Hanuman that he was second in race to get lot of blessings&#xA;from Devtas, first was Kartikeya (son of Lord Shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what did Kartikeya do to get blessings from the Devtas that Hanuman had met?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T13:56:51.920" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T13:56:51.920" Title="What did Kartikeya do to get blessings from the Lords that Hanuman had met?" Tags="|shiva|gods|hanuman|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8388" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8331" CreationDate="2015-09-03T12:18:08.133" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I upvoted &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8338/1049&quot;&gt;SwamiVishwananda's answer&lt;/a&gt;, but not 100% convinced. &lt;strong&gt;ॐ&lt;/strong&gt; is more of a sound vibration than a mantra.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence, I would extend it to below 2 mantras from Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;1. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gayatri Mantra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;ॐ भूर्भुवः॒ स्वः ।&#xA;तत्स॑वि॒तुर्वरे॑ण्यं॒&#xA;भर्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑ धीमहि ।&#xA;धियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त् ॥&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;em&gt;We meditate on the glory of that being who has produced this universe; May he enlighten our minds.&lt;/em&gt; (as translated by Swami Vivekananda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mantra is the form of God itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/35&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 10.35&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of the hymns in the Sāma Veda I am the Bṛhat-sāma, and of poetry I am&#xA;  the &lt;strong&gt;Gāyatrī&lt;/strong&gt;. Of months I am Mārgaśīrṣa [November-December], and of&#xA;  seasons I am ﬂower-bearing spring.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;2. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_Tat_Sat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aum Tat Sat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;ॐ तत् सत् &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;em&gt;There is only 1 lord and truth&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Some people suggest that &lt;em&gt;Hari Aum Tat Sat&lt;/em&gt; is the version for Kaliyuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Krishna, this mantra existed from the very origination. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17/23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 17.23 &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the beginning of creation, the three words &lt;strong&gt;oṁ tat sat&lt;/strong&gt; were used&#xA;  to indicate the Supreme Absolute Truth. These three symbolic&#xA;  representations were used by brāhmaṇas while chanting the hymns of the&#xA;  Vedas and during sacriﬁces for the satisfaction of the Supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T12:18:08.133" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8390" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6676" CreationDate="2015-09-03T15:11:39.090" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It signifies Lord's &lt;strong&gt;askalitha brahmacharitva&lt;/strong&gt; (means perfect/eternal celibate). &#xA;Lord wears it to signify that his a ajanma brahmachari/nitya brahmachari. It is proven when Lord revives the foetus of the womb of uttara.(who is none other than maharaja parikshit son of abhimanyu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Peacock is the only species which doesn't reproduce through the samyoga of male and female reproductory organs, the peahen collects tears of peacock(which contain reproduction cells) and lay eggs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we dwell deep in to it, we can understand the eternal relationship of Lord with Gopis and his 16108 wives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T15:11:39.090" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8391" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7727" CreationDate="2015-09-03T17:07:26.803" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Yajyopavita is worn by those who after Upanayana study Vedas and live life by practicing Vedic duties. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the olden days, many women underwent Upanayana and studied Vedas. They were called Brahmavadinis. But, many women who had no interest in learning Vedas, underwent Marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even older smritis like Harita Smriti mentions women having Upanayanam. See this link- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3852&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3852&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Slowly, as women did not study Vedas and Vedic chanting. They did not undergo separate Upanayana. Instead, marriage itself acted as Upanayana, which gave them right to perform Vedic sacrifices by sitting with their husband and assisting him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu (2.67) also says that, marriage itself is a &quot;Samskara&quot; and husband is like a Guru and cooking food itself is like a fire-ritual. That is, Upanayanam is not compulsory for women. It depends on their individual temperaments. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-09-03T17:07:26.803" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8394" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8457" CreationDate="2015-09-04T07:15:09.860" Score="1" ViewCount="155" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we all know , Donation at sattvika place (having guarantee that our donation will get use for good cause ) is a good karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what if we donate with the intension -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Hey god, I am donating this as a donation is good karma , I am ready to accept whatever you give.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;1. Does good karma get accumulate in this case?&#xA;&#xA;2. Is this a kind of Rajasi but good karma?&#xA;&#xA;3. Does doner will get good results through this?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastActivityDate="2015-09-09T05:39:01.840" Title="Donation at good place with certain mentioned intention accumulates good karma?" Tags="|belief|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8395" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-04T08:35:05.500" Score="2" ViewCount="346" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Sita was in Ashoka vana, she praised Vibhishana along with Malyavaan and Asumbana.  This appears in &lt;code&gt;Sundar Kand&lt;/code&gt; (not clear under which sarga). I was able to find a &lt;a href=&quot;https://sundaragandam.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/chapter-21sitas-reply-to-ravana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;site&lt;/a&gt; which hosts English translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is there no saint or learned person in this country who can advice you&#xA;  and put you in right path. I can't say like that, considering the&#xA;  fact great people like Vibhishana, Asumbanan, Malyavan are residing&#xA;  here. Don’t you listen to them. Do not ignore the words of learned&#xA;  people and indulge in a sinful activity. You are paving way for&#xA;  destruction of yourself and your country.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are those good deeds performed by the duo who was in par with Vibhishana in the mind of Sita? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="2552" LastEditDate="2015-09-25T11:35:03.473" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T18:38:58.197" Title="Why Malyavaan &amp; Asumbanan were certified by Sita along with Vibhishana that they are good souls?" Tags="|ramayana|sita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8396" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-04T08:39:38.907" Score="6" ViewCount="3116" Body="&lt;p&gt;The 18 days war of Kurukshetra did played havoc and many lost their lives. Sure there are few who would have survived and lived past it.  Out of those who other prominent personalities lived past that event?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For sure, I know these: Pandavas, Krishna, Ashwathama, Krupar. Who else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Any idea about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jambavan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jambhavan&lt;/a&gt; who lived across yugas right from Trivikrama period to Mahabaratha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Parasurama seems to appear in Ramayana and in Mahabaratha (who fought with Bhisma on request from Amba/Ambalika). These two were reminded when I stumbled on &lt;a href=&quot;http://kiskikahani.openspaceindia.org/articles/the-chiranjeevis-of-the-ramayana-where-are-they-now&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then is the Sage Vyas who I could see in Mausala Parva at the end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="2552" LastEditDate="2015-09-04T12:36:21.570" LastActivityDate="2021-10-31T19:47:33.727" Title="How many from the battle were alive after the war in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|war|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8397" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-04T08:42:32.960" Score="2" ViewCount="1323" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is far from a known event that Seetha was not born to a mother, rather was unearthed when the king Janak was ploughing the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my understanding the ploughing is associated with farmers and why the king was on to that action?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-14T21:51:58.863" LastActivityDate="2021-11-07T06:55:04.343" Title="Why did king Janak ploughed the earth?" Tags="|ramayana|sita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8398" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8396" CreationDate="2015-09-04T09:18:30.217" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Listing only those important warriors who participated and survived the war:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Paandavas&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yudhishthira, Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satyaki&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yuyutsu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Kauravas&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ashwathama (said to be still alive)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kripacharya (said to be still alive)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kritvarma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vrishaketu (Karna's son)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though there are many sources for this in internet, I would cite this &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra_War#Aftermath&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article on the Mahabharata War&lt;/a&gt; for reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-09-04T10:05:12.350" LastActivityDate="2015-09-04T10:05:12.350" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8400" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8447" CreationDate="2015-09-04T10:24:01.867" Score="7" ViewCount="17870" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Suktam of RigVeda describes the nama, rupa, swaroopa, greatness etc. of Goddess Sri, who is Vishnu patni (wife of Lord Vishnu). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the question is what is the significance and how should it be recited or performed? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please don't indulge in speculations nor the meanings of the Sri Suktam verses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please provide details from any scripture (Vedas, Ithihasas, Puranas, Agamas etc) which explains the origin, significance and methods of performing or reciting Sri Suktham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-12-18T16:34:53.210" LastActivityDate="2017-06-19T07:34:28.640" Title="What is the significance of Sri Suktam which is part of Rigveda?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|rig-veda|lakshmi|agamas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8401" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8397" CreationDate="2015-09-04T10:32:50.583" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Society at the time of Janaka was an agrarian society. Kings led by example. Janaka's name means 'Progenitor' or 'Father'. Sita means 'Furrow'. A plow is used to place the seed in the earth and 'create' the furrow. By plowing the earth, Janaka - the father - was placing the seed into mother Earth. Sita was not born of a human mother, but mother Earth. The story is highly symbolic, although not having a human mother, Sita is still born from the union of a father and mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arisen from the earth and not from a mother's womb, she grew up as my daughter. I made a stipulation that (this shall be the means to win this maiden as a gift) this shall be given in marriage only to the prince whose prowess is fully tried. O Eminent ascetic arisen from the earth and reared as my daughter, she has been sought after in marriage by many princes. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=1&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ramayana&lt;/em&gt; 1.66.14-15&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-11-07T06:55:04.343" LastActivityDate="2021-11-07T06:55:04.343" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8402" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-04T10:52:06.467" Score="9" ViewCount="4370" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading about (legendary) creature called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaid&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mermaid&lt;/a&gt;, I stumbled upon 1 of the examples &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suvannamaccha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SuvarnaMaccha&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QvZmj.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QvZmj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While building Ramasetu, this daughter of Raavana was an obstacle, but later fell in (mutual) love with Hanuman and had an offspring, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchanu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Macchanu&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story predominantly appears in Combodian, Thai and some other versions of Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When several volunteers have stepped forward Hanuman leads them into&#xA;  the waves. They find a large number of mermaids underwater. As they&#xA;  watch, a new rock is tossed in. The mermaids living underwater take&#xA;  the rocks and carry them away. Hanuman looks for their leader. He&#xA;  spots lovely mermaid supervising the others. He swims towards her but&#xA;  she skillfully evades him. Time and again he begins an attack but it&#xA;  comes to nothing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuman finds he is falling in love with the creature. He changes his&#xA;  tactics and begins to silently woo her. She responds to him and soon&#xA;  they are together at the bottom of the sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later, Hanuman asks the mermaid why she is stealing the rocks. She&#xA;  tells him that she is Suvannamaccha, a daughter of Ravana (the demon&#xA;  who had abducted Sita). When Ravana saw Hanuman's Vanaras building a&#xA;  causeway he instructed Suvannamaccha to stop it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuman tells the mermaid why he is building the causeway. He tells&#xA;  her of the abduction of Sita, the battle between Rama and her father&#xA;  Ravana, how they started to build a bridge, and in consequence was&#xA;  ordered to finish the causeway within seven days or pay with his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suvannamaccha turned to Hanuman and her eyes were filled with love. No&#xA;  more, she said, would she prevent Hanuman from completing his mission.&#xA;  Her mermaids underwater would, in fact, return all the stolen rocks to&#xA;  the causeway.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They parted as lovers part but it was not to be the end for them.&#xA;  Hanuman had left a seed with Suvannamaccha and soon she would give&#xA;  birth to their son, Macchanu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this really true?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Do other versions of Ramayanas also recognize Hanuman as &lt;em&gt;Akhanda Brahmachari&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-06-27T13:27:11.357" LastActivityDate="2022-06-27T13:27:23.150" Title="Did Shree Hanuman have a child from Raavana's daughter SuvannaMaccha?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|ravana|brahmacharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8403" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7848" CreationDate="2015-09-04T10:57:46.073" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;At the time of this writing, I do not have a way to quote the reference for this. However those who can, please edit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Shakuntala comes to king Dhushyant with their son Bharath, Dhushyant rejects her claims. During that process, she goes on to great length explaining the atman and sareera concepts and in that process she quotes a list of 25 people who always watches all. Unfortunately the discourse presenter did not go in depth on who these 25 people are and hence I am unable to mention here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastActivityDate="2015-09-04T10:57:46.073" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8404" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3058" CreationDate="2015-09-04T15:51:43.537" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shravana Nakshatra is the Birth Star of Lord Vamana, as it is in Srimad Bhagavatam, here: (SB.8.18.5)&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;śroṇāyāṁ&lt;/strong&gt; śravaṇa-dvādaśyāṁ&#xA;muhūrte ’bhijiti prabhuḥ&#xA;sarve nakṣatra-tārādyāś&#xA;cakrus taj-janma dakṣiṇam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;On the day of Śravaṇa-dvādaśī [the twelfth day of the bright fortnight in the month of Bhādra], &lt;strong&gt;when the moon came into the lunar mansion Śravaṇa&lt;/strong&gt;, at the auspicious moment of Abhijit, the Lord appeared in this universe. Considering the Lord’s appearance very auspicious, all the stars and planets, from the sun to Saturn, were munificently charitable.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And since Vishnu, i.e. Vamana is one of the Adityas, Shravana Nakshatra is said to be His birth-star.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-11T00:15:00.367" LastActivityDate="2015-10-11T00:15:00.367" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8405" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3101" CreationDate="2015-09-04T16:02:17.900" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam, 8th canto, 10th Chapter, 31st verse starts with this:&#xA;Rahuna Ca Tatha &lt;strong&gt;Somah&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;Notice the use of Soma, as in the text you quoted. (I know speculation is discouraged, but nevertheless..)&#xA;And this is an excerpt from the battle of the devas and asuras, after Samudra Mathana, in which the devas were victorious. So this can be a possible situation where Soma won against the asuras in general, and his prime enemy, Rahu, in particular, who is the son of Simhika, the daughter of Kayadhu and granddaughter of Danu, which makes him a &lt;strong&gt;Danava&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2015-09-04T16:02:17.900" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8406" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8331" CreationDate="2015-09-04T16:13:54.787" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;OM has already been mentioned in the answers. I am adding one more reference in support of OM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The syllable OM is the root from which the Vedas have sprung. (Every&#xA;  rite, therefore, should commence with the utterance of that syllable&#xA;  of vast import). Of him who has uttered for him the syllables Om,&#xA;  Namas, Swaha, Svadha, and Vashat, and who has according to the extent&#xA;  of his ability, performed sacrifices, and other rites, there is no&#xA;  fear in respect of next life in all the three worlds&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&#xA;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXVIII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-09-04T16:13:54.787" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8407" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8352" CreationDate="2015-09-04T16:33:49.527" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vishwananda has already given several references in support of continence.&#xA;I am adding a Sri Ramakrishna quote on it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna: &quot;To be able to realize God, one must practise&#xA;  absolute continence. Sages like Sukadeva are examples of urdhavreta.&#xA;  Their chastity was absolutely unbroken. There is another class, who&#xA;  previously have had discharges of semen but who later on have&#xA;  controlled them. A man controlling the seminal fluid for twelve years&#xA;  develops a special power. He grows a new inner nerve called medha nadi&#xA;  (the nerve of memory). Through that nerve he remembers all, he&#xA;  understands all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Loss of semen impairs the strength. But it does not injure one if one&#xA;  loses it in a dream. That semen one gets from food. What remains after&#xA;  nocturnal discharge is enough. But one must not know a woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The semen that remains after nocturnal discharge is very 'refined'.&#xA;  The Lahas kept jars of molasses in their house. Every jar had a hole&#xA;  in it. After a year they found that the molasses had crystallized like&#xA;  sugar candy. The unnecessary watery part had leaked out through the&#xA;  hole.&quot;&#xA;  The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, March 23, 1884&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-09-04T16:33:49.527" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8408" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4081" CreationDate="2015-09-04T16:46:11.250" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is discussion of polygamy by Bhishma in Mahabharata Anusasana Parva Section XLVII. Bhishma recommends polygamy for Hindus. That does not mean that Hindus must accept polygamy. Mahabharata itself does not encourage following obsolete practices:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should practice what one considers to be one’s duty, guided by &#xA;  reasons, instead of blindly following the practices of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Polygamy has been banned for 60 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2015-09-05T16:13:19.477" LastActivityDate="2015-09-05T16:13:19.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8409" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-04T18:56:13.347" Score="5" ViewCount="1183" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please let me know the birthstar of Goddess Bhoodevi Nachiyar. I have once heard that she is born under Revathi Nakshatra. I want to know because, my sister got an alliance and the boy belongs to Shravana Nakshatram. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3664" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T19:19:16.063" LastActivityDate="2018-09-02T14:56:40.453" Title="What is the Birthstar of Goddess Bhoodevi?" Tags="|goddess|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8410" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-05T13:36:52.710" Score="8" ViewCount="8639" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman had a great role in Ramayana and also took part in Mahabharata of the previous yugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Hanuman is Chiranjeevi and Brahmachari, he will be there in Kaliyuga and have some role.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what is the role of Hanuman in Kaliyuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3604" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-07T08:21:03.723" LastActivityDate="2023-02-09T05:35:21.680" Title="Role of Hanuman in Kaliyuga?" Tags="|hanuman|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8411" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7860" CreationDate="2015-09-05T16:05:09.043" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes,  white people practicing different religion are mentioned in Mahabharata. There is a passage in Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCCXXXVII which has been interpreted by a Professor Weber as a description of Christian worship in the Mediterranean area probably witnessed by Hindu pilgrims.  Sri K.M. Ganguli, the translator thinks that the Mahabharata is describing people from the Roman Republic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'The men that inhabit that island have complexions as white as the&#xA;  rays of the Moon and that are devoted to Narayana. Worshippers of that&#xA;  foremost of all Beings, they are devoted to Him with their whole&#xA;  souls. They all enter that eternal and illustrious deity of a thousand&#xA;  rays. They are divested of senses. They do not subsist on any kind of&#xA;  food. Their eyes are winkless. Their bodies always emit a fragrance.&#xA;  Indeed, the denizens of White Island believe and worship only one God.&#xA;  .......All the inhabitants were perfectly equal in energy. There was&#xA;  no superiority or inferiority there among them. .....'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata also mentions China, Antioch, Rome etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Likewise, he [Sahadeva] used messengers to subjugate and obtain&#xA;  tribute from the Pandya, the Dravidas, the Chodras, the Keralas, the&#xA;  Talavanas, the Kalingas, the Ushtrakarnikas, the &lt;strong&gt;Antakhis&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;strong&gt;Romas&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  and the city of the &lt;strong&gt;Greeks&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Sabha Parva Section 253(28) translated by Bibek Debroy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Antakhis and Romas have been identified by scholars as Antioch and Rome respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There were large and colourful garments pleasant to the touch from&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Bahlika&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;China&lt;/strong&gt;. …………………………… Shakas, Tukharas, Kankas, &lt;strong&gt;Romashas&lt;/strong&gt; and&#xA;  men with horns brought as tribute one hundred million horses that&#xA;  could travel great and long distances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Sabha Parva Section 272(47) translated by Bibek Debroy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bahlika has been identified as Bactria and Romashas have been identified as Romans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-12-29T13:12:09.177" LastActivityDate="2017-12-29T13:12:09.177" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8412" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-05T17:11:23.687" Score="5" ViewCount="227" Body="&lt;p&gt;How does the karma of an executioner work? Although they are only doing their job, does it amount to bad karma? What if an executioner has to kill a wrongly accused person? And what if the executioner sympathizes with the person he is meant to kill? How does their karma work in those scenarios? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="677" LastActivityDate="2015-10-08T17:10:51.083" Title="Karma of executioners" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8414" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11745" CreationDate="2015-09-06T06:14:09.290" Score="7" ViewCount="34008" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, there is considerable importance to राशि or Zodiac sign. In earlier times, it was common to check the zodiac sign of marrying girl and boy to see if the marriage can be decided.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was believed that a person's nature (habits,likes and dislikes etc.) is influenced by his/her zodiac sign.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to know what is the राशि or Zodiac sign of Lord Krishna when he took his incarnation. Same question can be extended to Lord Rama too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, are there any scriptures which has this information about the zodiac sign of Lord's incarnation(Rama and Krishna )who are from different era?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T07:59:40.727" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T07:59:40.727" Title="राशि(zodiac sign) of Krishna and Rama" Tags="|scripture|krishna|rama|astrology|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8417" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8397" CreationDate="2015-09-06T11:30:05.047" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Janaka was not ploughing for farming purposes, he was doing the ceremonial ploughing performed in the beginning of a Yagna, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga66/bala_66_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later, when I was ploughing the ritual field then raised by the plough [from the furrow is a baby girl... since she is] gained while consecrating the ritual-field, she is named as Seetha, and thus she is renowned.  Hers is a non-uterine birth as she surfaced from the surface of the earth, but fostered as my own soul-born girl and I determined [to give her in marriage to a bridegroom where his] boldness is the only bounty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, this is the same way that Venkateshwara's wife Padmavathi was born; the king Akasa Raja was doing the ceremonial ploughing for a Putrakameshthi Yagna when he spotted a baby girl.  See the Tirumala Sthala Purana I linked to in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/753/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-09-07T22:41:20.117" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8418" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-06T13:32:02.930" Score="7" ViewCount="3229" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important in the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consist of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the twin brother of the sage Nara.  (Nara and Narayana were the previous births of Arjuna and Krishna, respectively.)  One of the Pancharatra texts is the Lakshmi Tantra, which takes the form of a dialogue between Indra and Vishnu's wife Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0MKwz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Lakshmi Tantra, Lakshmi describes to Indra the glories of the Sri Sukta, a famous hymn to Lakshmi from the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My spotless garland made of silver lotuses is ever sparkling.  All creators, who create the worlds are adorned with me (i.e. with my presence).  &lt;strong&gt;In ancient times the forefather of the Rudras, (propitiating me as) Rajatasraj, went to mount Kailasha and became the lord of silver.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, the forefather of the Rudras is Shiva, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3886/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what is the story of Shiva becoming the lord of silver after worshipping Lakshmi?  I'm not sure what &quot;the lord of silver&quot; means.  The translator just says that Shiva &quot;is often compared to a silver mountain&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any other scriptures which describe Shiva as becoming the lord of silver after worshiping Lakshmi?  Also, on a side note there are many scriptures which describe Shiva worshipping Vishnu (like the Mahabharata chapter I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7507/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), but I think this is the first reference I've seen to Shiva worshipping Vishnu's wife Lakshmi.  Are there any other occasions where he worshipped Lakshmi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-09-20T02:11:25.420" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T02:11:25.420" Title="What is the story of Shiva becoming the Lord of Silver after worshipping Lakshmi?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|lakshmi|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8421" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="821" CreationDate="2015-09-06T17:06:45.193" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;May be your are referring to Lord Vishnu's leela about the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5356/what-scriptures-describe-the-story-of-vishnus-subservience-to-lakshmi-in-the?rq=1&quot;&gt;Nachiyar Koil&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;. You can read more about the temple and the preciding deities. It is said that the Lord appeared in Venkateshwara form to marry Lakhsmi, but as demanded by Lakshmi the Lord should stay with Her and not the opposite where the bride goes to the husband's house.&#xA;Probably &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5356/what-scriptures-describe-the-story-of-vishnus-subservience-to-lakshmi-in-the?rq=1&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; &#xA;question will further answer your doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3667" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-09-06T17:06:45.193" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8422" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-06T17:40:44.417" Score="10" ViewCount="457" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was born to Hindu parents, my father used to bring books on the universe and planets. After reading many books, knowing about evolution, the periodic extinction of species, apes and primary beings I'm no longer sure there is god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does god even exist?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3670" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-06T17:25:02.717" LastActivityDate="2016-10-06T17:25:02.717" Title="Does god even exist?" Tags="|gods|atheism|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2015-09-07T12:37:54.423" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8423" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9082" CreationDate="2015-09-06T18:39:34.860" Score="6" ViewCount="641" Body="&lt;p&gt;In one of the shlokas of Bhagavath Geetha, Krishna says &quot;&lt;strong&gt;I neither love nor hate any one&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The shloka I am referring to is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 4.11&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham mama&#xA;  vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why do people say that God has infinite love towards all?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did I misunderstand the shloka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-19T21:34:18.367" LastActivityDate="2019-03-08T18:32:24.987" Title="Does Krishna really love any one?" Tags="|krishna|gods|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8424" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8422" CreationDate="2015-09-07T00:21:04.880" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;How can we know that there is no God if there is no scientific evidence for or against the existence of one? Well, there is actually some historical evidence. The knowledge of the Vedas, however, have shown the words of god to be very accurate to those of science, and Hinduism has many times helped mankind's pursuit of science if not supplemented it. The Puranabharati, an ancient text, also predicts the reincarnations of Vishnu, for which there is historical evidence for. If you look up Adam's Bridge, you can see that there is a lot of consistency between the events of Ramayana and the age of the bridge. These texts also predicted the birth of Gautama Buddha, which we certainly have historical evidence for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is an English version of the Vishnu Purana (Puranabharati) if you are interested:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/VishnuPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/VishnuPurana.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3251" LastActivityDate="2015-09-07T00:21:04.880" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8425" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3236" CreationDate="2015-09-07T05:44:43.797" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lets see if I can add up the facts as I have been tracking this subject from a long time.&#xA;In recent times there are 3 main characters to whom the myths of sword are attached.&#xA;1.Alha &amp;amp; Udal related to whom there is a folklore and song that talks about Swords.&#xA;2.Prithviraj Chauhan who fought with these two and was saved by Guru Gorakhnath from being killed by Alha.&#xA;3.Shiva jee Maharaj who was said to be gifted with the divine sword Bhawani. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3673" LastActivityDate="2015-09-07T05:44:43.797" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8426" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8422" CreationDate="2015-09-07T05:53:57.317" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Shrimad Bhagwad Gita chapter 7th verse 25&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;naham prakashah sarvasya yogamayasamavrutah &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  moodhoyam nabhijanati loko maamajamavyayam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I do not manifest Myself to everyone. I am hidden by My yogamaya potency and thus the foolish cannot recognize Me as eternal and unborn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus GOD exists but everybody does not know him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Shrimad Bhagwad Gita chapter 7th verse 26&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedaham Samtitani vartamanani charjuna &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Bhavishyani cha bhutani mam tu ved ba kaschyana ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Arjuna, I know past, present and future. I know all living beings, but they do not know Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;GOD knows everything but we do not know GOD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even in vedas GOD is described as &quot;Neti Neti&quot; means nobody knows GOD who exists eternally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2015-09-07T05:53:57.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8428" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8412" CreationDate="2015-09-07T08:49:19.833" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Executioners are just doing their job ( &lt;code&gt;Nitya Karma&lt;/code&gt; )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He does not gets any bad karmic effect since he is not killing any wrongly accused person purposefully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he is killing any jiva purposefully then he is definitely get into bad karmic effects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastActivityDate="2015-09-07T08:49:19.833" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8429" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8422" CreationDate="2015-09-07T09:56:48.840" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you are confused with God and its interpretations. There is a super power so all the things in the universe still exist. But we gave so many names and so many structures to the God, that may or may not exist. I want to ask a question, you know elephant is a vegetarian. Who is telling them not to take other food.  Suppose from tomorrow elephant becomes non veg, what will be our status? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another example..lets take a green pea seed in your kitchen. If you want you can keep it inside a bottle for so many days, but if suppose you put it inside water, tomorrow you can see a small pant coming out from it. Who tells that seed to become a plant. In general, there are supernatural powers which are not in our control.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3499" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-07T15:19:45.147" LastActivityDate="2015-09-07T15:19:45.147" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8430" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-07T10:11:21.453" Score="1" ViewCount="56" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have prayed to offer pooja at Kukke Subrayamaniya temple (Karnataka) but due to some reason I could not go there and offer my prayers. I want to know if I can offer the same prayer at Katte Subrayamaniya temple in Bangalore instead?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3677" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T09:03:44.443" LastActivityDate="2018-09-05T09:03:44.443" Title="Can we offer prayer at a different location than the original place where we intended to?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8431" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="304" CreationDate="2015-09-07T10:46:11.270" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, the procedures (in the context of this question, though the nuance variations are there) are common for all irrespective of caste and creed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Especially in Tamilnadu, it is just common for all Hindus, but slowly this has degraded in to brief two categories. What to do on which days is detailed in depth in &lt;code&gt;Garuda Puranam&lt;/code&gt; which is a FAQ on these aspects asked by &lt;code&gt;Garuda&lt;/code&gt; and answered by &lt;code&gt;Lord Sriman Narayanan&lt;/code&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These practices are practically not possible to follow even for the most rigid followers. For example, there is a ceremony called &lt;code&gt;sothakumba&lt;/code&gt; which has to be performed on daily basis for the first year.  This in present day is not practical and hence to avoid total non-observance it is been practiced once a month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally speaking the relaxed observance are seen among brahmin community.  For this community and with the relaxed observance procedure, the days 1-13, ~30, ~45 ~180, ~360 are significant for the first year and one day in subsequent years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This has fallen down to 1, 10, ~30, ~360 among non brahmin community. Though there are no such relaxations prescribed, many in Tamilnadu follow this pattern.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as the significance for these numbers, they are:&#xA;1-10 are the days where the departed soul will get a sukshma sareera (body) and the body grows and get organs based on the pinda (rice balls) that the kartha offers on each day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11-13 are the days which is called &lt;code&gt;ekodhishtam&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;sapindakarma&lt;/code&gt; and 'subha sweekaram'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the 11th day, the athma which got the new sareera is about embark a journey this day to other loka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vasu, Rudra, Aadhitya are the three layers of pitrus.  When the departed soul starts its journery to Vasu group and it will have a cascading effect on other groups and finally the Aadhitya group will go out these three and may be born as another jeevan or goto swarga or naraka. This is done on the 12th day slicing the rice into halves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 13th day is the day where the grieving family is ready to accept the shubham and hence the name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this context the time for us is different for the time for pithrus and so in every other lokha.  A human month is equal to a pitru day.  Hence the kartha has to do the ceremony on every month.  This is so mandatory for the departed soul as this soul will carve for this food.  Being so important, just to avoid non-compliance by unforeseen events (like death for the kartha), it is been offered 16 set of stuffs like rice, vegetables, jaggery etc as donations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastActivityDate="2015-09-07T10:46:11.270" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8432" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8422" CreationDate="2015-09-07T11:48:07.020" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you have come across some of the threads on this site, which suggest over the top ages of human and Yugas in thousands of years, which will directly contradict the current form of evolution theory, then that doesn't mean that God itself doesn't exist! :-) &#xA;By staying in such denial, you are unknowingly raising finger on the cultural faiths &amp;amp; researches worth several thousands of years happening across the globe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A similar question Swami Vivekananda used to ask people, &quot;Have you seen God?&quot;. That stopped when his ultimate Guru Shri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa made him realize. But for that, Vivekananda surrendered and kept his mind open. Later he subscribed to the same philosophy &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda#With_Ramakrishna&quot;&gt;which he used to  ridicule&lt;/a&gt;. On other hand, Duryodhana did not accept Vishnu's incarnation even after witnessing the event of Vishwaroopam.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Jeeva-Atma's supreme goal is to get Moksha and that goes through God. It's up to us, which path we want to choose. I would recommend Not be an atheist, who would directly deny God without inquiring more about it. Be an atheist, who doesn't believe God until he has researched it &lt;em&gt;All&lt;/em&gt;. This will lead you towards &lt;em&gt;Gyaan marg&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is 1 sloka in Gita which tells the importance of a true spiritual Guru and you may want to look for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Overall &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7&lt;/a&gt; is a good chapter to start for the person with lot of atheism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/6&quot;&gt;BG 7.6&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All created beings have their source in these two natures. Of all that&#xA;  is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain&#xA;  that &lt;strong&gt;I am both the origin and the dissolution&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Especially &lt;em&gt;beware of&lt;/em&gt; the below:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/15&quot;&gt;BG 7.15&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/25&quot;&gt;BG 7.25&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among&#xA;  mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the&#xA;  (atheistic) nature of demons do not surrender unto Me.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am&#xA;  covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not know that I&#xA;  am unborn and infallible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even I too believe in the theory of evolution, but then my mind stumbles when I ask myself,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Who created the first living cell among all? Or Who did the current Big Bang?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We don't have to let that rebel die inside us, but calm it down to channelize in a right path. e.g. I finally decided to surrender myself to the teachings of Bhagavad Gita, even though I don't have the proofs of it being true. So that I can backtrack my knowledge based on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, don't rely totally on the evolution theory, it's just &amp;lt; 200 years old and it itself is slowly evolving. There is a whole section of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_selection&quot;&gt;Sexual Selection&lt;/a&gt; in it, which suggests how male &amp;amp; female choose (read &lt;em&gt;lust&lt;/em&gt;) their partner based on certain criteria. This might be true, but that's not all.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here are 2 cents on that!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/16/8&quot;&gt;BG 16.8&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They say that this world is unreal, with no foundation, no God in&#xA;  control. They say it is produced of sex desire and has no cause other&#xA;  than lust.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-09-07T11:48:07.020" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8433" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-07T11:51:12.060" Score="1" ViewCount="73" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism, What is the objective of human life? Further what should be our ultimate goal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2015-09-07T11:51:12.060" Title="What is the objective of human life?" Tags="|philosophy|life|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-09-07T12:02:15.287" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8436" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8402" CreationDate="2015-09-07T16:55:14.080" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per one version of Ramayana , bengali version kritiiwasi ramayana , hanuman has only one son magardwaja. It is when lord hanuman was returning after burning Lanka, he tried to clean his face with water of sea and the drops were drunk by fish and son of hanuman born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are no other son of hanuman. This story is humbalk story. Lord hanuman was brahmachari. He did not fell in love with anybody except lord rama. Lord hanuman was dedicated devotee of lord rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2015-09-07T17:35:20.867" LastActivityDate="2015-09-07T17:35:20.867" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8437" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-07T18:49:09.560" Score="7" ViewCount="2445" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am very confused about the timeline between Valmiki and the creation of Ramayana. I have read somewhere that Valmiki existed during the time period of 100 BCE, and actually met Lord Ram in person. This is impossible, however, because Ramayana took place thousands of years before this. Is there an error with what I read? Can anybody provide an accurate timeline and the relation between Valmiki and Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3251" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T11:34:21.050" Title="Valmiki's Knowledge of Ramayana and Time period?" Tags="|ramayana|valmiki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8438" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3069" CreationDate="2015-09-07T22:37:44.703" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Brahmana who became a woman is Indra himself!&lt;/strong&gt;  I found the answer to my question in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/v1hU&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Brihaddevata, an ancient work by the sage Shaunaka, which describes the different gods that Rig-Vedic verses are addressed to and the stories of how those verses were heard from the gods.  Here's what Shaunaka says about verse 19:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In 'Downward' (&lt;em&gt;adhaḥ&lt;/em&gt;: viii.33.19) a girl addressed (who appeared) with the characteristics of a woman; for the chastiser of Paka (Indra) made love to that Danava maiden, the elder sister of Vyamsa, by reason of his (Indra's) youthful desire (&lt;em&gt;yuva-kāmyā&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it looks like Indra disguised himself as a woman in order to have an affair with the sister of the Danava Vyamsa.  So in verse 19, Vyamsa's sister is telling Indra to keep his eyes down so that Vyamsa doesn't spot him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra subsequently killed the demon Vyamsa, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this hymn&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou art mine own, O Maghavan, whom Vyaṁsa struck to the ground and smote thy jaws in pieces.  But, smitten through, the mastery thou wonnest, and with thy bolt the Dāsa's head thou crushedst.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, as you can see the Rig Veda Anukramani &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, that hymn was heard by the sage Vamadeva, just like the hymns discussed in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4050/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-12-22T01:35:03.460" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8439" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-08T07:11:56.597" Score="4" ViewCount="11767" Body="&lt;p&gt;For human the soul is child of supreme soul. Soul takes birth and leave the body until it gets &lt;strong&gt;MOKHSA&lt;/strong&gt;. But what about animal's soul, will they always take birth as animal and who is supreme or manager of their soul.&#xA;We have some proof that after death human takes birth as human again. What about animals and insects?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3683" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-09-10T14:33:32.123" LastActivityDate="2018-09-10T14:33:32.123" Title="Soul, rebirth, humans and animals" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|atma|rebirth|animals|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8440" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11291" CreationDate="2015-09-08T07:29:32.623" Score="7" ViewCount="6370" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pradyumna had knowledge of how to enter and exit the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmavyuha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chakravyuha&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Pradyumna did not participate in Mahabharata war, then why didn't he participate?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Pradyumna did participate in Mahabharata war, why didn't he help Abhimanyu with the Chakravyuha?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-20T19:10:37.550" LastActivityDate="2018-09-12T03:41:38.243" Title="Did Pradyumna, son of Lord Krishna, participate in the Mahabharata war?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8441" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8444" CreationDate="2015-09-08T08:29:17.957" Score="26" ViewCount="1627" Body="&lt;p&gt;I remember a scene from the Telugu movie &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Ramadasu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Ramadasu&lt;/a&gt; in which animals such as elephants, deer and peacocks are filled with ecstasy when Lord Vishnu descends to earth as Lord Rama, and welcomed Him. Now my questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do animals really know God exists?&lt;/strong&gt; Or was it just picturization in the film? (You can see that particular scene &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gshZow7z1B0#t=3m14s&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is another story that Rama warmly stroked squirrel for the little help it could do while building Ramasethu. You can find the story from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fairytales/indian_mythology_stories/rama_and_the_squirrel.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Does it mean that animals can recognize God (here Squirrel chants Rama-Nama and helps Him) in whatever form he exists? (Here Rama was human and some people who lived at that time saw him as human except Supraja and some other sages).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-27T02:40:21.667" LastActivityDate="2023-03-06T20:26:09.010" Title="Do animals know God exists?" Tags="|vishnu|rama|animals|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8442" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="336" CreationDate="2015-09-08T10:18:50.833" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharma and Religion are two very different things. Religion has its&#xA;  origin in the west, by the followers of Abraham. Dharma has its origin&#xA;  India. In religion we have single God, a Prophet or savior and a holy&#xA;  book which alone is the way of liberation, whereas in dharma we have&#xA;  many ways and all the ways leads to same God.  In Religion if one&#xA;  doesn't believe in rules given by Prophet or savior then he is&#xA;  considered as Heathen or Kafir. But in dharma everyone has a place, he&#xA;  may even be an atheist like charvakas in hindu dharma.  I recommend&#xA;  you to read these articles for details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/dharma-and-religion&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma and Religion - वेद Veda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajiv-malhotra/dharma-religion_b_875314.html?ir=India&amp;amp;adsSiteOverride=in&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Is Not The Same As Religion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastActivityDate="2015-09-08T10:18:50.833" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8443" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-08T11:18:25.563" Score="6" ViewCount="1088" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Advaita, the individual self (Atman) is nothing but Brahman (only one). But due to avidya/maya there are many individual selves (Atmas) appearing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, According to Vishsishtadvaita, individual selves (Jivatmas) are different from each other and actually not the Brahman (only one). And (only one) Brahman dwells in Jivatmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And these Jivatmas are eternal i.e Jivatma doesn't emerge and dissolve into Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, I want to know whether the there are infinite number of souls (Jivatmas) or there is finite/fixed number of souls (Jivatmas)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-02-24T15:29:35.577" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T15:29:35.577" Title="Number of Jivatmas according to Vishishtadvaita" Tags="|atma|vishishtadvaita|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8444" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8441" CreationDate="2015-09-08T12:08:55.030" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gajendra elephant got Moksha by chanting name of Lord Vishnu. Once Gajendra elephant went to a lake to drink water. One crocodile came and barked at elephant's feet. Crocodile was very strong and it holds elephant in water only. Gajendra elephant continuosly chanted Lord Vishnu's name and Lord Vishnu came to rescue it. Thus an elephant got Moskha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nandhi is also devotee of Lord Shiva. Garuda is devotee of Vishnu and so on many deity has animals as their vehicle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This describes that even animals know GOD exists and they can get moksha too. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually human is also one animal and Lord Shiva/Harihar is Pashupati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read More Here at &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gajendra_Moksha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-02-16T06:13:37.507" LastActivityDate="2016-02-16T06:13:37.507" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8445" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-08T12:10:25.250" Score="2" ViewCount="125" Body="&lt;p&gt;If god create all of us human being equally, then why we should worship different Gods and not the one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3684" LastActivityDate="2015-09-08T15:57:01.947" Title="Isn't the God one for all the people?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8446" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8448" CreationDate="2015-09-08T12:16:34.020" Score="17" ViewCount="4202" Body="&lt;p&gt;How do I know what I was in my previous births?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many stories in Hindu mythology that mention the previous births of people. But my question is, even in those earlier times and in this current age, how can one know the previous birth of oneself or others? Or is knowing one's own or someone else's previous birth just a false concept? Is it just an illusion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also usually everybody forgets their past lives, so there must be some &lt;em&gt;vidhya&lt;/em&gt; behind knowing one's past lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone throw some light on how to attain this &lt;em&gt;vidhya&lt;/em&gt;? Are there any Hindu texts on this topic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-27T22:53:53.203" LastActivityDate="2018-03-09T00:57:01.107" Title="How can one know about their previous births?" Tags="|scripture|rebirth|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8447" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8400" CreationDate="2015-09-08T13:15:06.643" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, it should be noted that the Sri Sukta is a Khila Sukta of the Rig Veda, meaning that it's a hymn found in the Bashkala Shakha or recession of the Rig Veda Samhita, but it's not found in the Shakala Shakha of the Rig Veda Samhita.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information on the Vedic Shakhas, and my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/774/how-did-the-vedas-in-hinduism-come-into-existence/781#781&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for information on the different parts of the Vedas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, here is what this excerpt from the Brihaddevata, an ancient work by the sage Shaunaka, says about the Sri Sukta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the hymn of Fortune (&lt;em&gt;śrīsūkta&lt;/em&gt;) is a benediction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Sri Sukta is a hymn that gives you blessings.  For more detail we can turn to the Lakshmi Tantra, a Pancharatra text which takes the form of a dialogue between Lakshmi and Indra.  (For more information on the Pancharatra texts, see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/kXDF/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Lakshmi Tantra, Lakshmi tells Indra about the glories of the Sri Sukta.  Here is the origin of the Sri Sukta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In order to be merciful towards the worlds and benefit living beings, this pair of us, the ultimate parents of the world dwelling in infinite space with divine majesty (&lt;em&gt;parayā śriyā&lt;/em&gt;), once (thought) out of compassion 'how can these creatures be happy and united with us?'  While searching for a solution in profound concentration that (pair of us) churned (as it were) the vast, deep ocean of &lt;em&gt;Śabdabrahman&lt;/em&gt;.  When churned, out of that (&lt;em&gt;Śabdabrahman&lt;/em&gt;) containing Rg, Saman and Yajus, emerged the divine twin suktas, in the same way as butter comes out of (churned) thick milk.  The pair (of sūktas) is integral (anāhata), unambiguous, clear, undecaying, containing all majesty and attributes and possessed of flawless syllables and words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vishnu and Lakshmi, out of compassion for Jivas, &quot;churned&quot; out of the Vedas two hymns, the Purusha Sukta and the Sri Sukta.  In any case, here is the preamble to the Sri Sukta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I myself am regarded as its seer, its metre is said to be Sri. I, the wife of Visnu and the Goddess containing everything, am its deity. It is used for the worship of Lakshmi and Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here are the Dhyana shlokas (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7874/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) of the Sri Sukta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(The adept) should visualize me, the noble Goddess Laksmi, as seated on Visnu's lap, perpetually embraced by the Supreme Self with His left arm (encircling) me while (one of) my lotus carry arms rests on His shoulder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then a detailed procedure is given for chanting the Sri Suktam.  You can read the details in the chapter, but in part it involves the chanting of each name or Lakshmi in a separate mantra, similar to what is done for the Vishnu Sahasranamam.  Also, various stories of people worshipping Lakshmi using these mantras and the benefits they received are given, for instance ths story of Shiva I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8418/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the general benefits of chanting the Sri Suktam are described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Sakra, the greatest eradicator of all evil and the remover of all bad luck (&lt;em&gt;alakshmi&lt;/em&gt;), this my sukta should be recited on the occasion of any religious rite.  It strengthens the power of ritual acts, brings prosperity to the listener, destroys all delusion and removes all bad fortune as well as imperfections.  When (an adept) worships it employing physical, mental, and verbal functions, it saves him from heinous sins and bestows everlasting prosperity on him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a side note I posted a question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2354/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; about the &quot;sons&quot; of Lakshmi, who are also considered to be the seers of the Sri Sukta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-09-08T13:15:06.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8448" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8446" CreationDate="2015-09-08T15:49:00.293" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Patanjali Yoga Sutra III.18 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By making samyama on previous thought-waves, one obtains knowledge of&#xA;  one's past lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The basic idea is that every thought remains in a subtle form even after it is gone from our conscious mind. Thus one can though Yoga bring these&#xA;subtle thoughts back into the conscious mind. This can even be done for previous births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-09-08T15:49:00.293" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8450" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8445" CreationDate="2015-09-08T15:57:01.947" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Hindu scriptures call God as &quot;Ekam/One&quot; it refers to God being &quot;Anantam&quot; or &quot;Infinite&quot; without a second infinity. Infinity cannot be two. Infinity is wholeness, everything that exist. Hence, there are no two infinities. That is what the scriptures mean when they say God is &quot;Ekam&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, this God, who is infinite and who alone exist, can manifest in infinite number of names and forms. Hence, through whatever name or form one worships, the worship ultimately reaches the same Essence, same God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, the sloka- &quot;akasham patitam toyam yatah gacchati sagaram, sarva deva namaskaram, keshavam pratigachatti&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason people worship different forms of God, is because of different temperaments that people have. As one person is different from another person, their perception of God also differs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-09-08T15:57:01.947" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8451" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8443" CreationDate="2015-09-08T16:03:11.977" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is only one Atma from the standpoint of Atma. It is only through Maya, that the Atma, which is also called as Brahman, assumes various bodies and various forms. The jiva and the ishwara are both Atma itself that has become associated with different limiting principles called Upadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only from the standpoint of the world, there are innumerable number of jivas. From the standpoint of Brahman or Atman, Atman alone exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Isha Upanishad (Verse 4), Atman is described as being &quot;Ekam/One&quot;. In Aitereya Upanishad (1.1.1), it is said, &quot;in the beginning, all these (the whole universe of multiplicity) was only Atman.&quot; Similarly, in Chandogya Upanishad (6.2.1), it is said: In begining, all this was non-dual Atman, the one without a second. Mandukya Upanishad describes Turiya (Atman) as being Advaitam/ Non-Dual. Non-dality means absence of two. Hence, Atman is one indivisible infinite whole.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="3477" LastEditDate="2015-10-08T17:13:25.343" LastActivityDate="2015-10-08T17:13:25.343" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8453" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8439" CreationDate="2015-09-08T16:13:41.933" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;One should not confuse Atma with soul. A person has a gross, subtle and causal body. At the death of gross body, the subtle body may go to other realms of existence and then again take birth in gross body in earthly plain, based on Karma. There is no rule that a human will be born again as human. If a person commits adharma he may be born as an animal or plant. He may even have to suffer in hell. If he does good karma, only then he may attain realm of manes or realm of gods. You can read Manu Smriti or Bhagavata Purana about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is no rule that humans are always born as humans and animals are always born as animals. It may go anyways, depending on our karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-09-08T16:13:41.933" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8454" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8412" CreationDate="2015-09-08T16:21:40.340" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;If the executioner does not self identify with his job, and does it only as a duty without apathy or sympathy for the people killed, then no karma comes to him. Otherwise, some Karmic results will definitely come back to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-09-08T16:21:40.340" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8455" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8456" CreationDate="2015-09-09T01:42:20.117" Score="6" ViewCount="7815" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was listening to &amp;quot; Dhanvantari Gayatri Mantra&amp;quot; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ajQOxVA3ak&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ajQOxVA3ak&lt;/a&gt; video.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Would like to know the words, but I did not find it. Even though I found few, it's looks little different&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://lifegivingmantras.blogspot.com/2009/10/dhanvantari-mantras.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://lifegivingmantras.blogspot.com/2009/10/dhanvantari-mantras.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3258" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2021-07-08T03:36:51.220" LastActivityDate="2022-03-09T12:08:45.630" Title="Where I can get the words of Dhanvantari Gayatri Mantra?" Tags="|mantras|gayatri-mantra|dhanvantari|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8456" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8455" CreationDate="2015-09-09T04:01:59.657" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dhanwantari Gayatri Mantras&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Om tat purushaaya vidmahae Amritha kalasa hastaaya dheemahi Tanno&#xA;Dhanvantri prasodayaat&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Om aadivaidhyaaya vidmahae Arogya anugrahaaya dheemahi Tanno&#xA;dhanvantri prasodayaat&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;ॐम् तत् पुरुशाय विद्मह​ए आम्रिथ कलस हस्ताय धेएमहि टन्नो ढन्वन्त्रि&#xA;प्रसोदयात्&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;ॐम् आदिव्ऐध्याय विद्मह​ए आरोग्य अनुग्रहाय धेएमहि टन्नो धन्वन्त्रि&#xA;प्रसोदयात्&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://wiralfeed.wordpress.com/2015/12/12/dhanvantari-mantra/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dhanwantari Gayatri Mantras&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May be you are looking for this one below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Om Vasudevaya Vidmahe Vaidhyarajaya Dhimahi Tanno Dhanvantri Prachodayat”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/G%C4%81yatri_Mantras_of_Several_Gods&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; you can find all Gayatri mantra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-03-09T12:08:45.630" LastActivityDate="2022-03-09T12:08:45.630" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8457" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8394" CreationDate="2015-09-09T05:39:01.840" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in the Gita that there are three kinds of giving when He defines the different types of sacrifices, austerities, and gifts. He details this in Chapter 17 verses 7-28. All the verses should be read. A few of the verses are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 7. Even the food that is dear to all is of three kinds. Likewise are the sacrifices, austerities, and gifts. Hear now of the distinction between them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 20. That gift which is made to one who can make no return, and with the feeling that it is one's duty to give, and which is given at the right place and time to a worthy person--such a gift is held to be of the nature of sattva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 21. But that which is given for the sake of recompense or with the expectation of fruit or in a grudging mood is accounted as of the nature of rajas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 22. And the gift which is made without respect or with disdain, at an improper place and time, and to an unworthy person is declared to be of the nature of tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In verses 23-27 The Lord says why acts of sacrifice, austerity, and gifts are always begun by saying &amp;quot;Om&amp;quot; and the meaning of &amp;quot;Om Tat Sat&amp;quot; when doing these actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and finally:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 28. Whatever sacrifice or gift is made, whatever austerity is practiced, whatever ceremony is observed--it is all called &amp;quot;asat,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;unreal,&amp;quot; if it is done without faith. It is of no account here or hereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-09-09T05:39:01.840" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8458" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8446" CreationDate="2015-09-09T07:17:25.903" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that great meditation or tapasya brings new qualities in people. The person not only is able to control his senses but can also achieve more than that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are examples in past about remembering past life like one story specified in Vishnu Purana of King Bharata, who after renouncing the worldly affairs took Sanyasa but later again got involved in loving a deer as his son. Since he thought all the time about the well being of deer and even on his death bed, he was born in his next birth as a deer. But then due to his meditation/tapasya of the previous birth, he was able to remember his past life. Here is an extract from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jadabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; about this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That sage was born as a deer in his next birth. The Vedic scriptures say that a man will be born in his next birth as that thing about which he was thinking most at the time of his death. Therefore wise men advise people to think of Supreme Personality of Godhead (Krishna, or any other Vishnu avatara) so that it will become a habit and thus after death achieve God's abode. &lt;strong&gt;As a result of his tapas and merits and having almost reached perfection the deer that was Bharata, could remember its past by the Lord's grace.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a book called 'Bhrigu Samhita' written by sage Bhrigu. The Bhrigu Saṃhitā is an astrological (Jyotish) classic attributed to Maharishi Bhrigu during the Vedic period, Treta yuga. It is said that it was compiled by the Sage out of compassion for humanity so that humanity could cope with the pressures of its existence and move towards a more spiritual nature. The Bhrigu Samhita is said to contain predictions on one's current and future lives as well as information on the past life. These predictions will be accurate based on the actions (karma) of the questioner. Some part of Bhrigu Samhita is damaged and lost, so incomplete Bhrigu Samhita is still there in Hosiyarpur, India, where people still visit and try to find about their current, past and future births. I have already discussed about this book in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3807/what-is-actually-there-in-bhrigu-samhita&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, there are many examples of people remembering about their previous births even in present time. I remember a case which I read somewhere that states that a small boy who knew about how to speak in another language that was other than his native one and was able to remember and trace his previous life's parents. There are many other examples as well you can find on google. There is also a therapy under which people are even tried to remember their previous birth using Hypnosis by expert Hypnotists so as to find reason/solutions of their current problems.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-09-09T08:10:20.737" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8459" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8465" CreationDate="2015-09-09T09:28:31.200" Score="18" ViewCount="2398" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does chanting of holy names while doing worldly duties (like travelling, working at home, etc.) generate any good (punya) karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this case sometimes one may or may not pay attention to what is being chanted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this kind of chanting holy name useful?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-04T23:35:13.770" LastActivityDate="2016-05-23T15:41:29.360" Title="Does chanting Holy Names while doing worldly duties generate any punya karma?" Tags="|belief|worship|karma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8460" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-09T09:54:02.347" Score="2" ViewCount="79" Body="&lt;p&gt;Will the child of a realized soul become realized by birth automatically?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1061" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-09T13:01:05.883" LastActivityDate="2015-11-08T13:59:58.417" Title="Does son of a realized sage become Brahman by birth?" Tags="|brahman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8461" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15119" CreationDate="2015-09-09T10:10:22.200" Score="8" ViewCount="6298" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen Lord Hanuman Temple statue many times. who is there in the feet of Lord Hanuman? Is he shani deva? If so why is he there in his feet? Also Lord Hanuman is worshipped to decrease effects of Shani deva? What is the story behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T14:05:55.633" Title="Why Shanideva is at Lord Hanuman's feet in statue? Why Lord Hanuman is worshipped to decrease effects of Shani deva?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8462" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11300" CreationDate="2015-09-09T10:14:03.813" Score="3" ViewCount="228" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is padvallabh avatar of Lord Dattatreya? Are there any other avatars of Lord Dattatreya? I have heard that there are four avatars. Please give story of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T19:19:10.680" Title="Lord Dattatreya's avatar Padvallabh?" Tags="|dattatreya|dattaopnishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8463" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-09T10:16:15.630" Score="4" ViewCount="134" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story of sage Narada and Lord Hanuman's music competition?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2015-09-09T10:16:15.630" Title="Hanuman vs Narad music competition" Tags="|hanuman|narada|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8465" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8459" CreationDate="2015-09-09T10:35:17.100" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, chanting holy names generates good karma. This can be seen from the fact that people in past and even today use to name their children with some God names (e.g., Krishna, Shankar, Shiv, Vishnu, Mahesh, etc), such that when they call them by their names, they remember God as well. People in some parts of India while meeting other people often say 'Ram-Ram' and the other person also says the same in return. Some people chants prayers while taking bath, before or after meals. These all are small examples where people try to remember God while doing various worldly activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if we want proof of chanting holy names turning good then one such example is there in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagwata Purana, Canto 6&lt;/a&gt;. There is a story of a brahmin called Ajāmila. Ajāmila was born in a Brahmin family and a learned Brahmin but later after being in the company of a prostitute does all bad throughout his life. He took this prostitute into his home as a maidservant. Inevitably, he became so entangled that he abandoned his family, wife and children and went off with the prostitute. Due to his illicit connection with the prostitute, he lost all his good qualities. He became a thief, a liar, a drunkard, even a murderer. He completely forgot about his original training as a Brahmin, and his whole life was ruined. While on his death bed fearing of death, he called his favourite son's name 'Nārāyaṇa' which is also a name for Lord Vishnu. When Yamdutas come and were trying to take him away to punish him to hell, immediately Vishnudūtas also came and saved him from Yamadūtas saying that since Ajāmila has chanted the name 'Nārāyaṇa' while on death bed, therefore Yamadūtas cannot take him away. Ajāmila was hence saved and spend his rest of the life in penance of Lord Vishnu. This is explained in following extract from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajamila&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is explained that while he was dying, which is a very fearful time, he began to call out to his pet child, whose name was Narayana. Narayana is another name of God or Krishna. At that time, the Yamadutas, the messengers of death, were coming. They were tying up the subtle body of Ajāmila and preparing to take him to be punished by Yamaraja, the lord of death. At the same time, because he happened to be speaking the holy name of the Lord Narayana, the beautiful Visnudutas, the messengers of Krishna, also arrived there. They checked the activities of the Yamadutas, refusing to allow them to take Ajamila for punishment. The Yamadutas were bewildered. &quot;Why are these effulgent and beautiful personalities checking our action? It's our duty to take sinful men to Yamaraja for punishment; then they are awarded another material body for the next life so that they can get the result of their sinful activity.&quot; There was a discussion between the Yamadutas and the Visnudutas. The conclusion was that although Ajamila was sinful throughout his life and gave up his religious life, his wife and children and begot children through a prostitute, he nevertheless was purified from all these sins because at the last moment he chanted the holy name of Krishna, Narayana. If this single act of the utterance of a four-syllable word Narayana can make such a difference to life after death, what larger worlds of fullness and majesty he may not conquer by really leading a noble life of Dharma in the memory of the Lord? -- so thought Ajamila. And that very moment he renounced everything to which he was attached, went to Benaras and engaged himself in austerities and meditation and in due time reached the abode of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the conclusion is that if chanting the holy names unintentionally can generate good karmas then chanting intentionally and with devotion can certainly do much better.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T13:38:26.617" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T13:38:26.617" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8468" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8459" CreationDate="2015-09-09T11:21:26.533" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Doing daily deeds depends on what you are doing at that particular moment the deed is satvik , rajas or bad deed known as tamas. There are ten basic dharma lakshnas if you follow these then what ever your daily chores are you are free to take the gods name or chant or meditate that will be known as punya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3640" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-05-23T15:41:29.360" LastActivityDate="2016-05-23T15:41:29.360" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8470" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8474" CreationDate="2015-09-09T11:40:07.660" Score="5" ViewCount="1162" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why &quot;Revantha&quot; the youngest son of Sun god went to Vishnu's abode?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-12T18:00:52.967" LastActivityDate="2015-09-12T18:00:52.967" Title="Why Revantha the youngest Son of Sun god went to Vishnu's abode?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|surya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8471" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="27206" CreationDate="2015-09-09T12:22:10.500" Score="4" ViewCount="10118" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why flowers of &quot;Ankada&quot; are offered to Lord Hanuman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eGv30.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eGv30.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;flowers of ankada&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2018-04-28T06:14:38.610" Title="Why flowers of &quot;Ankada&quot; are offered to Lord Hanuman?" Tags="|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8472" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8476" CreationDate="2015-09-09T12:30:34.323" Score="9" ViewCount="1221" Body="&lt;p&gt;If Lord Hanuman is 11th Rudra of Shiva than are there any other rudras? If yes please mention all of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank You in Advance&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2021-09-14T16:06:51.900" Title="What are different Rudras?" Tags="|shiva|hanuman|rudraksha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8473" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-09T12:30:48.450" Score="2" ViewCount="219" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whenever two Goswami's meet then why do they say &lt;em&gt;Aum Namo Narayana&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3687" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-02T19:29:48.050" LastActivityDate="2018-02-10T17:34:03.417" Title="Whenever Goswami's meet, why do they say Aum Namo Narayana?" Tags="|belief|history|culture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8474" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8470" CreationDate="2015-09-09T12:56:21.050" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk06ch17.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and subsequent chapters of the Devi Bhagavatam.  Surya's son Revanta, king of the Guhyakas, goes to Vaikuntha in order to see Vishnu.  He comes riding on Ucchaishravas, a horse that came out of the churning of the ocean.  Because Lakshmi was also born from the churning of the ocean, Ucchaishravas is her brother, so she keeps staring at it, to the point of ignoring Vishnu.  So Vishnu puts a curse on her that she will live on Earth as a horse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Beautiful-eyed One! What you are looking at so intently? Are you so much enchanted with the sight of the horse that you are not speaking to me a single word, though I am repeatedly asking you so often! You lovingly dwell on all the objects; hence your name is Ramâ; your mind is also very restless, therefore you would be known as Chanchalâ Devî (the restless Devî). O Auspicious One! You are restless like ordinary women; you can never stay steadily for a certain time at any one place. While sitting before Me, you are enchanted with the sight of a horse; then you be born as a mare in that world of men, full of dreadful troubles, on the surface of the earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Lakshmi descends to the Earth as a horse, and starts engaging in Tapasya in order to be reunited with Vishnu.  Finally Vishnu comes there, also in the form of a horse, and in horse-form Vishnu and Lakshmi have a child named Ekavira, AKA Haihaya.  Vishnu and Lakshmi go back to Vaikuntha, but Ekavira is adopted by Yayati's son Turvasu.  Ekavira eventually becomes king himself, and because his other name is Haihaya his race become known as the Haihayas.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk06ch23.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a description of Ekavira's descendants:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, in course of time, in the womb of Ekâvalî the King Haihaya got a son named Kritavîrya. The son of this Kritavîrya is known as Kârtavîrya. O King! Thus I have narrated to you the origin of the Haihaya dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The son of Kritavirya, Kartavirya Arjuna, was the famous king killed by Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama.  And Kartavirya Arjuna is said to have been an incarnation of Vishnu's Sudarshana Chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One note of caution: the Devi Bhagavatam is considered to have a lot of interpolations, and as far as I know this story isn't found in any of the Mahapuranas; in other Puranas the Haihayas are said to have been descended from another son of Yayati.  So take this story with a grain of salt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-11T01:57:29.657" LastActivityDate="2015-09-11T01:57:29.657" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8475" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8788" CreationDate="2015-09-09T13:39:45.607" Score="18" ViewCount="1702" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to get/achieve/realize/attain the &lt;strong&gt;Ultimate/Absolute Truth&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80tman_%28Hinduism%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aatman&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt;). And I think Jnana path is perfect for this. &lt;em&gt;And I believe if one truly achieves &lt;strong&gt;Jnana&lt;/strong&gt;, then one gets moksha also!.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know complete/true understanding about Jnana i.e: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;First of all What is Jnana?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to achieve it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2396/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; post, I've read that &lt;strong&gt;Dhyana&lt;/strong&gt; is primary part of it. Then How-to?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: I believe that among the other path (Bhakti,Karma etc.), jnana should be most effective/efficient way and other way should merge into this ultimately&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further: Do I've to follow Karma and Bhakti marg in order to achieve Jnana? Or &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Can I directly go for Jnana with the help of Dhyana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upanishad and Vedanta are source/known for knowledge/philosophy about Ultimate Reality and Jnana so, What information/knowledge is available from &lt;strong&gt;Upanishads/Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt; about Jnana/Dhyana and regarding to achieving it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-12-24T04:47:20.807" Title="Approach to the Ultimate/Absolute Truth (Jnana)" Tags="|upanishads|moksha|brahman|jnana|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8476" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8472" CreationDate="2015-09-09T14:19:07.970" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following information can be founded from wikipedia article on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudras&quot;&gt;Rudras&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsya_Purana&quot;&gt;Matsya Purana&lt;/a&gt; notes that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surabhi&quot;&gt;Surabhi&lt;/a&gt; – the mother of all cows and the &quot;cow of plenty&quot; – was the consort of Brahma and their union produced the eleven Rudras. Here they are named &lt;strong&gt;Nirriti, Shambhu, Aparajita Mrigavyadha, Kapardi, Dahana, Khara, Ahirabradhya, Kapali, Pingala and Senani&lt;/strong&gt; – the foremost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu_Purana&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt; narrates that Rudra – here identified with &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_&quot;&gt;Shiva&lt;/a&gt; – was born from the anger of the creator-god &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma&quot;&gt;Brahma&lt;/a&gt;. The furious Rudra was in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanari&quot;&gt;Ardhanari&lt;/a&gt; form, half his body was male and other half female. He divided himself into two: the male and female. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The male form then split itself into eleven, forming the eleven Rudras. Some of them were white and gentle; while others were dark and fierce. They are called &lt;strong&gt;Manyu, Manu, Mahmasa, Mahan, Siva, Rtudhvaja, Ugraretas, Bhava, Kama, Vamadeva and Dhrtavrata&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From the woman were born the eleven Rudranis who became wives of the Rudras. They are &lt;strong&gt;Dhi, Vrtti, Usana, Urna, Niyuta, Sarpis, Ila, Ambika, Iravatl, Sudha and Diksa&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma allotted to the Rudras the eleven positions of the heart and the five sensory organs, the five organs of action and the mind.Other Puranas call them &lt;strong&gt;Aja, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekapada&quot;&gt;Ekapada&lt;/a&gt; (Ekapat), Ahirbudhnya, Tvasta, Rudra, Hara, Sambhu, Tryambaka, Aparajita, Isana and Tribhuvana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In one instance in the epic &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;, the Rudras are eleven in number and are named &lt;strong&gt;Mrgavadha, Sarpa, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirriti&quot;&gt;Nirriti&lt;/a&gt;, Ajaikapad, Ahi Budhnya, Pinakin, Dahana, Ishvara, Kapalin, Sthanu and Bhaga&lt;/strong&gt;. &#xA;  ..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In another instance, they are described as sons of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tvastr&quot;&gt;Tvastr&lt;/a&gt; and named: &lt;strong&gt;Vishvarupa, Ajaikapad, Ahi Budhnya, Virupaksa, Raivata, Hara, Bahurupa, Tryambaka, Savitra, Jayanta and Pinakin&lt;/strong&gt;. While usually the Rudras are described to eleven, in one instance in the Mahabharata; they are said to be eleven thousand and surrounding Shiva. The eleven groups of hundred are named: &lt;strong&gt;Ajaikapad, Ahi Budhnya, Pinakin, Rta, Pitrrupa, Tryamabaka, Maheshvara, Vrsakapi, Sambhu, Havana and Ishvara&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsya_Purana&quot;&gt;Matsya Purana&lt;/a&gt; mentions the ferocious eleven Rudras – named &lt;strong&gt;Kapali, Pingala, Bhima, Virupaksa, Vilohita, Ajesha, Shasana, Shasta, Shambhu, Chanda and Dhruva&lt;/strong&gt; – aiding God &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot;&gt;Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; in his fight against the demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;em&gt;according to different purans,they are explained differently.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Formatting is edited from source somewhat ; the name of 11 Rudras are emphasized&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2015-09-09T14:19:07.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8477" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8358" CreationDate="2015-09-09T17:44:05.073" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I posted the same question on Quora and got the answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;the Kuru prince, surrounded by thecowherds, began to # sport and wander&#xA;cheerfully. And the citizens also and the soldiers by thousands began to sport, as best pleased them, in those woods, like the celestials. And the&#xA;herdsmen, well skilled in singing and dancing and instrumental music, and virgins decked in ornaments, began to minister to the pleasures of&#xA;Dhritarashtra's son. And the king surrounded by the ladies of the royal household began cheerfully to distribute wealth and food and # drinks_of_various_kinds amongst those that sought to please him, according to their desires (this passage clearly mentions they were drunk ) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana and others were making merriment there, they were celebrating a party. Duryodhana, surrounded by the Kuru ladies, distributed&#xA;wealth, food and various types of drinks among his followers (i.e. Karna, Sakuni, and other Kuru princes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana and others were celebrating a party there, so it is obvious that the drinks that they were taking was not water or milk. [Lol... were&#xA;Karna and Duryodhana children that they would&#xA;drink milk in a party?]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna, Duryodhana and others were drinking&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;wine .&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;And the king, attended by # all_his_followers , began also to slay hyenas and buffaloes and deer and gayals and bears and boars all around.&#xA;And the king, piercing by his shafts those animals by thousands in deep forest, caused the deer to be caught in the more delightful parts of&#xA;the woods. Drinking # milk and # enjoying, O Bharata, various other delicious articles and beholding, as he proceeded, many delightful&#xA;forests and woods swarming with bees inebriate with floral honey and resounding with the notes of the peacock, the king at last reached the&#xA;sacred lake of Dwaitavana.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vana Parva: Ghosha-yatra Parva: Section CCXXXVIII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here it is written that Duryodhana, along with all&#xA;his followers (including Karna, Sakuni and&#xA;others) were enjoying and drinking milk. This is&#xA;complete insanity to think that Kauravas were&#xA;celebrating a party by drinking milk. Obviously&#xA;they drank some kind of wine (made from milk&#xA;and other objects).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion:- Karna and others were drinking wine, obviously they were partially (if not ompletely) drunk during their encounter with the&#xA;Gandharvas. This contributed greatly to their defeat in the battle against the Gandharvas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;why Karna fled where Arjuna succeeded against Gandharvas in full detail : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;when the Gandharvas were so commanded by&#xA;Chitrasena, they rushed weapons in hand,&#xA;towards the Dhritarashtra ranks. And beholding&#xA;the Gandharvas impetuously rushing towards&#xA;them with upraised weapons, the Kuru warriors&#xA;precipitously fled in all directions at the very&#xA;sight of Duryodhana.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-1: The war started here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-2: The whole of the Kuru army fled&#xA;(including Duryodhana, his 100 brothers and&#xA;Sakuni), seeing the Gandharvas rushing towards&#xA;them with various weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;And beholding the Kuru&#xA;soldiers all flying from the field with their backs&#xA;to the foe, the heroic Radheya alone fled not.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point: The whole of the Kuru army fled, only&#xA;Karna remained on the battlefield.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;And seeing the mighty host of the Gandharvas&#xA;rushing towards him, Radheya checked them by&#xA;a perfect shower of arrows. And the Suta's son,&#xA;owing to his extreme lightness of hand, struck&#xA;hundreds of Gandharvas with Kshurapras and&#xA;arrows and Bhallas and various weapons made&#xA;of bones and steel. And that mighty warrior,&#xA;causing the heads of numerous Gandharvas to&#xA;roll down within a short time, made the ranks of&#xA;Chitrasena to yell in anguish.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-1: Karna alone checked the whole force of&#xA;the Gandharvas, and within a short span of time,&#xA;he slew hundreds of Gandharvas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-2: While fighting with the Gandharvas,&#xA;Karna effectively used various types of arrows&#xA;and various types of other weapons. And while&#xA;using those weapons, he displayed his extreme&#xA;lightness of hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-3: Karna alone checked and overwhelmed&#xA;the vast Gandharva host.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;And although they were slaughtered in great numbers by Karna&#xA;endued with great intelligence, yet the&#xA;Gandharvas returned to the charge by hundreds&#xA;and thousands. And in consequence of the&#xA;swarms of Chitrasena's warriors rushing&#xA;impetuously to the field the earth itself became&#xA;soon covered by the Gandharva host.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-1: Karna slew a very large number of&#xA;Gandharvas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-2: In spite of Karna's continuous onslaught,&#xA;the Gandharvas continued to rush towards him in&#xA;great numbers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-3: The Gandharva army was much larger&#xA;than the Kuru army. The Gandharvas were so&#xA;many in number that the earth seemed to be&#xA;filled with the Gandharvas. Karna alone&#xA;withstood that vast force.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Then king Duryodhana, and Sakuni, the son of Suvala, and&#xA;Dussasana, and Vikarna, and other sons of&#xA;Dhritarashtra, seated on cars the clatter of&#xA;whose wheels resembled the roars of Garuda,&#xA;returned to the charge, following the lead of&#xA;Karna, and began to slaughter that host. And&#xA;desirous of supporting Karna, these princes&#xA;invested the Gandharva army, with a large&#xA;number of cars and a strong body of horses.&#xA;Then the whole of the Gandharva host began to&#xA;fight with the Kauravas. And the encounter that&#xA;took place between the contending hosts was&#xA;fierce in the extreme and might make one's hair&#xA;stand on end.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-1: When Duryodhana beheld that Karna&#xA;alone had checked the vast Gandharva force, he&#xA;returned to the battlefield, along with his&#xA;brothers and the Kuru army.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-2: Karna thus got a strong back-up, and&#xA;continued to fight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-3: A general war commenced between the&#xA;Kuru army and the huge Gandharva host.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Gandharvas, at last, afflicted&#xA;with the shafts of the Kuru army, seemed to be&#xA;exhausted. And the Kauravas beholding the&#xA;Gandharvas so afflicted sent up a loud sound.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-1: In the general engagement, the Kuru&#xA;army led by Karna completely overwhelmed the&#xA;Gandharvas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-2: At this point of the battle, the&#xA;Gandharvas were nearly exhausted, and were on&#xA;the verge of defeat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;And seeing the Gandharva host yielding to fear,&#xA;the angry Chitrasena sprang from his seat,&#xA;resolved to exterminate the Kuru army. And&#xA;conversant with various modes of warfare, he&#xA;waged on the fight, aided by his weapons of&#xA;illusion.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-1: When Karna, supported by the Kuru&#xA;army, had nearly vanquished the Gandharvas,&#xA;and the Gandharvas were struck with fear,&#xA;Chitrasena (king of the Gandharvas) entered the&#xA;battlefield.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-2: Chitrasena didn't engage in a duel/single&#xA;combat with Karna (or any other Kuru warrior).&#xA;And, he used neither any ordinary weapon nor&#xA;any celestial weapon against the Kuru army. He&#xA;directly used an illusion against the Kuru army.&#xA;He knew that he wouldn't be able to defeat&#xA;Karna in a single combat. He also knew that if&#xA;he had used any weapon (be it ordinary or&#xA;celestial), Karna would have baffled it with ease.&#xA;So he directly used an illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-3: Chitrasena was a Gandharva.&#xA;Gandharvas possessed illusionary powers, and&#xA;were well-acquainted with illusions (and&#xA;illusionary warfare). But Karna and others in the&#xA;Kuru army were humans, who didn't possess&#xA;illusionary powers. According to the rules of war,&#xA;a warrior/warriors possessed of illusionary&#xA;powers should not use illusions against him/&#xA;those who doesn't/don't possess illusionary&#xA;powers, and if he/they does/do so, that is&#xA;considered as 'deceit' and 'violation of rules of&#xA;war'. Chitrasena used illusions against Karna and&#xA;the Kuru army (who were humans), and thus&#xA;violated the rules of war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note-1: Some people may ask where I have&#xA;found that using illusions against those who&#xA;didn't possess illusionary powers is a violation of&#xA;the rules of war. I would suggest them to read&#xA;the narratives of the duel between Abhimanyu&#xA;and Alamvusha on the 9th day and the duel&#xA;between Karna and Ghatotkacha on the 14th&#xA;night. In these duels Alamvusha and Ghatotkacha&#xA;(both of whom were Rakshasas, and possessed&#xA;of illusionary powers) used illusions against&#xA;Abhimanyu and Karna (both of whom were&#xA;humans, not possessing illusionary powers)&#xA;respectively and both of those Rakshasas were&#xA;marked as 'deceitful' for their acts (i.e. using&#xA;illusions against human warriors).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note-2: If a warrior possessed of illusionary&#xA;powers use illusions against another warrior&#xA;possessed of illusionary powers, then that's not a&#xA;violation of the rules of war. (In case of&#xA;Rakshasa vs Rakshasa, Naga vs Naga,&#xA;Gandharva vs Gandharva, Naga vs Rakshasa,&#xA;Gandharva vs Rakshasa etc. scenarios)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;And the Kaurava warriors were then all&#xA;deprived of their senses by the illusion of&#xA;Chitrasena. And then, O Bharata, it seemed that&#xA;every warrior of the Kuru army was fallen upon&#xA;and surrounded by ten Gandharvas. And attacked&#xA;with great vigour, the Kuru host was greatly&#xA;afflicted and struck with panic. O king, all of&#xA;them that liked to live, fled from the field.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-1: In consequence of Chitrasena's sudden&#xA;illusionary attack, all Kuru warriors (including&#xA;Karna) were deprived of their senses. Karna and&#xA;others were nearly unconscious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-2: Beholding the Kuru warriors (including&#xA;Karna) almost unconscious owing to the terrible&#xA;illusion of Chitrasena, the nearly defeated&#xA;Gandharvas attacked them with greater vigour.&#xA;This was another violation of the rules of war,&#xA;because attacking (or striking) unconscious&#xA;warriors was against the rules of war, but the&#xA;Gandharvas violated this rule also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-3: Being thus attacked, large part of the&#xA;Kuru army fled from the battlefield. Only Karna,&#xA;Duryodhana, Duryodhana's brothers, Sakuni, and&#xA;a smaller portion of the Kuru army remained on&#xA;the battlefield.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;But while the entire Dhritarashtra host broke and&#xA;fled, Karna, that offspring of the Sun, stood there, O king,&#xA;immovable as a hill. Indeed, Duryodhana and&#xA;Karna and Sakuni, the son of Suvala, all fought&#xA;with the Gandharvas, although every one of them&#xA;was much wounded and mangled in the&#xA;encounter.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-1: As Karna and few other Kuru warriors&#xA;(who remained in the battlefield) were almost&#xA;unconscious, the Gandharvas used the&#xA;opportunity to mangle and wound them badly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-2: Though nearly unconscious and&#xA;exceedingly wounded, yet Karna stayed on the&#xA;battlefield, and fought to the utmost of his&#xA;power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-3: Karna lost his back-up force, as all of&#xA;them were almost unconscious, practically&#xA;useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At this point, let me clear some doubts that&#xA;often arise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doubt-1: Why did Karna fail to counter&#xA;Chitrasena's illusion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer: Chitrasena used the illusion suddenly. At&#xA;first he wasn't in the battlefield. When Karna had&#xA;nearly defeated the Gandharvas, he suddenly&#xA;entered the battlefield and just after entering,&#xA;used a terrible illusion to make Karna and others&#xA;unconscious. Chitrasena did it without any&#xA;warning or challenge. He used deceit to defeat&#xA;Karna and others. Also people may question why Karna didn't use&#xA;any celestial weapon to counter the illusion (as&#xA;though he was nearly unconscious, yet he wasn't&#xA;completely senseless). The answer is Karna was&#xA;already drunk (though not completely, but he&#xA;drank wine just before the war, so it is obvious&#xA;that he was partially drunk), and when Chitrasena&#xA;used illusion, he became almost unconscious,&#xA;and in that condition, it wasn't possible to invoke&#xA;into existence celestial weapons as in order to&#xA;shoot celestial weapons complete concentration&#xA;is required (and it is completely foolishness to&#xA;expect that a drunk and almost unconscious&#xA;warrior could have complete concentration).&#xA;So, this is the reason why Karna had failed to&#xA;counter Chitrasena's illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doubt-2: Karna possessed his impenetrable&#xA;armour and ear-rings during Gandharva War.&#xA;Then how was he defeated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer: Karna's armour and ear-rings had made&#xA;him immortal/unslayable, but it hadn't made him&#xA;invincible/undefeatable. Karna's armour and ear-&#xA;rings used to protect him from mortal/lethal/&#xA;deadly threats only, not from defeat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doubt-3: How did the Gandharvas manage to&#xA;mangle Karna exceedingly as Karna possessed&#xA;his impenetrable armour at that time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer: Karna was exceedingly mangled, but it&#xA;is not mentioned in which parts of the body he&#xA;was mangled. So, it can be assumed that the&#xA;Gandharvas mangled those parts of Karna's body&#xA;which were not covered by his armour (forehead,&#xA;neck, hands, thighs etc.).&#xA;Karna also used the same technique to mangle&#xA;Abhimanyu on the 13th day of the Kurukshetra&#xA;War, when the latter was encased in an&#xA;impenetrable armour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doubt-4: Karna failed to counter Chitrasena's&#xA;illusion, so was he a poor warrior?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer: No, not at all. Karna failed to counter&#xA;Chitrasena's illusion owing to some specific&#xA;factors (Karna's being drunk, his being almost&#xA;unconscious, use of deceit by Chitrasena). But&#xA;when Karna fought with the same Gandharvas&#xA;during his digvijay, he successfully countered&#xA;their illusions and defeated them easily. Also&#xA;Karna successfully countered hundreds of terrible&#xA;illusions created by Rakshasa Ghatotkacha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;All the Gandharvas then, desirous of&#xA;slaying Karna, rushed together by hundreds and&#xA;thousands towards Karna. And those mighty&#xA;warriors, desirous of slaying the Suta's son,&#xA;surrounded him on all sides, with swords and&#xA;battle-axes and spears. And some cut down the&#xA;yoke of his car, and some his flagstaff, and&#xA;some the shaft of his car, and some his horses,&#xA;and some his charioteer. And some cut down his&#xA;umbrella and some the wooden fender round his&#xA;car and some the joints of his car. It was thus&#xA;that many thousands of Gandharvas, together&#xA;attacking his car, broke it into minute&#xA;fragments.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-1: Though Karna was almost unconscious&#xA;and exceedingly wounded, yet he continued to&#xA;fight with the Gandharvas, slaying many of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-2: Considering Karna as their main threat,&#xA;the Gandharvas concentrated their attack on&#xA;Karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-3: Many thousands of Gandharvas, armed&#xA;with various kinds of weapons, together attacked&#xA;on Karna's chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-4: An exceedingly wounded, almost&#xA;unconscious and intoxicated Karna failed to&#xA;counter this fierce group attack.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Point-5: Karna was not using his celestial Vijaya&#xA;bow and his celestial chariot during this war. He&#xA;was using an ordinary bow and an ordinary&#xA;chariot at that time. Some Gandharvas cut off&#xA;Karna's bow, some slew his horses, some slew&#xA;his charioteer, some cut down his standard,&#xA;some cut down his umbrella, some cut down his&#xA;flagstaff, some cut off the yoke of his chariot,&#xA;some cut off the shaft of his chariot, some cut&#xA;off the wooden fender around it, and some cut&#xA;off the joints of it. This was the most ferocious&#xA;and brutal group attack in the whole&#xA;Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The original answer was posted at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.quora.com/Why-did-Karna-fled-from-battle-with-Chitrasena-Gandharvas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.quora.com/Why-did-Karna-fled-from-battle-with-Chitrasena-Gandharvas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3611" LastActivityDate="2015-09-09T17:44:05.073" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8478" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8475" CreationDate="2015-09-09T20:40:32.553" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Good question sir. Here is an advaita view on this. According to this view, the jiva and Paramatma are one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Jnana&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jnana means wisdom. Wisdom of what? Wisdom of your own True Nature is Jnana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are not this body, nor are you the mind, nor the intellect, nor the individual ego. You are the Brahman, God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/brahman-nirvana_shatakam.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankaracharya's Nirvana Shatakam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mano-Buddhy-Ahangkaara Cittaani Naaham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Na Ca Shrotra-Jihve Na Ca Ghraanna-Netre&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Na Ca Vyoma Bhuumir-Na Tejo Na Vaayuh&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cid-Aananda-Ruupah Shivo[a-A]ham Shivo[a-A]ham ||1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neither am I the Mind nor Intelligence or Ego,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neither am I the organs of Hearing (Ears), nor that of Tasting (Tongue), Smelling (Nose) or Seeing (Eyes),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neither am I the Sky, nor the Earth, Neither the Fire nor the Air,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Knowing this is Jnana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jnana is not different from self-realization or Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus in order to obtain Jnana, one follows Jnana Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is Jnana Yoga?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jnana Yoga is the path by which one tries to experience Himself as He is, without any impurities or falsehood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Self-enquiry is the way to practice Jnana Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daily question ourself Who am I really? Am I this body? Am I this mind? Am I something else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is meditating right now? Who is the one that thinks? What exists in between two thoughts? What is that Reality that is there even in sleep, waking and dreaming state of consciousness?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/teachings/instructions/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Ramana Maharishi on self-enquiry&lt;/a&gt;, the sword called 'Who Am I?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thought ‘who am I?’ will destroy all other thoughts, and like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre, it will itself be burnt up in the end. Then, there will be Self-realization. When other thoughts arise, one should not pursue them but should diligently inquire: ‘To whom do they occur?’ It does not matter how many thoughts arise. As each thought arises, one should inquire with alertness, “To whom has this thought arisen?” The answer that would emerge would be “to me”. Thereupon if one inquires “Who am I?” the mind will go back to its source; and the thought that arose will subside.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is Jnana Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Jnana is not book knowledge or reading books&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jnana is knowledge through experience and not bookish knowledge. Thus one cannot become a Jnani by simply reading all scriptures, one actually has to put these principles into practice and thereby realize the Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=434&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jnana Yoga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Jnana-Yogin realises that Brahman is the Life of his life, the Soul of his soul. He feels and knows that God is his own Self. He realises that he is one with the Eternal through spiritual insight or intuition, Aparoksha Anubhuti or divine perception, but not through mere study of books or dogmas or theories. Religion is realisation for him now. It is not mere talk. He plunges himself in the deep recesses of his heart through constant and intense meditation—Nididhyasana—and gets the wonderful pearl of Atman, a wonderful treasure much more valuable than all the wealth of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jnana is not mere intellectual knowledge. It is not hearing or acknowledging. It is not mere intellectual assent. It is direct realisation of oneness or unity with the Supreme Being. It is Para Vidya. Intellectual conviction alone will not lead you to Brahma-Jnana (Knowledge of the Absolute).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Examples of Jnanis&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swami Vivekananda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Ramana Maharishi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-09-10T13:12:37.097" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8480" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8495" CreationDate="2015-09-10T05:55:25.557" Score="2" ViewCount="9066" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/274/754&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt;, and I read the accepted &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/301/754&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt; under this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answerer used a word Raasleela , what actually is Raasleela?&#xA;I have seen episodes and Programes . I think word  Leela is creating some situation or a play.&#xA;But what that RassLeela is? Does it mean sex? If yes , then why will God want to do it, if its not then what is it actually? and doing RaasLeela with more than one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="754" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-09-21T05:34:00.603" Title="What is RaasLeela?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8481" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8483" CreationDate="2015-09-10T06:09:21.843" Score="5" ViewCount="1676" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen orange statues of Lord Hanuman in temples. It is orange because of &quot;Sindoor&quot; on it. Why &quot;Sindoor&quot; is offered to Lord Hanuman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T14:36:48.303" Title="Why Sindoor is offered to Lord Hanuman?" Tags="|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8482" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8496" CreationDate="2015-09-10T06:12:05.243" Score="2" ViewCount="1337" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard &quot;Datta Bavani&quot; many times. In this there are verse&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Kidho sajivan te nirdhar&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means Lord Datta brought someone to life back after death. I would like to know, how many people were brought back to life by Lord Dattatreya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-11T14:17:35.967" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T06:47:19.630" Title="How many people were brought back to life by Lord Dattatreya?" Tags="|dattatreya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8483" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8481" CreationDate="2015-09-10T06:25:48.893" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Hanuman saw Sita applying Sindoor (Vermillion) in her hair, he&#xA;  asked the reason for the same. Sita replied that it was for long life&#xA;  and well being of Lord Rama, her husband. Hanuman, the biggest devotee&#xA;  of Rama thought if a pinch of sindoor in the hair can increase the&#xA;  longevity of Lord Rama then why not apply on the entire body. He then&#xA;  applied sindoor all over his body for Rama’s long life. Seeing this&#xA;  innocence and unmatched devotion of Hanuman, Lord Rama gave him a&#xA;  vardan (blessings) that whenever the name of devotion takes place,&#xA;  Hanuman’s name will be taken first. Also, whoever will pay respect to&#xA;  Hanuman on Tuesday, not only will his/her wishes come true but will&#xA;  also be dear to Lord Rama himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://indiaopines.com/lesser-known-facts-lord-hanuman/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;5 Lesser Known Facts About Lord Hanuman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-09-10T06:50:36.477" LastActivityDate="2015-09-10T06:50:36.477" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8484" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14202" CreationDate="2015-09-10T06:39:36.533" Score="5" ViewCount="685" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2967/577&quot;&gt;This answer&lt;/a&gt; states that after suicide a person becomes a ghost. Then did mother Sati become ghost after committing suicide?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-07-22T12:55:34.637" Title="Did Mother Sati become a ghost after committing sucide?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|shiva-purana|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8485" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-10T06:47:49.530" Score="4" ViewCount="275" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu rests on Ananta-Shesha, together with his consort Goddess Lakshmi, who is massaging His feet in Ksheera Sagar. I want to ask what message is being passed through this to a common man. I feel there is something which i don't know on this great &quot;Ananta Shayana&quot;. Can any one help me on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3499" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-10T06:52:54.557" LastActivityDate="2015-09-10T06:52:54.557" Title="Why vishnu on ksheera sagara?" Tags="|vishnu|lakshmi|adisesha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8486" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8484" CreationDate="2015-09-10T06:52:40.537" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mother Sati is not an ordinary mortal governed by the laws of jeeva, life and death. She did not commit &quot;suicide&quot;. She forsook her upadhi using powers of yoga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even among mortals,  Highly evolved souls(I. E advanced yogis)  are capable of separating their soul from the body. In those who are not as evolved, the jeeva is almost inextricably tied to the upadhi, which is why even natural deaths are said to be painful. Suicide is the act of forcibly separating the jeeva from the upadhi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming back to Sati devi, she gave up her form but still existed as Lord Shiva's jnana sakti when He  assumed the jnana form after separation from Sati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2015-09-10T06:52:40.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8487" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19459" CreationDate="2015-09-10T07:01:18.933" Score="5" ViewCount="1363" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that Kam Deva's mantra is very effective to attract anybody in this world. What is that Mantra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it this mantra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ઓમ નમો ભગવતે કામદેવાય યશ્ય યશ્ય દ્રશ્યો ભવામિ । યશ્ય યશ્ય મમ્ સુખં પશ્યતિ તં તં મોહયતુ સ્વાહા ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;om namo bhagawate kamdevay yashya yashya drashyo bhavami| Yashya Yashya Mam sukham tam tam Mohyatu Svaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-12-05T18:26:29.083" Title="What is the mantra for cupid Kam Deva?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8488" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-10T07:13:33.247" Score="6" ViewCount="778" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read about Konark Sun Temple and it makes me proud that about 750 years ago Hindu sages could calculate the accurate time in day and night as well, as they know the weather changes by looking the chakras (wheel of Konark). But unfortunately I can't find out more details about this. I think each chakra in the temple has a lot of meaning and there is more to study. Can anyone point me out to (if there is) full documentation about all chakras in the temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3499" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-01T09:33:19.817" LastActivityDate="2022-08-26T11:54:55.153" Title="What is the significance of Chakra of Konark Sun Temple?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8489" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-10T07:24:18.227" Score="1" ViewCount="283" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Hindus kill animals for Goddess &quot;Mahakali&quot; in Nepal and India? God never want to kill any animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3687" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-10T12:58:00.090" LastActivityDate="2015-11-09T14:14:55.560" Title="Why Hindus kill animals for Goddess Mahakali In Nepal and India?" Tags="|goddess|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-10-29T11:26:36.717" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8490" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-10T07:43:32.070" Score="4" ViewCount="7648" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently, we as a group stumbled upon a question,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&quot;Historically, which event happened first - the &lt;em&gt;Ramayana&lt;/em&gt; or the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3695" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-09-11T07:39:57.147" LastActivityDate="2015-09-12T07:41:15.807" Title="Which is first among Ramayana and Mahabharatha?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8491" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8490" CreationDate="2015-09-10T09:03:12.217" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramayana happened before Mahabharata.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the characters like Jambavana and Shri Hanuman are referred in Mahabharata with their Ramayana backdrop. Even Shri ParashuRama is also referred who is said to born even before Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During discourse of Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna, Lord Krishna refers himself as &lt;em&gt;Shri Rama&lt;/em&gt; as below:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 10.31&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of puriﬁers I am the wind, &lt;strong&gt;of the wielders of weapons I am Rāma&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  of ﬁshes I am the shark, and of ﬂowing rivers I am the Ganges.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &quot;Parashu Rama&quot; is also referred as &quot;Rama&quot; at many places in Mahabharata, however in this particular case I believe &lt;em&gt;wielder of weapon&lt;/em&gt; is emphasizing on Kshatriya ability and hence it's more likely to be Shri Rama.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramayanaresearch.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;archaeology research&lt;/a&gt;, many experts believe that Ramayana happened approximately 7000-7500 years ago. (refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam%27s_Bridge#Age&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ram setu&lt;/a&gt;). But it could be few more thousands year earlier as well.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Mahabharata majority of the people believe it to be happened nearly 5000 years ago. There is also a research on ancient &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.unacknowledged.info/dwarka-mythical-city-found-water/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dwarka city's remains under water&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some other answers which suggest, Ramayana happening many more thousands years ahead of Mahabharata. To me that seems highly unrealistic and extremely less likely. Putting that question for your reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7175/did-the-mahabharata-and-the-ramayana-happen-in-the-current-yuga-cycle-in-the-cur&quot;&gt;Did the Mahabharata and the Ramayana happen in the current Yuga cycle in the current Manvantara?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-09-10T09:10:54.203" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8493" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8489" CreationDate="2015-09-10T09:39:23.507" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;may be there is not any reason behind that &#xA;but its may be one kind of myth's that came from olden era ... and not in nepal and india there is many religion &amp;amp; country that do such kind of thing &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;there is one kind of thinking to start and good work or any religious Pooja Bali ( to kill animal in front or near god ) are important to remove all negative energy and make there work more clearly with our any Vignha &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3694" LastActivityDate="2015-09-10T09:39:23.507" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8494" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8480" CreationDate="2015-09-10T09:44:13.807" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;No. Raas Leela is not sex. Raas is one type of dance or act we play during Navratri festival. Boys and girls hold sticks called &quot;Dandiya&quot; in hands and play the dance. Raas Leela means play of dance with more than one.  Actually in Raas the partner is changed during the dance play. So we play it with everybody.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Raas Leela give pleasure to all of them who are playing and all of them who are watching it also. GOD wanted to do Raas Leela to win hearts of Gopis who were friends of GOD. This gives fun loving moments to all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2015-09-10T09:45:57.567" LastActivityDate="2015-09-10T09:45:57.567" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8495" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8480" CreationDate="2015-09-10T10:03:38.643" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;sorry frnd it not a sex ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reason :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;load krishna like to play rass .... may u agree &#xA;and leela means its one kind of magic &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;at a time when load krishna play rass there is many gopi's and all want to play rass with shri krishna &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so shri krishna do there leela &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so that then can play rass with each and every gopi is we can said rassleela ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in rass two person are needed to play so its one krishna and another all gopi and krishna play with all of gopi its ...... Rassleela&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3694" LastActivityDate="2015-09-10T10:03:38.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8496" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8482" CreationDate="2015-09-10T10:06:47.363" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, Dattatreya himself has never brought anyone back from the dead.  But the Gujarati song Datta Bhavani isn't limited to the deeds of Dattatreya; it also talks about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narasimha_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Narasimha Saraswati&lt;/a&gt;, the fourteenth-century Swami whom some people believe was an incarnation of Dattatreya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.14gaam.com/dutt-bavani-lyrics-and-meaning-gujarati-english.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this translation&lt;/a&gt; says regarding the verse you're referring to:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Zalar Khai Rizyo Aem Didho Suvarnaghat Saprem Brahmanstreeno Mrut&#xA;   Bharthar Kidho Sajivan Te Nirdhar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pleased with just Lima Beans (vhalore) meal, you lovingly bestowed&#xA;   upon the family a pot full of golden treasure. &lt;strong&gt;You undoubtedly&#xA;   restored to life the dead husband of a brahmin lady (in Gangapur)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a reference to a story involving Narasimha Saraswati, told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saibaba.us/texts/gurucharitra/chpt32.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Guru Charitra, the traditional account of Narasimha Saraswati's life.  A Brahmana widow takes her husband's body to Narasimha Saraswati and asks him to bring her husband back to life.  Narasimha Saraswati does so by reducing his length of life in his next birth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She was praying all the way in the mind. `Oh Trimurty, your fame is&#xA;   widespread, and you possess all siddhis. If a complaint is made to a&#xA;   ruler, he gives justice. If one goes to a physician, he gives &#xA;   medicine for relief. I camecrossing 20 villages with the hope that my&#xA;   husband will recover. I am coming to ask you how my husband expired on&#xA;   the way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She saw Shri Guru sitting below an Ashwatha tree and she bowed to him&#xA;   respectfully. Shri Guru, blessed her and said, 'you shall have&#xA;   soubhagya for ever. She again bowed to Shri Guru and he exclaimed 'you&#xA;   will have 8 sons' The Brahmins accompanying her told Shri Guru, `her&#xA;   husband has expired and she has come here to see you before observing&#xA;   Sati.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing this Shri Guru smiled and said, `Her Soubhagya is everlasting.&#xA;   Bring her husband's body here immediately. Let me see when he lost his&#xA;   life.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some persons soon brought the dead body before Shri Guru. The strings&#xA;   were cut and the cloth covering was removed. the Tirth of rudrabhishek&#xA;   was sprinkled on the dead body and Shri Guru looked at it with his&#xA;   sight full of nectar. Immediately the Brahmin youth sat up as if&#xA;   aroused from sleep. He was ashamed to see himself without clothes. He&#xA;   wore the dhoti and asked his wife why she did not awake him before,&#xA;   why he was brought there and who was the Sanyasi. the wife narrated to&#xA;   him all that had occured. Then both of them bowed to Shri Guru with&#xA;   devotion and began praying to him. All the persons who had assembled&#xA;   there were delighted to see the miracle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One cynic person said to Shri Guru. `This Brahmin died as per his&#xA;   fate. How can he be alive?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Guru smiled and said, `I requested Brahmadeo to give 30 years'&#xA;   life from his next life to this brahmin youth.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not a follower of Narasimha Saraswati or Shirdi Sai Baba (some of his followers believe he was a rebirth of Narasimha Saraswati), so I'm skeptical of this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T06:47:19.630" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T06:47:19.630" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8497" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8480" CreationDate="2015-09-10T10:12:32.207" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Raas is one type of dance or act we play during Navratri festival. Boys and girls hold sticks called &quot;Dandiya&quot; in hands and play the dance. Raas Leela means play of dance with more than one. Actually in Raas the partner is changed during the dance play. So we play it with everybody.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Raas Leela give pleasure to all of them who are playing and all of them who are watching it also. GOD wanted to do Raas Leela to win hearts of Gopis who were friends of GOD. This gives fun loving moments to all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3687" LastEditorUserId="3687" LastEditDate="2015-09-21T05:34:00.603" LastActivityDate="2015-09-21T05:34:00.603" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8499" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-10T10:57:34.300" Score="7" ViewCount="2483" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Shikha Bandhan is needed at the time of pooja? Is it related to God or due to any other reason and what would happen if we do not do shikha bandhan? What is the benefit? What to be done for those people who do not perform Shikha bandhan as prayaschittha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3694" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T04:58:41.913" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T04:58:41.913" Title="Why is Shikha Bandhan needed at the time of pooja?" Tags="|belief|rituals|practice|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8500" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8064" CreationDate="2015-09-10T11:08:44.243" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganesha riding on an elephant or Mushak &#xA;more people think that its on mushak (Rat)&#xA;but in real mushak (Rat) is favourite to lord Ganesh &#xA;and at a time when lord shiv say bring any head at time may its think that bring the largesh head among all pruthvi and its elephant that why its also know prathan god among all &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;either lord Ganeshji in on elephant or any other animal, just see the beauty that created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;with in short day we find ganeshji in different different swarup ... so according to its not matter. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3694" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-19T15:38:53.237" LastActivityDate="2016-07-19T15:38:53.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8501" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16200" CreationDate="2015-09-10T13:53:13.323" Score="14" ViewCount="13633" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading the history of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanuja&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Ramanuja&lt;/a&gt;, the Vaishnava saint. Apparently, he was in hiding in fear of a Chola King. The Chola king was a worshiper of Shiva as opposed to Ramanuja who is a Vishnu devotee. The king forces Ramanuja to convert as a Shiva worshiper. Ramanuja refuses!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what I don't understand:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why did he refuse to hail Shiva? After all he is also a god.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the need here for Ramanuja to prove that Vishnu is the one true God? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-01-06T20:19:51.847" LastActivityDate="2023-02-01T05:35:49.087" Title="Why did Sri Ramanuja refuse to hail Shiva? What was the need to prove that Vishnu is the one true God?" Tags="|puranas|history|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8503" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8475" CreationDate="2015-09-10T19:10:31.033" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4 is a good starting point. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/chapter-04.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter 4 text and commentaries by 4 renowned Vaishnava Sampradayas&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dharmatv.net/VideoList/15/bhagavad-gita/discourse-in-english/Chapter-4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Video Lectures on Chapter 4 of Bhagavad Gita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To get the gist of it see these series of videos by Swami Sarvapriyananda of Ramakrishna Mission:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dharmatv.net/VideoList/11/Hinduism-Philosophy/Upanishads&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Message of the Upanishads and Who am I? videos&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2736" LastActivityDate="2015-09-10T19:10:31.033" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8505" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16142" CreationDate="2015-09-11T06:50:06.267" Score="12" ViewCount="6298" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently heard about time travel and am curious to know about the sage who had seen Mahabharat and Ramayan multiple times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3703" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-08T06:38:05.547" LastActivityDate="2018-01-08T06:38:05.547" Title="Who was the sage who witnessed Mahabharata and Ramayana multiple times?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|ramayana|rishi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8506" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-11T07:12:55.173" Score="2" ViewCount="97" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which scripture states that Hanuman will be next Brahma? I recently watched Mahabali Hanuman in which Krishna says Hanuman will become Brahma and will create universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2015-09-11T07:12:55.173" Title="Will Hanuman be Brahma and create the universe?" Tags="|brahma|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-09-11T10:52:48.073" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8507" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-11T07:38:15.767" Score="1" ViewCount="3023" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard some &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doha_(poetry)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Doha&lt;/a&gt; of Kabir (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couplet&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;couplet&lt;/a&gt;) or somewhere else like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramchandra keh gaye siya se aisa kaliyug ayega,&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Hans chugega dana dunaka, kauvva moti khayega&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramchandra told Sita such kaliyug will come that a goose will eat little grains and crow will eat pearls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here crows means bad people and goose means good people (will have less benefits).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what did Lord Rama tell Sita about kaliyug? Please explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T02:22:29.077" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T02:22:29.077" Title="What did Rama tell Sita about Kaliyug?" Tags="|rama|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2016-12-02T07:25:14.317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8508" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-11T07:44:28.960" Score="29" ViewCount="4499" Body="&lt;p&gt;I always think what was the start.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How it started?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who was the creator?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who created god?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who created the creator?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Where did the solid material, to create planets, came from?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anybody explain me the above points in detail?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3704" LastEditorUserId="20968" LastEditDate="2023-03-08T12:58:15.370" LastActivityDate="2023-03-08T12:58:15.370" Title="How the universe was created?" Tags="|gods|creation|explanation|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8509" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-11T08:07:03.800" Score="4" ViewCount="5244" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the proper time for recitation of this stotra? Is it forbidden to listen/chant Aaditya Hrudayam after sunset?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3705" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T17:07:31.873" LastActivityDate="2018-12-05T04:04:10.887" Title="What is the proper time to recite the Aditya Hrudayam?" Tags="|surya|stotra|adityas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8510" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-11T08:48:47.063" Score="4" ViewCount="1677" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question has two different aspects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Hindu religion, it is considered bad to kill animals, but in Islam it is said that animals are just for our use e.g., use them as food, transport etc. (meaning there's nothing wrong in killing them)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now in this particular scenario, a boy who's born into a Muslim family will definitely eat non-vegetarian food (which is definitely a sin)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my question is, if our birth and death are decided by God (according to the Bhagavad Gita: 'I am the creator of all the living beings'), then why does he let anyone born into a Muslim family? A person born into such a family will always commit a sin and bad karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-22T22:19:43.517" LastActivityDate="2016-02-22T22:19:43.517" Title="Killing animals, Karma and our birth" Tags="|belief|gods|bhagavad-gita|karma|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8512" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="191" CreationDate="2015-09-11T10:27:05.897" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no description of Ghandaberunda in any authentic Purana or Agama Vedic texts, but Sharabheshwara is found in plethora of scriptures including Skanda Purana, Bramahanda Purana, Shiva Purana, Linga Purana etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See Sharaba Upanishad in Gyana Khanda of Atharva Veda, which declares Him as Vedic God and  most fierce incarnation of Veerbhadra. Tantra and Agama texts describe him and give detailed procedures for Sadhana, worship, rituals, Tantra, Mantra and Yantra. He is also known as Akasa Bhairava in Agamas and Tantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Ghandabherunda is recent interpolation of a bird that never existed. It was sheer attempt of few sectarians and even that story ends with Ghandabherunda being withered apart by Sharbha by power of Pratyangira Devi. Amar Chitra Katha shows it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Ghandabherunda is just recent interpolation done by few sectarians and has never mentioned even implicitly in any Purana or Vedic or Agamic Sastra at all.&#xA;The jealous guy who says here that those few books (fictional novels) of south are made just recently and there is no comparison of them to Puranas or Upanishads while whole world and Hindu population relies on them. In matters of dispute, Vedas are authentic scriptures to the validate the claims and they only favor Sharabhweshwara as authentic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other books of few sectarians fictions such as 'Charvaka' Jain scriptures do not hold any value and most people know and revere Sharabha as He is truth. You few people in  false world believe them but reality is Sharbheswara prevailed after killing Narasimha  and He said, &quot;Vishnu and I are one and same and those who want my benevolence should chant mantra of Narasimha too&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So real spiritual people know very well these all are Leelas and Vedas say God is one and declares &quot;Eko hi Rudro na dweeteyay&quot; - only Rudra is God not any other Devaa and from Him comes trinity and Universe. So, He is Narasimha and Vishnu too and  all are one Parabramhan Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even  Vaishnava Puranas of Krishna say that He loves Radha as his own heart but Shiva is his Atman and He worships Shiva only and always so much that he will begin to follow the person who chant name of Mahadeva three times to enjoy bliss of Shiva's name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna and all 24 Avatars of Vishnu have worshiped Shiva. Vishnu's Sudarsana Chakra is given by Shiva and Vishnu is first shaiva and one of his name is &quot;Saivashiromani&quot; which means the foremost of Shaivas. He happens to be the first one to worship Shiva. He says his all powers are because of Shiva. Sri Vishnu also says He doesn't like people who don't worship Shiva even though they worship Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva also says my Bhaktas shall chant Vishnu Mantra. So good Bhakta won't refute Sastras and would see God as one in different forms. The one beyond time is Mahakal Shiva Linga and it depicts Nirakara Paramatman. Vishnu and Shiva are names of one same God Maheswara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2973" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-12T07:04:56.880" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T07:04:56.880" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8513" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-11T10:31:12.977" Score="4" ViewCount="585" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard something about this,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is full story of three and a half vajra?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3484" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2020-03-11T13:59:47.930" LastActivityDate="2020-03-11T13:59:47.930" Title="What is story of THREE AND A HALF VAJRA?" Tags="|weapon|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8515" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-11T10:51:24.527" Score="4" ViewCount="630" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that our scripture Bhavishya Purana mentions that Kalki will be an Avatar of Vishnu. But I want to know if any of our scriptures mention it will be the &quot;Last Avatar&quot;. If yes, then after the Kalki avatar, won't there be any adharma in the future?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="677" LastEditDate="2015-09-22T07:07:30.043" LastActivityDate="2016-12-27T15:37:15.130" Title="Do any of our scriptures mention Kalki avatar is the &quot;Last avatar&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|kalki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8517" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8508" CreationDate="2015-09-11T11:06:01.740" Score="19" Body="&lt;h3&gt;2. who was the creator?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; who created everything and that's why we call the universe as ब्रह्मांड (BrahmAnd). Some of the slokas from Bhagavad Gita do indicate towards the creation of universe.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Few other interesting slokas, which are also indicative to the multiple big bang theory:&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 8.17, 8.18, 8.19&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together form the&#xA;duration of Brahmā’s one day. And such also is the duration of his&#xA;night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— At the beginning of Brahmā’s day, &lt;strong&gt;all living entities become&#xA;manifest from the unmanifest state, and thereafter, when the night&#xA;falls, they are merged into the unmanifest again&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— Again and again, when Brahmā’s day arrives, all living entities come&#xA;into being, and with the arrival of Brahmā’s night they are helplessly&#xA;annihilated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4. who created creator?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma came out from the Navel/नाभि (Nucleus) of Supreme Soul of all. It is the supreme soul or the &lt;strong&gt;God&lt;/strong&gt; who created everything ultimately:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 9.17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— &lt;strong&gt;I am the father of this universe&lt;/strong&gt;, the mother, the support and the&#xA;grandsire. I am the object of knowledge, the puriﬁer and the syllable&#xA;oṁ. I am also the Ṛg, the Sāma and the Yajur Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 10.32, 10.33&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— Of all creations &lt;strong&gt;I am the beginning and the end and also the middle&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;O Arjuna. Of all sciences I am the spiritual science of the self, and&#xA;among logicians I am the conclusive truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— Of letters I am the letter A, and among compound words I am&#xA;the dual compound. I am also inexhaustible time, and &lt;strong&gt;of creators I am&#xA;Brahmā&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3. who created the god?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is something unanswered till date! And may be only after complete self realization, one can answer it. For now, we can assume that God was always there, is continuously present and will remain as it is in its unmanifested form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 2.12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist&lt;/strong&gt;, nor you, nor all these&#xA;kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-06-14T17:01:11.977" LastActivityDate="2021-06-14T17:01:11.977" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8518" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-11T14:10:25.127" Score="11" ViewCount="5685" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know about Kartavirya Arjuna as the thousand-armed king who was the villain of the story of Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama.  Kartavirya Arjuna stole the divine cow Kamadhenu from Parashurama's father Jamadagni, so Parashurama cut off his thousand arms and killed him.  In response, Kartavirya Arjuna's sons killed Jamadagni.  To avenge his father's death, Parashurama annihilated the Kshatriyas of the Earth, who had become corrupt, 21 times, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/419/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about Kartavirya Arjuna himself.  I had always considered him purely as a villain, but then I found out the Narada Purana has two chapters devoted to various mantras to Kartavirya Arjuna, including a Kartavirya Gayatri mantra, a list of 108 names of Kartavirya Arjuna, and a Kartavirya Kavacham, analogous to the Narayana Kavacham (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2623/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;)!  The reason for this seems to be that Kartavirya Arjuna was actually an incarnation of Vishnu's Sudarshana Chakra.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Z28re.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Narada Purana says, for instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He was the incarnation of Sudarshana Chakra on the Earth.  After propitiating Dattatreya he attained excellent brilliance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Vishnu tells Parashurama in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/t6Ri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Upodhghata Pada of the Brahmanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indeed Kartavirya is the incarnation of my discus, on the surface of the Earth.  He has finished his assigned task, O excellent Brahmana.  Finish him, O bestower of honor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/TYkr&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this later excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Upodhgata Pada of the Brahmanda Puranas describes what happens after Parashurama kills Kartavirya Arjuna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The king who was a devotee of Datta, entered Sudarshana, the discus of Vishnu.  His body became reduced to ashes[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, why did Vishnu's Sudarshana Chakra incarnate as Kartavirya Arjuna, an enemy of Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only story I have come across (given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://thousandhanded.blogspot.com/2012/12/kartavirya-arjuna-incarnation-of.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt;, for instance), goes roughly as follows: The Sudarshana Chakra become too arrogant, and brags that Vishnu is only able to achieve his great deeds because of the Sudarshana Chakra's help.  So Vishnu curses it to be born on Earth, saying something like &quot;You will be born as a powerful king, and you will have the same thousand arms that you currently have.  I will be born as the mere son of a sage, and I will defeat you.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any scriptures that describe this story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-08-20T15:59:34.180" LastActivityDate="2023-08-20T15:59:34.180" Title="Why did Vishnu's Sudarshana Chakra incarnate as Parashurama's enemy Kartavirya Arjuna?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|parashurama|narada-purana|sudarshana-chakra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8520" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-12T06:42:38.493" Score="5" ViewCount="1548" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came to know that there are around 1500+ interpretations of Bhagavad Gita. Each one is different from the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it important to read each and every interpretation of Bhagavad Gita?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And why it is important for many of us to interpret any particular interpretation so deeply?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the ultimate message of Lord Krishna?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2810" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-29T01:36:34.203" LastActivityDate="2019-03-11T06:37:28.917" Title="What about the different interpretations of Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8521" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-12T07:28:16.850" Score="5" ViewCount="1778" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahmins and temple priests have/kept &lt;strong&gt;Shikha (शिखा)&lt;/strong&gt;/choti (tuft of hair) at the back of head head. So, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the significance of Shikha? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In other word : What is the purpose/importance? What Shikha indicates/stands for?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who must have Shika?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2015-09-12T08:27:07.620" Title="What is the significance of Shikha?" Tags="|rituals|brahmins|samskara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8522" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8490" CreationDate="2015-09-12T07:41:15.807" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramayana happened before Mahabharat&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana is story of &lt;strong&gt;Ram son of King Dashrath and who is seventh  incarnation(avataar) of Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; where as Mahabharat contains moments of &lt;strong&gt;Krishna's life who is son of Vasudev and who is eightth incarnation(avataar)&lt;/strong&gt; of Lord Vishnu so clearly Ramayana happened before Mahabharat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3053" LastActivityDate="2015-09-12T07:41:15.807" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8523" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8521" CreationDate="2015-09-12T08:27:07.620" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;12&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Choti on the Male Head&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sushrut rishi, the foremost surgeon of Ayurveda, describes the master&#xA;  sensitive spot on the head as Adhipati Marma, where there is a nexus&#xA;  of all nerves. The shikha protects this spot. Below, in the brain,&#xA;  occurs the Brahmarandhra, where the sushumnã (nerve) arrives from the&#xA;  lower part of the body. In Yog, Brahmarandhra is the highest, seventh&#xA;  chakra, with the thousand-petalled lotus. It is the centre of wisdom.&#xA;  The knotted shikhã helps boost this centre and conserve its subtle&#xA;  energy known as ojas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://desinema.com/hindu-traditions-scientific-reasons/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;hindu-traditions-scientific-reasons&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastActivityDate="2015-09-12T08:27:07.620" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8524" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8520" CreationDate="2015-09-12T10:00:07.820" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said the following on the ultimate message of the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt;. In many ways all the different interpretations would probably agree as to what He says (&lt;em&gt;Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;, chapter 3 - &lt;em&gt;Visit to Vidyasagar&lt;/em&gt; available here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter03.htm&quot;&gt;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter03.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is the significance of the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt;? It is what you find by repeating the word ten times. It is then reversed into 'tagi', which means a person who has renounced everything for God. And the lesson of the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; is: 'O man, renounce everything and seek God alone.' Whether a man is a monk or a householder, he has to shake off all attachment from his mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-09-12T10:00:07.820" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8525" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8508" CreationDate="2015-09-12T10:30:56.623" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have edited my answer to go through each of your points in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before addressing each point, let me begin by stating that 'creation' is the wrong word. Hindu scriptures all refer to 'projection', not 'creation'. Creation has a connotation of something coming out of nothing, and this idea comes from the common Christian concept of the beginning to the world as told in the &lt;em&gt;Genesis&lt;/em&gt; book of the &lt;em&gt;Bible&lt;/em&gt;. Hindu scriptures (as interpreted by Sankara, Ramanuja, and Madhva) refer to projection - the universe is projected out of Brahman. Projected out of Brahman came the material(s) from which the 'things' of the universe were formed. When Hindu commentators use the word create, or creation, they mean manifestation of form, they do not mean something out of nothing. Admittedly the three major commentators disagree on what the universe and the souls of the universe ‘are’ after the initial projection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second, Hindu scriptures (and again the three major commentators are in agreement), say that the universe is infinite in space and eternal in duration (&lt;em&gt;Brhadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; V.i.1), it never had a beginning and it will never have an end (&lt;em&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/em&gt; 2.1.35 and Ramanuja’s commentary on the verse)...Instead the scriptures say that there are cycles, of alternate activity and rest or non-activity (&lt;em&gt;Gīta&lt;/em&gt; 9.7). One possible interpretation, from a modern scientific cosmology universe standpoint, is  to think of the 'big bang' as the start of a new cycle. There were an infinite number of universes before the big bang of this cycle and there will an infinite number after the end of this cycle. Others have compared cycles to individual solar systems (or perhaps by extension, individual galaxies).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You ask: &lt;strong&gt;How did it start?&lt;/strong&gt; -and- &lt;strong&gt;Who created the creator?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman is the cause of the universe (&lt;em&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/em&gt; 1.1.2 and &lt;em&gt;Taittirya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; III. 1.). Saguna Brahman, the Causal Brahman (&lt;em&gt;Isvara&lt;/em&gt;) is the cause of the universe. From Brahman came OM, the initial vibration. The &lt;em&gt;Prasna Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (V. 2.) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He replied: O Satyakama, the syllable AUM is the Supreme Brahman [Nirguna Brahman] and also the other Brahman [Saguna Brahman]. Therefore he who knows it attains, with its support, the one or the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the &lt;em&gt;Mandukya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (I.) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Harih AUM! AUM, the word, is all this [i.e. the whole universe]. A clear explanation of it is as follows: All that is past, present, and future is, indeed, AUM. And whatever else there is, beyond the three-fold division of time--that also is truly AUM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other examples include &lt;em&gt;Katha Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (I. ii. 15) &amp;quot;It is AUM&amp;quot;; &lt;em&gt;Katha Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (I. ii. 17) &amp;quot;This AUM is the best support&amp;quot;; &lt;em&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (I. viii. 1) &amp;quot;AUM this word is Brahman.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Nikhilananda says (&lt;em&gt;The Upanishads&lt;/em&gt;, V2, pp 223-224):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ultimate identity of AUM is thus explained: The phenomenal world consists of ideas or mental states [many great modern physicists have held that the universe is a Great Thought. See &lt;em&gt;Quantum Physics and Ultimate Reality: Mystical Writings of Great Physicists&lt;/em&gt;, Editor Michael Green]. Ideas depend upon words for their expression. The utterance of the word AUM (A,U,M) gives the clue to the pronunciation of all words or sounds uttered by human beings. The various parts of the vocal organ that are used in the utterance of all sounds are also used in the pronunciation of AUM. Therefore AUM is the matrix of all sounds, which in their diversified forms give rise to the words used in language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You ask: &lt;strong&gt;Where do the solid materials to create planets come from?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Saguna Brahman came &lt;em&gt;akasa&lt;/em&gt;, which is best translated as ether or space. Materials need space to exist in, so the first created is &lt;em&gt;akasa&lt;/em&gt;. After &lt;em&gt;akasa&lt;/em&gt; came the other subtle elements--from &lt;em&gt;akasa&lt;/em&gt; came &lt;em&gt;vayu&lt;/em&gt; (air); from &lt;em&gt;vayu&lt;/em&gt; came &lt;em&gt;agni&lt;/em&gt; (fire); from &lt;em&gt;agni&lt;/em&gt; came &lt;em&gt;ap&lt;/em&gt; (water); from &lt;em&gt;ap&lt;/em&gt; came &lt;em&gt;prithivi&lt;/em&gt; (earth). These are subtle elements, not gross elements (&lt;em&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; 2.1.1 and &lt;em&gt;Vedantasara&lt;/em&gt; 57 and 59).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gross elements are combinations or compounds of these different subtle elements (&lt;em&gt;Vedantasara&lt;/em&gt; 60 and 98). My personal interpretation is that to try and think of the subtle elements as being in part 'states' of the gross elements; &lt;em&gt;vayu&lt;/em&gt; or air - gaseous, &lt;em&gt;agni&lt;/em&gt; or fire - plasma, &lt;em&gt;ap&lt;/em&gt; or water - liquid, and &lt;em&gt;prithivi&lt;/em&gt; or earth - solid. All gross matter exists in one of these states (and yes, physics defines plasma is a state of matter, think of the material in the sun).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You ask: &lt;strong&gt;Who was the creator?&lt;/strong&gt; -and- &lt;strong&gt;Who created the god(s)?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the manifestation or 'creation' of space and matter, came the physical systems and living beings. This is covered in the &lt;em&gt;Prasna Upanishad&lt;/em&gt;, first chapter. Swami Nikhilananda's summary of this chapter is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upanishad commences with a description of the creation of living beings [this includes the gods]. The first entity to be manifested in the phenomenal universe is the Cosmic Mind, known by such names as prana, Prajapati, Brahma, and Hiranagarbha. He is the totality of all souls and permeates all living beings. The entire creation--gross and subtle, macrocosmic and microcosmic--is the projection of prana. Prana manifests itself as the sun (the source of cosmic energy), and time, and food. Food is the direct cause of the birth of living beings. The creation is spiritual and not mechanistic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a good summary of the ‘creation’ there are two sources. One is The &lt;em&gt;Gīta&lt;/em&gt; chapter 9, verses 4-10. The other is from the &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt; (x. 129. 1-7). These verses are commonly called the &lt;em&gt;Nasadiya Hymn&lt;/em&gt;, or the hymn of creation. Here is the &lt;em&gt;Nasadiya Hymn&lt;/em&gt; (English translation from Swami Prabhavananda) [&lt;em&gt;tad ekam&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;strong&gt;THAT&lt;/strong&gt;]:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Existence was not, nor its opposite,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nor earth, nor heaven's blue vault, nor aught beyond.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The subtle elements that are the veil&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of this so insubstantial world, where then&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Might they find out a place? By whom be known?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The deep abyss of waters--where was that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Death was not yet, nor deathlessness; the day&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was night, night day, for neither day nor night&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Had come to birth. Then &lt;strong&gt;THAT&lt;/strong&gt;, the primal font&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of life--breathless--to its own maya joined--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brooded eternally. Itself beside,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the wide universe there nothing was.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the beginning gloom--gloom hidden in gloom!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From its cause undistinguished stood the world:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But lo, thereafter, from its darkling state--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet undistinguished from its cause--it rose,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the pure will of &lt;strong&gt;THAT&lt;/strong&gt; made manifest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whence came this will? From out a seed it came&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asleep within the heart of &lt;strong&gt;THAT&lt;/strong&gt;--the seed&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of vanished worlds that have in order wheeled&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their silent courses from eternity:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The manifest in the unmanifest they found--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages, searching deep within themselves...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ah, what are words and what all mortal&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;thought? Is there truly knows, and who can say,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whence this unfathomed world, and from what cause?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nay, even the gods were not! Who, then, can know?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The source from which this universe hath sprung,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That source, and that alone, which bears it up--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;None else: &lt;strong&gt;THAT&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;THAT&lt;/strong&gt; alone, lord of the worlds,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In its own self contained, immaculate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As are the heavens above, &lt;strong&gt;THAT&lt;/strong&gt; alone knows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The truth of what itself hath made--none else!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-18T22:41:11.323" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8527" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8569" CreationDate="2015-09-12T13:17:28.547" Score="25" ViewCount="2631" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is What i understood after reading various stories from  Puranas and Mahabharatha and theories of Creationism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu Purana states Vishnu is Supreme God or Supreme Brahman. Also &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I read Narayana as an aspect or amsa living in Vaikunta and Shankara aka Rudra as an aspect of Lord Shiva living in Mount kailash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From Vishnu ( I think He is Nirguna) comes Lord Brahma , Lord Narayana and Lord Shankra ( not Shiva) with their Shaktis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu or Brahman → Lord Brahma and Goddess Saraswati,&#xA;                Lord Narayana and  Goddess Lakshmi &amp;amp;&#xA;                Lord Shankara and Goddess Parvathi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Gaudiya Vaishnavism states Krishna as Supreme Personality of Godhead. So According to them&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna or Brahman → Lord Brahma and Goddess Saraswati, Lord Narayana and Goddess Lakshmi &amp;amp; Lord Shankara and Goddess Parvathi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This can be justified from Mahabharatha. When Arjuna was fighting in Kurukshetra war he saw a man with Matted hair and trident killing enemy forces within fraction of second.Perplexed Arjuna said this to Krishna and Lord Krishna replied as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna, the man you saw was Shankara and He was born from my Shoulder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Shiva Purana states Shiva as Supreme Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bright Light or &lt;em&gt;Jyothir Linga&lt;/em&gt; ( I think Shiva is Nirguna) or Shiva or Brahman → Lord Brahma and Goddess Saraswati, Lord Narayana and Goddess Lakshmi &amp;amp; Lord Shankara and Goddess Parvathi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And finally Devi Bhagavatham states Devi or Adiparashakthi as Supreme Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adiparashakthi or Brahman  → Lord Brahma and Goddess Saraswati, Lord Narayana and Goddess Lakshmi &amp;amp; Lord Shankara and Goddess Parvathi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Guadiya Vaishnavism states&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From MahaVishnu comes infinite number of Universes and i think same can be inferred to ParamaShiva and ParaBrahma &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any flaw in my understanding? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Am i unifying all Puranas? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is Brahman in Hinduism is One but diffferent Puranas mentioned Him with different names?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T14:21:54.537" LastActivityDate="2023-01-16T05:26:00.487" Title="Supreme Brahman in Hinduism" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|puranas|brahma|brahman|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8528" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8211" CreationDate="2015-09-12T14:02:54.097" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Sumati was the daughter of Kashyapa and Vinata.&lt;/strong&gt;. Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp096.htm#fn_989&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sumati &lt;strong&gt;the daughter of Kaśyapa&lt;/strong&gt;, and Kesiní the daughter of Rája Viderbha, were the two wives of Sagara. Being without progeny, the king solicited the aid of the sage Aurva with great earnestness, and the Muni pronounced this boon, that one wife should bear one son, the upholder of his race, and the other should give birth to sixty thousand sons; and he left it to them to make their election. Kesiní chose to have the single son; Sumati the multitude: and it came to pass in a short time that the former bore Asamanjas, a prince through whom the dynasty continued; and &lt;strong&gt;the daughter of Vinatá&lt;/strong&gt; (Sumati) had sixty thousand sons. The son of Asamanjas was Anśumat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=nmmkM0fVS-cC&amp;amp;pg=PA574&amp;amp;dq=sumati%20upamanyu%20garuda&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0CB8QuwUwAGoVChMI9Za9nM7xxwIVDD0-Ch1UoQnM#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; provides an explanation for why Sumati, a Brahmana woman, would marry a Kshatriya man like Sagara.  In this account sage Upamanyu, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6931/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, asks for Sumati's hand in marriage, but Vinata refuses.  So Upamanyu curses Vinata that if Sumati is ever married off to another Brahmana, Vinata's head would burst into pieces.  So on the advice of the sage Aurva, the creator of Vadavagni which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7082/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Sumati marries Rama's ancestor Sagara, since he's a Kshatriya.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book claims that this story is from the Brahmanda Purana, but I can't seem to find it.  (You can read the Brahmanda Purana using the links in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6751/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-09-12T14:02:54.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8529" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8527" CreationDate="2015-09-12T17:49:42.823" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your understanding is more or less proper. Brahman is One infinite whole as the Upanishads say. Same Brahman which is Nirguana appears as Various names and forms through its own power of Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have tried to explain the same but using terminologies of Upanishad in few write-ups in this link- &lt;a href=&quot;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/tag/saguna-brahman/&quot;&gt;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/tag/saguna-brahman/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas say &quot;Reality is only One, it is called by various names&quot;. Veda Vyasa wrote all puranas for the sake of devotees who have inclinations towards different deities. Hence, in Shiva Purana, he held Shiva as supreme, in Vishnu purana, Vishnu as supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is Brahman who appears as both Vishnu and Shiva and it is Brahman which are referred in all the cases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may also like to read- &quot;A deity can be god or God or both&quot;- &lt;a href=&quot;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/a-deity-can-either-be-god-or-god-or-both/&quot;&gt;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/a-deity-can-either-be-god-or-god-or-both/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-09-12T17:49:42.823" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8531" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-12T21:28:24.587" Score="4" ViewCount="5753" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard from fellows, who are Hindus, that Guru Teg Bahadur laid his life to save Hindu Religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Chronicle, Teg Bahadur expect Kashmiri pundits to convert to Sikh Faith I.e to reject all philosophies like Idolatory and other aspects and believe and accept Sikh way of LIFE. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kashmiri pundits saying to Aurangzeb that you should talk to our Guru(Teacher), if he converted then we will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Calling teg Guru is acceptance of Sikh philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can we say Teg Bahadur saved Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3011" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-05-06T09:06:38.203" LastActivityDate="2018-05-06T09:06:38.203" Title="Did Guru Tegh Bahadur really save Hindu religion?" Tags="|history|sikhism|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8535" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8537" CreationDate="2015-09-13T08:50:24.480" Score="8" ViewCount="1542" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Shanti Mantra for Shri Rudram is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हरि: ॐ &#xA;  इडादेवहुर्मनुर्यग्न्यनिब्रुहस्पतिरुक्तथामदानि स(गुन०)सिशदविश्वेदेवा: सुक्तवाच: प्रुथिविमातर्मा मा हि(गुन०)सि: मघुमनिश्ये मघुजनिश्ये मधुवक्श्यमि मधुवदिश्यमि मधुमतिं देवेभ्यो वाचुमुद्यस्(गुन०)सुश्रूशेणयामनुशयेभ्यस्तम् मा देवा अवन्तु शोभायै पितरोनुमदन्तु॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;but I cannot find its source nor its true meaning. Please give me meaning and location in scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="10088" LastEditDate="2024-02-04T04:09:35.777" LastActivityDate="2024-02-04T04:09:35.777" Title="Where is the Shanti Mantra for Sri Rudram mentioned in Scriptures (Vedas/Puranas)?" Tags="|vedas|shiva|mantras|translation-request|rudram|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8536" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8535" CreationDate="2015-09-13T10:59:09.947" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is (Shanti patha of) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shri_Rudram_Chamakam&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shri Rudram Chamakam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajurveda&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajurveda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Where is it located in scriptures?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajurveda has two primary version:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shukla Yajurveda, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna Yajurveda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are four shakha of Krishna Yajurveda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Taittiriya Shakha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Maitrayani Shakha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Caraka-Katha Shakha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Kapisthala shakha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Taittiriya Shakha constitue Shri Rudram Chamakam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. (Accroding to wikipedia):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Taittiriya Samhita— (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taittiriya_Shakha&quot;&gt;TS&lt;/a&gt;) which consists of 8 books or kaandas, subdivided in chapters or prapathakas, further subdivided into individual hymns. Some individual hymns in this Samhita have gained particular importance in Hinduism; e.g. TS 4.5 and TS 4.7 constitute the &lt;strong&gt;Shri Rudram Chamakam&lt;/strong&gt;, while 1.8.6.i is the Shaivaite Tryambakam mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see &lt;strong&gt;Shri Rudram Chamakam Lyrics&lt;/strong&gt; at &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduliterature.org/english/stotrams/sri_rudram_chamakam.php&quot;&gt;HinduLiterature.org&lt;/a&gt; in various languages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/chamaka.html?lang=sa&quot;&gt;SanskritDocuments.org&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PJ6zI.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PJ6zI.png&quot; alt=&quot;screen-shot&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Meaning in English translation:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From: &lt;a href=&quot;http://gloryofhinduism.blogspot.com/2011/03/english-translation-of-sri-rudram.html&quot;&gt;gloryofhinduism.blogspot.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chamakam Shanti patha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Idaa devahuurmanuryagyaniirbrihaspatirukthaamadaani&#xA;  shasishhadvishvedevaah&#xA;  suuktavaachah prithiviimaatarmaa maa hisiirmadhu manishhye madhu&#xA;  janishhye madhu&#xA;  vakshyaami madhu vadishhyaami madhumatiim devebhyo vaachamudyaasa&#xA;  shushruushhenyaam manushhyebhyastam maa devaa avantu shobhaayai&#xA;  pitaroanumadantu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Divine Gods are imploved through the mantras of Kamadhenu.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Manu does the Sacrifices, Bruhaspati recites the pleasant mantras.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Let these praises of Visva devas and mother earth save me from sufferance.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Let my pleasant thoughts bring forth pleasant actions and the resultant enjoyable fruits.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Let my Joyous offerings bear fine and worthy speech and my words please the divinity, make men lend their ears to gladden and Gods enlighten me and invoke my speech very powerful and my fore fathers feel excellently glad over it and bless me to perpetuate it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is &lt;strong&gt;pdf&lt;/strong&gt; also available at &lt;a href=&quot;http://cincinnatitemple.com/articles/SriRudram.pdf&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2015-09-13T11:22:02.100" LastActivityDate="2015-09-13T11:22:02.100" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8537" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8535" CreationDate="2015-09-13T14:28:43.513" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The mantra you mentioned isn't actually part of the Rudram.  The Rudram and Chamakam constitute Prapathaka 5 and Prapathaka 7 of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Fourth Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of the Taittiriya Samhita of the Yajur Veda.  In contrast, the mantra you're looking for is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prapathaka 3&lt;/a&gt; of the Third Kanda of the Taittiriya Samhita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;iii.3.2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vāyúr hiṃkartā́gníḥ prastotā́ prajā́patiḥ sā́ma bŕ̥haspátir udgātā́ víśve devā́ upagātā́ro marútaḥ pratihartā́ra índro nidʰánaṃ té devā́ḥ prāṇabʰŕ̥taḥ prāṇám máyi dadʰatu |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etád vái sárvam adʰvaryúr upākurvánn udgātŕ̥bʰya upā́karoti té devā́ḥ prāṇabʰŕ̥taḥ prāṇám máyi dadʰatv íty āhaitád evá sárvam ātmán dʰatte |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;íḍā devahū́r mánur yajñanī́s |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;bŕ̥haspátir uktʰāmadā́ni śaṁsiṣat |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;víśve devā́ḥ ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;súktavā́cas |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;pŕ̥tʰivi mātar mā́ mā hiṁsīs |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;mádʰu maniṣye mádʰu janiṣye mádʰu vakṣyāmi mádʰu vadiṣyāmi mádʰumatīṃ devébʰyo vā́cam udyāsaṁ śuśrūṣéṇyām manuṣyèbʰyas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tám mā devā́ avantu śobʰā́yai pitáro 'nu madantu ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a The maker of the sound 'Him' is Vayu, the Prastotr is Agni, the&#xA;Saman is Prajapati, the Udgatr is Brhaspati, the subordinate singers&#xA;are the All-gods, the Pratihartrs are the Maruts, the finale is Indra;&#xA;may these gods who support breath bestow breath upon me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;b All this the Adhvaryu, as he begins, begins for the Udgatrs; 'May&#xA;these gods who support breath bestow breath upon me', he says; verily&#xA;he bestows all this on himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;c May Ida who summoneth the gods, Manu who leadeth the sacrifice,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;d May Brhaspati recite the hymns and acclamations.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;e The All-gods are reciters of the hymns.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;f O earth mother, do not harm me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;g Of honey shall I think, honey shall I produce, honey shall I&#xA;proclaim, honey shall I speak, may I utter speech full of honey for&#xA;the gods, and acceptable to men.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;h May the gods aid me to radiance, may the Pitrs rejoice in me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv00.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, this mantra is one of &amp;quot;[t]he Mantras for beginning the Stotra and the Pratigara&amp;quot;.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Yagnas generally involved three priests, a Hotri who would utter Rig Veda mantras in their original form heard from the gods, an Advaryu who would utter Yajur Veda mantras while tending to the details of the Yagna, and an Udgatri who would sing songs from the Sama Veda.  (Later a &amp;quot;brahmana&amp;quot; for the Atharvana Veda was added.)  Now as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe26/sbe2651.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda, there was a certain part of the Soma Yagna in which the Udgatri would utter a hymn called a Stotra, and in response the Hotri would utter a hymn called a Shastra, and in response to that the Adhvaryu would utter a hymn called a Pratigara.  This mantra was one of the mantras used to initiate that part of the Yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The use of part of the mantra is also described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dli.gov.in/data9/upload/0298/969/PTIFF/00000034.tif&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shankhyana Shrauta Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this manner having summoned (the deities) he sits down with his knees raised and mutters, after having touched the earth with the span of his right hand: &amp;quot;May I not be separated from this firm standing, &lt;strong&gt;O Mother Earth.  Hurt me not, scorch me not.  I shall think what is sweet, wish what is sweet, engender what is sweet.  I shall today utter words sweet to Gods, dear to men.&lt;/strong&gt;  Here do I by means of the fifteen-fold thunderbolt drive away my spiteful rival.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up, this mantra has no connection in the Vedas to the recital of the Rudram or Chamakam.  People today may just use this as a Shanti mantra for the Chamakam because it's a mantra asking for blessings from all the gods.  It would be similar to how the &amp;quot;gananam&amp;quot; mantra is often used nowadays as an Ahavaniya mantra in Yagnas, just because you're supposed to pray to Ganesha in the beginning of rituals.  (Except the gananam mantra is not actually addressed to Ganesha, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3135/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-09-19T04:15:36.033" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8538" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8414" CreationDate="2015-09-13T16:28:00.323" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Śrī Kṛṣṇa:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Jīva Goswāmī's commentary on the Bhāgavata (10.3.1): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;atra viśeṣaś coktaḥ kha-māṇikya-nāmni jyotir-granthe—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;uccasthāḥ śaśi-bhauma-cāndri-śanayo lagnaṁ vṛṣo lābhago&#xA;jīvaḥ siṁha-tulādiṣu krama-vaśāt pūṣośanor āhavaḥ |&#xA;naiśīthaḥ samayo’ṣṭamī-budha-dinaṁ brahmarkṣam atra kṣaṇe&#xA;śrī-kṛṣṇābhidham ambujekṣaṇaṁ babhūd āviḥ paraṁ brahma tat ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Kha-maṇikya astrological text it is said “The Moon, Mars, Mercury and Saturn were exalted. &lt;strong&gt;The ascendant was Taurus.&lt;/strong&gt; Jupiter was in Pisces. The sun was in Leo, Venus was in Libra, and Rāhu was in Scorpio. It was the eighth tithi of the waning phase of the moon, on Wednesday, with the moon in Rohiṇī constellation. Kṛṣṇa was born at midnight with these auspicious arrangements.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kiṁ cānyatra—&#xA;vṛṣakanyā-tulā-mīna-rājeṣu sphuṭam uccagāḥ |&#xA;soma-saumya-śāni-kṣoṇī-sutās taj-janmani sthitāḥ ||&#xA;yasmād viśvāvasau varṣe janma śrī-nanda-janmanaḥ |&#xA;viśvam eva vasu-śrīmad babhūvāmuṣya tuṣyataḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Elsewhere it is said: “The &lt;strong&gt;Moon&lt;/strong&gt;, Mercury, Saturn, and Mars were situated in &lt;strong&gt;Taurus&lt;/strong&gt;, Virgo, Libra and Capricorn respectively. The birth of Kṛṣṇa in the year of Viśvavasu (Jupiter’s 39th year), satisfying the universe, was endowed with excellent beauty.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the rāśi is Taurus (Vṛṣa)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srī Rāma:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla-kāṇḍa 18.9 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga18/balasans18.htm#Verse9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga18/balasans18.htm#Verse9&lt;/a&gt;) says that Lord Rāma's rāśi is Cancer (कर्कटे लग्ने वाक्पता इंदुना सह) (courtesy of Keshav Srinivasan)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also &quot;Rāmārcana-candrikā&quot; as quoted and explained in Rūpa Gosvāmī's  Laghu-bhāgavatamṛta (1.5.28): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;uccasthe graha-pañcake sura-gurau sendau navamyāṁ tithau &#xA;lagne karkaṭake punarvasu yute meṣaṁ gate pūṣaṇi | &#xA;nirdagdhuṁ nikhilāḥ palāśa-samidho medhyādayodhyāraṇer &#xA;āvirbhūtam abhūd apūrva-vibhavaṁ yat kiñcid ekaṁ mahaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Rāma appeared with indescribable glory, possessing unprecedented powers, qualities and form, like the fire from the pure kindling stick of Ayodhyā for burning the demons, on the ninth lunar day, when five planets were exalted and &lt;strong&gt;the moon was conjoined with Jupiter in the ascendant of Cancer&lt;/strong&gt; in the constellation Punarvasu. The sun was in Aries.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa's commentary on this verse:&#xA;&quot;He was born on the ninth tithi of the waxing moon during the Caitra month. The sun, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn were exalted respectively in Ares, Capricorn, Cancer, Pisces and Libra. &lt;strong&gt;Jupiter was in the ascendant with the moon.&lt;/strong&gt; Sun was in the tenth degree of Aries, Mars was in the third degree of Capricorn, Jupiter was in the twenty-eighth degree of Cancer, Venus was in the twenty-seventh degree of Pisces, and Saturn was in the twentieth degree of Libra.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3715" LastEditorUserId="3715" LastEditDate="2015-09-17T10:20:38.897" LastActivityDate="2015-09-17T10:20:38.897" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8539" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-13T18:16:41.060" Score="8" ViewCount="1786" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kalinjar means The destroyer of time in Sanskrit. 'Kal' is time and&#xA;  'jar' destruction. See &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinjar_Fort#History&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is meant by &lt;code&gt;destroyer of time&lt;/code&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T11:03:05.693" Title="Did lord Shiva time travel?" Tags="|shiva|time|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8540" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8539" CreationDate="2015-09-13T18:32:59.090" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It doesn't literally mean &quot;Time Travel&quot; it means he defeated death(In other words- He defeated the time of his death)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Legend says that after manthan Hindu God, Lord Shiva, drank the poison&#xA;  and his throat became blue (hence the name Neel (blue) Kantha&#xA;  (throat)) and he came to Kalinjar and overcome the 'Kal' i.e. he&#xA;  achieved victory over death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source is same &quot;Wiki&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinjar_Fort#History&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kalinjar Fort&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3716" LastEditorUserId="3716" LastEditDate="2015-09-13T19:53:45.883" LastActivityDate="2015-09-13T19:53:45.883" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8541" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-13T19:03:30.990" Score="3" ViewCount="83" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been thinking about this, does anyone know if a God (Shiva, Durga etc.) has ever destroyed any devil without taking birth/avatar? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If God is so powerful then why does He/She need to transform into something else to destroy a devil?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3716" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-02T16:20:49.203" LastActivityDate="2016-02-02T16:20:49.203" Title="Can God (e.g., Shiva) destroy devils without taking brith/avatar?" Tags="|shiva|avatars|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2016-02-03T11:37:03.660" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8542" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-13T19:38:07.360" Score="6" ViewCount="1100" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iskcon.org/what-is-iskcon/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ISKCON&lt;/a&gt; saints only preach about God Krishna and say that we should only worship him and no one else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3717" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2019-03-02T10:50:58.167" LastActivityDate="2019-03-03T07:57:54.103" Title="Why ISKCON only advocates Krishna?" Tags="|krishna|iskcon|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8543" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2428" CreationDate="2015-09-13T20:21:57.413" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yali_%28mythology%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yali&lt;/a&gt; is a mythical creature seen in many Hindu temples, often sculpted&#xA;  onto the pillars. It may be portrayed as part lion, part elephant and&#xA;  part horse, and in similar shapes. Also, it has been sometimes&#xA;  described as a leogryph (part lion and part griffin), with some&#xA;  bird-like features.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look closely at the statue Yali will have an Elephant below it.&#xA;we can assume that the sculptor compared the size of the elephant with the Yali, &#xA;Now you get the idea how big Yali is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastActivityDate="2015-09-13T20:21:57.413" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8545" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8542" CreationDate="2015-09-14T05:13:33.187" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because only Lord Krishna has displayed vishvaroopam (universal form) so far. No other god or goddess has done that so far.  This is also confirmed in the Vedas specifically Atharva Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Atharva-veda it is said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yo brahmāṇaṁ vidadhāti: pūrvaṁ yo vai vedāṁś ca gāpayati sma kṛṣṇaḥ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो ब्रह्माणं विदधाति: पूर्वं यो व्ऐ वेदांश् च गापयति स्म कृष्णः.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was Kṛṣṇa who in the beginning&#xA;instructed Brahmā in Vedic knowledge and who disseminated Vedic&#xA;knowledge in the past.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then again it is said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;atha puruṣo ha vai nārāyaṇo kāmayata prajāḥ sṛjeya ity upakramya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथ पुरुषो ह व्ऐ नारायणो कामयत प्रजाः सृजेय इत्य् उपक्रम्य​.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the Supreme&#xA;Personality Nārāyaṇa desired to create living entities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore Lord Krishna is God almighty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupadabooks.com/bg/10/8?d=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bg 10.8 Bhagavad-gita As It Is (1972)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-09T03:15:16.010" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8546" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8518" CreationDate="2015-09-14T05:51:10.073" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the Wikipedia article it appears that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartavirya_Arjuna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kartavirya Arjuna&lt;/a&gt; was born from a boon from lord &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dattatreya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dattatreya&lt;/a&gt; (collective incarnation of Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh) to his father Kritavirya, rather than a curse from Visnu to his Sudarshan Chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata mentions him as one of the best warriors and&#xA;  introduces his divine origin, attributing it to the &lt;em&gt;Padmini Ekadasi&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The king (Kartavirya Arjuna's father) was very happy to hear this.&#xA;  Naturally he asked for the son he had desired for so long: 'O master&#xA;  of the universe, O killer of the Madhu demon, kindly grant me a son&#xA;  who will never be conquered by demigods, human beings, snakes, demons,&#xA;  or hobgoblins, &lt;em&gt;but whom only You can defeat.&lt;/em&gt;' The Supreme Lord&#xA;  immediately replied, 'So be it!' and disappeared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The king became very pleased with his wife and returned to his palace&#xA;  in her company. Padmini soon became pregnant, and the many armed&#xA;  Kartaviryarjuna appeared as her son. He was the mightiest person in&#xA;  all the three worlds, and thus even tenheaded Ravana could not defeat&#xA;  him in battle. &lt;em&gt;Except for Lord Narayana, who holds a club, &lt;strong&gt;a&#xA;  disc&lt;/strong&gt;, and other symbols in his hands, no one could overcome him&lt;/em&gt;.&#xA;  ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Lord, Sri Krisna, concluded, ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if taken the literal meaning of above text, it appears like the disc (Sudarshan Chakra) and Kartavirya Arjuna don't have any relation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-24T17:05:53.790" LastActivityDate="2016-03-24T17:05:53.790" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8548" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2969" CreationDate="2015-09-14T07:25:53.090" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous sloka dedicated to God Ganesha is as follows...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vakratunda mahaakaaya suryakoti samaprabhaa.&#xA;Nirvighnam kurumedeva sarvakaaryeshu sarvadaa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We salute the matchless Lord Ganesha, whose bended trunk (vakra-tunda) and monstrous form (maha-kaayaa) sparkles as a million suns (surya-koti) and showers his endowments on everybody (sama-prabhaa). Goodness my master of masters Ganesha (kurume-deva), generously uproot all impediments (nir-vighnam), dependably (sarva-) and eternity (sarvadaa-) from all my exercises and attempts (sarva-kaaryeshu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ishtadevata.com/blog/vakratunda-mahaakaaya.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.ishtadevata.com/blog/vakratunda-mahaakaaya.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3381" LastActivityDate="2015-09-14T07:25:53.090" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8549" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8550" CreationDate="2015-09-14T07:33:28.760" Score="7" ViewCount="3535" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that Lord Dattatreya has given liberation or spiritual guidance to Parshurama. What is the story behind that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-12T20:22:50.687" LastActivityDate="2018-01-12T20:22:50.687" Title="What is the story behind Lord Dattatreya giving spiritual guidance to Parshurama?" Tags="|guru|parashurama|dattatreya|spirituality|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8550" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8549" CreationDate="2015-09-14T08:52:42.120" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parashurama is considered an incarnation of Vishnu and so is Dattatreya. If you mean spiritual guidance or salvation then you might have heard from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripura_Rahasya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tripura Rahasya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Tripura Rahasya (त्रिपुरा रहस्य) means &lt;em&gt;The Mystery beyond the Trinity&lt;/em&gt;, is an ancient literary work in Sanskrit believed to have been narrated by Dattatreya to Parashurama. It is one of the treatise on Advaita school of classical Indian Metaphysics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the relevant texts on the interactions between the two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Tripura Rahasya expounds the teachings of the supreme spiritual&#xA;  truth. The highest truth was first taught by Lord Shiva to Lord&#xA;  Vishnu. Lord Vishnu incarnated on earth as Sri Dattatreya, Lord of the&#xA;  Avadhutas, who taught this to Parasurama, who later taught it to&#xA;  Haritayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Tripura Rahasya is a dialogue between Lord Dattatreya and&#xA;  Parasurama.&lt;/strong&gt; It's also called the &lt;em&gt;Haritayana Samhita&lt;/em&gt; after its author&#xA;  Haritayana, son of Harita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same wiki, you may also refer the other story of how Dattatreya met Parashurama, who was going towards Ganga along with his mother &amp;amp; father(dead body) on both shoulders. Later he kills Kshatriyas and also challenges Shri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After encounter with Rama, Parasurama returned crest-fallen and on his&#xA;  way met an Avadhuta named Samvarta, the brother of Brihaspati who&#xA;  advised him to seek Dattatreya. Later he encountered Sri Dattatreya&#xA;  who instructed him in the Truth with added injunction that it should&#xA;  be communicated to Haritayana who would later seek the truth from him&#xA;  and so led him to salvation. &lt;strong&gt;Parasurama thus realised the Self by the&#xA;  guidance of Sri Datta and dwelt on the Malaya Hill in South India.&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-09-14T08:52:42.120" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8551" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-14T10:03:00.083" Score="8" ViewCount="5547" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read many times that Lord Rama was born with 14 kalas of Lord Vishnu while Lord Krishna had 16 of the same. I want to ask the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What exactly are kalas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are these numbers correct?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How many kalas Lord Vishnu have?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are each of these kalas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2017-01-02T16:35:51.127" Title="What are the various 'kalas' of Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8553" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8510" CreationDate="2015-09-14T11:42:27.600" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pay close attention to below slokas from [Bhagavad Gita]:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 13&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures (Brahma) sent&#xA;  forth &lt;strong&gt;generations of men and demigods&lt;/strong&gt;, along with sacriﬁces for&#xA;  Viṣṇu, and blessed them by saying, “Be thou happy by this yajña&#xA;  [sacriﬁce] because its performance will bestow upon you everything&#xA;  desirable for living happily and achieving liberation.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— The demigods, being pleased by sacriﬁces, will also please you, and&#xA;  thus, by cooperation between men and demigods, prosperity will reign&#xA;  for all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— In charge of the various necessities of life, the demigods, being&#xA;  satisﬁed by the performance of &lt;strong&gt;yajña [sacriﬁce]&lt;/strong&gt;, will supply all&#xA;  necessities to you. &lt;strong&gt;But he who enjoys such gifts without offering them&#xA;  to the demigods in return is certainly a thief.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because&#xA;  they eat food which is offered ﬁrst for sacriﬁce. &lt;strong&gt;Others, who prepare&#xA;  food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer to your question lies within above slokas if you understood those, then no need to read below. If not convinced then before understanding my answer, first consider the below terms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;1. Dharma (not religion)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/341/1049&quot;&gt;This answer&lt;/a&gt; explains nicely: Dharma is actually a &lt;em&gt;righteous duty&lt;/em&gt;. Every element of universe has its own &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;. Except humans, most of the elements follow their duty but without being conscious about it. If a human follows own Dharma consciously then attains liberation.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g. a person might be born Muslim/Vaishnav/Non-believer, but his Dharma depends on his work &amp;amp; nature. For example, if he is in science then BrahminDharma, in army then KshatriyaDharma, in business then VaishyaDharma and doing job (any field) then ShudraDharma.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Similarly, a person has to have SwamiDharma towards his wife, but PitaDharma towards his children and PutraDharma towards parents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;2. Devta (demigods)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look at the Indian philosophy, each element of nature is associated with a demigod. e.g. &lt;em&gt;Water =&gt; Varun&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Air =&gt; Vayu&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Earth =&gt; Bhoomidevi&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Light =&gt; Suryadev&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Humans =&gt; Narayan&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Animals ==&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashupati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pashupati&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and so on.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;When a demigod gets disturbed, it creates a havoc. In other words, &lt;em&gt;Tsunami&lt;/em&gt; can be considered as &lt;em&gt;Varun dev is angry&lt;/em&gt;. The demigods have to be pleased by maintaining their equilibrium; temples are just &lt;em&gt;gentle reminders&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g. People end up worshiping Pashupati in Nepal temple instead of seeing him in animals all over the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;3. Yajña/Yagna (Sacrifice)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;यज्ञ = योग्य त्याग&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In modern times, we have mistakenly limited the term Yagna with only &lt;em&gt;Dharmik activity of Hom-Havan&lt;/em&gt;. In reality, it is just 1 way of doing it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;If one does his prescribed(योग्य) duty(धर्म) by sacrificing(त्याग) the deviations, then it is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/47&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yagna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g. if a student pays attention to study by sacrificing the thoughts of playing then he is doing (Shram) Yagna. Similarly, a boy does Brahmacharya Yagna until he marries his wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer to various ways of Yagna in&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 4.25-4.31&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Some yogīs perfectly worship the demigods by offering different&#xA;  sacriﬁces to them, and some offer sacriﬁces in the ﬁre of the Supreme&#xA;  Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Some [the unadulterated brahmacārīs] sacriﬁce the hearing process&#xA;  and the senses in the ﬁre of mental control, and others [the regulated&#xA;  householders] sacriﬁce the objects of the senses in the ﬁre of the&#xA;  senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Others, who are interested in achieving self-realization through&#xA;  control of the mind and senses, offer the functions of all the senses,&#xA;  and of the life breath, as oblations into the ﬁre of the controlled&#xA;  mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Having accepted strict vows, some become enlightened by sacriﬁcing&#xA;  their possessions, and others by performing severe austerities, by&#xA;  practicing the yoga of eightfold mysticism, or by studying the Vedas&#xA;  to advance in transcendental knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Still others, who are inclined to the process of breath restraint to&#xA;  remain in trance, practice by offering the movement of the outgoing&#xA;  breath into the incoming, and the incoming breath into the outgoing,&#xA;  and thus at last remain in trance, stopping all breathing. Others,&#xA;  curtailing the eating process, offer the outgoing breath into itself&#xA;  as a sacriﬁce.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— All these performers who know the meaning of sacriﬁce become&#xA;  cleansed of sinful reactions, and, having tasted the nectar of the&#xA;  results of sacriﬁces, they advance toward the supreme eternal&#xA;  atmosphere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— O best of the Kuru dynasty, without sacriﬁce one can never live&#xA;  happily on this planet or in this life: what then of the next?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Conclusion&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So combine all of above to come to a conclusion. When the Yagna is performed according to own duty(स्वधर्म), then the demigods are pleased and the nature's equilibrium is maintained. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also refer my answer to below question, where I explain scientifically why non-veg is not preferable in most cases:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8206/should-a-brahmin-be-vegetarian/8218#8218&quot;&gt;Should a Brahmin be Vegetarian&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But have ATTENTION: It doesn't literally mean that killing animals &amp;amp; eating meat is bad and eating veg food is good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Answer&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When someone eats meat or even vegetarian (un)knowingly, is he/she helping maintaining nature's equilibrium? In other words, is he pleasing to Pashupati dev or Bhoomidevi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It depends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;1 -- A tribal staying in Alaska, African, Andaman have no choice but to depend on killing and eating animal. They please Pashupati, because by killing those animals they keep the number in check and also by protecting the forest resources for harvesting. (Killing too many is wrong though)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;2 -- A CEO maintains strictly vegetarian diet and daily gets his favorite veg dish by sending driver 10 km away from his office at lunch time. He might be pleasing Bhoomidevi, but he violates (pollutes) Vaayu devta! Realizing this petrol waste, he then starts eating in office canteen. But wastes food daily due to taste dislike. Now he angers Bhoomi devi!&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming back to that Muslim boy. If he is eating non-veg food, then definitely he is (un)knowingly committing sin. Because in modern time, availability/nutrition/nature-preserve/varieties of vegetarian food is quite vast, which leaves very less room for non-veg food. Land - Bhoomi devi is wasted for harvesting non-veg.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So everyone's (irrespective of religion) Maanav Dharma is to adopt or try Vegetarianism!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-09-14T11:42:27.600" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8554" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-14T14:45:43.690" Score="5" ViewCount="194" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha is the important (and ultimate) goal of Hinduism. And whenever I think about it, Vedanta philosophy comes into picture. So, I think &lt;em&gt;there might be knowledge regarding Moksha included in Vedanta&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the Vedanta philosophy about Moksha?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What Vedanta teaches and explains about Moksha?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does Vedanta give the way of Moksha? (How to?)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2015-09-14T14:50:46.463" LastActivityDate="2015-10-14T17:11:22.037" Title="Vedanta and Moksha" Tags="|moksha|vedanta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8555" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="101" CreationDate="2015-09-14T15:58:46.333" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question was asked in Shiva Purana, Vidyesvarasamhita, Chapter 5. The answer, after removing the sectarian claims, is that the Saivites use the linga form to signify nameless and formless aspects of the deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am posting the quote (I changed the word phallus into the more appropriate linga):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sages said:- 8. Everywhere the deities are worshipped only in their&#xA;  image. How is that Siva is worshipped both in the image and the linga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suta said:- 9. O sages, this question is holy and wondrous. Here the speaker is Siva Himself and not any ordinary person.&#xA;  10. I shall tell you what Siva Himself had said and what I heard from my own preceptor. Siva alone is Niskala (nameless and formless) since He is identical with supreme Brahman.&#xA;  11. He is also Sakala as He has an embodied form. He is both Sakala and Niskala. It is his Niskala aspect that the Linga is appropriate. 12-13. In the Sakala aspect the worship of His embodied form is appropriate. Since He has the Sakala and Niskala aspects He is worshipped both in the linga and in the embodied form by the people and is called the highest Brahman. Other deities, not being Brahman, have no Niskala aspect anywhere. 14. Hence the deities are not worshipped in the formless linga symbol. The other deities are both non-Brahman and individual souls. 15. In view of their being embodied alone they are worshipped solely in the bodily form. Sankara has Brahmatatva and the others Jivatva. 16. This has been explained in the meaning of the Pranava (Om), the essence of Vedanta, by Nandikesvara when asked by Sanatkumara, the intelligent son of Brahma, at the mountain Mandara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2016-03-24T13:49:51.640" LastActivityDate="2016-03-24T13:49:51.640" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8556" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8554" CreationDate="2015-09-14T16:09:07.413" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira on Emancipation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two well-known paths (for us), viz, the path of the Pitris&#xA;  and the path of the gods. They that perform sacrifices go by the&#xA;  Pitri-path, while they that are for salvation, go by the god-path. By&#xA;  penances, by Brahmacharya, by study (of the Vedas), the great Rishis,&#xA;  casting off their bodies, proceed to regions that are above the power&#xA;  of death. Worldly enjoyments have been styled as bonds. They have also&#xA;  been called action. Liberated from these two sins (viz, bonds and&#xA;  action) one attains to the highest end. ….As a person on the hill-top&#xA;  looketh down upon men on the plain below, so he that has got up on the&#xA;  top of the mansion of knowledge, seeth people grieving for things that&#xA;  do not call for grief. He, however, that is of foolish understanding,&#xA;  does not see this. He who, casting his eyes on visible things, really&#xA;  seeth them, is said to have eyes and understanding. The faculty called&#xA;  understanding is so called because of the knowledge and comprehension&#xA;  it gives of unknown and incomprehensible things. He who is acquainted&#xA;  with the words of persons that are learned, that are of cleansed&#xA;  souls, and that have attained to a state of Brahma, succeeds in&#xA;  obtaining great honours. When one seeth creatures of infinite&#xA;  diversity to be all one and the same to be but diversified emanations&#xA;  from the same essence, one is then said to have attained Brahma. Those&#xA;  who reach this high state of culture attain to that supreme and&#xA;  blissful end, and not they who are without knowledge, or they who are&#xA;  of little and narrow souls, or they who are bereft of understanding,&#xA;  or they who are without penances. Indeed, everything rests on the&#xA;  (cultivated) understanding!’ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section XVII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhisma/Suka on emancipation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma continued [Suka said],’..By knowledge, one attains to that&#xA;  whither there is no occasion for grief; whither one becomes freed from&#xA;  birth and death; whither one is not subject to decrepitude; whither&#xA;  one transcends the state of conscious existence; whither is Brahma&#xA;  which is Supreme, Unmanifest, immutable, ever-existent, imperceptible,&#xA;  above the reach of pain, immortal, and transcending destruction;&#xA;  whither all become freed from the influence of all pairs of opposites&#xA;  (like pleasure and pain, etc), as also wish or purpose. Reaching that&#xA;  stage, they cast equal eyes on everything, becoming universal friends&#xA;  and devoted to the good of all the creatures.’ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCXLI&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another description of Moksha is given in Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When men of knowledge, conversant with the rules of Yoga,&#xA;  become as fixed as a stake of wood, and as immovable as a mountain,&#xA;  then are they said to be in Yoga. When one does not hear, and smell,&#xA;  and taste, and see; when one is not conscious of any touch; when one’s&#xA;  mind becomes perfectly free from every purpose; when one is not&#xA;  conscious of anything, when one cherishes no thought; when one becomes&#xA;  like a piece of wood, then is one called by the wise to be in perfect&#xA;  Yoga. At such a time one shines like a lamp that burns in a place&#xA;  where there is no wind; at such a time one becomes freed even from&#xA;  one’s subtle form, and perfectly united with Brahma. When one attains&#xA;  to such progress, one has no longer to ascend or to fall among&#xA;  intermediate beings. When persons like ourselves say that there has&#xA;  been a complete identification of the Knower, the Known, and&#xA;  Knowledge, then is the Yogin said to behold the Supreme Soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCCVII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2015-09-14T16:40:53.753" LastActivityDate="2015-09-14T16:40:53.753" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8557" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7210" CreationDate="2015-09-14T17:17:56.047" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Question 1: Vaskala (Baskali) story is described in Padma Purāṇa (Sṛṣṭi, chapter 30). Incident with Dhundhu is described in Vāmana Purāṇa, chapter 78. In both cases Lord Vāmana came to take back Indra's kingdom that they usurped. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question 2: Yes, there are two commentaries on Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta that shed some light on this - by Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa and Vṛndāvanacandra Tarkālaṅkāra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3715" LastActivityDate="2015-09-14T17:17:56.047" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8558" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8581" CreationDate="2015-09-14T18:06:02.120" Score="6" ViewCount="3950" Body="&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in answer to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3134/where-is-this-hymn-in-the-rig-veda/3135?noredirect=1#comment18128_3135&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question, Rig-veda verse 1 as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ॐ गणानां त्वा गणपतिं हवामहे कविं कवीनामुपमश्रवस्तमम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ज्येष्ठराजं ब्रह्मणां ब्रह्मणस्पत आ नः षृण्वन्नूतिभिः सीदसादनम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;cannot be used to worship Shri Ganesha. I don't understand how/why the description  of the shloka relates to Brihaspati rather than  Shri Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If anyhow this is not the avhanam(summoning) mantra for Shri Mahaganpati then which vedic mantra is used to summon Shri Mahaganpati?. The mantra at it's end I could recite following lines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रिमन्माहागणाधिपतये नम: आवाहयमि!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above lines mean&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oh great lord Ganapati I summon you!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also please add the seer of mantra because &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtavinayaka#Varadavinayak&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; wikipedia article claims that&#xA;Sage Grutsmad is seer of this mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Grutsamad after getting cursed went to the forest of Pushpak and worshipped Ganesha. Sage Grutsamad is famous for the mantra GaNanaN Tva. He founded the temple and called this Ganesha: Varada-Vinayak.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-21T18:18:20.633" Title="Why is Rig Veda Book 2 Hymn 23 Verse 1 not used for summoning or praying to ganpati?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|ganesha|rig-veda|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8559" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8560" CreationDate="2015-09-14T18:10:15.140" Score="6" ViewCount="3386" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like Aditya hridayam, I came across Gayatri hridayam. What exactly are hridyam mantras? What is gyatri hridayam and why is it used to pray to Godess gyatri before doing the sandhya gyatri?.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-12-18T16:34:23.647" LastActivityDate="2022-08-10T14:23:41.997" Title="What is Gayatri hridayam?" Tags="|mantras|gayatri|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8560" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8559" CreationDate="2015-09-14T19:09:26.160" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gayatri Hridayam is a mantra found in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk12ch04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Devi Bhagavata.  The chapter claims that the mantra is &amp;quot;explicitly written in the Atharva Veda&amp;quot;, but you can read the Atharvana Veda &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; I don't see it.  In any case, here is the preamble to the mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Risi of this Gâyatrî Hridaya is Nârâyana; the Chhandas is Gâyatrî; and S’rî Parames'varî Gâyatrî is the Devatâ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's a reference to the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the brother of the sage Nara and the founder of Pancharatra, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  (Nara and Narayana were the previous births of Arjuna and Krishna respectfully.)  In any case, here are the Dhyana shlokas (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7874/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) of the Gayatri Hridayam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, consider the Gâyatrî, the Devî, the Mother of the Vedas as of a Cosmic Form (Virâ trupâ) and meditate all the Devas as residing on Her Body. Now in as much as the Pinda and Brahmânda are similar, consider yourself as of the form of the Devî and meditate within yourself on the Devatâs[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then a Nyasam is prescribed, after which the actual hymn is given:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thinking thus, repeat “I take refuge of the Divine Holy Gâyatrî, the Chief and most Excellent One, the Thousand eyed and I take refuge wholly unto Her.” Then repeat “I bow down to Tat savitur varenyam,” “I bow down to the Rising Sun on the East,” “I bow down to the Morning Aditya,” “I bow down to the Gâyatrî, residing in the Morning Sun” and “I bow down to all.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here are the benefits described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whoever recites this Gâyatrî Hridaya in the morning finds all the sins committed in the night all destroyed! Whoever recites this in the evening gets his sins of the day all destroyed! Whoever recites this in the evening and in the morning can rest assured to have become free of sins; he gets the fruits of all the Tîrthas; he is acquainted with all the Devas; he is saved if he has spoken anything that ought not to have been spoken; if he has eaten anything that is not fit to be eaten; if he has chewn and sucked anything that ought not to have been chewn and sucked; if he has done anything that ought not to have been done and if he has accepted hundreds and thousands of gifts that ought never to have been accepted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sins incurred by eating with the others in a line cannot touch him. If he speaks lies, he will not be touched by the sins thereof; even if a non-Brahmachâri recites this, he will become a Brahmachârî. O Nârada! What more shall I say to you of the results of Gâyatrî Hridaya than this :-- that whoever will study this will acquire the fruits of performing thousand sacrifices and repeating the Gâyatrî sixty thousand times. In fact, he will get Siddhi by this. The Brâhmâna, who daily reads this in the morning will be freed of all the sins and go upwards to the Brahmâ (Loka) and is glorified there. This has been uttered by Bhagavân Nârâyana Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One note of caution: the Devi Bhagavata Purana is considered to have a lot of interpolations, and is considered by some not to even be a genuine Upapurana, so take this with a grain of salt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As to why it's called the Gayatri Hridayam, Hridaya meaning heart, the only explanation I've comes across is the one given by Vaishnavas in explaining why the Aditya Hridayam is included in the Ramayana.  The explanation is that the Aditya Hridayam is not addressed to Surya the sun god, but rather to the being who lies at the Hridaya or heart of Surya, namely Vishnu, since he's the Paramatma or supreme soul and thus the Antaryami of all the gods.  So by that argument, the Gayatri Hridayam would also be a mantra to Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the Gayatri Hridayam shouldn't be confused, with the Gayatri Panajara, another hymn to Gayatri which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8290/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2022-08-10T14:23:41.997" LastActivityDate="2022-08-10T14:23:41.997" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8561" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8527" CreationDate="2015-09-14T19:35:30.163" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are correct with your understanding but still your understanding is limited to gods only you have a whole universe in yourself the body which you are carrying is mini cosmos, it is gift of Bramhn to you and that is bramhan too. &#xA;The stones you worship are bramhan, the senses form which you perceive this material world are Bramhan. He/She/that(Bramhan) is everywhere around you as in what you can see sense or imagine and even beyond that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ishavasyopanishad starts its commentry with following lines&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ishavasyam idam sarvam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The supreme being is all that is in existence, it is supreme being that is everywhere this whole existence is enveloped in it.(I think these are the best lines written till now, because there is no such brief introduction to god than this one....)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=6&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0CDwQFjAFahUKEwinpabIpPfHAhVMGo4KHeTODaI&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sriaurobindoashram.org%2Fashram%2Fsriauro%2Fdownloadpdf.php%3Fid%3D32&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNE5MykHnsLnKaGDHv0Qd2f_fay15Q&amp;amp;sig2=PYXQyVwT29N3YEk3GCQs9Q&amp;amp;bvm=bv.102537793,d.c2E&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;More on Isha upanishad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The presence of bramhan is such that you cannot miss it in anything around you&lt;/strong&gt; !! This is what all scriptures are trying to say just take for instance you see a monkey you think of him as Lord Hanuman (another form of supreme being) and worship him, you see Eagle garuda and worship him, you see snake and worship him, you see another human child(shri Ram/ Shri Krishna) and worship it, that is true essence of this saying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Supreme Bramhan Shri hari vishnu is present as Antaryami in all animate and inanimate objects.&#xA;There can be difference in philosophical interpretation of Ishavasyopanishad according to your philosophical sect, but the truth remains same vedas, all sages, all upanishads, all philosophies agree on one point that supreme being Bramhan is Shri hari Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T10:09:20.537" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T10:09:20.537" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8562" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-14T19:48:15.853" Score="6" ViewCount="621" Body="&lt;p&gt;How is a king chosen according to Hindu dharma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who among Duryodhana and Yudhishthira (Dharmaraja), was the ideal contender for the next king considering hereditary or inheritance rights?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE: Please explain 'how' or 'why' citing scriptures than your personal opinions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T21:25:15.047" LastActivityDate="2021-05-21T14:13:09.953" Title="Who was the rightful heir to Kuru throne? Pandavas (Yudhishthira) or Kauravas (Duryodhana)?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|yudhisthira|duryodhana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8563" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-14T19:55:01.667" Score="9" ViewCount="1330" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, the only unabridged English translation of the Skanda Purana is the translation published by Motilal Banarsidass, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  As you can see from the Table of Contents &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/skanda-purana-23-volumes-IDF415/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, it is divided into seven Khandas or sections: the Maheshwara Khanda, the Vaishnava Khanda, the Brahma Khanda, the Kashi Khanda, the Avanti Khanda, Nagara Khanda, and the Prabhasa Khanda.  But as this Wikipedia page describes, there's another way to divide the Skanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second type of division of the Skanda Purana is found in some&#xA;texts like Hālasyamāhātmya of the Agastya Saṁhitā or the Śaṁkarī&#xA;Saṁhitā, Sambhava Kāṇḍa of the Śaṁkarī Saṁhitā, Śivamāhātmya Khaṇḍa of&#xA;the Sūta Saṁhitā and Kālikā Khaṇḍa of the Sanatkumāra Saṁhitā.&#xA;According to these texts, the Skanda Purana consists of six saṁhitās&#xA;(sections):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the Sanatkumāra Saṁhitā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the Sūta Saṁhitā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the Śaṁkarī Saṁhitā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the Vaiṣṇavī Saṁhitā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the Brāhmī Saṁhitā and&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the Saura Saṁhitā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The manuscripts of the Sanatkumāra Saṁhitā, the Śaṁkarī Saṁhitā, the&#xA;Sūta Saṁhitā and the Saura Saṁhitā are extant. A manuscript of a&#xA;commentary on the Sūta Saṁhitā by Madhavācārya is also available.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what is the correspondence between the Khandas and Samhitas of the Skanda Purana?  Since there are seven Khandas but only six Samhitas, the average length of a Samhita should be greater than the average length of a Khanda, so at least some of the Samhitas should contain chapters from multiple Khandas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I ask is because in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7896/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; I'm trying to find the scriptural basis for Shiva's incarnation Dakshinamurthi. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.arunachala-ramana.org/forum/index.php?topic=2589.0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This forum post&lt;/a&gt; claims that Adi Shankaracharya based his Dakshinamurthi Stotram on the Suta Samhita of the Skanda Purana.  So are there any sources that list exactly what chapters of each Khanda belong to each Samhita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or failing that, is there any English translation of the Skanda Purana which is divided into Samhitas rather than Khandas?  Wikipedia says that there's a manuscript of the Suta Samhita, as well as a manuscript of a commentary on it.  But have either of those manuscripts been translated into English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2021-08-15T13:29:21.807" Title="What is the correspondence between Khandas and Samhitas in the Skanda Purana?" Tags="|puranas|translation-request|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8564" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2713" CreationDate="2015-09-14T20:18:34.020" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganeshji is a god of senses in our body 24 senses before you worshipped Lord Shiva you should have control on your senses.&#xA;Same thing with Hanumanji is called Jitendriya (More knowledgeable) there is one another reason to I forgot @ it if remember will share here.&#xA;there are 5 idols outside of Garbha Gruh of Shivaji's temple. &#xA;Ganeshji, Hanumanji, Nandi, Tortoise and ONe above the entrance of Garbha Gruh.&#xA;Noticeably Shivaji's temple entrance is smaller than normal most likely you need to bend your self and than enters.&#xA;Meaning of that is you have to control senses plus when you entered into Garbha Gruh you've to leave your Ego, proud outside and being a polite you worship Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3721" LastActivityDate="2015-09-14T20:18:34.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8565" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-15T00:54:47.353" Score="13" ViewCount="3459" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read in an forum that &lt;strong&gt;Jeeva&lt;/strong&gt; means &lt;strong&gt;Soul or individual self&lt;/strong&gt;. Typically it contains seven layers(koshas).It is the one who was shackled in prakriti(Maya). On death of physical body it gets new body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another is &lt;strong&gt;Atman&lt;/strong&gt; or spirit, which lives in heart of each living being.It is an aspect or &lt;strong&gt;spark of god&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Vedic  quotes over here in wiki doesn't do good job describing and differentiating each term&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Jiva_and_Atman&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Jiva_and_Atman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could anyone give me proper quotes and descriptions ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-06-03T16:48:05.980" LastActivityDate="2023-06-03T16:48:05.980" Title="Difference between Jeeva and Atman" Tags="|vedas|puranas|upanishads|atma|jiva|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8566" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8565" CreationDate="2015-09-15T02:55:04.167" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;You should consult Taittiriya Upanishad part 2 which talks about the five Koshas surrounding the Atman. The five koshas are annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, Vijnanamaya and Anandamaya Koshas. These 5 koshas or sheaths are organised into two bodies the Sthula sarira or the gross physical body and the sukshma or linga sarira also known as the subtle body. It is the subtle body that survives death and is reborn. For example, Gita 15.8 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When he gets a new body or abandons an old one, the Jiva, the lord of&#xA;   the body, moves, carrying them (the mind and the senses) with him, as&#xA;   the wind carries smells from their seats (in flowers and the like).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mind and the senses form the subtle body. The subtle body dies only after attainment of moksha. A description of Moksha which explains this is given in Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When men of knowledge, conversant with the rules of Yoga, become as&#xA;   fixed as a stake of wood, and as immovable as a mountain, then are&#xA;   they said to be in Yoga. When one does not hear, and smell, and taste,&#xA;   and see; when one is not conscious of any touch; when one’s mind&#xA;   becomes perfectly free from every purpose; when one is not conscious&#xA;   of anything, when one cherishes no thought; when one becomes like a&#xA;   piece of wood then is one called by the wise to be in perfect Yoga.&#xA;   At such a time one shines like a lamp that burns in a place where&#xA;   there is no wind; &lt;strong&gt;at such a time one becomes freed even from one’s&#xA;   subtle form, and perfectly united with Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;. When one attains to&#xA;   such progress, one has no longer to ascend or to fall among&#xA;  intermediate beings. When persons like ourselves say that there has&#xA;   been a complete identification of the Knower, the Known, and&#xA;   Knowledge, then is the Yogin said to behold the Supreme Soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCCVII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="5486" LastEditDate="2016-04-30T11:27:34.690" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T11:27:34.690" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8567" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8638" CreationDate="2015-09-15T04:37:22.460" Score="2" ViewCount="400" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question is related to accumulation of karma in different aspects and situations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If I stop myself from doing bad karma then is it treated as good karma? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E.g., If there's an urge in me to tease anyone, but I know he's going to get hurt by my words, so if I stop myself from doing such a thing, then is it considered good karma? (because I stopped doing something bad)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is the fruit of good karma in direct proportion to time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E.g., If a person continuously does good karma from today (15&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Sep 2015). But he's still not finding any good fruit in his life till 15&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Sep 2016 (after one year) maybe because of his previous bad karmas. After this lets say he starts getting results of his good karma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then in this particular case, is it that he should have immediately got the X units of good result on 15&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Sep 2015 (the day he did a good karma) but he didn't and had to wait for an year, he's going to get 2X results when he finally enjoys the results of good karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I ask this because I heard that nature gives double or triple returns of whatever we do, whether it's good or bad.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-29T20:16:05.250" LastActivityDate="2016-01-29T20:16:05.250" Title="Accumulation and dispensation of Karma" Tags="|belief|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8568" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8645" CreationDate="2015-09-15T05:27:05.747" Score="5" ViewCount="2074" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ravana's father was a Brahmin while his mother a Rakshasi. Then why is he considered a Rakshasa, Rather than a Brahmin.  Is it because of his actions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T08:29:02.620" LastActivityDate="2022-01-25T10:20:14.233" Title="Why is Ravan considered a Rakshasa?" Tags="|ramayana|caste-system|ravana|ancestry|rakshasa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8569" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8527" CreationDate="2015-09-15T05:29:34.127" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section CCLXXX says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know that this entire universe is under the control of one divine Being. The Veda that is in the soul.......regards the unity of various creatures. When a living creature realizes this unity in consequence of true knowledge, he is then said to attain to Brahman.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Vana Parva, Section CCLXX says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Spirit hath three condition, In the form of&#xA;  Brahma, he is the Creator, and in the form of Vishnu he is the&#xA;  Preserver, and in his form as Rudra, he is the Destroyer of the&#xA;  Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman exists in different names and forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-04T17:16:45.647" LastActivityDate="2015-11-04T17:16:45.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8570" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-15T05:58:32.203" Score="1" ViewCount="1040" Body="&lt;p&gt;As shown in various TV shows and movies, was teleporting done as per ancient scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastEditorUserId="3650" LastEditDate="2015-09-15T06:13:30.940" LastActivityDate="2015-11-03T18:44:33.367" Title="Was tele-porting mentioned in ancient indian scriptures?" Tags="|puranas|upanishads|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8572" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8596" CreationDate="2015-09-15T07:25:14.580" Score="4" ViewCount="366" Body="&lt;p&gt;Conventionally I understand that people think that when a human is born it is the product of the parents, partly true, but is some part of it also reincarnation of some other self?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3723" LastActivityDate="2015-09-17T23:03:49.020" Title="Is human birth reincarnation?" Tags="|rebirth|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8573" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8577" CreationDate="2015-09-15T07:35:01.907" Score="5" ViewCount="2925" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Kurukshetra war of the Mahabharata, Krishna prompted Bhima to falsely say that Ashwatthama was killed, when Drona was found to be superior to all warriors. Krishna prompted so knowing very well that Drona might even kill Arjuna that day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why did Krishna took the side of a lie? He himself taught Arjuna about the right principles in the same battlefield. Is there any hidden meaning?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-19T01:57:22.550" LastActivityDate="2016-02-19T01:57:22.550" Title="Krishna Prompting Bhima to Say Lie" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|dharma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8575" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8573" CreationDate="2015-09-15T11:52:04.077" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not only Bhima, Krishna also had insisted &lt;em&gt;Yudhishtira&lt;/em&gt; to lie about Ashwatthama before Drona's death, as it was evident that Drona (aware of his son Ashwatthama's capabilities) may not trust Bhima alone and may approach Yudhishthira to seek the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7356/meaning-of-krishnas-advice-to-yudhisthira-before-drona-vadh&quot;&gt;&quot;Meaning of Krishna's advice to Yudhisthira before Drona Vadh&quot;&lt;/a&gt; is on the same event but different aspect. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07187.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Its source&lt;/a&gt; actually answers your question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Govinda, knowing that Drona, that foremost of warriors, was capable of&#xA;  sweeping all the Pandavas off the face of the earth, became much&#xA;  distressed. Addressing Yudhishthira he said, 'If Drona fighteth,&#xA;  filled with rage, for even half-a-day, I tell thee truly, thy army&#xA;  will then be annihilated. Save us, then, from Drona. under such&#xA;  circumstances, falsehood is better than truth. By telling an untruth&#xA;  for saving a life, one is not touched by sin. &lt;strong&gt;There is no sin in&#xA;  untruth spoken unto women, or in marriages, or for saving king, or for&#xA;  rescuing a Brahmana.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;sub&gt;1&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;1: This verse is omitted in the Bombay text. There can be no&#xA;  doubt, however, about its genuineness.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Somewhere Krishna suggested Arjuna that to establish &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, if little &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt; is required then let it be. For example the fight of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/sadhguru/masters-words/krishna-in-mahabharata/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhurishrava vs Satyaki&lt;/a&gt; during Jayadratha Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Krishna told Arjuna, “Burishwara is going to kill Satyaki. You must&#xA;  get Burishwara first before he kills Satyaki.” Arjuna said, “How can I&#xA;  do that? Burishwara is fighting with Satyaki. Shooting him now would&#xA;  be against the Kshatriya dharma.” Krishna told him, “Satyaki has come&#xA;  here only to fight for you. How can you let someone kill him now? Save&#xA;  him.” &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna said, “No. It is against the law.” Then Burishwara pulled&#xA;  out his sword in order to decapitate Satyaki. Again Krishna said,&#xA;  “Your friend, who put his life at stake for you, will be slaughtered&#xA;  now if you don’t reach out to him. Will you let him die like this?&#xA;  What kind of dharma is this?”&lt;/strong&gt; All this time, Arjuna’s arrow was aimed&#xA;  at Jayadrada. When Burishwara was about to decapitate Satyaki, Arjuna&#xA;  turned and shot the arrow at Burishwara. Burishwara’s right hand got&#xA;  severed. He looked around and said to Arjuna, “How could you do this?&#xA;  While I was fighting with another man, you shot me from behind and&#xA;  severed my hand? Anyone who has Kshatriya blood in him wouldn’t do&#xA;  such a dastardly act. I know you wouldn’t have done this by yourself.&#xA;  This cowherd with whom you are must have influenced you.” Arjuna’s&#xA;  anger flared up, and he said, “Yesterday, when you, a great warrior,&#xA;  joined many others to surround my son, a 17-year-old boy, and stab him&#xA;  from behind, where was your dharma? What are you talking about now?”&#xA;  Ashamed of the act that he had committed the day before, Burishwara&#xA;  put his head down. He went next to his chariot and sat down in lotus&#xA;  posture.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abhimanyu was killed by cheating, while Drona was the Kaurava Army commander. If allowed, Drona ultimately would have got victory for Duryodhana, who was epitome of Adharma. This was the reason, Krishna advised Paandavas to lie.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ofcourse there would be bad fruit for such misdeed, which Yudhishtira had to undergo before entering heaven. But according to Krishna it was worth for establishing the Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.66&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya&#xA;mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja&#xA;ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo&#xA;mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of Dharma and just surrender unto Me. I shall&#xA;  deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-09-16T04:51:10.137" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8576" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-15T11:58:53.637" Score="3" ViewCount="2866" Body="&lt;p&gt;To be specific I am asking about the procedure for prana pratishtha for Shri Mahaganapti, Lord MahaVishnu, Lord Shiva (shiva linga) and Godess Durga). Please answer mentioning vedic mantras and vedic methods to be opted before worshipping the concerned idol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T09:00:18.043" LastActivityDate="2018-09-05T09:00:18.043" Title="How to do Prana Pratishtha of Idols of Ganpati, Shiva, Vishnu and Durga?" Tags="|idols|pranapratishtha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8577" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8573" CreationDate="2015-09-15T12:06:53.763" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not Bhima but Yudhisthira. This is how Krishna defended himself in the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna defended his actions as follows in a voice deep as that of the&#xA;  clouds or the drum: &quot;All of them were great car-warriors and&#xA;  exceedingly quick in the use of weapons! If ye had put forth all your&#xA;  prowess even then ye could never have slain them in battle by fighting&#xA;  fairly! King Duryodhana also could never be slain in a fair encounter!&#xA;  The same is the case with all those mighty car-warriors headed by&#xA;  Bhishma! From desire of doing good to you, I repeatedly applied my&#xA;  powers of illusion and caused them to be slain by diverse means in&#xA;  battle. If I had not adopted such deceitful ways in battle, victory&#xA;  would never have been yours, nor kingdom, nor wealth! These four were&#xA;  very high-souled warriors and regarded as Atirathas in the world. The&#xA;  very Regents of the Earth could not slay them in fair fight.&#xA;  Similarly, the son of Dhritarasthra, though fatigued when armed with&#xA;  mace, could not be slain in a fair fight by Yama himself armed with&#xA;  his bludgeon! Ye should not take it to heart that this foe of yours&#xA;  hath been slain deceitfully. When the number of one's foes becomes&#xA;  great, then destruction should be effected by contrivances and means.&#xA;  The gods themselves, in slaying the Asuras, have trod the same way.&#xA;  That way, therefore, that had been trod by the gods, may be trod by&#xA;  all.&quot; (Mahabharata, Salya Parva, Section 61)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-09-15T12:06:53.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8578" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2428" CreationDate="2015-09-15T12:36:35.130" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The subtext of this question is finding scientific evidence in religion or mythology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the fundamental mistakes in understanding a religion is confusing mythology and science and attempting to find scientific evidence in mythology. Science is a set of working hypotheses based on facts tested and proven at that point in time. Mythology on the other hand should be treated like poetry and should not be confused with empirical science. In other words, one should not attempt to find factualism and historicity in mythology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whether a dinosaur or a dinosaur like creature appears in Hindu mythology is moot. The symbol and the meaning that the mythic image evokes in its context to an individual is what is important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question the extinction of dinosaur is a scientific one and there is a lot of information out there. Here is a link from Wikipedia&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3725" LastActivityDate="2015-09-15T12:36:35.130" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8580" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-15T13:00:45.947" Score="3" ViewCount="412" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuria_(continent)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lemuria&lt;/a&gt; is a mythological place said to exist in Indian ocean, below current indian sub-continent.Was it ever mentioned in texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-09-16T09:23:57.753" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T18:51:51.080" Title="Was Lemuria mentioned in ancient texts?" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8581" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8558" CreationDate="2015-09-15T14:50:36.990" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The mantra in question is verse 1 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv02023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 2 Hymn 23&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ghaṇānāṃ tvā ghaṇapatiṃ havāmahe kaviṃ kavīnāmupamaśravastamam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jyeṣṭharājaṃ brahmaṇāṃ brahmaṇas pata ā naḥ ṣṛṇvannūtibhiḥ sīda sādanam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We call thee, Lord and Leader of the heavenly hosts, the wise among the wise, the famousest of all, the King supreme of prayers, O Brahmaṇaspati: hear us with help; sit down in place of sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now at first glance, this might seem like a mantra to Ganesha, since it contains the word &amp;quot;ganapatim&amp;quot;, and Ganapati is a name of Ganesha because he's the leader of Shiva's Ganas.  And indeed, this is what has led a lot of people in modern times to recite the mantra as an Ahavana mantra to Ganesha.  But this is actually a mantra to Brihaspati, as you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/QWop&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Shaunaka's Brihaddevata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You see, the Sanskrit word &amp;quot;gana&amp;quot; has two meanings: it can refer to Shiva's Ganas, but it can also mean group or multitude.  It is in the latter sense that Indra and Brihaspati are called Ganapati; they are leaders of the group of gods.  In any case, it is clear from the rest of the hymn that it's referring to Brihaspati.  In particular, here is what verse 18 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tava śriye vyajihīta parvato ghavāṃ ghotramudasṛjo yadaṅghiraḥ |&#xA;indreṇa yujā tamasā parīvṛtaṃ bṛhaspate nirapāmaubjo arṇavam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mountain, for thy glory, cleft itself apart when, Aṅgiras! thou openedst the stall of kine.&#xA;Thou, O Bṛhaspati, with Indra for ally didst hurl down water-floods which gloom had compassed round.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brihaspati is referred to as &amp;quot;aṅghiraḥ&amp;quot; because he's the son of the sage Angiras, as I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3106/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So it's overwhelmingly clear that this is a hymn to Brihaspati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as far as the seer goes, Wikipedia is right that it's Shaunaka's father Gritsamada; again see the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And it's true that the story of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varadvinayak&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varada Vinayaka&lt;/a&gt; temple involves Gritsamada praying to Ganesha.  But as far as I know, there's no scripture that connects the &amp;quot;gananam&amp;quot; verse to either Ganesha or to the story of the Varada Vinayaka temple.  And considering that Shaunka was the son of Gritsamada, he would presumably have accurate information about who his father's hymns were addressed to, so Shaunaka's Brihaddevata is pretty conclusive here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as Vedic mantras to Ganesha go, there are no mantras to Ganesha in the Samhitas or Brahmanas of the Vedas. This is for much the same reason that there are relatively few Vedic hymns to gods like Vishnu and Shiva.  It is because, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, gods like Indra, Agni, Vayu, Surya, Chandra, etc. have more Vedic hymns dedicated to them, not because they're superior to Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesha, etc., but rather because they play a bigger role in the Soma Yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8059/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, there is a mantra to Ganesha given in the Ganapati Atharvashirsha Upanishad, the famous Mahaganapati mantra.  The seer of this mantra was the sage Ganaka, whom I suspect was an incarnation of Ganesha just like the sage Narayana was an incarnation of Vishnu, but I'm not sure about that which is why I asked &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8059/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, you can call the Mahaganapati mantra a &amp;quot;Vedic&amp;quot; mantra, but there's reason to believe that the Ganapati Atharvashirsha Upanishad is a later interpolation, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3012/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or if you want to settle for Puranic mantras to Ganesha, the Narada Purana has a whole chapter full of them, for instance the famous Vakratunda mantra I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8083/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  (Of course, there's a possibility that the Narada Purana chapter is also an interpolation, because references to Ganesha in ancient Hindu scripture are few and far between, since he only became popular later on.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-15T14:23:27.733" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8583" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-15T15:58:34.333" Score="3" ViewCount="213" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that Vedas used Sanskrit language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my view, other language may been used to describe Vedas in early days.&#xA;Or Sanskrit may have been developed for other purpose besides to describe Vedas and later they might be blended together. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone clarify on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3726" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-26T08:52:58.467" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T16:05:21.130" Title="Which was developed first, Sanskrit or Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8585" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8572" CreationDate="2015-09-16T04:57:31.600" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Human or any jiva gets born according to his previous karmas and desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When favourable condition meets according to his karma and desire he may take birth into that family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eg. If a person has borned in poor family. He does good karma throuout his life and wishes to be prosperous. But somehow he does not gets prosporous (may be due to his past karmas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then in next birth his soul may get entered into prosparous pregnant woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another example :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Person borns in rich family. throuout his lifetime he is doing spiritual practices , but somehow he does not finds a way to liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then in next birth he may born somewhere near any monk or may get contact in the monk through whome he can find way to liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how cycle of birth and death takes place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastActivityDate="2015-09-16T04:57:31.600" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8587" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14174" CreationDate="2015-09-16T07:26:19.357" Score="6" ViewCount="467" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per normal human thinking it is impossible to build a bridge on sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then how could Nala, a mere vanara, build the Rama Setu across the sea?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T13:57:32.683" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T13:57:32.683" Title="In Ramayana, how was Nala able to build the Rama Setu?" Tags="|ramayana|vanaras|ram-setu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2018-01-31T05:02:13.040" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8588" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8593" CreationDate="2015-09-16T07:28:03.227" Score="7" ViewCount="2127" Body="&lt;p&gt;In one version of Ramayana, Lord Hanuman visited Patala loka to save Lord Rama. But how did he find way to Patal loka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-18T13:04:56.157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-06T11:04:03.983" Title="How Hanumanji visited Patal loka?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|lokas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8589" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8599" CreationDate="2015-09-16T07:29:53.823" Score="6" ViewCount="1230" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that Rama is mantra of two Mantras. &lt;strong&gt;Ra&lt;/strong&gt; from &lt;code&gt;Om namo naRayana&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Ma&lt;/strong&gt; from &lt;code&gt;Om NaMah Shivay&lt;/code&gt;. Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-06-05T09:17:07.513" LastActivityDate="2022-12-24T04:43:51.770" Title="Is Rama mantra made up of two mantras?" Tags="|mantras|rama|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8590" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-16T07:33:49.713" Score="2" ViewCount="104" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many chalisa like Gayatri chalisa and hanuman chalisa I heard this verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashta Sidhdhi Nav Nidhi ke data&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are these 8 Sidhdhis and 9 Nidhis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2015-09-16T07:33:49.713" Title="What are 8 sidhdhis and 9 nidhis?" Tags="|mantras|siddhi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-09-16T09:30:32.200" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8591" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14428" CreationDate="2015-09-16T10:33:17.057" Score="23" ViewCount="52274" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Hindu texts are classified in Shruti (श्रुति) and Smriti (स्मृति). I want to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the difference between Shruti and Smriti?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What scriptures are included in Shruti &amp;amp; in Smriti?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-21T06:31:00.587" LastActivityDate="2024-03-05T18:11:14.110" Title="What is difference between Shruti and Smriti?" Tags="|scripture|smriti|sruti|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8592" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-16T11:12:08.077" Score="1" ViewCount="466" Body="&lt;p&gt;Few months back I asked a &lt;a href=&quot;https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/26120/why-muslims-want-to-convert-non-muslims-to-islam&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;question&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; about &lt;code&gt;Why Muslims want to convert non Muslims to Islam&lt;/code&gt; on &lt;code&gt;Islam Stack Exchange&lt;/code&gt;. All the answers I got was totally disappointing and doesn't answer my question. I thought that they will say that all the religions are equal but instead they said that &lt;code&gt;Islam&lt;/code&gt; is the only religion which is above every religion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People at &lt;code&gt;Islam Stack Exchange&lt;/code&gt; answered my question with the different points and I was in shock. They said all other religions are praying to god which never exist. Hindu religion pray to cow or a statue who cannot protect himself so how these are god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I was the minority there so I gave up. (If you guys can help me over there, so I am ready for the discussion again).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well my major doubt is one of the guy from &lt;code&gt;Islam stack Exchange&lt;/code&gt; said &#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;Every child takes birth as a Muslim. Whether he is born in a Christian household or a Hindu family, he is born a Muslim. But his parents and caretakers make him a Christian, a Jew or other Non-Muslim&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How much is this statement correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3724" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:49:12.967" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T06:59:46.533" Title="Is every born child a Muslim and belongs to Islam?" Tags="|islam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2015-09-16T11:56:07.507" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8593" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8588" CreationDate="2015-09-16T12:52:17.010" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is told in the Krittivasi Ramayana, a Bengali version of the epic.  To protect Rama and Lakshmana from Ravana's son Mahiravana, Hanuman makes a fortress out of his tail and puts them inside, with the top of the fortress being guarded by Vishnu's Sudarshana Chakra.  Vibhishana tells Hanuman not to let anyone in, not even his own father, because Mahiravana can disguise himself as anyone.  But then Mahiravana disguises himself as Vibhishana, and Hanuman lets him in.  After some time Hanuman realizes that wasn't Vibhishana, and so Hanuman and the real Vibhishana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.new1.dli.ernet.in/data9/upload/0288/185/PTIFF/00000402.tif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;go into the fortress&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I am filled with dread.  Has Mahiravana with his magic gone within the fortress?&quot; thought Hanuman as he bowed his head in shame....  &quot;Listen Vibhishana,&quot; Hanuman said, &quot;let us go within to see Rama and Lakshmana.&quot; &quot;Let us go,&quot; said Vibhishana.  Both of them rushed in and to their surprise they saw a tunnel which was not there before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Hanuman &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.new1.dli.ernet.in/data9/upload/0288/185/PTIFF/00000406.tif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;goes into the tunnel&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then he wept aloud &quot;Alas! When shall I see Rama and Lakshmana? Remain together all of you in one place till I return.&quot; Bowing to Sugriva he took his leave and entering the tunnel, was lost to sight.  Inside the tunnel he went on and on, till he came to the Under Earth World.  Here he found a sunny land, with flowing rivers and beautifully designed palaces and most lovely women.  He saw holy men in their forest retreats busy with their sacred books and prayers.  He went further and met many kinds of people, some had four hands, and there was no sickness nor sorrow, old age nor death.  Many amazing countries he passed through but could not find any trace of Rama and Lakshmana. One by one, he searched every house until he came to the palace of Mahiravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What happens after that is well-known.  Mahiravana wants to sacrifice Rama and Lakshmana to the goddess Kali, and tells them to bow to the Kali statue.  They say they're not accustomed to bowing, so Mahiravana shows them how to do it and Hanuman takes the opportunity to cut off Mahiravana's heads.  He then fights off Mahiravana's wife and son Ahiravana, and then Rama, Lakshmana, and Hanuman leave Patalaloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that this story is not mentioned at all in the Valmiki Ramayana, only in much later versions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-19T22:59:33.437" LastActivityDate="2015-09-19T22:59:33.437" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8595" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-16T14:14:10.930" Score="6" ViewCount="2497" Body="&lt;p&gt;Anyone seeing Moon on the 4th day (Chaturthi) of the Bhadrapada month would face blame and unjust criticism, its know to all Hindus but what about others across the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-09-17T17:54:06.240" LastActivityDate="2017-08-27T11:37:44.490" Title="Seeing Moon on the 4th day (Chaturthi) of the Bhadrapada Shukla paksha(Ganesha Chaturthi)" Tags="|belief|ganesha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8596" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8572" CreationDate="2015-09-16T14:32:27.240" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The parents provide the gross physical body for the pleasure and pain of the subtle body of a Jiva. Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sankaracharya 3.1.27 says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the womb a (new) body is born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is only when the soul (Atman and the subtle body) reaches the womb from candraloka that it gets, according to its residual Karma, a body for the enjoyments of pleasure and pain. In previous stages, it only gets connected with ether, air etc (during its journey from candraloka to the womb after the exhaustion of its karma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-09-16T14:32:27.240" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8597" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8591" CreationDate="2015-09-16T14:48:10.860" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shruti literally means what is heard. Great Rsis who have perfected&#xA;themselves by long tapas are said to have heard in their hearts&#xA;eternal truths and to have left a record of them in our sacred books&#xA;... the Rg-Veda, the Sama-veda, the Yajur-veda and Atharvana-veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Primer of Hinduism by D. S. Sarma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Smriti consists of admittedly human composition, the object of&#xA;which is to regulate personal and social life and to bring into&#xA;existence institutions embodying the principles of the Shruti.&#xA;Therefore the laws for regulating Hindu society from time to time are&#xA;codified in the Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Primer of Hinduism by D. S. Sharma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next to the Smritis or the codes of law, we have the Itihasas, the&#xA;Agamas and the Darsanas. Let me tell you, in passing, that sometimes&#xA;the word Smriti is used in a wider sense, so as to include all these&#xA;secondary scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Primer of Hinduism by D. S. Sarma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agamas are sometimes claimed to be Shruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2021-06-04T05:10:17.723" LastActivityDate="2021-06-04T05:10:17.723" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8599" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8589" CreationDate="2015-09-16T17:07:59.993" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it is. Ra is agni beeja and Ma is amrita beeja. It was Sage Vasishtha who christened Rama, just as Sage Garga christened Krishna. Actions performed by sages of their calibre have multiple obvious and esoteric (mantra-related) import. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meanings of Rama's name are discussed in rAma tApanyOpanishad. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Râmeti dvyaksharo mantrah panchâshtâksharasâratah |&#xA;sarvâdhikârasiddhyartham vihitah kalitârakah || 6 ||&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two-lettered mantra &quot;Rama&quot; is the essence of the panchakshari (i.e. namah sivAya) and the ashtashakri (Om namO nArAyaNAya). It bestows all gains and helps surmount the travails of kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T03:34:37.087" LastActivityDate="2016-01-25T03:34:37.087" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8072" CreationDate="2015-09-16T17:11:55.560" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Chandogya upanidshad,  In the the first adhyaya, the following passages dealing with the meditation of udgita, a hymn of samaveda covering the syllable Aum, refers  to purusha who is seen within the sun and also within the eye with certain descriptions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atha ya eso antaradtiye hiranmayah purusah drisyate hiranya………….tasya yatha kapyasam pundarikam akshini (Chandogya Upan. 1.6.6 and 1.6.7)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Purusha referred in these passages denotes brahman. The supreme brahman having golden body implies the effulgent character of brahman. The red color of the eyes signifies the eyes similar to lotus petals ( Kapyasam pundarikam akshini). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;1. Shankara in his commentary says this passages refer to the Saguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;2. According to Ramanuja the purusha is supreme person endowed with attributes  and posses a spiritual body out of his own will.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;3. According to Madhva, the purusha referred in these passages is supreme god, hari who posses blissful body and lotus like eyes.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word Pundarikaksa (lotus eyed ) indicates the supreme purusa in the orb of Sun with lotus eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Taittiriya Upanishad says that the purusha in surya mandala is the same as the purusha in t he Hrdaya-Pundarika .i.e lotus heart. The Purusha in the sun prayed for daily by gayatri mantra is our in our lotus heart. &lt;strong&gt;Shankara suggests this by saying that the pundarikaksha is shining as Vasudeva in our lotus heart&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;So, Lord Vishnu who is identified as the supreme brahman is described in the Upanishads as having eyes like lotus petals . Hence, Lord Vishnu is known as Kamala Nayana.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let us see how Lord Vishnu is described as lotus eyed as per Vishnu sahsranama bhasya (commentry on Vishnu saharanama) by Adi Shankara and Sri Parasara Bhattar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Sahasra Nama 40 : Pushkaraksah (Lotus eyed)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parasara Bhattar provides the following meanings : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. The lord with his lotus petals profusely rains grace on his devotees&#xA;      and nourishes and develops their devotion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. The lord has lotus like eyes to enjoy fully the loveliness of&#xA;          Goddess Lakshmi who also called Kamala.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. As he resides in suryamandala,  his two eyes appear like two&#xA;          lotuses blossomed by the sunlight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankara says : &lt;strong&gt;Lotus eyed&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Sahasra Nama 111 : Pundarikaksah&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankara gives the following meaning &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. He is seen and realized in lotus heart&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. He has lotus like eyes (Kamala nayana)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parasara Bhattar gives the following meaning : &lt;strong&gt;He is the eye of all mukthas in the paramapada called pundarika&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Sahsranama Nama 615 : Swaksha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankara : &lt;strong&gt;Lord has two eyes resembling lovely lotuses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parasara Bhatta : &lt;strong&gt;The glance of eyes removes the miseries of devotees. Hence Lord is  said to have eyes like lotus petals&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All this clearly indicate Why Lord Vishnu is called Kamala Nayana or Pundarikaksha or Pushkaraksha or Swaksha, because Sruti says the supreme brahman of Vedas and vedanta, who is identified with Lord Vishnu has eyes like Lotus petals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Therefore Lord Vishnu has epithets called Kamala nayana, Pundarikaksha, Pushkaraksha, Swaksha etc which means Supreme Lord with lotus like eyes (Kapyasam pundarikam akshini).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2015-09-16T18:44:00.463" LastActivityDate="2015-09-16T18:44:00.463" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8604" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8583" CreationDate="2015-09-17T01:26:38.290" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nothing was developed first, but the Vedas are eternal and were pronounced in Sanskrit which is then, therefore, also eternal language just like Vedas are eternal because the Vedas are in Sanskrit. This is a very simple point to understand.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So both are eternal, and when something is eternal it makes no sense to say that there was something before and something later because eternity implies that it has no beginning in time. Putting it in other words, when something has no beginning in time it makes no sense to speak of &quot;before&quot; and &quot;later&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That the Vedas are eternal is mentioned in many places in the scriptures, here is an example from the Manu-smriti, chapter 12:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;94&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&quot;The Veda is the &lt;strong&gt;eternal&lt;/strong&gt; eye of the manes, gods, and men&quot;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;99&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&quot;The &lt;strong&gt;eternal&lt;/strong&gt; lore of the Veda upholds all created beings&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2015-09-17T01:26:38.290" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8605" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7710" CreationDate="2015-09-17T03:55:11.333" Score="6" Body="&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cheating and Deception by lord krishna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Main aim of lord Krishna birth on earth was to remove evil, destroy&#xA;  evil souls and restore peace and Dharma (Virtue). He also wanted to&#xA;  give a message to the world that “Those who are on the path of truth&#xA;  and dharma will achieve victory”. He also said he wouldn’t hesitate or&#xA;  even flicker to do anything to save dharma (virtue). So, he may even&#xA;  resort to deception or trickery if there is no other choice to win&#xA;  over the evil souls. Lord Krishna clearly states in the Mahabharata&#xA;  that committing a sin for the purpose of Dharma is not a sin at all. &#xA;  So let us see the various events where he backed trickery and&#xA;  deception, to win over his evil enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Killing jarasandh by inviting him in malla-yudha&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA; Jarasandh was so powerful and he had so many boons that killing him was not possible without his body being teared apart into two pieces and thrown in opposite direction. So, lord Krishna along with bhima and arjuna disguised themselves as a Brahmin and challenged jarasandh for malla-yudha. Jarasandh unaware of their real identity accepted the challenge and later, was defeated and killed by Bhima( the strongest person of that time) who teared his body vertically in to two pieces and threw it in opposite direction&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arjuna used shikandi as a bait to injure bhisma heavily.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;It was impossible for anyone to kill bhisma pitamah in war.Bhisma pitamah has taken the oath of not attacking any women. So, lord Krishna advised arjuna to use shikandi (Originally female, Converted to male) as a bait to kill bhisma. Using Sikhandhi as a protective shield, Arjuna shot many arrows at Bhishma pitamah, piercing all parts of his body. Finally, Bhishma gave up, focusing his entire strength and breath in sealing the injury, and holding on his life till the right time comes to give up his material body. &#xA;By killing bhisma through arjuna, Krishna was trying to send a message that to protect dharma, there is no sin in going against our family or friend, either by hook or by crook.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Using ghatotkach as a trap to save arjuna&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA; Lord Krishna knew that arjuna rival karna, has the powerful weapon (Vasava Shakti) to kill arjuna. To save arjuna, he asked ghatotkach to attack duryodhana so severly that karna is forced to use that powerful weapon on him and hence, arjuna is saved from that powerful weapon. Ghatotkach did as lord Krishna requested and gave up his life to save arjuna life... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Death of dronacharya&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;krishna comprehended that It was impossible to defeat Dronacharya as long as he stand in the battle with bow and powerful arrows in his hands. Krishna knew that Ashwatthama is very dear to Drona. So, Krishna advised Yudistra and other Pandavas to deceptively convince dronarcharya that his son Ashwatthama died on the battlefield. This will deject Dronacharya so much that he would give up fighting laying down all his weapons and this would be the time to kill him easily. So,Krishna ordered Bhima to kill an elephant named Ashwatthama and start shouting that he decapitated Drona's son Ashwatthama. Bhima did exactly as lord Krishna advised and then started proclaiming loudly that he had killed Ashwathama. Not believing bhima words, drona approached yudhistra since he knew that Yudhisthira being a strict follower of dharma would never lie.So he came towards Yudhisthira and asked him if the news of his son by bhima is trueYudhisthira replied with the cryptic Sanskrit statement &quot;Ashwathama hataha ithi, narovaa kunjarovaa&quot; (Sanskrit: &lt;code&gt;&quot;अश्वत्थामा  हतः  इति, नरोवा  कुंजरोवा...&quot;&lt;/code&gt; meaning 'Ashwatthama is dead. But, I am not sure if it was a elephant or an human'). Krishna knew that being a dharmic person, Yudhisthira will not lie straightly. So on his order,warriors of Pandavas army blew conches and trumpets, raising such a tumultuous sound that Drona heard only &quot;Ashwatthama is dead&quot;, and was unable to hear the latter part of Yudhishthira words. on hearing yudhistra words, drona believe his son is dead. So, he laid down his arms after descending from his chariot. Slosing his eyes, he sat in meditation to search Ashwathamma's soul in heaven. Seeing the opportunity to kill rival drona, Drupada's son Dhristadyumna  beheaded the unarmed Drona who was unaware of all the deceptive plot laid against him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Death of jayadratha&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Jayadrath was given the boon by his father that the one who be head his head, will burn into ashes when his head falls on earth. To take revenge of his son death, arjuna took the oath of killing jayadrath before sunset and if he is unable to kill jayadrath then he will burn himself in fire. Hearing this oath, Dronacharya created combination of 3 layers (vyoohas) to protect Jayadratha from Arjuna. At a moment when the sun was about to set and still thousands of warriors were standing on the path or Arjuna and Jayadratha. Krishna realised that Arjuna would not be able to defeat Jayadratha before sunset. So, he secretly ordered his Sudarshana Chakra to mask the sun to create an false illusion of sunset by artificially creating a solar eclipse. Seeing sunset, all Kaurava warriors started enjoying over Arjuna's defeat and were waiting to see arjuna committing suicide. Jayadratha started laughing at arjuna's situation and came towards him to mock him. When jayadrath reached within the grasp of arjuna arrow, Krishna revoked the illusive sunset by bringing back his sudharshan chakra. When sun was unmasked, lord krishna informed arjuna that sun has not set and pointing his finger towards Jayadratha, krishna asked arjuna to kill him immediately. Arjuna release a powerful arrow in such a way that the beheaded head of Jayadrath fell on Vridakshatra(Jayadrath father) lap who was meditating under the tree close to the battlefield. In shock of what fell on his lap, Vridhakshtra got up which made the head fall on the ground which resulted in bursting his head into 100 pieces.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Death of karna&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;It was impossible to defeat karna as long as he is standing on his chariot and he has weapon on his hands. During the war, arjuna fired a bow on karna chariot which caused his chariot to stuck deep inside the earth. Not able to fight war, Karna went down to remove his chariot out of the earth. Seeing karna weaponless and out of his chariot, lord krishna ordered arjuna to kill him instantly. Arjuna beheaded karna by firing a powerful arrow on karna neck, thus killing him.  Although arjuna managed to killed karna , he was later termed as a coward because attacking a weaponless warrior was against the rule of the war. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Death of duryodhan&lt;/strong&gt; When almost all the warriors of kaurava army were dead, Yudhisthira challenged duryodhan to fight one-to-one against any of the pandavas with a option of selecting any weapon of his like. He further says that if he defeats any of his Pandava brother, then Duryodhana shall be declared as the winner of the war. Duryodhana selects his biggest rival 'bhima' over other pandavas whom he would have defeated very easily because of his magnificient mace fighting skills.  Both were trained in mace fighting and wrestling by lord krishna brother 'balaram' and had exceptional physical and mental strength. After a long fiercing battle extending for many hours, Duryodhana starts to exhaust Bhima. Seeing the plight of bhima, Krishna signals Bhima to attack duryodhana thigh, by slapping his own hand on his thigh repeatedly. Bhima followed lord krishna suggestion and attacked Duryodhana thigh repeatedly with a mace thus causing duryodhana severly wounded and hence defeated. Here, bhima was also called as a cheater since attacking on areas below one’s stomach is against the ruleof mace fight. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why did Krishna use deceptive technique to kill kaurava warriors?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We can’t blame Krishna, Arjuna for using lame technicalities to  win battles. Karna, Bheeshma, Drona - each of these warriors was more  than enough to beat Arjuna and the rest of the Pandavas single  handedly. But since Dharma had to be upheld, Krishna had to resort to  certain tactics to ensure Pandavas victory. Without Krishna and his  tactics, Bheeshma himself would have destroyed the entire Pandava  army  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;krishna in gita says to arjuna. All these warriors are  already dead. Their heads are already cut off by me. Your job is to  only get the fame. If not you then someone else will do that because  there is no choice, as they all r already dead. Many times he reminds  arjuna ''you fight &amp;amp; leave the result on me, your duty is to fight,  leave the result for me ''.Mahabharata war was fought by krishna  alone, pandavas were just like pawns of chess&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna was  accountable for the death of all warriors. Actually, lord krishna  wanted this war to happen so that he can end a Yuga with his death  and start the new yuga i.e Kali Yuga.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He wanted to show that  karma(Actions) should be higher significance than janma (Birth).  During the last rituals of pandavas brother Karna, he supported  Duryodhan instead of Pandavas. Karna the Pandavas brother, yet Lord  Krishna suggested that Duryodhan should perform the last rites since  Karna was more dearer to duryodhan than his brothers. According to  janma(birth), Pandavas should perform the final rites but according  to karma, Duryodhan's, being the dear friend of karna, had to perform  the final rites.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gandhari(Duryodhan's mother) cursed krishna that  his whole clan will be destroyed. Actually, this curse was the will  of lord Krishna because he wanted to free the earth from too much  burden of ksatriyas out of which his clan (Yadavas) were almost 56  crores.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mallstuffs.com/Blogs/BlogDetails.aspx?BlogId=93&amp;amp;BlogType=Spiritual&amp;amp;Topic=Cheating+and+Deception+by+lord+krishna&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastEditorUserId="3650" LastEditDate="2015-09-17T04:09:46.890" LastActivityDate="2015-09-17T04:09:46.890" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8606" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8609" CreationDate="2015-09-17T06:57:27.723" Score="13" ViewCount="6979" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know when Arjuna became confused as he faced his relatives on the battlefield, he turned to his friend and chariot-driver for help. Because Arjuna had such a friendly rapport with the Lord, his turning to Krishna for instruction was a shift in the relationship. This was the setting for the Bhagavad-gita, wherein Krishna reveals His magnificent universal form to His friend Arjuna.&#xA;But was there anything more than just this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2653" LastEditorUserId="2653" LastEditDate="2015-09-18T05:39:37.097" LastActivityDate="2021-09-06T05:58:05.140" Title="How strong lord krishna and Arjuna's friendship was?" Tags="|krishna|arjuna|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8609" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8606" CreationDate="2015-09-17T09:37:12.383" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna &amp;amp; Arjuna are believed to be the pair of &lt;em&gt;Nara &amp;amp; Narayana&lt;/em&gt;. It's briefly discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7039/what-were-the-previous-births-of-the-characters-of-mahabharata&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;. Their friendship stands immovable on the test of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Needless to say that Arjuna always regarded Krishna in the highest regards. IMO the reason he got to hear the Gita was, &lt;em&gt;he surrendered himself to Krishna&lt;/em&gt; (without knowing his Vishwaroopam yet)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 2.7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of&#xA;  miserly weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me for&#xA;  certain what is best for me. &lt;strong&gt;Now I am Your disciple, and a soul&#xA;  surrendered unto You.&lt;/strong&gt; Please instruct me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not that he never considered Krishna as his friend!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 11.41-42&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thinking of You as my friend, I have rashly addressed You “O Kṛṣṇa,”&#xA;  “O Yādava,” “O my friend,” not knowing Your glories. Please forgive&#xA;  whatever I may have done in madness or in love. I have dishonored You&#xA;  many times, jesting as we relaxed, lay on the same bed, or sat or ate&#xA;  together, sometimes alone and sometimes in front of many friends. O&#xA;  infallible one, please excuse me for all those offenses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During Mahabharata, I would refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10012.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;below text&lt;/a&gt;, showing how Krishna felt about Arjuna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; After Ashwatthama killed all UpPaandavas, Krishna describes an old conversation to Yudhishtira. In which Ashwatthama wanted the Sudarshan Chakra (Discus) from Krishna, but doesn't succeed. Krishna asks Ashwatthama the intention behind it and here how it goes ... &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...At this, Drona's son became filled with sorrow. After he was tired&#xA;  with the exertions he made, he ceased, O Bharata!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When he withdrew his heart from that purpose, I addressed the anxious&#xA;  and senseless Ashvatthama and said, &quot;He who is always regarded as the&#xA;  foremost of all human beings, that wielder of gandiva, that warrior&#xA;  having white steeds yoked unto his car, that hero owning the prince of&#xA;  apes for the device on his standard, that hero who, desirous of&#xA;  vanquishing in a wrestling encounter the god of gods, the&#xA;  blue-throated lord of Uma, gratified the great Shankara himself, &lt;strong&gt;that&#xA;  Phalguna than whom I have no dearer friend on earth, that friend to&#xA;  whom there is nothing that I cannot give including my very wives and&#xA;  children, that dear friend Partha of unstained acts,&lt;/strong&gt; never said unto&#xA;  me, O brahmana, such words as these which thou hast uttered...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-09-17T09:42:25.047" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8610" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7606" CreationDate="2015-09-17T09:55:35.197" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kamsa was an asura named Kalanemi in his previous birth (see Bhagavatam 10.1.28 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/1/68&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; or 10.51.41 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/51/41&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;). So his loving demeanor was highly superficial - once his asuric pride was offended he manifested his real nature and didn't even hesitate to attempt murdering his beloved sister on the day of her marriage. Great Bhagavata commentator Vishvanath Chakravarti answers your question in his commentary on 10.1.34. The summary of his explanations is that one of the goals of Krishna avatara was to kill Kamsa (Kalanemi), but the devas started worrying that since Kamsa is so affectionate to Devaki, Krishna may not wish to kill him without any cause, so they announced the message to Kamsa to reveal his true nature. But this akash-vani they also conveyed to Vasudeva and Devaki fearlessness by letting them know that the Lord will soon appear as their son. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3715" LastEditorUserId="3715" LastEditDate="2015-09-17T10:24:10.350" LastActivityDate="2015-09-17T10:24:10.350" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8611" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-17T13:40:12.707" Score="10" ViewCount="118" Body="&lt;p&gt;The AP Government &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/godawari-krishna-inter-linking-of-two-massive-rivers-is-a-dream-come-true-1218426&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;linked&lt;/a&gt; rivers Krishna and Godavari by artificial means. Given that;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What does this artificial confluence mean according to Hinduism? Does it signify anything in religious or spiritual perspective?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How does it differ from a natural confluence such as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triveni_Sangam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Triveni Sangam&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-04-11T06:14:22.653" LastActivityDate="2017-04-11T06:14:22.653" Title="How does artificial confluence of rivers differ from natural confluence of rivers?" Tags="|scripture|belief|culture|rivers|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8612" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-17T14:48:11.023" Score="3" ViewCount="2988" Body="&lt;p&gt;On Ganesh Chaturthi, it is believed seeing moon is inauspicious and is believed to bring curse to the person for an entire year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will this only matter for the moon in the sky on that day? Or will it count for seeing indirect images of moon like on a television, in a portrait, in a mirror etc?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3604" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T14:05:31.970" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T14:05:31.970" Title="Is seeing indirect images of moon on Ganesh Chaturthi considered inauspicious?" Tags="|ganesha|festivals|superstitions|chandra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8613" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8508" CreationDate="2015-09-17T16:06:21.250" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu creation myths comes in various forms and narratives. Hindu texts do not provide a single canonical account of the creation; they mention a range of theories of the creation of the world, some of which are even contradictory. Many consider these legends as allegories or metaphors. I'll try to provide for a few of them here,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;RgVeda&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10121.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;RgVeda&lt;/a&gt; (10.121)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It explains something called a cosmic egg or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiranyagarbha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hiranyagarbha&lt;/a&gt;. It goes on to suggest a single creator deity. After Mahapralaya, there was darkness everywhere. Everything was in a state of sleep. There was nothing, either moving or static. Then Svayambhu, Self-manifested Being arose, which is a form beyond senses. It created the primordial waters first and established the seed of creation into it. The seed turned into a cosmic womb, Hiranyagarbha. Then Svayambhu entered in the egg.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vishnu Purana, the Purusha is same as the creator deity Brahma, and is a part of Vishnu. The Shaivite texts mention the Hiranyagarbha as a creation of Shiva. According to the Devi-Bhagavata Purana Purusha and Prakriti emerged together and formed the Brahman, the supreme universal spirit that is the origin and support of the universe. &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC&amp;amp;pg=PA318&amp;amp;hl=en#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10129.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;RgVeda&lt;/a&gt; (10.129)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who really knows?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whence is this creation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who then knows whence it has arisen?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This sloka/sutra from RgVeda expresses ambiguity and ignorance and skepticism in the creator and the knowledge thereof. Astronomer Carl Sagan quoted it in discussing India's &amp;quot;tradition of skeptical questioning and unselfconscious humility before the great cosmic mysteries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;RgVeda&lt;/a&gt; (10.90)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This chapter in RgVeda presents the nature of Purusha or the cosmic being as both immanent in the manifested world and yet transcendent to it.  Purusha is described as all that has ever existed and will ever exist. The gods then performed yajna with the Purusha, leading to the creation of  other things in the manifested world from his various body parts and his mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Brahmanas&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;state that the Prajapati performs tapas to reproduce himself. He releases the waters and enters them in the form of an egg that evolves into the cosmos. The Prajapati emerged from the golden egg, and created the earth, the middle regions and the sky. With further tapas, he created the devas. He also created the asuras, and the darkness came into the being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Upanishad&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/aitareyafour.asp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aitareya Upanishad (3.4.1)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mentions that only the &amp;quot;Atman&amp;quot; (the Self) existed in the beginning. The Self-created the heaven (Ambhas), the sky (Marikis), the earth (Mara) and the underworld (Ap). He then formed the Purusha from the water. He also created the speech, the fire, the prana (breath of life), the air and the various senses, the directions, the trees, the mind, the moon and other things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15055.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (1.4)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mentions that in the beginning, only the Atman existed as the Purusha. Feeling lonely, the Purusha divided itself into two parts: male (&amp;quot;pati&amp;quot;) and female (&amp;quot;patni&amp;quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Samkhya Philosophy&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Samkhya evolution is symbolized by the Sanskrit term parinama. The Samkhya texts state that there are two distinct fundamental eternal entities: the Purusha and the Prakriti. The Prakriti has three qualities: sattva, rajas and tamas. When the equilibrium between these qualities gets disturbed, the act of creation starts. Rajas leads to creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Advaita&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Advaita Vedanta states that the creation arises from Brahman, but it is illusory and has no reality. The world is created out of Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/lord_vishnu.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma-samhita&lt;/a&gt; 5.11-12&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is my personal favourite. From Maha-Vishnu springs forth the vast expanse of water known as the &lt;em&gt;Kshira-Sagara&lt;/em&gt; wherein the material creation takes place. Maha-Vishnu then reclines in the waters of the Causal Ocean in a state called &lt;em&gt;yoga-nidra&lt;/em&gt;. Thus, it is said that the universal creation is nothing but the dream of Maha-Vishnu. He is said to create and destroy innumerable Universes in his dream.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-09-17T16:06:21.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8615" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8619" CreationDate="2015-09-17T19:10:20.033" Score="13" ViewCount="2857" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was Arjuna left-handed in his warrior skills? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about other great warriors of the epics like Karna, Bhishma, Drona, Rama and Laxmana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will left-handedness or right-handedness ever matter in acquiring warrior skills?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3604" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-12T02:15:07.480" LastActivityDate="2022-01-09T10:29:19.770" Title="Was Arjuna left-handed?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|puranas|arjuna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8616" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-17T20:14:33.697" Score="5" ViewCount="745" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras describes the Brahma Vidyas, 32 lessons found in the various Upanishads which can each lead you to Brahman if you meditate upon them. You can see the full list of 32 Vidyas &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7729/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of these 32 Brahma Vidyas is known as the Madhu Vidya, or &amp;quot;honey wisdom&amp;quot;. It's found in the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads, it was taught by the sage Dadhichi to the two Ashwini Kumaras while Dadhichi had a horse head in the place of his human head.  In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15062.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, four Vedic verses are given which allude to the Madhu Vidya and/or the story of how it was taught:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;16&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Verily Dadhyak Âtharvana proclaimed this honey (the madhu-vidyâ) to the two Asvins, and a Rishi, seeing this, said (Rv. I, 116, 12): 'O ye two heroes (Asvins), I make manifest that fearful deed of yours (which you performed) for the sake of gain, like as thunder makes manifest the rain. The honey (madhu-vidyâ) which Dadhyak Âtharvana proclaimed to you through the head of a horse,'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Verily Dadhyak Âtharvana proclaimed this honey to the two Asvins, and a Rishi, seeing this, said (Rv. I, 117, 22): 'O Asvins, you fixed a horse's head on Âtharvana Dadhyak, and he, wishing to be true (to his promise), proclaimed to you the honey, both that of Tvashtri and that which is to be your secret, O ye strong ones.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Verily Dadhyak Âtharvana proclaimed this honey to the two Asvins, and a Rishi, seeing this, said: &lt;strong&gt;'He (the Lord) made bodies with two feet, he made bodies with four feet. Having first become a bird, he entered the bodies as purusha (as the person).'&lt;/strong&gt; This very purusha is in all bodies the purisaya, i.e. he who lies in the body (and is therefore called purusha). There is nothing that is not covered by him, nothing that is not filled by him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Verily Dadhyak Âtharvana proclaimed this honey to the two Asvins, and a Rishi, seeing this, said (Rv. VI, 47, 18): 'He (the Lord) became like unto every form, and this is meant to reveal the (true) form of him (the Âtman). Indra (the Lord) appears multiform through the Mâyâs (appearances), for his horses (senses) are yoked, hundreds and ten.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The quotes in verses 16, 17, and 19 are all cited by the translators as verses from the Rig Veda.  But the quote in verse 18 is not given a citation: &amp;quot;He (the Lord) made bodies with two feet, he made bodies with four feet. Having first become a bird, he entered the bodies as purusha (as the person).&amp;quot;  So my question is, where in the Vedas is this quote found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it helps, &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/brinew-proofed.itx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the verse in Sanskrit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;puraścakre dvipadaḥ puraścakre catuṣpadaḥ ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;puraḥ sa pakṣī bhūtvā puraḥ puruṣa āviśaditi ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this verse from the Rig Veda just like the other three verses, or is it from somewhere else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T23:08:08.503" Title="Where is the Vedic verse quoted by the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad about Brahman entering the body as a bird?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|rig-veda|vedanta|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8617" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8572" CreationDate="2015-09-17T23:03:49.020" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu religious literature has a numerous references to reincarnation. In The &lt;code&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/code&gt;, Sri Krishna, a Divine Incarnation, says to his student Arjuna, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna, both you and I were born many times in the past. You do not&#xA;  remember those births, but I remember them all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this particular context Sri Krishna can be called a Jatismara, a person who remembers his past births—but Arjuna is not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;•&lt;strong&gt;Why Do We Reincarnate?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hinduism says that our unfulfilled desires are primarily responsible for our rebirth. To understand this position one should know Hinduism’s view about death and thereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;•&lt;strong&gt;Unfulfilled Desire Causes Rebirth&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;When people die with strong unfulfilled desires, which can only be fulfilled on earth, their minds—while they are in the other world—strongly yearn for the fulfillment of those desires. As every conscious action is prompted by a thought, those unfulfilled desires eventually bring them back to earth, thus causing their rebirth or reincarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By &lt;em&gt;Swami Bhaskarananda&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastActivityDate="2015-09-17T23:03:49.020" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8619" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8615" CreationDate="2015-09-18T02:35:56.000" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was ambidextrous. Hence his name/title &quot;Savyasachi&quot;. He was able to use both hands with equal facility. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04044.htm&quot;&gt;Virata Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And &lt;strong&gt;since both of my hands are capable of drawing the Gandiva&lt;/strong&gt;, I am&#xA;  known as &lt;em&gt;Savyasachin&lt;/em&gt; among gods and men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Use of the dominant hand will always matter in any physical or mechanical operation. In warfare, I would imagine ambidexterity gives the warrior a wider range of motion and hence target. It also allows the warrior to switch arms when one is tired, thereby minimizing the need for breaks unlike the average warrior. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regardless of Arjuna's prowess, Rama is the greatest warrior and wielder of the bow of all times. Krishna says so in the vibhuti yoga of the Gita. There is and can be no parallel to Rama.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/31&quot;&gt;BG 10.31&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of puriﬁers I am the wind, &lt;strong&gt;of the wielders of weapons I am Rāma&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  of ﬁshes I am the shark, and of ﬂowing rivers I am the Ganges.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additionally, one can deduce that Rama was also ambidextrous because he is said to have carried quivers full of arrows on both his shoulders. See&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga22/bala_22_frame.htm&quot;&gt;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga22/bala_22_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The others you mention are all great warriors and perhaps superior to Arjuna but I do not recall mentions of their ambidexterity. The reason Arjuna prevailed even when facing warriors of Drona and Bhishma's caliber is having dharma and Krishna on his side. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-09-18T07:29:10.610" LastActivityDate="2015-09-18T07:29:10.610" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8621" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8616" CreationDate="2015-09-18T05:19:24.453" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sankara makes no reference to the &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt; in his comments to these verses, however, both Swami Nikhilananda's and Swami Madhavananda's separate translations footnotes the three &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt; verses you mentioned, but no footnote on verse 18.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Swamis Madhavananda and Nikhilananda in their separate translations reference that verses 16 and 17 refer to the Pravargya rite from the &lt;em&gt;Satapatha Brahmnana&lt;/em&gt; (XIV. i. 1. 6-10.) and also the &lt;em&gt;Taittiriya Aranyaka&lt;/em&gt; (V. i. 3-6.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They both have a slightly different translation to verse 18 which I think are clearer translations. Nikhilananda's and Madhavananda's translations are essentially the same. Madhavananda's translation says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&quot;He (the Lord) made bodies with two feet; he made bodies with four feet. Having first become a bird (the subtle body), He, the Supreme Person, entered all bodies. On account of His dwelling in all bodies (&lt;em&gt;pur&lt;/em&gt;), He is called the Person (&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;). There is nothing not covered by Him, nothing that is not pervaded by Him.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-18T13:03:26.437" LastActivityDate="2015-09-18T13:03:26.437" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8622" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8624" CreationDate="2015-09-18T05:45:07.033" Score="8" ViewCount="9345" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhishma Pitamaha was considered a very religious and righteous person in Mahabharata. Then why he did not stop Duryodhana? Instead he kept silent in Draupadi's Cheerharan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-09-18T05:53:24.983" LastActivityDate="2021-05-23T21:10:02.603" Title="Why Bhishma did not say anything in Draupadi's Cheerharan?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhishma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8623" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-18T05:46:38.960" Score="1" ViewCount="485" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know from Bhagavat gita's &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter Seven: 'Knowledge of the Absolute'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna said a lot about knowledge but is there any other proof of him accepting what He said in this chapter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any past references or story will work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks in advance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2653" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2015-09-18T05:56:39.640" LastActivityDate="2015-09-18T05:56:39.640" Title="How Lord Krishna explains on &quot;Knowledge is power&quot;?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-12-02T07:24:52.777" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8624" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8622" CreationDate="2015-09-18T06:50:18.717" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not that Bhishma did not &lt;em&gt;Say&lt;/em&gt; anything, but yes he did not &lt;em&gt;Do&lt;/em&gt; anything. He did not &lt;em&gt;Do&lt;/em&gt; because of his oath of &lt;em&gt;Seeing his father's image into the King who is the lord of Hastinapur&lt;/em&gt;. Had Dhritarashtra instructed him, he would have easily stopped this misdeed. But driven by &lt;em&gt;blind&lt;/em&gt; love, Dhritarashtra allowed his son Duryodhana to conduct.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now first of all let's get into the context of Sabha Parva when the Vastraharan event took place.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the game of dice, with every move a player will loose whatever is kept on the stack. Yudhishtira after being lost himself in the game, at last put Draupadi on stack and lost it. With that all Paandavas + Draupadi became Slave / &lt;em&gt;Das&lt;/em&gt; of Duryodhana.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However, Draupadi denied this concept citing that if Yudhishitra had already become slave/&lt;em&gt;das&lt;/em&gt; then he automatically looses the right on her to be put on stack. This was a &lt;em&gt;race condition&lt;/em&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana &amp;amp; company were talking about technicality of the game and Draupadi, Vidura &amp;amp; Vikarna were talking about ethics. In other words former were seeing Duryodhana and Yudhishtira as just players and everything else as commodity. While latter were seeing them as brothers and everything else in view of family values.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When she asked this question in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02066.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;assembly to all seniors&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhishma said&lt;/strong&gt;, 'O blessed one, morality is subtle. I therefore am&#xA;  unable to duly decide this point that thou hast put, beholding that on&#xA;  the one hand one that hath no wealth cannot stake the wealth belonging&#xA;  to others, &lt;strong&gt;while on the other hand wives are always under the orders&#xA;  and at the disposal of their lords&lt;/strong&gt;. Yudhishthira can abandon the whole&#xA;  world full of wealth, but he will never sacrifice morality. The son of&#xA;  Pandu hath said--'I am won.' Therefore, I am unable to decide this&#xA;  matter. Sakuni hath not his equal among men at dice-play. The son of&#xA;  Kunti still voluntarily staked with him. The illustrious &lt;em&gt;Yudhishthira&#xA;  doth not himself regard that Sakuni hath played with him deceitfully&lt;/em&gt;.&#xA;  Therefore, I can not decide this point.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I feel whatever he said is quite correct even though it looks &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;diplomatic&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Keep ourselves in his shoes and ask to make a decision if the Draupadi was won fairly or not, the same answer will come: &lt;em&gt;&quot;Can't say for sure&quot;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the dragging of Draupadi from her room till the assembly and disrobing her was entirely wrong. Because such humiliation is not dharmic even with the slaves  or &lt;em&gt;Das&lt;/em&gt;. Bhishma kept quite in that due to his oath, but he foresaw the upcoming total destruction and &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;he did express it&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Draupadi said, '... Ye Kauravas, I am the wedded wife of king&#xA;  Yudhishthira the just, hailing from the same dynasty to which the King&#xA;  belonged. Tell me now if I am a serving-maid or otherwise. I will&#xA;  cheerfully accept your answer. This mean wretch, this destroyer of the&#xA;  name of the Kurus, is afflicting me hard. Ye Kauravas, I cannot bear&#xA;  it any longer. Ye kings, I desire ye to answer whether ye regard me as&#xA;  won or unwon. I will accept your verdict whatever it be.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Hearing these words, &lt;strong&gt;Bhishma answered&lt;/strong&gt;, I have already said, O blessed&#xA;  one that the course of morality is subtle. Even the illustrious wise&#xA;  in this world fail to understand it always. What in this world a&#xA;  strong man calls morality is regarded as such by others, however&#xA;  otherwise it may really be; but what a weak man calls morality is&#xA;  scarcely regarded as such even if it be the highest morality. From the&#xA;  importance of the issue involved, from its intricacy and subtlety, I&#xA;  am unable to answer with certitude the question thou hast asked.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;However, it is certain that as all the Kurus have become the slaves of&#xA;  covetousness and folly, the destruction of this our race will happen&#xA;  on no distant date.&lt;/strong&gt; O blessed one, the family into which thou hast&#xA;  been admitted as a daughter-in-law, is such that those who are born in&#xA;  it, however much they might be afflicted by calamities, never deviate&#xA;  from the paths of virtue and morality. O Princess of Panchala, this&#xA;  conduct of thine also, viz. that though sunk in distress, thou still&#xA;  easiest thy eyes on virtue and morality, is assuredly worthy of thee.&#xA;  These persons, Drona and others, of mature years and conversant with&#xA;  morality, sit heads downwards like men that are dead, with bodies from&#xA;  which life hath departed. It seemeth to me, however, that Yudhishthira&#xA;  is an authority on this question. It behoveth him to declare whether&#xA;  thou art won or not won.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma did not duck the question but he was really stuck between which to choose technicality vs ethics. That's were he made the mistake, because Dharma or morality was more on the ethics side than technicality of the game.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-09-18T06:50:18.717" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8625" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-18T09:42:18.143" Score="4" ViewCount="442" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that After taking Janev Brahman has to do some number of Gayatri Mantra to praise Mother Gayatri in lifetime. It is curse due to Janev. Is it so? If yes, how many Gayatri Mantra malas brahman has to do?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T14:05:08.067" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T22:12:30.170" Title="How many Gayatri Chalisa/Mantra Janevdhari Brahman has to do?" Tags="|gayatri-mantra|yagnopavitam|gayatri|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8626" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11327" CreationDate="2015-09-18T09:54:07.840" Score="8" ViewCount="11904" Body="&lt;p&gt;How will the &lt;strong&gt;Kalki&lt;/strong&gt; avatar look like, appearance-wise? I have heard he'll have a sword and ride atop a horse. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T19:46:24.680" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T01:46:51.797" Title="How will the Kalki avatar look like?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|kalki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8627" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8635" CreationDate="2015-09-18T09:56:24.930" Score="14" ViewCount="31018" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the reason for Lord Rama to ask Mother Sita to give Agni Pariksha? What do the scriptures say about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T02:32:04.430" LastActivityDate="2019-12-17T06:13:05.997" Title="Why did Lord Rama ask mother Sita for Agni Pariksha?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|sita|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8628" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8632" CreationDate="2015-09-18T10:01:27.433" Score="4" ViewCount="742" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Hinduism is there any specific deity who cuts sins or all deities cut sins?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada muni when cursed Lord Vishnu then Lord Vishnu told Narada to chant 'Om Namah Shivay' which would cut sins of Narada? Why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Lord Rama established Shiva Lingam to cut the sin of Brahm Hatya  (Killing Ravana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Lord Krishna told Pandavas to worship Lord Shiva to cut the sins of Mahabharata. Why Lord Krishna, Lord Rama or Lord Vishnu can't cut sins? Is it that only Lord Shiva cuts sins as he is destroyer of sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-21T13:17:06.557" LastActivityDate="2017-11-22T06:32:00.020" Title="Is there any specific deity who cuts sins?" Tags="|history|sin|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8629" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10923" CreationDate="2015-09-18T10:06:34.937" Score="6" ViewCount="6734" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is &lt;strong&gt;kaal&lt;/strong&gt;? What is &lt;strong&gt;kaal&lt;/strong&gt;? What does vedas say about this vedic god? Is he vedic god? Is kaal different from Yamadeva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T07:38:38.783" Title="Who is kaal? What is kaal?" Tags="|gods|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8630" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8628" CreationDate="2015-09-18T10:06:36.457" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not specific, but the one. Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagvad Gita Lord Krishna says, I am the receiver of all the prayers in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means, whether you pray to Lord Rama or Lord Shankar or Lord Ganpati, ultimate receiver is going to be Lord Krishna who will cut your sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-21T13:27:38.317" LastActivityDate="2015-09-21T13:27:38.317" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8631" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13823" CreationDate="2015-09-18T10:24:37.243" Score="8" ViewCount="1362" Body="&lt;p&gt;In all the scriptures of Hindus there is no direct words from Bhagwan except Geeta. Only Geeta contains &quot;Shree Bhagwan Uvachah&quot; means &quot;God said : &quot; is it mean that other scriptures are human made where as Geeta is direct statements from GOD only? Geeta is at highest priority.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-23T04:00:43.097" LastActivityDate="2016-06-26T12:21:39.333" Title="Why only Geeta has &quot;Shree Bhagwan uvachah&quot;?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8632" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8628" CreationDate="2015-09-18T10:59:12.093" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we surrender ourselves to the Supreme God (whichever name you call him, Aum, Krishna, Vishnu, Shiva, Brahman, ...), then all sins are virtually removed; i.e. we are kept away from its effects of those fruits. Same thing happens for good deeds as well. :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/66&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.66&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya&#xA;mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja&#xA;ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo&#xA;mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of Dharma and just surrender unto Me. &lt;strong&gt;I shall&#xA;  deliver you from all sinful reactions&lt;/strong&gt;. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you worry about the past actions, then remember that, you were just a reason of something happened as a part of the grand story of God.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A person who forfeits the fruits of all his actions will be out of this illusion or the projection of the world and hence need not worry about any kind of deeds.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;IMO, though your body or senses might be bearing all the good/bad fruits of your actions, your Atman will be plugged into the Param-Atman and hence you won't be able to make a difference between the senses of Happiness and Sorrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 2.56, 2.57&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or&#xA;  elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear&#xA;  and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— In the material world, one who is unaffected by whatever good or evil&#xA;  he may obtain, neither praising it nor despising it, is ﬁrmly ﬁxed in&#xA;  perfect knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one makes a practice of renouncing the fruits of own actions and always concentrated on the supreme soul, then after the death he/she is destined to be liberated from all the worldly miseries in form of happiness &amp;amp; sorrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 8.5, 8.6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— And whoever, at the end of his life, quits his body remembering Me&#xA;  alone at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son&#xA;  of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-09-18T10:59:12.093" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8633" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2447" CreationDate="2015-09-18T11:48:46.310" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;This sloka clearly mentions the destruction of both lord gandaberunda and lord narashimha by God Sharabha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Ganda Berunda Garva Banga Sharabha; Veera Narashimha Tharpa Vinasaga Sharabha!&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3739" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T06:02:36.760" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T06:02:36.760" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8634" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8631" CreationDate="2015-09-18T11:59:14.900" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavan uvacha appears in many puranas also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please read them carefully, you will surely find them in many puranas. Simple e.g. is Vishnu Purana where Sri Bhagavan uvacha appears in many chapters, where Lord Vishnu is mostly addressed as Bhagavan For e.g in Book 1 of Chapter9 chapter 12( at many instances), Chapter 20. This is simple sample. Sri Bhagavan uvacha appears umpteen number of times in Vishnu Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2015-12-24T02:44:39.740" LastActivityDate="2015-12-24T02:44:39.740" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8635" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8627" CreationDate="2015-09-18T12:40:04.543" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga118/yuddha_118_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, Rama explains why he made Sita walk through fire, despite having complete trust in her:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seetha certainly deserves this pure factory ordeal in the eyes of the people in as much as this blessed woman had resided for a long time indeed in the gynaecium of Ravana. The world would chatter against me, saying that Rama, the son of Dasaratha, was really foolish and that his mind was dominated by lust, if I accept Seetha without examining her with regard to her chastity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also know that Seetha, the daughter of Janaka, who ever revolves in my mind, is undivided in her affection to me. Ravana could not violate this wide-eyed woman, protected as she was by her own splendour, any more than an ocean would transgress its bounds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to convince the three worlds, I, whose refugee is truth, ignored Seetha while she was entering the fire. The evil-minded Ravana was not able to lay his violent hands, even in thought, o the unobtainable Seetha, who was blazing like a flaming tongue of fire.  This auspicious woman could not give way to the sovereignty, existing in the gynaecium of Ravana, in as much as Seetha is not different from me, even as sunlight is not different from the sun. Seetha, the daughter of Janaka, is completely pure in her character, in all the three worlds and can no longer be renounced by me, as a good name cannot be cast aside by a prudent man. The salutary advice of you all, the affectionate guardians of the world, who are saying what is conducive to our good, must be certainly carried out by me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it was done in order to demonstrate to the rest of the world that Rama wasn't taking in an unfaithful wife, even though Rama personally knew she was faithful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, this still wasn't enough to make the people of Ayodhya believe that Sita had been faithful, which is what ultimately led to Sita's exile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a side note according to the Skanda Purana, it is Vedavati, not the real Sita who goes into the fire, as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3555/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-22T13:40:29.160" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8636" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-18T12:59:50.683" Score="0" ViewCount="70" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any special reason why elders recommend not to get hair cut on particular day like Tuesday?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="314" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2015-09-19T03:25:47.403" LastActivityDate="2015-09-19T03:25:47.403" Title="Can hair be cut on any day of the week?" Tags="|belief|superstitions|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-09-19T04:01:49.300" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8637" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9290" CreationDate="2015-09-18T12:59:51.773" Score="17" ViewCount="3271" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kali Mata was named as &lt;strong&gt;Kaali&lt;/strong&gt; because she is wife of Lord Shiva, who is said to be Lord of time. As He is Lord of time, few avatars or &lt;em&gt;Amsas&lt;/em&gt; of Him are named after him such as &lt;strong&gt;KaalaBhairava&lt;/strong&gt;. What is Lord Shiva's association with Kaala (Time)?. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people say He is &lt;strong&gt;Aajanma&lt;/strong&gt; (unborn) and existed before time and thus called Lord of time. If this is true, can anyone validate this by citing a source?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T12:55:55.173" LastActivityDate="2016-05-16T13:07:17.370" Title="Why Lord Shiva is depicted as Lord of Time?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|time|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8638" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8567" CreationDate="2015-09-18T13:57:19.790" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, if you stop yourself from doing bad karma that is good karma. But good karma is not only in action but also in thought. If you stop the bad action but your mind still dwells on doing the bad action, then some bad karma still results from that, not as much as if you had done the bad action, but still some bad karma results. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma is not related to time; the karma produced is related to the actions involved, not time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma can fructify in the future - there is no time limit on it. Perhaps some bad karma you do today does not come back to you for 3, 4, or 5 lifetimes. Other bad karma you do may result in the karma coming back right away. Perhaps ALL the karma of the present life is based on actions from a prior birth and no matter what you do in this life, that karma cannot be avoided. Only the Lord and your guru will know. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the Gita (2.47):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your right is for action alone, never for the results. Do not become the agent of the results of action. May you not have any inclination for inaction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna is telling Arjuna to do his actions (dharmaic actions as prescribed in scriptures) in the world and not to hanker for their results, whether good or bad. Offer your actions up to the Lord and the Lord will take care of all good and bad karma. And in verse 2.49, the Lord says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Dhananjaya, indeed, action is quite inferior to the yoga of wisdom. Take resort to wisdom. Those who thirst for rewards are pitiable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in Chapter 18 Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verse 11. Since it is not possible for one who holds on to a body to give up actions entirely, therefore he, on the other hand, who renounces results of actions is called a man of renunciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verse 47. One's own duty, (though) defective, is superior to another's duty well performed. By performing a duty as dictated by one's own nature, one does not incur sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verse 48. O son of Kunti, one should not give up the duty to which one is born, even though it be faulty. For all undertakings are surrounded with evil, as fire with smoke.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said, we are here to eat the mangoes in the orchard, not to count them. Do your duties (duties as prescribed by Dharma), offer the results up to the Lord, and do not worry about the results.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-09-18T13:57:19.790" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8639" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7342" CreationDate="2015-09-18T14:12:30.953" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WzCnq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WzCnq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes it is true that cow has 33 crores gods in it. these are major gods that we worship them we do-not need to know all the gods names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3740" LastEditorUserId="3740" LastEditDate="2016-04-23T17:55:03.097" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T17:55:03.097" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8508" CreationDate="2015-09-18T17:59:48.750" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will try to keep my answer brief-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How it started?&#xA;A: There is no start. The Universe is the result of Avidya (ignorance) which is anaadi (without beginning) but with an end. The creation and destruction of Universe happens cyclically.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who was the creator?&#xA;A: This can have multiple answer depending on the context. If you are speaking about creation of only Gross, Vital, and Mental universes (Bhu, Bhuvah, Svah or Annamaya, Pranamaya and Manomaya kosha), then the creator is Brahmaa (not Para-Brahman) or Hiranyagarba. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are speaking about this complete manifested Universe (Sambhuti) including Hiranyagarba, then the creator is Ishwara who is associated with Unmanifested Seed/Prakriti (or Saguna Brahman). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, if one is speaking about the creation of everything, both the manifested cosmos (Sambhuti) and the unmanifested Seed (Asambhuti). Then, it is Para-Brahman, who is nirguna etc. who is the source of this Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, it must be noted that, there is no real creation. From standpoint of Parabrahman, it is ajam (without birth). The whole Cosmos is just an appearance, an apparent manifestation that Para-Brahman does out of his own power of Maya. Just as a magician conjures an illusive elephant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who created the god?&#xA;A:I presume by &quot;god&quot; (using lower cases), you are referring to deities, or limited aspect of God. Well, Tattiriya Upanishad says, Brahman is the source of all created beings. That then includes even the manifestations of gods. At other places, Brahmaa/Hiranyagarba is described as Prajapati and other gods are called as Prajapatya-Sons of Prajapati. Therefore, it is Para-Brahman who manifested as Brahmaa/Hiranyagarba is the creator of various forms of deities. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who created creator?&#xA;A: If, by creator, you mean Brahmaa/Hiranyagarba, as mentioned above, he arose out of Unmanifested Seed/Prakriti, which inturn is only an apparent manifestation of Para-Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the question is about Para-Brahman, then there is no creator of Para-Brahman, because from standpoint of Brahman, he himself does not create anything, nor does he undergo any creation. Para-Brahman is Nirguna, Advaita and Aja. He is without guna, without duality and without birth. In other words, he is eternal, without birth and without death. And hence, Isha Upanishad calls Para Brahman as &quot;Svayambhu&quot;- Self existing or one who always exist on his own without any source or support. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Where the solid material came from, to create a planet?&#xA;A: Vedanta explains this through a process of Panchikarana- The subtle elements combine to form grosses elements, which in-turn form solid matter. You may study Adi Shankara's work &quot;Panchikarana&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may like to go through these 3 articles I had written-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Two Aspects of Creation- Maya and Lila -&lt;a href=&quot;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/the-two-aspects-of-creation-maya-and-lila/&quot;&gt;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/the-two-aspects-of-creation-maya-and-lila/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Advaita and Vivarta-Vada - &lt;a href=&quot;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/random-musings-part-21-in-defence-of-advaita-and-vivarta-vada/&quot;&gt;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/random-musings-part-21-in-defence-of-advaita-and-vivarta-vada/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Manifest and the Unmanifest - &lt;a href=&quot;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/random-musings-part-20-the-manifest-and-the-unmanifest/&quot;&gt;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/random-musings-part-20-the-manifest-and-the-unmanifest/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-09-18T17:59:48.750" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8642" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2970" CreationDate="2015-09-18T19:01:47.117" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Morya is changed verson of mor+ yaa&#xA;Which is again changed from  samor+yaa&#xA;Samor= in front of some one &#xA;And yaa=come &#xA;That means morya=samor yaa= be in front ( of us)&#xA;= guide us &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3742" LastActivityDate="2015-09-18T19:01:47.117" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8643" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16881" CreationDate="2015-09-18T21:58:29.757" Score="5" ViewCount="115" Body="&lt;p&gt;Often in many shlokas I read examples such as &amp;quot;they were as united as sun is to light&amp;quot; or some similar very trivial sounding examples to apparently clarify a point. I find it a bit silly because often the points are pretty clear and the examples does not seem to do any justice. A full example to clarify what I mean:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 2.67:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such of the roving senses as the mind follows, that carries&#xA;away the understanding, just as the winds carry away a ship on the&#xA;sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could someone explain what was the purpose to use such simple and trivial examples in the shlokas and their wide prevalence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2987" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T14:32:28.633" Title="Why do scriptures use trivial examples?" Tags="|scripture|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8645" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8568" CreationDate="2015-09-19T06:00:08.113" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the famous dialogue between Yama (in form of Yaksha) and King Yudhishthira  there is mention about the eligibility to be a a brahmin.&#xA;The verse goes as follows(Question no-31):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yaksha asked,—“By what, O king, birth, behaviour, study, or learning both&#xA;a person become a Brahmana? Tell us with certitude!” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira answered,-“Listen, O Yaksha! It is neither birth, nor study, nor learning, that is the cause of&#xA;Brahmanahood, without doubt, it is behaviour that constitutes it. One’s behaviour&#xA;should always be well-guarded, especially by a Brahmana. He who maintains his&#xA;conduct unimpaired, is never impaired himself. Professors and pupils, in fact, all who study the scriptures, if addicted to wicked habits, are to be regarded as illiterate wretches. He only is learned who performes his religious duties. Even if he has studied the four Vedas is to be regarded as a wicked wretch scarcely distinguishable from a Sudra if his conduct be not correct. He only who performes the Agnihotra and has his senses under control, is called a Brahmana!”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus it is quiet evident that caste is just a function of a character.  Incase of Ravana he failed to keep his sense under control and never behaved like a Brahmana.Thus Ravana doesn't inhert the caste of his father.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2015-09-19T06:00:08.113" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8646" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-19T06:24:02.477" Score="9" ViewCount="958" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras describes the Brahma Vidyas, 32 lessons found in the various Upanishads which can each lead you to Brahman if you meditate on them. You can see the full list of 32 Vidyas &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in my questions &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7703/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6929/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, one of the 32 Brahma Vidyas is known as the Panchagni Vidya, and it is found in the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads. Among other things, it describes the path of souls to Brahmaloka. Here is how the Brihadaranyaka Upanishads describes this journey:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who thus know this, and those who in the forest worship faith and the True, go to light (arkis), from light to day, from day to the increasing half, from the increasing half to the six months when the sun goes to the north, from those six months to the world of the Devas (Devaloka), from the world of the Devas to the sun, from the sun to the place of lightning. When they have thus reached the place of lightning a spirit comes near them, and &lt;strong&gt;leads them to the worlds of ... Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;. In these worlds of Brahman they dwell exalted for ages. There is no returning for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, Adi Shankaracharya argues that the &quot;worlds of Brahman&quot; being referred to here are merely the worlds of the god Hiranyagarbha or Brahma, not the supreme Brahman, because it's impossible to &quot;go&quot; to the supreme Brahman, since it is omnipresent.  In the course of this discussion, Adi Shankaracharya says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38311.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the reabsorption of the effected Brahman world draws near, the souls in which meanwhile perfect knowledge has sprung up &lt;strong&gt;proceed, together with Hiranyagarbha the ruler of that world, to 'what is higher than that i.e. to the pure highest place of Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;. This is the release by successive steps which we have to accept on the basis of the scriptural declarations about the non-return of the souls. For we have shown that the &lt;strong&gt;Highest cannot be directly reached by the act of going&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the &quot;highest place of Vishnu&quot;, I think Adi Shankaracharya means Moksha; &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia802604.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/13/items/kathaandprasnaup029591mbp/kathaandprasnaup029591mbp_tif.zip&amp;amp;file=kathaandprasnaup029591mbp_tif/kathaandprasnaup029591mbp_0058.tif&amp;amp;scale=6.08282208588957&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what he says in his commentary on the Katha Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The man of knowledge attains 'the highest place of Vishnu', i.e. the nature of the all-pervading Brahman, the Paramatman known as Vasudeva (the Self-luminous).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, why would Adi Shankaracharya use &quot;proceeding to the highest place of Vishnu&quot; as a metaphor for attaining Brahman, in the midst of discussing why an Upanishad passage that talks about proceeding to the world of Brahman is not referring to attaining Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Adi Shankaracharya intentionally doing some kind of word play, composing a passage that uses the metaphor of &quot;going&quot; to the place of Brahman in the midst of discussing another passage that talks about literally &quot;going&quot; to the place of Brahman?  Have any other Advaitins commented on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-09-26T14:51:02.007" Title="Why does Adi Shankaracharya use &quot;going to Brahman&quot; metaphor in discussing why Brahman cannot be gone to?" Tags="|vishnu|vedanta|brahman|advaita|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8648" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8629" CreationDate="2015-09-19T07:26:02.873" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Srimad Bhagavatham,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kaalohi bhagavaan karta, satatam sutatam sukha-dukha yo ho;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;naraanaam para tantraanaam janma punya papanu-yogitha-ha!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Time itself is Bhagavan, THE GOD. As per Vedam and Vedam recites Lord Srimann Narayana is Maha Kaaludu, Kaala purusha, Kaala Swarupa, Kaal Atmaka. HE himself is Maha Kaala.  He is Creator, Responsible person and director of Time. With the Times(Maha Kaala), Living entities or Living beings will experiences the Happiness or Sadness(Good Time or Bad Time) based on their previous birth/Janma Karmas(Punya or paapa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavan has given some duties or responsibilities and Powers for HIS Subordinate deities to perform and rule as HIS Order.&#xA;Among various deities Lord Yamadeva is one subordinate Deity of Lord Kaala Purusha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3747" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-08T06:42:51.617" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8650" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-19T12:05:56.270" Score="2" ViewCount="109" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parashurama is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu that we all know, but why he, being an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, worship Lord Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-19T20:47:29.617" LastActivityDate="2015-09-19T20:47:29.617" Title="Why Lord Parashurama, incarnation of Lord Vishnu, worship Lord Shiva?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|parashurama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-09-21T10:47:37.113" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8651" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8646" CreationDate="2015-09-19T12:16:37.817" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;ParamaM padaM” is explained by Shankara (Katha Upanishad Bhashya, 1.3.9) as “prakRiShTam padaM sthAnaM satattvamityetat”, which indicates both an abode as well as the state attained therein due to the grace of Ishvara, Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please try to check up the following sections in Shankara’s prasthAna-trayI bhAShyas and other advaitic works where you may get some clarifications:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad Bhashya, 3.13.7 followed by 3.12.6.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhashya, 1.1.24.&#xA;  Anandagiri/Govindananda’s comments therein.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhashya, 4.4.18-20.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gita Bhashya, 15.4, 15.6, 18.62. Anandagiri’s gloss to 18.62 above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhusudana Sarasvati’s Advaita Siddhi and Gauda Brahmananda Saraswati’s Laghu Chandrika, Second paricCheda, brahmaNo nirAkAratva nirUpaNa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhusudana Sarasvati in Gudhartha Dipika, 8.15-16 and 7.24.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sridhara Swami in Srimad Bhagavata commentary, 2.5.39.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maheshvara Tirtha’s explanation of “brahmaloka” as Vaikuntha loka in rAmAyaNa bhAShya, bAla kANDa, prathama (first) sarga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maheshvara Tirtha’s explanation of jaTAyu mokSha in AraNya kANDa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narayana Bhattathiri’s description of Vaikuntha-pada in Narayaneeyam 7.4, and Desha Mangala’s commentary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastActivityDate="2015-09-19T12:16:37.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8652" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8703" CreationDate="2015-09-19T12:29:51.983" Score="2" ViewCount="2829" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why there was Amrit under the Naabhi(Navel) of Ravana?  Is it true?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What does our scripture say about how Ravana got the Amrit in his Naabhi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-19T20:44:07.123" LastActivityDate="2015-09-24T10:22:35.760" Title="Why there was Amrit under the Naabhi(Navel) of Ravana? Is it true?" Tags="|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8653" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8716" CreationDate="2015-09-19T14:56:44.840" Score="15" ViewCount="1420" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, in Adhyaya 4 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras, one of the topics discussed is the journey of souls described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15095.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this passage&lt;/a&gt; from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who thus know this, and those who in the forest worship faith and the True, go to light (arkis), from light to day, from day to the increasing half, from the increasing half to the six months when the sun goes to the north, from those six months to the world of the Devas (Devaloka), from the world of the Devas to the sun, from the sun to the place of lightning. When they have thus reached the place of lightning a spirit comes near them, and leads them to the worlds of ... Brahman. In these worlds of Brahman they dwell exalted for ages. There is no returning for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ancient thinker Badari believed that the passage is about souls who meditate upon the god Hiranyagarbha, i.e. Brahma, and thereby go to Brahma's world, known as Satyaloka or Brahmaloka.  The ancient thinker Jaimini, on the other hand, believed that the passage is about souls who meditate upon the supreme Brahman and thereby attain the supreme Brahman, i.e. attain Moksha.  In Ramanujacharya's commentary on the Brahma Sutras, he argues that Vyasa favors a middle view, where both those who meditate on the supreme Brahman and those who meditate upon their own soul as having Brahman as its inner Self (in the Visihtadvaita view) will attain Moksha using the path described in the text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But before Ramanujacharya discusses his own view, he first spends time presenting the views of Badari.  Badari argued that the reason the passage says &quot;There is no returning for them.&quot; is that the inhabitants of Brahmaloka attain Moksha when he dies. In support of Badari's view, Ramanujacharya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48545.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;cites&lt;/a&gt; a passage from the Mundaka Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is known from the texts declaring that he who proceeds on the path of light reaches immortality and does not return; and is further confirmed by the text, 'They all, reaching the highest immortality, become free in the world of Brahman (Brahmâ) at the time of the great end ' (Mu. Up. III, 2, 6).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48546.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;cites&lt;/a&gt; some Smriti text:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This follows from Smriti also, which declares 'when the pralaya has come and the end of the Highest, they all together with Brahman enter the highest place.'--For all these reasons Bâdari holds that the troop of the conducting deities, beginning with Light, leads the souls of those only who meditate on the effected Brahman, i e. Hiranyagarbha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, does Ramanujacharya agree with Badari's view that inhabitants of Brahmaloka attain Moksha when they die?  The reason I ask is because Ramanujacharya says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48544.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, if the soul advancing on the path of the Gods reaches Hiranyagarbha only, texts such as 'This is the path of the Gods, the path of Brahman; those who proceed on that path do not return to the life of man' (Kh. Up. IV, 15, 6), and 'moving upwards by that a man reaches immortality' (VIII, 6, 6), are wrong in asserting that that soul attains to immortality and does not return; for the holy books teach that Hiranyagarbha, as a created being, passes away at the end of a dviparârdha-period; and the text 'Up to the world of Brahman the worlds return again' (Bha. Gî. VIII, 16) shows that &lt;strong&gt;those who have gone to Hiranyagarbha necessarily return also&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this passage, is Ramanujacharya presenting his own view, or someone else's?  If he's advancing his own view, then it seems he believes that the inhabitants of Brahmaloka are reborn rather than attain Moksha.  If so, how does he reconcile his view with the scriptural quotes he cited earlier?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And these aren't the only such scriptural quotes; Srimad Bhagavatam seems to also say that inhabitants of Brahmaloka attain Moksha, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7588/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  So what's going on here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any later Sri Vaishnava Acharyas shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-17T08:40:50.600" LastActivityDate="2017-06-17T08:40:50.600" Title="Does Ramanujacharya believe that inhabitants of Brahmaloka attain Moksha when they die?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|vedanta|brahma-sutras|lokas|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8654" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-20T01:15:42.063" Score="2" ViewCount="54" Body="&lt;p&gt;We see in the scriptures that the kings like Rama and Krishna were all knowers and most powerful in the world. Why couldn't they sustain their kingdoms or lineage and the same social systems to this day? Why couldn't they see a deterioration in a relatively short span of a few centuries from what was the golden period?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2987" LastActivityDate="2015-09-20T01:15:42.063" Title="Why couldn't the mighty kings of the past sustain their lineage and/or kingdom to the present?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2015-09-21T14:38:53.933" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8656" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9055" CreationDate="2015-09-20T15:16:51.560" Score="4" ViewCount="1366" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The 4000 verses of the Alwars were compiled by the Vaishnava Acharya Nathamuni into a book called the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, which is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it is the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that Nathamuni used to found what we now call the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7838/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Sri Vaishnavas believe that the Alwars are incarnations of various attendants and attributes of Vishnu; for instance the Alwar Nammalwar is considered to be an incarnation of Vishwaksena, the general of Vishnu's army. And as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7160/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the first four Sri Vaishnava Acharyas are believed to be incarnations of various attendants of Vishvaksena, and Ramanujacharya is believed to be an incarnation of Vishnu's serpent Adiseshan as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/4023/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But now I'm interested in another Sri Vaishnava Acharya, Vedanta Desikan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedanta Desikan was a prolific author, composing works like the Rahasyatraya Sara which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8293/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And although the split between Thenkalais and Vadakalais (which I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2835/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;) didn't exist in his day, it was Vedanta Desikan's views that would ultimately form the basis of Vadakalai Sri Vaishnavism.  In any case, Sri Vaishnavas believe that Vedanta Desikan is an incarnation of the bell found in the shrine of the world-renowned Tirumala Venkateshwara temple in Tirupati.  The story is told in this web page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As ordered by the Lord of Tiruvenkatam and Padmavati Thayar, the couple went on a pilgrimage to Tirumalai. The Lord appeared in their dreams in the garb of a Srivaishnava youth and handed over a small golden bell which Totaramba swallowed. Next morning, when they compared notes, they were astonished to find how both of them had the same dream which concurred in every detail. As the Archaka opened the doors of the Sanctum Sanctorum, he found the bell missing. During an investigation ordered into the loss of the bell, the Lord appeared by Avesa (spiritual trance) on Tirumalai Nambi and told that He had himself presented the bell to the Ananthasuri couple and thenceforward, the small hand- bell need not be used in the Tiruvaradhana in the temple. Even today. when the Naivedyam is offered to the lord, IT IS ONLY THE HUGE BELL suspended in the front hall that is being rung.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, to this day, there is no bell that is rung inside the shrine of Venkateshwara.  So my question is, what is the earliest reference to this story of Vedanta Desikan being an incarnation of Venkateshwara's bell?  Do the records of the Tirupati temple mention this incident of the bell disappearing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, on a side note what's the origin of this bell?  Was it a divine bell that Vishnu brought with him when he came to Earth as Venkateshwara?  Or is it man-made?  I'm assuming it's divine, but are there any scriptures that mention this bell?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T07:35:43.727" Title="What is the earliest reference to Vedanta Desikan being an incarnation of Venkateshwara's bell?" Tags="|vishnu|sri-vaishnava|venkateshwara|vedanta-desika|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8657" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8653" CreationDate="2015-09-20T16:33:40.943" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, I think the interpretation of &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; 8.16 is not the best. The verse refers first to &lt;em&gt;lokah&lt;/em&gt;, 'worlds', and then to &lt;em&gt;abrahma-bhuvanat&lt;/em&gt;, 'together with the world of Brahma' (the root &lt;em&gt;bhuva&lt;/em&gt; refers to the place where creatures are born, i.e. earth); not the world of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his intro to his translation of the Sri-Bhasya, Swami Vireswarananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘With whatever thought he passes away from this world’, etc. says Satapatha Brahmana (X. 6.3.1). Such a thought, which fixes the course of life hereafter cannot be had at the moment of death without lifelong practice. Hence such meditations should be practiced till death. But Bhaskara, Ramanuja and Nimbarka connect the Sutra with the meditation on Brahman; for according to them even after the rise of knowledge one has to go after death by the path of the gods, at the end of which path one gets disembodied completely and attains Brahman, while Sankara holds that on death he becomes one with Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Ramanuja does assert that the soul goes to Brahmaloka. Vireswarananda says further:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The soul of a knower of saguna Brahman goes by the path of the gods to Brahmaloka (the region of Brahma), i.e. it attains the conditioned Brahman—which is the view of Badari and is also endorsed by Badarayana. On the dissolution of Brahmaloka the soul along with the ruler of that world attains the supreme Brahman (&lt;em&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/em&gt; IV. iii. 7-11).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vireswarananda states further Ramanuja's view of Moksha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Souls are really effects of Brahman and form Its body, but they are said to be not created because at creation there is no essential change in them as in the elements. The soul is a knower, atomic, an agent and a part of Brahman in the sense that the body is a part of an embodied being, or a quality a part of the substance qualified. As qualities are not different from the substance, so also souls are not different from Brahman. The soul on release manifests its’ true nature, which consists in freedom from sin etc. which was obscured in the state of bondage by ignorance and Karma. It attains all the auspicious qualities of Brahman, but not identity with It, for It continues to have a separate existence. In the released state it experiences itself as non-different from Brahman, being but Its mode—that Brahman is its self, and that it is the body of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-28T13:38:13.347" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T13:38:13.347" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8658" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2048" CreationDate="2015-09-20T16:59:12.227" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism perhaps have most extensive answer regarding what happens after death. The soul may take one of the three paths- to the devaloka, to the pitraloka, or to various narakas. Later they would be reborn in manushya loka as various animals, or plants, or as humans. Everything is government by Karmic law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Purana and Manu Smriti some general guidelines regarding what kind of karmas give what kind of results have been given.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some descriptions are here -&#xA;1. Manu Smriti 12th Chapter, Manu Smriti Chapter 4, Verse 87-90.&#xA;2. Srimad Bhagavata Purana: 5.26. The chapter is dedicated to 28 types of Narakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana is another source. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-01T15:23:37.750" LastActivityDate="2015-12-01T15:23:37.750" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8659" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8646" CreationDate="2015-09-20T17:16:57.017" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the excerpt you have quoted about Shankara's commentary on Brahma Sutras, it is quite clear why he is speaking about proceeding to &quot;what is higher than that i.e. to the pure highest place of Vishnu.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brahma Sutra explains the path through which one goes to Brahmaloka. But, going to Brahmaloka is not same as Moksha (Realization of Mahavakya). Though, a person who goes to Brahmaloka does not return to earth, yet he still have limitation left. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is what Shankara is pointing. Further, he is showing how these people who attain Brahmaloka will ultimately attain Brahma-Jnana. This is the path of Krama Mukti- Stage by Stage liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is pointing out that, through the Vidyas, one attain Brahmaloka. And then, even those people must attain Atma-Jnana which they would have attained by the time the end of Hiranyagarba nears. Hence, they along with the Hiranyagarba will attain Atma-Jnana and merge into Non-dual Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu means &quot;All pervading&quot;. In other words, non-duality. There is no second independent entity other than Brahman. Hence, reaching supreme state of Vishnu means, attaining Atma-Jnana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-09-20T17:16:57.017" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8660" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8666" CreationDate="2015-09-20T13:26:31.643" Score="8" ViewCount="2079" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How are the Third eye and the Mind's eye &quot;defined&quot; in Hinduism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In particular, according to Hinduism, are these separate concepts or one?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to Hinduism, do only particular individuals have the third eye open or does everyone? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If it is possible for it to be closed then, according to Hinduism, can it be opened by practice? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there different answers to these question within Hinduism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please avoid new-age related answers!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3759" OwnerDisplayName="nir" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-21T08:15:18.160" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T22:07:32.500" Title="About the mind's eye and the third eye in Hinduism" Tags="|yoga|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8661" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-21T05:17:00.110" Score="7" ViewCount="748" Body="&lt;p&gt;Guru Drona's guru Parashurama was against teaching to Kshatriyas. However he still taught to Bhishma. In the similar way, Drupad and Drona were considered &lt;em&gt;Guru-Bhai&lt;/em&gt;; probably that means Parashurama also taught to Drupad. Why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-09-24T04:40:42.637" LastActivityDate="2015-09-24T04:40:42.637" Title="Why Parashurama taught art of warfare to Kshatriya(s)?" Tags="|mahabharata|parashurama|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8662" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-21T06:11:16.267" Score="4" ViewCount="109" Body="&lt;p&gt;If in normal English, an elder wants to refer to a teenager in a respectful way, he can say something along the lines of &quot;This young gentleman&quot;, what are the different ways the same can be done in Hindi and Sanskrit, as in what is considered a honorific title for the same ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2897" LastActivityDate="2015-09-21T06:11:16.267" Title="How can an elder address a teenager in a respectful way?" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-01-13T12:26:50.250" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8663" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8849" CreationDate="2015-09-21T09:43:34.423" Score="15" ViewCount="5725" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/lord-ramas-date-of-birth-scientifically-calculated_796118.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ISR scientific study and research&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Rama's birth date is calculated as 10&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; january 5114 BCE. They used a software named Planetorium, simulated arrangement of planets as per Valmiki Ramayana and determined that the same arrangement of planets existed in 5114 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note the position of stars at the time of Rama's birth that Valmiki states in Ramayana Bala Kanda, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga18/balasans18.htm#Verse8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sarga 18&lt;/a&gt;, Shlokas 8-11:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततो यज्ञे समाप्ते तु ऋतूनाम् षट् समत्ययुः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततः च द्वादशे मासे चैत्रे नावमिके तिथौ || १-१८-८ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नक्क्षत्रे अदिति दैवत्ये स्व उच्छ संस्थेषु पंचसु | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ग्रहेषु कर्कटे लग्ने वाक्पता इंदुना सह || १-१८-९ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रोद्यमाने जगन्नाथम् सर्व लोक नमस्कृतम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कौसल्या अजनयत् रामम् सर्व लक्षण संयुतम् || १-१८-१० &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विष्णोः अर्धम् महाभागम् पुत्रम् ऐक्ष्वाकु नंदनम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लोहिताक्षम् महाबाहुम् रक्त ओष्टम् दुंदुभि स्वनम् || १-१८-११&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On completion of the ritual, six seasons have passed by; then in the twelfth month, i.e., in chaitra mAsa, and on the &lt;strong&gt;ninth day of that chaitra month&lt;/strong&gt; [April-May], when it is punarvasu nakshatra yukta navamI tithi, i.e., when the ruling star of that ninth day is &lt;strong&gt;punarvasu&lt;/strong&gt;, for which Aditi is the presiding deity; and when five of the nine planets - &lt;strong&gt;sUrya&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;kuja&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;guru&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;shukra&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;shani&lt;/strong&gt; are in ucCha sthAna-s, namely, when those planets are in ascension in their respective houses - meSha, makara, karkaTa, mIna, tula - rAshI-s; and when &lt;strong&gt;chandra yukta guru, karkaTa lagne&lt;/strong&gt; - Jupiter in conjuction with Moon is ascendant in Cancer, and when day is advancing, Queen Kausalya gave birth to a son with all the divine attributes like lotus-red eyes, lengthy arms, roseate lips, voice like drumbeat, and who took birth to delight the Ikshwaku dynasty and adored by all the worlds, and who is the greatly blessed epitome of Vishnu, namely Rama. [1-18-8, 9, 10, 11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;To summarize, the conditions were:&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;9th day after New Moon in Chaitra Lunar Month&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Moon was in Punarvasu Nakshatra (20 deg Gemini to 3.20 deg Cancer)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Sun in Aries (Su &quot;exaltation&quot; sign is Aries)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Mars in Capricorn (Ma &quot;exaltation&quot; sign is Capricorn)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Saturn in Libra (Sa &quot;exaltation&quot; sign is Libra)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Jupiter in Cancer (Ju &quot;exaltation&quot; sign is Cancer)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Venus in Pisces (Ve &quot;exaltation&quot; sign is Pisces)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;As soon as Moon moved closer to Jupiter and Cancer rose on the Horizon (East Direction / Lagna / First House in Vedic Astrology), Shri Rama was born&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Also they validated all the incidents like Bharata's date of birth, Hanuman visiting Lanka to find Seeta that time Lunar Eclipse took place. All of these dates were validated and their research concluded that Rama existed in 5114 BC.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Following is the image of planets in Planetorium software when Rama took birth.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cddwh.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cddwh.png&quot; alt=&quot;rama&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Also they found the date of Mahabharata to be some 3000 BC. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Current year is 2015. So 7000 years before now, Lord Rama existed and you can see the difference between Lord Rama (Treta-yuga) and Mahabharata (Dwapara-yuga) is only 2000 years scientifically. Then why Kaliyuga is lasting from 5000 years? Is this true as per Hinduism? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also, are locations or arrangments of planets mentioned for Kalki avatar's birth or pralaya in any other purana?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If it is there, can we simulate in planetorium software and find out when Kalki will be born?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;References:&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/When-Where-was-Lord-Rama-born-and-what-evidence-is-there-to-substantiate-this&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Quora.com: When &amp;amp; Where was Lord Rama born and what evidence is there to substantiate this?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sarojbala.blogspot.in/2012/06/scientific-dating-of-ramayan-era.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sarojbala.blogspot.in: Scientific Dating of Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sarojbala.blogspot.in/2015/10/amazing-facts-about-ancient-india_22.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sarojbala.blogspot.in: Slides on Astronomical dating of events in Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-10T21:12:12.950" LastActivityDate="2018-02-09T09:24:41.743" Title="ISR says birthdate of Lord Rama is 10th January 5114 BC. What about Kalki avatar?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|history|rama|kalki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8664" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-21T09:48:29.997" Score="9" ViewCount="2951" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annamayya_(film)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Annamayya&lt;/a&gt; Telugu Movie, Lord Venkateswara sends his sword &lt;em&gt;NANDAKA&lt;/em&gt; to take birth as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annamacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tallapaka Annamacharya&lt;/a&gt; to compose Telugu songs for Him, at request of Padmavathi Devi. I know Sudarshana Chakra (discus), Gadha (mace) and conch but never heard about his sword.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do any Puranas mention about Vishnu's sword &lt;em&gt;Nandaka&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What's the story of Vishnu's sword &lt;em&gt;Nandaka&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it mentioned in any scriptures that Annamayya (Tallapaka Annamacharya) was an avatar of &lt;em&gt;Nandaka&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3872" LastEditDate="2016-07-24T07:19:09.910" LastActivityDate="2016-07-26T09:03:08.313" Title="Story of Lord Vishnu's sword Nandaka?" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|puranas|weapon|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8665" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2632" CreationDate="2015-09-21T10:12:44.910" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Baalbek  is an incredible monument, standing on a hill in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon.The construction of the expansive temple was begun by the Phoenicians between 3000-4000 years ago.Some curious fact about the Baalbek temple are that one can see stone lotuses carved on the temple’s ceilings.It is well know that lotus is the most common symbolism of spirituality in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This clear indicates that Ancient Bharatiyas were much older than the any of   then existing civilization.  It is also important to notice that  Bharatiyas were advance in technology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: Bharata-The Rhythm of a nation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2015-10-14T14:36:34.850" LastActivityDate="2015-10-14T14:36:34.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8666" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8660" CreationDate="2015-09-21T10:15:35.793" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The mind's eye and the third eye are sometimes used interchangeably but depending upon the author, it can mean the same thing or two different things. Sometimes the mind's eye simply means to use your mind's imagination to see something mentally. When it is used to denote the same thing it means the third eye between the eyebrows and this is known as the &lt;em&gt;ajna cakra&lt;/em&gt;. It is where the spiritual eye opens in an advanced sadhaka. It is opened by spiritual practices. Google 'ajna chakra' and there are a lot of online references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Garba Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Darsanagni&lt;/em&gt; is [in] the eye itself and is the cause of of &lt;em&gt;vijnana&lt;/em&gt; and enables one to see all objects and forms. It has three seats, the [spiritual] eye itself being the the [primary] seat and eyeballs being the accessory seats,...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and the &lt;em&gt;Sandilya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the eye of consciousness (viz. the spiritual eye or third eye) becomes calm and clear so as to be able to distinctly see in the transparent &lt;em&gt;akasa&lt;/em&gt; at a distance of twelve digits from the tip of his nose, then the fluctuations of &lt;em&gt;prana&lt;/em&gt; are stopped...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many depictions of various gods are shown with a third eye. It is this eye that allows one to see into the spiritual realms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-09-21T10:15:35.793" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8667" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3636" CreationDate="2015-09-21T12:17:41.583" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/12-16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatham&lt;/a&gt; says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the time the Age of Kali ends, the bodies of all creatures will be greatly reduced in size, and the religious principles of followers of varṇāśrama will be ruined. The path of the Vedas will be completely forgotten in human society, and so-called religion will be mostly atheistic. The kings will mostly be thieves, the occupations of men will be stealing, lying and needless violence, and all the social classes will be reduced to the lowest level of śūdras. Cows will be like goats, spiritual hermitages will be no different from mundane houses, and family ties will extend no further than the immediate bonds of marriage. Most plants and herbs will be tiny, and all trees will appear like dwarf śamī trees. Clouds will be full of lightning, homes will be devoid of piety, and all human beings will have become like asses. At that time, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will appear on the earth. Acting with the power of pure spiritual goodness, He will rescue eternal religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Right now we can see many atheists on this planet. By the end of this Yuga all religions will be forgotten and people become atheists. Verse says &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;pāsaṇḍa-pracure dharme&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: which means dharma will be atheistic. Lord Vishnu will come as Kalki and restore Sanatana Dharma (eternal dharma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2015-09-21T12:17:41.583" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8668" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-21T13:29:22.707" Score="9" ViewCount="3308" Body="&lt;p&gt;Below slokas from the Gita are actually a bit mystical in nature:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 8.23-8.26&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— O best of the Bhāratas, I shall now explain to you the different&#xA;  times at which, passing away from this world, the yogī does or does&#xA;  not come back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Those who know the Supreme Brahman attain that Supreme by passing&#xA;  away from the world during the inﬂuence of the ﬁery god, in the light,&#xA;  at an auspicious moment of the day, during the fortnight of the waxing&#xA;  moon, or during the six months when the sun travels in the north.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— The mystic who passes away from this world during the smoke, the&#xA;  night, the fortnight of the waning moon, or the six months when the&#xA;  sun passes to the south reaches the moon planet (but) again comes back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— &lt;strong&gt;According to Vedic opinion&lt;/strong&gt;, there are 2 ways of passing from this&#xA;  world – one in light and one in darkness. When one passes in light, he&#xA;  does not come back; but when one passes in darkness, he returns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda#Death&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vivekananada&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramahansa_Yogananda#Death&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yogananada&lt;/a&gt;, both the Yogis left their body and departed during the night time. Same thing goes for &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneesh#Travels_and_return_to_Pune:_1985.E2.80.931990&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Osho Rajneesh&lt;/a&gt; who left during the evening.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt; Note: Though &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramakrishna#Last_days&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ramkrishna Paramahamsa died&lt;/a&gt; during early morning. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the followers of all the above 3 Yogis believe that they attained Moksha or Mahasamadhi or the Supreme abode.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does that mean that above slokas actually don't make much sense?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;With general rule of probability, 50% of people are likely to get&#xA;Moksha. Is it Justified?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-18T22:52:36.740" LastActivityDate="2016-02-14T08:25:12.787" Title="Did Swami Vivekananda, Paramhamsa Yogananda, &amp; Osho Rajneesh really attain Moksha according to Vedic scriptures?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|bhagavad-gita|moksha|death|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="17" ClosedDate="2017-07-06T13:35:26.183" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8669" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="902" CreationDate="2015-09-21T14:32:36.843" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Meditation is not a kind of activity it is a quality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prayer means you are talking to god, and meditation means you are willing to &lt;strong&gt;listen to GOD&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NWiM3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NWiM3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva :&lt;/strong&gt; Means yogi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Third Eye:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;    shiva always been referred to as TRIAMBAKA because of 3rd eye.&#xA;    It means another dimension of perception has opened up. &#xA;    Your energy evolve and enhance itself in such a way that your perception is enhanced and 3rd eye opens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nandi:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;    Nandi is a symbolism of eternal waiting.&#xA;    Nandi in a temple simply sitting and waiting to come out shiva. He will wait forever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trishul:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;        3 fundamental aspects of life : Ida,pingala and sushumna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moon :&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;    Moon means SOMA and somasundara means inebriation or intoxication. He is intoxicated all the time with great alertness.&#xA;    these intoxication is due to internal body produces and can define in word ANANDA or BLISS.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Snake :&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;    snake is not just symbolic out of 114 chakra one is VISHUDDHI chakra is located in your throat. &#xA;    vishudhdhi is about stopping poison (NEELKANTHA) and snake carries poison. All these things are connected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3764" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T10:25:20.527" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T10:25:20.527" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8670" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8668" CreationDate="2015-09-21T14:57:07.783" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Other than Prabhupada's ISKCON commentary, pretty much all other commentators on the Bhagavad Gita interpret these verses as not referring to the time of death, but rather to the names of the series of gods who escort the soul on the path to Brahmaloka/Moksha.  This path is described in the Panchagni Vidya of the Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishads, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8646/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8653/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7703/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.  (I also posted &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6929/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; about the origin of the Panchagni Vidya.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01104.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Chandogya Upanishad describes the path:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who know this and those who in the forest follow faith and austerities go to light (arkis), from light to day, from day to the light half of the moon, from the light half of the moon to the six months when the sun goes to the north, from the six months when the sun goes to the north to the year, from the year to the sun, from the sun to the moon, from the moon to the lightning. There is a person not human, He leads them to Brahman (the conditioned Brahman).  This is the path of the Devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15095.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who thus know this, and those who in the forest worship faith and the True, go to light (arkis), from light to day, from day to the increasing half, from the increasing half to the six months when the sun goes to the north, from those six months to the world of the Devas (Devaloka), from the world of the Devas to the sun, from the sun to the place of lightning. When they have thus reached the place of lightning a spirit comes near them, and leads them to the worlds of the (conditioned) Brahman. In these worlds of Brahman they dwell exalted for ages. There is no returning for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the terms in this passage, like &quot;day&quot; and &quot;year&quot; aren't destinations as such; it's not like there's a place called &quot;the day&quot; that the soul goes to.  Rather, it refers to the god of the day, the god of the year, the god of lightning etc.  These gods are involved in escorting the soul to Brahmaloka/Moksha: the first god leads the soul to a certain place, then the second god leads it even further, etc., until finally a being whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7703/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; escorts it to the final destination.  See Adi Shankaracharya's commentary on the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38305.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38306.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like I said, almost all the commentators say that the Gita verses are referring to the path described in the Panchagni Vidya.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-8-24/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says in his commentary on Gita verse 8.24:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the expression ‘mango grove’ is used with regard to a place where mango trees are more numerous, similarly, the expressions ‘at which time’ and ‘that time’ (in the earlier verse) are used in view of the predominance (of the deities presiding over time). [If the first two (fire and light) are taken as Vedic deities, then the remaining three are the only deities of time. Still, the latter being numerically greater, all the five deities are referred to as deities of time. The deities of both the Paths-of gods and manes, or of the Northern and the Southern Paths as they are called-who are gods of time, are referred to here as ‘time’ by such words as day, fortnight, six months, etc.] So also, ahah, daytime, means the deity of daytime. Suklah, the bright fortnight, implies the deity presiding over the bright fortnight. Sanmasah uttarayanam, the six months of the Northern solstice-here, too, is understood the deity presiding over the Path. This is the principle (of interpretation followed elsewhere (in the Upanisads also).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Ramanujacharya says in his commentary on the same verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here, the term ‘time’ denotes a path, having many deities beginning with day and ending with year. The deities preside over divisions of time. The meaning is — I declare to you the path departing in which Yogins do not return and also the path departing in which the doers of good actions return. By the clause, ‘Light in the form of fire, the day, bright fortnight, six months of the northern course,’ year also is denoted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Madhvacharya says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It should be understood that Agni, Archi, Ahah and others are the presiding demigods of the respective time periods. Otherwise it would not be in accordance with the Vedic scriptures to say that during the daytime one reaches the bright waxing time of the month. The Brahma Purana states: Since in essence there only exists days which also includes nights, how can one situated in equanimity be said to have achieved the brahman only in the day during the bright waxing time of the month. So it is clear to the lucid that the presiding demigods in tandem with their corresponding time periods is the only logical interpretation in accordance with Vedic scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, it should be noted that while Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya see this path as the direct path to Moksha, Adi Shankaracharya only sees this path as a path to Brahmaloka, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8646/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8653/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Now Adi Shankaracharya did believe that the inhabitants of Brahmaloka would eventually get Moksha once Brahma dies at the end of the Mahakalpa, but it's a much slower route than just getting Moksha as soon as you die.  So insofar as Vivekananda and the other people you mentioned were Advaitins who wanted Moksha as soon as they died, the Gita verses we're discussing would be irrelevant to their goals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T17:28:27.410" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8671" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-21T15:47:31.397" Score="10" ViewCount="18236" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently came across a WhatsApp message which showed that there is a temple in Indore, India called Shri Shri Vidya Dham which is the only temple that has idols of full family of Lord Ganesha. Full family here means: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Ganesha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;His 5 wives, ie, Riddhi, Siddhi, Tushti, Pushti and Shri&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;2 sons, ie, Shubh and Laabh&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;2 grandsons, ie, Aamod and Pramod&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a picture of the temple:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Jep2Q.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Jep2Q.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already heard and read about Lord Ganesha's wife Riddhi and Siddhi and His sons Shubh and Laabh, but I have not heard of Tushti, Pushti, Aamod and Pramod. I wanted to ask whether we have any scriptural reference for them and any stories about them like who were these ladies and how did they got married to Lord Ganesha. Also did they along with Aamod and Pramod have any roles/responsibilities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2018-09-11T08:11:11.180" Title="Do we have any information about other wives (except Riddhi, Siddhi) and grandsons of Lord Ganesha mentioned in any texts" Tags="|ganesha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8672" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8362" CreationDate="2015-09-21T16:41:41.630" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pandavas were voracious meat eaters according to Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Vana Parva Section CCLVI says, &quot;Once on a time, as&#xA;  Yudhisthira lay down at night in the Dwaita woods, some deer, with&#xA;  accents choked in tears, presented themselves before him in his&#xA;  dreams. To them standing with joined hands, their bodies trembling all&#xA;  over, that foremost of monarchs said, 'Tell me what ye wish to say.&#xA;  Who are ye? And what do ye desire?&quot; Thus accosted by Kunti's son - the&#xA;  illustrious Pandava, these deer, the remnant of those that had been&#xA;  slaughtered, replied unto him, saying, 'We are, O Bharata, those deer&#xA;  that are still alive after them that had been slaughtered. We shall be&#xA;  exterminated totally. Therefore, do thou change thy residence. O&#xA;  mighty king, all thy brothers are heroes, conversant with weapons;&#xA;  they have thinned the ranks of the rangers of the forest. We few - the&#xA;  remnants,-O mighty minded one, remain like seed. By thy favour, O king&#xA;  of kings, let us increase.' Seeing these deer, which remained like&#xA;  seed after the rest has been destroyed trembling and afflicted with&#xA;  fear, Yudhisthira the just was greatly affected with grief. And the&#xA;  king, intent on the welfare of all creatures, said unto them, ' So be&#xA;  it. I shall act as ye have said.' Awaking after such a vision, that&#xA;  excellent king, moved by pity towards the deer, thus spake unto his&#xA;  brothers assembled there, 'Those deer that are alive after them that&#xA;  have been slaughtered, accosted me at night, after I had wakened,&#xA;  saying, 'We remain like the cues of our lines. Blest be thou! Do thou&#xA;  have compassion on us. And they have spoken truly. We ought to feel&#xA;  pity for the dwellers of the forest. We have been feeding on them for&#xA;  a year together and eight months. Let us, therefore, again (repair) to&#xA;  the romantic Kamakhyas, the best of forests abounding in wild animals,&#xA;  situated at the head of the desert, near Lake Trinavindu. And there&#xA;  let us pleasantly pass the rest of our time.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At least Arjuna among the Pandavas worshipped Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-09-21T16:41:41.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8673" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8681" CreationDate="2015-09-21T20:39:45.740" Score="6" ViewCount="1702" Body="&lt;p&gt;Eating a meal takes a considerable amount of time. After one offers the meal to God, there is still a lot of time spent eating the meal. My mind wanders and thinks about many different things while eating. What should one be thinking about while chewing ones food?&#xA;Should one meditate while eating food?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3547" LastEditorUserId="3547" LastEditDate="2015-09-29T03:24:00.143" LastActivityDate="2015-09-29T03:24:00.143" Title="How should one eat?" Tags="|rituals|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8675" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7653" CreationDate="2015-09-22T06:38:48.920" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is blind belief that Ekadasi is meant for fasting. Actually Ekadasi observance is an astrological phenomenon.It is important because we maintain certain relation with the solar system. In cycle of 48 days, three specific days, body does not demand food( 3 ekadashi occur in period of 48 days). So overloading the body results in health problems(due to indigestion).Also our body is made up of 80% of water effect of the moon is also evident on us ,which we don't realize.Hence the&#xA;ancient chose this day mainly due health reasons.The following link can explain better&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.salagram.net/ekadasi-science-behind.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.salagram.net/ekadasi-science-behind.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the origin of Ekadasi,Parth Tivedi has explained in detail.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2015-09-22T06:38:48.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8676" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-22T07:38:58.543" Score="3" ViewCount="64" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it for protecting the animal or the bird?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is it because the God likes a particular animal or bird?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3694" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T02:23:37.973" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T02:23:37.973" Title="Why does every God has a symbolic animal or bird?" Tags="|animals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2018-07-18T09:51:55.317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8677" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8653" CreationDate="2015-09-22T09:28:31.527" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, if the soul advancing on the path of the Gods reaches&#xA;  Hiranyagarbha only, texts such as 'This is the path of the Gods, the&#xA;  path of Brahman; those who proceed on that path do not return to the&#xA;  life of man' (Kh. Up. IV, 15, 6), and 'moving upwards by that a man&#xA;  reaches immortality' (VIII, 6, 6), are wrong in asserting that that&#xA;  soul attains to immortality and does not return; for the holy books&#xA;  teach that Hiranyagarbha, as a created being, passes away at the end&#xA;  of a dviparârdha-period; and the text 'Up to the world of Brahman the&#xA;  worlds return again' (Bha. Gî. VIII, 16) shows that those who have&#xA;  gone to Hiranyagarbha necessarily return also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think you should read more carefully the passage that you have quoted from the Ramanuja's commentary on Vedanta Sutra: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... if the soul advancing ... reaches&#xA;  Hiranyagarbha &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt;, texts such as ... ... are wrong in asserting that ... ... for the holy books&#xA;  teach that ... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above passage of text a simple concept of statement is applied under the scheme: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;if &lt;strong&gt;X&lt;/strong&gt; ... then it is &lt;strong&gt;Y&lt;/strong&gt; ... for the holy books teach that &lt;strong&gt;Z&lt;/strong&gt; ... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here &lt;strong&gt;Z&lt;/strong&gt; is the Bhagavad gita 8.16 verse that those who have gone to Hiranyagarbha necessarily return also.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Y&lt;/strong&gt; is &quot;texts such as Chandogya Upanishad ... are wrong in asserting that ... &quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;X&lt;/strong&gt; is &quot;the soul advancing ... reaches Hiranyagarbha &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Ramanuja simply says that if X is true, then Chandogya Upanishad would be wrong (see above Y) because Z teaches ... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course Ramanuja does not think X is true, he actually thinks X is false! And then he thinks Chandogya Upanishad is not wrong but is correct, and he thinks Bhagavad gita 8.16 is also correct. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, although Ramanuja thinks Bhagavad gita 8.16 is correct, yet he thinks X is false! He thinks that souls advancing on the path of the Gods do not reach Hiranyagarbha (Lord Brahma) &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt;, but they reach something higher than that, ie they reach immortality and the Lord Vishnu in Vaikuntha eventually!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is the meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="2790" LastEditDate="2015-09-24T04:21:05.810" LastActivityDate="2015-09-24T04:21:05.810" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8678" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6750" CreationDate="2015-09-22T09:50:20.717" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Hinduism the place between eyebrows is the place of soul in body. It is Aajna Chakra. Putting red Dot there signifies that woman is in soul form and wants others also to see her as soul instead of body. This is the main concept in Hinduism. This red dot also signifies powers of shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wearing red dot means &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;See me as soul not as body or worldly looks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the sign of soul. The person who puts it on signifies Adhyatmikta of person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2015-09-22T09:57:28.993" LastActivityDate="2015-09-22T09:57:28.993" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8679" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8661" CreationDate="2015-09-22T15:29:00.237" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Guru Drona was the son of rishi Bharadwaja. Both Drona and Drupada studied under the guidance of rishi Bharadwaja. Also, when Guru Parshurama was giving gifts to all brahmans, Drona reached there. Only the weapons of rishi Parshurama were left. Hence, the weapons and the knowledge to use them was given.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3770" LastActivityDate="2015-09-22T15:29:00.237" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8680" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-22T20:44:09.853" Score="6" ViewCount="914" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse 8.24&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who know the Supreme Brahman attain that Supreme by passing away from the world during the inﬂuence of the ﬁery god, in the light, at an auspicious moment of the day, during the fortnight of the waxing moon, or during the six months when the sun travels in the north.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now at first glance, it might seem like it's saying something about time of death, but as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8670/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, apart from Prabhupada pretty much all the commentators agree that this verse is actually about the path of the soul to Brahmaloka/Moksha, described in the Panchagni Vidya of the Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8646/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8653/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7703/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15095.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad describes this path:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who thus know this, and those who in the forest worship faith and the True, go to light (arkis), from light to day, from day to the increasing half, from the increasing half to the six months when the sun goes to the north, from those six months to the world of the Devas (Devaloka), from the world of the Devas to the sun, from the sun to the place of lightning. When they have thus reached the place of lightning a spirit comes near them, and leads them to the worlds of ... Brahman. In these worlds of Brahman they dwell exalted for ages. There is no returning for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the terms in this passage refer not to places (the day and the year are obviously not places), but rather to gods governing certain time periods.  The Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya provides a good argument for this in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38305.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38306.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But the Dvaita philosopher Madhvacharya provides another argument for this in his commentary on Gita verse 8.24:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word jyoti indicates illumination and is identified with the demigod known as Archi. This is confirmed in the Narada Purana which states: After reaching Agni the demigod of fire and then Archi the demigod of illumination and thereafter Ahah the demigod of day etc. It should be understood that Agni, Archi, Ahah and others are the presiding demigods of the respective time periods. Otherwise it would not be in accordance with the Vedic scriptures to say that during the daytime one reaches the bright waxing time of the month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brahma Purana states: Since in essence there only exists days which also includes nights, how can one situated in equanimity be said to have achieved the brahman only in the day during the bright waxing time of the month. So it is clear to the lucid that the presiding demigods in tandem with their corresponding time periods is the only logical interpretation in accordance with Vedic scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Garuda Purana states: The knowers of spiritual knowledge honor the presiding demigods of the respective time periods. Along with honouring the demigods such as Agni the fire god, Archi of illumination, Ahah of the day, Sukla of the waxing moon, Satmasah of the suns northern course and others, the presiding demigods of the Vishu or the passages travelled should also be honoured.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brahma Vaivarta Purana states: Honouring the presiding demigods of the day, the night, the waxing and waning moons, the sun on its northern and southern course as well as the Vishu; one who has realised the brahman attains the Supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, where are these quotes in the Narada Purana, Brahma Purana, Garuda Purana, and Brahma Vaivarta Purana?  I tried looking for them, but I couldn't find them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, more generally, why is it so difficult to track down Puranic quotes by Madhvacharya?  I ran into similar issues in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7084/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; about Madhavacharya's commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad.  Did Madhvacharya rely on Purana manuscripts that were different than those used by both his predecessors and those who came after him?  Because it almost seems like there's no overlap between the Puranic quotes in Madhvacharya's work and the Puranic quotes from other writers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2022-05-26T12:51:12.870" Title="Where are Madhvacharya's Puranic quotes describing the path to Moksha?" Tags="|puranas|bhagavad-gita|upanishads|brahma-sutras|madhvacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8681" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8673" CreationDate="2015-09-23T03:44:41.940" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The saintly persons get relief from all kinds of sins by partaking&#xA;  the food that has been first offered to gods as sacrifice. But those&#xA;  who prepare food for their selfish ends eat but only sins. &#xA;  &lt;code&gt;(Bhagavad gita 3:13)&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;All beings come into existence from food. Food comes from rains.&#xA;  Rains originate from the performance of sacrifices. And sacrifice is&#xA;  born out of doing prescribed duties. &lt;code&gt;(Bhagavad gita 3:14)&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I speak the truth, it is indeed his death. He who nourishes neither&#xA;  the god nor a friend, he who eats alone, gathers sin. &lt;code&gt;(Rig Veda X. 117)&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From earth herbs, from herbs food, from food seed, from seed man. Man&#xA;  thus consists of the essence of food. &lt;code&gt;(Taittiriya Upanishad)&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'From food are produced all creatures which dwell on earth. Then they&#xA;  live by food, and in the end they return to food. For food is the&#xA;  oldest of all beings, and therefore it is called panacea.&lt;code&gt;(Taittiriya Upanishad)&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Food Rituals&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism several rituals are associated with food. A child's first feeding is celebrated as a samskara known as annaprasana. The funeral rites involve serving of food, offering of food to the departed soul and making of his astral body with food for his continuation in the ancestral world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Manu,&quot; Food that is always worshipped, gives strength and&#xA;  manly vigour; but eaten irreverently, it destroys them both.&quot; He&#xA;  therefore advices that &quot;a twice-born man should always eat his food&#xA;  with concentrated mind, after performing an ablution; and after he has&#xA;  eaten,&quot; he should &quot;duly cleanse himself with water and sprinkle the&#xA;  cavities of his head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devout Hindus observe some rituals before eating food, which are enumerated below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Cleaning the place. Food is always eaten in a clean place. The Hindu law books proscribe eating food in unclean places.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sprinkling of water around the food. When food is served, water is sprinkled around it, accompanied by some mantras or prayers. This is meant to purify the food and make it worthy for the gods. Some water is also sipped following this act, in order to clear the throat.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Making an offering of the food. Food is then offered to five vital breaths (pranas), namely prana, apana, vyana, udana, samanaya and then to Brahman seated in the heart.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some offer food to their personal gods or divinities before eating instead of the five vital breaths. The purpose of offering food to the deities and God is two fold. It renders the act of eating a sacrificial ritual and signifies internalization of sacrifice, making ones body a sacrificial altar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, it is believed that offering food to gods is a mark of self-surrender and devotion. According to Hindu scriptures, he who eats food after offering it to gods or God would come to no harm as any rajasic or tamasic substances or qualities hidden in the food would be neutralized by the their positive energies and blessings. In addition to these, the twice born were advised to perform five sacrifices every day which are essentially sacrificial offerings of food to different entities. They are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ahuta, which is not offered to the fire, usually the vedic mantras,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Huta, which is the burnt oblation offered to the gods, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prahuta which is usually food grains etc offered by scattering it on the ground&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the Bali, which is the sacrificial offering given to the Bhutas or ghosts, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmya-huta, which is the food offered to the digestive fires of Brahmanas and guests invited to one's house, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prasita, which is offered to the to the ancestors.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Bhagavadgita, he who eats food without offering to God verily incurs sin. Food is also served to guests and poor people during festive occasions and important ceremonies. In ancient India young students who were initiated into Brahmacharya were expected to beg for their food. Cooking food is also prohibited for those who have entered the phase of Sanyasa or renunciation. While self-mortification was not suggested, they were expected to gradually reduce their dependence upon food in order to set themselves free from the cravings of the body and the mind.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/h_food.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other rules&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Irrespective of whether one consumes food using cutlery or with their hand (typically the right hand), one is expected to wash hands before and after partaking food. During the course of the meal, cleaning one's eating hand with a cloth or paper tissue is considered unhygienic, though with the advent of restaurant dining, it is becoming more acceptable. One may be asked to wash their hands before and after sitting down to a meal.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is customary to share food with anyone who wants it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is rude for one's host to not offer guests food multiple times.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Similarly, it is expected that one should not leave the table before the host or until the eldest person has finished their food.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It was not traditional to use dining napkins or paper tissues while eating, however, this is now the case in most of North India. In South India, an unfolded long towel on right shoulder is a tradition, which can be used to wipe one's hands after washing. However, this is mostly followed only on formal occasions.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is not necessary to taste each and every dish prepared, but one should finish everything on the plate as it is considered a respect for served food, and food is sacred. For this reason, one should take only as much food on the plate as they can finish. However, this is not general phenomenon. Depending on the family or community, one can leave the leftover food on the plate if they cannot eat any more. Also, at many places, someone insisting someone to try a dish or serving special dishes in excess, is considered as a sign of their affection towards them.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Playing with food or in any way distorting the food is unacceptable. Eating at a medium pace is important, as eating too slowly may imply that you dislike the food, whereas eating too quickly is rude.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In some parts of India, if a diner finishes earlier than the rest, they may need to wait until everyone has finished to wash their hands. It may be considered rude to leave the table. Sometimes, it may be acceptable for the diner who has finished to wash their hands, however, they are expected to return to the dining area immediately after. In most parts it is acceptable to leave after the elders have finished. This practice, like most others, is still prevalent in India.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If a meal is served over banana leaves (in South India) then it is customary to fold the leaves from the top at the end of the meal (if folded from the bottom, it means the relationship with the host is broken). This is to note the host that one has finished eating.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Courses in Indian meals depend on the area. North India has one course and desserts. Gujaratis have a roti course with desserts, followed by a rice course. In South India and East India, where meals are mostly rice based, orderly servings of accompaniments make various courses. The thali course is very common in South India; the vegetarian thali is a very typical, commonplace lunchtime meal in Tamil Nadu vegetarian eateries and canteens (and South India in general), and is a popular lunch choice.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In various communities, various etiquette may prevail for indicating the end of a meal. For Marwaris, the guest must explicitly ask for papad, for Gujaratis, the guest must ask for rice. Sometimes in South India, serving buttermilk by the host indicates the end of a meal.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Food has to be consumed by one hand only (with the exception of Punjab), and with the right hand only.&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etiquette_of_Indian_dining#Other_rules&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastActivityDate="2015-09-23T03:44:41.940" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8682" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-23T04:22:09.143" Score="11" ViewCount="949" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras describes the Brahma Vidyas, 32 lessons found in the various Upanishads which can each lead you to Brahman if you meditate upon them. You can see the full list of 32 Vidyas &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of these Brahma Vidyas is the Samvarga Vidya, and it is found in Prapathaka 4 of the Chandogya Upanishad.  It was taught by a cart-driver named Raikva to the king Janashruti.  In Adyaya 1 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa references this story in the course of demonstrating that only Dvijas (members of the first three castes) are eligible for Jnana.  When Raikva agrees to teach Janashruti, he tells him &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01079.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You have brought these (cows and other presents), &lt;strong&gt;O Sûdra,&lt;/strong&gt; but only by that mouth did you make me speak.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to refute the objection that Raikva was willing to teach a low-caste person, and thus low-caste people are eligible for Jnana, Vyasa explains that Raikva is using the term in the sense of &quot;consumed by grief&quot;, not in the sense of the name of the fourth caste.  Then in Adhyaya 1 Pada 3 Sutra 35 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa demonstrates that Janashruti was in fact a Kshatriya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And because his Kshatriyahood is known later on from the indicatory mark of his mention along with a descendant of Citraratha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You see, later in the Samvargya Vidya of the Chandogya Upanishad, there is a mention of a Kshatriya named Abhipratarin Chaitraratha.  Vyasa claims that this is sufficient to conclude that Janashruti is a Kahatriya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Adi Shankaracharya says in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gânasruti cannot have been a Sûdra by birth for that reason also that his being a kshattriya is understood from an inferential sign, viz. his being mentioned together (in one chapter) with the kshattriya Kaitraratha Abhipratârin. For, later on, i.e. in the passage complementary to the samvarga-vidyâ, a kshattriya Kaitrarathi Abhipratârin is glorified... &lt;strong&gt;The fact now of Gânasruti being praised in the same vidyâ with the kshattriya Abhipratârin intimates that the former also was a kshattriya. For as a rule equals are mentioned together with equals.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya says much the same thing in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The kshattriya-hood of Gânasruti is further to be accepted on account of the Kshattriya Abhipratârin Kaitraratha, who is mentioned further on in this very same Samvargavidyâ which Raikva imparts to Gânasruti.&lt;/strong&gt;... Now Abhipratârin is a Kshattriya, the other two are Brâhmanas. This shows that there are connected with the vidyâ, Brâhmanas, and from among non-Brâhmanas, a Kshattriya only, but not a Sûdra. It therefore appears appropriate to infer that the person, other than the Brâhmana Raikva, who is likewise connected with this vidyâ, viz. Gânasruti, is likewise a Kshattriya, not a Sûdra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why does the fact that someone else in the same Brahma Vidya is a Kshatriyas imply that Janashruti is a Kshatriya?  Is it always the case that when two people are mentioned in the same Brahma Vidya, they're of the same caste?  Is that what Adi Shankaracharya means by &quot;as a rule equals are mentioned together with equals&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This reasoning seems rather peculiar to me, so can someone please clarify things?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-09-12T16:15:00.803" Title="Do characters in the same Brahmavidya always have the same caste?" Tags="|vedanta|brahma-sutras|adi-shankaracharya|caste-system|chandogya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8683" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8686" CreationDate="2015-09-23T04:42:11.437" Score="6" ViewCount="8670" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many people calling Lord Krishna as 'Vasudev'. We know that Vasudev was the father of the Lord, but why is Krishna addressed using the same name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3659" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-01-25T19:31:29.687" LastActivityDate="2018-01-25T19:31:29.687" Title="Why Lord Krishna is referred as Vasudev?" Tags="|krishna|name|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8684" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8688" CreationDate="2015-09-23T04:49:12.967" Score="7" ViewCount="1506" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is known that Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna, was killed during the Chakra Vyuh (a.k.a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmavyuha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Padmavyuha&lt;/a&gt;) in the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why did he die? Why couldn't Lord Krishna save him? Was he destined to die in this way?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3659" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T17:36:59.953" LastActivityDate="2021-02-22T22:56:46.683" Title="Abhimanyu's death: Was he destined to die at a young age?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|abhimanyu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8685" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8687" CreationDate="2015-09-23T04:58:44.630" Score="17" ViewCount="3878" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;पंच पंच नखा भक्ष्या ब्रह्म क्षत्रेण राघव |&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;शल्यकः श्वाविधो गोधा शशः कूर्मः च पंचमः ||&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Kishkinda Kanda 17th Sarga 39th Shloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Raghava, five kinds of five-nailed animals, viz., a kind of wild&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;rodent, a kind of wild-boar, a kind of lizard, a hare and fifthly the&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;turtle are edible for Brahmans and Kshatriya-s.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is it true that  Brahmins used to eat five-nailed animals, as mentioned by sage Valmiki in his Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-08-28T06:46:01.680" Title="Brahmins used to eat Five-nailed animals?" Tags="|ramayana|practice|food|brahmins|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8686" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8683" CreationDate="2015-09-23T05:06:50.080" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, Vāsudeva (with a long a) is the patronymic name of Krishna, what we would call a &quot;last name&quot;.  It means &quot;son of Vasudeva&quot; (with a short a).  Second of all, long before the birth of Krishna, Vishnu has been known as Vāsudeva.  How is this possible?  It's because the name Vāsudeva has another meaning, given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp160.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The term Vásudeva means that all beings abide in that supreme being, and that he abides in all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why Vishnu's four Vyuha forms were known as Vásudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha long before the birth of Krishna.  Still, it's not just a coincidence that these are also the names of Krishna, Krishna's brother Balarama, Krishna's son Pradyumna, and Krishna's grandson Aniruddha, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6923/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-06-15T15:03:09.907" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8687" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8685" CreationDate="2015-09-23T05:44:19.430" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, the quote is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga17/kishkindha_17_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Kishkindha Kanda of the Ramayana, where Vali accuses Rama of acting sinfully in killing him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My skin is unwearable, holy people forbid my hair and bones, and uneatable is my meat for your kind of reputable people. &lt;strong&gt;Raghava, five kinds of five-nailed animals, viz., a kind of wild rodent, a kind of wild-boar, a kind of lizard, a hare and fifthly the turtle are edible for Brahmans and Kshatriyas.&lt;/strong&gt;  Sensible people will not touch my skin and bones, oh, king, nor meats from my body are to be eaten, such as I am, a five-nailed animal, I am killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/246/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Rama gives a thorough defense of his actions, and at the end of it Vali agrees Rama was in the right.  In any case, Vali is referencing the rule given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti, which lists various foods that are and are not permitted for Dvijas (members of the first three castes):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;17&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let him not eat solitary or unknown beasts and birds, though they may fall under (the categories of) eatable (creatures), nor any five-toed (animals).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The porcupine, the hedgehog, the iguana, the rhinoceros, the tortoise, and the hare they declare to be eatable; likewise those (domestic animals) that have teeth in one jaw only, excepting camels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 18 lists exceptions to the general prohibition given in verse 17.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, even if the Manu Smriti doesn't forbid the eating of certain animals by Dvijas, there are still excellent reasons to be a vegetarian.  It gives you good gunas that can lead you to be a more virtuous person, it's more compassionate to other living beings, and as the Manu Smriti itself says, abstaining from meat generates as much Punya as the performance of a hundred Ashwamedha Yagnas.  So go vegetarian!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-23T12:44:41.667" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8688" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8684" CreationDate="2015-09-23T06:05:11.810" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, Krishna couldn't have intervened and saved him directly, because he had taken a vow not to fight.  Second of all, Krishna and Arjuna were busy fighting Susharma at the time, while the rest of the Pandava army couldn't get to Abhimanyu because they were blocked by Duhsala's husband Jayadratha (which is why Arjuna took revenge on Jayadratha afterward).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But more fundamentally, the real reason why Abhimanyu was killed is because, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7044/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, he was an incarnation of Varchas, son of Chandra the moon god, and Chandra didn't want to be apart from his son for too long.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And he who was known as the mighty Varchas, the son of Soma, became Abhimanyu of wonderful deeds, the son of Arjuna. And before his incarnation, O king, the god Soma had said these words to the celestials, 'I cannot give (part with) my son. He is dearer to me than life itself. Let this be the compact and let it be not transgressed. The destruction of the Asuras on earth is the work of the celestials, and, therefore, it is our work as well. Let this Varchas, therefore, go thither, but let him not stay there long.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's similar to why the Upapandavas, the five sons of Draupadi, died at a young age, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7049/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-09-26T14:52:31.647" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8689" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2970" CreationDate="2015-09-23T08:13:16.717" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is considered as a chant but have some Marathi meaning you need to consider.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Morya Mean&#xA;1 Go ahead (for Visarjan ceremony happen.)&#xA;2 It is Marathi ward mohre ya mean pudhe Vha (for Visarjan ceremony happen.)&#xA;3 It look like lolhapuri Language word mhore ya(go ahead)&#xA;ref: Page on wordpress.com&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/What-does-Morya-mean-when-they-say-Ganpati-bappa-Morya-during-Ganeshotsav&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Quora Answer to Morya&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vva0r.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vva0r.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://jodiif.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/%E2%80%9Cganpati-bappa-morya%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-what-it-means/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;jodiif.wordpress.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karmayog.org/articlesbyexperts/articlesbyexperts_9662.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.karmayog.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080903060310AAS971U&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;yahoo QnA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100917045109AAh7sm6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Another Yahoo QnA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3774" LastEditorUserId="3774" LastEditDate="2015-09-26T04:23:28.610" LastActivityDate="2015-09-26T04:23:28.610" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8694" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8508" CreationDate="2015-09-23T13:12:16.013" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The birth of the universe (Brahma) is followed by the life of the universe (Vishnu) and the destruction of the universe (Shiva).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know and as per Shiv Mahapuran, Lord Shiva is the supreme of God, he is the one who started by creating Vishnu and then Brahma was generated from stomach of Vishnu. At the beginning there was nothing except the fire(Jyoti of Lord Shiva). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord Shiva allocated task of creating universe and human beings to Brahma and task of sustaining universe to Vishnu and himself took the task as a destroyer when required.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL57F01972FF119B66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiv Mahapuran Playlist&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3783" LastActivityDate="2015-09-23T13:12:16.013" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8695" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8697" CreationDate="2015-09-23T13:32:51.940" Score="11" ViewCount="30102" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am wondering why Krishna took life of Barbarika as guru-dakshina from Barbarika as he was assumed to be the most strong contender in the Mahabharata about whom everyone was worried with his undefeated power of 3 arrows that he was having. Barbarika was called &quot;Teen Baandhari&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason mentioned is that Barbarika gave guru-dakshina to his guru that Barbarika will always fight from the weaker side and Krishna was worried that there would be a time when his side(Pandavas) will be strong and Kauravas will be weak then Barbarika will fight against them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, as Barbarika was son of Ghatothkach and the grandson of Bheem, he was willing to fight with Pandavas and he was having power to kill all enemies within minutes with the power of 3 arrows that he was having.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3783" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-23T14:51:23.300" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T14:10:05.203" Title="Why Krishna took life of Barbarika before Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8697" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8695" CreationDate="2015-09-23T14:13:01.467" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Barbarika's joining Pandavas army and having 3 arrows would have itself made the Kaurava's army weak, so Barbarika could have then joined Kauravas. Now, if Barbarika joins the Kauravas army then the Pandavas army would have been weak. So, it would have been confusing for Barbarika in deciding what to do, which side to join. And in the process of joining both armies one by one he would have killed everyone and he himself would've been the lone survivor. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And even if we consider him joining the Pandavas army for a minute, then also here could be some other things that needed to be considered:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma: Bhishma had got the boon of Ichcha-Mrityu so he couldn't be killed by even Barbarika, and if he would have survived and rest others are dead then Barbarika had to join him as then Kauravas side would have been weak.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jaidrath: If he had killed Jaidrath than Barbarika's head would have also busted thus killing Barbarika.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Karna: Karna couldn't have been killed until he had his Kavach and Kundal. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, either full Kauravas army wouldn't have been killed then and ultimately Barbarika had to join Kauravas and end all Pandavas along with their army, which was possible as Pandavas do not had any such boon like Bhishma or Karna to protect them OR Barbarika himself would have been killed by killing Jaidrath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there were some pledges taken by Pandavas brothers like Bheema for killing Dushasana, Pledge by Draupadi for not tying her hair until she washes it with blood of Dushasana, Dhristadyumna being born with the purpose of killing Drona, Amba's pledge that she will the reason for Bhishma's death, etc. There were several boons, curses and pledges that needs to be settled through this war. So, ending the war through Barbarika was not destined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, another reason for cutting Barbarika's head was a story about the previous birth of Barbarika in which he was cursed that he will be killed by Lord Vishnu's incarnation before Lord eliminates the evil forces on earth. This is described on this &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarika&quot;&gt;Wiki page&lt;/a&gt; as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Barbarika was a Yaksha in his previous birth. Once Lord Brahma and several other Devas came to Vaikunta and complained to Lord Vishnu that the Adharma on Earth was increasing; it was not possible for them to bear the tortures causes by the wicked people. Hence they came to seek the help of Lord Vishnu to check them. Lord Vishnu told the Devas that he will soon be incarnated on Earth as a human being and destroy all the evil forces. Then, a Yaksha told the Devas that he alone is enough to kill all evil elements on the Earth, and it was not necessary for Lord Vishnu to descend to Earth. This hurt Lord Brahma very much. Lord Brahma cursed this Yaksha that whenever the time comes to eliminate all the evil forces on Earth, then Lord Vishnu will first kill him. Later, the Yaksha takes birth as Barbarika and Lord Krishna seeks his head in charity as a result of this curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-23T18:31:44.583" LastActivityDate="2015-09-23T18:31:44.583" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8699" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-23T17:30:34.370" Score="8" ViewCount="1218" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why are there no Rishi in the present time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it because most people have some level of knowledge (from previous Rishi or other scientific discovery) that they think is sufficient for the life to continue?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is it because people are self-centered and not interested to become Rishi/Sage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3726" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-08-27T04:22:27.970" LastActivityDate="2023-12-05T14:33:11.790" Title="Why are there no Rishi in the current time?" Tags="|rishi|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8700" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-23T19:26:28.683" Score="3" ViewCount="357" Body="&lt;p&gt;I post some further questions in continuation of the question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8660/about-the-minds-eye-and-the-third-eye-in-hinduism&quot;&gt;About the mind's eye and the third eye in Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand from @SwamiVishwananda's answer to the first question that the Ajna chakra of most people is said to be closed, and that its opening is considered an advanced stage in a spiritual path, and that &quot;It is this eye that allows one to see into the spiritual realms&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are Purusha, Atman, and Brahman considered part of these spiritual realms?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If so, does one need to open the Ajna chakra to be able to see the Atman?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or, can people see the Atman naturally (or after short explanation or short practice of meditation)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are there different answers to these questions in the tradition?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3759" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-09-25T11:18:25.193" Title="More questions on the Ajna chakra, and the Atman" Tags="|yoga|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8701" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-24T03:24:50.457" Score="1" ViewCount="8179" Body="&lt;p&gt;The wikipedia mentions the following about Vyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa is traditionally known as author of this epic and likewise&#xA;  features as an important character in it. His mother Satyavati later&#xA;  married King Shantanu of Hastinapura and had two sons, Chitrāngada and&#xA;  Vichitravirya. Chitrangada died unmarried and Vichitravirya died&#xA;  without issue, and hence their mother asked Vyasa to father the child&#xA;  through the &quot;Niyoga&quot; method which specifies rules for appointing a&#xA;  father to bear a child in case the husband is incapacitated or unable&#xA;  to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have two questions based on the above information:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Does it mean that Satyavati, who is the mother of Ved Vyada, asked his own son to produce children for herself and king Shantanu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Were Chitrangada and Vichitravirya, biological children of Satyavati and King Shantanu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3478" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-24T07:58:15.963" LastActivityDate="2015-09-24T07:58:15.963" Title="Did Ved Vyasa father children for his mother Satyavati?" Tags="|vyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-09-24T13:16:33.987" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8702" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8701" CreationDate="2015-09-24T04:39:42.553" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satyavati bore Shantanu two sons: Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. The&#xA;  Harivamsa tells of Bhishma recalling events after Shantanu's death.&#xA;  During the period of mourning after Shantanu’s death, Ugrayudha&#xA;  Paurava (usurper of the throne of Panchala) demanded that Bhishma hand&#xA;  over Satyavati in return for wealth. Bhishma killed Ugrayudha Paurava,&#xA;  who had lost his powers because he lusted after another's wife.&#xA;  However, the Mahabharata does not include this event; it only&#xA;  describes Bhishma crowning Chitrangada as king under Satyavati's&#xA;  command. Chitrangada was later killed by a namesake gandharva (a&#xA;  celestial musician).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Chitrangada's death his young brother Vichitravirya was crowned&#xA;  king, while Bhishma ruled on his behalf (under Satyavati's command)&#xA;  until Vichitravirya grew up. Vichitravirya married the princesses of&#xA;  Kashi-Kosala: Ambika and Ambalika, who were won by Bhishma in a&#xA;  Swayamvara (marriage choice). The childless Vichitravirya met with an&#xA;  untimely death from tuberculosis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An aged Satyavati with her first born Vyasa With no heir to the&#xA;  throne, Satyavati asked Bhishma to marry the widows of Vichitravirya&#xA;  (following the practice of niyoga in its narrower sense, as a levirate&#xA;  marriage) and rule as king. Bhishma refused, reminding Satyavati&#xA;  of the promise he made to her father and his vow of&#xA;  bachelorhood. He suggests that a Brahmin could be hired&#xA;  to father children on the widows, thus preserving the dynasty.&#xA;  Revealing to Bhishma the tale of her encounter with Parashara,&#xA;  Satyavati well knew that this was the time to call her son Vyasa to&#xA;  aid her. Satyavati coaxed Vyasa to have niyoga with his brother's&#xA;  widows, saying: &quot;from affection for thy brother Vichitravirya,&#xA;  for the perpetuation of our dynasty, for the sake of this Bhishma's&#xA;  request and my command, for kindness to all creatures, for the&#xA;  protection of the people and from the liberality of thy heart, O&#xA;  sinless one, it behooveth thee to do what I say.&quot; After convincing&#xA;  Vyasa, Satyavati managed ( with great difficulty) to obtain the&#xA;  consent of her &quot;virtuous&quot; daughters-in-law.[16] In the Mahabharata,&#xA;  Vyasa agreed immediately to the niyoga. In the Devi Bhagavata Purana&#xA;  version, Vyasa initially refused Satyavati's proposal. He argued that&#xA;  Vichitravirya's wives were like his daughters; having niyoga with them&#xA;  was a heinous sin, through which no good could come. As a master of&#xA;  &quot;realpolitik&quot;, the hungry-for-grandsons Satyavati asserted that to&#xA;  preserve the dynasty, wrong directives by elders should be followed if&#xA;  they are going to reduce the sorrow of a mother. Vyasa finally agreed&#xA;  to that &quot;disgusting task&quot;, but suggested that offspring of perversity&#xA;  cannot be a source of joy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Birth of Pandu ,Dhritrashtra &amp;amp; vidhur your First point satyavati asked for her grand children not for herself&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During the menstrual period of the older queen, Ambika, Satyavati&#xA;  invited Vyasa to Ambika's bedchamber. However, during niyoga with&#xA;  Vyasa, Ambika noticed his dark appearance and closed her eyes. Vyasa&#xA;  declared to Satyavti that due to Ambika's cruelty, her son would be&#xA;  blind (but strong) and have a hundred sons – later known as Kauravas&#xA;  (descendants of Kuru). Satyavati considered such an heir to be an&#xA;  unworthy king, so she asked Vyasa to have niyoga with her other&#xA;  daughter-in-law. During their niyoga, Ambalika fell pale due to&#xA;  Vyasa's grim appearance. As the result the child would be wan, Vyasa&#xA;  told his mother, who begged for another child. In due course, the&#xA;  blind Dhritarashtra and the pale Pandu were born. Satyavati again&#xA;  invited Vyasa to Ambika's bedchamber; she remembered Vyasa's grim&#xA;  appearance (and repulsive odour), and substituted a Shudra (lowest&#xA;  caste) maid in her place. The maid respected the sage and was not&#xA;  afraid of him, and Vyasa thus blessed her; her son would be the most&#xA;  intelligent man, and she would no longer be a slave. Vyasa told&#xA;  Satyavti of the deception, and then disappeared; Vidura, an&#xA;  incarnation of the god Dharma, was born to the maid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyavati#Birth_of_children_and_grandchildren&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Birth of children and grandchildren- Find Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-09-24T05:16:42.010" LastActivityDate="2015-09-24T05:16:42.010" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8703" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8652" CreationDate="2015-09-24T06:04:19.580" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Following his initial training, Ravana performed an intense penance&#xA;  (or tapasya) to brahma, lasting several years. During his penance,&#xA;  Ravana chopped off his head 10 times as a sacrifice to appease him.&#xA;  Each time he sliced his head off a new head arose, thus enabling him&#xA;  to continue his penance. At last, brahma, pleased with his austerity,&#xA;  appeared after his 10th decapitation and offered him a boon. &lt;strong&gt;Ravana&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;asked for immortality, which brahma refused to give,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;but gave him the&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;celestial nectar of immortality. The nectar of immortality, stored&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;under his navel&lt;/strong&gt;, dictated that he could not be vanquished for as long&#xA;  as it lasted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana also asked for absolute invulnerability from and supremacy over&#xA;  gods, heavenly spirits, other rakshas, serpents, and wild beasts.&#xA;  Contemptuous of mortal men, he did not ask for protection from these.&#xA;  Brahma granted him these boons in addition to his 10 severed heads and&#xA;  great strength by way of knowledge of divine weapons and magic. Thus&#xA;  Ravana is also known as 'Dasamukha' or 'Dashaanan' (Dasa - ten, mukha/anan -&#xA;  face).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravana#Tapasya_to_brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-24T10:22:35.760" LastActivityDate="2015-09-24T10:22:35.760" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8704" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8475" CreationDate="2015-09-24T07:38:20.183" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The clearest statement of Jnana that I have come across is that of Yudhisthira in Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two well-known paths (for us), viz, the path of the Pitris&#xA;  and the path of the gods. They that perform sacrifices go by the&#xA;  Pitri-path, while they that are for salvation, go by the god-path. By&#xA;  penances, by Brahmacharya, by study (of the Vedas), the great Rishis,&#xA;  casting off their bodies, proceed to regions that are above the power&#xA;  of death. Worldly enjoyments have been styled as bonds. They have also&#xA;  been called action. Liberated from these two sins (viz, bonds and&#xA;  action) one attains to the highest end. ….As a person on the hill-top&#xA;  looketh down upon men on the plain below, so he that has got up on the&#xA;  top of the mansion of knowledge, seeth people grieving for things that&#xA;  do not call for grief. He, however, that is of foolish understanding,&#xA;  does not see this. He who, casting his eyes on visible things, really&#xA;  seeth them, is said to have eyes and understanding. The faculty called&#xA;  understanding is so called because of the knowledge and comprehension&#xA;  it gives of unknown and incomprehensible things. He who is acquainted&#xA;  with the words of persons that are learned, that are of cleansed&#xA;  souls, and that have attained to a state of Brahma, succeeds in&#xA;  obtaining great honours. &lt;strong&gt;When one seeth creatures of infinite&#xA;  diversity to be all one and the same to be but diversified emanations&#xA;  from the same essence, one is then said to have attained Brahma.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Those who reach this high state of culture attain to that supreme and&#xA;  blissful end, and not they who are without knowledge, or they who are&#xA;  of little and narrow souls, or they who are bereft of understanding,&#xA;  or they who are without penances. Indeed, everything rests on the&#xA;  (cultivated) understanding!’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section XVII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bolded sentence which says essentially that Brahman is the sole independent essence is what is called Jnana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can one obtain the experience of Jnana? Again the clearest statement is given in Mahabharata in a conversation between Ashtaka and Yayati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashtaka asked, 'Who amongst these, O king, both exerting constantly&#xA;  like  the Sun and the Moon, first attaineth to communion with Brahma,&#xA;  the ascetic  or the man of knowledge?'&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yayati answered, 'The wise,&#xA;  with the help of the Vedas and of Knowledge,  having ascertained the&#xA;  visible universe to be illusory, instantly realizes  the Supreme&#xA;  Spirit as the sole existent independent essence. While they that &#xA;  devote themselves to Yoga meditation take time to acquire the same&#xA;  knowledge,  for it is by practice alone that these latter divest&#xA;  themselves of the  consciousness of quality. Hence the wise attain to&#xA;  salvation first. Then again  if the person devoted to Yoga finds not&#xA;  sufficient time in one life to attain  success, being led astray by&#xA;  the attraction of the world, in his next life  he is benefitted by the&#xA;  progress already achieved,…...'  (Mahabharata, Adi Parva XCII)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 2 methods to acquire Jnana. The path of Jnana Yoga is supposed to give instant illumination. The disciple acquires Jnana as soon as he is initiated in one of the 4 maha vakyas. The other method is the Yogic path of krama mukti where one has to meditate and do Japa to gradually get Jnana. The Yogic path might be Bhakti Yoga or Karma Yoga or Mantra Yoga etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2015-09-29T16:12:56.093" LastActivityDate="2015-09-29T16:12:56.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8705" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8707" CreationDate="2015-09-24T10:52:38.727" Score="8" ViewCount="874" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Nara-Narayana sages were born as Arjuna and Krishna respectively. But at the same time Arjuna is biological son of Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also it is said that Draupadi is incarnation of wives of Dharma, Vayu,Indra and Aswini Kumaras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my questions now are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Whose soul did Arjuna have? Indra's or Nara's ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Arjuna had Nara's soul (Atma), is this the reason why Krishna exhorted Bhagavadgita to Arjuna, indirectly saying to himself ?( Lord Vishnu was born as Nara and Narayana brothers.).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If assumption in second question is correct, is this the reason behind their friendship?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-09-24T11:03:33.030" LastActivityDate="2015-09-25T09:49:20.917" Title="Soul (Atma) of Arjuna" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|krishna|atma|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8706" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-24T11:15:38.777" Score="10" ViewCount="3258" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After Govardana Hill incident, did Indra know that Krishna was Incarnation of Lord Vishnu?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If He knew Krishna as Avatar of Lord Vishnu after that incident, why did Indra fight with Krishna when Krishna stole Parijata flowers from Amaravati, abode of Indra?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indra helped Arjuna many times as Arjuna was his son. At the same time Krishna and Arjuna were best friends. So how were Indra and Krishna? Were they hostile or were they friendly?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T06:26:03.493" LastActivityDate="2021-06-12T11:52:06.707" Title="Did Indra know Krishna as Avatar of Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavata-purana|arjuna|indra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8707" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8705" CreationDate="2015-09-24T11:28:02.123" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Whose soul did Arjuna have? Indra's or Nara's ?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was biological son of Indra, and to some extent his soul was partly of Sakra (the Indra). Similarly Krishna was 1/6 of Vishnu. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01200.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;From Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... And Hari (lord Vishnu) took up two hairs from his body, one of which&#xA;  hairs was black and the other white. And those two hairs entered the&#xA;  wombs of two of the Yadu race, by name Devaki and Rohini. And one of&#xA;  these hairs viz., that which was white, became Valadeva. And &lt;em&gt;the hair&#xA;  that was black was born as Kesava's self, Krishna&lt;/em&gt;. And those Indras of&#xA;  old who had been confined in the cave on the Himavat are none else&#xA;  than the sons of Pandu, endued with great energy. And &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna amongst&#xA;  the Pandavas, called also Savyasachin (using both hands with equal&#xA;  dexterity) is a portion of Sakra.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vyasa continued, 'Thus, O king, they who have been born as the&#xA;  Pandavas are none else than those Indras of old. And the celestial &lt;em&gt;Sri&#xA;  herself who had been appointed as their wife is this Draupadi of&#xA;  extraordinary beauty.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His soul was indeed &quot;Nara&quot;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08087.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Karna Parva&lt;/a&gt; describes about him and Krishna just before the deciding battle with Karna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the two Krishnas are excited with wrath, they show regard for&#xA;  nothing. These two bulls among beings are the Creators of all real and&#xA;  unreal things. &lt;strong&gt;These two are Nara and Narayana, the two ancient and&#xA;  best of Rishis.&lt;/strong&gt; There is none to rule over them. They are rulers over&#xA;  all, perfectly fearless, they are scorchers of all foes. In heaven or&#xA;  among human beings, there is none equal to either of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So we can say that Arjun's soul was amalgamation of Sakra (the Indra) and sage Nara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For other Mahabharata characters' previous births refer:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7039/1049&quot;&gt;What were the previous births of the characters of Mahabharata?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;If Arjuna had Nara's soul (Atma), is this the reason why Krishna    exhorted Bhagavadgita to Arjuna, indirectly saying to himself ?( Nara &#xA;  and Narayana were parts of Lord Vishnu).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This can or cannot be a reason for the same.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Though Arjuna had Nara's soul, he was not self realized about it. But in layman's context, Bhagavad Gita was exhorted to Arjuna because he had surrendered his soul to Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 2.7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of&#xA;  miserly weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me for&#xA;  certain what is best for me. &lt;strong&gt;Now I am Your disciple, and a soul&#xA;  surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But again there can be many reasons, which people can come up with:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna was Arjuna's Saarathy and Arjuna was the one who got&#xA;confused before the war.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhagavad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;was said before&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;but was forgotten; Hence for the good for the humanity post&#xA;Mahabharata, it was recited once more to Arjuna by making him drop &#xA;his weapons.    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yudhishtira was on the right path of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, while Bhima was waiting &#xA;for the war since the dice game. Remaining Paandava army were obedient &#xA;to Yudhishtira and Kauravas were to Duryodhana. They did not require&#xA;any such &lt;em&gt;message giving&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;If assumption in second question is correct, is this the reason       behind their friendship?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Possibly yes. During Mahabharata, &lt;em&gt;Nara-Narayana&lt;/em&gt; took birth as first cousins, but also dear friends and in a way &lt;em&gt;Guru-Shishya&lt;/em&gt; too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8606/1049&quot;&gt;How strong lord krishna and Arjuna's friendship was?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-09-25T09:49:20.917" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8708" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-24T12:04:03.060" Score="6" ViewCount="2113" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my school days, one of the Sanskrit lesson named &quot;anthariksha vijayaha&quot;, has a statement saying &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is mentioned in the Vedas that a person(physically) cannot step on any other&#xA;  planet/satellite but some persons have already reached the moon and&#xA;  came back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Vedas say that a human can't step on other celestial bodies?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, has that particular sentence (in Vedas) been proved wrong (by the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Moon landing&lt;/a&gt;)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-11-10T06:58:12.230" LastActivityDate="2019-11-10T06:58:12.230" Title="Per the Vedas, can a person really step on another planet physically?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8709" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="28461" CreationDate="2015-09-24T14:51:33.013" Score="4" ViewCount="1325" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras describes the Brahma Vidyas, 32 lessons found in the various Upanishads which can each lead you to Brahman if you meditate on them. You can see the full list of 32 Vidyas &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of these Vidyas is the Nyasa Vidya of the Mahanarayana Upanishad. It concerns the path of Sharanagati or complete surrender to Vishnu, which is emphasized by Sri Vaishnavas as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7971/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6504/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is, where in the Mahanarayana Upanishad is the Nyasa Vidya found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;24&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaasa Vidya — Self-surrender &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Taittiriya Narayanam, 49–52&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, the reason the Mahanarayana Upanishad is called the Taittiriya Narayana Upanishad is because it constitutes the 10th section of the Taittiriya Aranyaka of the Yajur Veda, as opposed to the Taittiriya Upanishad which constitutes the 7th, 8th, and 9th sections as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2204/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, you can read the Mahanarayana Upanishad &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/mahanarayana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But what does &quot;49-52&quot; mean?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it mean verses 49-52?  Here are verses 49-52 of section 1 of the Mahanarayana Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;svasti no maghavā karotu । &lt;br&gt; hantu pāpmānaṃ yo'smān dveṣṭi ॥&#xA;  49॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;somānam̐ svaraṇaṃ kṛṇuhi brahmaṇaspate kakṣīvantaṃ ya&#xA;  auśijam । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śarīraṃ yajñaśamalaṃ kusīdaṃ tasmintsīdatu yo'smān&#xA;  dveṣṭi ॥ 50॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;caraṇaṃ pavitraṃ vitataṃ purāṇaṃ  yena pūtastarati&#xA;  duṣkṛtāni । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tena pavitreṇa śuddhena pūtā  ati pāpmānamarātiṃ tarema ॥ 51॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sajoṣā indra sagaṇo marudbhiḥ  somaṃ piba vṛtrahañchūra&#xA;  vidvān । &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  jahi śatrūm̐rapa mṛdho nudasvāthābhayaṃ kṛṇuhi viśvato&#xA;  naḥ ॥ 52॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I-49: May Indra grant us welfare. May he destroy the evil one hostile&#xA;  to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I-50: O Lord of prayers, make me the presser of soma juice, well&#xA;  known among the gods like Kakshivan, the son of Usik. Make me&#xA;  physically capable of performing sacrifices. Let those who are hostile&#xA;  to us remain ‘there’ long, in the hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I-51: He who is rendered holy by the ancient, widespread,&#xA;  sanctifying feet (or by virtuous conduct) crosses over evil deeds and&#xA;  their effects. Having been rendered holy by that naturally pure and&#xA;  purifying feet of the Lord (or conduct) may we overcome our enemies,&#xA;  the sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I-52: O Indra, O slayer of Vritra, O valorous one and all-knowing&#xA;  one, accept with pleasure our soma oblation in the company of your&#xA;  retinue and troop of gods. Slay our enemies, give us victory in battle&#xA;  and grant us safety and fearlessness from every quarter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or does it mean sections 49-52?  Here they are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;harim̐ harantamanuyanti devā viśvasyeśānaṃ vṛṣabhaṃ matīnām । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brahmasarūpamanu medamāgādayanaṃ mā vivadhīrvikramasva ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śalkairagnimindhāna ubhau lokau sanemaham । &lt;br&gt; ubhayorlokayorṛdhvāti&#xA;  mṛtyuṃ tarāmyaham ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mā chido mṛtyo mā vadhīrmā me balaṃ vivṛho mā pramoṣīḥ । &lt;br&gt; prajāṃ&#xA;  mā me rīriṣa āyurugra nṛcakṣasaṃ tvā haviṣā vidhema ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mā no mahāntamuta mā no arbhakaṃ  mā na ukṣantamuta mā na ukṣitam ।&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; mā no vadhīḥ pitaraṃ mota mātaraṃ  priyā mā nastanuvo rudra&#xA;  rīriṣaḥ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;XLIX-1: Like servants gods follow Hari who is the Lord of the&#xA;  universe, who leads all thoughts as the foremost leader and who&#xA;  absorbs into Himself the universe at the time of dissolution (or who&#xA;  destroys the sins of devotees). May this path to liberation taught in&#xA;  the Vedas having the same form as Brahman open itself to me. Deprive&#xA;  not me of that. Strive to secure it for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;L-1: Kindling the consecrated fire with chips of wood (in order to&#xA;  offer oblations during worship) may I attain both the worlds. Having&#xA;  attained the prosperity of this world and the next I shall cross over&#xA;  death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;LI-1: O fierce Death, do not cut off my life. Do not injure (my&#xA;  interest). Do not cripple my strength. Do not subject me to&#xA;  deprivation. Do not hurt my progeny and life. I shall serve thee with&#xA;  oblations; for, thou art vigilant over the deeds of men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;LII-1: O Rudra, injure not our elders, our children, our adults&#xA;  capable of procreation, the foetus we have laid in the mother’s womb&#xA;  and our father and mother. Do not hurt our dear selves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does anyone know for sure what verses constitute the Nyasa Vidya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-07-31T13:20:16.417" LastActivityDate="2018-07-31T13:20:16.417" Title="Where in the Mahanarayana Upanishad is the Nyasa Vidya, the path of surrender to Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|upanishads|sri-vaishnava|vedanta|mahanarayana-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8710" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8475" CreationDate="2015-09-24T16:30:49.020" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jnana or Jivanmukti is a state wherein, all the perceptions of duality is removed and the non-dual alone remains. In Isha Upanishad a Jnani is defined as a person &quot;who perceives his Self in all objects and all objects in his Self/Atman&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically, Atma-Jnana or Brahma-Jnana means, realizing first-hand that one's true identity is not body or mind, but is Innermost Self or Atman which is non-difference from Brahman/God. This realization is difference from philosophical or rational understandings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please read these two blogposts I ahve written for more clarity-&#xA;Notes on Moksha- &lt;a href=&quot;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2014/02/02/random-musings-part-29-notes-on-moksha/&quot;&gt;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2014/02/02/random-musings-part-29-notes-on-moksha/&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;Paroksha and Aparoksha Jnana- &lt;a href=&quot;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/random-musings-part-28-paroksha-and-aparosksha-jnana/&quot;&gt;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/random-musings-part-28-paroksha-and-aparosksha-jnana/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to attain Moksha requires an elaborate answer. To attain Jnana, one must practice Vichara. Vichara means, Self-enquiry. It is not rational inquiry, though it is also a part. Vichara includes, Sravana, Manana, and Niddhidhyasa i.e. hearing, intellectualizing, and then meditating on the meaning of Upanishad instructions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, before you practice that, you must have attained required competencies like Dispassion, Sense control, Discrimination etc. that are termed as &quot;Sadhana Chatushtaya.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the first question is, do you have viveka and vairagya? If yes, then you should approach a Guru and take Sannyasa. If you dont have vairagya/dispassion and are still attached to worldly pleasures, then you should practice Karma and Bhakti. You should practice both your Sva-dharma, as well as Bhakti or Yoga etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These practice help in cleansing the mind and imparting dispassion etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in a sense path of Jnana first begins in Karma and Bhakti. You must practice your duties, live by dharma, and practice Bhakti sincerely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more read these-&#xA;1. Jnana, Bhakti and Karma- &lt;a href=&quot;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/jnana-bhakti-and-karma/&quot;&gt;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/jnana-bhakti-and-karma/&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;2. Two ways of performing actions- &lt;a href=&quot;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/the-two-ways-of-performing-action/&quot;&gt;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/the-two-ways-of-performing-action/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-09-24T16:30:49.020" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8712" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-24T17:55:08.700" Score="4" ViewCount="212" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was under the impression that animal sacrifice as Hindu ritual was a minority phenomenon in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I wrong? Are there any statistics available?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I am not asking if it is justified, that has already been answered many times before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T08:16:33.877" Title="How prevalent is animal sacrifice in India as part of Hindu ritual?" Tags="|animals|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8714" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-25T06:04:49.437" Score="6" ViewCount="860" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that Kartikeya was selected as a Chief Leader (Senapati) of Deva/Devta's army. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know whether Kartikeya is immortal or not?&#xA;If yes, then is he still the Chief Leader(Senapati) of Deva/Devta's army ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-25T06:30:17.637" LastActivityDate="2015-09-26T02:12:44.937" Title="Is Kartikeya, son of Lord Shiva, still Chief Leader (Senapati) of Deva/Devta's army?" Tags="|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8716" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8653" CreationDate="2015-09-25T08:46:18.433" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanujacharya is not stating his own view.&lt;/strong&gt; Rather, he is stating a Purvapaksha argument which Badari refutes in the next Sutra (Sutra 9).  Here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sadagopan/sundarasimham/ebooks/SribhashyamVol2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF&lt;/a&gt; presents Ramanujacharya's commentary on Sutra 9.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the dissolution of the  of the world of  HiraNyagarbha along with&#xA;him the soul of the one who has reached there goes beyond . So it is&#xA;stated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is a further objection that if the individual soul goes to the&#xA;world of HiraNyagarbha the texts that state the attainment of&#xA;immortality such as 'thayOrDhvamAyAn amrthathvamEthi, (Chan.4-15-6)&#xA;will have no meaning as according to  the statement of the Lord in the&#xA;Gita 'AbrhambuvanAllOkAh punarAvrtthinO arjuna, the worlds upto that&#xA;of Brahma are subject to return.' Also because the scriptures state the&#xA;dissolutin of HiraNyagarbha at the end of the period known as&#xA;dviparArDHa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To this BAdhari replies...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The portion in bold is what Ramanujacharya says at the end of his commentary on Sutra 8.  And Badari's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48545.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;refutation&lt;/a&gt; of it is that although the inhabitants of Brahmaloka may be subject to rebirth, they do not actually get reborn because they will acquire knowledge of Brahman and thus attain Moksha at the end of the Mahakalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For further confirmation, we can examine Adi Shankaracharya's commentaries on these same Sutras, and see that they have the exact same structure.  Here is Adi Shankaracharya's commentary on the equivalent Sutra 8 (his numbering is different:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word 'but' indicates the setting aside of the doubt.--As the lower Brahman is in proximity to the higher one, there is nothing unreasonable in the word 'Brahman' being applied to the former also. For when the higher Brahman is, for the purposes of pious meditation, described as possessing certain effected qualities--such as consisting of mind and the rest--which qualities depend on its connexion with certain pure limiting adjuncts; then it is what we call the lower Brahman.--&lt;strong&gt;But with the assumption of the lower Brahman there does not agree what scripture says about the souls not returning; for there is no permanence anywhere apart from the highest Brahman. And scripture declares that those who have set out on the road of the gods do not return, 'They who proceed on that path do not return to the life of man' (Kh. Up. IV, 15, 6); 'For them there is no return here' (Bri. Up. VI, 2, 15); 'Moving upwards by that a man reaches immortality' (Kh. Up. VIII, 6, 5).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To this objection we make the following reply.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then he makes the same refutation in his commentary on the following Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the reabsorption of the effected Brahman world draws near, the souls in which meanwhile perfect knowledge has sprung up proceed, together with Hiranyagarbha the ruler of that world, to 'what is higher than that i.e. to the pure highest place of Vishnu. This is the release by successive steps which we have to accept on the basis of the scriptural declarations about the non-return of the souls. For we have shown that the Highest cannot be directly reached by the act of going.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss about the use of the term &amp;quot;place of Vishnu&amp;quot; in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8646/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, by the way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, now that we know that Ramanujacharya is not actually stating his own view in the passage I quoted, it follows that the only positions of Badari's and Jaimini that Ramanujacharya disputes are the ones he discusses in his commentaries in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48550.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sutra 14&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48551.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sutra 15&lt;/a&gt;, where he discusses Badarayana's views.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So here is what Ramanujacharya actually believes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If someone meditates on Hiranyagarbha (Brahma), then when they die, they don't go along the path of the gods outlined in the Panchagni Vidya.  Rather, they just go to Brahmaloka.  Then they attain knowledge of Brahman, and at the end of the Mahakalpa they attain Moksha along with Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If someone meditates on the supreme Brahman, then when they die, they immediately attain Moksha, by ascending along the path of the gods outlined in the Panchagni Vidya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So everything makes sense after all!  It's similar to how I thought I found an inconsistency in the work of Adi Shankaracharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6558/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and there turned out to be an explanation.  It is a testament to these great thinkers that the coherence of their work stands up to such scrutiny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-04T23:25:46.610" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8718" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8700" CreationDate="2015-09-25T11:18:25.193" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says (&lt;em&gt;Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;, chapter 12, available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Ramlal sings these lines]: Above, in the throat, is the sixteen-petalled lotus flower,...Transcending which, one sees at length the universe in Space dissolve,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the Master [Sri Ramakrishna] said to M.: &quot;Listen. This is known as the vision of Satchidananda, the Formless Brahman. The Kundalini, rising above the Visuddha chakra, enables one to see everything as akasa.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Others have described it as seeing Brahman, but like having a pane of glass still between the soul and Brahman. It is called &lt;em&gt;Aparokshanubhuti&lt;/em&gt; - Transcendent Perception. Actual merger occurs in the highest chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to get there - exterminate the senses. Swami Vivekananda says (Complete Works, V7, p 71)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Control the mind, cut off the senses, then you are a Yogi; after that all the rest will come...You continually do it unconsciously as when your mind is absorbed; so you can learn to do it consciously.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Notice - &quot;...after that all the rest will come...&quot; Learn to control the senses, then you can sit back and the 'wind of the grace of God' will unfurl your sail and take you to the goal. My guru used to say - what we want is freedom from the senses, not freedom of the senses. All the different practices have one goal in mind - control of the mind and freedom from the senses. There are different practices for different people. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to exterminate the senses? Find your guru. All the scriptures tell you this. Your guru can look at your face and know what is your way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-09-25T11:18:25.193" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8719" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8714" CreationDate="2015-09-25T11:50:06.210" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;When the question of immortality is raised for Kartikeya, I can only answer with respect what Sri Vaishnava tradition believes. In that view, Kartikeya is as immortal as his father Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are different destruction pattern followed for each loka (Bhu: Bhuva: Suva: etc till Sathya lokam) at the end of chathuryugas. There are many Q&amp;amp;A involved discussing about when does the sathya loka will be destructed and that may be referred to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this case at the end of destruction of sathya loka none other than the paramapursha exist. In my understanding that includes, Bramha, Vishnu and Sivha, Karthikeya and Ganesha.  In that line vishnu is also one of the avathar of the paramapursha, Paramapadhanathan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if is human's mortality is used as the yardstick, then Kartikeya can be considered as immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I cannot site a source for this as it is not documented and even it is so, it is just going to be a belief of some author.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="2552" LastEditDate="2015-09-26T02:12:44.937" LastActivityDate="2015-09-26T02:12:44.937" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8720" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-25T11:59:11.750" Score="13" ViewCount="7578" Body="&lt;p&gt;What happened to the body of elephant whose head was attached to Lord Ganesha and what is the name of the place where the head of Lord Ganesha fall?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3803" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-25T15:46:38.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T20:24:36.357" Title="What happened to the body of elephant whose head was attached to Lord Ganesha?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|ganesha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8721" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-25T11:59:26.473" Score="3" ViewCount="325" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the question says, are there any references about the end of Krishna Dwaipayana - Veda Vyas, especially about when it happened?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-25T15:45:09.673" LastActivityDate="2018-01-22T11:42:22.803" Title="Is there any information about the end of Krishna Dwaipayana - Veda Vyas?" Tags="|vyasa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8722" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8721" CreationDate="2015-09-25T12:07:54.363" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Accordingly to famous beliefs, &lt;em&gt;Krishna Dwaipayana&lt;/em&gt;, or famously &lt;em&gt;Ved Vyasa&lt;/em&gt; has not died. He is considered to be among the &lt;em&gt;Chiranjivis&lt;/em&gt; (extremely long aged or nearly immortal). There are various &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiranjivi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chiranjivis&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Ashwatthama&#xA;Bali (&amp;amp; his son Banasur)&#xA;Hanuman&#xA;Kripa&#xA;Parashurama&#xA;Vibhishana&#xA;Vyasa&#xA;Jambavan&#xA;Markandeya&#xA;Devapi&#xA;Maru&#xA;Saptarishis&#xA;Bhusunda&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many speculations about his whereabouts but nothing is for sure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-09-25T12:07:54.363" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8723" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-25T12:31:43.110" Score="3" ViewCount="761" Body="&lt;p&gt;Unlike most other religions hinduism says that hell and heaven are temporary and moksha is the ultimate state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My doubt is if someone reach moksha state, is it of infinite time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During hell or heaven the soul has consciousness and can perform actions using body or some other means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the soul reaches moksha state, then is it true that the soul is conscious? Does the soul can perform actions or is it a infinite rest state with no consciousness?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-25T15:41:31.997" LastActivityDate="2018-07-02T08:37:25.893" Title="Is it true that moksha state is of infinite time?" Tags="|moksha|atma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-01-07T04:53:10.730" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8724" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8723" CreationDate="2015-09-25T13:56:04.680" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The state of attaining Moksha is getting merged with infinity (GOD).&#xA;For example, the identity of water is with its containing vessel (a glass of water or a cup of water). If the same glass of water is poured in ocean it becomes the ocean. The individual identity losses the moment you attain moksha.&#xA;The soul remains conscious but the level of consciousness upgrades to a much higher level that is super consciousness.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3803" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-25T15:42:35.573" LastActivityDate="2015-09-25T15:42:35.573" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8725" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2574" CreationDate="2015-09-25T16:36:39.620" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some references from Bhagavadgita which strictly speaks about monotheism and one supreme god that is Lord Krishna/Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 7:7&#xA; &quot;&lt;em&gt;mattah parataram nanyat&#xA;kincid asti dhananjaya&#xA;mayi sarvam idam protam&#xA;sutre mani-gana iva&lt;/em&gt;&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O conquerer of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Bhagavan says &quot;mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti&quot; there is no one***(nanyat)&lt;strong&gt;* superior(parataram) to me even a little *&lt;/strong&gt;(kinchit asti)***&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Lord Krsna clearly says that he is the &lt;strong&gt;supreme truth&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 14:4&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;sarva-yonisu kaunteya&#xA;murtayah sambhavanti yah&#xA;tasam brahma mahad yonir&#xA;aham bija-pradah pita&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kuntī, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Bhagavan Krsna clearly says that is the &lt;strong&gt;original father of all living entities&lt;/strong&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;aham bija-pradah pita&lt;/strong&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is propounded in the puranas that Lord Shiva lies dormant and then when Goddess impregnates him the materialistic creation has come to being and the spiritual aspect of creation that is atman has come from Paramatman(supreme soul)/Parabrahman Narayana/Krsna. &#xA;At the end of kalpa all the souls merge into the supreme Narayana and again at the beginning of kalpa they are manifested again(as per BG).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 10:23&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;rudranam sankaras casmi&#xA;vitteso yaksa-raksasam&#xA;vasunam pavakas casmi&#xA;meruh sikharinam aham&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Bhagavan says that &lt;strong&gt;among the rudras he is Shankara&lt;/strong&gt;(the foremost of the rudras) and also he says that he is &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu(as vamana) among the adityas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The supreme being is &lt;strong&gt;&quot;ONE AND ONLY ONE&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; he can't be many. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All the species are his manifestations&lt;/strong&gt; and the foremost(in his qualities) of these are considered his avataras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His expansions are infinite &lt;strong&gt;though he incarnates&lt;/strong&gt; with some of his qualities &lt;strong&gt;he is eternally present in paramdhamam vaikunta always&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like wise he incarnations are also eternally present like Varaha(in varaha kshetra tirupathi), Nrishmha, Vamana(patala), Parashuram(mahendragiri/himalayas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu is also the expansion of the Supreme Being Narayana/Krsna&lt;/strong&gt; for preservation and protection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagavan Krsna is the incarnation of the supreme to the fullest&lt;/strong&gt;, where he displayed all the qualities present in his creation.&#xA;Bhagavan Krsna washed the feet of sages, narada marharshi, elders, his friend sudama and sprinkled water of their feet on his head, he also prayed to siva to have a child like him.&#xA;Bhagavan Krsna sprinkled/smelled the padha dhooli (dust from the feet of his devotees).&#xA;Bhagavan Krsna accepted curse of gandhari gracefully, he went to guru . &#xA;as a ordinary child to have his education.&#xA;And simultaneously he performed extraordinary feats including saving Lord Siva from Vrakasura and also defeated him war against banasura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavan taught us though being supreme he taught us how to lead our lives, he has done the karma what an ordinary being born on this planet should do and at same time he does anything for upholding the dharma and for protection of his devotees. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavan respected the laws of nature of this planet and never went against them for his personal needs, he followed them gracefully.&#xA;So he worshiped gods(whom he delegated power for the governance of this materialistic world) to attain things as per the laws of this planet. He also ascertain in Bhagavadgita that &lt;strong&gt;whatever form of god you worship/or sacrifice you perform is ultimately addressed to him.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;So as the eternal soul (bija pita) of all the beings he is worshipping himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mind of supreme is difficult to comprehend even for the greatest of the minds. Only by constant meditation/devotion to him he can/his nature can be known (lord shiva engaged in meditation thus knows about the supreme actions).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The best known scripture which describes GOD and qualities of GOD to the fullest is the &lt;strong&gt;BHAGAVADGITA&lt;/strong&gt; and it clearly establishes Krsna/Narayana as the &lt;strong&gt;ultimate reality, the absolute truth and the cause of all causes&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So by inferring &lt;strong&gt;logically&lt;/strong&gt; from scriptural evidences &lt;strong&gt;Krsna/Narayana is the supreme&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastActivityDate="2015-09-25T16:36:39.620" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8726" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8723" CreationDate="2015-09-25T16:39:43.277" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the state of Moksha there is &lt;strong&gt;no conception of time&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A verse in Viveka Chudamani where Adi Sankaracharya explaining about the path to moksha mentions it as below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जाति नीति कुल गोत्र दूरगं&#xA;  नाम रूप गुण दोष वर्जितम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देश काल विषया तिवर्ति यद्&#xA;  ब्रह्म तत्त्वमसि भाव यात्मनि ||२५४||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beyond caste, creed, family or lineage,&#xA;  That which is without name and form, beyond merit and demerit,&#xA;  That which is beyond space, time and sense-objects,&#xA;  You are that, God himself; Meditate this within yourself. ||Verse 254||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some attain moksha/liberation from cycle of samsara/ birth and death in one's life time that is before death who are called as jeevanuktas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The state of bliss on union with god makes lose one's individual identity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as organs/body parts are indifferent from the conception of &quot;I&quot; so is us who are in &lt;strong&gt;union with the infinite being doesn't have the idea of time&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-07-02T08:37:25.893" LastActivityDate="2018-07-02T08:37:25.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8727" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8708" CreationDate="2015-09-25T17:22:43.303" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas are eternal, i am not sure which part of the vedas mentions this, but it widely acknowledged that unless and until one performs certain purification karma's which are required to attain a certain planet he cannot reach there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The species on a particular planet are made of the elements benevolent to it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas mention that one need to have certain qualifications to attain higher planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the people who had gone to moon must have attained the qualification in their previous lives(provided the people landing on moon is true).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The planets mentioned as navagrahas or other higher or lower planets/lokas are to be known fully what the sages had mentioned in the vedas. Whether they are in physical plane/ spiritual plane. We need to understand what the sages actually meant of different lokas before considering the validity of the vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No one of the present can perfectly say about the different lokas given in various scriptures, they can be best known from compiler himself the sage Bhagavan Veda-Vyasa who is believed to be a chiranjeevi. Their are no concrete evidences of people contacting veda-vyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How the sages might have known about different lokas thousands of years ago and how could they describe them ?&#xA;How did they prescribe the qualifications required ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the conception of lokas/planets are nowadays run on the belief/faith system as the ability to tap that knowledge is lost from the present generation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one should be able to meditate and vibrate your brain to a particular frequency to get the knowledge you required from this infinite realm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The description about different lokas is given in the atharveda, Srimad bhagavatam canto 2 chapter 5 from sloka number 38, in vishnu purana chapter 7 etc.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per SB Each and every loka has some specific attributes ie. the people who attained the requirements/qualifications will attain it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Out of the 14 mentioned lokas in above mentioned scriptures, the 7 heavenly planets and their attributes are&#xA;1 Satya-loka: Brahma's loka. Satya-loka planetary system is not eternal. Abode of Truth or of Brahma, where atman are released from the necessity of rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2 Tapa-loka: Abode of tapas or of other deities. Ayohnija devadas live here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3 Jana-loka: Abode of the sons of God Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4 Mahar-loka: The abode of great sages and enlightened beings like Markendeya and other rishies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5 Svar-loka: Region between the sun and polar star, the heaven of the god Indra. Indra, devatas, Rishies, Gandharvas and Apsaras live here: a heavenly paradise of pleasure, where all the 330 million Hindu gods (Deva) reside along with the king of gods, Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6 Bhuvar-loka (aka Pitri Loka): Sun, planets, stars. Space between earth and the sun, inhabited by semi-divine beings. The a real region, the atmosphere, the life-force.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7 Bhur-loka: Man and animals live here. The Vishnu Purana says that the earth is merely one&#xA;of thousands of billions of inhabited worlds like itself to be found in the universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Different realms of Patala are ruled by different demons and Nagas; usually with the Nagas headed by Vasuki assigned to the lowest realm.Vayu Purana records each realm of Patala has cities in it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 7 hellish planets are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8 Atala-loka: Atala is ruled by Bala - a son of Maya - who possesses mystical powers. By one yawn, Bala created three types of women - svairiṇīs (&quot;self-willed&quot;), who like to marry men from their own group; kāmiṇīs (&quot;lustful&quot;), who marry men from any group, and the puḿścalīs (&quot;whorish&quot;), who keep changing their partners. When a man enters Atala, these women enchant him and serve him an intoxicating cannabis drink that induces sexual energy in the man. Then, these women enjoy sexual play with the traveller, who feels to be stronger than ten thousand elephants and forgets impending death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9 Vitala-loka: Vitala is ruled by the god Hara-Bhava - a form of Shiva, who dwells with attendant ganas including ghosts and goblins as the master of gold mines. The residents of this realm are adorned with gold from this region.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10 Sutala-loka: Sutala is the kingdom of the pious demon king Bali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11 Talatala-loka: Talātala is the realm of the demon-architect Maya, who is well-versed in sorcery. Shiva, as Tripurantaka, destroyed the three cities of Maya but was later pleased with Maya and gave him this realm and promised to protect him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12 Mahatala-loka: Mahātala is the abode of many-hooded Nagas (serpents) - the sons of Kadru, headed by the Krodhavasha (Irascible) band of Kuhaka, Taksshaka, Kaliya and Sushena. They live here with their families in peace but always fear Garuda, the eagle-man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;13 Rasatala-loka: Rasātala is the home of the demons - Danavas and Daityas, who are mighty but cruel. They are the eternal foes of Devas (the gods). They live in holes like serpents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;14 Patala-loka: The lowest realm is called Patala or Nagaloka, the region of the Nagas, ruled by Vasuki. Here live several Nagas with many hoods. Each of their hood is decorated by a jewel, whose light illuminates this realm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many contemporary explanations are given for these lokas so as to how to understand them and yet it is difficult to comprehend for us as no concrete conclusion has come out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastEditorUserId="1189" LastEditDate="2015-09-25T18:32:07.350" LastActivityDate="2015-09-25T18:32:07.350" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8728" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8734" CreationDate="2015-09-25T18:14:39.307" Score="10" ViewCount="7055" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apologies if this seems a very sensitive issue but can you please help me understand &lt;strong&gt;what is considered an adultery&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If married male and female partners have mutually agreed and happy to have extra-marital relations with any other woman / man / married partners, usually for the purpose of &lt;strong&gt;material sense enjoyment&lt;/strong&gt;, is it considered &lt;strong&gt;adultery&lt;/strong&gt; since they are not hiding anything from each other and are involved together in such sensual activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please also comment on what, as an individual, a person is expected in terms of such relations? Will be great to have any references from any scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3787" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-09T05:53:49.333" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T03:05:10.580" Title="Clarification regarding adultery, extra-marital relations" Tags="|belief|scripture|karma|sin|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8729" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8723" CreationDate="2015-09-26T03:19:48.563" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;A statement in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Bhasya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;sribhasya&lt;/a&gt; - the final one which states na cha punaravarthate na cha punaraavarthate - ie. the person who has gone to moksha does not come back. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though, I heard of &quot;na cha punaravarthate na cha punaraavartha&quot; through discourses, I was unable to quote a reference and hence took a help of an Internet search result.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Time and consciousness both have different meaning in our materialistic and physical world. Hence we can't describe how it will be in the state of moksha with our knowledge, in fact since no one has seen/realise it from here and so is the case that who has witnessed are not among us. So we have to depend on the knowledge given to selected few by the Almighty like Namazhwar or Sri Ramanujar to explain those to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per their statements, there is no time at all and it is completely flexible (dilatable) to the jeevan who attained moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also it seems the question asks whether after attaining the moksha will the jeevan be in a dormant (inactive) state? In fact, it is said that the jeevan will be most actively be enjoying the state and will get most of the attributes (powers, if you may) as the paramapurusha and can do wonders in terms of our capabilities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastActivityDate="2015-09-26T03:19:48.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8730" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8706" CreationDate="2015-09-26T04:19:35.943" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;About why Indra fought for Parijata tree there's shloka in Bhagavata-purana, 10.59.41, directly after short shloka about Parijata tree:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yayāca ānamya kirīṭa-koṭibhih&#xA;  ̣ pādau spṛśann acyutam artha-sādhanam&#xA;  siddhārtha etena vigṛhyate mahān&#xA;  aho surāṇāḿ ca tamo dhig āḍhyatām&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ISKCON translation (you can use whatever you prefer, it'll not change anything serious):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even after Indra had bowed down to Lord Acyuta, touched His feet with the tips of his crown and begged the Lord to fulfill his desire, that exalted demigod, having achieved his purpose, chose to fight with the Supreme Lord. What ignorance there is among the gods! To hell with their opulence!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;About your first question, in the same Bhagavata-purana, 10.27.5, right after the story about Govardhana hill, Indra calls Krishna not just an &quot;avatar of Vishnu&quot;, but the Bhagavan, meaning, in short, Supreme God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both stories described rather succinctly in Bhagavatam, by the way. No specific details about someone's words or preferences. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="578" LastEditorUserId="578" LastEditDate="2015-09-26T11:05:46.743" LastActivityDate="2015-09-26T11:05:46.743" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8731" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8728" CreationDate="2015-09-26T08:23:49.327" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the scriptures, if we see polyandry(women going out with men other than husband) was allowed at certain time. In Mahabharta, when Pandu was convincing Kunti for having sons from Gods instead of him, Kunti at first was not convinced with the thought but then Pandu told him that earlier there was no restriction with women being attached to only his husband. This rule was being formed later by Rishi Shwetketu, son of Rishi Uddhalkak, when he saw his mother going out with some other person. So, its clear in that case that there was no problem earlier but after the rule, people generally follow that. However, there are exceptions to the rule in case the husband is dead or not capable as seen in Pandu's case or in case of Ambika and Ambalika where the husband was dead and Sage Ved Vyasa was called for Niyog Vidhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, if we see the examples from Ramayana, it seems that such kind of things were not allowed or considered bad in those times as Lord Rama had to take Agni Pariksha of Devi Sita to prove the world that she is pious. Infact, the washerman was not allowing her wife to stay with him on being doubtful of her whereabouts of previous night. So, this shows that extra marital affairs was not considered ok.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, if we see other cases in which the husband and wife are dedicated to each other, in those cases the husband usually gets benefit as can be seen in case of stories of Savitri-Satyavan, Vrinda-Jalandhar and Tulsi-Shankhchoorh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-10-09T07:33:16.210" LastActivityDate="2015-10-09T07:33:16.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8732" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-26T09:30:22.463" Score="0" ViewCount="73" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharatha, mostly all names have a reason/etymology behind them. One that I couldnt find was &quot;Vichitravirya&quot;- Son of Shantanu and father of Dhritrashtra &amp;amp; Pandu. Name clearly transliterates to &quot;Weird Sperm&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3811" LastActivityDate="2015-09-26T09:30:22.463" Title="What is the etymology behind the name Vichitravirya?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2015-09-26T14:13:41.790" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8733" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3241" CreationDate="2015-09-26T11:04:04.827" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, you can chant the following mantras before eating food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 3:13&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यज्ञ शिष्ठा शिनः षन्तो मुच्यन्ते सर्व किल बिशैहि |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भुन्जते ते त्वघं पाप ये पचन्त्यात्मा कारणात ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of&#xA;  sins because they eat food which is offered ﬁrst for sacriﬁce. Others,&#xA;  who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/27&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 9:27&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यत् करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत् |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यत् तपस्यसि कौन्तेय, तत्कुरुश्व मदर्पणम् ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or&#xA;  give away, and whatever austerities you perform – do that, O son of&#xA;  Kuntī, as an offering to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/15/14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 15:14&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अहं वैश्वा नरो भूत्वा प्राणिनां देहमाश्रितः |&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्राणापान समायुक्त, पचाम्यन्नं चतुर्विधम् ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am the ﬁre of digestion in the bodies of all living&#xA;  entities, and I join with the air of life, outgoing and incoming, to&#xA;  digest the four kinds of foodstuff.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/AitareyataittiriyaUpanishadsWithShankaraBhashya-English/05AitareyataittiriyaUpanishadsWithShankaraBhashya-English#page/n109/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad, Ananda Valli a.k.a Brahmananda Valli&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ॐ सहनाववतु सहनौ भुनक्तु सहवीर्यं करवावहै |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तेजस्विना वधितमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ॐ शान्ति शान्ति शान्तिः ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Gods! We pray to you to please protect us, bless us with bliss,&#xA;  knowledge and Joy. Let us join forces together. May our studies be&#xA;  bright. May we not hate or quarrel with each other. &lt;br&gt; Om Peace, Peace, Peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T01:21:16.193" LastActivityDate="2016-03-21T01:21:16.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8734" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8728" CreationDate="2015-09-26T11:11:20.087" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mutual consent does not make the actions allowable or moral. Thieves may mutually agree on robbing someone and not each other, but it does not make their actions either moral or allowable. Such actions as you describe are condemned by all the scriptures. Swami Nikhilananda in his writings on Hindu ethics says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Besides the objective duties based on the castes and stages of life, there are laid down the common duties of men, the sadharanadharma, which are the foundation of the moral life. Manu, the lawgiver, enumerates these common duties as follows: steadfastness (dhairya), forgiveness (kshama), &lt;strong&gt;good conduct (dama)&lt;/strong&gt;, avoidance of theft (chauryabhava), &lt;strong&gt;control of the senses (indriyanigraha)&lt;/strong&gt;, wisdom (dhi), learning (vidya), truthfulness (satya) and absense of anger (akrodha)...the aim of Hindu ethics is to enable a man ultimately to conquer his lower self and attain freedom from passion, desire, and attachment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All Hindu philosophers regardless of their conceptions of the supreme end of man, admit the empirical reality of the individual, endowed with volition, desire, will, conscience or consciousness of duty, emotion, etc. The goal of Hindu ethics is to train these faculties in such a way that they shall lead the individual to the realization of Moksha, or Liberation. Therefore all the schools of philosophy have described the virtues and their opposites in detail. It is expected of the moral agent that he should follow the former and shun the latter. We propose to discuss the virtues and their opposites according to the classification of Nyaya and of Patanjali's system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vatsyayana, in his commentary on the Nyaya aphorisms, classifies will as impious (papatmika) and auspicious (subha). The impious will leads to unrighteousness (adharma), and the auspicious will, to righteousness (dharma). Righteousness, it is necessary to add, is conductive to the Highest Good, whereas unrighteousness produces evil. The purpose of ethics is to subdue the impious and to manifest the righteous will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Unrighteousness may take three forms, namely, physical, verbal, and mental, depending upon the condition of its functioning. Physical unrighteousness manifests itself asa cruelty (himsa), theft (steya), and &lt;strong&gt;sexual perversion (pratisiddha maithuna)&lt;/strong&gt;; verbal unrighteousness, as falsehood (mithya), rudeness (katukti), insinuation (suchana), and gossip (asambaddha); mental unrighteousness, as ill-will (paradroha), &lt;strong&gt;covetousness (paradravyabhipsa)&lt;/strong&gt;, and irreverance (nastikya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Patanjali...describes the virtues that must be cultivated...chastity or continence...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The practice of continence, highly extolled by all the philosophers and mystics of India, implies, besides the literal meaning of the vow, abstention from lewdness in thought, speech, and action through any of the sense-organs. Through the practice of this virtue, one develops the capacity for subtle spiritual perception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; (chapter XVI. 4-12):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ostentation, arrogance, and self-conceit; anger, rudeness, and ignorance--these belong to him who is born to the heritage of the demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Men of demonic nature know not what to do and what to refrain from doing. Purity is not in them, nor good conduct, nor truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They say: &quot;The world is devoid of truth, without a moral basis, and without a God. It is brought about by the union of male and female, and lust alone is its cause: what else?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Holding such a view, these lost souls of little understanding and fierce deeds rise as the enemies of the world and its destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Giving themselves up to insatiable desires, full of hypocrisy, pride, and arrogance, they hold false views through delusion and act with impure resolve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beset with innumerable cares, which will end only with their death, looking on the gratification of desire as their highest goal, and feeling sure that this is all;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bound by a hundred ties of hope, given up wholly to lust and desire,...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in verse 16:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...addicted to the gratification of lust, they fall into a loathsome hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in verse 19-21:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These cruel haters, these evil-doers, these vilest of men, I hurl always into the wombs of the demons in the cycle of births and deaths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having fallen into the wombs of the demons and being deluded from birth to birth, they never attain Me, O son of Kunti, but go further down to the lowest state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Three are the gateways of this hell leading to the ruin of the self--lust, wrath, and greed. Therefore let man renounce these three.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in verses 23-24:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who discards the injunctions of the scriptures and acts upon the impulse of desire attains neither perfection nor happiness nor the Supreme Goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore let the scriptures be your authority in determining what ought to be done and what ought not to be done. Having learnt the injunctions of the scriptures, you should do your work in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-09-26T11:11:20.087" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8735" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8742" CreationDate="2015-09-26T12:01:31.367" Score="18" ViewCount="7528" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am confused between two shlokas of the Bhagvad Geeta, namely Bg 9.23 &amp;amp; Bg 9.25. The first is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ये ऽप्य् अन्य​-देवता-भक्ता यजन्ते श्रद्धयान्विताः ते ऽपि माम् एव&#xA;क्औन्तेय​ यजन्त्य् अविधि-पूर्वकम्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ye ’py anya-devatā-bhaktā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;te ’pi mām eva kaunteya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yajanty avidhi-pūrvakam -- &lt;strong&gt;Bg 9.23&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna said Those who are devotees of other gods and who worship them&#xA;with faith actually worship only Me, O son of Kuntī, but they do so in&#xA;a wrong way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यान्ति देव​-व्रता देवान् पितॄन् यान्ति पितृ-व्रताः भूतानि यान्ति&#xA;भूतेज्या यान्ति मद्-याजिनो ऽपि माम्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yānti deva-vratā devān&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yānti mad-yājino ’pi mām -- &lt;strong&gt;Bg 9.25&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods;&#xA;those who worship the ancestors go to the ancestors; those who worship&#xA;ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; and those who&#xA;worship Me will live with Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Question is, if devotees of other gods worship them with faith actually worship Lord Krishna, according to Bg 9.23, why does verse Bg 9.25 say those who worship demigods or others take birth among them and not live with Lord Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clarify if I am wrong in understading these two slokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-01-23T11:34:17.287" Title="I am confused between two shlokas of the Bhagvad Geeta, Bg 9.23 &amp; Bg 9.25" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8736" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="238" CreationDate="2015-09-26T12:27:12.803" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Forms of Brahman of course are immortal. All the rest and that includes Devas like Indra die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The gods, without exception, (when their merits cease), have to take&#xA;  birth as mortal creatures also (when they acquire sufficient merit),&#xA;  succeed in attaining to the status of gods. Mahabharata Santi Parva&#xA;  Section CCLIX&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-09-26T12:27:12.803" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8737" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17210" CreationDate="2015-09-26T12:31:20.840" Score="7" ViewCount="9512" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/why-hindus-observe-sutak-after-a-deathbirth-in-near-family&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sutak&lt;/a&gt; is the period of abstention observed by the Hindus after birth or a death of a family member.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can we mediate on Lord Shiva with Panchakshari Mantra during Sutak period?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-19T08:27:33.650" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T09:50:43.393" Title="Can we meditate on Lord Shiva during Sutak period?" Tags="|shiva|belief|rituals|death|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8738" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-26T15:30:31.620" Score="6" ViewCount="327" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dwija varnas i.e. Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas use specific sutras(known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_%28Vedanga%29#G.E1.B9.9Bhyas.C5.ABtras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;GrhyaSutras&lt;/a&gt; from specific vedas for doing sandhyakarma, and shraddhakarma etc for e.g. A rigvedi brahmin who belongs to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryabharati.org/grihsutr/grihsutra.asp?ln=en&amp;amp;bk=01&amp;amp;pt=a&amp;amp;pg=099&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;ashvalyana sutra/shakha&lt;/a&gt;  uses it to do his daily sandhyavandana.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know weather one can change the sutra associated with his family and gotra, because there are many cases where the system is long forgotten due to effects of time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There might be a possibility of changing or reassigning the shakha by a rishi but there are no more rishi's so it is not an option.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also want to ask if anyone can become Chatur-vedi by studying all vedas but maintaning his own veda shakha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-18T06:59:51.417" LastActivityDate="2017-05-28T16:29:50.190" Title="Is there any method to change your veda and sutras?" Tags="|vedas|rituals|vedic-rituals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8740" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8735" CreationDate="2015-09-26T16:52:42.747" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Gambhirananda &lt;a href=&quot;http://michaelsudduth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita-Shankara-Bhashya-English.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;translates&lt;/a&gt; Sri Sankaracharya's Sanskrit commentary on BG 9.23 as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.23 Even those who, being devoted to other deities and endowed with faith, worship (them), they also, O son of Kunti, worship Me alone (though) following the wrong method.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a word &quot;avidhi purvakam&quot; in the verse, which means &quot;following wrong method&quot;. Here by wrong method it means, a worship in which deities are worshiped in their limited aspect and not as Supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet, even such worship reach Supreme Brahman as Brahman is Atman/Self of even the deities. The term &quot;Me&quot; refers to Para-Brahman and not to limited aspect of Krishna. So, verse 9.23 is saying that, if a person worships the deity in their limiting aspect, it is a wrong method of worship and hence, the results attained will also be limited and lower than the result attained by worshiping Para-Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This becomes more clear in 9.24, wherein Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.24 I indeed am the enjoyer as also the Lord of all sacrifices; but they do not know Me in reality. Therefore they fall.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Krishna himself says that, by &quot;Me&quot; he is referring to the One who is the enjoyer of all Sacrifices. Who is the enjoyer of all sacrifices? It is none other than Brahman who exist as Self/Atman of all creatures. Because, Brahman is the Self of all creatures, he alone is the enjoyer of all sacrifices as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, if a person had performed worshiped knowing the real nature of Brahman as the Self of all, then it would have helped a person to purify his mind and slowly attain ultimate Moksha. But, because, a person does not understand Brahman's true nature, the result obtained from such a worship is lesser or lower. Here, the term lower is only with respect to the ultimate goal of Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what results do people get who worship deities in limited aspect? Krishna answers this in verse 9.25:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.25 Votaries of the gods reach the gods; the votarites of the manes go to the manes; the worshippers of the Beings reach the Beings; and those who worship Me reach Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is, because a person worships a limited aspect, be it a deity or a pitr or any other beings, the result of such worship is that it takes the devotee to the realm of those deities or pitrs etc. But, after spending the time in those realms (till the time the fruits of worship exhausts), the person returns back to Manushya loka/Physical realm. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, those who worship Para-Brahman, he will slowly attain chitta-shuddhi and with practice of Vichara (Self-Enquiry), they will attain Atma-Jnana as well and become Jivanmuktas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there is no contradiction. You may like to read this: &lt;a href=&quot;https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/a-deity-can-either-be-god-or-god-or-both/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;A deity can either be God or god or both&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-05T19:05:22.157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-05T19:05:22.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8741" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8728" CreationDate="2015-09-26T17:29:56.723" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me share my personal view, the central tenet of Vivaha is that, the husband and wife will together pursue to goals of Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, adultery was considered as adharma, because &lt;strong&gt;a.&lt;/strong&gt; it involved cheating, &lt;strong&gt;b.&lt;/strong&gt; it involved violation of marital vow of pursuing purushartas together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti (9.29-30) states - &quot;She who, controlling her thoughts, speech, and acts, violates not her duty towards her lord, dwells with him (after death) in heaven, and in this world is called by the virtuous a faithful (wife, sadhvi).But for disloyalty to her husband a wife is censured among men, and (in her next life) she is born in the womb of a jackal and tormented by diseases, the punishment of her sin.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, consider a case of extra-marital affair with mutual consent. The question to ask is, whether the consent is really mutual? Whether the spouses are really ok with this arrangement? Now, assuming that the arrangement is mutual and without any grievance, then definitely, there is no issue of cheating from such an arrangement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the second point of Purushartas, though at a first sight it does appear that there is a violation as both the partners are not fulfilling rati/Kama with each other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti (3.60) says that husband and wife should please each other. Further, in Manu Smriti (9.101-102) it is stressed that, living together happily and faithfully with each other is the highest duty of a married couple. And both the partners must exert themselves to live happily together and pursue all actions together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, it is clear that the the scriptures say that husband and wife should be dedicated towards each other and should be loyal as well. Fidelity in all sense of the word is upheld.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet, on a deeper consideration, it can be easily argued that, both partners have mutually arrived at this arrangement of fulfilling their own sexual desires. So, in this sense, they are still pursuing Kama together itself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, the question is, does the arrangement really work? Is there a guarantee that any of the spouse does not develop emotional relationship with another person? Is it practical to maintain a strictly casual extra-marital relationship without any love or attachment? Is it really possible to continue to love your partner in every way including sexual even after having casual affairs? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the answer to these question is affirmative that the casual affairs do not affect the couple or their love, relationship, or their duty towards each other, and if such affairs indeed help a couple to come even closer, then there is no fault on the count of purusharthas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, there is one more issue, that of Sadharana-dharma that is common to everyone. In Manu Smriti (verse 10.63) - Manu lists Indriya nigraha as one of the common duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there is a definite violation of this. Because, the partners are seeking sexual pleasure outside marriage even after deriving the same pleasure within marriage. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, if there is no sexual pleasure within the marriage, it raises other issues related to purusharta. There is a failure on the part of couple to make the marriage work! But that's a different case altogether. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, if the extra-marital arrangement is really mutual and without any grievances, and it does not hamper your relationships or your duties, then there is no adharma committed on the count of adultery, but an adharma on the count of non-performance of Indriya Nigraha does exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-09T05:53:25.060" LastActivityDate="2015-10-09T05:53:25.060" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8742" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8735" CreationDate="2015-09-26T18:40:06.107" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-9-23/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 9.23&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says that he who worships other gods worships him (i.e. Krishna), now why does He say so? because he (Mahavishnu) is the supreme godhead and all the other gods are his ansh(part) or have been originated or created by him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if they worship him by making him look like any different god it is okay they will be blessed because they are ultimately worshipping Krishna the supreme being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those, however, who are devoted to Indra and other divinities, who rely on the three Vedas alone, and who, possessed of faith, worship Indra and other divinities — they too worship Me actually in the light of the truth that all existing things constitute My body and have Me for their selves. In the light of this principle, terms like Indra denote Me only. The worshippers of Indra and other deities therefore worship Me only, in ways not sanctioned by the Sastras. They do not worship Indra and other divinities with a proper understanding of the place of these deities in the light of the Vedanta texts. An example is ‘Wherein (i.e., in the Supreme Self) the sacrifices known as the Caturhotri attain their fulfilment through the divinities’ (Tai. Ar., 4) etc. These texts say in what way these forms of worship apply to these divinties. For all Vedanta texts lay down that the Supreme Person alone is to be worshipped directly when they enjoin the worship of Indra and other divinities, as they form the body of the Supreme Person. The meaning is that in the Caturhotri sacrifice like Agnihotra, the full moon and the new moon sacrifices etc., it is the Supreme Self only that is worshipped, as He abides as the self in Indra etc., who are the ostensible objects worshipped in these sacrifices by which these worshippers obtain their fulfilment through them. Therefore, the votaries of the three Vedas do not understand that these rituals form the worship of the Supreme Person and that He alone is to be worshipped. &lt;strong&gt;As they do not do so, they become experiencers of limited results, and they are again liable to fall into Samsara&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-9-25/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 9.25&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It states that when a person worships a demigod he will be born with that demigod or whatever he is worshipping. Now consider for example that a person worships kal-bhairava (in some forms bhairava requires alcohol and meat as offerings) so if you worship demi-gods with such qualities you will tend to posses such qualities which in turn affects your karma because you are not going towards reality i.e. away from material pleasures which is where ultimate truth lies.So worshipping demigods is not wrong but just sticking to a demigod and considering it bramhan even though we all know the reality that Krishna is supreme, it is totally foolish and sensless. What's more foolish is that you are just taking material aspects(like meat eating, smoking weed, drinking,sex etc) of worships of demigods rather than seeing the qualities or making them tool for reaching the ultimate goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Supreme Bramhan in its pure form is Shri Hari Vishnu if you worship him you will attain liberation or Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The term ‘Vrata’ in the text denotes will, intention or motive. Those who intend to worship gods, like Indra and others with the resolution, ‘Let us worship Indra and other gods by ceremonies like the new moon and full moon sacrifices’ — such worshippers go to Indra and other gods. Those who intend worshipping manes, resolving ‘Let us worship the manes through sacrifices,’ — such worshippers go to the manes or others resolving — ‘Let us worship the Yaksas, Raksasas,’ Pisacas and other evil spirits’ — they go to them. But those who, with the same rites of worship, worship Me with the intention, ‘Let us worship Lord Vasudeva, the Supreme Self, whose body is constituted of gods, the manes and the evil spirits’ — they are My worshippers and they reach Me only. Those who intend worshipping gods etc., attain gods etc. After sharing limited enjoyment with them, they are destroyed with them when the time comes for their destruction. But My worshippers attain Me, who has no beginning or end, who is omniscient, whose will is unfailingly effective, who is a great ocean of innumerable auspicious attributes of unlimited excellence and whose bliss too is of limitless excellence. They do not return to Samsara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S.: If we analyze according to Philosophical Aspect, then Shrimad Bhagwad Gita belongs to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishishtadvaita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishishta Advaita&lt;/a&gt; Philosophy, since it is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pancharatra&lt;/a&gt; Agama which was revived by Shri Krishna in Battlefield of Kurushetra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-09-22T16:37:16.130" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T16:37:16.130" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8743" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8748" CreationDate="2015-09-26T18:45:03.020" Score="4" ViewCount="370" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know what exactly is shathpatha bramhan and what is it used for? I mean &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page describes it as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Satapatha Brahmana is a Hindu sacred text which describes details of Vedic rituals, including philosophical and mythological background. It was committed to writing about 300 B.C.E., although it contains portions which are far older, transmitted orally from unknown antiquity. Specifically, there are references throughout to a primal mother-Earth worship, unnamed snake deities and human sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know what are it's origins but judging by its name it must be a Vedic text. What is it used for?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T14:35:53.110" LastActivityDate="2018-01-26T01:29:29.097" Title="What is shathpatha Brahman" Tags="|vedas|scripture|yajur-veda|shatapatha-brahmana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8744" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-26T18:56:46.767" Score="33" ViewCount="17056" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/index.htm&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; link describes that the Vedas have no problem with homosexuality:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In contemporary India LGBT people face discrimination and marginalization. This results from cultural attitudes imposed by the British during their long occupation of India. &lt;strong&gt;There is no condemnation of homosexuality in the ancient Hindu texts&lt;/strong&gt;, and no bias against LGBT people is evident up to the 19th century. In a few Hindu lawbooks, same-gender sexuality is described as producing a state of impurity, but it can be expunged by a ritual bath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true that the Vedas and other Hindu scriptures accept homosexual people? I mean if homosexuality is against the natural order, then how come the Vedas accept it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-02-29T20:20:45.703" LastActivityDate="2024-02-04T18:38:20.680" Title="Vedas and Vedic dharma on homosexuality" Tags="|vedas|belief|scripture|culture|gender|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8745" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8743" CreationDate="2015-09-26T18:58:56.377" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every Veda has four parts- Mantra Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka, and Upanishads. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shatapata Brahman belongs to Shukla Yajurveda. It has details about varous rituals and Karmas and falls under Karma-Khanda portion of Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-09-26T18:58:56.377" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8746" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8751" CreationDate="2015-09-26T19:10:35.900" Score="6" ViewCount="3420" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Nandi (bhakta/vehicle of Mahadeva) married or bachelor? If he is a bachelor, then how and why does he possess knowledge of the Kamasutra? Is it appropriate for bachelors to study scriptures with sex-education?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-13T09:29:24.547" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T14:56:44.847" Title="Is Nandi a bachelor?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|nandi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8748" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8743" CreationDate="2015-09-26T19:56:26.347" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, each of the four Vedas consists of four portions: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas which consist of verses heard from the gods; Brahmanas, which provide instructions on the proper conducting of important rituals; Aranyakas, which provide a guide to rituals meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical message of the Vedas. With the Yajur Veda, however, there are complications.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, the Yajur Veda comes in two versions, Krishna or &quot;dark&quot; version and the Shukla or light versions.  The Krishna Yajur Veda has complications of its own: as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6582/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the Taittiriya Samhita and Taittiriya Brahmana of the Krishna Yajur Veda each contain both Samhita and Brahmana portions! The Shukla Yajur Veda is a bit cleaner in its division (which is one of the theories for why it's called Shukla).  Its Samhita is called the Vajasaneyi Samhita, and its Brahmana is called the Shatapatha Brahmana.  The reason the Samhita is called the Vajaseneyi Samhita is because the Shukla Yajur Veda associated with the sage Yajnavalkya, whose surname is Vajasaneya.  And the Shatapatha Brahmana gets its name from the fact that it's one hundred chapters long. (Shatapatha means a hundred paths.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most people only know Yajnavalkya as the sage associated with the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.  But actually the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is part of the Shatapatha Brahmana!  In fact, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3014/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Shatapatha Brahmana contains within it both an Aranyaka, the Brihad Aranyaka, and an Upanishad, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.  That's why I said the Shukla Yajur Veda is only a bit cleaner in its division.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for what it's used for, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, a Vedic Yagna involves three priests: a Hotar who chants Rig Veda mantras in their original form heard from the gods, an Adhvaryu who tends to the details of the ritual while chanting ritualistic utterances from the Yajur Veda, and an Udgatri who sings songs from the Sama Veda.  (Later a fourth priest, an Atharvana Veda priest called a &quot;Brahmana&quot;, was added to the Yagna.) The Shatapatha Brahmana is basically an instruction manual for the Adhvaryu on what he should say and do in the course of a Yagna.  (Of course, some Adhvaryus belong to the Krishna Yajur Veda, and thus rely instead on the Brahmana portions found in the Taittiriya Samhita and Taittiriya Brahmana.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-01-26T01:29:29.097" LastActivityDate="2018-01-26T01:29:29.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8749" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-26T22:30:22.953" Score="3" ViewCount="529" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous incarnations of Durga is the goddess Kali.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7000/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, she was created by Durga's incarnation Ambika in order to defeat the demons Chanda and Munda, which is why she's also known as Chamundeshwari.  In any case, it is well-known that people do a variety of  rituals to worship Kali, most notably non-Vedic animal sacrifice.  (The Vedas prescribe animal sacrifice only in the case of Yagnas as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7947/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, not when worshipping goddesses like Kali.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the worship of a goddess closely related to Kali, named Tara.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/xbTp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Narada Purana, various rituals to worship the goddess Tara are described, including this one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the cremation ground or in a vacant house, or in a temple, or in a lonely place, in a mountain, in a forest, the knower of the mantra shall climb onto a dead body that has been killed in the battle-field or &lt;strong&gt;on a child of six months&lt;/strong&gt;, should make an effort for the propitiation of the vidya (of Tarini), thus he would soon be able to make it fruitful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can understand sitting on a dead body and chanting mantras.  (Well, I can't really understand that either, but I can at least picture someone doing it.)  But my question is, what does it mean to say that the devotee of Tara &amp;quot;shall climb ... on a child of six months&amp;quot;?  Does that mean sitting on a live six-month old baby, or a dead body of a six-month old baby? Do any devotees of Tara do this practice today?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should add the Narada Purana is considered to have a lot of interpolations, so this may not be a genuine passage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="12489" LastEditDate="2021-03-17T21:36:42.730" LastActivityDate="2021-03-17T21:36:42.730" Title="Do devotees of the goddess Tara sit on six-month old babies?" Tags="|rituals|practice|kali|shaktism|narada-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8750" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3584" CreationDate="2015-09-27T04:06:53.620" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vetaal explains to King Vikram aaditya the evil intentions of the tantrik who had asked king vikram to get vetaal for sacrifice. Eventually Vikram kills the tantrik frees vetaal with a wish that he will come to his aid when needed&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3815" LastActivityDate="2015-09-27T04:06:53.620" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8751" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8746" CreationDate="2015-09-27T05:12:28.163" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nandi is married.&lt;/strong&gt;  The story of Nandi's marriage is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/T1KF&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shatarudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana.  As discussed in the Shiva Purana excerpt quoted in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6986/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Nandi was the son of the sage Shilada.  He engaged in Tapasya for a long time, and then Shiva appeared before him and made him the leader of his Ganas.  Nandi describes what happened next:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then at the command of Shiva, there Vishnu, Brahma and other gods married me with enormous festivities.  Suyasha the divine daughter of Marut, who delighted the mind and heart became my spouse.  Suyasha received a chatra which was clean like the moon over which the damsels moved flywhisps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, when it says Suyasha was the daughter of Marut, that's another name for Vayu the wind god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, I don't know whether the notion of Nandi authoring a Kama Shastra has any basis in Hindu scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T14:56:44.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8752" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-27T05:47:25.687" Score="5" ViewCount="257" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03082.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, the sage Pulastya, mind-born son of Brahma and the grandfather of Ravana, tells Bhishma about a variety of Tirthas or sacred places.  In particular he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He that goeth to the lake of Agastya and occupieth himself with the worship of the Pitris and celestials, fasting for three nights, acquireth, O king, the fruit of the Agnishtoma. Going thither, he that liveth on vegetables or fruits &lt;strong&gt;acquireth the status called Kaumara&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is this &quot;status called Kaumara&quot; that is acquired by those who eat only fruits and vegetables at Agastya's lake?  The only context I know the word &quot;Kaumara&quot; in is the name of a sect of Hinduism which believes that Shiva's son Kartikeya, aka Kumara, is the supreme god.  So is Pulastya saying that those people become devotees of Kartikeya, or does he mean something else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, does Agastya's lake refer to the lake in modern-day &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badami&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Badami&lt;/a&gt; where Agastya's ashram was located?  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7979/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Rama visited Agastya (along with Agastya's mysterious &quot;brother&quot;) there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2018-03-22T08:49:23.280" Title="Do those who worship at Agastya's lake become devotees of Kartikeya?" Tags="|mahabharata|temple|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8753" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16393" CreationDate="2015-09-27T07:32:12.880" Score="7" ViewCount="1081" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srila Prabhupada &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.org/moon-landing.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; that humans never went to Chandraloka as it requires enlightened soul and opined humans might have gone to other planet such as Rahu. He said whole universe is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;panchshat-koti-yojana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; which means fifty crore yojana or &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;panchashat&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; or four billion miles in diameter. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can i know which scriptures (preferably vedas or upanishads or puranas; not the work of Astronomers such as Aryabhatta) cite this calculation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-12-17T06:18:45.287" LastActivityDate="2016-12-17T06:18:45.287" Title="What Hindu Scriptures say that Universe has diameter of fifty crore yojana?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|history|prabhupada|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8754" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8475" CreationDate="2015-09-27T09:25:23.467" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna Enquires from Bhagavan &#xA;who is perfect? Whether a person engaged in devotional service to him or those who worship the impersonal brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord replied that &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;mayy avesya mano ye mam&#xA;nitya-yukta upasate&#xA;sraddhaya parayopetas&#xA;te me yuktatama matah&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He whose &lt;strong&gt;mind is fixed on My personal form, always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith&lt;/strong&gt;, is considered by Me to be most perfect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here lord clearly says that Bhakti yoga or those engaged in devotional service is considered to be perfect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And again in the slokas 6-7 of Chapter 12 lord clarified that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;For one who worships Me, giving up all his activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, who has fixed his mind upon Me, O son of Pṛthā, for him I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death.&quot; &#xA;So those engaged in devotional process are quick to attain moksha(or the cycle of samsara).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the sloka 12 of chapter 12 Bhagavan compared the processes of attaining the supreme.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;sreyo hi jnanam abhyasaj&#xA;jnanad dhyanam visisyate&#xA;dhyanat karma-phala-tyagas&#xA;tyagac chantir anantaram&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you cannot take to this practice, then engage yourself in the cultivation of knowledge. &lt;strong&gt;Better than knowledge, however, is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action&lt;/strong&gt;, for by such renunciation one can attain peace of mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if you can fix your mind upon the Bhagavan Lord krishna(absorption of mind on the lotus feet of the lord) you are sure to attain him (like many Bhakti saints and acharyas) , if you cannot fix your mind then practice the regulations of bhakti yoga, if you are unable to do it then work for him you will attain that perfect stage, if you are unable to do that also try to renounce the fruits of action and be self-situated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, &lt;strong&gt;Jnana gives you the knowledge of the absolute&lt;/strong&gt; but the &lt;strong&gt;realization or experience of the absolute comes through unflinching devotion or Bhakti yoga&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastActivityDate="2015-09-27T09:25:23.467" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8755" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9246" CreationDate="2015-09-27T09:30:09.560" Score="6" ViewCount="7838" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to this &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripurasura&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; page of Tripurasura, Tripurasura was killed by Lord Shiva because he followed a &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Adharmic Religion&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; which was created by Lord Vishnu to lure him to the path of Adharma. After Lord Shiva killing demon Tripurasura, those shaven head religious teachers asked Lord Vishnu what to do and Lord Vishnu ordered them to go to desert where there were no humans and come back during Kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What's the complete authentic story of Killing of Tripurasura, according to Shiva Purana?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What could be that Religion? Is it Islam or Christianity?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T13:41:46.647" LastActivityDate="2023-02-20T08:22:42.070" Title="What is complete authentic story of demon Tripurasura?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|other-religions|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8756" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-27T09:46:50.253" Score="6" ViewCount="6081" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is known from SB that Kali Purusa has come as soon as lord krishna departed the earth.&#xA;As soon as he came he was beating the holy cow.&#xA;After he was defeated by maharaja parikshit he begged for his presence in some places where there wealth, gambling, intoxication etc.&#xA;But where did he come from suddenly?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;why couldn't he affect the people of other ages ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How could he influence the minds of the people in this complete yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why there is interference of Gods in the affairs of humans directly in this yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also said that all the demi-gods left the earth before the beginning of kali yuga else they lose their powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How kali can be so powerful? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He cannot be unknown as he is one of the creation of the supreme. At the end of this yuga he will be eliminated by the supreme himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why this creation and elimination of kali?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastEditorUserId="1189" LastEditDate="2015-09-27T14:16:22.387" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T02:24:45.787" Title="Who is Kali Purusa ? Where did he come from ? How could he reign over a complete yuga of 4,32,000 years?" Tags="|kali-yuga|kali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8757" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-27T09:57:09.573" Score="4" ViewCount="114" Body="&lt;p&gt;It a well known fact that there are four ages satya, treta, dwapara and kali. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why there is a demarcation in the ages, one explanation is that there is decline of dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dharma stands on four legs in satya and declines to one leg in kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why should the dharma decline with ages? Who decided it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why should the mindset of the people should change with ages?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastActivityDate="2015-09-27T09:57:09.573" Title="Why there should be degradation of dharma with the change in the yuga?" Tags="|yuga|dharma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8759" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8781" CreationDate="2015-09-27T11:46:49.890" Score="10" ViewCount="2955" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read that gayatri mantra should be learned from a sage or yogi OR Brahman. I want to start learning gayatri mantra. What is the procedure to follow for this and whom should I contact? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3818" LastEditorUserId="3818" LastEditDate="2015-09-27T12:59:14.823" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T11:04:55.280" Title="Chanting Gayatri mantra" Tags="|mantras|gayatri-mantra|shloka|gayatri|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8761" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8762" CreationDate="2015-09-27T13:42:06.577" Score="14" ViewCount="4114" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lots of Vishnu avatars have repeated during the previous Chaturyugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any references citing the Kalki avatar in previous Yugas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-07-13T07:28:36.373" LastActivityDate="2020-04-05T07:58:39.580" Title="Did Lord Vishnu incarnate as Kalki in any of the previous Yugas?" Tags="|vishnu|yuga|time|kali-yuga|kalki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8762" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8761" CreationDate="2015-09-27T13:57:05.463" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, we know for a fact that Kalki doesn't come in every Kali Yuga.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=nckrAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;pg=PA138#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Matsya Purana (an important Hindu scripture), various incarnations of Vishnu in the present Vaivasvata Manvantara are listed, but Kalki is only mentioned once, in the current Kali Yuga. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27478/62f_chapter_19_2.pdf#toolbar=0&amp;amp;pagemode=none&amp;amp;view=FitBH&amp;amp;page=1%22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Skanda Purana says the same thing.  (See my questions &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7192/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7194/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7221/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; relating to these lists.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And we can find explicit references to how Kali Yugas have ended in the past. In particular, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva of the Mahabharata describes how Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama brought about the end of the 19th Kali Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara by killing the kings of the world:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the great ascetic Rama, the hero worshipped by all heroes, that son of Jamadagni, of great fame, will die, without being contented (with the period of his life). Rooting out all evils from the earth, he caused the primeval Yuga to set in. Having obtained unrivalled prosperity, no fault could be seen in him. His father having been slain and his calf having been stolen by the Kshatriyas, he without any boast, slew Kartavirya who had never been vanquished before by foes. With his bow he slew four and sixty times ten thousand Kshatriyas already within the jaws of death. In that slaughter were included fourteen thousand Brahmana-hating Kshatriyas of the Dantakura country, all of whom he slew. Of the Haihayas, he slew a thousand with his short club, a thousand with his sword, and a thousand by hanging. Heroic warriors, with their cars, steeds, and elephants, lay dead on the field, slain by the wise son of Jamadagni, enraged at the slaughter of his father. And Rama, on that occasion, slew ten thousand Kshatriyas with his axe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7993/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu did take one earlier Kalki-like incarnation in the Swayambhuva Manvantara.  His name was Pramati (as opposed to the present Kalki who will be named Vishnu Yasha), and his story is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/KrG5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Matsya Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Pramati of the Bhrigu family and Chandramasa gotra was born at the end of Swayambhuva Manu in the Sandhyamsha period, to inflict proper punishment on the sinners. That king travelled all over the earth for 30 years and collected arms and ammunitions, elephants, horses and chariots and marched with a vast army consisting of horses and elephants and accompanied by 100,000 Brahmana soldiers armed with various kinds of weapons, against the Mlecchas and destroyed them. After killing all the Sudra kings he annihilated all the hypocrites After destroying all the sinners and subduing the people living in the North, central regions, the mountaineers, the inhabitants in the East and West, the residents on the Vindhyas, the Deccanis, the Dravidians, the Singhalese, the inhabitants of the Mleccha countnes...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Pramati was born of Vishnu's part in Manu's family and was famous as Chandramasa. He roamed about the Earth for 20 years and killed all the wicked men in his 32nd year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-03-09T14:30:12.127" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8764" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-27T17:51:47.297" Score="4" ViewCount="119" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedi or Havan kunda is the place or figure inside which holy fire or yagyagni is lit. My  question is how many type of vedi's are possible? and what are its technical specs which should be followed while building it? Can a copper utensil (also known as tamra vedi or tamrakunda) be used for small yagnas?&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/inr/product/sculptures/havan-kund-ZBG03/?gclid=COjO9Lbjl8gCFVcPjgodwy4CJg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; is what tamrakunda looks like&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-09-29T02:30:15.427" LastActivityDate="2015-09-29T02:30:15.427" Title="How to construct Vedi?" Tags="|yajna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8766" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-28T04:36:51.773" Score="10" ViewCount="5882" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Lakshmi Ashtakam which starts as &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra uvācha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namosthesthu Maha Maye,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Sree peede, sura poojithe,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Sanka , chakra, Gadha hasthe,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Maha Lakshmi Namosthuthe.      1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namasthe garudarude,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kolasura bhayam kari,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sarva papa hare , devi,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Maha Lakshmi Namosthuthe.      2&#xA;      ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is the composer of this ashtaka? Is it Indra as its starts as Indra uvācha or someone else?  Where else does this get referred to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, it is believed that Goddess Sri Lakshmi is fully loaded with karuna and had never punished anyone. In that case the phrase &lt;em&gt;Kolasura bhayam kari&lt;/em&gt; means that she killed Kolasura, after which the name of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolhapur&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;city Kolhapur&lt;/a&gt; has arrived: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hindu mythology holds that Kolhapur was founded by Kolhasur, a&#xA;  Rakshasha (demon spirit). Kolhasur was killed by Lakshmi(Ambabai) ( or&#xA;  Mahalakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity). Kolhasura's&#xA;  dying wish was to have the city named after him and his wish was&#xA;  granted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the backing for the statement that she killed Kolasura or any other asura for that matter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-11-09T11:36:36.590" LastActivityDate="2022-03-21T10:50:42.343" Title="Who spoke the Lakshmi ashtakam &amp; did Lakshmi really kill Kolhasura?" Tags="|indra|lakshmi|asuras|stotra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8767" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-09-28T04:43:36.800" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-09-28T04:43:36.800" LastActivityDate="2015-09-28T04:43:36.800" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8768" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-09-28T04:43:36.800" Score="0" Body="Hindu mythology holds that Kolhapur was founded by Kolhasur, a Rakshasha (demon spirit). Kolhasur was killed by Lakshmi(Ambabai) ( or Mahalakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity). Kolhasura's dying wish was to have the city named after him and his wish was granted.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-09-28T08:48:20.537" LastActivityDate="2015-09-28T08:48:20.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8770" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-28T08:38:02.150" Score="2" ViewCount="185" Body="&lt;p&gt;What happened to Yashodha ji and Nand baba after Krishna ji left Gokul?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3823" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-09-28T08:52:54.913" LastActivityDate="2015-09-28T08:52:54.913" Title="What happened to Yashoda after Krishna ji left Gokul?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-09-28T13:07:44.110" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8772" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-28T12:31:28.680" Score="22" ViewCount="16262" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know Lord Shiva showed his love towards Lord Vishnu by incarnating as Hanuman during Rama Avatar. But Hanuman didn't know he was incarnation of Shiva/ Vayu. (i think he still doesn't know it).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read Hanuman's first meeting with Rama but i didn't find any reason why Hanuman became ardent devotee of Lord Rama. Lord Hanuman always chants name of Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can anyone explain the reason behind his devotion to Rama?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did Hanuman know that Rama was avatar of Vishnu?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; Shiva Purana says Hanuman is devotee of Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12959/4/Chapter2_1149-1228p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incarnation of Hanumat&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; in &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Satarudrasamhita&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; of &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&quot; (Pg No- 1154) says &quot; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Himself a leader of devotees, he made Rama and Sita happy. He, Lord of Monkeys, established cult of devotion to Rama in the World&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. Shiva Purana says Hanuman was born for Rama's work. No specific reason was mentioned for his devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-05T15:14:16.773" LastActivityDate="2022-12-22T14:10:00.613" Title="Why Hanuman became staunch devotee of Lord Rama?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8773" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-28T13:46:44.697" Score="6" ViewCount="16150" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story of Kashtbhanjan Hanuman Dev idol at Sarangpur(Gujrat)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is the female under Lord Hanuman's foot and why is Lord Hanuman crushing his teen in the image?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/s6Yot.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/s6Yot.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-09-29T06:28:57.160" LastActivityDate="2022-12-04T20:39:47.733" Title="What is the story of Kashtbhanjan Hanuman Dev idol at Sarangpur?" Tags="|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8776" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2147" CreationDate="2015-09-29T04:11:37.370" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;While @KeshavSrinivasan's answer is excellent, I'll try to address your additional questions after the &lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt; mark.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This questions requires understanding of what are you trying to achieve by getting the answer to it. Ultimately, there is just one way to God, to &lt;em&gt;Ishvara&lt;/em&gt;: to remember who we are, remember who he is and remember what we should do. At this point we &lt;em&gt;are&lt;/em&gt; with God, doesn't matter where we are or what happens around us. Four ways which you asking about are ways to get to that point. Bhagavad-gita chapter 4, between verses 9 and 41, actually discusses those various &quot;ways&quot; to return back to God.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As far as our &lt;em&gt;acharyas&lt;/em&gt; in the Brahma Gaudiya-Vaishnava &lt;em&gt;sampradaya&lt;/em&gt; say, the question is not about &quot;choosing&quot; the method of worshipping. It's a question of &lt;em&gt;ability&lt;/em&gt;. We in &lt;em&gt;Kali yuga&lt;/em&gt; simply cannot perform other methods, we have neither bodies, lifespan and environment for &lt;em&gt;tapa&lt;/em&gt; as in &lt;em&gt;Satya yuga&lt;/em&gt;, nor wealth for &lt;em&gt;jagna&lt;/em&gt; as in &lt;em&gt;Treta yuga&lt;/em&gt;, nor personal qualities to follow &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; as in &lt;em&gt;Dwapara yuga&lt;/em&gt;. For miserable us in &lt;em&gt;Kali yuga&lt;/em&gt; only the simplest methods are left: listening about &lt;em&gt;Ishvara&lt;/em&gt; and concentrating our mind on just the sound of His name, that's all. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Examples of worshipping in different eras are there in Bhagavata purana. Nobody in our time will be able to repeat those.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="578" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-21T00:58:10.513" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T00:58:10.513" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8778" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6795" CreationDate="2015-09-29T06:52:53.667" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question is based on wrong assumption that Brahma created this world for our enjoyment, and there is nothing else than this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;About creation&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavata Purana, on the other hand, says that Brahma is being &lt;em&gt;born&lt;/em&gt; in the specific universe and starts creating things after being &lt;em&gt;instructed by Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; what exactly to create.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/5/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata-purana 2.5.11&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yena sva-rociṣā viśvaṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;rocitaṁ rocayāmy aham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yathārko ’gnir yathā somo  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yatharkṣa-graha-tārakāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I create after the Lord’s creation by His personal effulgence [known as the brahmajyoti], just as when the sun manifests its fire, the moon, the firmament, the influential planets and the twinkling stars also manifest their brightness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read in the whole &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 3.6 of Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt; about what &amp;quot;Lord's creation&amp;quot; Brahma speaks here. After that, there's whole &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 3.8&lt;/a&gt; about birth of Brahma and after that you may as well continue reading onwards. ;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/9/43&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata-purana 3.9.43 says&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sarva-veda-mayenedam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ātmanātmātma-yoninā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;prajāḥ sṛja yathā-pūrvaṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yāś ca mayy anuśerate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By following My instructions you can now generate the living entities as before, by dint of your complete Vedic wisdom and the body you have directly received from Me, the supreme cause of everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Brahma doesn't do anything out of his own wishes - he's just a tool in hands of &lt;em&gt;Ishvara&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 15 of Bhagavad-gita&lt;/a&gt; clearly states that there's something &lt;em&gt;else&lt;/em&gt; than this (material) world. Krishna speaks rather succintly, because, after all, he and Arjuna are in the middle of the battlefield between two armies ready to fight, but he mentions immaterial world anyway, because it's extremely important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Said that, let's talk about justice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;About justice&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your question is &amp;quot;why would any God create anything bad anyways&amp;quot;. But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;shastra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; says that God is above everything related to this material creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More than that, Krishna himself says that no one that ourselves are the reason of sufferings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/13/21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-gita 13.21&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kārya-kāraṇa-kartṛtve&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hetuḥ prakṛtir ucyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;puruṣaḥ sukha-duḥkhānāṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhoktṛtve hetur ucyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nature is said to be the cause of all material causes and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Especially important is the verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/15/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;15.8&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śarīraṁ yad avāpnoti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yac cāpy utkrāmatīśvaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;gṛhītvaitāni saṁyāti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vāyur gandhān ivāśayāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another, as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again &lt;strong&gt;quits it to take another&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All this is to satisfy various desires. We have various desires, and some of us find satisfaction in illicit deeds, one of which is Irreligion. But for it to happen, Irreligion should exist, right? Somebody has to create the concept of it first.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But God wants from us different things:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-gita 18.66&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This world is not for our satisfaction. It's to teach us that without God we will not be able to get any satisfaction at all. Some can be taught by simple thinking about God. Some - by hearing about God. But some can be taught only by experiencing continuous suffering, which will lead this living entity to the most important milestone in life - &lt;em&gt;disappointment&lt;/em&gt; and finally, &lt;em&gt;regret&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, according to &lt;em&gt;shastra&lt;/em&gt;, that's the most reasonable reason Brahma created such &amp;quot;bad&amp;quot; thing as Irreligion. He had to create &lt;em&gt;everything&lt;/em&gt;, so living being could experience everything and draw a right conclusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;ADDITION: About suffering&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It probably is worth noting also about the true nature of &amp;quot;bad&amp;quot;. Even if the question started with Irreligion, it ended with more general notion of &amp;quot;bad&amp;quot;. I'll show some more &lt;em&gt;shlokas&lt;/em&gt; with the assumption that &amp;quot;bad&amp;quot; is something which will ultimately bring us suffering in one form or another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-gita 2.12&lt;/a&gt; clearly states that &lt;strong&gt;we are not created, we simply exist since time immemorial&lt;/strong&gt;, and Brahma is involved in our appearance here only by giving us the material bodies we are using and changing here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sarve vayam ataḥ param&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This part of chapter 2 explains clearly that &lt;em&gt;we&lt;/em&gt; as living beings cannot really be born, get old, get sick or die. All this is material illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nobody &amp;quot;created us in this world&amp;quot;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/26/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;We&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/26/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;are&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/26/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/26/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;on&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/28/53&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;our&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/16/57&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;own&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/22/30&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;accord&lt;/a&gt;. We do not do here anything ourselves: everything here is prepared for us by almighty &lt;em&gt;Ishvara&lt;/em&gt; so we would be able to satisfy ourselves, and while doing so we hurt each other due to our lust being transformed to greed and then to rage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="578" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-09-29T12:13:45.563" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8779" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8772" CreationDate="2015-09-29T09:44:25.647" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Shiv Puran it is said that &quot;After the samudra manthan, Lord Vishnu is his avatar as Mohini(enchatress) was distributing amruta to the gods by fooling the demons. Lord shiva was attracted by the beauty of Mohini avatar of Lord vishnu so lord Shiva released his seed on to the ground. &#xA;The Saptarishis or seven sages passing near by with the permission of lord shiva placed Shiva’s seed inside the womb of Anjani, who was praying to Lord Shiva to get a child.&#xA;So this is probably the reason according to our scriptures why lord hanuman is considered as incarnation of lord shiva and his unflinching and natural devotion to lord rama(vishnu incarnate).&#xA;And also according to Vishnu Puran in BR Chopra serial it is mentioned that Lord Shiva wishes to serve Lord Vishnu and so he incarnates as lord hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastActivityDate="2015-09-29T09:44:25.647" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8780" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8772" CreationDate="2015-09-29T10:31:12.010" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;All this began when Narad was attracted by a princess on the earth and was eager to marry her. The whole story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shreemaa.org/story-narada-curses-vishnu/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. While in the end Narad cursed Vishnu for losing your beloved, and endure the pains of separation from her by which was the birth of Rama to be taken in future and then Shiva said that I will be having the birth as a face of monkey same as Narad and serve Vishnu at that point of time. Also you can see the full episode of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsLuIxq0Szk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiv Mahapuran Episode 13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3783" LastActivityDate="2015-09-29T10:31:12.010" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8781" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8759" CreationDate="2015-09-29T16:23:33.183" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are different views on this. However here is a view of this, a more liberal one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Can all Hindus chant Gayatri Mantra&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gayatri Mantra is considered by saints as the Universal mantra, one that all can chant, regardless of caste or creed. A pure mind is of course a good pre-requisite to any Sadhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A man can repeat Gayatri mentally in all states while lying, sitting, walking etc. There is no sin of commission and omission of any sort in its repetition. One should thus perform Sandhya three times with this Gayatri Mantra every day, in the morning, noon and evening. &lt;strong&gt;It is the Gayatri Mantra alone that can be commonly prescribed for all the Hindus.&lt;/strong&gt; The Lord commands in the Vedas &amp;quot;Let one Mantra be common to all&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Samano Mantrah. &amp;quot; Hence the Gayatri should be the one Mantra for all the Hindus. &amp;quot;The secret lore of the Upanishads is the essence of four Vedas, while Gayatri with the three Vyahritis is the essence of the Upanishads. &amp;quot; He is the real Brahmin who knows and understands thus, the Gayatri. Without its knowledge he is a Sudra, though well versed in the four Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no milk superior to cow's milk. Even so there is no Mantra superior to Gayatri. As Omkara or Pranava is for Sannyasins, so is Gayatri for Brahmacharis and householders. The fruits that are attained by meditation on Omkara can be attained by meditation on Gayatri. The same goal that is reached by a Paramahamsa Sannyasin can be reached by a &lt;strong&gt;Brahmachari or a householder&lt;/strong&gt; by meditating on Gayatri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning of Gayatri Mantra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is about worshipping that Brahman that illumines all three worlds and asking Her to enlighten our intellects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sivananda's translation of Gayatri Mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om - Para Brahman; Bhur - Bhuloka (Physical Plane); Bhuvah - Antariksha Svah; Svarga Loka Tat - Paramatma Savitur; Isvara (Surya); Varenyam; Fit to be worshipped; Bhargo - Remover of sins and ignorance; Devasya - Glory (Jnana Svaroopa); Dheemahi - We meditate; Dhiyo - Buddhi (Intellect); Yo - Which; Nah - Our; Prachodayat - Enlighten.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us meditate on Isvara and His Glory who has created the Universe, who is fit to be worshipped, who is the remover of all sins and ignorance. May he enlighten our intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;How to chant the Gayatri Mantra:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Discipline and steadfastness is the key to success in any field, and this includes spirituality. All the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Get up at 4 a. m. in Brahmamuhurta and start Japa and meditation on Gayatri (Panchmukhi or five-faced Devi seated in lotus flower), sitting on Padmasana, Siddhasana or Virasana, facing North or East. Burn incense in the room. In summer you can take a bath. In winter you can simply wash your face, hands and feet and do achamana only. Continue the Japa for two hours or more. Have another sitting at night between 7 and 8 p. m. Constantly feel that you are receiving light, purity and wisdom from Gayatri. This is important. Keep the image of the Gayatri at the Trikuti, the space between the eye-brows by closing the eyes and concentrate there, or keep the image in the lotus of the heart and concentrate there. You will have Darshan of Gayatri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is better if you do Japa of Gayatri 3000 to 4000 times daily. Your heart will be purified rapidly. If you are not able to do this number, you can do 1008 times daily. If you find it difficult to do this number also, do at least 108 times daily, 36 times at sunrise, 36 times at noon, 36 times at sunset. There is special, mysterious spiritual force or wonderful magnetic power at Sandhi or junction of the time, sunrise and sunset. The mind will be elevated quickly. It will be filled with Sattva. Concentration will come by itself without any effort at this time. If you find it difficult to get up at Brahmamuhurta, get up before sunrise. That man who fails to do Gayatri at the Sandhis fails in the discharge of his daily duties. He becomes a Bhrashta or fallen man. He loses vigour, vitality and Brahma-tejas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Spiritual Benefits of reciting Gayatri Mantra:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayatri Mantra, is considered as a very pure mantra with tremendous powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mind is purified by constant worship. It is filled with good and pure thoughts. Repetition of worship strengthens the good Samskaras. &amp;quot;As a man thinks, that he becomes. &amp;quot; This is the psychological law. The mind of a man who trains himself in thinking good, holy thoughts, develops a tendency to think of good thoughts. His character is moulded and transformed by continued good thoughts. When the mind thinks of the image of Gayatri during worship, the mental substance actually assumes the form of the image. The impression of the object is left in the mind. This is called Samskara. When the act is repeated very often, the Samskaras gain strength by repetition, and a tendency or habit is formed in the mind. He who entertains thoughts of Divinity becomes transformed actually into the Divinity himself by constant thinking and meditation. His Bhava or disposition is purified and divinised. The meditator and the meditated, the worshipper and the worshipped, the thinker and the thought become one and the same. This is Samadhi. This is the fruit of worship or Upasana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;REFERENCE:&lt;/strong&gt; All the quotes are from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1087&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gayatri Japa by Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE:&lt;/strong&gt; The rules of any sadhana are that one practices discipline and auterity at least to a certain extent before practicing other types of sadhana. Fire when controlled will be useful but when out of control, will burn us. Similarly the mantra siddhis obtained by such sadhanas, when done with a pure heart, pure mind and pure intellect, will confer auspiciousness and be of benefit to the society, but when used improperly, will lead to one's own downfall!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus in conclusion, we can say that Gayatri Mantra is the King of all mantras, and leads to complete Unity with God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-09-29T16:23:33.183" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8784" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8785" CreationDate="2015-09-30T03:18:57.060" Score="3" ViewCount="941" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Bisnois are said to be the foremost practitioners of Ahimsa and the greatest environmental activists. The 29 tenets of Bhisnois were formulated by Guru Jambheshwar. The following documentary mentions 29 tenets, but doesn't name every one of them. A list of these tenets along with a reference to a book documenting their belief system would be of great help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX8bnlXyXro&amp;amp;feature=youtu.be&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX8bnlXyXro&amp;amp;feature=youtu.be&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-01T19:57:54.590" LastActivityDate="2020-04-14T11:01:34.357" Title="What are the 29 tenets of the Bishnois?" Tags="|philosophy|vaishnavism|sects|ahimsa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8785" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8784" CreationDate="2015-09-30T04:35:44.423" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bishnoism is a Panjabi Vaishnava sect founded by Guru Jambheshwar in the 15th century.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bishnoism.com/bishnoi_29_principle/29_principle_detaill.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; are Jambheshwar's 29 principles:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“TEES DIN SUTAK” Observe 30 days of SUTAK (state of ritual impurity) after birth and keep mother &amp;amp; child away from household&#xA;  activities.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“PANCH RITUVANTI NIYARO” During menstrual period, keep woman away from household activities for 5 days.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“SAIRO KARO SINAN” Take bath daily in the morning.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“SHEEL, SANTOSH, SUCHI PIYARO” Maintain good character, be content &amp;amp; maintain purity &amp;amp; cleanliness.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“DWI-KAL SANDHYA KARO” Pray two times a day (morning &amp;amp; evening).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“SANJH AARTI GUN GAO” Sing hymn of praise to the God in the evening.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“HOM HIT, CHIT, PREET SU HOY” Offer oblation in the holy fire (HAVAN) with feelings of welfare, devotion &amp;amp; love.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“PANI, INDHAN, DUDH NE LIJE CHHAN” Use filtered water, milk and cleaned firewood to make them bacteria/insects free.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“BANI NE LIJE CHHAN” Speak carefully (think before speak).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“EKSHMA HIRDE DHARO” Practise forgiveness/pardon/absolution from heart.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“DAYA HIRDE DHARO” Be compassionate/kind/merciful/sympathetic by heart.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“CHORI BARJIYO” Stealing or using other’s thing without permission is prohibited.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“NINDA BARJIYO” Condemnation/criticism is prohibited.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“JHUTH BARJIYO” Tell lies/untruthfulness is prohibited.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“BAD NA KARNO KOY” Don’t indulge in unnecessary dispute/debate/argument/controversy.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“AMAWAS VART RAKHNO” Observe fast on AMAWAS (last day of the dark half of a month).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“BHAJAN VISHNU BATAYO JOY” Worship &amp;amp; recite name of VISHNU in adoration.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“JEEV DAYA PALANI” Be compassionate/kind/merciful to all living beings.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“RUNKH LILA NAHI GHAVE” Don’t cut green trees.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“AJAR JARE JEEVAT MARE” Control/burn/win over AJARs(lust, anger, ego/pride, greed, attachment/infatuation/delusion).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“KARE RASOI HATH SU” Eat own/home cooked food. Don’t eat food cooked/kept in impure conditions.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“AMAR RAKHAVE THAT” Provide shelters for abandoned animals so that they can complete their life with dignity and don’ get slaughtered.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“BAIL BADHIYA NA KARAVE” Not to castrate bulls.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“AMAL SU DUR HI BHAGE” Don’t consume or trade in opium.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“TAMAKHU SU DUR HI BHAGE” Don’t smoke/use tobacco &amp;amp; its products.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“BHANG SU DUR HI BHAGE” Don’t consume or deal in narcotics.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“MADH SU DUR HI BHAGE” Don’t drink or deal in alcohol/liquor.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“MANS SU DUR HI BHAGE” Don’t eat meat or other non-vegetarian food.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;“LEEL NA LAVE ANG” Don’t use violet blue colour extracted from green indigo plant.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bishnoism.com/bishnoi_29_principle/tees.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more detail on the 29 principles.  And see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bishnoism.com/bishnoi_literature/books.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for a list of books on Bishnoism, although I don't see any English books there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-26T16:00:49.710" LastActivityDate="2016-01-26T16:00:49.710" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8786" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-30T07:01:07.500" Score="3" ViewCount="126" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am wondering whether the medicinal plants in Sri Lanka are really proof of Hanuman's feat of bringing the mountain of medicinal plants for Lord Ram's aid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is their existence just a co-incidence, and does not have to do anything with Lord Hanuman's story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3837" LastActivityDate="2015-09-30T07:01:07.500" Title="Are the medicinal plants in Sri Lanka proofs of Hanuman?" Tags="|rama|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8788" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8475" CreationDate="2015-09-30T10:11:20.323" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;The path of knowledge is commonly referred to as Jnana Yoga. What is meant by Jnana depends upon the scripture being read. Oftentimes scripture will distinguish between &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vijnana&lt;/em&gt; (refers to Knowledge -meaning Realization of Brahman, Transcendent Perception of the Ultimate) and &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jnana&lt;/em&gt; (meaning mental and scriptural knowledge/understanding of Brahman, but not Realization). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other times Jnana is simply referring to Vijnana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V7, p 197-198; and here under the title &lt;em&gt;Conversations and Dialogues&lt;/em&gt;, sub-title &lt;em&gt;I - XXIX&lt;/em&gt;, sub-sub-title &lt;em&gt;XV&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_7/vol_7_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_7/vol_7_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Disciple: Sir, now you are speaking of Jnana; but sometimes you proclaim the superiority of Bhakti, sometimes of Karma, and sometimes of Yoga [meaning Raja]. This confuses our understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swamiji: Well, the truth is this. &lt;strong&gt;The knowledge of Brahman is the ultimate goal — the highest destiny of man&lt;/strong&gt;. But man cannot remain absorbed in Brahman all the time. When he comes out of it, he must have something to engage himself. At that time he should do such work as will contribute to the real well-being of people. Therefore do I urge you in the service of Jivas in a spirit of oneness. But, my son, such are the intricacies of work, that even great saints are caught in them and become attached. Therefore work has to be done without any desire for results. This is the teaching of the Gita. But know that in the knowledge of Brahman there is no touch of any relation to work. Good works, at the most, purify the mind. Therefore has the commentator Shankara so sharply criticized the doctrine of the combination of Jnana and Karma. Some attain to the knowledge of Brahman by the means of unselfish work. This is also a means, &lt;strong&gt;but the end is the realization of Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;. Know this thoroughly that the goal of the path of discrimination and of all other modes of practice is the realization of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Disciple: Now, sir, please tell me about the utility of Raja-Yoga and Bhakti-Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swamiji: Striving in these paths also some attain to the realisation of Brahman. The path of Bhakti or devotion of God is a slow process, but is easy of practice. In the path of Yoga there are many obstacles; perhaps the mind runs after psychic powers and thus draws you away from attaining your real nature. &lt;strong&gt;Only the path of Jnana is of quick fruition and the rationale of all other creeds; hence it is equally esteemed in all countries and all ages&lt;/strong&gt;. But even in the path of discrimination [Jnana Yoga] there is the chance of the mind getting stuck in the interminable net of vain argumentation. Therefore along with it, meditation [Raja Yoga] should be practiced. By means of discrimination and meditation [Jnana and Raja], the goal or Brahman has to be reached. One is sure to reach the goal by practicing in this way. This, in my opinion, is the easy path ensuring quick success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhyana is a stage of meditation. It is defined in Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms and I think there are definitions given already on Hinduism SE. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The best way to achieve all of this is by finding your guru. Your guru will know what way or combination is best for you. All the great saints had their own gurus for guidance. The goal is easy to achieve with the guidance of your guru. It is said over and over in scripture to find your guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-12-24T04:47:20.807" LastActivityDate="2017-12-24T04:47:20.807" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8790" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-30T12:36:35.110" Score="24" ViewCount="9113" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavata Purana is considered to be the purest and greatest of all the Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The great Sage Veda Vyasa was credited to have authored Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad means &amp;quot;beautiful&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;opulent,&amp;quot; and Bhagavatam means &amp;quot;related to God.&amp;quot; Hence, Srimad-Bhagavatam can be translated as &amp;quot;The Beautiful Story of God.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It invokes devotion towards Lord Vishnu and his various incarnations, primarily focusing on Krishna since he was the complete incarnation of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story behind compiling SB as per SB itself is as&#xA;Vedavyasa felt discontent even after compiling the Vedas, Puranas, Mahabharata, and Vedanta-sutra. So he inquired Sage Narada regarding the same; Narada then said &amp;quot;You have not actually broadcast the sublime and spotless glories of the Personality of Godhead. That philosophy which does not satisfy the transcendental senses of the Lord is considered worthless.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So on the advice of Narada, Vyasa meditated and the Bhagavata was manifest to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are there any other references which indicate Bhagavata Purana is the foremost?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even if people knew that it is the foremost then why do they refer to other puranas?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavata Purana declares Lord Vishnu (Narayana) as Para Brahman Supreme Lord who creates unlimited universes and enters each one of them as Lord of Universe.Lord Vishnu engages in creation of 14 worlds within the universe as Brahma when he deliberately accepts rajas guna. Lord Vishnu himself sustains, maintains and preserves the universe as Vishnu when he accepts sattva guna and annihilates the universe at the end of maha-kalpa as Rudra when he accepts tamas guna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The intense and personal bhakti described in the Bhagavata is directed toward Krishna as Vishnu in human form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the meaning of Srimad Bhagavatam itself it is clear that it describes the beautiful story of GOD(which is &lt;strong&gt;strictly monotheistic&lt;/strong&gt; devoted to parabrahman Narayana/krishna) then why some people project their ishtadevata as the supreme or foremost even if they knew Narayana/Krishna is the Supreme?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The transcendental pleasure and completeness which vyasadeva felt after compiling the Bhagavata Purana was not felt after compiling Vishnu,shiva,padma puranas etc. even though they describe the transcendental glories and devotion of the deity to which the purana is dedicated why is it so ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-11-07T17:14:59.063" LastActivityDate="2023-11-08T23:45:58.160" Title="Why is the Bhagavata Purana considered the foremost of all puranas?" Tags="|krishna|puranas|bhagavata-purana|vyasa|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8791" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-09-30T15:33:31.403" Score="9" ViewCount="204" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe29/sbe29013.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shankhayana Grihya Sutras, a text associated with the Rig Veda, part of the Hindu marriage ceremony is described.  In preparing the bride for the marriage, the bride's family priest does the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then (the Âkârya of the bride's family) makes the girl sit down behind the fire, and while she takes hold of him he sacrifices with the Mahâvyâhritis, and then he makes Âgya oblations to Agni, to Soma, to Pragâpati, to Mitra, to Varuna, to Indra, to Indrânî, to the Gandharva, to Bhaga, to Pûshan, to Tvashtar, to Brihaspati, &lt;strong&gt;to the king Pratyânîka.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After they have regaled four or eight women, who are not widows, with lumps of vegetables, Surâ, and food, these should perform a dance four times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The same deities (they worship also) on behalf of the man,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And Vaisravana and Îsâna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of these gods are recognizable: Soma is Chandra the moon god, Indrani is Indra's wife Shachi, Tvashta is Vishwakarma the divine architect, Vaishravana is Kubera god of wealth, Ishana is Shiva, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, who is &amp;quot;king Pratyanika&amp;quot; that the priest gives an offering to?  I assume he's a Vedic god, like the others, but as far as I can tell there are no Vedic hymns addressed to him; see the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Does he have another name?  The Sanskrit word pratyanika means enemy or hostility, so perhaps he's some sort of god of enmity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it helps, the ritual this is part of is called the &amp;quot;Indranikarman&amp;quot;, as Indrani or Shachi is worshipped in it.  Has anyone heard of worshipping Pratyanika in the Indranikarman ritual?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-25T23:11:07.320" Title="Who is the god Pratyanika worshipped before Hindu marriages?" Tags="|vedas|rituals|marriage|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8794" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8790" CreationDate="2015-10-01T07:37:09.603" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana Brahma (Moksha) Khanda praises the Bhagavata Purana to be the best Purana devoted to Vishnu. After that comes Vishnu Purana and then comes Garuda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Kali age, only three principal Puranas are devoted to Vishnu.&#xA;  Among these the Bhagavata Purana renders more good to the people. The&#xA;  Bhagavata Purana opens with the description of the origin of the&#xA;  universe; Vishnu, Brahma, Rudra and others. The wise declare knowledge&#xA;  to be manifold, consisting of various grades - high, low and middling.&#xA;  All that knowledge is found, in the Bhagavata Purana. Hence, Bhagavata&#xA;  is the highest of all Puranas. The Vishnu Purana comes next then comes&#xA;  Garuda. The three are principal Puranas in the Kali age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana: Brahma(Moksha) Khanda, Chapter 1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-10-01T07:37:09.603" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8795" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8963" CreationDate="2015-10-01T10:05:05.850" Score="6" ViewCount="398" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I know Bhagavad Gita was first told by Lord Krishna, Krishna spoke to&#xA;Vivasvan (Surya), after that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vivasvan (Surya) to Manu&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Manu to Ikshvaku&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ikshvaku to his disciple &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And I know that Lord Rama is the 81&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; generation of Ikshvaku.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is why wasn't Bhagavad Gita available at the time of Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Bhagavad Gita was available at that time then why don't Ramayana or other scriptures mention that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-28T09:19:49.050" LastActivityDate="2016-01-28T09:19:49.050" Title="Why wasn't Bhagavad Gita available at the time of Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|scripture|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8801" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-01T17:04:13.160" Score="7" ViewCount="1962" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramana Maharishi and Sri Ramakrishna are acknowledged as fully enlightened people. Their words are given the highest importance by many Hindus. Are there any sadhus at that level currently anywhere in the world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3547" LastEditorUserId="3547" LastEditDate="2015-10-01T22:37:55.743" LastActivityDate="2019-10-19T03:33:44.567" Title="Are there any enlightened people currently at the level of Ramana Maharishi or Paramhansa Ramakrishna?" Tags="|worship|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8802" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-01T18:36:43.457" Score="3" ViewCount="121" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the origin of this (Sanskrit?) verse; is it part of a bigger scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lalayet Chitta Balakam (&lt;em&gt;persuade with indulgence, the mind, which is a child&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2022-06-06T18:47:55.133" Title="What's the origin of Lalayet Chitta Balakam" Tags="|vedanta|gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8803" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-02T05:26:49.913" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The human civilization degenerates spiritually throughout the Kali Yuga — it is mostly referred to as the Dark Age, mainly because people are the furthest possible from Divinity. During the Kali Yuga righteousness has diminished by three-quarters, and the age is one of devolution, culminating in the destruction of the world prior to a new creation and another Krita Yuga in an endless cycle of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kali Yuga Timeline&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since a year of the devas equals 360 years of men, the extent of Kali Yuga is 432,000 years;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Surya Siddhanta, an astronomical treatise that forms the basis of all Hindu and Buddhist calendars, Kali Yuga began at midnight (00:00) on 18 February 3102 BCE in the proleptic Julian calendar or 23 January 3102 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In The Aihole Inscription 3735 years after the Bharata war is equated with 556 years of the Saka Era, in the Kali Yuga. This would mean 3179 years after the Bharata war, the Saka Era started. Whitaker’s alamanac says that Year 1922 in the Saka calendar is 2000 AD/CE. So the Saka year started in 78 BC. That would imply that the Kaliyuga started in 3179-78= 3101 BC.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-02T14:39:15.527" LastActivityDate="2015-10-02T14:39:15.527" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8804" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-02T05:26:49.913" Score="0" Body="kali yuga (Sanskrit: कलियुग, &quot;age of Kali&quot;; &quot;age of vice&quot;) — is one of the four stages of development that the world goes through as part of the cycle of Yugas, the others being satya-yuga, treta-yuga and dwapara-yuga. " OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-02T14:38:11.053" LastActivityDate="2015-10-02T14:38:11.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8805" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-02T05:34:12.720" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The life history of Ved Vyas is an interesting one. The author of the great epic Mahabharata, Ved Vyas was the first and greatest acharya of Sanatan Dharma. He is responsible for classifying the four Vedas, wrote the 18 Puranas and recited the great Mahabharata. In fact, the Mahabharata is often called as the fifth Veda. The most important and the most glorified section is the Bhagwad Gita, the lesson recited to Arjuna by Lord Krishna on the battlefield. Apart from the Mahabharata, he also wrote the Brahmasootra, one of his shortest theologies on Hindu philosophy. It is said that Ved Vyas is immortal and he never died. Seeing the widespread violence in today's times, he is said to have retreated into some remote village in Northern India. The life of Ved Vyas is an example to all in the modern times on how to be selfless and devote oneself entirely to Lord in order to attain Nirvana. To know more about Vyas, continue to read this insightful biography on him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Personal Life&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is also known as Krishna Dvaipayana. Around some 5000 years ago, he was born in Damauli of Tanahi district, which is now in Nepal. The ancient cave that he wrote Mahabharata in still exists in Nepal. His father was Parashar Rishi, a sage and his mother was Satyavati. He taught the Vedas to his pupils with ardent devotion and dedication. It is said that Mahabharata is the 18th Puran that was written by Ved Vyas. He fathered four famous sons, Pandu, Dhritarashtra, Vidur and Sukhdev. Ved Vyas received knowledge from great sages like Vasudeva and Sanakadik. He described that the most important goal in one's life is to attain Narayana or the Divine Supreme. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Major Work Mahabharata:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a cameo of Ved Vyasa himself in Mahabharata. He is considered as a part-incarnation of Lord Vishnu. It is said that he came to the earth in Dwaparyuga to put all the Vedic knowledge in this universe in the form of written words and make it available to everyone. Before Ved Vyasa the Vedic knowledge only existed in the form of spoken words. He was the grandfather to Pandavas and Kauravas. He is called Ved Vyasa because he had split the original version of Vedas into four parts; Ved Vyasa literally means �the splitter of Vedas�. It was because Ved Vyasa had split the Vedas that it became easy for people to understand it. This is how the divine knowledge was made available to everyone. It is still not clearly known whether Ved Vyasa had split the Vedas all by himself or if he did with the help of a group of scholars. In Mahabharata, Vyasa�s mother marries the king of Hastinapur and gives birth to two sons. Both the sons die and their wives are left with no children. She asks him to impregnate both the wives. Vyasa agrees to impregnate Amba and Ambika. He tells these girls to come in close proximity to him but alone. It was Ambika�s turn first to go close to him and out to shyness she closes her eyes. Vyasa declares that the baby would be born blind��this child was called Dhritarashtra. Then it was Amba�s turn. Although she was instructed by Ambalika to relax and calm herself down. But she was very nervous and her face becomes pale out of fear. Vyasa declares that the baby born out of this will be severely anemic and will certainly not be capable of running a kingdom��this was Pandu. This leads to the third attempt to make a healthy child but Amba and Ambika were so scared now that they sent a servant girl instead. This maid was confident and she gets impregnated with a healthy child��this was Vidura. He also had another son called Suka from sage Jabali�s daughter called Pinjala. It is said that Ved Vyasa asked Lord Ganesha himself to help him in compilation of Mahabharata. But Ganesha had put one condition on him; he said that he will write Mahabharata for him if only he will narrate it to him without a single pause. To supersede this condition, Vyasa put another condition on him asking him to understand the verses even before he has recited them. This is how Mahabharata was written, Ved Vyasa narrated all the Upanishads and 18 Puranas continuously to Lord Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-02T14:39:25.950" LastActivityDate="2015-10-02T14:39:25.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8806" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-02T05:34:12.720" Score="0" Body="Vyasa (Sanskrit: व्यास, vyāsa, literally “Compiler”) is a central and revered figure in most Hindu traditions. He is also sometimes called Veda Vyāsa (वेदव्यास, veda-vyāsa, &quot;the one who classified the Vedas&quot;) or Krishna Dvaipāyana (referring to his complexion and birthplace). He is the author of the Mahabharata, as well as a character in it. He is considered to be the scribe of both the Vedas and Puranas." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-02T14:40:02.877" LastActivityDate="2015-10-02T14:40:02.877" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8807" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7729" CreationDate="2015-10-02T06:41:00.093" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma created vama deva,vama deva is one of the five faces of shiva,vama deva learned MADHU VIDHYA in his dream&quot;told by God in the form of a hawk in a flash of light&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dadhichi Rishi is the son of atharvan Rishi,dadichi told the MADHU VIDHYA to Ashwini kumaras&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MADHU VIDHYA:EXPLANATION &#xA;&quot;God or Ishwara in the form of this logical universe is Madhu or honey or nectar or ambroisia to all creatures and for all creatures this universe is Madhu,this is all,this is brahma loga,this is Amirtham&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3852" LastActivityDate="2015-10-02T06:41:00.093" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8808" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-02T07:24:35.530" Score="0" ViewCount="64" Body="&lt;p&gt;When a very pious soul leaves the body , how can family members know whether the soul attained moksha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3853" LastActivityDate="2015-10-02T07:24:35.530" Title="How to know soul if attains moksha" Tags="|moksha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-10-02T14:16:51.450" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8809" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-02T17:45:17.320" Score="3" ViewCount="2463" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have Gorochana or Goulochan, given by a friend. I want to know it's vedic application.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have two types of Goulochan one is from cows head and other one cow gallstone Bezoar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I did not find anywhere in web or in any magazine. Only through Durga Saptasati book its written to make tabiz with this Gouloachan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can I make tilak and give it to God while worshiping ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please give some details information and methods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3857" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T05:33:41.627" Title="What is Gorochana or Goulochan?" Tags="|worship|tilak|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8810" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8759" CreationDate="2015-10-02T18:18:04.683" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my POV the mantra can be chanted by any one from Bhuloka Bhuvah Svah loka. By a Brahmachari or a householder by meditating on Gayatri. Like Mohamantra its a exempt from Ari Mantra. Any one can Chant Mohamantra, Gayatri Mantra of Rigveda, Om Namha Shivaya, Om TatSat etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please check more info from Pt. Sanjay Rath Book's Vedic Remedies in Astrology of Mantra Sastra Chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you have any doubt about the mantra be sure its suites (check the akathaha cakra for suitability of a mantra) you and gives the positive result. For any Mantra you can concatenate an ātma bīja from both side of mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayetri Mantra is exempt so you can chant it but you have to follow some codes of conduct please do not consume beef i.e. eating meat, no alcohol etc. Because its a Swastika mantra and these thing will make attenuation so the result will be less fruitful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Atma Bija you can refer to this Article &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.manblunder.com/2012/09/how-to-derive-atma-bija.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.manblunder.com/2012/09/how-to-derive-atma-bija.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Contact ravi@manblunder.com&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3857" LastActivityDate="2015-10-02T18:18:04.683" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8811" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7834" CreationDate="2015-10-02T21:04:38.517" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can make Krsna as your Guru, chant his holy mantras and definitely one day he will give you a Guru. In generally Krsna is Jagat Guru(universal-guru).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वसुदेव-सुतं देवं कंस-चाणूर-मर्दनम् |&#xA;देवकी-परमानन्दं कृष्णं वन्दे जगद्गुरुम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vasudeva-sutam devam kaMsa-chANUra-mardanam |&#xA;devakI-paramAnandam kRiShNam vande jagad-gurum ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;to the son-of-vasudeva, to the god, to the killer-of-kaMsa and chANUra |&#xA;to the utter-bliss-of-devakI, to kRiShNa, praise, to the universal-guru |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Kleem Krishnaya Namah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3857" LastActivityDate="2015-10-02T21:04:38.517" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8812" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8744" CreationDate="2015-10-02T21:20:16.710" Score="-3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't think so, Homosexuality is allowed in Vedic Dharma, its may be written that have an existence but its a Sin. It's against the Purusha and Prakriti coz which denies progeny. Rest upon expert's view. Even going to another wife is a Sin and there is a huge punishment given in Garuda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can refer to this link &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://archanavedantam.blogspot.in/2009/07/punishments-for-ur-sins-garuda-purana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://archanavedantam.blogspot.in/2009/07/punishments-for-ur-sins-garuda-purana.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3857" LastActivityDate="2015-10-02T21:20:16.710" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8813" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-03T06:33:29.217" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Description&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas introduce rishis as krantdarshis, those capable of seeing&#xA;  beyond narrow, selfish, good and bad of present times. Because of this&#xA;  capability rishis are known as drashtas. Modern science uses&#xA;  microscope and telescope for expansion of vision. Yet, our vision&#xA;  doesn’t reach to depths and heights. Rishis could see beyond&#xA;  everything. Nothing in the present, past or future was beyond their&#xA;  vision.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Classification of Rishis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rishis can be classified as brahmarshi, rajarshi and devarshi. Though&#xA;  all the three are engaged in the service of Vishwa vasudha (world) the&#xA;  areas of work are different. Brahmarshi is always engaged in&#xA;  [[chintan]]. He can reach to the depths of consciousness and subtlety&#xA;  of universe and find the principles of life. This type of research&#xA;  work is generally possible only in seclusion and hence brahmarshis&#xA;  lead a life of seclusion. Vashista, Vishvamitra and Yagnavalkya are&#xA;  examples of Brahmarshis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Uttarkhand in Himalayas is such divine place where several bhramarshis&#xA;  are engaged in the research into tatvagnan and atma vignan and come&#xA;  out with the lofty principles, which can manifest divinity in man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The principles formulated by Brahmarshis are implemented by Rajarshis,&#xA;  who are engaged in the direct service of society. King Janaka is an&#xA;  ideal example of rajarshi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devarshis are those who communicate the messages of Brahmarshis to&#xA;  others in inspiring words. Narada is an example of Devarshi who could&#xA;  inspire Dhruva, Parvati, Valmiki and Prahlada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rishi paramparas of 14 rishis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishwamitra &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Patanjali &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parshuram &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagirath &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Charak &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yagnavalkya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jamadagni &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aryabhatt &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankaracharya &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pippalad &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kanad &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sutashownik&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-03T08:11:02.770" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T08:11:02.770" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8814" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-03T06:33:29.217" Score="0" Body="rishi (Sanskrit: &quot;seer; one who sees&quot;) — is a word that simply means a sage or a divine seer in general. the great sages of ancient India who, in deep states of meditation (communion with the cosmos), and through spiritual experimentation, discovered the underlying, fundamental truths of the Universe, and whose teachings formed the basis for the spiritual culture of the ancient Vedic civilization." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-03T08:10:57.997" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T08:10:57.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8815" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-03T06:42:46.573" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Literally, a guru is a teacher. The word guru means “heavy” or “deep,”&#xA;  thus a guru is a person “heavy” or “deep” in knowledge. In this sense&#xA;  a school-teacher is a guru, a coach or athletic instructor is a guru,&#xA;  a fine-arts or even a dance teacher is a guru. One’s parents are also&#xA;  gurus. In the religious field, where the word is most commonly used, a&#xA;  guru is a Hindu religious teacher. So a priest or any person learned&#xA;  in Hindu lore may be a guru. The main purpose of the guru is to teach.&#xA;  In the popular mind there are many stereotyped images of what a guru&#xA;  looks like or how he acts. Usually long hair, beards, flowing robes&#xA;  and lots of bowing followers come to mind, but if we keep the idea of&#xA;  a teacher in mind we will not be confused.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Types of Gurus&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sometimes we hear of different kinds of religious gurus. There is an&#xA;  diksha guru (initiating guru), shiksha guru (an instructing guru), and&#xA;  even chaitya guru (the “guru within”). An initiating guru is a person&#xA;  who formally accepts a student into a sampradaya (religious order).&#xA;  This kind of guru gives a mantra and other articles of initiation in a&#xA;  ceremony called diksha. The instructing guru is the teacher who&#xA;  actually trains the student. Sometimes the instructing guru and the&#xA;  initiating guru are the same person. The guru within is said to be the&#xA;  “wee” voice of God within the heart that tells a person how to act,&#xA;  and so on. Conscience might be the best word to describe this type of&#xA;  guru. In fact, it is considered that God is the original guru and all&#xA;  other forms of guru represent this one original guru. The expression&#xA;  sat guru (“eternal guru”) is often used to indicate God as the&#xA;  original guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Respect and Honour&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A guru is given great respect, even to the point of offering worship&#xA;  (guru puja). One full-moon each year (during July/August) is even&#xA;  called the Guru Purnima and is dedicated to the worship of guru. To&#xA;  have a guru who acts as the master is an essential part of spiritual&#xA;  growth and so to feel respect for and to want to honor one’s guru is&#xA;  natural and healthy. However, there is a tendency within Hinduism for&#xA;  the development of guru “cults” where the worship of guru supersedes&#xA;  the worship of God. This generally takes place when the original idea&#xA;  of guru as teacher becomes diminished and is replaced by the idea of&#xA;  guru as &quot;blesser.&quot; To be blessed by a guru is considered the greatest&#xA;  thing, but people forget that the real blessing of a guru comes in the&#xA;  form of study, discipline, and hard work that leads to knowledge and&#xA;  wisdom and not just with the touch of a hand. The idea of guru as&#xA;  blesser is a debasement of the true role of a guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Darkness and light&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गुशब्दस्त्वन्धकारः स्यात्‌ रुशब्दस्तन्निरोधकः। अन्धकारनिरोधित्वात्‌&#xA;  गुरुरित्यभिधीयते॥ १६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;The syllable gu means darkness, the syllable ru, he who dispels them,&#xA;Because of the power to dispel darkness, the guru is thus named.&#xA;— Advayataraka Upanishad, Verse 16&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्य देवे परा भक्तिः यथा देवे तथा गुरौ । तस्यैते कथिता ह्यर्थाः&#xA;  प्रकाशन्ते महात्मनः ॥ २३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;He who has highest Bhakti (love, devotion)  of Deva (god), just&#xA;like his Deva, so for his Guru, To him who is high-minded, these&#xA;teachings will be illuminating.— Shvetashvatara Upanishad 6.23&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-03T08:09:11.100" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T08:09:11.100" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8816" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-03T06:42:46.573" Score="0" Body="guru (Sanskrit: गुरु) from gu (darkness), and ru (light) — is a person who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and uses it to guide others. Literally a preceptor who shows others knowledge (light) and destroys ignorance (darkness).The guru is seen as a sacred conduit for wisdom and guidance, and finding a satguru (True Guru) is often held to be a prerequisite for attaining self-realization." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-03T08:10:45.350" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T08:10:45.350" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8817" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-03T07:13:54.657" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This voluntary ‘descent’ into the world out of boundless compassion for all creatures is called avatara and has 4 basic purposes; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Protection of the righteous&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Elimination of the wicked &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Re-establishment of Dharma (righteousness) and &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bestowing of Grace.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Description&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Avatara concept is used primarily in Hinduism for descents of Vishnu&#xA;  whom Vaishnava Hindus worship as the Supreme God. Shiva and Ganesha&#xA;  are also described as descending in the form of avatars. The Ganesha&#xA;  Purana and the Mudgala Purana offers the details of Ganesha`s avatars&#xA;  specifically, the avatars of Vishnu also carry a greater theological&#xA;  prominence than those of Shiva or Ganesha and upon examination&#xA;  relevant passages are directly derivative of the Vaishnava avatara&#xA;  lists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The most traditional form of Avatar within Hinduism is the&#xA;  incarnations of Vishnu, the preserver or sustainer aspect of God&#xA;  within the Trimurti or Hindu Trinity. Dasavatara is the ten Avatars of&#xA;  Vishnu in the Garuda Purana. Matsya is first avatar of Vishnu.&#xA;  However, the ten most famous descents of Vishnu are collectively known&#xA;  as the &quot;Dasavatara&quot; and denote avatars who were most prominent in&#xA;  terms of their influence on human society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first four of the avataras appeared in the Satya Yuga and the&#xA;  first of the four Yugas or ages in the time cycle were described&#xA;  within Hinduism. The next three avatars appeared in the Treta Yuga,&#xA;  the eighth descent in the Dwapara Yuga and the ninth in the Kali Yuga.&#xA;  The tenth is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga after some&#xA;  427,000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though Avatars may appear in different forms at different times,&#xA;  places and circumstances, yet they are all the manifestations of the&#xA;  One Supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shri Krishna says :-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though unborn, the Imperishable Self and also the Lord of all beings,&#xA;  yet brooding over nature which is Mine own, I am born through My Own&#xA;  Power. Whenever there is decline of righteousness, then I Myself come&#xA;  forth. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the&#xA;  evil-doers, for the sake of firmly establishing righteousness, I am&#xA;  born from age to age (Ch. IV-6, 7, 8).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Degrees of Avatara&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are Purna Avatara (full incarnations), Amsa Avatara (partial&#xA;  incarnations), Avesa Avatara (inspirational incarnations or indirect),&#xA;  etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Six Categories Of Avataras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Purusha Avatara — Described as the original avatars of Vishnu or Krishna          within the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lila Avatara — Pastime incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Guna Avatara — Are associated with the Trimurti because of their roles of controlling the three modes or gunas of nature.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manvantara Avatara — are beings, who are responsible for creating descendants throughout the Universe, and are unlimited in number. They do not take birth but evolve spiritually.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yuga Avatara — Incarnations during a specific yuga.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satyavesa Avatara — The saktyavesa incarnations are of two kinds - direct and indirect. Incarnations of jivas, or living beings, empowered for a special mission.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purusha avataras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna first incarnates as the three purusha avataras namely:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karanodakashayi Vishnu — &quot;The Lord who is lying on the causal&#xA;ocean&quot;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Garbhodakashayi Vishnu — &quot;The Lord who is lying on the&#xA;universal ocean&quot;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kshirodakashayi Vishnu — &quot;The Lord who is lying on&#xA;the ocean of milk&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lila avataras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A list of Lila avataras (pastime incarnations) mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kumaras &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Narada &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matsya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;yagna &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nara-Narayana &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kardami &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dattatreya &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hayasirsa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hamsa &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhruvapriya or Prsniggarbha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rsabha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prthu &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nrsmha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kurma    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhanvantari &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mohini &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vamana &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhargava &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Parasurama &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ramachandra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vyasa    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prlambhari &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Balarama &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Buddha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalki&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guna avataras:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Trimurtis assumes this guna avatara post:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu — Sattvik Guna (Mode of goodness, Maintanence) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma — Rajik&#xA;Guna (Mode of passion, Creation) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Siva — Tamas Guna (Mode of&#xA;ignorence, Destruction)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manvantara avataras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma's day — 1,000 catur yugas — is divided into fourteen periods of the rule of Manus (fathers of mankind) known as manvantaras. The incarnations during these manvantaras are listed as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;yagna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vibhu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satyasena&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hari&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaikuntha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ajita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sarvabhauma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rsabha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Visvaksena&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dharma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sudhama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yogesvara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brhadbhanu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yuga avataras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In each of these yugas the Lord incarnates with a different body color according to the yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;asan varnas trayo hy asya grhnato ‘nuyugam tanuh suklo raktas tatha&#xA;  pita idanim krishnatam gatah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Krishna appears as an incarnation in every millennium. In the past,&#xA;  He assumed three different colors - white, red and yellow - and now he&#xA;  has appeared in a blackish color.”&#xA;  - Srimad Bhagavatam 10.8.13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the Satya yuga a white avatara appeared to Kardama muni to establish meditation as the process for self-realization.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the Treta yuga a red avatara appeared to Brahma to establish fire sacrifice as the process for self-realization.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the Dvapara yuga a dark avatara (Krishna) appeared as the son of Devaki to establish temple worship as the process for self-realization.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the Kali yuga a Yellow avatara appeared (Chaitanya Mahaprabhu) as the son of Sachi Mata to establish the chanting of the holy names (nama-sankirtana) as the process for self-realization.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shaktyavesha avataras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no limit to the number of shaktyavesha incarnations. But some are mentioned in the vedic literatures as examples. They are of two kinds, direct and indirect. When the Lord Himself expands displaying a particular power of His opulences He is known as Sakshat. When He empowers a living entity with some particular sakti - power, for some specific activity, to represent Him , that living entity is called indirect or avesha incarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Avesha incarnations&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Four Kumaras empowered with knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Narada empowered with devotional service.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma empowered with creative power.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;King Pritu empowered with power to maintain living beings.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Parasurama empowered with power to kill evil elements.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;VedaVyasa to compile the vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many Many more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Twenty-two avataras of Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Twenty-two avatars of Vishnu are listed numerically in the first Canto of the Bhagavata Purana that include Narada or the traveling sage, Dattatreya or the combined avatara of the Trimurti, Prithu or the king who made earth beautiful and attractive, Vyasa or the compiler of Vedas and so on. Other than the mentioned ones, there are other avataras too like Prshnigarbha, born to Prshni; Hayagriva or the horse and Hamsa or the swan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Kalki avatar is described in the Bhagavata Purana it is declared that the avatars of Vishnu are uncountable. However twenty-five avatars of Vishnu is generally taken as of those of greatest significance. According to Gaudiya Vaishnava interpretation in texts of the Bhagavata Purana, and a number of texts from the epics and Puranic scriptures, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is also considered as an avatar and is worshiped as such by followers of the tradition. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is often referred to as the Golden Avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Vaishnava branch of Hinduism, Vishnu is only one divine being that manifests in form. Thus Narayana, Vasudeva and Krishna are also seen as names denoting divine aspects, which take avataric form. Purusha avataras are sometimes described as the original avatars of Vishnu or Krishna within the Universe, such as Vasudeva, Sankarshan, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. Guna avatars are associated with the Trimurti concept. The personalities of the Trimurti are also sometimes referred to as Guna avataras, because of their roles of controlling the three modes or gunas of nature. However, they have not descended upon an earthly planet in the general sense of the term &lt;code&gt;avatar&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu, as the controller of the mode of goodness or Sattva, creates his avataras in the respective field, while Brahma as the controller of the mode of passion and desire or the rajas and Shiva as the controller of the mode of ignorance or the tamas. Manvantara avataras are beings, who are responsible for creating descendants throughout the Universe, and are unlimited in number. They do not take birth but evolve spiritually. Shaktyavesa and Avesa avataras are either direct (sakshat) or indirect (avesa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Vishnu himself descends, he is called sakshat or shaktyavesa avatara. He is referred to as the direct incarnation of God. But when he does not incarnate directly, but indirectly empowers some living entity to represent him, that living entity is called an indirect or avesa avatar. There are a great number of avesa avatars; some of the important ones are Shakyamuni Buddha, Narada Muni, and Parashurama. Parashurama is the only one of the traditional ten avatars that is not a direct descent of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two types of primary or direct avatars, Purna avataras and Amsarupavatars. The purna avatars are those in which Vishnu takes his form directly and all the qualities and powers of God are expressed, like Narasimha, Rama and Krishna. Amsarupavatars are those in which Vishnu takes form directly but the Lord is manifested in the person only partially, like Matsya and Parashurama. The avesa or indirect avatars are generally not worshiped as the Supreme Being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among most Vaishnava traditions, Lord Krishna is considered to be the highest Purna avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-03T08:09:05.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T08:09:05.163" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8818" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-03T07:13:54.657" Score="0" Body="avatara (Sanskrit: avataranam means &quot;the decent of Supreme Being on earth for the ascent of man&quot;), means ‘descent’, and usually implies a deliberate descent of the Divine into the mortal realms to reveal the Absolute Truth to humanity and remind them of their true divine nature." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-03T08:10:55.417" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T08:10:55.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8819" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-03T07:15:51.970" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It consists of six books: the first treats of the creation of the universe from cosmic prakriti, and the peopling of the world by the prajapatis or spiritual ancestors; the second book gives a list of kings with many geographical and astronomical details; the third treats of the Vedas and caste; the fourth continues the chronicle of dynasties; the fifth gives the life of Krishna; and the sixth book describes the dissolution of the world, and the future re-issuing of the world after pralaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-03T08:10:48.820" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T08:10:48.820" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8820" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-03T07:15:51.970" Score="0" Body="Visnu-Purana (Sanskrit) One of the most celebrated of the 18 principal Puranas, conforming more than any other to the definition of pancha-lakshana (five distinguishing marks) assigned as being the character of a complete Purana by Amara-Simha, an ancient Sanskrit lexicographer." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-03T08:10:38.527" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T08:10:38.527" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8821" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-03T07:22:45.740" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata says:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Manu was imbued with great wisdom and devoted to virtue. And he&#xA;became the progenitor of a line. And in Manu's race have been born all&#xA;human beings, who have, therefore, been called Manavas. And it is of&#xA;Manu that all men including Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, and others have&#xA;been descended, and are, therefore, all called Manavas. Subsequently,&#xA;O monarch, the Brahmanas became united with the Kshatriyas. And those&#xA;sons of Manu that were Brahmanas devoted themselves to the study of&#xA;the Vedas. &amp;quot;The ten sons of Manu are known as Vena, Dhrishnu,&#xA;Narishyan, Nabhaga, Ikshvaku, Karusha, Saryati, the eighth, a daughter&#xA;named Ila, Prishadhru the ninth, and Nabhagarishta, the tenth. They&#xA;all betook themselves to the practices of Kshatriyas. Besides these,&#xA;Manu had fifty other sons on Earth. But we heard that they all&#xA;perished, quarrelling with one another.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 14 Manvantaras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu is a title accorded the progenitor of humankind during an eon called a manvantara. 14 Manvantaras make up a kalpa, a period corresponding to a day in the life of Brahma; each Manvantara is headed by a manu. Puranas ascribe to each manvantara one Indra, one Vishnu avatara, etc. 14 Manus of the present Śveta Vārāha Kalpa are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Svayambhuva Manu, the author of the Manusmriti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Svarocisa Manu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Uttama Manu or Auttami&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tamasa Manu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Raivata Manu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Caksusa Manu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sraddhadeva Manu (son of Vaivasvata)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Savarni Manu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Daksa Savarni Manu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma Savarni Manu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dharma Savarni Manu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rudra Savarni Manu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Deva Savarni Manu or Raucya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indra Savarni Manu or Bhauta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Currently we are in the 7th Manvantara headed by Sraddhadeva Manu (Vaivasvata).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-09-11T16:04:31.577" LastActivityDate="2021-09-11T16:04:31.577" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8822" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-03T07:22:45.740" Score="0" Body="Manu is a title accorded to the Prajapati for a specific Manvantara or time of Manu. There are 14 Manus in one kalpa, the first of them being Lord Brahma’s son Swayambhuva Manu who wrote the Manusmriti. The current is the 7th known as Vaivasvata Manu" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-09-11T16:04:31.577" LastActivityDate="2021-09-11T16:04:31.577" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8823" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3788" CreationDate="2015-10-03T15:18:54.330" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Does their previous karma related with the god they worship?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma has nothing to do with the lord we worship. In Gita, lord says that the &lt;em&gt;Movement of Karma is extremely complex (Gahan)&lt;/em&gt;.&#xA;Ultimately whomsoever we worship based on our &lt;em&gt;Prakriti&lt;/em&gt;(nature), be it demigods or (internal) demons or ghosts (past events); it ultimately goes to the supreme soul only.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;...does everyone have a similar story like this in their previous birth?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May be or may not be. But it's not important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 9.25&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods;&#xA;  those who worship the ancestors go to the ancestors; those who worship&#xA;  ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; and those who&#xA;  worship Me will live with Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We tend to become what we think or worship or act upon. Unless the worship or &lt;em&gt;Yajna&lt;/em&gt; is not towards the supreme soul, we continue to be in the cycle of birth and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;If so, what about the people born in religions like Buddhism,&#xA;  Christianity etc. Moksha is available in Hinduism but how do these&#xA;  religion followers get moksha? Why aren't they given a chance to get&#xA;  moksha?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not a single religion has any authority over Moksha. Also remember that &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/336/1049&quot;&gt;Religion is not &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a person sees supreme soul or &lt;em&gt;Parama Brahman&lt;/em&gt; in Jesus or Buddha and offers complete devotion to them, then ofcourse they achieve Moksha. It's similar to others seeing supreme soul in Krishna or Shiva. Krishna, Shiva, Jesus, Buddha are embodied mediums (&lt;em&gt;Saakar&lt;/em&gt;) to easily realize &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;. Similarly a Muslim genuinely worshipping formless god &lt;em&gt;Nirakar Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, finally attains &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, if we pray to all these gods with material desires in mind (&lt;em&gt;Rajasic&lt;/em&gt; worship) then actually it's just a namesake worship, but ultimately we are praying their demigod or may be even demon forms only. Such people don't attain &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 4.12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Men in this world desire success in fruitive activities, and therefore&#xA;  they worship the demigods. Quickly, of course, men get results from&#xA;  fruitive work in this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example: A person realizing supreme soul in Jesus may get &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; than a person rather than seeking fruits from Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do you see any god specific affiliation in below sloka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 4.23&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The work of a man who is unattached to the modes of material nature&#xA;  and who is fully situated in transcendental knowledge merges entirely&#xA;  into transcendence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-10-03T15:18:54.330" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8824" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-03T16:25:43.193" Score="7" ViewCount="4788" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did the Pandavas eventually take rebirth? If they did, who were they and what happened to them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3547" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-21T08:11:39.570" LastActivityDate="2021-11-07T17:05:07.517" Title="What happened to Pandavas in future lives?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|rebirth|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8825" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-04T08:05:05.017" Score="5" ViewCount="115" Body="&lt;p&gt;Okay, so I understand that Bhishma was bound by his (pretty daft) vow, but why did Dhritarashtra take so long to begin his Vanaprastha Ashrama?&#xA;Was it because, like in Ugrasena's case, there was no ideal ruler (like Duryodhana was unfit so he had no choice?)&#xA;But why did he divide the kingdom if he had no intention to pass on his half to Duryodhana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-27T09:55:55.993" LastActivityDate="2018-11-27T09:55:55.993" Title="Why didn't Dhritarashtra abdicate when he should have?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8826" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="51719" CreationDate="2015-10-04T08:49:30.280" Score="9" ViewCount="862" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that if one does the namasmarana 13 crore times then he gets the darshana of the supreme lord?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While doing namasmarana with mouth if another worldly thought comes into our mind then does that namasmarana gets counted?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eg. At first let's say while ironing my clothes I start doing namasmarana, For the first 50 times I do it with full attention then after that for the next 100 chants, different thoughts came into my mind, but my mouth is continuously doing Japa, then does that next 100 chants are useful or do they get counted?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-06-02T22:51:50.987" LastActivityDate="2022-06-03T11:49:18.100" Title="13 core times namasmarana" Tags="|belief|gods|japa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8827" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8824" CreationDate="2015-10-04T09:02:17.217" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was reborn as Kannappa Nayanar, one of the 63 great Shiva-bhaktas in South India.&#xA;When Arjuna fought with Lord Shiva as a Kirata to obtain the Pasupatastra, he had at first insulted him based on his caste (although later he admired the hunter). And after realising who He really was, Arjuna fell at Mahadeva's feet and repeatedly asked for his grace. Therefore, as a combined result of this, Mahadeva told Arjuna that he will have to take another birth, but will live only for sixteen years. He would perform Shiva-bhakti for six days, and return back to His abode. Thus, Arjuna was born as Kannappa Nayanar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03039.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03039.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannappa_Nayanar&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannappa_Nayanar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shaivam.org/nakannap.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.shaivam.org/nakannap.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shaivam.org/nakanna1.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.shaivam.org/nakanna1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2015-10-04T09:02:17.217" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8828" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8865" CreationDate="2015-10-04T13:09:26.950" Score="32" ViewCount="9943" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've recently read the 3&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. At the end, the following is said to get control over the &lt;em&gt;indriyas&lt;/em&gt; (senses):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इन्द्रियाणि मनो बुद्धिरस्याधिष्ठानमुच्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;एतैर्विमोहयत्येष ज्ञानमावृत्य देहिनम् ॥ ३-४०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;senses&lt;/strong&gt;, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him. [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/40&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.40&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्मात्त्वमिन्द्रियाण्यादौ नियम्य भरतर्षभ ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पाप्मानं प्रजहि ह्येनं ज्ञानविज्ञाननाशनम् ॥ ३-४१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by &lt;strong&gt;regulating the senses&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization&lt;/strong&gt;. [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/41&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.41&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इन्द्रियाणि पराण्याहुरिन्द्रियेभ्यः परं मनः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मनसस्तु परा बुद्धिर्यो बुद्धेः परतस्तु सः ॥ ३-४२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The working &lt;strong&gt;senses&lt;/strong&gt; are superior to dull matter; &lt;strong&gt;mind is higher than the senses&lt;/strong&gt;; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence. [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/42&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.42&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, according to many scriptures, e.g., the Yoga Vasistha Maha-Ramayana, achieving control over the indriyas (senses) is very essential and also recommended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How do I control indriyas (senses) and slay/destroy them?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;(because it seems impossible to attain &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8475/277&quot;&gt;Jnana&lt;/a&gt; without this!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T04:44:17.660" Title="How do I control and slay indriyas (senses)?" Tags="|practice|yoga|jnana|indriyas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8829" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8671" CreationDate="2015-10-04T13:30:53.797" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, Tushti, Pushti, and Shri are amsas of Mahalakshmi, who reside in Vaikuntha, and not Ganesha's wives. This is because when Krsna gives his darshan to Akrura in Srimad Bhagavatam, he is being served by his energies, which include, Sri, Tushti, Pushti, Kanti, Gir, Kirti, Ila and Urja. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/39/53-55&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/39/53-55&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;So I don't suppose they can be Ganesha's wives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amoda and Pramoda are among the Senanayakas of Mahaganesha who assisted him in the battle against Vishanga, when Devi Lalitambika was engaged in killing Bhandasura's forces, according to Lalitopakhyana.&#xA;Senanayakas refer to six commander in chief's of Ganesha's army, who are the partial avataras of Ganesha. So I don't think that they can be his grandchildren.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2016-09-11T17:03:01.113" LastActivityDate="2016-09-11T17:03:01.113" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8830" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-04T15:06:38.587" Score="2" ViewCount="90" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sorry for the blunt title. I'm trying to understand the modern Indian segment of the population, those who have computers and are connected to the Internet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How much are religious? How much traditional? Is there a significant phenomenon of secularization? Are, for example, there high-tech and technology persons that will stop for a cow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sorry for the ignorance and perhaps exclusions. I do not specialize in this area and the question just popped in my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3865" LastActivityDate="2015-10-04T15:06:38.587" Title="Do Indians still believe the sacred cows?" Tags="|belief|cows|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-07-15T02:37:28.760" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8831" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8801" CreationDate="2015-10-04T16:20:44.130" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prahlad_Jani&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prahlad Jani&lt;/a&gt; is an Indian Sadhu, who got a spiritual experience at the age of 11 and since then he became follower of goddess &lt;em&gt;Amba Mata&lt;/em&gt;. He himself is also known as &lt;em&gt;Mataji&lt;/em&gt;. Since the 1970s, Jani has lived as a hermit in a cave in the rainforest near the Gujarati temple of Ambaji, awakening at 4 am each day and spending most of his time meditating.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Since 1940, he hasn't eaten food or drunk water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaggi_Vasudev&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jaggi Vasudev&lt;/a&gt;, a mystiq from south India is believed by his followers to be an enlightened living soul. He runs Isha foundation (NGO) which offers various Kriya Yoga techniques programs and also involved in awareness about environment &amp;amp; humanity.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYXlOJlhf38&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This video&lt;/a&gt; describes his first hand account about his enlightenment experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recently a &lt;a href=&quot;http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/n0105-mummified-monk-is-not-dead-and-in-rare-meditative-state-says-expert/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;mummified monk was found in Mongolia&lt;/a&gt; which is believed to be at least 200 years old and still living!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The enlightened people need not remain in the limelight, hence it's difficult to know if any such other &lt;em&gt;Sadhus&lt;/em&gt; exist currently in the material world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavatar_Babaji&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahavatar Babaji&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; is also believed to be avatar of Shiva living in human form.  In his book The Second Coming of Christ, Yogananda states that Jesus Christ went to India and conferred with Mahavatar Babaji. This would make Babaji at least 2000 years old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Realization happens differently to different people, and there are some online forums where people describe that. For some people the perception of time changes, for some bodily changes, for some other kind of changes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-10-14T05:58:22.767" LastActivityDate="2015-10-14T05:58:22.767" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8832" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8570" CreationDate="2015-10-04T17:26:34.887" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yep. Teleportation, or &quot;Praapti&quot; is one of the eight primary siddhis, or mystic perfections attained by rishis. Through Praapti, they can be transported to the place they desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/15/4-5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/15/4-5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/15/6-7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/15/6-7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2015-10-04T17:26:34.887" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8834" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-05T05:53:25.010" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most common division of the universe is the triloka, or three worlds (Bhuloka, Antarloka and Brahmaloka), each of which is divided into seven regions. Corresponds to any of the 14 worlds (visible and invisible) inhabited by living beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The division of lokas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes different “planes” or “realms” lokas are posited, which are corresponding “environments” for the different bodies: these are the bhûrloka (earth), bhuvarloka (the subtle planes or atmosphere), svarloka (the heavenly realm), maharloka, janarloka (these first five correspond to the panchakoshas — &quot;five koshas&quot;), and then there are the highest lokas, sometimes known as tapoloka, satyaloka, siddhaloka, and brahmaloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scriptures offer several cosmological perspectives, most importantly sapta urdhvaloka (seven upper worlds) and sapta adholoka (seven lower worlds), which correspond to the 14 chakras and make up the &quot;world-egg of God,&quot; the universe, called Brahmanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T18:20:32.010" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T18:20:32.010" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8835" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-05T05:53:25.010" Score="0" Body="loka, (Sanskrit: &quot;world&quot;; &quot;realm&quot;; &quot;abode&quot;; &quot;dimension&quot;; or &quot;plane of existence&quot;) from loc, &quot;to shine, be bright, visible.&quot; — the universe or any particular division of it. A dimension of manifest existence; cosmic region. Each loka reflects or involves a particular range of consciousness." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T18:22:12.317" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T18:22:12.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8836" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-05T06:21:54.263" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Through the repeated experience of Self Realization, siddhis naturally unfold according to the needs of the individual. Before Self Realization, the use or development of siddhis is among the greatest obstacles on the path because it cultivates ahankara, I-ness, and militates against the attainment of prapatti, complete submission to the will of God, Gods and guru. The mastery of specific Siddhis is taught to be attained through the right kind of Samyama. There are eight primary siddhis, and ten secondary siddhis and five siddhi's specific for concentration in yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nine main siddhis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in the Puranas there are nine forms of Siddhis. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parkaya Pravesha:&lt;/strong&gt; Parkaya Pravesh means one’s soul entering into the body of some other person. Through this knowledge even a dead body can be brought to life.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Haadi Vidya:&lt;/strong&gt; This Vidya or knowledge has been mentioned in several ancient texts. On acquiring this Vidya, a person feels neither hunger nor thirst, and can remain without eating food or drinking water for several days at a stretch.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kaadi Vidya:&lt;/strong&gt; Just as one does not feel hungry or thirsty in Haadi Vidya, similarly in Kaadi Vidya a person is not affected by change of seasons, i.e. by summer, winter, rain, etc. After accomplishing this Vidya, a person shall not feel cold even if he sits in the snow-laden mountains, and shall not feel hot even if he sits in the fire.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vayu Gaman Siddhi:&lt;/strong&gt; Through this Siddhi a person can become capable of flying in the skies and traveling from one place to another in just a few seconds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Madalasa Vidya:&lt;/strong&gt; On accomplishing this Vidya, a person becomes capable of increasing or decreasing the size of his body according to his wish. Lord Hanuman had miniaturized his body through this Vidya while entering the city of Lanka.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kanakdhara Siddhi:&lt;/strong&gt; One can acquire immense and unlimited wealth through this Siddhi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prakya Sadhana:&lt;/strong&gt; Through this Sadhana a Yogi can direct his disciple to take birth from the womb of a woman who is childless or cannot bear children.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Surya Vigyan:&lt;/strong&gt; This solar science is one of the most significant sciences of ancient India[citation needed]. This science has been known only to the Indian Yogis; using it, one substance can be transformed into another through the medium of sun rays.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mrit Sanjeevani Vidya:&lt;/strong&gt; This Vidya was created by Guru Shukracharya. Through it, even a dead person can be brought back to life.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Eight Primary Siddhis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is the concept of the Ashta Siddhi (eight siddhis) in Hinduism. These are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aṇimā:&lt;/strong&gt; reducing one's body even to the size of an atom&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahimā:&lt;/strong&gt; expanding one's body to an infinitely large size&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garima:&lt;/strong&gt; becoming infinitely heavy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Laghimā:&lt;/strong&gt; becoming almost weightless&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prāpti:&lt;/strong&gt; having unrestricted access to all places&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prākāmya:&lt;/strong&gt; realizing whatever one desires&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Iṣṭva:&lt;/strong&gt; possessing absolute lordship;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaśtva:&lt;/strong&gt; the power to subjugate all.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, Hanuman possesses the ability to bestow the eight siddhis and the nava nidhi (nine types of wealth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ten Secondary Siddhis&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;In the Srimad Bhagavatam Lord Krishna describes the Ten Secondary Siddhis as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;anūrmi-mattvam: Being undisturbed by hunger, thirst, and other bodily disturbances&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;dūra-śravaṇa:&lt;/strong&gt; Hearing things far away&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;dūra-darśanam:&lt;/strong&gt; Seeing things far away&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;manaḥ-javah:&lt;/strong&gt; Moving the body wherever thought goes (teleportation)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kāma-rūpam:&lt;/strong&gt; Assuming any form desired&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;para-kāya praveśanam:&lt;/strong&gt; Entering the bodies of others&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sva-chanda mṛtyuh:&lt;/strong&gt; Dying when one desires&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;devānām saha krīḍā anudarśanam:&lt;/strong&gt; Witnessing and participating in the pastimes of the Apsaras&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;yathā sańkalpa saḿsiddhiḥ:&lt;/strong&gt; Perfect accomplishment of one's determination&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ājñā apratihatā gatiḥ:&lt;/strong&gt; Orders or Commands being unimpeded&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Five Siddhis of Yoga and Meditation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Srimad Bhagavatam the Five Siddhis of Yoga and Meditation are described as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tri-kāla-jñatvam:&lt;/strong&gt; Knowing the past, present and future;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;advandvam:&lt;/strong&gt; Tolerance of heat, cold and other dualities;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;para citta ādi abhijñatā:&lt;/strong&gt; Knowing the minds of others and so on;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;agni arka ambu viṣa ādīnām pratiṣṭambhaḥ:&lt;/strong&gt; Checking the influence of fire, sun, water, poison, and so on;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;aparājayah:&lt;/strong&gt; Remaining unconquered by others;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Obtaining Siddhis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siddhi powers are said to be obtainable by meditation, control of the senses, devotion, herbs, mantras, pranayama, or good birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A detailed instruction for obtaining various Siddhis is given in the Vibhuti Pada (the 3rd Chapter) of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The mastery of specific Siddhis is attained through properly aimed Samyama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna states that:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For a sage who has conquered his senses, breathing and mind, who is&#xA;  self-controlled and always absorbed in meditation on Me, what siddhi&#xA;  could possibly be difficult to achieve?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeking siddhi powers is often discouraged and considered to be an impediment to spiritual advancement. J Krishnamurti warned about siddhis in the context of meditation, comparing them to candlelight in the Sun. Six siddhis in particular are considered primary obstacles to samadhi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;adarsha siddhi&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;divya siddhi&lt;/strong&gt; (clairvoyance),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;shravana siddhi&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;divyashravana&lt;/strong&gt; (clairaudience),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;pratibha siddhi&lt;/strong&gt; (divination),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vedana siddhi&lt;/strong&gt; (super-feeling),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;asvadana siddhi&lt;/strong&gt; (super-taste),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;varta siddhi&lt;/strong&gt; (supersmell).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T18:22:24.273" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T18:22:24.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8837" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-05T06:21:54.263" Score="0" Body="siddhi or siddhiḥ (Sanskrit:सिद्धि; &quot;perfection&quot;, &quot;accomplishment&quot;, &quot;attainment&quot;, or &quot;success&quot;) — extraordinary powers of the atma (Self), developed through consistent meditation and deliberate, grueling, often uncomfortable tapas, or awakened naturally through spiritual maturity and yogic sadhana." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T18:20:24.020" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T18:20:24.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8838" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-05T06:23:20.923" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Videha-mukti:&lt;/strong&gt; disembodied salvation; salvation attained by the realised soul after shaking off the physical sheath as opposed to Jivanmukti which is liberation even while living.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Svarupata-jasa-mukti&lt;/strong&gt; - liberated from matter in terms of the revelation of one’s svarupa. This refers to svarupa-siddhi, the stage in which bhava manifests in the bhakta’s heart from the heart of one of the Lord’s eternal associates. At this stage one’s internal spiritual identity becomes manifest and the intelligence is freed from the influence of matter, yet one’s relationship with the material world remains intact due to the presence of the material body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T18:21:58.083" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T18:21:58.083" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8839" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-05T06:23:20.923" Score="0" Body="mukti or mukhti (Sanskrit: &quot;liberation&quot;) is deliverance from the samsara (cycle of birth and death). The condition of freedom from ignorance (avidyâ) and the binding effect of karma. Liberation from material existence. See: moksha." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T18:18:39.003" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T18:18:39.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8840" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-05T06:46:19.187" Score="10" ViewCount="519" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some of the sources of Pramana in Vedantic philosophy are Shabda (scriptures), Pratyaksha (direct perception) and Anumana (inference).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedantic philosophy, Shabda occupies the highest source of truth. Are there any rules regarding interpretation of Shabda with respect to Pratyaksha? Can they contradict each other? In today's world what constitutes Pratyaksha? Does new knowledge obtained from Pratyaksha have any effect on the interpretation of Shabda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3105" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T13:13:24.673" LastActivityDate="2018-02-21T18:23:00.547" Title="Pramanas: Prathyaksha vs. Shabda" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8841" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-05T06:55:42.500" Score="10" ViewCount="1184" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the important tradition in Hinduism is the Gotra. Usually marriage is not performed between two persons belonging to the same Gotra. Does this have anything to do with biological relationship ? What happens when someone is adopted as a baby and the parents are not known ? Does the baby accept the Gotra of the adopted father ? What about persons who don't know their Gotra but who otherwise have spiritual masters. Is there any fall back system or method ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3105" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T12:16:16.370" LastActivityDate="2018-05-22T11:56:16.020" Title="How is the gotra of an orphan determined?" Tags="|marriage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8842" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-05T06:59:20.487" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T06:59:20.487" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T06:59:20.487" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8843" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-05T06:59:20.487" Score="0" Body="For questions about earth (i.e. [bhumi] or [Prithvi])." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T12:06:26.723" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T12:06:26.723" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8844" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-05T07:05:47.613" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yama is assisted by Chitragupta who is assigned with the task of keeping complete records of actions of human beings on the earth, and upon their death, deciding to have them reincarnated as a superior or inferior organism, depending on their Karma (actions on the earth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Characteristics of Yama&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yama is a Lokapāla and an Aditya. In art, he is depicted with green or red skin, red clothes, and riding a water buffalo. He holds a loop of rope in his left hand with which he pulls the soul from the corpse. He is the son of Surya (Sun) and twin brother of Yami, or Yamuna, traditionally the first human pair in the Vedas. He was also worshiped as a son of Vivasvat and Saranya. He is one of the Guardians of the directions and represents the south. He is described as reporting to either Vishnu (the maintainer) or Shiva (the destroyer) from the Trimurti (Hinduism's triune Godhead). Three hymns (10, 14, and 135) in the Rig Veda Book 10 are addressed to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yama is also the god of justice and is sometimes referred to as Dharma, in reference to his unswerving dedication to maintaining order and adherence to harmony. It is said that he is also one of the wisest of the devas. In the Katha Upanishad, among the most famous Upanishads, Yama is portrayed as a teacher. He is the father of Yudhisthira (also known as Dharmaraja), the oldest brother of the 5 Pandavas (Karna was born prior to Kunti's wedlock, so technically Karna is Yudhishthira's older brother) and is said to have incarnated as Vidura by some accounts in the Mahabharata period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana mentions Yama often. His description is in 2.5.147-149: &quot;There very soon among Death, Time, etc. he sees Yama with red eyes, looking fierce and dark like a heap of collyrium, with fierce jaws and frowning fiercely, chosen as their lord by many ugly, fierce-faced hundreds of diseases, possessing an iron rod in his hand and also a noose. The creature goes either to good or to bad state as directed by him.&quot; In 2.8.28-29, &quot;…the seven names of Yama, viz Yama, Dharma-raja, Mrtyu, Antaka, Vaivasvata, Kala, Sarva-pranahara…&quot;. His wife is Syamala (3.17.4-5, 3.29.16, 24-25).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Subordination to Shiva and Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yama, although one of the most powerful controllers, is still subordinate to the controllers Shiva and Vishnu because they are different aspects of the overuling Brahman. A story of Yama's subordinance to Shiva is well-illustrated in the story of Markandeya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yama is called Kala (&quot;time&quot;), while Shiva is called Mahakala (&quot;greater time&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another story, found in the Bhagavata Purana, shows Yama's subordinance to Vishnu. The man Ajamila had committed many evil acts during his life such as stealing, abandoning his wife and children, and marrying a prostitute. At the moment of his death he involuntarily chanted the name of Narayana (another Sanskrit name for Vishnu) and achieved moksha, becoming saved from the messengers of Yama. Although Ajamila had actually been thinking the name of his youngest son, Narayana's name has powerful effects, and thus Ajamila was released from his great sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T18:19:52.840" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T18:19:52.840" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8845" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-05T07:05:47.613" Score="0" Body="Yama Dharmaraja (Sanskrit: यम) is the Lord of Justice and is sometimes referred to as Dharmaraja in reference to his unswerving dedication to maintaining order and adherence to harmony. Sometimes refered as the Lord of Death, it is said that he is also one of the wisest of the devas. Yama's name can be interpreted to mean &quot;twin&quot;, and in some accounts he is paired with a twin sister Yamī. " OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T18:22:43.573" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T18:22:43.573" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8846" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-05T07:19:00.533" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ahimsã manifests in various ways. Mahatma Gandhi used ahimsa as a powerful weapon against the British to drive them out of India and to achieve independence. Even Martin Luther King junior, after a trip to India, adopted nonviolence as the hallmark of his civil rights movement in America. Ahimsa is the basis for the vegetarianism within Hinduism and many Hindus even though they may not be vegetarian will not enter a temple or perform puja wearing leather.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Principle of ahimsã&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The principle of ahimsa can directly by derived from the concept of the modes of matter (three gunas) It arises from the mode of goodness, (sattva guna). Ahimsa is also tied into the principle to karma. Treat the universe in a less harmful way and the universe will treat you accordingly. Many followers of ahimsa apply the principle of non harming well beyond just being vegetarian or not wearing leather, but also to not even thinking or speaking in a harmful manner. The Jain religion, which is a sister tradition to Hinduism, in particular, has made ahimsa the very cornerstone of its faith. Mahavira is the founder of Jainism and one of the greatest teachers of ahimsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita and ahimsã&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is interesting to note that in the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna seemingly evokes the principle of ahimsa to avoid fighting a terrible war that he knew would destroy the world as he knew it, and yet, Krishna, as God, wanted Arjuna to rise above what he feels and extolled him to adopt an even higher principle, yoga, and fight the war as a yogi. In the end Arjuna accepted Krishna’s position and fought a devastating war where, according to the Mahabharata, millions of people were killed. Mahatma Gandhi, on the other hand, regularly studied the Gita and held it in highest esteem. The relationship between ahimsa and the Bhagavad Gita is a fascinating study in contradiction and has been a great problem for Hinduism from the earliest of times. Did Arjuna truly evoke the principle of ahimsa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda notes that Gita is a bouquet composed of the beautiful flowers of spiritual truths collected from the Upanishads (core teachings of the Vedanta philosophy). Although the Gita deals with several core philosophies of the Hindu religion, the part on spotlight here is Krishna’s advice to Arjuna that he should act. As a warrior, he has to fight for the righteous cause but Arjuna is grief struck, looking at his own kith and kin on the enemy lines. Krishna advocates Arjuna to fight as that is his dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if a war is fought for a right reason, is that war justified? Does the Gita then directly contradict the principle of Ahimsa?Ahimsa means abstaining from causing harm or injury. War is one of the worst forms of inflicting harm and Krishna advocates Arjuna to fight. Why? Mahatma Gandhi, a major political and spiritual leader of India and one of the prominent advocates of non-violence - studied and commented on the Gita -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and&#xA;  when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad&#xA;  Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile&#xA;  in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of&#xA;  tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect&#xA;  on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if the question raised above was asked to the Mahatma, what would his answer be? The surprising fact is that a question on very similar lines had indeed been asked by someone through correspondence and Mahatma replied to it, the gist of which is below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a poet composes his work, he does not have a clear conception of&#xA;  all its possible implications. It is the very beauty of good poem that&#xA;  it is greater than its author. The truth which a poet utters in his&#xA;  moment of inspiration, we do not often see him following in his own&#xA;  life. Hence the lives of many poets are at variance with the teaching&#xA;  of their poems. That the overall teaching of the Gita is not violence&#xA;  but non-violence is evident from the argument which begins in Chapter&#xA;  II and ends in chapter XVIII. The intervening chapters propound the&#xA;  same theme. Violence is simply not possible unless one is driven by&#xA;  anger, by ignorant love and by hatred. The Gita, on the other hand,&#xA;  wants us to be incapable of anger and attain to a state unaffected by&#xA;  the three gunas (Saattvic, Rajas and Tamas). Such a person can never&#xA;  feel anger. I see even now the red eyes of Arjuna every time he aimed&#xA;  an arrow from his bow, drawing the string as far as his ear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, then, had Arjuna’s obstinate refusal to fight anything to do with&#xA;  non-violence? In fact, he had fought often enough in the past. On the&#xA;  present occasion, his reason was suddenly clouded by ignorant&#xA;  attachment. He did not wish to kill his kinsmen. He did not say that&#xA;  he would not kill anyone even if he believed that person to be wicked.&#xA;  Shri Krishna is the Lord dwelling in everyone’s heart. He understands&#xA;  the momentary darkening of Arjuna’s reason. He, therefore, tells&#xA;  him:”You have already committed violence. By talking now like a wise&#xA;  man, you will not learn non-violence. Having started on this course,&#xA;  you must finish the job.” If a passenger travelling in a train which&#xA;  is running at a speed of forty miles an hour suddenly feels aversion&#xA;  to travelling and jumps out of the train, he will have but committed&#xA;  suicide. He has not in truth realized the futility of travelling as&#xA;  such or of travelling by train. Arjuna was in a similar condition.&#xA;  Krishna, who believed in non-violence, could not have given Arjuna any&#xA;  advice other than what he did. But to conclude from this that the Gita&#xA;  teaches violence or justifies war is as unwarranted as to argue that,&#xA;  since violence in some form or other is inescapable for maintaining&#xA;  the body in existence, dharma lies only in violence. The man of&#xA;  discriminating intellect, on the other hand, teaches the duty of&#xA;  striving for deliverance from this body which exists through violence,&#xA;  the duty, that is, of striving for moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I do not wish to suggest that violence has no place at all in the&#xA;  teaching of the Gita. The dharma which it teaches does not mean that a&#xA;  person who has not yet awakened to the truth of non-violence may act&#xA;  like a coward. Anyone who fears others, accumulates possessions and&#xA;  indulges in sense-pleasures will certainly fight with violent means,&#xA;  but violence does not, for that reason, become justified as his&#xA;  dharma. There is only one dharma. Non-violence means moksha, and&#xA;  moksha means realizing Satyanarayana (Truth as God; God in the form of&#xA;  Truth). But this dharma does not under any circumstances countenance&#xA;  running away in fear. In this world which baffles our reason, violence&#xA;  there will then always be. The Gita shows the way which will lead us&#xA;  out of it, but it also says that we cannot escape it simply by running&#xA;  away from it like cowards. Anyone who prepares to run away would do&#xA;  better, instead, to kill and be killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatma also explains the discipline required to understand the Shastras in this article. The Shastras could be easily misread [which is detrimental towards understanding the real essence] and hence the importance of a Guru to deliver the right meaning with relevant interpretations. One can only begin to comprehend how difficult it would be to walk on the path of non-violence, with a complete understanding of the resilience it demands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T18:17:54.907" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T18:17:54.907" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8847" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-05T07:19:00.533" Score="0" Body="ahimsã (Sanskrit: अहिंसा, &quot;non-harming&quot;) is derived from the root hims, &quot;to strike&quot;.Himsã is injury or harm. A-himsã is the opposite of this, non harming. ahimsã means abstaining from causing harm or injury. It is gentleness and non-injury,whether physical, mental or emotional.It is good to know that nonviolence speaks only to the most extreme forms of forceful wrongdoing, while ahimsã goes much deeper to prohibit even the subtle abuse and the simple hurt." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T18:22:17.243" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T18:22:17.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8848" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="33090" CreationDate="2015-10-05T09:08:35.280" Score="16" ViewCount="3020" Body="&lt;p&gt;The world have so many evil or corrupted people who are successful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If karma is applicable to people, why do good people have to struggle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-30T20:44:17.083" LastActivityDate="2019-02-16T16:41:38.050" Title="If karma works, why are so many evil or corrupted people successful?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8849" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8663" CreationDate="2015-10-05T10:05:08.457" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my view the above study went wrong.  My opinion on this issue is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)      According to the Scientific dating conducted by many scholars, The Great War of Mahabharat between the Pandavas and the Kauravas happened in 3139 BC. The Pandavas, after winning the Mahabharat war, ruled Hastinapur for 36 years and 8 months until the beginning of kaliyug in 3102 BC. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)    Srimad Ramayana was written much earlier to Mahabharata.  In the 272-289 Sections of Vana Parva of Mahabharata, the story of Sri Rama was narrated  to Yuddhistara by Sage Markandeya.   Though the story contains minor variations compared to the story told in the Srimad Ramayana, those episodes describe the story of Sri Rama in full. As the story of Sri Rama was narrated in full to Yuddhisthira in Mahabharata, we can safely conclude that Srimad Ramayana was written much earlier to Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)   The story of Srimad Ramayana ends with Sri Rama's coronation as the King of Kosala Kingdom.  Sage Valmiki describes in the concluding chapter of Yuddha Kanda that having enjoyed the kingship for ten thousand years, Sri Rama performed a hundred horse-sacrifices.   It was described very briefly about the happy life of the people of Kosala kingdom during the reign of Sri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वे लक्षणसम्पन्नाः सर्वे धर्मपरायणाः ||&#xA;दशवर्षसहस्राणि रामो राज्यमकारयत् |   (Yuddha Kanda 128 Sarga 106 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;All the people were endowed with excellent characteristics. All were engaged in virtue. Rama was engaged in the kingship thus **for Ten thousand years.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4)  If we take 3102 BC as the basis for the Mahabharata dating, then at least 10,000 years are to be added, assuming that Mahabharata immediately followed Sri Rama,  to 3102 BC for getting the age of Sri Rama.  Thus, we will get 13,102 BC.  That means atleast 15,000 years back Srimad Ramayana might have written.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was the available calculation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T10:05:08.457" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8850" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2875" CreationDate="2015-10-05T10:57:41.153" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 3 gunas or qualities called -Satva, Rajas and Tamas. Entire creation is made up of them only. There are 4 yugas making a cycle, namely Satya Yuga, Treta, Dwapar and Kaliyug. Satya Yuga is dominated by Satva guna that is truth(satya), meditation(tapas), purity(shauch) and worship(bhakti). In treta (3 feets), truth is given up my people because of increased Rajas and left with 3 qualities of Satva. In Dwapar, meditation is also given up by people, leaving dharma standing on 2 qualities and hence called Dwapar(2 feets).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, in kaliyug, purity is also lost under the effect of Tamas, leaving only Bhakti. By the end of Kaliyug, bhakti also vanishes and there is no discipline but chaos. Than Lord Vishnu appears in the form of Kalki and reestablishes the four qualities of Satya yuga, and once again Satya yuga is established. Only adharmis, mlecchas are destroyed, not the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are currently about 5100 past years within Kaliyuga of 28th chaturyug, 7th manavantar of Varah Kalpa. Prajapati Brahma ji is now about 50 years old and he has remaining more 50x360 approx. kalpas of his life, that is about 18000 more kalpas, where each kalpa has 1000 chaturyugs.&#xA;1 chaturyuga = 43,20,000 earth years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Chaturyuga ages, i.e. Satya, Treta, Dwapar and Kaliyug see a gradual decline of dharma, wisdom, knowledge, intellectual capability, life span, emotional and physical strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satya Yuga:- Virtue reigns supreme. Human stature was 21 cubits. Average human lifespan was 100,000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Treta Yuga: – There was 3 quarter virtue &amp;amp; 1 quarter sin. Normal human stature was 14 cubits. Average human lifespan was 10,000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dwapar Yuga: – There was 1 half virtue &amp;amp; 1 half sin. Normal human stature was 7 cubits. Average human lifespan was 1,000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kali Yuga: – There is 1 quarter virtue &amp;amp; 3 quarter sin. Normal human stature is 3.5 cubits. Average human lifespan will be 100 years. Towards the end of the Yuga this will come down to 20 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the present days we live in a Kali Yuga, which began at 3102 BCE with the end of the Mahabharata war. This date is also considered by many Hindus to be the day that Krishna left Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_(aeon)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_(aeon)&lt;/a&gt; &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manvantara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manvantara&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastEditorDisplayName="user3870" LastEditDate="2015-10-08T20:48:20.303" LastActivityDate="2015-10-08T20:48:20.303" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8851" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8627" CreationDate="2015-10-05T10:58:15.223" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Seeta parityaga (Disowning) episode - a character assassination&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Seeta parityaga (Disowning of Seeta), Seeta Agnipravesha, arrival of all GODs and Sri Rama accepting Seeta  episodes were described in the Sargas 115 to 118 of Yuddha Kanda of Srimad Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama sends Vibhishana to bring Seetha to his presence. Vibhishana brings Seetha to Sri Rama's presence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama informs Seetha that the dishonour meted out to him and the wrong done to her by Ravana have been wiped off, by his victory over the enemy with the assistance of Sri Hanuma, Sugreeva and Vibhishana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, regarding with suspicion on the character of Seetha, Sri Rama disowns her and asks her to seek shelter elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seetha gives a taunting reply to Sri Rama, saying that why she was not abandoned by the latter, even at the time when Sri Hanuma came to see her in Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, Seetha requests Lakshmana to prepare a pile of fire for her to enter. When Lakshmana prepares a pyre, Seetha prays the fire-god and enters into it, in order to prove her conjugal fidelity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva and other gods reach that place and eulogise Sri Rama as the incarnation of Lord Vishnu and Seeta as Adilakshmi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततो वैश्रवणो राजा यमश्च पृभिः सह | सहस्राक्षश्च देवेशो वरुणश्च&#xA;  जलेश्वरः ||  षड्र्धनयनः श्रीमान् महादेवो वृषध्वजः | कर्ता सर्वस्य&#xA;  लोकस्य ब्रह्मा ब्रह्मविदां वरः ||  एते सर्वे समागम्य विमानैः&#xA;  सूर्यसंनिभैः | आगम्य नगरीं लङ्कामभिजग्मुश्च राघवम् ||  (Yuddha Kanda&#xA;  117 Sarga 2 - 4 Slokas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Thereupon, Kubera the King of Yakshas, Yama the lord of death&#xA;  together with the deceased ancestors, Indra the lord of celestials&#xA;  Varuna the lord of waters, the illustrious Shiva the great deity who&#xA;  bears the device of a bull as his banner and having three eyes, Brahma&#xA;  the creator of all the worlds and the best among the knowers of sacred&#xA;  knowledge all these together reaching the City of Lanka in aerial&#xA;  cars, shining like the sun approached Rama.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After lengthy dialogue, Lord Brahma requests Sri Rama to take back Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विशुद्धभावां निष्पापां प्रतिगृह्णीष्व मैथिलीम् | न किंचिरभिधातव्या&#xA;  अहमाज्ञापयामि ते ||   (Yuddha Kanda 118 Sarga 10 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Take back Seetha, who is sinless, with a pure character. She should&#xA;  not be told anything harsh. I hereby command you.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Sri Rama accepts Seeta since her chastity was confirmed by AGNIPARIKSHA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनन्यहृदयां भक्तां मचत्तपरिवर्तिनीम् | अहमप्यवगच्छामि मैथिलीं&#xA;  जनकात्मजाम् ||   (Yuddha Kanda 118 Sarga 15 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I also know that Seetha, the daughter of Janaka, who ever revolves in&#xA;  my mind, is undivided in her affection to me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रत्ययार्थं तु लोकानां त्रयाणाम् सत्यसंश्रयः | उपेक्षे चापि वैदेहीं&#xA;  प्रविशन्तीं हुताशनम् ||   (Yuddha Kanda 118 Sarga 17 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In order to convince the three worlds, I, whose refugee is truth,&#xA;  ignored Seetha while she was entering the fire.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The episode of Seeta parityaga (disowning) was, in my view, not written down by Sage Valmiki but a PRAKSHIPTA (an insertion made by somebody with a view to elevating the status of Lord Vishnu to that of SARVA LOKADHIPATI at a later date) for the following reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to Srimad Ramayana, Lord Brahma was the ultimate God and the place of Vishnu was only next to Lord Indra.  Shiva was only an ex-Senadhipathi&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As Putrakamesthi episode was inserted to make believe the readers that Sri Rama was in fact the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, Seeta parityaga (Disowning of Seeta), Seeta Agnipravesha,  episodes were inserted consciously  to pave way for the arrival of all GODs and Sri Rama accepting Seeta  episodes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hence, eulogising Sri Rama as the incarnation of Lord Vishnu and Seeta as Adilakshmi by Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva WAS DONE to elevate the status of Lord Vishnu and did not fit into Srimad Ramayana&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama always expressed his great eagerness in getting back his dear wife Seeta at the earliest. At no point of time, till his meeting with Seeta after the death of Ravana, he was depicted expressing his desire to give up Seeta as she was residing in Ravana’s house.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Sri Rama already had a doubt of Seeta’s conjugal fidelity or he already decided to disown Seeta after killing of Ravana, he would have felt relieved with the news of death of Seeta.  Instead, his immediate reaction to the news of Indrajit chopping off the head of illusionary Seeta was to faint away.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This episode alongwith the episode of abandonment of Sita in Uttara Kanda, (&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;interpolations&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;) left a long lasting negative impression on the character of Sri Rama as &lt;strong&gt;male chauvinist&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whoever inserted &lt;strong&gt;Seeta parityaga (Disowning) episode&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; in Ramayana,  for elevating the status of Vishnu, which was an epithet in Veda, as SUPREME LORD, forgot that it led to a character assassination of Sri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2019-12-17T06:13:05.997" LastActivityDate="2019-12-17T06:13:05.997" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8852" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8861" CreationDate="2015-10-05T07:20:54.963" Score="8" ViewCount="2102" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism philosophy I want to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is Jnana (ज्ञान) and What is Vijnana (विज्ञान) ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the difference between them?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" OwnerDisplayName="Pandya" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T12:05:06.193" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T16:19:22.243" Title="Jnana and Vijnana" Tags="|jnana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8853" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2187" CreationDate="2015-10-05T11:24:34.407" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;No answer can be found to above questions in Srimad Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer lies elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Till Mahabharata period, i.e, around 3102 B.C., the Gods from Vedic Pantheon were worshiped.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma is the Ruler of of all Worlds. -  ब्रह्मा लोकाधिपो यथा (Srimad Ramayana, Bala Kanda).  Indra's status was held next to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedic Era, Vishnu was next to Indra and he is the younger brother of Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Chakra was one among many weapons available to anybody, who performs austerities.  In Bala Kanda, even Sage Viswamitra used Vishnu Chakra against Sage Vasistha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;धर्म चक्रम् काल चक्रम् विष्णु चक्रम् तथैव च |&#xA;वायव्यम् मथनम् चैव अस्त्रम् हय शिरः तथा ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;And he launched discs called the Discs of Virtue, Time and &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; and he also launched other missiles like the Blower, Stirrer and like that the missile with Horse-head. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Who is Who of Kings of Mahabharata Era, except a few, fought and got eliminated in the Mahabharata war.   After the Rule of Pandavas that lasted for 36 years, no strong administration, directing the people in General in adhering to Vedic Way of life,  in the entire country was in place.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This lead to decadence in Human values and grouping among various petty rulers.&#xA;As a result, Vishnu, who was one among 33 Gods, had been elevated to the status of God of Gods.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it was in Puranas that &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu and his Chakra&lt;/strong&gt; were described as SUPREME.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Valmiki, who existed in Vedic Era, duly followed Vedic Pantheon only.  Hence, Ravana survived Vishnu Chakra's attack.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T11:24:34.407" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8854" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-05T11:33:34.850" Score="4" ViewCount="300" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a third question in a series of questions essentially about being able to see the Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8700/more-questions-on-the-ajna-chakra-and-the-atman&quot;&gt;previous question&lt;/a&gt; I basically asked if being able to see (experience) the divinity of the Atman is something that is considered natural for most people, or if it is considered something that most people are initially blind to; and if they are blind to it, how hard is it considered to get them to see that divinity in their inner world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to @SwamiVishwananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All people are initially blind to it, it is not natural. Yoga is going against what is natural. What is natural is to remain stuck in samsara. How hard it is depends upon your own efforts in that direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, you are welcome to give a different opinion or expand on Swami Vishwananda's point of view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second, I would like to ask the following (more detailed version of the previous questions):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose a state of being, where one is able to see, naturally and without effort, a divine nature in his consciousness, a watching without a watcher which seems unchanging and ever present, and of a divine and utterly mysterious nature; and suppose that this ability (to see it) seems to be stable over months and years, and that this seeing is not meant in the sense of a deduction of the intellect or a religious emotion or a belief in something transcendent, but rather that this phenomenon is experienced directly and is the most apparent and undeniable phenomenon in his consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also suppose, that such a person can use the intellect to reason that this evident mysterious nature of his consciousness may be a general quality of reality and possibly even the nature of all reality, nevertheless in respect to the external (material) world around him, that knowledge is only intellectual or religious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is, his knowledge is a direct experience in respect to his internal world (his consciousness) but intellectual in respect to the external world, the world of &quot;material&quot; phenomena, trees, planets, etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, suppose that this individual is still susceptible to anger, selfishness, and attachment and misery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is that state consistent with Hinduism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How is that state called or referred to in Hinduism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note, that I mean &lt;em&gt;state&lt;/em&gt; in the sense of a stage of spiritual evolution rather then a state of meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3759" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-10-06T07:19:26.813" Title="Some more questions on the Atman" Tags="|yoga|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8855" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8828" CreationDate="2015-10-05T11:48:37.537" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From Bhagwat Geeta, Chapter 5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bg 5.27-28 — Shutting out all external sense objects, keeping the eyes and vision concentrated between the two eyebrows, suspending the inward and outward breaths within the nostrils, and thus controlling the mind, senses and intelligence, the transcendentalist aiming at liberation becomes free from desire, fear and anger. One who is always in this state is certainly liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T11:48:37.537" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8856" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-05T12:18:00.780" Score="4" ViewCount="172" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any reasons for it, or is it just the peaceful environment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there anymore places, which act as a popular dwelling places for the gurus and rishis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3837" LastActivityDate="2018-04-05T14:19:46.097" Title="Why are the Himalayas often associated with gurus and rishis?" Tags="|rishi|guru|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8857" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2875" CreationDate="2015-10-05T12:50:15.730" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We are currently in the age of Ascending Dwapara Yuga and not in Kali Yuga.&lt;/strong&gt; This astonishing revelation was made by Sri Yukteswar Giri(Guru of Paramahansa Yogananda) in his book &quot;The Holy Science&quot; published in 1894.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Sri Yukteswar, ages work in full solar cycle of 24000 years. It contains 2 periods, ascending arc and descending arc of 12000 years each. The period of 1200 years is Kali Yuga, the period of 2400 years is Dwapara Yuga, the period of 3600 years is Treta Yuga and the period of 4800 years is Satya Yuga. If you add these, it completes one arc. We are currently in the ascending arc which means after the current Dwapara Yuga, we will enter Treta Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In descending arc, Treta Yuga comes after Satya Yuga, Dwapara Yuga comes after Treta Yuga and Kali Yuga comes after Dwapara Yuga. When we reach the end of Kali Yuga of descending arc, we progress into another Kali Yuga of 1200 years but this time in ascending arc which means the next age will be Dwapara Yuga then Treta Yuga and then Satya Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 2 Kali Yugas of both descending and ascending arc have passed already.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the people believe that we are in the age of Kali Yuga because of the wrong calculations of certain Sanskrit scholars such as Kulluka Bhatta. That's why the length of the yugas has been widened and that is also the reason why you get wrong figures like 4,32,000 years of Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I recommend you all to read &quot;The Holy Science&quot; by Sri Yukteswar which in detail explains why we are in Dwapara Yuga and why and how we got the wrong figures which most people believe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Please note the period in which Sri Krishna lived on earth was also Dwapara Yuga but that Dwapara Yuga was in descending arc and the current Dwapara age in which we live is in ascending arc.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-13T20:28:35.720" LastActivityDate="2015-10-13T20:28:35.720" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8858" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8801" CreationDate="2015-10-05T13:10:51.480" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mahavatar Babaji is greatest example. He is the guru of Lahiri Mahasaya who was the guru of Sri Yukteswar Giri who was the guru of Paramahansa Yogananada. He is the immortal Babaji meaning he will never leave his physical body. You can learn more about him from Paramhansa Yogananda's book &quot;Autobiography of a Yogi&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is alive for more than 2000 years. Yogananda said in his book &quot;If somebody remembers Babaji with all his heart, he gets instant spiritual blessing.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding your question, no one is half enlightened or full enlightened. Enlightenment means one who has realized God. There were and are many people who have realized God. The past ones includes Swami Vivekananda, Swami Sivananda and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The enlightenment achieved by Swami Vivekananda and others is same as the enlightenment achieved by Ramana Maharishi and Ramakrishna Paramahansa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T13:10:51.480" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8859" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8860" CreationDate="2015-10-05T13:23:10.140" Score="3" ViewCount="2069" Body="&lt;p&gt;I get confused many times whether Dhritrashtra and Gandhari had 100 sons or just 99 sons with one daughter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 100&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; son was Yuyutsu who wasn't Gandhari's son but her maid's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's the truth? Were Kauravas 100 brothers or only 99?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3873" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-13T03:38:33.177" LastActivityDate="2016-01-13T03:38:33.177" Title="Were Kauravas 100 brothers or only 99?" Tags="|mahabharata|kauravas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-10-05T14:30:45.930" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8860" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8859" CreationDate="2015-10-05T13:35:40.567" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There were 100 sons of Dhritarashtra. After 100 sons, Gandhari took out Duhshala, a baby girl, from the 101st jar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read it here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://samharshbangalore.blogspot.in/2012/10/101-children-of-dhritarashtra.html&quot;&gt;http://samharshbangalore.blogspot.in/2012/10/101-children-of-dhritarashtra.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yuyutsu was son of Dhritarashtra but not from Gandhari. He was from Sughada, a woman from Vaishya Varna. He was born on the same day as Duryodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In total Dhritarashtra had 102 children, 101 from Gandhari and 1 from Sughada.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="3872" LastEditDate="2015-10-05T14:28:41.673" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T14:28:41.673" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8861" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8852" CreationDate="2015-10-05T16:19:22.243" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jnana and Vijnana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The difference between jnana and vijnana occurs in the Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this tradition:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Jnana&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jnana means knowledge. Knowledge of what. Knowledge of Brahman as the only reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;However this is not complete non-duality&lt;/strong&gt;, (or Advaita), this is because if you are aware of knowledge, then you are aware of ignorance as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, if you are aware of the reality of God, then you are aware of the non-reality of the world. If you are aware of Truth, you are aware of Falsehood. Therefore you have not attained complete non-duality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Vijnana&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vijnana implies complete self-knowledge. In this state, you make no distinction that 'This is world, this is God. This is Me, that is You. This is Knowledge, this is Falsehood'. Everything becomes One. That is absolute self-knowledge, called as Vijnana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this state, you view the world as a reflection of Yourself (God). You view everything as You. You make no distinctions at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: (Sri Ramakrishna has spoken about Jnana and Vijnana several times in His gospel.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Page 281&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jnana is to know the Atman through the path of discrimination: &amp;quot;Not this, not this.&amp;quot; When this discrimination leads to Samadhi, then the Atman can be apprehended. But Vijnana is complete knowledge or realization. Some have heard of milk, some have seen it, but others have tasted it. So with God. Those who have heard of Him are still in ignorance; those who have seen Him are Jnanis; but those who have tasted or realized Him are Vijnanis. After seeing God, when one makes acquaintance with him and realizes Him as the nearest and dearest of all, that is Vijnana. At first it is necessary to discriminate &amp;quot;Not this, not this,&amp;quot; that is, God is not the elements of nature, He is not the senses or sense-popwers, He is not this mind, not this intellect, not this egoism; He is beyond all the categories of nature. To go to the roof, one must climb step by step, leaving one step after another. The staircase is not the same as the roof. After coming out on the roof, however, one can easily see that both roof and staircase are of the same material. The same Infinite Brahman appears as the Personal God, Jiva, and the twenty-four categories of nature. You may ask why this earth is so hard and solid, if it has come out of Brahman? His omnipotence can make everything possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T16:19:22.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8862" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="42406" CreationDate="2015-10-05T16:28:41.300" Score="12" ViewCount="2018" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Vishnu Purana the original Veda was divided into four parts, and further fragmented into numerous shakhas, by Vishnu in the form of Vyasa, in the  Dvapara Yuga; the Vayu Purana recounts a similar division by Vyasa, at the urging of Brahma. The Bhagavata Purana traces the origin of the primeval Veda to the syllable aum, and says that it was divided into four at the start of Dvapara Yuga, because men had declined in age, virtue and understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, if we consider the order of evolution of Vedas, Mahabharata, Srimad Ramayana, etc, we can understand that Vedas were followed by Srimad Ramayana.  And, after a long period Mahabharata came into existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if we go by these stories, the Vedas should have been remained undivided in the Ramayana era.  If we read Srimad Ramayana carefully, we will find that Vedas were already divided into 3 parts by the time  Sri Rama came into existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  Sri Hanuma approaches, at the behest of Sugreeva, Sri Rama and Lakshmana to  know the intentions of those two by their conduct, by their semblance, and by their conversation.  &#xA;&#xA;   After listening to him, Sri Rama expresses his opinion on Sri Hanuma to Lakshmana as follows:&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न अन् ऋग्वेद विनीतस्य न अ--यजुर्वेद धारिणः |&#xA;न अ--साम वेद विदुषः शक्यम् एवम् विभाषितुम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Kishkinda Kanda 3rd Sarga 28th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Nay...the non-knower of Rig Veda, or the non-rememberer of Yajur Veda, or the non-scholar of Saama Veda... can possibly, or truly speak this way...&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Sri Rama was saying that Sri Hanuma was well versed in Rig, Yajur, Saama Vedas.  So by that time Vedas might have already been divided into 3 parts only but not 4 parts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;While describing the characteristics and bodily signs of Sri Rama to Sita, Sri Hanuma says as follows:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यजुः वेद विनीतः च वेदविद्भिः सुपूजितः |&#xA;धनुः वेदे च वेदे च वेद अन्गेषु च निष्ठितः ||  (Sundara Kanda 35th Sarga 14th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;He got trained in Yajurveda, the sacrificial Veda. He is highly honoured by those well-versed in Vedas. He is skilled in Dhanurveda, the science of archery, other Vedas and the six limbs of Vedangas.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama was trained in Yajurveda.  So Vedas were divided in Srimad Ramayana era itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then why this division of Vedas was attributed to &lt;strong&gt;Sage Vyasa&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2020-08-03T08:45:42.433" LastActivityDate="2020-08-06T09:30:44.963" Title="Who divided Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|mahabharata|ramayana|vyasa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8863" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4093" CreationDate="2015-10-05T16:53:52.677" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am quoting this from my article-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;She is usually depicted as having one of her legs on the chest of Lord Shiva who lies on the ground in a static state. This represents the Purusha-Prakriti aspect of Samkhya. Shiva is static absolute Brahman, Kali is the power of this Brahman to have motion. Therefore, Shiva is lying without movement and Kali is standing or dancing on him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some depictions, especially with respect to forms like Chinnamasta, the Shakti is shown as being in a sexual union with Shiva who is lying static on the ground. The imagery is a direct depiction of the cosmic union of Purusha and Prakriti. The fact that Brahman and his power are non-different is being depicted in this imagery. The sexual union being the physical imitation of the cosmic union, the imagery aims to highlight the comic and spiritual union through sexual union. Further, in certain tantrika sadhanas (tantrika practices), the sexual energy is used to attain a spiritual union.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the whole article here- &quot;Why the West does not understand Kali&quot;-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newsgram.com/22503/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.newsgram.com/22503/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T16:53:52.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8864" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8862" CreationDate="2015-10-05T17:26:28.070" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's because there is more than one Vyasa.&lt;/strong&gt;  Most people only know &quot;Vyasa&quot; as the name of the sage Krishnadvaipayana Vedavyasa, the son of Parashara and Satyavati who, in the most recent Dwapara Yuga, compiled and divided the body of the Vedic mantras into the four books we call the Vedic Samhitas.  (Technically he only compiled the first Rig, Yajur, and Sama Veda; the Atharvana Veda was an independent effort by the sages Atharva and Angiras.)  But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3618/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, he is not the only one who has done this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa is actually a title, and in each Dwapara Yuga a new Vyasa does the job of compiling and dividing the Vedas.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin//vp/vp077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana, the current Vyasa's father Parashara lists the previous Vyasas of the Vaivasvata Manvantara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Twenty-eight times have the Vedas been arranged by the great Rishis in the Vaivaswata Manwantara in the Dwápara age, and consequently eight and twenty Vyásas have passed away; by whom, in their respective periods, the Veda has been divided into four. In the first Dwápara age the distribution was made by Swayambhu (Brahmá) himself; in the second, the arranger of the Veda (Veda-vyása) was Prajápati (or Manu); in the third, Uśanas; in the fourth, Vrihaspati; in the fifth, Savitri; in the sixth, Mrityu (Death, or Yama); in the seventh, Indra; in the eighth, Vaśisht́ha; in the ninth, Sáraswata; in the tenth, Tridháman; in the eleventh, Trivrishan; in the twelfth, Bharadwája; in the thirteenth, Antaríksha; in the fourteenth, Vapra; in the fifteenth, Trayyáruńa; in the sixteenth, Dhananjaya; in the seventeenth, Kritanjaya; in the eighteenth, Rińa; in the nineteenth, Bharadwája; in the twentieth, Gotama; in the twenty-first, Uttama, also called Haryátmá; in the twenty-second, Veńa, who is likewise named Rájaśravas; in the twenty-third, Somaśushmápańa, also Trińavindu; &lt;strong&gt;in the twenty-fourth, Riksha, the descendant of Bhrigu, who is known also by the name Válmíki&lt;/strong&gt;; in the twenty-fifth, my father Śakti was the Vyása; I was the Vyása of the twenty-sixth Dwápara, and was succeeded by Jaratkáru; the Vyása of the twenty-eighth, who followed him, was Krishńa Dwaipáyana. These are the twenty-eight elder Vyásas, by whom, in the preceding Dwápara ages, the Veda has been divided into four. In the next Dwápara, Drauńi (the son of Drońa) will be the Vyása, when my son, the Muni Krishńa Dwaipáyana, who is the actual Vyása, shall cease to be (in that character).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Vyasa of the twenty-fourth Dwapara Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara was the sage Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana.  The reason I single him out is that Rama was born in the twenty-fourth Mahayuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara, as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7189/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  The Ramayana took place in the transition between the Treta Yuga and the Dwapara Yuga of that Mahayuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up, it is the sage Valmiki's edition of the Vedas, not Krishnadwaipayana Veda Vyasa's division, that Rama and Hanuman are referring to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-10-05T17:26:28.070" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8865" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8828" CreationDate="2015-10-05T17:58:04.667" Score="25" Body="&lt;p&gt;A complete description of senses and how to control them have been written by the great Seer Sri Swami Sivnananda. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=895&quot;&gt;'Control of the Indriyas by Sri Swami Sivananda'&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Senses&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Senses are not different from Mind in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=895&quot;&gt;'Control of the Indriyas by Sri Swami Sivananda'&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says about the senses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indriyas are objectified desires. Will to see is the eye. Will to hear is the ear. The Indriyas (senses) have two states, static and dynamic. When the desire begins to operate, the Indriyas are put in motion. This is the dynamic state. As soon as the desire is gratified, the Indriyas shrink through Tripti (satisfaction). This is the static or passive state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mind and Indriyas are one. Indriya is a prolongation of the mind. The sea is fed by the rivers; the sea cannot exist without the rivers. Even so, mind is fed by Indriyas and cannot exist without Indriyas. If you have controlled the Indriyas, you have already controlled the mind. Indriya is another name for mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mind is a mass of Indriyas. Mind is a higher power than the Indriyas. Mind is a consolidated Indriya. Indriya is mind in manifestation. Just as a minister obeys the king, so also, the five Jnana-Indriyas act in accordance with the dictates of the mind. Indriyas represent backwaters. The desire in the mind to eat has manifested as tongue, teeth and stomach. The desire in the mind to walk has manifested itself as legs and feet. If you can control mind, you can control the Indriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;How to get control over senses&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By practicing Bhakti:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every morning, afternoon, evening, and night, offer all oner senses to God. All that one see, hear, do, touch, smell and think are all offered to God. Using this practice, one will see great progress day by day. Because one will naturally try to control onerself, since one want to offer ones best to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/bhaktiyoga.htm&quot;&gt;Bhakti Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhakti softens the heart and removes jealousy, hatred, lust, anger, egoism, pride and arrogance. It infuses joy, divine ecstasy, bliss, peace and knowledge. All cares, worries and anxieties, fears, mental torments and tribulations entirely vanish. The devotee is freed from the Samsaric wheel of births and deaths. He attains the immortal abode of everlasting peace, bliss and knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fruits of Bhakti is Jnana. Jnana intensifies Bhakti. Even Jnanis like Sankara, Madhusudana and Suka Dev took to Bhakti after Realization to enjoy the sweetness of loving relationship with God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Knowledge or wisdom will dawn by itself when you practice Bhakti Yoga. Bhakti is the pleasant, smooth, direct road to God. Bhakti is sweet in the beginning, sweet in the middle and sweet in the end. It gives the highest, undecaying bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By practicing Self-enquiry:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daily question onerself, who are one? How can one, the Atman, be restricted by oner senses? How silly it is that the Infinite comes under the control of the finite, instead of the other way round. As one keep enquiring into onerself, one will find that oner attachments will fade away and oner senses will no longer be able to control one. This is because one will always try to get the authentic experience of onerself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/diction/ramana.html&quot;&gt;Self-enquiry to remove the effect of the senses&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The gross body which is composed of the seven humours (dhatus ), I am not; the five cognitive sense-organs, viz., , the senses of hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell, which apprehend their respective objects, viz., , sound, touch, color, taste, and odor, I am not; the five cognitive sense organs, viz., , the organs of speech, locomotion, grasping, excretion, and procreation, which have as their respective functions speaking, moving, grasping, excreting, and enjoying, I am not; the five vital airs, prana, etc., which perform respectively the five functions of in-breathing, etc., I am not; even the mind which thinks, I am not; the nescience too, which is endowed only with the residual impressions of objects, and in which there are no objects and no functioning, I am not. …&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After negating all of the above-mentioned as “not this, not this,” that Awareness which alone remains – that I am. … The nature of Awareness [the Self] is existence-consciousness-bliss. (Ramana Maharshi, WHO, 11-2.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By practicing Selfless Service:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Leave aside oner senses, and oner desires. There are people around one without even a morsel to eat. What use is my liberation, when my brothers and sisters are suffering. Go and selflessly serve others. As one keep serving others, oner own attachments and desires will seem meaningless and insignificant. God resides in all beings. By serving everyone, oner mind will become purified and oner senses will become under oner control.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.divyajivan.org/articles/siva/selfless_service.htm&quot;&gt;'Selfless Service by Sri Swami Sivananda'&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By doing service, you purify your heart. Egoism, hatred, jealousy, idea of superiority vanish. Humility, pure love, sympathy, tolerance, and mercy are developed. Sense of separateness is annihilated. Selfishness is eradicated. You get a broad outlook of life. You begin to feel oneness or unity of life. You develop a broad heart with broad, generous views. Eventually, you get Knowledge of the Self. You realise the 'One-in-all' and 'all-in-One'. You feel unbounded joy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Become a servant of humanity. This is the secret of attaining God-realisation. Seek out the lowly and the miserable; cheer up and bring a ray of comfort to them by serving them unstintingly. Console the disconsolate. Comfort the distressed. You will be blessed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By practicing Ashtanga Yoga:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Ashtanga Yoga, the control of senses (Pratyahara) can be practiced with Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama and Pratyahara (which is control of the senses). Without practicing Yama and Niyama it is difficult to attain the control of the senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Krishnananda says in '&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/messages/pratyahara.htm&quot;&gt;Pratyahara&lt;/a&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasishtha instructs Sri Rama in the Yoga-Vasishtha: &quot;You can drink the whole ocean, you can shake the root of the mountain, you can drink fire, but you cannot control the mind.&quot; Like binding air in a little bag is your attempt to control the sense organs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sensations are nothing but desires. They are not really connected with physical things. Wrongly do we feel that we love things, hate things, want things and do not want things, on account of the deceptive operations and the reports of the sense organs operating in this manner. Wild dogs are these sensations. They bark and may attack you, also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What do you do? You should not be carried away by the appearance of this tornado of the desire process. Here again a kind of self-analysis is called for. Sensations, as told already, are, only desires manifesting themselves, in these five formations. We want five things in this world: we want beautiful things to see, melodious things to hear, fragrant things to smell, delicious things to taste, soft things to touch. You have no other desire in the world except these. Though you may think that you have millions of desires, they are only five, basically.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meditation is a part of the Ashtanga Yoga Technique&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What generally we call as meditation is actually concentration. Real Meditation implies the complete absorption of the Subject upon the Object.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How will concentration (Dharana) help in sense control?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By focussing on one object (Your Guru's Form, The symbol AUM, or a flame in between the eyebrows or a mantra) you lose the focus on all other objects. That way one's senses will be forgotten and eventually the True Self shines forth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swamivivekanandaquotes.org/2013/12/swami-vivekanandas-quotes-on_4.html&quot;&gt;One-pointed Concentration&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sense-centres are within, and their organs without; drive them into the mind and through Dhârâna (concentration) fix the mind in Dhyana. Brahman is omnipresent in the universe as is butter in milk, but friction makes It manifest in one place. &lt;strong&gt;As churning brings out the butter in the milk, so Dhyana brings the realisation of Brahman in the soul.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Concentration is the essence of all knowledge; nothing can be done without it. Ninety per cent of thought force is wasted by the ordinary human being, and therefore he is constantly committing blunders; the trained man or mind never makes a mistake. When the mind is concentrated and turned backward on itself, all within us will be our servants, not our masters. The Greeks applied their concentration to the external world, and the result was perfection in art, literature, etc. The Hindu concentrated on the internal world, upon the unseen realms in the Self, and developed the science of Yoga. Yoga is controlling the senses, will and mind. The benefit of its study is that we learn to control instead of being controlled. Mind seems to be layer on layer. Our real goal is to cross all these intervening strata of our being and find God. The end and aim of Yoga is to realise God. To do this we must go beyond relative knowledge, go beyond the sense-world. The world is awake to the senses, the children of the Lord are asleep on that plane. The world is asleep to the Eternal, the children of the Lord are awake in that realm. These are the sons of God. There is but one way to control the senses—to see Him who is the Reality in the universe. &lt;strong&gt;Then and only then can we really conquer our senses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;These methods are not mutually exclusive&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is, one can practice bhakti, while at the same time serve others selflessly, while meditating a few hours everyday and enquiring about one's true nature!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says in '&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=677&quot;&gt;The Synthesis of Yogas&lt;/a&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yoga of synthesis alone is suitable for this modern age. The four Yogas are interdependent and inseparable. Love is endowed in service. Service is love in expression. Knowledge is diffused love and love is concentrated knowledge. Karma Yoga is always combined with Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga. Bhakti Yoga is the fulfilment of Karma Yoga. Raja Yoga is the fulfilment of Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. Jnana Yoga is the fulfilment of Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Raja Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;The importance of steady discipline and practice&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Learning to read, learning to walk, learning to breath, nothing happens in a second. Everything takes time and everything requires constant practice. Similarly with sadhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=895&quot;&gt;Control of senses by Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you have the reins of the horses under your control, you can have a safe journey. The Indriyas are the horses. If you have the senses under your efficient control, you can have a safe journey in the path of Moksha. Indriyas cannot do anything without the help of the mind, their master and commander. Control of the Indriyas means control of the mind only. Control of thoughts leads to the control of mind and Indriyas also. It leads to the attainment of infinite bliss and eternal life. Control of thought is indispensable-a great desideratum for all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The constant practice of sadhana will give one control over senses, emotions, arishadvargas, mind and even universe. One will merge into Reality.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2015-10-22T16:00:05.180" LastActivityDate="2015-10-22T16:00:05.180" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8866" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2110" CreationDate="2015-10-06T03:46:39.160" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, God doesn't have any names. The one which is nameless that is the absolute reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;People give various names to nameless, various forms to formless because it is difficult for them to worship the infinite.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we start giving names to the infinite, he becomes finite and God cannot be finite. Its just a process that at the highest stage brings us to that infinite, formless, nameless ever shining being that pervades each and everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It doesn't matter if you call him Shiva, Vishnu, Krishna, you can even call him your own username A_runningMind. He is the one in every soul, he is the soul of your soul. Call him with whatever name you want, he doesn't mind but have faith. That is the most important thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2015-10-06T03:46:39.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8868" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-06T05:00:46.540" Score="1" ViewCount="38" Body="&lt;p&gt;During the Kurukshetra war, Shri Krishna recited the holy Gita to Arjuna. My question is, why did he choose to do that only to Arjuna and not to the other Pandavas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3659" LastActivityDate="2015-10-06T05:00:46.540" Title="Bhagavad Gita by Lord Krishna" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-10-06T05:41:23.363" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8871" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-06T06:24:07.877" Score="3" ViewCount="2656" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am in search of an important shloka which is a part of Mahabharata (13th chapter, Anushasana Parva) after Vishnu Sahasranamam and the shloka is about praising rishis, munis, raja rishis, etc., to get wealth, health, success etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For reference, please see the link, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13&lt;/a&gt; and I need the shloka in English but not the translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The shloka starts with: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namo Vasishtaaya Maha vrataaya &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3876" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-05-07T16:48:37.547" LastActivityDate="2020-05-08T03:46:50.673" Title="In search of an important shloka from Anushasana Parva of Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|identification-request|shloka|stotra|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8872" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-06T06:30:48.563" Score="6" ViewCount="842" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in Adhyaya 2 Pada 2 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa refutes various rival schools to Vedanta.  In particular, he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Topic-7: God Is Not a Mere Superintendent&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;37&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For the Lord there can be no creatorship, for that leads to incongruity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (the incongruity arises) because of the impossibility of a relationship.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (the position is untenable) because of the impossibility of (Nature) coming under (His) direction. (Or) And (God cannot be&#xA;  proved), since no physical support (adhisthana) is possible for Him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Should it be argued that God will direct Nature like (a man directing) the organs, then it cannot be so, for that will result in&#xA;  God’s having experiences (of happiness, sorrow etc.). (Or) If a body,&#xA;  equipped with sense-organs, be assumed for God, (we say that) this is&#xA;  not possible; because of (consequent) experiences etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;God will be subject to finitude or loss of omniscience.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most commentaries on the Brahma Sutras, including Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34213.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48239.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, interpret these Sutras as (in part) a refutation of the views expressed in the Shaiva Agamas, aka the Shaiva Tantras.  But I found one commentary, the Srikantha Bhashya which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TheVedantaSutrasWithSriKanthaBhashya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, which has a very different perspective on things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Srikantha Bhashya was composed by Srikantha Sivacharya, a member of the Shaiva Siddhanta sect.  Shaiva Siddhanta is a Shaivite sect based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poetry of the 63 Nayatanars, just as Sri Vaishnavism is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poetry of the 12 Alwars.  So naturally you'd expect Srikantha to object to the notion that the Brahma Sutras are trying to refute Shaiva Siddhanta.  Srikantha offers two potential alternative explanations for who Vyasa is criticizing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lfX9A.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Srikantha Bhashya, Srikantha says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Tantrikas, the so-called orthodox, those who profess to follow the Parameshwara Agamas, without knowing the real import of their teaching, hold that Pati, the Parameshwara, is the mere efficient cause, though, according to Shruti, he is both the material and the efficient cause of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KXEUB.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this later excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Srikantha Bhashya, Srikantha says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wherefore we maintain that this adhikarana refers to the Yoga-Smriti of Hiranyagarbha which speaks of Ishwara as the mere efficient cause.  Therefore the adhikarana is properly intended to overthrow the Hiranyagarbhagama.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is about the two belief systems that Srikantha discusses.  First of all, who are those &quot;so-called orthodox&quot; followers of Shaiva Agamas who believe that Ishwara is not the material cause of the Universe?  Is this a reference to the Lakukisha's sect of Pashupata Shaivism, or Abhinava Gupta's sect of Kashmir Shaivism, or some rival sub-sect of Shaiva Siddhanta?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second of all, is it true that the Yoga school, which was founded by Brahma or Hiranyagarbha as described in the Mahabharata, believes that Ishwara is the efficient cause of the Universe?  It certainly believes that he's not the material cause, since it posits Pradhana/Prakriti as the material cause?  But I'm not aware of any statement in the Yoga Sutras that says Ishwara is the efficient cause.  I've just seen statements like the notion that he's the first teacher of Yoga, the notion of worshipping Ishwara, and the notion that he dwells within everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who aren't acquainted with this philosophical terminology, the material cause of something refers to what it's made of, and the efficient cause of something is what causes it to happen.  So &quot;Brahman is the material cause of the Universe&quot; means that everything is made of Brahman, and &quot;Brahman is the efficient cause of the Universe&quot; means that everything that happens is directed by Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2021-05-24T10:43:34.093" Title="Which Shaivite sect believes God is the operator of the Universe but not the source?" Tags="|philosophy|yoga|vedanta|brahma-sutras|shaivism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8874" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8878" CreationDate="2015-10-06T10:00:02.020" Score="13" ViewCount="5752" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it possible to re-enter the birth and death cycle of life after one has achieved Moksha/Nirvana ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-15T09:38:28.570" LastActivityDate="2017-01-16T13:23:00.197" Title="Is Life after Moksha possible?" Tags="|moksha|rebirth|life|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8875" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8874" CreationDate="2015-10-06T10:06:33.490" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No Soul after achieving Moksha will enter the cycle of birth and death because he is free from each and every imperfection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But still they can come on earth to guide souls towards the kingdom of God. Just for the purpose of helping more souls realize the absolute truth, they come to earth. Though in this life they know for what purpose they are on earth, they have already risen above Maya and various imperfections. They are free.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2015-10-06T10:06:33.490" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8876" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-06T10:55:57.943" Score="22" ViewCount="726" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is just to elicit opinion/discussion. There is no ''answer&quot; to it really. You can choose to close it. But it is something that I always wondered about.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the annals of Sanaatana Dharma why isn't there One Absolute Reality? Every &quot;seer of truth&quot; saw/interpreted the way they saw it.  Shakaracharya saw it differently, Madhavcharya, Ramanujacharya saw it differently, Chaitanya MahaPrabhu saw it differently. And the followers of each of these schools claim/believe that their own  philosophy is correct. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there is One Absolute Reality and if there is one absolute path (Advaita/Visistadvaita, Davita, Achintya Bhedaabheda etc.), why is it that Vyasa Bhagavan did not state it conclusively in his Puranas?. Shaivaite scriptures portray Lord Shiva as Absolute, Vaishnava scriptures portray Lord Vishnu as Absolute and so on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If everyone is seeing the same One differently, WHO has ACTUALLY seen the Truth? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3879" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-04-22T17:02:21.997" LastActivityDate="2020-04-22T17:02:21.997" Title="Why isn't there one Absolute Reality?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8877" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8874" CreationDate="2015-10-06T11:30:46.320" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;yes, soul can always enter cycle of life-death even after achieving Moksha. Have you studied Advaita Vedanta and Shudhadvaita(non-dual reality)? Human souls are nothing but fragments of the divine God, and if maya or ignorance or the instinct of I is removed from soul, soul is equivalent to God. Than what the hell caused the maya in very first place to delude divine God himself and appear in the form of infinite souls. It is avidya, that is forgetting true self. Moksha simply means established in true self(the non-dual reality). And life simply means forgetting the true self and having desire of anything other than true self. Kindly study teachings of buddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Life is permeated through suffering caused by desire, &#xA;3) Eliminate desire and you eliminate suffering and attain moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, study Samkhya laid out by Kapila muni, which revolves around Purush and Prakriti, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea of evolution in Samkhya revolves around the interaction of prakṛti and Purusha. prakṛti remains unmanifested as long as the three gunas are in equilibrium. This equilibrium of the gunas is disturbed when prakṛti comes into proximity with consciousness or Purusha. The disequilibrium of the gunas triggers an evolution that leads to the manifestation of the world from an unmanifested prakṛti. Purusha is pure consciousness absolute, eternal and subject to no change. It is neither a product of evolution, nor the cause of any evolute. It is what is called the soul of every one of us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samkhya considers ignorance (avidyā) is regarded as the root cause of this suffering and bondage (Samsara). Samkhya offers a way out of this suffering by means of discriminative knowledge (viveka). Such knowledge, that leads to mokṣa (liberation), involves the discrimination between prakṛti (avyakta-vyakta) and puruṣa (jña)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if later purush again forgets to discriminate between prakriti and purush(himself) when prakṛti comes into proximity with him(purusha), he will again manifest or fall in cycle of life-birth. So, only method of liberation is to always remain in introversion, that is nirvikalp samadhi or see everything with indifference&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastEditorDisplayName="user3870" LastEditDate="2015-10-06T19:02:12.600" LastActivityDate="2015-10-06T19:02:12.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8878" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8874" CreationDate="2015-10-06T12:01:41.867" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No. It's not possible.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;After Moksha, a soul has become God by merging into the singularity of God. What God does, that soul does or what that soul does, the God does. Both are same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question rather should be, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is it &lt;em&gt;required&lt;/em&gt; to have a life after Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A soul with no desire left and who has conquered its &lt;em&gt;Rajo-Guna&lt;/em&gt; (the mode of passion) will not have anything to do with the material world. Even that soul doesn't have to guide anyone, because tendency to guide or help is also a (selfless) desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the entity come to manifested from unmanifested when the day of Brahma starts. Unmanifested is the actual nature of God, which is &lt;em&gt;Nirguna&lt;/em&gt; (mode-less), &lt;em&gt;Nirvikara&lt;/em&gt; (distorion-less) and &lt;em&gt;Nirpeksha&lt;/em&gt; (non-relative). However with its own Yoga-maya, the unmanifested God can also take a manifested form of soul, superior than the others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Presumably, your question is about the regular souls like us. When such soul realizes the God, it finally merges within the God's unmanifested form. &lt;strong&gt;It's like a water droplet merging into the ocean.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Can we say that when a new body is formed later, the same droplet is again attached? We can safely assume that it's gone for good! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/12/6-7&quot;&gt;BG 12.6, 12.7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But those who worship Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and&#xA;  being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service&#xA;  and always meditating upon Me, having ﬁxed their minds upon Me, O son&#xA;  of Pṛthā – for them &lt;strong&gt;I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth&#xA;  and death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/13/24&quot;&gt;BG 13.24&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who understands this philosophy concerning material nature, the&#xA;  living entity and the interaction of the modes of nature is sure to&#xA;  attain liberation. He &lt;strong&gt;will not take birth here again&lt;/strong&gt;, regardless of&#xA;  his present position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The souls which are going to attain Moksha would enjoy within the present life as well:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/20&quot;&gt;BG 14.20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the embodied being is able to transcend these three modes&#xA;  associated with the material body, he can &lt;strong&gt;become free from birth,&#xA;  death&lt;/strong&gt;, old age and their distresses and can enjoy nectar even in&#xA;  this life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-10-06T12:01:41.867" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8879" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11806" CreationDate="2015-10-06T13:12:16.313" Score="14" ViewCount="6648" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that, after the Kurukshetra war, some of Krishna's wives were kidnapped by thieves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If true, what are the reasons behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-07T17:23:15.380" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T13:50:51.580" Title="Is it true that thieves kidnapped some of Krishna's wives?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8881" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-06T15:32:40.883" Score="3" ViewCount="543" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who coined the term &lt;em&gt;Brahmarishi&lt;/em&gt;? How can one become a Brahmarishi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does a Brahmarishi know the future? A lot of rishi's in Ramayana seem to know the purpose of Rama's birth, how is that they know this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have more questions like the ones asked &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3981/can-one-saint-be-more-intellectual-than-the-other&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but not quite sure why it was closed (some of the comments to that question could very well be answers)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T09:09:32.383" Title="How can one become a Brahmarishi?" Tags="|ramayana|rishi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8882" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8883" CreationDate="2015-10-06T19:51:28.293" Score="13" ViewCount="5448" Body="&lt;p&gt;In ancient times, there had been animal sacrifices at various Yagyas and rituals were performed by Brahmins for kings, while on the other hand they also used to advocate non-violence and preferred a vegetarian diet. How did these contradicting things coexist?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T15:48:47.923" LastActivityDate="2022-10-01T18:19:09.463" Title="What do the Vedas say about animal sacrifice?" Tags="|vedas|rituals|practice|yajna|ahimsa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8883" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8882" CreationDate="2015-10-06T20:44:05.947" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Animal sacrifice, when performed properly according to Vedas, is an exception to the general rule about not harming living beings.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We proceed to refute the remark made by the pûrvapakshin that sacrificial works are unholy because involving harm done to animals ... Now from scripture we derive the certain knowledge that the gyotishtoma-sacrifice, which involves harm done to animals (i.e. the animal sacrifice), &amp;amp;c., is an act of duty; how then can it be called unholy?--&lt;strong&gt;But does not the scriptural precept, 'Do not harm any creature,' intimate that to do harm to any being is an act contrary to duty?--True, but that is a general rule, while the precept, 'Let him offer an animal to Agnîshomau,' embodies an exception; and general rule and exception have different spheres of application.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya, in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48342.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, goes further and argues that animal sacrifice is not even contrary to the principle of Ahimsa, because the animal experiences rewards in the afterlife which far outweigh the momentary suffering it experiences:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For Scripture declares that the killing of sacrificial animals makes them to go up to the heavenly world, and therefore is not of the nature of harm.&lt;/strong&gt; This is declared in the text, 'The animal killed at the sacrifice having assumed a divine body goes to the heavenly world'; 'with a golden body it ascends to the heavenly world.' An action which is the means of supreme exaltation is not of the nature of harm, even if it involves some little pain; it rather is of beneficial nature.--With this the mantra also agrees: 'Thou dost not die, thou goest to the gods on easy paths; where virtuous men go, not evil-doers, there the divine Savitri may lead thee.' &lt;strong&gt;An act which has a healing tendency, although it may cause a transitory pain, men of insight declare to be preservative and beneficial.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it would be like taking your kid to the dentist; they may temporarily suffer some pain, but in the long-run it's beneficial.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7947/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Madhvacharya and Baladeva Vidyubhushana, the Dvaita and Gaudiya Vaishnava commentators on the Brahma Sutras, say much the same thing.  In any case, this is largely a moot point, because almost no one performs the animal sacrifices described in the Vedas anymore.  (This is due to a variety of factors like the rise of Buddhism and Jainism and the substitution of corn-flour animals by Madhvacharya.)  Pretty much the only animal sacrifices performed in India nowadays are to goddesses like Kali, but I don't know of any statements in the Vedas that grant a similar exception to the principle of Ahimsa in that case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-10-11T12:03:15.670" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8884" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8009" CreationDate="2015-10-07T00:20:51.417" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yes, Swaminarayan is GOD himself.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bellow I have mentioned quotes from Purans written by Ved Vyas, decide yourself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gita:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“I (Krushna) take birth on this earth every time when Dharma&#xA;  diminishes  and Adharma intensifies.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this Shloka, Lord Krishna has mentioned that He will take and had taken birth (incarnation) every time whenever Kings, so called Dharmacharya, religious scholars deceives public in name of Dharma – Sadachar. This clearly means that there is no restriction of number of incarnation. In Shrimad Bhagavat, few of incarnations has been mentioned just to describe different Leela of these incarnations. This does not mean that Lord is bond to take only those incarnations and other incarnations will not happen on this earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shrimad Bhagvat 2nd Skand, Adhyay -4, Shloka-18&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sinful people of different casts (in western India) like Ahir (Shepherd), Kathis (of Kathiawar – Saurashtra), Kirat, Hun, Muslims, Andra, Kanbi (Patels), Khavas will take His shelter and He will vanish their sins to make them pious. I pray such Bhagvan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhramand Puran:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xANZ6.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xANZ6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Satyug, I will take birth as Dattatrey, In Tretayug, I will be Ram,&#xA;  In Dwapar I will be Krushna and in Kaliyug, I will be Son of Vrush&#xA;  (Vrushatmaj) - Hariprasad Pande and will be known as Swaminarayan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Padma Puran:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Zn3YB.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Zn3YB.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Pakhand – “pretend in name of Dharma” will prevail on this earth,&#xA;  Hari Himself will take birth as “Swami” to uphold the people from mud&#xA;  of sin. When Pakhand – “pretend in name of Dharma” will prevail on&#xA;  this earth, Hari Himself will take birth as “Swami” to uphold the&#xA;  people from mud of sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishwaksen Samhita:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/b3KwW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/b3KwW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I will take birth with name of Sahajanand swami and will take all my&#xA;  disciples to my divine abode – Vaikunth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnudharmottara Purana:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/I1ENU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/I1ENU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All sins vanishes by enchanting my name. I will take birth as son of&#xA;  Hariprasad Brahmin and will be known as Hari on this earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Skand Puran:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/q6rzd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/q6rzd.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Along with Arjun, I (as Krushna) have eradicted the crooked people. I&#xA;  have given moksha to  Asura (crooked people) killed by Arjuna and died&#xA;  seeing me. I have given moksha also to the Asura who had been killed&#xA;  by me. But all other Asur Kings who had been killed by Arjun and have&#xA;  evil wishes in his Jiv, will rebirth in Kaliyug and will prevail&#xA;  Pakhand. At that time in Kaliyug, I will take birth in Samvedi Brahmin&#xA;  cast due to curse given by Durvasa to Narnarayandev. I will&#xA;  re-estabilsh “Sadadharma” and will protect all Rishies – Saints along&#xA;  with my mother Bhakti and father Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one more reference Shrimad Bhagvat, I am not able to find right now, will add later once I found it, I am just writing in my word: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;it is during the time of Krishn Uddhav Samvad. where he is trying to tell uddhav, that: this life is gone in the removing adharm from the earth, establishing dharma is yet pending. and mentioned udhav that go to badrikashram. and when there is time we'll come again and establish the dharma. and stuff like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Some details about swaminarayan bhagavan to match above quotes from Ved Vyas.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Name in child hood:&lt;/strong&gt; Hari, Harikrushna, Ghanshyam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Father’s name:&lt;/strong&gt; Hariprasad Pande. Alias Dharmadev, Vrusha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mother’s name:&lt;/strong&gt; Baladevi alias Bhaktidevi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cast:&lt;/strong&gt; Sarvariya – Samvedi Brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Birth place:&lt;/strong&gt; Chhapaiya &lt;strong&gt;District:&lt;/strong&gt; Gonda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;State:&lt;/strong&gt; Uttarpradesh, India&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Birth date:&lt;/strong&gt; Samvat 1837 Chaitra Sud Navami. 2nd April, 1781 at 10.10 PM&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Left Home:&lt;/strong&gt; At tender age of 11 years&#xA;Travelled around 12000 KM barefoot in 7 years starting from Chhapaiya to Himalaya – Mansarovar – Assam – Jagannathpuri, Kanyakumari, Pandharpur to Loj – Gujarat. He was named Nilkanth varni during his travelling – Vicharan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guru:&lt;/strong&gt; Uddhavtar Ramanad swami (incarnation of Uddhav)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Names given at time of taking Diksha:&lt;/strong&gt; Sahajanand Swami, Narayanmuni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Inherited Ramanad’s cathedra (Gadi):&lt;/strong&gt; At age of 20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning of SwamiNarayan mantra aslo indicates he is god him self&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There can be many meaning of Swaminarayan mantra, out of that one I'll explain here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in the mantra Swaminarayan: Narayan is the noun and Swami is adjective. e.g. The Great King Alexander. where great and king is adjective of noun Alexander.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the eco system of this multiuniverse world, there are many elements which is known as Narayan. such as Surayanarayan, AgniNarayan, ViratNarayan, etc, etc. But there is one Narayan who is Swami of everything. A narayan who is swami of every soul exists. A narayan who is swami of every matter which exists. A narayan who is swami of every forces/ishvara which exists. He is not only swami he is also &quot;Niyamak&quot;(Controller) of everything. That is Swaminarayan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yo vetti yugapatsarvam pratyakshena sadā svataha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In hinduism every mantra has a some Dev or Avatar associated with it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We call Swaminarayan as maha mantra, why since it is the mantra which directly indicates the supreme lord. By chanting Swaminarayan mantra we are directly making connection to the Bhagavan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3880" LastEditorUserId="3880" LastEditDate="2017-06-09T00:08:30.633" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T00:08:30.633" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8885" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-07T01:23:13.343" Score="2" ViewCount="603" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know how to use some atharva ved mantra which is related to health? Is it any special vidi to use them? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3645" LastActivityDate="2015-10-07T01:23:13.343" Title="How to use atharva ved mantra?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-01-17T17:24:06.940" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8886" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-07T03:39:58.857" Score="5" ViewCount="3056" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/946/where-did-duryodhana-and-the-pandavas-go-after-their-death&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, it is said that the Pandavas, Karna and Duryodhana went to heaven or hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about others like Abhimanyu, Ghatotkacha? Were they reborn?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3659" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T08:13:13.833" LastActivityDate="2021-05-24T02:50:33.530" Title="What lokas did Abhimanyu and Ghatotkacha attain after their death?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|abhimanyu|ghatotkacha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8888" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24296" CreationDate="2015-10-07T07:11:52.967" Score="7" ViewCount="851" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to this &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/I-am-a-hardcore-Brahmin-I-ate-pork-unknowingly-I-am-regretting-it-so-much-that-I-couldnt-sleep-peacefully-now-What-should-I-do-now-1/answer/Vikrant-Kumar-64/comment/13037920&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;comment&lt;/a&gt; on a nice Quora answer, the Apasthambha sutra considers eating cow meat as a holy ritual. Does this particular scripture really sanction the consumption of beef?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is not a duplicate of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/67/eating-beef-as-a-hindu&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, but it asks about the Apasthambha sutra and it's views on beef.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3837" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-14T09:07:55.077" LastActivityDate="2018-02-14T09:07:55.077" Title="What is the Apasthambha sutra? And is eating cow meat considered holy according to it?" Tags="|tradition|brahmins|dharma-shastras|food|cows|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8889" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8879" CreationDate="2015-10-07T07:56:51.977" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, it's true.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Many of Krishna's wives were kidnapped by robbers out of lust (cupidity). Some of them resisted, some vanished, some were saved and some surrendered. This incident happened in today's &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhira_Kingdom&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Punjab&lt;/a&gt; region. Though the Abhira robbers belonged to South Rajasthan &amp;amp; north Gujarat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_(Krishna%27s_son)#Curse_of_Krishna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna had cursed some of his own younger wives for committing incestuous adultery with Krishna's son Samba, that they will be kidnapped by Abhira robbers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Gandhari's (&amp;amp; Brahmanas who were made fun of by Samba) curses triggered, all the Yadavas started killing each other with iron clubs. Many were killed including Krishna's sons, Kritavarma, Satyaki, and so on. Upon Krishna's instruction before accidental death, his aid Daruka Ji went to Paandavas to make them aware of the ongoing slaughter. Arjuna alone went to Dwarka to rescue those 16000+ queens, children, and other people. There were also people of Dwarka who were not yet killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mausala Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhananjaya, after&#xA;abandoning Dvaraka, proceeded by slow marches, causing the Vrishni&#xA;women to rest in pleasant forests and mountains and by the sides of&#xA;delightful streams. Arrived at the &lt;strong&gt;country of the five waters&lt;/strong&gt; (Punjab), the&#xA;puissant Dhananjaya planted a rich encampment in the midst of a land&#xA;that abounded with corn and kine and other animals. Beholding those&#xA;lordless &lt;strong&gt;widows escorted by Pritha’s son alone O Bharata, the robbers&#xA;felt a great temptation (for plunder). Then those sinful wretches,&#xA;with hearts overwhelmed by cupidity&lt;/strong&gt;, those Abhiras of ill omen,&#xA;assembled together and held a consultation. They said, ‘Here there is&#xA;only one bowman, Arjuna. The cavalcade consists of children and the&#xA;old. He escorts them, transgressing us. The warriors (of the Vrishnis)&#xA;are without energy.’ Then those robbers, numbering by thousands, and&#xA;armed with clubs, rushed towards the procession of the Vrishnis,&#xA;desirous of plunder. Urged by the perverse course of time they fell&#xA;upon that vast concourse, frightening it with loud leonine shouts and&#xA;desirous of slaughter. The son of Kunti, suddenly ceasing to advance&#xA;along the path, turned, with his followers, towards the place where&#xA;the robbers had attacked the procession. Smiling the while, that&#xA;mighty-armed warrior addressed the assailants, saying, ‘You sinful&#xA;wretches, forbear, if ye love your lives. Ye will rue this when I&#xA;pierce your bodies with my shafts and take your lives.’ Though thus&#xA;addressed by that hero, they disregarded his words, and though&#xA;repeatedly dissuaded, they fell upon Arjuna. Then Arjuna endeavoured&#xA;to string his large, indestructible, celestial bow with some effort.&#xA;He succeeded with great difficulty in stringing it, when the battle&#xA;had become furious. He then began to think of his celestial weapons&#xA;but they would not come to his mind. &lt;strong&gt;Beholding that furious battle,&#xA;the loss of the might of his arm, and the non-appearance of his&#xA;celestial weapons, Arjuna became greatly ashamed. The Vrishni warriors&#xA;including the foot-soldiers, the elephant-warriors, and the car-men,&#xA;failed to rescue those Vrishni women that were being snatched away by&#xA;the robbers.&lt;/strong&gt; The concourse was very large. The robbers assailed it at&#xA;different points. Arjuna tried his best to protect it, but could not&#xA;succeed. &lt;strong&gt;In the very sightof all the warriors, many foremost of ladies&#xA;were dragged away, while others went away with the robbers of their&#xA;own accord.&lt;/strong&gt; The puissant Arjuna, supported by the servants of the&#xA;Vrishnis, struck the robbers with shafts sped from Gandiva. Soon,&#xA;however. O king, his shafts were exhausted. In former days his shafts&#xA;had been inexhaustible. Now, however, they proved otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The obvious reason was the departure of Lord Krishna and the fulfillment of the Paandava's duties on earth.&lt;/strong&gt; The time for Paandavas also had arrived and this event was a notify for them. When Arjuna was full of grief due to his non-competency in saving the women, he goes to sage Vyasa and asks about why his powers were failing him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, ‘The mighty car-warriors of the Vrishni and the Andhaka&#xA;races have all been consumed by the Brahmana’s curse. O chief of&#xA;Kuru’s race, it behoveth thee not to grieve for their destruction.&#xA;That which has happened had been ordained. It was the destiny of those&#xA;high-souled warriors. &lt;strong&gt;Krishna suffered it to take place although he&#xA;was fully competent to baffle it.&lt;/strong&gt; Govinda was able to alter the very&#xA;course of the universe with all its mobile and immobile creatures.&#xA;What need then be said of the curse of even high-souled Brahmanas? He&#xA;who used to proceed in front of thy car, armed with discus and mace,&#xA;through affection for thee, was the four-armed Vasudeva, that ancient&#xA;rishi. That high-souled one of expansive eyes, Krishna, having&#xA;lightened the burthen of the Earth and cast off his (human) body, has&#xA;attained to his own high seat. By thee also, O foremost of men, with&#xA;Bhima for thy helpmate and the twins, &lt;strong&gt;O mighty-armed hero, has the&#xA;great work of the gods been accomplished.&lt;/strong&gt; O foremost one of Kuru’s&#xA;race, I regard thee and thy brothers as crowned with success, for ye&#xA;have accomplished the great purpose of your lives. &lt;strong&gt;The time has come&#xA;for your departure from the world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T08:43:27.790" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T08:43:27.790" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8890" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-07T10:57:15.550" Score="7" ViewCount="446" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83s%C4%81ra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is not real but it is maya/ignorance. And once self-realization/Jnana is attained, all duality and ignorance are removed/obsolete. In other words, samsara is only based on ignorance/maya. Hence we are trying to attain jnana/self-realization/moksha through karma, bhakti, raj-yoga etc. ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the question is, who created maya/ignorance? More precisely, &lt;strong&gt;why is it created/exists?&lt;/strong&gt; (because it seems to be in  &lt;em&gt;opposite&lt;/em&gt; direction of our goal).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, I want to know if there's any &lt;strong&gt;significance&lt;/strong&gt; of maya/ignorance? (Because I'm worried about it's existence!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further: Following thoughts are confusing me:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it possible that all Aatman(s) having ignorance and bounded by karma (In other words &quot;trapped&quot;) attain jnana/self-realization/moksha? (if yes, then what is the future of maya? or it will be impossible to create/exist/imagine universe in which I'm currently writing this and you're reading! &lt;sup&gt;probably the ultimate success I think&lt;/sup&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I think it is to oppose and challenge the maya/ignorance based on which the &lt;em&gt;whole&lt;/em&gt; samsara (not only for oneself) is existing! &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I &lt;em&gt;fear&lt;/em&gt; if there's any significance of maya/ignorance!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2015-10-09T12:37:14.930" LastActivityDate="2015-10-09T12:37:14.930" Title="What is (if any) the significance of Ignorance/Maya?" Tags="|moksha|maya|ignorance|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8891" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="737" CreationDate="2015-10-07T12:04:10.713" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Om is made of 3 sounds(A+U+M). It is the sound of Purush(the unmanifest God identified as Brahman by Vedanatis) which manifests in 3 forms, creator Brahma represented by A, maintainer Vishnu defined by sound U, and destroyer Shiva identified with M. the dot on top of it represent the unmanifest, or the true state while all three states are temporary or illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All those who recite Om, they actually connect with the unmanifest, the supreme father of all Gods and creation. So, first respect is paid to him either knowingly or without knowledge through all mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2015-10-07T12:04:10.713" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8894" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-07T16:12:42.637" Score="3" ViewCount="128" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a prevalent story about the marital status of Sri Hanuman that He was married to Suvarchala, the daughter of the Sun.  However, this story does not find place in Srimad Ramayana, which is an authoritative text on Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the following slokas from Srimad Ramayana does give an indirect reference to his marital status.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following slokas are from Sundara Kanda.  Sri Hanuman, after scrutiny of all women of Ravana, thinks as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पर दार अवरोधस्य प्रसुप्तस्य निरीक्षणम् || ५-११-३७&#xA;इदम् खलु मम अत्यर्थम् धर्म लोपम् करिष्यति |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;My seeing sleeping house of other people's wives will do a great deficit to dharma.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न हि मे पर दाराणाम् दृष्टिर् विषय वर्तिनी ||५-११-३८&#xA;अयम् च अत्र मया दृष्टः पर दार परिग्रहः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;My sight is indeed not in the matter of other wives here. These other's wives have been seen by me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nowhere in Srimad Ramayana, the marital status of Sri Hanuman was described.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My doubt :   Here Sri Hanuman was saying पर दाराणाम् - other's  wives.  If Sri Hanuman was a celibate, as per prevalent stories, he should have said WOMEN, but he said &lt;strong&gt;other's wives&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can we conclude he was in fact a married person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-10-08T10:44:08.813" LastActivityDate="2015-10-08T10:44:08.813" Title="Was Sri Hanuman a married person?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|marriage|valmiki|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2015-10-08T06:08:46.637" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8897" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8919" CreationDate="2015-10-07T18:27:43.203" Score="9" ViewCount="2344" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Shaivite&quot; is overused nowadays.  For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyer&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyer Brahmins&lt;/a&gt; are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata.  True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to Vaishnavism which is pretty common).  I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is about a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as the Sri Vaishnava sect is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the 12 Alwars, Shaiva Siddhanta is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the 63 Nayanars.  In any case, the standard Shaiva Siddhanta commentary on the Brahma Sutras is the Srikantha Bhashya, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TheVedantaSutrasWithSriKanthaBhashya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8872/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, it was composed by Srikantha Shivacharya and it advocates a philosophy of Shivadvaita, aka Shiva Visishtadvaita, which is similar to Ramanujacharya's philosophy of Visishtadvaita except Vishnu is replaced by Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the most Shaiva Siddhanta organization is the Saiva Siddhanta Church, which publishes the magazine &lt;em&gt;Hinduism Today&lt;/em&gt;. I assumed that they believed in Srikantha's philosophy of Shivadvaita, but their website says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.himalayanacademy.com/book/tirumantiram/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are six main sub-sects in Saivism. &lt;strong&gt;The Saiva Siddhanta Church is of the original Saiva Siddhanta expounded by Saint Tirumular, associated with South India. Of the six sub-sects, it is the oldest and closest to the Advaita found in the Upanishads and Agamas.&lt;/strong&gt; A divergent school within Saiva Siddhanta evolved out of the dualistic interpretations made by the philosopher Meykanda Devar in the Sivajnana Bodham and its commentary, Vartika, one thousand three-hundred years after the original postulations of Saint Tirumular were put forth. This school is also known as Saiva Siddhanta. A second sub-sect is known as the Pratyabhijna Saivism of Kashmir, founded by Vasugupta and known also as Kashmir Saivism. A third Saiva sub-sect is Vira Saivism, founded by Basava Deva in Central India, commonly called Lingayat Saivism. The fourth is Pasupata, founded by Nakulisa and now associated with Gujarat. The fifth is Siddha Siddhanta of North India whose founder is Goraksanath; and &lt;strong&gt;the sixth Saiva sub-sect is known as Siva Advaita, founded by Sri Kanta in South India.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it looks like the Saiva Siddhanta Church believes in a philosophy of Advaita, not the Shivadvaita philosophy of Srikantha.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what commentary on the Brahma Sutras does the Saiva Siddhanta church subscribe to?  Do they believe in Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya?  Adi Shankaracharya's commentary criticizes the Shaiva Agamas, so it seems unlikely.  And they seems to clearly reject the Srikantha Bhashya.  Is there another Shaiva Siddhanta commentary on the Brahma Sutras? The Shaivite philosopher Appaya Dikshitar wrote an Advaitic reinterpretation of Srikantha's philosophy, but the Saiva Siddhanta Church seems to reject Srikantha's tradition outright.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know if the Saiva Siddhanta Church has published or endorsed any commentary on the Brahma Sutras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T14:29:43.543" Title="What commentary on the Brahma Sutras does the Saiva Siddhanta Church support?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahma-sutras|sects|shaivism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8898" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8890" CreationDate="2015-10-08T10:42:46.693" Score="3" Body="&lt;h1&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Associating &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; with just ignorance is incomplete.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; = &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt;(Goodness) + &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;(Passion) + &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt;(Ignorance).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;em&gt;Disclaimer&lt;/em&gt;: Don't hardcode English meanings of &lt;em&gt;good&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;passion&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;ignorance&lt;/em&gt;. In real world: A &lt;em&gt;Satvik&lt;/em&gt; person can do (so called) bad Karma; A &lt;em&gt;Rajasic&lt;/em&gt; person can be ignorant of money/fame; A &lt;em&gt;Tamasic&lt;/em&gt; person can be quite knowledgeable.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 7.14&lt;/a&gt; — This &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;māyā&lt;/em&gt; of Mine,&#xA;  consisting of the three modes of material nature&lt;/strong&gt;, is difﬁcult to&#xA;  overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross&#xA;  beyond it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; BG 14.5&lt;/a&gt; — &lt;strong&gt;Material nature consists of three modes – Sattva(goodness), Rajas(passion) &amp;amp;&#xA;  Tamas(ignorance)&lt;/strong&gt;. When the eternal living entity comes in contact with&#xA;  nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he becomes conditioned by these modes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All we experience are proper combinations of &lt;em&gt;Sattva + Rajas + Tamas&lt;/em&gt;. When the soul, which is of eternal/forever nature comes into the contact of material nature, it is bound by a body; which is again a certain combination of these 3 modes. This is where the &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; happens for a soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among them &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; is the purest and closest to the God's &lt;em&gt;manifested form&lt;/em&gt;. A person have so many attributes in material life; in certain attributes certain mode will be predominant. Hence we can say that, all the events/&lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; around us or by us is projected due to certain combinations of these 3 modes. Hopefully, this knowledge can encourage one to realize that &lt;em&gt;'I am not the doer of anything'&lt;/em&gt;. Since God's spiritual nature is &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;unmanifested&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; to everything else, one has to transcendence beyond all the 3 modes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 14.6&lt;/a&gt; — O sinless one, the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;mode of goodness being purest&lt;/strong&gt;, is illuminating, and it&#xA;  frees one from all sinful reactions. Those situated in that mode&#xA;  become conditioned by a sense of happiness and knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 14.10&lt;/a&gt; — Sometimes the mode&#xA;  of goodness becomes prominent, defeating the modes of passion and&#xA;  ignorance, O son of Bharata. Sometimes the mode of passion defeats&#xA;  goodness and ignorance, and at other times ignorance defeats goodness&#xA;  and passion. &lt;strong&gt;In this way there is always competition for supremacy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.27&lt;/a&gt; — The spirit soul&#xA;  bewildered by the inﬂuence of &lt;strong&gt;false ego thinks himself the doer of&#xA;  activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes&lt;/strong&gt; of&#xA;  material nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 14.19&lt;/a&gt; — When one properly&#xA;  sees that &lt;strong&gt;in all activities no other performer is at work than these&#xA;  modes of nature&lt;/strong&gt;, who is transcendental&#xA;  to all these modes, he attains My spiritual nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Questions&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;who created maya/ignorance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samsara/Universe and &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; can be used interchangeably as they represent material world. You may refer multiple answers on this:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8508/1049&quot;&gt;How was universe created?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides that, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; can also be described as &lt;em&gt;lack of complete Sattva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;i.e. Maya - Sattva ≠ 0&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Until &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; exist, the &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; will exist around the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;More precisely, &lt;em&gt;why is it created/exists?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to famous mystic Jaggi Vasudev (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFcWdPpJmw8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;in this video&lt;/a&gt;), for any &quot;creation&quot; there cannot be &quot;why&quot;. But you want to know exactly that! :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From what I explained so far, your question boils down to &lt;em&gt;why Rajas/Tamas got created?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I don't have any definitive answer, except that it's Leela of God. For that, I use an &lt;strong&gt;Analogy&lt;/strong&gt; as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;em&gt;Imagine a writer is composing a nice storybook with lot of emotions. Though he is aware that his story is beautiful, he wants to live that story. Using his mystique powers, he sprinkles certain of his subtle bodies into various aspects of the story. His subtle bodies would have attached with certain bold characters, certain weak characters, certain flowers, rivers, trees and so on. Now those subtle bodies are having their own intelligence which they (falsely) assume to be different than their master! Some of them come back to the writer when the chapter is over. But some others become so engrossed that they remain within the characters or elements of that chapter. Writer gets worried and out of compassion, he starts writing chapters after chapters and transferring those subtle bodies to different characters, in a hope that after enjoying various aspects they will come back. After certain time, some of the subtle bodies understand that, they don't belong to the storybook characters but to the author. Hence they again jump out and merge. But certain naughty ones still remain. To get back them, the author also keep sending other powerful &amp;amp; powerless subtle bodies as and when require and the chapters goes on and on...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Here Author is the supreme manifested God, subtle bodies can be souls-demigods-demons-avatars. Storybook is the &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; and chapters are &lt;em&gt;Yugas&lt;/em&gt;. The pages &amp;amp; characters can be lives &amp;amp; incarnations.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... if there's any significance of maya/ignorance?   ...all Aatman(s)&#xA;  having ignorance (bounded by karma) and living in the world attain&#xA;  jnana/self-realization/moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The significance of &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; is that, it doesn't allow the soul to merge with the God.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt; will get &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; with a transcendence to all the 3 modes of material life. Not sure if &lt;em&gt;all&lt;/em&gt;, because we don't know &lt;em&gt;how many&lt;/em&gt; exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 14.20&lt;/a&gt; — When the embodied&#xA;  being is able to &lt;strong&gt;transcend these three modes associated with the&#xA;  material body, he can become free&lt;/strong&gt; from birth, death, old age and their&#xA;  distresses and can enjoy nectar even in this life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because though it appears ideal, the complete existence of &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; (i.e. lack of &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt;) is not possible. No one except supreme God is discounted from the mix of 3 modes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/40&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.40&lt;/a&gt; — There is &lt;strong&gt;no being&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  existing, either here or among the demigods in the higher planetary&#xA;  systems, which &lt;strong&gt;is freed from these three modes&lt;/strong&gt; born of material&#xA;  nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-10-08T10:42:46.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8899" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-08T11:47:32.323" Score="8" ViewCount="1604" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana, Lakshmana went to the Sarayu river, ended life by engaging in meditation and stopping his breathing. It is said his soul went to Patala Loka. Similar to this, white snake like creature came out from Balarama and Snake went to Patala loka. It is belived both of them were incarnations of Adisesha serpent. Why didn't their souls go to Vaikuntha and mingle with Adisesha serpent on which Lord Vishnu sleeps?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also said that Adisesha holds the Earth on its hoods. So, is the Earth located on one of its hoods? Where exactly does Adisesha live?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-01-12T04:13:21.007" LastActivityDate="2016-01-12T04:13:21.007" Title="Where does Adisesha live? In Patala loka or in Vaikuntha or underneath the earth holding it?" Tags="|lakshmana|balarama|earth|adisesha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8900" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8899" CreationDate="2015-10-08T12:20:56.003" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adishesha lies on the Garbhodaka Ocean. This universe lies inside Hiranyagarbh which also has 14 planetary systems. Beneath the 14 planetary system is the cosmic ocean known as Garbhodaka ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2yrlW.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2yrlW.png&quot; alt=&quot;Garbhodaka Ocean&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to SB 5.23.9, the last planetary system is Patala. Further 30,000 yojanas(ancient distance measurement unit) below, Adishesha lies on Garbhodaka ocean but doesn't hold any planetary systems.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to SB 2.7.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only under certain conditions do the planets float as weightless balls in the air, and as soon as these conditions are disturbed, the planets may fall down in the Garbhodaka Ocean, which covers half the universe. The other half is the spherical dome within which the innumerable planetary systems exist. The floating of the planets in the weightless air is due to the inner constitution of the globes, and the modernized drilling of the earth to exploit oil from within is a sort of disturbance by the modern demons and can result in a greatly harmful reaction to the floating condition of the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_numbers_in_Hindu_scriptures#/media/File:Hinducosm_Map1.svg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The image&lt;/a&gt; is taken from Wikipedia.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="3872" LastEditDate="2015-10-14T11:40:24.743" LastActivityDate="2015-10-14T11:40:24.743" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8902" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9648" CreationDate="2015-10-08T14:51:50.060" Score="9" ViewCount="1149" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Kauravas admit that their path was that of Adharma? &#xA;Also what determines if something is Adharma? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastActivityDate="2017-11-20T06:40:42.717" Title="Did Kauravas admit their Adharma?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|kauravas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8903" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-08T16:08:32.053" Score="7" ViewCount="3823" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have an assignment that I need help finding the answer to. I cannot find the answer anywhere on the internet. I don't have the book for my class to help me. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3886" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T09:11:08.667" LastActivityDate="2021-03-27T07:56:54.337" Title="What are the 30 avatars of Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2021-03-28T17:23:21.790" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8905" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-08T19:03:31.923" Score="4" ViewCount="1282" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any scriptural basis to &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=IZNRBQAAQBAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PT107&amp;amp;ots=z9uUR38t2H&amp;amp;dq=krishna%20bitter%20gourd&amp;amp;pg=PT107#v=twopage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this story of Sri Krishna, Yudhishtira and the bitter gourd&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story goes like this:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;After the Mahabharata war, King Yudhishtira and his brothers decide to go on a pilgrimage to cleanse themselves of sins committed during the war. Yudhishtira requests Sri Krishna to accompany them on their voyage. Krishna obliges but instead of accompanying himself, sends a bitter gourd in his place, telling Yudhishtira to treat the bitter gourd as (Krishna) himself, dip it in the holy waters and bring it back to him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yudhishtira doesn't question or doubt Krishna's reasons and does as advised. He dips the bitter melon in the sacred waters at all holy places he visits and brings it back to Krishna. Krishna then cuts the bitter melon and serves it to all the Pandavas and asks them to eat it. The Pandavas don't seem too happy chewing it down their throats as the gourd was still bitter. They complain. Krishna then offers them some wisdom, that just as the bitter gourd took dips in holy water and still remained bitter as ever, so do your sins. It's a mere whim that you can wash away your sins by going on a pilgrimage or immersing in holy water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moral of the story:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; You cannot wash away your sins by simply dipping yourself in river Ganga or any sacred waters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-09T14:45:28.857" LastActivityDate="2015-11-10T20:56:20.037" Title="The story of Sri Krishna, Yudhishtira and the bitter gourd" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|sin|ganga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8907" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8903" CreationDate="2015-10-09T05:09:55.833" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Below are the 24 Avtaras of lord Vishnu. Out of which, 23 happened already. Kalki is said to be 24th Avtara in future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1- श्री सनकादि मुनि (Shri Sankadi Muni) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2- वराह अवतार (Varaha Avtar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3- नारद अवतार (Narad Avtar) : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4- नर-नारायण (Nar-Narayan Avtar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5- कपिल मुनि ( Kapil Avtar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6- दत्तात्रेय अवतार (Dattatraya Avtar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7-  यज्ञ ( Yagya Avatar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8- भगवान ऋषभदेव (Rishabh Avtar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9- आदिराज पृथु (Prithu Avtar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10- मत्स्य अवतार (Matsya Avtar) : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11- कूर्म अवतार (Kurm Avtar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12- भगवान धन्वन्तरि (Dhanwantari Avatar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;13- मोहिनी अवतार (Mohini avatar) : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;14- भगवान नृसिंह (Narsih Avatar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;15- वामन अवतार (Vaman Avatar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;16- हयग्रीव अवतार (Hayagreeva Avatar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;17- श्रीहरि अवतार ( Shri Hari Avtar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;18- परशुराम अवतार (Parshuram Avatar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;19- महर्षि वेदव्यास ( Vyas Avatar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;20- हंस अवतार (Hans Avatar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;21- श्रीराम अवतार (Ram avatar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;22- श्रीकृष्ण अवतार (Krishna Avatar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;23- बुद्ध अवतार (Buddha Avatar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;24- कल्कि अवतार (Kalki Avatar) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from those, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinathji&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shrinathji&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swaminarayan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Swami Narayana&lt;/a&gt; can also be considered as re-incarnations of lord Shri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ajabgjab.com/2014/08/24-avatars-incarnations-of-lord-vishnu.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;24 Avtara of Vishnu with description&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://avatarsofbrahmavishnumahesh.blogspot.in/2013/07/24-avatar-of-lord-vishnu.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;24 Avtara of Vishnu with English desccription&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-09T08:42:28.380" LastActivityDate="2015-10-09T08:42:28.380" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8908" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-09T09:09:41.873" Score="7" ViewCount="362" Body="&lt;p&gt;there is popular belief particular in Gujarat that it is sin to pluck or broke flowers from plants or tree  after evening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Question really  Is it sin to pluck or broke flowers from plants or tree  after evening ? or it's only a belief &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-09T09:45:05.130" LastActivityDate="2024-03-10T05:09:51.097" Title="Is it sin to pluck or broke flowers from plants after evening?" Tags="|belief|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8909" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5356" CreationDate="2015-10-09T09:45:08.190" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the work called &amp;quot;108 Vaishnavaite divya desams&amp;quot; by M.S.Ramesam, the author says the following about the Nachiyar tirukoil mahatyam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The greatness of this divya desam is related in Brahmanda purana in a dialogue between sounaka rishi and Bhrigu Maharishi (Chapters 1 to 11 related Srinivasa Kshetra mahatyam)&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The author also says that, &amp;quot;the glory of this kshetra is mentioned in Bhayishttora purana, through Brahma Narada samvadam&amp;quot;. I think, you have already mentioned about the Bhavishyottara purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The author further elaborates on the story of the Kshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if you can check these references, you might find some answer, hopefully&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-09T09:45:08.190" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8911" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-09T14:27:34.593" Score="10" ViewCount="9523" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the many popular Mantra/Stotra in Hinduism is Ram-Raksha Stotra.&#xA;And as per this &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Raksha_Stotra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; Link, it is written by Budha-Kaushika Rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Ram-raksha itself, it is mentioned that Lord Shiva told बुधकौशिक about writing the Ram-Raksha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आदिष्टवान् यथा स्वप्ने रामरक्षामिमां हर: ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;तथा लिखितवान् प्रात: प्रबुद्धो बुधकौशिक:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Meaning): This protective hymn of Rama, as told by Shiva (Hara) in the dream । &lt;strong&gt;Was written down&lt;/strong&gt; (as told) by the enlightened (by Shiva's visitation) &lt;strong&gt;Budhakoushika&lt;/strong&gt; in the morning (upon waking up)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Raksha_Stotra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source: Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But beyond this, I could not found much info about this sage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scripture that describe about the Life of Budha-Kaushika Rishi and his relation/devotion to Lord Rama or Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-11-28T03:48:35.840" LastActivityDate="2021-11-28T04:09:22.943" Title="Who was Budha-Kaushika?" Tags="|rama|rishi|stotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8912" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-09T14:38:16.943" Score="5" ViewCount="1648" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sage Vishvamitra imparted a group of hymns, &lt;strong&gt;Bala&lt;/strong&gt; (strength) and &lt;strong&gt;Ati Bala&lt;/strong&gt; (super strength) to Sri Rama, on the southern riverbank of Sarayu. (Bala Kanda 22 Sarga 11-20 Slokas). He told the greatness of hymns, Bala and Ati Bala as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On receiving these hymns neither tiredness nor fever, nor disfiguring of personality can effect you, nor the demons can charge you either you are sleeping or unvigilant. As it is none whosoever on earth can equal you in dexterity, Rama, and by reciting these hymns none can equal you in the three worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My dear Raghava, if bala atibala hymns are practised, none can equal you in the world by your handsomeness, calibre, erudition, by your discernment, and even in replying or rebutting you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On receiving these two teachings there will be none similar to you, for bala and atibala are &lt;strong&gt;the mothers of all knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;. Oh, best one among men, Raghava, if you go on reciting bala and atiblala hymns, my dear Rama, there will be no hunger or thirst to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if these twin teachings are practised an inestimable renown will also accrue, oh, Raghu's legatee, these two hymns that possess brilliance are the &lt;strong&gt;daughters of Forefather Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;, and I intend to impart these hymns to you, as you are the most eligible one, hence take the teachings that are kept safe from the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though all of these numerous qualities are undoubtedly available with you, that too in abundance, yet these hymns if ascetically nurtured will yield various results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Viswamitra goes on to say that Bala and Atibala are daughters of Lord Brahma and mothers of all knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, it was narrated by Sage Valmiki that, while going along with Sage Viswamitra, Sri Rama and Lakshmana did Sadhyopaasana (worship at the junctions of sunrise/sunset).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्य ऋषेः परम उदारम् वचः श्रुत्वा नृप नरोत्तमौ |&#xA;स्नात्वा कृत उदकौ वीरौ &lt;strong&gt;जेपतुः परमम् जपम्&lt;/strong&gt; || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(Bala Kanda 23rd Sarga 3rd Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing the benign words of the sage those valorous and best ones among men got up, bathed, and on offering water oblation they mediated upon &lt;strong&gt;the supreme hymn&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The supreme hymn, which meditated upon can be the &lt;strong&gt;Gayatri mantra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My doubt is, if Sri Rama was &lt;em&gt;already&lt;/em&gt; practising/meditating a supreme hymn like the Gayatri mantra, why did Sage Vishvamitra impart him the &lt;strong&gt;Bala and Ati Bala hymns&lt;/strong&gt;, which are said to be the mothers of all knowledge?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are Bala and Ati Bala hymns superior to the Gayatri hymn?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2020-07-28T15:29:44.673" LastActivityDate="2020-07-28T15:29:44.673" Title="Are Bala and Ati Bala mantras different from and superior to Gayatri mantra?" Tags="|ramayana|gayatri-mantra|gayatri|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8913" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14667" CreationDate="2015-10-09T14:44:02.653" Score="18" ViewCount="5887" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the 10th Chapter of Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna said as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पवनः पवतामस्मि रामः शस्त्रभृतामहम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;झषाणां मकरश्चास्मि स्रोतसामस्मि जाह्नवी।।10.31।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Among the purifiers (or the speeders) I am the wind; Rama among the&#xA;  warriors am I; among the fishes I am the shark; among the streams I am&#xA;  the Ganga.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, a question arises as to which Rama was being referred to in this Sloka,  was it Rama, the son of Dasaratha (or) Rama, the son of Jamadagni, as both of them preceded Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-10-14T15:01:22.103" LastActivityDate="2023-01-17T17:50:32.243" Title="Krishna said in Bhagawad Gita that He is Rama among the weapon wielders. Whom was He referring to Rama (or) Parasurama?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|rama|parashurama|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="24" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8914" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-09T14:54:23.920" Score="5" ViewCount="248" Body="&lt;p&gt;Contentment (santosha) is one of the five niyamas in yoga. How does one actively practice contentment? Is it through meditation on certain feelings or something else? The other niyamas (cleanliness, austerity, self-study, prayer) seem more obvious in terms of what actions to do. Contentment almost seems like the opposite of actions. With contentment, what everyday actions does one take to practice this part of yoga? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3547" LastActivityDate="2015-12-23T07:27:21.613" Title="How does one practice contentment?" Tags="|practice|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8915" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8948" CreationDate="2015-10-09T15:12:47.497" Score="12" ViewCount="12654" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the 16 qualities of Sri Rama? Are all of them humanly possible to achieve?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was Rama &lt;em&gt;born&lt;/em&gt; with those qualities or is there any evidence of him striving to acquire those qualities and get better at them through practice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-02T02:56:44.570" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T01:51:55.107" Title="What are the 16 qualities of Sri Rama?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8916" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8882" CreationDate="2015-10-09T17:47:25.720" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me add the quote from the Vachanamrut (lessons given by Bhagavan Swaminarayan)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A similar type of question has been asked to Bhagavan Swaminarayan by the Saints and Munis, while Maharaj (Bhagavan Swaminarayan) was answering question about the Dharma and then the discussion goes on and after that Saints have asked this question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Mahãrãj, we would like to put the same question to you. Violence (hinsã) performed on animals, as part of a sacrifice or some other ritual, is considered to be dharma. But, non-violence (ahinsã) is also considered to be dharma. Please clarify this.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Bhagavan Swaminarayan answered:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Violence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shreeji Mahãrãj then explained, “Dharma involving violence is for the attainment of dharma, arth, and kãm. Moreover, the dharma which permits violence is for the purpose of limiting violence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Non Violence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Non- violence, on the other hand, is for the attainment of Moxa...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;moreover:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharma involving violence is for only fulfilling worldly desires, but &lt;strong&gt;it is&#xA;  not for the attainment of kalyãn(Moxa)&lt;/strong&gt;, whereas &lt;strong&gt;non-violence is solely for&#xA;  the purpose of attaining kalyãn(Moxa)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To conclude he told:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore, for both grahasthas and tyãgis only Dharma with non-violence has been cited for the attainment of kalyãn. For example, Uparichar-Vasu Rãjã ruled over a kingdom and still followed a non-violent lifestyle....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Talk goes on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything I have mentioned here is quoted from Vachanamrut (Gadhada Pratham - 69)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3880" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-15T20:33:38.117" LastActivityDate="2016-02-15T20:33:38.117" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8917" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-09T17:59:09.970" Score="12" ViewCount="1021" Body="&lt;p&gt;As is stated in Srimad Bhagavatam, Fifth Canto, 3rd sloka,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Formerly this planet was known as Ajanābha-varṣa, but since Mahārāja Bharata’s reign it has become known as Bhārata-varṣa.&#xA;  (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/7/3&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unlike common belief, this Bharata is the son of King Rshabhadeva, a partial avatara of Lord Vishnu.&#xA;But in the Mahabharata, the whole of Bharata race, and by extension, the country, is named after the son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala, who was also called by the same name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is, what role does Shakuntala's son have in naming India as Bharatavarsha, if it was already named so? And if it was rechristened as &quot;Bharatavarsha&quot; twice, what was the name between the first and second Bharatas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T10:42:36.653" LastActivityDate="2017-12-21T16:35:21.020" Title="Does Shakuntala's son Bharata have a role in the naming of Bharatavarsha?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|bhagavata-purana|chandravansh|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8918" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2180" CreationDate="2015-10-09T18:15:10.290" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is my personal belief and thoughts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no scripture Hindus have mentioning the word Hindu or Hinduism. Only the recent scriptures might include that for referring the people. but only when necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;from what I see, it is all about the knowledge. you pick Gita, Upanishad, Vachanamrut. In all these scripture all we have is the ultimate knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You open any scriptures of Hinduism what you find is Student asking the question about the different things, things we don't even understand these days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now to answering your question:&#xA;There are four types of Purusharth mentioned (Dharma, Eartha, Kama &amp;amp; Moksha). It totally depends on the person or its spiritual level, he leans towards one of the Purusharth  (if you see near you might easily notice that).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moksha is not ultimate objective, it is the best objective.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ultimate objective from what I understand is...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To gain knowledge of Atma and Paramatma&lt;/strong&gt;. Knowledge of one who experience all the surroundings and the one who gives those experiences and surroundings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ultimate objective of life is... stay near to the saint (good saint) who has this knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jay Swaminarayan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3880" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-10-09T20:58:41.177" LastActivityDate="2015-10-09T20:58:41.177" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8919" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8897" CreationDate="2015-10-09T19:35:55.197" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Saiva Siddhanta Church doesn't subscribe to the Brahma Sutras.&lt;/strong&gt;  I emailed the editors of Hinduism Today, the popular magazine published by the Saiva Siddhanta Church.  They replied that unlike other sects of Hinduism, they don't belong to the Vedanta school:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The schools of Vedanta all have commentaries on the principal Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. Saiva Siddhanta stands independent of that approach. Therefore, we don’t refer to any commentary on the Brahma Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, and Bhagavad Gita are called the Prasthana Traya or three starting points of the Vedanta school, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3631/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the statement on their website that the Saiva Siddhanta Church &quot;is the oldest and closest to the Advaita found in the Upanishads and Agamas&quot; doesn't mean that they believe in Adi Shankaracharya's philosophy of Advaita Vedanta.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.himalayanacademy.com/book/tirumantiram/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Another webpage&lt;/a&gt; on their site clarifies what they mean in the course of discussing the Nayanar Tirumular:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It may be that Saint Tirumular pioneered the reconciliation of Vedanta and Siddhanta. But what is the Vedanta that Tirumular was referring to? Sankara, with his exposition of Vedanta, was not to come for many centuries. Thus, concepts such as Nirguna and Saguna Brahman being two separate realities rather than one transcendent}immanent God, the absolute unreality of the world, and the so-called differences between the jnana path and the previous stages had not yet been tied into Vedanta. The Vedanta Tirumular knew was the direct teachings of the Upanishads. If there is one thing the Upanishads are categorical in declaring it is Advaita, &quot;Tat Tvam Asi-Thou art That,&quot; &quot;Aham Bramasmi-I am Brahman.&quot; And when Saint Tirumular says that Siddhanta is based on Vedanta he is using Vedanta to refer to this Advaita, which according to him must be the basis of Siddhanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vedanta is being used in the literal sense of the Upanishads, not in the sense of the Vedanta school founded by Vyasa and based on the Brahma Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, here is a summary of the distinctive beliefs of the Saiva Siddhanta Church:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In contrast to Adi Shankaracharya's philosophy of Advaita, the Saiva Siddhanta Church believes in the reality of the physical world, and that the physical world was an actual creation of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In contrast to Adi Shankaracharya's philosophy of Advaita, the Saiva Siddhanta Church believes that &quot;Aham Brahmasmi&quot; means that Jivatma and Brahman have the same Self, just as an apple and the apple tree it comes from are the same in their essential nature, but they're not actually the same object.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In contrast to Adi Shankaracharya's philosophy of Advaita, the Saiva Siddhanta Church doesn't believe in a notion of Nirguna Brahman and Saguna Brahman.  Instead, they just believe that Brahman is formless that the blue-throated god Shiva is the first soul created by Brahman, and that he's the creator, preserver, and destroyer of the Universe. So Shiva basically plays the role that Karya Brahman/Hiranyagarbha (i.e. the four-headed god Brahma) plays in the Vedanta school. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In contrast to the entire Vedanta school, the Saiva Siddhanta Church believes that souls have a form and are created by Shiva, not that they always existed, and that when they attain Moksha they become the all-pervading Brahman and thus no longer exist as distinct entities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from their non-Vedantic beliefs in the origination of the soul and the non-existence of Saguna Brahman/Karanarupa, the belief system of the Saiva Siddhanta Church seems to resemble the Visistadvaita philosophy of Ramanujacharya and especially the Bhedabheda philosophy of Bhaskara, who believed that the world was real, that the Jivatma was just an Upadhi or limitation of the infinite Brahman, and that when Moksha is attained the limitation goes away and the individual soul becomes the all-pervading Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhaskara, by the way, is the oldest commentator on the Brahma Sutras besides Adi Shankaracharya, and secular scholars generally think that his commentary is closer to the original meaning of the Brahma Sutras than Adi Shankaracharya's.  So perhaps a reconciliation of the Saiva Siddhanta Church with the Vedanta school is still possible after all!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T14:29:43.543" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8920" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-09T21:47:54.507" Score="3" ViewCount="308" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it allowed to compare god with self. Can I consider myself as Lord Ram, Lord Krishna or is it a sin to compare myself with such gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2018-10-03T09:02:40.317" LastActivityDate="2018-10-04T03:40:36.233" Title="Is comparing (assuming) self with god a sin?" Tags="|krishna|gods|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8921" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-10T04:37:15.013" Score="13" ViewCount="7321" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kartikeya was mentioned  in the Ramayana, but not Ganapati and his First Adoration in Pujas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kaartikeya as mentioned in Srimad Ramayana is the same character as mentioned in Srimad Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While  roaming in the Dandaka Aranya, Sri Rama, Lakshmana, and Seetha enter  the hermitage of Sage Agastya.  While going to meet the Sage, they saw  the designated places for various Devatas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स तत्र ब्रह्मणः स्थानम् अग्नेः स्थानम् तथैव च ||  विष्णोः स्थानम्&#xA;महेन्द्रस्य स्थानम्  चैव विवस्वतः | सोम स्थानम् भग स्थानम् स्थानम्&#xA;कौबेरम् एव च ||  धातुर् विधातुः स्थानम् च  वायोः स्थानम् तथैव च |&#xA;स्थानम् च पाश हस्तस्य वारुणस्य महात्मनः ||  स्थानम् तथैव गायत्र्या&#xA;वसूनाम् स्थानम् एव च | स्थानम् च नागराजस्य गरुड स्थानम् एव च ||&#xA;कार्तिकेयस्य च स्थानम् धर्म स्थानम् च पश्यति |  (Aranya Kanda 12th&#xA;Sarga 17 - 21 Slokas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama entered inside the hermitage and saw therein the sanctus of&#xA;Brahma, Fire-god, Vishnu, Indra, Vivasvat  - the Sun-god, Soma - the&#xA;Moon-god, Bhaga - one among the twelve Suns,  and the sanctusms of&#xA;Kubera,  [Wealth-Management-god, are seen and passed by the three of&#xA;them,  sanctums of Dhaata, Vidhaata - Vedic  deities created by Brahma&#xA;to help Svayambhuu Manu, santucm of Vaayu -  the Air-god, and also&#xA;like that  the sanctum of great-soloed VaruNa - the Rain-god who also&#xA;wields noose,  and the sanctum of Gayatri  - the presiding deity of&#xA;gnosis, sanctum of Vasus - eight of them, and  the sanctum of cobra's&#xA;king -  aadi sheSa, the divine Thousand-headed serpent that bears this&#xA;globe on  its head,  and even the sanctum of GaruDa - the Divine Eagle&#xA;, and the  half  brother of aadi sheSa, and the sanctum of Kaartikeya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;chief of gods army, and  the sanctum of Dharma - Dharmaraaja, presiding deity of Virtue-Vice-Time of living beings, in-charge  of&#xA;the hell.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though it was mentioned in Mahabharata that Lord Ganesha himself wrote it when Sage Vyasa was dictating, he did not find place in &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/strong&gt;, as Chief of Ganas (Ganadhipatihi).  Why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Were Ganesh and Kartikeya mentioned in Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="20968" LastEditDate="2023-02-04T21:36:59.470" LastActivityDate="2023-02-04T21:36:59.470" Title="Were Ganesh and Kartikeya mentioned in Vedas? Is Ganapati Elder to Kartikeya?" Tags="|vedas|ramayana|bhagavad-gita|ganesha|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8922" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-10T04:58:50.287" Score="2" ViewCount="302" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important to the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the son of Yama god of death and twin brother of the sage Nara. Among the oldest Pancharatra texts are the Satvata Samhita, Paushkara Samhita, and Jayakhya Samhita. But there is another Pancharatra text even older than those, and it is found within the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata! It's called the Narayaniya, and it's an 18-chapter religious dialogue between Yudishthira and Bhishma on the importance of worshipping Narayana/Vishnu, similar to the Bhagavad Gita, another 18-chapter religious discourse between Krishna and Arjuna found in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Narayaniya section of the Mahabharata, Krishna tells Arjuna the different names of Krishna/Vishnu and their meaning.  In particular, he says this about the name Krishna: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I till the Earth, assuming the form of a large plough-share of black iron. And because my complexion is black, therefore am I called by the name of Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Krishna certainly means dark, and Vishnu's incarnation Krishna is called that because he has dark skin.  But my question is, what does Krishna mean when he says that he takes the form of a &quot;large plough-share of black iron&quot; and tills the Earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this black plough a metaphor for something?  Is it similar to descriptions of the Vadavagni fire evaporating ocean water, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7082/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;?  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=G2EfW1oiVw8C&amp;amp;lpg=PA32&amp;amp;ots=C-_TnEqc3V&amp;amp;dq=iron%20plough%20krishna%20chinmayananda&amp;amp;pg=PA32#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=iron%20plough%20krishna%20chinmayananda&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; Swami Chinmayananda suggests that &quot;[t]he Lord ploughs the hard stupidities in us and prepares the heart-field.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any other scriptures that describe Vishnu tilling the Earth in the form of a giant plough?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-12-08T05:48:55.707" Title="What scriptures describe Vishnu taking the form of a giant plough?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|krishna|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8923" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-10T05:59:26.853" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T05:59:26.853" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T05:59:26.853" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8924" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-10T05:59:26.853" Score="0" Body="Shri Narada Muni is a holy personage and celestial musician, always facilitating the good of the world; engaged in aiding the pious in times of challenge and in hastening the retribution of evil-doers. Traversing the three worlds, he spread the Path of Devotion to the Lord. Figuring in all major epics, he led many noble souls to salvation." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T09:11:51.120" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T09:11:51.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8925" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:09:50.743" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhakti is  commonly  translated  as  ‘&lt;em&gt;the  path  of devotion&lt;/em&gt;’  which  is  an  &lt;strong&gt;over-simplification&lt;/strong&gt;  of  the  Sanskrit  term.  The word ‘devotion’ can be used in a purely secular sense, as in the case of  devotion  towards  one’s  family  members,  business  or  job.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhakti, commonly translated as devotion, derives from the verbal root  &lt;strong&gt;bhaj&lt;/strong&gt; which means &lt;strong&gt;‘to offer seva’&lt;/strong&gt;.Here &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;seva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot; does not mean &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;service&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;, rather it is a Sanskrit word commonly used to denote &lt;strong&gt;acts done out of devotional love/selfless activities done  for  realization  of  Bhagavan/Ishwara.It is purely motivated out of love and reverence for the Bhagavan.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sadhana of bhakti-yoga requires two entities – a  bhakta who practices bhakti and Bhagavan/Iswara who is the recipient and object of bhakti. In bhakti-yoga, the supreme goal  of  human  life  is  to  attain  unbounded  prema  for  Bhagavan/Ishwara, devoid of any self-interest, which leads to, and culminates in, divine communion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ninefold Path of Bhakti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nava-vidha bhakti or the ninefold path of bhakti includes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;shravana or satsang&lt;/strong&gt; — Listening to spiritual discourses or devotional songs related to God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kirtana&lt;/strong&gt; — Singing or talking about God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;smarana&lt;/strong&gt; — Remembering God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;pãda-sevana&lt;/strong&gt; — Serving God's holy feet.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;archana&lt;/strong&gt; — Anointing God with sandalwood paste, etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vandana&lt;/strong&gt; — Bowing before God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;dãsya&lt;/strong&gt; — Behaving as the servant of God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sakhya&lt;/strong&gt; — Behaving as the friend of God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ãtma-nivedana&lt;/strong&gt; — Unconditionally offering oneself and all of one's belongings to God with absolute submission.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where the ten types of bhakti are mentioned1, the tenth type is &lt;strong&gt;prem-lakshanã&lt;/strong&gt; bhakti — profound, loving bhakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Valmiki's Ramayana, Rama describes the path as ninefold (nava-vidha bhakti):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such pure devotion is expressed in nine ways, . First is satsang or&#xA;association with love-intoxicated devotees. The second is to develop a&#xA;taste for hearing my nectar-like stories. The third is service to the&#xA;guru (…) Fourth is to sing my kirtan (communal chorus) (…) Japa or&#xA;repetition of my Holy name and chanting my bhajans are the fifth&#xA;expression (…) To follow scriptural injunctions always, to practice&#xA;control of the senses, nobility of character and selfless service,&#xA;these are expressions of the sixth mode of bhakti. Seeing me&#xA;manifested everywhere in this world and worshipping my saints more&#xA;than myself is the seventh mode of bhakti. To find no fault with&#xA;anyone and to be contented with one's lot is the eighth mode of&#xA;bhakti. Unreserved surrender with total faith in my strength is the&#xA;ninth and highest stage. Shabari, anyone who practices one of these&#xA;nine modes of my bhakti pleases me most and reaches me without fail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavata Purana teaches nine similar facets of bhakti, as explained by Prahlada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) śravaṇa (&amp;quot;listening&amp;quot; to the scriptural stories of Kṛṣṇa and his&#xA;companions), (2) kīrtana (&amp;quot;praising&amp;quot;, usually refers to ecstatic group&#xA;singing), (3) smaraṇa (&amp;quot;remembering&amp;quot; or fixing the mind on Viṣṇu), (4)&#xA;pāda-sevana (rendering service), (5) arcana (worshiping an image), (6)&#xA;vandana (paying homage), (7) dāsya (servitude), (8) sākhya&#xA;(friendship), and (9) ātma-nivedana (self-surrender).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="28213" LastEditDate="2023-02-01T13:44:16.713" LastActivityDate="2023-02-01T13:44:16.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8926" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:09:50.743" Score="0" Body="bhakti (Sanskrit: भक्ति), derived from the Sanskrit verb root bhaj, which according to the Nighantu(glossary for Vedic terms) means to &quot;offer seva&quot; — is an expression of devotional Love for God; single-minded devotion to one's Iswara, or personal deity. One who practices bhakti is called a bhakta, while bhakti as a spiritual path is referred to as bhakti marga, or the bhakti way, or the bhakti yoga." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="28213" LastEditDate="2023-02-01T13:44:12.857" LastActivityDate="2023-02-01T13:44:12.857" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8927" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:15:20.217" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many universes - all follow the same rhythm, creation and dissolution (the systole and diastole of the cosmic heart). According to the Bhagavad Gita this srishti (creation) and pralaya (dissolution) recur at a period of 1,000 mahayuga or 4.32 billion years or 4,320 million years:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For a thousand ages lasts One day of Brahma, And for a thousand ages&#xA;  one such night; This knowing, men will know (what is meant by) day and&#xA;  night. At the day's dawning all things manifest; Spring forth from the&#xA;  Unmanifest; And then at nightfall they dissolve again, In (that same&#xA;  mystery) surnamed &quot;Unmanifest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Introduction&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rig Veda describes the origin of the universe as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then was not non-existence nor existence: there was no realm of air,&#xA;  no sky beyond it. What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter?&#xA;  Was water there, unfathomed depth of water? Death was not then, nor&#xA;  was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day's and night's&#xA;  divider. That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart&#xA;  from it was nothing whatsoever. Darkness there was at first concealed&#xA;  in darkness this. All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then&#xA;  was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that&#xA;  Unit. Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed&#xA;  and germ of Spirit. Sages who searched with their heart's thought&#xA;  discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent. Transversely&#xA;  was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what&#xA;  below it? There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action&#xA;  here and energy up yonder. Who verily knows and who can here declare&#xA;  it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation? The devas are&#xA;  later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first&#xA;  came into being? He, the first origin of this creation, whether he&#xA;  formed it all or did not form it, Whose eye controls this world in&#xA;  highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not - (Rig&#xA;  Veda 10.129.1-7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Structure of the universe&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Yugas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satya or Krta (1,728,000 years): Satya means &quot;truth&quot;; the age is also known as Krta, &quot;action,&quot; i.e., the age in which the people did unquestioningly what their benevolent elders told them.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Treta (1,296,000 years): Treta means &quot;three,&quot; the third age, counting backwards from the present: also the age in which the feelings and forces of good are as three parts, and those of evil as one; also the age in which people were specially &quot;protected,&quot; trayate, by their elders.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dva-para (864,000 years): Dva-para means &quot;two-sided,&quot; hence doubt also.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kali (432,000 years) which rotates in succession. Kali means &quot;discord,&quot; &quot;struggle&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And all of these add to 4,320,000 years. Now, these four yugas, taken together, constitute one Mahayuga. One thousand Mahayugas are one day of Brahma. Brahma's one day is one Kalpa. So one day of Brahma will be 432 crores or 4,320 million years or 4.32 billion years. A similar expanse of time will make His one night, and that is another Kalpa. Our wildest imagination staggers in conceiving Brahma's life-span. This is the expansive view of time. No other culture had this unique vision of the infinity of time as well as the infinity of space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T09:10:56.680" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T09:10:56.680" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8928" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:15:20.217" Score="0" Body="Hindu Cosmology upholds the idea that creation is timeless, having no beginning in time. Each creation is preceded by dissolution and each dissolution is followed by creation. The whole cosmos exists in two states - the unmanifested or undifferentiated state and the manifested or differentiated state. This has been going on eternally. " OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T09:11:59.260" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T09:11:59.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8929" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8935" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:21:06.300" Score="12" ViewCount="1625" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that we have to clear our debts towards parents and ancestors (&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pitru Runa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;) by begetting children before we can attain moksha. But people who take Brahmacharya don't marry. Will these Brahmacharis get moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-09-03T10:05:24.633" LastActivityDate="2016-09-03T10:05:24.633" Title="Will Brahmacharis (life long bachelors) get moksha?" Tags="|moksha|sanyasi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8930" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:23:36.683" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The ecliptic is divided into 27 nakshatras, which are variously called lunar houses or asterisms. These reflect the moon's cycle against the fixed stars, 27 days and 7¾ hours, the fractional part being compensated by an intercalary 28th nakshatra. Nakshatra computation appears to have been well known at the time of the &lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ecliptic is divided into the nakshatras eastwards starting from a reference point which is traditionally a point on the ecliptic directly opposite the star Spica called Chitrā in Sanskrit. (Other slightly-different definitions exist.) It is called Meshādi or the &quot;start of Aries&quot;; this is when the equinox — where the ecliptic meets the equator — was in Aries (today it is in Pisces, 28 degrees before Aries starts). The difference between Meshādi and the present equinox is known as ayanāngsha or fraction of ecliptic. Given the 25,800 year cycle for the precession of the equinoxes, the equinox was directly opposite Spica in 285 CE, around the date of the Surya &lt;strong&gt;Siddhanta&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The nakshatras with their corresponding regions of sky are given below, following Basham. As always, there are many versions with minor differences. The names on the right-hand column give roughly the correspondence of the nakshatras to modern names of stars. Note that nakshatras are (in this context) not just single stars but are segments on the ecliptic characterized by one or more stars. Hence there are more than one star mentioned for each nakshatra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8vfEU.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8vfEU.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An additional 28th intercalary nakshatra, Abhijit (alpha, epsilon and zeta Lyrae - Vega - between Uttarasharha and Sravana), is in between Uttarashada and Sravana. Last two (third and fourth) Padas of Uttrashada and first two (first and second) Padas of Sravana are considered to be Abhijit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The nakshatra in which the moon lies at the time of sunrise of a day is the nakshatra for the day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T09:10:32.177" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T09:10:32.177" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8931" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:23:36.683" Score="0" Body="nakshatra: (Sanskrit) &quot;Star cluster.&quot; Central to astrological determinations, the nakshatras are 27 star-clusters, constellations, which lie along the ecliptic, or path of the sun. An individual's nakshatra, or birth star, is the constellation the moon was aligned with at the time of birth" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T09:11:55.027" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T09:11:55.027" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8932" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:25:15.903" Score="4" ViewCount="453" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Shaivite&quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyer&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyer Brahmins&lt;/a&gt; are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is about a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as the Sri Vaishnava sect is based on the works of the 12 Alwars, a group of ancient Tamil saints famous for their devotional poetry to Vishnu, the Shaiva Siddhanta sect is based on the poetry of the 63 Nayanars.  In any case, the largest Shaiva Siddhanta organization is called the Saiva Siddhanta Church.  As I discuss in my question and answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8919/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, in contrast to the vast majority of Hindus, the Saiva Siddhanta Church does belong to the Vedanta school.  In particular, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.himalayanacademy.com/book/tirumantiram/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;their website&lt;/a&gt; says that it's possible for new souls to be created, which is something that Vedanta school rejects:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;God Siva created the soul. How did he do this? Was it like a potter shaping clay into a pot? Was it like a carpenter creating a house out of lumber? It was more like the tree. In order to create another tree, the tree sends out its branches and the fruit grows on the branches and the seed grows within the fruit. The fruit drops off and the seed sprouts and a shoot comes out; that shoot becomes a twig, then a sapling, then a small tree, and then a large tree. Finally, the tree is fully matured and sends out its fruits and begins the process all over again. &lt;strong&gt;In a similar way Lord Siva has created individual souls. Saint Tirumular assures us of this in one of his many statements about Siva the Creator: Of yore He created the worlds seven, Of yore He created celestials countless, Of yore He created souls without number, Of yore He created all-Himself, As Primal Param, uncreated. TANTRA TWO VERSE 446&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Tirumular is one of the most famous Nayanars.  My question is, is it universally agreed that Tirumular believed that new souls could be created, or are there alternate interpretations of this verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I ask is that as I said, the Vedanta school rejects the idea that individual souls can be created; the Brahma Sutras make clear that each individual soul has always existed and has taken infinitely many births going infinitely far back in time, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3734/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And apart from the Saiva Siddhanta Church, most other follow of Shaiva Siddhanta belong to the Vedanta school.  Now the standard Shaiva Siddhanta commentary on the Brahma Sutras is the Srikantha Bhashya, which was written Srikantha Shivacharya based on the philosophy of Shiva Advaita as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8872/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/de91c.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Srikantha Bhashya says about whether souls can be created:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[T]he birth of Jiva is an impossibility that deeds go for nothing and that something accrues from what is not done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea is that if there were a first birth of soul, then it would incur rewards and punishments even though it has not yet done any deeds to merit them.  In any case, given that Srikantha was part of the Shaiva Siddhanta school and thus believed in the authority of the Nayanars, how would he reconcile his views with Tirumular's verse above?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from the Saiva Siddhanta Church, most other followers of Shaiva Siddhanta believe in the interpretation of the Nayanars' poems given by Meykandar.  Does Meykandar interpret Tirumular's verse differently than the Saiva Siddhanta church, in a way that does not imply that souls can be created?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-07-14T15:01:41.383" Title="Did the Shavite poet Tirumular believe new souls could be created?" Tags="|philosophy|brahma-sutras|shaivism|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8933" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:29:18.310" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The separation of manas (mind) from the body, and its union with the paramatma (Universal Consciousness, Godhead); the complete “forgetting” of the “small self” (Jivatman) and mergence with the unchanging “Higher Self” (paramatma). The eighth of Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga (“eight limbs of Yoga”).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samadhi is of two levels. The first is &lt;strong&gt;savikalpa samadhi&lt;/strong&gt; (&quot;enstasy with form or seed&quot;), identification or oneness with the essence of an object. Its highest form is the realization of the primal substratum or pure consciousness, &lt;strong&gt;satchidananda&lt;/strong&gt;. The second is &lt;strong&gt;nirvikalpa samadhi&lt;/strong&gt; (&quot;enstasy without form or seed&quot;), identification with the &lt;strong&gt;Self&lt;/strong&gt;, in which all modes of consciousness are transcended and &lt;strong&gt;Absolute Reality&lt;/strong&gt;, Brahman, beyond time, form and space, is experienced. This brings in its aftermath a complete transformation of consciousness. In Classical Yoga, nirvikalpa samadhi is known as &lt;strong&gt;asamprajnata samadhi&lt;/strong&gt;, &quot;supraconscious enstasy&quot; — samadhi, or beingness, without thought or cognition, &lt;strong&gt;prajna&lt;/strong&gt;. Savikalpa samadhi is also called &lt;strong&gt;samprajnata samadhi&lt;/strong&gt;, &quot;conscious enstasy.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Description&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we succeed in becoming so absorbed in something that our mind becomes completely one with it, we are in a state of samadhi. Samadhi means &quot;to bring together, to merge&quot;. In samadhi our personal identities completely disappear. At the moment of samadhi none of that exists anymore. We become one with the Divine Entity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During samadhi, we realize what it is to be an identity without differences, and how a liberated soul enjoys a pure awareness of this pure identity. The conscious mind drops back into that unconscious oblivion from which it first emerged. The final stage terminates at the instant the soul is freed. The absolute and eternal freedom of an isolated soul is beyond all stages and beyond all time and place. Once freed, it does not return to bondage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The perfection of samadhi embraces and glorifies all aspects of the self by subjecting them to the light of understanding. The person capable of samadhi retains his/her individuality and person, but is free of the emotional attachment to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T09:10:11.467" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T09:10:11.467" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8934" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:29:18.310" Score="0" Body="samadhi (Sanskrit: &quot;standing within one's Self; sameness; contemplation; union, wholeness; completion, accomplishment.&quot;) which represents &quot;super consciousness&quot;; &quot;complete absorption into the absolute&quot;, &quot;Universal Consciousness&quot; — is the state of true yoga, in which the meditator and the object of meditation are one." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T09:11:01.950" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T09:11:01.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8935" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8929" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:33:00.153" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following are excerpts from the authoritative text on Sri Ramana Maharshi's sayings - Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devotee.: Is not brahmacharya (celibacy) necessary for realisation of&#xA;  the Self?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maharshee.: Brahmacharya is ‘living in Brahman’. It has no connection&#xA;  with celibacy as commonly understood. A real brahmachari, that is one&#xA;  who lives in Brahman, finds bliss in the Brahman which is the same as&#xA;  the Self. Why then should you look for other sources of happiness? In&#xA;  fact the emergence from the Self has been the cause of all the misery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D.: Celibacy is a sine qua non for Yoga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;M.: So it is. Celibacy is certainly an aid to realisation among so&#xA;  many other aids.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D.: Is it then not indispensable? Can a married man realise the Self?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;M.: Certainly, it is a matter of fitness of mind. Married or&#xA;  unmarried, a man can realise the Self, because that is here and now.&#xA;  If it were not so, but attainable by some efforts at some other time,&#xA;  and if it were new and something to be acquired, it would not be&#xA;  worthy of pursuit. Because what is not natural cannot be permanent&#xA;  either. But what I say is that the Self is here and now and alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this will answer your question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T06:42:56.960" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T06:42:56.960" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8936" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:34:21.063" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The outer aspect of yajna consists of building an altar, generally with bricks, kindling fire using specific types of grass and wood and then pouring into it oblations such as ghee or clarified butter, food grains, sesame seeds, and water to the accompaniment of chanting of sacred verses from the Vedas. The inner or hidden aspect of yajna is known to those who are familiar with the Vedic rituals. The yajna is the means of worshiping the Brahman or ones own Inner Self. In concept, yajna is any work or spiritual practice that is offered as worship to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna explains that every aspect that is associated with a ritual of sacrifice, the act of offering, the oblation, the sacrificer himself and the sacrificial fire as well is Brahma (4.23). In the subsequent verses He enlists the various types of sacrifices people perform with various objectives in their minds (4.25-4.30) and concludes that sacrifice in the form of knowledge is superior to sacrifice done with material things. In the ninth chapter he declares,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am kratu (vedic ritual), I am yajna (sacrifice), svadha (offering),&#xA;  ausadham (medicine), mantra (chant), ajyam (ghee), agni (fire), and&#xA;  hutam (burnt offering).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Chandogya Upanishad, the yagna is compared variously to the world, the God rain, the earth, man and woman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T09:09:42.813" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T09:09:42.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8937" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:34:21.063" Score="0" Body="yajña, yagna, or yagya (Sanksrit: यज्ञ, &quot;worship, prayer, praise; offering, oblation, sacrifice; fire ceremony&quot;) comes from the root yaj, &quot;to worship&quot; — is an outer form of worship in which offerings are made to different deities in a prescribed and systematic manner by qualified priests to supplicate them, so that they would assist the worshiper in achieving certain results in life." OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T09:12:03.100" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T09:12:03.100" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8938" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-10T06:38:09.293" Score="12" ViewCount="4104" Body="&lt;p&gt;I saw idols of &lt;em&gt;Navagraha&lt;/em&gt; (nine planets) in many Shiva temples, but I haven't seen them in Vishnu temples like Krishna, Venkateshwara, or Rama. Also, Rahu and Ketu pooja is done only in some Shiva temples e.g., &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srikalahasti_Temple#Rahu_.E2.80.93_Kethu_Sarpa_Dosha_Nivarana_Puja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srikalahasti Temple, A.P&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's the reason for having idols of Navagrahas and pacifying Rahu and Ketu for removal of doshas by doing pujas in Shiva temples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="8277" LastEditDate="2019-08-05T00:58:40.903" LastActivityDate="2019-08-05T00:58:40.903" Title="Why are Navagraha idols present only in Shiva temples?" Tags="|shiva|temple|shani|navagraha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8941" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2632" CreationDate="2015-10-10T12:36:55.690" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The worship of mother goddess is one of the three current forms of worship in Hinduism. There is well established archaeological evidence of continuous worship at Baghor from late upper paleolithic period (c. 9000–8000 BCE).&#xA;This is the oldest archaeological evidence that is based on physical structures and not based on other forms of enquiry like linguistic evidence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Misra, V. N. &quot;Prehistoric human colonization of India.&quot; Journal of Biosciences26.4 (2001): 491-531. [Online] available from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ias.ac.in/jbiosci/nov2001/491.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actual work:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kenoyer, Jonathan M. Shell Working industries of the Indus civilization: an archaeological and ethnographic perspective. Diss. University of California, Berkeley, 1983.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6000 year old Lord Rama and Hanuman carvings found in Iraq&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduismdecoded.blogspot.in/2015/09/6000-year-old-lord-rama-and-hanuman.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;6000 year old Lord Rama and Hanuman carvings in Silemania, Iraq.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Temple of Ganesha Found all over the world&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduismdecoded.blogspot.in/2015/09/god-ganesha-in-world.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;God Ganesha In world&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hinduism Decoding hindu-history-of-ancient-russia-and-europ(Greece/Italy)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduismdecoded.blogspot.in/2014/02/hindu-history-of-ancient-russia-and.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;from here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhimbetka_rock_shelters&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More than 8,000 Year Old Indian City Irradiated by Atomic Blast&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhimbetka rock shelters&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological site of the Paleolithic, exhibiting the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent, and thus the beginning of the South Asian Stone Age. It is located in the Raisen District in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, near Abdullaganj town and inside the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At least some of the shelters were inhabited by Homo erectus more than 100,000 years ago.  Some of the Stone Age rock paintings found among the Bhimbetka rock shelters are approximately 30,000 years old.  The caves also deliver early evidence of dance. They were declared a World Heritage Site in 2003.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The name Bhimbetka (भीमबैठका) is associated with Bhima, a hero-deity&#xA;  of the epic Mahabharata. The word Bhimbetka is said to derive from&#xA;  Bhimbaithka, meaning &quot;sitting place of Bhima&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The rock shelters and caves of Bhimbetka have a large number of paintings. The oldest paintings are considered to be 30,000 years old&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhimbetka_rock_shelters&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;wiki of Bhimbetka rock shelters&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2016-12-24T06:48:50.047" LastActivityDate="2016-12-24T06:48:50.047" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8942" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8905" CreationDate="2015-10-10T15:31:35.317" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no such story about Paandavas going for pilgrimage without Krishna for washing their sins long after the war was over.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story is exactly reverse. It was lord Krishna who advised Paandavas to perform a sacred ritual which was supposedly done after the war. It can be seen in this video of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMqPv7mE0o&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ramanand Sagar's &lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, which was more compliant with the scriptural texts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also it can be found in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09062.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shalya Parva&lt;/a&gt; after defeating Duryodhana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Vasudeva of great renown said, 'We should, as an initiatory act&#xA;  of blessedness, remain out of the camp for this night.' Answering, 'So&#xA;  be it!' the Pandavas and Satyaki, accompanied by Vasudeva, went out of&#xA;  the camp for the sake of doing that which was regarded as an&#xA;  auspicious act. Arrived on the banks of the sacred stream Oghavati, O&#xA;  king, the Pandavas, reft of foes, took up their quarters there for&#xA;  that night!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, yes the moral message is true which you got. When Paandavas were away, Ashwatthama killed the whole remaining army including their sons. Something which was terrible for them.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other instance where Krishna suggests a kind of Pilgrimage is to &lt;em&gt;Yaadavas&lt;/em&gt;. However we all know that, while being in &lt;em&gt;Prabhas&lt;/em&gt; for such &quot;sin-washing&quot; activity, the &lt;em&gt;Yaadavas&lt;/em&gt; got involved into &quot;sinful&quot; activities and ended up killing each other. It can be found in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausala_Parva#Plot_summary&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mausala Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna gets concerned, asks everyone to go on a pilgrimage to the&#xA;  sacred waters of the Prabhas sea. They do. When they arrive, the&#xA;  Yadavas revel in merry making, dance and drink lots of alcohol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Personally, I would refrain from such anti-Paandava stories, not because I have any prejudice against Kaurava. But sometimes, there is a conscious trend to demean them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-10-10T15:36:56.050" LastActivityDate="2015-10-10T15:36:56.050" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8943" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-10T15:44:43.190" Score="7" ViewCount="783" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is Shani and is there a connection with Saturday ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am living in India for three months and have heard the name mentioned a few times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Today I saw a man in orange robes and was told he was asking for donations for Shani as it was Saturday. I don't know if this is true but it is what I was told.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3895" LastActivityDate="2015-10-31T07:00:04.287" Title="Who is Shani and is there a connection with Saturday?" Tags="|shani|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8944" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-10T23:19:40.730" Score="6" ViewCount="7206" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &amp;quot;Shaivite&amp;quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyer&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyer Brahmins&lt;/a&gt; are often called Shaivites, but they are actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is about a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as the Sri Vaishnava sect is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the 12 Alwars, the Shaiva Siddhanta sect is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the 63 Nayanars.  In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/MmDv&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his book &amp;quot;The Sivadvaita of Srikantha&amp;quot;, S.S. Suryanarayana Sastri says this about the Shaiva Agamas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet a third view of the Agamas is that their purpose is to interpret the Upanishads, that they develop the teaching of the latter and &amp;quot;that they bear the same relation to the Upanishads, as the New Testament of the Christian Holy Bible bears to its Old Testament.&amp;quot;  According to this view, the Upanishads present the quest, and the Agamas its attainment... &lt;strong&gt;Upanishadic knowledge ascends to the four states, of waking, dreaming, sleep and the fourth beyond these three: Agamic knowledge, however, extends to the turiyatita, which is beyond even the fourth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The four states of consciousness are Mandukya Upanishad, as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/4079/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  They are known as Jagrata or waking, Svapna or dreaming, Susupti or deep sleep, and Turiya or &amp;quot;superconsciousness&amp;quot;.  At least from an Advaita perspective, Turiya is said to be a state of self-realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm interested in the fifth state mentioned, &amp;quot;Turiyatita&amp;quot;.  My question is, what scriptures discuss the Turiyatita state?  Is Sastri right that the Shaiva Agamas describe it?  If so, which Shaiva Agamas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramana Maharshi, despite being an Advaitin, was a follower of the Shaiva Agamas.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.arunachala.org/elibrary/docs/spiritual-i/#chapter.4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what he says about Turiyatita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is the Self described both as the fourth state (turiya) and beyond the fourth state (turiyatita)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Turiya means that which is the fourth. The experiencers (jivas) of the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep, known as visva, taijasa and prajna, who wander successively in these three states, are not the Self. It is with the object of making this clear, namely that the Self is that which is different from them and which is the witness of these states, that it is called the fourth (turiya). When this is known the three experiencers disappear and the idea that the Self is a witness, that it is the fourth, also disappears. That is why the Self is described as beyond the fourth (turiyatita).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Nayanar Tirumular discusses Turiyatita in various verses in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.himalayanacademy.com/book/tirumantiram/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 8&lt;/a&gt; of the Tirumantiram.  Here is one such verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2195 Limitations of Experiences in the Five States of Awareness &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In Turiyatita State &lt;br&gt; The Consciousness of the Self is not; &lt;br&gt; In&#xA;Turiya State &lt;br&gt; The Consciousness of the Self &lt;br&gt; Through spoken&#xA;word comprehended &lt;br&gt; Still burns; &lt;br&gt; In the Sushupti State that is&#xA;Maya bound, &lt;br&gt; The Desire-potency to speak afterward exists; &lt;br&gt; In&#xA;the Waking State and the Dream State &lt;br&gt; Experiences in ways diverse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think that the idea is that in the state of Turiya the soul have self-realization, but in Turiyatita there is no more soul to even have self-realization because it no longer exists after Moksha; it would be similar to Bhaskara's philosophy of Bhedabheda as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8919/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, Tirumular, like all the Nayanars, were operating in the tradition of the Shaiva Agamas, so it's all the more indication that the notion of Turiyatita is found in the Shaiva Agamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But where in the Shaiva Agamas is Turiyatita described?  And is it mentioned in any other scriptures, like the Pancharatra Agamas or the Puranas?  So far all I've found is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/tmu/tmu30.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mention&lt;/a&gt; in one minor Upanishad, the Mandalabrahmana Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are five avasṭhās (states), viz.: jāgraṭ (waking), svapna (dreaming), sushupṭi (dreamless sleeping), the ṭurya (fourth) and turyāṭīṭa (that beyond the fourth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does anyone know where else in Hindu scripture it's mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2023-10-28T05:58:00.423" Title="What scriptures describe the fifth state called Turiyatita?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|shaivism|agamas|mandukya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="10" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8945" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8943" CreationDate="2015-10-11T00:14:59.680" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, the correct word is SANISCHARA, i.e., on who moves slowly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we take it as a planet, still this meaning holds good. In astrology, the Saturn is the slowest moving planet. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ancient times, the we do not find week days. In those days, Muhurta, i.e., auspicious time, Nakshatra,i.e, favourable Star, Thithi, i.e., the movement of Moon are being considered. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Week days were imported to this land may be by the British (or) other Western merchants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2015-10-11T00:14:59.680" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8946" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-11T00:25:05.860" Score="9" ViewCount="818" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story available  in Puranas about incineration (burning) of Manmatha (God of Kaama)  by Lord Siva is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra and the gods are suffering at the hands of the demon Tarakasur, who cannot be defeated except by Shiva's son. Brahma who advises that Parvati woo Shiva; their offspring will be able to defeat Taraka. Indra assigns Kamadeva to break Shiva's meditation. To create a congenial atmosphere, Kamadeva (Manmatha) creates an untimely spring (akAl vasanta).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After he awakens Shiva with a flower arrow, Shiva, furious, opens his third eye, which incinerates Manmatha instantaneously and he is turned into ash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Compared to Srimad Ramayana, Puranas can be considered as very recent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The decimation of Manmatha was told differently by Sage Valmiki in his Srimad Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama and Lakshmana proceeding with Vishvamitra sojourn in a hermitage at a place, where River Ganga and River Sarayu are confluent.  There they have seen a hermitage of sages with contemplative souls, and who are practising supreme ascetics for many thousand years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On seeing that merited hermitage Sri Rama and Lakshmana are highly pleased and enquired as whom hermitage belong to?  Sage Viswamitra replied as follows: (Bala Kanda 23 Sarga 11-15 Slokas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कन्दर्पो मूर्तिमान् आसीत् काम इति उच्यते बुधैः | तपस्यंतम् इह स्थाणुम्&#xA;नियमेन समाहितम् || कृत उद्वाहम् तु देवेशम् गच्छन्तम् स मरुद् गणम् |&#xA;धर्षयामास दुर्मेधा हुम् कृतः च महात्मना ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Sthanum was practising ascetics at this place.  When Love-god was with&#xA;his body wise men used to call him Kama, the passion,  that Love-god&#xA;with his naughty intent braved god of gods (देवेशम्) at this place.&#xA;The  God of gods (देवेशम्) was returning after his marriage along with&#xA;his followers, namely the Wind-gods (मरुद् गणम् |) , and that great&#xA;soul disapprovingly roared at Love-god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अवध्यतः च रुद्रेण चक्षुषा रघु नन्दन | व्यशीर्यन्त शरीरात् स्वात् सर्व&#xA;गात्राणि दुर्मतेः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;And Rama, the wrathful eye destroyed the lewd-minded Love-god making&#xA;all his limbs to fall down from his body.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्र गात्रम् हतम् तस्य निर्दग्धस्य महात्मनः | अशरीरः कृतः कामः&#xA;क्रोधात् देव ईश्वरेण ह ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;There the body of Love-god is evanescent when that great soul burnt it&#xA;down, and by the anger of that god of gods, Love-god is rendered as a&#xA;bodiless entity.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्य अयम् आश्रमः पुण्यः तस्य इमे मुनयः पुरा | शिष्या धर्मपरा वीर&#xA;तेषाम् पापम् न विद्यते ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;This merited hermitage thus belongs to Sthanum and, oh, brave Rama,&#xA;these sages abiding in virtue are his disciples at one time, thus sin&#xA;is unverifiable with them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While narrating the above story, Sage Valmiki uses the word Devesham (देवेशम्),    which were interpreted by many as Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But according to Valmiki Ramayana, which closely adopted the Vedic Pantheon,  Devesham (देवेशम्)  refers to Lord Indra. In Aranya Kanda he was praised as vibhuDeswaram (Chief of Gods).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, the Devesham in this story decimates  the Manmadha  with roar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;hum kritascha ( हुम् कृतः च) like Sage Kapila decimates 60,000 sons of King Sagara to ashes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the Devesham in this story was returning after his marriage along with his followers, namely the Wind-gods, when he decimated Manmadha to ashes but not before his marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wind-gods (मरुद् गणम् |), were the sons of Diti, the wife of Sage Kashyapa, and step mother of Lord Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Diti seeks for a son to kill Indra because Indra and other gods have killed her sons in the battle after churning Milk Ocean. But Indra, being her stepson arrives at her place of asceticism, with view to destroy that Indra-killer. On a fateful day when Diti failed to maintain the procedure of vow, Indra enters her womb and dissects the foetus into seven fragments.   At the request of Diti, Indra blesses the seven segments of her foetus to become sapta marut gaNa-s, The Seven Wind-gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So they started  moving with Lord Indra but not with Lord Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, in my view the actual &lt;strong&gt;eliminator of Manmadha was  Indra&lt;/strong&gt; but not  Shiva as commonly believed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2020-09-12T09:45:21.867" LastActivityDate="2020-09-12T09:45:21.867" Title="Who eliminated Manmatha - Lord Indra?" Tags="|shiva|ramayana|rig-veda|indra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8947" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8949" CreationDate="2015-10-11T00:34:07.750" Score="8" ViewCount="1253" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although we know that there are 108 Upanishads, only 12 are popular in discourse and it is said that most of the original copies of Upanishads were lost or stolen from Hindu mutts by the Western Indologists. What are the names of the 108 Upanishads? Is the list given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/upalist.asp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; accurate? Also a 1 line description of what each of these Upanishads deal will be of great help. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. It is said that the most authentic record of the Upanishads available is Darah Shikoh's translation of around 50 Upanishads. Is there a book that is a compilation of Shikoh's and all the available (Indian) translation of upanishads?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-01T15:42:55.717" LastActivityDate="2016-05-01T15:42:55.717" Title="Available sources for the 108 Upanishads?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8948" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8915" CreationDate="2015-10-11T00:34:16.887" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I understood, Sri Rama was not an incarnation of Vishnu, as commonly believed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think you are referring to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga1/balasans1.htm#Verse2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bala Kanda 1&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; Sarga&lt;/a&gt;, wherein Sage Valmiki asks Sage Narada to tell about a person, who possess the qualities &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गुणवान्&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (guṇavān = principled person)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वीर्यवान्&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (vīryavān = potential one)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;धर्मज्ञः&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (dharmajñaḥ = conscientious)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कृतज्ञः&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (kṛtajñaḥ = redeemer)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सत्य वाक्यो&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (satya vākyo = truth-teller)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;धृढ व्रतः&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (dhṛḍha vrataḥ = self-determined in his deed)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;चारित्रेण च को युक्तः&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (cāritreṇa ca ko yuktaḥ = blent with good-conduct)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सर्व भूतेषु को हितः&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (sarva bhūteṣu ko hitaḥ = benign, in respect of all beings)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;विद्वान्&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (vidvān = adept)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;समर्थः&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (samarthaḥ = ablest)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एक प्रिय दर्शनः&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (eka priya darśanaḥ = uniquely good-looking)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आत्मवान्&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp;(ātmavān = courageous)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;जित क्रोधो&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (jita krodho = one who has controlled his anger)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;द्युतिमान्&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; (dyutimān = brilliant one) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अनसूयकः&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp;(anasūyakaḥ = not jealous)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;बिभ्यति देवाः&lt;/strong&gt; च जात रोषस्य संयुगे. &amp;nbsp;(kasya bibhyati devāḥ ca jāta roṣasya saṃyuge = even whom do the gods fear, when provoked to war) &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are asking about these qualities, then the answer lies in Sage Narada's reply itself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The person, who posses all the above qualities is one and only SRI RAMA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama possessed some qualities by birth and after acquiring mastery over wielding of various weapons, he became invincible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-02T01:10:04.020" LastActivityDate="2016-04-02T01:10:04.020" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8949" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8947" CreationDate="2015-10-11T02:27:32.697" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The traditional list of 108 Upanishads is given in the Muktika Upanishad, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://web.archive.org/web/20090805184434/http://geocities.com/advaitavedant/muktika.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Isa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kena&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Katha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prasna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Munda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mandukya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Taittiri&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Aitareya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Chandogya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brihadaranyaka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahma &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kaivalya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jabala&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Svetasva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Hamsa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Aruni&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Garbha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Narayana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Paramahamsa &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Amritabindu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Amritanada&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Atahrvasirah&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Atharvasikha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Maitrayini&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kaushitakibrahmana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brihajjabala&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nrisimhatapini&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kalagnirudra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Maitreya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Subala&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kshurika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mantrika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sarvasara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Niralamba&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sukarahasya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vajrasuchika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Tejobindu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nadabindu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dhyanabindu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahmavidya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yogatattva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Atmabodha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Naradaparivrajaka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Trisikhi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yogachudamani&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nirvana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mandalabrahmana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dakshinamurti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sarabha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Skanda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Tripadvibhuti-Mahanarayana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Advayataraka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ramarahasya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ramatapani&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vasudeva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mudgala&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sandilya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Paingala&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhiksu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mahat&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sariraka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yogasikha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Turiyatita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sannyasa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Paramahamsaparivrajaka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Akshamalika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Avyakta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ekakshara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Annapurna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Surya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Akshi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Adhyatma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kundika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Savitri &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Atma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pasupata&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Parabrahma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Avadhutaka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Tripuratapini &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Devi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Tripura&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Katharudra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhavana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rudrahridaya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yoga-kundali&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhasma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rudraksha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ganapati&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Darsana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Tarasara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mahavakya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Panchabrahma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pranagnihotra &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gopalatapini&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Krishna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yajnavalkya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Varaha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Satyayani&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Hayagriva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dattatreya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Garuda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kalisamtarana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jabali&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Saubhagyalakshmi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sarasvatirahasya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bahvricha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Muktika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Muktika Upanishad also classifies them according to what Veda they come from and it lists what it considers the most important Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read all 108 Upanishads in English in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.celextel.org/upanishads/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this website&lt;/a&gt;.  And you can read them in a single PDF file &lt;a href=&quot;http://cincinnatitemple.com/downloads/Upanishad-Complete.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One note of caution: as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3012/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Muktika Upanishads was passed down with very little rigor, in contrast to the extremely rigorous process used to pass down the Samhitas of the Vedas.  So just because an Upanishad is listed in the Muktika Upanishad doesn't necessarily mean that it's authentic.  On the other hand, if an Upanishad is not on the list, then it's almost guaranteed to be less than a few hundred years old.  (Or at least that's when it started being considered an Upanishad as opposed to some other kind of work.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-10-11T02:27:32.697" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8950" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8951" CreationDate="2015-10-11T03:06:39.620" Score="7" ViewCount="681" Body="&lt;p&gt;1)   A demon architect by name Maya, who was killed by Indra.  This story comes in Kishkinda Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मयो नाम महातेजा मायावी दानवर्षभः || ४-५१-१० तेन इदम् निर्मितम् सर्वम्&#xA;  मायया कांचनम् वनम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;A marvellous fantasist by name Maya was there, a bullish demon of&#xA;  wizardry and by him with his phenomenal expertise all this golden&#xA;  woodland is constructed...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तम् अप्सरसि हेमायाम् सक्तम् दानव पुंगवम् || ४-५१-१४ विक्रम्य एव अशनिम्&#xA;  गृह्य जघान ईशः पुरंदरः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Indra, the Administrator of Worlds and destroyer of enemy citadels,&#xA;  on taking His Thunderbolt eliminated Maya, when that eminent demon was&#xA;  engaged with an apsara, a paradisiacal nymph, called Hema..&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)   In the Mahabharata, when his life is spared by Krishna and Arjuna during the destruction of the Khandava forest, Maya offers his services to them. Krishna instructs Maya to construct a fabulous palace hall for Arjuna's elder brother, king Yudhisthira, at Indraprastha, which becomes the Mayasabha, renowned, beautiful and the largest of its kind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Were both MAYAs one and the same (or)different?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-08-19T15:47:03.517" LastActivityDate="2016-08-19T15:47:03.517" Title="Were both the MAYAs mentioned in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata one and the same (or) different?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|indra|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8951" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8950" CreationDate="2015-10-11T04:01:30.910" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They are different architects of Asuras with the same name.&lt;/strong&gt; Two commentaries on the Valmiki Ramayana, the Amritakataka of Kataka Madhav Yogindra and the Ramayanatilaka of Nagesha Bhatta both say that like Indra, Maya is the name of a post, not a personal name; here's what &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=BJMWT0ZJYHAC&amp;amp;pg=PA327&amp;amp;lpg=PA327&amp;amp;dq=%22Whoever%20is%20the%20architect%20of%20the%20asuras%22&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=nb_qGRDuiS&amp;amp;sig=CvTxklcelFcW8OfPW-rdfhXnVq4&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjPg9W2sI7MAhUFcj4KHf73DUYQ6AEIGzAA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Kataka Madhav Yogindra] deals with the philosophic problem of the death of the architect of the asuras who is after all nityah, &quot;eternal.&quot;  He draws a parallel with Indra and points out that the rank or position is permanent even though the individual occupying that rank is impermanent.  Whoever is the architect of the asuras is called Maya. [Nagesha Bhatta] agrees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a side note Maya and Hema were the adopted parents of Ravana's wife Mandodari, as described in the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-14T14:51:55.110" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T14:51:55.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8953" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8943" CreationDate="2015-10-11T05:35:15.543" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shani is Planet and Indian weekday name.  Saturn in English name of Shani planet and English weekday name Saturday&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saturday same as Shanivara in India&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All planets name we refer as week day name &amp;amp; Gods or Devata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Monday&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Middle English – Monday or mone(n)day In India  we called Moon as Soma &amp;amp; Chandra. so Monday in India Somvara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tuesday&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Middle English – tiwesday or tewesday &amp;amp; In Latin – dies Martis – “Day of Mars”. In India we Called Mars as Mangal. so Tuesday In India Mangalvara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wednessday&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Middle English – wodnesday or wednesday or wednesdai &amp;amp; In Latin – dies Mercurii – “Day of Mercury”. In India we called Mercury as Budha. so Wednesday In India Budhvara &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thrusday&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Middle English – thursday or thuresday &amp;amp; In Latin – dies Jovis – “Day of Jupiter” In India we called Jupiter as Guru. so Thrusday In India Guruvara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Friday&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Middle English – “Fridai” &amp;amp; In latin  – “dies Veneris”– Day of Venus. In India we called Venus as Shukra. so Friday In India Shukravara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saturday&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Middle English – Saterday &amp;amp; In latin – dies Saturni – “Day of Saturn”. In india we called Saturn as Shani. so Saturday In india Shanivara.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sunday&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Middle English – Sone(n)dayor Sun(nen)day &amp;amp; In Latin – dies solis– “Day of the sun”. In india we called sun as Surya or ravi. so sunday In India Ravivara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And In India all planets we called them  gods or devta. we have temple also for these planet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so that man is asking for donation for shani dev temple&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-31T07:00:04.287" LastActivityDate="2015-10-31T07:00:04.287" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8954" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8801" CreationDate="2015-10-11T07:47:02.217" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There may be.  However, it is not easy to learn about/have a darshan of that realised soul.  Mere learning about a REALISED SOUL does not serve the purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It depends on the maturity of the individual,who wants to seek the blessings/guidance of the REALISED SOUL, to go to the proximity of a REALISED SOUL.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in Gita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तद्विद्धि प्रणिपातेन परिप्रश्नेन सेवया।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उपदेक्ष्यन्ति ते ज्ञानं ज्ञानिनस्तत्त्वदर्शिनः।।4.34।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This shalt thou learn by prostrating thyself at the Master's feet, by&#xA;  questioning Him and by serving Him. The wise who have realised the&#xA;  Truth will teach thee wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it depends on how how one approaches a REALISED one.  One should serve and question a REALISED ONE, with the intention of removing one's ignorance, which results in Knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There can be many SPIRITUALLY ELEVATED ones, some becoming PUBLIC and some remaining obscure, depending upon the prArabdha left with their body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In 1992, I met a REALISED SOUL, who passed away in 1993 itself.  I do not want to dwell into the details, as they are very much personal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are sincere and serious enough, search for a GURU, wholeheartedly and you will reach the REALISED SOUL, destined for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2019-10-18T13:09:41.263" LastActivityDate="2019-10-18T13:09:41.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8955" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="927" CreationDate="2015-10-11T07:55:02.990" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Puranas describe many incarnations of Vishnu, Shiva and Devi.  As the question is on incarnations of Vishnu, I will restrict my answer to this aspect only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After reading about Vedic Literature in Internet (I am not a sanskrit scholar), Valmiki Ramayana (It is the only authoritative text on Ramayana), Mahabharata and Puranas, I concluded that the following might be the order in which the literature came into existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) Vedic Literature (Only 3 vedas please - Atharvana veda is an addition at a later date) , (2) Srimad Ramayana (3) Mahabharata (4) Puranas. Till Mahabharata period, i.e., around 3102 B.C., the Puranas were not written and Vedic Pantheon were used to be adored. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedic Era, Lord Brahma was Lord of all Lokas, (Lokadhipati), and the Ultimate boon giver, Indra's place is next to him (Lord of Devatas - Devesam) and Vayu, Agni, Varuna, Vishnu, etc are among 33 Gods we have. Vishnu's definitely used to assist Indra and Gods occasionally, but not did not have the status of God of Gods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama was described as the incarnation of Vishnu in Puranas and in the PRAKSHIPTA episode in Srimad Ramayana.  However, Srimad Ramayana did not mention about earlier incarnations of Vishnu, except Vamana and Parasurama, which were discussed below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) It was PRAJAPATI - Satapatha Brahmana, who took the form of BIG fish, and saved the King, when a great deluge took place.  In the later Purana's version, Vishnu was attributed with this act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)  Srimad Ramayana clearly says (Ayodhya Kanda) that it was Lord Brahma, who took the form of VARAHA and brought out EARTH from Water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वम् सलिलम् एव आसीत् पृथिवी यत्र निर्मिता |&#xA;  ततः समभवद् ब्रह्मा स्वयम्भूर् दैवतैः सह || २-११०-३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;All was water only in the beginning&quot; from which element the earth was formed. After that, the self-existent Brahma with all the gods came into existence.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स वराहः ततो भूत्वा प्रोज्जहार वसुंधराम् |&#xA;  असृजच् च जगत् सर्वम् सह पुत्रैः कृत आत्मभिः || २-११०-४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Thereafter, that Brahma, assuming the form of boar, caused the earth to rise from water and with his sons of pure soul, created the entire world.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)  Kurma - turtle - Avatar was mentioned in Srimad Ramayana.  However, those Sargas are not in conformity with Sage Valmiki's style because Shiva and Vishnu were described in those Sargas as GOD of Gods, which was not Valmiki's style.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4)   Hiranyakasipu was mentioned in Srimad Ramayana, but Nrishimha Avatar was not mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न चापि मम हस्तात्त्वां प्राप्तुमर्हति राघवः || ५-२०-२८&#xA;  हिरण्यकशिपुः कीर्तिमिन्द्रहस्तगतामिव |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Like Keerthi got by Hiranyakasipu from Indra's hand, Rama is not suited to get you from my hands.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5)  Srimad Ramayana describes Vishnu taking the form of dwarf Vamana - not an incarnation (2) He restored the wealth of Indra on one occasion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6) According to Puranas, Parasurama was the 6th incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He makes a brief appearance in Srimad Ramayana in penultimate Sargas of Bala Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His story, in his own words, as described in those penultimate Sargas of Bala Kanda of Srimad Ramayana is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu handed over a supreme bow to Sage Riciika, the son of Bhrigu, as a trustworthy trust. That great-resplendent Sage Riciika on his part has handed over this divine bow to his son with unmatchable deeds of religious merit, who is my father Sage Jamadagni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adhering to a barbarous mentality Kaartvaviirya Arjuna put my father to death, when the ascetically powerful father of mine has isolated himself from arsenal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing the unregenerate and highly perfidious murdering of my father, I rancorously extirpated Kshatriya-s as and when they are born, that too not for one time, going around the earth... and on getting the entire earth under my control I performed Vedic-ritual, and at the end of that Vedic-ritual, I gave all that earth to sage Kashyapa, a sage with divine soul and with pious observances, as a ritualistic-generosity... and I am at present on Mt. Mahendra practising ascesis and thus conjoined are the powers of ascesis in me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing about the breakage of Shiva's longbow, then I promptly came here. Thereby, oh, Rama, wield this supernatural and superlative longbow of Vishnu, which is passed on to me from my forefathers and my father. Keep your fealty to Kshatriya-hood in view, and wield this as you have wielded Shiva's longbow”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Story of Parasurama also appears in Mahabharata, wherein it was mentioned that Drona obtained all his divine weapons from the former.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Drona heard that the illustrious Brahmana Jamadagnya, Rama the son of Jamadagni, had expressed a desire of giving away all his wealth to Brahmanas. Having heard of Rama's knowledge of arms and of his celestial weapons also, Drona, who set his heart upon them as also upon the knowledge of morality that Rama possessed, set out for the Mahendra mountains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arrived at Mahendra, Drona approached Rama the son of Jamadagni, worshipped Rama's feet, and told him that he came there with the desire of obtaining his wealth.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing him, Rama said that he gave away his gold and whatever other wealth he had to Brahmanas! He further stated that the earth also, to the verge of the sea, decked with towns and cities, as with a garland of flowers, was given unto Kasyapa. And, he added that he was left with his body only and his various valuable weapons and that he was prepared to give either his body or his weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Drona prayed to give him all his weapons together with the mysteries of hurling and recalling them and Rama gave all his weapons to Drona,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we study these 2 stories in depth, we will find 2 contradictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) If the Parasu Rama the son of Jamadagni extirpated Kshatriya-s many times by going around the earth, then lineage of both Ikshvaku's, to which Dasaratha belonged, and Nimi's, to which Janaka belonged to, must have been broken, as Parasu Rama might have eliminated Kshatriya-s of both lineages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, while describing the lineages of Ikshvaku's and Nimi's during the marriage ceremony of Sri Rama and Sita, Sage Valmiki did not mention about breakage of those lineages due to Parasu Rama's adventures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) In Mahabharata it was mentioned that Drona obtained all his divine weapons from Parasu Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata followed Srimad Ramayana, as mention about Sri Rama can be found in Mahabharata but not about Pandavas in Srimad Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if Parasu Rama distributed all his riches along with entire land on earth to Kashyapa and retired to Mt. Mahendra for practising ascesis, how can he still wait for Drona of Mahabharata era for imparting knowledge in divine weapons and then retire to Mt. Mahendra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parasu Rama existed only in Mahabharata era but not in Srimad Ramayana era. Some scholars might have inserted at a latter date the story of Parasu Rama confronting Sri Rama, the son of Dasaratha, in Srimad Ramayana to make believe the readers that Rama the son of Jamadagni was holder of Supreme Vaishnava Bow and he was infact the incarnation of Lord Vishnu that came before Sri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, we can conclude that Parasu Rama was not the incarnation of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7)   Sri Rama is not an incarnation of Vishnu.  It was discussed at &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9037/did-king-dasaratha-think-of-performing-putrakamesthi-to-beget-sons-apart-from-a&quot;&gt;Did King Dasaratha think of performing Putrakamesthi to beget sons, apart from Aswamedha Yagna?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8)  Except in Puranas and Sri Bhagavatam, Mahabharata did not say that Sri Krishna was an incarnation of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-10-20T02:24:23.467" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8956" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2331" CreationDate="2015-10-11T08:08:52.483" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No where in Srimad Ramayana it was mentioned that  Vali had a boon that he will take 50% of power from his opponent, who ever challenges him.  However, it was mentioned in Ramayana that he is very powerful and fearless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Srimad Valmiki Ramayana, Vali had always been wearing a lustrous necklace, given by his father Lord Indra, on his neck.  It was only when he is breathing his last that he asks Sugreeva to take it before he passes away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Hanuma shows immense strength and dexterity in SUNDARA KANDA.  He even says that he alone can slay Ravana alongwith his army. Even Ravana acknowledges Sri Hanuma’s capabilities in Sundara Kanda (Sarga 46 Sloka 11 ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दृष्टा हि हरयः शीघ्रा मया विपुल विक्रमाः |&#xA;वाली च सह सुग्रीवो जाम्बवान् च महाबलः || &#xA;नीलः सेना पतिः चैव ये च अन्ये द्विविद आदयः |&#xA;न एव तेषाम् गतिः भीमा न तेजो न पराक्रमः || &#xA;न मतिः न बल उत्साहो न रूप परिकल्पनम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Earlier, I saw the Vanara-s of a great prowess like Vali and Sugreeva, the mighty Jambavan, Nila the Chief of army and so on like Dvivida.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; “Their scheme of performance is not so fearful as this; nor their efficacy, nor their prowess, nor their intellect, nor this capacity to change their form or energy at will.&quot; &#xA;&#xA; A question arises as to why Sri Hanuma,  having so many capabilities, remained as a silent spectator, when Vali banished Sugreeva and grabbed Ruma, the wife of Sugreeva.  Could not he stop Vali with his might? &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He could have, I think.  From the various situations in which Sri Hanuma’s character was depicted,  I think, Sage Valmiki projected him to be a KARMA YOGI and STHITA PRAGNA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being a wise person he knows that if he defeats Vali and hands over the Kingdom to Sugreeva, the latter may not like to take it as till then Sri Hanuma had been his minister only. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A kingly person will not accept such a gift from a minister, as it will be viewed below his dignity.  &lt;strong&gt;That is why Sri Hanuma remained silent and keeps on following Sugreeva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, accepting help from another king/would be king is a different matter.  It is common among kings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, Sri Hanuma gladly accepted the proposal of Lakshmana to arrange a meeting with Sugreeva, understanding that Sri Rama can slay Vali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2015-10-11T08:08:52.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8957" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-11T09:18:23.997" Score="5" ViewCount="2448" Body="&lt;p&gt;What happened to all those divine weapons after completion of Mahabharatha war? Where are those weapons now in kali Yuga? Who possess those weapons now? Were they dismantled or hidden somewhere?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As some people say, weapons are invoked using Mantras, what happened to those mantras after Dwapara Yuga? Does anyone know those mantras now?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-12-28T13:36:44.010" LastActivityDate="2017-03-27T10:04:09.887" Title="What happened to the divine weapons after Mahabharatha war?" Tags="|mahabharata|weapon|pashupatastra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8958" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8960" CreationDate="2015-10-11T12:31:43.977" Score="7" ViewCount="51639" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the following video, Dr. Zakir Naik says that Bhishma Pitamaha tells Yudhishtira that sacrificing a cow will &lt;em&gt;satisfy&lt;/em&gt; their dead ancestors for a period of 1 year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwoJhaWeQqk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwoJhaWeQqk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it right? Does the Mahabharata say so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1210" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2021-04-12T22:41:06.943" LastActivityDate="2023-08-17T07:08:15.647" Title="Does Anushasan Parva, chapter 88 of the Mahabharata, allow cow sacrifice?" Tags="|mahabharata|rituals|practice|cows|sraddha|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8959" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11684" CreationDate="2015-10-11T12:51:18.487" Score="14" ViewCount="6482" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that Hindu Scriptures are classified as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shruti: &quot;Which is heard&quot;, divine origin, authored by God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Smriti: &quot;Which is remembered&quot;, attributed to an author, derivative work.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I am confused: Is Bhagvad Gita considered Shruti or Smriti? Because: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is also divine origin (authored by God), so can be considered &lt;strong&gt;Shruti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is part of Mahabharata which is a Smriti literature, so can be considered &lt;strong&gt;Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found the application of Bhagvad Gita to be very important; you may find its reference in many &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&amp;amp;q=is%3aanswer%20BG&quot;&gt;answers&lt;/a&gt; on this site. It is one of the Prasthanatrayi for vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2022-07-27T15:06:39.503" Title="Is Bhagavad Gita text Shruti or Smriti?" Tags="|scripture|bhagavad-gita|vedanta|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8960" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8958" CreationDate="2015-10-11T12:56:15.067" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Bhishma does say that in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b053.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 88&lt;/a&gt; of the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Listen to me, O Yudhishthira, what those Havis are which persons conversant with the ritual of the Sraddha regard as suitable in view of the Sraddha and what the fruits are that attach to each. With sesame seeds and rice and barley and Masha and water and roots and fruits, if given at Sraddhas, the Pitris, O king, remain gratified for the period of a month. Manu has said that if a Sraddha is performed with a copious measure of sesame, such Sraddha becomes inexhaustible. Of all kinds of food, sesame seeds are regarded as the best. With fishes offered at Sraddhas, the Pitris remain gratified for a period of two months. With mutton they remain gratified for three months and with the flesh of the hare for four. With the flesh of the goat, O king, they remain gratified for five months, with bacon for six months, and with the flesh of birds for seven. With venison obtained from those deer that are called Prishata, they remain gratified for eight months, and with that obtained from the Ruru for nine months, and with the meat of the Gavaya for ten months. With the meat of the buffalo their gratification lasts for eleven months. &lt;strong&gt;With beef presented at the Sraddha, their gratification, it is said, lasts for a full year.&lt;/strong&gt; Payasa mixed with ghee is as much acceptable to the Pitris as beef. With the meat of the Vadhrinasa the gratification of the Pitris lasts for twelve years. The flesh of the rhinoceros, offered to the Pitris on the anniversaries of the lunar days on which they died, becomes inexhaustible. The potherb called Kalasaka, the petals of the Kanchana flower, and meat of the goat also, thus offered, prove inexhaustible. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pitris are spirits of departed ancestors, by the way.  In any case, see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8883/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for the moral justification of animal sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, it should be noted that the Brahma Vaivarta Purana says that offering meat at the Shraddha ritual is not permitted in the Kali Yuga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this Age of Kali, five acts are forbidden: the offering of a horse in sacrifice, the offering of a cow in sacrifice, the acceptance of the order of sannyāsa, &lt;strong&gt;the offering of oblations of flesh to the forefathers&lt;/strong&gt;, and a man’s begetting children in his brother’s wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now like many verses in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, some consider this verse to be an interpolation.  But this is a moot point, because pretty much no one offers meat in Shraddha nowadays; they use one of the options referred to by Bhishma that don't involve meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-12-08T05:09:50.287" LastActivityDate="2017-12-08T05:09:50.287" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8962" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8973" CreationDate="2015-10-11T15:12:32.317" Score="15" ViewCount="13336" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that the complexion of Lord Vishnu / Krishna is dark (&lt;em&gt;shyam varna&lt;/em&gt;) but what is the complexion of Lord Shiva, dark or white?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastEditorUserId="20968" LastEditDate="2023-03-16T19:47:31.320" LastActivityDate="2023-03-16T19:47:31.320" Title="Is Lord Shiva dark in complexion?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|gods|shiva-purana|color|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8963" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8795" CreationDate="2015-10-11T15:21:48.650" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sloka that was referred to is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इमं विवस्वते योगं प्रोक्तवानहमव्ययम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विवस्वान् मनवे प्राह मनुरिक्ष्वाकवेऽब्रवीत्।।4.1।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;I imparted this imperishable Yoga to Vivasvan, Vivasvan taught this to Manu, and Manu transmitted this to Iksavaku.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This sloka was the first one in the 4th Chapter.  We have study the words इमम् (this) and योगम् (Yoga) carefully.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Sri Krishna was saying that &quot;He imparted this Yoga to ...&quot;.  Now, the question arises, which Yoga? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna was not referring to the entire Bhagawad Gita, because he had just completed a discourse on Sankhya Yoga (2nd Chapter), and Karma Yoga (3rd Chapter) and about to start a discourse on &quot;Gnana, Karma, Sanyasa Yogas&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Sri Krishna was referring to the already completed subject matter only, but not the entire Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let us quickly go through important Slokas in 2nd and 3rd Chapters, which Sri Krishna was referring to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)   वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही।।2.22।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As after rejecting wornout clothes a man takes up other new ones, likewise after rejecting wornout bodies the embodied one unites with other new ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)     जातस्य हि ध्रुवो मृत्युर्ध्रुवं जन्म मृतस्य च।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्मादपरिहार्येऽर्थे न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि।।2.27।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For death of anyone born is certain, and of the dead (re-) birth is a certainly. Therefore you ought not to grieve over an inevitable fact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)   कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि।।2.47।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your right is for action alone, never for the results. Do not become the agent of the results of action. May you not have any inclination for inaction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4)   दुःखेष्वनुद्विग्नमनाः सुखेषु विगतस्पृहः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वीतरागभयक्रोधः स्थितधीर्मुनिरुच्यते।।2.56।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That person is called a man of steady wisdom when his mind is unperturbed in sorrow, he is free from longing for delights, and has gone beyond attachment, fear and anger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5)    सहयज्ञाः प्रजाः सृष्ट्वा पुरोवाच प्रजापतिः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अनेन प्रसविष्यध्वमेष वोऽस्त्विष्टकामधुक्।।3.10।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the days of yore, having created the beings together with the sacrifices, Prajapati said: 'By this you multiply. Let this be your yielder of coveted objects of desire.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6)    देवान्भावयतानेन ते देवा भावयन्तु वः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;परस्परं भावयन्तः श्रेयः परमवाप्स्यथ।।3.11।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'You nourish the gods with this. Let those gods nourish you. Nourishing one another, you shall attain the supreme Good.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7)   तस्मादसक्तः सततं कार्यं कर्म समाचर।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;असक्तो ह्याचरन्कर्म परमाप्नोति पूरुषः।।3.19।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, remaining unattached, always perform the obligatory duty, for, by performing (one's) duty without attachment, a person attains the Highest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8)  यद्यदाचरति श्रेष्ठस्तत्तदेवेतरो जनः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स यत्प्रमाणं कुरुते लोकस्तदनुवर्तते।।3.21।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever a superior person does, another person does that very thing! Whatever he upholds as authority, an ordinary person follows that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, let us examine whether these tenets were known in Srimad Ramayana era, i.e., people lived in the times of Sri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)   People of the Era knew about births and re-births.  This can be verified in the following sloka from Srimad Ramayana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कीदृशं तु महापापं मया जन्मान्तरे कृतम् |&#xA;येनेदं प्राप्यते दुःखं मया घोरं सुदारुणं || ५-२५-१८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;By what this horrible and very dreadful grief is obtained by me, what kind of great sin had been done by me in another life.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)  People knew about GNANIs, who remained unperturbed either in luxuries or in struggles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;धन्याः खलु महात्मानो मुनयस्त्यक्तकिल्बिषाः || ५-२६-४९&#xA;जितात्मनो महाभागा येषां न स्तः प्रियाप्रिये |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Great souled ones with abandoned sins, with a conquered mind, those with great fortune, sages are indeed fortunate to whom there is no pleasure and displeasure.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)  While refuting Jabali's argument on atheism, Sri Rama says as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दत्तम् इष्टम् हुतम् चैव तप्तानि च तपांसि च |&#xA;वेदाः सत्य प्रतिष्ठानाः तस्मात् सत्य परो भवेत् || २-१०९-१४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Gift sacrifice, oblation, austerities performed and the scriptural texts have the foundation in Truth. Hence, one should thoroughly surrender to truth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कर्म भूमिम् इमाम् प्राप्य कर्तव्यम् कर्म यत् शुभम् |&#xA;अग्निर् वायुः च सोमः च कर्मणाम् फल भागिनः || २-१०९-२८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Having reached this terrestrial globe (the realm of action), only a virtuous act is to be undertaken. The god of fire, the wind-god and the moon-god reap the fruits of their acts.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the knowledge that was imparted by Sri Krishna to Vivasvan transferred from generation to generation till Sri Rama.  That is sure.  It might have lost thereafter. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to point out one core issue:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna never thought while giving discourse to Arjuna that he was an ordinary mortal.  He was merged into the BRAHMAN and he never proclaimed that he was an incarnation of Vishnu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2015-10-11T15:33:22.290" LastActivityDate="2015-10-11T15:33:22.290" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8964" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-11T15:48:30.027" Score="14" ViewCount="2086" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my knowledge there are four Vedas and Upanishads are the gist of Vedas and the different Vedanta schools of thought are commentary on Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it possible to understand Vedas without the help of another person like a guru? Is there any such example in scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is learning Sanskrit necessary to understand Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any online resources, where can I get actual Vedas and learn without anyone's help? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-02-10T18:03:39.837" LastActivityDate="2020-06-28T16:15:20.040" Title="Is it possible to read and understand Vedas without guru?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="8965" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6913" CreationDate="2015-10-11T16:01:03.213" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishvamitra knew the Lord Rama was the Supreme Brahman, and He wanted the association of the supreme Brahman which is cherished by every one in this world. Playing a part in Lord Rama's Lila was His greatest privilege and honor. To understand this we can refer to Bhagavatam where it is stated that even liberated souls are attracted to the pastimes of the Supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3903" LastActivityDate="2015-10-11T16:01:03.213" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8966" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7911" CreationDate="2015-10-11T16:30:32.080" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do not know whether this reply suits to your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us consider an issue:  Which film one would find attractive - A documentary on rural development (or) a feature film with the Hero of the film dedicating himself to the rural development duly having commercial aspects of a film,i.e, some melodious songs, fights, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A common man with ordinary intelligence will get attracted to the feature film.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have gone personally gone through Guru Gita and Avadhuta Gita only.  To be frank with you - they contain the lessons for a person in spiritual line, but the language is tough.  And, persons interested in advancing themselves in spiritual line will only search for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to Bhagavad Gita, it's language is simple, but inner meaning is very difficult to grasp.  It's only advantage is - whoever reads Mahabharata, has to read it.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the popularity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2015-10-11T16:30:32.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8967" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-11T17:13:37.937" Score="13" ViewCount="1891" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What will happen if all souls inhabiting Earth attain Moksha? Would new souls be created? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They also say that only a human is capable of attaining Moksha (in extremely rare cases, animals too). In that case, assuming that everyone attains Moksha expect one person, what will happen to him/her? I mean will there be no plants, animals, insects or any living thing? Will Earth become a desert?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do the scriptures say anything about this?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: I was looking for answers on other websites. But the answers were not so convincing. I copy-pasted the question below hoping to get a satisfactory answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actual source (of the question):&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100304080617AAdB4MJ&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100304080617AAdB4MJ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3135" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-14T04:18:15.083" LastActivityDate="2015-10-14T04:18:15.083" Title="What will happen if all souls inhabiting Earth attain Moksha?" Tags="|scripture|moksha|atma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8968" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8967" CreationDate="2015-10-11T18:06:51.497" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Srimad Bhagavatham (Canto 12, chapter 4) speaks about 4 kinds of Pralaya- Nitya, Naimittika, Prakritika, and Atyantika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nitya Pralaya is one which is constant. The birth and deaths we always witness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the day of Brahmaa ends and he lays in sleep, it is called Naimittika Pralaya. Here, the manifested cosmos or Brahmanda is absorbed into Hiranyagarba and exist in potential state during night of Brahmaa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, when the 100 years of Brahmaa is over and Brahmaa dies, it is called Prakritika Pralaya. Here, Hiranyagarbha, along with all manifested universe becomes absorbed into the Unmanifested state of Prakriti (Mula Prakriti). Hence, this is called Prakritika Pralaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a person overcomes Ignorance/Avidya using Vivekam and attaines Atma-Jnanam and perceives Non-duality alone, it is Atyantika or final destruction of all duality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if the question is, what will happen if all the souls inhabiting whole manifested cosmos attains Moksham, then the answer is that, there is Atyantika Pralaya is cosmic scale and the whole duality comes to end. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, if by earth, you refer to Bhuloka-Physical realm, then there are souls in other realms as well. So, nothing will happen. In fact, it is not possible that all souls on Bhu Loka alone will attain Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If by earth, you mean planet earth, then even if all humans attain Moksha simultaneously, on a cosmic scale, the effect will be minimal. As there may be many other planets in physical universe itself with life on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Us this link to refer to Srimad Bhagavatham- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="3477" LastEditDate="2015-10-12T02:57:07.323" LastActivityDate="2015-10-12T02:57:07.323" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8969" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8962" CreationDate="2015-10-11T18:09:59.510" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The complexion of Shiva is white. He is described as Karpura Gauram- white like camphor. But, the complexion of Maha-Kala and Kala Bhairava is Black, as they represent time and annihilation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This may be of interest to you- &lt;a href=&quot;http://pratyasha.deviantart.com/journal/Shiva-is-not-Blue-but-White-371562557&quot;&gt;http://pratyasha.deviantart.com/journal/Shiva-is-not-Blue-but-White-371562557&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-10-11T18:09:59.510" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8973" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8962" CreationDate="2015-10-12T07:54:26.937" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva's Complexion was described in &lt;strong&gt;Chapter Four (Cancula's Salvation)&lt;/strong&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Purana Mahatyam&lt;/strong&gt; in &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Puranam&lt;/strong&gt;. You can see that from &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20655/3/Part1_Chapter1_1-80p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.(Page 18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;42&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;She saw the three-eyed Mahadeva, the eternal, being served devotedly by Brahma,Vishnu and other gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He had the brilliance of ten million suns and was reverently served by Ganesha, Bhrngi, Nandisa, Virabhadreshwara and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;His neck had a blue hue ; he had five faces, three eyes , the cresent moon as crest-ornament and his left hand was apportioned to Gauri , who had the brilliance of lighting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He was white in complexion like camphor and wore all ornaments. Besmeared with white ashes all over the body&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; and clad in white clothes,he shone brilliantly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The woman Cancula became highly delighted on seeing Shankara.In her flutter of delight she bowed again and again to Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-12T07:54:26.937" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8974" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8439" CreationDate="2015-10-12T09:01:17.633" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;who is supreme or manager of their soul.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God or Supreme Brahman/Soul is the only one for all entities, be it humans, animals, demigods, demons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.4 - This whole world is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest form. All beings exist in Me, but I am not contained in them! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He sees all in same view without any partiality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;But what about animal's soul, will they always take birth as animal.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Consider the birth/life among the (dumb) animals merely as a bigger suffering than humans which is achieved from one's past ignorant &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;. More the ignorance more the number of animal &lt;em&gt;Yoni&lt;/em&gt;s one has to pass through.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, according to Garuda Purana if a person destroys innocent lives for food pleasure, they will have to face &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda_Purana#List_of_Hellish_Punishments&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kumbhipakam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (Roasting in hot oil tank). Now think about those bacteria which reside on the vegetables about to be put inside a pressure cooker!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;No need to create a separate realm to punish the sinful souls. Once the soul leaves its human body, it will get born into such bacteria like insects which will be killed horribly.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14.15 When one dies while rajas predominates, he is born among people attached to activity. Similarly, when one dies while tamas predominates, he takes birth among the &lt;strong&gt;stupid species&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's likely to be animal kingdom, but not always. Depending on Karma, anyone can go to any &lt;em&gt;Yoni&lt;/em&gt;. (All animals are not always inferior to all humans!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the animals act according to their (cosmic) &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt;/duty, hence they don't get attachment with &lt;em&gt;Paap &amp;amp; Punya&lt;/em&gt;. They are less likely to get Moksha, because such births are embodiment of &quot;basic instincts&quot; rather than &quot;consciousness&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In a lighter note, when a human doesn't follow his &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, the birth among animals acts as a training center for how to follow it. :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-02-08T15:52:54.753" LastActivityDate="2018-02-08T15:52:54.753" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8975" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-12T10:46:05.183" Score="11" ViewCount="38272" Body="&lt;p&gt;In olden times it was said that Mahadev lived on Kailash mountain, which was difficult to climb thousands of years ago. But in modern times, people are able to climb mount Kailash and no traces of Mahadev is found. Also no trace of Lord Shiva is found through Satellite images.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Did the Lord vacate this place? If yes, where is He now? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does lord Mahadev really live on Mount Kailash even today?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3908" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-08-14T07:51:21.130" LastActivityDate="2022-08-10T02:09:25.533" Title="Why don't we see Lord Shiva living on Kailash if he really exists?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|kailasa|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8976" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-12T11:12:58.887" Score="2" ViewCount="13715" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu Tantric traditions, what causes someone to use a &lt;em&gt;Naga Bandham&lt;/em&gt; (snake binding spell) to protect sacred doors?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recently it was in popular culture because the final door at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazingbharat.com/2014/02/mystery-behind-seventh-door-of-shri.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Padmanabhaswamy Temple is alleged to be closed with a naga-bandham&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is this snake spell? What does it protect? How does it work?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3890" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-08-22T11:09:17.423" LastActivityDate="2022-01-18T18:58:06.773" Title="What is a Naga Bandham?" Tags="|belief|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8977" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-12T14:26:52.520" Score="6" ViewCount="8356" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scenario: A devotee prays to Tirupati Venkateswara Swamy for accomplishing some task. He takes &lt;strong&gt;a vow (&lt;em&gt;mokku&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/strong&gt; that he will visit the Temple after his task gets accomplished without any obstacles. His/her task gets accomplished without any obstacles and the devotee forgets his &lt;strong&gt;vow (&lt;em&gt;mokku&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/strong&gt;. Now something bad happens to him/her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not assuming anything here. These are the experiences shared by my family and friends. I don't know about other temples but certainly bad happens if someone forgets a vow made to Lord Venkateswara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the people pay visit to the temple immediately after planning a certain task. They generally don't defer the plan to visit temple. Also people generally don't return without darshan when they go to Tirumala (hilltop where the temple is located) even if it takes long hours. Some people literally fear while taking their vow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In most cases, the vow would be to pay a visit to the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why does something bad happen to people who don't fulfill their vow? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-12T15:41:55.117" LastActivityDate="2019-11-29T17:48:21.233" Title="Vow (Mokku) fulfillment in Tirupati" Tags="|vishnu|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8978" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-12T14:42:39.563" Score="14" ViewCount="22816" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am talking about the following shloka (posting it in Sanskrit and English):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कायेन वाचा मनसेन्द्रियैर्वा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बुद्ध्यात्मना वा प्रकृतेः स्वभावात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  करोमि यद्यद् सकलं परस्मै&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नारायणायेति समर्पयामि ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kayena Vacha Mana-Sendriyair Va&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Budhyaatmana Va Prakruteh Swabhavath&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Karoami Yadyad Sakalam Parasmai&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Narayana Yeti Samarpayami&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Whatever I do with my body, speech, mind or with other senses of my body, or with my intellect and soul or with my innate natural tendencies I offer (dedicate) everything to Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As this shloka/mantra is widely used for surrendering our (Nishkama) karma to God, I want to know, &lt;strong&gt;where does this shloka/mantra come from?&lt;/strong&gt; In Hindu scriptures, Is it Vedic? or Who has written it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-26T13:54:54.903" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T01:43:01.800" Title="What is the source of this (Kayena vacha...) text? or Where does it come from?" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|karma|mantras|shloka|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8979" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8978" CreationDate="2015-10-12T15:43:22.807" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The verse occurs in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.  Here is what the sons of Rishabha tell Nimi (the solar dynasty king whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7495/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I consider that one whose intelligence is constantly disturbed by his falsely identifying himself with the temporary material world can achieve real freedom from fear only by worshiping the lotus feet of the infallible Supreme Lord. In such devotional service, all fear ceases entirely.  Even ignorant living entities can very easily come to know the Supreme Lord if they adopt those means prescribed by the Supreme Lord Himself. The process recommended by the Lord is to be known as bhāgavata-dharma, or devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.  O King, one who accepts this process of devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead will never blunder on his path in this world. Even while running with eyes closed, he will never trip or fall. &lt;strong&gt;In accordance with the particular nature one has acquired in conditioned life, whatever one does with body, words, mind, senses, intelligence or purified consciousness one should offer to the Supreme, thinking, “This is for the pleasure of Lord Nārāyaṇa.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the verse has a slight difference from verse you gave:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kāyena vācā manasendriyair vā &lt;br&gt; buddhyātmanā vānusṛta-svabhāvāt |&#xA;&lt;br&gt; karoti yad yat sakalaṁ parasmai &lt;br&gt; nārāyaṇāyeti &lt;strong&gt;samarpayet&#xA;tat&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says samarpayet tat - &amp;quot;he should offer that&amp;quot; rather than samarpayami - &amp;quot;I offer that&amp;quot;. I'm not sure how it was changed into first-person form, or how it was incorporated into Hindu rituals like Sandhyavandanam.  Perhaps it's originally from some other scripture and is merely being quoted by the Bhagavatam.  It could be from some Pancharatra text, given that it's based on the notion of Karma Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) uses another verse called the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_yoga#Sattvika_tyaga_ritual&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sattvika Tyaga&lt;/a&gt; for much the same purpose:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhagavan eva svaniyamya sva-śeṣa-bhūtena maya &lt;br&gt; sva-ārādhana-eka-prayojanāya idam (name of the karma)&lt;br&gt; svasmai svaprītyai svayam eva karayati |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The auspicious deity, exerting control on himself, using me (his other part) as an instrument, himself effects , with his pleasure/ worship being the only purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure where this verse comes from either, but again the Pancharatra texts (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) would be a safe bet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-21T16:45:18.463" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8980" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-12T20:55:22.497" Score="11" ViewCount="1432" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have kind of a stupid question, but I believe it's valid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What exactly happens when a Yuga changes from Satya Yuga -&gt; Treta Yuga -&gt; Dwapar Yuga -&gt; Kali Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't have any reference to cite, but it says that in Kali Yuga, the average age of a person is 100 years whereas in Dwapara Yuga it's 1000 years and Treta Yuga 10000 years (I guess).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then what will happen during transition of one Yuga to another; let's take the case of Parikshit and Yudhisthir. I believe that Kali Yuga had started at the time of Parikshit. So, how exactly does the age difference happen? Behavioral changes can be applied directly but structural changes to human body is hard to go unnoticed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it immediate or slow? How do people react to the change?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know it might sound crazy, do we have any reference to that in Hindu scriptures or the history books?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3880" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T18:08:46.927" LastActivityDate="2017-11-09T07:23:33.517" Title="Yuga changes and age difference" Tags="|mahabharata|yuga|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8981" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8989" CreationDate="2015-10-12T22:04:24.243" Score="12" ViewCount="2573" Body="&lt;p&gt;How do you go about refuting a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;feminist&lt;/a&gt;'s (male or female) claim that the Vedas, epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata were authored by male persons, so no wonder some of the principles, ideologies and ways of life prescribed are pro-male/&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvinism#Male_chauvinism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;male-chauvinistic&lt;/a&gt; and are meant to suppress women?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The speaker in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/v/pOuEGSFp0Iw?start=159&amp;amp;end=278&amp;amp;autoplay=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this YouTube video&lt;/a&gt; jokingly points out that Sita could have very well asked Rama to accompany her into the fire to prove &lt;em&gt;together&lt;/em&gt; that their sanctity is intact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anushasana_Parva#Duties_and_rights_of_women&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anushasana Parva of Mahabharatha&lt;/a&gt;, Bhishma says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The goddess (Lakshmi) asserts she does not reside in a woman who is sinful, unclean, &lt;strong&gt;always disagreeing with her husband&lt;/strong&gt;, has no patience or fortitude, is lazy, quarrelsome with her neighbors and relatives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...implying the husband is usually right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In defense:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the Vedas, it can be argued that they are &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apauru%E1%B9%A3ey%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Apauruṣeyā&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (authorless or written by gods) hence were written neither by male nor female person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-03-26T00:26:19.733" LastActivityDate="2024-03-06T04:16:57.987" Title="Feminist's claim that the Vedas, Ramayana and Mahabharata were written by male writers" Tags="|vedas|mahabharata|ramayana|women|bhishma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="22" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8982" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="8988" CreationDate="2015-10-13T04:32:24.700" Score="2" ViewCount="822" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we all know about Babruvahana, the son of Arjuna from Chitrangada. I want to know why he did not took part in Mahabharata War(Kurukshetra). On researching, I just got one answer that Chitrangada did not allow him. But I want to know more about this. Does any one here have any specific good reasons?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3912" LastActivityDate="2015-11-12T12:18:45.800" Title="Babruvahana in Kurukshetra" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8983" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8981" CreationDate="2015-10-13T06:10:49.093" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, I have to say I am a feminist myself. I am also one who has great reverence for Hindu heritage and scriptures and ascended masters (rishis). Claims and opinions of any texture are a result of one's understanding of the subject matter. There was a time in India , primarily after Macaulay, when our scriptural knowledge and understanding of rishi hridayam got diluted, distorted , relegated to attics and even discarded. The feminism movement was born at a time when women across the world, including India needed a sociological , political, philosophical and economic voice. Since the movement itself did not explore the rishi hridayam of India, only superficial interpretations of the scriptures became prevalent which only led to their denouncement. Historically as well as scripturally, the Vedic period speaks of women enjoying equal if not superior rights. For e.g., history says widows remarried freely during the Vedic period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for refuting the kind of claims you mention, If one were to read the scriptures as well as dharma sastras, one would understand that both men and women, as well as all the castes have  designated dharmas which were all designed to uphold the functioning of humankind. For dharma is what shall &quot;hold up the sky&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To take the specific example you quote, it is not to be interpreted that the woman should be submissive. But rather that she should avoid certain behaviors in order to keep the family-machine well-lubricated. It is not dissimilar to advice dispensed by psychologists, management coaches or even agony aunts to those looking to cohabitate or work collaboratively for any length of time within a system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar dharmas and instructions can be found for men as well. For e.g., the man only has the right to earn but must give his earnings to the lady of the house and only she has the authority to spend it judiciously. The husband must not take decisions without consulting his wife and taking her consent. Men are forbidden from ever appropriating monies that belong to the woman. It is stree dhana and must not be touched. So on and so forth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there are numerous examples of strong women in our scriptures who not only enjoyed equal rights but asserted their authority also when the time came. Sita berated Rama for refusing to let her accompany him to the forests. Draupadi berated Yudhishtara for triggering their servitude and destitution. Tara and Mandodari strongly advised their respective husbands about the right path. It is another point that the said husbands paid no heed. It must be noted that the wives were not punished for having an opinion or having the temerity to assert those opinions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another counter-argument to the problem you pose is the Worship of Mother Goddess. It  has been popular from time immemorial and one of its basic tenets is that all women other than your wife must be revered as one's mother. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said that, feminism still has relevance in this world. However, Indian scriptures are not anti-women. We just need to read them properly and understand the dharmas and dharma sukshmas presented in them. Ultimately, each jeeva has a dharma that must be upheld in order to hold up the sky. This is the underlying principle of all Hindu scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-23T18:03:46.977" LastActivityDate="2016-10-23T18:03:46.977" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8984" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8944" CreationDate="2015-10-13T06:40:42.790" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not aware of any other references to a '5th state'. It appears to be a minor difference that is really a misinterpretation of the 4th state from the standpoint of the relative world. One might see the distinction from the relative world, but from the standpoint of Brahman there is no difference. It would appear from the scriptural reference given, that the fourth state as defined in the &lt;em&gt;Mandalabrahmana&lt;/em&gt; (from the description later in the same &lt;em&gt;Brahmana II.&lt;/em&gt; that you reference) is what is called savikalpa samadhi, where one sees Brahman, but still sees oneself different from Brahman - there still is some ego. Later towards the end of the same &lt;em&gt;Brahmana&lt;/em&gt; you mention (&lt;em&gt;Brahmana II of Mandalabrahmana U.&lt;/em&gt;) it says (translator K. Narayanasvami Aiyar):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The yogin is one that has realized Brahman that is all-full beyond &lt;em&gt;turya&lt;/em&gt;. They (the people) extol him as Brahman; and becoming the object of the praise of the whole world, he wanders, over different countries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what is called nirvikalpa samadhi, complete absorption in Brahman, no individual ego left. Brahman is described as the all-full (see opening peace chant to the &lt;em&gt;Brihadaranyaka&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Ishavasya&lt;/em&gt; U.). This is the state of a jivamukti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should also be remembered that the 4th state should not be thought of as a separate state from the other 3 states - it is a transcendental state that pervades all the other three states. It is Pure Consciousness. Swami Sarvananda says in his commentary on the &lt;em&gt;Mandukya U&lt;/em&gt;.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another common mistake also has to be avoided. The Turiya is often translated and understood as the fourth state. The Turiya, however, is not a state at all. It is identical with existence itself, and it is this that appears as having the three states.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman is Brahman is Brahman - there are no gradients of Brahman. It is only from the lens of the apparent world that these small distinctions may be apparently seen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-10-13T06:40:42.790" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8985" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-13T09:36:50.763" Score="2" ViewCount="240" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is attaining desirelessness state equivalent to Samadhi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the three common states of consciousness are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;waking consciousness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;dreaming&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;dreamless sleep&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone stay in both states of waking consciousness and Samadhi together?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3916" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-14T05:19:04.307" LastActivityDate="2015-10-14T08:06:59.860" Title="Is attaining desirelessness state equivalent to Samadhi?" Tags="|practice|moksha|vedanta|samadhi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8987" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-13T12:09:47.303" Score="2" ViewCount="163" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata, Adi Parva, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01106.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter 105&lt;/a&gt; when Satyavati coaxes her son Vyasadeva to give her grandchildren, he say this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'If the &lt;strong&gt;princess of Kosala&lt;/strong&gt; can bear my strong odour, my ugly and grim visage, my attire and body, she shall then conceive an excellent child.'&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;'Let the princess of Kosala clad in clean attire and checked with ornaments wait for me in her bed-chamber.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satyavati then went to her daughter-in-law and seeing her in private spoke to her these words of beneficial and virtuous import, '&lt;strong&gt;O princess of Kosala&lt;/strong&gt;, listen to what I say.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what do they mean by this? Weren't Ambika and Ambalika the daughters of the king of &lt;strong&gt;Kashi&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-13T08:53:36.533" LastActivityDate="2016-03-08T15:42:26.173" Title="Was Kosala under the control of Kashi in the time of Bhishma?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|india|bhishma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8988" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8982" CreationDate="2015-10-13T12:10:20.717" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Turns out to be its already answered on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitr%C4%81ngad%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Arjuna travelled the length and breadth of India during his term of exile. His wanderings took him to ancient Manipura, an almost mystic kingdom renowned for its natural beauty. There, he met Chitrāngadā, the daughter of the king of Manipura, and moved to her father Chitrabahana to seek her hand in marriage. Her father demurred on the plea that, according to the customs of his people, the children born of Chitrāngadā would be heirs to Manipura; he could not allow his heirs to be taken away from Manipura. Arjuna agreed to the stipulation that he would take away neither his wife Chitrāngadā nor any children born by her from Manipura, and wed the princess on this premise.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3912" LastActivityDate="2015-10-13T12:10:20.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8989" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8981" CreationDate="2015-10-13T13:16:48.687" Score="12" Body="&lt;h1&gt;tl;dr&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's true that the scriptures indeed prescribe principles, ideologies and ways of life which are pro-male. But it's based on physical &amp;amp; mental attributes associated with male-female body &amp;amp; mind.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In other context, during &lt;em&gt;Anushasana Parva&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b010.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhishma also described women&lt;/a&gt; in highest regard:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Respect, kind treatment, and everything else that is agreeable, should all be given unto the maiden whose hand is taken in marriage. Her sire and brothers and father-in-law and husband's brothers should show her every respect and adorn her with ornaments, if they be desirous of reaping benefits, for such conduct on their part always leads to considerable happiness and advantage. If the wife does not like her husband or fails to gladden him, from such dislike and absence of joy, the husband can never have issue for increasing his race. &lt;strong&gt;Women, O king, should always be worshipped and treated with affection. There where women are treated with respect, the very deities are said to be filled with joy.&lt;/strong&gt; There where women are not worshipped, all acts become fruitless. If the women of a family, in consequence of the treatment they receive, grieve and shed tears, that family soon becomes extinct. Those houses that are cursed by women meet with destruction and ruin as if scorched by some Atharvan rite. Such houses lose their splendour.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Vedic scriptures, it's believed by saints that Women cannot be happy on their own. This should be the reason, why Bhisma discussed certain rules, which are apparently seems little hard in today's time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;There is the well-known declaration of the scriptures that &lt;strong&gt;women are incompetent to enjoy freedom&lt;/strong&gt; at any period of their life. &lt;em&gt;If this were not the path trodden by the righteous, how could this scriptural declaration exist?&lt;/em&gt; ... In childhood, the sire protects her. The husband protects her in youth. When she becomes old, her sons, protect her. &lt;strong&gt;At no period of her life does woman deserve to be free.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since you are asking about &quot;how to defend/refute&quot;; Your answer depends on the &quot;predominant&quot; quality (&lt;em&gt;Guna&lt;/em&gt;) of the audience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Answer to &lt;em&gt;Tamasic&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Mithyachari&lt;/em&gt;, Ignorant, Argumentative)&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They might have come across male chauvinism &amp;amp; women suppression somewhere (media, magazine, TV, movies, friends) and just based on their gut feeling, be it right or wrong, they will make some non-sense arguments with you. If you too argue with patience for a while, you can see their voice raising, anger, frustration, making faces, jokes, making fun in front/behind you. Answer to such people (don't lie but just avoid them):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;hmmm .. even Krishna also says in Gita that women are of lower birth. Isn't it strange?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, if you are successful in convincing them sweetly, then those may become your followers!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Answer to &lt;em&gt;Rajasic&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Dambhi&lt;/em&gt;, Passionate, Debater)&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such people consider, &quot;winning a habit&quot; or &quot;success a journey&quot;. They are not foolish or senseless but often well versed with their convenient knowledge. They may not open their horizon if not treated in certain way and would find ways to prove their point to win over you for their pride. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though they hardly surrender, if they are helplessly proven wrong, then they might end up hurting you or even create a propaganda. Since they are intelligent (not enlightened), it's your duty not to misguide them just to serve their ego, yet be very brief. Answer to such people:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Rama, Krishna, Bhishma said such pro-male ideologies in a time when there were no female foeticides, no wife beatings, no restrictions from social interactions, no honor killings, no dowry harassments. Hence their view was neutral and eternal. If you feel that either they or their teachings were non-sense, then better to leave the discussion here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;If ideology of unequal rights to male/female is wrong according to some people's opinions, then it's a stalemate or deadlock of their trust.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Depending on their readiness, you may also disclose some of the details from below, but be careful. You may end up inviting more trouble while fixing one. First you have to explain &lt;em&gt;Varna Vyavastha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[2]&lt;/sup&gt;, but then the anti-caste people will be hurt. When you explain the real definitions of 4 &lt;em&gt;Varnas&lt;/em&gt;, then the so called higher castes (just due to surnames) would be hurt. All these troubles also don't guarantee that your male-female differentiation would be accepted. :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Answer to &lt;em&gt;Sattvik&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Sthitapragya&lt;/em&gt;, Calm, Knowledge seeker)&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Stree(woman) = Shakti(power)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Women forms are integral part of Vedic culture. They are prayed in form of &lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt;, which is evident as their association with many deities.   &lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt;/&lt;em&gt;Stree&lt;/em&gt; has right to choose their responsible &lt;em&gt;Swami&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Swayam-Vara&lt;/em&gt;). &lt;strong&gt;Swa-dharma of &lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt;/&lt;em&gt;Stree&lt;/em&gt; is to get molded &amp;amp; acts in accordance of its &lt;em&gt;Swami&lt;/em&gt;(master). That's why a wife is called &lt;em&gt;Ardhaangini&lt;/em&gt; (half body of husband).&lt;/strong&gt; She acts as of her husband commands to his own self.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to moldable nature, due importance is given of securing women. Arjuna feared that post Mahabharata, if women of all warriors get polluted (i.e. marrying to anyone due to lack of men), then the whole society will be vanished.&lt;sup&gt;[3]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wise man doesn't give controls to the &lt;em&gt;Rajo Guna&lt;/em&gt;, which usually prevails in women.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Like &quot;power&quot;, women naturally have a nature of attachment. Various attachments are associated with &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;. It supposedly increases during &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_cycle&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;MC&lt;/a&gt;, hence it's called &lt;em&gt;Rajaswala&lt;/em&gt;. Draupadi was dragged by Dushasana during her this period and she remained so attached to the destruction of the Kauravas, that before Krishna's final peace negotiation, she asked &quot;What will happen to her insult, should the Kauravas agree for peace?!&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence, among 3 &lt;em&gt;Gunas&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; is the one which must be consciously controlled&lt;sup&gt;[4]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some may ask, why women are compared with &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt;s (as of it's insulting). We should remember that a soul/&lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; holding certain body is independent of gender &amp;amp; division. According to &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;, it has acquired certain type of material nature constituting certain division and gender. Similar traits of moldable nature and surrendership are defined for &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt;s too.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt;s are not so called lower castes, but they are just &quot;trainees&quot; in any given fields&lt;sup&gt;[5]&lt;/sup&gt;. In today's hybrid time, we associate the divisions with surnames or body characteristics, i.e. &lt;em&gt;Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, Shudra&lt;/em&gt;; or even &lt;em&gt;Stree, Purusha&lt;/em&gt;. Which is not correct. It should be done with respect to &lt;em&gt;tendency/Swabhaav&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;duty/Dharma&lt;/em&gt;; i.e. &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a society, &lt;em&gt;Brahmin&lt;/em&gt;s will be least&lt;sup&gt;[6]&lt;/sup&gt; in numbers, little more will be &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt;s&lt;sup&gt;[7]&lt;/sup&gt;, many more will be &lt;em&gt;Vaisya&lt;/em&gt;s and most will be &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt;s. Especially in today's time, all those who do job and earn money for well being can be considered &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt;s (ignore their surnames). A &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt; trained under &lt;em&gt;Brahmin/Kshatriya/Vaisya&lt;/em&gt; becomes &lt;em&gt;Brahmin/Kshatriya/Vaisya&lt;/em&gt; after perseverance (call it &lt;em&gt;Yajna&lt;/em&gt;). This 4 &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt;s are eternal and are not limited to India but all human societies&lt;sup&gt;[8]&lt;/sup&gt; Similarly a woman married to the man of X division becomes X herself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After reading above, if we refer to what Bhishma says in &lt;em&gt;Anushasana Parva&lt;/em&gt;, it's easily understandable that mother goddess who is &lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt; will not reside in those women who are not acting according to Lakshmi's (&lt;em&gt;Stree&lt;/em&gt;) own Swa-Dharma which is surrendering to Swami. It's so trivial!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Answer to &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, inner self, soul)&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[9]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; &lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;  (taken from vedabase.com; need better translation)&lt;/sub&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/32&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 9.32&lt;/a&gt; — O son of Pṛthā,&#xA;  those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth – women,&#xA;  vaiśyas [merchants] and śūdras [workers] – can attain the supreme&#xA;  destination. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; [2] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 4.13&lt;/a&gt; — According to&#xA;  the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them,&#xA;  the four divisions of human society are created by Me. And although I&#xA;  am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the&#xA;  nondoer, being unchangeable.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 1.40, 1.41, 1.42&lt;/a&gt; — When&#xA;  irreligion is prominent in the family, O Kṛṣṇa, the women of the&#xA;  family become polluted, and from the degradation of womanhood, O&#xA;  descendant of Vṛṣṇi, comes unwanted progeny. — An increase of unwanted&#xA;  population certainly causes hellish life both for the family and for&#xA;  those who destroy the family tradition. The ancestors of such corrupt&#xA;  families fall down, because the performances for offering them food&#xA;  and water are entirely stopped. — By the evil deeds of those who&#xA;  destroy the family tradition and thus give rise to unwanted children,&#xA;  all kinds of community projects and family welfare activities are&#xA;  devastated. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[4] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/37&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.37&lt;/a&gt; — The Supreme&#xA;  Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of&#xA;  contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into&#xA;  wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[5] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/44&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.44&lt;/a&gt; — Farming,&#xA;  cow protection and business are the natural work for the vaiśyas, and&#xA;  for the śūdras there are labor and service to others.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[6] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/42&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.42&lt;/a&gt; —&#xA;  Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty,&#xA;  knowledge, wisdom and religiousness – these are the natural qualities&#xA;  by which the brāhmaṇas work.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[7] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/43&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.43&lt;/a&gt; — Heroism,&#xA;  power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle, generosity&#xA;  and leadership are the natural qualities of work for the&#xA;  kṣatriyas.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[8] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/431&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.41&lt;/a&gt; — Brāhmaṇas,&#xA;  kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras are distinguished by the qualities born&#xA;  of their own natures in accordance with the material modes, O&#xA;  chastiser of the enemy.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[9] &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi#Silence&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramana&#xA;  Maharshi&lt;/a&gt;:&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Silence is the true &amp;amp; perfect upadesa.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-10-21T08:53:09.513" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T08:53:09.513" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8990" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-13T14:21:04.230" Score="4" ViewCount="120" Body="&lt;p&gt;After describing Sri Rama's structure, capabilities to Sita, Sri Hanuma introduces himself as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्य अहम् हरिणः क्षेत्रे जातो वातेन मैथिलि | हनूमान् इति विख्यातो लोके&#xA;  स्वेन एव कर्मणा || ५-३५-८२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O Seetha! I am born in the womb of the wife of that Kesari the&#xA;  monkey, by the grace of the wind-god. &lt;strong&gt;By my activity alone,&lt;/strong&gt; I am&#xA;  renowned as Hanuma in this world.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have read in manybooks that Sri Hanuma got that name &quot;Hanuma&quot; because his Jaw - हनु  was badly damaged when Indra discharged his Vajra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, Sri Hanuma was saying in this sloka that he got that name based on his activity alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is that activity due to which he got the name 'HANUMA&quot;?   Can anybody explain?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-10-13T14:39:13.587" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T15:02:17.480" Title="How did Sri Hanuma get that name?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8991" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-13T14:29:08.013" Score="13" ViewCount="3936" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people are thinking and confidently stating that Ravana's Lanka is in fact present day Sri Lanka, situated south-east of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the narration given by Sage Valmiki in Sundara Kanda gives a different picture about the location of Ravana's Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After flying 100 Yojanas over the ocean and reaching Lanka,  Sri Hanuman observes the scenic beauty of flora  of the Lanka.  Sage Valmiki describes elaborately in Sundara Kanda.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;संततान् विविधैर्वऋकैः सर्वर्तुफलपुष्पितैः | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  उद्यानानि च रम्याणि ददर्श कपिकुञ्जरः ||   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Sundara Kanda 2nd Sarga 13th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuman saw various glorious pleasure-groves filled by various trees&#xA;  that give fruits and flowers in all seasons and beautiful gardens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After reaching Asoka Garden, Sri Hanuman observes the beautiful flora in that Garden.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नन्दनम् विविध उद्यानम् चित्रम् चैत्ररथम् यथा || ५-१५-११ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अतिवृत्तम् इव अचिन्त्यम् दिव्यम् रम्यम् श्रिया वृतम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  द्वितीयम् इव च आकाशम् पुष्प ज्योतिर् गण आयुतम् || ५-१५-१२ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुष्प रत्न शतैः चित्रम् पन्चमम् सागरम्य था | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्व ऋतु पुष्पैर् निचितम् पादपैर् मधु गन्धिभिः || ५-१५-१३ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नाना निनादैः उद्यानम् रम्यम् मृग गणैर् द्विजैः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अनेक गन्ध प्रवहम् पुण्य गन्धम् मनो रमम् || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Sundara Kanda 15th Sarga 11 -14th Slokas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like the garden of Nandana, a celestial garden, wonderful like&#xA;  Caitraratham, a garden of Kubera, surpassing all, unfathomable, an&#xA;  excellent one, a beautiful one consisting of glory together with&#xA;  flowers like clusters of stars, like a second sky wonderful with&#xA;  flowers, like hundreds of diamonds, like a second ocean with flowers&#xA;  of all seasons, spread with trees having the smell of honey, beautiful&#xA;  with groups of animals of various sounds, diffused with many smells&#xA;  with an auspicious soul pleasing smell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is necessary to study the following phrase used by Sage Valmiki :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वर्तुफलपुष्पितैः   -   Trees that give fruits and flowers in all&#xA;  seasons&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Modern &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/S288.htm&quot;&gt;research&lt;/a&gt; revealed that the equatorial zone on the Earth has the special climatic feature of allowing the trees to bear flowers and fruits in all seasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The various causes now enumerated are sufficient to enable us to understand how the great characteristic features of the climate of the equatorial zone are brought about; how it is that so high a temperature is maintained during the absence of the sun at night, and why so little effect is produced by the sun's varying altitude during its passage from the northern to the southern tropic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a result of this condition of the earth and atmosphere, there is no check to vegetation, and little if any demarcation of the seasons. Plants are all evergreen; flowers and fruits, although more abundant at certain seasons, are never altogether absent; while many annual food-plants as well as some fruit-trees produce two crops a year. In other cases, more than one complete year is required to mature the large and massive fruits, so that it is not uncommon for fruit to be ripe at the same time that the tree is covered with flowers, in preparation for the succeeding crop. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Hanuman flew 100 Yojanas over the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 Yojana = 13 Kms (approx.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, Sri Hanuman flew 1,300 Kms. over the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have to calculate the aerial distance from Southern tip of India to Northern tip of Lanka only, as Sri Hanuman flew 100 Yojanas over the ocean to reach Ravana's Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Latitude and Longitude of Sri Lanka at Jaffna, the Northern tip of Sri Lanka, is 09°45'N and  80°02'E.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, Sri Lanka cannot be Ravana's Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T02:22:32.257" LastActivityDate="2024-03-20T16:45:53.423" Title="Was Ravana's Lanka not the present day Sri Lanka?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8993" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8944" CreationDate="2015-10-13T15:38:18.793" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/47vxn.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/47vxn.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;which represents 5 realms/states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Waking state represented by Satyaloka and other 13 realms, realm of Lord Brahma and is the 'A' sound. This is state of Prajapati, lord of sand, the Creator.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Dreaming state represented by Vaikuntha, realm of Lord Vishnu who is sleeping on Sheshnaag and is the 'U' sound. This is state of Narayan, lord of water, the maintainer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Deep Sleep/Meditation state represented by Kailash, realm of Lord Mahesh/Shankar meditating there and is the 'M' sound. This is state of Rudra, lord of fire, the destroyer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4) Turiya State(means two) represented by the dot above, which is a star made of two triangles, which means everything is made up of Prakriti-Purush, and is the state of Adi-Shakti and Maheshwar and is actually this black brahmand/universe or Shivlingam. This is state of Tatpurush and duality associated with him like of Mother-Father, Prakriti-Purush, observer-observation, inhalation-exhalation etc., lord of air, which is base of entire universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xJFWn.gif&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xJFWn.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dot of Om when magnified, is the star or the Prakriti-Purush as cause of everything and is symbol of Adi Parashakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5) Turiyatit State(means one) represented by the realm of Brahman, the Sadashiva, is the pause that comes in between chanting of Om and represents the state of silence as experienced in Brahman, the state beyond everything. This is state of the Advaita, lord of space in which everything resides, both moving and non-moving.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vidya Geeta(Tripura Rahasya), narrated by Sage Dattatreya to Parshuram, the subtle difference is mentioned between Turiya and Turiyateet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;My concrete form is the eternal couple - the Supreme Lord and Energy&#xA;  - always in undivided union and abiding as the eternal consciousness pervading the three phenomenal states of waking, dream and sleep, and&#xA;  reclining on the cot whose four legs are Brahma - Waking(the Creator),&#xA;  Vishnu - Dreaming(the Protector), Siva - Sleeping (the Destroyer) and&#xA;  Isvara - Turiya (Disappearance) and whose surface is Sadasiva -&#xA;  Turiyateet (Grace)&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Turiya is also called bindu(as in OM) which is symbol of Adi Shakti/Mahamaya Prakriti/Ishwara who creates, maintains and destroys and whose three sons are Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh while formless Brahman of Vedas is state called Turiyateet as explained in Devi Bhagwat within conversation between Indra and Uma, little bit of which was also in Kena Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Mahesh and Sadashiva. These are of the nature&#xA;  of earth, water, fire, air, and ether, the five elements and also of&#xA;  the nature of Jâgrat (waking), Svapna (dreaming), Susupti (deep sleep&#xA;  state), Turiyâ (the fourth state) and Atîta Rûpa, the (the fifth state)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mâyâ is of the nature of Brahmâ in a state of equilibrium. But, during&#xA;  the beginning of the creation, Her form consisting of the several&#xA;  Gunas appears, when Mâyâ is Bahir Mukhî, She becomes Tâmas, in Her&#xA;  Unmanifested state. O Indra! For this reason Her state of abstraction,&#xA;  and becoming introspective, this is Her Antarmukhî state; it is known&#xA;  as Mâyâ and Her looking outward is Her Bahirmukhî state; it is&#xA;  denominated by Tâmas and the other gunas From this comes Sâttva and&#xA;  then Râjas and Brahmâ, Visnu and Mahes’a are of the nature of the&#xA;  three gunas. Brahmâ has the Râjo guna in Him preponderating; in Visnu,&#xA;  the Sâttva guna preponderates and in Mahes’a, the Cause of all Causes,&#xA;  is said to reside the Tâmo guna. Brahmâ is known as of the Gross Body;&#xA;  Visnu is known as of the Subtle Body; and Rudra is known as of the&#xA;  Causal Body and I am known as Turîya, transcending the Gunas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Turîya Form of Mine is called the state of equilibrium of the&#xA;  Gunas. It is the Inner Controller of all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Turiyateet explained) &#xA;  Beyond this there is another state of Mine&#xA;  which is called the Formless Brahmâ (Brâhman having no Forms). Know,&#xA;  verily, that my Forms are two, as they are with or without attributes&#xA;  (Saguna or Nirguna). That which is beyond Mâyâ and the Mâyic qualities&#xA;  is called Nirguna (without Prâkritic attributes) and that which is&#xA;  within Mâyâ is called Saguna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirgun Brahman - Turiyateet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gunateet Brahman/Ishwar - Turiya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Turiya/Turiyateet as explained in Nath Sampardaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the point of view of the enlightened Siddhas, this entire world&#xA;  is nothing else but the cosmic play of Shiva (God) and Shakti&#xA;  (Goddess). In all diversity chaotic realities of the material world,&#xA;  Yogi sees unity and the manifestation of the one Divine Will, and the&#xA;  one Divine Plan. At the certain stage of sadhana, yogi has to realize&#xA;  his ātmatattva (the true nature of the soul, higher self) as&#xA;  Shivatattva, when he experienced himself as Shiva being the master of&#xA;  universe and of his personal Shakti (power). However, this is not the&#xA;  ultimate end of Nathas, because Shiva and Shakti taking care of their&#xA;  creation much better then any human could ever dream to do. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yogi have to transcendent even this state and to reach the state of&#xA;  Turyātīta, which means ‘Turyā as past’. The highest ideal of Nāthas is&#xA;  to realize themselves not as the Shiva, who is consort of the Goddess,&#xA;  but rather as Goraksha Natha, who known as Parvati putra ‘the son of&#xA;  the Mother Goddess’, in reality probably one of reborning son or&#xA;  son-disciple. Goraksha Natha is also known as bāla ‘a child’, and as&#xA;  Jatī. Jatī is the state of innocent child, who is bellow 10 years age,&#xA;  who does not have any idea about sexuality. As Jatī, he harmoniously&#xA;  unites opposite principles, and being in their midst, does not become&#xA;  affected by their play. Then he is called Shree, Shambhu, Yati (Śrī&#xA;  Śambū Jatī) Guru Gorakṣa Nātha, where Shree is the name of the Goddess&#xA;  of wealth and fortune Lakshmi, Shambhu (Beneficial) is the one of&#xA;  Shiva’s names. In other words, Śrī Śambū Jatī is name for the Great&#xA;  Cosmic Trinity of Mother, Father and Son. Yati is the Holy Man,&#xA;  Godman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.himavanti.org/en/c/himavanti-1/natha-sampradaya-hatha-yoga-kundalini-and-kriya-yoga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.himavanti.org/en/c/himavanti-1/natha-sampradaya-hatha-yoga-kundalini-and-kriya-yoga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastEditorDisplayName="user3870" LastEditDate="2016-01-02T09:08:34.663" LastActivityDate="2016-01-02T09:08:34.663" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8994" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-13T15:47:53.737" Score="6" ViewCount="4207" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Rama faced the negative feedback of his citizens about Sita Devi, he exiled her to the forest. My first question is why did he do that, just for the common talk of some people? Because the logical thing would be to either call for a public audience and address their grievances, or just ignore them. Preferably the first option.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the main question. After Sitadevi spent twelve years in the forest, and Rama accepted Lava Kusha as his sons, what was the dire need for another Pariksha? I know that one can can it Their Infinite Leela, but what was the logical reason behind it?&#xA;That is, when Rama himself accepts Lava Kusha as &lt;strong&gt;his own sons&lt;/strong&gt;, where does the question of chastity arise?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(On a side note, Ashok Banker has portrayed this scene beautifully in his 'Sons of Sita'. That does not mean that I base my question on his series. That also does not mean that I am against Rama or anything.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2016-10-17T20:56:17.297" Title="Why did Lord Rama ask for the second Pariksha?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|sita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8995" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8994" CreationDate="2015-10-13T16:32:04.573" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;UTTARA KANDA is a PRAKSHIPTA - an insertion made at a later date.  As the episode of banishment of Sita finds place in this Kanda, it has to be rejected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In view of the following contradictions in the UTTARA KANDA, I think the entire Uttara Kanda is a PRAKSHIPTA,  an insertion made at a latter date.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The story of Srimad Ramayana ends with Sri Rama's coronation as the King of Kosala Kingdom.  Sage Valmiki describes in the concluding chapter of Yuddha Kanda that having enjoyed the kingship for ten thousand years, Sri Rama performed a hundred horse-sacrifices.   It was described very briefly about the happy life of the people of Kosala kingdom during the reign of Sri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वे लक्षणसम्पन्नाः सर्वे धर्मपरायणाः || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दशवर्षसहस्राणि रामो राज्यमकारयत् |   (Yuddha Kanda 128 Sarga 106 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the people were endowed with excellent characteristics. All were engaged in virtue. Rama was engaged in the kingship thus for Ten thousand years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This was followed by PHALA SRUTI.   In the fag end slokas of Yuddha Kanda  PHALA SRUTI, the result of reading Srimad Ramayana,  was described.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्मयं यशस्यमायुष्यं राज्ञां च विजाअवहम् || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आदिकाव्यमिदं चार्षं पुरा वाल्मीकिना कृतम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पठेद्यः शृणुयाल्लोके नरः पापात्प्रमुच्यते || (Yuddha Kanda 128 Sarga 107-108 Slokas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this world, whoever person reads and listens to this foremost lyric derived from the speech of a sage, which is endowed with righteousness, conferring fame and longevity, fetching victory to kings and as written at first by Valmiki, that person is delivered from all misfortune.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रुत्वा रामायणमिदं दीर्घमायिश्च विन्दति | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रामस्य विजयं चैव सर्वमक्लिष्ठकर्मणः ||    (Yuddha Kanda 128 Sarga 112 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing this epic of Ramayana and all the episode of victory of Rama, who was unweary in his actions, a person gets longevity to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विनायकाश्च शाम्यन्ति गृहे तिष्ठन्ति यस्य वै | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विजयेत महीं राजा प्रवासि स्वस्तिमान् भवेत् || (Yuddha Kanda 128 Sarga 116 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whoever carefully listens to the epic in his house, all obstacles come to an end. A king conquers the earth. A person staying away from home, fares well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In all Hindu Paraayana texts it is a tradition to incorporate the PHALA SRUTI, the result of reading a Sacred Text,  in the end of any PAARAYANA   but not in the middle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, if the PHALA SRUTI was added at the end of Yuddha Kanda of Srimad Ramayana, it indicates that Sage Valmiki in fact closed his writing on Srimad Ramayana with that  Sarga.  Consequently, UTTARA KANDA can be concluded to be a PRAKSHIPA, and insertion made at a latter date,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;While trying to stop Ravana in ordering killing of Sri Hanuma,  Vibhishana says there was no precedence,  of killing messenger (Sundara Kanda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वैरूप्याम् अन्गेषु कश अभिघातो | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मौण्ड्यम् तथा लक्ष्मण सम्निपातः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एतान् हि दूते प्रवदन्ति दण्डान् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वधः तु दूतस्य न नः श्रुतो अपि ||  (Sundara Kanda 52 Sarga 15 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some of the punishments to an envoy are-deforming the limbs, striking with a whip, shaving the head and impressing marks on the body. Indeed, we have not heard at any time of killing a messenger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vibhishana was saying just One month before Great Battle that took place in Lanka.  He was saying that till then there was no precedence of Killing a messenger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it was narrated in the 13 th Sarga of Uttara Kanda about killing of the messenger of Kubera by Ravana.   This incident stated to had been took place at the time of Ravana's commencement of wars on Devatas, Yakshas, Gandharvas, etc, at his younger age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Had Ravana really killed a messenger of Kubera, Vibhishana might not had said that there was no precedence of Killing a messenger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, the Uttara Kanda is PRAKSHIPTA&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the fag end slokas of Yuddha Kanda it was described that While Rama was ruling the kingdom, people survived for thousands of years, with thousands of their progeny, all free of illness and grief. And,  old people did not perform obsequies concerning youngsters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निर्दस्युरभवल्लोको नानर्थः कन् चिदस्पृशत् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न च स्म वृद्धा बालानां प्रेतकार्याणि कुर्वते ||   (Yuddha Kanda 128 Sarga 100 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The world was bereft of thieves and robberies. No one felt worthless nor did old people perform obsequies concerning youngsters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said by 'Valmiki' that in Sri Rama's reign there were no premature deaths in his kingdom. It would be unbearable to a father,  if his son dies before him.  Any father wishes to die in the hands of his son.  It was stated in above sloka that while Sri Rama was ruling the kingdom of Kosala, no youngster died before his father died consequently old people did not perform obsequies concerning youngsters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,  a premature death of a son of a Brahmin was described in the 73 - 76 Sargas of Uttara Kanda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It happened that a certain Brahman's son died in a premature death. The bereaved father carried his body to the gate of the king's palace, and placing it there, cried aloud and bitterly reproached Sri Rama for the death of his son, saying that it must be the consequence of some sin committed within his realm, and that the king himself was guilty if he did not punish it; and finally threatened to end his life there by sitting on a dharana (hunger-strike) against Sri Rama unless his son was restored to life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama thereupon consulted his council of eight learned Rishis, and Narada amongst them told him that some Shudra among his subjects must have been performing Tapasya (ascetic exercises), and thereby going against Dharma (sacred law), for according to it, the practice of Tapasya was proper to the twice-born alone, while the duty of the Shudras consisted only in the service of the &quot;twice-born&quot;. Sri Rama was thus convinced that it was the sin committed by a Shudra in transgressing Dharma in that manner, which was responsible for the death of the Brahmin boy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Sri Rama mounted his aerial car and searched the countryside for the culprit. At last, in a wild region far away to the south he espied a man practicing rigorous austerity of a certain kind. He approached the man, and with no more ado than to enquire of him.  That person inform himself that he was a Shudra, by name Sambuka,  who was practicing Tapasya with a view to going to heaven in his own earthly person.  Sri Rama without so much as a warning, expostulation or the like addressed to him, cut off his head. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At that very moment the dead Brahman boy in distant Ayodhya began to breathe again. Here in the wilds the Gods rained flowers on the king from their joy at his having prevented a Shudra from gaining admission to their celestial abode through the power of the Tapasya which he had no right to perform. They also appeared before Sri Rama and congratulated him on his deed. In answer to his prayer to them to revive the dead Brahman boy lying at the palace gate in Ayodhya, they informed him that he had already come to life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This episode of Sambuka described in 73 - 76 Sargas of Uttara Kanda contradicts the statement of Sage Valmiki that in Sri Rama's reign there were no premature deaths.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, UTTARA KANDA  can be concluded to be a PRAKSHIPA, and insertion made at a latter date,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Ramayana was written much earlier to Mahabharata.  In the 272-289 Sections of Vana Parva of Mahabharata, the story of Sri Rama was narrated to Yuddhistara by Sage Markandeya.   Though the story contains minor variations compared to the story told in the Srimad Ramayana, those episodes describe the story of Sri Rama in full.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the sage Markandeya ends the story of Sri Rama in 289 Section of Vana Parva of Mahabharata with the coronation of Sri Rama as the king of Kosala Kingdom.  No mention was made therein the story of UTTARA KANDA. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-14T15:24:18.927" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T15:24:18.927" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8996" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="179" CreationDate="2015-10-13T17:24:23.477" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Govindraja is the main and basic posture of lord Vishnu who sleeps on the coils of adishesha embodiment of time.Now,to answer your question first of all you try to get rid of all mythological and sentiment based confusion. Govindraja is the core form of mahavishnu and all the stories were built around the obvious vaishnavite centre Tirupati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The real thing is that lord vishnnu was worshipped in the form of Govindraja in Tirupati that's why tirupati also has an alias Govindrajpattana later on the story of lord venkatesha happened around tirupati Tirumala and shrinivasa was declared as an Incarnation of lord vishnu and Thu the priority and significance of Govindraja was shifted to lord venktesha its all a sequence based story or rather a myth.we should stop Fantasizing about the the gods timeline and should focus on the real cosmic form LORD MAHAVISHNU you wouldn't want to explore it further&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Govindraja Is my family deity kuladevta and to know him I never ever referred to any mythological conclusions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3920" LastActivityDate="2015-10-13T17:24:23.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8997" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13621" CreationDate="2015-10-13T19:57:48.590" Score="11" ViewCount="51893" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the Pashupatastra?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why did Lord Shiva get it in first place?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Did Arjuna really use it in the Kurukshetra war? If he didn't, why did he get it from Lord Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Was it the all-knowing Krishna who urged Arjuna to acquire this &lt;em&gt;astra&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;With regard to today's nuclear weapons, it is often said that they would result in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction&quot;&gt;MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction)&lt;/a&gt; meaning both the assailant and the target would be destroyed. However, owning one supposedly has the advantage of being used as a deterrent, so in hindsight, was that Pashupatastra's real purpose in the Mahabharatha war?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-15T17:31:44.583" LastActivityDate="2020-05-17T07:51:25.993" Title="What is the Pashupatastra? Did Arjuna use it in the Kurukshetra war?" Tags="|mahabharata|shiva|krishna|arjuna|pashupatastra|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8998" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8985" CreationDate="2015-10-14T05:14:00.430" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;perfect desirelessness is only attained when one realizes Brahman. However, by restraining the senses and desires, one becomes pure and then one may attain Brahman. Krishna says (Gita VI. 24-25):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By totally eschewing all desires which arise from thoughts, and restraining with the mind itself all the organs from every side;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should gradually withdraw with the intellect endowed with steadiness. Making the mind fixed in the Self, one should not think of anything whatsoever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of his commentary on these two verses, Sankara says that this is the highest instruction on Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in II.29 the Lord says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The objects of the senses fall away from a man practicing abstinence, but not the taste [hankering] for them. But even the taste falls away when the Supreme is seen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So perfect desirelessness cannot be attained until the Lord is seen, but by practicing desirelessness the objects of desire will fall away. 'Falling away' means being able to control the senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says (Complete Works, V5 p 147, and here under Epistles, letter LXXXIX, &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_5/vol_5_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_5/vol_5_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Desirelessness means the disappearance of the inferior modification in the form of will and the appearance of that superior state. That state is beyond the range of mind and intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That state that is beyond the range of mind and intellect is nirvikalpa samadhi, complete absorption in Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can stay in a lower level of samadhi and still be awake or conscious of the world. One cannot do so in nirvikalpa samadhi. When Swami Vivekananda first met Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swamiji asked him if he had seen God. Ramakrishna replied 'Yes I have, and I see Him now, only more intensely than I see you.'    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-10-14T08:06:59.860" LastActivityDate="2015-10-14T08:06:59.860" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="8999" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="343" CreationDate="2015-10-14T07:57:26.667" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;UTTARA KANDA is a PRAKSHIPTA - an insertion made at a later date. As the episode of banishment of Sita finds place in this Kanda, it has to be rejected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In view of the following contradictions in the UTTARA KANDA, I think the entire Uttara Kanda is a PRAKSHIPTA, an insertion made at a latter date.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The story of Srimad Ramayana ends with Sri Rama's coronation as the King of Kosala Kingdom. Sage Valmiki describes in the concluding chapter of Yuddha Kanda that having enjoyed the kingship for ten thousand years, Sri Rama performed a hundred horse-sacrifices. It was described very briefly about the happy life of the people of Kosala kingdom during the reign of Sri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वे लक्षणसम्पन्नाः सर्वे धर्मपरायणाः || दशवर्षसहस्राणि रामो राज्यमकारयत् | (Yuddha Kanda 128 Sarga 106 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the people were endowed with excellent characteristics. All were engaged in virtue. Rama was engaged in the kingship thus for Ten thousand years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This was followed by PHALA SRUTI. In the fag end slokas of Yuddha Kanda PHALA SRUTI, the result of reading Srimad Ramayana, was described.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्मयं यशस्यमायुष्यं राज्ञां च विजाअवहम् || आदिकाव्यमिदं चार्षं पुरा वाल्मीकिना कृतम् | पठेद्यः शृणुयाल्लोके नरः पापात्प्रमुच्यते || (Yuddha Kanda 128 Sarga 107-108 Slokas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this world, whoever person reads and listens to this foremost lyric derived from the speech of a sage, which is endowed with righteousness, conferring fame and longevity, fetching victory to kings and as written at first by Valmiki, that person is delivered from all misfortune.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रुत्वा रामायणमिदं दीर्घमायिश्च विन्दति | रामस्य विजयं चैव सर्वमक्लिष्ठकर्मणः || (Yuddha Kanda 128 Sarga 112 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing this epic of Ramayana and all the episode of victory of Rama, who was unweary in his actions, a person gets longevity to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विनायकाश्च शाम्यन्ति गृहे तिष्ठन्ति यस्य वै | विजयेत महीं राजा प्रवासि स्वस्तिमान् भवेत् || (Yuddha Kanda 128 Sarga 116 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whoever carefully listens to the epic in his house, all obstacles come to an end. A king conquers the earth. A person staying away from home, fares well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In all Hindu Paraayana texts it is a tradition to incorporate the PHALA SRUTI, the result of reading a Sacred Text, in the end of any PAARAYANA but not in the middle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, if the PHALA SRUTI was added at the end of Yuddha Kanda of Srimad Ramayana, it indicates that Sage Valmiki in fact closed his writing on Srimad Ramayana with that Sarga. Consequently, UTTARA KANDA can be concluded to be a PRAKSHIPA, and insertion made at a latter date,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;While trying to stop Ravana in ordering killing of Sri Hanuma, Vibhishana says there was no precedence, of killing messenger (Sundara Kanda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वैरूप्याम् अन्गेषु कश अभिघातो | मौण्ड्यम् तथा लक्ष्मण सम्निपातः | एतान् हि दूते प्रवदन्ति दण्डान् | वधः तु दूतस्य न नः श्रुतो अपि || (Sundara Kanda 52 Sarga 15 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some of the punishments to an envoy are-deforming the limbs, striking with a whip, shaving the head and impressing marks on the body. Indeed, we have not heard at any time of killing a messenger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vibhishana was saying just One month before Great Battle that took place in Lanka. He was saying that till then there was no precedence of Killing a messenger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it was narrated in the 13 th Sarga of Uttara Kanda about killing of the messenger of Kubera by Ravana. This incident stated to had been took place at the time of Ravana's commencement of wars on Devatas, Yakshas, Gandharvas, etc, at his younger age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Had Ravana really killed a messenger of Kubera, Vibhishana might not had said that there was no precedence of Killing a messenger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, the Uttara Kanda is PRAKSHIPTA&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the fag end slokas of Yuddha Kanda it was described that While Rama was ruling the kingdom, people survived for thousands of years, with thousands of their progeny, all free of illness and grief. And, old people did not perform obsequies concerning youngsters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निर्दस्युरभवल्लोको नानर्थः कन् चिदस्पृशत् | न च स्म वृद्धा बालानां प्रेतकार्याणि कुर्वते || (Yuddha Kanda 128 Sarga 100 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The world was bereft of thieves and robberies. No one felt worthless nor did old people perform obsequies concerning youngsters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said by 'Valmiki' that in Sri Rama's reign there were no premature deaths in his kingdom. It would be unbearable to a father, if his son dies before him. Any father wishes to die in the hands of his son. It was stated in above sloka that while Sri Rama was ruling the kingdom of Kosala, no youngster died before his father died consequently old people did not perform obsequies concerning youngsters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, a premature death of a son of a Brahmin was described in the 73 - 76 Sargas of Uttara Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It happened that a certain Brahman's son died in a premature death. The bereaved father carried his body to the gate of the king's palace, and placing it there, cried aloud and bitterly reproached Sri Rama for the death of his son, saying that it must be the consequence of some sin committed within his realm, and that the king himself was guilty if he did not punish it; and finally threatened to end his life there by sitting on a dharana (hunger-strike) against Sri Rama unless his son was restored to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama thereupon consulted his council of eight learned Rishis, and Narada amongst them told him that some Shudra among his subjects must have been performing Tapasya (ascetic exercises), and thereby going against Dharma (sacred law), for according to it, the practice of Tapasya was proper to the twice-born alone, while the duty of the Shudras consisted only in the service of the &quot;twice-born&quot;. Sri Rama was thus convinced that it was the sin committed by a Shudra in transgressing Dharma in that manner, which was responsible for the death of the Brahmin boy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Sri Rama mounted his aerial car and searched the countryside for the culprit. At last, in a wild region far away to the south he espied a man practicing rigorous austerity of a certain kind. He approached the man, and with no more ado than to enquire of him. That person inform himself that he was a Shudra, by name Sambuka, who was practicing Tapasya with a view to going to heaven in his own earthly person. Sri Rama without so much as a warning, expostulation or the like addressed to him, cut off his head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At that very moment the dead Brahman boy in distant Ayodhya began to breathe again. Here in the wilds the Gods rained flowers on the king from their joy at his having prevented a Shudra from gaining admission to their celestial abode through the power of the Tapasya which he had no right to perform. They also appeared before Sri Rama and congratulated him on his deed. In answer to his prayer to them to revive the dead Brahman boy lying at the palace gate in Ayodhya, they informed him that he had already come to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This episode of Sambuka described in 73 - 76 Sargas of Uttara Kanda contradicts the statement of Sage Valmiki that in Sri Rama's reign there were no premature deaths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, UTTARA KANDA can be concluded to be a PRAKSHIPA, and insertion made at a latter date,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Ramayana was written much earlier to Mahabharata. In the 272-289 Sections of Vana Parva of Mahabharata, the story of Sri Rama was narrated to Yuddhistara by Sage Markandeya. Though the story contains minor variations compared to the story told in the Srimad Ramayana, those episodes describe the story of Sri Rama in full.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the sage Markandeya ends the story of Sri Rama in 289 Section of Vana Parva of Mahabharata with the coronation of Sri Rama as the king of Kosala Kingdom. No mention was made therein the story of UTTARA KANDA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-17T17:25:29.390" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T17:25:29.390" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9000" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8959" CreationDate="2015-10-14T09:49:17.997" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita should be considered as &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Śruti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Even though Gita is part of Mahabharata (a &lt;em&gt;Smriti&lt;/em&gt;), as you already mentioned it was recited by God himself in form of interactive classified Q&amp;amp;A.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A &lt;em&gt;Shruti&lt;/em&gt; is available to the non-audience only when someone remembers it; i.e. converted into &lt;em&gt;Smriti&lt;/em&gt;. Hence, if something is eligible for &lt;em&gt;Shruti&lt;/em&gt;, then it should be. Otherwise everything will become &lt;em&gt;Smriti&lt;/em&gt;! Refer to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Aruti#Distinction_between_Shruti_and_Smriti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Distinction between Shruti &amp;amp; Smriti&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Smritis are considered to be human thoughts in response to the&#xA;shrutis. Traditionally, all smṛtis are regarded to ultimately be&#xA;rooted in or inspired by shrutis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Sanskrit dictionary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sanskritdictionary.com/sm%E1%B9%9Bti/276092/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;smṛti स्मृति&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Definition: f. the whole body of sacred tradition or &lt;strong&gt;what is remembered by human teachers (in contradistinction to śruti-or what is directly heard or revealed&lt;/strong&gt; to the ṛṣi-s;in its widest acceptation this use of the term smṛti- includes the 6 vedāṅga-s, the sūtra-s both śrauta-and gṛhya-,the law-books of manu- etc. [see next];the itihāsa-s[ exempli gratia, 'for example' the mahābhārata- and rāmāyaṇa-] , the purāṇa-s and the nītiśāstra-s; iti smṛteḥ-,&amp;quot;accord. to such and such a traditional precept or legal text&amp;quot;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita was supposedly retain as it is without any personal opinion from Vyasa. For Arjuna and Sanjaya, it's still categorized as &lt;em&gt;Shruti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-05-08T02:20:21.330" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9001" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-14T11:29:54.200" Score="3" ViewCount="1140" Body="&lt;p&gt;Reading more and more mythological stories, I realize that the first religion on earth is &lt;strong&gt;Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt;.(&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-oldest-surviving-religion-in-the-world-What-was-the-reason-it-has-survived-so-long&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source1&lt;/a&gt;)(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisegeek.org/which-are-the-oldest-religions-in-the-world.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source2&lt;/a&gt;) List of top religions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Oldest of all (Also known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San%C4%81tan%C4%AB&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanatana Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Buddhism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; also derived from ancient Sanskrit follower Buddha which sanskrit is the primary sacred language of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Judaism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; came before Christianity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Jainism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; also before Christianity (6th century B.C.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Christianity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; came in to existence in Kaliyuga according to Hinduism which explains about Yugas and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BCE&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Islam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; came after Christianity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer to the question in title will be helpful to all those who have doubt about oldest religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1188" LastEditorUserId="1188" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T06:20:19.583" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T06:32:25.440" Title="Is Hinduism the oldest among currently existent religions?" Tags="|history|other-religions|christianity|islam|buddhism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ClosedDate="2016-04-13T10:16:38.190" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9002" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3713" CreationDate="2015-10-14T12:22:38.933" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sita was abducted probably in the Visakha month (or) Grishma Ritu, but not in Hemanth Ritu. The following paras explain that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;By the time Vanaras reached the ocean, they found that already Vasanta Ritu had entered.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ते वसंतम् अनुप्राप्तम् प्रतिवेद्य परस्परम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नष्ट संदेश काल अर्था निपेतुर् धरणी तले || ४-५३-५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On discussing among themselves they found that spring season has arrived, and they also found the purpose of timely messaging about Seetha to Sugreeva is lost, thus they plumped down onto the surface of earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Hanuma reaches within a few days the Lanka and finds Sita.  While talking with him Sita says as follows:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वर्तते दशमो मासो द्वौ तु शेषौ प्लवम्गम |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रावणेन नृशंसेन समयो यः कृतो मम || ५-३७-८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Hanuma! Out of the time-limit given to me by the cruel Ravana for my survival, the tenth month is now running. Only two months are left out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we can infer that Sita spent &lt;strong&gt;10 months&lt;/strong&gt; before Sri Hanuma arrived there &lt;strong&gt;and probably another month&lt;/strong&gt; before Ravana was eliminated, but not complete 12 months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-20T18:41:08.390" LastActivityDate="2015-11-20T18:41:08.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9003" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-14T14:39:09.680" Score="4" ViewCount="372" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Kings, who are the rulers of their kingdoms, need funds to administer his kingdom.  In Vedic era the kings used to collect cess at the rate of 1/6 of the earnings of the people in their countries, and used to protect the people like their children.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Valmiki in his Srimad Ramayana, which contains information about the way life in that era, describes this issue:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अधार्मः सुमहान् नाथ भवेत् तस्य तु भूपतेः |&#xA;यो हरेत् बलि षड् भागम् न च रक्षति पुत्रवत् ||   (Aranya Kanda 6th Sarga 11th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Oh! , very great a-dharma, wrongness, will occur to that king who takes the sixth part of the country's produce as cess, but does not safeguard his subjects like his own sons. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then what about the Sages, who reside in the Forest, practising ascesis,  will not pay any tax to the King, as their earnings are practically Zero, except providing occasionally any advice to the king.  However, the king used to protect those ascetics also.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it mean that they did not pay any tax to the kings?    The answer to this question lies hidden in Srimad Ramayana itself.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1/4 of ascetic power of the ascetics will accrue automatically to the Kings,  who righteously protects his subjects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यत् करोति परम् धर्मम् मुनिः मूल फल अशनः |&#xA;तत्र राज्ञः चतुर् भागः प्रजा धर्मेण रक्षतः ||  (Aranya Kanda 6th Sarga 14th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;He,who righteously protects his subjects, will get one fourth of the merit of great duty-bound deeds performed by each individual sage, say yajna-s, ascesis, meditation etc. performances. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is the tax the Sages used to pay to the King.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2015-10-14T14:39:09.680" Title="Did the Sages in Ramayana era , residing in Forests, pay any tax?" Tags="|ramayana|rishi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9004" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-14T14:47:59.163" Score="2" ViewCount="110" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to some puranas, Nandi was born to sage Shilada, who got him by the grace of Lord Shiva.   Lord Shiva blessed the child and declared that he would be worshiped along with Him and become his vaahana (vehicle).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;It is to be remembered that in Srimad Ramayana  no mention was made about Lord Shiva as God, except the Prakshipta parts here and there, but mention about &quot;Nandiswara&quot;  was made in Srimad Ramayana.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Ravana saw Sri Hanuma and taken aback by his radiance, thought Sri Hanuma as either Nandiswara or Baanasura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;किमेष भगवान्नन्दी भवेत्साक्षादिहागतः || &#xA;येन शप्तोऽस्मि कैलासे मया संचालिते पुरा |&#xA;सोऽयम् वानरमूर्तिः स्यात्किंस्विद्बाणो महासुरः ||   (Sundara Kanda Sarga 50 Sloka 2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;When Mount Kailasa was moved by me, is it the same revered Nandi , who cursed me long ago and came here now in this form or whether he is Bana the great demon  came here in the form of a monkey.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Ravana was referring  &quot;Nandi&quot; as &quot;Bhagvan (भगवन्)&quot;.  Did he say so, because he was one among many Devatas?   I think, it was not the case, because even  Indra or Vayu was not referred to as भगवन् in Srimad Ramayana.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Srimad Ramayana Lord Brahma was referred to as &quot;Pitamaha&quot;, &quot;Swayambhu&quot;, &quot;Brahma&quot; and occasionally as &quot;Bhagwan Brahma&quot;.  Lord Indra was referred to as &quot;Sakraha&quot;, &quot;Sahasraaksha&quot;, &quot;Vaasavaha&quot;, &quot;Indra&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the question arises as to why Sage Valmiki referred &quot;Nandi&quot; as Bhagavan (भगवन्)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer lies in Srimad Ramayana itself in other place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After his first encounter with Sri Rama in the war, Ravana gets defeated, humiliated and spared of his life by Sri Rama.  He comes back to Lanka and thinks as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उमा नन्दीश्वरश्चापि रम्भा वरुणकन्यका || &#xA;यथोक्तास्तन्मया प्राप्तम् न मिध्या ऋषिभाषितम् |  (Yuddha Kanda Sarga 60 Sloka 11)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;What was predicted by Uma, Nandishvara, Rambha the wife of Nalakubara and Punjikasthala the daughter of Varuna has come to pass! The words of the sages never prove false.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above situation, Ravana was saying, while referring to Uma, Nandiswara that words of the sages never prove false!    So Nandiswara was a Great Rishi, but not a bull, doing austerities in Mount Kailash area, when Ravana tried to move it and invited a curse from Nandiswara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we browse through Srimad Ramayana, we will come across the word &quot;Bhagvan ( भगवन्)&quot; in some episodes describing Great Rishis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)      Dasaratha requests Vasishta and Vamadeva to start arrangements for the anointing ceremony of Sri Rama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अभिषेकाय रामस्य यत्कर्म सपरिच्छदम् || &#xA;तदद्य भगवन् सर्वमाज्ञापयितु मर्हसि |    (Ayodhya Kanda Sarga 3 Sloka 6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Oh Divine Vasishta! Be pleased to order now for the traditional ceremonial that is to be done and various accessories needed for the anointing ceremony of Rama.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)     Sri Rama, Seetha and Lakshmana reach the hermitage of Bharadwaja, situated at the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna rivers.  After entering his hermitage Sri Rama addresses Sage Bharadwaja as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न्यवेदयत च आत्मानम् तस्मै लक्ष्मण पूर्वजः |&#xA;पुत्रौ दशरथस्य आवाम् भगवन् राम लक्ष्मणौ ||  (Ayodhya Kanda Sarga 54 Sloka 13)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama (the elder brother of Lakshmana) introduced himself to the sage as follows: &quot;Oh!  venerable sage! We both are Rama and Lakshmana the sons of Dasaratha.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)    While roaming in the Dandaka Forest,  Sri Rama, Lakshmana, and Seetha enter the hermitage of Sage Agastya. Sri Rama informs the greatness of Sage Agastya to Lakshmana and  falls on the feet of sun-like radiant sage Agastya, touching them reverentially.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अब्रवीत् वचनम् वीरो लक्ष्मणम् लक्ष्मिवर्धनम् || &#xA;बहिर् लक्ष्मण निष्क्रामति अगस्त्यो भगवान् ऋषिः |&#xA;औदार्येण अवगच्छ्हामि निधानम् तपसाम् इमम् ||   (Aranya Kanda Sarga 12 Sloka 22)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On seeing the brilliantly glowing sage among those sages, Sri Rama told Lakshmana,  &quot;Here comes the godly sage, Lakshmana, by his eminence I comprehend him as a depository of all ascesis.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Nandiiswara was a great Rishi, residing in Mount Kailasa area, but not the divine vehicle of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2015-10-14T14:47:59.163" Title="Who was Nandiiswara?" Tags="|shiva|ramayana|ravana|nandi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2015-10-14T14:53:04.143" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9006" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-14T17:56:22.233" Score="13" ViewCount="648" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &amp;quot;Shaivite&amp;quot; is often overused nowadays. For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyer&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyer Brahmins&lt;/a&gt; are often called Shaivites, but they are actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to Vaishnavism which is pretty common). This article lists various genuine sects of Shaivism:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The schools of Saivism can be broadly classified as the Raudra and Saumya schools.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Raudra schools of Saivism are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhairava - They believe in the supremacy of Bhairava and their sacred text is Svacchanda Bhairava Tantra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaalaamukha - They believe in the supremacy of Rudra. Inorder to cut the pasabandha, Shiva is worshipped on various holy days. By&#xA;shaktinipaata the soul becomes free. The soul shines like a star while&#xA;Shiva shines like the sun. The union of the Shiva and the soul is&#xA;called paramoksha. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaapaalika - They accept some of the doctrines of the Kaalaamukha sect. According to them the dancing Shiva is the supreme SadaaShiva.&#xA;Souls which are but pure consciousness are many. They become&#xA;initiates, take severe vows, beg and rise equal to Shiva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paashupata - These have two subdivisions - vaidika and avaidika. The avaidika Paashupatas had a number of Agamas like prajapatya padma&#xA;samhita etc. The vaidika school is said to have been taught be&#xA;Shrikantha. Four disciples are Ruru, Dhadhici, Agastya and Upamanya.&#xA;Three principles accepted in this school are Kshara, akshara and&#xA;ksharakshara. Kshara is praakriti, akshara is purusha and ksharakshara&#xA;is Ishwara. Maya is considered as praakriti.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Saumya schools of shuddha shaivas include those who believe in&#xA;various doctrines like the Aikyavada, pashana, bheda, sama,&#xA;sankraanti, avikara, parinaama and siddhaanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The major schools are the&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Saiva Siddhaanta of the Tamil region,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the Pratibhijnaa system which is popularly known as Kashmir Saivism and&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Veerashaivism or Lingaayata&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the difference between the Raudra sects of Shaivism and the Saumya sects?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only context I know the terms Raudra and Saumya in is the names of Shiva's forms.  Shiva is said to have two aspects - his Raudra or angry aspect, which he assumes when he's engaged in destruction, and his Saumya or serene aspect, which he assumes when he engages in Tapasya on Mount Kailash.  So are sects of Shaivism classified according to what aspect of Shiva they worship?  Or are there are other differences?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I look the sects in each category, the obvious thing that stands out is that the sects in the first category are all names of ancient Shaiva Agamas, whereas the ones in the second category are sects that have substantial numbers of adherents in the present day.  (Not as many as the Vaishnava sects, but still a sizable population.) So is the Raudra/Saumya distinction about the relative age of the sects?  That would make sense, because Shiva's Raudra aspect is highlighted in the Vedas, whereas his Saumya is emphasized more in the Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any Shaivites who can tell me the difference between the Raudra and Saumya sects of Shaivism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-07-16T05:42:26.753" Title="What is the difference between Raudra and Saumya sects of Shaivism?" Tags="|shiva|philosophy|shaivism|sects|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9007" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-14T22:23:58.837" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-10-14T22:23:58.837" LastActivityDate="2015-10-14T22:23:58.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9008" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-14T22:23:58.837" Score="0" Body="Sita is the central female character of the Hindu epic Ramayana and a daughter of King Janak of Janakpur.She is the consort of the Hindu god Rama (avatar of Vishnu) and is an avatar of Lakshmi (Aadi Shakti of Lord Vishnu)," OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T21:16:59.223" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T21:16:59.223" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9009" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-15T04:17:25.077" Score="43" ViewCount="48114" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many Western scholars and Indian scholars with Western mindset tried to fix the age of Srimad Ramayana, to approximately the 5th to 4th century BC.   And, they succeeded to some extent in making people believe in the above fictitious theory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we study Srimad Ramayana in depth, we will get a clue to this riddle.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After conquering Lankhini, the Godess of Lanka, Sri Hanuma enters Lanka and searches for Seeta. Sage Valmiki describes what Sri Hanuma saw, as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रिविष्टप निभम् दिव्यम् दिव्य नाद विनादितम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वाजि हेषित सम्घुष्टम् नादितम् भूषणैः तथा || &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रथैः यानैः विमानैः च तथा गज हयैः शुभैः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वारणैः च चतुः दन्तैः श्वेत अभ्र निचय उपमैः ||&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भूषितम् रुचिर द्वारम् मत्तैः च मृग पक्षिभिः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  राक्षस अधिपतेः गुप्तम् आविवेश गृहम् कपिः ||  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great Hanuma entered secretly Ravana's inner city which was equal to paradise, rendered noisy by neighing of horses and tinkling of ornaments, by chariots, vehicles and aerial-cars and decorated by auspicious elephants and horses and great elephants with four tusks and by birds and animals in heat. It had beautiful entrances and was protected by thousands of rakshasas with great strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Sundara Kanda 4th Sarga 26 - 28 Slokas) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उत्तमम् राक्षसावासम् हनुमानवलोकयन् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आससादाथ लक्ष्मीवान् राक्षसेन्द्रनिवेशनम् || &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चतुर् विषाणैर् द्विरदैः त्रिविषाणैः तथैव च |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परिक्षिप्तम् असम्बाधम् रक्ष्यमाणम् उदायुधैः ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter, Hanuma the glorious one neared and observed the best residence of Rakshasas and the house of Ravana, containing elephants with four tusks and also those with three tusks, those with two tusks and still not crowded. It was protected by soldiers bearing raised weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Sundara Kanda 9th Sarga 4 - 5 Slokas) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Sage Valmiki describes &lt;strong&gt;elephants with four tusks&lt;/strong&gt; and also those with three tusks and those with two tusks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Modern  anthropologists say that elephants with four tusks existed 12-1.6 million years ago.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gomphotheriidae were a diverse taxonomic family of extinct elephant-like animals (proboscideans). Referred to as gomphotheres, they were widespread in North America during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, 12-1.6 million years ago. Some lived in parts of Eurasia, Beringia and, following the Great American Interchange, South America. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gomphotheres differed from elephants in their tooth structure, particularly the chewing surfaces on the molar teeth. Most had four tusks, and their retracted facial and nasal bones prompt palaeontologists to believe that gomphotheres had elephant-like trunks. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, can we infer that Srimad Ramayana occurred  16 lakh or 1.6 million years ago and not 5th to 4th century BC, as the scholars made us believe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2020-03-13T17:10:46.943" LastActivityDate="2020-03-24T02:34:53.773" Title="Did Ramayana occur 1.6 million years ago?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2020-03-13T23:01:10.533" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9010" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9013" CreationDate="2015-10-15T04:23:55.943" Score="9" ViewCount="9007" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we used to say &lt;code&gt;Ram Ram&lt;/code&gt; or &lt;code&gt;Jay Shree Krishna&lt;/code&gt; to greet when we meet someone, what is the proper &lt;strong&gt;good bye&lt;/strong&gt; greeting in Hinduism? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I used to say 'bye, take care', but I want to change this to a proper way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any resource which mentions how to say &lt;strong&gt;hello&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;bye&lt;/strong&gt; religiously?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I'm a Hindu who lives in a Muslim country where they say '&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khuda_Hafiz&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Allah Hafiz&lt;/a&gt;', I want to know something for Hindus as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3453" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-05-23T05:37:07.673" LastActivityDate="2021-04-23T14:59:35.660" Title="What is the proper way to say 'good bye' in Hinduism?" Tags="|culture|tradition|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9012" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9009" CreationDate="2015-10-15T05:07:31.073" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes Ramayana was written approx 1.6 million years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I have another proof from Ramayana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earth is believed to have land as Pangaea (pan-jee-ə), which was a supercontinent  that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras, forming approximately 300 million years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The oldest epic sanskrit poem, Ramayana, composed by sage Valmiki,&#xA;gives clues about this single large continent that existed approximately 200,100,000 years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The single global ocean which surrounded Pangaea is accordingly named Panthalassa.&#xA;Pangea must have been drowned into Panthalassa by Hiranyaksha and was later restored by Varaha – third incarnation of Vishnu as a wild boar&#xA;and that is when present aeon/creation of Sveta Varaha Kalpa started. (according to Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The legend of King Sagara provides many vital clues that signify an intimate knowledge of the ancient world’s&#xA;geography including Pangea Supercontinet Map.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The episode detailing the story of King Sagara represents a time going back approximately 200,100,000 years ago.&#xA;As the Ramayana records at that time there was only One Landmass Surrounded by One Ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Sagara said to his sons :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tat gacchata vicinvadhvam putrakaa bhadram astu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vah samudra maaliniim&#xA;sarvaam prithiviim anugacchata  [Ramayana : 1-39-13]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Oh, sons, you may therefore proceed to search for the horse and its thief on this Entire Earth which is Garlanded by the Ocean.&#xA;Safety upon you all. [Ramayana : 1-39-13]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can get more description from &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduismdecoded.blogspot.in/2015/03/pangea-supercontinet-od-ancient-earth.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-15T11:14:27.333" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9013" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9010" CreationDate="2015-10-15T05:12:24.347" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;In our culture we never say Good bye , we say come back again , I am Gujarati we used to say come back again, In Gujarati we says &amp;quot;chaalo aavjo(ચલો અવોજો)&amp;quot; means come back again. And &amp;quot;Tack care is there every time&amp;quot;. but we never say Good Bye &amp;amp; we also says Pranam &amp;amp; take Permission for go outside, from  our elders and they give us blesses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुनदर्शनाय     punadarzanAya  - phrase    - good bye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यानं आगतं, &lt;strong&gt;आगच्छामि&lt;/strong&gt;   yAnaM AgataM, AgacchAmi - sent. - The bus has come, good bye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुनः मिलामः   punaH milAmaH   - phrase    - bye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In sanskrit  we says &lt;strong&gt;पुनदर्शनाय&lt;/strong&gt;   means come back again or see you next time for Good Bye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;or also we can say&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आगच्छामि&lt;/strong&gt; means Good Bye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=HK&amp;amp;beginning=0+&amp;amp;tinput=bye+&amp;amp;trans=Translate&amp;amp;direction=AU&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;find here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;hello&lt;/strong&gt; means simply we can says  &lt;strong&gt;Pranam or Namskar&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=hello&amp;amp;direction=ES&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;click here for Hello&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2021-02-15T09:37:21.300" LastActivityDate="2021-02-15T09:37:21.300" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9014" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3091" CreationDate="2015-10-15T06:48:16.447" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think the order of the padas of dharma is also important. First comes truthfulness, then comes non-violence/mercy, then comes cleanliness, and finally austerity. One theory is each of these legs are lost during each yuga as shown in this link: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/01-12/dharma.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/01-12/dharma.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another way of understanding this is losing each of these four traits by 1/4&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; every yuga. In Sanskrit, pada also means a quarter. So in Satya yuga, 100% of all four (truthfulness, non-violence/mercy, cleanliness and austerity) is followed. In Treta yuga the compliance was 75% or less, in Dwapara it became 50% or less. So in the present Kali yuga, the compliance of Dharma is 25% or even less. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3092/2995&quot;&gt;Keshav Srinivasan pointed out&lt;/a&gt; a beautiful fact that we can escape the effects of Kali by chanting the names of Lord Vishnu. Scriptures unambiguously say that we can completely get rid of the ill effects of Kali yuga with singing of Krishna &lt;em&gt;sankirtana&lt;/em&gt; (the constant chanting of Krishna's name).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3927" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-10-16T06:17:04.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9015" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9009" CreationDate="2015-10-15T07:20:54.850" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana was not written 1.6 million years ago because Lord Rama was born in Treta Yuga and Treta Yuga consists of 3600 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Samhita clearly describes the length of the yuga but certain scholars have miscalculated the length of the Yugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yuga length has been clearly described in &amp;quot;The Holy Science&amp;quot; by Sri Yukteswar Giri. According to it, Satya Yuga consists of 4800 years, Treta Yuga consits of 3600 years, Dwapara Yuga consists of 2400 years and Kali Yuga consists of 1200 years. Sri Yukteswar also mentions that we are living in ascending Dwapara Yuga rather than Kali Yuga which most people believe. Ascending Kali Yuga ended in 1699. The next age will be ascending Treta Yuga. Lord Rama was born in descending Treta Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gKZdz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gKZdz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sundara Kandam(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/sundara/sarga34/sundara_34_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sarga 34&lt;/a&gt;), Sita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kalyaaNii bata gathaa iyam laukikii pratibhaati me |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ehi jiivantam aanado naram varSha shataat api ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means &amp;quot;Joy rushes to surviving man even though (it be) as the end of a hundred years - this popular adage appears true and and auspicious for me.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clear that the average life span of a person was 100 years and not in 1000s. Now because it is written that Lord Rama ruled for 10000 years, this figure must be inflated. The wrong calculation was arrived after yuga years have been multiplied by 360. If you multiply 360 with any of the above yuga figure, you will get the inflated figures mentioned in some of the scriptures. The same can be said of Lord Rama years ruled. To get the correct figure, we divide 10000 by 360 and get a figure of 27-28 years which makes sense considering 100 years was the average life span.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if we calculate from the present time(2015), 5115 years have passed since the end of descending Treta Yuga. Now because Treta Yuga consists of 3600 years so we can add to it the years already passed since Treta Yuga's end i.e 3600 + 5115 = 8715 years. It means descending Treta Yuga started 8715 years ago and ended 5115 years ago. &lt;strong&gt;Lord Rama was born in this period&lt;/strong&gt; and Ramayan was written thereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The above image was taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wolindia.com/2012/01/swami-sri-yukteswar-giri-explains-yuga.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;wolindia.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-19T05:55:19.820" CommentCount="26" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9016" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9086" CreationDate="2015-10-15T07:31:37.570" Score="4" ViewCount="1902" Body="&lt;p&gt;Visiting 108 Siva temples in one's lifetime is said to absolve one of all sins and attain bliss. Is there a specific list of 108 temples or does it refer to any 108 out of the thousands of Siva temples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3933" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-10-15T07:46:07.573" LastActivityDate="2015-10-20T04:56:56.090" Title="About visiting 108 Shiva temples" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|shaivism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9017" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-15T08:15:32.547" Score="3" ViewCount="22266" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishwakarma_(caste)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishwakarmas&lt;/a&gt;, aka the Kammalars, are a community of metalworkers and craftsmen.  Many people consider them to be low-caste, but they claim that they're actually Brahmanas, descended from the divine architect Vishwakarma, aka Tvashta.  In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/bra4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society quotes a work by the Vishwakarmas, where they justify their claims of Brahmana heritage by referring to an incident involving Adi Shankaracharya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The name &quot;Jagadguru&quot; teacher of the world, the teacher of the world is a distinction to which the people of Vishvakarma Caste alone are entitled (Wilson Dictionary).  When the world-famous Shankaracharya of Travancore, the founder of the Avaita School of Philosophy ... halted at Masulipatam he styled himself &quot;Jagadguru&quot;.  The Devakammalars of South India, who were very jealous of their title were incensed at an apparent impostor trying to assume what was their own exclusive propert, questioned his right to the distinction, when the philosopher sang the following lines:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Acharya Sankaro nama &lt;br&gt; &quot;Twashta putro nasanyasa, &lt;br&gt; &quot;Viprakula&#xA;  gurordiksha, &lt;br&gt; &quot;Visvakarmantu Brahmana&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;My name is Shankaracharya, I am a descendant of Twashtar, I have come&#xA;  here to teach the Vipras the right of wearing the sacred thread, I am&#xA;  a Brahmana of the Vishvakarma Caste.&quot; (Shankaracharya Vijaya)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is irrefutable proof that the people of the Vishvakarma Caste are&#xA;  Brahmans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whether it's irrefutable is another matter, but my question is, which Shankara Vijaya does this quote come from?  For those who don't know, the Shankara Vijayas are the traditional biographies of Adi Shankaracharya.  The most famous one is the Madhaviya Shankara Digvijaya, but that doesn't seem to have the quote I'm looking for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, assuming that Adi Shankaracharya is a Vishwakarma Brahmana, what would his Gotra Pravara be?  As I discuss in my question and answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2958/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vishwakarma had a three-headed son named Trisiras who was killed by Indra.  Was Adi Shankaracharya a descendant of Trisiras?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, other people believe Adi Shankaracharya was a Namboothiri Brahmana.  So what do they believe about Adi Shankaracharya's Gotra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-01-12T15:41:34.277" LastActivityDate="2018-01-12T15:41:34.277" Title="Was Adi Shankaracharya a Vishwakarma Brahmin?" Tags="|history|adi-shankaracharya|caste-system|brahmins|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9019" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9047" CreationDate="2015-10-15T12:53:15.373" Score="5" ViewCount="30344" Body="&lt;p&gt;'Sraddha' (death anniversary) is performed every year by Hindu. if the departed soul takes rebirth as believed, it is in some physical form  . Then how does those rituals reach to ancestors? So some or other is performing those rituals for our souls at present even though we exist? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found some answers in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Why-do-Hindus-believe-in-doing-Srardham-annual-death-anniversary-of-ancestors-even-though-they-believe-in-the-concept-of-rebirth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;, but felt it was all opinion based. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I Was looking something from the scriptural point of view. Like how does it explain the whole rebirth concept behind the ritual?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3135" LastEditorUserId="3135" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T11:43:06.433" LastActivityDate="2016-06-12T17:18:10.340" Title="Why do Hindus believe in doing 'Sraddha ' (annual death anniversary) of ancestors, even though they believe in the concept of rebirth?" Tags="|rituals|rebirth|sraddha|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9020" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9019" CreationDate="2015-10-15T13:11:56.993" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes!  It will be very much confusing.  Even I used to get confused initially with mutually contradictory statements.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After reading Srimad Ramayana of Valmiki, who described Vedic way of Life in his EPIC, I thought I got the answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After hearing the news of his father - Dasaratha -, Sri Rama gets fainted and after recovering he alongwith his wife Sita and Lakhmana offers Water oblation and rolls of Indgudi Pulp to the departed soul of his father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एतत्ते राजशार्दूल विमलं तोयमक्षयम् |&#xA;पितृलोकगतस्याद्य मद्दत्तमुपतिष्ठतु || २-१०३-२७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O, Tiger among men! May this water without taint and incorruptible at the moment that I offer it to you, reach you in the region of your ancestors where you are.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऐङ्गुदम् बदरीमिश्रम् पिण्याकम् दर्भसंस्तरे |&#xA;न्यस्य रामस्स दुःखार्तो रुदन्वचनमब्रवीत् || २-१०३-२९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama placed the pulp of the Ingudi tree mixed with the pulp of plums on a mat of Kusa grass and overcome with sadness, weeping, spoke the following words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one must perform SHRADH first time - after hearing the news of his departed elders. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इदम्भुङ्क्ष्व महाराज प्रीतो यदशना वयम् |&#xA;यदन्नः पुरुषो भवति तदन्ना स्तस्य देवताः || २-१०३-३०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;O, Great King! Be pleased to partake of this, which we eat for, that which man eats, is also consumed by his gods.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, we will not come across the ritual of performing of SHRADH every year -  (or) death anniversary to the departed souls of our elders, in the entire Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, my inference is the ritual of performing of yearly SHRADH -  (or) death anniversary is recent origin, but not laid down in SANAATANA DHARMA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2015-10-15T13:11:56.993" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9022" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-15T13:27:20.393" Score="2" ViewCount="82" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question is whether a building (with rooms and bathrooms), for residential/commercial use can be built over an existing temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such a building is under construction at Jaipur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it permissible?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3939" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-15T19:23:44.920" LastActivityDate="2015-10-15T19:23:44.920" Title="Can a building be constructed over a temple?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9023" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-15T14:51:33.670" Score="17" ViewCount="3973" Body="&lt;p&gt;If Lord Indra is a &quot;womaniser&quot; as described as in the Puranic Literature, can anyone tell as to how many women fall prey to him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only Ahalya's story occurs to me.  So we have to closely examine the only story available about Lord Indra's adultery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of Ahalya and Indra was mentioned first in Srimad Ramayana.   Sage Vishvamitra narrates the legend of Ahalya to Rama and Lakshmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra is infatuated with Ahalya and desires a union with her, for which she complies. However, Gautama catching them unawares curses both Indra and Ahalya.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With that curse, the testicles of the cursed Thousand-eyed Indra fell down onto ground at that very moment.  And, Devatas replaced ram's testes to Indra, and from then onwards Indra has became one with the testes of a goat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishvamitra while continuing the narration of the legend of Ahalya asks Rama to enter her hermitage where Ahalya is living unseen by anybody. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When once Rama steps into that hermitage she manifests herself from her accursed invisible state. She emerges with her divine form and accords guest-ship to Rama and Lakshmana. Sage Gautama also arrives at this juncture to accept his depurated wife Ahalya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुष्प वृष्टिः महती आसीत् देव दुंदुभि निस्वनैः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गन्धर्व अप्सरसाम् च एव महान् आसीत् समुत्सवः || १-४९-१९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;There chanced an abundant floral fall form firmament to the drumbeats of god's drums, and the celestials like gandharva-s, apsara-s revelled in a splendid festivity that is superb. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We will come across the story of Ahalya in Puranas also, but with some variations.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, let us examine the above story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the &quot;womaniser&quot; Indra regained his virility after attached with the testes of a goat, why did not he try to woo another woman?  Was he really a &quot;womaniser&quot;.   A Big NO!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was described in Bala Kanda that after Ahalya manifested herself with the entrance of Sri Rama, abundant flora fall on them and drumbeats of god's drums could be heard.  What was achieved by Sri Rama at that juncture?  Nothing. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Was similar fall of abundant flora and occurrence of  drumbeats of god's drums happened when Sri Rama eliminated Subaahu and threw Maaricha in the Ocean, in Siddhasrama?  The description in Bala Kanda at that time was as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स हत्वा राक्षसान् सर्वान् यज्ञ घ्नान् रघुनंदनः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ऋषिभिः पूजितः तत्र यथा इन्द्रो विजये पुरा || १-३०-२४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Rama, the delight of Raghu's dynasty, has eliminated all of the demons that are the hinderers of Vedic rituals, the sages available there in that hermitage idealised him as Indra was idealised once, when he became victorious on demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is the style of Sage Valmiki.  He described that the ascetics in Siddhasrama appeciated him and regarded him as INDRA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The description of fall of abundant flora and occurrence of  drumbeats of gods' drums, in this type of occasions can be seen in Puranas only.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;So the conclusion is that the story of Ahalya and Indra in Bala Kanda is a  PRAKSHIPTA, an insertion made at a later date, to degrade the fame and greatness of Lord Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-08T14:56:04.913" LastActivityDate="2022-12-31T01:31:38.953" Title="Was the story of adultery of Indra in the story of Ahalya a PRAKSHIPTA?" Tags="|vedas|ramayana|puranas|indra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9024" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-15T15:13:19.353" Score="12" ViewCount="2617" Body="&lt;p&gt;Majority of the people misunderstood the Vishwarupa Darshanam, as narrated in Srimad Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Arjuna asked Sri Krishna to show his Divine form (द्रष्टुमिच्छामि ते रूपमैश्वरं पुरुषोत्तम), Sri Krishna says as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पश्य मे पार्थ रूपाणि शतशोऽथ सहस्रशः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नानाविधानि दिव्यानि नानावर्णाकृतीनि च।।11.5।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Arjuna, forms of Mine, by the hundreds and thousands, of different sorts, divine, and of various colours and shapes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इहैकस्थं जगत्कृत्स्नं पश्याद्य सचराचरम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मम देहे गुडाकेश यच्चान्यद्द्रष्टुमिच्छसि।।11.7।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now behold, O Arjuna, in this, My body, the whole universe centred in one including the moving and the unmoving and whatever else thou desirest to see.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The secret of the Vishwarupa lies in the above Sloka, wherein Sri Krishna said: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;द्रष्टुमिच्छसि - whatever thou desirest to see&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna never said that I am showing the Vishwarupa to you and that these all comprise my Vishwarupa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He simply said that &amp;quot;See whatever you want to see - द्रष्टुमिच्छसि&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So whatever Arjuna saw during Viswarupa Sandarsana, it was his own mind's projections and imaginations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna did not show anything to Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to Sanjaya, he was just narrating the dialogues that took place between Sri Krishna and Arjuna.  So Sanjaya just heard what Arjuna said but not what he saw.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vision of GOD,  is like projections on a WHITE screen.  It will show whatever is projected on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;GOD will show to the seekers of GOD, according to their maturity of mind and hence their own mind's projections.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To the Gnani, who lost all desires, only ETERNAL HAPPINESS remains, because that is his projection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is very subtle and beyond the imagination of the common man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-09-14T14:16:27.230" Title="Did Sri Krishna really show Viswarupa Darshan to Arjuna or was it merely a projection of Arjuna's mind?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="24" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9025" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9023" CreationDate="2015-10-15T15:50:36.830" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The story of Ahalya is authentic.&lt;/strong&gt;  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe26/sbe2614.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;17&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thereupon he recites the Subrahmanyâ litany. Even as one would say to those for whom he intends to prepare a meal, 'On such and such a day I will prepare a meal for you;' so does he thereby announce the sacrifice to the gods. 'Subrahmanyôm! Subrahmanyôm! Subrahmanyôm!' thus he calls, for the Brahman indeed moves the gods onward. Thrice he says it, because the sacrifice is threefold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;'Come, O Indra!' Indra is the deity of the sacrifice: therefore he says, 'Come, O Indra!' 'Come, O lord of the bay steeds! Ram of Medhâtithi! Wife of Vrishanasva! Bestriding buffalo! &lt;strong&gt;Lover of Ahalyâ!&lt;/strong&gt;' Thereby he wishes him joy in those affairs of his.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;'O Kausika, Brahman, &lt;strong&gt;thou who callest thee Gautama&lt;/strong&gt;.' Just so has this (formula) been devised in these days by Âruni, to wit, 'thou who callest thee Gautama:' he may say it, if he choose, and if he does not choose, he need not attend to it. 'In so and so many days, to the Soma-feast,' (stating) in how many days from hence the pressing is to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brahmanas of the Vedas were passed down in the most rigorous fashion, so the chance of an interpolation in the Shatapatha Brahmana is vanishingly small.  In any case, &amp;quot;thou who callest thee Gautama&amp;quot; is an allusion to the fact that Indra took the form of Ahalya's husband Gautama.  This isn't the only Vedic allusion to the story of Ahalya; the Sadvimsha Brahmana and several Shrauta Sutras also describe it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, this is by no means Indra's only dalliance; there's plenty of examples in the Vedas.  The term &amp;quot;Wife of Vrishanasva&amp;quot; in that verse is an allusion to the fact that he once disguised himself as the wife of Vrishanasva in order to have an affair with Vrishanasva's daughter.  And he once took over the mind of sage Devasharma's wife Ruchi in order to have an affair with her, although he was thwarted by the sage Vipula.  And the Rig Veda describes how he had an affair with the sister of the demon Vyamsa, as I discuss in my question and answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8438/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-17T06:57:41.953" CommentCount="26" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9026" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8997" CreationDate="2015-10-15T17:25:08.060" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Pashupatastra is an irresistible and most destructive personal weapon of Shiva, Kali and Adi Para Sakti discharged by the mind, the eyes, words, or a bow. It was Never to be used against lesser enemies or by lesser warriors, if used then the Pashupatastra was capable of destroying creation and vanquishing all beings. It is said that Lord Shiva obtained Pashupatastra from Adi Para Sakti by intense penance before the creation of the Brahmand. Pashupatastra can be neutralized by personal weapon of Adi para shakti or by a another Pashupatastra .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, Arjuna used this astra to slay Jayadaratha. It is said that the mantra to obtain and discharge the astra is sealed by Shiva to prevent its misuse in the Kali Yuga. It is said that no one in the three worlds can resist Lord Shiva when he shows his prowess. Apart from Arjuna, Bhisma, Drona and Karna also possessed Pashupatastra so Lord Krishna must have advised him so that Arjun remains at par with them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Narrative from KMG translation of Mahabharat regarding the power of Pashupatastra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O thou of mighty arms, that weapon(Pashupatastra) is superior to the Brahma, the Narayana, the Aindra, the Agneya, and the Varuna weapons. Verily, it is capable of neutralising every other weapon in the universe. It was with that weapon that the illustrious Mahadeva had in days of yore, burnt and consumed in a moment the triple city of the Asuras. With the greatest ease, O Govinda, Mahadeva, using that single arrow, achieved that feat. That weapon, shot by Mahadeva's arms, can, without doubt consume in half the time taken up by a twinkling of the eyes the entire universe with all its mobile and immobile creatures. In the universe there is no being including even the deities, that are incapable of being slain by that weapon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashupatastra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2015-10-15T17:25:08.060" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9028" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6998" CreationDate="2015-10-15T20:00:36.660" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to me Maha Kali Avatar of Maa Durga is the most fearsome and the most benign form of Mata at the same time. She possesses the power to annihilate the whole universe in her wrath, on the other hand she always bestow benign blessing to her upasakas/ devotes. Even in her fierce to the most fiercest form she never leaves her true nature of a loving mother. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Trilok (Swarglok, Tribhuvan, Patal lok) was captured by Asuras and when there's havoc all around the world all the Devatas went in refugee of Maa Durga Adi-Shakti because Asuras had boon that only Adi-Shakti could kill the demons. Then what was there? Mata came to rescue her children and Trilok from the Asuras. Mata firstly killed the demon named Dhumralochan. He had the power to kill anyone by his roar but he himself got turned out into ashes by a single roar of Maa Durga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then she transformed into Maha Kali  Avatar to kill asur Raktabeej. In this form Maa Kali holds: Khadga, a sword made up of metal (lohe ka kata), and a bowl. As his name indicates, from one drop of his Rakt/ blood on bhumi another Raktabeej would crop up. So, Maa Kali slashed him and didn't let his blood to fall on the ground and she drank the blood. Soon Raktabeej was killed but Maa Kali's thirst for blood wasn't over. She walked here and there. She grew more fiercer. Then all gods went to request Prabhu Mahadev to calm Mata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Lord Shiva himself leaned under the foot of Maa Kali to calm her and in that process realizing it was Mahadev, Mata's tongue came out in that incident ( however &lt;em&gt;Durga saptashathi&lt;/em&gt; which described the war of may Durga and may Kali along with other goddess and Shiva purana and Kalika puran doesn't report any such incident) We can also see the picture and the statue in this mudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another incident as well when Bholenath took Batuk Avataar (form of a child) to calm Maa Kali. That's why I said, even in her most fiercest Avatar she's the most gentle and kind one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3929" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-08-18T02:45:05.907" LastActivityDate="2018-08-18T02:45:05.907" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9029" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6811" CreationDate="2015-10-16T03:45:33.407" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The discource (kalakshepa) renderes says Periazhwar is one of the person who out of devotion and affection sung &lt;code&gt;Pallandu&lt;/code&gt; song which in common sense is not required. Continuing the trend, Periazhwar feared that by mentioning the birth details of Krishna he might put him in danger.  Due to this he tries to divert the potential killers by misdirecting them.  In that connection he also &lt;a href=&quot;http://dravidaveda.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=193%3A28&amp;amp;catid=72%3A--2&amp;amp;Itemid=61&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;மத்தக் களிற்று வசுதேவர் தம்முடை&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;சித்தம் பிரியாத தேவகி தன்வயிற்றில்&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;அத்தத்தின் பத்தாநாள்&lt;/strong&gt; தோன்றிய அச்சுதன்&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;முத்த மிருந்தவா காணீரே முகிழ்நகை யீர்வந்து காணீரே.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Softly smiling Ladies, come here and see the balls of this child Achyuta, &lt;strong&gt;born on the tenth day from Hastam&lt;/strong&gt;, from the womb of Devaki, dear to Vasudev who owns mighty elephants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna was born in 10th day from the star Hastha which he could have clearly said as Rohini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While Sri &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prathivadhi_Bhayankaram_Annangaracharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prathivadhi Bhayankaram Annangaracharya&lt;/a&gt; says since the devas gathered to witness the birth of Sri Krishna which in Tamil said as &lt;code&gt;Koshti (கோஷ்ட்டி)&lt;/code&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://dravidaveda.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=178&amp;amp;Itemid=61&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;became as ThiruKoshtiyur&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the interpretations of many acharya and the only true intention of why Sri Periazhwar mentioned so will be known only to him and the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-08-22T12:36:10.247" LastActivityDate="2020-08-22T12:36:10.247" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9030" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-16T04:04:32.253" Score="4" ViewCount="260" Body="&lt;p&gt;While declaring that he was a messenger of Sri Rama, Sri Hanuma admonishes Ravana, who practiced severe austerities and got so many boons, and yet abducted Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लक्षिता इयम् मया सीता तथा शोक परायणा |&#xA;  गृह्य याम् न अभिजानासि पन्च आस्याम् इव पन्नगीम् || ५-५१-२३ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Capturing Seetha, whom you do not recognize as a five-hooded female serpent in your abode, has been found by me in that manner, and wholly given over to sorrow.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तपः सम्ताप लब्धः ते यो अयम् धर्म परिग्रहः |&#xA;  न स नाशयितुम् न्याय्य आत्म प्राण परिग्रहः || ५-५१-२५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;It is not proper for you to lose your exceptional longevity and that fortune which is an outcome of your virtue, both of which have been acquired by you through the practice of austerities.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;याम् सीता इति अभिजानासि या इयम् तिष्ठति ते वशे || ५-५१-३४&#xA;  काल रात्री इति ताम् विद्धि सर्व लन्का विनाशिनीम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Know her, whom you recognize as Seetha and who stays in your captivity, to be none else than Kalaratri (the goddess presiding over and responsible for dissolution), who can destroy the entire Lanka.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Valmiki described at different occasions almost all Vedic Pantheon in Srimad Ramayana.  However, I did not come across KAALARATRI - काल रात्री.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anybody explain who this KAALARATRI - काल रात्री is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2015-10-16T04:04:32.253" Title="Who was the KALARATRI that was mentioned in Sundara Kanda?" Tags="|vedas|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9031" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9010" CreationDate="2015-10-16T06:39:30.337" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Respectfully the head is tilted down a little &amp;amp; palms folded (in &lt;em&gt;Namaskara&lt;/em&gt; position), one asks &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Aagya&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. The other person performs the same gesture without speaking anything. The elderly person also may raise his hand(s) with palm facing towards the seeker, occasionally followed by a relevant blessing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Instead of saying &quot;Good Bye&quot;, it's like asking permission to go away. The English equivalent is &lt;em&gt;&quot;Kindly allow me to leave&quot;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is a famous way observed also in popular cultures like TV shows &amp;amp; movies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-10-16T06:39:30.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9032" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8410" CreationDate="2015-10-16T09:54:05.743" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuamn in Kaliyuga is available to us very quick and short span of time. Just chant Ram Nam and he will come to assist you and bless us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this age there are plenty of distractions and hence for one to focus on their spiritual growth is rarely possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So his role is to bless us and give us victory in whichever good deeds/tasks we do in our life. Hence before starting any tasks we should pray Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jai Shri Ram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3944" LastActivityDate="2015-10-16T09:54:05.743" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9033" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7727" CreationDate="2015-10-16T11:29:21.123" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;In addition to the above answers, I would like to add mine:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedic Era, which continued upto Mahabharata period, i.e, 3102 B.C., women used to perform SANDHYA rites.  Thereafter, due to reasons not available, women were prohibited from doing so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Srimad Ramayana, we come across an indirect reference to Sita performing Sandya rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While searching for Sita in Lanka, Sri Hanuma enters Ashoka Garden, where observes the beautiful ambiance of the Garden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Hanuma sees a mountain,  which was surrounded in all directions by peaks, spread by caves and covered by different trees and a river, which fell down from the mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He thought that Seetha would definitely come to that garden if she were to be alive.  He also thought that Seetha , interested in the rites of Sandhya time,  will definitely come to that river, with the auspicious water, for Sandhya rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;संध्या काल मनाः श्यामा ध्रुवम् एष्यति जानकी |&#xA;नदीम् च इमाम् शिव जलाम् संध्या अर्थे वर वर्णिनी ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Sundara Kanda 14th Sarga 49th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The ever youthful one with the best complexion, Seetha interested in the rites of Sandhya time will definitely come to this river with the auspicious water for Sandhya rite.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-16T11:29:21.123" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9034" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-16T11:34:05.953" Score="2" ViewCount="104" Body="&lt;p&gt;People in Ramayana era knew about surgery.  Go through the following narration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seetha recollects the time limit of two months given by Ravana and her vulnerability of being killed by him. Seetha, tormented by grief, lamented as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नूनं ममाङ्गान्यचिरादनार्यः |&#xA;शस्त्रैः शितै श्छेत्स्यति राक्षसेन्द्रः |&#xA;तस्मिन्ननागच्छति लोकनाथे |&#xA;गर्भस्थजन्तोरिव शल्यकृन्तः ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Sundara Kanda 28 Sarga 6th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;If Sri Rama does not come here, the evil Ravana will cut off my limbs with his sharpened weapons, even as a surgeon would cut the limbs of a lifeless feotus.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeta’s saying that Ravana would cut off her limbs with his sharpened weapons  as a surgeon would cut the limbs of a lifeless fetus indicate that the people at the period of Ramayana knew about surgery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-16T11:34:05.953" Title="Were people of Srimad Ramayana period aware of Surgery?" Tags="|ramayana|sita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-02-22T04:18:51.100" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9035" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-16T12:33:10.020" Score="4" ViewCount="447" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;strong&gt;Sargas 15-17 of Srimad Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;, after Lord Vishnu agreed to take birth as a son of King Dasaratha, Lord Brahma ordered as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga17/bala_17_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(The Gods become progenitors of Vanara heroes at the dictate of Brahma to come to the aid of Sri Rama in annihilating Ravana.)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सत्य संधस्य वीरस्य सर्वेषाम् नो हितैषिणः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;विष्णोः सहायान् बलिनः सृजध्वम् काम रूपिणः || (Bala Kanda, Sarga 17, Shloka 2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let mighty and guise changing helpmates be procreated to that truth abiding and valorous Vishnu who is the well-wisher of all of us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वानरेन्द्रम् महेन्द्र आभम् इन्द्रः वालिनम् आत्मजम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सुग्रीवम् जनयामास तपनः तपताम् वरः ||  (Bala Kanda,  Sarga 17, Shloka 10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra procreated the lord of vanaras, namely Vali, who by his physique is like Mt. Mahendra, and the highest humidifier among all the humidifiers, namely the Sun, procreated Sugreeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Within 1 (one) year Sri Rama was born. So, Vali, Sugreeva, Sri Hanuma and Sri Rama should be more or less of the same age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, other descriptions in Srimad Ramayana do not corroborate the above narration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nowhere in Ramayana, the ages of Vali and Sugreeva are mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vali never assisted Sri Rama in the annihilation of Ravana, as per Srimad Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vali had a severe fight with a demon named Dhundhubi.  When Vali killed that demon and hurled the dead body of Dhundhubi, it fell in Sage Matanga's hermitage.  Sage Matanga cursed him to the effect that if he or his friends enter the surroundings of his ashram they will fall dead. This incident indicates that Vali was a grown up person at that time, i.e., around 20 years at the minimum and Sage Matanga was alive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After the demise of Sage Matanga at an old age, the disciples of Sage Matanga lived in that Ashram.  Sabari, a female attendant to those disciples, used to serve them with devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;By the time Sri Rama reached Chitrakoota, his age was only around 25 years. And at the same time, the disciples of Sage Matanga, who are very old, attained heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चित्रकूटम् त्वयि प्राप्ते विमानैः अतुल प्रभैः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;इतः ते दिवम् आरूढा यान् अहम् पर्यचारिषम् ||  (Aranya Kanda, Sarga 74, Shloka 14)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Divine aircrafts of unequalled refulgence have lifted those disciples of Sage Matanga in whose tendance I was, to welkin on your arriving at Chitrakuta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;That means a considerable period of time, between the Dhundhubi incident and the time when the disciples of Sage Matanga attained heaven, i.e, a minimum period of 40 to 50 years must have elapsed and Vali might be 60-70 years old when Sri Rama reached Chitrakoota. By the time he reached Kishkinda he was 38 years old and Vali might be 80-85 years old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;By the time Sri Rama reached Kishkinda, Vali had a son by name Angadha, who was a grown up person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, in my view, Lord Brahma ordering the Devatas to procreate vanaras, was a prakshipta, an &lt;em&gt;insertion&lt;/em&gt; made at a later date.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2020-09-12T09:42:44.853" LastActivityDate="2020-09-12T09:42:44.853" Title="Were Vali and Sri Rama of same age?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|brahma|indra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9036" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3736" CreationDate="2015-10-16T22:13:31.440" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Will God approve love marriage of his devotee?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marriage is a very subjective matter and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/924/2995&quot;&gt;there are many types of marriages&lt;/a&gt;. So it's difficult to give you a simple yes or no answer. But you can rephrase the same question to: Am I violating my &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1155&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;swadharma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; by disregarding my parents' wishes and marrying someone of my own choice? I will cite one incident from Valmiki Ramayana below; you can decide for yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vayu deva (Air god) is attracted to Kushanaabha's 100 beautiful daughters and asks them to marry him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga32/bala_32_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bala Kanda, Sarga 32, Shlokha 16&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहम् वः कामये सर्वा भार्या मम भविष्यथ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मानुषः त्यज्यताम् भावो दीर्घम् आयुर् अवाप्स्यथ || १-३२-१६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I have a desire for you all&lt;/strong&gt;, hence leaving off the notions pertaining to human beings &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;you all become my wives&lt;/strong&gt;, thereby you too will acquire longevity like divinities. [1-32-16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kushanaabha's daughters reply so:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अन्तः चरसि भूतानाम् सर्वेषाम् त्वम् सुर सत्तम |&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्रभावज्ञाः च ते सर्वाः किम् अर्थम् अवमन्यसे || १-३२-१९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are aware that you inspirit all the living beings from inside, oh, the ablest divinity, we are also aware of your uniqueness, &lt;strong&gt;but, what for you are dishonouring all of us?&lt;/strong&gt; [1-32-19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They further remind him of the &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; they are bound to:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पिता हि प्रभुर् अस्माकम् दैवतम् परमम् च सः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;यस्य नो दास्यति पिता स नो भर्ता भविष्यति || १-३२-२२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our father is indeed our lord and for us he is the ultimate god too. &lt;strong&gt;To whomever we are offered by our father in marriage he alone becomes our husband&lt;/strong&gt;, so said the hundred girls to Air-god, Vayu [1-32-22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Vayu disfigures them, the daughters explain the incident to their father:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पितृमत्यः स्म भद्रम् ते स्वच्छन्दे न वयम् स्थिताः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;पितरम् नो वृणीष्व त्वम् यदि नो दास्यते तव || १-३३-३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Our father is there and we are not independent, you be safe, hence &lt;strong&gt;oh, Air-god, you may request our father to know whether he gives us to you or not.&lt;/strong&gt;' Thus we have told the Air-god, but... [1-33-3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-17T02:54:22.857" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9037" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="28924" CreationDate="2015-10-17T03:55:44.823" Score="2" ViewCount="736" Body="&lt;p&gt;Any person, who reads Srimad Ramayana casually, and who views films and TV serials produced and developed by persons with half-baked knowledge,&#xA;will say Yes the putra-kaam-eshthi yagna was performed however, a conscious and serious reading of Valmiki's Srimad Ramayana will tell a different tale.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Dasharatha, a descendant of Ikshwaku kings,  while dwelling in the city of Ayodhya, protected the Kosala kingdom.  He had 3 main queens and many other queens.  Unfortunately, he could not beget sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Dasharatha decides to perform an elaborate Vedic ritual, called Aswamedha yajna, Horse Ritual, to beget children. He being a considerate king in taking conscience of the courtiers, he discusses this aspect with the Vedic scholars and ministers of his court, beforehand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मम लालस्य मानस्य सुतार्थम् नास्ति वै सुखम् |&#xA;तदर्थम् हयमेधेन यक्ष्ह्यामि इति मतिर् मम ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;My mind is tumultuous without quietude for I have no sons... for that reason, I wish perform Aswametha, Vedic Horse Ritual... this is my thinking.&amp;quot; (Bala Kanda 8th Sarga  8th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत् अहम् यष्टुम् इच्छमि शास्त्र दृष्टेन कर्मणा |&#xA;कथम् प्राप्स्यामि अहम् कामम् बुद्धिः अत्र विचिन्त्यताम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Therefore, I contemplate to perform that ritual as enshrined in the scriptures and as a rite-oriented one as well... let this contemplation of mine be well thought of... and as to how my desire to beget sons will be fulfilled..&amp;quot; (Bala Kanda 8th Sarga  9th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everybody including Sage Vasistha agrees for this. On the advice of his minister Sumantra, Dasharatha proceeds to Anga kingdom and brings Sage Rishyasringa and his wife Shanta to his capital Ayodhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Dasharatha requests the Sages to conduct the Vedic ritual for which the sages indent paraphernalia, which the ministers were ordered to supply forthwith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So only Aswametha was thought of for begetting children by King Dasaradha and approved by everybody.  And, the Aswamedha Yagna was completed by King Dasaratha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sloka 57 in Sarga 14 of Bala Kanda says like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then that king(Dasaratha) is gladdened at heart for the successful achievement of the completion of that excellent Aswametha ritual that removes sin and that leads to heaven as well, and that which cannot be undertaken by many of the best kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was only after completing the Aswametha, mention was made about Putrakamesti in the penultimate slokas of 14th Sarga of Bala Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is as to why the concept of Putrakamesti ritual was brought in when the completion of Aswametha ritual removes sin and children can be begotten.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we go through the subsequent Sargas, i.e., 15-17, we can understand that it was in these Sargas that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(i)   the Devatas pray Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu for elimination of Ravana,&#xA;(ii)       Lord Vishnu consents for taking an incarnation as Sri Rama, the son of King Dasaratha,&#xA;(iii)     After completion of Putrakamesti, a divine person appears and gives god-given golden vessel full with divine food for consumption by eligible wives of King Dasarath for begetting sons,&#xA;(iv)   King Dasaratha enters his Palace and gives the Divine food to Kousalya, Sumitra and Kikeyi,&#xA;(v)      Lord Brahma orders all Devatas to cause birth of vanaras out of their Energies to assist Sri Rama   in   elimination of Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, in the Slokas 1 &amp;amp; 2 of Sarga 18 of Bala Kanda, the Sage Valmiki describes like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;निर्वृत्ते तु क्रतौ तस्मिन् हयमेधे महात्मनः |&#xA;प्रति गृह्य अमरा भागान् प्रतिजग्मुः यथा आगतम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the competition of the horse ritual of high-souled Dasharatha, the gods having received their portion of sacrificial oblation returned to their abodes as they have come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;समाप्त दीक्षा नियमः पत्नी गण समन्वितः |&#xA;प्रविवेश पुरीम् राजा स भृत्य बल वाहनः ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The king completing his consecratory vows held for horse ritual, entered Ayodhya city along with the company of his queens, servants, guards and vehicles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, the Sage did not mention about Putrakamesti but mentions only about  completion of Aswametha Yagna, horse ritual. The inference is that only the Aswamedha Yagna was contemplated, took up and completed successfully but Putrakamesti was not contemplated. It was not the intention of Sage Valmiki to project Sri Rama as the incarnation of Vishnu. It was a conscious insertion made by some scholars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Were the Sargas 15-17 added later by somebody else for making the readers believe Sri Rama was an incarnation of Vishnu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-07-21T05:09:27.057" Title="Did Dasaratha think of performing Putrakamesthi apart from Aswamedha Yagna that itself could give sons?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|yajna|valmiki|vedic-rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9038" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-17T07:37:16.143" Score="13" ViewCount="2973" Body="&lt;p&gt;The VAAMACHARIs sacrifice animals to attain Tantric Powers, which are different from that of Yogic Powers.  The Tantric Powers can attained within short time, but have certain deadly consequences.  If the TANTRIKs fail to complete the rituals in the prescribed manner, death is assured.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During RAMAYANA period we will come across Indrajit, the elder son of Ravana.  Indrajit used to follow VAAMACHARA, and the following quotations corroborate this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing Ravana, lamenting the death of Ravana's sons and brothers, Indrajit promises to destroy Rama and Lakshmana. He sets out, for the battle, accompanied by his army. After reaching the battle-field, Indrajit performed a sacrificial ritual there, duly making an oblation to the fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततस्तु हुतभोक्तारं हुतभुक्सदृशप्रभः || &#xA;  जुहुवे राक्षसश्रेष्ठो मन्त्रवद्विधिवत्तदा |  (Yuddha Kanda 73 Sarga 22 sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, that foremost of demons, having a radiance equal to that of fire, with excellent sacrificial incantations, performed a sacrifice, as per rules, making an oblation to the fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स तत्राग्निं समास्तीर्य शरपत्रैः सतोमरैः || &#xA;  छागस्य सर्वकृष्णस्य गलं जग्राह जीवतः |  (Yuddha Kanda 73 Sarga 24 sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Duly spreading fire with reeds (in the form of other weapons) accompanied by lances there, Indrajit elapsed the neck of a live goat of dark hue (for offering it to the fire as an oblation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सकृदेव समिद्धस्य विधूमस्य महार्चिषः ||&#xA;  बभूवुस्तानि लिङ्गानि विजयं यान्यदर्शयन् |  (Yuddha Kanda 73 Sarga 25 sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the great fire of flames, set ablaze by that offering having been thrown into it acting at once without smoke, appeared such signs as had beckoned victory (of the past).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, Indrajit became invisible to all and attacked Sri Rama, Lakshmana and all the Vanaras and created havoc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His ghastly death is an indicator of consequences of following the VAAMACHARA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Placing an illusory live image of Seetha in his chariot, Indrajit along with his army enters the battle-field. Hanuma with his army of monkeys march in front to face Indrajit in battle. While Hanuma and his army are watching, Indrajit pulls Seetha by her hair and unsheathed his sword. Indrajit kills the illusory living image of Seetha, with his sharp sword.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuma, with his army, approaches Rama and informs him that Indrajit has killed Seetha. Rama faints away, upon hearing that news.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Telling Rama the secret of conjuring trick practiced by Indrajit in killing an illusory image of Seetha, Vibhishana assures him of Seetha being still alive and urges him to send Lakshmana with an army to the sanctuary of Nikumbhila.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेन वीरेण तपसा वरदानात्स्वयंभुवः |&#xA;  अस्त्रं ब्रह्मशिरः प्राप्तं कामगाश्च तुरंगमाः ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;By his penance, Indrajit obtained a weapon called Brahmashira, by way of a gift from Brahma and also horses, which are coursing at his will.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स एष सह सैन्येन प्राप्तः किल निकुम्भिलाम् |&#xA;  यद्युत्तिष्ठेत्कृतं कर्म हतान्सर्वांश्च विद्धि नः ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;That Indrajit, as such along with his army, is reported to have reached Nikumbhila. If he comes forth after completing his sacrificial act, know that all of us as killed.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निकुम्भिलामसंप्राप्तमहुताग्निं च यो रिपुः |&#xA;  त्वामातायिनं हन्यादिन्द्रशत्रो स ते वधः || &#xA;  वरो दत्तो महाबाहो सर्वलोकेश्वरेण वै |&#xA;  इत्येवं विहितो राजन्वधस्तस्यैष धीमतः ||  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Yuddha Kanda 85 Sarga 12 - 15 slokaS)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;A boon was given by Brahma to that intelligent demon as follows: &quot;O Indrajit! That enemy of yours, who strikes while you are marching with your bow drawn, and while you have not arrived at Nikumbhila, or even while you have not offered oblations to the sacred fire, will prove to be the cause of your killing.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the end, when Lakshmana forced Indrajit to abandon the sacrificial act at Nikumbhila with discharge of his arrows, before completion of the sacrifice, Indrajit was eliminated by Lakshmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-04-13T03:46:45.093" LastActivityDate="2018-04-13T03:46:45.093" Title="Was Tantric upasana (Vamachara) a relatively new concept (or) in existence in ancient India also?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|tantra|vamachara|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9039" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-17T08:33:25.883" Score="3" ViewCount="508" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important in the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu. Since the Pancharatra texts originated from Narayana himself, they are followed by pretty much all mainstream Vaishnava Sampradayas, whether Sri Vaishnavas, Madhvas, Gaudiya Vaishnavas, etc. In fact you can pretty much define Vaishnavism the belief in the supremacy of Vishnu as it's described in the Pancharatra texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as I discuss in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3977/36&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;, there is another group of Vishnu-worshippers who worship Vishnu according to a different set of texts, the Vaikhanasas. Vaikhanasas place more emphasis on rituals than in high-minded philosophy; while mainstream Vaishnavas are committed to elaborate Vedantic philosophical systems, like Dvaita or Visistadvaita, Vaikhanasa doctrines are more about the construction and worship of idols and the like.   The vast majority of Vishnu-worshippers are Vaishnavas, but there are a few Vaikhanasa temples in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact, the most popular Vishnu temple in the world, the Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple, is a Vaikhanasa temple.  This has led to some tension over its practices, and over whether it should adopt more Pancharatra customs.  In [this 2002 article], the Shankaracharya of Kanchi weighed in on this issue:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;There are two kinds of temples. One where the deity comes out on its own or Swayambhu and the other where the deities are installed,&amp;quot; he said and added that there are two systems for performing rituals at Vaishnava temples — Pancharatram and Vaikhanasam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pancharatra system began during the days of Ramanujacharya, while the other system is traditional. &lt;strong&gt;But for the temples where deities are not installed Vaikhanasa is the right system to follow, he explained. There is no place for Pancharatra system there, the swami said.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Tirumala is one such temple, where the rituals have to be performed according to the traditional Vaikhanasa system,&amp;quot; the Shankaracharya said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, is the Shankaracharya of Kanchi right that Vishnu temples where the statue is Swayambhu or divinely created are supposed to follow Vaikhanasa rather than Pancharatra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/swayam-vyakta-kshetras-of-lord-vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a list of 8 famous Swayam Vyakta Kshetras, or places where Vishnu manifested as a Swayambhu statue.  I think almost all of them have always been run according to Pancharatra.  For instance, Sri Rangam is the oldest center of Sri Vaishnavism, and it contains the oldest Swayambhu Vishnu statue as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6512/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So it seems like either a larger number of Vishnu temples are following the wrong practices, or the Shankaracharya is mistaken.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know of any scripture which says that Swayambhu Vishnu statues have to be worshipped according to Vaikhanasa as opposed to Pancharatra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-26T21:51:23.287" Title="Are Vaikhanasa Agamas supposed to be followed in Swayambhu Vishnu temples?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|vaishnavism|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9040" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9598" CreationDate="2015-10-17T10:12:31.780" Score="9" ViewCount="1333" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that, normally, as we go on committing sins, we earn ourselves multiple births, sometimes as humans and other times as other living beings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But say someone is born as some being other than human then how does he realise that he actually got this as a punishment or reward for his previous life deeds, since animals don't have any such self-consciousness?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2974" LastEditorUserId="2974" LastEditDate="2016-09-25T20:37:40.117" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T20:37:40.117" Title="Punishment for sins or rewards for good deeds in previous births, but how do we know?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|karma|rebirth|afterlife|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9041" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9076" CreationDate="2015-10-17T11:42:18.533" Score="6" ViewCount="327" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kesari (Father of Hanumana )also fought bravely in the Lanka war along with Sugriva’s army,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;as mentioned &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesari_(Ramayana)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in the wiki of Kesari(Ramayana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did sage Valmiki mention this in Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TV Shows never mention Kesari fought in Lanka war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="13148" LastEditDate="2019-04-29T13:18:23.017" LastActivityDate="2019-04-29T13:18:23.017" Title="Kesari also fought bravely in the Lanka war along with Sugriva’s army?" Tags="|ramayana|valmiki|war|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9042" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="27593" CreationDate="2015-10-17T11:50:07.090" Score="8" ViewCount="2879" Body="&lt;p&gt;While explaining Karma Yoga to Arjuna,  Sri Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देवान्भावयतानेन ते देवा भावयन्तु वः।&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;परस्परं भावयन्तः श्रेयः परमवाप्स्यथ।। 3.11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: You nourish the gods with this. Let those gods nourish you. Nourishing one another, you shall attain the supreme Good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इष्टान्भोगान्हि वो देवा दास्यन्ते यज्ञभाविताः।&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;तैर्दत्तानप्रदायैभ्यो यो भुङ्क्ते स्तेन एव सः।। 3.12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: Being nourished by sacrifices, the gods will indeed give you the coveted enjoyments. He is certainly a theif who enjoys what have been given by them without offering (these) to them.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्नाद्भवन्ति भूतानि पर्जन्यादन्नसम्भवः।&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;यज्ञाद्भवति पर्जन्यो यज्ञः कर्मसमुद्भवः।। 3.14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: From food are born the creatures; the origin of food is from rainfall; rainfall originates from sacrifice; sacrifice has action as its origin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My doubt is whether Sri Krishna, by using the word &quot;Yagna&quot;, was referring to Pancha Yagna - Deva, Pitr, Manushya, Bhuta and Brahma Yagnas (or) the Yagnas that we all see in movies?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2019-07-21T05:06:12.653" LastActivityDate="2019-07-21T07:02:35.573" Title="What are the Yagnas Sri Krishna was referring to in Srimad Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|yajna|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9043" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9050" CreationDate="2015-10-17T12:57:56.517" Score="8" ViewCount="1402" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are three known classical yoga viz. Karma, Bhakti and Jnana. I recently found &lt;strong&gt;Raja-Yoga&lt;/strong&gt; in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8788/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer. So, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is Raja-Yoga? and &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Is there any relation between Raja-yoga and Jnana-Yoga&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also I want to know Upanishad or Vedanta view on Raja-Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="8277" LastEditDate="2019-06-08T17:16:53.070" LastActivityDate="2019-06-08T17:16:53.070" Title="What is Raja-yoga? Is it related to Jnana-Yoga?" Tags="|upanishads|yoga|jnana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9044" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-17T13:58:36.377" Score="9" ViewCount="811" Body="&lt;p&gt;From three classical yogas in Hinduism viz. Karma, Bhakti and Jnana, I found me Ajnani in case of Bhakti yoga probably due to improper concept of god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand the Karma Yoga: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishkam_Karma&quot;&gt;Nishkam Karma&lt;/a&gt; or Selfless/Desire-less Karma can save you from Karma bandhan and can lead to Liberation/Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is necessary to understand the concept of Karma-Yoga in order to get necessary qualities like चित्तशुद्धि or purification of mind, Elimination of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahamkara&quot;&gt;Ahmkar&lt;/a&gt;(I-ness) so that one can spiritual progress for Jnana!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand the Jnana Yoga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Self-Realization leads to Atma-Jnana/Brahma-Jnana and to the oneness, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jivanmukta&quot;&gt;Jivanmukta&lt;/a&gt; state &amp;amp; Liberation/Moksha, In other words, to the Ultimate Reality!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But I can't understand the Bhakti Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Serving god, Surrendering to god, devotion to god ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the understanding the Bhakti-Yoga, one should have the clear understanding or right knowledge about the concept of god which I'm missing I think!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because serving/worshipping of/surrendering to god whom I actually/really don't know about! The main problem is: &lt;strong&gt;If I don't know myself (until self-realization), then how do I know god?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Help me to understand the &lt;strong&gt;Concept of God&lt;/strong&gt; or Right Knowledge (Jnana) about God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe that Jnana leads to Bhakti and vice-versa but Starting from Bhakti without Jnana about God seems misunderstand-able for me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T08:51:03.343" LastActivityDate="2019-02-24T14:58:08.883" Title="The concept of God in Bhakti Yoga" Tags="|gods|philosophy|yoga|bhakti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9045" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9019" CreationDate="2015-10-17T14:13:17.847" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As pointed out in the link (in question), we are not aware if our ancestors are in Swarga (Heaven) or Naraka (Hell) or have taken Rebirth. I remember hearing during one of speeches, of Sri Changanti Koteswar Rao Garu (&lt;a href=&quot;http://english.srichaganti.net&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt;), that your rebirth is solely dependent on your last thought during death. If you remember God, you will reach him, if you remember worldly things, you will have a life form associated with them. So my assumption is in our re-birth cycle at some time early or later you will have to spend time in Naraka or Swarga according to your Karma. Our good and bad deeds don't cancel them self out. we will have to spend time accordingly in other worlds for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now thought to ponder is, One day in Naraka or Swarga loka is one year for us. So if our ancestors have 10 years in Swarga, thats 3650 years for us. So even if 3 generations have offerings, its just a year offerings from us to them&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3946" LastActivityDate="2015-10-17T14:13:17.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9046" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9019" CreationDate="2015-10-17T16:26:56.327" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am quoting here from an article I wrote, hope this helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who is the Pitr?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pitr basically refers to departed forefathers. Hinduism does not&#xA;  accept the theory of permanent heaven or hell. The Hindu scriptures&#xA;  speak about how Karma determines the journey of a particular&#xA;  individual after the death of his body and how the individual will&#xA;  eventually take a re-birth in a new body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The scriptures speak about three paths a departed soul may take based on its actions when it was alive. Some who have lived life&#xA;  according to dharma and have practiced extensive devotion and&#xA;  meditation, then by the merit of such actions, he or she will attain&#xA;  Devaloka (the realm of the gods) through the northern path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some people who have practiced various duties and rites alone without devotion or meditation, may have to take a southern path to&#xA;  “Pitrloka” (the realm of ancestors/manes). On the other hand, those&#xA;  who live life selfishly and perform adharmic actions, may have to&#xA;  enter realms of hells called Naraka and suffer there for their&#xA;  unrighteous actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, ultimately, all of them, according to their actions and its&#xA;  fruits, will again take birth as humans in the physical universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Without going into further details, it is suffice to say that, once a&#xA;  person dies, he discards his gross body and travels to Pitrloka in his&#xA;  subtle body and stays there until his karmic fruits that took him&#xA;  there get exhausted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti (3.192) describes the Pitr as “free from anger, careful of&#xA;  purity, ever chaste, averse from strife, and endowed with great&#xA;  virtues.” Our forefathers who managed to reach there did so based on&#xA;  the merits of their own actions as well as due to the efforts of their&#xA;  offsprings’ who performed proper funeral rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, Pitrs, similar to humans, have unfulfilled desires. Many people&#xA;  when they die, die in misery and frustration. Most of them have&#xA;  strong, unfulfilled desires. These unfulfilled desires get carried&#xA;  even after one discards the physical body, as the desires belong to&#xA;  the mind, which is associated with the subtle body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore, Pitrs refer to our immediate parents who have departed, to&#xA;  our forefathers with whom we share a blood relationship, and in&#xA;  general to all ancestors who have come before us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why observe Pitr-Paksha?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As noted above, Pitrs refers to our ancestors. No person can take&#xA;  birth in this physical universe without being given birth by his/her&#xA;  parents. Therefore, each person owes to a debt to his parents for&#xA;  giving him/her an opportunity to enter this Universe. Then, the&#xA;  parents support their children, give them education, and help them&#xA;  grow up. Even though all these are done out of love by the parents, a&#xA;  Karmic bond and a debt is formed that the children owe to their&#xA;  parents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Karmic debt is called as “Rina” and such a bond of debt between&#xA;  two individuals is called as “Rina Bandha.” Now, it is not just&#xA;  parents who are responsible for the birth of an individual. The&#xA;  parents themselves were given birth by their parents. Hence, a person&#xA;  has a Rina Bandha with the whole family and lineage into which he or&#xA;  she is born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The famous King Bhagiratha did practice severe Tapasya (austerity) to&#xA;  bring River Ganga on earth so that he could free his ancestors from&#xA;  Sage Kapila’s curse. This was his way of paying the debt to his&#xA;  ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In modern scientific language, a person derives his genes that are the&#xA;  basis of his existence from his ancestors. Therefore, there is a debt&#xA;  even on that count.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is said that during the period of Pitr-Paksha, the Pitrs come down&#xA;  from their abodes in Pitrloka and reside near their descendants. If,&#xA;  one were to offer food and water and worship the Pitrs during this&#xA;  time, they will be very pleased and they will in-turn bless the&#xA;  descendants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti (3.259) says that after performing Shraddha (a ritual to&#xA;  satiate Pitrs), the performer must pray for the blessings of Pitrs&#xA;  thus: “May liberal men abound with us! May (our knowledge of) the&#xA;  Vedas and (our) progeny increase! May faith not forsake us! May we&#xA;  have much to give (to the needy).”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;P V R Narasimha who has prepared simple manuals for worshipping Pitrs says: “By thinking of the deceased ancestors with gratitude and&#xA;  trying to give them an emancipation, one is actually trying to free&#xA;  oneself from various Karmic predispositions that one has as a result&#xA;  of the Rina (Karmik debt) with several people. One can view this as an&#xA;  external event of satisfying and emancipating an external entity (a&#xA;  Pitr). Alternatively, one can view this as an internal event of&#xA;  satisfying and releasing an internal Karmik predisposition.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus, the worship of Pitrs during Pitr-Paksha, will not only help a&#xA;  person to pay back his Karmic debts to his ancestors by satiating&#xA;  their desires, but also helps to gain their blessings that will give&#xA;  rise to both material and spiritual welfare. Most importantly, the&#xA;  worship of Pitrs will help one to purify one’s mind by reducing the&#xA;  internal Karmic burden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For full article- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newsgram.com/pitru-paksha-its-time-to-worship-ancestors/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.newsgram.com/pitru-paksha-its-time-to-worship-ancestors/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more about Narakas/ Hells- Srimad Bhagavtham 5.26- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/26&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-10-17T16:26:56.327" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9047" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9019" CreationDate="2015-10-18T02:54:29.707" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, there is no guarantee that one will take birth right after one dies. There is usually an undefined time lapse between births because the next upadhi may not yet be ready. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, The offerings you offer to ancestors reach them in a form suitable to their current upadhi. For example, if the person has taken birth as a snake, your offering gets transformed into air and reaches the manes. So on and so forth. If they are in swarga, it will reach them as amRta. The accompanying mantra has this power. It is similar to  money being deposited in one city and being withdrawn in another city and even in another country in that country's currency. This analogy is given by Sringeri Jagadguru Sri Bharati Tirtha Mahaswami. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One must never shirk one's responsibility towards one's pitR's &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T02:54:29.707" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9049" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9060" CreationDate="2015-10-18T05:37:39.373" Score="11" ViewCount="9777" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rishabha, the first tirthankar of Jainism, is known to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He is mentioned in the Bhagavat Purana and the Vedas. Jain Acharya Jinasena also confirmed that Rishabha was an avatar of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Rishabha shares a lot of similarities to Lord Shiva. He attained Moksha at Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva. His symbol is also bull which is also the symbol of Lord Shiva in the form of Nandi. He is shown in a seating posture - Padmasan which is also the case of Lord Shiva. He is also known as Adinath. Interestingly enough, both his names, Rishabha and Adinath are one of the names of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So who is Rishabh - an incarnation of Lord Vishnu or Lord Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2018-01-25T15:23:54.110" Title="Was Rishabha, the first tirthankar of Jainism, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu or Lord Shiva?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|avatars|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9050" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9043" CreationDate="2015-10-18T05:41:40.977" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Raja Yoga is the method of attaining Realization through the control of the prana and psychic forces. The methods as outlined by Patanjali in his &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt; are for the most part accepted as the way to practice it in modern Vedanta. Swami Vivekananda says in the Preface to his book &lt;em&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt; (which includes his translation of Patanjali's &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt;), &lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V1, pp 121-123, and available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since the dawn of history, various extraordinary phenomena have been recorded as happening amongst human beings. Witnesses are not wanting in modern times to attest to the fact of such events, even in societies living under the full blaze of modern science. The vast mass of such evidence is unreliable, as coming from ignorant, superstitious, or fraudulent persons. In many instances the so-called miracles are imitations. But what do they imitate? It is not the sign of a candid and scientific mind to throw overboard anything without proper investigation. Surface scientists, unable to explain the various extraordinary mental phenomena, strive to ignore their very existence. They are, therefore, more culpable than those who think that their prayers are answered by a being, or beings, above the clouds, or than those who believe that their petitions will make such beings change the course of the universe. The latter have the excuse of ignorance, or at least of a defective system of education, which has taught them dependence upon such beings, a dependence which has become a part of their degenerate nature. The former have no such excuse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For thousands of years such phenomena have been studied, investigated, and generalised, the whole ground of the religious faculties of man has been analysed, and the practical result is the science of Râja-Yoga. Raja-Yoga does not, after the unpardonable manner of some modern scientists, deny the existence of facts which are difficult to explain; on the other hand, it gently yet in no uncertain terms tells the superstitious that miracles, and answers to prayers, and powers of faith, though true as facts, are not rendered comprehensible through the superstitious explanation of attributing them to the agency of a being, or beings, above the clouds. It declares that each man is only a conduit for the infinite ocean of knowledge and power that lies behind mankind. It teaches that desires and wants are in man, that the power of supply is also in man; and that wherever and whenever a desire, a want, a prayer has been fulfilled, it was out of this infinite magazine that the supply came, and not from any supernatural being. The idea of supernatural beings may rouse to a certain extent the power of action in man, but it also brings spiritual decay. It brings dependence; it brings fear; it brings superstition. It degenerates into a horrible belief in the natural weakness of man. There is no supernatural, says the Yogi, but there are in nature gross manifestations and subtle manifestations. The subtle are the causes, the gross the effects. The gross can be easily perceived by the senses; not so the subtle. The practice of Raja-Yoga will lead to the acquisition of the more subtle perceptions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the orthodox systems of Indian philosophy have one goal in view, the liberation of the soul through perfection. The method is by Yoga. The word Yoga covers an immense ground, but both the Sânkhya and the Vedanta Schools point to Yoga in some form or other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The subject of the present book is that form of Yoga known as Raja-Yoga. The aphorisms of Patanjali are the highest authority on Raja-Yoga, and form its textbook. The other philosophers, though occasionally differing from Patanjali in some philosophical points, have, as a rule, acceded to his method of practice a decided consent. The first part of this book comprises several lectures to classes delivered by the present writer in New York. The second part is a rather free translation of the aphorisms (Sutras) of Patanjali, with a running commentary. Effort has been made to avoid technicalities as far as possible, and to keep to the free and easy style of conversation. In the first part some simple and specific directions are given for the student who wants to practice, &lt;em&gt;but all such are especially and earnestly reminded that, with few exceptions, Yoga can only be safely learnt by direct contact with a teacher&lt;/em&gt;. If these conversations succeed in awakening a desire for further information on the subject, the teacher will not be wanting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The system of Patanjali is based upon the system of the Sankhyas, the points of difference being very few. The two most important differences are, first, that Patanjali admits a Personal God in the form of a first teacher, while the only God the Sankhyas admit is a nearly perfected being, temporarily in charge of a cycle of creation. Second, the Yogis hold the mind to be equally all-pervading with the soul, or Purusha, and the Sankhyas do not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is sometimes mistakenly said that Sankaracharya taught that only the path of Jnana and scriptural study of Brahman was the way to enlightenment. This is not true. In his text, &lt;em&gt;Aparoksanubhuti&lt;/em&gt;, Sankaracharya addresses what is needed in verses 100-129. In verses 100-105 he says (translator Swami Vimuktananda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now, for the attainment of the aforesaid (knowledge) I shall expound the fifteen steps by the help of which one should practice profound meditation at all times. [translator's note: these fifteen steps include the eight steps of Patanjali]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Atman that is absolute existence and knowledge cannot be realized without constant practice. So one seeking after knowledge should long meditate upon Brahman for the attainment of the desired goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The steps, in order, are described as follows: the control of the senses, the control of the mind, renunciation, silence, space, time, posture, the restraining root (Mulabandha), the equipoise of the body, the firmness of vision, the control of the vital forces, the withdrawal of the mind, concentration, self-contemplation, and complete absorption.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The restraint of all the senses by means of such knowledge as &quot;All is Brahman&quot; is rightly called Yama which should be practiced again and again.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The continuous flow of only one kind of thought, to the exclusion of all other thoughts, is called Niyama, which is verily the supreme bliss and is regularly practiced by the wise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Raja Yoga is also explained by Sri Krishna in the 6th chapter, &lt;em&gt;The Yoga of Meditation&lt;/em&gt;, of the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt;. In a few of the verses from Chapter 6, the Lord says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let a man be lifted up by his own self; let him not lower himself, for he himself is his friend, and he himself is his enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A yogi should always try to concentrate his mind, retiring into solitude and living alone, having subdued his mind and body and got rid of his desires and possessions. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11-12. In a clean spot having fixed his seat--a firm seat, neither too high nor too low--and having spread over it kusagrass, and then a dear skin, and then a cloth,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And sitting there, he should practice yoga for the purification of the self, restraining the activities of the mind and senses, and bringing his thoughts to a point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;13&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He should sit firm, holding his body, neck, and head erect and still, and gaze steadily at the tip of the nose, without looking around.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Completely serene and fearless, steadfast in the vow of brahmachari, disciplined in mind, and ever thinking on Me, he should sit in yoga, regarding Me as his Supreme Goal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Keeping himself ever steadfast in this manner, the yogi of subdued mind attains the Peace abiding in Me--the Peace that culminates in Nirvana. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V7, p 197-198; and here under the title &lt;em&gt;Conversations and Dialogues&lt;/em&gt;, sub-title &lt;em&gt;I - XXIX&lt;/em&gt;, sub-sub-title &lt;em&gt;XV&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_7/vol_7_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_7/vol_7_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Disciple: Sir, now you are speaking of Jnana; but sometimes you proclaim the superiority of Bhakti, sometimes of Karma, and sometimes of Yoga [meaning Raja]. This confuses our understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swamiji: Well, the truth is this. The knowledge of Brahman is the ultimate goal — the highest destiny of man. But man cannot remain absorbed in Brahman all the time. When he comes out of it, he must have something to engage himself. At that time he should do such work as will contribute to the real well-being of people. Therefore do I urge you in the service of Jivas in a spirit of oneness. But, my son, such are the intricacies of work, that even great saints are caught in them and become attached. Therefore work has to be done without any desire for results. This is the teaching of the Gita. But know that in the knowledge of Brahman there is no touch of any relation to work. Good works, at the most, purify the mind. Therefore has the commentator Shankara so sharply criticized the doctrine of the combination of Jnana and Karma. Some attain to the knowledge of Brahman by the means of unselfish work. This is also a means, but the end is the realization of Brahman. Know this thoroughly that the goal of the path of discrimination and of all other modes of practice is the realization of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Disciple: Now, sir, please tell me about the utility of Raja-Yoga and Bhakti-Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swamiji: Striving in these paths also some attain to the realisation of Brahman. The path of Bhakti or devotion of God is a slow process, but is easy of practice. In the path of Yoga there are many obstacles; perhaps the mind runs after psychic powers and thus draws you away from attaining your real nature. Only the path of Jnana is of quick fruition and the rationale of all other creeds; hence it is equally esteemed in all countries and all ages. But even in the path of discrimination [Jnana Yoga] there is the chance of the mind getting stuck in the interminable net of vain argumentation. Therefore along with it, meditation [Raja Yoga] should be practiced. By means of discrimination and meditation [Jnana and Raja], the goal or Brahman has to be reached. One is sure to reach the goal by practicing in this way. This, in my opinion, is the easy path ensuring quick success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T05:41:40.977" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9052" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-18T08:11:02.303" Score="3" ViewCount="1392" Body="&lt;p&gt;While searching for Sita in Lanka,  Sri Hanuma saw many arches/windows/doors made of gold, some houses decorated with gold, floors studded with many precious stones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Sri Hanuma started setting the Lanka to fire, he moved from roof-top of one house to another with his burning tail. Sage Valmiki describes this episode in detail.  He also described that after catching fire, those houses burnt down completely and quickly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न अग्निः तृप्यति काष्ठानाम् तृणानाम् च यथा तथा |&#xA;हनूमान् राक्षस इन्द्राणाम् वधे किंचिन् न तृप्यति || ५-५४-२८&#xA;न हनूमद्विशस्तानाम् राक्षसानाम् वसुन्धरा |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the fire does not get satisfied with any amount of firewood and straw fed to it, Hanuma was not wearied in killing any number of demons. The earth was not then wearied in receiving the number of demons killed by Hanuma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;युगान्तकालानलतुल्यवेगः |&#xA;समारुतोऽग्निर्ववृधे दिवस्पृक् |&#xA;विधूमरश्मिर्भवनेषु सक्तो |&#xA;रक्षः शरीराज्यसमर्पितार्चिः || ५-५४-३२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That fire diffused on those buildings, together with the wind picked up a speed equal to that of a fire at the time of dissolution of the world. It grew taller, touching the sky with a smokeless splendour. Those flames of fire shot up, as inflamed by ghee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Till the invention of cement, concrete of Lime was mostly used for construction of houses. Now a question arises, if the same methodology was used even in Lanka also, how can a concrete structure catch fire so quickly?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After thinking for so many days,  the following explanation flashed in mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The architects of Ravana's period might have used wood in most of the areas in construction of houses, as we see in Western societies now.  The houses will not catch fire immediately, if they were made of lime concrete.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, some type of varnish might have been used to protect the wood to withstand from changing seasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion,  the wood, coated with some type of varnish, in the houses caught fire quickly, and spread rapidly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T09:12:13.993" Title="How was Hanuman able to burn Lanka down?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9055" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8656" CreationDate="2015-10-18T15:42:15.587" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swami Vedanta Desikan&lt;/strong&gt; (1268 A.D -1369 A.D) himself records the event of his birth as divine bell of Lord Srinivasa or  Venkateshwara in his own work, &lt;strong&gt;Sankalpa Suryodaya 1.14&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swami Kumara Varadacharya&lt;/strong&gt; (1316 - 1410 A.D), son of Swami Desikan, in his work called &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Vedanta Desika mangalam&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; says the following :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;venkaTeSaavatArO ayam tadghaNTaamSo athavA bhavet |&#xA;yatIndrAmSo athavetyevam vitarkyAyAstu mangaLam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: Swamy Desikan is indeed the avathAram of Lord VenkatEsa. Some say that SwAmy Desikan is the incarnation of the divine bell of the Lord Srinivasa of Tirumala. SwAmy Desikan was also considered by a few as the amsam of Yathiraja (Sri Ramanujacharya) May all mangalams (all auspiciousness) come the way of this Venkatesha Ghantaavathara!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again in another  work called “&lt;strong&gt;Pillai andhadi&lt;/strong&gt;”, Swami Kumara varadacharya (Son of Swami Desikan) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;anRi ivvulakinaiyAkki arum poruL nUl viriththu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ninRu thannIL pukazh vEnkata mAmali mEviyum pin&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;venRip pugazhth thiruvEngkatanAthanenum guruvAi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ninRu nikazhnthu maNmEl ninRa nOykaL tahvirththananE&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MEANING&lt;/strong&gt;: SarvEsvara was saddened by the chethanas, which looked like insentient during maha pralaya and gave the jeevas , bodies and Jnaendriyas and created them. Afterwards, He gave them the sasthras to serve as hand lamps to prevent them from entering inauspicious paths. Even then He found that the chethanas did not develop true knowledge and therefore He took the archA form and stood on top of the Tiruvenkata hills, so that the samsaris can see Him with their physical eyes and escape the cruelties of samsAra. The recidivism of the samsAris interfered with their salvation and then the Lord incarnated as Venkatanatha (Swami Desikan) at ThUppul (in kanchipuram) and instructed the world with his Sri Sookthis and pointed the right path with his upadEsams. Thereafter, the chethanas of the world were blessed,  travelled on the Godly path and were saved for once and for all through the performance of Prapatthi/saranagati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Saptati Ratna malika&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Swami Prativadi Bhayankara Annan&lt;/strong&gt; (1300 AD -1400 AD) (author of the famous Venkatesha suprabhatam, who was a direct disciple of Swami Desikan’s son, Swami Kumara Varadachaya and who later on went on to become one of the principle disciples of &lt;strong&gt;Swami Manavala Mamunigal&lt;/strong&gt;(1370 A.D - 1443 A.D) says the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhAadrapadamAsagata viShNuvimalarkshe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;venkaTa mahIdhrapati tIrthadinabhUte |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;prAdurabavat jagati daitya ripughaNTaa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hanta kavitArkika mrgendra gurumUrtyA |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;em&gt;On a Bhadrapada Sukla paksha,  Sravana star day celebrating the theerthavari associated with the BrahmOthsvam of Lord Venteshwara of Tirumala, the divine bell of the Lord incarnated as an acharya of par excellence  known as KavitArkika Simham because of his unsurpassable skills as a poet and logician.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swami Doddacharya&lt;/strong&gt; (1509-1591 A.D), also known as Mahacharya,  who is also considered as a famous  Tengalai Sri Vaishnava Acharya,  in his work  “Vedanta Desika vaibhava prakasika” stotram says the following about swami Desikan’s avatara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;venkaTeSasya sankalpAd viSvAmitrakulAmbudhau |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ghaNTAavatIrNA yanmUrtyA tam deSikavaram bhaje ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;I pray to that great Acharyan (Swami  Desikan) , assuming whose form, the bell of Lord of Tiruvenkatachala  incarnated as VenkaTanatha in the lineage of Visvamitra through the will (sankalpa) of Lord Venkatesha.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dr.Satyavrat Singh in his work, &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Vedanta Desika – His life, Work and Philosophy&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The divine bell incarnation episode has been immortalized in the practice of no bell being used; at the shrine of Tirumala (the book was published in 1958, at the latest)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the naivedhyam is offered to Lord Venkateshwara, it is only the huge bell suspended in front hall of Tirumala temple that is rung.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whether this practice of not using the bell inside sanctum sanctorum of Tirumala temple,may or  may not be in vogue, currently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But it is absolutely very clear from above works that Swami Desikan was considered as  amsa of Lord Venkatesha of Tirumala and also considered popularly as Vishnu ghanta avatara (The divine bell of Lord Vishnu/Venkateshwara) and also considered as an avatara of Sri Ramanujacharya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-19T01:12:57.387" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9056" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-18T15:42:50.043" Score="13" ViewCount="1033" Body="&lt;p&gt;How to discard old photos and idols in a dignified manner? Please give authentic suggestion with support from scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-07-28T11:16:25.523" LastActivityDate="2020-10-12T18:02:55.317" Title="Rules to discard photos" Tags="|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9057" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-18T16:06:51.060" Score="10" ViewCount="3174" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well-known that Shiva's son Ganesha is the general of Shiva's army of Ganas.  What's not as well-known, however, is that Vishnu also has an army, led by the god Vishvaksena.  Vishvaksena plays an important role in the Sri Vaishnava sect; as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7971/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vishvaksena learnt the all-important Dvaya mantra from Lakshmi and taught it to the Vaishnava poet-saint Nammalwar.  And as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7838/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Nammalwar is himself considered an incarnation of Vishvaksena.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what scriptures discuss the story of Vishvaksena?  No doubt he's discussed in the Pancharatra texts (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), but what other scriptures describe him?  There's a reference in a few Puranas to Shiva's incarnation, Kalabhairava, (temporarily) killing Vishvaksena.  The Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27/29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentions&lt;/a&gt; him as one of Vishnu's attendants, but are there any scriptures that describe the story of his birth and the like?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story I could find is the one told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://jetusa.org/svm/sri_venkatachala_mahatmyam-en.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF&lt;/a&gt;, which is a compilation of extracts from different Puranas which describe the story of Venkateshwara (the Vishnu deity in Tirupati, aka Balaji or Srinivasa). In particular, it &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hO2RM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;gives a story&lt;/a&gt; from the Vamana Purana.  In this account, the Apsara Kuntala is cursed by the sage Durvasa to be born as a human being.  She takes birth as Suvarchala, daughter of a cruel man named Virabahu.  Suvarchala then has a child with Varuna: the ocean god named Vishvaksena.  When Vishvaksena grows up, he goes to the Tirumala hills in Tirupati and engages in Tapasya, whereupon Vishnu appears before him and appoints him as the general of his army:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kuntala was reborn as a daughter to Virabahu, a cruel personality. She was named as Suvarchala. She made her parents very happy while growing up. She became very famous for her beauty and good character. Virabahu performed her marriage ceremony with Bhadra who was the son of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day in the Phalguna month, sukla paksha, she finished her bath in the river Narmada and stood near the mountain. Varuna deva saw her beauty and was very much impressed and asked her to wish for a boon. Suvarchala asked him to bless her with a good son which he readily granted. Suvarachala felt very happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After some time, Suvarchala gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. When he was born, the auspicious signs like the sound of celestial drums was heard, flowers rained from the sky, and the breeze blew with fragrance. The baby’s face was shining like a full moon, with lotus eyes, his skin was like pure gold and his feet had the impressions of conch, chakra and the mace. He was born in the star of Pushya. He was growing like a moon in the sukla paksha with valor. When the boy reached his tenth year, Suvarchala passed away. His father also left him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The boy became an orphan and started wandering in the surroundings of the kashyapa ashramam. Sage Kashyapa grasped that this boy was from the royal family and the son of Varuna. He accepted the boy as his student (Sishya).&#xA;Kashyapa gave the upadesam of Gayathri mantra and taught him all the Vedas along with Siksha and Vyakaranam. After the completion of his education, the boy sought permission from sage Kashyapa to do penance. Kashyapa allowed him with blessings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The boy went to Vrushadri and started rigorous penance with austeries. Lord Srimannarayana appeared in front of him and blessed him with the boon of becoming the army chief of Lord Srimannarayana. He was also blessed with a divine form similar to Lord Narayana (sarupyam) having sankha, chakra and gada in his hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The PDF says this story is from &amp;quot;Kshetra Khanda, Chapter 23&amp;quot; of the Vamana Purana.  But at least in the table of contents &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/vamana-purana-IDF392/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the Vamana Purana doesn't seem to be divided into Khandas.  So can anyone point me to the relevant chapter of the Vamana Purana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other scriptures that describe this story of Vishvaksena being the son of Varuna and Suvarchala?  Also, who is Suvarchala's father Virabahu?  If possible I would like to trace back the ancestry of Vishvaksena as far as I can.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2023-12-13T09:12:32.713" LastActivityDate="2024-03-10T09:06:52.750" Title="What scriptures describe the story of Vishnu's general, Vishvaksena?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|sri-vaishnava|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9058" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6913" CreationDate="2015-10-18T16:39:10.740" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following verse from Bhagavatam mentions the potential reason for Vishvamitra's endeavor.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/1/7/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/1/7/10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishvamitra had attained the state of BrahmaRishi and hence His knowledge of Lord Rama being VishNu is obvious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3953" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T16:39:10.740" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9059" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-18T16:40:48.833" Score="11" ViewCount="1461" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ok, this might be a little weird question, but are there any sort of references to Srimati Radharani INDIRECTLY in the two epics we have (viz. Ramayana and Mahabharata)? Just like Brahma extols Rama as Krsna in the Yuddha Kanda and Rama himself refers to Nriga's curse being uplifted in the future in the Uttara kanda, and a reference to Goloka in the Ayodhya Kanda...&#xA;And in the Mahabharata there are a couple or three references to Goloka, both in the Shanti Parva, including one where Krsna says something like, &quot;I will be found residing in Goloka,&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in that way, is there a similar reference to Radha? Like Krsna's favourite gopi (the way it is described in the Bhagavata)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know there are several mentions of Radha in the various Puranas though... so any similar mentions in the two itihasas we have?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. I do not seek answers like Radha is a created character, the verses of Ramayana and Mahabharata are interpolated and so on... I just want to know whether there has been any sort of mention of anything related to Krsna and his consort...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2015-10-18T17:03:38.663" LastActivityDate="2021-03-21T09:14:34.497" Title="References of Radha in the Itihasas?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|puranas|radha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9060" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9049" CreationDate="2015-10-18T16:48:11.873" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rishabhadeva was an avatara of Vishnu as is described in Srimad Bhagavatam (5th Canto, 3rd Chapter):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 5.3.17 — The Supreme Personality of Godhead replied: O great sages, I am certainly very pleased with your prayers. You are all truthful. You have prayed for the benediction of a son like Me for King Nābhi, but this is very difficult to obtain. Since I am the Supreme Person without a second and since no one is equal to Me, another personality like Me is not possible to find. In any case, because you are all qualified brāhmaṇas, your vibrations should not prove untrue. I consider the brāhmaṇas who are well qualified with brahminical qualities to be as good as My own mouth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 5.3.18 — Since I cannot find anyone equal to Me, I shall personally expand Myself into a plenary portion and thus advent Myself in the womb of Merudevī, the wife of Mahārāja Nābhi, the son of Āgnīdhra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Sukadeva Gosvami says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 5.3.20 — O Viṣṇudatta, Parīkṣit Mahārāja, the Supreme Personality of Godhead was pleased by the great sages at that sacrifice. Consequently the Lord decided to personally exhibit the method of executing religious principles [as observed by brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs, vānaprasthas and gṛhasthas engaged in rituals] and also satisfy Mahārāja Nābhi’s desire. Consequently He appeared as the son of Merudevī in His original spiritual form, which is above the modes of material nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Lord Rsbhadadeva was born as an avatara of Lord Vishnu to King Nabhi and Queen Merudevi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As to his disappearance, according to the 6th Chapter, he left his body in Konka (Goa) in the presence of King Arhat:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 5.6.8 — While He was wandering about, a wild forest fire began. This fire was caused by the friction of bamboos, which were being blown by the wind. In that fire, the entire forest near Kuṭakācala and the body of Lord Ṛṣabhadeva were burnt to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-18T16:48:11.873" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9062" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9064" CreationDate="2015-10-19T04:37:20.497" Score="10" ViewCount="3295" Body="&lt;p&gt;Post the Mahabharat war, Gandhari cursed Krishna that he and his kin will be destroyed 36 years from then. What is so specific about that count &lt;strong&gt;36&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3659" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T01:40:21.880" LastActivityDate="2022-07-07T15:59:34.977" Title="Gandhari's curse to Shri Krishna" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|curse|gandhari|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9063" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9100" CreationDate="2015-10-19T05:15:54.070" Score="15" ViewCount="1012" Body="&lt;p&gt;The life of Brahma is 100 years of Brahma.  More information on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_cosmology#Description&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu Cosmology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are in 51st year of the current Brahma's Life Year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also know that after Brahma dies, Brahma (the soul in that post) is reborn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is the current soul of Brahma reborn as Brahma again or some one else’s soul is reborn as Brahma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've heard that Lord Hanuman will be the next Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then what will happen with the current soul of Brahma? Will it attain Moksha? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-08-01T14:51:29.310" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T14:51:29.310" Title="Moksha for the Soul of Brahma" Tags="|philosophy|moksha|brahma|atma|lokas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9064" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9062" CreationDate="2015-10-19T05:34:44.413" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just being curious, I tried to find out the dates of the happenings.  It is very difficult and needs a leap of faith to take all the dates as accurate. With different means to mention the time (A.D, BCE, B.C etc) tying all together was bit difficult.  In one view I see these points which just amazes me (not quoting this as an answer, but may be it can be).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; says &lt;code&gt;Based on scriptural details and astrological calculations, the date of Krishna's birth, known as Janmashtami,[47] is 18 July 3228 BCE.[48]&lt;/code&gt;, Krishna's birth year is: 3228 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again the same page says &lt;code&gt;According to Puranic sources,[87] Krishna's departure marks the end of Dvapara Yuga and the start of Kali Yuga, which is dated to February 17/18, 3102 BCE.[88]&lt;/code&gt; about his departure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This leaves 126 years as his age (3228-3102).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many theories that predict the end of Mahabaratha war. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra_War&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This page of Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; lists them and one that is interesting point is &lt;code&gt;B. N. Achar states a date of 3067 BCE using planetary positions listed in the Mahabharata.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If that is to be taken as basis, then the years left for the yuga end is 3102-3067 which leaves the magic number 35, which is close to the duration that Gandhari said. Also the error of one year could be due to the approximation of the end of the war or that after BCE the AD starts with '0'th year (As only one year elapses between 1 B.C and 1 C.E).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sounds amazing and convincing to me :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="2552" LastEditDate="2015-10-19T06:01:11.273" LastActivityDate="2015-10-19T06:01:11.273" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9065" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-19T07:00:02.207" Score="1" ViewCount="370" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Southern India, the dress code of men wearing panchakatcham and women wearing madisar saree is known quite well and only married men and women are allowed to wear this. Though this was the only dress code to be worn 24x7, but nowadays it is followed only during praying and few other occasions although there are some orthodox couples who still wear this all the time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While this is the dress code for married people in the south, the North Indians seems to have no restrictions as such. Sri Bala Krishna himself is an example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gu0xz.jpg&quot; width=&quot;100&quot; height=&quot;133&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Image source:&lt;a href=&quot;http://readymademadisar.com/kids.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://readymademadisar.com/kids.html&lt;/a&gt; (disclaimer: I am neither associated nor promoting, but saw this cute kid and considered him as Krishna himself)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who do not know, Panchakatcham means 5 insertions - when translated crudely and is explained well in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wikihow.com/Wear-a-Pancha-Kachcham&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What pramaanavatchanam (authentic quote/instruction) talks about this dress code for men and women? In other words what are the references of this dress code in Smritis or Shruti texts?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;While we see the Lord in many temples and photos wearing this panchakatcham, it is very rare (or non existent) to see the Goddess in Madisar. Why is this so?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T08:56:04.177" LastActivityDate="2018-09-05T08:56:04.177" Title="Question regarding Panchakatcham and Madisar dressing" Tags="|dress|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9066" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9062" CreationDate="2015-10-19T07:58:51.907" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;First the reference from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11024.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;scripture&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Gandhari said ... Since deliberately, O slayer of Madhu, thou wert&#xA;  indifferent to this universal carnage, therefore, O mighty-armed one,&#xA;  thou shouldst reap the fruit of this act. By the little merit I have&#xA;  acquired through waiting dutifully on my husband, by that merit so&#xA;  difficult to attain, I shall &lt;strong&gt;curse thee&lt;/strong&gt;, O wielder of the discus and&#xA;  the mace! Since thou wert indifferent to the Kurus and the Pandavas&#xA;  whilst they slew each other, therefore, O Govinda, thou shalt be the&#xA;  slayer of thy own kinsmen! &lt;strong&gt;In the thirty-sixth year from this, O&#xA;  slayer of Madhu, thou shalt, after causing the slaughter of thy&#xA;  kinsmen and friends and sons, perish by disgusting means in the&#xA;  wilderness.&lt;/strong&gt; The ladies of thy race, deprived of sons, kinsmen, and&#xA;  friends, shall weep and cry even as these ladies of the Bharata&#xA;  race!’&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now to understand the magic number, first we have to rationally understand what is a &quot;curse&quot; (or a &quot;blessing&quot;)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The curse is not something regular &quot;bad-mouthing&quot; or &quot;trash-talking&quot; we see in today's society or media where people give to each other. Those are just their frustration or anger being short sighted people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Curse (&lt;em&gt;Shraap&lt;/em&gt;) or a Blessing (&lt;em&gt;Aashirwad&lt;/em&gt;) in its true sense is a &quot;Definite Prophecy&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The course of events of past, present, future are innumerable interactions of 3 modes of material nature in innumerable forms. Some even say it is pre-decided:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2399/1049&quot;&gt;Is our destiny pre determined? If yes, then why do our actions affect our karma?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case the to-be events of future are not just random. They can be prophesied. Such &quot;spiritual capability&quot; of issuing genuine curse (or blessing) can come by various means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Having a strong knowledge of subtle activities of &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; through&#xA;experience or enlightenment&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Having gone through sever austerities and observing own &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;,&#xA;with utmost perfection&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Being in true feat of rage or happiness, certain doors of mind are&#xA;opened for a short while which helps predicting future (relevant today)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Natural power acquired from the deeds of past births&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;... &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We may count Gandhari in the 2nd league. She had observed her &lt;em&gt;Stree Dharma&lt;/em&gt; with utmost perfection throughout her married life and hence she had certain blessings from various elders like Bhisma, Vyasa. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11015.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devoted to her lord, that highly blessed lady had always practised&#xA;  high vows. Undergoing the severest penances, she was always truthful&#xA;  in her speech. In consequence of the gift of the boon by the great&#xA;  rishi Vyasa of sanctified deeds, &lt;strong&gt;she became possessed of spiritual&#xA;  knowledge and power.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gandhari was well aware that Duryodhana was foolish and never obedient to elders. The Paandavas were so much essential to be saved &amp;amp; unharmed. But as an emotional mother of all the slain sons, she also was in feat of rage towards Vaasudev Krishna, who in her opinion could have saved this war.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Due to increasing power, Yaadavas too were on the same path of self-destruction like Kurus and other kings were during Mahabharata war.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;With her spiritual power of foreseeing the future along with anger of a mother she predicted something which was supposed to happen in 36 years.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ofcourse, Krishna too wanted it to happen and he accepted it whole-heartedly. Though Gandhari cursed for Krishna being the reason of killing his kinsmen, Krishna actually was not the direct reason for that. Instead he chosen them to kill each other. Now we can interpret it to be &quot;alteration&quot; or &quot;correction&quot;, it's up to us. &lt;strong&gt;In nutshell, &quot;36 years&quot; was not a &quot;chosen&quot; figure, rather a &quot;destined&quot; figure.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing these words, the high-souled Vasudeva, addressing the&#xA;  venerable Gandhari, said unto her these words, with a faint smile,&#xA;  ‘There is none in the world, save myself, that is capable of&#xA;  exterminating the Vrishnis. I know this well. I am endeavouring to&#xA;  bring it about. In uttering this curse, O thou of excellent vows, thou&#xA;  hast aided me in the accomplishment of that task. The Vrishnis are&#xA;  incapable of being slain by others, be they human beings or gods or&#xA;  Danavas. &lt;strong&gt;The Yadavas, therefore shall fall by one another’s hand.’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11013.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;advice of Sage Vyasa&lt;/a&gt; which shows his trust in the words or prophecy of Gandhari:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The rishi, addressing his daughter-in-law at the proper moment, said,&#xA;  ‘Do not avail thyself of this opportunity for denouncing a curse. On&#xA;  the other hand, utilize it for showing thy forgiveness. Thou shouldst&#xA;  not be angry with the Pandavas, O Gandhari! Set thy heart on peace.&#xA;  Restrain the words that are about to fall from thy lips. Listen to my&#xA;  advice. Thy son, desirous of victory, had besought thee every day for&#xA;  the eighteen days that battle lasted, saying, &quot;O mother, bless me who&#xA;  am fighting with my foes.&quot; Implored every day in these words by thy&#xA;  son desirous of victory, the answer thou always gavest him was,&#xA;  &quot;Thither is victory where righteousness is!&quot; &lt;strong&gt;I do not, O Gandhari,&#xA;  remember that any words spoken by thee have become false.&lt;/strong&gt; Those words,&#xA;  therefore, that thou, implored by Duryodhana, saidst unto him, could&#xA;  not be false.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-10-20T02:00:50.287" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9067" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9068" CreationDate="2015-10-19T09:09:20.123" Score="7" ViewCount="4522" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjuna&quot;&gt;wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt;, Arjuna was also called '&lt;strong&gt;Partha&lt;/strong&gt;' because he was son of Kunti (&lt;strong&gt;Pritha&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why could not Yudhishtira/Bheema be called by this name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3659" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-10-19T09:29:07.613" LastActivityDate="2017-12-01T17:19:16.397" Title="Why was only Arjuna referred as &quot;Partha&quot;, but not Yudhishtira or Bheema?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9068" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9067" CreationDate="2015-10-19T09:36:11.467" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sabhaparva of Mahabharta , after Pandavas leave for the forest for exile, this verse appears:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वनं गतेषु पार्थेषु निर्जितेषु दुरोदरे ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;धृतराष्ट्रं महाराजा तदा चिन्ता समाविशत् ।।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;[Sabhaparva 2-103]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vanam gateshu partheshu nirjiteshu durodare |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dhrtaraashtram mahaaraja tadaa chintaa samaavishat || [Sabhaparva&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;2-103]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning of this verse is: &lt;em&gt;'O Maharaja, with the Parthas (to be understood as the Pandavas) being defeated at dice and being gone to the forest, anxiety encroached upon Dhritarashtra'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, the term 'Partha' has been used in Mahabharata to represent &quot;son of 'Pritha'/'Kunti'&quot;. Technically it may not fit for Nakula &amp;amp; Sahadeva, as they were biological sons of Madri. But since they were adopted by Kunti with equal love, they can also be referred as 'Partha'. However, it's mostly used for Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-24T09:57:01.993" LastActivityDate="2015-10-24T09:57:01.993" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9069" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9072" CreationDate="2015-10-19T10:14:17.837" Score="4" ViewCount="1155" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do gods eat their own creations; Do they have any appetite? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="840" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-10-20T05:28:23.060" LastActivityDate="2015-10-20T05:28:23.060" Title="What kind of food does God eat?" Tags="|gods|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9070" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9069" CreationDate="2015-10-19T10:24:49.407" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Geeta lord Krishna Says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati tad ahaṁ&#xA;  bhakty-upahṛtam aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ [Bg 9.26] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a ﬂower, a fruit or&#xA;  water, I will accept it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bg 9.26&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its Clearly mention by lord Krishna he will accept a leaf, a ﬂower, a fruit or water &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastActivityDate="2015-10-19T10:24:49.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9071" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9203" CreationDate="2015-10-19T11:02:14.877" Score="3" ViewCount="3957" Body="&lt;p&gt;While doing housewarming ceremony, what's the significance of the below?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bringing a cow and its calf inside the new home&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Boiling milk and then let it spill over&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3659" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-22T15:46:17.613" LastActivityDate="2023-05-26T12:07:21.517" Title="Importance of cow, calf &amp; milk during housewarming ceremony" Tags="|rituals|cows|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9072" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9069" CreationDate="2015-10-19T11:11:22.460" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;At spiritual level, God need not literally &quot;eat&quot; the food in human appetite sense. But as a devotee, out of love one offers food to the god in order to remember him. God even in their material form also consumes whatever is offered to them with true love and devotion. For example, below thread discusses, how a simple &quot;bitten rice&quot; was enough for Krishna to be gratified towards Sudama:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2598/1049&quot;&gt;Why did Rukmini stop Lord Krishna from eating beaten rice given by Sudama a second time?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We should offer (&amp;amp; eat) &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sattvik&lt;/em&gt; food&lt;/strong&gt; to the [demi]gods, because the nature of &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; is closest to the God. Below is the general guideline for the &lt;em&gt;Sattvik&lt;/em&gt; foods:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 17.8&lt;/a&gt; — Foods dear to those in&#xA;  the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s&#xA;  existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such&#xA;  foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;  In one of the interesting event of Mahabharata, during forest exile of 13 years, sage Durvasa &amp;amp; his follower Brahmins pay surprise visit to Paandavas. All the food was already consumed and hence Draupadi was not having any chances of serving the food. Krishna arrives at the last moment and eats just 1 leftover morsel of rise and with his &lt;em&gt;Yoga maya&lt;/em&gt;, he makes all the Rishis content with food and saves the day. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-10-19T11:22:21.220" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9075" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-19T13:02:02.370" Score="3" ViewCount="547" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story of &lt;strong&gt;Ashwathama&lt;/strong&gt; cursing Parents of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Swaminarayana&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read it on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durvasa#Durvasa_.26_Swaminarayan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;. But I would like to know what is the source of this story? Which Hindu scripture describes this incident?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2368" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T00:03:36.510" Title="Ashwathama and Swaminarayan" Tags="|puranas|vishnu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9076" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9041" CreationDate="2015-10-19T14:11:40.607" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga27/yuddhasans27.htm#Verse34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;There was a reference to Kesari&lt;/a&gt;, among all the vanara generals, who came in support of Sri Rama to Lanka, in Yuddha Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sharana, Ravana's aide, describes the individual strengths of the various commanders in the army of monkeys, mentioning their names one by one, in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भ्रमर आचरिता यत्र सर्व काम फल द्रुमाः || ६-२७-३४&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यम् सूर्य तुल्य वर्ण आभम् अनुपर्येति पर्वतम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;यस्य भासा सदा भान्ति तद् वर्णा मृग पक्षिणः || ६-२७-३५&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यस्य प्रस्थम् महात्मानो न त्यजन्ति महर्षयः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वकामफला वृक्षाः सर्वे फलसमन्विताः || ६-२७-३६&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मधूनि च महार्हाणि यस्मिन् पर्वतसत्तमे |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तत्र एष रमते राजन् रम्ये कान्चन पर्वते || ६-२७-३७&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मुख्यो वानर मुख्यानाम् &lt;strong&gt;केसरी नाम यूथपः&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O, king! &lt;strong&gt;This army-chief called Kesari&lt;/strong&gt;, the chief of the commanders of monkeys, wanders in Kanchana mountain wherein there are trees which yield fruits in all seasons, inhabited by large black-bees, to which the sun circumambulates clock-wise, the mountain shining with its own colour and splendour, by whose brightness, the animals and birds ever shine with the same hue, whose table-land on the top of the mountain the great sages do not leave, wherein trees, all mango-trees laden with fruits on all sides and wherein inhabit honey-bees of excellent variety.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-20T01:31:19.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9077" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-19T14:16:14.783" Score="17" ViewCount="3030" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shuka, Ravana's aide, describes the individual strengths of the various commanders in the army of monkeys, mentioning their names one by one, in detail, in Yuddha Kanda of Srimad Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga28/yuddhasans28.htm#Verse10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;While describing Sri Hanuman&lt;/a&gt;, Shuka says that Sri Hanuman was the eldest son of Kesari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ज्येष्ठः केसरिणः पुत्रो वात आत्मज इति श्रुतः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;हनूमान् इति विख्यातो लन्घितो येन सागरः || ६-२८-१०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This monkey, by whom the ocean was traversed, is the eldest son of Kesari. He is known as the son of wind-god and famously called as Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anybody tell me how many sons did Kesari have, other than Sri Hanuman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-05-28T05:05:08.033" Title="How many sons did Kesari have, other than Sri Hanuman?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9078" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9095" CreationDate="2015-10-19T14:36:36.060" Score="28" ViewCount="46339" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some English translations of Puranas can be found online here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;(a) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda purana&lt;/a&gt; (abridged)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;(b) &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-garuda-purana-dutt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda purana&lt;/a&gt; (full)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavata.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;(a) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3830/3500&quot;&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; (b) &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/shiva-purana-english&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Online proofread edition&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/4142/3500&quot;&gt;Linga purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;(a) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6751/3500&quot;&gt;Brahmanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; (b) &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brahmanda-purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Online proofread edition&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-padma-purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4125/3500&quot;&gt;Narada Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-markandeya-purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-purana-english&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-agni-purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agni Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Correct me if any of these sources are abridged or not genuine)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about unabridged versions of other Puranas? Are they available on net?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found some Puranas on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dli.ernet.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;DLI&lt;/a&gt; but I don't know whether they are abridged or unabridged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone mention online sources for complete English translations for other Puranas viz.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmavaivartha Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matsya purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vamana purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha Purana and&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vayu Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If all these are not available, can anyone give sources for&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matsya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vayu and&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Agni Puranas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="5384" LastEditDate="2021-11-18T14:30:23.743" LastActivityDate="2022-05-03T16:50:00.260" Title="Complete English translations of Puranas" Tags="|scripture|puranas|translation-request|resource|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9079" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-19T15:26:14.663" Score="5" ViewCount="60" Body="&lt;p&gt;I like to know if there is any religious text or verse that we can chant or say (does not matter if its's being chanted/ said during day or night) when one has a lot of mental stress or feeling restless mentally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2886" LastActivityDate="2015-10-19T15:26:14.663" Title="Religious text or verse that can ease mental stress and faulty thinking" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9080" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-19T16:13:34.637" Score="4" ViewCount="109" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why in art and some religions, Naga is shown with different number of heads?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C4%81ga#/media/File:NagaPhnomPenh.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Cambodian Naga&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3958" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-19T21:34:12.383" LastActivityDate="2015-10-19T21:34:12.383" Title="Why is Naga shown with 3, 5, 7, 9 heads?" Tags="|belief|history|other-religions|art|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-02-15T08:16:02.083" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9082" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8423" CreationDate="2015-10-19T19:26:26.723" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you are referring to following Bhagavad Geeta shlokha. The speaker in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9X3R_y1Y94#t=993&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;YouTube video you mention&lt;/a&gt; has got some of the translation (&lt;em&gt;I neither love nor hate any one&lt;/em&gt;) wrong. The translation by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/preface&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada&lt;/a&gt; is below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bg 4.11&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmyaham mama&#xA;vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Word for word: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;ye — all&#xA;who; yathā — as; mām — unto Me; prapadyante — surrender; tān — them;&#xA;tathā — so; eva — certainly; bhajāmi — reward; aham — I; mama — My;&#xA;vartma — path; anuvartante — follow; manuṣyāḥ — all men; pārtha — O&#xA;son of Pṛthā; sarvaśaḥ — in all respects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-19T19:26:26.723" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9083" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-19T23:15:46.617" Score="2" ViewCount="342" Body="&lt;p&gt;The film &lt;em&gt;Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom&lt;/em&gt; is based on a lot of lurid and sensationalist stereotypes about worshippers of Maa Kali and Sri Shiva. However, the central plot conceit is based around a supposed legend of &quot;Shankara&quot;, who met Sri Shiva on top of a mountain and received five stones to assist him spreading dharma throughout the world. These were subsequently referred to as &quot;Shankara stones&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though fictional, is this based on an actual story or text? Presumably, &quot;Shankara&quot; is referring to Sri Adi Shankaracharya, who (I have heard) did encounter manifestations of Sri Shiva during his travels across India. If so, please provide a citation of the relevant texts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3458" LastActivityDate="2015-10-19T23:15:46.617" Title="Origin of the Shankara legend?" Tags="|puranas|culture|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9084" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-20T03:27:23.660" Score="3" ViewCount="221" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sukracharya was a teacher of King Bali, and also of Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did both Bali and Ravana belong to the same Treta yuga?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who really was Sukracharya?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why did he support Asuras?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When and how did he die?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3650" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-19T07:52:34.557" LastActivityDate="2020-06-19T07:52:34.557" Title="Who was Sukracharya?" Tags="|asuras|shukracharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9085" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="927" CreationDate="2015-10-20T03:45:05.473" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As many pointed out, there are many views of the composition of the list. Hence it depends on whom you would like to follow to have the meaning of your word &lt;code&gt;exact&lt;/code&gt; in your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I were you, I would follow vaishnava philosophy and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta_Desika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Swami Sri Desikan&lt;/a&gt; is considered as authority (though there are branches which do not follow his principles, no one disagrees with the contribution that he has done).  As per that swamy who composed &lt;code&gt;dasaavathara stotram&lt;/code&gt;.  This &lt;a href=&quot;http://srivaishnavam.com/stotras/dasavatharam_meaning.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;stotram enumerates&lt;/a&gt; the dasaavatar as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matsya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Koorma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Narasimha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vamana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Parasurama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Rama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Balarama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Krishna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalki&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naalayira_Divya_Prabhandham&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;4000 divya prabandam&lt;/a&gt; is composed on 12 Azhwars whose time span was before Swami Desikan (and may be before the Buddha period) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;மீனோ டாமை கேழலரி குறளாய் முன்னு மிராமனாய்த்&#xA;தானாய் பின்னு மிராமனாய்த் தாமோ தரனாய்க் கற்கியும்&#xA;ஆனான் றன்னை கண்ணபுரத் தடியேன் கலிய னொலிசெய்த&#xA;தேனா ரின்சொல் தமிழ்மாலை செப்பப் பாவம் நில்லாவே.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its explanation and translation given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dravidaveda.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=2313&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;DravidaVeda.org&lt;/a&gt; says:&#xA;&lt;code&gt;This nectar-sweet garland of Tamil songs by devotee kaliyan is on the Lord of kannapuram who appeared as fish, a furtile, a boar, a manlion, manikin, parasurama, Kodandarama, Balarama, krishna, and who will come as kalki too.  Those who master it will be rid of evil karmas.&lt;/code&gt; I believe the word furtile is a typographical error for the word turtile&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastActivityDate="2015-10-20T03:45:05.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9086" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9016" CreationDate="2015-10-20T04:12:12.357" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Glad to know about your ambition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To best of my knowledge there are saints in vaishnava philosophy called Azhwars who sung songs in Tamil in which the name of the temple or its place will be mentioned directly or indirectly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While these Azhwars composed these songs no such coherent list of 108 temples exist (here I mean no such list exist and I am not saying that no such temples exist). The songs that are referred here are 4000 divya prabandhams.  Later someone made up this list and as of now we follow that list even though there are some doubts and disputes where the temple cannot be exactly mapped to the current location.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is the case for Shiva temples, which is called in Tamil as 'பாடல் பெற்ற சதலம்' (paadal pettra stalam) which means the temples that were sung.  The songs that are referred here are devaram (that's all I know).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The list of such temples can be found in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=z2qkwPapzunE.kz5daQ7P_h_I&amp;amp;hl=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;a map&lt;/a&gt; marked by a temple lover named Raju. If you can read Tamil, the list of such temples are provided in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AE%AE%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%9F%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%9F_%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%AF%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%A9_%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%87%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D_%E0%AE%AA%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%9F%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%8D_%E0%AE%AA%E0%AF%86%E0%AE%B1%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%B1_%E0%AE%9A%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B2%E0%AE%AF%E0%AE%99%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%B3%E0%AF%8D&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tamil Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;. In case if you can't there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shaivam.org/gallery/image/gspt_others.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;an English site&lt;/a&gt; as well, but I am not sure how complete/accurate that is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other than this, I have a friend who has a Tamil book which lists all these and provides explanation, route info etc. If you want, drop a line in comment and I will try to get the details of that book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Update: I stumbled on an &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/SivaTemplesOfSouthIndia/SivaTemplesOfSouthIndia_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;archieve&lt;/a&gt; that lists the temples and its details similar to that book mentioned above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="2552" LastEditDate="2015-10-20T04:48:37.283" LastActivityDate="2015-10-20T04:48:37.283" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9088" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8423" CreationDate="2015-10-20T07:51:20.173" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can read Bhagavad Gita in Telugu &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telugubhakti.com/telugupages/Gita/Gita.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;The translation in Telugu is same as the translation in English.&#xA;Here is the meaning of verse 4.11 in Telugu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tNkDx.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tNkDx.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-21T17:13:22.713" LastActivityDate="2015-10-21T17:13:22.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9089" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15224" CreationDate="2015-10-20T08:35:13.427" Score="7" ViewCount="33461" Body="&lt;p&gt;Could anyone can tell me when and at what time does the Navratri fast end?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And how to calculate it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="934" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-20T19:10:29.527" LastActivityDate="2022-07-05T16:57:53.030" Title="When and what time does the Navratri fast end?" Tags="|fasting|navrathri|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9090" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7754" CreationDate="2015-10-20T08:45:29.873" Score="-7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The avatara or incarnation concept is a relatively new one to Sanaatana Dharma, otherwise known as Hinduism.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If &lt;strong&gt;we remove the interpolations&lt;/strong&gt; and read Srimad Ramayana and Mahabharata, which closely followed the Vedic way of life, we will understand that there is no incarnation concept in those epics. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We will find the description of Vishnu taking the form of Vamana, a dwarf, for overcoming Bali, as per the wishes of Gods, in Srimad Ramayana, but there is no incarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बलिः वैरोचनिः विष्णो यजते यज्ञम् उत्तमम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  असमाप्त व्रते तस्मिन् स्व कार्यम् अभिपद्यताम् || १-२९-७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, Vishnu, Bali the son of Virochana is conducting an unsurpassed Vedic ritual, before the completion of which our own mission, say the task of gods, is to be achieved completely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स त्वम् सुर हितार्थाय माया योगम् उपाश्रितः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वामनत्वम् गतो विष्णो कुरु कल्याणम् उत्तमम् || १-२९-९ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'As such, oh, Vishnu, you may effectuate the most suitable merited deed for the welfare of gods on resorting to your illusory power, and on assuming the form of a dwarf to deal with Emperor Bali.' Thus gods told to Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was not Lord Vishnu, who took the Varaha Avatar, but Lord Brahma.  Srimad Ramayana clearly states this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वम् सलिलम् एव आसीत् पृथिवी यत्र निर्मिता |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततः समभवद् ब्रह्मा स्वयम्भूर् दैवतैः सह || २-११०-३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All was water only in the beginning&quot; from which element the earth was formed. After that, the self-existent Brahma with all the gods came into existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स वराहः ततो भूत्वा प्रोज्जहार वसुंधराम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  असृजच् च जगत् सर्वम् सह पुत्रैः कृत आत्मभिः || २-११०-४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Thereafter, that Brahma, assuming the form of boar, caused the earth to rise from water and with his sons of pure soul, created the entire world.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The incarnation concept was started with the Puranas, which came at a much later period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-08T17:55:19.927" LastActivityDate="2017-01-08T17:55:19.927" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9091" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-20T11:54:20.100" Score="6" ViewCount="2884" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=OCsSBgAAQBAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PT490&amp;amp;ots=Xd8ZqPLSHX&amp;amp;dq=Those%20who%20relinquish%20the%20body%20while%20remembering&amp;amp;pg=PT490#v=twopage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=true&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita: Chapter - 8 Verse - 5&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अन्तकाले च मामेव स्मरन्मुक्त्वा कलेवरम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;य: प्रयाति स मद्भावं याति नास्त्यत्र संशय: || 5||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;anta-kāle cha mām eva smaran muktvā kalevaram &lt;br&gt;&#xA;yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ yāti nāstyatra sanśhayaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation: Those who relinquish the body while remembering me at the moment of death will come to me. There is certainly no doubt about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a person commits crimes like murder, robbery etc. and at the time of his death, thinks of, and reaches God. Then;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What will happen to all his (bad) Karma? Will it be forgiven?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How come a single thought of God, at the moment of death suppress all of his Karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Doesn't this violate the Law of Karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3135" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-31T15:33:16.403" Title="What happens to a person's Karma if he attains salvation at the time of his death?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|karma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9093" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9091" CreationDate="2015-10-20T12:25:48.103" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you did not go further in the 8th chapter of Srimad Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna also said in the subsequent slokas after sloka 5 as follows::&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यं यं वापि स्मरन्भावं त्यजत्यन्ते कलेवरम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तं तमेवैति कौन्तेय सदा तद्भावभावितः।।8.6।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Kunti, thinking of any entity whichever it may be one gives up the body at the end, he attains that very one, having been always engrossed in its thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मात्सर्वेषु कालेषु मामनुस्मर युध्य च।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्मामेवैष्यस्यसंशयम्।।8.7।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore, think of Me at all times and fight. There is no doubt that by dedicating your mind and intellect to Me, you will attain Me alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अभ्यासयोगयुक्तेन चेतसा नान्यगामिना।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परमं पुरुषं दिव्यं याति पार्थानुचिन्तयन्।।8.8।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Prtha, by meditating with a mind which is engaged in the yoga of practice and which does not stray away to anything else, one reaches the supreme Person existing in the effulgent region.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनन्यचेताः सततं यो मां स्मरति नित्यशः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्याहं सुलभः पार्थ नित्ययुक्तस्य योगिनः।।8.14।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Prtha, to that yogi of constant concentration and single-minded attention, who remembers Me uninterruptedly and for long, I am easy of attainment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Sri Krishna never said that it is possible to think of that BRAHMAN only in the last second and that it is very easy to attain that BRAHMAN.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There should be a continuous practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remember there is no SHORT CUT to attain the BRAHMAN.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2015-10-20T13:48:00.103" LastActivityDate="2015-10-20T13:48:00.103" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9094" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-20T12:49:23.727" Score="4" ViewCount="2949" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Vishnu Puran, Lord Vishnu created Lord Shiva and according to Shiva Purana it's vice versa. In Devi Bhagavata Purana, Adi Shakti created both Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. So, what is the actual truth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2024-03-20T02:12:21.307" Title="According to Vishnu Puran, Vishnu created Shiva and according to Shiva Purana it's vice versa. What's the truth?" Tags="|puranas|shiva-purana|vishnu-purana|durga|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9095" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9078" CreationDate="2015-10-20T15:37:43.163" Score="33" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Skip to bottom of this answer to download complete Purana as single PDF file. All these puranas are scanned and non text searchable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Index &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/skanda-purana-23-volumes-IDF415/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; shows Skanda Purana consists 23 Volumes.Of 23 Volumes,20 volumes were found from &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/browse?type=title&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;West Bengal Dspace.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12961&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/13010&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20835&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/13009&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20756&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20761&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/13008&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/22054&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/21994&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/13007&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/13006&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 11&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/22009&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20764&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/21050&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20778&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 15&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/13005&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/13004&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/13003&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 18&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/13002&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 19&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/13000&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will update links for other Volumes after getting legitimate links.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Index &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/agni-purana-4-volumes-IDE887/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; Shows Agni Purana consists four Volumes. I found all four volumes on West Bengal dspace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12915&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12912&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12914&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/28710&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/brahma-purana-4-volumes-IDF030/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; Index shows Brahma Purana consists four voulmes. Those Volumes were available on West Bengal Dspace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20566&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/21097&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20588&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20270&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kurma Purana was found in Two Volumes.Those Scanned Volumes were available on Dspace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kurma purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/21487&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12944&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Index &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/vayu-purana-2-volumes-IDE900/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; shows Vayu Purana consists two volumes. Those Volumes were found on West Bengal dspace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vayu Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12977&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20638&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/varaha-purana-2-volumes-IDF028/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Two&lt;/a&gt; Volumes of Varaha Purana were found on West Bengal dspace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Varaha Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12962&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12972&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additionally, there's another version of Garuda Purana in three volumes on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/garuda-purana-3-volumes-IDE886/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;exotic India&lt;/a&gt; and it's scanned copy was found on West Bengal Dspace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/20541&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/21508&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12942&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/browse?type=title&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;West Bengal Dspace&lt;/a&gt; goes dead frequently, I combined all Volumes of each Purana and Uploaded those single files  to Google drive as  PDFs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0XpAgOLu_nHelp2dm9mdkVIOW8/view?usp=sharing&amp;amp;resourcekey=0-L8Hcj78wcLuwGxbWdr3ajQ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agni Purana&lt;/a&gt; (83 MB)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0XpAgOLu_nHbVFNdHMwUkg4UW8/view?usp=sharing&amp;amp;resourcekey=0-pzQ3YuK8prp_eI5XsL7Gvw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt; (151 MB)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0XpAgOLu_nHS1htaTEyblE3WmM/view?usp=sharing&amp;amp;resourcekey=0-kLFqI25Y5fszIPP6PonG3w&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; (126 MB)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0XpAgOLu_nHMW9vT2F3SU56SVE/view?usp=sharing&amp;amp;resourcekey=0-Hw6K2431rElwoJTVv-xmYg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Puarana&lt;/a&gt; (118 MB)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0XpAgOLu_nHZ2d1aHEtVHNqMlU/view?usp=sharing&amp;amp;resourcekey=0-js_1lrcpGWgwmzJcEtbnlg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/a&gt; (62 MB)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0XpAgOLu_nHSTI2SVNKejlic3c/view?usp=sharing&amp;amp;resourcekey=0-tQmf_KhgStnCwt_zXVpZuw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Linga Purana&lt;/a&gt; (94 MB)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0XpAgOLu_nHLUFONHJmaXhBcDA/view?usp=sharing&amp;amp;resourcekey=0-LbUbVYFJX8jRaq6gsXBuqg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narada Purana&lt;/a&gt; (135 MB)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0XpAgOLu_nHb3l2aEpSV0tmb28/view?usp=sharing&amp;amp;resourcekey=0-XlzUrNRxc5WnKtfsQ9fPGw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; (207 MB)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0XpAgOLu_nHTTg3bzhHR3dlUGM/view?usp=sharing&amp;amp;resourcekey=0-shqf1gaOFAG8aeUnXkf4tA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; (502 MB)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cYvGa-XIEzm_1B6LhPj2ZQZhNaPBRgTF/view?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha Pruna&lt;/a&gt; (29 MB)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0XpAgOLu_nHRVJPaUNhR3JqeWs/view?usp=sharing&amp;amp;resourcekey=0-OiTgxY9Z8p7hxVy6fRuBig&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vayu Purana&lt;/a&gt; (105 MB)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to read Puranas in both Sanskrit and English, visit &lt;a href=&quot;http://indianscriptures.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indianscriptures.com&lt;/a&gt;. I have downloaded all of them and appended as single file but not posting any links here due to copyright uncertainities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more details visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/332/3500&quot;&gt;What is the copyright status of Indian books?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2022-05-03T16:50:00.260" LastActivityDate="2022-05-03T16:50:00.260" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9097" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-20T16:17:50.087" Score="2" ViewCount="90" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can someone please describe some of the theories of creation as per the Hindu ancient texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How about the origin of matter ? I seem to remember a reference to something akin to the Big Bang; when the sound of Omkar created the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3968" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-20T19:09:01.743" LastActivityDate="2015-10-20T19:09:01.743" Title="What is the Hindu theory of creation?" Tags="|belief|brahma|creation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-10-25T11:26:31.357" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9098" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-20T19:10:48.150" Score="2" ViewCount="118" Body="&lt;p&gt;What things would a Hindu be willing to die for? Are there any examples of martyrdom occurring in Scriptures, or any reasons a Hindu would be willing to die?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3970" LastEditorUserId="3970" LastEditDate="2015-10-21T16:47:15.820" LastActivityDate="2016-05-01T16:56:03.637" Title="What would a Hindu be willing to die for?" Tags="|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9099" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-21T03:18:27.847" Score="10" ViewCount="3984" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ayodhya Kanda, Sita, while narrating her marriage episode to Anasuya, wife of Sage Atri, states that Janaka himself received a great bow from Varuna, the god of Water (rain-god), but not from Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महा यज्ने तदा तस्य वरुणेन महात्मना | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दत्तम् धनुर् वरम् प्रीत्या तूणी च अक्षय्य सायकौ || (Ayodhya Kanda 118th Sarga 39th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In ancient days, &lt;strong&gt;Janaka on the occasion of a great sacrifice, received with affection from Varuna (वरुणेन महात्मना) the rain-god, an excellent bow&lt;/strong&gt; with two quivers that should never lack arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;असंचाल्यम् मनुष्यैः च यत्नेन अपि च गौरवात् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तन् न शक्ता नमयितुम् स्वप्नेषु अपि नर अधिपाः || (Ayodhya Kanda 118th Sarga 40th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That bow was so heavy in weight that no man could lift it up nor any of the kings were bale to bend it even in their dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तच् च दृष्ट्वा धनुः श्रेष्ठम् गौरवाद् गिरि सम्निभम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अभिवाद्य नृपा जग्मुर् अशक्ताः तस्य तोलने || २-११८-४३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing that excellent bow, resembling a mountain in weight, and being unable to lift it up, the princes offered salutation to it and went away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुदीर्घस्य तु कालस्य राघवो अयम् महा द्युतिः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विश्वामित्रेण सहितो यज्नम् द्रष्टुम् समागतः || २-११८-४४&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लक्ष्मणेन सह भ्रात्रा रामः सत्य पराक्रमः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After a very long time, this Rama born in Raghu dynasty with a great splendour possessing a true valour, along with his brother Lakshmana together with a sage Visvamitra, came to witness a sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इत्य् उक्तः तेन विप्रेण तद् धनुः समुपानयत् || २-११८-४७&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निमेष अन्तर मात्रेण तद् आनम्य स वीर्यवान् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ज्याम् समारोप्य झटिति पूरयाम् आस वीर्यवान् || २-११८-४८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing the words of Vivamitra, Janaka caused the bow to be brought there. The mighty and the valiant Rama bent that bow merely within an instant and immediately stringed the bow with the bow-cord and drew the bow to the full.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the question is, whose bow did Sri Rama actually break? The prevalent story is Sri Rama broke Shiva's bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-21T16:47:57.507" LastActivityDate="2021-12-25T05:59:03.823" Title="Whose bow Sri Rama broke - Varuna's or Shiva's?" Tags="|shiva|ramayana|rama|sita|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9100" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9063" CreationDate="2015-10-21T03:46:18.063" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, the current Brahma attains Moksha at the end of his life.&lt;/strong&gt;  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7588/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/32/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; what happens to the inhabitants of Brahmaloka, including Brahma himself, at the end of the Mahakalpa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Worshipers of the Hiraṇyagarbha expansion of the Personality of Godhead remain within this material world until the end of two parārdhas, when Lord Brahmā also dies. After experiencing the inhabitable time of the three modes of material nature, known as two parārdhas, Lord Brahmā closes the material universe, which is covered by layers of earth, water, air, fire, ether, mind, ego, etc., and goes back to Godhead. The yogīs who become detached from the material world by practice of breathing exercises and control of the mind reach the planet of Brahmā, which is far, far away. After giving up their bodies, they enter into the body of Lord Brahmā, and therefore &lt;strong&gt;when Brahmā is liberated and goes to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the Supreme Brahman, such yogīs can also enter into the kingdom of God&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my question and answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8653/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I discuss a couple more quotes, proffered by the ancient sage Badari, in defense of the view that the inhabitants of Brahmaloka attain Moksha.  First of all, there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15021.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; from the Mundaka Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having well ascertained the object of the knowledge of the Vedânta, and having purified their nature by the Yoga of renunciation, all anchorites, enjoying the highest immortality, become free at the time of the great end (death) in the worlds of Brahmâ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there's verse 12.269 of the Kurma Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the pralaya has come and the end of the Highest, &lt;strong&gt;they all together with Brahma enter the highest place&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the inhabitants of Brahmaloka don't just automatically attain Moksha as a birthright.  Rather, it is through meditation on the supreme Brahman while they're in Brahmaloka that they ultimately attain Moksha.  See my question and answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8657/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer your other question, yes, when a new Mahakalpa begins, someone else is born as Brahma.  I'm not sure whether Hanuman being the next Brahma has a basis in Hindu scripture, but a question was asked about it &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7311/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-10-21T03:46:18.063" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9101" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8987" CreationDate="2015-10-21T04:36:05.713" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, the Mahabharata does not actually say &amp;quot;princess of Koshala&amp;quot;, it says Kausalya.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs01099.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the original Sanskrit verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yadi me sahate gandhaṃ rūpaṃ veṣaṃ tathā vapuḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;adyaiva garbhaṃ &lt;strong&gt;kausalyā&lt;/strong&gt; viśiṣṭaṃ pratipadyatām ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And indeed, throughout the Mahabharata, Ambika and Ambalika are often referred to as Kausalya, for instance in the Adi Parva chapter I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5455/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's the reason for this?  My best guess is that it's because their mother was named Kausalya, as described in an earlier chapter of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vicitravīryaḥ khalu kausalyātmaje 'mbikāmbālike kāśirāja duhitarāv upayeme&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vichitravirya married two daughers born to the king of Kashi through his wife Kousalya — Ambika and Ambalika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And I assume that the reason that the king of Kashi's wife was named Kausalya was because she was an actual princess of Koshala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think Koshala and Kashi were one at the time; in the Mahabhaarata war, the king of Kashi fought on the side of the Pandavas (see the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita) and Brihadbalaa king of Koshala fought on the side of the Kauravas (and was killed by Abhimanyu).  Of course, it's possible that things changed between the time of Bhishma and the time of the Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-08T15:42:26.173" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9102" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14860" CreationDate="2015-10-21T04:36:50.703" Score="52" ViewCount="12733" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any references to Gravity or any fundamental forces in Hindu Scriptures viz. Vedas, Upanishands and Puranas or any Scientific Vedic Scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T06:23:53.530" LastActivityDate="2023-01-20T07:59:40.720" Title="Are there any references to Gravity in Hindu Scriptures?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|puranas|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9103" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9102" CreationDate="2015-10-21T04:43:56.123" Score="39" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MOTION OF EARTH&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 10.22.14&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“This earth is devoid of hands and legs, yet it moves ahead. All the&#xA;  objects over the earth also move with it. It moves around the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this mantra,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kshaa&lt;/strong&gt; = Earth (refer Nigantu 1.1)&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Ahastaa&lt;/strong&gt; = without hands&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Apadee&lt;/strong&gt; = without legs&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Vardhat&lt;/strong&gt; = moves ahead&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Shushnam Pari&lt;/strong&gt; = Around the sun&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Pradakshinit&lt;/strong&gt; = revolves&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 10.149.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The sun has tied Earth and other planets through attraction and moves&#xA;  them around itself as if a trainer moves newly trained horses around&#xA;  itself holding their reins.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this mantra,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Savita&lt;/strong&gt; = Sun &lt;strong&gt;Yantraih&lt;/strong&gt; = through reins &lt;strong&gt;Prithiveem&lt;/strong&gt; = Earth &lt;strong&gt;Aramnaat&lt;/strong&gt; =&#xA;  Ties &lt;strong&gt;Dyaam Andahat&lt;/strong&gt; = Other planets in sky as well &lt;strong&gt;Atoorte&lt;/strong&gt; =&#xA;  Unbreakable &lt;strong&gt;Baddham&lt;/strong&gt; = Holds &lt;strong&gt;Ashwam Iv Adhukshat&lt;/strong&gt; = Like horses&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;GRAVITATIONAL FORCE&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 8.12.28&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“All planets remain stable because as they come closer to sun due to&#xA;  attraction, their speed of coming closer increases proportionately.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this Mantra,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yada Te&lt;/strong&gt; = When they &lt;strong&gt;Haryataa&lt;/strong&gt; = Come closer through attraction &lt;strong&gt;Hari&lt;/strong&gt; =&#xA;  Closeness &lt;strong&gt;Vaavridhate&lt;/strong&gt; = Increases proportionately &lt;strong&gt;Divedive&lt;/strong&gt; =&#xA;  continuously &lt;strong&gt;Vishwa Bhuvani&lt;/strong&gt; = planets of the world &lt;strong&gt;Aditte&lt;/strong&gt; = eventually&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Yemire&lt;/strong&gt; = remain stable&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.6.5, Rig Veda 8.12.30&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O God, You have created this Sun. You possess infinite power. You are&#xA;  upholding the sun and other spheres and render them steadfast by your&#xA;  power of attraction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajur Veda 33.43&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The sun moves in its own orbit in space taking along with itself the&#xA;  mortal bodies like earth through force of attraction.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.35.9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The sun moves in its own orbit but holding earth and other heavenly&#xA;  bodies in a manner that they do not collide with each other through&#xA;  force of attraction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.164.13&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Sun moves in its orbit which itself is moving. Earth and other bodies&#xA;  move around sun due to force of attraction, because sun is heavier&#xA;  than them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 4.11.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The sun has held the earth and other planets”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;LIGHT OF MOON&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.84.15&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The moving Moon always receives a ray of light from sun”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 10.85.9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Moon decided to marry. Day and Night attended its wedding. And sun&#xA;  gifted his daughter “Sun ray” to Moon.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ECLIPSE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 5.40.5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O Sun! When you are blocked by the one whom you gifted your own light&#xA;  (moon), then earth gets scared by sudden darkness.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2016-06-14T12:59:44.183" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T12:59:44.183" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9104" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-21T05:27:36.553" Score="1" ViewCount="403" Body="&lt;p&gt;Simple and straight question: Doesn't buddha belong to another religion, that is Buddhism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found various lists all over the internet, and based on answers here, I want to know on what basis Buddha is included?&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/927/what-are-the-exact-ten-avatars-of-vishnu&quot;&gt;What are the exact ten avatars of Vishnu?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3811" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-10-21T05:27:36.553" Title="Why is Buddha a part of Dashavatar list?" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2015-10-21T05:53:16.720" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9105" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-21T07:25:48.910" Score="3" ViewCount="974" Body="&lt;p&gt;While roaming in the Dandaka Forest,  Sri Rama visits the hermitage of Sage Agastya.  There he comes across various places for offering prayers to important Gods through Agni (Fire.).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He saw that Garuda was worshippped alongwith Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स तत्र ब्रह्मणः स्थानम् अग्नेः स्थानम् तथैव च || ३-१२-१७&#xA;विष्णोः स्थानम् महेन्द्रस्य स्थानम् चैव विवस्वतः |&#xA;सोम स्थानम् भग स्थानम् स्थानम् कौबेरम् एव च || ३-१२-१८&#xA;धातुर् विधातुः स्थानम् च वायोः स्थानम् तथैव च |&#xA;स्थानम् च पाश हस्तस्य वारुणस्य महात्मनः || ३-१२-१९&#xA;स्थानम् तथैव गायत्र्या वसूनाम् स्थानम् एव च |&#xA;स्थानम् च नागराजस्य गरुड स्थानम् एव च || ३-१२-२०&#xA;कार्तिकेयस्य च स्थानम् धर्म स्थानम् च पश्यति |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama entered inside the hermitage and saw therein the sanctus of Brahma, Fire-god, &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu,&lt;/strong&gt; Indra, Vivasvat - the Sun-god, Soma - the Moon-god, Bhaga - one among the twelve Suns, and the sanctusms of Kubera, [Wealth-Management-god, are seen and passed by the three of them, sanctums of Dhaata, Vidhaata - Vedic deities created by Brahma to help Svayambhuu Manu, santucm of Vaayu - the Air-god, and also like that the sanctum of great-soloed VaruNa - the Rain-god who also wields noose, and the sanctum of Gayatri - the presiding deity of gnosis, sanctum of Vasus - eight of them, and the sanctum of cobra's king - aadi sheSa, the divine Thousand-headed serpent that bears this globe on its head, and on which Vishnu reclines, and even the sanctum of &lt;strong&gt;GaruDa&lt;/strong&gt; - the Divine Eagle and the vehicle of Vishnu, and the half brother of aadi sheSa, and the sanctum of Kaartikeya - chief of gods army, second son of Shiva, and the sanctum of Dharma - Dharmaraaja, presiding deity of Virtue-Vice-Time of living beings, in-charge of the hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then a question arises when and how Garuda became the vehicle of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-04-05T09:17:44.580" Title="How did Garuda become the vehicle of Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9106" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9105" CreationDate="2015-10-21T07:36:49.220" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This story is described in the Mahabharata, Adi Parva, Chapter 33:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the mighty son of Vinata, taking up the Amrita from the place where it was kept, rose on his wings with great speed, breaking into pieces the machine that had surrounded it. And the bird soon came out, taking the Amrita but without drinking it himself. And he then wended on his way without the least fatigue, darkening the splendour of the Sun. And the son of Vinata then met Vishnu on his way along the sky. And Narayana was gratified at that act of self-denial on the part of Garuda. And that deity, knowing no deterioration, said unto the ranger of the skies, 'O, I am inclined to grant thee a boon.' The ranger of the skies thereupon said, 'I shall stay above thee.' And he again spake unto Narayana these words, 'I shall be immortal and free from disease without (drinking) Amrita.' Vishnu said unto the son of Vinata, 'Be it so.' Garuda, receiving those two boons, told Vishnu, 'I also shall grant thee a boon; therefore, let the possessor of the six attributes ask of me.' &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu then asked the mighty Garuda to become his carrier. And he made the bird sit on the flagstaff of his car, saying, 'Even thus thou shalt stay above me.' And the ranger of the skies, of great speed, saying unto Narayana, 'Be it so,' swiftly wended on his way&lt;/strong&gt;, mocking the wind with his fleetness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2015-10-21T07:36:49.220" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9107" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9089" CreationDate="2015-10-21T07:48:58.197" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ashtami or the eighth day of Navratri marks the end of fasting for several devotees. They offer prayers to Mahagauri and perform the Kanchika Pujan, where young girls who are considered a manifestation of the Devi herself are worshipped. The Kanchikaas are served various delicacies such as puris (deep fried Indian bread), halwa (sweet dish made of suji) and Bengal gram curry. The devotees then end the fast by consuming the Prasad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people end their fast on the occasion of Navami by following the same rituals. Devi Siddhidatri is worshipped on this day, who is believed to possess supernatural powers. The devotees adorn the colour purple on the occasion of Navami, the same colour donned by the deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kanchika Pujan marks the end of nine day long ceremonies and on the tenth day the Dussehra or Vijaya Dashami is celebrated to mark the victory of good over evil. Goddess Durga is ceremoniously bid adieu with hopes that happiness and prosperity prevail everywhere with her blessings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3972" LastActivityDate="2015-10-21T07:48:58.197" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9108" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-21T09:03:40.227" Score="2" ViewCount="1245" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been to Shiva Temples and attended the Palliyarai Pooja. Recently, in Tiruchendur Murugan Temple also, i attended. What is the significance of Palliyarai Pooja?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2675" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T18:11:30.247" Title="Significance of Palliyarai Pooja" Tags="|temple|rituals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9109" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9099" CreationDate="2015-10-21T09:05:57.080" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you read Bala Kanda, canto 66, verses 7 to 12, King Janaka says about the origin of the Bow. In verse 11 - 12, he clearly says the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Full of grace, Rudra or Shiva deposited the bow upon the high souled gods. Then the celebrated bow (of Shiva) was deposited with Devarata (forefather of King Janaka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the bow was first bestowed with gods and then they entrusted it to King Devarata of Mithila dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In canto 71, of Bala Kanda, when King Janaka described his lineage, he says the following in the verse 15-16.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Sudhanva came all the way from the town of Sankasya and besieged Mithila (verse 15)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He sent a word to me saying &amp;quot;The superb bow of Lord Shiva as well as your lotus-eyed daughter may be kindly be given to me&amp;quot;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;On refusal, o great, he fought with me and was killed by me (King Sudhanva is killed by King Janaka) (verses 16-17)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it's again clear that it was the bow of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In canto 75, of Bala Kanda, Parashurama relates the history of bows of Lord Shiva and Vishnu. Parashurama says the following (verses 20-21).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Feeling enraged Lord Rudra entrusted his bow which was passed on to King Devarata of Mithila.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, from all this it is very clear that it was the bow of Lord Shiva only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Ayodhya Kanda, in canto 118, Sita on request by Anasuya, gives a summary of events from her descent to earth, how she was found by King Janaka and her subsequent marriage to Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In verse 38, Sita says the following.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At a great sacrifice, an excellent bow, as well as a pair of quivers were given to King Devarata, by Varuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the bow was passed on to devathas by Rudra, which in turn was passed on to Devarata through Varuna (as an agent of gods as enjoined by Shiva, whom the gods  had previously approached for the bow)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, by considering all the above verses, IT WAS BOW OF RUDRA or SHIVA ONLY, which was passed on to devathas, who in turn through Varuna passed it on to King Devarata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, RAMA BROKE THE BOW OF SHIVA  AND NOT THAT OF VARUNA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-21T16:48:11.197" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9110" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16347" CreationDate="2015-10-21T09:58:03.707" Score="7" ViewCount="301" Body="&lt;p&gt;Even though Ravana was among topmost in Bhakti towards Shiva the entire clan is branded evil for misdeeds that he alone was responsible. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vibhishana was a god man of morals, could rule well not necessarily due to alliance with Rama. MahaVishnu sent the Rakshas king MahaBali to the nether world (Paathaala) even though his grandfather Prahlada was his greatest devotee, and for what misdemeanors no one knows ..at least not properly projected in the popular Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Asura by default is a bad character. It is always that the Lord has to take up an Avatar from time to time to slay an otherwise invincible Rakshasa. Devas are generally depicted in Hindu mythology as average pious lot but needing to seek out help from the Trinity when the Asura originated trouble goes beyond a certain threshold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Human nature is naturally ingredient-ed with piety and evil. Is it from the nature and behavior the good/bad boy branding is done? When the Devas and Rakshasas have a common hereditary lineage  does behavioral leaning really set them apart? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T13:06:27.170" LastActivityDate="2021-11-02T19:06:25.613" Title="Righteousness among Rakhshasas" Tags="|dharma|rakshasa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9111" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-21T11:00:57.667" Score="15" ViewCount="2400" Body="&lt;p&gt;While giving discourse to Arjuna, Sri Krishna says that he was VAJRA among weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आयुधानामहं वज्रं धेनूनामस्मि कामधुक्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रजनश्चास्मि कन्दर्पः सर्पाणामस्मि वासुकिः।।10.28।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of the weapons,I am the Vajra [of Indra]; of the cows, I am the Wish-fullfilling Cow [of the heaven]; of the progenitors, I am Kandarpa (the god-of-love); of the serpents, I am Vasuki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Chapter 10 of Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna compares himself with the greatest among various living/non-living beings, viz., among Adityas - vishnu;; among birds - Garuda, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have to remember that in Vedas, Indra was described to have eliminated Vritra with Vajra.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the question is - why did  he not mention about Sudarsana Chakra, the weapon of  Vishnu (or) Trishula of Shiva, which are considered to be SUPREME in Puranas, but mentioned about VAJRA, the weapon of Indra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2019-08-06T10:28:12.153" LastActivityDate="2019-08-06T10:28:12.153" Title="Why did Sri Krishna say he was VAJRA among weapons?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|krishna|bhagavad-gita|indra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9112" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-21T11:09:11.450" Score="5" ViewCount="876" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I understood, Advaita Vedanta does not require the concept of Trimurti and other gods. Therefore one can reach enlightenment without believing or worshiping any God. But we live in a society where idol worship is very popular. How can I merge the concepts of one god with many gods? What is the point of making it more complex?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3976" LastEditorUserId="3976" LastEditDate="2015-10-22T16:29:27.200" LastActivityDate="2015-10-22T16:29:27.200" Title="Connection between Advaita Vedanta and Gods" Tags="|advaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9115" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9099" CreationDate="2015-10-21T13:51:48.827" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In 75th sarga of Bala Kanda of Ramayana, Parashurama narrates to Sri Rama the tale of Vishnu fighting with Shiva. To cut the story short, Shiva's bow was benumbed by the bow of Vishnu when Vishnu utters a battle cry &quot;hum&quot;. After this battle, Shiva placed his bow and arrow with his devotee King Devaratha in the country of Videha (the kingdom of King Janaka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, King Janaka was gifted with two bows and quivers containing an inexhaustible stock of arrows by Varuna. (which also mentioned to Lakshmana when he accompanies Sri Rama to forest).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the modern version might have been altered with the story of King Janaka's ancestor receiving the great bow of Lord Shiva with the story of Varuna's bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://redzambala.com/ramayana-valmiki/ramayana-bala-kanda-chapter-75.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://redzambala.com/ramayana-valmiki/ramayana-bala-kanda-chapter-75.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SriRangaSri/conversations/topics/5221&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SriRangaSri/conversations/topics/5221&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-21T17:10:00.190" LastActivityDate="2015-10-21T17:10:00.190" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9116" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-21T14:54:15.443" Score="11" ViewCount="4425" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Goddess Durga comes out from Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva &amp;amp; other goddesses, where was Goddess Parvati then? I am asking this question because Parvati was an avatar of Goddess Adi Parashakti and Durga too. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does the later appearance of Durga mean she was an avatar of Parvati?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3980" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-19T07:06:31.967" LastActivityDate="2021-04-12T12:41:51.337" Title="Was Goddess Durga really an avatar of Shiva's wife Goddess Parvati?" Tags="|puranas|goddess|devi|parvati|durga|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9117" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-21T16:17:42.963" Score="3" ViewCount="703" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any mantra, which, when recited, increases the lifespan of person? If so, can I recite it for the longevity of my family members'?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3981" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T08:49:13.313" LastActivityDate="2018-09-05T08:49:13.313" Title="Can I postpone death i.e. increase the lifespan of a person using a mantra?" Tags="|mantras|death|life-span|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9118" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-21T18:26:30.337" Score="7" ViewCount="3222" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are a few things which bother me regularly. Those are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do the Ramayana and Mahabharata repeat every chaturyuga? If yes, then what is the need of doing this over and over again?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I've read that Ramayana took place in the 24&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Treta Yuga. Then does that mean Hanuman Ji is immortal? Does chiranjeevi means death until the end of the ongoing kalpa? Also, NASA said that Ram Setu is only 17 lakh years old which means Ramayana happened in the current chaturyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There have been 27 Kaliyugas before the current one, then why have the stories of the other Kaliyugas lost? Does that mean nothing great has happened in those Kaliyugas or are they not necessary (relevant) for the current Kaliyuga?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In which yuga did Prajapati Daksh appear?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;We receive different versions of same story, though their motive of explaining things remain the same. Why is it so?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3983" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-22T03:33:48.037" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T13:05:28.993" Title="Help me solve the mystery of age of Yugas and Lord Vishnu's avatars" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9119" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-21T18:38:44.253" Score="1" ViewCount="1213" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though they're one. We all are one. But have different illusory identities. It is foolish to say that Stories of Lord Shiva and Vishnu were created for entertainment purpose. Why would they mislead us with entertainment? Anyway,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Mahavishnu resides in Ksheer Sagar right? Lord Brahma were born from Lord Vishnu's navel right?. When did Lord Shiva came into play?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have 2 versions of the creation of this universe. One is that everything originated from Lord Vishnu (All the multiverses) and will be absorbed again into Vishnu. &#xA;Another version states that everything originated from Lord Shiva, when nothing existed, Lord Shiva was there. Shiva then divided himself into Shiv + Adi Shakti to help Lord Brahma carry out the creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which of these two stories is true? Or rather, can anyone arrange these incidents in sequence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3983" LastActivityDate="2015-11-21T10:25:16.683" Title="Lord Mahavishnu or Lord Shiva?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-01-07T10:39:22.067" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9120" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-21T21:46:50.170" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sacred thread is called by several names depending upon the region and community; a few of which are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Braḥma sūtram ब्रह्मसूत्रम् (Sanskrit)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yajñopavītam यज्ञोपवीतम् (Sanskrit)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jandhyam or Jandhyamu జంధ్యము (Telugu)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pūnūl பூணூல் (Tamil)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Poonool പൂണൂല്‍ (Malayalam)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Janeva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Poita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pūṇūl&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bratabandha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Janivaara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Janeu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lagun&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yajnopavita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yagyopavit&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yonya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Zunnar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana#India&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana#India&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-21T22:38:51.050" LastActivityDate="2015-10-21T22:38:51.050" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9121" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-21T21:46:50.170" Score="0" Body="The sacred thread worn by some Hindus. Called yajñopavītam (यज्ञोपवीतम्) in Sanskrit, it the symbolizes the ability of the wearer to perform Sandhyavandanam and recite the Gayatri Mantra." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-21T22:38:55.677" LastActivityDate="2015-10-21T22:38:55.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9122" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-22T02:30:53.043" Score="6" ViewCount="1061" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimad Ramayana mentions about the creation of Earth as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वम् सलिलम् एव आसीत् पृथिवी यत्र निर्मिता |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततः समभवद् ब्रह्मा स्वयम्भूर् दैवतैः सह || २-११०-३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All was water only in the beginning from which element the earth was formed. After that, the self-existent Brahma with all the gods came into existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स वराहः ततो भूत्वा प्रोज्जहार वसुंधराम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  असृजच् च जगत् सर्वम् सह पुत्रैः कृत आत्मभिः || २-११०-४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter, that Brahma, assuming the form of boar, caused the earth to rise from water and with his sons of pure soul, created the entire world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is not about who raised the Earth.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is about where from the Earth was raised.  Many scholars translated the word salilam (सलिलम्) as water, and commented that the Earth was raised from water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, water is also a part of Earth. Then how can the Earth be raised from  water?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the salilam (सलिलम्) has another meaning also, apart from water: waves, kind of wind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So can we think that the Earth might have been brought out from the space, but not out of water?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-23T18:18:56.700" LastActivityDate="2022-12-08T05:10:08.227" Title="From where was the Earth raised - water or space?" Tags="|ramayana|brahma|creation|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9123" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9119" CreationDate="2015-10-22T02:45:19.040" Score="-5" Body="&lt;p&gt;These stories will find place in Puranas only.  Most of the Puranas contains skewed opinions/stories written to elevate the status of respective deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was no idol worship in the Vedic Era.  Gods were worshiped through fire only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Vedic period there was no sectarian worship of GODS.  Whether a person follower of Vedic of Life or not ,  That only mattered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reasons for change of worship in Sanaatana Dharma, otherwise known as Hinduism, are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Till Mahabharata period, i.e, around 3102 B.C., the Gods from Vedic Pantheon were worshiped.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma is the Ruler of of all Worlds. -  ब्रह्मा लोकाधिपो यथा (Srimad Ramayana, Bala Kanda).  Indra's status was held next to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Who is Who of Kings of Mahabharata Era, except a few, fought and got eliminated in the Mahabharata war.   After the Rule of Pandavas that lasted for 36 years, no strong administration, directing the people in general in adhering to Vedic Way of life,  in the entire country was in place.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This lead to decadence in Human values and grouping among various petty rulers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dominant rulers aided by some scholars created new Gods and started creating own groups.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(i)    As a result, Vishnu, who was one among 33 Gods, had been elevated to the status of God of Gods.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(ii)   Shiva could not found in Vedic Pantheon.  The Vedic God Rudra's structure, appearance, status,etc, were altered and named Shiva, and was elevated to the staus of MAHAADEVA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(iii)   No mention can be found about Shakti or Rajarajeswari in Vedic Pantheon.  Even Sri Krishna did not mention about her in his Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(iv)   The present day prominent God, Ganapati did not find place in Vedic Pantheon.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to elevate Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti , naturally the status of Lord Brahma has to be degraded, without which Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti cannot be marketed as God of Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So all the Puranas were written inventing stories that show Lord Brahma in bad light and elevate  Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2015-10-22T02:45:19.040" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9124" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9112" CreationDate="2015-10-22T05:55:42.687" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word God has many meanings and connotations to different people - in different religions also. It's best in a question like yours to be more exact. The Advaita Vedanta asserts that there is only the self-existent, eternal, unchangeable referred to as Brahman. What it is cannot be said, all that can be said is that it is not two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pure Advaita says that the universe is not really as it appears, that it is all Brahman, that there was no creation, there is only an 'apparent' creation. You cannot become enlightened - you are already the Eternal One. To think that you can become enlightened means that you are already under the spell of delusion. You were never unenlightened, you have always been Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Astavakra Samhita&lt;/em&gt; (VII. 2-3) says (translator Swami Nityaswarupananda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In me, the limitless ocean, let the wave of the world rise or vanish of itself. I neither increase or decrease thereby.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In me, the boundless ocean, is the imagination of the universe. I am quite tranquil and formless. In this [Realization] alone do I abide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and further in XX. 2-7:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where are the scriptures, where is knowledge of the Self, where is the mind not attached to sense-objects, where is contentment, and where is desirelessness for me who am ever devoid of the sense of duality?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where is Knowledge [of Brahman] and where is ignorance; where is 'I', and where is 'this', and where is 'mine'; where is bondage and where is liberation? Where is an attribute to the nature of my self?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where are &lt;em&gt;prarabdha&lt;/em&gt; karmas, where is liberation-in-life, and where is even liberation-in-death for me, the ever undifferentiated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where is the doer or enjoyer, where is cessation of thought or the rising of thought, where is direct knowledge or reflected knowledge, for me who am ever impersonal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where is the world and where is the aspirant for liberation; where is the contemplative man and where is the man of Knowledge; where is the soul in bondage and where is the liberated soul for me who am non-dual by nature? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where are creation and destruction; where is the end and where the means; where are seeker and success for me abiding in my non-dual state?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in XX. 11:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where is illusion, where is the world; where is attachment or detachment; where is &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; or Brahman for me, who am ever pure?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says (Complete Works, V4, p 246 and here - (&lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Realize yourself. That is all there is to do. Know yourself as you really are--infinite spirit. That is practical religion. Everything else is impractical, for everything else will vanish. That alone will never vanish. It is eternal. Hospitals will tumble down. Railroad givers will all die. This earth will be blown to pieces, suns wiped out. The soul endureth forever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in V1, p 257 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;) he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The aim is to get rid of nature's control over us. That is the goal of all religion. Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control or philosophy--by one or more or all of these--and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and again in the Astavakra Samhita (I. 11):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who considers himself free is free indeed, and he who considers himself bound remains bound. 'As one thinks so one becomes' is a popular saying in this world, and it is quite true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Realize who you are already and be free.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-10-22T05:55:42.687" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9125" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-22T06:02:17.743" Score="2" ViewCount="104" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why most Gods are symbolised based on living things.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;we see shiva vishnu all in human form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="840" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T18:53:16.913" Title="Why most Gods are symbolised based on living things.?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|scripture|puranas|worship|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9126" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-22T06:35:23.950" Score="3" ViewCount="4520" Body="&lt;p&gt;Answers to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Was-there-an-avatara-of-Lord-Shivas-in-kaliyuga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this Quora question&lt;/a&gt; say Swami Vivekananda was an incarnation of Shiva. Was Swami Vivekananda mentioned in Hindu scriptures as an avatar of Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3985" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-02T19:13:04.170" LastActivityDate="2017-03-18T15:08:41.100" Title="Was Swami Vivekananda an avatar of Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|avatars|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9127" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11092" CreationDate="2015-10-22T07:49:04.163" Score="15" ViewCount="5408" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a famous story that when Lord Rama met with Sabari she offered Him some fruits but in order to know if they are sweet she bit them before giving to Him. This website says that the story is in Padma Purana:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/aranya/sarga74/aranya_74_frame.htm&quot;&gt;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/aranya/sarga74/aranya_74_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;However, I could not find anything to this effect in either in Padma Purana or in Valmiki Ramayana. Anyone knows the source?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3715" LastActivityDate="2017-01-24T21:56:33.110" Title="Where is it mentioned that Shabari offered to Lord Rama the fruits that she has already tasted?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|valmiki|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9130" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9119" CreationDate="2015-10-22T10:07:17.720" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;All the gods name denotes a quality&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vishnu:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;The traditional Sanskrit explanation of the name Vishu involves the root viś, meaning &quot;to settle, to enter&quot;, or also (in the Rigveda) &quot;to pervade&quot;, and a suffix nu, translating to approximately &quot;the All-Pervading One&quot;. ' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Shiva (/ˈʃivə/; Sanskrit: Śiva, meaning &quot;The Auspicious One&quot;),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Rig veda also says&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ekam Sat, Viprah Bahudha Vadanti - that which exists is One: sages&#xA;  call it by various names&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3987" LastActivityDate="2015-10-22T10:07:17.720" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9132" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9122" CreationDate="2015-10-22T11:35:31.657" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The water here referred to is the water of the cosmic ocean - Garbhodaka Ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mqg6P.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mqg6P.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Half of the Hiranyagarbh is filled with water and the other half is space, the space in which we live. All the stars and galaxies are in this space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to SB 2.7.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only under certain conditions do the planets float as weightless balls in the air, and as soon as these conditions are disturbed, the planets may fall down in the Garbhodaka Ocean, which covers half the universe. The other half is the spherical dome within which the innumerable planetary systems exist. The floating of the planets in the weightless air is due to the inner constitution of the globes, and the modernized drilling of the earth to exploit oil from within is a sort of disturbance by the modern demons and can result in a greatly harmful reaction to the floating condition of the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The earth fell into this ocean so Lord Vishnu assumed the form of Varaha and brought back earth from the depths of Garbhodaka ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2015-10-22T11:35:31.657" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9134" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-22T12:33:00.573" Score="2" ViewCount="57" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the most recent use of Astras either by Gods themselves or by learned individuals.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any references to use of astras after mahabharatha by learned individuals?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3604" LastActivityDate="2015-10-22T12:33:00.573" Title="Most recent use of Astras?" Tags="|weapon|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-03-21T06:03:22.240" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9136" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9044" CreationDate="2015-10-22T16:29:23.600" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Good question! This is an advaitic view of Bhakti and Bhakti Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is Bhakti&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhakti means to always think of God. Bhakti Yoga implies constant remebrance of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/bhaktiyoga.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhakti Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The term Bhakti comes from the root 'Bhaj', which means 'to be attached to God'. Bhajan, worship, Bhakti, Anurag, Prem, Priti are synonymous terms. Bhakti is love for love's sake. The devotee wants God and God alone. There is no selfish expectation here. There is no fear also. Therefore it is called 'Parama Prem Rupa'. The devotee feels, believes, conceives and imagines that his Ishtam (tutelary deity) is an Ocean of Love or Prem.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is the benefit of Bhakti? How can I believe that it leads to Brahman?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a Yogic point of view, Bhakti results in the following benefits:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One-pointed concentration (Dharana) - Because you are always thinking of God.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Complete Vairagya (Detachment) - Because you give up your sense of doership (You think that everything is done by the Will of the Lord, you have no fears). Because you do not live for yourself anymore, you live for God. You perform actions only for His will.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Absolute selfless love for all - Because whoever you see, You do not see their physical form, but you see the God in them. Thus you love all and you perform selfless service to the society.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Total and Complete Self-Knowledge (Advaitic Realization of Brahman) - When you think of God day in and day out without any selfish motives, that one pointed concentration leads to complete Samadhi or Unity with Divine. From a Bhakta point of view, God Himself liberates you instantly, when you surrender to Him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Destruction of Karma - Sri Krishna says in the Gita Chapter 18, Verse 66, that to the one who has surrendered everything to Him, He Himself will eradicate all His sins and liberate Him! &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/18/verse/66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is Bhakti Yoga&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhakti Yoga is nothing but the methodology to obtain this love of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are Nine ways to practice Bhakti also called as Navavidha Bhakti, mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/sb/7/5/23/en2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shravanam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kirtanam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu Smaranam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pada Sevanam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Archanam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vandanam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dasyam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sakhyam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atma Nivedanam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7298/119&quot;&gt;Here is a detailed answer on Navavidha bhakti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda prescribes Sri Ramanujacharya's teachings of eleven factors to achieve Bhakti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It would be a gross mistake if you consider Bhakti as merely a stage of emotionalism, while it is actually a thorough discipline and training of one's will and the mind, a sure means to intuitive realization of God Almighty through intense love and affection for Him. It is a means to thorough apprehension of the true knowledge of Reality, beginning from the ordinary form of idol worship right upto the highest form of cosmic realisation of your oneness with Him. You can achieve this by following the eleven fundamental factors which Sri Ramanuja had prescribed. They are Abhyasa or practice of continuous thinking of God; Viveka or discrimination; Vimoka or freedom from everything else and longing for God; Satyam or truthfulness; Arjavam or straightforwardness; Kriya or doing good to others; Kalyana or wishing well-being to all; Daya or compassion; Ahimsa or non-injury; Dana or charity; and Anavasada or cheerfulness and optimism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People put a question: &quot;How can we love God whom we have not seen ?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Live in the company of saints. Hear the Lilas of God. Study the sacred scriptures. Worship Him first in His several forms as manifested in the world. Worship any image or picture of the Lord or the Guru. Recite His Name. Sing His glories. Stay for one year in Ayodhya or Brindavan, Chirakut or Pandhapur, Benares or Ananda Kutir. You will develop love for God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What are the types of Bhakti&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are four types of Bhakti that are commonly recognized by saints, initially mentioned by Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vatsalya Bhava (Think of God as your child)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dasya Bhava (Think of God as your Master)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sakhya Bhava (Think of God as your friend)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Madhurya Bhava (Think of God as your Self / your Beloved)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7298/119&quot;&gt;Details are presented in the same answer on the different styles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What are the characteristics of a Bhakta&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nishkamya Karma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/bhaktiyoga.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(action without any desire for the fruits/results)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your Bhakti should always be Nishkamya Bhakti. God has already given you a good position, a good job, wife and children and enough wealth. Be contented with these. Aspire for Nishkamya Bhakti. Your heart will be purified and the Divine Grace will descend upon you. Be in communion with the Lord, you will become one with the Lord and you will enjoy all the Divine Aisvaryas (Divine attributes like wisdom, renunciation, power, etc.). All the Vibhutis (Special forms in which the Lord manifests) of the Lord He will give you. He will give you Darsan. He will help you to dwell in Him. At the same time He will give you all the Divine Aisvaryas also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Bhakta prays to God out of His love for God. He does not expect anything in return for His devotion. He simply enjoys the proximity with God without expecting anything in return. He does not say 'Oh God I will perform this and that pooja, please give me X job and Y house'. He says 'Oh God please accept this pooja as a humble offering from Thy Child'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T06:15:51.337" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9137" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7800" CreationDate="2015-10-22T16:47:49.127" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;It turns out that the Harivamsa Southern Recension contains a chapter 'Krsnasya Nilaya Saha Vivahah', or the marriage of Krsna with Nila Devi. This chapter &lt;strong&gt;exactly&lt;/strong&gt; tallies with the account of the Azhvars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It states that Yashoda had a younger brother called Kumbhaka, who was famous for his piety. He had a wife called Dharmada, who true to her name, was a generous lady, and used to help everyone. They had a son, &lt;strong&gt;Shridama&lt;/strong&gt;, and a daughter, &lt;strong&gt;Nila&lt;/strong&gt;. They lived near Mithila, the kingdom of (the present) Janaka Maharaja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The chapter goes on to describe how beautiful Nila was, how no one could equal her in all the worlds, the usual stuff.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then it says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एतस्मिन्नेव काले तु वृषरूपा महासुराः  ।&#xA;  कालनेमिसुताः सप्त विक्रान्ता बाहुशालिनः  ॥  १२अ-१४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Which means, in this time, the seven sons of Kalanemi, who took the forms of terrifying bulls... (after fighting and losing to Vishnu, who then appeared in the Yadava dynasty)...&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वृषरूपधराः सप्त कुम्भकस्य व्रजे वसन्  ।&#xA;  बलवन्तो महाशृङ्गा महाकुक्षिशिरोधराः  ॥  १२अ-१७&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;came to hasten his death in the form of seven mighty bulls, living in the pastures of Chief Kumbhaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These bulls caused havoc, and Janaka told Kumbhaka to do something else he would be punished. Kumbhaka proclaimed,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तप्तानां  वृषमल्लानां दमिता यो भवेद्भुवि  ।&#xA;  तस्मै कन्यां प्रदास्यामि नीलां नीरदलोचनाम्  ॥  १२अ-३४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I will give my lotus eyed daughter Nila to the man who can control these seven ferocious bulls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, Nandagopa arrives along with Rama and Krsna to Kumbhaka's village. The bulls, in the night, slaughter the calves and their protectors (come on!). Some more gopas die. Then Krsna enters (finally). He tells Balarama the history of the bulls and says, Vayam Etair Yatha Yogam Kreedam Kurmah, viz. &quot;We shall play with these bulls however the time and situation permits!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Krsna enters the arena, and with his powerful fists, sens each bull to Yamaloka one by one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्रमेण मुष्ट्या  तान्सर्वान्हत्वा दैतेयगोपतीन्  ।&#xA;  नीलां हस्ते  गृहीत्वाथ  कृष्णस्तस्मिन्व्यरोचत  ॥  १२द्-१३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One by one Krsna killed all the bulls and victoriously held the hand of Nila, taking an instant liking for her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Krsna was duly married to Nila, and along with Balarama, Nanda, Sridama and others, returned to Vrindavana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This differs from Srimati Satya's marriage in that Krsna killed the bulls in this, whereas Krsna tamed the bulls in Satya's marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-18T04:01:15.913" LastActivityDate="2016-02-18T04:01:15.913" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9138" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-22T16:51:18.160" Score="5" ViewCount="452" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;/soul is be believed to be infinite, opmipotent, omnipresent, pure, divine and perfect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How/Why (in the first place) did it get stuck in the finite body and forgot its reality?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3976" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-10-24T01:53:26.467" LastActivityDate="2015-10-25T14:51:13.667" Title="How/Why did the omnipotent soul get stuck in the body?" Tags="|atma|advaita|maya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2015-10-28T03:27:41.833" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9139" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-22T16:56:59.027" Score="6" ViewCount="1662" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the concept of the mind according to Hindu scriptures? As far as I understood, it is something very small in the head to which the brain reports to. And our visible universe is the reaction of the mind. Am I correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3976" LastActivityDate="2023-06-26T12:09:36.037" Title="What is mind according to Hinduism?" Tags="|mind|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9141" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-22T17:05:31.760" Score="1" ViewCount="1397" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like the Brahman, the Atma also has several similar qualities like opminpresence, omnipotence, divinity etc. Then what is the difference between Brahman and individual Atma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3976" LastEditorUserId="15718" LastEditDate="2019-01-05T16:35:50.880" LastActivityDate="2019-01-05T16:35:50.880" Title="The difference between Atman and Brahman" Tags="|atma|brahman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-10-26T13:45:38.900" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9145" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9146" CreationDate="2015-10-23T01:20:16.137" Score="4" ViewCount="1701" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वेदानां सामवेदोऽस्मि देवानामस्मि वासवः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इन्द्रियाणां मनश्चास्मि भूतानामस्मि चेतना।।10.22।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedanam, among the Vedas; I am the Sama-veda. Devanam, among the gods-such as Rudras, Adityas and others; &lt;strong&gt;I am vasavah, Indra&lt;/strong&gt;. Indriyanam, among the eleven organs, viz eye etc.; I am the manah, mind. I am the mind which is of the nature of reflection and doubt. And I am the cetana, intelligence [It is the medium for the manifestation of Consciousness.], the function of the intellect ever manifest in the aggregate of body and organs; bhtanam, in creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have read in the Srimad Ramayana that Indra was the eldest brother of Vishnu.  Then he must be Aditya, the son of Aditi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then why is Indra called &lt;strong&gt;vAsava&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2020-08-03T08:48:43.543" LastActivityDate="2020-08-03T08:48:43.543" Title="Why is Indra called vAsava?" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavad-gita|indra|name|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9146" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9145" CreationDate="2015-10-23T02:00:56.847" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Adityas and Vasus refer to two different groups of sons of Kashyapa and Aditi, and Indra is an Aditya and not a Vasu.  But Indra is called Vasava for multiple reasons.  First of all, because he is the king of the gods, he is also the lord of the Vasus.  Second of all, it's because after his famous defeat of Vritrasura, he was considered the vasu or treasure of the gods; here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1229.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Indra had hurled the thunderbolt at Vritra, thinking himself to be the weaker, and fearing lest he had not brought him down, he concealed himself and went to the farthest distances....  Agni of the deities, Hiranyastûpa of the Rishis, and the Brihatî of the metres, set about searching for him. Agni discovered him and stayed with him (as a guest) that (day and) night. &lt;strong&gt;He (Indra), namely, is the Vasu of the gods, for he is their hero.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is how Sayana explains the use of the term Vasu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That is, as would seem, &lt;strong&gt;the benefactor, or the treasure (dhanarûpa, Sâyana) of the gods&lt;/strong&gt;. Indra is the chief of the Vasus. Indra being so beneficent and important a personage, it was, according to Sâyana, worth Agni's while to stay with him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, when the Ramayana calls Indra the elder brother of Vishnu and when the Bhagavad Gita says &quot;Of the Adityas I am Vishnu&quot;, they mean Vishnu's incarnation Vamana the dwarf, who was the youngest son of Kashyapa and Aditi.  As I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vamana in particular is called Vishnu because when he grew large he pervaded the Universe.  When you are looking in the Vedas for references to the god that we now call Vishnu, you should look for &quot;Narayana&quot; rather than &quot;Vishnu&quot;, because references to the name Vishnu generally focus on Vishnu's Vamana incarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T02:00:56.847" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9147" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4089" CreationDate="2015-10-23T03:33:16.633" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer depends on what you think is meant by caste. The answer is no if you think of caste as jati or community. The answer is yes if you think of caste as varna which should depend on conduct. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am posting the relevant Gita verses on varna: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O great hero! The duties of Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas and also&#xA;  Sudras have been divided according to the quality born of their own&#xA;  nature. [Gita 18.41] &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; Serenity, control of the sense, austerity,&#xA;  purity, straight-forwardness, knowledge, insight, and faith in the&#xA;  Supreme Being - these are a Brahman's duties born of his own nature.&#xA;  [Gita 18.42] &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; Prowess, splendor of personality, unfailing courage,&#xA;  resourcefulness, dauntless in battle, generosity, leadership - these&#xA;  are a Ksatriya's duties born of his specific nature. [Gita 18.43] &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Agriculture, cattle-rearing and trade form the duty of the Vaisya&#xA;  springing from his own nature, while the natural duty of a Sudra&#xA;  consists in subordinate service under others. [Gita 18.44] &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; By being&#xA;  devoted to one's own natural duty, man attains to spiritual&#xA;  competency. Now hear how devotion to one's own natural duty generates&#xA;  spiritual competency. [Gita 18.45] &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; From whom all beings have&#xA;  emanated and by whom all this universe is pervaded - by worshipping&#xA;  Him through the dedicated performance of one's duty, man attains to&#xA;  spiritual competency. [Gita 18.46] &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;  One's own duty, even if without&#xA;  excellence (i.e. inferior in the scale of worldy values)is more&#xA;  meritorious spiritually than the apparently well-performed duty of&#xA;  another. For no sin is incurred by one doing works ordained according&#xA;  to one's nature. [Gita 18.47]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses do not support the last name based hereditary Hindu caste system which led to division in Hindu society. It is a curious fact that the ancient Acharyas ignored ancient interpretations of varna/caste given in the Mahabharata. There have been many points of view regarding the Varna-jati system apart from the one practiced by Hindus. Some of these proposals are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira said, &quot; In human society, O mighty and highly&#xA;  intelligent serpent, it is difficult to ascertain one's caste, because&#xA;  of promiscuous intercourse among the four orders. This is my opinion.&#xA;  Men belonging to all orders (promiscuously) begat offspring upon women&#xA;  of all the orders. And of men,  speech, sexual intercourse, birth and&#xA;  death are common. And to this the Rishis have borne testimony by using&#xA;  as the beginning of a sacrifice such expressions as -- of what caste&#xA;  server may be, we celebrate the sacrifice. Therefore, those that are&#xA;  wise have asserted that CHARACTER IS THE CHIEF ESSENTIAL REQUISITE.&#xA;  .... WHATSOEVER NOW CONFORMS TO THE RULES OF PURE AND VIRTUOUS CONDUCT,&#xA;  HIM HAVE I, ERE NOW, DESIGNATED AS A BRAHMANA.' (Mahabharata Aranya&#xA;  Parva Section CLXXIX)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The sage Bhrigu said, ‘There is really no distinction between the&#xA;  different orders. The whole world at first consisted of Brahmanas.&#xA;  Created (equal) by Brahman, men have, in consequence of their acts,&#xA;  become distributed into different orders. They that became fond of&#xA;  indulging in desire and enjoying pleasures, possessed of the&#xA;  attributes of severity and wrath, endued with courage, and unmindful&#xA;  of the duties of piety and worship, - these Brahmanas possessing the&#xA;  attributes of passion, - became Kshatriyas. Those Brahmanas again who,&#xA;  without attending to the duties laid down for them, became possessed&#xA;  of both the attributes of Goodness and Passion, and took to the&#xA;  professions of cattle-rearing and agriculture, became Vaisyas. Those&#xA;  Brahmanas again that became fond of untruth and injuring other&#xA;  creatures, possessed of cupidity, - engaged in all kinds of acts for a&#xA;  living, and fallen away from the purity of behaviour, and thus wedded&#xA;  to the attributes of Darkness, became Sudras. Separated by these&#xA;  occupations, Brahmanas, falling away from their order, became members&#xA;  of the other three orders. All the four orders, therefore, have always&#xA;  the right to the performance of all pious duties and of sacrifices.&#xA;  Even thus were the four orders at first created equal by Brahman who&#xA;  ordained for all of them (the observances disclosed in) the words of&#xA;  Brahma (in the Vedas). Through cupidity alone, many fell away, and&#xA;  became possessed by ignorance. The Brahmanas are always devoted to the&#xA;  scripture on Brahma; and mindful of vows and restraints, are capable&#xA;  of grasping the conception of Brahma. Their penances therefore never&#xA;  go for nothing. They amongst them are not Brahmanas that are incapable&#xA;  of understanding that every created thing is Supreme Brahma. (Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CLXXXVIII ) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The famous Rishi Yajnavalkya continued,’ ..All orders of men are&#xA;  Brahmanas. All are sprung from Brahma. All men utter Brahma. Aided by&#xA;  an understanding that is derived from and directed to Brahma. I&#xA;  inculcated this science teaching of Prakriti and Purusha. Indeed this&#xA;  whole universe is Brahma. From the mouth of Brahma sprung the&#xA;  Brahmanas; from his arms, sprung the Kshatriyas; from his navel, the&#xA;  Vaisysa; and from his feet, the Sudras. All the orders, (having sprung&#xA;  in this way) should not be regarded as pilfering from one another.&#xA;  Impelled by ignorance, all men meet with death and attain, O King, to&#xA;  birth that is the cause of acts. Divested of knowledge, all orders of&#xA;  men, dragged in terrible ignorance, fall into varied orders of being&#xA;  due to the principles that flow from Prakriti. For this reason, all&#xA;  should, by every means, seek to acquire knowledge. I have told thee&#xA;  that every person is entitled to strive for its acquisition. One that&#xA;  is possessed of knowledge is a Brahmana. Others, (viz., Kshatriyas,&#xA;  and Vaishyas and Sudras) are possessed of knowledge. Hence this&#xA;  science of emancipation is always open to them all. (Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCCXIX)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From these 3 views and that of the Gita what comes across is that the Hindu view is that all humans are not equal in conduct. There are good people and there are bad people. That is a fact of life. However, they should all be treated equally and given equal opportunity to improve themselves precisely because they are all supreme Brahma. Where Hindus have gone wrong with their practice is to freeze an entire jati or community into a single Varna. That is the nonsensical thing about Hindu practice. The Varna system is for an individual and all individuals have to be respected and given equal opportunity to improve themselves even though there are real differences between individuals. The idea that all humans are equal is clearly nonsense (then why should we celebrate Einstein or Rabindranath specially?) but all humans should be treated with an equal eye as suggested by the Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The varna idea applies even to non-Hindus.  Some people accuse the Rig Veda of casteism because of its conception of different orders of humans as emerging from different parts of Brahman. A Mahabharata passage from Anusasana Parva Section CXLIII even rejects such an idea:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maheshwara said, ‘..Neither birth, nor the purificatory rites, nor&#xA;  learning, nor offspring, can be regarded as grounds for conferring&#xA;  upon one the regenerate status. &lt;strong&gt;Verily, the conduct is the only&#xA;  ground.&lt;/strong&gt; All Brahmanas in this world are Brahmanas in consequence of&#xA;  conduct. A Sudra, if he is established on good conduct, is regarded as&#xA;  possessed of the status of a Brahmana. The status of a Brahma, O&#xA;  auspicious lady [Uma], is equal wherever it exists. Even this is my&#xA;  opinion. He, indeed, is a Brahmana in which the status of Brahma&#xA;  exists – that condition which is bereft of attributes and which has no&#xA;  stain attached to it. of human beings in four orders dependent on birth is only for purposes of classification.&lt;strong&gt;The boon giving Brahma, when he created all creatures, himself said that the distribution of human beings in four orders dependent on birth is only for purposes of classification.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Varna system was flexible and changing of Varna was allowed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Change of Varna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada said, 'If in members born in a certain Varna the qualities&#xA;  pertaining to another Varna are seen, they (the former) are to be&#xA;  classified as belonging to the latter Varna.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana VII.11.35&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Actual Examples of Change of Varna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am supplementing my answer with actual examples of persons changing Varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagavan Rishabha, realising that the region of his advent was a place&#xA;  dominated by Vedic rituals, adopted the life of a religious student&#xA;  under a teacher with gifts, came back home with his blessings. He&#xA;  adopted the householder’s station of life in order to teach the world&#xA;  about the duties of that order, observed all the ceremonials and&#xA;  duties laid down in the scriptures, married a girl named Jayanti given&#xA;  to him by Indra, and begot by her a hundred sons equal to himself in&#xA;  all respects. Of all these sons, Bharata was the eldest and noblest.&#xA;  This Ajanabha Varsha came to be known after him as Bharatavarsha. Next&#xA;  to him, the eldest nine other sons ….. were elder to the remaining&#xA;  ninety. Among these ninety, another nine … became great devotees and&#xA;  teachers of the Bhakti cult. ….. &lt;strong&gt;The remaining eighty one of the&#xA;  brothers, who were humble in nature, learned in the Vedas, adepts in&#xA;  sacrificial rites, and extremely pure through their observances,&#xA;  became Brahmanas according to their father’s instruction.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana, V.4.8-13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Several sons of King Rishava changed their Varna under the instruction of their father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2018-03-21T10:25:36.360" LastActivityDate="2018-03-21T10:25:36.360" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9148" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-23T04:41:23.943" Score="8" ViewCount="2334" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna, while equating himself &lt;em&gt;with greatest&lt;/em&gt; among all living beings and non-living things among various sects, says in Bhagavad Gita as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आदित्यानामहं &lt;strong&gt;विष्णुर्ज्योतिषां&lt;/strong&gt; रविरंशुमान्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मरीचिर्मरुतामस्मि नक्षत्राणामहं शशी।।10.21।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adityanam, &lt;strong&gt;among the twelve Adityas&lt;/strong&gt;; aham, I; &lt;strong&gt;am the Aditya called Visnu&lt;/strong&gt;. Jyotisam, among the luminaries; amsuman, the radiant; ravih, sun. Marutam, among the different gods called Maruts; asmi, I am; the one called Marici. Naksatranam, among the stars; I am sasi, the moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वेदानां सामवेदोऽस्मि देवानामस्मि वासवः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इन्द्रियाणां मनश्चास्मि भूतानामस्मि चेतना।।10.22।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedanam, among the Vedas; I am the Sama-veda. &lt;strong&gt;Devanam, among the gods-such as Rudras, Adityas and others; I am vasavah, Indra.&lt;/strong&gt; Indriyanam, among the eleven organs, viz eye etc.; I am the manah, mind. I am the mind which is of the nature of reflection and doubt. And I am the cetana, intelligence [It is the medium for the manifestation of Consciousness.], the function of the intellect ever manifest in the aggregate of body and organs; bhtanam, in creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रुद्राणां शङ्करश्चास्मि वित्तेशो यक्षरक्षसाम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वसूनां पावकश्चास्मि मेरुः शिखरिणामहम्।।10.23।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudranam, &lt;strong&gt;among the eleven Rudras,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;I am Sankara&lt;/strong&gt;; and yaksaraksasam, among the Yaksas and goblins; I am vittesah, Kubera. Vasunam, among the eight Vasus; I am pavakah, Fire; and sikharinam, among the peaked mountains, I am Meru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna gave this discourse to Arjuna almost at the end of Dwaapara yuda, i.e, nearly 5000 years ago.  He said that &lt;strong&gt;he is Indra among Devatas&lt;/strong&gt; (33 Gods).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also said that he is &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu among Adityas&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Shankara among Rudras&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why did not he say that he is &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu or Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; among Devatas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2020-08-31T02:04:27.950" LastActivityDate="2020-08-31T02:04:27.950" Title="Why did Sri Krishna say he is Indra among Devatas?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|krishna|bhagavad-gita|indra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9149" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-23T05:46:41.610" Score="7" ViewCount="513" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of flowers in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why are temple decorated with flowers and why are Gods pleased with flowers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="840" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-08-27T17:18:26.770" LastActivityDate="2018-08-27T17:18:26.770" Title="What is the significance of flowers in Hinduism?" Tags="|gods|belief|practice|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9151" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9148" CreationDate="2015-10-23T06:57:33.710" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Devtas are living entities just like us. But they have spiritually and physically advanced body. Devtas are not GODs. They are Demi-GODs. GODs are Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti. As Indra is the king of Devtas, hence it is the highest position. That's why Sri Krishna Said, &quot;I am Indra among Devtas&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3983" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T06:57:33.710" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9152" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9126" CreationDate="2015-10-23T07:03:56.003" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is never born from A garbh of a pregnant women. This never happened since the beginning of Universe. Lord Shiva just appears and disappears. It is wrong to say human beings which are born are Shiva Avatar. People claiming to be an Avatar of Shiva are misleading people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources: Shiv Mahapuran&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3983" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-10-26T04:51:46.973" LastActivityDate="2015-10-26T04:51:46.973" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9153" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2567" CreationDate="2015-10-23T07:10:51.497" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is how it happened. &#xA;Nothingness (ShivA) -&gt; Vishnu -&gt; Brahma -&gt; Shankara (Sakaar roop of Lord ShivA).&#xA;It is foolish to say Lord Shiva is the son of Brahma Dev. Just as Lord Ram is born from Kaushalya, similarly Lord Shiva took birth in this material world through Brahma. Lord Shiva's nirakaar nirgun roop is unborn, but his Physical Sakaar roop is born or took place. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva = Shiv + Adi Shakti (Material/Prakriti). &#xA;When Shiva separated him from Adi Shakti, nothing was left, no material possesion hence only thing left was Vairag.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3983" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T07:10:51.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9156" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-23T08:50:16.953" Score="6" ViewCount="7879" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that Karna was the greatest archer. As no archer, regardless of his level of supremacy, can win all the time. Even Krishna suffered defeats. Did Karna suffer defeats during his lifetime? If so, then what were the encounters?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-18T12:54:39.850" LastActivityDate="2021-07-02T08:11:09.173" Title="Karna Suffering Defeats" Tags="|mahabharata|karna|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9157" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-23T09:13:15.353" Score="2" ViewCount="1159" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard Lord Sri Vishnu being referred as Murari as he killed the asura Mura. While hearing &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTMokvKoqLw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this YouTube video&lt;/a&gt; upanyasam on Ekadesi (this is in Tamil and I will try to listen again and mention the moment in mm:ss format), the presenter was saying that the Mura was a asura who was killed by Vishnu indirectly by a women created from Vishnu himself and he quotes this woman's name as Ekadesi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone put some words with credible reference on that message? If done so, then it would also answer another question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7653/what-is-the-importance-of-ekadashi&quot;&gt;What is the importance of Ekadesi?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T13:08:33.057" Title="Lord Sri Vishnu is referred to as Murari - who is the demon Mura and and how was he killed?" Tags="|ekadashi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9158" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9164" CreationDate="2015-10-23T11:50:00.177" Score="12" ViewCount="1904" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found that many people get confused between Vedas and Puranas due to the reason that a certain deity is being referred in Puranas/other books but there is no reference of him/her in Vedas. So, I want  to know which all Gods/Demi-Gods/Goddesses,etc are being referred in Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-23T05:54:21.020" LastActivityDate="2018-01-23T05:54:21.020" Title="Which all Gods and Goddesses are being referred in Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|gods|goddess|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9160" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9157" CreationDate="2015-10-23T13:08:33.057" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There were two Muras lived in the time of Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One Mura wanted to fight with Lord Vishnu and so he went to Vaikunda. At that time, lord was in deep sleep. Mura tried many ways to disturb Lord's sleeping but he failed. Suddenly a woman arose from the body of Vishnu and start fought against Mura ad killed him. Lord Vishnu wake up and appreciated her and blessed her and that day is continued as Ekadasi&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another Mura was the commander of the nation where lord Krishna Lived.He was the son of Mother Earth and Lord Vishnu. Lord Krishna killed him for his sins and due to the request of Mother Earth, that day was celebraated as Deepavali&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T13:08:33.057" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9161" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9126" CreationDate="2015-10-23T13:15:04.593" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said jokingly he was one of Shiva's demons. As a longtime follower of Ramakrishna/Vivekananda, Ramakrishna is seen as an incarnation of Vishnu, Vivekananda is looked upon as one of seven celestial sages. No one says Vivekananda is an incarnation of Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T13:15:04.593" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9162" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9091" CreationDate="2015-10-23T13:40:21.410" Score="3" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Yes, &quot;sins&quot; are &quot;forgiven&quot;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many verses for &quot;sins washed out&quot; throughout Gita. Citing few of them below, to establish the authority of this concept:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Gyan Yoga (Sundar/Beautiful)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: Once a person conquers the &lt;em&gt;Rajo-guna&lt;/em&gt; and identifies himself with absolute, all his past deeds are freed, be it good or bad. Would merge within the supreme without any &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; lingering&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga (Sahaj/Trivial)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: The true &lt;em&gt;Sanyasi&lt;/em&gt; is the one who lets go the fruits of &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;, because a person cannot get rid of doing (good/bad/ugly) &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; due to material nature influence. But those who have renounced the fruits of action are unaffected and would get &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;; others would get good, bad, mixed fruits&lt;sup&gt;[2]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bhakti Yoga (Saral/Easy)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: Once a worshiper completely surrenders self to supreme or &lt;strong&gt;any&lt;/strong&gt; manifestation of supreme by remembering in &lt;strong&gt;any&lt;/strong&gt; way, he/she is intact from any sinful reactions &amp;amp; ultimately merges to God&lt;sup&gt;[3]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With above approaches, if one lives his/her life then quite likely that during death the same tendency will be retained. Similarly, if one lives life in ignorance or wish-fulfillment, then it's very less likely that God can be remembered at last moment. Because the moment of death is said to be quite testing and creating such tendency instantaneously may require &lt;em&gt;saadhana&lt;/em&gt; of many births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now one may ask, if I misbehave with someone and then think about God, is my sin gone? Theoretically it's possible, but practically there is a catch:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did I &quot;behave&quot; or &quot;misbehave&quot; or &quot;well-behave&quot;? 1st one doesn't have&#xA;any result. So even if others say &quot;misbehaved&quot;, there is no sin. But&#xA;if I am able to judge &quot;mis&quot;/&quot;well&quot; myself then it's a fruitful action! &#xA;So even if I remember God, this attachment will remain subtly just&lt;br&gt;&#xA;waiting to kick-in someday!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &quot;sin&quot; is a relative term. Two persons of different philosophies may think that other one is committing sins. However both themselves are just acting naturally.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sometimes a person will assume certain action sinful due to ignorance or rationality or weighing on the profit/loss. But in actuality not performing that action would be sinful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Why &quot;sins&quot; are &quot;forgiven&quot;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed true that a person committing &quot;heinous crimes&quot; if remembers God during death, then reaches God irrespective of whatever &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;. Ramananda Sagar's TV series &lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt; has got &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/6o8hjb__srY?t=1483&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this &lt;em&gt;sloka&lt;/em&gt; right&lt;/a&gt;. However, the &quot;why&quot; part was missed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse is quite controversial and can be used by critics of Gita against it. To explain it, I have to present another few controversial thoughts which are implicit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We don't need to necessarily love God with compassion; we can even hate &#xA;the God continuously, we will reach him&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Surrendering to &lt;strong&gt;any&lt;/strong&gt;(right/wrong) Guru&lt;sup&gt;[4]&lt;/sup&gt; helps reaching God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's understand 2 important words from your original verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Me&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Often the universal appeal of this word is missed by translating it as: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Me = Kṛṣṇa&lt;sub&gt; © 3000 BC, India. All rights reserved.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We should remember that here Krishna is talking as a self realized supreme soul to Arjuna. Now certain things cannot be translated into words, so he uses the term &quot;Me&quot; as the closest. The &quot;Me&quot; is creator, supporter &amp;amp; destroyer of universe, its &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; and just everything&lt;sup&gt;[5]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the level of soul, the &quot;Me&quot; part of you and the &quot;Me&quot; part of myself/others is no different than the &quot;Me&quot; part of Krishna&lt;sup&gt;[6]&lt;/sup&gt;. Our current &quot;body&quot; identities are just certain combinations of material nature. Material nature combos are &quot;ever-existent temporaries&quot;&lt;sup&gt;[7]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Remember (Fixed upon)&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is the keyword which we often get it wrong. &lt;strong&gt;Love is not the only devotion&lt;/strong&gt; humans have! What if a person's nature doesn't have &quot;Lovingness&quot;, rather is always &quot;Hateful&quot;. What if the person isn't even &quot;Hateful&quot;, but he/she is always a &quot;Critic&quot;. What if he/she is just a &quot;Mocker&quot; or &quot;Fearful&quot;. What if mix of many emotions?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A person has right to act according to his &lt;em&gt;Swadharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[8]&lt;/sup&gt;. God in form of enjoyer/&lt;em&gt;Anandmaya Sharira&lt;/em&gt; enjoys all the &lt;em&gt;Rasa&lt;/em&gt;/emotions&lt;sup&gt;[6]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A hateful person may take births or ages to become loving, why to have a long wait? Just hate God as your enemy, hate like how Shishupala did. Or being a cruel person, get frightened from the God like how Kamsa did.  Because their minds were always fixed upon Krishna&lt;sup&gt;[9]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Emotions like &quot;Hatred&quot;, &quot;Fear&quot;, &quot;Envy&quot; are self defeating compared to &quot;Love&quot;, &quot;Compassion&quot;, &quot;Friendliness&quot;, hence their reactions are sinful. But based on own nature, one can use those &quot;tools&quot; to remember God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Remember (Devotion) = not being Indifferent&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A real non-believer is not the one who consciously say, &quot;I don't believe in God&quot;, but the one for whom existence of God doesn't matter. He/she is ok even if God exist, or ok if doesn't. Plain indifference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Answer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If one's nature is crooked then all the so called scriptures will not help become divine. One's Swa-Dharma is defined by inner material nature and should act according to it. Such people don't have any sinful reaction because they are just doing their duty. It's better not to copy even those, who are considered 'good' according to the society&lt;sup&gt;[10]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the &quot;enlightened&quot; people act according to their typical nature, it's not to be repressed&lt;sup&gt;[11]&lt;/sup&gt;. Because, it's easier to give away the fruit of your &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;, when it's done according to &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Swabhavik Dharma&lt;/em&gt;). e.g. if your nature is not to cheat then you won't attach to the &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; of buying milk in exchange of money from store. But if my nature is of a thief and if I buy milk ethically then it's quite likely to get excited about that &quot;good deed&quot; and get attached to it. For me it's better to avoid that &quot;interruption&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now pure &lt;em&gt;Bhakti Yogi&lt;/em&gt;s don't have even that much discrimination/discretion/&lt;em&gt;Viveka&lt;/em&gt;. So they surrender themselves to someone to whom they think has such discretion. That might be any person or deity or God or even an idol. Now &quot;surrender&quot; means, even the bad effects are also considered &lt;em&gt;Prasadam&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Bhakti Yoga&lt;/em&gt; is the easiest with the main condition as once you surrender, there has to be no looking back without a shadow of doubt.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Arjuna had surrendered to Krishna considering him as &lt;em&gt;Sakha&lt;/em&gt;. He din't have slightest doubt on his words (questions are different). He apologizes to Krishna after being overwhelmed by his universal form, thinking that he was being too candid with the supreme God&lt;sup&gt;[12]&lt;/sup&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An extremely sinful person if devoted to God is considered saintly/&lt;em&gt;Sadhu&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[13]&lt;/sup&gt;. But the catch is that a person has to get influenced by &quot;remembering God&quot; continuously during his regular life to be able to realize the same feeling during death&lt;sup&gt;[14]&lt;/sup&gt;. Instantaneous generation of Godly feeling should be quite rare. If one rely on that gamble then bigger chances of failing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;In nutshell while Death&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For &lt;em&gt;Gyan-Yogi&lt;/em&gt;, he treats the life as a grand film and him being a character. The actors who play hero or villain are not punishable by the law! Rather the yogi is aware that he/she is not involved in any activity whatsoever&lt;sup&gt;[15]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For &lt;em&gt;Karma-Yogi&lt;/em&gt;, being embodied it's recommended to act according to &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt;. Behaving natural doesn't have virtue/sin. Finally the soul doesn't have any &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; and to let it merge within the supreme, one has to let go all the &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;s (including &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt;) around it&lt;sup&gt;[16]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For &lt;em&gt;Bhakti-Yogi&lt;/em&gt;, &quot;God&quot; is just interested in &quot;Devotion&quot; (i.e. not being indifferent). God neither creates the doer-ship nor actions nor its fruits. Whatever virtue/&lt;em&gt;Punya&lt;/em&gt; or sin/&lt;em&gt;Paap&lt;/em&gt; we commit, are just 3 modes of material nature &lt;em&gt;Triguna — Sattva, Rajas, Tamas&lt;/em&gt; acting within themselves. Not only that, God even doesn't accept anyone's &lt;em&gt;Punya-Paap&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[17]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/201908.Ramana_Maharshi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ramana Maharshi&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;You must achieve liberation during your life time.&#xA;  Even if you fail to do it during your lifetime, you must think of god at least at the time of death, since one becomes what he thinks of &#xA;  at the time of death. But unless all your life you have been thinking of God, unless you have accustomed yourself to dhyana of 'God always during life, it would not at all be possible for you think of God at the time of death.&quot;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Read Sanskrit word by word translation to get real verse meaning&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[1]  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 6.27&lt;/a&gt; — The yogī whose mind is ﬁxed on Me verily attains the highest perfection of transcendental happiness. He is beyond the mode of passion, he realizes his qualitative identity with the Supreme, and thus he is freed from all reactions to past deeds.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/36&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 4.36&lt;/a&gt; — Even if you are considered to be the most sinful of all sinners, when you are situated in the boat of transcendental knowledge you will be able to cross over the ocean of miseries.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/5/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 5.10&lt;/a&gt; — One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus leaf is untouched by water.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 18.12&lt;/a&gt; — For one who is not renounced, the threefold fruits of action – desirable, undesirable and mixed – accrue after death. But those who are in the renounced order of life have no such result to suffer or enjoy.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 9.27, 9.28&lt;/a&gt; — Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform – do that, O son of Kuntī, as an offering to Me.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;— In this way you will be freed from bondage to work and its auspicious and inauspicious results. With your mind ﬁxed on Me in this principle of renunciation, you will be liberated and come to Me.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[4] गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णुर्गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरः गुरुरेव परं ब्रह्म तस्मै श्रीगुरवे नमः &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[5] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 9.17&lt;/a&gt; — I am the father of this universe, the mother, the support and the grandsire. I am the object of knowledge, the puriﬁer and the syllable oṁ. I am also the Ṛg, the Sāma and the Yajur Vedas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/13/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 13.14&lt;/a&gt; — Everywhere are His hands and legs, His eyes, heads and faces, and He has ears everywhere. In this way the Supersoul exists, pervading everything.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[6] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/13/24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 13.23&lt;/a&gt; — Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer, who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[7] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/13/20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 13.20&lt;/a&gt; — Material nature and the living entities should be understood to be beginningless. Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material nature.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[8] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/35&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 3.35&lt;/a&gt; — It is far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though faultily, than another’s duties perfectly. Destruction in the course of performing one’s own duty is better than engaging in another’s duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[9] Don't have textual reference handy. However, TV series &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/WAhp5SNjC4I?t=394&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Krishna on Shishupala&lt;/a&gt;&quot; and &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/JMhVp68y_RM?t=2616&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharata on Kamsa&lt;/a&gt;&quot; has shown this concept in genuine ways. Here is one &lt;a href=&quot;http://qr.ae/R4aokP&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Quora thread&lt;/a&gt; which discusses this as &quot;Shatru Bhakti&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[10] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/47&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 18.47&lt;/a&gt; — It is better to engage in one’s own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly, than to accept another’s occupation and perform it perfectly. Duties prescribed according to one’s nature are never affected by sinful reactions.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[11] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 3.33&lt;/a&gt; — Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he has acquired from the three modes. What can repression accomplish? &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[12] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/11/41-42&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 11.41-42&lt;/a&gt; — Thinking of You as my friend, I have rashly addressed You “O Kṛṣṇa,” “O Yādava,” “O my friend,” not knowing Your glories. Please forgive whatever I may have done in madness or in love. I have dishonored You many times, jesting as we relaxed, lay on the same bed, or sat or ate together, sometimes alone and sometimes in front of many friends. O infallible one, please excuse me for all those offenses.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[13] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/30&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 9.30&lt;/a&gt; — Even if one commits the most abominable action, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated in his determination.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[14] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-08-06.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 8.6&lt;/a&gt; — O Arjuna, one who at the final moment gives up body remembering any idea whatsoever certainly achieves that, because being absorbed in the same idea for a long time.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; [15] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/5/8-9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 5.8, 5.9&lt;/a&gt; — A person in the divine consciousness, although engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving about, sleeping and breathing, always knows within himself that he actually does nothing at all. Because while speaking, evacuating, receiving, or opening or closing his eyes, he always knows that only the material senses are engaged with their objects and that he is aloof from them. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; [16] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 18.66&lt;/a&gt; — Abandon all varieties of Dharma and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[17] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 5.14, 5.15&lt;/a&gt; — The God does not create activities, nor does he induce people to act, nor does he create the fruits of action. All this is enacted by the modes of material nature.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;— Nor does the Supreme Lord assume anyone’s sinful or pious activities. Embodied beings, however, are bewildered because of the ignorance which covers their real knowledge.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-10-31T15:33:16.403" LastActivityDate="2015-10-31T15:33:16.403" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9163" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3999" CreationDate="2015-10-23T14:33:50.413" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vysa (Krishna Dwaipayana) is referred to avatara of the supreme, Krishna is also one of the avatara of the supreme. Thats the reason there is a reference of Gita in Vedanta Sutra and vice-versa.  For the same reason, all the vedanta school acharyas followed Parasthanatrayam (Three superior pranamanas (authority)) namely Vedas including upanishads, Brahma sutras, and Bhagavath Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4002" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T14:33:50.413" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9164" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9158" CreationDate="2015-10-23T14:52:04.213" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Deities is mostly refereed in Samhitas and Brahmanas of Rigveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_deities#Number_of_deities&quot;&gt;wikipedia&gt;Hindu deities&gt;Number_of_deities&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The number 33 is based on a verse in the Rigveda and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Chapter 3. which 11 gods each in heaven, on earth and in mid-air. Another verse of the Rigveda states that &quot;3,339 gods have worshipped Agni&quot;. The extension to 330 million in popular tradition has been attributed to mistranslation. Another source suggests the number is just &quot;intended to suggest infinity&quot;. In the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brhadaranyaka_Upanishad&quot;&gt;Brhadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; (1.9.1), &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajnavalkya&quot;&gt;Yajnavalkya&lt;/a&gt; asked how many gods there are, and he answers that there are 303,303. When the question is repeated, he says 33. When the question is repeated again, he says six, and when asked yet again, he answers one. The number 33 according to the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad (1.9.2) consists of eight &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasus&quot;&gt;Vasus&lt;/a&gt;, eleven &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudras&quot;&gt;Rudras&lt;/a&gt;, twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adityas&quot;&gt;Adityas&lt;/a&gt;, plus &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra&quot;&gt;Indra&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prajapati&quot;&gt;Prajapati&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaska&quot;&gt;Yaska&lt;/a&gt; in his commentary on the Rigveda states that there are three deities, Agni (in the earth), Vayu or Indra (in the air), and Surya (in the sky).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I recommend to visit the full article on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigvedic_deities&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rigvedic deities&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;List of Rigvedic deities by number of dedicated hymns, after Griffith (1888). Some dedications are to paired deities, such as Indra-Agni, Mitra-Varuna, Soma-Rudra, here counted doubly. Vishvadevas (all gods together) have been invoked 70 times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Indra 289&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Agni 218&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Soma 123 (most of them in the Soma Mandala)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Asvins 56&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Varuna 46 [1]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;the Maruts 38&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mitra 28[1]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ushas 21&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vayu (Wind) 12&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Savitr 11&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;the Rbhus 11&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pushan 10&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;the Apris 9&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brhaspati 8&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Surya (Sun) 8&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dyaus and Prithivi (Heaven and Earth) 6, plus 5.84 dedicated to Earth alone&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Apas (Waters) 6&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Adityas 6&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vishnu 6&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahmanaspati 6&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rudra 5&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dadhikras 4&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;the Sarasvati River / Sarasvati 3&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Parjanya (Rain) 3&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vāc (Speech) 2 (mentioned 130 times, deified e.g. in 10.125)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastospati 2&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vishvakarman 2&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Manyu 2&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kapinjala (the Heathcock, a form of Indra) 2&#xA;  &#xA;  Minor deities (one single or no dedicated hymn)&#xA;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Manas (Thought), prominent concept, deified in 10.58&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dakshina (Reward for priests and poets), prominent concept, deified in 10.107&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jnanam (Knowledge), prominent concept, deified in 10.71&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Purusha (&quot;Cosmic Man&quot; of the Purusha sukta 10.90)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Aditi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhaga&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vasukra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Atri&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Apam Napat&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ksetrapati&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ghrta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nirrti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Asamati&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Urvasi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pururavas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vena&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Aranyani&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mayabheda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Tarksya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Tvastar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Saranyu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also see &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_%28Hinduism%29#Vedic_literature&quot;&gt;Deva(Hinduism)&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedic&lt;/strong&gt; literature&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ये देवासो दिव्येकादश स्थ पृथिव्यामध्येकादश स्थ ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अप्सुक्षितो महिनैकादश स्थ ते देवासो यज्ञमिमं जुषध्वम् ॥११॥&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_(Hinduism)#cite_note-21&quot;&gt;[20]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For Devi, Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi#Vedic_period&quot;&gt;Devi&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedic&lt;/strong&gt; eriod&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas describes a number of significant goddesses. including &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushas&quot;&gt;Ushas&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prithvi&quot;&gt;Prithvi&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aditi&quot;&gt;Aditi&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diti&quot;&gt;Diti&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danu_(Asura)&quot;&gt;Danu&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraswati&quot;&gt;Saraswati&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C4%81c&quot;&gt;Vāc&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nir%E1%B9%9Bti&quot;&gt;Nirṛti&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratri&quot;&gt;Ratri&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aranyani&quot;&gt;Aranyani&lt;/a&gt;; and a number of minor ones, including Puramdhi, Parendi, Raka, Dhisana, – hardly mentioned about a dozen times in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rigveda&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, and they all are associated with bounties and riches&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T14:52:04.213" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9165" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9141" CreationDate="2015-10-23T14:58:10.693" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahmam (Paramatma) and the individual soul (Jivatma) differ as follows:oug&#xA;1.Brahmam is Vibhu (All pervading) and Jiva is Anu (Atomic). &#xA;2.Brahmam is Unique and there is no second like Him- neither above nor Equal to Him. Jiva are countless but are identical in Svaroopa (Defining characteristics)&#xA;3.Brahmam is naturally self sustaining and infinite in every aspect of Gyana (Knowledge), Bala (Strength), Aishwarya (Wealth), Veerya (Potency), Shakthi (Power) and Tejas (Opulence) with which He is the cause for Creation, sustenance and annihilation of the Universe. Jiva is enabled by Brahmam to have all the same attributes but is not empowered in the activities of creation,sustainance and annihilation.&#xA;4. Brahmam can liberate the bonded Jiva from the Karmic cycle which Jiva is incapable of.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3982" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T14:58:10.693" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9166" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-23T15:04:54.227" Score="5" ViewCount="670" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Shiva really first teacher of Yoga? How was Yoga developed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4003" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-10-23T16:52:46.637" LastActivityDate="2016-03-19T10:00:37.017" Title="Is Shiva really Adi Guru of Yoga?" Tags="|shiva|yoga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9167" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9148" CreationDate="2015-10-23T15:42:24.677" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahmam in the Paramapadam (Nitya Vibhuthi) manifests as Sriman.Narayana (Param). He descends to Leela Vibhuthi (Created Universe) as MahaVishnu (Viewham) and incarnates taking many Avatars (Vibhavam). Lord Krishna is considered as one of them. In order to explain that He (Brahmam) permeates into every object-both animate (Chetana) and inanimate (Achetana)- and remains as Antaryami to control everything, He mentions several names of most important devathas, Mountains, trees and claims that He is dwelling in every such entity to substantiate His state of Vyapyam-permeation into everything to control everything as Antaryami. He is worshipped as Archa Murthy-his fifth expansion- in temples in the present Kali Yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3982" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T15:42:24.677" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9168" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9139" CreationDate="2015-10-23T16:23:24.557" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mind is known as Manas (Sanskrit word)in Vedic philosophy-now popularly known as Hinduism. Manas is the co-ordinator of 10 Indriyas (5 Gyana Indriyas + 5 Karma Indriyas) and serves as the conduit of external information to the Intelligence (Dharma Bhoota Gyana) of the conscious self-Jiva. Manas along with 10 Indriyas come out of Satvic Ahankar during the process of creation of the Universe. Manas has two more states called 'Chitham'(Analytical) and 'Buddhi'(Decision).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3982" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T16:23:24.557" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9169" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-23T16:51:19.223" Score="7" ViewCount="250" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Chapter 2 Sloka 38 of Bhagavad Gita, it is said that;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maintain equanimity when faced with happiness and distress, gain and loss, victory and defeat – fight, and in this way you will not incur impiety.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;( sukha-duḥkhe same kṛtvā &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  lābhālābhau jayājayau &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tato yuddhāya yujyasva &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  naivaṁ pāpam avāpsyasi )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My interpretation:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;If I do any task with out any feelings then I am not doing sin.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is my interpretation correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If wrong, what is its actual interpretation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-25T14:20:37.387" Title="What is the actual interpretation of following Bhagavad Gita shlokha?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9170" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9138" CreationDate="2015-10-23T16:59:59.317" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This confusion is created by the Advaita Siddhanta that claims that Everything other than Brahmam is Mithya (fantasy). According to Advaita there is no Jiva nor Prakruthi in reality. All these seemingly existing objects are unreal and appear so due to the delusion of Brahmam. Advaita deals with only Abheda Shruthi Vakyas as valid and conveniently forgetting the Bheda Shruthis and Gataka Shruthis. So, Advaita siddhanta cannot provide convincing answers to this question. So, is Dwaitam that holds the opposite views of Advaita ignoring Abheda Shruthis as invalid! Only Visishtadvaitam holds the key as it has all the answers as it accepts the entire Shruthi Vakyas as valid and true and procedes to explain all the Pramana Vakyas using Deha/Atma Bhavam concept. Accordingly, Jiva is distincltly different from Paramatma and also an eternal servant to Him. The conditioned soul (Baddha Atma) is going through the AnAdhi Karmic cycle of birth and death owing to its enticement in Samsara Maya of the created Universe forgetting its divine nature and proximity to Paramatma.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3982" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T16:59:59.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9171" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9169" CreationDate="2015-10-23T18:19:13.617" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't think the idea is to avoid feeling or not feel. I think the key is not to get trapped in the feeling. Equanimity does note mean the absence of feeling, but rather balance through feelings. So if you feel some loss, it is okay to feel bad or down. But if you stop going to work because you cannot get over the loss, I think that is where the problem arises. The same is true about good fortune. If you win a lot of money, you can be happy. But if you become so enamored of your money that you can no longer take out the garbage or wash your own dishes, then that is probably the issue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4004" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T18:19:13.617" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9172" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3241" CreationDate="2015-10-23T19:57:06.590" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://krishna.org/how-to-offer-food-to-krishna/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, one of the mantras you can chant before having any food, any meal, at any time of the day, is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;नमो ब्रह्मण्य देवाय गोब्राह्मण हिताय च ।&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;जगत् हिताय कृष्णाय गोविन्दाय नमो नमः ॥&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;namo brahmaṇya-devāya &lt;br&gt;&#xA;go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca &lt;br&gt;&#xA;jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya &lt;br&gt;&#xA;govindāya namo namaḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/13/77&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana (1.19.65)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is the worshipable Deity for all brahminical men, who is the well-wisher of cows and brāhmaṇas, and who is always benefiting the whole world. I offer my repeated obeisances to the Personality of Godhead, known as Kṛṣṇa and Govinda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-23T19:57:06.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9173" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-23T20:00:40.613" Score="1" ViewCount="4186" Body="&lt;p&gt;Anybody knows the reason behind why brahmans or few other community people wear panchakacham. I am looking for a spritual or a scientific reason than quoting, its easy to do pooja etc. What is also the purpose of wearing uthariyam. what are the rules to be followed while wearing it. Can any body respond to this kindly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4007" LastActivityDate="2020-10-28T08:59:27.930" Title="Panchakacham purpose" Tags="|rituals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9169" CreationDate="2015-10-24T01:45:44.573" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following is the excerpt from Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi.  Hope this will help you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mr. Rangachari, a Telugu Pandit in Voorhees’ College at Vellore, asked about &lt;strong&gt;nishkama karma&lt;/strong&gt;. There was no reply. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After a time Sri Bhagavan went up the hill and a few followed him, including the pandit. There was a thorny stick lying on the way which Sri Bhagavan picked up;&#xA;he sat down and began leisurely to work at it. The thorns were cut off, the knots were made smooth, the whole stick was polished with a rough leaf. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The whole operation took about six hours. Everyone was wondering at the fine appearance of the stick made of a spiky material.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A shepherd boy put in his appearance on the way as the group moved off. He had lost his stick and was at a loss. Sri Bhagavan immediately gave the new one in his hand to the boy and passed on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The pandit said that this was the matter-of-fact answer to his question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2015-10-24T01:45:44.573" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9175" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9177" CreationDate="2015-10-24T04:57:26.207" Score="18" ViewCount="11667" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it wise to kill an insect just because it is wandering around your apartment or just because it is bothering you?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've seen people killing small insects just because it is wandering/jumping/hiding in apartments. I always wonder why people kill an insect if it is not harmful. They can just carefully take them away or show them some other path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People kill insects for two reasons 1) they might bite them or 2) they might spread disease. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But an insect isn't aware of that. It doesn't know whether its presence will create the disease in the human race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I googled &quot;dangerous insects&quot; and at the top I got web page titling &quot;25 Most Dangerous Bugs In The World&quot;. Below is an excerpt from the article.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Termites: While they are not dangerous in the typical sense of the word as they play a critical role in the environment and even in some culture’s diets, they have the potential to cause major damage to crops and infrastructure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fine, they have the potential to damage our crops and infrastructure, but is it their fault? They are just trying to survive. Is it wise to kill an insect in such situations?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2314" LastEditorUserId="2314" LastEditDate="2019-10-17T05:22:48.803" LastActivityDate="2022-03-10T16:37:05.393" Title="Is it wise to kill an insect just because it is bothering you" Tags="|dharma|life|animals|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9177" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9175" CreationDate="2015-10-24T05:34:32.513" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Damaging crops and infrastructure eventually leads to damage to humans. Worry about the karma you are creating by not helping a human in need. The amount of karma from killing an insect, even thousands, is inconsequential compared to the karma for harming one human, much less killing one. As Swami Vivekananda has pointed out, we are surrounded by life, just the act of taking a breath of air kills thousands of bacteria. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to kill lice in his bedding.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-10-24T05:34:32.513" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9179" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-24T05:48:30.197" Score="2" ViewCount="3439" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnata_Bharata_Kathamanjari&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Karnata Bharata Kathamanjari&lt;/a&gt;, Kannada version of Mahabharatha written by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumara_Vyasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kumara Vyasa&lt;/a&gt;, is said to exact version of Mahabharatha.This kannada version consists story of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashwatthama#Alternate_theories_about_Ashwatthama.27s_fate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Aswathama.&lt;/a&gt; after Krishna's curse. Wikipedia states,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In a Kannada version of Mahabaratha written by Kumara Vyasa, the author claimed that he wrote Mahabaratha by listening to &lt;strong&gt;Sage Aswatthama&lt;/strong&gt;. It was said in different sources and alternate theories that, in order to escape from the curse of Lord Krishna, Aswatthama approached his Parama Guru (guru's guru) Lord Parasurama, who was also an avatar of Lord Vishnu. Lord Parasurama felt pity at Aswatthama and agreed to help him. It was said that Aswatthama was only an instrument in Lord Shiva's plan to exterminate all the evil people from earth. Since it was Lord Shiva who entered into Aswatthama's body and exterminated Pandava forces, Aswatthama was absolved of all sins. It was said that Pandavas met Aswathama once again 36 years later when they were travelling to the Himalayas to seek pardon from Lord Siva for their heinous crimes in war. The description says Pandavas found Aswatthama happy in the company of Lord Parasurama and Sage Durvasa in an ashram on the banks of river Ganga and Aswatthama was found free from all curses. It was believed that Lord Parasurama and Maharishi Durvasa initiated Aswatthama into Sakthi worship, which is considered to be the supreme of all modes of worship. By worshiping Adi ParaSakthi, the mother of Lord Brahma,Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva, Aswatthama bypassed the curse of Lord Krishna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wiki cited &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/KumaraVyasaKarnatnatakaMahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kannada Version &lt;/a&gt; as reference. I want to read Aswathama chapter in that book. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where can i get english translation of that kannada Mahabharatha or just &lt;em&gt;Aswathama episode&lt;/em&gt; of that book?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4003" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-02-14T10:34:41.780" LastActivityDate="2016-07-28T22:13:25.517" Title="English translation of Karnata Bharata Kathamanjari (Kumara Vyasa Mahabharatha)" Tags="|mahabharata|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9180" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9169" CreationDate="2015-10-24T06:39:22.877" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;That shloka in the Gita is basically stating the idea behind nishkama karma. Usually worldly people do any work hoping for promotion, name, fame or fortune. He calculates what he would gain from doing that work. That would not be nishkama karma. An example of nishkama karma is the digvijaya of Adi Shankara. He spread the message of Vedanta all over India without asking for anything in return. He did it because that is the right thing to do. Similarly Arjuna is being asked to fight against Kaurava oppression without wanting anything. He will have to fight because that is the right thing to do not because he wants to take over the Kaurava kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is of course an extremely difficult thing to do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-10-24T06:39:22.877" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9181" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9399" CreationDate="2015-10-24T06:56:26.567" Score="0" ViewCount="1599" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since Hanuman is avatar of shiva, can I offer Bel leaves as offering in Hanuman temples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="840" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-10-24T12:11:15.083" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T15:41:43.767" Title="Can I offer Bel leaves as offering in Hanuman temples?" Tags="|shiva|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9183" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9173" CreationDate="2015-10-24T08:37:38.277" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Vedic tradition, we come across the highly recommended dressing attire for men called-Pancha Kacham. What is its significance that makes it imperative for every man belonging to Vedic SampradhAyam to comply with this requirement once he gets into wedlock? &#xA;Pancha Kacham  is specifically prescribed only  for “Gruhasthas” belonging to all the four Varnas. Until a man enters Gruhasthashrama,  he is a Bachelor (BrmachAri) focusing on gathering knowledge through appropriate education without yielding to any sensual pursuits. A VAnaprastha and a Sanyasi are expected to lead the lives of pure ‘Nivruthi’ Dharma–giving up the worldly desires (Pravruthi Dharma) adopting spiritual pursuit.  So, that makes the Gruhastha eligible for true Pravruthi Dharma that allows him to get married, have children, earn Aishwarya and so on. While doing so, he is expected to discharge his karmic duties in compliance with the Shastras.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As the human body is made of PrAkruthic matter of 3 gunas that are the sources of Pancha bhoothas, Pancha TanmAtras, Pancha Karma Indriyas and Pancha GyAna Indriyas and Manas, it is necessary to keep them under control by following Niyamas-AnushtAnas prescribed in the Shastras with respect to AhAram and Vastra DhAranam. The aim is to maximize Satva guna keeping the other two gunAs (Rajas &amp;amp; Tamas) low. The dress code Pancha Kacham is designed to enable a Gruhastha to develop in him the right attitude towards Pravruthi Dharma when worn along with Kaupeena and Anga Vastra (Uthirium). ﻿&#xA;Madisaar is the equivalent dress code for the married women as Pancha Kacham for Gruhasthas.The Sanskrit word “Pancha” means ‘Five’ and the word “Kacham” literally means “Tie-up”. The dress code Pancha Kacham simply enables to keep the Prakritic bodily elements tied up and under control! Once these elements are in control the wandering Manas  gets stabilized into SAtvic Buddhi. Once SAtvic nature begins its ascent, the other two unwanted gunas start their descent.&#xA;A man is considered qualified for Gruhastha Ashrama when he successfully trains himself as a Brahmachari learning the Tatva, Hita and Purushartas of life and decides to launch himself in the worldly duties of Dharma (complying with Shastras), Artha (earning all kinds of wealth) and KAma ( sensual pleasures). These three pursuits are known as ‘Pravruthi Dharma’. That leaves the pursuit of Moksha Dharma which is also known as ‘Nivruthi Dharma’ as the option for all the VarnAshrama followers.&#xA;VarnAshrama Dharma needs to be followed by all the 3 KaranAs-Manas, Word and Action.﻿&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3982" LastActivityDate="2015-10-24T08:37:38.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9184" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-24T09:00:15.890" Score="11" ViewCount="4493" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have come across the following verse in one website.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sundare sundaro ramah sundare sundari katha&#xA;sundare sundari sita sundare sundaram vanam,&#xA;sundare sundaram kavyam sundare sundarah kapih&#xA;sundare sundaram mantram sundare kim na sundaram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Sundara Kanda, or the beautiful chapter, beautiful is Rama, beautiful is the story; Beautiful is Sita Devi, beautiful is the Asoka Vanam; Beautiful is the poem; beautiful is the kapi Hanuman; Beautiful is the mantra; what is not beautiful in Sundara Kanda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telugubhakti.com/telugupages/Sundara_Kanda/Sundarakanda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.telugubhakti.com/telugupages/Sundara_Kanda/Sundarakanda.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anybody explain who wrote this verse?  And, out of various beautiful aspects, which one is more appropriate in naming this Kanda as such?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-08-11T12:59:21.613" Title="Why was Sundara Kanda named as such?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9185" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9175" CreationDate="2015-10-24T09:16:38.633" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Terminating the life of any living being willfully is certainly sinful. However there are exceptions to this rule. Pathogenic parasites (Bacteria, viruses) that bring in diseases, death or do harm to personal hygine can be killed without suffering any guilty conscience. Similarly any predator that attacks and brings threat to life can also be killed. Mosquitoes, bugs, leaches, cockroaches, rats, rodents, poisonous snakes and many such insects can be destroyed if they invade your residence as they also pose threats to your well being. However, we should earnestly strive to keep them out of your living area by taking proper precautions to avoid killing them. The Ahimsa Dharma says &quot;Do not to harm anyone who do not harm you or intend to harm you&quot;. Any transgression on this rule is a sin. Accidental killing is not sinful so long as you regret the violence and seek repentance to God if you realize later that your action had caused the death or distress to some creature-human or animal or plant.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3982" LastActivityDate="2015-10-24T09:16:38.633" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9186" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8668" CreationDate="2015-10-24T12:16:35.617" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha is deliverance from Karma and it is possible only through Bhakti Yoga or Prapathi(Surrender). No one in Kali Yuga is qualified to follow the Bhakti route and hence Prapathi is the only means to achieve it. Only Sriman Narayana can grant Moksha and no other Devatha has the powewr to do so. The saints who were not worshiping Sriman Narayana nor performed Prapathi could not have hence attained Moksha. The souls that are granted Moksha take the Archiradhi Marga (illuminated) and those granted Swarga take the Dhoomadi Marga (Foggy) and those destined to go to Hell the dark Naraka Marga. Advaita does not recognize Moksha as they insist that the illusive Jiva disppears (jivan mukthi) once the Brahmam comes out of its Avidya mode!    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3982" LastActivityDate="2015-10-24T12:16:35.617" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9187" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9184" CreationDate="2015-10-24T13:44:03.527" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think the names of other Kandas, as stated  by one of our friends, are self explanatory.    I am not quoting UTTARA KANDA, as it is an interpolation in toto.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayodhya Kanda -  Major story revolves around Ayodhya city.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aranya Kanda  -  Major story occurs in Dandaka Forest&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kishkinda Kanda - Major story happens in Kishkinda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yuddha Kanda   -  Major story linked with the Great War.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This leaves only 2 Kandas, i.e, Baala Kanda and Sundara Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Baala Kanda:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some scholars think that some Sargas of Ayodhya Kanda were separated and together with some interpolated Sargas like Viswamitra story (16 Sargas), Ganga, Sagara,  stories (15 Sargas), etc, a new Kanda with the name Baala Kanda was formed.  this issue is debatable.  Let us leave it for the time being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sundara Kanda:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name Sundara means - beautiful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is beautiful here?  If we go by the nomenclatures of other Kandas stated above, then this Kanda should have a link with Lanka only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage valmiki describes Lanka as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;काञ्चनेनावृतां रम्यां प्राकारेण महापुरीम् | ५-२-१६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The great beautiful city surrounded by a golden boundary wall...&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in my view Sage Valmiki consciously gave the name SUNDARA to this Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-24T13:44:03.527" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9188" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-24T14:30:20.207" Score="16" ViewCount="5929" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga50/yuddha_50_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This &lt;/a&gt; chapter of Ramayana narrates the meeting of Garuda with Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न च कौतूहलं कार्यं सखित्वं प्रति काङ्क्षिणा ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कृतकर्मा रणे वीर सखित्वं प्रतिवेत्स्यसि ॥६-५०-५७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O, hero! You need not be so curious to know the casue of my&#xA;  friendship. You will know of it, once you have accomplished success in&#xA;  battle.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This implies Rama was not aware of his avatar.This might be because Ravana could only killed by human.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20655/7/Part1_Chapter5_321-400p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter from Rudra Samhita Section of Shiva Purana (Pg 388) narrates story of Sati meeting Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;48&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On seeing Sati in guise of Sita, Rama the scion of Raghu's race repeated the name Shiva, realized the truth and laughed. He bowed to&#xA;  her and said&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;O Sati,Obeisance to you. Where has Shiva gone? Please tell me affably.How is that you come here alone without your husband?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;O goddess Sati, Why have you cast off your own form and assumed this guise? Take pity on me and tell me the reason thereof &quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On hearing the words of Rama,Sati was stunned.Remembering Siva's words and realizing the truth of same she felt ashamed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This implies Rama was aware of His avatar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3079/3500&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoga Vashishtha, the text which states conversations between&#xA;  Vashistha, a rig vedic teacher, and various Gods and Kakbhushubdi, a&#xA;  creature which stands outside of normal time and sees all. It recounts&#xA;  the cyclical nature of time, where Kakabhushundi has seen Ramayan 11&#xA;  times with different outcomes and seen Mahabharat 16 times with&#xA;  different results, but, after seeing Daksha Yagya twice, he did not&#xA;  either care to see it again or saw no point to seeing any more, as it&#xA;  ended the same way each time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says Ramayana happened 11 times and outputs were different each time. So we can presume Rama who met Sati to be Rama of earlier yugas, not Rama of 24th Treta Yuga. But the serial &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hotstar.com/tv/devon-ke-dev-mahadev/12/lord-shiva-fumes-at-sati/1000000334&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devon Ke Dev Mahadev&lt;/a&gt; says they met Rama by travelling to future. So, according to this serial, they went from Swayambhuva Manvantara of Pitri Kalpa to 24th Treta Yuga of Vaivastara Manvantara of Swetha Varaha Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If we assume that Rama,who met Sati,was aware of His avatar and Rama&#xA;of 24th Treta Yuga was not aware of his avatar, then why it was&#xA;written in Shiva Purana &lt;strong&gt;Rama, scion of Raghu's race&lt;/strong&gt;.?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does that mean Rama will always take birth in Raghu's Race?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Or was chapter of Shiva Purana misinterpreted?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without considering above questions,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did Rama of 24th Treta Yuga know that he was Avatar of Vishnu?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-05-24T08:43:41.010" LastActivityDate="2023-01-24T18:57:41.657" Title="Did Rama know that he was Avatar of Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|rama|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9189" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="97" CreationDate="2015-10-24T16:47:01.550" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;To sustain life food is essential. Only an organic source can be considered as food for Animals and Humans.  Plants derive their food known as nutrients directly from the 5 Elements of Nature-Space, Air, Fire (Sunlight), Water and Earth. Plants have the least intelligence among the created living organisms and rooted to earth remaining immobile. Plants replenish the oxygen supply in the atmosphere by absorbing carbon-di-oxide from air during its lifetime in a process called photosynthesis and help keeping the balance of the eco-system of the earth. The plants during their lifetime blooms giving leaves, flowers, fruits, nuts and roots only to procreate and multiply its species and not to use them as food for themselves. So, the entire plant kingdom is meant to be the self-sustaining sacrificial living beings.&#xA;God/nature has thus specific purpose for the existence of plants-to serve basically as the principal source of food for the other living beings such as animals and humans as they cannot convert the elements of nature into food. Animals are bestowed with higher intelligence than the plants and also are ambulatory. Animals are of two kinds by nature in their food habits- Herbivorous (Vegetarian) and Carnivorous (non-vegetarian). The reason for creating the bifurcation of food preference in the animal kingdom is to preserve the availability of food from the plant kingdom from being over-consumed by the un-restrained growth of animal population. So, the animal kingdom has natural food cycle conservation through a predator/victim selection for food.&#xA;The humans that are on the higher pedestal in the intelligence scale than both plants and the animals and are fundamentally designed to be vegetarians deriving their staple food from plant kingdom and only milk from the Herbivorous animals. However, man being ever greedy and megalomaniac in nature transgressed all the natural laws of food cycle prescribed in god’s creation and indiscriminately violated the food discipline of Nature and assumed proprietary over the entire planet’s living stock. For performing all the prescribed duties of life, man has adequate nutritional resources in plant kingdom augmented by the milk from the domestic animals such as cows, buffaloes, goats etc. While the human beings can grow plantation through agriculture to produce his own food, he cannot produce animal stock on their own. His denture and digestive system are not capable of eating the plants or the animals without cooking them. &#xA;It is simply the vanity and penchant for satisfying the wildly varying inconsistent taste preferences, man has changed  his food habits in the most atrocious and unnatural manner. So, from a natural vegetarian man degenerated to a non-vegetarian by forcing himself omnivorously adept eating any organism that moves around!&#xA;It is well known in Vedic religion that only the humans are expected to abide by Shastras and the plants and animals are not. Accordingly the scriptures recommend for the humans to practice least harm to fellow living beings (Ahimsa) while discharging their Karmic duties. This includes their activities that involve choosing the right food to satisfy hunger and to have adequate energy to discharge his normal duties of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3982" LastActivityDate="2015-10-24T16:47:01.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9190" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-24T17:30:58.837" Score="4" ViewCount="292" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Earth is situated in the middle of the 'fourteen planes of existence', of which 'Brahmaloka' is the highest plane. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But on the earth, atop the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Meru&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mountain Meru&lt;/a&gt;, there is a city of Brahma, called 'Shatakaumbhi', which resembles a mountain of gold. Surrounding it are the citadels of the various 'Lokapalas', namely, Indra, Agni, Yama, Nirruti, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera and Ishana. This solves the problem of how can there be Lokapalas for the universe, because these 'Lokapalas' are now confined to 'Bhuloka'. Surrounding these cities are the various residences of devas and asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is, are all these different cities from the actual 'Lokas' of the Devas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like do we have two Brahmas, two Indras, Agnis and so on, including double the number of devas and asuras per city? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OR are all these portals to the various other planes of existence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-11-06T10:33:48.270" LastActivityDate="2015-11-06T10:33:48.270" Title="Different Brahmalokas?" Tags="|brahma|lokas|gods|earth|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9191" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9184" CreationDate="2015-10-25T06:04:32.820" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to wikipedia's article on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundara_Kanda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SundaraKanda&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sundara Kanda is the only chapter of the Ramayana in which the hero is not Rama, but rather &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hanuman&lt;/a&gt;. Hanuman's selflessness, strength, and devotion to Rama are emphasized in the text. &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman was fondly called Sundar by his mother Anjani and Sage Valmiki chose this name over others as this kand deals mainly with Hanuman's journey to Lanka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Going for the verse mentioned in question, Found following information from various web-page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why it is named &quot;Sunderkand&quot; ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Trikutachal mountains at Srilanka have three ranges.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Neel range on which the country people stay.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Suvel range which is the vast plateau.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sundar range where Ashok Vatika is located and the total events of - sunderkand took place on this range, hence the sunderkand.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Further more &lt;strong&gt;shri Tulsidasji&lt;/strong&gt; has said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Sundare sundaro ramah sundare sundari katha&#xA;  Sundare sundari sita sundare Kim na sundaram&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning of this is, in sunderkand everything is sunder that is beautiful. Rama is beautiful; Sita is beautiful the story is beautiful. It is an upasana or a prayer of beautiful people hence the prayer has to generate a power for the devotee or sadhak or the reciter. It contains a lovely hugging of lord Rama and his devotee Shree Hanumanji showering the word of appreciation and indebt ness for all good Hanumanji did to Rama while rescuing Sita. A devotee to whom Rama could not reciprocate. He did as a sevak. This power percolates to the devotee who prays to lord Hanumanji via sunderkand containing the praise of lord Shree Hanumanji.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Your question may be answered as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why was Sundara Kanda named as such?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because Hanuman was fondly called Sundar by his mother Anjani and Sage Valmiki chose this name over others as this kand deals mainly with Hanuman's journey to Lanka&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who wrote this verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some says &lt;strong&gt;Shri Tulsidasji&lt;/strong&gt; (as mentioned in above explanation available from various webpages) and others (like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/ramachander/sk/Sundara%20Kandam%20-an%20introduction.doc&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sadagopan/ahobilavalli/sundara_kandam.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;) says &lt;strong&gt;Tilak&lt;/strong&gt; wrote/said this versa.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorDisplayName="user17294" LastEditDate="2019-01-30T12:21:22.203" LastActivityDate="2019-01-30T12:21:22.203" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9192" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8668" CreationDate="2015-10-25T11:19:46.237" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have to study the slokas in question (Slokas 8:23 to 8:26) along with the following slokas in the same chapter, i.e, chapter 8.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ओमित्येकाक्षरं ब्रह्म व्याहरन्मामनुस्मरन्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यः प्रयाति त्यजन्देहं स याति परमां गतिम्।।8.13।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who departs by leaving the body while uttering the single syllable, viz Om, which is Brahman, and thinking of Me, he attains the supreme Goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Sri Krishna clearly stating that &lt;strong&gt;He, who departs by leaving the body while uttering the single syllable, viz Om, which is Brahman, and thinking of Me, he attains the supreme Goal&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So according to the above Sloka, &lt;strong&gt;there is no question of coming back (or) non-attaining of Moksha by Swami Vivekananda and others&lt;/strong&gt;, who died fixing their concentration on the BRAHMAN, though they might have died in the night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning of the slokas  8:23 to 8:26 are to be studied with reference to Karma Yoga, but not in literal sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;KARMA YOGA says DO YOUR JOB WITHOUT ATTACHMENT SO THAT THE RESULT WILL NOT ACCRUE TO YOU lest you should reap the result.  This was what Sri Krishna reiterated in the sloka 8:26.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शुक्लकृष्णे गती ह्येते जगतः शाश्वते मते।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एकया यात्यनावृत्तिमन्ययाऽऽवर्तते पुनः।।8.26।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These two courses of the world, which are white and black, are verily considered eternal. By the one a man goes &lt;strong&gt;to the State of Non-return&lt;/strong&gt;; by the &lt;strong&gt;other he returns again&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the result does not accrue to the doer, &lt;strong&gt;then nothing is left and there is no coming back to this world&lt;/strong&gt; for reaping the fruits of his previous KARMA. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If &lt;strong&gt;the doer does karmas with an intention of getting result, he has to come back to this world&lt;/strong&gt; for reaping the fruits of his KARMA.  This what said in the following sloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वेदेषु यज्ञेषु तपःसु चैव&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दानेषु यत्पुण्यफलं प्रदिष्टम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अत्येति तत्सर्वमिदं विदित्वा&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;योगी परं स्थानमुपैति चाद्यम्।।8.28।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having known this, the &lt;strong&gt;yogi transcends all those results of rigtheous deeds that are declared with regard to the Vedas, sacrifices, austerities and also charities,&lt;/strong&gt; and he reaches the primordial supreme State.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the time of giving discourse to Arjuna, Sri Krishna was merged in Brahman.  Hence, the intricacies of the various Yogas HE mentioned in Gita can be understood and explained by another such Yogi (or) a Sage like Sri Ramana Maharshi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to understand that was stated nearly 5,000 years ago, we need to understand the systems, notions, beliefs, methods prevailing at that time, but should not be judged with the background of our present systems, notions, beliefs, methods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case of any doubt, that apparently contradicting the established procedures/beliefs, Scriptures advice of a GURU (OR) an ENLIGHTENED SOUL, though not a scholar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-27T18:16:06.453" LastActivityDate="2015-10-27T18:16:06.453" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9193" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9169" CreationDate="2015-10-25T14:20:37.387" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You cited the shloka which talks about what you have to do when &lt;em&gt;faced with some events&lt;/em&gt; and you draw a conclusion about how you should do things. This is illogical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This shloka talks about how you should respond to &quot;happy&quot; and &quot;unhappy&quot; events in your life. This may or may not be obvious right from the text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doing so is extremely hard for the mind not focused on the relationships with true God. Because while it's common sense to be calm when faced &quot;unhappy&quot; events, it's absolutely not common sense to be calm when faced &quot;happy&quot; events. Both of those types of events are hindrances on path of &lt;em&gt;bhakti-yoga&lt;/em&gt;, as everything in material world around us is illusionary and fleeting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can't give you a citation with explanation, because there's nothing else to say in the scriptures (and actually this condition, called &lt;em&gt;dhira&lt;/em&gt;, is described through the whole of Bhagavad gita, especially in chapter 12), and all explanations I know about are from various &lt;em&gt;acharyas&lt;/em&gt;, which I'll not give here to not ignite holywar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="578" LastActivityDate="2015-10-25T14:20:37.387" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9194" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9138" CreationDate="2015-10-25T14:51:13.667" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because there's &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; - simply put, us, - and &lt;em&gt;bhagavan&lt;/em&gt; - simply put, the God. It was like that literally since time immemorial, as clearly said in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 2.12&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;em&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bhagavan&lt;/em&gt;, or, I would prefer to say, &lt;em&gt;Ishvara&lt;/em&gt;, creates this material world over and over for those of &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt;s who wants to try out being Gods themselves and not be involved in relationships with him. So all-knowing, ever-happy, and totally-pure soul can fall into material life only by its own envy of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's insanely hard to find out specifically in scriptures the clear explanation of reasons for creating this material world, but Krishna in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-gita chapter 9&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;chapter 12&lt;/a&gt; explains in great details what he ultimately wants from &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt;. When individual &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; restores the forgotten relationships with God it returns back to God and never falls back to material world again: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection. (BG 8.15)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="578" LastActivityDate="2015-10-25T14:51:13.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9195" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-25T16:37:24.550" Score="1" ViewCount="104" Body="&lt;p&gt;Christianity and Islam detest same sex union or more accurately same sex marriage, I am not saying this but world over priests and imams are , I was curious if there is any mention of same sex union in the Hindu scriptures and do they disapprove or approve this move ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2974" LastActivityDate="2015-10-25T16:37:24.550" Title="What view does Hinduism take of same sex union?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|karma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-10-25T16:57:04.437" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9196" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-25T18:26:06.540" Score="12" ViewCount="3694" Body="&lt;p&gt;An Indian writer named K.S. Bhagavan published in 1982 a book entitled &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shankaracharya and Reactionary Philosophy = ಶಂಕರಾಚಾರ್ಯ ಮತ್ತು ಪ್ರತಿಗಾಮಿತನ&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard that Bhagavan criticized Adi Shankara in his book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because I cannot get this book via Amazon, can you tell me &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;what Bhagavan criticized in detail&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;what his arguments are, and &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;whether his critique is well-founded? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2018-06-25T10:37:36.950" LastActivityDate="2018-06-25T10:37:36.950" Title="K.S. Bhagavan's critique of Adi Shankara" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|caste-system|adi-shankaracharya|critique|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9197" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9196" CreationDate="2015-10-25T18:55:50.697" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;K.S. Bhagavan's book is only available in Kannada.  But apparently it's not about Advaita, but rather about Adi Shankaracharya's views on the caste system.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/you-can-attack-us-but-our-works-will-live-on-prof-ks-bhagwan/story-sHksE2MkrBq2UZFeiQiVWK.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is K.S. Bhagavan's summary of his book:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I was first threatened in 1985 when I released my book 'Shankaracharya and Reactionary Philosophy'. My research showed that far from being a social reformer, the Shankaracharya was a strong advocate of the caste system. By going through the text of his teachings in Sanskrit, I could prove that he was vehemently opposed to Dalits and women getting educated. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, for information about Adi Shankaracharya's views on the caste system (which are the same as the views of all the other commentators on the Brahma Sutras), I would refer you to his commentary on Adyaya 1 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras, starting with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34103.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt;.  See also my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8682/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T07:16:19.740" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9199" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9166" CreationDate="2015-10-26T00:25:16.527" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva and Shanker are two different but associated concepts. Shiva means Shi+Eva or energy (Shi) that is and will always be. Shiva is the soul or the spirit or the Atma that all living beings have. This includes all movable and immovable things in the universe. One can say that all that has an atomic structure is a living thing. Shanker on the other hand is a human form of Shiva whose birth and death are unknown. Shiva in form of Shanker has always lived and will always live. Shanker Mahadev has been mentioned in Puranas as a human being who dwelled in Himalayan region including Kashmir where Shiva Tantra is known to have been created. Shiva in human form was an a yogi who married Sati &amp;amp; Uma and who understood the true nature of human body, its connection to the rest of the universe including stars and planets and human body's ability to achieve a universal awareness that many holy persons in India's history and in current times have been able to attain through yoga. A yogi is not an ascetic or a renunciate. Shiva as Shanker gave the knowledge of Yoga which defines the Purush or the spiritual body within the physical body with 7 chakras and 64 power centers. In short, Shiva is the ever-existing formless spirit and Shiva in form of Shanker the human is the original teacher of yoga and of dharma or religion in Hindu Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4020" LastActivityDate="2015-10-26T00:25:16.527" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9200" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-26T08:40:59.453" Score="17" ViewCount="13842" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many say that girls/women are not supposed to chant the Gayatri mantra. Is there any specific reason for this? Since it is one of the most powerful mantras, would it be good if women also chant the Gayatri mantra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4021" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-09T00:23:46.020" LastActivityDate="2018-06-12T05:50:26.200" Title="Why are women not allowed to chant the Gayatri mantra?" Tags="|belief|women|prayer|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9201" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9205" CreationDate="2015-10-26T08:43:24.980" Score="11" ViewCount="2958" Body="&lt;p&gt;How People change their behavior to good and virtuous from evil, greedy and lewd within less time at the dawn of Satya Yuga? How can humans who are evil and bad change immediately?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4003" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T14:08:23.410" LastActivityDate="2021-11-07T00:15:56.900" Title="How qualities of humans change drastically from Kali Yuga to Satya Yuga?" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9202" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9196" CreationDate="2015-10-26T09:06:29.900" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;In brief, the situation is:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;A rationalist has analyzed a text written in C++ into English because both look similar. He has critisized C++ for &quot;bad grammar&quot;. Certain extremists are behind his life just because they think C++ grammar is cool!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;what Bhagavan criticized in detail&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  what his arguments are&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;K. S. Bhagawan is an Indian rationalist, Kannada writer, translator and a retired professor. In 1982, his work &quot;Shankaracharya and Reactionary Philosophy&quot; (original title: &lt;em&gt;ಶಂಕರಾಚಾರ್ಯ ಮತ್ತು ಪ್ರತಿಗಾಮಿತನ&lt;/em&gt;), a collection of essays, on how Adi Shankara, an 8th-century Hindu theologian, advocated caste system strongly, destroyed Buddhist viharas and was against education for women, shudras and dalits, was published. (Note: Education and Literacy are different).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upon criticism of Bhagavad Gita this is what he told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-09-14/news/66532439_1_bhagavad-gita-upper-castes-brahmins&quot;&gt;interview&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 9, shloka 32, Krishna says everyone is a&#xA;  sinner, other than Brahmins and Kshatriyas. All women including&#xA;  Brahmin ones, non-Brahmins and all Vaishyas are sinners. How can we&#xA;  agree to this? The Shwetashvada Upanishad, which came earlier, says&#xA;  everyone is the child of nectar. Vivekananda interpreted this and said&#xA;  it is a sin to call anyone a sinner. So such thoughts in the Gita&#xA;  should be criticised, rejected and taken out. I stand by this. There&#xA;  are certainly some good things in the Gita. But there are very&#xA;  dangerous elements. Krishna says he created the chatur varna, the&#xA;  caste system. So that means he created upper castes and lower castes.&#xA;  How can we call the Bhagavad Gita a great book in this context?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, there are certain self proclaimed saviors of Hinduism (an oxymoron word itself!). Without knowing anything about, they have threatened to kill Bhagawan.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Such stance has closed many doors to even rationally oppose Bhagawan's claims, because no one would want to get compared with those extremists. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;whether his critique is well-founded?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes &amp;amp; No&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thoughts from Adi Shankaracharya about caste-system and Krishna about lower birth people were not presented with relevant arguments by themselve. They din't find a need of discussing many &quot;why&quot;s prevalent today, which should pass the test of time. Because certain things were so trivial that they were understood during old times. &#xA;Incidentally Bhagawan analyzed in his own taste and passed the judgement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g. Imagine in a country rule book, there is a quote:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Murderers must be hanged till death.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After many centuries, due to demographic changes, English is limited up to such &quot;rule books&quot; only. A community evolves somewhere in Mongolia named as &quot;Murderer&quot; in their Mongol language. Ignorant people of those times start killing them by hanging because &quot;Murderers&quot; appearing in those English rule books. Of course sane people should oppose such acts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagawan is also doing that, but condemning those scriptures as well. Had he tried to pull out the real meaning, it would have avoided this criticism. &lt;strong&gt;His main point of opposition is for caste-based and gender based inequality.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To explain what he has got wrong, let's draw an analogy with open mindset:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The nuclear science can be used for creating atomic energy as well atom bombs. First it got evolved in US &amp;amp; quickly followed by Russia during 1940s. Then it got into the hands of China &amp;amp; even North Korea. Today many countries want it.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Until it was in hands of (then) US, it was fine because the US was self sustained, democratic/republic and responsible country. They din't use them post WW2. But as soon as it went to Russia, a nexus was created within world. When it went to China, it created even more evil nexus and  now North Korea rants about using those weapons every now and then.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A country is not evil by itself, but certain kind of powers if goes unwarranted to its hand, it becomes evil.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Would we like to give away this nuclear science to all countries?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a moment hypothetically transfer people of Russia to North Korea, North Korea to US, US to China and China to Russia. Now we can't say that weapons with US is safe and North Korea is unsafe. So differentiation doesn't happen based on country name but the psychology of people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, certain knowledge if remained with certain level of people is good for healthy society. During old times the &lt;em&gt;Varna Vyavastha&lt;/em&gt; (Divisions, Not Castes) &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Grihasthashram&lt;/em&gt; (marriage) were quite well-defined. They were in sync with &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt; (self duties) for all. Since people used to follow it properly, births after births a soul will tend to remain in the same division.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Due to which the divisions started getting typecasted with certain communities, known as &quot;Castes&quot;. Later &quot;Castes&quot; became the synonyms of &quot;Divisions&quot; like how &quot;Countries&quot; became synonyms of &quot;Responsibility&quot; in above example.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Today only castes have remained and divisions have disappeared. However Bhagawan is still relating today's &quot;castes&quot; with the &quot;divisions&quot; they were typecasted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In today's time these divisions can be decided based on the &quot;spiritual level&quot; (not caste). A person by so called caste might be recognized as &lt;em&gt;Brahmin&lt;/em&gt;, but at spiritual level he is just a &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt;. A person physically looks like a &quot;Man&quot; but at spiritual level he is more of a &quot;Woman&quot;. There is nothing right or wrong in above cases. It's just a situation.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Look below at the bold part, where the divisions are differentiated based on &quot;quality&quot; and not &quot;castes&quot;. This was highly missed by Bhagawan in same Bhagavad Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/&quot;&gt;BG 18.41-44&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras are distinguished by the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;qualities born of their own natures&lt;/strong&gt; in accordance with the material&#xA;  modes, O chastiser of the enemy.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty,&#xA;  knowledge, wisdom and religiousness – these are the natural qualities&#xA;  by which the brāhmaṇas work.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Heroism, power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle,&#xA;  generosity and leadership are the natural qualities of work for the&#xA;  kṣatriyas.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Farming, cow protection and business are the natural work for the&#xA;  vaiśyas, and for the śūdras there are labor and service to others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on above qualities, there are still 4 divisions in today's world:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmin&lt;/strong&gt;: priests, scientists, intellectuals, philosophers, teachers&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/strong&gt;: army, sportsmen, politicians, lawyers, spies&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaishya&lt;/strong&gt;: businessmen, investors, farmers, economists, artists&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shudras&lt;/strong&gt;: do jobs in above fields&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above list is just to give a rough idea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-10-27T02:47:19.527" LastActivityDate="2015-10-27T02:47:19.527" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9203" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9071" CreationDate="2015-10-26T10:15:30.137" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;All these rituals are related to VAstushAshtra. According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.puja.net/wordpress/house-warming/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vasthusastra.com/house_warming.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; sources:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cow and calf are brought to house and the owner garlands them. According to Hindu philosophy, cow is considered to be the home of 330 million gods and by bringing the cow inside the house, it's believed that we invite/offer all the [demi]gods to our house. Above links also relates &quot;cow&quot; as a symbol of Lakshmi or Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the various scriptures, like Surabhi, Nadhini, the cow is often symbolized as &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamadhenu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;KAmadhenu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Dhenu&lt;/em&gt; stands for cow and &lt;em&gt;KAm&lt;/em&gt; stands for wishes. Bringing cow inside the house thus relates to wish fulfillment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Milk here signifies the wealth. Due to its fatty (&lt;em&gt;snigdha&lt;/em&gt;) nature, it's often categorized as the best &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; food. In general, milk is offered to God while pooja. Infants get their initial nourishment via milk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During housewarming, depending on the family traditions, certain people mix rice and milk and feed to the recipients. While certain people spill the milk (as you asked in question) on to the floor as a coolant, similar to how it's offered to &lt;em&gt;Shivalingam&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-10-26T10:15:30.137" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9204" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-26T11:35:52.473" Score="14" ViewCount="3603" Body="&lt;p&gt;We will come across Sita in Valmiki Ramayana, as ayOnija - अयोनिज, a non-uterine birth.  Similarly, in Mahabharata, we read about Draupadi and Dhristadyumna, who are also ayOnijas, borne out of fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Human body consists of 5 elements, i.e., panchabhUta. After their birth, ayOnijas are also susceptible to human feelings and problems.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is that technology or mantra sastra available in ancient India, which allows such things, which are &lt;em&gt;not natural&lt;/em&gt;, to happen?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If they are ayOnijas, they cannot have prArabdha (stored karma) to reap.  Then why did they face problems?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2019-08-06T09:28:16.450" LastActivityDate="2020-03-14T19:00:40.817" Title="What is the mystery of ayOnija (अयोनिज) births?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|sita|draupadi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9205" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9201" CreationDate="2015-10-26T12:03:25.897" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yugas won't change suddenly. There are transition times between Yugas. &lt;a href=&quot;https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0ByTrbPQHgxJdZ3FCeVA0Tl9kTm8&amp;amp;export=download&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 29 and 31 of ANUSANGA in Brahmanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Pg- 287-313) describe them in detail. Indra narrates this to sage Suta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3-4. There are six aspects to be mentioned in regard to set of four&#xA;Yugas.viz.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yuga&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Difference of Yuga&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yugadhrama   (Peculiar characteristics of Yuga)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yuga-Sandhi  (the junction of Yugas)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yugaamsaka   (the part of the Yuga)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yugasandhana (joints of two Yugas).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next Indra says different time systems and conversions. He says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;23&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wise Persons and Sages have said that there are four Yugas in Bharatha subcontinent.They are Krita, Treta, Dvapara and Kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The first one is Krita Yuga by name. Thereafter Treta is mentioned.Then Dvapara and Kali. One shall reckon these as Yugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(It's strange why they are restricted to India only).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this Brahmanda Purana,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duration&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satya Yuga   = 4000 divine (Devas) years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Treta Yuga   = 3000 divine Years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dvapara Yuga = 2000 divine years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kali Yuga    = 1000 divine years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yuga Sandhi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krita   = 400 divine years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Treta   = 300 divine years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dvapara = 200 divine years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kali    = 100 divine years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In all cases Yuga Sandhi = Yugaamsaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sandhyamsa = quarter of (Yuga Sandhi +Yugaamsaka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 year of Devas = 360 human years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yuga Sankya (total number of total number of divine years in all four&#xA;yugas) = 12,000 divine years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Yuga Sankya = Krita Yuga + Krita's (Yuga Sandhi + Yugaamsaka) + Treta&#xA;Yuga + Treta Yuga's (Yuga Sandhi + Yugaamsaka) + Dvapara Yuga + Dvapara&#xA;Yuga's (Yuga Sandhi + Yugaamsaka) + Kali Yuga+ Kali&#xA;Yuga's (YugaSandhi + Yugaamsaka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yuga Sankya = [4000+ (400 + 400)]+ [300 + (300 + 300)] + [2000 + (200+200)&#xA;] + [1000 + (100 + 100)]= 4800 + 3600 + 2400 + 1200 = 12,000&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Kali Yuga as total last for 1200 years with 200 divine years (included) as&#xA;transition time. Those 200 divine years constitute 200*360 = 72,000&#xA;years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sandhyamsa = 50 divine years (These 50 years are last quarter of 200&#xA;years)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sandhyamsa = 50*360 = 18,000 human years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These numbers might look big. But what i wanted to convey is there are transition times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra says in Previous Svayambhuva Manvantara,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Period of &lt;strong&gt;Sandhyamsa&lt;/strong&gt; arrived towards the end of Yugas only a few subjects remained here and there. They were unfortunate fellows with planets adverse to them. Most of them were greedy. They collectively struck and and injured one another. There was anarchy and people killed one another. They adopted a process of Sankara (mixing of castes by means of indiscriminate inter marriage). Only few such people lived.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;100&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They were oppressed with old age, sickness and hunger. Owing to misery they reached a stage of abject dejection. From this dejected&#xA;state they reached the state of pondering.Pondering took them&#xA;to the state of equanimity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Through the state of Equanimity, they had the realization of Atman.Through this knowledge they acquired piety and devotion. Thus&#xA;those survived the last stage of Kali Yuga acquired tranquility and&#xA;control of sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the close of the Yuga was undergoing transformation,they became quiescent as though they were asleep or inebriated day and&#xA;night after making mind enchanted (and insensible).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Owing to the power of inevitable future, the Krita Yuga set&#xA;in.When the holy Krita Yuga began to function, the subjects pertaining&#xA;to Krita Yuga were born of those who survived from the kali Yuga. Those&#xA;Siddhas who remained then, began to move about invisibly. They&#xA;established themselves there along with seven sages. The Brahmana, the&#xA;kshatriyas,the Vaishyas, and the Sudras were those who were remembered&#xA;as seeds. (They were intended to be the nucleus for the succeeding&#xA;generations). At that they became identical with those who were born&#xA;in the closing stages of Kali.They were devoid of any difference.The&#xA;seven Sages recounted Dharma to them as well as others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma consists Srauta (as laid in vedas) and Smarta (as laid down in Smirtis). The Sages remain in authority for whole of the Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These were how people changed from evil, greedy to virtuous. These changes applies to  Kaliyugas of all Mahayugas as said by Sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T12:21:32.547" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9206" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-26T13:59:32.963" Score="7" ViewCount="869" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra_War&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurukshetra war&lt;/a&gt; is like a transition from dwapara yuga to kaliyuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the war, were people in other countries aware of the war? Did people in other countries know about Krishna? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it didn't affect their lives in any way in other countries, then is this yuga transition mainly for Indians?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2019-11-12T21:22:47.230" LastActivityDate="2019-11-12T21:22:47.230" Title="How famous/popular was Krishna during his time in other countries?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|yuga|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9207" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9238" CreationDate="2015-10-26T17:16:12.067" Score="6" ViewCount="1681" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is associated with Sattva Guna. Sattva Guna means purity and good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How sattva guna dominated Vishnu were able to Kill Rakshasa such as Ravana and Kamsa?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does Only Vishnu have Sattva Guna not his Avatars( Narasimha,Rama and Krishna)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2019-02-22T14:53:11.347" LastActivityDate="2019-02-24T03:29:07.810" Title="How Sattva Guna Lord Vishnu killed Demons or evil people in his incarnations?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9208" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-26T23:41:42.100" Score="3" ViewCount="157" Body="&lt;p&gt;The king of Panchala, Drupada undertook a  sacrifice to please the gods and obtain offspring by their blessing. Drupada desired a son who could kill Guru  Drona, who had humiliated Drupada in battle and taken half his kingdom.  With the help of two saints ( &lt;strong&gt;Yaja and Upayaja&lt;/strong&gt;), Drupada undertook the sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from the English translation of Mahabharata by Kisiri Mohan Ganguli&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And when everything was complete, Yaja, after having poured libations of clarified butter on the sacrificial fire, commanded Drupada's queen, saying,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Come hither, O queen, O daughter-in-law of Prishata! A son and a daughter have arrived for thee!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing this, the queen said, 'O Brahmana, my mouth is yet filled with saffron and other perfumed things. My body also beareth many sweet scents; I am hardly fit for accepting (the sanctified butter which is to give me offspring). Wait for me a little, O Yaja! Wait for that happy consummation.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yaja, however, replied, 'O lady, whether thou comest or waitest, why should not the object of this sacrifice be accomplished when the oblation hath already been prepared by me and sanctified by Upayaja's invocations?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said this, Yaja poured the sanctified libation on the fire, whereupon arose from those flames a child resembling a celestial who possessing the effulgence of fire, was terrible to behold. With a crown on this head and his body encased in excellent armour, sword in hand, and bearing a bow and arrows, he frequently sent forth loud roars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we look at this story in literal sense, we will understand that Yaja performed for the sake of Drupada an Yajna, with the help of his younger brother Upayaja.  And, when the queen of Drupada was not ready, he poured the sanctified oblation in to the fire, and Dhristadhyumna born out of fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I looked at this story in a rational way,  a thought occurred to me that the Yajna conducted by Yaja, was in fact an advanced Genetic experiment (blending test tube baby technology and Cloning Technology).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yaja might have obtained the required cells from the body of Drupada and sought of cells of the queen to complete the advanced Genetic experiment.  And, when she was not ready, he might have adopted some other method and completed the task.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can we think in that way?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-26T23:41:42.100" Title="Was birth of Dhristadhyumna due to an advanced Genetic experiment?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2015-10-27T00:25:55.183" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9209" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-27T06:36:35.847" Score="24" ViewCount="28997" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just imagine you are on the battlefield, the two armies facing each other eager to strike. Everyone is agitated and in the midst of this chaos the knowledge of Geeta is being sermonized. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It will take long time to preach a spiritual treatise consisting of nearly 700 slokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were the armies doing, while the discourse is going on? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Were they just waiting patiently for the discourse to be completed (or) went back to their respective tents and took rest?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2021-08-27T01:59:28.690" Title="How much time did Sri Krishna take to preach Gita to Arjuna?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="24" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9210" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9209" CreationDate="2015-10-27T07:31:50.213" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not more than 2 hours&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually recitation of Gita was in form of plain Q&amp;amp;A where Arjuna is clearing his doubts one by one. Arjuna was gifted with concentration abilities (e.g. aiming bird's/fish's eye or his understanding of other martial arts). Whatever Krishna told as Gita, he was able to grasp with similar swiftness based on his then knowledge of society &amp;amp; scriptures. He could have been quite clear about certain concepts like &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma, Paap-Punya, Varnashram&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In today's time, many things are no more trivial. We require detailed explanations to understand Gita better. Hence we see purports in TV or various commentaries online.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many &lt;em&gt;sloka&lt;/em&gt;s can be omitted because they were just descriptions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;~30 &lt;em&gt;sloka&lt;/em&gt;s of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/1&quot;&gt;1st chapter&lt;/a&gt; are description of the war field&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There are many &lt;em&gt;sloka&lt;/em&gt;s which are used by Sanajaya to describe&#xA;Krishna's universal form or situation of Arjuna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We can omit the texts such as &quot;Krishna/Arjuna/Sanjaya said&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The conversation was mostly done by Krishna and due to uninterrupted&#xA;speaking the speed will be naturally higher and flawless for him&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's assume that there are &lt;em&gt;650 sloka&lt;/em&gt;s worth of text which had to be recited either by Krishna &amp;amp; Arjuna. A sloka recited with a moderate pace takes average 10 seconds from a fluent Sanskrit speaker.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;650 x 10 seconds = 6500 seconds = 108 minutes&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What were the armies doing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many people claim that the time of battle ground was frozen or slowed down by Krishna during the discourse of Gita. But that's a flawed notion, because Sanjaya, Dhritarashtra &amp;amp; VyAsa heard Gita in their real time.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06013.htm&quot;&gt;this reference&lt;/a&gt;, Dhritarashtra didn't hear Gita in real time. Rather Sanjaya would have told him later on about those events due to his capabilities to see past/present/future through &lt;em&gt;Divya Drishti&lt;/em&gt;. However, still there are many reasons which are against the notion of time-pause:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Assume that Krishna really slowed time to almost pause to tell Gita&#xA;to Arjuna. In such case, their actions &amp;amp; talks would have looked like&#xA;a &quot;fast forward&quot; events to the observers. Possible?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Assume that the &quot;fast forward&quot; events really happened. In such case&#xA;along with others, Sanjaya could have very well missed those. Because&#xA;there is no mention that he could also see time-defying events.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Assume that with divine vision, Sanajaya really saw the &quot;fast&#xA;forward&quot; events. In such case, it seems unlikely that he could have&#xA;described to Dhritarashtra in understandable way. Because he was&#xA;describing as happening in front of his eyes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Assume that Sanjaya also got ability to describe them as it is. But&#xA;then we have to also see, why should Krishna fast forward the events?&#xA;When time required to answer Arjuna's queries itself is unspecified.&#xA;What if Arjuna would have understood everything by chapter-2&#xA;then (15 mins), will Krishna have to pause the time?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Personally, I don't see a need of making the time still for &amp;lt; 2 hours event.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may ask, why armies din't start fighting even &lt;em&gt;ShankhnAd&lt;/em&gt;s were done?&#xA;Here are the reasons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This was the 1st day of war and the rules were set about the battle&#xA;by Bhishma the righteous, so no question of hurling weapons at an&#xA;unarmed warrior&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The war was offered by PAndavas &amp;amp; they relied mainly on Arjuna's&#xA;ability. Since Arjuna was on the middle of the battlefield, they&#xA;have to simply wait until he comes back.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kauravas might be thinking that after seeing their vast army from&#xA;close, Arjuna is fearing and arguing with Krishna to back off. &#xA;Which would be fruitful for everyone (a hypothetical possibility)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Going back to own camps may not be practical because no one knew when Arjuna's doubts will be cleared. &lt;strong&gt;So we can safely assume that both armies waited for that much time.&lt;/strong&gt; PAndavas in hope of Arjuna coming back and Kauravas in hope of Arjuna backing off.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06001.htm&quot;&gt; [1] &lt;/a&gt; Then the Kurus, the Pandavas, and the Somakas made certain&#xA;  covenants, and settled the rules, O bull of Bharata's race, regarding&#xA;  the different kinds of combat. Persons equally circumstanced must&#xA;  encounter each other, fighting fairly. And if having fought fairly the&#xA;  combatants withdraw (without fear of molestation), even that would be&#xA;  gratifying to us. Those who engaged in contests of words should be&#xA;  fought against with words. Those that left the ranks should never be&#xA;  slain. A car-warrior should have a car-warrior for his antagonist;&#xA;  he on the neck of an elephant should have a similar combatant for his&#xA;  foe; a horse should be met by a horse, and a foot-soldier, O Bharata;&#xA;  should be met by a foot-soldier. Guided by considerations of fitness,&#xA;  willingness, daring and might, one should strike another, giving&#xA;  notice. &lt;strong&gt;No one should strike another that is unprepared&lt;/strong&gt; or&#xA;  panic-struck. One engaged with another, one seeking quarter, one&#xA;  retreating, one whose weapon is rendered unfit, uncased in mail,&#xA;  should never be struck. Car-drivers, animals (yoked to cars or&#xA;  carrying weapons) men engaged in the transport of weapons, players on&#xA;  drums and blowers of conches should never be struck. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-10-27T12:43:44.877" LastActivityDate="2015-10-27T12:43:44.877" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9211" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11499" CreationDate="2015-10-27T12:21:23.830" Score="8" ViewCount="3963" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I was googling to know the legend of Krishna River, I found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduofuniverse.com/hou/holy-rivers.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page, which states &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Legends state that the &lt;strong&gt;River Krishna is Lord Vishnu himself who&#xA;  turned into a river due to a curse on the Trimurti by Devi Savitri&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  (Goddess Parvati). It is said that its tributaries &lt;strong&gt;Venna&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Koyana&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  are said to be Siva and Brahma themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which Purana says this legend? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Temple,_Pushkar#Legend&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; wiki page says Devi Savitri cursed Brahma that he would never be worshipped, Vishnu to suffer the separation from his wife as a human, which is different from the above curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did Devi Savitri curse them twice?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which Purana mentions 1st curse on Trimurthi by Devi Savitri, by which they were turned to rivers?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2019-02-18T07:34:06.310" LastActivityDate="2019-02-18T07:34:06.310" Title="What's story of Devi Savitri's curse on Trimurthi by which they were changed to Rivers?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahma|saraswati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9212" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-27T14:23:56.153" Score="6" ViewCount="2715" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently learned that the priest of the Vishnu temple in my native village of Poondi is a low-caste person.  The notion of a low-caste person serving in a temple didn't surprise me, since in the Sri Vaishnava sect it's a well-established practice for low-caste people who have performed Sharanagati (complete surrender to Vishnu) to perform service to temples.  But I was more surprised to learn the priest was not a Sri Vaishnava, but rather a Vaikhanasa.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important in the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu. Since the Pancharatra texts originated from Narayana himself, they are followed by pretty much all mainstream Vaishnava Sampradayas, whether Sri Vaishnavas, Madhvas, Gaudiya Vaishnavas, etc. But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;http://But%20as%20I%20discuss%20in%20this%20answer,%20there&amp;#39;s%20another%20group%20of%20Vishnu-worshippers%20who%20worship%20Vishnu%20according%20to%20the%20different%20set%20of%20texts,%20the%20Vaikhanasas.%20Vaikhanasas%20place%20more%20emphasis%20on%20rituals%20than%20in%20high-minded%20philosophy;%20while%20mainstream%20Vaishnavas%20are%20committed%20to%20elaborate%20Vedantic%20philosophical%20systems,%20like%20Dvaita%20or%20Visistadvaita,%20Vaikhanasa%20doctrines%20are%20more%20about%20the%20construction%20and%20worship%20of%20idols%20and%20the%20like.%20The%20vast%20majority%20of%20Vishnu-worshippers%20are%20Vaishnavas,%20but%20there%20are%20a%20few%20Vaikhanasa%20temples%20in%20India.&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, there's another group of Vishnu-worshippers who worship Vishnu according to the different set of texts, the Vaikhanasas. Vaikhanasas place more emphasis on rituals than in high-minded philosophy; while mainstream Vaishnavas are committed to elaborate Vedantic philosophical systems, like Dvaita or Visistadvaita, Vaikhanasa doctrines are more about the construction and worship of idols and the like. The vast majority of Vishnu-worshippers follow Pancharatra, but there are several Vaikhanasa temples in India, including the world-renowned Tirumala Tirupati/Venkatesshwara temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, it seems that the priest in my native village of Poondi belongs to the &quot;Bhattacharya&quot; community, which is apparently a community of low-caste Vaikhanasa priests.  My question is, are there any sources that discuss this community? And assuming this community does exist, what is its origin?  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6707/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Vaikhanasa system was founded by the sage Vikhanasa, who taught it to four sages, Atri, Marichi, Kashyapa, and Bhrigu.  And Vaikhanasas believe that they're &quot;Garbha Vaishnavas&quot;, i.e. that the child of Vaikhanasa parents is initiated into the system by Vishnu while they're still in the womb.  So how could a system which began with four Brahmins and which believes that only the offspring of Vaikhanasas can be a Vaikhanasa ever acquire low-caste members?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And is true that the Vaikhanasa system allows low-caste people to be priests?  My understanding is that of the two systems, Pancharatra is a bit more liberal on caste than Vaikhanasa; Wikipedia says &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaikhanasas#History&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With the rise of the Shri Vaishnavas the Vaikhanasas declined in their temple role. Rāmānuja, leader of the Shri Vaishnavas and the first organiser of temple administration at Srirangam Temple, replaced the Vaikhanasa system of worship with the more liberal Pañcaratra system, expanded the fivefold division of temple servants into tenfold, and gave an important part in ritual to sudra, lowest caste, ascetics. This change spread to other Vaishnava temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And judging by &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/d6Ff&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Vaikhanasa Dharma Sutras, their views on the caste system seem to be perfectly orthodox.  So how could the Vaikhanasas accept the Bhattacharya community and allow them to be priests?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2024-02-11T21:08:46.160" Title="Are there any low-caste Vaikhanasa priests?" Tags="|vaishnavism|pancharatra|caste-system|brahmins|vaikhanasa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9214" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5169" CreationDate="2015-10-27T15:58:40.210" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well know that Arjun is not the only recipient of Bhagavad Gita from pervious discussion. But Why Arjuna and not any body else like Wise Bhishma or the Great Yudhistira or the might Bhima.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case of Bhishma,he was well aware that justice is on the side of the Pandavas and has even made a public proclamation too. However he supported the Kaurava army. Thus there is lack of unison of his thought, word and deed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While Yudhistira, though a noble soul, he lacked the foresight and  regret for his past mistakes(Paschattapa ). On the other hand, Bhima,&#xA;who has tremendous physical prowess, unfortunately has a deficiency in&#xA;intellectual strength(the greatest strength of all).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We need to understand that trikarana suddhi(harmony between thoughts, words and deeds) is fundamental step in spiritual growth which Bhisema lacked. Whereas Dharmaraja was not very wise to concern for the future(purvatapa). Finally man&#xA;without the power of discrimination cannot absorb subtle teaching of Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Arjuna was concerned with the future( that is reason he questions the Lord about the aftermath of the battle). Arjuna possessed a&#xA;sharp intellect capable of grasping spiritual profundities in&#xA;comparison to Bhima. Above all Arjuna listened to Krishna with implicit faith and self-confidence. Also He surrendered himself absolutely&#xA;to the Lord. Arjuna becomes a saranagata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2015-10-27T15:58:40.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9216" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-27T16:50:14.853" Score="6" ViewCount="2397" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavatam, 9th Canto, 13th Chapter, we find this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.13.19 — The son of Śīradhvaja was Kuśadhvaja, and the son of Kuśadhvaja was King Dharmadhvaja, who had two sons, namely Kṛtadhvaja and Mitadhvaja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Shiradhvaja is Maharaja Janaka, so called because of his emblem, the furrow, as an embodiment of his daughter being born from one.&#xA;In the Ramayana, Kushadhavaja is said to be his brother. But here it is said, &quot;Kushadhvajas Tasya &lt;strong&gt;Putro&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;, meaning Janaka's son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even so, it would mean that either there was some mistake in copying the original sloka, which would imply that Mandavi and Shrutakeerti had a brother called Dharmadhvaja, who by extension, would be Sita's brother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the question: Is he mentioned anywhere else? (Of course not in the Ramayana, but elsewhere?)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-27T16:21:58.273" LastActivityDate="2022-10-12T22:25:41.330" Title="Sitadevi had a brother?" Tags="|ramayana|puranas|bhagavata-purana|sita|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9217" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3944" CreationDate="2015-10-27T17:10:24.683" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimad Ramayana has a reference to Apsarasas in Bala Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अप्सु निर्मथनात् एव रसात् तस्मात् वर स्त्रियः।&#xA;उत्पेतुः मनुज श्रेष्ठ तस्मात् अप्सरसो अभवन्॥ १-४५-३३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Choicest females have come out an elixir obtained on absolute churning of the waters of Milk Ocean, oh, best one among men, Rama, thereby that genera of females became Apsara-s. &amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;षष्टिः कोट्यो अभवन् तासाम् अप्सराणाम् सुवर्चसाम्।&#xA;असन्ख्येयाः तु काकुत्स्थ याः तासाम् परिचारिकाः॥ १-४५-३४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Six hundred millions of such Apsara-s with amazing dazzle have emerged from the churning of Milky Ocean, oh, descendent of Kakutstha, and their maidservants who emerged along with them are innumerable&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न ताः स्म प्रतिगृह्णन्ति सर्वे ते देव दानवाः।&#xA;अप्रतिग्रहणात् एव ता वै साधारणाः स्मृताः॥ १-४५-३५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Anybody either from gods or demons espoused them, and when none espoused them they are virtually reckoned as 'general-purpose' Apsara-females. &amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-27T17:10:24.683" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9218" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9216" CreationDate="2015-10-27T17:28:56.940" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think there was some kind of transcription error, because the Vishnu Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; Kushadvaja as the brother of Janaka (Siradjvaja), just as the Valmiki Ramayana does: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The brother of Síradhwaja was Kuśadhwaja, who was king of Káśí; he had a son also, named Bhánumat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another discrepancy is that in the Srimad Bhagavatam, there are three kings between Kushadhvaja and Bhanumat, whereas the Vishnu Pudana has no generations between them.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, the only references to the name Dharmadhvaja outside the Srimad Bhagavatam are mentions of the father of Vedavati, who  I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3555/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, outside of family trees, I don't know of any references in any versions of the Ramayana to Mandavi and Shrutakirti having a brother, or Sita having a brother.  Perhaps Bhanumat or Dharmadjvaja or whoever was born after Mandavi and Shrutakirti got married, or perhaps they just did not have a role in the events of the Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-12-17T08:43:52.713" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9219" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-27T20:00:20.843" Score="7" ViewCount="3110" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Swami Vivekananda regularly chant any Vedic or Tantric mantras during his lifetime?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4032" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2019-02-05T07:10:45.973" LastActivityDate="2019-02-05T15:11:08.093" Title="Did Swami Vivekananda regularly chant any Vedic or Tantric mantras?" Tags="|mantras|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9220" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-28T02:31:07.620" Score="5" ViewCount="644" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तद्विद्धि प्रणिपातेन परिप्रश्नेन सेवया।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उपदेक्ष्यन्ति ते ज्ञानं ज्ञानिनस्तत्त्वदर्शिनः।।4.34।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Know that through prostration, iniry and service. The wise ones who have realized the Truth will impart the Knowledge to you.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Why did Krishna ask Arjuna to resort (i.e. serve) to other GyAnis when he himself was available to be served?&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2015-10-28T05:21:10.517" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T14:43:34.667" Title="Why did Sri Krishna advice Arjuna to do service to other Saints, for gaining knowledge?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9221" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-28T04:17:18.227" Score="2" ViewCount="225" Body="&lt;p&gt;In various references, incidents, anecdotes etc we come across beings like human, Deva, Gandharva, Yaksha, Pitru, Aditya, Rudra, Vasu (not Vaasu), Naga, Asura, Pitru etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the Bramhasutra explains about the happiness of bramham (not the 4 headed Bramha) it says if the human happiness is considered as 1x, then Deva's happiness is 10x and Bramha's happiness is 100x and bramham's happines is 1000x.  I might not be correct with the number, but just used it to indicate the levels that is quoted here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So with the above levels and with the names of the beings said, what are levels of beings which supposedly start from Bramham till human. Of course the level goes beyond human as animals and plants and so forth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can the such levels in descending order be provided?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srikainkaryasri.com/2015/06/27/numbers-what-they-say-14/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This site says&lt;/a&gt; (link is now dead) in Tamil:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;தைத்திரீயத்தில் —ஆனந்தவல்லி ,இப்படிக் கூறுகிறது  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ஸ ஏகோ மானுஷ ஆனந்த : | தே யே ஸதம் மானுஷா ஆனந்தா  ஸ ஏகோ மனுஷ்ய&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;கந்தர்வாணாமானந்த : | ஸ்ரோத்ரியஸ்ய சாகாமஹ தஸ்ய | தே யே ஸதம் மனுஷ்ய&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;கந்தர்வாணாமானந்தா : | ஸ ஏகோ தேவகந்தர்வாணா மானந்த : | ஸ்ரோத்ரியஸ்ய&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;சாகாமஹதஸ்ய | தே யே ஸதம் தேவகந்தர்வாணா மானந்தா : | ஸ ஏக :&#xA;  பித்ருணாஞ்சிரலோகலோகானாமானந்த : | ஸ்ரோத்ரியஸ்ய சாகாமஹ தஸ்ய | தே யே ஸதம்&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;பித்ருணாஞ்சிரலோகலோகானாமானந்தா : | ஸ ஏக ஆஜானஜாநாம் தேவானாமானந்த : |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ஸ்ரோத்ரியஸ்ய சாகாமஹ தஸ்ய | தேயே ஸத மாஜானஜாநாம் தேவானாமானந்தா : | ஸ ஏக&#xA;  கர்மதேவானாம் தேவானாமானந்த : | யே கர்மணா தேவானபி யந்தி | ஸ்ரோத்ரியஸ்ய&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;சாகாமஹ தஸ்ய | தே யே ஸதம் கர்மதேவானாம் தேவானாமானந்தா : | ஸ ஏகோ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;தேவானாமானந்த : | ஸ்ரோத்ரியஸ்ய சாகாமஹ தஸ்ய | தே யே ஸதம் தேவானாமானந்தா :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;| ஸ ஏக இந்த்ரஸ்யானந்த : | ஸ்ரோத்ரியஸ்ய சாகாமஹ தஸ்ய | தே யே&#xA;  ஸதம்இந்த்ரஸ்யானந்தா : | ஸ ஏகோ ப்ரு ஹஸ்பதேரானந்த : | ஸ்ரோத்ரியஸ்ய&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;சாகாமஹ தஸ்ய | தே யே ஸதம் ப்ரு ஹஸ்பதேரானந்தா : | ஸ ஏக ப்ரஜாபதேரானந்த :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;| ஸ்ரோத்ரியஸ்ய சாகாமஹ தஸ்ய | தே யே ஸதம் ப்ரஜாபதேரானந்தா : | ஸ ஏகோ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ப்ரஹ்மண ஆனந்த : | ஸ்ரோத்ரியஸ்ய சாகாமஹ தஸ்ய | ஸயச்சாயம் புருஷே |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;இப்படிச் சொல்லிக்கொண்டே போகிறது&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ஆனந்தம் நூறு மடங்கு பெருகுகிற தாம்( நூறு என்பது அளவிட முடியாதது என்று&#xA;  பொருள் )&#xA;  1.மனுஷ்ய ஆனந்தம் &#xA;  2. அதைவிட நூறு மடங்கு கந்தர்வ ஆனந்தம்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3. அதைவிட நூறு மடங்கு தேவகந்தர்வ ஆனந்தம்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  4. அதைவிட நூறுமடங்கு பித்ருக்கள் ஆனந்தம்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  5. அதைவிட நூறு மடங்கு தேவர்களின் ஆனந்தம்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  6. அதைவிட நூறு மடங்கு இந்த்ரனின் ஆனந்தம்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  7.அதைவிட நூறு மடங்கு ப்ருஹஸ்பதியின் ஆனந்தம்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  8. அதைவிட நூறு மடங்கு ப்ரஹ்மானந்தம்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  9. அதைவிட நூறு மடங்கு பரப்ரஹ்மானந்தம்  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A rough translation (by me):&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Anandhavalli in Thaittiriya Upanishat says a Sanskrit verse and its meaning:&#xA;Ghandarva's happiness is 100x human happiness&lt;br&gt;&#xA;DevaGhandarva's happiness is 100x Ghandarva's happiness&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Pithru's happiness is 100x DevaGhandarva's happiness&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Deva's  happiness is 100x Pithru's happiness&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Indran's happiness is 100x Deva's happiness&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Bruhaspathi's happiness is 100x Indran's happiness&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Bramha's happiness is 100x Bruhaspathi's happiness&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Parabramham's happiness is 100x Bramha's happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And for a good translation, you can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiadivine.org/content/topic/972948-ananda-valli-instructions-in-happiness/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;a discussion thread on India Divine.org&lt;/a&gt; on same topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T09:28:35.707" LastActivityDate="2018-09-05T09:28:35.707" Title="What is Hierarchy/levels of beings from humans to Brahman?" Tags="|gods|brahman|asuras|gandharva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9222" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3944" CreationDate="2015-10-28T04:45:53.077" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have  got more information this time . So adding as a separate Answe.r&#xA;This information is taken from brahmanda purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gandharvas and Apsaras were the children of muni. From Muni there are 16 deva gandharvas and 24 younger sisters named apsaras.The following are remembered as Laukiki(Earthly) Apsaras &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Earthly(Laukiki) Apsaras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hamsa, Sarasvati, Suta, Kamala, Abhaya, Sumukhi, and Hamsapadi.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Panchacudis(5 plates of hair and expounders brahman)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Menaka, Sahajanya, Parnini, Punjikastala,Krtasthala, Ghrtaci, Visvaci, Purvachitti . Urvashi is 11 directly born from narayana.    &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this there are separate 14 groups of apsaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ahrtis  - mental daughters of brahma &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shobhavatis- daughters of maruts &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vegavatis- Daughters of Rista &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Urjas- Daughters of Agni&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yuvatis- Born of Rays of Sun &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sruks — Born of Yajna &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kurus—Born of Rays of moon &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Barhis - Daughter of Kusavati &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Amrtas - Born of Amrta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mudas — Born of Vayus &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mrgus — Born of Earth &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ruks  — Born of Lightening &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhirus — Daughters of Mrtyu &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shobhayantis— Daughters of Kama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are wives,mothers of devas and sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T04:45:53.077" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9223" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9209" CreationDate="2015-10-28T05:20:01.240" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are multiple factors to consider , before arriving into conclusion that , krishna recited 650/700 shlokas to arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavadgita which is part of mahabharata , was initially written as &lt;strong&gt;Jaya&lt;/strong&gt; which had only 8000 shlokas. Since original one is no longer available , we are not sure how many shlokas in the original was written on bhagavadgita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover mahabharata what we have is not even complete . Its written in mahabharata itself  that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18005.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Vyasa made  compilation consisting of sixty lakhs of verses. Thirty&#xA;  lakhs of these were placed in the region of the deities. In the region&#xA;  of the Pitris fifteen lakhs, it should be known, are current; while in&#xA;  that of the Yakshas fourteen lakhs are in vogue. One lakh is current&#xA;  among human beings.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are now two possibilities &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;what was taught by krishna to arjuna, was more concise.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Presumably, Since Vyasa being himself avatar of vishnu , written in&#xA;such poetic way in his Jaya. Vyshampayana expanded the same thing ,&#xA;so that we human can understand it. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Krishna Taught more stuffs to arjuna than in bhagavadgita. Some&#xA;other details are in  other parts of mahabharata(Out of 60 lakh&#xA;verses, which we dont have access.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the second Case , I believe both arjuna and krishna arrived in kurukshetra early . It normally takes time during first day to arrive in the ground , prepare themselves in proper position etc. During this preparatory stage krishna taught arjuna bhagavadgita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T05:20:01.240" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9224" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-28T05:51:43.167" Score="12" ViewCount="651" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read from Shiva Purana that Kailasa and Vaikunta are free from KARMA. But when Vishnu incarnated on Earth he suffered his karma (Vali as hunter killed Krishna in next birth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though I am not sure about this, I saw this in a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/#q=brahmalokam+to+yamalokam+via+bhulokam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Telugu Movie&lt;/a&gt;. In that movie, Brahma says that Venkateswara was hit by rock oozing out his blood because Krishna stole the garments of Gopis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So no matter who he is, Karma applies to him. But will karma only apply to living beings on Earth? I understand that karma applies to Devas from story of &quot;Indra, Ants and Brahmin boy&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what about people who live in Satya loka, Vaikunta and kailasa? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Sage Bhrigu cursed Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in their respective Lokas, according to Venkatachala Mahatya. How do boons and curses differ from good and bad karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if the Vishnu is subjected to Karma, who actually controls the Law of Karma? Is the law of Karma a body independent from all Devas (including Shiva and Vishnu)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-01-17T13:09:23.430" LastActivityDate="2016-02-16T13:40:51.417" Title="Does Law of Karma apply to Trimurtis and their Shaktis only when they are present in Lokas other than Vaikunta and Kailasa?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|karma|brahma|lokas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9225" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-28T06:20:45.090" Score="3" ViewCount="3011" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is in reference to Text 11 of Chapter 9 from Bhagavad Gita. I have 'Bhagavad Gita As It is'. I often come across this term 'supreme personality of godhead'and Lord Krishna is associated with this term. I often think of a person when I come across the term &quot;supreme personality of god head&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is not about &quot;what is Param Bhramha&quot;. My question relates to the usage of specific term in a book and how should it be interpreted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3478" LastEditorUserId="3478" LastEditDate="2015-10-29T05:10:41.693" LastActivityDate="2015-10-29T05:10:41.693" Title="What is the meaning of &quot;supreme personality of godhead&quot;" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9227" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-28T07:32:12.500" Score="5" ViewCount="415" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wanted to know whether Law of Karma applies on animals/birds and other non-human creatures? &#xA;Since all the animals(if not all), are dependent on other animals/creatures for food/living; how the law of Karma justified when these animals kill other animals? &#xA;Is there anything specified in our Vedas in this regards? Please share the link, if possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4035" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T17:26:42.337" Title="Does Law of Karma apply on animals/birds?" Tags="|vedas|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-10-29T04:24:15.597" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9228" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9220" CreationDate="2015-10-28T07:56:14.500" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;GyAni&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;strong&gt;is similar to God(Krisna)'s own self&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[2]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence serving (or &lt;em&gt;Poojan&lt;/em&gt;) a &lt;em&gt;GyAni&lt;/em&gt; is equivalent to offering the same to the lord. This is also basis of &lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ok, but why not Krishna himself?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was anyway surrendered to Krishna. But through Gita, Krishna has made the message eternal. i.e. not specific to Arjuna or their life times. Had Krishna insisted &lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt; for his then personal form then it becomes too limited in availability. One day Krishna has to depart from earth, but &lt;em&gt;GyAni&lt;/em&gt;s will always remain in some or the other forms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why Krishna did not disregard other &lt;em&gt;GyAni&lt;/em&gt;s compared to his then human form. In fact, he always acted in prescribed duties without trying to bend the social norms &amp;amp; rules. Depending on situation, he was quite humble. There is an event in &lt;em&gt;Rajasuyika Parva&lt;/em&gt;, where Krishna arrives for the &lt;em&gt;yagna&lt;/em&gt; and asks Yudhishtira to command him to take up any duty suitable for him&lt;sup&gt;[3]&lt;/sup&gt;. He too washes the feet of Brahmins. He had nothing to achieve but still (or hence) he acted into his &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;s, which were actually &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;s&lt;sup&gt;[4]&lt;/sup&gt;. Because he was aware that, should he misconduct, everyone will follow him, leading to the destruction of society&lt;sup&gt;[5]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[1] &lt;em&gt;GyAni&lt;/em&gt; = enlightened or self realized with transcendental awareness&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 7.18&lt;/a&gt; — All these devotees are undoubtedly magnanimous souls, but &lt;strong&gt;he who is situated in knowledge of Me, I consider to be just like My own self.&lt;/strong&gt; Being engaged in My transcendental service, he is sure to attain Me, the highest and most perfect goal.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02032.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;] Krishna, extolling his virtues, said.--'Thou, O tiger among kings, deservest imperial dignity. Let, therefore, the great sacrifice be performed by thee. And if thou performest that sacrifice an obtainest its fruit we all shall regard ourselves as crowned with success. I am always engaged in seeking good. Perform thou then the sacrifice thou desirest. &lt;strong&gt;Employ me also in some office for that purpose, for I should obey all thy commands.&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Also in BRC Mahabharata, there is an episode where Krishna washes feet of &lt;em&gt;Brahmana&lt;/em&gt;s.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[4] &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; = non-fruitive actions in accordance of &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[5] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 3.23, 3.24&lt;/a&gt; — For if I ever failed to engage in carefully performing prescribed duties, O Pārtha, certainly all men would follow My path.&lt;br&gt;&#xA; — If I did not perform prescribed duties, all these worlds would be put to ruination. I would be the cause of creating unwanted population, and I would thereby destroy the peace of all living beings.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2015-11-03T05:34:05.147" LastActivityDate="2015-11-03T05:34:05.147" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9229" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9207" CreationDate="2015-10-28T08:10:31.677" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu's Sattva guna is in accordance with his main aim, ie, Preservation. By Rajo guna, ie, characterized by desire, Lord Brahma creates. By Tamo guna, Lord Shiva destroys and by Sattva guna, the world is preserved. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when Lord Vishnu &quot;kills&quot;  a demon, he is actually removing a potential threat to the existence of the world, and thereby preserving it. Also, when he kills the demons, Lord releases them immediate from all the sins and frees the soul. Thus, even when Lord Vishnu kills someone, He grants them liberation and moksha. This is how Lord Vishnu characterizes Sattva guna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4036" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-10-28T14:25:01.763" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T14:25:01.763" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9230" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9125" CreationDate="2015-10-28T08:16:16.727" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;the form is for us to look upon and meditate.all forms we see are actually aspect encompassed by God. this is clearly explained in vishwaroopa darshana yoga in bhagavad githa by krishna.(krishna here symbolises the supreme lord.he is personifcation of paramathma).thus, God expressed in human forms/animal forms or other perceivable forms can be understood as God revealed to us in certain asppects for us to meditate, or contemplate; or God revealing a himself in a form encompassed by him that we can pereeive.this is why i think is the reason why God is generally in these forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4036" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T08:16:16.727" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9231" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-28T09:39:25.553" Score="3" ViewCount="677" Body="&lt;p&gt;While it is a normal practice to prepare food and offer it to god before eating. I would like to know what slokas/mantras needs to told while offering food to god. Also if there are any specific procedures to be followed, Pl. share the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4021" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-10-28T11:45:27.083" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T11:45:27.083" Title="What slokas/mantras needs to told while offering food to god" Tags="|mantras|puja|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2015-10-28T12:58:01.930" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9232" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9225" CreationDate="2015-10-28T09:53:28.327" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Bhagavad Gita As It Is&lt;/em&gt; is a translation by a dualist commentator who believes that the highest form of God is a Person. Other translators, notably qualified non-dualists and non-dualists, do a slightly different translation of this verse. Swami Gambhirananda translates the verse in the following manner:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Not knowing My supreme nature as the Lord of all beings, foolish people disregard Me who have taken a human body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and Swami Nikhilananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fools disregard Me when I assume a human form; for they are unaware of My higher nature as the Supreme Lord of all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is best to reference several translations and see which you are most comfortable with. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T09:53:28.327" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9233" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9219" CreationDate="2015-10-28T10:14:34.593" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, he did. what they were specifically, is not said in the books. Vivekananda become proficient in Sanskrit grammar at a young age and spent time. He was able to speak and do Sanskrit argumentation with Sanskrit scholars. He believed and said that all Indians should learn Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that he would sometimes spend many hours in Japa and meditation. In the Complete Works (V7, p 62) Vivekananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Repeating the Om continually is the only true worship. It is not a word, it is God Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on this one teaching, you can be sure he repeated AUM regularly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T10:14:34.593" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9234" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9240" CreationDate="2015-10-28T12:24:28.457" Score="3" ViewCount="375" Body="&lt;p&gt;The slokha is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Avasyam anubhogthavyam kritham karma subha asubham; naa bhugtham ksheeyathe karma kalpa koti sathairapi&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it from vedas or puranas or any other text?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastActivityDate="2015-10-29T05:01:00.713" Title="From which Hindu text the following slokha has been taken?" Tags="|karma|shloka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9235" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9207" CreationDate="2015-10-28T13:34:33.657" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your presumption that Lord Vishnu is associated with sattva guna is incorrect. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are Gunas of &quot;NATURE&quot;, but God being the creator of nature is both a part of nature and at the same time different from nature. So to answer your question, the trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are not bound by or characterized by any or all of these gunas but are free from all of these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4039" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T13:34:33.657" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9237" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-28T14:11:24.400" Score="2" ViewCount="83" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know that Mahadev ji have two sons and Shri Brahma ji have many sons but i never heard that Shri Vishnu have any son(s)?&#xA;If they have any son(s) then please provide the names? and if they don't have any sons then why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3645" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-10-28T14:34:32.337" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T14:34:32.337" Title="Does Shri Vishnu have any sons or daughters?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-10-28T14:17:39.743" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9238" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9207" CreationDate="2015-10-28T14:16:33.457" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lord Vishnu is associated with Sattva Guna...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Relating 3 modes of nature with 3 Gods is insulting&lt;/strong&gt;. Where &lt;em&gt;BrahmA&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt; are associated with &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; respectively. &lt;em&gt;BrahmA&lt;/em&gt; is not only a homonym with &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; but also quite near and also he is the creator of the universe. &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt;/&lt;em&gt;Sadashiva&lt;/em&gt;/&lt;em&gt;Rudra&lt;/em&gt;/&lt;em&gt;MahAdev&lt;/em&gt; is equally respected among devotees. Now someone (may be a &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; worshiper) has ignorantly associated &lt;em&gt;Triguna&lt;/em&gt; to &lt;em&gt;Trideva&lt;/em&gt; and secured &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; for &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;.  Good that they haven't associated &lt;em&gt;GyAna, Karma, Bhakti&lt;/em&gt; with &lt;em&gt;Trideva&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Triguna&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, God's unmanifested nature which is the eternal truth, is transcendent to all 3 modes of nature&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among 3 modes, domination of &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; is the manifestation of the God's own manifested nature. If you want to understand the adverse effects of &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; (translated as &quot;mode of passion&quot;) and &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; (translated as &quot;mode of ignorance/darkness&quot;) then refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG chapter 14&lt;/a&gt;. Then think, if we should even dare to relate Gods with the modes of nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After understanding those characterstics, one may read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG Chapter 16&lt;/a&gt; on &lt;em&gt;Daivi SampadA&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Asuri SampadA&lt;/em&gt;. The &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; relates to &lt;em&gt;Daivi&lt;/em&gt;, while other 2 towards &lt;em&gt;Asuri&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;How sattva guna dominated Vishnu were able to Kill Rakshasa such as&#xA;  Ravana and Kamsa?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Because Sattva dominated, Vishnu was able to kill demons.&lt;/strong&gt; Here is how.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Killing is just an event, like sleeping, playing, eating etc. But&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; (or &lt;em&gt;Rajas, Tamas&lt;/em&gt;) here is a state of &quot;consciousness&quot;. Every action can be divided into these 3 modes based on domination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a person acts (here &quot;kills&quot;)&lt;sup&gt;[2]&lt;/sup&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For sake of duty, then that is &lt;em&gt;Sattvik&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For any kind of desire, then that is &lt;em&gt;Rajasic&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For illusionary outburst, then that is &lt;em&gt;Tamasic&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The demons or demonic nature is created due to extreme influence of &lt;em&gt;Rajo Guna&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[3]&lt;/sup&gt;. So actually when Vishnu killed RAvana, Shishupala, he reduced the dominance of &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Even for common people &lt;em&gt;Sattvik&lt;/em&gt; killing (i.e. done without false ego or desires) doesn't result in sin or attachment&lt;sup&gt;[4]&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Does Only Vishnu have Sattva Guna not his Avatars (Narasimha, Rama and&#xA;  Krishna)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't see any reason why the &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; is not dominated among the Avatars of Vishnu/Shiva. Everyone incarnated and performed their &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, which is the nature of a &lt;em&gt;SAttvik&lt;/em&gt; person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 8.20&lt;/a&gt; — Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.23, 18.24, 18.25&lt;/a&gt; — That action which is regulated and which is performed without attachment, without love or hatred, and without desire for fruitive results is said to be in the mode of goodness.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;— But action performed by one seeking to gratify desires, and enacted from a sense of false ego, is called action in the mode of passion.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;— That action performed in illusion and without concern for future bondage or for violence or distress caused to others is said to be in the mode of ignorance.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17/4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 17.4&lt;/a&gt; — Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods; those in the mode of passion worship the demons; and those in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[4] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.17&lt;/a&gt; — One who is not motivated by false ego, whose intelligence is not entangled, though he kills men in this world, does not kill. Nor is he bound by his actions.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T14:16:33.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9239" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="253" CreationDate="2015-10-28T16:20:33.740" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There was no idol worship in ancient India.  Gods were worshiped through fire only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Srimad Ramayana, we will come across Sage Agasthya offering his prayers through fire only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स तत्र ब्रह्मणः स्थानम् अग्नेः स्थानम् तथैव च || ३-१२-१७&#xA;विष्णोः स्थानम् महेन्द्रस्य स्थानम् चैव विवस्वतः |&#xA;सोम स्थानम् भग स्थानम् स्थानम् कौबेरम् एव च || ३-१२-१८&#xA;धातुर् विधातुः स्थानम् च वायोः स्थानम् तथैव च |&#xA;स्थानम् च पाश हस्तस्य वारुणस्य महात्मनः || ३-१२-१९&#xA;स्थानम् तथैव गायत्र्या वसूनाम् स्थानम् एव च |&#xA;स्थानम् च नागराजस्य गरुड स्थानम् एव च || ३-१२-२०&#xA;कार्तिकेयस्य च स्थानम् धर्म स्थानम् च पश्यति |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama entered inside the hermitage and saw therein the sanctus of Brahma, Fire-god, Vishnu, Indra, Vivasvat - the Sun-god, Soma - the Moon-god, Bhaga - one among the twelve Suns, and the sanctusms of Kubera, [Wealth-Management-god, are seen and passed by the three of them, sanctums of Dhaata, Vidhaata - Vedic deities created by Brahma to help Svayambhuu Manu, santucm of Vaayu - the Air-god, and also like that the sanctum of great-soloed VaruNa - the Rain-god who also wields noose, and the sanctum of Gayatri - the presiding deity of gnosis, sanctum of Vasus - eight of them, and the sanctum of cobra's king - aadi sheSa, the divine Thousand-headed serpent that bears this globe on its head, and on which Vishnu reclines, and even the sanctum of GaruDa - the Divine Eagle and the vehicle of Vishnu, and the half brother of aadi sheSa, and the sanctum of Kaartikeya - chief of gods army, second son of Shiva, and the sanctum of Dharma - Dharmaraaja, presiding deity of Virtue-Vice-Time of living beings, in-charge of the hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Idol worship is relatively new concept.  The origin of Idol worship cannot exactly be fixed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, if we ponder over the incidents took place in India, we can vaguely conclude that Idol worship might have started somewhere after Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many kings participated in that Great war and got eliminated and the Yadava army that survived the war, got extinct due to infighting that took place after 36 years of the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Normally, a powerful and strong administration and patronage is necessary for any arts, culture to thrive and make advancement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Owing to elimination of many kings and decadence of human thinking, the earlier vedic way offering prayers might have slowly got replaced with Idol worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to significance part of Idol worship, it is like elementary school education.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The children will be asked to write very big letters first, so that the children will get accustomed to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Slowly, a smaller and still smaller letters will replace that big letters.  In the next step, the children will learn words, sentences, etc.  When grows up, the children will read books on their own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the spiritual aspirant progresses, he has to leave Idol worship and resort to internal DHYANA for getting realisation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T16:20:33.740" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9240" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9234" CreationDate="2015-10-28T17:12:57.043" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sloka is from Brahmavaivartha Purana. It exist in Prakriti Khanda and at multiple places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;First there's verse 71 here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30831/77f_chapter_56_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30831/77f_chapter_56_2.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then there's verse 17 of this chapter: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30776/77f_chapter_67.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30776/77f_chapter_67.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.Then verse 56 of this chapter: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30811/77f_chapter_89_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30811/77f_chapter_89_1.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Then verse 39 here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30820/77f_chapter_95.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30820/77f_chapter_95.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Courtesy: Keshav Srinivasan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2015-10-29T05:01:00.713" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9241" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9227" CreationDate="2015-10-28T17:26:42.337" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every being acts according to its own Guna and Swabhava and hence they are all subjected to law of Karma. Please refer to Manu Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Verse 1.28-29, it says, all species of creatures have been allotted same kind of karmas that they were alloted in previous cycle of creation. Thus, species which were violent in previous creation are also violent in this etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.30- it says, just as different seasons get their different characters naturally, similarly all animals develop Karmas suitable for them naturally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.41- says that Prajapatis have created all animals which are involved in their own karmas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It gives more details from 1.42 verse onwards. More such references can easily be found. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-10-28T17:26:42.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9243" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-29T05:19:29.500" Score="0" ViewCount="111" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do some Swamis, Gurus, Sannyasis etc. have long, untrimmed beards and hair, and yet some of their disciples tend to have a more semi-professional look. Is it just a personal preference or is there a message to be taken from it, e.g., the human body is only a medium for the soul why waste your time on appearances?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also it says &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1155&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; that a true Sannyasi should not protect himself even if attacked. Does it mean when Vishwamitra attacked Vashista he should not have resisted?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-10-29T13:27:41.293" LastActivityDate="2015-10-29T13:27:41.293" Title="Sannyasis, their habits and dharma - any message to be taken from it?" Tags="|belief|dharma|sanyasi|vashishta|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9244" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-29T10:10:24.727" Score="8" ViewCount="1324" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know Krishna showed his Vishwaroopa Darshna during Mahabharatha War. But &lt;a href=&quot;http://ebooks.tirumala.org/Product/?ID=540&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Puranam by DSR Anjaneyulu&lt;/a&gt;, which was translated to English from Telugu by RM Chella says, Rama had shown Vishwaroopa Darshan to Sati Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Sati bowed to Rama, he said: “O Mother, what made you, the wife of Siva, assume the form of my wife? What is the reason behind you&#xA;  leaving your husband and roaming in this wild jungle? Don’t you know&#xA;  that this place is full of demons? Please be welladvised and go back&#xA;  to Mount Kailasa”. Sati Devi was amazed. She regretted her ruse, and&#xA;  fell prostrate at Rama’s feet, begging his pardon. Then Lakshmana also&#xA;  realised the truth and the might of his divine brother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Lord Rama displayed his &lt;strong&gt;universal manifestation&lt;/strong&gt; to Sati Devi.&#xA;  Sati was struck with reverential&#xA;  awe, and sang the Lord’s praises: “Lord, I am able to see the entire&#xA;  world of creation in Thee. There! I can see the sun and the moon; the&#xA;  Lord Creator Brahma, the Lord Siva Himself; the thirty million gods in&#xA;  you. In a trillion forms of creatures, with their countless arms and&#xA;  faces and feet, art Thou now mirrored. Thou art indeed the Alpha and&#xA;  the Omega of all creation, and yet Thou hast be beginning or middle or&#xA;  end. I discern the infinitely iridiscent transfiguration of Thine&#xA;  spreading itself in the multiplicity of the Rudras, Aadityas, Vasus,&#xA;  Saadhyas, Asvins, Maruts, Gandharvas, Yakshas and the Titans--- all of&#xA;  whom are now gazing at Thine awe-inspiring Light of lights. Oh Lord of&#xA;  grace and mercy, I Knew not Thine absolute power in my former&#xA;  ignorance; now I realise Thine undening glory; so on my bended knees I&#xA;  beseech Thy forgiveness”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Siva told Sati: “You have been very fortunate to be able to see&#xA;  that great god’s &lt;strong&gt;Vishvarupa&lt;/strong&gt;. You were indeed for ever sanctified by&#xA;  being addressed as ‘Mother by that supreme being. Now, since Vishnu,&#xA;  Brahma and myself are brotherly facets of one and the same Invisible&#xA;  Existence reflected in the Trinity, virtually you are my brother,&#xA;  too!”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Vishwaroopa Darshan wasn't mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3830/3500&quot;&gt;this unabridged&lt;/a&gt; Shiva Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Rama show Vishwaroopa Darshan to Sati Devi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2021-02-08T13:13:15.317" Title="Did Lord Rama show Vishwaroopa Darshan to Sati Devi?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|rama|shiva-purana|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9245" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9243" CreationDate="2015-10-29T10:12:47.003" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;For your first question, to attain the highest form of meditation, The one who practices meditation must be able to separate his inner atma or celestial body from the physical body through the head to higher points and self. For the disciples, it is difficult to concentrate and elevate with all the hair. So they have less hair on their heads. And for the Swamis, Gurus, Sannyasis etc, It is easy for them to elevate but they keep their hair because it helps them to maintain that elevated state. It acts like a barrier.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the second question, It is mentioned in that article itself that  Himsa and Ahimsa are relative terms and are dependent on circumstances. When Vishwamitra attacked Vashista, Vashista was not the sannyasi who had quit everything in the world, he was more of a spiritual Guru who was working towards the well being of humanity and such. He was not alone, He had to protect his disciples and the holy calf Nandini. So it has nothing to do with &quot;a true Sannyasi should not protect himself even if attacked.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3271" LastActivityDate="2015-10-29T10:12:47.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9246" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8755" CreationDate="2015-10-29T12:20:58.777" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of creating new Dharma, which is against Vedic Dharma, to destroy virtuousness of asuras, was mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/21319/7/Part2_Chapter5_795-874p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 4 to 10 of Rudrasamhita - Yuddhakanda section of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; ( Pg:820-846).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For causing obstacles in their virtuous activities, Vishnu of great&#xA;  brilliance, created a PURUSHA born of himself. He had a shaven&#xA;  head, wore dirty clothes, held a woven wicker vessel in his hand and a&#xA;  roll of cotton in his hand when he shook at every step. His hands&#xA;  tucking at the cloth were weak. His face was pale and weak. In a&#xA;  faltering voice he was muttering &quot;Dharma,Dharma&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Footnote says, According to present context Vishnu created a delusive&#xA;  teacher called Maayamoha who created as Maaya Saastra of 16,00,000&#xA;  verses in Apabhramsa,preaching Jina Dharma for Misguiding the Asuras.&#xA;  They preached Non violence, forbade Shruti and Smaarta rituals,&#xA;  discarded Varnasrama System,created an order for women which resulted&#xA;  in leaving home and leading the life of nuns. In some versions the&#xA;  role is assigned to Brihaspati,Preceptor of Gods who in guise of their&#xA;  preceptor Sukra deludes the Asuras. For details,see&#xA;  Maayamohanaprakarana in Padma,Vishnu ,Linga and Matsya.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O intelligent one , born of me,you are certainly identical with me in&#xA;  form.Know why you have been created. I shall tell you. You are born of&#xA;  me. You can perform my task. You are my own. Certainly you will be worthy&#xA;  of worship. Let your name be Arihat. You will have other auspicious&#xA;  names too. I shall assign to you a place afterwards. O you who wield&#xA;  Maayaa,create a deceptive sacred text of 16,00,000 verses contrary to&#xA;  Srutis and Smritis, wherein Varnas and Aasramas shall be eschewed .Let&#xA;  the holy text be in Aprabrahmsa Language. Let there be emphasis on&#xA;  actions. O you with shaven head, you shall go to city of Tripuras,&#xA;  reveal the Tasmik acts and destroy the three cities. After that,O&#xA;  great one you shall go the desert stay there carrying your own duties&#xA;  and activities till advent of Kali Yuga. At my bidding your cult shall&#xA;  certainly expand.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saying this Vishnu vanished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the ascetic of shaven head acting in accordance with Vishnu's&#xA;  behest created four disciples of like form as himself and taught them&#xA;  the deceptive cult.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those Shaven heads then went to City of Tripuras and taught this deceptive cult. When Asuras stopped worshipping Shiva, Shiva killed them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After kneeling down before Gods,tonsured heads ask Gods&quot; where shall&#xA;  we go?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu and other gods said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;From now onwards in the Kali age those follow this cult will be faced&#xA;  with disastrous results. We tell you the truth. There is no doubt about&#xA;  it. O brave tonsured heads, you shall stay incognito in the desert&#xA;  region. That is my behest. When Kali age begins,you can propagate your&#xA;  cult. In kali age,deluded fools will follow your cult.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Footnote says the desert is identified as desert Maru lying to the&#xA;  north-west of Gujarat or and to the north of Dwaraka which is also called as&#xA;  Thar or Rajaputana desert.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That religion could be Jina dharma (Jainism).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-10-29T12:35:14.690" LastActivityDate="2015-10-29T12:35:14.690" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9247" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-29T14:39:42.317" Score="11" ViewCount="6767" Body="&lt;p&gt;The picture shows the sacred cow, Gomata, and the position of Devas (Gods) in Gomata.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9v1pR.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9v1pR.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Cow and Devas&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How was the position of Gods determined? For example, why is Shiva shown between the eyebrows? Why are Bhairava and Hanuman shown in the legs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4003" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-29T16:19:06.940" LastActivityDate="2022-02-11T02:10:22.527" Title="Cow and position of Devas" Tags="|cows|gods|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9248" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-29T16:47:41.530" Score="2" ViewCount="49" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Srimad Ramayana  it was Lord Indra, who gave a boon to Sri Hanuma that death occurs only by his own volition  -  स्वच्छंदतः च मरणम् , but not Sri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वज्रस्य च निपातेन विरुजम् त्वाम् समीक्ष्य च |&#xA;सहस्र नेत्रः प्रीत आत्मा ददौ ते वरम् उत्तमम् || ४-६६-२८&#xA;स्वच्छंदतः च मरणम् तव स्यात् इति वै प्रभो |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;On scrutinising that you are unhurt even after hit by Thunderbolt, oh, ablest Hanuma, the Thousand-eyed Indra kind-heartedly gave you a choicest boon saying that your death occurs only by your own volition...&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Ramayana clears says that death will come to Sri Hanuma on his own volition, but did not say Sri Hanuma is Chiranjeeve - who lives for eternity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is then why was the notion that Sri Rama Gave him a boon that as long as his Story is sung, Sri Hanuma will be alive?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the basis of this story?  In which Purana was it mentioned?  Can anybody tell me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-10-29T16:47:41.530" Title="Is Sri Hanuma a Chiranjeevi?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-10-29T17:02:24.723" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9251" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-29T21:24:43.263" Score="6" ViewCount="1387" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question is about this mantra - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Kleem Krishnaaya Govindaaya Gopeejana vallabhaaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraya Param Purushaaya Paramathmaney&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Para Karma Manthra Yanthra Thantra &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aabhichara Aushadha Astra Shastraani &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samhara Samhara Mrithyur Mochaya Mochaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aum Namo Bhagavathey Maha Sudarshanaaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Deepthrey Jwaala Pareethaya Sarwa Dhikshobhana Karaaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hoom Phat Brahmaney Param Jyothishey Swaaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In what Purana/Veda is this found? Can you provide more details about its origin and usage? I am looking for original sanskrit documents, in particular any resources about vaishnava tantra would be useful as I believe this mantra falls into that category.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4046" LastActivityDate="2017-03-19T09:38:58.953" Title="Origin of the Maha Sudarshan Mantra?" Tags="|vishnu|tantra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9252" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-10-29T22:09:01.550" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sacred thread is called by several names depending upon the region and community; a few of which are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Braḥma sūtram ब्रह्मसूत्रम् (Sanskrit)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yajñopavītam यज्ञोपवीतम् (Sanskrit)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jandhyam or Jandhyamu జంధ్యము (Telugu)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pūnūl பூணூல் (Tamil)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Poonool പൂണൂല്‍ (Malayalam)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Janeva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Poita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pūṇūl&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bratabandha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Janivaara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Janeu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lagun&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yajnopavita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yagyopavit&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yonya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Zunnar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana#India&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana#India&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-29T22:09:01.550" LastActivityDate="2015-10-29T22:09:01.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9253" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-10-29T22:09:01.550" Score="0" Body="The sacred thread worn by some Hindus. Called yajñopavītam (यज्ञोपवीतम्) in Sanskrit, it the symbolizes the ability of the wearer to perform Sandhyavandanam and recite the Gayatri Mantra." OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-10-29T22:09:01.550" LastActivityDate="2015-10-29T22:09:01.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9254" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-29T22:21:26.980" Score="15" ViewCount="449" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the names of the original gotras. I have seen online different lists of gotras (sometimes up to 100+). I would like to know if there is a tree diagram of gotras and upagotras anywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4047" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-18T18:51:37.680" LastActivityDate="2023-07-10T12:58:02.817" Title="What are the main gotras and the upagotras among Brahmins?" Tags="|vedas|brahmins|gotra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9255" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-30T03:53:54.007" Score="4" ViewCount="1658" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/392/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Ravana, Kumbhakarna, and Vibhishana were sons of the sage Vishravas and the demoness Kaikeshi.  But they weren't Vishravas' first children.  Before he met Kaikeshi, Vishravas was married to a woman named Ilavida, and their son was Kubera god of wealth.  But the Brahma Vaivarta Purana says this wasn't Kubera's first birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30706/77f_chapter_10_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Kubera was originally born from the body of Krishna. (The Brahma-Vaivarta Purana conceives of Krishna as the supreme god living in Goloka.) But then he was reborn as the son of Vishravas, after a curse by the sage Utathya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Utathya demanded a crore of gold coins from Kubera to pay gurudakshina to his teacher.  Kubera in turn behaved with him quite harshly as a result of which Kubera was to be reborn.  Thus Kubera was born again of Vishvashrava and the brother Ravana, Kumbhakarna, and Vibhishana who was quite a religious one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Uthathya, also known as Uchathya, is the son of the sage Angiras and the brother of Brihaspati guru of the gods.  The story he's most known for is that once Brihaspati impregnated Uchathya's wife Mamata. But there was already a child in Mamata's womb, and this unborn child objected to the impregnation.  Bribaspati was angered by this and cursed the child to be blind.  As a result, Mamata gave birth to two sons, Brihaspati's son Bharadhwaja and Utathya's son Dirghatamas, who was indeed blind.  Both grew up to be illustrious sages, as you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, my question is, what other scriptures describe this story of Kubera being burnt to ashes by Utathya and then being reborn?  The Brahma Vaivarta Purana is considered to have a lot of interpolations, and the story presented here is centered around Krishna, so I'd like to see whether other scriptures confirm at least the broad outlines of this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only other reference to a disciple of Utathya I know of is in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27478/62f_chapter_19_2.pdf#toolbar=0&amp;amp;pagemode=none&amp;amp;view=FitBH&amp;amp;page=1%22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Skanda Purana, which says that Utathya was the guru of Vishnu's incarnation Mandhata (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7221/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  But are there any scriptures which describe Utathya as Kubera's guru?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2015-11-03T13:37:50.357" Title="What scriptures describe Brihaspati's brother burning Kubera to ashes?" Tags="|puranas|brahma-vaivarta-purana|kubera|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9256" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15763" CreationDate="2015-10-30T04:19:41.447" Score="16" ViewCount="3959" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Please provide a description of why Karwachauth is celebrated.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;As far as I know, there is some story about fasting by a woman and due to her mistake ( in not doing the fasts properly, she mistook a &lt;em&gt;diya&lt;/em&gt; as the moon), her husband dies. So, Karwachauth maata tells her to take fast on a day which we, Hindus, now celebrate as Karwachauth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="314" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2015-10-31T10:19:31.227" LastActivityDate="2019-10-18T16:58:00.733" Title="Is there any mention or description of Karwachauth in Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9258" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="101" CreationDate="2015-10-30T09:26:47.193" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word &quot;Lingam&quot; or &quot;Linga&quot; means &quot;Symbol.&quot; 'Siva,&quot; in addition to other meanings, means &quot;Great.&quot; Thus, &quot;Sivalingam&quot; means &quot;Great Symbol.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sivalingams are found in both Saiva and Vaishnava Temples. Mostly, it is either a circular base part with a cylindrical  upright stump in the centre or a square with a cylindrical  upright stump at the centre. In both cases, combined figure symbolizes &quot;the Middle Path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Middle Path is the fundamental philosophy of Buddhism. It is the Buddhist Dhamma. Here a question may be asked: What has &quot;the Middle Path&quot; to do with Siva and Vishnu? Actually both Siva and Vishnu are the imaginary creations based on Buddha and his Preaching! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand this, one must have a thorough knowledge on Symbolization and Symbolization of Buddha and Buddhism. Vishnu holds a conch by his left hand and rotates a circular disc by his right forefinger. What do these two symbolize severally and jointly? Our &quot;learned&quot; will come with something told in Puranas! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A conch makes sound that could be heard by everyone without any discrimination. Therefore a conch could symbolize making a public announcement or preaching something to all. Now the question arises as what is preached by Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is given by the rotating circular disc. A circular disc rotated by the forefinger symbolizes the Middle Path. Therefore Vishnu is a person who preached the Middle Path to all. Again a question arises as what type of person Vishnu is. Vishnu has a &quot;U' mark placed symmetrically above his nose. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This also symbolizes Middle Path. Therefore Vishnu is a one who adheres to the Muddle Path and Preaches others to practice the Middle Path. Buddha was the only person who adhered to the Middle Path and preached all to practice the Middle Path. Therefore Vishnu is an imaginary creation based on Buddha and Buddhism! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise Siva also carries a hand drum, Tri-suula and burning flame. He has Triple stripe on his forehead. Hand drum sumbolizes preaching something to all. Tri - Suula has its two outer limbs curved outside pointing the opposite directions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The muddle one is straight. Therefore Tri - suula symbolizes the Middle Path. Burning flame symbolizes light or Enlightenment. The Triple stripe also symbolizes the Middle Path. Therefore Siva is also a person who adheres to the Middle Path and Preach the Middle Path to all that produces Enlightenment! Thus, Siva is also an imaginary creation based on Buddha and Buddhism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Sivalingams could be placed in bith Saiva and Vaishnava Temples. In the Vaishnava temples of Ariyaluur, Kaaramadau, Mondippaalayam, Thirumarugalin South India, we find Sivalingams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4050" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-12-01T17:35:42.240" LastActivityDate="2015-12-01T17:35:42.240" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9259" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-30T10:43:35.777" Score="0" ViewCount="52" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why India's name is &quot;Bharatvarsha&quot; according to Linga Purana? Who was Rushabh's son Bharat on his name Nharatvarsha is famous in Linga Puran story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2015-10-30T10:43:35.777" Title="Why India's name is &quot;Bharatvarsha&quot; according to Linga Purana?" Tags="|shiva|linga-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-10-30T14:55:39.733" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9260" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-30T15:33:57.787" Score="1" ViewCount="2467" Body="&lt;p&gt;While doing the Gajalaxmi havan a coconut burst open during the pūrṇāhuti and I burnt a few body parts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this a good or bad omen according to Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3857" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2018-06-09T06:33:41.773" LastActivityDate="2018-06-09T06:33:41.773" Title="Is the occurence of a fire accident during the performance of a havan considered a bad omen?" Tags="|scripture|worship|yajna|puja|omens|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2018-02-12T11:21:23.167" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9261" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-30T23:17:41.627" Score="1" ViewCount="116" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was just reading about Hinduism online and I'm fascinated my it.&#xA;I do have a question though.&#xA;From what I understand, one of the principles of Hinduism is to not inflict suffering on another being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, if someone were to enjoy inflicting pain on life and wishes to achieve the destruction of the world, what would this be known as?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does it mean? What should they do? What would other hindus do if they were to meet an individual such as this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4053" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-10-31T13:09:42.790" LastActivityDate="2015-11-01T08:37:22.240" Title="Harm/Infliction/Pain/Negativity in Hinduism?" Tags="|belief|scripture|philosophy|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9262" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-31T10:31:39.543" Score="10" ViewCount="13341" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a well-known fact that Krishna is also known as &quot;Ranchor&quot;, a name he earned after running away from a battle with Jarasandha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, how is it that the same Jarasandha was defeated by Karna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what does Krishna running way imply?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was Krishna incompetent against Jarasandha, or something else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-07T04:52:07.687" LastActivityDate="2021-01-31T15:33:00.217" Title="What does Krishna running away from Jarasandha signify?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|jarasandha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9264" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9156" CreationDate="2015-10-31T12:31:19.427" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;During Gandharva war he was group attacked  by Gandharvas and could be considered as a defeat .&#xA;In Virata war he was defeated by Arjun.&#xA;In Kurukshetra war he was defeated by Abhimanyu,Arjun,Bhima,Satyaki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But defeat cant be considered as a parameter to judge the skills of a warrior .&#xA;The same Karna defeated Bhim,Yudhishtir,Nakul,Sahadev,Satyaki,Dhrishtadyumn etc and he also had upper hand over Arjuna many times .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : KM Ganguly Mahabharath translation . You can find it &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4055" LastEditorUserId="4055" LastEditDate="2015-10-31T16:36:16.317" LastActivityDate="2015-10-31T16:36:16.317" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9265" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9062" CreationDate="2015-10-31T12:41:28.887" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;One think I would like to add : &#xA;As per Bori edition it is within 36 years and not Exactly 36 years .&#xA;In some sanskrit texts it is written as “shati trimshe” (in the 36th year) whereas in BORI edition it is “shati trymshe,” meaning in the part of 36 years.&#xA;Thus as per Bori curse can happen any time within 36 years. I tell this because as per some analysis the calculations are :&#xA;Kurukshetra war : 3126 BC Krishnas departure : 3102 BC&#xA;look &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.patheos.com/blogs/drishtikone/2010/09/astronomical-proof-mahabharata-war-shri-krishna/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4055" LastEditorUserId="4055" LastEditDate="2015-10-31T16:33:28.827" LastActivityDate="2015-10-31T16:33:28.827" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9266" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8997" CreationDate="2015-10-31T12:51:24.017" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you got answer to 1st and 2nd question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Did Arjuna really use it in the Kurukshetra war? If he didn't, why did he get it from Lord Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NO . Arjun never used it in his whole lifetime . In some links its mentioned that Arjun used it to slay Jayadrath but as per &lt;strong&gt;THE MOST AUTHENTIC KMG edition or BORI critical edition&lt;/strong&gt; Arjun didnt use . It is mentioned that Krishna advised Arjun but Arjun didnt use it .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing these words (of Krishna), Dhananjaya, licking the corners of his mouth, quickly shot that arrow which he had taken up for Jayadratha's slaughter, that arrow, viz., whose touch resembled that of Indra's thunder, which was inspired with mantras and converted into a celestial weapon, which was capable of bearing any strain, and which had always been worshipped with incense and garlands. That shaft, sped from Gandiva, coursing swiftly, snatched Jayadratha's head away, like a hawk snatching away a smaller bird from the top of a tree. Dhananjaya, then, with his shafts, sent that head along in the welkin (without allowing it to fall down&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here you can see nowhere Arjun used Pashupatastra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva gave it to Arjun to use it only to preserve dharma and he has no other alternatives .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4055" LastEditorUserId="4055" LastEditDate="2015-10-31T16:44:26.207" LastActivityDate="2015-10-31T16:44:26.207" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9267" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8957" CreationDate="2015-10-31T12:58:50.650" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually let me explain the term divine weapon :&#xA;Divine weapon is actually an ordinary weapon which would get 'divine' powers after chanting special mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;eg If we take an ordinary arrow and chant Varunas mantra it would become Varunastra and so on .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is stated that Vrishaketu, Karnas son was the last person in the Earth to have the knowledge of such mantras for divine weapons . He was taught this by Arjun (after Kurukshetra war) . He promised Krishna that he would not disclose the mantra to any others. So with his death the knowledge of such mantras also perished . Hence we cannot find it any more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4055" LastActivityDate="2015-10-31T12:58:50.650" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9268" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8886" CreationDate="2015-10-31T13:05:55.643" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually the stay in heaven is too brief. After that Karna joined Surya. Bhima was one of the Maruts. Bhishma was one of the Vasus. Drona a part of Brihaspati. Twins joined Ashwinis. Arjuna attained Vaikunta. Abhimanyu joined Soma (Chandra dev). Gandhari, Dhritarashtra etc. became Gandharvas. All are liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 18: Svargarohanika Parva: Section 5&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma of mighty energy and great effulgence attained to the status of the Vasus. Eight Vasus, O chief of Bharata’s race, are now seen. Drona entered into Brihaspati, that foremost one of Angirasa’s descendants. Hridika’s son Kritavarma entered the Maruts. Pradyumna entered Sanatkumara whence he had issued. Dhritarashtra obtained the regions, so difficult of acquisition, that belong to the Lord of treasures. The famous Gandhari obtained the same regions with her husband Dhritarashtra. With his two wives, Pandu proceeded to the abode of the great Indra. Both Virata and Drupada, the king Dhrishtaketu, as also Nishatha, Akrura, Samva, Bhanukampa, and Viduratha, and Bhurishrava and Sala and king Bhuri, and Kansa, and Ugrasena, and Vasudeva, and Uttara, that foremost of men, with his brother Sankha—all these foremost of persons entered the deities. Soma’s son of great prowess, named Varchas of mighty energy, became &lt;strong&gt;Abhimanyu&lt;/strong&gt;, the son of Phalguna, that lion among men. &lt;strong&gt;Having fought, agreeably to Kshatriya practices, with bravery such as none else had ever been able to show, that mighty-armed and righteous-souled being entered Soma.&lt;/strong&gt; Slain on the field of battle, O foremost of men, Karna entered Surya. Shakuni obtained absorption into Dwapara, and Dhrishtadyumna into the deity of fire. The sons of Dhritarashtra were all Rakshasas of fierce might. Sanctified by death caused by weapons, those high-souled beings of prosperity all succeeded in attaining to Heaven. Both Kshattri and king Yudhishthira entered into the god of Righteousness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4055" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T18:31:23.947" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T18:31:23.947" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9269" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8824" CreationDate="2015-10-31T13:12:48.967" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;No Arjun didn't take rebirth. In fact he attained Vaikunta , the highest of all positions . The Mahabharata itself clearly mentions it. In Gita Krishna himself describes that no one is dearer to him as Arjuna. In fact Krishna-Arjun were Nara-Narayana. There is no question of rebirth for Arjuna. The story of Kannappa is different . As per original Mahabharata, Arjuna attained Vishnu Loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He beheld Govinda endued with his Brahma-form. It resembled that form of his which had been seen before and which, therefore, helped the recognition. Blazing forth in that form of his, he was adorned with celestial weapons, such as the terrible discus and others in their respective embodied forms. He was being adored by the heroic Phalguna, who also was endued with a blazing effulgence. The son of Kunti beheld the slayer of Madhu also in his own form. Those two foremost of Beings, adored by all the gods, beholding Yudhishthira, received him with proper honours.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;From Section 4 Swargarohanika Parva&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4055" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-21T08:17:09.507" LastActivityDate="2018-02-21T08:17:09.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9270" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8440" CreationDate="2015-10-31T15:45:04.867" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was never clearly explained.  We can only guess.&#xA;Perhaps he didn't want to fight against his father?  If Balarama refused to fight because he didn't want to face his brother, then it would follow that Pradyumna may choose not to participate because he would not fight against his father.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Duryodhana was supposed to have full access to the Yadavas, except Krishna.  But Satyaki, a Yadava, fought for the Pandavas.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4056" LastActivityDate="2015-10-31T15:45:04.867" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9271" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-31T17:05:15.883" Score="0" ViewCount="365" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read somewhere that Shiva and Brahma are manifestations of Vishnu himself and that he is the origin of all beings so I was just curious to know if his consort Goddess Lakshmi too is a manifestation of him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2974" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-13T19:33:16.863" LastActivityDate="2015-11-13T19:33:16.863" Title="Is Goddess Lakshmi too a manifestation of Lord Vishnu himself?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|gods|brahma|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9272" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-31T18:38:50.583" Score="4" ViewCount="310" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is japa (sincere and unselfish prayer) superior to all other spiritual activities? Does it hold good for all Yugas or just in Kali Yuga ? Is there any Vedic injunction regarding the superiority of Japa Yoga over other spiritual activities/austerities ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4032" LastActivityDate="2017-02-09T05:51:36.467" Title="Superiority of Japa Yoga" Tags="|worship|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9274" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-10-31T22:27:11.420" Score="2" ViewCount="150" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23568/26F_Chapter_274_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Matsya Purana describes the Tula Purusha Dana, where a king would weigh himself on a giant scale and then donate an equal amount of gold to the Brahmanas.  In the process of doing so, the king is supposed to utter the following verses to the scale:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Y]ou are the strength of all the Devas and rest on truth.  I salute you, O Jagaddhatri! you have been designed by the Lord Brahma as the witness.  You hold yourself between the Truth and the Untruth.  You are the life between the Virtuous and Vicious.  You weigh all.  Weigh me then, and carry me across the ocean of the world.   I salute you.  Only in you is the Lord of the twenty-five elements inherent.  I therefore salute you.  I salute you, O Govinda! in the form of this scale.  O Hari! be gracious enough to see me taken across this ocean of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why does it say &amp;quot;you have been designed by the Lord Brahma as the witness?&amp;quot;  Are there any other scriptures which describe Brahma creating a scale?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, why is the scale praised as a form of Vishnu, and why does it say &amp;quot;[o]nly in you is the Lord of the twenty-five elements inherent&amp;quot;?  For those who don't know, the Samkhya school of philosophy posits 24 elements which arise from Prakriti, as well as a 25th element called Purusha.  The Yoga school goes one step further and posits the existence of an Ishwara or Lord, as I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8872/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But why would the Matsya Purana say that Ishwara is only present in the scale?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the scale supposed to be symbolize something?  In Greek mythology the goddess of Justice holds a scale in her hand, symbolizing the impartiality of justice.  Is something similar going on here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-01-29T13:08:04.860" Title="What scriptures describe Brahma creating a weighing scale?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|brahma|matsya-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9275" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9272" CreationDate="2015-11-01T04:22:29.817" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti clearly says that Japaa-Yajna etc. repetition of Japa. See these mantras from Chapter 2-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;85&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;An offering, consisting of muttered prayers, is ten times more efficacious than a sacrifice performed according to the rules (of the&#xA;  Veda); a (prayer) which is inaudible (to others) surpasses it a&#xA;  hundred times, and the mental (recitation of sacred texts) a thousand&#xA;  times.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The four Pakayagnas and those sacrifices which are enjoined by the rules (of the Veda) are all together not equal in value to a sixteenth&#xA;  part of the sacrifice consisting of muttered prayers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But, undoubtedly, a Brahmana reaches the highest goal by muttering prayers only; (whether) he perform other (rites) or neglect them, he&#xA;  who befriends (all creatures) is declared (to be) a (true) Brahmana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-11-01T04:22:29.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9276" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7495" CreationDate="2015-11-01T05:42:25.667" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agastya is an incarnation of both Agni and Vayu.&lt;/strong&gt;  I found the answer in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23277/25F_Chapter_61_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Matsya Puranas.  Once a bunch of Asuras hid themselves in the ocean, so Indra ordered Agni and Vayu to dry up the ocean.  But Agni and Vayu refused, because the ocean is home to so many creatures.  Indra was furious, and cursed them to take birth as a sage:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no question of Dharma or Adharma where Immortals are concerned, and your glory is still more high.  O Agni and Vayu!  Since you have violated my injunction and have the duties of the Munis not to injure any being, and since you have leaned towards the enemies who are devoid of religion and politics, losing sight of duty and Shastra, therefore You, O fire will now be born along with Maruta, among mortals, in the form of a sage.  In that form of the sage Agastya, you will dry up the ocean, after which you will again come back to your Divine form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And sure enough, Agastya did swallow up the ocean to help the gods defeat the Asuras.  He hasn't regained his divine form(s) yet though, because he received a boon that he will remain alive for 250 billion Mahakalpas!  (A Mahakalpas is 100 years in the life of Brahma, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2876/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, it is Agastya's swallowing of the ocean that ultimately led to the descent of the Ganga from Devaloka.  Once Vishnu's incarnation Kapila, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3672/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, burnt the sons of Sagara to ashes, but their ashes could not be scattered because the ocean had dried up.  That is why Sagara's descendant Bhagiratha had to get the Ganga to come down to Earth, to replenish the ocean and scatter the ashes in a worthy body of water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-01-26T23:59:05.320" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9277" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5463" CreationDate="2015-11-01T08:27:59.493" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe if nothing is a compulsion. All is a matter of situation. Suppose you are a kind of a person who is so mentally engaged in thought of Lord that you do fulfill the basic requirements of family by going for job earning money for them but as soon as you leave your office your mind and heart will crave to drown themselves in the eternal pleasure of thoughts of Any form of supreme god. Just like a lover loves to sit isolated thinking about his beloved, don't bothering about what is happening around him. Your spouse will not entertain such behavior. As according to her it us she or he who deserve to stay in your thoughts and heart and not the invisible or myth Lord Krishna. So it would always be better to get separate. Because separation exists where thought and desire don't match. Lord is not an option rather he is the only solution. If family doesn't accept your way of life it's not your problem...God doesn't deserve to be left for the sake of pleasure of family who can't cope with you. Specially when they demand something from you which you have already lost to your Lord your special wala love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly to achieve a heigher aim you have to sacrifice smaller aim only if they are coming in way of your progress. If you have been promoted you have to leave your previous job profile and dedicate it to someone else so that you can fulfill the requirements of your current bigger role. If our freedom fighters would have thought like why to sacrifice my life for others sake?...who will support my family after vi will die..or even my family can get into a trouble by doing so... then we would not have attained independence. Attaining the eternity it the supreme goal of being born in a human body. If your family support you in attaining your beloved goal then it's good , but if they put obstruction and hindrance they you must move on and they have to learn moving on. Many DID the same in past.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4059" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-03-08T21:56:31.463" LastActivityDate="2018-03-08T21:56:31.463" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9278" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9261" CreationDate="2015-11-01T08:37:22.240" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;A person with such characteristics is known to have tamasic traits. There are three &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;em&gt;sattwa&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;. These are described in Chapters 14, 17, and 18 of the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt;. There are other answers on HinduismSE which describe the &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt;, do a search.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Briefly, in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt;, Krishna says of a person with tamas: 'the fruit of ignorance is tamas', 'those who are steeped in tamas, being weighted down by the tendencies of the lowest guna, go downward', 'if it [the embodied soul] meets with death when tamas prevails, it is born in the wombs of creatures devoid of reason', 'the action that is undertaken through ignorance, without regard to consequences or loss of injury, and without regard to one's ability--that action is said to be of the nature of tamas.'         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-11-01T08:37:22.240" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9281" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8288" CreationDate="2015-11-01T16:08:09.890" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, one can worship an Image of Siva. This is discussed in Shiva Purana, Vidyesvarasamhita, Chapter 5. The answer is that the Saivites use the linga form to signify nameless and formless aspects of the deity and use the Image to signify Sakala Siva (Siva with name and form).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am posting the quote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sages said:- 8. Everywhere the deities are worshipped only in their image. How is that Siva is worshipped both in the image and the linga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suta said:- 9. O sages, this question is holy and wondrous. Here the speaker is Siva Himself and not any ordinary person. 10. I shall tell you what Siva Himself had said and what I heard from my own preceptor. Siva alone is Niskala (nameless and formless) since He is identical with supreme Brahman. 11. He is also Sakala as He has an embodied form. He is both Sakala and Niskala. It is his Niskala aspect that the Linga is appropriate. 12-13. In the Sakala aspect the worship of His embodied form is appropriate. Since He has the Sakala and Niskala aspects He is worshipped both in the linga and in the embodied form by the people and is called the highest Brahman. Other deities, not being Brahman, have no Niskala aspect anywhere. 14. Hence the deities are not worshipped in the formless linga symbol. The other deities are both non-Brahman and individual souls. 15. In view of their being embodied alone they are worshipped solely in the bodily form. Sankara has Brahmatatva and the others Jivatva. 16. This has been explained in the meaning of the Pranava (Om), the essence of Vedanta, by Nandikesvara when asked by Sanatkumara, the intelligent son of Brahma, at the mountain Mandara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-11-01T16:08:09.890" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9284" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2429" CreationDate="2015-11-01T22:41:45.890" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Anukramanika is an index - The Rishi index needs to be made - The most authentic sources is &lt;a href=&quot;http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Department of Maharishi Vedic Science&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantra index - is found in Vedic Concordance Bloomsfeld - why it was needed was - you can guess - hiding truths of the Mayan and Hindu  &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/vedicconcordance00bloouoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;A Vedic Concordance&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4065" LastEditorUserId="5384" LastEditDate="2017-08-29T12:24:11.273" LastActivityDate="2017-08-29T12:24:11.273" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9285" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-02T00:23:42.807" Score="6" ViewCount="2105" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/6/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, various sons of Yama god of death are described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ten daughters given to Yamarāja were named Bhānu, Lambā, Kakud, Yāmi, Viśvā, Sādhyā, Marutvatī, Vasu, Muhūrtā and Saṅkalpā. Now hear the names of their sons.  O King, a son named Deva-ṛṣabha was born from the womb of Bhānu, and from him came a son named Indrasena. From the womb of Lambā came a son named Vidyota, who generated all the clouds.  From the womb of Kakud came the son named Saṅkaṭa, whose son was named Kīkaṭa. From Kīkaṭa came the demigods named Durgā. From Yāmi came the son named Svarga, whose son was named Nandi.  The sons of Viśvā were the Viśvadevas, who had no progeny. From the womb of Sādhyā came the Sādhyas, who had a son named Arthasiddhi. The two sons who took birth from the womb of Marutvatī were Marutvān and Jayanta. &lt;strong&gt;Jayanta, who is an expansion of Lord Vāsudeva, is known as Upendra.&lt;/strong&gt;  The demigods named the Mauhūrtikas took birth from the womb of Muhūrtā. These demigods deliver the results of actions to the living entities of their respective times.  The son of Saṅkalpā was known as Saṅkalpa, and from him lust was born. The sons of Vasu were known as the eight Vasus. Just hear their names from me: Droṇa, Prāṇa, Dhruva, Arka, Agni, Doṣa, Vāstu and Vibhāvasu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of Vishnu's incarnation Jayanta, who is the son of Yama and Marutvati?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only Jayanta I'm familiar with is Jayanta son of Indra, whose eye was poked out by Rama's Brahmastra as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2945/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  And the other name he's known by, Upendra, is usually used to refer to Vishnu's incarnation Vamana the dwarf, because he was the younger brother of Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, are there any other scriptures which mention Yama's son Jayanta, and/or give his story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2018-03-19T13:43:09.490" Title="What is the story of Vishnu's incarnation Jayanta, son of Yama?" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavata-purana|avatars|puranas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9286" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9272" CreationDate="2015-11-02T06:00:40.657" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is. Sri Krishna says (&lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; X. 25):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...and of words I am the monosyllable &quot;Om.&quot; Of sacrifices I am the sacrifice of japa;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt; V7, p 62):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Repeating the Om continually is the only true worship. It is not a word, it is God Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sarada Devi, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's holy consort, says (&lt;em&gt;Adventures in Religious Life&lt;/em&gt; by Swami Yatiswarananda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Devotee&lt;/em&gt;: &quot;Mother, how does one realize God? Worship, Japa, Meditation--do these help one?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mother&lt;/em&gt;: &quot;None of these can help (meaning help directly).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Devotee&lt;/em&gt;: &quot;Then how does one attain to the wisdom of God?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mother&lt;/em&gt;: &quot;It is only through His grace. But one must practice meditation and Japa. That removes the impurities of the mind. One must practice spiritual disciplines such as worship and so forth. As one gets the fragrance of a flower by handling it, as one get the smell of sandalwood by rubbing it against a stone, on the same way one gets spiritual awakening by constantly thinking of God. But you can realise Him now if you become free from desires.&quot;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-11-02T06:00:40.657" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9287" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3314" CreationDate="2015-11-02T07:44:13.307" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have also noticed this if God has entered somebody's body. How come they predict and talk only about their family and not about others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here I have seen we have to ask them a question then only they will answer... We all have been knowing this fact that God is &quot;Antaryami&quot; means he knows everything and can read our mind then why doesn't that happen when God enters somebody's body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nothing magical happens when God enters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4068" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-11-15T12:55:17.673" LastActivityDate="2015-11-15T12:55:17.673" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9288" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7590" CreationDate="2015-11-02T10:45:52.837" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;From Tulsidas' Sri Ramacharitamanas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Ayodhya Kand; when planning for her two infamous boons, Kaikeyi showed her displeasure to Dashratha. Then Dashratha said this to Kaikeyi, to assure her that he won't depart from his words of fulfilling her wish as no sin is as severe as untruthfulness&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/ramacharitamanas/ayodhya351_401.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt; (here)&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even a multitude of sins cannot be matched&#xA;  with a lie.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is Untruthfulness unpardonable?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. As Shri Rama Himself said in Sundar Kand when asking Sugriv to bring Vibhishan directly to Him with due respect&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/ramacharitamanas/sundar745-804.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt; (here)&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I will not abandon even the murderer of myriads of Bråhmanas, if he seeks refuge&#xA;  in Me. &lt;strong&gt;The moment a creature turns its face towards Me the sins incurred by it through&#xA;  millions of lives are washed away.&lt;/strong&gt; A sinner by his very nature is averse to My worship.&#xA;  Had Vibhishana been wicked at heart, could he ever dare to approach Me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this answers your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2015-11-02T16:26:14.377" LastActivityDate="2015-11-02T16:26:14.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9289" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-02T10:50:25.407" Score="2" ViewCount="632" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who all need to do or read the Garuda Puranam pooja.&#xA;What all are the instructions that we need to follow while doing, and after doing that. What age people can to do this.&#xA;What is the purpose of Garuda Purana .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4069" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-11-02T11:43:43.960" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T12:17:43.763" Title="Who need to do the Garuda Purana pooja?" Tags="|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9290" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8637" CreationDate="2015-11-02T13:24:35.613" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;YajurVeda salutes Lord Shiva by stating:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमो अग्रियाय च प्रथमाय च [YajurVeda Taittariya Samhita 4.5.5.2]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Namo Agriyaya cha prathamaya cha &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Salutations to Him who was before all things and who is foremost.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus there is no effect of time for Lord Shiva as he was before the time. This is expanded in Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वामदेवाय नमो ज्येष्ठाय नमः श्रेष्ठाय नमो &lt;strong&gt;रुद्राय नमः कालाय नमः कलविकरणाय नमो&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “vāmadēvāya namō jyēṣṭhāya namaḥ śrēṣṭhāya namō&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;rudrāya namaḥ kālāya namaḥ kalavikaraṇāya namō&lt;/strong&gt; |” (Taittiriya Aranyaka 10.18.1)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the emphasis is in:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रुद्राय नमः कालाय नमः कलविकरणाय नमो ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rudrāya namaḥ kālāya namaḥ kalavikaraṇāya namō | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to Rudra. &lt;strong&gt;Salutation to him who is time.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him who is the cause of evolution of universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Salutations to him who is time/ कालाय नम: is expanded by Shiva Purana as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12960/5/Chapter3_1733-1812p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 8&amp;amp;9 of Vaayaveeyasamhita Section of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; mentions SaakshatShiva as Lord Kaala and time as Energy of Paramesvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sages asked Vayu,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O skill one, please tell us. Who is this Lord Kaala? Under whose&#xA;  control is he? Who does not come under his control?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Vayu said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;It is the great splendor of Lord Shiva named &lt;strong&gt;Kaalatman&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Kalaa, &#xA;  Kaastha, Nimesha&lt;/strong&gt; are the forms it embodies.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;It is the power of Lord that controls the Universe in the form of directives which are untransgressable to the universe consisting of&#xA;  mobile and immobile beings.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Universe is under the control of Kaala. Kaala is not under the control of Universe. &lt;strong&gt;Kaala is under the control of Shiva. Shiva is&#xA;  not subject to its control.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Since the unobstructed splendor of Shiva is firmly fixed in Kaala the limit of Kaala is extensive and untransgressable.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who thus correctly understands the principle of Kaala goes beyond the time and sees that which is beyond Kaala.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Obeisance to &lt;strong&gt;Shiva of wonderful form who has no Kaala to influence him&lt;/strong&gt;, no bondage and liberation, is identical neither with&#xA;  Purusha or Prakriti nor the universe.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A day of Brahma's life constitutes life of 14 Indras. A day of Vishnu is life time of Brahma. A day of Rudra is life time of Vishnu. &#xA;  A day of Shiva is life time of Rudra. A day of SadaaShiva is life&#xA;  period of Shiva. A day of SAAKSHAATSHIVA is life period of&#xA;  SadaaShiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This Kaala functions as directed by Saakshat Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;. O Brahmins, this is the period of time of creation as mentioned by me.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This Kaalantara shall be known as day of Parameswara. Parameswara's night shall be known to extend so long.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;His day is period of creation. His night is period of dissolution. But understand he has neither day or night as we conceive them.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The dissolution is effected for the benefits of the world. The subjects, the Prajapathis, the three deities, Gods, Asuras, the sense&#xA;  organs, the sensual objects, the five great elements, the subtle and&#xA;  gross elements, the cosmic intellect, the deities, all these abide during&#xA;  the day of Paramesvara. They get dissolved at end of the day. At the&#xA;  end of night again begins the origin of universe.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Obeisance to the great Shiva, the soul of the universe, whose energy in respect of activity, time, innate nature is untransgressable&#xA;  and under whose command the whole universe functions.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-16T13:07:17.370" LastActivityDate="2016-05-16T13:07:17.370" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9291" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-02T15:13:05.257" Score="11" ViewCount="3108" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/24472/32f_chapter_82.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Vayaviya Samhita of the Shiva Purana, various time scales are described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma's one day is equivalent to a kalpa.  He is of unmanifest origin.  A thousand kalpas make a year of Brahma.  A Brahma's yuga comprises of eight thousand Brahma years.  A thousand Brahma yugas make one Savana of Brahma.  Brahma's life span consists of three thousand and three Savanas.... A day of Vishnu is the life time of Brahma.  A day of Rudra is equivalent to the life time of Vishnu.  A day of Sadashiva is life period of Shiva.  &lt;strong&gt;A day of Sakshat Shiva is the life period of Sadashiva.&lt;/strong&gt;  The life time of Sadashiva is equal to the life period of five hundred and forty thousand of the previous deities.  This function of time has been directed by Sakshat Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This has some discrepancies with time scales given in other scriptures; see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2876/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is about the hierarchy of gods described in this chapter.  Most of it is not surprising from a Shaivite perspective; the Shaiva Agamas say that the order of the gods from lowest to highest is Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheshwara, and Sadashiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, who is this &amp;quot;Sakshat Shiva&amp;quot; whose one day is equivalent to the entire lifetime of Sadashiva?  My understanding is that Shaivites equate Sadashiva with the supreme Brahman, in the same way that that Vaishnavas believe the supreme Brahman is Para Vasudeva (see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6923/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  So how can there be a being called Sakshat Shiva is who is superior to Sadashiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other scriptures which discuss Sakshat Shiva and his relation to Sadashiva?  Also, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8993/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; suggests that the Turiya state of the Upanishads is associated with Maheshwara, and that the Turiyatita state which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8944/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is associated with Sadashiva.  So do Shaivites believe in a state of consciousness higher than Turiyatita, associated with Sakshat Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2018-03-18T18:46:49.380" Title="Do Shaivites believe in something greater than Sadashiva?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|shiva-purana|shaivism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="29" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9292" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-02T15:20:42.360" Score="2" ViewCount="104" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the epic wars like Ramayana and Mahabharata, How would warriors know what astra is being fired on them?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is just a matter of time till the astra reaches the warrior. So, how would one anticipate what is invoked on them to invoke counter astra immediately?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3604" LastActivityDate="2015-11-02T15:20:42.360" Title="How would warriors know what astra is fired on them to counteract accordingly?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|war|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9294" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-02T16:15:09.950" Score="2" ViewCount="599" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is currently holding post of Lord Bramha? Is there any description about his previous births and what are the karma he did that got him to this post?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2015-11-02T16:15:09.950" Title="Previous briths of current Bramha" Tags="|brahma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9297" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2331" CreationDate="2015-11-03T04:50:27.707" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Be Happy is right in answering this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Hanuman ji was certainly more powerful than Vali as well as Ravana. This fact is supported &lt;a href=&quot;http://web--stock.in/001-Epics-PDF/Valmiki-Ramayan/Part-2/007-Valmiki-Ramayan-Part-II.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here, go through 35th and 36th sarga for details&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;in Valmiki Ramayana.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dK1AN.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dK1AN.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The text in image translates as (this is my translation, not the literal one):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Rama: Undoubtedly, there was no match of the strength that Vali and Ravana possessed, but i believe that even the strength of both of these put together cannot be matched with the strength of Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cPzDH.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cPzDH.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The text in above image translates as (again my translation):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Rama: When Vali and Sugriv became enemy of each other; then as forest fire destroys trees, why did Hanuman not destroy Vali in the same way? This is difficult to understand.&#xA;  I believe that Hanuman did not remember his strength at that time. That is why, he was left just to see his beloved Sugriv suffering in such a situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/y4Mel.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/y4Mel.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translation is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Agastya Rishi: O' Shri Rama! Whatever you say about Hanuman is all true. There is no match to Hanuman in strength, intelligence and speed.&#xA;  O' destroyer of enemy, Shri Rama! &lt;strong&gt;Sages, whose curses are never vague, had cursed Hanuman that despite having the strength; he would be forgetful of the same.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The link is about conversation between Rishi Agastya ji and Shri Rama in Uttar Kand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2015-11-26T06:39:15.643" LastActivityDate="2015-11-26T06:39:15.643" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9298" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="54" CreationDate="2015-11-03T06:51:53.563" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, i find &quot;a scripture every Hindu should abide by&quot; difficult to answer.&#xA;As it comes to individual's choice whether he delights in following Srimad Bhagvad Gita or Srimad Ramayana or any other scripture. Therefore, it is about his preference and certainly, he is not wrong in any of the cases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you(S Rahul Bose, questioner) yourself wrote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Hence, there are no prescribed scriptures that every Hindu has to necessarily follow.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But still writing something for answer; the source of Hindu religion, as quoted by Swami Vivekananda at World Parliament of Religions &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.viveksamity.org/user/doc/CHICAGO-SPEECH.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;(here- page 2)&lt;/a&gt;, are the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting Swamiji:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Hindus have received their religion &#xA;  through revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the&#xA;  Vedas are without beginning and without end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2015-11-04T10:50:04.747" LastActivityDate="2015-11-04T10:50:04.747" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9300" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9316" CreationDate="2015-11-03T10:28:04.100" Score="4" ViewCount="894" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahman has 2 states - manifested and unmanifested. The world we are living in is manifested. After Mahapralaya, everything is dissolved and all that remains is unmanifested state. In Gita, it is said that, in unmanifest state, everything is reduced to the size of half thumb.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my question is how it is even possible? God is infinite and when we say it is reduced to the size of half thumb, we are giving it a size which effectively means it has become finite and God cannot be finite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2015-12-11T14:09:58.700" Title="How can Brahman in unmanifested state reduce to the size of half a thumb?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|brahman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9301" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9327" CreationDate="2015-11-03T10:41:54.503" Score="10" ViewCount="27794" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that the Pandavas were Kshatriyas. Were they consuming non-vegetarian food?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3271" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-19T12:57:59.443" LastActivityDate="2023-01-05T15:00:47.027" Title="Were Pandavas non-vegetarians?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|pandavas|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9302" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9301" CreationDate="2015-11-03T11:17:42.450" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In India actually meat was prohibited for a civilized person, here uncivilized means people who does not belong to the society, mostly who resides in forests (tribes). you can find following lines on Wikipedia about it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fiend who smears himself with flesh of cattle, with flesh of&#xA;  horses and of human bodies,&#xA;  Who steals the milch-cow's milk away, O Agni,—tear off the heads of such with fiery fury.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The cow gives milk each year, O Man-regarder let not the Yātudhāna ever taste it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one would glut him with the biesting, Agni, pierce with thy flame his vitals as he meets thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let the fiends drink the poison of the cattle; may Aditi cast off the evildoers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May the God Savitar give them up to ruin, and be their share of plants and herbs denied them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agni, from days of old thou slayest demons never shall Rākṣasas in fight o’ercome thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Burn up the foolish ones, the flesh-devourers let none of them escape thine heavenly arrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— Rig Veda (10.87.16-19)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That means no one was allowed to eat meat and its kind of a sin. Surely Mahabharata time period is much before that so i don't think Pandavas ever eaten meat or something, and during there vanvaas they live like Brahmins so there is no question of meat there. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Brahmin_diet&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the link from wikipedia.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4076" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-09-13T15:36:56.307" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T15:36:56.307" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9303" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7472" CreationDate="2015-11-03T11:19:56.733" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ravana, having heard of a very powerful vaanar Vali, went to Kiskindha to fight with Vali; but was told by Sugriv and others that Vali had gone for sandhya-vandana at Dakshin-Samudra. Ravana could not wait and went there. He, mischievously from behind, wanted to grab Vali in his arms when Vali was busy doing sandhya-vandana. But Vali noticed him coming from back and was quick enough to take Ravana's head into his armpit. Holding Ravana in this postion, Vali traveled in air quite a long distance and finally came back to Kishkindha. Ravana, having been captured so tightly in Vali's armpit, was totally exhausted by that time. He praised Vali's strength and made him his friend.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tJCtn.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tJCtn.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the translation (my translation, not the literal one):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having heard slight sound of Ravana's footsteps; Vali understood that now Ravana, extending his arms, wanted to get hold of him. Then as a Garuda catches snakes, in the same way; Vali, despite having his face turned on other side, grabbed Ravana.&#xA;  Thus, Vali caught king of Rakshas (Ravana) into his armpit and flew into the sky with great force.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://webstock.in/001-Epics-PDF/Valmiki-Ramayan/Part-2/007-Valmiki-Ramayan-Part-II.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;detailed source (34th sarga)&lt;/a&gt;&#xA; from Valmiki Ramayana, Uttar Kand. The incident is being described by Sage Agastya ji to Shri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2016-05-26T04:44:31.177" LastActivityDate="2016-05-26T04:44:31.177" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9304" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7472" CreationDate="2015-11-03T11:31:16.433" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;One more theory is that Baali have power that anyones who came to fight with him lost his half power to Baali itself which makes him much more powerful than he was. here in wikipedia the same thing is mentioned: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vali_(Ramayana)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vali_(Ramayana)&lt;/a&gt; ,Vali was famous for the boon that he had received, according to which anyone who fought him in single-combat lost half his strength to Vali, thereby making Vali invulnerable to any enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and you will surprise to know that he travelled for six months with ravaana in his armpit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4077" LastActivityDate="2015-11-03T11:31:16.433" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9305" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-03T16:08:30.437" Score="6" ViewCount="1495" Body="&lt;p&gt;1)       In Bala Kanda, Srimad Ramayana he was described as the son of Aristhanemi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अरिष्ठनेमि दुहिता सुपर्ण भगिनी तु सा |&#xA;  द्वितीया सगरस्य आसीत् पत्नी सुमति संज्ञिता ||  (Bala Kanda 38 Sarga 4 Sloka) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The daughter of Arishtanemi,  and who is also the sister of Garuda, the Divine-Eagle, is the second wife of Sagara, who is known by the name Sumati&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Suparna (सुपर्ण ) indicates the one having beautiful feathers, i.e., Garuda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)        Further, while describing Sri Hanuma's power and celerity, Jambavanta equals his speed with that of Garuda, as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अरिष्टनेमिनः पुत्रो वैनतेयो महाबलः |&#xA;  गरुत्मान् इव विख्यात उत्तमः सर्व पक्षिणाम् ||  (Kishkinda kanda 66 Sarga 4th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The son of Aristanemi and Lady Vinata is the best bird among all the birds,  who is superbly mighty and who is universally renowned as Garuda.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पक्षयोः यत् बलम् तस्य तावत् भुज बलम् तव |&#xA;  विक्रमः च अपि वेगः च न ते तेन अपहीयते ||   (Kishkinda kanda 66 Sarga 6th Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Whatever is the strength of his wings, that much is the strength of you arms, and even by the yardsticks of his dash and dare, yours too, are unreprovable&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)       On his first meeting with Sri Rama, Jatayu, a great eagle and a friend of Dasaratha, narrates his lineage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कश्यपः प्रतिजग्राह तासाम् अष्टौ सुमध्यमाः |&#xA;  अदितिम् च दितिम् चैव दनूम् अपि च कालकाम् || &#xA;  ताम्राम् क्रोध वशाम् चैव मनुम् च अप्य् अनलाम् अपि |  (Aranya Kanda 14 Sarga 11-12 Slokas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Of them Kashyapa accepted eight slender-waisted daughters of Daksha Prajapati, namely Aditi, Diti, Danu, Kaalakaa and Taamra, Krodhavasha, also thus Manu and even Anala also as wives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्रौन्चीम् भासीम् तथा श्येनीम् धृतराष्ट्रीम् तथा शुकीम् || &#xA;  ताम्रा तु सुषुवे कन्याः पंच एता लोकविश्रुताः |    (Aranya Kanda 14 Sarga 17-18 Slokas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;But Taamraa gave birth to five world renowned girls namely, Krounchi, Bhaasii, Shyenii, Dhritaraashtrii, and Shukii. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चक्रवाकाम् च भद्रम् ते विजज्ञे सा अपि भामिनी |&#xA;  शुकी नताम् विजज्ञे तु नताया विनता सुता ||  (Aranya Kanda 14 Sarga 20 Sloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Dhritaraashtrii gave birth even to Chakravaaka water-birds, and Shukii gave birth to a daughter Nata, and Nata's daughter is Vinata.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, Vinata was the Great Grand-daughter of Prajapati Kashyapa ( Kashyapa + Taamra -&gt; Shukii -&gt; Nata -&gt; Vinata)  and Garuda was the son of Vinata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this narration, Garuda was the son of Aristhanemi.  However, Mahabharata says that he was the son of Kashyapa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which one is correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-22T10:10:49.893" LastActivityDate="2021-03-15T13:12:48.413" Title="Who was the father of Garuda?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|garuda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9306" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9305" CreationDate="2015-11-03T16:49:52.400" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Both are correct, as Arishtanemi is another name of Kashyapa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2021-03-15T13:12:48.413" LastActivityDate="2021-03-15T13:12:48.413" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9307" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9305" CreationDate="2015-11-03T16:54:57.890" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kashyapa and Arishtanemi are one and the same.&lt;/strong&gt;  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b035.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahabharata says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Marichi had one son called Kasyapa. This last also has two names. Some call him Arishtanemi, and some Kasyapa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I think the verses in the Aranya Kanda that say that Vinata and Kadru are descendants of Kashyapa are probably interpolations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-04T12:39:51.257" LastActivityDate="2015-11-04T12:39:51.257" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9308" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-03T21:43:25.680" Score="13" ViewCount="1049" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sage Krishna Dvaipayana Vedavyasa (or Vyasa for short) is generally viewed as the author of the 18 Puranas.  But actually the sage Parashara, Vyasa's father, authored two of them, the Vishnu Purana and the Shiva Purana.  (Technically three, as Vyasa divided Parashara's Shiva Purana into the two texts we now call the Shiva Purana and the Vayu Purana.) In any case, the Vishnu Purana was narrated by Parashara to the sage Maitreya.  Now in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp163.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;last chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana, Parashara tells Maitreya how he got the knowledge given in the Vishnu Purana and he makes a prophecy of what will happen in the future:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Through the blessing of Vaśisht́ha it came to my knowledge, and I have now, Maitreya, faithfully imparted it to you. &lt;strong&gt;You will teach it, at the end of the Kali age, to Śamíka.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who is the sage Shamika that Maitreya will teach the Vishnu Purana to in the end of the Kali Yuga?  The only sage Shamika that I know is the one disrespected by Arjuna's grandson Parikshit, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/18/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once upon a time Mahārāja Parīkṣit, while engaged in hunting in the forest with bow and arrows, became extremely fatigued, hungry and thirsty while following the stags. While searching for a reservoir of water, he entered the hermitage of &lt;strong&gt;the well-known Śamīka Ṛṣi&lt;/strong&gt; and saw the sage sitting silently with closed eyes.... While leaving, the King, being so insulted, picked up a lifeless snake with his bow and angrily placed it on the shoulder of the sage.... The brāhmaṇa’s son cursed the King thus: &quot;On the seventh day from today a snake-bird will bite the most wretched one of that dynasty [Mahārāja Parīkṣit] because of his having broken the laws of etiquette by insulting my father.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2964/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; it is to avenge Parikshit's death at the hands of a snake that Parikshit's son Janamjeya tried to perform a Yagna to try to get eradicate all snakes.  And it's during this Yagna that Janamejaya heard the Mahabharata from Vaishampayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, is this the same sage Shamika that will learn the Vishnu Purana from Maitreya at the end of the Kali Yuga?  If so, why does he even need Maitreya to teach it to him?  The Vishnu Purana is known far and wide nowadays, so wouldn't it be easy for Shamika to learn the Vishnu Purana right now?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other scriptures that mention Shamika learning the Vishnu Purana at the end of the Kali Yuga? Is it mentioned in the Bhavishya Purana or Kalki Purana, for instance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T04:14:15.667" Title="Which sage will learn the Vishnu Purana at the end of the Kali Yuga?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|vyasa|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9309" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-04T03:54:47.940" Score="-1" ViewCount="272" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why dharmic religions like Hinduism, Buddhism etc. are not organized whereas &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Abrahamic religions&lt;/a&gt; (Islam, Christianity) are organized? For example, Islam has its mosques which dictate the way of life, dress code etc. whereas Christianity has its churches. But I don't know any such thing in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="117" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-06T03:31:33.387" LastActivityDate="2015-11-07T09:33:09.343" Title="Why dharmic religions are not organized?" Tags="|history|philosophy|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9310" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-04T05:15:33.113" Score="5" ViewCount="455" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sahadeva, after eating a part of his father Pandu's brain, got the power to see the past and the future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he came to know that these things will happen:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Game of dice&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Draupadi's insult&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kurukshetra war&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Considering the outrage of modesty of a woman that too his wife, couldn't Sahadeva have blurted out the truth? (He needn't have revealed the 1&lt;sup&gt;st &lt;/sup&gt; and the 3&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; things)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now that it was fate if he had revealed the happenings he would have died, couldn't he have sacrificed himself at least to protect his wife's modesty?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why didn't he do so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3659" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-06T22:29:50.203" LastActivityDate="2016-05-08T05:47:55.917" Title="Sahadeva's knowledge of future" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|sahadeva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2016-05-07T03:47:29.033" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9311" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-11-04T05:39:49.653" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-11-04T05:39:49.653" LastActivityDate="2015-11-04T05:39:49.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9312" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-11-04T05:39:49.653" Score="0" Body="Kali is the ferocious form of Durga, created to slay a demon called Mahishasura. She got the name Mahishasuramardhini for this. She is black in appearance and wears a garland of skulls." OwnerUserId="3659" LastEditorUserId="3659" LastEditDate="2015-11-04T12:31:39.173" LastActivityDate="2015-11-04T12:31:39.173" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9313" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9116" CreationDate="2015-11-04T06:07:13.687" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, this is the truth that Goddess Durga was an avatar of Lord Shiva's wife Goddess Parvati.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Mahishasura was torturing many people, Lord Shiva told Parvati that she is the one who can kill Mahishasura. Then she took blessings from Shiva. After that Goddess Parvati manifested herself as her avatar Durga from Brahma,Vishnu and Shiva. When Mahishasura had defeated Indra and became the king of heaven,the Gods went to meet Shiva and Vishnu with Brahma. Mahishasura was torturing the people,sages and children. When Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu heard about the incident, they had become very angry. Then Brahma,Vishnu, Shiva and other Gods have created a Goddess from their anger. That was Goddess Durga the avatar of Parvati. Then all Gods had given their all weapons and powers to Durga. Parvati's father King Himavan had given Durga a powerful lion. Then Goddess Durga told Mahishasura to fight with her. Then the battle between Goddess Durga and Mahishasura begins. Durga had defeated all armies of Mahishasura with her powers and weapons. Mahishasura took a form of elephant and Durga had beheaded the elephant with Lord Vishnu's weapon Sudarshan Chakra. Then Mahishasura again took an animal form and that was a buffalo. Then Durga's lion had killed the buffalo. Then Durga fought with Mahishasura and defeated him. And then Durga had put the trident of Lord Shiva in Mahishasura's chest. Then Mahishasura had died. Then all Gods and Goddesses were so happy.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;After that Durga was transformed back into her normal form Goddesses Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="5486" LastEditDate="2016-04-30T13:28:32.793" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T13:28:32.793" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9316" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9300" CreationDate="2015-11-04T07:40:57.363" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The only reference to the size of a thumb in scripture, in several &lt;em&gt;Upanishads&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, is when referring to the atman (brahman) inside the heart of an individual being. I am not aware of any other reference as to Brahman before manifestation being the size of a thumb. What it really refers to is the difference between the spiritual and material dimensions. The Spirit has no physical, no material dimensions, so all souls, all of Brahman can exist within the physical size of a thumb - even less. If I remember correctly the Sanskrit actually says 'no bigger than' the size of a thumb the reference is not meant to imply an exact dimension, it is meant to imply that it has no physical dimension, that the Infinite can exist within the smallest physical dimension.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; state in I. 3. 24-25 (Swami Vireswarananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;24&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;From the very word (&quot;Lord&quot; by which it is referred to in the text) (the being) measured (by the size of the thumb is Brahman).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[and Shankaracharya's commentary] &quot;The being of the size of a thumb, resides in the centre of the body. (Knowing that) Lord of the past and future, one does not seek to hide oneself any more. This is That&quot; (Katha U. 2. 4. 12). The being referred to is Brahman, because he is spoken of as the Lord or ruler of the past and future. It cannot be the individual soul, though the limitation in size and residence in the centre of the body by themselves might be more applicable in its case. Moreover in reply to the request of Naciketa who wanted to know Brahman, Yama refers to this being of the size of a thumb thus: &quot;That which you wanted to know is this.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;25&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But with reference to (the space in) the heart (the highest Brahman is said to be of the size of a thumb); (and because) man alone is entitled (to the study of the Vedas).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[and Shankaracharya's commentary] How could the all-pervading Brahman be of the size of a thumb, as stated by the previous Sutra? Because the space in the heart is of the size of a thumb, therefore Brahman, with reference to Its abiding within that space, is described as being of the size of a thumb. Since Brahman abides within the heart of all living creatures, why is the 'thumb' used as a standard? Because man alone is entitled to the study of the Vedas and to the different Upanishads of Brahman prescribed in them, therefore it is with reference to him that thumb is used as the standard of measurement.          &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V2, p 409) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Infinitely smaller than the smallest particle, infinitely greater than the greatest existence, the Lord of all lives in the cave of the heart of every being. He who becomes sinless sees Him in all His glory, through the mercy of the same Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Christian theologians in the European Middle Ages had a similar question which perplexed them. The question was - how many angels can dance on the  head of a pin? The answer being either 1 or infinite. If angels had physical dimensions, then only one can. If they have no physical dimension, then an infinite number can...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another good reference to this is &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 1.2.7 (Swami Vireswarananda translator), the verse says that Brahman is referred to as this size for &quot;the sake [or convenience] of contemplation&quot;, and commentary &quot;otherwise it is difficult to meditate on the all pervading Brahman&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also &lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; 3.14.3 &quot;He is myself within the heart, smaller than a grain of rice, smaller than a grain of barley&quot; etc.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-12-11T14:09:58.700" LastActivityDate="2015-12-11T14:09:58.700" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9317" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-04T07:57:23.630" Score="6" ViewCount="1992" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna had trained himself under Drona as a great archer. Drona had given him training on each and every weapon. Not only this, sensing a sure war between Pandavas and Kauravas, Krishna sent Arjuna to Heaven to acquire all divyastras, so that he will be able to counter Bhisma, Drona and Karna in the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, why was Arjuna not able to counter the snake weapon shot by Karna; which meant a sure and certain death of Arjuna, had not Krishna{as avatar of God Vishnu} put his weight to push the chariot down within earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-26T11:15:49.543" LastActivityDate="2018-04-26T11:35:27.807" Title="Arjun's inability to counter snake weapon of Karna" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|weapon|karna|dronacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9318" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9220" CreationDate="2015-11-04T09:19:27.320" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna gave a message through the following sloka, not to get distracted by the outer appearance of various GURUs (spiritual teachers), and to get knowledge from each GURU, if necessary. by serving them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तद्विद्धि प्रणिपातेन परिप्रश्नेन सेवया।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उपदेक्ष्यन्ति ते ज्ञानं ज्ञानिनस्तत्त्वदर्शिनः।।4.34।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Know that through prostration, inquiry and service. The wise ones who have realized the Truth will impart the Knowledge to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A question arises as to&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(i)   why  did Krishna ask Arjuna to resort (i.e. serve) to other Jnanis, when he himself was available to be served?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(ii)   Was this advice given to Arjuna specifically or given to all spiritual aspirants in general?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(iii)   Was approaching and serving a spiritual GURU is mandatory, in majority cases,  for gaining knowledge and finally getting realisation for any spiritual aspirant?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, here Sri Krishna was advising to approach many WISE ONEs (plural), but not a single WISE PERSON (A GURU).  Why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Enlightenment/Realisation in spirituality is equal to all persons, though belong to different sects/religions.   The outer appearance, the customs the WISE will follow, the food habits, etc, may be different for WISE people belonging to various sects/religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There might be many ways to reach the TOP of the mountain. However, after reaching the TOP, the other paths, other the one the WISE person used, will be viewed by the WISE with equality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This equanimity of viewing all paths can be obtained by approaching and serving various WISE people belonging to different sects/religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By serving one GURU/WISE person, the spiritual aspirant will be accustomed to that GURU's way of thinking only and cannot get the equanimity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why Sri Krishna insisted on serving different WISE people, instead of ONE WISE person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T14:43:34.667" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9320" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9262" CreationDate="2015-11-04T10:10:33.353" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Krishna was not incompetent against Jarasandha. In fact, Krishna and his army has defeated Jarasandha and his army eighteen times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna running away from Jarasandha implies that, Jarasandha was destined to be killed by Bhima in duet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_036.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harivamsa Purana (Khila of Mahabharata)&lt;/a&gt; as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Realising that jarAsaMdha was skilled in mace fight, valiant balarAma became angry. He abandoned the mace and picked up his best club&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing the angry balarAma picking up the infallible club, terrible at sight, in the great battle,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;the voice of the witness of the world, was heard in the sky, telling baladeva (balarAma), who had picked up his weapon, the club.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O rAma (balarAma)! mAgadha (jarAsaMdha) is not to be killed by you&lt;/strong&gt;. You need not lament. I have foreseen his death. Hence control yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a short time, the lord of magadha (jarAsaMdha) will lose his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing this, jarAsaMdha became disappointed as if he lost his mind. balarAma, having club as his weapon, did not strike jarAsaMdha again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both stopped fighting. The vR^iShNi-s and the kings also stopped fighting. In this way the terrible battle between them became devoid of any interest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(vaishampAyana said) O great king (janamejaya)! (In this way, the terrible battle that resulted in ) killing each other for a long time came to an end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When jarAsaMdha was defeated, he left the battlefield&lt;/strong&gt;. As the sun set, the yAdava-s did not chase him in the night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Assembling their forces, the (yAdava-s) warriors of great power, protected by keshava (kR^iShNa), achieving their aim, happily entered the city.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;king jarAsaMdha, disappointed, returned to his city. The kings who followed him also returned to their kingdoms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O tiger of the kuru race (janamejaya)! Even though they defeated jarAsaMdha, the vR^iShNI-s did not think so. The king jarAsaMdha is most powerful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The yAdava-s fought with jarAsaMdha ten and eight (eighteen) battles&lt;/strong&gt;. The powerful yAdava-s were unable to kill him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O One with great intellect (janamejaya)! king jarAsaMdha has twenty akShauhiNi-s who came for fighting the battle for him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O the bull of bharata race! Compared to jarAsaMdha's army, the army of vR^iShNi-s is meager. O the king of kings (janamejaya)! they were baffled on being attacked by jarAsaMdha along with other kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jarAsaMdha again came prepared and attacked yAdavas, protected by kR^iShNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After defeating jarAsaMdha, the king of magadha in the battle, the lions of the vR^iShNi race, the great chariot fighters lived comfortably.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-06T09:28:44.607" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9321" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-04T10:34:57.900" Score="7" ViewCount="828" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been reading about Kundalini yoga and have realized that though people consider the Kundilini arousal state to be the consequence of spiritual enlightenment, the after-effects of this arousal have surreal outcomes which cannot be explained by Physiologists. So my question is, in the history, what was believed to be the outcome of this yoga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I searched about this in the net, the only abstract answer to this question I got was, &quot;It causes spiritual enlightenment&quot;. More than finding information on the good side of this yoga's outcome, I find information on the bad side of this yoga, and also suggestions on what must be done if someone experiences this state. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what was believed to be the goal motive for yogis in the past in performing this yoga, and what is the actual necessity of this yoga? Why would anyone want to do a yoga that has a bunch of negative effects but not a single clear positive effect? I want to know what the Hindu books have got to say about this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1119" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-08-31T02:09:28.850" LastActivityDate="2019-08-31T02:09:28.850" Title="what are the actual consequences of kundalini yoga?" Tags="|yoga|moksha|spiritual-level|kundalini|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9322" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22296" CreationDate="2015-11-04T10:55:32.327" Score="7" ViewCount="727" Body="&lt;p&gt;After the day of Brahma gets over, Pralaya commences. Srimad Bhagavatam describes it in this way:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the day, under the insignificant portion of the mode of darkness, the powerful manifestation of the universe merges in the darkness of night. By the influence of eternal time, the innumerable living entities remain merged in that dissolution, and everything is silent. When the night of Brahmā ensues, all the three worlds are out of sight, and the sun and the moon are without glare, just as in the due course of an ordinary night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The devastation takes place due to the fire emanating from the mouth of [Ananta], and thus great sages like Bhṛgu and other inhabitants of Maharloka transport themselves to Janaloka, being distressed by the warmth of the blazing fire which rages through the three worlds below. &lt;strong&gt;At the beginning of the devastation all the seas overflow, and hurricane winds blow very violently. Thus the waves of the seas become ferocious, and in no time at all the three worlds are full of water.&lt;/strong&gt; The Supreme Lord [Vishnu] lies down in the water on the seat of Ananta, with His eyes closed, and the inhabitants of Janaloka offer unto the Lord their glorious prayers with folded hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To destroy 3 worlds, a lot of water will be required. Where did this water came from? Is it the water of the earth or the Garbhodaka ocean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;                            &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ymwc4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ymwc4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The earth and the 3 worlds are in the upper half of the Hiranyagarbh. The remaining half is filled by the water of the cosmic ocean - Garbhodaka ocean. The only water that can destroy the 3 worlds is the water of this ocean but the only way it can be done is if all the planets of those 3 worlds fall in this ocean. There is only 1 reference of earth falling in this ocean after which Vishnu had to take Varaha avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any references in the scriptures about planets falling in this ocean when Pralaya commences or if this is not the case, then which water is being referred to in Srimad Bhagavatam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-12-22T06:52:45.380" Title="From where does the water come at the end of Kalpa?" Tags="|brahma|pralaya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9323" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-04T11:17:26.713" Score="13" ViewCount="2660" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading Shiva Purana and in Rudrasamhita Chapter 16, I came across the following attached section.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tkpMo.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tkpMo.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, in 8th and 9th verse, Lord Brahma said that 'some demons are to be killed by me'. Till now, I have only heard Lord Brahma giving boons to people or creating different types of species but I haven't heard of him ever killing any demon. Is there any story where he has actively killed some main demons?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-11-06T13:11:12.847" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T15:31:18.183" Title="Did Lord Brahma kill any demons?" Tags="|brahma|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9324" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9321" CreationDate="2015-11-04T12:35:58.227" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can read Sri Ramakrishna's experience given in 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna'. Here is an excerpt from 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna':&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A man's spiritual consciousness is not awakened unless his Kundalini&#xA;  is aroused&lt;/strong&gt;.    The Kundalini dwells in the Muladhara. When it is&#xA;  aroused, it passes along the Sushumna nerve, goes through the centres&#xA;  of Svadhisthana, Manipura, and so on, and at last reaches the head.&#xA;  This is called the movement of the Mahavayu, the Spiritual Current. It&#xA;  culminates in Samadhi.   One's spiritual consciousness is not awakened&#xA;  by the mere reading of books. One should also pray to God. The&#xA;  Kundalini is aroused if the aspirant feels restless for God. To talk&#xA;  of knowledge from mere study and hearsay! What will that accomplish?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Just before my attaining this state of mind, it has been revealed to&#xA;  me how the Kundalini is aroused, how the lotuses of the different&#xA;  centres blossom forth, and how this culminates in Samadhi. This is a&#xA;  very secret experience. I saw a boy twenty-two or twenty-three years&#xA;  old, exactly resembling me, enter the Sushumna nerve and commune with&#xA;  the lotuses, touching them with his tongue. He began with the center&#xA;  at the anus and passed through the centres at the sexual organ, navel,&#xA;  and so on. The different lotuses of these centres - four petalled,&#xA;  six-petalled, ten-petalled, and so forth- had been drooping. At his&#xA;  touch they stood erect.   When he reached the heart - I distinctly&#xA;  remember it- and communed with the lotus there, touching it with his&#xA;  tongue, the twelve-petalled lotus, which was hanging head down, stood&#xA;  erect and opened its petals. Then he came to the sixteen-petalled&#xA;  lotus in the throat and the two petalled lotus in the forehead. And&#xA;  last of all, the thousand-petalled lotus in the head blossomed. Since&#xA;  then I have been in this state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna on August 9, 1885.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-11-04T12:35:58.227" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9325" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-04T15:04:27.923" Score="4" ViewCount="785" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Now in the time of the famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya, the most popular commentary on the Brahma Sutras was Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya.  But as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3198/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Ramanujacharya felt that Adi Shankaracharya had twisted the meaning of the Brahma Sutras to suit his Advaita philosophy, so in writting his own commentary on the Brahma Sutras he sought out as many pre-Shankara sources as he could, for instance reading Baudhayana's ancient Vritti on the Brahma Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another source Ramanujacharya used was Tanka, aka the Vakyakara.  Tanka was a sage who wrote an ancient Vakya or commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad.  Now in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48006.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Sri Bhashya, Rananujacharya's commentary on the Brahma Sutras, Ramanujacharya quotes Tanka's discussion of the Sadhana Saptaka, or sevenfold discipline of Bhakti Yoga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Vâkyakâra also declares that steady remembrance results only from abstention, and so on; his words being 'This (viz. steady remembrance= meditation) is obtained through abstention (viveka), freeness of mind (vimoka), repetition (abhyâsa), works (kriyâ), virtuous conduct (kalyâna), freedom from dejection (anavasâda), absence of exultation (anuddharsha); according to feasibility and scriptural statement.'&lt;/strong&gt; The Vâkyakâra also gives definitions of all these terms. Abstention (viveka) means keeping the body clean from all food, impure either owing to species (such as the flesh of certain animals), or abode (such as food belonging to a Kândâla or the like), or accidental cause (such as food into which a hair or the like has fallen). The scriptural passage authorising this point is Kh. Up. VII, 26, 'The food being pure, the mind becomes pure; the mind being pure, there results steady remembrance.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Freeness of mind (vimoka) means absence of attachment to desires. The authoritative passage here is 'Let him meditate with a calm mind' (Kh. Up. III, 14, 1). Repetition means continued practice. For this point the Bhâshya-kâra quotes an authoritative text from Smriti, viz.: 'Having constantly been absorbed in the thought of that being' (sadâ tadbhâvabhâvitah; Bha. Gî.VIII, 6).  By 'works' (kriyâ) is understood the performance, according to one's ability, of the five great sacrifices. The authoritative passages here are 'This person who performs works is the best of those who know Brahman' (Mu. Up. III, 1, 4); and 'Him Brâhmanas seek to know by recitation of the Veda, by sacrifice, by gifts, by penance, by fasting' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 22).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By virtuous conduct (kalyânâni) are meant truthfulness, honesty, kindness, liberality, gentleness, absence of covetousness. Confirmatory texts are 'By truth he is to be obtained' (Mu. Up. III, 1, 5) and 'to them belongs that pure Brahman-world' (Pr. Up. I, 16).--That lowness of spirit or want of cheerfulness which results from unfavourable conditions of place or time and the remembrance of causes of sorrow, is denoted by the term 'dejection'; the contrary of this is 'freedom from dejection.' The relevant scriptural passage is 'This Self cannot be obtained by one lacking in strength' (Mu. Up. III, 2, 4).  'Exultation' is that satisfaction of mind which springs from circumstances opposite to those just mentioned; the contrary is 'absence of exultation.' Overgreat satisfaction also stands in the way (of meditation). The scriptural passage for this is 'Calm, subdued,' &amp;amp;c. (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 23).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the context of Tanka's discussion of the Sadhana Saptaka?  Ramanujacharya quotes many scriptures to support Tanka's quote, but Tanka's Vakya was a commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad.  So what verse was Tanka commenting on that led to him explaining the sevenfold discipline of Bhakti Yoga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Tanka's Vakya on the Chandogya Upanishad is long lost, so we can't be absolutely certain what the context was.  But are there any verses in the Chandogya Upanishad which would be particularly relevant to a discussion of the factors of Bhakti Yoga?  Have any scholars speculated on what the verse was?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-14T13:59:52.547" Title="What Chandogya Upanishad verse is the sevenfold discipline of Bhakti Yoga related to?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|brahma-sutras|ramanujacharya|chandogya-upanishad|bhakti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9326" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-04T15:56:12.830" Score="1" ViewCount="47" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who has created whom out of the following 3: Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva? I found conflicting texts in different books.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1150" LastActivityDate="2015-11-04T15:56:12.830" Title="Who has created whom out of the following 3: Bramha, Vishnu, Shiva?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahma|creation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2015-11-04T16:04:08.113" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9327" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9301" CreationDate="2015-11-04T16:18:46.790" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, the Pandavas did eat meat.&lt;/strong&gt;  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03256.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, Yudishthira tells his brothers that they should leave the Dwaita forest because they've been eating all the deer there, so out of compassion for the deer they move to the Kamyaka woods:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once on a time, as Yudhishthira lay down at night in the Dwaita woods, some deer, with accents choked in tears, presented themselves before him in his dreams. To them standing with joined hands, their bodies trembling all over that foremost of monarchs said, 'Tell me what ye wish to say. Who are ye? And what do ye desire?' Thus accosted by Kunti's son--the illustrious Pandava, those deer, the remnant of those that had been slaughtered, replied unto him, saying, 'We are, O Bharata, those deer that are still alive after them that had been slaughtered. We shall be exterminated totally. Therefore, do thou change thy residence. O mighty king, all thy brothers are heroes, conversant with weapons; they have thinned the ranks of the rangers of the forest. We few--the remnants,--O mighty-minded one, remain like seed. By thy favour, O king of kings, let us increase.' Seeing these deer, which remained like seed after the rest had been destroyed trembling and afflicted with fear, Yudhishthira the just was greatly affected with grief. And the king, intent on the welfare of all creatures, said unto them, 'So be it. I shall act as ye have said.' Awaking after such a vision, that excellent king, moved by pity towards the deer, thus spake unto his brothers assembled there, 'Those deer that are alive after them that have been slaughtered, accosted me at night, after I had awakened, saying, 'We remain like the cues of our lines. Blest be thou! Do thou have compassion on us.' And they have spoken truly. We ought to feel pity for the dwellers of the forest. &lt;strong&gt;We have been feeding on them for a year together and eight months.&lt;/strong&gt; Let us, therefore, again (repair) to the romantic Kamyakas, that best of forests abounding in wild animals, situated at the head of the desert, near lake Trinavindu. And there let us pleasantly pass the rest of our time.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T14:36:49.153" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T14:36:49.153" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9328" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9325" CreationDate="2015-11-04T16:23:18.023" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedantasara shloka 12 of Sadananda Yogindra says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mental activities relating to the Saguna Brahman - such as are&#xA;  described in the Shandilya Vidya are Upasanas or devotions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scholars usually say that the Upanishads do not support Bhakti Yoga. Vedantasara disagrees and quotes Chandogya Upanishad 3.14.1 (Shandilya Vidya) to make the case that Bhakti Yoga can be traced to the Upanishads. Chandogya Upanishad 3.14.1 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verily all this universe is Brahman. From Him do all things originate,&#xA;  into Him do they dissolve and by Him are they sustained. &lt;strong&gt;On Him&#xA;  should one meditate in tranquillity.&lt;/strong&gt; For as is one's faith, such&#xA;  indeed one is; and as is one's faith in this world, such one becomes&#xA;  on departing hence. Let one, therefore cultivate faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The key phrase is the bolded sentence which is taken as support in the Upanishads for Bhakti Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-06T13:30:46.087" LastActivityDate="2015-11-06T13:30:46.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9329" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="593" CreationDate="2015-11-04T16:41:41.950" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk03ch03.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter III On seeing the Devî&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong&gt;of Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt; says, there are multiple Brahmas, multiple Vishnus and multiple Rudras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After killing Dânavas Madhu Kaitabha, three deities got into a beautiful Vimana sent by Devi Bhagavathi. They saw multiple Satyaloka, multiple Vishnuloka and multiple Kailasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said this to his son Narada,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the car, where we were situated, began to get up high in the sky,&#xA;and in the twinkling of an eye, we reached Brahmâ loka, that is&#xA;saluted by all the Devas. &lt;strong&gt;There S'ambhu and Kes'ava were greatly&#xA;bewildered to see Brahmâ of that place&lt;/strong&gt;. In the council hall of Brahmâ,&#xA;the Vedas with their Angas, the serpents, hills, oceans and rivers&#xA;were seen. Seeing all these, Visnu and Mahes'vara asked me :-- &lt;strong&gt;“O&#xA;Four-faced one! Who is this eternal Brahmâ?&lt;/strong&gt; I replied :-- I do not&#xA;know who is this Brahmâ? Who am I? and who is He? why has this error&#xA;come over me? You, too, also are gods so you can better ponder over&#xA;it.” Next our car, going with the swiftness of mind went, in the&#xA;twinkling of an eye, to the beautiful all auspicious Kailâs'a mountain&#xA;surrounded by bliss-giving Yaksas. It was beautified by the Mandâra&#xA;garden, resonated by the sweet cooings of S'ukas and cuckoos and the&#xA;sweet sounds of lutes and small drums and tabors. &lt;strong&gt;When we reached&#xA;there we saw the five faced, three-eyed Bhagavân S'ashi S'ekhara, with&#xA;ten hands, wearing tiger skin, and the upper garment of the elephant&#xA;skin&lt;/strong&gt;. He was then, getting out of his abode, riding on a bull. His two&#xA;sons, the great heroes, Ganes'a and Kârtikeya, beautifully adorned,&#xA;were attending Him as His body guards. Nandi and all other hosts were&#xA;following Him, chanting victories to Him. O Muni Narâda! we were&#xA;greatly wondered to see another S'ankara, surrounded by the Matrikâs.&#xA;So much so, that perplexed with doubts, I sat down there. Next our&#xA;aeroplane went on with the force of wind; and in an instant reached&#xA;the abode of Vaikuntha, the amusement court of Laksmî. O Sûta! There&#xA;at Vaikuntha, &lt;strong&gt;we saw a wonderful manifestation of power. Our companion&#xA;Visnu was greatly surprised to see that excellent city. We saw there&#xA;four-armed Visnu, of the colour of Âtasi flower, wearing yellow&#xA;garments, adorned with divine ornaments sitting on Garuda&lt;/strong&gt;. Laksmî Devî&#xA;is fanning wonderful chowry to Him. Struck with wonder at the sight of&#xA;the eternal Visnu, we took our seat on the car and looked at one&#xA;another's face.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides this, &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Concept of multiple Brahmandas&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/25324/44f_chapter_10_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 10 &amp;quot;Shiva Swallowing Poison&amp;quot; of Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Pg- 78).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This chapter says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He (Ganesha) saw crores of spherical Cosmic Eggs like so many atoms.&#xA;They were getting merged and dissolved in Mahesha who was in linga&#xA;form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-01-09T14:10:31.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9330" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9126" CreationDate="2015-11-04T17:14:34.010" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes,Swami Vivekananda was an avatar of Lord Shiva because people were also called him ``Bileshwar Mahadev''. His mother was a devotee of Shiva and she had prayed to Lord Shiva for a son. I live in Kolkata and in my city there is the house of Vivekananda. One day,I went to Swami Vivekananda's house. The guide told us that Lord Shiva himself incarnated as Swami Vivekananda's. I saw the Shiva Linga which Vivekananda's mother was worshipped everyday. Swami Vivekananda was an avatar of Lord Shiva that many people knows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4086" LastActivityDate="2015-11-04T17:14:34.010" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9331" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9317" CreationDate="2015-11-04T17:14:52.547" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This was because the arrow was not an ordinary Nagastra, it was inhabited by a real snake called Ashvasena, so it could not be countered by Garudastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: The references for this answer are &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hotstar.com/tv/bhakthi-thiruvizha/10054/learning-about-vyasa-bharatha/1000075466&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this episode of Bhakthi Thiruvizha&lt;/a&gt; (starts at 18.26).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-26T17:07:19.343" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T17:07:19.343" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9332" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8508" CreationDate="2015-11-05T05:12:33.087" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The birth of the universe is with Big Bang Explain In Rig Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;very nice Hymn in Rig Veda (Sukta 129th in the tenth Mandala), about the origin and creation of universe and is written more than 5000 years before. It has explained same idea about creation of universe long back that everything started with an infinitely dense, zero space entity called singularity in modern science and the Hymn is known as 'Nasadiya Suktam'. Here is the original Sukta with English translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nasadiya Suktam Original Text:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नास॑दासी॒न्नो सदा॑सीत्त॒दानी॒म् नासी॒द्रजो॒ नो व्यो॑मा प॒रो यत्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;किमाव॑रीव॒: कुह॒ कस्य॒ शर्म॒न्नंभ॒: किमा॑सी॒द्गह॑नं गभी॒रम्॥१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nāsa̍dāsī̱nno sadā̍sītta̱dānī̱m nāsī̱drajo̱ no vyo̍mā pa̱ro yat |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kimāva̍rīva̱ḥ kuha̱ kasya̱ śarma̱nnaṁbha̱ḥ kimā̍sī̱dgaha̍naṁ gabhī̱ram ||1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neither existence nor nonexistence was there, Neither matter nor space&#xA;around. What covered it, where it was and who protected. Why, that&#xA;plasma, all pervading, deep and profound?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न मृ॒त्युरा॑सीद॒मृतं॒ न तर्हि॒ न रात्र्या॒ अह्न॑ आसीत्प्रके॒तः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आनी॑दवा॒तं स्व॒धया॒ तदेकं॒ तस्मा॑द्धा॒न्यन्न प॒रः किञ्च॒नास॑॥२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;na mṛ̱tyurā̍sīda̱mṛta̱ṁ na tarhi̱ na rātryā̱ ahna̍ āasītprake̱taḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ānī̍davā̱taṁ sva̱dhayā̱ tadekaṁ̱ tasmā̍ddhā̱nyanna pa̱raḥ kiñca̱nāsa̍ ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neither death nor immortality was there, And there was neither day nor&#xA;night. But for that breathless one breathing on its own, There was&#xA;nothing else, surely nothing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तम॑ आसी॒त्तम॑सा गू॒ळ्हमग्रे॑ऽप्रके॒तं स॑लि॒लं सर्व॑मा इ॒दं।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तु॒च्छ्येना॒भ्वपि॑हितं॒ यदासी॒त्तप॑स॒स्तन्म॑हि॒ना जा॑य॒तैकं॑॥ ३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tama̍ āasī̱ttama̍sā gū̱ḻhamagre̍’prake̱taṁ sa̍li̱laṁ sarva̍mā i̱daṁ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tu̱cchyenā̱bhvapi̍hitaṁ̱ yadāsī̱ttapa̍sa̱stanma̍hi̱nā jā̍ya̱taika̍ṁ || 3 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was darkness concealed in darkness, And an uninterrupted continuum&#xA;of fluid. Out came in material form and shape, That one lying deep&#xA;inside, on its own intent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;काम॒स्तदग्रे॒ सम॑वर्त॒ताधि॒ मन॑सो॒ रेत॑: प्रथ॒मं यदासी॑त्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स॒तो बन्धु॒मस॑ति॒ निर॑विन्दन् हृ॒दि प्र॒तीष्या॑ क॒वयो॑ मनी॒षा॥४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kāma̱stadagre̱ sama̍varta̱tādhi̱ mana̍so̱ reta̍ḥ pratha̱maṁ yadāsī̍t |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sa̱to bandhu̱masa̍ti̱ nira̍vindan hṛ̱di pra̱tīṣyā̍ ka̱vayo̍ manī̱ṣā ||4||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the cosmic mind all pervading, Desire, the primal seed made its&#xA;first appearance. And the wise men, seeking deep in their heart, Could&#xA;see the link between ‘that is’ and ‘that is not’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ति॒र॒श्चीनो॒ वित॑तो र॒श्मिरे॑षाम॒धः स्वि॑दा॒सी ३ दु॒परि॑ स्विदासी ३ त्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रे॒तो॒धा आ॑सन्महि॒मान॑ आसन्त्स्व॒धा आ॒वस्ता॒त्प्रय॑तिः प॒रस्ता॑त्॥५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ti̱ra̱ścīno̱ vita̍to ra̱śmire̍ṣāma̱dhaḥ svi̍dā̱sī 3 du̱pari̍ svidāsī 3 t |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;re̱to̱dhā āa̍sanmahi̱māna̍ āasantsva̱dhā ā̱vastā̱tpraya̍tiḥ pa̱rastā̍t ||5||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reins of the link, a grid of crisscross lines, Holds all the seeds and&#xA;mighty forces, Microcosmic forces within, And macro forces out above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;को अ॒द्धा वे॑द॒ क इ॒ह प्र वो॑च॒त्कुत॒ आजा॑ता॒ कुत॑ इ॒यं विसृ॑ष्टिः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अ॒र्वाग्दे॒वा अ॒स्य वि॒सर्ज॑ने॒नाथा॒ को वे॑द॒ यत॑ आब॒भूव॑॥६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ko a̱ddhā ve̍da̱ ka i̱ha pra vo̍ca̱tkuta̱ āajā̍tā̱ kuta̍ i̱yaṁ visṛ̍ṣṭiḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a̱rvāgde̱vā a̱sya vi̱sarja̍ne̱nāthā̱ ko ve̍da̱ yata̍ āaba̱bhūva̍ ||6 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who really knows, who can declare, When it started or where from? And&#xA;where will the creation end. Seekers and sought entered later, And so&#xA;who knows when all this manifested?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इ॒यं विसृ॑ष्टि॒र्यत॑ आब॒भूव॒ यदि॑ वा द॒धे यदि॑ वा॒ न।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो अ॒स्याध्य॑क्षः पर॒मे व्यो॑म॒न्त्सो अ॒ङ्ग वे॑द॒ यदि॑ वा॒ न वेद॑॥ ७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i̱yaṁ visṛ̍ṣṭi̱ryata̍ āaba̱bhūva̱ yadi̍ vā da̱dhe yadi̍ vā̱ na |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yo a̱syādhya̍kṣaḥ para̱me vyo̍ma̱ntso a̱ṅga ve̍da̱ yadi̍ vā̱ na veda̍ || 7 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That one, out of which the creation came, May hold the reins or not,&#xA;Perceiving all from above, That one alone, Knows the beginning or may&#xA;not know too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-05T05:19:20.450" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9336" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8542" CreationDate="2015-11-05T11:35:48.980" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is so because ISKCON stands for International Society for &lt;strong&gt;Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is their personal recommendation, nothing else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=5&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0CEQQFjAEahUKEwj0yvy6l_nIAhVJoJQKHRjZCV8&amp;amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FInternational_Society_for_Krishna_Consciousness&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNGvgvLvjxT-Uuvw1y_sXA-cifF8-g&amp;amp;sig2=o_DEwjt_xef0HVAL8mLn4w&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="365" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-05T11:35:48.980" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9337" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9341" CreationDate="2015-11-05T12:37:22.170" Score="7" ViewCount="2129" Body="&lt;p&gt;Suppose a person X had a severe accident, body almost completely destroyed. If we think of X only as a body, then he will surely die as the body cannot support further life. But we define death as soul leaving the body. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore it is soul that should initiate the process of death.&#xA;Yet we see that deaths take place when the body cannot support further life.&lt;/strong&gt; That is why, we have medical reasons like Heart Attack, Cancer, Accident, Old age etc. for almost every death on the planet. How is this fact (of soul leaving the body only in poor condition) explained in light of our well-established knowledge that it is departure of soul that causes death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words; if a person is destined to die at a certain time, why there has to be a bodily cause (disease, accident, fall etc.) before to produce death as effect ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do we have something in any scripture related to this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[EDIT: Removed the controversial part: &quot;Soul not attached to body&quot;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2015-11-07T06:34:42.893" LastActivityDate="2015-11-11T21:39:50.633" Title="Why does soul leave the body only when the body cannot support further life?" Tags="|atma|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9338" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-05T14:46:58.687" Score="2" ViewCount="554" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shatpath Bramhana says that brahmin boys should cover their bodies with skin of Black Deer or Krishna Mriga (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbuck#In_culture&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Black Buck&lt;/a&gt;), and this is okay if they don't just kill them for that purpose. A dead buck's skin could serve the purpose, then why hunt for it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some stages in Shodashopchar (16 stage treatment or pujan of &#xA;Gods/Goddesses) where Ashtagandha is required which uses Kasturi or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_musk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Deer Musk&lt;/a&gt; as one of the product, and some Goddesses also require Deer Musk and sandalwood paste for their worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the point is that Deer Musk and Black Buck's skin are obtained from killing the specified animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) How is it justified to kill someone so that you can worship some Gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) If Manu Smriti says that Dwijas are required to live in the area where Krishna Mriga or Black Buck lives then why to kill them and make them extinct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-11-06T09:38:36.670" LastActivityDate="2015-11-06T09:38:36.670" Title="How is killing of black deer for skin and other products justified" Tags="|vedas|animals|ahimsa|shatapatha-brahmana|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9339" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9346" CreationDate="2015-11-05T17:22:28.300" Score="16" ViewCount="17443" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ahimsa paramo dharma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, is it taken from Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many sources over internet say so and claim that it is a half-truth and the remaining half is &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Himsa dharma tadaivacha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is the orator of the shloka and to whom is it addressed and in which context are they discussing this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2019-02-10T04:38:25.983" LastActivityDate="2019-02-10T04:38:25.983" Title="Does the shloka 'ahiṃsā paramo dharma' or excerpt appear in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|shloka|reference-request|ahimsa|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9341" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9337" CreationDate="2015-11-05T20:57:11.797" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said in the Bhagavad gita 2.22:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/22&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul&#xA;  similarly accepts new material bodies, &lt;strong&gt;giving up the old and useless&#xA;  ones&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pay attention to &quot;giving up the old and useless ones&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So the Gita says that this is why the soul must leave the body, ie when the body becomes useless because of bodily damage or old age.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Of course all this happens because of karma of the soul. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The soul is attached to the body! It is not true that he is not attached to the body!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jatin, that what you have said in your edited post &quot;Therefore it is soul that should initiate the process of death&quot; simply is not true! The soul does not initiate anything, for he is just a passive inhabitant of the body in this case. &#xA;The soul is forced to leave the body in a certain moment because of his own karma, and this is called death.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now, the question is why the soul at a given moment must leave the body? This is due to karma, or predestination. About that you can read in my two questions here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7790/is-the-length-of-a-mans-life-predetermined&quot;&gt;Is the length of a man&amp;#39;s life predetermined?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8093/can-it-happen-that-the-length-of-a-mans-life-somehow-becomes-reduced-during-a-m&quot;&gt;Can it happen that the length of a man&amp;#39;s life somehow becomes reduced during a man&amp;#39;s lifetime, and so one has to die before he was destined initially?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-11-11T21:39:50.633" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9342" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-05T21:24:43.983" Score="1" ViewCount="371" Body="&lt;p&gt;Would food cooked with the intention of reheating and eating some of it now, some another day, with the second part stored promptly and properly (packaged,canned,refrigerated or frozen) after preparation (never served on a table prior to storing, nothing taken from the cookware to taste with any unclean utensil) be considered the kind of leftovers that hinduism discourages eating?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4095" LastActivityDate="2015-12-06T05:41:16.273" Title="What is or is not considered leftover food?" Tags="|food|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9343" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9342" CreationDate="2015-11-06T04:51:40.890" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the believers of sanaadhana darma, &lt;code&gt;what you eat is what you are&lt;/code&gt; is very much emphasized.  In an essence, like our physical body is affected by the ratio and balance of vaadha, pitha and kabha, our physiological aspects are affected by the ratio and balance of three gunas; saathvik, rajas and tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to promote saathvik and inhibit the other two it is advised to have foods that aids this process.  Accordingly scholars have provided a guidelines of what to eat, what not to and all the FAQs associated with it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One such scholar is Sri Vedanta Desikar who authored a guide called &lt;code&gt;Aahaara niyamam&lt;/code&gt; where Aahaara means the food and niyamam means regulatory guide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per that guidelines it is to avoid reheat; one days food should not be shared and the list goes on.  There are some interesting exceptions as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The site Anudinam.org has a beautiful article published on &lt;a href=&quot;http://anudinam.org/2012/06/11/srivaishnava-ahara-niyamam/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this topic&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per that guidelines, the food has to be eaten before the warmth goes off. Once the warmth is off it is considered to be tamasic; an exception of this the rice soaked in water and food stuffs like sweets.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastActivityDate="2015-11-06T04:51:40.890" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9344" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9309" CreationDate="2015-11-06T05:41:07.717" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are correct about Hindu Dharma not being organized (not so sure about Buddha Dharma). The reason seems to me is due to the fact that dharmas are for seekers of Truth while Abrahamic faiths are for believers. Believers in Abrahamic faiths need to know exactly what they should do in every sphere of life since these faiths do not encourage seeking but ask for unquestioned belief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-11-06T05:41:07.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9345" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9325" CreationDate="2015-11-06T07:21:08.183" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vireswarananda's translation of the &lt;em&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/em&gt; has an entirely different translation of Ramanuja's commentary on this verse. It does not spell out the Bhakti steps as outlined in the translation you referenced. Instead in those parts that seem to correspond to the online translation, there are references to &lt;em&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/em&gt; III. iv. 26; IV. i. 12, 16; and III. iv. 13. But there is no spelling out of the Bhakti steps as done in the online translation you link to. The online translator may have decided to forgo the references and include a summary in the body of the text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as the references to the Chhandogya, the nearest I can see is Chhandogya  II. 8. - 10. which deals with the sevenfold saman. It is also good to first read II. 1. 1 - II. 2. which deals with the fivefold saman and explains saman.       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-11-06T07:21:08.183" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9346" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9339" CreationDate="2015-11-06T08:05:53.230" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, this shloka is present in Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) Adi Parva of Mahabharata:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Sauti Muni talking about Rishi Sahasrapat tells Rishi Ruru about the characteristics of a brahamana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहिंसा परमॊ धर्मः सर्वप्राणभृतां समृतः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्मात पराणभृतः सर्वान न हिंस्याथ बराह्मणः कव चित&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verily the highest virtue of man is sparing the life of others. Therefore a Brahmana should never take the life of any creature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) Vana Parva of Mahabharata:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;In the Vana Parva, Markandya Muni is narrating the discussion between a brahamana named Kausika and a poultry-monger named Dharmavyadha who lived in Mithila. The Kausika asks the fowler 'How shall I know what is virtuous conduct.' In answering, Dharmavyadha states that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहिंसा सत्यवचनं सर्वभूतहितं परम&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहिंसा परमॊ धर्मः स च सत्ये परतिष्ठितः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सत्ये कृत्वा परतिष्ठां तु परवर्तन्ते परवृत्तयः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among holy men, virtue is differentiated in three ways--that great virtue which is inculcated in the Vedas, the other which is inculcated in the dharma shastra, and virtuous conduct And virtuous conduct is indicated by acquisition of knowledge, pilgrimage to sacred places, truthfulness, forbearance, purity and straight-forwardness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3) Anusasana Parva of Mahabharata:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;In the Anusasana Parva, Yudhisthira is asked by Lord Krishna to ask Bhishma any questions he may have as this will be his last opportunity to do so. Yudhisthira states that Bhishma has told him that 'ahimsa paramo dharma' and is asking about it in the context of conducting sraddha in which meat is offered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहिंसा परमॊ धर्म इत्य उक्तं बहुशस तवया&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शराथ्धेषु च भवान आह पितॄन आमिष काङ्क्षिणः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thou has told it many times that abstention from injury is the highest religion. In Sraddhas, however, that are performed in honour of the Pitris, persons for their own good should make offerings of diverse kinds of meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The above points are taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Ahimsa_Paramo_Dharma&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;hindupedia.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-06T08:14:14.363" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9348" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9321" CreationDate="2015-11-06T12:19:17.073" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's the other way around, enlightenment is attained after the kundalini rises to the sahaswara, and stays there. So the purpose of raja yoga is to have the kundalini slowly rise is a systematic safe way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4096" LastActivityDate="2015-11-06T12:19:17.073" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9350" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9126" CreationDate="2015-11-06T12:39:58.383" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Anyone can say whatever they want. A recent phenomena to describe a saint's greatness is to use the word 'avatar' as a glorifying indicator of greatness. This phenomena is outside of orthodoxy, as in orthodoxy, Saivites don't have avatars period, and Vaishnavites have a traditional 10 or 11. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4096" LastActivityDate="2015-11-06T12:39:58.383" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9351" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9397" CreationDate="2015-11-06T12:58:47.657" Score="18" ViewCount="881" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was there any Rama temple in Ayodhya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, was Ayodhya mentioned as a pilgrimage site in any of the Puranas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4097" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T23:01:11.780" LastActivityDate="2020-02-11T19:02:17.583" Title="Was there a Rama Temple in Ayodhya?" Tags="|puranas|temple|rama|pilgrimage|ayodhya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9352" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9353" CreationDate="2015-11-06T15:34:38.027" Score="5" ViewCount="1624" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Vyasa is the Jnana Avatar of Vishnu Bhagawan. Narada is said to be an avatar of Lord Vishnu. How far is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4097" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-20T05:44:05.750" LastActivityDate="2015-12-31T06:48:39.603" Title="Are Narada and Vyasa incarnations of Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|vyasa|avatars|narada|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9353" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9352" CreationDate="2015-11-06T15:52:44.093" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, they are incarnations of Vishnu.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam lists 22 of the countless incarnations Vishnu has taken, and in particular it says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the millennium of the ṛṣis, the Personality of Godhead accepted the third empowered incarnation in the form of Devarṣi Nārada, who is a great sage among the demigods. He collected expositions of the Vedas which deal with devotional service and which inspire nonfruitive action....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, in the seventeenth incarnation of Godhead, Śrī Vyāsadeva appeared in the womb of Satyavatī through Parāśara Muni, and he divided the one Veda into several branches and subbranches, seeing that the people in general were less intelligent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, Vyasa isn't the only one who has ever divided the Vedas; see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3618/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-12-31T06:48:39.603" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9354" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9352" CreationDate="2015-11-06T15:52:47.570" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, in the Bhagavatam, 1st Canto, 3rd Chapter, there is a list of avataras of Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/8&quot;&gt;Verse 8&lt;/a&gt;: In the millennium of the ṛṣis, the Personality of Godhead accepted the third empowered incarnation in the form of Devarṣi Nārada, who is a great sage among the demigods. He collected expositions of the Vedas which deal with devotional service and which inspire nonfruitive action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/21&quot;&gt;Verse 21&lt;/a&gt;: Thereafter, in the seventeenth incarnation of Godhead, Śrī Vyāsadeva appeared in the womb of Satyavatī through Parāśara Muni, and he divided the one Veda into several branches and subbranches, seeing that the people in general were less intelligent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2015-11-06T15:52:47.570" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9358" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-06T18:04:05.377" Score="6" ViewCount="882" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Nava Graha worship a Vedic tradition or a puranic tradition? Are there any references to Nava Graha worship in Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4032" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-27T10:29:50.847" LastActivityDate="2017-01-28T06:58:28.723" Title="Worshiping planets a vedic tradition or Puranic tradition?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|worship|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9359" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9139" CreationDate="2015-11-07T07:48:37.927" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, mind is a vast topic to study and understand. There is a good book &lt;strong&gt;Mind According to Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt; by Swami Satprakashanand on this topic. The paid version is available online.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Writing a little from memory about what I remember now:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The book presents Vedantic concept of mind, that it is different from body and soul (and little more), and how it differs from&#xA;Western concept. And also shows where Western concept has flaws.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The mind is the seat of internal perception (antahakarana) just as&#xA;the 5 sense organs are the seat of external perceptions.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Involvement of mind is necessary for eyes to see (and notice), ears&#xA;to listen (and understand) and other sense organs to perform&#xA;properly.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Four functions of the mind are (suppose you see a chair, now how does&#xA;your mind function): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manas (on seeing a chair, what is this ?)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chitta (mind searches its storage of impressions to find out such similar structured object)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Buddhi (it decides that it knows it)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ahamkara (I-maker, i know that this is a chair)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every time we see anything (and literally anything), the mind performs these four functions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The mind stores all our impressions, even of past lives. Even a simple act such as walking leaves some impression on our mind. These impressions are&#xA;source of our memory. It is through these impressions that we develop&#xA;likes and dislikes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Purity of mind is of utmost importance for concentration of the mind.&#xA;Our (unless we are enlightened) subconscious mind has many&#xA;undesirable (bad for spiritual progress) impressions. The fight to&#xA;purify this subconscious mind is to be fought at conscious level.&#xA;That is, we have to attempt not to feed our mind with bad thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do not exactly remember what the book says about its position in the body.&#xA;Anyways, the book surely answers your question in detail. It is a good read.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastActivityDate="2015-11-07T07:48:37.927" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9360" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9363" CreationDate="2015-11-07T07:58:03.483" Score="3" ViewCount="1663" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am referring to &lt;a href=&quot;https://manasataramgini.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/rudras-portion-of-the-ritual-offering-the-ka%E1%B9%ADha-ara%E1%B9%87yaka-and-the-atharvasiras-a-brief-journey-through-early-saiva-thought/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this blog&lt;/a&gt; where the following is stated:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a persistent motif of the deva Rudra (Śiva) being originally&#xA;  refused ritual offerings of the yajña to which the other deva-s were&#xA;  entitled. Rudra eventually acquires his share of the offering, often&#xA;  via a violent confrontation with the other deva-s. One version of this&#xA;  legend, first seen in the Brāhmaṇa texts like the Gopatha Brāhmaṇa of&#xA;  the Atharvaveda, has Rudra destroy the ritual of Prajāpati and injure&#xA;  several of the deva-s upon being excluded from the ritual offering&#xA;  (Gopatha Uttarabrāhmaṇa 2-4).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In parallel in other Brāhmaṇa texts there are other narratives of the&#xA;  confrontation between the progenitor deva Prajāpati and Rudra. One of these involves the slaying of Prajāpati by Rudra for the former’s act of incest with his own daughter. An allusion to this legend is found in the Ṛgveda itself where the deva-s are said to call upon Rudra to enforce natural law by preventing the incest of Prajāpati (RV 10.61.7).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does the Shiva Puranas or any other non-vedic literature talk of these incidences? From my limited reading, I only know of the Sati's immolation that led Rudra to slay the Prajapati. On the incest issue, is the mythological story of Brahma's head severed by Rudra being alluded to here and confused with Prajapati? If not, which Prajapati is refered to here? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T21:17:41.043" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T21:17:41.043" Title="Rudra's confrontation with the Devas at Yajna and slaying of Prajapathi" Tags="|vedas|shiva|puranas|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9361" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9309" CreationDate="2015-11-07T09:33:09.343" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think its difficult to compare Hinduism with other religion like Islam and Christianity, because these both are religion which follows similar kind of philosophy. While Hinduism is inherited from Aryan or Vaidic culture, Which involves variety of philosophy and belief out of which widely accepted philosophy are included in Vedas. In Hinduism there is freedom of thoughts and believes and also scope for new philosophy and scriptures.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4092" LastActivityDate="2015-11-07T09:33:09.343" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9362" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9139" CreationDate="2015-11-07T14:55:20.370" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following are excerpt from the Sri Ramana Maharshi's teachings - Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi.  This may be helpful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In answer to a question by a long resident attendant Sri Bhagavan said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Everybody complains of the restlessness of the mind. Let the mind be found and then they will know. True, when a man sits down to meditate thoughts rush up by dozens. &lt;strong&gt;The mind is only a bundle  of thoughts.&lt;/strong&gt; The attempt to push through the barrage of thoughts is unsuccessful. If one can by any means abide in the Self it is good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who are unable to do so, chanting or meditation (Japa or dhyana) is prescribed. It is like giving a piece of chain to an elephant to hold in its trunk. The trunk of the elephant is usually restless. It puts it out in all directions when taken out in the streets of the town.  If given a chain to carry the restlessness is checked. Similarly with the restless mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If made to engage in japa or dhyana, other thoughts are warded off: and the mind concentrates on a single thought. It thus becomes peaceful. It does not mean that peace is gained without a  prolonged struggle. The other thoughts must be fought out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-07T14:55:20.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9363" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9360" CreationDate="2015-11-07T15:34:54.373" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two seperate incidents.  First of all, there is the incident where Shiva destroyed Daksha's Yagna. It's described in various scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here is how it's described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of the Taittiriya Samhita of Yajur Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The gods excluded Rudra from the sacrifice; he pierced the sacrifice, the gods gathered round it (saying), 'May it be right for us.' They said, 'Well offered will this be for us, if we propitiate him.' That is why Agni is called the 'well offerer' (svistakrt). When it was pierced (by him) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; they cut off (a piece) of the size of a barleycorn; therefore one should cut off (a piece) the size of a barleycorn. If one were to cut off more, he would confuse that part of the sacrifice. If he were to make a layer and then to sprinkle, lie would make it swell on both sides. He cuts it off and sprinkles it; there are two operations; the sacrificer has two feet, for support. If he were to transfer it (to the Brahman) crosswise, he would pierce the unwounded part of the sacrifice; lie transfers it in front; verily he transfers it in the proper way. They transferred it for Pusan. Pusan having eaten it lost his teeth; therefore Pusan has pounded food for his share, for he has no teeth. The gods said of him, 'He has lost (his teeth), he is not fit for the offering.' They transferred it to Brhaspati. Brhaspati was afraid, 'Thus indeed will this one fall on misfortune.' He saw this Mantra; 'With the eye of the sun I gaze on thee', he said, for the eye of the sun harms no one. He was afraid, 'It will harm me as I take it.' 'On the impulse of the god Savitr, with the arms of the Açvins, with the hands of Pusan I take thee', he says; verily, impelled by Savitr, he took it with the holy power (Brahman) and with the gods. He was afraid, 'It will harm me as I eat.' 'Thee with the mouth of Agni I eat', he said, for nothing harms the mouth of Agni. He was afraid, 'It will harm me when I have eaten.' 'With the belly of the Brahman', he said, for nothing harms the belly of the Brahman. 'With the holy power (Brahman) of Brhaspati', (he said), for he is fullest of the holy power (Brahman).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here is how Janaka describes it in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga66/bala_66_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once, during the devastation of the Vedic-ritual of Daksha Prajapati, the mettlesome god Rudra, rancorously outstretching the bowstring of this bow, said this to all gods, superciliously. 'Oh, gods, whereby you have not apportioned my portion of oblations in Vedic-ritual s, as I am also the desirer of such portion, thereby I will shred the highly revered heads of yours with this bow.' So said Shiva to gods. Then, oh, best saint Vishvamitra, all gods are truly dismayed, and on their supplicating, Bhava, namely Shiva, the God of Gods is gladdened. And that Sublime Soul Shiva gladly gave that bow to all of the great souled gods, and oh, godly saint, then those great souled gods gave this gem of a bow of Shiva, the God of Gods, to our ancestor Devaraata, for custodial care.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here is how Krishna describes it in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Sauptika Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the krita-yuga had elapsed, the gods, desirous of performing a sacrifice, duly made preparation for one according to the directions laid down in the Vedas. They collected clarified butter and the other requisites. And they not only devised what the requisites of their sacrifice should be, but also determined those amongst themselves that should have a share in the sacrificial offerings.  Not knowing Rudra truly, the celestials, O king, assigned no share for the divine Sthanu. Seeing that the celestials assigned to him no share in the sacrificial offerings, Sthanu, clad in deer skins, desired to destroy that Sacrifice and with that object constructed a bow. There are four kinds of Sacrifices: the loka Sacrifice, the Sacrifice of special rites, the eternal domestic Sacrifice, and the Sacrifice consisting in the gratification derived by man from his enjoyment of the five elemental substances and their compounds. It is from these four kinds of Sacrifice that the universe has sprung. Kapardin constructed that bow using as materials the first and the fourth kinds of Sacrifices. The length of that bow was five cubits. The sacred (mantra) &quot;vashat,&quot; O Bharata, was made its string. The four parts, of which a Sacrifice consists, became the adornments of that bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Mahadeva, filled with rage, and taking up that bow, proceeded to that spot where the celestials were engaged in their Sacrifice. Beholding the unfading Rudra arrive there attired as a brahmacari and armed with that bow, the goddess Earth shrunk with fear and the very mountains began to tremble. The very wind ceased to move, and fire itself, though fed, did not blaze forth. The stars in the firmament, in anxiety, began to wander in irregular courses. The Sun's splendour decreased. The disc of the Moon lost its beauty. The entire welkin became enveloped in a thick gloom. The celestials, overwhelmed, knew not what to do. Their Sacrifice ceased to blaze forth. The gods were all terrified. Rudra then pierced the embodiment of Sacrifice with a fierce shaft in the heart. The embodied form of Sacrifice, assuming the shape of a deer, fled away, with the god of fire. Approaching heaven in that form, he blazed forth in beauty. Rudra, however, O Yudhishthira, pursued him through the skies. After Sacrifice had fled away, the gods lost their splendour. Having lost their senses, the gods were stupefied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the three-eyed Mahadeva, with his bow, broke in rage the arms of Savitri, and plucked out the eyes of Bhaga and the teeth of Pushana. The gods then fled away, as also all the several parts of Sacrifice. Some amongst them, reeling as they sought to fly away, fell down senseless. The blue-throated Rudra, having agitated them thus, laughed aloud, and whirling the horn of his bow, paralysed them. The celestials then uttered a cry. At their command, the string of the bow broke. The string having broken, the bow became stretched into a line. The gods then approached the bowless god of gods and, with the embodied form of Sacrifice, sought the protection of the puissant Mahadeva and endeavoured to gratify him.  Gratified, the great god threw his wrath into the water, O king, that wrath, assuming the form of fire, is always employed in consuming that liquid element. He then gave unto Savitri his arms, Bhaga his eyes, and Pushana his teeth. And he also restored the Sacrifices themselves, O Pandava! The world once more became safe and sound. The gods assigned unto Mahadeva all the libations of clarified butter as the share of great deity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here is how it's described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/5/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vīrabhadra tore off the mustache of Bhṛgu, who was offering the sacrificial oblations with his hands in the fire. Vīrabhadra immediately caught Bhaga, who had been moving his eyebrows during Bhṛgu’s cursing of Lord Śiva, and out of great anger thrust him to the ground and forcibly put out his eyes.  Just as Baladeva knocked out the teeth of Dantavakra, the King of Kaliṅga, during the gambling match at the marriage ceremony of Aniruddha, Vīrabhadra knocked out the teeth of both Dakṣa, who had shown them while cursing Lord Śiva, and Pūṣā, who by smiling sympathetically had also shown his teeth. Then Vīrabhadra, the giantlike personality, sat on the chest of Dakṣa and tried to separate his head from his body with sharp weapons, but was unsuccessful. He tried to cut the head of Dakṣa with hymns as well as weapons, but still it was hard to cut even the surface of the skin of Dakṣa’s head. Thus Vīrabhadra was exceedingly bewildered. Then Vīrabhadra saw the wooden device in the sacrificial arena by which the animals were to have been killed. He took the opportunity of this facility to behead Dakṣa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second of all, there is the incident where Shiva cut off Brahma's fifth head in response to Brahma's attempted incest with his daughter Saraswati, which I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7607/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Here are some scriptures which mention it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here is how it's described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1233.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pragâpati [Brahma] conceived a passion for his own daughter... 'May I pair with her!' thus (thinking) he united with her. This, assuredly, was a sin in the eyes of the gods. 'He who acts thus towards his own daughter, our sister, [commits a sin],' they thought. The gods then said to this god who rules over the beasts (Rudra), 'This one, surely, commits a sin who acts thus towards his own daughter, our sister. Pierce him!' Rudra [i.e. Shiva], taking aim, pierced him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here is how it's described in the Jnanasamhita of the Shiva Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma desired Sarasvati and went to her, asking her to stay with him. She, being his daughter, was furious at this and said, 'Your mouth speaks inauspiciously and so you will always speak in a contrary way.' From that day, Brahma's fifth head always spoke evilly and coarsely. Therefore one day when Siva was wandering about with Parvati and came to see Brahma, Brahma's four heads praised Siva but the fifth made an evil sound. Siva, displeased with the fifth head, cut it off.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T13:10:38.147" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9364" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-07T16:00:09.863" Score="3" ViewCount="971" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people had told me that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's wife Devi Sarada was an avatar of Goddess Jagadamba/Durga. Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-07T22:31:31.717" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T17:30:23.857" Title="Was Devi Sarada an avatar of Goddess Jagadamba/Durga?" Tags="|shiva|durga|parvati|kali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9365" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-07T16:07:54.850" Score="4" ViewCount="2916" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why did Goddess Adi Parashakti not return to her original form when she took the form of Lord Shiva's wife Goddess Parvati? What happens to her?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-09-06T07:36:35.213" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T06:15:13.977" Title="Why did Adi Parashakti not came back to her original form after taking birth in form of Shiva's wife Parvati?" Tags="|shiva|durga|parvati|sati-goddess|kali|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9366" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-07T16:19:02.437" Score="-1" ViewCount="1661" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that Padma Purana gives wrong descriptions of God such as Vishnu creating Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Padma Purana tell us real or duplicate stories?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-07T18:20:19.023" LastActivityDate="2023-11-25T18:56:40.367" Title="Is Padma Purana a bad Purana?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|krishna|puranas|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9367" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-07T17:14:47.477" Score="15" ViewCount="3957" Body="&lt;p&gt;In today's world, we have advanced a lot in science and technology, and people have distanced themselves from all the Puranas and Vedas. All that is fine, because it is predicted that the Kali Yuga is like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question: Since this is the &lt;strong&gt;28th&lt;/strong&gt; Kaliyuga, what about all the other Kaliyugas? They obviously must have been similar. But for all those dynasties to continue into ages such as ours and survive to the next Chaturyuga seems impossible! Then how is this explained?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Even if one wants to refute the concept of 71 Chaturyugas, please do so with constructive arguments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2018-03-04T15:33:19.223" Title="What about the technology of the previous Kali Yugas?" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9368" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9762" CreationDate="2015-11-07T17:37:20.607" Score="0" ViewCount="115" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that there are treatises on Yoga from Rishis other than Patanjali and one of them is from Rishi Jaimini. Is this true? What are the other Yoga treatises available today and is there any translations of the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2015-12-08T20:15:44.997" Title="Yoga Sutra by Jaimini?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9369" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9403" CreationDate="2015-11-07T17:41:11.767" Score="5" ViewCount="8762" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dhanvantari, one of Vishnu's avataras, appears when the churning of the ocean is complete and the amrta surfaces. he is the one who brings forth the amrta for the devas and asuras/ He is also celebrated as the god of medicine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what is strange is, in Srimad Bhagavatam, 9th Canto, 17th Chapter, there is a mention of Dhanvantari, the avatara of Vasudeva, as one of the descendants of King Pururavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Kāśya was Kāśi, and his son was Rāṣṭra, the father of Dīrghatama. Dīrghatama had a son named Dhanvantari, who was the inaugurator of the medical science and an incarnation of Lord Vāsudeva, the enjoyer of the results of sacrifices. One who remembers the name of Dhanvantari can be released from all disease. (You can read it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/17/4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, who is &lt;strong&gt;this&lt;/strong&gt; Dhanvantari and how does he differ from the previous one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2021-06-27T05:56:10.293" Title="What is the story of Dhanvantari, the incarnation of Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavata-purana|avatars|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9370" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="237" CreationDate="2015-11-07T18:08:30.563" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20655/5/Part1_Chapter3_161-240p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter six and seven of RUDRASAMHITA Section of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; describes how Trimurti were born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said this to his son Narada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;At the time of great dissolution when all mobile and immobile of the world are dissolved everything gets enveloped in darkness without the&#xA;  sun, planets and stars.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There is no moon. The day and the night are not demarcated. There is no fire, no wind, no earth and no water. There is no unmanifest&#xA;  primordial being. The whole firmament is one complete void, devoid of&#xA;  all Tejas elements.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There is no Dharma or Adharma, no sound ,no touch, smell and colour are manifest.There is no taste. The face of quarters is no demarcated.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When there is a pitch darkness that cannot be pierced with needle and what is mentioned in Vedas &quot; The Existent and that Brahman&quot; is&#xA;  alone present.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When the present visible world is not in existence, the Sat Brahman alone is present which Yogins observe perpetually in the inner Soul,&#xA;  the inner firmament.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;It is incomprehensible to the mind. It cannot at all be expressed by words. It has neither name nor color. It is neither thick nor thin. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;It is free from alternatives. It has no beginning nor end. It is free from illusion and its harassment.It has no second. It has no&#xA;  development. It is in the form of Pure knowledge.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;People have doubts giving it a name. That Being after, then after sometime, it is said, wished for a second.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Being, having no form of its own, wished to create, in the course of its own sport, an auspicious form its own endowed with all&#xA;  power, qualities and knowledge.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A form of that goes everywhere, that has all forms, that sees all, that is the cause of all, that should be respected by all, that is&#xA;  the beginning of all, that bestows everything, and that sanctifies&#xA;  everything should be created (So it is wished) and hence created that&#xA;  form of &lt;strong&gt;ISVARA&lt;/strong&gt; of pure nature. The Original Being without a&#xA;  second, with neither beginning nor end, that illuminates&#xA;  everything, that is the form of cit(Pure Knowledge), that which is&#xA;  termed as Supreme Brahman, the all-pervasive, and undecaying, vanished.&#xA;  The manifest of formless being is &lt;strong&gt;SADAASIVA&lt;/strong&gt;. Scholars of ancient and&#xA;  succeeding ages have sung is &lt;strong&gt;ISVARA.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;ISVARA though alone ,then created the physical form &lt;strong&gt;Sakti&lt;/strong&gt; form his body.This Shakti did not affect his body in any way.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This Shakti is called by various names. Pradhaana, Prakriti, Maayaa, Gunavati, Paraa. The mother of Buddhitattva (The Cosmic&#xA;  Intelligence), Vikritivarjita (without modification).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;That Shakti is Ambika,Parkriti and goddess of all. She is the prime cause and &lt;strong&gt;mother of three deities&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;She has a brilliance which could hardly be conceived. She is the generating cause of all. She sprang up singly as Maaya. In her union&#xA;  she manifested into various forms.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Supreme Purusha is Shiva. He is called Shambu. He has no other lord over Him. He has five faces. He has ten arms. He holds the&#xA;  trident. He is as pure and white as camphor. His body is dusted&#xA;  entirely with ash.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shiva thought within Himself like this-&quot; Another being shall be created by me. Let him create everything, protect it and in the end&#xA;  dissolve it. The supreme lord , Shiva , spread liquorice essence of&#xA;  nectar on His left side, on tenth limb, nectar which was the outcome of&#xA;  churning the ocean of His mind wherein thoughts were the waves, Satva&#xA;  Guna was the precious Gem, Rajas being coral and Tama being crocodile. &#xA;  Thereupon a person came into being who was most charming one in the&#xA;  three worlds, who was calm with sattva guna prominent, and appeared to&#xA;  be ocean of immeasurable majesty.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Siva said to him-&quot; You will be famous as &lt;strong&gt;VISHNU&lt;/strong&gt; by name as you all pervasive. You will have many other names conferring happiness on&#xA;  devotees. Perform penance highly conducive to achievement of matter in&#xA;  hand. Be firm on it&quot;. Saying so lord bestowed Vedas on him through&#xA;  nostrils.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Siva vanished accompanied by Shakti and his attendants. Vishnu began his great penance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When Vishnu became enlightened by penance, from the body of Vishnu various water currents of various sorts began to flow as a result of&#xA;  Shiva's Maya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Supreme Brahman in the form of divine waters pervaded the entire Void. Vishnu went to the sleep amidst of waters. He was in blissful&#xA;  state of delusion for a long time.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the mean time Principles (Mahat,Ahamakara,the five elements,senses of Knowledge) too were evolved out of great Soul. All&#xA;  these Principles emanating from Prakriti are insentient, but not the&#xA;  Purusha. Vishnu, the Purusha, accepted all these and began his sleep in&#xA;  the Brahman.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When Lord Narayana (as he slept on water) continued to sleep, an excellent lotus of huge size came out of his navel as desired by&#xA;  Siva. Shiva, the great lord with Shakti as his half created me from his&#xA;  right limb.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O sage, thus deluded me with His illusion immediately, Siva in the course of His Sport produced me through the umbilical cord of Vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then as we all know, Vishnu and Brahma fought due to the Mayaa of Shiva. Then Shiva  appeared to them in the form of a bright light (column of fire). Vishnu,  as a boar (swetavaraha) went down, and Brahma, as a swan, went up and both of them couldn't find the beginning or the end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When they were perplexed, they heard sound &quot;OM OM&quot;. Vishnu was able to understand the divine sound OM and meditated on divine soul with this divine sound to find the origin of the Linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Then there came a sage who told him the essence of the truth. Vishnu&#xA;  realized that that sage himself was great lord and the Supreme Brahman&#xA;  embodied in Shabda Brahman (i.e, the mystic syllable OM). That Brahman&#xA;  is &lt;strong&gt;Rudra&lt;/strong&gt; free from worries.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Lord Shiva then showed them &lt;strong&gt;syllable form and Suguna form&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chapter 15 of same section describes Manifestation of Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Shiva Vanished, they withdrew their forms of swan and boar. At the bidding of Shiva, Vishnu entered the cosmic egg and it became sentient. From that egg Lokas were created. Brahma created various components of this Universe.( Read linked chapter for more details). When Brahma created Sanat Kumaras, they were not inclined to carry out creation. Brahma got infuriated on Kumaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma continued the story to his son Narada,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When i became nearly unconscious on account of excess fury and agitation, drops of tears fell from my eyes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I was instructed by Vishnu to perform the penance of Shiva.Accordingly i performed a severe penance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;While i was performing penance for creation, &lt;strong&gt;the merciful Lord Shiva of Trinity, came out of spot called AVIMUKHA between eyebrows&#xA;  and the nose. He manifested himself as Half woman and Half man in full&#xA;  potency.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On seeing the unborn Lord Shiva, a mass of refulgence, the consort of Uma, the omniscient,the creator of everything,famous as Nilalohita,&#xA;  straight in front of me I saluted him with great devotion and was&#xA;  highly delighted. I told the lord,&quot; Please create various subjects&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On hearing my words, &lt;strong&gt;Lord of the Lords, Rudra, created many ganas identical with Himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-11-15T10:29:06.643" LastActivityDate="2015-11-15T10:29:06.643" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9371" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9372" CreationDate="2015-11-08T02:57:49.403" Score="20" ViewCount="4733" Body="&lt;p&gt;That famous line above was uttered by none other than Swami Vivekananda. I admit that I haven't gone through the complete speech yet, but I am curious to know what he meant by that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did he mean that being a karmayogi in the path of salvation is more suited to today than any other path or did he speak those lines in some other context?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2974" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-19T14:01:04.927" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T07:34:34.573" Title="'Playing football takes us nearer to heaven rather than reading Bhagavad Gita' but how and why?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|karma|vedanta|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9372" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9371" CreationDate="2015-11-08T04:23:15.557" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda meant that a strong body can help you have the frame of mind needed to understand things like the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita, and thus ultimately attain Jnana.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_3/Lectures_from_Colombo_to_Almora/Vedanta_in_its_Application_to_Indian_Life&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt; the quote in its original context:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First of all, our young men must be strong. Religion will come afterwards. Be strong, my young friends; that is my advice to you. You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of the Gita. These are bold words; but I have to say them, for I love you. I know where the shoe pinches. I have gained a little experience. You will understand the Gita better with your biceps, your muscles, a little stronger. You will understand the mighty genius and the mighty strength of Krishna better with a little of strong blood in you. You will understand the Upanishads better and the glory of the Atman when your body stands firm upon your feet, and you feel yourselves as men. Thus we have to apply these to our needs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I'm not a follower of Vivekananda or an Advaitin, but I think this connects with the Advaita notion that certain physical and mental disciplines are a prerequisite for the pursuit of Jnana; that is how Adi Shankaracharya interprets the first Sutra of the Brahma Sutras.  This is in contrast to other schools, including Ramanujacharya's Sri Vaishnava sect, which interpret the prerequisite as the study of the Vedas through the methods of Mimamsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-17T16:23:14.183" LastActivityDate="2016-01-17T16:23:14.183" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9373" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9364" CreationDate="2015-11-08T05:00:56.900" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, this is truth that Devi Sarada was a form of Goddess Durga. Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa had worshipped Devi Sarada because he thought that his mother Kali or Jagadamba had  came in the form of his wife Sarada Devi. I also believe that Devi Sarada was an avatar of Goddess Durga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4086" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2017-06-22T17:30:23.857" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T17:30:23.857" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9374" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-08T05:10:30.433" Score="2" ViewCount="986" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that Brahmins are very important in Hindu religion. Many rishis were Brahmins and some Gods were also Brahmins. Brahmins learnt the Vedas and taught the people. Does this mean Brahmins are the main people of Hindus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4086" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-08T06:06:23.270" LastActivityDate="2015-11-09T12:42:24.460" Title="Are Brahmins really the main people of Hindus?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahma|brahman|brahmins|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9375" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9365" CreationDate="2015-11-08T05:16:42.947" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Adi Parashakti took the form of Parvati,sometimes she had showed her original form like when she had killed Mahishasura in the form of Durga,she had killed Sumbha and Nisumbha in the form of Kali,she had killed Arunasura in the form of Bhramari and once she also came in the form of Akhilendeshwari to pacify Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4086" LastActivityDate="2015-11-08T05:16:42.947" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9377" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-08T06:04:36.490" Score="7" ViewCount="962" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the unmanifested state, there is no maya which means the soul was already in pure state. So why did God decide to manifest himself, why he created different universes? Under Maya, the same indivisible self appears as different jivas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rBRwN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rBRwN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If God didn't create everything, then there was no need for souls to realize the truth because by default they would be in pure state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-08T06:22:51.563" LastActivityDate="2016-05-06T13:19:46.533" Title="Why did God manifest himself?" Tags="|brahman|creation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9378" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9371" CreationDate="2015-11-08T06:15:25.737" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think we have to understand the words of Swamiji with reference to the famous saying &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śarīramādyaṃ khalu dharmasādhanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This body is surely the foremost instrument of doing [good] deeds&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even with a common sense, we can understand that without a body nobody can achieve anything, i.e. studying Gita, Upanishads, etc, pondering over whatever that was studied and &lt;strong&gt;finally practicing whatever studied&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone in general, who is in his teens or even in early 30s of his age, will enjoy a fairly good health (I am not quoting exceptions here).  During that  age, it does not matter much whether one does exercise to keep himself fit or not. The body can sustain prolonged study and hard work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, in late 30s and even further, the effect of non-doing of exercise will tell upon one's prolonged study and hard work.  One will not be able to sustain for that type of hard work after 40's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in order to have a healthy body at old age for all persons in general and even at young age in respect of ill-health bodies, Swamiji adviced exercise.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As playing Football assures building up of strong body, which will sustain the prolonged study and hard work in spirituality&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-29T14:14:58.043" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T14:14:58.043" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9379" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9374" CreationDate="2015-11-08T10:09:13.903" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Depends on what you mean by Brahmin. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says (&lt;em&gt;Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;, Chapter 6 &lt;em&gt;The Master with the Brahmo Devotees&lt;/em&gt;, available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The conversation turned to the caste-system.  Sri Ramakrishna said: &quot;The caste-system can be removed by one means only, and that is the love of God.  Lovers of God do not belong to any caste.  The mind, body, and soul of a man become purified through divine love.  Chaitanya and Nityananda scattered the name of Hari to everyone, including the pariah, and embraced them all.  A brahmin without this love is no longer a brahmin.  And a pariah with the love of God is no longer a pariah.  Through bhakti an untouchable becomes pure and elevated.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lovers of God are the main people of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-11-08T10:09:13.903" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9380" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9391" CreationDate="2015-11-08T11:11:07.473" Score="2" ViewCount="2164" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why did people start saying that there are 33 crore Gods in Hinduism?&#xA;The question asks for as how did the rumor started and not if it's true or false.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4106" LastEditorUserId="4106" LastEditDate="2015-11-09T14:18:34.783" LastActivityDate="2015-11-09T14:18:34.783" Title="How did the rumor started that there are 33 crore Gods in Hinduism?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-01-10T06:49:54.410" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9381" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9371" CreationDate="2015-11-08T11:30:03.027" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;That quote from Vivekananda has a deeper meaning than the plain text. The entire quote has already been posted. The key to fully understanding the quote lies in the statement &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First of all, our young men must be strong. &lt;strong&gt;Religion will come&#xA;  afterwards.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The key point is 'Religion will come afterwards'. Vivekananda felt that the people of India of his time did nothing because they were steeped in tamas. He wanted people of India to graduate to rajas through strength and become active instead of doing nothing. This is the reason why he wanted the young men to be strong. The rest of the quote is to make the case that one can graduate to sattva, necessary for spiritual growth, from rajas through strength. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-12T21:05:58.950" LastActivityDate="2015-11-12T21:05:58.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9382" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-08T15:32:34.237" Score="8" ViewCount="685" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.  (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy, before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now one of the central beliefs of the Purva Mimamsa school was that the Vedas were Apaurusheya or authorless. Other schools also believed that the Vedas were Apaurusheya in the sense that they had no human author, but Purva Mimamsa went one step further in saying that they had no connection to any divine source either: they were just eternal truths that that could be heard by sages when they were in a state of Tapasya (deep meditation).  In any case, in Jaimini's Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa school, Jaimini tries to refute the objection that the Vedas are not eternal because they refer to the names of people, and thus must have been written after those people were born.  Specifically, he examines a quote from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv07.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of the Taittiriya Samhita of the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Babara Pravahani desired, 'May I be a speaker of speech.' He grasped the five-night rite and sacrificed with it. Then indeed he became a speaker of speech. He, who knowing thus offers the five-night rite, becomes a speaker of speech, and men call him 'lord of speech'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more information on the five-night rite, see my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3712/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/KC8d&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Mimamsa Sutra, Jaimini tries to refute this objection by saying that &quot;Babara Pravahani&quot; is not actually the name of a person:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Purvapakshin has cited the term &quot;pravahani&quot; (as a proper name occurring in the Veda, and hence proving that the Veda came after that person). - But this is not right.  We do not know of any person of the name &quot;Pravahana&quot;, hence the term pravahani cannot mean &quot;the son of Pravahana&quot;; in fact the prefix &quot;pra&quot; is well-known as signifying &lt;em&gt;excellence&lt;/em&gt;, and the root &quot;vaha&quot; as signifying the act of carrying; and we do not know of any combination of these two (pra-vahana) as signifying any common well-known word; as regards the &quot;i&quot; (in the term &quot;pravahani&quot;), it is known as signifying &quot;progeny&quot; as well as &quot;agent of an action&quot;; so that the term pravahani signifies &quot;one who carries things in an excellent manner&quot; [and it cannot mean &quot;the son of Pravahana&quot;, as we do not know of any person of the name of &quot;Pravahana&quot;]. - As far as the term &quot;babara&quot;, it is only a word imitative of sound (produced by the blowing wind).  This the two words (&quot;pravahani&quot; and &quot;babara&quot;) only express the everlasting thing (&quot;the blowing wind&quot;).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, unlike Jaimini I do know of a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6929/36&quot;&gt;person named Pravahana&lt;/a&gt;, but I digress :-)  My question is, is this how the Purva Mimamsa school interprets all the appearances of proper names in the Vedas.  Do they think they can all be explained away in this manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedanta school has a much more plausible explanation for the appearance of names, which is that in every age people with those names are born to fill the same role.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Similarly, although individual gods are admitted to originate, there arises no contradiction in the case of such words as Vasu, and the like, since the species denoted by them are eternal. And that the gods, and so on, belong to different species, is to be concluded from the descriptions of their various personal appearance, such as given in the mantras, arthavâdas, &amp;amp;c. Terms such as 'Indra' rest on the connexion (of some particular being) with some particular place, analogously to terms such as 'army-leader;' hence, whoever occupies that particular place is called by that particular name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34099.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;later on&lt;/a&gt; he quotes some Smriti text which makes the same point: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever were the names of the rishis and their powers to see the Vedas, the same the Unborn one again gives to them when they are produced afresh at the end of the night (the mahâpralaya). As the various signs of the seasons return in succession in their due time, thus the same beings again appear in the different yugas. And of whatever individuality the gods of the past ages were, equal to them are the present gods in name and form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does the Purva Mimamsa school agree with the Vedanta school's explanation, or is it really committed to the view that there are absolutely no proper names in the Vedas?  That seems like it would be a tough case to make.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any other Purva Mimamsa works, like those of Kumarila Bhatta for instance, address this issue?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-04T16:48:38.513" Title="How does Purva Mimamsa explain mentions of human beings in the eternal Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|vedanta|yajur-veda|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9383" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-08T16:11:08.293" Score="6" ViewCount="491" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna and Rama were born to humans by taking birth from womb. What about Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4108" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T13:46:18.733" LastActivityDate="2017-05-24T10:29:51.953" Title="Was Shiva ever incarnated by taking birth from womb?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9385" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9374" CreationDate="2015-11-08T17:15:15.123" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that Brahmin do the religious works and some Gods and Rishis were also Brahmins like Brahma,Shiva,Parashurama,Vamana a Vishnu avatar. But Kshatriyas are also important because Lord Rama himself was a Kshatriya. Kshtriyas were the kings which we saw in some stories. We all are same that Lord Krishna had told to Arjuna. Actually,there is only one God. If we want to see that God in the form of Shiva,so the God will bless us in the form of Shiva,if we want to see that God in the form Vishnu,so that God will bless us in the form of Vishnu. Not Brahmins and Kshatriyas,we are all Hindus!!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastActivityDate="2015-11-08T17:15:15.123" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9386" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3617" CreationDate="2015-11-08T17:17:16.680" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though Keshav's answer gives names of previous Vyasas, Shiva Purana gives different names for some of the previous Vyasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12959/3/Chapter1_1070-1148p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 4&amp;amp;5 of Satarudrasamhita Section of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; mentions that Shiva takes birth at the end of each Dvapara Yuga and lives in Kaliyuga. He will teach Yoga techniques to his four disciples and these four disciples helps people of Kaliyuga to liberate with help of these techniques. This will happen in every Kaliyuga of Vaivastara Manvantara of Seventh Varaha Kalpa (current Kalpa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says names of each Vyasa incarnated at the end of Dvapara Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Svayamprabhu.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Satya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhaargava&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Angiras&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Savitr&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mrtyu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Satakratu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vasista&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Saarasvata&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Tridhaama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Trivrta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Satatejas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Narayana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Raksha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Trayyaruni&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Deva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Devakrtanjaya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rtanjaya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bharadvaja&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gautama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vaacassravas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Susmaayana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Trnabindu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yaksha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shakti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Paraasara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jaatukarnya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dvaipayana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2015-11-08T17:17:16.680" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9387" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-08T17:28:02.627" Score="1" ViewCount="38" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gautama Buddha was the 9th avatar of Lord Vishnu. Buddha himself was a Kshatriya and he was the founder of Buddhism. But he was a Hindu and he had created his own religion. So, does this mean Buddhists are a type of Hindus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-08T20:23:11.280" LastActivityDate="2015-11-08T20:23:11.280" Title="Are Buddhists really a type of Hindus?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|vishnu-purana|buddhism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-11-08T18:25:10.333" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9389" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-08T19:01:25.283" Score="2" ViewCount="697" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did the main wars of Ramayana and Mahabharata officially end? Meaning no more weapons fired and no more people killed in and due to the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6639/2995&quot;&gt;Who shot the first arrow to start the battle of the Mahabharata?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; prompted me to ask this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-12-09T10:36:49.257" Title="How did the Ramayana and Mahabharata wars officially end?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9390" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9393" CreationDate="2015-11-09T03:50:22.600" Score="5" ViewCount="1054" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishvamitra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Wikipedia article for Vishwamitra&lt;/a&gt; has a picture of the sage rejecting both Menaka and her daughter, Shakuntala. The picture seems to be a painting by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cyberkerala.com/rajaravivarma/ravivarma-painting-47.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Raja Ravi Varma&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the painting true to the story of Vishwamitra and Menaka as described in the Ramayana and/or Mahabharata, in that, did Vishwamitra reject Shakuntala as well? Was he aware of her birth? Did he ever come in contact with Shakuntala during or after her birth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BFmaY.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BFmaY.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference for the picture used: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00litlinks/shakuntala_jones/graphics/ravivarma3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;www.columbia.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Should using the copy of the painting here pose a Copyright issue, feel free to edit and remove it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-27T20:35:09.730" LastActivityDate="2016-03-13T16:18:02.423" Title="Is Raja Ravi Varma's painting Birth of Shakuntala true to the story?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|art|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9391" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9380" CreationDate="2015-11-09T04:33:34.550" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas refer to not millions of deities but 33 supreme deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;33 divinities are mentioned in the Yajur-veda, Atharva-veda, Satapatha-brahmana, and in several other Vedic and later texts. The number thirty-three occurs with reference to divinities in the Parsi scriptures of Avesta as well.The expressiontrayastrimsa deva is found in the list of classes of gods in Sanskrit Buddhist texts like the Divyavadana and Suvarnaprabhasa-sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word koti in trayastrimsati koti does not mean the number 'thirty-three crore'. Here koti means 'supreme', pre-eminent, excellent, that is, the 33 'supreme' divinities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word koti has the same meaning as uchha koti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was a problem even in AD 725 when Subhakarasimha and his Chinese colleague I-hsing translated the Mahavairocana-sutra into Chinese. They rendered the compound sapta-koti-buddha as shichi (sapta) kotei (koti) butsu (buddha) in which they did not translate the word koti that transliterated its pronunciation as kotei. The Buddhas were not 'seven crore', but only 'Seven Supreme Buddhas': six predecessors and the historic Buddha. Tibetan masters who translated Sanskrit texts into Tibetan, rendered koti by rnam which means 'class, kind, category'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, chapter 3, Yājñavalkya has said that in reality there are only 33 gods and goddesses. Of these 8 are Vasus, 11 Rudras, 12 Adityas, and Indra and Prajapati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8 Vasus + 11 Rudras + 12 Adityas + 2 Heaven and Earth ( 8+ 11 + 12 + 2 = 33).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://agniveer.com/vedic-god/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedic God&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.revivaloftrueindia.com/2013/03/330-million-gods.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-three_gods&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Thirty-three gods&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditDate="2015-11-09T04:38:44.150" LastActivityDate="2015-11-09T04:38:44.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9392" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7342" CreationDate="2015-11-09T04:40:22.563" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas refer to not millions of deities but 33 supreme deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;33 divinities are mentioned in the Yajur-veda, Atharva-veda, Satapatha-brahmana, and in several other Vedic and later texts. The number thirty-three occurs with reference to divinities in the Parsi scriptures of Avesta as well.The expressiontrayastrimsa deva is found in the list of classes of gods in Sanskrit Buddhist texts like the Divyavadana and Suvarnaprabhasa-sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word koti in trayastrimsati koti does not mean the number 'thirty-three crore'. Here koti means 'supreme', pre-eminent, excellent, that is, the 33 'supreme' divinities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word koti has the same meaning as uchha koti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was a problem even in AD 725 when Subhakarasimha and his Chinese colleague I-hsing translated the Mahavairocana-sutra into Chinese. They rendered the compound sapta-koti-buddha as shichi (sapta) kotei (koti) butsu (buddha) in which they did not translate the word koti that transliterated its pronunciation as kotei. The Buddhas were not 'seven crore', but only 'Seven Supreme Buddhas': six predecessors and the historic Buddha. Tibetan masters who translated Sanskrit texts into Tibetan, rendered koti by rnam which means 'class, kind, category'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, chapter 3, Yājñavalkya has said that in reality there are only 33 gods and goddesses. Of these 8 are Vasus, 11 Rudras, 12 Adityas, and Indra and Prajapati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8 Vasus + 11 Rudras + 12 Adityas + 2 Heaven and Earth ( 8+ 11 + 12 + 2 = 33).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://agniveer.com/vedic-god/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedic God&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.revivaloftrueindia.com/2013/03/330-million-gods.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-three_gods&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Thirty-three gods&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastActivityDate="2015-11-09T04:40:22.563" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9393" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9390" CreationDate="2015-11-09T04:41:40.530" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The scene in the painting has no basis in Hindu scripture.&lt;/strong&gt;  Here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01073.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata describes the birth of Shakuntala:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And sporting with each other, just as they pleased, for a long time as if it were only a single day, the Rishi begat on Menaka a daughter named Sakuntala. And Menaka (as her conception advanced) went to the banks of the river Malini coursing along a valley of the charming mountains of Himavat. And there she gave birth to that daughter. And she left the new-born infant on the bank of that river and went away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga63/bala_63_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana describes Vishwamitra leaving Menaka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then after the lapse of that ten year period Vishvamitra became doleful with distress and he is enwrapped in humiliation, as it were, and, oh, Rama, Raghu's legatee, then a resentful thought occurred to him.&#xA;  &quot;All this is the mischief of gods to defraud me of the great merit of my ascesis. Ten years have rolled by as if they are just a day and a night. Furthermore, I who am under the influence of lust and lure had to encounter this hindrance in my ascesis.&quot; Oh, Rama, that best saint suspired heavily when he became emotional with reparation. But on seeing the scared celestial wench Menaka, who is shivering and waiting with suppliantly adjoined palms, he sent her away with pleasant words, and he that Vishvamitra indeed went to the northern Himalayan mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vishwamitra didn't even see the baby. Vishwamitra abandoned Menaka while she was still pregnant, after which Menaka proceeded to the Malini river, gave birth to Shakuntala, and then left her there because Menaka had to return to the service of Indra.  Now it's quite possible that Vishwamitra knew about Menaka's pregnancy when he left her, but I don't know of any scriptures that say that.  And as far as I know, Shakuntala never met Vishwamitra; she just considered herself to be the adopted daughter of the sage Kanva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-13T16:18:02.423" LastActivityDate="2016-03-13T16:18:02.423" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9396" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9389" CreationDate="2015-11-09T10:16:46.637" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana officially ended when Ravana was killed in the battle field, when shot in the beely button, where the Amruta was stored and it dried up due the leakage and hence Rama won as the opponent died, and Vibhishana was made as king of Lanka. Ram along with Sita, Laxmana and Hanuman returned back to captial, Ayodhya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata officially ended after the Gada-yuddha, between Bhima and Duryodhana, Duryodhana was alive for a while and laying down on the battlefield, but there is this after-picture given that Ashwatthama, Krupa and one more fellow Went to see Duryodhana and to take the revenge of Duryodhana's condition, Ashwathama, went to the tents of Pandavas and killed them while they were asleep but few hours ago, Lord Krishna had taken all the pandavas with him for a bath along the river side, to wash all sins after the war. Ashwathama thought he killed all the pandavas but actually those were son's of pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4110" LastActivityDate="2015-11-09T10:16:46.637" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9397" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9351" CreationDate="2015-11-09T11:20:10.603" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like so share some of the important points from the following link &lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/ayodhya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://veda.wikidot.com/ayodhya&lt;/a&gt;, here. It provides both historical as well Archaelogical Evidences &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Puranas like the Brahmanda Purana consider Ayodhya as one of the six holiest cities in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The story of this epic has been immortalized by Valmiki and immensely popularized by the great masses through centuries. According to puranic tradition, in the 93rd generation from Ikshvaku, the 30th from Rama was Brihabdala the last famous king of the Ikshvaku dynasty of Ayodhya, who was killed during the Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tulsidas is said to have begun the writing of his famous Ramayana poem Shri Ramacharitamanas in Ayodhya in 1574 CE. Several Tamil Alwar mention the city of Ayodhya. Ayodhya is also said to be the birthplace of King Bharata (The First Chakravarti King), Bhahubali, Brahmi, Sundari, King Dasaratha, Acharya Padaliptasurisvarji, King Harishchandra, Shri Rama Achalbhrata, and the ninth Gandhara of Mahavir Swami.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Archaelogical Evidence of pre-existing Temple:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Babri structure had 14 pillars made of 'Kasauti' black stone with Hindu images. Also inside the Babri compound was a piece of a door jamb with images of 'Mukut-dhari Dwarpal' and 'Devakanyas'. Iconographical evaluation of these pillars and the door jamb by Dr. S. P. Gupta (former Director of Allahabad Museum) showed that these belonged to a Hindu temple of the 11 th Century A.D. when the Garhwal Kings of Kanauj ruled Ayodhya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Between 1975 and 1980 Prof. B. B. Lal (the then Director General of Archaeological Survey of India) conducted an excavation behind the Babri structure. The excavation showed pillar bases of burnt bricks (of the preexisting temple). The most beautiful pottery dated around 8 th-9th Century B.C. was also found.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On June 18 th 1992, when the ground near the Ram Janma Bhoomi was being levelled, at a depth of 12 ft, several beautifully carved buff sandstone objects were found. These objects included images of Vaishnav divinities with one 'Chakrapurush' sculpture also showing 'Parashuram' and 'Balram', an image of 'Shiv-Parvati' (largely broken) and many carved stones such as corner were terrecotta Hindu images of Kushan period (1 st to 3 rd Century A.D.).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These and other objects found during subsequent excavations during July 1992, were found to be members of a Hindu temple complex of about 11 th Century A.D. by a team of 8 eminent archaeologists and historians. The team included Dr. Y. D. Sharma, former Deputy Director General of Archaeological Survey of India, and Prof. B. R. Grover, Director of Indian Council for Historical Research.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The destruction of Babri structure on Dec. 6, 1992 revealed many archaeological remains which irrefutably prove that Mir Baqi had incorporated parts of the preexisting temple in the construction of the Babri mosque. The remains include a temple bell, several intricate and detailed carvings, an image of Vishnu, and several other Hindu images.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The principal amongst the findings however is a 2 ft wide by 4.5 ft long buff sandstone tablet 'SHILA LEKH' bearing an inscription in 'Devanagari' script and Sanskrit language. The 'Shila lekh' describes an ancient Ram Mandir existing at Ram Janma Bhoomi at least since the 12 th Century A.D. which was built by a Garhwal king Raja Govindachandra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 4th line of this 'Shila lekh' specifically describes a temple of Lord Vishnu (Hari) at the 'Janma Bhoomi Sthal'. The 15 th line describes it as a massive, magnificent temple dominating the landscape, and with steeples 'shikhar' adorned with gold 'Kalash'. The 17 th line specifically mentions the location as Ayodhya and the 'Saket Mandal', while the 19 th line mentions the 'Vaman Avatar' and then mentions Ram as the destroyer of evil Ravan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4021" LastActivityDate="2015-11-09T11:20:10.603" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9398" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-09T11:56:46.620" Score="4" ViewCount="1576" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the story of Lord Shiva and demon Andhakasura. What is his story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4086" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-18T09:22:33.897" LastActivityDate="2018-09-18T09:22:33.897" Title="What is the story of Andhakasura?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9399" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9181" CreationDate="2015-11-09T12:03:23.573" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;No,you cannot offer Bel leaves to Lord Hanuman. Of course he was the 11th avatar of Shiva,but he was only a part of Lord Shiva and he was not Shiva himself. So,you can offer Bel leaves to Lord Shiva,not Hanuman but you can offer Rui leaves to Lord Hanuman. You have to read the book of the rules of Lord Hanuman. If you offer Rui leaves to Hanuman,he will be very happy on you but if you offer Bel leaves to Hanuman,Lord Shiva and Hanuman both will be very angry on you. So,you have to follow the rules of Lord Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4086" LastActivityDate="2015-11-09T12:03:23.573" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9401" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9374" CreationDate="2015-11-09T12:42:24.460" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word bramhin or bramhan has a very different meaning than that of what we choose to see in our caste system. This caste system is very old the meaning have been altered now, but the originally in sanskrit, &quot;The one who can expand his mind&quot; or thinker or Intelligent thinker is the bramhin. So by birth any and everybody is not a thinker, born in caste of bramhin does not really make him a bramhin but thinking all the perspectives or thinking in a beneficial way or on a higher level makes him a bramhin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does Kshatriya, means protector of people, in todays world you can say that, soliders/ police are kshatriyas because the protect people. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This original caste system was based on the work that they do and it does not depend in which family a person is born. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are no Higher's or lowers to this system. For E.g. Bramhins, read books and gain knowledge and help kshatriyas to protect their cities, Vayshays as basically these are the businessmen's or tradesmen bring foreign money into the city.&#xA;I hope this was clear. Apologies if I have represented it in wrong way. Being such a sensitive topic please forgive if any mistakes are made.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4110" LastActivityDate="2015-11-09T12:42:24.460" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9403" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9369" CreationDate="2015-11-09T16:35:18.817" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Quoting from my article on Dhanvantari- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newsgram.com/dhanvantari-the-father-of-ayurveda/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.newsgram.com/dhanvantari-the-father-of-ayurveda/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhanvantari: The incarnation of Lord Vishnu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Puranas, when Devas (gods) and Asuras (demons) churned&#xA;  the ocean for Amrita (nectar of immortality), it was Lord Dhanvantari&#xA;  who came out of the ocean with a pot of Amrita. Thus, Dhanvantari is&#xA;  clearly a lord who grants long life and immortality. Bhagavata Purana&#xA;  (2.7.21) calls Dhanvantari as God himself, who is a curer of diseases,&#xA;  who has imparted to the world the knowledge of long life i.e.&#xA;  Ayurveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is often represented as a God with four hands (similar to Vishnu)&#xA;  carrying Shankha (conch), Chakra (disc), leech, and a pot containing&#xA;  Amrita. Leeches play an important role in Ayurvedic treatment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore, in Hindu tradition Lord Dhanvantari represents twin aspects&#xA;  of curer of diseases and a granter of long life and immortality. Thus,&#xA;  he is clearly identified with all aspects of health, medicine, and&#xA;  holistic living.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhanvantari: The teacher of Ayurveda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Apart from Lord Dhanvantari who is the personification of health&#xA;  itself, the Bhagavata Purana and Ayurvedic tradition speak about at&#xA;  least two other Dhanvantari who lived and practiced Ayurveda at&#xA;  different periods. Bhagavata Purana (9.17.4) speaks about a&#xA;  Dhanvantari (also Adi-Dhanvantari) who was the son of Dhirgatama in&#xA;  the Pururava dynasty. It describes this person as an incarnation of&#xA;  Vishnu and as the inaugurator of the knowledge of Ayurveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Adi Dhanvantari is believed to have divided Ayurveda into eight&#xA;  divisions: Kayacikitsa (Internal Medicine), Kaumarabhrtya&#xA;  (Pediatrics), Bhutavidya (Psychiatry), Salakyatantra&#xA;  (Otto-Rhino-Laryngology &amp;amp; Ophthalmology), Salyatantra (Surgery), (vi)&#xA;  Visatantra (Toxicology), (vii) Rasayanatantra (Geriatrics), (viii)&#xA;  Vajikaranatantra (The therapy for male sterility)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another person who is identified as Dhanvantari is Divodasa, the&#xA;  great-grand son of Adi-Dhanvantari (the son of Dhirgatama). He is&#xA;  believed to have been living around 3000 BC, according to some&#xA;  scholars. Divodasa Dhanvantari was the teacher of Susruta, the famous&#xA;  Ayurvedic physician and is prominently mentioned in the&#xA;  Susruta-Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Divodasa Dhanvantari has made enormous contributions to Ayurveda.&#xA;  Though, he has not written any Ayurvedic treatise, his teachings could&#xA;  be seen through Susruta-Samhita. He was responsible for the division&#xA;  of Ayurvedic surgery into two main branches: Salyatantra and&#xA;  Salakyatantra. He has given extensive lectures on methodology and&#xA;  intricacies of surgery, which has been recorded by Susruta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Regarding surgery, Divodasa Dhanvantari instructed Susruta thus: “Hear&#xA;  me discourse on the science of surgery (Salyatantra) which is the&#xA;  oldest of all the branches of Ayurveda… All hold this tantra to be the&#xA;  most important of all the branches of Ayurveda inasmuch as&#xA;  instantaneous effects can be produced with the help of such measures&#xA;  as surgical operations, external application of Ksaras&#xA;  (alkalies/caustics), cauterisation, etc., and inasmuch as it contains&#xA;  all that can be found in other branches of Ayurveda as well.”&#xA;  Agnivesasamhita also makes several references to the views of Divodasa&#xA;  Dhanvantari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this, Brahmavaivarta Purana also mentions one Dhanvantari who was among the 16 students who learned Ayurveda from Lord Bhaskara (Surya). And there was one Dhanvantari among the 9 gems of Vikramaditya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Human teacher, Adi Dhanvantari is an incarnation of Lord Dhanvantari, the God. That is how, this must be understood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2015-11-09T16:35:18.817" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9404" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-09T16:48:31.213" Score="7" ViewCount="2363" Body="&lt;p&gt;At the beginning of creation, Lord Vishnu was depicted as sleeping (Yoganidra) of serpent Adisesha on Ksheer Saagar. But Mahabharatha says Sesha was born to Kadru and sage Kashyapa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If Shesha is with Vishnu from starting, why was he born to Kadru?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As i asked in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8899/3500&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question, Why lakshmana and Balarama (their souls) went to Patalaloka if Sesha is with Vishnu in Vaikunta?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How did he become bed for Vishnu?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T11:18:52.717" Title="How did the serpent Adisesha become bed for Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|adisesha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9405" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5435" CreationDate="2015-11-10T02:37:00.197" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that once upon a time Lakshmi argued to Lord Vishnu to see the prithvi lok or earth. Lord Vishnu accepted her request, but she did not know anything about the earth. Therefore Lord Vishnu suggested her to go with Lord Ganesha because he is the most intelligent god in the whole universe. Therefore Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi came to visit on prithvi lok or earth on amavasya so for welcoming the goddess of wealth and the god of intelligency we worship Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi on the day of diwali. By the diyas, we welcome Lord Rama in Ayodhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4115" LastEditorUserId="13148" LastEditDate="2019-04-30T11:33:30.237" LastActivityDate="2019-04-30T11:33:30.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9406" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-10T04:39:45.087" Score="6" ViewCount="284" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the General rules of worshipping Lord Hanuman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="840" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T04:58:34.250" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T04:58:34.250" Title="General rules of worshipping Lord Hanuman" Tags="|worship|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9407" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-10T07:33:07.993" Score="2" ViewCount="399" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/9SFM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Agni Purana, Vishnu's horse-headed incarnation Hayagriva tells Brahma about how to install statues in temples.  But he starts by saying this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Listen to me speaking about the installation of (images) of Vishnu and others.  (the principles) of Pancharatra and Saptaratra have (already) been described by me.  They have been divided by the sages into twentyfive (books) in this world.  Hayashirsha tantra is the first one.  Trailokyamokhana, Vaibhava, Paushkara, Prahlada, Gargya, Galava, Naradiya, Sriprashna, Sandilya, Aishvara, spoken by Satya, Shaunaka, Vasishtha, Jnanasagara, Svayambhuva, Kapila, Tarkshya, Narayaniyaka, Atreya, Narasimha, Ananda, Aruna, Baudhayana, and the one spoken by Vishva as the quintessence of that (the prededing), having eight parts (or the other books).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; the Pancharatra movement was one of the early movements that was important to the development of Vaishnavism. Its sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the twin brother of the sage Nara. (Nara and Narayana were the previous births of Nara and Narayana respectively.) Since the Pancharatra texts originated from Narayana himself, they're followed by pretty much all mainstream Vaishnavas.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what are the &quot;Saptaratra&quot; texts that Hayagriva mentions, and what is their relation to Pancharatra?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3712/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the name &quot;Pancharatra&quot; comes from the fact that the sage Narayana performed a five-day Yagna and as a result he &quot;became everything&quot;.  So are the Saptaratra texts a similar set of Vaishnava scriptures that originated with someone who performed a seven-day Yagna?  There is a seven-day Yagna described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv07.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Taittirya Samhita of the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kusurubinda Auddalaki desired, 'May I be rich in cattle.' He grasped this (rite) of seven nights, and sacrificed with it. Then indeed did be win all the domestic animals. He, who knowing thus sacrifices with (the rite) of seven nights, wins all domestic animals. (The rite) is of seven nights; the domesticated animals are seven, the wild seven, the metres seven, for winning both. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss a related passage &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9382/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, by the way.  In any case, this web page suggests that Saptaratra was indeed a Vaishnava tradition akin to Pancharatra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In addition to pa~ncharAtra the hayagrIva tantra remembers an independent tradition of tantric vaiShNavism termed saptarAtra, which was parallel to pA~ncharAtra, and contained the trailokyamohana viShNu tantra and hayagrIva tantra amongst others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hayashirsha (a synonym for Hayagriva) and Trailokyamohana are the first two texts mentioned in that Agni Purana quote, so that may be significant.  Does anyone know  where the Hayagriva Tantra mentions this?  Are there any surviving Saptaratra texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss some other non-Pancharatra Vaishnava Agamas in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7601/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, by the way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-11-28T21:33:39.843" Title="What are the Saptaratra texts and how are they related to the Pancharatra texts?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|vaishnavism|pancharatra|agni-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9408" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2447" CreationDate="2015-11-10T08:10:44.333" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Everyone is answering wrong. I know the actual story of Shiva's avatar Sharabha. When Lord Vishnu's avatar Narasimha who was half man and half lion had killed evil Hiranyakshyap,he became too much angry and he was trying to destroy the world. All Gods and Gods were so much worried about the condition. Lord Shiva took the form of his avatar Sharabha who was half lion and half bird was appeared in front of Narasimha. Then the fight between Lord Narasimha and Lord Sharabha begins. Lord Indra was very worried because he was thinking if something happens to his heaven,the whole world will destroy. Lord Narasimha was defeated by Sharabha and then Sharabha said ''Oh Lord Narayan! Please come back to your original form! You took this Narasimha form for killing Hiranyakashyap and now you have killed him. So,please come back Narayan!''. Then Lord Narasimha had became very calm and he was transformed back into his original form Vishnu. Lord Sharabha too was also transformed back into his original form Shiva. Vishnu told Shiva that his Sharabha avatar will also called 'Sharabheshwara'. Then all Gods and Goddesses were so much happy and gave respect to Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastActivityDate="2015-11-10T08:10:44.333" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9410" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-10T08:39:06.747" Score="4" ViewCount="169" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is an era of science in which humans are everything. All the stuff we heard about god is only in the books and there is no proof of god (if there is, then I don't know about it). At a time like this how could we really convince ourself and others that there is god? What is the need of worshipping since it's nowhere written to worship god?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4116" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-28T22:43:34.447" LastActivityDate="2016-01-28T22:58:46.780" Title="How to convince ourself of the presence of Lord?" Tags="|belief|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9411" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-10T09:16:54.477" Score="0" ViewCount="358" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the story of death of Lord Krishna. Please,somebody answer my question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastActivityDate="2015-11-11T06:49:47.453" Title="The story of Lord Krishna's death" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|bhagavad-gita|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-11-10T14:33:14.230" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9412" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9411" CreationDate="2015-11-10T09:29:26.700" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Yuddhisthir was made the King of Hastinapur; Duryodhan's mother Gandhari had cursed Lord Krishna. As Pandavas had defeated Kauravas because of Krishna's help. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She curses Krishna that &lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;one day he will be killed by a hunter and his Dwarka city will be destroyed&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna accepts the Gandhari's curse. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Pandavas and their wife Draupadi's death, one day Lord Krishna was playing his flute during his trip to nearby forest... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was a hunter named &lt;strong&gt;Jara&lt;/strong&gt; who thought that Krishna who was playing his flute was a &lt;strong&gt;rare bird&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jara fires a poisoned arrow Krishna's foot. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna laments loudly due to pain, and the poison spreads in him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jara at once recognizes Krishna's voice and goes running towards him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jara profusely apologizes and cries...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To which Sri Krishna replies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I must go. My time has come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Answer without source citation.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="365" LastEditDate="2015-11-11T06:49:47.453" LastActivityDate="2015-11-11T06:49:47.453" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9415" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-10T12:00:59.183" Score="5" ViewCount="33422" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who is Allah according to Hinduism?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What do Hindu scriptures say about Allah?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Are there any references to him in Hindu scriptures?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;BTW, I saw some blogs stating Shukracharya as Allah and all Muslims as demons in Hinduism.&lt;br&gt;Who is this Shukracharya? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4120" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-22T18:35:31.830" LastActivityDate="2023-01-30T07:01:56.317" Title="Who is Allah according to Hinduism?" Tags="|gods|other-religions|islam|shukracharya|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9416" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9410" CreationDate="2015-11-10T16:33:36.847" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question started with the statement &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;it is an era of science in which a human is everything .  All the stuff we heard about god is only in the books and there is no proof of god&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and ended with the statement&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is the need of worshipping since its nowhere written to worship the god? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can we prove to the satisfaction of a questioner, the &lt;strong&gt;Newton's 3rd Law&lt;/strong&gt; - For every action, there will be an equal and opposite reaction - only through reading/explaining?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not possible, because it can only be experienced.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my view, no body can provide any authority from any scripture, &lt;strong&gt;for conclusively proving the existence of GOD&lt;/strong&gt;, because the concept of GOD is an ABSTRACT thing, &lt;strong&gt;which can only be experienced&lt;/strong&gt;, but cannot be proved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Personal experiences/Holy books/Logical arguments are useless to convince anyone that GOD exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So let us limit our focus on the issues that are known to every person.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everybody might have heard the undermentioned words. These are illustrative but not exhaustive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anger&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Happiness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jealous&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Passion&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lust&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aversion &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Compassion&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Forgiveness &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indifferent&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sympathy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Cruelty&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every rational human being with reasonable exposure to the society around him/her might have experienced the above mentioned feelings  at one stage or other of his/her life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is it possible to explain:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For any rational human being experiencing one or combination of two or more feelings mentioned above,  in words or make understand another person, who have no firsthand experience of that feelings, how the feeling look like,  effects his/her personality?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why a particular person driven by compassion towards human beings, will leave behind his/her riches/fame/position (like Buddha), works for upliftment of society, living on bare necessities?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the cruelty that provoked Adolf Hitler to butcher thousands of Jews?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not possible because it is feeling and an ABSTRACT thing.  And, it is intangible and cannot be explained in words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The feeling is a force/energy that can either positive or negative.  There are many visible and invisible forces working in this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The known and unknown negative feelings/forces put together will be known as GOD.  And, it is also an ABSTRACT thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can neither be explained in words nor evidenced by personal experiences of other people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It can only be experienced.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Neither the believers nor non-believers of GOD&lt;/strong&gt; can know the TRUTH. Only a sceptic mind with the intent of knowing the TRUTH will realise the TRUTH.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us consider one more example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If somebody wants you to describe the taste of sweet in words, can you do it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if you try to explain the taste of sweet for 1,000 days, the questioner will not understand.  Just put a lump of sugar in his mouth, then he will understand, as taste can only be experienced, as it is intangible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, &lt;strong&gt;God is an ABSTRACT thing. Nobody can describe it&lt;/strong&gt;. You can only experience it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-28T22:58:46.780" LastActivityDate="2016-01-28T22:58:46.780" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9417" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5207" CreationDate="2015-11-10T17:01:20.523" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The meaning of the verses are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;In the middle (of what), is the image of Yoga Narasimha, who is Eternal, and is bound by a Yoga Patta. He is four armed, and bears four Chakras (!) in his four arms. He is situated under the Ashoka Tree, and is radiantly adorned, ever willing to destroy his devotees' troubles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the Supreme One, who is the ocean of countless Kalyana Gunas, excellent qualities, who causes his Bhaktas to tremble with fear. &lt;strong&gt;Sometimes both Yoga Narasimha and Sudarshana are contemplated upon; other times only the radiant Sudarshana is contemplated upon.&lt;/strong&gt; (I am not sure of the next line: &lt;strong&gt;The contemplation of both of them is enough to destroy a multitude of astras, for they are verily the sacred Vishnu Mantras personified&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in his form as Sudarshana Chakra, destroys all Danavas and Daityas, with its infallible powers, which manifest as astras from His person. To control these bad elements, the Lord took upon this form of the Chakra, and thus is able to protect his devotees.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the purported meaning, I think, is the bolded letters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-10T17:01:20.523" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9419" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-11T00:06:48.973" Score="2" ViewCount="108" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since Ishvara is the ruler of the universe, the Lord, can we say that, in our microcosm, our &lt;em&gt;buddhi&lt;/em&gt; (intellect - the decision maker) is equivalent to Ishvara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4125" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-13T03:42:37.523" LastActivityDate="2015-11-13T03:42:37.523" Title="Can the intellect (buddhi) be equated with Ishvara?" Tags="|vedanta|atma|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9420" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9494" CreationDate="2015-11-11T04:43:32.637" Score="3" ViewCount="157" Body="&lt;p&gt;For example, Deepavali is celebrated differently in different parts of India, even though Deepavali is a hindu festival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more example, there are different calendars for the hinduism (Chandramana and Souramana). Which results in celebrating the same festival on different days across different regions (Example: Ugadi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4090" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T03:55:51.947" Title="Why there are so many difference in traditions in hinduism?" Tags="|festivals|tradition|calendar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9421" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10490" CreationDate="2015-11-11T05:34:29.727" Score="5" ViewCount="380" Body="&lt;p&gt;Janmejaya performed Nag-Yagya and killed all snakes from the face of earth to avenge the death of his father Parikshit who was killed by the snake Takshaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(It was a curse by rishi Shringi because Parikshit insulted his father Rishi Shameek.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then how do snakes still exist?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3271" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-13T14:54:17.797" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T14:54:17.797" Title="How do snakes still exist on earth?" Tags="|mahabharata|naga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9422" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3259" CreationDate="2015-11-11T06:22:38.590" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;How favorable and unfavorable planets/stars are identified while horoscope matching of bride and groom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of pundits gives importance to 3 things simultaneously:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;guna matching&#xA;then&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;favorable/unfavorable stars&#xA;then&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;individual yoga and combined effects/ dasha anter/ some people numerology&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4126" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-22T12:39:11.040" LastActivityDate="2018-02-22T12:39:11.040" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9423" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9426" CreationDate="2015-11-11T06:29:46.333" Score="17" ViewCount="5828" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a wish. I want Lord Shiva to appear before me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Would you please tell me what should I do to attain this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="594" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-12T19:19:35.767" LastActivityDate="2018-05-09T20:27:31.730" Title="A wish to see Lord Shiva" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9424" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9425" CreationDate="2015-11-11T06:33:00.723" Score="6" ViewCount="1422" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nala and Neela who were very powerful monkeys and mischievous in their childhood used to throw away objects in the water just for fun. when they threw away a certain sage in the water,they were cursed that nothing will be drowned in the water if it will be thrown by them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They as the vanara supporters to Lord Rama were enough to build the bridge Rama-Setu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But still why did Lord Rama pray to the Sea God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3271" LastEditorUserId="3271" LastEditDate="2016-05-27T08:40:18.200" LastActivityDate="2018-05-26T03:49:47.060" Title="Why did Lord Rama pray to the Sea God when he had Nala and Neela to assist him?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9425" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9424" CreationDate="2015-11-11T07:17:53.873" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do not know the source of the story that was quoted about Nala and Neela in the question.  As far as I understood, Valmiki's Srimad Ramayana does not contain this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the question of necessity of praying the Sea God, when Nala was very much available on Sri Rama's side, my answer is follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here we have to understand 2 issues.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Construction of a massive bridge for a length of 100 Yojanas, i.e, 100 x 13 kms = 1,300 Kms ( As 1 Yojana = 13 Kms)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) Permission of Sea God for the passage of Vanaras through sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I)    Sri Rama started praying the Sea God on the advice of Vibhishana, for safe passage of the army.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उपायैर् अभिगच्चामो यथा नद नदी पतिम् || ६-१९-२९&#xA;  तराम तरसा सर्वे ससैन्या वरुण आलयम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In what manner shall we along with the army swiftly cross the sea, the lord of streams and rivers, and arrive at that strategy?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवम् उक्तस् तु धर्मज्ञः प्रत्युवाच विभीषणः || ६-१९-३०&#xA;  समुद्रम् राघवो राजा शरणम् गन्तुम् अर्हति |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing their words, the right minded Vibhishana replied as follows: &quot;It is apt if prince Rama seeks ocean as his refuge&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अबद्ध्वा सागरे सेतुम् घोरे अस्मिन् वरुण आलये || ६-१९-३९&#xA;  लंका न आसादितुम् शक्या स इन्द्रैर् अपि सुर असुरैः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Without constructing a bridge across this fiery ocean, which is an abode of Lord Varuna, even the celestials and demons along with Indra cannot reach the city of Lanka.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवम् उक्तः कुश आस्तीर्णे तीरे नद नदी पतेः |&#xA;  सम्विवेश तदा रामो वेद्याम् इव हुत अशनः || ६-१९-४२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having been thus exhorted, Rama then sat on the shore of the ocean covered with blades of Kusha grass, as the God of Fire ascends the altar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in order to appease the Sea God, Sri Rama prayed to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the Sea God, told the way to cross him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विधास्ये येन गन्तासि विषहिष्ये ह्यहम् तथा |&#xA;  न ग्राहा विधमिष्यन्ति यावत्सेना तरिष्यति || २-२२-२८&#xA;  हरीणाम् तरणे राम करिष्यामि यथास्थलम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O, Rama! I shall make it possible to see that you are able to cross over. I will arrange a place for the monkeys to cross me and bear with it. As far as the army crosses me, the crocodiles will not be aggressive to them.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;II)   Coming to 2nd part of the question, Sri Rama does not know that Nala, the son of Viswakarma, who is on is side, is also great architect as his father is.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was the Sea God, who told to utilise the services of Nala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अयम् सौम्य नलो नाम तनुजो विश्व कर्मणः |&#xA;  पित्रा दत्त वरः श्रीमान् प्रतिमो विश्व कर्मणः || २-२२-४४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O, excellent man! This one, named Nala, a glorious person, is the son of Vishvakarma; who was given a boon by his father and is equal to Visvakarma.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एष सेतुम् महाउत्साहः करोतु मयि वानरः |&#xA;  तम् अहम् धारयिष्यामि तथा हि एष यथा पिता || २-२२-४५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Let this greatly energetic monkey build a bridge across me. I can hold that bridge. He is just the same as his father.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastActivityDate="2015-11-11T07:17:53.873" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9426" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9423" CreationDate="2015-11-11T07:35:21.343" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following is an excerpt from Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi.  May be it is useful to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Miss Umadevi, a Polish lady convert to Hinduism, asked Sri Bhagavan:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I once before told Sri Bhagavan how I had a vision of Siva at about the time of my conversion to Hinduism. A similar experience recurred to me at Courtallam. These visions are momentary. But they are blissful. I want to know how they might be made permanent and continuous. Without Siva there is no life in what I see around me. I am so happy to think of Him. Please tell me how His vision may be everlasting to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;M.: You speak of a vision of Siva. Vision is always of an object. That implies the existence of a subject. The value of the vision is the same as that of the seer. (That is to say, the nature of the vision is on the same plane as that of the seer.) Appearance implies disappearance also. Whatever appears must also disappear. A vision can never be eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Visions of God have their place below the plane of Self-Realisation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The crux of that teaching is that &lt;strong&gt;Visions of GOD have a place much below the REALISATION OF GOD.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The visions of the GOD are our own projections of perceptions of GOD, but not REAL.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had visions of various GODs.  Did he stop there?  No.  He went on with his spiritual practices, till he got the REALISATION.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the crucial part of it - The visions of God -be it Shiva, Vishnu or Shakti, etc, - will come to a person depending upon the intensity of devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to do that one must be prepared to devote maximum amount of his time for praying only, that too &lt;strong&gt;under the guidance of a competent GURU only&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please do not be deceived by the life histories of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Sri Ramana Maharshi, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are a class apart.  Their devotion, commitment are not easy to acquire for a common man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-11T07:35:21.343" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9427" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3805" CreationDate="2015-11-11T07:47:40.770" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is an obscure rule of karma: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a human kills an animal intentionally, it generally gets reborn as a human. If the human is degenerate, he may slip back and be born as what he killed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An analogous truth can be easily found in the scriptures: when God incarnates, and slays whichever Asura is causing havoc, the Asura is liberated; he attains proximity with God (born in a high loka), and becomes enlightened. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a human kills an animal, the animal attains human form. This is one of the reasons why it is not good to kill as many animals as we do; too many humans have to be born as a result of that, which upsets the dharma (order) on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But hey, the dharma of kali-yuga is to destroy dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4127" LastActivityDate="2015-11-11T07:47:40.770" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9429" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9366" CreationDate="2015-11-11T10:42:07.907" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't think any Puran is BAD..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are multiple stories about the origins of the Lord vishnu and Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shrimad Bhagvatam states that Lord Shiva appeared from between the&#xA;eyebrows of Lord Brahma. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shiva Purana states that Lord Vishnu&#xA;orignated when Lord Shiva rubbed some nectar on his ankle. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu Purana says that Lord Shiva originated from the eyebrows of the lord&#xA;vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when you read any of two puran completely then you will come to a real point that.&lt;strong&gt;It is from Sadashiv and Prakriti that Lord Bramha, Vishnu and Rudra are originated or born .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All three Lords are ever present in their esoteric form ,but, they get manifested in different physical worlds in different ways at different times. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As per Shiv Puran&lt;/strong&gt; after each cycle of creation and destruction the three Lords manifest in different ways. Sometimes it may start with Lord Vishnu, sometimes with Lord Brahma and sometimes with Lord Shiva, sometimes, even differently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the latest destruction, Bramha ji came out of a Lotus which grew out of Lord Vishnu's Navel ( now the real esoteric meaning of this story is totally different) and Lord Rudra came out of Lord Bramha's fore head or eyebrow. &#xA;But, it is also written that before this 'birth' of Lord Shiva and Lord Brahma all three had met each other where the events to follow were known. (The story where Lord Shiva appears in form of infinite tower of energy and then there are more times when they meet before Lord Bramha starts creating Universe). It was one such time that Lord Brahma requested Lord Rudra to be born in the physical universe through him, and therefore, the stories of Lord Rudra coming out of Lord Bramha's eyebrow/tear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="594" LastActivityDate="2015-11-11T10:42:07.907" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9430" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-11T13:44:59.943" Score="8" ViewCount="1012" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know why, during Diwali, the Bengalis celebrate Kali Puja? Why don't they worship Goddess Lakshmi and Ganesha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T19:23:23.863" LastActivityDate="2023-07-14T07:01:32.550" Title="Why do Bengalis celebrate Kali Puja during Diwali?" Tags="|ganesha|culture|festivals|lakshmi|kali|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9432" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-11T13:58:57.217" Score="5" ViewCount="10186" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know why Lord Krishna is called Kunj Bihari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-14T14:15:39.963" LastActivityDate="2015-12-08T19:03:57.730" Title="Why Krishna is called Kunj Bihari?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|puranas|bhagavata-purana|name|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9433" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-11T14:11:48.870" Score="2" ViewCount="312" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Kolkata which is the capital of West Bengal,there is a big temple named ''Kalighat'' which is a temple of Goddess Kali and in this temple there is also a Shakti Peetha. What is the story of this temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastActivityDate="2015-11-11T14:11:48.870" Title="What is the story of Kalighat Temple in Kolkata,West Bengal?" Tags="|shiva|durga|parvati|kali|shakti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9434" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9024" CreationDate="2015-11-11T15:55:59.690" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It has nothing to do with imagination.&lt;/strong&gt;  We have to examine that quote &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/11/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;in context&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna said: ... &amp;quot;O greatest of all personalities, O supreme form, though I see You here before me in Your actual position, as You have described Yourself, &lt;strong&gt;I wish to see how You have entered into this cosmic manifestation. I want to see that form of Yours.&lt;/strong&gt;  If You think that I am able to behold Your cosmic form, O my Lord, O master of all mystic power, then kindly show me that unlimited universal Self.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: &amp;quot;My dear Arjuna, O son of Pṛthā, see now My opulences, hundreds of thousands of varied divine and multicolored forms.  O best of the Bhāratas, see here the different manifestations of Ādityas, Vasus, Rudras, Aśvinī-kumāras and all the other demigods. Behold the many wonderful things which no one has ever seen or heard of before. O Arjuna, whatever you wish to see, behold at once in this body of Mine! This universal form can show you whatever you now desire to see and whatever you may want to see in the future. Everything – moving and nonmoving – is here completely, in one place.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the form that Krishna shows Arjuna is the specific form that Arjuna wished to see, i.e. the Sahasrashirsha Purusha form that Vishnu took when he entered the Universe.  It is described the same way it is described in other scriptures, like the Purusha Sukta of the Rig Veda as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7661/1018&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So that's what &amp;quot;whatever you wished to see&amp;quot; means here - whatever form you just asked to see.  And he also says &amp;quot;whatever you may wish to see in future&amp;quot;, i.e. the outcome of the war.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-11-7/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is Adi Shankaracharya's commentary on the verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pasya, see; adya, now; O Gudakesa, the krtsnam, entire; jagat, Universe; sa-cara-acaram, existing together with the moving and the non-moving; ekastham, concentrated at the same place; iha, here; mama dehe, in My body; ca, as also; yat anyat, whatever else-even those victory, defeat, etc. with regard to which you expressed doubt in, ‘whether we shall win, or whether they shall conquer us’ (2.6); if icchasi, you would like; drastum, to see them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here's Ramanujacharya's commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘Here’, in this one body of Mine, and even there, gathered together in a single spot, behold the universe with all mobile and immobile entities. Whatever else you desire to see (i.e., Arjuna’s chances of victory), behold that also in one part of this single body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is not the form that is dependent on Arjuna's desires, it is just the vision of Pandavas' victory that Krishna shows in response to Arjuna's desire to know the outcome of the battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Arjuna really did see Vishnu's Vishwarupa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-25T05:13:03.557" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9435" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9419" CreationDate="2015-11-11T16:57:33.867" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, you can not say buddhi is equivalent to Ishvara. This is clear from the following passages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The senses are great, they say. Superior to the senses is the mind,&#xA;  and superior even to the mind is the intellect. &lt;strong&gt;What is superior even&#xA;  to the intellect is He, the Atman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 3.42&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus knowing Him who is superior even to the Buddhi&lt;/strong&gt;, and controlling&#xA;  the lower self with the higher, kill that tough enemy in the form of&#xA;  lust, O mighty-armed Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 3.43&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-11-11T16:57:33.867" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9437" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-11T17:46:57.193" Score="2" ViewCount="1003" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know that why Lord Shiva is considered as the destroyer of the world? Please somebody answer my question!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every Hindu in the history of the world today knows the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwar (Every Hindu repeats this exactly in this order, but few know why).  &amp;quot;Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwar.&amp;quot; Let's take a closer look at what this means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma:  The Creator&#xA;Vishnu:  The Preserver and Protector&#xA;Shiva (Maheshwar):   The Destroyer&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma is tasked with Creating a Universe&#xA;Vishnu is tasked with Preserviing and Protecting, the Universe&#xA;Shiva (Maheshwar) is tasked with destroying the Physical/Material Universe during end times&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/LJLBo.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/LJLBo.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0Omsu.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0Omsu.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/quea8.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/quea8.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2023-03-09T04:33:02.237" LastActivityDate="2023-03-09T19:02:00.990" Title="Why Lord Shiva is considered as the destroyer of world?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|brahma|shiva-purana|symbolism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9439" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9432" CreationDate="2015-11-11T18:12:08.500" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;This name comes from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/practice/sadhana/morning/bhagavatam/jayaradha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&quot;Jaya Radha Madhava&quot;&lt;/a&gt;, a poem by the Gaudiya Vaishnava Acharaya Bhaktivinoda Thakur:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(jaya) radha-madhava &lt;strong&gt;(jaya) kunja-vihari&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; (jaya)&#xA;  gopi-jana-vallabha (jaya) giri-vara-dhari &lt;br&gt; (jaya) jasoda-nandana&#xA;  (jaya) braja-jana-ranjana &lt;br&gt; (jaya) jamuna-tira-vana-cari&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krsna is the lover of Radha. &lt;strong&gt;He displays many amorous pastimes in&#xA;  the groves of Vrndavana&lt;/strong&gt;, He is the lover of the cowherd maidens of&#xA;  Vraja, the holder of the great hill named Govardhana, the beloved son&#xA;  of mother Yasoda, the delighter of the inhabitants of Vraja, and he&#xA;  wanders in the forests along the banks of the River Yamuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it refers to Krishna's romantic pastimes amidst the groves of Vrindavana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-08T19:03:57.730" LastActivityDate="2015-12-08T19:03:57.730" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9440" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-11T19:12:36.483" Score="9" ViewCount="2002" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavidya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahavidyas&lt;/a&gt; is named &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhinnamasta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chinnamastika&lt;/a&gt;/Chinnamasta devi , I want to know about her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is her story of origin and why did she appear as one of the Mahavidyas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T06:33:51.987" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T11:00:26.947" Title="What is the story of Devi Chhinamastika?" Tags="|puranas|durga|parvati|dasha-mahavidya|chinnamasta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9441" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9094" CreationDate="2015-11-11T19:16:04.997" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu,Shiva and Brahma are form of Brahman. They are not different. Once Rishi Markandeya told Parvati's parents King Himavan and Menavati the story of Brahma,Vishnu and Shiva. In the story,Himavan and Menavati found that Brahma,Vishnu and Shiva are same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastActivityDate="2015-11-11T19:16:04.997" CommentCount="0" CommunityOwnedDate="2015-11-11T19:16:04.997" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9442" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8093" CreationDate="2015-11-12T00:30:55.023" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since I am not entirely satisfied with the answers and comments to my question I decided to compose the answer. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes it can happen that the length of a man's life somehow becomes reduced during a man's lifetime, and so one has to die before he was destined initially. There are statements in the scriptures about that.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said in the Manu-smriti, chapter 5:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Righteous Bhrigu, the son of Manu, (thus) answered the great sages: 'Hear, (in punishment) of what faults Death seeks to &lt;strong&gt;shorten the&#xA;  lives&lt;/strong&gt; of Brahmanas!'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;'Through neglect of the Veda-study, through deviation from the rule of conduct, through remissness (in the fulfilment of duties), and&#xA;  through faults (committed by eating forbidden) food, Death becomes&#xA;  eager to &lt;strong&gt;shorten the lives&lt;/strong&gt; of Brahmanas.'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See also in the Vishnu Purana, Book III: Chapter XI,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp085.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp085.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;code&gt;He&lt;/code&gt; who commits adultery &lt;code&gt;is punished both here and hereafter&lt;/code&gt;; &lt;strong&gt;for&#xA;  his days in this world are cut short&lt;/strong&gt;, and when dead he falls into&#xA;  hell.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In those verses &quot;shorten the lives&quot; and &quot;his days in this world are cut short&quot; talks about the length of a man's life becomes reduced during a man's lifetime, and so one has to die before he was destined initially. This is also evident from the statement &quot;He ... is punished both here and hereafter&quot;, namely he is even punished here in this world the way that the length of his lifetime becomes reduced, and thus he will not reach the predetermined duration of a lifetime.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This predetermined duration of a man's life can be reduced if a person commits some kind of offense, fault or a sin during the life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="2790" LastEditDate="2015-11-12T00:36:29.013" LastActivityDate="2015-11-12T00:36:29.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9443" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7331" CreationDate="2015-11-12T05:25:21.840" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana, Dharma Kanda Chapter XXXIII has a shloka which says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The distance between the mortal world and the region of Yama is eighty&#xA;  six thousand yojanas (one million, thirty two thousand kilometres).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this  conversion is correct then 1 yojana is equivalent to 12 kilo meters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-11-12T05:25:21.840" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9444" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9447" CreationDate="2015-11-12T05:27:36.830" Score="5" ViewCount="1159" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I was looking through this question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-only-shiva-worshiped-in-a-linga-form/122#122&quot;&gt;Why is Shiva primarily worshipped in a linga form?&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;I came across an answer by keshav, where he narrates the story of sage Brighu cursing Brahma and Shiva. We have also read many stories and incidents where God's were being cursed by saints and mortals. Just to note a few, we have the story of Tulasi cursing vishnu and Gandhari cursing krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is how can someone curse the supreme being just like that!? Do they have more power and authority over God? Or was it meant to be that way? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3135" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-11-12T09:00:12.933" Title="How can God be cursed?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|gods|brahma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9445" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5170" CreationDate="2015-11-12T05:38:07.187" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to point out that the classical commentator Nilakantha claims that years mentioned in the Mahabharata do not mean ordinary human years. There is a passage in Mahabharata Virata Parva Section XLIII which says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And finally Partha, surnamed Swetavahana, hath held it [Gandiva] for&#xA;  five and sixty years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translator Sri K. M. Ganguli says in a footnote that 'Nilakantha spends much learning and ingenuity in making out that sixty-five years in this connection means thirty-two years of ordinary human computation'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-11-12T05:38:07.187" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9446" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-12T06:57:14.280" Score="4" ViewCount="1329" Body="&lt;p&gt;My home town is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiruchirappalli&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tiruchirappalli&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (i.e Trichy) which is the abbreviated form of &lt;em&gt;Thirucchiram arutha palli&lt;/em&gt; (Tamil). In English, it literally means '&lt;strong&gt;the place where the holy beheading took place&lt;/strong&gt;'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I asked all the elders in my city, the reason behind the name, everyone answered the same: &quot;This is the place where the elephant's head was cut off, which was later attached to Lord Ganesha&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also some people added more details like, &quot;The elephant was lying facing north. So, that's why we should never sleep with our head towards north (There's scientific reason also there behind this. Like direction of Earth's magnetic rays are north-south)&quot; and &quot;The elephant was in the hill (which is the present &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiruchirapalli_Rock_Fort&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rockfort&lt;/a&gt; in the city) while it was beheaded. Then a Ganesh temple was built in that place to remember that incident. (Which is now one of the most famous Ganesh temples in India located at the top of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiruchirapalli_Rock_Fort&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rockfort&lt;/a&gt;)&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know whether the preceding statements are true. Even though I couldn't find any related stories that reveal where the beheading happened, everything the elders tell absolutely matches with our city's name, temples and places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4132" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-12T19:19:07.173" LastActivityDate="2016-05-17T12:45:38.187" Title="Where did the beheading of the elephant (which later became the head of Lord Ganesha) happen?" Tags="|shiva|history|ganesha|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9447" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9444" CreationDate="2015-11-12T07:05:53.977" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;God can be cursed only when He wishes it this way. Here is an example of Narada's curses on Sri Vishnu in a story that took place like this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a story of sage Narada and Vishvamohini. Once Narada, on seeing Vishvamohini, forgot all about his dispassion and thought to devise some means so that the beautiful princess may choose him for her husband. Narada prayed to Sri Hari and requested the God for His own beauty to get possession of Vishvamohini. In the sage's own interest the gracious God had made him ugly (with monkey-like face) beyond description. But no one could mark the change that had taken place in Narada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada went and sat where the arena for the choice-marriage had been prepared. The princess alone saw his ugly form. The moment she beheld his monkey-like face and frightful form she was filled with rage. She moved on to the next and did not care to give even a second look. On seeing his reflection in water, the sage was filled with fury and cursed Sri Hari. This is narrated in Tulasidas' Sri Ramacharitamanas, Balkand (&lt;a href=&quot;http://web--stock.in/001-Epics-PDF/Ram-Charit-Manas-English/002-Ram-Charit-Manas-English.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;-page 101, search page 21). Here is the curse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You made me look like a monkey; therefore You shall have monkeys for Your helpmates. And as You have grievously wronged me, so shall You suffer the pangs of separation from Your wife. &lt;strong&gt;Gladly accepting the curse&lt;/strong&gt;, the compassionate Lord made many entreaties to the sage, and withdrew the irrestible charm of His Maya. When Sri Hari lifted the spell of His Maya, there was neither Ramaa nor the princess to be seen by His side. In dire dismay the sage then clasped the feet of Hari and said, &quot;O Reliever of the distress of the suppliant, save me! O gracious lord! let my curse prove ineffectual.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;&quot;It was My will&quot;, replied the Lord&lt;/strong&gt;, who is so merciful to the humble.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, as is evident from the story that God can be cursed only when He wishes to be cursed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above incident was one of the reasons responsible for incarnation of Sri Rama. As Sri Rama, Sri Hari suffered separation from His wife (Sri Sita) and had monkeys as His helpmates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastActivityDate="2015-11-12T07:05:53.977" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9448" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-12T08:49:02.350" Score="7" ViewCount="3243" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Advaita, I want to get a clear understanding of the following terms:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Avidya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ignorance&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are Avidya, Maya, and Ignorance? And what is the difference/relationship between them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, is one part of the other, or do they all indicate the same thing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which is to be overcome and removed? Which is interception or enemy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-11T23:22:08.497" LastActivityDate="2022-01-11T23:22:08.497" Title="What are Avidya, Maya and Ignorance according to Advaita?" Tags="|philosophy|advaita|terminology|maya|ignorance|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9451" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-13T00:29:05.760" Score="2" ViewCount="57" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm looking for Demographic data of Hindu population in Indonesia since the 1940's. A timeseries of % of Hindu population there would be ideal.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-30T10:07:32.513" LastActivityDate="2016-12-30T10:07:32.513" Title="Hindu demographics in Indonesia" Tags="|statistics|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9452" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9291" CreationDate="2015-11-13T00:50:40.680" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;To understand the supreme being and the process of creation started by the supreme being, one has to read the Shakteya Agamas. All the Hindu deities including the Trimurthis Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra coalesce into Moola Prakriti(distinct from Prakriti/Purusha) after Pralaya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A detailed analysis of Saktheya Agamas is provided in the book attached in the following website. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://agasthyayug.blogspot.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://agasthyayug.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SadaShivam is Guru and corresponding Devi is Moksha Shakthi. My inference is Sadashiva is Ishwara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SA Poorveshamapi Guru Kalena Anavachedat - Patanjali YogaSutras&#xA;  Samadhi Pada 26&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: Iswara is Guru (Preceptor) to the most ancient, and He surpasses Time, not being subject to Time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The position of Sadashivam in the heirarchy is given below (refer chapter XVIII in the book)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Q4vEl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Q4vEl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not sure about Shakshat Shiva. It could be Aham Sathyam(Aham of Moola Prakriti), mentioned in the book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-23T15:35:01.167" LastActivityDate="2015-11-23T15:35:01.167" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9454" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-13T04:25:32.033" Score="23" ViewCount="3926" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The four Yugas (Satya, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali) together make up one Mahayuga.  1000 Mahayugas make up one Kalpa, which is one day in the life of Brahma.  After the Kalpa is over Brahma goes to sleep, and there's a Pralaya which destroys the three worlds, at the end of which Brahma wakes up and creates the world anew.  But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6536/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, in addition to being divided into 1000 Mahayugas, a Kalpa is also divided into 14 periods known as Manvantaras, in which a figure known as a Manu rules over humanity. Since there are 14 Manus who rule in a given Kalpa, each Manu rules for about 71 Mahayugas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now unless Hinduism Stackexchange manages to survive past the Kali Yuga (!), we are all currently living in the 28th Kali Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  There are plenty of scriptures that talk about past, present, and future Manvantaras.  And there are scriptures that talk about the first 28 Mahayugas of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  For instance, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3618/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; the Vishnu Purana lists the Vedavyasas or compilers of the Vedas in the first 28 Dwapara Yugas of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  And the Shiva Purana discusses the various Yogeshwara incarnations Shiva has taken in the first 28 Mahayugas of the Vaivasvata Manvantaras, including Lakulisha whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2481/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And there are various references in the Puranas to incarnations of Vishnu in the first 28 Mahayugas, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7192/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But my question is, what do we know about the future Mahayugas of the present Vaivasvata Manvantara?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I only know about two things that will happen in the 29th Mahayuga (i.e. the next Mahayuga):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the 29th Satya Yuga, Shantanu's brother Devāpi and Rama's descendant Maru will re-establish the lunar and solar dynasties, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the one thousand celestial years of Kali-yuga, the Satya-yuga will manifest again. At that time the minds of all men will become self-effulgent.... Devāpi, the brother of Mahārāja Śāntanu, and Maru, the descendant of Ikṣvāku, both possess great mystic strength and are living even now in the village of Kalāpa.  At the end of the Age of Kali, these two kings, having received instruction directly from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, will return to human society and reestablish the eternal religion of man, characterized by the divisions of varṇa and āśrama, just as it was before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2390/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, in the 29th Dwapara Yuga, Drona's son Ashwatthama will become the next Vedavyasa or compiler of the Vedas.  This is described by Vyasa's father Parashara in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin//vp/vp077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the next Dwápara, Drauńi (the son of Drońa) will be the Vyása, when my son, the Muni Krishńa Dwaipáyana, who is the actual Vyása, shall cease to be (in that character).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But what else do we know about the 29th Mahayuga?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And are there any scriptures which mention events in later Mahayugas of the Vaivasvata Manvantara?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If not, how is it that we have information in Hindu scripture about events in all future Manvantaras of the present Kalpas, but absolutely no information about the 30th and subsequent Mahayugas of the present Manvantara?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-23T13:11:39.223" LastActivityDate="2021-10-25T23:17:06.947" Title="What do we know about the future Mahayugas?" Tags="|puranas|scripture|yuga|time|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9457" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-13T09:55:14.337" Score="6" ViewCount="523" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any text mentioning about the size of soul in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there, then what is the size/volume of soul according to it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it a physical thing and has same size for all organisms?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I mean is physical dimensional explanation of soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4139" LastEditorUserId="4139" LastEditDate="2015-11-17T08:29:40.543" LastActivityDate="2016-09-11T08:43:36.240" Title="Size of soul in Hinduism texts" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9459" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-13T12:15:03.963" Score="2" ViewCount="1939" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the story of Rishi Durvasa and King Ambarish. Please somebody answer my question!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3980" LastActivityDate="2021-11-03T10:50:36.810" Title="What is the story of Rishi Durvasa and King Ambarish?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|shiva-purana|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9460" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9463" CreationDate="2015-11-13T12:27:07.360" Score="3" ViewCount="516" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Geetha&lt;/strong&gt; it is said that &lt;strong&gt;lust and anger are worse qualities&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it didn't stress any where that &lt;strong&gt;fear is a bad quality&lt;/strong&gt;. Am I correct? Is there any slokha explicitly saying that fear is very worse quality?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If not, is fear not as bad as lust and angry?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2015-11-14T06:09:08.107" LastActivityDate="2015-11-15T08:37:58.333" Title="Is fear not as bad as anger and lust?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9462" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9459" CreationDate="2015-11-13T14:34:27.997" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;King Ambarish ,a king of Surya Dynasty, was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. Once King Ambarish decided to fast. But after few days he decided to break his fast as he was feeling hungry.Then Sage Atri and Anusuya's son Sage Durvasa appeared before him. Sage Atri suggested Ambarish to break his fast only when Sage Durvasa returned from bath. Ravenous Ambarsh could't wait for Durvasa and broke his fast by drinking water, at consent of other sages. But short-tempered Durvasa after knowing this, became angry and plucked a hair from his head and threw it on the ground. A demon sprouted from the hair and the demon killed the King Ambarish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu after knowing this got infuriated. Lord Vishnu sent his weapon Sudarshan Chakra to kill Sage durvasa.When Sudarshan Chakra was following him, Sage Durvasa pleaded to Ambarish's soul, which was wandering there. At the supplication of Ambarish's Soul , Lord Vishnu took back his Sudarshan Chakra without killing Sage Durvasa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XOck7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XOck7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Sage Duravasa followed by Sudarshana Chakra&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="3951" LastEditDate="2015-11-28T06:34:20.957" LastActivityDate="2015-11-28T06:34:20.957" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9463" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9460" CreationDate="2015-11-13T15:27:39.100" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gita classifies fear as a bad quality as can be seen in this shloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Freed from passion, &lt;strong&gt;fear&lt;/strong&gt; and anger, ever absorbed in My thought,&#xA;  and ever dependent on Me - many have attained to My state, being&#xA;  purified by the fire of knowledge and austerity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 4.10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-11-13T15:27:39.100" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9464" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9460" CreationDate="2015-11-13T16:23:49.150" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Our ancient scriptures never classified passion, fear, anger, etc, as bad qualities.  &lt;strong&gt;They are only weaknesses .&lt;/strong&gt;  That is why it was said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आहार-निद्रा-भय-मैथुनं च समानमेतत्पशुभिर्नराणाम् ।&#xA;धर्मो हि तेषामधिको विशेषो धर्मेण हीनाः पशुभिः समानाः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;food, sleep, fear and mating, these acts of humans are similar to animals'.  Of them (humans), dharma (right conduct) is the only special thing, without dharma humans are also animals.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(hitopadeshaH kathAmrutam  &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.practicalsanskrit.com/2010/01/human-or-animal-what-is-difference.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://blog.practicalsanskrit.com/2010/01/human-or-animal-what-is-difference.html&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Through this sloka, we are told about &lt;strong&gt;common traits&lt;/strong&gt; to both animals and human beings and about that quality DHARMA, which separates animals from Human beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, passion, fear, anger, etc, are not weaknesses in all cases .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have to understand that passion, fear, anger, etc, &lt;strong&gt;may be impediment for a person desiring to progress SPIRITUALLY,&lt;/strong&gt; but not to a student or a householder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a student does not have passion towards his studies, he can not gain knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a parents do not show anger towards misbehaving children, they can not set them on right path&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a person does not learn to fear about hazardous materials like electricity, poisonous chemicals, explosives, etc (or) wild animals (or) dangerous situations, it will pose threat to very life of humans.  Are not animals running away out of fear, when a threat to their life has been perceived?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In respect of humans desiring to progress spiritually, passion, fear, anger, etc, these are to be considered weaknesses only but not bad qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unless the spiritual aspirant overcomes his weaknesses, i.e., passion, fear, anger, etc, his progress will be little.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The life of Sage Vishwamitra is an example in this regard.  As long as he was overwhelmed by his weaknesses like desire for opposite sex, anger, ego, jealousy,etc, he could not succeed in his attempts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-14T03:20:56.420" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9465" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-13T17:56:08.207" Score="8" ViewCount="3714" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the basis of intonation marks with respect to vedic chantings? Why does it not applicable in puranic or Geeta chanting?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4032" LastActivityDate="2017-01-17T06:01:44.550" Title="Swara signs and Vedas" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9466" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-13T18:01:15.720" Score="5" ViewCount="3632" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard Lord Rama left his physical body and went to vaikunta. So, what is the story of Lord Rama's departure?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-02-13T14:30:39.153" LastActivityDate="2018-04-03T02:41:54.137" Title="What is the story of Lord Rama's departure?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9468" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9271" CreationDate="2015-11-13T18:15:35.727" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No,Lakshmi is considered as a part of Goddess Adi Parashakti.  Shakti's another name is 'Mahalaxmi' and Lakshmi's name is also Mahalaxmi and this is a proof that Shakti is Goddess Lakshmi. In Shakti'purana,Goddess Adi Parashakti said ''I am Brahma's wife Saraswati,Vishnu's wife Lakshmi and I am Shiva's wife Parvati''. This is also an another proof that Shakti is Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastActivityDate="2015-11-13T18:15:35.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9469" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-13T21:30:49.660" Score="6" ViewCount="2521" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since we have this vast documented mythology related things, I am curious to know is there any book or something of this nature that outlines the verses / slokas that one can chant to ward off some diseases or illness or protect us from catching the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2886" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2021-04-21T04:04:18.670" LastActivityDate="2021-04-21T04:04:18.670" Title="Are there any slokas/ verses/ scriptures to cure or avoid diseases" Tags="|scripture|puranas|health|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9470" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="881" CreationDate="2015-11-13T22:35:40.650" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://raimon-panikkar.org/spagnolo/X-2-Il-Cristo.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;R. Panikkar&lt;/a&gt;, the role of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishvara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ishvara&lt;/a&gt; in Vedanta corresponds functionally to the role of Christ in Christian thought. There is a &lt;em&gt;functional equivalence&lt;/em&gt; between Christ and Ishvara. Both figures, the &lt;em&gt;Logos&lt;/em&gt; and saguna Brahman, fulfill the same role within their particular religious manifestation. Both Christ and Ishvara are treated as the personal aspects of God; that 'link' allows &lt;em&gt;personal communication&lt;/em&gt; and engagement with nirguna Brahman. Each acts as a mediator between God and mankind. In the same manner, each acts as the means (Jn 14, 6) of creation and salvation.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;em&gt;homeomorphic&lt;/em&gt; correspondence provides a &quot;link&quot; between Indian philosophy with a locus for Christ and Christian theology for Ishvara.  The historicity of Jesus (&lt;em&gt;the&lt;/em&gt;) Christ, while essential, is not a good starting point for a dialogue between the two religions. The Christ of Hinduism is &quot;hidden and unknown&quot; (R. Panikkar), this hidden link is Ishvara, the &lt;em&gt;unknown Christ&lt;/em&gt; of Hinduism.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishvara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt;, Ishvara fullfills the role of relation between Brahman and World. Of course, Ishvara cannot solve the problem satisfactorily. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishvara#Advaita_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sankara’s Ishvara&lt;/a&gt; cannot be a true mediator as he is only &quot;real&quot; from a relative point of view and not real from the absolute. In Sankara’s Advaita, the diversity between Brahman and Ishvara is overstressed to save the consistentcy of Brahman, while in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishvara#Vishishta_Advaita_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ramanuja’s Visistadvaita&lt;/a&gt;, it is the identity between Brahman and Isvara which is overstressed to save the consistency of the world. But again, Ishvara is still not a satisfactory &quot;link&quot;.  According to R. Panikkar, only Christ (the &lt;em&gt;Logos&lt;/em&gt;) can be the true link between the World and God. Panikkar’s Ishvara requires a subtle reinterpretation of Vedanta, for him, this &quot;link&quot; is both &quot;human&quot; and &quot;divine&quot; (&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perichoresis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;perichoresis&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;), pointing towards a reality which not only connects the two poles of God and world, but which &quot;is&quot; the two poles without losing their identity as persons in the Christian language; this Ishvara of his interpretation points towards the Mystery of Christ. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,  Panikkar is reinterpreting the Ishvara of Vedanta so that it becomes the already formulated traditional Christian understanding of Christ, but, on the other hand, this subtle reintepretation solves the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/brahma.sutra/brahma.sutra_1.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;problems between Sankara Ramanuja&lt;/a&gt; under the light of the Christian Trinity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We should bear in mind that &quot;Christ&quot; is the center of reality, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_and_Omega#Meaning_in_Christianity&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;the &lt;em&gt;Alpha and Omega&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, as seen by the scholastic Christian tradition. Jesus is the &lt;em&gt;human manifestation&lt;/em&gt; of Christ for the Christian, it is the Christian &lt;em&gt;Ishta-Devata&lt;/em&gt;, so to speak, and for the Christian is the definitive and &lt;a href=&quot;http://cdn.theologicalstudies.net/55/55.4/55.4.1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;public manifestation of God&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;em&gt;my point of view&lt;/em&gt;, Christianity is the only True Religion because it is &lt;em&gt;Catholic&lt;/em&gt; (&quot;universal&quot;), and Hinduism is the religion of TRUTH. One has the True Doctrine and the other the methods to reach the Truth. Boths share the same goal: they are projects of salvation, called Resurrection or Moksha. Boths are perfectly compatible and should learn from each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4125" LastEditorUserId="4125" LastEditDate="2015-11-14T20:34:17.173" LastActivityDate="2015-11-14T20:34:17.173" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9471" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-14T02:14:55.953" Score="4" ViewCount="2745" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in Adhyaya 2 Pada 2 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa discusses various rival schools to Vedanta. In particular, he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Topic-8: Bhagavata View Refuted &lt;br&gt;&#xA;42. (The Bhagavata view that Samkarsana and others originate successively from Vasudeva and others is wrong), since any origin (for&#xA;the soul) is impossible. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;43. And (this view is wrong because) an implement cannot originate from its agent (who wields it). &lt;br&gt;&#xA;44. Alternatively even if (it be assumed that Vasudeva and others are) possessed of knowledge, (majesty etc.,), still the defect cannot&#xA;be remedied. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;45. Besides, (in this scripture) many contradictions are met with and it runs counter to the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This translation is biased towards Advaita, but nevertheless most commentators on the Brahma Sutras agree that Vyasa is talking about the Pancharatra texts, the foundational texts of Vaishnavism which I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Now Adi Shankaracharya's Advaita commentary &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34218.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;argues&lt;/a&gt; that Vyasa is criticizing Pancharatra, whereas Ramanujacharya's commentary &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48245.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;argues&lt;/a&gt; that Vyasa is defending Pancharatra from a potential crticism, but both agree that Pancharatra is the subject being discussed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as with many things, the Dvaita philosopher Madhvacharya has a very different intepretation of these Sutras.  He thinks that when Vyasa is criticizing the notion that the soul comes from Brahman, he is not criticizing the Pancharatra texts, but rather the Shakta Agamas, i.e. the texts followed by those who think the goddess Shakti is supreme.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sUHxK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Madhvacharya interprets Sutra 42 in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;42&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;On account of the impossibility of origination, (Shakti, a Goddess, cannot be the cause).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the bringing forth of anything has not been observed on the part of the female without the favour of the male.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Baladeva Vidyabhushana, the Gaudiya Vaishnava commentator on the Brahma Sutras, &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/U2Ao&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;gives&lt;/a&gt; the same interpretation as Madhvacharya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The followers of Śakti have imagined Her to be the sole cause&#xA;of the world by reasoning alone, unsupported by Vedic authority. Since they base their theory on reason, they must be refuted by such reason as would appeal to the common sense of mankind. It is not possible that Śakti&#xA;alone could be the mother of the whole universe, because by Herself, She has no power of origination. We do not find immaculate conception in this world, nor do females give birth without connection with males.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the logic of Madvacharya's argument that Shakti cannot create souls?  Just because human females require a man to bear children, why does that imply that the supreme goddess Shakti (as Shaktas view her) would require the help of a man to create souls?  Surely if Shakti were engaging in the activity of creation, she wouldn't need to use human means of reproduction to do it!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any followers of Madhvacharya or Baladeva Vidyabhushana who have elaborated on their reasoning here?  The reasoning seems ridiculous to me.  Then again, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8682/36&quot;&gt;some of the reasoning&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya and Ramanujacharya doesn't make sense to me at times, so perhaps I'm missing something here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-05-08T07:52:17.303" Title="What was Madhvacharya's argument against the Shaktas?" Tags="|philosophy|brahma-sutras|shakti|dvaita|madhvacharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9472" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9460" CreationDate="2015-11-14T05:59:17.457" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, not sure how fear compares with lust and anger or which one is worse; but fear is certainly not good as talked by Swami Vivekananda &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_7/Conversations_And_Dialogues/V&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. All the negative thoughts and ideas that are in this world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting Sri Ramakrishna on fear &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.estudantedavedanta.net/gospel_srk.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (search page 145)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should not be ashamed of chanting God's holy name.  As the &#xA;  saying   goes, 'One does not succeed so long as one has these three: shame, hatred, and fear.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the fear of God is necessary as it prevents one from acting in immoral and illegal ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2015-11-14T07:24:11.977" LastActivityDate="2015-11-14T07:24:11.977" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9473" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-14T07:19:59.293" Score="10" ViewCount="3400" Body="&lt;p&gt;As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6672/why-does-vishnu-have-eight-arms-when-krishna-and-arjuna-go-to-see-him&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Krsna and Arjuna go to Svetadvipa to retrieve the Brahmana's sons. Now when they reach there, Vishnu says &lt;strong&gt;this&lt;/strong&gt; (of all the beautiful words he could say): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I brought the brāhmaṇa’s sons here because I wanted to see the two of you, My expansions, who have descended to the earth to save the principles of religion. As soon as you finish killing the demons who burden the earth, quickly come back here to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, &lt;strong&gt;why in Svetadvipa&lt;/strong&gt; would Vishnu take so much trouble just to &lt;strong&gt;see&lt;/strong&gt; his expansions? And that too just to say, &quot;Hi, you are my avatara, so after your purpose is over you will return back here. Off you go.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know, but Vishnu's answer seems pretty unsatisfactory. Why exactly did Vishnu want to see them? Srila Prabhupada says (I'll post the reference as soon as I find it) that Mahavishnu couldn't control his desire to behold Lord Krsna (from the POV that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead), and thus arranged this leela. That explains Krsna. But there is another person standing next to Krsna. What about him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2018-12-19T14:44:15.887" LastActivityDate="2019-01-07T16:19:36.303" Title="Why did Vishnu want to see Krsna and Arjuna?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|bhagavata-purana|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9475" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-14T09:31:30.533" Score="3" ViewCount="2926" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sundara Kanda, a mention was made about Dhanyamalini, wife of Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After a heated debate with Sita, Ravana reminds her, with a mind full of lust and anger,  of the deadline of 2 more months for surrendering to him.  Then Dhanyamalini pacifies him and takes him back to his mansion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उपगम्य ततः शीघ्रं राक्षसी धान्यमालिनी || ५-२२-३९&#xA;परिष्वज्य दशग्रीवमिदं वचनमब्रवीत् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter an ogre named Dhanyamalini quickly neared Ravana, embraced him and spoke these words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मया क्रीड महाराज सीतया किं तवानया || ५-२२-४०&#xA;विवर्णया कृपणया मानुष्या राक्षसेश्वर |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O king! Sport with me. O lord of ogres! Of what use to you is this Seetha who is colorless and a wreched human.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एवमुक्तस्तु राक्षस्या समुत्क्षिप्तस्ततो बली || ५-२२-४३&#xA;प्रहसन्मेघसम्काशो राक्षसः स न्यवर्तत |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus spoken to by that ogre that Ravana who was strong equalling a cloud, thereafter being taken away turned back laughing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While narrating his exploits in Lanka to vanaras, Sri Hanuma says as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विवृत्य नयने क्रूरे मुष्टिम् उद्यम्य दक्षिणम् || ५-५८-७४&#xA;मैथिलीम् हन्तुम् आरब्धः स्त्रीभिः हाहा कृतम् तदा |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rolling his cruel eyes and lifting his right fist, Ravana was about to kill Seetha. Then, an alarm was raised by a woman there&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्त्रीणाम् मध्यात् समुत्पत्य तस्य भार्या दुरात्मनः || ५-५८-७५&#xA;वरा मन्द उदरी नाम तया स प्रतिषेधितः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Springing up from the midst of those women, a royal woman named Mandodari, the wife of that evil-minded Ravana, ran to him. He was restrained by her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Sri Hanuma was saying that it was Mandodari, who stopped Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anybody explain whether Mandodari and Dhanyamalini are one and the same?  If not, why did Sage Valmiki mention two different names indicating the same woman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-10T03:01:21.387" Title="Are Dhanyamalini and Mandodari one and the same?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9476" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-14T11:08:20.357" Score="10" ViewCount="2398" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some blogs on internet say Lord Shiva (in human form &quot;Rudra&quot;) participated in divine dance (&lt;em&gt;Rasaleela&lt;/em&gt;) with Krishna at Vrindavan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Bhagavatam or any Purana mention Shiva (Rudra) dancing with Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Bezpu.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Bezpu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-27T02:41:56.043" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T06:06:49.697" Title="What Scriptures describe Rasaleela of Rudra (Shiva) with Krishna?" Tags="|shiva|krishna|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9477" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9476" CreationDate="2015-11-14T12:42:41.317" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;While it is quite a popular belief (even one that I believe), according to Bhagavatam, Lord Shiva is nowhere mentioned in the Rasa Leela; He is only used as a simile like:&#xA;Just like one should not imitate Lord Shiva in drinking poison, one should not imitate Lord Krsna in his Rasa Leela pastimes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in Vrindavana, there is a temple for Lord Gopeshvara Mahadeva, which you can read about &lt;a href=&quot;http://mathuravisit.com/vrindavan/gopesvara-mahadeva-temple.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2016-08-17T06:06:49.697" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T06:06:49.697" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9478" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-14T14:19:04.693" Score="3" ViewCount="240" Body="&lt;p&gt;I clearly know that Rukmini and Krishna married each other with mutual agreement/wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my doubt is whether the marriage happened against the wish of Rukmini's mother/ father/ siblings or all?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I allegedly know that Rukmini has to actually marry Sisupala according to their parent's wish. But Krishna eloped her with her wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if it is true that Krishna married Rukmini against her parent's wish, is it allowed to do? If the girl accepts to marry, then the partner can elope her even though her parents disagree their marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is there any special context for Krishna that allows him to do like that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-17T10:47:11.130" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T10:47:11.130" Title="Did Krishna marry Rukmini against her parents wish?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|dharma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-03-17T10:59:14.313" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9482" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-14T15:36:00.230" Score="0" ViewCount="75" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is our Kali Yuga is the last yuga of the world? Please somebody answer my question!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastActivityDate="2015-11-14T15:36:00.230" Title="Is Kali yuga the last yuga of the world?" Tags="|vishnu|kalki|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ClosedDate="2015-11-14T15:41:38.027" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9483" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-14T17:01:47.480" Score="4" ViewCount="2036" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that &lt;strong&gt;happiness is a positive emotion&lt;/strong&gt; and being sad is a negative emotion in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Geetha, Krishna says that we should consider both &lt;strong&gt;happiness&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;sadness&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;equal&lt;/strong&gt;. (Chapter 2 verse &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/2/verse/15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;15&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/2/verse/38&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;38&lt;/a&gt;) Does it mean we should &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; be happy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is happiness a forbidden feeling? Being sad is not a good thing. But I am confused why staying always happy is not encouraged and why it should be taken to be equal to sadness?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I want to spend my life with &lt;strong&gt;full happiness, independent of the events&lt;/strong&gt; occurring, then is it not correct to do so, according to Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Krishna say anywhere to always live with happiness?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T09:22:16.350" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T09:22:16.350" Title="Why a positive emotion like happiness is not encouraged by Krishna in Geetha?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9486" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9483" CreationDate="2015-11-15T04:06:25.290" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The questioner quoted the following 2 slokas from Srimad Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यं हि न व्यथयन्त्येते पुरुषं पुरुषर्षभ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;समदुःखसुखं धीरं सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते।।2.15।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O (Arjuna, who are) foremost among men, verily, the person whom these do not torment, the wise man to whom sorrow and happhiness are the same he is fit for Immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सुखदुःखे समे कृत्वा लाभालाभौ जयाजयौ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततो युद्धाय युज्यस्व नैवं पापमवाप्स्यसि।।2.38।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Viewing alike, pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, you should get then ready for the battle. Thus you will not incur sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have to remember/understand, at least theoretically, the background of the Gita and higher concepts of Spiritualism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The duals like pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, etc, will occur in a person's life,  according to the &lt;strong&gt;prArabdha&lt;/strong&gt; (stored merit of early births).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some wise people compared the above mentioned duals to ups and downs of waves of a sea and some more wise to oscillations of a pendulum of Clock.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That what goes up has to come down (in the case of waves of ocean) and that what goes to one extreme has to necessarily move to other extreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again happiness on various occasions &lt;strong&gt;are only temporary&lt;/strong&gt; as in the case of sorrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Happiness obtained through winning an examination, getting married, gratification out of sexual intercourse, begetting children, etc, are all temporary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If they are permanent, can a person after begetting children be happy forever?  No.  The upbringing of children will engulf the same person with lot of tensions, pressures, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if a person try to avoid sorrow and be happy all the time, his &lt;strong&gt;prArabdha&lt;/strong&gt; will not allow him to be in that happy mood.  Whether a person is interested in doing some work, which will engulf him with lot of pressures and worries, he will be dragged into doing so by his &lt;strong&gt;prArabdha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, whether he asks for happiness or not, his &lt;strong&gt;prArabdha&lt;/strong&gt; will drown him with happy moments and luxuries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Sri Krishna is advising the spiritual aspirants in general and Arjuna in particular to view the events, which are only a passing clouds, with equanimity, which state is also known as &lt;strong&gt;sthitapragna&lt;/strong&gt;, and which will also result &lt;strong&gt;in mOksha or liberation or elimination of rebirth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-15T04:34:24.073" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9488" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9483" CreationDate="2015-11-15T08:07:24.227" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The whole purpose of Gita is to know how to be happy. The human mind is tricky, it does not want to be sad, here Krishna says let sadness come too. It will go away after a while anyways. Everything changes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 4 Verse 22: यदृच्छालाभसन्तुष्टो द्वन्द्वातीतो विमत्सर: | सम:&#xA;  सिद्धावसिद्धौ च कृत्वापि न निबध्यते || 22||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yadṛichchhā-lābha-santuṣhṭo dvandvātīto vimatsaraḥ samaḥ&#xA;  siddhāvasiddhau cha kṛitvāpi na nibadhyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Content with whatever gain comes of its own accord, and free from&#xA;  envy, they are beyond the dualities of life. Being equipoised in&#xA;  success and failure, they are not bound by their actions, even while&#xA;  performing all kinds of activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is my interpretation of the verse: &#xA;@hanugm said that he wants to 'spend his life with full happiness'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Lord Krishna mentions says 'tolerate duality' and 'be equipoised' he is saying that when sadness comes, do not suppress it, be equanimous about it. Sadness is also a part of life as much as happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-11-15T14:53:16.143" LastActivityDate="2015-11-15T14:53:16.143" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9493" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9728" CreationDate="2015-11-15T09:31:17.637" Score="2" ViewCount="934" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Narayaneeyam, 77th Dashakam, there is the story of Lord Krsna blessing Sairandhri and Akrura. It follows the Bhagavatam until the 3rd sloka. Then the fourth sloka says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Lord! Subsequently Thou on some nights delighted the doe eyed one in secret. Thou gave her a son who came to be well known as Upashloka. He learnt the knowledge in Satvata Tantra from Narada and shone as an exponent thereof.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is this new story of Krsna's &lt;strong&gt;son&lt;/strong&gt; from Sairandhri, and that too before he married Rukmini?! And what else did Upashloka do?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. I don't consider this story as imagination, since Narayana Bhattatiri composed it in front of Guruvayurappan, and therefore, if it was wrong, Guruvayurappan would have shook his head to deny the story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-18T06:36:39.720" LastActivityDate="2018-12-18T06:36:39.720" Title="What is the story of Upashloka?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9494" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9420" CreationDate="2015-11-15T09:48:38.563" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is an excerpt from an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..In Hinduism, there is no one central book, and no one specific&#xA;  culture. Therefore, those who are trying to bring unification are&#xA;  doing injustice to the very structure of Hinduism. Celebrating&#xA;  diversity is in the very DNA of Hinduism; that is the reason why it is&#xA;  most needed today in the whole world. The world is diverse — but all&#xA;  conflicts are about trying to make the world monolithic. Celebration&#xA;  of diversity is the only way to counter extremism...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the full article here:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/treasurehunt/diversity-is-in-the-dna-of-hinduism/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/treasurehunt/diversity-is-in-the-dna-of-hinduism/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-18T10:51:26.200" LastActivityDate="2016-04-18T10:51:26.200" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9495" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9500" CreationDate="2015-11-15T11:49:23.040" Score="2" ViewCount="121" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a school assignment on Origins and Apocalyptic tales. I would like to understand your beliefs on how the world was created and how it will end and have created the following questions to help me do so. I would appreciate it if you were able to answer them. Please answer in as much depth as possible and if you have any queries feel free to ask them to clear it up. Thank you! &#xA;Long responses are fine :)&#xA;This is different from another question as it is an ethnographic study with precise questions to understand in depth what people's beliefs (or experiences) may be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is your belief on how the world and human life was created and how does it, if at all, differ from your friends or family?&#xA;Is this belief shared across your entire religion or does it differ with denominations?&#xA;Does this belief have any significance to you? Does it impact your day to day life or how you live it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is your belief on how the world will end, aka the “apocalypse”, and how does it differ, if at all, from your friends or family?&#xA;Is this belief shared across your entire religion or does it differ with denominations?&#xA;Does this belief have any significance to you? Does it impact your day to day life or how you live it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where did these beliefs come from? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4158" LastEditorUserId="4158" LastEditDate="2015-11-18T19:59:29.147" LastActivityDate="2016-04-18T10:51:00.527" Title="Questions about Origins and the Apocalypse" Tags="|belief|philosophy|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2015-11-22T04:52:56.837" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9496" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-15T17:29:08.647" Score="2" ViewCount="152" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does it have specific religious meaning which can be substantiated by any of the religious texts? Which particular scriptures put forward the idea of &quot;solah shringar&quot; into writing, if any?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="64" LastEditorUserId="64" LastEditDate="2015-11-16T19:01:20.293" LastActivityDate="2015-11-16T19:01:20.293" Title="What is the scriptural significance of the &quot;solah shringar&quot; in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|marriage|women|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9499" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-16T09:50:03.543" Score="10" ViewCount="3625" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've read the Wikipedia article on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muktik%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Muktika Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; which contains the list of 108 Upanishads. There it is written that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The canon is part of a &lt;strong&gt;dialogue between Rama and Hanuman&lt;/strong&gt;. Rama proposes to teach Vedanta, saying &quot;Even by reading one verse of them [any Upanishad] with devotion, one gets the status of union with me, hard to get even by sages.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman enquires&lt;/strong&gt; about the different kinds of &quot;liberation&quot; (Mukti, hence the name of the Upanishad), to which &lt;strong&gt;Rama answers&lt;/strong&gt; that &quot;the only real type [of liberation] is Kaivalya&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know when and where in Ramayana, the above dialogue between Rama and Hanuman, took place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-05T22:34:20.587" LastActivityDate="2016-04-06T02:46:15.640" Title="When did Rama tell Hanuman the Muktika Upanishad?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|vedanta|upanishads|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9500" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9495" CreationDate="2015-11-16T13:19:29.633" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you read the text, Yoga Vashishtha, it answers these questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Regarding creation and dissolution:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The one pure consciousness appears as the diverse dream-objects in a&#xA;  dream. All these millions of objects which appear in the dream become&#xA;  one again in deep sleep. Similarly, when this dream-world appears in&#xA;  the infinite consciousness that itself is called creation; when this&#xA;  itself enters into the equivalent of the deep sleep state, it is known&#xA;  as the cosmic dissolution. This is pure commonsense. (VI.2:143)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Regarding difference in identity: All these universes are but its&#xA;  playful but conscious projection. As the diversity of this universe,&#xA;  it seems to be divided in itself; but truly, it is undivided.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the link:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://yogi.lv/files/yoga_vasistha.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://yogi.lv/files/yoga_vasistha.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding belief:&#xA;I cannot speak for other people. Although, I have meditated for 6 years and I experience this 'energy field' around me. So, the question should be regarding 'experience' and not 'belief'. I do know a lot of meditators across the world with similar experiences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once, I know that this same energy might be ever-present, then the smaller identifications of race, caste etc disappear. That is how it affects me personally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope this helped! :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-18T10:51:00.527" LastActivityDate="2016-04-18T10:51:00.527" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9501" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-16T13:23:37.073" Score="2" ViewCount="88" Body="&lt;p&gt;Max Müller was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, studied sanskrit and vedas. According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_M%C3%BCller&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; Wikipedia article : He had to travel to London to look at documents held in the collection of the British East India Company.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did the British took the one of the earliest written copies of Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-11-16T14:08:32.867" LastActivityDate="2015-11-16T14:08:32.867" Title="Did the British took the one of the earliest written copies of Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9502" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-16T13:56:44.023" Score="15" ViewCount="5578" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that Hanuman is a great devotee and follower of Lord Rama in Treta Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my doubt is, did he meet Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it explicitly mentioned anywhere in Vyasa's Mahabharat or some other Hindu text that Hanuman and Krishna met each other? If true, then what exactly happened during their meeting?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T09:00:51.953" LastActivityDate="2022-03-29T18:00:55.073" Title="Did Hanuman and Krishna ever met with each other?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|krishna|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9503" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-16T14:26:20.630" Score="2" ViewCount="536" Body="&lt;p&gt;The ones who have most knowledge about the vedas. Though the coming question can be vague, yet How should one decide his Guru?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastActivityDate="2016-04-18T10:49:39.067" Title="Who are the leading Vedic scholars in India?" Tags="|vedas|guru|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9505" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9503" CreationDate="2015-11-16T14:36:46.933" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Regarding the second question, I assume you are referring to a 'spiritual Guru' which is very different from a 'Vedic scholar'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a similar question answered by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q: The country is so full of gurus. I don’t know whom to accept as a Guru. Kindly advice whether I choose a Guru or a Guru chooses me? If I choose then how do I select one?&#xA;  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, I can’t give you any criteria. You choose. It’s up to you. It’s not something you choose intellectually. &#xA;  Something in your heart guides. You feel at home, you feel cared for, you feel comfortable, right? Otherwise, you can keep asking this question wherever you go. There’s no point, right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taken from: &lt;a href=&quot;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2011_01_01_archive.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2011_01_01_archive.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope this helps! :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-18T10:49:39.067" LastActivityDate="2016-04-18T10:49:39.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9509" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-16T18:03:08.817" Score="3" ViewCount="168" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do the Vedas and Bhagavad Gita say about how, one, who wants to devote himself completely to God and give away material success and happiness, should earn a living just enough to have food two times a day and fulfill other basic needs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, how practical it is for a person to give up material needs and become spiritual?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-18T07:18:30.503" LastActivityDate="2015-11-18T07:18:30.503" Title="How practical it is for a person to give up material needs and become spiritual?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|sanyasi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9510" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-16T18:16:58.627" Score="2" ViewCount="44" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people become rich, successful and powerful by unfair means like fraud/scam etc. As a result, many people in the path of Dharma are not able to compete with them. It tempts good people to follow adharma path in order to succeed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does Hindu religion explain it? I heard in Kali Yuga only 25% is dharma (i.e one leg of the bull of dharma is left rest 3 are chopped off).  How long does it take to get the effect of the bad work? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3976" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-11-16T18:21:03.567" LastActivityDate="2015-11-16T18:21:03.567" Title="Bad Karma and Success" Tags="|karma|dharma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-11-17T19:46:38.100" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9511" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-17T04:46:16.567" Score="3" ViewCount="85" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the question says, when Veda Vyasa divided the Vedas into 4, didn't he write them somewhere? Did he write manuscripts about them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="4166" LastEditDate="2015-11-17T07:01:00.577" LastActivityDate="2015-11-17T07:01:00.577" Title="When Veda Vyasa divided the Vedas, didn't he write them somewhere?" Tags="|vedas|vyasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2018-02-25T12:29:27.443" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9512" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-17T05:41:50.280" Score="2" ViewCount="92" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna that since he is Kshatriya, he should do the war and do his duties of being a kshatriya. Earlier we had brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra. And Krishna tells Arjuna that one should do his duties. But now in this age, how do we decide our duties?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Lord said that the brahmins are the head, the kshatriyas are the hands, the vaishyas are the stomach, and the shudras are the feet of the Lord. I wished to know that since the lifestyle of humans has changed so much, how does one know his duties now? &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/157/what-is-the-purpose-of-the-caste-system-how-has-it-changed&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; does not answer my question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-11-17T06:52:09.637" Title="How should one decide his duties?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2018-09-17T02:01:01.230" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9513" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-17T05:50:42.397" Score="4" ViewCount="3435" Body="&lt;p&gt;What's the origin of the phrase &lt;strong&gt;Vyasocchishtam jagat sarvam&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've heard different meanings of the phrase some of which are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is nothing under the Sun that Vyasa has not touched upon.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Whatever anyone speaks/writes is something already uttered/written by Vyasa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-02-19T09:10:24.367" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T09:10:24.367" Title="What's the meaning and origin of the phrase 'Vyasocchishtam jagat sarvam'?" Tags="|sanskrit|vyasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9514" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-17T10:38:32.443" Score="2" ViewCount="77" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the question states, do Vedas teach Yogasana? If so, what are the good sources to learn the asanas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="4166" LastEditDate="2015-11-17T10:50:47.510" LastActivityDate="2015-11-17T10:50:47.510" Title="Do Vedas teach Yogasana? If so, what are the good sources to learn it?" Tags="|vedas|yoga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9515" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-17T11:14:42.010" Score="4" ViewCount="68" Body="&lt;p&gt;For a person wanting to give up material needs, devote to God and study ancient Indian scriptures (Vedas, Upanishads etc.), are there any religious community organizations in India where he could also earn or get food two times a day while the primary focus is on Vedic studies?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T05:16:21.787" LastActivityDate="2017-01-13T05:16:21.787" Title="Religious organizations in India that teach Vedas or scriptures with a day job" Tags="|worship|practice|india|sannyasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-01-14T11:08:25.810" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9516" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8334" CreationDate="2015-11-17T16:15:00.380" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha is attained when we exhaust our physical karma. But after this world there is astral and causal each having its own karmas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;see more here&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://yieldmore.org/works/autobiography-of-a-yogi/?find=astral%20planet&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://yieldmore.org/works/autobiography-of-a-yogi/?find=astral%20planet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there are those who after attaining moksha and being free of earthly cycle of birth and death, choose to take human birth again in order to help humanity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4175" LastActivityDate="2015-11-17T16:15:00.380" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9517" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13703" CreationDate="2015-11-17T19:57:59.020" Score="25" ViewCount="3809" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that the metering of the sanskrit verses in Vedas and process of recitation imbue certain qualities to the scripture that make it inimitable(if I may use the word) or easy to identify errors and corruptions introduced over time - a kind of a linguistic/phonetic error correction code. What exactly are these precautionary methods used for preserving the Vedas and how are they being put to use? Have any corruption been identified in available sources of Vedas based on this methodology?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2019-02-23T02:09:04.197" Title="Procedures used for preserving the integrity of the Vedas" Tags="|vedas|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9518" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-18T02:08:12.527" Score="6" ViewCount="97" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why are main human avatars of God in the form of kings/ rulers/ princesses (lord Rama, Krishna)? Are there any &quot;regular profession&quot; avatars - eg teachers, householders, merchants?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4178" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-31T06:52:04.407" LastActivityDate="2018-02-01T04:48:19.640" Title="Why are most of the Avatars rulers?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9520" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-18T06:32:00.440" Score="8" ViewCount="1296" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a festival in Bihar named Chhat Puja in which people go to rivers, take bath and worship Lord Surya. They also worship a goddess called Chhati Maiya and that is why this festival name is Chhat Puja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know who was Chhati Maiya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4086" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2018-11-03T16:35:15.027" LastActivityDate="2018-11-03T16:35:15.027" Title="Who was Chhati Maiya?" Tags="|puranas|worship|festivals|goddess|surya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9521" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9523" CreationDate="2015-11-18T08:23:30.210" Score="5" ViewCount="6167" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is Lord Chandikeswara in Lord Shiva's temples? &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Whats the purpose behind clapping in front of him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4180" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2015-11-22T20:26:31.287" LastActivityDate="2016-07-20T09:33:36.323" Title="Why does some devotees clap at Lord Chandikeshwara?" Tags="|shiva|history|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9522" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3223" CreationDate="2015-11-18T08:46:58.480" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Shakta scriptures, Prakriti herself is Supreme Brahman. This is explained in Vidya Geeta from Tripura Rahasya(a Shakta text)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus besought, the Goddess of ultimate knowledge began with great kindness to explain it clearly to the sages:&#xA;&quot;My concrete form is the eternal couple - the Supreme Lord and Energy - always in undivided union and abiding as the eternal consciousness pervading the three phenomenal states of waking, dream and sleep, and reclining on the cot whose four legs are Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Protector), Shankar/Rudra(the Destroyer) and Isvara (Disappearance) and whose surface is Sadasiva (Grace) which is contained in the mansion known as 'fulfilment of purpose' enclosed by the garden of 'Kadamba' trees in the jewel island situated in the wide ocean of nectar surrounding the cosmos and extending beyond.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2015-11-18T08:46:58.480" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9523" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9521" CreationDate="2015-11-18T10:54:28.173" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Chandikeshvara is the person who maintains a record of the devotees - sort of like Chitragupta.&#xA;Actually the real practice is not clapping in front of his Sannidhi. You have to rub your hands clean and pray to him. This symbolises that we are taking nothing but Lord Shiva's grace from the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: Smt Desa Mangayarkarasi's discourse (the YouTube link was deleted).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: &lt;a href=&quot;https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UUqmNsFOTrg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This video&lt;/a&gt; is about a Telugu program called Dharma Sandehalu which also talks about the same practice of wiping one's hands in front of Chandikeshvara. (Video courtesy- TheDestroyer)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2016-07-20T09:33:36.323" LastActivityDate="2016-07-20T09:33:36.323" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9524" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-18T15:49:37.250" Score="4" ViewCount="691" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is that in the Bhagavat Gita, it is said that to truly understand it, one needs to completely surrender to Krishna and accept him as the only Supreme God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a non-believer or a person of different faith tries to study the Gita, isn't it supposed to enlighten him instead of stating the above and giving him a negative vibe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3271" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-11-18T22:40:36.307" LastActivityDate="2019-02-08T07:26:02.723" Title="How does the non-believer profit from the Bhagavat Gita?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|other-religions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9526" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9576" CreationDate="2015-11-19T03:59:41.627" Score="2" ViewCount="212" Body="&lt;p&gt;God gave Humans brain and the ability to think. So my question is it right or wrong to question the creations and doings of God by a human?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I mean will it be considered a sin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please help me out, I am bit confused.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4090" LastActivityDate="2015-11-24T12:41:20.863" Title="Asking questions against creation and doings of God in hinduism?" Tags="|gods|creation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9527" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-19T05:49:09.913" Score="16" ViewCount="5191" Body="&lt;p&gt;Animals and humans have &lt;em&gt;atman&lt;/em&gt;. killing animals is a sin because it has a soul.&#xA;Do plants have Souls? Is the killing of Plants Sin or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4186" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-07-28T11:02:09.977" LastActivityDate="2022-07-28T11:02:09.977" Title="Do plants have atman?" Tags="|atma|sin|plants|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9528" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-19T05:54:27.057" Score="6" ViewCount="2376" Body="&lt;p&gt;Theipirai ashtami is a special day for Lord Bhairava. What's the story behind Lord Bhairava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4180" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-13T07:00:30.683" LastActivityDate="2018-08-28T05:53:54.773" Title="What is the story behind Lord Bhairava who is worshiped on theipirai ashtami?" Tags="|shiva|history|rituals|puja|bhairava|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9530" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9561" CreationDate="2015-11-19T06:47:21.480" Score="6" ViewCount="1053" Body="&lt;p&gt;Assumptions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;God is the supreme&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Everything that we do is the will of God which may or maynot have an effect on the future&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Our purpose in life is to submit to God, Do good deeds, acquire punya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the end our final destination is to become one with God because we are all parts of the supreme soul which is God&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So My Questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why does God bother to run all this drama?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the point in putting these parts of the soul through all this hardships and happiness on Earth when all is just a big Drama and some time down the line all these souls ultimately attain assumption 4.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If a person realises the above assumptions what is the point of him living here on Earth. Why should he go through this thing called Life?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One Question in the bigger sense:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why does God bother to do all this? He can do whatever he wants. Isn't it pointless for him? Isn't it like God is a little lonely kid with all the toys(The earth, the people, the happenings) just playing with them?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3271" LastActivityDate="2018-05-19T14:22:04.760" Title="What is the meaning of Life if all is pre-written or controlled by the will of God?" Tags="|gods|moksha|life|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9531" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-19T07:01:37.600" Score="1" ViewCount="637" Body="&lt;p&gt;They say that we are living here on Earth where we are sent by God and are observed. If we do good deeds, we acquire punya. If we do bad deeds, we acquire paapa. After death, We are sent to Naraka(Hell) to get punished for our paapa and are sent to Swarga(Heaven) to enjoy the fruits of our punya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But after that we are sent back to Earth again and again until the said soul attains Moksha and are sent to Vaikunta or Kailasa or elsewhere where it is the true destination place. Here we truly enjoy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is that If we were to remember the pain and punishment from our previous visits to Naraka, wouldn't it be a guideline to us to learn from our previous experiences and work towards attaining moksha. The Earth would be a better place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3271" LastActivityDate="2015-11-20T04:53:37.977" Title="Why don't we remember our punishments in Naraka(Hell)?" Tags="|afterlife|naraka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-11-22T03:40:00.963" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9532" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9533" CreationDate="2015-11-19T07:11:47.057" Score="4" ViewCount="815" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to get the online source or reference from where I can find the Hindu Scriptures with Sanskrit verse and Hindi rendition/translation. So, give me the list or website or online source/references which have collection of authentic Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-11-19T14:02:06.887" LastActivityDate="2017-11-02T08:48:41.160" Title="Where can I find the Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit with Hindi rendition/translation?" Tags="|scripture|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9533" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9532" CreationDate="2015-11-19T07:15:08.173" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am Listing here some of the sources I've used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Digital Library of India. Links: &lt;a href=&quot;http://dli.gov.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://dli.ernet.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://dli.serc.iisc.ernet.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Internet Archive&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Documents&lt;/a&gt; for Sanskrit verses&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-08-28T14:39:21.993" LastActivityDate="2016-08-28T14:39:21.993" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9534" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2015-11-19T07:31:22.297" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-11-19T07:31:22.297" LastActivityDate="2015-11-19T07:31:22.297" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9535" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2015-11-19T07:31:22.297" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2015-11-19T07:31:22.297" LastActivityDate="2015-11-19T07:31:22.297" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9536" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-19T08:54:10.603" Score="1" ViewCount="51" Body="&lt;p&gt;Till now, I just had an idea like karma is meant but the work you do. But in the comment section of the question &lt;code&gt;http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9526/asking-questions-against-creation-and-doings-of-god-in-hinduism&lt;/code&gt; , it said karma is complex thing to understand. can anyone elaborate what exactly karma means?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4090" LastActivityDate="2015-11-19T08:54:10.603" Title="What exactly is Karma?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2015-12-02T07:27:25.947" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9537" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13611" CreationDate="2015-11-19T11:23:21.877" Score="8" ViewCount="2773" Body="&lt;p&gt;The ancient scriptures speak a lot on divine weapons used in the earlier yugas. There are mention of Brahmastra, Rudrastra, Narayanastra etc. But, why these weapons do not exist in the kali Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T07:35:04.183" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T07:35:04.183" Title="Why no Divine Weapons in Kali Yuga?" Tags="|kali-yuga|weapon|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9539" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-19T11:47:22.090" Score="8" ViewCount="7490" Body="&lt;p&gt;What's the exact meaning of combo of these words in context of Hinduism? And what's the meaning of these words in general sense? Which Hindu text  has this sentence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4186" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T14:09:19.517" LastActivityDate="2017-06-27T17:27:24.140" Title="What's the meaning of Satyam Sivam Sundaram?" Tags="|scripture|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9540" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9542" CreationDate="2015-11-19T12:55:40.990" Score="3" ViewCount="3932" Body="&lt;p&gt;I get different answers from different sources as for who is the elder of the twins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think this has to do with the addition of lore of Valmiki creating the twins from a grass (Kusha) but is there a definite sloka which determines who was the eldest amongst the twins&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example : &#xA;  This &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luv_Kush&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki page&lt;/a&gt; quotes Kusha as eldest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4190" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-02T16:44:51.493" LastActivityDate="2018-03-02T16:44:51.493" Title="Who was elder amongst Lava and Kusha ( twins of Rama and Sita)?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|sita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9542" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9540" CreationDate="2015-11-19T13:27:16.150" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I searched a bit and found this &lt;a href=&quot;https://doc-10-bc-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/ha0ro937gcuc7l7deffksulhg5h7mbp1/7gil4mqaasusd3vnjtt6uob4j9g2ji5l/1447934400000/02058467015715614041/*/0ByTrbPQHgxJdRC1vbDZ2bmtKTHc&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;English translation of Uttara Ramayanam&lt;/a&gt; which seems to answer this question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;and attained to great delight on beholding those two highly effulgent sons, resembling the newly risen sun and the celestials. There upon he made arrangements against the oppression of ghosts and goblins. There upon taking Kusa (the upperpart of the grass) and Lava (lower part) the great ascetic Valmiki made those arrangements. And giving Kusa sanctified by those Mantras unto the hands of elderly woman he said, &quot;do ye rub the person of the elder boy with these&quot;; and giving them Lava he said “do ye rub the person of the&#xA;  younger brother with this. And according to this &lt;strong&gt;I shall name the first Son Kusa and the second Lava&lt;/strong&gt;; and by those names they shall be celebrated on earth.” Thereupon reverentially taking from the hands of Vãlmiki and Kusa Lava, the means of protection, the elderly ladies engaged in guarding&#xA;  them. Hearing that Sita without any trouble had given birth to two sons and elderly female ascetics had been engaged in protecting them and hearing the chanting of Rãma’s glories in the midnight, Satrughna thought within himself. “Blessed it is that Sitã hath given birth to two sons.” And with this joy&#xA;  the live long night of Srãbana passed away in no time. Having performed the morning rites after the expiration of the night and taken farewell from the ascetic Vãlmiki, Lakshmana proceeded towards the west.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Posting the screenshot of the relevant portion for reference&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BcqbC.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BcqbC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Uttara Ramayana &quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4190" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-02T16:44:21.203" LastActivityDate="2018-03-02T16:44:21.203" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9543" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-19T13:59:03.990" Score="21" ViewCount="1582" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who defines 'good' or 'bad' karma - like this is bad and this is good?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It depends on time or generation?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any book, Veda or any other holy book, where it's defined?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2772" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T10:49:14.037" LastActivityDate="2021-02-20T17:57:21.807" Title="What is good karma? What is bad karma? Who defines it?" Tags="|scripture|karma|dharma|smriti|" AnswerCount="9" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9544" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-19T14:11:52.197" Score="1" ViewCount="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;What was the reason that Lord Brahma got Cursed by Lord Siva that he will never be worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3763" LastActivityDate="2015-11-19T14:11:52.197" Title="Why bramha was cursed by siva?" Tags="|shiva|brahma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-11-19T14:14:48.893" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9545" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-19T14:17:49.690" Score="4" ViewCount="206" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Mahabharata, along with Dhritarashtra and Gandhari, Kunti and Vidura too went to the forest. Later, the first three perished in a forest fire, whereas Vidura died like a sanyasi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That understood, we move to Srimad  Bhagavatam. In this only Dhritarashtra and Gandhari die in the forest. Kunti passes away on hearing the news of Krsna's disappearance. &lt;strong&gt;Vidura&lt;/strong&gt; on the other hand meets Uddhava and then proceeds to Maitreya Maharshi's ashram. Here he listens to the stories of Varaha and Kapila avataras as well as Sati's and Dhruva's stories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is: why is there such an irreconcilable difference between the Mahabharata and Bhagavatam? (This is not the only difference though.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-12T16:32:53.557" LastActivityDate="2016-04-12T16:32:53.557" Title="Why is there a discrepancy regarding the passing away of Kunti and Vidura?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9546" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9543" CreationDate="2015-11-19T15:19:46.110" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The only absolute is Brahman, there are no absolutes in this world. An action which may be good karma for you may be bad karma for another, and vice versa. As an example, killing a human normally leads to bad karma. However, as seen by the example of Arjuna in the Gita, a warrior's duty in a war is to kill - and for Arjuna to avoid killing will only lead to bad karma for him.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 3 gunas - sattwa, rajas, and tamas, and what types of actions are associated with each guna are defined at length in the Gita, especially Chapters 2, 3, 14, and 16.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-11-19T15:19:46.110" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9547" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-20T01:13:57.760" Score="3" ViewCount="357" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding, Dasrajna war was a real event during the Rigvedic period. Is there any information as to which were the 10 tribes that participated in it and their modern geographic origins? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3194" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-19T05:51:35.483" LastActivityDate="2018-02-19T05:52:59.177" Title="Which are the 10 tribes that participated in Dasrajna (War of 10 Kings)?" Tags="|history|rig-veda|war|geography|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9549" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9531" CreationDate="2015-11-20T04:53:37.977" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's not that simple. Whether Hindu or not, for a system of reincarnation for the purpose of growth to work, losing past memory is paramount. There's burden contained in experience and eventually too much will wear the soul out and make it collapse. There's also the problem of clashing identities. Experience based on a single or simple identity is crucial to acquiring a diverse pov, ironically. It also interferes with the belief in the reality of this world - which is also important. Finally, direct knowledge of why you're here will actually make you involved in that goal too much, that you may miss out or ignore other aspects of life that would compel you come back again. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if you die, you don't get to have all the past experiences back. You just get to read/watch what you've done in your past lives as a third person. They're not really an intimate part of you as a memory is to your life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, the wisdom you acquired during the years is subconsciously innate in you and it guides you in the form of a higher self. This is why an old soul is more comfortable and experienced on Earth than a young soul with higher and complicated goals. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once you reach Moksha, all these memories will be truly yours again and you will live and act as the higher self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4193" LastActivityDate="2015-11-20T04:53:37.977" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9550" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-20T05:22:09.727" Score="1" ViewCount="35" Body="&lt;p&gt;We get a life based on our past life. If we have done something bad in our past life, we suffer in this life and so on and so forth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, after death also, if we have done something bad, we go to Hell and suffer. Then why do we get a bad life in our next life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastActivityDate="2015-11-20T05:22:09.727" Title="Suffering and Punishment" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-10-26T12:14:01.023" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9551" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9543" CreationDate="2015-11-20T07:02:46.937" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many Hindu scriptures discuss morality. I am posting some excerpts from Mahabharata where Vidura speaks about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on Gates of hell&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Great fear springeth from these three crimes, viz, theft of other’s&#xA;  property, outrage on other’s wives, and breach with friends. These&#xA;  three, besides, being destructive of one’s self, are the gates of&#xA;  hell, viz, lust, anger, and covetousness. Therefore, everyone should&#xA;  renounce them.  [Udyoga Parva, Section 33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura’s advice on how to act&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do not, O Bharata, set the heart upon means of success that are unjust&#xA;  and improper. A man of intelligence must not grieve if any purpose of&#xA;  his doth not succeed, notwithstanding the application of fair and&#xA;  proper means. Before one engageth in an act one should consider the&#xA;  competence of the agent, the nature of the act itself, and its&#xA;  purpose, for all acts are dependent on these. Considering these one&#xA;  should begin an act, and not take it up on a sudden impulse. He that&#xA;  is wise should either do an act or desists from it fully considering&#xA;  his own ability, the nature of the act, and the consequence also of&#xA;  success. [Udyoga Parva, Section 34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on forgiveness&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is one only defect in forgiving persons, and not another; that&#xA;  defect is that people take a forgiving&#xA;  person to be weak. That defect , however, should not be taken into&#xA;  consideration, for forgiveness is a great power. Forgiveness is a&#xA;  virtue of the weak, and an ornament of the strong. Forgiveness&#xA;  subdueth (all) in this world; what is there that forgiveness cannot&#xA;  achieve? What can a wicked person do unto him who carrieth the sabre&#xA;  of forgiveness in his hand? Fire falling on a grassless ground is&#xA;  extinguished of itself. And unforgiving individual defileth himself&#xA;  with many enormities. Righteousness is the one highest good; and&#xA;  forgiveness is the one supreme peace; knowledge is one supreme&#xA;  contentment; and benevolence, one sole happiness. [Udyoga Parva,&#xA;  Section 33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on the importance of controlling one’s speech&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To control speech, O king, is&#xA;  said to be most difficult. It is not easy to hold a long conversation&#xA;  uttering words full of meaning and delightful to hearers. Well-spoken&#xA;  speech is productive of many beneficial results; and ill-spoken&#xA;  speech, O king, is the cause of evils. A forest pierced by arrows, or&#xA;  cut down by hatchets may again grow, but one’s heart wounded and&#xA;  censured by ill-spoken words never recovereth. Weapons, such as&#xA;  arrows, bullets, and bearded darts, can be easily extracted from the&#xA;  body, but a wordy dagger plunged deep into the heart is incapable of&#xA;  being taken out. Wordy arrows are shot from the mouth; smitten by them&#xA;  one grieveth day or night. A learned man should not discharge such&#xA;  arrows, for they do not touch the very vitals of others. [Udyoga&#xA;  Parva, Section 34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on Kindness&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ablution in all the holy places and kindness to all creatures – these&#xA;  two are equal. Perhaps, kindness to all creatures surpasseth the&#xA;  former. [Udyoga Parva, Section 35]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on how to treat others&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That which is antagonistic to one’s own self, should&#xA;  never be applied in respect of another. [Udyoga Parva, Section 39]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-11-20T07:02:46.937" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9553" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9554" CreationDate="2015-11-20T07:32:57.850" Score="10" ViewCount="29327" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who were the parents of Ravana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were the names of Ravana's brothers and sisters?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And who is the real king of Lanka? Ravana or Vibhishana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4179" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T05:57:22.990" LastActivityDate="2022-01-25T10:23:47.407" Title="Ravana - Who were his parents and siblings?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|vibhishana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9554" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9553" CreationDate="2015-11-20T10:06:43.500" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ravana's parents were Vishrava (son of Pulastya) and Kaikesi (daughter of Sumali and Thataka). Kaikesi had two brothers Maricha and Subahu which would effectively make them Ravana's uncles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana had six brothers and two sisters:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kubera&lt;/strong&gt; – the King of North direction and the Guardian of Heavenly Wealth. He was an older half-brother of Ravana: they were born to the same father by different mothers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vibhishana&lt;/strong&gt; – A great follower of Rama and one of the most important characters in the Ramayana. As a minister and brother of Ravana, he spoke the truth without fear and advised Ravana to return the kidnapped Sita and uphold Dharma. Ravana not only rejected this sane advice, but also banished him from his kingdom. Vibhishana sought protection from Rama, which was granted without hesitation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kumbhakarna&lt;/strong&gt; – One of the most jovial demons in Hindu history. When offered a boon by Brahma, he was tricked into asking for eternal sleep. A horrified Ravana, out of brotherly love, persuaded Brahma to amend the boon. Brahma mitigated the power of the boon by making Kumbhakarna sleep for six months and being awake for rest six months of a year (in some versions, he is awake for one day out of the year). During the war with Rama, Kumbhakarna was untimely awakened from his sleep. He tried to persuade Ravana to open negotiations with Rama and return Sita to him. But he too failed to mend the ways of Ravana. However, bound by a brother's duty, he fought on the side of Ravana and was killed in the battlefield. Before dying he met Vibhishana and blessed him for following path of righteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Khara&lt;/strong&gt; – King of Janasthan.  He protected the northern kingdom of Lanka in the mainland and his kingdom bordered with the Kosala Kingdom, the kingdom of Rama. He was well known for his superior skills in warfare.he was killed by Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dushana&lt;/strong&gt; – Viceroy of Janasthan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ahiravan&lt;/strong&gt; – King of the Underworld ruled by the rakshasas by Ravana and Demon King Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kumbhini&lt;/strong&gt; – Older sister of Ravana and the wife of the demon Madhu, King of Mathura, she was the mother of Lavanasura. She was renowned for her beauty and later retired to the sea for penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Surpanakha&lt;/strong&gt; – The sister of Ravana. She was the ultimate root of the kidnapping of Sita. She was the one who instigated her brothers to wage a war against Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravana#Ravana.27s_family&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastActivityDate="2015-11-20T10:06:43.500" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9556" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-20T14:30:52.327" Score="4" ViewCount="15880" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/predictions-regarding-the-kalki-avatar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;blogs&lt;/a&gt; on internet write 'Kalki Avatar will born in next 50-100 years and He will kill all evil people on Earth in third world war'. How far is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do present day astrologers in India say about the birthday of the Kalki avatar? Do we have to wait another 4,27,000 years? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When will those planetary positions (of his birth) mentioned in Puranas happen? What do astrologers say about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4186" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T06:14:40.513" LastActivityDate="2020-10-09T06:26:06.917" Title="What is the exact birthdate of Kalki avatar going to be?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|astrology|kalki|panchang|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9557" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-20T15:51:41.220" Score="4" ViewCount="411" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Srimad Bhagavatam, in the 7th chapter of the Dasama Skandhas, Yudishthira's Rajasuya Yajna is described. It is compared twice to a Rajasuya performed by Varuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.74.13-15 — The utensils used in the sacrifice were made of gold, &lt;strong&gt;just as in the ancient Rājasūya performed by Lord Varuṇa.&lt;/strong&gt; Indra, Brahmā, Śiva and many other planetary rulers; the Siddhas and Gandharvas with their entourage; the Vidyādharas; great serpents; sages; Yakṣas; Rākṣasas; celestial birds; Kinnaras; Cāraṇas; and earthly kings — all were invited, and indeed they all came from every direction to the Rājasūya sacrifice of King Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Pāṇḍu. They were not in the least astonished to see the opulence of the sacrifice, since it was quite appropriate for a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.74.16 — The priests, as powerful as gods, performed the Rājasūya sacrifice for King Yudhiṣṭhira in accordance with the Vedic injunctions, &lt;strong&gt;just as the demigods had previously performed it for Varuṇa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the story  of  Varuna's  Rajasuya  Yajna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2015-11-20T15:51:41.220" Title="What is the story of Varuna's Rajasuya Yajna" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavata-purana|varuna|yajna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9560" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-20T16:27:10.543" Score="12" ViewCount="34908" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know why we see Goddess Durga sometimes sitting on a lion and sometimes on a tiger? Which animal was actually Durga's mount (vahana)? Is it Tiger or Lion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3980" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2021-03-21T09:40:31.757" LastActivityDate="2022-06-25T07:23:17.167" Title="Why we see Goddess Durga sometimes sitting on a tiger and sometimes on a lion?" Tags="|durga|animals|shakti|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9561" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9530" CreationDate="2015-11-20T17:34:15.967" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;To be precise, nothing happens without will of Bhagwan. But that doesn't stop us from doing what we want.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This might not be an appropriate example but for the lack of a better one I am using it. The power of almighty is like an electric current. As long as you have a proper supply you can do whatever you want with it. You could run a fan, tube-lights, TV, computers, refrigerators, power plants, cars, the list goes on. How we use it is up to us. One can also use it to electrocute someone. If the pwoer supply is cut, all electrical appliances will stop functioning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, it is God who empowers us to do stuff. If he pulls his power back, the entire universe will come to a stand still. It'll decay. How one uses his power is completely one's own decision. He does give us wisdom about how to live life, what is right and what is wrong. That's how we are different from puppets. That's how life is different from a drama. It is because of this power we call him all-doer. Without his will, our minds can't even generate a fragment of thought let alone doing something. (mad-bhayad vati vato 'yam. suryas tapati mad-bhayat - Bhagwad Gita)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God wouldn't stop a terrorist from killing an innocent child, neither will he stop a soldier from killing a terrorist. It is up to the individual to decide where to fire. It is our deeds which make us who we are. (More details on KARMA theory, Bhagwad Gita)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagwan Swaminarayan has written in his Shikshapatri that &quot;One should not commit suidcide.&quot; Why would he write that if he wouldn't have granted enough liberty to an individual to end his \ her own life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And finally about assumption 4, it is not lying in the dirt for the taking. It take years (lives) of devotion to attain. Manushya deh is the only form where one can work towards attaining oneness with Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Food for thought - &#xA;If God wanted to play with us like toys, one earth is more than enough for him. (7 billion homo-sapiens + other countless species) Why would he create infinite universes, each with countless earth like planets?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thousands of years ago, our Rishis could precisely calculate \ measure and document a lot of things (like Earth's diameter, constellations etc.)  which science has only found recently or yet to find. If you read scripture like Gita, Vachanamrut, you'll experience that a lot of it precisely going on in our lives, body and mind. So what they have written about God stands more than 50% chance of being the truth. Don't you think?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3549" LastActivityDate="2015-11-20T17:34:15.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9562" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9560" CreationDate="2015-11-20T17:59:38.863" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Durga rides on a lion.&lt;/strong&gt; The story is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://182.18.131.45/idurga/saptshati/chapter2/saptshati7.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Devi Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana.  Durga was created out of the combined energies of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and other gods.  And after she was created, the gods have her a variety of weapons and other ornaments:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The bearer of Pinaka (Siva) drawing forth a trident from his own trident presented it to her; and Visnu bringing forth a discuss out of his own discuss gave her. Varuna gave her a conch, Agni a spear; and Maruta gave a bow as well as two quivers full of arrows. Indra, lord of devas, bringing forth a thunderbolt out of (his own) thunderbolt and a bell from that of his elephant Airavata, gave her. Yama gave a staff from his own staff of Death and Varuna, the lord of waters, a noose ; and Brahma, the lord of beings, gave a string of beads and a water-pot. Surya bestowed his own rays on all the pores of her skin and Kala gave a spotless sword and a shield. The milk-ocean gave a pure necklace, a pair of undecaying garments, a divine crest-jewel, a pair of ear-rings, bracelets, a brilliant half-moon (ornaments), armlets on all arms, a pair of shining anklets, a unique necklace and excellent rings on all the fingers. Visvakarman gave her a very brilliant axe, weapons of various forms and also an impenetrable armour. The ocean gave her a garland of unfading lotuses for her head and another for her breast, besides a very beautiful lotus in her hand. &lt;strong&gt;The (mountain) Himavat gave her a lion to ride on and various jewels.&lt;/strong&gt; The lord of wealth (Kubera) gave her a drinking cup, ever full of wine. Sesa, the lord of all serpents, who supports this earth, gave her a serpent-necklace bedecked with best jewels. Honoured likewise by other devas also with ornaments and weapons, she gave out a loud roar with a defying laugh again and again. By her unending, exceedingly great, terrible roar the entire sky was filled, and there was great reverberation. All worlds shook, the seas trembled. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Himavat, the god of the Himalayas and father of Shiva's wife Parvati, is the one who gave Durga her lion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-05T22:04:08.953" LastActivityDate="2015-12-05T22:04:08.953" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9563" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-20T18:55:59.403" Score="9" ViewCount="4044" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many instances where bad things have happened to good people. And to make it worse, the bad people prospered and progressed while the good people seemed to struggle every day for their survival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why don't we get the results of our bad karma in this birth only? How will the results from bad karma rendered in the next birth matter at all? The good person who had to suffer in spite of being good, isn't he lucky enough to watch those, who did wrong to him (bad people), suffer in same birth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People do one wrong after another, yet they live their whole life in luxury. Where is God in all these situations? Doesn't it seem justified that this is the reason why people lose their belief in God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Can you also explain when 2 people have neutral account, then how can one do wrong to other?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Last question, just consider a hypothetical situation, where, I never did anything wrong in any birth. Are bad things still bound to occur to me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please point references from scriptures to enlighten me here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3787" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-30T20:44:03.380" LastActivityDate="2016-05-23T09:47:06.250" Title="Why do bad things happen to good people?" Tags="|scripture|gods|karma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9564" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-20T19:00:25.777" Score="2" ViewCount="55" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can a spiritual aspirant take the Almighty as the preceptor and tread along the spiritual path and finally attain Self Realization?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4032" LastActivityDate="2015-11-20T19:00:25.777" Title="God as preceptor for self realization" Tags="|moksha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-11-21T15:43:38.687" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9566" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-21T07:19:49.120" Score="8" ViewCount="1127" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; they consist of concise aphorisms, so people usually read them with the help of a commentary. The oldest surviving commentary was Adi Shankaracharya's Advaita commentary, and the next famous commentary was Ramanujacharya's Visistadvaita commentary&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there was another commentary written between these two, by the philosopher Bhaskara.  He wrote his commentary shortly after the time of Adi Shankaracharya, and it was written from the point of view of Bhedabheda, a philosophy according to which the Jivatma or individual soul is simultaneously the same and different from Paramatna or the supreme soul.  This may seem paradoxical, but Bhaskara believed that the individual soul was an Upadhi or limited version of the unlimited Brahman, similar to the view of the Saiva Siddhanta Church as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8919/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, most secular scholars believe that Vyasa and the other pre-Shankara Vedantic philosophers all subscribed to some kind of philosophy of Bhedabheda, probably similar to Bhaskara's philosophy given how much it seems to have been in agreement with Baudhayana's vritti (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3198/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, is Bhaskara's commentary on the Brahma Sutras available online in English?  It's available in Sanskrit in print form &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bagchee.com/books/BB28270/brahmasutra-bhaskara-bhasya/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But has it ever been translated into English, and if so is there an online version of it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I find it strange that no one would ever translate the second-oldest commentary on the Brahma Sutras, and yet I haven't come across any translations.  By the way, for more information on Bhaskara's philosophy, see P.N. Srinivasachari's book &quot;The Philosophy of Bhedabheda&quot;, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/philosophyofbhed031564mbp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2020-09-07T02:35:30.577" Title="Has Bhaskara's second-oldest Brahma Sutra Bhashya ever been translated into English?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|translation-request|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9567" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-21T10:21:09.877" Score="3" ViewCount="3381" Body="&lt;p&gt;I once saw an image of Lord Vishnu wearing a sacred thread which Brahmin's wear on their body. Does this mean that Lord Vishnu is a Brahmin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4086" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-02-27T06:30:01.330" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T06:30:01.330" Title="Is Lord Vishnu a Brahmin?" Tags="|vishnu|brahmins|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9569" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-21T11:01:34.047" Score="1" ViewCount="24" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Lord Hanuman went to Patal Lok to save Lord Rama and Lakshmana from Ravana's brother Ahivaravan,he saw a demon who was a guard of Patal Lok named 'Makardhawaj'. Who was the demon Makardhawaj?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastActivityDate="2015-11-21T11:01:34.047" Title="Who was Makardhawaj?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-11-21T15:21:04.087" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9571" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9592" CreationDate="2015-11-21T16:55:27.017" Score="4" ViewCount="400" Body="&lt;p&gt;What mechanisms are in place in Indian Hindu families for upbringing kids with a good understanding of what is Hinduism, and what is the &quot;way of life&quot; it represents that one should follow to have a meaningful life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not talking about traditions like yearly festivals and family ceremonies - but true meaning of being a Hindu. For instance - I like the way Tulsi Gabbard explains what it means to be a Hindu - and what it means to be a practicing Hindu - However, I am not sure people born Hindus (like me) have same kind of awareness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3290" LastActivityDate="2015-11-23T17:42:32.813" Title="Do Indian parents teach to their kids what it means to be Hindu?" Tags="|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9572" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10983" CreationDate="2015-11-21T17:10:26.250" Score="7" ViewCount="449" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20655/6/Part1_Chapter4_241-320p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter Manifestation of Rudra - Rudra Samhita Section one&lt;/a&gt; of Shiva Purana (Pg 224),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said this to his son Narada,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A boar has the power of steadily going deep below. Hence, Vishnu ,the wanderer in the forest, assumed the form of Boar.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Or Vishnu,the protector all the worlds assumed the form of a Boar, or start of a new Kalpa.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Since &lt;strong&gt;the day he assumed the form a Boar, the aeon by the title of Varaha has started&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Or &lt;strong&gt;the Varaha Kalpa can be considered to have started since the way we decided to assume the forms&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12959/3/Chapter1_1070-1148p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter Story of Rsbha - Shata Rudra Samhita&lt;/a&gt; of Shiva Purana (Pg 1078),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Seventh Varaha Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;, in the Vaivastara Manvantara , the&#xA;  Lord Kalpeswara who illuminates all the worlds, will be born as your&#xA;  great grandson and son of Vaivasvata Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there should be seven Varaha Avatars of Vishnu. I know two of them, one at time of creation and other at beginning of this Kalpa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are other five Varaha Avatars?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-11-22T08:26:08.460" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T05:31:30.307" Title="What are all Varaha Avatars of Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva-purana|varaha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9573" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9567" CreationDate="2015-11-21T18:45:20.010" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yagnopavit or sacred thread is worn by dwijas (Brahmins , Kshatriya, Vaishya) not just Brahmins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;यज्ञोपवितम् परमम् पवित्रम् &lt;strong&gt;प्रजापतेर्यत् सहजं पुरस्तात्&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आयुष्यमग्रं प्रतिमुन्चशुभ्रम् यज्ञोपवितम् बलम्स्तु तेज​:॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yajñopavitam paramam pavitram &lt;strong&gt;prajāpateryat sahajaṃ purastāt&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;āyuṣyamagraṃ pratimuncaśubhram yajñopavitam balamstu teja​:॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Put on the sacred thread, the supreme purifier, &lt;strong&gt;which was born along with Brahma long ago&lt;/strong&gt;, which bestows long life, preeminence, and purity may the sacred thread bestow strength and light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is compulsory for every &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvija&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;dwija&lt;/a&gt; to wear it to perform duties to relieve a human from the 3 maharin or &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?7548-Four-Types-of-Rin-%28Obligations-Debts%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;debts&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Hari Vishnu is not a brahmin, he is above the caste or whatsoever is in this samsara or worldly things. He is supreme bramhan himself and he wears and does all the things in order to popularize the same things in front of his bhaktas. It is something like a fashion has to be popularized by a icon so Shri Hari does it and he says 'follow me if you want moksha', so he wears all these things so that we are benefited by doing what he does or in other words performing our duties and become nivritaa or free from debts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note that emulating Shri Hari doesn't mean that you should have 3 wives or wear all those ornaments and think Goddess Devi Laxmi is your consort (she was and will be your mother forever) or consider yourself god but it just means do what he does, be humble like him, don't do anything out of excitement (i.e., take his sattva, don't just copy like a copycat but understand the meaning of everything and if you really wanna follow, follow Shri Rama as he is the ideal maryada purushottam avatar).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more information see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2892/is-janeva-yaj%C3%B1opav%C4%ABtam-or-sacred-thread-limited-to-brahmins-only/2901#2901&quot;&gt;Who can wear Yajnopavita/Janeu/Sacred-Thread&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T04:34:31.420" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9574" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-22T12:17:30.907" Score="3" ViewCount="1410" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of debate with friends lead me to write this question, please guide me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Thanks for all the answers, again for common men like me it's very difficult to digest complex scenarios/answers. It helps if someone describes in simple terms so that then I can continue my study step by step.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or else kindly provide me book or online link where I can read from scratch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3962" LastEditorUserId="3962" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T04:36:05.303" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T04:36:05.303" Title="If Brahma created the universe then where he was living before creating it?" Tags="|brahma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9576" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9526" CreationDate="2015-11-22T14:14:46.270" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Below is a statement said by Swami Vivekananda in front of his Irish disciple Sister Nivedita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spiritualbee.com/media/the-master-as-i-saw-him-by-nivedita.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;(here)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let none regret that &#xA;  they were difficult to convince! &lt;strong&gt;I fought my Master for six long years&lt;/strong&gt;, with the result that I know every inch of the way! Every inch of the way!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Noticing word 'fought' here, which means intense questioning before accepting anything. And it is evident from Swamiji's boyhood nature as described &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda_biography/03_at_the_feet.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;(here)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Inquisitive, alert, and intellectually honest, he possessed an open mind and demanded rational proof before accepting any conclusion as valid. As a loyal member of the Brahmo Samaj he was critical of image worship and the rituals of the Hindu religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it seems easy to follow that Swamiji used to ask a good number of questions about God and His doings to the Great Master (I also read it in a book that Naren(Swamiji, as called by Sri Ramakrishna) often asked questions about Sri Radha and Sri Krishna's Vrindavan Rasleela to His Master considering it unethical and Sri Ramakrishna would not deny such questions instead answered them considering emotions of Sri Radha and Her friends to meet the Supreme one. Though, I could not find it anywhere online). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And about reaction of Sri Ramakrishna to such questions, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda_biography/03_at_the_feet.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People, however, noticed the growth of an intimate relationship between the loving, patient, and forgiving teacher and his imperious and stubborn disciple. &lt;strong&gt;The Master never once asked Naren to abandon reason.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is, Sri Ramakrishna would not deny Naren's questions.Therefore, from this great Guru-Disciple relationship, it can be concluded that questioning God and His doings is not a sin in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2015-11-24T12:41:20.863" LastActivityDate="2015-11-24T12:41:20.863" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9578" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9574" CreationDate="2015-11-22T14:38:17.330" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is described in &lt;em&gt;Brhadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; I. iv. 1. and Sankara's commentary on this verse. The verse reads (Swami Madhavananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the beginning, this (universe) was but the self (Viraj) of a human form. He reflected and found nothing but himself. He first uttered, 'I am he.' Therefore he was called Aham (I). Hence, to this day, when a person is addressed, he first says, 'It is I,' and then says the other name that he may have. Because he was first and before this whole (band of aspirants) burnt all evils, therefore he is called Purusa. He who knows thus indeeds burns one who wants to be (Viraj) before him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A brief summary of this verse and Sankara's commentary is done by Swami Nikhikananda (&lt;em&gt;The Upanishads&lt;/em&gt;, V1, p 74):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Too give a brief outline of this interpretation of the creation: In the beginning--that is to say, before the evolution of names and forms, time and space--Atman, or Brahman, alone exists. Then it becomes conditoned by maya, Its own inscrutable power. At that time Brahman is called Saguna Brahman--Mahesvara, or the Great Lord. The idea of creation arises in his mind. &lt;em&gt;Sa aikshata&lt;/em&gt;-- &quot;He thought.&quot; Then Brahman, on account of maya, forgets, as it were, Its infinite nature and regards Itself as an individual entity. It says: &quot;I am one; I shall be many.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Three &quot;moments&quot; are to be distinguished in creation: First, the Supreme Brahman accepts the limitation of maya and becomes Mahesvara. Second, the desire for creation arises in his mind. Third, He feels his loneliness and decides to multiply Himself. Then, with the help of maya, He creates akasa, air [or space] and the other elements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahesvara, who is the Ruler of all the Brahmandas, is thus the First Person in the creation. Hiranyagarbha, or Brahma, who as a result of spiritual disciplines practiced in a previous cycle, becomes the Ruler of a Brahmanda, is the Second Person. Though possessed of an individuality, He identifies Himself with the whole universe; He is described in the Vedas as endowed with innumerable heads, innumerable eyes, and innumerable feet. And the Godhead dwelling in every heart is the Third Person, He is &lt;em&gt;Antaryamin&lt;/em&gt;, or the Inner Guide.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-11-22T14:38:17.330" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9579" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="237" CreationDate="2015-11-22T15:45:19.910" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Trimurti refers to Saguna Brahman. When the Saguna Brahman is in His mode of creation, He is called Brahma. When He is in His mode as sustainer of the creation, He is called Vishnu. When He is in His mode of destruction, He is called Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Prabhavananda writes in &lt;em&gt;The Spiritual Heritage of India&lt;/em&gt;, p 136:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Altogether there are eighteen Puranas, six devoted to Visnu, six to Brahma, and six to Siva. All of them are written in verse, and all are usually attributed to Vyasa, the reputed author of the Mahabharata and editor of the Vedas. Their date may safely be assigned to the somewhat uncertain Epic Period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At this time the Vedic gods, such as Indra, Mitra, Varuna, and Skanda, were transformed into the three divinities Brahma, Visnu, and Siva; and these in turn were conceived as but manifestations of the one Primeval Spirit, the Lord adored by all, the one undecaying Brahman. Brahma, Visnu, and Siva...are known as the Trimurti, or Trinity, of the Hindus. In the words of the Visnu Purana: 'The Lord God, though one without a second, assumes the three forms respectively of Brahma, Visnu, and Siva for creation, preservation, and dissolution of the world.' And in the Padma Purana we read: 'Brahma, Visnu, and Siva, though three is form, are one entity. No difference between the three exists except with respect to attributes.' Moreover, the votaries of this Trimurti make no distinction between them, as they identify with one another. Visnu, for example, is described as Siva's arrow, and Siva as Krsna's flute. Krsna, again, is regarded as an incarnation of Visnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 3 elements of Brahman as the creative, sustainer, and destroyer of the universe can be seen in Sankara's commentary on verse  III. 14. 1. of the &lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; where Brahman is described with the word '&lt;em&gt;Tajjalin&lt;/em&gt;' which describes the three states or aspects.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-11-22T15:45:19.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9581" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="237" CreationDate="2015-11-22T17:14:49.933" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Notwithstanding what is written in the Puranas, Mahabharata says that all three are eternal Brahman as can be seen in the following passage:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Spirit hath three condition. In the form of Brahma, he is&#xA;  the Creator, and in the form of Vishnu he is the Preserver, and in his&#xA;  form as Rudra, he is the Destroyer of the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Vana Parva Section CCLXX&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-11-22T17:14:49.933" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9583" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="574" CreationDate="2015-11-22T20:58:17.610" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In India, there is a famous story of Eklavya (a character from the&#xA;  Hindu epic, the Mahābhārata). Eklavya is considered the epitome of a&#xA;  disciple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the story goes, Eklavya wanted to learn archery to save the deer in&#xA;  the forest that were being hunted by the leopards. He was the son of a&#xA;  poor hunter. So he went to Dronacharya (a master of advanced military&#xA;  arts) and requested him to teach him archery, but Dronacharya rejected&#xA;  him because he was the teacher of the Royal family, he was a Raj Guru.&#xA;  He was teaching the royal princes of Bharat (India).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In those days, if you are a teacher of the royal princes then you&#xA;  cannot take someone else and teach them archery and make them equal to&#xA;  the prince. It was not considered ethical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are teaching archery to the prince so that you make him a great&#xA;  archer, to protect the nation. So you cannot teach someone from the&#xA;  street the same knowledge. It was forbidden to make anyone as powerful&#xA;  as the prince. His duty is to make the prince very powerful, so he&#xA;  cannot create a competitor. Otherwise the nation would not be safe and&#xA;  secure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, Eklavya wanted to take Dronacharya as his Guru, but Dronacharya&#xA;  could not accept him. This was the law of the land, that you have to&#xA;  exclusively train the princes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nevertheless Eklavya accepted Dronacharya as his Guru, and he went&#xA;  home and made a statue of his Guru. He learnt archery and became even&#xA;  better than the prince. He became an expert. He would just hear the&#xA;  sound of the animal and shoot an arrow at it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One day, Arjuna, the prince found out about this. He saw that Eklavya&#xA;  was far better than him. So he went to Eklavya and asked him, ‘Who is&#xA;  your Guru?’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Eklavya said, ‘Dronacharya is my Guru’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna then goes to Dronacharya and shouts at him. ‘What is this? This&#xA;  is cheating. You are supposed to teach only me, but you taught this&#xA;  man and made him more skilful than me’, he questions Dronacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dronacharya was baffled as to who was this student of his, whom he had&#xA;  not taught, and who has become a competitor of the prince. Then they&#xA;  both go and meet this boy. Eklavya leads them to the statue that he&#xA;  made of Dronacharya which he considered as his Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dronacharya then says, ‘You have to give me some Dakshina (a gift as&#xA;  fees for learning)’. He asks Eklavya to give him the thumb of his&#xA;  right hand as a gift (without the thumb there is no archery). Eklavya&#xA;  without a second thought gives the thumb of his right hand to the&#xA;  Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This story is viewed as the Guru to have a very cruel attitude. The&#xA;  boy has learnt on his own, while Dronacharya goes and asks for his&#xA;  thumb taking away his skill. How bad this Guru was! This is one way to&#xA;  see: the Guru robbed the student of his skill. But from the other&#xA;  side, if you see, if it were not for this incident, nobody would have&#xA;  ever known Eklavya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though on the outer level it seemed as if Dronacharya had done&#xA;  injustice to Eklavya, but actually Dronacharya uplifted Eklavya&#xA;  because this one act made him immortal. So when people think of&#xA;  devotion, they think of Eklavya, and not Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;See the greatness of Dronacharya, he took the blame on him and&#xA;  uplifted his student. That is why, even if the Guru is wrong, if your&#xA;  devotion is there you can never go wrong. But the Guru is not wrong,&#xA;  it appears he was partial but he uplifted Eklavya and preserved his&#xA;  Dharma (duty) also. His duty was to maintain the law of the land: You&#xA;  cannot have anyone much better than the prince.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://niranjani.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/presence-of-guru-brings-wisdom-in-life/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://niranjani.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/presence-of-guru-brings-wisdom-in-life/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-18T10:50:16.350" LastActivityDate="2016-04-18T10:50:16.350" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9584" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8459" CreationDate="2015-11-22T21:36:12.833" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my personal experience, I find chanting very useful. Here are excerpts from a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to describe this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When someone abuses you verbally, how do you feel? If someone says&#xA;  that you are a donkey, how do you feel? What does it do to you? What&#xA;  does it create? Anger! It shakes you. It creates some negative&#xA;  vibrations; you feel angry. You feel some sensations in the stomach,&#xA;  in the head. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a bad word can create so much physiological reactions in you, do&#xA;  you think a very sweet name, a chanting, which includes a lot of&#xA;  energy of the cosmos does not do anything to your body? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is unscientific and stupid to think that a mantra does not do&#xA;  anything to your body. That is not the case! It does. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mantras bring out all the positive energy inside you. That is why it&#xA;  is called mantra kavach; a mantra creates the sense of an armor around&#xA;  your body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sometimes you meet some people and you feel like talking to them. You&#xA;  get good vibes from them. Sometimes you meet people and you want to&#xA;  avoid them. Do you know why? The negative vibes around a person make&#xA;  them repulsive. Mantras turn around these negative, repulsive&#xA;  vibrations, into more positive and attractive vibrations. This is the&#xA;  advantage of mantra chanting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Today, if you go to New York, you will find hundreds of places where&#xA;  they learn chanting. People go for one hour in the evenings to&#xA;  chanting classes. They chant ‘Om Namah Shivaya’,’ Om Namo Narayana’,&#xA;  ‘Sri Rama Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram’. Of course, they have a different&#xA;  pronunciation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In China, they say, ‘Ladhe Ladhe’ instead of ‘Radhe Radhe’. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Taiwan, 7,000 people to 8,000 people sing ‘Ladhe Govind’ instead of&#xA;  ‘Radhe Govind’. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People have seen that there is an effect. And there really is!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now when should you do it? If you do chanting after pranayama and&#xA;  meditation, then it has a better result. If you do it at a superficial&#xA;  level, then it is not so effective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/does-chanting-mantras-really-work?mobile=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/does-chanting-mantras-really-work?mobile=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I personally consider it best to do chanting sitting with eyes closed. It is even better if this is preceded by some light Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T13:40:35.173" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T13:40:35.173" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9585" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-23T08:01:10.047" Score="10" ViewCount="10217" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that, we should not touch or give water to Tulsi or Peepal tree on Sunday. What is the reason behind it and what happens if someone does it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="12071" LastEditDate="2018-01-22T04:45:40.697" LastActivityDate="2023-08-18T12:56:40.233" Title="Why should not we touch Tulsi and Peepal trees on Sunday?" Tags="|rituals|culture|peepal-tree|tulasi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9587" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-23T09:29:30.673" Score="3" ViewCount="72" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is an art and science of making bells to produce the requisite&#xA;  sounds. There are bells specially made to produce the long strains of&#xA;  the sound OM. The handle of a ghantadi signifies prãna – the vital&#xA;  force in the form of Hanumanji, Garud, Nandi or Chakra. During Garud&#xA;  sthãpanvidhi, the handle is offered pujan. A bell without a handle in&#xA;  one of these forms is forbidden in rituals, since it may augur&#xA;  misfortune. The body of the bell is said to represent the divinity of&#xA;  time (Ãgama-Kosha 1992 VI:99). (Source:&lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.baps.org/thingstoknow/hinduism/56.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kids.baps.org&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, reference to it given in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/711/4166&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does &quot;The body of the bell is said to &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;represent the divinity of time&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; mean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2015-11-23T09:34:40.207" Title="What is meaning of this Ãgama-Kosha verse for bells?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9588" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8446" CreationDate="2015-11-23T10:22:12.100" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Aparigraha sthairye janmakathamta sambodhaha'' (II Sutra 39, Patanjali Yoga Sutras)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aparigraha = non-accumulation; Sthairye = established; Janmakathamta = of how births happen; Sambhodhaha = knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Being established in non-accumulation gives knowledge of how births happen.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When you do not accumulate, then the knowledge of the previous births, knowledge of different species, the communication in you improves. Do you see what I am saying? When, a person says &amp;quot;more for me, more for me&amp;quot;, then he is obsessed with fear, one does not know the eternal value of life. Life has been there for ages and will continue for ages to come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Non-accumulating simply means confidence in one's existence. Confidence is in one's ability. Knowledge of one's self. You know how to make bread and know you can earn it. So you will not make bread for a week and store it for a whole year in your room. It becomes stale. In China there is a proverb &amp;quot;What you give, you gain more. Whatever you scatter you have it all. What you hold on to, you lose that also&amp;quot;. When you scatter it all, it all comes to you. Everything is yours all over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is very stingy? The one who is so afraid of himself, who has no idea of his strength. A person who is very selfish and stingy, he stores and stores accumulate. A very wealthy gentleman was on his death bed, but was on the telephone looking into the share market &amp;quot;how much I have?&amp;quot; He was going to die any moment, but was concerned about &amp;quot;what the share prices are? How much am I gaining, losing?&amp;quot; What is he going to do with the money now? He does not even believe that he has to leave everything here and go. If money transfer was possible, people would transfers all their money up there, before going. Lawyers would have had fun writing wills. They would transfer all their property up, take it with them. Fortunately or unfortunately this is not possible. People accumulate and accumulate and then they die. That does not mean that you should not save.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not accepting or accumulating anything from anyone. What do we do? When people give us a compliment, we accept the compliment and then we begin to have a different idea about ourselves. They tell you, &amp;quot;You are so beautiful, so beautiful&amp;quot;, and it goes to your head and you think you are beautiful. If ten people repeat the same thing it gets into your head and you lose all reality about who you are and what you are. Similarly, when you are on a trip to get things from others, that is called &amp;quot;parigraha.&amp;quot; meaning &amp;quot;taking things&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;Aparigraha&amp;quot; is the opposite of it, not trying to get anything from anybody.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali says, but what is the effect of it? Janma kathamta sambhodaha. You know, when you give things to people, it will give back something to you, some good vibrations to you. If you are very unhappy, then that day you give away something. Give some gifts to somebody. You will see how your consciousness will change, shift. Sometimes you accept things from someone, gifts or certain things and you feel miserable in life. In ancient days this rule stood very well. When someone accepts a gift, then the giver should be thankful. The giver is always thankful &amp;quot;Oh! I am thankful that you accepted the gift&amp;quot;. So that was called as dakshina.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taken from:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-71&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-71&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-02T18:17:02.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9589" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6879" CreationDate="2015-11-23T10:31:49.627" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is explained in the Patanjali Yoga Sutras in detail:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Tasminsati shwasaprashwasayorgativicchedaha pranayamaha’’ (II Sutra 49)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tasmin = in that state of asana or posture; sati = being; shwasa = inspiratory breath; prashwasa = expiratory breath; gati = movement; vicchedaha = breaking; pranayamaha = regulating the breath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“In that state of being in asana or posture, breaking the movement of inspiratory or expiratory breath is regulation of breath.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There, in that state of asana, obstructing the flow of breath that is natural. You are obstructing the natural flow because your flow is not natural at all. We have made our breath so unnatural, being unnatural. So whatever is natural is now unnatural. We have to revert backwards. How do you revert back? It’s not just by accepting what is. “However the breath is going, I accept it”. No. Gati vichchedaha – break its movement.  Break the movement of the breath by consciously breathing long, subtly and with counts and having attention at different places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Bahyabhyantarastambhavruttirdeshakalasankhyabhihi paridrashto dirghasukshmaha’’ (II Sutra 50)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bahya = external; abhyantara = internal; sthambha = total restraint; vrittihi =; movement; desha = place; kala = time; sankhya = number; paridrishtaha = regulated; dirgha = long; sukshmaha = subtle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Internal and external breath and total restraint of breath is regulated by place, time and number and thus the breath becomes long and subtle.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This one sutra has described all the pranayamas, just one sutra. Breath in, hold and breath out with different counts; while having attention on different parts of the body. In one sentence, in one sutra, all the pranayamas are summed up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one more pranayama which happens automatically. When all the thoughts, ideas in the mind and the objects are cleared, there is a natural pranayama which starts. It throws out all the impurities from the mind. That is the fourth pranayama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Bahyabhyantaravishayakshepi chaturthaha’’ (II Sutra 51)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bahya = external; abhyantara = internal; vishaya = regions; akshepi = going beyond; chaturthaha = fourth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“The fourth type of pranayama happens when the regions or spheres of internal and external breaths have been gone beyond of.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In pranayama again, learn with proper guidance. Do not just do it on your own, but by proper guidance. The pranayama which happens all by itself without any effort is the fourth pranayama. As you go deep, the pranayama begins to happen and it breaks the routine way of breathing. It assumes a form of its own, a different rhythm. This is the fourth pranayama. What is the effect of pranayama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Tataha ksheyate prakashavaranam’’  (II Sutra 52)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tataha = then; ksheyate = broken; prakasha = light; avaransam = curtain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Then the curtain surrounding the light is broken.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Breaking down the curtain around the light. You are light, but you do not know that because there is a thick curtain around it; an iron curtain around it. This thins down the curtain and makes it more transparent and you are able to see the light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone is a spark of light. Everyone is light. Life is light. Yet we live in such darkness. Why? This is because the light is covered. If your nature is joy, if your nature is bliss, then why is there suffering in the world? You have read it in the scriptures, you have heard people talking everywhere that life is bliss, life is ananda, life is joy. The experience of life is however, contrary. There is a problem everywhere. If you like something, there is a problem. If you do not like something, then also there is a problem. If you hate, of course there is a problem. If you love, even then there is a problem. You get more problems in love than in hatred. So there is a problem everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How come there is so much suffering? What to do? How to recognize that life is joy, as we have heard so much of it? That is where pranayama comes in. Through pranayama, the veil that covers the light gets lifted. The veil begins to get diminished. Tataha ksheyate prakasha avaranam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Previously, Patanjali also mentions, “Prachchardana vidharaṇabhyam va praṇasya”. Retention and splitting of breath in a special manner. Changing the rhythm, cycles, root of the breath, changing the flow of breath is pranayama. Working in the dimension of the praṇa is what really praṇayama is.  Ayama means dimension. Attending to that dimension in you which has been ignored from birth, the dimension of praṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We worked on the body level through the asana. The next level is the subtle body, the pranic body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Links: &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-85&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-85&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-86&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-86&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2015-11-23T10:31:49.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9590" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-23T12:00:30.510" Score="12" ViewCount="3713" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read the extract as shown in the image below from Vayuviya Samhita Chapter 14 of Shiva Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/proVB.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/proVB.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the verse # 9 (the highlighted one), it is said that: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He (Lord Rudra) is brilliant holding the skulls of asura Jalandhara, Brahma and &lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt;, his tawny hair, mustache and beard are drenched in the surging waves of Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This line is said in the praise of Lord Rudra (popularly known as Lord Shiva). I am aware that Jalandhara was a demon killed by him. Lord Brahma's one head was also cut by Lord Rudra/Shiva but I don't know of any incident where Indra's head was being cut by Lord Rudra/Shiva. Do we have any scriptures that store some story behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T10:42:06.837" LastActivityDate="2021-06-04T06:47:52.127" Title="What is the story behind Lord Rudra (Shiva) holding the skull of Indra?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|indra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9591" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9574" CreationDate="2015-11-23T16:11:13.443" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;From a mythological perspective, Brahma was created from a lotus emerging from Lord Vishnu's navel. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to other puranas, the Bhagavata Purana, 3.28.25 mentions this : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The yogi should then meditate on His moonlike navel in the center of&#xA;  His abdomen. From His navel, which is the foundation of the entire&#xA;  universe, sprang the lotus stem containing all the different planetary&#xA;  systems. The lotus is the residence of Brahma, the first created&#xA;  being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More from this :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/11-09/features1538.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/11-09/features1538.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The deity of Garbhodakasayi Visnu giving birth to Lord Brahma at&#xA;  Thiruvelliyankudi is a configuration typical of murtis and images&#xA;  depicting this pastime: The Lord is found in a reclining pose, often&#xA;  called Perumal or Srinivasa. Markandeya Rishi often appears near the&#xA;  Lord’s head, Bhumi Devi (Laksmi) at his feet, and Brahmadeva on his&#xA;  lotus flower, attached to Visnu's naval by the lotus stem. Garuda is&#xA;  often present as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A similar example is found in Padmanabhapuram, near Trivandrum, at the&#xA;  Anantapadmanabha- swamy temple. The presiding deity,&#xA;  Ananta-padma-nabha-swamy, refers to Garbhodakasayi Visnu (swamy) who&#xA;  lies on Sesa (ananta), and from whose navel (nabha) the lotus (padma)&#xA;  emerges upon which Lord Brahma appears. Another notable example is the&#xA;  Ranganatha Temple in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. The presiding deity&#xA;  there is a 10 foot long Garbhodakasayi Vishnu (Ranganathaswami)&#xA;  reclining on Ananta Sesa. Laksmi Devi is sitting on a lotus flower on&#xA;  his chest. Lord Brahma is sitting on the lotus of creation, rising&#xA;  from the Lord's navel. Sitting at the Lord's feet are Sridevi and&#xA;  Bhudevi. There is also a seated four-handed Laksmi Devi, who is called&#xA;  Ranga-nayaki-devi, the consort of Ranganatha-swami.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, don't ask where does that put Vishnu's birth, LoL. If your friend is looking to answer a religious/mythological question from a scientific/rational standpoint, like these questions usually get into, then, he would get nowhere. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastEditorUserId="4070" LastEditDate="2015-11-25T12:53:47.237" LastActivityDate="2015-11-25T12:53:47.237" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9592" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9571" CreationDate="2015-11-23T16:37:41.913" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Teaching the practice of religion as a way of life to kids, is different from what the adults see it in their rational, grown-up perspective. It is somewhat like teaching children &quot;Sun rises in the ____ ?&quot; and he is trained to write &quot;East&quot;. Would you teach him, &quot;Sun never rises, nor sets, it appears to do so from the standpoint of.... &quot; ? We would do it, but at the right level and at a time they can catch that more comprehensive view, and onwards from that the kid may even grow up to be an astronomer, but &quot;Sun rises in the east&quot; is relevant at that level. So is the relevance of habits, stories rituals and prayers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, to teach kids, you will have to rely on techniques and practices, that would appear &quot;low-level&quot; to an adult. For instance, Hindu parents (well, the ones who care for the kids' practice of it), interweave, Paapa Bheethi (Fear of Sin, not fear of God) into their interactions when they teach about God. Coveting another's property, treating someone unfairly or unjustly, giving undue importance to wealth and social pride, the importance of honour can all be taught from the stories of Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Dunno about this generation, but until the previous one, the story of Karna has been exemplar in understanding charity, friendship, gratitude and discrimination in spite of the complications in his character. What a character, that combines the personality strands, his response to events, his glory and fall, and an individual's place in society !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The daily or weekly chanting of hymns, or the observance of monthly pujas (like Sathyanarayana Vratham on full moon days) is another. This is not restricted to sanskrit hymns such as Vishnu Sahasranama, a popular family chant, but even other language ones like Hanuman Chalisa or the Skanda Sashti Kavacham, that are hugely popular in small town streets. As kids, agree it's just boring rote (okay, nicely followed by some delicious prasadam like Rava Kesari for which we wait with watering tongues), but over a period of time, it has the benefits of memory, concentration and discipline. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whether a certain religion is instrumental in shaping character in kids, will depend on who shapes it and how consistently, and this is true about any religion. At that point, the practice of the religion is turning to become spiritual, from religious. As a parent, you must be prepared for that transition yourself, because, like they say, children learn from what they see, not from what they hear. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have myself taught select slokas of the Gita and Bhaja Govindam to teenagers, they are teeming with questions, but if you combine the meaning with a game, a story, a role play or a real-life case study, it would still not answer all of those, but it will sow the seeds. Some slokas from the Gita can be a great starting point for equanimity, self-effort and transcending inferior thoughts about oneself. The sloka 'Artham Anartham' (from Bhaja Govindam), was a serious cause of debate, talking about the intermingling of money and relationships, but as a teenager, when the ritual and mythology has become boring and apparently &quot;unscientific&quot;, it becomes a trigger to take them to the next level of intellectual engagement. I would also take them along for a volunteer medical camp or a visit to the government hospital to sensitize them of their role in society. Now, taken in isolation, the hymn has less meaning, but taken together as your walking the talk, it completes it, if not at that time, but at a later time when they grow up and put two-and-two together. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many modern day values can be traced very well to Hinduism's teachings. Environ care, avoidance of wastage, roots back to the Pancha Bhuthas. Hinduism stipulates five different Yagnas, five different duties of Man, towards parents, towards animals, towards guests and so on. Displaying moral courage for what is right, has its roots in Dharma. Many Hindu prayers have an appeal of universality and progress through co-operation, such as 'Samastha Loka Sukino Bhavanthu' and 'Sahana Vavatu'. We also have extreme ideals like those of Harishchandra. The Hindu stories were the Hollywood of their days, combining drama, dilemma and dharma, you could choose what you want to relish, their character complexity, inner significance, the literary beauty or the lingering feeling of a story that stays with you when you move on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An endeavour to teach the modern day practice of Hinduism can be a journey for the parents and teachers themselves and this is valid about the true essence of any religion, not just Hinduism. I could easily write a similar one on Christianity or Islam, so it's not about the Hindu tom-tomming. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastEditorUserId="4070" LastEditDate="2015-11-23T17:42:32.813" LastActivityDate="2015-11-23T17:42:32.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9593" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8706" CreationDate="2015-11-24T07:12:39.783" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indira, the king of heaven did not attack Krishna on his own thought, but he fought with him because his wife Saci complained him which may be due to some jealousness she had towards Satyabhama, Krishna's wife.Those who listens to the advice of their wives and have no sense of conscience are definitely fools and the similar thing happened with Indira.So his mind not steady and puzzled, he was not able to decide on his own and went to fight with Krishna who himself is the god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4225" LastActivityDate="2015-11-24T07:12:39.783" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9594" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-24T07:53:16.570" Score="1" ViewCount="143" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently went for a Kerala trip and saw this lamp:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ECuQk.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ECuQk.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does these sculptures on the lamp mean something? Do they signify something?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also this is my first question, so apologies if question is not clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4226" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-21T05:27:15.643" LastActivityDate="2017-03-21T05:27:15.643" Title="What does monkey and eagle/pigeon signify here?" Tags="|temple|identification-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9595" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9308" CreationDate="2015-11-24T12:13:58.763" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Maybe as we know a form of Buddhism survives as the predominant religion its going to be a astro/indian/aboriginal one and the grammatically taken vesture of the Vishnu Purana's sanskrit will be able to be made a construct in the minds of the max 3 1/2 foot pygmies!  Please think of the features form and likenesses in the mummified fossilized &quot;65 yr old meditator from the last kali yuga&quot; (simple google search suffices methinks) &#xA;I reckon all this will happen as my vision is the elementary stutter proof and intonated catch up typo Sanskrit in Vishnu Purana will behove emotional value ... doing away any true MAYAVADI concepts of acit being ying/yang Dao as to tao that is to say to Spell it out the value of their war cries unto Kalkiraja will match up much ado like Indian/Bengali/Nepalese Varna does as good as the nicest way to go back to Goloka vraja &#xA;but the horror types all bedecked to face Kalki Avatar well they just really deem themselves into a bliss that makes up what is only visable as a passing white cloud... all on the Strength of Sanskrit whom is a person eternal who as all do worships Rai~Kanu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So yeah that sage&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4229" LastActivityDate="2015-11-24T12:13:58.763" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9596" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6745" CreationDate="2015-11-24T12:20:33.163" Score="-3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The person has to be comming up from bhurloka and the evolution of consciousness needs match the way ... lets just bring Rahu into point .... time builds up in the mind as to match the environmental conditioning and lack of grade made to grain of character thats from bon in gain of human life.... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4229" LastActivityDate="2015-11-24T12:20:33.163" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9598" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9040" CreationDate="2015-11-24T15:57:35.590" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I agree with moonstar2001 &amp;amp; Nithin Sridhar! They may not have self consciousness but again it purely depends on spiritual stage of the soul. Punishment is the same even if we know or dont know reason behind such punishment and by that that karma will be cleared off. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May it be human or any other animal, birth itself may be considered as punishment. We need to experience the result of good or bad deeds done by us. We may be not acknowledge but it can be related to anything like if a human/animal gets a comfort or discomfort of any sort it is result of a previous act. We may need to refer sastras for understand the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As discussed &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2326/65&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; sometimes animals may be more lucky than humans in reaching higher spiritual states, so we need not under estimate animals' birth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further suggested discussions are &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2249/does-karma-of-previous-life-affect-new-life&quot;&gt;Does karma of previous life affect new life?&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/138/how-exactly-does-karma-work&quot;&gt;How exactly does karma work?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-11-24T15:57:35.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9599" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-24T17:43:30.743" Score="4" ViewCount="2127" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the surname of Lord Krishna. Is there any reference from scriptures which points to Krishna's surname?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2017-05-04T06:56:32.423" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T06:56:32.423" Title="What was the surname of Lord Krishna?" Tags="|scripture|vishnu|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="15" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9600" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-24T18:07:40.653" Score="5" ViewCount="459" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna was an avatar of Lord Vishnu but once I have heard that one day Lord Krishna and Arjuna went to Ksheera Sagara to see Lord Vishnu and they had met him. So,if Lord Krishna was a form of Vishnu,how can he meet Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastActivityDate="2015-11-25T05:45:24.940" Title="Was Lord Krishna himself Vishnu or not?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|bhagavata-purana|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-11-28T08:28:27.317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9601" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-24T21:55:54.313" Score="4" ViewCount="250" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for the response of &lt;strong&gt;any denomination&lt;/strong&gt; that is against abortion in the case of rape that has also responded to the scenario below or something similar to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Defense_of_Abortion#The_Violinist&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;A Defense of Abortion&lt;/a&gt;&quot; (Thomson):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You wake up in the morning and find yourself back to back in bed with&#xA;  an unconscious violinist. A famous unconscious violinist. He has been&#xA;  found to have a fatal kidney ailment, and the Society of Music Lovers&#xA;  has canvassed all the available medical records and found that you&#xA;  alone have the right blood type to help. They have therefore kidnapped&#xA;  you, and last night the violinist's circulatory system was plugged&#xA;  into yours, so that your kidneys can be used to extract poisons from&#xA;  his blood as well as your own. [If he is unplugged from you now, he&#xA;  will die; but] in nine months he will have recovered from his ailment,&#xA;  and can safely be unplugged from you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said later that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Critics of Thomson's argument generally grant the permissibility of&#xA;  unplugging the violinist, but seek to block the inference that&#xA;  abortion is permissible by arguing that there are morally relevant&#xA;  differences between the violinist scenario and typical cases of&#xA;  abortion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it is &lt;strong&gt;unsourced&lt;/strong&gt;. :(&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To make my intentions clear, the above is an analogy for a female being raped and impregnated by a male. &lt;strong&gt;Some denominations claim that the female is obliged to carry the child to birth if medically practical&lt;/strong&gt; because the child is innocent of his/her father's sins, has a right to life, etc etc etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Assume ideal conditions such as medical complications not being present so the mother and child are healthy, the mother can give birth, the mother and the father are not close relatives, a proper hospital is available and can be afforded, an adoption agency is available etc etc etc)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So do those arguments apply to the violinist too?&lt;/strong&gt; What are the &quot;morally relevant differences&quot; ? I understand that Thomson was defending abortion in non-rape cases, but let us consider only rape cases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's the difference? Why are women responsible for carrying a child, who she did not consent to carrying, to birth but people are not responsible for caring for a violinist who they were attached to without consent?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not saying women are not responsible, but &lt;strong&gt;if they are, it looks like everyone is responsible for the violinist.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, I would like to emphasize that I'm looking for any denomination's response, probable response based on teachings or relevant teachings. Naturally, I'm not asking what &quot;Hinduism&quot; thinks or would think.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks to all. I'm new to site so please go easy on me in feedback and editing. :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4230" LastActivityDate="2015-11-25T18:42:34.177" Title="What is an overview of Hinduism's arguments against the &quot;unconscious violinist&quot; analogy used to support abortion in the case of rape?" Tags="|belief|philosophy|life|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9603" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9600" CreationDate="2015-11-25T05:45:24.940" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavan Krishna was a vibhava avatara of Sriman Narayana. It is not that when Bhagavan descends to bhu-lokam in one of his avatarams Vaikuntham suddenly becomes vacant- all of Bhagavan's avatarams issue forth from Sriman Narayana who remains in Vaikuntham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4232" LastActivityDate="2015-11-25T05:45:24.940" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9604" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-25T06:20:00.400" Score="1" ViewCount="37" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Bhagvad Geeta have multiple versions like many other scriptures?&#xA;Has anybody heard about it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-23T04:00:30.440" LastActivityDate="2015-12-23T04:00:30.440" Title="Does Bhagvad Geeta have multiple versions?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-11-25T06:42:01.557" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9605" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3983" CreationDate="2015-11-25T08:49:04.940" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, you have talked of desires, fear etc. The answer is that after God-realization, a saint is way out of reach of anger, lust, desires etc. These are the words of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.estudantedavedanta.net/gospel_srk.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; search page 196):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The anger and lust of a man who has realized God are &lt;strong&gt;only appearances&lt;/strong&gt;.  They are like a burnt string.  It looks like a string, but a mere puff blows it away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, you talked of the will of saints' to get back to plane of senses. Well, not to the plane of senses definitely but some of the saints do return to the normal plane of consciousness, this surely does not mean that they are again under the spell of maya but what is meant by returning is that they retain a part of their ego only to preach to the mankind. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.estudantedavedanta.net/gospel_srk.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; (same page) are the words of Sri Ramakrishna on this subject:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are &lt;strong&gt;some who come down&lt;/strong&gt;, as it were, after attaining the Knowledge of Brahman-after samādhi-and retain the 'ego of Knowledge' or the 'ego of Devotion', just as there are people who, &lt;strong&gt;of their own sweet will&lt;/strong&gt;, stay in the market-place after the market breaks up.  This was the case with sages like Narada.  They kept the 'ego of Devotion' &lt;strong&gt;for the purpose of teaching men&lt;/strong&gt;.  Sankaracharya kept the 'ego of Knowledge' for the same purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, in no way do the enlightened saints return to the plane of senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-25T11:29:04.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9607" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-25T09:33:08.277" Score="3" ViewCount="2154" Body="&lt;p&gt;Everyone uses Tulsi leaf when they worship Lord Vishnu and many people say that Tulsi was Vishnu's another wife. Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T14:52:34.180" LastActivityDate="2017-02-14T05:23:12.590" Title="Was Tulsi really Lord Vishnu's wife?" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavata-purana|tulasi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9609" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-25T15:21:41.660" Score="5" ViewCount="760" Body="&lt;p&gt;In hindu mythology, many rivers are referred to as goddesses for example Ganga and Saraswati. Is there any curse given to them so that they all were in river form? What is the story behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4236" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-14T10:43:35.633" LastActivityDate="2018-08-29T06:56:54.033" Title="Why do certain goddesses exist in the form of rivers?" Tags="|devi|goddess|rivers|curse|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9610" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20420" CreationDate="2015-11-25T15:57:36.183" Score="10" ViewCount="5588" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01075.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chandogya Upanishad makes a rather curious statement:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;taddhaitadghor āṅgirasaḥ &lt;strong&gt;kṛṣṇāya&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;devakīputrā&lt;/strong&gt;yoktvovācāpipāsa eva sa babhūva &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  so'ntavelāyāmetattrayaṃ pratipadyetākṣitamasyacyutamasi &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  prāṇasam̐śitamasīti tatraite dve ṛcau bhavataḥ  ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ghora Âṅgirasa, after having communicated this (view of the sacrifice) to &lt;strong&gt;Krishna, the son of Devăkî&lt;/strong&gt; -- and he never thirsted again (after other knowledge)--said: 'Let a man, when his end approaches, take refuge with this Triad: &quot;Thou art the imperishable,&quot; &quot;Thou art the unchangeable,&quot; &quot;Thou art the edge of Prâna.&quot;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it's common knowledge that Vishnu's incarnation Krishna was the son of Vasudeva and Devaki.  So my question is, is the &quot;Krishna Devakiputra&quot; mentioned in the Chandogya Upanishad the same as the famous incarnation of Vishnu, or is this just some bizarre coincidence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translator claims no Hindu work has ever noted this coincidence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The curious coincidence between Krishna Devakîputra, here mentioned as a pupil of Ghora Âṅgirasa, and the famous Krishna, the son of Devakî, was first pointed out by Colebrooke, Miscell. Essays, II, 177. Whether it is more than a coincidence, is difficult to say. Certainly we can build no other conclusions on it than those indicated by Colebrooke, that new fables may have been constructed elevating this personage to the rank of a god. We know absolutely nothing of the old Krishna Devakîputra except his having been a pupil of Ghora Âṅgirasa, nor does there seem to have been any attempt made by later Brahmans to connect their divine Krishna, the son of Vasudeva, with the Krishna Devakîputra of our Upanishad. This is all the more remarkable because the author of the Sândilya-sûtras, for instance, who is very anxious to find a srauta authority for the worship of Krishna Vâsudeva as the supreme deity, had to be satisfied with quoting such modern compilations as the Nârâyanopanishad[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And indeed, Adi Shankaracharya's &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800301.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/29/items/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English_jp2/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English_0181.jp2&amp;amp;scale=6.558282208588957&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; on this verse doesn't point out anything noteworthy about Krishna Devakiputra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This - Philosophy of the Sacrifice, - the sage Ghora - by name Angirasa - by Gotra - having expounded to Krishna, the son of Devaki - his disciple, said to him... Krishna, on listening to this philosophy, became thirstless... By this the text means to eulogize the Philosophy of the Sacrifice-Man as being so effective as to have relieved Krishna-Devakiputra of thirst for all other sciences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhvacharya doesn't discuss who Krishna Devakiputra is in his &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/S95jc.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; either.  So did these Acharyas somehow not notice the coincidence, or did they find the fact that it referred to Krishna to be too obvious to note, or did they find it too obvious to note that they're different people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And assuming it's the same Krishna, who is this &quot;Ghora Angirasa&quot; who would be Krishna's guru.  Krishna had gurus like Sandipani and Garga, but I don't know of any guru of his named Ghora.  In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neminatha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt; says that some Jains believe that Ghora Angirasa is another name for their Tirthankara Neminatha, whom they claim Krishna studied under:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Chandogya Upanishads, the sage Ghora Angirasa relates the life of a man to the Soma sacrifice, and the daksina (alms) to austerity, liberality, simplicity, non-violence and truthfulness. In the process, he contributes the first recorded mention of ahimsa in the sense of non-violent behaviour. These values are common to Jainism and some claim Ghora Angirasa as a Jain sadhu instructing Krishna. The word Ghora Angirasa seems to be an epithet given to him because of the extreme austerities he undertook. It may be possible to suggest that Neminatha was his early name and when he had obtained Moksha after hard austerities, he might have been given the name of Ghora Angirasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But is there any basis for that in Hindu scripture? And does anyone know of any work by any Hindu Acharya or writer discussing the identity of this Krishna Devakiputra of the Chandogya Upanishad?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-30T20:51:29.770" LastActivityDate="2018-12-31T13:45:54.317" Title="Is Krishna mentioned in the Chandogya Upanishad?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|upanishads|chandogya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9611" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9601" CreationDate="2015-11-25T16:59:56.837" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question carries with it many modern secular Western pre-conceived ideas as to what is is good and bad and as to where a person's obligations lie or do not lie. A materialist will see only what is good for their immediate well being as good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Self-sacrifice is the basis of all religions. If one accepts that one is only the body and that one's primary aim and goal is one's own happiness in this world, then there may exist a moral dilemma as to whether or not to have an abortion. All religions assert that giving up of one's self for others is the greater good. In Christianity, Christ, when asked, listed two commandments as the greatest - the second being - do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Hinduism says that we are all the same oneness, so what I do to others I am doing to myself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism teaches that the 'soul' enters the present birth at the time of conception. So to do any abortion under any circumstances is seen as killing. Swami Nikhilananda says in &lt;em&gt;Hindu Ethics&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;The Upanishads&lt;/em&gt;, V2):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the general Upanishadic view the value of an action is to be judged by the degree of personal sacrifice involved. An action is judged by meritorious if it involves a denial of personal comfort (&lt;em&gt;tapas&lt;/em&gt;) together with renunciation (&lt;em&gt;nyasa&lt;/em&gt;) on the doer's part, though the action in itself may not be conducive to the immediate well-being of others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the objective value of action is not denied. The Chhandogya Upanishad (III. 17.) describes life as a sacrifice (&lt;em&gt;yajna&lt;/em&gt;) which is to be performed by the advanced soul without any external ceremonies. In this sacrifice the gifts (which must accompany a sacrifice) are enumerated as austerities (&lt;em&gt;tapas&lt;/em&gt;), liberality (&lt;em&gt;danam&lt;/em&gt;), righteousness (&lt;em&gt;arjavam&lt;/em&gt;), non-violence (&lt;em&gt;ahimsa&lt;/em&gt;), and truthfulness (&lt;em&gt;satyavachanam&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Hindu's objective in this world is not to make one's own body happy and content, A Hindu's duties are to their advancement and escape from the world of karma and this is done through self-sacrifice. To renounce the world means to give up one's own pleasures to help others. For a woman to sacrifice her own well being for a child of uncertain parentage is true renunciation. So a mother with an unborn child is still a mother and has the same duties to the child regardless of the parentage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his Complete Works (V4, p 469-70), Swami Vivekananda states that there are numerous examples throughout Hindu scriptures of people of questionable parentage who have been raised up by dint of their superior learning, valor, or spirituality. Vasishtha, Narada (mother a maidservant, father unknown), Satyakama Jabala (mother a maidservant, father unknown), Vyasa, Kripa, Drona, Karna to name some.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ethics of the violinist example is not comparable to the abortion example, and therefore not relevant. The violinist choose to plug you up against your will, one of the two affected parties did the action, only one party was non-consensual. An unborn child of uncertain parentage did not choose to plug into its mother; in fact neither of the affected parties asked for the plug up, it was a third party that did so, neither of the affected parties gave their assent. If anything, the unborn child is more aptly comparable to the 'you' in the violinist example, and not to the violinist, as the unborn child 'wakes up' plugged into its mother.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-11-25T16:59:56.837" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9612" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9610" CreationDate="2015-11-25T17:09:52.307" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a Chandogya Upanishad mantra 3.17.6 which says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ghora Angirasa expounded this well known doctrine to Devaki's son&#xA;  Krishna and said , 'Such a knower should at the time of death repeat&#xA;  this triad - &quot;Thou art the imperishable, Thou art the unchangeable,&#xA;  Thou art the subtle essence of Prana.&quot; (on hearing the above) Krishna&#xA;  became thirstless. There are two Rk stanzas in regard to this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Swahananda's comment on this shloka is given below: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That is, Devaki's son Krishna. Sri Sankaracharya states that the&#xA;  mention of Krishna is only for the purpose of bringing out the&#xA;  excellence of this Vidya (sacrifice). He says that the desire for&#xA;  Vidyas was quenched in the mind of Krishna after listening to the&#xA;  instruction of Gora Angirasa. The Mimamsakas whose central dogma is&#xA;  that every syllable of the Sruti is beginningless and eternal would&#xA;  consider the reference to Krishna as Arthavada and not an allusion to&#xA;  the historical personality. Students of historical thought, however,&#xA;  find a definite reference to the teacher of the Gita in the epithet&#xA;  Devakiputra. This conclusion is rendered probable by the&#xA;  identification of man and sacrifice (corresponding to the Gita ideal&#xA;  of the dedication of every activity of life to the Divine) and by the&#xA;  long life of Sri Krishna extending to 128 years described in the&#xA;  Bhagavata while a period of 116 years is considered normal in this&#xA;  Vidya. In this passage historians find the earliest reference to Sri&#xA;  Krishna which can not be dismissed as legendary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Chandogya Upanishad translated by Swami Swahananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-11-25T17:09:52.307" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9614" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9601" CreationDate="2015-11-25T18:42:34.177" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Hindu scriptures say, 'Ahimsa Paramo Dharma', that Ahimsa is the highest of all dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiadivine.org/content/topic/1393500-ahimsa-paramo-dharmah-source-of-quote/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.indiadivine.org/content/topic/1393500-ahimsa-paramo-dharmah-source-of-quote/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While it's a different matter that everyone is not capable of practising it, that is set as an ideal and a benchmark for everyone is to aspire for. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I were the 'you' in the violinist, I would use this rule to NOT unplug myself from the violinist, given that the event has happened and destiny has placed a possible beneficiary and a unique one at that, whom I alone can help, next to me on my bed. The highest choices are born out of Prema (Universal Love) and one that realizes the Unity of all beings and how divinity pervades everything.   If you think I am idealistic and won't practise it, well, I have only my self-confidence to state my position now. Hopefully my sense of fundamental discrimination will serve me well then, as it does now, when I really face the situation.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, let alone using the violinist case to argue for abortion, I would use the Ahimsa dictum to argue against unplugging the violinist. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, in Hinduism, I have ironically found Dharma to be both contextual and as a fundamental backdrop that transcends context. Where it is contextual, it takes into account all parameters in a situation, all the actors, their constraints, where they come from and who is advising them and in some cases, the karmic preparation for future events. Where it transcends context, it would often be based on the Atma Dharma, the Dharma that is based on the Advaitic unity of all beings, unconditional love and universal good. There are examples of both. The story of Dharmva Vyadha, for instance, presents the difference between the dharma of caring for one's family and the apparent dharma of following a butcher profession. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You must note that, for this reason, Hinduism's concept of Dharma is never hypothetical, because hypothetical cases do not take into account, the actors' preparation, his motive and attitude, his subtle expectations and hidden desires. When Rishis advise on Dharma contextually, it's implicit that they do so considering these, in a guru-disciple way. Another reason, why very real cases of rape, cannot be compared to the very hypothetical case of the violinist kidnapping. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance, Eklavya offered his thumb knowing well Drona was being unfair, but the Pandavas went to war after suffering injustice for a while, but not forever. One could have expected Krishna to argue based on the Unity of all beings, and advised Arjuna to understand the oneness and &lt;strong&gt;NOT&lt;/strong&gt; to go to war, but he did precisely the opposite, because the war has to be considered in the context of the widespread Adharma at the time, the Kaurava history and wrongdoings and the duty of a warrior and a ruler in the face of injustice and molestation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this case, therefore, I would leave it to the mother in question. In that sense, my answer is pro-choice (understandably in total conflict with my stand on the violinist case above). Which is why probably, as Swami Vishwananda says in the other answer,  they may not be comparable. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why pro-choice ? Mainly because it is rape. If the mother can use the transcending nature of Dharma (Ahimsa etc) to make the choice to have the baby, I would think of that as a higher choice. But, if that is not to be, such realization and preparation of the woman's mind and elevation to think from Universal Unity cannot be achieved by her, particularly after the depressing conditions of rape. She would, and can, as a natural choice, choose to abort her baby, for the obvious well-known reasons. She may be often unaware of the karmic consequence of the abort action, while she is quite aware of the troubling material consequences of having the baby. Such knowledge into the intricate nature of karma, most of us do not have. So, for her, it has to be a choice between the devil and the deep sea and her choice to abort would be understandable even if not ideal. And aside of advising her on all possible perspectives, no one should force an option on her, because such force itself will alter the parameters and influence her attitude towards the baby. If I were her, I would have the baby. If I were the Rishi advising her, I would leave it to her, with a recommendation of having the baby. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastActivityDate="2015-11-25T18:42:34.177" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9615" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9610" CreationDate="2015-11-26T01:18:02.910" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the 16th century Gaudiya Vaishnava acarya Jiva Gosvami said in his Krishna Sandarbha, Anuccheda 57, Text 5: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;samopanishadi ca krishnaya devakinandanaya iti &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sama-upanishadi-in the Upanishad of the Sama Veda (Chandogya&#xA;  Upanishad);  krishnaya devakinandanaya-I offer my respectful&#xA;  obeisances to Shri Krishna, the son of Devaki;  iti-thus &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The name Krishna is also mentioned in the Chandogya Upanishad of the&#xA;  Sama Veda, which says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I offer my respectful obeisances to Shri Krishna, the son of Devaki.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it seems that per the opinion of Jiva Gosvami Lord Krishna has been referred to in the Chandogya Upanishad as the son of Devaki. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Asker said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now it is common knowledge that Vishnu's incarnation Krishna was the&#xA;  son of Vasudeva and Devaki. So my question is, is the &quot;Krishna&#xA;  Devakiputra&quot; mentioned in the Chandogya Upanishad the same as the&#xA;  famous incarnation of Vishnu, or is this just some bizarre&#xA;  coincidence?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Madhvacharya doesn't discuss who Krishna&#xA;  Devakiputra is in his commentary either. So did these Acharyas somehow&#xA;  not notice the coincidence, or did they find the fact that it referred&#xA;  to Krishna to be too obvious to note, or did they find it too obvious&#xA;  to note that they're different people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And assuming it's the same Krishna, who is this &quot;Ghora Angirasa&quot; who&#xA;  would be Krishna's guru. Krishna had gurus like Sandipani and Garga,&#xA;  but I don't know of any guru of his named Ghora.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do not believe that Jiva Gosvami thought that the person referred to in the verse actually is Lord Krishna! He was just an ordinary man named &quot;Krishna Devakiputra&quot;, ie &quot;Krishna, the son of Devaki&quot;. Even today in India you can find people by the name &quot;Krishna&quot;. But the point is that he was called after the Lord Krishna, thus &quot;Krishna, the son of Devaki&quot;. Now, the important thing to understand is that he as an ordinary human is not Lord Krishna, but his name &quot;Krishna, the son of Devaki&quot; is clear reference to the Lord Krishna. That's the point here. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2015-12-05T22:00:05.530" LastActivityDate="2015-12-05T22:00:05.530" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9616" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-26T02:49:18.817" Score="2" ViewCount="2786" Body="&lt;p&gt;What exactly is namasmarana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In namasmarana is there any importance to just chant a name of god (mind may or may not be on it) ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If namasmarana is chanting the name with remembering god in mind- then - how exactly to remember god while chanting his name? God is nirakar - hence i can not have his photo in mymind. Because that will be the smaran of fake photograph.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how exactly to do smaran of god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eg. If a person is doing namasmaran for 5000 times, then he will definitely require around 2 hours. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In these 2 hours of period is it just important to take his name with mouth or what is exact procedure to remember him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T12:04:15.123" Title="What exactly is namasmarana" Tags="|gods|philosophy|karma|japa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9617" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9729" CreationDate="2015-11-26T06:09:10.817" Score="13" ViewCount="1554" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually first thing to know is: The relation/difference between Atman &amp;amp; Brahman but &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9141/277&quot;&gt;that&lt;/a&gt; question is closed as the duplicate of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6689/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;. I don't know the exact reason may be Brahman of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9141/277&quot;&gt;a&lt;/a&gt; question might be considered as Paramatma of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6689/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I am not talking about the difference between Atma,Jeevatma or Paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is &lt;strong&gt;What is the relation/difference between Brahman (ब्रह्म) and ParaBrahm (परब्रह्म)?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the different terms used are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jeeva(जीव) or Jeevatma(जीवात्मा)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atma(आत्मा) &amp;amp; Paramatma(परमात्मा)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahman(ब्रह्म) &amp;amp; Parabrahm(परब्रह्म)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;If we can define and determine the relation or difference (i.e. which are same, which have relation with another or what is the difference) of above terms, then it will be good for everyone who is confused from this.&lt;/em&gt; [Indeed to answer]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or currently what is called Parabrahm(परब्रह्म) and how is it related to Brahman(ब्रह्म)?. (If the word &quot;Para(पर)&quot; means beyond, then what do you men by &lt;em&gt;beyond brahman&lt;/em&gt;? ; And which is (not Brahman?) the Absolute and Ultimate Truth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-09-01T05:42:53.233" Title="What is the relation/difference between Brahman(ब्रह्म) &amp; Parabrahm(परब्रह्म)?" Tags="|atma|brahman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9618" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-26T06:20:13.727" Score="1" ViewCount="61" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the ongoing TV serial, &lt;strong&gt;Mahabali Hanuman&lt;/strong&gt;, it was shown that &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman&lt;/strong&gt; forgot his &lt;strong&gt;shaktis&lt;/strong&gt;(Powers) due to curse by Rishis when he went to Swarg Lok to bring back his mother. But, as far as I know, Hanuman was cursed by a Rishi to forget his divine powers while he made lives of Rishis miserable alongwith his friends. So, which story is authentic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: Which of the versions is authentic?? I am asking this question because in the TV serial, the whole incident is shown in a diffent context.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="3050" LastEditDate="2015-11-26T12:14:50.073" LastActivityDate="2015-11-26T12:14:50.073" Title="Hanuman forgeting divine powers" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2015-11-26T15:11:20.530" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9619" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9620" CreationDate="2015-11-26T09:56:06.440" Score="5" ViewCount="288" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usually Bhakti is referred to unconditional love towards God, Worshiping God, Chanting his name and thinking of him day and night. And a bhakta who is completely Devoted to God in mind, body and soul will be liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, can someone have that intensity of bhakti towards his/her mother, father, husband, wife or any person other than God and get moksha?      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3135" LastActivityDate="2015-11-26T12:02:02.093" Title="Can we attain liberation through having Bhakti on a normal person?" Tags="|bhakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9620" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9619" CreationDate="2015-11-26T12:02:02.093" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is possible to develop intense love for a human and still attain liberation. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.estudantedavedanta.net/gospel_srk.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; (search page 453) are words spoken by Sri Ramakrishna, quoting an incident where some women asked him about their salvation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The women then asked me if they would have salvation.  'Yes,' I said, 'if you are absolutely faithful to one man and &lt;strong&gt;look on him as your God&lt;/strong&gt;.  But you cannot be liberated if you live with five men.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore as per the great saint, it is possible to develop deep devotion for a human. This way, considering the person as your God, the mind of the lover is purified and the salvation is attained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastActivityDate="2015-11-26T12:02:02.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9622" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9623" CreationDate="2015-11-26T14:02:31.237" Score="5" ViewCount="368" Body="&lt;p&gt;As Bhagavad Gita says, one should do karma without thinking of its outcome. What would be encouragement for someone for doing that work if he does not think of the outcome? How can someone have passion for something if we are to detach from all material things?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="4166" LastEditDate="2015-11-26T14:21:27.997" LastActivityDate="2015-11-26T16:23:02.200" Title="How could one do karma without expectation of fruits?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9623" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9622" CreationDate="2015-11-26T14:54:56.843" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;For a nice exposition look at &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishkam_Karma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nishkam Karma&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The essential thing is not to &lt;em&gt;hanker after the results&lt;/em&gt; of the work.&#xA;Also for the source itself - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-02-46.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gita 2:47&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You certainly have the right to prescribed activities, but never at anytime their results. You should never be motivated by the results of the actions, nor should there be any attachment in not doing your prescribed activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most societies in the world are results oriented, one must work in order to exist. More subtly, the very act of breathing generates karma, there is no escaping it. The key admonition from Sri Krishna is to &lt;em&gt;surrender the results&lt;/em&gt;.  He does &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; say to shirk your responsibilities or perform badly. One very good way of applying this (via my Guruji Pt. Bramdeo Maharaj) is to mentally give the result to God. Suppose you do particularly well and you are being praised, say: Lord this is all for you, not me. As a person grows spiritually the strict distinction between the four major paths become blurred but karma always lies at the base of activity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4242" LastEditorUserId="4242" LastEditDate="2015-11-26T16:23:02.200" LastActivityDate="2015-11-26T16:23:02.200" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9625" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7320" CreationDate="2015-11-26T16:06:18.330" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Temple town :&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;The name of the temple town, famous for Nadi Astrology in South India, is Vaitheeswaran Kovil, in Tamilnadu State. Note that, the temple itself has no connection with the numerous Nadi reading centres in the town. Even inside the town, there are some which are more costly than others, more genuine than others. And there are different Nadis' such as Shuka Nadi, Agastya Nadi and so on, named after the various rishis or sidda purushas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Nadi astrology :&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;For what is nadi jyotish, the Wikipedia page on Nadi Astrology is as good a starting place as any.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, it is a branch of astrology where predictions are pre-cast in the Nadi texts, and based on your precise birth time, if predictions are available and pre-written for you, they can be read for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Veracity of claims :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As to the truth of the predictions, the opinions are mixed. It would be best to go by personal references. Anecdotal evidence for accurate predictions, semi-accurate predictions (only about the past) and totally misplaced predictions are all common. It must also be noted that for some, the predictions might just not be available at all, that is, they were never written or not available since the ages. It requires a precise birth time to be stated to the reader.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How different from regular astrology :&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Kundli is regular traditional astrology that is based on the the positions of the planets in your planetary chart. Nadi is a totally different stream of astrology where the reader himself has little scope for the predicting act, except for reading what is already there and to explain the possibilities if you don't understand, and to narrow down the right chart for you based on successive queries to you about your birth time etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastEditorUserId="13268" LastEditDate="2022-04-19T13:22:58.230" LastActivityDate="2022-04-19T13:22:58.230" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9626" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9641" CreationDate="2015-11-26T17:31:05.817" Score="7" ViewCount="1917" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the Hinduism v/s Islam fight new or has been going on for generations? Is there a mention of Islam in ancient Hindu texts like the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4135" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-21T07:29:26.827" LastActivityDate="2022-03-30T14:30:40.727" Title="Is there anything against Islam in Hindu texts?" Tags="|vedas|history|other-religions|islam|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9628" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9626" CreationDate="2015-11-26T18:57:55.497" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas are from about 1500 to 500 BCE. Islam is from the 7th century CE. Hence there is no mention of Islam in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference&lt;/strong&gt; added.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;However, it is known from internal evidence that the Vedic texts were orally composed in northern India, at first in the Greater Punjab and later also in more eastern areas, including northern Bihar, between ca. 1500 BCE. and 400 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Michael Witzel: Vedas and Upanisads in Flood, Gavin (Ed.): The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism&lt;/em&gt; (2005).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu scholars somtetimes give much older dates for the Vedas, e.g.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dasgupta, Surendranath: A History of Indian Philosophy. Vol.1&lt;/em&gt; 1922. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He quotes Max Mueller ca. 1.200 BCE., Haug 2.400 BCE., Bal Gangadhar Tilak 4.000 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastEditorUserId="967" LastEditDate="2016-02-24T13:08:39.387" LastActivityDate="2016-02-24T13:08:39.387" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9629" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3930" CreationDate="2015-11-26T20:11:04.010" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksh occurs at the point when the mind identifies with The Brahman, no matter what answer is given to describe this is incorrect because we heard it from someone who actually achieved this state in his life:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter03.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahman cannot be expressed in words&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What Brahman is cannot he described.  All things in the world - the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, the six systems of philosophy - have been defiled, like food that has been touched by the tongue, for they have been read or uttered by the tongue.  Only one thing has not been defiled in this way, and that is Brahman.  No one has ever been able to say what Brahman is.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He gave many other examples, he also said that sages like Sri Sukdeva Ji and Jada Barath only touched that &lt;code&gt;Ocean&lt;/code&gt; but did not plunge into It, hence they were able to return.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;He tried to explain this put would slip into samadhi and could no longer speak.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I would like to add (for my own mind mostly):&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter47.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Ramakrishna Chapter 47&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MASTER: &amp;quot;I say: O my foolish boy, eat the mangoes and be happy. What is the use of your calculating how many hundreds of trees, how many thousands of branches, and how many millions of leaves there are in the orchard? You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. Eat them and be contented.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4242" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-26T20:11:04.010" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9630" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13961" CreationDate="2015-11-26T21:16:08.463" Score="7" ViewCount="727" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m14069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Ashwamedha Parva of the Mahabharata, Krishna brings Abhimanyu's son Parikshit back to life, after he is born stillborn as a result of Ashwatthama's Brahmastra (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2390/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  Here is what Krishna says in order to bring the boy back to life:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never before have I uttered an untruth even in jest. Never have I turned back from battle. (By the merit of those acts) let this child revive! As righteousness is dear to me, as Brahmanas are specially dear to me, (by the merit of that disposition of mine) let Abhimanyu's son, who is born dead, revive! &lt;strong&gt;Never hath a misunderstanding arisen between me and my friend Vijaya.&lt;/strong&gt; Let this dead child revive by that truth! As truth and righteousness are always established in me, let this dead child of Abhimanyu revive (by the merit of these)! As Kansa and Kesi have been righteously slain by me, let this child revive today by that truth!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question who is this &quot;Vijaya&quot; who was the friend of Krishna?  Vijaya means victory, so I'm guessing that it refers to Arjuna.  Another friend of Krishna was Sudama (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2603/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), but I doubt he would be called Vijaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any commentaries on the Mahabharata that address who Krishna is referring to here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-05-24T08:17:50.970" Title="Who is Krishna's friend Vijaya?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9632" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-27T11:07:35.107" Score="7" ViewCount="826" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a poem written by Tagore on Panchakanyas. All the ladies mentioned above are called panchakanyas. Is there any significance that they are called so? Why did Sita didn't make it on the list?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4248" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2024-01-31T17:15:24.410" LastActivityDate="2024-01-31T17:15:24.410" Title="Why are Ahalya,Tara, Mandodari, Kunti, and Draupadi called panchakanyas?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9633" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-27T11:46:33.463" Score="14" ViewCount="5562" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Srimad Bhagavatam, when Sati talks with Shiva about the Daksha Yagya and why she wants to go, she calls Mahadeva, &quot;Shitikantha&quot;. This has been translated as Poison-throated one. This &lt;strong&gt;can&lt;/strong&gt; refer to the fight of Lord Shiva and Narayana described both in the Mahabharata (Narayaniya section) and the Harivamsa. But there is a possibility that it refers to the Samudra Mathana episode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Lord Shiva asks Devi's permission to drink poison, the words used are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarva Bhuta Suhrt Deva Idam Aaha &lt;strong&gt;Satim&lt;/strong&gt; Priyam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And later on when Sati praises Shiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Praja &lt;strong&gt;Dakshayani&lt;/strong&gt; Brahma Vaikunthas Cha Sashamsire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, when Rishi Maitreya concludes his retelling of Dakshayagam, he says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Evam Dakshayani hitva Sati Purva kalebaram&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Jagnye Himavatah Kshetre Menayam Iti &lt;strong&gt;Sushruma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning of this verse is: &quot;After giving up the body of Dakshayani, Devi Sati accepted the new body as Himavan's daughter, born from Mena.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bolded word is Sushruma, which means, &quot;I have heard.&quot;&#xA;Now, why should a great Rishi like Maitreya &quot;hear&quot; about the birth of Goddess Parvati?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srila Prabhupada adds &quot;from authoritative sources&quot;. So does that mean, Maitreya didn't know himself about the birth of Parvati, or is that just a way of speech?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also have the story of King Muchukunda, the ancestor of Rama, who fought for long &lt;strong&gt;until Muruga took over.&lt;/strong&gt; Which implies Muruga was born later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the question is: When exactly was Parvati Devi married to Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S.: There is also an even more confusing theory of mine which I am not sure I can post here. So you can read it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4166086&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (It is where I originally posted the above question, with less response.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-22T14:30:51.337" LastActivityDate="2016-09-12T09:45:39.053" Title="When did Parvati Devi marry Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|bhagavata-purana|parvati|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9634" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-27T12:03:51.483" Score="3" ViewCount="203" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Srimad Bhagavatam (the treasure from which so many questions arise!), the story of Maharaja Prthu is described in the Fourth Canto, Chapters 15 to 23. In Chapters 19 and 20 is described the story of Prthu's 100 Ashvamedha Yajnas. According to this story, Prthu had performed 99 Yajnas, causing Indra to feel insecure about his position and that Prthu would usurp him. He then takes the garb of a fake sanyasi and steals the horse away. This causes a hullabaloo in Prthu's Yajnashala, and finally Lord Vishnu drags Indra to Prthu and seeks pardon on his behalf.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, in the 1st Chapter of the 8th Canto (Also referenced to in the 7th Chapter of the 2nd Canto), is the story of Lord Yajnesvara, the avatara of Vishnu, who due to lack of a proper authority, himself took up the post of Indra. He is described as the Indra of Svayambhuva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this is the case, then was it &lt;strong&gt;Yajnesvara&lt;/strong&gt; who stole the horse and introduced to the world the practice of fake swamis? or was there an Indra who came later?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or, did the story of Maharaja Prthu take place in Svarochisha Manu (which is highly unlikely)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2015-11-27T12:03:51.483" Title="Was Yajnesvara the only Indra in Svayambhuva Manvantara?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|indra|avatars|manvantara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9635" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-27T13:10:00.587" Score="10" ViewCount="1982" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Indraloka Gamana Parva, Vana Parva, Mahabharata, when Arjuna goes to Svarga during his 13 years exile before the war, he lived there for five years. Now if we take this calculation in earthly terms, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/11/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1 year of the devas is 360 years for us&lt;/a&gt;. So five years would be 5x360=&lt;strong&gt;1800&lt;/strong&gt; years on earth! Yet Arjuna was gone only for five earth years, which would mean five days on Svarga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is an alternate possibility of Arjuna having visited the city of Indra on the Meru Mountain, which is on earth. But this is not described in the Mahabharata. So how is this time difference reconciled?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2019-11-06T13:09:41.087" LastActivityDate="2021-01-17T20:39:40.823" Title="How many years was Arjuna in Svarga?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|time|lokas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="32" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9636" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9633" CreationDate="2015-11-27T16:12:49.867" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is what Shiva tells Parvati in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27478/62f_chapter_19_2.pdf#toolbar=0&amp;amp;pagemode=none&amp;amp;view=FitBH&amp;amp;page=1%22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Prabhasa Khanda of the Skanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this Varaha Kalpa, O goddess, you became Parvati obtained by Himavan through his penance, &lt;strong&gt;when the Chakshusha Manvantara has passed off&lt;/strong&gt;.  O beautiful lady, due to the anger of Daksha you had to be separated from me for the duration of a day of Brahma.  Your span of life is the period of his six months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says &amp;quot;when the Chakshusha Manvantara has passed off&amp;quot;, so she was either born close to the end of the Chakshusha Manvantara or the beginning of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  And yes, that does make her one of the youngest of the major gods we worship now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-01-28T13:44:13.213" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9637" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7221" CreationDate="2015-11-27T18:23:38.027" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Overall Objective&lt;/strong&gt;: to get rid off Gandharvas and do justice to nagas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Part 1&lt;/em&gt;: There were many sons/daughter's of Rishi's wife - Mauneya and Nagas. Mauneya's and Nagas had a rivalry since Mauneya was offered with heritage over wind (eagles) and Nagas were to live upon Earth but with Amrit (which Shiva discarded and gave them in parts to both Asura and Devas). Part of Asuras were later Mauneya and Nagas (this doesn't mean they were bad and destructive but had rivalry among brothers).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Part 2&lt;/em&gt;: The Nagas hoped and prayed to Narayana to rescue them. Narayana told them that he would appear in Mandhata's son Purukutsa and kill the Gandharvas. Afterwards Narmada brought Purukutsa to Rasatal where Lord Narayana appeared in his body. Thus having the strength of Lord Vishnu, Purukutsa defeated and killed the Gandharvas. Pleased by the action of Narmada, the Nagas blessed her with a boon that whoever remembered her would have no fear of snake venom and Purukutsa that he would have an immortal son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=u8m441zg_KgC&amp;amp;pg=PA72&amp;amp;lpg=PA72&amp;amp;dq=vishnu%20Mandhata?&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=y2dMA4olOz&amp;amp;sig=aOsqOJTCth1FBdtwWsx_bG7aRJo&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiHpLSJm7HJAhWWBo4KHQHPDEAQ6AEIMTAE#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=vishnu%20Mandhata%3F&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3692" LastEditorUserId="3692" LastEditDate="2015-11-27T21:40:03.850" LastActivityDate="2015-11-27T21:40:03.850" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9638" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-28T06:36:21.667" Score="1" ViewCount="97" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know that why every religions worship the Sun? Is there any big reason?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastActivityDate="2015-11-28T17:52:20.507" Title="Why all religions worship Sun?" Tags="|worship|other-religions|surya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2015-11-29T06:29:12.427" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9640" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-28T11:52:56.967" Score="4" ViewCount="586" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are some instances which show relative comparisons of time on different lokas. &#xA;For example, Brahma took the cowherd boys who were with Krishna to Brahma loka and came back in a moment, but by that time 1 year had passed away on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I've never heard of any instances of time travelling in Hinduism. Are there any such instances in any Hindu scriptures where a person/demigod might have gone into the future or past to perform a certain task.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2361" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-01T04:50:14.037" LastActivityDate="2016-02-01T04:50:14.037" Title="Time travelling" Tags="|vedas|puranas|scripture|time|bhavishya-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2016-06-01T15:20:27.300" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9626" CreationDate="2015-11-28T15:32:26.260" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scriptures long predate the rise of Islam. I would say that Hindu-Muslim relationship has been bad for many centuries. The 1202 storm campaign of Muhammad Ghori resulted in the destruction of hundreds of Hindu temples. There is no doubt ( in spite of the efforts of secular historians) that Nalanda was destroyed by the Muslim invaders. The common Hindus were forced to pay Jizya tax.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to some estimates Muslims killed 80 million Hindus in their long 600 year rule. Their rule can be summed up by this quote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If the revenue collector spits into a Hindu's mouth, the Hindu must&#xA;  open his mouth without hesitation&quot;&#xA;  -- Qazi Mughisuddin legal officer of Sultan Alauddin Khilji&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(REF:ELLIOT and DOWSON, The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians; The Muhammadan Period ( 1876-77)).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was also forced conversions of Hindus by Muslims. An infamous example of a forcible conversion attempt was Aurangzeb's attempt to convert Kashmiri Pundits to Islam in the 1670s. Kashmiri Pundits were saved by the Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur who was executed by Aurangzeb for defending the rights of non-Muslims to live in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another example would be 16th century Varanasi. Muslim clergy made it impossible for Hindus to live peacefully in Varanasi. Sri Madhusudan Saraswati met Akbar and told him of the plight of Hindus. Akbar told him that he should form  his own forces to resist the Muslim clergy. It is Akbar's advice that led to the birth of Naga Sannyasis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will Durant, the famous historian  summed it up like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in&#xA;  history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that&#xA;  civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex of order and&#xA;  freedom, culture and peace, can at any moment be overthrown by&#xA;  barbarians invading from without or multiplying within.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Story of civilization by Will Durant&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any other civilization would have been destroyed if they had suffered 80 million casualties. This long unfortunate 600 year old history of Muslim rule throws a long shadow even today. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The present day reality is also unpleasant. Hindu population in Pakistan has declined from 15 % in 1947 to probably about 2 % today while Muslim population of India has increased from 9 % in 1947 to 14 % today thus giving rise to fears. Kashmir valley has seen cleansing of 500,000 Hindus in the 1990s. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-11-28T15:32:26.260" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9642" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9694" CreationDate="2015-11-28T15:48:28.980" Score="4" ViewCount="3062" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wanted to know whether there is any scientific or historical proof that the stories and events mentioned in Ramayana are true or is everything just a made-up story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4253" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-05-31T19:57:05.433" LastActivityDate="2018-05-31T19:57:05.433" Title="Is there any scientific or historical evidence that Ramayana is true?" Tags="|ramayana|history|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="13" ClosedDate="2016-07-01T05:22:33.233" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9643" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9200" CreationDate="2015-11-28T16:28:48.693" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;That the women cannot chant the Gayatri might have been a deviation from the ancient practices, that occurred in the middle times. In ancient India, women like Gargi and Maitreyi were well-versed in the scriptures. Women &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;can&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; chant the Gayatri mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saibabaofindia.com/gayatri.htm&quot;&gt;http://www.saibabaofindia.com/gayatri.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism has always had leaders and saints who arrive on the scene to do course corrections, like Ramanuja who declared the Vishnu mantra from a temple tower so that everyone can chant it and attain liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastActivityDate="2015-11-28T16:28:48.693" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9644" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4008" CreationDate="2015-11-28T16:58:54.430" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I see two questions, here the answers for the two. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;it is not necessary for one to be Hindu to be graced and/or blessed by&#xA; God?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. God's grace for you is not dependent on the variation in the form, but in the growth of intensity of your Bhakthi. Even within Hinduism, the journey from a Sakaara God, and a belief in many forms of Gods, usually tends to evolve towards one-pointed devotion to a single name and form (such as that of Arunagirinathar or Prahlada) and onwards towards an idea of God that transcends names and forms. The book by Sadhu Om, The Path of Sri Ramana (Part two) illustrates this journey well. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.happinessofbeing.com/path_ramana.html#part_two&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.happinessofbeing.com/path_ramana.html#part_two&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How identities that are derived from social constructs traverse through all of the rebirths :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, there are three planes of existence, the physical body is only of the gross plane, the other two being sukshma sarira and karana sarira, (subtle form and causal form). The key element that gets carried across births from the actions of a human life, are not the actions themselves, but the subtle impressions you gather from the actions. These are called Vasanas and Samskaras. A subset of these are almost the determinant of the starting point of the next birth, somewhat like the closing balance of your ledger for the current financial year, is the sum of all your transactions in the earlier years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=871&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=871&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When you are writing a drama, if sleep comes in, you stop writing and&#xA;  retire to bed. As soon as you get up, you continue to write from where&#xA;  you have left the previous night. Even so, when you take up a new&#xA;  incarnation, you begin to continue the work which you had left&#xA;  unfinished in your previous life in accordance with the current of&#xA;  Vasanas of your past life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastActivityDate="2015-11-28T16:58:54.430" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9645" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-28T17:10:04.003" Score="3" ViewCount="107" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some people say it is not advisable to pluck Tulasi leaf on Ekadashi. Is there any specific reason for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4021" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2015-11-29T04:15:12.650" LastActivityDate="2015-11-29T04:15:12.650" Title="Can we pluck Tulasi leaf on Ekadashi" Tags="|belief|practice|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-07-26T09:43:49.977" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9646" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9527" CreationDate="2015-11-28T17:34:49.003" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;To experience pain, you must have the feeling of 'I', 'Me', 'My body' and then 'I experience pain'. Plants have life, but they do not have the differentiated identity of consciousness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.voy.com/180579/2/2021.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.voy.com/180579/2/2021.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no real consciousness in plants and trees, although there is&#xA;  life in them. There is life in plants, sensation in animals, mentality&#xA;  in human beings and spirituality in sages. There is no Visesha&#xA;  Ahankara (ego) and reflection of Chaitanya ( pure consciousness) in&#xA;  plants and trees. Hence they cannot experience pain. The tree will not&#xA;  say, &quot;I am experiencing pain&quot;. The mind in plants and trees is not&#xA;  developed. It is quite rudimentary. It is Jada (inert) and insentient.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They sure response to stimuli. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagadish_Chandra_Bose&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Jagdish Chandra Bose&lt;/a&gt;, an Indian Scientist, did research in biophysics and found that the responses of the plants to stimuli can be electrical in nature, previously thought of as only chemical. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the key differentiating element of human existence is identity and consciousness about one's identity as can be seen even by latest questions explored by neuroscience. We even describe humans who have reached a certain medical condition as have reached as &quot;vegetative&quot; state. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Plants lack this consciousness. It's like touching a wire through which current is not flowing, and one through which current is flowing. Sans the current, the wire does not any more have it's core functionality of trasmitting current and is akin to any other piece of metal. Atma, or soul, is like the consciousness. The Chaitanya Shakthi that passes through Jada vasthus (objects) makes them become aware and alive. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The level of consciousness is different from animals from that of plants although their biological construct (tissues etc) may have the same structure. Just like the level of civilization, bonding,  community, intellignence etc is different in humans from that of animals, although we share a great similarity in biological construct with them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Animals can understand pain and pine for relief from it because of their awareness and identity. Plants do not. J.C.Bose did perform experiments that hypothesized that they may respond to stimuli as if they respond with feeling, affection etc but even then, there is no identity or awareness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As to sin, in Hinduism, whether something is a sin or not, is dependent on the Dharma of the doer, the injunctions of the scriptures and the context/motive/attitude of the doer, rather than the bare act itself. The story of Dharma Vyadha is the greatest example of this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyadha_Gita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyadha_Gita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the normal parlance ( such as for gathering of food ), plucking from a plant is not a sin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You must also note that Hinduism holds trees in great regard, and also regards respect and preservation of nature (pancha bhootas) as one of the essential duties of man. This has become all the more relevant in the modern context of environ preservation, a case where karmic consequences of one's wrongdoings (or sins) is seen in the short term itself. Therefore, that that context, that that interpretation of sin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastActivityDate="2015-11-28T17:34:49.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9648" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8902" CreationDate="2015-11-28T18:02:33.463" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana states at one point : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Janaami Dharmam  Na cha me pravrittihi&#xA;Janaami Paapam Na cha me nivrittihi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;( I know what is Dharma, but I am unable to practise it. &#xA;I know what is Sin, but I am unable to restrain myself from it). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swaminarayan.org/essays/2011/0804.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.swaminarayan.org/essays/2011/0804.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Edit: The source is &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/related/pandavagita.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pandava Gita&lt;/a&gt;. Thanks &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/2995/sv&quot;&gt;sv&lt;/a&gt; for the reference. )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another article on Arjuna and Duryodhana's difficulty in practising dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/janami-dharmam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/janami-dharmam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What determines what is Adharma :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is both complex and simple, in different ways. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The duties assigned to you, by virtue of your position, abilities etc. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The guidance of the scriptures&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Your context, situation, constraints and motives. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Loka-kalyanam, the larger context of the welfare of the society or world.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Your state of self-realization or lack thereof. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Put simply, it can also be the adherence to the voice of the conscience. People may mistake the voice of the mind to be the voice of the conscience, or they may be able to convince the society or the law, that they are doing the right thing, but in their hearts, they know the truth. Therefore, Dharma is beyond the legal version of truth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of Dharma Vyadha illustrates this suitably. Being a butcher by a profession handed out to him by birth, he was eminent enough in his discharge of Dharma, to be called Dharma Vyadha and his discourse, the Vyadha Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyadha_Gita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyadha_Gita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastEditorUserId="4070" LastEditDate="2017-11-20T06:40:42.717" LastActivityDate="2017-11-20T06:40:42.717" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9649" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5196" CreationDate="2015-11-28T18:26:51.067" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is real, and the flame is man-made. Most devotees know it too. It has been an ancient practice. Only recently there was a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makaravilakku&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;court intervention&lt;/a&gt;, but they too concluded that matters of belief cannot be interfered with. There is a slight distinction between:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(a) a star, Sirius, Makara Jyothi that appears in the sky and &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(b) the flame (Makara Vilakku) that is lit in Ponnambalamedu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The belief that witnessing it is auspicious is not so much dependent on whether it is miraculous or natural or man-made. It's like respect for the national flag, you know it's a small colored piece of cloth that someone someday stipulated it be a symbol of something, but it gains its honour from the feeling it evokes in those who respect it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makaravilakku&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makaravilakku&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastActivityDate="2015-11-28T18:26:51.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9650" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9616" CreationDate="2015-11-28T19:13:47.183" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The highest ideal of Namasmarana might well be the popular phrase from the scriptures : &#xA;&lt;em&gt;Sarvadaa Sarvakaleshu Sarvatra Harichintanam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Mind's involvement :&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;In the Gita, Arjuna asks Krishna, about the wavering of the mind. Krishna says that repeated practice (Abhyasa) and dispassion (Vairagya) are the tools by which to conquer it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/living/living_22.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/living/living_22.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the beginning, Namasmarana may be mechanical, but in due course, mind is reined in. Recognizing this difficulty, the Sandilya Upanishad, mentions three levels of Japa, Vaikhari (loud), Upamsu (whisper) and Manasa (mental).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1025&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1025&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of the form&lt;/strong&gt; : Focus on a single name and a single form is recommended for gradually increasing the levels of contemplation. The gross appearance of the picture itself is not referred to as significant, it could be anything, don't worry if it is a painting by Ravi Varma or from a local press. What is more important that it's continued rememberance. For a sincere aspirant, God will manifest in the form that the devotee prays. Well, in the case of Prahlada, he even appeared in a form first of its kind, in which Prahlada would have never imagined!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramakrishna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/a&gt; is the best example of this, his chosen form was the Bhavadharini in the temple built by Rani Rasamoni in Dakshineswar, but that one form was enough him for him, so much so that, at one point he could feel the breath of the Goddess! It must be said, he also later checked out Christianity and had a vision of Christ, similarly with Islam. During one phase he worshipped Hanuman intensely and had experiences related to that one-pointed worship. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar is the experience of Meera, Andal or Arunagiranathar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Counting the number of times or hours, is considered common in the initial stages of Namasmarana, and one can use a Japa Mala if you wish. But, Bhava or feeling is the most important, and over time, count and duration will drop on their own account, like the modules of a rocket that fall off to spur the rocket ahead. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Visualization :&lt;/strong&gt; One could pick any favorite form or any favorite deity (and preferably, stick to it all through, everyday). One can visualize the form from the feet to the head. One can remember the Lord's Leelas. If you are chanting a mantra, one can dwell on the meaning of the mantra.  In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://asitis.com/10/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gita, Chapter 10&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna says : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are&#xA;  surrendered to Me, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss&#xA;  enlightening one another and conversing about Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The visualization is a powerful one. Consider these levels for evolution, in increasing order of intensity and importance : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The picture that we see outside is, &lt;strong&gt;Bahya Chitram&lt;/strong&gt;, the picture without. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The picture that we see within is, &lt;strong&gt;Bhava Chitram&lt;/strong&gt;, the picture within, reminiscing the Lord's attributes and leelas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The picture that we internalize and experience within, without and everywhere in everyone , is, &lt;strong&gt;Sakshatkara Chitram&lt;/strong&gt;, the transcendental form or the all-pervasive form. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above gradation is explained by Sathya Sai Baba in one of his discourses. (p.s.Can't place the reference now, will have to add later. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastActivityDate="2015-11-28T19:13:47.183" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9651" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8977" CreationDate="2015-11-28T20:02:04.507" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It does not happen to you, you beget it through your own actions or lack thereof. Such beliefs and traditions serve a more functional purpose, in addition to the divine context they are wrapped in. So, even if one is unable to understand the action of God, one can always understand it in the context of one's own actions or lack thereof. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such vows, and beliefs and traditions about them, are meant to inculcate two things.&#xA;(a) You should understand and hence avoid &lt;strong&gt;frivolity of promise&lt;/strong&gt; . &#xA;(b) It helps you inculcate discipline, in some cases, sense-control, dispassion and self-sacrifice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Frivolity of Promise :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Consider the first. The scriptures abound with instances where X promised something to a Rishi or a God, and failed to do so and met with consequences. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kauravas said that the punishment for the Pandavas was staying in the forest and then staying incognito for a year, which Pandavas did, but the Kauravas didn't keep their end of the promise. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In contrast, Sri Rama, fulfilled a promise, that his &lt;em&gt;father&lt;/em&gt; made to Kaikeyi, and Dasaratha himself fulfilling a promise that he made to Kaikeyi years back during a war. Such strong adherence to Truth, may be unheard of and laughable in the current times, the sons may not even pay up the credit card debt, but such is the high standard set by the ideals of the seers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see this in everyday life too. Assume this situation. You assure your boss, that : &quot; I shall work 8 hours every day for the next three months and complete this project by the end of February. &quot; . But in the upcoming weeks, say, you spend your time browsing the internet, reading and writing answers on hinduism.stackexchange and a million other websites, spending away your time. Everyday the clock is ticking, you are remembering that, but ignoring it. On the appointed day, the boss calls and fires you. Now, who is responsible for this plight ? You! Boss didn't make special bad things &quot;happen&quot; to you, he is couriering you the result of your own inertia. You dug your own pit, a bit everyday.  If anything, bosses have to do that, so as to set a benchmark standard for moral order, so that others know what it means to promise and what it means to breach it knowingly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God didn't request you to make a deal with Her. You had the need, so you went to God, had faith in Her. She did it for you. That's your belief too. If you had a belief that a certain event will occur because of Her, after the good event occurs, you can't conveniently say, it occurred because of your own effort, right ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remember, God is not worried about whether you visit her temple, but you being her son, She may be more worried about the indiscipline, breach and betrayal that you have allowed yourself and those may not work well for you in the world, in your work, in your relationships and even for yourself as a matter of guilt in your mind and conscience. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mother has to say, 'Write the homework or no ice-cream'. She may occasionally give the ice-cream to you without the homework, but if it's recurring, she will be worried about homework pattern than about icecream liking. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you make a habit keeping your promise to God, because you know She is all-powerful, one day, we may grow up keeping our promises to men, because God is watching us through them. Swami Sivananda used to say that the karmic effect of breaking one's promise is mental agony and pain, which is true, both for divine promises and those in the material world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/karmadisease.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.dlshq.org/download/karmadisease.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Inculcation of Discipline :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setting aside the vow of just visiting a temple, in many cases, the vows are also accompanied by a certain Vratham, a daily code of conduct, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/20instrch.htm#_VPID_30&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;abstaining from something impulsive or commonplace&lt;/a&gt;. A pilgrimage to Sabarimala, for example, presupposes restrictions on one's behaviour. Sometimes, it even invokes a certain behaviour towards us, &lt;em&gt;from others&lt;/em&gt;. &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ayyappaseva.org/Sabarimala/AyyappaVratham&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.ayyappaseva.org/Sabarimala/AyyappaVratham&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Simple people, avoid smoking, are conscious about hurting others, avoid certain kinds of foods etc.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/20instrch.htm#_VPID_28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.dlshq.org/download/20instrch.htm#_VPID_28&lt;/a&gt;&#xA; Some of them require giving up comforts, it teaches you dispassion about worldly things, for that period. Some people give up things that are dear to them otherwise in a material sense, (such as tonsuring their head), because it helps to know the transience of external appearances and who would do it, if not out of devotion to a higher being ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's like jogging in army training, you don't jog all the time after posting, but it keeps you fit and trim for a moment of readiness in uncertain situations. Such periods give you a small window to show you that you can be a master of your senses with conscious application of will power, if you are tuned to a higher ideal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastEditorUserId="4070" LastEditDate="2017-12-12T12:02:33.613" LastActivityDate="2017-12-12T12:02:33.613" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9652" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9642" CreationDate="2015-11-28T21:35:28.650" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question seems to me loaded, in the sense that, you wish to juxtapose Science and Religion and want to see one in the light of the other. Hinduism is a religion, it's driven by faith, even if not supported by facts and events as we capture them with our senses, but sense their presence and relevance, because of their impact on the way of life. That's the basis of all religions, not just Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whether you are looking a scientific validation of epic events or you are looking to undermine them by holding them against a scientific mirror, the question may not be valid in this forum because it's likely to produce opinion-based discussions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, here is an answer that will be honey to your ears : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As scientific and historic studies stand today, there is no irrefutable, conclusive evidence in the scientific, archaeological excavation and historic dates sense about the events in the Ramayana, outside of the calculations and chronological backdating from the framework of Hinduism itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, cultural impact and continuity is considered an integral part in validating and endorsing historic prevalences and other fields related to history, such as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_anthropology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;cultural anthropology&lt;/a&gt;. In that sense, even if it's a story today, there is still scope for future evidence to meet and validate the events. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_studies&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_studies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastActivityDate="2015-11-28T21:35:28.650" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9654" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8848" CreationDate="2015-11-29T00:19:46.600" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before you can say evil people are successful, we need to define success. Is money called success or is the power to control called success? The more successful you are the more egoistic you will be,the more egoistic you become your life will become miserable. Bhagavad Gita says &quot;Don't perform the action expecting a favourable result. Surrender the results of your actions to lord and accept what lord gives you&quot;. This will remove all your sufferings and you will find peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4255" LastActivityDate="2015-11-29T00:19:46.600" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9655" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-29T01:17:51.990" Score="2" ViewCount="529" Body="&lt;p&gt;If there is an untimely death of a person before a person is scheduled to die or if a person commits suicide before he is scheduled to die, does he become a ghost and has to live as a ghost until his time arrives to go to heaven or hell? And after heaven or hell, does he enter into a new life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastActivityDate="2015-11-29T01:17:51.990" Title="Untimely death, heaven/hell, ghosts and rebirth" Tags="|rebirth|death|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2019-02-01T03:40:38.837" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9656" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15667" CreationDate="2015-11-29T03:37:54.887" Score="6" ViewCount="4947" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most Hindu people follow &lt;em&gt;Kaarthika masam&lt;/em&gt; in which the women keep fasts whole &lt;em&gt;masam&lt;/em&gt; (month) and eat at nights. This happens in my home as well. Whole month nobody should eat non-veg in home (&lt;em&gt;can eat outside&lt;/em&gt;). To me this seems a bit weird as to this is followed only by women (&lt;em&gt;my mother follows it&lt;/em&gt;) and nobody else in the family living in that same home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone please tell me background/story of &lt;em&gt;Kaarthika masam&lt;/em&gt; and who should follow it and what exactly need to do in that whole month?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My family is &lt;em&gt;Kshatriyas&lt;/em&gt; and we live like &lt;em&gt;Brahmins&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;only veg&lt;/em&gt;) whole month. I want my mother not to follow this ritual/tradition because she fast whole month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-30T06:59:35.780" LastActivityDate="2016-10-30T07:14:42.110" Title="What is Kaarthika masam? who should follow it?" Tags="|belief|vrata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9661" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-29T16:31:50.143" Score="10" ViewCount="12993" Body="&lt;p&gt;As question says, why women were not allowed to offer prayers at  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shani_Shingnapur&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shingnapur Shani Temple&lt;/a&gt;, which is in Maharashtra? Was there any reason for this tradition or was this just a superstition?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T15:17:39.660" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T15:17:39.660" Title="Why women were not allowed to offer prayers at Shingnapur Shani Temple?" Tags="|belief|temple|women|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9662" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7649" CreationDate="2015-11-29T18:47:36.253" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The greatest and the highest Abhisheka is to pour the waters of pure love on in one's heart. The external Abhisheka with various objects will help the growth of devotion and adoration for God and eventually lead to internal Abhisheka with pure abundant flow of love. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sivananda explains the significance of offering various items during the Abhishekam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/lordsiva.htm#_VPID_33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.dlshq.org/download/lordsiva.htm#_VPID_33&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Abhisheka is also accompanied by the chanting of the appropriate hymns for Lord Shiva, Lord Narayana as the case may be. Recitation of the hymns purifies the mind and fills it with Sattva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Abhisheka water or other articles used for Abhisheka are considered very sacred and bestow immense benefits on the devotees who take it as the Lord’s Prasad. It purifies the heart and destroys countless sins. It should be taken with intense Bhava and faith. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When you do Abhisheka with Bhava and devotion, your mind is&#xA;  concentrated. Your heart is filled with the image of the Lord and&#xA;  divine thoughts. You forget your body and its relation and&#xA;  surroundings. Egoism gradually vanishes. When there is forgetfulness,&#xA;  you begin to enjoy and taste the eternal bliss of the Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By offering Panchamrita, honey, milk, etc., to the Lord, thoughts of&#xA;  your body diminish. Selfishness slowly vanishes. You derive immense&#xA;  joy. You begin to increase your offerings unto the Lord. Therefore,&#xA;  self-sacrifice and self-surrender come in. Naturally, there is an&#xA;  outpouring from your heart, “I am Thine, my Lord. All is Thine, my&#xA;  Lord”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The offering of the articles along with the hymns symbolize offering oneself and the worldly things to the Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannappa_Nayanar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kannappa Nayanar&lt;/a&gt;, a great devotee of Lord Siva, a hunter by profession, did Abhisheka with the water in his mouth for the Linga at Kalahasti in South India and propitiated Lord Siva. It is the mental Bhava that counts and not the outward show. Lord Siva said to the temple priest: “This water from the mouth of Kannappa, my beloved devotee, is more pure than the water of the Ganga”. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The view that worship and Abhisheka have a more esoteric inner significance than the offering of the gross objects is also echoed by many saints. For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thayumanavar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thayumanavar&lt;/a&gt;, a well-known Tamil Saivite Saint, mentions in a verse : (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shaivam.org/tamil/sta_tayumanavar3_r.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 151 of Hymn 43 Parapara Kanni&lt;/a&gt;  English meaning below) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;My Heart is your Temple. &#xA;The Sweet thought and reminiscences I have of you is the Fragrance. &#xA;Love is the Water. &#xA;Oh, the Universal One, I invite you to accept my Worship.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2019-11-03T19:29:44.257" LastActivityDate="2019-11-03T19:29:44.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9663" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-29T18:56:46.110" Score="3" ViewCount="215" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are the terms &lt;em&gt;secular&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;agnostic&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;atheist&lt;/em&gt; applied by Indian people themselves to characterize existing attitudes in today's Indian Hindu society?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Added&lt;/strong&gt;: Due to comment of @Whirl Mind I restrict my question to India's Hindu society. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-28T06:03:25.973" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T06:03:25.973" Title="Are the terms 'secular', 'agnostic', 'atheist' used in today's India?" Tags="|india|atheism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9664" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8361" CreationDate="2015-11-29T19:18:07.493" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the primary tasks in the Path of Bhakthi, is to extol the glory of the Lord in myriad ways. Some read his life history. Some sing songs such as Bhajans. Yet others chant hymns. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://asitis.com/10/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;verse 10.9 of the Gita&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Krishna says : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are surrendered to Me, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss enlightening one another and conversing about Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God is considered beyond attributes and beyond the reach of the mind and the word. The phrase '&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/Taittiriya-Upanishad~-Petal-7-1.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Aprapya Manasashaha&lt;/a&gt;' refers to this transcendental nature. However, in the Path of Bhakthi, the Lord is also the supreme master and is considered to be the embodiment of all virtuous qualities, kalyana-gunas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By focussing the mind on the Lord's attributes described in the thousand names, there is a chance for the devotee's mind to be focussed continuously on the Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance, the significance of chanting Vishnu Sahasranama is explained &lt;a href=&quot;http://srirangamsrivishnusahasranamam.hpage.co.in/importance-benefits-of-chanting-sri-vishnu-sahasranama_11428882.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Every one of the one thousand names is full of significance and refers&#xA;  to one particular guna (quality, characteristic, or attribute) of&#xA;  Paramatma.  These names invoke a sense of bonding with the Lord.  The&#xA;  meanings of the names give us an understanding and depth of God as&#xA;  there is a deep connection between the name and the named.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The necessity of cleansing our body regularly to maintain hygiene and&#xA;  good health is recognized by everyone.  But with the busy nature of&#xA;  today’s world, we do not see our mind the same way as we see our body.&#xA;  As a consequence, the need for keeping our minds clean is not&#xA;  appreciated...Prayers are a means to mental cleansing when they are&#xA;  chanted with sincerity and devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar are the benefits of chanting the Sahasranama of any deity, such as Lalita Sahasranama and so on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Is it necessary ?&lt;/em&gt; : No. It is one of the many ways on the Path of Devotion. Each devotee may choose his technique appropriate for his inclination and ability. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The chanting of these are among some of the most commonly found practices in many Hindu household families. It has been present for ages and has continued by tradition. They do have a calming effect on the mind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also one of the recommended practices by Adi Shankara in his Bhaja Govindam, considered a a beginner-treatise for many aspirants of Vedanta. This verse covers a &lt;a href=&quot;http://askbaba.helloyou.ch/discourses/d1973/d19730500-29.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;synthesis of Bhakthi, Satsang and Charity&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sing the Gita. &#xA;Utter the thousand names of the Lord.&#xA;Meditate continuously on Sripati. &#xA;Spend your time in the company of the good.&#xA;Give away your wealth to the weak and the needy people.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastActivityDate="2015-11-29T19:18:07.493" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9666" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9663" CreationDate="2015-11-30T08:01:40.417" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The terms you use are modern Western terms but the various philosophical schools they represent have existed for thousands and thousands of years in India. Many of the works of those schools have few adherents nowadays as the predominant school for many centuries has been the Uttara Mimamsa, or Vedanta, school. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his &lt;em&gt;Introduction&lt;/em&gt; to his translation of the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras According to Sri Sankara&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Vireswarananda says (p ii):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Traces of opposition against the religion of the Vedas are found in the Vedas themselves. This tidal wave of rationalism in its extreme form gave rise to such schools of thought as the Carvakas, which are extremely materialistic and anti-religious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the age immediately preceding Buddha and during his lifetime there was a great religious and philosophical upheaval in India. From the Bramajala-Sutras we learn that in his time there were as many as sixty-two different schools of philosophy in India. We also learn from Buddhistic literature  the names of a good number of these teachers who were venerated in Aryavarta at the time--like Purana Kasyapa, Katyayana, Makkali Gosala, Nigantha Nathaputra the founder of Jainism and others. While these great souls represented Indian culture from an anti-Vedic standpoint there were many great names that represented the culture from the traditional standpoint--names that are still venerated by Hindu religion and culture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The destructive criticism of everything in the old system by the Carvakas and others set the orthodox section to organize their belief on a more ratinalistic basis and render it immune against all such criticism. This led to the foundation of the six systems of orthodox Hindu philosophy--orthodox [footnote: Astika (orthodox) and Nasika (hetrodox) has nothing to go with belief or non-belief in the existence of a God. Samkhya and Mimamsa which did not accept an Iswara were yet regarded Astika (orthodox).] in the sense that they accepted the authority of the Vedas in things transcendental--while there were others who did not accept this authority and therefore were dubbed hetrodox, though otherwise they were the outcome of Upanisadic thought. The acceptance of the authority of the Vedas by these orthodox schools, however, does not mean that they accepted them in &lt;em&gt;toto&lt;/em&gt;. Their allegiance to the Vedas varied widely and often it was too loose. Of the six orthodox schools &lt;em&gt;viz&lt;/em&gt; Nyaya, Vaisesika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa and Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta, the last two are inimately connected with the Vedas, which is one of the reasons why they are not mentioned in the Jaina and Buddhistic literature, while the others are mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Literature of these different schools still exist and the arguments of the Vedantists (the overwhelming school of today) against these schools of thought still exist and are studied by scholars in India today. Many practicing Hindus may not be aware of this, but how many practicing Christians are aware of works like &lt;em&gt;Dark Night of the Soul&lt;/em&gt;, or &lt;em&gt;The Gnostic Gospels&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;The Philokalia&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;The Imitation of Christ&lt;/em&gt;, or Plotinus's neoPlatonism in &lt;em&gt;The Six Enneads&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upanshads are not agnostic. The Upanishads do one thing - explain Brahman. Modern Vedanta, whether the dualistic school, the qualified non-dualists, or the non-dualists, are all founded on the Upanishads, the Brahma-Sutras, and the Gita. The second opening verse of the Brhama-Sutras (1.1.2) says (Sankara version):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Brahman is that omniscient, omnipotent cause) from which proceeds the origin etc., (&lt;em&gt;i.e.&lt;/em&gt; sustenance and dissolution) of this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Ramanuja's version:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Brahman is that Omniscient, Omnipotent, all merciful Being) from whom proceed the origin etc. (i.e. origin, sustenance and dissolution) of this (varied and wonderfully fashioned world).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agnostic in the sense you are using it has nothing to do with the 'gods' of the Vedas. The proper term is devas, which is loosely translated as 'gods' but a more exact translation is 'shining ones'. The gods of the Vedas are positions, like chief minister or governor, held by &lt;em&gt;jivas&lt;/em&gt; (bound souls), who have done certain karmic acts to gain the position. The positions are vacated at the end of a cycle to new souls for the next cycle. Those who held the positions formerly are then reborn to work out their existing karma. They are not 'gods' in the Western concept.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can do ritualistic worship of devas to gain particular results in this world. But there is a sharp distinction between the worship of devas and the worship of Brahman. Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V3, pp 59-60, and available here under the section &lt;em&gt;Bhakti Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, sub-section &lt;em&gt;Worship of Substitutes and Images&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The next points to be considered are the worship of Pratikas or of things more or less satisfactory as substitutes for God, and the worship of Pratimâs or images. What is the worship of God through a Pratika? It is&#xA;  — &quot;Joining the mind with devotion to that which is not Brahman, taking it to be Brahman&quot; — says Bhagavân Râmânuja. &quot;Worship the mind as Brahman this is internal; and the Âkâsha as Brahman, this is with regard to the Devas&quot;, says Shankara. The mind is an internal Pratika, the Akasha is an external one, and both have to be worshipped as substitutes of God. He continues, &quot;Similarly — 'the Sun is Brahman, this is the command', 'He who worships Name as Brahman' — in all such passages the doubt arises as to the worship of Pratikas.&quot; The word Pratika means going towards; and worshipping a Pratika is worshipping something as a substitute which is, in some one or more respects, like Brahman more and more, but is not Brahman. Along with the Pratikas mentioned in the Shrutis there are various others to be found in the Purânas and the Tantras. In this kind of Pratika-worship may be included all the various forms of Pitri-worship and Deva-worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now worshipping Ishvara and Him alone is Bhakti; the worship of anything else — Deva, or Pitri, or any other being — cannot be Bhakti. The various kinds of worship of the various Devas are all to be included in ritualistic Karma, which gives to the worshipper only a particular result in the form of some celestial enjoyment, but can neither give rise to Bhakti nor lead to Mukti. One thing, therefore, has to be carefully borne in mind. If, as it may happen in some cases, the highly philosophic ideal, the supreme Brahman, is dragged down by Pratika-worship to the level of the Pratika, and the Pratika itself is taken to be the Atman of the worshipper or his Antaryâmin (Inner Ruler), the worshipper gets entirely misled, as no Pratika can really be the Atman of the worshipper.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But where Brahman Himself is the object of worship, and the Pratika stands only as a substitute or a suggestion thereof, that is to say, where, through the Pratika the omnipresent Brahman is worshipped — the Pratika itself being idealised into the cause of all, Brahman — the worship is positively beneficial; nay, it is absolutely necessary for all mankind until they have all got beyond the primary or preparatory state of the mind in regard to worship. When, therefore, any gods or other beings are worshipped in and for themselves, such worship is only a ritualistic Karma; and as a Vidyâ (science) it gives us only the fruit belonging to that particular Vidya; but when the Devas or any other beings are looked upon as Brahman and worshipped, the result obtained is the same as by the worshipping of Ishvara. This explains how, in many cases, both in the Shrutis and the Smritis, a god, or a sage, or some other extraordinary being is taken up and lifted, as it were, out of his own nature and idealised into Brahman, and is then worshipped. Says the Advaitin, &quot;Is not everything Brahman when the name and the form have been removed from it?&quot; &quot;Is not He, the Lord, the innermost Self of every one?&quot; says the Vishishtâdvaitin. — &quot;The fruition of even the worship of Adityas etc. Brahman Himself bestows, because He is the Ruler of all.&quot; Says Shankara in his Brahma-Sutra-Bhâsya — &quot;Here in this way does Brahman become the object of worship, because He, as Brahman, is superimposed on the Pratikas, just as Vishnu etc. are superimposed upon images etc.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The same ideas apply to the worship of the Pratimas as to that of the Pratikas; that is to say, if the image stands for a god or a saint, the worship is not the result of Bhakti, and does not lead lo liberation; but if it stands for the one God, the worship thereof will bring both Bhakti and Mukti. Of the principal religions of the world we see Vedantism, Buddhism, and certain forms of Christianity freely using images; only two religions, Mohammedanism and Protestantism, refuse such help. Yet the Mohammedans use the grave of their saints and martyrs almost in the place of images; and the Protestants, in rejecting all concrete helps to religion, are drifting away every year farther and farther from spirituality till at present there is scarcely any difference between the advanced Protestants and the followers of August Comte, or agnostics who preach ethics alone. Again, in Christianity and Mohammedanism whatever exists of image worship is made to fall under that category in which the Pratika or the Pratima is worshipped in itself, but not as a &quot;help to the vision&quot; (Drishtisaukaryam) of God; therefore it is at best only of the nature of ritualistic Karmas and cannot produce either Bhakti or Mukti. In this form of image-worship, the allegiance of the soul is given to other things than Ishvara, and, therefore, such use of images, or graves, or temples, or tombs, is real idolatry; it is in itself neither sinful nor wicked — it is a rite — a Karma, and worshippers must and will get the fruit thereof.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-11-30T08:01:40.417" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9668" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9703" CreationDate="2015-11-30T08:49:16.490" Score="10" ViewCount="470" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many spiritual teachings ask the followers to develop detachment towards worldly objects and events. Certain meditation techniques ask the followers to be a mere spectator to one's thoughts and get emotionally detached. Few spiritual people report having spiritual experiences like out-of-body or having seen a deity in their dreams or in daylight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There has been a case where a devote person in my neighborhood started seeing god everywhere and lost his sense of surroundings, and was ultimately subjected to electric shock treatment by his relatives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, how do a follower of spiritual practice differentiate between a spiritual experience and a mental or neurotic disorder like 'dissociative disorder'?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastActivityDate="2023-12-25T17:19:23.277" Title="How to differentiate between a spiritual experience and a mental disorder or delusion?" Tags="|gods|meditation|spiritual-level|bhakti|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9671" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-30T09:31:48.663" Score="3" ViewCount="3402" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know whether Goddess Santoshi is an avatar of Goddess Durga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-04T15:42:55.307" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T15:42:55.307" Title="Was Santoshi Maa an avatar of Durga?" Tags="|durga|santoshi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-11-07T05:47:49.777" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9672" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9668" CreationDate="2015-11-30T10:41:35.560" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It may or not have been a neurotic disorder or an actual spiritual experience. Unfortunately, a spiritual experience that is not based on spiritual disciplines can sometimes leave the person literally mad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V2, p 390, available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Practical Vedanta and Other Lectures&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;The Ideal of a Universal Religion&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_2/vol_2_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_2/vol_2_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;) -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore, there must be some other instrument to take us beyond, and that instrument is called inspiration. So instinct, reason, and inspiration are the three instruments of knowledge. Instinct belongs to animals, reason to man, and inspiration to God-men. But in all human beings are to be found, in a more or less developed condition, the germs of all these three instruments of knowledge. To have these mental instruments evolved, the germs must be there. And this must also be remembered that one instrument is a development of the other, and therefore does not contradict it. It is reason that develops into inspiration, and therefore inspiration does not contradict reason, but fulfils it. Things which reason cannot get at are brought to light by inspiration; and they do not contradict reason. The old man does not contradict the child, but fulfils the child. Therefore you must always bear in mind that the great danger lies in mistaking the lower form of instrument to be the higher. &lt;strong&gt;Many times instinct is presented before the world as inspiration, and then come all the spurious claims for the gift of prophecy.&lt;/strong&gt; A fool or a semi-lunatic thinks that the confusion going on in his brain is inspiration, and he wants men to follow him. The most contradictory irrational nonsense that has been preached in the world is simply the instinctive jargon of confused lunatic brains trying to pass for the language of inspiration. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first test of true teaching must be, that the teaching should not contradict reason. And you may see that such is the basis of all these Yogas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in V4 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;), heading &lt;em&gt;Lectures and Discourses&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;Concentration&lt;/em&gt;, he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Universal methods have been organised according to different philosophers. Some say the state we want to attain is superconsciousness of the mind — going beyond the limitations the body has made for us. The value of ethics to the Yogi lies in that it makes the mind pure. &lt;strong&gt;The purer the mind, the easier it is to control it. The mind takes every thought that rises and works it out. The grosser the mind, the more difficult [it is] to control [it].&lt;/strong&gt; The immoral man will never be able to concentrate his mind to study psychology. He may get a little control as he begins, get a little power of hearing. ... and even those powers will go from him. The difficulty is that if you study closely, you see how [the] extraordinary power arrived at was not attained by regular scientific training. The men who, by the power of magic, control serpents will be killed by serpents. ... The man who attains any extraordinary powers will in the long run succumb to those powers. There are millions [who] receive power through all sorts of ways in India. The vast majority of them die raving lunatics. Quite a number commit suicide, the mind [being] unbalanced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The study must be put on the safe side: scientific, slow, peaceful. &lt;strong&gt;The first requisite is to be moral.&lt;/strong&gt; Such a man wants the gods to come down, and they will come down and manifest themselves to him. That is our psychology and philosophy in essence, [to be] perfectly moral. Just think what that means! No injury, perfect purity, perfect austerity! These are absolutely necessary. Just think, if a man can attain all these in perfection! What more do you want? If he is free from all enmity towards any being, ... all animals will give up their enmity [in his presence]. The Yogis lay down very strict laws... so that one cannot pass off for a charitable man without; being charitable. ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-12-02T08:26:18.880" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T08:26:18.880" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9673" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9671" CreationDate="2015-11-30T11:09:45.203" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Santoshi Mata is a relatively new goddess venerated as 'Mother of Satisfaction'. She emerged as the goddess in early 1960 through word of mouth and fasting culture.  However, there is exactly no reference of Santoshi Mata in any Hindu scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another important thing to note is that Santoshi Mata only became popular after the 1975 Bollywood movie 'Jai Santoshi Maa'. According to the movie, She was said to be the daughter of Lord Ganesha. The movie showed that Lord Ganesha's sons Kshema and Laabh ask Lord Ganesha for a sister on Raksha Bandhan festival when they see Goddess Mansa tying Rakhi on Lord Ganesha's hands. Below is the extract from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santoshi_Mata&quot;&gt;wiki article&lt;/a&gt; describing the birth of Santoshi Mata as shown in the movie:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The film 'Jai Santoshi Maa' links the birth of Santoshi Mata to the festival of Raksha Bandhan, where a sister ties a rakhi string bracelet on her brother's wrist and the brother gifts his sister sweets, gifts and a promise of protection. When Ganesha's sister Manasa celebrates the festival with him, his sons ask Ganesha to grant them a sister. Although Ganesha initially refuses, upon the repeated pleas of his two wives Riddhi and Siddhi, sons, sister and the divine sage Narada, Ganesha creates Santoshi Mata through two flames rising from his wives' breasts. Narada decreed that this mind-born daughter of Ganesha will always fulfil everyone’s desires and thus, would be called Santoshi Maa, the Mother of Satisfaction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since, She is not described in any Hindu scripture therefore it is not sure whether She is an incarnation or not. It is rather doubtful whether She actually existed or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2015-11-30T11:09:45.203" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9674" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9640" CreationDate="2015-11-30T14:23:51.580" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, time travel is mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/3/29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 9.3.29&lt;/a&gt; Taking his own daughter, Revatī, Kakudmī went to Lord Brahmā in Brahmaloka, which is transcendental to the three modes of material nature, and inquired about a husband for her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/3/30&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 9.3.30&lt;/a&gt; — When Kakudmī arrived there, Lord Brahmā was engaged in hearing musical performances by the Gandharvas and had not a moment to talk with him. Therefore Kakudmī waited, and at the end of the musical performances he offered his obeisances to Lord Brahmā and thus submitted his long-standing desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/3/31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 9.3.31&lt;/a&gt; — After hearing his words, Lord Brahmā, who is most powerful, laughed loudly and said to Kakudmī: &lt;strong&gt;O King, all those whom you may have decided within the core of your heart to accept as your son-in-law have passed away in the course of time.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/3/32&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 9.3.32&lt;/a&gt; — &lt;strong&gt;Twenty-seven catur-yugas have already passed.&lt;/strong&gt; Those upon whom you may have decided are now gone, and so are their sons, grandsons and other descendants. You cannot even hear about their names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-11-30T14:23:51.580" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9675" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6625" CreationDate="2015-11-30T16:33:13.153" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question was discussed by Swami Vivekananda at World Parliament of Religions, Chicago in 1893. &lt;a href=&quot;http://belurmath.org/complete_works_of_swami_vivekananda/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; (Addresses at The Parliament of Religions) are the words when Swamiji read his paper on Hinduism:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why should the free, perfect, and pure being be thus under the thraldom of matter, is the next question. &lt;strong&gt;How can the perfect soul be deluded into the belief that it is imperfect?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Swamiji said in answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the Hindu is sincere. He does not want to take shelter under sophistry. He is brave enough to face the question in a manly fashion; and his answer is: “I do not know. &lt;strong&gt;I do not know how the perfect being, the soul, came to think of itself as imperfect, as joined to and conditioned by matter.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;But the fact is a fact for all that. It is a fact in everybody's consciousness that one thinks of oneself as the body. The Hindu does not attempt to explain why one thinks one is the body. &lt;strong&gt;The answer that it is the will of God is no explanation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, there is no answer to any such question and as Swamiji said that things should not be complicated by citing unnecessary things in answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2015-12-01T07:51:19.193" LastActivityDate="2015-12-01T07:51:19.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9676" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9680" CreationDate="2015-11-30T17:38:55.467" Score="10" ViewCount="3957" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to learn Sanskrit. Can anybody guide me how to start???&#xA;Because I know Marathi, Hindi , English three languages I can not justified which medium will help me to learn Sanskrit in easy and perfect way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4204" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2016-04-30T13:04:00.153" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T13:04:00.153" Title="I want to learn Sanskrit. Can anybody guide me how to start?" Tags="|sanskrit|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2018-03-01T08:17:56.207" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9677" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-11-30T18:41:31.830" Score="10" ViewCount="1625" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; excerpt (conversation between Vyasa and Yudhishtira after Ghatotkach's death) is from Drona Parva of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;then the valiant son of Jamadagni, proceeding against the Kashmiras, the Daradas, the Kuntis, the Kshudrakas, the Malavas, the Angas, the Vangas, the Kalingas, the Videhas, the Tamraliptakas, the Rakshovahas, the Vitahotras, the Trigartas, the Martikavatas, counting by thousand, slew them all by means of his whetted shafts. Proceeding from province to province, fie thus slew thousands of crores of Kshatriyas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Creating a deluge of blood and filling many lakes also with blood as&#xA;  red as Indrajopakas or the wild fruit called Vandujiva, &lt;strong&gt;and bringing&#xA;  all the eighteen islands (of which the earth is composed) under his&#xA;  subjection&lt;/strong&gt;, that son of Bhrigu's race performed a hundred sacrifices&#xA;  of great merit, all of which he completed and in all of which the&#xA;  presents he made unto the Brahmanas were profuse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It mentions that Earth is made up of 18 islands in 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Dwapara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are those islands on the current world map and why can't we see them today(I want answer supported/cited from Scriptures please no scientific speculation). (i.e., 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Kaliyuga of Vaivasvatha Manvantar) as it was back then (made up of 18 islands)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-06-27T18:39:44.530" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T18:06:33.540" Title="Where are the 18 islands on Earth as mentioned in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|earth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9678" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12022" CreationDate="2015-12-01T03:31:45.840" Score="6" ViewCount="4016" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read somewhere that Shree Krishna is called the complete version of Vishnu compared to other of his 9 incarnations. Well it's understandable that Shree Krishna is different from Buddha, Narashima, Parashurama or even Vamana, the dwarf, but how is he different from Lord Rama? What qualities or powers did he possess that Shree Rama didn't?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2974" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-01T08:19:03.200" LastActivityDate="2021-03-19T13:09:39.783" Title="Why is Lord Krishna called the complete Vishnu as compared to his other incarnations upon earth?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|rama|avatars|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9680" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9676" CreationDate="2015-12-01T06:02:49.540" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are tons of resources both online and offline.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Offline Sources&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://samskritabharati.in/&quot;&gt;samskritabharati&lt;/a&gt; is an organisation of volunteers who are committed to Sanskrit, and they conduct free Sanskrit classes. They have many years of experience at this, and teach spoken Sanskrit without going through an intimidating grammar-only approach. Look at &lt;a href=&quot;http://samskritabharati.in/local&quot;&gt;Samskrit in your locality&lt;/a&gt; and see if there are any upcoming classes in your area. If not (the website is not very properly updated), contact Samskrita Bharati and ask if they are conducting any. Even if they have nothing planned, if you have about 10-20 students, they are often willing to come and teach at your place (for free).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A set of recorded classes by Samskrita Bharati (commissioned and published by the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, and sold by the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskrit.nic.in/&quot;&gt;RSkS&lt;/a&gt; at Rs &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit.nic.in/publication/av.pdf&quot;&gt;1200 for 30 DVDs&lt;/a&gt;). You may also be able to do a Google search for the title “Sanskrit Bhasha Shikshanam” and see some of the videos as a sample.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If you are interested in certificate courses and degree/pg courses, I encourage you to look at RSkS's distance education program offered as &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskrit.nic.in/msp.htm&quot;&gt;MuktasvadhyayaPeetham&lt;/a&gt;. They offer certificate courses of short duration or undergrad and graduate degrees in Sanskrit. Have a look &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskrit.nic.in/msp/advertisments.htm&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Online Sources&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/learning_tutorial_wikner/wikner.pdf&quot;&gt;&quot;A Practical Sanskrit Introductory&quot; by Charles Wikner&lt;/a&gt;. This is a short introduction that is both excellent and strange, and for the same reasons. It goes into very great detail on the sounds of the language and the Devanagari script (even if you think you know this, you’ll probably find something new here), and in a parallel track discusses some points of grammar.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.learnsanskrit.org/grammar&quot;&gt;Very nicely typeset grammar tutorial.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/learning_tools/&quot;&gt;Other sources&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Course offered by IITM, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.acharya.gen.in:8080/sanskrit/lessons.php&quot;&gt;Acharya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.openpathshala.com/&quot;&gt;OpenPathshaala&lt;/a&gt; is a video tutorial content website along the lines of Khan Academy. Have a look at their site.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A Youtube video lecture series by the name &lt;a href=&quot;http://m.youtube.com/channel/UCecnNCCL87bKO3uDQ0bjRLA?desktop_uri=%2Fchannel%2FUCecnNCCL87bKO3uDQ0bjRLA&quot;&gt;Samskritham Amrutham&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Happy learning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2015-12-01T06:02:49.540" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9681" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8914" CreationDate="2015-12-01T11:49:10.120" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As answer to your question, below is an excerpt from Yoga-Vasistha (Discourse of sage Vasistha to Prince Rama to explain the illusory nature of the manifest world and the principle of non-duality). The sage told about four gate-keepers to the realm of freedom. The four gate-keepers are Santi (self-control or quietness of mind), Vichara (spirit of inquiry), Santosha (contentment) and Satsanga (good company). &lt;a href=&quot;http://yogi.lv/files/yoga_vasistha.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; (search page 6) are the words of Sri Vasistha about Santosha (contentment):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is contentment? &lt;strong&gt;To renounce all craving for what is not obtained unsought and to be satisfied with what comes unsought, without being elated or depressed even by them — this is contentment.&lt;/strong&gt; As long as one is not satisfied in the self, he will be subjected to sorrow. With the rise of contentment the purity of one’s heart blooms. The contented man who possesses nothing owns the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, it is renunciation of powerful desire on one hand and satisfaction with what we have on the other that forms the practice of contentment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2015-12-23T07:27:21.613" LastActivityDate="2015-12-23T07:27:21.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9683" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-01T16:16:24.520" Score="1" ViewCount="5348" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman had too much powers in his body and Lord Rama also had many powers and he killed Ravana. But I want to know that who was more powerful? Rama or Hanuman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3980" LastActivityDate="2015-12-04T13:26:13.560" Title="Who was more powerful? Rama or Hanuman?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-12-08T12:21:43.300" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9687" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-01T17:07:01.067" Score="-1" ViewCount="4938" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who wrote Vedas and when? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I try to find the answer of my question and found thousands of answer but without any proof. I explore further and found, vedas are &lt;code&gt;Shrutis(what is heard) [suni sunai baat]&lt;/code&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anybody help me to understand the truthiness of it than SHRUTIS.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4061" LastActivityDate="2015-12-01T23:14:06.337" Title="Who wrote Vedas and when?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-12-01T23:23:56.827" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9689" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9687" CreationDate="2015-12-01T23:14:06.337" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The four Vedas – Rig, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva – are not the work of any single author. In ancient India, there were many rishis (sages) living simple, contemplative lives in hermitages high in the Himalayas and along the banks of sacred rivers. The rishis had names like Angiras, Bhrigu, Yajnavalkya, and Gargi (Gargi was a woman). They sought to understand the fundamental truths of life – Why are we born? How did the world come into existence? How can we live a good life? Because of their intense inquiry and deep meditation, they received God’s blessings and were able to discover the answers to their profound questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God revealed these sacred truths to the ancient sages, and the sages composed hymns and texts in the Sanskrit language to express these truths. Their hymns and texts were then passed on from generation to generation, from teacher to student, by chanting them aloud; they were not yet written down. Eventually, the great rishi, Vyasa, compiled all of their hymns and texts into four collections which are now known as the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindustudentscouncil.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=301&amp;amp;catid=73&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.hindustudentscouncil.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=301&amp;amp;catid=73&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4272" LastActivityDate="2015-12-01T23:14:06.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9690" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-01T23:26:33.083" Score="3" ViewCount="134" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was this many classification were there in ancient India .I believe there were only 4 classification of  people in Purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why we have this many caste classification and very different caste in every state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How , Why and when this happened ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4272" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T11:21:35.413" Title="How this many caste classification occured - different in different states?" Tags="|brahman|caste-system|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9691" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-02T01:41:38.567" Score="2" ViewCount="80" Body="&lt;p&gt;I stumble upon &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIjX3dAHsxY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; youtube video.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone explain or translate what is being said?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is so &lt;strong&gt;addictive&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;energising&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks &amp;amp; best regards from Portugal!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4273" LastEditorUserId="2880" LastEditDate="2015-12-02T07:15:12.770" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T07:15:12.770" Title="Meaning/Translation of a mantra video" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9692" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9683" CreationDate="2015-12-02T02:57:01.767" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism believes each god (not only in hindus but also in christion , muslims) is avatara (part) of bhagavan shrikrishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Comparison between two gods on the path of spirituality is called &quot;Namaparadh&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shriram was avatara of bhagvan vishnu , so undoubtedly Shriram was great , but Lord Hanuman was his bhakta. And in this age we need to learn the Nishkam bhakti like Lord Hanuman that no one does on Supreme god. So Lord Hanuman was also great.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Summary :- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can not compare the greatness of one god with other. God is one as told in Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T02:57:01.767" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9693" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9696" CreationDate="2015-12-02T04:39:21.990" Score="5" ViewCount="2673" Body="&lt;p&gt;What did Swami Vivekananda say about marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2015-12-02T12:50:37.293" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T12:50:37.293" Title="What was Swami Vivekananda's take on marriage?" Tags="|marriage|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9694" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9642" CreationDate="2015-12-02T04:45:55.513" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is something I posted a while back in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-prove-ramayana-is-not-a-myth/answer/Vineet-Menon-1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Quora&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Veracity of a story is often affirmed through certain evidences mainly,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Literary; i.e. if the same incident is mentioned repeatedly in many stories by various sources, there &lt;em&gt;could&lt;/em&gt; be some truth to it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Geographical/Geological; If the places and other landmarks really exist(ed). It again gives more credibility to the story.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Archaeological; This is the most important source of evidence, which unfortunately rarely provides any in case of myths about humans, because of the devastating effect nature has on human artifacts and creations.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Astronomical; More potent source of evidence, but with less credibility than archaeological one. The dates and position of celestial bodies in heaven as described in the texts when verified with latest planetary charts can validate the authenticity of the myths.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana conforms excellently on Literary, Geographical and Astronomical fronts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/l6EAr.gif&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/l6EAr.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Magenta line is the path Rama traveled from Ayodhya to Lanka for Sita during his &lt;em&gt;Vanavaas&lt;/em&gt;.&#xA;The sites like Rameshwaram, Ayodhya, Hastinapur, Kaushal, Mithila, panchavati, Dandakaranya etc. are still in use in modern day India (except Dandakaranya forest, which was later subjected to deforestation for human settlement).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Astronomical -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scribd.com/doc/23133909/The-Scientific-Dating-Ramayana-and-the-Vedas-P-V-Vartak#scribd&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Scientific Dating Ramayana and the Vedas - P V Vartak&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/The_problem_of_using_Astronomy_in_dating_the_Vedas,_Ramayana,_Mahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The problem of using Astronomy in dating the Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now one can always counter all these arguments saying that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A person well versed in the geography of India could have simply connected various places in India to craftily concoct a story around them.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Since, ancient Indian astronomers were experts in their field, they could have easily back calculated the planetary position, and used it in the stories.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't have a response to these questions, which begs me to ask about the reason for asking the authenticity of these stories. Does a Hindu need these stories to be true for affirming his belief in Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma)? Does his faith requires Ramayana and Mahabharata to be true to the word? If yes, which version of it? A. K. Ramanujam's 'The 300 Ramayanas' details the myriad variations in the retelling of this one epic in entire South Asia and South East Asia including Indonesia, Malaysia, Java and Sumatra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism, unlike Abrahamic religions aren't History centric (I'm using the same terminology as used by Mr. Rajiv Malhotra). Even if Ramayana and Mahabharata were classic representation of archetypes instead of real man in blood and bones, it would do no harm to any Hindu, unlike a Muslim for whom the existence of Mohammed is as mandatory as to a Jesus is to a Christian.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T04:45:55.513" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9695" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9691" CreationDate="2015-12-02T05:01:36.377" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The verses are basically repetition of a certain &lt;em&gt;Shiva Stotra&lt;/em&gt; gradually increasing in tempo. The lyrics of which is,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva Shambho Hara Hara Shambho &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhava nasha Kailasa nivasa    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parvati pate Harey Pashupatey    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Hara) Gangadhara Shiva Gauripatey&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translation of which is,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva, giver of good fortune, remover of fear and &#xA;  ego. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Destroyer of the fear of life and death, resident of &lt;em&gt;Kailasa&lt;/em&gt; (abode of Shiva). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord of &lt;em&gt;Parvati&lt;/em&gt; (Shiva's consort), destroyer of all sins, Lord of all beings &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord who wears the &lt;em&gt;Ganga&lt;/em&gt; (river) in his hair, &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt;, Lord of &lt;em&gt;Gauri&lt;/em&gt; (synonym for Parvati)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2015-12-02T05:06:39.813" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T05:06:39.813" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9696" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9693" CreationDate="2015-12-02T05:43:06.533" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swamiji was not at all against marriage. But He disliked marriage to take place just from mutual attraction and love, instead considered it as something sacred and inviolate as is evident &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vivekananda.net/PDFBooks/BiographybyNikhilananda.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (search page 180) from a letter to a Western lady:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In my opinion, &lt;strong&gt;a race must first cultivate a great respect for motherhood, through the sanctification and inviolability of marriage,&lt;/strong&gt; before it can attain to the ideal of perfect chastity. The Roman Catholics and the Hindus, holding marriage sacred and inviolate, have produced great chaste men and women of immense power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On another occasion, it was found that to promote unity among the Hindus, &lt;strong&gt;he encouraged intermarriage between castes and sub-castes&lt;/strong&gt; (page 140).&#xA;But he also held that ideals and rules of a monk's life cannot be applied to a householder's life as he writes in a letter to one of his American sisters Mary Hale who was full of idealism (page 111):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore my advice to you is that &lt;strong&gt;until you bring down your ideals to a more practical level, you ought not to marry&lt;/strong&gt;. If you do, the result will be misery for both of you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, though himself a monk, Swamiji encouraged marriages but with absolute loyalty and devotion between husbands and wives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2015-12-02T06:39:17.587" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T06:39:17.587" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9697" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9683" CreationDate="2015-12-02T08:33:21.543" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna said once that in order to go to Sri Lanka, Rama had to build a bridge. But for Hanuman to cross over all he had to do was take the name of Rama and he flew over the ocean. So the name of Rama is more powerful than both. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T08:33:21.543" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9699" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-02T09:34:47.077" Score="3" ViewCount="209" Body="&lt;p&gt;How should a person respond when another person becomes violent or attacks him, as per Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-28T20:34:10.667" LastActivityDate="2021-11-13T17:54:14.123" Title="How should a person respond when attacked by another person, as per Hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9700" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9699" CreationDate="2015-12-02T13:59:58.717" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism asks one to follow the principle of minimum violence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tuladhara said, ‘O Jajali, I know morality, which is eternal, with all&#xA;  its mysteries. It is nothing else than that ancient morality which is&#xA;  known to all, and which consists of universal friendliness, and is&#xA;  fraught with beneficence to all creatures. That mode of living which&#xA;  is founded upon a &lt;strong&gt;total harmlessness towards all creatures or (in case&#xA;  of actual necessity) upon a minimum of such harm,&lt;/strong&gt; is the highest&#xA;  morality.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXII)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T13:59:58.717" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9701" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-02T16:11:53.350" Score="3" ViewCount="1417" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that there were two brothers named 'Jay' and 'Vijay'. I have also heard that they were cursed by Lord Brahma's sons. So,what is the story of Jay and Vijay?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3980" LastActivityDate="2015-12-07T16:50:24.283" Title="Who were Jay and Vijay?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|bhagavata-purana|brahma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9702" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9683" CreationDate="2015-12-02T18:31:08.013" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/bhakta_hanuman-manojavam_marutatulyavegam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This sloka about Hanuman&lt;/a&gt;, captures very well, Hanuman's abilities :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manojavam Maruthu thulya vegam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jitendriyam Buddhi mathaam varishtam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vadhaatmajam Vanara yoodha mukhyam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Rama dhootham Sharanam Prapatye*&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To &#xA;  The one who is as fast as wind and mind,  The one who is a master of&#xA;  senses,  The one is the best among the intelligent,  The son of Vayu,&#xA;  the Lord of Wind,  The one who is a leader of the Vanara,s  The&#xA;  messenger of Lord Rama, To him I offer my obeisances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sloka captures many attributes of Hanuman, ironically, much revered in the modern world as well) : &#xA; 1. Speed&#xA; 2. Self-Mastery&#xA; 3. Intelligence&#xA; 4. Lineage&#xA; 5. Leadership&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the last line captures Rama's glory. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What makes Hanuman a great devotee is that, having endowed with all these supreme attributes, he offered these in the service of Lord Rama and became his &lt;em&gt;messenger&lt;/em&gt;. Ravana had even more knowledge than Rama, but what was the use, his lack of mastery over himself brought his doom. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama&lt;/strong&gt; was more powerful, because he could command the love of Hanuman, who had the power of physique and faculty and could re-direct them towards the establishment of Dharma. The ultimate power is the power of Inspiring people with love. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T18:31:08.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9703" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9668" CreationDate="2015-12-02T19:42:25.620" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Modern Scientific studies of the Human Brain and Nervous System ,cybernetics&lt;/strong&gt;,show that it is &lt;strong&gt;not possible to distinguish&lt;/strong&gt; between these three states of consciousness -i.e. &lt;strong&gt;Spiritual Experience ,Insanity and Day Dreaming of a drunkard&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Consider a situation ,where &lt;strong&gt;Doctors administer Chloroform to a patient , before surgery . This makes the patient Unconscious&lt;/strong&gt;. The Doctors perform the surgery , the patient does not react . But after sometime the patient regains consciousness and might experience some pain ,associated with surgery.&lt;br/&gt; Sometimes, the human &lt;strong&gt;brain generates its own chloroform&lt;/strong&gt; .This makes the individual unconscious to his surroundings . This happens &lt;strong&gt;during deep sleep or coma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; When less powerful chemicals of his type are produced in the brain ,the individual is &lt;strong&gt;asleep ,but continues to live in a dream world&lt;/strong&gt;.When still less poweful chemicals of this type are produced, the individual is in a &lt;strong&gt;semi-sleep state , but is living in a dream world&lt;/strong&gt;. This is what happens , when one is in &lt;strong&gt;a movie theater and watching some interesting movie&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;A &lt;strong&gt;drunkard , moving aimlessly  unconscious of the surrounding and living in a dream world of his own making&lt;/strong&gt;,is in a similar situation.&lt;strong&gt;Alcohol serves as a substitute of diluted chloroform&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;br/&gt; ...&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;If the human brain generates, internally, these type of chemicals,the individual may behave like a drunkard...If he is too spiritual he might see Gods and Goddesses and might be interacting with them...A Scientist or a Mathematician ,might be seeing strange equations,graphs and shapes&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;If these visions , have a bearing on reality ,then we call these people as leaders in their fields of specialization...Otherwise, they are called insane&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;....&lt;br/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ramakrishna, was considered a mad Brahmin, during his life time.But Narendra Nath , later Swami Vivekananda,realised him to be a Prophet and preached his ideas to the World and established the Ramakrishna Mission , to translate the preachings of Ramakrishna ,to action&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;...&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mathematician Prof.Cantor, was called insane during his life time and died in a mental asylum ...His works ,however,were recognised many years after his death&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;...&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Modern art, seems to me , the works of mentally deranged people...But to some other artists, they  might be great creative works&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2015-12-02T19:42:25.620" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9704" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9719" CreationDate="2015-12-03T02:34:54.420" Score="9" ViewCount="4319" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and Swami Vivekananda are said to be incarnations of God. Is there any such incarnation currently living among us?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastActivityDate="2022-05-10T08:48:46.797" Title="Is there any incarnation of God currently living among us?" Tags="|rebirth|avatars|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9705" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-03T03:59:19.463" Score="4" ViewCount="428" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that if we medidate and remember GOD always, we will reach Vaikunth i.e. the abode of Lord Vishnu. We can become Eternal and Immortal. Basically we will live with the GODs. Does that mean we are immortal or eternal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Asuras meditated a lot and got many boons but why were they not immortal since they meditated a lot? Why did Lord Brahma not grant them a wish to become immortal wherein by going to Vaikunth by praying and meditating we supposedly become immortal. We don't suffer as human being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-05T05:32:05.003" LastActivityDate="2018-10-05T05:32:05.003" Title="Meditation, Eternity, Immortality and Asuras" Tags="|gods|brahma|life|afterlife|immortality|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9706" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9704" CreationDate="2015-12-03T04:39:22.257" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;You might have heard of Mahavatar Babaji, the immortal saint who was born on 30 November 203 CE and is alive till date.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;                                              &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IpAOf.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IpAOf.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was the guru of Lahiri Mahasaya, the famous Kriya Yogi. It was Babaji who gave initiation to Adi Shankaracharya. Jesus Christ came to India and met him. He also had a disciple Maheshwarnath Babaji who in turn was the guru of Sri M, a yogi who currently lives in Madanapalle, near Bangalore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sri M's autobiography &amp;quot;Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master&amp;quot;, he wrote that once &lt;strong&gt;he went to Mount Kailash, he met Mahavatar Babaji who was none other than Lord Shiva himself. His form was changing continously between infinity(zero) and Bholenath.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To his disciples, Mahavatar Babaji is known as Sri Guru Babaji. He lives near Neelkanth Hill and around the areas of Badrinath with his disciples. Still he cannot be seen by the general public. He can only be seen if he wants you to see him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="3872" LastEditDate="2022-05-10T08:48:46.797" LastActivityDate="2022-05-10T08:48:46.797" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9707" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9699" CreationDate="2015-12-03T06:23:36.017" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think, As per hinduism, it is correct, we should not initiate violent but if some one attacking us, we should revert back with full force because self defense is necessary. And that you can see with our Gods, each is containing arms in his/her hand to save follower and punish who initiate violent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3918" LastActivityDate="2015-12-03T06:23:36.017" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9709" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-03T08:10:31.323" Score="11" ViewCount="1530" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally, Gods incarnate for some specific reasons like, destruction of some evil forces, to enlighten people with knowledge, establish dharma, etc. We have seen the same in case of most of Lord Vishnu's incarnations like Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Lord Varaha, Lord Narasimha, Lord Parasurama, Lord Vamana, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I can't really understand about what is the purpose of Venkateshwar incarnation. I have read the story of Venkateshwar incarnation and I know about how the curse, etc things happen and how he spent His time on earth but generally the incarnations, curses, etc happen for a bigger purpose in future. So, can somebody please enlighten me on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-08-10T07:24:59.513" LastActivityDate="2017-08-10T08:04:09.940" Title="What is the purpose of Venkateshwar incarnation?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9710" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9748" CreationDate="2015-12-03T12:06:12.150" Score="4" ViewCount="568" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it really that we have not been following real vedas and the caste transformation is a trend brought down by the rulers in order to rule since as per vedas and Upanishads, any infant is a Brahman by default - their actions in that lifespan gives him his caste and sects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3692" LastEditorUserId="3692" LastEditDate="2015-12-03T13:04:59.100" LastActivityDate="2016-09-07T12:59:48.627" Title="Anyone born an infant as per the vedas is a Brahman?" Tags="|brahman|caste-system|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9711" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7187" CreationDate="2015-12-03T14:15:33.840" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am giving answer to Syamantak Sinha article.  I am simply asking you to learn any skill on your own and compete with another who learned with skillful gurus.  There must be a clear difference.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;first point Arjuna can have more celestial powers than karna (is it true or not) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;things gone in Arjuna's favour at each and every occurrence. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If Arjuna is superior than Karna, why Indra begged his kavach kundal as brahmin saint. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As karna resides behind adharma, bcoz of this only he got bad.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why Arjuna was not faced Karna when he was having powers given by Indra?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One thing I would like to say &quot;Winners write history&quot; i.e. the main thing. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the war, there is no sympathy to any character.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If Parasurama has not given curse, karna would have fired Brahmastra on Arjuna. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How Arjuna escaped &quot;Thakshaka&quot;'s celestial power?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;During fighting Salya (i.e. Sarathi) disturbed Karna in the war (loosing concentration). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How Arjuna escaped Narayana Astra fired by Karna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;On 16th and 17th day, Karna only killed 1.8 akshouhini (count of army) pandava's army.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He has not killed remaining pandavas giving life to them in the war. &#xA;Think once my points &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4281" LastActivityDate="2015-12-03T14:15:33.840" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9714" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9705" CreationDate="2015-12-03T16:35:24.223" Score="4" Body="&lt;h1&gt;1. What is meant by eternal&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Right now you are thinking that eternal means that the physical body will never die. However this is a wrong notion. The BODY IS ALWAYS MORTAL. The physical body is subject to birth, decay and death. There is no body that can live forever (except in case of certain incarnations which are supposed to exist forever).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 2:18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;material body&lt;/em&gt; of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is &lt;em&gt;sure to come to an end&lt;/em&gt;; therefore, fight, O descendant of Bharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then what is eternal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eternal implies that the soul becomes eternal. However, the soul is always eternal! The soul is never subject to death or dissolution!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 2:16, 18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the unreal there is no duration and in the &lt;em&gt;real there is no cessation&lt;/em&gt;; indeed the conclusion between both the two has been analyzed by knowers of the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But know that &lt;em&gt;by whom this entire body is prevaded (Atma), is indestructible&lt;/em&gt;. No one is able to cause the destruction of the imperishable soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;This is so confusing. If body always dies and soul is always eternal then what is meant by immortality?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Right now we think we are the body. However this is a wrong association. We are not the body, we are the immortal soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Adi Shankaracharya says in Nirvana Shatakam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mano buddhya-hankara chittani naham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na cha shrotra jihve, na cha ghrana netre&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na cha vyoma bhumirna tejo na vayuhu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chidananda rupah shivoham shivoham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am not the mind, intellect, thought, ego, or some form of the supreme being; I neither have ears, nor tongue and I neither have nose (nostrils) nor eyes; I am not the sky, earth, light or the wind; I am the fortunate, joyful, supreme being who is the very emblem of truth, knowledge and eternal bliss. I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva, I am Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So immortality implies removing this association from body and realizing that we are the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Vaishnavas, this self-realization (called Kaivalya) is not the Ultimate liberation (Moksha). There is a level above it called reaching Vaikunta. But this is a separate discussion. Whatever you believe as the highest level or not, the physical body is never eternal and self-realization leads to immortality according to Advaitic beliefs (because the soul has always been eternal).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus this self-realization makes one immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;2. What about Asuras?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Asuras performed rigorous tapas, they meditated on the Lord. Although they had evil intentions they did pray to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why, after being killed by the Lord Vishnu, they reached Him!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, they were granted IMMORTALITY! It is just that they were not granted bodily immortality!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2047/119&quot;&gt;beautiful answer&lt;/a&gt;, the user @BeHappy explains how the Asuras worshipped Lord Vishnu in the mode of enimity and therefore they reached Him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So Ravana was no ordinary soul. He was previously one of the two gatekeepers at Vishnu's abode Vaikuntha. Due to stopping the four Sanat kumaras they got cursed and had to take birth in demonic families as the Lord had desired:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The Lord replied: O brāhmaṇas, know that the punishment you inflicted on them was originally ordained by Me, and therefore they will fall to a birth in a demoniac family. But they will be firmly &lt;em&gt;united with Me in thought through mental concentration intensified by anger&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;they will return to My presence shortly&lt;/em&gt;. [SB - 3.6.26]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some more excerpts from that answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;kāmaṁ krodhaṁ bhayaṁ sneham aikyaṁ sauhṛdam eva ca&#xA;    nityaṁ harau vidadhato yānti tan-mayatāṁ hi te [SB - 10.29.15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Persons who constantly direct their lust, anger, fear, protective affection, &#xA;    feeling of oneness and friendship toward Lord Hari are sure to become absorbed in Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore in conclusion,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you pray to God with good intentions, you will reach God in a good way. If you pray to God with bad intentions, you will reach God in a bad way (eg. Ravana, Kamsa. Bad in the sense that they were used as bad examples of reaching God by opposing Him). However you will reach God by sincerely thinking about Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2015-12-03T16:35:24.223" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9716" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="873" CreationDate="2015-12-03T19:51:27.460" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The bilva tree itself is so holy and auspicious that its worship or its significance is mentioned in many puranas and other scirputres at various instances. Here below is a narration of &quot;greatness of bilva&quot; under 22nd chapter in vidyesvarasamhita of shivapurana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lakshmyaascha stana utpannam Mahaadeva sadaa priyam,&#xA;  Bilva vriksham prayachchhaami eka bilvam Shivaarpanam.&#xA;  Darshanam bilva vrikshasya sparshanam paapanaashanam,&#xA;  Aghorapaapasamhaaram eka bilvam shivarpanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Born from the breasts of Goddess Lakshmi, the Bilva tree is ever dear to Mahadeva. So I ask this tree to offer a Bilva leaf to Lord Shiva. To have darshan of the Bilva tree, and to touch it, frees one from sin. The most terrible karma is destroyed when a Bilva leaf is offered to Lord Shiva.Sri Bilva Shtakam (v. 6–7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The proportion of sattva component is more in bilva patra and hence it has more capacity to absorb and emit sattvik frequencies. This has various effects. One of them is the reduction of raja-tama particles present in the atmosphere. A sattvik leaf like bilva patra when brought in proximity of a person suffering from negative energy distress then the black energy present within him is reduced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3857" LastActivityDate="2015-12-03T19:51:27.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9719" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9704" CreationDate="2015-12-04T08:39:15.023" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;From history it is evident that whoever revives Dharma in difficult times almost single-handedly is being considered as Avatar of God. Going by this definition in the recent past, in Mughal era, Chhatrapati Shivaji in Maharashtra could be called as an Avatar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, at the time of Vivekanand, Christian missionaries were raising huge funds in the Western countries for missionary work in India to convert poor and illiterate Hindus. Even literate Hindus had started disbelieving Hinduism because of their misunderstanding of nature of dharma, especially as compared to western philosophies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vivekanand and, much before him, Adi Sankara revived the Hinduism, thus can be called as Avataras.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="543" LastEditDate="2015-12-04T23:38:37.180" LastActivityDate="2015-12-04T23:38:37.180" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9723" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1982" CreationDate="2015-12-04T13:30:48.910" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;@Keshav Your answer describes how Krsna obtained his Sudarshana and Kaumodaki, which are of course his main weapons. But apart from these two, Srimad Bhagavatam describes how they got most of their divine weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Canto 10, Chapter 50, the story of Jarasandha's invasion of Mathura is described.&#xA;Accordingly, Jarasandha, to avenge his son-in-law, Kamsa, put Mathura under siege with 23 akshauhinis (each akshauhini consisting of 21,870 soldiers on elephants, 21,870 charioteers, 65,610 cavalrymen and 109,350 infantry soldiers) at his command.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At this hour of crisis, Lord Krsna decided to wipe out the entire army of Jarasandha. When he decides thus, all his weapons and two chariots arrive from Vaikuntha to assist him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.50.11&lt;/strong&gt; — As Lord Govinda was thinking in this way, two chariots as effulgent as the sun suddenly descended from the sky. They were complete with drivers and equipment.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;SB 10.50.12&lt;/strong&gt; — The Lord’s eternal divine weapons also appeared before Him spontaneously. Seeing these, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Lord of the senses, addressed Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;SB 10.50.13-14&lt;/strong&gt; — [The Supreme Lord said:] My respected elder brother, see this danger which has beset Your dependents, the Yadus! And see, dear master, how Your personal chariot and favorite weapons have come before You. The purpose for which We have taken birth, My Lord, is to secure the welfare of Our devotees. Please now remove from the earth the burden of these twenty-three armies.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;SB 10.50.15&lt;/strong&gt; — After Lord Kṛṣṇa had thus invited His brother, the two Dāśārhas, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, wearing armor and displaying Their resplendent weapons, drove out of the city in Their chariots. Only a very small contingent of soldiers accompanied Them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(You can read the whole chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/10/50&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Krsna and Balarama acquired most of their weapons at this point. And additionally, Krsna also got the Sudarshana and Kaumodaki at the time of Khandava Dahana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2015-12-04T13:30:48.910" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9724" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-04T15:00:10.707" Score="4" ViewCount="4496" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across this verse via a speech I heard at a temple. And I would like to know more about this sentence or verse or something describe about&#xA;What I have understood till now is that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Geeta anvay yog samanvay&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Geeta meaning the bhagwad geeta&#xA;Anvay meaning relieving from sins&#xA;Yog meaning our actions &#xA;Samanvay meaning the correlation between any two object&#xA;Can anyone help me out with the whole meaning of this phrase or verse&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="202" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T13:57:55.907" Title="What does gita anvay yog samanvay mean?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|shloka|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9725" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9724" CreationDate="2015-12-04T23:23:21.207" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Samanvay can be broken into two words: sam+anvay. Sam means to join together and anvaya means to put things in order. It means to join together in order to methodically engage in common pursuit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yoga- according to my understanding it means to do, to join, to go forward and get yourself engaged to GOD. Like attain self knowledge through our &#xA;Mother Geeta various yogas- gyan, karma and bhakti yoga. synthesis of this can lead you to serenity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samanvay also  means synthesis, coordination, balance and a logical connection with God. If you logically explain the true meaning of Geeta you will attain self knowledge and self attainment but blindly following Geeta without any logical explanation is same like following our old rituals and customs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is just as per my understanding.. hope it makes sense. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4295" LastActivityDate="2015-12-04T23:23:21.207" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9726" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-05T05:20:03.173" Score="6" ViewCount="216" Body="&lt;p&gt;In hinduism, what things are to be considered for deciding correct match of bride and groom? Also what rituals and practices are needed to be done for the marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-11T18:10:08.150" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T19:07:13.173" Title="How should marriages be decided and done according to hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|rituals|practice|marriage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-03-07T05:40:05.790" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9727" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-05T06:05:40.803" Score="14" ViewCount="1443" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Purusharthas (objectives of human life), the four objectives are Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha. Kama includes desire and Moksha requires someone not to have desire. How can they co-exist?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-16T15:46:48.980" LastActivityDate="2018-05-16T15:05:18.237" Title="How can kama and moksha co-exist?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|moksha|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9728" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9493" CreationDate="2015-12-05T10:03:10.347" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;10th canto of Bhagavatham Kilippattu by Tunchatt Ezhuttachchan (Classical Retelling of Bhagavata Purana in Malayalam)  has the following four lines on Upashloka :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kondalnervarnnan tanikkakkalam sairandhriyi-&#xA;  luntayanupashlokanennoru charupuman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(At that time Kondalnervarnnan (Krishna)  had a handsome son named upashloka  from sairandhri  (Kubja)) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;samkhyayillata shastram grahikkamulamavan&#xA;  samkhyayogacharyanay vannitennarinjalum &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Since he had mastered many shastras he became known as master of samkhyayoga)    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tunchatt Ezhuttachchan and Melputhur Narayana Bhattatiri are known to be contemporaries &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayaneeyam is known to be composed in ME 762(~AD 1587)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishnagiti (Performance text of Krishnattam in Sanskrit ) composed by Manaveda (Zamorin) in ME 829 (AD 1654) also mentions that Krishna had a son upashloka from Kubja &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kubjamabjayatakshim  sarasamupasarannuddhavenapi sardham&#xA;  datvopashlokasanjnam... ( shloka 7, svayamvaram, Krishnagiti) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later the poet Kunchan Nambiar  refers to Upashloka in the eighth canto of his kavya Shrikrishnacharitam Manipravalam :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sairandhri tan griham tannil svairam chennu janardhanan&#xA;  marakridamahanandamarmbhichchan nishantare&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Krishna went to the house of Sairandhri leisurely in the night and enjoyed with her)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;putranejjanayamasa tatra sa kamalekshana&#xA;  avannuperupashlokanennu lokeshu vishrutam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Krishna had a son with her. In the world he is famous with the name upashloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we have Narayana Bhattatiri , Ezhuttachchan, Manaveda and Kunchan Nambiar mentioning upashloka as the son of Krishna and Kubja .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It will be interesting to check the Tamil, Kannada and Telugu Retellings of Bhagavata Purana about Upashloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purushothaman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4297" LastEditorUserId="5486" LastEditDate="2016-04-30T12:35:14.997" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T12:35:14.997" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9729" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9617" CreationDate="2015-12-05T10:56:31.753" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahman can be thought of in its as Saguna Brahman and as Nirguna Brahman. Parabrahman refers to Nirguna Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says (&lt;em&gt;Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;, Chapter 10, &lt;em&gt;The Master and the Brahmo Devotees (III)&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MASTER: &quot;When the Godhead is thought of as creating, preserving, and destroying, It is known as the Personal God, Saguna Brahman, or the Primal Energy, Adyasakti. Again, when It is thought of as beyond the three gunas, then it is called the Attributeless Reality, Nirguna Brahman, beyond speech and thought; this is the Supreme Brahman, Parabrahman.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is discussed also in Brhadaranyaka Upanishad II. iii. 1-6 and is sometimes referred to as Para Brahman and the Apara Brahman. These being the only two ways that humans can think or comprehend Brahman in their minds.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-12-11T13:50:53.763" LastActivityDate="2015-12-11T13:50:53.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9730" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8093" CreationDate="2015-12-05T11:48:28.767" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, lifespan of any being can be reduced or can be more. The lifespan is not measured by the number of years but rather by number of breaths. At birth, every being is given a fixed number of breaths. When they run out of those breaths, death is bound to come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sivananda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yoga-age.com/asanas/prana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Yogi measures the span of his life not by the number of years but by the number of his breaths.&lt;/strong&gt; A man takes fifteen breaths in a minute. The total number of breaths comes to 21,600 times per day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kumbhaka is retention of breath. Kumbhaka increases the period of life. It augments the inner spiritual force, vigour and vitality. If you retain the breath for one minute, this one minute is added to your span of life. &lt;strong&gt;Yogins by taking the breath to the Brahmarandhra at the top of the head and keeping it there, defeat the Lord of death, Yama, and conquer death.&lt;/strong&gt; Chang Dev lived for one thousand and four hundred years through the practice of Kumbhaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Breathing rate of different species:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mouse: Respiratory rate = 60–230/min and Life span = 1.5–3.0 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rabbit: Respiratory rate = 30–60/min and Life span = 5.0–6.0 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Monkey: Respiratory rate = 30–50/min and Life span = 20–30 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Human: Respiratory rate = 12–16/min and Life span = 70–80 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Whales: Respiratory rate = 3–5/min and Life span = more than 100 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, those who breathe faster have less life span and those who breathe slower have more! This is the reason why yogis are able to live for so long.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pranayama is the fourth limb of yoga in Patanjali Yoga Sutras. The goal of Pranayama is to be able to control Prana. In Pranayama, there are some deep breathing exercise known as Kumbhaka(breath retention). There are 4 types of Kumbhaka, the last one being Kevali Kumbhaka. In the state of Kevali Kumbhaka, a person no longer breaths. He doesn't exhale nor inhale. If yogis attain this state, they are no longer bound by the fixed number of breaths and hence they are able to live longer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T06:48:27.623" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9732" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-05T14:44:34.607" Score="4" ViewCount="422" Body="&lt;p&gt;As a child I heard this story about a Hindu avatar which has stayed with me as I find it very interesting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's regarding death of one of the Vishnu's avatar (or that of an another Hindu god). The avatar was sent to do a particular thing on earth but after doing that he becomes too &lt;em&gt;indulgent&lt;/em&gt; in the family life of the avatar. That is he forgets he is a God and continues to live life like an ordinary man with love for his wife and family. On seeing this, the gods then send somebody to &lt;em&gt;kill&lt;/em&gt; the avatar so to release him from worldly life and bring him back to heavens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can somebody please provide more details about this story as in who this avatar was and other information?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4301" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-03-02T03:17:19.823" LastActivityDate="2019-04-01T04:06:06.087" Title="Where is this story of death of a Hindu avatar found?" Tags="|scripture|avatars|identification-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9733" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-05T17:41:14.817" Score="2" ViewCount="93" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have gone through the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt; of Sikha.  However, I didn't find any information about the origins and reason for the tradition of Sikha amongst Brahmins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it just as a sign of cleanliness(as stated by the wikipedia), or are there more in-depth cultural origins and explanation of how it became a tradition?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3837" LastActivityDate="2015-12-05T17:41:14.817" Title="What is the reason/origin of Sikha?" Tags="|tradition|brahmins|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-12-09T18:04:24.883" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9734" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-06T08:02:54.070" Score="9" ViewCount="1247" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the difference between non-dualism and monism? Advaita texts stresses on the non-dual aspect of things (probably as a negation to dvaita schools) over calling things monistic. Why is it so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is negation stressed so much in Advaita? Is it to create a 'Zen' kind of effect?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2015-12-06T16:03:14.270" Title="Why does Advaita insists on 'non-dualism' and not 'monism'?" Tags="|advaita|dvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9735" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-06T09:41:14.400" Score="1" ViewCount="28" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a part of veda which has been categorized as aayurveda. I want to find, read and investigate the shlokas which give direct advice on health and medicinal cure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wanted to understand and learn the ancient medical practices, medicines and the health benefits described about the practices of yoga. And even possibly have some secrets about the inner spiritual workings of the human body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4304" LastActivityDate="2015-12-06T09:41:14.400" Title="Ayurveda is a part of which of the four veda?" Tags="|vedas|ayurveda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-12-06T10:33:11.353" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9737" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-06T15:36:03.393" Score="4" ViewCount="4246" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know where is Lord Vishnu's Vaikuntha sea. Is it on Earth or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-12-08T16:04:22.113" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T17:50:03.643" Title="Is Vishnu's Vaikuntha Sea located on Earth or not?" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavata-purana|earth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9738" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9734" CreationDate="2015-12-06T16:03:14.270" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahman is described as &lt;em&gt;ekamevadvitiyam&lt;/em&gt;, one only without a second. The word monism, as said in my comment, is often used interchangeably in common parlance with non-dualism (or advaita (not two)), but strictly speaking it is referred to as non-dualism, not monism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (VI. ii. 1.) says (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'O good looking one, in the beginning this was Existence alone, One only, without a second...'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sankara's commentary on this (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the words 'One only' is meant that there was nothing else coming under the catergory of Its product. By the words 'without a second' this is meant: As in the case of pot, etc. some other efficient causes like potters and others, who are different from earth etc. into pot etc. are seen, similarily (here) also there arises the possibility of having some other second thing which is different from Existence, and yet is a cause associated with Existence. This is being denied by the phase, 'without a second (advitiyam)'. So, 'without a second' means that It (Existence) has no second thing different from Itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his commentary on verse II. 33. of &lt;em&gt;Gaudapada's Karika&lt;/em&gt; of the &lt;em&gt;Mandukya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Nikhilananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedanta describes Brahman, or Atman, as non-dual or as &lt;em&gt;one and without a second&lt;/em&gt;--not simply as one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And further (&lt;em&gt;The Upanishads V1&lt;/em&gt;, p 34-35), Swami Nikhilananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman is &quot;one and without a second&quot;--&lt;em&gt;ekamevadvitiyam&lt;/em&gt;, The second part of the phrase (&quot;without a second&quot;), qualifying the first (&quot;one&quot;), is important for what it means is that Brahman is not one in the same sense that the sun or the moon is one, or in the sense that the God of the monotheist is one. In such a case there is a perceiver of the oneness--which implies duality. When the non-duality of Brahman is completely realized, there is absolutely no consciousness of subject and object; the distinction between perceiver and perceived is annihilated and they become one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So although used often in common parlance to mean the 'non-dual', 'monism' only implies 'one' and does not imply the 'without a second'.  Advaita means not two. Scriptures say that Brahman is beyond words, beyond description, beyond all perception; and the only thing that can be said of It is neti, neti - not this, not this. As such 'not two' or 'non-dual' or advaita is a better description of the philosophy.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-12-06T16:03:14.270" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9740" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-06T22:59:02.303" Score="2" ViewCount="120" Body="&lt;p&gt;This stroke me many-a-times. I am not ready to accept any religion, nor any rules. I just wanted to be able to differentiate between &lt;em&gt;right&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;wrong&lt;/em&gt; without any rules (which judges on the body or out of the body {mentally}) or anything what is &lt;strong&gt;worldly&lt;/strong&gt; specific that is to be done to be able to &lt;em&gt;impress&lt;/em&gt; any of gods, demi-gods or even barely humans (I do not adhere principles to any rules which prevents or lowers the scope of goodness). If a certain rule overrides the most obvious fact and leads to wrong - to that I wanted to plain surrender 'wrong'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this strange for me? or even though If I wanted to follow the principles of a hindu, muslim, jain, a Sikh, a Buddhist, monk, etc or whatever that is &lt;strong&gt;worldly describable&lt;/strong&gt;  or whatever it mattered, I just wanted to pick up the basic good of every religion and mix it into what might be a principle to live a life and just to stick onto what is betterment universally or the least cosmetically (cosmos theories with scientific alignment). &lt;strong&gt;Is that against Hinduism?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basics: If &lt;em&gt;that&lt;/em&gt; is against any (not just hinduism) system, I am looking forward to follow none because this isn't a set specified documentation. There's something more constructive I am looking for to reference and to find something which triggers myself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3692" LastEditorUserId="3692" LastEditDate="2015-12-06T23:30:46.160" LastActivityDate="2015-12-07T15:29:16.993" Title="Could i be still a 'source energy' specimen without having to follow ANY religion or any of it's religious based rules?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9742" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9740" CreationDate="2015-12-06T23:53:59.893" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;To me, what you are referring to &quot;basic good in every religion&quot; is spirituality, &lt;strong&gt;not any religion in particular.&lt;/strong&gt; For most of so called &quot;religious&quot; people, their revelation is the only revelation, and their prophet is the only prophet. Everything else is absolutely false. Most religious people talk in terms of absolute, while a man of understanding is always relative. The only common ground all the religions come to, is spirituality- be it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/10033/islamic-concept-of-spirituality/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Quran&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/spiritual-growth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bible&lt;/a&gt; or Bhagvat Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Spirituality is life in depth, in ultimate depth. You are centered at your very being. But you can go on living on the circumference, moving freely anywhere — still remaining at the center. Your identity is at the center. You know who you are. You get to decide what's wrong and what's right for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. one cannot feel good while planning evil for the world. The sensation you have in your body when you are making decision about options you have in your life will let you know if something is good or evil. To murder a person you must manifest ill-will and hatred inside you, and similarly to do something nice to another person, you must be filled with grace and gratefulness inside.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To sum up, being &quot;source energy&quot;, spiritual or following &quot;basic good of every religion&quot; has nothing to do with finding any scriptures that are ideal(or mixing up the good things from existing ones to make a new religion), it has something to do with transformation of your own consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4312" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2015-12-07T15:29:16.993" LastActivityDate="2015-12-07T15:29:16.993" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9743" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-07T04:54:55.257" Score="8" ViewCount="833" Body="&lt;p&gt;The holy verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hare kṛiṣhṇa hare kṛiṣhṇa&#xA;kṛiṣhṇa kṛiṣhṇa hare hare&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hare rāma hare rāma&#xA;rāma rāma hare hare&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna and Lord Ram were incarnations of Lord Vishnu? So these maha-mantras are for Lord Vishnu or the Supreme God? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="4166" LastEditDate="2015-12-07T05:03:55.860" LastActivityDate="2022-09-13T15:34:44.413" Title="Hare Krishna Hare Ram mantra for Vishnu or Supreme God?" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9745" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-07T10:00:26.610" Score="2" ViewCount="68" Body="&lt;p&gt;After how many years did the oldest parikrama on Earth, bhagwan shri dwadash madhav parikrama, tirthraj Prayag of Bhagwan Shri Vishnu restart?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4315" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T17:06:10.907" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T17:06:10.907" Title="After how many years of gap did the Dwadash Madhav yearly Parikrama restart?" Tags="|vishnu|worship|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9746" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-07T12:23:42.607" Score="2" ViewCount="221" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anybody help me with meditation? I tried the sitting posture and concentrating on my breath. But in my mind I get lot of inner chatting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please suggest me some way to do it correctly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4318" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-07T18:38:56.217" LastActivityDate="2015-12-08T05:53:59.553" Title="How do I do meditation?" Tags="|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ClosedDate="2015-12-11T04:22:33.087" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9748" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9710" CreationDate="2015-12-07T14:40:25.727" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (IV. 4. 1-5) we read of Satyakama Jabala who was not sure who his father was and took the name of his mother (Jabala). When asked by the sage he approached to be his teacher (Haridrumata Gautama), Satyakama told the truth of his uncertain lineage. To this the sage replied (verse 5):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To him [Satyakama] he [Haridrumata Gautama] said, ‘A non-Brahmin will not be able to say this. Fetch faggots for sacrifice, O good looking one. I shall initiate you since you did not depart from the truth…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says throughout his works that caste is a social institution, not a religious institution.  Although he believed that caste is necessary (there are castes everywhere in the world, all cultures have castes) he was against the institutional caste in India that says that your caste is determined by your birth. He says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V3 p 457, Here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Lectures from Colombo to Almora&lt;/em&gt;, subheading &lt;em&gt;The Religion We are born in&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who are these Rishis? Vâtsyâyana says, &quot;He who has attained through proper means the direct realisation of Dharma, he alone can be a Rishi even if he is a Mlechchha by birth.&quot; Thus it is that in ancient times, Vasishtha, born of an illegitimate union, Vyâsa, the son of a fisherwoman, Narada, the son of a maidservant with uncertain parentage, and many others of like nature attained to Rishihood. Truly speaking, it comes to this then, that no distinction should be made with one who has realised the Truth. If the persons just named all became Rishis, then, O ye Kulin Brahmins of the present day, how much greater Rishis you can become! Strive after that Rishihood, stop not till you have attained the goal, and the whole world will of itself bow at your feet! Be a Rishi — that is the secret of power. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Veda is our only authority, and everyone has the right to it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Thus says the Shukla Yajur Veda (XXVI. 2). Can you show any authority from this Veda of ours that everyone has not the right to it? The Purânas, no doubt, say that a certain caste has the right to such and such a recension of the Vedas, or a certain caste has no right to study them, or that this portion of the Vedas is for the Satya Yuga and that portion is for the Kali Yuga. But, mark you, the Veda does not say so; it is only your Puranas that do so. But can the servant dictate to the master? The Smritis, Puranas, Tantras — all these are acceptable only so far as they agree with the Vedas; and wherever they are contradictory, they are to be rejected as unreliable. But nowadays we have put the Puranas on even a higher pedestal than the Vedas! The study of the Vedas has almost disappeared from Bengal. How I wish that day will soon come when in every home the Veda will be worshipped together with Shâlagrâma, the household Deity, when the young, the old, and the women will inaugurate the worship of the Veda! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the other things he said include:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though our castes and our institutions are apparently linked with our religion, they are not so. These institutions have been necessary to protect us as a nation, and when this necessity for self-preservation will no longer exist, they will die a natural death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I must frankly tell you that I am neither a caste-breaker nor a mere social reformer. I have nothing to do with your castes ot with your social reformation. Live in any caste you like, but that is no reason why you should hate another man or another caste. It is love and love alone that I preach, and I base my teaching on the great Vedantic truth if the sameness and omnipresence of the Soul of the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said (&lt;em&gt;The Gospel of Sir Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;, Chapter 34: &lt;em&gt;Bankim Chandra&lt;/em&gt;, available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Master used to say that the devotees formed a separate caste by themselves, among them there could be no caste distinctions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in Chapter 6: &lt;em&gt;The Master with the Brahmo Devotees&lt;/em&gt;, he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You asked about caste distinctions, There is only one way to remove them, and that is by love of God. Lovers of God have no caste. Through this divine love the untouchable becomes pure, the pariah no longer remains a pariah. Chaitanya embraced all, including pariahs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To more directly answer your question, no, we are not all born brahmins. Your present birth is determined by your previous karma. This is supported by scripture. The &lt;em&gt;Brahma-Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 3.1.8-11. has a discussion on this and both Sankara and Ramanuja in their commentaries on these verses are in agreement as to the meanings. Verse 8 says (Swami Vireswarananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the exhaustion of (good) work (the soul) with the residual Karma (descends to this earth) as is known from the Sruti and Smriti, along the path (it) went by (from here) and differently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commentary to this verse quotes the &lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; 5.10.7 saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those whose conduct has been good will quickly attain some good birth...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And further in the commentary it says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Smriti also says, &quot;With the remainder of their Karma they are born in a noteworthy place, caste, and family, with becoming appearance, longevity, knowledge, wealth, happiness, and intellect.&quot; So the soul is born with residual Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In summary, we are not all born brahmins. Birth is determined by residual Karma. But caste can be determined by the qualities you manifest in your life, not simply your parents caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-12-12T06:16:13.623" LastActivityDate="2015-12-12T06:16:13.623" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9749" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9493" CreationDate="2015-12-07T15:43:06.107" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavatham Kilippattu, Ezhuttachchan  follows the  version of Bhagavata Purana in Sanskrit available in Kerala at that time (in 16th century). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This version is not available in print  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  Bhagavata Purana  in Sanskrit available in print is the Northern version, in which some episodes are missing (compared to Ezhuttachchan's text ) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is likely that the manuscript of Southern version of Sanskrit Bhagavata Purana is available in some manuscript library such as GOML, chennai or Sarasvati Mahal, Tanjaore or Manuscript Library at Trivandrum ( The case is same with Mahabharata ) . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the texts by Ezhuttachchan and Kunchan Nambiar are in Malayalam, Narayaneeyam and Krishnagiti are Sanskrit texts - not Malayalam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is likely that all these great scholars are faithfully following  almost the same original source in sanskrit. It appears unlikely that all of them will add something of their own imagination . It is to be noted that in spite of being an abridged version Dashama skanda , Narayana Bhattatiri mentioned upashloka learning satvata tantra from Narada in Narayaneeyam     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another way to establish the existence of a distinct southern recension of Bhagavata Purana will be to check the retellings of Bhagavata in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu  for upashloka &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this context , bala lila of krishna at Ambati is another example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the printed Sanskrit Bhagavata Purana gives only a few shlokas on bala lila, Cherushsheri(Krishna Gatha), Ezhuttachchan, Manaveda (Krishnagiti- sanskrit) and Kunchan Nambiar describe many amusing episodes in detail. These episodes are found in the Southern Texts of Harivamsha (printed as Appendix II by Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute , Pune)   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4297" LastActivityDate="2015-12-07T15:43:06.107" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9750" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9701" CreationDate="2015-12-07T16:50:24.283" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jay and Vijay were two gatekeepers of Lord Vishnu. One day Lord Brahma's four sons named 'Sanaka,Sananda,Sanatana and Sanatkumara' had visited to Ksheer Sagar to met with Lord Vishnu. Due to their strength tapas,they appeared to be mere children and they were very famous Brahmins. Jay and Vijay had stopped Brahma's sons because they thought that the Brahmins were children and Jay and Vijay also made fun of Brahma's sons. The sons of Lord Brahma became so much angry and they gave a curse to Jay and Vijay that they will be separate from Lord Vishnu. Jay and Vijay were so afraid. Lord Vishnu came and told Brahma's sons to forgive Jay and Vijay. Then Lord Brahma's sons told Vishnu that they cannot free Jay and Vijay from their curse. Lord Vishnu gave Jay and Vijay two options. One was that if Jay and Vijay want to live with Vishnu,so,they have to take six births as Lord Vishnu's devotee. Another option was that if Jay and Vijay did not want to chose first option,so,they have to take three births as Lord Vishnu's enemies. Jay and Vijay had chosen the second option. After that Jay and Vijay were born as Lord Vishnu's enemies. Jay and Vijay's first birth was Hiranyakashyap and Hiranyaksha. Their second birth was Ravana and Kumbhakarna. Their third and last birth was Shishupal and Dantavakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4270" LastActivityDate="2015-12-07T16:50:24.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9752" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9746" CreationDate="2015-12-08T04:55:07.670" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Meditation basically needs concentration. You can focus on your breath, Or concentrate on repeating a word or mantra.  For a beginner it is not possible to sit continuously for hours. You can increase your concentration by focusing a candle flame. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It will be difficult in starting to make your mind peaceful. Let the thoughts come and go. Don't try to force your mind stop thinking. It will not work. Start to meditate for some minutes and slowly increase your time. You will get the result slowly because it is not an instant process.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4314" LastActivityDate="2015-12-08T04:55:07.670" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9753" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-08T05:01:13.560" Score="5" ViewCount="885" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm currently visiting India, and as I was &#xA;leaving my native village of Poondi (which I discuss in my questions &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9212/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5207/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), I passed by a temple which was built at a location visited by the goddess Mariamman.  Mariamman is a goddess worshipped primarily in Tami Nadu.  Her temples are kept on the outskirts of villages, and she is worshipped for rain.  There are multiple folk tales people tell about Mariamman.  Some people say that her name comes from the Tamil word &quot;Marai&quot; meaning rain.  (Amman just means mother and it's a universal appellation for all forms of Parvati or Durga.)  But as I was passing by the aforementioned Mariamman temple, I heard another explanation, namely that Mariamman is really Renuka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Renuka is the wife of the great sage Jamadagni and the mother of Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama.  One day, Renuka saw the Gandharva king Chitraratha and felt a momentary attraction to him, despite the fact that she was married.  When Jamadagni found out that his wife had felt attraction to another man, he was furious, and ordered Parashurama to kill his mother.  Parashurama was duty-bound to obey his father, so complied and cut off his mother's head.  Jamadagni was pleased with Parashurama and offered him a boon, whereupon Parashurama asked that his mother be brought back to life!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the folk tale I heard (found, e.g. in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renuka#Renuka_vs._Yellamma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt;) adds an extra twist to this story.  In this account, the people in the village where Jamadagni lives cremate Renuka's body before Jamadagni can resurrect it.  But the Renuka's head is still there, so Jamadagni attaches it to a dead body of a low-caste woman and brings it back to life.  Because Renuka now has a low-caste body, she is no longer allowed in Jamadagni's ashram, so she takes up residence on the outskirts of the village.  And she is subsequently worshipped as Mariamman, as &quot;Mari&quot; is the Tamil word for &quot;changed&quot;.  So this explains both her name and why her temples are on the outskirts of villages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, are there any scriptures that mention Renuka's head being reattached to another woman's body?  Here is all &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/16/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam says about Renuka's resurrection:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jamadagni, the son of Satyavatī, was very much pleased with Paraśurāma and asked him to take any benediction he liked. Lord Paraśurāma replied, “Let my mother and brothers live again and not remember having been killed by me. This is the benediction I ask.” Thereafter, by the benediction of Jamadagni, Lord Paraśurāma’s mother and brothers immediately came alive and were very happy, as if awakened from sound sleep. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there other scriptures that say that Renuka's head wasn't reattached to her own body?  Or is this just something added in folklore?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2018-06-21T08:17:31.720" Title="What scriptures describe Parashurama's mother's head being attached to a low-caste woman's body?" Tags="|vishnu|goddess|durga|parashurama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9754" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9743" CreationDate="2015-12-08T05:02:09.220" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama and Krishna are the avatars of Lord Vishnu. Devotees of Lord Vishnu believe that Lord Vishnu is the supreme God. So they chant these Maha-mantras. It is based on your belief that to whom you worship and whom you think as supreme. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4314" LastActivityDate="2015-12-08T05:02:09.220" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9756" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9737" CreationDate="2015-12-08T10:05:55.827" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Loka&lt;/em&gt; is a Sanskrit word for 'world'. It was not on earth as earth is called '&lt;em&gt;Mrityu Loka&lt;/em&gt;' and '&lt;em&gt;Vaikuntha&lt;/em&gt;' is a different &lt;em&gt;Loka&lt;/em&gt;. One can only reach &lt;em&gt;Vaikuntha Loka&lt;/em&gt; by doing &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt; of Lord &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="464" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2015-12-08T10:25:47.040" LastActivityDate="2015-12-08T10:25:47.040" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9757" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-08T11:38:35.257" Score="1" ViewCount="83" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was searching over the Internet for a long time to find and read the Vedas but it didn't help. Few persons have mentioned that the Vedas will not be in a readable format. Is there any source where I can read the Vedas online or offline?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4313" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-17T08:16:55.867" LastActivityDate="2015-12-17T08:16:55.867" Title="Where can I find the Vedas to read?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2015-12-17T08:49:58.273" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9758" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8809" CreationDate="2015-12-08T14:20:47.643" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Important use of Gorochana is to put on forehead as &lt;strong&gt;Tilak&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Tilak gives positive energy and helps to accomplish the delayed work promptly, removes obstacles from the way and protects from all the bad energies of surroundings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Can I make tilak and give it to God while worshipping ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think so. This tilak is used by ourselves only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also assumed a source of valuable medicine. People  use it in both ways internally as well as externally in healing of various common diseases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additional information (Don't know about it's genuineness):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gorochana is also used for Vashikaran purpose. It is also used to carry out any work without hurdle, if any work is getting prevented due to some reasons, it is very helpful and works well in that regard , to overcome obstacles and avoid delay in progress and get achievements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See more information in &lt;a href=&quot;http://kamiyasindoor.com/Original-Gorochana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="570" LastEditorUserId="570" LastEditDate="2015-12-09T04:41:59.027" LastActivityDate="2015-12-09T04:41:59.027" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9762" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9368" CreationDate="2015-12-08T20:15:44.997" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, it is not true. Jaimini does not have a work on yoga but on astrology (see for example &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaimini_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaimini_Sutras&lt;/a&gt;). There are many texts on yoga and well known are Shiva Samhita, Hatha Yoga Pradipika for example, regarding Hatha Yoga. Both of them have been translated in english.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2516" LastActivityDate="2015-12-08T20:15:44.997" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9763" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-09T05:24:20.380" Score="6" ViewCount="249" Body="&lt;p&gt;How can the Vedas be constant when they come from the 4 heads of Brahma and Brahma changes every time? Vedas need to change? Isn't it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only Puranas may be constant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-16T14:50:10.330" LastActivityDate="2017-01-16T15:30:10.023" Title="How can the Vedas be constant when they come from the 4 heads of Brahma?" Tags="|vedas|brahma|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9765" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-09T07:07:34.210" Score="2" ViewCount="71" Body="&lt;p&gt;A documentation by History channel says that, Mohenjo-Daro could be affected by Brahmastra, they provide enough proofs like the rocks are melted at high temperature and turned out to magma state and feel like glass, this can be achieved only if the material is exposed to extreme heat. If so it is true, who could have used Brahmastra and Why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4313" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T07:36:32.270" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T07:36:32.270" Title="Is Brahmastra ever used?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|brahmastra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-12-10T23:15:59.557" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9768" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-09T13:24:09.133" Score="3" ViewCount="668" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a poetic song Avaiyar said that lord Bharama was born from Lord Vishnu's navel where Lord Vishnu born from ocean and where ocean adapted into saga Gurumoni's vessel and he born from kalasam and the length of kalasha is same as Adisesa's one head and he adapts in Lord Parvathi's small ring and she is always under Lord Shiva. So Lord Shiva is the supreme of all gods ! &#xA;Upto my knowledge Avai never praise Lord Vishnu who is considered to be same as Lord Shiva. Why? Is Lord Shiva and Vishnu are same ? If so why Avai never say any thing about Lord vishnu ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="3996" LastEditDate="2015-12-11T08:15:38.653" LastActivityDate="2015-12-13T03:15:01.717" Title="Tamil poetess Avai said that Lord Shiva is the Supreme god of all?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|shiva|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2015-12-13T15:01:15.807" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9769" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2632" CreationDate="2015-12-09T16:43:21.763" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I agree with Shantanu Sharma , that the term Hinduism was coined by the Arabs, to refer to the beliefs of people living in the valley of river Sindhu (Indus--as called by the Greeks).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Greeks called these people ,living south of the Himalayas, as Indians, and the Arabs called these people as Hindus Indians, however, refer to their beliefs as &lt;em&gt;Sanatana Dharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatana Dharma means &quot;the book of &lt;em&gt;Eternal Laws&lt;/em&gt; of all types&quot; i.e Science, Mathematics, Psychology, Biology, Morality, Philosophy, Spiritualism..etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aham Brahmasmi - Atma Paramatma are one i.e. the Individual Soul and God are One  or I and my Father are one is an example of an &lt;em&gt;Eternal Spiritual Law&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The modern equivalent is a Hand Book of any specific subject or an Encyclopedia. Sanatana Dharma has been misinterpreted, as &lt;em&gt;Hinduism is the oldest Religion&lt;/em&gt;.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2015-12-11T04:17:03.310" LastActivityDate="2015-12-11T04:17:03.310" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9771" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9727" CreationDate="2015-12-09T17:50:27.510" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Human activity springs from &lt;em&gt;Fears&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Desires&lt;/em&gt; .Behind every Action(&lt;strong&gt;Karma&lt;/strong&gt;), there is a motive of acquiring the results of Action (&lt;strong&gt;Karmaphala&lt;/strong&gt;).An employee works with the hope of getting a &lt;em&gt;Salary&lt;/em&gt; , at the end of a &lt;em&gt;Month or Week or Day&lt;/em&gt;.A &lt;em&gt;Student&lt;/em&gt; works with the hope of getting a &lt;em&gt;Degree&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;br/&gt; The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;results&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; we want , in return of our &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Actions&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; , may be of &lt;em&gt;Physical Pleasure&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kama&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;),&lt;em&gt;Economic Benefits&lt;/em&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Artha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;) or/and &lt;em&gt;Wisdom and Elightenment&lt;/em&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;br/&gt;-----&lt;br/&gt;Finally , we come to understand  that we are like &lt;strong&gt;Remote Controlled Robots&lt;/strong&gt;, carrying out the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Will of an Invisible Super Power&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;---&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;(Nimitta Matram)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;&quot;Ishwara: , sarbabhutanam ,hriddeshe:rjuna tishthati ;Bhramayan sarba bhutani,yantrarudhani Mayaya&quot;---GITA&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br/&gt; With this &lt;strong&gt;realisation&lt;/strong&gt;, we &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;lose the motive for action , also the fear of Future&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; This is called &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mokshya, liberation from all Human  Psychological Bondages&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;br/&gt;......&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;No fear of Present or Future or the Universe,--Nothing to Desire , in the Present or Future or from the Universe&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2015-12-09T17:50:27.510" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9772" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9773" CreationDate="2015-12-09T17:56:56.453" Score="9" ViewCount="12657" Body="&lt;p&gt;I strongly believed that Rama has a single wife, Sita. But I know that Krishna has multiple wives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;http://daily.bhaskar.com/news/JM-shocking-ramayan-fact-lord-rama-had-many-wives-apart-from-sita-4372857-PHO.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this blog&lt;/a&gt; says that Rama has multiple wives and it's told in Valmiki Ramayana. Is it true? Did Rama really have multiple wives like Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which one is more credible? Ramayana by Valmiki or Tulasidas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga8/ayodhyaroman8.htm#Verse12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's the verse&lt;/a&gt; from Valmiki Ramayana (Manthara speaking to Kaikeyi):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hṛṣṭāḥ khalu bhaviṣyanti &lt;strong&gt;rāmasya paramāḥ striyaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;aprahṛṣṭā bhaviṣyanti snuṣāste bharatakṣaye || 2-8-12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama's great wives&lt;/strong&gt; will get delighted. Your daughters-in-law will be unhappy because of Bharata's waning position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-07-29T04:09:12.470" LastActivityDate="2020-07-30T00:49:52.387" Title="Did Rama have multiple wives?" Tags="|ramayana|krishna|rama|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="31" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9773" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9772" CreationDate="2015-12-09T18:10:06.020" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama's father Maharaja Dasaratha had 3 Queens and 350 other wives. On the other hand, Rama is &lt;strong&gt;Ekapatni Vrata&lt;/strong&gt;, the man who wedded only once. Sitadevi is his only wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is illustrated many times in the Ramayana, prominently in the episode of Surpanakha, where he denies her proposal saying he is &lt;strong&gt;Krta Darah&lt;/strong&gt;, meaning one who has already married - this implies his Ekapatni Vrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, the chapter linked in the question contains a monologue by Manthara, who was at that time in the process of poisoning Kaikeyi's mind. So her opinion of Rama is &lt;em&gt;not really reliable.&lt;/em&gt; Even so, the words she speaks are to be noted:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hrshtah Khalu &lt;strong&gt;Bhavishyanti&lt;/strong&gt; Ramasya &lt;strong&gt;Paramah Striyah&lt;/strong&gt;|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Aprahishtah Bhavishyanti Snushaas Te Bharata-kshaye||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, she says, Bhavishyanti, which means, &quot;Will become&quot;. So the verse, if put into the following anvaya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hrshtah, Paramah Striyah Ramasya Khalu Bhavishyanti,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;it means, being delighted (Hrshtah), the princesses (Paramah Striyah - literally great women) will become Rama's (wives).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it does refer to marriages of Rama &lt;strong&gt;after&lt;/strong&gt; he becomes the King.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, in the Uttara Kanda, the priests of Rama advise him to marry someone else, so that he would be able to perform the Ashvamedha Yajna, which would not have been said if Rama had multiple wives. Even at this point, Rama refuses to marry and instead seats beside him a golden image of Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the idea that what we follow today is Tulasidasa's Ramayana, and not Valmiki's, is another fragment of Mr CR Sreenivasa Iyengar's wild imagination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ramayana as we know it is definitely &lt;strong&gt;influenced&lt;/strong&gt; by Tulasidasa, in places like the meeting of Rama and Sita in Mithila Gardens and Lakshmana's Rekha, but on the whole, most versions remain faithful to Valmiki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(And by most versions, I include only versions entitled 'Ramayana', not 'Ramacharitamanas' or 'Kamba Ramayana' or any others.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2015-12-10T07:12:51.787" LastActivityDate="2015-12-10T07:12:51.787" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9775" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2304" CreationDate="2015-12-09T19:41:46.760" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The First Stage  of the problem , is to know , if the body has a &lt;em&gt;Soul&lt;/em&gt;, which survives &lt;em&gt;physical Death&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; The Second stage , is to know ,if and how,the soul can acquire a &lt;em&gt;New Body&lt;/em&gt;  and take another &lt;em&gt;Birth&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; The third stage , is to know, if the &lt;em&gt;Soul&lt;/em&gt; can take a succession of &lt;em&gt;Births and Rebirths&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;...&lt;br&gt;The Fourth stage , will be to know, if it is possible for the soul , to &lt;em&gt;escape from the cycles of Births, Deaths and Rebirths&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; The Fifth Stage , will be to know, if this soul , has &lt;em&gt;Permanently escaped or&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Liberated&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;em&gt;from the cycles of Births and Deaths&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;br/&gt; The Sixth Stage , will be to know ,if this &lt;em&gt;Liberated Soul&lt;/em&gt;,  has &lt;strong&gt;Overcome the fear of God or Nature&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;from forcing it again into the cycles of Births and Deaths&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; The Seventh Stage , will be to know, &lt;strong&gt;How this Liberated Soul , will keep itself Busy or Spend Time,till the End of the World or Pralaya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-05-24T08:13:41.593" LastActivityDate="2017-05-24T08:13:41.593" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9776" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-10T03:55:34.780" Score="7" ViewCount="1271" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am approaching this from the personality traits &lt;em&gt;daya&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;krupa&lt;/em&gt; as emphasised in Hindu culture. I understand that &quot;mercy&quot; or &lt;em&gt;krupa&lt;/em&gt; is a more sublime trait, as opposed to &lt;em&gt;daya&lt;/em&gt; which is more everyday and ordinary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="whytv" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T05:55:23.873" LastActivityDate="2018-12-20T04:07:26.313" Title="What is the difference between mercy and pity?" Tags="|terminology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9778" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9772" CreationDate="2015-12-10T05:34:25.770" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama is a Ekaptni Vrata. I have quoted what was mentioned in valmiki ramayan, &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;In valmiki ramayan, manathara tells the below words to Kaikeyi, Thus, if you become Kausalya's servant-maid along with us, your son Bharata will be Rama's attendant. Rama's wives will get delighted. Your daughters-in-law will be unhappy because of Bharata's waning position.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Comment: The words 'Rama's wives' here do not indicate that Rama had multiple wives. Manathara refers to a possible future where Rama being a King would marry other women. It was a norm then for a king to have more than one wife.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pl. refer to the below link, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga8/ayodhya_8_prose.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga8/ayodhya_8_prose.htm&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4021" LastActivityDate="2015-12-10T05:34:25.770" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9780" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5435" CreationDate="2015-12-10T15:11:37.483" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Lord Vishnu sleeps for 4 months from 11th lunar Ashadh to 11th lunar Kartik. Being bored Goddess Laxmi decides to walk on the earth As Laxmi doesn't have wisdom to shower wealth on right persons so Lord Ganesha accompanies her to guide her. Being the darkest night everyone lights diyas to attract Laxmi to their house and thus worshipping Goddess Laxmi and Ganesh started on Diwali. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4346" LastActivityDate="2015-12-10T15:11:37.483" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9781" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9776" CreationDate="2015-12-10T15:13:39.670" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pity is external, you can pity someone and even give him/her some money but mercy is different. Mercy is internal. You do not need to experience everything in life. There is no single person that can experience everything in life but don’t ignore the pain of people who are going through stuff. For instance if a lady said to you how she had to go without food for days. She had to go back to breast-feeding her already weaned child so the child won’t die. You won't have to go without food before being merciful to her. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4345" LastActivityDate="2015-12-10T15:13:39.670" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9782" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-10T16:13:09.470" Score="18" ViewCount="3956" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is depicted as sitting in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Smashanam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which Hindu Scriptures say this? Why does he sit in &lt;em&gt;Smashan&lt;/em&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-12T03:39:51.313" LastActivityDate="2020-03-30T09:31:48.800" Title="What scriptures say that Lord Shiva sits in Smashan (Cremation Grounds)?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9783" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9776" CreationDate="2015-12-11T04:41:45.923" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would say that mercy implies a justice system, whereas pity implies an external source of anguish to the suffering individual. So, mercy is when justice can be exercised but is restrained. Pity is when we witness suffering but do not have authority or power to reduce the consequence because the suffering is not the consequence of the suffer's actions. Pity would be given to the victim of an &quot;act of God&quot; while mercy would be given to a criminal. Just my thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4349" LastActivityDate="2015-12-11T04:41:45.923" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9784" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9785" CreationDate="2015-12-11T06:37:14.460" Score="2" ViewCount="4122" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we all know, Sanjaya was narrating the Kurukshetra war to Dritarashtra. &#xA;How exactly was he seeing the war and how he got that power?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4313" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-14T20:53:55.507" LastActivityDate="2015-12-19T07:41:32.443" Title="How did Sanjaya get the super power to see the Kurukshetra Battle?" Tags="|mahabharata|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9785" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9784" CreationDate="2015-12-11T07:19:20.387" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata—a story of war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas—the blind king Dhritarashtra is the father of the principals of the Kaurava side. Sanjaya is Dhritarashtra's advisor and also his charioteer. Sanjaya—&lt;strong&gt;who has the gift of seeing events at a distance almost 80 KM of the length(divya-drishti), granted by the sage Vyasa&lt;/strong&gt;—narrates to Dhritarshtra the action in the climactic battle of Kurukshetra, which includes the Bhagavad Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanjaya had the unpleasant duty of breaking the news of the death of Dhritarashtra's hundred sons at the hands of Bhima at different points of time in the battle, and offers the sorrowing king solace in his darkest hours. He is known to be brutally frank in his recital of the day's battle events and his own opinions, which usually would predict the utter destruction of the Kauravas at the hands of Arjuna and Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavad Gita, passages often start with the Sanskrit words &quot;Sanjaya uvāca:&quot; (&quot;Sanjaya said:&quot;). The entire Bhagavad Gita is Sanjay's recital to Dhritarashtra of the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastActivityDate="2015-12-11T07:19:20.387" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9786" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-11T08:11:32.353" Score="2" ViewCount="470" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know if the statement &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dharma Himsa Tathaiva Cha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is authentic and if it has any scriptural reference. I know that &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is a statement from the Mahabharata. Other than Swami Chinmayananda's article (wherein he does not provide any scriptural reference) I haven't found any reference for &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dharma Himsa Tathaiva Cha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just to be clear, by scriptures I mean The Upanishads, Puranas, Gita etc..not articles written by Swamis, Gurus etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4350" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T23:35:00.843" Title="Dharma Himsa Tathaiva Cha" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-04-22T05:37:50.680" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9788" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-11T09:33:32.317" Score="4" ViewCount="794" Body="&lt;p&gt;Even though game of dice is such a shame, why was it a rule for the Kshatriyas not to reject invitation for the of dice? Does it mean Yudhistira was under the influence of kali, accepted invitation for game of dice against the advice of Vidura, his brothers, wife who discouraged him to accept the invitation for game of dice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the bad consequences happened during Mahabharata, Let it be Abhimanyu's death, Draupadi vastraharan (disrobing). Were all these due to the influence the Kali?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="340" LastEditorUserId="9125" LastEditDate="2018-03-08T04:17:00.963" LastActivityDate="2018-03-08T04:17:00.963" Title="Was there an influence of Kali demon in Dwapara yuga?" Tags="|mahabharata|yuga|kali-yuga|time|yudhisthira|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9789" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-11T10:00:49.687" Score="13" ViewCount="13163" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do the three horizontal stripes, also known as Tripundra of bhasma (ash), on Lord Shiva's forehead represent?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are also drawn on the sides of arms of Lord Shiva as well as his devotees. What is the reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4314" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-09-20T15:38:01.903" LastActivityDate="2023-11-08T14:59:06.867" Title="What do the three horizontal stripes on Lord Shiva's forehead represent?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9791" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2424" CreationDate="2015-12-11T11:34:45.773" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Golden ratios do exist in Hindu temples  and it is called deva pramana. Sculptures of Hindu deities mostly incorporate deva pramana.This aspect is discussed in the book &quot; science and golden ratios in mandala architecture&quot; by Rekha Rao, DK print world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4356" LastActivityDate="2015-12-11T11:34:45.773" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9792" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9782" CreationDate="2015-12-11T11:40:41.170" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the text &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dkagencies.com/doc/from/1063/to/1123/bkId/DK825332171625643416986051871/details.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bṛhannīlatantra&lt;/strong&gt; which has a printed version in Sanskrit&lt;/a&gt; – see for example we found clear this one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“The place of śiva is the cremation ground and duelling is the void”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;śivasthāne śmaśāne ca śūnyāgāre&lt;/em&gt; …  (18-178)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in 6-92,  we have a reference on how a kula (or kaula) adept must consider the corpse and remember the śaktī (in fact, kālī 6-90):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“When someone see the cremation ground and corpse, (he - the one which is kindly disposed towards Kula path) must think with respect and salute the dearest or beloved (companion) of śankara ( śiva).”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“kulācāraprasannāsye namaste śaṃkarapriye /&#xA;śmaśāne ca śavaṃ dṛṣṭvā pradakṣiṇamanuvrajan”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Also we can interpret and translate as “while one makes circumambulation from left to right of corpse and cremation ground.”].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think I shall expand this answer with more textual references soon. I have translated myself the above phrases, so be kind and suggest correction, if is the case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2516" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-03-30T09:31:48.800" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9793" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-11T12:04:02.563" Score="3" ViewCount="619" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Muruga (Kartikeya) born from the third eye of Lord Shiva and Lord Ganesh was made as a doll and given life by Goddess Parvathi. So both of them didn't have their own navels. Generally navel is produced from the birth relation bond of a mother and her child.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So my question is whether they have navels since their birth? If &quot;yes&quot; then how ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-06-04T04:39:04.173" LastActivityDate="2019-06-04T04:39:04.173" Title="Did Lord Muruga and Lord Ganesh have their navels from birth?" Tags="|gods|ganesha|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9796" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9782" CreationDate="2015-12-12T03:07:17.007" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;'Shma' refers to corpse(shava), 'shan' refers to bed(shanya).So Shiva resides  where the dead bodies are kept i.e cremation ground. Often Shiva is referred  as the destroyer because he is one who destroys the body conciseness . Hence as a symbolic representation Shiva stays in the cremation ground.Shiva is also seen smeared in ash .This reminders us of our true nature, which is the atma, our soul. Our soul never undergoes any change just like the ash don't any change further.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is indeed reference to Shiva as resident of burial ground in various tantric books and Puranas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Shanti Parva (12.328.5 onwards, dialogue between Lord Krsna and Arjuna):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kapardi jatilo mundah zmazana grhas evakah ugravrata dharo rudro yogi&#xA;  tripura darunah daksa kratu haraz caiva bhaga netra haras tatha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Rudra has] braided hair with knot of an ascetic and rest of the head&#xA;  bald. He dwells in the home of graveyard, steadfast on vigorous&#xA;  penance as a yogi. He is ferocious to Tripurasuras, destroyed&#xA;  Daksayajna and took away the eyes of Bhaga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following are slokas from Shiva Sahasranama(from Mahabaratha,Santi parva) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रवृत्तिश्च निवृत्तिश्च नियतः शाश्वतो ध्रुवः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;श्मशानचारी&lt;/strong&gt; भगवान् खचरो गोचरोऽर्दनः ॥ ३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महानासो महाकम्बुर्महाग्रीवः &lt;strong&gt;श्मशानधृक्&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;br&gt; महावक्षा महोरस्को&#xA;  अन्तरात्मा मृगालयः ॥ ५७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two words (in bold) should explain things much better. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-06-30T17:27:51.243" LastActivityDate="2016-06-30T17:27:51.243" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9799" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-12T14:41:53.950" Score="1" ViewCount="228" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people ask me 'why are you a vegetarian?', but I don't have a perfect answer for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I want a perfect answer on why should we be vegetarian&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4366" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-14T20:55:09.827" LastActivityDate="2015-12-14T20:55:09.827" Title="Why should we be vegetarian?" Tags="|food|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-12-13T00:16:02.817" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9801" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9799" CreationDate="2015-12-12T18:29:16.203" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just to propagate the hindu theory of non violence, which I guess every religion propagate in their own way.this is Hindu way. Right or wrong should be individuals discretion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4369" LastActivityDate="2015-12-12T18:29:16.203" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9804" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9768" CreationDate="2015-12-13T03:15:01.717" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many siva devotees claim that lord siva is supreme. this is simply out of their attachment to lord siva. there is no truth to it. the scriptural evidence is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;in siva purana, parvati asks lord siva - which is the best worship?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;lord siva answers - out of all worships, worshipping vishnu is the supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;lord siva himself will be chanting the &quot;taraka mantra&quot; which is &quot;sri rama rama rama&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord vishnu creates brahma from His navel, lord brahma creates lord siva from his eyebrows when he was angry. because lord siva was born from anger of brahma, he is called rudra. so, siva is a created being but no one created vishnu. He is the original creator. creator and created can not be equal&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4375" LastActivityDate="2015-12-13T03:15:01.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9808" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-13T09:04:18.917" Score="5" ViewCount="540" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavad Gita which is part of Mahabharata is elucidation of Tattva, Hita and purushartha by Lord Krishna to Arjuna. It talks about various aspects like Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti yoga  and ultimately Saranagati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the difference between Bhakti and Bhakti Yoga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are they same? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are they different? If so what are differences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please provide valid references from genuine scriptures, commentaries and works of bonafide acharyas (either advaita, Visistadvaita or dvaita) prior to 17 th century&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Please dont use one's own whims and fancies to answer this question nor any extracts from modern day, so called babas and Gurus&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="2552" LastEditDate="2015-12-14T08:31:38.467" LastActivityDate="2016-01-14T12:21:03.020" Title="How does one differentiate between Bhakti and Bhakti Yoga?" Tags="|yoga|bhakti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9811" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-13T14:12:47.527" Score="5" ViewCount="2593" Body="&lt;p&gt;Few days before I received a magazine published by a Veda patashala. In that magazine I saw photos of few deities and the one that surprised me was the Shiva pattabhishekam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eSS5a.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eSS5a.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard and seen Rama pattabhishekam images, but this was new to me. Can somebody explain the background of it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="2552" LastEditDate="2015-12-13T14:28:51.467" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T02:35:11.313" Title="Shiva pattabhishekam - what's the happening behind it?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9812" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8515" CreationDate="2015-12-13T15:50:01.073" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kalki Avatara is mostly the last in any list of Avataras. But there will definitely be adharma in the future, as we know that the cycle of yugas will keep repeating and there will be more Kali Yugas. I don't think any list is an exhaustive list of Avataras. Kalki is supposed to come in the end of the 28th (present) Kali Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara, while another Avatara, Sarvabhauma, is supposed to come in the Savarnika Manvantara (future). In fact, every Manvantara has an Avatara associated with it, though there may be other Avataras in the same Manvantara. Vamana Avatara is associated with the Vaivasvata Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4376" LastActivityDate="2015-12-13T15:50:01.073" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9814" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9704" CreationDate="2015-12-13T17:28:21.963" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In order for any personality to be called an &quot;Avatar&quot; of Bhagavan, three criteria must be fulfilled. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) There must be references to them in the scriptures (either in Upanisads or Puranas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)They must have divine markings on their hands and feet (all avatars have divine marks naturally on their body such as fish, conch, plough, lotus etc)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) The personality must be able to perform extraordinary activities which no one else in the past can do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Based,on this three criterion, Babaji, Vivekanada and Sai Baba cannot be called Avatars as they are found nowhere in scripture. At most they were very powerful personalities which great yogic Siddhis, but not God himself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;The latest Avatar of God was one thousand years ago as Bhagavan  Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in Bengal. The prediction of Lord Chaitanya's appearance can be found in many scriptures and the Lord was seen to have divine markings on his body too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4380" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T02:54:08.113" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T02:54:08.113" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9815" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9617" CreationDate="2015-12-13T17:48:49.200" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will give an answer according to the school of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The all pervading, personal Brahman described by the Upanisads is only the effulgence of the light coming out of God's (Sri Krsna's) divine body. It is from this Brahmanjyoti that we Jivas manifest from. Parabrahman refers to the source of the Brahman, or Bhagavan Sri Krsna who is completely Sat-Cid-Anandmayi. This truth is summarized by Srila Krsnadas Kaviraj Goswami as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yad advaitaṁ brahmopaniṣadi tad apy asya tanu-bhā ya ātmāntar-yāmī&#xA;  puruṣa iti so ’syāṁśa-vibhavaḥ ṣaḍ-aiśvaryaiḥ pūrṇo ya iha bhagavān sa&#xA;  svayam ayaṁ na caitanyāt krṣṇāj jagati para-tattvaṁ param iha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation:  What the Upaniṣads describe as the impersonal Brahman is&#xA;  but the effulgence of His body, and the Lord known as the Supersoul is&#xA;  but His localized plenary portion. Lord Caitanya is the Supreme&#xA;  Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa Himself, full with six opulences. He is&#xA;  the Absolute Truth, and no other truth is greater than or equal to&#xA;  Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4380" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-12-27T11:52:26.900" LastActivityDate="2015-12-27T11:52:26.900" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9820" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-13T19:19:52.700" Score="5" ViewCount="2862" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the present name of the place where Parashurama taught Dronacharya and Karna from the Mahabharat? Is the place currently an aashrama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4385" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T13:38:55.837" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T12:58:36.163" Title="Where did Parashurama teach Dronacharya &amp; Karna?" Tags="|mahabharata|parashurama|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9821" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-14T02:49:51.213" Score="3" ViewCount="142" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was suggested during a discussion in facebook that the apocalyptic prophecies in Bhagavata Purana and Bhavishya Purana was a result of Christian influence brought into India during the time of apostle St.Thomas(quite possibly a myth) or by early Christians like the Syrian Christians. What is the earliest known source among Hindu texts which talks about the concept of Pralaya and Chaturyuga? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-10T15:37:24.910" LastActivityDate="2017-01-10T15:37:24.910" Title="Origin of the concepts of chatur-yugas and pralaya?" Tags="|yuga|pralaya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9823" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2632" CreationDate="2015-12-14T06:37:17.817" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we take evidence from scriptures themselves, it will be a more strong evidence - rather than archeological etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to offer the following evidence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Narasimha Avatara came in Krita yuga. since that time, people were worshipping Lord Narasimha. the place where Lord Narasimha appeared is still existent, called Ahobilam in andhra pradesh. there are 9 temples for Lord Narasimha there and you can find the school of Prahalada too there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;this krita yuga started around 9 x 432000 + 5000 = 3893000 years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana happened in treta yuga which is 5x432000+5000 = 2165000 yrs ago. the place from where Lord Rama ruled for 11000 yrs is Ayodhya which is still present&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maharaja Kuru did a great yajna and tilled the land for producing good qualities. this place is called kurukshetra which is still present and worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;before Bhagavad gita was taught to Arjuna, Lord Krishna taught the same Bhagavad Gita to SUN god (vivasvan - refer sloka 4.1 of Gita). by vedic calculation this happened around 12 crore years back. Sun god taught Gita to his son Manu and Manu taught the same to his son Iksvaku. king Iksvaku is one of the forefathers of Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All these events happen again and again as the cycle of creating/destroying universes keep happening....from the divine body of Lord Maha-Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4388" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T20:37:43.157" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9824" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9808" CreationDate="2015-12-14T07:19:37.980" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;the vedas have three parts generally&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;karma kanda, jnana kanda and upasana kanda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;this upasana kanda is also called bhakti (worship)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;generally people worship any god of thier choice. then it is just bhakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;but if you dovetail that bhakti only to Lord Krishna, then it is called bhakti yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yoga means connection. so when you perform bhakti towards Lord Krishna, your connection with the supreme is firmly established. then you get liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4388" LastActivityDate="2015-12-14T07:19:37.980" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9827" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9899" CreationDate="2015-12-14T10:29:57.887" Score="6" ViewCount="3367" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard that the Vedas only talk about three of the four Purusharthas, viz. Dharmam, Arth, and Kam. The fourth Purushartha, Moksha, is said to be added or is made popular or is accepted after the rise of Buddhism. Even the fourth stage of 'Sanyasa' is added after Buddhist way of life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any specific verses in Vedas which talk about these specific ideas?&#xA;What is the ultimate goal of a human being as per Vedas? Which is the the oldest Upanisad which talk about Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T17:58:25.830" Title="Do Vedas talk about Moksha,Kaivalya or Mukti?" Tags="|vedas|moksha|yoga|vedanta|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9828" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-14T11:54:24.097" Score="1" ViewCount="154" Body="&lt;p&gt;What's the meaning of the phrase &lt;em&gt;Gita Anvay Yog Samanvay&lt;/em&gt;? And can someone elaborate it for ease of understanding?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4390" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-14T20:54:06.697" LastActivityDate="2015-12-14T20:54:06.697" Title="What does &quot;Gita Anvay Yog Samanvay&quot; mean?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2015-12-16T07:18:44.350" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9829" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-14T11:59:08.127" Score="5" ViewCount="8429" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Mahabharata, when Sisupala was born with three eyes and four hands, it was proclaimed that the person who caused them to disappear would be Sisupala's slayer. Since his mother Shrutashravas was Krsna's aunt, Krsna and Balarama too came to see their cousin. But as soon as Krsna placed Sisupala on his lap, the third eye and extra two hands disappeared. This must have happened when Krsna was twelve years or older.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now later on, (in Srimad Bhagavatam), after constructing Dvaraka, Krsna marries Rukmini, who was betrothed to Sisupala. Here, unless the seventeen battles of Jarasandha took more than a decade, Sisupala couldn't have been more than ten years old. How then could he marry Rukmini? And if Rukmini was younger than &lt;strong&gt;Sisupala&lt;/strong&gt; what was the age gap between Krsna and Rukmini?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To summarize: How older was Krsna to Rukmini and Sisupala and at what age did her marry Rukmini?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2015-12-14T11:59:08.127" Title="How older was Krsna to Rukmini and Sisupala?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavata-purana|marriage|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9831" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9808" CreationDate="2015-12-14T13:41:24.363" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shvetâshvatara-Upanishad, VI. 17-18.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स तन्मयो ह्यमृत ईशसंस्थो ज्ञः सर्वगो भुवनस्यास्य गोप्ता।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;य ईशेऽस्य जगतो नित्यमेव नान्यो हेतुर्विद्यत ईशनाय॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो ब्रह्माणं विदधाति पूर्व यो वै वेदांश्च प्रहिणोति तस्मै।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तं ह देवं आत्मबुध्दिप्रकाशं मुमुक्षुर्वै शरणमहं प्रपद्ये॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;He is the Soul of the Universe;  He is Immortal; His is the Rulership; He is the All-knowing, the All-pervading, the Protector of the Universe, the Eternal Ruler. None else is there efficient to govern the world eternally. He who at the beginning of creation projected Brahmâ (i.e. the universal consciousness), and who delivered the Vedas unto him — seeking liberation I go for refuge unto that effulgent One, whose light turns the understanding towards the Âtman.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DEFINITION OF BHAKTI&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhakti-Yoga is a real, genuine search after the Lord, a search beginning, continuing, and ending in love. One single moment of the madness of extreme love to God brings us eternal freedom. &amp;quot;Bhakti&amp;quot;, says Nârada in his explanation of the Bhakti-aphorisms, &amp;quot;is intense love to God&amp;quot;; &amp;quot;When a man gets it, he loves all, hates none; he becomes satisfied for ever&amp;quot;; &amp;quot;This love cannot be reduced to any earthly benefit&amp;quot;, because so long as worldly desires last, that kind of love does not come; &amp;quot;Bhakti is greater than karma, greater than Yoga, because these are intended for an object in view, while Bhakti is its own fruition, its own means and its own end.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhakti yoga, one of the four main yogic paths to enlightenment, is the easiest of all to master. Hatha and raja yoga require much inner strength and physical health to reach one's goal. And jnana yoga requires a keen, subtle intellect. But the only requirement for bhakti yoga is an open, loving heart. Because the theory behind the practice is so simple, everyone can practice bhakti yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhakti means devotion to the Lord. One need only surrender all doubts, fears and worries and express genuine love and devotion to the almighty Lord of The Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhakti has been the one constant theme of our sages. Apart from the special writers on Bhakti, such as Shândilya or Narada, the great commentators on the Vyâsa-Sutras, evidently advocates of knowledge (Jnâna), have also something very suggestive to say about love. Even when the commentator is anxious to explain many, if not all, of the texts so as to make them import a sort of dry knowledge, the Sutras, in the chapter on worship especially, do not lend themselves to be easily manipulated in that fashion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The one great advantage of Bhakti is that it is the easiest and the most natural way to reach the great divine end in view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In commenting on the &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sutra of Patanjali&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, Ishvara pranidhânâdvâ, i.e. &amp;quot;Or by the worship of the Supreme Lord&amp;quot; — Bhoja says, &amp;quot;Pranidhâna is that sort of Bhakti in which, without seeking results, such as sense-enjoyments etc., all works are dedicated to that Teacher of teachers.&amp;quot; Bhagavan Vyâsa also, when commenting on the same, defines Pranidhana as &amp;quot;the form of Bhakti by which the mercy of the Supreme Lord comes to the Yogi, and blesses him by granting him his desires&amp;quot;. According to Shândilya, &amp;quot;Bhakti is intense love to God.&amp;quot; The best definition is, however, that given by the king of Bhaktas, Prahlâda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;या प्रीतिरविवेकानां विषयेष्वनपायिनी।त्वामनुस्मरतः सा मे&#xA;हृदयान्मापसर्पतु॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_3/bhakti-yoga/definition_of_bhakti.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;First References&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/chapter-12.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Second Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2880" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-12-14T13:41:24.363" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9832" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="203" CreationDate="2015-12-15T05:58:51.090" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Interesting information. I have read about the Significance of Saffron in Hinduism in an interesting blog and that was the first time i read about it. It is amazing to know that all of the symbols and colors associated with Hinduism has a deep meaning and significance with our daily life.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ishtadevata.com/blog/significance-saffron-hinduism.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.ishtadevata.com/blog/significance-saffron-hinduism.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4333" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T05:58:51.090" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9833" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8958" CreationDate="2015-12-15T06:47:38.027" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In those places where it is mentioned that a cow can be sacrificed, it is actually referring to a bull, not cow per se.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the past ages, people used to sacrifice a old bull before fire sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They never killed a cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bull is also refereed to as Go/gau etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4388" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T15:00:32.880" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T15:00:32.880" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9834" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9024" CreationDate="2015-12-15T06:51:42.370" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;If it is just a mere projection of Arjuna's mind, in what way it is different from everybody's mind. Then what is the need for Arjuna's imagination to be recorded in such valuable scripture like Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scripture contains only truth (facts)...not fantasies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4388" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-12-15T07:16:47.270" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T07:16:47.270" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9835" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="203" CreationDate="2015-12-15T07:04:20.450" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The purest element in this creation is fire. The colour of fire is saffron. Because a sannyasi is also required to be pure, he adopts the colour of the purest element.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this clarifies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4388" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-12-15T07:32:54.760" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T07:32:54.760" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9836" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9784" CreationDate="2015-12-15T07:20:40.663" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/75&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;verse 18.75 of Bhagavad Gita&lt;/a&gt;, Sanjaya categorically accepts that it is by the mercy of Vyasa, that he could directly hear the message of Gita in the battle field of Kurukshetra, sitting in Hastinapura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4388" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-19T07:41:32.443" LastActivityDate="2015-12-19T07:41:32.443" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9838" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2713" CreationDate="2015-12-15T09:32:06.183" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Gana-Isha is described in Shiva Purana, which describes the Eeshathwa or Eeswra to humanity. Lord Hanuman is described in Vishnu  Purana which describes the Eeshathwa to humanity. First school of thought teaches Surya Wamsa- the Sun Cosmic Dynasty. The second one the Chandra Wamsa - Moon Cosmic dynasty. &#xA;Finally both become the same at the point of Tri-moorthi. Therefore both Ganesha and Hanuman are the samebut only different in school of thought. Remember Mahabhrath and its two fractions - the Kaurava and Kshatriyas and its epitamalogy (Surya - Chandra). Both clans which had the power to dominate the universe originated from one mother. Finally some are destroyed, some surender and some become victorius. The greatest story ever told, the greatest truth about the Parama Siva ( Absolute Brahman) and the absolute secret of the whole Cosmos.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4401" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T09:32:06.183" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9839" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9827" CreationDate="2015-12-15T09:52:01.027" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are absolutely right. Vedas only talk about three of the four Purusharthas, viz. Dharmam, Arth, and Kam. Because Vedas teach and reveal the absolute Brahman, Eeshwara state of the ultimate cosmic intelligence (Vingnana)which is the cause of the whole of creation, sustenance and distruction of every thing. With the rise of Budhism as a branch of hinduism it was revealed about the true state of &quot;Nirguna Brahman&quot; - the absolute void -the non existance or Nirvana the true liberation even from Thri-moorthi. Eeshathwa which is all encompassing cosmic intelligence is subject to Thri-Moorthi, the creation, sustenance and distruction. It is subject to time ( Kal- Change). As a result the state of experiencing exists. When experiencing with change (Anithya) exists, state of suffering (Dukka) co-exists like the shadow. But Buddha who sought a Dharma (Science) to end suffering (But did not seek union with god-head as the final goal), revealed the way to attain the state of Nirvana - non-existence or Nir-guna-brahman (The absolue void) which is without the state of suffering. This state is described as &quot; Arahan&quot; - meaning beyond the concept of time and existence which is non suffering.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4401" LastEditorUserId="4401" LastEditDate="2015-12-16T08:57:58.440" LastActivityDate="2015-12-16T08:57:58.440" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9842" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9808" CreationDate="2015-12-15T11:57:51.600" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Narad is mentioned in the Chandogya Upanishad. In Narada's &lt;em&gt;Bhakti Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, Narada defines Bhakti at the outset in verses 1 and 2 (Swami Prabhavananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now, therefore, we shall teach bhakti, or the religion of divine love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhakti is intense love of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What then is Bhakti Yoga? The 4 Yogas (Jnana, Karma, Raja, Bhakti) are the means, the path, what is practiced, to attain the goal. Bhakti is the goal. Bhakti Yoga is the path to the goal (intense love of God).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada defines these practices in his &lt;em&gt;Bhakti Sutras&lt;/em&gt; in verses 35-40. The most pertinent verse is 38 and 40. Verse 38:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The principal means of attaining bhakti is the grace of a great soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and 40:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Through the grace of God alone an aspirant obtains the grace of a great soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T11:57:51.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9843" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9827" CreationDate="2015-12-15T16:09:59.063" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many shlokas in the Upanishads that clearly indicate the concept of Moksha. I am posting such shlokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing&#xA;  else, that is the infinite. But when one sees something else, hears&#xA;  something else, understands something else, that is the small (the&#xA;  finite). Verily, &lt;strong&gt;the infinite is the same as immortal,&lt;/strong&gt; the finite&#xA;  is the same as the mortal. 'Venerable Sir, on what is the infinite&#xA;  established?' 'On its own greatness or not even on greatness.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad VII.24.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I know the Supreme Person of sunlike colour (lustre) beyond the&#xA;  darkness. &lt;strong&gt;Only by knowing Him does one pass over death.&lt;/strong&gt; There is&#xA;  no other path for going there. Than whom there is naught else higher,&#xA;  than whom there is naught smaller, naught greater, (the) one stands&#xA;  like a tree established in heaven, by Him, the Person, is this whole&#xA;  universe filled. That which is beyond this world is without form and&#xA;  without suffering. &lt;strong&gt;Those who know that become immortal, but others&#xA;  go only to sorrow.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad III.8-10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-12-15T16:09:59.063" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9844" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="203" CreationDate="2015-12-16T03:06:39.340" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Saffron color is color of &lt;code&gt;&quot;Tyag&quot;&lt;/code&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As hinduism believes nothing is yours, everything is given by supreme lord , the emotion of &quot;Tyag&quot; plays important role in hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also , when &lt;code&gt;first ray of Sun&lt;/code&gt; arises , which brigs you in light from dark , the color of that &lt;code&gt;first ray of sun is Safron&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So , Safron is the first color which &lt;code&gt;brings you from dark to light every day&lt;/code&gt;. Thats why &lt;code&gt;Saint Dhnyaneshwar Maharaj&lt;/code&gt; ( Popular saint from maharashtra, Pune) took Safron flag while going to &quot;Sanjivan Samadhi&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whoever has become popular in Hinduism , had the emotion of &quot;Tyag&quot; towards material life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj&lt;/code&gt; (Founder of maratha empire) has took Safron flag as the flag of Maratha Empire. So , while describing how Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was , to his son Sambhaji Maharaj (of course after death of shivaji maharaj), Saint Ramadas Swami ( popular saint from Maharashtra , Satara) says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;&quot;Sakal Sukhancha Kela Tyag&quot;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i.e. By taking Safron flag in hand Chhatrapati Shivaji maharaj renunced all the material aspects in the life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="2869" LastEditDate="2015-12-16T03:12:45.060" LastActivityDate="2015-12-16T03:12:45.060" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9845" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-16T05:28:22.237" Score="10" ViewCount="1301" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Shankaracharya, knowledge of Brahman can only be had through Jnana Yoga but recent Mahatmas like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa say that it can also be gotten through Bhakti Yoga. Why doesn't Adi Shankaracharya agree with that? I'm trying to understand why this is. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4406" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-05-03T04:54:17.780" LastActivityDate="2018-08-02T10:14:26.483" Title="Are Sri RamaKrishna's statements about attaining Brahman through Bhakti inline with Adi Shankara?" Tags="|brahman|adi-shankaracharya|bhakti|ramakrishna|jnana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9847" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9827" CreationDate="2015-12-16T06:44:34.003" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to give two evidences that prove that moksha is very much available in the vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;please refer to srimad bhagavatam 2.10.6. muktir hitva anyatha rupam svarupena avastiti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;this shows that mukti is discussed in vedas and NOT added later&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;in ramayana, when hanuman sees Rama and lakshmana in the forest for the first time, he meets them as a sannyasi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so sannyasa is there from ramayana times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hope this clarifies&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4388" LastActivityDate="2015-12-16T06:44:34.003" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9848" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9827" CreationDate="2015-12-16T08:19:56.720" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is what I got from the article on 'Chandogya Upanishad'. It is one of the oldest Upanisads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Scholars have offered different estimates ranging from 800 BCE to 600&#xA;  BCE, all preceding Buddhism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;About Ashramas and Purusharthas, it says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रयो धर्मस्कन्धा यज्ञोऽध्ययनं दानमिति प्रथम स्तप एव द्वितीयो&#xA;  ब्रह्मचार्याचार्यकुलवासी तृतीयो ऽत्यन्तमात्मानमाचार्यकुलेऽवसादयन्सर्व&#xA;  एते पुण्यलोका भवन्ति ब्रह्मसँस्थोऽमृतत्वमेति ॥ १ ॥[52]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are three branches of Dharma (religious life, duty): Yajna&#xA;  (sacrifice), Svādhyāya (self study) and Dāna (charity) are the first,&#xA;  Tapas (austerity, meditation) is the second, while dwelling as a&#xA;  Brahmacharya for education in the house of a teacher is third, All&#xA;  three achieve the blessed worlds. But the Brahmasamstha – one who is&#xA;  firmly grounded in Brahman – alone achieves immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Chandogya Upanishad 2.23.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Paul Deussen notes that the Chandogya Upanishad, in the above verse,&#xA;  is not presenting these stages as sequential, but rather as equal.[54]&#xA;  Only three stages are explicitly described, Grihastha first,&#xA;  Vanaprastha second and then Brahmacharya third.[55] Yet the verse also&#xA;  mentions the person in &lt;strong&gt;Brahmasamstha&lt;/strong&gt; – a mention that has been a major&#xA;  topic of debate in the Vedanta sub-schools of Hinduism.[53][58] The&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Advaita Vedanta scholars state that this implicitly mentions the&#xA;  Sannyasa&lt;/strong&gt;, whose goal is to get &quot;knowledge, realization and thus firmly&#xA;  grounded in Brahman&quot;. Other scholars point to the structure of the&#xA;  verse and its explicit &quot;three branches&quot; declaration.[54] In other&#xA;  words, the fourth state of Brahmasamstha among men must have been&#xA;  known by the time this Chandogya verse was composed, &lt;strong&gt;but it is not&#xA;  certain whether a formal stage of Sannyasa life existed as a dharmic&#xA;  asrama at that time&lt;/strong&gt;. Beyond chronological concerns, &lt;strong&gt;the verse has&#xA;  provided a foundation for Vedanta school's emphasis on ethics,&#xA;  education, simple living, social responsibility, and the ultimate goal&#xA;  of life as moksha through Brahman-knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandogya_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here is the link to Wiki article&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Comments welcome!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="543" LastEditDate="2015-12-16T08:36:26.530" LastActivityDate="2015-12-16T08:36:26.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9850" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="334" CreationDate="2015-12-16T09:27:18.877" Score="5" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In ancient society the social status of a man is depicted by his cloths covering the upper body. Those who belonged to lower status never covered thier upper bodies. So removal of such indicates the nessesity to discard one´s social status (Egoistic ideas)before entering a shrine to see the God. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The heart (Chakra) centre is the main electro magnetic resonator which connects the chakra system together to work as one unit (Ego). Any cloths especilly metal body armour worn in the ancient times and other protecive covers blocked the chakra energies from getting exposed or connected to the energy fields of the temples.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4401" LastEditorUserId="4401" LastEditDate="2015-12-16T09:32:50.533" LastActivityDate="2015-12-16T09:32:50.533" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9853" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9845" CreationDate="2015-12-16T11:45:05.830" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The single line answer is &quot;Pure bhakthi and Pure Jnana are same&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you try to study both gurus lives, you will understand that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sankaracharya is outwardly jnani but inside he is a pure bhaktha.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Ramakrishna is Outwardly bhaktha but inside he is pure Jnani.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankara himself re-initiated most of famous south Indian temple daily procedures and we can still see they are being followed without any change.  Sankara's works like &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_durga-devi_aparadha_kshamapana_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Aparadha Kshamapana Stotram&lt;/a&gt;&quot; also confirms that he is a pure bhaktha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like wise if you read Sri Ramakrishna's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;discussions with Brahmo samaaj devotees&lt;/a&gt; you will find that he is a pure Jnani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then why two gave 2 different paths?&#xA;The answer is simple:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/edit-page/Faith-and-harmony-for-all/articleshow/11110347.cms&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;What ever you follow follow the path with 100% dedication.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you read Ramayana at the end it will say like this is ultimate scripture and through this alone one attains every thing.&#xA;and if you read most of the strotras too you will find same kinds of &quot;Phalasruthi&quot;.&#xA;What does that mean? it means every path is good for those who born with certain tendencies. We cant say a single path is good for everyone. Actually this is the beauty of Sanathana Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Avatars will give paths and knowledge for that specific time and space if you understand it correctly. Usually it will be for masses. Yet certain people don't have to follow these, who have strong tendencies in other disciplines. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see in Kaliyuga people are getting weaker both mentally and physically. Its not so easy to follow Jnana Yoga path. Where the follower has to take whole burden on his shoulders. This is not so simple with present body and minds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand Bhakthi yoga is little simple here. All an aspirant needs here is simple &quot;sincere belief&quot; in his deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if you study scriptures you will find that in Kali yuga with simple bhagavann namajapa itself one can attain the perfection or moksha. If you study Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's life you will find plenty of examples for this. &lt;a href=&quot;http://rkmathnagpur.org/householder_disciples/hd_golap-ma_story.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Golapma&quot;&lt;/a&gt; is one of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-08-02T10:14:26.483" LastActivityDate="2018-08-02T10:14:26.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9854" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="334" CreationDate="2015-12-16T18:03:58.680" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I had asked this question to one priest in Suchindram temple. His answer was, energy flows from altar of diety to your chakra system. For men, Aanahat chakra near to heart is the most significant while for woman its Adya chakra at the forehead. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides, this custom might have to do with preserving tradition and culture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastActivityDate="2015-12-16T18:03:58.680" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9855" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-16T18:45:03.140" Score="7" ViewCount="27126" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Vardhanti - Birth Anniversary or Death Anniversary or Both?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Telugu Language, &lt;code&gt;Vardhanti&lt;/code&gt; will be called/termed only for Death Anniversary&#xA;Recently I came to know that in Kannada - &lt;code&gt;Vardhanti&lt;/code&gt; will be termed/called for only Birth Anniversary. This confuses me and feels there's a grave error among them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What exactly &lt;code&gt;Vardhanti&lt;/code&gt; means? Which is the correct meaning as per Sanskrit? Or For Both of the cases does the word Vardhanti will be called? which is the right term to be called?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kindly clarify.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3747" LastActivityDate="2022-03-30T19:37:02.197" Title="Vardhanti - Birth Anniversary or Death Anniversary or Both?" Tags="|sanskrit|language|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9857" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-16T21:19:00.807" Score="12" ViewCount="5905" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Karna&lt;/a&gt;'s &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varna_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;varna&lt;/a&gt; (caste)? A &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshatriya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/a&gt; by birth, then assumed a different one after being raised by foster parents (belonging to a different varna) and finally reclaimed it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who all (during the Mahabharata time) knew of Karna's true identity and his varna due to birth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2020-03-08T22:46:07.080" Title="What is Karna's caste (varna)?" Tags="|mahabharata|caste-system|karna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9858" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14989" CreationDate="2015-12-16T21:42:32.067" Score="8" ViewCount="774" Body="&lt;p&gt;Unlike what I've heard from many before, it doesn't look like Rama is the one who said this shloka; instead sage Bharadwaja says it to Rama in a different setting (Bharadwaja ashram and not Lanka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मित्राणि धन धान्यानि प्रजानां सम्मतानिव | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga124/yuddhasans124.htm#Verse17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;जननी नन्म भूमिश्च स्वर्गादपि गरीयसी&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; || ६-१२४-१७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The friends, the riches and the grains are highly honoured in this world. &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mother and mother-land are far superior to even the heaven.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janani_Janmabhoomischa_Swargadapi_Gariyasi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; for the shloka however says that it's Rama who spoke those words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Ramayana, composed by Adi Kavi (Primordial Poet) Valmiki, &lt;strong&gt;Lord Rama uttered the verse&lt;/strong&gt; while addressing his younger brother, Lakshmana after their victory over Ravana, the Rakshasa king of Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga124/yuddharoman124.htm#Verse17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Another page at valmikiramayan.net&lt;/a&gt; says the shlokha is only found in certain editions (of Valmiki Ramayana):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This sloka is seen in the edition published by Hindi Prachara Press, Madras in 1930 by T.R. Krishna chary, Editor and T. R. Vemkoba chary the publisher.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After some googling though, it doesn't look like the shlokha is part of Valmiki's Ramayana. Is it part of another version of Ramayana - Tulsidas or some other perhaps?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T20:16:17.703" Title="Is 'Janani Janmabhumischa Swargadapi Gariyasi' wrongly attributed to Rama? Is it even part of Valmiki Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|valmiki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9862" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6998" CreationDate="2015-12-17T00:03:06.080" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you study Hindu Gods and Godesses carefully they do represent a cosmic phenomenon like God SuryaDev represent Sun, Bhudevi represent planet earth and so on. &#xA;Mother Kali represent the &quot;Time&quot;. The word Kali is derived from Sanskrit work Kal (Time). The attributes are of time are represented as herself in a human form. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Time is infinite and we cant cover some thing which is infinite. That's the reason why she is naked. &#xA;Everything degrades and disappears over time and its represented with her mouth. Where her tongue is extended out as if she is never going to close it and swallowing continuously.&#xA;She wears a dress made with hands which represents all our deeds merging into time.&#xA;She wears a necklace of sculls which represents all our thoughts (may be great or wicked) merging into time.&#xA;Holding a cut head in one hand representing all our egos will be suppressed by time.&#xA;You can correlate remaining things like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Origin of Kali:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;According to the Shiva Puraana, Devi Bhagavatha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As there is no origin or end for time we cant say what is her origin.&#xA;But we find her first appearance with the form we see now. This appearance was given to Lord Shiva by Sathidevi(Parvathi Devi's earlier incarnation) when he objects her wish to attend a Yagna which was going to perform by her father Daksh prajapathi to insult Lord Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;We can say it's her first appearance because Lord Siva gets frightened by her appearance as Kali.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;Later he loves her more than any other form of her and meditates on this form.&#xA;Later mother Sathidevi renounces her body and born into King Himavat's house as Parvathi (daughter of parvatha raja (personification of the Himalayan mountains)). &#xA;Thats the reason why Lord Shiva asks mother Parvathi to show this form of her when he accepts to marry her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its not possible to understand the God/Goddess by mere explanations/discussions. We need to do sadhana (Spiritual Practive) to get even the glimpse of the knowledge of the God. We wont get any inspiration for sadhana without the knowledge of god. This is a kind of deadlock situation. Best thing to do at this point is pray the God for their knowledge as well as bhakthi to start and continue saadhana. Books written or the lectures delivered by perfected Sadhakas serve as great support for aspirant sadhakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you sincerely interested in understanding the philosophy of any Devi (Goddess) and Siva please read &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=L5COaBYcOd4C&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;David frawley's &quot;Tantric Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses&lt;/a&gt;&quot; &#xA;This is a very small book but give enough knowledge on Dasa Maha Vidyaas and Kali is first among them. It also gives about the knowledge of Siva and these goddesses are different representations of Mother Parvathi. Which were explained to Siva by mother parvathi as Sathidevi before her departure for Daksha Yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good luck @vivek doshi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-30T07:31:58.400" LastActivityDate="2016-06-30T07:31:58.400" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9864" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4022" CreationDate="2015-12-17T00:37:54.640" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I support those who say Ramanujacharya as avatara of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanuja#Living_tradition&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;sankarshana (Adishesha)&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Avataras are 2 kinds, poorna (complete) avataras and amsha (partly) avataras. Ramnuja, Shankara comes into 2nd category avataras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a proof for this in his biography. When he was answering the questions asked by thousands of pandits simultaneously from behind a veil. One of the pandits gets curious to know how he is able to answer thousands of pandits simultaneously without any difficulty peeks inside the veil and finds a thousand headed snake which is nothing but Adi Shesha himself. &#xA;:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastEditorUserId="4407" LastEditDate="2015-12-17T02:37:49.523" LastActivityDate="2015-12-17T02:37:49.523" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9865" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2632" CreationDate="2015-12-17T00:52:02.143" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Once an English(?) Christian priest told Swamy Vivekananda that &quot;they have historical proofs that Christian religion is the oldest among religions&quot; then Swamy Vivekananda replied &quot;We don't have any proofs how old is Hindu religion because its the ancient one&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you see the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu units of time&lt;/a&gt; you will understand that there is no origin for Hindu religion thats why its called Sanatana Dharma (Eternal religion).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastActivityDate="2015-12-17T00:52:02.143" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9866" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-17T01:07:36.673" Score="6" ViewCount="477" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &amp;quot;Dravida Veda&amp;quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it is the beliefs and principles embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Western historians place the Alwars in the 6th century AD through 9th century AD, but traditional Sri Vaishnava accounts assign them far more ancient dates.  For instance, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6867/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; the first four Alwars are said to have been born in 4203 BC, almost a thousand years before the birth of Yudhishthira!  But there's another Alwar who is apparently believed to have been born in the Dwapara Yuga, Madhurakavi Alwar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhurakavi Alwar was a disciple of Nammalwar, the famous Alwar who spent his life under a Tamarind tree in the town of Kurugur.  (The Sri Vaishnava practice of the Sadagopam is based on him, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2755/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7564/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Nammalwar is said to have been born just 45 days after Krishna departed the Earth.  And since Madhurakavi Alwar was an old man and Nammalwar was a child when they met, that would place Madhurakavi Alwar's birth in the Dwapara Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Carnatic singer and lecturer Vishakha Hari seems to confirm this in a story she tells in the first minute and a half of &lt;a href=&quot;http://youtu.be/ABjc-racBMU&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt;.  It's in Tamil, but here's my translation of it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look at the Alwars' time period, even before Krishna, Madhurakavi Alwar was born.  They were all Yogis, people who were meant to do the work of Siddhas, Yogis who were meant to be in meditation all the time. People had that much concentration in that Yuga, more than 5000 years back.  He thought to himself, &amp;quot;I want to experience Krishna avataram, but Kannan hasn't been born yet, so let me go on a Tirtha Yatra.&amp;quot; So he came to Ayodhya. On the bank of the Sarayu river, closing his eyes he thought to himself &amp;quot;The story of prince Rama has just gotten over, so let me meditate on him.&amp;quot; To meditate he closed his eyes, and when he opened his eyes he saw someone and asked &amp;quot;Has Krishna avataram happened yet?&amp;quot;  In what sense did he say &amp;quot;has the avataram happened&amp;quot;?  He asked in the sense of &amp;quot;Has Kannan been born yet?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Has Krishna avataram happened?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Krishna avataram has happened.&amp;quot;  What answer did that man give? &amp;quot;It has completely taken place.  Not only has it finished, but Kannan has already gone to Vaikuntha.&amp;quot;  For that many years he was continuously in meditation, in Dhyana!  Those people had that kind of power, that level of concentration!  Having asked &amp;quot;Has Krishna avataram happened?&amp;quot; and gotten the response &amp;quot;Krishna avataram has happened,&amp;quot; he began to cry, &amp;quot;O! I wanted to always be with Kannan, to be with him from the time the avataram happened to the end, but now he's gone!&amp;quot;  But the Lord never abandons his devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is then that Madhurakavi Alwar sees a star in the sky (similar to the story of Jesus) and follows it to the town of Kurugur, where he sees Nammalwar sitting under a tree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of Madhurakavi Alwar following a star from Ayodhya is well-known, but my question is, are there any sources that give this story about Madhurakavi Alwar meditating in Ayodhya while Krishna avataram was going on?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this mentioned in the works of any Sri Vaishnava Acharya?  Unfortunately, we can't rely on the work of Madhurakavi Alwar himself, because all we have of his is a single poem in praise of his guru Nammalwar, known as &amp;quot;Kanninun Sirithambu&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, why does &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azhwars#Summary&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; list Madhurakavi Alwar's traditional birth year as 3102 BC, i.e. the beginning of the Kali Yuga?  I think this is due to some confusion over whether Nammalwar was born 45 days after Krishna departed the Earth or 45 years after.  If it was 45 years after then Madhurakavi Alwar's life could have happened entirely in the Kali Yuga, but if it was 45 days after then he would have to have been born in the Dwapara Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-12T17:03:37.043" Title="Did Madhurakavi Alwar miss seeing Krishna due to meditation?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9867" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2249" CreationDate="2015-12-17T01:44:07.957" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In fact rebirth is caused by the result of pending karma itself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jivatma will get body only when he has good or bad karmas in his account :) These good and bad Karmas don't get cancelled by one by another. &#xA;One has to suffer/enjoy their both karmas. When the balance is zero that Jeevi will not born again; thats nothing but Moskha/Muthi. Which can only be achieved by offering the karmas to the God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the reason why Lord Sri Krishna insisted in abandoning the result of actions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BhagavadGita 2-51&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Karmajam buddhiyuktaa hi phalam tyaktwaa maneeshinah;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Janmabandha vinirmuktaah padam gacchantyanaamayam.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-&gt; Endowed with spiritual intelligence wise men giving up the results arising from actions certainly liberate themselves from the bondage of birth and death attaining the state of complete tranquility&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-02-50.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The theory of Karma is not so simple to understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to quote from one of Sri Samavedam Shanmukha Sharma's discourses on this topic: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The results of Karma (may be good or bad) will not be given all of it at once to any one just like a mother who cooks the exact amount of food needed for her child but not the entire bags of rice that they have stored in the house.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2015-12-17T08:15:16.973" LastActivityDate="2015-12-17T08:15:16.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9868" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="117" CreationDate="2015-12-17T01:58:46.863" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The best modern answer I can find for this most classic question against Hindu religion is given interestingly by an American called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindubooks.org/david_frawley/hinduism/hinduism_and_sanatana_dharma/page16.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;David Frawley.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having many names for something is not necessarily a sign of ignorance&#xA;  of its real nature. On the contrary, it may indicate an intimate&#xA;  knowledge of it. For example, eskimos have forty-eight different names&#xA;  for snow in their language because they know snow intimately in its&#xA;  different variations, not because they are ignorant of the fact that&#xA;  all snow is only one. The many different deities of Hinduism reflect&#xA;  such an intimate realization of the Divine on various levels - which&#xA;  non-experiential belief-oriented religions seldom even approach. It is&#xA;  hardly a crude polytheism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastActivityDate="2015-12-17T01:58:46.863" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9870" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9845" CreationDate="2015-12-17T04:02:01.937" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramkrishna had tried many different methods of spiritual growth including Tantra. He found Kaali Upasana particularly engaging but soon realized that he is not progressing spiritually and graduating from Dwaita to Adwaita. Under the guidance of Totapuri, a master in Adwaita school, he attained the Nirvikalp Samadhi state. The account is mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/gospel/introduction/totapuri.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;in his own words,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna once said, describing the event, &amp;quot;Nangta began to&#xA;teach me the various conclusions of the Advaita Vedanta and asked me&#xA;to withdraw the mind completely from all objects and dive deep into&#xA;the Atman. &lt;strong&gt;But in spite of all my attempts I could not altogether&#xA;cross the realm of name and form and bring my mind to the&#xA;unconditioned state.&lt;/strong&gt; I had no difficulty in taking the mind from all&#xA;the objects of the world. But the radiant and too familiar figure of&#xA;the Blissful Mother, the Embodiment of the essence of Pure&#xA;Consciousness, appeared before me as a living reality. &lt;strong&gt;Her bewitching&#xA;smile prevented me from passing into the Great Beyond. Again and again&#xA;I tried, but She stood in my way every time.&lt;/strong&gt; In despair I said to&#xA;Nangta: 'It is hopeless. I cannot raise my mind to the unconditioned&#xA;state and come face to face with Atman.' He grew excited and sharply&#xA;said: 'What? You can't do it? But you have to.' He cast his eyes&#xA;around. Finding a piece of glass he took it up and stuck it between my&#xA;eyebrows. 'Concentrate the mind on this point!' he thundered. Then&#xA;with stern determination I again sat to meditate. As soon as the&#xA;gracious form of the Divine Mother appeared before me, I used my&#xA;discrimination as a sword and with it clove Her in two. &lt;strong&gt;The last&#xA;barrier fell.&lt;/strong&gt; My spirit at once soared beyond the relative plane and I&#xA;lost myself in samadhi.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the approach of both the masters, Adi-Shanakara, Ramkrishna and other Saints like Dyaneshwar, Tukaram, Ramdas etc. (Maharashtra), is to start with Dwaita worship, which is easy for unconditioned mind, and under the guidance of a able guru graduate to Adwaita state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-12-17T04:02:01.937" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9871" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9872" CreationDate="2015-12-17T07:00:35.613" Score="6" ViewCount="1169" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Ar%C4%81ddha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; defines it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrāddha or Shraaddha (Sanskrit: श्राद्ध) is a Sanskrit word which&#xA;  literally means anything or any act that is performed with all&#xA;  sincerity and faith (Śraddhā). In the Hindu religion, it is the ritual&#xA;  that one performs to pay homage to one’s 'ancestors' (Sanskrit:&#xA;  Pitṛs), especially to one’s dead parents. Conceptually, it is a way&#xA;  for people to express heartfelt gratitude and thanks towards their&#xA;  parents and ancestors, for having helped them to be what they are and&#xA;  praying for their peace. It also can be thought of as a &quot;day of&#xA;  remembrance.&quot; It is performed for both the father and mother&#xA;  separately, on the days they became deceased.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my view this is one of the most diluted and flexed ritual and it is so flexed to individual's convenience that no longer it is clear what is authentic and what is not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What would be an authentic reference &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Pramana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;pramana&lt;/a&gt; for this topic? Of course, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/a&gt; comes close to this topic explains about the first few days, but it does not explain what has to be done as a guide for those monthly, yearly occurrences of shraaddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I happen to stumble upon a PDF document in one of my old hard drive.  After searching the Internet, I could see it &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=2&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjHuO7qyMnLAhXNVI4KHZ5VAmYQFggjMAE&amp;amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fxa.yimg.com%2Fkq%2Fgroups%2F2182732%2F1408970668%2Fname%2FParvana_Homa_Srardham_Check_List-F.pdf&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNGrGsPtKqy4xAyG3xlzk4-NpgJcJw&amp;amp;sig2=BWlb6_TfV-qq-bc-NzTGWA&amp;amp;bvm=bv.117218890,d.c2E&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;online here&lt;/a&gt;. While it deals with many aspects, it says (related to this question):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Vaishnavism, Bhagawan Sri Varaaha Murthy performed the First Sraaddham in Bhaaratha Kandam under the&#xA;  guidance of Sage Bodhayana Rishi (Soothrakari) in a lengthy procedure. However, after some time, Sage Aapasthamban (one&#xA;  of the Soothrakari) concised the lengthy procedure and this is practiced now days. Detailed Sraaddha Niyamam&#xA;  (nomenclature) is well explained in a grantha called ‘Smrithi Mukthaphalam”. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="2552" LastEditDate="2016-03-18T06:09:53.387" LastActivityDate="2018-08-08T06:03:47.830" Title="What would be the authentic source for Śrāddha vidhi?" Tags="|rituals|pitru|sraddha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9872" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9871" CreationDate="2015-12-17T07:45:27.180" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shraddha karma and other karmas like sandhyavandanam etc are described in &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_%28Vedanga%29#G.E1.B9.9Bhyas.C5.ABtras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ghriya Sutras&lt;/a&gt; -: The sutras for domestic ritiuals&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ghriya Sutras are decided according to your vedic shakha if you are a dwija.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following is the Description of Various Ghriya Sutras and the Vedas from which they are derived.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;R̥igveda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Âśvalāyana-Gṛhyasūtra [4]&#xA;  Kausîtaki-Gṛhyasūtra (Bāṣkala śakha)&#xA;  Śāṅkhāyana-Gr̥hyasūtra &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_%28Vedanga%29#G.E1.B9.9Bhyas.C5.ABtras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sāmaveda&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gobhila-Gṛhyasūtra&#xA;  Khādira-Gṛhyasūtra (Drāhyāyana-Gṛhyasūtra)&#xA;  Jaiminiya-Gṛhyasūtra&#xA;  Kauthuma-Gṛhyasūtra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kṛsna Yajurveda&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Baudhāyana-Gṛhyasūtra&#xA;  Hiraṇyakeśi-Gṛhyasūtra (Satyāsādha-Gṛhyasūtra) [2]&#xA;  Mānava-Gṛhyasūtra&#xA;  Bhāradvāja-Gṛhyasūtra&#xA;  Āpastamba-Gṛhyasūtra&#xA;  Āgniveśya-Gṛhyasūtra&#xA;  Vaikhānasa-Gṛhyasūtra&#xA;  Kāthaka-Gṛhyasūtra (Laugāksi-Gṛhyasūtra)&#xA;  Vārāha-Gṛhyasūtra&#xA;  Vādhûla-Gṛhyasūtra&#xA;  Kapisthala-Katha Gṛhyasūtra (unpublished) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shukla Yajurveda&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pāraskara-Gṛhyasūtra&#xA;  Katyayana-Gṛhyasūtra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharvanaveda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kauśika Gṛhyasūtra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are non-dwija person these don't apply to you. So just have  shraddha (respect) towards your ancestors and give them food (via a brahmin or poor person). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2015-12-17T07:45:27.180" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9873" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9845" CreationDate="2015-12-17T10:06:33.070" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is popularly believed that Sankara taught only Jnana. But an examination of his writings reveals otherwise. In his &lt;em&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/em&gt;, Crest Jewel of Discrimination, Sankara says (Swami Madhavananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;verse 31. Among things conducive to Liberation, devotion (Bhakti) alone holds the supreme place. The seeking after one's real nature is designated as devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and is his commentary on this verse, Swami Madhavananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The seeking etc.&lt;/em&gt; --This definition is from the Advaita standpoint. Dualists who substitute Isvara, the Supreme Lord, for the Atman or Supreme Self immanent in being, of course define Bhakti otherwise. For example, Narada defines it as--&quot;It is of the nature of extreme love to some Being,&quot; and Sandilya, another authority on the subject, puts it as --&quot;It is extreme attachment to Isvara, the Lord.&quot; On reflection it will appear that there is not much difference between the definitions of the two schools.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in verse 34. Sankara says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Worshiping that Guru [defined in verse 33], with devotion, and approaching him, when he pleased with prostration, humility and service, (he) should ask him what he has got to know:--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why did Sankara emphasize Jnana? It would seem that he was born to establish Jnana as a way. In the &lt;em&gt;Sankara Digvijaya&lt;/em&gt;, The Traditional Life of Life of Sri Sankaracharya, by Madhava-Vidyaranya (Swami Tapasyananda translator), it says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Siva, the great God having matted locks, spoke thus to His son: Dear One! Hear My words that are meant for the blessing of the world. The Veda has three strands in its comprehensive teaching--The ritualistic, the meditative and the gnostic. By establishing the sway of the Veda with its three pronged message, the spiritual ideal can be preserved in the world. If the spiritual ideal is saved, society is saved...Now, coming to understand My design and following My instruction, Hari and Sesha have already been born as the sages Sankarshana and Patanjali for the resuscitation of the middle section of the Veda dealing with meditation and have produced texts on Bhakti and Yoga. And I have now promised...that I shall undertake to rejuvenate the gnostic teachings which form the ultimate purport of the Veda [by taking birth as Sankara].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So many followers of Sankara see him as an incarnation of Siva whose mission was to bring out the fullness of Jnana in the Vedanta teachings.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although his commentaries and writings are known for their dry Advaitism, Sankara also wrote many bhajans and hymns. Many people know it, but many forget that one of the most popular sanskrit bhajans, &lt;em&gt;Bhaja Govindum&lt;/em&gt;, was written by Sankara. There are numerous other bhajans and hymns that he wrote that are filled with Bhakti.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-12-18T05:23:22.700" LastActivityDate="2015-12-18T05:23:22.700" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9874" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9871" CreationDate="2015-12-17T10:25:35.387" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think it's Garuda Maha Puraanam.&#xA; Which has 315 units not just 19 units of pretha kalpa. I couldn't find any other better source of Hindu knowledge which is related to jeevathama's travel after the death and explanation of Yamaloka and Pitru devatha knowledge, and the rites during after the death of a man, explanation of different narakas than this. Infact everything related to funaral rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It has knowledge of most of Hindu practices not just funaral rites, but everything from instructions for simple fasting (Upavaasa) to pithru devatha rituals and intricate vrathas. One western translater of puranaas called it as encyclopedia of Hinduism. It also talks about various things like Ayurveda, Jyothish, Palmistry, Gemology and so on. It also explains Karma Vipaka the study of results of the Karmas. &#xA;Unlike most of the Puranas it discusses Shanmathas. The six major paths of Hinduism. Namely Soura, Ganapatya, Scanda, Shaktheya, Vaishnava, Shaiva.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-garuda-purana-dutt/index.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastEditorUserId="4407" LastEditDate="2015-12-17T10:32:10.680" LastActivityDate="2015-12-17T10:32:10.680" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9876" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9895" CreationDate="2015-12-17T11:46:22.597" Score="7" ViewCount="13070" Body="&lt;p&gt;Each word of Sri Rama Jayam has a meaning and is associated with god. I want to know What is the real meaning of Sri Rama Jayam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4180" LastEditorUserId="4180" LastEditDate="2015-12-18T07:52:52.523" LastActivityDate="2015-12-19T06:49:23.737" Title="What is the real meaning of &quot;Sri Rama Jayam&quot;?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9877" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-17T14:37:33.023" Score="9" ViewCount="3868" Body="&lt;p&gt;One can come across these terms in the Patanjali Yoga sutras and the Tantra texts. I want the exact definition of each of the above, difference(subtle or obvious) between them and examples to illustrate the process/practice in action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="2362" LastEditDate="2015-12-19T04:07:23.873" LastActivityDate="2015-12-19T04:07:23.873" Title="Difference between Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samyama, Samāpatti, Samādhi and Kaivalyam" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9878" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9883" CreationDate="2015-12-17T15:16:05.193" Score="5" ViewCount="383" Body="&lt;p&gt;An English translation with original Sanskrit verses would be ideal. It should cover all aspects/teachings contained in the Nyaya philosophy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-15T14:17:16.510" LastActivityDate="2017-07-15T14:17:16.510" Title="Book recommendation for a thorough treatise on Rishi Gautama's Nyaya Shastra?" Tags="|philosophy|translation-request|book-recommendation|nyaya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9879" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9885" CreationDate="2015-12-17T16:37:54.977" Score="9" ViewCount="13454" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been reading some blogs over the Internet that describe the word &lt;strong&gt;mleccha&lt;/strong&gt; (म्लेच्छ) e.g., &lt;a href=&quot;https://docs.google.com/document/d/173J0c0DUFrnIT91BzzztR43lU2LriVbCcXnF5D_an4E/edit?hl=en_US&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone explain me what &lt;strong&gt;mleccha&lt;/strong&gt; actually means in the context of Hinduism and Hindu scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2913" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-05-28T13:53:10.100" LastActivityDate="2022-12-22T11:03:32.843" Title="What does the word &quot;mlechha&quot; (म्लेच्छ) mean in the context of Hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|culture|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9880" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9889" CreationDate="2015-12-17T18:51:41.670" Score="9" ViewCount="3785" Body="&lt;p&gt;We use 2 words when it comes to cleanliness in Hinduism. They are &quot;Shuchi&quot; and &quot;Shubratha&quot;. &quot;Shubratha&quot; can be described as neatness / cleanliness if you consider its usage in other Indian languages. Then what does &quot;Shuchi&quot; mean? I don't think it also means cleanliness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can give you a reference for the usage of &quot;Shuchi&quot; in phalashruthi of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/lyrics/stotram/maha-lakshmi/shree-suktam-with-lakshmi-suktam.html?lang=en&quot;&gt;Sri Sukham&lt;/a&gt; as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yah &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shucih&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Prayato Bhuutvaa Juhu-Yaad-Aajyam-Anvaham ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Suuktam Pancadasharcam Ca Shriikaamah Satatam Japet ॥16॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-19T05:59:36.560" LastActivityDate="2015-12-21T09:19:31.707" Title="What is the meaning of Shuchi in Sanskrit, in the context of Hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9881" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9877" CreationDate="2015-12-17T19:20:47.193" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pratyahara:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;We know how perceptions come. First of all there are the external instruments, then the internal organs acting in the body through the brain centres, and there is the mind. When these come together and attach themselves to some external object, then we perceive it.&#xA;By Controlling the mind we can control this entire process. If the Mind is not in control it will be disturbed by the other two always. Pratyahara means controlling the mind to dettach it self from the remaining two to get the dettachment from the external world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dhâranâ:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;The main object of practicing &quot;Pratyahara&quot; is get established in &quot;Dhâranâ&quot;. Once we mastred in dettaching mind from external world we need to practice concentrating it on something. It will be like feeling one organ at a time and ignoring other organs. This will result in getting extream concentration. This concentration is called Dharana. Like this we get control of body and mind completely. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dhyana:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;When the mind has been trained to remain fixed on a certain internal or external location, there comes to it the power of flowing in an unbroken current, as it were, towards that point. This state is called Dhyana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samadhi:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;When one has so intensified the power of Dhyana as to be able to reject the external part of perception and remain meditating only on the internal part, the meaning, that state is called Samadhi. The three — Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi — together, are called Samyama. That is, if the mind can first concentrate upon an object, and then is able to continue in that concentration for a length of time, and then, by continued concentration, to dwell only on the internal part of the perception of which the object was the effect, everything comes under the control of such a mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can refer to Swamy Vivekananda's &quot;Raja yoga&quot; and &quot;Patanjali’s Yoga Aphorisms&quot; lectures &lt;a href=&quot;http://hermetic.com/vivekananda/raja-yoga/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.There you will find everything explained in detailed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastEditorUserId="4407" LastEditDate="2015-12-18T09:53:23.140" LastActivityDate="2015-12-18T09:53:23.140" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9882" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9879" CreationDate="2015-12-17T22:26:19.373" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;René Daumal (1908-1944), a French scholar who learned sanskrit when he was in his 20 years, wrote in his book, &quot;&lt;em&gt;Bharata. The origin of theater. Poetry and music in India&quot; (my translation)&lt;/em&gt; : &quot;The Sanskrit mletcchâs, 'foreigners, barbarians' literally means 'bafouilleurs'&quot;. This last word, which I do not know the English translation, means someone who mispronounce words&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bharata. L’origine du théâtre. La poésie et la musique en Inde&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4191" LastActivityDate="2015-12-17T22:26:19.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9883" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9878" CreationDate="2015-12-17T23:14:45.803" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The defining text of the Nyaya school (one of the six Astika schools) is Gautama's Nyaya Sutras.  This &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/NyayaSutra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;book&lt;/a&gt; by Mahamahopadhyaya Satish Chandra Vidyabhushan provides the Nyaya Sutras in Sanskrit, along with an English translation and commentary on each Sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One note of caution: it's fine to read about the Nyaya school in order to learn the logical terminology and categories employed, which the other Astika schools have adapted in their arguments.  But you should know that the the Vedanta school contains one crucial difference with the Nyaya school: whereas Nyaya philosophers thought they could derive the truth of the Vedas on the basis of inference or Anumana Pramana, the Vedanta school accepted the Vedas as Sabda Pramana or scriptural authority.  This difference is illustrated well in the Agama Pramanya, a work by the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Yamunacharya which argues for the scriptural authority of the Pancharatra texts. (You can read it &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/download/pancaratra-agamas/Agama%20Pramanyam%20%5BSkt-Eng%5D.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  Yamunacharya first provides a Nyaya argument for the authority of these texts, which I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6912/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but he ultimately rejects the argument in favor of an argument based on Sabda Pramana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That epistemological point is the main point of disagreement with the Vedanta school.  Apart from that, the Nyaya school agrees with the basic worldview of the Vedanta school.  Also, it should be noted that the Nyaya school has a close affiliation to the Vaisheshika or atomist school, so for a good understanding of the ontology of the Nyaya you may want to also read the Vaisheshika Sutras of Kanada (not to be confused with the language Kannada!).  But again it should be noted that there's a diagreement between the Vaisheshika school and the Vedanta school; the Brahma Sutras refutes the Vaisheshika belief that atoms are the ultimate cause of the Universe in Adhyaya 2 Pada 2 Sutras 11-17 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T16:12:50.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9884" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-18T03:10:48.290" Score="15" ViewCount="1054" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm currently visiting India, and I just went to my Mom's Kula Devata, the Veeraraghava Perumal Vishnu Temple in Thiruvallore.  Many things have happened in this location over the ages, including Vishnu reteaching the Vedas to Brahma after he forgot it due to his fifth head being cut off (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6793/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  My question is about another incident that happened here, the one that gave it the name &quot;Veeraraghava.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zijoE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zijoE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story as I understand it goes roughly as follows.  Rama decides to perform an Ashwamedha Yagna to free himself from the sin of killing a Brahmin (namely Ravana).  But you can't perform an Ashwamedha Yagna without your wife, and Sita had already departed the Earth.  Rama's advisors urge him to marry someone else, but he refuses because he has taken an Ekapatni Vrata (a vow to marry only one wife).  Instead, he places a golden statue of Sita next to him as he performs the Yagna.  But then he has a dream where Sita appears and tells him something like &quot;Rama, how could you?  I am your wife and you are putting a golden statue next to you?  If so, you should marry that statue in a future birth!&quot;  And indeed, in the Kali Yuga the golden statue is reborn as Vasumati, daughter of the king Dharmasena.  Then Vishnu comes again in the form of Rama and marries her.  In any case, to this day the statue of Vasumati in the temple is referred to as &quot;Swarnasita&quot;, or golden Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the story of Rama performing Yagnas next to a golden statue of Sita is well-known; it's described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-112&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana.  But my question is, are there any scriptures that describe the golden statue being reborn as Dharmasena's daughter Vasumati?  Is the story of Vishnu marrying Vasumati even mentioned in any Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, Thiruvallur is one of the Divya Desams, the 108 sacred places of Vishnu which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2756/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-06-21T05:03:02.187" Title="What scriptures describe Vishnu marrying a rebirth of the golden Sita statue?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|temple|sita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9885" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9879" CreationDate="2015-12-18T05:08:56.720" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mleccha&lt;/em&gt; is a Sanskrit word which &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=HK&amp;amp;beginning=0%20&amp;amp;tinput=%20mleccha&amp;amp;trans=Translate&amp;amp;direction=AU&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;means&lt;/a&gt; 'barbarian, uncultured, foreigner, non-Vedic'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aloka Parashara in his book, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.worldcat.org/title/mlecchas-in-early-india-a-study-in-attitudes-towards-outsiders-upto-ad-600/oclc/26128716&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mlecchas in Early India&lt;/a&gt; describes it as,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mleccha&lt;/em&gt; (and its equivalent &lt;em&gt;milakkha&lt;/em&gt;) are usually translated as foreigner or barbarian. A translation which is inadequate in so many ways but not least because it implies that it was a word used by Indians to describe non-Indians. In fact it is a term used by some writers who lived in certain parts of India to describe people native to what we think of as India but who lacked some important criteria the writer felt defined his cultural identity (language, religion, geographical location, ancestry etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He describes the etymology of the word as,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the earliest reference occurs in the Satapatha Brahmana, which is part of an oral tradition dating to before 500 BC, scholars have usually looked for various origins in the bronze age societies of the first and second millennium BC. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...that language should feature heavily in the definition of Mleccha. In fact in early texts it is clear that mleccha status was defined largely in terms of language (either the inability to use Sanskrit, or the inability to use it correctly). Language was central to identity in ancient India, as evidence by the process of Sanskritization in the early centuries AD, the importance of the Grammarians from Panini onwards. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mlechhas&lt;/em&gt; were mainly very context dependent and might have included Bactrians, Greeks, Huns, Scythians, and Kushans; while leftists argue that non-Vedic Indians like tribals were also included in this term.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2017-05-29T04:58:39.327" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T04:58:39.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9886" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9878" CreationDate="2015-12-18T05:18:11.853" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a copy of the &lt;em&gt;Bhasa Pariccheda with Siddhanta-Muktavali&lt;/em&gt; by Visvanatha-Nyaya-Pancanana. It is done by Swami Madhavananda with original Sanskrit, English translation and commentary. It is a manual on the Nyaya-Vaisesika philosophy. It is available through Advaita Ashrama - &lt;a href=&quot;http://advaitaashrama.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://advaitaashrama.org/&lt;/a&gt; and also Motilal Banarsidass - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mlbd.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.mlbd.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-12-18T05:18:11.853" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9887" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14176" CreationDate="2015-12-18T07:16:45.037" Score="9" ViewCount="272" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Geetha there are many slokhas that clearly say that rebirth exists. Does it mean multiple rebirths?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I listened to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduhumanrights.info/does-the-rig-veda-mention-reincarnation-or-not-part-1/&quot;&gt;some speeches&lt;/a&gt; that say that there is no mention of multiple rebirths in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true? Do Vedas tell anything about the existense of multiple rebirths?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-20T15:18:18.770" LastActivityDate="2016-07-20T12:00:27.300" Title="Do Vedas suggest multiple rebirths?" Tags="|vedas|krishna|belief|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9889" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9880" CreationDate="2015-12-18T15:00:07.043" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've checked from the Sanskrit to English directory that I have and found that Suchi means clean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OEeoE.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OEeoE.png&quot; alt=&quot;screen-shot&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also check at Sanskritdirectory &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/%C5%9Buci/236022/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;शुचि&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/%C5%9Buci%E1%B8%A5/311414/3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;शुचिः&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UyH6b.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UyH6b.png&quot; alt=&quot;screenshot&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SytOY.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SytOY.png&quot; alt=&quot;screenshot&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oh! Actually the site you've referenced in question has also meanings and English translation. Check &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/lyrics/stotram/maha-lakshmi/translation/shree-suktam-with-lakshmi-suktam.html?shlok=16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who after Becoming Bodily &lt;strong&gt;Clean&lt;/strong&gt; and Devotionally Disposed perform Sacrificial Offering with Butter Day after Day,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  By Constantly Reciting the Fifteen Verses of Sri Suktam will have their Longing for Sri Fulfilled by the Grace of Devi Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, here the word used is &lt;code&gt;शुचिः&lt;/code&gt; and you can also refer &lt;strong&gt;vedabase&lt;/strong&gt; for Shrimad Bhagvat Mahapuran verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/3/49&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 11.3.49&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/23/109&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;CC Madhya 23.109&lt;/a&gt; verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2015-12-21T09:19:31.707" LastActivityDate="2015-12-21T09:19:31.707" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9890" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-18T16:11:56.143" Score="1" ViewCount="473" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Ramachandra abandoned Devi Sita when he learnt about the rumors regarding her chastity. However, in the work of Ramayana there are two incidents:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ahalya redemption&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Reunion of Tara with Sugriva after death of Vali&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In these incidents mentioned above Sri Rama was involved in a similar situation of that of Sita's. But this act contradicts with regard to Sita's abandonment. It is well known that Rama is Maryada Purushottam. Then how can this act of his be better understood?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-20T15:16:20.390" LastActivityDate="2015-12-20T18:57:16.550" Title="How can Rama's action of Sita's abandonment be better understood?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2015-12-21T04:04:47.157" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9891" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-18T17:10:31.840" Score="5" ViewCount="115" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is called the destroyer. Destroyer in what sense?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="876" LastEditorUserId="876" LastEditDate="2015-12-19T04:48:39.560" LastActivityDate="2015-12-22T17:05:13.787" Title="What is the concept of Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2016-04-19T11:16:15.437" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9892" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8024" CreationDate="2015-12-19T01:05:35.077" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;one symbolic reason for multiple hands and two feet only:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hands are meant to extend support...it could be for  blessing or healing or consecration; though there is specific function defined for each hand, hands reach out to devotees for any specific reason&#xA;in the case of feet, they are not meant for locomotion in case of Gods....they are meant for the followers to take refuge after doing which the hands scramble and get into action...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4426" LastActivityDate="2015-12-19T01:05:35.077" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9893" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9894" CreationDate="2015-12-19T05:43:59.153" Score="1" ViewCount="1420" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we all know, in Hindu Temples, after the Mangalarti has been done, priest will start serving the theertha which is a Tulsi water. Why is it served in all the temples? Also sometimes they serve milk and fruit mixtures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4313" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-12-22T07:00:22.250" LastActivityDate="2015-12-22T07:00:22.250" Title="Why Tulsi water is provided as theertha in temples?" Tags="|temple|practice|tulasi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9894" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9893" CreationDate="2015-12-19T06:23:38.407" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not used in ganesha temple, since ganesha and tulsi have a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3182/why-we-do-not-keep-tulsi-on-prasada-offered-to-lord-ganpati&quot;&gt;bad history&lt;/a&gt;. But It is used with every pooja to other gods like without tulsi leaves no prasad(holy food sacrifice) is complete, and the water that is kept in front of god in temple and is seen as their drinking water.It is distributed as prasada like holy water to every person after aarti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And yes there is a scientific and medical reason for this , tulsi provide relif from congestion, mixing it in water and drinking it balance &lt;a href=&quot;http://ayurvedaseattle.com/index.php?page=91&amp;amp;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kapha&lt;/a&gt; in body, which is very crucial for curing many diseases and it is also said that kahpha (cough) blocks prana channels and causes different problems.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-are-tulsi-leaves-used-while-offering-naivedya.html#22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;More info&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2015-12-19T06:23:38.407" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9895" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9876" CreationDate="2015-12-19T06:49:23.737" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama Nama has come into existence much before the birth of Lord Sri Rama. The word RAMA when divided into syllables Ra + Aa + Ma; is said to indicate Ra means Rudra; Aa means Brahma; Ma means Vishnu and the three Trinal lords Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara put together is RAMA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word RAMA is a confluence of two letters Ra + Ma. It is believed and said that these two letters are Jeevaakshara (life giving letters) carved out of the most significant hymns Narayana Ashtakshari and Shiva Panchakshari. The letter Ra is carved out of Narayana Ashtakshari “Om! Namo! Narayanaya” and the letter Ma is carved out of Shiva Panchakshari “Om! Namah Shivaya.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These two letters (Ra+Ma) called life giving letters the soul of these two powerful hymns are put together to form the Tharaka manthra RAMA. Without these two letters (Ra+Ma) these manthras becomes ineffective. Any one chanting Tharaka manthra (RAMA) is equivalent to worshiping both Lord Vishnu as well as Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Jayam&quot; means &quot;Victory&quot; in Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mythological references states that the name of Rama is more strong and divine than the Lord Rama himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas tell that as the sun dispels the darkness, the chanting of Rama Nama dispels all evil and obstacles of life. It is a way of liberation and salvation of human suffering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4428" LastActivityDate="2015-12-19T06:49:23.737" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9897" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3925" CreationDate="2015-12-19T10:48:49.717" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q:&lt;/strong&gt; How much time does it take for a soul to enter another body?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A :&lt;/strong&gt; In Bhagavath Geetha it is said the soul jumps from one body to another. But if suicidal the soul has to wait in sky until it`s specified time comes. Here the example is in Srimath Bagavatam's Gokarna story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q:&lt;/strong&gt; Does this depend upon the karma he has done? For example, if he has done more good karma, he will be in the heaven for more time, so it will take more time for him to enter another body?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A:&lt;/strong&gt; Confirmedly rebirth based on Karma. Vachaka Karma, Maanasha Karma, Kaayaka Karma. Whether Good Karma or Bad Karma the soul will take rebirth. The Karma Good or Bad has to become nil for moksha. If one does extensive Dhana &amp;amp; Dharma he goes to Indra Loka. There are 13 worlds other than ours. Nala &amp;amp; Manigoopa are 2 Gandervas who did wrong Karma in Ganderva Lokam. They had to be born on this earth as 2 trees. Sri Krishna as child when tied to roller, went in between these 2 tress and released them from being as trees. Bali chakravarthi daughter on seeing Sri Vaamana, deeply thinks how good to have a child like Sri Vaamana. But when Vaamana takes his real manifestation, she thinks deeply that such a child should be poisoned by breast milk. This lady takes birth as Demon Poothana, who tried to kill Sri Krishna by her breast poisoned milk. This is a type of Karma. If one reads Jada Bharatha life in Srimath Bagavath, he will know even a great saint was affected by Karma, like that had to be born, because of attachment on deer. In Tamil great saint Thirumoolar said, “Aasai Arumin, Aasai Arumin, Eason Aayinum, Aasai Arumin”. Which means when there is a desire, even GOD is not spared. This relates to Jaya Vijaya at the doors of Sri Vaikuntam and Sri Vishnu had to be born as Sri Rama and Sri Krishna to kill Jaya Vijaya. About Karma excellent examples are told in Vivekachudamani of Sri Adi Sankara. In Shiva Yogi puran, a karma can also extend date of death. In Guruvayur puranam, the Chola king death was extended by a karma he did. In simple terms, if one has a desire/Karma to his account, he has to complete that to avoid rebirth. But when he takes another body he accumulates fresh karmas/desires amounting to another birth. Ref :Baja Govindam script. If one reads Garbopanashid &amp;amp; Kapila geetha, it will be known details of Karma. Gyanapana song sung by Saint Poothanam tells you in details of Karma &amp;amp; ignorance &amp;amp; 13 other worlds, how many types of births, mukthi etc. The best examples of escaping birth is from recent times life of Sri Arunagiri Nathar, Pattinathar, Bala yogi (Whose real video is with me), Vallar. Another great examples of life of Sri Poodhanam, Sri Tukaram, Sri Badrachala Ramadoss, they were in family life till last, when Puspaka Vimanam (Flying Plain) came and took them alive in full public view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q:&lt;/strong&gt; Also, is heaven a planet that exists or an imagination?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A:&lt;/strong&gt; Heavenly planet and Indra Loka is total enjoyment. There one lives for 36000 years. Certain planet one is born 36 years of body when compared to us, but remains 36 years until death (No aging). Heavenly planets total details are in Upanashids/puranas. But it is confirmed that one should come to this earth to obtain liberation/mukthi/moksha. Besides there are number of incidents that people from different planets came to this earth to do Yagna, pooja, Tapas. In this concept, Sri Mahalakshmi came to this earth to do Tapas, as from Sri Venkatachala Mahathiyam. Sri Parvathi Devi came to this earth to do tapas for 3000 years as from the history of Sri Ekambareeswarar temple inscriptions. That is why Sri Adi Sankara said, “Maanusha Deham Dullabam” (Rare is human birth) Many many have read like me these matters. But I invite them aged between 60 to 70 to join me, they hesitate to leave their dear ones and come on Vanaprasta. They will their dear ones on death. On dying only they realize that they did a big mistake. One`s thoughts remain in universal conscience until next birth. That conscience gives them abundant sufferings of doing mistakes while living. The each soul thinks that in next birth it will only do Tapas and avoid rebirth. But on touching the atmosphere the whole super conscience vanishes, as the past Karmas one has to undergo.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4431" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2015-12-21T06:37:05.780" LastActivityDate="2015-12-21T06:37:05.780" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9898" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-19T12:27:53.940" Score="3" ViewCount="89" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does the world gets destroyed by gods? many people said that when the gods become angry on people they destroy the whole world with the help of water,fire etc.&#xA;example:flood,tsunami etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;why this all Done? it is one of the &lt;strong&gt;Global warming&lt;/strong&gt; are the &lt;strong&gt;Anger of our God&lt;/strong&gt;?&#xA;Many educated people said it is a effort of deforestation and global warming.&#xA;And some people said it is angry of God which one is true? and what vedas said?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4433" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-19T14:37:15.343" LastActivityDate="2015-12-19T14:37:15.343" Title="Did world get destroyed by god?" Tags="|vedas|gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2015-12-19T14:32:58.513" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9899" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9827" CreationDate="2015-12-19T13:52:29.743" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where do these rumors come from? How could sannyas be post Buddhist when Buddha himself was a sannyasin?? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, sannyas is spoken of in the Vedas. See the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; verses 3.4.17-20 and 3.4.49 which has many vedic references to Sannyas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; 2.23.1-2 (this and subsequent verses are translated by Swami Nikhilananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are three branches of duty; sacrifice, study, and charity are the first...All these attain to the worlds of the virtuous; but only one who is firmly established in Brahman attains immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the &lt;em&gt;Brhadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; 4.4.22:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Desiring this world (the Self) alone monks renounce their homes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See also &lt;em&gt;Mundaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; 1.2.11 and &lt;em&gt;Chandogya&lt;/em&gt; 5.10.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second Moksha. The whole point of the Upanishads is to teach moksha. Saying there is no moksha in the Upanishads is like the man who gets up after hearing a recitation of the Ramayana and asks &quot;Excuse me, what was the name of Rama's wife?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kena Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; II. 5:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a man knows Atman here, he then attains the true goal of life. If he does not know It here, a great destruction awaits him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See also &lt;em&gt;Brhadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; I. iv. 10 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;em&gt;Mundaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; III. ii. 9:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who knows the Supreme Brahman verily becomes Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brhadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; IV. iv. 6-7:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the man who does not desire is not reborn. Of him who is without desires, who is free from desires, the objects of whose desire have been attained, and to whom all objects of desire are but the Self--the pranas do not depart. Being but Brahman, he is merged in Brahman, Regarding this there is this verse: 'When all the desires that dwell in his heart are gone, then he, having been mortal, becomes immortal and attains Brahman in this very body.' Just as the lifeless slough of a snake is cast off and lies on an ant-hill, so does this body lie. Then the self becomes disembodied and immortal; it becomes the Supreme Brahman, the Light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and &lt;em&gt;Mundaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; III. ii. 8:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As flowing rivers disappear in the sea, losing their names and forms, so a wise man, freed from name and form, attains the Purusha, who is greater than great.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally kaivalya. There is a Upanishad called the &lt;em&gt;Kaivalya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; which is part of the &lt;em&gt;Atharva&lt;/em&gt; Veda. It is a short Upanishad of only 24 verses. It speaks of sannyas, kavilya, and moksha. Verses 2 and 3 say (Swami Madhavananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And to him, the Grandsire (Brahma) said: &quot;Know (this) by means of faith, devotion, and meditation. Not by work, nor by progeny, nor by wealth, but by renunciation, some attain immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Higher than heaven, seated in the cave (Buddhi) that shines, (which) the self-controlled attain--the self-controlled, who being of pure minds have well ascertained the Reality, by the knowledge of Vedanta, and through Sannyasa or renunciation. In the sphere of Brahma, at the time of cosmic dissolution, they get all liberated from the highest (apparent) immortality of the manifested universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-12-19T13:52:29.743" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9900" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9845" CreationDate="2015-12-19T15:38:55.900" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sankaracharya has clearly stated that only Jnana or knowledge can lead to moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sruti clearly teaches that no road other than knowledge leads to&#xA;  moksha. Vide: &quot;Knowing Him alone one conquers death: no other road is&#xA;  available for going there&quot; (Svetasvatara Upanishad 3.8). Furher, 6.20&#xA;  (ibid) teaches that the non-knower's achievement of moksha is as&#xA;  impossible as the folding up of the sky like a hide. Puranas, too,&#xA;  teach that moksha is won through knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankara Gita bhasya 18.66.6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So only Jnana Yoga can lead one to moksha according to Sankaracharya.&#xA;Sri Ramakrishna disagrees with Shankaracharya on this issue. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhaktiyoga is the religion for this age. But that does not mean that&#xA;  the lover of God will reach one goal and the philosopher (Jnani) and&#xA;  worker (Karmayogi) another. It means that if a person seeks the&#xA;  knowledge of Brahman he can attain It by following the path of Bhakti&#xA;  too.  God, who loves His devotee, can give him the knowledge of&#xA;  Brahman if He so desires. But the Bhakta wants to realize the Personal&#xA;  God endowed with form and talk to Him. He seldom seeks the knowledge&#xA;  of Brahman.  But God, who does everything at His pleasure, can make&#xA;  His devotee the heir to His infinite glories if it pleases Him. He&#xA;  gives His devotee both the love of God and knowledge of Brahman. If&#xA;  one is able to reach Calcutta, one can see the Maidan and the museum&#xA;  and other places too. The thing is how to reach Calcutta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, June 25, 1884&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-12-19T15:38:55.900" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9901" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-20T06:35:42.317" Score="6" ViewCount="3981" Body="&lt;p&gt;Search for 8.4 million (or 84 lakh) species in Google, and several &lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupadabooks.com/cc/madhya/19/138&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sources &lt;/a&gt; (mostly from Hare Krishna/ISKCON websites) claim that Padma Puranam states this shloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati krmayo rudra-sankhyakah&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;paksinam dasa-laksanam trimsal-laksani pasavah catur-laksani manusah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  9,00,000 species of aquatics&#xA;20,00,000 species of plants&#xA;11,00,000 species of insects/worms/reptiles&#xA;10,00,000 species of birds&#xA;30,00,000 species of animals&#xA;  4,00,000 species of humans&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I tried searching for this shloka but I can only find Sanskrit text pdf - vedicilluminations.com/downloads/Puranas/Padma%20Purana/padma_purana_1srishti.pdf or English translation online, not English 'transliteration'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A previous &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/791/is-the-complete-english-translation-of-the-padma-purana-available-online&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; provides links to all but the first 2 volumes of unabridged English translation.. which is probably where the source for this shloka lies since it is in Srishti (creation) khand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone have an actual source for this shloka? and the further breakdown of species?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-06-30T09:18:26.280" LastActivityDate="2023-04-27T23:55:57.133" Title="What are the 84 lakh (8.4 million) species?" Tags="|puranas|translation-request|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9902" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9890" CreationDate="2015-12-20T15:12:11.407" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;While understanding Rama's actions we should keep in mind that Rama is embodiment of Dharma itself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Ramo Vigrahavan Dharma&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can understand the same while solving public complaints in his time. For example, A dog's complain against a sadhu, and a quarrel between owl and eagle in Ramayana Uttarakhanda. He is not just expert in dharma, he is the dharma. Situations like abandonment of mother Sita, cannot be understood with our simple logical brains where we don't even have least idea of what dharma means and don't ask me about following it.&#xA;Anyway as you asked here for an answer and I will provide one which I learnt from my guru by the grace of his lotus feet. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharma is not a stubborn thing like something carved on a rock. It depends  on both time and space. This situation of Rama's dharma is complicated here. Where his dharma as king of the whole earth and as a husband got conflict. In situations like this we should keep one of them away &quot;for sometime&quot; then take it back when the time is right. And Rama wanted to take mother Sita back in front of everyone with testimony given by Maharshi like Valmiki in Ashvamedha yaga.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you read Ramayana without a negative attitude you will understand that either Rama or Lakshmana did'nt have even slightest doubt on her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Durvasa Maharshi told king Dasharadha that according to jataka, &quot;Rama has to live away from all his dear ones soon or later. Oh king, you will also loose Rama in no time.&quot;  Soon after this meeting Rama would leave for forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the other two incidents you mentioned: &#xA;Ahalya: usually we think of these kind of incidents as punishment. If you look at them, they are actually methods of getting rid of those sins and to get a better state in spirituality or may be moksha itself. What she got at the end of her &quot;so called punishment&quot; she got darshanam of sat-chit-ananda in human form. So how can it be a punishment?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tara: First of all Sugriva and family are not humans at all. Then how come you ask them to behave according to human code of law? Again if you read Kishkindakhanda &quot;without a negative attitude&quot; you will understand that it's a rule in kishkinda that in case of death of a bother his brother has to take care of the dead ones family as his own. It includes even considering the other's wife as his own. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduebooks.blogspot.in/2011/07/shrimad-valmiki-ramayan-sanskrit-text.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-20T18:57:16.550" LastActivityDate="2015-12-20T18:57:16.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9903" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-20T15:13:03.387" Score="5" ViewCount="6109" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ashaucha(अशौच) is a period of time (3 to 15 days) where you are not supposed to perform any poojan to any god because you are not purified/not eligible. There are two types of ashaucha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Janana ashaucha जननाअशौच&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mrityu ashaucha मृत्युअशौच&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Janana Ashaucha - It happens after birth of child in a family. It's applied for 3 days to entire family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mrityu Ashaucha - It is applicable when someone dies in family (who is related within 3rd generation to you) it applies to all the family members who share same last names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my question is since, this applies to all classes of society even the dwijas are not exempted from this rule.So how do we perform nityakarma (regular duties) like Sandhyavandanam within this period of ashaucha , and what other karmas could be performed besides sandhyavandanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is vidhi of performing sandhyavandanam in ashaucha, please give reference with your answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-01-22T05:46:49.087" Title="Sandhyavandan in ashaucha(अशौच)" Tags="|rituals|sandhyavandanam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9904" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-20T15:29:47.973" Score="9" ViewCount="247" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is clear that killing anything by paining body is himsa. That's why many people in Hinduism(especially Brahmins) generally do not prefer to eat animal food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My doubt is whether killing an animal(any living thing) without paining its body is also a form of himsa or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is separating soul from a body is himsa or separating the soul from the body &lt;strong&gt;by paining&lt;/strong&gt; its body is himsa or both?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If separating the soul from the body without paining is also himsa, then how it can be justified? The soul takes another body and we applied no harm to it, how it can be ahimsa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2020-05-08T15:28:36.073" LastActivityDate="2020-05-08T15:28:36.073" Title="Is painless killing a form of himsa?" Tags="|death|sin|dharma-shastras|ahimsa|ethics|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9905" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9904" CreationDate="2015-12-20T16:41:20.257" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;If the Jiva still wants to enjoy with his body in any way(through love or hatred), then terminating its life in any form is a sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's including suicide. Infact suicide and killing are one of the worst sins according to Hindu scriptures. According to Garuda Purana pretha kalpa the suicidee will not have new body till the end of that kalpa. And he has to roam on the earth like a pretha(ghost) till he gets a new body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is not the case with enlighten souls. They neither want to enjoy nor want suffer with the body. They look at the body a mere instrument or vehicle to attain the ultimate truth. As they already enlightend they no longer needs the body. Either it will be dropped as a dead leaf in samadhi or they will drop it with fastings or may by submerging in water which are allowed.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-garuda-purana-dutt/index.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;:&#xA;Regarding brahmins not eating meat, its not only because its involved with himsa but &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.learning-living.com/2015/03/aahara-suddhau-sattva-shuddhi-chandogya.htmlhttp://www.learning-living.com/2015/03/aahara-suddhau-sattva-shuddhi-chandogya.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;pure food only created pure mind and only pure mind can be controlled&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastEditorUserId="4407" LastEditDate="2015-12-21T02:33:45.743" LastActivityDate="2015-12-21T02:33:45.743" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9906" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-21T05:24:50.480" Score="2" ViewCount="474" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9234/from-which-hindu-text-the-following-slokha-has-been-taken&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; s&lt;strong&gt;lokha from Brahmavaivartha Purana&lt;/strong&gt; says the following&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rFdHz.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rFdHz.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-04-37.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Geetha chapter 4 verse 37&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; says the following&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HYrJ8.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HYrJ8.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First one says that, &lt;em&gt;no one can escape&lt;/em&gt; from the results of karma, but next says that getting &lt;em&gt;knowledge can nullify all past karma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aren't they contradictory&lt;/strong&gt;?  How to interpret them properly?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I am a great sinner and If I get enlightened by getting knowledge, then does the karma again follows after me as per first slokha or I become free from all my past karma as per next slokha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-12-22T10:59:42.540" Title="Does knowledge has capacity to nullify all past karma?" Tags="|krishna|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9907" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-21T06:10:53.617" Score="8" ViewCount="960" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read the Geeta but I am unable to understand what exactly is someone's Dharma. If I am an established teacher from a kshatriya varna, is my dharma to teach or to protect/fight in a war?&#xA;For example, Parshurama was born in a brahmin family but he portrayed himself as a  kshatriya. Does that mean he was adharmic?&#xA;If he wasn't adharmic, then what is the reason for having the caste-system as anyone from any caste can do any occupation as they desire?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4438" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-23T19:31:39.353" LastActivityDate="2015-12-23T19:31:39.353" Title="What is dharma?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|dharma|caste-system|parashurama|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2015-12-29T04:46:41.013" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9909" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3237" CreationDate="2015-12-21T08:09:10.207" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Question similar to yours was discussed by Swami Vivekananda at World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago, 1893. &lt;a href=&quot;http://belurmath.org/complete_works_of_swami_vivekananda/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; (Addresses at The Parliament of Religions &gt; Paper on Hinduism) is the excerpt from his speech on Hinduism:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Taking all these for granted, &lt;strong&gt;how is it that I do not remember anything of my past life ?&lt;/strong&gt; This can be easily explained. I am now speaking English. It is not my mother tongue, in fact no words of my mother tongue are now present in my consciousness; but let me try to bring them up, and they rush in. That shows that &lt;strong&gt;consciousness is only the surface of the mental ocean, and within its depths are stored up all our experiences.&lt;/strong&gt; Try and struggle, they would come up and you would be conscious even of your past life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, whatever we are conscious of at present forms just the surface of the vast mental ocean. And the reason for not remembering our past lives is that they are no longer part of this surface i.e., our conscious mind. But the past experiences are still there in the depth of mental ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastActivityDate="2015-12-21T08:09:10.207" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9910" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9907" CreationDate="2015-12-21T09:41:26.907" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think caste or casting is meant to improve the process only. But the word been over killed in india due to political reasons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I feel every one of us have the freedom to choose what we want to do. In a age where a Tea seller will lead a country like King. A refuge become a founder of top company. It is about the choice we make and whether we are giving our best to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma for me is not derived from verna now. It is the conscious choice of what you choose to be and whether you are giving your best to it or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3949" LastActivityDate="2015-12-21T09:41:26.907" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9911" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-21T10:41:57.660" Score="4" ViewCount="2416" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the ages of Radha and Krishna when they were in love with each other while both are not get separated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2018-10-05T08:28:10.117" LastActivityDate="2018-10-05T08:28:10.117" Title="Ages of Radha and Krishna?" Tags="|krishna|radha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9914" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-21T16:02:39.857" Score="4" ViewCount="15761" Body="&lt;p&gt;Anuloma is marriage between a sudra woman and higher caste man.&#xA;Pratiloma is marriage between a sudra man and higher caste women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know that there are several examples of Anuloma marriages from scriptures. E.g., the case of Ravana and Vyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But is there any example of Pratiloma marriage, especially between Brahmin women and Sudra man? And was it prohibited in the shastras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.importantindia.com/2834/anuloma-and-pratiloma-marriage/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.importantindia.com/2834/anuloma-and-pratiloma-marriage/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-29T13:48:45.677" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T21:42:52.567" Title="Examples of Anuloma and Pratiloma marriages?" Tags="|scripture|marriage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9915" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9907" CreationDate="2015-12-21T17:54:18.210" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer to your question can be found by scrutinising the Gita verses on Varna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am posting the relevant Gita verses on varna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O great hero! The duties of Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas and also&#xA;  Sudras have been divided according to the quality born of their own&#xA;  nature. [Gita 18.41]   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Serenity, control of the sense, austerity,&#xA;  purity, straight-forwardness, knowledge, insight, and faith in the&#xA;  Supreme Being - these are a Brahman's duties born of his own nature.&#xA;  [Gita 18.42]   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prowess, splendor of personality, unfailing courage,&#xA;  resourcefulness, dauntless in battle, generosity, leadership - these&#xA;  are a Ksatriya's duties born of his specific nature. [Gita 18.43] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agriculture, cattle-rearing and trade form the duty of the Vaisya&#xA;  springing from his own nature, while the natural duty of a Sudra&#xA;  consists in subordinate service under others. [Gita 18.44]   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By being&#xA;  devoted to one's own natural duty, man attains to spiritual&#xA;  competency. Now hear how devotion to one's own natural duty generates&#xA;  spiritual competency. [Gita 18.45]   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From whom all beings have&#xA;  emanated and by whom all this universe is pervaded - by worshipping&#xA;  Him through the dedicated performance of one's duty, man attains to&#xA;  spiritual competency. [Gita 18.46]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One's own duty, even if without excellence (i.e. inferior in the scale&#xA;  of worldy values)is more meritorious spiritually than the apparently&#xA;  well-performed duty of another. &lt;strong&gt;For no sin is incurred by one doing&#xA;  works ordained according to one's nature.&lt;/strong&gt; [Gita 18.47]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As can be seen Gita varna is dependent on Karma and Gunas and has nothing to do with the last name dependent Jati system of Hindus. Varna is not dependent on occupation. It is the other way round. Occupation should be chosen according to your Varna or mental makeup. Look at the bolded portion of Gita 18.47 where you are asked to choose an occupation that suits your nature. Thus it does not matter what Jati someone is born into. What is important is the mental makeup due to Karma and Gunas of the person. Thus Parshurama must have felt that his mental makeup is closer to that of a Kshatriya than to other Varnas. Drona also chose to be a weapons instructor presumably because it suited his mental makeup.&#xA;You cannot ask a Sachin Tendulkar to be a rocket scientist while an Abdul Kalam will simply not succeed as a cricketer. One has to choose that work which best suits him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-12-21T17:54:18.210" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9916" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-21T21:22:23.247" Score="5" ViewCount="140" Body="&lt;p&gt;In chapter 26 of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ananda.org/autobiography/#chap26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Autobiography of a Yogi&lt;/a&gt;, Paramahansa Yogananda states (paragraph 14) that, and I quote; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The scriptures aver that man requires a million years of normal, diseaseless evolution to perfect his human brain sufficiently to express cosmic consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does anyone know to which scripture Yogananda is referring to here?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also, what could Yogananda mean by &quot;perfect his human brain&quot;, what would be different in the brain structure or composition or functionality of a highly advanced spiritual adept as opposed to someone of lesser spiritual development?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4058" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-01T02:09:51.083" LastActivityDate="2016-04-01T03:03:46.827" Title="Spiritual evolutionary timescale" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9917" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-22T00:14:09.747" Score="3" ViewCount="797" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am currently visiting India, and I just went to the Adi Keshava Perumal Vishnu Temple in Sri Perumbudur, the birthplace of the famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya.  On the walls of this temple are depicted the Divya Desams, the 108 sacred places of Vishnu which I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2756/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Now two of the Divya Desams are not even on Earth!  First there's Vishnu's ocean of milk or Thiruparkadal, and then there is Paramapadam, which Sri Vaishnavas believe is the abode of Para Vasudeva or the supreme Vishnu, and is the destination for those who have attained Moksha.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6923/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information on Para Vasudeva.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in the temple's depiction of Paramapadam, I saw the usual attendants of Vishnu, like Garuda and Vishvaksena (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9057/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), but I also saw two human figures, Uparichara Vasu and Uttanka.  Uparichara Vasu was an ancient king who was the father of Shantanu's wife Satyavati.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4067/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, he was cursed by some sages to fall deep within the Earth, but then he ultimately attained Vishnu's abode of Paramapadam, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5olXk.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5olXk.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Uttanka and Indra&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;[Uttanka is on the left, Indra as Chandala on the right]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the other figure shown, Uttanka.  Uttanka is most famous for his grand quest to obtain the earrings of a queen for his guru's wife.  But after that, he became a sage who lived in the Maru desert. (This desert was created by Rama's Brahmastra, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2945/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.)  Uttanka was a great devotee of Krishna (while Krishna was on Earth), so Krishna showed him his Vishwarupa form and granted him a boon that he would always be able to quench his thirst in the desert.  Krishna then asked Indra to give Amrita to Uttanka, but Indra decided to test Uttanka by taking the form of a Chandala untouchable urinating into a pot.  The Chandala offered the pot to Uttanka, but Uttanka refused and thus did not receive Amrita!  But as a consolation prize, Krishna granted Uttanka the boon that rainclouds would come whenever he was thirsty, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m14055.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Ashwamedha Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;On those days, O regenerate one, in which thou wilt feel a desire for water, clouds well-charged with water will rise over this desert. Those clouds, O son of Bhrigu's race, will give thee savoury water to drink. Verily, those clouds will become known in the world as Utanka-clouds.&quot; Thus addressed by Krishna, Utanka became filled with gladness, and to this day, O Bharata, Utanka-clouds (appear and) shower rain on and deserts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, if Uttanka didn't drink Amrita and Krishna only gave him a boon for rainclouds, why is Uttanka depicted in Paramapadam?  When and how did he achieve Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures which describe Uttanka attaining Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-01-11T13:41:30.597" Title="Did Krishna's devotee Uttanka ever attain Moksha?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|sri-vaishnava|lokas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9918" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9920" CreationDate="2015-12-22T04:59:28.043" Score="14" ViewCount="4124" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know  Rudra is Lord Shiva. But why is Lord Shiva called as Rudra deva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4172" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-08T12:32:15.613" LastActivityDate="2021-06-19T14:09:53.380" Title="Who is Rudra deva?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|shiva-lingam|name|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9920" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9918" CreationDate="2015-12-22T06:19:45.400" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason why Shiva is called Rudra is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Brahma] said to him, 'My boy, why criest thou, when thou art born out&#xA;  of labour and trouble?' He said, 'Nay, but I am not freed from&#xA;  (guarded against) evil; I have no name given me: give me a name!'&#xA;  Hence one should give a name to the boy that is born, for thereby one&#xA;  frees him from evil;--even a second, even a third (name), for thereby&#xA;  one frees him from evil time after time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Rudra' And because he gave him that name,&#xA;  Agni became suchlike (or, that form), for Rudra is Agni: &lt;strong&gt;because he&#xA;  cried (rud) therefore he is Rudra&lt;/strong&gt;. He said, 'Surely, I am mightier&#xA;  than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Sarva.' And because he gave the him that&#xA;  name, the waters became suchlike, for Sarva is the waters, inasmuch as&#xA;  from the water everything (sarva) here is produced. He said, 'Surely,&#xA;  I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Pasupati.' And because he gave him that&#xA;  name, the plants became suchlike, for Pasupati is the plants: hence&#xA;  when cattle (pasu) get plants, then they play the master 3 (patîy). He&#xA;  said, 'Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Ugra.' And because he gave him that name,&#xA;  Vâyu (the wind) became suchlike, for Ugra is Vâyu: hence when it blows&#xA;  strongly, they say 'Ugra is blowing.' He said, 'Surely, I am mightier&#xA;  than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Asani.' And because he gave him that name,&#xA;  the lightning became suchlike, for Asani is the lightning: hence they&#xA;  say of him whom the lightning strikes, 'Asani has smitten him.' He&#xA;  said, 'Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Bhava.' And because he gave him that name,&#xA;  Parganya (the rain-god) became suchlike; for Bhava is Parganya, since&#xA;  everything here comes (bhavati) from the rain-cloud. He said, 'Surely,&#xA;  I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Mahân Devah (the Great God).' And because he&#xA;  gave him that name, the moon became suchlike, for the moon is&#xA;  Pragâpati, and Pragâpati is the Great God. He said, 'Surely, I am&#xA;  mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Îsâna (the Ruler).' And because he gave him&#xA;  that name, the Sun became suchlike, for Îsâna is the Sun, since the&#xA;  Sun rules over this All. He said, 'So great indeed I am: give me no&#xA;  other name after that!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam gives the same explanation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was much anger generated in the mind of Brahmā, which he tried to control and not express. Although he tried to curb his anger, it came out from between his eyebrows, and a child mixed blue and red was immediately generated. After his birth he began to cry: O destiny maker, teacher of the universe, kindly designate my name and place. The all-powerful Brahmā, who was born from the lotus flower, pacified the boy with gentle words, accepting his request, and said: Do not cry. I shall certainly do as you desire. Thereafter Brahmā said: O chief of the demigods, you shall be called by the name Rudra by all people because you have so anxiously cried. My dear boy, I have already selected the following places for your residence: the heart, the senses, the air of life, the sky, the air, the fire, the water, the earth, the sun, the moon and austerity.... My dear boy Rudra, you have eleven other names: Manyu, Manu, Mahinasa, Mahān, Śiva, Ṛtadhvaja, Ugraretā, Bhava, Kāla, Vāmadeva and Dhṛtavrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the original meaning of Rudra is &quot;the crier&quot;, because Shiva cried as soon as he was born.  Of course, just like the names Vishnu and Narayana (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3648/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), various mystical interpretations of the name have arisen that have little connection to its etymological origins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2015-12-22T06:19:45.400" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9922" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-22T07:07:17.097" Score="1" ViewCount="25" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who wrote the vedas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why four vedas not only one?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Whats the need of vedas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How these vedas are useful in this generation?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2772" LastActivityDate="2015-12-22T07:07:17.097" Title="What's the story of four vedas?" Tags="|vedas|brahma|yuga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-12-22T07:21:59.327" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9923" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9918" CreationDate="2015-12-22T08:52:23.550" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;There's a subtle difference between Shiva and Shankara or Rudra. Shiva is Supreme Purusha while Shankara aka Rudra is human manifestation of Supreme Purusha Shiva. Shankara or Rudra is generally depicted as wearing snake over his neck with a trident in his hand. Supreme Purusha Shiva, as formless, is generally worshipped in &lt;strong&gt;Linga form&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9370/3500&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt; explains how Sadasiva (Supreme Brahman) manifested himself into universe and other Gods. Lord Brahma asked his four Kumaras to help in creation process but they were unwilling to assist him. This is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20655/6/Part1_Chapter4_241-320p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 15 Manifestation of Rudra in Rudra Samhita Section 1 - Creation of Shiva Purana &lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma continued the story to his son Narada,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When i became nearly unconscious on account of excess fury and agitation, drops of tears fell from my eyes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I was instructed by Vishnu to perform the penance of Shiva.Accordingly i performed a severe penance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;While i was performing penance for creation, &lt;strong&gt;the merciful Lord Shiva of Trinity, came out of spot called AVIMUKHA between eyebrows&#xA;  and the nose. He manifested himself as Half woman and Half man in full&#xA;  potency.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On seeing the unborn Lord Shiva, a mass of refulgence, the consort of Uma, the omniscient,the creator of everything,famous as Nilalohita,&#xA;  straight in front of me I saluted him with great devotion and was&#xA;  highly delighted. I told the lord,&quot; Please create various subjects&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On hearing my words, &lt;strong&gt;Lord of the Lords, Rudra, created many ganas identical with Himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later Rudra or Shankara stopped creating Ganas identical to him, at behest of Brahma, as they are immortal. Brahma alone created mortal beings thereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is &lt;strong&gt;Shiva-Shakti&lt;/strong&gt; manifestation in &lt;strong&gt;Ardanareeswara form&lt;/strong&gt; (half male and half female).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12959/3/Chapter1_1070-1148p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Half-female incarnation of Shiva in Satarudrasamhita of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Page: 1075), Brahma asked Ardhanareeswara Rudra to help in creation as subjects were not multiplying. Shiva separates Shakti from him, as women or female energy is needed for copulation, so that species can multiply.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nandi said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When subjects created by him did not multiply, he was very much distresses and worried.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Then a celestial voice said- &quot;carry out creation produced by couples&quot;. On hearing it Brahma pondered over the creation produced by&#xA;  couples in order to carry it out.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahma then performed a penance to Shiva, who was united with Shakti called as Sivaa.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Lord Shiva satisfied with penance assumed the well wishing form of Isaana- the perfect consciousness, and in the guise of half male and&#xA;  half female of Shiva approached Lord Brahma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Lord Shiva detached her (Shakti) from his body and gave this energy to Brahma to create women.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With this power (Shakti), Brahma created women and creation became copulatory. Now, human form of Shiva, Rudra or Shankara was left. Later Shakti was born as Sati devi and reborn as Parvathi Devi, to unite with Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2015-12-22T08:52:23.550" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9924" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-22T09:31:01.883" Score="3" ViewCount="515" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have come across a lot of more-religious-less-historic books pertaining to history, which claim that the position of women from the beginning of Vedic civilisation, was ascribed by the scriptures, or 'righteous' norms of society to be '&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=maryAdita&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;choice=yes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;mariyadit&lt;/a&gt;' sort of. The term means donning boundaries supposedly dignified, to be upheld by the sense of dignity in the person, and to be enforced somewhat by the good of society, to prevent obscenity, corruption degradation and all. &#xA;There is a particular quote much celebrated, by those 'dignity and boundaries' advocates that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A woman is never supposed to live independently. During young age, she is to live under the 'protection' of her father, after being married, under her husband, and after being widowed, in aegis of her sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This I believe, is from the Manu Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is, what are the verses, which shed light on the position of women, and verses which put regulations on conduct of women, in Vedic and ensuing literature (The Upanishads, the epics Ramayana, Mahabharata, the samhitas, the commentaries, the fiction of the time, or any other work).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="841" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-23T04:00:40.310" LastActivityDate="2017-04-17T15:17:50.143" Title="Regulations on women in Vedic India" Tags="|mahabharata|vedas|ramayana|upanishads|women|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9925" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9906" CreationDate="2015-12-22T10:50:00.063" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First I do not see them as contradictory as the verse from the &lt;em&gt;Brahmavaivartha Purana&lt;/em&gt; you quote is only addressing what happens to a soul who has not attained Self-Realization - it does not address what happens to a soul who attains Self-Realization. The verse from the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt;, on the other hand, is addressing what happens to a soul who attains Self-Realization. I think a more appropriate verse from the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; to compare to the &lt;em&gt;Brahmavaivartha Purana&lt;/em&gt; verse is &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; verses 2. 42-45.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you still insist that the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Brahmavaivartha Purana&lt;/em&gt; are contradictory, then Sruti supports Krishna's statement in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt;, which is not surprising as the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; is the greatest commentary on the &lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt;. When there is a conflict between Sruti and Smriti or Purana, Sruti takes precedence (Sankara's commentary on &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; verses 1.2.25, 2.1.1, and others).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sruti says - The &lt;em&gt;Mundaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; II. ii. 8 (Swami Nikhilananda translator, both quotes):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fetters of the heart are broken, all doubts are resolved, and all works cease to bear fruit, when He is beheld who is both high and low.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;em&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; IV. iv. 23 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is the eternal glory of a knower of Brahman: it never increases or decreases by work. [Therefore] one should know the nature of that alone. Knowing it one is not touched by evil action. Therefore he who knows it as such becomes self-controlled, calm, withdrawn into himself, enduring and concentrated, and sees the Self in his own body; he sees all as the Self. Evil does not overtake him, but he transcends all evil. Evil does not trouble him, [but] he consumes all evil. He becomes sinless, taintless, free from doubts, and a knower of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally Sankara's commentary of &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; verse 4.37 says that (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...the fire of Knowledge itself cannot directly burn actions to ashes, like pieces of wood. So, the idea implies is that full enlightenment is the cause of making all actions impotent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the force of the context it follows that, since the result of actions owing to which the present body has been born has already become effective, therefore it gets exhausted only through experience it. Hence, Knowledge reduces to ashes only those actions what were done (in this life) prior to the rise of Knowledge and that have not become effective, as also those performed along with (i.e. after the dawn of) Knowledge, and those that were done in the many past lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be noted that those actions that have &quot;already become effective&quot; are not experienced like others who are not enlightened. Being fully enlightened, the remaining actions referred to appear as real as a mirage in the desert, the Reality to the enlightened soul being Brahman.        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-12-22T10:59:42.540" LastActivityDate="2015-12-22T10:59:42.540" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9926" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-22T11:04:25.033" Score="4" ViewCount="6400" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the benefits of doing Rudra Abhishekam ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4453" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2016-08-26T12:53:39.377" LastActivityDate="2016-08-26T12:53:39.377" Title="Is it significant to perform Rudra Abhishekam?" Tags="|mantras|shiva-lingam|rudraksha|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9927" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-22T12:45:42.597" Score="6" ViewCount="573" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a &lt;strong&gt;consensus&lt;/strong&gt; between &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Followers of Vishnu, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Followers of Shiva, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Followers of Brahma, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And adherents of Advaita Vedanta &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Concerning the conclusion from the quarrel between Vishu and Brahma and the test proposed by Shiva to decide: Who is the greatest? see &lt;em&gt;Shiva Purana: Vidyeshvara Samhita&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; I do not ask for an interpretation from each group or school, but whether a consensus exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2015-12-29T13:28:55.027" LastActivityDate="2015-12-31T10:35:22.807" Title="Common interpretation of Shiva purana concerning: Who is the greatest Brahma, Vishnu, or Shiva?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahma|advaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="38" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9928" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8773" CreationDate="2015-12-22T15:56:01.240" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to their main website and a video which i have seen and is available on youtube has the full story of Sarangpur Hanumanji, please see below for the link. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the main website it states that &quot;The image of Hanuman was installed by Sadguru Gopalanand Swami on Ashwini vadi pancham&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to youtube video story, Sadguru Gopalanand Swami had come to visit a village called Botad (roughly about 11.3KM away from sarangpur). A bhakt from sarangpur named Darbar shree Wagakhachar came to see Gopalanad Swami. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gopalanand Swami after seeing Wagakhachar swamiji asked if everything was ok? To which Wagakhachar replied people in Sarangpur are very upset, from last 3 years there hasn't been any rain and because of that villagers don't have enough people to even call sadu sants for satsang. Listening to this Gopalanand Swami started to think and said &quot;Wagakhachar don't worry i will get kashtbhanjan murti installed in a temple from which all the kasht will go away&quot;, straight a murtikar named Kanji Mistry was called and was given a design of the murti which needed to be created. After the murti was created Golpaland swami according to shastra put life into murti. Video than carries on stating that to get life into the murti Gopalanand swami looked into the eyes on Kasthbhanjan Hanumanji eyes and due the powers swamiji had the murti started to shake. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the second part of your question female under the feet, i am not 100% sure however &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman_temple,_Salangpur&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; does state &quot;The image of Hanuman here is a stout figure with a handlebar moustache, crushing a female demon under his foot and baring his teeth&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Click &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoHQWktDWY8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for youtube video&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would also like to add another video which i found on facebook please have a look at it..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Facebook Link] (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/santvallabh/videos/1444621418937442/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.facebook.com/santvallabh/videos/1444621418937442/&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4457" LastEditorUserId="4457" LastEditDate="2017-06-07T19:38:46.553" LastActivityDate="2017-06-07T19:38:46.553" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9929" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6735" CreationDate="2015-12-22T17:06:02.847" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;sir indian national calendar is published every year and in that SAKA Era, Kali Yug and Gregarian is given. the said calendar is available at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.packolkata.gov.in/others.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.packolkata.gov.in/others.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kali Yug caledar will give the number of the year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4458" LastActivityDate="2015-12-22T17:06:02.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9931" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9926" CreationDate="2015-12-23T07:15:12.747" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This Abhishekham is for Lord Mahadeva. Shiva has eleven forms of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rudras&lt;/a&gt;. In this Pooja all the eleven Rudras are worshiped. After the aavahan (welcoming of the deity), sthaapna (giving seat to the deity) Laghu-nyasam is recited. Then Rudra Trishati is recited. Abhishekam is done to each of the 11 Rudras with all the 11 dravyas prescribed in the Shiv Puraana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are mainly three forms of Offernigs are related to Rudra Abhishekam . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rudrabhishekam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ekadash Rudrabhishekam and&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ekadasa Rudrabhishekam Homa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Significance of this offering is to wash out his sins and to bring prosperity and happiness in his family. The best time to perform the pooja is the prodosham day of every month as it is one of the favourite days of Lord Shiva. Alternatively, Mondays could also be considered auspicious for the puja. The pooja is accompanied by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shri_Rudram_Chamakam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chamakam&lt;/a&gt; and Namakam recitals and could be performed at any Shiva temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="187" LastActivityDate="2015-12-23T07:15:12.747" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9933" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9907" CreationDate="2015-12-23T13:38:21.657" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana says, &quot;Raamo vigrahavan dharmaha&quot; i.e. Rama is dharma personified. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita,Lord Krishna says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam sharanam vraja, ahantva sarva paapebyo moksha iccha mi maa suchaha&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which is giving up the 32 Vidyas like sad vidya, bhuma vidya etc, surrender to Lord krishna/Vishnu/Narayana alone, and He alone will destroy all the karmas and grant moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vishnu sagasranama, part of vyasa Mahabharata, bheeshma says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Dharmasya Prabhur achyuthaha&quot; i.e. Achyutha is the actual dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vishnu Sahasranama bhasya of Adi Shankar's, for VrishaKapi and many other names, the Lord of Dharma is Lord Varaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa Mahabharata says Dharma protected Draupadi during vastrapaharanam. This Dharma is identified as Lord Krishna only by all acharyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, worshiping  and saranagati to Krishna/Vishnu/Narayana alone is the ultimate dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastActivityDate="2015-12-23T13:38:21.657" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9936" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-23T16:46:31.707" Score="6" ViewCount="323" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a temple in Maharashtra named 'Khandoba Temple'. In the temple, people worship Khandoba Mahadev. Who is he?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4364" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-31T15:58:00.057" LastActivityDate="2023-09-11T22:03:55.467" Title="Who is Khandoba Mahadev?" Tags="|shiva|temple|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9937" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-23T17:09:18.487" Score="4" ViewCount="523" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.infinityfoundation.com/Jedi.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article by Steven J. Rosen on the inspiration from Hindu itihasas for the Star Wars series. The following claim caught my attention:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna, too, in the Mahabharata, is said to engage in many battles while in outer space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is well known that Vimana battles find frequent mention in the Puranas, but is it mentioned anywhere that Arjuna fought in outer space? I am assuming it is a vague reference to other Lokas rather than outer space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-04-14T22:17:56.897" LastActivityDate="2023-04-14T22:17:56.897" Title="Outer space battles in Mahabharatha?" Tags="|mahabharata|reference-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9938" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3612" CreationDate="2015-12-23T18:11:15.577" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In all &lt;em&gt;civilisations&lt;/em&gt;,people realize,at some point of time,that the &lt;em&gt;Gods&lt;/em&gt; that they &lt;em&gt;worship&lt;/em&gt; , are &lt;em&gt;Imaginary&lt;/em&gt;,i.e., they are the product of &lt;em&gt;Human Imagination&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; It is then they realise ,that &lt;strong&gt;Sun God&lt;/strong&gt; is the &lt;strong&gt;real,eternal  God&lt;/strong&gt;, and build temples to &lt;em&gt;Sun God&lt;/em&gt;...But ,for some &lt;em&gt;strange, unexplained&lt;/em&gt; reasons , the &lt;em&gt;Civilisation collapses after that&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; The people of &lt;em&gt;Kalinga&lt;/em&gt;, built the &lt;em&gt;Sun Temple at Konarka&lt;/em&gt; around 1250AD. After that the Kalinga Kingdom disintegrated.&lt;br/&gt; The &lt;em&gt;Egyptians&lt;/em&gt; built the temple of &lt;em&gt;God Ra, the Sun God&lt;/em&gt;,towards the end of their civilization. &lt;br/&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Romans&lt;/em&gt; also buil a temple to &lt;em&gt;God Mitra- the Sun God&lt;/em&gt; , towards the end of their civilzation.&lt;br/&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Chinese&lt;/em&gt; also built &lt;em&gt;temples to the Sun God.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2015-12-23T18:11:15.577" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9942" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9371" CreationDate="2015-12-24T08:15:01.920" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Thank you Arnav, you kindled our interest in Swamiji's most magical saying..Its not easy to grasp the meaning of great spiritual person's sayings like Swamiji..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ultimate aim of human life is to be one with God.&#xA;  While persuing this aim we are fooled  by Kaama(Lust), Krodha(Anger),Lobha(Materialistic temptations),Mada(Ego),Matsara(Hate).&#xA;  What Swamiji wants to say that life is like a game of 'football' in which while acheiving the 'goal' of self realization we are attacked by these enemies Kaama,Krodha,Mada,Matsara but as with the strategies in the game of 'football' we win  the game likewise we have to defeat these enemies with our intelligence or 'Viveka'.&#xA;  Reading BhagvadGeeta will make you only a reader of it what actually matters is how much Geeta we live or apply in life.&#xA;  Thus according to Vivekanandaji it is more useful to apply the tactics of football to acheive the aim of Self Realization than merely reading Geeta!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swamiji was a naughty son of maa 'Sharda' so it is difficult to decrypt his sayings without the grace of maa herself! lol! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4103" LastEditorUserId="4103" LastEditDate="2016-01-30T21:19:48.543" LastActivityDate="2016-01-30T21:19:48.543" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9943" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9957" CreationDate="2015-12-24T08:36:19.720" Score="10" ViewCount="5836" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, the destination is called as Moksha. At the same time, the heaven also  there. Are they both same? Normally, Moksha is considered as our spirit mix with God. And heaven is another state of happy life in another world. Can anyone explain the difference between these?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1082" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2015-12-24T11:51:53.563" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T07:12:23.137" Title="Is there any difference between Moksha and Heaven?" Tags="|moksha|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9944" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9224" CreationDate="2015-12-24T09:03:01.803" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all have to agree that Karma is within the Maya. Its applicable to those who are bound by maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3, Verse 17: One who remains ecstatic within the&#xA;  self; self illuminated and fully satisfied within the self only;&#xA;  activities do not exist for him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3, Verse 18: In this world for him no purpose is&#xA;  gained by discharge of actions neither is any sin incurred by&#xA;  non-discharge of actions and among all living beings never needs to&#xA;  depend upon anyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this is the case with Yogis and Rushis we can understand about the yogishwara Krishna and Rushiraj Rama.&#xA;I would like to mention Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's quote &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavadgitausa.com/SayingsOfRamakrishnaParamahamsa.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The snake itself is not affected by the poison in its fangs; but when&#xA;  it bites, the poison kills the creature bitten. Likewise Maya is in&#xA;  the Lord but does not affect Him, while the same Maya deludes the&#xA;  whole world.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then why the Lord (You may call him/her/it Siva, Vishnu, Devi) involves all his activities?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all the activities of jeevas are called Karma, but the Lords activities are called Leela. We cant call our activities as leeva, as we don't have control over them.&#xA;Why does he perform leela then? Lets refer Bhagavad Geetha once again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 3, Verse 21: Whichever and however a great personality conducts&#xA;  himself common men do also; whatever he accepts as authority that and&#xA;  that alone certainly all the world will follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 3, Verse 22: O Arjuna, in the three worlds, the heavenly worlds&#xA;  and the material worlds there is no prescribed duty for me, neither&#xA;  anything to be obtained or unobtained; yet still I am engaged in&#xA;  prescribed activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 3, Verse 23: O Arjuna if ever I would not engage in prescribed&#xA;  activities certainly all men would follow My path in all respects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 3, Verse 24: If I cease to perform prescribed actions the&#xA;  inhabitants of all the worlds would be put into ruin and I would be&#xA;  the cause of unvirtuous population and would destroy all these living&#xA;  entities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 3, Verse 25: O Arjuna, just as the ignorant act attached to&#xA;  activities; even so the wise being unattached should act desiring to&#xA;  benefit the welfare of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though they are out of Karma and Maya they need some kind of reasons to come to earth and perform certain things and fulfill certain wishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you read carefully all the avatara's actions will justify above references by Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding referring Telugu movies, I really like them but they are not 100% authentic according to shastras/Puranas, You can understand this looking at movies where Ravana and Dhuryodhana are in the main roles. To make the these characters heroic they have degraded the counterparts.&#xA;In fact the pride of Telugu people NTR is famous for acting not only in positive characters of Puranas but in negative roles like Ravana, Dhuryodhana, Karna etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastActivityDate="2015-12-24T09:03:01.803" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9946" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9943" CreationDate="2015-12-24T09:27:46.550" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The introduction story of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogamag.net/archives/2003/djuly03/yogvish.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yoga Vashishta&lt;/a&gt; gives answer to your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devadutta and Arishtanemi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once upon a time there was a king named Arishtanemi. After having&#xA;  performed his kingly duties and having ruled the kingdom with&#xA;  authority, according to the scriptures, he had retired and passed on&#xA;  his kingdom to his son. For hundreds and hundreds of years he had&#xA;  practised severe austerities and meditations in the forest. Lord Indra&#xA;  was so impressed that he sent his messenger Devadutta to invite&#xA;  Arishtanemi to the heavens. So Devadutta went off in a chariot full of&#xA;  the most beautiful damsels and the most learned scholars to invite&#xA;  King Arishtanemi on a first class flight to the heavens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devadutta arrived in the forest where Arishtanemi was practising his&#xA;  meditation, and passed on Lord Indra's invitation. Arishtanemi&#xA;  understood that he was being offered a reward for his good deeds, the&#xA;  fruits of his karmas. He said, &quot;Tell me what kind of fruits I will&#xA;  enjoy from these karmas in the heavens?&quot; Devadatta replied, &quot;According&#xA;  to the karmas one has performed in one's life, the quality of the&#xA;  fruit will vary. Due to this variety, there is jealousy amongst the&#xA;  enjoyers of the fruits. Therefore, once the bonus is consumed, you&#xA;  have to go back and pass through another stage of birth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;King Arishtanemi said very firmly, &lt;strong&gt;&quot;No, I am not going with you. I am&#xA;  performing these austerities to experience everlasting happiness and&#xA;  peace within, and to know that source, not to go through the same&#xA;  thing. Therefore, I'm not going with you.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Arishtanemi got invitation for heaves and he rejected it for the sake of mukthi.&#xA;Then why these heavens are said to be great in Puranas? In one of his bhashyas Shankara said these explanations of higher lokas are to attain vairagya on them too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4407" LastEditorUserId="4407" LastEditDate="2015-12-24T10:59:16.103" LastActivityDate="2015-12-24T10:59:16.103" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9947" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9943" CreationDate="2015-12-24T11:52:34.527" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am posting 2 passages from Mahabharata that explain moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma continued [Suka said],’..By knowledge, one attains to that&#xA;  whither there is no occasion for grief; whither one becomes freed from&#xA;  birth and death; whither one is not subject to decrepitude; whither&#xA;  one transcends the state of conscious existence; whither is Brahma&#xA;  which is Supreme, Unmanifest, immutable, ever-existent, imperceptible,&#xA;  above the reach of pain, immortal, and transcending destruction;&#xA;  whither all become freed from the influence of all pairs of opposites&#xA;  (like pleasure and pain, etc), as also wish or purpose. Reaching that&#xA;  stage, they cast equal eyes on everything, becoming universal friends&#xA;  and devoted to the good of all the creatures.’ Mahabharata Santi Parva&#xA;  Section CCXLI&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Yudhisthira emancipation is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two well-known paths (for us), viz, the path of the Pitris&#xA;  and the path of the gods. They that perform sacrifices go by the&#xA;  Pitri-path, while they that are for salvation, go by the god-path. By&#xA;  penances, by Brahmacharya, by study (of the Vedas), the great Rishis,&#xA;  casting off their bodies, proceed to regions that are above the power&#xA;  of death. Worldly enjoyments have been styled as bonds. They have also&#xA;  been called action. Liberated from these two sins (viz, bonds and&#xA;  action) one attains to the highest end. ….As a person on the hill-top&#xA;  looketh down upon men on the plain below, so he that has got up on the&#xA;  top of the mansion of knowledge, seeth people grieving for things that&#xA;  do not call for grief. He, however, that is of foolish understanding,&#xA;  does not see this. He who, casting his eyes on visible things, really&#xA;  seeth them, is said to have eyes and understanding. The faculty called&#xA;  understanding is so called because of the knowledge and comprehension&#xA;  it gives of unknown and incomprehensible things. He who is acquainted&#xA;  with the words of persons that are learned, that are of cleansed&#xA;  souls, and that have attained to a state of Brahma, succeeds in&#xA;  obtaining great honours. When one seeth creatures of infinite&#xA;  diversity to be all one and the same to be but diversified emanations&#xA;  from the same essence, one is then said to have attained Brahma. Those&#xA;  who reach this high state of culture attain to that supreme and&#xA;  blissful end, and not they who are without knowledge, or they who are&#xA;  of little and narrow souls, or they who are bereft of understanding,&#xA;  or they who are without penances. Indeed, everything rests on the&#xA;  (cultivated) understanding!’ Mahabharata Santi Parva Section XVII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 2 passages are describing Advaita style Moksha. This type of Moksha is not the goal of devotees. The lower heavens are great places to stay but have to be vacated when one's Karma is exhausted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2015-12-24T11:52:34.527" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9948" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6689" CreationDate="2015-12-24T16:31:08.390" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Atma is higher soul, never takes birth.&#xA;JeevAtma a portion of Higher soul takes birth. Jeev atma by name itself means the atma that takes birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jeev atma is always conected to the Atma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atma is our real self. It is the whole soul that fully does not incarnate.Only a part of the Higher soul called Atma incarnates, this is the JeevAtma,our lower soul that takes birth and is connected to the Higher Soul which is called Atma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4473" LastActivityDate="2015-12-24T16:31:08.390" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9950" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9926" CreationDate="2015-12-24T23:49:49.593" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says it creates positive vibrations. He says the namakam part of it is bowing to the many names of the Lord. Chamakam is asking for blessings and manifesting that which is within. He says he does not know the actual meaning, but it was heard from the akasha when rishis were meditating. In my own experience, rudrabhishekham purifies negative deeds and words, and deepens meditation, creating a deeper respect and peace with nature. It is very auspicious. It connects you to the aspect of Shiva, who is the consciousness over the material universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4476" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2016-08-17T06:00:21.867" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T06:00:21.867" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9952" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8113" CreationDate="2015-12-25T01:10:37.593" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nakshatras are 27 (or 28) divisions of sky. They correspond to the space the moon travels in one day. That's why they are called lunar mansions. They each have a type of Shakti, that corresponds to the God it is associated with. Look at the Wikipedia article for more info on nakshatras. The planets are the planets in orbit. Vedic astrology considers the sun, moon, mars, mercury, jupiter, venus, and saturn to be the main planets. There are also two nonphysical planets, Rahu and Ketu. Please read more about Vedic astrology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4476" LastActivityDate="2015-12-25T01:10:37.593" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9953" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7465" CreationDate="2015-12-25T01:32:23.147" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Nakshatras are in the vedas. There is something called the Nakshtra suktam that lists them. This is one aspect of Vedic astrology. As for the rest of it, this is considered more mundane knowledge and perhaps is not so deeply touched by the Vedas, but I would not be surprised at all if some elements were there. Jyotish (astrology) is like Ayurveda, in the sense that it is Vedanga, limbs of the Vedas meaning knowledge that is extrapolated from Vedic wisdom. If you were a great Brahmana Rishi of ancient lore, knowing astrology was considered sacred knowledge. Parashara and Jaimini are two Vedic sages who certainly possessed this knowledge. Indeed, many of the great saints were predicted from astrology, Krishna had his Kundali done, as did Lord Buddha, and even Jesus. This knowledge is very ancient, but it is quite possible that it has also been misunderstood over the ages. For example, in Srimad Bhagavatam (a Purana) it is stated that Aries and Libra are defined by the Spring and Fall equinoxes. But this is not the way Kundali's are drawn by most astrologers in India, they use a different definition. And it is Veda Vyasa who is said to wrote down Bhagavata Purana, the same who wrote down the Vedas for the Kali Yuga. Certainly true Jyotish is sacred Vedic knowledge, but the question is are we practicing it correctly? I think there are very few astrologers who know it well these days. Beware of most of them, they are like the fake sadhus. People are easily cheated. We are coming into a new age now where astrology will be validated scientifically, once we can come to an understanding of what Vedic astrology actually is. This is like the caste system, Varnashrama is a Vedic institution, but the way it is practiced today is a perversion. One is a brahmin by his qualities and life potential, not by his birth. Great saints have been born from shudra type families have they not? But much of India acts as though one must be born to a brahmin family. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you study Parashara and Jaimini, you will realize that these sort of techniques are so detailed and pregnant with wisdom that it is highly unlikely they came anywhere but from the mind of a Vedic sage. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4476" LastActivityDate="2015-12-25T01:32:23.147" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9954" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7191" CreationDate="2015-12-25T02:16:08.867" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the northern hemisphere, at the winter solstice this is when the Earth becomes more withdrawn and silent, qualities characteristic of saturn. The winter solstice starts at Makara (Capricorn). At the opposite end, when the summer solstice happens, the luminaries are dominating and the Earth becomes more conscious and vibrant, so this is where the luminaries dominate, Cancer and Leo corresponding to the moon. At spring equinox, the sun's presence is increasing and crosses the east directly and this gives the fire element, representing dharma. The influence of the sun becomes northbound, and north's element is represented by water, corresponding to moksha, or self reflection. The point of the sun having it's northmost influence is at the Summer solstice, so there we have the water element. The order of the elements from east to north to west to south is fire, water, air, earth. they correspond to dharma, moksha, kama, and artha. So there is a question of why cancer at the summer solstice, why is it not leo? Well the moon has more of a harmony with the water element there, and the fire element is obviously in tune with the sun. This all unfolds naturally. We always see that the signs are split with a duality, one possessing a feminine side and a masculine side (except where the sun IS masculine and the moon is feminine). Virgo is the female side of mercury, gemini is the  male. The signs proceed about in this order, alternating. And you will see how there are always planets in poles, opposing each other. Mercury to Jupiter, and Venus to Mars, and Saturn against the Luminaries. Venus and Mars are opposing each other at points of Rajasic-tamasic activity, where the focus is not on plain illumination or withdrawness, but something in between. Mars and Venus go hand in hand. All of the significations of the planets and the places where they rule are in their natural place according to the sun's movement, and the respected directions of which they rule. It is quite amazing how it all works out, and in this way one must realize the zodiac is tropical, as mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam. You still use the Vedic techniques, but with tropical zodiac. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vic DiCara helped me figure this out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4476" LastActivityDate="2015-12-25T02:16:08.867" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9957" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9943" CreationDate="2015-12-25T07:24:01.150" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svarga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swarga&lt;/a&gt; or Haven is one of the seven &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;loka&lt;/a&gt; whereas &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moksh&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Moksha&lt;/a&gt; is the liberation/freedom from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83s%C4%81ra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samsara&lt;/a&gt; (the cycle of rebirth).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The seven loka in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_cosmology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu cosmology&lt;/a&gt; are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KDBBP.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KDBBP.png&quot; alt=&quot;screen-shot&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Difference between Moksha &amp;amp; Heaven/Swarga:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From wikipedia &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven#Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Heven#Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Hindu cosmology, above the earthly plane, are other planes: (1) Bhuva Loka, (2) Swarga Loka, meaning Good Kingdom, is the general name for heaven in Hinduism, a heavenly paradise of pleasure, where most of the Hindu Devatas (Deva) reside along with the king of Devas, Indra, and beatified mortals. Some other planes are Mahar Loka, Jana Loka, Tapa Loka and Satya Loka. &lt;strong&gt;Since heavenly abodes are also tied to the cycle of birth and death, any dweller of Heaven or Hell will again be recycled to a different plane and in a different form as per the karma and &quot;maya&quot; i.e. the illusion of Samsara. This cycle is broken only by self-realization by the Jivatma. This self-realization is Moksha (Turiya, Kaivalya).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svarga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Svarga&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Svarga is seen as a transitory place for righteous souls who have performed good deeds in their lives &lt;strong&gt;but are not yet ready to attain moksha&lt;/strong&gt;, or elevation to Vaikunta,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-05-06T07:12:23.137" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T07:12:23.137" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9958" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12357" CreationDate="2015-12-25T07:38:42.313" Score="8" ViewCount="1661" Body="&lt;p&gt;Anyone knows all the rules of the main Kurukshetra war of Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And who had broken any particular rule?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know all rules and the names of character that broke any particular rule.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4455" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-02T04:09:55.337" LastActivityDate="2018-12-21T12:54:30.863" Title="Rules of the Kurukshetra war in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|kurukshetra|war|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9960" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9970" CreationDate="2015-12-25T09:58:44.397" Score="17" ViewCount="38326" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to wikipedia, The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivekachudamani#Famous_verses&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Famous verse&lt;/a&gt; from Vivek Chudamani (विवेकचूडामणि) is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma satyam jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation: Brahman is the only truth, the world is unreal, and there is ultimately no difference between Brahman and individual self&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I can't find that verse from vivek chudamani. I have a vivek chudamani of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gita_Press&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gitapress&lt;/a&gt; Gorakhpur (&lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapress.org/english/Search_main.asp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;book code&lt;/a&gt;:133). You can also find it from &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_shankara/viveknew.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sanskritdocuments&lt;/a&gt; : sanskrit &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_shankara/viveknew.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;pdf&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Where can I find the verse : &lt;strong&gt;Brahma satyam jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Verse no. 20 of vivek chudamani is not exactly this (though it contains first part of the quoted verse)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also visit the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10016/277&quot;&gt;related&lt;/a&gt; question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-02-27T17:23:42.220" LastActivityDate="2022-12-16T17:07:40.973" Title="Help me to find out the verse : &quot;Brahma satyam jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah&quot;" Tags="|scripture|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9962" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-25T18:24:10.620" Score="2" ViewCount="5763" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking to ascertain my Gotra-Pravaras-Sutra-Shakha. &#xA;All that I know is, my name is Utkarsh Sharma. I read in my grandfather's diary, our gotra is Srivatsa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now through a Google search, I have got to know my Pravaras. Which are Srivatsa: Bhargava,Syaavana,AApnavaana,Owrva,Jaamadaghnya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please assist me further to know my Sutra and Shakha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4483" LastActivityDate="2017-05-28T04:02:20.087" Title="Gotra-Pravaras-Sutra-Shakha" Tags="|vedas|history|tradition|vedic-rituals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9964" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9962" CreationDate="2015-12-26T08:17:47.753" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;1.ok let me explain from starting &quot;Brahmaji&quot; have 7 childs named 'vishvamitra,jamadagni,gautam, atri, bharadvaj, vashistha, kashyapa&quot; all the hindus or all the mankind is children of one of this 7 rishis. for exp. i am a brahman my gautra is &quot;Vashistha&quot;.so each and every hindu is son of this rishis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.now the brahmin is the community which follows the vedas. so every brahmin cast have a ved. a ved named yajurveda. the two most commen branches of that veda is shukla &amp;amp; krishna. so the the two branches call &quot;shakha&quot; for exp my shakha is &quot;shuklayajurveda&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.what is pravara i dont know but my shakha is 3. &quot;tree-pravaran-vita&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4485" LastActivityDate="2015-12-26T08:17:47.753" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9965" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2220" CreationDate="2015-12-26T08:19:50.040" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The duration of the 4 yugas is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satya Yuga &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;- 4800 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Treta Yuga &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;- 3600 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dwapara Yuga &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;- 2400 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kali Yuga &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;- 1200 years&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This theory was given by Sri Yukteswar in his book &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/HolyScience/45849064-Sri-Yukteswar-Giri-The-Holy-Science#page/n13/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Holy Science&lt;/a&gt;&quot; written in 1894 on the request of Mahavatar Babaji.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cOri7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cOri7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Sri Yukteswar&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This theory differs from the traditional theory given in the scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satya Yuga - 1728000 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Treta Yuga - 1296000 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dwapara Yuga - 864000 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kali Yuga - 432000 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Yukteswar has given a very detailed explanation on why these wrong figures crept into the books but I will here outline the error that led to this inflated figure. It all started with a word &quot;deva&quot; years. 1 deva year is believed to be 360 human years. Now the scholars who did the calculation wrongly multiplied the original yuga duration with 360. So, if you multiply original theory with 360 you will get the inflated figures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The original yuga figures are also mentioned in the Laws of Manu and the Mahabharata. The yugas also work in a cycle of ascending and descending arc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gKZdz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gKZdz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Yuga-cycle&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The right part is the descending arc and the left one is ascending. &lt;strong&gt;Right now wer are living in Ascending Dwapara Yuga.&lt;/strong&gt; In descending arc, as time passes conditions get worse but in the ascending arc, things improve as time passes. After the present yuga, we will enter into ascending Treta Yuga. You may have noticed that 2 Satya Yugas and 2 Kali Yugas are together, on the other hand, in the yuga theory of the scriptures, it is said that after Kali Yuga ends, a new Satya Yuga starts but this is not true. In Kali Yuga, more and more people are entangled in worldy life so how can the world change suddenly if we move directly from Kali Yuga to Satya Yuga. Sri Yukteswar's theory solves this problem in which we don't suddenly make a transition from Kali to Satya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His theory can also be proved using a simple example. Suppose you want to go from one location to another. We will pass through 2 cities before we reach the destination. The city from which we will start is A, the next city is B, the next one is C and finally our destination is D. Now let us believe that A is Satya Yuga, B is Treta Yuga, C is Dwapara Yuga and D is Kali Yuga. We will pass through all these yugas. On reaching our destination D i.e Kali Yuga, how will we return? Directly to A(Satya Yuga)? No, we will again have to go through the same cities by which we came. So, from D(Kali Yuga), we will again come to another C(Dwapara Yuga), then B(Treta Yuga) and finally A(Satya Yuga).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Using some advanced planetary software, a study was conducted to find out the date of Ramayana which came at 5114 BC. This date fits perfectly in Sri Yukteswar's Yuga theory as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9009/did-ramayana-occur-1-6-million-years-ago/9015#9015&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Sri Yukteswar, Kali Yuga ended in 1699. After the Kali Yuga ended, there was a rise in people's capacity to think, their works. This can be seen by the various inventions that happened after 1699 some of which are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uhkTZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uhkTZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Inventions&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These inventions are just tip of the iceberg. There are many many more inventions that happened after 1699, i.e, with the onset of Ascending Dwapara Yuga. This new age was the cause of the rapid development in all areas. The Internet, the various technologies, this website itself came in this Dwapara Yuga. You can ask yourself one question - why didn't Hinduism.SE came 500 years ago? Because people's mind were not capable enough to develop all these things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mJWGU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mJWGU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Shivaji&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chhatrapati Shivaji, who is believed to be an incarnation of Lord Shiva, was born at the end of Kali Yuga. He was born around 1630 and died in 1680. 19 years after his death, Kali Yuga ended. Why did Shiva chose this time? It may be because this period marked the end of Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-05T23:15:37.813" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T23:15:37.813" CommentCount="31" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9966" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="33216" CreationDate="2015-12-26T09:28:10.323" Score="11" ViewCount="4473" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know Parvati Devi killed Demon Mahishasura with help of other Shaktis by manifesting into Goddess Durga. So, Adishakti killed Mahishasura through Parvathi Devi. I think same is the case with Goddess Kaali. But on the contrary, did Lakshmi Devi or Saraswati Devi kill any demons without manifesting into Adi Shakti or Goddess Durga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-25T15:49:30.707" LastActivityDate="2022-03-25T04:03:08.120" Title="Did Goddess Lakshmi or Goddess Saraswati (not Adishakthi or Durga) kill any demons?" Tags="|lakshmi|durga|saraswati|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9968" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3612" CreationDate="2015-12-26T10:37:00.543" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Meditating the self is the oldest form of worship and when the avidya or ignorance occupies one, then he sees himself as different than god and then he starts taking births and starts worshiping. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Trinity worship each other and its according to his own spiritual level one may worship satva (Siva) or rajo (Vishnu) or tamo (bramha) guna god. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2015-12-26T10:37:00.543" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9969" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9926" CreationDate="2015-12-26T10:52:33.200" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you have a spoon(uddarina) of water worship him as Shiva. If you have a blade of grass worsip him as Ganesh. If you have a flower worship him as Vishnu, if you have kunkum, worship him as mother goddess, if you have a minute time, worship him as bramha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Water is known to pure the self. This is the reason why it is taken at sankalpam time of puja and prokshana with mantra powered water to purify the surroundings. There is practice of taking bath/drinking water to get rid of eveil thoughts and to purify the self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanathana dharma teaches the most simple and efficient ways to worship God with what one have according to his social &amp;amp; economical status. Persons according to their economical status may use golden/silver/copper or mud articles to worship God but the result depend on the concentration and their affection towards god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2015-12-26T10:52:33.200" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9970" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9960" CreationDate="2015-12-26T12:06:48.007" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;Good question. Always quoted as Sankara, but no one gives the source text. It is from Sankara's &lt;em&gt;Brahmajnanavalimala&lt;/em&gt; verse 20. It is available &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.celextel.org/adisankara/brahmajnanavalimala.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;20. brahma satyam jaganmithyA jIvo brahmaiva nAparah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  anena vedyam sacchAstram iti vedAntaDiNDimah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yo can also check from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_shankara/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sanskritdocuments&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 20&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; verse of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_shankara/brahmajna.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmajnanavalimala&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या जीवो ब्रह्मैव नापरः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अनेन वेद्यं सच्छास्त्रमिति वेदान्तडिण्डिमः ॥ २०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-26T12:44:47.820" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T12:44:47.820" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9971" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9982" CreationDate="2015-12-26T12:19:25.193" Score="4" ViewCount="325" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pranayama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pranayama&lt;/a&gt; is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitya_karma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nitya-karma&lt;/a&gt; daily activity (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbhaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kumbhaka&lt;/a&gt; pranayam is used in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhyavandanam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sandhyavandana&lt;/a&gt;) and is major part of yoga and Hinduism. What are benefits of pranayama both medicinal and spiritual aspects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4486" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-26T18:24:51.430" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T07:59:57.713" Title="What Is the major benefits Of Pranayam?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9972" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="9981" CreationDate="2015-12-26T14:12:36.130" Score="7" ViewCount="3740" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the point/story of origin of the &lt;strong&gt;Sanatan Dharma&lt;/strong&gt; and why has it been altered as &lt;strong&gt;Hindu Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4487" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-30T20:27:00.713" LastActivityDate="2023-09-30T11:30:17.610" Title="Origin of the Sanatan Dharma" Tags="|history|dharma|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9975" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-26T19:14:13.703" Score="18" ViewCount="3831" Body="&lt;p&gt;In padma purana it classifies some puranas as rajasic and tamasic, specifically it says tamasic puranas will lead to hell. I do not understand this verse, as it seems to contradict what I have known as Veda Vyasa's intentions of to provide help to those in the Kali Yuga. The way I understand tamasic puranas is that they are more appreciated by a tamasic mind, but it would seem that its effects would be to elevate a person, otherwise why would Vyasa write it? I believe the verse in padma purana is like tathaiva tamasa nirayapraptihetavah. niraya meaning the hell. It seems like this is a pretty direct statement, so I guess this means that if one believes tamasic puranas literally and does not rise above its meaning, then one will go to hell. But perhaps the potential is still there that by reading, it will cause one to go beyond? Does anyone have any practical experience with this, the tamasic puranas leading one to advaita realization and god realization?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4476" LastEditorUserId="4476" LastEditDate="2015-12-26T20:03:31.473" LastActivityDate="2024-02-05T13:59:16.953" Title="What is the purpose of tamasic purana if it leads to hell?" Tags="|padma-purana|puranas|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9976" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-26T22:29:49.240" Score="2" ViewCount="150" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just learned of Shivabalayogi's tapas of meditating for 23 hours a day for eight years. And 12 hours a day for two more years. That is the most notable tapas I have heard of. What are some other notable tapas that modern yogis have done?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4476" LastEditorUserId="4476" LastEditDate="2015-12-28T19:18:24.473" LastActivityDate="2016-03-01T19:19:10.780" Title="What are some notably difficult tapas yogis have performed in modern days?" Tags="|yoga|saint|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9977" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-27T00:47:29.340" Score="3" ViewCount="502" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am trying to understand the difference between Jeevatma and paramatma. I have gone through several articles but still not clear.I have read the explanation here - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6689/what-is-difference-between-aatma-jeevatma-and-paramatma&quot;&gt;What is difference between Aatma, Jeevatma and Paramatma?&lt;/a&gt;. I have listened to the teachings of Ramanamaharshi too. This is what I have understood and here is my question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramata and jivatma both exist inside the physical body. Paramatma is lord Krishna himself. Jivatma is the individual self which undergoes the effects of karma but not the paramatma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the Jeevatma eternal just like Paramatma? When did it come to existence? Is Jeevatma a small particle light broken from paramatma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is a self realized person able to see Jeevatma and Paramatma during meditation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Knowing the self means knowing the Jeevatma or knowing the Paramatma ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does the Jeevatma merge inside Paramatma at some point?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please help me understand these and point me to a right source&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4495" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T13:32:58.913" Title="Jeevatma and Paramatma according to Advaita philosophy" Tags="|vedanta|advaita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ClosedDate="2015-12-29T04:47:53.503" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9978" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-27T04:37:18.043" Score="6" ViewCount="4256" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can one use ghee coated Akshadhai (Akshat raw rice) for daily pooja in place of flowers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the best material to be used in absence of flowers to perform pooja?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4496" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2015-12-29T05:34:56.597" LastActivityDate="2016-01-12T12:52:30.803" Title="Alternative for flowers in daily pooja" Tags="|worship|puja|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9979" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3295" CreationDate="2015-12-27T07:09:07.743" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishnas message in Bhagvadgeeta is to be practical and not emotional. So Lord himself has set the example for us to follow. He wants us to follow KARMAYOGA.&#xA;As far as Radha is concerned, it is a myth. Radha came into existance only after Gaudiya bhakti sampraday came into existance. Original scriptures of Krishnacharitra like Srimadbhagvat, Mahabharat or Harivansh do not mention any gopi called Radha in Krishnas life.All these are written by Maharshi Vyas who is the only authority to tell you about the life of Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4497" LastActivityDate="2015-12-27T07:09:07.743" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9980" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17687" CreationDate="2015-12-27T08:20:56.313" Score="4" ViewCount="1194" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their devotional poetry in praise of Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it's the beliefs and principles embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the Alwars was known as Thirumazhisai Alwar.  He was the son of the sage Bhargava, but he was raised by tribal people and became a famous Shaivite poet, before ultimately converting to Vaishnavism.  But my question is about when Thirumazhisai Alwar lived.  As I discuss in this question, traditional Sri Vaishnava accounts say that Thirumazhisai Alwar, along with the first three Alwars, were all born in 4203 BC, almost a thousand years before the birth of Krishna!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet in &lt;a href=&quot;http://alwarsandacharyas.blogspot.com/2007/02/pey-azwar.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; from his poem &quot;Thiruchanda Virutham&quot;, Thirumazhisai Alwar says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ninrathu Enthai Ooragathu &lt;strong&gt;Irundathu Enthai Paadagathu&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Anru Vekkanaik Kidandhathu Ennilaatha Munnelaam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Anru Naan Pirandilen Pirandapin Marandilen &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ninrathum Irundhathum Kidandhathum En Nenjule&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Before I was born, He was standing in Ooragam, &lt;strong&gt;was sitting in Paadagam&lt;/strong&gt; and was lying down in Tiruvekka. At that time I was not born with wisdom; When once I was born with this wisdom, I never forgot. Therefore, the Lord left all those places and has taken permanent abode in my heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mWLJZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mWLJZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Ooragam refers to the Ulagalantha Perumal Vamana temple in Kanchipuram, and Tiruvekka refers to the Yatothkari Perumal Vishnu temple in Kanchipuram, where Vishnu stopped Saraswati from destroying Brahma's Yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm interested in Paadagam, which refers to the Pandava Thoothar temple, again in Kanchipuram.  Pandava Thoothar means &quot;messenger of the Pandavas&quot;, and it's a gigantic statue of Krishna sitting and showing his Vishwarupa form in the court of Duryodhana, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7661/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  The story of the temple is that when Arjuna's great-grandson Janamejaya was listening to the Mahabharata, he heard the incident of Krishna showing his Vishwarupa form to the Kauravas, and he wanted to see the Vishwarupa for himself.  So he went to Kanchipuram and prayed to Vishnu, and Vishnu appeared before him in the same manner that he had appeared to the Kauravas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, why does Thirumazhisai Alwar say that the Vishnu was sitting in Padagam before he was born, when Thirumazhisai is said to have been born nearly a thousand years before Krishna and the Pandava Thoothar statue only appeared in the time of Janamejaya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the rest of the verse, Thirumazhisai Alwar speaks of his symbolic birth once he attained Jnana, so is it possible that he's referring to that here too?  He could have lived a long life, and he may have only attained Jnana some time after Vishnu appeared before Janamejaya.  Another possibility is that he means that Vishnu has eternally resided in these places, even if he hadn't manifested in statue form yet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any commentaries which shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2019-04-20T04:57:59.977" Title="Why does Thirumazhisai Alwar say the Pandava Thoothar statue of Krishna is older than him?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|alwar|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9981" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9972" CreationDate="2015-12-27T08:25:03.453" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why &quot;Hindu Dharma&quot; and &quot;Sanatan Dharma&quot; are synonym? :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, the Sanskrit term &lt;strong&gt;Sanatan&lt;/strong&gt; means eternal or ancient.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San%C4%81tan%C4%AB&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanātana Dharma (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devanagari&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devanagari&lt;/a&gt;: सनातन धर्म meaning &lt;strong&gt;&quot;eternal &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;dharma&lt;/a&gt;&quot; or &quot;eternal order&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;) has been proposed as an alternative, &quot;native&quot; name for &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hinduism&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindi&lt;/a&gt; Hindu Dharm &lt;a href=&quot;https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%82_%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;हिन्दू धर्म&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Hindu religion&quot;.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San%C4%81tan%C4%AB#cite_note-ref70cumez-5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[5]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;strong&gt;The term was mentioned and explained in depth in Vedic literature&lt;/strong&gt; (Rig Veda) (4-138) and was used during the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_revivalism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu revivalism&lt;/a&gt; movement in order to avoid having to use the term &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu&lt;/a&gt;&quot; which is of non-native (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Persian&lt;/a&gt;) origin.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San%C4%81tan%C4%AB#cite_note-san-6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San%C4%81tan%C4%AB#cite_note-7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[7]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The phrase &lt;strong&gt;dharma sanātana&lt;/strong&gt; does occur in classical &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit_literature&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit literature&lt;/a&gt;, e.g. in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manusmrti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manusmrti&lt;/a&gt; (4-138)&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San%C4%81tan%C4%AB#cite_note-manusmriti2345-11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[11]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; and in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San%C4%81tan%C4%AB#cite_note-bhagvatapurana2345-12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[12]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San%C4%81tan%C4%AB#cite_note-patton1234-13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[13]&lt;/a&gt; in a sense akin to &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;cosmic order&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%A8_%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;सनातन धर्म&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वैदिक काल में भारतीय उपमहाद्वीप के धर्म के लिये 'सनातन धर्म' नाम मिलता है। 'सनातन' का अर्थ है - शाश्वत या 'हमेशा बना रहने वाला', अर्थात् जिसका न आदि है न अन्त।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English: In vedic era, the name &quot;Sanatan Dharam&quot; is founded for the &lt;strong&gt;Dharma of Indian sub-continent&lt;/strong&gt;, The meaning of &quot;Sanatan&quot; is eternal, &lt;strong&gt;'Would remain forever'&lt;/strong&gt; i.e. which has no beginning and ending.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoted verse:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Athervaveda 10/8/23:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सनातनमेनमहुरुताद्या स्यात पुनण्रव्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Sanatan is called which is innovative/renewed even today.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rigveda 3-8-1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;यह पथ सनातन है। समस्त देवता और मनुष्य इसी मार्ग से पैदा हुए हैं तथा प्रगति की है। हे मनुष्यों आप अपने उत्पन्न होने की आधाररूपा अपनी माता को विनष्ट न करें।&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: This path/route is &lt;strong&gt;sanatan&lt;/strong&gt;. All deities and human beings are born and progressed from this....&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://haratdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%82_%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bharatdiscovery&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भारत का सर्वप्रमुख धर्म हिन्दू धर्म है, जिसे इसकी प्राचीनता एवं विशालता के कारण 'सनातन धर्म' भी कहा जाता है&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English: It is called &quot;Sanatan Dharam&quot; &lt;strong&gt;for its ancientness and hugeness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Important note from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.britannica.com/topic/sanatana-dharma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Britannica Encyclopedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanatana dharma, in Hinduism, term used to denote the “eternal” or absolute set of duties or religiously ordained practices incumbent upon all Hindus, regardless of class, caste, or sect. Different texts give different lists of the duties, but in general sanatana dharma consists of virtues such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, purity, goodwill, mercy, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, generosity, and asceticism. Sanatana dharma is contrasted with svadharma, one’s “own duty” or the particular duties enjoined upon an individual according to his or her class or caste and stage of life. The potential for conflict between the two types of dharma (e.g., between the particular duties of a warrior and the general injunction to practice non-injury) is addressed in Hindu texts such as the Bhagavad Gītā, where it is said that in such casessvadharma must prevail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The term has also more recently been used by Hindu leaders, reformers, and nationalists to refer to Hinduism as a unified world religion. &lt;strong&gt;Sanatana dharma has thus become a synonym for the “eternal” truth and teachings of Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt;, the latter conceived of as not only transcendent of history and unchanging but also as indivisible and ultimately nonsectarian.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may also refer: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why Hinduism is called Sanatan Dharma? from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/essays/dharma.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hinduwebsite&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Origin&lt;/strong&gt; from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Origins&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindupedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatan Dharma is the original name of Hinduism. - From &lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/sanatana-dharma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikidot&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%A8_%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorDisplayName="user9072" LastEditDate="2018-08-11T02:36:18.397" LastActivityDate="2018-08-11T02:36:18.397" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9982" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9971" CreationDate="2015-12-27T09:11:57.030" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are a lot of benefits of &lt;em&gt;Pranayama&lt;/em&gt;.It is a part of &lt;strong&gt;Astangik Yoga&lt;/strong&gt; and is beneficial for the both medicinal and spiritual aspects.It is divided into three parts :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Puraka&lt;/strong&gt;---------------------------&lt;em&gt;Puraka means to inhale.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kumbhaka&lt;/strong&gt;-------------------------&lt;em&gt;Kumbhaka means to retain the&lt;/em&gt; breath.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rechaka&lt;/strong&gt;------------------------- &lt;em&gt;Rechaka means to exhale.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Sprituals Benefits of Pranayama&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;strong&gt;Panchsikhacharya&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;TAPO NA PARAM  PRANAYAMAT TATO VISHUDHI MALANAAM DIPTISHCH GYANASYA ||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no other  tenacity greater than Pranayama, the scum of mind is erased by it and then light of knowledge becomes visible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pranayama clears the scum of mind and body same as we use fire to clear the scum of metals like gold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another benefit of Pranayama is stability of mind and ability to continue further in &lt;strong&gt;Astangik Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Medicinal  Benefits of Pranayama&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Reduces the frequency of breath or breathing rate.It reduces breathing rate from 15th breaths a minute to 6-7 breaths a minute.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Slow down heart rate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Reduced wear and  tear of internal organs    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Help lowering the blood-pressure &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Reduces the effects of old-age problem like headaches,stiffening muscles and joints and various others.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/kmu/kmu08.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the power of pranayama yoga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pranayama is the best method for suffering humanity to overcome diseases, conquer fear, overcome nervousness or despondency. It opens the door of Blessed Peace, it gives hope to the hopeless, power to the poor, faith to the faithless. There is no other way to control the mind, as mind is nothing without desire or thought; desires and thoughts are nothing without Prana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T07:59:57.713" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T07:59:57.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9984" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-27T19:57:59.703" Score="8" ViewCount="1254" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school.  But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya.  My question is about Vaisheshika, according to which atoms are the cause of the Universe.  The defining text of the Vaikeshika school is the Vaisheshika Sutras, composed by the sage Kanada Kashyapa.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in Adhyaya 2 Pada 1 Sutra 5 of the Vaisheshika Sutras, Kanada argues that Ether, the substance that the sky is made of, does not possess color or the other sensory attributes that other elements possess.  Now in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902605.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/12/items/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_jp2/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_0092.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Vaisheshika Sutras, Shankara Misra answers the objection that the sky appears to possess color:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it be asked, &quot;How does the perception arise that Ether is as white as curd?&quot; we reply that it is due to the impression created by the perception of the white coloura of the rays of the sun.  If it be asked &quot;How then does the perception that Ether is blue?&quot; we reply that it is due to the &lt;strong&gt;impression created in the minds of the observers who are looking at the radiance of the emerald peak lying largely extended over the south side of Sumeru mountain&lt;/strong&gt;.  It has been opined that it is due to the &lt;strong&gt;impression created by the eye when after traveling to a long distance it turns back and reaches its own pupil&lt;/strong&gt;.  This is not a sound opinion, because those who possess jaundiced eyes also have such impressions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shankara Misra discusses two potential explanations for why the sky appears blue:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It's the blue glow of the emerald peak of Mount Meru&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It's just the eye seeing a reflection of itself&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Shankara Misra accepts the first explanation and rejects the second, but my question is, does Hindu scripture offer any other explanations for why the sky is blue?  Or is this the only text that mentions this subject?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that, keeping with the rules of the site, I do not want people to engage in scientific speculation.  I just want factual references like &quot;the Vishnu Purana says the sky is blue because...&quot;,  not attempts to show that Hindu scriptures have prefigured some modern scientific theory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: The Yoga Bhashya, the commentary on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras attributed to Vyasa, &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=un4948ijr8gC&amp;amp;lpg=PA82&amp;amp;dq=sumeru%20emerald&amp;amp;pg=PA82#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;gives&lt;/a&gt; the same Meru explanation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Sumeru's] peaks are or silver, coral, crystal, gold and jewels. There the Southern portion of the sky being colored by the radiance of emerald, is blue like the leaf of blue lotus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Jambudvipa is to the south of Mount Meru, so assuming Jambudvipa is all of Earth the southern portion would cover the whole sky.  In any case, this is all the more indication that the Meru explanation might be mentioned somewhere in Hindu scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T19:19:47.990" Title="What scriptures discuss why the sky appears blue?" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|vaisheshika|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9985" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9978" CreationDate="2015-12-27T20:34:43.977" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna Says in the Gita 9.26:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;patram puspam phalam toyam&#xA;  yo me bhaktya prayacchati&#xA;  tad aham bhakty-upahrtam&#xA;  asnami prayatatmanah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;patram—a leaf; puṣpam—a flower; phalam—a fruit; toyam—water; yaḥ—whoever; me—unto Me; bhaktyā—with devotion; prayacchati—offers; tat—that; aham—I; bhakti-upahṛtam—offered in devotion; aśnāmi—accept; prayata-ātmanaḥ—of one in pure consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TRANSLATION - If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit a water, I will accept it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some believe the purport of this verse is to say this is the designation of what the Lord asks for, and therefore we should not offer other things. However, so many Saints have emphasized that it is the devotion that counts, and so I believe this verse is really emphasizing the simplicity of offering even just a leaf with devotion is okay. We should not be so concerned with following all the complexities of puja if they intrude on our devotional bhava. Swami Satyananda Saraswati is someone who has taught me this in particular, that if one is lacking the objects asked for in the puja, then offer it with your heart. I am sorry I cannot provide more specific reference than this, but his website and puja instructions are on shreemaa.org . The purpose of puja is to offer love and devotion to the divine, so if one cultivates this in the heart, then it has been said it can be more powerful than puja with the actual items. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe it is up to your own feeling of devotion. I have found in my own experience that it has changed over time. I used to try to replace the items with other things, but now I find myself doing more of manisaka puja (from the mind and heart). Do what suits you best, remember that the devotion is the primary purpose of puja, God sees that above all recipe or protocol for puja. There are many stories in Hindu lore about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Simply: The best substitute is love from your heart. How you show that love is up to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4476" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-12-29T05:58:13.803" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T05:58:13.803" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9986" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-28T00:33:31.847" Score="11" ViewCount="6040" Body="&lt;p&gt;My Guruji Sri Sri Ravi Shankar claims that Krishna worshipped the Shiva Lingam, and so did Rama. Does anyone know if this is recorded in the shastras? I have not seen it.&#xA;Sri Sri Ravishankar Said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;You will not find anything related to practice of installing idols for worship in the Bhagavad Gita or the Ramayana.&#xA;  Only the Shiva Linga (Shankar Linga) was installed. That is why only the Shiva Linga was there in the ancient period, which was worshiped by Lord Krishna, Lord Rama and everyone else. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/worshiping-gods&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/worshiping-gods&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4476" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-30T18:45:58.603" LastActivityDate="2017-04-09T01:55:42.293" Title="Where is it mentioned that Krishna and Rama Worshipped Shiva Lingam?" Tags="|krishna|rama|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9987" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9903" CreationDate="2015-12-28T00:54:52.607" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sandhya vandanam can/should be performed during ashoucham. Reference kanchi kamakoti periyavar's translations at &lt;a href=&quot;http://brahminrituals.blogspot.com/2010/12/suthakam-and-asowcham.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;brahminrituals.com&lt;/a&gt; : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asowcham or Pelai:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  During this period except bath and sandhya&#xA;  vandanam nothing else should be performed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also completely lists who all have the ashoucha dosham and for how long.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As long as you do not come into contact with ritu women by touch, food, clothes etc., you can do sandhya. If you do come into contact, same rules as any other time applies - bathe from head to toe (which must be done everyday by men anyways - &lt;a href=&quot;https://kalebala.wordpress.com/2008/03/23/sadachara-smruti-stree-dharma/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;reference1&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Veda%20Dharma%20Shastra%20Paripalana%20Sabha%20Morning%20Routine.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;reference2&lt;/a&gt;) before doing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2015-12-29T04:04:00.643" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T04:04:00.643" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9989" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-28T05:59:51.643" Score="13" ViewCount="1261" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8PW3J.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Manava Shrauta Sutras, a text associated with the Yajur Veda, a certain ritual for worshiping Shiva is described.  As part of this ritual, the five-headed form of Shiva is supposed to be worshipped.  For those who don't know, the five heads of Shiva are known as Sadyojata, Vamadeva, Aghora, Tatpurusha and Ishana, and according to the Shaiva Agamas they correspond to the five gods Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheshwara, and Sadashiva.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1UACm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1UACm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the Manava Shrauta Sutras describe the five heads slightly differently:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With the following five verses the invitation of Rudra is performed.  With the verse: &quot;Newly born etc.&quot; ... [Sadyojata] is the seer, Brahma[] his deity, the trishtubh his metre, the swan his riding animal, his face westward, the earth his element[.]... With the verse: &quot;Wealth today, O Savitr, etc.&quot; ... Vamadeva is his seer, Vishnu his deity, the trishtubh his metre, Garuda his riding animal, his face northward, the water his element[.]... With the verse: &quot;Homage to Rudra...&quot; [Aghora] is his sage, Rudra his deity, the brihati his metre, the bull his riding animal, his face Southward, the heat his element[.]... With the verse &quot;We worship the primeval spirit...&quot; [Tatpurusha] is his seer, Surya his deity, the gayatri his metre, the horse his riding animal, his face eastward, the wind his element[.]  &lt;strong&gt;With the verse &quot;Him who rules&quot; ... [Ishana] is his seer, sound his deity, the brihati his metre, the tortoise his riding animal, his face upward, the ether his element[.]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As expected, Sadyojata, Vamadeva, and Aghora are said to correspond to Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra.  Tatpurusha, on the other hand, is associated here with Surya the sun god, not with Maheshwara.  But I'm interested in the fifth figure mentioned.  My question is, who is the deity that Ishana is said to correspond to, the one referred to as Sabda or &quot;sound&quot; who rides on a tortoise?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the word &quot;Sabda&quot; used in the sense of Sabda Brahman, a concept found in Kashmiri Shaivism according to which vibrations of sound are equated with the supreme Brahman?  In any case, as I mentioned above, according to the Shaiva Agamas Ishana corresponds to Sadashiva, although considering that there was a difference in the Tatpurusha case that's not a guarantee.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures that describe Sadashiva as having a tortoise as his Vahana?  If so, what is the reason for that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2019-10-07T04:01:31.280" LastActivityDate="2021-02-28T10:04:45.527" Title="Does Sadashiva ride a tortoise?" Tags="|vedas|shiva|rituals|shaivism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="9995" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9986" CreationDate="2015-12-28T09:21:13.800" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga123/yuddha_123_frame.htm#Verse19&quot;&gt;Verse 19 of Yuddha Kanda - Book Of War, Chapter [Sarga] 123, Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Rama himself says that he worshiped Mahadeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एतत् कुक्षौ समुद्रस्य स्कन्धावारनिवेशनम् || ६-१२३-१९&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अत्र पूर्वं महादेवः प्रसादमकरोत्प्रभुः&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;See this island, located in the middle of the ocean, where my troops were stationed. At this place, the lord Shiva (the supreme deity) formerly bestowed his grace on me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually the above verse of Valmiki Ramayana is describing this event which is described in Yuddha Kanda of Adhyatma Ramayana of Brahmanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सेतुमारभमाणस्तु तत्र रामेश्वरं शिवम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  संस्थाप्य पूजयित्वाह रामो लोकहिताय च ॥ १॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रणमेत्सेतुबन्धं यो दृष्ट्वा रामेश्वरं शिवम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्रह्महत्यादिपापेभ्यो मुच्यते मदनुग्रहात् ॥ २॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सेतुबन्धे नरः स्नात्वा दृष्ट्वा रामेश्वरं हरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सङ्कल्पनियतो भूत्वा गत्वा वाराणसीं नरः ॥ ३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आनीय गङ्गासलिलं रामेशमभिषिच्य च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  समुद्रे क्षिप्ततद्भारो ब्रह्म प्राप्नोत्यसंशयम् ॥ ४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  During the construction of bridge, &lt;strong&gt;Rama installed Mahadev and worshipped him calling by the name Rameshwar Mahadev.&lt;/strong&gt; He described his glory, “If someone visits the bridge (setubandh), and prostrates to Rameshwar mahadev he is liberated of the severest of sin of killing Brahmins.” Rama stated, “One should bathe here in sea, and having darshan of Rameshwar Mahadev, he should go to kashi, to fetch ganga water. Offering the Ganga water of Kashi over Rameshwar Mahadev, he should throw the pot in sea. Thus, he is bound to get salvation.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also In &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12959/6/Chapter4_1309-1388p.pdf&quot;&gt;chapter 31 Greatness of Ramesvara in Kotirudra Samhita of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Pg No - 1381), Rama worshiped &lt;strong&gt;Shiva's earthen image&lt;/strong&gt; to sought blessings of Lord Shiva. Shiva later at supplication of Rama, took &lt;strong&gt;Linga form&lt;/strong&gt; for devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suta said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When Rama, the devotee of Shiva, took the water and about to drink, it occurred to him at the will of Shiva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&quot; I have not yet had sight of Siva, the great lord, the bestower of all bliss. How can the water be taken in? &quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After saying this, he drank water and then &lt;strong&gt;performed the worship of Shiva's earthen image.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He worshiped Shiva performing all the sixteen ancillary services(&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puja_%28Hinduism%29#Elaborate_p.C5.ABj.C4.81&quot;&gt;Shodashopchar pooja&lt;/a&gt;) like invocation etc. with devotion according to rules obtaining.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After propitiating Shiva with obeisances, divine eulogies etc. strenously, Rama joyously prayed to Shiva with devotion.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satisfying with Rama's devotion, Shiva blessed him to be victorious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O Siva, if you are pleased, you shall stay here, O lord, to sanctify the world and to render help to people.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suta said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Thus implored &lt;strong&gt;Shiva took up the phallic image named Ramesvara&lt;/strong&gt;. It is now famous on surface of the world.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; established Bilvodakeshwara Linga as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_074.html&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Harivamsha Parva of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विल्वोदकेश्वरो नाम भवितामिहानघ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवेश्वर त्वयास्थापि देवो सिद्धोपयायन ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O the one without any sin! O lord of lords! O lord! &lt;strong&gt;I will remain here by the name of the lord Bilvodakeshvara as you installed me.&lt;/strong&gt; According to me, all requests made from here will become fruitful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also In &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12960/7/Chapter5_1893-1972p.pdf&quot;&gt;Chapter one Acquisition of sons by Sri Krishna in Vaayaveeyasamhita section two of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Pg No- 1912), &lt;strong&gt;Krishna performed Pasupata Vrata&lt;/strong&gt; under guidance of sage Upamanyu, to attain a son like Shiva. Shiva blessed him with son Samba.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When dirt of Krishna had been quelled, Upamanyu dusted him with Bhasma repeating mantras &quot;Agniriti&quot; etc. He was then made to perform&#xA;  Pasupata vrata for 12 months. Then the sage imparted him the great&#xA;  knowledge.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The divine Pasupata sages of duly completed rites surrounded him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Then at the behest of preceptor (Upamanyu), Krishna of great prowess &lt;strong&gt;performed penance&lt;/strong&gt; for attainment of son with Shiva and&#xA;  Parvati as the deity aimed aimed at.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Due to that penance, at the end of year, Lord Shiva, equipped with great splendor and accompanied by his Ganas and Parvati appeared&#xA;  there.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After bowing to Shiva of handsome features, who appeared before him for granting boons, Krishna eulogized him with palms joined in&#xA;  reverence.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Krishna of composed mind obtained his son Samba of good qualities bequeathed by Siva who was delighted by penance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Since it was Shiva accompanied by Amba, who blessed him with a son, he named Jambavati's son Samba.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atharvasiras Upanishsad describes the Pashupata vrata as that which consists of besmearing one's own body with ashes and at the same time muttering mantra — &quot;Agni is ashes, Vayu is ashes, Sky is ashes, all this is ashes, the mind, these eyes are ashes.&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashupata_Shaivism#Overview&quot;&gt;Source.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samba was later responsible for end of Yadava Race. This was the main reason Krishna worshiped  Destroyer God (Lord Shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-18T06:57:52.180" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T06:57:52.180" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9998" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9986" CreationDate="2015-12-29T04:37:05.060" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note - This answer might irritate some folks, but I'm providing references with truth as the motive.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 18 puranas, classified into 6 each of Satvika, Rajasa &amp;amp; Tamasa puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All of them were recited first by Brahma - Satvika puranas (Vishnu, Bhagavatha etc.) when sattva guna (goodness) was predominant in him, Rajasa puranas (Brahma Vaivartha, Markandeya etc.) when rajo guna (passion) was predominant, and Tamasa puranas (Shiva, Skanda etc.) when tamo guna (ignorance) was predominant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When there is contradiction among Tamasa &amp;amp; Rajasa purana, Rajasa purana takes upper hand. When there is contradiction between Rajasa &amp;amp; Satvika purana, Satvika purana takes upper hand.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If there is contradiction between Satvika puranas &amp;amp; Vedas, Vedas take upper hand&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.uttaradimath.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;task=view&amp;amp;id=87&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is mentioned in Shiva purana that Rama worshipped lingam, and some other Tamasa puranas mention that Shiva is the Supreme Lord.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Satvika puranas mention that Vishnu is the Supreme Lord e.g. in the famous Kaishika incident in Varaha purana where Nambaduvaan takes the &lt;a href=&quot;http://anudinam.org/2013/12/10/the-story-of-nampaduvan-our-singer/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;18th vow&lt;/a&gt; that he will return to the demon's clutches after praying to Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T04:37:05.060" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="9999" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9984" CreationDate="2015-12-29T04:45:22.823" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sankara says in &lt;em&gt;Vivekchudamani&lt;/em&gt; verse 195 (Swami Madhavananda translation):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But for delusion there can be no connection of the Self--which is unattached, beyond activity, and formless--with the objective world, as in the case of blueness and the like with reference to the sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Madhavananda footnotes the word 'blueness' saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Blueness&lt;/em&gt;...--The sky has no color of its own, but we mentally associate blueness with it. The blueness is in our &lt;em&gt;mind&lt;/em&gt;, and not in the sky. Similarly, limitation exists not in the Absolute Self, but in our own minds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So not taking into account any modern scientific explanation, Sankara takes the position that it is in our own minds, which is much closer to the actual scientific explanation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-30T12:49:27.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-30T12:49:27.163" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10000" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2394" CreationDate="2015-12-29T05:53:53.683" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am only adding to Be Happy's answer. I am in agreement with most of his answer. My points are in addition to his. First, the third qualification of the guru is sinlessness. The guru should be above any moral approach. This includes brahmachari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second, one cannot change gurus. As Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says in the &lt;em&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt; (Appendix A: Keshab at Dakshineswar, available here &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;) - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Sri Ramakrishna] &quot;One must not look on one's guru as a mere human being: it is Satchidananda Himself who appears as the guru. When the disciple has the vision of the Ishta, through the guru's grace, he finds the guru merging in Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;What can one not achieve through simple faith! Once there was an annaprasana ceremony in a guru's house. His disciples volunteered, according to their powers, to supply the different articles of food. He had one disciple, a very poor widow, who owned a cow. She milked it and brought the guru a jar of milk. He had thought she would take charge of all the milk and curd for the festival. Angry at her poor offering, he threw the milk away and said to her, 'Go and drown yourself.' The widow accepted this as his command and went to the river to drown herself. But God was pleased with her guileless faith and, appearing before her, said: 'Take this pot of curd. You will never be able to empty it. The more curd you pour out, the more will come from the pot. This will satisfy your teacher.' The guru was speechless with amazement when the pot was given to him. After hearing from the widow the story of the pot, he went to the river, saying to her, 'I shall drown myself if you cannot show God to me.' God appeared then and there, but the guru could not see Him. Addressing God, the widow said, 'If my teacher gives up his body because Thou dost not reveal Thyself to him, then I too shall die.' So God appeared to the guru-but only once.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Now you see, because of faith in her guru the disciple herself had the vision of God and also showed Him to her teacher. Therefore I say, 'Even though my guru frequents a grog-shop, still to me he is the embodiment of Eternal Bliss.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;All want to be the guru, but very few indeed want to be the disciple. But you know that rain-water doesn't collect on a high mound; it collects in low land, in a hollow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the question becomes what if one has determined he has taken a guru with a low character? One should then worship the guru from a distance. To do worship does not require interaction or to be in the presence of the person. One can go and mingle with others who one may determine are on a more sattwic path. If, after doing such for a while, one still wants to take another guru, then the test of the guru should be done rigorously and the fact of having already take another as a guru should be explained to the new guru upfront for his advice.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T05:53:53.683" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10001" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-29T06:13:16.320" Score="4" ViewCount="175" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism has numerous gods. So how do different gods make similar decisions for all activities? For example, one god decides today is a rainy day and another one decides today is a sunny day. Then they have conflict among them, so this means that there will be greater probability of conflicts amongst Hindu gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4511" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-29T18:19:53.190" LastActivityDate="2016-01-29T06:16:36.243" Title="Does conflicts happen among gods with their duties?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10002" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-29T07:55:22.260" Score="1" ViewCount="109" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the Story of Vishnu's incarnation Chaitanya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Bhavishya Puran  Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was an&#xA;  incarnation of Lord Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Question is What Story Behind this Incarnation Of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4486" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T07:55:22.260" Title="What is the Story of Vishnu's incarnation Chaitanya?" Tags="|vishnu|bhavishya-purana|avatars|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2015-12-29T09:11:43.887" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10003" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8410" CreationDate="2015-12-29T12:25:59.890" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shri Hanuman ji's role in &lt;em&gt;Kaliyug&lt;/em&gt; is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Protect&lt;/strong&gt; the good people.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Teach&lt;/strong&gt; Bhaktiyoga to everyone.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sources:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hanumaan Chaaleesa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भूत पिशाच निकट नहिं आवै।&#xA;महाबीर जब नाम सुनावै॥ २४ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;नासै रोग हरै सब पीरा।&#xA;जपत निरंतर हनुमत बीरा॥ २५ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;संकट तें हनुमान छुड़ावै।&#xA;मन क्रम बचन ध्यान जो लावै॥ २६ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sankatmochan Hanumaanashtak&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कौन सो संकट मोर गरीब को, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;जो तुमसे नहिं जात है टारो! &lt;br&gt; &#xA;बेगि हरो हनुमान महाप्रभु, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;जो कछु संकट होए हमारो...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="314" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T12:25:59.890" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10004" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-29T13:24:41.747" Score="2" ViewCount="1255" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just came back from a trip to India, and one of the temples I visited was the Madhya Jagannatha Vishnu temple in Thirumazhisai.  Most people only know about the Jagannatha temple in Puri (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3027/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), but there are two other Jagannatha temples in Thirumazhisai and Thirupullani.  But my question is about another feature of Thirumazhisai, namely that it's the birthplace of Thirumazhisai Alwar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jonXK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jonXK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their devotional poetry in praise of Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it's the beliefs and principles embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9980/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the Alwars was known as Thirumazhisai Alwar. He was the son of the sage Bhargava, but he was raised by tribal people and became a famous Shaivite poet, before ultimately converting to Vaishnavism.  Now given the fact that he was born in Thirumazhisai, I assumed that he would have sung about the Madhya Jagannatha temple in his poems.  But it turns out his poems never mention it, and for this reason Thirumazhisai isn't one of the Divya Desams, the 108 sacred places of Vishnu sung about in the Alwars poems which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2756/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, why did Thirumazhisai Alwar never sing about th Vishnu temple in his own home town?  Is it because of the fact that he went to Kanchipuram as soon as he converted to Vaishnavism?  I find it awfully strange that he would never wouldn't even write a single verse in praise of his birthplace and the great Madhya Jagannatha statue found there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any Sri Vaishnava works shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-03-04T15:02:48.760" Title="Why did Thirumazhisai Alwar never sing about the Thirumazhisai Jagannath temple?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10007" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-29T18:46:14.737" Score="1" ViewCount="82" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know &lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt; is King of gods so he is called &lt;strong&gt;Dev Raja&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But My Question is :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is Indra a Position or Name or a Person's Name ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank You&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4515" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-29T19:35:21.950" LastActivityDate="2015-12-29T19:35:21.950" Title="What Is Deva Raja/King of Devas (Indra) a person or a position?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|vedanta|indra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2015-12-30T05:21:32.050" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10008" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-29T18:48:05.047" Score="10" ViewCount="788" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Vedanta philosophy, the different schools of thought like &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%9F%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%83&quot;&gt;Vishishta-Advatia&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%83&quot;&gt;Advaita&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D&quot;&gt;Dwaita&lt;/a&gt; etc. agree upon the following facts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. There are constant numbers of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiva&quot;&gt;jeevatman&lt;/a&gt; in the universe/Samsara&lt;/strong&gt; (consisting of all 14 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loka&quot;&gt;Lokas&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. After &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B7%E0%A4%83&quot;&gt;Moksha&lt;/a&gt;, a jeevatman cannot return to any other state&lt;/strong&gt; (but individual can roam around if he wants to).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So looking for the future with these constraints, a time will come when all jeevatmans present in the whole creation would get &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moksha&amp;amp;redirect=no&quot;&gt;moksha&lt;/a&gt;. What would happen when such a saturation condition occurs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only solution I see is to again create more jeevatmans (since bramhan is all powerful and all pervading). Bramhan can pull this off, but why is he not allowed to create more of jeevatmans? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot;&gt;More information on Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2015-12-31T07:01:17.777" LastActivityDate="2016-04-24T11:40:44.123" Title="What will happen when all atmans get moksha?" Tags="|moksha|vedanta|advaita|brahma-sutras|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-10-09T13:00:05.253" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10009" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-29T22:26:59.233" Score="3" ViewCount="1562" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have this question troubling me since a long time, hence thought it may be a good platform to present it. On one Hand, we see Yudhishtra saying following lines towards Caste System.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira said, &quot; In human society, O mighty and highly intelligent serpent, it is difficult to ascertain one's caste, because of promiscuous intercourse among the four orders. This is my opinion. Men belonging to all orders (promiscuously) begat offspring upon women of all the orders. And of men, speech, sexual intercourse, birth and death are common. And to this the Rishis have borne testimony by using as the beginning of a sacrifice such expressions as -- of what caste server may be, we celebrate the sacrifice. Therefore, those that are wise have asserted that CHARACTER IS THE CHIEF ESSENTIAL REQUISITE. .... WHATSOEVER NOW CONFORMS TO THE RULES OF PURE AND VIRTUOUS CONDUCT, HIM HAVE I, ERE NOW, DESIGNATED AS A BRAHMANA.' (Mahabharata Aranya Parva Section CLXXIX)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, there is so much biased treatment towards Karna by the sage Parushurama and Pandavas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why was Parashurama - the great saint/Guru particular about the caste while imparting his skills ?&#xA;Why were the Pandavas also treating Karna differently due to his caste ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE: Please correct me if I had to be more detailed in my presentation of the question :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4516" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-16T12:39:34.033" LastActivityDate="2018-01-20T19:50:36.353" Title="What was the role of caste in the way Parshurama &amp; Pandavas treated Karna?" Tags="|mahabharata|caste-system|pandavas|karna|parashurama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10010" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10001" CreationDate="2015-12-30T04:51:33.733" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The gods, devas, and the elements follow the will of Isvara, they do not make independent decisions. In his commentary to &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; verse 2.3.13, Sankara says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman is described in the Srutis as the creator of everything. Again we find in them texts like &quot;From Akasa is produced air&quot; (Tai. 2.1) which declare that certain elements produce certain effects independently. So the opponent holds that there is a contradiction in the Sruti texts. Why? On account of the indicatory marks. &quot;He who inhabits the earth...and controls the earth from within&quot; etc. (Br. 3.7.3) shows that the Supreme Lord is the sole ruler, and denies all independence to the elements. Again, &quot;That fire thought,...that water thought&quot; (Ch. 6.2.3-4) shows that after reflection these elements produced the effects. This reflection is impossible for inert elements and so we are to understand that the Lord residing within these elements thought and produced the effects. Therefore the elements become causes only through the agency of the Lord, who abides within them. Hence there is no contradiction between the two texts cited in the beginning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt; (VI.107) of Vidyaranya Swami it says (Swami Swahananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sruti declares that Nature functions in fear of Isvara. He is the ruler though unattached...(Vide Taittiriya Up. 2.8.1, Katha Up. 2.3.3, Nrsimhatapaniya Up. 2...)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SO whether it is the devas or the elements, it is the Lord within them whose will is done and acting through them as agents of the Lord's will.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2015-12-30T05:48:41.097" LastActivityDate="2015-12-30T05:48:41.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10011" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9927" CreationDate="2015-12-30T05:42:58.083" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question is framed in such a manner that there is no answer. It is asking for a consensus among devotees, and Sruti is the final authority, not consensus among devotees. Any answer of consensus is opinion based as such and does not meet the guidelines for a question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt; of Sri Vidyaranya Swami (late 14th century), it says in Chapter VI. (Swami Swahananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 103: The Sruti declares that Isvara is the Lord of Jivas, and also Prakriti. He controls the Gunas too. In the Aranyaka part of the Sruti He is respectfully called the Inner Controller.&#xA;(Svetasvatara Up. 6.14, Brhadaranyaka Up. 3.7, Katha Up. 2.33...)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 104: Here too there are many philsophers who by their arguments maintain different views about Iswara. They quote suitable texts from the Sruti and interpret them according to their light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 106: As person with special nature, Isvara rules the universe. Without His rulership there would be no to regulate bondage and release.&#xA;(Svetasvatara Up. 6.16-17)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 107: The Sruti declares that Nature functions in fear of Isvara. He is the ruler though unattached. The rulership is appropriately vested in Isvara, who is not affected by sufferings, works, and so forth.&#xA;(Vide Taittiriya Up. 2.8.1, Katha Up. 2.3.3, Nrsimhatapaniya Up. 2...)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 114: The Sruti says that the form of Virat is the form of the universe, extending in all directions with an infinite number of heads and eyes. So they meditate on Virat.&#xA;(Rig Veda 1.10.90, Svetasvatara Up. 3.3) See also Gita 11. Virat is an aspect of Isvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 115. Then there are worshipers who object to the worship of Virat on the ground that according to this conception of Virat even insects and worms will have to be regarded as Isvara. Sp the four-faced Brahma, the creator, is Isvara and nobody else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 117. The Bhagavatas call Visnu the only Isvara because the lotus-born Brahma issued from the navel of Visnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 118: The Saivas on the authority of their Agamas declare Siva alone to be Isvara, as according to a tradition in the Puranas, Visnu in spite of all his efforts could not discover the feet of Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 119: The followers of the creed of Ganesa say that the elephant-faced Lord is the only Isvara for Siva in order to conquer the demons of the three cities worshiped Ganesa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 120: There are many other sects which try to declare their own favorite deity to be the the Supreme. They quote hymns from the Sruti and alleged traditions in support to their views.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 121: So every entity form the Inner Ruler to inert objects is considered Isvara by someone or other, for we find that even the sacred fig tree, the sun-plant and the bamboo etc., are worshiped by the people as family deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 122: Those who are desirous of ascertaining the real truth study the Sruti and logic. Their conclusion is the same, that Isvara is one only, and this fact we have set forth in this chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;verse 124: The correct definition of Isvara is available from the Sruti text. Then there will be no clash with even the worshipers of trees and so forth as Isvara.&#xA;(By this definition all views have been recognised and fitted in a scheme and they are shown to be in accord with the Vedic teachings.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As can be seen from the above, there has been no consensus among some of the followers of the various names of the Lord. But for those that study Sruti, there is a consensus. And what does Sruti say? Sruti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt; 1.164.46 - Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti, Truth is One, Men call It by various names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kaivalya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; verse 8 (Swami Madhavananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is Brahma, He is Shiva, He is Indra, He is the Immutable, the Supreme, the Self-luminious, He alone is Vishnu, He is Prana, He is Time and Fire, He is the Moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Niralamba Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; verses 6-20 (K. Narayanasvami Aiyar translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is the creator (Brahma)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is the preserver (Visnu)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is the destroyer (Rudra)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is Indra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is the god of death (Yama)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is the sun (Surya)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is the moon (Candra)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is the gods (Devas)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are the demons (Asuras)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are the evil spirits (Pisacas)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are the men?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are the women?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are beasts, (pasus) etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the fixed ones (sthavaras)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are Brahmanas and others?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That Brahman is Brahma, Visnu, Rudra and Indra, Yama, Surya and Candra, Devas, Asuras, Pisacas, men, women, beasts, etc., &lt;em&gt;sthavaras&lt;/em&gt;, Brahmanas and others. Here is there is no manyness in the least degree: All this is verily Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-12-31T09:45:32.097" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10013" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9927" CreationDate="2015-12-30T13:52:20.127" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is there a consensus between devotees of different deities and the followers of Advaita Vedanta concerning the question &lt;em&gt;Who is the supreme deity?&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;has found a clear answer: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no consensus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you all for your comments, explanations and answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastEditorUserId="967" LastEditDate="2015-12-31T10:35:22.807" LastActivityDate="2015-12-31T10:35:22.807" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10014" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-30T18:33:32.147" Score="4" ViewCount="391" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just came back from a trip to India, and one of the places I visited was Sri Perumbudur.  As I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9917/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, it is the birthplace of the famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya.  But my question about the Vishnu temple here, the great Adi Keshava Perumal temple.  The story of this temple is that the Bhutas, a race of ghosts who answer to Shiva, once laughed at Shiva for dancing naked in Mount Kailash, so he cursed them to go down to the Earth.  The Bhutas then went to Sri Perumbudur and prayed to Vishnu, who appeared before them and relieved them of the curse.  That is why the original name of Sri Perumbudur is Bhutapuri, or city of the Bhutas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/u8wqy.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/u8wqy.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, my question is, what scriptures describe this story of Vishnu relieving the Bhutas of Shiva's curse in Sri Perumbudur?  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/lineage.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This webpage&lt;/a&gt; claims that it's told in the Skanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Skanda Purana the mythological history of this holy place is narrated by Lord Skanda to sage Agastiya.  Once the sages residing in Naimi-saranya, approached Suta, (a disciple of Veda Vyasa) to learn about the Lord Vishnu's holy ksethras (places where Lord Vishnu had His pastimes). Suta narrated the history of Bhuta-puri (Sri Perumpudur) to the sages, as how it was original imparted by Lord Skanda to Agastiya....  Once Lord Shiva was dancing nude in the assembly of the bhutas (troll-like attendants).This amused the bhutas (trolls) who burst into laughter. Angered by their behaviour, Lord Shiva cursed them to lose the association of His abode. The disheartened bhutas approached Brahma and narrated their plight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma advised them, &amp;quot;Listen, O Bhutas! In Jambuvipa's Barata-varsa exists a holy ground south of Tirumala, known as Satya-vrata kshestra. Moving north east from Satyavrata, is Aruna-ranyam a forest, spend time there and meditate on Lord Vishnu and be redeemed of Lord Shiva's wrath&amp;quot;.  As instructed, the bhutas arrived in Aruna-ranyam and spent a thousand years in meditation of Lord Vishnu. Touched by their determination, the Lord appeared and blessed them. He then granted the bhutas their wish to be with Lord Shiva and requested His serpentine couch Adisesha to build a large pond .The Bhutas took a dip in the pond to cleanse themselves before approaching Lord Shiva.  Lord Shiva appeared in Aruna-ranyam at the request of Lord Vishnu. He accepted the Bhutas back to His abode. The Bhutas with the blessings of Lord Shiva, then built the temple city for worshipping Lord Vishnu in his Adi Kesava deity form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But where exactly is this story in the Skanda Purana?  I can't seem to find at glance; see the table of contents of the Skanda Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/m/book/details/skanda-purana-23-volumes-IDF415/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know any other scriptures that mention this the story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-02T06:13:16.307" Title="What scriptures describe Vishnu freeing the Bhutas from the curse of Shiva?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|puranas|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10015" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9972" CreationDate="2015-12-31T05:25:01.817" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term sanatana has very clearly been  defined in the above answer. It literally means &amp;quot;eternal&amp;quot;. Dharma means &amp;quot;occupation&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatana Dharma hence is translated as &amp;quot;Eternal Occupation&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before concluding the question, I consider it very important for people to understand what religion actually means, by logic and science. Without this understanding one will be dwelling either to fanaticism or mental speculation. Hence, shall never be able to understand the seemingly mythical texts which in actuality is a subset of Absolute Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This has very nicely been explained by the world's most widely published and accurately translated Bhagavada Gita, in its authentically verified &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/introduction&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;introduction&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The English word religion is a little different from sanātana-dharma.&#xA;Religion conveys the idea of faith, and &lt;em&gt;faith may change&lt;/em&gt;. One may have&#xA;faith in a particular process, and he may change this faith and adopt&#xA;another, but &lt;strong&gt;sanātana-dharma refers to that activity which cannot be&#xA;changed&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance, liquidity cannot be taken from water, nor can&#xA;heat be taken from ﬁre. Similarly, the eternal function of the eternal&#xA;living entity cannot be taken from the living entity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanātana-dharma&#xA;is eternally integral with the living entity. When we speak of&#xA;sanātana-dharma, therefore, we must take it for granted on the&#xA;authority of Śrīpāda Rāmānujācārya that &lt;strong&gt;it has neither beginning nor&#xA;end&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That which has neither end nor beginning must not be sectarian,&#xA;for it cannot be limited by any boundaries.&lt;/strong&gt; Those belonging to some&#xA;sectarian faith will wrongly consider that sanātana-dharma is also&#xA;sectarian, but if we go deeply into the matter and consider it in the&#xA;light of modern science, it is possible for us to see that&#xA;sanātana-dharma is the business of all the people of the world – nay,&#xA;of all the living entities of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please understand 2+2=4 universally. So is religion, it is valid universally. The laws of karma, the heat &amp;amp; light of fire, the liquidity of fire are universal concepts. They are religion, eternal, unchanged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, religion begins when we understand that we are also part of religion, which is, we are spirit souls, not the dying and changing body. That is why Bhagavada Gita begins with knowledge of indestructible, immortal, eternal, spirit soul. (that's us, encased within the body).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is very clear now that religion means that which has no beginning, no end, it has no boundaries. Hence religion cannot be restricted by a specific label such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islamism, Humanitariansism, Vegeterianism, Philanathropism and any -isms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are labels to help people attain self-realization as per their comforts but the terms are not Absolute Truth. We will read ahead, throughout the Vedas, there is no term such as &amp;quot;Hindu&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person born to a lawyer cannot be said to be a lawyer. Similarly, a person cannot be judged as Hindu if born in Hindu. Same for any other followings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as a gold found in America or India, is a gold, it is not American gold or Indian gold, simply gold, same chemically. Similarly, every soul is equal and beyond such designations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why &amp;quot;Hidnu Dharma&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Sanatan Dharma&amp;quot; are synonym?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It has been found being quoted by many great well known philosophers and swamis. Even in diaries of many recent saints. One such quotation is shared herewith from today's most authentic establisher of lost Vedic wisdoms, A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This word Hindu is not a Sanskrit word. It was given by the&#xA;Muhammadans (Persians). You know that there is a river, Indus, which in Sanskrit&#xA;is called Sindhu. The Muhammadans pronounce s as h. Instead of Sindhu,&#xA;they made it Hindu. So Hindu is a term that is not found in the&#xA;Sanskrit dictionary, but it has come into use. But the real cultural&#xA;institution is called &lt;em&gt;varnashrama&lt;/em&gt;. There are four varnas (social&#xA;divisions)--&lt;em&gt;brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya,&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;shudra&lt;/em&gt;--and four ashramas&#xA;(spiritual divisions)--&lt;em&gt;brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha,&lt;/em&gt; and&#xA;&lt;em&gt;sannyasa&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, in substantial, at it's naked truth, the term Hindu has recently been coined. Before that, throughout Vedic ages, there was no such terms, it was a common platform where everyone loved and obeyed instructions of the Lord for that is what religion means as confirmed throughout our Vedas. Confirming the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sa vai puṁsāṁ paro &lt;strong&gt;dharmo&lt;/strong&gt;  yato bhaktir adhokṣaje&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ahaituky apratihatā  yayātmā suprasīdati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The supreme &lt;strong&gt;occupation [dharma]&lt;/strong&gt; for all humanity is that by which men can attain to &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;loving devotional service unto the transcendental Lord&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/2/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(SB 1.2.6)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4522" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2015-12-31T05:25:01.817" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10016" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-31T05:34:13.833" Score="4" ViewCount="1124" Body="&lt;p&gt;My previous question was : &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9960/277&quot;&gt;Help me to find out the verse : “Brahma satyam jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah”&lt;/a&gt;. In which I knew that in the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmajnanavalimala&lt;/strong&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya, The verse is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या जीवो ब्रह्मैव नापरः ।&#xA;  अनेन वेद्यं सच्छास्त्रमिति वेदान्तडिण्डिमः ॥ २०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've accepted it as it is the verse which I was looking for: &quot;Brahma satyam jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah&quot; is found from Adi Shankara's scripture - Brahmajnanavalimala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But another confusing thing appeared is that many web sites say the verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Slokardhena pravakshyami yad-uktam granthakotibhih&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Brahma satyam jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/search?q=Slokardhena+pravakshyami&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;search&lt;/a&gt; it on web and you will find lots of related articles about it. &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedavedantamission.com/programs/advaita-vedanta/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Some&lt;/a&gt; of them also says it's from Vivek Chudamani. By the way, we've already &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9960/277&quot;&gt;figured-out&lt;/a&gt; that there is no verse like &quot;Brahma satyam jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah&quot; in Vivek Chudamani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know Where the verse (Slokardhena pravakshyami yad-uktam granthakotibhih...) is located in scriptures by Adi Shankaracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T12:46:04.357" Title="Looking for the source scripture for the verse &quot;Slokardhena pravakshyami&quot;" Tags="|scripture|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10018" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10029" CreationDate="2015-12-31T08:11:11.580" Score="18" ViewCount="12817" Body="&lt;p&gt;I remember reading that girls should be married within the age of 12. The intention of the question is not to incite a debate on the ideal age for marriage in today's world, but to know what our scriptures recommend. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3927" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-14T14:14:08.513" LastActivityDate="2022-10-10T11:32:05.913" Title="What is the recommended age for marriage for girls as per Shastra?" Tags="|practice|marriage|customs|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10019" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10018" CreationDate="2015-12-31T08:46:38.593" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part18/chap5.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;kamakoti.org&lt;/a&gt; - Kanchi Periyavar - &quot;Pradanam prak rtuh&quot; - before puberty, which is normally around age 12 for girls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a prayaschittam for performing after puberty. You can ask your brihaspati/purohit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The aim is to ensure that the foundation of marriage is based on innocent attraction and attachment before kama/carnal desire enters mind. In olden days, the concept of 'child marriage' did not mean 'child physical relations' which is what most people who deride it today think of.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The bride would only be sent to groom's house after puberty. Source - personal family ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-10T13:36:55.173" LastActivityDate="2016-01-10T13:36:55.173" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10022" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9094" CreationDate="2015-12-31T15:30:32.273" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Srimad Bhagavatam written by A.C Bhaktivedanta Srila Prabhupada, Lord Brahma came from navel of supreme personality of God head Sri Maha Vishnu .&#xA;Lord brahma created the four kumaraya &amp;amp; told them to take responsibility of the procreation of the universe. They did not obey him. So Lord Brahma Ji got angry &amp;amp; from his eye brows came a baby crying. That is Lord Rudra.   ( Lord Shiva )&lt;br&gt;&#xA;He is the Lord of destruction. &#xA;Lord Vishnu is the maintainer. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4529" LastActivityDate="2015-12-31T15:30:32.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10023" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7545" CreationDate="2015-12-31T16:00:31.717" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have thought about this a lot. As you noted Dwapara is second, Treta is tritiya or third. A person with basic familiarity with Sanskrit will recognize this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if the order is Satya, Dvapara, Treta, Kali. It can be counted 1,2,3,4. If it is Satya, Treta, Dwapara, Kali, it can be counted 4,3,2,1. Therefore Kali yuga is most important now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the scriptures it says that Lord Krishna only appears once every day of Brahma. It is very rare. We now happen to be in that time and place. So when the original Lord Krishna appears, the yugas become like this. This means that this Kali yuga is the most important because Lord Chaitanya has taught about Lord Krishna and how to worship him. It is very rare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="242" LastActivityDate="2015-12-31T16:00:31.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10024" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2015-12-31T18:22:07.730" Score="7" ViewCount="714" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well-known that Shiva's son Ganesha is the general of Shiva's army of Ganas. What is not as well-known, however, is that Vishnu also has an army, led by the god Vishvaksena.  The Skanda Purana describes Vishvaksena's birth in Tirupati, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9057/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. And Vishvaksena plays an important role in the Sri Vaishnava sect, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7971/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7838/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Vishvaksena is supposed to be the general of Vishnu's army, and yet I hadn't heard of Vishvaksena ever leading this army into battle.  But now I've come across such a story, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/pSuf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Sthala Purana of the world-renowned Tirmala Venkateshwara temple in Tirupati.  It talks about how three Asura brothers named Devajit, Mrityujit, and Satrujit once threatened the the three worlds, so the gods sought help from Vishnu in Tirupati, and as a result Vishnu's army led by Vishvaksena came and defeated the Asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devajit, Mrityujit and Satrujit were three brothers. They were demons, descendants of Hiranyaksha, and experts in spreading illusion. They obtained a boon from Brahma that no God could kill them. They troubled everyone and were a menace to all. Due to their atrocities, the Gods, who enjoyed a share in sacrifices hitherto, lost it. The demons usurped that. Consequently, sages could not carry on penance. Sacrifices had to be given up. The Sun did not shine. Fire did not burn. None could oppose the three demon brothers. Gods had to approach the Lord residing on Narayanachala for protection. The Lord deputed Vishwaksena to eliminate the demons. Vishwaksena, accompanied by his mighty forces and powerful chiefs, marched. He attacked the demons, who gave a fierce fight. It looked as though the sky was burning. Then Devajit released is illusory powers against Vishwasena. Vishwaksena's army fell in a swoon. But Kedhavi, a minister of Vishwaksena, who as also a master of the same craft, neutralised the powers of ie demon. Most of the demons army perished. Mrityujit then put his illusory powers into action. Satrughna, from Vishwaksena's army immediately cut off the ornaments on Mrityujit's head. A fierce battle took place. Kalagni, another minister of Vishwaksena put into action his illusory powers and destroyed most of the demons' army. The demon fell down struck by the force released by Kalagni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At last, Vishwaksena released the Narayanastra, the most powerful. It rushed to the enemy like the great fire at the time of destruction of the Universe. Oceans trembled and mountains quivered. The Gods and sages witnessing the battle thought that the world was going to end. Finally, Narayanastra reduced to ashes the demons' army and the demons. Everyone sang the praise of Vishwaksena and his army and departed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe this story if Vishvaksena defeating three Asura brothers? As I discuss here, the Sthala Purana of the Tirupati temple consists of extracts from various Puranas, so which Purana is this passage from?  This passage comes right after an account of Vishvaksena's birth, which is apparently from the Vamana Purana as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9057/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So could this story also be from the Vamana Purana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All I could find so far is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/oppiliappan/sva/v/sva024-g.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;single verse&lt;/a&gt; from the Venkateshwara Ashtotthara hymn of the Varaha Purana, which alludes to this story:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Salutations to Sri Venkatesa, who destroyed hordes of asuras, led by Devajit!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But do any scriptures actually tell the full story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, on a side note do any other scriptures mention Vishvaksena's attendants Kedhavi, Shatrughna, and Kalagni?  I discuss four of Vishvaksena's attendants in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7160/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-04-09T05:06:05.367" Title="What scriptures describe Vishnu's general Vishvaksena defeating three Asura brothers?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|sri-vaishnava|vishwaksena|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10025" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14189" CreationDate="2016-01-01T05:30:07.660" Score="16" ViewCount="155687" Body="&lt;p&gt;On what days is a haircut or shaving (Kshoura) or a nailcut allowed and on what days is it prohibited?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are they different between sampradayas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are we allowed to cut hair/beard ourselves? Or should only a barber do it (ofcourse a barber needs another barber then)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm asking this from an theoretical standpoint not practically. Even if people claim going to office as an excuse, we can follow the shastras if we want to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="12976" LastEditDate="2019-01-21T01:15:09.920" LastActivityDate="2020-12-28T20:50:06.923" Title="Shaving / Haircut / Nailcut - what days are allowed / prohibited?" Tags="|practice|customs|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10027" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9916" CreationDate="2016-01-01T18:15:21.510" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Among the attributes you mention, while there is no reference to &quot;diseaseless&quot; and &quot;brain&quot;, there is a popular verse in the Gita that refers to multiple lifetimes , attainment of wisdom and its rarity, in the context identical to that quote. It's possible Sri Paramahamsa Yogananda-ji re-paraphrased it to a more modern context and for effect of persuasion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagawad Gita, Chapter 7, Verse 19 :&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://asitis.com/7/19.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://asitis.com/7/19.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma su-durlabhah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After many births and deaths, he who is established in wisdom&#xA;  surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all&#xA;  that is. Such a great soul is very rare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While explaining the fate one who has failed in Yoga, Lord Krishna mentions continuity across births in spiritual effort and that he/she will take it up further from where they left, till they attain SamSiddhi (&lt;strong&gt;perfection&lt;/strong&gt; ) &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://asitis.com/6/43.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://asitis.com/6/43.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reference to the perfecting the human brain, may be towards the development of a keen and sharp intellect that , rather unrelentingly, differentiates between the Eternal and the Ephemeral, Nithyam and Anithyam, on a constant basis, referred to as Nithyanithya Viveka Vicharam in Bhaja Govindam, verse 30. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Part 2 of the book The Path of Sri Ramana, written by Sadhu Om, the author refers to the entire spectrum of evolution of a human mindset as akin to a school, spanning births. From the stage of animality (the lowest, i.e. kindergarden) , gradually to higher stages, such as  bargain prayers, ritualistic worship, multi-god faith, one form and one name (Ekagrata Bhakthi), Darshan of that chosen deity, and eventually, even the withdrawal of the deity so that the focus may turn to the contemplation formless Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.happinessofbeing.com/The_Path_of_Sri_Ramana_Part_Two.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.happinessofbeing.com/The_Path_of_Sri_Ramana_Part_Two.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, taking &quot;brain&quot; for its physical meaning, it has been known scientifically using electro encephalogram studies, (definitively, and not speculatively), that meditation and the dwelling on the inner consciousness changes brain activity for the better. To show that it is not a speculation, here is a reference to one of many research journal articles : (PDF)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisebrain.org/papers/MedStatesTraitsNeuroimaging.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.wisebrain.org/papers/MedStatesTraitsNeuroimaging.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swamiji, could also have been referring to &quot;man&quot;, in the sense of &quot;Man&quot;, that is Mankind, as to the collective evolution of mankind towards a state of consciousness-aware life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastActivityDate="2016-01-01T18:15:21.510" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10028" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9976" CreationDate="2016-01-01T18:30:17.450" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramana Maharishi meditated in a cellar-like temple called Pathala Lingam , which is a part of the Arunachala Temple ( A board to this effect, can still be found there. I have visited the temple). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/ramana-maharshi/at-arunachala/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/ramana-maharshi/at-arunachala/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He shifted  to an underground vault known as Patala Lingam, where the&#xA;  sunlight never penetrated. Without moving he sat deeply absorbed in&#xA;  the Self and was unaware of being bitten up by the ants and vermin&#xA;  living there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;he didn’t even realize when some devotees finally came, lifted him out&#xA;  of the pit and brought him to the nearby Subrahmanya shrine. For about&#xA;  two months he stayed in that shrine paying no attention to his bodily&#xA;  needs.  To make him eat, food had to be forcefully put into his mouth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=OH1ABAAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT55&amp;amp;lpg=PT55&amp;amp;dq=sri%20ramakrishna%20nirvikalpa%20samadhi%20fed&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=--gglDs7pZ&amp;amp;sig=ixug_Y1iPur4PyUtcAa5Vb7CcSM&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiYrtrDnYnKAhUIB44KHR2IDBMQ6AEIITAB#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=sri%20ramakrishna%20nirvikalpa%20samadhi%20fed&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Similar accounts of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/a&gt; are found in books about his years of spiritual effort. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavhari_Baba&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Swami Vivekananda's account of his meeting with one Pavahari Baba&lt;/a&gt; is quite famous and is mentioned in the various biography books on Swami Vivekananda. Pavahari Baba is said to have not come out of his cave for five years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastActivityDate="2016-01-01T18:30:17.450" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10029" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10018" CreationDate="2016-01-01T19:24:47.867" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu09.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti recommends:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;94&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A man, aged thirty years, shall marry a maiden of twelve who pleases him, or a man of twenty-four a girl eight years of age; if (the performance of) his duties would (otherwise) be impeded, (he must marry) sooner.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma says much the same thing in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A person of thirty years of age should wed a girl of ten years of age called a Nagnika. Or, a person of one and twenty years of age should wed a girl of seven years of age. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that these recommendations are more binding for the lower bound rather than the upper bound. Here is what the Mahabharata translator says in a footnote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nagnika is said to be one who wears a single piece of cloth. A girl in whom the signs of puberty have not appeared does not require more than a single piece of cloth to cover her. The mention of Nagnika, the commentator thinks, is due to an interdiction about wedding a girl of even ten years in whom signs of puberty have appeared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-01-06T08:09:06.763" LastActivityDate="2019-01-06T08:09:06.763" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10030" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-02T10:05:16.427" Score="4" ViewCount="3445" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are some synonyms for puja (पूजा) like vandana (वंदना), archana (अर्चना) and stuti (स्तुति).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any difference among them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4532" LastEditorDisplayName="user3870" LastEditDate="2016-03-06T06:59:13.500" LastActivityDate="2016-03-06T06:59:13.500" Title="What's the difference between puja (पूजा), vandana (वंदना) and stuti (स्तुति)" Tags="|gods|goddess|puja|bhakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10031" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-02T13:59:35.693" Score="4" ViewCount="1472" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every Brahmin is a descendant of sages, which is why every Gotra or clan of Brahmins has an associated list of Pravaras, a list of the sages they're descended from.  For instance, I am a Brahmana belonging to Vadhula Gotra, and my Pravaras are &quot;Bhargava, Vaitahavya, Savedasa&quot;, which means that I am descended from the sages Bhrigu, Vitahavya (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7122/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and Savedasa.  In any case, I was looking at Wikipedia’s &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravaras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;list of Pravaras&lt;/a&gt; for various Gotra, when I came across the following Pravaras for Bhargava Gotra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;19&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhargava:Bhargava,Abnavana/Tvashta/Ahabhuna,Vishvaroopa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Tvashta, also known as Vishwakarma, is the architect of the gods.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7395/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, he built Indra's city of Amaravati, Ravana's city of Lanka, and Krishna's city of Dwaraka, and he once caused the Earth to submerge!  And Vishvaroopa, also known as Trisiras was the three-headed son of Tvashta, As I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2408/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Indra killed Trisiras, and to take revenge Tvashta created a demon called Vritrasura to kill Indra.  Indra ultimately killed Vritrasura, and it is this deed that Indra was most famous for in ancient times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, why would Tvashta and Trisiras be listed in the Pravaras for Bhargava Gotra?  That means that Brahmins belonging to Bhargava Gotra are descended from them.  But Bhargava means descendant of Bhrigu, and Tvashta isn't a descendant of Bhrig at all; he's one of the Adityas or sons of Kashyapa and Aditi, as described in this chapter of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The names of the sons of Aditi are as follows: Vivasvān, Aryamā, Pūṣā, Tvaṣṭā, Savitā, Bhaga, Dhātā, Vidhātā, Varuṇa, Mitra, Śatru and Urukrama.... Racanā, the daughter of the Daityas, became the wife of Prajāpati Tvaṣṭā. By his semen he begot in her womb two very powerful sons named Sanniveśa and Viśvarūpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Tvashta would be classified as a Kashyapa, not a Bhargava.  So why would he be listed in the Pravaras for Bhargava Gotra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9017/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, I discuss a community of metalworkers and craftsmen who are considered low-caste by many people, but who claim to be Brahmanas descended from Vishwakarma.  But they're claims are considered unfounded, whereas Bhargava Gotra is a well-established Brahmana Gotra.  So I'm not sure if there's a connection.  Also, there is of course the possibility that Wikipedia has incorrect information, so does anyone know whether this set of Pravaras is mentioned in Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/SDsS&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Upodhgata Pada of the Brahmanda Purana says that Tvashta and Trisiras are the son and grandson of Bhrigu's son Sukracharya, guru of the Asuras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The mental daughter of the Manes named Somapas (imbibers of the Soma juice) was well-known by the name of Gau.  She became the wife of Shukra and gave birth to his four sons.  They were Tvashtar, Varatrin, Shanda, and Marka.... Trishiras alias Vishvarupa was the great (elder) son of Tvashtar.    He was born of Yashodhara, daughter of Virochana.  He became very famous. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can this be reconciled with the statements that Tvashta one of the twelve sons of Kashyapa and Aditi?  Was he initially born as the son of Kashyapa and then reborn as the son of Sukracharya or vice versa?  Are there any scriptures that discuss this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-23T06:54:27.917" LastActivityDate="2018-04-23T06:54:27.917" Title="Why is the divine architect Vishwakarma considered a descendant of Bhrigu?" Tags="|rishi|vedic-gods|ancestry|vishwakarma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10032" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3273" CreationDate="2016-01-02T18:15:26.393" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Where can I find the elaborated explanation on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaksha_Prashna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yaksha Prashna&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's a short book on this, in English, about 100 pages long:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A Hindu Primer: YAKSHA PRASHNA by Dr. A. V. Srinivasan (Available on &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/B007HEGPS8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Amazon.com&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Hindu-Primer-YAKSHA-PRASHNA-ebook/dp/B007HEGPS8/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Amazon.in&lt;/a&gt;)  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A free, but incomplete, version of the book is available on the publisher's website &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.periplusbooks.com/india_texts/yaksha/yp00.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you understand Telugu, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samavedam_Shanmukha_Sarma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma&lt;/a&gt; covered both Nahusha and Yaksha Prashna in good depth during his recent (April 2015) 18-day discourse on Mahabharatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/8wMhgDcmYhA?t=5376&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Nahusha Prashna on YouTube (Day 9)&lt;/a&gt; (lasts about 30 mins. from t=5376)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/JL3x7P-7eQc?t=3600&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yaksha Prashna on YouTube (Day 10)&lt;/a&gt; (lasts about 1 hour from t=3600)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-01-02T18:15:26.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10033" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-02T23:03:20.037" Score="5" ViewCount="306" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the pramaanam (reference) for dashama (10) poruthams (matching), listed &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.trsiyengar.com/id45.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the exact rules to be followed when comparing the boy's and girl's horoscopes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since horoscope is completely dependent on place and time of birth, is there any way to verify the authenticity of janma patrika (birth chart) ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2016-02-29T02:50:29.127" LastActivityDate="2016-06-27T01:15:36.487" Title="Which scripture deals with horoscope matching for marriage?" Tags="|marriage|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-01-11T06:46:40.513" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10034" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7363" CreationDate="2016-01-03T01:57:53.067" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I happened to see a clipping in television describing this configuration as 'Somaskandan'. When googled I discovered a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somaskanda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; page is dedicated for this purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xBOz2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xBOz2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An extract from it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Somaskanda is a particular form of representation of Shiva with his&#xA;  consort Uma, and Skanda as a child. This family group depiction of&#xA;  Shiva originated during the 6th-8th centuries during the period of the&#xA;  Pallava in South India. The representation shows Shiva with four arms&#xA;  and Uma, and between them the infant Skanda is shown as dancing with&#xA;  ecstasy. Over a period of time, a number of such depictions have been&#xA;  discovered from different regions which were once under the control of&#xA;  Pallavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-29T10:10:35.603" LastActivityDate="2016-06-29T10:10:35.603" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10035" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-03T06:40:52.377" Score="7" ViewCount="20358" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is an animal on Kubera's lap in the pictures. I posted one such picture below. Also, I want to know if there is a story attached to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5bTQM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5bTQM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4466" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-21T15:25:19.913" LastActivityDate="2016-08-12T10:22:29.600" Title="What is the animal on Kubera's lap? Is there a story?" Tags="|animals|kubera|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10036" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-03T06:46:45.383" Score="4" ViewCount="4858" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've read many differing stories, but exactly what Astras did Indrajit know how to use?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4533" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-30T16:55:00.307" LastActivityDate="2019-01-10T12:50:45.420" Title="What Astras were used by Indrajit?" Tags="|weapon|indrajit|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10037" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10035" CreationDate="2016-01-03T12:23:27.370" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The animal is a mongoose.&lt;/strong&gt; Here's a picture of a mongoose:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/LCSXm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/LCSXm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The putative explanation for Kubera carrying a mongoose is that he used the mongoose, which is the natural predator for snakes, to defeat the Nagas (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2964/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and that the mongoose now stores the gemstones that formerly belonged to the Nagas.  Here is what Devdutt Pattanaik says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/kubera-treasurer-of-the-gods.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kubera has a mongoose in his hand, a golden mongoose that spits out gems every time it opens it mouth. The presence of the mongoose is significant, because mongoose is the enemy of the snake and snakes, especially Nagas, were believed to produce gems on their hoods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this story is of dubious authenticity; Kubera is the king of the Yakshas, and I'm not aware of any scriptures that mention a war between the Yakshas and Nagas.  Also, the description of Kubera in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/yFWx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Vishnudharmottara Purana doesn't mention anything about a mongoose:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The wealth-giver (Kuvera) should be made of the color of the lotus-leaf, having a man as his vahana, lovely eyes, with necklace resting on the belly with a beautiful garment and a coat of mail. Two large teeth should be done in the mouth of him, who wears a beard.  His crown paining his foes should be made inclined to the left.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The goddess Riddhi, a boon-giver should be made on the left lap.  The right hand of (that) two-handed (goddess) rests on the back of the god.  Oh destroyer of foes, her left hand should be made holding a jeweled vessel and in the right hands (of Kuvera) should be made a mace and a spear. (One should make a flag raised by an emblem of lions, (and) a raised platform for the feet.). His treasure-bags should be made in the form of conch and lotus, and they should contain his treasures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The notion of his treasure bag being a mongoose seems to be a Buddhist addition; see pages 329-330 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=DbxE8zOuRbUC&amp;amp;lpg=PA330&amp;amp;dq=kubera%20mongoose%20tibetan&amp;amp;pg=PA329#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jambhala is the Buddhist counterpart of Kubera, the Brahminical god of wealth.... He is of golden complexion and is richly adorned. He has a pot-belly and holds a matulunga (citron) in his right hand while his left squeezes a nakula (mongoose).  The nakula, as noted by B. Bhattacharya, &amp;quot;is supposed to be the receptacle of all gems and jewels, and when Jambhala presses the two sides it vomits the treasures within.&amp;quot; In Tibet it is claimed that the mongoose symbolizes Kubera's victory over the Nagas, guardians of the treasures.&amp;quot; The nakula, A. Getty continues, &amp;quot;is merely a bag made of the skin of a mongoose, replacing the long narrow sack of earlier images.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suppose because Kubera worship was more common among Buddhists than among Hindus, Hindu depictions of Kubera began to be influenced by Buddhist depictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-18T04:03:00.427" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10038" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="28085" CreationDate="2016-01-03T13:23:31.380" Score="5" ViewCount="362" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Maharashtra, Hindu new year (Gudi Padawa) is celebrated by raising gudhi (much like a flag). When did this custom started? The popular explanation is that Gudi is the symbol of 'Brahm dhwaj' or 'Indradhwaj', flag of Indra raised to celebrate the day of creation. Another belief is that it's celebration of Rama's victory over Ravana. I didn't find any reference to when this custom started. Is there any mention of this custom in any of Hindu scriptures or historical texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="543" LastEditorUserId="543" LastEditDate="2019-01-14T13:17:33.587" LastActivityDate="2019-01-14T13:17:33.587" Title="Which Hindu scriptures mention Indradwaja or Brahmadwaja?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|festivals|customs|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10039" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10052" CreationDate="2016-01-03T14:56:07.843" Score="15" ViewCount="2764" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AztL2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AztL2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clip from Angkor Thom, about 1200 CE. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some early Cambodian inscriptions are written in Sanskrit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true that these Sanksrit insciptions do not use the &lt;strong&gt;Devanagari&lt;/strong&gt; script but instead the &lt;strong&gt;Khmer&lt;/strong&gt; script?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Added&lt;/strong&gt;. The inscription taken above is from the east gate of the region of the royal palast at Angkor Thom. It is written in old Khmer. In the meantime I learned that it is an oath of allegiance to king Suryavarman I from 1011 C.E.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastEditorUserId="967" LastEditDate="2016-06-24T19:34:43.927" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T19:34:43.927" Title="Which scripts have been used to write Sanskrit?" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10040" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10039" CreationDate="2016-01-03T15:58:29.783" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit was originally written in Brahmi script. Devanagari evolved from Brahmi.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_alphabet&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Khmer is also a derivative of Brahmi.&lt;/a&gt;. I am not aware of a record of Devanagari being derived from Khmer. It is likely that Khmer is a variety of Prakrit rather than Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2016-01-03T15:58:29.783" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10042" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10030" CreationDate="2016-01-04T05:21:00.593" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a good question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me first state the authentic 9 processes of the topmost yoga system (Bhakti Yoga) under which these processes are recommended:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prahlāda Mahārāja said: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1)Hearing and &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2)chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities,&#xA;  paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Viṣṇu, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3)remembering them, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4)serving the lotus feet of the Lord, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5)&lt;strong&gt;offering the Lord respectful worship&lt;/strong&gt; with sixteen types of&#xA;  paraphernalia,   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6) &lt;strong&gt;offering prayers to the Lord&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7) becoming His servant, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8) considering the Lord one’s best friend, and &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9) surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with&#xA;  the body, mind and words)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;—these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service. One who&#xA;  has dedicated his life to the service of Kṛṣṇa through these nine&#xA;  methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has&#xA;  acquired complete knowledge. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/7/5/23-24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;(SB&#xA;  7.5.23-24)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of the 9 processes, hearing and chanting are considered to be the seed of rest 7.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Number 5 is archna(अर्चना) or worshiping the Deities of Lord Vishnu, which is described in proper detail and followed in some temples completely. The articles generally used are incense stick, lamp, flowers, water, a handkerchief, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Number 6 is vandanam, which is offering prayers to Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The term puja(पूजा) is a broad term. It's equivalent translation is &quot;worship&quot;. This can be one of 9 forms above, but generally as per social norms, in Hindu civilization, this directs to archanam (number 5).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In technical terms, as already explained it can be one of above 9. Worship is not the external process of offering archana to Deities, it means, worshiping or glorifying The Supreme Personality Vishnu or His representatives or expansions from the heart in a favorably devotional mood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example - Vyasa Puja (Worshiping the spiritual master (guru) as representative of Vyasadeva, the literary incarnation of Krishna Himself as per SB 1.1.7). Govardhan-Puja, etc. not only invloves archanam but various other items such as their glorification.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;stuti(स्तुति), or Vedic Hymns, as I research is same as vandanam or a particular category of vandanam that 'praise' Krishna (Eg. Kunti stuti, Brahma stuti, etc.) which are nothing but prayers offered by them to glorify Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Sanskrit is very technical, grammatical and rich language, one word is used in various contexts, which are deep wisdom individually. One such reference where stuti is categorized as praise to Lord is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/11/34-41&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;(SB 11.11.34-41)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4522" LastActivityDate="2016-01-04T05:21:00.593" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10043" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7411" CreationDate="2016-01-04T07:39:47.053" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said in &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavata.org/canto10/chapter59.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purans&lt;/a&gt; that Narakāsura was the son of Dharti,and Lord Himself in(Varaha Avtar third avtar of vishnu) &lt;strong&gt;Born In Dwapara Yuga&lt;/strong&gt;. But he became a demon due to the bad association of BāṇaSura son of Bali. An atheist is called a demon, and it is a fact that even a person born of good parents can turn into a demon by bad association. Birth is not always the criterion of goodness; unless and until one is trained in the culture of good association, one cannot become good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;from &lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam 3.3.6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sutaṁ mṛdhe khaṁ vapuṣā grasantaṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dṛṣṭvā sunābhonmathitaṁ dharitryā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;āmantritas tat-tanayāya śeṣaṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dattvā tad-antaḥ-puram āviveśa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narakāsura, the son of Dhartī, the earth, tried to grasp the whole sky, and for this he was killed by the Lord in a fight. His mother then prayed to the Lord. This led to the return of the kingdom to the son of Narakāsura, and thus the Lord entered the house of the demon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/59/2-3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Shri Krishna Killed Narkasura  &lt;strong&gt;SB 10.59.2-3:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-04T07:39:47.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10044" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-05T02:43:54.120" Score="3" ViewCount="101" Body="&lt;p&gt;Among the major texts of Hinduism, Gita is one of the most accepted texts. It is sung by the Lord Krishna, and in it He says surrender unto Him. &#xA;Do worshippers of Shiva read the Gita as much as Vaishnavas? What are their most important texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3547" LastActivityDate="2016-01-05T02:43:54.120" Title="What are the major texts of Shaivites?" Tags="|shiva|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10047" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-05T10:15:52.003" Score="4" ViewCount="393" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/4144/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Shiva's son Kartikeya, AKA Skanda or Muruga, has two wives, Valli and Devasena.  Now I just came back from a trip to India, and one of the places I visited was the Thirupparamkunram Kartikeya temple, which is the place where Kartikeya married Devasena.  For those who don't know, Devasena was the daughter of Daksha, and Indra took it upon himself to find a suitable husband for her.  Indra was in need of a general at the time, and he decided that only the Deva Senapati or general of the gods would be fit to be the Devasena Pati or husband of Devasena.  After Kartikeya was born and had proven himself in battle, Indra gave him Devasena's hand in marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NL6rg.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NL6rg.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what scriptures mention that Kartikeya's marriage to Devasena happened in Thirupparamkunram?  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03228.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata just says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Performer of a thousand sacrifices then thought of Devasena, whom he has rescued before. And considering that this being (Skanda) was undoubtedly destined to be the husband of this lady by Brahma himself, he had her brought there, dressed her with the best apparel. And the vanquisher of Vala then said to Skanda, 'O foremost of gods, this lady was, even before thy birth, destined to be thy bride by that Self-existent Being [Brahma]. Therefore do thou duly accept her lotus-like beautiful right hand with invocation of the (marital) hymns.' Thus told, he duly married her. And Vrihaspati learned in hymns performed the necessary prayers and oblations. She who is called Shashthi, Lakshmi, Asa, Sukhaprada, Sinivali, Kuhu, Saivritti, and Aparajita, is known among men as Devasena, the wife of Skanda. When Skanda became united to Devasena in indissoluble bonds of matrimony, then the gods of prosperity in her own personal embodiment began to serve him with diligence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any scriptures which mention the location of the marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Thirupparamkunram is the Tamil name for the place, but is there a Sanskrit name for it?  That may help finding references to in scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-03-13T16:14:49.280" Title="What scriptures mention the location of Kartikeya's marriage to Devasena?" Tags="|mahabharata|temple|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10048" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10058" CreationDate="2016-01-05T11:34:30.903" Score="5" ViewCount="2606" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know if a person is maanglik (a person with kuja doṣa), is it a good sign or bad. If bad, what problems one will face in life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4539" LastEditorUserId="20968" LastEditDate="2023-03-06T18:19:38.217" LastActivityDate="2023-03-06T18:19:38.217" Title="what does being maanglik means. Is it bad or good?" Tags="|belief|marriage|astrology|navagraha|kundali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10049" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14126" CreationDate="2016-01-05T14:11:09.017" Score="7" ViewCount="5805" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently read an incident in Vishnu Purana which says that once sage Vishwamitra plotted and got sage Vashista's son killed by some asur. Due to this sage Parashar, who is grandson of sage Vashistha and father of sage Vyasa (Krishna Dwaipayan), got furious and did a yagna which could have eradicated all of the asurs but was stopped eventually by his grandfather. I wanted to know the details about this incident like who was the son of sage Vashishtha and why and how did sage Vishwamitra plotted to kill him. Also, did Vishwamitra had to do anything to get rid of the sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the reference text from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp035.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paráśara replied, Well inquired, pious Maitreya. You recall to my recollection that which was of old narrated by my father's father, Vaśisht́ha. I had heard that my father had been devoured by a Rákshas employed by Viswámitra: violent anger seized me, and I commenced a sacrifice for the destruction of the Rákshasas: hundreds of them were reduced to ashes by the rite, when, as they were about to be entirely extirpated, my grandfather Vaśisht́ha thus spake to me: Enough, my child; let thy wrath be appeased: the Rákshasas are not culpable: thy father's death was the work of destiny. Anger is the passion of fools; it becometh not a wise man. By whom, it may be asked, is any one killed? Every man reaps the consequences of his own acts. Anger, my son, is the destruction of all that man obtains by arduous exertions, of fame, and of devout austerities; and prevents the attainment of heaven or of emancipation. The chief sages always shun wrath: he not thou, my child, subject to its influence. Let no more of these unoffending spirits of darkness be consumed. Mercy is the might of the righteous 12.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;p. 5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being thus admonished by my venerable grandsire, I immediately desisted from the rite, in obedience to his injunctions, and Vaśisht́ha, the most excellent of sages, was content with me. Then arrived Pulastya, the son of Brahmá 13, who was received by my grandfather with the customary marks of respect. The illustrious brother of Pulaha said to me; Since, in the violence of animosity, you have listened to the words of your progenitor, and have exercised clemency, therefore you shall become learned in every science: since you have forborne, even though incensed, to destroy my posterity, I will bestow upon you another boon, and, you shall become the author of a summary of the Puráńas 14; you shall know&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;p. 6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;the true nature of the deities, as it really is; and, whether engaged in religious rites, or abstaining from their performance 15, your understanding, through my favour, shall be perfect, and exempt from). doubts. Then my grandsire Vaśisht́ha added; Whatever has been said to thee by Pulastya, shall assuredly come to pass.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-10-19T13:36:11.580" Title="Why and how Vishwamitra plotted to kill sage Vashistha's son?" Tags="|vishnu-purana|vashishta|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10050" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10077" CreationDate="2016-01-05T19:07:05.097" Score="4" ViewCount="3772" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the differences and similarities between Sikhism and Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4440" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-05-03T04:44:41.663" LastActivityDate="2018-05-03T04:44:41.663" Title="What are the differences and similarities between Sikhism and Hinduism?" Tags="|other-religions|sikhism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10052" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10039" CreationDate="2016-01-06T06:44:16.720" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit originated as an oral language i.e. it was never penned down for the most of it's life. Hence, it doesn't have a writing system of it's own. During it's life cycle, various scripts have been used to write Sanskrit including many regional Indian tongues and most recently &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Alphabet_of_Sanskrit_Transliteration&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Roman script&lt;/a&gt; .&#xA;The earliest occurrence of Sanskrit in written form is in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmi_script&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmi script&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As wikipedia states,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmi evolved into a multiplicity of &lt;em&gt;Brahmic&lt;/em&gt; scripts, many of which&#xA;were used to write Sanskrit. Roughly contemporary with the &lt;em&gt;Brahmi&lt;/em&gt;,&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Kharosthi&lt;/em&gt; was used in the northwest of the subcontinent. Sometime&#xA;between the fourth and eighth centuries, the Gupta script, derived&#xA;from &lt;em&gt;Brahmi&lt;/em&gt;, became prevalent. Around the eighth century, the &lt;em&gt;Śāradā&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;script evolved out of the Gupta script. The latter was displaced in&#xA;its turn by Devanagari in the 11th or 12th century, with intermediary&#xA;stages such as the &lt;em&gt;Siddhaṃ&lt;/em&gt; script. In East India, the &lt;em&gt;Bengali&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;alphabet, and, later, the &lt;em&gt;Odia&lt;/em&gt; alphabet, were used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the south, where Dravidian languages predominate, scripts used for Sanskrit&#xA;include the &lt;em&gt;Tamil&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Kannada&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Telugu&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;Malayalam&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Grantha&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;alphabets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is very possible that in Cambodia, Sanskrit was written in Khmer script because Sanskrit has been penned down in the regional tongue/script for millennia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-06T06:44:16.720" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10053" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7060" CreationDate="2016-01-06T07:03:13.167" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are free to do whatever you want provided you are willing to pay the karmic consequences. You can also learn about other religious systems but you should remember Vyasa's advice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa says, '..The rejection of one's own creed, the practice of other&#xA;  people's creed, ......- these all have been pronounced by persons&#xA;  conversant with duties to be acts that no one should do.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva, Section XXXIV-XXXV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-01-06T07:03:13.167" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10054" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="111" CreationDate="2016-01-06T07:14:05.933" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer to this question is to be found in Swami Tapasyananda's insightful explanation of Gita 4.11 which says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Partha! Whosoever worships Me through whatsoever path, I verily&#xA;  accept and bless them in that way. Men everywhere follow My path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Tapasyananda in his Commentary on the Gita says the following on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'This verse is the fundamental tenet of the universal religion.&#xA;  Wherever  worship is done, only the one Supreme Being is worshipped.&#xA;  No one, except the perfected sage, can worship Him in His fullness,&#xA;  since the human mind can grasp only limited aspects of Him. The more&#xA;  an individual or a community is evolved, the more noble and&#xA;  comprehensive will be their conception of the Deity. But the less&#xA;  evolved man too is adoring the same Deity, grasping such aspects of&#xA;  His as his undeveloped mind would allow. It is just like various forms&#xA;  being chipped from a huge block of marble. The more skilled the&#xA;  workman, the more artistic will be the forms chipped out of the block.&#xA;  Even if it is crude, it is of the same block. Such are the various&#xA;  conceptions of the Deity; none can claim that his conception embraces&#xA;  the whole of Him, because He cannot be contained within the limitation&#xA;  of a mind, as a bottle cannot contain the whole of the sea. He reveals&#xA;  only what one is fit to receive. So according to the stages of human&#xA;  evolution, there will be different conceptions of the Deity, and the&#xA;  followers of one, even if they think theirs is more refined, need not&#xA;  look down upon others as heathens or Kaffirs worshipping false&#xA;  Deities, and consider themselves alone as the followers of the true&#xA;  Deity. For whatever the path, God approaches man through that path,&#xA;  and if the faith of the votary is genuine, he will be led to higher&#xA;  and higher forms of worship. So the followers of every religion must&#xA;  have respect for, and have acceptance of, the faith and form of&#xA;  worship of other religions in spite of the differences that are sure&#xA;  to prevail in their ideologies and practices. For it is the same God&#xA;  that is worshipped by them all. Just as all rivers, in spite of their&#xA;  divergent courses, lead to the same ocean, so do all faiths lead to&#xA;  Him, i.e., take one to the same God who inspires them all. This Gita&#xA;  teaching has been proclaimed to the modern world by Sri Ramakrishna in&#xA;  his saying: &quot;As many faiths, so many paths&quot;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavad Gita translated by Swami Tapasyananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above interpretation of Gita 4.11 does not mean that Hindus regard all religions to be same or of equal value as can be seen from the following quote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You must remember that humanity travels not from error to truth, but&#xA;  from truth to truth; it may be, if you like it better, from lower&#xA;  truth to higher truth, but never from error to truth. Suppose you&#xA;  start from here and travel towards the sun in a straight line. From&#xA;  here the sun looks only small in size. Suppose you go forwards a&#xA;  million miles, the sun will be much bigger. At every stage the sun&#xA;  will become bigger and bigger. Suppose twenty thousand photographs had&#xA;  been taken of the same sun, from different standpoints; these twenty&#xA;  thousand photographs will certainly differ from one another. But can&#xA;  you deny that each is a photograph of the same sun? So all forms of&#xA;  religion, high or low, are just different stages towards that eternal&#xA;  state of light, which is God Himself. Some embody a lower view, some a&#xA;  higher, and that is all the difference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, IV, p147&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why are Abrahamic faiths so strict about visiting places of other religions? The answer is that monotheism of Abrahamic faiths is really my-theism. It is either my way or the highway.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2016-01-30T06:38:32.447" LastActivityDate="2016-01-30T06:38:32.447" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10056" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-06T12:46:04.807" Score="4" ViewCount="126" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know, there are 18 Puranas, and many more Upa Puranas.&#xA;Nearly all of them begin in the same way, namely: Sarga and Visarga - Creation and Secondary Creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And most Puranas begin with Shaunaka asking Ugrashrava Sauti, &quot;Please describe to us the glories of [insert name(s) here].&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if most Puranas are a conversation between Shaunaka and Sauti, how come there are variations in the same creation stories and other stories in each Purana? Like wouldn't the Rishis listening to them say, &quot;Hey! Yesterday you said this happened, today you are saying something else happened!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How are these variations justified?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I've a secondary question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand that how much ever we describe the glories of the Lord, they always sound fresh, but just because of that wouldn't the assembled Rishis get bored of listening again to the same story of creation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T05:55:14.620" LastActivityDate="2017-01-13T05:55:14.620" Title="If most Puranas are a conversation between Shaunaka and Sauti, how is that we see variations in creation and other stories?" Tags="|puranas|vyasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2017-01-13T05:56:50.757" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10057" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10060" CreationDate="2016-01-06T13:18:18.733" Score="32" ViewCount="37776" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since long time I've heard that the number &lt;strong&gt;zero&lt;/strong&gt; was invented by the great Indian mathematician &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryabhata&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aryabhata&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I have two examples from Ramayana and Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana, Ravana had 10 heads.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, in Mahabharata, we have the 100 Kauravas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if zero was invented by Aryabhata in the era of Kaliyuga (according to Hindu panchānga) how does that make Ramayana and Mahabharata, the tales of previous yugas i.e., Treta yuga and Dwapara yuga respectively?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So effectively my question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How could ancient Hindus use the numbers 10 and 100 before the invention of zero?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2494" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-07-15T17:10:20.960" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T09:04:38.453" Title="If Aryabhata invented zero in Kaliyuga, how could Hindus of earlier yugas describe Ravana as having 10 heads and Kauravas were 100 in number?" Tags="|mahabharata|vedas|ramayana|calendar|panchang|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10058" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10048" CreationDate="2016-01-06T22:15:30.467" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manglik is a person with Kuja dosha or Mangal dosha or Chevvai dosha. When mars is placed in 1,2,4,7,8 or 12th place from Sukra(Venus), Chandra(Moon) or lagna, this dosha appears in one's horoscope. It isn't any bad sign or bad omen. Its just a different astrological combination that occurs to few people based on their time and date of birth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This dosha usually comes into discussion during marriage proposals. It is said that a person with this dosha should usually marry another manglik because their partnership would be great and if not there might be problems in their married life. Also sometimes marriage can happen late for these kind of horoscopes but I dont think its any kind of bad sign. That can be because of finding a suitable match with dosha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good Things: &#xA;People with this dosha are tend to possess chivalry, valour, courage, fearlessness, strength, a sense of purpose in life, discipline and a fiery temperament according to some article.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bad things: &#xA;Not sure but heard somewhere that depending on Mars position in their horoscope, person with mangal dosha can have different issues like bad temper, less emotional bonding, health issues etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ganeshaspeaks.com/article/MANGAL-DOSHA-SIGNIFICANCE.action&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.ganeshaspeaks.com/article/MANGAL-DOSHA-SIGNIFICANCE.action&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4517" LastEditorUserId="4517" LastEditDate="2019-07-19T12:43:32.677" LastActivityDate="2019-07-19T12:43:32.677" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10060" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10057" CreationDate="2016-01-07T06:34:19.067" Score="26" Body="&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I feel the your doubt is about representation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look at the history of representation, it starts with the story of people representing numbers with straight lines, and crossing them after sometime.&#xA;Roman Numerals for example did not originally have 0. Multiplication and division might have possibly be done in form of addition and subtraction and if you look closely,you will not feel the importance of zero in them. Its implicit, why would anyone add nothing to a sum, or subtract nothing from the sum, the resultant will remain same, won't it?&#xA;So simple calculation is not a problem. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aryabhatt defined the value of 0/0 as 0 which is not in the case of modern definition. So it is possible that there was no such thing as zero and the calculation might have been totally dependent over some other notation as blanks dots etc.When you define something, does it not inherently implies 2 scenarios 1&gt;That the one who defines is either correcting the value of a previously held concept &#xA;2&gt;He might possibly be defining his own standard to facilitate correct calculation. &#xA;**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Hence it is difficult to jump to conclusions and say that zero was there during the time when ramayana or mahabharata was written.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is an excerpt from wikipedia:&#xA;&lt;em&gt;The concept of zero as a digit in the decimal place value notation was developed in India, presumably as early as during the Gupta period (c. 5th century), with the oldest unambiguous evidence dating to the 7th century.[12]&#xA;The Indian scholar Pingala (c. 200 BC) used binary numbers in the form of short and long syllables (the latter equal in length to two short syllables), a notation similar to Morse code.[13] Pingala used the Sanskrit word śūnya explicitly to refer to zero.[14]&#xA;The earliest text to use a decimal place-value system, including a zero, the Lokavibhāga, a Jain text surviving in a medieval Sanskrit translation of the Prakrit original, which is internally dated to AD 458 (Saka era 380). In this text, śūnya (&quot;void, empty&quot;) is also used to refer to zero.[15]&#xA;The origin of the modern decimal-based place value notation can be traced to the Aryabhatiya (c. 500), which states sthānāt sthānaṁ daśaguṇaṁ syāt &quot;from place to place each is ten times the preceding&quot;,[16][16][17][18]&#xA;The rules governing the use of zero appeared for the first time in the Brahmasputha Siddhanta (7th century). This work considers not only zero, but negative numbers, and the algebraic rules for the elementary operations of arithmetic with such numbers. In some instances, his rules differ from the modern standard, specifically the definition of the value of zero divided by zero as zero.[19]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So your doubt about calculation of 10 and 100 can be easily attributed to the above fact of simple addition and calculation.&#xA;Now what remains is the representation part. So representation could be in various bases and various forms in the same base.In Ancient india, prakrit, sanskrit etc were used and they do have a good representation of numbers. If you want an example:&#xA;Romans use the letter &quot;C&quot; to denote 100 and 'X' to denote 10 in decimal notation.&#xA;In hexadecimal 100 is written as 64. &#xA;So it can easily be seen that in the olden days, there might be a whole different representation for numbers with zeros. &#xA;You can go to the following link to know more if you want.&#xA;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_(number)&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_(number)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;I hope i answer you question.&#xA;If any doubts, feel free to question me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4565" LastEditorUserId="4565" LastEditDate="2016-01-08T07:24:21.690" LastActivityDate="2016-01-08T07:24:21.690" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10061" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-07T08:05:26.320" Score="13" ViewCount="9406" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu's Sudarshan Chakra is a very powerful weapon. Most of Vishnu's battles were won through the Chakra. Now, I want to know what were the instances in which Sudarshan Chakra had to face defeat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have also heard that Hanuman once ate up the chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-19T07:53:08.317" LastActivityDate="2020-06-19T07:53:08.317" Title="Sudarshan Chakra's failures" Tags="|vishnu|sudarsana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10062" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10057" CreationDate="2016-01-07T08:22:18.677" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aryabhata&amp;amp;oldid=756076069#Place_value_system_and_zero&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Place value system and zero&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The place-value system, first seen in the 3rd-century Bakhshali Manuscript, was clearly in place in his work. While he did not use a symbol for zero, the French mathematician Georges Ifrah argues that knowledge of zero was implicit in Aryabhata's place-value system as a placeholder for the powers of ten with null coefficients.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;However, Aryabhata did not use the Brahmi numerals&lt;/strong&gt;. Continuing the Sanskritic tradition from Vedic times, he used letters of the alphabet to denote numbers, expressing quantities, such as the table of sines in a mnemonic form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Zero was available at that time too but with a different definition, Aryabhatta gave a perfect and universally accepted definition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4566" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-13T17:40:32.950" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10065" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10989" CreationDate="2016-01-07T10:56:05.623" Score="1" ViewCount="100" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story of the king &lt;strong&gt;Narishyant&lt;/strong&gt; the eldest son of &lt;strong&gt;King Marut&lt;/strong&gt;?&#xA;In Which yuga he was born?&#xA;Who was his mother&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Sukesha-&lt;/strong&gt; the daughter of Kekaya or &lt;strong&gt;Saindhavi-&lt;/strong&gt; the daughter of Sindhuraaj or &lt;strong&gt;Vayushmati-&lt;/strong&gt; the daughter of Chediraaj?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-02T18:57:11.623" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T10:29:25.500" Title="Who was King Narishyant?" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10066" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-07T11:23:00.793" Score="7" ViewCount="528" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Ganesha Purana, there are four incarnations of Lord Ganesha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahotkata&lt;/strong&gt; (Krita Yuga)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shri Mayureshwar&lt;/strong&gt; (Treta Yuga)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shri Gajanana&lt;/strong&gt; (Dwapara Yuga)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dhuraketu&lt;/strong&gt; (Kali Yuga)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Mudgal Purana, there are eight avatars of Lord Ganesha:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Vakratunda, Ekadanta, Mahodara, Gajanana, Lambhodara, Vikata, Vighnaraja, Dhoomravarna.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I am totally confused as to which Purana is right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T13:15:52.797" LastActivityDate="2018-08-10T12:10:17.203" Title="Incarnations of Lord Ganesha?" Tags="|avatars|ganesha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10067" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10068" CreationDate="2016-01-07T12:17:04.067" Score="2" ViewCount="168" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know Rishi (my guess is that Rishi's are agniras and Atharvana/Bhrigu) or gods of the following verse of 11th hymn and 3rd kanda of Atharvana Veda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदि क्षितायुर्यदि वा परेतो यदि मृत्योरन्तिकं नीतएव |&#xA;  तमा हरामि निर्ऋतेरुपस्थदश्पार्शमेनम् शतशारदाय || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अ०वे० काण्ड-३ सुक्त-११ मन्त्र-२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Be his days ended, be he now departed, be he brought very&#xA;     near to death already,&#xA;    Out of Destruction's lap again I bring him, save him for life to&#xA;     last a hundred autumns. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atharvana Veda kanda-3 sukta-11 mantra-2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the mantra says be 'his', now 'his' is clear from the notion of reader or the one who is astika and follows vedic order. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since every veda mantra has a god and a rishi , the word 'I' can refer to that god , If no then it must refer to bramhan as he is all powerful and god of gods. So who is the 'I'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Disclaimer -: Atharva Veda mantras cannot be recited without consultation with a learned man(in vedas)/It should be recited by a learned man. If recited without consultation they produce no or opposite effects.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-08-22T17:39:25.267" LastActivityDate="2016-08-22T17:39:25.267" Title="Who is 'I' in this verse a specific deity or supreme Bramhan?" Tags="|vedas|gods|mantras|brahman|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10068" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10067" CreationDate="2016-01-07T13:56:36.880" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Verse 2 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av03011.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 3 Hymn 11&lt;/a&gt; of the Atharvana Veda is the same as verse 2 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10161.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 161&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;FOR life I set thee free by this oblation from the unknown decline and from Consumption; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Or, if the grasping demon have possessed him, free him from her, O Indra, thou and Agni.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Be his days ended, be he now departed, be he brought very near to death already, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Out of Destruction's lap again I bring him, save him for life to last a hundred autumns.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;With hundred-eyed oblation, hundred-autumned, bringing a hundred lives, have I restored him, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That Indra for a hundred years may lead him safe to the farther shore of all misfortune.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Live, waxing in thy strength, a hundred autumns, live through a hundred springs, a hundred winters. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Through hundred-lived oblation Indra, Agni, Bṛhaspati, Savitar yield him for a hundred!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;So have I found and rescued thee thou hast returned with youth renewed. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Whole in thy members! I have found thy sight and all thy life for thee.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the sage who heard this hymn from the gods is Yakshmanashana Prajapatya.  So that would be the one who is referred to as &quot;I&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Yakshmanashana means &quot;curer of Tuberculosis&quot;, and indeed this hymn is used to cure Tuberculosis as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe29/sbe29139.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Ashvalayana Grihya Sutras.  And Prajapatya means &quot;son of Brahma&quot;, but in the Anukramani Shaunaka uses gives the last name &quot;Prajapatya&quot; to pretty much any god who is so old that Shaunaka can't fathom his parentage.  For instance he refers to Vishnu as Vishnu Prajapatya, despite the fact that Vishnu has no beginning or end as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/259/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And he refers to Brahma himself as Hiranyagarbha Prajapatya, i.e. he refers to Brahma as the son of Brahma!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So all we can conclude is that the &quot;I&quot; in the hymn refers to a being who cures Tuberculosis and who is either the son of Brahma or someone just as old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-01-13T12:34:37.240" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10071" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10089" CreationDate="2016-01-07T16:31:42.120" Score="5" ViewCount="233" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is considered as meditation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it only thinking of god in peaceful mind?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is it staying of thinking nothing or empty minded (this is mostly difficult)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because we even know that god Shiva also stay in long mediation. So he can't be praying any one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1082" LastEditorUserId="1082" LastEditDate="2016-01-12T15:15:42.167" LastActivityDate="2021-05-11T04:36:44.340" Title="What is meditation?" Tags="|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10077" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10050" CreationDate="2016-01-08T08:24:17.153" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism being here longer is more morphus, and is less walled and concretely defined, thus hard to argue which practises are part of core Hinduism - they vary based on which tradition of Hinduism one follows. Sikhism being a young religion, and very concretely defined by the gurus - the only definition comes from Guru Granth Sahib - the Sikh scripture, which is considered the only and everlasting Guru. There have been a rise in number of other tradition claiming anywhere on the spectrum between Hinduism and Sikhism, but Guru Granth being the gold standards debunks, thus none of the traditions other than Guru Granth Sahib, which is essentially written knowledge - can claim any authority on Sikhism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Similarities&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Both originated in South East Asia.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is emphasis in both about being one with and taking care of the environment. Symbolism of earth as mother, air as life giver are common in both.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Emphasis of hard work and not the fruit is common in both (Bhagwad Gita/ three pillars of Sikhism).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The stories of Indian Epics Ramayana, Mahabharata are used in both. However unlike Hinduism where Rama is a God, in Sikh scriptures, his name when used as a reference to Lord Ram is as a contextual character, and not as a God (Many Hindutva pushers try to push the opposite to build a connection which there is not).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The status of those who remember God is supreme in both over kings. The difference however is that in Hinduism Brahmin is by birth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The status of women was pretty elevated in Sikhism and  in ancient Hinduism, less so in later periods.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Differences&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sikhism debunks many practises of Hinduism (as well as Islam). These include existence of trio - Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu, idol worship, ritualistic practises, or authority by birth(e.g. that of brahmin or other class).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sikhism is monotheistic - believes in one God, which has been referred to many names - Ram, Allah are both names referred in Guru Granth Sahib.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sikhism neither encourages, nor discourages neither feels threatened of conversions. The four open doors (for people of four corners of the world) of Darbar Sahib Amritsar signify that.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One of the cores for which Guru Teg Bahadur gave his life was to defend dignified choice for all. In this case it was for Kashmiri Pandits to practise Hinduism in tyrannical Mughal empire. If it was the opposite, Sikhism preaches to follow same path.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sikhism has no room for caste system. Everyone eat together in the same Langar.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there are more. For a Primer in Sikhism, I would suggest &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0385502060&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Sikhs by Patwant Singh&lt;/a&gt;. For Hinduism good primer English are  books by Eknath Wishwaran e.g. &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1586380214&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Upanishads (Classic of Indian Spirituality)&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4580" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-01-13T07:37:02.633" LastActivityDate="2016-01-13T07:37:02.633" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10078" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8531" CreationDate="2016-01-08T09:00:03.803" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As per Chronicle, Teg Bahadur expect Kashmiri pundits to convert to Sikh &gt; Faith I.e to reject all philosophies like Idolatory and other aspects and &gt; believe and accept Sikh way of LIFE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have not read that anywhere in 30 years of my life except in propaganda materials.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru Teg Bahadur gave his life to defend the right of Kashmiri Pandits to practise their religion in a Muslim empire. If it was Muslims being persecuted in a Hindu Rashtra, he would have done the same. That is the thesis of Sikhism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His death led to uprise of Sikhs under Guru Gobind Singh, which gave a tough challenge thus slowing down the mass conversions that Aurangzeb was hell bent on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;None of the Guru's expected others to change religion. Infact it is anti-thesis to fundamental of Sikhism. If that was the case, the Bhakats including Namdev and Kabir and sufis like Baba Farid, whose writing are part of Guru Granth Sahib would had been asked to convert before including their writings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sikhism neither endorses conversion nor fears it. Till today Darbar Sahib, Amritsar's four doors signify being open to people of four corners of the world without passing judgement on what they believe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Discourse and discussion though has always been part of Sikhi from the very first Guru who refused to practise Hinduism, wearing Janeo, but did not force others to do it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4580" LastActivityDate="2016-01-08T09:00:03.803" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10083" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="909" CreationDate="2016-01-09T05:13:23.163" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ayyappan has no reference in any scripture.No sexual intercourse happened b/w Lord Shiva and Lord Mohini. We can find it in Srimad Bhagavatam 8th Canto.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gitabase.com/eng/SB/8/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://gitabase.com/eng/SB/8/12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4588" LastActivityDate="2016-01-09T05:13:23.163" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10084" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10085" CreationDate="2016-01-09T09:08:34.563" Score="5" ViewCount="9629" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who was Madalasa? What is the story of Ritudhwaj and Madalasa?&#xA;Is it true that she's known as a great mother in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4487" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-18T06:39:03.723" LastActivityDate="2018-12-18T06:39:03.723" Title="What is the story of Madalasa?" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10085" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10084" CreationDate="2016-01-09T10:09:35.707" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kuvalayasva:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-markandeya-purana/d/doc117052.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here &lt;/a&gt;is the story of King Ritudhwaj in Markandeya Puran Canto XX:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“It is the son of Śatru-jit, dear father, famed by name as Ṛtadhvaja, shapely, upright in conduct, a hero, proud, kind of speech, no sneaking tale-bearer,[6] eloquent, learned, friendly, a mine of excellencies, an honourer of the honour-worthy, intelligent, modest, adorned with courtesy. Our mind, [Page 111] being ravished by attendance on him, affection for him and pleasure with him, finds no delight in the Naga-world or the air-world.[7] By separation from him chill Pātāla does not tend to warm us, dear father; through union with him the sun by day tends to gladden us.” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Madalasa:&lt;/strong&gt; Here is What Madalasa's friend Kundala told Ritudhwaja About Madalasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘The king of the Gandharvas is named Visvāvasu, and this is his beautiful-browed daughter called Madālasś. The son of Vajra-ketu, a fierce Dānava, the cleaver of his foes, was named Pātāla-ketu, a dweller within Pātāla. He, raising an illusion of darkness, carried off this maiden when she was in her garden, unattended by me, and brought her here, the villain. On the coming thirteenth day of the lunar fortnight, it was foretold, an Asura shall carry her off; but he does not [Page 116] deserve the lovely-limbed maiden, any more than a śūdra deserves to hear the Veda. And when the day was over, Surabhi said to the maiden who was ready to kill herself,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-markandeya-purana/d/doc117053.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; Is How Madalasa And Kuvalayasva Married in Markandeya Puran Canto XXI:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am ready to comply,’ thus spoke the king’s son to her, O father. And she thought of him, the large-thighed[4] hero, the chief of his race. And he taking fuel and kūsa grass, accepted her immediately, through affection for Madālasā and through respect for Kuṇḍalā. Kindling fire, he sacrificed, being conversant with the mantras, and caused the blessed maiden to take part in the marriage ceremony. And as he had come, he departed then, being a wise man, to his own hermitage-abode for the purpose of practising austerities.&#xA;  “And the companion said to the maiden ‘My wishes are fulfilled, O lovely-faced one. Now that I have seen thee, resplendent in beauty, wedded to this husband, I will perform matchless austerities, with a mind at ease; and, having my sins washed away in the waters of the sacred pilgrimage-places, I shall not again become such as I am now.” “And then bending courteously she addressed the king’s son, being desirous to go, yet shaken in her speech through love for her friend.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-01-31T06:33:44.680" LastActivityDate="2016-01-31T06:33:44.680" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10086" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-09T10:12:14.490" Score="2" ViewCount="702" Body="&lt;p&gt;We heard that in the swayamvara of Sita. The one who can lift the dhanush(Shiva's bow) will be termed as the worthiest to take the hand of sita. Although some says that Ravana also tried his luck and could only lift the bow a bit but finally gave up. Rama was the only one who lifted it. But I want to know a thing other than being a god himself id Rama have any speciality to lift the bow ....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4590" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T08:03:07.293" Title="Other than being a god what speciality did Rama have to lift and break Shiva dhanush?" Tags="|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10087" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-09T10:42:11.027" Score="6" ViewCount="13884" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata, Arjuna spent five long years during his exile to go to heaven and acquire all the divya astras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, why didn't he use any of those major divya astras in the Kurukshetra war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance, he was almost defeated by Karna and Bhishma; yet, he refrained from using the major divya astras like Vajra, Pashupata etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-21T17:47:39.607" LastActivityDate="2019-04-06T20:16:03.157" Title="Why didn't Arjuna use any divya astras in Kurukshetra war?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|karna|bhishma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10088" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10086" CreationDate="2016-01-09T11:24:56.183" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think the best Answer of your Question Should be &lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without any specialty &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;He&lt;/a&gt; was able to lift the shiva bow Cause He was incarnation of lord &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; and both of god &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiv&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiva&lt;/a&gt; are same&#xA;It ain't true that only &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rama&lt;/a&gt; Can Lift The Bow Of Shiva.&#xA;In Mythology there is a story Of Sita&#xA;In her childhood, Sita lifted the bow single handily and having seen that Janaka decided that he would give his daughter only to the man who could lift the bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Dhanush&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the source of Wikipedia&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;King Janaka of Mithila had a daughter named &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sita&lt;/a&gt;. In earlier part of her life, Sita while playing with her sisters had unknowingly lifted the table over which the bow had been placed; which was something no one in the kingdom could do. This incident was however observed by Janaka and he decided to make this incident as the backdrop for &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swayamvara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Swayamvara&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why Rama Lifted The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Dhanush&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiva Dhanush&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was an Incarnation of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sita was also an incarnation of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Maa Lakshmi&lt;/a&gt; and everyone know it well that she could only be with Rama Like Lakshmi Could only be With &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Both the God &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiv&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiva&lt;/a&gt; are Same there is nothing difference beetween them.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T08:03:07.293" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T08:03:07.293" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10089" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10071" CreationDate="2016-01-09T11:59:20.740" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Meditation, what it is and how to do it is defined and described in many scriptural texts. Meditation is concentration on an object, not necessarily God. Completely emptying your mind is a later meditation which is got by first learning to concentrate on one object. Think of one sattvic object which brings peace to your mind and which you find your ability to concentrate easily on. Perhaps a saint or Incarnation of the Lord, or even a peaceful mountain or scenery. After you learn to concentrate on one object, then your mind can eliminate that object and concentrate with no thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali describes the various stages of meditation in his &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt;. Swami Vivekananda gives them with this description (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V1 p 137, and V6 p89):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pratyahara or the restraint of the organs sense from all outward things, and directing them entirely to mental impressions;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharana or steadfast concentration;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhyana or meditation; and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samadhi or abstract meditation. It is the highest and last stage of Yoga. Samadhi is the perfect absorption of thought into the Supreme Spirit, where one realizes, &quot;I and my Father are one.&quot;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/em&gt; chapter 6 tells how to do meditation as does &lt;em&gt;Uddhava Gita&lt;/em&gt; chapter 9. In his &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt;, Patanjali gives the steps leading to and the various stages of meditation in chapters 1 and 2. Patanjali says chapter I verse 2 (Swami Vivekananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoga is restraining the mind-stuff (Chitta) from taking various forms (Vrittis).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meditation is turning the mind away from the senses and concentrating it on an object or a series of objects. Swami Nikhilananda in his introduction to his translation of Sankara’s &lt;em&gt;Atmabodha&lt;/em&gt; says (pp 100-103):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two kinds of meditation, namely, the objective and the subjective. In the objective meditation the Ideal is regarded as outside, and in the subjective meditation, inside, the meditator. The objective meditation is, again, of two kinds, according as the Ideal is associated with or conditioned by a sound-symbol (sabdanubiddha) or by a form-symbol (drisyanubiddha)…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the subjective meditation the Ideal is placed within oneself. Vedantic seers speak of the heart as an extremely suitable place…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As in the objective meditation, so in the subjective meditation, the Ideal may be associated with or conditioned with by a sound-symbol or a form-symbol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meditation as been described as similar to the pouring of oil from one container to another (continuous with no breaks in the flow) or as the steady flame of a candle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda has said (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt; V7, p 71):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Control the mind, cut off the senses, then you area Yogi; after that all the rest will come…You continually do it unconsciously as when your mind is absorbed; so you can learn to do it consciously.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Learn to control the mind, turn your mind away from the sensual inputs that are bombarding our minds continuously. Once the mind is controlled and turned away from the senses, you can (as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said metaphorically speaking) sit back, light a pipe, and just hold the rudder steady to reach the goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-01-09T11:59:20.740" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10090" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-09T13:34:34.617" Score="9" ViewCount="9894" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shani(शनि) deva, also known as शनैश्चर is one of the Navagraha (the nine primary celestial beings in Hindu astrology) of Jyotiṣa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we visit the temples, there is good chance that Shani(शनि) deva is depicted dark in colour, clothed in black and mounted on a crow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is one such Image:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Iptv2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Iptv2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shani&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Throughout Hindu mythology crows represent harmful and inauspicious characteristics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://authenticate.library.duq.edu/login?url=http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=ed827e21-c6d7-4c54-9227-158a1547f33e%40sessionmgr113&amp;amp;vid=19&amp;amp;hid=126&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a reason mentioned in Hindu scriptures which mentions the story/reason why Lord Shani deva did choose Crow (which represent harmful and inauspicious characteristics) as its Vahana or vehicle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-06-30T05:45:25.807" LastActivityDate="2020-06-30T05:45:25.807" Title="Shani Dev and Crow" Tags="|astrology|animals|symbolism|shani|vahana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10091" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="765" CreationDate="2016-01-09T13:54:37.137" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Skanda Purana narrates different story for his broken tusk. It says &lt;strong&gt;Lord Ganesha broke his own tusk for YOGADANDA.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/25324/44f_chapter_10_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 10 &amp;quot;Shiva Swallowing Poison&amp;quot; of Skanda Purana &lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He (Ganesha) pulled out his own huge tooth for sake of&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Yogadanda&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (the mystic wand of Yogic practice) and held it in his&#xA;hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-01-09T14:01:00.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10092" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-09T16:47:49.413" Score="6" ViewCount="1897" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can non-Hindus worship Lord Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Specifically:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can they chant his name?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can they listen to the chanting once in a while?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I thought it's okay for anyone to listen to and pray even though they are not Hindu, but I'm afraid that it would make Lord Shiva displeased.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone cite a scriptural opinion on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4593" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-11T01:24:39.613" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T20:57:27.037" Title="Can a non-Hindu worship a Hindu deity?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10093" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6546" CreationDate="2016-01-09T19:06:23.977" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Riddhi and Siddhi were only two wives of Lord Ganesha. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.siddhivinayak.org/marriage_ganesha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a story about the marriage of Lord Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing Ganesha's intelligent words, Shiva and Parvati were pleased and at once decided to celebrate His marriage first. Prajapati Vishwaroopa's two beautiful daughters, one called Riddhi and the other called Siddhi, were selected to marry Lord Ganesha. The divine sculptor Vishwakarma made all the arrangements for the marriage by constructing a beautiful marriage hall. Lord Shiva and Parvati celebrated the marriage of Ganesha to Riddhi and Siddhi, who bore Him two beautiful sons named Labha and Kshema respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/shivapuranam15.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a mention in shiv purana about Riddhi and Siddhi the two wives of lord ganesha and there sons too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even half way through the full circle of the World, Sage Narada intercepted Kartikeya and conveyed that Ganesha’s wedding with Siddhi and Riddhi was in progress already (they were blessed with two sons Kshema and Labha eventually)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so a few things we get here&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Ganesha have only two wives Riddhi and Siddhi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Riddhi and Siddhi were daughter of Prajapati Vishwaroopa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This story is mentioned in Shiv Purana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-01-09T19:20:40.040" LastActivityDate="2016-01-09T19:20:40.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10094" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-09T20:27:13.280" Score="6" ViewCount="1339" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just came back from a trip to India, and one of the places I visited was my dad's native village of Kuchanoor. It's the site of the famous Kuchanoor Shanishwaran temple, one of the few temples in the world for Shani, god of the planet Saturn. For those who don't know, Shani is the son of Surya, the Sun god and his second wife Chaya, whom I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/545/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. Shani is in charge of dispensing good and bad fortune, and so people often come to Kuchanoor if they've been adversely affected by the gaze of Shani.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the Shani idol in the Kuchanoor temple. It's a Swayambhu or divinely created statue, but it's not an anthropomorphic statue, rather it's a vague slab akin to a Shivalinga, on which various ornaments have been attached.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kuchanursaneeswarar.tnhrce.in/image/temple.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a picture of it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ynyCO.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ynyCO.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why is Shani depicted as having six eyes?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dasharatha's hymn to Shani in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/LRZ2j.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Padma Purana doesn't mention the number of eyes, it just calls him Vishalanetra or having big eyes.  But are there other scriptures which say that he has six eyes? Dhyana Shlokas, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7874/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, would be a good place to look for the details of Shani's appearance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if he does have six eyes, what is the reason for that? Shani is infamous for the ruinous power of his glance, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3044/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, so does he have so many eyes to in order to gaze at people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-03-19T15:35:49.893" Title="What scriptures describe Shani as having six eyes?" Tags="|temple|shani|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10097" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9466" CreationDate="2016-01-10T08:53:56.517" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Disappearance of Sri RamaChandra is mentioned in many  Hindu scriptures.&#xA;some people wanted to know how Sri Ram died? Death isn't a term which used with Avatars of Vishnu. All Avatars of Vishnu appear to restore dharma and then they return to Vaikunta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/padmapurana27.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the complete story from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/padmapurana%20home.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/a&gt; How Rama Disappear from Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the successful completion of Ashvamedha Yagna, Shri Rama continued his normal routine of observing celibacy and administration. Shatrughna killed Lavanasura and ruled Madhurapuri; Bharat administered both the banks of River Sindhu and controlled Gandharvas; Lakshmana conquered Madra desha, installed his sons as the Kings and returned to Rama for providing service to him.&#xA;  Shri Rama did Ashvamedha Yanga, after installing a Golden Pratima of Sita; in fact he performed several Yagnas in the same manner. Sage Valmiki exhorted Rama about Sita’s spotlessness and piousness time and again and Shri Rama finally opined that indeed he was fully aware of her chastity and purity but since the allegation came from the Praja (Public), Sita should prove her innocence before the people. Sita then declared in a huge Sabha that if she performed puja to any body else excepting Shri Ram in her mind, thought, tongue or action then my mother Bhu Devi might take her into her mother’s fold. Immediately, there was an Earth-quake and Sita entered into a huge cleavage. Bhu Devi herself lifted Sita into her belly and the great Garuda, the Carrier of Lord Vishnu, lifted her from Rasatala to Vishnu loka as seated on a Golden Throne. After Sita’s disappearance, Shri Rama ruled for eleven thousand years. One day, an old Tapasvi came to see Shri Ram and told him that none should enter his Chamber while he was giving an important message from Lord Brahma in secrecy. Shri Rama called Lakshmana and instructed that none should be allowed to enter as long as he was conversing with the Tapasvi and otherwise that person should be punishable with death. Lakshman himself stood at the door and ensured that none would disturb. The Tapasvi conveyed that since the death of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and other demons Rama was to live for eleven thousand years and that it was time for Rama to leave Earth and return to Vaikuntha. While this secret conversation was going on, Durvasa Maharshi arrived and wished to meet Shri Rama, but Lakshmana declined entry stating that a representative of Brahma was in an important conversation and that he could not see Shri Rama then. Durvasa grew angry and threatened Lakshmana with a severe curse if he did not permit entry. As there was no other alternative between Rama’s instruction and Durvasa’s threat of curse, Lakshman entered River Sarayu, taking his original Swarupa of Ananta Naga with thousand hoods. After the meeting with Kaala Deva in the form of the old Tapasvi, Rama realized that Lakshman also having gone, it was time for him also to terminate his ‘Avatar’; he established Kusha in Kushavati Kingdom and Lava in Dwaravati as their Kings. Taking a hint from Shri Rama, Vibishana, Sugriva, Jambavan, Hanuman, Neela, Nala, Sushena and Nishada Raja Guha arrived. Shatrughna performed the coronatation of his sons at Ayodhya. The rest of them said that they would not like to stay back on Earth in the absence of Rama even for a moment. But Rama asked Vibhishana to continue in power at Lanka for long time and instructed Hanuman to continue on Earth forever to sustain the message of Shri Rama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The rest of them accompanied Shri Rama into the Sacred Sarayu River. Bharat, Shatrughna, and all the citizens of Ayodhya along with their wives, Mantris, Servants, Vedikas, Brahmanas, the nearby animals, birds, and all other Beings who accompanied Shri Rama never looked back. As Shri Rama went deep into the River, Lord Brahma, Devas, Rishis and all Celestial Beings extolled Raghunatha even as He took the Huge Form of Maha Vishnu with his four hands along with Bharata as Shankha, Shatrughna as Chakra, as also Gada with Sri Devi and Bhu Devi beside Him.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-04T03:35:24.890" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T03:35:24.890" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10099" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6770" CreationDate="2016-01-10T14:38:12.343" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found it&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;PULAHA&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pulaha is named among the principal Saptarishis, or those most often listed from the first Manvantara: Bhrigu, Angiras, Marici, Atri, Vasistha, Pulastya, Pulaha and Kratu. Pulaha was manas-putra of Prajapati as mentioned  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp38.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;According to Vishnu Purana He was born from the navel of Lord Brahma. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp041.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Vishnu Purana The wife of Pulaha was Kshama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp045.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kshamá, the wife of the patriarch Pulaha, was the mother of three sons, Karmasa, Arvarívat, and Sahishńu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Srimad Bhagwatam an another wife of Brahmarishi Pulaha was &lt;strong&gt;GATI&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vanisource.org/wiki/SB_4.1.38?terms=all%20her%20sons%20were%20as%20good%20as%20he&amp;amp;first=SB%204.1.38,%20Translation%20and%20Purport:%20Gati,%20the%20wife%20of%20the&amp;amp;last=husband,%20and%20all%20her%20sons%20were%20as%20good%20as%20he.?terms=all%20her%20sons%20were%20as%20good%20as%20he&amp;amp;first=SB%204.1.38,%20Translation%20and%20Purport:%20Gati,%20the%20wife%20of%20the&amp;amp;last=husband,%20and%20all%20her%20sons%20were%20as%20good%20as%20he.&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pulahasya gatir bhāryā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;trīn asūta satī sutān&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;karmaśreṣṭhaṁ varīyāṁsaṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sahiṣṇuṁ ca mahā-mate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gati,( daughter of Kardama Muni) the wife of the sage Pulaha, gave birth to three sons, named Karmaśreṣṭha, Varīyān and Sahiṣṇu, and all of them were great sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk10ch09.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is Something mentioned in Devi Bhagwatam related with sage pulaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-31T06:34:50.553" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10100" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1980" CreationDate="2016-01-10T16:14:01.550" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha describes becoming one with the only thing that is absolutely real or is permanent. This answer might lean towards Advaita for Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirvana describes becoming detached and liberated from everything that is not permanent. The description for Nirvana is the same for all Buddhist schools.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In both cases, the individual self no longer reincarnates after death and no longer exists as an individual self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4596" LastEditorUserId="4596" LastEditDate="2016-01-11T01:20:16.067" LastActivityDate="2016-01-11T01:20:16.067" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10101" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10114" CreationDate="2016-01-10T18:25:29.973" Score="4" ViewCount="3205" Body="&lt;p&gt;I always wonder why Hindu Gods carry weapons. I mean they are &quot;Gods&quot;, why do they need weapons?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4597" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T05:52:07.680" LastActivityDate="2021-11-08T01:58:45.510" Title="Why do Hindu Gods carry weapons?" Tags="|gods|symbolism|weapon|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10102" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6664" CreationDate="2016-01-11T02:51:03.483" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that these titles are not &quot;given&quot; but are descriptions of the state of consciousness of the individual. I'll tell you my understanding based on Vedic Science :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Rishi&quot; means seer. But what does a Rishi see? The fine fabrics of consciousness. You might have heard of &quot;sruti&quot; which means &quot;that which is heard&quot;. The Veda, or knowledge is not written in a book. The Veda is cognized in the awareness of an individual. It is both heard and seen on a deep level of consciousness. Just like a physicist explores particles and frequencies in Nature, so also a Rishi explores the frequencies and fluctuations of conscious. So a Rishi hears and sees the sounds/impulses of the Veda (spandan), and understands that the sounds manifest into material forms around us. The Rishis of the Vedic literature all cognized the Veda in their own awareness. If you are to hear these sounds, or see the impulses, you too have experienced that particular Rishi consciousness. This is why different aspects of the Veda have different Rishis, different Devata and different chhandas according to the Cognition. Rishis have cognized the 40 aspects of the Vedic literature which deal with everything from vastu, Ayurved to Brahmi Chetan. Patanjali, who cognized Yog shastra, attained the state of Yog intelligence and he saw the impulses in his own awareness. Anyone who sees from that level has achieved &quot;Patanjali Rishi consciousness&quot;. The Rishi name is expressed in the form of their Cognition (nama-rupa). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One thing is to know, see and hear the Veda, but another thing is to do something with that knowledge. A Maharishi is one who takes that vision and knowledge of Natural Law and can create transformation in the world. Maharishis are teachers and Vedic engineers who use techniques to transform their students (and the world) by putting the principles of consciousness into practice. Even their Conscousness is catalytic in this transformation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For this reason the higher one is in Conscousness, the greater their ability to administrate life around them. A Raja (or king) normally administrates human life, but as one goes in consciousness, one is able to administrate cosmic life. This is why sages are called Maharaja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Brahmarishi is one operating from the level of Brahm who is transforming... and therfore administrating from the level of the universe. This is the reason Brahmarishis are considered to be administrators of the universe. Their Conscousness is operating from that level of intelligence which manages the universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Devarishi (as a commentator mentioned above) is one who has cognized Brahm (the Totality) ... And into that level of consciousness from which all universes have originated, but also play a role in being a teacher to the devas. This is why (for example) there have been descriptions of Narada, that when he journeys here and there he comes from a place where all of the universes are administered. The Devas are impulses of Natural Law which transcend this world/universe and the next. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From my understanding (but I am not certain about this) a rajarishi is one who is a king on earth who is also a Rishi. I know from the Vedic literature that Rishi Rajas such as Janaka were given this title. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more levels that are not mentioned in this question : such as Sidhas and Naths, etc. Unfortunately, many people just use these terms to show respect, but actually they are terms with specific meanings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once one knows this, one desires to attain this level of consciousness! Begin by practicing meditation every day and unfold the knowledge from within. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4598" LastEditorUserId="4598" LastEditDate="2016-01-11T03:31:37.947" LastActivityDate="2016-01-11T03:31:37.947" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10103" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7042" CreationDate="2016-01-11T04:28:23.157" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Seven entrances or seven doors are a reference to the mystical plexuses or lotuses of yoga - the muldhara, svadhisthana, manipura, anahata, visuddha, ajna, and sahasrara. It is only after one has gone through each one of these lotuses that the Lord is seen.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-01-11T04:28:23.157" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10104" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-11T05:58:11.797" Score="4" ViewCount="222" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do you know history behind the Kamakhya Temple located in Guwahati Assam, why it is called the Famous Shakti Peeth ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4582" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-01-15T15:10:55.150" LastActivityDate="2018-01-15T15:10:55.150" Title="History behind the Kamakhya Temple?" Tags="|history|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10109" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-11T17:06:47.560" Score="6" ViewCount="1951" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most famous tenple for Vishnu's man-lion incarnation Narasimha, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/827/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, is Ahobilam, the place in Andhra Pradesh where Narasimha killed the demon Hiranyakashipu.  But there's another temple related to the story of Narasimha, the Narasimhaswami temple in the Nammagiri hill in Nammakal, Tamil Nadu.  In modern times, Nammakal is known for the fact that the Indian mathematician Srinivasan Ramanujan claimed to have received all his ideas from the Nammagiri Lakshmi deity there.  And Nammakal is home to a gigantic statue of Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about story of the temple.  According to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://namakkalnarasimhaswamyanjaneyartemple.org/history.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;temple website&lt;/a&gt;, after Narasimha kills Hiranyakashipu, he turns into a Shaligrama stone, and then long after that Hanuman brings the Shaligrama to Nammakal, where it grows into a hill:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kchMy.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kchMy.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;http://i66.tinypic.com/o0s081.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At last Sri Narasimha dragged Hiranya towards the entrance of the palace and placed him on his thighs and torn Hiranya's chest by his nails, at the time of sunset in this way, Hiranya was killed by Sri Narasimha. All Devas were afraid to approach Sri Narasimhaswamy, in that morose mood and so also Sri Mahalakshmi. Baktha Prahaladha prayed Sri Narasimha who blessed him with mercy and disappeared in the from of a Saligramam near Prahaladha's Kingdom ( Ruling Place ) Prahaladha worshipped the Saligramam ever. ( where Sri Narasimha disappeared )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Threthayuga at the period of Ramayana Sri Hanuman saved Sri Rama and others with Sanjeevi herbs which was brought from Himalayas by him. Then Hanuman replaced it in the Himalayas. On his return through the Sky Sri Hanuman brought the Saligramam in which Sri Narasimhaswamy disappeared.  In the meantime the Sun had, risen.... Therefore he placed the Saligramam near the tank of Kamalalayam and performed Santha-Vanthanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After he had made his duties Hanuman tried to lift the Saligramam. But he could not move it easily; which was brought by him. This confused Sri Hanuman and he worshipped the God. Then the Saligramam grew as a rock a voice rose Oh Hanuman I determined to stay here, I was brought by you. First you go to Lanka and save Sri Ramachandramurthi.  If you want to worship me, you will come here after Ramavatharam and pray ever in front of me in Kaliyuga. Thus Sri Hanuman is even now at Namakkal Sthalam in the western side of the rock standing in the open air, worshipping in front of Sri NARASIMHA SWAMY .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures mention this story of Narasimha turning into a Shaligramam, and then ultimately turning into a hill?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2479/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, in Shiva Purana there's a story of Shiva's incarnation Sharabha killing Narasimha, but in other versions of the story Narasimha either kills Sharabha himself or creates a two-headed bird-beast named Gandhaberunda to kill Sharabha.  So it's possible that in scriptures in which Narasimha lives, he ultimately turns into a Shaligrama stone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me close with a picture of the divine Nammagiri hill, since that's the hill that Narasimha ultimately turned into:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EIIlE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EIIlE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-07T12:45:40.983" Title="What scriptures describe Narasimha turning into a mountain after killing Hiranyakashipu?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|hanuman|narasimha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10110" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11470" CreationDate="2016-01-11T17:34:51.383" Score="7" ViewCount="1884" Body="&lt;p&gt;As described in Srimad Ramayana, and is known to all, Maharaja Dasaratha, the father of Sri Rama, was emotionally attached to his son - so much that he wasn't able to bear separation from his son for a few days with Brahmarshi Vishvamitra, and later (eventual) 14 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But earlier in the Ramayana, Dasaratha tells Vishvamitra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sixty thousand years have passed from my birth, oh! Vishvamitra, and this Rama is engendered at this age, that too with tribulations, hence taking Rama with you will be inappropriate of you. [Balakanda, 20th Sarga, 10b-11a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to a person who has lived for 60,000 years, surely 14 years, and a few days in Vishvamitra's case cannot be of much significance? One can justify the latter in stating that Rama had just returned from Gurukula, and that Vishvamitra was taking him to fight demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, Dasaratha is perfectly okay when Yudhajit, Kaikeyi's brother takes away Bharata and Shatrughna for 12 years after their marriage, to Kekaya. So when he is not disturbed by their long time away from home, why is he so distraught at Rama's exile that it forces him to give up even his own life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T09:14:23.997" LastActivityDate="2022-01-12T06:25:08.133" Title="Why was Dasaratha so emotionally attached only to Rama?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|dasharatha|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10111" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-11T17:46:22.127" Score="23" ViewCount="1135" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas are the eternal truths of God, Apaurusheya and constant throughout Time. Therefore they must contain all knowledge of all time. But (at least if you go through the other questions) you find that the prominent incarnation used to describe Lord Vishnu is that of Upendra - Vamana Avatara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Vamana avatara didn't happen until the Vaivasvata Manvantara of the present Kalpa - which is seven Manvantaras from the beginning. Yet if the Vedas are constant, the very same hymns to Vamanadeva would be present even in the earlier Manvantaras. But then, how would people associate with this yet to be incarnated Form of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also prominently described in the Rig Veda (at least to my knowledge) is the defeat of Vritrasura, which &lt;strong&gt;also happened&lt;/strong&gt; at the &lt;strong&gt;beginning&lt;/strong&gt; of this particular Manvantara. So what would the others of the earlier Manvantaras made of all these (prophetic?) stories? And what would the other Indras have thought about them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. I know that last sentence is highly speculative.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-10T16:19:58.990" LastActivityDate="2019-08-15T13:40:57.027" Title="How come the Vedas describe mostly the Vamana avatara of Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|time|vamana|manvantara|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10112" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10110" CreationDate="2016-01-11T18:00:19.507" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga1/ayodhya_1_prose.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This article&lt;/a&gt; might help. It gives details about Rama's charming and amusing nature. He is loved by everyone in the kingdom because he is soft-spoken, brave and kind-hearted. That might be the reason King Dasaratha loved him so much. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4517" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-01-13T07:40:36.873" LastActivityDate="2016-01-13T07:40:36.873" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10114" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10101" CreationDate="2016-01-11T19:59:00.007" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;First I feel the terminology of &quot;God&quot; is unsuitable. Unfortunately in English there is no proper translation of Devtā. Deity is closer. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism devās are seen as friends and guides and hence human qualities were projected on them. This can be seen throughout the Rig Veda. Hinduism evolved from tribal roots and also assimilated tribal cultures into it. The deities are thus portrayed as how a human helper or a protector would be - with weapons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rig Vedic people didn’t worship in temples but did in fire altars. Given that temples were a later development, lots of metaphorical and philosophical ideas had developed behind the iconography. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the book &quot;Hindu Iconology - The study of the symbolism and meaning of Icons&quot;, Pandit Sri Rama Ramanuja Achari outlines the symbolic meanings behind many aspects of Hindu iconography.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some of them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/M1Ffo.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/M1Ffo.png&quot; alt=&quot;Iconography 1&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eACU3.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eACU3.png&quot; alt=&quot;Iconography 2&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mzky6.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mzky6.png&quot; alt=&quot;Iconography 3&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BOm08.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BOm08.png&quot; alt=&quot;Iconography 4&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For further information on Hindu iconography refer to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/uploads/5/5/4/9/5549439/hindu_iconography_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; e-book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes even the weapons themselves are given human form. For example Sudarshana Chakra is given anthropomorphic form and known as Chakkrath Azhwar in Tamil. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2016-01-11T22:12:38.350" LastActivityDate="2016-01-11T22:12:38.350" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10116" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-11T21:53:42.743" Score="11" ViewCount="22606" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story/concept behind denial of fertile women (aged between 12 and 50) from entering the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarimala&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sabarimala&lt;/a&gt; temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isn't this a discrimination against women? Is it a sin to allow women into the temple? Is it against Hindu beliefs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Also, check out &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.firstpost.com/india/supreme-court-questions-ban-on-womens-entry-in-sabarimala-temple-2579116.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this related incident&lt;/a&gt; ('Supreme Court questions ban on women's entry in Sabarimala temple') that happened recently.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-10-03T20:46:55.020" LastActivityDate="2018-10-03T20:46:55.020" Title="Why are women not allowed to enter Sabarimala temple?" Tags="|belief|temple|women|tradition|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10117" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6913" CreationDate="2016-01-12T04:27:54.110" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishvamitra as a Brahmarshi could easily deal with these demons, or call upon Parasurama or Vasishtha to deal with them. The reason for Vishvamitra himself not using his powers is given by himself in the 19th Sarga of Balakanda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;It would not behove me to release my anger, and curse them, while under such rituals and vows, O King.&quot; (Balakanda, Sarga 19, 7b, 8a.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The actual reason for Vishvamitra calling for Rama was for two purposes:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;1. Rama's marriage to Sitadevi&#xA;&lt;br&gt;2. Ahalya Shapa Vimochana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishvamitra was primarily involved in Ahalya Shapa Viomochana, as he portrayed the role of the Guru. Like a Guru who entreats God to bless the devotees, Vishvamitra purposefully brought Rama and Lakshmana to Ahalya's ashrama, narrated her story and guided Rama to free the curse of Ahalya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, he knew that Rama's avatara would begin in actual only when Mahalakshmi entered the story. Therefore, using the excuse of Yagna Samrakshana (which no doubt was a very important task), he brought Rama to Janaka's Yagnashala, where he broke Lord Shiva's bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(The two reasons given above are my summaries of Smt Vishakha Hari's explanations of the same.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishvamitra also wanted to gift Rama and Lakshmana those weapons which would aid him later. And like the other members have answered, he wanted to take part in the Divine Play.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2016-01-12T04:27:54.110" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10118" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-12T06:10:25.750" Score="16" ViewCount="592" Body="&lt;p&gt;The two questions &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3073/3500&quot;&gt;What are Five Layers (Pancha Kosha) of Human?&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6758/3500&quot;&gt;Where does a Soul attached to the Body?&lt;/a&gt; explain various &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;koshas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (Sheaths) of human body. Trimurthi and their respective Shaktis are believed to be different aspects of &lt;strong&gt;Supreme Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; Same is the case of Devas but they are less powerful than trimurtis and their Shaktis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What &lt;em&gt;Koshas&lt;/em&gt; do Trimurthis and their Shaktis have?&lt;/strong&gt; For example, Goddess Saraswati represents Knowledge. Does she have &lt;em&gt;Vijananmaya kosha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Anandamaya Kosha&lt;/em&gt;? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What about &lt;em&gt;Devas&lt;/em&gt; living in Swarga Loka?&lt;/strong&gt;. Agni Deva represents fire but has form. What Koshas do devas have? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2018-10-18T09:46:00.463" LastActivityDate="2021-05-09T12:55:12.163" Title="What bodies (Koshas or layers) do Devas, Trimurthis and their Shaktis (consorts) have?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|gods|brahma|shakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10119" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="203" CreationDate="2016-01-12T10:22:21.727" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The significance is that saffron or ochre are the colors of fire. A sannyasin has renounced the world and his sradda ceremony is performed on the day he takes his vows, and it is done in front of him. In many places in India a corpse is covered in ochre or saffron. As a sannyasin is now dead to the world, he wears the colors of a corpse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Buddhist monks wear the same as they were actually started as a sect of Hinduism. Remember that the Buddha was a Hindu sannyasin and a reformer of Hinduism.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-01-12T10:22:21.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10121" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-12T10:39:48.647" Score="2" ViewCount="98" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is Prarabdha? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who defines our Prarabdha? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is our Prarabdha pre-defined? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are we doing our Karmas based on our Prarabdha?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are we accumulating our Prarabdha based on our positive or negative karmas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is Karma or Prarabdha the same?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How do one comes to know of his Prarabdha?&#xA;Please do provide more details related with Prarabdha.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4609" LastActivityDate="2016-01-12T10:39:48.647" Title="What is Prarabdha?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-01-20T07:39:44.113" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10122" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-12T10:45:31.553" Score="2" ViewCount="245" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Mahabharata, Bhishma said to Arjun, to lay him in middle, as Earth &amp;amp; Sky will not accept him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What's the reason behind Earth &amp;amp; Sky not accepting Bhishma?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there some conditions to be accepted by Earth &amp;amp; Sky after Death?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also there are a lot of questions arising out of both the Great Epics - Ramayana and Mahabharat. Is it that the details are not mentioned properly in the Epic or we are unable to find out the details required for these questions? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please do provide more details. Thanks in advance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4609" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-17T04:53:50.133" LastActivityDate="2017-04-18T18:36:30.317" Title="Why Earth &amp; Sky won't acccept Bhishma?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhishma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10123" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-12T11:25:36.323" Score="4" ViewCount="10226" Body="&lt;p&gt;If Vali and Sugriva are brothers then why did they fight with each other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please explain briefly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3459" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T01:01:38.847" LastActivityDate="2020-01-22T00:58:25.143" Title="Why did Vali fight with Sugriva?" Tags="|ramayana|vali|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10125" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16836" CreationDate="2016-01-12T11:39:33.087" Score="7" ViewCount="2416" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before the birth of Lord Krishna, was anyone else named &lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did the name &lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt; come into usage and why was the Lord named &lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why Arjuna was also addressed sometimes as &lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt; is explained &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Any others with the name &lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt; from the Mahabharata time and why they were addressed by that name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4313" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T04:45:44.307" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T19:28:17.390" Title="Why was Lord Krishna named 'Krishna'?" Tags="|krishna|puranas|arjuna|name|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10127" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-12T12:15:25.393" Score="6" ViewCount="1671" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata war, Krishna adopted many deceitful tactics to overcome Kauravas in the war. The sole purpose was to establish Dharma. But, can Dharma be established through deceitful means? Then, how is it different from adharma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clearly, ways of killing Bhishma, Karna, Drona and hitting Duyordhan's thigh are high examples of deceit ways Krishna employed during the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-26T13:49:22.143" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T23:34:30.107" Title="How deceitful tactics in Mahabharata war different from adharma?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|dharma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10128" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10116" CreationDate="2016-01-12T12:18:20.367" Score="6" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before visiting &lt;em&gt;Shabarimala&lt;/em&gt; every devotee has to take up &lt;em&gt;vratham&lt;/em&gt; (penance) for 41 days and should stay away from alcohol, smoking, non-vegetarian food and all other &lt;em&gt;tamasic&lt;/em&gt; things including sex, cutting body hair, shaving and even trimming the nails and should not sleep on bed. They are expected to bath twice in a day and visit the local temples regularly and only wear plain black or blue colored traditional clothing during this time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A crude explanation is that a man who has practiced celibacy for 41 days will get distracted and loose his spiritual concentration around women devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As far as the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vaikhari.org/malikappurathamma.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;myth&lt;/a&gt; goes, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another story related to Malikappurathamma goes like this: After&#xA;  Mahishi was killed, a beautiful lady appeared from the body of&#xA;  Mahishi. She requested Ayyappa to marry her and accept her as his soul&#xA;  mate. But due to his mission and the state as a Yogi, Ayyappa refused&#xA;  it. But due to the incessant beseech of the girl, the Lord gave her&#xA;  the word that he will definitely marry her at that time when there&#xA;  will be no Kanni Ayyappas in his abode at Sabarimala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it's said that a fertile woman entering the shrine will 'enrage' &lt;em&gt;Malikappurathamma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another motivation to discourage fertile women from entering the shrine is the celibacy of the presiding deity who's in the state of sitting called &lt;em&gt;Arddhasana&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Yogapadasana&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Yogarudha Siddhasana&lt;/em&gt;. This status of sitting reveals the mood of asceticism, the &lt;em&gt;Tapobhava&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since women are considered to be the source of sexual energy, a &lt;em&gt;nitya brahmachari&lt;/em&gt; deity has put certain restrictions on female devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A more liberal and political correct view might be that it intended to ensure that women are not put through the difficulty of traversing the mountain under rigorous conditions and their comfort and safety too could be an area of concern on a pilgrimage like this. Women who could be bringing up a family. Remember, this was the case when there were no motorized vehicles and the forest around Shabarimala was notorious for the tigers and other wild elephants marauding humans.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's silly to assume that Shabarimala Temple Trust is being misogynistic, because they are preventing 'sex and sensuality' from their premise and not women as &lt;em&gt;kanya&lt;/em&gt; (before a woman becomes fertile) and post-menopause (after 60) woman are free to enter the temple and worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT1: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recently I came to know that the group 'Indian Young Lawyers' Association' which filed a PIL against Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) is headed by a muslim lawyer by the name 'Naushad Ahmed Khan' who is a resident of Delhi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's a conspiracy theory doing rounds on social media about hidden agenda and ulterior motives behind this PIL. Some even saying that if a muslim man wants to establish gender equality he should first do away with the regressive muslim personal law which treats muslim women differently from say Hindu women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2016-01-15T16:33:47.723" LastActivityDate="2016-01-15T16:33:47.723" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10129" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9978" CreationDate="2016-01-12T12:52:30.803" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. You can offer akshahatha (raw rice mixed with saffron powder and kumkum).&#xA;This has been recommended by all acharyas - shankara, ramanuja and madhwa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also make a mala from raw cotton. Spread the cotton in round shape in regular intervals from a thread. This you can offer it as mala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The best substitute for flowers/leaves for puja is freshly made akshatha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4613" LastActivityDate="2016-01-12T12:52:30.803" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10130" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2310" CreationDate="2016-01-12T14:34:18.963" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sadhu : Who gives if asked for or not even ask but shows his/her desire&#xA;        i.e. one who looking god in every one came before him.&#xA;Sant  : Who is nothing to give. But glory he has because of his wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rushi : One who teaches after glory. Ways &amp;amp; Means to survive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Muni  : Who dictate his philosophy for reason to one who approaches.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This words are from the date unknown but must be from Sanskrit when people learnt to understand widely humanity what it is _ after wildness. Definitely Sanskrit came when people understand the difference between man and animal: Pashu and Pakshi. This Sadhu-Sant, Rushi-Muni always been called or heard of like Mata-Pita, Beta-Beti, Pati-Patni or Accha-Bura. Then there ... I think _ must not be much difference in their meaning but to narrate much more wisdom in one particular act to perform,recognized or for its sanctioned attitude. This four people may or must be from one Ashram... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4614" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-26T13:21:03.967" LastActivityDate="2018-02-26T13:21:03.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10132" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-12T15:08:53.977" Score="7" ViewCount="235" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am doing a research on this topic and searching for references for it. I am especially looking for references to Ashaucha related to menses, any specific guideline regarding what actions are prohibited during menses due to ashaucha like doing puja, visiting temples etc. And any elaboration on the ashaucha related to menses, the reasons behind the prohibition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am looking for references from scriptures, it may be Dharma shastras, Puranas, Tantras, or any other Hindu text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-10T15:24:27.223" LastActivityDate="2021-05-07T17:23:03.793" Title="References from scriptures about prohibition of menstruating women from temples, pujas etc" Tags="|rituals|women|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10134" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-13T12:25:54.630" Score="12" ViewCount="5623" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most popular religious destinations in the world is the Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala; it gets far more visitors per year than Tirupati and the Vatican combined!  The story of the temple begins with the birth of Dharma Shasta, the son of Shiva who was born during Shiva's encounter with Mohini, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/UsLy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Upasamhara Pada of the Brahmanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But contrary to popular belief, Ayyappa is not the exactly same as the god Dharma Shasta.  Ayyappa refers to prince Manikandan of Pandalam, who was a human incarnation of the god Dharma Shasta.  Ayyappa performed many great deeds in his time on Earth, including obtaining tiger's milk and killing the demoness Mahishi, sister of the demon Mahishasura whom Durga killed.  In any case, Ayyappa lived relatively recently; In fact a close friend and devotee of his was a Muslim named &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavar&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vavar&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/d1MJr.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/d1MJr.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures mention Ayyappa?  Like I said, the Brahmanda Purana describes the birth of Shiva's son Dharma Shasta, but I'm interested in references to prince Manikandan of Pandalam.  Now given that his time period was after Muslims had already come to India, he obviously wouldn't be described in Hindu scripture in the past tense.  But Hindu scripture often contains prophecies of future incarnations, so are there any scriptures that foretell the birth of an incarnation of Dharma Shasta in the Kali Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/753/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Sthala Purana or temple scripture of Tirupati gives quotes from various Puranas which describe the story of Venkateshwara, so it's possible that the Sthala Purana of the Sabarimala temple might contain quotes from Puranas prophesying the birth of Ayyappa.  Does anyone have a copy of the Sabarimala Sthala Purana, preferably in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="11625" LastEditDate="2018-07-17T04:41:27.003" LastActivityDate="2023-03-11T05:05:15.613" Title="Do any scriptures apart fom Sabarimala Sthala Purana foretell the birth of Ayyappa?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|temple|ayyappa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10135" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-13T19:15:12.293" Score="9" ViewCount="1908" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we had seen in Mahabharata, Bhishma never broke any of his vows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was an honorable man in whole country.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He knows that Kauravas(Duryodhan) are wrong in his decision regarding giving Indraprastha kingdom to Yudhishthir. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishthir(Pandavas) was a rightful king of Indraprastha. Bhishma knew that.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why then did he decide to fight the war from Kauravas' side?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even when Lord Krishna supported Pandavas why did Bhishma give importance to oath over Dharma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4622" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-07-13T20:11:25.803" LastActivityDate="2016-07-13T20:11:25.803" Title="Why was oath so important for Bhishma Pitamaha?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|dharma|bhishma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10137" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-14T01:47:42.410" Score="2" ViewCount="216" Body="&lt;p&gt;Goddess Draupadi-Panchali is sometimes referred to as Krsnaa, and sometimes as Agniputri or Agnijoytsna. Does this mean she has some sort of family or karmic connection with Sri Krsna and/or Agni Dev? What is her relation to these deities?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(I can understand the title of Agniputri since the Mahabharat in Adi Parvan states that she and were born out of Drupad's yajna, but do the texts bring anything more explicit about this?)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3458" LastActivityDate="2016-01-14T01:47:42.410" Title="Draupadi's connections with Sri Krsna and Agni Dev?" Tags="|mahabharata|goddess|agni|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10138" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22960" CreationDate="2016-01-14T13:05:34.117" Score="10" ViewCount="11478" Body="&lt;p&gt;The many names of the Goddess are Adi Shakti, Shakti, Durga and Devi. Are they the same person?&#xA; Here is what I have gathered from numerous sources such as Wikipedia:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Durga, who is known as Parvati, is known as Adi Shakti. If so,what about Lakshmi and Saraswati?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who is Adi Shakti in the first place? Is &lt;strong&gt;she&lt;/strong&gt; the supreme goddess?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Adi Shakti is the &lt;strong&gt;supreme&lt;/strong&gt; goddess, then does it mean that, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Adi Shakti incarnates as Parvati, Lakshmi and Saraswati and the three goddesses are equal in power or does it mean that.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Parvati is the same as Adi Shakti and she incarnates as Lakshmi and Saraswati, thus making Parvati the most powerful as Adi Shakti is supreme (if we assume so according to the question)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Or is Adi Shakti just a synonym for Parvati and thus Adi Shakti/Parvati , Lakshmi and Saraswati are equal in power.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Only Parvati/Durga has &lt;strong&gt;many, many, many, many&lt;/strong&gt; avatars. Why don't Lakshmi and Sarawati?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shailaputri (a Navadurga) is Parvati (making Parvati Durga's avatar). However, normally it is vice versa.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Devi Mahatmaya, Lakshmi is Durga (killer of Mahisasur) and Saraswati is Ambika (killer of Shumb and Nishumbh). Kali, or Parvati is merely helps Vishnu kill Madhu and Kathiba (she doesn't actually participate in the slaying). Normally however, Parvati is Durga (killer of Mahisasur) as well as Ambika (killer of Shumb and Nishumbh) while the other two hardly kill anybody. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clear my doubts.Also please tell me which option,1,2 or 3 is correct.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorDisplayName="user4627" LastEditDate="2018-01-01T06:02:14.213" LastActivityDate="2024-03-20T02:21:34.380" Title="Who are Adi Shakti and Durga?" Tags="|lakshmi|durga|saraswati|parvati|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10139" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-14T13:12:39.943" Score="2" ViewCount="1573" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been associated with Parvati/Durga, Ganga and Mohini. Can you please elaborate on these associations? Also, in the Mahabharata, didn't Ganga marry Shantanu and Mohini marry Aravan (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iravan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Iravan&lt;/a&gt;)? Ganga calls Bhishma 'son'. Ganesha and Skanda (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartikeya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kartikeya&lt;/a&gt;) are also her sons. Does this make them brothers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-18T00:41:33.760" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T00:41:33.760" Title="Who are the wives/consorts of Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|mahabharata|durga|ganga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-06-20T11:36:22.510" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10141" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14868" CreationDate="2016-01-14T15:59:45.257" Score="9" ViewCount="2189" Body="&lt;p&gt;As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9633/when-did-parvati-devi-marry-shiva/9636&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; Parvati Devi married in the Vaivasvata Manvantara, before which Shiva was married to Sati Devi. Since most asura wars happened in previous Manvantaras, would that mean that Sati Devi was the one who took all those incarnations? Also to be noted is that many of the asuras slain by Durgadevi took part in the Samudra Mathana War.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does the Devi Mahatmya say about the name of Lord Shiva's consort? Does it list her as Parvati or Sati (Dakshayani)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-14T18:15:09.143" LastActivityDate="2018-12-14T18:15:09.143" Title="Wouldn't most of the incarnations of Devi be of Sati, not Parvati?" Tags="|avatars|durga|parvati|sati-goddess|manvantara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10142" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-14T16:35:18.217" Score="2" ViewCount="1488" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know that why River Ganga is also called &quot;Bhagirathi River&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastActivityDate="2017-10-20T18:06:56.600" Title="Why Ganga River is also called &quot;Bhagirathi&quot;?" Tags="|puranas|ganga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10143" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-14T16:39:54.567" Score="8" ViewCount="790" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any reason or story behind people worshipping Goddess during Makar Sankranti?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3951" LastActivityDate="2019-01-08T21:44:10.993" Title="Why people worship Goddess Ganga during Makar Sankranti?" Tags="|worship|festivals|ganga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10144" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10142" CreationDate="2016-01-15T05:40:52.227" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;This has to do with how Ganga, a river which flowed in the &lt;em&gt;Svarga&lt;/em&gt;, was brought to &lt;em&gt;Martyaloka&lt;/em&gt;. The legend as told in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp45.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana&lt;/a&gt; goes like this,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When king Sagara chose to perform the Ashwamedha yagna, his royal agents lost track of the sacrificial horse. Sagara ordered his sixty thousand sons by Sumati to track down the horse. The proud and mercurial prince raged across Bharat, burning down forests and uprooting life and property to find the horse. They finally arrived at a quiet spot where the Sage Kapila was sitting in meditation. Beside him was tied the white horse. The enraged prince condemned Kapila as a thief and attacked him. When the sage opened his eyes, his immense power turned the princes into ashes.&#xA;The Kosala kings of successive generations could not do this while managing their duties as kings. As a result, the sins of the thousand princes multiplied in their destructive energy, and began resulting in natural disasters. The kingdom began to lose its peace and prosperity, and by the time Bhagiratha ascended the throne, he found it impossible to govern.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagiratha turned over the kingdom to his trusted ministers and set off to the Himalayas to perform an arduous tapasya in the extreme climate. For one thousand years, he performed an excruciatingly harsh penance to please Lord Brahma. At the end of the thousand years, Brahma was pleased and asked him for his wish. Bhagiratha asked Brahma to bring the river Ganges down to earth so that he may perform the ceremony for his ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Kityn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Kityn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma asked Bhagiratha to propitiate Lord Shiva, for only He is capable to break Ganga's landfall. Ganga has a strong flow and it would have been impossible for anyone to contain the destructive impact of this event except Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagiratha performed a tapasya for Lord Shiva, living only on air. The compassionate Shiva appeared only after a year's penance, and told Bhagiratha he should not have to perform tapasya to accomplish a noble goal such as this. He assured Bhagiratha that he would make Ganga fall on his matted locks (dreadlocks).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In honour of the person who was responsible for bringing Ganga to the Earth, Ganga is also called BhAgirathi (meaning: of-Bhagiratha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She flowed in a destructive manner and destroyed Jhahnu rishi's ashram. This angered Jhuhnu and took Ganga as &lt;em&gt;ApOzana&lt;/em&gt;. Bhagiratha again prayed for Jhuhnu to let out Ganga and Jhuhnu let her out. Hence, Ganga is also known as &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jahnavi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. Ganga then flowed over the remains of the 60,000 ancestors of Bhagiratha and brought them &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-15T07:44:57.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10145" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10147" CreationDate="2016-01-15T06:20:39.967" Score="8" ViewCount="11668" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of the descent of Ganga is very well known. King Sagara's 60,000 sons were burnt to ashes by their own sin of insulting Lord Kapila, and to offer redemption to them, their nephew's grandson Bhagiratha brought down the Ganga to the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is more fundamental. How come Sagara had 60,000 children with Sumati (even though she was Garuda's sister she couldn't have had such magical powers)? And that too when his other wife Keshini had only one son Asamanjasa? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-15T17:16:55.817" LastActivityDate="2019-05-10T03:29:59.850" Title="How did Sagara have 60,000 children?" Tags="|ramayana|puranas|ganga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10146" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10151" CreationDate="2016-01-15T11:10:15.303" Score="1" ViewCount="802" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta, Chapter 1, when Duryodhana describes his warheads to Dronacharya, he uses everybody's name but he refers to Kripacharya as 'Samitinjaya'. Why does he use Samitinjaya (it means sangramvijayi, 'the victorious in war'), when Bhishma Pitamahaa is also undefeated and why does he use that word specifically for Kripacharya, and no alankars for other warheads?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भवान् भीष्मश् च कर्णश् च &lt;strong&gt;कृपश् च समितिञ्जयः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अश्वत्थामा विकर्णश् च स्औमदत्तिस् तथ्ऐव च १.८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhavān bhīṣmaś ca karṇaś ca &lt;strong&gt;kṛpaś ca samitiñjayaḥ&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aśvatthāmā vikarṇaś ca saumadattis tathaiva ca 1.8&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbg/sbg06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/bgs/bgs01.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-14T18:36:40.397" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T00:59:22.850" Title="Why is Kripacharya known as 'Samitinjaya'" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavad-gita|sanskrit|name|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10147" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10145" CreationDate="2016-01-15T11:42:35.770" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;King Sagara who being childless propitiated the saint Bhrigu by penances extending over a hundred years. The saint, pleased with Sāgara's worship said that from one wife of his, he will have a son from whom his heir and  maintainer of lineage and from other, 60,000 sons will be born, but he didn't specify who among Kesini or Sumati will get what.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry039.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana (XXXIX)&lt;/a&gt;, Viswamitra says to Rama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Sumati, the younger, gave&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Birth to a gourd, O hero brave,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whose rind, when burst and cleft in two,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gave sixty thousand babes to view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these with care the nurses laid&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In jars of oil; and there they stayed,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Till, youthful age and strength complete,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Forth speeding from each dark retreat,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All peers in valour, years, and might,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sixty thousand came to light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's clear that Sumati didn't give birth to 60,000 sons through natural process. As it happened with Gandhari, Sumati's sons had a miraculous birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-16T07:43:57.387" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10148" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-15T12:23:30.523" Score="7" ViewCount="1919" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva's favourite place is said to be the city of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanasi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kashi&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what are the reasons?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why Lord Mahadeva likes Kashi but not other places?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4364" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-03-19T06:35:55.347" LastActivityDate="2020-03-19T06:35:55.347" Title="Why Lord Shiva likes Kashi?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|kashi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10149" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-15T12:32:48.850" Score="2" ViewCount="3874" Body="&lt;p&gt;One day,my uncle told me that King Bhagirath was an ancestor of Lord Rama's father King Dasharath. Is this true or false?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4364" LastActivityDate="2016-01-22T17:33:03.523" Title="Was King Bhagirath an ancestor of King Dasharath?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|rama|dasharatha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10150" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-15T12:35:11.067" Score="15" ViewCount="3991" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Mahabharat, after the epic Kurukshetra war, only Parikshit was the final successor of the Kuru dynasty and while he was still in Uttara's womb, Ashwathama killed him using a Brahmastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the death of Parikshit, Pandavas lost their hope about future. And Lord Krishna had to give him another life to secure the purpose of the Kurukshetra war and the millions killed in the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Each Pandava has one or more than one wife other than Draupadi and all of their sons were also killed in the war. But was it not possible for them to have more children again?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What was the technical/medical/mythical/social problem for Pandavas to not reproduce more children?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why did Krishna break the law of nature by giving life to a dead person?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2494" LastEditorDisplayName="user12826" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T12:39:01.297" LastActivityDate="2019-12-31T06:53:20.760" Title="Why did Lord Krishna give another life to Parikshit? Was it the only way? Why didn't Pandavas plan another child?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|dharma|pandavas|chandravansh|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10151" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10146" CreationDate="2016-01-15T13:10:06.090" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The word samitiñjayaḥ is being applied to Bhishma as well.&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-1-8/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Prabhupada's commentary on this verse says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Duryodhana mentions the exceptional heroes in the battle, all of whom are ever victorious. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Sridhara Swami, an Acharya who belonged to the Rudra Sampradaya of Vaishnavism, says in his commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samjitinjayah means always victorious in battle. This applies to Drona and Bhishmadeva and all the warriors named herein. The son of Somadatta was known as Bhurishravas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Keshava Kashmiri, an Acharya who belonged to the Kumara Sampradaya of Vaishnavisn, says in his commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The adjective samitinjaya meaning always victorious in battle applies to these four being Drona, Bhisma, Karna and Krpa. Then he points out others who are almost as powerful as these four such as Asvatthana and others. Asvatthama is the son of Drona.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Kripacharya isn't being singled out as unique. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T23:47:37.427" LastActivityDate="2016-04-09T23:47:37.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10152" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10135" CreationDate="2016-01-15T16:13:34.280" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The meaning of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; doesn't mean following the good path, but what it means is following your path (which you feel is right), whether it's good or bad, will be determined by God. So in a way, a competent thief is following his dharma in a better way than an incompetent policeman. The world constitutes both good and evil to balance. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We might think that the fighting on Kaurava's side was immoral. But morality is often difficult to understand. Though Krishna was on PAndava's side, majority of the warriors were on Kaurava's side. Not all were immorals. Warriors did what felt right to them during then. The relevant text can be obtained from &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dice game&lt;/a&gt;&quot; event in Bhishma's own words &lt;sub&gt;(from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8624/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/sub&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma answered, I have already said, O blessed one that the course&#xA;  of morality is subtle. Even the illustrious wise in this world fail to&#xA;  understand it always. What in this world a strong man calls morality&#xA;  is regarded as such by others, however otherwise it may really be; but&#xA;  what a weak man calls morality is scarcely regarded as such even if it&#xA;  be the highest morality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma accepted his &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; as to serve the throne of Hastinapur, in this case it was the King Dritharshtra, hence he sided with Kauravas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4187" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-02-16T11:02:16.473" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10153" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-16T04:20:34.813" Score="3" ViewCount="1166" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva is the god of Destruction,Vishnu is the god of preservation and Brahma is the god of creation.Durga is the goddess of power,Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and Sarawati is the goddess of wisdom.In addition to that,Ganesha is the god of success and Skanda is the god of war.What about Ayypappa and Hanuman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastActivityDate="2022-10-12T04:29:04.777" Title="What is Ayyappa and Hanuman god of?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|hanuman|ayyappa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10156" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22826" CreationDate="2016-01-16T04:58:50.203" Score="10" ViewCount="3100" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many myths that say Draupadi is a goddess. Many people, including myself, have prayed to her. There are many legends of her being a goddess. Some legends are given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is said that Draupadi is incarnation of wives of Dharma, Vayu, Indra and Aswini Kumaras. The wives of Dharma, Vayu, Indra and Aswini Kumaras are however stepmothers to the Pandavas. In that case how did they marry her?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Draupadi is said to be Kali, the wife of Shiva. How did she, then, marry not one but five Pandavas instead of an avatar of Shiva?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2018-10-23T17:47:42.173" LastActivityDate="2018-10-23T17:47:42.173" Title="Is Draupadi a goddess?" Tags="|mahabharata|shiva|pandavas|draupadi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10157" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10149" CreationDate="2016-01-16T06:11:10.730" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What you heard is true;&lt;/strong&gt; King Bhagiratha was an ancestor of Dasharatha and Sri Rama. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga70/bala_70_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bala Kanda (Chapter 70&lt;/a&gt;), of Valmiki Ramayana, Rama's line of descent is spelled out in great detail by Sage Vashishta. This was right before Sita's wedding to Rama in Mithila. I've referenced below the relevant part that answers your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Sagara it is Asamanja and from Asamanja it is Amshuman, and from Amshuman it is Diliipa, and the son of Diliipa is &lt;strong&gt;Bhageeratha&lt;/strong&gt;... [1-70-38]&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;strong&gt;Bhageeratha&lt;/strong&gt; it is Kakutstha, from Kakutstha it is Raghu, and Raghu's son is the great resplendent Pravriddha, who is reduced to a human flesh eater, and he is also known as Kalmashapaada... and from him, that Pravriddha, Shankana is born... [1-70-39, 40a]&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankana's son is Sudarshana, and from Sudarshana it is Agnivarsna... And Shiigraga is the son of Agnivarsna, and Shiighraga's son is Maru and from Maru it is Prashushruka, and Ambariisha is the son of Prashushruka... [1-70-41]&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ambariisha's son was Nahusha, the emperor and Yayaati is the son of Nahusha, but Naabhaaga is born to Yayaati... [1-70-42]&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aja was Naabhaaga's son and from Aja, this &lt;strong&gt;Dasharatha&lt;/strong&gt; is manifest, and from him, from this Dasharatha, these brothers, Rama and Lakshmana are born... [1-70-43]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vashishta, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga110/ayodhya_110_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;towards the end of Ayodhya Kanda&lt;/a&gt; and in a completely different setting than before, recites Rama's ancestry again. Here, he's trying to explain and convince Rama that he should come back to Ayodhya and rule the kingdom being the eldest son of the current king Dasaratha and not break the long-standing tradition of the Ikshvaku race:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of &lt;strong&gt;Bhagiratha&lt;/strong&gt; was born kakutstha, from whom the Kakutsthas take their name. To Kakutsthas was born a son called Raghu, from whence spring Raghavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Raghu was born a renowned son named Pravriddha, known in the world under the names Purushadaka, Kalmashapada and Soudasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kalmashapada's son was renowned as Shankhana, who, even on attaining his father's valour, perished (in a battle) along with his army.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fortunate Sudarshana was the son of Shankhana. Sudarshana's son was Agnivarna; and of Agnivarna was born Shighraga. Shighraga begot Maru and Maru's son was Prashushruva from Prashushruva was born Ambarisha of that great radiance. To Ambarisha was born a son named Nahusha who was full of valour. Nahusha's son was Nabhaga of outstanding virtue. Aja and Suvrata were the two sons of Nabhaga and it was Aja who begot the virtuous &lt;strong&gt;King Dasartha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are the eldest son of that &lt;strong&gt;Dasaratha&lt;/strong&gt;, very well-known as &lt;strong&gt;Rama&lt;/strong&gt;, the heir who can claim over the inheritance. O, King! Hence, take over your kingdom and look after your people there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are interested in the complete family tree of Sri Rama (ancestors as well as descendants), you can find it on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy_of_Rama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-22T17:33:03.523" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10162" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-16T14:58:44.487" Score="3" ViewCount="1289" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; they consist of concise aphorisms, so people usually read them with the help of a commentary.  The oldest surviving  commentary on the Brahma Sutras is the Brahma Sutra Bhashya written by the Advaita Acharya Adi Shankaracharya.  And then there are numerous commentaries written by Vaishnava Acharyas, including the Sri Bhashya by the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya, the Govinda Bhashya by the Gaudiya Vaishnava Acharya Baladeva Vidyabhushana, and the commentaries of Madhvacharya, Vallabhacharya, and Nimbarka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what Shaivite commentaries on the Brahma Sutras are there?  In my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8872/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I discussed the Srikantha Bhashya, written by Srikantha Sivacharya (aka Nilakantha Sivacharya) who belonged to the Shaiva Siddhanta sect. You can read it &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TheVedantaSutrasWithSriKanthaBhashya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. And in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I discuss the Shrikara Bhashya, written by Shripati who belonged to the Lingayat sect of Shaivism.  I don't have a copy of his commentary, so if anyone has it I'd appreciate it&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are these the only two Shaivite commentaries on the Brahma Sutras?  The reason I ask is that as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8872/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, there's a section of the Brahma Sutras that seem to be refuting the philosophy of the Shaiva Agamas, so I'm wondering how different Shaivite commentators interpret that section.   (I posted a question about that &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10235/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  Srikantha interprets it as refuting those who misinterpret this Shaiva Agamas, rather than criticizing the actual teachings of the Shaiva Agamas.  Perhaps others make sense of Vyasa's criticism of the Shaiva Agamas in a different way.  (By the way, Vaishnava have a somewhat analogous issue which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9471/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it's true that philosophical Shaivism went into decline after the time of Adi Shankaracharya, because the Vedanta school became dominant and a lot of Shaivite sects were not affiliated with the Vedanta school.  But aren't there other Shaivite sects which subscribe to Vedanta, and if so what commentaries on the Brahma Sutras have they written?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2020-10-27T07:50:43.980" Title="How many Shaivite commentaries on the Brahma Sutras are there?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahma-sutras|shaivism|sects|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10164" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-16T18:49:20.410" Score="4" ViewCount="30651" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where can I the find correct horoscope of Lord Rama and Ravana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3805" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-22T16:15:01.710" LastActivityDate="2017-11-22T16:58:43.667" Title="Correct horoscope of Lord Rama and Ravana" Tags="|rama|ravana|horoscopes|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10166" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-17T08:30:58.620" Score="4" ViewCount="12595" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any curse on Tanjore big temple by sage karuvuraar and that's the reason politicians doesn't enter the temple through main entrance? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4642" LastActivityDate="2018-04-01T07:22:06.553" Title="Curse on Tanjore big temple" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10167" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8744" CreationDate="2016-01-17T15:04:19.357" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a subject which does not have a black and white answer. There are texts such as the Garuda Purana (as mentioned by the other answer) which illustrate the &quot;sin&quot; of homosexuality, but there are also many texts which illustrate gay, lesbian, transgender life as expressions of &quot;Tritiya Prakriti&quot; or the &quot;third gender&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I came across this website recently (below) which illustrates the Vedic idea very clearly :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.galva108.org/#!TritiyaPrakriti-People-of-the-Third-Sex-1/cu6k/098C3AAD-92BC-4F13-91FB-550C133537CD&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.galva108.org/#!TritiyaPrakriti-People-of-the-Third-Sex-1/cu6k/098C3AAD-92BC-4F13-91FB-550C133537CD&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rather than outline the details of the arguments, it may be good to just go to the website itself. It illustrates the origins, names and characteristics of the Vedic interpretation of gay, lesbian, transgender roles. Obviously the Kama Sutras (at least 5,000 ago) and the Khajuharo temples illustrates gay roles, but it should also be noted that there are examples throughout the Itihas, Puran (Mahabharat, Srimat Bhagavatam, etc.) and countless examples of God's, Gandharvins, and enlightened heroes who exhibit dual genders and gay/lesbian activities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does one reconcile what the Garuda Purana and some Smritis say with what is written in so many other aspects of the Vedic Literature?  There are many rules for Brahmins, twice born, those following certain vows, etc. which strict sexual laws pertain to.  But this is not to be laws for all people. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fact that Ardhanarishwar (half male and half female aspects of Shiva /God) exists, or that Ayapan was born from Shiva and Vishnu (Mohini), makes one realize just how profound the Vedas are. All possibilities exist in Conscousness. Different people will be born with different Prakritis and have a devotion to different aspects of God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is why there are so many expressions of One Brahman in Vedic Science and so many castes and paths of life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti (Upanisads) &#xA;The truth is one, but the wise know it by many names. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to know the answer to the question it's important to see the caste, stage in life, and goals in life. The effect of everything is known and understood in terms of action (karma) and understanding the context. For this reason it is explained differently in different aspects of Veda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another good website which deals with this is :&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://history-of-hinduism.blogspot.in/p/homosexuality-and-hinduism.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://history-of-hinduism.blogspot.in/p/homosexuality-and-hinduism.html?m=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It looks at the different aspects of Vedic Literature and how it understands homosexuality differently depending on time and circumstance. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It makes sense that Vedic thought would encompass/incorporate all visions and perspectives of God as well as an understanding of the appropriateness of time and place for everything - - including the resulting effects. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4598" LastActivityDate="2016-01-17T15:04:19.357" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10168" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10169" CreationDate="2016-01-17T16:51:44.490" Score="9" ViewCount="1110" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vivekananda.net/tales%20and%20parables/DogsCurlyTail.html&quot;&gt;The dog's curly tale&lt;/a&gt; is a tale by Swami Vivekananda. It is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was a poor man who wanted some money; and somehow he had heard&#xA;  that if he could get hold of a ghost, he might command him to bring&#xA;  money or anything else he liked; so he was very anxious to get hold of&#xA;  a ghost. He went about searching for a man who would give him a ghost,&#xA;  and at last he found a sage with great powers, and besought his help.&#xA;  The sage asked him what he would do with a ghost. &quot;I want a ghost to&#xA;  work for me; teach me how to get hold of one, sir; I desire it very&#xA;  much,&quot; replied the man. But the sage said, &quot;Don't disturb yourself, go&#xA;  home.&quot; The next day the man went again to the sage and began to weep&#xA;  and pray, &quot;Give me a ghost; I must have a ghost, sir, to help me.&quot; At&#xA;  last the sage was disgusted, and said, &quot;Take this charm, repeat this&#xA;  magic word, and a ghost will come, and whatever you say to him he will&#xA;  do. But beware; they are terrible beings, and must be kept continually&#xA;  busy. If you fail to give him work, he will take your life.&quot; The man&#xA;  replied, &quot;That is easy; I can give him work for all his life.&quot; Then he&#xA;  went to a forest, and after long repetition of the magic word, a huge&#xA;  ghost appeared before him, and said, &quot;I am a ghost. I have been&#xA;  conquered by your magic; but you must keep me constantly employed. The&#xA;  moment you fail to give me work I will kill you.&quot; The man said, &quot;Build&#xA;  me a palace,&quot;, and the ghost said, &quot;It is done; the palace is built.&quot;&#xA;  &quot;Bring me money,&quot; said the man. &quot;Here is your money,&quot; said the ghost.&#xA;  &quot;Cut this forest down, and build a city in its place.&quot; &quot;That is done,&quot;&#xA;  said the ghost, &quot;anything more?&quot; Now the man began to be frightened&#xA;  and thought he could give him nothing more to do; he did everything in&#xA;  a trice. The ghost said, &quot;Give me something to do or I will eat you&#xA;  up.&quot; The poor man could find no further occupation for him, and was&#xA;  frightened. So he ran and ran and at last reached the sage, and said,&#xA;  &quot;Oh, sir, protect my life!&quot; The sage asked him what the matter was,&#xA;  and the man replied, &quot;I have nothing to give the ghost to do.&#xA;  Everything I tell him to do he does in a moment, and he threatens to&#xA;  eat me up if I do not give him work.&quot; Just then the ghost arrived,&#xA;  saying, &quot;I'll eat you up,&quot; and he would have swallowed the man. The&#xA;  man began to shake, and begged the sage to save his life. The sage&#xA;  said, &quot;I will find you a way out. Look at that dog with a curly tail.&#xA;  Draw your sword quickly and cut the tail off and give it to the ghost&#xA;  to straighten out.&quot; The man cut off the dog's tail and gave it to the&#xA;  ghost, saying, &quot;Straighten that out for me.&quot; The ghost took it and&#xA;  slowly and carefully straightened it out, but as soon as he let it go,&#xA;  it instantly curled up again. Once more he laboriously straightened it&#xA;  out, only to find it again curled up as soon as he attempted to let go&#xA;  of it. Again he patiently straightened it out, but as soon as he let&#xA;  it go, it curled up again. So he went on for days and days, until he&#xA;  was exhausted and said, &quot;I was never in such trouble before in my&#xA;  life. I am an old veteran ghost, but never before was I in such&#xA;  trouble.&quot; &quot;I will make a compromise with you;&quot; he said to the man,&#xA;  &quot;you let me off and I will let you keep all I have given you and will&#xA;  promise not to harm you.&quot; The man was much pleased, and accepted the&#xA;  offer gladly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This world is like a dog's curly tail, and people have been striving&#xA;  to straighten it out for hundreds of years; but when they let it go,&#xA;  it has curled up again. How could it be otherwise?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One must first know how to work without attachment, then one will not&#xA;  be a fanatic. When we know that this world is like a dog's curly tail&#xA;  and will never get straightened, we shall not become fanatics. If&#xA;  there were no fanaticism in the world, it would make much more&#xA;  progress than it does now. It is a mistake to think that fanaticism&#xA;  can make for the progress of mankind. On the contrary, it is a&#xA;  retarding element creating hatred and anger, and causing people to&#xA;  fight each other, and making them unsympathetic. We think that&#xA;  whatever we do or possess is the best in the world, and what we do not&#xA;  do or possess is of no value. So, always remember the instance of the&#xA;  curly tail of the dog whenever you have a tendency to become a&#xA;  fanatic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Swami Vivekananda says that the &quot;&lt;em&gt;This world is like a dog's curly tail, and people have been striving to straighten it out for hundreds of years; but when they let it go, it has curled up again.&lt;/em&gt;&quot;, what does he mean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it means we should not help the needy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastActivityDate="2016-01-18T05:03:05.550" Title="What does Swami Vivekananda want to convey through his tale &quot;The dog's curly tail&quot;" Tags="|karma|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10169" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10168" CreationDate="2016-01-17T19:09:14.657" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;'The dog's curly tail' was the story that Swamiji narrated while he was talking on Karma yoga and specifically on the topic 'We help ourselves, not the world'. &lt;a href=&quot;http://belurmath.org/complete_works_of_swami_vivekananda/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; (Karma Yoga-&amp;gt;The Ideal of Karma Yoga) are the words of Swamiji which would give better understanding of his 'curly tail' example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We cannot add happiness to this world; similarly, we cannot add pain to it either.&lt;/strong&gt; The sum total of the energies of pleasure and pain displayed here on earth will be the same throughout. We just push it from this side to the other side, and from that side to this, but &lt;strong&gt;it will remain the same&lt;/strong&gt;, because to remain so is its very nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As said, world will remain the same like dog's curled-up-tail. Well, despite this incapability of bringing happiness or sorrow to the world; &lt;a href=&quot;http://belurmath.org/complete_works_of_swami_vivekananda/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (Karma Yoga-&amp;gt;We help ourselves, not the world) is the motivation for good work in Swamiji's words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why should we do good to the world? Apparently to help the world, but &lt;strong&gt;really to help ourselves.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;...Yet we must do good; &lt;strong&gt;the desire to do good is the highest motive power we have, if we know all the time that it is a privilege to help others&lt;/strong&gt;...  It is not the receiver that is blessed, but it is the giver. Be thankful that you are allowed to &lt;strong&gt;exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world&lt;/strong&gt;, and thus become pure and perfect. All good acts tend to make us pure and perfect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, needy should be helped but with the feeling of gratefulness and not with the pride of helping.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, with curly tail example Swamiji meant that one should do good in the world without being fooled by the view that one, with the actions, can take world from evil to good or from wrong to right. The world has been more or less in the same state, like the dog's always-curled-up-tail, where good and evils have always co-existed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-01-18T05:03:05.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10171" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-18T11:25:56.163" Score="6" ViewCount="522" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna is Vishnu who lived during Dwapara yuga for the establishment of dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My doubt is whether he was in the state of moksha at that time or not? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose someone attains moksha after death, can he become the Krishna of the next Dwapara yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it's true that one can become Vishnu by attaining moksha and he could also be reborn as Krishna, then how can moksha prevent the birth-death cycle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is it that a person can never become Vishnu during his lifetime or after attaining moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-22T04:57:22.503" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T12:24:29.287" Title="Was Krishna in moksha state during his life?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|moksha|rebirth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10172" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10171" CreationDate="2016-01-18T16:17:18.097" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna was in moksha state, i.e. in the Turiya or the fourth state, according to this passage in Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira said, 'How wonderful is this, O thou of immeasurable&#xA;  prowess, that thou art rapt in meditation! O great refuge of the&#xA;  universe, is it all right with the three worlds? When thou hast, O God, withdrawn thyself (from the world), having, o bull among men, adopted the fourth state, my mind has been filled with wonder. The five life-breaths that act within the body have been controlled by thee into stillness. Thy delighted senses thou hast concentrated within thy mind. Both speech and mind, O Govinda, have been concentrated within thy understanding. All thy senses, indeed, have been withdrawn into thy soul. The hair on thy body stands erect. Thy mind and understanding are both still. Thou art as immobile now, O Madhava, as a wooden post or a stone. O illustrious God, thou art as still as the flame of a lamp burning in a place where there is no wind. Thou art as immobile as a mass of a rock......' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section XLVII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Jiva even after moksha can never become Ishvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who is Ishvara? Janmadyasya yatah - &quot;From whom is the birth,&#xA;  continuation, and dissolution of the universe,&quot; - He is Ishvara - &quot;the&#xA;  Eternal, the Pure, the Ever-Free, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the&#xA;  All-Merciful, the Teacher of all teachers&quot;; and above all, Sa Ishvarah&#xA;  anirvachaniya-premasvarupah - &quot;He the Lord is, of His own nature,&#xA;  inexpressible Love.&quot; These certainly are the definitions of a Personal&#xA;  God. Are there then two Gods - the &quot;Not this, not this,&quot; the&#xA;  Sat-chit-ananda, the Existence-knowledge-Bliss of the philosopher, and&#xA;  this God of love of the Bhakta? No it is the same Sat-chit-ananda who&#xA;  is also the God of Love, the impersonal and personal in one. It has&#xA;  always to be understood that the Personal God worshipped by the Bhakta&#xA;  is not separate or different from Brahman. All is Brahman, the One&#xA;  without a second; only the Brahman, as unity or absolute, is too much&#xA;  of an abstraction to be loved and worshipped; so the Bhakta chooses&#xA;  the relative aspect of Brahman, that is Ishvara, the Supreme Ruler. To&#xA;  use a simile: &lt;strong&gt;Brahman is as the clay or substance out of which an&#xA;  infinite variety of articles are fashioned. As clay, they are all one;&#xA;  but form or manifestation differentiates them. Before everyone of them&#xA;  was made, they all existed potentially in the clay, and, of course,&#xA;  they are identical substantially; but when formed, and so long as the&#xA;  form remains, they are separate and different; the clay-mouse can&#xA;  never become a clay-elephant, because, as manifestations, form alone&#xA;  makes them what they are, though as unformed clay they are all one.&#xA;  Ishvara is the highest manifestation of the Absolute Reality, or in&#xA;  other words, the highest possible reading of the Absolute by the human&#xA;  mind.&lt;/strong&gt; Creation is eternal and so also is Ishvara........Those who&#xA;  attain to that state where there is neither knower, nor knowable, nor&#xA;  knowledge, where there is neither I, nor thou, nor he, where there is&#xA;  neither subject, nor object, nor relation, &quot;there, who is seen by&#xA;  whom?&quot; - such persons have gone beyond everything to &quot;where words&#xA;  cannot go nor mind&quot;, gone to where the Shrutis declare as &quot;Not this,&#xA;  not this&quot;; but for those who cannot, or will not reach this state,&#xA;  there will inevitably remain the triune vision of the one&#xA;  undifferentiated Brahman as nature, soul and the interpenetrating&#xA;  sustainer of both - Ishvara. .....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, III, p 37-42&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-01-18T16:17:18.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10174" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-18T18:44:46.203" Score="11" ViewCount="1522" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four disciples: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara. And in turn they started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Sampradayam.  Now the Sri Sampradayam, the one started by Lakshmi, is most famous for containing the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).  But this isn't the only sect that traces its origins to the Sri Sampradayam.  There's also the Ramanandi sect, which Tulsidas the author of the Ramcharitmanas belonged to.  And then there is the Swaminarayan sect, which is the subject of my question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swaminarayan was a Vaishnava thinker who lived in the eighteenth century.  His followers consider him to be an incarnation of Vishnu, specifically a rebirth of the sage Narayana whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7024/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, Swamninarayan was a disciple of Ramanand Swami, who claims to have received initiation from the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya in a dream, which is why the Swaminarayan sect considers itself part of the Sri Sampradayam. (Personally I find that odd, but that's a discussion for another time.) Swaminarayan subscribed to the Visistadvaita Vedanta philosophy of Ramanujacharya, with some modifications: Ramanujacharya believed that there were three Tattvas or substances in the worlds: Chit or souls, Achit or matter, and Ishwara or Brahman.  Swaminarayan, on the other hand, believed in five Tattvas: Jiva, Ishwara, Maya, Brahman, and Parabrahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now like the vast majority of Hindus, the Swaminarayan sect subscribes to the Vedanta school of philosophy, and the defining text of the Vedanta school is the Brahma Sutras, a work by Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.  You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; they're usually written with the help of a commentary.  So my question is, are any Swaminarayan sect commentaries on the Brahma Sutras available online in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now apparently the Swaminarayan sect has written two commentaries on the Brahma Sutras.  First there's Muktanand Swami's Brahma Sutra Bhashya Ratnam, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swaminarayangadi.com/publications/eBooks/Brahmsutrabhashyaratnam/Brahmsutrabhashyaratnam-eBook.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in Sanskrit and Gujarati.  Then there's Bhadreshdas' Brahma Sutra Swaminarayan Bhashyam, published in 2009, which is available &lt;a href=&quot;https://lccn.loc.gov/2011432134&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;in print form&lt;/a&gt; in Sanskrit.  But have either of these commentaries ever been translated into English, and if so is there an online version of them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I ask is that I'm interested to see what the differences are relative to the Sri Bhashya, Ramanujacharya's commentary on the Brahma Sutras.  Both of them would be written from a Visistadvaita point of view, but as I said there are differences between Ramanujacharya's Visisitadvaita philosophy and Swaminarayan's Visistadvaita philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2022-09-28T15:08:24.370" Title="Have any Swaminarayan commentaries on the Brahma Sutras been translated into English?" Tags="|vaishnavism|vedanta|sri-vaishnava|translation-request|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10176" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19581" CreationDate="2016-01-19T20:40:07.707" Score="7" ViewCount="2641" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://researchbasic.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-game-of-dice-pause-contemplate.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this blog post&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/Threethalukshetralu/posts/891636047575050&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Facebook post&lt;/a&gt;, the following is a conversation that took place between &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uddhava&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uddhava&lt;/a&gt; and Sri Krishna in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsa_Gita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uddhava Gita&lt;/a&gt;. Is there any truth to this story/conversation? Is it part of another Purana or scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uddhava asks:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna, you were a dear friend of the Pandavas. They trusted you fully as Apadhbhandava (protector from all difficulties). You not only know what is happening, but you know what is going to happen. You are a great gyani. Just now you gave the definition of a true, close friend. Then why did you not act as per that definition. &lt;strong&gt;Why did you not stop Dharmaraja [Yudhishtra] from playing the gambling game?&lt;/strong&gt; Ok, you did not do it; why did you not turn the luck in favour of Dharmaraja, by which you would have ensured that dharma wins. You did not do that also. You could have at least saved Dharmaraja by stopping the game after he lost his wealth, country and himself. You could have released him from the punishment for gambling. Or, you could have entered the hall when he started betting his brothers. You did not do that either. At least when Duryodhana tempted Dharmaraja by offering to return everything lost if he betted Draupadi (who always brought good fortune to Pandavas), you could have intervened and with your divine power you could have made the dices roll in a way that is favorable to Dharmaraja. Instead, you intervened only when Draupadi almost lost her modesty and now you claim that you gave clothes and saved Draupadi's modesty; how can you even claim this – after her being dragged into the hall by a man and disrobed in front of so many people, what modesty is left for a woman? What have you saved? Only when you help a person at the time of crisis, can you be called 'Apadhbandhava'. &lt;strong&gt;If you did not help in the time of crisis, what is the use?&lt;/strong&gt; Is it Dharma?’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna laughs and says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dear Uddhava, the law of this world is: &amp;quot;only the one who has Viveka (intelligence through discrimination), wins.&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;While Duryodhana had viveka, Dharmaraja lacked it. That is why Dharmaraja lost.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While Duryodhana had lots of money and wealth to gamble, he did not know how to play the game of dice. That is why he used his Uncle Shakuni to play the game while he betted. That is viveka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharmaraj also could have thought similarly and offered that I, his cousin, would play on his behalf.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Shakuni and I had played the game of dice, who do you think would have won? Can he roll the numbers I am calling or would I roll the numbers he is asking. Forget this. I can forgive the fact that he forgot to include me in the game. But, without viveka, he did another blunder. He prayed that I should not come to the hall as he did not want me to know that through ill-fate he was compelled to play this game. He tied me with his prayers and did not allow me to get into the hall; I was just outside the hall waiting for someone to call me through their prayers. Even when Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva were lost, they were only cursing Duryodhana and brooding over their fate; they forgot to call me. Even Draupadi did not call me when Dusshasan held her hair and dragged her to fulfil his brother’s order. She was also arguing in the hall, based on her own abilities. She never called me. Finally good sense prevailed; when Dusshasan started disrobing her, she gave up depending on her own strength, and started shouting ‘Hari, Hari, Abhayam Krishna, Abhayam’ and shouted for me. Only then I got an opportunity to save her modesty. &lt;strong&gt;I reached as soon as I was called. I saved her modesty. What is my mistake in this situation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T15:34:24.790" Title="Scriptural basis for Uddhava-Gita's conversation on &quot;Why Krishna didn't stop the dice game?&quot;" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|puranas|krishna|uddhava-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-07-14T16:11:29.463" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10177" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-19T20:43:11.440" Score="5" ViewCount="851" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tithi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; says Rudra is the ruling deity of Ekadashi, but I have seen an answer here based on the Puranas that says it is Lord Vishnu. So which one of them rules the Ekadashi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4657" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2018-02-14T10:42:06.080" LastActivityDate="2018-02-14T10:42:06.080" Title="Is Ekadashi Tithi ruled by Rudra or Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|puranas|calendar|ekadashi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10180" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-20T05:16:55.693" Score="5" ViewCount="1060" Body="&lt;p&gt;As, I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10174/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four gods: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara. And they in turn started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Sampradayam. Now the Sri Sampradayam, the one started by Lakshmi, is most famous for containing the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member). But this is not the only sect that traces its origins to the Sri Sampradayam.  There's also the Swaminarayan sect, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10174/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And then there is the Ramanandi sect, which is the subject of my question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ramanandi or Ramavat sect was popularized by Ramananda, who believed that Rama is the supreme being.  It's similar to the ISKCON worldview, where Krishna is supreme and Vishnu is an incarnation of Krishna, except Krishna is replaced by Rama.  Famous devotees of Rama like Tulsidas and Kabir belonged to this sect.  In any case, Ramananda was in the disciplic succession of the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya, which is why the Ramanandi sect considers itself part of the Sri Sampradaya.  They even subscribe to Ramanujacharya's philosophy of Visistadvaita. In fact &lt;a href=&quot;https://lordrama.co.in/sri-vaishnav-parampara.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;they claim&lt;/a&gt; that Baudhayana, whose ancient work Ramanujacharya relied on as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3198/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, was a Visistadvaita thinker belonging to their sect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Ramanandis, like the vast majority of Hindus, subscribe to the Vedanta school of philosophy, and the defining text of the Vedanta school is the Brahma Sutras, a work by Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; they're usually read with the help of a commentary.  So my question is, are any Ramanandi commentaries on the Brahma Sutras available in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There seem to be at least four Ramanandi commentaries on the Brahma Sutras, all of uncertain origin.  (EDIT: Now I found about a fifth!  See below.) First there is the Janaki Bhashya, which was published in the early 20th century and attributed to some earlier Ramanandi named Ramprasada.  I don't know who Ramprasada is, but Hanks Bakker's book &amp;quot;Ayodhya&amp;quot; claims that the Janaki Bhashya may not be an authentic work of Ramprasada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramnarayanadas seemed to have been a reluctant follower of this movement, nevertheless he and Ramavallabhasharana are known in Ayodhya as the authors of several forgeries written in the first decades of the present century, such as the Ramarchan Paddhati ascribed to Ramanand and the Shri Janakibhashya, a commentary on the Vedanta sutras ascribed to Ramprasada.... [T]he Shri Janakibhashya was never acknowledged by the Mahants of the Bara Sthan and Ramprasada’s authorship is vehemently denied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then there is the Ananda Bhashya, which is attributed to Ramananda.  It was published in 1921 by Raghubardas under the auspices of the Ramanandi Acharya Bhagavadacharya, but Bhagavadacharya eventually admitted that it was a forgery by Raghubardas; here is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://pratilipi.in/2008/10/in-search-of-ramanand-purushottam-agrawal/7/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this journal paper&lt;/a&gt; by Purushottam Agrawal says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagwadacharya rejected all such charges [of forgery] with vehemence at this point in time but, once he fell out with Raghubardas, he started condemning this Bhashya as ‘nothing but a forgery perpetuated by Raghubardas.’ In his autobiography, he gives the fascinating details of intrigues that went into ‘transforming the Janaki Bhashya of Ram Prasad into the Ananda Bhashya and attributing it to Ramanand’. He admits quite candidly, ‘being a new and fresh recruit to the cause, I inspired this act of injustice and fraud.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gzN2G.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from a journal paper by William Pinch says that Bhagavadacharya subsequently published two more commentaries on the Brahma Sutras, first the Janaki Kripabhashya and then the Ramananda Bhashya attributed to Ramananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[I]n 1958, he published the ShriJanakikripabhashyasya (discourses of Shri Janaki, or Sita on life).  In 1963 Bhagavadacharya authored yet another doctrinal-cum-philosophical treatise, entitled Shri Ramanandabhashyam (the discourses of Ramanand), which created considerable consternation among major Sampraday figures in Ayodhya and Banaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So all the commentaries have been of uncertain origin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But have any of these four commentaries been translated into English, and if so are there online versions of them?  The reason I ask is that I want to see how the Ramanandi sect's interpretation of the Brahma Sutras differs from Ramanunacharya's, given that both of them subscribed to some version of Visistadvaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I've now found out about a fifth (!) Ramanandi commentary, the Shri Raghava Kripa Bhashyam written by the poet Rambhadracharya in 1998 and released by the then-Prime Minister of India Vajpayee.  This looks like the most recent Ramanandi commentary on the Brahma Sutras, and also I think it's the only one that doesn't have any controversy about forgery.  It is exactly what it claims to be, a commentary written in modern times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2022-08-08T01:27:26.723" LastActivityDate="2023-03-01T11:00:15.027" Title="Have any Ramanandi commentaries on the Brahma Sutras been translated into English?" Tags="|vaishnavism|vedanta|translation-request|brahma-sutras|sects|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10181" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-20T08:26:47.603" Score="4" ViewCount="1770" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can someone please brief me the difference between Uddhava-Gita, Rudra-Gita, Bhikshu-Gita, Sruti-Gita, the Hamsa-Gita and the Bhagavad-Gita and also summarize what they talk about? I know about Bhagavad-Gita but not much about the other ones. These all are part of the Bhagavata Purana. If possible, please also redirect me to the exact places in Bhagavata Purana where each of these are mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T08:34:08.987" LastActivityDate="2016-01-25T08:34:08.987" Title="Difference between different types of Gita (Uddhava-Gita, Rudra-Gita etc.)" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|bhagavata-purana|uddhava-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2016-01-22T18:34:49.163" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10182" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7683" CreationDate="2016-01-20T11:27:52.667" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scriptures explicitly recommend murthi puja or image worship as can be seen below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;58.Till the realisation of perfect knowledge a man should continue the ritualistic worship of Shiva. 59-60. In order to convince the world,&#xA;  the rituals must be continued. Just as the sun is reflected in many&#xA;  vessels, in the same manner, O devas, know that the supreme Brahman,&#xA;  Shiva, assumes the form of whatever is seen or heard in the world real&#xA;  or unreal. &#xA;  59.There is difference in vessels but not in the water they contain. This is what those who know the real meaning of the Vedas say.&#xA;  60.&quot;Lord Shiva is within the heart of beings in this world.&quot; Of what avail are images to those who have the real knowledge?&#xA;  61.Having an image is very auspicious for a person who has no such knowledge. It is a ladder that enables him to climb to a higher&#xA;  position.&#xA;  62.It is very difficult to climb to a position without a support. The image is only a means to achieve the Nirguna Shiva. &#xA;  63.The attainment of the Nirguna through a Saguna is certainly possible. In this manner, the symbols of all lords are conductive to&#xA;  steady faith and belief. &#xA;  64.This lord is very great and this is the mode of worship of that lord. If there is no image, of what avail are scents, sandal paste,&#xA;  flowers etc?&#xA;  65.Till the realisation of true knowledge, the image shall necessarily be worshipped. If any one does not worship the image before he attains&#xA;  perfect knowledge, his downfall is sure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita Section I, Creation, Chapter 12 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whoever makes an offering to Me with devotion, be it of leaf, flower,&#xA;  fruit or water - that devout offering made by a pure-hearted man, I&#xA;  accept with joy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 9.26&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It would be impossible to offer leaf or flower if there is no image.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-01-20T11:27:52.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10183" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-21T10:33:58.527" Score="1" ViewCount="4495" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some people say that both Goddess Lakshmi and Goddess Saraswati are sisters of Lord Shiva's sons Ganesha and Kartikeya. Is this true or false?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4665" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T13:13:29.947" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T21:20:27.007" Title="Were Lakshmi and Saraswati sisters of Ganesha and Kartikeya?" Tags="|ganesha|lakshmi|kartikeya|saraswati|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10184" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10183" CreationDate="2016-01-21T12:33:32.460" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarasvati is the consort of Brahma, the Creator, and goddess of the arts, music, learning, knowledge and culture. Her name is a contraction of &quot;Saram vati iti&quot; or &quot;She who flows towards the Infinite&quot;. She is the symbol of fertility and prosperity, of purity and creativity, and of literary and verbal skills. She holds a mala, rosary, and a scroll which symbolize her knowledge. &lt;strong&gt;She is a daughter of Durga and sister to Lakshmi, Ganesha and Kartikeya.&lt;/strong&gt; Her own children are the four Vedas, the oldest of India's sacred texts. Some say that she was born of Gauri, a personification of Sati; and of the divine Prakrti who gives form to everything at the bidding of Brahma, the Creator. In association with Indra, king of the gods, Sarasvati destroyed the serpent Vritrasura who had hidden and hoarded away all the Earth's waters. She is therefore the destroyer of chaos, darkness and drought. She is the guardian of thoughts and the chief bestower of the light of consciousness that bestows revelation and understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacredthread.net/information/goddesses.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Link for the above Quote&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3122" LastActivityDate="2016-01-21T12:33:32.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10187" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-21T13:52:37.067" Score="6" ViewCount="605" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important in the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu. Since the Pancharatra texts originated from Narayana himself, they are followed by pretty much all mainstream Vaishnava Sampradayas, whether Sri Vaishnavas, Madhvas, Gaudiya Vaishnavas, etc. But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3977/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; there's another group of Vishnu-worshippers who worship Vishnu according toan entirely different set of texts, the Vaikhanasas.  They form a tiny minority, but they run a lot of famous Vishnu temples including the world-renowned Tirumala Venkateshwara temple.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, compared to mainstream Vaishnavas, Vaikhanasas put less emphasis on Vedantic philosophy and more emphasis on rituals; Vaikhanasa doctrines are more about the construction and worship of idols and the like.   But like the vast majority of Hindus, they still subscribe to the Vedanta school of philosophy.  And the defining text of the Vedanta school is the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And so like most sects, the Vaikhanasas have a commentary on the Brahma Sutras.  It was written by Srinivasa Dikshitar, a 13th century Vaikhanasa priest of Tirupati, and it's known as the Lakshmi-Visistadvaita Bhashya.  Its philosophy is similar to the Visistadvaita philosophy of the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya, with one important difference: whereas Ramanujacharya believed that Brahman/Vishnu was &quot;Visista&quot; or qualified by souls and matter, Srinivasa Dikshitar believed that Brahman was qualified by Lakshmi.  In that way it's similar to the Lingayat philosophy of Shakti Visistadvaita, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, except Shiva and Shakti are replaced by Vishnu and Lakshmi.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, has Srinivasa Dikshitar's commentary on the Brahma Sutras available in English?  &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600206.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/8/items/svuorientaljourn015493mbp/svuorientaljourn015493mbp_tif.zip&amp;amp;file=svuorientaljourn015493mbp_tif/svuorientaljourn015493mbp_0049.tif&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from a journal paper by D. Sridhara Babu says it was published in Sanskrit in Telegu script in 1896:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Srinivasa Dikshita's commentary on the [Brahma Sutras] together with Sunderaraja Bhattacharya's sub-commentary was first published in Telegu characters in Madras in 1996. This work has been edited by Srinivasa Tatacharya and Vasudeva Bhattacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But is it still in print or available online, and has it ever been translated into English?  The reason I ask is that I want to compare it to Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya, his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, and see how these two flavors of Visistadvaita differ on their interpretation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-01-21T18:25:34.990" Title="Is the Vaikhanasa commentary on the Brahma Sutras available in English?" Tags="|vaishnavism|vedanta|translation-request|brahma-sutras|vaikhanasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10188" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10192" CreationDate="2016-01-21T18:18:36.457" Score="1" ViewCount="123" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm doing some research on &quot;wisdom&quot; and &quot;ignorance&quot; themes through religions and cultures. I recently made an approach on Plato's Socratian point of view about wisdom and piety.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there some guidelines in Hinduism on how to achieve wisdom?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And, which verses could help me in understanding the conception of &quot;wisdom&quot; in Hinduism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4671" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-22T04:57:04.400" LastActivityDate="2016-01-22T07:00:51.787" Title="What scriptures' verses can help me understand and achieve wisdom in Hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10190" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-22T03:56:25.097" Score="6" ViewCount="611" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, each of the four Vedas each of the four Vedas consists of four portions: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas which consist of mantras heard from the gods; Brahmanas, which provide instructions on the proper conducting of important rituals; Aranyakas, which provide a guide to rituals meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical message of the Vedas.  Now it's a somewhat thorny problem to decide which Upanishads are authentic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each Veda comes in numerous Shakhas or recensions, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and each Shakha has its own Upanishad.  But unfortunately, most of the Vedic Shakhas are lost.  Now when an Upanishad comes from one of the Shakhas that still exist, we can be sure of its authenticity.  But that's pretty much limited to the Mukhya Upanishads.  Most other Upanishads come from Shakhas that no longer exist, so we have to determine their authenticity by other means.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3012/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, a good rule of thumb is that if an Upanishad's Shakha is lost and it doesn't appear in the list of 108 Upanishads, it's definitely not authentic.  But my question is about an unusual case, an Upanishad which isn't in the list of 108, but whose authenticity we can be sure of because it comes from a known Shakha.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the vast majority of Vaishnavas follow a set of texts called the Pancharatra Agamas, and the Pancharatra Agamas are said to based on a lost Shakha of the Shukla Yajur Veda called the Ekayana Shakha.  But there's another group of Vishnu-worshippers who follow a different set of texts, the Vakhanasas.  As I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7501/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vaikhanasas trace the origins of their Agamas to a similar lost Shakha of the Krishna Yajur Veda, the Vaikhanasa Shakha.  But the Vaikhanasa Shakha isn't completely lost - it still has texts like the Vaikhanasa Shrauta Sutra, the Vaikhanasa Grihya Sutras, and the Vaikhanasa Dharma Sutras.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And more importantly, it still has its Samhita, known as the Vaikhanasa Mantrasamhita or Vaikhanasa Mantraprashna. You can read it &lt;a href=&quot;http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/vaisn/vaimp_cu.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in Sanskrit (in English script).  Section 7.2 of this text constitutes the Paramatmika Upanishad, which is the subject of my question.  The Paramatmika Upanishad is not in the list of 108, probably because it lost popularity after the Vaikhanasa Shakha was (partially) lost.  But it's of great philosophical importance to the Vaikhanasas; Srinivasa Dikshitar's Vaikhanasa commentary on the Brahma Sutras, which I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10187/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, apparently quotes from it extensively, and Srinivasa Dikshitar also wrote a commentary on the Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, has the Paramatmika Upanishad ever been translated into English?  One of the reasons I'm interested in it is that it's found in the Samhitas of the Vedas, just like the Isha Upanishads as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2826/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  That means it consists of Mantras heard directly from the gods, unlike other Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If an English translation doesn't exist, I would be grateful if someone could translate it for me, but I'm not holding my breath as the Paramatmika Upanishads is about a hundred verses long.  Still, if someone wants to try their hand at it, like I said it's section 7.2 &lt;a href=&quot;http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/vaisn/vaimp_cu.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  I've also converted the Paramatmika Upanishad into Devanagari script &lt;a href=&quot;http://txs.io/PdQb&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, if people are more comfortable reading it that way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T08:03:33.847" Title="Has the Paramatmika Upanishad ever been translated into English?" Tags="|vedas|vaishnavism|upanishads|translation-request|vaikhanasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10192" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10188" CreationDate="2016-01-22T05:48:47.817" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Wisdom is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can use the word &quot;Enlightenment&quot; instead of Wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from Epic books you can refer many Saints and yogi words and their Books of them and their followers&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suggest you some links for your reference&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hindu_gurus_and_saints&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hindu_gurus_and_saints&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/saints.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/saints.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.om-guru.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.om-guru.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindunavasooryan.blogspot.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://hindunavasooryan.blogspot.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-saints/hindu-saints-list.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-saints/hindu-saints-list.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastActivityDate="2016-01-22T05:48:47.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10194" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10188" CreationDate="2016-01-22T06:53:03.337" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;You might read through this lecture by Vidura on the wisdom of a wise man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He that is not deviated from the high ends of life by the aid of&#xA;  self-knowledge, exertion, forbearance and steadiness in virtue, is&#xA;  called wise. These again are the marks of a wise man, viz, adherence&#xA;  to acts, worthy of praise and rejection of what is blameable, faith&#xA;  and reverence. He whom neither anger nor joy, nor pride, nor false&#xA;  modesty, nor stupefaction, nor vanity, can draw away from the high&#xA;  ends of life, is considered as wise. He whose intended acts, and&#xA;  proposed counsels remain concealed from foes, and whose acts become&#xA;  known only after they have been done, is considered as wise. He whose&#xA;  proposed actions are never obstructed by heat or cold, fear of&#xA;  attachment, prosperity or adversity, is considered as wise. He whose&#xA;  judgment dissociated from desire, followeth both virtue and profit,&#xA;  and who disregarding pleasure chooseth such ends as are serviceable in&#xA;  both worlds, is considered wise. They that exert to the best of their&#xA;  might and act also to the best of their might, and disregard nothing&#xA;  so insignificant, are called wise. He that understandeth quickly,&#xA;  listeneth patiently, pursueth his objects with judgment and not from&#xA;  desire and spendeth not his breath on the affairs of others without&#xA;  being asked, &lt;strong&gt;is said to possess the foremost mark of wisdom&lt;/strong&gt;. They that&#xA;  do not strive for objects that are unattainable, that do not grieve&#xA;  for what is lost and gone, that do not suffer their minds to be&#xA;  clouded amid calamities, are regarded to possess intellects endued&#xA;  with wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Mahabharata Udyoga Parva, Section 33] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-01-22T06:53:03.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10198" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10670" CreationDate="2016-01-22T11:08:12.050" Score="2" ViewCount="35364" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who created Datta Bavani? Please provide some introduction of the creator.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kjJmE.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kjJmE.png&quot; alt=&quot;datta bavani&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2020-06-09T18:24:12.663" Title="Who created Datta Bavani?" Tags="|dattatreya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10199" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9415" CreationDate="2016-01-22T11:21:31.663" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;According to Hinduism, Allah is Lord Shiva.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Allah is the one who never takes birth. In Hinduism Lord Shiva never takes birth. Allah is amorphous and Shiva Lingam in Hinduism is the symbol that Lord Shiva is lacking in shape or shapeless. Allah is the creator and destroyer and Lord Shiva is the eternal seed of all the things. He is creator, operator and destroyer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Macca there is a shiva lingam which is called &quot;Noor-e-ilahi&quot; i.e. Lord of light in islam. The same entity is called &quot;Jyotirlingam&quot; in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many references in Shiva Purana which describes the properties of Shiva which is found suitable/similar to Allah in Islam. e.g. Truth,light,amorphous,.. etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagvad Geeta Lord Krishna has nerrated that if thousands of suns appear in sky then maybe it forms equal light of Parmatman. Parmatman is &quot;Ajanma&quot;, &quot;Akarta&quot; and &quot;Abhokta&quot; means unborn, undoer. Shiva purana provides more details about Shiva Parmatman who never takes birth and never takes anything but is only a light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmakumaris also describes Shiva as Allah/GOD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shukracharya is demon teacher or guru. He is not allah. Shukracharya is great devotee of Allah/Shiva. Shukracharya always guides demons. And muslims are not demons. Muslims are humans only like us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T09:46:27.633" LastActivityDate="2016-01-25T09:46:27.633" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10200" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11773" CreationDate="2016-01-22T11:25:00.980" Score="9" ViewCount="4412" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is love according to Hinduism? What is marriage according to Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do scriptures say about them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-31T09:47:32.137" LastActivityDate="2018-03-31T09:47:32.137" Title="What are love and marriage according to Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|belief|marriage|love|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10201" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-22T12:33:04.937" Score="3" ViewCount="753" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have had this doubt right from my childhood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why do all Gods resemble humans and why are they mainly on Earth but not on other planets or other parts of the Universe where Humans don't exist?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, Lord Shiva is associated with Himalayas and Lord Vishnu with the Oceans and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it mean Gods that we currently worship only belong to the Earth and there may be some other Gods for the rest of the Universe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am sorry if my question hurts anyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-22T18:35:18.960" LastActivityDate="2017-12-15T11:43:31.503" Title="Why do all Gods resemble humans and why are they mostly linked to Earth but not other planets where humans don't exist?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|shiva|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10204" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-01-22T23:00:09.947" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-01-22T23:00:09.947" LastActivityDate="2016-01-22T23:00:09.947" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10205" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-01-22T23:00:09.947" Score="0" Body="Questions related to disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods. " OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-01-23T00:53:51.383" LastActivityDate="2016-01-23T00:53:51.383" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10206" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-23T03:13:28.430" Score="6" ViewCount="231" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you've read the Vishnu Purana, then you're probably familiar with the story of how Vyasa's father Parashara, upon learning that his father Shakti had been killed by the Rakshasa Kalmashapada, decided to perform a Yagna to kill all the Rakshasas in the world.  But then he was persuaded not to carry it out, and his decision to spare the Rakshasas was rewarded with a boon that gave him the knowledge needed to narrate the Vishnu Purana, as described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp035.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;first chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's not as well-known, however, is what happened in the aftermath of the aborted Yagna.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01184.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus addressed by Pulastya, as also by the intelligent Vasishtha, that mighty Muni--the son of Saktri then brought that sacrifice to an end. And the Rishi cast the fire that he had ignited for the purpose of the Rakshasas' sacrifice into the deep woods on the north of the Himavat. And that fire may be seen to this day consuming Rakshasas and trees and stones in all seasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe this fire to the North of the Himalayas, which can be seen &quot;to this day&quot;?  Of course &quot;this day&quot; was 5000 years ago, but the way it's described it sounds like an eternal flame.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Hindu scripture says a variety of odd things about the land on the other side on the Himalayas, often called the land of the Uttarakurus.  It's often referred to as a &quot;land of the gods&quot;.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://tinyurl.com/ndagybv&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda, Atyarati promises to give the Earth to Vasishta as soon as he conquers it, but then he refuses to give it because he hasn't conquered Uttarakuru yet. Vasishta curses him, because Uttarakuru is the land of the gods and thus unconquerable, so Atyarati has tricked him.  I may post a question about Uttarakuru later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in any case, are there any other scriptures that discuss the all-consuming fire set by Parashara North of the Himalayas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-16T15:41:30.940" LastActivityDate="2021-04-02T04:56:43.400" Title="What scriptures mention the all-consuming eternal fire burning North of the Himalayas?" Tags="|mahabharata|rig-veda|vishnu-purana|aitareya-brahmana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10208" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10164" CreationDate="2016-01-23T10:34:39.013" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Getting horoscope of Rama and Ravana wasn't a cake walk. I referred and grabbed some of the horoscope soft copies of these two legends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama's horoscope:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ACp9j.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ACp9j.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and Ravana's horoscope:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gUgSl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gUgSl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the interesting things is that the horoscope of Ravana resembles that of a great scientist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-22T16:17:44.550" LastActivityDate="2016-02-22T16:17:44.550" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10209" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-23T22:21:43.983" Score="5" ViewCount="1533" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10031/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, every Brahmana is a descendant of sages, which is why every Gotra or clan of Brahmins has an associated list of Pravaras, a list of the sages they're descended from. For instance, I am a Brahmin belonging to Vadhula Gotra, and my Pravaras are &quot;Bhargava, Vaitahavya, Savedasa&quot;, which means that I am descended from the sage Savedasa, who is a descendant of the sage Vitahavya (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7122/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), who is a descendant of the sage Bhrigu.  In any case, Gotras often have different branches, so different members of the same Gotra may have Pravaras.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lrxfJ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from a journal paper gives the different sets of Pravaras for Kashyapa Gotra listed in the Baudhayana Shrauta Sutras, a text associated with the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;i. Kashyapa - Kashyapa-Avatsara-Nidhruva &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ii. Rebhas - Kashyapa-Avatsara-Raibhya &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  iii. Shandila - Kashyapa-Avatsara-Sandila &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  iv. &lt;strong&gt;Laugakshi - Kashyapa-Avatsara-Vasishtha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first three Pravaras make sense - Nidhruva, Rebhas, and Shandila are all descendants of Kashyapa's son Avatsara.  But my question is about the fourth set of Pravaras, &quot;Kashyapa, Avatsara, Vasishtha&quot;.  This set of Pravaras is also mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bVD9A.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Manava Shrauta Sutras, another text associated with the Yajur Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why is the sage Vasishtha listed in this set of Pravaras for Kashyapa Gotra?  As I discuss in this question, Vasishtha was originally the son of Brahma, but then he was reborn as the son of the gods Mitra and Varuna.  Now Mitra and Varuna are Adityas, sons of Kashyapa and Aditi, so Vasishtha would be a descendant of Kashyapa.  But Avatsara is a completely different son of Kashyapa than Mitra and Varuna.  So what's going on?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've found one clue that may indicate what's going on.  Here is how &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dwdKJ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Matsya Purana says this set of Pravaras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I shall now tell you the Rishis of &lt;strong&gt;Dvyamushyayana&lt;/strong&gt; clan, viz. Anasuya, Nakuraya, Snatapa, Rajavartapa, Shaishira, Udavahi, Sairandhri, Raupasevaki, Yamuni, Kadrupingakshi, Jatambi, Divavashta, who have Vatsara,  Kashyapa, and Vashishtha for their Pravara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &quot;Dvyamushyayana&quot; means &quot;having two fathers&quot;, and it is the standard term used in the context of Niyoga.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7628/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Niyoga is the practice where a woman has a man other than her husband father a child with her, either because her husband is unable to father children or because he's dead.  The offspring of Niyoga is referred to as Dvyamushyayana, because he has both a biological father and an adopted father.  So it looks like Vasishtha and Avatsara are the two fathers in this case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any scriptures that describe Vasishtha fathering a child with the wife of Kashyapa's son Avatsara?  Are there any other scriptures that mention all the descendants of this set of Pravaras given in the Mastya Puranas quote?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-01-31T13:01:07.360" Title="Why is Vasishta listed as a descendant of Kashyapa's son Avatsara?" Tags="|puranas|brahmins|ancestry|matsya-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10210" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-24T02:58:46.280" Score="2" ViewCount="153" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the possible symbols of mercy and/or compassion in Hinduism? As always answers with supporting references are appreciated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4685" LastActivityDate="2016-01-24T02:58:46.280" Title="Symbols of mercy in Hinduism?" Tags="|symbolism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-05-21T18:53:33.670" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10211" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10227" CreationDate="2016-01-24T05:32:52.020" Score="10" ViewCount="7190" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, there is someone called Virat Purusha. There is similar concept in Jainism where it is believed that the universe shape is in the form of a cosmic man - broader at the top and bottom and narrow at the middle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bqfXf.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bqfXf.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there some connection between Virat Purusha of Hinduism and Cosmic Man of Jainism? If not then who is Virat Purusha - Shiva or Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2020-10-01T17:04:12.700" Title="Who is Virat Purusha?" Tags="|shiva|brahman|cosmology|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10212" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-24T11:27:05.450" Score="2" ViewCount="263" Body="&lt;p&gt;Normally, a mantra is given by someone who had chanted the mantra and attained the mantra siddhi level. If a mantra &quot;saktipanchakshari&quot; is given, I am told that the mantra needs to be chanted with reference to the chakras in the body. Or, is there any procedure to do sadhana with this mantra? I wish to know if mere chanting and upasana while doing the routine will yield the desired results. Can I request the learned to clarify me in this regard?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4687" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-02-02T04:36:39.630" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T10:09:36.333" Title="Chanting of mantra" Tags="|mantras|siddhi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10214" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-24T16:32:11.660" Score="4" ViewCount="447" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many sects in Hinduism like Shaivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism, Ganapatism, Kaumarism, Suryaism, Kabeerism, Satnam, Arya Samaj etc. However, the main sects like Shaivism are again divided into sub-sects like Pashupata Shaivism, Kashmir Shaivism, Shiva Shiddhanta etc. So, my question is, which Shaivite sect do people follow in UP, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh? I'm a Shaivite from Chhattisgarh, so I'm eager to know which Shaivite sect do Chhattisgarhi Shaivites follow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4690" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-24T20:30:57.097" LastActivityDate="2016-01-24T20:30:57.097" Title="To which Shaivite sect do the Shaivites of UP, Bihar and Chhattisgarh belong?" Tags="|shiva|shaivism|sects|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10215" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10828" CreationDate="2016-01-24T17:55:47.973" Score="5" ViewCount="2252" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kauravas were more powerful than Pandavas in many areas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the main reason that Kauravas hated Pandavas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Pandavas hate Kauravas too?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4692" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-06-26T08:03:01.150" LastActivityDate="2022-06-26T08:03:08.233" Title="Why did Kauravas hate Pandavas?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|itihasa|kauravas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10216" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-24T18:19:43.397" Score="7" ViewCount="48467" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across this quote in social media. It's supposedly said by Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. Which verse of the Gita conveys the same message as the quote?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bADRA.jpg&quot; width=&quot;300&quot; height=&quot;250&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-01-26T10:24:53.893" LastActivityDate="2018-01-26T10:24:53.893" Title="Which verse of the Bhagavad Gita says &quot;If you don't fight for what you want, don't cry for what you lost?&quot;" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2018-01-28T08:27:44.890" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10218" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6855" CreationDate="2016-01-24T19:03:31.237" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;God makes us suffer because if we received every wish/desire, it wouldn't teach us anything. Every time you fall(suffer/challenges), it brings you closer to rising(happiness/success). The bad deeds you complete, you receive a punishment. The good deeds you accomplish, you receive a reward. Everything that happens in life, happens for a reason. All of the hardships you overcome, makes you a stronger and better person from inside. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4693" LastActivityDate="2016-01-24T19:03:31.237" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10219" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-24T20:19:46.560" Score="4" ViewCount="825" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm wondering what is the definition of life from the Vedic perspective. What kind of relation does life have with God? Life has so many perspectives that you can't define life I guess. For me, life is a perfect guru who teaches without words. And if you don't follow life's teachings it will slowly go away. I can't describe with words what I feel when I think about the word &quot;life&quot; so I'm turning here for help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it OK to serve life like you would serve your guru? To help and support life so that it can flourish like a sun. Is this a reliable way to attain God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2578" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-25T09:43:18.793" LastActivityDate="2021-12-25T13:46:14.557" Title="What is the Vedic definition of &quot;life&quot;?" Tags="|vedas|life|guru|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10220" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10211" CreationDate="2016-01-25T07:02:31.850" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Swahananda defines Virat as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Macrocosm and the Self identified with it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pancadasi of Sri Vidyaranya Swami by Swami Swahananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Virat according to the Advaita Vedanta school is Brahman or Self identified with the macrocosm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-01-25T07:02:31.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10224" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10061" CreationDate="2016-01-25T12:16:49.470" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Hanuman once swallowed Sudarshana Chakra. The story is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sudarshana Chakra and numerous other items and people associated with Vishnu had grown in pride in the Dwapara Yuga. To curb the unwanted pride of his attendants, Krishna took the help of Hanuman. The story of Hanuman Swallowing Sudarshana Chakra is part of this attempt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman was in deep meditation in Himalayas and was not aware that Treta Yuga had ended and Dwapara Yuga had begun. He was also not aware of the avatar of Sri Krishna. Hanuman constantly meditated on Sri Ram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So once, Sri Krishna asked Garuda to take his message to Hanuman. Krishna had asked to carry the message that ‘Sri Rama is Calling You.’ On receiving the message, Hanuman immediately flew in full speed to Dwarka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna had deputed Sudarshana Chakra to guard the main gate as he was expecting an important guest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sudarshana Chakra prided in his strength and thought he was invincible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman soon reached Dwarka but was stopped by Sudarshana Chakra. Hanuman did not want to waste time in unwanted arguments. So he grabbed Sudarshana Chakra and swallowed it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Soon Sri Krishna and Rukhmini appeared before Hanuman as Sri Ram and Sita. Hanuman’s eyes were teeming with joy and he prostrated himself to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Soon Sri Krishna asked Hanuman had someone stopped him from entering the palace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman then told that a metallic discuss tried to stop him and as he was in a hurry, he did not want to exchange blows so he simply swallowed him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Soon, Hanuman spat out Sudarshana Chakra, who realized his mistake, and never again prided about his strength or in the association with Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4698" LastEditorUserId="4944" LastEditDate="2016-02-24T16:59:01.540" LastActivityDate="2016-02-24T16:59:01.540" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10225" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-25T13:17:00.687" Score="2" ViewCount="329" Body="&lt;p&gt;Certain websites like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mythologydictionary.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.mythologydictionary.com/&lt;/a&gt; mention that Ayyappa is the god of &lt;strong&gt;growth&lt;/strong&gt; but I don't understand what type of &lt;strong&gt;growth&lt;/strong&gt; is that. Wikipedia just says that he is an avatar of Shasta and is the son of Lord Shiva and Mohini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please explain what is Lord Ayyappa the god of. If he really is the god of &lt;strong&gt;growth&lt;/strong&gt; please explain what the term &lt;strong&gt;growth&lt;/strong&gt; means - is it mental, emotional or physical &lt;strong&gt;growth&lt;/strong&gt; or is it all three?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T08:16:41.467" LastActivityDate="2018-09-05T08:16:41.467" Title="Is Lord Ayyappa the Hindu God of growth?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|ayyappa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10226" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-25T13:38:59.723" Score="3" ViewCount="276" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Draupadi was also an avatar of Goddess Shree or Wealth who was the wife to five Indras in their mortal manifestation, that is, the five Pandavas. She was born many times for &lt;strong&gt;imprisoning&lt;/strong&gt; the Indras. Her first birth was as Vedavati (the avatar of Swaha, Agni's wife) who cursed Ravana. She then came again as Maya-Sita, especially to take revenge from Ravana, while Agni hid the real Sita. The third birth was partial - she was both Damayanti and her daughter Nalayani. She married Sage Mudgala. Her fifth avatar was that of Draupadi herself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did Shree marry the five Indras in her other avatars?Also, why did she imprison her &lt;strong&gt;own husbands&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a separate note, please explain why and how sometimes &lt;strong&gt;sons&lt;/strong&gt; are considered as &lt;strong&gt;avatars&lt;/strong&gt; of certain gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorDisplayName="user4627" LastEditDate="2016-02-19T12:44:23.607" LastActivityDate="2016-02-19T12:44:23.607" Title="Goddess Shree and the five Indras" Tags="|pandavas|indra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10227" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10211" CreationDate="2016-01-25T13:45:16.890" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The concepts are similar. In his introduction to &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 3.3, Sankara says (Swami Vireswarananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is not possible for the ordinary man to grasp the Infinite. Therefore the scriptures present various symbols of Brahman, such as Prana, Akasa, and mind, for the beginner to meditate upon. Sometimes they prescribe the cosmic form of Brahman (Vaisvanara) for meditation. These different methods of approaching the infinite Brahman are known as Vidyas or Upasanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further in verse 4.1.5:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(The symbol is) to be viewed as Brahman (and not in the reverse way), on account of the elevation (of the symbol thereby).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Virat is to be viewed as Brahman, Brahman is not to be conceived as Virat. These are means for us to comprehend Brahman. We cannot meditate or conceive of Nirguna Brahman, we can only contemplate Saguna Brahman (Virat). The sky as His head, etc., are means for us to conceive That which is unconceivable. &lt;em&gt;Avângmanasogocharam&lt;/em&gt;, meaning that which is incapable of being grasped by word or mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-01-25T13:45:16.890" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10231" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-25T18:03:38.543" Score="4" ViewCount="1338" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following is Sarpa Dosha Nivarana Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anantho Vasukee Seshaha Padmanaabhascha Kambalaha Sankhapaalo&#xA;  Dhaatharaastraha Takshaka Kaaliyasthatha Ethaani Navanaamaani&#xA;  Nagaanaam cha Mahaathmanaam Saayamkaale pateth nityam praathakaale&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this mantra present in Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it is, who said this mantra to whom and why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-03-23T07:33:22.613" LastActivityDate="2019-03-24T14:07:44.817" Title="Sarpa Dosha Nivarana Mantra in Mahabaratha" Tags="|mahabharata|mantras|identification-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10235" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-26T07:14:09.293" Score="5" ViewCount="597" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in Adhyaya 2 Pada 2 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa refutes various rival schools to Vedanta. In particular, he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Topic-7: God Is Not a Mere Superintendent&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;37&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For the Lord there can be no creatorship, for that leads to incongruity.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And (the incongruity arises) because of the impossibility of a relationship.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And (the position is untenable) because of the impossibility of (Nature) coming under (His) direction. (Or) And (God cannot be&#xA;proved), since no physical support (adhisthana) is possible for Him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Should it be argued that God will direct Nature like (a man directing) the organs, then it cannot be so, for that will result in&#xA;God’s having experiences (of happiness, sorrow etc.). (Or) If a body,&#xA;equipped with sense-organs, be assumed for God, (we say that) this is&#xA;not possible; because of (consequent) experiences etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;God will be subject to finitude or loss of omniscience.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8872/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, most commentaries on the Brahma Sutras interpret these Sutras as a refutation of the views expressed in the Shaiva Agamas, aka the Shaiva Tantras; for instance see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34213.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34213.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya.  Specifically, the Brahma Sutras are criticizing the view expressed in the Shaiva Agamas that Ishwara is the operator (efficient cause) of the Universe but not the material cause.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the Shaiva Agamas are the core texts of Shaivism.  So my question is, how do Shaivites, most of whom belong Io the Vedanta school, make sense of the Brahma Sutras' criticism of the Shaiva Agamas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So far I've come across two Shaivite commentaries on the Brahma Sutras.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lfX9A.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; fron Srikantha's Shaiva Siddhanta commentary on the Brahma Sutras, he argues that Vyasa is just criticizing other Shaivites' misinterpretation of the Shaiva Agamas, not the Shaiva Agamas themselves:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Tantrikas, the so-called orthodox, those who profess to follow the Parameshwara Agamas, without knowing the real import of their teaching, hold that Pati, the Parameshwara, is the mere efficient cause, though, according to Shruti, he is both the material and the efficient cause of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I posted a question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8872/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; about who these supposed misinterpreters are, by the way.  In any case, the other Shaivite commentary on the Brahma Sutras I know of is Shripati's Lingayat commentary which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/vvO0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from a journal paper says that Shripati claims these Sutras are actually referring to the Pancharatra Agamas that Vaishnavas follow:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shrikara thought this [set of Sutras] is the refutation of dualistic view of Bhagavatas and Pancharatra, i.e. Vaishnava view point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've never heard of any Vaishnavas who believe that Ishwara is not the material cause, but Shrikara is employing the same tactic that Madhvacharya uses to tackle a similar issue, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9471/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, are these the only two strategies Shaivites use to interpret these set of Sutras?  Hopefully my request &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10162/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for Shaivite commentaries on the Brahma Sutras will yield more responses to this issue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there are some Shaivites who don't align themselves with the Vedanta school, like the Shaiva Siddhanta Church as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8919/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So have any of them written rebuttals of the Brahma Sutras' criticism of the Shaiva Agamas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T15:45:51.193" Title="How do Shaivite philosophers interpret the Brahma Sutras' criticism of the Shaiva Agamas?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahma-sutras|shaivism|agamas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10236" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6672" CreationDate="2016-01-26T07:39:30.170" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;SrimanNarayana is the supreme Parabrahman who transcends names, forms, time and space. The thousand holy names of the Lord signifying His attributes pastimes (leelas) and incarnations were revealed to great seers of pauranic antiquity and was compiled into the great malamantra of Vishnusahasranama by Bhagavan Vyasa which was revealed by paramabhagavatottama Bhishma to Dharmanandana Yudhishthira. The suprapersonal Purushottama has assumed and revealed various divine forms(leelavigrahas) for the gratification and pleasure  of great rishis and upasakas which were explained in great detail in agamas and hymns by them for the benefit of other devotees. The embellishments (alankaras), number of arms and face(s), form of face(human or otherwise), weapons(ayudhas) etc adorning the Lord are governed by the contemplation (bhavana) of upasakas. Apart from the dhyana of Narayanakavacha, a great many instances when the Lord appeared in his eight armed form are seen in the srimadbhagavatha mahapurana (eg. when the Lord appeared in front of Brahma, Rudra and deva-rishiganas at the end of Dakshayaga(fourth skandha), when the Lord appeared to Prachetasas (fourth skandha) and to Prachetasa Daksha(sixth skandha), when the Lord appeared and defeated the asuras at the end of ksheerasagara mathana(eighth skandha) and of-course when SriKrishna Paramatma and Arjuna visited him in Ksheerabdhi alias Shvetadvipa which is also known as karya Vaikuntha, situated at the summit of the brahmanda. This is the abode of the Lord visited by divinities and Rishis to supplicate the lord and to entreat his succour.This was the Bhagavalloka which was revealed to Brahma at the beginning of kalpa(second skandha) and also the loka visited by Sanakadirishis, where they encountered the dwarapalakas Jaya and Vijaya(Third skandha). This loka is also described in the panchamaskandha of srimadbhagavatha mahapurana as existing beyond the lokaloka mountain (the boundary between spiritual and temporal worlds). This loka is quite distinct from mahaVaikuntha or karanaVaikuntha or Paramapada which is inconcievable,indescribable and inaccessible even to Brahma and other exalted divinities). The difference between mahaVaikuntha and karyaVaikuntha is highlighted in narayaneeyam of melputtur bhattathiri also. Thus the leelamurthis of almighty AdiNarayana are legion and each may still be accessed through selfless bhakti and upasana(and purvajanmapunya) by pure devotees.         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4707" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-09T07:00:18.910" LastActivityDate="2016-02-09T07:00:18.910" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10241" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-26T10:34:35.070" Score="0" ViewCount="4143" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen a image that Lord Krishna's father Vasudeva was wearing a sacred thread. Was Vasudeva a Brahmin or non-Brahmin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4665" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-28T11:38:34.443" LastActivityDate="2017-08-28T11:38:34.443" Title="Was Krishna's father Vasudeva a Brahmin?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavata-purana|brahmins|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-08-29T06:56:36.793" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10242" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-26T10:43:22.480" Score="4" ViewCount="1609" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Vrindavan,there is a temple of Lord Krishna named &quot;Bankey Bihari&quot; and Lord Krishna's another name is also Bankey Bihari. So,why Lord Krishna's another name is Bankey Bihari?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4665" LastActivityDate="2019-10-08T23:08:19.857" Title="Why Lord Krishna is also called &quot;Bankey Bihari&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10246" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10258" CreationDate="2016-01-26T18:13:53.560" Score="14" ViewCount="747" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I read &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad-G%C4%ABt%C4%81_as_It_Is&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita As It Is&lt;/a&gt; 1&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; chapter from here (&lt;a href=&quot;http://asitis.com/&quot;&gt;http://asitis.com/&lt;/a&gt;) I stopped at the 8&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; verse and switched to this site (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org&quot;&gt;www.bhagavad-gita.org&lt;/a&gt;) and noticed that 8&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; verse is different in both the sites so I posted this question immediately. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srila Prabhupada's BG As It Is &lt;a href=&quot;http://asitis.com/1/8.html&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;bhavan bhismas ca karnas ca&#xA;  krpas ca samitim-jayah&#xA;  asvatthama vikarnas ca&#xA;  saumadattis &lt;strong&gt;tathaiva ca&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. (BG 1.8)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-01-08.html&quot;&gt;bhagavad-gita.org&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhavan bhishmas ca karnas ca&#xA;  krpas ca samittinjaya&#xA;  ashvatthama vikarnas ca&#xA;  saumadattir &lt;strong&gt;jayadratah&lt;/strong&gt; (BG 1.8).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Notice that the 1&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; verse contains &quot;tathaiva ca&quot; at end, and the 2&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt; verse says &quot;jayadratah&quot; at the end. I checked other sites as well (you can find them online easily) and BG from different authors also use either of the words. So it seems like there are different versions of the Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there really different versions/recension of the Gita? If not, then is it &quot;tathaiva ca&quot; at the end or &quot;jayadratah&quot;? Or, are both of them acceptable and authentic? If not, then which one is correct and how can we know it is authentic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2326" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-02T17:58:14.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-10T03:19:30.170" Title="Why are there two versions of Chapter 1 - Verse 8 of Bhagavad Geetha?" Tags="|scripture|bhagavad-gita|translation-request|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10247" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-26T22:43:13.283" Score="1" ViewCount="403" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the word 'Hindu' mentioned in any Sanatan scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because there is lot said and lot to be said on the word Hindu. I went through different old literature but did not find the word Hindu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4717" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-01-27T23:30:23.940" LastActivityDate="2024-01-29T08:03:41.800" Title="Is the word Hindu mentioned in any Sanatan scriptures?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|culture|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-01-27T08:07:09.743" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10250" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10247" CreationDate="2016-01-27T05:14:42.627" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Ancient Persians/Greeks referred to people living beyond Sindhu (Indus) river as Sindhus, which over time, morphed into 'Hindu'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="13268" LastEditDate="2024-01-29T08:03:41.800" LastActivityDate="2024-01-29T08:03:41.800" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10251" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10246" CreationDate="2016-01-27T05:18:55.173" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Even in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-01-08.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;site&lt;/a&gt; you linked, if you can read the Hindi/Sanskrit text above the transliteration, or just listen to the audio, there is no Jayadratha, it only says 'tathaiva  cha'.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There are &lt;a href=&quot;http://asitis.com/1/8.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;other&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/sansdocs/gita-big.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sites&lt;/a&gt; too, which only say 'tathaiva cha', not Jayadratha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;The son of Somadutta (Soumadatta) is Bhurishravas. Jaydratha's father is a sage Vridhakshtra, who was far away from battlefield.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Even if that was not the case, mentioning the same person twice (The son of Somadatta - jayadratha) would be redundant. He can either say Soumadatta, or Jayadratha. If you notice the previous shlokas where Duryodhana is mentioning other warriors, he only allocates one word to each. Jaydartha is not that great a fighter to deserve 2 words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;Following is my guess since I'm not Sanskrit Grammar proficient.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For the combining letter च (cha/and), there should normally be N-1 च if N people listed e.g. Ram and Lakshman and Bharath. or in some cases, N च for N people e.g. in Tamil we say 'Rama-num, Bharatha-num, Shatrughna-num', where னும் (num) is the combining letter.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But if you look at supposed version:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhavān bhīṣmaś ca karṇaś ca kṛpaś ca samitiṃjayaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  aśvatthāmā vikarṇaś&#xA;  ca saumadattir jayadrathaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 1st sentence has 3 च for 4 people, while the 2nd sentence has only 1 च(ca) between 4 people (since soumadatta and jayadratha denote different persons)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5.&lt;/strong&gt; 'Tathaiva' &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=tathaiva&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;means&lt;/a&gt; - similarly / likewise. 8 is the last shloka where Duryodhana lists warriors. Normally we end a big list with 'etc.' if there are items remaining in the list. Ending a big list with a person's name, when there are many others left, would not be complete. So he is saying 'and others'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Finally, I wouldn't consider &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs06023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs06023.htm&lt;/a&gt; to be super authentic because the sanskrit words are missing 'halank' marks :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;भवान भीष्मश च&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;should actually be :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;भवान् भीष्मश् च&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2016-01-27T15:45:53.623" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T15:45:53.623" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10252" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10241" CreationDate="2016-01-27T05:29:19.997" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasudeva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vasudeva&lt;/a&gt; was a Kshatriya king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sacred thread is meant for trai-varnikas (3-varnas) - Brahmana (scholars), Kshatriya(warriors), Vaishya(merchants), but not for 4th varna Shudras (workers)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T05:29:19.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10253" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7721" CreationDate="2016-01-27T05:42:53.933" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let's look at the other side:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A Kshatriya must not receive alms (it is allowed for brahmins), must not turn their back in battle (even if enemy is 10x stronger), must protect anyone who surrenders to him (even at the cost of his own life) etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The concept of Rakshasa marriage you mentioned (taking girl away by force) is not allowed for Brahmins. However, Brahmins have the concept of kanya-daana (gifting the bride to a Vedas-trained bachelor), for which the reward is BrahmaLoka (as evidenced by mantra 'Kanya kanaka ... jigeeshaya'), which is much higher than SvargaLoka that Kshatriyas go to when they die on battlefield&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, each varna has its 'partiality'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T05:42:53.933" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10254" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3370" CreationDate="2016-01-27T05:53:43.070" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karma - doing Dharmic action and wanting its fruits&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g. doing job with expectation of salary and desiring to spend it on nice food, clothes, cars, movies etc.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There is nothing wrong with Karma. However it won't lead you to Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Akarma - doing Dharmic action without wanting its fruits&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g. doing job without expectation of salary, just because it is your duty. But salary will come anyways, although you have no intention of enjoying it for yourself, rather spending it to help family, charity etc.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There is nothing wrong with Akarma, AND it will lead you to Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vikarma - doing ADharmic actions&#xA;e.g. drinking, gambling, lying etc.&#xA;There is no question of expecting or not expecting fruits, because ADharmic actions should not be done at all. There are rare exceptions where you do such actions for the sake of  establishing Dharma (e.g. Krishna lied to protect Dharma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2016-01-27T06:02:27.023" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T06:02:27.023" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10255" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9415" CreationDate="2016-01-27T06:51:18.823" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scriptures doesn't mention at all about anything who closely resembles an Islamic Allah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Theologically, Allah could be equated to &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, the Hindu supreme God. But the comparison fails after this point. &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; is called'&lt;em&gt;Shunya&lt;/em&gt;' (emptiness), '&lt;em&gt;Purna&lt;/em&gt;' (infinity) or even simply the pronoun'It'. Hindu Brahman is the all pervasive, genderless, infinite, eternal truth and bliss which does not change, yet is the cause of all changes. It doesn't favour it's followers nor punish those who doesn't believe in it. It doesn't have emotions not any characteristics (&lt;em&gt;Nirguna&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;) or can be conceptualized as having definite characteristics (&lt;em&gt;Suguna&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Allah is word which simply means 'the one true God'. He (a male entity) is described in Quran as having a spiritual body, a distinct personality replete with emotions and desire. Allah has a form which is Absolute, Spiritual, infallible, most beautiful and transcendental to all kind of material objects, free from even a tinge of  material contamination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clearly, the basic assumptions about Allah and Brahman are quite different and stark.If a Hindu assumes Allah to be a form of Brahman's infinite forms, it would be offensive to an Islamic purist, because then the absolute-ness of Allah is lost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2023-01-30T07:01:56.317" LastActivityDate="2023-01-30T07:01:56.317" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10256" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9415" CreationDate="2016-01-27T11:04:01.587" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, there is no mention of Allah in any Hindu scriptures. Hindu scriptures are believed to be thousands year old and Islam as a religion came much later. So, don't believe whoever tells such things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whether it is Iswar, Allah, God; all refers to the same Supreme lord who creates this world to live in harmony and be His true reflection.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4722" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T11:04:01.587" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10257" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10259" CreationDate="2016-01-27T11:07:52.927" Score="4" ViewCount="439" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is Tulasidas? What is the story of him? What did he create except ramcharitmanas and hanuman chalisa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T11:28:20.013" Title="Who is Tulasidas? What is the story of him?" Tags="|ramayana|belief|scripture|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10258" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10246" CreationDate="2016-01-27T11:18:38.777" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his footnote to this verse, Swami Gambhirananda writes in his translation of the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/em&gt; (p 14):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Asvatthama&lt;/em&gt;, son of Drona: Mention of Asvatthama before Karna's son Vikarna, and others, as also the mention of Drona before Bhisma and others, was for pleasing Drona.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Saumadatti&lt;/em&gt;: King of Balhika (of Punjab), son of Somadatta; known also as Bhurisrava because of his preeminence. &lt;em&gt;Jayadratha&lt;/em&gt;: (some editions read &lt;em&gt;tathaivaca&lt;/em&gt; in place of &lt;em&gt;jayadrathah&lt;/em&gt;) King of Sindu (modern Sindh). The first line of the verse ennumerates the four principal leaders; the second verse names those next in status.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The recension of the Gita that uses Jayadratha is the same recension that was commented on by Sankara, but there are recensions with the alternative wording. In his introduction to his translation, Swami Gambhirananda writes (pp xvii-xviii):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the recension of the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; commented on by Sankaracarya, the number of verses is 700. But there is evidence to show that some old manuscripts had 745 verses. The &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; published in Srinagar, Kashmir, with the annotation of Abhinavaguptacarya, contains the same number of verses. Other manuscripts have been discovered with variations both in the number of verses &lt;strong&gt;and the readings&lt;/strong&gt;. Pusalkar is of the opinion that 'the additional stanzas effect no material addition; nor do they create any differences in the teaching or argument.' (&lt;em&gt;Studies in Epics and Puranas&lt;/em&gt;, p. 144.) He further remarks that &quot;Sankaracarya's testimony for the text of the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavadgita&lt;/em&gt; is earlier than that of any other MS or commentator.' (ibid. p 147.) However that may be, after Sankaracarya wrote his Commentary, the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; has taken a definite form with 700 verses, so far at least as the general public is concerned.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T11:18:38.777" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10259" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10257" CreationDate="2016-01-27T11:28:20.013" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The great poet Tulsidas Hindu society and the talent-rays not only India but the whole world is illuminated. Very sorry that the time of birth of the poet lying in the darkness of disputes. So far the research findings also appear unable to provide us certainty&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The birthplace of Ram Naresh Tripathi concludes that Tulsidas is Soron. The location remains in Soron Tulsidas Tulsidas Nanddas's brother-in-law of the successor Narasimha temple and Tripathi from the existence of the secret of living their successors are not upheld.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulsidas in the parents' relationship is not any solid information. According to the materials and evidence was their father's name Atma Ram Dubey. Bvishypuran but his father's name is mentioned Sridhar. Rahim said couplets based on the mother's name is Hulsi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His guru's name Naraharidāsa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramcharitmanas, Vinaya Patrika, &quot;geetawali&quot;,Dohavali, sahitya ratna, Hanuman Chalisa, Vairagya Sandipani, Janaki Mangal, Parvati Mangal were some of his works as per materials&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KYb2s.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KYb2s.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Tulsidas statue at Manas Mandir, Chitrakuta, Satna, India.&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulsidas statue at Manas Mandir, Chitrakuta, Satna, India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T11:28:20.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10260" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10242" CreationDate="2016-01-27T13:48:45.143" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;'Bānke' means 'bent', and 'Bihāri' or 'Vihāri' means 'enjoy-er'. This is how Kṛihṣṇa, who is bent in three places, got the name &quot;Bānke Bihāri&quot; as gathered from materials.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Śrī Brahmasaḿhitā (verse 5.31), Brahma says the following about Kṛiṣhṇa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, round whose neck is swinging a garland of flowers beautified with the moon-locket, whose two hands are adorned with the flute and jewelled ornaments, who always revels in pastimes of love, whose graceful threefold-bending form of Śyāmasundara is eternally manifest.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Indian classical dance of Odissi is characterized by various Bhangas or stance, which involves stamping of the foot and striking various postures as seen in Indian sculptures, they are four in number, namely Bhanga, Abanga, Atibhanga and Tribhanga being the most common of all.[5] The Sanskrit term Tribhanga means Three Bhanga and according to K. M. Varma the term Tribhanga is not the name of a particular standing position but is used in the Silpasastra literature to describe the group of the “Three Bhangas”, namely Abhanga, Samabhanga, and Atibhanga.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This image below shows Lord Krishna's Tribhanga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cxnmm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cxnmm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Lord Krishna&amp;#39;s Tribhanga image&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-03-05T15:06:01.537" LastActivityDate="2016-03-05T15:06:01.537" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10261" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-27T14:17:12.487" Score="5" ViewCount="795" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wish to know but the persons who dedicate their life in search of God or peace or getting to know the meaning of Life.People often call them as saints, Sidhas, Yogis and so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question:&#xA;What is the difference between these people Sidha,Siants,Yogi and so ? &#xA;Who are all the right person to be worship ? &#xA;If so, what are the ways to worship them ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T08:41:42.747" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T08:41:42.747" Title="What is the difference between saint,yogi and sidhas?" Tags="|worship|culture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10262" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="425" CreationDate="2016-01-27T14:26:11.070" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Siva is fond of Abhisheka.&quot; In Siva temples, a pot made up of copper or brass with a hole in the centre is kept hanging over the image or Linga of Siva, and water is falling on the image throughout day and night. Pouring over the Linga, water, milk, ghee, curd, honey, cocoanut water, Panchamrita, etc., is Abhisheka. Abhisheka is done for Lord Siva. Rudra is chanted along with the Abhisheka. Lord Siva is propitiated by Abhisheka.&#xA;Lord Siva drank the poison that emanated from the ocean and wore the Ganga and moon on His head to cool His head. He has the fiery third eye. Constant Abhisheka cools this eye.&#xA;The greatest and the highest Abhisheka is to pour the waters of pure love on the Atmalinga of the lotus of the heart. The external Abhisheka with various objects will help the growth of devotion and adoration for Lord Siva and eventually lead to internal Abhisheka with pure abundant flow of love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4725" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T14:26:11.070" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10265" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2036" CreationDate="2016-01-27T23:19:18.253" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to ऋग्वेद, the day is divided into 8 pahar(पहर) - 4 pahar for night, 4 for the day. The night pahar starts with the sunset.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तुर्भि: साकं नवति च नामभिश्चक्रं न वृतं व्यतीखींविपत। बृहच्छरीरो विमिमान ऋक्कभियुर्वाकुमार: प्रत्येत्याहवम॥ (ऋ.म.१.सू.१५५.म.६.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उक्त मंत्र में गति विशेष द्वारा विविध स्वभाव शाली काल के ९४ अंशों को चक्र की तरह वृत्ताकार कहा गया है। उक्त कालावयवों में १ सम्वतसर २ अयन ५ ऋतुयें १२ माह २४ पक्ष ३० अहोरात्र ८ पहर और १२ आरा मानी गयी हैं।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4580" LastActivityDate="2016-01-27T23:19:18.253" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10266" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-28T02:05:54.863" Score="1" ViewCount="34" Body="&lt;p&gt;Could someone shed some light on the earliest we know when the Vedas were taught? Also at what point in time they were written down?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm aware they came from Brahman itself and were memorized and given from Guru to Disciple for a long time till at some point they were written down.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4728" LastActivityDate="2016-01-28T02:05:54.863" Title="History of the Vedas" Tags="|vedas|history|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-01-29T03:45:23.687" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10267" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-28T02:16:07.207" Score="6" ViewCount="2415" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Vedas there are two paths mentioned Karma Kanda &amp;amp; Jnana Kanda. First one goes through Karma and then one comes to Jnana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the same time it's often mentioned that there are also the paths of Bhakti &amp;amp; Raja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we look closer they're part of the Karma or Janna practices. However some people don't see it like this and say either one of those can bring you to the goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could someone clarify this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4728" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-29T17:13:17.010" LastActivityDate="2016-06-28T18:02:03.473" Title="Karma Kanda &amp; Jnana Kanda" Tags="|vedas|karma|jnana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-01-09T10:28:05.317" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10269" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-28T05:41:03.743" Score="20" ViewCount="821" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu#Etymology&quot;&gt;We all know&lt;/a&gt; that the word &lt;strong&gt;Hindu&lt;/strong&gt; is a Persian word for the &lt;strong&gt;Sindu river&lt;/strong&gt; and was later used to refer to the region to other side of the Sindu river as &lt;strong&gt;Hindustan&lt;/strong&gt; which then became &lt;strong&gt;India&lt;/strong&gt;. But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/about_the_name_Hindu.htm&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; says there are some people who try to justify the word &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Hindu&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; was used by &lt;em&gt;Rishis&lt;/em&gt; several thousand years ago by citing this verse: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aaasindo Sindhu Paryantham Yasyabharatha Bhoomikah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mathrubhuh Pithrubhoochaiva sah Vai &lt;strong&gt;Hindu&lt;/strong&gt;rithismrithaah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rough Translation: Whoever considers the land of Bharatha Bhoomi between Sapta Sindu and the Indian Ocean as his or her motherland and fatherland is known as Hindu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verse is said to be from Vishnu Purana, Padma Purana and the Bruhaspati Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the verse authentic or this verse just interpolation? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-26T02:27:26.317" LastActivityDate="2018-05-29T20:42:50.667" Title="Authenticity of Sanskrit Verses containing the word &quot;HINDU&quot;" Tags="|history|sanskrit|india|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10274" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-28T11:14:29.303" Score="1" ViewCount="1169" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just want to know what is the importance of Tilak and Chandlo in Swaminarayan Religion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4733" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2016-03-31T06:12:37.473" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T05:09:44.147" Title="What is the importance of Tilak and Chandlo in Swaminarayan Religion?" Tags="|worship|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10277" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-28T16:03:52.717" Score="5" ViewCount="2935" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which mantras will help to concentrate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes it's difficult to concentrate or focus on a particular thing. Our mind always get deviated. How to avoid this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4739" LastEditorUserId="4739" LastEditDate="2016-01-29T03:59:25.320" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T10:40:30.653" Title="Mantras to concentrate on studies" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-09-14T11:15:54.947" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10278" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-28T18:20:05.210" Score="5" ViewCount="437" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in Adhyaya 2 Pada 2 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa refutes various rival schools to Vedanta. In particular, he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Topic-7: God Is Not a Mere Superintendent&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;37&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For the Lord there can be no creatorship, for that leads to incongruity.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And (the incongruity arises) because of the impossibility of a relationship.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And (the position is untenable) because of the impossibility of (Nature) coming under (His) direction. (Or) And (God cannot be&#xA;proved), since no physical support (adhisthana) is possible for Him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Should it be argued that God will direct Nature like (a man directing) the organs, then it cannot be so, for that will result in&#xA;God’s having experiences (of happiness, sorrow etc.). (Or) If a body,&#xA;equipped with sense-organs, be assumed for God, (we say that) this is&#xA;not possible; because of (consequent) experiences etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;God will be subject to finitude or loss of omniscience.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8872/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, most commentaries on the Brahma Sutras interpret these Sutras as a refutation of the views expressed in the Shaiva Agamas, aka the Shaiva Tantras; for instance see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34213.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34213.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya.  Specifically, the Brahma Sutras are criticizing the view expressed in the Shaiva Agamas that Ishwara is the operator (efficient cause) of the Universe but not the material cause.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10235/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I asked how Shaivites, most of whom subscribe to the Vedanta school nowadays, would make sense of the Brahma Sutras' criticism of the Shaiva Agamas, given that the Shaiva Agamas are the foundational texts of Shaivism.   Unfortunately I don't know of many Shaivite commentaries in the Brahma Sutras, which is why I asked &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10162/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, but I have come across two.  As I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8872/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, how the Shaiva Siddhanta commentator Srikantha Shivacharya interprets these Sutras is that they're criticizing a misinterpretation of the Shaiva Agamas, not the Shaiva Agamas themselves.  But another Shaivite commentator handles things very differently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Veerashaiva or Lingayat sect of Shaivism follows a philosophy called Shaktivisitadvaita, and the Lingayat commentary on the Brahma Sutras was written by Shripati and is known as the Srikara Bhashya.  Unfortunately I don't have a copy of the Shrikara Bhashya, but this excerpt from a journal paper discusses how Shripati handles the Sutras we've been discussing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shrikara thought this [set of Sutras] is the refutation of dualistic view of Bhagavatas and Pancharatra, i.e. Vaishnava view point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Pancharatra Agamas are a set of texts foundational to Vaishnavism that originate from the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was the brother of the sage Nara. (Nara and Narayana were the previous births of Arjuna and Krishna respectively.) &amp;quot;Bhagavata&amp;quot; is the ancient name for followers of Pancharatra, whom we would nowadays call Vaishnavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, is Shripati right that there are statements in the Pancharatra which say that Vishnu is the efficient cause of the Universe but not the material cause?  I'm extremely skeptical of his claim, because most Vaishnava sects believe that Vishnu is the material cause. And even Adi Shankaracharya, a critic of the Pancharatra system, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34218.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; it as a &amp;quot;doctrine of those according to whom he is the material as well as the operative cause&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only Vaishnavas I know of who reject the notion of Vishnu being the material cause are the followers of the Dvaita philosopher Madhvacharya; in fact Madhvacharya thought the only problem with the philosophy of the Shauva Agamas is that they put Shiva in charge of the Universerather than Vishnu!  See &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ezMxm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Brahma Sutras.  Now I'm sure if I looked in his commentary, I could probably find putative quotes from various Pancharatra Agamas which support his view that Brahman is only the operator of the Universe.  But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8680/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Madhvacharya's quotes are notoriously hard to track down in actual copies of texts we have in our possession.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does anyone know of any Pancharatra texts that claim that Vishnu is not the material cause?  For those who don't know, the material cause of something is what it's made of, and the efficient cause of something is what causes it to happen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T14:33:59.717" Title="Do the Pancharatra Agamas ever say that Vishnu is the operator of the Universe but not the source?" Tags="|vaishnavism|vedanta|brahma-sutras|shaivism|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10279" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10277" CreationDate="2016-01-29T07:37:53.263" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can chant a simple Saraswati mantra &quot;Om Aim Saraswatyai Namaha&quot; daily at morning 108 times at the least.You should be wearing fresh clothes after having a bath.And do sit facing either north or east while chanting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-names/goddesses/saraswati/108-saraswati-names.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page for Goddess Saraswati's 108 names.&#xA;I have selected 3 of these names to support my answer,viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1)Vidyadhara Supujita(meaning Who is worshiped by Knowledge&#xA;  holders/seekers or students)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2)Vidyarupa(Who is knowledge personified).That's why students seeking&#xA;  knowledge and education must worship Saraswati to excell in studies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3)Mahavidya(The Goddess who has the great knowledge).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also refer to my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10684/why-sarasvati-is-considered-as-goddess-of-knowledge/11050#11050&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer to know how Goddess Saraswati is described in scriptures as the Goddess of knowledge,wisdom &amp;amp; learning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also chant the Panchakshari mantra of Lord Shiva.There is no one better than Parameswara who can help you concentrate your mind better and keep it stay focussed on a particular topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-04-03T18:58:34.737" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10282" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-29T15:33:08.997" Score="7" ViewCount="676" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm confused when does our karma end. One would say that karma ends when we get moksha. If that's so, then what happens to our Sanchita Karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we do good karma, we get some good return. When we do some bad karma, we get some bad return. When we finish getting all bad returns and keep doing only good karma, then we would keep getting only good returns. Is that so? Then when would we get moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastActivityDate="2017-05-22T04:54:01.933" Title="When does our Karma get over?" Tags="|karma|moksha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10285" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-29T18:46:26.657" Score="2" ViewCount="258" Body="&lt;p&gt;In this video is talked about that Jesus Christ studied the  &quot;Achar Samhita&quot; 2000 years ago somewhere in India. When I'm looking on the internet they talk about political elections. &#xA;So I am not sure what the Achar Samhita meant 2000 years ago? Is this still a used book, what is written in it, and is it a Buddhism book or Hinduism book?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;min 49:28&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfEkM2tl_lg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfEkM2tl_lg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4751" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T10:39:47.403" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T10:39:47.403" Title="What was the meaning of &quot;Achar Samhita&quot; 2000 years ago?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-01-11T07:47:14.517" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10286" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10293" CreationDate="2016-01-30T08:22:03.830" Score="8" ViewCount="5314" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can we become God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most people believe that the Gods that we are worshipping are fixed and no human can reach the state of God. Is this true? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a person is born and lives as the purest one and when he attains the state as God, can he be included in the Gods of today?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can a person become God if he learns all the things that a God knows?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T22:27:18.027" LastActivityDate="2020-02-20T22:32:53.480" Title="Can we become God?" Tags="|belief|scripture|gods|moksha|vedanta|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10288" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-30T08:30:01.780" Score="6" ViewCount="280" Body="&lt;p&gt;So that anyone willing to do a Vedic ritual like a Puja or a Homam will have a standard and the same procedure to follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Right now, every region, every sampradaya have their own way of doing things which should not be the case in my opinion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is any such procedure mentioned in any of the 4 Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS-Achamanam is the purification ritual which usually consists of sipping water three times associated with mantras in an effort to aptly purify oneself before doing a ritual like Puja etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-02-19T09:03:38.580" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T09:03:38.580" Title="Why are there so many achamanams while ideally there should only be one?" Tags="|vedas|rituals|mantras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10289" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10290" CreationDate="2016-01-30T08:35:53.310" Score="13" ViewCount="44675" Body="&lt;p&gt;If someone has sex with a maid or someone else's wife with their permission (mutual consent), what is the punishment for it as per Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4753" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-01T04:30:54.917" LastActivityDate="2019-03-17T16:17:32.427" Title="What is the punishment for consensual sex in Hinduism?" Tags="|sin|garuda-purana|sex|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10290" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10289" CreationDate="2016-01-30T08:54:12.477" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;Punishment for illicit sex (which includes sexual intercourse with someone else's wife and also with one's maid) as per &lt;a href=&quot;http://vanisource.org/wiki/SB_5.26.20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt; is torment in a hell called &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Taptasurmi&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yas tv iha vā agamyāṁ striyam agamyaṁ vā puruṣaṁ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yoṣid abhigacchati tāv amutra kaśayā &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  tāḍayantas tigmayā sūrmyā lohamayyā puruṣam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  āliṅgayanti striyaṁ ca puruṣa-rūpayā sūrmyā &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Bhagavata Purana, Canto 5, Chapter 26, Verse 20)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A man or woman who indulges in sexual intercourse with an unworthy&#xA;  member of the opposite sex is punished after death by the assistants&#xA;  of Yamarāja in the hell known as Taptasūrmi. &lt;strong&gt;There such men and women&#xA;  are beaten with whips. The man is forced to embrace a red-hot iron&#xA;  form of a woman, and the woman is forced to embrace a similar form of&#xA;  a man. Such is the punishment for illicit sex.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purport of the Verse&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Generally a man should not have sexual relations with any woman other&#xA;  than his wife. According to Vedic principles, the wife of another man&#xA;  is considered one's mother, and sexual relations are strictly&#xA;  forbidden with one's mother, sister and daughter. If one indulges in&#xA;  illicit sexual relations with another man's wife, that activity is&#xA;  considered identical with having sex with one's mother. This act is&#xA;  most sinful. The same principle holds for a woman also; if she enjoys&#xA;  sex with a man other than her husband, the act is tantamount to having&#xA;  sexual relations with her father or son. Illicit sex life is always&#xA;  forbidden, and any man or woman who indulges in it is punished in the&#xA;  manner described in this verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also see: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/BhagavataPuranaMotilalEnglish/Bhagavata%20Purana%20-%20Motilal%20-%20English%20-%20Parts%201%20-%205#page/n775/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Alternate translation&lt;/a&gt; by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers (p. 768-769).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-09T17:47:35.087" LastActivityDate="2017-01-09T17:47:35.087" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10291" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10286" CreationDate="2016-01-30T10:02:29.120" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, we can never become God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who is Ishvara? Janmadyasya yatah - &quot;From whom is the birth,&#xA;  continuation, and dissolution of the universe,&quot; - He is Ishvara - &quot;the&#xA;  Eternal, the Pure, the Ever-Free, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the&#xA;  All-Merciful, the Teacher of all teachers&quot;; and above all, Sa Ishvarah&#xA;  anirvachaniya-premasvarupah - &quot;He the Lord is, of His own nature,&#xA;  inexpressible Love.&quot; These certainly are the definitions of a Personal&#xA;  God. Are there then two Gods - the &quot;Not this, not this,&quot; the&#xA;  Sat-chit-ananda, the Existence-knowledge-Bliss of the philosopher, and&#xA;  this God of love of the Bhakta? No it is the same Sat-chit-Ananda who&#xA;  is also the God of Love, the impersonal and personal in one. It has&#xA;  always to be understood that the Personal God worshipped by the Bhakta&#xA;  is not separate or different from Brahman. All is Brahman, the One&#xA;  without a second; only the Brahman, as unity or absolute, is too much&#xA;  of an abstraction to be loved and worshipped; so the Bhakta chooses&#xA;  the relative aspect of Brahman, that is Ishvara, the Supreme Ruler.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;To use a simile: Brahman is as the clay or substance out of which an infinite variety of articles are fashioned. As clay, they are all one;&#xA;  but form or manifestation differentiates them. Before everyone of them&#xA;  was made, they all existed potentially in the clay, and, of course,&#xA;  they are identical substantially; but when formed, and so long as the&#xA;  form remains, they are separate and different; the clay-mouse can&#xA;  never become a clay-elephant, because, as manifestations, form alone&#xA;  makes them what they are, though as unformed clay they are all one.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Ishvara is the highest manifestation of the Absolute Reality, or in&#xA;  other words, the highest possible reading of the Absolute by the human&#xA;  mind. Creation is eternal and so also is Ishvara........Those who&#xA;  attain to that state where there is neither knower, nor knowable, nor&#xA;  knowledge, where there is neither I, nor thou, nor he, where there is&#xA;  neither subject, nor object, nor relation, &quot;there, who is seen by&#xA;  whom?&quot; - such persons have gone beyond everything to &quot;where words&#xA;  cannot go nor mind&quot;, gone to where the Shrutis declare as &quot;Not this,&#xA;  not this&quot;; but for those who cannot, or will not reach this state,&#xA;  there will inevitably remain the triune vision of the one&#xA;  undifferentiated Brahman as nature, soul and the interpenetrating&#xA;  sustainer of both - Ishvara. ..... Bhakti, then, can be directed&#xA;  towards Brahman, only in His personal aspect. &quot;The way is more&#xA;  difficult for those whose mind is attached to the absolute!&quot; Bhakti&#xA;  has to float on smoothly with the current of our nature. True it is&#xA;  that we cannot have any idea of the Brahman which is not&#xA;  anthropomorphic, but is it not equally true of everything we know? The&#xA;  greatest psychologist the world has ever known, Bhagavan Kapila,&#xA;  demonstrated ages ago that human consciousness is one of the elements&#xA;  in the make-up of all the objects of our perception and conception,&#xA;  internal as well as external. Beginning with our bodies and going up&#xA;  to Ishvara, we may see that every object of our perception is this&#xA;  consciousness plus something else, whatever that may be; and this&#xA;  unavoidable mixture is what we ordinarily think of as reality. Indeed&#xA;  it is, and ever will be, all of the reality that is possible for human&#xA;  mind to know. Therefore to say that Ishvara is unreal, because He is&#xA;  anthropomorphic is sheer nonsense. It sounds very much like the&#xA;  occidental squabble on idealism and realism, which fearful-looking&#xA;  quarrel has for its foundation a mere play on the word &quot;real&quot;. The&#xA;  idea of Ishvara covers all the ground ever denoted and connoted by the&#xA;  word real, and Ishvara is as real as anything else in the universe;&#xA;  and after all, the word real means nothing more than what has now been&#xA;  pointed out. Such is our philosophical conception of Ishvara.&#xA;  (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda III.37-42)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T22:23:08.080" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T22:23:08.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10292" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10294" CreationDate="2016-01-30T13:07:23.780" Score="2" ViewCount="370" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question just hit my mind with a question mark. Does lord hanuman really exists (immortal)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the best ways to become his true follower and how to impress him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4739" LastActivityDate="2016-01-31T13:52:25.967" Title="Is Lord Hanuman really immortal and what are ways to become his true follower" Tags="|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10293" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10286" CreationDate="2016-01-30T13:14:27.957" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. &quot;brahma vid brahmaiva bhavati&quot;. One who knows brahman becomes brahman himself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The path to know brahman is yoga - any (or a combination) of bhakti/gnyana/karma (upasana)/raja yogas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स यो ह वै तत् परमं &lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्म वेद ब्रह्मैव भवति&lt;/strong&gt; नास्याब्रह्मवित्कुले भवति । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तरति शोकं तरति पाप्मानं गुहाग्रन्थिभ्यो विमुक्तोऽमृतो भवति ॥ ९ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa yo ha vai tat paramaṃ &lt;strong&gt;brahma veda brahmaiva bhavati&lt;/strong&gt; nāsyābrahmavitkule bhavati | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tarati śokaṃ tarati pāpmānaṃ guhāgranthibhyo vimukto'mṛto bhavati || 9 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9. &lt;strong&gt;He who knows that highest Brahman becomes even Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;; and in his line, none who knows not the Brahman will be born. He crosses grief and virtue and vice and being freed from the knot of the heart, becomes immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mundaka-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145141.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.9&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-01T17:49:13.900" LastActivityDate="2017-04-01T17:49:13.900" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10294" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10292" CreationDate="2016-01-30T15:21:12.963" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In our scriptures Lord Hanuman is mentioned as &quot;Chiranjeevi&quot; meaning &quot;one who lives for ever&quot;.So, why being a believer of Sanatana Dharma ,will you doubt the scriptures,in the first place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if you worship no Gods ,you can still get the blessings of all of them simply by following a righteous path of living as laid down in our scriptures.If you follow Dharma all Gods will be more than happy with you.And that includes Lord Hanuman too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some specific points relevant to Sri Hanuman:&#xA;1)Tuesday ,saturday are usually the days dedicated to him.Devotees usually(who can manage)fast on those days.You can also donate sindoor in Hanuman temples.Feed monkeys with gram dal and jaggery.&#xA;2)Read the Hanuman Chalisa.&#xA;3)Lord Hanuman is the greatest devotee of Lord Rama.So if you are devoted towards Sri Rama ,Sri Hanuman is already very pleased with you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-01-30T15:21:12.963" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10296" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-30T17:49:35.610" Score="6" ViewCount="612" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &amp;quot;Shaivite&amp;quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyer&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyer Brahmins&lt;/a&gt; are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (as I discuss  &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to philosophical Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is about a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as the Sri Vaishnava sect is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the 12 Alwars, Shaiva Siddhanta is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the 63 Nayanars.  Now as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the vast majority of Hindus belong to the Vedanta school, which is based on the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.  But the Shaiva Siddhanta sect has a complicated relation with Vedanta.  Some Shaiva Siddhantins subscribe to the Vedanta school; in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8872/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; I discuss the Srikantha Bhashya, a Shaiva Siddhanta commentary on the Brahma Sutras.  But in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8919/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; I found out that the Saiva Siddhanta Church, a large Shaiva Siddhanta organization, does not subscribe to the Vedanta school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, page 25 of the book &amp;quot;Collected Lectures on Saiva Siddhanta&amp;quot; discusses the ambivalent feelings that the Shaiva Siddhanta sect has to the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saiva-Siddhantins do not attach the greatest importance to the Brahma Sutras.  They are just as important with respect to the Upanishads or Vedanta as Purva Mimamsa or Jaimini Sutras are with respect to the Vedas. They attach the greatest importance to the Sivajnana Bodha Sutras that are, in their opinion, faultless and all comprehensive. &lt;strong&gt;Further, they see some of the Vyasasutras contradictory to the express sayings of the Upanishads ; for example, the Sutra, 'Parinamat' is contradictory to the Upanishadic text &amp;quot;Mayantu Prakritim Vidyat Mayinantu Mahesvaram&amp;quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;  But still they follow the commentary of Sri Kantacharya on the Brahma Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &amp;quot;Parinamat&amp;quot; refers to &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=TwsTAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;source=gbs_navlinks_s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyaya 1 Pada 4 Sutra 27&lt;/a&gt; of the Brahma Sutras, and it means &amp;quot;because of transformation&amp;quot;.  The context of this is the fundamental tenet of the Vedanta school that Brahman is both the material cause and the efficient cause of the Universe, i.e. Brahman is both the substance the Universe is made of and the operator of the Universe.  And this Sutra is talking about Brahman's transformation into the Universe; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34137.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya's commentary and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48169.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Ramanujacharya's commentary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in question, the notion of the Universe being made of Brahman is contrary to the beliefs of traditional Shaivites that Pashupati or Shiva is the operator of the Universe but not the material cause.  So it's not surprising that some Shaiva Siddhantins would dispute this Sutra.  But my question is about the quote they use to try to refute the Sutra.  It comes from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15103.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 4 verse 10&lt;/a&gt; of the Shwetashwatara Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;māyāṃ tu prakṛtiṃ vidyānmāyinaṃ ca maheśvaram&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;tasyavayavabhūtaistu vyāptaṃ sarvamidaṃ jagat ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Know then Prakriti (nature) is Mâyâ (art), and the great Lord the Mâyin (maker)&lt;/strong&gt;; the whole world is filled with what are his members.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why do Shaiva Siddhantins believe that this Shwetashwatara Upanishad quote contradicts the Brahma Sutras' claim of Brahman transforming into the Universe?  Is it because matter is called &amp;quot;Maya&amp;quot; and Brahman is called &amp;quot;Mayin&amp;quot;, so they think the two have to be completely separate?  Because I don't see why &amp;quot;Mayin&amp;quot; can't transform into &amp;quot;Maya&amp;quot;.  Or is there some other reason?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would note that in Srikantha's Shaiva Siddhanta commentary on the Brahma Sutras, he uses this same quote as evidence in &lt;em&gt;favor&lt;/em&gt; of Brahman being the material cause.  See  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/xyTD&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Srikantha Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The shruti says, &amp;quot;Know verily Maya as Prakriti and Mayin (the possessor of Maya) the Maheshvara.  By that which forms his limb is all this universe pervaded.&amp;quot; From this we learn that Maya is the Prakriti (material cause) of all, [and] that Maheshvara is the being endured with it.... Thus ... the Prakriti of all creatures is the Parameshvara himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it seems that two groups of Shaiva Siddhantins view the same Shwetashawatara Upanishad quote as evidence for and against the exact same Sutra!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, does anyone know of other Shaiva Siddhanta works which discuss why this quote is viewed as contradicting the notion of Brahman being the material cause?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-13T09:27:19.047" Title="Why do some Shaiva Siddhantins believe the Shwetashwatara Upanishad contradicts the Brahma Sutras?" Tags="|vedanta|upanishads|brahma-sutras|shaivism|shwetashawatara-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10297" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-31T05:39:34.743" Score="6" ViewCount="360" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know the purpose of Rama avatara was to liberate Ravana, and for this purpose Vishnu had to forget his divinity. But in the Yuddha Kanda, after the Agni Pariksha, all the devas headed by Brahma arrive and praise Rama reminding him of his Divinity. They tell him that he is Vishnu and Sita is Lakshmi. You can read the praises of Brahma &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga117/yuddha_117_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this Rama becomes the King of Ayodhya. So now did Rama rule with the knowledge that he was Vishnu or did he forget it again? That is did Vishnu sit on the throne of Ayodhya or Dasaratha's son?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And similarly was Sita sent to the forest where she lamented her fate to Lakshmana - or did Mahalakshmi lament to Anantadeva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2020-02-11T22:01:15.280" Title="Did Ikshvaku Rama rule Ayodhya or Vishnu avatara Rama?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10298" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-31T06:58:33.940" Score="5" ViewCount="193" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of my friend is a Vaishnavite Brahmin....but he says, has increased devotion to Lord Shiva and is much affected by Shaivism. Since he is the eldest son in home, he became responsible for pujas, havans, etc which are laid on him as responsibility. As he has became a devotee of Lord Shiva, he tried to replace the family devotee as Lord Krishna to Lord Shiva, which was opposed by his family and his caste/sub-caste society. He asked for help. He want to convert to Shaivism officially/religiously, so that his people accept this. He said he doesn't want to fight with society, but want to live with peace. What he must do? He needs help????&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4690" LastActivityDate="2018-05-03T00:08:32.093" Title="Sects of Hinduism" Tags="|krishna|dharma|sects|brahmins|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10299" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10298" CreationDate="2016-01-31T07:35:12.423" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Being a devotee of Lord Shiva does not give him rights to alter the Kula Devata of his family.So that is not right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, if one is a &quot;true&quot; devotee of any God,then he sees all Gods as same and  one with his Ista Devata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He can worship Lord Shiva at the beginning of his daily religous duties before starting the pujas and havans that he is supposed to do for his family or community.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can  also not understand how by worshipping Lord Krishna will lessen the devotion that he has for Lord Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna Himself was a earnest devotee of Lord Shiva in his lifetime.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So i don't see why and how this is such a big problem for your friend.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-01-31T09:08:35.503" LastActivityDate="2016-01-31T09:08:35.503" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10300" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-31T09:02:43.387" Score="2" ViewCount="88" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there European/American Hindus who converted to Hinduism, but not the newly reformed sects like Hare Krishna, Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, but who adopted traditional sects like Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Suryaism, etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4690" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-01T02:51:52.093" LastActivityDate="2016-02-01T02:51:52.093" Title="Non-Indian Hindus" Tags="|philosophy|culture|sects|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10301" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10297" CreationDate="2016-01-31T13:45:19.237" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, God/deities born as humans to end worldly suffering. For this, they also suffer like us such as Ram, Siya, Lakhan, suffered. They may be knowing that they are deities/god like Ram new that but never displayed it selfly whereas sometimes they may not be knowing like Balram, elder bro of Krishna. So, the conditions may vary...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4690" LastActivityDate="2016-01-31T13:45:19.237" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10302" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10292" CreationDate="2016-01-31T13:52:25.967" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, he is immortal since he's Lord Shiva who is one of the Trinity. You can worship him by following his way. If you are a Vaishnavite (who believes Vishnu as the Supreme Being/God) , you can believe him as a follower/bhakt (Hindi:bhagat) of Lord Ram. But if you're a Shaivite (who believes Shiva as Supreme Being) you may worship him as God, since he is an incarnation of Shiva. I'm a devotee of Shiva, so I also read Hanuman Chalisa. If you want to be his true follower, you should believe him as the Supreme Being or Shiva (both are same). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4690" LastActivityDate="2016-01-31T13:52:25.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10304" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-01-31T16:26:00.643" Score="6" ViewCount="3946" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the prescribed dharma of Kshatriyas as per Hindu Dharma Shastras, is it just to handle weapons and fight in battlefield?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, then what should a modern Kshatriya opt as a carrier option which is compatible with his Dharma, since only military services (battlefield services) are consistent with his Dharma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What if some Kshatriya does not want to get involved with military services; can he opt for other ways like IT, business, which are bramhinical and vaishya duties respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note that I'm not looking for personal views of a great personality.&#xA;So answers with scriptural references like Dharma Shastras, Vedas, or Vedic Rishi authored texts like Vishwamitra Samhita are expected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-30T10:01:11.137" LastActivityDate="2018-08-27T12:27:48.017" Title="What are the ancient &amp; modern career options for a Kshatriya?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|dharma|varna|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10306" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-01T00:43:22.223" Score="2" ViewCount="342" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras describes the Brahmavidyas, 32 lessons found in the various Upanishads which can each lead you to Brahman if you meditate upon them. You can see the full list of 32 Vidyas here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8682/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of these Brahma Vidyas is the Samvarga Vidya, and it is found in Prapathaka 4 of the Chandogya Upanishad. It was taught by a cart-driver named Raikva to the king Janashruti Pautrayana.  The story goes roughly as follows.  Janashruti was a great king who performed numerous Yagnas and was extremely magnanimous in his generosity.  As a result of his deeds his face shone with a powerful aura.  Once two birds were flying near him and one bird told the other bird that they should stay away from Janashruti because his aura might burn them.  The second bird responded, &quot;Don't speak of Janashruti as if he were like Raikva of the cart&quot;.  Janashruti immediately wanted to find this Raikva, and he approached Raikva with great riches and asked Raikva to teach him Brahman.  Raikva refused, because Janashruti asked in an arrogant manner.  But then Raikva ultimately dedided to teach him after Janashruti came back and asked in a more humble manner, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01079.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Gânasruti Pautrâyana took again a thousand cows, a necklace, a carriage with mules, and his own daughter, and went to him.  He said to him: 'Raikva, there are a thousand cows, a necklace, a carriage with mules, this wife, and this village in which thou dwellest. Sir, teach me!'  He, opening her mouth, said: 'You have brought these (cows and other presents), O Sûdra, but only by that mouth did you make me speak.' &lt;strong&gt;These are the Raikva-parna villages in the country of the Mahâvrishas (mahâpunyas) where Raikva dwelt under him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, where are the Raikvaparna villages that Janashruti gifted to Raikva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/uOjv&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Setu Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana says that Raikva lived on the Gandhamadana mountain near Rameshwaram.  So since Janashruti said that he was giving Raikva the vilage Raikva was living in, are the Raikvaparna villages in the viciniy of Rameshwaram?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other clue we have is the Chandogya Upanishads' statement that the Raikvaparna villages are in &quot;the country of the Mahavrishas&quot;.  But &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=nn0TAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;dq=mahavrisha%20north&amp;amp;pg=PA117#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; suggest that the Mahavrishas were in North India, and yet Rameshwaram is at the Southern tip of India.  So what's going on?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are actually two mountains called Gandhamadana, one near Rameshwaram and one in or near the Himalayas, so I suspect there may have been a transcription error in the Skanda Purana, and that Raikva may have actually lived in the Himalayan Gandhamadana.  In any case, are there any other scriptures that mention the Raikvaparna villages, or modern places in India which have names close to Raikvaparna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-11T06:14:37.417" LastActivityDate="2018-01-11T06:14:37.417" Title="Where are the Raikvaparna villages mentioned in the Chandogya Upanishad?" Tags="|puranas|skanda-purana|chandogya-upanishad|geography|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10308" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10335" CreationDate="2016-02-01T06:33:14.987" Score="6" ViewCount="393" Body="&lt;p&gt;Details of worship procedures are laid down in which Veda?&#xA;Like details of how to do a Puja or Homa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T05:27:27.057" Title="In which of the 4 Vedas procedures of ritualistic worship are mentioned?" Tags="|vedas|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10309" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-01T09:58:44.687" Score="5" ViewCount="1347" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story of Goddess Shitala?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is mainly worshiped in North India, West Bengal, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4665" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-02T16:11:15.783" LastActivityDate="2016-02-02T16:11:15.783" Title="What is the story of Goddess Shitala?" Tags="|durga|goddess|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10310" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21852" CreationDate="2016-02-01T10:00:00.817" Score="7" ViewCount="209" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Hindus haven't invaded anyone on their 10000 years of history?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T16:38:02.673" Title="Why Hindus never invaded anyone in 10000 years History?" Tags="|puranas|bhagavata-purana|dharma|brahmins|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10312" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-01T10:06:17.210" Score="7" ViewCount="418" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know that was the river Brahmaputra created by Lord Brahma or any other God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4665" LastActivityDate="2024-03-30T12:09:47.883" Title="Was the Brahmaputra River created by Lord Brahma?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|brahma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10314" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-01T10:25:41.237" Score="6" ViewCount="188" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard many stories about different gods in Hinduism. A God's life also rolls in many stages as a human being like birth, love and marriage. I have a doubt that most of the God's followers didn't bother to have tales on the life of God after marriage. What is the reason behind that? Or are there any stories which are hidden from the outside world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T17:12:20.577" LastActivityDate="2017-02-04T02:45:39.837" Title="Most of the Gods' stories end after the marriage stage. Are there any stories of Gods after their marriage?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|shiva|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10315" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10325" CreationDate="2016-02-01T10:27:26.620" Score="7" ViewCount="223" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do we still have Gurukula in INDIA/Bharat. which is having new generation subjects with our traditional Vedas/Purana in Sanskrit language.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastActivityDate="2016-02-01T17:47:45.890" Title="Vedas/Purana in Sanskrit language" Tags="|puranas|culture|brahmins|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10317" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-01T10:46:05.947" Score="6" ViewCount="7598" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a story of Goddess Kali fighting with Ravana. What are the details of this encounter between the two?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4665" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-15T10:57:54.630" LastActivityDate="2018-02-15T10:57:54.630" Title="What is the story of Goddess Kali fighting with Ravana?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|goddess|devi|kali|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10318" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2776" CreationDate="2016-02-01T10:59:22.247" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;When we offer prayers to God, we are supposed to be in a state of humility. There are three 'malam's (dirt) hindering our vision in seeking God, namely, anava, kanma and maya. To signify that we have removed these 'malams' we offer coconut, removing its outer cover, husk inside and cracking the shell ( three malams) we show to Lord the kernel inside which is clean and white as our soul and requesting him for his refuge and save us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4765" LastActivityDate="2016-02-01T10:59:22.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10321" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10332" CreationDate="2016-02-01T14:08:03.590" Score="6" ViewCount="458" Body="&lt;p&gt;How many Puranas are there actually and do we have the original ones with us? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of them are translated by Western scholars who don't even know Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-01T21:11:34.527" LastActivityDate="2016-02-02T06:19:09.203" Title="Are Puranas rewritten or original?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|history|india|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10322" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3369" CreationDate="2016-02-01T14:12:04.140" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda explains correlation between Lokas and Chakras in his book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/kundalini.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kundalini Yoga&lt;/a&gt; and in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=473&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt;. He says &lt;strong&gt;Lokas correspond to Chakras&lt;/strong&gt; of human body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Man is a microcosm (&lt;em&gt;Kshudra Brahmanda&lt;/em&gt;). Whatever exists in the outer&#xA;universe exists in him. All the Tattvas and worlds are within him and&#xA;so is the Supreme Siva-Sakti. The body may be divided into two main&#xA;parts, namely, the head and trunk on the one hand, and the legs on the&#xA;other. In man, the centre of the body is between these two, at the&#xA;base of the spine where the legs begin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Surya Mandal&lt;/em&gt; or the fire is in the &lt;em&gt;Nabhi&lt;/em&gt; or the navel. The &lt;em&gt;Chandra&#xA;Mandal&lt;/em&gt; or the sphere of Amrita is a little below Ajna Chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Supporting the trunk and&#xA;throughout the whole body there is the spinal cord. This is the axis&#xA;of the body, just as Mount Meru is the axis of the earth. Hence, man’s&#xA;spine is called &lt;em&gt;Merudanda&lt;/em&gt;, the Meru or axis-staff. The legs and feet&#xA;are gross which show less signs of consciousness than the trunk with&#xA;its spinal white and grey matter; which trunk itself is greatly&#xA;subordinate in this respect to the head containing the organ of mind,&#xA;or physical brain, with its white and grey matter. The positions of&#xA;the white and grey matter in the head and spinal column respectively&#xA;are reversed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The body and legs below the centre are the seven lower&#xA;or nether worlds upheld by the sustaining Sakti or Powers of the&#xA;universe. From the centre upwards, consciousness more freely manifests&#xA;through the spinal and cerebral centres. Here there are the seven&#xA;upper regions or Lokas, a term which means “What are seen” (Lokyante),&#xA;that is, experienced, and are hence the fruits of Karma in the form of&#xA;particular rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;These regions, namely, Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svah, Tapa,&#xA;Jana, Maha and Satya Lokas correspond with the six centres; five in&#xA;the trunk, the sixth in the lower cerebral centre; and the seventh in&#xA;the upper brain or Satyaloka, the abode of the Supreme Siva-Sakti.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/aIBtR.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/aIBtR.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Chakras&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/25507/45f_chapter_50_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Human Body - A Miniature Cosmos : Departure of Soul to the next Lokas  of Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; describes this correlation in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-03-19T12:06:24.833" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10323" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16752" CreationDate="2016-02-01T14:32:32.430" Score="13" ViewCount="1630" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any difference between Puranas, Upapuranas and Mahapuranas? What should we follow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-01T21:13:16.983" LastActivityDate="2019-08-30T15:41:57.440" Title="What is the difference between Puranas, Upapuranas and Mahapuranas?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|history|teaching|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10325" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10315" CreationDate="2016-02-01T17:47:45.890" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are in fact quite a few Vedic Gurukulams /Vedic Pathsalas in India right now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/vedapathashala.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; you can find a comprehensive list of those.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-02-01T17:47:45.890" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10326" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-01T18:04:20.170" Score="5" ViewCount="142" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the movie &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajirao_Mastani&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bajirao Mastani&lt;/a&gt;, Baajirao Ballad Maratha Peshwa (Bramhin by birth) performs a Yagna after every battle he fights, in order to clear the sin of fighting war as it's a sin to fight if you are not a kshatriya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this means that any bramhin can fight in war by performing specific yagna, and even a Bramhin or Vaishya can do kshatriya karma in special circumstances? What did Lord Parshurama do in order to fight like that of kshatriya? Similarly any kshatriya can do bramhin karma or vaishya karma if yes then is the method same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is that yagna which allows one to do different varna karma? What are other methods to perform another varna karma, like kshatriya doing bramhana/vaishya karma visa versa?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T19:04:18.220" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T19:04:18.220" Title="What is the yagna that allows any dwija to do another varna karma" Tags="|scripture|dharma|parashurama|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-02-09T03:55:10.973" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10327" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-02T04:48:30.877" Score="5" ViewCount="413" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pinkjooz.com/index.php/the-story-of-chappan-bhog-56-food-offerings/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This page&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As per Hindu beliefs, Lord Krishna used to have 8 meals per day. Once to save his village from the fury of Lord Indra, he lifted the Govardhan Parvat (Mountain) under which everyone took refuge. He remained in the task continuously for 7 days until Indra gave up after realizing his mistake. Further, the villagers offered him &lt;code&gt;56(8x7)&lt;/code&gt; food items to compensate for what He had missed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the names of 56 Bhog offered to Lord Krishna?&#xA;Is it mentioned in Hindu scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-05-03T12:29:21.027" LastActivityDate="2017-05-03T12:29:21.027" Title="What are the names of 56 Bhog offered to Lord Krishna?" Tags="|scripture|krishna|belief|food|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10328" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10201" CreationDate="2016-02-02T05:07:01.270" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;as my study i can say our gods r for full universe..see brahma is creator of whole universe...his story-a bubble which is egg arises from skin pore of karanodakshayi vishnu..that egg's story is same like chinese pangu that brahma is born outta it &amp;amp; all that becomes the universe..then 1st day brahma makes the creation then when his day ends &amp;amp; at next day he rises from garbhodakshayi vishnu's navel lotus...see like this innumerable &amp;amp; more bigger eggs appear from karanodakshayi vishnu's pores &amp;amp; in every of them is 1 brahma &amp;amp; a universe is 1/2 water which is garbhodak &amp;amp; 1/2 the space where planets etc. exists..so see why we don't talk on other worlds(within our universe)as what we really need is info about us...they don't wanna confuse us with other planet's life stuffs..in jainism u will see they talk on life beyond earth as their earth is of 2&amp;amp;1/2 dvipa &amp;amp; beyond that too innumerable divpa exist &amp;amp; they have given measurement of scorpion in the last sea where life exist...what i say is kailash &amp;amp; meru &amp;amp; ksheer sea of our earth r offices of gods for our earth department &amp;amp; there maybe more planets with their kailash meru ksheer sea etc. for their purpose as ours...as see vishnu r of 3 types..1)ksheerodakshayi who lives in ksheer sagar of earth..2)garbhodakshayi..the 1 who lies at down 1/2 half of universe supporting brahma &amp;amp; 3)karanodakshayi vishnu outta who's body all eggs comes &amp;amp; beyond that is krishna...see ISKCON for more on this..there r other worlds in our universe for sure but no info given of their human life there...as we say that brahma is lord of all universe so he is of all worlds existing in our universe...hope this helped..:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4752" LastActivityDate="2016-02-02T05:07:01.270" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10330" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10309" CreationDate="2016-02-02T05:26:08.673" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shitala literally means cool. It is believed that the Goddess provides coolness to Her devotees who are suffering from diseases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp47.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is something from Hindu Mythology&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shitala is the Bengali name for the small-pox, and for the deity who is supposed to have charge of that disease. The meaning of the word is&#xA;  &quot;She who makes cold.&quot; This goddess is represented as a&#xA;  golden-complexioned woman sitting on a lotus, or riding on an ass,&#xA;  dressed in red clothes. Before an image of this kind, or morecommonly&#xA;  a pan of water merely, Shitala is worshipped in the hope that she will&#xA;  preserve her worshippers from this dire disease. In the spring of the&#xA;  year, the Hindus formerly inoculated their children for this disease&#xA;  when they were about two years of age. The Brāhman who performed the&#xA;  operation made presents to render Shitala propitious, and promised, in&#xA;  case the work was successful, to give still greater gifts. At the&#xA;  close of the operation the flowers that were presented to the goddess&#xA;  were placed in the hair of the child as a charm. On behalf of those&#xA;  afflicted with small-pox, offerings are made daily; and when the&#xA;  patient is thought to be dangerously ill, he is placed in front of an&#xA;  image of Shitala, bathed in, and given to drink, water that has been&#xA;  offered to her. Beggars go about with a stone, partly gilded, which&#xA;  they teach is sacred to Shitala, and, in seasons when the disease is&#xA;  prevalent, receive presents from the superstitious.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is an Another Source To Know More About Mata Shitla &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.omashram.com/news/78-the-day-of-shitala-devi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;OMASHRAM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastActivityDate="2016-02-02T05:26:08.673" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10331" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-02T06:05:39.433" Score="4" ViewCount="3489" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous parts of the Chandogya Upanishad is the dialogue of the sage Uddalaka Aruni with his son Shwetaketu.  (It's known as the Sad Vidya, and it's one of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;32 Brahma Vidyas&lt;/a&gt;.) It is during this dialogue that the famous Mahavakya &quot;Tat Tvam Asi&quot; or &quot;Thou art That&quot;, which plays an important role in Advaita, is mentioned.  (See my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7770/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for how other schools interpret the Mahavakyas.). But I'm interested in Shwetaketu himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shwetaketu is known for many things.  He was the one who abolished polyandry, the practice of a wife having multiple husbands, as described in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata. (A husband having multiple wives, on the other hand, is a well-established practice.)  And he was the uncle of Ashtavakra, the purported author of the Ashtavakra Gita.  And he is said to have written a text which formed the basis of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3752/36&quot;&gt;a certain work&lt;/a&gt; of Vatsayana. But my question is about Shwetaketu's parentage. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a034.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata describes how certain acts, which are usually grave sins, are allowed in certain circumstances.  In particular it says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Connection with the preceptor's wife at the preceptor's command does not stain the pupil. The sage Uddalaka caused his son Swetaketu to be begotten by a disciple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who is Shwetaketu's biological father?  This is a case of Niyoga, which is the practice I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7628/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; where a woman has a man other than her husband father a child with her, either because her husband is unable to father children or because he's dead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So who was the disciple that Uddalaka Aruni chose to bear a child on his behalf?  Is this story of Shwetaketu being born through Niyoga described in more detail in any other scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, on a side note if Shwetaketu was born through because Uddalaka Aruni was unable to have children, was his daughter Sujata, mother of Ashtavakra, also born through Niyoga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-16T09:23:10.147" LastActivityDate="2018-03-16T09:23:10.147" Title="Who was Shwetaketu's biological father?" Tags="|mahabharata|upanishads|chandogya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10332" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10321" CreationDate="2016-02-02T06:19:09.203" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of the extant Puranas, eighteen are distinguished as 18 Maha-Puranas,&#xA;  or major Puranas, and an additional eighteen as Upa-Puranas, or&#xA;  supplementary Puranas, though which volumes belong to which group is&#xA;  the subject of some debate. Specifically, the Devi-Bhagavata, one of&#xA;  the principal scriptures of Sakti worshippers, is claimed by its&#xA;  admirers to be a Maha-Purana .....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Windows into the Infinite, A Guide to the Hindu Scriptures by Barbara Powell&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is definite that we do not have the original text for some Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Agni Purana speaks of the Garuda Purana consisting of 8000 verses,&#xA;  while according to the Matsya Purana and Narada Purana, it comprised&#xA;  18000 verses. Prof Wilson believes that the Garuda Purana contains&#xA;  about 7000 verses. It is quite possible to think that the original&#xA;  Garuda Purana, profusely referred to by the other Puranas, &lt;strong&gt;is lost to&#xA;  us and in course of time present Purana was compiled&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Preface to the New Edition (of Garuda Purana translated by M. N Dutta) by Professor Pushpendra Kumar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-02-02T06:19:09.203" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10333" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-02T07:54:15.117" Score="17" ViewCount="331" Body="&lt;p&gt;I see lot of people offering flowers, fruits and other tangible things to god to please him. However, I fail to understand, how can god be pleased by offerings that are his own creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="840" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-02T16:35:04.290" LastActivityDate="2017-02-02T07:09:22.773" Title="Why do devotees offer gods own creation as offering to him?" Tags="|gods|bhakti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10334" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-02T08:26:40.063" Score="2" ViewCount="59" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to purchase Bhagwat Gita in Hindi. Which is the original one? How can we verify if it's not duplicate? There are many in the market with the same name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-02T17:44:59.460" LastActivityDate="2016-02-02T17:44:59.460" Title="Bhagwat Gita Original Version" Tags="|scripture|history|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-02-02T19:10:15.097" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10335" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10308" CreationDate="2016-02-02T10:46:53.870" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Interesting question, as most the ritualistic worship today of Vedanta is founded in the Tantras and most from the Brahmana portions of the Vedas. On this subject Swami Vivekananda said (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V4, pp335-336, available here under &lt;em&gt;Writings: Prose&lt;/em&gt; subheading &lt;em&gt;Reply to the Madras Address&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The three Prasthânas, (&quot;Courses&quot;, viz, the Upanishad (Shruti), the Gita, and the &lt;em&gt;Shariraka-Sutras&lt;/em&gt;.) then, in their different explanations as Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita, or Advaita, with a few minor recensions, form the &quot;authorities&quot; of the Hindu religion. The Purânas, the modern representations of the ancient Nârâsamsi (anecdote portion of the Vedas), supply the mythology, and the Tantras, the modern representations of the Brâhmanas (ritual and explanatory portion of the Vedas), supply the ritual. Thus the three Prasthanas, as authorities, are common to all the sects; but as to the Puranas and Tantras, each sect has its own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Tantras, as we have said, represent the Vedic rituals in a modified form; and before any one jumps into the most absurd conclusions about them, I will advise him to read the Tantras in conjunction with the Brahmanas, especially the Adhvaryu portion. And most of the Mantras, used in the Tantras, will be found taken verbatim from their Brahmanas. As to their influence, apart from the Shrauta and Smârta rituals, all the forms of the rituals in vogue from the Himalayas to the Comorin have been taken from the Tantras, and they direct the worship of the Shâkta, or Shaiva, or Vaishnava, and all the others alike.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) in his work &lt;em&gt;Shakti and Shakta: Essays and Addresses on on the Shakta tantrashastra&lt;/em&gt; says (Chapter 26: &lt;em&gt;Shakta Sadhana (The Ordinary Ritual&lt;/em&gt;): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We are perhaps, therefore, correct in saying that it comes to this: In a bad age, such as the Kali, men are (to say the least) very scarce, though common-sense and experience must, I suppose, allow for exceptions. Whilst the Pashu natural disposition exists, the Vaidik [vedic] ritual which he should follow cannot be done. It is in fact largely obsolete. The Vaidik Pashu or man who followed the Vaidik rituals in their entirety is non-existent. He must follow the Agamic rituals which, as a fact, the bulk of men do. The Agama must now govern the Pashu, Vira, and would-be Divya alike.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As I have frequently explained, there are various communities of the followers of Tantra and Agama according to the several divisions of the worshippers of the five Devatas (Pancopasaka). Of the five classes, the most important are Vasihnava, Shaiva and Shakta. I do not, however, hesitate to repeat a statement of a fact of which those who speak of 'The Tantra&quot; ignore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The main elements of Sadhana are common to all such communities following the Agamas; such as Puja (inner and outer), Pratima or other emblems (Linga, Shalagrama), Upacara, Sandhya, Yajna, Vrata, Tapas, Mandala, Yantra, Mantra, Japa, Purashcarana, Nyasa, Bhutasuddhi, Mudra, Dhyana, Samskara and so forth. Even the Vamacara ritual which some wrongly think to be peculiar to the Shaktas, or was followed (I am told) by other Sampradayas including Jainas and Bauddhas. Both, in so far as they follow this ritual, are reckoned amongst Kaulas though, as being non-Vaidik, of a lower class.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A main point to be here remembered, and one which establishes both historical and practical importance of the Agamas is this: That whilst some Vaidik rites still exist, the bulk of the ritual of to-day is Agamic, that is, what is popularly called Tantrik. The Puranas are replete with Tantrik rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The materials used or things done in a Puja are called Upacara. The common number of these is sixteen, but there are more or less (see &lt;em&gt;Principles of Tantra&lt;/em&gt;, Part ii). The sixteen which include some of the lesser number and are included in a greater are: (1) Asana (seating of the image), (2) Svagata (welcoming of the Devata), (3) Padya (water for washing the feet), (4) Arghya (offerings which may be general or Samanya and special or Vishesha) made in a vessel, (5), (6) Acamana (water for sipping and cleansing the lips -- offered twice), (7) Madhuparka (honey, ghee, milk and curd), (8) Snana (water for bathing), (9) Vasana (cloth for garment), (10) Abharana (jewels), (11) Gandha (Perfume), (12) Pushpa (flowers), (13) Dhupa (incense), (14) Dipa (lights), (15) Naivedya (food), and (16) Vandana or Namaskriya (prayer).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may want to read Arthur Avalon's book in its entirety before consulting other books as it will give you many references and a good background.       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T05:27:27.057" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T05:27:27.057" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10337" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10333" CreationDate="2016-02-02T17:49:56.093" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The best answer to your question is, to show respect. We offer them food/sweets right in the beginning without it being &quot;jhoota&quot;.This is purely  in the sense of respect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also flowers are a part of the offering because of their incense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4776" LastEditorUserId="4776" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T15:00:11.683" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T15:00:11.683" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10338" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-02T17:53:00.190" Score="13" ViewCount="912" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any spells (mantras) in Hinduism which are not in Sanskrit, but in other languages. I came across a mantra in Awadhi dialect of Hindi, it's something about blessings for studying and was devoted to Lord Rama! Do you know any other spell which is not in Sanskrit? Why can't we have spells in other languages? Any example?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4690" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-02T19:24:49.080" LastActivityDate="2017-05-07T14:18:26.613" Title="Any mantras that are not of Sanskrit origin?" Tags="|philosophy|worship|mantras|sanskrit|prayer|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10339" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10338" CreationDate="2016-02-02T18:16:25.720" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know of few mantras which are in Tamil.&#xA;They are siddha mantras(given by the siddhas).Few examples are as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganapaty-Om mahaganapatikku harohara.&#xA;Parasakti-Om Parasktikku Harohara&#xA;Shiva-Om Shiva Perumanukku harohara...and  similar mantras for many other Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;-I'm adding the source which contains the whole list of such Mantras.Also adding a few more of these Mantras for some important Deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MahaGanapati-Ohm Maha Ganapathiku Arohara &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva-Ohm Sivaperumanuku Arohara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu-Ohm Vishnuperumanuku Arohara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parashakti-Ohm Parasakthiku Arohara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma-Ohm Birumma Devanuku Arohara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asta Lakshmi-Ohm Astalakshmikaluku Arohara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saraswati-Ohm Kalaivaniku Arohara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Skanda(Murugan)-Ohm Murugapperumanuku Arohara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Navagraha-Ohm Navakiraha Nayagarkaluku Arohara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But,since i don't know tamil i don't know the exact meanings of the Mantras.It will be nice if someone who knows tamil can explain the exact meanings of the words that are being used in these Mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nandhi.com/nandhi/ancient-learning-2/invoke-siddhars-2/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-04-01T07:04:07.700" LastActivityDate="2016-04-01T07:04:07.700" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10340" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-03T02:05:00.290" Score="4" ViewCount="118" Body="&lt;p&gt;For karma, action is needed, and if one doesn't initiate it, there would be no change, if there isn't any change, there must be no significance of time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;//www.quora.com/What-does-this-quote-from-Bhagavad-Gita-mean-The-wise-man-never-initiates-any-action&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have no idea that what context this implies to? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3692" LastEditorUserId="543" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T11:07:13.557" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T11:07:13.557" Title="Wise men never initiates any action?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10341" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10672" CreationDate="2016-02-03T05:44:40.567" Score="6" ViewCount="3623" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu mythology, Parashurama is the sixth avatar of Vishnu. He appeared during the last Treta and Dwapara Yugas, he also played important role in the Ramayana and Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any chances of Parashurama reappearing in Kaliyuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4313" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T22:23:59.763" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T17:14:27.947" Title="Will Parashurama reappear in Kaliyuga?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|avatars|parashurama|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10342" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10333" CreationDate="2016-02-03T06:07:41.460" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;God or Iswara is not gaining anything ,we offer him  fruits, flowers and leaves because it pleases us.God doesn't need them so to speak ,as he is the creator and owner of all that exists.Its because of our love and devotion that we offer him such meagre things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we say &quot;naivedyam nivedayami&quot; during a shodasa upachara Puja it doesn't mean that we are literally feeding him but it means that we are making him know that we are aware of the fact that its him who have created all this and hence we can only partake the food after its being offered to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Btw,a question such as this never appears(or it should not appear) in a devotee's mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT-Refer also to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/miscl/das.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dasopadesam&lt;/a&gt;(the ten commandments) given by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Paramacharya Maha Swamigal&#xA;JagadGuru Shri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; .One of which says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upadesam # 2) Man by himself cannot create even a blade of grass. &lt;strong&gt;We&#xA;  will be guilty of gross ingratitude if we do not offer first to God&#xA;  what we eat or wear - only the best and choicest should be offered to&#xA;  Him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Upadesa nicely address the question you have asked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-02T07:09:22.773" LastActivityDate="2017-02-02T07:09:22.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10343" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10340" CreationDate="2016-02-03T06:27:26.320" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First this 'quote' is not from the Gita. It appears to be a misquote or misunderstanding of some verses in Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of the Gita. In fact, it entirely misrepresents the Gita. Some of the verses that would contradict this are (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.47 To work alone, you are entitled, never to its fruit. Neither let your motive be the fruit of action, nor let your attachment be to non-action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.48 Being established in yoga, O Dhananjaya, perform your actions, casting off attachment and remaining even-minded both in success and failure. This evenness is called yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.51 The wise, of even mind, renounce the fruit of action. Freed from the fetters of birth, they attain the state that is beyond all evil.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.4 Not by merely abstaining from action does a man reach the state of actionlessness, nor by mere renunciation does he arrive at perfection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.5 Verily, no one can remain even for an instant without doing work. For, driven by the gunas born of Prakriti, everyone is made to act, in spite of himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.8 Do your allotted action; for action is superior to inaction. And even the bare maintenance of your body will not be possible if you remain inactive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.9 The world becomes bound by action unless it be done for the sake of Sacrifice (Supreme Lord). Therefore, O son of Kunti, give up attachment and do your work for the sake of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.19 Therefore always do without attachment the work you have to do; for a man who does his work without attachment attains the Supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.22 ...Yet I (Sri Krishna, The Supreme Person) continue to work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.33 Even the man of knowledge acts in accordance with his own nature. All beings follow their nature; what can restraint do?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.19 He whose undertakings are all free from desires and self-will, and whose works are consumed in the fire of Knowledge--he, by the wise, is called a sage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.41 Works do not bind the man, O Dhanajaya,  who relinquishes action through yoga, whose doubts are destroyed by Knowledge, and who is self-possessed.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see the quote you gave does not any any way resemble any of the verses nor does it resemble any of the meaning to those verses imparted by Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To sum up. Do your action, even the wise cannot refrain from action, so do it unattached to the results and offer the fruits of the action to the Lord. Thus will you obtain Liberation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T06:27:26.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10344" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10333" CreationDate="2016-02-03T10:07:55.287" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would say, its a matter of love. Imagine your 1.5 year old kid(actually I have one now) grabbing some stuff from your plate as you are eating and feeding back to you and showing his tiny teeth. How to you feel? The Supreme Lord is a person. And so is other gods as well. And everyone wants sweet relationships. And one of the ways by which relationships are realized is by offering and accepting stuff, be it fruits or flowers. Hope this helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4778" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T10:07:55.287" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10345" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-03T10:10:29.470" Score="3" ViewCount="5254" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story of Lord Yama and devil Ravana's fighting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4779" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T11:07:25.450" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T11:13:55.380" Title="What is the story of Yama fighting with Ravana?" Tags="|ravana|yama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10347" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10345" CreationDate="2016-02-03T11:13:55.380" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of &lt;strong&gt;Ravana defeating Lord Yama&lt;/strong&gt; is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/template.php?c=07uttara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 22 of Uttara Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of Ramayana. The same story in Sanskrit with English Translation can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/itihaas/ramayana/valmiki-ramayana-text-with-translation/vol-iv/chapter-22/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;on Indianscriptures website&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Lord Brahma granted boons to Ravana, Ravana began to harass humans and kings. Sage Narada suggested Ravana to invade Devas rather than human Kings to show his prowess and strength. Narada suggested to invade Yama Loka and fight with Lord Yama, God of death so that Ravana could be killed by &lt;em&gt;Kala Danda&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana went to abode of Lord Yama and huge battle ensued.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agastya continued: “When Yama heard Ravana’s loud roaring, he&#xA;concluded that the enemy was victorious and that his own army had been&#xA;destoryed. Believing that his forces had been wiped out, his eyes&#xA;became blood red and he hurriedly said to his charioteer: ‘Bring my&#xA;chariot!’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“After bringing the huge chariot, the charioteer stood there and the&#xA;glorious Yama climbed into the chariot. With a spear and mallet in his&#xA;hands, the lord of death, who destroys all these three worlds, stood&#xA;in front of the charioteer. Yama’s divine rod of chastisement stood at&#xA;his side in a personified form blazing like fire. At his sides stood&#xA;perfect nooses and a mallet in its personified form whose impact was&#xA;like fire. Seeing the lord of death, who was a cause of fear for all&#xA;people, enraged, the three worlds thereupon became disturbed and the&#xA;residents of the heavenly planets began trembling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Then the charioteer urged on the lustrous horses, and the chariot&#xA;proceeded forward making a frightful noise as it reached the place&#xA;where the rakshasa was. In one moment those horses, being equal to&#xA;those of Indra, brought Yama to the place where the battle was raging.&#xA;When Ravana’s ministers saw that chariot, which was bearing the lord&#xA;of death, and was therefore frightening to behold, they immediately&#xA;fled. Because of their meager strength, they became overwhelmed with&#xA;fear and lost consciousness. Unable to fight at that time, they fled&#xA;in all directions. But when Ravana saw that chariot which was a cause&#xA;of fear for the world, he did not feel disturbed or afraid. Yama then&#xA;approached Ravana and hurled spears and javelins at him, piercing his&#xA;vulnerable parts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Ravana, however, who was self-situated, released a shower of arrows&#xA;on Yama’s chariot, as a cloud would pummel a mountain with rain. As&#xA;hundreds of spears stuck against the rakshasa’s chest, he was unable&#xA;to fight back because of the pain he felt from his wounds. In this&#xA;way, as the battle raged on for seven nights, Yama, who employed many&#xA;different kinds of weapons, rendered Ravana unconscious and averse to&#xA;fighting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Then, O hero, a tumultuous duel ensued between Yama and Ravana, both&#xA;desiring victory and neither retreating from combat. The the gods,&#xA;accompanied by gandharvas, siddhas and great sages, gathered at that&#xA;battlefield, placing Lord Brahma before them. While the chief of&#xA;rakshasas and the lord of the dead were fighting, it seemed as if the&#xA;world was about to end. Ravana stretched back his bow, which was as&#xA;effulgent as Indra’s thunderbolt, and released arrows, seemingly&#xA;filling all intervening space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Ravana struck the lord of death with four arrows and the charioteer&#xA;with seven arrows. He quickly pierced Yama in his vital parts with one&#xA;thousand arrows. Then out of Yama’s mouth came a fire of anger with a&#xA;garland of flames along with breath and smoke. Witnessing that marvel&#xA;in the presence of the gods and danavas, both Yama and death&#xA;personified felt inspired to fight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Extremely angered, the personification of death said to Yama: ‘Leave&#xA;me on the battlefield until I kill this sinful rakshasa! The rakshasa&#xA;will not live past today, for this is a natural law. The glorious&#xA;Hiranyakashipu, Namuci, Shambara, Nisandi, Dhumaketu, Bali, the son of&#xA;Virocana, the daitya Shambhu, the great king Vritra, Vana, royal sages&#xA;learned in the scriptures, gandharvas, mighty nagas, wise men,&#xA;serpents, daityas, yakshas, hosts of celestial damsels, this earth&#xA;with its oceans, mountains, rivers and trees were brought to an end by&#xA;me at the end of the age. These and many other great and powerful&#xA;persons who were difficult to approach were killed by me as soon as I&#xA;saw them, what to speak of this night-stalker. Leave me completely&#xA;alone until I have slain him. No one whom I see can survive, no matter&#xA;how strong they are! O Yama, when I see this fellow, he will not&#xA;survive for even a short while. This is not because of my strength,&#xA;but is a natural thing.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“After hearing death personified’s declaration, the glorious Yama said&#xA;to him: ‘You stay here. I shall kill this fellow.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Thereafter Yama, his eyes bloodshot from anger, lifted in his hand&#xA;his unfailing rod of chastisement. On its four sides were deadly&#xA;nooses. Also the personified form of a mallet stood there shining like&#xA;fire or a thunderbolt and could take away the life of living beings by&#xA;its mere sight, what to speak of being touched or knocked down by it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“When that great weapon with its circle of flames was touched by the&#xA;mighty Yama, it shone as if it was going to incinerate the rakshasa.&#xA;All the rakshasas fled from the battlefield in fear of Yama. All the&#xA;gods also felt perturbed when they saw Yama with his rod of&#xA;chastisement raised. As Yama was preparing to strike Ravana with his&#xA;rod, Lord Brahma personally appeared there and said to him: ‘O&#xA;strong-armed son of the sun-god, your prowess is immeasurable.&#xA;Actually you cannot kill this night-stalker with your rod. In fact, I&#xA;have given a boon to this rakshasa. Any boon or promise which I have&#xA;given should not be invalidated. Anyone, whether a god or a man, who&#xA;renders my word invalid will have reduced all the three worlds into&#xA;liars. Of this there is no doubt. If you release this weapon in a fit&#xA;of anger, it will destory all living entities, both those that are not&#xA;dear to you and those that are.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“‘Indeed, this rod of chastisement is unfailing in its effect on all&#xA;living beings and its effulgence is immeasurable. It was previously&#xA;created by me and is accompanied by death. As such, my dear one, you&#xA;should not strike Ravana in the head with this weapon, for if it&#xA;should fall, no one would survive for more than a moment. Whether this&#xA;rakshasa dies from being struck by this weapon, or whether he&#xA;survives, in any event my boons will have been rendered false.&#xA;Therefore, withdraw this raised rod from Ravana and in that way uphold&#xA;my veracity, if you care about the worlds.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“When petitioned in this way, the righteous Yama replied: ‘Because you&#xA;are my master, this rod is now withdrawn. If I am unable to kill him&#xA;because of the boons you have given him, what can I do now by staying&#xA;on the battlefield? I shall therefore vanish from the sight of this&#xA;rakshasa.’ After saying this, he disappeared right there with his&#xA;chariot and horses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“After Ravana defeated Yama, he proclaimed his own name. Mounting the&#xA;Pushpaka airship, he emerged from Yama’s abode. Yama and Narada Muni&#xA;ascended to the heavenly planets with the gods headed by Lord Brahma.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T11:13:55.380" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10348" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-03T13:42:16.367" Score="3" ViewCount="143" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, Bhishma gives advice to Yudishthira and the Pandavas concerning how to be a good king and how to be good person, while he's lying on a bed of arrows after the end of the Kurukshetra war.  But in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a034.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva, before he speaks to Bhishma Yudhisthira first speaks to the sage Vyasa, about various kinds of sins and how to repent for them.  In particular, Vyasa says that although killing a Brahmana is unusually one of the worst sins, that does not apply to Brahmanas who are so evil that they take up arms in battle (which Brahmanas are prohibited from doing):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a Brahmana well acquainted with the Vedas takes up arms and rushes against thee in battle for killing thee, thou mayst proceed against him for taking his life. By such an act the slayer does not become guilty of the slaughter of a Brahmana. &lt;strong&gt;There is a mantra in the Vedas, O son of Kunti, that lays this down, I declare unto thee only those practices that are sanctioned by the authority of the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt; One who slays a Brahmana that has fallen away from his own duties and that advances, weapon in hand, with intent to slaughter, does not truly become the slayer of a Brahmana. In such a case it is the wrath of the slayer that proceeds against the wrath of the slain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the &quot;mantra in the Vedas&quot; that speaks of killing Brahmanas who have taken up arms In battle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, each of the four Vedas each of the four Vedas consists of four portions: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas which consist of mantra heard from the gods; Brahmanas, which provide instructions on the proper conducting of important rituals; Aranyakas, which provide a guide to rituals meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical message of the Vedas.  So if it's a mantra it would presumably be in the Samhitas of the Vedas.  But the Samhitas focus on praising the gods, not on discussing what humans should or should not do.  So I assume Vyasa is just using mantra in a loose sense of &quot;verse in the Vedas&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any verses in the Brahmanas or Aranyakas of the Vedas which sanction killing Brahmanas who have taken up arms in battle?  That's the part that provides instructions for humana, kthough it mostly revolvea around Yagnas.  If it helps, here is Vyasa's statement to Yudhisthira in Sanskrit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;17 pragṛhya śastram āyāntam api vedāntagaṃ raṇe | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;       jighāṃsantaṃ nihatyājau na tena brahma hā bhavet || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   18 api cāpy atra kaunteya mantro vedeṣu paṭhyate | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;       veda pramāṇa vihitaṃ taṃ dharmaṃ prabravīmi te || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   19 apetaṃ brāhmaṇaṃ vṛttād yo hanyād ātatāyinam | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;       na tena brahma hā sa syān manyus taṃ manyum ṛcchati ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Assuming Vyasa is actually saying the Vedic verse in the passage, it would probably be verse 19, since Vyasa first says that this is confirmed in a verse in the Vedas and then he says verse 19.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is verse 19 found in the Vedas at all?  Vyasa is the one who compiled the Vedas, so he would certainly know what's in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T17:25:14.960" Title="What Vedic mantra says you can kill Brahmanas bearing arms?" Tags="|mahabharata|vedas|brahmins|vyasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10350" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5482" CreationDate="2016-02-03T14:25:32.963" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;One place where the age of the universe is discussed is in Mahabharata Santi Parva. The relevant lines in the Mahabharata are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'A year (of human beings) is equal to a day and night of the gods. The&#xA;  division (as regards the god) consists in this: the half year for&#xA;  which the sun travels from the vernal to the autumnal equinox is the&#xA;  day of the deities, and the half year for which the sun travels from&#xA;  the later to the former is their night.    ....................&lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;  learned&lt;/strong&gt; say that these twelve thousand years (of the deities)&#xA;  constitute what is called yuga. A thousand such  yugas compose a&#xA;  single day of Brahman. The same is the duration of Brahman's night.&#xA;  With the commencement of Brahman's day the universe begins to start&#xA;  into life. During the period of universal dissolution the Creator&#xA;  sleeps, having recourse to yoga-meditation.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Santi Parva. Section CCXXXI&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you take the Mahabharat information then the life of a universe is given by (1x365 human years)x(12000)x(1000) =4.38 billion human years.&#xA;Please notice how carefully Mahabharata says that this is thought by the 'learned'. Any divine revelation will talk of scientific topics like the age of the universe in terms that will be understood by the learned of that time. Otherwise nobody will understand what is being said. Thus Gita should be understood as saying that the time scale of Brahma and the universe is enormous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T14:25:32.963" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10351" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-03T14:29:04.957" Score="2" ViewCount="44615" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all have been seeing Hindu calendar since childhood. There we can see Subhamuhurtham and Durmuhurtham. These are the categories typically we may have (I'm not sure).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Subhamuhurtham:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Amrutha-kalam &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Abhijit-Kalam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Durmuhurtham:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rahu Kalam (time of the snake, or Dragon's Head)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yamagandam (death time)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varjyam &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gulika (blossoming time)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shoolam (piercing direction)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anybody explain all these timings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="110" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-21T06:03:25.130" LastActivityDate="2018-10-27T23:10:36.927" Title="What are Subha muhurtam/Durmuhurtham?" Tags="|belief|astrology|time|panchang|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10352" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10111" CreationDate="2016-02-03T14:36:05.687" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's because certain names and events recur.&lt;/strong&gt; From our perspective, the mantras found in Samhitas of the Vedas discuss how our Indra, known as Purandara, defeated a demon named Vritrasura in the present Vaivasvata Manvantara, and how Vishnu incarnated as Vamana, the little brother of the present Indra, and defeated an Asura named Mahabali. And certainly when we chant (say) Rig Veda mantras in a Yagna, those Vaivasvata Manvantara events are exactly what we should be thinking of.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the Vedas are broader than that.  As described in the text of the question, the mantras found in the Samhitas of the Vedas are timeless eternal truths that are constantly reverberating in the Universe.  And they make reference not just to individual people, but rather to certain roles that are played by different people in different ages.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Similarly, although individual gods are admitted to originate, there arises no contradiction in the case of such words as Vasu, and the like, since the species denoted by them are eternal. And that the gods, and so on, belong to different species, is to be concluded from the descriptions of their various personal appearance, such as given in the mantras, arthavâdas, &amp;amp;c. Terms such as 'Indra' rest on the connexion (of some particular being) with some particular place, analogously to terms such as 'army-leader;' hence, whoever occupies that particular place is called by that particular name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34099.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;later on&lt;/a&gt; he quotes some Smriti text which makes the same point:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever were the names of the rishis and their powers to see the Vedas, the same the Unborn one again gives to them when they are produced afresh at the end of the night (the mahâpralaya). As the various signs of the seasons return in succession in their due time, thus the same beings again appear in the different yugas. And of whatever individuality the gods of the past ages were, equal to them are the present gods in name and form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when the Vedas speak of Indra defeating Vritra, they are not just speaking of our Indra but of all the Indras who each confront a demon called Vritrasura.  And when they speak of Vishnu taking three steps of land, they're not just talking about Vishnu's present Vamana incarnation, but about all of his Vamana incarnations.  And indeed, in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7210/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; I found out about at least two other Vamana incarnations that have taken place in the present Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, in this answer I'm giving the viewpoint of the Vedanta school, which is the school of philosophy followed by almost all Hindus today as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But there used to be another school of philosophy called the Purva Mimamsa school, and they believed that there are absolutely no names of human beings in the Vedas at all!  I think that's patently false, but see my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9382/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for their viewpoint.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T12:11:32.867" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10353" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-03T17:17:52.220" Score="1" ViewCount="53" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard that at the time of Ravana's death, Lord Rama sent his younger brother Lakshmana to take guidance from him on life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have read several versions of it; one of them is &lt;a href=&quot;http://daily.bhaskar.com/news/JM-3-shocking-things-raavan-told-lord-ramas-brother-lakshman-before-dying-4467208-PHO.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;. But not sure what really are those instructions from Ravana. Did this really happen? Can someone state those Ravana's teachings with authentic source(s)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2361" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T02:40:20.443" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T02:40:20.443" Title="Teachings of Ravana" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ravana|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-02-05T02:54:22.733" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10354" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8213" CreationDate="2016-02-03T18:02:01.173" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarakasur&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tarakasur&lt;/a&gt; was born Before &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartikeya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kartikeya&lt;/a&gt; During Sat Yuga.He was son of Vajranga who was son of Sage &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashyapa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kashyapa&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/padmapurana13.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;  is how Tarakasur born according to Padmapuran&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Kashyap blessed his wife Diti to give birth to a great warrior ‘Vajranga’ who like a diamond was unbreakable and indestructible. Diti desired to avenge the killing of several Asuras in the past by Indra and asked Vajranga to defeat and bring down Indra imprisoned in person; on doing so, Diti put Indra to shame and released him saying that his subduing was worse than his death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, Vajranga did severe Tapasya to Brahma and the latter created Varangi as the wife of Vajranga. Brahma gave a boon to the pair that a Maha Shaktivaan called Tarakasura would be born after being retained for thousand years in confinement. There were harsh earthquakes and sea-uprisings when the Asura was born and the parents were filled with wild joy and excitement. As the boy attained youth, he turned out to be a frightening demon and developed friendship with other Asuras like Kujambha and Mahisha. Eventually, he reached a Pariyatra Mountain to perform Tapasya without food for hundred years, for another hundred years by consuming only dried leaves and for additional years by drinking water only. Brahma was pleased and gave a boon of invincibility except for a child of seven days of age, to be born of Shiva. After securing the boon from Brahma, Tarakasura raised a huge army of ten crore well-versed and trained soldiers along with the armies of renowned Asuras like Mahisha, Kunjara, Megha, Kaalanemi, Nimi, Manthana, Jambhaka and Sumbha. As Tarakaura declared war with Indra and Devas, Indra commissioned Vayu Deva as an emissary as per the advice of Deva Guru Brishaspati, but the mission failed and so did the proverbial Four ways of ‘Rajaniti’ or the Art of Politics viz. Sama (War-Counselling), Daana (luring by gifts), Bheda or by using the dividing politics of the opponents and Associates and finlally ‘danda’ or actual war. Yamaraja was the Senapati, the Commander sitting over his Vahana Buffalo; Indra sat on his Durjayta ratha (chariot) with Malini as his driver; and all other Devas like Agni, Vayu, Varuna, Kubera, Chandra and Aditya, besides Ashvini Kumars, Marudganas, Sandhyaganas, Yakshas, Gandharvas etc. But Tarakasura was too powerful to Devas whose soldiers were badly bruised and ran without direction. Indra and Devas approached Brahma and he replied that none excepting a seven day son of Shiva and Devi Parvati, called ‘Kartikeya’ could kill Tarakasura and none else in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;According to Skandapurana Tarakasura born after the death of Sati And According to a legend mentioned in Devi Puran, during Sat Yuga, Daksha (son of Lord Brahma) performed a yagna in a place called Kankan (near Haridwar). He performed this Yagna with a desire of taking revenge on Lord Shiva. Daksha was angry because his daughter Sati (one of his 27 daughters) had married Shiva against his wishes. Daksha invited all the deities to the yagna except for Shiva and Sati. The fact that she was not invited did not deter Sati from attending the yagna.&#xA;Sati, being an uninvited guest, was ignored by her father. Moreover, Daksha went on to insult Shiva. Sati could not bear her husband’s insult, so she committed suicide by jumping into the yagna fire.&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/SkandaPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is Another Source from Skandapurana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That's why i mentioned it that Tarakasura was born in Sat Yuga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the death of Sati, Lord Shiva became aloof and engaged himself in an austere penance. His lack of interest in performing his duties resulted into the predominance of sin in the world.A demon named Tarakasur had received a boon of invincibility from lord Brahma. Only a child and nobody else could kill him. Tarakasur, being drunk with power started to torment the deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T08:02:35.853" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10355" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-03T18:18:35.113" Score="1" ViewCount="2061" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva had given many boons to many Asuras although the Asuras are not good. Why doesn't Lord Shiva hate the Asuras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4779" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T19:28:35.933" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T07:41:09.517" Title="Why doesn't Lord Shiva hate Asuras?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-02-04T11:43:39.730" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10356" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-03T18:26:25.230" Score="2" ViewCount="6218" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some people said that Lord Shiva is the main God of Hinduism and people said that Lord Vishnu is the main God in Hinduism. So,who is the actually the main God? Is it Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4779" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T19:26:42.143" LastActivityDate="2016-04-08T12:41:53.263" Title="Who is the main God of Hinduism? Shiva or Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-02-04T06:48:59.387" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10358" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-03T21:15:28.177" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T21:15:28.177" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T21:15:28.177" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10359" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-03T21:15:28.177" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T21:15:28.177" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T21:15:28.177" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10360" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-03T21:24:36.647" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T21:24:36.647" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T21:24:36.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10361" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-03T21:24:36.647" Score="0" Body="The Skanda Purāṇa is the largest Mahāpurāṇa, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts.It also contains a number of legends about Shiva." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-03T22:26:01.420" LastActivityDate="2016-02-03T22:26:01.420" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10362" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10356" CreationDate="2016-02-04T05:45:03.797" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;If one God was to be the main God then believe me there would have been exactly one &amp;amp; not so many.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is is said that in the beginning(prior to creation) when nothing existed then there was only one Supreme being that still existed.He is who we call the Para Brahman.Then he had an urge to create and thus he created out of himself the Goddess first,called the Para Shakti,ideally the female counterpart of Para Brahaman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Para Brahman also divided himself into three beings(trinity) viz-Brahman,Vishnu and Mahesh(Shiva).So ,the Trinity are nothing but three aspects of the Para Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So ,now you understood who among Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva is superior?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is repeatedly condemned in scriptures not to differentiate between the Trinties,Doing so is a grave sin in itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Sivasya Hrudayam Vishnor,Vishnuscha Hrudayam Sivaha&quot; meaning Vishnu is the heart of shiva and Shiva is the heart of Vishnu.They are the two aspects of Para Brahaman and in truth ,as the self realised saints have said,  infact one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;-Adding further references from scriptures that show the the Trinity is in fact one and an indivisible entity.There is no difference between them and thus the question of superiority/inferiority(between Vishnu &amp;amp; Shiva in particular) doesn't arise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference 1.From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha Purana&lt;/a&gt;:When Lord Krishna's wife Jambavati wanted to beget a son like Indra , Lord Krishna once did a penance and worship of Parama Shiva to fulfill her that wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna eulogised Parameswara and fell on the feet of&#xA;  Shiva-Parvatis. As a gladdened Parvati was enjoying Krishna’s visit,&#xA;  Parama Shiva embraced Krishna and said: Krishna! You are indeed the&#xA;  bestower of wishes to one and all yourself! Krishna smiled and said&#xA;  that they knew indeed whatever he approached them for; but the boon&#xA;  that he sought was to bless him to secure a son as renowned as Maha&#xA;  Deva himself! As both Shiva and Parvati granted the wish, Shri Krishna&#xA;  visitited Kailasha for enjoyment and rerturned to Dwaraka. ..&#xA;  Consequent to Shiva Darshana, Krishna was blessed with the birth of&#xA;  Saambu from Devi Jambavati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharshi Markandeya wondered as to why Krishna who himself was worship-worthy and granted boons to his devotees needed to worship Shiva, Krishna replied smilingly: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Markandeya! Whatever you said is in order and the Truth is that I am&#xA;  worship-worthy by others; but still I worship Ishaana; there is&#xA;  nothing that I cannot achieve a thing, nor is unavailable to me; yet I&#xA;  am aware that I perform Puja to Parama Shiva. Those who are unable to&#xA;  overcome Maya or Illusion could never achieve Shiva Darshana; &lt;strong&gt;but I &#xA;  do realise that my foundation is Shiva and hence I always worship Him.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  There is no better Punya Phala nor fearlessness than what the Sacred&#xA;  Task of Lingaarchana would confer and for accomplishing propitiousness&#xA;  human beings must resort to Shiva Puja, Shri Krishna affirms. &lt;strong&gt;Those&#xA;  who realise and experience Vedic Siddhaantaas (Principles) do &#xA;  recognise that Shiva Linga is my own Swarupa and that is precisely why&#xA;  I perform my own  worship of the Atma Swarupa of Ishana, says Krishna.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  He further confirms: &lt;strong&gt;I am Shankara’s Parama Murti and I am Shankara&#xA;  myself without doubt. Vedas have emphasised that there is no&#xA;  differernce whatsoever and Krishna and Shiva are just the same.&lt;/strong&gt; This&#xA;  is the reason why that one should instal Shiva Linga all over!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference 2.From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Singularity of Tri Murthis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Depending on the emphasis of the Satwa-Rajas-Tamasa Gunas of the&#xA;  Eternal and Unique Paramatma, three Murtis were formed as&#xA;  Brahma-Vishnu and Maheshwara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tistrastu Murtayah prokta Brahma Vishnu Maheswaraah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rajah Satwa Tamoyogaat Parasya Paramatmanah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anyonyayamanuraktaastey hyanonyamupa jeevinah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anyonyam pranataashchaiva leelayaa Parameshvaraah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Braahmi Maaheshwari chaiva tathaivaakshara bhavanaa,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tristrastu Bhavana Rudrey vartantey satatam Dwijaah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pravartatey mayyajastramaadyaa chaakshara bhaavanaa,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dwitiya Brahmanah proktraa Devasyaakshara bhaavanaa/ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aham chaiva Maha Devo na bhinnou paramaarthatah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vibhajya swecchhayaatmaanam sontaraameshwarah sthitah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ttrailokya makhilam Srushtim Sadevaasura maanushaam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purushaha Paratovyaktaad Brahmatwam samupamagat/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tasmaad Brahmaa Mahadevo  Vishnurvishweshvarah Parah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ekaikssyaiva  Smritaastitrastanuh Karyavashaat Prabho/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tasmaat sarva prayatnena Vandyaah Pujyaah prayatnatah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yadicchedachiraat sthaanam yattanmokshaakhya mavyayam/   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Paramatma materialised Trimurtis on the basis of Satwa-Rajo-Tamo&#xA;  Gunas for the three basic responsibilities of Srishti-Sthiti-Samhara;&#xA;  the Three &lt;strong&gt;Profiles are dependent on each other, transferable to each&#xA;  other, interested and involved  with each other in fulfilling their&#xA;  tasks; they also greet each other, exchange and also supplement each&#xA;  other’s  thoughts and deeds. Indeed they are indivisible.&lt;/strong&gt; Also,&#xA;  Rudra is interactive with the inherent thoughts of Brahmi, Maheswari&#xA;  and Akshara / Vaishnavi. From his side said Bhagavan Vishnu / Kurma&#xA;  Deva that the thoughts of ‘A’kshara were spontaneous and of the second&#xA;  Letter of the word Akshara denoted Brahmi and so on. &lt;strong&gt;As far as&#xA;  Vishnu and Maheshwara were concerned there indeed was no duplication&#xA;  whatsoever.  They were mutually and freely exchangeable, divisible yet&#xA;  wholly singular, mystifying and confusing and were indeed one and the&#xA;  same.&lt;/strong&gt; It was the same Swarupa of Bhagavan who was like all the three&#xA;  who were close-knit! &lt;strong&gt;Indeed all three Murtis are worthy of worship&#xA;  and thus the need for attaining any one of them is similar to realise&#xA;  them all.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference 3. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/a&gt; again:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Re-emphasis on the Oneness of Shiva-Narayana:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; In the context of the&#xA;  above, Maha Deva emphasised again as in earlier pages about the&#xA;  identity of himself and Vishnu Deva; this was necessary since a&#xA;  seperate ‘Ishwara Gita’in the current Kurma Purana sought to clarify&#xA;  that its contents were in no way contradictory ; even in the&#xA;  description of Shiva Tandava described above, Vishnu too was stated to&#xA;  have joined the Celestial Dance! Maha Deva thus confirmed as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ayam Narayano yohameeshwaro naatra samshayah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Naantaram ye prapashyanti teshaam Devamidam param/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mamaushaa Paramaa Murtirnaaraayana samaahvayaa,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarva Bhutaatmabhutasthaa Shantaa chaakshara sangjnitaa/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ye twanyathaa prapashyanti lokey bheda drusho janaah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na tey maam samprapashyanti jayentey cha punah punah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yetwimam Vishnu – mavyaktam maam vaa Devam Maheswaram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ekibhavena pashyanti na teshaam punarudbhavah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tasmaadanaadi nidhanam Vishnumaatmaanamayayam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maameva samprapashayadhvam Puja-yadhvam tathaiva hi/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yenyathaa maam prapashyanti matvemam Devataantaram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ye yantin Narakaan ghoraan naaham teshu vyavasthitah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Murkham vaa Panditam vaapi  Brahmanamvaa madaasrayam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mochayaami shvapaakam vaa Naaraayana nindakam/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tasmaadesha Maha Yogi Mad Bhaktaih Purushottamah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Archaneeyo Namaskaarye Matpreeti jananaaya hi/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;( &lt;strong&gt;That Narayana is Ishwara that is me undoubtedly. There is indeed no&#xA;  difference between us and he too is to be worshipped&lt;/strong&gt;. Narayana is&#xA;  ‘Shaanti-Akshara’ imprinted in every body’s heart. &lt;strong&gt;Some imagine&#xA;  otherwise that we are figured other wise and they continue to get into&#xA;  the cycle of birth and death and could never ever attain Mukti&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Those&#xA;  who visualise me and Narayana as just the same would have no rebirth.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  As such, Vishnu has no beginning or end as in my case, meaning thereby&#xA;  we are both the same. &lt;strong&gt;Those who confuse Vishnu as another Deva would&#xA;  for sure reach Narakas.&lt;/strong&gt; Those who are my bhaktaas being either&#xA;  Murkhaas or Stupids, Panditas or Learned Vidvans or even untouchables&#xA;  should indeed have the possibility of Mukti, provided they do not &#xA;  dislike or distrust him. Hence my  bhaktaas ought to perform puja to&#xA;  Vishnu with all humilty and belief.) Then both Vishnu and Shiva&#xA;  disappeared simultaneously, stated Vyasa Muni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-04-08T12:41:53.263" LastActivityDate="2016-04-08T12:41:53.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10363" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10427" CreationDate="2016-02-04T05:47:40.623" Score="2" ViewCount="390" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came to know that Jesus in his childhood, in spite of giving respect to his father Joseph's words, came to India to learn magical talents and spirituality from Sidhas in Himalayas. After learning the arts from them, he went back to his land and implementing these talents and thus impressed many followers in the western side and now he gets many followers all around the world.&#xA;(These are some of the information from materials)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He always mentioned about God in Heaven as his father and that God, he mentioned should be Lord Shiva since he is the head of the all Sidhas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T06:42:14.780" LastActivityDate="2016-02-17T13:23:53.170" Title="Is Jesus really one of the disputes of Sidhas in Himalayas?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|belief|christianity|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-02-21T03:45:24.427" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10364" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10355" CreationDate="2016-02-04T06:13:00.127" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;If someone does penance,whoever he might be, whether a Deva ,asura,pisaca or a manava, he deservedly earned his rights to boons.So, the God is bound to give him boons within the permissible limits,and it does not matter at all  for what purpose the devotee is asking for that boon or what he does with that boon in future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,in short,it will be against Vidhi ke Bidhan(the divine system of laws) for any God to deny a devotee his boons once he had done sufficient penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asuras not only do penance to Lord Shiva but, also (as seen on numerous occasions), to Lord Brahma as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu ,who being the preserver of Dharma, is apparently and naturally somewhat inimical towards the Asuras who are always in opposition to the beneficial forces of nature called the Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is the main reason why you seldom find an Asura praying to Lord Vishnu and asking for boons.But there are a few examples of that too.And once the asura does sufficient penance even Lord Vishnu can't deny him a boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T07:41:09.517" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T07:41:09.517" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10365" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-04T08:40:42.007" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T08:40:42.007" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T08:40:42.007" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10366" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-04T08:40:42.007" Score="0" Body="In Hinduism time is known as &quot;Kala&quot;. Kala mean both time and death.Time is personified as the god of death, Yama, because death is a limiting factor in human life." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T13:14:07.693" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T13:14:07.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10367" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-04T08:55:52.163" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T08:55:52.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T08:55:52.163" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10368" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-04T08:55:52.163" Score="0" Body="Other Religions-Which are different from Hinduism." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-11-30T05:09:03.990" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T05:09:03.990" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10369" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-04T09:40:53.953" Score="2" ViewCount="70" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why does every time anybody referring to a Hindu cultural thing says it's Hindu &lt;strong&gt;mythology&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because &quot;&lt;strong&gt;mythology&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mythology&lt;/strong&gt; is a collection of myths, especially one belonging to a particular sacred, religious or cultural tradition of a group of people. Myths are a collection of stories told to explain nature, history, and customs–or the study of such myths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hindu culture&lt;/strong&gt; is based on strong scientific evidence. Although people call Lord &lt;strong&gt;Rama&lt;/strong&gt; as mythological character, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/lord_rama_fact_or_fiction.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;recent scientific studies&lt;/a&gt; proved the existence of Lord Rama and his vanaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As all of this is a scientific fact that we don't tell others, so please don't refer to Hinduism as 'mythological' in any manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4780" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T22:34:56.297" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T22:34:56.297" Title="Why are Hindu beliefs and facts called mythological?" Tags="|belief|rama|consciousness|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2016-02-04T13:17:57.450" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10370" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-04T09:50:49.823" Score="10" ViewCount="5761" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hanuman Chalisa, it is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जुग सहस्र जोजन पर भानू। लील्यो ताहि मधुर फल जानू॥ १८ ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sun is at thousand yojanas(a unit of measurement of distance), &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8001/why-did-hanumana-want-to-eat-the-sun?&quot;&gt;and thought of it as a sweet fruit&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per calculations,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;1 Yug      = 12000 years  &#xA;1 Sahastra = 1000  &#xA;1 Yojan    = 8 Miles  &#xA;&#xA;Yug x Sahastra x Yojan = par Bhanu  &#xA;12000 x 1000 x 8 miles = 96000000 miles&#xA;&#xA;1 mile = 1.6kms  &#xA;&#xA;96000000 miles = 96000000 x 1.6kms = 1536000000 kms to Sun&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/k-4/features/F_Measuring_the_Distance_Student_Pages.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;NASA has said&lt;/a&gt; that, the above is the exact distance between Earth and Sun(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universetoday.com/15462/how-far-are-the-planets-from-the-sun/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;during&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphelion&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Aphelion&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this prove that our ancestors calculated the  distance between Earth and Sun centuries before scientists did it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4780" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2024-03-15T21:31:51.130" Title="Did our ancestors calculate the distance between Prithvi (Earth) and Surya (Sun) correctly?" Tags="|belief|hanuman|surya|earth|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10372" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-04T13:29:18.213" Score="2" ViewCount="102" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read on a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jstor.org/stable/41682451&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt; that the original Bhagavad Gita had 745 verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true? If yes, is it available to read online?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, why were the 45 verses excised from the current version of Gita which only has 700 verses?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4795" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-09-03T17:11:44.133" LastActivityDate="2020-09-03T17:11:44.133" Title="Is Bhagavad Gita with 745 verses available?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|translation-request|critical-edition|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-02-04T13:32:33.780" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10374" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11272" CreationDate="2016-02-04T13:54:29.630" Score="11" ViewCount="28259" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Parakaya Pravesha&lt;/em&gt; is power of entering into body of another person through Yoga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yoga-age.com/modern/misc.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Adi Sankara&lt;/a&gt; entered the body of King Amaruka of Benares.&#xA;  Tirumular in Southern India entered the body of a shepherd. Raja&#xA;  Vikramaditya also did this. It is also the power of keeping a&#xA;  youth-like appearance for any length of time. Raja Yayati had this&#xA;  power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a person (his/her Atman) enters another person body, what happens to second person's Atman or Consciousness? Same is the case when a ghost or devil enters into another person's body. Ghosts do not have Physical body (&lt;em&gt;Annamaya Kosha&lt;/em&gt;) but have other 4 koshas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Will &lt;em&gt;Koshas&lt;/em&gt; of first person (Yogi who enters into others) overlap with koshas of second person? If yes, which Koshas overlap?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What exactly happens during &lt;em&gt;Parakaya Pravesha&lt;/em&gt; or a &lt;em&gt;bhoota&lt;/em&gt; entering into human body?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the difference between &lt;em&gt;Parakaya Pravesha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;bhoota&lt;/em&gt; entering into a person? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-02-14T09:35:07.903" LastActivityDate="2019-06-05T17:01:24.530" Title="What exactly happens during Parakaya Pravesha?" Tags="|yoga|atma|saint|ghosts|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10375" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-04T17:06:14.763" Score="6" ViewCount="204" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I went to Tirupati a week ago, I read the story of Venkateswara on the walls of the main temple. It says Sukracharya invited Lord Srinivasa for marriage with Padmavathi on behalf of Gods. I could not take photo of this as I was inside the main temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How could Sukracharya invite Srinivasa for marriage on behalf of Gods, when he (Sukracharya) clearly hates Lord Vishnu as Lord Vishnu killed his mother? Did he really invite Srinivasa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T22:41:23.563" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T22:41:23.563" Title="Did Sukracharya invite Lord Srinivasa for marriage with Goddess Padmavathi?" Tags="|vishnu|venkateshwara|shukracharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10376" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:46:06.290" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T19:46:06.290" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T19:46:06.290" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10377" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:46:06.290" Score="0" Body="A couplet of Sanskrit verse, especially one in which each line contains sixteen syllables." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T11:27:57.550" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T11:27:57.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10378" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:48:12.270" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T19:48:12.270" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T19:48:12.270" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10379" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:48:12.270" Score="0" Body="Navagraha i.e. The Major 9 Planets." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T08:00:15.580" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T08:00:15.580" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10380" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:52:08.847" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T19:52:08.847" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T19:52:08.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10381" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:52:08.847" Score="0" Body="Padma Purana is the second among the major eighteen major Puranas and the second longest Purana encompassing 55,000 verses. The extant version contains five parts- Srishtikhanda, Bhumikhanda, Svargakhanda, Patalakhanda and Uttarakhanda." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-09-11T15:52:48.680" LastActivityDate="2021-09-11T15:52:48.680" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10382" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:56:02.460" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T19:56:02.460" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T19:56:02.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10383" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:56:02.460" Score="0" Body="Narad Purana is a genre of hindu religious text. It is in the style of dialogue between the sage Narada, and Sanatkumara." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T08:01:14.713" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T08:01:14.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10384" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:57:28.280" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T19:57:28.280" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T19:57:28.280" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10385" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:57:28.280" Score="0" Body="Māyā is a spiritual concept connoting &quot;that which exists, but is constantly changing and thus is spiritually unreal&quot;, and the &quot;power or the principle that conceals the true character of spiritual reality." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T08:00:09.940" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T08:00:09.940" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10386" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:58:33.000" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T19:58:33.000" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T19:58:33.000" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10387" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-04T19:58:33.000" Score="0" Body="Dattatreya is considered a form of all the three deities. He is especially considered an avatar of Vishnu" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T08:48:04.643" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T08:48:04.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10388" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-04T20:00:28.547" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T20:00:28.547" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T20:00:28.547" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10389" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-04T20:00:28.547" Score="0" Body="Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient being who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial. In its religious context the word is used to mean the descent from Heaven of a god, or divine being in human/animal form on Earth." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T08:48:48.367" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T08:48:48.367" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10390" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-04T20:02:09.263" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-04T20:02:09.263" LastActivityDate="2016-02-04T20:02:09.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10391" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-04T20:02:09.263" Score="0" Body="A character from Hindu Epic Ramayana. Who was father of Rama." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T07:59:30.667" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T07:59:30.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10394" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10326" CreationDate="2016-02-05T06:03:20.023" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahmanas qualities are Pathana, paathana, yajana acccording to the 18th chapter of the GITA. It is advised that brahmana should never become a shudra. He can maximum become a vaishya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But right now in Kaliyuga almost all brahmanas have become shudras since they have accepted to get maintained by someone else, instead of living directly in shelter of Krishna, thinking him to be the maintainer of everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4800" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T06:03:20.023" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10395" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T09:35:39.083" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaikhanasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaikhānasa is one of the principal traditions of Hinduism and primarily worships Vishnu (and his associated Avatars) as the Supreme God. The followers are mainly Brahmins of Krishna Yajurveda Taittiriya Shakha and Vaikhanasa Kalpasutra. The name Vaikhānasa stands for the followers and the fundamental philosophy itself with the name derived from founder, Sage Vaikhanasa. It is principally monotheistic in its philosophy, whilst also incorporating elements which could be described as being panentheistic. Vaikhanansas principle focuses on rituals and worship of Lord Vishnu rather than the philosophy of Uttara Mimamsa, unlike Vaishnavism, the larger and more prevalent form on Vishnu worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaikhanasas claim to be a surviving school of Vedic ritual, the Taittiriya Shakha of the Krishna Yajurveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jnana, knowledge, sections of Vaikhanasa texts are short and it is necessary to infer their doctrines from discussions in the texts on ritual. The Vaikhanasas evolved the theory of the five aspects of Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Vishnu, the all-pervading supreme deity;&#xA;Purusha, the principle of life;&#xA;Satya, the static aspect of deity;&#xA;Achyuta, the immutable aspect;&#xA;and Aniruddha, the irreducible aspect.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vaikhanasa doctrine states that Moksha is release into Vishnu's heaven. The nature of a man's Moksha is dependent on a devotee's service of Japa, attentive repetition of prayer, Huta, Yaaga, sacrifice, archana, service to images, or Dhyana, Yogic meditation. Of the four the Marichi Samhita says Archana is the realisation of all aims.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T13:10:20.333" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T13:10:20.333" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10396" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T09:35:39.083" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T09:35:39.083" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T09:35:39.083" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10397" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10039" CreationDate="2016-02-05T10:20:14.530" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I assume that the inscription from Angkor Thom is written in Khmer script. I tried to encipher some consonants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PJmuo.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PJmuo.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;red = ta, green = lo, blue = tha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T10:20:14.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10399" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-05T13:37:17.950" Score="6" ViewCount="204" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have had a doubt that do hindus encourage  body preservation as Muslims and Egyptian did? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2021-03-25T09:02:30.687" LastActivityDate="2021-03-25T09:02:30.687" Title="Does Hinduism encourage dead body preservation?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|death|body|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10400" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-05T19:13:00.577" Score="9" ViewCount="14977" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just wanted to know if there's any description of physical appearance of Lord Rama in the Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2886" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T15:01:51.103" LastActivityDate="2016-12-24T13:34:11.473" Title="How do Hindu scriptures define the physical appearance of Lord Rama?" Tags="|ramayana|scripture|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10401" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T19:52:05.430" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T19:52:05.430" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T19:52:05.430" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10402" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T19:52:05.430" Score="0" Body="Gandharva is a name used for distinct heavenly beings in Hinduism and Buddhism; it is also a term for skilled singers in Indian classical music." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T21:17:20.640" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T21:17:20.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10403" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T19:55:58.473" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T19:55:58.473" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T19:55:58.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10404" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T19:55:58.473" Score="0" Body="The Agni Purana is a mahapurana. It usually figures eighth in the list of eighteen. There are about fifteen and a half thousand shlokas in the Agni Purana." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T21:15:54.743" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T21:15:54.743" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10405" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:05:05.367" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T20:05:05.367" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T20:05:05.367" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10406" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:05:05.367" Score="0" Body="Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is none other than the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna, who appeared in this Kali-yuga to inaugurate the yuga dharma for this age - Sankirtana, the congregational chanting of the Holy Names of the Lord." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T21:17:07.223" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T21:17:07.223" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10407" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:12:00.367" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T20:12:00.367" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T20:12:00.367" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10408" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:12:00.367" Score="0" Body=" Sage Vishwamitra is one of the most venerated rishis or sages of ancient times in India.&#xD;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T21:15:14.447" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T21:15:14.447" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10409" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:15:51.950" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T20:15:51.950" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T20:15:51.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10410" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:15:51.950" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T20:15:51.950" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T20:15:51.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10411" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:27:28.983" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the Hindu Religion, Surya symbolizes the Sun God. Surya is considered as the only visible form of God that can be seen every day. God Surya is regarded as an aspect of Shiva and Vishnu by Shaivites and Vaishnavas respectively. Surya is also known as Surya Narayana. Surya, the Sun God is also acknowledged as one of the eight forms of Lord Shiva (Astamurti). Surya is the lord of excellence and wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T21:17:12.430" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T21:17:12.430" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10412" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:27:28.983" Score="0" Body="Surya is the chief of the Navagraha, the nine Classical planets and important elements of Hindu astrology." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T21:15:58.663" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T21:15:58.663" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10413" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:31:58.423" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T20:31:58.423" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T20:31:58.423" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10414" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:31:58.423" Score="0" Body="It is a Place in modern day Haryana, also known as Syamantapanchaka. According to the Puranas, Kurukshetra is a region named after King Kuru, the ancestor of Kauravas and Pandavas, as depicted in epic Mahabharata. " OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-09-11T15:54:27.600" LastActivityDate="2021-09-11T15:54:27.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10415" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:36:23.857" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T20:36:23.857" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T20:36:23.857" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10416" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:36:23.857" Score="0" Body="sin is breaking God's rules in hinduism." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T21:15:09.427" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T21:15:09.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10417" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:37:50.393" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T20:37:50.393" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T20:37:50.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10418" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:37:50.393" Score="0" Body="Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and arts, represents the free flow of wisdom and consciousness. She is the mother of the Vedas, and chants to her, called the 'Saraswati Vandana' often begin and end Vedic lessons." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T21:17:24.200" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T21:17:24.200" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10419" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:39:24.393" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T20:39:24.393" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T20:39:24.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10420" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:39:24.393" Score="0" Body="The descendants of Kuru, a legendary king who is the ancestor of many of the characters of the Mahābhārata. The well-known Kauravas are Duryodhana, Dushasana, Vikarna, Yuyutsu and Dussala." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T21:15:41.610" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T21:15:41.610" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10421" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:42:44.390" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T20:42:44.390" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T20:42:44.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10422" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:42:44.390" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T20:42:44.390" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T20:42:44.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10423" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:45:17.890" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T20:45:17.890" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T20:45:17.890" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10424" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:45:17.890" Score="0" Body="A Character of Hindu epic Mahabharata Who was Son of Kunti and Lord Surya." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T21:16:55.457" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T21:16:55.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10425" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:48:26.613" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T20:48:26.613" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T20:48:26.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10426" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-05T20:48:26.613" Score="0" Body="Nandi is the name for the bull which serves as the mount of the god Shiva and as the gatekeeper of Shiva and Parvati." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-05T21:15:36.037" LastActivityDate="2016-02-05T21:15:36.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10427" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10363" CreationDate="2016-02-06T05:27:40.957" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think that people who ask this and similar questions to this one make one terrible mistake, so to speak, namely they ask questions such as &quot;Did Jesus visit India&quot;. Instead of asking questions was Jesus in India it would be much more relevant and much more interesting to ask a question as to how much teachings of &lt;em&gt;historical&lt;/em&gt; Jesus (here I put the emphasis on the &quot;historical&quot;, an explanation follows below) have a similarity with holy teachings of India, and from that standpoint to examine how much of his teachings may have been inspired or influenced with those of ancient India. And then from this it could possibly follow that Jesus somewhere may have learned some holy teaching of ancient India, whether himself traveled to India or by some other means. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the past century there were some books written about similarity of his teachings with those of Buddhism, and similar book could be written about similarity with Hinduism.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here is one nice book on the subject, it's &lt;em&gt;Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings&lt;/em&gt; by Marcus J. Borg in which he says at page 4 (see at Google books):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The correlations among these ancient texts are almost &lt;code&gt;eerie&lt;/code&gt;. As will&#xA;  become immediately evident in the collections of parallel sayings that&#xA;  follow, Jesus' and Buddha’s later teachings are as alike as their&#xA;  early biographies. Whether speaking of love, material wealth,&#xA;  temptation or salvation, they were two masters with one message.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having examined the parallel sayings of Jesus and Buddha's teachings, professor Borg finds them to be almost &lt;code&gt;eerie&lt;/code&gt;! And since it is a well known fact that the Buddha has taken many elements of his teachings from the Hindu holy scriptures, how would it, then, that be eerily similar to compare historical Jesus' and Hindu teachings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now follows a brief explanation of the term &quot;historical&quot; to which I highlight above. The scientists studying Jesus as a historical person come to the conclusion that his teaching was very different from what the Christian idea of his teachings were. A simple google search on &lt;em&gt;Borg historical Jesus&lt;/em&gt; will do.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;To say it another way: To compare historical Jesus' and Hindu teachings does not necessarily mean something like to compare Christian and Hindu teachings! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think that what I said above is much more relevant and gives much more weight to search for possible evidence that Jesus was familiar with the teachings of ancient India, Buddhism and Hinduism, and then that he used these teachings as a kind of inspiration for what he taught -- this is much more relevant than, let's say, some stories about Jesus from Kashmir or something like, see linked question above right, &lt;em&gt;Did Jesus visit Jagannath Temple of Puri?&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;see also about prof. Marcus J. Borg at &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Borg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Borg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scientists do not think that Jesus was a Christian!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is that Christians think he was a Christian, but scientists do not think so. Scientists believe that Jesus preached one faith completely unknown to us, and that was not Christianity, and later some people have turned that faith into what is now known as Christianity.&#xA;Scientists are trying to figure out exactly what kind of faith was that what Jesus had preached. It is in the context of research of Jesus as a historical figure, as I mentioned in the answer here it's &quot;historical Jesus&quot;. See about historical Jesus scholarship at the wiki link on Marcus J. Borg that I posted above. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In response to the question I have considered the possibility of influence of Hinduism and Buddhism to Jesus and his teachings.&#xA;One of the leading scientists in the study of the historical Jesus, Marcus J. Borg, discussed the similarities between historical Jesus' and Buddha's teachings. I think that from that it can be seen the potential impact of the buddhist and the hindu teachings on the Jesus' teachings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-02-16T17:45:09.460" LastActivityDate="2016-02-16T17:45:09.460" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10428" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10400" CreationDate="2016-02-06T06:56:36.933" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following are the descriptions of the Lord as per Valmiki Ramayana(Sundarkand):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)His hands are &quot;ajanu lambita&quot; meaning are so long that can be extended upto the knees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)He is broad shouldered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)His eyes are wide (comparable to lotus) and got a reddy tinge to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)His neck is like a conch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4)His voice is like the swash of ocean springs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5)He is blue skinned like the color of the skies&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6)He is well built and muscular and his walks reminds that of a lion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7)His chest,fists and wrists are diamond strong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8)His chest is convex,navel region is rich,belly muscles are slightly bulged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9)His hair,penis and lines on foot soles are smooth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10)His height is 12 feet.He has shining eyes,firm chin,even shape and lovely lips.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11)His canine teeth are strong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T13:18:52.093" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T13:18:52.093" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10430" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:49:45.573" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T09:49:45.573" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T09:49:45.573" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10431" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:49:45.573" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T09:49:45.573" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T09:49:45.573" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10432" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:50:43.833" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu Tradition was emerged in form of dialogue between Lord Shiva and Devi Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="25676" LastEditorUserId="25676" LastEditDate="2022-12-25T18:37:12.720" LastActivityDate="2022-12-25T18:37:12.720" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10433" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:50:43.833" Score="0" Body="Tantra, also called Tantrism and Tantric religion, is an ancient Hindu tradition of beliefs and meditation and ritual practices that seeks to channel the divine energy of the macrocosm or godhead into the human microcosm, to attain siddhis and moksha. This Hindu Tradition was emerged in form of dialogue between Lord Shiva and Devi Parvati." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="25676" LastEditDate="2022-11-16T16:24:57.527" LastActivityDate="2022-11-16T16:24:57.527" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10434" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:52:25.357" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T09:52:25.357" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T09:52:25.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10435" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:52:25.357" Score="0" Body="This is primarily a Sanskrit word. It means the underworld. The concept is present in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;The concept has basically come from the Vedas. The Vedas clearly mention that the naraka is the place where the souls are sent to get rid of the sins that they have done during their life time." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T12:18:39.897" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T12:18:39.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10436" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:54:07.060" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term is especially used at the ending of a kalpa (cosmic cycle), which then via pravrtti leads to a new creation. But there may be also lesser pralayas such as the great flood of Manu (See Mahabharata, Vana-prana 1. 8. 1. 1-10), which occurred when all creation was submerged under a deluge. However, Manu had rescued a fish that grew large, and told him to build a large boat in which he was to take seeds and animals. Then the fish rowed the boat to safety by anchoring it to the top of the highest Himalayas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T12:18:51.363" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T12:18:51.363" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10437" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:54:07.060" Score="0" Body="Pralaya, or laya, (Sanskrit, &quot;dissolution&quot;) is a term in Hindu comprehension that conveys all appearance is subject dissolution, but not to destruction, because dissolution leads to recreation. " OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T12:18:54.900" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T12:18:54.900" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10438" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:56:07.217" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T09:56:07.217" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T09:56:07.217" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10439" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:56:07.217" Score="0" Body="Radha also called Radhika, Radharani and Radhikarani, is a Hindu goddess who is almost always depicted alongside Krishna and features prominently within the theology of today's Vallabha and Gaudiya Vaishnava sects, which regards Radha as the original Goddess or Shakti." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T12:17:59.110" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T12:17:59.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10440" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:57:37.543" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T09:57:37.543" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T09:57:37.543" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10441" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:57:37.543" Score="0" Body="In Hinduism, demigod is used to refer to deities who were once human and later became devas (gods). There are three very notable demigods in Vedic Scriptures, Hanuman, Nandi (the divine vehicle of Shiva), and Garuda (the divine steed of Vishnu)." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T12:19:04.970" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T12:19:04.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10442" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:58:48.537" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T09:58:48.537" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T09:58:48.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10443" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:58:48.537" Score="0" Body="The Hindu god Chandra is the moon god, associated with the moon's phases. Chandra is the powerful and influential Hindu god of the moon. Typically, he is pictured holding a lotus while seated in a beautiful chariot pulled by ten white horses or an antelope." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T12:17:52.027" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T12:17:52.027" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10444" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:59:40.053" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T09:59:40.053" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T09:59:40.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10445" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T09:59:40.053" Score="0" Body="Gayatri Devi is an incarnation of Saraswati Devi, consort of Lord Brahma, symbolising the &quot;shakti&quot; (strength) and &quot;dev&quot; (quality) of Knowledge, Purity and Virtue. Saraswati Devi is held to be the patronness of the Arts, being a poet and musician, as well as skillful composer. In the form of Gayatri Devi, with the blessings of Lord Brahma, she is believed to have given the four Vedas to mankind." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T12:18:58.007" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T12:18:58.007" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10446" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T10:02:03.963" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T10:02:03.963" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T10:02:03.963" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10447" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T10:02:03.963" Score="0" Body="Shakuni - brother of Gandhari - the main antagonist in the Hindu epic Mahabharata." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T12:18:03.107" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T12:18:03.107" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10448" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T10:02:34.650" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T10:02:34.650" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T10:02:34.650" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10449" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T10:02:34.650" Score="0" Body="Manvantara is a Sanskrit word, a compound of manu and antara, manu-antara or manvantara, literally meaning the duration of a Manu, or his life span. Each Manvantara is created and ruled by a specific Manu, who in turn is created by Brahma, the Creator himself." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T12:18:20.073" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T12:18:20.073" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10450" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T10:04:21.033" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T10:04:21.033" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T10:04:21.033" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10451" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T10:04:21.033" Score="0" Body="Mandukya-Upanishad  is the shortest of all the Upanishads, and is assigned to Atharvaveda." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T14:09:25.427" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T14:09:25.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10452" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T10:05:42.467" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T10:05:42.467" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T10:05:42.467" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10453" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T10:05:42.467" Score="0" Body="Santoshi Maa is a relatively new goddess in the Hindu pantheon. She is venerated as &quot;the Mother of Satisfaction&quot;, the meaning of her name. Santoshi Mata is particularly worshipped by women." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T12:19:01.337" LastActivityDate="2016-02-06T12:19:01.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10454" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-06T10:09:25.373" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva Stotram is collective name for hymns sung in praise of lord Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shiva Strotam include Shiva Tandava Stotram, Shiva Panchakshara Stotram, Shiva Sahasranama Stotram, Shivaashtakam, etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="314" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2016-08-03T06:07:36.907" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T06:07:36.907" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10455" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-06T10:09:25.373" Score="0" Body="Shiva Stotram is collective name for hymns sung in praise of lord Shiva." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2016-08-03T04:36:16.797" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T04:36:16.797" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10456" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-06T14:52:02.970" Score="4" ViewCount="316" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy, before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/KC8d&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa school, Jaimini refutes the argument that the Vedas are nonsense because they speak of impossible occurrences.  Jaimini argues that these statements are just meant to glorify the power of Yagnas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asks the Opponent: — &amp;quot; How do you know that all this (Veda) is not like the utterance of lunatics and children? As a matter of fact, we find in it such sentences as 'Trees sat at the sacrificial session,' 'Serpents sat at the sacrificial session,' 'The old bull sings maddening songs.' Now, how could the 'old bull' sing? How too could 'trees' or 'serpents' sit at sacrifices?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer to this  is as follows: — ... But in reality, even such statements as 'Trees sat at the sacrificial session' are not absurd. They serve to eulogise the sacrificial session; the sense being, 'even such inanimate things as trees performed this sacrifice, what to say of learned Brahmanas?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, where in the Vedas are these so-called &amp;quot;absurd&amp;quot; statements about trees and serpents performing Yagnas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The closest statement I could find is in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv07.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of the Taittiriya Samhita of the Yajur Veda, which discusses cows performing a Yagna in order to obtain horns:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cows performed that Sattra, being hornless, with the desire, 'May horns be born to us.' For ten months they performed it, and then horns were born, and they ceased (the rite), (saying), 'We have obtained (our desire).' Then those whose horns were not born ceased (the rite) after making up the year, (saying), 'We have obtained (our desire).' Both those which obtained horns and those which did not ceased, (saying),'We have obtained (our desire).' The year is the cows' Sattra, and those who knowing thus perform the year (sacrifice) are prosperous. Therefore a hornless cow has pleasure during the two months of the rainy season, for that is won for it by the Sattra....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cows performed that Sattra, being hornless and desiring to obtain horns. For ten months they performed it, and then horns appeared. They said, 'We have gained (them), let us cease (the rite), for we have attained the desire for the sake of which we began (the rite).' But others said, either half of them or as many as might be the case, 'Let us perform (the rite) for these months, the eleventh and the twelfth, and when we have made up the year, let us cease'. In their case their horns grew in the twelfth month. Whether by faith, or by lack of faith-that is, those which have no horns-both indeed were prosperous, those which gained horns and those which won strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But where are the statements about trees and serpents?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The notion of serpents performing Yagnas isn't too surprising; that could just be referring to the race of Nagas, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2964/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But I'm more interested in the notion of trees performing Yagnas.  I'm imagining Ents from Lord of the Rings!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a side note, where do the Vedas speak of an old bull singing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-01-10T00:48:46.783" Title="Where do the Vedas mention trees doing Yagnas?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|yajur-veda|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10458" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-06T19:34:31.113" Score="3" ViewCount="576" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know about the history of Bhagwat Maha Purana. Was it written by someone or is it God's own words?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4539" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-06T20:05:13.553" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T12:56:33.387" Title="History of Bhagwat Purana" Tags="|puranas|scripture|history|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10460" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2399" CreationDate="2016-02-07T01:36:22.283" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my study and experience also.... Yeah... we are destined..and the destiny is predetermined.... there is nothing we can do.... its like we have acted in a movie a certain role.... and we watch it on the screen... seeing our own self playing the role there... now if we see any mistake made there by us in the movie... nothing can be done... we cant see it undone....the movie has been released...and so the world is.... its a very painful-bitter realization...but it is......some points for the consideration of learned seniors:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What we all seem doing in current life time depends on various and predetermined factors like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)The physical body which we born with... we see some kids blind by birth...or handicapped by birth and its going to decide and limit what and how much we can do in life....and we cant change it...&lt;strong&gt;so no free will&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;2)the family, their status...parents...the culture....the gender male or female...may be the incarnating soul takes a body of a girl and gets aborted in the womb......&lt;strong&gt;so no free will&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;3)the mental capabilities... i have seen some kids born mentally retarded....&lt;strong&gt;no free will&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA; there is a huge list of points can be produced here to prove the lack of free will in life......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my student life I joined the theosophical society and one day i asked the same question: do we have a free will? do we have a freedom to decide to do or to not???&#xA;A very senior member there having white eye brows answered me while laughing; &quot;if we offer a plate full of meal to you, the bite will fly to your mouth or you will raise your hand to take it???&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4810" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T04:20:31.723" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T04:20:31.723" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10463" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-07T05:02:52.993" Score="5" ViewCount="2835" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is what Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of the Ādityas I am Viṣṇu, of lights I am the radiant sun, of the&#xA;  Maruts I am Marīci, and among the stars I am the moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's focus on    &lt;code&gt;of the Maruts I am Marīci&lt;/code&gt; part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marichi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Marichi&lt;/a&gt; is the son of Brahma, as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3704/why-was-surya-killed-by-lord-shiva&quot;&gt;discussed&lt;/a&gt; in this post. Below is the mention of Marichi, in that discussion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kashyapa is the son of Marichi, one of the mind-born sons of Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as per the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;, the the Marutas (Sanskrit: मरुत), also known as the Marutagana and sometimes identified with Rudras, are storm deities and sons of Rudra and Prisni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Question is&lt;/strong&gt;: Why Marichi is called Marutas(sons of Rudra and Prisni) when Marichi is considered as the son of Brahma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scripture reference which describe Marichi as Maruts (apart from Bhagavad Gita shloka which is mentioned above).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or did I get it completely wrong and that Marīci(mentioned in Bhagavad Gita) and Sage Marichi are 2 totally different people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-08-29T17:36:13.797" Title="Why Marichi is called Maruts?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|rishi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10464" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="97" CreationDate="2016-02-07T05:50:53.437" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is because plants come at the lowest level of evolution and hence eating them is least sinful, while living animals have already evolved from that level to based upon their Karmas. This is explained in various puranas like Bhagwat and Vishnu Puran.&#xA;This is from Vishnu Puran.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The various stages of existence, Maitreya, are inanimate things(like&#xA;  trees and plants), fish, birds, animals, men, holy men (Brahmins and saints), gods, and liberated&#xA;  spirits; &lt;strong&gt;each in succession a thousand degrees superior to that which&#xA;  precedes it&lt;/strong&gt;: and through these stages the beings that are either in&#xA;  heaven or in hell are destined to proceed, until final emancipation (Kaivalya Moksha) be&#xA;  obtained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T05:50:53.437" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10465" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14797" CreationDate="2016-02-07T06:54:01.133" Score="8" ViewCount="1933" Body="&lt;p&gt;How to visualize the Hindu lokas, Satya-loka or Brahma-loka, Pātāla-loka etc.? What exactly are they? Are they like planets or galaxies made up of atoms and chemical elements?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not asking why these lokas exist. I am just asking how to visualize these lokas. How to explain to someone who's new to Hinduism what a loka really is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T05:28:52.187" LastActivityDate="2018-07-03T06:40:16.123" Title="What exactly is a loka? Is it a place that be physically reached?" Tags="|belief|atma|death|lokas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="24" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10466" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-07T07:27:07.373" Score="4" ViewCount="217" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally In hindu funeral people cremate(for non sanyasis)the dead and on the third day people collect ashes/bones, and throw them into river also known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://creative.sulekha.com/rituals-among-hindus-before-and-after-death_405734_blog&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Asthi sanchaya&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The asthi sanchaya rite dictated in &lt;a href=&quot;http://creative.sulekha.com/rituals-among-hindus-before-and-after-death_405734_blog&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ashvalayana Grhiya Sutra&lt;/a&gt; (page no 55) is different then what most of people do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says that asthisanchaya should be performed after 10th tithi from death&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The gathering (of the bones is performed) after the tenth (Tithi from the death), (on&#xA;  a Tithi) with an odd number, of the dark fortnight, under a single Nakṣatra.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;while it is generally done on third tithi from death, and the final destination of asthi is also different from what sutra says, it says asthi should be buried inside a pit rather then giving it to flowing water. (See Adhayaya 4 Kanda 5 verse 7 and 8).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having well gathered them and purified them with a winnowing basket, 269 they&#xA;  should put (the urn) into a pit, at a place where the waters from the different sides do&#xA;  not flow together, except rain water, with (the verse), 'Go to thy mother Earth there'&#xA;  (Rig-veda 10:18, 10).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With the following (verse) he should throw earth (into the pit)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2016-04-07T15:15:57.097" Title="Why ashvalayana ghriya sutra dictates that bones of cremated person should be buried" Tags="|vedas|scripture|funeral|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10467" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:24:46.480" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T08:24:46.480" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T08:24:46.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10468" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:24:46.480" Score="0" Body="Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum)  is a sacred plant in Hindu belief. Hindus regard it as an earthly manifestation of the goddess Tulsi, a consort of the god Vishnu. " OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T13:12:57.970" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T13:12:57.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10469" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:34:28.480" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T08:34:28.480" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T08:34:28.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10470" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:34:28.480" Score="0" Body="There are  five elements  which are Earth or Prithvi; Water or Jal ; Fire or Agni; Air or Vayu and then Ether or Akasha. Each of these Five elements has its own character and celestial elements which we will gauge in the following lines." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T13:14:24.983" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T13:14:24.983" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10471" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:36:23.453" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T08:36:23.453" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T08:36:23.453" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10472" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:36:23.453" Score="0" Body="Lord Ayyappan or simply Ayyappa (also spelled as Ayappa) is a popular Hindu deity worshiped mainly in South India. Ayyaappa is believed to be born out of the union between Lord Shiva and the mythical enchantress Mohini, who is regarded as an avatar of Lord Vishnu. Therefore, Ayyappa is also known as 'Hariharan Puthiran' or 'Hariharputhra,' which literally means the son of both 'Hari' or Vishnu and 'Haran' or Shiva." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T13:14:19.197" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T13:14:19.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10473" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:38:09.837" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T08:38:09.837" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T08:38:09.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10474" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:38:09.837" Score="0" Body="The Law of Manu- Manusmriti also known as Manav Dharam Shastra, is the earliest metrical work on Brahminical Dharma in Hinduism." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T13:14:35.407" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T13:14:35.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10475" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:38:42.653" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T08:38:42.653" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T08:38:42.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10476" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:38:42.653" Score="0" Body="The Guru Gita (Song of the Guru) is a Hindu scripture that is said to have been authored by the sage, Vyasa." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T13:13:25.337" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T13:13:25.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10477" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:39:39.200" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T08:39:39.200" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T08:39:39.200" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10478" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:39:39.200" Score="0" Body="Isha Upanishad or Ishavasyopanishad is one of the principal Upanishads consisting of only eighteen verses, but of immense significance." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T13:13:12.570" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T13:13:12.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10479" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:40:25.327" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T08:40:25.327" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T08:40:25.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10480" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:40:25.327" Score="0" Body="Lord Kubera is the 'treasurer of the gods' and 'king of Yaksha'. He is a true representation of wealth, prosperity and glory. " OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T13:13:05.280" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T13:13:05.280" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10481" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:44:05.427" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T08:44:05.427" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T08:44:05.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10482" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:44:05.427" Score="0" Body="A South Indian Shaivite sect based on the Tamil poetry of the 63 Nayanars." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-13T03:41:20.380" LastActivityDate="2016-02-13T03:41:20.380" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10483" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:46:47.107" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T08:46:47.107" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T08:46:47.107" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10484" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-07T08:46:47.107" Score="0" Body="Yashoda (Yaśodā), also spelt as Yasoda, is the foster-mother to the god Krishna and a wife of Nanda in the Puranic texts of Hinduism." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-07T13:14:39.633" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T13:14:39.633" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10488" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="919" CreationDate="2016-02-07T10:59:42.817" Score="1" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;                    Ayurveda = Science of Life.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are four Vedas in Hinduism the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. The Vedas are the primary texts of Hinduism.Vedas are written in Sanskrit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayurveda is a part of &lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda&lt;/strong&gt;. It is defined in two parts of Atharva Veda – Bhaishagykni and Âyushyâni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's Also influenced by a lost text by the sage Agnivesa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T10:59:42.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10489" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2542" CreationDate="2016-02-07T13:18:16.680" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of &lt;strong&gt;Naga Panchami&lt;/strong&gt; is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/the-varaha-purana/vol-i/chapter-24/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 24 of Varaha Purana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Progeny of Ananta, Vasuki, Kambala, Karkotaka, Padma, Maha Padma, Sanka and Kulika filled the earth and they were crooked, heinous and violent and with their fangs they stung people and reduced them to ashes. This used to reduce human population and virtuous men went to abode of Lord Brahma and asked him for a solution. Then Brahma cursed the serpents as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma said to Serpents,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Since you are annihilating my progeny, the men, in another age, in the Swayambhu Manvantara, by curse of the mother, you will face a&#xA;  serious decline.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Serpents said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O God. We were made crooked by nature by you. Our Venom, cruelty, and the use of eye as weapon were all given by you. The intensity of&#xA;  all that was given may be reduced.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O God. Please allot us separate regions.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Patala, Vitala, Sutala are the regions allotted to you. You may all have your abode there.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I ordain that you shall enjoy all pleasures till seventh Manvantara.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the beginning of Vaivasta Manvantara you will become relations of Devas as well as of Garuda.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then all your progeny will be consumed by fire but for your own selves there will be no danger&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The end of such serpents as are fierce and insolent will certainly occur, but not of others. You may eat and bite person if he is&#xA;  destined, but also to retaliate when somebody injures you.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The serpents thereafter went to nether world allotted to them. All this happened on &lt;strong&gt;Panchama tithi&lt;/strong&gt;. So, this tithi is auspicious and capable of removing all sins. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If one remains austere on that day, give us all that is sour in food and bathes the images of Nagas in milk, they become friendly towards him.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2018-10-13T09:56:59.903" LastActivityDate="2018-10-13T09:56:59.903" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10490" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9421" CreationDate="2016-02-07T13:27:25.930" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not all Nagas were destroyed in fire sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;. All the crooked, heinous and violent progeny of Ananta, Vasuki, Kambala, Karkotaka, Padma, Maha Padma, Sanka and Kulika were destroyed in fire sacrifice except their ancestors. This curse was given by Lord Brahma to serpents. This is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/25069/42f_chapter_24.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 24 of Varaha Purana.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patala, Vitala, Sutala are the regions allotted to you. You may all&#xA;have your abode there.I ordain that you shall enjoy all pleasures till&#xA;seventh Manvantara At the beginning of Vaivasta Manvantara you will&#xA;become relations of Devas as well as of Garuda. &lt;strong&gt;Then all your progeny&#xA;will be consumed by fire but for your own selves there will be no&#xA;danger&lt;/strong&gt;. The end of such serpents as are fierce and insolent will&#xA;certainly occur, but not of others. You may eat and bite person if he&#xA;is destined, but also to retaliate when somebody injures you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01039.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabhartha Adi Parva: Astika Parva: SECTION XXXVIII&lt;/a&gt; too says the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gods said, 'O Grandsire, thou god of gods who else than the cruel&#xA;Kadru could thus, after getting such dear children, curse them so,&#xA;even in thy presence? And, O Grandsire, by thee also hath been spoken,&#xA;with reference to those words of hers, 'Be it so.' We wish to know the&#xA;reason why thou didst not prevent her.' Brahma replied, 'The snakes&#xA;have multiplied. They are cruel, terrible in form and highly&#xA;poisonous. From desire of the good of my creatures, I did not prevent&#xA;Kadru then. &lt;strong&gt;Those poisonous serpents and others who are sinful,&#xA;biting others for no faults, shall, indeed, be destroyed, but not they&#xA;who are harmless and virtuous.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T14:24:31.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10491" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10465" CreationDate="2016-02-07T14:04:44.407" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a lot of confusion when it comes to Lokas. People identify with their material bodies and therefore assume that the material sensual universe is the be all of everything. Lokas do not exist on the physical plane, therefore they are not observable by material scientific instruments. Remember that one of the reasons that your body is cremated is because your subtle body detaches itself from the material body. You are not the body! Why would it be necessary to go to a physical location if you are no longer attached to a physical body?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remember also that the physical elements are combinations of the subtle elements. For example, the subtle element water does not directly equate to the physical element water; the physical element water is a combination of different subtle elements in different proportions (although predominately the subtle element water). It is the subtle body that goes to the various heavens. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda writes (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt; V5 pp 101-103, Available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Epistles – First Series&lt;/em&gt;, letter LVII &lt;em&gt;Blessed and Beloved&lt;/em&gt; – (&lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_5/vol_5_frame.htm&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_5/vol_5_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…but Mr. Tesla was charmed to hear about the Vedantic Prâna and Âkâsha and the Kalpas, which according to him are the only theories modern science can entertain. Now both Akasha and Prana again are produced from the cosmic Mahat, the Universal Mind, the Brahmâ or Ishvara. Mr. Tesla thinks he can demonstrate mathematically that force and matter are reducible to potential energy. I am to go and see him next week, to get this new mathematical demonstration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In that case, the Vedantic cosmology will be placed on the surest of foundations. I am working a good deal now upon the cosmology and eschatology (That is, doctrine of the last things — death, judgement, etc.) of the Vedanta. I clearly see their perfect unison with modern science, and the elucidation of the one will be followed by that of the other. I intend to write a book later on in the form of questions and answers. (This was never done. But from his lectures in London in 1896, it is easy to see that his mind was still working on these ideas. (See also Vol. VIII Sayings and Utterances &amp;amp; Letter to Mr. Sturdy.)). The first chapter will be on cosmology, showing the harmony between Vedantic theories and modern science. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman                equate to           The Absolute&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; |           |  &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahat or Isvara           equates to          Primal Creative Energy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; |             |&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;-----------              ----------------&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;|           |     -----------------         |               | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prana     and     Akasha      equates to  Force   and      Matter         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The eschatology will be explained from the Advaitic standpoint only. That is to say, the dualist claims that the soul after death passes on to the Solar sphere, thence to the Lunar sphere, thence to the Electric sphere. Thence he is accompanied by a Purusha to Brahmaloka. (Thence, says the Advaitist, he goes to Nirvâna.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now on the Advaitic side, it is held that the soul neither comes nor goes, and that all these spheres or layers of the universe are only so many varying products of Akasha and Prana. That is to say, the lowest or most condensed is the Solar sphere, consisting of the visible universe, in which Prana appears as physical force, and Akasha as sensible matter. The next is called the Lunar sphere, which surrounds the Solar sphere. This is not the moon at all, but the habitation of the gods, that is to say, Prana appears in it as psychic forces, and Akasha as Tanmâtras or fine particles. Beyond this is the Electric sphere, that is to say, a condition in which the Prana is almost inseparable from Akasha, and you can hardly tell whether Electricity is force or matter. Next is the Brahmaloka. where there is neither Prana nor Akasha, but both are merged in the mind stuff, the primal energy. And here — there big neither Prana nor Akasha — the Jiva contemplates the whole universe as Samashti or the sum total of Mahat or mind. This appears as a Purusha, an abstract universal soul, yet not the Absolute, for still there is multiplicity. From this the Jiva finds at last that Unity which is the end. Advaitism says that these are the visions which rise in succession before the Jiva, who himself neither goes nor comes, and that in the same way this present vision has been projected. The projection (Srishti) and dissolution must take place in the same order, only one means going backward, and the other coming out. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now as each individual can only see his own universe, that universe is created with his bondage and goes away with his liberation, although it remains for others who are in bondage. Now name and form constitute the universe. A wave in the ocean is a wave, only in so far as it is bound by name and form. If the wave subsides, it is the ocean, but those name and form have immediately vanished for ever. So though the name and form of wave could never be without water that was fashioned into the wave by them, yet the name and form themselves were not the wave. They die as soon as ever it returns to water. But other names and forms live in relation to other waves. This name-and-form is called Mâyâ, and the water is Brahman. The wave was nothing but water all the time, yet as a wave it had the name and form. Again this name and form cannot remain for one moment separated from the wave, although the wave as water can remain eternally separate from name and form. But because the name and form can never he separated, they can never be said to exist. Yet they are not zero. This is called Maya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Brhadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (IV. iii. 38, and IV. iv. 1-2) describes how the various organs of a man withdraw from the body at the time of death. In the Chandogya Upanishad (V. 10. 1-4) it describes the journey after departing the body. It also describes how when a jiva, who goes to heaven, is wrapped in a thin body of water and dwells in lokas with a thin body of water. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Water, however, does not mean the gross element water. As pointed out in Sankara's commentary to &lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (V. 4. 2) (Swami Gambhirananda translator): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…[it is] sraddham, faith in the form of water—(the subtle water which is the result of the oblations poured in the Agnihotra sacrifice, is called faith because it is offered with faith…And it is well-known that ‘faith indeed is water; those waters having started from faith (and being associated with special sanctifications) ascend upward.’ (The gods pour as an oblation, that faith in the form of water.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the jiva, wrapped in the subtle waters of faith, ascends to the lokas, which are on a spiritual plane, not the physical plane of the observed universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T04:44:18.527" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T04:44:18.527" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10493" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10880" CreationDate="2016-02-07T15:35:06.743" Score="5" ViewCount="228" Body="&lt;p&gt;The process by which a Guru initiates a disciple into a mantra is called Mantra Diksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it mentioned in the Vedas about this process or about other forms of Dikshas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-03-04T18:14:42.630" Title="Is it mentioned in the Vedas about the need or process of initiation?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10494" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-07T15:44:04.317" Score="2" ViewCount="820" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know that where is Lord Brahma's Brahmaloka nowadays? Was Brahmaloka destroyed or anywhere in this universe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4665" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-12-19T15:23:22.333" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T15:23:22.333" Title="Where is Brahmaloka nowadays?" Tags="|brahma|lokas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-01-13T05:39:27.843" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10495" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10493" CreationDate="2016-02-07T15:59:25.453" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No there is only one thing which is mentioned in Vedas (here in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av07105.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;An Initiation formula&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Leaving humanity behind, making the heavenly word thy choice,&#xA;    With all thy friends address thyself to furthering and guiding&#xA;     men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-12T19:56:02.183" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T19:56:02.183" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10496" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-07T16:58:49.320" Score="3" ViewCount="72" Body="&lt;p&gt;What's the philosophical difference between various schools of Vedanta philosophy? According to dualism (Dvaita), Jivatma and Parmatma are two different things; non-dualism (Advaita)- Jivatma and Parmatma are same, and also there are others schools viz., Dvaitadvaita, Vishistadvaita, Upadhika, Shuddhadvaita, Achintya, and Neo-Vedanta. So, what's the basic difference among these schools? Please explain me!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4812" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T16:58:49.320" Title="Dualism &amp; Non-dualism" Tags="|philosophy|teaching|darshan|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-02-07T17:04:24.697" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10497" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-07T19:05:23.757" Score="2" ViewCount="212" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was recently studying &lt;a href=&quot;http://static1.squarespace.com/static/51b952f8e4b0326fb7d42d55/t/51ba693fe4b09da04a431e3d/1371171135432/Sandhyavandhanam+-+Jun+13%2C+2013%2C+9-33+AM.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sandhyavandana&lt;/a&gt;, and I am confused how to do Abhivadan for non-bramhins. Since in abhivadan a person has to say his gotra with pravaras and Kshatriyas/Vaishyas don't have pravaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is how should we perform Abhivadana for Non-bramhins, is it sutra/shakha dependent?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I know last names of all varnas viz Sharma, Verma, Gupta, I need elaborate details, like what should be recited in place of the pravaras or to omit the pravara part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-07T19:31:02.063" Title="How to do abhivadan in Sandhyavandana" Tags="|vedas|rituals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10498" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-08T05:40:22.393" Score="1" ViewCount="6473" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read that Lakshmi is the avatar of Durga in &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/no-fish-for-gauri-this-year.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gauri is seen as a milder form of Kali, which is why she wears a saree and ties her hair with a string of flowers. Sometimes, she comes as a single woman, and sometimes in a pair: the Jyestha Gauri (elder Gauri) and Kanishtha Gauri (younger Gauri), who are identified sometimes as Ganesha’s mothers or Ganesha’s sisters, or just friends. They are occasionally identified as &lt;strong&gt;Mahalakshmi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;sup&gt;++&lt;/sup&gt;, who is not so much Vishnu’s wife but rather a local &lt;strong&gt;form of Durga&lt;/strong&gt;, who is Shiva’s wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in some movies and other articles (such as Wikipedia), they say that Durga incarnates as all the other goddesses, even Saraswati and Lakshmi, who are the Tridevi. They claim that Durga is more powerful than all of them and that &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; she is Adi Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aren't the Tridevi suppose to be equal in power? Aren't all of them Adi Shakti? Also, if we follow these claims of &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; Durga being the ultimate, how can her avatars marry Brahma and Vishnu when Durga herself is already married to Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;++&lt;/sup&gt; In this question, please do not assume that Mahalakshmi is a more powerful form of Lakshmi and whatnot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T15:17:26.887" LastActivityDate="2018-01-21T19:46:16.927" Title="Is Lakshmi an avatar of Durga?" Tags="|avatars|lakshmi|durga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2018-01-28T09:33:13.943" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10499" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14708" CreationDate="2016-02-08T07:26:54.380" Score="16" ViewCount="11461" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well known that when you do a mantra japa 108 is the minimum number of times you should do to get the wholesome benefit of the japa.Sometimes,a higher number ,1008, is also recommended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is,if there is so much scarcity of time that you can't even do the ideal number 108 then what are the other smaller numbers that are mentioned in the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know of 9,11,27 and 54.Is 60 a permissible number?I'm asking because i have a mala consisting of 60 beads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T07:36:35.347" LastActivityDate="2018-11-14T11:45:09.147" Title="What are the permissible numbers for japa count that are less than 108?" Tags="|mantras|japa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10501" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-08T12:14:24.683" Score="4" ViewCount="859" Body="&lt;p&gt;Few South Indian movies portray Naradha muni as mischief maker involving in creation of quarrels between Wives of Trimurti (Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma &amp;amp; Lord MahaVishnu). He also involves in creating fights between Deva's and the Asura's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaishnavas describe him as an elevated soul devoted to Narayana bhakthi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any credible sources to portray him as a trouble maker? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="327" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T20:09:45.787" LastActivityDate="2016-03-10T23:21:43.107" Title="Is Naradha Muni a Mischief Maker as Depicted in popular culture" Tags="|vishnu|bhakti|narada|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10502" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-08T13:14:10.340" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T13:14:10.340" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T13:14:10.340" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10503" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-08T13:14:10.340" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T13:14:10.340" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T13:14:10.340" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10504" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-08T13:15:20.080" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T13:15:20.080" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T13:15:20.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10505" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-08T13:15:20.080" Score="0" Body="In Hinduism, Garuda is a Hindu divinity, usually the mount (vahana) of the Lord Vishnu. Garuda is depicted as having the golden body of a strong man with a white face, red wings, and an eagle's beak and with a crown on his head. This ancient deity was said to be massive, large enough to block out the sun." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T19:50:40.530" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T19:50:40.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10506" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-08T13:17:28.677" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T13:17:28.677" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T13:17:28.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10507" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-08T13:17:28.677" Score="0" Body="Brahma is the creator god in the Trimurti of Hinduism. He has four faces, looking in the four directions. Brahma is also known as Svayambhu (self-born),Vāgīśa (Lord of Speech), and the creator of the four Vedas, one from each of his mouths." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T19:50:32.560" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T19:50:32.560" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10508" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-08T13:24:41.633" Score="0" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Brahma Vaivarta Purana&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Brahma khand:&lt;/strong&gt; Creation of the universe. Origin of Narayana from the body of Shri Krishna. Origin of Radha in Rasamandal. Origin of Gopas, Gopis and cows from the bodies of Radha and Krishna. Creation of all other animate-inanimate world.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Prakriti khand:&lt;/strong&gt; Greatness of Durga, Radha, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Savitri in the creation of the world. Tales of Savitri-Satyavaan, Surabhi, Swaha and Swadha. Description of the clan of Surath. Tale of Ganga. Tales from Ramayana. Curse of Durvasa on Indra. Worship of Lakshmi.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Ganesh khand:&lt;/strong&gt; Mainly discusses about the greatness of Lord Ganesh. Also contains tales of Jamadagni, Karteveerya, Parashurama etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shri Krishna khand:&lt;/strong&gt; Describes the life and plays of Lord Shri Krishna, under the heads of Braj leela, Mathura leela, reunion of Radha and Krishna. Migration of the residents of Gokul to Gokula.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T19:50:49.080" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T19:50:49.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10509" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-08T13:24:41.633" Score="0" Body="It’s the twelth Purana. It contains four parts- Brahma khand, Prakriti khand, Ganesh khand and Shri Krishna Janma khand.&#xD;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T19:50:03.057" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T19:50:03.057" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10510" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-08T13:26:30.407" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T13:26:30.407" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T13:26:30.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10511" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-08T13:26:30.407" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T13:26:30.407" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T13:26:30.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10512" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-08T13:30:09.403" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T13:30:09.403" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T13:30:09.403" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10513" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-08T13:30:09.403" Score="0" Body="Brihaspati is also known as Deva-guru (guru of the gods). Jupiter is a good indicator of fortune, wealth, fame, luck, devotion, wisdom, compassion, spirituality, religion and morality among other things." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T19:50:29.190" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T19:50:29.190" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10514" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10501" CreationDate="2016-02-08T17:59:25.760" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Getting ideas about Gods, saints, religious and allied stuffs by watching movies is the last thing you should do I guess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways, Devarishi Narad is not the trouble maker as he often appears to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His moves are always sanctioned by the Lord himself and his actions play key role in fructifying God's plan of action or loosely speaking, he triggers things that were to happen in future by his so called mischievous moves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-10T23:21:43.107" LastActivityDate="2016-03-10T23:21:43.107" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10515" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10123" CreationDate="2016-02-08T18:03:29.783" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Ramayana, two monkey brothers are mentioned with importance. In fact, a complete chapter is devoted with the name of Kishkindha kand on them. The interesting story of these two brothers is as following.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga8/kishkindha_8_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is Sugreeva gives a report to Rama about his plight for fear of Vali, who made his own brother an enemy and abducted Sugreeva's wife. Rama asks Sugreeva to inform him about the real cause of enmity, so that he can decide correctly. Sugreeva narrates his woeful condition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sugreeva reports the incident that sparked off the indignation and ire of Vali towards Sugreeva. Sugreeva describes to Rama about the strength and heartless nature of Vali, with a kind of indirect portrayal of his enemy's capabilities.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga9/kishkindha_9_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Oh, great enemy destroyer Rama, my elder brother Vali is a very dear one to our father, and even for me too he was so, earlier. After the demise of our father all the ministers have glorified him immensely and made him the king of all the monkeys as he is the elder. While he was ruling the great kingdom of my father and forefathers, I have always bowed down to him like a servant and stood by him. &amp;gt;There was a fierce demon named Maayaavi, the elder brother of Dundubhi and the son of one demon named Maya. There was a great enmity between this Maayaavi and Vali owing to some female. He that Maayaavi arrived at the doors of Kishkindha in a night when the people are sleeping, and blared very much inviting Vali for a fight. Then my brother who was also sleeping well, on hearing that bellowing in a clamouring voice, did not tolerate and came out speedily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though the females and myself bowed reverently to prevent Vali, he came out of palace in all his anger to kill that great demon. But Vali spurned all of us away and forged ahead, and then I also have started to go along with Vali in all my predisposition. A great fear was induced in that demon on seeing my brother and me too coming from a distance, and then he quickly ran away. While he is running away in fear we quickly followed him on a path that is barely lit by moonlight of the moon who is just coming up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That demon speedily entered an un-enterable cavity under the ground, covered with grass, and we too having reached there speedily stood at the aperture of that cavity for a while. Then Vali has gone into the enfoldment of fury on observing the entry of that demon into the hole, whereby his senses felt outraged, and he said this sentence to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Vali said to me, &amp;quot;Now you stay here on the alert, Sugreeva, at the entrance of this hole till I return on destroying the enemy in a fight on my entering this hole...&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing those words I requested him to allow me too to come in to the hole, but he being the great tormentor of his enemies disallowed it, and he made me to swear on his feet and entered that hole. Well over a year is over after his entering into that cleavage, and to me too who stayed at the entrance of the cleavage that much time had passed away. I thought I lost him for my brother is unseen, and in all fondness towards him my mind started to doubt about some harm might have befallen on him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After a long time blood with foam gushed out that hole, and on seeing it I was deeply saddened. Sounds of screaming demon came to my ear, but the screeches of my brother who is involved in fight are unheard, in the least.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oh, friend, Rama... I have surmised and concluded in mind by the indications that my brother is finished, and covered the cavity's opening with a mountain similar boulder, and performed water oblations to my deceased brother with saddening pain, and then returned to Kishkindha. But the ministers have persuaded and heard from me the actual happening though I was concealing it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then duly summoned by all of those ministers I was crowned, and while I was ruling the kingdom judiciously, oh, Raghava, that semi-human Vali returned on killing that demoniac enemy. But on seeing me crowned his eyes were reddened in anger, and he arrested all my ministers as he spoke rudely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And oh, Raghava, though I was capable enough to counter him, my reason was controlled by my esteem to brotherhood, and I was indisposed to commit that sin of defying brotherhood. He that brother of mine entered the capital thus on destroying the enemy, and I hailed him as usual while respecting that audacious soul, but his inner self is unsatisfied and I remained unblest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oh, lord Rama, though I bowed with the crown touching his feet, he that rancorous Vali showed no quarter towards me.&amp;quot; So said Sugreeva to Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sugreeva informs Rama that Vali could not be appeased in spite of repeated requests as he is resolved to accept Sugreeva as an enemy. Vali banishes Sugreeva from the kingdom with the same thinking.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga10/kishkindha_10_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Then desiring both of our well-being I have begged of my brother who is enveloped in anger and behaving capriciously. Oh, orphan's, delight Rama, I addressed him like this, Luckily you have eliminated the enemy and returned safely, and to an orphaned one like me you alone are the protector.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let this regal umbrella unfolded like a full moon, with its many of its spikes, and with accompanying fur-fans may please be accepted while I hold it for you. Saddened I was after staying at the entrance of the cave for one year, oh, king, and on seeing the blood that started to flow from out the cave in the entrance my heart is engulfed in sadness and my senses perturbed very much, and then covering that cave's entrance with a hilltop, and departing from that country, I re-entered Kishkindha. On seeing me returning with grief, the citizens and ministers alike crowned me, but that is not at my desire, therefore it is apt of you pardon me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;As an estimable one you alone are the king, and I will be as I was, and establishing me in kingship is owing to your unavailability, but the capital with citizens and ministers is kept up without thorniness. Oh, gentle one, I am now returning this custodial kingdom to you, oh, enemy eliminator, you need not be hostile towards me. I beg you with my bowed head and with my prayerful palm-fold, the ministers and the city dwellers have collectively and forcibly nominated me to the kingship, only to keep the kingless kingdom under control.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;While I was speaking that politely he threatened me and indeed used many expletives starting from 'fie, fie, upon you.' and the like. And summoning people and venerable ministers he hurled very abusive words at me among friends&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;You all are aware that earlier the gigantic and rancorous demon Maayaavi invited me desiring a duel in that night. On hearing his call for a duel I went out of the royal palace, and this very hazardous brother of mine quickly followed me. And that formidable demon Maayaavi ran away as he was fraught with fear on seeing me with a second one at my side, and he speedily entered a great cavity of earth on seeing us two nearly reaching him. On knowing the demon's entry into that great precarious cavity, I said to this one, this cruel looking brother of mine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;My power will not let me return from here to the capital without killing that demon, hence you wait at this cavity's entrance, till I kill that demon and come out of the cavity. Believing that he stayed at the entrance of the cavity I entered that impenetrable cavity, and then in searching for that demon there one year elapsed. I have seen that terrified enemy of mine effortlessly, and I killed him immediately along with all of his relatives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;That cavity has become impassable, since it is fully filled with the gushes of blood emanaing from the mouth of that demon who fell yelling onto ground. On my killing that invading enemy easily, I could not see any exit from that cavity as its mouth was closed. Wherefore I did not get a reply though I repeatedly shouted, 'Sugreeva, oh, Sugreeva.' thereby I was very saddened. With my foot I pounded and smashed that lidded hilltop, and from there I exited that way and arrived here. As such this cruel fantasist of kingdom trammelled me in there forgetting the clannishness.&amp;quot; So said Vali to all the courtiers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;On saying thus that monkey ruthlessly banished me, then and there in the court itself, who am with a single clothing on my body. Thus he threw me away and even stole my wife, oh, Rama, and owing to his fear alone I roamed all over the earth with its forests and oceans. I who am saddened by stealing my wife have entered this safest mountain Rishyamuka, which is impenetrable for Vali by another reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;All this notable account of enmity is reported to you, oh, Raghava, and you may examine the dire straits befallen on me at no fault of mine. Oh, Rama, the fear-remover of all the worlds, it is apt of you to bestow me invulnerability from the fear of Vali, and oh, valiant one, as well as to rein him in.&amp;quot; Sugreeva requested Rama thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-13T23:21:07.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10516" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10531" CreationDate="2016-02-08T18:09:51.540" Score="6" ViewCount="2649" Body="&lt;p&gt;And not as Namah as in, say,Namah Sivaya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few examples:&#xA;Om Gum Gurobhyo Namaha&#xA;Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which rule regarding the pronunciation of visarga(:) is applicable in this case?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone please post a citation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-02-16T18:35:14.930" LastActivityDate="2020-06-16T05:37:06.233" Title="Why &quot;Nama:&quot; is pronounced as &quot;Namaha&quot; when it appears at the end of a Mantra?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10517" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-08T18:13:34.863" Score="4" ViewCount="503" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question may be childish or even rubbish but I have had this doubt for a long time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to my religion, Hinduism (Sanathana Dharma), God has created all from grass to all forms of life. Then why he did create heaven and hell because if he/she/it (refers to God - Peculiarly Shiva) creates every person as a good one then he/she/it can prevent sending people to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to a famous psychologist:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Situations and surroundings are the only factors which convert a good person to a bad one&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why does God create a bad situation and thereby creating a bad person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am a strong believer in Hinduism so I know there's some purpose behind this, what is that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why does God need a servant then?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If he can create everything then why does he create bad things and make his servants suffer?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My strong questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why does God alone enjoy everything in the heaven?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why limited period of time (in heaven) for people?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;This is complete injustice. I know He created us and he has a right to destroy us so I am not going to speak here.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But why he is willing that people suffer?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4500" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-08T20:43:20.973" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T20:43:20.973" Title="What is the purpose of life?" Tags="|karma|life|creation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ClosedDate="2016-02-08T19:42:02.933" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10518" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10588" CreationDate="2016-02-08T18:14:49.170" Score="2" ViewCount="3070" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we hear in Hindu mythology, most of the lords have fallen prey to pride and at last regretted heavily. Did Lord Shiva ever fall prey to pride?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And what does Lord Shiva think about during meditation, because during meditation we think about god and He is the god Himself?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4825" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T19:16:33.913" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T19:16:33.913" Title="What does Lord Shiva think of during meditation? Also, did He ever fall prey to pride?" Tags="|shiva|meditation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10519" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9607" CreationDate="2016-02-08T18:33:27.697" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As mentioned &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp46.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in our &lt;strong&gt;Hindu Mythology&lt;/strong&gt; that The Tulsi is very commonly worshipped by the followers of Vishnu; and the plant is most carefully tendedas his representative. The origin of the worship of this plant is said to be the following: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A woman named Tulsi engaged in religious austerities for a long period, and asked, as a boon, that she might become the wife of Vishnu. Lakshmi, hearing of this, cursed her, and changed her into the plant which bears her name. Vishnu, however, comforted his follower with the assurance that he would assume the form of the Shālgrāma, and continue near her. * The Vāyu and the Padma Purānas teach that the Tulsi was one of the products of the churning of the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;So Tulsi is consort of Lord Visnu in form of Shālgrāma but before getting cursed to be a sacred tree she got married with Sankhachooda as mentioned &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana71.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in &lt;strong&gt;Devi Bhagwatpurana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi Tulasi was the daughter of Dharmadvaja and she too turned out to be a Tapasvini, performing extremely severe sacrifices like meditation with ‘Panchagni’ or Fires on five sides of her body - on four direcions and on top. Lord Brahma knew her desire of wedding Narayana Himself. He explained to her that she was fully aware that She was a ‘Jatismara’ ( person having  knowledge of previous birth), that she was Devi Tulsi Gopi in her previous birth as a maid of Radha desirous to have union with Krishna in a ‘Rasakreeda’( dance performance) which was not liked by Radha who cursed her to quit but Krishna advised her to take a fresh birth as the daughter of Dharmadhvaja as a Tapasvini. Brahma in turn explained to Tulsi that there was a Gopa ( Cow boy) named Sudama who was of Krishna’s ‘Amsa’ ( a part Extension) - also a ‘Jatismara’- as he too was cursed by Devi Radha to become a demon now called Sankhachooda. After marrying him, Brahma said that she would eventually attain union with Krishna as the latter would curse Tulsi to become a Sacred Tree to be prayed to all over the world. Brahma  blessed Tulasi to become a  Siddha to secure a good husband and also taught to her Radha Mantra, Radha Kavacha, Radha Stora and the method of Radha Worship to conquer her confidence and  in the long run she would secure Krishna Himself. At the same time, Sankhachooda too got  enamoured of Tulsi and,  with the blessings of Brahma,  married her in Gandharva style.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T08:01:29.957" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T08:01:29.957" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10520" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10517" CreationDate="2016-02-08T19:18:17.183" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, according to Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the goal of human life is to realise God and become one with Him, for He alone has the ability to grant us perennial bliss. Of course, it is God alone who has created everything, but again, it is he who has made some rules to govern this world. And these rules are cosmic in nature. The world runs on Karma theory. So if you do good to others, you are rewarded and vice-versa. When you look at the world thru the prism of Karma, probably, you can understand what I am trying to say. If, as per what you say, God creates a bad person, it is the same God who creates a good person also. Isn't it? The concept of Heaven in Hinduism is very subtle Some think that Heaven is the destination for all of us, but that is also a place that is not permanent. Based on your good karma, you stay there and once your good karma ends, you come back to earth and again start earning good karma. Similarly with hell. So as true seekers of knowledge or God, we should aim at a point of no return, or in other words, our real Nature, our own Atman! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4826" LastActivityDate="2016-02-08T19:18:17.183" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10521" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10145" CreationDate="2016-02-08T19:22:56.563" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;As discussed &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in Vishnu Purana about Sagara's 60000 sons.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SUMATI the daughter of Kaśyapa, and Kesiní the daughter of Rája Viderbha, were the two wives of Sagara 1. Being without progeny, the king solicited the aid of the sage Aurva with great earnestness, and the Muni pronounced this boon, that one wife should bear one son, the upholder of his race, and the other should give birth to sixty thousand sons; and he left it to them to make their election. Kesiní chose to have the single son; Sumati the multitude: and it came to pass in a short time that the former bore Asamanjas 2, a prince through whom the dynasty continued; and the daughter of Vinatá (Sumati) had sixty thousand sons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Another &lt;a href=&quot;http://haribhakt.com/ancient-indians-defied-natural-process-of-giving-births-proofs-of-transdimensional-science-in-hindu-texts/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;According to history of Ramayan, Ikshvaku dynasty’s king Sagar had two queens  – Keshini and Sumati. After remaining childless for several years, King and both Queens went to Himalay to perform strict penance and abide by the Vedic rituals of obtaining child through unborn process.&#xA;Maharishi Bhrigu blessed them that Sumati will give birth to 60,000 haughty sons and Keshini will give birth to a son whose son will continue the lineage.&#xA;As years passed, Sumati gave birth to pumpkin sized Garbh pind. Raja Sagar was not amused, he was about to throw it away, he heard Akashvani that “the Garbh Pind has 60,000 fertile seeds. You need to keep each seed in a ghee filled 60,000 separate pots.”&#xA;Raja Sagar obeyed the Akashvani thanking Bhagwan Shiv for his blessings. In due period, the pots gave birth to 60,000 sons of Sumati.&#xA;Later King Sagar thought of performing Ashwamedh  Yagya, he asked all his 60,000 sons to protect the horse and make the Yagya successful.&#xA;While that Ashwamedh horse is being moved around provinces it reached the south-easterly zone, and at seashore Indra abducted that horse and hid it underneath the earth. Raja Sagar then ordered his escorting sons that horse to dig up that place to locate the ritual horse. Then those princes unremittingly dug the place to oceanic depths until they reached Shrihari reposing there in the form of Sage Kapil.&#xA;When the 60,000 sons found the horse at Kapil dev’s ashram, they thought he had stolen it. When they prepared to attack the meditating rishi, Kapil opened his eyes, fire emanated, and they were immediately burned to ashes.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-14T19:42:16.340" LastActivityDate="2016-02-14T19:42:16.340" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10524" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-09T02:31:51.703" Score="13" ViewCount="5231" Body="&lt;p&gt;What's the relation between Lord Shiva and Lord Shani Dev?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know the fact. Internet is filled with contradictions some say its father-son (I found hard to believe) some say brother-in-law &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theshivaexperience.com/lord-shiva-and-shani-dev-relationship/&quot;&gt;Check Here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some say there's enmity between them, is it true? If true, what's the story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4828" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T10:05:35.523" LastActivityDate="2021-06-02T14:22:08.293" Title="What's the relation between Lord Shiva and Lord Shani Dev?" Tags="|shiva|shani|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10525" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10529" CreationDate="2016-02-09T04:21:07.580" Score="3" ViewCount="510" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am here talking in general &amp;amp; not related to a specific temple or place. Why are women not allowed to touch an idol of God or come near it? Is it related to their menstrual cycle? If so, why is it considered impure because of it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4828" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-17T23:55:16.067" LastActivityDate="2016-03-17T23:55:16.067" Title="Why are there restrictions for women in Hindu temples (in general)?" Tags="|belief|culture|women|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-02-13T03:25:58.807" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10526" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-09T05:36:56.653" Score="3" ViewCount="62" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please explain why and how sometimes sons are considered as avatars of certain gods. In some tales, Hanuman is the avatar of Shiva while in others, he is his son.Please explain. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-09T06:05:49.807" LastActivityDate="2016-02-09T06:05:49.807" Title="Can avatars be the son of same God?" Tags="|shiva|avatars|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10527" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-09T06:18:39.823" Score="2" ViewCount="137" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2826/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Isha Upanishad has a special property that other Upanishads don't: it's part of the Samhitas of the Vedas. In any case, here's the first verse of the Isha Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;īśā&lt;/strong&gt; vāsyam idam sarvaṁ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatsoever changeable is in this world, all this is fit to be indwelt, by the &lt;strong&gt;Lord&lt;/strong&gt;. With that (World) renounced enjoy.  Covet not anyone's wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/0JkJ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Isha Upanishad, the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan discusses the question of what the word &quot;Isha&quot; or Lord refers to in this verse.  As a Sri Vaishnava, Vedanta Desikan believed that Ishwara or Saguna Brahman (who is the highest Brahman according to Sri Vaishnavism) is the same as Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vedanta Desikan interprets the word &quot;Isha&quot; as referring to Vishnu, and he spends some time refuting rival theories.  First he refutes the notion that Isha refers to Shiva here.  Then he refutes the notion that the word Isha is a moving target, referring to a different Lord in every age:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(If it be said that instead of one perpetual All-lord, we may have one Ishvara-stream, one All-Lord in one cosmic age and another in another age and so on, or else we may have several Ishvaras, rulers, at the same time and at all times eternally, but who divide their absolute lordship between themselves by limiting their powers to specific regions, we reply)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the theories of Ishvara-stream and multiple Ishvaras are rejected by a number of (scriptural) sources of right knowledge, which establish the Lord existing at all three times (past, present and future) and destining all processes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The notion of different gods controlling different domains is understandable.  But my question is, what sect of Hinduism believes that there is an &quot;Ishwara-stream&quot; and that in every cosmic age there is a different supreme lord of the Universe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I'm only interested in sects that existed in the time of Vedanta Desikan or earlier.  Also, what is this &quot;Cosmic age&quot; the passage is speaking about?  How often does the &quot;Ishwara stream&quot; produce a new Ishwara?  Once a Kalpa, once a Mahakalpa, or what?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2019-01-13T17:46:13.743" LastActivityDate="2019-01-13T17:46:13.743" Title="What sect believes in an Ishwara-stream with a different Ishwara in every age?" Tags="|upanishads|sri-vaishnava|sects|isha-upanishad|vedanta-desika|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10529" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10525" CreationDate="2016-02-09T06:42:05.053" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;During menses women are said to have an &quot;irreversible religious impurity&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it means, no matter what they do (like bathing, or achamana etc) they can't purify themselves in those days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why their visit to temples or worshiping are considered  futile and hence the restriction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A same kind &quot;irreversible religious impurity&quot; also applies during the period of &quot;Osaucham&quot; to the members of a family where a death (or birth) has taken place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Members of that family during that period are also prohibited from participating in any kind of religious activities irrespective of whether  they are male or female members.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, of course the question &quot;why such impurity occurs?&quot; can't have rational answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-09T07:05:54.527" LastActivityDate="2016-02-09T07:05:54.527" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10530" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16867" CreationDate="2016-02-09T06:59:42.697" Score="8" ViewCount="2329" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is distinct from other Gods primarily because he is always worshiped not as an idol but in an abstract form of a Lingam .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondarily, He is always worshiped along with Goddess Shakti (also known as Amba, Gowri, etc). In fact, in a Shiva Lingam the lower half resembling a yoni is the Mother Goddess (Amba ,Gowri).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even when we do puja at home, we say Asmin Bimbe/Linge sumukham &lt;strong&gt;Samba Parameswaram&lt;/strong&gt; Dhyami,avahayami and not &lt;strong&gt;Parameswaram&lt;/strong&gt; dhyami avahayami..(Samba means Sa+amba Or with Amba).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While for all the other Gods its typically as given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahaganapatim Dhyami, Mahavishnum dhyami, Gowrim Dhyami, Adityam Dhyami(for Surya puja).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the reasons for this distinction?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-09T07:03:13.583" LastActivityDate="2021-11-06T18:15:28.113" Title="Why is Lord Shiva always worshiped alongwith Shakti and never alone?" Tags="|shiva|worship|shakti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10531" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10516" CreationDate="2016-02-09T07:25:35.177" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;A good query you have raised; it took me some good digging up, and let me learn something in the process.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First let us take the visarga, denoted by ':' and transliterated as 'H'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;• The term 'visarga' means 'sending forth, letting go, letting out'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ If you listen to the chanting of the Vedas, you would notice that in the Sanskrit language the words and phrases united by saMdhi--conjunction/transition, are meant to flow from the beginning to the end of a line, where normally a pause occurs (denoted by '|').&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ Unlike most Western languages, the scheme of alphabets in Sanskrit is scientifically designed and defined by their points of articulation--sthAna, that range from the back to the front of the vocal apparatus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ The points of contact of the five series of Sanskrit alphabets are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Series ........... Name ................. Point of contact&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ka-series ..... kaNThya--velar ........ kaNTha--velum&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;cha-series .... tAlavya--palatal ...... tAlu--soft palate&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ta-series ..... mUrdhanya--retroflex .. mUrdhan--hard palate&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ta-series ..... dantya--dental ........ danta--teeth&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;pa-series ..... oShThya--labial ....... oSTha--lips&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each series end with a corresponding nasal consonant: gna, jna, Na, na, ma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The series 'ya, ra, la, va' are called antaHstha--in-between, as they are semivowels.&#xA;The series 'sha, Sha, sa, ha' are called UShman--sibilants, which are frictional when pronounced, generating heat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two additional sounds, which are actually consonants, but usually have the role of modifying their preceding vowel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ The anusvara, denoted by a single dot '.' and transliterated as 'M', permits the air used in the articulation of the preceding vowel to escape through the nose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the anusvara is followed by a consonant, it takes the form of the nasal of the same varga--series: For example, 'vanaM gachchati' becomes 'vanang gachchati' (ng replacing M).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ The visarga, denoted by ':' and transliterated as 'H', echoes the preceding vowel by combining its sound with 'H'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As examples, we have, devaH--devaha, devAH--devAhA, muniH--munihi, dhIH--dhIhI, viShNuH--viShNuhu, muneH--munehE, and devaiH--devaihi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus visarga is fully aspirated (as ha, hA, hi, etc). when it occurs at the end of a line. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, when it occurs in the middle, followed by a hard/soft consonant, certain rules apply:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ The visarga remains unchanged before ka, kha, pa, pha, sha, Sha and sa.&#xA;Examples: putraH khanati | janAH patanti | bAlaH sarati |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ It becomes sh before ch and Ch: janAH + chalanti = janAshchalanti |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ It becomes Sh before Ta and Tha: paThaataH + TIkAm = paThaShTIkAm |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ It becomes s before ta and tha: putraH + tarati = putrastarati |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ When preceded by A and followed by a soft consonant or a vowel, it is dropped:&#xA;bAlAH + dhAvanti = bAlA dhAvanti | janAH + aTanti = janA aTanti |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ When preceded by a and followed by a soft consonant, it is changed to O:&#xA;putraH + dhAvanti = putrO dhAvanti |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ When preceded by a and followed by any vowel except a, it is dropped:&#xA;dhAvataH + AkulO = dhAvata AkulO |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ When preceded by a and followed by a, it is changed to O, while the following a is elided: dhAvataH + ashvau = dhAvatO&amp;amp;shvau |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‣ When the final visarga is followed by a sibilant (sha, Sha, sa), it is optionally changed to the sibilant: namaH shivAya or namashshivAya, rAmaH sharaNam or rAmashsharaNam | bAlaH sarati or bAlassarati |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, in the mantra aum namaH shivAya, because of the following sibilant 'sh', the visarga in namaH is shortened and optionally mingled with the sh to give the pronunciation namashshivAya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;1. 'DevavANipraveshika' by RP and SJS Goldman&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2. 'A Sanskrit Manual for High Schools' by R.Antoine&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-07-17T02:19:03.013" LastActivityDate="2019-07-17T02:19:03.013" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10532" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10538" CreationDate="2016-02-09T07:33:44.473" Score="10" ViewCount="2118" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do Indian women, especially married women, wear bangles?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4528" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-17T23:56:03.723" LastActivityDate="2019-11-15T16:40:00.097" Title="Why do Indian women wear bangles?" Tags="|belief|culture|women|india|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10534" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-09T08:11:03.637" Score="1" ViewCount="60" Body="&lt;p&gt;At the time of slaying &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiranyakashipu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hiranyakasipu &lt;/a&gt; it was estimated that power of Vishnu alone was insufficient to counter the Rakshas due many clever boons he received from Brahma to ensure impossibility of his own death. So the &lt;em&gt;amsa&lt;/em&gt; of Shiva had to be added to Vishnu's active Avatar for the attack. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is the power invoked for transference ? By prayer? manthras of yagnya or thanthra? by voluntary intention from a higher power source? Or is it by &lt;em&gt;request for action through the power of Bhakthi&lt;/em&gt; like Prahlad's towards Vishnu? Or Gajendra's to Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The power of Bhakthi is a strong belief even in modern times, so this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T11:02:26.540" LastActivityDate="2020-03-09T11:02:26.540" Title="Modality of spiritual power transfer" Tags="|shakti|spirituality|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2016-02-10T19:38:57.203" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10537" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-09T08:38:52.190" Score="9" ViewCount="665" Body="&lt;p&gt;At The Parliament of Religions in Chicago 1893, Swami Vivekananda spoke about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_1/Addresses_at_The_Parliament_of_Religions/Paper_on_Hinduism&quot;&gt;Paper on Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;. A part of it contains this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is another suggestion. Taking all these for granted, how is it&#xA;  that I do not remember anything of my past life ? This can be easily&#xA;  explained. I am now speaking English. It is not my mother tongue, in&#xA;  fact no words of my mother tongue are now present in my consciousness;&#xA;  but let me try to bring them up, and they rush in. That shows that&#xA;  consciousness is only the surface of the mental ocean, and within its&#xA;  depths are stored up all our experiences. Try and struggle, they would&#xA;  come up and you would be conscious even of your past life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is direct and demonstrative evidence. Verification is the perfect&#xA;  proof of a theory, and here is the challenge thrown to the world by&#xA;  the Rishis. We have discovered the &lt;strong&gt;secret&lt;/strong&gt; by which the very depths of&#xA;  the ocean of memory can be stirred up — try it and you would get a&#xA;  complete reminiscence of your past life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is this secret of revealing our past lives that Swamiji was talking about?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="4166" LastEditDate="2016-02-09T11:06:54.570" LastActivityDate="2016-02-09T11:06:54.570" Title="What secret was Swami Vivekananda saying about in this phrase?" Tags="|vedas|rishi|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10538" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10532" CreationDate="2016-02-09T08:48:02.287" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have two reasonable answers for your question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reason1:&#xA;Normally the wrist portion is in constant activation on any human. Also the pulse beat in this portion is mostly checked for all sorts of ailments. The Bangles used by women are normally in the wrist part of ones hand and its constant friction increases the blood circulation level. Further more the electricity passing out through outer skin is again reverted to one’s own body because of the ring shaped bangles, which has no ends to pass the energy outside but to send it back to the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Inorder to put this in control, or in a way we can say to avoid such impatience problem from occuring, women were asked to wear bangles and some other ornaments waist belt, anklets, armlets. Even Ear rings also have their own significance. Read here to know: Why we pierce ears and why we wear ear rings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reason2:&#xA;Gold is dia-magnetic which means it repels magnetic field. As we are on earth (hopefully you too!:) ), we are surrounded by magnetic fields. Our heart work on small electrical impulses for its functions. When these electrical impulses get opposed by earth's magnetic field, power of the heart to pump the blood reduces. In order to prevent this, we wear gold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gold is a dia-magnetic substance and repels magnetic fields. As it is worn upto the heart position (in the form of pendants), heart will not get the interruption of earth's magnetic field. Hence it does not need to do the 'hard work' to pump blood, which ultimately increases the life of heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastActivityDate="2016-02-09T08:48:02.287" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10539" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10537" CreationDate="2016-02-09T09:22:41.337" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you read more on the same page, you will come across this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The human soul is eternal and immortal, perfect and infinite, and death means only a change of centre from one body to another. The present is determined by our past actions, and the future by the present. The soul will go on evolving up or reverting back from birth to birth and death to death. But here is another question: Is man a tiny boat in a tempest, raised one moment on the foamy crest of a billow and dashed down into a yawning chasm the next, rolling to and fro at the mercy of good and bad actions — a powerless, helpless wreck in an ever-raging, ever-rushing, uncompromising current of cause and effect; a little moth placed under the wheel of causation which rolls on crushing everything in its way and waits not for the widow's tears or the orphan's cry? The heart sinks at the idea, yet this is the law of Nature. Is there no hope? Is there no escape? — was the cry that went up from the bottom of the heart of despair. It reached the throne of mercy, and words of hope and consolation came down and inspired a Vedic sage, and he stood up before the world and in trumpet voice proclaimed the glad tidings: &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Hear, ye children of immortal bliss! even ye that reside in higher spheres! I have found the Ancient One who is beyond all darkness, all delusion: knowing Him alone you shall be saved from death over again.&quot; &quot;Children of immortal bliss&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; — what a sweet, what a hopeful name! Allow me to call you, brethren, by that sweet name — heirs of immortal bliss — yea, the Hindu refuses to call you sinners. Ye are the Children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. Ye divinities on earth — sinners! It is a sin to call a man so; it is a standing libel on human nature. Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The secret Swami Vivekananda was referring to was the knowledge of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2016-02-09T09:22:41.337" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10543" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10530" CreationDate="2016-02-09T13:21:27.773" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, there may be different beliefs and conditions while worshipping the God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read the following relation between Shakti and Shiva from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaktism#Shakti_and_Shiva&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shaktism&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shaktism's focus on the Divine Feminine does not imply a rejection of Masculine or Neuter divinity. However, both are deemed to be inactive in the absence of Shakti. As set out in the first line of Adi Shankara's renowned Shakta hymn, Saundaryalahari (c. 800 CE): &lt;strong&gt;&quot;If Shiva is united with Shakti, he is able to create. If he is not, he is incapable even of stirring.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; This is the fundamental tenet of Shaktism, as emphasized in the widely known image of the goddess Kali striding atop the seemingly lifeless body of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Broadly speaking, Shakti is considered to be the cosmos itself – she is the embodiment of energy and dynamism, and the motivating force behind all action and existence in the material universe. Shiva is her transcendent masculine aspect, providing the divine ground of all being. &lt;strong&gt;&quot;There is no Shiva without Shakti, or Shakti without Shiva. The two [...] in themselves are One&quot;&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Considering all creation of Shiva and Shakti as union, may be the reason for worshipping them together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2016-02-09T13:21:27.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10544" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-09T13:49:42.090" Score="6" ViewCount="1504" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anybody please tell me about the power of Gayatri Mantra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I often listen to this and feel something.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4836" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-03-24T11:37:36.407" LastActivityDate="2018-02-24T14:14:13.893" Title="Power of Gayatri Mantra" Tags="|mantras|meditation|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10545" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5187" CreationDate="2016-02-09T15:21:47.057" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;brahmandastra is the most powerful weapon.it is made up of Brahma 5 heads.it is usefully to neutralize the narayanaastra or pasupathastra.karna, parushuram ,drona and bhism have this.and parushuram ram cursed  karna to forget this mantra at the time when most needed.and Brahmashirsha is the second best karna arjuna bhism drona drona parushuram have this weapon&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4837" LastActivityDate="2016-02-09T15:21:47.057" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10546" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-09T16:39:06.780" Score="7" ViewCount="4515" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Ravana was the greatest worshipper of Lord Shiva, why could not he pick up Shiva's bow during mother Sita's &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swayamvara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;svayamwar&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And is Ravana rightly termed to be the cruelest and most wicked rakshasa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4825" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-09T17:18:12.960" LastActivityDate="2019-02-10T17:22:34.677" Title="Why could not Ravana pick up Shiva's bow during Sita's svayamwar?" Tags="|shiva|ramayana|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10547" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10549" CreationDate="2016-02-09T23:10:54.133" Score="1" ViewCount="3509" Body="&lt;p&gt;For what fault or great sin did Vishnu punish Mahabali by pushing him to Pathala?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Mahabali was known to be a pious person, even direct paternal grandson his great devotee Prahlad , a king kind to his people whom he ruled very well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the  declaration -  &lt;em&gt;&quot;Yada Yada hi Dharmasya Glanir Bhavathi Bharatha, Abhyuthanamadharmasya Tadatmanam SrijanyaAham'.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The God takes self-birth Avatars to destroy evil sinners and re-establish dharmic order. But Mahabali Emperor had no bad track record, even was directly blessed by Vamana himself before deportation to Pathala and so on, then what was the cause or provocation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T17:47:55.440" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T17:47:55.440" Title="Why did Vishnu in Vamanavathar push Bali into the netherworld?" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10549" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10547" CreationDate="2016-02-10T06:46:33.090" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the Mahabali Emporor had no bad track record&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This does not seems to be the case. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagwat Purana&lt;/a&gt;, below situation is mentioned:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bali Mahārāja, after offering obeisances to Prahlāda, the brāhmaṇas&#xA;  and his spiritual master, Śukrācārya, equipped himself to fight with&#xA;  Indra and went to Indrapurī with his soldiers.Blowing his conchshell, he attacked the outskirts of Indra’s kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, basically, he was attacking and trying to acquire the property/wealth of Indra, &lt;strong&gt;by force&lt;/strong&gt;. That does not seems like a good quality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also as you mentioned, King Mahabali was a generous man who won the praise of the world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the flip side of this is mentioned in  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This praise, from his courtiers and others, led him to think of&#xA;  himself as the greatest person in the world. He believed that he can&#xA;  help any one and can donate whatever they ask. Even though he became&#xA;  benevolent, he became pompous of his activities and forgot that the&#xA;  almighty is above him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bali become proud of his possessions(again, not the best of the qualities) as identified and explicitly spelled in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/21/34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;S.B.8.21.34&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vipralabdho dadāmīti  tvayāhaṁ cāḍhya-māninā tad vyalīka-phalaṁ&#xA;  bhuṅkṣva  nirayaṁ katicit samāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; Being falsely proud of your possessions, you promised to give Me land, but you could not fulfill your promise. Therefore, because your promise was false, you must live for a few years in hellish life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After gaining all the strength, he become a threat to universe itself, as mentioned in Bhagwat Purana, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/15/26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;S.B.8.15.26&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nainaṁ kaścit kuto vāpi  prativyoḍhum adhīśvaraḥ pibann iva mukhenedaṁ&#xA;   lihann iva diśo daśa dahann iva diśo dṛgbhiḥ  saṁvartāgnir ivotthitaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; No one anywhere can counteract this military arrangement of Bali’s. It now appears that Bali is trying to drink up the entire universe with his mouth, lick up the ten directions with his tongue, and raise fire in every direction with his eyes. Indeed, he has arisen like the annihilating fire known as saṁvartaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, of course, with this kind of situation, As per &quot;Yada yada hi dharmasya glani..&quot; declaration the God takes self-birth Avatars to destroy evil sinners and re-establish dharmic order. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, Vamana Avatar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T08:09:29.663" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T08:09:29.663" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10550" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10558" CreationDate="2016-02-10T07:50:02.470" Score="10" ViewCount="1290" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many (not all mind you) &amp;quot;How to do sandhyavandanam&amp;quot; videos and PDFs, the performer starts with the achamanam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Achyutaya Namaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anantaya Namaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Govindaya Namaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same procedure is also found in many &amp;quot;How to do a Puja&amp;quot; tutorials.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: How valid are these mantras (or any other Vedic Mantras for that matter) when they are not preceded by the Pranava OM?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T08:30:01.353" Title="Is reciting Vedic Mantras without being preceded by &quot;Om&quot; condemned somewhere in Vedas or in other scriptures?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|om|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10551" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-10T07:50:21.480" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T07:50:21.480" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T07:50:21.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10552" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-10T07:50:21.480" Score="0" Body="Cremation is the funeral rite , performed by burning the dead body. Also called as &quot;Antima Sanskar&quot;, child below the age of puberty is typically buried." OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T07:50:21.480" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T07:50:21.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10553" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10547" CreationDate="2016-02-10T08:51:06.393" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shukracharya recognized Vamana as Lord&#xA;Vishnu himself.So he tried to dissuade King&#xA;Bali from fulfilling his promise.&#xA; Shukracharya was aware that Lord Vamana would cover Bali's&#xA;entire kingdom (the universe) with two steps, not leaving any space for a&#xA;third step. Bali rejected his guru's advice because it contradicted with the&#xA;principle of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bali Maharaja said, &quot;I do not fear hell, poverty, an ocean of&#xA;distress, falldown from my position, or even death itself as much as I fear&#xA;cheating a brahmana.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing this, Shukracharya curse that he would suffer in hell for disobeying his Guru's words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also an another reason for King Bali's abandonment form earth.When Vamanadeva had appeared in the womb of Aditi, Prahlada(Grandfather of King Bali) had&#xA;warned Bali that the Lord would soon defeat the demons and return the&#xA;heavens to the demigods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bali had arrogantly said, &quot;Who is this Vishnu compared to my&#xA;demon warriors?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upon hearing this, Prahlada had  him: &quot;How&#xA;can you speak like this? I curse you to lose your prestigious position and your kingdom and will be banished from earth,for&#xA;you have insulted my worshipable Lord Vishnu.&quot;&#xA;Infact the story of Mahabali is an example of total surrender and true devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further Vamana justifies his action of punishing Bali for removing Indra from his position before the expiry of his tenure.(Dialogue between Banasura,son of King Bali and Lord Vamana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T08:51:06.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10555" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10564" CreationDate="2016-02-10T09:41:09.663" Score="10" ViewCount="2718" Body="&lt;p&gt;From my own &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/206/76&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt; regarding third gender and its acceptance in Hinduism, I got to know about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krittivasi_Ramayan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krittivasi Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;, which says that Bhagiratha was raised by two co-widows, who made love together with divine blessing. It explains that his name Bhagiratha comes from the word &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=bhaga&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;bhaga&lt;/a&gt; (vulva), because he was born of two vulvas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I never heard about it anywhere else. Is there any mention of Bhagiratha's parents in any Vedic text? And who raised him? Do non-Bengali old scriptures also say he was raised by a lesbian couple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-04-05T14:40:09.707" Title="Is it mentioned in any ancient scripture that Bhagiratha was raised by a lesbian couple?" Tags="|ramayana|gender|bhagiratha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10556" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-10T10:26:42.837" Score="12" ViewCount="7022" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is Lord Vishnu portrayed in &lt;strong&gt;blue&lt;/strong&gt; color? Is there any incident in Hindu mythology explaining this? If yes, then please do share that story!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4841" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T16:21:07.683" LastActivityDate="2016-09-01T11:31:26.537" Title="Why is Lord Vishnu blue in color?" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10558" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10550" CreationDate="2016-02-10T11:39:05.373" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Upanishads say that the Vedas are Om. Om is the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why prayers and rites are started with Om is explained in &lt;em&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; I.viii.1. (Swami Gambhirananda translator) - &quot;...A Brahman, when about to recite the &lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt; utters &lt;em&gt;Om&lt;/em&gt; under the idea, 'I shall attain Brahman'. He does verily attain Brahman.&quot; At the end of his commentary on this verse, Sankara says: &quot;The purport of the passage is that, &lt;strong&gt;since the activities that are undertaken with the utterance of &lt;em&gt;Om&lt;/em&gt; become fruitful&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Om&lt;/em&gt; should be meditated on as Brahman.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also see &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 3.3.63-64 and &lt;em&gt;Chandogya&lt;/em&gt; I.1.9.The &lt;em&gt;Chandogya&lt;/em&gt; verse says (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These Vedic rites are begun with it [Om]. After uttering Om (the Adhvaryu) chants the hymns (for the gods). (the Hota) praises (the gods). (the Udgata) sings. (These rites are meant) for the worship of this very &lt;em&gt;Om&lt;/em&gt;. Through the greatness and essence of &lt;em&gt;Om&lt;/em&gt; (are begun the rites enjoined by the Vedas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So scripture says rites are always started with Om as they become fruitful with the recitation of the &lt;em&gt;Om&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T11:39:05.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10559" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10550" CreationDate="2016-02-10T11:59:17.280" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason why every rite should commence with OM is given in this passage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The syllable Om is the root from which the Vedas have sprung. (Every&#xA;  rite, therefore, should commence with the utterance of that syllable&#xA;  of vast import). Of him who has uttered for him the syllables Om,&#xA;  Namas, Swaha, Svadha, and Vashat, and who has according to the extent&#xA;  of his ability, performed sacrifices, and other rites, there is no&#xA;  fear in respect of next life in all the three worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXVIII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T11:59:17.280" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10562" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10544" CreationDate="2016-02-10T14:34:14.943" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Becoming radiant Divine light is the greatest benefit, but if that’s not enough for you, or you think it’s too far away, along the path to Divinity there are many other benefits that you can enjoy sooner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the powers from Gayatri mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Removes obstacles from your life&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Protects you from danger&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brightens you mind&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dispels ignorance&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Improves communication abilities&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Opens your psychic vision &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brings direct knowledge of the eternal&#xA;truths&#xA;You can call these are some few powers we can attain as per from my resources. Still there are many powerful gains through this mantra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/gayatri-mantra-meaning-advance-benefits-and-power&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/gayatri-mantra-meaning-advance-benefits-and-power&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-02-24T14:14:13.893" LastActivityDate="2018-02-24T14:14:13.893" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10563" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="615" CreationDate="2016-02-10T16:02:31.387" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The mantras are from the Shikshavalli of Taittiriya Upanishad, Yujur Veda.&#xA;It is part of the famous four phrase code of conduct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मातृदेवो भव ।  पितृदेवो भव ।  आचार्यदेवो भव ।  &lt;strong&gt;अतिथिदेवो भव&lt;/strong&gt;  । &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  matrudevo bhava | pitrudevo bhava | acharyadevo bhava | &lt;strong&gt;atithidevo bhava&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shikshavalli partly includes advice on ethics and morals given to graduating students from a Vedic gurukul (school) and their responsibilities after graduation apart from prayers and philosophical instructions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Atithi means Na (No), tithi (Dates). So it means unannounced (unexpected) guest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T16:18:04.913" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T16:18:04.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10564" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10555" CreationDate="2016-02-10T17:13:31.480" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagiratha is the biological son of Dilipa.&lt;/strong&gt;  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga70/bala_70_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, during Rama and Sita's wedding the sage Vasishtha describes the ancestry of Rama.  In particular, he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From Sagara it is Asamanja and from Asamanja it is Amshuman, and from Amshuman it is Diliipa, and the son of Diliipa is Bhageeratha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Anśumat was Dilípa 5; his son was Bhagíratha, who brought Gangá down to earth, whence she is called Bhágirathí. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But for definitive evidence that Bhagiratha was Dilipa's biological son and not someone born from Dilipa's widows after Dilipa's death, this chapter of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana describes Dilipa actually handing over the throne to Bhagiratha while he's still alive:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That best one among men, namely king Dileepa, on anointing his son Bhageeratha in the kingdom went to the abode of Indra, namely the heaven, only by his self-acquired merits of deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is confirmed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And a son was born to him, known by the name of Bhagiratha beauteous, and devoted to a virtuous life, and truthful, and free from feelings of malice. And Dilipa appointed him as king, and betook himself to the forest life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.manushi-india.org/pdfs_issues/PDF%20146/Pg%2022-33.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this journal paper&lt;/a&gt;, the earliest sources that mention Bhagiratha being born from two widdows are the Krittivasi Ramayana and a Bengali manuscript of the Padma Purana, both dating to the 14th century.  So I think it's pretty clear that this is not an authentic story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One note of caution: there is a famous story, told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/wCSA&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Padma Purana and popularized by Kalidasa's poem &lt;em&gt;Raghuvamsa&lt;/em&gt;, of a king named Dilipa who propitiated the cow Nandini and thereby obtained a son, Raghu.  But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana makes clear that this is not the famous Dilipa who lived a few generations after Sagara, but rather another Dilipa who lived a few generations before Rama.  So don't make the mistake of thinking that Bhagiratha and Raghu were brothers; Bhagiratha was an ancient ancestor of Raghu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-05T15:14:53.443" LastActivityDate="2016-03-05T15:14:53.443" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10565" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10568" CreationDate="2016-02-10T18:53:46.753" Score="5" ViewCount="2607" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Deity_Worship/Rama_Puja.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; link:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 acamana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om keshavaya svaha &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om narayanaya svaha &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om madhavaya svaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have noticed that this achamanam is popular mostly among Telugu speaking communities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question: Which scripture is the source for this achamanam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T21:40:54.277" LastActivityDate="2016-02-19T05:10:07.470" Title="Which scripture is the source for this Achamanam?" Tags="|scripture|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10568" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10565" CreationDate="2016-02-10T19:36:44.027" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Âchamana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is one of most rituals of Hindu religion and is performed before almost all brahmin rituals in order to gain purity of mind and body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk11ch16.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the explanation of &lt;strong&gt;Âchamana&lt;/strong&gt; in &lt;strong&gt;Devibhagwatpurana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Firstly make the ordinary &lt;strong&gt;Âchaman&lt;/strong&gt; three times, and, while inhaling, drink a little of the water of Âchaman, repeating &lt;strong&gt;“Om Kes’avâya Svâhâ, Om Nârâyanâya Svâhâ, Om Mâdhavâya Svâhâ.&lt;/strong&gt;” Then wash your two hands, repeating “Om Gobindâya Namah, Om Visnave Namah.” Then by the root of the thumb rub the lips repeating “Om Madhû sûdanâya Namah, Om Trivikramâya Namah.” So rub the mouth, repeating “Om Vâmamâya Namah, Om S’rîdharâya Namah.” Then sprinkle water on the left hand, saying “Om Hrisîkes’âya Namah.” Sprinkle water on the legs, saying “Om Padmanâbhâya Namah.” Sprinkle water on the head, saying “Om Dâmodarâya Namah.” Touch the mouth with the three fingers of the right hand, saying “Om Samkarsanâya Namah.” Touch the nostrils with the thumb and forefinger saying “Om Vâsudevâya Namah, Om Pradyumnâya Namah.” Touch the eyes with the thumb and ring-finger, saying “Om Aniruddhâya Namah, Om Purusottamâya Namah.” Touch the ears with the thumb and ringfinger saying “Om Adhoksajâya Namah, Om Nârasimhâya Namah.” Touch the navel with the thumb and little finger saying “Om Achyutâya Namah.” Touch the breast with the palm, saying “Om Janârdanâya Namah.” Touch the head saying “Om Upendrâya Namah.” Touch the roots of the two arms saying “Om Haraye Namah, Om Krisnâya Namah.&lt;/em&gt;”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;While sipping the Âchaman water on the right hand, touch the right hand with your left hand; otherwise; the water does not become pure. While doing Âchaman, make the palm and the fingers all united and close, of the form of a Gokarna (the ear of a cow) and spreading the thumb and the little finger, drink the water of the measure of a pea. If a greater or less quantity be sipped, then that would amount to drinking liquor.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-19T05:10:07.470" LastActivityDate="2016-02-19T05:10:07.470" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10569" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-10T20:33:48.637" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T20:33:48.637" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T20:33:48.637" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10570" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-10T20:33:48.637" Score="0" Body="it's a practice of choosing a husband, from among a list of suitors, by a girl of marriageable age. Swayam in Sanskrit means self and vara means groom in this context." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T05:30:24.977" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T05:30:24.977" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10571" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-10T20:34:26.683" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T20:34:26.683" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T20:34:26.683" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10572" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-10T20:34:26.683" Score="0" Body="Pashupatastra is the weapon of Pashupatinath, the most important of all Shiva temples, located in Kathmandu, Nepal. In the Mahabharata war Arjuna obtained this weapon from Lord Shiva but did not use it because this weapon would destroy the entire world, if used against a mortal enemy." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T11:21:42.127" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T11:21:42.127" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10573" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-10T20:35:34.003" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T20:35:34.003" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T20:35:34.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10574" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-10T20:35:34.003" Score="0" Body="Goddess Tara is probably the oldest goddess who is still worshipped extensively in modern times. Tara originated as a Hindu goddess, a Great Goddess -- the Mother Creator, representing the eternal life force that fuels all life. " OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T09:57:56.893" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T09:57:56.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10575" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-10T20:36:31.447" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T20:36:31.447" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T20:36:31.447" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10576" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-10T20:36:31.447" Score="0" Body="It's the sixteenth Purana. During the period of Mahapralaya, Lord Vishnu had taken Matsya avatar (fish incarnation) to save the seeds of all lives and Manu." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T11:21:04.550" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T11:21:04.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10577" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-10T20:37:30.697" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-10T20:37:30.697" LastActivityDate="2016-02-10T20:37:30.697" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10578" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-10T20:37:30.697" Score="0" Body="Bhagirath was a great king who brought the River Ganges, personified as the river goddess Ganga, to Earth from the heavens." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T11:21:34.350" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T11:21:34.350" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10579" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10590" CreationDate="2016-02-10T20:45:31.457" Score="4" ViewCount="388" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Ashvalayana Ghriya Sutra, during a munja of a Kshatriya it is dictated that the munja/girdle should be made out of a bowstring. Since it was written when Kshatriyas or solders used bows and arrows and they might not have access to synthetic materials like Nylon etc., how was bowstring constructed in ancient times and with what material? Does any hindu scripture mentions bowstring's composition? I think Mahabharata or Ramayana might have these details as these books mentioned big wars and great kshatriyas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-29T03:40:06.770" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T15:35:32.257" Title="What is pratyancha/bowstring made of?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|rituals|practice|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10582" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10544" CreationDate="2016-02-11T05:25:47.173" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The power of the Gayatri mantra is explained in the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;Brhadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt;. The &lt;em&gt;Brhadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (V.xiv.1.) says (Swami Madhavananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Bhumi' (the earth), 'Antariksa' (sky) and 'Dyaus' (heaven) make eight syllables, and the first foot of the Gayatri has eight syllables. So the above three worlds constitute the first foot of the Gayatri. He who knows the first foot of the Gayatri to be such wins as much as there is in those three worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and Sankara's commentary on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Now the meditation on it [Brahman] as possessing the limiting adjunct of the Gayatri has to be stated; hence the present section. Gayatri is the chief of all metres. It is called Gayatri because, as will be said later on, it protects the organs of those that recite it. Other metres have not this power. The verse Gayatri is identical with the vital force, and the latter is the soul (because it helps in their utterance) of all metres. The vital force, as has been said, is called Ksatra on account of its protecting the body by healing its wounds; (and Gayatri saves the organs if its reciters. So) Gayatri is identical with the vital force. Hence the meditation on Gayatri is being particularly enjoined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (III.12.1.) says (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gayatri is verily all these beings that there are. Speech is indeed Gayatri. Speech indeed sings of all these creatures and protects them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sankara's commentary on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Although there are many metres still, Gayatri is accepted as the door to the knowledge of Brahman because of its pre-eminence. In a sacrifice Gayatri has pre-eminence...Further, since Gayatri is essential to the Brahmanas, and since the great reverence for it is well known, one cannot attain anything higher, including Brahman Itself as spoken of, by rejecting Gayatri which is like one's own mother. Therefore, Brahman is spoken of with the help of the Gayatri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For further reference see &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 1.1.25-27.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T05:25:47.173" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10584" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-11T07:10:05.610" Score="11" ViewCount="1323" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata Bhishm narrates the Vishnu Sahasranamam to Yudhishthir.&#xA;Later he inquires about Lord Shiva; but Bhishm being incapable sends him to Lord Krishna.&#xA;Bhishma in prolog to the Shiva Sahasranam says the following verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma Vishnu suresaanaam srushtaa cha prabhureva cha, Brahmaadaya&#xA;  pisachaantha yam hi deva upasathe. 4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is the one who created Brahma, Vishnu and other devas, He is their&#xA;  Lord and he is worshipped by, Brahma , devas, ghosts and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saivism.net/prayers/sahasranamam.asp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However there is/are puranas that describe Rudra to be born of Brahma(sorry im unable to find the reference to this; i read so and that it is mentioned in either Padma or Skanda puran).&#xA;Knowing that there are no conflicts in Vedas or other vedic scriptures; as discussed by @Keshav Srinivasan in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10111/how-come-the-vedas-describe-mostly-the-vamana-avatara-of-vishnu&quot;&gt;This Answer&lt;/a&gt; ; I'm unable to understand this seemingly conflict.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because if Lord Rudra is born from eyebrows of Brahma; than in next Manvantara or Universe Shiva must be born in similar way if i understand the answer correctly that I've linked above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also it is difficult to understand how Shiva who is eternal is born from Brahma who is of this material world and mortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT 1:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;In case we take the view of Skanda Puran that in some universes Supreme lord menifests himself as Lord Shankar first and other times as Lord Narayan; from whom other two trimurtis are born.&#xA;But in Vedanta Sutras(refer to link to above mentioned answer) it is said that the '&lt;strong&gt;names and events Reoccur&lt;/strong&gt;'. In that case if say; Lord Shankar is born by lord Brahma(as per Skanda purana); shouldn't he be always manifested through Brahma in all the universes and manvantaras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit 2&lt;/strong&gt;: Another example is that of sage bhrigu. Bhrigu is refered to as son of varuna in Taitreya Upanishad. Whereas some other scriptures mention him as son of Lord Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-10-22T16:29:15.017" Title="How does the names and events reoccur in different manvantara or Kalpa or different universes?" Tags="|vedas|mahabharata|shiva|puranas|manvantara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10587" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-11T12:17:12.673" Score="9" ViewCount="16033" Body="&lt;p&gt;The epics Ramayana and Mahabharata happened in Treta yuga and Dwapara yuga respectively. Likewise, is there any epic which will take place in Kali yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-29T11:26:43.117" LastActivityDate="2022-12-24T11:44:48.527" Title="Which epic happens in Kali yuga, like Ramayana happened in Treta yuga and Mahabharata happened in Dwapara yuga?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|yuga|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10588" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10518" CreationDate="2016-02-11T13:33:33.483" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It’s very interesting, one day in Kailash, Goddess Parvati was looking a little bit bored because Shiva was just sitting there in deep, deep meditation. And she called, “Oh Lord.” And Shiva didn’t respond.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Parvati just stood there watching him for a long, long time. And ultimately when Lord Shiva opened his eyes, Goddess Parvati bowed down with devotion to the Lord. And she asked surprisingly, “My Lord, I have a question. The whole world meditates upon you, everyone is praying to you, meditating upon you, contemplating you, upon whom are you meditating?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Lord Shiva replied with a smile, “I always meditate on Rama. Rama is always in my heart&quot; and with the happy face he continued, &quot;Lord Vishnu is going to take Rama avatar with Goddess Lakshmi and I will serve them with Hanuman&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(This conversation happened before Rama avatar of Lord Vishnu)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From this conversation, it is clear that Lord Shiva mediates on Lord Rama. It is not only because of Lord Rama,the avatar of Lord Vishnu. Lord Shiva always have pure love on Lord Rama and so he give Lord Rama such a holy place in his heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="3996" LastEditDate="2016-02-11T14:43:06.300" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T14:43:06.300" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10590" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10579" CreationDate="2016-02-11T14:01:36.943" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;chapter 2&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti says about the girdle:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mauñjī trivṛt samā ślakṣṇā kāryā viprasya mekhalā । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   kṣatriyasya tu maurvī jyā vaiśyasya śaṇatāntavī ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The girdle of a Brahmana shall consist of a triple cord of Munga grass, smooth and soft; (that) of a Kshatriya, of a bowstring, made of Murva fibres; (that) of a Vaisya, of hempen threads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=HK&amp;amp;beginning=0%20&amp;amp;tinput=Murva&amp;amp;trans=Translate&amp;amp;direction=SE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; Sanskrit-English dictionary, Murva refers to &quot;Indian bowstring-hemp  [ Sanseviera Roxburghiana - Bot. ]&quot;.  See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.toxicologycentre.com/English/plants/Botanical/sarppapola.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt; for more information on the Sanseviera Roxburghiana plant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-12T15:35:32.257" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T15:35:32.257" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10591" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-11T15:10:32.417" Score="2" ViewCount="174" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do Patanjali's yoga aphorisms or any other scriptures mention anything about which yoga asanas we should practice everyday?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T05:17:55.023" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T05:17:55.023" Title="Do any scriptures mention which yoga asanas should be performed everyday?" Tags="|vedas|yoga|yoga-sutras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10592" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10587" CreationDate="2016-02-11T15:10:45.137" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, this is a very broad question. I can only say epics do not happen because they have to happen. Great sages from ancient times written those great works to mention coming generations about how they need to lead life and what happened to various people who obeyed or disobeyed god and dharma. These epics are serving the sole purpose of enlighting the generations. Kaliyuga is the last part of the Mahayuga (which contains kruthayuga, threthayuga, dwaparayuga, kaliyuga) and after kaliyuga the clock resets to kruthayuga where these dharmas are no longer valid and have more stricter rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anlayzing those epics what scholars conclude is in kruthayuga the god and bad are separated by planets. Gods recided in urdhva lokas and demons in adho lokas, and whenever there are problems, god took incarnation of some form and killed those demons. In threthayuga, good and bad were in the same world and separated by kingdoms (Rama and Ravana). God just not changed his form, but rather took birth, and he not only killed ravana but also showed the world how one should lead life to attain higher world and ultimately moksha. In dwaparayuga, good and bad were in the same family (Kauravas and Pandavas), then god motivated good people, corrected them, and made them kill the bad ones. He did not do it by himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In kaliyuga good and bad are in the same person, no one is perfectly good or bad. So in kaliyuga people do not change much by teachings or preachings or even model living, and people tend to become more bad as the kaliyuga progresses. Hence the only way to correct is by creating maha pralaya (destruction as kalki).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4859" LastEditorUserId="7984" LastEditDate="2022-12-24T11:44:48.527" LastActivityDate="2022-12-24T11:44:48.527" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10593" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-11T15:50:38.900" Score="8" ViewCount="1392" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pictures commonly found across the internet depict Goddesses with their hair untied. Example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/op48o.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/op48o.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My knowledge is that women shouldn't have their hair untied. I've also heard in discourses (&lt;em&gt;pravachanams&lt;/em&gt;) that a woman should never let her husband see her with untied hair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With that in mind, I had these questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What do our śāstras say in this regard? Can a woman leave her hair loose or untied?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is depicting Goddesses with their hair untied, against what our śāstras recommend? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another observation I've made is that North Indians are quite okay with Goddesses with untied hair, whether it's a painted picture or a digital image; however, South Indians condemn that practice. To what extent is my observation correct?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I tried searching for these doubts on the internet, but the best I got was a forum filled with opinions of few ladies who believe it's harmless to discontinue traditional practices that are not &quot;modern&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user560" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-04T22:48:21.253" LastActivityDate="2017-03-29T10:22:43.533" Title="Are women allowed to let their hair loose? Why are Goddesses depicted with their hair untied?" Tags="|tradition|women|goddess|scripture|smriti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10594" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10556" CreationDate="2016-02-11T17:27:01.590" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adding to Pandya's Answer, Skanda Purana explains how Vaikunta became blue and gives a reason for His color.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-i/chapter-09/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 9 Churning of Ocean in Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; says Halahal Poison made Vaikunta blue and Lord Vishnu to color of Taamala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;By that time, the great poison, Kaalakuta came there. After burning Brahma's world at the outset, it burned Vaikunta.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu who dwells in the cavity of the heart of everyone, was burned by the fire of Kaalakuta also with his attendants. &lt;strong&gt;Immediately&#xA;he acquired the color of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamomum_tamala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tamaala&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaikunta also became blue in color&lt;/strong&gt;. It was surrounded by all the worlds. Hence all the worlds became encircled by the poisonous&#xA;substance from the waters.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tamaala is Indian bay leaf. I checked &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-mahapuranam/vol-i/chapter-09/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Verses&lt;/a&gt; and word &lt;strong&gt;Taamala&lt;/strong&gt; is used to describe Vishnu. Bay leaves are generally &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamomum_tamala#Characteristics&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;olive green in color&lt;/a&gt; but dried leaves are brown in color. So, i'm not sure about what exactly does author mean by  color of Tamaala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T05:13:02.057" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10595" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10518" CreationDate="2016-02-11T18:18:43.110" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva meditates in Nirvikalp Samadhi(breathless and thoughtless state).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samādhi (Sanskrit: समाधि, Hindi pronunciation: [səˈmaːd̪ʱi])&#xA;  schools refers to a state of meditative consciousness. It is a&#xA;  meditative absorption or trance, attained by the practice of&#xA;  dhyāna. In samādhi the mind becomes still. It is a state of being&#xA;  totally aware of the present moment; a one-pointedness of mind&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samadhi is similar to deep sleep state, which everyone experiences within sleep every night, the difference being self is aware of real self(soul) and not being a body in Samadhi, whereas deep sleep is born out of ignorance of unenlightened people in which self thinks that self donot exist during deep sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Real meditation is thoughtless, meditation on form of God is just done for bringing never fulfilling thirst of senses from worldly distractions and making mind one pointedness which is also called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratyahara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pratyahara&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;Cessation of mind and its thoughts, itself is highest level of Yoga(union with Brahman), while Shiva being Adi Yogi, is Sagun form of that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also explained in Shiva Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 5 – Siva is with form and formless. Having both attributes,&#xA;  Siva is worshipped in the Linga and the embodied form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Formless aspect is also called Brahman in Vedas, and Brahman has no ego. It is Sat Chit Ananda, true blissful and ever-pervading.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2016-02-11T18:18:43.110" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10596" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10587" CreationDate="2016-02-12T03:38:05.007" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are you talking of Lords Appearance in this world in Kali Yuga? Then the answer is Yes. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaitanya_Mahaprabhu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Chaitnya MahaPrabhu&lt;/a&gt; appeared in Bengal around 500 years ago. The entire episode is elaborately described in the epics, if you like to call it that way, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaitanya_Charitamrita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chaitanya Charitamrita&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaitanya_Bhagavata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chaitanya Bhagavata&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaitanya_Mangala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chaitanya Mangala&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He appearied especially to deliver the people of this age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4778" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T03:38:05.007" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10598" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7848" CreationDate="2016-02-12T08:21:22.817" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You yourself, are watching yourself. This is explained in Ashtavakra Geeta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Righteousness and unrighteousness, pleasure and pain are purely of the&#xA;  mind and are no concern of yours. You are neither the doer nor the&#xA;  reaper of the consequences, so you are always free. 1.6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You are the one witness of everything and are always completely free.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The cause of your bondage is that you see the witness as something&#xA;  other than this.&lt;/strong&gt; 1.7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The body, heaven and hell, bondage and liberation, and fear too, all&#xA;  this is pure imagination. What is there left to do for me whose very&#xA;  nature is consciousness? 2.20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One true non-dual consciousness, is real self, pervading everything like space and watching a foolish play, called universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T08:21:22.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10599" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10600" CreationDate="2016-02-12T09:18:33.750" Score="8" ViewCount="482" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think getting information and knowledge about Hinduism is very useful for knowing and learning about Hinduism. So, I want to ask:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where can I find/get basic information and knowledge about Hinduism on the web?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Recommend the resources that are written by Indian academics rather than Western or Christian . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-06-13T13:18:05.717" LastActivityDate="2019-12-19T10:36:02.880" Title="Where can I find/get basic information about Hinduism on the web?" Tags="|resource|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10599" CreationDate="2016-02-12T09:18:33.750" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Few places to get information &amp;amp; knowledge about Hinduism,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;*&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindupedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%80:%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%82_%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bharatkosh&lt;/a&gt; (Hindi)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Veda.Wikidot&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduindex.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hinduwebsite&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://dharmawiki.org/index.php/Main_Page&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;*Also consider &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;General disclaimer&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; About &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ten_things_you_may_not_know_about_Wikipedia#We_do_not_expect_you_to_trust_us&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;trusting&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt; May be considerable that &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13626/where-are-the-three-levels-of-reality-described#comment32678_13626&quot;&gt;Most part are written by Western Christian academics&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-12-19T10:36:02.880" LastActivityDate="2019-12-19T10:36:02.880" CommentCount="8" CommunityOwnedDate="2016-02-12T09:21:44.090" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10601" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2304" CreationDate="2016-02-12T09:18:50.787" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Advaita, Aatma donot exist, only Brahman(consciousness) exists, Aatma is just a temporary reflection of consciousness, existing in heart. This soul needs to be destroyed to attain Kaivalya Moksha. This is explained by Jad Bharat in Vishnu Puran&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meditation on self, again, is said to be for the sake of supreme&#xA;  truth; but the object of this is to establish distinctions (between&#xA;  soul and body), and the great truth of all is without distinctions.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Union of self with supreme spirit is said to be the great end of all; but this is false; for one substance cannot become substantially&#xA;  another&lt;/strong&gt;. What the great end of all is, you shall, monarch, briefly learn &#xA;  from me. It is Brahman: one (in all bodies), pervading, uniform,&#xA;  perfect, preeminent over nature (Prakriti), exempt from birth, growth,&#xA;  and decay, omnipresent, undecaying, made up of true knowledge,&#xA;  independent, and unconnected with unrealities, with name, species, and&#xA;  the rest, in time present, past, or to come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also explained in Shiva Geeta, that destruction of soul, is required to attain Kaivalya Moksha(non-dual union with Brahman).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The piercing of Sahasrara is done by Yogis, to go to higher realms(within 14 realms of Brahma), when their soul escapes the body, as they have control over their soul and prana, while for normal people, soul escapes through Prana that is controlled by Ishwar/Prakriti(reference Raman Mahrshi's work &quot;Who am I&quot;). But for gyanis, neither soul exists nor Prakriti exists, only Purush/Brahman made of pure consciousness exists. Their liberation is explained in Avadhut Geeta by Dattatreya as a union of pot space into universal Space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;31&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the destruction of a jar, the space in it unites with all space. In myself and Shiva I see no difference when the mind is&#xA;  purified.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In whatever place and in whatever state gyani dies, his spirit is absorbed into That, as, on the destruction of the jar, the&#xA;  space in the jar is united with absolute space.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Whether he dies conscious or in coma, in a holy temple or in the house of an untouchable, he obtains liberation, becoming the&#xA;  all-pervading Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastEditorDisplayName="user3870" LastEditDate="2016-02-12T09:29:09.327" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T09:29:09.327" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10602" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-12T09:34:12.897" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Use this tag to ask for resources. Resources may include:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;document or site that provides commentary on a certain text (Ex. In-depth commentary on the Matsya Purana)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;translations of a certain text into a certain language (Ex. Mahabaratha in Telugu, or the English version of the Skanda Purana)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;compilation of slokas/mantras/texts written by a certain person (Ex. List of slokas collected by Vathsa Somadeva Sarma)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;compilation of texts that offer guidance about the same thing (Ex. List of texts that discuss marriage)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;compilation of texts that offer information about the same thing/person/event (Ex. List of texts that discuss or mention Surpanakha)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are looking for a general online version of a text, (such as pdfs or web archives) please do some prior research beforehand- and this is &lt;em&gt;always&lt;/em&gt; a good practice. There is also a preexisting post &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15424/what-are-some-online-sources-to-get-unabridged-hindu-scriptures-or-to-learn-hind/15425#15425&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; that provides several helpful links.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more guidance regarding this tag, see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1794/mode-of-asking-resource-questions/1795#1795&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; meta post.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you're looking for scripture, see tags &lt;a href=&quot;/questions/tagged/translation-request&quot; class=&quot;post-tag&quot; title=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;translation-request&amp;#39;&quot; aria-label=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;translation-request&amp;#39;&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot; aria-labelledby=&quot;tag-translation-request-tooltip-container&quot;&gt;translation-request&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;/questions/tagged/scripture&quot; class=&quot;post-tag&quot; title=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;scripture&amp;#39;&quot; aria-label=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;scripture&amp;#39;&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot; aria-labelledby=&quot;tag-scripture-tooltip-container&quot;&gt;scripture&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="29157" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-03-02T09:35:11.040" LastActivityDate="2023-03-02T09:35:11.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10603" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-12T09:34:12.897" Score="0" Body="Use this tag to ask for resources, such as online versions of Hindu texts. If you're looking for scripture, use the 'translation-request' or 'scripture' tag" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-03-02T09:31:08.197" LastActivityDate="2023-03-02T09:31:08.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10604" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-12T10:07:11.937" Score="10" ViewCount="1465" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aagami Karma is actions we do in this birth. This is generally said to be free will. See this question: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2399/3500&quot;&gt;Is our destiny predetermined? If yes, then why do our actions affect our karma?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Shiva or Vishnu or a &lt;em&gt;Trikalagnani Yogi&lt;/em&gt; (who can know past, present, and future) know our Aagami Karma? Or do they just know consequences of our Prarabda Karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2019-03-10T18:58:42.187" Title="Does Shiva or Vishnu or Trikaladarshi Yogi know our Aagami Karma or our free will?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|philosophy|karma|rishi|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10605" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-12T10:26:08.210" Score="5" ViewCount="4528" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are popular aartis, that are sung in North, which have initials of Swami Shivananda in their end. For example&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lsN8W.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lsN8W.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gnpu4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gnpu4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is, who is &quot;Swami Shivananda&quot;, composer of such Aartis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2017-09-30T05:41:08.823" Title="Who is Shivananda Swami?" Tags="|shiva|durga|puja|saint|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10606" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-12T11:28:08.720" Score="9" ViewCount="759" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a SriVaishnavite by birth, and am keen on learning the Visistadvaita system of Ramanuja and Vedanta Desika, which is the basis of our Vadakalai Iyengar Sampradaya.&#xA;Whats a good place to start for a beginner? I don't really have any background in philosophy, and am a student of computer science. Do I need to go through Dvaita and Advaita first as prerequisites, or can I directly pick up Visistadvaita?&#xA;Any resources, references and ideas are welcome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4867" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-03-04T21:46:45.883" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T01:22:48.640" Title="Whats a good roadmap to learn Visistadvaita philosophy?" Tags="|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|vishishtadvaita|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10607" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10606" CreationDate="2016-02-12T14:19:23.927" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can read 'Sri Ramanuja Gita Bhasya' translated by Swami Adidevananda. You can also read 'Brahma-Sutras Sri-Bhasya of Sri Ramanuja' translated by Swamis Vireswarananda and Adidevananda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-02-12T14:19:23.927" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10608" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10604" CreationDate="2016-02-12T16:52:21.510" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Brahman definitely knows what choices we're going to make, because Brahman is the one that causes us to make those choices. But then how is it fair that we are punished for choices that Brahman caused us to make?  It's because the choices that Brahman causes us to make now are based on the choices we made in a past birth, and the choices Brahman caused us to make in a past birth are based on our choices in a birth before that, etc., going infinitely far back in time.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here'&lt;/a&gt; what Adi Shankaracharya says in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[F]or although the activity of the soul is not independent, yet the soul does act. The Lord indeed causes it to act, but it acts itself. Moreover, the Lord in causing it to act now has regard to its former efforts, and he caused it to act in a former existence, having regard to its efforts previous to that existence; a regressus against which, considering the eternity of the samsâra, no objections can be raised.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other commentators on the Brahma Sutras say the same thing, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6857/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. So even though Brahman is the efficient cause of our choices, our choices are still ultimately in our hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-02-20T13:13:26.303" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10609" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-12T18:22:12.087" Score="0" ViewCount="633" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Lord Rama went to Sarayu river, how did he die? And what happened to his body after that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am sorry if my question is offensive, but I'm eager to know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4825" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-17T16:16:55.993" LastActivityDate="2016-02-17T16:16:55.993" Title="What happened to Lord Rama once he went into Sarayu river?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-02-14T07:55:08.290" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10614" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10615" CreationDate="2016-02-13T07:20:07.647" Score="6" ViewCount="1019" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharata_(emperor)#Birth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उत्तरं यत्समुद्रस्य हिमाद्रेश्चैव दक्षिणम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;वर्षं तद् भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;uttaraṃ yatsamudrasya himādreścaiva dakṣiṇam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;varṣaṃ tadbhārataṃ nāma bhāratī yatra santatiḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The country (varṣam) that lies north of the ocean and south of the&#xA;snowy mountains is called Bhāratam; there dwell the descendants of&#xA;Bharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In which Mahayuga (with Manvantara) did Bharatha live?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What was name of &lt;strong&gt;Bhāratam&lt;/strong&gt; before the rule of the King Bharatha?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T08:11:14.407" Title="In which Mahayuga and Manvantara, did King Bharatha, after whom India is called Bhārath, live?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|yuga|pandavas|india|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10615" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10614" CreationDate="2016-02-13T13:34:21.217" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;India is called Bharat, after son of King Rishabh. Answer is given here in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp058.htm#page_161&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Puran&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the puranas, there were 3 Bharats:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Bharat, son of Rishabh, in line of Priyavrata Manu after whom India is called Bharat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Bharat, son of Dashrath(Suryanvansh king) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Bharat, son of Dushyanat(Chandravansh Kuru king)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MAITREYA.-- You stated that Priyavrata and Uttánapáda were the sons of&#xA;  Swáyambhuva Manu, and you repeated the story of Dhruva, the son of&#xA;  Uttánapáda: you made no mention of the descendants of Priyavrata, and&#xA;  it is an account of his family that I beg you will kindly communicate&#xA;  to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PARÁŚARA.--Priyavrata married Kámyá, the daughter of the patriarch&#xA;  Kardama, and had by her two daughters, Samrát and Kukshi, and ten&#xA;  sons, wise, valiant, modest, and dutiful, named Agnídhra, Agnibáhu,&#xA;  Vapushmat, Dyutimat, Medha, Medhatithi, Bhavya, Savala, Putra, and the&#xA;  tenth was Jyotishmat 2, illustrious by nature as by name. These were&#xA;  the sons of Priyavrata, famous for strength and prowess. Of these,&#xA;  three, or Medha, Putra, and Agnibáhu, adopted a religious life:&#xA;  remembering the occurrences of a prior existence, they did not covet&#xA;  dominion, but diligently practised the rites of devotion in due&#xA;  season.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Priyavrata having divided the earth into seven continents, gave them&#xA;  respectively to his other seven sons 3. To Agnídhra he gave&#xA;  Jambu-dwípa; to Medhatithi he gave Plaksha-dwípa: he installed&#xA;  Vapushmat in the sovereignty over the Dwípa of Sálmali; and made&#xA;  Jyotishmat king of Kuśa-dwípa: he appointed Dyutimat to rule over&#xA;  Krauncha-dwípa; Bhavya to reign over Sáka-dwípa; and Savala he&#xA;  nominated the monarch of the Dwípa of Pushkara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agnídhra, the king of &lt;strong&gt;Jambu-dwípa&lt;/strong&gt;, had nine sons, equal in splendour&#xA;  to the patriarchs: they were named &lt;strong&gt;Nábhi&lt;/strong&gt;, Kimpurusha, Harivarsha,&#xA;  Ilávrita, Ramya, Hirańvat, Kuru, Bhadráśwa, and Ketumála 4, who was a&#xA;  prince ever active in the practice of piety.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hear next, Maitreya, in what manner Agnídhra apportioned Jambu-dwípa&#xA;  amongst his nine sons. &lt;strong&gt;He gave to Nábhi the country called Hima,&#xA;  south of the Himavat, or snowy mountains&lt;/strong&gt;. The country of Hemakút́a&#xA;  he gave to Kimpurusha; and to Harivarsha, the country of Nishadha. The&#xA;  region in the centre of which mount Meru is situated he conferred on&#xA;  Ilávrita; and to Ramya, the countries lying between it and the Níla&#xA;  mountain. To Hirańvat his father gave the country lying to the north&#xA;  of it, called Śweta; and, on the north of the Śweta mountains, the&#xA;  country bounded by the Śringaván range he gave to Kuru. The countries&#xA;  on the east of Meru he assigned to Bhadráśwa; and Gandhamádana, which&#xA;  lay west of it, he gave to Ketumála&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nábhi, who had for his portion the country of Himáhwa, had by his&#xA;  queen Meru the magnanimous Rishabha; and he had a hundred sons, the&#xA;  eldest of whom was Bharata. Rishabha having ruled with equity and&#xA;  wisdom, and celebrated many sacrificial rites, resigned the&#xA;  sovereignty of the earth to the heroic Bharata, and, retiring to the&#xA;  hermitage of Pulastya, adopted the life of an anchoret, practising&#xA;  religious penance, and performing all prescribed ceremonies, until,&#xA;  emaciated by his austerities, so as to be but a collection of skin and&#xA;  fibres, he put a pebble in his mouth, and naked went the way of all&#xA;  flesh. &lt;strong&gt;The country was termed Bhárata from the time that it was&#xA;  relinquished to Bharata by his father, on his retiring to the woods.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This was the creation of Swáyambhuva Manu, by which the earth was&#xA;  peopled, when he presided over the first Manwantara, in the Kalpa of&#xA;  Varáha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bharata Varsha, ruled by King Nabhi, was earlier called &quot;Hima&quot; as explained in Vishnu Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/rjgr/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter Race of Priyavrata: Description of seven continents of Brahmanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; says Grandsons of Swayambhuva Manu colonized the Earth in first Treta Yuga of Swayambhuva Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suta said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Svayambhuva Manvantara had ten grandsons who were similar to him. The entire earth. The entire earth consisting of seven continents was&#xA;  colonized by them along with its towns, oceans and mines in every&#xA;  sub-continent in &lt;strong&gt;the first Treta-Yuga of Swayambhuva Manvantara.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  (Pg-135)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Thus the entire earth consisting of seven continents were colonized by seven sons of Priyavrata, who were the grandsons of Svayambhuva&#xA;  Manvnatara. (Pg-139)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Thus, when annihilation takes place, these seven settlements are created again and again by the kings of all seven sub-continents.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This is nature of colonization of continents and Kalpa.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastEditorDisplayName="user10298" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T08:11:14.407" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T08:11:14.407" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10616" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-13T18:16:28.943" Score="2" ViewCount="1166" Body="&lt;p&gt;What were the 14 qualities desired by Draupadi in her previous birth in her husband which leads her marrying Pandavas in next birth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4872" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-26T04:10:27.310" LastActivityDate="2017-12-26T04:10:27.310" Title="Draupadi's desired qualities in her husband in previous birth" Tags="|mahabharata|draupadi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10618" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-14T05:16:03.147" Score="10" ViewCount="6741" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Ratha Saptami? Is there any reference in our scriptures regarding its celebrations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance keeping the Arka patram (Calotropis Gigantea i.e Erukku  leaves)on the head while bathing on Ratha Saptami day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2016-11-01T16:22:53.030" Title="What is Ratha Saptami?" Tags="|history|rituals|astrology|surya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10619" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6689" CreationDate="2016-02-14T06:26:31.300" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jeeva&lt;/strong&gt; is made up of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Bodies_Doctrine_(Vedanta)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Three bodies&lt;/a&gt;:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sthula sarira or the gross body is the material physical mortal body&#xA;  that eats, breathes and moves (acts).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sukshma sarira or the subtle body is the body of the mind and the&#xA;  vital energies, which keep the physical body alive. Together with the&#xA;  causal body it is the transmigrating soul or jiva, separating from the&#xA;  gross body upon death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karana sarira or the causal body is merely the cause or seed of the&#xA;  subtle body and the gross body. It has no other function than being&#xA;  the seed of the subtle and the gross body. It is nirvikalpa rupam,&#xA;  &quot;undifferentiated form&quot;. It originates with avidhya, &quot;ignorance&quot; or&#xA;  &quot;nescience&quot; of the real identity of the atman, instead giving birth to&#xA;  the notion of jiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jeevatma&lt;/strong&gt; means combination of causal and subtle body as subtle body is unique for every individual based on his/her Samskar and Vasanas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aatma&lt;/strong&gt; means Causal body, which is reflection created out of Paramatma, under the viels of ignorance/Maya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Paramatma&lt;/strong&gt;/&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is Nirvikalp reality, that reflects into Aatma(individual soul). The difference between Aatma and Brahman can only be removed through Brahman Gyan, which leads to Kaivalya Moksha(non-dual union) as explained in Shiv Geeta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Fwlha.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Fwlha.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2016-02-14T06:26:31.300" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10620" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-14T07:21:59.037" Score="5" ViewCount="864" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most popular names of both Krishna and Vishnu is my name, Keshava.  There are two common explanations of the name: &quot;one who has Keshu&quot;, i.e. long hair, and &quot;the killer of Keshi&quot;, a demon killed by Krishna.  But in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c041.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, Krishna gives another explanation of the name:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The rays that emanate from the Sun who gives heat to the world, from the blazing fire, and from the Moon, constitute my hair. Hence do foremost of learned Brahmanas call me by the name of Kesava. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna then tells Arjuna a story of someone who benefited from chanting the name Keshava, namely the sage Dirghatamas.  For those who don't know, Dirghatamas was the father of Vishnu's incarnation Dhanvantari and the son of Brihaspati's brother Uchathya.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9255/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, once Brihaspati impregnated Uchathya's wife Mamata. But there was already a child in Mamata's womb, and this unborn child objected to the impregnation. Bribaspati was angered by this and cursed the child to be blind. As a result, Mamata gave birth to two sons, Brihaspati's son Bharadhwaja and Utathya's son Dirghatamas, who was indeed born blind.  In any case, Krishna explains how Dirghatamas was cured of his blindness:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Through this curse of that foremost of Rishis. the child of Utathya was born blind, and blind he remained for a long time. It was for this reason that, that the Rishi, in days of yore, came to be known by the name of Dirghatamas. &lt;strong&gt;He, however, acquired the four Vedas with their eternal limbs and subsidiary parts. After that he frequently invoked me by this secret name of mine. Indeed, according to the ordinance as laid down, he repeatedly called upon me by the name of Kesava.&lt;/strong&gt; Through the merit he acquired by uttering this name repeatedly, he became cured of his blindness and then came to be called by the name of Gotama. This name of mine, therefore, O Arjuna is productive of boons unto them that utter it among all the deities and the high-souled Rishis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Dirgahtamas was one of the sages who heard the Vedas during Tapasya.  So my question is, does Dirgatamas ever address Vishnu as &quot;Keshava&quot; in the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Dirghatamas is the seer of hymns 140-164 of the First Mandala of the Rig Veda, and of these, hymns 154-156 are addressed to Vishnu.  But I can't seem to find the name Keshava anywhere.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was Dirghatamas the seer of hymns in any of the other Vedas, and if so is the name Keshava mentioned in those?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T18:37:07.577" Title="Does Dirghatamas ever call Vishnu Keshava in the Vedas?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|mahabharata|name|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10622" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8668" CreationDate="2016-02-14T07:55:54.120" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 3 main paths of liberation as described in scriptures based on 3 modes of Prakriti:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Bhakti Yoga for Tamas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Karma/Kriya Yoga for Rajas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Gyan Yoga for Satva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This has been explained by Krishna in Uddhava Geeta(Geeta Press Version)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sgBrf.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sgBrf.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) &lt;strong&gt;Bhakti Yoga&lt;/strong&gt; most suited for Kaliyug and for people with Tamas guna. Type of Liberation explained by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaitanya_Mahaprabhu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu&lt;/a&gt;. Examples, Ramakrishna Paramhans. Followers often worship &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; and enter his abodes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The jivas (individual souls) are all separated parts of the Lord. In&#xA;  bound state the jivas are under the influence of matter, due to their&#xA;  tatastha nature. In the liberated state the jivas are free from the&#xA;  influence of matter, due to their tatastha nature. The jivas and the&#xA;  material world are both different from and identical to the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) &lt;strong&gt;Karma Yoga/Kriya Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;(Raja Yoga). Most suited for Dwapar/Treta Yuga or people with Rajas guna(Many of them switch into Bhakti or Gyan)&#xA;Very diverse topic, includes Pranayama, Karam Kand, Ashtang-Hatha Yoga etc.&#xA;Yogis travel through Chandra or Surya Marg which has been explained by Krishna in Bhagwat Geeta and Uttara Geeta. &lt;strong&gt;Best of Yogis who have control over their Prana, alone can travel through different nerves in body and make their soul(causal body) escape to Sahasrara(Satya Loka) and enter into actual Satya Loka(realm of Brahma) from there and gets liberated along with Brahma, at time of final desolution.&lt;/strong&gt; Examples, Vivekananda, Yogananda etc.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;11&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Surya Marg :- On the right side spreads the Pingalã Nãdi (i.e., from the sole of the right foot right up to the top of the head where the Sahasrãra&#xA;  exists), it is bright and shining like a great circle of Fire (or the Sun); this product of virtue (Pingalã) is called the vehicle of the devas.&#xA;  (Meaning, that those who can fix their mind in this Nãdi, can journey&#xA;  through the sky like Devas; therefore it is called the &quot;Deva-Yãna&quot; or&#xA;  the vehicle of the Devas.) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Chandra Marg :- On the left side stretches forth the Ida (i.e., from the sole of the left foot up to the Sahasrãra at the top of the head), the&#xA;  brightness of this Nãdi is comparatively less, like the disk or circle&#xA;  of the Moon; it dwells with the breath of the left nostril and it is&#xA;  called the vehicle of the Pitrs. (Meaning, that those who can fix&#xA;  their mind in this Nãdi, can ascend the Pitr Loka and no further;&#xA;  hence it is called &quot;Pitr-Yãna&quot; or the vehicle of the Pitrs.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the heart (of the person who thus imagines) dwells the Mahar-Loka, the Jana-Loka exists in the throat, the Tapo-Loka between&#xA;  the two eyebrows, while the Satya-Loka exists in the head.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) &lt;strong&gt;Gyan Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;. Most suited for Satya Yuga or people with Satva. Gyanis attain Kaivalya Moksha(non-dual union with Brahman). In above 2 paths, soul remains separate from Isht/God/Brahman as long as Brahman Gyan is not attained, but after it is obtained ignorance of self(causal body and subtle body) are destroyed and Brahman alone remains. Examples Adi Shankaracharya, Sadashiva Brahmendra, Raman Maharshi etc., Followers often worship &lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; as Brahman, as it is clear from Gyan Yogis like Dattatreya's work Avadhut Geeta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gyan Yog explained by Sanat Kumaras in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat Shanti Parva&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yogin who is desirous of final Emancipation suppresses by&#xA;  Yoga-knowledge the seven, and continues to dwell in the world of life,&#xA;  freed from attachments; and taking those seven for certain means of&#xA;  grief, he casts them off and attains afterwards to that state which is&#xA;  Indestructible and Infinite. &lt;strong&gt;When universal destruction comes, those&#xA;  persons who have succeeded in completely consuming by Knowledge their&#xA;  gross and subtle and karana bodies, always enter into Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;All&#xA;  their Senses also which have action for their essence and which are&#xA;  not identical with Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;, merge into the same. When the time of&#xA;  universal destruction comes, those Jivas who have attained to the&#xA;  position of Devas and who have an unexhausted remnant of the fruits of&#xA;  acts to enjoy or endure, revert to those stages of life in the&#xA;  subsequent Kalpa which had been theirs in the previous one. This is&#xA;  due to the similarity of every successive Kalpa to every previous one.&#xA;  Those again whose acts, at the time of universal destruction, have&#xA;  been exhausted by enjoyment or endurance in respect of their fruits,&#xA;  falling down from heaven, take birth among men, in the subsequent&#xA;  Kalpa, &lt;strong&gt;for without Knowledge one cannot destroy one's acts in even a&#xA;  hundred Kalpas&lt;/strong&gt;. When Yogi's Chitta becomes cleansed by Yoga, and when he practises Samyama, this perceptible universe appears to him as only his own fivefold senses. Enquiring with a cleansed mind, Jiva attains to a high and stainless end. Thence he attains to a spot which knows no deterioration,&#xA;  and thence attains to eternal Brahman that is so difficult of acquisition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastEditorDisplayName="user3870" LastEditDate="2016-02-14T08:25:12.787" LastActivityDate="2016-02-14T08:25:12.787" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10624" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-14T23:04:24.173" Score="21" ViewCount="1788" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedānta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sūtras, a work by the sage Vyāsa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upaniṣads. You can read the Brahma Sūtras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in Adhyāya 2 Pada 2 of the Brahma Sūtras, Vyāsa discusses various rival schools to Vedānta. In particular, he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Topic-7: God Is Not a Mere Superintendent &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;37&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For the Lord there can be no creatorship, for that leads to incongruity. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;38&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And (the incongruity arises) because of the impossibility of a relationship. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And (the position is untenable) because of the impossibility of (Nature) coming under (His) direction. (Or) And (God cannot be proved), since no physical support (adhiṣṭhāna) is possible for Him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Should it be argued that God will direct Nature like (a man directing) the organs, then it cannot be so, for that will result in God’s having experiences (of happiness, sorrow etc.). (Or) If a body, equipped with sense-organs, be assumed for God, (we say that) this is not possible; because of (consequent) experiences etc. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;God will be subject to finitude or loss of omniscience.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Topic 8: Bhagavata View Refuted&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;42&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;(The Bhagavata view that Samkarsana and others originate successively from Vāsudeva and others is wrong), since any origin (for the soul) is impossible.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And (this view is wrong because) an implement cannot originate from its agent (who wields it).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Alternatively even if (it be assumed that Vāsudeva and others are) possessed of knowledge, (majesty etc.,), still the defect cannot be remedied.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Besides, (in this scripture) many contradictions are met with and it runs counter to the Vedas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most commentators on the Brahma Sūtras agree that Adhikaraṇa (Topic) 7 refers to the philosophy of the Śaiva Āgamas, the defining texts of Śaivism, and Adhikaraṇa 8 refers to the philosophy of the Pañcarātra Āgamas, the defining texts of Vaiṣṇavism.  Where they differ is on how they interpret Vyasa's attitudes toward these two philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Advaitin commentator Ādi Śaṅkarācārya argues that in Adhikaraṇa 7, Vyāsa is criticizing the Śaiva Agamas for their belief that Īśvara (The supreme lord) is only the efficient cause of the Universe, as opposed to the Vedānta school's view that Brāhmaṇa is both the efficient cause and the material cause of the Universe.  And he argues that in Adhikaraṇa 8, Vyasa is criticizing the Pañcarātra Āgamas for their belief that the Jīva emerges from Brāhmaṇa, as opposed to the Vedanta school's view that the Jīva has always existed (as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3733/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as expected, Śaivite commentators dispute Ādi Śaṅkarācārya's interpretation of Adhikaraṇa 7, and Vaiṣṇava commentators dispute his interpretation of Adhikaraṇa 8.  In each case, they either say that Vyāsa is criticizing people who misinterpret the philosophy in question, not the philosophy itself, or they say that the Adhikaraṇa is referring to a completely different philosophy than the one Ādi Śaṅkarācārya thinks it refers to.  But my question is, is Ādi Śaṅkarācārya the only commentator on the Brahma Sutras that believes that the Brahma Sūtras are criticizing both the Shaiva Agamas &amp;amp; Pañcarātra Āgamas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now of course Ādi Śaṅkarācārya has had a lot of followers who have written commentaries based on his commentary, but I'm asking whether any non-Advaita commentators agree with his interpretations of both Adhikaraṇa 7 and Adhikaraṇa 8.  To facilitate answering my question, I've compiled a table of commentaries and how they interpret these Adhikaraṇas, along with links to sources backing it up:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&#xA;┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━┓&#xA;┃    Commentator       ┃     Philosophy       ┃ Reject ┃   Reject   ┃&#xA;┃                      ┃                      ┃ Shaiva?┃Pancharatra?┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Ādi Śaṅkarācārya     ┃ Nirviśeṣādvaita      ┃   Yes   ┃    &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34218.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yes&lt;/a&gt;     ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Rāmānujācārya        ┃ Viśiṣtādvaita        ┃  Yes   ┃    &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48245.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;No&lt;/a&gt;      ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Mādhvācārya          ┃ Dvaita               ┃  Yes     ┃    href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mBzlv.jpg&quot;&gt;No      ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Baladeva             ┃ Acintya Bhedābheda   ┃  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fNwHV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yes&lt;/a&gt;   ┃    &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/U2Ao&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;No&lt;/a&gt;      ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Nimbārka             ┃ Dvaitādvaita         ┃  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/C9GC4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yes&lt;/a&gt;   ┃    &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WwtSD.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;No&lt;/a&gt;      ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Śrīkanṭha Śivācārya  ┃ Śivādvaita           ┃   &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wu7rc.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;No&lt;/a&gt;   ┃    &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia802701.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/19/items/TheVedantaSutrasWithSriKanthaBhashya/TheVedantaSutras_jp2.zip&amp;file=TheVedantaSutras_jp2/TheVedantaSutras_0098.jp2&amp;scale=4&amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yes&lt;/a&gt;     ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Śrīpati              ┃ Śakti Viśiṣtādvaita  ┃   &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10278/36&quot;&gt;No&lt;/a&gt;   ┃    &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10278/36&quot;&gt;Yes&lt;/a&gt;     ┃&#xA;┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━┛&#xA;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, only Ādi Śaṅkarācārya answers &amp;quot;Yes-Yes&amp;quot;.  So are there other commentators that give the same answers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some commentators who have no sectarian affiliations, like Bhāskara (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9566/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) and Vijñānabhikṣu, so how do they interpret these two Adhikaraṇas?  What about commentators belonging to sects other than Vaiṣṇavism or Śaivism?  Have any Śaktas, Ganapatya, Sauras, or Kaumaras written commentaries on the Brahma Sutras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And what about the Vaikhanasas, who worship Viṣṇu but do not follow Pañcarātra Āgamas?  Do they interpret Adhikaraṇa 8 as a criticism of the Pañcarātra Āgamas, or do they think it refers to their own Āgamas.  Srinivasa Dikshitar wrote a Vaikhānasa commentary on the Brahma Sūtras, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10187/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, so I'd be interested in hearing what he has to say on this issue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, are there any commentators who would answer &amp;quot;No-No&amp;quot;, i.e. who would say that the Brahma Sutras do not criticize either the Pañcarātra Āgamas or the Śaiva Āgamas?  I assume that especially the sort of people who believe in religious unity would tend to believe that all the major sects following Āgamas are correct in their philosophical doctrines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="24460" LastEditDate="2022-12-24T11:47:49.287" LastActivityDate="2024-01-02T08:07:05.990" Title="Do any commentators of Brahmasūtras other than Ādi Śaṅkarācārya disagree with both Pañcarātra and Śaiva Āgamas?" Tags="|philosophy|vaishnavism|brahma-sutras|shaivism|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10625" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7710" CreationDate="2016-02-15T00:00:31.550" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The planning that went into and the actions of killing Bhishma, Jayadratha, Drona and others you've listed, may although seem unfair at times, they are in fact perfectly &lt;em&gt;dhārmic&lt;/em&gt; actions. Speaking on the topic of truth, keeping one's promises, dharma and adharma, Sri Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; the following to Arjuna in Karna Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who speaks truth is righteous. There is nothing higher than truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Behold, however, truth as practised is exceedingly difficult to be understood as regards its essential attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Truth may be unutterable, and even falsehood may be utterable where falsehood would become truth and truth would become falsehood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In a situation of peril to life and in marriage, falsehood becomes utterable.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In a situation involving the loss of one's entire property, falsehood becomes utterable.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He is a fool that practices truth without knowing the difference between truth and falsehood.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One is said to be conversant with morality when one is able to distinguish between truth and falsehood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Drona and Bhishma were fighting to their fullest extent, and there was no way to beat them in combat, it was imperative for the Pandavas to save themselves and their armies &lt;strong&gt;at any cost&lt;/strong&gt;. So even if Krishna were to break his own vow and take up arms in the Kurukshetra war, that would've been fine as well!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To illustrate what he just said, Krishna goes on to tell Arjuna the stories of Valāka, the hunter and Kaushika, the ever truth-speaking ascetic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Valāka hunts deer and other animals for the sole purpose of feeding his family. He's always truthful, duty-bound and serves his family well. It so happens that one day he fails to make even a single hunt, but at last finds a blind animal drinking water by the river. Showing no mercy to the blind creature, Valāka slays it. The animal is actually a beast that preys on other animals using its smell. The beast was meant to be killed and the Gods reward Valāka by sending a celestial chariot so that he can ascend to heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That beast of prey, having undergone ascetic austerities, had obtained a boon and had become the cause of the destruction of all creatures. For this reason he was made blind by the Self-born [Brahma]. &lt;strong&gt;Having slain that animal which had resolved to slay all creatures, Valāka went to heaven.&lt;/strong&gt; Morality is even so difficult of being understood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The second story is that of Kaushika, an ascetic who has taken the vow to always speak the truth. He quickly became famous due to that fact. However, he isn't one with expertise in scriptures. One day, a group of people, being chased by robbers, ran from the front of his house into the woods. When robbers inquired the whereabouts of those people, Kaushika being very truthful, points them exactly which way the people went. The robbers then proceed in that direction, search out all those people and end up robbing and killing them. Since Kaushika was partly responsible for the death of innocent people at the hands of cruel robbers, he goes to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In consequence of that great sin consisting in the words spoken, Kausika, ignorant of the subtilities of morality, fell into a grievous hell, &lt;strong&gt;even as a foolish man, of little knowledge, and unacquainted with the distinctions of morality, falleth into painful hell by not having asked persons of age for the solution of his doubts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna concludes his lecture to Arjuna with the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;strong&gt;the scriptures indicate morality. I do not contradict this. The scriptures, however, do not provide for every case.&lt;/strong&gt; For the growth of creatures have precepts of morality been declared. That which is connected with inoffensiveness is religion. Dharma protects and preserves the people. So it is the conclusion of the Pandits that &lt;strong&gt;what maintains is Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;. O Partha, I have narrated to you the signs and indications of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-02-15T00:00:31.550" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10626" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-15T06:21:33.417" Score="4" ViewCount="1586" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said that Karma yoga is the best for this age. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_5/Sayings_and_Utterances&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 5/Sayings and Utterances&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;47&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jnâna, Bhakti, Yoga and Karma—these are the four paths which lead to&#xA;  salvation. One must follow the path for which one is best suited; but&#xA;  in this age special stress should be laid on Karma-Yoga&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in this Kaliyug, bhakti yoga is the best. So, which age (yug) did Swami Vivekananda consider this age to be?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="4166" LastEditDate="2016-02-15T06:27:03.913" LastActivityDate="2016-02-16T06:22:48.597" Title="Which yuga did Swami Vivekananda consider to be current yuga?" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10627" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10628" CreationDate="2016-02-15T07:56:15.077" Score="9" ViewCount="706" Body="&lt;p&gt;Devika river located in Udhumpur (J&amp;amp;K). There are many folk stories about it being Ganga's bigger sister and about getting a curse and boon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the burial place of Devak river, even bones of dead can't survive the fire, only ashes remains. And its said that the burial place of Devika river never remain empty and at-least one person's always comes everyday for burial and its part of that boon or curse. Even it is said to be cursed for being non popular. But I can't find any Purana/Veda or any scripture on this holy river. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scripture mentioning this holy river and about her curse and boon? And her relationship to Ganga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-01-16T08:29:23.797" LastActivityDate="2022-04-02T15:44:10.533" Title="Is Devika river mentioned in any Hindu scripture?" Tags="|scripture|ganga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10628" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10627" CreationDate="2016-02-15T08:43:29.347" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vedas mention the sanctity of Devika and consider it as a powerful source to attain divinity. The river Devika is called the elder sister of the holy river Ganga. In Padma Purana, Lord Krishna once said to Yudhishtra, &lt;strong&gt;‘Even river Ganga, when becomes overburdened by the sins of the evil-doers bathing for purification,&lt;/strong&gt; herself comes to bathe in the Devika to get rid of that weight.’&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As you asked that is there any mention of Devika River in Purana I am adding it to show that there are many mentioned of Devika In Many Scriptures but nowhere it's been told that she got boon or curse.It will be helpful if someone finds the story of her boon and curse.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;As mentioned in various scriptures that Parvati and Ganga Both are Sister and daughter of King Himavat and&#xA;queen Menavati and according to Nilmat Purana Parvati is famous on the earth as Devika River so it is proved that Ganga and Devika Both are sisters.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ikashmir.net/nilmatapurana/verses101-200.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the Source that Parvati  is Famous as Devika on earth.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brought downby your honour for doing favour to the Madras, it is the goddess Uma who is famous on the earth as Devika and by seeing whom a man certainly becomes purified in this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/vamanapurana-12.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is The sacred River Devika as mentioned in Vamana Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shukracharya started making preparations for Ashwamedha Yagya at the bank of &lt;strong&gt;River Devika&lt;/strong&gt; He appointed his disciples and some other sages belonging to Bhargava’s clan to supervise the Yagya ceremony. The Ashwamedha Yagya commenced and a horse was let loose according to the tradition.&#xA;When the deities came to know about this Ashwamedha Yagya being performed by Dhundhu, they were scared and requested Lord Vishnu to disrupt the Yagya so that Dhundhu could not reach Brahma loka. Lord Vishnu assured the deities and went to the site where Dhundhu was performing Ashwamedha Yagya in a dwarf appearance. He entered into the &lt;strong&gt;Devika River&lt;/strong&gt; and started drowning according to his plan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/nilamatapurana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is another mention of Devika river in Nilamatapurana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;112-13. (There are) Kumbhavasunda possessed of holy water, the river Devika possessed of holy water, the great river Visvamitra which is sacred always, (the river) called Udda which is highly sacred and the various confluences (of the rivers). The religious merit (lies) in the Iravati and also in the Devika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sacred river devika as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/vishnupurana-5.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnupurana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The teacher and the pupil used to live in the banks of the river Devika, near a city known as Viranagara, but Ribhu realized that Nidagha was still not ready for the supreme knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Discussed in Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03082.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vana Parva : Tirth Yatra Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having bathed in Devika and worshipped Maheswara by offering him, to the best of one's might, rice boiled in milk and butter, a man obtaineth, O bull of the Bharata race, the merit of a sacrifice that is capable of filling every desire. There also is another tirtha of Rudra called Kamakhya, which is much resorted to by the gods. Bathing there, a man speedily obtaineth success. By touching also the water of Yajana. Brahmavaluka, and Pushpamva, one becometh free from sorrow in after life. The learned have said that the sacred tirtha of Devika, the resort of the gods and the Rishis, is five Yojanas in length and half a Yojana in breadth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;EDIT:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reasons for No&lt;/strong&gt;:&#xA;It is quite difficult to find a clear reference in any scripture which says that Devika and Ganga are sisters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reasons for Yes&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;As i referenced above that it was Parvati who is famous on earth as Devika river and Parvati was Sister of Ganga so Logically it's clear that Devika too is sister of Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T07:58:38.333" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10630" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10843" CreationDate="2016-02-15T11:15:24.217" Score="13" ViewCount="1503" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read some Yoga books, and saw Swami Sivananda saying to not kill animals, but himself can be found in a photo making asana over a tiger's skin carpet, even pictures of Lord Shiva show him over a tiger carpet.&#xA;So, if a Hindu can't kill animals, how do they get those tigers carpets?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4883" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2018-04-14T11:50:48.680" LastActivityDate="2021-06-14T17:06:31.453" Title="If Hindus can't kill animals, how do they get tiger carpets?" Tags="|shiva|yoga|culture|animals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10632" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-15T17:53:48.967" Score="1" ViewCount="145" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am following the mega serial &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devon_Ke_Dev...Mahadev&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dev ke dev Mahadev&lt;/a&gt;. In an episode they are showing a battle between Shiva and Vishnu. Is this true? or It is cheap attempt by the show just to increase their TRP?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-15T19:16:45.693" LastActivityDate="2016-02-15T19:16:45.693" Title="Battle between Shiva and Vishnu" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-02-15T20:36:04.673" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10633" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-15T21:54:47.577" Score="4" ViewCount="515" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Lord Rama take birth from a human body? that is from a human mother since He is God and not an avatar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4885" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-21T07:57:56.257" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T08:04:53.580" Title="Was Lord Rama born to a human?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10634" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-15T22:36:04.870" Score="10" ViewCount="5752" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sanskrit there's brāhmaṇa (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A3#Sanskrit&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ब्राह्मण&lt;/a&gt;), which is a term used for people, and para-brahman (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Para_Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;परब्रह्मन्&lt;/a&gt;), which is a term used for gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the etymologies of the words brahman (ब्रह्मन्) and brāhmaṇa (ब्राह्मण)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wiktionary &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A3#Sanskrit&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; brāhmaṇa comes from the root बृंहति (bṛṃhati), but is there more detailed information?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मण • (brāhmaṇ) m&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a Brahmin (member of the highest caste of Hinduism traditionally regarded as priests)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Etymology&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the root बृंहति (bṛṃhati), and this from the verbal Proto-Indo-European root *bʰerǵʰ- (“to become high, rise, elevate”).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2528" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-01-08T16:07:49.957" LastActivityDate="2020-07-08T18:56:24.393" Title="What are the etymologies of the words brahman (ब्रह्मन्) and brāhmaṇa/brahmin (ब्राह्मण)?" Tags="|brahman|sanskrit|brahmins|etymology|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10635" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10634" CreationDate="2016-02-15T23:42:31.640" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahman is that which is permanent in things that change. It is without name and form, which two are the characteristic natures of the world of appearance, and is essentially existence-absolute. Existence can never change, never perish, though things in which also it is, perish. Hence existence is the nature of Reality and is different from the things of form and name.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to a commentary of Shri Madhavacharya on Srimad Bhagwat Gita Chapter 4 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-04-08.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Verse 8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Lord Krishna is also designated as Brahman which means eternal in time and dynamic in creativity and is the all pervading luminosity of His effulgence. It is not inert or passive. &lt;strong&gt;The word Brahman which is derived from the root brh means to grow, to burst forth which infers constant, continuous creativity, perpetually manifesting. That which is dynamic and creative cannot remain static and passive.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/a-history-of-indian-philosophy-volume-5/d/doc117878.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is an another source from Indian Philosophy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The word ‘brahman’ is derived from the root ‘bṛṃhati’ meaning ‘great’ which again is not limited by any qualification of time&lt;/strong&gt;, space, or quality, that is, which is unlimitedly great. We have to accept this meaning because there is nothing to signify any limitation of any kind (saṃkocakābhāvāt). The Brahman is different from all that is animate (cetana) and inanimate (acetana). There are two kinds of energy: that which is the representative of the material power or energy (jaḍa-śakti), which transforms itself in the form of the material universe under the direction or instrumentality of the Brahman; and there is also the energy as consciousness (cicchakti), and this consciousness energy, as we find it in animate beings, is also controlled by the Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T08:03:46.280" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T08:03:46.280" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10636" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10125" CreationDate="2016-02-16T02:40:01.507" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Muni Ved VyAsa, the (author of MahAbhArata) was also referred as &quot;Krishna DwaipAyana&quot;. His birth was before Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna was 1 of the many names given to VAsudeva (son of Vasudeva), due to his dark skin complexion. This should have been in good spirit and not racial. Probably it was usual for prominent people to have many names in those times.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Interestingly Arjuna apologizes during &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/11/41-42&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita 11.41-42&lt;/a&gt; for referring &quot;Krishna&quot; to a person, for whom now he was assured to be God. In Gita alone, many of his other names/addressing can be found.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During MahAbhArata times, like VyAsa &amp;amp; VAsudeva, Arjuna &amp;amp; Draupadi were also referred as Krishna &amp;amp; KrishnA respectively due to their dark complexions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/8/13/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimada BhAgavatam&lt;/a&gt; &lt;sub&gt;(thanks to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/2326/vishu&quot;&gt;@Vishu&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your son &lt;strong&gt;Kṛṣṇa&lt;/strong&gt; appears as an incarnation in every millennium. In&#xA;  the past, He assumed three different colors — white, red and yellow —&#xA;  and now He &lt;strong&gt;has appeared in a blackish color&lt;/strong&gt;. [In another&#xA;  Dvāpara-yuga, He appeared (as Lord Rāmacandra) in the color of śuka, a&#xA;  parrot. All such incarnations have now assembled in Kṛṣṇa.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-02-16T05:09:40.657" CommentCount="2" CommunityOwnedDate="2016-02-16T02:47:17.200" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10637" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10626" CreationDate="2016-02-16T06:22:48.597" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vivekananda considered it to be the Kali Yuga. But Vivekananda also points out that 'yugas' are only spoken of in the Smritis, they are not spoken of in any of the Srutis. So, what 'yuga' you consider it to be, whether or not there are yugas, what the exact date is, is not important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is important to understand what Vivekananda is talking about in the quote you gave. In it, Vivekananda says that &quot;special stress&quot; should be made on Karma - he does not say that it is THE way for the Kali yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt; V3, pp 221-2; and here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Lectures from Colombo to Almora&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;My Plan of Campaign&lt;/em&gt;) &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So every improvement in India requires first of all an upheaval in religion. Before flooding India with socialistic or political ideas, first deluge the land with spiritual ideas. The first work that demands our attention is that the most wonderful truths confined in our Upanishads, in our scriptures, in our Purânas must be brought out from the books, brought out from the monasteries, brought out from the forests, brought out from the possession of selected bodies of people, and scattered broadcast all over the land, so that these truths may run like fire all over the country from north to south and east to west, from the Himalayas to Comorin, from Sindh to the Brahmaputra. Everyone must know of them, because it is said, &quot;This has first to be heard, then thought upon, and then meditated upon.&quot; Let the people hear first, and whoever helps in making the people hear about the great truths in their own scriptures cannot make for himself a better Karma today. &lt;strong&gt;Says our Vyasa, &quot;In the Kali Yuga there is one Karma left. Sacrifices and tremendous Tapasyâs are of no avail now. Of Karma one remains, and that is the Karma of giving.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; And of these gifts, the gift of spirituality and spiritual knowledge is the highest; the next gift is the gift of secular knowledge; the next is the gift of life; and the fourth is the gift of food. Look at this wonderfully charitable race; look at the amount of gifts that are made in this poor, poor country; look at the hospitality where a man can travel from the north to the south, having the best in the land, being treated always by everyone as if he were a friend, and where no beggar starves so long as there is a piece of bread anywhere!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this land of charity, let us take up the energy of the first charity, the diffusion of spiritual knowledge. And that diffusion should not be confined within the bounds of India; it must go out all over the world. This has been the custom. Those that tell you that Indian thought never went outside of India, those that tell you that I am the first Sannyasin who went to foreign lands to preach, do not know the history of their own race. Again and again this phenomenon has happened. Whenever the world has required it, this perennial flood of spirituality has overflowed and deluged the world. Gifts of political knowledge can be made with the blast of trumpets and the march of cohorts. Gifts of secular knowledge and social knowledge can be made with fire and sword. But spiritual knowledge can only be given in silence like the dew that falls unseen and unheard, yet bringing into bloom masses of roses. This has been the gift of India to the world again and again. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what he means by special stress is that Karma, in the form of giving should be done. What he is saying is that no matter what you practice--whether its bhakti, raja, jnana, or more ritualistic karma, or a combination of all or some of them--that you should also be practicing the karma of giving, especially the karma of diffusion of spiritual knowledge. Lord Krishna says (Gita, XVIII. 68-69):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who, with supreme devotion to Me, teaches this deeply profound philosophy to those who are devoted to Me shall without question come to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is none among men who can do anything more pleasing to Me than he, nor shall there be another on earth dearer to Me than he.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Follow Bhakti (Vivekananda's guru, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said that Bhakti was the easiest path in the Kali Yuga), but also pay heed to giving. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-02-16T06:22:48.597" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10638" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13973" CreationDate="2016-02-16T07:01:22.800" Score="4" ViewCount="6911" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sandhyavandanam,Puja or a Japa always generally begins with a Sankalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've found the following two Sankalpa Mantras on web.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mantra 1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Mamopatha Samastha, duritha kshaya dwara, Shri Parameswara&#xA;  preethyartham...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mantra2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mamo partha samastha durithakshaya dwara , Sri Parameshwara&#xA;  preethyartham...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantra 1 is found &lt;a href=&quot;http://vishuji.org/Kamokarishi.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; Mantra 2 &lt;a href=&quot;http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/pm20.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have not given the complete mantras as it is not needed for my purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As can be seen the mantras differ only by a word &lt;strong&gt;patta/partha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question-Which one of the two mantras is the correct one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another allied question-What are the meanings of the words &quot;patta&quot; and &quot;partha&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-11-27T22:05:24.383" Title="Which one of the following two Sankalpa Mantras is correct?" Tags="|mantras|sankalpa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10639" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10633" CreationDate="2016-02-16T09:31:03.837" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;When King Dasharatha was performing yagnas, all the deities along with Lord Brahma came for taking 'havish'. While they were waiting, all gods went to Lord Brahma and expressed their fear and torturing faced by them at the hands of Ravana.On hearing Lord Brahma said,( Valmiki Ramayana-Baala Kanda,Sarga 15)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेन गन्धर्व यक्षाणाम् देवतानाम् च रक्षसाम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   अवध्योऽस्मि इति वागुक्ता तथेति उक्तम् च तन् मया || १-१५-१३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When he asked Gandharvas, Yakshas, Gods, Rakshasas should never be able to kill him, I said, &quot;So be it&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न अकीर्तयत् अवज्ञानात् तत् रक्षो मानुषाम् तदा | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मात् स मानुषात् वध्यो मृत्युः न अन्योऽस्य विद्यते || १-१५-१४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Rakshasa did not include Man, Monkey and Bear because of his disdain for men. As such he is fit to be destroyed by a man and not by any other means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further on request of gods Lord Vishnu chose Dasharatha as his father in human world.So it is quiet evident that Rama took birth from a human body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Check the following link&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga15/bala_15_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; Valmiki Ramayana - Baala Kanda - Sarga 15&lt;/a&gt; for further details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-21T08:04:53.580" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T08:04:53.580" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10640" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-16T09:44:31.010" Score="4" ViewCount="1479" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have plan to visit Saneeshwara temple which is in Karaikkal , Pondicherry.&#xA;Also in the next day,  I thought to attend Maha Magam festival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it OK to visit another God's temples after visiting Saneeshwara temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am asking this because I heard that we should go back to home after visiting Sanneshwara temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clarify!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4886" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-11T17:54:26.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T17:54:26.163" Title="Can I visit other gods' temple after have visited Saneeshwara temple (Thirunallar, Karaikkal)?" Tags="|belief|shani|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10211" CreationDate="2016-02-16T13:20:06.117" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Virat/Ishwar is the universe. In Hinduism, there were 2 revelations to rishis(seers of truth)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) &lt;strong&gt;Vedas glorifying Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; to Gyan Yogis&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) &lt;strong&gt;Puranas glorifying Virat&lt;/strong&gt; to Bhakt Yogis&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yagyavalkya, Uddlaka, Gargi etc, were rishis to whom Brahman was revealed and their experiences became Vedas and Upanishads&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shukhdeva, Prashara, Vyas, Brahma, Narad etc, were rishis to whom Virat was revealed along with all the realms, timelines, 3 guna Prakriti etc., and their experiences became Puranas(like Bhagwat Puran, Vishnu Puran etc., total 18 Puranas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like every soul/causal body is reflection of Brahman, in the same way every gross body is reflection of Virat Himself and all the 14 realms, constellations etc. present along the Meru Mountain of Virat, also exists in Merudand(spine) of every individual. This is explained by Krishna in Bhagwat Geeta and Uttara Geeta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;16&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Sun, the Moon, and the other Devatas, the fourteen Lokas of Bhur, Bhuvar, etc., the ten directions,East, West, etc., the sacred&#xA;  places, the seven oceans,the Himãlaya and other mountains, the seven&#xA;  Islands of Jambu, etc., the seven sacred rivers, Gangã, etc., the four&#xA;  Vedas, all the sacred philosophies, the sixteen vowels and twenty-four&#xA;  consonants,the Gãyatri and other sacred Mantras, the eighteen Purãnas&#xA;  and all the Upa-Purãnas included, the three Gunas, Mahat itself, the&#xA;  root of the Jîvas, the Jîvas and their Atman, the ten breaths, the&#xA;  whole world, in fact, consisting of all these, exists in the Susumnã.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[As all outward objects that are cognizable by the human senses are&#xA;  reflected in the Susumnã Nãdi, therefore the Rsis call this body the&#xA;  &quot;microcosm&quot;. For instance,when you see the sun, moon, or the stars,&#xA;  you do not actually go near to them in order to see, but you see them&#xA;  because they are reflected in your Susumnã Nãdi]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;31&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the heart dwells the Mahar-Loka, the Jana Loka exists in the&#xA;  throat, the Tapo-Loka between the two eyebrows, while the Satya-Loka&#xA;  exists in the head.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same Virat was shown to Arjuna by Krishna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 11.52 — Krishna said: My dear Arjuna, this form of Mine you are now&#xA;  seeing is very difﬁcult to behold. Even the demigods are ever seeking&#xA;  the opportunity to see this form, which is so dear.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 11.53 — The form you are seeing with your transcendental eyes&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;cannot be understood simply by studying the Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;, nor by undergoing&#xA;  serious penances, nor by charity, nor by worship. It is not by these&#xA;  means that one can see Me as I am. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 11.54 — My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I&#xA;  be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen&#xA;  directly. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My&#xA;  understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar description of lokas, time divisions etc., you will find in all Puranas, for example description of various realms described by rishi Prashara in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp065.htm#page_212&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishnu Puran&lt;/a&gt;. It is clear, that revelations in Puranas happened to rishis inside their bodies, and they were Anubhava(experiences) within Virat, which are often seen down as Smritis or mythological stories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2016-02-16T13:20:06.117" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10642" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10648" CreationDate="2016-02-16T13:21:33.140" Score="8" ViewCount="3194" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard about many interesting facts about Swami Natarajar's pose but I am not OK with the answers and I haven't had strong reasons for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4lM8T.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4lM8T.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am looking for the pose of Swami such as Swami having fire in his left hand and standing on a man and lifting his left leg and differently having his snake in his right hands instead of having in his neck and mainly about the round ring which is ignited with fire all over. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am eager to have some interesting answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-12-18T17:43:07.540" LastActivityDate="2018-12-18T17:43:07.540" Title="What is the symbolic representation of Swami Natarajar? What is the reason of using him in all classical dances?" Tags="|shiva|symbolism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10643" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9377" CreationDate="2016-02-16T14:40:12.763" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Interesting question and answer to this super &quot;Why&quot; is something we can at max opine about. We all are sensing this elephant from various angles, so being judgmental is the last thing to do!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In the unmanifested state, there is no maya which means &lt;strong&gt;the soul&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  was already in pure state.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Soul is in its pure state even with &lt;em&gt;MAyA&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There is another theory, which describes this &quot;unmanifested&quot; to be complete &quot;Nothingness&quot;. Which means nothing really exists, yet this &quot;Nothingness&quot; is still identifiable &amp;amp; real!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Paradoxically, this &quot;unmanifested&quot; is beyond what we call &quot;manifested&quot; as well as &quot;unmanifested&quot;. Isn't it confusing? That's why I used term &quot;Nothingness&quot; to segregate the former and latter &quot;unmanifested&quot;s:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 8.20&lt;/a&gt; — But there is another&#xA;  eternal &lt;strong&gt;(unmanifest) reality&lt;/strong&gt;, which is &lt;strong&gt;beyond this manifested and unmanifested&lt;/strong&gt; matter. It is supreme and is never&#xA;  annihilated. When all matter is annihilated, that remains&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi ShakarachArya's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-8-20/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;version&lt;/a&gt;, provides us 2 inputs:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; has an &quot;unmanifested&quot; nature which is &lt;strong&gt;eternal&lt;/strong&gt; (forever)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The &quot;manifested&quot; nature is also a reality (because &quot;unmanifested&quot; is &#xA;referred as &quot;another reality&quot;), but it's not eternal&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This shows that irrespective of &lt;em&gt;MAyA&lt;/em&gt; is present or not, the eternal reality (&lt;em&gt;Advaita&lt;/em&gt; calls it &quot;soul&quot;) remains in its pure state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;So why did God decide to manifest himself, why he created different&#xA;  universes?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before this &quot;Why&quot;, there could be a big troubling question: &quot;How&quot; this unmanifested nature creates the 1st ever &quot;anything&quot; with no resources? I don't have a clue about this &quot;Everything out of Nothing&quot; magic. But since, it's not asked, let's duck that question and assume it to be &quot;the way it is&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's call &quot;God&quot; as the manifested reality. So your question boils down to: &quot;Why does God manifests anything at all?&quot; The answer is:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Because this is the &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; of the God.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At first glance, you may find the answer to be over-simplistic street-smart skip. Hence let me put it in interesting ways:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;Because manifesting self doesn't serve any Purpose.&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;Because this is the only way, the God doesn't have to answer any&#xA;'WHY'&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the above &quot;Because&quot;s are answering the same thing even though they look contradicting. The reason is that often we link &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; with &quot;Morality&quot;, by conveniently forgetting that &quot;Morality&quot; is not a monopoly, but changes from person to person. Ofcourse, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/341/1049&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; is not Religion&lt;/a&gt;. In shortest form, &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; is &quot;Being oneself without further expectation&quot;. &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; changes according to entity, hence there is term: &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Acting with &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt; is the only way to disallow the &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; to bind us. The fruits would be generated, but there won't be any attachment. e.g. A thief acts according to &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; when [s]he neither repents upon punishment nor becomes happy upon escaping.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Why God acts according to Swa-Dharma?&quot;, for the same reason: &lt;strong&gt;Detachment&lt;/strong&gt;. Because God is neutral, &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; of creating universes, manifesting self etc. doesn't bind. There is no reason to create/destroy, it just creates/destroys due to own nature. God is just vibrating the way it should:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 9.8, 9.9&lt;/a&gt; — The whole cosmic&#xA;  order is under Me. Under My will it is automatically manifested again&#xA;  and again and annihilated at the end.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  — O Dhanañjaya, &lt;strong&gt;all these work cannot bind Me&lt;/strong&gt;. I am ever detached &#xA;  from all these material activities, seated as though neutral.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;If God didn't create everything, then there was &lt;strong&gt;no need&lt;/strong&gt; for souls&#xA;  to realize the truth&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is indeed never a need for &lt;em&gt;Jiva&lt;/em&gt;s to realize self. The things must be fine without it.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; is lack of &quot;purpose&quot;, &quot;need&quot;, &quot;goal&quot;. As soon as we relate &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; with anyone of these destinations, it slides away like a mirage in dessert. Think of life as wet hands and &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; as a wet soap on your palm. It's quite handy, but the moment you try to grab it, it slips away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; or self-realization is a state which is &quot;received&quot;, Not &quot;achieved&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Such opinion is from MA ShArada, RAmAnujAchArya, MAdhavAchArya, ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;(various articles and wikipedia, where they term it as &lt;em&gt;Krupa&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.18&lt;/a&gt; — He (A self-realized&#xA;  man) &lt;strong&gt;has no purpose to fulﬁll&lt;/strong&gt; in the discharge of his prescribed&#xA;  duties, nor has he any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he any&#xA;  need to depend on any other living being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Footnote&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;sup&gt;If you believe above interpretations and are disappointed then there is a reason to be happy! &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; is equivalent to assuming &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;God's own nature&lt;/a&gt;, which is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;granted to all&lt;/a&gt; the entities at the end of &lt;em&gt;Kalpa&lt;/em&gt;. But not to be too excited either. According to Ramana Maharshi, the actual nature is &quot;thought-less-ness&quot;. If we &quot;think&quot; that after achieving &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; we will enjoy some bliss, then there are chances of disappointment. Because that &quot;bliss&quot; might turnout to be &quot;nothingness&quot;.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-02-16T14:40:12.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10644" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="44490" CreationDate="2016-02-16T18:25:27.770" Score="6" ViewCount="1639" Body="&lt;p&gt;One such method found &lt;a href=&quot;http://astrovastutips.com/know-your-ishta-devata/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is given by Rishi Parasara &amp;amp; is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atma Karaka is the planet that has the highest longitude in one’s&#xA;  natal Chart. Atma Karaka in Navamsa is called the “Karakamsa”. The&#xA;  12th from the Karakamsa determines the “Istha Devata”. The 12th house&#xA;  from the karakamsa is called the “Jivanmuktamsa”. This is the house&#xA;  signifying the emancipation of the soul and we have to examine this&#xA;  house in order to find one’s Ishta Devata. If there is a graha in the&#xA;  Jivanmuktamsa, it signifies the Devata. If there are more grahas than&#xA;  one, we choose the strongest. If there is no graha in the&#xA;  Jivanmuktamsa, we can see whether any Grahas are aspecting the 12th.&#xA;  If no Grahas aspect it, we can take the 12th Lord as Ishta Devata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Below are the presiding deities for each planet who will be your Ishta&#xA;  Devata as per your Horoscope.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sun– Vishnu/Rama/Shiva Moon– Krishna/Shiva/Parvati Mars–&#xA;  Hanuman/Subramanya/Sri Narasimha Mer–  Vishnu Jup–  Vishnu/Sri&#xA;  Vamana/Dattatreya/Sai Baba Ven–  Maha Lakshmi/Parashurama/Maa Gouri&#xA;  Sat–  Shani Dev/Hanuman/Kurma/Shiva/Vishnu Rahu—Maa Durga/Varaha Ketu–&#xA;  Ganesh/Matasya Ascendent– Kalki&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question-Is this the only authentic &amp;amp; generally accepted method for determining one's Istha or more such methods are available in scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2021-01-31T07:30:01.693" Title="How to find one's Istha Devata from his horoscope?" Tags="|scripture|gods|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2021-01-31T08:33:27.503" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10645" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-17T05:15:00.033" Score="4" ViewCount="2673" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Pancharatra Agamas are the foundational texts of Vaishnavism.  Similarly, the foundational texts of Shaivism are known as the Shaiva Agamas, aka the Shaiva Tantras.  One of the Shaiva Agamas is known as the Parakhya Tantra, and it takes the form of a dialogue between the sage Prakasha and his student Pratoda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lzzln.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Parakhya Tantra, Prakasha describes the geography of Jambudvipa, the continent where India is located.  (Some people equate Jambudvipa with the entire Earth or even something larger than the Earth, but that's a discussion for another time.). In particular, he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To the south of Ilavrita is the mountain called Nishadha, on which Garuda had been poised to kill the serpent Shesha and was forbidden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what's the story of Vishnu's bird Garuda trying to kill Vishnu's serpent Adiseshan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I'm aware that Garuda has a long-standing enmity with snakes, due to the fact that he and his mother Vinata were enslaved by the Nagas (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2964/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) who were the sons of Vinata's co-wife Kadru.  Garuda even got a boon from Indra that snakes would be his natural food, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01035.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata.  And Adiseshan is the eldest son of Kadru.  But I find it strange that one attendant of Vishnu would try to kill another.  Could this story have taken place before one or both of them became attendants of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only story I know of where Garuda and Adiseshan fight is the story of Arulmaakadal Perumal Vishnu temple in Mahabalipuram.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sthalasayana_Perumal_Temple,_Tirusirupuliyur#Religious_importance&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Wikipedia says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once Garuda and Adiseshan (the snake on whom Vishnu rests in his abode Vaikunta) got into an argument as to who was more powerful and devoted to their lord. Finding Garuda a little arrogant, Vishnu went in favour of Adisesha. Worried that Garuda might be angered at this, Adisesha sought the protection of Vishnu, upon which Vishnu asked him to roll himself and hide under him. It is said that as a result of this anger, Garuda never flies over this place. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But is this the same incident as what took place on the Nishadha mountain?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the Parakhya Tantra says &quot;Garuda had been poised to kill the serpent Shesha and was forbidden.&quot;  So who forbade him?  I assume the answer is Vishnu, but I'm not sure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-04-10T15:45:49.503" Title="When did Vishnu's bird Garuda try to kill Vishnu's serpent Adiseshan?" Tags="|vishnu|adisesha|agamas|garuda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10647" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-17T07:03:26.590" Score="5" ViewCount="766" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The solar system might be a lot hairier than we thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A new study publishing this week in the Astrophysical Journal by Gary&#xA;  Prézeau of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California,&#xA;  proposes the existence of long filaments of dark matter, or &quot;hairs.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dark matter is an invisible, mysterious substance that makes up about&#xA;  27 percent of all matter and energy in the universe. The regular&#xA;  matter, which makes up everything we can see around us, is only 5&#xA;  percent of the universe. The rest is dark energy, a strange phenomenon&#xA;  associated with the acceleration of our expanding universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Neither dark matter nor dark energy has ever been directly detected,&#xA;  although many experiments are trying to unlock the mysteries of dark&#xA;  matter, whether from deep underground or in space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read the full news &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/earth-might-have-hairy-dark-matter&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.Another source  : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3330834/Earth-surrounded-hairy-dark-matter-Nasa-discovery-finally-help-astronomers-detect-elusive-substance.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Earth could be surrounded by a &quot;hairy&quot; dark matter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,as we know, one of the 108 names of Lord Shiva is &quot;Vyomkesha&quot; meaning whose Kesh(hair) is the Vyom(the space,sky).See this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-names/gods/lord-shiva/108-shiva-names.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; for Lord Shiva's 108 names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,are the physicists hinting at Lord Shiva's hair?And isn't the co relation between Lord Shiva &amp;amp; Dark Matter/energy is getting a big scientific boost?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-02-17T07:19:08.477" LastActivityDate="2016-02-17T07:19:08.477" Title="Are these the hairs of Lord Shiva that the cosmologists are hinting at?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-02-17T07:05:37.907" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10648" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10642" CreationDate="2016-02-17T10:15:51.340" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have surfed hard and found the answer what I am looking for. I am happy to share.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Nataraja dances within the universe of illusion. The locks of his hair stand out in many strands as he whirls around in his dancing frenzy. His locks are decked with a crescent moon, a skull, and are interspersed with the sacred river Ganges.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva's unkempt hair, a symbol of a rejection of society, shows him to be an ascetic. This contrasts with his role as a grhastha, or householder, with his wife and family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fiery ring surrounding Shiva, prahabhamandala, represents the universe with all its illusion, suffering and pain. The outer edge is fire the inner edge the waters of the oceans. Many Nataraja statues have multiple levels of fire and water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The goddess of the Ganges is here shown nesting in Shiva's dreadlocks. The river Ganges that flows in Nataraja's hair originally flowed in heaven. When the heavenly Ganges was needed on earth, she was unwilling to fall to earth because she realized that her fall from heaven would be too much for the earth to withstand. Shiva as Nataraja agreed to break the violent power of the sacred Ganga's fall by catching her in his tangled hair, breaking the fall with his hair on its way to the Himalayas and Northern India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The crescent moon in his matted hair keeps Kama, the god of nightly love, alive. Through the waxing and the waning of the moon, Shiva creates different seasons and rejuvenates life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nataraja wears a snake coiled around his upper arms and neck symbolizing the power he has over the most deadly of creatures. Snakes are also used to symbolize the Hindu dogma of reincarnation. Their natural process of molting or shedding their skin is symbolic of the human souls transmigration of bodies from one life to another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the back right hand Shiva often holds an hourglass shaped drum or damaru. The drum represents the rhythmic sound to which Nataraja dances and ceaselessly recreates the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The front right hand is in the abhaya-mudra (the &quot;fear not&quot; gesture, made by holding the palm outward with fingers pointing up).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The back left hand carries agni (fire) in a vessel or in his hand. The flames represent the destructive energy with which Nataraja dances at the end of each cosmic age, cleansing sins and removing illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The front left hand is across the chest in the gahahasta (elephant trunk) pose, with the wrist limp and the fingers pointed downward toward the uplifted foot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His uplifted left foot, grants eternal bliss to those who approach him. The other foot treads firmly upon the dwarf of ignorance, allowing the birth of knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nataraja dances above the body of the demon, Apasmara, whom he has killed; in this role he is called Natesa. Apasmara, the dwarf demon, represents the ignorance of teaching that all opposites (for example good and evil) are false.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For resource details : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lotussculpture.com/nataraja1.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastActivityDate="2016-02-17T10:15:51.340" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10649" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-17T11:16:58.263" Score="6" ViewCount="3621" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is interesting to know the reason behind Shiva's boon to Jayadrath that he will be able to hold back all Pandavas except Arjuna for one day.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Jayadrath obtained the boon after failed attempt of kidnapping Draupadi.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, why Shiva granted the boon to the wicked Jayadrath??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-05-18T13:14:15.237" LastActivityDate="2018-05-18T13:14:15.237" Title="Why did Shiva granted a boon to Jayadrath?" Tags="|mahabharata|shiva|arjuna|pandavas|boon|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10650" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10656" CreationDate="2016-02-17T12:25:46.283" Score="1" ViewCount="1574" Body="&lt;p&gt;Load Krishna is avatar, lord Rama is also an avatar, so who is say Avataari?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is big in both them? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4528" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-17T13:27:40.310" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T20:24:18.820" Title="What is difference between avatar and Avataari?" Tags="|gods|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10654" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18688" CreationDate="2016-02-17T17:48:21.577" Score="6" ViewCount="2948" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know, King Bali held a Yagna to become the King of Lords. But by taking Vamana Avatar, Lord Vishnu asked him for three steps worth of land. By his original divine avatar, Lord Vishnu covered entire earth and whole galaxy in his three steps. King Bali then became a man without any wealth. King Bali was a noble man. He was a grandchild of Vishnu's great devotee Prahalad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why did Lord Vishnu stop him from becoming Indra, the King of Lords? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4622" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T11:14:56.700" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T11:14:56.700" Title="Why did Lord Vishnu stop King Bali from becoming Indra (King of Devtas)?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|vamana|bali|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10655" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10654" CreationDate="2016-02-17T18:11:13.887" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, King Bali Performed Vishwajith Yaga to rule all the worlds, But by then Indra was already assigned that position as ruler of gods for this manvantara by bramha. That decision was taken during the start of manvantara and this should be respected. Bali after knowing this wanted to rule/ obtain position which was not his, which is Adharma.. For this lord vishnu had to stop him and give Indra his Position back. Yes King Bali was Bhagavathotama, so is the reason lord vishnu dint kill him rather gor his wealth. Lord vishnu till then asked bali to rule suvar loka which was considered better/greater than heaven (ruled by indra) and vishnu promised to protect him as his guard. Lord vishnu also promised him to make give him position of Indra in Savarni Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4859" LastActivityDate="2016-02-17T18:11:13.887" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10656" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10650" CreationDate="2016-02-17T19:33:36.863" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is the bramhan which has No Form or Name. This is called Moola Rupa of lord Narayana. During the start of new creation after maha pralaya, this entity or bramhan take the form of Bramha to do the creation, form of lord vishnu for protection and lord rudra/shiva for Layaa. Saying this moola rupa is visible as lord Vishnu in vaikunta and this visible rupa only operates to protect good/dharma from bad/adharma. This form of vishnu from vaikunta takes several avataras (it may be Amsha avatara or Purnavatara). Same moola rupa is also seen as krishna in Ghow lokha. So many of the avataras such as narasimha, parasurama are amsha avatara, a part of lord narayana thejas is in them. Bhagavatha describes 21 of such avataras.&#xA;Rama Avathara is one of the poornavatara as lord narayana came down to take birth with all his parivara gana (sudharshan , Adhisesha, Panchajanya) with goddess Rama/lakshmi.&#xA;Krishna avathara is the most poornavathara (&quot;Krishnasthu Bhagavan Swayam&quot;) says the Bhagavatham. Because when Lord vishnu came as krishna both Lord from Vaikunta and Krishna From ghoo lokha combined into womb of devaki to take birth.&#xA;So to breif your answer lord vishnu moola rupa has taken two forms one in Vaikunta and one in ghoo lokha, the swami in vaikunta is the avathari in many avathars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4859" LastActivityDate="2016-02-17T19:33:36.863" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10657" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10649" CreationDate="2016-02-17T20:17:59.213" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva or for that matter any God is bound to the tapasya. It is respecting that kriya of tapas/observing meditation and lord shiva granted Jayathratha that boon. Jayathratha or any other person has to undergo result of his actions, may it be good deeds or bad. Lord Shiva gave him boon for his tapasya (good deed) and for his bad deeds he was denied from stopping arjuna and he was killed by arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To another side of the question lord shiva doesnot have any discrimination what so ever it is, he just grants people with what they deserve.Shiva Maha purana explain the nir dwandwa sthiti of Lord shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4859" LastActivityDate="2016-02-17T20:17:59.213" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10658" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-17T23:27:42.797" Score="3" ViewCount="2378" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/9MWF&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Garuda Purana, various incarnations of Vayu the wind god are described.  In particular, it says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When lord Rama incarnated on earth, Vayu was born as Hanuman for rendering assistance to Rama.  When lord Krishna descended on earth, he was born as Bhima, the offspring of Vayu.  &lt;strong&gt;Vayu will be born as Maniman daitya, known as Shankara.  He will be so called, for he will abolish caste and destroy Dharma.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I think the part in bold is probably either the source or the product of Madhvacharya's belief that Adi Shankaracharya was a rebirth of a demon, described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=wRMaAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=shankara%20manimat%20purana&amp;amp;pg=PA237#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhva believed himself to be an incarnation of Vayu, and probably as a result of Shankarite persecution, he taught that Shankara was a reincarnation of obscure demon named Manimat who appears in the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, Bhima kills a demon named Manimat.  Since Madhvacharya considered himself to be an incarnation of Vayu, he thought he was the rebirth of Bhima and Adi Shankaracharya was the rebirth of Manimat.  For the record I find this whole line of thinking absurd; I consider Adi Shankaracharya to be an incarnation of Shiva as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7692/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And besides, that Garuda Purana chapter identifies Shankara, not Madhva, as an incarnation of Vayu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm interested in a statement found later on in that chapter.  The Garuda Purana also describes the incarnations of Vayu's wife Bharati, and in particular it says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Draupadi, the daughter of Drupada gave up her body together with her maidens. &lt;strong&gt;O lord of birds, she will be born in the Kali Yuga in the house of Shankara in the village of Karati.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Karati is the actual birthplace of Adi Shankaracharya.  So my question is, who is this rebirth of Draupadi supposed to be?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fact that she was born &quot;in the house of Shankara&quot; might indicate that she was Adi Shankaracharya's sister or something.  But then again, if Adi Shankaracharya is being considered an incarnation of Vayu and this woman is being considered an incarnation of Vayu's wife Bharati, then the logical relation would be that of husband and wife.  But the traditional biographies of Adi Shankaracharya make clear that he took up Sanyasa at a you age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it possible that before he had become a Sanyasi, his mother was planning to have him marry some girl?  Are there any biographies of Adi Shankracharya that shed light on who this rebirth of Draupadi may be?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2019-03-05T01:09:27.643" Title="Was Draupadi reborn in the house of Adi Shankaracharya?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|adi-shankaracharya|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10660" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-18T02:14:06.000" Score="3" ViewCount="367" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found about this new Goddess called Vimala, who is worshiped with Jagganath at Puri. She is said to be a &quot;Tantric&quot; goddess. However,there is a confusion between who her husband is, Shiva or Vishnu/Jagganath. Who is her real husband?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-18T07:22:26.900" LastActivityDate="2016-02-18T07:22:26.900" Title="Who is the Goddess Vimala's husband?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10661" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13998" CreationDate="2016-02-18T02:31:31.130" Score="14" ViewCount="36253" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Vishnu transformed into Mohini, the celestial enchantress, Shiva was so overwhelmed with desire that he abandoned his consort Parvati and ran after Mohini until he had &lt;strong&gt;shed his seed&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;link: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mohini#Seven_secrets_of_Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mohini#Seven_secrets_of_Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Brahmanda Purana when the wandering sage Narada tells Shiva about Vishnu's Mohini form that deluded the demons, Shiva dismisses him. Shiva and his wife Parvati go to Vishnu's home. Shiva asks him to take on the Mohini form again so he can see the actual transformation for himself. Vishnu smiles, again meditates on the Goddess, and in place of Vishnu stands the gorgeous Mohini. &lt;strong&gt;Overcome by lust&lt;/strong&gt;, Shiva chases Mohini as Parvati hangs her head in shame and envy. Shiva grabs Mohini's hand and embraces her, but Mohini frees herself and runs further. Finally, Shiva grabs her and their &lt;strong&gt;&quot;violent coupling&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; leads to &lt;strong&gt;discharge of Shiva's seed&lt;/strong&gt; which falls &quot;short of its goal,&quot; suggesting the act was not consummated. The seed falls on the ground and the god Maha-Shasta (&quot;The Great Chastiser&quot;) is born. Mohini disappears, while Shiva returns home with Parvati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;link:&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohini#cite_ref-Vanita69_29-0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohini#cite_ref-Vanita69_29-0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why and how did Lord Shiva, the supreme yogi, fall in love with Mohini? Any Shiva bhakt will be shocked if they read about this! Also, he is already married to Parvati, who is Tripura Sundari, the most beautiful woman in the three worlds? Finally, I am aware of answers that state that this union was for the birth of Ayyappa or that this happened because Lord Vishnu is supreme and whatnot. However, I am searching for a different answers. Please give me your answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-18T07:29:26.027" LastActivityDate="2019-03-26T06:49:08.043" Title="Why and how did Lord Shiva fall in love with Mohini?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|parvati|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10662" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14427" CreationDate="2016-02-18T04:33:49.070" Score="15" ViewCount="4284" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is the killer of Mahishasura? Is it Durga or Lakshmi? My confusion arises after finding out that Lakshmi killed Mahishsura in the Devi Mahatmaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Mahalakshmi is the presiding Goddess of the middle episode. Here she is depicted as Devi in her universal form as Shakti. The world was under attack by  Mahishasura the most evil demon in the world, who took many different forms, including that of a buffalo. The male Gods, fearing total annihilation endowed Durga with their powers. The Goddess is described as eighteen- armed bearing string of beads, battle axe, maze, arrow, thunderbolt, lotus, bow, water-pot, cudgel, lance, sword, shield, conch, bell, wine-cup, trident, noose and the discus sudarsana. She has a complexion of coral and is seated on a lotus. She is known as Ashta Dasa Bhuja Mahalakshmi. Riding a lion into battle, she slew the buffalo by cutting off its head and then she destroyed the spirit of the demon as it emerged from the buffalo’s severed neck. It is through this act that order was established in the world”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;link: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8940/who-is-vaishno-devi-is-it-goddess-laxmi-or-goddess-durga&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8940/who-is-vaishno-devi-is-it-goddess-laxmi-or-goddess-durga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also found out about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MahaSaraswati is the first incarnation of Goddess Adi Para Shakti. She represents the Sattva Guna and is the shakti(consort) of Lord Brahma. She is the goddess of wisdom, creation, and learning. She is the source of all of the arts. It is &lt;strong&gt;she who slew Sumbha and Nisumbha, who are symbols of ignorance&lt;/strong&gt;. She was created from the body of Mother Parvati and is the embodiment of her hard work, spirituality and devotion. She is also known as Ambika Devi as per Durga Saptashati. She wears yellow clothes when she takes form. When she is without form, she becomes the Primordial Sound.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;link: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Parashakti#Adi-Parashakti_forms&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Parashakti#Adi-Parashakti_forms&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is this? In Devi Mahatmaya, Lakshmi is Durga (killer of Mahisasur) and Saraswati is Ambika(killer of Shumb and Nishumbh). Kali, or Parvati is merely helps Vishnu kill Madhu and Kathiba (she doesn't actually participate in the slaying). Normally however, Parvati is Durga (killer of Mahisasur) and Saraswati is Ambika (killer of Shumb and Nishumbh) while the other two hardly kill anybody.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clear my doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Firstly,I used the Wiki link in the question because I could not find any other texts that describe Lakshmi killing Mahishasura(apart from the text in the Devi Mahatmaya).However,I have found another Shakta text,the Devi Bhagvata Purana,which sates that it is Lakshmi,and not Durga,who killed Mahishasura:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;33-46. Vyâsa said :– On Visnu, the Lord of the Devas, saying thus, came out spontaneously, at once, of the face of Brahmâ, the brilliant fiery energy, very difficult to conceive. That energy looked red like gems and pearls, hot, at the same time, a little cool, having a beautiful form, and encircled by a halo of light. O King! The high-souled Hari and Hara, of mighty valor, were astonished to see this Fire, emitted from Brahmâ. Next came out of the body of S’ankara, His fiery spirit, quite in abundance and very wonderful to behold; it was silvery white, terrible, unbearable, and incapable of being seen even with difficulty. It extended like a mountain and looked horrible as if the incarnation of the Tamo Guna like another Tamo Guna (S’iva is the incarnation of Tamo Guna that destroys everything). It was very surprising to the Devas and very fearful to the Daityas. Next a dazzling light of blue colour emanated from the body of Visnu. The light that came out of the body of Indra was hardly bearable, of a beautiful variegated colour, and comprised in itself the three qualities. Thus masses of lights came out respectively from Kuvera, Yama, Fire and Varuna. The other Devas, too, gave their shares of fiery lights, very lustrous and splendid. Then these all united into a great Mass of Fire and Light. Like another Himalayan mountain shone full their lustrous Divine light; Visnu and the other Devas were all extremely surprised to see this. While the Devas were thus looking steadfastly on that Fire, an exquisitely handsome Lady was born out of it, causing excitement and wonder to all. This Lady was &lt;strong&gt;Mahâ Laksmî&lt;/strong&gt;; composed of the three qualities of the three colours, beautiful, and fascinating to the universe. Her face was white, eyes were black, her lips were red and the palms of her hands were copper-red. She was adorned with divine ornaments. The Goddess was now manifest with eighteen hands, though She had a thousand hands (in Her unmanifested state). Now She became manifest out of the mass of fire, for the destruction of the Asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;47-52. Janamejaya said :– O Best of the Munis! O Krisna! You are highly fortunate and you are all-knowing. Kindly describe, in detail the birth of Her body. O Deva! Please say whether the energies of all the gods united into one or remained separate? Whether Her body and Her limbs were all luminous. Was it that Her face, nose, eyes, etc., and all other parts of Her body were created out of the different fires respectively or whether was it that those limbs were fashioned when the different fires blended into one huge mass? Describe, in detail, the origin of the body and the several limbs thereof; also inform me the limbs that were produced out of the corresponding Deva’s fiery part; as well tell me the several ornaments and several weapons given by the several Devas respectively. I am very desirous to hear all these from your lotus-like mouth. O Brahmân! Hearing from your lotus-like mouth the life and doings of &lt;strong&gt;Mahâ Laksmî&lt;/strong&gt;, the sweet juice as they are, I am as yet not satiated (and am desirous to hear more).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly,I changed the question from &amp;quot;Who is Mahishasura Mardini?&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;Is Mahishasura Mardini Lakshmi or Durga?&amp;quot; to avoid confusion as to waht I am asking for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2024-03-05T14:02:16.433" Title="Is Mahishasura Mardini Lakshmi or Durga?" Tags="|scripture|lakshmi|durga|saraswati|devi|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10663" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10673" CreationDate="2016-02-18T07:36:30.833" Score="3" ViewCount="329" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have always heard about Raktavija and his fight with Durga and Kali and how he is annihilated. But during my visit to Elephanta caves, a tourist guide was telling a different version of story by replacing Kali with Shiva. Is this version of Shiva killing Raktavija is mentioned in any hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T08:05:59.310" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T08:05:59.310" Title="Is Raktavija's fight with Shiva ever mentioned in any scripture?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|kali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10664" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-18T07:50:09.593" Score="11" ViewCount="494" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yama is a post created for specific jeevatamans to take charge of Judgement of Jeevatmas and their karma in Bhuloka/Mrityuloka. Before Yama or Dharmaraja who was the king of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/461/what-is-yamlokam-how-is-it-different-from-naraka&quot;&gt;Yamaloka&lt;/a&gt; ? Also, in which Manvantara and Maha Yuga he was appointed as the God of death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4825" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-02-19T07:09:10.780" Title="Who was the god of death before yama?" Tags="|yuga|yama|naraka|yamaloka|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10665" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10662" CreationDate="2016-02-18T07:55:34.430" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is two difference Sources May it will be helpful to know who killed &lt;strong&gt;Mahishasura&lt;/strong&gt; both sources refer to Mahadevi Shakti so first we should know Who is Maha Devi Shakti?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Shakta tradition glorifies Devi, the consort of Shiva, as the World Mother who, as Shakti, is the energy giving power behind all creation. Shakti is shown in many forms. As Uma or Parvati, she is the gentle consort of Shiva. As Kamakshi or Rajarajeshwari she is the Great Mother. In the form of Durga she rides a tiger, the ego and arrogance that man must subdue. In her angry form she is Kali.The earliest term applied to the divine feminine, which still retains its popular usage, is Shakti.The word Shakti is used in a variety of ways ranging from its use as a way to illustrate the ultimate primordial creative power, to expressing the capacity or power of words to convey meaning. The word 'Shakti' is derived from the root 'shak,' meaning potency or the potential to produce, an assertion of Her inherent creative aptitude.&#xA;All interpretations of the word 'Shakti' hold common one parameter, Power. Specifically, Shakti means Power, Force and Feminine Energy. She represents the fundamental creative instinct underlying the cosmos, and is the energizing force of all divinity, of every being and every thing. Devotees believe the whole universe to be a manifestation of Shakti, who is also known by her general name Devi, from the Sanskrit root 'div' which means to shine.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/markandeyapurana32.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/a&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Form of Maha Devi so materialised created a luminous face with combined Shaktis in a formidal feminine form: while Yama’s powers created her hair, Vishnu’s power provided both her arms, Chandra’s radiance gave sparkling jewels, Indra contributed the belly, Varuna’s powers created thighs, Prithvi the rear, Brahma contribruted the feet, Surya provided the fingers of the feet; Vasuganas contributed hand fingers; Kubera’s ‘Tejas’ created the nose, Prajapati’s energy provided the teeth, Pavaka created all her three eyes, both the ‘Sandhyas’ gave away ‘bhrukutis’ (mid-portion of eye brows) and Vayu supplied the Devi’s ears. Maha Deva then contributed his Shula from his own, Narayana gave away a Chakra born out of his Chakra, Varuna gave a Shankha, Hutashana / Agni his Shakti, Vayu the Dhanus with powerful arrows, Indra gave his Vajra and a bell from Iravata, Yama gave his ‘Kaladanda’, Varuna a ‘Pasha’, Daksha Prajapati his Akshaya Maala (Rosary), Brahma his Kamanadalu (water vessel), Surya supplied his rays into Maha Devi’s skin pores; Kaal gave away his ‘Khadga’ (sword); Samudra Deva contributed pure pearls, shining clothes, valuable chudamani,  precious ear-rings, and bangles; Moon gave away ‘Bhuja Kirtis’ (Shouder-Ornaments), neck laces, and finger rings; Vishwakarma donated ‘Astras’, ‘Kavacha’ (Body Secure); Himalaya provided the carrier Simha (Lion); and like wise all the various Devas gifted various items of their valuable possessions.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now, Mahishasura led a fresh reserve of army, assuming his original form of a Mahisha or a buffalo, made several offensive gestures by way of forcefully pulling up his powerful horns high, by taking speedy circlings, by throwing up his mighty tail and by thumping his hooves making sounds like earth-quakes. The Asura jumped forward towards the Lion who created havoc and killed many of his warriors, whereby Maha Devi became livid with rage but Mahisha too got enraged and dug deep into the Earth and threw mountains by braying with frightful reverberation. The Asura’s breathing was so heavy that mountains shivered and sand storms got into motion with high velocity. Chandi Devi desired to kill Mahishasura in one go, but Maha Devi restrained Chandi and threw a powerful rope around the buffallo neck; She then assumed the form of a roaring lion, then as a huge elephant, and like a mammoth ‘Veera Purusha’. Meanwhile Chandika Devi consumed a huge cup of wine, got drunk with a resounding laugh with blood red eyes and said like a drunkard; ‘Oh miserable Stupid!  Keep on with your roar as long as my wine is swallowed; your last moments have now started ticking and you should soon leave this World as your ignominous life would get terminated.’ By so saying, Chandi jumped up and strangled Mahishasura’s mighty neck and sliced it open; soon Rishi ganas performed ‘Veda Parayana’, Gandharvas sang sonorous hymns of praise for Devi Chandi who was but a shadow of Maha Devi, Apsaras danced to their glory and Devas headed by Indra went into deep raptures in great jubilation with unreserved gratitude to Parama Maha Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana41.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Devibhagwatpurana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The entire Universe and the Pancha Bhutas ( The Five Elements) were dislocated from their axis as the duel was in progress. The Danava tied up his tail to mountains and whirled them against Maha Devi, who was enjoying cups of Grape juice meanwhile. The Demon kept on transforming his body forms in such quick succession that one could hardly realise what was happening and each time there was a change, he was striking from various angles with different kinds of arms like arrows, swords, Trisulas (Tridents), clubs, and maces. Charged then with red eyes looking like torrential balls of fire, Devi Bhagavati finally lost Her cool and commanded Her Chakra  ( discus) which broke Mahisha’s body split into two, each part jumping one over another and the Greatest menace on Earth had thus been terminated; there were hysteric shriekings and reverberations of  earsplitting sounds of high volume drummings spread across the entire Universe to the utmost relief and ecstasy of all Devas, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, Kimpurushas, Apsaras and world wide congregations of Sages all rejoicing with celebrations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-18T08:07:16.523" LastActivityDate="2016-02-18T08:07:16.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10670" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10198" CreationDate="2016-02-18T10:45:38.207" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rang Avadhoot Maharaj Created Datta Bavani. He also gave one mantra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraspara Devo bhava&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;means we humans should behave as devas. means we should not harm anybody.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhakti should be without sho off.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-02-18T10:45:38.207" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10672" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10341" CreationDate="2016-02-18T11:09:52.993" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByTCDrDij9HBWVA4VHYzY2g4elU/edit?pref=2&amp;amp;pli=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kalki Purana&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Parasurama will teach Vedas to Lord Kalki&lt;/strong&gt; who is upcoming Avatar of Lord Vishnu during transition times of Kali Yuga and Satya Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;suta uvdca tato vastum gurukule yantam kalkim ninksya sah mahendradn&#xA;sthito ramah samaniya asramam prabhuh&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suta Gosvami said: Thereafter, Lord Kalki went to live at the&#xA;gurukula. Upon seeing Him approach, the greatly powerful Parasuiama,&#xA;who lives at Mount Mahendra, took Him to His asrama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;praha warn pdthayisyami gurum mam viddhi dharmatah bhrguvamsa&#xA;samutpannam jamadagnyam mahdprabhum&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Parasurama said: My dear child, I will act as Your teacher and so&#xA;You may treat me as Your acarya. I am the son of the greatly powerful&#xA;sage, Jamadagm, and thus I belong to the Bhrgu dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;veda vedanga tattavajnam dhanurveda visdradam krtva mhksatnyam prthx&#xA;im dattva viprdya daksindm mahendradrau tapastaptum agato'ham&#xA;dvydtmaja warn pathatra пцат vedam yaccanyacchastram uttamam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am well-versed in the four Vedas, the literature dealing with&#xA;grammar, and the six branches of the Vedas. I am very expert in the&#xA;art of shooting arrows. Previously, I made the entire earth devoid of&#xA;ksatrnas and then gave the southern portion of the country to the&#xA;brdhmanas Thereafter, I went to Mount Mahendra to perform austerities&#xA;О son of a brahmana, you may stay here and study whatever scriptures&#xA;you like.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;itt tadvaca trprasrutya samprahrsta tanuruhah kalkih puro namaskrtya&#xA;vedadhm tato'bhavat&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suta GosvamI said: Upon hearing these words of Parasurama, Kalki&#xA;became very pleased and immediately offered His respectful obesiances&#xA;to Him Thereafter, He began to study the Vedas under the direction of&#xA;his spiritual master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this, &lt;strong&gt;Lord Parsurama will teach Rukmini Vrata to Ramaa Devi.&lt;/strong&gt; Kalki will have two wives Padmavati and Ramaa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;strong&gt;Parasurama is destined to become Saptarshi for next Manvantara i.e, Saavarni Manvantara.&lt;/strong&gt;, which is discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23205/25F_Chapter_9.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 9 of Matsya purana&lt;/a&gt;. Savarani Manvantara comes after Vaivasvara Manvantara which is current Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Royal sage, I am now describing Sävarni Manvantara. &lt;strong&gt;In this&#xA;particular Manvantara, Asvatthämä, garadvän, Kausika, Gälava,&#xA;Satänanda, Kasyapa and Räma (Parasuräma) are the seven Rsis.&lt;/strong&gt; Sävarni&#xA;Manu shall have ten sons viz. Dhrti, Variyän, Yavas, Suvarna, Vrsti,&#xA;Carisnu, Idya, Sumati, Vasu and valorous Sukra. These will be his ten&#xA;sons. Similar description has been provided for Raucya and other&#xA;future Manvantaras. At that point of time, Raucya the son of Ruci,&#xA;would be known as Manu. Similarly, Bhautya, the son of Bhüti shall be&#xA;known as Manu. Thereafter, Meru-sävanrni, the son of Brahmä shall be&#xA;known as Manu. Besides them Rta, Rtadhämä and Visvaksena will also be&#xA;known as Manus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T17:14:27.947" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10673" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10663" CreationDate="2016-02-18T11:25:23.560" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Elephanta caves talk about Andhaka who also had the same boon as RaktaVija.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://elephanta.co.in/mythical-themes-at-elephanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sources&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/w9OJ3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/w9OJ3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Andhakasura Vadha Murthi&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://elephanta.co.in/anhdakasura-vadha-at-elephanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Slaying of Andhakasura&lt;/a&gt;  : Depicting Shiva slaying a demon called Andhaka. One of the most animated panels in Elephanta. Shiva is represented with eight arms in this panel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/shivapuranam16.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is mentioned in Shiva Purana How Lord Shankara Killed Andhka and Lifted there bloodless body into Shivaganga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Danava Guru who kept on reciting Om Namah Sivaya Mantra as a gesture of his regret, Siva released the Danava Guru from His semen. &lt;strong&gt;Then Siva applied His Trident to kill Andhaka but for each drop of blood, there was another Andhaka born; Maha Deva ordered Devi Chandika to suck each drop of blood and expanded her tongue for till the Demon’s body was drenched out of blood. Later on Siva lifted the bloodless body of Andhaka&lt;/strong&gt;, but the Demon prayed to Siva to admit him among the Sivaganas after death.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-10T19:33:50.750" LastActivityDate="2016-03-10T19:33:50.750" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10677" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10661" CreationDate="2016-02-18T16:09:40.033" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Good Question!! Mahishi who was sister of Mahishasura wanted to take revenge for his brothers death. She does tapas for Lord Bramha and gets a boon that she can only be killed by the son born to Shiva and Vishnu. She later attacks the devaloka and consumes all the Havis from yagna and yagam. &#xA;To Kill her the lord vishnu and lord shiva should have a baby between them and to make it possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Devi bhagavatham its clearly mentioned that &quot;Sthri rupam of Lord vishnu is Parvathi/ durga&quot;. It is also mentioned that lord shiva only has attraction to his shakthi Parvathi and they both are inseparable. So in fact to attract lord shiva, Vishnu has meditated about parvathi and infused her into him. That made lord shiva to get attracted to vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Bhagavatham, Daksha yagnam it is said that Vishnus Vaishnavi shakthi is parvathi (his sister), So is the reason Narayani is the name of goddess parvathi. So by thatva they both are same. Coming to shiva He is aadi yogi/ Yogeshwareshwara... He is unmmoved by Vaishnava Maya, he just encouraged it get the things done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mohini - Name itself says that Moha, is the attractive power of Maya/Vaishnavi  which attracted lord shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4859" LastActivityDate="2016-02-18T16:09:40.033" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10678" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-18T17:51:16.307" Score="0" ViewCount="56" Body="&lt;p&gt;I see 卐 symbol in one or two Hollywood movie(s) but I know its a Hindu symbol.So I want to know what is meaning of swastika symbol. is it used in other religions also?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4440" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-02-18T17:55:38.803" LastActivityDate="2016-02-18T17:55:38.803" Title="What is meaning of swastika (卐) symbol in hinduism" Tags="|symbols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-02-18T18:45:15.543" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10680" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-18T19:19:37.140" Score="5" ViewCount="397" Body="&lt;p&gt;Considering that kill can bring bad karma, what must be done with some harmful animals like &lt;em&gt;aedes aegypti&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;triatoma infestans&lt;/em&gt;, ticks etc., when it is on our way? And if they can be killed it means we can tranquilly kill a &lt;em&gt;homo sapiens&lt;/em&gt; that is effectively more harmful than those creatures?&#xA;(This question does not concern legal issues, just karmic e religious issues.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4883" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-18T19:32:32.880" LastActivityDate="2017-01-01T09:35:55.753" Title="To kill harmful animals" Tags="|karma|dharma|life|animals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2016-02-19T06:32:25.673" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10682" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10680" CreationDate="2016-02-19T06:08:37.560" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;My previous answer was entirely based on my own understanding and without any Scriptures to support it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now,here is a completely revised answer that is based on Scriptures:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When one's life is in danger, he can kill a Brahmana, Vysya, Kshatriya or a Shoodra or even a cow, horse or any other animal, to&#xA;  protect his life from them. This will not earn him any sin.&lt;/strong&gt; ...&lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;  king, for the sake of the gods and the Brahmanas, should kill harmful&#xA;  animals such as the lion, tiger etc.&lt;/strong&gt; In times of distress, the king&#xA;  may kill and eat an animal, that is fit to be consumed. He should&#xA;  never indulge in this act, in any other circumstance, except for the&#xA;  sake of gods and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above passage is from &lt;strong&gt;Brahmanda Purana,Uttara Khanda&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The words are those of Brihaspati(Deva Guru) and the conversation is between him and Deva Raja Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Vishnu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Protecting (one attacked by robbers, or by tigers, or otherwise in&#xA;  danger) is more meritorious than any (other) gift.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By doing so he obtains that place of abode (after death) which he&#xA;  desires himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;188. He who kills (in his own defence a tiger or other) animal with sharp nails and claws, or a (goat or other) horned animal (excepting&#xA;  cows), or a (boar or other) animal with sharp teeth, or an assassin,&#xA;  or an elephant, or a horse, or any other (ferocious animal by whom he&#xA;  has been attacked), commits no crime.(Chapter V)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,it seems,killing a potentially dangerous animal is not a sin provided you are being attacked by it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-01T09:35:55.753" LastActivityDate="2017-01-01T09:35:55.753" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10684" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-19T11:01:10.193" Score="9" ViewCount="1795" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, Saraswati Devi is often considered as the goddess of knowledge. Also, it is very common practice to celebrate Vasant Panchami festival (the fifth day of spring) in her honour. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some Hindus celebrate Vasant Panchami and mark the day, by helping young children learn how to write alphabets on that day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraswati&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This clearly shows that Saraswati is considered as the goddess of knowledge as per the faith and common practices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is the how Rigveda mentions about her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपो अस्मान मातरः शुन्धयन्तु घर्तेन नो घर्तप्वः पुनन्तु | विश्वं हि&#xA;  रिप्रं परवहन्ति देविरुदिदाभ्यः शुचिरापूत एमि ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;– &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv10017.htm&quot;&gt;Rigveda 10.17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May the waters, the mothers, cleanse us, may they who purify with&#xA;  butter, purify us with butter, for these goddesses bear away&#xA;  defilement, I come up out of them pure and cleansed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Is there any interesting story/event mentioned in Hindu scripture which leads her to be designated as goddess of knowledge?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-02-19T11:09:51.613" LastActivityDate="2016-06-10T09:33:42.520" Title="Why Sarasvati is considered as goddess of knowledge?" Tags="|belief|saraswati|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10686" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-19T12:47:34.480" Score="4" ViewCount="817" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhumidevi is the wife of Lord Vishnu. Her daughter is Sita. If this is so, how did Lord Vishnu/Rama marry his wife's daughter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmi,who comes out of the ocean of milk,is considered the daughter of Varuna.Varuni ,who also comes out of the ocean of milk,can be considered the daughter of Varuna.Thus,how can Varuna marry his own daughter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorDisplayName="user4627" LastEditDate="2016-02-20T03:34:19.607" LastActivityDate="2024-02-19T21:01:45.213" Title="How did Sita marry Ram and Varuni marry Varuna?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|rama|lakshmi|sita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10687" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="37670" CreationDate="2016-02-19T14:07:46.560" Score="3" ViewCount="955" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that sanatana dharma is the oldest religion. But are there any evidences or any mentions of other religions in the vedas?&#xA;If yes,what were the religions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4825" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-16T13:10:35.230" LastActivityDate="2019-12-31T16:17:20.700" Title="Were there any other religions during the treta and dwapar yuga?" Tags="|vedas|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10688" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-19T16:22:18.030" Score="11" ViewCount="6485" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am interested in learning about Yugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; Wikipedia article, Kali Yuga started around 3201 BCE, or BC.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same Wikipedia article also mentions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Acording to the Laws of Manu, one of the earliest known texts&#xA;  describing the yugas, the length is 4800 years + 3600 years + 2400&#xA;  years + 1200 years, for a total of 12,000 years for one arc, or 24,000&#xA;  years to complete the cycle, which is one precession of the equinox).&#xA;  These 4 yugas follow a timeline ratio of (4:3:2:1).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ok, so we have 3102 BCE minus 1200 years, bringing us to 1902 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that is only half the circle's arc. We must subtract another 1200 years to get to end of Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1902 BCE - 1200 years = 702 BC&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does that mean Kali Yuga ended in 702 BC? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am really confused, please guide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it helps, I would like to add:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While the long yuga count is the most popular, it does not correlate&#xA;  to any known celestial motion found in the Astronomical Almanac. The&#xA;  value of 24,000 years fits relatively close with the modern&#xA;  astronomical calculation of one full precession of the equinox, which&#xA;  takes 25,772 years&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z97i3FBhSs&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;a YouTube video&lt;/a&gt; explaining the procession of the equinox.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Is this accurate&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the following graph accurate? Does it conform to the Yugas in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mLeso.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mLeso.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-22T15:59:35.683" LastActivityDate="2021-03-10T08:50:22.180" Title="Which Yuga are we currently in? Numbers don't add up" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10690" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-20T00:49:21.817" Score="6" ViewCount="1387" Body="&lt;p&gt;There were some Rakshasas like Vibhishana who were noble.&#xA;Were there any Asuras/Rakshasas who were initially evil but eventually became good i.e moved to the side of Dharma? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T06:31:13.980" LastActivityDate="2023-11-28T13:32:00.317" Title="Asuras/Rakshasas who became good?" Tags="|puranas|asuras|itihasa|rakshasa|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10691" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-20T02:28:48.840" Score="13" ViewCount="910" Body="&lt;p&gt;AFAIK, Valmiki as the writer of Ramayana, is describing the events of Ramayana exactly as the characters themselves perceive and experience those events. So he doesn't add anything more or anything less when he puts into words the thoughts, feelings or actions of those characters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given that, when Hanuma starts searching for Sita in Lanka and sees Ravana's wife Mandodari in Ravana's palace from a distance, he mistakes her for Sita because he's never seen Mandodari or Sita before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it doesn't appear that Hanuma was told about Ravana or his family by any vanara or rishi. Yet the translator of the following shlokha (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga10/sundarasans10.htm#Verse51&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;51-52&lt;/a&gt;, Sarga 10, Sundara Kanda) says Hanuma actually saw Mandodari, in that, he actually knew her name. The original Sanskrit shlokha however only seems to be describing a feature, &lt;strong&gt;मन्द उदरीम्&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=HK&amp;amp;beginning=0+&amp;amp;tinput=manda+&amp;amp;trans=Translate&amp;amp;direction=SE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;manda&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=udara&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;udariim&lt;/a&gt; = soft-bellied), of the most prominent lady that Hanuma saw in Ravana's palace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मुक्ता मणि समायुक्तैर् भूषणैः सुविभूषिताम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विभूषयन्तीम् इव च स्व श्रिया भवन उत्तमम् || ५-१०-५१ &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गौरीम् कनक वर्ण आभाम् इष्टाम् अन्तः पुर ईश्वरीम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कपिर् &lt;strong&gt;मन्द उदरीम्&lt;/strong&gt; तत्र शयानाम् चारु रूपिणीम् || ५-१०-५२ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;51;52. kapiH = Hanuma; &lt;strong&gt;mandodariim = (saw) Mandodari&lt;/strong&gt;; charuruupiNiim = with a beautiful form; muktaamaNisamaamuktaiH = together with diamonds and pearls; suvibhuushhitaam well decorated; bhuushhaNaiH = by jewellery; svashriya = and with her self radiance; vibhuushhayantiimiva = as though decorating bhavanottamam = that great building; gauriim = with a fair complexion; kanakavarNaabhaam = and with a radiance like golden colour; ishhTaam = who was dear to her husband; antaHpureshvariim = the lady of the women in that gynaeceum; shayaanaam = sleeping; tatra = there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hanuma saw Mandodari&lt;/strong&gt; with a beautiful form together with diamonds and pearls, well decorated by jewellery and with her self radiance as though decorating that great building with a fair complexion and with a radiance like golden colour, who was dear to her husband the lady of women in that gynaeceum sleeping there. [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga10/sundarasans10.htm#Verse51&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shlokha 51-52, Sarga 10, Sundara Kanda&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Questions:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;So does Hanuma really know the name of Ravana's wife as &quot;Mandodari&quot; when he sees her for the first time? If not, is it a mere coincidence that Hanuma spots the predominant feature of Mandodari, which is her soft belly, which also happens to be the reason behind her name?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there a better translation of the above shlokha anywhere online that shows the correct meaning of those two words &lt;strong&gt;मन्द उदरीम्&lt;/strong&gt; (manda udariim)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also, given that Hanuma hasn't spoken to very many people other than Sita during his search for her, can we assume that, throughout Sundara Kanda, Valmiki is only describing every new character that Hanuma encounters only by their features, but doesn't really refer to them by name in his shlokhas?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-28T06:07:57.817" LastActivityDate="2018-04-13T22:49:19.180" Title="Does Hanuma actually know Ravana's wife Mandodari by her name when he sees her the first time?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|translation-request|valmiki|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10692" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10690" CreationDate="2016-02-20T03:19:40.573" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;1)Vibhishana&#xA;2)Mahabali&#xA;3)Hidimbi&#xA;4)Sachi&#xA;5)Mandodari&#xA;Are there any more?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastActivityDate="2016-02-20T03:19:40.573" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10693" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="598" CreationDate="2016-02-20T04:05:53.357" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have three answers to your question.The first two is no but the last one is yes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you consider Saraswati to have appeared &lt;strong&gt;before&lt;/strong&gt; the creation of the manas-putras of Brahma, then Saraswati had not been actually &lt;strong&gt;created from half of Brahma's body&lt;/strong&gt;.Instead, in the beginning of time, Brahma had been instructed by Vishnu to create the world.However, Brahma did not know what to create as he lacked wisdom, knowledge and creativity.Hence, he prayed to Devi to show him the way.Devi thus &lt;strong&gt;manifested&lt;/strong&gt; from the left half of Brahma's body as Saraswati, the Goddess of wisdom, knowledge and creativity.Gaining wisdom, knowledge and creativity from her, he realised that creating the universe was no easy feat annd thus created his manas-putras to help him.It was during that time that he started to lust Devi and Shiva came into the picture.Devi had also done such a miracle when Shiva had worshipped her.She had manifested from Shiva's left half as Sidhatri/Durga and Shiva became known as Ardhinaeshwara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you consider Saraswati to have appeared &lt;strong&gt;before&lt;/strong&gt; the creation of the manas-putras of Brahma, then Saraswati is the shakti of Brahma.Also, in this story, Saraswati had not been actually &lt;strong&gt;created from half of Brahma's body&lt;/strong&gt;.Together with Saraswati, Brahma had created the manas-putras.Then, in this story, the manas-putras are not just the sons of Brahama.They are also the sons of Saraswati.After their creation, Saraswati manifested from Brahma's body's left side in a phisycal body.Upon seeing his shakti (he couldn't see her before as she had no phisycal form), Brahma lusted her and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Beliefs that Saraswati is Brahma's daughter is mainly from temple lore.Hence, after avoiding Brahma, Saraswati became a consort of Vishnu (according to Vaishnavas), a daughter of Durga (according to Shaktas) or a follower of Ganesha (according to Shaivas).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-26T11:53:39.730" LastActivityDate="2018-02-26T11:53:39.730" CommentCount="3" CommunityOwnedDate="2016-02-20T04:05:53.357" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10695" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16980" CreationDate="2016-02-20T05:10:25.547" Score="10" ViewCount="3315" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I was randomly looking at the chat room,I saw this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ok, so Indra got 1000 eyes and &lt;strong&gt;Shiva 5 heads because of Tilottama&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I did some research on this and found this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another tale in the Mahabharata (Book 13) narrates that Tilottama comes to tempt him. &lt;strong&gt;Eager to see her as she circumambulated him, Shiva developed four visible faces&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also found this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;an apsara named Madhura arrives at Mount Kailash, the abode of Shiva, to pay her respects. In absence of his wife Parvati, &lt;strong&gt;Madhura has clandestine coitus with Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; . When Parvati returns, she finds traces of ashes from Shiva’s body on the breasts of Madhura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is this?!How can Shiva even do this?!I think it is very demeaning to think that Shiva who is the destroyer of lust,Kama, falls prey to two mere apsaras.I would understand if he was seduced by Devi but he wasn't.Somebody please clear my doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorDisplayName="user4627" LastEditDate="2016-02-20T05:18:36.267" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T09:09:26.497" Title="Shiva and some apsaras?" Tags="|shiva|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10696" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23353" CreationDate="2016-02-20T05:34:07.393" Score="4" ViewCount="9202" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people believe that Ganga married Shiva. Shiva married Parvati because she meditated him. He had a union with Mohini so as to ensure that Ayyappa is born. What is the story of why Shiva married Ganga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-02-20T05:56:34.650" LastActivityDate="2018-03-12T08:33:03.800" Title="Why did Shiva marry Ganga?" Tags="|shiva|parvati|ganga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10697" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2034" CreationDate="2016-02-20T09:25:26.003" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually there are 8 immortals in Hinduism, they are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ashwathama.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mahabali (Bali).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rishi Ved Vyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman Ji.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vibhishana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kripacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Parashuram.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Markandeya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4911" LastEditorUserId="4911" LastEditDate="2018-01-10T23:18:43.493" LastActivityDate="2018-01-10T23:18:43.493" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10698" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-20T10:14:30.017" Score="7" ViewCount="906" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the consequences of women chanting mantras? Do scriptures say anything about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-08T19:37:44.373" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T09:04:06.117" Title="Consequence of women chanting mantras" Tags="|belief|mantras|women|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10699" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23725" CreationDate="2016-02-20T10:18:03.457" Score="7" ViewCount="11859" Body="&lt;p&gt;Getting a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banalinga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Banalinga&lt;/a&gt; (also known as Narmada Shiva Linga or  Narmadeswar Shiva linga) is quite easy these days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will get them in shops selling religious items. And, they are also sold on websites like ebay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is how to determine whether the stone is really Lord Shiva or just any other lifeless stone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Getting a Banalinga is important in the sense that since the Lord is already said to be  present  in it the elaborate procedures of pranapratistha are not needed to invoke the divine presence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-01-25T15:26:48.747" LastActivityDate="2021-11-08T13:53:08.750" Title="How to determine whether a Banalinga is genuine or not?" Tags="|shiva|worship|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10700" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10767" CreationDate="2016-02-20T10:36:55.847" Score="10" ViewCount="26916" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karna was the only person who was able to defeat Arjuna. Karna was stronger and kinder than Arjuna, but still he got an undeserved death at the hands of Arjuna,on the advice of Lord Krishna. What is the reason behind ending the life of a great person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-04T13:10:20.670" LastActivityDate="2023-10-04T05:24:28.463" Title="Why did Lord Krishna end Karna's life in such a way?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|karna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10701" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10708" CreationDate="2016-02-20T10:40:48.333" Score="10" ViewCount="2296" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since it is get from the exploitation of innocents mammals, consuming milk and dairy causes bad karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4883" LastActivityDate="2016-02-20T16:31:08.507" Title="Consuming milk and dairy causes bad karma?" Tags="|karma|cows|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10703" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-20T12:11:49.957" Score="1" ViewCount="77" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to an answer to a question, Parashurama is powerful and attains powers by doing penance in every yuga and transfers them to the avatars of lord Vishnu . In the same way he transfers his powers to lord Rama and gives Sudarshan chakra to Lord Krishna when he was in need of it, as he is the protector of it.Then why won't we perform pooja to Parashurama though he is powerful compared to other avatars, why was he not recognized in the world, why his story was not described in any book?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4913" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2016-02-20T16:35:08.613" LastActivityDate="2016-02-20T16:35:08.613" Title="Why don't we perform pooja to the powerful Parashurama?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-02-22T17:22:50.493" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10705" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-20T12:54:54.490" Score="2" ViewCount="1007" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that people who die under Rohini Nakshatra, their children have to leave home for one year. Is it true? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, than why it is so only for some Nakshatras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4501" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-21T08:42:53.480" LastActivityDate="2016-02-21T08:42:53.480" Title="Why to leave home after death in some nakshatras?" Tags="|death|nakshatra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10706" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-20T14:51:02.257" Score="7" ViewCount="1510" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Shaivite&quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyer&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Iyer Brahmins&lt;/a&gt; are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to philosophical Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is related to a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I am a member) is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the 12 Alwars, Shaiva Siddha at is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the 63 Nayanars. In any case, the Paramokshanirasa Karika Vritti is a work by the Shaiva Siddhanta Acharya Bhatta Ramakantha which attempts to refute 20 rival sects of Hinduism. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/86IM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt;, Ramakantha refutes a sub-school of Kapila's Samkhya school which believed that all the Karma a person generates in this birth always bears fruit in that person's immediate next birth, not in subsequent births.  Ramakantha argues that the Vedas describe so many different consequences that different actions produce, and it would be impossible for all of them to bear fruit in a single lifetime:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sadyojyotih says... &quot;[Actions] which have as their fruit being born as Indra and such like are taught in the Veda too; they [produce births] separately from each other.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Being born as Indra&quot; is the meaning of &quot;sovereignty over heaven&quot; in [the Vedic injunction] &quot;He who desires sovereignty over heaven should sacrifice with the Vajapeya.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;  The sacrificial answer which has that as its fruit - [and, as indicated] by the use of &quot;and such like&quot; [in the verse], the Jyotishtoma and other [meritorious actions], having heaven and other [meritorious rewards] s fruit, and the killing of a Brahmin and other forbidden [actions], having hell as fruit - are [all] taught in [Vedic] scripture.... [They produce future lives separately from each other] because [actions] whose fruits are mutually contradictory cannot produce a single birth at one time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, where do the Vedas say that doing the Vajapeya Yagna will give you sovereignty over Devaloka, i.e. make you the next Indra?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8018/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, how the current Indra attained his position is by doing 100 Ashwamedha Yagnas, which is why he tries to stop others from doing the same.  And this seems to be the standard way all the previous Indras have attained their position; concerning past Indras the Brahmanda Purana says &quot;All of them have severally performed a hundred sacrifices.&quot;  So where do the Vedas say that a single Vajapeya Yagna will give the same result?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately the translator of Ramakanatha's work just says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We have not been able to locate the Vedic source of this quotation, but we note that it is quoted by other authors, for example by Jayanta Bhatta (Nyayamanjari, volume 1, p. 687,5) as shruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any English translations of Jayanta Bhatta's Nyayamanjari online, or else I could just see if the translator of that work knew the origin of the verse.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does anyone know where in the Vedas this verse can be found? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T14:07:39.583" Title="Where do the Vedas say that a single Vajapeya Yagna will make you the next Indra?" Tags="|vedas|karma|indra|shaivism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10707" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10604" CreationDate="2016-02-20T15:28:04.167" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, the Lord surely knows our Aagami karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This universe, which is the grossest of the gross entities, is the&#xA;  form of the Lord. &lt;strong&gt;In this Cosmic Form all the past, the present and&#xA;  the future subsist.&lt;/strong&gt; Permeating this universal cosmic form, with its&#xA;  seven sheaths - consisting of five elements, egoism, and the universal&#xA;  intelligence - there is the Viratpurusha - the Cosmic Divinity. He is&#xA;  the real object of concentration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana II.1.24-25&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does a jiva have free will?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaidyanath: &quot;Sir, I have a doubt. People speak of free will. They say&#xA;  that a man can do either good or evil according to his will. Is it&#xA;  true? Are we really free to do whatever we like?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Master [Sri Ramakrishna]: &quot;Everything depends on the will of God. The&#xA;  world is His play. He has created all these different things - great&#xA;  and small, strong and weak, good and bad, virtuous and vicious. This is&#xA;  all His maya. His sport. You must have observed that all the trees in&#xA;  a garden are not of the same kind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;As long as a man has not realized God, he thinks he is free. It is&#xA;  God Himself who keeps this error in man. Otherwise sin would have&#xA;  multiplied. Man would not have been afraid of sin, and there would&#xA;  have been no punishment for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;But do you know the attitude of one who has realized God? He feels:&#xA;  'I am the machine, and Thou, O Lord, art the Operator. I am the house&#xA;  and Thou art the Indweller. I am the chariot and Thou art the Driver.&#xA;  I move as thou movest me; I speak as Thou makest me speak.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, April 15, 1883&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna: &quot;People who have realized God are aware that free&#xA;  will is a mere appearance. In reality man is the machine and God is&#xA;  the Operator, man is the carriage and God its Driver.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, January 5, 1884&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Younger Naren: &quot;Sir, have we any free will?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna: &quot;Just try to find out who this 'I' is? While you are&#xA;  searching for 'I', 'He' comes out. 'I am the machine and He is the&#xA;  Operator.' You have heard of a mechanical toy that goes into a store&#xA;  with a letter in its hand. You are like that toy. God alone is the&#xA;  Doer. Do your duties in the world as if you were the doer, but knowing&#xA;  all that time that God alone is the Doer and you are the instrument.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, July 14, 1885&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-02-20T15:28:04.167" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10708" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10701" CreationDate="2016-02-20T16:31:08.507" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;My answer is based  on the info found on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/cowsare.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Mahabharata Anusasana Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma said: No sacrifice can be performed without the aid of curds&#xA;  and ghee (clarified butter). The very character of sacrifice which&#xA;  sacrifices have, depends upon ghee. Hence ghee (or, the cow from which&#xA;  it is produced) is regarded as the very root of sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, it is evident that one of the purposes for which cows exist is to produce milk from which ghee can be made.Hence it is evident enough that the act of obtaining milk from cows can't create bad karma.Instead it is good karma since you are aiding in agnihotra(fire sacrifice) which is essential for sustaining the Demi Gods  who in turn sustains life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More from the link.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Cows have been said to be the limbs of sacrifice. They represent&#xA;  sacrifice itself. Without them, there can be no sacrifice. With their&#xA;  milk and the Havi produced therefrom, they uphold all creatures by&#xA;  diverse acts. Cows are guileless in their behaviour. From them flow&#xA;  sacrifices and Havya and Kavya, and milk and curds and ghee. hence&#xA;  cows are sacred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's now see what saints have to say on consuming or using cow milk.From the same link :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vyasa said:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Cows are sacred. They are embodiments of merit. They are high and most&#xA;  efficacious cleansers of all. .....&lt;strong&gt;For the next three days one should&#xA;  drink the hot milk of the cow&lt;/strong&gt;. Having thus drunk for three days hot&#xA;  milk, one should next drink hot ghee for three days. Having in this&#xA;  way drunk hot ghee for three days, one should subsist for the next&#xA;  three days on air only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when a self realised Rishi like Vyasa is recommending drinking milk the act of obtaining milk from cows can't result in bad karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vasishtha said:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By bathing in water mixed with cow-dung, people shall become&#xA;  sanctified.... Cows are the best Havi for the deities. The Mantras&#xA;  called Swaha and Vashat are forever established in cows. Sacrifices&#xA;  are established in the cows. Cows constitute the fruit of&#xA;  sacrifices.Cows are the future and the past, and Sacrifices rest on&#xA;  them. Morning and evening cows yield unto the Rishis, Havi for use in&#xA;  Homa......&lt;strong&gt;Cows are the mothers of the universe&lt;/strong&gt;.*&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, again, it is quite evident from the above quote that being the mother of the entire universe a cow's duty is to feed everyone with her milk and not alone her own calves.Such is the greatness of cows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm concluding my answer with another Bhisma's quote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Cows are the mothers of the universe The human infant is fed breast&#xA;  milk by its human mother for under three years. After weaning, the cow&#xA;  acts as the surrogate mother providing milk for the rest of the human&#xA;  life-through childhood, adult age and old age. Cow is verily the&#xA;  mother of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, obtaining milk from cow is in no way a bad karma provided you are not forcing her or inflicting pain on her in any form.Also ,her calves should not be deprived.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-02-20T16:31:08.507" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10709" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3712" CreationDate="2016-02-20T21:30:39.433" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think, based on my experience, that narayana is literally, everything on earth as Vishnu is the person of all persons. But litterally As in every object every idea etc, all is narayana appearing as that object. So narayana performing the human sacrifice for five days is him sacrificing himself, since narayana is also every human and Nara is the son of the god of death. So narayana performing his austerity in the land of darma, is us and earth life. So narayana on the fifth day of the sacrifice doesn't die, is when he remembers his immortality and doesn't die. So him becoming human is him performing his sacrifice for the unamnifest which is who narayana and Krishna worship, because they exist within existence. So, when Nara, the human soul, while in human form, dies. Becomes narayana which then goes to a planet where Krishna is hari. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4918" LastActivityDate="2016-02-20T21:30:39.433" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10713" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="28447" CreationDate="2016-02-21T06:23:57.303" Score="7" ViewCount="358" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nowadays everyone does a Puja with an overwhelming use of akshatas.Akshatas are the substitute for everything starting from the dhyana/avahana mantras to tamboolam(betel leaves) in case you don't have them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Akshatas:Whole rice grain mixed with a pinch of turmeric(some use&#xA;  kumkumam in place of turmeric) and a little bit of&#xA;  ghee/oil/water(optional).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A typical shodasaupachara Puja of Lord Ganesha is like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/ganesha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here,when we say Mahaganpatim dhyami avahyami, it is understood that we need to sprinkle few akshatas on the idol of Ganesha to install life in the idol which is to remain there till the completion of the Puja.So aksathas replace the use of dhyana/avahana mantras .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,when we say asanam samarpayami we also sprinkle akshatas instead of offering an actual asanam(a seat for the Lord).Any of the the 16 upacharas that we don't have in real,we are to offer akshatas in place of each of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question-Who propounded this method of Puja?Was it Adi Shankaracharya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-02-21T07:50:50.193" LastActivityDate="2018-07-29T17:02:06.077" Title="Who propounded the method of doing Puja using akshatas?" Tags="|rituals|worship|adi-shankaracharya|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10714" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10634" CreationDate="2016-02-21T06:47:53.013" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word Brahman is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishnu Puran&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The syllable Om is defined to be the eternal monosyllabic Brahman.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The word Brahman is derived from the root Vriha (to increase)&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;because&#xA;  it is infinite (spirit), and because it is the cause by which the&#xA;  Vedas (and all things) are developed&lt;/strong&gt;. Glory to Brahman, who is addressed by &#xA;  that mystic word, associated eternally with the triple universe, and&#xA;  who is one with the four Vedas. Glory to Brahman, who, alike in the&#xA;  destruction and renovation of the world, is called the great and&#xA;  mysterious cause of the intellectual principle (Mahat); who is without&#xA;  limit in time or space, and exempt from diminution or decay; in whom&#xA;  (as connected with the property of darkness) originates worldly&#xA;  illusion; and in whom resides the end of soul (fruition or&#xA;  liberation), through the properties of light and of activity (or&#xA;  goodness and foulness). He is the refuge of those who are versed in&#xA;  the Sánkhya philosophy; of those who have acquired control over their&#xA;  thoughts and passions. He is the &lt;strong&gt;invisible, imperishable Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;varying in form, invariable in substance; the chief principle,&#xA;  self-engendered; who is said to illuminate the caverns of the heart;&#xA;  who is indivisible, radiant, undecaying, multiform&lt;/strong&gt;. To that supreme&#xA;  Brahman be for ever adoration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The primordial sound, syllable &quot;Om&quot; is also called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabda_Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shabda Brahman&lt;/a&gt; because it represents Brahman and it is the sound with which Brahman expands. Om is Brahman and Brahman is Om.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2016-02-21T06:47:53.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10715" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-21T06:59:44.683" Score="6" ViewCount="565" Body="&lt;p&gt;Several short Slokas/Mantras are found on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Slokas_for_solving_various_problems&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page and they are said to be compiled by Sri Vatsha Somadeva Sharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantras are shortcut ways of solving various day to day problems and are also claimed to be useful for achieving several other benefits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is claimed, for example, that by chanting the following mantra three times one is supposed to get the benefits of chanting the Shiva Sahasranama Stotram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shivo, Maheswaraschaiva , Rudhro , Vishnu , pithamaha , SAmsara&#xA;  Vaidhya , Sarvesa , Paramathma SAdashiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, one is supposed to get the benefits of doing a Homa &#xA;/Yagna by chanting this rather simple mantra/sloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namaskara Smrutho Yagna , sarva Yagna , uthamam, Uthama , Namami&#xA;  sathatham Samedhava Praseedathu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further slokas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;53.Places of salvation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Daasanath Abra sadasi , jananath Kamalalaye , Kasyanthu maranath&#xA;  mukthi , Smaranath arunachale&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6.To avoid bad dreams (Chant 3 times before retiring to bed)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Achyutham, Kesavam , Vishnum , Harim , SAthyam , Janardhanam, Hamsam&#xA;  Narayanam Krishnam japeth Duswapna SAnthaye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For increase in knowledge , to pass in examination (this has to be&#xA;  chanted eight times in the morning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15.Bhashyathi sarva sashtraani , yechanye niyamaa thadhaa , Aksharanicha sarvaani thwanthu devu namosthuthe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;17.To destroy sin committed by the mind (This has to be chanted eight times at dawn and dusk)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vibhatheeya Shivasane , Shivena saakam avyaya, Hiranmaye Athinirmale&#xA;  Namami thaam Himathrijaam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question-How authentic/valid are these mantras/slokas and who was Sri Sharma who compiled  them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-21T05:26:00.653" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T05:26:00.653" Title="Who was Sri Vathsa Somadeva Sharma and how valid are the following shortcut mantras/slokas?" Tags="|scripture|gods|mantras|shloka|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10716" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3732" CreationDate="2016-02-21T07:39:36.943" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ashoksundari is Viraja. They're different names of the same goddess. She is also known as Rakkayi Amman, Jyoti, Kumari. &#xA;She us the daughter of Shiva. She is said to be a &quot;mental&quot; daughter because she was born out of Parvati mata's forehead in the form of Jyoti while she sat under the Ashokvriksh and meditated for a daughter. Her name is also thus Ashoksundari. &#xA;Viraja comes from the Prithas as a 'muh boli' daughter. &#xA;Just as Kartikeya has nine mothers, and isn't taken as literal nine biological mothers, the same suit follows with Viraja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4920" LastActivityDate="2016-02-21T07:39:36.943" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10718" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-21T09:26:44.997" Score="1" ViewCount="930" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I was browsing through some questions here,I came across this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now in contrast to Sita, who was an incarnation of Vishnu's wife Lakshmi, Vedavati was an incarnation of &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu's other wife Bhumidevi&lt;/strong&gt;. And after Rama was reunited with Sita, he was asked to marry Vedavati, but he refused, saying that he can only marry one woman in this birth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I did some further research and found out that Lord Vishnu had many consorts such as Vaishno Devi and Padmavati. I also found out about the many wives of Ganesha, like Siddhi and Buddhi. I also found out that some people believe that Saraswati had married another person after escaping Brahma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lakshmi and &lt;strong&gt;Saraswati are wives of Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people would say &quot;Vishnu is only married to Lakshmi&quot; or &quot;Ganesha is a bachelor&quot;, but others believe in multiple consorts. Can someone tell me about all of these deities'consorts and give a list? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lastly,please visit and answer this question which is similar to this one :&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10696/why-did-shiva-marry-ganga]&quot;&gt;Why did Shiva marry Ganga?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T05:09:39.837" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T05:09:39.837" Title="Do Lord Vishnu,Ganesha and Saraswati have multiple consorts? If so who are they?" Tags="|vishnu|ganesha|saraswati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10719" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2533" CreationDate="2016-02-21T12:25:12.470" Score="13" Body="&lt;h1&gt;What is a Shiva Temple?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Temples are specially designed places of worship where the presiding deity is Lord Shiva in the form of a &lt;em&gt;Linga&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is a &lt;em&gt;Linga&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Linga&lt;/em&gt; is an aniconic representation of Lord Shiva, which is used for worship in temples. To know more about a &lt;em&gt;Linga&lt;/em&gt;, you can refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/101/4459&quot;&gt;this post&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is a &lt;em&gt;Jyotirlinga&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt;s are twelve &lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; specially consecrated &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt;s present in the world. &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=bchgql0em9YC&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Shiva Purana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; deals with &lt;em&gt;Jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt;s in detail. It is believed that Shiva first manifested himself as a &lt;em&gt;Jyotirlinga&lt;/em&gt; on the night of the &lt;em&gt;Arudra&lt;/em&gt; festival, thus the special reverence for the &lt;em&gt;Jyotirlinga&lt;/em&gt;. The legend behind this is mentioned in the &lt;em&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/em&gt; and is beautifully explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3284/4459&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Etymology of the Word&lt;/strong&gt; - The word &lt;em&gt;Jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt; is made up of two words, &lt;em&gt;Jyoti&lt;/em&gt; meaning 'radiance' and &lt;em&gt;Linga&lt;/em&gt;, which represents Lord Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;sub&gt; As Keshav mentions in a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2533/what-is-the-difference-between-a-temple-and-a-jyotirlinga/10719#comment25566_10719&quot;&gt;comment&lt;/a&gt; below, there are actually many more Jyothirlingas, but these 12 are the most famous amongst them. The exact number is put at 64 in a few texts&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What is the difference between a Shiva &lt;em&gt;Linga&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As mentioned earlier the main difference is that &lt;em&gt;jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt;s are twelve special &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt;s (mentioned in &lt;em&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/em&gt;). Shiva &lt;em&gt;Linga&lt;/em&gt;s are a form of Lord Shiva which are found in many Shiva Temples. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The relation can be explained by stating the the &lt;em&gt;Jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt;s are an enumerated sub set of 12 different elements of the countably infinite set of all &lt;em&gt;Linga&lt;/em&gt;s in the world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Who mentioned about &lt;em&gt;Jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt;s?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jagadguru Sri Shankaracharya&lt;/em&gt; mentioned the twelve &lt;em&gt;Jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt;s in a 13 stanza verse with 1 stanza dedicated to each of the &lt;em&gt;Jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt;s and 1 concluding stanza. He also wrote a shortened form, which can be translated as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre Somanāthaṃ ca Śrīśaile Mallikārjunam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ujjayinyāṃ Mahākālam Omkāram Mamleśhwaram&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Paraly Vaidyanāthaṃ cha Ḍākinyāṃ Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Setubandhe tu Rāmeśaṃ Nāgeśhaṃ Dārukāvane&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vārāṇasyāṃ tu Viśveśaṃ Tryambakaṃ Gautamītaṭe&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Himālaye tu Kedāraṃ Ghuśmeśaṃ ca Śivālaye&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse can be translated in English as &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Somanath in Saurashtra and Mallikarjunam in Shri-Shailam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Mahakaal in Ujjain, Mamleshwar in Omkareshwar&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vaidyanath in Chitaobhoomi, Jharkhand or Parali in Maharasthra and Bhimashankaram in Dakinya&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ramesham (Rameshwaram) in Sethubandh, Nagesham in Daruka-Vana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vishwa-Isham (Vishvanath) in Vanarasi, Triambakam at bank of the river Gautami;(Godavari)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kedar (Kedarnath) in Himalayas and Grushnesh (Gushmeshwar) in Shivalaya (Shiwar)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One who recites these Jyotirlingas every evening and morning&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  is relieved of all sins committed in past seven lives.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;(Transliteration and Translation taken from the Wikipedia page on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt;s&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Where are the &lt;em&gt;Jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt;s present?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Name of &lt;em&gt;Jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt; | State     ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​      ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​ |  Location&lt;br&gt;&#xA;---------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnath&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Somnath&lt;/a&gt; ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​​ ​ ​| Gujrat  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​   ​| &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/2vshBetFdjH2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prabhas Patan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallikarjuna_Jyotirlinga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mallikarjuna&lt;/a&gt; ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​  ​| Andhra Pradesh ​ ​  | &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/DRRPb78mtSQ2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srisailam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahakaleshwar_Jyotirlinga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahakaleshwar&lt;/a&gt;  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​  ​​  ​ ​ | Madhya Pradesh | &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/hE3qJUwt72A2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ujjain&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omkareshwar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Omkareshwar&lt;/a&gt;  ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​  ​  ​ ​​ ​ | Madhya Pradesh | &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/zJ3F8EEovYs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mandatha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidyanath_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaidyanath&lt;/a&gt;*  ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​   ​ | Jharkhand  ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​| &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/xgGCtP7smuu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Deoghar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhimashankar_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhimashankar&lt;/a&gt;*  ​ ​ ​ ​​ ​  ​ ​​ ​ | Maharashtra  ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​| &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/xkaknwKaLTw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Khed&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanathaswamy_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rameshwar&lt;/a&gt;  ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​  ​​​ ​ | Tamil Nadu  ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​   | &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/QscQMMKjjS22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rameshwaram&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aundha_Nagnath_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nageshwar&lt;/a&gt;*   ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​ | Maharastra  ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​   | &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/kaTiyHRHFK52&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aundha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashi_Vishwanath_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishwanath&lt;/a&gt;  ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​ ​ | Uttar Pradesh  ​ ​ ​ ​  ​  ​    | &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/U932G3FrG8M2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varanasi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimbakeshwar_Shiva_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tryambakeshwar&lt;/a&gt;​ ​  ​ ​ ​ ​  | Maharashtra  ​   ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​    | &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/trsqz4BDrNq&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nashik&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kedarnath_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kedarnath&lt;/a&gt;  ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​  ​ | Uttarakhand    ​  ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​    | &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/HVeFcsX2A1n&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garhwal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grishneshwar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Grishneshwar&lt;/a&gt;*  ​ ​ ​ ​​ ​ ​   ​ ​ ​| Maharashtra  ​ ​ ​ ​  ​ ​ ​  ​   | &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/JUmQF6awenr&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Daulatabad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;---------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;br&gt;&#xA;* &lt;sub&gt;Places are disputed and no conclusion has been drawn.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An image of the 12 &lt;em&gt;Jyothirlinga&lt;/em&gt; temples on a map can be seen below&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/j1vNQ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/j1vNQ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Image of Jyothirlingas&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Image from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shivparvatisewadal.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiv Parvati Sewa Dal, Chandigarh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4459" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-01-10T09:48:10.450" LastActivityDate="2018-01-10T09:48:10.450" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10720" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-21T13:22:45.120" Score="7" ViewCount="1805" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kandha Puranam is a very revered Tamil scripture that talks about the glories of Lord Muruga (or Kartikeya). It was written by Kachiyappa Sivacharyar as the Tamil equivalent of Skanda Purana, and Muruga himself gave him guidance for this task.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story revolves around Lord Muruga's divine leelas, and his defeat of the asura Surapadma, who is the son of Kaashyapa (not Kashyapa) and Maya, and is an elder brother to Simhamukha, Tarakasura and Ayomukhi (very similar to Ravana, Kumbhakarna, Vibhishana and Surpanakha). It is stated that Surapadma conquered and ruled the universe for 108 Yugas, or 27 Chaturyugas. Now since Lord Muruga was incarnate in the Vaivasvata Manvantara, and had completed his leelas by the 23rd Chaturyuga, that would place Surapadman's conquest of the world in the Chakshusha Manvantara, for four Chaturyugas and subsequently in the Vaivasvata for 23 Chaturyugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when we look at Sanskrit scriptures, we find no mention of Surapadman and Simhamukha at all. The whole purpose of Muruga's incarnation revolves around only &lt;strong&gt;Tarakasura&lt;/strong&gt;, who is the son of &lt;strong&gt;Vajranga&lt;/strong&gt;. Muruga directly marches for battle in Sanskrit texts, no mention being made of Pranavopadesha of Lord Shiva, the birth and exploits of the Navaviras, as well as the later marriage of kartikeya and Valli.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Incidentally Mahabharata also contains a story of Muruga killing a demon named &lt;strong&gt;Mahisha&lt;/strong&gt;, and then marrying Devasena, which is what the Tamil account also says, except it replaces Mahisha with Surapadma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, is there any Sanskrit scripture which details of Muruga's conquest of Tarakasura, Simhamukha and Surapadma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2021-06-22T14:04:43.373" Title="Where is Surapadman in Sanskrit scriptures?" Tags="|sanskrit|kartikeya|skanda-purana|tamil|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10722" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10604" CreationDate="2016-02-21T19:32:42.393" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Disclaimer&lt;/strong&gt;: I mostly agree with @PradipGangopadhyay's answer (upvoted) except the statement that Lord &lt;strong&gt;knows&lt;/strong&gt; our &lt;em&gt;Agami Karma&lt;/em&gt;. Please refer all those scriptures before reading this answer.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agami Karma or any event is NOT &quot;known&quot; by ANYONE. Even though all are predetermined.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Above statement is contradictory, which is explained in 'Free Will' segment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&quot;Know&quot; vs &quot;Believe&quot;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a sharp difference between &quot;knowing&quot; and &quot;believing&quot;. Weather forecasting dept. Believes that the X day will have rains but they don't Know it. &quot;Knowing&quot; comes only when something happens; until then, it's just &quot;Believing&quot;. Few decades back using various maths, the humans &quot;believed&quot; the earth to be a round. They &quot;knew&quot; only after the satellite photos.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&quot;Know&quot; relates to past, while &quot;Believe&quot; is futuristic. For eternal truths (e.g 1+1), both merges to present.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Why past can be known, but future can be believed?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's first start with manifested supreme nature of God (call &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here is how it's impossible to 'know' future by Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;--------×------------(×, 9/11 attack)---&lt;br&gt;&#xA;.......T1...............T2  Event&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In above time line, let's assume TrikAl GyAni knows on some ordinary day of 20th century that WTC attack shall happen. His/her states of &quot;knowledge&quot; are T1 and T2 respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;means T1 constitutes 9/11 + T2(plain)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;means T2 constitutes T1 which is aware of T2 as (1)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;means T1 constitutes 9/11 + T2 which is aware as (2), not plain&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;means T2 constitutes T1 which is aware as (3), not (1)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;means T1 constitutes 9/11 + T2 which is aware as (4), not (2)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above is a bit complicated logic, hence needs perseverance of mind a bit &amp;amp; you get this infinite recursion, which is impossible. Now this is literally &quot;infinite&quot; and not &quot;too big to be finite&quot;. Former is theoretical and latter is practical. Above is just an example of 2 time moments. Think about altogether.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above proves that with whatever might one has, it's quite impossible for any manifested entity (be it God) to assure future, as it requires infinite resources. But surely it can be predicted to near true accuracy. But that is just prediction, as good as yours or mine. May be ours are less probable to happen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From scriptures; Krishna 'kind of predicted' following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 11.34 — &lt;strong&gt;Droṇa&lt;/strong&gt;, Bhīṣma, Jayadratha, Karṇa and the other great warriors have already been destroyed by Me. Therefore, &lt;strong&gt;kill them&lt;/strong&gt; and do not be disturbed. Simply ﬁght, and &lt;em&gt;you will vanquish your enemies in battle&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also added to enjoy the glory of earth after winning the war. Most of his words were true, except &lt;strong&gt;Drona&lt;/strong&gt;. Arjuna was not even a far away reason for Drona's death. No one could kill him. He left his body using KriyA yoga (after forfeiting his only attachment towards AshwatthAmA) at last. One may refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter of Drona Parva&lt;/a&gt;, which describes Drona receiving Moksha before his dead body was decapitated by Drishtadyumna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another instance, where after receiving curse from GAndhAri, Krishna let it happen instead of changing it. Here are the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8889/1049&quot;&gt;words of DwaipAyana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, ‘The mighty car-warriors of the Vrishni and the Andhaka races have all been consumed by the Brahmana’s curse. O chief of Kuru’s race, it behoveth thee not to grieve for their destruction. That which has happened had been ordained. It was the destiny of those high-souled warriors. &lt;strong&gt;Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; suffered it to take place although he &lt;strong&gt;was fully competent to baffle it. Govinda was able to alter the very course of the universe&lt;/strong&gt; with all its mobile and immobile creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;VyAsa as TrikAla GyAni said that Krishna can change the future events. How can one &quot;know&quot; something which is alterable? It shows that the futuristic events can be just believed to be happening with high probability, but can't be known by Any manifestation!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;But Brahman creates all, why can't it know?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may ask, what about unmanifested eternal nature of God (call &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;), can it &quot;know&quot;?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yes, it 'can' know, but it 'doesn't'; even though all creation is manifested from it! Because Brahman is &quot;uninterested&quot; in its creations to remain *NishkAm&quot; and unbound by Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.8, 9.9 — The whole cosmic order under Me automatically manifests again and again and annihilated at the end.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  — O Dhanañjaya, all these Karma cannot bind Me, as I am ever uninterested (and) detached from all these Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Brahman, all is &lt;em&gt;Bhuta&lt;/em&gt;, as Krishna refers in Gita. Which means everything has happened; be it past or future. If we can &quot;know&quot; past, Brahman can &quot;know&quot; (what we call) future too.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However here is the catch: we know only the interesting part of past, not all billions of moments.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For Brahman, nothing is interesting! Hence unknown.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Why predetermined?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman's actual unmanifested form is eternal and constant. Like how a computer algorithm in absence of external variables would generate always same random number, Brahman as only source &amp;amp; destination, also does the same. It keeps creating/destroying same universe all the time. Here universe means all the past &amp;amp; future events which we live as present and all thoughts we ever generate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.12 — Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (Just think, why should Krishna say such words when there is something called Moksha!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If by any chance Brahman is creating different universes every time, then due to infinite regression, we can't ever reach current moment. But that's not the case. Hence it has to be frequency; i.e. universe should repeat itself on every day of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then what changes between 2 universes?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;May be nothing or may be which part of universe is experienced by consciousness or may be the type of consciousness. All are beliefs. What we may know is that everything has to be cyclic, if not on Brahma's day then month or year or millennium... It must repeat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Free Will&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isn't it contradicting that, even though the &lt;em&gt;Bhuta&lt;/em&gt; created by Brahman is predetermined, yet unknown!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yes, this is called &quot;free will&quot;. Because no one Knows what's going to happen, we feel our Will to be free. But in reality it is not. Our Will is generated and terminated by God which roots to One. One variable (as good as constant) can contain only One value!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All above is what I &quot;believe&quot;, but don't &quot;know&quot; yet. :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-02-21T19:32:42.393" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10723" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-21T22:58:35.247" Score="7" ViewCount="1507" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can somebody give me some information on the Goddess Nila?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read about Her in this question: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7800/36]&quot;&gt;What scriptures describe Krishna&amp;#39;s lover Nappinnai?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu's other wives, Lakshmi and BhumiDevi are goddesses of Wealth and Earth respectively. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is Goddess Nila the Goddess of?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-29T01:35:42.290" LastActivityDate="2021-05-27T01:52:45.377" Title="Who is Vishnu's wife Nila?" Tags="|vishnu|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10727" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-22T07:54:45.310" Score="4" ViewCount="256" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Lord Venkateswara an avatar of Lord Vishnu? If so, what is its number (first, second, etc.)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in total, how many avatars of Lord Vishnu are there?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read somewhere that there would be only two avatars of Lord Vishnu in Kaliyuga and they are Lord Buddha and Lord Kalki? Please clarify my doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4913" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-22T16:12:37.307" LastActivityDate="2016-02-22T16:12:37.307" Title="Is Lord Venkateswara an &quot;avatara purush&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10728" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10763" CreationDate="2016-02-22T10:33:29.217" Score="2" ViewCount="1271" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a Hindu but sometimes I really think what is going on in our religion. Someone lost his family member and gave &lt;em&gt;bhoz&lt;/em&gt; (party) to all the relatives and brahmins. Why is this happening in Hindu culture only?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2779" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-22T13:50:17.750" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T07:54:49.590" Title="Why do Hindus give the bhoz (party) after someone's death?" Tags="|rituals|culture|death|sraddha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10730" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-23T04:17:14.133" Score="12" ViewCount="2573" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2756/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I am a member) places great importance on the Divya Desams, the 108 sacred places of Vishnu which are mentioned in the poems of the Alwars.  Now two of the Divya Desams are not even on Earth!  As I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9917/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, there is Thiruparkadal, Vishnu's ocean of milk, and then there is Paramapadam, the abode of Para Vasudeva or the supreme Vishnu as well as the destination of those who have attained Moksha.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6923/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information on Para Vasudeva.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tzDek.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tzDek.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.chinnajeeyar.org/EventsPrograms/PJCeleb/JS09-050809.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Sri Vaishnava Acharya HH Chinna Jeeyar Swami describes Paramapadam in one of his discourses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swamiji narrated the seating arrangement of Paravasudeva in Vaikuntam starting with Kurma (holy tortoise) forming the base on which Adisesha lies down as the bed hosting eight different demi-gods on 8 sides namely, Dharma, Adharma, Aiswarya, Anaiswarya, Jnana , Ajnana, Vairagya and Avairagya (each with three heads namely, Satva, Rajas and Tamas) and 12 different Ganas holding various weapons. All of these demi-gods hold a Lotus that hosts Simha Mukhas (Loin Faced demi-gods) on four corners and &lt;strong&gt;Sadasiva with 25 heads in the middle holding Bhadrasanam on which, Vaikuntanadha is seated with Sreedevi, Bhudevi and Neela devi.&lt;/strong&gt; Vaikuntanadha holds a mudra with his right hand extending an invitation to all the souls to come to him. His left hand is placed on the ‘Bhadrasanam’ giving it the needed support. In the other two hands he holds the divine conch and the discuss like ornaments to assure his devotees that he is not exposed to the evil eye. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhadrasana refers to a sitting posture, but my question is, what scriptures describe Sadashiva carrying Vishnu in Paramapadam?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the image above, how Paramapadam is usually depicted is with Vishnu sitting directly on his serpent couch along with his wives Lakshmi, Bhudevi, and Niladevi.  But HH Chinna Jeeyar Swami seems to be saying that Sadashiva is on the serpent couch and then Vishnu and his wives are being carried by him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm also surprised that Sadashiva is playing a role at all; as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9291/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, in Shaivism Sadashiva denotes the supreme Shiva, whom Shaivites equate with Brahman. But Sri Vaishnavas believe that Para Vasudeva (the supreme Vishnu) is Brahman, and that Shiva is a Jiva, so what role could Sadashiva play?  The only Vaishnavas I know of who acknowledge the existence of Sadashiva are the Gaudiya Vaishnavas, who believe on the basis on the Brahma Vaivarta Puranas that Sadashiva came from the body of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, I found it strange that Sadashiva was described as 25-headed, when he's usually depicted as 5-headed as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9989/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.boldsky.com/yoga-spirituality/faith-mysticism/2008/vishwaroopa-darshan-mahasadashiva-040808.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt; says there is a so-called &quot;Mahasadashiva&quot; form, which has 25 heads relating to the 25 elements found in the Samkhya system.  (24 elements of Prakriti plus Purusha.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2024-03-16T11:06:35.850" Title="What scriptures describe Sadashiva carrying Vishnu in Vishnu's abode of Paramapadam?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|shaivism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="29" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10732" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11431" CreationDate="2016-02-23T06:41:23.443" Score="14" ViewCount="12934" Body="&lt;p&gt;As is well known,  before starting any ritual Lord Ganapaty (also known as Vighneswaram,or the Lord of obstacles) is invoked first.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Usually, almost everywhere, the following Sloka(in bold) is used for that purpose:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.Ganapathi dyanam* &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Recite the following manthra slowly hitting the forehead with both&#xA;  fists together.:- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shuklambaradharam Vishnum Sasi Varnam ChathurBhujam   Prasanna Vadanam Dyayeth Sarva Vigna Upa Santhaye.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the above quote being taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://stotraratna.awardspace.com/sruthi/Manthras/m1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But ,the sloka/mantra mentioned above is in fact the Dhyana Sloka of Lord Vishnu for the Vishnu Sahasranama Stotram found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/vishnu/Sri_Vishnu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/eng/index.php?title=Vishnu_Sahasranamam&amp;amp;redirect=no&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone explain this ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-04-16T05:08:14.927" LastActivityDate="2019-10-10T00:14:42.467" Title="Why is the Sloka &quot;Suklambaradharam Vishnum...&quot; used as Ganapaty Dhyanam when it is clearly a Dhyana Sloka for Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|rituals|mantras|ganesha|shloka|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="15" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10735" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10087" CreationDate="2016-02-23T10:35:19.753" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The way MahAbhArata was fought was not the standard practice even during then. Had Arjuna used celestial weapons (&lt;em&gt;DivyAstra&lt;/em&gt;), it would have gained a quick victory, as it happened in &lt;em&gt;VirAta Yudha&lt;/em&gt;. Then why they fixed upon to use &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra_War#Army_Divisions_.26_Weaponry&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;limited weapons&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The premises of MahAbhArata war was the conflict within the family, predominantly between step-cousins. The war was fought in Kurukshetra to avoid harming other population and reluctant kingdoms (who din't want to join). There was no intention to invade the territories. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra_War#Rules_Of_Engagement&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rules of Engagement&lt;/a&gt; were laid before the war to maintain the ethical conduct, because this was a &lt;em&gt;Dharma Yudha&lt;/em&gt;, i.e. the war fought to maintain the righteousness. Look at below rule:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Two warriors may &quot;duel&quot;, or engage in prolonged personal combat, &lt;strong&gt;only&#xA;  if they carry the same weapons&lt;/strong&gt; and they are on the same type of mount&#xA;  (on foot, on a horse, on an elephant, or in a chariot).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which means, either Arjuna can't fight or he must break the rule for using &lt;em&gt;DivyAstra&lt;/em&gt;. Both were not acceptable. Moreover, Drona and AshwathAmA also possessed such weapons in their arsenal. Bhima's grandson &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Barbarika&lt;/a&gt; wasn't allowed to fight for the same reasons; i.e. using special weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The celestial weapons might not have been allowed for the same reason why the atomic warfare is not happening today.&lt;/strong&gt; No one wins such wars, but humanity surely loses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Interestingly, by the end of the Kurukshetra war, almost all the rules were broken in 1 or the other form. Because they were rules (or promises), they were destined to be broken!&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2016-02-23T10:35:19.753" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10736" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-23T10:38:11.397" Score="5" ViewCount="6603" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a festival in Bengal region named Basanti Puja in which Bengali people worship Goddess Durga but why they worship Maa Durga in Basanti Puja also,whereas they have time to worship Goddess Durga in Durga Puja? Is there any reason or story behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4831" LastActivityDate="2016-10-05T11:20:07.000" Title="Why people of Bengal worship Durga also during Basanti Puja?" Tags="|shiva|upanishads|durga|shakti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10738" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10761" CreationDate="2016-02-23T12:08:45.223" Score="11" ViewCount="3489" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivekachudamani&quot;&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/a&gt;, commentaries on some of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukhya_Upanishads&quot;&gt;Mukhya Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;, (Jnaneshwari) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Vasistha&quot;&gt;Yoga Vasistha&lt;/a&gt;, I found that they are talking about the different state of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cit_%28consciousness%29&quot;&gt;Chitt&lt;/a&gt; viz. Jagrat (जाग्रत), Swapna (स्वप्न), Sushupti (सुषुप्ति) &amp;amp; Turiya (तुरिय).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among which we realize Jagrat, Swapna and Sushupti regularly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know Turiya and How do I realize it? I think realization is very important to exactly/truly know them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;What is Turiya and how can we realize it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: This is very general/common question for beginners&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-11T00:37:29.327" LastActivityDate="2022-01-11T00:37:29.327" Title="What is Turiya and how can we realize it?" Tags="|philosophy|upanishads|terminology|consciousness|turiya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10740" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10732" CreationDate="2016-02-23T20:13:25.540" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Based on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_vishnu-shuklambaradharam_vishnum.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://vulimiridevotion.blogspot.in/2011/03/meaning-of-ganesha-shloka.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt;, &quot;vishnum&quot; is not for Lord Vishnu; but it means &quot;who is all-pervading or omnipresent&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3273" LastActivityDate="2016-02-23T20:13:25.540" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10741" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-24T05:31:31.873" Score="15" ViewCount="2111" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tREnN.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tREnN.png&quot; alt=&quot;Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can any one give the exact explanation of this mantra? What is the logic behind chanting this Mantra?&#xA;How the mind of a person related to this and is it true that we can save the life of a dying person if we chant this mantra for him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4314" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-30T04:07:24.567" LastActivityDate="2021-12-08T20:02:03.393" Title="I want to know the exact explanation of Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra" Tags="|vedas|shiva|mantras|shiva-purana|linga-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10742" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10741" CreationDate="2016-02-24T06:04:40.180" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Mahamrityunjaya Mantra&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;In Devanagari script:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिंम् पुष्टिवर्धनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान् मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;In English script:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ pushtivardhanam ǀ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  urvārukamiva bandhanān mrityormukshīya mā'mritāt ǁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is Great Death-conquering Mantra, also called the Tryambakam Mantra, is a verse of the Rigveda. It is addressed to Tryambakam, &quot;the three-eyed one&quot;, Lord Shiva. It is also called the Rudra mantra, referring to the furious aspect of Lord Shiva. It is sometimes known as the Mrita-Sanjivini mantra because of its &quot;life-restoring&quot; powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tryambakaṃ (त्र्यम्बकं )&lt;/strong&gt; - Three-eyed(Knowledge of future,Past &amp;amp; Present) God, Shiva&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;yajāmahe (यजामहे )&lt;/strong&gt; - honour&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;sugandhiṃ (सुगन्धिंम् )&lt;/strong&gt; - sweet smelling&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;pushti (पुष्टि)&lt;/strong&gt; - prosperous&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;vardhanam (वर्धनम्)&lt;/strong&gt; - strengthening&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;urvārukamiva (उर्वारुकमिव )&lt;/strong&gt;  - like the cucumber&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;bandhanān (बन्धनान् )&lt;/strong&gt; - tied down (under captivity)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;mrityor (मृत्यो)&lt;/strong&gt; - from death&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;mukshīya (र्मुक्षीय)&lt;/strong&gt; - liberate, free&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;mā'mritāt (माऽमृतात्)&lt;/strong&gt; - give me immortality&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; We worship the Three-eyed Lord who is fragrant and who nourishes and nurtures all beings. As is the ripened cucumber freed from its bondage (to the creeper), may He liberate us from death for the sake of immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra is the great mantra for conquering death for it protects against all threats with its divine vibrations. It purifies the karmas of the soul at a deep level. It is beneficial for mental, emotional and physical health. It is also a moksha mantra which bestows longevity and immortality.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="3319" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2019-01-05T06:14:12.847" LastActivityDate="2019-01-05T06:14:12.847" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10744" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2457" CreationDate="2016-02-24T09:24:05.743" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No Moksha may NOT be permanent(!), but quite long. Moksha is neither achievable nor given; it just happens for All&lt;sup&gt;0&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Caution&lt;/strong&gt;: My opinion on Moksha changed after I wrote answer for &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10722/1049&quot;&gt;Does Shiva or Vishnu or Trikaladarshi Yogi know our Aagami Karma or our free will?&lt;/a&gt;. While thought experimenting, this notion blinked as a byproduct. For now, I am convinced but not so happy about!&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha means merging with the true nature of god and then not to have the further births &amp;amp; deaths. I agree with that, but only limited within 1 cycle of Brahma, Not beyond that. Re-defining &quot;Moksha&quot; from &quot;never after&quot; to &quot;sometime after&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Only eternal things remain forever e.g. &lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt;. Something which comes into existence has to be non-existent again. If Moksha is received, it will be taken away too. Any volatile thing can remain forever by repeating itself in exactly same pattern.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose if Brahma's cycle is of 10 billion(bn) years. Which constitutes day and night of 5 bn years each. Then the total duration of Moksha would be: &lt;code&gt;5 bn &amp;lt;= X bn &amp;lt;= 10 bn&lt;/code&gt; years for any receiver. In other words, after writing this answer if you and me attain Moksha, then exactly after 10 bn years, we will be again doing this same, because before 10 bn years, it was also exactly the same as now. This continues in both the directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This might be little outrageous, hence I would request you to go through below pre-requisites: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The linked answer above&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Just understand the question part of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/2sqhep/if_time_extended_infinitely_we_would_never_arrive/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;If time extended infinitely, we would never arrive to the present&#xA;...&lt;/a&gt; (answer not required to be read) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Optional: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eternalism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Youtube: The eternal block&#xA;universe&lt;/a&gt;; first 1 minute&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/h2C7q.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/h2C7q.png&quot; alt=&quot;OK&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;Imagine a randomly curved infinite line, whose every point is uniquely placed. Can you say that from the (so called) beginning of the line, how much time will it take to reach the point &quot;We&quot;? Well certainly, infinite. Which means one can never reach that point with whatever speed. In general if a line doesn't have a beginning, then whichever point you choose, traveler can never reach there.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Keeping this in mind, imagine this line to be the &quot;time&quot;, all points on it as &quot;events&quot; and &quot;We&quot; as the present moment. If all events in time were unique then, we would never reach at the present moment. This is called &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_regress&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Infinite regression&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So here we have 2 truths:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Time is eternal: True, because infinite amount of seconds have passed &amp;amp; will continue to pass even if anyone is there or not&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We are existing: True, because we are reading this post! Keep &lt;em&gt;MAyA&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; all aside for now.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If (1) is true (i.e. forever time), then as per &quot;infinite regression&quot;, we can never reach the present moment. But we reached &amp;amp; are existing.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If (2) is true, then, the time cannot be forever/eternal; it must have a start point. But that's false. Even with or without MAyA, (what we call) 1 second will always tick, which makes time forever or incalculable&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Both statements are true even though they contradict each other. Then how can they co-exist? The answer is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&quot;Cycles of Brahma&quot;&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the things repeat itself in exactly same pattern, then it becomes &quot;frequency&quot; and within 1 cycle, any point can be reached even with slowest travel. For example, let's consider the limited chunk you see above as 1 cycle and keep repeating them as below. Then we can be assured that &quot;We&quot; (the present moment) will be reached for sure. It may take 10 billion years, but the point will be touched. Because you can be IN any of the cycles. &lt;strong&gt;All cycles are perfectly same&lt;/strong&gt;. Below figure can be also represented by joining the front end &amp;amp; the back end to make a circular travel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0ayOo.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0ayOo.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y6cGW.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y6cGW.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TKSEI.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TKSEI.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This satisfies both (1) &amp;amp; (2) to be true. The time is existing forever because of infinite cycles and the present moment would surely be reached because a cycle constitutes finite events. Which means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The circumstances in which present, past or future moments are&#xA;experienced, &lt;strong&gt;they must repeat themselves in exact same pattern&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;once the cycle (of Brahma) is finished (e.g. 10 bn years); e.g. What&#xA;I did in past, I will be doing again. What I am going to do in&#xA;future, I have already done before. (&quot;&lt;em&gt;These kings have already been&#xA;slain&lt;/em&gt;&quot;; Remember?)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If someone receives Moksha after X births, then he/she will again&#xA;receive the same Moksha in same pattern after X births in next cycles,&#xA;because it has already happened in previous cycles&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Whatever Karma one does are fixed&lt;/strong&gt;, hence its fruits &amp;amp; subsequent&#xA;Karmas are also predestined; If a pious man receives Moksha at 4 bn &amp;amp;&#xA;a sinful man receives Moksha at 1 k years, is fixed&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The only catch is, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10722/1049&quot;&gt;no one knows what is going to&#xA;happen&lt;/a&gt;; But Moksha&#xA;is destined to happen for all beings&lt;sup&gt;0&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In very beginning of Gita, it's revealed that there was never a time when the warriors didn't exist and never will be the time when they cease to exist&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;. That implies that all the warriors on Kurukshetra, were present before as well and will be present afterwards too. Does that mean Arjuna will never get Moksha? What about Drona, who got Moksha during the battle?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;All will surely get Moksha at some point of time. But they will again be back in the exact same pattern. Arjuna has already got confused before and will be confused again. Krishna should again repeat the exact similar message and convince him to fight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means, upon Brahma's day, all the living entities come into being and upon night, all merge into it again (Moksha). And, this cycle repeats again and again&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Arguments&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Yes, the cycle will repeat again. But every time new &lt;em&gt;MAyA&lt;/em&gt; (material world) will be created.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One Brahman should ideally generate one kind of &lt;em&gt;MAyA&lt;/em&gt;. Even, if new &lt;em&gt;MAyA&lt;/em&gt; is created every time then it makes all the events unique on the timeline. That results in &quot;infinite regression&quot;, hence we can't be in present moment. But we are, because even if Brahman generates different &lt;em&gt;MAyA&lt;/em&gt;, that has to be a finite number and should repeat again in a cycle infinitely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Fine. Material world can be same, but the souls/&lt;em&gt;Jiva&lt;/em&gt;s are different. Because &lt;em&gt;Jiva&lt;/em&gt;s are infinite, it will never exhaust. i.e. a body is taken by soul X last time, soul Y currently and soul Z next time.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That also doesn't make Moksha infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;By decimating the common body among ..., X, Y, Z, ..., the souls&#xA;become unique. Which again makes a different combination, hence a&#xA;&lt;em&gt;unique event&lt;/em&gt;. Which means all the previous events become unique, resulting in &quot;infinite regression&quot;. So again we can never reach at&lt;br&gt;&#xA;soul Y (current). But we are!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Let's assume, different souls X, Y, Z taking same body. With support&#xA;of (1), that will also form a cycle. X, Y, Z will also repeat. May&#xA;be instead of Brahma's 1 day, it will be Brahma's 1k days. i.e. 10 bn&#xA;years will be 10 tn years. Hence the Moksha will be prolonged from 5&#xA;bn year to many trillion years! But certainly not infinite.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;What about all the preachings Krishna gave in Gita, which appeared&#xA;  like TODO kind of advises.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The spiritual state of Krishna was altering between, a human, a friend, a teacher, god, and so on. Hence, whatever he talked with Arjuna should be taken in that context. While talking about Moksha&lt;sup&gt;5&lt;/sup&gt;, he might have kept the scope limited to Brahma's day (or 100 years or something else). Explaining Arjuna about billion year theory in an era where people hardly go beyond thousands would have been not only an overkill, it would have confused Arjuna even more.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If Krishna really meant permanent Moksha with absolutely no repeatition, then probably above logical theory is missing something terribly. Hope someone will point it out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Even if I agree that, all my Karma are fixed and I will anyway get Moksha, only when I am destined to. Then I can just sit hands down and do absolutely nothing. What about that?&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, one may opt for &lt;em&gt;Karma SanyAs&lt;/em&gt; (not doing Karma itself), but it's not better than &lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt; (renouncing fruits of Karma)&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But actually it's a moot discussion, because according to above theory, you are anyway going to do whatever is fixed. You may forget about this theory and get indulged in life as of nothing happened, or you may take it too seriously and do something else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Suppose that this theory is true. But what if the very first cycle takes too long to get finished?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There can't be a &quot;first&quot; (or &quot;Last&quot;) in infinite.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If it's not repeating, it's not a cycle. Again possibility of regression arises.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if we discount above 2, then Yes, this can be a solid argument where Moksha becomes eternal indeed. Because state of Moksha will have to end only with the end of the first cycle, which is taking too long.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any way by which, we can have the above assumption and its 2 counter contradictions co-exist? Well, can't say for sure.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However if all the events are fixed, then they become finite and due to which cycle &quot;can happen&quot;, even though 1st one takes too long. From the perspective of &lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, it MAY not even matter if the cycle happens or not, because it's already in permanent state of Moksha!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The outcome of this theory is not mainly about &quot;Brahma's Cycles&quot;, but it's about how we are at present moment, because all are predetermined events.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Whatever we do now, is done already and would be done again; exactly in same pattern.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;0 BG 9.7 — O son of Kuntī, at the end of the millennium all material manifestations &lt;strong&gt;enter into My nature&lt;/strong&gt;, and at the beginning of another millennium, by My potency, I create them again.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;1 BG 10.30 — Among the Daitya demons I am the devoted Prahlāda, &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;among subduers I am time&lt;/strong&gt;, among beasts I am the lion, and among&#xA;  birds I am Garuḍa.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;2 BG 8.17 — By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together form the duration of Brahmā’s one day. And such also is the duration of his night.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;3 BG 2.12 — Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;4 BG 8.18 — At the beginning of Brahmā’s day, all living entities become manifest from the unmanifest state, and thereafter, when the night falls, they are merged into the unmanifest again.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 8.19 — Again and again, when Brahmā’s day arrives, all living entities come into being, and with the arrival of Brahmā’s night they are helplessly annihilated.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;5 BG 8.21 — That which is describe as unmanifest and infallible, that which is known as the supreme destination, that place from which, having attained it, &lt;strong&gt;one never returns&lt;/strong&gt; – that is My supreme abode.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;6 BG 5.2 — The Personality of Godhead replied: The renunciation of work (Karma SanyAs) and renunciation of fruits (Karma Yoga) are both good for liberation. But, of the two, renunciation of fruits is better than renunciation of work .&lt;/sub&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T09:42:14.420" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10746" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10008" CreationDate="2016-02-24T10:22:52.810" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All Atman will definitely get Moksha and after that the whole cycle will repeat again.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 cycle of Brahma contains several events in &lt;em&gt;MAyA&lt;/em&gt; upon &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;s. During its day, all the manifestation is created and during night they are annihilated and merge within the nature of &lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (i.e. Moksha). Now, I am not claiming Brahma's cycle to be just limited to day and night. It could be year or 100 years as well.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The point of interest here is &lt;strong&gt;&quot;cycle&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, which repeats.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To avoid copy pasting of all the detailed answers and scriptures, I am linking my previous answers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Within the scope of Brahma's 1 cycle: The &lt;em&gt;Jiva&lt;/em&gt;s or &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;s will&#xA;not take the birth again. Explained in: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8878/1049&quot;&gt;Is Life after&#xA;Moksha possible?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Within the scope of eternity, i.e. beyond Brahma's cycle. All the&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Jiva&lt;/em&gt;s would come back and repeat themselves, whatever they did earlier. So even though Moksha is quite long, it's not permanent.&#xA;Explained in: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10744/1049&quot;&gt;Is Moksha a permanent&#xA;state?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-02-24T10:22:52.810" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10747" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="54" CreationDate="2016-02-24T12:30:29.120" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The problem with the above explanations is that they are only scratching the surface.&#xA;If one needs scriptures to follow, I suggest Geeta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Geeta has sole authority to determine all the scriptures' credibility. If one removes all the names and stories from it, they can see the hidden meaning in Geeta which is devoid of romance and is of pure knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It specifies the true nature of Prakriti and Purusha. And at the same time advocates Bhakthi Yoga, covers all schools of thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My take is,&#xA;The composer of Geeta had foreseen the current state of our Dharma and took precautions by putting all the Jnana into one capsule. Time can do lot of tinkering with the truth. This resulted in our current state of affairs.&#xA;But the truth is, Geeta is the ultimate knowledge which is given by our forefathers. &#xA;Lets not get overwhelmed by size of our scriptures.&#xA;I can elaborate this, if any one needs it.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4944" LastActivityDate="2016-02-24T12:30:29.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10748" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-24T13:47:20.193" Score="4" ViewCount="538" Body="&lt;p&gt;All, I am a devotee of Guru Raghavendra Swami, as most of you're aware of his moola brindavana is located in Mantralayam, Andhra Pradesh. My query is how the brindavana is built up actually?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like first Guru did entered the samadhi and on top of the samadhi did they build brindavana or have they followed any other procedure? Also those days we didn't had advanced engineering technologies, if this is the case how can they perfectly carve the stone of moola brindavana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone help me? Sorry if it's a silly question, I have seen in movies but different movies shows entering of brindavana in different ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4941" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T09:13:49.953" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T09:13:49.953" Title="How Sri Raghavendra Swami's Vrindabana was built?" Tags="|temple|vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10749" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="54" CreationDate="2016-02-24T15:33:11.503" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu attitude towards scripture is different from the Abrahamic faiths. Hindus should read at least once the Vedas, the Itihasas and the Puranas. However, simply reading is not enough.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They study the Vedas and discuss. But they do not realize the Ultimate&#xA;  Reality just as a spoon does not know the taste of food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The head carries the flowers, the nose knows the scent. The people&#xA;  study the Vedas. But, very few persons understand the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Not knowing the Reality of the self, a fool is infatuated by the&#xA;  sastras. When the goat stands in the shed, the shepherd seeks for it&#xA;  in the well in vain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The knowledge of the sastras is not competent to destroy the&#xA;  infatuation accruing from worldly affairs.  …. Having studied the&#xA;  Vedas and realized their essence the wise man should leave all the&#xA;  sastras just as one desiring corn leaves the husk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as one satiated with nectar has no use of food, no one who is in&#xA;  search of Reality has anything to do with the sastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One cannot obtain release by reading the Vedas of the sastras. Release&#xA;  comes from experience, not otherwise, O son of Vinata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Garuda Purana, Dharma Khanda, Chapter XLIX]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-02-24T15:33:11.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10750" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-25T04:07:07.693" Score="6" ViewCount="5094" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many names with which the Lord Venkateswara is called. Of course the sahasranama is devoted to Lord Vasudeva and all his avatars and the one in the question is definitely included.  Leaving that behind He is also called as Govinda, Thiruvenkatamudayan, Srinivasan etc and many solkas and archana mantras enumerate his names.  But none of these seems to have the name Balaji listed but still it is very popular especially with North Indians. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Usually every name will have some sort of anecdote however small or big it might be. What is such with the name Balaji?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-03-18T17:58:17.703" LastActivityDate="2018-05-02T04:55:01.837" Title="What is the reason/story behind Lord Sri Venkateshwara called as Balaji?" Tags="|history|name|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10751" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-25T05:17:01.337" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T05:17:01.337" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T05:17:01.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10752" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-25T05:17:01.337" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T05:17:01.337" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T05:17:01.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10753" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-25T05:18:12.327" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T05:18:12.327" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T05:18:12.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10754" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-25T05:18:12.327" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T05:18:12.327" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T05:18:12.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10755" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-25T05:19:03.550" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T05:19:03.550" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T05:19:03.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10756" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-25T05:19:03.550" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T05:19:03.550" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T05:19:03.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10757" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-25T05:20:37.463" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T05:20:37.463" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T05:20:37.463" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10758" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-25T05:20:37.463" Score="0" Body="Bhumi-Devi is the personification of Mother Earth. She is the consort of Varaha, an avatar of Vishnu and regarded as the mother of the goddess Sita." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T11:02:58.317" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T11:02:58.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10759" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-25T05:21:24.013" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T05:21:24.013" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T05:21:24.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10760" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-25T05:21:24.013" Score="0" Body="Vikramaditya was a legendary emperor from ancient India." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T08:00:16.703" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T08:00:16.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10761" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10738" CreationDate="2016-02-25T06:03:05.430" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Turiya&lt;/em&gt; refers simply to the Fourth. There are four quarters to Brahman; the waking, dream, dreamless, and the &lt;em&gt;Turiya&lt;/em&gt;. The Fourth state is not separate from the other three but rather transcends and encompasses the other three states as well as a Fourth. &lt;em&gt;Turiya&lt;/em&gt; is Pure Consciousness and is the same as the Atman or the Unconditioned Brahman. The &lt;em&gt;Mandukya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; verse VII says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नान्तःप्रज्ञं न बहिष्प्रज्ञं नोभयतःप्रज्ञं न प्रज्ञानघनं&#xA;  न प्रज्ञं नाप्रज्ञम् । अदृष्टमव्यवहार्यमग्राह्यमलक्षणं&#xA;  अचिन्त्यमव्यपदेश्यमेकात्मप्रत्ययसारं प्रपञ्चोपशमं&#xA;  शान्तं शिवमद्वैतं चतुर्थं मन्यन्ते स आत्मा स विज्ञेयः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Swami Nikhilananda translation):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Turiya is not that which is conscious of the inner (subjective) world, nor that which is conscious of the outer (objective) world, nor that which is conscious of both, nor that which is a mass of consciousness. It is not simple consciousness nor is It unconsciousness. It is unperceived, unrelated, incomprehensible, uninferable, unthinkable, and indescribable. The essence of the Consciousness manifesting as the self [in the three states], It is the cessation of all phenomena; It is all peace, all bliss, and non-dual. This is what is known as the Fourth (Turiya). This is Atman, and this has to be realized.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upanishad then goes on to explain the meaning of &lt;em&gt;AUM&lt;/em&gt; and the correspondence of the individual letters to the first three states and finally that &lt;em&gt;AUM&lt;/em&gt;, in total, corresponds to &lt;em&gt;Turiya&lt;/em&gt;. Verse XII then says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Fourth (Turiya) is without parts and without relationship; It is the cessation of all phenomena; It is all good and non-dual. This AUM is verily Atman. He who knows this merges his self in Atman--yea, he who knows this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankara's and Gaudapada's commentary on this verse then explain that those who meditate on &lt;em&gt;AUM&lt;/em&gt; in the heart as a symbol of Brahman will realize &lt;em&gt;AUM&lt;/em&gt;, will realize Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his introduction to his translation of the &lt;em&gt;Mandukya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; and Gaudapada's &lt;em&gt;Karika&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Nikhilananda gives some general comments on how to realize Brahman. He says (&lt;em&gt;The Upanishads&lt;/em&gt;, V2, p 206):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore rigorous disciplines are indispensable for the actual experience of Reality. The Upanishads ask the pupil to practice various disciplines, such as austerity (tapas), continence (brahmacharya), truthfulness (satyam), and reverence (sraddha). Vedanta lays down four general disciplines. These are discrimination between the Real and the unreal, renunciation of the unreal, a group of six virtues (calmness of mind, control of the senses, self-settledness, forbearance, concentration, and faith), and lastly an irrepressible longing for the Knowledge of Reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last discipline (longing, or as Sankara says in may places, a deep hankering) is considered by many the most important. A person who has this hankering will naturally develop the others. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gave the following story: A student kept on asking his teacher what was needed to realize God. One day, the teacher had the student go down to the lake with him. After they entered the water, the teacher grabbed the student's head and pushed him underwater and held him there for sometime. After a while the teacher let go of his head and let him surface. The teacher asked the student - &quot;What were you thinking?&quot; the student replied - &quot;I could think of nothing else but wanting a breath of air!&quot; The teacher replied - &quot;When you long for Brahman as you did for that breath of air, Brahman will be realized.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When you can think of nothing else but Brahman to the exclusion of all else, the &lt;em&gt;Turiya&lt;/em&gt; will be realized.            &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-04-20T06:28:19.073" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T06:28:19.073" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10762" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-25T06:49:58.960" Score="3" ViewCount="189" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna had helped the Pandavas in almost every step. So why didn't the  Pandavas spend their agyatavasa in Dwaraka? The Pandavas had spent their agyatavasa in Virata's kingdom, and led a miserable life.  Did Krishna not allow them to spend their year in Dwaraka, or did they not even consider it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Hindu scripture ever mention the Pandavas considering going to Dwaraka for that year?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T20:13:21.670" LastActivityDate="2021-11-06T22:21:23.270" Title="Did the Pandavas ever consider spending Agyatavasa in Dwaraka?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|pandavas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10763" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10728" CreationDate="2016-02-25T07:54:49.590" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;em&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/em&gt;, it is said that when death occurs, the subtle body of a person leaves the gross body. Subtle body and his soul comes out and can see the servants of &lt;em&gt;Yama&lt;/em&gt; and attendants of &lt;em&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; who are present there to take that person to &lt;em&gt;Yuma Loka&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That Subtle body is almost the size of one's thumb. &lt;em&gt;After death rituals&lt;/em&gt; get started at that time. The person should be cremated within 12 hours after death. And from the next day the ritual of &lt;em&gt;Pinda Daan&lt;/em&gt; also gets started. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu explains &lt;em&gt;Pindas&lt;/em&gt; in &quot;Garuda Purana&quot;. In the southern part of house, a pit is made and pindas are offered daily for ten days. These help to make a new body for the dead. On the tenth day the subtle body develops hunger. The subtle body itself is called as &lt;em&gt;Preta&lt;/em&gt;. On Thirteenth day, the subtle body(Preta) starts its journey to Yumloka. So preta eats as much on this day. Family Offers a bhoj to the departed soul. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4314" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T07:54:49.590" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10765" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2457" CreationDate="2016-02-25T11:30:42.327" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Moksha is permanent state and is realization of &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Aham Brahmasmi- I am Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. But it is very difficult to attain and usually takes several births. It is explained by Sanat Kumaras in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat Shanti Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yogin who is desirous of final Emancipation suppresses by&#xA;  Yoga-knowledge the seven, and continues to dwell in the world of life,&#xA;  freed from attachments; and taking those seven for certain means of&#xA;  grief, he casts them off and attains afterwards to that state which is&#xA;  Indestructible and Infinite. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some say that is the region of Mahadeva; some say of Vishnu; some say&#xA;  of Brahma; some say of Sesha; some, of Nara; some say of the effulgent&#xA;  Chit; and some say of the All-pervading Brahman. &lt;strong&gt;When universal&#xA;  destruction comes,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;those persons who have succeeded in completely&#xA;  consuming by Knowledge their gross and subtle and karana bodies,&#xA;  always enter into Brahman. All their Senses also which have action&#xA;  for their essence and which are not identical with Brahman, merge into&#xA;  the same&lt;/strong&gt;. When the time of universal destruction comes, those Jivas&#xA;  who have attained to the position of Devas and who have an unexhausted&#xA;  remnant of the fruits of acts to enjoy or endure, revert to those&#xA;  stages of life in the subsequent Kalpa which had been theirs in the&#xA;  previous one. This is due to the similarity of every successive Kalpa&#xA;  to every previous one. Those again whose acts, at the time of&#xA;  universal destruction, have been exhausted by enjoyment or endurance&#xA;  in respect of their fruits, falling down from heaven, take birth among&#xA;  men, in the subsequent Kalpa, &lt;strong&gt;for without Knowledge one cannot destroy&#xA;  one's acts in even a hundred Kalpas&lt;/strong&gt;. All superior Beings again, endued&#xA;  with similar powers and similar forms, revert to their respective&#xA;  destinies at a new creation after a universal destruction, ascending&#xA;  and descending precisely in the same manner as during the creation&#xA;  that is dissolved. As regards, again, the person who is conversant&#xA;  with Brahman, as long as he continues to enjoy and endure the&#xA;  unexhausted remnant of his acts of previous Kalpas, it is said that&#xA;  all creatures and the two stainless sciences live in his body. &lt;strong&gt;When&#xA;  his Chitta becomes cleansed by Yoga, and when he practises Samyama,&#xA;  this perceptible universe appears to him as only his own fivefold&#xA;  senses. Enquiring with a cleansed mind, Jiva attains to a high and&#xA;  stainless end. Thence he attains to a spot which knows no&#xA;  deterioration, and thence attains to eternal Brahman that is so&#xA;  difficult of acquisition&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As explained in Bhagwat Geeta, Moksha is very rare among people but is permanent&#xA;in nature eventually&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 7.3 — Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for&#xA;  perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one&#xA;  knows Me in truth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 8.21 — That which is describe as unmanifest(Brahman) and&#xA;  infallible, that which is known as the supreme destination, that place&#xA;  from which, having attained it, one never returns – that is My supreme&#xA;  abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T11:30:42.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10767" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10700" CreationDate="2016-02-25T13:05:36.610" Score="16" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Wrong side&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna &amp;amp; all other warriors who were cheated (by Krishna) actually should thank PAndavas for giving majorly a fair fight in general. Because the premises of the MahAbhArata war itself was on deceit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's discard the fact that, Duryodhana replaced himself with Shakuni during the dice game and defeated Yudhishitira, because here the latter was also responsible for gambling too many things. But in any case, below things were not justified:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;LAkshAgriha&lt;/strong&gt;: Attempt to kill PAndavas by burning the palace&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Draupadi's insult&lt;/strong&gt;: She still had a valid question, which was not &#xA;answered; Yet, she was insulted&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Breaking the agreement post &lt;em&gt;AgyAtavAsa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: It was decided that if&#xA;PAndAvas finish 12 + 1 years then they will be given their kingdom&#xA;back with all due respect; But they failed to get even 5 villages&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna was aware of all these actions, if not involved directly. Still he had decided to fight in side of Duryodhana. Which means he was already fighting for wrong reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;(not so) Great person&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being philanthropist doesn't make a person good. There were many evil kings in past who were good in donation and &lt;em&gt;Yagna&lt;/em&gt; etc.; e.g. RAvana, JarAsandha. Those were much powerful and bigger than PAndavas + Kauravas combined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna was not stronger than Arjuna. If you gauge strongness by uncompromising attitude, then except Bhima there will be hardly anyone who will pass that test (not even Krishna). Everyone has retreated from war at one point or the other.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There were many duels, between Bhima or Arjuna against Karna and many times the latter had to retreat. These duels were on the might of equal weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Death&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the final battle, wheel of Karna's &lt;em&gt;ratha&lt;/em&gt; (car) got stuck into the mud. And he was trying to bring it outside. I feel that, Karna was buying time. This was noted in BR Chopra's episode. He was a &lt;em&gt;mahArathi&lt;/em&gt;, hence should have taken the other car, but he din't. It's unclear what his &lt;em&gt;saarathy&lt;/em&gt; king Shalya was doing all the time! At the best they should have retreated (like before).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Already being involved in deceitful killing of Arjuna's son Abhimanyu, Karna didn't have any say about morals. It's not that, Arjuna shot the last arrow out of the blue. Karna did plead to Arjuna to wait a while until he gets his wheel out of the mud as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentioned here&lt;/a&gt;. During that Karna also asked Arjuna to remember the teachings of righteousness (&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;). However Krishna replied him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Vasudeva, stationed on the car, addressed Karna, saying, &quot;By good luck it is, O son of Radha, that thou rememberest virtue! It is generally seen that they that are mean, when they sink into distress, rail at Providence but never at their own misdeeds. Thyself and Suyodhana and Duhshasana and Shakuni, the son of Subala, had caused Draupadi, clad in a single piece of raiment, to be brought into the midst of the assembly. On that occasion, O Karna, this virtue of thine did not manifest itself. When at the assembly Shakuni, an adept in dice, vanquished Kunti's son Yudhishthira who was unacquainted with it, whither had this virtue of thine gone? When the Kuru king (Duryodhana), acting under thy counsels, treated Bhimasena in that way with the aid of snakes and poisoned food, whither had this virtue of thine then gone? When the period of exile into the woods was over as also the thirteenth year, thou didst not make over to the Pandavas their kingdom. Whither had this virtue of thine then gone? Thou didst set fire to the house of lac at Varanavata for burning to death the sleeping Pandavas. Whither then, O son of Radha, had this virtue of thine gone? Thou laughedest at Draupadi while she stood in the midst of the assembly, scantily dressed because in her season and obedient to Duhshasana's will, whither, then, O Karna, had this virtue of thine gone? When from the apartment reserved for the females innocent Draupadi was dragged, thou didst not interfere. Whither, O son of Radha, had this virtue of thine gone? Thyself addressing the princess Draupadi, that lady whose tread is as dignified as that of the elephant, in these words, viz., 'The Pandavas, O Draupadi, are lost. They have sunk into eternal hell. Do thou choose another husband!' thou lookedest on the scene with delight. Whither then, O Karna, had this virtue of thine gone? Covetous of kingdom and relying on the ruler of the Gandharvas, thou summonedest the Pandavas (to a match of dice). Whither then had this virtue of thine gone? When many mighty car-warriors, encompassing the boy Abhimanyu in battle, slew him, whither had this virtue of thine then gone? If this virtue that thou now invokest was nowhere on those occasions, what is the use then of parching thy palate now, by uttering that word? Thou art now for the practice of virtue, O Suta, but thou shalt not escape with life. Like Nala who was defeated by Pushkara with the aid of dice but who regained his kingdom by prowess, the Pandavas, who are free from cupidity, will recover their kingdom by the prowess of their arms, aided with all their friends. Having slain in battle their powerful foes, they, with the Somakas, will recover their kingdom. The Dhartarashtras will meet with destruction at the hands of those lions among men (viz., the sons of Pandu), that are always protected by virtue!'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-11-05T02:19:23.023" LastActivityDate="2016-11-05T02:19:23.023" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10769" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-25T13:43:00.003" Score="5" ViewCount="1254" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some &lt;a href=&quot;http://aishwarya-ananth.blogspot.in/2014/07/ashwatthama-chiranjeevi-mahabharata.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;blogs&lt;/a&gt; on internet claim that, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During Samudra Manthanam, Halahaal the fuming posion capable of burning&#xA;  universe appeared and all Dev Danav Manav Yaksha Gandharva fled. All&#xA;  of them along with Lord Vishnu and Lord Bramha came to Lord Shiva.&#xA;  Lord Shiva consumed Halahaal and held it in his throat. However unable&#xA;  to bear its consequences it started burning him. The &lt;strong&gt;Vish purush&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  sprung out of Him. Lord Shiva told him, &quot; Although we (lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva) didn’t let you kill the people, yet in&#xA;  Dwapar Yuga during Mahabharat war with my blessings you will be able&#xA;  to kill oppressive kshatriyas. Later you will assume the post of&#xA;  Saptarishis in following Manvantara. You will be born as Bhardwaja’s&#xA;  grandson and be raised as Brahman but attracted towards Kshatriyahood &quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which Scriptures describe springing out &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Vish Purusha&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; from throat of Lord Rudra aka Shiva? Are there any scriptures which prophesied the birth of Aswatthama other than Mahabhartha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-05-02T17:18:28.080" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T17:18:28.080" Title="Which Scriptures describe &quot;Vish Purush&quot; who incarnated as Aswatthama?" Tags="|mahabharata|shiva|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10770" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2457" CreationDate="2016-02-25T14:08:28.787" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes Moksha is permanent. As Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/15/6&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na tad bhāsayate sūryo&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yad gatvā na nivartante&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tad dhāma paramaṁ mama [BG - 15.6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by ﬁre or electricity. &lt;strong&gt;Those who reach it never return to this material world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T14:08:28.787" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10772" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-25T15:08:13.900" Score="2" ViewCount="6018" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashwatthama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; it is mentioned that Arjuna killed most warriors, followed by Karna, followed by Ashwatthama. Below is the relevant quote.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Arjuna and Karna, Ashwatthama killed most number of warriors in&#xA;  the Kurukshetra war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there was no scripture reference is given in that Wikipedia page for this claim.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this true? Is this information really mentioned in Mahabharata about who  killed most number of warriors?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T15:08:13.900" Title="Who killed most number of warriors in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|karna|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10773" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-25T15:09:14.653" Score="10" ViewCount="4149" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people know about Radha, who is said to be Krishna's lover and his favorite among the Gopis, whom Krishna spent time with during his childhood in Vrindavan and Gokulam. Yet the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) doesn't emphasize Radha. In part that's because Sri Vaishnavas focus on the Vishnu Purana and the Srimad Bhagavatam, neither of which even mention Radha's name. But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7800/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Sri Vaishnavas do recognize a figure similar to Radha, known as Nappinnai.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nappinnai was the daughter of Yashoda's brother Kumbhaka.  Krishna married Nappinnai after defeating the seven ferocious bulls of Kumbhaka.  The story of Nappinnai is described in the Harivamsa, the Garuda Puranas, and in the poems of the Alwars.  But my question isn't about Nappinnai herself, but rather about the goddess she's an incarnation of.  Most people only know about Vishnu's wives Lakshmi goddess of wealth and Bhumidevi goddess of the Earth, commonly known as Sri Devi and Bhu Devi.  But the Sri Vaishnava sect believes Vishnu has a third wife, known as Nila Devi.  It was Nila Devi who took an incarnation as Nappinnai, as well as a bunch of other incarnations which I may discuss in a future question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tzDek.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tzDek.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, Nila Devi is praised in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Fourth Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of the Taittiriya Samhita of the Yajur Veda, in a hymn commonly known as the Nila Sukta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O thou of the three-and-thirtyfold Stoma, lady of the world, &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Breathed on by Vivasvant, do thou be gracious to us;  &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Rich in ghee, O Savitr, through thy overlordship, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Be the bounteous region rich in milk, for us. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  The firm among the quarters, lady of Visnu, the mild, &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Ruling over this strength, the desirable, &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Brhaspati, Matarisvan, Vayu,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The winds blowing together be gracious to us. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Prop of the sky, supporter of the earth, &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Ruling this world, lady of Visnu, &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  All-extending, seeking food, with prosperity, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  May Aditi be auspicious to us in her life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, how the Vedas originated is that from time immemorial, sages known as Drishtas heard sacred verses directly from the gods in a state of Tapasya, and then in the Dwapara Yuga those verses were compiled by the sage Vyasa into the four books we call the Vedic Samhita.  So my question is, who is the sage who heard the Nila Sukta from the gods?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Information like who heard what verse of the Vedas from the gods is found in the Anukramanis (indices) of the Vedas. I compiled Anukramani information for the Rig Veda Samhita in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and I requested the Anukramani for the Shukla Yajur Veda Samhita &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2906/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But does anyone know if the Anukramani information for the Krishna Yajur Veda Samhita, i.e, the Taittiriya Samhita, is available online in English? That would also help me answer my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6582/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; about another hymn of the Krishna Yajur Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2020-12-27T16:41:45.727" Title="Who is the seer of the Nila Sukta, the Vedic hymn to Vishnu's wife Nila Devi?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|sri-vaishnava|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10774" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-25T15:32:26.480" Score="1" ViewCount="482" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that Goddess Manasa lived in Bengal. Is this true or false?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4831" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-19T07:55:31.467" LastActivityDate="2020-06-19T07:55:31.467" Title="Did Goddess Manasa live in Bengal?" Tags="|goddess|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10775" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10774" CreationDate="2016-02-25T17:19:33.840" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Goddess Manasa lived in Bengal. That's why she is mainly worshiped in the Bengal region. Behula and Lakshmichandra also lived in the Bengal region and that's why Manasa could disturb them. Manasa's actual name is 'Monosha' which is a Bengali name. Believe my answer and this is truth!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4950" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-02-25T18:24:47.793" LastActivityDate="2016-02-25T18:24:47.793" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10776" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-26T00:47:41.130" Score="5" ViewCount="163" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt; resides in the body as a silent witness and it's not affected (untouched) by anything. Then upon what, our &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;s get transmitted to our next lives?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In other words who is the enjoyer/sufferer of our deeds or what is affected (if not &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;)? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4951" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-03-02T10:53:27.203" LastActivityDate="2016-03-02T10:53:27.203" Title="Who is the consumer of our Karmas, if the Atman is merely a silent witness?" Tags="|philosophy|karma|atma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-09-22T10:42:35.223" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10778" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-26T02:30:59.230" Score="2" ViewCount="104" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the translation and explanation of Srīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.5 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/8/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The clever Duryodhana and his party cunningly usurped the kingdom of Yudhiṣṭhira, who had no enemy. By the grace of the Lord, the recovery was executed, and the unscrupulous kings who joined with Duryodhana were killed by Him. &lt;strong&gt;Others also died, their duration of life having decreased for their rough handling of the hair of Queen Draupadī.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purport:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In the glorious days, or before the advent of the Age of Kali, the &lt;strong&gt;brāhmaṇas&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;strong&gt;cows&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;strong&gt;women&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;strong&gt;children&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;old men&lt;/strong&gt; were properly given protection....&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The killing of the above-mentioned innocent creatures is totally forbidden because even by insulting them one loses one’s duration of life. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;In the Age of Kali they are not properly protected, and therefore the duration of life of the present generation has shortened considerably.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe the author here has incorrectly extrapolated the specific case, that of a few miscreants' rough handling of Draupadi, and applied it to the entire humanity in Kaliyuga. He's hinting that the primary reason, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;life expectancy&lt;/a&gt; of present generation is considerably less than previous Yugas is because no person currently does a good job of protecting those five beings [brāhmaṇas, cows, women, children and old men] or is he correct in his interpretation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few answers that attest to longer life-spans of characters from earlier Yugas can be found here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6525/2995&quot;&gt;Ages of Ramayana&amp;#39;s characters&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5170/2995&quot;&gt;What was the age of all Pandavas during the Mahabharata war?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-02-26T02:38:14.920" Title="Does SB 1.8.5 say something about the (short) lifespan of the present generation or is it just the author's impression?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|life-span|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10779" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10736" CreationDate="2016-02-26T05:30:22.807" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Basanti Puja is also known as Basant Durga Puja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that at the time of Yuddha Between Rama and Ravana. Lord Rama was finding difficulty to defeat the king Ravana. Lord Rama needed blessings of Goddess Durga. Because Rama's wife Mata sita was being kidnapped by King Ravana(known as &lt;em&gt;Sita Haran&lt;/em&gt;). So Lord Rama changed the time of Durga pooja for seeking blessings of Mata Durga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also the legends of &lt;em&gt;Markanda Purana&lt;/em&gt; describes that, King &lt;em&gt;Surath&lt;/em&gt; has lost his kingdom and was wandering in forests where he met &lt;em&gt;Samadhi Vaishya&lt;/em&gt; who also lost his kingdom. There they both met &lt;em&gt;Medha Muni&lt;/em&gt; who suggested them to do Basanti Puja. So they did Basanti Puja and finally got their kingdoms back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way the ritual of Basanti Puja started.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4314" LastActivityDate="2016-02-26T05:30:22.807" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10780" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-26T05:31:21.063" Score="9" ViewCount="2381" Body="&lt;p&gt;What details do our scriptures mention about Maharshi Kanad and (his theory) on Paramanus or atoms?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T05:21:51.503" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T05:21:51.503" Title="What do our scriptures mention about Maharshi Kanad &amp; Paramanu (atoms)?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|vaisheshika-sutra|rishi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10781" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-26T08:55:26.383" Score="0" ViewCount="53" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is my wish that I want to know that year when Shri Rama was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4831" LastActivityDate="2016-02-26T08:55:26.383" Title="What is the year when Lord Rama was born?" Tags="|vishnu|rama|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-02-26T13:22:43.350" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10783" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-26T10:56:41.567" Score="5" ViewCount="6811" Body="&lt;p&gt;Worshiped mainly in Bengal and other parts of northeastern India, Goddess Manasa is the daughter of Lord Shiva. I have searched for her birth story but could not find it. Can someone give me Goddess Manasa's birth story, preferably with reference to anything Bengali? Also, what's the reason for her birth? Does the goddess have a mother? Was Vasuki her brother?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As discussed in the below comments, Manasa was born when Shiva's semen touched a statue carved by Kadru.Can someone provide me with the story of this?Does it have any scriptual basis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditorDisplayName="user4627" LastEditDate="2020-06-19T07:56:11.530" LastActivityDate="2020-06-19T07:56:11.530" Title="How was Goddess Manasa born?" Tags="|shiva|goddess|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10784" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-26T14:18:36.047" Score="19" ViewCount="19224" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt; (बुद्धि) means intelligence/intellect and &lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt; (मन) means mind. But what is difference between them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-03-02T11:01:17.053" LastActivityDate="2023-12-02T04:27:52.490" Title="What is the difference between Buddhi (बुद्धि) and Mann (मन)?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|atma|mind|" AnswerCount="9" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10785" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-26T15:42:11.800" Score="1" ViewCount="62" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have never read about the story why Shiva has a serpant around his neck. Is it to stop the poison from entering his body ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastActivityDate="2016-02-26T15:42:11.800" Title="Why Lord Shiva has a snake around his neck?" Tags="|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-02-26T15:51:21.617" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10786" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10736" CreationDate="2016-02-26T17:15:09.803" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Basanti Durga Puja is the celebration of Durga Puja during the spring time. It is a huge celebration in the eastern parts of India and especially in West Bengal. Basanti Durga puja coincides with the Vasant or Chaitra Navratri celebrations. If you are confused that why Durga puja is celebrated in the spring time then let us tell you about the origin of the festival.&#xA;Scriptures say that originally Durga puja was performed during spring time. However when Lord Ram invoked the Goddess untimely (Akal Bodhan) during autumn or Sharad, people started following the suit. Hence the autumnal or Sharadiya Durga puja became more popular than the original celebration of Basanti Durga puja.Thus,Goddess Durga is worshipped during Basanti Puja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4950" LastActivityDate="2016-02-26T17:15:09.803" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10787" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22942" CreationDate="2016-02-26T18:24:04.403" Score="5" ViewCount="1137" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are some good books (in Bengali, English, Hindi or Sanskrit) for self-learning the method of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prana_Pratishtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prana Pratishta&lt;/a&gt; (invoking life-force of Deites) on Yantras, idols etc?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am looking for books or even online sites with (audio/video) demonstrations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-12-26T12:26:04.930" LastActivityDate="2017-12-26T12:26:04.930" Title="Recommend some books or online sites for self- learning Prana Pratishta techniques" Tags="|mantras|worship|book-recommendation|pranapratishtha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10788" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10783" CreationDate="2016-02-26T20:20:26.787" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;According to &lt;strong&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt; Manasa is the mind born daughter of sage Kashyapa and &lt;strong&gt;Kadru&lt;/strong&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;Mother of Manasa Devi&lt;/strong&gt;) that is the reason behind her name Manasa Devi is also known as the snake Goddess who is worshipped mainly in Bengal and other North-Eastern states of India. It is believed that Goddess Manasa is the one who controls all the snakes on Earth and a snake bite can be cured by worshipping Her. People also worship Goddess Manasa for fertility and prosperity.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch47.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the story of &lt;strong&gt;Goddess Manasa&lt;/strong&gt; from &lt;strong&gt;Devibhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manasâ is the mind-born daughter of Maharsi Kas’yapa; hence she is named Manasâ; or it may be She who plays with the mind is Manasâ. Or it may be She who meditates on God with her mind and gets rapture in Her meditation of God is named Manasâ. She finds pleasure in Her Own Self, the great devotee of Visnu, a Siddha Yoginî. For three Yugas She worshipped S’rî Krisna and then She became a Siddha Yoginî. S’rî Krisna, the Lord of the Gopîs, seeing the body of Manasâ lean and thin due to austerities, or seeing her worn out like the Muni Jarat Kâru called her by the name of Jarat Kâru. Hence Her name has come also to be Jarat Kâru. Krisna, the Ocean of Mercy, gave her out of kindness, Her desired boon; She worshipped Him and S’rî Krisna also worshipped Her. Devî Manasâ is known in the Heavens, in the abode of the Nâgas (serpents), in earth, in Brahmâloka, in all the worlds as of very fair colour, beautiful and charming. She is named Jagad Gaurî as she is of a very fair colour in the world. Her other name is S’aivî and she is the disciple of S’iva. She is named Vaisnavî as she is greatly devoted to Visnu. She saved the Nâgas in the Snake Sacrifice performed by Pariksit, she is named Nages’varî and Nâga Bhaginî and She is capable to destroy the effects of poison. She is called Visahari. She got the Siddha yoga from Mahâdeva; hence She is named Siddha Yoginî; She got from Him the great knowledge, so she is called Mahâ Jñanayutâ, and as she got Mritasamjîvanî (making alive the dead) she is known by the name of Mritasanjîvanî. As the great ascetic is the mother of the great Muni Âstîk, she is known in the world as Âstîka mâtâ. As She is the dear wife of the great high-souled Yogi Muni Jarat Kâru, worshipped by all, she is called as Jarat Kârupriya, Jaratkâru, Jagadgaurî, Manasâ, Siddha Yoginî, Vaisnavî,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;âga Bhaginî, S'aivi, Nages’varî, Jaratkârupriyâ, Âstikamâtâ, Visahari, and Mahâ Jñanayutâ; these are the twelve names of Manasâ, worshipped everywhere in the Universe. He who recites these twelve names while worshipping Manasâ Devî, he or any of his family has no fear of snakes. If there be any fear of snakes in one’s bed, if the house be infested with snakes or if one goes to a place difficult for fear of snakes or if one’s body be encircled with snakes, all the fears are dispelled, if one reads this stotra of Manasâ. There is no doubt in this. The snakes run away out of fear from the sight of him who daily recites the Manasâ stotra. Ten lakhs of times repeating the Manasâ mantra give one man success in the stotra. He can easily drink poison who attains success in this stotra. The snakes become his ornaments; they carry him even on their backs. He who is a great Siddha can sit on a seat of snakes and can sleep on a bed of snakes. In the end he sports day and night with Visnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp47.htm#page_474&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Mythology&lt;/a&gt; she is sister of Vasuki(King of snakes)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manasā is the sister of Vasuki, king of the snakes; the wife of Jaratkāru, a sage; and being the queen of the snakes is regarded as the protectress of men from those reptiles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-04T16:20:30.977" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10789" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11258" CreationDate="2016-02-26T23:42:47.797" Score="3" ViewCount="1405" Body="&lt;p&gt;I got a doubt from this question: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6682/2995&quot;&gt;Who were the previous Indras that incarnated as the Pandavas?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pandavas were all SONS of gods: Yudhishthira was the son of Yama god of death, Bhima was the son of Vayu the wind god, Arjuna was the son of Indra king of the gods, and Nakula and Sahadeva were sons of the twin Ashwini Kumaras. But these weren't the only gods they were INCARNATIONS of.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given that, how can the Pandavas be incarnations of the Devas themselves when they were in fact their &lt;strong&gt;sons&lt;/strong&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, it is said that Draupadi is incarnation of wives of Dharma, Vayu, Indra and Aswini Kumaras. The wives of Dharma, Vayu, Indra and Aswini Kumaras are however stepmothers to the Pandavas (who are the sons of the Devas). &lt;strong&gt;In that case how could they marry their stepmothers' incarnation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not asking about Draupadi's swayamvara (i.e., how she got married), but about her as well as Pandavas' incarnations. Please clear my doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T17:34:12.887" Title="How could Pandavas marry Draupadi, who is their stepmother's rebirth?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10790" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-26T23:53:17.047" Score="2" ViewCount="4744" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have always wondered about who ayappa swamy is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4943" LastActivityDate="2022-10-12T04:22:36.423" Title="Who is ayappa swamy? Who are ayappa swamy's parents?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10793" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-02-27T03:42:44.953" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-02-27T03:42:44.953" LastActivityDate="2016-02-27T03:42:44.953" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10794" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-02-27T03:42:44.953" Score="0" Body="Kumbhakarna (Sanskrit: कुम्भकर्ण, lit. pot-eared) is a rakshasa and younger brother of Ravana in the Indian epic Ramayana. Despite his monstrous size and great hunger, he was described to be of good character, though he killed and ate many monkeys just to show his power." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2023-05-29T07:36:04.857" LastActivityDate="2023-05-29T07:36:04.857" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10795" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10736" CreationDate="2016-02-27T07:48:22.030" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;For the festival of Basanti Puja, it is believed that the King Surath has performed the first ever Durga Puja in the Spring, after getting the instructions from the Sage Mesha. Also, according to the legend in Markanda Puran, it is stated that the king Surath has also lost his kingdom and wandered in the forests. His met Samadhi Vaishya has also lost his kingdom. In the Jungle they both met Medha Muni, who suggested them to perform Basanti Durga Puja for getting back their lost kingdoms. So the Samadhi Vaishya and King Surath performed Basanti Puja and got back their lost kingdoms. So this is that start of ritual of performing Basanti Durga Puja in North Bengal, during the season of Chaitra Month.&#xA;Basanti Puja rituals are very similar to Shardiya Durga Puja. But the only difference is in “Ghat” for Bodhan, which is not used in Shashti Puja. This is because this Puja is performed on time when only it is meant to be done.&#xA;I hope this post of mine will clear the facts and ritual behind Basanti Puja in North Bengal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4914" LastActivityDate="2016-02-27T07:48:22.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10796" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-27T08:06:14.247" Score="5" ViewCount="8054" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please somebody tell that what was the surname or title of the Pandavas? Was it Chakraborty because they were also called &quot;Chakraborty Samrat&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4914" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-04T04:04:19.713" LastActivityDate="2019-01-03T22:17:34.550" Title="What was the surname of the Pandavas?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|pandavas|name|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10799" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10784" CreationDate="2016-02-27T09:13:37.143" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There seems to be lot of different thoughts regarding &lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;, hence expressing another aspect of it. In nutshell from [BG-3.42]:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;(Sthula) Shariara &amp;lt; Indriya &amp;lt; &lt;strong&gt;Mann &amp;lt; Buddhi&lt;/strong&gt;    &amp;lt; Atman/Brahman&lt;/em&gt; &lt;sub&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;(Physical) Body   &amp;lt; Senses  &amp;lt; &lt;strong&gt;Mind &amp;lt; Intellect&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;lt; (True) Self/Soul&lt;/em&gt; &lt;sub&gt;English&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how the relation between &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchakosha#Manomayakosha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pancha-Kosha&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt; is believed:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Annamayakosha &amp;lt; PrAnamayakosha &amp;lt; &lt;strong&gt;Mano/VignAna-mayakosha &amp;lt; Anandamayakosha / KArana Sharira&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;lt; Atman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;Note: Mano &amp;amp; VignAna are merged to make sense with earlier mapping.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From above 2 sources, it's clear that &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt; should be superior layer of &lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt;. Now we can interpret this in various ways. What I believe is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt; (Mind)&lt;/strong&gt; is a subtle form of brain which goes beyond the physical death. Probably it carries the impressions of desires or &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; (action)s generated by Senses. When &lt;em&gt;Indriya&lt;/em&gt;s are involved in &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;, they generate good or bad fruits/&lt;em&gt;phala&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt; in its form should remain until these fruits are absorbed or the &lt;em&gt;Indriya&lt;/em&gt;s are gratified in good/bad way. After that &lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt; should go away, i.e. replaced.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Does that mean, end of birth and death? Not mostly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt; (Intellect)&lt;/strong&gt; still remains. That's why it's also called &lt;em&gt;KArana Sharira&lt;/em&gt; (Causal body). This is the root of our existence. This is the last layer of &lt;em&gt;MAyA&lt;/em&gt;. It's also called &lt;em&gt;Ananda Sharira&lt;/em&gt;, because it's &quot;Enjoyer&quot; (or &quot;Consumer&quot;) of everything. Once this goes, it's all Moksha.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;When we watch a movie, our brain gets frightened, sad, romantic, aggressive, patriotic ... depending on contents. But from inside we know that, it's all imagination. Still we have a cause to consume &amp;amp; enjoy. In this analogy, your &quot;Inside&quot; is &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt; which controls your &quot;Brain&quot; or &lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;So who differentiates all these: &lt;em&gt;Sharira, Indriya, Mann, Buddhi, Atman&lt;/em&gt;?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I call this differentiator as &quot;Consciousness&quot; or &lt;em&gt;&quot;ChetanA&quot;&lt;/em&gt;. In other words, what is called &quot;I&quot;, is &lt;em&gt;ChetanA&lt;/em&gt;. This might be a subtle aspect of &lt;em&gt;SagunA Brahman&lt;/em&gt;[BG 10.22].&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The controller is decided based on where this &lt;em&gt;ChetanA&lt;/em&gt; is residing. For various aspects of life, this &lt;em&gt;ChetanA&lt;/em&gt; may reside at different levels as listed above. According to which level constitutes &lt;em&gt;ChetanA&lt;/em&gt;, the various &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;s are differentiated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When &lt;em&gt;ChetanA&lt;/em&gt; resides on:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sthula Sharira&lt;/em&gt;: The matter is like dead. It can't do anything&#xA;on its own. That's why it's also called &lt;em&gt;Acheta&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Indriya&lt;/em&gt;: Animal or animalistic persons (&lt;em&gt;Jada&lt;/em&gt;) often fall here. They are usually &lt;em&gt;TAmasic&lt;/em&gt; by nature[BG 18.32]. They just do things for sense&#xA;gratification. While hungry they eat, in season they mate, in&#xA;aggression they scream. They are usually impulsive beings who act in&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;, genuinely thinking that to be &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;. Being directionless, they leave in misery. They have &lt;em&gt;Chetana&lt;/em&gt;, but act like &lt;em&gt;Acheta&lt;/em&gt;. They don't work for &quot;sense gratification&quot;, they are simply &quot;Embodied Senses&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;em&gt;RAjasic&lt;/em&gt; people fall here[BG 18.31]. Those who are conscious by &lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt; are not under control of &lt;em&gt;Indriya&lt;/em&gt;s, but try to gratify it. In other words, their &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;s are influenced by &lt;em&gt;Indriya&lt;/em&gt;s. This is where actual &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt; resides. Their &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;s are termed as good&#xA;or bad and 'apparently' generate the fruits. Humans with desires&#xA;would act according to their &lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt;. Though their &lt;em&gt;Chetana&lt;/em&gt; is in &lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt;, they act as of it's in above categories.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: This is the place where people are fully aware about their own &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; and act accordingly. Their actions might even seem like&#xA;all above categories, but their consciousness is alive. Such people&#xA;also are not bound by &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;s. These are &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; beings[BG 18.30],&#xA;nearer to god, but not yet liberated. Everything for them is blissful&#xA;as they consider &lt;em&gt;Sukha&lt;/em&gt; (happiness) and &lt;em&gt;Dukha&lt;/em&gt; (sadness) as same.&#xA;For them there is NO enough reason to move beyond. Hence they keep&#xA;enjoying until the &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; happens. These beings have realized that, all actions are happening on their own, there is no ownership.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Probably that's why such &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; beings are called &lt;em&gt;Buddha&lt;/em&gt; (from &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;) and they have a valid reason for saying &quot;nothing&quot; is supreme beyond this.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;: This is that &quot;nothing&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt;), which is transcendental to all above. It's void of all above. There is neither &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; nor &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;. It's &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;, the ultimate state.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All above are described in purest form. But everything is more or less present in the most beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 3.42 — Senses are said to be beyond (to body), Mind is beyond Senses, Intellect is even beyond Mind, &quot;That&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt;) is even beyond Intellect.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 10.22 — Among VedAs I am SAma Veda, among demigods I am VAsava, To the Senses I am Mind and within material manifestations I am ChetaNa.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 18.30 — The one who knows activity &amp;amp; retirement, duty &amp;amp; non-duty, fear &amp;amp; boldness and bonding &amp;amp; liberation properly, has &lt;em&gt;SAtvika Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 18.31 — The one who doesn't know &lt;em&gt;Dharma &amp;amp; Adharma&lt;/em&gt;, duty &amp;amp; non-duty as it is, has &lt;em&gt;RAjasi Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 18.32 — Covered by darkness (&lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt;), the one who believes &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt; as &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; and believes other (thing)s also wrongly, has &lt;em&gt;TAmasi Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;--from Gita press, Gorakhpur&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-02-28T02:15:23.173" LastActivityDate="2016-02-28T02:15:23.173" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10801" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11559" CreationDate="2016-02-27T17:42:43.320" Score="7" ViewCount="858" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since the concept of Dasavataram doesn't even exist in Hindu&#xA;  scripture, this is sort of a moot question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was posted by Keshav Srinivasan as a comment under &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/927/what-are-the-exact-ten-avatars-of-vishnu/944#944&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question.Comments with the same purport has also been posted by several others as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the fact is that the Todala Tantra not only clearly states about the Dasa Avataras but also mentions their co-relation with the Dasa Mahavidyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As i quote from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/dasamahavidyas.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The last chapter of todala Tantra equates Vishnu’s ten incarnations&#xA;  with the ten Mahavidyas as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Shri Devi said: Lord of Gods, Guru of the universe, tell me of the&#xA;  ten avatars. Now I want to hear of this, tell me of their true nature.&#xA;  Paramesvara, reveal to me which avatar goes with which Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Shri Shiva said: Tara Devi is the blue form, Bagala is the tortoise&#xA;  incarnation, Dhumavati is the boar, Chinnamasta is Nrisimha,&#xA;  Bhuvaneshvari is Vamana, Matangi is the Rama form, Tripura is&#xA;  Jamadagni, Bhairavi is Balabhadra, Mahalakshmi is Buddha, and Durga is&#xA;  the Kalki form. BhagavatÌ Kali is the Krishna murti.” (Todalatantra,&#xA;  chapter 10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Todala Tantra not considered a &quot;scripture&quot;? OR are the concerned users not aware of its existence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T15:39:37.620" Title="Why is the &quot;Dasa Avataram&quot; concept considered a debatable topic on this site while Scriptures make clear mention of them?" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|avatars|tantra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10803" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-27T22:07:10.337" Score="5" ViewCount="208" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I first make some progress in spiritual life, I have to develop some discrimination for certain things like food, friends, activities, etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I soon realized that I'm creating my very own bubble cage. I started to discriminate so that I will not fall into the temptations to go back.&#xA;But as soon as I don't discriminate: e.g. my relatives that eat meat, I feel that I'm slowly falling in &lt;em&gt;rajas/tamas&lt;/em&gt; guna.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And I'm starting to get exhausted because there is so much influence in this world, its like swimming in the river but in the wrong directon. I know that we are all God's particles, but still I'm just a man with this level of awareness...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to progress in spiritual life, so that I can live in &lt;em&gt;sAtvic&lt;/em&gt; way without discriminating anything?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2578" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-03-01T06:22:51.957" LastActivityDate="2016-03-01T06:22:51.957" Title="How to progress spiritually without discrimination?" Tags="|spiritual-level|bhakti|gunas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10804" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3295" CreationDate="2016-02-28T02:22:07.210" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;(1) Radha can not be a myth and the explanation you have in above answer is vague. If A is not B that does not mean its always C/D/E.  My other points would attempt to throw some light on this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) This site page if you read goes closer to explain the reasons why Krishna never returned back to his childhood place. - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.purebhakti.com/teachers/bhakti-discourses-mainmenu-61/19-discourses-2000/205-why-did-krishna-not-return.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.purebhakti.com/teachers/bhakti-discourses-mainmenu-61/19-discourses-2000/205-why-did-krishna-not-return.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(3) Also Krishna did mention all paths that lead to the one Brahma above all. He did not only explain the Karma but many other paths. Our lives are mix of each and every of those (Gyan, Bhakti and Karma, Dhyan) – Its like high-school, we study all subjects.. its only after maturing enough to pick a major/minor – is you will be on one path. Again the Goal is to reach him – no path is destination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(4) In above other answers, there are quotes from Puranas which are also written by Lord Vyasa as crux &amp;amp; essence of Vedas/Upanishads but his Son - Lord Shukdev (Shuka) was the most close narrator for our age/yug. Now it is believed that Shukdev was born Sanyasi and had learned all vedas/Gita/Puranas while he was in his mother (Pinjala)'s womb and his Father was Lord Vyasa Himself. He never worn a piece of cloth, etc..  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(5) There is one thing with authenticity of these three yug old scriptures. The Bhagavat Purana we have in our age/yug is more popularly narrated by Lord Shukdev told to King Parikshit who was almost the last king of Dwapar and kinda first king of Kaliyug's pre-production phase, if you will. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(6) Raadha is the extreme and perfect pure depiction of love and everytime Lord Shukdev would narrate Raadha, he would get &quot;samadhi&quot; for months..this is truly said for many other Lords and in my knowledge, some modern age devotees observed brief period of trance with Singing/Feeling for Raadha too Deepely.  Now King Parikshit had only 7 days before he would die of the Curse.. So Lord Shukdev only narrated the overviews of different paths and the ultimate truth of &quot;Tattvabodh&quot;. He did not mention the &quot;Bhakti&quot; path too deeply. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt; &lt;strong&gt;* ~~ This is a view of what I understood from various sources including life experiences, &amp;amp; there may be better explanation/justification out there. *&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4967" LastEditorUserId="4967" LastEditDate="2016-02-28T18:20:29.223" LastActivityDate="2016-02-28T18:20:29.223" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10805" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10148" CreationDate="2016-02-28T02:37:24.000" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many holy places of Siva according to Siva Purana. Kasi is only one of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.The Lord has Himself raised up these temples and holy centres in different places &lt;strong&gt;for the liberation of the residents of these&#xA;  localities.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  4. These temples whether self-risen or not, in view of their being accepted (as their frequent resort) by the sages and Devas are&#xA;  intended for the redemption of the people.&#xA;  5. In these holy centres and temples, ablutions, charitable gifts, Japas must be regularly performed. Otherwise men are sure to be&#xA;  affected by ailments, penury, dumbness etc.&#xA;  6. &lt;strong&gt;If a man dies anywhere in the Bharatvarsa he shall be reborn again as a man if he has resided in a holy centre where there is a&#xA;  self-risen linga emblem of Siva.&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  .....&#xA;  9. The holy river Sarasvati is said to have sixty mouths or holy centres on its banks. Hence an intelligent man must stay on its banks.&#xA;  He shall attain Brahma's region gradually. &#xA;  10-11. The river Ganga flowing from the Himalaya mountains is very holy with its hundred mouths. There are many holy centres on its banks such as &lt;strong&gt;Kasi&lt;/strong&gt; etc........&#xA;  12-13. By ablutions therein and observing fast the devotee shall attain the region of the god Ganesa. The holy river Narmada is a great river of twenty-four mouths. By a dip therein and residing on its banks the devotee shall attain the region of Visnu. The river Tamasa is of twelve mouths and Reva has ten mouths.&#xA;  14. Godavari is very holy and it quells the sins of murdering a Brahmin or slaughtering a cow. It is said to have twenty-one  mouths and accords Rudraloka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siva Purana, Vidyesvarasamhita, Chapter 12, 3-14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T14:37:05.137" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T14:37:05.137" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10806" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10803" CreationDate="2016-02-28T05:49:45.683" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; (IV. 34.) Swami Nikhilananda translator:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Learn it by prostration, by inquiry and by service. The wise, who have seen the Truth, will teach you that Knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the &lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (IV. ix. 3.) Swami Nikhilananda translator:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only the knowledge that is learnt from a teacher leads to the Highest Good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And again in &lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (VI. xiv. 2.):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who meets with a teacher to instruct him obtains true knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Find your guru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-02-28T05:49:45.683" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10809" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10277" CreationDate="2016-02-28T14:53:10.633" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mind gets distracted because of 2 randomly changing entities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) &lt;strong&gt;External distractions&lt;/strong&gt; from senses that are sound, smell, image, touch etc.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) &lt;strong&gt;Internal distractions&lt;/strong&gt; that are thoughts based on the previously tasted external distractions by mind to whom some kind of deep emotion is linked like an image of beautiful object, smell of tasty food, sound of a song etc.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If observed carefully, both becomes prominent on self's mind because self allows them to do so. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratyahara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pratyahara&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When senses and thoughts are pulled towards a point like a dot in center of circle or an image of deity, mind would neither long for anything nor feed on new distractions as there is no time for it do mischief because it is busy on a static source, and hence untamed mind will slowly start settling. Eventually the period between 2 consecutive random thoughts will increase, leading to deeper Dhyana that is the concentration or control of mind. This is a simple definition of pratyahara. Example, doing tratak etc., Remember you are not mind, but master of mind. Pratyahara can also be done on any sound like any mantra etc., Goal is to stop the Ahara(food) of mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2016-02-28T14:53:10.633" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10810" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10784" CreationDate="2016-02-28T15:59:56.640" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15012.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Katha Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; 3.10-13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Know the &lt;strong&gt;Self to be sitting in the chariot, the body to be the chariot, the intellect (buddhi) the charioteer, and the mind the&#xA;  reins.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The senses they call the horses, the objects of the senses their roads. When he (the Highest Self) is in union with the body, the&#xA;  senses, and the mind, then wise people call him the Enjoyer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Beyond the senses there are the objects, beyond the objects there is the mind, &lt;strong&gt;beyond the mind there is the intellect&lt;/strong&gt;, the Higher&#xA;  Self(individual soul) is beyond the intellect.'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'Beyond the Higher self there is the Unmanifest, beyond the Unmanifest there is the Purusha/Brahman. Beyond the Purusha&#xA;  there is nothing--this is the goal, the highest road.'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Anu Geeta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since the mind is ruler of these five elements, in (the matter of)&#xA;  absorbing or bringing (them) forth, the mind itself is the individual&#xA;  self. The mind always presides over the great elements. The&#xA;  understanding(Buddhi) proclaims its power, and it is called the&#xA;  Kshetrajña. The mind yokes the senses as a charioteer (yokes) good&#xA;  horses. The senses, the mind, and the understanding are always joined&#xA;  to the Kshetrajña. That individual self, mounting the chariot to which&#xA;  big horses are yoked, and in which the understanding is the drag,&#xA;  drives about on all sides the great chariot which is pervaded by the&#xA;  Purusha/Brahman, has the group of the senses yoked (to it), has the&#xA;  mind for a charioteer, and the understanding for a drag. That learned&#xA;  and talented person verily, who always understands thus the chariot&#xA;  pervaded by the Brahman, comes not by delusion in the midst of all&#xA;  entities. This forest of the Brahman begins with the unperceived, and&#xA;  ends with the gross objects; and includes movables and immovables,&#xA;  receives light from the radiance of the sun and moon, is adorned with&#xA;  planets and nakshatras, and is decked on all sides with nets of rivers&#xA;  and mountains, and always beautified likewise by various (descriptions&#xA;  of) waters; it is (the means of) subsistence for all entities, and it&#xA;  is the goal of all living creatures. In this the Kshetrajña always&#xA;  moves about.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mind(Mann), Intelligence(Buddhi), Chitta, Ego(Ahamkaar) are part of subtle body/ling sharir and tied to individual soul also called causal body/karan sharir.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2016-02-28T15:59:56.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10811" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10803" CreationDate="2016-02-28T18:02:06.717" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nice question you put out there.. I think that's very true of many novice followers of this &quot;Sanatan Dharma&quot; lifestyle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One thing I understand at this point is - it should come natural to you. There must not be the great inside resistance. Until you find that &quot;Sahaj&quot; path/style that progresses towards that Higher Abode... keep searching/fumbling into your inside inventory. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good answers so far.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt; ~~~ This is a view of what I understood from various sources including own life experiences, there may be better explanation/justification. &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4967" LastActivityDate="2016-02-28T18:02:06.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10812" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10796" CreationDate="2016-02-28T18:10:32.390" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not sure if folks in that time had more of surname as such.. Like before last 100 years, families would be known by some &quot;family/caste/denomination&quot; names.. I remember my family had one of that family name.. For many families, those names still carry forward as a proper last name/surname and for many others, they chose another good surname .. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To attempt an answer for you - I think those times Kings had more of &quot;dynasty&quot; name as family name rather than first name and last name to fill the forms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yayati was the King who had 2 sons - Puru and Yadu and Yadu was elder and Puru was younger...  legends follow that the &quot;Puru&quot; was the winner of the throne and his sons and grandsons rules the Dynasty of &quot;Hastinapur&quot; whereas &quot;Yadavs&quot; never took over. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So years and years after, in times of Pandavas and Kauravas - all descendents of Yayati's younger son -&quot;Puru&quot; are known to be &quot;Purus&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I would say - &quot;Yudhisthir Puru, Bhim Puru, Arjun Puru, etcc :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt; ~~~ This is a view of what I understood from various sources including own life experiences, there may be better explanation/justification. &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4967" LastActivityDate="2016-02-28T18:10:32.390" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10815" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9077" CreationDate="2016-02-28T20:25:03.997" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kesari and Anjana had in total 5 sons out of which Lord Hanuman was the eldest one. The names of other sons of King Kesari were: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matiman&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shrutiman&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ketuman&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhrtiman&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, unlike Lord Hanuman, these all were married and had kids. All this is mentioned under Brahamand Purana. Apart from other things, this purana also contains the details of the family tree of Kesari and about other things in the life of Lord Hanuman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following extract from Brahamand Purana verse 223 to 230 shows the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tMFo3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tMFo3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, as per another website article listed in following links, it was mentioned that Lord Hanuman has one more brother called 'Gatimaan'. Although, they also mentioned their source as Brahamand Purana, but I am not able to currently find his details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindi.speakingtree.in/slideshow/hanumanji-ke-paanch-bhai-bhi-the/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%A1%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A3-%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Link 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindi.speakingtree.in/slideshow/hanumanji-ke-paanch-bhai-bhi-the/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%A1%E0%A4%BC%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%A5%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%97%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%80&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Link 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, link of Brahamand Purana can be found in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6751/1018&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;. The verses stated above can be found in Book 2 of the series.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-03-02T07:17:51.800" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10817" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4043" CreationDate="2016-02-29T02:55:42.423" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard in upanyasams (discourses in Tamil by Krishna premi anna) that Draupadi is a combination of 5 shaktis (pancha-shakti-mayi devi) of the 5 devas of whom pandavas are amshas (or sons). Her arrangement was of living 1 year alone with each pandava, while none of the others would enter their premises. She would do 'agni-pravesh' (entering fire) and take on new body after each year of stay before starting to live with another pandava, thus getting purified by fire.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The story of Arjuna breaking the arrangement while she was in Yudhishtira's quarters in order to help a poor brahmana, and going on pilgrimage to atone for it, is well-known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2016-02-29T02:55:42.423" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10818" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11792" CreationDate="2016-02-29T07:11:30.713" Score="12" ViewCount="4314" Body="&lt;p&gt;People generally believe that &quot;Shiva&quot; is not mentioned in Vedas but &quot;Shiva&quot; is mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shri_Rudram_Chamakam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Śatarudrīya in the eighth anuvaka of the Sri Rudram of Yajurveda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. That text is the origin of the Pranava Panchakshari Mantra &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Om Namah Shivaya&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone please provide that verse in Sanskrit with English translation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="10088" LastEditDate="2024-02-03T17:15:40.810" LastActivityDate="2024-02-03T17:15:40.810" Title="Which verse of Sri Rudram of Yajurveda has the word &quot;Shiva&quot;?" Tags="|vedas|shiva|mantras|yajur-veda|rudram|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10819" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-29T07:29:27.530" Score="3" ViewCount="664" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous Upanishads is the Kena Upanishad, aka the Talavakara Brahmana Upanishad.  It gets its name because it begins with the word Kena meaning &amp;quot;by whom&amp;quot;; its &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01176.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;first verse&lt;/a&gt; consists of a shishya asking his guru &amp;quot;At whose wish does the mind sent forth proceed on its errand? At whose command does the first breath go forth? At whose wish do we utter this speech? What god directs the eye, or the ear?&amp;quot; And then the rest of the Upanishad consists of the guru's response.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the identities of the guru and the shishya.  The Dvaita philosopher Madhvacharya claims that the guru is Brahma and thathe is teaching Shiva.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia802606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/24/items/Sacred_Books_of_the_Hindus/SBH%2001%20-%20Upanishads%20-%20Isa%20to%20Mandukya%20with%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201911_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=SBH%2001%20-%20Upanishads%20-%20Isa%20to%20Mandukya%20with%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201911_jp2/SBH%2001%20-%20Upanishads%20-%20Isa%20to%20Mandukya%20with%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201911_0041.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Kena Upanishad, Madhvacharya gives a quote from a work he calls the &amp;quot;Brahmasara&amp;quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma, the four-faced, was seated alone in his heaven called Vaijayanta, when Sadashiva approaching him, asked the following questions, in order to know the truth about Vishnu :— &amp;quot;The mind thinks of objects  (desirable and undesirable) not under the control of the human soul (Purusha).... By whom sent, therefore, the mind goes to its object; by whose command does similarly the chief Prana the best of all function? What divinity controls and directs to their proper objects, eyes, ears speech and the rest?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being thus asked Brahma first meditated on the Lord Narayana, who is the support of all, who is the incomparable, the omniscient, the omnipotent, and free of all imperfections and then replied to the Lord of Uma:— &amp;quot;He who is the controller and regulator of Prana, of all senses like the eye, etc., is not fully comprehensible by even all the devas, because he is all-full.  He is the leader of Breath (Prana) and the rest, He knows everything in all time.  He is the best of all, he is present everywhere, he is the best of everything.  He is Vishnu, know him as such.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact Madhvacharya frames almost his entire commentary on the Kena Upanishad as an extended quotation from this Brahmasara work.  Now as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8680/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Madhvacharya's scriptural references are notoriously hard to track down, and this is no exception; we don't have an extant copy of the Brahmasara, and as far as I know there's no reference to such a work before the time of Madhvacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what other scriptures mention that the Kena Upanishad is a dialogue between Brahma and Shiva?  Is this mentioned in the Puranas?  I know Adi Sankaracharya doesn't identify the guru and ahishya in his commentary, but are there any other commentators who do?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, this isn't the only case where Madhvacharya makes a peculiar claim about the origin of an Upanishad; he says something similar about the Mandukya Upanishad as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7084/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T11:39:38.847" Title="Is the Kena Upanishad a dialogue between Brahma and Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|brahma|madhvacharya|kena-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10820" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10824" CreationDate="2016-02-29T07:40:39.993" Score="9" ViewCount="1612" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many legends behind Srikalahasti temple, which is one of the Panchaboota Kshetras. But none of these legends explain origin of Vayu Lingam which is believed to be &quot;Swayambhu&quot; (self-manifested). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Famous among of all legends is story of three staunch devotees &quot;Sri (spider), Kala (serpent) and Hasti (elephant)&quot;. But this legend says that they worshiped already existed lingam. Same is the case with other stories such as Bhakta Kannappa, penance of Parvati and Markandeya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shri_Rudram_Chamakam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; wiki page, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is said that Lord Shiva, after Bhasmasura was killed with the help&#xA;  of Lord Maha Vishnu, performed the Tandava Dance and then performed&#xA;  the &quot;Rudra Yagna&quot; for the betterment of humanity. The place where the&#xA;  Rudra Yagna was performed is where the &quot;Sri Kalahasti&quot; Temple stands&#xA;  now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this dance of Rudra has anything to do with this temple?&#xA;What is the exact legend behind origin of SriKalaHasti temple? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning of Vayu Lingam? At Arunachalam (Tiruvannamala), Lord Shiva appeared as &quot;Jyoti&quot; or fire column, so lingam there is called as Agni Lingam. Similarly, empty space at Chidambaram is worshiped as &quot;Akasa Lingam&quot;. So, what is the meaning of &quot;Vayu Lingam&quot; at Srikalahasti temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2018-10-08T16:37:49.127" Title="Legend behind origin of Vayu Lingam in Srikalahasti and its meaning" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10821" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10818" CreationDate="2016-02-29T07:50:57.327" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rudram consists of Prapathaka 5 of the Fourth Kanda of the Taittiriya Samhita of the Yajur Veda.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/yajurveda/ts-find.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the eighth Anuvaka of the Rudram in Sanskrit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vgvlI.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Sanskrit Eighth Anuvaka&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As you can see, the Panchakshari mantra &quot;namah shivaya&quot; occurs at the end of the first part of the Anuvaka.  In any case, here it is in English:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a Homage to Soma, and to Rudra. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  b Homage to the dusky one, and to the ruddy one. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  c Homage to the giver of weal, and to the lord of cattle. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  d Homage to the dread, and to the terrible. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  e Homage to him who slayeth in front, and to him who slayeth at a distance. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  f Homage to the slayer, and to the special slayer. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  g Homage to the trees with green tresses. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  h Homage to the deliverer. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  i Homage to the source of health, and to the source of delight. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  k Homage to the maker of health, and to the maker of delight. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  I &lt;strong&gt;Homage to the auspicious&lt;/strong&gt;, and to the more auspicious. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  m Homage to him of the ford, and to him of the bank. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  n Homage to him beyond, and to him on this side. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  o Homage to him who crosseth over, and to him who crosseth back. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  p Homage to him of the crossing, and to him of the ocean. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  q Homage to him in the tender grass, and to him in foam. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  r Homage to him in the sand, and to him in the stream.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Namah shivaya&quot; is being translated here as &quot;homage to the auspicious&quot;, since the word &quot;shiva&quot; literally means auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-02T14:58:08.333" LastActivityDate="2016-03-02T14:58:08.333" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10822" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="35801" CreationDate="2016-02-29T09:47:06.847" Score="19" ViewCount="5157" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-10-22/#more-607&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 10 Verse 22&lt;/a&gt; Lord Krishna says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vedānāḿ sāma-vedo smi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;devānām asmi vāsavaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;indriyāṇāḿ manaś cāsmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhūtānām asmi cetanā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Of the Vedas I am the Sama Veda&lt;/strong&gt;; of the demigods I am Indra, the king&#xA;of heaven; of the senses I am the mind; and in living beings I am the&#xA;living force [consciousness].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why Lord Krishna says He is Sama Veda among Vedas? Is Sama Veda the best among Vedas? If yes, how?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-12-02T16:43:29.137" Title="Why Krishna says He is Sama Veda among Vedas in Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|vedas|krishna|bhagavad-gita|sama-veda|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10823" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10822" CreationDate="2016-02-29T10:20:05.197" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Samaveda is the Veda of melodies and chants. It's verses are primarily derived from Rigveda (which is believed to be oldest/first and important veda from all). It includes many mysterious verses which indicates the knowledge of ultimate &amp;amp; absolute truth. (The most important &amp;amp; widely studied  Chandogya Upanishad also comes from Samaveda.) &lt;strong&gt;Singing and listening these verse musically, It (comparatively) more effects the influences of devotion and spirituality&lt;/strong&gt;. So, due to such importance/significance of Samaveda, Lord Krishna says He is Sama Veda among Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Jnaneshvari BhagvadGeeta :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/LF1qK.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; height=&quot;350&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where sentence in rectangle is similar to that of emphasized text in above explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know that realization of God is essential to attain the God; Singing can give the feeling which help us lead to the realization. (Quoting verse from Rigveda which are mentioned by Gayatri Pariwar)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rigveda 9.85.3:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अभि &lt;strong&gt;स्वरन्ति&lt;/strong&gt; बहवो मनीषिणो राजानमस्य भुवनस्य निंसते ॥३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Full many a wise man lifts to thee the &lt;strong&gt;song of praise&lt;/strong&gt;, and hails thee with a kiss as Sovran of this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8.33.2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वरन्ति त्वा सुते नरो वसो निरेक उक्थिनः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कदा सुतं तृषाण ओक आ गम इन्द्र स्वब्दीव वंसगः ॥२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 Men, Vasu! by the Soma, with &lt;strong&gt;lauds call&lt;/strong&gt; thee to the foremost place:&#xA;  When comest thou athirst unto the juice as home, O Indra, like a bellowing bull?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-01-18T15:10:16.643" LastActivityDate="2018-01-18T15:10:16.643" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10824" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10820" CreationDate="2016-02-29T13:08:04.810" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://web.archive.org/web/20150721115817/http://www.srikalahastidevasthanam.com/history.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Offical website&lt;/a&gt; of Temple gives info of origin of Vayu Lingam in Telugu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ప్రపంచ ముదయించిన మొదటి రోజుల్లో వాయు దేవుడి కర్పూర లింగాన్ని భక్తి&#xA;  శ్రద్దలతో పూజించి అనేక వేల సంవత్సరములు తపస్సు చేశాడని తెలియచున్నది.&#xA;  ఆయన తపస్సు కు సాక్షాత్కరించిన పరమేశ్వరుడు ‘వాయుదేవా ‘ నీవు చలనం&#xA;  గలవాడవయ్యును చలనం లేని భక్తితో నన్నింత కాలం ధ్యానించి చేసిన తపస్సుకు&#xA;  ఆనందించాను. భక్తుడవు కనుక నీకు కావలసిన వరాలు ఇవ్వడానికి వచ్చాను. నీకు&#xA;  కావలసిన వరాలు ఏమిటో కోరుకో యిస్తా అన్నాడు. అందుకు వాయు దేవుడు ‘స్వామి’&#xA;  నేని ప్రపంచము నందు లేని తావంటూ లేకుండగను, పరమాత్మ చందంబున ప్రతి జీవి&#xA;  యందు నేను ప్రధానమై యుండు లాగునను, నీ ప్రతిరూపమైన ఈ కర్పూర లింగము నా&#xA;  పేరు పిలువబడునట్లు నాకు వరములను ప్రసాదింపు ‘అని దోసిలి పట్టాడు.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;సాంబ శివుడు సంతోషించి ‘ఓయీ ! నీవు అభిలషించిన ఈ మూడు వరములను కోరదగినవే.&#xA;  నీ అభిమతము ననుసరించి నీవీ ప్రపంచమంతటను వ్యాపించి వుండువు. నీవు లేక&#xA;  జీవరాశి బ్రతుక జాలదు. నా యీ లింగము ఇక మీద నీ పేరున వాయు లింగమని&#xA;  ప్రఖ్యాతి గాంచి సమస్త సుర అసుర గరుడ గంధర్వ కిన్నెర కింపురుష సిద్ధి&#xA;  సాధ్వి నరముని వరుల చేతను పూజాలందుకొని నని’ వరములిచ్చి అదృశ్య మయ్యెను.&#xA;  నాటి నుండి ఈ క్షేత్ర మందలి కర్పూర లింగం వాయు లింగమను పేరున సమస్త లోకాల&#xA;  వారిచే పూజ లందుకోoటుంది.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here's my rough translation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During early days of creation of world, Lord Vayu performed penance&#xA;  for thousands of years to &quot;Karpoora lingam&quot; (Karpooram means camphor).&#xA;  Due to his penance, Parameswara manifested before him and said, &quot; O&#xA;  Vayu Deva! Though you are dynamic in nature, you stayed here without&#xA;  movement and did penance for me. I'm pleased with your penance. Ask&#xA;  boons you wish&quot;. Lord Vayu asked, &quot;Swami! I &lt;strong&gt;want to be present&#xA;  everywhere in this world. I want to be an integral part of every Jiva&#xA;  who is none other than manifestation of Paramatma. I want to name this&#xA;  Karpoora Linga, which represents you, after me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samba Siva said,&quot; Your are qualified for these three boons. As per&#xA;  your wish, you will be spread throughout this world. Without you there&#xA;  will be no life. &lt;strong&gt;This linga of mine will be famous by your name&lt;/strong&gt; and&#xA;  all Suras, Asuras, Garuda, Gaandharvas, Kinneras, kimpurushas,&#xA;  Siddhas, Saadhvis, humans and others worship this Lingam&quot;. Lord Shiva&#xA;  disappeared after granting these boons&quot;. Thereafter, this Karpoora&#xA;  Vayu Lingam is worshiped by all Lokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2018-10-08T16:37:49.127" LastActivityDate="2018-10-08T16:37:49.127" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10825" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-02-29T16:58:28.163" Score="5" ViewCount="317" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Azhvars are revered for their Bhakti laden Pasurams which also teach about Prapatti or Surrender to Narayana, one of the main tenets of Sri Vaishnavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the most significant Sharanagatis found in our scriptures is that done by Draupadi, when she calls out to Govinda in the midst of the Sabha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there are many who say that this episode is an interpolation into the Mahabharata and that Duhshasana only dragged Draupadi to the Sabha, thus falsifying the whole Sharanagati episode. So what do the Azhvars say on this Sharanagati?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-19T13:58:31.170" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T14:46:12.470" Title="What do the Azhvars say about Draupadi Sharanagati?" Tags="|mahabharata|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10826" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10825" CreationDate="2016-02-29T18:01:57.957" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Draupadi is mentioned in two verses of Thirumangai Alwar's Periya Thirumozhi, a collection of his poems.  First of all there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:7Mgwgw9QvjkJ:http://dravidaveda.org/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26view%3Darticle%26id%3D1482%26ml%3D1%2Bsite:dravidaveda.org&amp;amp;rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS590US590&amp;amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58&amp;amp;espv=1&amp;amp;hl=en-US&amp;amp;&amp;amp;ct=clnk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; from his poem Virperu Vizhavum, in praise of the deity of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthasarathy_Temple,_Triplicane&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Parthasarathy Krishna Temple&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;andanan Siruvan araSart am araSarku &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  iLaiyavan aNiyizhaiyai Senru &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  endamakku urimai Sei ena tariyAdu &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  emberumAn aruL enna| &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sandam al kuzhalAL alakkaN nooTTruvar tam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  peNDirum eidi noolizhappa &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  indiran Siruvan tEr mun ninrAnai &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tiruvallikkENi kaNDEnE|| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The blind king Dhritrashtra’s son, king of kings Duruyodhana, and his younger brother Dusshasana went to the beautiful jeweled Draupadi and said, “Serve me”, Unable to bear this, the dark tressed one prayed, “Lord, save me!”, when Lo! The lord took her grief and gave it to the others’ wives, making them lose their marriage thread. He drove Indra-born-Arjuna’s chariot. I have seen Him in Tiruvallikkeni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:XQQYuz841hsJ:http://dravidaveda.org/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26view%3Darticle%26id%3D1570%2Bsite:dravidaveda.org%20draupadi&amp;amp;rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS590US590&amp;amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58&amp;amp;espv=1&amp;amp;hl=en-US&amp;amp;&amp;amp;ct=clnk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; from his poem Anrarar, in praise of the deity of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranganatha_Temple,_Thiruneermalai&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Thiruneermalai Vishnu Temple&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tAngAdadu Or ALariyAi avuNan tannai &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  veeDa munindu avanAl amarum &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  poongOdaiyar pongeri moozhha viLaittu &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  aduvanriyum venrikoL vALamaril | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pAngAha mun aivarODu anbaLavi &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  padiTTraindiraTTippaDai vEndar paDa &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  neengA cheruvil niraikAttavanukku &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  iDam mAmalaiyAvadu neermalaiyE ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lord came as a terrible man-lion with Uncontrollable rage and killed the angry Hiranya, dispatching his flower-decked queens into the fire. Then in the victorious war, he befriended the five Pandavas, killed the mighty hundred and protected Draupadi’s fair name. Tirunirmalai is His great hill abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now only the first verse explicitly refers to Draupadi's act of Sharanagati, but I'd argue that the second verse alludes to it as well, insofar as Krishna &quot;protected Draupadi's fair name&quot; as a reward for her Sharanagati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T22:19:34.770" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T22:19:34.770" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10828" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10215" CreationDate="2016-02-29T18:55:02.130" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;both @noob and @Ishika are correct in their statements but just to make things a little more clear, the father of Kauravas (Dhritarashtra) and the father of Pandavas (Pandu) were brothers wherein Dhritarashtra was the elder brother but he was blind since birth that is why it was decided that Pandu would become the next king of Hastinapur. At one point of time Pandu renounced his kingdom and started living in the forest, giving the responsibilities of the kingdom to Dhritarashtra (this is a very abridged version of the story, a lot of incidents take place in order for this to happen).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhan was the eldest son of Dhritarashtra whereas Yudhishthira was the eldest son of Pandu (need to note that Yudhishthira was elder than Duryodhan). The Pandavas as children grew up in the forest having no idea that they were entitled to a kingdom, on the other hand Duryodhan grew up in the castle believing that he was the righful heir of hastinapur. Once the Pandavas returned to the Palace of Hastinapur, the Yudhishthira was made the new King of Hastinapur and hence the basic reason of rivalry between the Kauravas and Pandavas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A lot of things did happen over the course of time from being children to adults in the lives of both the sides to increase the animosity but I guess that's for a different time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4977" LastEditorUserId="4977" LastEditDate="2016-03-02T19:33:46.303" LastActivityDate="2016-03-02T19:33:46.303" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10829" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3402" CreationDate="2016-03-01T03:12:46.877" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;These beings maybe great Siddhas or yogis, but they most certainly aren't the predicted next avatara, Kalki, who appears towards the end of the Kali yuga and beginning of the Satya yuga when atheism dominates the world:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;At the end of Kali Yuga, when there exist no topics on the subject of God, even at the residences of so-called saints and respectable gentlemen, and when the power of government is transferred to the hands of ministers elected from the evil men, and when nothing is known of the techniques of sacrifice, even by word, at that time the Lord will appear as the supreme chastiser.&amp;quot; - Bhagavata Purana, 2.7.38&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next maha avatara will usher in a golden age, the Satya yuga when the majority of the world is atheistic, which obviously has not happened since we still live in the Kali yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many sects consider them to be avataras already, certainly they were perfected souls or sent by divine beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavad Gita when Krsna describes his Universal form he describes many different beings as forms of himself, so He would've certainly considered these teachers as forms of himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People observe many parallels between the Christ's sayings and Krishna's sayings like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.&amp;quot; (BG 10.20)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning&#xA;and the end.&amp;quot; (Revelation 22:13)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I shall now explain the knowable, knowing which you will taste the&#xA;eternal&amp;quot; (BG 13.13)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The Supreme Truth exists outside and inside of all living beings, the&#xA;moving and the nonmoving. &amp;quot; (BG 13.16)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste&#xA;death.&amp;quot; (Gospel of Thomas, Verse 1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you.&amp;quot; (Gospel of Thomas, Verse 3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seems like the &amp;quot;kingdom&amp;quot; Jesus described is the brahm or brahman that Krsna described.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavad Gita states that many perfected souls existed with a nature equal to the Lord:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;By becoming ﬁxed in this knowledge, one can attain to the&#xA;transcendental nature like My own. Thus established, one is not born&#xA;at the time of creation or disturbed at the time of dissolution.&amp;quot; (BG&#xA;14.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O son of Pāṇḍu, he who does&#xA;not hate illumination, attachment and delusion when they are present&#xA;or long for them when they disappear; who is unwavering and&#xA;undisturbed through all these reactions of the material qualities,&#xA;remaining neutral and transcendental, knowing that the modes alone are&#xA;active; who is situated in the self and regards alike happiness and&#xA;distress; who looks upon a lump of earth, a stone and a piece of gold&#xA;with an equal eye; who is equal toward the desirable and the&#xA;undesirable; who is steady, situated equally well in praise and blame,&#xA;honor and dishonor; who treats alike both friend and enemy; and who&#xA;has renounced all material activities – such a person is said to have&#xA;transcended the modes of nature.&amp;quot; (BG 14.22-25)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O&#xA;descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion – at that&#xA;time I descend Myself.&amp;quot; (BG 4.7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus we see that the Christ and the Buddha exhibit qualities of a perfected soul equal in nature to God, God in human form, God-men, but I am not so sure about Guru Nanak or Muhammad though, they seem like messengers or regular humans sent by divine beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Certainly many many perfected souls existed in the past, many unrecorded or forgotten.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4942" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-01T03:59:24.163" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10830" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7643" CreationDate="2016-03-01T06:12:59.377" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was right in describing the same. Ancient Indian sages were very rich in their knowledge and resources. The mankind has come to realize the same today only. Cloning has made it possible today to resurrect the dying animal into a new body. A billionaire businessman is offering the same to human beings also claiming that he has got all scientific facts and technology almost ready.That Chaitanya Mahaprabhu knew all this at that time though it was not known to anyone, is really interesting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4979" LastActivityDate="2016-03-01T06:12:59.377" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10831" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10796" CreationDate="2016-03-01T06:14:46.490" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Surname is modern concept , in ancient times all the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvija&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dwijas&lt;/a&gt; (dwija jaatis) used to have similar surnames according to their varnas. When a dwija greeted somebody he used to recite adhivadan to the other respected one like a Bramhin would say &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;abhivadaye name (sharma) ahamasmibho (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ManuSmriti&lt;/a&gt; 2.122) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sharma is to be replaced by &lt;code&gt;Verma for Kshatriyas&lt;/code&gt; and Guptas for Vaishyas. So In case of pandavas they would've acknowledged themselves as &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;abhivadye Yudhishtir Verma Ahamasmibho&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words they would take verma as their last name, since it is vedic convention.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;About their family lineage they were descendants of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puru_%28Vedic_tribe%29#Rigvedic_Puru_clan_lineage&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puru Dynasty&lt;/a&gt; which was a chandravanshi Dynasty. So basically Pandavas have a Generic identity as &lt;strong&gt;Chandravanshi Kshatriya Kaurava /Puru vanshi&lt;/strong&gt; which ended up with nanda dynasty&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Important  the abhivadan is not limited to the lines manusmriti mentions it includes recitation of your gotra pravaras/&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajarshi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Raja Rishi&lt;/a&gt; lienage etc.(Raj Rishi is used for Kshatriyas instead of Normal Rishis).&lt;/strong&gt; That is why I have posted another &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10497/how-to-do-abhivadan-in-sandhyavandana&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; on abhivadan/abhivadyae.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chakraborty or Chakravartin is not a surname rather it is a word to depict a great/righteous ruler.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More Information on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_Kingdom&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kuru Kingdom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-03-01T06:19:57.177" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10833" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10790" CreationDate="2016-03-01T09:17:33.263" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ayappa's parents are Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. There are lot of version of stories, One version tells that the asura Bhasmasura (Bhasma means 'Ashes') had so pleased Lord Shiva with his austerities that Shiva gave him a boon of anything he wished. So Bhasmasura asked for the ability to burn to ashes anything which he placed his hand over. No sooner had Shiva granted this, than Bhasmasura ran after the god, threatening to turn him to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A depiction of Harihara, (A fusion of Shiva and Vishnu), who is Ayyappa's father Shiva called to Lord Vishnu for help. He hide himself in a peepal tree as Bhasmasura ran here and there searching for the god. Vishnu became aware of the events, and decided that he would take the female form Mohini, &quot;the Enchantress&quot;, and try to trump the asura's powers. When Bhasmasura saw Vishnu in this form, he was bewitched by her beauty. He earnestly tried to court her. So Vishnu instructed Bhasmasura to hold his hand over his head, and vow fidelity. With this act, Bhasmasura was reduced to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu found Shiva and explained the whole affair to him. Shiva asked if he too could see Vishnu in this female form. When Vishnu appeared thus, Shiva was overcome with passion, and united with her. The two gods thus became &quot;Harihara Murthi&quot;, that is a composite form of Shiva and Vishnu as one god. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayyappan#Legends_surrounding_Ayyappan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;read more&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4949" LastActivityDate="2016-03-01T09:17:33.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10834" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-01T10:39:17.760" Score="2" ViewCount="537" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am interested in knowing whether people in Bharata varsha in earlier yugas had blonde hair and blue eyes(the combination). Or is that combination foreign to Bharat varsha ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Usually these are attributed to colder climates and northern latitudes &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blond&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Northern European&lt;/a&gt;. But presuming Bharat was a lot cooler in earlier yugas was this combination found in ancient Bharata varsha ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have read the word  &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?beginning=0%20&amp;amp;tinput=%20harikeza&amp;amp;trans=Translate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Harikesha&lt;/a&gt; in many texts of descriptions of deities but I am unsure whether ordinary humans had these characteristics. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To me the first encounter of a blonde haired/blue eyed person would have happened when Alexander's armies entered Northern India but are any other descriptions of such encounters in earlier yugas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4592" LastEditorDisplayName="user4592" LastEditDate="2016-03-02T01:13:34.433" LastActivityDate="2016-03-02T01:13:34.433" Title="blonde haired and blue eyed people in Bharata varsha in earlier yugas" Tags="|culture|human|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10835" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-03-01T13:04:03.003" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-03-01T13:04:03.003" LastActivityDate="2016-03-01T13:04:03.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10836" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-03-01T13:04:03.003" Score="0" Body="For the questions relevant with Adi Shankaracharya, philosopher, theologian, preceptor and expounder of &quot;Advaita Vedanta&quot;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-03-01T14:07:55.073" LastActivityDate="2016-03-01T14:07:55.073" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10837" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-03-01T13:20:46.793" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-03-01T13:20:46.793" LastActivityDate="2016-03-01T13:20:46.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10838" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-03-01T13:20:46.793" Score="0" Body="Jnana (Sanskrit: ज्ञान) means the knowledge and realization of Brahman. JnanaYoga is the path for attaining the ultimate/supreme. Jnana is also termed for vidhya (विद्या), self-realization (आत्मज्ञान) &amp; Brahmajnana (ब्रह्मज्ञान) in Upanishad and Vedanta" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-03-01T14:07:58.790" LastActivityDate="2016-03-01T14:07:58.790" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10842" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-02T05:47:27.673" Score="3" ViewCount="118" Body="&lt;p&gt;I find some diametrically opposite views on important spiritual practices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is said that the exact pronunciation of a mantra is very important, yet some pronounce the most famous mantra as OM, others as AUM.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some say that for the mantra SO-HAM, SO should be on inhalation, others that it should be on exhalation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Proper alignment is supposed to be vital for mudras, yet some do them with palms up, others with palm down.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, the opposing camps insist that their view is the correct one, although for SO-HAM, I understand that yogi Gorakhnath conveniently resolved it by saying that both are correct ! [ Mind it, SO-HAM is supposed to be an onomatopoeic mantra !] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are we to make of all this ? That all these are mere shots in the dark ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4984" LastActivityDate="2016-03-03T18:04:26.950" Title="Diametrically opposite views on important spiritual practices" Tags="|mantras|practice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10843" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10630" CreationDate="2016-03-02T06:51:04.380" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;From info found &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=qaIZDQAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT13&amp;amp;lpg=PT13&amp;amp;dq=The+sages+say-+%E2%80%9CDharma+consists+of+ten+properties+such+as+non-violence,+truth,+charity,+not+stealing+the+property+of+others,+forgiveness,+self-restraint,+cleanliness+etc.+Hence+it+is+known+as+Dashaang+Dharma.&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=YlhlNuSAcV&amp;amp;sig=ACfU3U1jzXK9aAXRWkWZDSh2JmKuB3bbHg&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=2ahUKEwjXrMjZzZfxAhX-H7cAHWilBoMQ6AEwA3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=The%20sages%20say-%20%E2%80%9CDharma%20consists%20of%20ten%20properties%20such%20as%20non-violence%2C%20truth%2C%20charity%2C%20not%20stealing%20the%20property%20of%20others%2C%20forgiveness%2C%20self-restraint%2C%20cleanliness%20etc.%20Hence%20it%20is%20known%20as%20Dashaang%20Dharma.&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;,the following quote is taken from Sukeshi's questions(to the Sages) found in  the Vamana Puranam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages say- “Dharma consists of ten properties such as&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;non-violence&lt;/strong&gt;, truth, charity, not stealing the property of others,&#xA;forgiveness, self-restraint, cleanliness etc. Hence it is known as&#xA;Dashaang Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence anyone following the path of Dharma follows Ahimsa first &amp;amp; foremost.And a Yogi(Saint) will have more reasons to follow it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence,it is evident that the Yogis get tiger skins only from those tigers that  died of natural causes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-06-14T17:06:31.453" LastActivityDate="2021-06-14T17:06:31.453" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10844" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-02T07:32:38.583" Score="5" ViewCount="181" Body="&lt;p&gt;My knowledge of &quot;Pancha Pakshi&quot; is limited to what is being found on &lt;a href=&quot;http://astrobix.com/horoscope/panchpakshi/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page.It is said that this knowledge was given to this world by the Tamil Siddhas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question-Which ancient Tamil text mentions about them and how valid an astrological system it is compared to Vedic astrology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, i want to know in how much more detail(compared to the very minimal description found on the linked page) the laws(of Pancha Pakshi) are laid down in that Scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a personal note, i have found this Shastra to be quite interesting and useful too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-02T07:38:51.207" LastActivityDate="2016-03-02T07:38:51.207" Title="Which Tamil Scripture mentions about the doctrines of &quot;Pancha Pakshi&quot;?" Tags="|astrology|tamil|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10845" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-02T07:49:11.903" Score="4" ViewCount="827" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/brahma/brahma_07.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; link,&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Taddha tadvanam nama tadvanam iti upasitavyam&#xA;(Kena Upanishad)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-&quot;That is Adorable(Tadvanam); one should meditate on It as 'Adorable'.&quot;&#xA;  This is one Upanishadic meditation, in the Kena Upanishad. Brahman is&#xA;  the most adorable and we should conceive Brahman as the most adorable&#xA;  and you will become the most adorable in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,is &quot;Tadvanam&quot; a name for Brahman who is beyond description and by this name can we worship the Brahman like we worship other deities?.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-18T11:40:42.917" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T11:40:42.917" Title="Can we worship the Brahman as &quot;Tadvana?" Tags="|gods|worship|brahman|kena-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10846" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-02T10:04:24.110" Score="5" ViewCount="355" Body="&lt;p&gt;Somehow I am not challenging Astrology &amp;amp; I am amazed how some people are able to predict your nature &amp;amp; your future so accurately just by your time of birth &amp;amp; place of birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I already met some great astrologers who are amazing in their job &amp;amp; can tell you your past without knowing you &amp;amp; even predict future accurately with knowing you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Astrologers have most accurate knowledge of cosmic events (more accurate &amp;amp; before than NASA)  like Lunar Eclipse &amp;amp; solar eclipse in next 1000 years. They know about all planets, their cycles long before even Galileo propose Heliocentric.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this like they are so advanced in science &amp;amp; knowledge of universe that we still can't imagine and they have equation to predict time as dimension to predict best possibility of future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is actual science behind astrology? Do any Hindu scriptures explain this science?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE: I know astrology is not fake except for some fakers who exist even in science as scientists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1173" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-07-14T20:33:16.857" LastActivityDate="2016-07-14T20:33:16.857" Title="Do any Hindu scriptures explain the science behind the astrology?" Tags="|scripture|astrology|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="12" ClosedDate="2016-03-02T11:37:24.133" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10847" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10842" CreationDate="2016-03-02T10:16:12.133" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Om = AUM. First you are taking about the English representations of the Sanskrit utterances that compose the &lt;em&gt;Pranava&lt;/em&gt;. The Upanishads describe the &lt;em&gt;Pranava&lt;/em&gt; as composing three letters or sounds (see the &lt;em&gt;Mandukya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt;). The &lt;em&gt;Mandukya&lt;/em&gt; describes the three letters as composing the first three quarters of Brahman. The fourth quarter, the &lt;em&gt;Turiya&lt;/em&gt;, is the the sound when all three sounds are pronounced together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Representing AUM as Om in English was first proposed by an Western scholar with 'O' being an amalgamation of 'AU'; he thought that the sound of the English 'O' was a better representation of the first two letters in Sanskrit of the Sanskrit A and U. So Om = AUM. and AUM = Om. btw, a better way to think of how to pronounce the sound of AUM (or Om) in English is the English word &lt;em&gt;home&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When to say &lt;em&gt;Soham&lt;/em&gt; during pranayama should be learned from one's teacher.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mudras are not important. What feels comfortable to you should be done.          &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-03-02T10:16:12.133" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10848" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-02T11:41:28.197" Score="8" ViewCount="6260" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all have heard and know about the Ashvamedha Yagya. But what will happen to the horse after Yagna? My question is about horse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4825" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-20T19:16:40.677" LastActivityDate="2018-02-22T15:54:03.407" Title="What happens to the horse after the Ashvamedha Yagya?" Tags="|yajna|vedic-rituals|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10849" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10842" CreationDate="2016-03-02T11:52:46.113" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am posting some excerpts from Swami Swahananda's writings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Japa should be performed a prescribed number of times. Angirasa says&#xA;  that japa repeated without keeping track of the number is fruitless.&#xA;  The Kularnava Tantra says that if the prescribed number of japa is not&#xA;  done, the japa does not bear fruit. The Vishvasara Tantra also&#xA;  supports this view..... The Tantras especially put much stress on&#xA;  ritualistic japa. According to the Kularnava Tantra the number of japa&#xA;  may be counted on the joints of the fingers or on a rosary. Various&#xA;  rules are prescribed regarding japa and the choice of the rosary...&#xA;  Japa is to be performed neither very slowly nor rapidly but at an even&#xA;  rate, moving from one head to another on the rosary. If the japa is&#xA;  done imperfectly, then this can be rectified by various prescribed&#xA;  means or by more japa. The devotional schools have always tried to&#xA;  lessen the rigidity of these prescriptions about japa, placing&#xA;  emphasis instead on developing a devotional attitude with the help of&#xA;  japa. They claim that through japa alone even the external signs of&#xA;  devotion can be manifested. The Vira Tantra says that japa alone can&#xA;  bring success. It may be done with or without meditation.........&#xA;  Regularity in the practice of Japa has been highly extolled. .....&#xA;  Other helpful factors are a secluded place, a suitable seat, and&#xA;  proper articulation of the mantra. Alertness, of course, is essential.&#xA;  ............. Tantrasrah speaks of twelve practices which help in the&#xA;  fruition of japa. Some are austerities, such as sleeping on the&#xA;  ground, continence, taking a vow of silence, taking three ceremonial&#xA;  baths a day, and giving up activities that distract from the ideal.&#xA;  Others are observances, such as worship, giving gifts, supplication,&#xA;  singing to the deity, occasional worship of the deity, as well as&#xA;  faith in one's preceptor and in the deity. ... The Kularnava Tantra&#xA;  considers mauna, keeping the vow of silence, itself as the best form&#xA;  of japa. Again, the sage Brihaspati has enumerated observances that&#xA;  contribute to success in japa, restraint of the mind, purity, silence,&#xA;  reflecting on the meaning of the mantra, freedom from distractions,&#xA;  and absence of indifference towards the mantra. The Chandogya&#xA;  Upanishad says, &quot;Reflecting in the mind, one should repeat the mantra&#xA;  attentively&quot;...... &lt;strong&gt;The devotional schools, however, believe that even&#xA;  if the mantra is repeated without proper pronunciation or knowledge of&#xA;  its meaning, it will still be efficacious if the devotee is sincere&#xA;  and has intense devotion. Valmiki is said to have attained realization&#xA;  by repeating &quot;Mara&quot;, reversing the name of Rama, because he was too&#xA;  sinful to repeat the Lord's name correctly.&lt;/strong&gt;..... But best results can&#xA;  come through a combination of devotion and understanding..... So japa,&#xA;  normally speaking, becomes spiritually effective if it is done with&#xA;  faith and with knowledge of its meaning. Yet, even if an aspirant&#xA;  lacks these, through japa, faith in the mantra and knowledge of its&#xA;  meaning will eventually come. The Name of God itself has great power&#xA;  and is capable of creating devotion even in a stony heart if it is&#xA;  repeated for some time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meditation and other spiritual disciplines by Swami Swahananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-03-02T11:52:46.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10851" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-02T13:05:07.567" Score="9" ViewCount="2673" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is widely believed that keeping a copy of Mahabharata at home is not good. Can anyone tell me the reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4314" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-16T21:14:30.163" LastActivityDate="2020-09-30T03:10:53.150" Title="Why is it said that we shouldn't keep a copy of Mahabharata at home?" Tags="|mahabharata|belief|superstitions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10852" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-02T14:30:04.080" Score="6" ViewCount="3095" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a Hindu mythology trivia quiz written by Devdutt Pattanaik on the app QuizUp, the following question was asked:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What name did Brahma give to King Nemi for his capability of driving his chariot to ten points at the same time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The correct answer is given as Dasharatha, which makes sense considering that Dasha means 10 and Ratha means chariot.  But my question is, is it true that Dasharatha's original name was Nemi, and that he was given the name Dasharatha by Brahma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=y7GKwhuea9kC&amp;amp;lpg=PA178&amp;amp;dq=nemi%20dasaraTha&amp;amp;pg=PA178#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This book&lt;/a&gt; makes at least the Nemi claim:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nemi, son of Ajan, a famous King in the genealogical line of Surya kings, reigned over Kosala kingdom with capital at Ayodhya.  King Nemi was assigned the title &lt;em&gt;Dasaratha&lt;/em&gt; for his ability to wage war simultaneously at ten battlefronts through the swift movement of his chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But do any scriptures give Dasharatha's original name as Nemi, and is there a scriptural basis for the Brahma part?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm pretty sure the Valmiki Ramayana doesn't mention any of this, but is it possible that it's mentioned in some Purana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-24T02:17:10.907" LastActivityDate="2019-10-15T04:04:05.650" Title="Did Brahma give Dasharatha his name?" Tags="|ramayana|brahma|dasharatha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10858" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10861" CreationDate="2016-03-02T18:26:35.387" Score="6" ViewCount="5130" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen in films, heard tales about how in south India many people worship ravana, surely they must be following a different folklore version which edifies ravana but isn't Ramayana an universally accepted epic which villainizes ravana ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Knowing that what prompts a few to worship him ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2974" LastActivityDate="2022-02-04T07:09:03.743" Title="Why is ravana still worshipped in a few places till today despite being the demon king?" Tags="|ramayana|gods|ravana|india|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10859" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-02T20:04:50.690" Score="3" ViewCount="1153" Body="&lt;p&gt;We require to do parana(consume food) on dwadasi i.e. next day after ekadasi fasting, I want to know how people fast for maha shivaratri if it is falling on dwadasi? As it requires us to do parana for sure to break the ekadasi fasting. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4859" LastActivityDate="2016-03-02T20:04:50.690" Title="How can we do Fasting on Shiva Rathri After Ekadasi Fasting?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10860" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10738" CreationDate="2016-03-03T09:31:16.693" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is &lt;em&gt;Turiya&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turiya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Turiya/तुरीय&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; should be the ultimate state of the consciousness. It's the final outcome or remainder after &lt;em&gt;Neti Neti&lt;/em&gt;(Apophatic theology) of other states of consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In spirituality, the final state is &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;, so &lt;em&gt;Turiya&lt;/em&gt; might be termed as the experience of &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;, while still being alive!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We can also draw parallels among the various stages based on what &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turiya#Shankara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankara&lt;/a&gt; has derived from &lt;em&gt;Mandukya Upanishada&lt;/em&gt; and from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10799/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sthula Sharira/Annamaya Kosha&lt;/em&gt; (gross body) -- &lt;em&gt;JAgruta&lt;/em&gt; (awake)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sukshma Sharira/Manomaya Kosha/Mann&lt;/em&gt; (subtle body) -- &lt;em&gt;Swapna&lt;/em&gt; (dreaming)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;KArana Sharira/Anandamaya Kosha/Buddhi&lt;/em&gt; (causal body) -- &lt;em&gt;Sushupti&lt;/em&gt; (dreamless)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Avyakta SwabhAva/Atman&lt;/em&gt; (true self) -- &lt;em&gt;Turiya&lt;/em&gt; (none of the above; i.e. liberated)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How can we realize &lt;em&gt;Turiya&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Waiting &amp;amp; &quot;doing nothing&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;!  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr&lt;/em&gt;: Surrendering the ownership of the actions to &quot;that&quot;(god). Because, anyways effectively we &quot;do nothing&quot;. Our actions should be natural to us rather than goal-centric.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;mā te saṅgo ’stv akarmaṇi&lt;/em&gt;: If we literally &quot;do nothing&quot;, then we should not be excited by that either. Just don't do something, because it's natural.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above 2 are the basis of &lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Karma SanyAsa&lt;/em&gt; respectively. They are not choices. In most lives they are nicely intermingled.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g. After having a meal we walk, as it's natural to us. Here &quot;Walking&quot; is a &lt;em&gt;NishkAma Karma&lt;/em&gt;, because by walking we don't want to go anywhere! Similarly, sometimes if we &quot;don't walk&quot;, we don't repent that inaction. Here &quot;not walking&quot; is &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;, to which we aren't attached.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Karma SanyAsa&lt;/em&gt; are naturally followed for many un-important things. But often we fail the test for other things, which we have categorized as &quot;important&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Be &lt;strong&gt;indifferent&lt;/strong&gt; to all &quot;important&quot; and &quot;unimportant&quot; matters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People are different and hence are the ways. If there was a really a guaranteed way for all, then there would have been lot of businesses (e.g. Moksha machines in USA around '70s) by now. But [un]fortunately, such things are just received rather than achieved!  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-03-03T09:31:16.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10861" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10858" CreationDate="2016-03-03T10:00:54.973" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No where in Ramayana, written by Valmiki, the writer of the epic,  Rama was mentioned as God. Neither Ravana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though demon king Ravana is the prime  antagonist character in the epic Ramayana, yet most of the people are not aware of his background, his conquests  and his erudite knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is considered as the most revered devotee of Lord Shiva. An Accomplished Scholar, great musician.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana's grandfather, the sage Pulastya, was one of the ten Prajapatis or mind-born sons of Brahma and one of the Saptarishi (Seven Great Sages Rishi)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana performed an intense penance (or tapasya) to Brahma, lasting several years. During his penance, Ravana chopped off his head 10 times as a sacrifice to appease him. Each time he sliced his head off a new head arose, thus enabling him to continue his penance. At last, Brahma, pleased with his austerity, appeared after his 10th decapitation and offered him a boon. Ravana asked for immortality, which Brahma refused to give, but gave him the celestial nectar of immortality. The nectar of immortality, stored under his navel, dictated that he could not be vanquished for as long as it lasted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;His abilities now truly awe-inspiring, &lt;strong&gt;Ravana proceeded on a series of campaigns, conquering humans, celestials and other demons.&lt;/strong&gt; Conquering the netherworld completely, he left his brother Ahiravana as king. He became supreme overlord of all Asuras in the three worlds, making an alliance with the Nivatakavachas and Kalakeyas, two clans he was unable to subdue. Conquering several kingdoms of the human world, he performed the suitable sacrifices and was crowned Emperor. Ravana defeated Indra and the gods, Surya, Varuna and Yama.&#xA;  Kubera at one point chastised Ravana for his cruelty and greed, greatly angering him. Proceeding to the heavens, Ravana fought and defeated the devas, singling out his brother for particular humiliation. By force he gained command over the devas, celestials, and the serpent races. At the time of the Ramayana, set several years later, Ravana is shown as dominating all human and divine races – so much so that he can command the sun's rising and setting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana was a great practitioner of statecraft(the skillful management of state affairs; statesmanship.). When Lord Rama killed Ravana, who was on his last breath, Rama instructed his brother Lakshmana to go to Ravana and learn the art of statecraft and diplomacy from the dying demon king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It was Ravana and his brother Kumbhakarana, who performed penance, got miraculous powers  from Lord Brahma and drove out Kuber to occupy the golden kingdom of Lanka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are several temples in India where Ravana is worshipped and associated with Lord Shiva at some places. Temples related with Ravana in India are Ravana Mandir Bisrakh,Koteshwar Temple Gujarat,Vidisha Ravangram Temple and Murudeshwara Temple has Ravana Statue, Koneswaram temple of Sri Lanka is one of the most famous Ravana temple in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a conclusion: The heroism of the hero is proportional to the greatness of the villain. And One Must Never Forget That Ego Kills.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mensxp.com/work-life/balance-work-and-life/24025-5-life-lessons-from-ravana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;5 Life Lessons From Ravana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Ramayana-Hindu-epic/Is-Ravana-a-hero-or-is-he-a-villain-Why&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ramayana (Hindu epic): Is Ravana a hero or is he a villain?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravana#Tapasya_to_Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ravana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4692" LastEditorUserId="4692" LastEditDate="2016-03-22T09:56:00.747" LastActivityDate="2016-03-22T09:56:00.747" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10862" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10867" CreationDate="2016-03-03T11:08:34.120" Score="11" ViewCount="23607" Body="&lt;p&gt;In South India, people worship Lord Ganesh and consider him to be Lord Shiva's first son and elder to Lord Kartikeya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the North and remaining parts of India however, people have a faith that Lord Kartikeya is Shiva's eldest son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, who is the eldest son of Lord Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, who is Lord Ayyappan? Does he belong to Lord Shiva's family? Does Lord Shiva also have a daughter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-18T01:00:53.170" LastActivityDate="2023-08-13T11:27:40.310" Title="Who is the eldest son of Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|ganesha|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10864" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-03T16:52:05.800" Score="-4" ViewCount="691" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do Hindus worship more than one god even though in the Puranas it says brahman is one? Also, it says in the Puranas you shouldn't worship any idols, and yet I see Hindus worshipping idols.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4983" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-06T16:44:01.960" LastActivityDate="2016-03-06T16:44:01.960" Title="It says in the Puranas that 'Brahman is One' then why do Hindus worship more than one god?" Tags="|belief|brahman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2016-03-06T05:55:42.437" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10865" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19964" CreationDate="2016-03-03T17:00:11.130" Score="2" ViewCount="219" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is Krishna called as Chola Putri Priya, is there a specific reason?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3692" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T14:39:58.567" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T09:20:21.420" Title="Why is Krishna called Chola Putri Priya" Tags="|krishna|name|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10867" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10862" CreationDate="2016-03-03T18:27:15.637" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the famous names of Sri Ganapaty is &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Skandapurvaja&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; which literally means &amp;quot;the elder brother of Skanda or Lord Karthikeya&amp;quot;. So, Ganapaty is the eldest son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Skandapurvaja -- One who is born (ja) before (purva) Karthikeya (Skanda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rudraksha-ratna.com/108-names-of-ganesha-in-sanskrit_26.html5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;108 names of Ganapaty,with 82nd in the list being &amp;quot;Skandapurvaja&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a Ganesha Asta Namavali Stotram found in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana.It was narrated by Lord Vishnu to Godess Parvati.That stotram has the name &lt;strong&gt;Guhaagrajam&lt;/strong&gt; which has the same meaning as Skandapurvaja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vande Guhaagrajam Devam Sarvadevaagra pujitam/&lt;br&gt; Yetanmaashtakam&#xA;Durgey Namaabhih samyuktam param,&lt;br&gt; Putrasya pasya Vedey cha tadaa&#xA;kopam thathaa kuru/&lt;br&gt; Yetanmaashtakam Stotram naanaartha samyutam&#xA;shubham,&lt;br&gt; Trisandhyam yah pathennithyam sa sukhee sarvato&#xA;jayee/&lt;br&gt; Tato Vighnaam palaayantey vaina teyaad yathoragah,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ganeswaraprasaadena mahajnaani bhaved dhruvam/&lt;br&gt; Putraarthi labhatey&#xA;putram Bhaaryaarthi vipulam striam,&lt;br&gt; Maha jadam Kaveendrascha&#xA;vidyaa vaancham bhaved dhruvam/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Mother Parvati! your son has eight names viz. Ganesha, Ekadanta,&#xA;Heramba, Vighnanayaka, Lambodara, Shurpakarna, Gajavaktra, and&#xA;Guhaagraja. Please listen to the meanings of these names; this Great&#xA;Stotra is the essence of several Stotras and is the demolisher of all&#xA;kinds of obstacles&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wb7DD.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wb7DD.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dyzOP.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dyzOP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the Shiva Purana mentiones birth of Ganesha during Svetakalpa and implies that Ganesha is younger son of Lord Shiva (at Shveta Kalpa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ayyappa was created from an union of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu (in the Mohini form), but he is not usually considered a member of Lord Shiva's family, however, in a Puja we do see his Pushpa Arcahna (worship by flowers)  by the following Mantras which uses 8 names of Lord Shiva. :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Bhavasya Devasya Sutaya Namaha, Om Sarvasya Devasya Sutaya Namaha,&#xA;..... Om Mahato Devasya Sutaya Namaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sL5F6.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sL5F6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,he is considered as Lord Shiva's son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to the question-Does Lord Shiva have a daughter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Padma Purana the answer is yes and her name is &lt;strong&gt;AshokaSundari&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashokasundari&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashokasundari (Sanskrit: अशोकसुंदरी, Aśokasundarī), also spelt as&#xA;Ashoka sundari is a character in the Padma Purana who is described as&#xA;the daughter of the deities Shiva and Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashokasundari was created from the wish-fulfilling tree Kalpavriksha&#xA;when Parvati wished for reducing her loneliness. The words in her name&#xA;are derived from her creation. &amp;quot;Ashok&amp;quot; refers to the easing of&#xA;Parvati's &amp;quot;shok,&amp;quot; which means sorrow, while &amp;quot;sundari&amp;quot; means &amp;quot;beautiful&#xA;girl&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;UPDATE:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/stotras/ganesha/ganesha_pancharatnam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganesha Pancharatnam&lt;/a&gt;, Adi Shankara also mentions Lord Ganesha as &lt;strong&gt;Puraripurvanandanam&lt;/strong&gt; or the earlier (purva) son (nandana) of Purari i.e the enemy (ari) of the three cities (tripura) i.e of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अकिंचनार्तिमार्जनं चिरन्तनोक्तिभाजनं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;पुरारिपूर्वनन्दनं&lt;/strong&gt; सुरारिगर्वचर्वणम् ।&lt;br&gt; प्रपञ्चनाशभीषणं धनंजयादिभूषणम्&lt;br&gt; कपोलदानवारणं भजे पुराणवारणम् ॥४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="25676" LastEditDate="2023-08-13T11:27:40.310" LastActivityDate="2023-08-13T11:27:40.310" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10868" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-03T19:09:42.353" Score="1" ViewCount="87" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna's behaviour in his life was full of adharma tactics like, Running from the battlefield when fighting &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/why-is-lord-krishna-called-ranchod&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kalayavana&lt;/a&gt; (despite being kshatriya) which in Kurukshetra he says it is not a way of kshatriya to arjuna. Now There is no justification given by Ramanujacharya on his behaviour. So how do sri Vaishnavas justify krishna's behaviour despite being an incarnation.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2016-03-03T19:09:42.353" Title="How do sri vaishnavas justify Krishna's Behaviour" Tags="|krishna|dharma|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ClosedDate="2016-03-04T03:43:57.087" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10870" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11764" CreationDate="2016-03-04T05:20:59.680" Score="8" ViewCount="16674" Body="&lt;p&gt;There seems to be a special preference given to odd numbers in Hinduism. For instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;ahutis&lt;/em&gt; in &lt;em&gt;yagnas&lt;/em&gt; are always odd.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tradition of feeding 11 &lt;em&gt;Brahamins&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tradition of feeding 9 young girls in &lt;em&gt;navratra&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gifts or donations are always in odd numbers i.e 11, 51, 101 or 1001 and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even the number of incense sticks in a pack is odd!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I remember asking this question to my father as a child. The response that I got was: &quot;Nature loves odd&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Animals in a pack are always odd. If you count the number of birds in a&#xA;  group, you'd always see that it is odd. The number of days are odd,&#xA;  the number of planets is odd(even after counting &lt;em&gt;rahu&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;ketu&lt;/em&gt;).&#xA;  Since nature prefers odd, so does Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am expecting some references from Hindu scriptures which corroborate the above theory or present any other theory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4999" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-03-12T18:38:01.637" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T20:48:41.637" Title="What is the significance of odd numbers in Hinduism?" Tags="|belief|scripture|practice|superstitions|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10872" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10864" CreationDate="2016-03-04T06:33:09.450" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, Hindus do not worship many gods. gods is a mis-translation of the Sanskrit word deva. A more literal translation of the word deva is 'shining one'. The devas are positions; like governor or chief minister. Ordinary souls or jivas are made devas for a particular cycle of creation. When the cycle ends, the jiva that is that deva has to rebirth again in this world of samsara based upon their previous karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worship of devas is to propitiate or get the help of the deva in some worldly desire or gain. It does help in attaining moksha, or liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus do not worship idols &lt;em&gt;as&lt;/em&gt; God, Hindus worship God &lt;em&gt;through&lt;/em&gt; the idol. God manifests Himself (or Herself, God has no sex) through the idol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said at the Parliament of Religions (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V1) and here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Addresses at the Parliament of Religions&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;Paper on Hinduism&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As we find that somehow or other, by the laws of our mental constitution, we have to associate our ideas of infinity with the image of the blue sky, or of the sea, so we naturally connect our idea of holiness with the image of a church, a mosque, or a cross. The Hindus have associated the idea of holiness, purity, truth, omnipresence, and such other ideas with different images and forms. But with this difference that while some people devote their whole lives to their idol of a church and never rise higher, because with them religion means an intellectual assent to certain doctrines and doing good to their fellows, the whole religion of the Hindu is centred in realisation. Man is to become divine by realising the divine. Idols or temples or churches or books are only the supports, the helps, of his spiritual childhood: but on and on he must progress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He must not stop anywhere. &quot;&lt;em&gt;External worship, material worship,&lt;/em&gt;&quot; say the scriptures, &quot;&lt;em&gt;is the lowest stage; struggling to rise high, mental prayer is the next stage, but the highest stage is when the Lord has been realised.&lt;/em&gt;&quot; Mark, the same earnest man who is kneeling before the idol tells you, &quot;&lt;em&gt;Him the Sun cannot express, nor the moon, nor the stars, the lightning cannot express Him, nor what we speak of as fire; through Him they shine.&lt;/em&gt;&quot; But he does not abuse any one's idol or call its worship sin. He recognises in it a necessary stage of life. &quot;&lt;em&gt;The child is father of the man.&lt;/em&gt;&quot; Would it be right for an old man to say that childhood is a sin or youth a sin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a man can realise his divine nature with the help of an image, would it be right to call that a sin? Nor even when he has passed that stage, should he call it an error. To the Hindu, man is not travelling from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lower to higher truth. To him all the religions, from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realise the Infinite, each determined by the conditions of its birth and association, and each of these marks a stage of progress; and every soul is a young eagle soaring higher and higher, gathering more and more strength, till it reaches the Glorious Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Unity in variety is the plan of nature, and the Hindu has recognised it. Every other religion lays down certain fixed dogmas, and tries to force society to adopt them. It places before society only one coat which must fit Jack and John and Henry, all alike. If it does not fit John or Henry, he must go without a coat to cover his body. The Hindus have discovered that the absolute can only be realised, or thought of, or stated, through the relative, and the images, crosses, and crescents are simply so many symbols — so many pegs to hang the spiritual ideas on. It is not that this help is necessary for every one, but those that do not need it have no right to say that it is wrong. Nor is it compulsory in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One thing I must tell you. Idolatry in India does not mean anything horrible. It is not the mother of harlots. On the other hand, it is the attempt of undeveloped minds to grasp high spiritual truths. The Hindus have their faults, they sometimes have their exceptions; but mark this, they are always for punishing their own bodies, and never for cutting the throats of their neighbours. If the Hindu fanatic burns himself on the pyre, he never lights the fire of Inquisition. And even this cannot be laid at the door of his religion any more than the burning of witches can be laid at the door of Christianity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To the Hindu, then, the whole world of religions is only a travelling, a coming up, of different men and women, through various conditions and circumstances, to the same goal. Every religion is only evolving a God out of the material man, and the same God is the inspirer of all of them. Why, then, are there so many contradictions? They are only apparent, says the Hindu. The contradictions come from the same truth adapting itself to the varying circumstances of different natures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is the same light coming through glasses of different colours. And these little variations are necessary for purposes of adaptation. But in the heart of everything the same truth reigns. The Lord has declared to the Hindu in His incarnation as Krishna, &quot;&lt;em&gt;I am in every religion as the thread through a string of pearls. Wherever thou seest extraordinary holiness and extraordinary power raising and purifying humanity, know thou that I am there.&lt;/em&gt;&quot; And what has been the result? I challenge the world to find, throughout the whole system of Sanskrit philosophy, any such expression as that the Hindu alone will be saved and not others. Says Vyasa, &quot;&lt;em&gt;We find perfect men even beyond the pale of our caste and creed.&lt;/em&gt;&quot; One thing more. How, then, can the Hindu, whose whole fabric of thought centres in God, believe in Buddhism which is agnostic, or in Jainism which is atheistic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Buddhists or the Jains do not depend upon God; but the whole force of their religion is directed to the great central truth in every religion, to evolve a God out of man. They have not seen the Father, but they have seen the Son. And he that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father also. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This, brethren, is a short sketch of the religious ideas of the Hindus. The Hindu may have failed to carry out all his plans, but if there is ever to be a universal religion, it must be one which will have no location in place or time; which will be infinite like the God it will preach, and whose sun will shine upon the followers of Krishna and of Christ, on saints and sinners alike; which will not be Brahminic or Buddhistic, Christian or Mohammedan, but the sum total of all these, and still have infinite space for development; which in its catholicity will embrace in its infinite arms, and find a place for, every human being, from the lowest grovelling savage not far removed from the brute, to the highest man towering by the virtues of his head and heart almost above humanity, making society stand in awe of him and doubt his human nature. It will be a religion which will have no place for persecution or intolerance in its polity, which will recognise divinity in every man and woman, and whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be created in aiding humanity to realise its own true, divine nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti&lt;/em&gt; (Rig Veda I.164.46) - Truth is One, men call it by various names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-03-04T06:33:09.450" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10873" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-04T07:58:48.187" Score="12" ViewCount="10570" Body="&lt;p&gt;My gotra is &lt;strong&gt;Gargeya&lt;/strong&gt; and I belong to a brahmin family. But I don't know who was Maharshi Garga.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please tell me story if anybody know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4994" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-16T05:06:58.283" LastActivityDate="2019-03-04T20:40:18.520" Title="Who was Maharshi Garga?" Tags="|rishi|brahmins|gotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10874" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-04T09:03:08.710" Score="5" ViewCount="203" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8905/the-story-of-sri-krishna-yudhishtira-and-the-bitter-gourd&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question and I found interesting comments about tīrtha as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;you can get rid of sins simply by dipping in a Tirtha. Numerous&#xA;  scriptures including the Mahabharata mention it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And one more:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The very act of dipping into a Tirtha is enough to get rid of sins.&#xA;  This is mentioned in numerous scriptures including the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Assuming this to be &lt;strong&gt;true&lt;/strong&gt;, and since it is &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=N4aeCwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PR83-IA1&amp;amp;lpg=PR83-IA1&amp;amp;dq=tirtha%20mahabharata&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=Lsr6P1w3jG&amp;amp;sig=pEDfpZ8Wi9O9pmHbyeGUuioGSyY&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjn85yf2KbLAhUOGo4KHZofBrwQ6AEISjAJ#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=tirtha%20mahabharata&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentioned&lt;/a&gt; in Hinduism scriptures, I wonder, what kind of message/rational/wisdom is behind such blanket announcements about tirtha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For sure, it is not written to promote sins in society neither it is meant to promote Tirtha as a holy/sacred place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This whole notion of thirtha and sins effectively means for a layman's perspective: &lt;code&gt;do whatever you want: and if you feel it's sin, then no worries, simply get dip in Thirtha and you will be fine&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;strong&gt;sounds plain wrong&lt;/strong&gt; to all of us as civilised citizens, and I too agree with that sentiment, but then what could be the reason why Hindu scriptures mentions such activity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-03-04T09:31:40.187" Title="tīrtha and sins cleaning" Tags="|belief|sin|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10876" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10896" CreationDate="2016-03-04T12:03:58.297" Score="10" ViewCount="4991" Body="&lt;p&gt;In real life there are circumstances where we are in dwanda (indecisive state of mind) and we cannot make a clear decision on what is dharma and what is adharma. For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When someone with the intent of destroying asks my address, what should I do?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If a whole organization gets affected by telling truth to someone else, being untruthful is correct as our mind says but what should be one's dharma in such a situation?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can we decide what is dharma in a particular situation? Since we are in post modern era how should we cope with old dharma shastras being really unreasonable in this era? Since Dharma is eternal truth, I am sure it is unchangeable so what is dharma for Rama and Krishna is dharma for me too. But how can we say that the dharma shastras are not interpolated and modified in such situations? E.g., Manusmriti dictates that a bramhachari should not communicate with any female person other than guru's wife and mother, which is nearly impossible to follow in this age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the Vedic and Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta's dictation on the decision of dharma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-03-06T18:22:28.613" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T05:04:45.137" Title="How do we decide what is dharma and adharma?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|manu-smriti|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10878" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-04T12:29:43.013" Score="3" ViewCount="70" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people want to follow their culture as their ancestor was following centuries back. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But unfortunately they are not having enough knowledge about this, so they are forced to neglect and start preparing reasons for retreat/avoid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we have a medium for vast community here, so I want to ask something which I need to follow in my future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I want to start implementing daily Pooja. I am not a Brahmin. So is it possible to do daily pooja &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any list of ceremony which we need to follow for a child from day one?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastActivityDate="2016-03-04T12:29:43.013" Title="Forgotten culture from centuries" Tags="|dharma|brahmins|teaching|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10880" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10493" CreationDate="2016-03-04T18:14:42.630" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Ganapati Atharva Seersha which is a part of Atharva Veda clearly mentions the need of initiation .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting the needed portions from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Ganapathi_Atharva_Seersha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Idham adharvaseersha masishyaya na dheyam, Yo yadhi mohad dhasyathi sa&#xA;  papeeyan bhavathi, Sahasravarthanath yam yam kamam adheethe, Tham&#xA;  thamanena sadhayeth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;strong&gt;This adharva seersha should not be given, who is not a&#xA;  disciple,&lt;/strong&gt; He who gives it due to passion, becomes a great sinner,&#xA;  Thousand times repetition helps one get all that one wishes to get.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-03-04T18:14:42.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10881" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-04T22:16:16.633" Score="2" ViewCount="564" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, how the Vedas originated is that from time immemorial, sages known as Dhrishtas heard sacred verses directly from the gods during a state of Tapasya (deep meditation), and then in the Dwapara Yuga they were compiled into the four books we call the Vedas.  But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe02/sbe0208.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Apastamba Dharma Sutras, a text associated with the Yajur Veda, says that such sages are not born in the Kali Yuga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On account of that (transgression of the rules of studentship) no Rishis are born amongst the men of later ages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But some in their new birth, on account of a residue of the merit acquired by their actions (in former lives), become (similar to)&#xA;Rishis by their knowledge (of the Veda),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Like Svetaketu&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Haradatta says in his commentary on these Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amongst the avaras means &amp;quot;amongst the men of modern times, those who live in the Kaliyuga.&amp;quot; No Rishis are born means &amp;quot;there are none who see (receive the revelation of) Mantras, Vedic texts.&amp;quot; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is it then that men in our days, though they transgress the rules prescribed for students, learn the four Vedas with little trouble? (The answer is), By virtue of a residue of the reward (due) for the proper observance of those rules (of studentship) in a former Yuga. Therefore Âpastamba says, Sûtra 6 &amp;quot;But some,&amp;quot; &amp;amp;c. New existence means &amp;quot;new birth (life).&amp;quot;  ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Like Svetaketu. For Svetaketu learned the four Vedas in a short time; as we read in the Khândogya Upanishad (Prapâthaka VI, 1).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10331/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Shwetaketu is the son of the sage Uddalaka Aruni.  An important part of the Chandogya Upanishad is a dialogue between Shwetaketu and his father, during which the famous Mahavakya &amp;quot;Tat Tvam Asi&amp;quot; is mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what Yuga was Shwetaketu born in?  The reason I ask is that the Apastamba Dharma Sutras seem to be saying that Shwetaketu is an example of the kind of person who was born in the Kali Yuga, but was still able to learn the Vedas quickly like a Rishi would due to his actions in a past birth.  And indeed, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01119.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chandogya Upanishad says Shwetaketu learned the Vedas in a mere 12 years, whereas the standard pace for learning all four Vedas is 48 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, Pandu describes Shwetaketu as someone who was born in the distant past:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It hath been heard by us that there was a great Rishi of the name of Uddalaka, who had a son named Swetaketu who also was an ascetic of merit.... Thus, O timid one, was the existing usage established &lt;strong&gt;of old&lt;/strong&gt; by Swetaketu, the son of Uddalaka, in defiance of antiquity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So considering that Pandu lived in the Dwapara Yuga, Shwetaketu cannot have been born in the present Kali Yuga.  So is it possible that he was born in some past Kali Yuga?  If so, which Mahayuga was he born in?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only clue I've come across is the fact that Shwetaketu was the uncle of the sage Ashtavakra, purported author of the Ashtavakra Gita, and Ashtavakra visited the court of a king named Janaka.  But it's not clear to me whether this refers to the famous father of Sita, because pretty much all the kings of Mithila were known by the name Janaka.  The Janaka visited by Ashtavakra is probably the same Janaka mentioned in the Upanishads, but I don't know whether this Janaka is the same as the father of Sita, whose given name was Siradhvaja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a side note Shwetaketu was not the biological son of Uddalaka Aruni, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10331/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-19T05:13:48.750" Title="Was Shwetaketu born in a previous Kali Yuga?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|yajur-veda|chandogya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10882" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-05T03:11:27.853" Score="2" ViewCount="185" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen few friends of mine wearing anklets with symbol Om on them these days! Heard somewhere that an Om pendant can't be worn with an anklet. Is that true? If yes, why? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4517" LastActivityDate="2016-03-05T03:11:27.853" Title="Religious symbol Om on an anklet" Tags="|belief|women|om|symbols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10883" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-05T06:31:23.407" Score="6" ViewCount="210" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we all know that Mahaganapaty is described as having a large belly.In fact one of His many names is &quot;LambaJathara&quot; or &quot;Mahodara&quot; literally meaning one having a big belly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in the Mahalakshmi Ashtakam  Mahalakshmi too is  addressed by the same name viz:Mahodara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting the relevant portion(stanza 6) from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_lakshmi-mahalakshmi_ashtakam.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sthula Suksma Maharoudre Mahasakthi &lt;strong&gt;Mahodare&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahapapa hare Devi Mahalakshmi Namostute&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In that website the translator said big belly is to be taken as the symbol of prosperity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know what  other symbolisms/interpretations might be there behind calling Mahalakshmi &quot;Mahodare&quot;?.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, is Mahalaksmi mentioned anywhere in the Vedas as having a large belly?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I could not find anything of that sort in the Sri Suktam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-05T08:51:46.773" LastActivityDate="2016-03-05T08:51:46.773" Title="What is the significance of calling Mahalakshmi &quot;Mahodare&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|gods|ganesha|lakshmi|symbolism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10884" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15291" CreationDate="2016-03-05T06:56:42.487" Score="4" ViewCount="10178" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Saraswati Ashtottara Shata Namavali(108 names of Saraswati) found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-names/goddesses/saraswati/108-saraswati-names.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; ,one name of the Goddess is &lt;strong&gt;Shivanuja&lt;/strong&gt;(9th name in the list) which means &quot;One who is the younger sibling of Shiva&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिवानुजा Shivanuja     ॐ शिवानुजायै नमः। Om Shivanujayai Namah।    The&#xA;  Goddess Who is the Younger Sibling of Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What can be the possible explanations behind this name (because we usually  don't consider Goddess Saraswati as Lord Shiva's sister)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-05T10:05:15.010" LastActivityDate="2022-05-19T09:53:47.137" Title="Why Goddess Saraswati is considered as Lord Shiva's younger sister?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|saraswati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10887" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10876" CreationDate="2016-03-05T14:47:24.500" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 4.176 says that one should not perform a particular Dharmic action if its performance at a particular time will bring sorrow and if that action has been considered as unsuitable by the society. Therefore, it is not wrong to go against the prescriptions of Dharma in circumstances which demands that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, regarding your first question, Mahabharata has a story of Vishvamitraeating dogs for preserving his life, and he says only if we have life then we can perform Dharma. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a140.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a140.htm&lt;/a&gt;) Also, there are instructions in Smriti regarding Self-preservation and protection. Thus, lying to protect oneself is not Papam. If you dont want to lie, you can simply refuse to give your address to that person. No scripture says one must always speak. One may stay silent or refuse to answer. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the second question regarding the company, what kind of truth about the organization that you are telling. Whether you are revealing the secrets of the company, which you are bound to not reveal, or whether you are acting as a whistle blower and trying to expose corruption and illegal activities that a company is indulging in. In the previous case, if you speak to someone about company secrets you are doing Adharma. In the latter case, you are doing Dharma by exposing Adharma that is happening in your company.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now about your question- &quot; When someone with intent of destroying asks about my address, what should I do.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In answer, Manu Smriti 2.6 says Vedas, Smritis, Sheela (i.e. character and actions of our ancestors as can be known from Purana and Itihasas), conduct of Satpurushas i.e. people in our own life whom we perceive as living a Dharmic life, it may be parents, Guru, friends, etc. and finally 'Atma-Trupti'- inner conviction and conscience are the valid means of knowing Dharma. In other-words, we should keep scriptures and life lessons from Ramayana etc. and lessons learned from others as guidelines and then in every situation we must exert our free will to perform an action which is both satisfactory with the inner conscience and also largely adhering to basic principles of Dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next question- Since Dharma is eternal truth, I am sure it is unchangeable so what is dharma for Rama and Krishna is dharma for me. But How can we say that the dharma shastras (for e.g. Manusmriti Dictates that bramhachari should not communicate with any female person(other than guru's wife and mother) Which is nearly impossible in this age.) are not interpolated and modified in such situations. &#xA;^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The essence of Dharma is eternal, but not the practical implementations. It is for this reason, we have Yuga Dharmas, and Dharmas based on Desha and Kala. Though, the essence of Dharma is eternal, its implementation is highly contextual. The Smritis have two aspects Drishya/Vyakta (Visible) and Adrishya (Invisible) and only the Adrishya or Apratyaksha aspect of Smriti is considered as Shastra or valid means of knowledge (Vishnu Dharmottara Purana 3.5.7). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When perceived from this light, the injunction that Brahmachari should not come into contact with any woman is the external/practical instruction, which is subjected to change. The essence is that the Brahmachari must be dedicated to acquiring knowledge without any distractions. Brahmacharya is meant to assist children learn control of mind and senses among other things. To learn Indriya Nigraha, non-contact with women is not always necessary. Especially in today's world when women are objectified, it is important that boys are taught to treat girls as humans with feelings and this is best possible in co-education. The point is, teaching Indriya Nigraha is the essence of the instruction, and implementing that should be our mission. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, lets dive deeper in Brahmacharya ashrama, this Ashrama strictly refers to having Upanayana and studying Vedas etc. and this does not refer to having secular education. Hence, in today's situation when most children go to secular education, the rule about Brahmacharya has no relevance in literal application. Though, I concede that development of Indriya Nigraha is very important irrespective of whether it is secular education or Vedic education and its sad that Indriya Nigraha is not taught. Anyways, as pointed earlier, segregating boys and girls may not help much in today's context in teaching Indriya Nigraha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-03-05T18:17:16.630" LastActivityDate="2016-03-05T18:17:16.630" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10888" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-05T19:28:57.533" Score="4" ViewCount="914" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school, which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa school, focuses on the proper performance of Yagnas.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/ZR6e&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, Jaimini discusses who is eligible to perform Yagnas.  Specifically he says that only Dvijas, members of the first three castes, can perform them.  As I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8682/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, in the Brahma Sutras Vyasa similarly says that only Dvijas are eligible for Jnana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;34&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;To him (ie., Janasruti) occurred grief on hearing his (ie., swan’s) disparaging utterance, as is evident from his (Janasruti’s) approaching him (Raikva), for this is hinted at (by Raikva by using the word Sudra).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And because his Kshatriyahood is known later on from the indicatory mark of his mention along with a descendant of Citraratha  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Because purificatory rites are mentioned (for others) and absence of these is declared (for the Sudra).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And because (Gautama’s) inclination arose (to initiate and instruct Satyakama) when the absence of the (Sudrahood) had been ascertained.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And because the Smriti prohibits for the Sudra the hearing, study and acquisition of the meaning (of the Vedas).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the commentators on the Brahma Sutras, including Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, etc. are in agreement that low-caste people are ineligible for Jnana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/uQrG&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Mimamsa Sutras, which gives an exception to this general rule about only Dvijas being eligible for Yagnas.  Jaimini says that two sets of low-caste people, the Nishadas or hunters and the Rathakaras or chariot-makers, are authorized by the Vedas to perform certain types of Yagnas.  So my question is, what else can Nishadas and Rathakaras do that other low-caste people cannot?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the arguments Jaimini makes for why low-caste people in general are ineligible for Yagnas is that the instructions for performing Yagnas is given in the Vedas, and low-caste people are not allowed to study the Vedas.  So since Nishadas and Rathakaras can perform certain Yagnas, does that mean they can also learn the Vedas in order to learn the requisite instructions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in the Brahma Sutras Vyasa's main argument for why low-caste people are ineligible for Jnana is that they're not allowed to learn the Vedas and thus that they can't read the Upanishads which are the means of acquiring Jnana.  So assuming that Nishadas and Rathakaras are allowed to learn the Vedas, are they also eligible for Jnana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I'm not looking for answers about the nature of the caste system and the like, I'm looking for answers that take these statements in the Mimamsa Sutras and Brahma Sutras for granted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2018-12-08T16:07:36.417" Title="Are the Nishada and Rathakara castes eligible for the Vedas and Jnana?" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|caste-system|brahma-sutras|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10891" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-06T05:01:27.483" Score="3" ViewCount="1382" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Matsya Purana, Lord Shiva killed mayavi daitya Aadi after knowing that she isn't Parvati Devi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Andhakasura and the brother of Bakasura called &lt;strong&gt;Aadi&lt;/strong&gt; performed strict Tapas to Brahma Deva and asked for the boon of Amaratwa or immunity from death. As Brahma could not grant this advantage, Aadi amended the request that he should be able to convert his Body Form as per his wish; Brahma agreed provided that the Daitya could do so only twice. As Veerak was guarding the Entry Point of Shankara and as it was not possible to enter Shiva dwar, Aadi converted his Form as a snake and entered Shankaras abode through an under ground hole and slithered in; thereafter Aadi assumed the Form of Devi Parvati, approached Maha Deva and pretended that she had given up Tapasya as the severity of meditation just to change of body colour from Krishna Varna to Gaura Varna was not worth the strict regimen. Parama Shiva was happy initially that she changed her mind and returned back to him. &lt;strong&gt;But on second thoughts and knowing that Parvati would not take a flippant decision to return without achieving her objective, he suspected the fake Parvati and killed the Mayavi Daitya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the original text of Matsya Purana it's said that Lord Shiva killed Aadi in his &lt;strong&gt;Linga&lt;/strong&gt; form (phallus).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the source:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SCZiO.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SCZiO.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Matsya Purana&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, why didn't Lord Shiva use any weapon to kill Aadi when Aadi had only one boon that he can only transform his body?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was it due to some other boon or curse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-11T17:53:04.750" LastActivityDate="2016-03-11T17:53:04.750" Title="Why didn't Lord Shiva use a weapon to kill Aadi?" Tags="|shiva|weapon|matsya-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10892" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10895" CreationDate="2016-03-06T05:58:01.500" Score="12" ViewCount="15354" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the purpose behind each of these variations while worshiping a particular deity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which one should be used to worship or pray to a deity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, for Goddess Laxmi, there are Sri Suktam, Shri Laxmi Strotam, Laxmi Gayatri Mantra and Mahalaxmi Ashtakam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastEditorDisplayName="user3870" LastEditDate="2016-03-06T06:15:20.567" LastActivityDate="2019-01-01T05:19:30.503" Title="What is the difference between Suktam, Strotam, Gayatri and Ashtakam?" Tags="|gods|mantras|goddess|puja|bhakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10893" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17384" CreationDate="2016-03-06T06:03:25.243" Score="9" ViewCount="1197" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we have already established in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10138/who-is-adi-shakti-and-durga&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Devi(AdiShakti) incarnates as Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. Shaivas associate Durga with Devi as she is Shiva (their ishta devata)'s consort. However, even Shaktas, who worship Devi as the TriDevi, give Durga more importance than the rest. Why is this so? Even their names are from Durga (Shakti).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, in the answer, please explain why is &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; Durga associated with Devi? Is there anything to do with scriptures? If there is any evidence (e.g. scriptures,folklore,etc) of the rest of the TriDevi being associated with Devi, please put it in the answer.Also,please tell me about the different goddesses associated with Devi as per the sects(e.g.Ganaptyas,etc).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,to avoid confusion,&lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; use the names Durga (for the wife of Shiva),Lakshmi(for the wife of Vishnu), Saraswati (for the wife of Brahma) and Devi (for the supreme goddess/AdiShakti).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clear my doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2018-01-25T11:10:51.180" Title="Why is only Durga associated with Devi?" Tags="|lakshmi|durga|saraswati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10894" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="179" CreationDate="2016-03-06T06:26:48.867" Score="1" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is no separate story for Govibdaraja. Its only as sthala purana of Chidambaram.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is no relation between Lord Venkateshwara and Lord Govindarajan &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As said in previous comments, this Moola Govindarajan Moorthy and srhi Andal was installed by SRI RAMANUJA.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The uthasava Moorthy was being safeguarded by one of the Dasi and the same was handed over to shri swmy RAMANUJA and installed there.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;To bring importance to the Govindarajan temple, it was propagated as big brother of Lord Venkateshwara.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5019" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-03-06T07:59:30.523" LastActivityDate="2016-03-06T07:59:30.523" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10895" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10892" CreationDate="2016-03-06T06:47:51.513" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no purpose behind these classifications it is just a way of dividing stanzas and collection of verses in Sanskrit language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suktam/Sukta refers to a vedic hynm of unmanned composition, since vedas are apaurusheya they are of divine origins (It is best way to worship a deity but for word of caution it is only meant for &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=2&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiYxNiVvavLAhWGbY4KHYeuCXYQFgghMAE&amp;amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDvija&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNFW3KYdJ2hNDtlVF8cjfoWvvsTAxQ&amp;amp;sig2=gBFbXCtHW9wpwgqYX6WIkw&amp;amp;bvm=bv.116274245,d.c2E&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;dwijas&lt;/a&gt; If you don't have had upnayana there is no way you can recite it).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayatri (caution dwija caution applies on gayatri or any thing of vedic origin) is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_meter&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedic-meter&lt;/a&gt; and stotra is a hynm (non vedic) written by a jnani poets in praise of deities (for e.g. Adishankara krit Kanakadhara stotra &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eternalworksofshriadisankara.com/strotras.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;more&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashtaka is a sub category of stotras, stotras are non-vedic compositions so it can be recited by an&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashtaka is a collection of 8 verses mostly in anushtup chanda (another vedic meter) , mahalaxmi ashtakam was first composed by Indra deva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to formal definitions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sukta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is basically a vedic hynm in praise of a god/goddesses. (e.g. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purusha_Sukta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purusha Sukta&lt;/a&gt;, Ratri Sukta, Shri Sukta, Rudra Sukta(Shri Rudram) etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each mandala of Rigveda consists of hymns called sūkta (su-ukta, literally, &amp;quot;well recited, eulogy&amp;quot;) intended for various rituals. The sūktas in turn consist of individual stanzas called ṛc (&amp;quot;praise&amp;quot;, pl. ṛcas), which are further analysed into units of verse called pada (&amp;quot;foot&amp;quot;). The meters most used in the ṛcas are the jagati (a pada consists of 12 syllables), trishtubh (11), viraj (10), gayatri and anushtubh (8).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda#Sukta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gayatri&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayatri is basically a vedic Meter which consists of three padas, or lines, of eight syllables.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are various mantras in Rigveda which are composed in Gayatri meter and are used for praising god in one verse it is known as Gayatri for a deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For e.g. &amp;quot;Aum | Mahalaxmiayae cha vidmahe| vishnupati cha dhi mahi| tanno Laxmi prachodayat&amp;quot; (| denotes ending of a pada)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stotra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Stotras are forms of poems in praise of Gods/Goddesses&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Stotra comes from the root stu- which means &amp;quot;praise, eulogize or laud&amp;quot;. Literally, the term refers to &amp;quot;poems of praise&amp;quot;. The earliest trace of Stotras are Vedic, particularly in the Samaveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stotra#Etymology&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ashtaka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The term ashtakam (Sanskrit: अष्टकम् aṣṭakam), also often written astakam, is derived from the Sanskrit word aṣṭā, meaning &amp;quot;eight&amp;quot;. In context of poetic compositions, 'ashtakam' refers to a particular form of poetry, written in eight stanzas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtakam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-01-01T05:19:30.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10896" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10876" CreationDate="2016-03-06T08:33:52.470" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is dharma and adharma is determined by scripture. Krishna says in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; (XVI. 23-24):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who discards the injunctions of the scriptures and acts upon impulse of desire attains neither perfection nor happiness nor the Supreme Goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore let the scriptures be your authority in determining what ought to be done and what ought not to be done. Having learnt the injunctions of the scriptures, you should do your work in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what is dharma for one person may be adharma for another person. For instance, it would be adharma for a sannyāsin to kill someone, but dharma for a soldier in war. Krishna says in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; (III. 35):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Better is one’s own dharma, though imperfectly performed, than the dharma of another well performed. Better is death is the doing of one’s own dharma; the dharma of another is fraught with peril.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But He does give some specific guides. Krishna says again in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; (XVI. 1-3):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Lord said&lt;/em&gt;: Fearlessness, purity of heart, steadfastness in knowledge and yoga; charity, self-control, and sacrifice; study of the scriptures, austerity, and uprightness;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Non-violence, truth, and freedom from anger; renunciation, tranquility, and aversion to slander; compassion to beings and freedom from covetousness; gentleness, modesty, and absence of fickleness;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Courage, forgiveness, and foritude; purity, and freedom from malice and overweening pride—these belong to him who is born with divine treasures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And further in &lt;em&gt;Uddhava Gita&lt;/em&gt; (XII. 21) Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Non-injury, truthfulness, freedom from theft, lust, anger and greed, and an effort to do what is agreeable and beneficial to all creatures—this is the common duty of all castes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is good to read all of chapters 3 and 16 of the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; and chapters 5 and 12 of the &lt;em&gt;Uddhava Gita&lt;/em&gt; for a good understanding of the subject.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Nikhilananda in his writings on Hindu ethics (&lt;em&gt;The Upanishads&lt;/em&gt;, Vol 2) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Besides the objective duties based on the castes and stages of life, there are laid down the common duties of men, the sadharanadharma, which are the foundation of the moral life. Manu, the lawgiver, enumerates these common duties as follows: steadfastness (dhairya), forgiveness (kshama), good conduct (dama), avoidance of theft (chauryabhava), control of the senses (indriyanigraha), wisdom (dhi), learning (vidya), truthfulness (satya) and absense of anger (akrodha)...the aim of Hindu ethics is to enable a man ultimately to conquer his lower self and attain freedom from passion, desire, and attachment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All Hindu philosophers regardless of their conceptions of the supreme end of man, admit the empirical reality of the individual, endowed with volition, desire, will, conscience or consciousness of duty, emotion, etc. The goal of Hindu ethics is to train these faculties in such a way that they shall lead the individual to the realization of Moksha, or Liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore all the schools of philosophy have described the virtues and their opposites in detail. It is expected of the moral agent that he should follow the former and shun the latter. We propose to discuss the virtues and their opposites according to the classification of Nyaya and of Patanjali's system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vatsyayana, in his commentary on the Nyaya aphorisms, classifies will as impious (papatmika) and auspicious (subha). The impious will leads to unrighteousness (adharma), and the auspicious will, to righteousness (dharma). Righteousness, it is necessary to add, is conductive to the Highest Good, whereas unrighteousness produces evil. The purpose of ethics is to subdue the impious and to manifest the righteous will.&#xA;  Unrighteousness may take three forms, namely, physical, verbal, and mental, depending upon the condition of its functioning. Physical unrighteousness manifests itself as cruelty (himsa), theft (steya), and sexual perversion (pratisiddha maithuna); verbal unrighteousness, as falsehood (mithya), rudeness (katukti), insinuation (suchana), and gossip (asambaddha); mental unrighteousness, as ill-will (paradroha), covetousness (paradravyabhipsa), and irreverance (nastikya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The practice of continence, highly extolled by all the philosophers and mystics of India, implies, besides the literal meaning of the vow, abstention from lewdness in thought, speech, and action through any of the sense-organs. Through the practice of this virtue, one develops the capacity for subtle spiritual perception. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So although there are actions which are specific to a person that lead to dharma, there are also actions which are for all people to follow that lead to dharma.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2016-03-06T14:47:40.137" LastActivityDate="2016-03-06T14:47:40.137" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10897" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10876" CreationDate="2016-03-06T08:52:20.357" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Suppose I have 2 perpendicular sides of triangle, which are only known to me. Can anyone tell me the length of the 3rd side? No! But still the 3rd side exists. Any helper at best can tell me to use the &quot;Pythagoras method&quot;. Similarly, the amount of your knowledge (&lt;em&gt;GyAna&lt;/em&gt;) and type of actions (&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;) are only known to you. No one can objectively tell your &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, but you. Yes of course there can be methods, which can be subscribed from the eternal truths derived out of relevant scriptures.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Though not entirely, &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; will differ person to person more or less, because all individual are different. Neither they have exactly same knowledge, nor do they act similarly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Following &lt;em&gt;Swa Dharma&lt;/em&gt; = &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; action(s)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;Don't limit &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; with a very calm &amp;amp; non-violent person alone.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One easy way to decide right/wrong is to keeping your self in others' shoes (situation). &lt;em&gt;Will I like if done with me?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;'How' can we decide what is &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;, in a 'particular' situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'How' -- &lt;strong&gt;Natural Selection&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;'particular' -- Ofcourse, no single answer. Quite possible that, if you and me are put in a &quot;particular&quot; situation, where we may act differently, yet both act perfectly in &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Natural Selection&quot; is the way of &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; life. It's neither &quot;Selfish Selection&quot; (&lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt;) nor &quot;Impulsive Selection&quot; (&lt;em&gt;TAmasika&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[BG 18.47] — Defective (faulty) &lt;em&gt;Swa Dharma&lt;/em&gt; is better than well performed &lt;em&gt;Para Dharma&lt;/em&gt;; &lt;strong&gt;Naturally prescribed performance of &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; never achieves sinful reactions.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [BG 18.48] — O son of Kunti, trivial(natural) &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; should never be given up even though (they are) defective; &lt;strong&gt;All initiations (of &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;) are defective&lt;/strong&gt;, like how smoke covers the fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above 2 verses say it all. There are always faults (findings) in all the actions. But just because the actions are faulty, one should not abandon them; If really abandoned then, such wrongful sacrifice is &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt; [BG 18.8].&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lot of bacteria are killed when we boil the food, but then we don't&#xA;play with our health&#xA;to save them&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The environment is polluted when vehicles run on the road; But in&#xA;today's time, the economies will collapse if people stop commuting&#xA;the way they do today;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we prioritize the actions depending on situations. It doesn't mean that we don't have any commitment towards environment &amp;amp; correcting ourselves. But the corrections have to be &quot;natural&quot; rather than &quot;abrupt&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&quot;Natural Selection&quot; isn't guaranteed to be harmless, it's just the path of &quot;possible least harm&quot;, which can miserably fail as well. Still it's preferred.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Being natural allows us to not to be conscious about our 'false' self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; is eternal truth, I am sure it is unchangeable&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Correct. &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; is eternal truth and it defines separately for different entities in form of &lt;em&gt;Swa Dharma&lt;/em&gt;. The &lt;em&gt;Swa Dharma&lt;/em&gt; may not change so easily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;so what is &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; for Rama and Krishna is dharma for me.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nope. To me it's naive to relate others' &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; with own's. The verses are already mentioned above.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;To win a war, RAma probably would never create a &quot;false hoax&quot; in the active battlefield and ask any of his commanders to say lie to sustain such cheating. But Krishna did with Drona and few others, despite Krishna himself regarded the truth as supreme.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For Rama &quot;truth&quot; was priority while deciding &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, for Krishna &quot;justice&quot; was priority while deciding &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; Both acted well in &lt;em&gt;Swa Dharma&lt;/em&gt; with clear contradictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;someone with intent of destroying asks about my address, what should I do?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It depends on who you are. There is a nice &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;quote&lt;/a&gt; from a very good &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10625/1049&quot;&gt;answer from @sv&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Truth may be unutterable, and even falsehood may be utterable where&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;falsehood would become truth and truth would become falsehood.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In a situation of peril to life and in marriage, falsehood becomes&#xA;  utterable. In a situation involving the loss of one's entire property,&#xA;  falsehood becomes utterable.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He is a fool that practices truth without knowing the difference&#xA;  between truth and falsehood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose during your upbringing, if you always learn to prioritize ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;... &lt;strong&gt;Truth&lt;/strong&gt; over everything then that becomes &quot;nature&quot; of yours. Hence in above situation, you should say the truth and let the person&#xA;destroy the property. e.g. &lt;em&gt;RAjA Harishchandra&lt;/em&gt; who let go all his wealth and family to be truthful  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;... &lt;strong&gt;Protection&lt;/strong&gt; over everything then, truth becomes secondary. In such case you must naturally misguide the person by any means or&#xA;falsehood. e.g. Unknown young martyr from Kashmir who misguided&#xA;Pakistani Army in 1947 to disallow occupation.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To me, both are good examples of following &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; properly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;em&gt;Manusmriti&lt;/em&gt; Dictates that &lt;em&gt;bramhachari&lt;/em&gt; should not communicate with any&#xA;  female ...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have answered in your question already. Things change with time.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Certain truths are eternal (e.g. maths) and certain truths are local to time (e.g. way of commutation). 1 + 1 = 2 will always be as it is, irrespective of when it was discovered. However, people have stopped commuting on horses for any general travelling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, all the actions are not in anyway our control. They are done by God. e.g. Not fighting the war was not a choice for Arjuna. It was a temporary repulsion before the battle started. He was anyway destined to fight:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[18.59] — Taking shelter of (false) ego, if you believe that &quot;I won't fight&quot;, then it's incorrect decision. Your &lt;strong&gt;nature&lt;/strong&gt; will engage you (in war).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [18.60] — O son of Kunti, involuntarily you will be bind to do even that &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; born out of the &lt;strong&gt;nature&lt;/strong&gt;, which you don't desire due to illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So despite any advise, you will do what is destined for you!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-03-07T05:05:04.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10898" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-06T15:05:27.393" Score="4" ViewCount="22412" Body="&lt;p&gt;When i asked people about fast on Shivratri, I did not get satisfactory answers. Different people believe different ways. &#xA;I want to know the proper way of fasting on shivrari. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that true that you can get your desired life partner if you do it in a proper way?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4314" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T14:08:41.960" Title="What is the exact way of doing fast on Shivratri?" Tags="|shiva|fasting|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10899" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-03-06T15:14:17.820" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-03-06T15:14:17.820" LastActivityDate="2016-03-06T15:14:17.820" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10900" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-03-06T15:14:17.820" Score="0" Body="Questions about symbols and iconography, which are used to symbolizing the ideas and concepts of philosophical and spiritual meanings behind." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-03-06T16:47:17.893" LastActivityDate="2016-03-06T16:47:17.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10901" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-06T15:53:22.283" Score="5" ViewCount="2370" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people know about Radha, who is said to have been Krishna's lover and his favorite among the Gopis, whom Krishna spent time with during his childhood in Vrindavan and Gokulam. Yet the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) doesn't emphasize Radha. In part that's because Sri Vaishnavas focus on the Vishnu Purana and the Srimad Bhagavatam, neither of which even mention Radha's name. But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7800/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Sri Vaishnavas do recognize a figure similar to Radha, known as Nappinnai.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of Nappinnai is mentioned in a variety of scriptures, including the Harivamsa, the Garuda Purana, and the poems of the Alwars.  Nappinnai was the daughter of Yashoda's brother Kumbhaka and the incarnation of Vishnu's third wife Niladevi (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10773/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  Krishna married Nappinnai after defeating the seven ferocious bulls of Kumbhaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now this story bears a striking resemblance to the story of Krishna's queen Satya.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7861/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna is said to have married Satya after defeating the seven bulls of Satya's father Nagnajit, king of Ayodhya.  I had previously assumed that this resemblance was due to some confusion in how Hindu scripture was transmitted; perhaps Satya was based on Nappinnai or vice versa.  But then I came across &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/0hAu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Garuda Purana, which says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The maiden ... was born in the house of Kumbhaka and was called Nila. Kumbhaka was the brother-in-law of Nandashobha.  He was the first who carried Kavya to the Pitris.  He was abiding on the mount Vrishabha, at that time.  I went to his house, O best of birds.  Being unconquerable, by the boon conferred by lord Shiva, I killed him and was married to Nila.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In her second birth, Nila was born as the daughter of Nagnijit, Kavyavaha.&lt;/strong&gt; In the Swayamvara of Nila, I controlled seven bulls who by the favour of lord Shiva were uncontrollable by gods and mortals.  I conquered kings who had assembled at the ceremony I married her.  Thus Nila was born twice on earth and married to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what is the relation between Kumbhaka's daughter Nappinnai and Nagnajit's daughter Satya?  Was it that Nappinnai died and was reborn as Satya?  Or did these two incarnations of Niladevi live side-by-side as wives of Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Madhvacharya says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XoNDm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later Shri Krishna left to the residence of Nagnajit, and in the swayamvara restrained seven oxen.  They were oxen with the strength of daemons due to the boon of Shiva and could not be restrained by anyone else.  All the other kings were defeated by them.  Later Shri Krishna married Nagnajit's daughter Niladevi.  &lt;strong&gt;Another maiden by name of Nila who was cowherd earlier entered her body.  One person had incarnated in two forms.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what does it mean to say that Nappinnai &amp;quot;earlier entered [the] body&amp;quot; of Satya?  Did they merge when both were alive, or did Nappinnai die and her soul go to Satya, or was Nappinnai's soul also born in Satya's body while Naappinnai was alive the whole time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures that discuss what happened to Nappinnai in later years?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T14:14:56.357" Title="What is the relation between Krishna's cowherd wife Nappinnai and his queen Satya?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|sri-vaishnava|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="25" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10903" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-06T21:07:17.770" Score="6" ViewCount="219" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a way to make committing violence impossible?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone do something so that it will be impossible (or at least very difficult) for him to commit any violence in any corner of the world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5024" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-12T22:20:40.440" LastActivityDate="2017-01-12T22:20:40.440" Title="How can we make sure it's impossible for us to commit any sin or violence?" Tags="|karma|dharma|sin|ahimsa|sannyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10904" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2606" CreationDate="2016-03-06T22:42:37.060" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;it refers to the conversation happening at the end of the Dvapara Yuga, which would only make sense if the reader is presumed to be living long after the beginning of the Kali Yuga etc.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;But please note that the cycle goes in round&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;satyayuga-&gt;tretayuga-&gt;dwaparayuga-&gt;kaliyuga-&gt;satyayuga-&gt;tretayuga-&gt;dwaparayuga-&gt;kaliyuga-&gt;satyayuga-&gt;tretayuga-&gt;dwaparayuga-&gt;kaliyuga-&gt;......(continues)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;after kali-yuga again satya-yuga comes and the cycle satyayuga to kaliyuga repeats several times till it becomes 1000 yugas which constitute one day of Lord Brahma as stated in the Bhagavad-gita 8.17 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhagavad-gita 8.17 says &quot;sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmano viduh...&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so this kali-yuga is not the first kali-yuga of the creation nor it is the last. so this upanishad refering to the end of dwapara yuga need not necessarily mean that this coversation took place at the end of this dwapar-yuga only. But the essential knowledge of how to cross the kali-yuga essentially remains the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so don't think that &quot;since this upanishad refers to the end of dwaparyug, it should have come to existence at the end of this dwapar-yug only and it does not exist not before&quot;. The conversation took place at the end of some dwapar-yuga in the eternal time scale. But the essential knowledge in the conversation however remains the same throughout eternal time. so the conversation is eternally informative. Upanishad is existing eternally. It is not that it has born just before this kali yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5025" LastActivityDate="2016-03-06T22:42:37.060" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10905" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10903" CreationDate="2016-03-07T02:55:48.303" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, it's quite possible to live whole life without violence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Probably you meant only &amp;quot;killing&amp;quot;, but you generalized it as &amp;quot;violence&amp;quot;. The word &amp;quot;violence&amp;quot; is a kind of &amp;quot;violation&amp;quot;. According to Mahatma Gandhi, &amp;quot;Violence&amp;quot; can be done using words, thoughts, actions as well.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot;killing&amp;quot; is just an act, while &amp;quot;violence&amp;quot; is a state of the act. &amp;quot;Rightful killing&amp;quot; is not &amp;quot;violence&amp;quot;, while &amp;quot;Wrongful word&amp;quot; is &amp;quot;violence&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Natural act&amp;quot; is not violence. In case of war, it's natural for people to kill each other, that's why it is War. That's not violence. But when there are riots, people harm/kill others by violating law of land. That is violence. From Gita, Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[BG 18.47] — Defective (faulty) Swa Dharma is better than well performed Para Dharma; &lt;strong&gt;Naturally prescribed performance of Karma never achieves sinful reactions.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[BG 18.48] — O son of Kunti, trivial(&lt;strong&gt;natural&lt;/strong&gt;) Karma should never be given up even though (they are) defective; &lt;strong&gt;All initiations (of Karma) are defective&lt;/strong&gt;, like how smoke covers the fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every actions have faults in it. With that they all will become sinful! But our concern should be &lt;strong&gt;not to be bound by such sinful reactions&lt;/strong&gt;. That happens when we act in &lt;em&gt;Swa Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, i.e. &lt;strong&gt;acting naturally&lt;/strong&gt;. That is also called &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; way of life. That is better than &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;TAmasika&lt;/em&gt; ways. However, everyone has all these 3 &lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt;s more or less.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Killing can be &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; at times, because it's not always equated with &amp;quot;violence&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. Violence is sinful and is never prescribed.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;But imagine, can we live the way we do without killing insects and bacteria or other harmful living beings, even though they are humans. According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/1/36&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;vedic injunctions&lt;/a&gt;, below are the instances when there is no sin in killing such person; i.e. &amp;quot;killing&amp;quot; such entity is &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; considered &amp;quot;violence&amp;quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;one who gives poison&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;one who sets ﬁre to the house&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;one who attacks with deadly weapons&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;one who plunders riches&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;one who occupies another’s land&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;one who kidnaps a wife&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When person doesn't act because he/she perceives it to be painful then it's a wrongful abandonment of &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; which is &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt;. It's never auspicious:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[BG 18.8] Thinking all &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;s to be painful, if they are abandoned with fear of bodily pain, then it is &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt; abandonment; One never attains the (proper) fruit of such sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In your case, you may think of committing least violence by neither doing yourself nor entertaining others who do (i.e. least purchase of animal products). If anyhow the killing is required (e.g cutting trees), then try to give back to nature by either preserving them or growing them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-11T05:44:01.333" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10906" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10917" CreationDate="2016-03-07T06:40:43.673" Score="8" ViewCount="512" Body="&lt;p&gt;Found at the bottom of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/srirudram.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page, the sloka (verse) reads:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chamakam Namakam caiva purusa suktam tathaiva ca | &lt;br&gt; Nityam trayam&#xA;  prayunjano Brahmaloke mahiyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: He whoever recites Namakam and Chamakam along with Purusa&#xA;  suktam daily will be honoured in Brahmaloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which scripture contains this verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-12T20:57:54.153" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T08:02:06.570" Title="Which scripture is the source of the verse 'Chamakam Namakam Chaiva Purusha Suuktam...?'" Tags="|vedas|shiva|scripture|shloka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10908" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2606" CreationDate="2016-03-07T08:24:02.657" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I could find some references to the Hare Krishna Mahamantra.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.krishnapath.org/chanting-hare-krishna-maha-mantra/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.krishna.com/some-scriptural-references-hare-krishna-maha-mantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;As far as your question is concerned i could not find any ancient references to Kali Santaran upanishad. But I guess nor do we have enough evidences to conclude that it is interpolation.&#xA;However it is not the only scripture that mentions the Mahamantra.&#xA;Human form of life is to come to an understanding of god and one may go through any bonafide process as Lord himself instructs in Bhagvad Geeta 4.2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic&#xA;  succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in&#xA;  course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as&#xA;  it is appears to be lost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gaudiya Vaishnava are also sometimes called Brahma-Madhav-Gaudiya Sampraday. That is to say that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not manufacture his religion; the science has come down from Lord Brahma down to Madhavacharya and then through Disciplic succession to Mahaprabhu.&#xA;However as you may already know it is not fully same as Brahma Sampraday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2016-03-07T08:24:02.657" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10910" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-07T12:50:27.967" Score="3" ViewCount="131" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there nyasam or nyasa prayoga for lord vishnu or narayana similar to mahanyasam for lord Rudra/Shiva  ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3747" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-07T11:51:21.483" LastActivityDate="2017-01-07T11:51:21.483" Title="Nyasam for lord vishnu or narayana" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|practice|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10911" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-07T13:20:11.080" Score="16" ViewCount="2614" Body="&lt;p&gt;The concept of universe repeating itself is similar to philosophy of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Eternal Return&lt;/a&gt;. Such philosophy is subscribed many ancient Indian philosophers as well. In brief: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A finitely timed universe will repeat itself infinitely in fixed pattern &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In nutshell, we have to create a model of universe which accommodates below truths together:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Time is infinite&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We are existing&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; If time is infinite, then we cannot exist, because infinite events have to occur before 'now' to reach till 'now'(present moment). But that will take &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_regress&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;infinite duration&lt;/a&gt;; i.e. in such case will never reach present moment.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; If we are existing, then time should have a starting point. But that's not right. Whatever point you choose, time can always exist before &amp;amp; after that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Be aware that all the events happen sequentially. i.e. initially we are in some subtle form, then physically we are born first, followed by school, teenage, adolescence, old age, death, again subtle form, ... All these events don't happen in parallel (if parallel, then they require infinite resources to define every moment, which is similar to &quot;Eternalism&quot; / B-theory of time).&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Possible Solution&lt;/strong&gt;: [God] Define a finite duration for a cycle, which repeats infinite times. Since the cycles are infinite, the time is infinite and since the duration of cycle is finite, all events are covered some or the other time &amp;amp; hence we can exist. It doesn't matter in which cycle we exist, because all are same!   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Important point here is that, since it's a cycle, it has to repeat perfectly. Now the consequence is: Since everything repeats, everything has to be fixed to be able to repeat.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The detailed logic (with scriptures) and some counter arguments are discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2457/is-moksha-a-permanent-state/10744#10744&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita has verses which are indicative of this theory, such as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;All the beings, you &amp;amp; me were existing before and continue to exist&#xA;afterwards&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The universe is created at beginning of &lt;em&gt;Kalpa&lt;/em&gt; and destroyed towards &#xA;the end; This cycle repeats forever&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The knowledgeable person knows that, he is not actually doing anything&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You are supposed to do whatever is destined regardless of what you&#xA;think&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Question&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can &quot;Free will&quot; really exist, even when we can logically believe that universe has to repeat itself in same pattern (to allow possibility of our own existence)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;OR&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If free will doesn't exist, then everything is predetermined hence no choice among actions/decisions.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Does it make everything we &quot;did, doing, to do&quot; as &quot;right&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; Feel free to use the chat room: &lt;a href=&quot;http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/36056/everything-is-predetermined-yet-unknown&quot;&gt;Everything is Predetermined yet Unknown&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-07-27T12:21:10.383" Title="Does &quot;Free Will&quot; really exist, even if universe repeats itself in perfect pattern?" Tags="|scripture|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|karma|time|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10912" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-07T13:58:10.817" Score="3" ViewCount="1070" Body="&lt;p&gt;For shiva panchayatanam, usually Rudra namaka Chamaka and purushasukta will be recited and abhishekam is performed during shiva panchayatana puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly for Vishnu panchayatana puja, what is the process? Which veda mantras will be recited Apart from Purushasuktham?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically I would like to know the veda mantras which will be recited for the respective panchayatana puja. I want to know more especially for Vishnu panchayatana puja and veda mantras which are part of in this scope. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3747" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-11T05:53:15.933" LastActivityDate="2018-01-11T05:53:15.933" Title="What is the procedure for performing Vishnu panchayatanam?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|rituals|mantras|puja|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10913" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-07T14:06:28.763" Score="3" ViewCount="250" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Tulsi is not offered while performing puja to lord Ganesha? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I want to know the reason behind that why we don't offer tulsi to Ganesha except for Ganesha Chaturthi day during patri puja? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3747" LastEditorUserId="3747" LastEditDate="2016-03-18T08:57:09.197" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T08:57:09.197" Title="Why Tulsi not offered to lord Ganesha" Tags="|belief|ganesha|puja|tulasi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ClosedDate="2016-04-07T06:01:11.597" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10915" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-07T17:12:39.393" Score="6" ViewCount="13045" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know the Gayatri mantra appears in Rig Veda 3.62.10:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Bhur Buvaha Svaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tat Savithur Varenyam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhiyo Yonaha Prachodayath&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in some books and on the Internet, I've also seen a longer version. For example, the longer version is found on &lt;a href=&quot;http://vishuji.org/sandhya_vandanam.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Bhuh&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Bhuvaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Suvaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Mahaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Janaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Tapaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Satyam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Tat Savithur Varenyam Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi Dhiyo Yonah&#xA;Prachodayath&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om apo jyotih raso amritam Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhur Bhuvas suvar&#xA;Om&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the origin of this longer version? Does it appear in the Rig Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T10:39:24.407" Title="What is the origin of the long version of the Gayatri mantra?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10917" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10906" CreationDate="2016-03-07T18:53:57.147" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedaunion.org/static/pdf/Sri-Rudram-Exposition-EN.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Rudram&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; this famous verse belongs to &lt;strong&gt;Vayu Purana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चमकं नमकं चैव पुरुषसूक्तं तथैव च&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नित्यं त्रयं प्रयुञ्जानो ब्रह्मलोके महीयतॆ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;camakaṁ namakaṁ caiva pauruṣasūktaṁ tathaiva ca nityaṁ trayaṁ prayuñjāno brahmaloke mahīyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;A person reciting and applying daily the Chamakam, Namakam and Puruṣa Sūktam is honoured in the Brahma loka.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chamakam, occurs in the Taittirīya Saṁhitā of the Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda4 in the 4th kāṇda, 7th praśna. It is so called on account of the recurrence of the word ca me directly translated as “and me”. After praying and identifying Rudra with everything in the Namakam, Camakam is usually recited immediately after, in which the devotee asks Him to give him everything, 347 things to be precise, coupled with the article ca (and) and the verb me kalpatām (be granted unto me). Camakam furnishes completely the idea of human happiness and defines in the highest degree the desires to be asked or to be granted. Camakam roots are firmly implanted in the worldly desires ultimately leading to the divine fulfilment.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reason of not citing the original source is I ain't found Vayu Purana online in Sanskrit. It will be helpful if someone finds original sanskrit text of Vayu Purana online.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T08:02:06.570" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T08:02:06.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10918" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-07T21:05:31.207" Score="2" ViewCount="911" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudra#Epithets_of_supreme_rule&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; page on wikipedia claims that vedas are contradictory, contradiction is as follows. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse Rig Veda 2.33.9 calls Rudra as &lt;strong&gt;&quot;The Lord or Sovereign of the Universe&quot; (īśānādasya bhuvanasya)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sthirebhiraṅghaiḥ pururūpa ughro babhruḥ śukrebhiḥ pipiśehiraṇyaiḥ&#xA;īśānādasya bhuvanasya bhūrerna vā u yoṣad rudrādasuryam (RV 2.33.9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With firm limbs, multiform, the strong, the tawny adorns himself with bright gold decorations:&#xA;The strength of Godhead never departs from Rudra, him who is Sovereign of this world, the mighty.[31]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, Yajur Veda – Taittiriya Aranyaka (1-10-1) quotes Rudra and Brihaspati as Sons of Bhumi and Heaven.This directly conflicts with the claim of Rudra being Supreme as declared in Rigveda 2.33.9.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since supremacy of Shriman Narayana is well established, why does vedas make such empty claims, and if claims are non empty then why are they contradictory? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2016-03-07T21:05:31.207" Title="Why do rigveda and yajurveda contradict with each other on supremacy of rudra" Tags="|shiva|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2016-03-07T22:00:40.653" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10920" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10915" CreationDate="2016-03-08T06:26:58.053" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The longer version of the Gayatri Mantra mentioned in the question is found in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bharatiweb.com/English/Navagraha%20Sooktam%20Eng%20v1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Navagraha Sooktam&lt;/a&gt;, the Vedic Hymn to the 9 planetary deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Navagraha Sooktam v1 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 || navagrahasooktam || om shuklaambara dharam vishNum   shashi&#xA;  varNam chatur bhujam |  prasanna  vadanam dhyaayet   sarva vighna&#xA;  upashaantayay ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;om  bhoo: om  bhuva: om  suva: om  maha: om  jana:  om  tapa: om   satyam | om  tatsa vi turvareNyam  bhargo devasya   dheemahi |  dhiyo &#xA;  yona : prachodayaat | om  aapo jyoteeraso am rutam  brahma   bhoor&#xA;  bhuva: suvarom ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although I'm not quite sure where exactly this Sukta appears, in Rig Veda or in Atharva Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm adding a second source.There is a procedure of doing Sandhyavandanam mentioned in the &lt;strong&gt;Narada Purana&lt;/strong&gt;.The &quot;long&quot; Gayatri Mantra appears there among the Pranayama Mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TIsCu.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TIsCu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-18T06:41:47.180" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T06:41:47.180" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10923" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8629" CreationDate="2016-03-08T07:53:47.587" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a philosophical sense, &lt;em&gt;KAla&lt;/em&gt; (&quot;kaal&quot;) is inclusive of but not limited to &lt;strong&gt;Time&lt;/strong&gt;. When there is something or nothing in the universe, the &lt;em&gt;KAla&lt;/em&gt; is always present. &lt;strong&gt;It's eternal God. Other things change with respect to it.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence, because it gives the value of change (duration), it has to remain unchanged!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are below references of the term &lt;em&gt;KAla&lt;/em&gt; (&quot;kaal&quot;) in Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Eternal&lt;/strong&gt; -- For those who intend to gauge it, it's infinity&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[BG 10.30] — Among &lt;em&gt;Daitya&lt;/em&gt;s I am Prahlāda, &lt;strong&gt;among calculators&#xA;  I am &lt;em&gt;KAla&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, among beasts I am the lion, and among birds I am Garuḍa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Destroyer&lt;/strong&gt; -- It destroys everything, hence changes everything; Here &quot;destruction&quot; should not be taken always into literal sense; e.g. present 1 second will be destroyed in 1 second&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[BG 11:32] Sri BhagawAna told: &lt;strong&gt;I am the expanded &lt;em&gt;KAla&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; for the&#xA;  destruction of the &lt;em&gt;loka&lt;/em&gt;(world); For hunting people here, I am&#xA;  activated;  Except you (&lt;em&gt;PAndava&lt;/em&gt;), all the soldiers situated in the&#xA;  opposite sides will not exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Kaal&quot; with respect to various aspects of time, is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b058.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mokshadharma Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Rishis, measuring time, have named particular portions by particular names. Five and ten winks of the eye make what is called a Kashtha. Thirty Kashthas would make what is called a Kala. Thirty Kalas, with the tenth part of a Kala added, make what is known as a Muhurta. Thirty Muhurtas make up one day and night. Thirty days and nights are called a month, and twelve months are called a year. Persons conversant with mathematical science say that a year is made up of two ayanas (dependent on sun's motion), viz., the northern and the southern. The sun makes the day and the night for the world of man. The night is for the sleep of all living creatures, and the day is for the doing of action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is more to it, which is discussed with details in below answer:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16085/1049&quot;&gt;What is the duration (Timeline) of the four “Yugas”?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T07:38:38.783" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10924" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9727" CreationDate="2016-03-08T08:02:30.647" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kama and Moksha coexist in the Self (Atman) not in the human mind. That is to say they are part of Ishwara's divine opulence or divine glory (Satkirti). Attempts to reconcile both of them through the unrealized mind will lead to confusion and is best avoided.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kama (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 10.28&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prajanaś cāsmi kandarpaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prajanaḥ — the cause for begetting children; ca — and; asmi — I am; kandarpaḥ — Cupid&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of causes for procreation I am Kandarpa, the god of love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/16/24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;SB 11.16.24&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yogānām ātma-saṁrodho &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yogānām — among the eight stages of yoga practice (aṣṭāṅga); ātma-saṁrodhaḥ — the ultimate stage, samādhi, in which the soul is completely separated from illusion;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among the eight progressive states of yoga I am the final stage, samādhi, in which the soul is completely separated from illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4592" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-16T15:57:44.560" LastActivityDate="2016-03-16T15:57:44.560" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10928" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-08T10:28:56.173" Score="2" ViewCount="579" Body="&lt;p&gt;How to keep the conch (Shanka) after pooja (puja)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Should it be filled with water and kept next to idol?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Should it be kept upside down with no water in it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4249" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T09:07:56.040" Title="How to keep conch (shanka) after pooja (puja)?" Tags="|puja|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10932" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-08T18:12:41.633" Score="6" ViewCount="23747" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is well known for his Isha Foundation and his yogic practices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He came up with a theory, a seemingly new one regarding Lord Shiva and the origin of yoga in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to him&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;When we say “Shiva,” there are two fundamental aspects that we&#xA;  are referring to. The word “Shiva” literally means “that which is not.”&#xA;  On another level, when we say “Shiva,” we are referring to a certain&#xA;  yogi, the Adiyogi or the first yogi, and also the Adi Guru, the first Guru,&#xA;  who is the basis of what we know as the yogic science today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the yogic culture, Shiva is not seen as a God. He was a being&#xA;  who walked this land and lived in the Himalayan region. As the very&#xA;  source of the yogic traditions, his contribution in the making of human&#xA;  consciousness is too phenomenal to be ignored. This predates all&#xA;  religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dawn of Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Over 15,000 years ago, Adiyogi appeared in the upper regions of the&#xA;  Himalayas. No one knew where he came from or what his origins&#xA;  were. He just came and went into intense ecstatic dance upon the&#xA;  mountains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People saw that he was experiencing something that nobody had known before, something that they were unable to fathom. So they gathered around him wanting to know what it was. But no one had the courage to go near him because he was so intense, like a blazing flame of fire. So they waited, hoping something would happen. Some people waited for months and left and Only seven hardcore seekers stuck on. These seven were insistent that they must learn from him, but Shiva ignored them. They pleaded and begged him, “Please, we want to know what you know.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At last after 84 years of intense sadhana,he decided to become a Guru. On a  full moon day which is known as Guru Pournami because the Adiyogi transformed himself into the Adi Guru – the first Guru was born on that day. He took the seven disciples to Kantisarovar and started a systematic exposition of yoga in a scientific manner. He began propounding the whole mechanics of life to these seven people, not intellectually as a philosophy, but experientially. He  explored every nut and bolt of creation with them. He brought forth yoga as a technology with which every human being can evolve himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The transmission went on for a long period of time. After many years, when it was complete and had produced seven fully enlightened beings, who are today&#xA;  celebrated as the Sapta Rishis, Adiyogi sent each one of them to different parts of the world. One went to Central Asia. Another went to North Africa and the Middle East, where certain schools exist even today. Another went to South America, and that is one culture that imbibed it in a deep way and made  something big out of it. One went to East Asia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One stayed right there with Adiyogi. Another one came to the lower regions of the Himalayas and started what is known as Kashmiri Shaivism. Another one went south into the Indian Peninsula. This one is very important for us because he is Agastya Muni. Of the seven Sapta Rishis, Agastya Muni has been the most effective in terms of bringing the spiritual process into practical life, not as a teaching, philosophy or a practice, but as life itself. It is the benefit of what he did that the Indian people are still enjoying because he produced hundreds of yogis who were like fireballs.&quot; and it goes on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a new look at the beginning of Yogic tradition in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the basis for this story? Was it taken from some Purana or was it an oral tradition?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this a true one or a speculated theory?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it's a speculated then it adds to more confusion caused by the Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-09T19:10:13.817" LastActivityDate="2023-12-22T18:37:15.613" Title="Lord Shiva as Adi Yogi taught Yoga to seven sages and in turn these seven sages spread across the world. Is this theory a new look to our mythology?" Tags="|shiva|yoga|yogi|rishi|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10934" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-09T06:05:48.353" Score="4" ViewCount="1827" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read that Adi Shankaracharya's parents were childless for many years and they worshipped Lord Shiva, so that they will be blessed with a son. Then the Lord appeared in their dream and asked them &quot;&lt;strong&gt;You can choose to have either one extraordinary son with a short life or many ordinary sons&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They chose the extraordinary son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that Adi Shankaracharya left his house at the age of 12 and became a sanyasi. I want to know after that how long he lived.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4314" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-09T18:04:25.617" LastActivityDate="2016-03-09T18:04:25.617" Title="How long did Adi Shankaracharya live?" Tags="|shiva|worship|adi-shankaracharya|life-span|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10936" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10934" CreationDate="2016-03-09T06:47:06.193" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/adishankaracharya.htm&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; ,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shankara’s dates&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Modern scholarship is agreed on dates in the 8th century C.E., though&#xA;  it has proved impossible to reach agreement on Shankara’s precise&#xA;  dates of birth or death. Some religious groups, however, ascribe&#xA;  B.C.E. dates to him. If these dates were true, then much of what is&#xA;  claimed about his activities, especially his debates with Buddhists&#xA;  and Jains, is thrown into doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of the major Shankara Mathams active today, the Kanchi, Dwaraka, and&#xA;  Puri ascribe the dates 509–477 B.C.E. to Shankara. The Sringeri&#xA;  Peetham, on the other hand, accepts the 788–820 C.E. dates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;strong&gt;Even though he lived for only thirty-two years,&lt;/strong&gt; his impact on India&#xA;  and on Hinduism cannot be stressed enough, as he countered the&#xA;  increasing sacerdotalism (the belief that priests can mediate between&#xA;  humans and god) of the masses, and reintroduced a purer form of Vedic&#xA;  thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt; too he died at the age of 32.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,20 years more will be the answer to your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-03-09T06:47:06.193" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10937" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9789" CreationDate="2016-03-09T07:36:18.453" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The importance and significance of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripundra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tripundra&lt;/a&gt; is described in detail in &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaivam.org/english/sen-kalagnirudropanishad.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kalagnirudra Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; which is part of Krishna Yajurveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yAsya prathamA rekhA sA gArhapatyashchAkAro&lt;br&gt; rajobhUrlokaH svAtmA&#xA;  kriyAshaktirR^igvedaH&lt;br&gt; prAtaHsavanaM maheshvaro devateti yAsya&#xA;  dvitIyA rekhA&lt;br&gt; sA dakShiNAgnirukAraH&#xA;  satvamantarikShamantarAtmA-&lt;br&gt; chechChAshaktiryajurvedo&#xA;  mAdhya.ndinaM savanaM&lt;br&gt; sadAshivo devateti yAsya tR^itIyA rekhA&#xA;  sAhavanIyo makArastamo&lt;br&gt; dyaurlokaH paramAtmA j~nAnashaktiH&#xA;  sAmavedastR^itIyasavanaM&lt;br&gt; mahAdevo devateti evaM tripuNDravidhiM&#xA;  bhasmanA karoti&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(He replied). The three lines should occupy the whole forehead, from the eyes to the scalp of the head including also the portion&#xA;  between the eyebrows.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s first line represents the Garhapatya fire, akara (in Om mantra) Rajas, Bhuloka (earth), Atman, Kriyasakti, RigVeda, the&#xA;  morning yaga, and the Deity Mahesvara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The second line represents Dakshinagni, Ukara, Satva, Antariksha (the middle space), inner self, Ichchasakti, Yajur Veda, mid-day yaga,&#xA;  and the Deity Sadasiva.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The third line represents Ahavaniya fire, Makara, Tamas, Dyuloka (heaven) the Supreme Self, Jnanasakti, Samaveda, the third yaga, and&#xA;  the Deity Mahadeva.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additionally, this is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt; interprets Tripundra in his book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/lordsiva.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lord Siva and His Worship&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He wears three white-lined Bhasma or Vibhuti on His forehead. What is&#xA;  the significance of this? He teaches silently that people should&#xA;  destroy the three impurities, viz., Anava (egoism), Karma (action with&#xA;  expectation of fruits), and Maya (illusion), and the three desires or&#xA;  Eshanas, viz., desire for landed property, desire for woman, desire&#xA;  for gold, and the three Vasanas, viz., Lokavasana, Dehavasana and&#xA;  Sastravasana, and then attain Him with a pure heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-09-20T18:22:43.327" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T18:22:43.327" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10938" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-09T09:26:20.483" Score="4" ViewCount="927" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think I should add some context to this. &#xA;I like in Austin, Texas. My parents moved to USA in the mid 70s. My younger brother and I were born here. My parents have not been the best when it came to ceremonies and festivals. Both doctors, they do not believe in religion and unless they have a basis in science they do not believe in the ceremonies. This is something, I learnt in the last few years as we have moved more and more apart. Now they don't even bother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My younger brother told me last week that our Mundan and Janeo ceremonies were not done, as in my parents words - they couldn't be bothered. Though this does not seem to concern my brother, it does bother me. I believe that there is reason behind these ceremonies and they should be performed. I have no idea however how they are done and what all is involved. All I know is that mundan involves a tonsure and the Janeo is a sacred thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Girlfriend and soon to be wife (me marry in fall) and her family - Father, Mother, and Sister will support my decision and stand with me. Along with two close friends. However none of them are Hindu or Indian heritage. So this is all new to them too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TL;dr:&#xA;I am a 33 year old Hindu or so I thought. I am a Sharma. I do not know anything else about Gotra etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Today I learnt that my parents had never bothered to get my Mundan done nor had I ever had my thread ceremony. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can I still get these ceremonies done? &#xA;Where should I get them done? &#xA;What will it involve? &#xA;What family is needed to be present?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5044" LastEditorUserId="5044" LastEditDate="2016-03-11T14:03:01.323" LastActivityDate="2016-03-11T16:46:35.870" Title="Can I get a mundan and Janeo at 33 years of age?" Tags="|practice|culture|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-03-11T16:53:14.883" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10939" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-09T13:05:03.490" Score="3" ViewCount="3456" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do holy books say about inter-caste marriages? I heard somewhere that marriages between different castes causes &lt;strong&gt;वर्ण संकर&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Varna Samkar&lt;/em&gt;) and our holy books don't support inter-caste marriages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any proof regarding this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="849" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-03-11T10:31:37.427" LastActivityDate="2016-03-11T10:31:37.427" Title="What do holy books say about inter-caste marriages?" Tags="|scripture|marriage|caste-system|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2016-03-10T05:45:41.607" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10941" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10938" CreationDate="2016-03-09T14:04:45.883" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. I do believe you can get the ceremonies done. &#xA;While not having the ceremonies will not prevent you from being a good Hindu, formalising these ceremonies is a good thing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are ready to do this, you can get a mundan and Janeo done together on this Friday between 3:21pm and 7:43pm. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You should speak to the acharya and pandit at a mandir, while family is important usually at the ceremonies, seeing as your family did not previously participate, you may want your friends present. Any family which joins is welcome. The ceremonies should usually be done at your home, but if not the mandir may also be acceptable. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ask friends to be present, because you will be busy with the ceremony and will not be able to do anything. Friends would be able to help you out with the food etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additionally the pandit will give you the list of requirements for the Havan, but if you are not able to light a fire, the alternative is a coconut and a Kalash of water, dry rice, sandalwood paste, red thread, Kum Kum and some fruits and sweets. And You will also need a low stool for you to sit on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will need to invite a barber, and provide him a new pair of scissors and a shaving blade and straight razor, and two white towels. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For yourself you will need two sets of white kurta pyjamas, and two white towels, and a white duppata &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the day of the ceremony, you must oil your hair, wash it and bathe. Wear one of the kurta pyjama, and prepare your mind and body. Fast. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the acharya arrives, do a full length pranam and touch his feet. Touch the feet of all your elders and friends present, they are here to give you blessings, you should feel no shame in touching all their Feet. Make sure you get the blessings of the barber too. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While this can happen before the Pooja time, Make sure that you sit down to Pooja at 3:21. The ceremonies will take some time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The acharya will then tie your hair in 5 knots using grass or straw. You will have a Tilak done by the acharya and then by the attending people. Everyone will sprinkle rice on your head. Try and collect all that falls in the lap of your kurta or in one of the towels. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have your friends hold the dupatta stretched over your head. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The acharya will then cut all of the five tufts of hair, and then hand over to the barber. The barber will wet your hair, please use dettol and warm water here, and then shave your hair except for a tuft of hair right at the crown. This is the Shikha. Make sure that all of the hair that is cut is collected. Have it fall in your lap. This hair is sacred and will need to be kept for a year. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now that your head is shaved, you will need to have another bath. Have someone ceremonially pour water on your head and bathe you. You must now change into the new kurta pyjama. The previous one is to be given away. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will now sit down to Pooja again and the acharya will lead all assembled in doing another Tilak to you. He will complete the prayers for the mundan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the Janeo ceremony, traditionally another headshave is done, however in this case the acharya may choose to do your Janeo also. He will take a long white thread and wrap it around in a loop. He will then whisper a mantra in your ear and loop the Janeo around one shoulder. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You should never remove the Janeo until the same time next year when you change it. You should have another headshave then. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5046" LastActivityDate="2016-03-09T14:04:45.883" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10943" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10939" CreationDate="2016-03-09T18:42:43.627" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Agni Purana speaks about inter caste marriages in details while talking about the Manus &amp;amp; the Varnashrama Dharma(the Dhrama of the 4 classes of society &amp;amp; the 4 stages of life).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting  from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/agnipurana-6.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An anuloma marriage is a marriage where the husband is from a higher&#xA;  class than the wife. The offspring of such a marriage belong to the&#xA;  mother’s class. A pratiloma marriage is a marriage where the wife is&#xA;  from a higher class than the husband. Chandalas were born this way&#xA;  from brahmana women, Sutas from kshatriya women, Devalas from vaishya&#xA;  women, Pukkashas from kshatriya women and Magadhas from vaishya women.&#xA;  Chandalas are executioners, Sutas charioteers, Devalas guards,&#xA;  Pukkashas hunters and Magadhas bards. Chandalas should live outside&#xA;  the villages and should not touch those belonging to any other class.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,naturally,a Pratiloma marriage is looked down upon and prohibited specially those which results in Chnadalas as offsprings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-09T18:54:52.497" LastActivityDate="2016-03-09T18:54:52.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10944" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10938" CreationDate="2016-03-09T18:47:46.480" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the Agni Purana,the answer is NO.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sacred thread ceremony is not allowed for those whose age is more than 16 years .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/agnipurana-6.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sacred thread ceremony is to be held at the age of eight years for&#xA;  brahmanas, eleven years for kshatriyas and twelve years for vaishyas.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;No sacred thread ceremony should be held beyond sixteen years of age.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-09T19:16:11.947" LastActivityDate="2016-03-09T19:16:11.947" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10945" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-09T20:23:59.630" Score="8" ViewCount="16786" Body="&lt;p&gt;Traditionally, the Ramayana is attributed to &lt;strong&gt;Valmiki.&lt;/strong&gt; The Hindu tradition is unanimous in its agreement that the poem is the work of a single poet; the sage Valmiki, a &lt;strong&gt;contemporary of Rama&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;a peripheral actor&lt;/strong&gt; in the epic. The story's original version in Sanskrit is known as Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srimad Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt; is considered as the Adi Kavya, equivalent to Veda itself. As per Valmiki Ramayana there is &lt;strong&gt;no instance&lt;/strong&gt; which shows that Lord Ram worshipped Lord shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strike&gt;How far are these latter traditions and puranas are to be accepted when the Valmiki Ramayana doesn't mention of Lord Rama worshipping Lord Shiva?&lt;/strike&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any other scriptural evidence regarding the worship of Lord Shiva by Lord Rama which is as valid source as Valmiki Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastEditorUserId="28263" LastEditDate="2023-04-21T09:25:25.760" LastActivityDate="2023-04-21T09:25:25.760" Title="Did Lord Rama really worship Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|ramayana|rama|valmiki|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10947" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10945" CreationDate="2016-03-10T03:43:24.697" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, he did. This is clearly written in Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda in the scene where Rama , Sita  and their retinue are returning to Ayodhya in the pushpaka vimAna and Rama is showing Sita all the places that he had visited during his journey to Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;See this island, located in the middle of the ocean, where my troops were stationed. At this place, the lord Shiva (the supreme deity) formerly bestowed his grace on me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quote taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga123/yuddhasans123.htm#Verse19&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda, Sarga 123, Verse 19&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This indicates that Rama worshipped Shiva before the great war with Ravana and not after as is popularly believed. Nonetheless, it is indisputable that he worshipped Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2016-08-30T07:51:44.890" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T07:51:44.890" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10948" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10501" CreationDate="2016-03-10T03:51:21.157" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;nAram dadAti iti nAradah. He who gives knowledge is nArada. nArada muni is a guru swarUpa and should be revered by all. You will remember all the various instances in which the sage was instrumental in the birth and propagation of knowledge in this earthly realm. To name a few:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;His teaching to Valmiki resulted in the Ramayana&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;His teaching to Vyasa resulted in the bhAgavata which is verily a mOksha kAvya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;His teaching to sumEdha resulted in the tripurA rahasya which is another work on Atma vidya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is also a very recent account of his imparting nAda yoga to Tyagaraja by way of the treatise- swarArNava.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His depiction in movies as a trouble-maker is incorrect and deplorable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-10T22:51:47.323" LastActivityDate="2016-03-10T22:51:47.323" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10949" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-10T04:14:17.987" Score="4" ViewCount="302" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have one question about various incarnations of Lord Vishnu (the question may have sub questions).  I remembered from Bhagavata purana, many incarnations are either the incarnation of Maha Vishnu or Kshirothakasayi Vishnu.  I would like to know if Lord Vishnu is supreme, who is catur vyugas and who are Karanodakasayi vishnu, Garbodaga sayi vishnu and Kshirodaga sayi vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are they existing separately or they manifest from one Lord Vishnu and after performing various pastimes will they merge back to Vishnu?  For example, Lord Vishnu and Lord Krishna are existing separately now or Lord Krishna merged back to Lord Vishnu? If they merged, how they will satisfy the devotees, if one wants to associate Lord Krishna in vaikuntas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If some incarnation is coming out from Lord Vishnu and merging back him, that means Vishnu is changing and his activities are coming under time correct? how to understand this Vishnu is beyond time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please explain in simple English or Tamil is the best language for me to understand. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I may ask further questions to understand this subject clearly based on the answers.  Please refer the sastras or Sri Ramanuja Acarya's teachings, as much as possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5008" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-03-10T06:42:54.440" LastActivityDate="2016-03-10T07:03:19.533" Title="Questions about various incarnations of Vishnu" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10950" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10949" CreationDate="2016-03-10T06:18:13.103" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Incarnations of Lord are unlimited. However Supreme Vishnu manifests himself in 3 primary forms viz. Karnodakshayee vishnu(Maha-Vishnu), garbhoDakshayee Vishnu and Ksheerodakshayee Vishnu.    Supreme Vishnu first manifests as Sankarshan(1st expansion) and Sankarshan manifests himself as mahavishnu. Mahavishnu lays down in causal ocean(Kaaran ocean;hence called Karnodakshayee Vishnu).From MahaVishnu unlimited universes come into existence.Vishnu enters each of the universes as garbhoDakshayee Vishnu from whose naval brahma is born. the stem that grows from His navel has all planetary creations in universe. Ksheerodakshayee Vishnu then lies in Ksheer saagar(Ocean of milk) and maintains that universe and also enters each and evry entity as paramatma in that universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These innumerable universes are produced from the pores of&#xA;  Mahā-viṣṇu’s body. As innumerable atoms pass through the tiny holes in&#xA;  a screen, innumerable universes similarly emanate from the pores of&#xA;  Mahā-viṣṇu’s body. As He breathes out, innumerable universes are&#xA;  produced, and as He inhales, they are annihilated. All of the energies&#xA;  of Mahā-viṣṇu are spiritual: they have nothing to do with the material&#xA;  energy. In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.48) it is stated that the&#xA;  predominating deity of each universe, Brahmā, lives only during one&#xA;  breath of Mahā-viṣṇu. Thus Mahā-viṣṇu is the original Supersoul of all&#xA;  the universes and the master of all universes as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The second Viṣṇu incarnation, Garbhodaka-śāyī Viṣṇu, enters each and&#xA;  every universe, spreads perspiration from His body and lies down on&#xA;  that water. From His navel grows the stem of a lotus flower, and on&#xA;  that lotus flower the first creature, Brahmā, is born. Within the stem&#xA;  of that lotus flower are the fourteen divisions of planetary systems,&#xA;  which are created by Brahmā. In the form of Garbhodaka-śāyī Viṣṇu, the&#xA;  Lord maintains each universe and tends to its needs. Although He is&#xA;  within each material universe, the influence of the material energy&#xA;  cannot touch Him. When it is required, this very same Viṣṇu takes the&#xA;  form of Lord Śiva and annihilates the cosmic creation. The three&#xA;  secondary incarnations – Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva – are the&#xA;  predominating deities of the three modes of material nature. The&#xA;  master of the universe, however, is Garbhodaka-śāyī Viṣṇu, who is&#xA;  worshiped as the Hiraṇyagarbha Supersoul. The Vedic hymns describe Him&#xA;  as having thousands of heads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The third incarnation of Viṣṇu, Kṣīrodaka-śāyī Viṣṇu, is the&#xA;  incarnation of the mode of goodness. He is also the Supersoul of all&#xA;  living entities, and He resides on the ocean of milk within the&#xA;  universe. Thus Caitanya Mahāprabhu described the puruṣa-avatāras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/tlc/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;You can read more here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/tlc/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord vishnu has two expansions. Sva amsha and vibhinna amsa. Lord narayan, Lord ram etc are his sva amsha. ie.they are indifferent from Krishna. Krishna is called Supreme person in Srimad Bhagvatam. gaudiya Vaishnav regard Him as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/1/3/28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Supreme Personality of godhead&lt;/a&gt; or Supreme Brahman.&#xA;Lord Brahma,demigods,humans etc are vibhinna amsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isopanishad says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is&#xA;  completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal&#xA;  world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced&#xA;  of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the&#xA;  Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him,&#xA;  He remains the complete balance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence all the incarnations are as good as Supreme Vishnu himself. But one should not consider Krishna(Supreme lord) to be on same level as demigods or we;living entities.&#xA;Also lord being omnipresent; he is present evrywhere. hence when he descends to this world; it does not mean that he is absent in Vaikuntha. He in evrywhere.&#xA;He is the master of maya(illusion). so by his potency he appears in this mortal world as if one of us.&#xA;Lord explains this in gita chpt 4(4.9).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S: This answer is based on interpretation of Gaudiya vaishnav.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2859" LastEditDate="2016-03-10T07:03:19.533" LastActivityDate="2016-03-10T07:03:19.533" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10951" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7356" CreationDate="2016-03-10T07:38:56.567" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;text quoted&lt;/a&gt; in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10625/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, I got the answer finally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like how we are &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10905/1049&quot;&gt;mistaken to equate &quot;killing = violence&quot;&lt;/a&gt; due to its nature, we often mistaken &quot;correct information&quot; as &quot;truth&quot; and &quot;incorrect information&quot; as &quot;falsehood&quot;. But Krishna clarifies it to be &quot;utter-able&quot; and &quot;unutterable&quot; respectively:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Behold, however, truth as practised is exceedingly difficult to be&#xA;  understood as regards its essential attributes.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Truth may be &lt;strong&gt;unutterable&lt;/strong&gt;, and even falsehood may be &lt;strong&gt;utterable&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  where falsehood would become truth and truth would become falsehood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Had Yudhishtira told Drona about his son was not dead, then he would have just given the &quot;correct information&quot; like a machine. After that Drona would have killed the whole army of PAndavas. In such case a side will be victorious, which subscribed to treachery (dice game), murdering (&lt;em&gt;LAkshAgriha&lt;/em&gt;), molestation (Draupadi's insult), renege (denying kingdom after 13 years). This would have caused deterioration in the society under such regime.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose, you have a high standard of taste being a restaurant owner. A relative invites you for a meal with compassion and feeds you terrible food. If asked, &quot;How was the food?&quot;, would you say: &quot;Terrible&quot;?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;No! &quot;Terrible&quot; is just a correct information, which describes the food. But &quot;dinner invitation&quot; is not limited to food alone, it involves the &quot;compassion&quot; as well. In such case, you may want to lower your standard for &quot;food&quot; and say it was &quot;Good&quot;!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Above also doesn't mean that, you should blindly follow others' emotion beyond threshold. If the other person expresses an interest to become the chief cook in your restaurant business, then ofcourse your priority will change from &quot;saving emotions&quot; to &quot;saving jobs&quot;! :-) In such case &quot;correct information&quot; becomes &quot;truth&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some patients are not informed the computer generated &quot;correct report&quot; that he/she has cancer. That's Not falsehood, because if told it may create distress on sensitive person. Rather his/her relatives by saying &quot;everything is OK&quot;, allows the patient to live a less stressful life. That becomes the &quot;Truth&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, &quot;truth&quot; is not limited to information, but also how broad purpose it serves. We need to have discrimination, that we are not using &quot;incorrect information&quot; for limited/selfish purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;... why women and marriages are covered?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This seems just an example, where you may have to often practice differentiation of &quot;truth&quot; vs &quot;correct information&quot;. That is explained in subsequent para:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On an occasion of marriage, or of enjoying a woman, or when life is in danger, or when one's entire property is about to be taken away, or for the sake of a BrAhmana, falsehood may be uttered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-03-11T05:39:23.450" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10952" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-10T08:12:29.847" Score="13" ViewCount="24465" Body="&lt;p&gt;I daily listen to Gayatri Mantra at work, at home and even while sleeping. I rarely chant this mantra. Does listening the Gayatri mantra have any effects same as chanting?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5050" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-11T15:29:26.463" LastActivityDate="2022-07-25T18:58:59.643" Title="Does listening Gayatri Mantra have same effect as chanting?" Tags="|gayatri-mantra|gayatri|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10954" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-10T17:07:59.327" Score="6" ViewCount="3284" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most prolific usage of the concept of 'Chittam' is in the Patanjali Yoga Sutras. The word is most identified with as part of 'Shat-Chit-Anandam' meaning existance-conciousness-bliss according to popular interpretation. So according to this definition Chittam is consciousness. But, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Yoga_Sutra_of_Patanjali.html?id=SS8MnwEACAAJ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;David Gordon White's book&lt;/a&gt; on the Yoga sutras, where the author seems to have done a linguistic analysis on the technical words in the sutras, the definition given for 'Citta' is just 'thoughts'. In certain other interpretations 'Citta' is defined as 'mind cloud' or some component related to the mind. The latter(interpretation relating Chitta to mind) cannot be the case because Patanjali is very specific in the usage of words and he does use the term Manas(Mind) in the sutras which is distinct from Chitta. This raised the question whether Chitta(if it is merely thoughts as defined by White) is the product of the mind or some other entity that can be attributed to the word Chitta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following are the other definitions for Chitta that I've come across that make better sense in the context of the Yoga-Sutras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chitta is 'Conscience', not 'Consciousness'.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chitta is the state of inactivity of the Antakaranam.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chitta is the Panaroma or Canvas on which the Karmasaya(stain of Karma) is painted on.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is there any definitive meaning for Chitta given by competent Gurus/Acharyas? How would one accurately define the faculty of Chitta in relation with Aham, Buddhi, Manas, Antakaranam, etc? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="2362" LastEditDate="2016-03-13T01:35:37.053" LastActivityDate="2022-07-18T13:55:49.057" Title="Meaning of Citta?" Tags="|philosophy|yoga|sanskrit|yoga-sutras|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10955" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10956" CreationDate="2016-03-10T19:15:23.963" Score="8" ViewCount="3164" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saidarshan.org/baba/docs/slveda.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; link, I found the following verse. Which Hindu scripture is the source of this verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asatoma Sadgamaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thamaso Maa Jyothir Gamaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mrithyor Maa Amrutham Gamaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aum Shanti Shanti Shantihi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: Lead me from the unreal to the real. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to immortality. May there be peace everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4487" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-11-27T09:54:04.653" Title="Which scripture is the source of the chant 'Asatoma Sadgamaya Thamaso Maa Jyothir Gamaya...?'" Tags="|mantras|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10956" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10955" CreationDate="2016-03-10T19:19:20.027" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/upanishads/brihad.asp#adh1&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the Source of this Verse from Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;असतो मा सदगमय ॥ तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ॥ मृत्योर्मामृतम् गमय ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Lead me from the unreal to the real! Lead me from darkness to light! Lead me from death to immortality!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Now when he says,' Lead me from the unreal to the real,' the unreal is verily death, the real immortality. He therefore says, 'Lead me from death to immortality, make me immortal.'&#xA;When he says,'Lead me from darkness to light,' darkness is verily death, light immortality. He therefore says, 'Lead me from death to immortality, make me immortal.'&#xA;When he says,'Lead me from death to immortality,' there is nothing there, as it were, hidden (obscure, requiring explanation).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T08:00:29.577" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T08:00:29.577" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10957" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10954" CreationDate="2016-03-10T20:24:17.740" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.traditionalyoga.co.in/index.php/raja-yoga/the-mind&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rajyoga&lt;/a&gt; The mind takes the impression farther&#xA;in, and presents it to the determinative faculty -- buddhi -- which reacts.&#xA;Along with this reaction flashes the idea of egoism. Then this mixture of action and reaction is presented to the&#xA;Purusha, the real Soul, who perceives an object in this mixture. The organs&#xA;(Indriyas), together with the mind (&lt;strong&gt;Manas&lt;/strong&gt;), the determinative faculty&#xA;(&lt;strong&gt;Buddhi&lt;/strong&gt;), and egoism (&lt;strong&gt;Ahamkara&lt;/strong&gt;), form the group called the &lt;strong&gt;Antahkarana&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;(the internal instrument). They are but various processes in the mind - stuff,&#xA;called &lt;strong&gt;Chitta.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Chitta&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is the feeling mind and is also rooted in the cerebellum. It is the field of sensations, called vedana. This powerful part of the mind responds to the good or bad judgement made by the buddhi by releasing a stream of chemicals in to the body. For example, if we taste something we like or see someone we love, our buddhi recognizes this as positive and in response our citta responds by flooding our system with chemicals such as endorphins, seratonin or melatonin that in turn give a pleasant sensation understood as something we like. Similarly if we come into contact with something that the buddhi tells us is bad, such as a rotten smell or someone shouting at us, the citta impulse triggers the release of peptides or cortisones, unpleasant sensations that we understand as disliking. The speed of the mind’s processing power is mind boggling. One neuron processes the equivalent data of 12 computers. Buddha teaches that 10 to the power of 12 x 250 ( more than 1000 billion) chittas are produced every second and in turn 100, 000 chemicals are released into the blood stream in 1/27th second. The body produces more than 4 million chemicals. In the duration of watching a hollywood film, imagine how many pleasant and unpleasant chemicals are released in the body! The chitta is continuously fed by the sense doors and creates waves of excitement and depression throughout our days. The unconscious mind reacts to the citta and stores these reactions as sankharas at RNA/ DNA level. Chitta is the only part of the mind that operates in the present and so it is at this level of the mind that we work using raja yoga, the science of deconditioning. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h1&gt;Buddhi&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sub-conscious mind is rooted in the cerebellum. It is the recognizing part of the mind and it functions after cognition occurs in the conscious mind. This is where perception takes place. The buddhi recognizes an object and immediately makes a good or bad judgement about it by retrieving from a vast database of past impressions. For this reason it is considered to function in the past as it is based on past conditioning. The buddhi is the intellect and it decides in which direction the senses and the mind go. The analogy is often given of the buddhi being the charioteer controlling the six senses (including the mind), i.e. the horses. The buddhi can be positively conditioned and in fact all the learning that takes place, all the skills that we develop throughout our lives are due to the conditioning of the buddhi. Buddhi is called Sanna by Buddha. It is the first part of the vinnanamaya kosha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Manas&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The conscious mind is rooted in the cerebrum, in the frontal lobe. The conscious mind controls conscious thought, all voluntary actions, will-power, logic and empathy and is highly developed in humans unlike other species. It is the cognizing part of the mind and it’s entire field is consciousness. It cognizes through the senses and comprises of sight consciousness, sound consciousness, smell consciousness, taste consciousness, touch consciousness and mind consciousness, i.e. consciousness of thoughts. The manas is behind every sense door and without it we are not conscious of them. For example, we can be eating something but if our mind is distracted, we are not really tasting it. We can switch off if we are not interested in listening to someone speaking for example and their words do not register. Likewise when we are asleep, our ears are ‘open’ yet we do not hear because the conscious mind is cut off. The conscious mind dwells in pure consciousness referred to as atma, or soul and for that reason it is considered to be an entirely wholesome mind. It is the observing mind in meditation, known as dhrashta. It is also called chetana manas, jnatha, hridaya and kshetragna. Buddha calls the conscious mind vinnana. This is the manomayakosha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Aham&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aham is the deepest root level of the unconscious mind, the ego, the store-house of all reactions. It is the oldest and most primitive part of the brain that dates back 14.5 million years to when evolution began. It is sometimes referred to as the reptilian brain and is situated in the medulla oblangata. It constantly reacts to the pleasant or unpleasant sensations produced by the chemistry of the citta and in turn prompts an outward bodily reaction. The citta and unconscious mind are always in active contact with each other 24 hours a day. This part of the mind reacts much faster to sensations, i.e. citta than the conscious mind and therefore reactions take place at an unconscious level before they even come to our attention. For example, if we have an itch, i.e. an unpleasant sensation, our hand goes to scratch it before we are even consciously aware. Likewise if someone insults us prompting an unpleasant citta/ sensation, our fight or flight mechanism has kicked in before we consciously even register our anger or dismay. The bodily reaction is automatic, if someone praises us we smile or go and hug them and if someone yells at us we might yell back, hit them or run away. These responses are unconscious as the ego is strongly dominating the conscious mind whenever we are in a state of excitement and in fact 24 hours a day. The unconscious mind’s direct connection to the body is so strong that even in sleep, when our conscious mind is cut off, our unconscious mind reacts to discomfort and makes our bodies roll from side to side. This happens without the knowledge or permission of our conscious mind. In sanskrit the ego is called sankhara, ahamkhara or kamma bija that literally means karma seed. It is the hard disk that stores past reactions at the level of RNA/ DNA as cellular memories. These stored reactions, known in Sanskrit as sankhara or samskara in Pali, are the seeds of future karmic fruit. The entire journey in yoga culminates in the removal of these stored reactions through the observation of the citta by the conscious mind during meditation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T08:04:19.443" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T08:04:19.443" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10959" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10915" CreationDate="2016-03-10T21:38:52.153" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/padmapurana14.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a complete mention of Gayatri Mantra in Padmapurana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Padmapurana Brahma detailed each relevant Deity in respect of each of the Twenty Four Letters of the Gayatri Mantra as follows: Agni, Vayu, Surya, Viyat (Akash),Yamaraja, Varun, Brihaspati, Parjanya, Indra, Gandharva, Pusha, Mitra, Twashta, Vasu, Marudganas, Soma, Angira, Vishwa Deva, Ashvini Kumars, Pragapati, Sampurna Devata, Rudra, Brahma and Shri Vishnu. The letter-to-letter seriatum of Deities represented in the Gayatri Mantra thus provided the ‘Vangmaya’/ ‘Vani Vishaya’ or the cross-referencing of the Letter-Deity implication. As regards the ‘Nyasa’ of the Aksharas of the Gayatri Mantra versus Body Limbs, the explanation is as follows: ‘Tat’-touch the thumbs of the feet; ‘Sa’-Gulpha (ankles); ‘Vi’-the two pindaliyas (calves); ‘thu’-ghutnas (Knees); ‘Var’-jangha (lap); ‘Re’-Terminal Part; ‘Nya’- ‘Andakosha; ‘M’-‘Kati bhagas’(  thighs); ‘Bha’-Nabhi Mandala; ‘orgo’-Udaram; ‘Dey’-both the breasts; ‘Va’- Hridaya; ‘Sya’-both the hands; ‘Dhee’-face; ‘Ma’-taalu; ‘hi’-top of Nasika( nose); ‘Dhi’-both the eyes; ‘Yo’- both bahus (hands); ‘Yo’- Lalaat; ‘Nah’-Muhka’s Purvabhaaga; ‘Pra’-‘Dakshna bhaag; ‘Cho’-Paschima bhaaga; ‘da’-Mukha’s Uttara Bhaga; ‘Yaat’-Mastak (head). By performing the Nyasa as above, all the ‘Aksharas’or the Letters are thus aligned to Brahma-Vishnu and Maheswara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Another kind of Nyasa for the Sandhya-Kaalas is as follows:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Bhuriti Hridaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Bhuvah Shirasi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Swaha Shikhayai Om&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tatsaviuvarenyamithi Kalebarey&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi Netrayoh Om&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhiyoyonaha prachodayaatiti Karayoh&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Apo jyotee rasomritam Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhurbhuvah swarom&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The above Vyahruti and Twelve Omkaaraas along with Gayatri Mantra be performed at Sandhya Timings while touching water (Jala sparsha) followed by Pranayama Kriya thrice; then should follow the Gayatri Mantra Japa for as many times as possible. Then should follow ‘Punah-Nyasa’ or Repeat Nyasa as follows: Om Bhuh Padaabhyaam and touch the feet; Om Bhuvah Jaanubhyaam and touch both ‘ghutane’ (knees); Om Swahah Katyaam and touch kati bhaaga’ (thighs); Om Mahah Naabhou and touch Nabhistaan (navel); Om Janah Hridaye and touch Hridaya; Om Tapah Karaye and touch both the hands; Om Satyam and touch Lalaatey (Forehead) and finally recite the entire Mantra and touch the Shikha (tuft).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-10T22:27:15.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10960" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-10T21:39:19.933" Score="5" ViewCount="237" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am reading &lt;em&gt;God Talks With Arjuna by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda&lt;/em&gt;. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogananda.com.au/pyr/pyr_soul.html#reflection&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;chapter 2 verse 20&lt;/a&gt;, I came across the following line in the interpretation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This stanza expresses the profound truth of the immortal nature not only of the soul but of matter. As a reflection of Spirit, even matter is indestructible. The essence of matter is never destroyed;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it not the stance of the Bhagawad Gita (and consequently the Vedas) that matter only exists because we perceive them so? Which means that matter does not exist without being perceived.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So if the permanence of matter is asserted, shouldn't it imply the permanence of consciousness in the material world which perceives it? Which implies permanence of earthly life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a glitch in my argument?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5054" LastEditorUserId="5054" LastEditDate="2016-03-11T09:46:57.510" LastActivityDate="2016-03-16T13:18:03.337" Title="regarding permanence of matter and earthly life" Tags="|vedas|scripture|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|advaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10961" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-10T21:47:49.370" Score="1" ViewCount="68" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Jesus Christ visit India when he was aged between 13 and 30? Is there any ancient record about his connection to life, culture or religion of India?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2022-11-05T02:32:07.787" LastActivityDate="2022-11-05T02:32:07.787" Title="Young Jesus' India visit" Tags="|history|other-religions|india|christianity|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-03-11T19:45:23.860" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10962" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10945" CreationDate="2016-03-11T03:02:54.520" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Different Versions of Lord Ram Worshipping Lord Shiva by establishing a Linga at Rameshwaram&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the Chapter 3 of Brahma Kund (3rd Canto of Skanda Purana)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Describing how Sri Ram had installed Rameshwar linga, Sutji said--'&#xA;  After killing Ravan, Sri Ram enthroned Vibhishan as the king of Lanka.&#xA;  While returning to Ayodhya he made a brief stop at Gandhamadan&#xA;  mountain. Since the thought of having killed a brahmin (Ravan) kept on&#xA;  tormenting him, he decided to atone for his sins. In consultation with&#xA;  sages, Sri Ram decided to perform the ‘Pratishtha’ of Shiva Linga at&#xA;  the most auspicious ‘Muhurat’ and commissioned Hanuman to bring the&#xA;  Linga from Maha Deva at Kailasa Mountain. But Unfortunately however&#xA;  Hunuman could not meet the deadline of the Muhurat for the&#xA;  Consecration of the Linga and Devi Sita had to prepare a Sand Linga&#xA;  that was set up as a temporary stop-gap but in reality that became the&#xA;  real Linga . Meanwhile Hanuman returned from Kailasa but was highly&#xA;  disappointed and felt that all his efforts proved futile. Sri Rama&#xA;  consoled Hanuman also did the Pratishtha of the Linga brought by&#xA;  Hanuma.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama instructed that Hanuma lingam should be worshipped first since it was brought by Lord Hanuman - the tradition continues even today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Chapter 18 of Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;It is said that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Lord Rama After reaching Rameswaram beach and he was thirsty. When he&#xA;  was drinking water there he heard a celestial voice “you are drinking&#xA;  water here without worshipping me”’. Rama recognized that voice was of&#xA;  Lord Siva. Then he made a Sivalingam with beach sand and worshipped&#xA;  Lord Siva. He prayed Lord Siva to bless him to win the war, and&#xA;  vanquish Ravana. Lord Siva blessed Rama accordingly. He also prayed&#xA;  Lord Siva to reside eternally at Rameswaram so that entire mankind&#xA;  should benefit from it. Lord Siva agreed to Rama’s prayer and&#xA;  manifested Himself as Ramanatha Jyothirlingam and stayed there for&#xA;  eternity.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to a legend from Linga Purana,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“on the advice of Rishis, Rama wanted to consecrate at Rameswaram a&#xA;  shrine for Lord Siva to wash off the Brahmahatsya dosha - the sin of&#xA;  killing Ravana, a Brahmin. An auspicious time for the ceremony was&#xA;  fixed. Rama rushed Hanuman to Kasi to bring a Sivalingam. The&#xA;  auspicious time for the installation had neared, but Hanuman had not&#xA;  returned, Sita made a Sivalingam out of sand and the puja was&#xA;  performed to this Lingam at the stipulated time. It was consecrated as&#xA;  Ramalinga. Meanwhile, Hanuman returned from Kasi with two Lingams. He&#xA;  was disappointed that the ceremony was already over. In anger, he&#xA;  tried to uproot the sand Sivalingam with his tail, but in vain. Rama&#xA;  pacified Hanuman and installed one of the Lingams brought by Hanuman&#xA;  from Kasi to the left of Ramalinga, and ordered that all pujas be&#xA;  first performed for this Sivalingam, called Kasilingam or&#xA;  Viswanathalingam.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This priority in puja is followed even today. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adhyathma Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Tradition ascribes the authorship of Adhyathma Ramayana to Vedavyasa&#xA;  since it is said to be an integral part of Brahmanda Purana. &#xA;  Adhyathma Ramayana is the portrayal of a conversation between Lord&#xA;  Siva and Goddess Parvati (as reported by Lord Brahma to Sage Narada).&#xA;  It is this work that provided Tulasidasa with the inspiration to&#xA;  compose his immortal work, the Ramacharitamanasa. Sri Rama was&#xA;  described by Valmiki as a perfect human being, a maryada purushottama,&#xA;  with embodiment of Dharma. In Adhyathma Ramayana we see Rama as&#xA;  Brahman - omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, the cause without a&#xA;  cause and the One without a second.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adhyathma Ramayana speaks about Rama’s installation of the Sivalinga&#xA;  in Rameswara, before the construction of Sethu for the success of the&#xA;  enterprise. Rama also declares about the merit of Pilgrimage to&#xA;  Rameswara and Sethu Bandha here. “&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Lanka Kanda of Ramcharitamanasa&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“It is said that Lord Ram installed a linga of Lord shiva before going to going to Lanka.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kamba Ramayanam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Ramavataram, popularly referred to as Kamba Ramayanam, is a Tamil&#xA;  epic that was written by the Tamil poet Kamban during the 12th&#xA;  century.  It describes the life of King Rama of Ayodhya. This historic&#xA;  work is considered by both Tamil scholars and the general public as&#xA;  one of the greatest literary works in Tamil literature. It also&#xA;  doesn’t mention about Lord Rama Worshipping Lord Shiva in the form of&#xA;  a Linga before/ after the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In each of the above references one doesn’t confirm to another completely for the above episode in question of Ramayana. There are as many 300 Ramayana’s with varied interpretations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So taking a cue from Valmiki Ramayan which shows Lord Rama got the grace of Lord Shiva before War and stories from Shiva Purana, RamCharitmanasa, Adhyatma Ramayana which show that Lord Rama installed Linga before war and prayed to it are in perfect contradiction of the sthala purana of the temple of Rameswaram.&#xA;Skanda and Linga Puranas are in agreement with the sthala purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But here appears a paradox where the former known to be more authentic don’t agree with that of sthala purana.  Still it remains a matter of debate as to which one is authentic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Leaving this aside temple town of Rameswaram is equally revered by Shaivas and Vaishnavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wish may Lord Ram and Lord Shiva instill upon our minds the truth against popular or argumentative opinions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastActivityDate="2016-03-11T03:02:54.520" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10963" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-11T04:48:03.200" Score="2" ViewCount="245" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a question about how Hindus (especially Tamil) deal with the engagement after the death of a family member.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If an engagement was planned for in 6 month but tragically the grandmother (father's side) passes away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does the engagement have to be cancelled and postponed for an year?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm searching for answers related to the tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5056" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-13T14:44:59.387" LastActivityDate="2016-03-16T09:54:03.093" Title="Engagement (Nitchayathartham) after death of grandmother" Tags="|belief|death|superstitions|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-05-03T08:06:03.273" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10964" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10952" CreationDate="2016-03-11T05:09:33.953" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, listening does not have the same effect as chanting. Listening is a step only. In the &lt;em&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt;, Yajnavalkya say to his wife Maitreyi that there are three steps - hearing (&lt;em&gt;sravanam&lt;/em&gt;), reflecting (&lt;em&gt;mananam&lt;/em&gt;), and meditating (&lt;em&gt;nididhyasanam&lt;/em&gt;). These three steps have been echoed by all the commentators. As Swami Vivekananda has pointed out, one does not learn chemistry by repeating the word 'chemistry'; one has to go into a lab, mix chemicals together and burn yourself a few times to learn chemistry. Physical, mental, ethical, and spiritual disciplines must be exercised. Listening is a good first step, but it is only a first step. What good will come of listening if your mind is running uncontrolled on worldly matters at the same time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada says in his &lt;em&gt;Bhakti Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 36-37 (Swami Prabhavananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(&lt;em&gt;Supreme love is attained&lt;/em&gt;) by uninterrupted and constant worship of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By hearing of and singing the glory of the Lord, even while engaged in the ordinary activities of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada says this repeatedly throughout the Bhakti Sutras - not only hearing but also speaking.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali says in his Yoga Aphorisms I. 28. (Swami Vivekananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The repetition of this (Om) and meditating on its meaning (is the way).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why is hearing not the same - not as effective - as praising, or chanting, or repetition? If you have two bells and you strike the first, it will vibrate and give out a loud sound. The second bell nearby will feel the vibrations from the first bell and start to vibrate in harmony a little but it will not give off any sound, and will stop vibrating well before the first bell that was struck. It is only by striking the second bell that a large vibration and sound can be had. Similarly, listening to the gayatri may startup some small vibrations inside a nearby person that are in harmony with it, but once it stops, the vibrations stop with no lasting effects.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; 9.34:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to Me, sacrifice to Me, bow down to Me. Having thus disciplined yourself, and regarding Me as the Supreme Goal, you will come to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All schools of the Vedanta stress the repetition of the name of God. If you want to have your mind fixed on God it is only through your own practice. There is no shortcut. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2016-03-11T14:25:04.707" LastActivityDate="2016-03-11T14:25:04.707" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10965" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10960" CreationDate="2016-03-11T06:22:16.837" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I read Yogananda's commentary on the link that you provided, his commentary is in line with Sankara's commentary on this verse. But I do not see anywhere in Yogananda's or Sankara's commentary anything in agreement with the additional commentary you supplied &quot;...the profound truth of the immortal nature not only of the soul &lt;strong&gt;but of matter&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The additional commentary &quot;but of matter&quot; is not in line with verse 20, or the verses prior to or after the verse of the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; quoted. Nor is it line with Yogananda's or Sankara's commentary. The verses clearly have to do with the nature of the Self, of Brahman, and not the nature of the world. The nature of the world is dealt with in other verses in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; in other chapters, more specifically, chapter 13 - but not in the verses quoted in chapter 2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your second paragraph has a few different concepts confused. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is it not the stance of the Bhagawad Gita (and consequently the Vedas) that matter only exists because we perceive them so? Which means that matter does not exist without being perceived.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matter does not exist, we perceive it to exist. What exists is Brahman; we perceive It as matter. We are perceiving Brahman - and interpreting our perception wrongly. It is through the lens of Maya that we are perceiving Brahman.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You then state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So if the permanence of matter is asserted, shouldn't it imply the permanence of consciousness in the material world which perceives it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The permanence of matter has not been asserted. Maya, or Prakriti is permanent, not matter (See &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; Chapter 13). The gross elements - matter - are destroyed at the end of a cycle.      &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Which implies permanence of earthly life. Is there a glitch in my argument?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Not sure of the logic in your argument of going from the permanence of consciousness to the permanence of earthly life. Is consciousness dependent upon the body? No. One of the Vedic &lt;em&gt;Mahavakyas&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;Prajnanam brahma&lt;/em&gt; - Consciousness is Brahman. All earthly life ends. Cycles come and go. Only the Soul endures forever.      &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-03-11T06:22:16.837" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10966" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-03-11T07:42:07.990" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-03-11T07:42:07.990" LastActivityDate="2016-03-11T07:42:07.990" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10967" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-03-11T07:42:07.990" Score="0" Body="The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali are 196 Indian sutras. The Yoga Sutras were compiled around 400 CE by Sage Patanjali, taking materials about yoga from older traditions. Together with his commentary they form the Pātañjalayogaśāstra." OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-12T15:25:06.693" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T15:25:06.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10968" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-03-11T07:43:31.053" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-03-11T07:43:31.053" LastActivityDate="2016-03-11T07:43:31.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10969" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-03-11T07:43:31.053" Score="0" Body="Badrinath or Badrinarayan Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu which is situated in the town of Badrinath in Uttarakhand, India. " OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-12T15:25:12.210" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T15:25:12.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10970" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-03-11T07:45:33.243" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-03-11T07:45:33.243" LastActivityDate="2016-03-11T07:45:33.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10971" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-03-11T07:45:33.243" Score="0" Body="A yogi is a practitioner of yoga. The term &quot;yogi&quot; is used broadly to refer to sannyasi or practitioners of meditation in a number of Indian religions. " OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="2505" LastEditDate="2016-03-12T15:24:32.850" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T15:24:32.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10972" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10960" CreationDate="2016-03-11T09:59:39.967" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Is it not the stance of the Bhagawad Gita (and consequently the Vedas)&#xA;  that matter only exists because we perceive them so?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No. Matter is not just a perception.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 13.20 — Know that &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;, both are certainly &lt;strong&gt;beginningless&lt;/strong&gt;; Transformations and &lt;em&gt;Guna&lt;/em&gt; (3 modes, &lt;em&gt;sattva, rajas, tamas&lt;/em&gt;) are known to be possible due to &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If what you called &quot;Matter&quot; is &quot;&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;&quot;, then Bhagavad Gita accepts it to be permanent (i.e. beginningless &amp;amp; hence endless). It might be retaining itself forever by continuously changing in cycles forever. Mostly, &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; is also represented by &lt;em&gt;asat&lt;/em&gt; (BG 2.16). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Which means that matter does not exist without being perceived.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Correct.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If you perceive anything, it exists, but not otherwise practically. e.g. We may not know what exists at 10 feet 30 degree angle. Because we are indifferent towards it. Similarly, certain people are indifferent to everything else, except the true self (&lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;). For them, relatively matter doesn't exist as they have attained their true nature.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&quot;A Matter is a matter of interest!&quot; :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;So if the permanence of matter is asserted, shouldn't it imply the permanence of consciousness in the material world which perceives it?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, it implies permanence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We saw above, both &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; are forever. Some people term &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; as &quot;enjoyer&quot; (or set of &quot;enjoyers&quot;) and some as &quot;consciousness&quot; (or set of &quot;consciousnesses&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Analogically, think of a river (&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;) and a swimmer (&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;). Swimmer jumps into the river and takes the form of many fishes (&lt;em&gt;Jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s). All different fishes will perceive river in various ways. Towards the end, all the fishes will magically merge back to the swimmer. After taking rest for a while, the swimmer will jump again. This keeps repeating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Which implies permanence of earthly life.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not necessarily for everyone.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Continuing above analogy, certain fishes would assume the swimmer's original form during beginning itself, certain at midway of river, certain at 70% completion and certain at very last. So depending on a kind of &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; we are, we shall get the peace when we assume our true self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earth is a too localized platform, but probably you meant &quot;state of continuous engagement in &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. Well, that means there is no &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;, but there is certainly a state where a person doesn't have to take rebirth in any possible form. So &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; does exist. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now that's a debatable topic, if the &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; is permanent or not. To me as of now, Moksha isn't retained beyond 1 &lt;em&gt;Kalpa&lt;/em&gt; (Brahma's day/cycle). After that everything repeats again. If that interests you then, you may refer below post:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10746/1049&quot;&gt;What will happen when all atmans get moksha?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-03-16T13:18:03.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10974" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-11T16:25:36.443" Score="5" ViewCount="370" Body="&lt;p&gt;If I decide to follow Hinduism as a way of life, what exactly would I have to do, strictly according to the Vedanta philosophy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know what ancient Hindu scriptures say regarding this, not the personal preference/opinion of anyone who answers this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I mean is, is there a certain set of rules I should follow (e.g., abstaining from meat, practising Yoga, meditation, etc.)?&#xA;Also, could someone suggest some books/scriptures I can read to get a better idea about what the &quot;Vedic way of life&quot; actually is?&#xA;Let me make it clear that I am NOT referring to Hinduism as a &lt;em&gt;religion&lt;/em&gt;, but as a &lt;em&gt;way of life&lt;/em&gt;, so I don't expect answers like worship a particular deity (e.g., Shiva), or perform a particular ritual (e.g., some xyz Puja).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: I have already started reading a reputed translation of the Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user5063" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-02-04T08:23:36.220" LastActivityDate="2023-11-21T16:26:43.440" Title="What should I [strictly] do to follow Hinduism as a way of life?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|dharma|culture|sects|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10975" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-11T16:32:14.693" Score="17" ViewCount="4245" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we all know, Srimad Bhagavatam is regarded as the best of the Mahapuranas. It is also the most famous and widely commented upon scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But we also have the Devi Bhagavata, which calls itself a Mahapurana, but is actually considered as an Upapurana. Many have argued and put forth their points as to which Bhagavatam is the Mahapurana, and which should be called the Upapurana. Some of those links are here:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iskcondesiretree.com/forum/topics/devi-bhagwatam-or-devi-purana-controversy&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Is-Devi-Bhagavatam-more-authentic-than-Srimad-Bhagavatam&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/NITAAI_Yoga_Forums/Ask_Spiritual_Question(s)/Devi_and_Bhagavata_Purana.htm&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/misc/mahapurana.html&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The facts gathered from some of the arguments are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Most Puranas describe the Bhagavatam as the ideal text for gaining  devotion to Vishnu.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Some scriptures like the Shiva Purana call it as the Purana describing Devi's Glories.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Devi Bhagavatam tallies fully with Mahabharata, while Bhagavatam freely digresses - the very foundation of the Bhagavatam as being narrated by Shukabrahmarshi to Parikshit is going off a tangent to the Mahabharata, because in that Parikshit builds a tower to secure himself, and Shukabrahma attains Moksha in Kailasa.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam has obviously inspired majority of Indians as compared to Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Matsya Purana lists characteristics of Bhagavata as, &quot;That which is of 18000 verses, begins with the Gayatri, describes the glories of Sarasvata Kalpa and has Vrtrasura Vadha in it.&quot; These characteristics are there in both Puranas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But even so, I found in the Bhagavatam itself subtle proofs that it is a work apart from the normal genre of Puranas. While the Puranas deal with exposition of the glories of the various deities and so on, the Bhagavatam is wholly dedicated to Krsna (Vishnu) and was written primarily on the advise of Narada, when Vyasa Bhagavan felt a void even after compiling the &lt;strong&gt;Vedas, Puranas and Mahabharata in that order&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this would mean that the eighteen Puranas were complete, but since Vyasa was still incomplete (so to say), he finally was inspired to compose Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which leads to the question itself: &lt;strong&gt;Does this mean that both Bhagavatam and Devi Bhagavatam count as Mahapuranas?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Or does it mean that the Devi Bhagavatam was (somehow) replaced by the new edition of Srimad Bhagavatam? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="20968" LastEditDate="2022-02-22T06:38:57.887" LastActivityDate="2023-09-15T02:48:31.703" Title="Can the Devi Bhagavatam and Srimad Bhagavatam co-exist?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|bhagavata-purana|vyasa|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10976" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10938" CreationDate="2016-03-11T16:46:35.870" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, don't get it done. Here's why:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of its implications is that you vow that you'll remain chaste till your life as a student/learner is completed (these ceremonies were designed back in the day when we had the Gurukul system).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So a man who has had his mundan done as a kid, he gets it &quot;undone&quot; [so to speak] just before his wedding, in a ceremony called &quot;sod-munja&quot; in Marathi (that's my mother tongue; I don't know the Hindi equivalent for that word).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ergo, as you are about to get married soon, there's no point in getting your mundan done now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for the janeo, I'm sorry, I don't know much about that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: my mum told me the significance of mundan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user5063" LastActivityDate="2016-03-11T16:46:35.870" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10977" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-11T17:06:20.663" Score="11" ViewCount="2742" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp060.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Jambu-dwípa, Vishnu, consisting of sacrifice, is worshipped, as&#xA;  the male of sacrificial rites, with sacrificial ceremonies: he is&#xA;  adored under other forms elsewhere. &lt;strong&gt;Bhárata is therefore the best of&#xA;  the divisions of Jambu-dwípa, because it is the land of works: the&#xA;  others are places of enjoyment alone. It is only after many thousand&#xA;  births, and the aggregation of much merit, that living beings are&#xA;  sometimes born in Bhárata as men&lt;/strong&gt;. The gods themselves exclaim, &quot;Happy&#xA;  are those who are born, even from the condition of gods, as men in&#xA;  Bhárata-varsha, as that is the way to the pleasures of Paradise, or&#xA;  the greater blessing of final liberation. Happy are they who,&#xA;  consigning all the unheeded rewards of their acts to the supreme and&#xA;  eternal Vishńu, obtain existence in that &lt;strong&gt;land of works&lt;/strong&gt;, as their path&#xA;  to him. We know not, when the acts that have obtained us heaven shall&#xA;  have been fully recompensed, where we shall renew corporeal&#xA;  confinement; but we know that those men are fortunate who are born&#xA;  with perfect faculties in Bhárata-varsha.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From this region heaven is obtained, or even, in some cases,&#xA;  liberation from existence; or men pass from hence into the condition&#xA;  of brutes, or fall into hell. Heaven, emancipation, a state in&#xA;  mid-air, or in the subterraneous realms, succeeds to existence here,&#xA;  and the world of acts is not the title of any other portion of the&#xA;  universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it doesn't look correct in today's context. There are many people in India who are doing crimes and acquiring bad Karma? Indeed, if we acquire Karma on this land, how can we liberate? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10615/3500&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer gives info about other islands and all people on this Earth were descendants of Grandsons of Priyavrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why only descendants of Bharatha are privileged or Why this Varsha (country) is privileged?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In Kaliyuga, Sanatana Dharma or Vedic Religion is limited to Bharatha Varsha alone. What about other Yugas? In other Yugas people were present in other islands and were worshiping Vedic Gods. Was Bharatha Varsha still Karma Bhoomi during those times?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2022-02-01T16:28:02.933" Title="Why Bharata Varsha (India) alone is called Karma Bhoomi?" Tags="|india|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10978" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-11T19:04:42.583" Score="8" ViewCount="11397" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Lingashtakam is one of the most popular Ashtakams(a Stotram with 8 verses) dedicated to Lord Shiva which praises Him in the abstract &quot;Lingam&quot; form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read it  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_shiva-lingashtakam.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,till date,i have never  encountered any website that provides any information about the author of this beautiful octet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question 1-Who composed the Lingashtakam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 7 of the said Ashtakam ends with the following line :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Asta Daridra&lt;/strong&gt; Vinasita Lingam,Tat Pranamami Sada Siva Lingam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;which refers to the Asta Daridras or the 8 types of poverties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question 2-What are these 8 types(forms) of poverties?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-12T10:18:57.820" LastActivityDate="2024-02-22T12:58:09.417" Title="Who composed &quot;Lingashtakam&quot; &amp; what are the &quot;Asta Daridras&quot; mentioned there in it?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10979" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-12T02:18:09.037" Score="5" ViewCount="1038" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can we do sandyavandanam when a baby girl is born in the family?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If no, for how long?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,what if a baby boy is born?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I tried searching, but couldn't get a proper answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4249" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-12T07:47:37.757" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T07:47:37.757" Title="Can we do Sandyavandanam when a girl child is born in the family?" Tags="|brahmins|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-03-12T15:08:14.257" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10981" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-12T04:11:37.863" Score="4" ViewCount="395" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am a daughter of Prajapati (the lord of all creatures, Brahma) and my name is Devasena. My sister Daityasena has ere this been ravished by Kesin. We two sisters with our maids habitually used to come to these Manasa mountains for pleasures with the permission of Prajapati. And the great Asura Kesin used daily to pay his court to us. Daityasena, O conqueror of Paka, listened to him, but I did not. Daityasena was, therefore, taken away by him, but, O illustrious one, thou hast rescued me with thy might. And now, O lord of the celestials, I desire that thou shouldst select an invincible husband for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O hero with long arms, I am Avala (weak) but my husband must be powerful. And by the potency of my father's boon, he will be respected by gods and Asuras alike. That manly and famous and powerful being devoted to Brahma, who is able to conquer all the celestials, Asuras, Yakshas, Kinnaras, Uragas, Rakshasas, and the evil-minded Daityas and to subdue all the worlds with thee, shall be my husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Performer of a thousand sacrifices then thought of Devasena, whom he has rescued before. And considering that this being (Skanda) was undoubtedly destined to be the husband of this lady by Brahma himself, he had her brought there, dressed her with the best apparel. And the vanquisher of Vala then said to Skanda, 'O foremost of gods, this lady was, even before thy birth, destined to be thy bride by that Self-existent Being [Brahma]. Therefore do thou duly accept her lotus-like beautiful right hand with invocation of the (marital) hymns.' Thus told, he duly married her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;link:&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/4100/wives-of-lord-kartikeya/4144#4144&quot;&gt;Wives of Lord Kartikeya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also said that Siddhi and Biddhi are the daughters of Brahma as per Ganesha Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,it is known that Sati,who is Daksha's daughter,is Brahma's grandaughter.Hence,any daughters of Brahma is Sati's aunties.This means that Devasena,Siddhi and Buddhi are Sati's aunties and hence,the grandmothers of Ganesha and Skanda.In that case,how can Ganesha and Skanda marry their own &lt;strong&gt;grandmothers&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T01:35:54.507" Title="How can Skanda and Ganesha marry Brahma's daughters?" Tags="|brahma|ganesha|parvati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10982" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-12T04:20:17.593" Score="0" ViewCount="345" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10783/how-was-goddess-manasa-born&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;,it is discussed that Manasa was born when Shiva's semen  touched a statue carved by Kadru.Can someone provide me with the story of this?Does it have any scriptual basis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T04:20:17.593" Title="What is the story Shiva spilling his semen in the case of Manasa's birth?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-03-14T07:21:44.693" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10983" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9572" CreationDate="2016-03-12T05:31:30.307" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This looks like Translation error. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-83/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This page&lt;/a&gt; gives different meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/S3swl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/S3swl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Saptame caiva Varahe Kalpe&lt;/em&gt; means Seventh and certainly known as Varaha Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Caiva = ca + iva = and (also certainly).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T05:31:30.307" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="10984" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10979" CreationDate="2016-03-12T06:10:45.763" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.salagram.net/asaucham-info.htm#WHAT%20ARE%20THE%20RULES%20FOR%20THE%20BIRTH%20AND%20DEATH%20OF%20CHILDREN?&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;9&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;WHAT ARE THE RULES FOR THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF CHILDREN?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When a child is born only the mother observes a period of sütakam lasting for 10 days, the father is purified immediately by taking a&#xA;  bath [after visiting the nursing home or the lying-in chamber].&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the child is still-born the period of asaucham for both the parents is 24 hours.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the father can do Sandhyavandanam as usual.The impurity only applies to the mother and lasts for 10 days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,the rules are same for the birth of a male child as well as that of a female child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T06:10:45.763" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10985" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-03-12T07:18:13.210" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda, born Narendranath Dutta, was prominent Hindu saint who introduced Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world. He is disciple of Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. He is perhaps best known for his speech which began, &quot;Brothers and sisters of America ...,&quot; in which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vivekananda was inclined towards spirituality from childhood. He was influenced by his Guru, Ramakrishna Deva, from whom he learnt that all living beings were an embodiment of the divine self; therefore, service to God could be rendered by service to mankind. After Ramakrishna's death, Vivekananda toured the Indian subcontinent extensively and acquired first-hand knowledge of the conditions prevailing in British India. He later traveled to the United States, representing India at the 1893 Parliament of the World Religions. Vivekananda conducted hundreds of public and private lectures and classes, disseminating tenets of Hindu philosophy in the United States, England and Europe. In India, Vivekananda is regarded as a patriotic saint and his birthday is celebrated there as National Youth Day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-12T15:23:43.507" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T15:23:43.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10986" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-03-12T07:18:13.210" Score="0" Body="Swami Vivekananda, born Narendranath Dutta, was prominent Hindu saint who introduced Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world. He is disciple of Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. " OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-12T15:24:37.570" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T15:24:37.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10987" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-12T07:23:20.393" Score="4" ViewCount="821" Body="&lt;p&gt;After Sita was exiled by Rama,why didn't she go back to Mithila?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Isn't she Mithila's princess?Even if she didn't go, why couldn't Janaka arrange for his daughter Janaki's protection in the jungle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-03-12T15:27:52.127" LastActivityDate="2019-08-24T04:02:48.463" Title="Why wouldn't Sita go back to Mithila after she was abandoned by Shri Rama?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|sita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10988" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-12T09:39:59.157" Score="4" ViewCount="2345" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of giving cash as donation, gifts or dakshina in numbers such as 51, 101, and 501?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-03T03:47:26.323" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T04:01:19.233" Title="Significance of giving Rs. 51 or 101 as donation" Tags="|belief|rituals|practice|tradition|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10989" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10065" CreationDate="2016-03-12T10:29:25.500" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/MarkandeyaPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a brief mention of King Narishyant in Markandeya Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among the eighteen sons of Marut, Narishyant was the eldest. Marut ruled over his kingdom for 70,015 years after which Narishyant succeeded him as the king. Marut went to the forest to do penance. After becoming the king, Narishyant decided to perform a grand Yagya, the like of which had never been accomplished by his ancestors. Narishyant made such huge donations to the Brahmins that it was more than enough for their future generations to come. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is Another Source about his mother Sukesha- the daughter of Kekaya or Saindhavi- the daughter of Sindhuraaj or Vayushmati- the daughter of Chediraaj.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Lngb2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Lngb2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T10:29:25.500" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10991" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-12T12:48:53.717" Score="1" ViewCount="205" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the devotees have a regular habit of donating their hair for their beloved Gods.Men ready for full hair donation and there is a priority for women such as donating of few of their hair (it is named as 'Pumudi' in Tamil side).&#xA;Famous temples like &lt;strong&gt;Tripati,Palani&lt;/strong&gt; are well known for these donations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any puranas and Vedas evidence or reasons for this practises&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so who actually starts these practises?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-10T17:05:47.677" LastActivityDate="2017-01-10T17:05:47.677" Title="What is the reason behind donating our own hair to God?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|superstitions|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-03-03T04:32:04.500" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10993" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10952" CreationDate="2016-03-12T14:33:23.463" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;To put in simple words, not only for chanting Gayathri mantra, I say this for chanting any sloka - the difference is just like film and books. When you listen to sloka or watch a film, we could just see the someone's feel when they enjoy rain shower, whereas when we sit in front of pooja room or enchant sloka in our voice is like reading a book, that is we ourselves feel the freshness and peace when we stand in rain shower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4640" LastActivityDate="2016-03-12T14:33:23.463" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10994" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-12T16:37:27.257" Score="7" ViewCount="1197" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though I don't know much about hindu Mythology , I know that Bhagavan Vishnu takes avatars to destroy evils. When I was reading Lord Vishnu's stories. I came to know that varaha avatara was taken by Lord in order to destroy Hiranyakashyapu's his brother Hiranyaksha who abducted earth to pathal loka. Vishnu as a boar went to pathal lok, destroyed the asura and brought back the earth.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now another version is,&#xA;When Vishnu and Brahma were fighting between themselves in order to find out who is the Supreme God. Then Lord Shiva appeared and put a challenge to them. The first one to see my feet or the top of my head would be the bigger diety. Both Vishnu and Brahma accepted. Shiva started to grow both upwards/downwards. Vishnu takes varaha (boar) form and stared digging deep to see the feet of Shiva. Brahma takes form of a swan and started to flying towards Shiva's head. Both failed and accepted Shiva as the bigger deity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my question is &#xA;Why Vishnu took varaha avatar ? &#xA;To destroy evil ?&#xA;Or to try to see Shiva's feet ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-03-15T18:21:04.100" LastActivityDate="2023-11-05T18:30:55.857" Title="Varaha Avatar story versions" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|shiva-purana|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10996" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="10997" CreationDate="2016-03-12T23:04:54.350" Score="6" ViewCount="16086" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where can I find English translation of complete Garuda Purana online?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Related question: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9078/2995&quot;&gt;Complete English translations of Puranas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-07-29T11:48:20.497" Title="English translation of complete Garuda Purana" Tags="|puranas|translation-request|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10997" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10996" CreationDate="2016-03-12T23:04:54.350" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Motilal Banarsidass translation of Garuda Purana by J.L. Shastri is an &lt;strong&gt;unabridged&lt;/strong&gt; translation and can be downloaded using the link below or from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9078/complete-english-translations-of-puranas/9095#9095&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6dS6102zcBgNl9jdkJBeWkyOFk/view?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana English - Motilal - 3 Volumes in 1 (PDF, 120 MB)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;1184 pages&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vol. 1 begins at page # 1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vol. 2 begins at page # 429&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vol. 3 begins at page # 839&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was also able to find a free copy of an &lt;strong&gt;abridged&lt;/strong&gt; English translation of Garuda Purana by M.N. Dutt (Manmatha Nath Dutt) at two different places:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Google Books&lt;sup&gt;++&lt;/sup&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=0Fwxjf4IM78C&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=0Fwxjf4IM78C&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Archive.org: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/garudapuranam00duttgoog&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://archive.org/details/garudapuranam00duttgoog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Proofread HTML: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-garuda-purana-dutt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-garuda-purana-dutt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you prefer PDF file, it's available via &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia802608.us.archive.org/8/items/garudapuranam00duttgoog/garudapuranam00duttgoog.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this direct link&lt;/a&gt; (32 MB).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;++&lt;/sup&gt; One advantage with the Google Books format is that it's searchable!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-29T11:48:20.497" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10998" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-13T03:14:25.993" Score="3" ViewCount="397" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Wikipedia article for Maha Shivaratri &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maha_Shivaratri#The_Story_of_King_Chitrabhanu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;narrates&lt;/a&gt; a story of how a hunter accidentally performs &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhisheka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;abhiseka&lt;/a&gt; of a Shiva linga using &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegle_marmelos&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bael&lt;/a&gt; leaves on the night of Shivaratri and goes to Sivaloka (Kailasa) upon his death:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once upon a time, &lt;strong&gt;King Chitrabhanu&lt;/strong&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Ikshvaku&lt;/strong&gt; dynasty, who ruled over the whole of Jambudvipa (India), was observing a fast with his wife, it being the day of Maha Shivaratri. The sage Ashtavakra came on a visit to the court of the king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sage asked the king the purpose of his observing the fast. King Chitrabhanu explained that he had a gift of remembering the incidents of his past birth, and &lt;strong&gt;in his previous life&lt;/strong&gt; he had been a hunter on Varanasi and his name was &lt;strong&gt;Suswara&lt;/strong&gt;. His only livelihood was to kill and sell birds and animals. The day before the new moon, while roaming through forests in search of animals, he saw a deer, but before his arrow flew he noticed the deer's family and their sadness at its impending death. So he let it live. He had still not caught anything when night fell, so he climbed a tree for shelter. It happened to be a Bael tree. His canteen leaked water, so he was both hungry and thirsty. These two torments kept him awake throughout the night, thinking of his poor wife and children who were starving and anxiously awaiting his return. &lt;strong&gt;To pass the time, he engaged himself in plucking the Bael leaves and dropping them down onto the ground&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The next day he returned home and bought some food for himself and his family. The moment he was about to break his fast a stranger came to him, begging for food. He served the food first to stranger and only ate afterward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the time of his death, he saw two messengers of Lord Shiva, sent to conduct his soul to the abode of Shiva. He learnt then for the first time of the great merit he had earned by unconscious worship of Shiva during the night of Maha Shivaratri. The messengers told him that there had been a Lingam (a symbol for the worship of Shiva) at the bottom of the tree. The leaves he dropped from the Bael tree had fallen into the shape of a Lingam, in imitation of Shiva's ritual worship. The water from his leaky canteen had washed the Lingam (also a ritual action), and he had fasted all day and all night. Thus, he unconsciously had worshiped Lord Shiva. At the conclusion of the tale the King said that he had lived in the abode of the Shiva and enjoyed divine bliss for a long time before being reborn as Chitrabhanu. &lt;strong&gt;This story is narrated in the Garuda Purana. &lt;sup&gt;[8]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sup&gt;[8]&lt;/sup&gt; Garuḍa Purāṇa 1.124 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now Garuda Purana (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/garudapuranam00duttgoog#page/n385/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter 124&lt;/a&gt;) has a slightly different story, in that, the hunter's name is Sundara Sena and not Suswara. And it doesn't mention anything about him reincarnating as Chitrabhanu of the Ikshvaku race:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CHAPTER CXXIV.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Once upon a time, the vicious &lt;strong&gt;Sundara Sena&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;strong&gt;king of&lt;/strong&gt; the country of &lt;strong&gt;Arvuda&lt;/strong&gt;, went out, with his dogs, on a hunting excursion in the forest. But the day wore on and night came without any game even being sighted. The hunter, hungry and jaded with the day's trouble, sat down weary and watchful in a bower on the bank of a pool on the hillbrow. But lo, there happened to be a phallic emblem in that bower, and the leaves of the Vilva tree, which was shaken by the impact of the hunter's body as he strove to lie down on the ground, rustled and fell in heaps over the emblem, without his knowledge. The fowler fetched water from the pool and sprinkled it over the floor of the bower to lay down the dust ; and drops of water thus dribbled down over the head of the emblem from the tips of his fingers. Suddenly there fell down a shaft from his quiver on the ground, and the fowler crawled on his all fours to lift it up, when unknowingly he touched the emblem with his chest. Thus he touched and bathed and &lt;strong&gt;worshipped a phallic emblem on the night of the Vratam&lt;/strong&gt;, which he passed in a vigil, though for quite a different purpose. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The fowler returned home on the following morning and took his meal with his wife and children. So years came and years went away, and the fowler died a natural death at the end of his appointed days, when the emissaries of Death came to take his unclean spirit in fetters to the mansion of their lord. But lo, my own warders sprang upon them, and overpowered them in the scuffle that ensued, and finally brought him, a free and unfettered spirit, to my own special region of bliss (Siva-loka) in the company of that faithful dog which watched by him on the night of the chase in the bower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mahashivratri.org/the-legend-of-lubdhaka.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;blog post&lt;/a&gt; claims that Bhishma also narrates the story to Yudhishtira while lying on the bed of arrows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Different Version of the Legend (Story of King Chitrabhanu):&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Shanti Parva&lt;/strong&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;, talks about the legend of King Chitrabhanu observing the festival. The story, as &lt;strong&gt;told by Bhishma&lt;/strong&gt; while resting on the bed of arrows and discoursing on Dharma...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's the true origin of the story &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maha_Shivaratri#The_Story_of_King_Chitrabhanu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;cited&lt;/a&gt; in Wikipedia and the above &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mahashivratri.org/the-legend-of-lubdhaka.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;blog&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to reconcile these different accounts of the same story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-03-13T03:14:25.993" Title="Is it really King Chitrabhanu of Ikshvaku race that's mentioned in the legend of Maha Shivaratri?" Tags="|shiva|mahabharata|shiva-lingam|bhishma|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="10999" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="29123" CreationDate="2016-03-13T05:49:54.660" Score="22" ViewCount="3619" Body="&lt;p&gt;Quoting from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwikwJ7tzr3LAhUKC44KHeHJD0EQFgghMAA&amp;amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FAgni_Purana&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNHZNzDFEI7nw39s27CTr6JMypz0oA&amp;amp;sig2=n0X-NhPdTi_-9fywnzGClA&amp;amp;bvm=bv.116573086,d.c2E&quot;&gt;Agni Purana&lt;/a&gt;, as found on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/agnipurana-6.htm&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page, while discussing the proper conduct of students (brahmacharis), it is stated that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first stage in life is that of brahmacharya (student-hood). &lt;strong&gt;A&#xA;  student should never eat honey or meat&lt;/strong&gt; and should never indulge in&#xA;  singing or dancing. He should completely give up violence and speaking&#xA;  to women. His duties are to discuss the shastras (holy texts) and&#xA;  associate with learned men. Apart from that, he will meditate in&#xA;  solitude on the true nature of the brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Restriction of eating meat is understood, but why is there a restriction on consumption of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhu&quot;&gt;madhu&lt;/a&gt; (honey/alcohol)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is it a mistranslation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This suspicion grew on my mind when I found another translation for &quot;madhu&quot; as &quot;alcoholic drink.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from the 2&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt; verse of the Phala Sruti of the Surya Ashtakam found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Surya_ashtakam&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aamisham &lt;strong&gt;madhu&lt;/strong&gt; panam cha, Ya karothi raver dhine, Saptha janma bhaved&#xA;  rogi, Janma janma dharidhratha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translated as-The one who eats meat, Or drinks &lt;strong&gt;alcoholic drinks&lt;/strong&gt; on&#xA;  Sundays, Will become sick for seven births, And would be poor from&#xA;  birth to death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, does &quot;madhu&quot; refer to honey or an alcoholic drink? If it's the former (honey), then why is it prohibited from consumption?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-19T08:42:36.253" LastActivityDate="2021-05-25T05:26:33.030" Title="Why is madhu (honey) considered a prohibited food in brahmacharya?" Tags="|scripture|food|brahmacharya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11000" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-13T06:37:22.603" Score="2" ViewCount="370" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Foundation&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At beginning of a cycle (say &lt;em&gt;Kalpa&lt;/em&gt;), only &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; (pure consciousness of &lt;em&gt;Saguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt;) is relevant as it hasn't come into contact with &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; (say &lt;em&gt;MAyA&lt;/em&gt; part of &lt;em&gt;Saguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt;). Now from my limited understanding, I draw an analogy of a swimmer and a river:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; (swimmer) comes in contact as enjoyer/consumer of the &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; (river). To be able to enjoy/consume this &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; effectively, not only it takes various forms, but also forgets its true nature.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here various forms are us, the &lt;em&gt;Jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s, who have forgotten their true nature individually. Certain &lt;em&gt;avatAra&lt;/em&gt;s which still retain their true nature (consciousness), come over at times to rescue these bewildered &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s. Either they enlighten them or remove the layer of &lt;em&gt;MAyA&lt;/em&gt; (by killing physical body) around them. Consider &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; as an aspect of subtle body and consciousness (&lt;em&gt;ChetanA&lt;/em&gt;).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman = Purusha + Prakruti&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Jeeva = Purusha&lt;sub&gt;(part)&lt;/sub&gt; + Prakruti&lt;sub&gt;(part)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Jeeva = Brahman&lt;sub&gt;(part)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Legends&lt;/strong&gt;: Brahman = Saguna Brahman, Purusha = Consciousness, Prakruti = Elementary nature of 3 modes&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For sake of example, assume that the &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; is divided into &quot;N&quot; unique forms of sub-&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s during its peak. Gradually these N &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s will merge back to &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; at end of &lt;em&gt;kalpa&lt;/em&gt;. This part is according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gita 9.7-9.8&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here, N (number of &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s) is not infinite, but it can be countlessly large. Because if N was infinite then, threading (not creation) and merger (not destruction) of these N &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s, both will take forever. In such case a &lt;em&gt;Kapla&lt;/em&gt; would never finish as described in those verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Possibility&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isn't it possible that, 1 &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; to N &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s &amp;amp; return is not instantaneous. It's rather gradual; i.e. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;1 ==&amp;gt; N / 1bn ==&amp;gt; N / 1mn ==&amp;gt; N / 1k ==&amp;gt; N ==&amp;gt; N / 1k ==&amp;gt; N / 1mn ==&amp;gt; N / 1bn ==&amp;gt; 1&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above is just a presentation, which suggests that from 1 &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; less &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s are threaded; then these less are divided into further more; followed by even further more. After then, gradual decline in N and finally 1!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;If this is true then it means that, after beginning of &lt;em&gt;kalpa&lt;/em&gt; multiple people can share a common previous birth. Similarly, towards end of &lt;em&gt;kalpa&lt;/em&gt;, multiple people can have same next birth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why I ask this?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We all know that current population is way too high compared to previous centuries and previous centuries were high in population compared to the centuries before. So a natural doubts comes that from where all the new &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s are popping up? A strong argument against that notion is that there are too many galaxies with earth like planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However we all agree that, the certain men of past were stronger in their deeds (if not intelligence or power); e.g. Hitler, mother Teresa. For them to consume the earthly deeds (excluding heaven/hell), it will take too many births. It would be 'practical' to be threaded with lesser important &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s for them. Again there can be multiple valid arguments against this notion as well and this will lead to endless debate, which is not intended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Question&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any indirect/direct (scriptures of philosophical sects) proofs which subscribes or reject the possibility, where a &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; is divided gradually to multiple &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s over the time and then again gradually merged back?  (i.e. many people on earth today can belong to single Duryodhana, Karna etc.)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Clarification&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;From various contents in this thread, I see there are lot of disagreements due to &quot;naming convention&quot;. Here main Q is related to amalgamation and reverse of various &lt;em&gt;Jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s to/from &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jeeva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: Some people believe that &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s are eternal like &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; and are not created or destroyed. Some people believe, that they are integral part of &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, which are generated by Brahman and then merged back to it after &lt;em&gt;Pralaya&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For this Q, kindly consider &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; as something which differs between you and me, yet is common between yours &amp;amp; mine previous births. i.e. The &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; sustaining my body is similar to the &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; of my last birth and before that. However it's different than the &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; of your body.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I call it &quot;consciousness&quot; as described above. However you may name it anything else. But hope that clears the doubt.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: There are 2 aspects of this. &lt;em&gt;Saguna&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Nirguna&lt;/em&gt;. According to BG 8.20, &lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt; is eternal. Out of which everything is created (BG 9.5).&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T11:28:45.323" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T12:26:49.373" Title="Is there a possibility of GRADUAL conversion of &quot;Purusha&quot; to &quot;Jeeva-s&quot; and similar gradual return?" Tags="|scripture|purusha|prakruti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11001" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-13T07:24:57.680" Score="2" ViewCount="296" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kg8Sk.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Dominic Goodall's translation of Ramakantha's Paramokshanirasa Karika Vritti (a Shaiva Siddhanta work which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10706/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), Goodall describes in a footnote one difference between the Purva Mimamsa school and the Vedanta school.  According to the Purva Mimamsa school, the Vedas only reveal injunctions concerning Dharma, i.e. sentences like &amp;quot;if you perform this Yagna, then you will go to Devaloka&amp;quot;.  They thought everything else in the Vedas was just Arthavada, statements that were just intended to glorify the actions prescribed in the Vedas.  This is in contrast to the Vedanta school, which believes that the Vedas (specifically the Upanishads) give knowledge of Brahman as well, not just knowledge of Dharma.  Here's what Goodall says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedantin stresses that the Vedas are a means of knowing established objects (siddharthas), i.e. facts, for this was disputed by the Mimamsakas.  For the lattter, Vedic scripture states not facts but injunctions (vidhis), which are things to be accomplished (sadhyas, karyas).  In other words it concerns dharma, not brahman. Upanishadic statements about brahman are simply of the nature of praise (arthavada), the purpose of which is to provoke the listener into performing certain rituals....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As support for their view, the Mimamsakas adduced the principle that to be a pramana is to reveal things that are previously unknown (anadhigatarthagantri), that fall beyond the reach of any of the other means of knowledge (pramanantaragochara). dharma is clearly such a thing - there is no way other than scripture to know that by performing a certain ritual one will reach heaven - &lt;strong&gt;but surely, argued the Mimamsakas, established entities such as brahman fall within the range of other means of knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;. The Vedantin response was that the Vedas are authoritative with respect to brahman, even though it is a siddartha, because its identity with the Self or the world, as expressed in such statements as tvam brahmeti or sarvam khalv idam brahma, cannot be known by other means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, in Hindu philosophy there are three main Pramanas or valid means of knowledge: Pratyaksha or sensory evidence, Anumana or reasoning, and Shabda or revelation/scripture.  And it seems that both the Purva Mimamsa school and the Vedanta school agreed that something is only a valid means of knowledge in situations where it is impossible for the other Pramanas to reveal the truth.  Now in the case of knowledge of Brahman, the Vedanta school believed that the Vedas are a valid means of knowing Brahman, because knowledge of Brahman is beyond the reach of both the senses and reason.  So only scripture can reveal the nature of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the Purva Mimamsa school's view.  Goodall says &amp;quot;but surely, argued the Mimamsakas, established entities such as brahman fall within the range of other means of knowledge&amp;quot;.  So my question is, does the Purva Mimamsa school believe that knowledge of Brahman can be acquired through the senses or reason? The reason I ask is that as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Purva Mimamsa school often bordered on atheism or agnosticism, so I'm surprised that it maintains Brahman exists at all, let alone that knowledge of Brahman can be revealed by methods more direct than scriptural testimony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any Purva Mimamsa works, for instance Jaimini's Mimamsa Sutras or the works of Kumarila Bhatta, that shed light on Goodall's claim?  And if Goodall is correct,  then what exactly did the Purva Mimamsa school believe was the method to acquire knowledge of Brahman?  Do they believe that he can be perceived by the senses, like a god appearing before you?  Or do they just think the existence of Brahman can be established through logic, like the Nyaya school believes (as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6912/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T07:33:07.030" Title="Does the Purva Mimamsa school believe that Brahman can be known through the senses or reason?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|brahman|shaiva-siddhanta|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11002" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2392" CreationDate="2016-03-13T09:13:45.353" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a reference from Uddhava Geeta (in Bhagwat Purana) explaining the separate paths for varying sadhakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wNKIW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wNKIW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gyan, Karma and Bhakti&lt;/strong&gt;. These 3 alone are the main paths&#xA;for true welfare of a person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Those persons who have renounced ritualistic Vedic actions&lt;/strong&gt; (like social rules, order) and their fruits, they are &lt;strong&gt;eligible for Gyan Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In contrary to that, &lt;strong&gt;people who are unable to give worldly duties&lt;/strong&gt; and their fruits, for them &lt;strong&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/strong&gt; is prescribed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;While &lt;strong&gt;those who are neither too renunciate and nor too involved in worldly affairs&lt;/strong&gt; and because of previous birth's inclinations &lt;strong&gt;have attained faith in the glories of God&lt;/strong&gt;, for them &lt;strong&gt;Bhakti Yog&lt;/strong&gt; is most suitable. These people will attain liberation through Bhakti alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding &lt;strong&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;, like &lt;strong&gt;Vedic rituals&lt;/strong&gt;, Varna&#xA;Ashram etc., &lt;strong&gt;should be followed as long as one does not develop&#xA;Vairagya from Vedic actions&lt;/strong&gt; and their fruits like heavenly pleasures or does not develop faith in God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This has been explained in Bhagwat Geeta (3.3) by Krishna as well:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sri-bhagavan uvaca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;loke smin dvi-vidha nistha pura prokta mayanagha  jnana-yogena sankhyanam karma-yogena yoginam&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Lord said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;In this world there is a twofold path, as I said before, O sinless&#xA;one, the path of knowledge of the Sankhyas and the path of action of&#xA;the Yogis!&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-irtM_BgePk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-irtM_BgePk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, there is also a Kriya Yoga Marg as it is based on breathing exercises and doing asanas based on Patanjali's Ashtang Yoga which even atheists like Buddhists, Samkhya etc., also follow apart from their traditional indoctrinated knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-16T15:28:47.270" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11003" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10952" CreationDate="2016-03-13T09:34:03.310" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chanting helps in focusing concentration,improves breathe system of the body and the associated vibration acts as a positive points to the immune system. Listening needs more attention for achieving body and mind synchronisation. Hence listening and chanting both have their  merits and demerits. Effect will be same if both listening and chanting done with devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5071" LastActivityDate="2016-03-13T09:34:03.310" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11004" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11000" CreationDate="2016-03-13T12:02:06.723" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;First there are an infinite number of jivas; infinite means infinite. Second, also remember that all jivas may not be alive at this instant; there are jivas that are going through a period of death now also. Third, an individual jiva takes birth that is necessary for its karma at that given point; so once having died, a new birth may be a hundreds or a thousands years after its last birth. Fourth, remember that you, yourself, the 'I&quot; that you think of as yourself, is not the only jiva inside your body. Each &lt;em&gt;individual cell&lt;/em&gt; that compose your body as well as the hundreds of millions of bacteria in you, has its own separate jiva which is going through its own evolution. Infinite means infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we speak of jiva, we are talking about the atman embodied. You refer to the jiva as being an aspect of the subtle body. This is not the meaning of jiva. Jiva means the embodied atman. The subtle body consists of 3 kosas. So the atman when embodied in either the subtle or gross body is jiva. The individual atman is the same as the Atman which is the same as Brahman. Individual jivas are the reflection of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his &lt;em&gt;Introduction&lt;/em&gt; (sub-heading &lt;em&gt;The Jiva's real nature&lt;/em&gt;) to his translation of the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Vireswarananda says (pp xxix-xxxi, also available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62756.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62756.html&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now we come to Sutras 2. 3. 16-53 which deal with the nature of the soul and its relation to Brahman. All except Sankara interpret these Sutras to mean that the soul is atomic, an agent, and a part of the Lord. Sankara alone says that the atomicity, agency, and being a part are not the Jiva’s real nature, but its nature as a Samsârin (transmigrating entity) and that in reality it is all-pervasive and identical with Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The author defines Brahman as the cause etc. of this world of sentient and insentient things in Sutra 2, referring to the Taittiriya text, “That out of which all these creatures are born&quot; etc. (3. 1). It is clear, therefore, that the world of sentient and insentient things has sprung from Brahman. Hence the Jivas too have sprung from the Lord. But in Sutra 17 the author says that the individual soul is not produced. Thus he contradicts his definition and also the enunciation of the scriptures that “by the knowledge of one thing everything else is known” (Chh. 6. 1). The Sutrakâra at every place makes this enunciation the corner-stone of his argument. So we have to reconcile it and the author’s definition of Brahman with his statement in Sutra 17 which drives us to the conclusion that the Jiva as such, as a Samsârin, is an effect, but in its real nature it is eternal and identical with Brahman. That the nature of the Jiva as we experience it is unreal is made clear by him in Sutra 16. What originates is its connection with its adjuncts, gross and subtle, which is unreal. From this standpoint it is also clear why the author treats the question of the Jiva’s nature and its relation to Brahman in this section which reconciles contradictions in the Sruti texts with respect to creation. There are different statements about the nature of the Jiva also and these he reconciles in this section, showing thereby that in its real nature it is not created and is identical with Brahman, but as a Samsârin it is an effect, atomic, an agent, and a part of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even as Iswara or Brahman limited by Nescience is not eternal, so is the Jiva limited by the body, mind, etc, not eternal, but in its true nature it is eternal. Bereft of their Upâdhis both are Pure Intelligence and identical. That is why the Taittiriya Upanishad after saying, “Existence, Knowledge, Infinite is Brahman” (2. 1) says, “From That verily—from this Self—is the ether born” etc. (2. I), thus identifying the self as bereft of all its Upâdhis with Brahman. Taittiriya 2. 1, and 3. 1 cited by the Sutrakâra in his definition of Brahman all refer to the same Pure Intelligence. Thus the one ‘Existence, Knowledge, Infinite’ which is Pure Intelligence, reflected in Nescience is Iswara, and reflected in the Antah-karana (internal organ) is the Jiva, which is borne out by the scriptural statement, “This Jiva has the effect for the adjunct and Īswara has the cause for the adjunct” (Sukharahasya Up. 2. 12). This seems to be the true view-point which has guided the aphorist in framing the Sutras of Section 3, Chapter II and in which sense Sankara also has interpreted them. The enunciation also is not contradicted according to this interpretation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Râmânuja the souls are really effects of Brahman but have existed in It from all eternity as a mode or Prakâra of Brahman. So also have the elements. Yet the latter are said to originate, as at the time of creation they undergo an essential change of nature. But the souls do not undergo such a change, they are always cognizing agents, but at the time of creation there is an expansion of thêir intelligence and in this sense alone, i.e. in the sense that there is no essential change in their nature at creation, are the souls said to be not created (vide Sri Bhâshya 2. 3. 18) while the elements which undergo change in their essential nature are said to be created. Bâdarâyana nowhere says that the souls and Prakriti which form the body of Brahman are Its effects; nor does he anywhere declare such a difference between the souls and the elements. Again, according to Râmânuja Brahman means not pure Being but as qualified by the souls and matter for Its body. This very conception of Brahman establish that the relation between the souls and Brahman is as between a quality and the thing qualified and consequently 2. 3. 43 is redundant if the word ‘part’ there should be interpreted to convey this idea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Râmânuja sees a refutation of Advaita in Sutras 50-53. This does not seem to be intelligible at all, for the Advaitins do not say that the Jiva is all-pervading in its relative state. It is so in the state of release. Sankara makes it clear that the Jiva as such is limited and subject to injunctions and prohibitions, through its connection with a gross body (2. 3. 48), and that even after the gross body falls, on account of its finer Upâdhis, the Antahkarana etc. which accompany it even after death (4. 2. 1-0), it still continues to be individualized (2. 3. 30), and so there is no confusion in fruits of actions done in the gross body (2. 3. 49 and 50). It is only when this Upâdhi also, which being something created and not eternal (vide 2. 4) and therefore liable to destruction, is rent asundei, that the Jiva attains its real nature and is all-pervading. As such. Râmâjiuja’s refutation of Advaita falls flat. Sankara’s interpretation of these Sutras on the other hand is happy. The Sutrakâra, having established that the Jiva in its relative state is atomic and an agent but in reality aH-pervading, refutes the view of those who hold that the Jivas are many and all-pervading in their relative state itself. Nimbârka and Vallabha also see the same subject in this topic which shows that Râmânuja’s attempt to refute Advaita is far-fetched and not at all what the Sutrakâra (aphorist) means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nimbârka too regards the Jivas and Prakriti as effects of Brahman; but while matter undergoes further modification after creation, the souls do not and in this sense the soul is said to be eternal by him also. Such a view stands refuted by the same arguments as are applied against Râmânuja’s view. Coming to Sutra 43 which says the Jiva is different as well as non-different from Brahman, it has already been shown by Sankara in 2. 1. 14 that such a thing is not possible in the same entity and that nondifference alone is real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let us now conclude this topic by considering the reasonableness or otherwise of taking Sutras 19-28 as the decisive view of the author. According to this view the soul is atomic, for the Sruti declares it to be so (Mu. 3. 1. 9) and other texts mention its passing out of the body, going to heaven, etc. But then the Sruti also describes the Supreme Self as atomic in texts like, “Smaller than a grain of rice, smaller than a grain of barley” etc. (Chh. 3. 14. 3). So how can we say that the Jiva alone is atomic and not the Lord? It may be said that texts say that Brahman is all-pervading. “All-pervading like the ether and eternal” etc.; “Greater than the sky, greater than heaven” etc. But then the Sruti texts describe the soul also as all-pervading: “He is indeed the great unborn Self” (Brih. 4. 4. 22); “Just as when a pot is carried, the pot alone is carried, not the ether inside it, even so is the Jiva compared to the ether,” which expressly says it is all-pervading. Nor will it serve any purpose to say that Brahman, being the material cause of the world, must be all-pervasive, for even the atomic Jiva creates several bodies (Kâyavyuha) and rules them and so Brahman though the material cause can yet be atomic. So neither by the Sruti texts nor by reasoning can the differentiation of Brahman and the Jiva as all-pervasive and atomic be justified. But according to Advaita there is no disparity in its reasoning in the two cases. Brahman due to Upâdhi (adjunct) appears atomic but in reality It is all-pervasive. So also is the Jiva in its real nature all-pervading and therefore identical with Brahman, though it appears to be atomic, an agent and so on owing to its limiting adjunct, the Antahkarana. The primary texts say that Brahman and the Jiva in its real nature are all-pervading. The texts which speak of atomicity etc. are of a secondary import and so have to be explained otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You also refer to Saguna Brahman coming into contact with Prakriti. Saguna Brahman is Brahman (Nirguna) seen through Maya or the gunas. You cannot think of Sanguna Brahman separate from Prakriti. Krishna says in Gita 9.7 (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Kunti, all the beings go back at the end of a cycle to My Prakriti. I project them forth again at the beginning of a cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and Sankara's commentary on this verse says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...to My Prakrti which consists of the three &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; (qualities; see 7.13) and is (called My) lower Nature...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V7, pp 191-193 and here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Conversations and Dialogues&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;From The Diary of a Disciple&lt;/em&gt; sub-sub-heading &lt;em&gt;XV&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Disciple: Sir, is there any such statement in the Upanishads that Ishvara is an all-powerful Person? But people generally believe in such an Ishvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swamiji: The highest principle, the Lord of all, cannot be a Person. The Jiva is an individual and the sum total of all Jivas is the Ishvara. In the Jiva, Avidyâ, or nescience, is predominant, but Ishvara controls Maya composed of Avidya and Vidyâ and independently projects this world of moving and immovable things out of Himself. But Brahman transcends both the individual and collective aspects, the Jiva and Ishvara. In Brahman there is no part. It is for the sake of easy comprehension that parts have been imagined in It. That part of Brahman in which there is the superimposition of creation, maintenance and dissolution of the universe has been spoken of as Ishvara in the scriptures, while the other unchangeable portion, with reference to which there is no thought of duality, is indicated as Brahman. But do not on that account think that Brahman is a distinct and separate substance from the Jivas and the universe. The Qualified Monists hold that it is Brahman that has transformed Itself into Jivas and the universe. The Advaitins on the contrary maintain that Jivas and the universe have been merely superimposed on Brahman. But in reality there has been no modification in Brahman. The Advaitin says that the universe consists only of name and form. It endures only so long as there are name and form. When through meditation and other practices name and form are dissolved, then only the transcendent Brahman remains. Then the separate reality of Jivas and the universe is felt no longer. Then it is realised that one is the Eternal Pure Essence of Intelligence, or Brahman. The real nature of the Jiva is Brahman. When the veil of name and form vanishes through meditation etc., then that idea is simply realised. This is the substance of pure Advaita. The Vedas, the Vedanta and all other scriptures only explain this idea in different ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Disciple: How then is it true that Ishvara is an almighty Person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swamiji: Man is man in so far as he is qualified by the limiting adjunct of mind. Through the mind he has to understand and grasp everything, and therefore whatever he thinks must be limited by the mind. Hence it is the natural tendency of man to argue, from the analogy of his own personality, the personality of Ishvara (God). Man can only think of his ideal as a human being. When buffeted by sorrow in this world of disease and death he is driven to desperation and helplessness, then he seeks refuge with someone, relying on whom he may feel safe. But where is that refuge to be found? The omnipresent Atman which depends on nothing else to support It is the only Refuge. At first man does not find that. When discrimination and dispassion arise in the course of meditation and spiritual practices, he comes to know it. But in whatever way he may progress on the path of spirituality, everyone is unconsciously awakening Brahman within him. But the means may be different in different cases. Those who have faith in the Personal God have to undergo spiritual practices holding on to that idea. If there is sincerity, through that will come the awakening of the lion of Brahman within. The knowledge of Brahman is the one goal of all beings but the various ideas are the various paths to it. Although the real nature of the Jiva is Brahman, still as he has identification with the qualifying adjunct of the mind, he suffers from all sorts of doubts and difficulties, pleasure and pain. But everyone from Brahmâ down to a blade of grass is advancing towards the realisation of his real nature. And none can escape the round of births and deaths until he realises his identity with Brahman. Getting the human birth, when the desire for freedom becomes very strong, and along with it comes the grace of a person of realisation, then man's desire for Self-knowledge becomes intensified. Otherwise the mind of men given to lust and greed never inclines that way. How should the desire to know Brahman arise in one who has the hankering in his mind for the pleasures of family life, for wealth and for fame? He who is prepared to renounce all, who amid the strong current of the duality of good and evil, happiness and misery, is calm, steady, balanced, and awake to his Ideal, alone endeavours to attain to Self-knowledge. He alone by the might of his own power tears asunder the net of the world. &quot; —Breaking the barriers of Maya, he emerges like a mighty lion.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-03-13T12:02:06.723" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11005" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-13T13:30:32.993" Score="15" ViewCount="229493" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that twitching of eyes indicates something? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it give us signal of something good or bad that is going to happen in the future?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of left eye twitching and right eye twitching?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is anything related to eye twitching and its significance mentioned in our scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or can anyone give me examples from history?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4314" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-06-09T06:56:47.287" LastActivityDate="2019-02-17T15:02:49.640" Title="Is there any significace of twitching of eyes?" Tags="|scripture|belief|culture|superstitions|omens|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11008" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-13T19:56:55.787" Score="5" ViewCount="6333" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story of Ashvatthama's mani (jewel)? How did he get it? What purpose did it serve?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what is the Aishika weapon used by Arjuna? Is it a dagger?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After that, Ashvatthama, the son of Drona, determined to storm the Pandava's camp by surprise at night, and to annihilate the Pandava-army while peacefully lulled in the lap of sleep. Bent on avenging the death of his father Drona, he stealthily entered the Pandava's camp, and brooding over the death of his illustrious progenitor, he severed with his sword the heads of Dhrishtadyumna and the five sons of Draupadi. Arjuna, maddened by the agonising waitings of Draupadi, took the fugitive miscreant a captive, and &lt;strong&gt;cut out of his (Ashvatthama's) head&lt;/strong&gt; the &lt;strong&gt;famous gem&lt;/strong&gt; with the means of his &lt;strong&gt;Aishika&lt;/strong&gt;-weapon. [Garuda Purana, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/garudapuranam00duttgoog#page/n441/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ch. 145&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-03-20T06:53:03.830" Title="What is the story of Ashvatthama's mani (jewel)?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|ashwatthama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11009" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-14T03:02:51.413" Score="3" ViewCount="229" Body="&lt;p&gt;After reading &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6682/who-were-the-previous-indras-that-incarnated-as-the-pandavas&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, I decided to do some research.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However,there were two contradicting ideas: some said that Shiva had &lt;strong&gt;4&lt;/strong&gt; Indras trapped in the cave while others said that there were &lt;strong&gt;5&lt;/strong&gt; Indras.Note that these Indras were there before the present Indra came.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How many Indras did Shiva really imprison?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T13:24:59.243" Title="How many Indras did Shiva imprison?" Tags="|shiva|pandavas|indra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11012" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-14T04:32:52.870" Score="1" ViewCount="181" Body="&lt;p&gt;I made a vow to God &amp;amp; I broke it. What can be done ❔&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5078" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T09:19:37.410" Title="What will happen if I break a vow to God" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-03-14T07:22:46.663" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11014" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8133" CreationDate="2016-03-14T06:24:02.453" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you had made a promise then you should try to keep it by any means.If its a vow to God ,done ritualistically, then not doing as promised is even a greater sin as per our scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please refer to description of sins and the related Hells (Narakas) found on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/bhagavatam5e-7.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page in Sri Devi Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On that page you will find descriptions of what happens if one makes false promise under various circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from the above link:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now if anybody makes a false promise or swears falsely, taking the&#xA;  Tûlasî leaf in his hands, if anybody makes a false promise, taking the&#xA;  Ganges water, S’âlagrâma stone, or any other images of God in his&#xA;  hand; if anybody swears falsely, placing his right palm on the palm of&#xA;  another; if anybody swears falsely, being in a temple or touching a&#xA;  Brâhmana or a cow; if anybody acts against his friends or others, if&#xA;  he be treacherous or if he gives a false evidence; then all these&#xA;  persons go to Jvâlâ Mukha hell, and remain there for fourteen Indra’s&#xA;  life periods, chastised and beaten by My messengers and feeling pain&#xA;  as if one’s body is being burnt by red hot coal. One who gives a false&#xA;  evidence, with the Tûlasî (holy basil) in his hand becomes a Chândâla&#xA;  for seven births; one who makes a false promise with the Ganges water&#xA;  in his hand, becomes a Mlechcha for five births; one who swears&#xA;  falsely while touching the S’âlagrâma stone, becomes a worm of the&#xA;  faeces for seven births; one who swears falsely, touching the image of&#xA;  the God, becomes a worm in a Brâhmin’s house for seven births; one who&#xA;  gives a false evidence touching with the right hand, becomes a serpent&#xA;  for seven births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also refer to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/mantras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page and please read what is written regarding  taking a sankalpa(vow) before chanting any Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from that page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you have taken a vow to do X number of japas in Y number of days –&#xA;  jolly well do as vowed! No short cuts and no excuses. This is one&#xA;  failure for which the Gods make you pay! So think and calculate&#xA;  carefully (use a calculator please!) and keep an emergency cushion,&#xA;  before you take a vow!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,in short,making a vow and not fulfilling it is NOT something good and more so if its   done in a ritualistic manner(like taking vows touching Holy objects,or while taking Holy water in hand or making vows with the appropriate hand mudra(the sankalpa mudra)).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But having said that,don't worry.In our Sasthras there is a remedy for every problem.There are prayaschittas for every sin.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prayaschittas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prayaschitta is done for the destruction of sin. In the Code of Manu&#xA;  you will find various kinds of Prayaschitta for the destruction of&#xA;  various kinds of sins, such as the murder of a Brahmin, killing of a&#xA;  cow, drinking alcohol or taking forbidden foods, adultery, etc.&#xA;  Prayaschitta is of two kinds, viz., 1. Extraordinary (Asaadharana) and&#xA;  2. Ordinary (Saadharana).....  &lt;strong&gt;Complete fasting on Ekadasi and Pradosha days destroys many sins. Every one of you should practise&#xA;  this.&lt;/strong&gt; Bathing in the Ganga, Japa and ordinary pilgrimage constitute&#xA;  ordinary Prayaschitta for the destruction of small sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above prayaschitta measures are taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1184&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T09:19:37.410" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T09:19:37.410" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11015" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12423" CreationDate="2016-03-14T06:38:18.360" Score="9" ViewCount="4098" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently saw a spiritual TV episode on Sundara Kanda and in that the host said that prior to Sita, Ravana kidnapped 25 or so women (I can't recollect the exact number).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this true? Could someone help me with a citation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3247" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-18T17:47:31.093" LastActivityDate="2024-01-10T14:20:10.370" Title="Besides Sita, how many other women did Ravana kidnap?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|sita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11017" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11009" CreationDate="2016-03-14T13:22:16.380" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01200.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata Lord Shiva had imprisoned four Indras in the cave of mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The illustrious Isana of fierce energy then said unto him, 'Act not, O Sakra, ever again in this way.Remove this huge stone, for thy strength and energy are immeasurable, and enter the hole (it will disclose) where await some others possessing the splendour of the sun and who are all like unto thee.' Indra, then, on removing that stone, beheld a cave in the breast of that king of mountains, &lt;strong&gt;within which were four others resembling himself&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the conclusion is that Lord Shiva had Imprisoned four Indras in the cave and further the fifth Indra ( that was the Indra of that time ) get imprisoned by him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2505" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T13:22:16.380" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11019" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-14T16:08:06.187" Score="3" ViewCount="695" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Rupa Gosvami, the disciple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, has written two very beautiful plays called Vidagdha Madhava - Clever Krsna and Lalita Madhava - Charming Krsna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vidagdha Madhava describes the pastimes of Krsna in Vrndavana and Lalita Madhava those pastimes of Dvaraka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now both these dramas begin with an introduction by two characters &lt;strong&gt;Paurnamasi&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Nandimukhi&lt;/strong&gt;. They even appear during the interludes of the plays to add in some extra background story. So who are these two characters?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.radhakunda.com/personalities/paurnamasi.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This page&lt;/a&gt; describes Paurnamasi as the mother of Sandipani Muni (the Guru of Krsna and Balarama) and the disciple of Narada. Nandimukhi is said to be the daughter of Sandipani. Paurnamasi is also called the incarnation of Yogamaya. But then Yogamaya has incarnated as Yashoda's daughter. So does this mean there were two incarnations of Yogamaya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. Since I came across both Paurnamasi and Nandimukhi only in these two plays, I do not expect any references from sources other than Gaudiya Vaishnava literature. But if any exist, please do share them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T16:08:06.187" Title="What is the story of Paurnamasi and Nandimukhi?" Tags="|krishna|durga|gaudiya-vaishnavism|chaitanya|yashoda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11021" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-03-14T17:35:48.727" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T17:35:48.727" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T17:35:48.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11022" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-03-14T17:35:48.727" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T17:35:48.727" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T17:35:48.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11023" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-03-14T17:36:52.663" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-03-14T17:36:52.663" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T17:36:52.663" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11024" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-03-14T17:36:52.663" Score="0" Body="Kshatriya (from kshatra, &quot;rule, authority&quot;) is one of the four varna (social orders) of the Hindu society." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T03:50:09.503" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T03:50:09.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11025" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8828" CreationDate="2016-03-14T19:11:42.667" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Short Answer&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sri Krishna teaches:&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Undoubtedly, O Arjuna, the mind is restless and hard to control. But by practice (&lt;strong&gt;abhyasa&lt;/strong&gt;) and dispassion (&lt;strong&gt;vairagya&lt;/strong&gt;) it can be controlled. [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/35&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 6.35&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Charity, the performance of one's duty, the observance of vows, general and particular, the hearing of the scriptures, meritorious acts, and all other works — all these culminate in the control of the mind. The control of the mind is the highest yoga. [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/23/45&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 23.45&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The purer the mind, the easier it is to control.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The easiest method of doing this [purifying the mind], however, is &lt;strong&gt;cultivating holy company&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna teaches:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Yoga, discrimination, piety, study of the Vedas, austerities, renunciation, rites such as agnihotra, works of public utility, charity, vows, sacrifices, secret mantras, places of pilgrimage, and moral rules, particular as well as universal — &lt;strong&gt;none of these, I say, bind Me so much as association with saints, which roots out all attachment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/12/1-2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 11.12.1-2&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Sri Ramakrishna teaches:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    The wordly man must constantly live in the company of holy men. It is necessary for all, even for sannyasins; but it is specially necessary for the householder. His disease has become chronic because he has to live constantly in the midst of 'woman and gold.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mind-control is greatly helped by the practice of &lt;strong&gt;meditation&lt;/strong&gt;, and meditation by mind-control.&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Things should not be able to force our minds on them.&#xA;    Now, how do we do this? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;It can be done by practising &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratyahara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;pratyāhāra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; When the mind is withdrawn from the sense-objects, the sense-organs also withdraw themselves from their objects and they are said to imitate the mind. This is known as pratyāhāra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The simplest and surest method of controlling the mind is through love of God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Those who do not believe in God can control the mind by transcending the gunas through self-effort.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Long Answer&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following is taken from the book, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/MindAndItsControlBySwamiBudhananda&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Mind and its Control&lt;/a&gt; by Swami Budhananda. Although it's mainly about controlling the mind, I think it applies to senses as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Krsna was explaining in the Gita how the supreme state of Yoga was to be attained. After listening to him, Arjuna said to the Lord in understandable despair:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;      &lt;p&gt;O Krsna, this yoga which you declare to be characterized by perfect evenness of mind, I do not see how it can endure, because of the restlessness of the mind. The mind, O Krsna, is restless, turbulent, powerful and obstinate.&#xA;      &lt;strong&gt;To control the mind is as hard, it seems to me, as to control the wind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Krsna listened to this representative complaint of man and gave a reply important for all men of all times. All Indian thinking and practice on mind-control are largely based on this teaching of Sri Krsna. He said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;      &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Undoubtedly, O Arjuna, the mind is restless and hard to control. But by practice (abhyasa) and dispassion (vairagya) can be controlled.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In these two words, abhyasa and vairagya, practice and dispassion, Sri Krsna gave the whole secret of controlling the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is the uniform verdict of all the saints of India down the ages that there is no other way of controlling the mind except through 'practice and dispassion'&lt;/strong&gt;. This is also called 'abhyasa-yoga' or 'the yoga of practice'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Dialogue between Sri Ramakrishna and a devotee&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna: Don't sit idle simply because your spiritual consciousness has been awakened a little. Go forward. Beyond the forest of sandalwood there are other and more valuable things — silver-mines, gold-mines and so on.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Priya: Sir, our legs are in chains. We cannot go forward.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sri Ramakrishna: What if the legs are chained? The important thing is the mind. Bondage is of the mind, and freedom is also of the mind.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Priya: &lt;strong&gt;But the mind is not under my control.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sri Ramakrishna: How is that? There is such a thing as abhyasa-yoga, yoga through practice. &lt;strong&gt;Keep up the practice and you will find that your mind will follow in whatever direction you lead it.&lt;/strong&gt; The mind like a white cloth just returned from the laundry. It will be red if you dip it in red dye and blue if you dip it in blue. &lt;strong&gt;It will have whatever colour you dip it in.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;How NOT To Make Mind-control Unnecessarily Difficult&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By certain actions, dispositions, and habits of thought we make our task of controlling the mind almost impossible. It will be helpful to know what these are, so that we may avoid them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If we have strong likes and dislikes, attachments and aversions, we shall not be able to control our minds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If we live an immoral life we shall not be able to control our minds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If we have the habit of deliberately harming others we shall not be able to control our minds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If we indulge in intoxicants, live unbalanced and chaotic lives, e.g. eat, drink, talk, work, or sleep too little or too much, we shall not be able to control our minds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If we habitually indulge in vain controversy, are inordinately inquisitive about others' affairs, or are too anxious to find others' faults, we shall not be able to control our minds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If we torture our bodies unnecessarily, spend our energies in futile pursuits, force rigid silence upon ourselves, or become too egocentric, we shall not easily control our minds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If we are over-ambitious irrespective of our capacities, if we are jealous of others prosperity, or if we are self-righteous, we shall not easily control our minds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If we have a feeling of guilt, we shall not be able to control our minds. Therefore we&#xA;  must erase all guilt from within us. To repent for &quot;sins committed and ask God's help for strength of will so that they may not be repeated, that is all that is needed to be free from guilt.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Holy Company Greatly Helps Mind-control&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Most of our attachments are due to the preponderance of rajas in our nature. When we are in the company of a perfected soul, the powerful vibrations of his holiness penetrate within us and bring about a speedy change in the guna-composition of our mind, leading to a preponderance of sattva for the time being. How enduring this sattva-dominance will be depends on how often we frequent holy company.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sri Ramakrishna teaches:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;...&lt;strong&gt;The wordly man must constantly live in the company of holy men.&lt;/strong&gt; It is necessary for all, even for sannyasins; but it is specially necessary for the householder. His disease has become chronic because he has to live constantly in the midst of 'woman and gold.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Training The Mind To Behave&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In one sense to control the mind is to train it to behave. It is like catching a wild horse&#xA;  and turning it into a circus horse to do feats to order. How is it done?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Swami Vivekananda teaches:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Before we can control the mind we must study it.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    We have to seize this unstable mind and drag it from its wanderings and fix it on one idea. Over and over again this must be done. By power of will we must get hold of the mind and make it stop and reflect upon the glory of God.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The easiest way to get hold of the mind is to sit quiet and let it drift where it will for a while.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Hold fast to the idea, 'I am the witness watching my mind drifting. The mind is not I.' Then see it think as if it were a thing entirely apart from yourself. Identify yourself with God, never with matter or with the mind. Picture the mind as a calm lake stretched before you and the thoughts that come and go as bubbles rising and breaking on its surface. Make no effort to control the thoughts, but watch them and follow them in imagination as they float away. This will gradually lessen the circles. For the mind ranges over wide circles of thought and those circles widen out into ever increasing circles, as in a pond when we throw a stone into it. We want to reverse the process and starting with a huge circle make it narrower until at last we can fix the mind on one point and make it stay there. Hold to the idea, 'I am not the mind, I see that I am thinking, I am watching my mind act', and each day the identification of yourself with thought and feeling will grow less, until at last you can entirely separate yourself from the mind and actually know it to be apart from yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;When this is done, the mind is your servant to control as you will. The first stage of being a yogi is to go beyond the senses. When the mind is conquered, he has reached the highest stage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;The Simplest And The Surest Method Of Controlling The Mind&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna teaches:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The best thing for people whose minds are attracted by sense-objects is to cultivate the dualistic attitude and chant loudly the name of the Lord as enjoined in the Narada Pancaratra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On another occasion Sri Ramakrishna said to a devotee:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Through the path of devotion subtle senses come readily and naturally under control. Carnal pleasures become more and more insipid as divine love grows in your heart. Can the pleasures of the body attract the husband and the wife on the day their child has died?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Devotee: But I have not learnt to love God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna: Take His name constantly. This will cleanse all sin, lust and anger, and all desires for the pleasures of the body will vanish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Devotee: But I do not find delight in His name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna: Then pray with a yearning heart that He may teach you to relish His name, Undoubtedly He will grant your prayer...'I find no delight in Thy name—' If a delirious patient loses all taste for food, despair of his life. But if he relishes food even slightly, you may hope for his recovery. So I say, 'Find joy in His name'. Durga, Krsna, Siva — any name will do. And if you daily feel greater attraction for taking His name and a greater joy in it, you need fear no more. The delirium must he cured, and His grace will surely descend on you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Summary&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mind-control has always, been a difficult task even for a heroic person; but it is not an impossible one. There are well-defined methods.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The entire secret of controlling the mind is given by Sri Krsna in the two words abhyasa and vairagya, practice and dispassion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;To bring these two disciplines into the stream of our life:&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Φ &amp;nbsp; we have to develop a strong will to control the mind; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Φ &amp;nbsp; we have to understand the nature of our mind; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Φ &amp;nbsp; we have to learn certain techniques and practise them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In order to strengthen the will, we need to overcome our pleasure-motive and also understand what is involved in controlling the mind.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The nature of the mind is explained from the Hindu point of view in &lt;a href=&quot;http://belurmath.org/complete_works_of_swami_vivekananda/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Complete&#xA;  Works of Swami Vivekananda&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The purer the mind, the easier it is to control. So we should practise disciplines for the purification of the mind. Our object should be to bring about a preponderance of sattva in our inner nature, and then to transcend sattva by purifying it according to authentic disciplines.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The easiest method of doing this, however, is cultivating holy company.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Vedantic disciplines can be helpfully supplemented by the Yoga disciplines taught by Patanjali.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mind-control is greatly helped by the practice of meditation, and meditation by mind-control.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Believers are at an advantage in controlling the mind.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The simplest and surest method of controlling the mind is through love of God.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Those who do not believe in God can control the mind by transcending the gunas through self-effort.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-15T14:47:56.080" LastActivityDate="2016-03-15T14:47:56.080" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11027" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3689" CreationDate="2016-03-14T21:08:53.947" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I begin the study of Mahabarata a few things come to mind in this opening passage...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It seems to me Vyasa is paying respect, saluting and acknowledging all the realms of God manifestation from Om down to individualized consciousness and through the fundamental energy (Shiva Shakti) that runs through all things.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana is God in all pervading form or supreme purusha. Nara is all living entities, or individual purusha. Exalted male being is Shiva or masculine principle, consciousness. Saraswati is female principle, or energy, Shakti, prana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By acknowledging all the realms of God manifested concsiousness then the Lila can begin. But with the held knowledge that all Lila happens inside God manifested and ultimately in God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5086" LastActivityDate="2016-03-14T21:08:53.947" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11028" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11034" CreationDate="2016-03-15T10:50:13.953" Score="15" ViewCount="10505" Body="&lt;p&gt;As Wikipedia &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripura_Sundari&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tripurāsundarī (त्रिपुरा सुंदरी - &quot;Beautiful (Goddess) of the Three Worlds&quot;) or Mahā-Tripurasundarī (&quot;Great Beautiful (Goddess) of the Three Worlds&quot;), also called Ṣhoḍaśhi (&quot;Sixteen&quot;), Lalitā and Rājarājeśvarī (&quot;Queen of Queens, Supreme Ruler&quot;), is one of the group of ten goddesses of Hindu belief, collectively called Mahavidyas or Dasha-Mahavidyas. She is the foremost and the most important in Dasha-Mahavidyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was a demon by the name of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhandasura&quot;&gt;Bhandasura&lt;/a&gt; who got boon from Brahma that he would die only at the hands of a woman who wasn't given birth to by another woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story goes like this:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva, upon hearing the troubles caused by Bhandasura to the demigods reminded Goddess Parvati about Brahma's boon. Parvati realizes that she was the unborn universal power who alone could kill Bhandasura as she was Adi-Shakti. But as parvati she was still the child of Himavan and Menavati. So, Upon her and Lord Shiva's command, the demigods prayed to the supreme Brahman Sadashiva who manifested before them in two forms: Shambhu and Shakti. The Saptarishis were ordered to perform a fire sacrifice which would help Shakti manifest. During the sacrifice, all the deities entered the fire, and from their bodies, the body of the world's most beautiful being, Tripurasundari was created. She then recreated Vishnu and Parvati (Brother and sister), Brahma and Saraswathi and Rudra and Lakshmi in that order followed by all the other demigods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar version of this story:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The devas faced an enemy in Tarakasura who had a boon that he could be killed only by a son of Shiva and Parvati. So for the purpose of begetting a son from Shiva and Parvati, the devas deputed Manmatha, the God of love. Manmatha shot his flower arrows to Shiva and Parvati in order to induce severe sexual feelings in them. Shiva in anger for being tricked, opened his third eye which reduced the God of love to ashes. The Devas and Rathi Devi, the wife of Manmatha requested Shiva to give life to Manmatha. Heeding their request Shiva stared at the ashes of Manmatha. From the ashes came Bhandasura, who made all the world impotent and ruled from the city called Shonitha pura, after which he started troubling the devas. The devas then sought the advice of Sage Narada and Trimurti, who advised them to &lt;strong&gt;seek the help of Nirguna Brahman, the ultimate god head which is unmanifested i.e. Sat-Chit-Ananada (Truth-Consciousness-Bliss). Nirguna Brahman took the shape of Maha Sambhu and Adi Parasakthi (who were unmanifested and beyond the manifest Brahmanda) and appeared before them.&lt;/strong&gt; Maha Sambhu and Adi Parasakthi agreed to take the form of Maha Kameswara and Lalita Tripura Sundari for the benefit of the universe. For this a maha yajna is made where the entire creation i.e. manifest universe is offered as the oblation and from the fire rose Maha Sambhu and Adi Parasakthi as Lalitha Tripura Sundari and Kameswara.Lalitha Tripura Sundari and Kameswara re-created the entire universe as it was before. She created Brahma and Lakshmi, Vishnu and Parvati, Shiva and Sarswati.Thus Vishnu came to be known as the brother of Parvati (i.e. incarnation of Lalita or Adi Para Sakthi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is how can someone say to Nirguna Brahman &quot;Hey Nirguna Brahman, become Saguna Brahman&quot;. That sounds completely ridiculous to me. Shakti could still kill Bhandasura because Parvati was born, Shakti was not. So the boon by Brahma can't help Bhandasura, and even if Parvati can't kill him then Tripura Sundari can't kill him either.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tripura Sundari Ashtakam(Adi Shankara):-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I seek refuge in the immaculate and beautiful Mother, Who has a Veena (lute) honored at Her breasts, Who is decorated with curly tress-locks, Who resides in water-lily petals, Who is inimical to cunning minds, Who has eyes which are red as due to wine-consumption, Who entices the destroyer of Manasija or Kamadev (Shiv), &lt;strong&gt;Who is the daughter of Sage Matanga&lt;/strong&gt; (as Matangi), and Who speaks mellifluously.||&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stutimandal.com/gif_adi/tripura_sundari_ashtakam.htm&quot;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt;||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Adi Shankara says Tripura Sundari was daughter of Sage Matanga! This clearly contradicts the above Wikipedia text. And if I have to choose one, I would obviously believe Adi Shankara's words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any scriptures which say Tripura Sundari came out of the Maha Yajna or was the daughter of Sage Matanga as Adi Shankara says?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T01:12:22.457" Title="How did Tripura Sundari come into existence?" Tags="|shiva|brahman|kali|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11029" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11037" CreationDate="2016-03-15T11:15:29.527" Score="11" ViewCount="5400" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I know, due to jealousy, or some base cause, the &lt;em&gt;Tantriks&lt;/em&gt; use cheap tactics to overcome the adversaries, which can ruins one's life .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also I heard that if someone is affected by &lt;em&gt;Black Magic&lt;/em&gt; then they should under go &lt;em&gt;Parikaram&lt;/em&gt; to remove the Black magic applied on them.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does something like black magic exist in this millennia(kaliyuga) ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4313" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-03-15T18:13:36.977" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T12:15:09.903" Title="Black Magic/Kala Jadu/ Pilli Soonyam are real?" Tags="|temple|tantra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11030" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10289" CreationDate="2016-03-15T13:13:20.653" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;No particular reference for punishment for &amp;quot;consensual sex&amp;quot;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally by using the term &lt;code&gt;permission (mutual consent)&lt;/code&gt;, you have made the choice very easy. The confusion in morality starts, when the consent is not involved. However, adultery is forbidden (when all parties are not in consent). Here is a quote from Bhisma during &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;AnushAsana Parva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, which comes in the reference of what shortens the life:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Persons of every order should never have sexual congress with other people's wives. There is nothing that shortens life so effectually as sexual congress with other people's wives. For as many thousand years shall the adulterer have to live in Hell as the number of pores on the bodies of the women with whom he may commit the offence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In MahAbhArata, there are multiple references to &amp;quot;consensual sex&amp;quot; though. Below examples are not to justify that 'all consensual sex are alright'; But to show that everything depends on context. 1 thing done exactly same in different contexts won't generate similar fruits. Similarly, 2 different things done in different contexts may generate similar fruits.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;This shows that the fruit changes also with the context, and not the act alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The king &lt;em&gt;PAndu&lt;/em&gt; handed over the kingdom and went to forest with both of his wives. In a bid to have children (especially sons), he consented both of his wives to invite various &lt;em&gt;devata&lt;/em&gt;s to impregnate them. This is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01124.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sambhava Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kunti summoned the eternal god of justice to obtain offspring from him. And she offered without loss of time, sacrifices unto the god and began to duly repeat the formula that Durvasa had imparted to her some time before. Then the god, overpowered by her incantations, arrived at the spot where Kunti was seated in his car resplendent as the Sun. Smiling, he asked, 'O Kunti, what am I to give thee?' And Kunti too smiling in her turn, replied, 'Thou must even give me offspring.' Then the handsome &lt;strong&gt;Kunti was united (in intercourse) with the god of justice in his spiritual form&lt;/strong&gt; and obtained from him a son devoted to the good of all creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the 5 sons were born in similar fashion. There is no mention of &lt;em&gt;PAndu&lt;/em&gt; or his wives getting any punishment for this act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding maid, there is a close example. Due to fierce body of sage VyAsa, both the queens AmbikA &amp;amp; AmbalikA (wives of Vichitraveerya) were not ready to have 2nd sex with him for begetting a healthier child. Finally they consented their domestic help (not exactly maid), who was a &lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt; woman (3rd &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt;) to approach VyAsa. This is how Vidura was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now this is not a good example, but just to show that, even during MahAbhArata times, so called open culture existed in certain places. There is a chapter in sacred-texts, about how Karna &amp;amp; his charioteer Shalya get into a heated argument. Karna criticizes Shalya's kingdom for its culture where women were freely allowed for liquor and sex.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Anushasana Parva, there is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telugubhakti.com/telugupages/monthly/mahabharat/content1301.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;story&lt;/a&gt;, where a husband Sudarsana consents his wife (&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7658/1049&quot;&gt;also a granddaughter!&lt;/a&gt;) to sleep with a guest:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oghavati remembered the words of her husband. If she accepts the desire of the guest, her chastity will be spoiled. If she refuses, it would amount to violating the command of her husband. At last she agreed to share bed with the guest. The guest took her inside.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At that time, Sudarsana arrived at the house and called his wife. There was no reply. The guest shut the mouth of Oghavati not to speak. Sudarsana repeatedly called his wife for which the guest replied: “You wife is attending on the guest. You know much better about honoring guests. Hence be patient. Dont be angry.” said the guest from inside.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“O great man! I am very happy that my wife is attending on the guest. Where the guests are satisfied fully, that house is purified. I will wait outside till the worship of guest is completed.” said Sudarsana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, the guest reveals himself as &lt;em&gt;Dharma dev&lt;/em&gt; and blesses Sudarsana. Who eventually gets to highest of heavens with his physical body. Half part of his wife flows as a pious river, near which the war of Kurukshetra happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-08T12:43:48.037" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11031" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12431" CreationDate="2016-03-15T13:30:17.313" Score="7" ViewCount="1146" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many sects in Hinduism: Shaivas, Vaishnas and Ganapatyas, to name a few. For the Goddess, there are Shaktas. However, obviously, Shaktas are only glorifying Shakti, the wife of Shiva, more than the other two Tridevi. In fact, they say all the Tridevi are her incarnations, hence in this context, Shakti is the most powerful as the other Tridevi were merely her avatars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any sects which glorify Lakshmi or Saraswati themselves or am I just &lt;em&gt;misinterpreting who the Shaktas worship&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After reading Amit Saxena's answer below,I realised that the word &quot;Shakti&quot; in Shaktism doesn't refer to Shakti,the wife of Shiva but Shakti, the feminine form of the Divine(Brahman) and that I was,apparently,&quot; misinterpreting who the Shaktas worship&quot;&#xA;.However,in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14749/what-are-the-different-branches-of-shaktism&quot;&gt;the answer in this question&lt;/a&gt;,there are groups like Srikula and Kalikula,whom visualise Shakti/Brahman/the supreme deity as Lalitha Tripurasundari and Durga respectively.Are there any sects like these for Lakshmi and Saraswati?If the answer is no,why not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-11-08T19:45:05.640" Title="Are there sects for Lakshmi or Saraswati?" Tags="|lakshmi|saraswati|shakti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11032" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8133" CreationDate="2016-03-15T15:12:11.207" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There's no need to &quot;punish&quot; oneself for breaking a vow. Here's some advice from the book, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/MindAndItsControlBySwamiBudhananda/Budhananda-MindAndItsControl#page/n7/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Mind and its Control&lt;/a&gt; by Swami Budhananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Control of the mind is a very interesting&#xA;  inner game. &lt;strong&gt;If you have a sportsman's attitude&#xA;  you will thoroughly enjoy it, even while apparently&#xA;  losing.&lt;/strong&gt; In the playing, this game takes a&#xA;  great deal of skill, alertness, sense of humour,&#xA;  goodness of heart, sense of strategy, patience&#xA;  and some heroic flair which makes it possible&#xA;  not to get disheartened in the face of a hundred&#xA;  failures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If we are &lt;strong&gt;over-ambitious&lt;/strong&gt; irrespective of our&#xA;  capacities, if we are jealous of others' prosperity,&#xA;  or if we are self-righteous, we shall not easily&#xA;  control our minds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If we have a feeling of guilt, we shall not&#xA;  be able to control our minds. Therefore &lt;strong&gt;we&#xA;  must erase all guilt from within us&lt;/strong&gt;. To repent&#xA;  for sins committed and ask God's help for&#xA;  strength of will so that they may not be repeated,&#xA;  that is all that is needed to be free&#xA;  from guilt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-03-15T15:12:11.207" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11033" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2776" CreationDate="2016-03-15T18:22:00.943" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Coconut is called God's fruit as it has three distinct eyes and hence relates to the three eyes of Lord Shiva representing the holy Trinity of Evolution: Creation, Preservation and Destruction. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also the trinity of Ego, Maya and Karma, these three gives rise to obstacles, hence it become auspicious to break these.&#xA;Only when maya/ego is smashed away one can taste the sweet untouched nectar of spiritual purity and bliss. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Act of breaking coconut thus become both, ritual as well as spiritual exercise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4357" LastActivityDate="2016-03-15T18:22:00.943" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11034" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11028" CreationDate="2016-03-15T18:23:10.100" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The scriptural evidence that you are searching for is found in the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;.It describes why and how Lalita Parameswari manifested out of the Yagna fire.Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/brahmandapurana-3.htm&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the heaven, all the Devatas including Brahma, could not comprehend&#xA;  what was going on and what had caused the situation. Not knowing the&#xA;  remedy for their hardship, they approached Lord Sri Hari. When they&#xA;  finally reached the abode of Lord Sri Hari, they saw that even He was&#xA;  sitting still with his eyes closed. It appeared as though He was&#xA;  merged in the bliss of Sushupti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the angels praised His glory for a long time, Lord Sri Hari&#xA;  slowly opened His eyes. “What is this? Why are you all looking drained&#xA;  of your energies?” asked Lord Sri Hari. He called everyone by their&#xA;  names and said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A. Your present condition is due to the invisible foul play of&#xA;  Bhandasura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;B. Even I have lost the affinity for Goddess Lakshmi. What to say&#xA;  about other lesser beings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;C. Myself, Brahma and Rudra are Karana Purushas (causal beings for the&#xA;  manifest creation). Even then, because we are also inhabiting this&#xA;  creation, even we can not escape the torture of Bhandasura. D. There&#xA;  is however one Almighty God who is beyond this manifest Brahmanda. He&#xA;  is called Maha Shambhu. Parashakti is constantly in His Company.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,this was the reason why Parasakti (Lalita MahaTripura Sundari) who is beyond manifest creation,was needed to intervene.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....So saying, Sri Hari led all the angels to the brim of the&#xA;  Brahmanda (Universe). There was a huge wall like fence there. The&#xA;  angels summoned the celestial elephants to break the wall. After&#xA;  toiling continuously for one year, a breach was formed in the wall.&#xA;  After passing through the breach, they saw Chinmaya Akasha, which was&#xA;  Niralamba (independent), Nirajnana (untainted) and which was devoid of&#xA;  the five elements. They all stood in that Chinmaya Akasha and sang the&#xA;  glory of Maha Shambhu, who was of the form of Chidakasha. Then Maha&#xA;  Shambhu appeared before them. He was dark like clouds. He had two&#xA;  hands. He was holding a Shoola (spear) in one hand and a Kapala&#xA;  (skull) in the other. He had three eyes. Parashakti also appeared&#xA;  before them. She was holding Aksha Mala (rosary of beads) and Pustaka&#xA;  (book) in Her hands. She was bright and cool like the moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great Maha Shambhu smiled and said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A. I am aware why you have all come here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;B. Pralaya (destruction) is of three types. (i) Avaantara Pralaya (ii)&#xA;  Maha Pralaya and (iii) Kama Pralaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;C. I am the one who is responsible to rescue the world from Maha&#xA;  Pralaya. Vishnu is the one who rescues from Aavantara Pralaya. It is&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Lalita Parameshwari who rescues from Kama Pralaya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,this particular Pralaya is an example of Kama Pralaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....E. Only Lalita Devi can rescue from this situation. Parashakti&#xA;  alone can create another Lalita Devi. Therefore, take shelter in her.&#xA;  Beg her to help you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing this, the Devatas did not know what to do. They again prayed&#xA;  to Maha Shambhu to teach them the method of appeasing Parashakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maha Shambhu explained:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A. This is called as Maha Yaga. (great fire sacrifice)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;B. I am (assuming the form of Vayu) the Hota (the priest who makes the&#xA;  offerings in a Homa) in this Yaga (fire sacrifice).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;C. My Chidagni itself is the fire in this Yaga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D. The last of the seven seas, i.e., Jala Samudra (Water Sea) has now&#xA;  dried up. The huge pit so formed itself is the Homa Kunda (fire pit&#xA;  where Homa is performed)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;E. The remaining six great oceans constitute the six drops of ghee&#xA;  which is used as offering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;F. Srishti (creation) is of five types (i) Manasa Srishti (ii)&#xA;  Jarayavee Srishti (creation-taking place through the womb.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;G. Human beings), (iii) Anda Srishti (creation taking place through&#xA;  eggs) (iv) Swedaja Srishti (creation taking place through sweat) and&#xA;  (v) Udbhijja Srishti (creation taking place by sprouting). These five&#xA;  Srishtis (creations) are the sacrifice animals in this Maya Yaga.G.&#xA;  Bhoomi (land), Parvata (mountains), Jala (water), Vayu (air) and&#xA;  Akasha (space) these five are the substances used in this fire&#xA;  sacrifice. Agni element (one of the five elements) being a part of my&#xA;  Chidagni can not be a substance to be offered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;H. At the end of this great fire sacrifice, all of you (the performers&#xA;  of the Yaga) should jump in to the Homa Kunda (fire pit). While doing&#xA;  so, you must possess absolute devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I. Then, Lalita Parameshwari will manifest.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And finally Lalita Devi did manifest out of the Homa Agni.Quoting now from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/brahmandapurana-4.htm&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;strong&gt;At the end of the Homa, Lalita Devi came out of the Chidagni Homa&#xA;  Kunda, seated on a special chariot called “Chakra Raja Ratha”&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  Therefore, we find the descriptions such as “Chidagnikunda sambhoota”&#xA;  “Deva kaarya samudyataa” and “Chakra Raja Rathaa Roodha Sarvaayudha&#xA;  Parishkritaa” in Lalita Sahasranama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the above quotes in my answer has been taken from the translated version of Brahamanda Purana as found on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/brahmandapurana-3.htm&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/brahmandapurana-4.htm&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; pages.With first 3 quotes being taken from the first link and the fourth one from the 2nd link.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-15T18:32:06.920" LastActivityDate="2016-03-15T18:32:06.920" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11035" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10974" CreationDate="2016-03-15T19:33:57.830" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Swami Vivekananda,the main teaching of Vedanta is--&quot;Every soul is potentially Divine&quot;.The role of the individual is to &lt;em&gt;unravel the Divinity within&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;The Bhagawad Gita states that the &lt;em&gt;soul is eternal and indestructible&lt;/em&gt;.The philosophy--&quot;Aham Brahmasmi&quot; --I and my Father are one --Atma and Paramatma are One--comes from his belief.&lt;br/&gt; Fist part of a man's struggle is to convince himself of this truth.&lt;br/&gt;Second part of a man's struggle is overcome all fears .Is is only then ,that a man can assert his inherent Divinity.&lt;br/&gt;The life of Swami Vivekananda , is an example of what one should do next.You do not have to copy Vivekananda. You have to live your own life in your own way.&lt;em&gt;Do what you think to be the best&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2016-03-15T19:33:57.830" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11036" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11848" CreationDate="2016-03-16T05:24:59.303" Score="11" ViewCount="8117" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story that of, how the Moon god ended up in Lord Shiva's hair, goes like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moon god had to get relief from the disease that he got by his own fault. He came to know that the only remedy for his disease is to be in Lord Shiva's hair. So he prayed to Lord and received a great boon of staying on the Lord's head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know why in all temples, Moon in Lord Shiva's head is always in curve shape (crescent), not as a full moon or some other positions as we see regularly in the sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any reason for this? Is there any place or temple that shows Lord Shiva having other moon shapes?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2z8SQ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2z8SQ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Image of Bhagwan Shiva with moon&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-16T16:23:55.197" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T20:41:52.987" Title="Why is Moon on Lord Shiva's head only shown as crescent?" Tags="|shiva|worship|shiva-purana|symbolism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11037" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11029" CreationDate="2016-03-16T06:33:33.520" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Black magic is real and is  mentioned in Vedas itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Atharvaveda&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Core of Atharva Veda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The subject matter of the Samhitā of this Veda has no systematic&#xA;  division in the first twelve kāṇḍas. The last two again, deal with&#xA;  miscellaneous topics. However, there are eight topics that are&#xA;  covered:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;1.Bhaisajya: diseases, their causes and cures&#xA;2.Āyusya: supplications for longevity&#xA;3.Paustika: worldly progress and welfare&#xA;4.Ābhicārika: destroy or harm enemies who obstruct progress&#xA;5.Prāyaścitta: expiatory rites&#xA;6.Rājakarma: political system&#xA;7.Brahmanya : nature of Brahman, the Absolute.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;.....Abhicarika Suktas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Ābhicāraka Suktas are aimed to destroy or harm enemies who&#xA;  obstruct our progress or try to destroy us. This is said to be&#xA;  achieved by pleasing or appeasing certain deities or spirits and&#xA;  getting one’s wishes fulfilled through them. This technique is called&#xA;  ‘yātu’ or ‘kṛtyā.’ The number of such suktas is rather large.&#xA;  Destruction of one’s enemies including the lovers of one’s spouse,&#xA;  annihilation of evil spirits, mesmerizing others through whom one can&#xA;  get one’s desires fulfilled are some of the topics dealt with in these&#xA;  suktas. &lt;strong&gt;The word ‘kṛṣṇendrajāla’ is sometimes used to indicate the&#xA;  type of black-magic rites depicted here&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-16T18:50:30.853" LastActivityDate="2016-03-16T18:50:30.853" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11038" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11166" CreationDate="2016-03-16T10:10:17.707" Score="8" ViewCount="1405" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Temporary&amp;quot; vs &amp;quot;Eternal&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot;Temporary&amp;quot; (may be &lt;em&gt;sat-asat&lt;/em&gt;) means, something which keeps changing. It survives by repetition. &amp;quot;Eternal&amp;quot; (may be &lt;em&gt;param akshara&lt;/em&gt;) means, with respect to which all these changes are happening. Both are permanent, but one is cyclic and other is constant.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;A very over-simplistic analogy is:&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;-- In typical routine, you wake up every morning, get ready, go to work, come back, have dinner and sleep. Ideally these actions can repeat forever. All the above actions are &amp;quot;temporaries&amp;quot;. They happen &amp;amp; vanish for a while, but again repeat. However, your home is &amp;quot;eternal&amp;quot;, because with respect to your constant &amp;quot;home&amp;quot;, everything happens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To me, it appeared that &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s are not eternal based on studying Gita. However I can be wrong. Below are some points which made me believe that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During &lt;em&gt;pralaya&lt;/em&gt; there is only 1 &amp;quot;nature&amp;quot; (&lt;em&gt;bhAva&lt;/em&gt; in Sanskrit) which remains, when everything else is annihilated. There is absolutely &lt;strong&gt;no verse suggests that apart from this nature, the other &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s would also continue to remain&lt;/strong&gt; somewhere as separate identities.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;I feel that the word &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;All&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot; in various below verses is quite explicit and doesn't leave the slightest chance of separate existence of &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 8.18 — All become from unmanifested to manifested at the beginning of (Brahma's) day; At beginning of night, certainly (all are) destroyed into what is understood as unmanifest-able.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 8.19 — Like this, these elementary world (made of &amp;quot;5 elements&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;पञ्चभूत&amp;quot;) certainly happens again and again; Upon arrival of night, it's destroyed; upon arrival of day it flourishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 8.20 — But there is an &lt;strong&gt;eternal Nature&lt;/strong&gt;, which is beyond manifested &amp;amp; unmanifested; When all elementary world is destroyed, that &lt;strong&gt;remains&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 9.7 — O son of Kunti, all elementary entities enter my nature at end of cycle(&lt;em&gt;Kalpa&lt;/em&gt;); Again I create them at the beginning of the cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Possible source of confusion: &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Soul&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; (BG 2.many) actually means &amp;quot;(true) Self&amp;quot; (Gita also uses I/me). It is also a representation of &lt;em&gt;nirguna/nirAkAra Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (BG 8.20). Some call it &amp;quot;soul&amp;quot;, as a synonymous. Now many people use &amp;quot;soul&amp;quot; to refer &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; as well. However &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; are not same. But because sometimes &amp;quot;soul&amp;quot; refers to both as a common English term, certain misunderstanding is created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Atma ≠ Jeeva&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is clarified in wiki of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jeeva&lt;/a&gt;. Unfortunately, such articles also become source of confusion. They have cited BG 2.12, 2.16-21, 2.23-25, 2.30 to prove that &lt;em&gt;Jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s are eternal. However, all these verses describe &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; and doesn't have anything related to &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; means something which differs between you and me. But it's same among your past births &amp;amp; my past births. As a matter of taste, some call it [individual] &amp;quot;consciousness&amp;quot; (&lt;em&gt;chetanA&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt; is eternal. Is &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; &amp;quot;eternal&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;temporary&amp;quot;?&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;In other words, what happens to &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s after &lt;em&gt;pralaya&lt;/em&gt; (or towards end of &lt;em&gt;Kalpa&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Brahma&lt;/em&gt;'s night)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Note: Some answers suggest that, if &amp;quot;xyz&amp;quot; part (say &lt;em&gt;mAyA&lt;/em&gt;) is removed from &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;, then it's eternal. But if we remove something from &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; then we are no longer referring &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;. A specific quote which says &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; (or equivalent) is eternal will be helpful.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T11:26:26.997" Title="Is every Jeeva &quot;eternal&quot; like the ultimate God (nirguna Brahman) or &quot;temporary&quot; within cycle?" Tags="|scripture|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|atma|jiva|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11039" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11038" CreationDate="2016-03-16T11:10:37.460" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The physical body of a Jiva is manifestly not eternal. All the koshas that form that Jiva complex is also not eternal. So the only thing that is left is the Atma. Jiva when not emancipated thinks of himself as the physical body, subtle body, causal body and the Atman with a clearly identified ego. Jiva after emancipation is simply the Atman with no ego. Since the Atman is eternal, Jiva is also eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A good analogy to understand this is to imagine the jiva as a pot in an ocean of consciousness. The pot is the ego and there is consciousness both inside and outside the pot. A Jiva who is not emancipated identifies himself with the pot or the ego. A Jiva who is emancipated identifies himself with the consciousness and realizes that he is eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above picture also follows from the Upanishad Mahavakya 'aham Brahmasmi' or Soham (I am He).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narendra [Swami Vivekananda]: &quot;The 'I' that is implied in 'I am He' is not this ego. It is&#xA;  that which remains after one eliminates mind, body, and so on.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna translated by Swami Nikhilananda, p. 979&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 'I' of a Jiva, minus the physical, subtle and causal body, is eternal since that I is He. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-03-23T06:08:30.253" LastActivityDate="2016-03-23T06:08:30.253" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11040" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11038" CreationDate="2016-03-16T12:44:22.217" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jeeva does not exist in the very first place. If you believe that Jeeva is separate from Purush/Brahman, than that is very big mistake. Advaita(Non-Duality) is reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Ayam Aatma Brahman&quot; My soul is same as Supersoul&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is &lt;strong&gt;Anubhav Maha Vakya&lt;/strong&gt; from Upanishads which describes experience of enlightened person, after which he never experiences waking, sleeping or deep sleep, but remains in turiya forever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Jeeva, is created out of ignorance as explained here&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as a wall illumined by the rays of the sun is more illumined when&#xA;  the light of the sun reflected in a mirror falls on it, so the body&#xA;  illumined by Kutastha is more illumined by the light of Kutastha&#xA;  reflected in the intellect&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman is uniform infinite consciousness, and every Jeeva's soul is drop of it. Imagine Purush to be ocean and self is drop of that but in reality drop never got separated from ocean as it had no individual existence from the beginning itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how relation between Prakriti-Purush as described in Kashmir Shaivism&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a dichotomy between subject and object; the knower and the&#xA;  known; the Cosmic Self and this self; I (aham) and this self (idam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Tattva (cause of Aham)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shakti Tattva (cause of Idam)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They are in reality one with Parmshiva. They are considered to be two&#xA;  tattvas only for the convenience of philosophical thinking and as a&#xA;  way of clarifying the two aspects of the one Absolute&#xA;  Reality-Parmshiva. Shiva tattva is transcendental unity and shakti&#xA;  tattva is universal diversity. The changeless Absolute and pure&#xA;  Consciousness is Shiva while as natural tendency of Shiva towards the&#xA;  outward manifestation of divine activities is Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When someone says &quot;I am so and so&quot;. Here, &quot;I am(Aham)&quot; is constant for everyone and comes from real Purush, while &quot;so and so&quot; is objectification(Idam) of infinite, created by power of Maya, which fools Purush in identifying itself with temporary body under ego/ignorance. This is called Adhyasa or superimposition of Prakriti(Maya) over Purush(real self).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thats why, Adi Shankaracharya composed &quot;Shivoham&quot;(Shiva + Aham)&quot;I am Shiva&quot; containing Neti Neti(&quot;Not ita/idam&quot;) which covers rejection of all Maya/Ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further Shiva and Shakti are same in reality which is realized after enlightenment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Sankara, aham (I-sense secured in introspection, visayi)&#xA;  and idam (thou-sense sense secured in extrospection, visaya) are&#xA;  polarly related, they are as opposed as light and darkness. Idam&#xA;  Brahman refers to etadakshara - Brahman as the objective unity and the&#xA;  tadakshara – Brahman refers to the subject, the Atman i.e. Brahman as&#xA;  Itself, which cannot be an object matter of pramana-jnana since the&#xA;  Atman is non-dual and does not have the knowing and the known in it.&#xA;  Reality is to be cognized objectively as an idam as the goal by&#xA;  looking inwards otherwise the vidhi-vakyas would serve no purpose.&#xA;  Beyond &quot;I&quot; is not any person knower or doer but the transcendental&#xA;  ground of &quot;I&quot;, the unspeakable; the indeterminate cannot be spoken&#xA;  about directly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The idam aspect of ahamkara reflected by the light of the pure self&#xA;  becomes the object of the &quot;I-sense&quot;. Brahman cannot be known in the&#xA;  objective attitude as an object somewhere in the beyond as an idam.&#xA;  Advaita Vedanta holds Brahman as the Atman and Brahman as idam sarvam&#xA;  (&quot;all this&quot;)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Understanding &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhyasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Adhyasa&lt;/a&gt; is the key&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adhyasa is the illusory appearance, in another place, of an object&#xA;  seen earlier elsewhere. It is similar in nature to recollection. For&#xA;  instance on seeing a rope in dim light and not recognizing it as a&#xA;  rope, a person mistakes it for a snake which he has seen elsewhere.&#xA;  The snake is not absolutely unreal, because it is actually&#xA;  experienced, and produces the same effect, such as fear and so on, as&#xA;  a real snake would. At the same time, it is not real, because it is no&#xA;  longer seen when the rope has been recognized. It is therefore&#xA;  described as Anirvachaneeya or what cannot be classified as either&#xA;  real or unreal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;when there is superimposition of one thing on another, the latter (the&#xA;  substratum) is not affected in the least by the good or bad qualities&#xA;  of the former. (e.g., nacre does not become more valuable because it&#xA;  is mistaken for silver, nor does a rope get the qualities of the snake&#xA;  which it is mistaken for). &lt;strong&gt;The implication of this statement is that&#xA;  the self which is identical with Brahman does not undergo any of the&#xA;  changes, nor does it experience any of the joys and sorrows, of the&#xA;  body, mind and organs which are superimposed on it.&lt;/strong&gt; It is, however,&#xA;  only because of this mutual superimposition of the self and the&#xA;  non-self that all action, both secular and religious, including the&#xA;  study of Vedanta, becomes possible. &lt;strong&gt;The self, by itself, is neither a&#xA;  doer of actions, nor an enjoyer of the results.&lt;/strong&gt; It becomes a doer and&#xA;  an enjoyer only because of this superimposition, as a result of which,&#xA;  as Adi Shankara says, the real and the unreal, namely, the self and&#xA;  the non-self, are blended into one, as it were. All action, including&#xA;  the various rites laid down in the Vedas, &lt;strong&gt;thus come within the sphere&#xA;  of Avidya or nescience, which is the cause of the superimposition.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samkhya also explains the same thing that, manifestation happens because of presence of Prakriti, which is superimposed over Purusha and Vedas dont have much relevance in the path of enlightenment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastEditorDisplayName="user3870" LastEditDate="2016-03-16T13:21:06.763" LastActivityDate="2016-03-16T13:21:06.763" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11041" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9727" CreationDate="2016-03-16T13:30:28.670" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The concept of Karma is based on body. When the soul (aatma or jiva) obtains a body he starts doing karma knowingly or unknowingly. As the body is created by nature, the effect of different &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7798/2995&quot;&gt;gunas&lt;/a&gt; (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas) make us do the karma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the sattva guna is at its prime, it leads us to spiritual way, makes us do good things. When rajo guna increases, the human tends to achieve more &quot;bhog&quot; or becomes materialistic and when tamas guna affects us we get into bad habits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how our soul tends to work when it is in a body (human or other). But when the soul obtains Moksha it means we are no longer obligated to do karma. We don't have a body, only thing we have is peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hindi: &lt;em&gt;Aatma Jyoti Svarup hai&lt;/em&gt;. Meaning: Soul is light and Paramatma (God) is Aanand Svarup (full of joy). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And when we reach that state as God, nothing will exist, there's only &lt;em&gt;aanand&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the moment we realize we are not the body but the Aatma, the moment we set ourselves above the law of nature and obtain the connection with the Supreme soul (God), that is Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5097" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-03-16T15:44:12.777" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11044" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2797" CreationDate="2016-03-16T21:13:59.007" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are myths in every culture.The meaning of myth as unverifiable, untruthful folklore stories has no relevance in contemporary Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ancient Hindu land has the Ramayana and Mahabharata as guiding scriptures, they will live on as vibrant moralizing instruments of cultural and social changing forces in modern times too with  ever- increasing relevance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastActivityDate="2016-03-16T21:13:59.007" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11045" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11048" CreationDate="2016-03-17T01:02:22.563" Score="0" ViewCount="945" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is written in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then those Indras, of their shorn glory said, 'We shall go from our celestial regions even unto the region of men where salvation is ordained to be difficult of acquisition. But let the gods Dharma, Vayu, &lt;strong&gt;Maghavat&lt;/strong&gt;, and the twin Aswins beget us upon our would-be mother. Fighting with men by means of both celestial and human weapons, we shall again come back into the region of Indra.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is &lt;strong&gt;Maghavat&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastActivityDate="2016-03-17T06:13:18.153" Title="Who is Maghavat?" Tags="|pandavas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11046" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2797" CreationDate="2016-03-17T03:21:51.773" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In this age(Kali Yuga)  the spiritual connection to the ancestors/pitris has been broken for the past five hundred years or so. Ever since the awakening of materialistic philosophies this problem has arisen and prolonged foreign rule has compounded matters. We have allowed  foreigners to tell us how our past should be perceived. During the time of Chandragupta Maurya Megasthenes in his work &lt;em&gt;Indica&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sdstate.edu/projectsouthasia/upload/Megasthene-Indika.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Indica&lt;/a&gt;)&#xA;refers to conversation in the royal court how people refer to so many years since the passing of Krishna. So this would imply that the passing away of Krishna was not a mere mythological story but was held as a milestone in real time. &#xA;                Mind you in any authentic Guru/parampara tradition still active today considering these stories as myths would be considered as blasphemy. Outside that where the influence of Dharma(spiritual law) fluctuates these are propagated as myths. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4592" LastActivityDate="2016-03-17T03:21:51.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11047" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2392" CreationDate="2016-03-17T03:33:14.847" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;An authentic Vedic Astrologer (Jyotishi) from a true lineage of Jyotishis can educate the aspirant which path to make. Moksha houses are 4th house(bhakti), 8th house(occult skills such as aspiring for siddhis), 12th house(pursuing a path of enlightenment).  Specifically the 4th house and it's ruler(strong bhakti yoga affinities especially if feminine planets reside such as Venus reside in that house). Karma yogis usually have a strong connection between 9th house(house of dharma) and 10th house(house of karma). For serious sanyasins and people pursuing enlightenment the 12th house should be unafflicted by malefic planets(called as baadhakas or obstacles). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4592" LastActivityDate="2016-03-17T03:33:14.847" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11048" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11045" CreationDate="2016-03-17T06:13:18.153" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Maghavat (or Maghavan) is Indra, the king of the devas (who is different from the other five Indras imprisoned in the sense that Maghavat is Indra, the father of Arjuna.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Amarakosha, the Sanskrit Lexicon, Maghavat is the third name given to Indra (Indro Marutvan &lt;strong&gt;Maghavan&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The explanations of the name given are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahyate Iti (Maghavan) - The Honoured One (is called Maghavat)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maghah Saukhyam Asya Asti Iti - Maghavat is he who possesses great powers and luxury&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the Rgveda, Book 10, Hymn 23, Indra is called Maghavan in the phrase, &lt;strong&gt;Maghair Maghavan&lt;/strong&gt; Vrtraha Bhuvat. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv10023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here is the Rgveda 10.23&lt;/a&gt; (Thanks to Keshav for the link).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2016-03-17T06:13:18.153" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11050" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10684" CreationDate="2016-03-17T08:20:22.660" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'll cite from scriptures  to show why Goddess Saraswati is considered as the Goddess of knowledge,wisdom,learning,eloquence,memory , poetic skills etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) The Saraswati Suktam found in Rig Veda 1.3.10 has mentioned(in the last verse of the Suktam) her as the Goddess of learning and eloquence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Im9v1.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Im9v1.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DPF0A.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DPF0A.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Next is the Saraswati Kavacham found in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana.Lord Brahma is the Risi(Seer) of this Kavacha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ptX5o.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ptX5o.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jibNZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jibNZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/aJlW3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/aJlW3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1Fp5l.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1Fp5l.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In this Kavacha Goddess Saraswati is identified with the Goddess of speech(Vagdevi),Goddess of Knowledge(Vidyaadhistatri,Vidya Swarupi),One who resides in prose and poetry(Gadya Padya Nivasini) and one who resides as Vidya in sacred books.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Phalasruti too, it is stated that recitation of this Kavacha yields memory power,mental sharpness and immense knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)The last one is another Stuti of Devi Saraswati done by Rishi Yajnavalkya  also to be found in the Brahma Vaivarta Purna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/b88Rg.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/b88Rg.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/x7JNf.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/x7JNf.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Qcfbv.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Qcfbv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this stuti too,Goddess saraswati is depicted as the bestower of &lt;strong&gt;Jnana(wisdom)&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;strong&gt;Smriti(memory),Vidya(knowledge) &amp;amp; Kavitwa Shakti(the power of poetry).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is also depicted as the &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Adhistatri of all Vidyas&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; and as &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Akshara Swarupa&quot;(the Personification of alphabets).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is depicted as the embodiment of &lt;strong&gt;Smriti Shakti,Jnana Shakti,Buddhi Shakti and Kalpana Shakti&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;also as the ruler of tongue,mind,thought,speech and anything to do with brains.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Conclusion-Goddess Saraswati is considered as the Goddess of Knowledge due to facts that are firmly rooted in our scriptures and not because of beliefs.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That Goddess Saraswati is to be worshipped on Sukla Panchami Tithi of the Magha month is mentioned in scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mentioned in other Puranas as well but here i'm quoting from the Devi Bhagavatam as found on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana67.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sage Narayana described the methodology of worship of Devi Sarasvati,&#xA;  the powerful manifestation of Mula Prakriti, the Goddess of Knowledge,&#xA;  Mental Faculties, Memory, ‘Mantras’, Literature and Fine Arts. Her&#xA;  symbol is ‘Veena’ (Lute) and Books; Her ‘Vahana’(Vehicle) is ‘Hamsa’&#xA;  (Swan) and Her male counterpart is Para Brahma. &lt;strong&gt;On every Sukla&#xA;  Panchami of Magha month and on the day of commencing education, the&#xA;  worship of Sarsvati is to be performed as per Kanva Sakha Yajur Veda&#xA;  hymns, if possible.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-04-06T18:36:20.373" LastActivityDate="2016-04-06T18:36:20.373" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11051" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3461" CreationDate="2016-03-17T10:38:14.300" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The seven sages who stayed in Janaloka till Vaivasvara Manvantara returned to earth (they could only return once) as sons of Brahma. It was during this Brahma Yagna, Brigu was born and he was raised by Varuna the ocean God and thus called Varuna Putra. Varuna was performing the sacrifice. This is explained in detail in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6751/3500&quot;&gt;Brahmanda Purana Volume 2 Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When the semen (of Brahma) was once poured into the fire by way  of Homa, Kavi came out of the flame. On seeing him coming out after splitting the flame, Hiranyagarbha (Brahma) said- &quot;You are Bhrgu&quot;. Since it was said, so he became Bhru. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mahadeva then appeared and spoke to Brahma,&quot; O Lord, I had  been desirous desirous of son and had been invited by you, O Lord. Let &#xA;  this boy who is born at the outset be my son, O Lord.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Saying &quot;so be it&quot;. Mahadeva was consented to be my self-born Lord. Then Mahadeva adopted Brigu as his son.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence Brgus are Varunas (those pertaining to race of Varuna).&lt;/strong&gt; That Lord is his child.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-03-17T10:38:14.300" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11052" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-17T12:46:10.580" Score="6" ViewCount="29868" Body="&lt;p&gt;Goddess Shyamala is worshipped by the Tamils in Batam, Indonesia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone give me her story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it have any scriptural basis or is it a folklore?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-24T09:55:58.907" LastActivityDate="2018-04-24T09:55:58.907" Title="Who is Goddess Shyamala?" Tags="|goddess|devi|durga|dasha-mahavidya|matrika|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11054" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11052" CreationDate="2016-03-17T14:23:10.600" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Jahnava Nitai Das of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bvashram.org/who-is-shyamala-devi/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhaktivedanta Ashram&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shyamala Devi&lt;/strong&gt; is the form of &lt;strong&gt;Durga Devi&lt;/strong&gt; who assists Lord Krishna in interacting with the material world during His incarnation&#xA;  (as Shyama). For every incarnation of Krishna or Narayana there is a&#xA;  form of Durga that assists Him to interact with the material energy.&#xA;  Narayana is nirguna, He does not have any connection with the three&#xA;  modes of material nature. As such He is always aloof to matter and&#xA;  never comes in contact with it. When He desires to interact with the&#xA;  material energy He does so through a via medium. It is like using a&#xA;  spoon to stir a pot of soup. We don’t stick our hand into the soup and&#xA;  stir it, we use a via medium, in this case the spoon, to do it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the creation and manifestation of the material nature, the Maha&#xA;  Vishnu uses the assistance of Shambu to impregnate the matter with the&#xA;  living entities. Shambu is the utensil He uses to touch the material&#xA;  energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the Lord incarnates, a similar situation occurs. The Lord’s body&#xA;  is absolutely spiritual, but He is interacting with elements from the&#xA;  material energy. For example, when the Varaha avatara wanted to lift&#xA;  the Earth planet, a form of Durga named Varahi came in between and&#xA;  actually lifted the Earth. The Earth is material, but Varaha was&#xA;  purely spiritual. As such they were, in a sense, not compatible. To&#xA;  harmonize the interaction, Durga assumes a form and carries out the&#xA;  will of Narayana on the material side, thus He remains nirguna – not&#xA;  having come in contact with the material energy. It is because of this&#xA;  that some Puranas describe the same story leaving out the incarnation&#xA;  of Narayana. They may say Durga took the form of Narasimhi and killed&#xA;  Hiranyakashipu. It is not false, she did take that form, and she did&#xA;  perform the action on the material side of existence, but they are&#xA;  leaving out the complete story. This is why Durga is called as the&#xA;  chaya-shakti, or shadow energy. She acts as the shadow of Narayana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In the words of the Gita:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;mayadhyakshena prakritih&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“The material energy is functioning under My direction.”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a Bengali text called Chandi (Chandi Mangala, not Chandi&#xA;  Path) which among other things describes the various forms of Durga in&#xA;  relation to the forms of Vishnu. Much later Devi Bhagavatam was&#xA;  written, but it has become more popular now, since Chandi is written&#xA;  only in Bengali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="10329" LastEditDate="2018-03-19T04:33:12.573" LastActivityDate="2018-03-19T04:33:12.573" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11055" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11005" CreationDate="2016-03-17T14:29:17.650" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is one of the Eye Twisting astrology followed in India&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In India, the superstition of eye twitching is reverse to the Chinese. Also, the eye twitching superstition in India is based on the eye that twitches, gender and the part of the eye that twitches.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In terms of the eye twitching, a twitch of the right eye is usually a good sign. It could mean that you will receive positive news, make money or be successful in some way. Unfortunately, twitching of the left eye is a bad omen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gender also dictates the meaning of twitching. Twitching on a woman's left eye is a good sign whereas it is a bad one for a man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are about five superstitions in India that are related to the part of the eye that twitches. Left eye pupil twitching is a sign of good luck, middle eye twitching signals money related gains, left eyelid shows that someone is about to undergo some worrying moments, if the lower part of the left eye twitches then you will be spending some money soon, and if the left eyebrow twitches then a child is about to be born and you will receive some positive news as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newhealthadvisor.com/Eye-Twitching-Superstition.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T15:14:00.803" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T15:14:00.803" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11056" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11052" CreationDate="2016-03-17T15:06:16.733" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shyamala Devi is not just a folklore.She is mentioned in the Brahmanda Purana.How she was created by Lalita Parameswari is mentioned in the Lalitodhvaba episode(Manifestation of Lalita) of the Brahmanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/brahmandapurana-4.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the Homa, Lalita Devi came out of the Chidagni Homa&#xA;Kunda, seated on a special chariot called “Chakra Raja Ratha”.&#xA;Therefore, we find the descriptions such as “Chidagnikunda sambhoota”&#xA;“Deva kaarya samudyataa” and “Chakra Raja Rathaa Roodha Sarvaayudha&#xA;Parishkritaa” in Lalita Sahasranama......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Order of Creation. She extended Herself in both male and female forms&#xA;and continued the process of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A. From the left eye, which was of the nature of Soma (moon) came&#xA;Brahmaand Lakshmi Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;B. From the right eye, which was of the nature of Soorya (sun) came&#xA;Vishnu and Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;C. From the third eye, which was of the nature of Agni (fire), came&#xA;Rudra and Sarasvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;D. Lakshmi &amp;amp; Vishnu, Shiva &amp;amp; Parvati and Brahma &amp;amp; Sarasvati became&#xA;couples.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(xv) From her heart, she created Baalaa Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(xvi) From her intellect, she created Shyamala Devi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(xvii) From her ego, she created Vaaraahi Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(xviii) From her smile, she created Vighneshwara.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After having thus completed the great creation, Lalita Devi requested&#xA;her consort, Shiva Kama Sundara to created the Shiva Chakra. He&#xA;immediately brought out a big humming sound and from this, the Shiva&#xA;Chakra Devatas numbering 23 manifested. &lt;strong&gt;Later, Lalita Devi crowned&#xA;Shyamala Devi as the prime minister. Therefore Shyamala Devi is called&#xA;Mantrini Devi. Lalita Devi handed over the finger ring to Mantrini&#xA;Devi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-17T15:06:16.733" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11057" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-17T17:46:33.043" Score="2" ViewCount="2393" Body="&lt;p&gt;In some &lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapressbookshop.in/nitya-karm-puja-prakash.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sandhyavandan books&lt;/a&gt;, there is a procedure known as Gayatri shrapvimochan (गायत्री श्रप्विमोचन or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gayatri&lt;/a&gt; curse removal) and it has the following 4 curse removal steps:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma&lt;/a&gt; Shrapvimochan (ब्रह्मा श्रप्विमोचन)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vashistha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vashistha&lt;/a&gt; Shrapvimochan (वशिष्ठ श्रप्विमोचन)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishvamitra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishwamitra&lt;/a&gt; Shrapvimochan ( विश्वामित्र श्रप्विमोचन)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shukra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shukra&lt;/a&gt;  Shrapvimochan (शुक्र  श्रप्विमोचन)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means that Gayatri was cursed by 4 Brahmarishis (which includes Rishi Vishwamitra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scriptural reference to this curse story and validation for this practice? And is it compulsory to do Gayatri shrapvimochan before performing Gayatri japa in sandhyavandana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since sandhyavandana is different for all 3 varnas, is it required for Kshatriyas and Vaishyas to perform this gayatri curse removal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Kshatriyas use Trishubh (त्रिश्टुभ) i.e., &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig-veda&lt;/a&gt; I, 35, 2&lt;/em&gt; and Vaishyas use Jagati (जगति) i.e., &lt;em&gt;Rig-veda I, 35, 9&lt;/em&gt; instead of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gayatri&lt;/a&gt;, in their sandhyavandana. (Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe29/sbe29035.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Grihya Sutras&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-17T23:34:18.597" Title="Curse(s) on Gayatri" Tags="|vedas|vedic-gods|vedic-rituals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11058" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11038" CreationDate="2016-03-18T04:47:30.813" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Above observations don't mean that Bhagavad Gita is the final authority.&amp;quot;  Let me preface this by saying that the Bhagavad Gita is definitely an infallible authority, and if you're interpreting it in a way that it would contradict the doctrines of the Vedanta school, you're probably misinterpreting it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now since you referred to Nirguna Brahman in your question, I assume you're question is about Advaita.  As a way of explaining the Advaita point of view on this issue, let me first go through the points of view that different Hindu philosophies have on this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are two kinds of entities in the Universe: Purushas or souls, and Prakriti or matter/energy.  All Purushas are completely separate from each other and from Prakriti, and both Purushas and Prakriti are eternal.  When a Purusha interacts with Prakriti, Prakriti takes on the form of gross and subtle elements, which ultimately take the form of gross and subtle bodies for that Purusha.  The goal of all Purushas is to achieve Kaivalya, or eternal separation and freedom from Prakriti.  This is the viewpoint of Kapila's Samkhya school, and it is the subject of a fictional dialogue I wrote &lt;a href=&quot;https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ev0XgyKjqu1iktUfgRIWhXnjor6KoWOuvRiGCb9_AYU/edit?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is very similar to viewpoint 1.  There are still two kinds of entities, Purushas and Prakriti, and they are still totally separate and Prakriti develops gross and subtle bodies for Purushas, etc.  The only difference is that out of all the many Purushas there is one special Purusha, known as Ishwara.  Ishwara is the Purushottama or best of all Purushas.  And unlike in viewpoint 1, where Prakriti is just blindly taking forms due to interactions with various Purusha, here it is Ishwara that directs the behavior of Prakriti.  Ishwara has no goals, except perhaps compassion toward other Purushas, but the goal of those other Purushas is to separate themselves from Prakriti and perhaps attain association with Ishwara.  This is the viewpoint of Patanjali's Yoga school (as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8872/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), of Madhvacharya's Dvaita philosophy (as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10278/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and of the philosophy of the Shaiva Agamas as most people interpret them (as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10235/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is very similar to viewpoint 2, in that Purushas are still eternal, Prakriti forms gross and subtle bodies for Purushas, there is one special Purusha known as Ishwara, etc.  The only difference is that while most Purushas are completely seperate from Prakriti, there is one Purusha that is not: Ishwara.   In this view Prakriti is not an independent substance at all, rather it emerges from Ishwara.  So Ishwara doen't just direct the behavior of Prakriti, here Ishwara is also the substance that Prakriti is made of.  This is the view of the Vedanta school as almost all commentators of the Brahma Sutras interpret it, and this is the view of the Pancharatra Agamas as almost all Vaishnavas interpret it (see my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10624/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is very different from the other viewpoints.  Here there is only one entity, the formless Nirguna Brahman, and there was never such a thing as Purushas, Prakriti, Ishwara, etc.  This is the ultimate reality according to Adi Shankaracharya's Advaita philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now to understand Adi Shankaracharya's philosophy of Advaita, we have to distinguish two perspectives.  Advaita subscribes to viewpoint 3 in the relative perspective, i.e. the perspective of someone who is still subject to the illusion of Maya.  But from the absolute perspective, i.e. the perspective of someone who has overcome Avidya, Advaitins believe that viewpoint 4 is what is the ultimate reality.  I think your confusion stems from conflating the two perspectives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, if you want to understand how Adi Shankaracharya views this issue, it's instructive to look at his criticism of the Pancharatra Agamas, the foundational texts of Vaishnavism which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  As I mentioned above, most Vaishnavas interpret the Pancharatra Agamas as advocating viewpoint 3.  But as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10624/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Adi Shankaracharya believed that the Pancharatra Agamas diverged from viewpoint 3, and he criticized them for it.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34218.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt; what he says in his commentary on Adhyaya 2 Pada 2 Sutra 42:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tatra bhāgavatā manyate bhagavānevaiko vāsudevo nirañjanajñānasvarūpaḥ paramārthatattvam sa caturdhātmānaṃ pravibhajya pratiṣṭhitaḥ vāsudevavyūharūpeṇa saṃkarṣaṇavyūharūpeṇa pradyumnavyūharūpeṇa aniruddhavyūharūpeṇa ca vāsudevo nāma paramātmā ucyate saṃkarṣaṇo nāma jīvaḥ pradyumno nāma manaḥ aniruddho nāma ahaṃkāraḥ teṣāṃ vāsudevaḥ parā prakṛtiḥ itare saṃkarṣaṇādayaḥ kāryam tamitthaṃbhūtaṃ parameśvaraṃ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yatpunaridamucyate vāsudevātsaṃkarṣaṇa utpadyate saṃkarṣaṇācca pradyumnaḥ pradyumnāccāniruddha iti atra brūmaḥ na vāsudevasaṃjñakātparamātmanaḥ saṃkarṣaṇasaṃjñakasya jīvasyotpattiḥ saṃbhavati anityatvādidoṣaprasaṅgāt utpattimattve hi jīvasya anityatvādayo doṣāḥ prasajyeran tataśca naivāsya bhagavatprāptirmokṣaḥ syāt kāraṇaprāptau kāryasya pravilayaprasaṅgāt pratiṣedhiṣyati ca ācāryo jīvasyotpattim nātmāśruternityatvācca tābhyaḥ iti। tasmādasaṃgataiṣā kalpanā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The so-called Bhâgavatas are of opinion that the one holy (bhagavat) Vâsudeva, whose nature is pure knowledge, is what really exists, and that he, dividing himself fourfold, appears in four forms (vyûha), as Vâsudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha. Vâsudeva denotes the highest Self, Sankarshana the individual soul, Pradyumna the mind (manas), Aniruddha the principle of egoity (ahankâra). Of these four Vâsudeva constitutes the ultimate causal essence, of which the three others are the effects....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We, however, must take exception to the doctrine that Sankarshana springs from Vâsudeva, Pradyumna from Sankarshana, Aniruddha from Pradyumna. It is not possible that from Vâsudeva, i.e. the highest Self, there should originate Sankarshana, i.e. the individual soul; for if such were the case, there would attach to the soul non-permanency, and all the other imperfections which belong to things originated. And thence release, which consists in reaching the highest Being, could not take place; for the effect is absorbed only by entering into its cause.--That the soul is not an originated thing, the teacher will prove later on (II, 3, 17). For this reason the Bhâgavata hypothesis is unacceptable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also instructive to look at Adi Shankaracharya's commentary on Adhyaya 2 Pada 3 Sutra 42, where he refutes the notion that humans don't have control over our actions by arguing that we have had infinitely many past births going infinitely far back in time, so it is us, not Brahman, who are ultimately responsible for our actions.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt; what he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;naiṣa doṣaḥ parāyatte'pi hi kartṛtve karotyeva jīvaḥ kurvantaṃ hi tamīśvaraḥ kārayati api ca pūrvaprayatnamapekṣya idānīṃ kārayati pūrvataraṃ ca prayatnamapekṣya pūrvamakārayaditi anāditvātsaṃsārasyeti anavadyam। kathaṃ punaravagamyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[F]or although the activity of the soul is not independent, yet the soul does act. The Lord indeed causes it to act, but it acts itself. Moreover, the Lord in causing it to act now has regard to its former efforts, and he caused it to act in a former existence, having regard to its efforts previous to that existence; a regressus against which, considering the eternity of the samsâra, no objections can be raised.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I provided both Sanskrit and English so there's no issue of translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T14:34:12.420" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11059" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-18T06:43:39.407" Score="2" ViewCount="376" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Balagandam Sarkam 52 (I think), the following passage appears in Tamil:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/VFDeL.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/VFDeL.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which when I translate:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Vasishta said &quot;Maharaj (addressing Vishwamithrar), I will not give Sabahalai in lieu of lakhs and lakhs or crores and crores of cows. I will  not give even silver is heaped liked mountain... (highlighted portion) Swahakaram, Vashatkaram - these two kriyas are preformed with Sabalai.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Vashatkaram and Swahakaram kriyas are mentioned in this and being performed by Vasishta. What are these kriyas, what are its significance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T06:43:39.407" Title="What are the kriyas Swahakaram and Vashatkaram means?" Tags="|ramayana|rituals|vashishta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11061" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11062" CreationDate="2016-03-18T07:20:06.043" Score="5" ViewCount="156" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism there are cases where astrologers or pandits ask devotees to chant certain mantras or do fasting on specific days. Why doesn't God give what we want directly (without doing anything) as we are God's children?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-18T16:28:23.790" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T16:28:23.790" Title="Why doesn't God not give us anything without doing something?" Tags="|scripture|gods|worship|mantras|bhakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11062" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11061" CreationDate="2016-03-18T08:20:23.047" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This Question can never have to the point answer, Going in depth in this issue will put different view and idea.I will like to answer on my perception of GOD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you had mentioned  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;we are god's children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thinking practically..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;suppose a person have 100 rightfull heir (sons) to his Property, But his dilemma is to whom he should give his house ( suppose he cant give his House to all his 100 son), Now to decide he need some parameters to decide whom to transfer his House. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;considering the above example as situation of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;everyone can't have everything,if any body plans to have a thing which is not common to everyone he need to show his strong desire and ability to have that thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we know all material thing in this world doesn't apply to real self (The Soul),So we need to show our will power by showing our strong hold on soul,which is not affected by the materialistic nature of world.&#xA;These were the reason Sadhus ,Rishi muni,Warriors earlier perform &lt;strong&gt;Asceticism&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;Mortification of the flesh&lt;/strong&gt;, to get pleasure for soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But things had eventually changed ,earlier penance was done for soul,eg people used to ask for Moksha, Divine knowledge which were attributes of soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;but these days we ask everything (mostly materialistic things) from God. like, Promotion,Passing exam etc etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;please do edit this answer, if you think anything is wrongly written&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2913" LastEditorUserId="2913" LastEditDate="2016-03-18T08:27:46.067" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T08:27:46.067" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11063" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3438" CreationDate="2016-03-18T12:38:32.973" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krsna's primary wife, Srimati Rukmini is a direct avatara of Mahalakshmi. The other 16107 wives are amsas of Mahalakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavatam, 10th canto, 1st Chapter, Brahma says to the gods:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasudeva Grhe Sakshat Bhagavan Purushah Parah&lt;br&gt;Janishyate tat Priyartham Sambhavantu Sura-Striyah&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who has full potency, will personally appear as the son of Vasudeva. Therefore all the wives of the demigods should also appear in order to satisfy Him.&quot; (Bhagavatam 10.1.23)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, the wives of the devas also took part incarnations as Krsna's wives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, in the Garga Samhita (though it is accepted only by Gaudiya Vaishnavas), Lord Krsna instructs the devas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shrih sakshad rukmini bhaishmi shiva jambavati tatha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  satya ca tulasi bhumau satyabhama vasundhara &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dakshina lakshmana caiva kalindi viraja tatha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhadra hrir mitravinda ca jahnavi papa-nashini&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;The goddess of fortune will take birth as Bhishmaka's daughter Rukmini. Lord Shiva's consort (Parvati) will take birth as Jambavati. Tulasi will take birth as Satya and Vasundhara (Bhudevi) as Satyabhama.  Dakshina (The consort of Yajnapurusha) will become Lakshmana, Viraja (the sacred river of Vaikuntha) will become Kalindi, Hri (The consort of Dharma) will become Bhadra, and Jahnavi (Ganga), who destroys sins, will become Mitravinda.&quot; (Garga Samhita 1.3.37-38)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then later on, Krsna says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ye ye 'vatara me purvam tesham rajnyo ramamshakah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhavishya raja-rajnishu sahasrani ca shodasha&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;Whenever in the past I incarnated in the world, the goddess of fortune would also incarnate as My queen. This time she will incarnate as My sixteen-thousand queens.&quot; (Garga Samhita, 1.4.32)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, each wife of Krsna was a goddess with Lakshmi Devi's amsa residing within her.&#xA;Also, this implies that only for Krsna avatar, the whole Trimurti-Tridevi and other deva's wives concept was scrapped, so that they could all become Krsna's wives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T12:38:32.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11065" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-18T16:14:31.920" Score="1" ViewCount="68" Body="&lt;p&gt;As Vedas didn't originate in written form and the manuscripts are created later by various persons, are all the manuscripts exactly the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5102" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-18T18:04:06.327" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T18:04:06.327" Title="Do all the copies of Vedas found across India have the same content?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-03-21T08:50:43.577" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11066" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11008" CreationDate="2016-03-18T18:41:38.543" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the Ganguli translation of the Mahabharata, Sauptika Parva, Ashvatthama himself &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10015.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains&lt;/a&gt; the powers of his gem:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Drona's son said, &quot;This my gem is more valuable than all the wealth that has ever been earned by the Pandavas and the Kauravas. &lt;strong&gt;If this gem is worn, the wearer ceases to have any fear from weapons or disease or hunger! He ceases to have any fear of gods and danavas and nagas! His apprehensions from rakshasas as also from robbers will cease. Even these are the virtues of this gem of mine.&lt;/strong&gt; I cannot, by any means, part with it. That, however, O holy one, which thou sayest, should be done by me. &lt;strong&gt;Here is this gem&lt;/strong&gt;. Here is myself.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;opening chapter&lt;/a&gt; of The Mahabharata, Vyasa, while giving a very concise account of the whole Mahabharata story, says the following about Ashvatthama's jewel:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Aswatthaman while being pursued by Bhimasena had discharged the first of weapons called Aishika, by which the embryo in the womb (of Uttara) was wounded, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the weapon Brahmashira (discharged by Aswatthaman) was repelled by Arjuna with another weapon over which he had pronounced the word &quot;Sasti&quot; and that Aswatthaman had to give up the jewel-like &lt;strong&gt;excrescence&lt;/strong&gt; [a distinct outgrowth] on his head, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashvatthama hands over the gem to Yudhishtira who happily accepts it as a gift:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Draupadi said, &quot;I desired to only pay off our debt for the injury we have sustained. The preceptor's son is worthy of my reverence as the preceptor himself. Let the king bind this gem on his head, O Bharata!&quot; &lt;strong&gt;The king [Yudhishthira] then, taking that gem, placed it on his head, at the desire of Draupadi&lt;/strong&gt; and regarding it as a gift from the preceptor. Holding on his head that excellent and celestial gem, the puissant king looked beautiful like a mountain with the moon above it.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This 18&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century drawing of the scene shows an injured-in-the-forehead Ashvatthama walking away:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SI21I.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SI21I.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for the Aishikastra supposedly used by Arjuna, the translators of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9095/2995&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana from Motilal Banarsidass Publishers&lt;/a&gt; footnote that it's a blade of grass and it matches with the meaning of the Sanskrit word &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=aiSIka&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;aishika&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rdMwm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. When Krishna curses Ashvatthama for his shameful act, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10016.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; Ashvatthama will roam the Earth &quot;with the weight of all diseases.&quot; And I believe part of Krishna's words will come true due to the fact that Ashvatthama just gave away his gem and with it also lost all immunity from various diseases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The holy one [Krishna] said, &quot;The fall of this mighty weapon will not be fruitless. The foetus will die. But being dead, it will live again and have a long life! As regards thyself, all wise men know thee for a coward and a sinful wretch! Always engaged in sinful acts, thou art the slayer of children. For this reason, thou must have to bear the fruit of these thy sins. For 3,000 years thou shalt wander over this earth, without a companion and without being able to talk with anyone. Alone and without anybody by thy side, thou shalt wander through diverse countries, O wretch, thou shalt have no place in the midst of men. The stench of pus and blood shall emanate from thee, and inaccessible forests and dreary moors shall be thy abode! Thou shalt wander over the Earth, O thou of sinful soul, &lt;strong&gt;with the weight of all diseases&lt;/strong&gt; on thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-03-20T06:53:03.830" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11067" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2310" CreationDate="2016-03-18T20:43:26.537" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavad Gita, in response to his devotee's request as to how a man of enlightenment behaves, the Blessed Lord ( Krishna ) replied - verses 55 and 56 of chapter 2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Partha ! When a man completely relinquishes all desires of the mind, and is entirely contented in the Self, by the Self, he is then considered to be one settled in wisdom.&#xA;He whose consciousness is not shaken by anxiety under afflictions nor by attachment to happiness under favourable circumstances; he who is free from worldly loves, fears and angers - he is called a muni of steady discrimination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5112" LastActivityDate="2016-03-18T20:43:26.537" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11068" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-19T02:50:02.310" Score="4" ViewCount="134" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for clarity on the case, argument or evidence of destruction (non-existence) of the Ram temple in Ayodhya before the Babri Masjid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is, is there any source that talks about the temple before the destruction happened in the early 16&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century (1528 AD, I believe)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: &lt;strong&gt;There is sufficient evidence that a temple existed in the mosque site, but is there any direct evidence that the temple was actually destroyed to build the mosque there?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Wikipedia &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Janmabhoomi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;states&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Ramayana states that the location of Rama's birthplace is on the banks of the Sarayu river in the city of Ayodhya. A section of Hindus claim that the exact site of Rama's birthplace is where the Babri Masjid once stood in the present-day Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. According to this theory, the Mughals demolished a Hindu shrine that marked the spot, and constructed a mosque in its place. People opposed to this theory state that such claims arose only in the 18&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century, and that there is no evidence for the spot being the birthplace of Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.... Since then, the archaeological excavations have indicated the presence of a temple beneath the mosque rubble, &lt;strong&gt;but whether the structure was a Rama shrine (or a temple at all) remains disputed&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This question is &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; a duplicate of the generic question &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9351&quot;&gt;Was there a Rama Temple in Ayodhya?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (there can be many temples of Rama in Ayodhya!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this question, I'm specifically looking for evidence that proves there once stood a Temple of Rama in Ayodhya that was demolished to build the Babri Masjid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I don't understand why people are downvoting my question. My intention is not to offend anyone, I'm merely seeking credible information here. Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-01-13T23:23:01.230" Title="Any evidence of Ram Temple in Ayodhya being destroyed before Babri Masjid?" Tags="|history|temple|rama|india|ayodhya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2017-01-15T02:59:43.753" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11069" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10796" CreationDate="2016-03-19T05:29:25.003" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think  Chakraborty is right because this is truth that the Pandavas were also called Chakraborty Samrat. My guru told me that Chakraborty was non-other than the surname of the Pandavas. Chakraborty families are Brahmins and also Kshatriyas and Pandavas too. I am himself from a Chakraborty family,so I know that Pandavas were my forefathers. Believe me and this is truth!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5113" LastActivityDate="2016-03-19T05:29:25.003" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11070" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-19T05:42:53.037" Score="2" ViewCount="136" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know that why many people worship Shri Krishna during Holi? Is there any reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5113" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-20T04:38:12.967" LastActivityDate="2016-06-21T17:21:47.310" Title="Why do people worship Lord Krishna during Holi?" Tags="|krishna|festivals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2018-01-16T16:02:38.110" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11071" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-19T07:18:18.900" Score="1" ViewCount="2094" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is Shiva also called the Adi Guru? Is it because he propagated the concept of Rama who resides in our hearts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva does meditation on Lord Vishnu. This is a well known fact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-20T04:31:06.757" LastActivityDate="2018-08-29T14:22:18.450" Title="Why is Shiva also called Adi Guru?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11072" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11071" CreationDate="2016-03-19T07:47:37.287" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all questions like &quot; Why Shiva is the destroyer?&quot; OR &quot;Why Vishnu is the preserver?&quot; OR &quot;Why Saraswati is considered as the Goddess of Knowledge ?&quot; can't be answered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can at most cite from scriptures that declare them as so but probably can't answer the WHY part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/dakshinamurtistotram.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There came a time after creation when the Rishis, whose task it was to&#xA;  guide the people as gurus, needed further guidance themselves. &lt;strong&gt;So Lord&#xA;  Shiva came as their guru to guide them.&lt;/strong&gt; This incarnation of of Shiva&#xA;  is known as Dakshinamurti as He sat facing the “Dakshina”, i.e.,&#xA;  south.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence,in the Guru Sishya lineage(Paramapara) Lord Shiva(as Dakshinamurti) is considered the first Guru(Adi Guru).It has nothing to do with propagation of RAM(whatever that means) as you have mentioned in the question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nidhaye sarvavidyanam bhishaje bhavaroginam | &lt;strong&gt;Gurave sarvalokanam&#xA;  daxinamurtaye namah ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning of the bold line -My salutations to Dakshinamurti who is the Guru of the entire universe.This is from the Dakshinamurti Stotram found on the same page.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why it is said that, those who don't have personal Guru yet can pray to Dakshinamurti who will help them in finding their Guru in case they are worthy of having one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, refer to the 6th verse of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_shiva-shadakshara_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shiva Shadakshara Stotram&lt;/a&gt; found in the Rudrayamala which i quote here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yatra Yatra stitho Devah Sarva Vyapi Maheswarah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yo Guruh Sarva Devaanaam&lt;/strong&gt; YA Karaya Namo Namaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning of the bold words-Who is the Guru of all Devas(Gods).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to Shiva meditating on Vishnu:It has been mentioned in many scriptures that those who differentiate bwtween HARI and HARA are not considered true devotees &amp;amp; go to hells despite all their devotion and good deeds in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva &amp;amp; Vishnu stay in each others' hearts;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shivaaya Vishnu Roopaaya Shiva Roopaaya Vishanave | Shivasya Hrudayam&#xA;  Vishnur Vishnuscha Hrudayam Shivaha || Yatha Shivamayo Vishnuhu Yevam&#xA;  Vishnu Mayaha Shivaha | Yathaantharam Na Paschyaami Thatha Me Swasthi&#xA;  Ra Yushi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;-I'm adding another source to my answer.This one is a prayer done by Sri Rama to Lord Shiva and is found in the Padma Purana.It praises Lord Shiva as &quot;Jagat Guru&quot;(the Guru of the entire universe).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/padmapurana11.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ye twam &lt;strong&gt;Surottama Gurum&lt;/strong&gt; Purushaa vimudhaa, Jaananti nasya Jagatah&#xA;  Sacharaa –charasya, Ishwaryamaana nigamaanushyena/ Paschaathey&#xA;  yatanaam twanubhavantya vishuddhichitthaah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Maha Deva! Those impure hearted persons who take pride in their&#xA;  wealth, egotism and so-called knowledge and not realise who &lt;strong&gt;Jagadguru/&#xA;  the Greatest Master&lt;/strong&gt; really is shall regret after Mrityu and on&#xA;  reaching Naraka, but then too late!).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the last verse of the stotram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-31T07:43:19.077" LastActivityDate="2016-03-31T07:43:19.077" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11073" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11074" CreationDate="2016-03-19T08:36:42.287" Score="7" ViewCount="4585" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am reading Shiva and Sati's story where I can see that Prajapati Daksha, Lord Shiva and Sati all lived in the Treta yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can also recall that Bhagavan Sri Ram also lived in the Treta yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Were there any incidents in the Ramayana which suggest that these supreme Gods met in person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T07:54:03.120" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T06:24:28.493" Title="Did Lord Shiva and Lord Rama ever meet in person?" Tags="|ramayana|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11074" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11073" CreationDate="2016-03-19T09:26:58.143" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes they met.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12959/6/Chapter4_1309-1388p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 31 Greatness of Ramesvara in Kotirudra Samhita of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Pg No - 1381), Rama worshiped Shiva's earthen image to sought blessings of Lord Shiva. Shiva met Rama in that Island (now called as Rameswara) and blessed Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suta said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Rama, the devotee of Shiva, took the water and about to drink, it&#xA;occurred to him at the will of Shiva. &amp;quot; I have not yet had sight of&#xA;Siva, the great lord, the bestower of all bliss. How can the water be&#xA;taken in? &amp;quot; After saying this, he drank water and then performed the&#xA;worship of Shiva's earthen image. He worshiped Shiva performing all&#xA;the sixteen ancillary services (Shodashopchar pooja) like invocation&#xA;etc. with devotion according to rules obtaining. After propitiating&#xA;Shiva with obeisances, divine eulogies etc. strenously, Rama joyously&#xA;prayed to Shiva with devotion. Satisfying with Rama's devotion, Shiva&#xA;blessed him to be victorious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Siva, if you are pleased, you shall stay here, O lord, to sanctify&#xA;the world and to render help to people. Suta said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus implored Shiva took up the phallic image named Ramesvara. It is&#xA;now famous on surface of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After defeating Ravana in War, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga117/yuddha_117_frame.htm#Verse2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devas with Brahma and Shiva reached city of Lanka in Aerial Vehicle.&lt;/a&gt; (Verse 2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereupon, Kubera the King of Yakshas, Yama the lord of death together&#xA;with the deceased ancestors, Indra the lord of celestials Varuna the&#xA;lord of waters, the illustrious Shiva the great deity who bears the&#xA;device of a bull as his banner and having three eyes, Brahma the&#xA;creator of all the worlds and the best among the knowers of sacred&#xA;knowledge all these together reaching the City of Lanka in aerial&#xA;cars, shining like the sun approached Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devas asked Rama why he ignored Seetha, when she was entering into the fire. Rama appealed them to describe in reality who he was. Brahma (the creator) proclaimed his divinity and eulogized him with hymns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva then &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga119/yuddha_119_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;spoke&lt;/a&gt; to Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;O lotus-eyed, long-armed, broad-chested, annihilator of enemies and&#xA;excellent among those upholding the cause of virtue! Thank heaven! You&#xA;accomplished this task. Fortunately has the fear born of Ravana -&#xA;which increased the severe darkness on the entire world has been&#xA;removed by you, on the battle-field, O Rama.You are fit to go to the&#xA;heaven, by comforting the depressed Bharata and the illustrious&#xA;Kausalya as well as seeing Kaikeyi and Sumitra, the mother of&#xA;Lakshmana having got the sovereignty of Ayodhya, bringing delight to&#xA;your friends, stabilizing the back-bone in the race of Ikshvaku,&#xA;getting excellent glory by performing a horse-sacrifice and by&#xA;granting riches to Brahmanas. This king Dasaratha, your father in this&#xA;mortal world and the highly glorious as well as the venerable person,&#xA;is seated in an aerial car, O Rama!. Having been delivered by you, his&#xA;(godly) son, the glorious king obtained the abode of Indra the lord of&#xA;celestials. you offer your respectful salutation to him, along with&#xA;Lakshmana, your brother&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9188/3500&quot;&gt;the story&lt;/a&gt; of Sati meeting Rama, Sati and Shiva should have done Time Travel to meet Rama or they could have &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3079/3500&quot;&gt;met another Rama&lt;/a&gt;. In this story, Shiva aka Rudra didn't meet Rama personally. Goddess Sati tests Rama of His divinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sati actually belonged to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27477/62f_chapter_19_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pitri Kalpa&lt;/a&gt;, previous Kalpa. Rudra waited for 21 Manvantaras to marry Shakti again. He married her (Parvati) in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27478/62f_chapter_19_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaivastara Manvantara of Sweta Varaha Kalpa&lt;/a&gt;. Ramayana happened in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7189/3500&quot;&gt;24th Treta Yuga of Vaivastara Manvantara&lt;/a&gt;. We live in 28th Kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-03-19T15:58:14.583" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11075" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-19T09:33:01.423" Score="2" ViewCount="364" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a contrasting description of the creator of the universe. In Devi Purana, it is mentioned that Devi is the creator of the universe, and everything emanates from her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Gita, Krishna said that he is the creator of the universe, and everything emanates from him. He also showed his Viswaroopa form to Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, who is the true master/creator of the universe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this theory is viewed from the scientific angle, Devi (or &lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt;/energy) has to be the master of the universe. And all matter has evolved from her. As we know, mass evolves from energy through the &lt;code&gt;E = mc2&lt;/code&gt; formula (Albert Einstein).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-03-20T05:24:00.183" LastActivityDate="2016-03-20T06:40:48.573" Title="Who created the Universe?" Tags="|krishna|gods|creation|shakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2016-03-20T12:08:15.580" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11076" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9166" CreationDate="2016-03-19T10:00:37.017" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;All the knowledge of Yoga dates back to Adi Guru Shiva himself, but the knowledge was propagated all over Bharat by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorakshanath&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Guru Gorakhnath&lt;/a&gt; of Nath Sampradaya and in modern times by Paramhans Yogananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nath Siddha Matsyendranath or the ‘Fish Lord’ is the first Guru of the&#xA;  nine Naths. Along with Gorakhnath, he is regarded as the founder of&#xA;  the Nath, Kaula and Kanphata traditions. According to legend,&#xA;  Matsyendranath was a fisherman from Kamarupa in Assam who hooked a&#xA;  giant fish and was swallowed alive by it. The fish came to rest on the&#xA;  ocean floor near a hidden place, which Lord Shiva had chosen to convey&#xA;  his most secret teaching to his consort Uma. From within the belly of&#xA;  the fish Matsyendranath overheard these secret teachings and received&#xA;  his Mantra directly from Lord Shiva, Who had no option, but to make&#xA;  Matsyendranath His disciple. Matsyendranath spent twelve years&#xA;  perfecting his Sadhana living in the belly of the fish. He was&#xA;  eventually disgorged onto dry land.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Matsyendranath initiated the practices of Laya, Hatha and Raja Yogas.&#xA;  The doctrine of Yoga was given to him by Lord Shiva, but in an unusual&#xA;  way. According to another legend, he was thrown into the sea by his&#xA;  parents; because he was born on an unlucky day and he was swallowed by&#xA;  a fish. His name was then Lokeshvara. By the sea Lord Shiva was&#xA;  teaching the secrets of Yoga to Parvati. She fell asleep; but&#xA;  Lokeshvara heard everything while hidden in the fish. In a carving of&#xA;  the legend at Shrishailam he is shown with his head out of the head of&#xA;  the fish listening to the secret doctrine. From then Lokeshvara was&#xA;  called Matsyendranath, ‘Lord of the Fish.’ But, he was discovered, and&#xA;  at Shrishailam an adjacent carving shows Lord Shiva pointing to a fish&#xA;  to show Parvati, where the eavesdropper is hidden. Parvati was angry&#xA;  and cursed Matsyendranath to forget all the Yoga in Kadali, the land&#xA;  of women, where girls attempted to distract him from his meditation.&#xA;  Gorakhnath disguised himself as a dancing girl and rescued&#xA;  Matsyendranath from his enchantment through the words of his songs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Matsyendranath had many disciples, the most prominent of which was&#xA;  Gorakhnath. Gorakhnath (often called Goraksha, Gorakshnath, or simply&#xA;  Gorakh) is traditionally said to be the originator of Hatha Yoga, the&#xA;  Yogic system of Asanas (physical postures) that are part of the&#xA;  Tantric alchemical process of physical perfection and energetic&#xA;  awak-ening.  Gorakhnath was a great Yogi like Sant Dnyaneshwar of&#xA;  Alandi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7jriJ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7jriJ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;          Navnath(9 Naths)&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2016-03-19T10:00:37.017" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11077" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7961" CreationDate="2016-03-19T13:28:38.913" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana says that Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra (Trimurti) rivaled one another and they propitiated the Supreme Lord (their father) and they got a boon of creating others at outset of various Kalpas. So, in one Kalpa, Vishnu creates Rudra and Brahma and in another Kalpa Rudra creates Brahma and Vishnu and this cycle continues.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Matsya purana says different Puranas were originally recited by Brahma at outset of Various Kalpas. So, events happened in that Kalpa were narrated in those Puranas. So, in those Puranas, &amp;quot;the particular Trimurti&amp;quot; who created others is described as Supreme and this created confusion. &amp;quot;Trikalajnani Sages&amp;quot; when recounting Puranas just remember these Puranas and narrate it exactly. So, Vyasa had to mention different Gods as Supreme in different Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12960/6/Chapter4_1813-1892p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 13 The Creation of Brahma and Vishnu- Vayaviyasamhita Section one of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Pg No -1818) says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vayu Said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I shall narrate how Rudra was born and how Brahma and Vishnu were born from each other.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The three are Atmans as causes of born of Mahesvara; they are cause of creation, sustenance and annihilation of the Universe consisting of&#xA;mobile and immobile beings. Endowed with great qualities they are&#xA;sanctified by great Lord. Presided over by his Shakti, they can&#xA;perform their activities. Brahma can create, Vishnu can protect and&#xA;Rudra can annihilate.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;But they rivaled with one other. Desirous of excelling one other they  propitiated their father the Supreme Lord by means of penance.&#xA;Attaining all around favor of Lord at outset in Previous Kalpa, Rudra&#xA;created Brahma and Vishnu. In another Kalpa, Brahma created Vishnu and&#xA;Rudra. In another Kalpa, Vishnu created Brahma and Rudra. Thus in&#xA;different Kalpas, Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra desiring mutual benefit are&#xA;born of one another. &lt;strong&gt;Based on the events in their respective Kalpas,&#xA;their process in being the cause of origin of one other is extolled by&#xA;Sages.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See that chapter for more details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23267/25F_Chapter_53_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 53 of Matysa Purana&lt;/a&gt; gives actual time of compilation of&#xA;various Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Padma Purana                        - Padma Kalpa (hence the name)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu Purana                       - Varaha Kalpa (current Kalpa)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vayu Purana (includes Shiva Purana) - Sveta Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhagavata Purana                    - Sarsvata Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Naradiya Purana                     - Brhat Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Agni Purana                         - Isana Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhavishya Purana                    - Aghora Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma Vaivarata Purana             - Rathantara Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Linga Purana                        - Agneya Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha Purana                       - Manava Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Skanda Purana                       - Satpurusha Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vamana Purana                       - Kurma Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kurma Purana                        - Lakshmi Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matsya Purana                       - Vaivastara Manvantara of Varaha Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T12:51:05.450" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11078" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2457" CreationDate="2016-03-19T13:47:44.637" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;With attaining the right knowledge, birth-rebirth cycle brakes and ignorance(अविद्या) &amp;amp; illusion(माया) can no more hold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Within kalpa, birth-rebirth is due to ignorance &amp;amp; maya, similarly creation &amp;amp; dissolution of the whole is also due to ignorance &amp;amp; maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In another word both cycles 1. Cycles of birth-rebirth cycles within kapla, 2. Cycle of kalpa-kalpa are due to illusion &amp;amp; ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer Mandukya Upanishad (with Gaudapada Karika):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Verse 2-32: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न निरोधो न चोत्पत्तिर्न बद्धो न च साधकः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न मुमुक्षुर्न वै मुक्त इत्येषा परमार्थता ॥ ३२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;32 There is neither dissolution nor creation, none in bondage and none practicing disciplines. There is none seeking Liberation and none liberated. This is the absolute truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Verse 3-15:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मृल्लोहविस्फुलिङ्गाद्यै सृष्टिर्या चोदिताऽन्यथा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उपायः सोऽवताराय नास्ति भेदः कथञ्चन ॥ १५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15 The scriptural statements regarding the creation, using the examples of earth, iron and sparks, are for the purpose of clarifying the mind. Multiplicity does not really exist in any manner. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Verse 3-48:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न कश्चिज्जायते जीवः सम्भवोऽस्य न विद्यते ।&#xA;  एतत्तदुत्तमं सत्यं यत्र किञ्चिन्न जायते ॥ ४८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;48 No jiva ever comes into existence. There exists no cause that can produce it. The supreme truth is that nothing ever is born. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, after attaining the Ultimate-Truth / Moksha, Illusion/Ignorance can't hold and hence both cycle can no longer exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, (&lt;strong&gt;कैवल्य मुक्ति&lt;/strong&gt;) Ultiate Moksha is permanent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-06-08T09:59:26.713" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T09:59:26.713" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11079" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10544" CreationDate="2016-03-19T14:18:08.247" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Power of Gayatri Mantram is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch26.htm&quot;&gt;Chapter XXVI- On the narration of Sâvitrî- THE NINTH BOOK of DEVI BHAGAVATAM&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nârâyana said :-- O Muni! The King As’vapati reigned in Bhadrades’a,&#xA;  rendering his enemies powerless and making his friends painless. He&#xA;  had a queen very religious; her name was Mâlatî; She was like a second&#xA;  Laksmî. She was barren; and desirous of an issue, She under the&#xA;  instruction of Vas’istha, duly worshipped Sâvitrî with devotion. But&#xA;  She did not receive any vision nor any command; therefore She returned&#xA;  home with a grievous heart. Seeing her sorry, the king consoled her&#xA;  with good words and himself accompanied her to Puskara with a view to&#xA;  perform Tapas to Sâvitrî with devotion and, being self-controlled,&#xA;  practised tapasyâ for one hundred years. Still he could not see&#xA;  Sâvitrî, but voice came to him. An incorporeal, celestial voice&#xA;  reached his ears :-- “Perform Japam (repeat) ten lakhs of Gâyatrî&#xA;  Mantram.” At this moment Parâsara came up there. The king bowed down&#xA;  to him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Muni said :-- O King! One japa of Gâyatrî, destroys the day's sins.&#xA;  Ten Japams of Gâyatrî destroy day and night’s sins. One hundred&#xA;  Gâyatrî Japams destroy one month’s sins. One thousand Japams destroy&#xA;  one year’s sins. One lakh Gâyatrî Japams destroy the sins of the&#xA;  present birth and ten lakh Gâyatrî Japams destroy the sins of other&#xA;  births. One hundred lakhs of Japams destroy the sins of all the&#xA;  births. If ten times that (i.e., 1,000 lakhs) be done, then liberation&#xA;  is obtained.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2016-03-19T14:18:08.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11080" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-19T14:26:15.933" Score="14" ViewCount="2657" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, one of the two Itihasas, begins with the tale of the Sarpa Satra of King Janamejaya, during which the epic was narrated to him by Janamejaya. The Sarpa Satra was a 12-year Yajna conducted by Janamejaya to avenge his father Parikshit's death by the Snake Takshaka, by killing all the snakes. Fortunately (?) this act of his was stopped by Sage Astika, the son of Jaratkaru and Manasa Devi. (Here too there is a difference, as in the Bhagavatam, Janamejaya is stopped by &lt;strong&gt;Brhaspati&lt;/strong&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the background of this story is the death of Parikshit. In the Adi Parva, it is described that Maharaja Parikshit, while hunting, gets thirsty and reaches the Ashrama of Maharshi Shamika. When Maharshi Shamika doesn't respong to his request for water, due to his meditation, Parikshit gets angry and drapes a dead snake around the Maharshi's neck and leaves. He is noticed by the sage's son Shringi, who pronounces a curse on the King to be killed by the Snake King Takshaka within seven days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Parikshit is informed, he becomes paranoid and builds a high tower, inaccessible to all but him, and resides within it with all his supplies. But Takshaka decides to enter one of the fruits to be taken for Parikshit. He stops a rishi named Kashyapa (not the famous Kashyapa) who had been on his way to chant the Mrta Sanjeevani on a dead Parikshit and bring him to life, thereby obtaining lot of rewards. Takshaka gives Kashyapa a lot of wealth and then enters a fruit. When Parikshit bites into the fruit Takshaka comes out and bites him back, killing him. (The Devi Bhagavatam adds that Parikshit attains Moksha when his son listens to Devi Bhagavatam (!) and worships Devi.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the Srimad Bhagavatam is unaware of the above story from the tower building part. In Srimad Bhagavatam, as soon as Parikshit knows of his fate, he goes to the banks of the Ganga, where he meets several rishis, led by Shukadeva Gosvami, who imparts to him Srimad Bhagavatam within seven days, following which Parikshit is free from all desires, and in the midst of all the rishis happily accepts death as Takshaka (who has here too stopped Kashyapa) bites him and burns him to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, why this huge difference between the two stories? Because the Parishit and Shukadeva story leads to Srimad Bhagavatam, and the other to Devi Bhagavata directly and indirectly to the Mahabharata (since the story of the tower is present in the Mahabharata.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can not dismiss this as an interpolation, because there seems to be no cause for interpolation; if anything it only advances the plot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, once again, why is there such a glaring difference between the two scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2018-07-19T02:20:42.617" Title="Why is there a huge difference regarding the liberation of Parikshit in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavatam?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavata-purana|vyasa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11082" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-03-19T17:34:07.793" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;A character of the Indian epic Mahābhārata, &lt;strong&gt;Ashwatthama&lt;/strong&gt; (Sanskrit: अश्वत्थामा, Aśvatthāmā) or &lt;strong&gt;Ashwatthaman&lt;/strong&gt; (Sanskrit: अश्वत्थामन्, Aśvatthāman) or &lt;strong&gt;Drauni&lt;/strong&gt; was the son of guru Drona and he is the grandson of the Brahmin sage Bharadwaja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharatha describes him as being incredibly tall, with dark skin, dark eyes, and with a gem in his forehead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashwatthama is a mighty Maharathi who fought on the Kaurava side against the Pandavas. Ashwatthama is the avatar of one of the eleven Rudras and he is one of the seven Chiranjeevi. Along with his maternal uncle Kripa, Ashwatthama is believed to be a living survivor of the Kurukshetra War. The rumors about his death led to the death of Drona by Prince Dhrishtadyumna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Arjuna and Karna, Ashwatthama killed most number of warriors in the Kurukshetra war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Along with sage Parashurama, sage Vyasa and sage Kripa, Aswatthama is considered to be foremost among the rishis in Kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aswatthama will become the next sage Vyasa, who in turn will divide the Vedas in the 29&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Mahayuga of the 7&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Manvantara. Aswatthama will also become one of the Saptarishi in the 8&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Manvantara along with sage Vyasa, sage Kripa and sage Parashurama.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like Bhishma, Drona, Kripa,Karna, and Arjuna, he is a master of the science of weapons and is regarded as the foremost among warriors. Aswatthama studied Dhanurveda or martial arts and Brahmavidya or the science of the self or atma from Lord Parasurama, Maharishi Durvasa, Maharishi Ved Vyasa, Bhishma, Kripa and Drona.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aswatthama is the master of all forms of knowledge and possesses complete mastery over 64 forms of arts or Kalas and 18 Vidyas or branches of knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-20T14:34:45.297" LastActivityDate="2016-03-20T14:34:45.297" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11083" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-03-19T17:34:07.793" Score="0" Body="Use for any questions involving Ashvatthama, the son of guru Drona and the grandson of the sage Bharadwaja. The name is also spelled as Ashwatthama or Ashwatthaman." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-20T14:34:51.577" LastActivityDate="2016-03-20T14:34:51.577" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11084" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11088" CreationDate="2016-03-19T19:03:43.233" Score="6" ViewCount="766" Body="&lt;p&gt;At &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.sacred-texts.com%2Fhin%20ashvatthama&amp;amp;oq=site%3Awww.sacred-texts.com%2Fhin%20ashvatthama&amp;amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.378j0j1&amp;amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;amp;ie=UTF-8#q=site:www.sacred-texts.com%2Fhin%20dasharha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;a few places&lt;/a&gt; in The Mahabharata, Sri Krishna is referred to as 'he of &lt;strong&gt;Dasharha&lt;/strong&gt;'s race.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is Dasharha and how is Krishna related to him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dictionary &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=dazArha&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;meaning&lt;/a&gt; for the word just says 'Krishna.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 3: Vana Parva: Arjunabhigamana Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And consoling Yudhishthira, Krishna set out for Dwaraka on his car resplendent as the sun and unto which were yoked the horses Saivya and Sugriva. And after &lt;strong&gt;he of the Dasharha race had departed&lt;/strong&gt;, Dhristadyumna, the son of Prishata, also set out for his own city, taking with him the sons of Draupadi. And the king of Chedi, Dhrishtaketu also, taking his sister with him set out for his beautiful city of Suktimati, after bidding farewell to the Pandavas. And, O Bharata, the Kaikeyas also, with the permission of Kunti's son possessed of immeasurable energy, having reverentially saluted all the Pandavas, went away. But Brahmanas and the Vaisyas and the dwellers of Yudhishthira's kingdom though repeatedly requested to go, did not leave the Pandavas. O foremost of king, O bull of the Bharata race, the multitude that surrounded those high-souled ones in the forest of Kamyaka looked extraordinary. And Yudhishthira, honouring those high-minded Brahmanas, in due time ordered his men, saying 'Make ready the car.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 8: Karna Parva: Section 59:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile the driver of Drona's son, beholding the latter senseless, quickly bore him away on his car from the field of battle. Beholding Prishata's son rescued and Drona's son afflicted, the Pancalas, O king, expectant of victory, began to utter loud shouts. Thousands of sweet instruments began to be sounded. Seeing such wonderful feats in battle, the combatants uttered leonine roars. Having achieved that feat, Partha addressed Vasudeva, saying &quot;Proceed, O Krishna, towards the &lt;em&gt;samsaptakas&lt;/em&gt;, for this is greatly desired by me.&quot; Hearing those words of Pandu's son, &lt;strong&gt;he of Dasharha's race&lt;/strong&gt; proceeded on that car graced with many banners and whose speed resembled that of the wind or the mind.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T11:07:21.683" LastActivityDate="2017-12-21T11:07:21.683" Title="Who is Dasharha? And why is Krishna referred to as belonging to Dasharha's race?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|chandravansh|yadavas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11086" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11080" CreationDate="2016-03-20T02:08:26.073" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Excellent question!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I think that the difference in the stories from the Mahabharata and the Bhagavatam are not due to interpolation, but are due to another reason.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;To my knowledge, acaryas and tradition interpret such differences due to kalpa bheda. The kalpa bheda are differences in events that have occurred in the different Kalpas or periods in the history of the universe.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is said that the events that are described in the &quot;Histories&quot;, ie in the Puranas and Itihasas (Mahabharata and Ramayana) are eternal pastimes or nitya lila of the Lord. Since they are nitya lila of the Lord, they are periodically, from time to time, repeated over and over again throughout eternity. Thus, the story of King Parikshit is repeated from time to time throughout eternity infinite number of times! But when it is repeated, it will not be repeated each time completely in the same manner as it was the previous time to the last detail, but it will be repeated similarly as before, but with some differences. That is why the Parikshit story in the Bhagavatam is different from the Mahabharata. It was not the same King Parikshit, but there were two different kings Parikshit from two completely different eras in the history of the universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suggest you to make a simple google search: &lt;em&gt;kalpa bheda&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus you'll see some examples of this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other examples of differences in the stories due to kalpa bheda also. One such example is the difference in the descriptions of the story of the birth of Rudra. In some scriptures it is described that Rudra was born from Brahma's wrath, and in others it is said that he was born out of Aniruddha's (Vishnu's) anger.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;See eg Bhagavatam, canto 3, chapter 12, verses 4 and forward where it is said that Rudra was born from the wrath of Brahma:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 3.12.7 — Although he tried to curb his anger, it came out from&#xA;  between his eyebrows, and a child mixed blue and red was immediately&#xA;  generated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same story can be seen also in The Vishnu Purana: Book I: Chapter VIII at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp042.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If you look at translator's footnotes there, you'll see that he states that in some Puranas it is said that Rudra comes from Brahma's mouth, and in other Puranas from his forehead. This is also an example of a kalpa bheda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Satapatha Brahmana 6:1:3 the story of Rudra's birth is completely different, see at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, in some scriptures Rudra is said to be born out of Vishnu's wrath. The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Section CCCXLII at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c041.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c041.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Salutations unto Narayana, ... From His grace 'lath arisen Brahman and&#xA;  from His wrath hath arisen Rudra.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He is otherwise called&#xA;  Aniruddha and is the source of the Creation and the Destruction of the&#xA;  universe. When Brahma's night wore off, through the grace of that&#xA;  Being of immeasurable energy, a lotus made its appearance first, O&#xA;  thou of eyes like lotus petals. Within that lotus was born Brahma,&#xA;  springing from Aniruddha's grace. Towards the evening of Brahma's day,&#xA;  Aniruddha became filled with wrath, and as a consequence of this,&#xA;  there sprang from his forehead a son called Rudra vested with the&#xA;  power of destroying everything (when the hour for destruction comes).&#xA;  These two, viz., Brahma and Rudra, are the foremost of all the&#xA;  deities, having sprung respectively from the Propitiousness and the&#xA;  Wrath (of Aniruddha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Subala Upanishad says Rudra was born from Narayana's forehead, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/tmu/tmu13.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/tmu/tmu13.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From His forehead, Ruḍra was born through His anger.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  At first&#xA;  there was not anything in the least. These creatures were born through&#xA;  no root, no support but the Divine Ḍeva, the one Nārāyaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maha Upanishad:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I-7. Again, Narayana, desiring something else, thought. From his&#xA;  forehead a person arose with three eyes and a trident, having glory,&#xA;  fame, truth, celibacy, austerity, detachment, mind, lordship, seven&#xA;  Vyahritis (Bhur etc.,) along with Pranava, Rik and other Vedas, all&#xA;  metres is his body –, he is the Mahesvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="2790" LastEditDate="2016-03-20T02:20:24.777" LastActivityDate="2016-03-20T02:20:24.777" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11087" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2942" CreationDate="2016-03-20T02:33:48.927" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following description of the Brahmastra is from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/The-Pancaratra-Agamas~-A-Brief-Study-1.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ahirbudhnya Samhita&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/download/pancaratra-agamas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pancharatra Agama&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Eo88y.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Eo88y.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga27/balasans27.htm#Verse28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this footnote&lt;/a&gt; on valmikiramayan.net and &lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111208235240AALD0hU&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this post&lt;/a&gt; on Yahoo! Answers, the above is translated as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;phantam vahnisamayuktam vyoma halasamanvitam | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mesadvayam dantayutam halahalamatah param || 34-5 || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ghanadyam vayupurvam ca dantayuktamathantimam | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarasam carksaparyayam bhantam bhrgumatahh param || 34-6 || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ambaram vayusamyuktamarimardanamapyatah | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pradIptamatha vaktavyam paramam ca padam tatah || 34-7 || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tatte pade prayoktavye gayatryaA madhyamam tatahH | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  padatrayam prayoktavyametad brahmastramIritam || 34-8 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  It contains air, fire and cosmic poison, two goat-like fangs, full of poison, weighty, emits air, contains mercury, fiery, sparkling, sky is filled with air, enemy-killing, greatly radiant and it is projected with three hymns, Gayatri at its center, &lt;strong&gt;it is known as brahmastra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, given the above, how they depict weapons such as the Brahmastra in TV episodes of Mahabharata and Ramayana with all sparks and glitter is totally underrated!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/giMzP.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/giMzP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;[Narada and Vyasa are &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;persuading&lt;/a&gt; Arjuna and Ashvatthama to withdraw their respective Brahmashira-astra's]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are a few instances where a Brahmastra was launched but it was countered by another Brahmastra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/63&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Srimad Bhagavatam, it was used by both Lord Krishna and Lord Shiva on each other. Shiva was trying to help Banasura who was one of his great devotees. And Krishna was trying to save his grandson Aniruddha who Banasura had captured earlier; that's how they ended up on the opposite sides of a war. The war was ultimately won by Krishna after exchange of several other weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Śiva, wielder of the trident, shot various weapons at Lord Kṛṣṇa, wielder of Śārṅga. But Lord Kṛṣṇa was not in the least perplexed: He neutralized all these weapons with appropriate counterweapons. [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/63/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.63.12&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Kṛṣṇa counteracted a brahmāstra with another brahmāstra&lt;/strong&gt;, a wind weapon with a mountain weapon, a fire weapon with a rain weapon, and Lord Śiva’s personal pāśupatāstra weapon with His own personal weapon, the nārāyaṇāstra. [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/63/13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.63.13&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata war, when Karna's chariot was stuck in the battle field and soon after he gets a good lecture on dharma from Sri Krishna, Karna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;fires&lt;/a&gt; a Brahmastra on Arjuna and it was easily countered by Arjuna's own Brahmastra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beholding it, &lt;strong&gt;Karna&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;invoking the brahmastra&lt;/strong&gt;, showered his shafts upon Dhananjaya, and once more made an effort to extricate his car. &lt;strong&gt;Partha&lt;/strong&gt; also, by the aid of the brahmastra, poured arrowy downpours upon Karna. &lt;strong&gt;Baffling with his own weapon the weapon of his foe&lt;/strong&gt;, the son of Pandu continued to strike him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Earlier in the same war, there was a similar &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07185.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;exchange&lt;/a&gt; of Brahmastras between Drona and Yudhishtira:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing all his weapons baffled, &lt;strong&gt;Drona&lt;/strong&gt;, filled with wrath and desirous of accomplishing the destruction of Yudhishthira, &lt;strong&gt;invoked&lt;/strong&gt; into existence &lt;strong&gt;the Brahma weapon&lt;/strong&gt;. Enveloped as we then were by a thick gloom, we could not observe what passed. All creatures also, O monarch, were filled with great fright. Beholding the Brahma weapon uplifted, Kunti's son, &lt;strong&gt;Yudhishthira&lt;/strong&gt;, O king, &lt;strong&gt;baffled it with a Brahma weapon of his own&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...and also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07185.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;later&lt;/a&gt; between Drona and Arjuna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The high-souled &lt;strong&gt;Drona&lt;/strong&gt; then, in that battle, &lt;strong&gt;invoked&lt;/strong&gt; into existence &lt;strong&gt;the Brahma weapon&lt;/strong&gt;, afflicting Partha and all invisible beings. Thereupon, the earth with the mountains and waters and trees trembled. Fierce winds began to blow. The seas swelled in agitation. The combatants of the Kurus and the Pandava armies, as also all other creatures, became inspired with fear, when that illustrious warrior uplifted that weapon. The &lt;strong&gt;Partha&lt;/strong&gt;, O monarch, fearlessly &lt;strong&gt;baffled that weapon by a Brahma weapon of his own&lt;/strong&gt;, at which all that agitation in nature was speedily pacified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The effects of both Drona's and Karna's Brahmastra's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09062.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;don't show&lt;/a&gt; on Arjuna's chariot until after the war is over when Krishna instructs Arjuna to immediately get down from the chariot before it gets reduced to ashes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At that time, always engaged, O bull of Bharata's race, in the good of his friend, Keshava, addressed the wielder of gandiva, saying, &quot;Take down thy gandiva as also the two inexhaustible quivers. I shall dismount after thee, O best of the Bharatas! Get thee down, for this is for thy good, O sinless one!&quot;&#xA;  ... &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vasudeva said, 'That car, O Arjuna, had before been consumed by diverse kinds of weapons. It was because I had sat upon it during battle that it did not fall into pieces, O scorcher of foes! &lt;strong&gt;Previously consumed by the energy of brahmastra, it has been reduced to ashes upon my abandoning it&lt;/strong&gt; after attainment by thee of thy objects!'&#xA;  ... &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yudhishthira said, &quot;Who else save thee, O grinder of foes, not excepting the thunder-wielding Purandara himself, could have withstood the &lt;strong&gt;brahmastras hurled by Drona and Karna!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-20T17:07:39.503" LastActivityDate="2016-03-20T17:07:39.503" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11088" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11084" CreationDate="2016-03-20T03:45:31.773" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dasharha is the descendant of Yadu. He is the son of Nivrti and grandson of Vrshni, as is retold in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/24/3-4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; 9th Canto 24th Chapter 3rd Sloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;krathasya kuntiḥ putro ’bhūd &lt;br&gt;&#xA;vṛṣṇis tasyātha nirvṛtiḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;tato daśārho nāmnābhūt&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;tasya vyomaḥ sutas tataḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The son of Kratha was Kunti; the son of Kunti, Vṛṣṇi; the son of Vṛṣṇi, Nirvṛti; &lt;strong&gt;and the son of Nirvṛti, Daśārha&lt;/strong&gt;. From Daśārha came Vyoma...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Dasharha was a prominent King, the Yadavas were also called Daasharhas or descendants of Dasharha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-21T08:55:01.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11089" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2388" CreationDate="2016-03-20T04:20:59.707" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnata_Bharata_Kathamanjari&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kannada version of Mahabaratha&lt;/a&gt; written by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumara_Vyasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kumara Vyasa&lt;/a&gt;, the author claimed that he wrote Mahabaratha by listening to &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashwatthama#Alternate_theories_about_Ashwatthama.27s_fate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sage Aswatthama&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It was said in order to escape from the curse of Lord Krishna,&#xA;  Aswatthama approached his Parama Guru (guru's guru) Lord Parasurama,&#xA;  who was also an avatar of Lord Vishnu. Lord Parasurama felt pity at&#xA;  Aswatthama and agreed to help him. &lt;strong&gt;It was said that Aswatthama was&#xA;  only an instrument in Lord Shiva's plan to exterminate all the evil&#xA;  people from earth&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Since it was Lord Shiva who entered into&#xA;  Aswatthama's body and exterminated Pandava forces, Aswatthama was&#xA;  absolved of all sins.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It was said that Pandavas met Aswathama once again 36 years later when&#xA;  they were travelling to the Himalayas to seek pardon from Lord Siva&#xA;  for their heinous crimes in war. The description says Pandavas found&#xA;  Aswatthama happy in the company of Lord Parasurama and Sage Durvasa in&#xA;  an ashram on the banks of river Ganga and Aswatthama was found free&#xA;  from all curses. &lt;strong&gt;It was believed that Lord Parasurama and Maharishi&#xA;  Durvasa initiated Aswatthama into Sakthi worship, which is considered&#xA;  to be the supreme of all modes of worship. By worshipping Adi&#xA;  ParaSakthi, the mother of Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Rudra,&#xA;  Aswatthama bypassed the curse of Lord Krishna.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story is described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/KumaraVyasaKarnatnatakaMahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kumara Vyasa Mahabharatha&lt;/a&gt;, which i couldn't get any English Version.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2016-03-20T04:20:59.707" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11090" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-20T05:39:51.787" Score="12" ViewCount="7148" Body="&lt;p&gt;Supreme Brahman is everything. He has two forms: Manifest and Unmanifest. All dualities such as good&amp;amp;bad, evil&amp;amp;virtue are indeed Supreme Brahman's MAYA. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna describes Himself as Positive entities of all dualities, deliberately leaving negative entities. For Example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-10-22/#more-607&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 10.22&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vedānāḿ sāma-vedo ’smi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;devānām asmi vāsavaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;indriyāṇāḿ manaś cāsmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhūtānām asmi cetanā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of the Vedas I am the Sama Veda; of the demigods I am Indra, the king&#xA;  of heaven; of the senses I am the mind; and in living beings I am the&#xA;  living force [consciousness].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-10-23/&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 10.23&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rudrāṇāḿ śańkaraś cāsmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vitteśo yakṣa-rakṣasām&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vasūnāḿ pāvakaś cāsmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;meruḥ śikhariṇām aham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of all the Rudras I am Lord Shankara, of&#xA;  the Yakshas and Rakshasas I am the Lord of wealth [Kuvera], of the&#xA;  Vasus I am fire [Agni], and of mountains I am Meru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Lord Krishna says He is Kubera. All Raksasas are indeed born from Supreme Brahman indirectly. But Krishna describes himself as Kubera who is good. All Vedas are emanated from Brahman but Krishna says He is Samaveda. Similarly in all verses he describes himself as strongest or best of things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we assume Krishna (or Vishnu) as Supreme Brahman (no offense), then why does he describe himself as &quot;best of things&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-20T05:46:02.630" LastActivityDate="2022-05-22T17:23:33.680" Title="If Brahman is everything, then why does Krishna (Brahman) describe himself as &quot;best of things&quot; in Bhagavadgita?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|brahman|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11091" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11075" CreationDate="2016-03-20T06:40:48.573" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually,Lord Brahma had created the universe and that's why it is also called Brahmand. Lord Brahma is considered as the creator of the world. But we did not worship him because Lord Shiva had given a curse to Brahma that nobody will worship him.Brahma is the creator of the universe and of all beings, as depicted in the Hindu cosmology. The Vedas, the oldest and the holiest of Hindu scriptures, are attributed to Brahma, and thus Brahma is regarded as the father of dharma.&#xA;He is not to be confused with Brahman which is a general term for the Supreme Being or Almighty God. Although Brahma is one of the Trinity, his popularity is no match to that of Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma is to be found to exist more in scriptures than in homes and temples. In fact it is hard to find a temple dedicated to Brahma. One such temple is located in Pushkar in Rajasthan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5113" LastActivityDate="2016-03-20T06:40:48.573" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11092" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9127" CreationDate="2016-03-20T07:21:34.357" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you mentioned in your post,  there is no reference to the incidence of Lord Rama met with Sabari and she offering him tasted berries, either in the  Sanskrit Valmiki Ramayana or Awadhi Tulsidas Ramacharitmanas.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there is one more version. &lt;strong&gt;Odia Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt; is written by Balaram Das.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Around the same time as Tulsidas wrote his Ramayana, Balaram Das wrote his Odia Dandi Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here we find the &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/13378.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;story&lt;/a&gt; of how Rama encounters Shabari and she scours the forest to find sweet mango (think of it as berries) for him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He eat those with &quot;teeth marks&quot; indicating they have been tasted and rejects those without teeth marks. This is probably the first time we get the story of &quot;tasted&quot; or &quot;saliva-soiled&quot; fruits being served to Rama that he accepts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, the rational behind this can be as as follows: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In traditional societies, food that is tasted is soiled and so cannot&#xA;  be eaten by members of the upper caste. By eating soiled food, Rama&#xA;  indicates how he does not care for caste hierarchy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If someone can read Odia language, here is &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Jagmohan.ramayan-dandi.ramayan.odia-language.Devanagari-script&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; for Odia Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/13378.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;same article&lt;/a&gt; by Devdutt Pattanaik:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation Shabari Episode of 15&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century Odia Dandi Ramayana of Balaram Das by Prateek Pattanaik (@shrijagannatha):&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ... &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ... &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Sabarani was a person without knowledge, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Eating a portion, did she know the good and bad&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  She gathered the tasty fruits thus, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Leaving apart a Sundari mango, without biting into it. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Within her lotus heart, she thought, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  My Lord will eat this fruit, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And this thought did fill her heart. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The supreme one did eat them&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Those mangoes that had an imprint of her teeth. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He returned the Sundari mango to her, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Finding it bereft of any marks. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sabarani joined her palms, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;I did save one for you, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Why else would I leave a good one apart?&quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Said Rama, hearing her answer, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;How did you come to know of its taste? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  If it is good indeed, why did you not taste the fruit? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Do not serve me untasted food. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  For if I eat this, will I not contradict myself? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;In all those mangoes with marks of your teeth&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;I found that they tasted great&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I shall not consume this unmarked food.&quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Saying so, he stood up from his seat. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lakshmana alone ate the ripe food. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2310" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-24T21:56:33.110" LastActivityDate="2017-01-24T21:56:33.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11093" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14859" CreationDate="2016-03-20T07:31:37.860" Score="14" ViewCount="636" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which scripture says that during eclipse all water become pure like Ganges water?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://brahminrituals.blogspot.in/2011_05_01_archive.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; page make the following claims:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During eclipse all waters are equivalent to Ganges water and all&#xA;Brahmins are equivalent to Vasishta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vzNx1.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vzNx1.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would love to have answers to the second question as well, which is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which scripture claims that during eclipse all Brahmins are equivalent to Maharshi Vasishta?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;-Adding the  exact Sanskrit verses which i found on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookview.php?chapnum=5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the �Grahana Kaala�, Go-Bhu-Hiranyaadi Daanaas would accord&#xA;far-reaching benefits. It is stated: &lt;strong&gt;Sarvam Gangaa samam toyam, Sarvey&#xA;Vyaasa samaah Dwijaah&lt;/strong&gt;, Sarvam Bhumi samam daanam grahaney Chandra&#xA;Suryayoh/ (&lt;strong&gt;On occasions like Lunar or Solar Eclipses, all kinds of&#xA;waters are like Ganga water; all Brahmanas are like Vyasaacharya&lt;/strong&gt;; and&#xA;all kinds of charity are as good as Bhu daana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2022-03-17T06:31:17.980" Title="Which scripture says that during eclipse all water become pure like Ganges water?" Tags="|scripture|rituals|brahmins|eclipse|vashishta|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11094" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14745" CreationDate="2016-03-20T07:57:32.690" Score="6" ViewCount="2939" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://brahminrituals.blogspot.in/2011_05_01_archive.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; page makes the following claims:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following five things reduce the span of our life viz morning sun&#xA;light falling on our body, the smoke from corpse touching us, love&#xA;making with older woman, drinking turbid water without filtering it,&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;and drinking curd at night&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following things increase our life span viz Evening sun light&#xA;falling on our body, The smoke from Homa touching our body, love&#xA;making with woman younger to us, Drinking pure water and &lt;strong&gt;eating rice&#xA;mixed with milk at night.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tW3RR.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tW3RR.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know the scriptural basis for these claims.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-03-26T22:47:45.317" Title="Which scriptures say that eating rice mixed with milk at night increases one's life span while eating curd at night decreases it?" Tags="|belief|scripture|brahmins|food|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11095" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11090" CreationDate="2016-03-20T11:53:50.330" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Read verse 10.17:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कथं विद्यामहमं योगिंस्त्वां परिचिन्तयन् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  केषु केषु च भावेषु चिन्त्योसि भगवन्मया ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-10-17/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;there&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Krishna, O supreme mystic, how shall I constantly think of You, and how shall I know You? &lt;strong&gt;In what various forms are You to be remembered&lt;/strong&gt;, O Supreme Personality of Godhead?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, you can see that Arjuna asked Krishna : &quot;In what various forms are You to be remembered?&quot; or (from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-10-15.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;strong&gt;&quot;In which various manifestations are You to be contemplated by me?&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;that's why Krishna is describing positively or best of things!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-03-20T12:05:52.407" LastActivityDate="2016-03-20T12:05:52.407" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11098" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2506" CreationDate="2016-03-21T03:19:59.057" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manmatha Nath Dutt's translation of Uttara Kanda is also available on archive.org &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/download/Ramayana_201309&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Look for:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ramayana-VOL-4-Uttara-Kanda.pdf (scanned copy)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ramayana-VOL-4-Uttara-Kanda_text.pdf (OCR-converted to text, so you can search the contents)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;EDIT:&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are looking to buy a book, try the 2-book English tr. from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gitapress.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gorakhpur Gita Press&lt;/a&gt;. But right now it's not listed on their &lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapressbookshop.in/catalogsearch/result/index/?cat=6&amp;amp;q=valmiki&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt; (out of stock maybe) so if you are physically located in India try buying it from one of their &lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapress.org/english/Sale_out.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;stores&lt;/a&gt;. Athough it lists the original Sanskrit verses, it is not a word-for-word translation. But it's a complete translation of all &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15249/2995&quot;&gt;24,000 verses&lt;/a&gt; including the Uttara-kāṇḍa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapress.org/english/Search_By_Code.asp?PageNo=1&amp;amp;all=4&amp;amp;txtLan=English&amp;amp;Mv=First%20Page&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This is how it looks&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yEZ5v.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yEZ5v.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QpWe5.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QpWe5.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shrimad Valmiki-Ramayana, Sanskrit Text, English Translation, Volume-1 (Book Code: 452)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shrimad Valmiki-Ramayana, Sanskrit Text, English Translation, Volume-2 (Book Code: 453)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's a &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/xUUs/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sample&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T23:41:26.687" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11102" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-21T09:33:34.173" Score="3" ViewCount="1776" Body="&lt;p&gt;Consider, that person X due to some reason did bad spell on person Y. How can Y or other person Z can identify that bad spell is happen on Y by X. Specially if X did spell that make Y ill or mentally unbalanced? Is there any way to find?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note that this question already assume that black magic is real, you can find various places and resources where existence of black spell is proven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastEditorUserId="338" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T10:50:43.803" LastActivityDate="2016-03-21T10:50:43.803" Title="How someone know that bad spell is done on him or other person?" Tags="|tantra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11103" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-21T10:27:05.980" Score="2" ViewCount="275" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is the &quot;fiend&quot; in this verse from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10085.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rig-Veda, Book 10&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Give thou the woollen robe away: deal treasure to the Brahman priests.&#xA;  This female &lt;strong&gt;fiend&lt;/strong&gt; hath got her feet, and as a wife attends her lord.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Unlovely is his body when it glistens with this wicked fiend,&#xA;  What time the husband wraps about his limbs the garment of his wife.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've heard this being used as proof that scriptures prohibit cross-dressing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A reputed online publication cites it &lt;a href=&quot;http://fashionartdesign.salaamgateway.com/en/fashion-art-design/story/Current_consolidation_activity_and_potential_in_Islamic_modest_fashion-SALAAM10032016064009/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; so I would appreciate some scholarly inputs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5126" LastEditorUserId="5126" LastEditDate="2016-03-24T08:11:42.217" LastActivityDate="2016-03-24T08:11:42.217" Title="Who is the &quot;fiend&quot; in this verse - Rigveda Book 10, Hymn 85" Tags="|scripture|culture|rig-veda|dress|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11104" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3069" CreationDate="2016-03-21T11:20:56.240" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found commentary from a scholar on this book and verse. It suggests that this is a debate between Indra and a rival who wants to introduce new rituals. &#xA;It says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;VIII.33.19: The poet returns in his own voice to mock the new model,&#xA;  by imitating in the first three pādas the speech of a mother to her&#xA;  little daughter, inculcating proper behavior. kaśaplakaú in c is a&#xA;  hapax, but its -ka- suffix suggests that it belongs to a low register&#xA;  (note also pādakaú in b) and the fact that it is in the dual limits&#xA;  its possible applications. Old suggests “weibl. Geschlechsteile”&#xA;  (though he moves on to breasts), and the fact that keeping one’s feet&#xA;  together keeps them from being seen makes the labia a good&#xA;  possibility. The poet then unleashes a devastating insult on his&#xA;  addressee, a brahman – that he has turned into a woman. I take this&#xA;  unfortunate figure to be the ritualist favoring the new model, and our&#xA;  poet is suggesting that too much association with and sympathy for&#xA;  women, too much emphasis on equality, will unman a man.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5126" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T12:25:07.370" LastActivityDate="2016-03-21T12:25:07.370" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11105" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-21T12:17:52.847" Score="7" ViewCount="5188" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata, there is a mention of Duryodhana and Arjuna going to Krishna to seek assistance in the war. The proud Duryodhana sat beside Krishna's head and Arjuna sat near his feet, while Krishna was asleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On opening his eyes, Krishna first saw Arjuna and then Duryodhana, and asked them the reason for their visit, which was seeking his assistance for the war. Krishna had put forth two options: One, he himself but will not take up arms, and the other, his formidable Narayani sena. As we all know, Arjuna chose Krishna and Duryodhana had chosen the army.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why did Krishna, albeit indirectly, assist Duryodhana in annihilation of his own Narayani army?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it mean Krishna had indirectly taken part in adharma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T14:22:28.370" LastActivityDate="2017-06-08T16:39:18.197" Title="Why did Krishna give away his own Narayani Sena to Duryodhana?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|dharma|war|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11106" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11108" CreationDate="2016-03-21T12:29:39.320" Score="1" ViewCount="4407" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason behind highlighting Tamil language is that not as I am a Tamilian but that &lt;strong&gt;Tamil is as old as Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt; (as per the historical record proofs) and it is still used in some parts of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question may be a assumption but is it possible that people during the Ramayana and Mahabharata periods used Tamil as their language?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because at that time &lt;strong&gt;Tamil was widely spread over Hindustan.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even, consider &lt;strong&gt;Tholkapiyam&lt;/strong&gt;, which was considered as the oldest literature around South India still now. My question is that there may be a chance when events of Ramayana and Mahabharata were taking place, Tamil was used or when they were being written down by some in Tamil, which is the world's oldest language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3996" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-21T14:32:31.703" LastActivityDate="2016-03-23T16:00:34.380" Title="Has the Tamil language been used in Ramayana and Mahabharata periods?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|language|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ClosedDate="2016-03-31T05:41:56.607" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11107" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11090" CreationDate="2016-03-21T17:57:50.027" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;No doubt, Brahman is everything. While reciting Bhagwat Geeta, Krishna went in union with Brahman, so whatever he spoke were actually words from Brahman itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also explained in Anu Gita from Mahabharata Book 14: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Aswamedha Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Arjuna, the son of Pându, having surveyed with delight that&#xA;  lovely palace, in the company of Krishna, spoke these words: ‘O you of&#xA;  mighty arms! O you whose mother is Devakî! When the battle was about&#xA;  to commence, I became aware of your greatness, and that divine form of&#xA;  yours. But that, O Kesava! which through affection (for me) you&#xA;  explained before, has all disappeared, O tiger-like man! from my&#xA;  degenerate mind. Again and again, however, I feel a curiosity about&#xA;  those topics. But (now), O Mâdhava! you will be going at no distant&#xA;  date to Dvârakâ. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna, possessed of great glory,replied in these words after&#xA;  embracing Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vâsudeva said: From me, O son of Prithâ! you heard a mystery, and&#xA;  learnt about the eternal (principle), about piety in (its true) form,&#xA;  and about all the everlasting worlds. It is excessively disagreeable&#xA;  to me, that you should not have grasped it through want of&#xA;  intelligence. And the recollection (of it) now again is not possible&#xA;  (to me). Really, O son of Pându! you are devoid of faith and of a bad&#xA;  intellect. And, O Dhanañjaya! it is not possible for me to repeat in&#xA;  full (what I said before). For that doctrine was perfectly adequate&#xA;  for understanding the seat, of the Brahman. It is not possible for me&#xA;  to state it again in full in that way. &lt;strong&gt;For then accompanied by my&#xA;  mystic power, I declared to you the Supreme Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Nature is made of 3 gunas, but God manifests most in Satva. Brahman is beyond Prakriti and in Prakriti also. Many think that Prakriti alone has gunas, but actually Prakriti is inert without consciousness/seed/soul from Brahman i.e. Shakti of Prakriti comes from Brahman itself. In a way, Brahman and Shakti are same or more like Father and Mother. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;God manifests most in Satva&lt;/strong&gt;, that is the reason, in ancient times killing of Brahmin(who were Satva dominated), was regarded as biggest sin. Actually the three gunas, arranges themselves into six bands, where the person in white band(in which Satva,dominates over Rajas and Tamas) is at highest level of spirituality and nearest to Brahman. Read in Mahabharat &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Moksha Dham&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The highest Evidence (for all things) says that creatures have six&#xA;  colours, viz., Dark, Tawny, Blue, Red, Yellow, and White. These&#xA;  colours proceed from mixtures in various proportions of the three&#xA;  attributes of Rajas, Tamas, and Sattwa. Where Tamas predominates,&#xA;  Sattwa falls below the mark, and Rajas keeps to the mark, the result&#xA;  is the colour called Dark. When Tamas predominates as before, but the&#xA;  relations between Sattwa and Rajas are reversed, the result is the&#xA;  colour called Tawny. When Rajas predominates, Sattwa falls below the&#xA;  mark, and Tamas keeps to the mark, the result is the colour called&#xA;  Blue. When Rajas predominates as before and the proportion is reversed&#xA;  between Sattwa and Tamas, the result is the intermediate colour called&#xA;  Red. That Colour is more agreeable (than the preceding one). When&#xA;  Sattwa predominates, Rajas falls below the mark and, Tamas keeps to&#xA;  the mark, the result is the colour called Yellow. It is productive of&#xA;  happiness. When Sattwa predominates and the proportion is reversed&#xA;  between Rajas and Tamas, the result is the colour called White. It is&#xA;  productive of great happiness. &lt;strong&gt;The White is the foremost colour. It&#xA;  is sinless in consequence of its being free from attachment and&#xA;  aversion. It is without grief, and free from the toil involved in&#xA;  Pravritti. Hence, White, O prince of Danavas, leads to success (or&#xA;  Emancipation).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where Satva is highest, that person is definitely the leader of Group like Indra, Garuda etc.,whatever Krishna described. There is another interesting story from Gospel of Ramakrishna Paramhans discussing nature of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The three gunas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MASTER: &quot;Yes, it is. But that concept is something far beyond the&#xA;  ordinary man. Daya springs from sattva. Sattva preserves, rajas&#xA;  creates, and tamas destroys. But Brahman is beyond the three gunas. It&#xA;  is beyond Prakriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;None of the three gunas can reach Truth; they are like robbers, who&#xA;  cannot come to a public place for fear of being arrested. Sattva,&#xA;  rajas, and tamas are like so many robbers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Listen to a story. Once a man was going through a forest, when three&#xA;  robbers fell upon him and robbed him of all his possessions. One of&#xA;  the robbers said, 'What's the use of keeping this man alive?' So&#xA;  saying, he was about to kill him with his sword, when the second&#xA;  robber interrupted him, saying: 'Oh, no! What is the use of killing&#xA;  him? Tie him hand and foot and leave him here.' The robbers bound his&#xA;  hands and feet and went away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After a while the third robber returned and said to the man: 'Ah, I am&#xA;  sorry. Are you hurt? I will release you from your bonds.' After&#xA;  setting the man free, the thief said: 'Come with me. I will take you&#xA;  to the public highway.' After a long time they reached the road. Then&#xA;  the robber said: 'Follow this road. Over there is your house.' At this&#xA;  the man said: 'Sir, you have been very good to me. Come with me to my&#xA;  house ' 'Oh, no!' the robber replied. 'I can't go there. The police&#xA;  will know it.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This world itself is the forest. The three robbers prowling here are&#xA;  sattva, rajas, and tamas. It is they that rob a man of the Knowledge&#xA;  of Truth. Tamas wants to destroy him. Rajas binds him to the world.&#xA;  But sattva rescues him from the clutches of rajas and tamas. Under the&#xA;  protection of sattva, man is rescued from anger, passion, and the&#xA;  other evil effects of tamas. Further, sattva loosens the bonds of the&#xA;  world. But sattva also is a robber. It cannot give him the ultimate&#xA;  Knowledge of Truth, though it shows him the road leading to the&#xA;  Supreme Abode of God. Setting him on the path, sattva tells him: 'Look&#xA;  yonder. There is your home.' Even sattva is far away from the&#xA;  Knowledge of Brahman. Nature of Brahman cannot he described&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;What Brahman is cannot be described.&lt;/strong&gt; Even he who knows It cannot talk&#xA;  about It. There is a saying that a boat, once reaching the 'black&#xA;  waters' of the ocean, cannot come back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagwat Geeta 4.6 describing nature of Brahman briefly&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although I am unborn, the Lord of all living entities, and have an&#xA;  imperishable nature, yet I appear in this world by virtue of Yogmaya,&#xA;  my divine power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2016-03-21T17:57:50.027" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11108" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11106" CreationDate="2016-03-21T19:26:18.633" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all: when it comes to the age of a language, there is a difference to be observed in dating by means of actual things, that still exist and other methods based on other evidence. Speaking about the first one, we are talking mostly about rock inscriptions, since these are quite durable and judged by these, Sanskrit and Tamil are approximately of the same age, since there are Ashoka Edicts from the 3rd century BCE as well as mostly Buddhist rock inscriptions in Tamil from about the same time.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the second. If you date the age of a text, like Tolkappiyam or the Vedas, you have to rely on other evidence, since the surviving manuscripts are for the most part much younger than the text itself. Here it is quite without doubt, that the oldest books of the Rig-Veda are the oldest texts in Sanskrit and are much older than Tolkappiyam. This is based mostly on linguistic evidence. But fact is, that the literary history of Sanskrit, at least what we know of it, is much older than that which we know of Tamil. The Tolkappiyam itself is heavily indebted to the Sanskrit grammatical tradition and must therefore be younger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now about Ramayana and Mahabharata periods: are you talking about the period, when these texts were composed or the period that they are supposedly talking about? If the first: the Mahabharata was composed somewhere between 400 BCE and 400 CE and the Ramayana somewhere between 300 BCE and 200 CE. These datings are of course to some extent speculative but are the best guesses that are based on real evidence and not wishful thinking. So of course in these times, Tamil must have been spoken, since for example the Sangam literature (itself starting maybe around 150 BCE or a bit later) presupposes a literary development that must have happened before the first poems and should therefore go back to somewhere around maybe 300 BCE. This is about literature which again presupposes spoken language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are asking about the era, that the epics are playing in, the question is much harder to answer, since it is not clear, what that time should be in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note, that all this talk is about literary testimonies of languages, not about languages itself. Think about it this way: early Sanskrit-speakers (if there ever were) and Tamil-speakers did not fall from heaven, they had ancestors, that also spoke a language and so on. So the question which language is older (not talking about which literature is older here), at least in the case of languages not yet proven to be related in any way, as is the case with Sanskrit and Tamil, does not make too much sense. Which literature is older? Sorry to say, but it clearly is Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4702" LastEditorUserId="4702" LastEditDate="2016-03-23T16:00:34.380" LastActivityDate="2016-03-23T16:00:34.380" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11109" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3920" CreationDate="2016-03-21T20:19:11.297" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are discussing a wrong verse.&#xA;We refer to Chandogya 8.1.2&#xA;tan-madhye daharam saksat&#xA;mayapuramitiryate&#xA;tatra vesma bhagavatas&#xA;caitanyasya paratmanah&#xA;tasmin yas tv 'antarakaso&#xA;hy antar-dvipah sa ucyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5131" LastActivityDate="2016-03-21T20:19:11.297" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11111" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-22T05:37:42.007" Score="8" ViewCount="672" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Etymology of &lt;strong&gt;Telugu&lt;/strong&gt; is believed to be derived from word &quot;&lt;strong&gt;TRILINGA&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilinga_Kshetras&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Trilinga Kshetras&lt;/a&gt;. Those three Shiva Temples are &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleshwaram&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaleswaram&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draksharama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhimeswarama &lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srisailam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srisailam&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With time &lt;em&gt;Trilinga&lt;/em&gt; became &lt;em&gt;Tenugu&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Tenugu&lt;/em&gt; became &lt;em&gt;Telugu.&lt;/em&gt; These three Shiva Temples are present in three regions (Kosta Andhra, Telangana and Rayalaseema) of Telugu land. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telangana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Telangana Region&lt;/a&gt; which is located approximately amid these three Shiva Temples is named after &lt;em&gt;Trilinga Desa&lt;/em&gt;. (Trilinga- Telugu- Telangana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But some people believe Telugu is still older language and it is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telugu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aithreya Brahmana of Rigveda&lt;/a&gt;. So, wherein Aithreya Brahmana of Rigveda, &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Telugu&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; is mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-22T06:06:42.223" LastActivityDate="2021-06-04T10:05:50.503" Title="Wherein Aithreya Brahmana of Rig Veda has the word &quot;Telugu&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11112" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-22T06:08:56.687" Score="23" ViewCount="6633" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_ganesha-vakratunda_mahakaya.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;following&lt;/a&gt; Sloka(in bold ) is probably the most popular among all Ganapaty Slokas &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Vakratunda Mahaakaaya Surya Koti Samaprabha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Nirvighnam Kuru Me Deva sarva Karyesu Sarvada&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:O Lord Ganesha, of curved trunk, large body and with the Brilliance of a Million Suns, please make all my works free from obstacles, always.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question-Which scripture contains this Shloka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-25T14:38:13.503" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T05:04:29.323" Title="Which scripture contains the famous Ganesha Sloka &quot;Vakratunda Mahakaya...&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|ganesha|puja|shloka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11114" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11105" CreationDate="2016-03-22T09:38:56.493" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Why did Krishna, albeit indirectly, assist Duryodhana in annihilation of his own Narayani army?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some believe that Krishna wanted to reduce the burden on the earth, which included his own invincible army as well. War of Kurukeshetra (MahAbhArata) provided a great platform for that, even without him not being the participant. However, this can't be a reason given to lot of families who would loose so many fathers, husbands, sons in the war. Not necessarily, all can be burden on earth. In that way, Changez Khan, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, ... all will be justifiable after few centuries with this 'burden' reason. Were they all Krishna-like incarnations of Vishnu?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Due to its nature of speculation, it's better to leave it unjudged for now. May be the subsequent Q might answer it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Does it mean Krishna had indirectly taken part in &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;, this was not &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&quot;Then how was it &lt;em&gt;DhArmik&lt;/em&gt;?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This wasn't &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; either! Due to number of lives involved, it was even more severe compared to what Krishna was later going to do in war. He didn't follow any of the following &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;s:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As a Warrior, he should have actively participated like his previous wars&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As a King, he should have thought first of his citizens and army; By&#xA;offering to Duryodhana, none of these gained anything but destruction&#xA;&amp;amp; cries&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As a Righteous man, he should have sided directly with Arjuna and&#xA;straight forwardly reject Duryodhana any help; Not only it would&#xA;shorten the war, but the amount of destruction could have been less&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Krishna had all of above titles, but he didn't follow the required &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; for any of them.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So if it wasn't &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; then why it was not &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt; either?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Let's try to understand all the related terms:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: It's all about righteousness, naturality, bliss, knowledge &amp;amp; all. &lt;em&gt;SAttva&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 18.30 — The one who knows activity &amp;amp; retirement, duty &amp;amp; non-duty, fear &amp;amp; boldness and bonding &amp;amp; liberation properly, has &lt;em&gt;SAtvika Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: Actions deluded with purpose (&lt;em&gt;Sankalpa&lt;/em&gt;) to gain something or in awe of fruits. &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 18.31 — The one who doesn't know Dharma &amp;amp; Adharma, duty &amp;amp; non-duty as it is, has RAjasi Buddhi.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vidharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: Acting without understanding the context, following something blindly. Ignorance triggers misinterpretation of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;Vidharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 18.32 — Covered by darkness(blindness), the one who believes Adharma as Dharma and believes other (thing)s also wrongly, has TAmasi Buddhi.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the 3 &lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt;s keep fluctuating in all the beings. Mostly it's true that, &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; is the right way, because that follows &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;. But it's not the ultimate truth, because, the less known fact is that, like &lt;em&gt;Rajas/Tamas&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sattva / Dharma&lt;/em&gt; also binds the &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; and keeps away from &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 14.5,6,7,9 — O might armed, the modes of &lt;em&gt;Sattva, Rajas &amp;amp; Tamas&lt;/em&gt; generated from &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;,  binds the embodied Indivisible (&lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;) into (subtle) body. — O sinless, Due to purity, the &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; is illuminating &amp;amp; distortionless. It binds with happiness &amp;amp; with knowledge. — O son of Kunti, know that &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; is generated from self-desire &amp;amp; thirst (to achieve). That binds the embodied (&lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;) with &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;. — O Bharata, know &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; to be born from ignorance. It binds all bewildered embodied (&lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;) with enjoyment, laziness, sleep.&lt;/sub&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A &lt;em&gt;SAtvik&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;DhArmik&lt;/em&gt; person will be illuminated with knowledge &amp;amp; would be able to remain happy &amp;amp; content. However such heavenly feeling also binds (yet detached) the &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;. Best examples are &lt;em&gt;Devi-Devata&lt;/em&gt;s. Such beings are not limited by &lt;em&gt;pUnya Karma&lt;/em&gt;. Following &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; also brings a &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt; to higher/heavenly planets. The &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; beings usually worship &lt;em&gt;Devata&lt;/em&gt;s (as BG 6.41, BG 17.4, but not to be confused with contradicting BG 4.12, 7.20) &amp;amp; also receive such higher planets when they die (BG 14.14).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 7.13 — These whole universe being bewildered by the nature of these 3 modes/&lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt;s, doesn't know me who is above (them), the transcendental Indivisible (&lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna contained these 3 modes (mainly &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt;), but was not bound by them. He was well aware of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;, so surely he was not &lt;em&gt;RAjasika/TAmasika&lt;/em&gt;. He didn't follow &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, so it was neither &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here comes the 4th category:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dharma TyAga&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: A more casual/famous term is &lt;em&gt;Leela&lt;/em&gt;. &quot;Dropping of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; created out of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. This can be also termed as assuming &quot;ultimate &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 18.66 — Leaving away all the &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;s, surrender unto Me. I will liberate you from all the sins. Do not repent.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here &quot;Me&quot; is not the physical Krishna, but the supreme One (talking as of embodied). Whatever Krishna preached, he also practiced. There are many examples of 'not following &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Giving away Army to Duryodhana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Not fighting for Arjuna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Deceit while killing Drona&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Disguised entry to city for killing JarAsandha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Running away from battlefield&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Instead of conducting session on &quot;Women safety&quot;, Krishna took&#xA;shortcut by sliding away gopis' cloths onto tree!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Instead of educating the villagers on &quot;labor rights&quot;, Krishna chosen&#xA;to steal the butter pots!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Seriousness/Importance&quot; of events is our perception, but for enlightened beings (here Krishna), the treatment of any event is equal, be it funny or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This neither means that we have to abandon all our &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;s nor it means to ape Krishna's activities. All the above bullets were &lt;em&gt;SwaDharma&lt;/em&gt;s of Krishna, not ours.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;So when to drop &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Everyone are different and our inner consciousness is the best judge of this. Important to note that, even to drop/leave away &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, the possession of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; is required. That's the reason, &lt;em&gt;avatAra&lt;/em&gt;s incarnate to uphold it within society (BG 4.8). &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Vidharma&lt;/em&gt; are imaginary and can't be dropped.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;When we are aware that whatever &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; are being done, we are NOT the do-er&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 3.18 — He/She has any purpose (&lt;em&gt;Artha&lt;/em&gt;) left for neither acting nor inacting. And neither he/she has any purpose or dependency on other elementary beings (&lt;em&gt;bhuta&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 3.27 — All &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;s are enacted in &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; by [3] modes/&lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt;s. Bewildered with ego (false identity), the &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; (true self) believes &quot;I am the do-er&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A rough analogy&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;When a lovely kid playfully asks for a toy, we sometimes don't give away directly. We may distance it and let the kid go there, then we take in other hand and again distance it in opposite and let the kid go there. The toy belongs to kid, for which it's making sweet cries. But we don't give it so 'easily'. Finally we give it away with a smile.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We know that, the kid wants to play with toy rather than it being in our hands, so not &lt;em&gt;TAmasika&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We know that, toy belongs &amp;amp; to be given to kid (&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;), so not &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We don't straightforwardly give away the toy in dutiful way, so not&#xA;&lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We are just doing &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Leela&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-06-08T16:39:18.197" LastActivityDate="2017-06-08T16:39:18.197" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11117" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-22T12:54:20.103" Score="1" ViewCount="895" Body="&lt;p&gt;At the end of the Kurukshetra war, Duryodhana was undefeatable during the fight with Bheema.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bheema was able to defeat him by hitting on his thigh, that was against the rules of the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is: Why did Bheema have to take help of unfair means to defeat Adharma?? Why did the side of Adharma become so powerful (although through Gandhari's blessings)? If on that day Bheema had been defeated, the Kaurava side or the Adharmic side would have won.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2016-03-22T14:06:27.613" LastActivityDate="2021-10-17T22:37:31.550" Title="Duryodhana becoming undefeatable" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|pandavas|kauravas|gandhari|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11118" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-22T15:23:45.427" Score="7" ViewCount="698" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Western philosophy, one of the most common arguments for the existence of God is the cosmological argument, which states roughly that everything has a cause, and so the Universe must have a cause, namely God.  (There's also a more sophisticated version of the cosmological argument developed by Thomas Aquinas, which I discuss in my Philosophy.SE question &lt;a href=&quot;https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/q/17923/4019&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  This argument is known in Hindu philosophy as well; it was propounded by the Nyaya school, which believed that the existence of a supreme being could be proven through reason alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/QSIp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Agama Pramanya, the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Yamunacharya presents the Nyaya school's argument that the supreme being has perfect knowledge of Dharma, which includes the cosmological argument for the existence of a supreme being:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one contends that such entities as mountains, earth and the like are not effects, the answer is as follows: The entities in question, earth etc., are effects, because they have a complex construction, like a king’s palace.  Similarly from the fact that they are made up of parts we conclude that they are subject to destruction.  Entities that can be destroyed are destroyed by someone who knows the means by which they can be destroyed, just as we can destroy clay vessels etc. when we know by what means to destroy them.... Motion, when there is mass, is sufficient ground to infer in this world that an entity which has mass and can move is subject to origination and to destruction.  It being thus established that earth etc. are indeed effects, on the grounds adduced above, it follows that the Bhagavan has knowledge of dharma and adharma which are the instrumental causes of origination and annihilation.  Consequently, the entities here in question, earth, mountains and the like, have been created by a maker who posses the described knowledge.  Everything that has origin and end is, in our experience, created by such a maker, just because it is subject to origination and annihilation, like a house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the vast majority of Hindus today do not subscribe to the Nyaya school, but rather to the Vedanta school.  And as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11001/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the Vedanta school believes that Brahman is not known through sensory perception or logical reasoning, but rather only through the Vedas, specifically the Upanishads.  So in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Sri Bhashya, the commentary on the Brahma Sutras by the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramnujacharya, he refutes the Nyaya school's cosmological argument:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That the world is an effected thing because it consists of parts; and that, as all effects are observed to have for their antecedents certain appropriate agents competent to produce them, we must infer a causal agent competent to plan and construct the universe, and standing towards it in the relation of material and operative cause--this would be a conclusion altogether unjustified. There is no proof to show that the earth, oceans, &amp;amp;c., although things produced, were created at one time by one creator. Nor can it be pleaded in favour of such a conclusion that all those things have one uniform character of being effects, and thus are analogous to one single jar; for we observe that various effects are distinguished by difference of time of production, and difference of producers. Nor again may you maintain the oneness of the creator on the ground that individual souls are incapable of the creation of this wonderful universe, and that if an additional principle be assumed to account for the world--which manifestly is a product--it would be illegitimate to assume more than one such principle. For we observe that individual beings acquire more and more extraordinary powers in consequence of an increase of religious merit; and as we may assume that through an eventual supreme degree of merit they may in the end qualify themselves for producing quite extraordinary effects, we have no right to assume a highest soul of infinite merit, different from all individual souls. Nor also can it be proved that all things are destroyed and produced all at once; for no such thing is observed to take place, while it is, on the other hand, observed that things are produced and destroyed in succession; and if we infer that all things are produced and destroyed because they are effects, there is no reason why this production and destruction should not take place in a way agreeing with ordinary experience. If, therefore, what it is desired to prove is the agency of one intelligent being, we are met by the difficulty that the proving reason (viz. the circumstance of something being an effect) is not invariably connected with what it is desired to prove; there, further, is the fault of qualities not met with in experience being attributed to the subject about which something has to be proved; and lastly there is the fault of the proving collateral instances being destitute of what has to be proved--for experience does not exhibit to us one agent capable of producing everything. If, on the other hand, what you wish to prove is merely the existence of an intelligent creative agent, you prove only what is proved already (not contested by any one).--Moreover, if you use the attribute of being an effect (which belongs to the totality of things) as a means to prove the existence of one omniscient and omnipotent creator, do you view this attribute as belonging to all things in so far as produced together, or in so far as produced in succession? In the former case the attribute of being an effect is not established (for experience does not show that all things are produced together); and in the latter case the attribute would really prove what is contrary to the hypothesis of one creator (for experience shows that things produced in succession have different causes). In attempting to prove the agency of one intelligent creative being only, we thus enter into conflict with Perception and Inference, and we moreover contradict Scripture, which says that 'the potter is born' and 'the cartwright is born' (and thus declares a plurality of intelligent agents). Moreover, as we observe that all effected things, such as living bodies and so on, are connected with pleasure and the like, which are the effects of sattva (goodness) and the other primary constituents of matter, we must conclude that effected things have sattva and so on for their causes. Sattva and so on--which constitute the distinctive elements of the causal substance--are the causes of the various nature of the effects. Now those effects can be connected with their causes only in so far as the internal organ of a person possessing sattva and so on undergoes modifications. And that a person possesses those qualities is due to karman. Thus, in order to account for the origination of different effects we must necessarily assume the connexion of an intelligent agent with karman, whereby alone he can become the cause of effects; and moreover the various character of knowledge and power (which the various effects presuppose) has its reason in karman. And if it be said that it is (not the various knowledge, &amp;amp;c., but) the mere wish of the agent that causes the origination of effects, we point out that the wish, as being specialised by its particular object, must be based on sattva and so on, and hence is necessarily connected with karman. From all this it follows that individual souls only can be causal agents: no legitimate inference leads to a Lord different from them in nature.--This admits of various expressions in technical form. 'Bodies, worlds, &amp;amp;c., are effects due to the causal energy of individual souls, just as pots are'; 'the Lord is not a causal agent, because he has no aims; just as the released souls have none'; 'the Lord is not an agent, because he has no body; just as the released souls have none.' (This last argumentation cannot be objected to on the ground that individual souls take possession of bodies; for in their case there exists a beginningless subtle body by means of which they enter into gross bodies).--'Time is never devoid of created worlds; because it is time, just like the present time (which has its created world).'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Consider the following point also. Does the Lord produce his effects, with his body or apart from his body? Not the latter; for we do not observe causal agency on the part of any bodiless being: even the activities of the internal organ are found only in beings having a body, and although the internal organ be eternal we do not know of its producing any effects in the case of released disembodied souls. Nor again is the former alternative admissible; for in that case the Lord's body would either be permanent or non-permanent. The former alternative would imply that something made up of parts is eternal; and if we once admit this we may as well admit that the world itself is eternal, and then there is no reason to infer a Lord. And the latter alternative is inadmissible because in that case there would be no cause of the body, different from it (which would account for the origination of the body). Nor could the Lord himself be assumed as the cause of the body, since a bodiless being cannot be the cause of a body. Nor could it be maintained that the Lord can be assumed to be 'embodied' by means of some other body; for this leads us into a regressus in infinitum.--Should we, moreover, represent to ourselves the Lord (when productive) as engaged in effort or not?--The former is inadmissible, because he is without a body. And the latter alternative is excluded because a being not making an effort does not produce effects. And if it be said that the effect, i.e. the world, has for its causal agent one whose activity consists in mere desire, this would be to ascribe to the subject of the conclusion (i.e. the world) qualities not known from experience; and moreover the attribute to be proved would be absent in the case of the proving instances (such as jars, &amp;amp;c., which are not the work of agents engaged in mere wishing). Thus the inference of a creative Lord which claims to be in agreement with observation is refuted by reasoning which itself is in agreement with observation, and we hence conclude that Scripture is the only source of knowledge with regard to a supreme soul that is the Lord of all and constitutes the highest Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, have there been any responses by the Nyaya school to Ramanujacharya's refutation of the cosmological argument?  I'm not sure if Ramanujacharya was the one who came up with this refutation, or if it was developed by earlier Vedantic philosophers.  But either way, has the Nyaya school ever responded to the ideas described in the passage above?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Nyaya school pretty much entirely disappeared after the Vedanta school became the dominant school of Hindu philosophy, so it's possible that Nyaya philosophers never got a chance to hear Ramanujacharya's argument.  But if they did hear of it, I'm interested in reading their response.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Here's a brief summary of Ramanujacharya's  argument:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;We would only have reason to believe that the Earth, the mountains, the oceans, and so on were created by a single creator if they were all at once. But in ordinary observation we see different effects produced at different times, so we have no reason to suppose that things like mountains and oceans were created all at once.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;So it's more likely that the Earth, the mountains, etc. were created at different times, in which case they may have been created by different intelligent beings, i.e. different Jivas.  If it's objected that Jivas don't have the power needed to create the Earth, in ordinary life we observe that people who accrue more and more religious merit can obtain greater and greater magical powers, so some time in the past some Jivas might have accrued so much merit that they could create the Earth and mountains and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the Earth was created by a single Lord, is this Lord bodiless or does he have a body?  We have no reason to suppose that the Earth was created by a bodiless being, because in ordinary observation we only see effects produced by beings with bodies.  And if the Lord created the Earth with a body, how did that body originate?  If that body did not originate, we might as well say the Earth did not originate.  And for the reasons above we have no reason to suppose it was created by a bodiless being.  Thus it must have been created by using another body, but then we enter into an infinite regress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a single bodiless Lord did create the Earth, did he have motive in creation or does he have no motives?  We have no reason to suppose it was motiveless, for all the effects we observe in life were created with motives.  And if the Earth was created in order to fulfill some desire, was this desire fulfilled with no effort or with effort?  We have no reason to suppose it was without effort, for in ordinary observation we never see a desire fulfilled without effort.  And the Lord cannot have made an effort, for only bodies make efforts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-24T03:11:39.493" Title="Has anyone responded to Ramanujacharya's refutation of the Cosmological Argument for the existence of God?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|sri-vaishnava|ramanujacharya|nyaya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11123" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="798" CreationDate="2016-03-23T12:00:58.620" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is how Swami Shivananda has explained about Lord Shiva in the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/lordsiva.htm#_VPID_30&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Siva and His Worship&lt;/a&gt;, who himself was big Shiva worshipper&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Siva represents the destructive aspect of Brahman. That portion&#xA;  of Brahman that is enveloped by Tamo-Guna-Pradhana-Maya is Lord Siva&#xA;  who is the all-pervading Isvara and who also dwells in Mount Kailas.&#xA;  He is the Bhandar or storehouse of Wisdom. Siva minus Parvati, Kali or&#xA;  Durga is pure Nirguna Brahman. With Maya (Parvati) He becomes the&#xA;  Saguna Brahman for the purpose of pious devotion of His devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His Trisul (trident) that is held in His right hand represents the&#xA;  three Gunas—Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. That is the emblem of&#xA;  sovereignty. He rules the world through these three Gunas. The Damaru&#xA;  in His left hand represents the Sabda Brahman, It represents OM from&#xA;  which all languages are formed. It is He who formed the Sanskrit&#xA;  language out of the Damaru sound.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The wearing of the crescent moon on His head indicates that He has&#xA;  controlled the mind perfectly. The flow of the Ganga represents the&#xA;  nectar of immortality. Elephant represents symbolically the Vritti,&#xA;  pride. Wearing the skin of the elephant denotes that He has controlled&#xA;  pride. Tiger represents lust. His sitting on the tiger’s skin&#xA;  indicates that He has conquered lust. His holding deer on one hand&#xA;  indicates that He has removed the Chanchalata (tossing) of the mind.&#xA;  Deer jumps from one place to another swiftly. The mind also jumps from&#xA;  one object to another. His wearing of serpents around the neck denotes&#xA;  wisdom and eternity. Serpents live for a large number of years. He is&#xA;  Trilochana, the three-eyed One, in the centre of whose forehead is the&#xA;  third eye, the eye of wisdom. Nandi, the bull that sits in front of&#xA;  Sivalinga, represents Pranava (Omkara). The Linga represents Advaita.&#xA;  It points out “I am one without a second—Ekameva Advitiyam.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastActivityDate="2016-03-23T12:00:58.620" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11125" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16416" CreationDate="2016-03-23T14:38:36.670" Score="6" ViewCount="262" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallekhana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;concept&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Santhara&lt;/strong&gt;(Sallekhanā or Sanyasana-marana) in Jain community. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the last vow prescribed by the Jain ethical code of conduct.The vow of sallekhanā is observed by the Jain ascetics and lay votaries at the end of their life by gradually reducing the intake of food and liquids.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Jain text, &lt;strong&gt;Puruṣārthasiddhyupāya&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When death is imminent, the vow of sallekhanā is observed by&#xA;  progressively slenderizing the body and the passions. Since the person&#xA;  observing sallekhanā is devoid of all passions like attachment, it is&#xA;  not suicide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The initial though that came to my mind  of equivalent of Santhara practised in Hinduism was the concept of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samādhi&lt;/a&gt;, but looking at the description of it on Wiki, I am now thinking that there exists few differences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Wiki, &lt;strong&gt;Samādhi&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;refers to a state of meditative consciousness. It is a meditative&#xA;  absorption or trance, attained by the practice of dhyāna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any equivalent of Santhara practised in Hinduism?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2016-03-24T04:50:19.440" LastActivityDate="2016-12-22T14:06:53.800" Title="What is equivalent of Santhara(Sallekhanā) in Hinduism?" Tags="|belief|practice|samadhi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11126" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11132" CreationDate="2016-03-23T14:52:57.357" Score="2" ViewCount="7474" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharat,there was a snake and he was also a friend of Lord Indra and he was defeated in the Mahabharata war and his name was &quot;Takshak&quot;. So,who is he and what is his story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5143" LastActivityDate="2016-03-24T16:43:30.210" Title="Who was Takshak snake?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavata-purana|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11128" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-23T15:06:06.687" Score="6" ViewCount="4055" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard from my teacher that there is a big temple of Lord Shiva named &quot;Brihadishwara Temple&quot; which is located in Tanjore which is in Tamil Nadu.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Who built this temple and what is its importance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5143" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-03-25T15:31:21.567" LastActivityDate="2017-04-24T11:57:05.423" Title="What is Brihadishwara Temple?" Tags="|shiva|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11130" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="101" CreationDate="2016-03-23T19:58:10.903" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Worship of Shiva , as a Yogi,and His Vahana, the Bull ,predates Buddhism&lt;/em&gt;.These images are found in Indus valley Civilization,which existed between 2500 BC to 2000 BC .&lt;br/&gt; The symbols of &lt;em&gt;Linga and Yoni&lt;/em&gt; , are much older . These are worshipped as the God &amp;amp; Goddess of Fertility ,by aboriginal tribes ,all over the World---representing &lt;em&gt;Sexual Intercourse&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt; Philosophical meanings , have been assigned to these Symbols , &lt;em&gt;by different Civilizations ,at different times&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; Will Durant , has studied these aspects in his book--The History of Civilizations.&lt;br/&gt;Carl Jung – the Psychologist,has studied the meanings of &lt;em&gt;different Religious Symbols and their inspirational values&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; One explanation,that I heard in a religious discourse ,linked it to the &lt;em&gt;Adwaita Vedanta&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Adwaita&lt;/strong&gt; , means literally--&lt;em&gt;not Two&lt;/em&gt;.So  it is &lt;strong&gt;one (or/and) zero&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Linga is the sybol of one .The cross section is a circle ,representing zero&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;GOD is either ONE or ZERO ( Sunya or Space)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2016-03-23T19:58:10.903" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11131" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7787" CreationDate="2016-03-24T04:17:54.557" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu and Rudra are Satvic and Tamasic respectively only in view of activities and in nature they are inverse to this. Brahma is always Rajasic. This is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20655/6/Part1_Chapter4_241-320p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter Sixteen: Description of creation in Rudra Samhita Section One of Shiva Purana.&lt;/a&gt; (Pg: 253)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vishnu, Rudra and I (Brahma) represent the Gunas. Siva is free from Gunas. He is the Supreme Brahman, the undecaying.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vishnu is of Sattva attribute, I (Brahma) am of Rajas attribute and Rudra is of Tamas attribute. This is only in the view of activities in&#xA;  this world. But in fact in name it is otherwise.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vishnu is Taamasik nature within but externally Saattvika; Rudra is of Saattvika nature within but externally Taamasik nature outside, I&#xA;  am of Rajasic nature throughout.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Goddess of speech is Rajasic nature; Sati is of Saattvika nature and Lakshmi is of Taamasika nature; the great Goddess Sivaa is of&#xA;  three natures.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2016-03-24T04:17:54.557" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11132" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11126" CreationDate="2016-03-24T05:34:15.790" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/24/29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;, Takshaka was a son of Kadru and Kashyapa Maharshi.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of Takshaka is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;. It goes like below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parīkṣit, who was the grandson of Arjuna, having listened to&#xA;  the Bhāgavatam, had attained the transcendental position of&#xA;  fearlessness and oneness with the Supreme. Thus, Parīkṣit, free of all&#xA;  doubts, sat down in yogic posture and merged himself in meditation&#xA;  upon the Supersoul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the snake-bird &lt;strong&gt;Takṣaka&lt;/strong&gt;, arriving in the disguise of a brāhmaṇa,&#xA;  bit him, and the body of the saintly king immediately burned to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means, Takṣaka was responsible for slaying Parīkṣit. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Actually, Parīkṣit himself was &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parikshit#Death&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;cursed&lt;/a&gt; by a sage's son to die by a snake bite. Takshaka came to fulfil the curse. Takshaka did the deed by approaching in disguise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later King Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit, become &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;angry&lt;/a&gt; and  fought a war with nagas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janamejaya, the son of Parīkṣit, became very angry when he received&#xA;  news of his father’s death, and he began a sacrificial performance for&#xA;  the purpose of destroying all the snakes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even though Takṣaka received protection from Indra, he nevertheless&#xA;  became attracted by the mantras and was about to fall into the fire.&#xA;  Seeing this, Bṛhaspati, the son of Aṅgirā Ṛṣi, came and advised&#xA;  Janamejaya that Takṣaka could not be killed because he had drunk the&#xA;  nectar of the demigods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Janamejaya was thus convinced by the words of Bṛhaspati and stopped his sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Takshaka later became a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takshaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;robber&lt;/a&gt;, waiting to loot anything valuable from the travellers traversing through his domain. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, when Janamejaya started a campaign with the view of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takshaka#Revenge_on_Pandavas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;exterminating&lt;/a&gt; the Naga race Takshaka left his territory and escaped to the Deva territory where he sought protection from Deva king Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Janamejaya's men traced him and brought him as a prisoner, to execute him along with the other Naga chiefs. At that time, a learned sage named Astika, a boy in age, came and interfered. Janamejaya had to listen to the words of the learned Astika and set Takshaka free.  From then onwards the Nagas and Kurus lived in peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2016-03-24T16:43:30.210" LastActivityDate="2016-03-24T16:43:30.210" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11133" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11128" CreationDate="2016-03-24T06:53:09.703" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This temple was built by king name RajaRaja Cholan alias Arulmozhivarman.&#xA;This temple is architected in great way. The main Gopuram is of 216 feet height. The stone at the top of the gopuram is of 80 ton weight. There are many more points related to the architectural marvels about this temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5147" LastActivityDate="2016-03-24T06:53:09.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11135" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11128" CreationDate="2016-03-24T07:25:33.730" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Brihadeeswarar Temple is one of the Most Oldest and Famous Temple in India. It is Situated in Thanjavur (Tanjore) at Tamilnadu in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Main Significance of this Temple is the Deities and the way the King of Raja Raja Chola-I have built.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Temples is as follows :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Br̥hadīśwara Temple, or the Big Temple of Tanjore, or the &quot;Periya Kōvil&quot; (Big Temple), is a Śiva Linga temple built by Emperor Arul̥mozhivarman , known in history as Emperor Rājarāja I, completed in 1010 C.E. UNESCO has declared this a part of the &quot;Great Living Chola Temples&quot; heritage site. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TrqnV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TrqnV.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Brihadeeswarar Temple&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Temple Deities:&lt;/strong&gt; The &quot;moolavar&quot; or prime deity of the Brihadeeswarar Temple is Shiva. All deities, particularly those placed in the niches of the outer wall (Koshta Moorthigal) like Dakshinamurthy, Surya, Chandra are of huge size. The Brihadeeswarar temple is one of the rare temples which has idols for &quot;Ashta-dikpaalakas&quot; (Guardians of the directions) – Indra, Agni, Yama, Nirṛti, Varuṇa, Vāyu, Kubera, Īśāna – each of whom was originally represented by a life-sized statue, approximately 6 feet tall, enshrined in a separate temple located in the respective direction. (Only Agni, Varuṇa, Vāyu and Īśāna are preserved in situ.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Temple:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; Coordinates              10°46′50″N 79°08′30″E&#xA; Other names              RajaRajeshwara Temple&#xA; Proper name              Peruvudaiyaar Temple&#xA; Country                  India&#xA; State                    Tamil Nadu&#xA; District                 Thanjavur&#xA; Primary deity            Lord Shiva&#xA; Important festivals      Maha Shivaratri&#xA; Architectural styles     Dravidian Architecture&#xA; Date built               11th century AD&#xA; Creator                  Raja Raja Chola I&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brihadeeswarar Temple Construction:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that Sri Raja Raja I of Chola Dynasty wished to build such a temple during his stay at Sri Lanka.&#xA;The architecture of the temple adheres to the design spelled out in ancient texts of Agamas and Vaastu Shastras. The temple architecture and engineering was completed by Sri Kunjara Mallan Raja Raja Perunthachan, who is considered as ancestor of Vaastu Vedas and belonged to the bloodline of Dr. V. Ganapathi Sthapati of Chennai. Dr Ganapathi is the chief architect of the famous Thiruvalluvar Statue of Mahabalipuram made of 133’ granite stone at the tip of Southern India. The art of ancient architecture and the marvellous engineering flows down the generation of this family and even as on date, the family members practise this art.&#xA;Based on the architecture of Kunjara Mallan Raja Raja Perunthachan in building Brihadeeswarar temple, Dr Ganapathi started the American University of Mayonic Science and Technology&#xA;The standard measures used in construction come from the ancient Vaastu shastras which measures 1 3/8-inch and is used even today. Other units of measure include hasta, muzam, or kishku with 24 units equalling to 33 inches. Similar measurement principles are observed in the ancient structures of Indus valley Civilisation some 4000-6000 years ago. Though different units of measurements are used in modern construction, the base comes from Vaastu Shastras, given its ancient value.&#xA;This temple has the unique record of being constructed with granite stones and completing within short span of five years (beginning from 1004 AD). The temple rests on a solid base of 16 feet (about 5 metres in height). The deities made of stone are placed on this along with other idols of Shiva dance. The Kalasam, the top most portion of the shrine weighs very heavily approximately 81 tonnes of single stone block. Apparently, lack of machines in those times, this stone was believed to have been dragged using a inclined plane having length of 6.44 km. The Nandi and presiding deity Lingam weighs about 20 tonnes and height of 3.7 metres respectively. There is not much place in the prakarana area and measures approximately 125m by 240 m. The exterior wall is decorated with 81 carvings of various postures of Bharatanatyam, a classical dance belonging to Tamil Nadu State.&#xA;The Amman sub-shrine was later on added by the pandyas during their rule in 13th Century. Thereafter, the shrines of Ganesha and Subramanya were added to the temple premises by Maratha Rulers and the Vijayanagara rulers respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Interesting Features of The Brihadeeshwara Temple&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A study in Oriental architecture or history is certainly incomplete without a mention of the Tanjore Brihadeeswara Temple or the Tanjore Periya Kovil (Big Temple). This imposing structure was built by RajaRaja Cholan and his sister Kundavai, both ardent devotees of Bhagwan Shiv. It was constructed by the King at the height of the Chola reign to signify his bhakti, power and strength. Here are few interesting facts about this Chola temple of Thanjavur:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a) The original name of the deity was Rajarajeshwar. It was the Marathas who gave it the name Brihadeeshwara or the Great Ishwara.&#xA;b) The main temple is entirely built of granite. More than 130,000 tons of granite was used to built it.&#xA;c) The only temple in the world wherein the shadow of its Gopuram does not a appear on the ground at noon.&#xA;d) The statue of Nandi at the entrance of the temple is carved out of a single stone.&#xA;e) The main Vimanam, which is at about 200 feet is often called Dakshin Meru or Southern Meru.&#xA;f) The inspiration to build the temple came to Raja Raja Cholan during his visit to Sri Lanka seeing Vedic structures of Hindu kings and was a result of a divine dream he had.&#xA;g) The temple has a portrait of Raja Raja Cholan paying obeisance to Bhagwan Natraj. This is undoubtedly, the first ever instance of a royal portrait.&#xA;h) Inscriptions in the temple point towards Kunjara Mallan Raja Raja Perunthachan as the chief architect of the temple. His successors survive to this day and practice the art of Vastu or Vastu Shastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dakshin Meru Thanjavur Tanjore Temple&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;i) Portraying dance is the reflection of divine emotions of Bhakts (devotees) showing their joyful feelings which they sense when they see the God himself. Depictions of nartakis or dancers showing eighty one of hundred and eight karanas (108 synchronised movements of hands and feet) in Bharat Natyam are carved here. These selective karanas represented here are a part of karanas mentioned in the Natya Shastra of Rishi Bharat. There is also evidence that the temple was a platform for trained dancers to showcase their devotional talent. These depictions are first of their kind.&#xA;j) The inscriptions also mention the different kinds of jewels used in the period. Each of these jewels are mentioned in detail. A total of twenty three different types of pearls, eleven varieties of diamonds and rubies are mentioned in these inscriptions.&#xA;k) The chanting of ॐ  in the Grabhagriha exponentially expands the positive energies in the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What astounds historians is that there was not a single granite quarry in about 100 km radius of the temple. This means that transporting these stones would have been a herculean task. But Raja Raja Cholan insisted on the use of these stones. All of these features make this Chola temple of Tanjore, a magnum opus of the opulent Chola kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/E9Ex7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/E9Ex7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Constructing the Gopuram&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EVRWK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EVRWK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Thanjai Gopuram&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An old Image which shows how it's built&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/iIWEp.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/iIWEp.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;தஞ்சாவூர் பெரியகோவில் கட்டப்பட்ட விதத்தை விளக்கும் வரைபடம்&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Other Facts are :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only granite was used to make the entire temple structure. It is&#xA;  believed that about 130,000 tons of granite was used to construct the&#xA;  Brihadeeswara Temple. The height of the temple tower (vimana) is 216&#xA;  ft and among such kinds of structures, this is the tallest in the&#xA;  world. Just at the entrance of the temple, there is a large statute of&#xA;  Nandi (sacred bull) measuring about 16 feet in length and 13 feet in&#xA;  height. This statute of Nandi facing the inner sanctum is carved out&#xA;  of a single stone. The topmost structure of the temple known as&#xA;  “Kumbam” is also carved out of a single granite stone, weighing about&#xA;  60 tons. There are two gateways, known as “Gopuras” on the eastern&#xA;  side of the temple to enter. Hundreds of sculptures adorn the exterior&#xA;  of the temple, whereas inside the temple there is a huge idol of Lord&#xA;  Shiva with three eyes. The third eye is closed. The entire compound of&#xA;  the temple has 250 lingams (representative of Lord Shiva). 108 dance&#xA;  poses, known as “karmas” performed by Lord Shiva have been sculpted on&#xA;  the inner walls of the sanctum sanctorum. The Brihadeeswara temple&#xA;  consists of a pillared hall and an assembly hall known as mandapas and&#xA;  many sub-shrines. The inner Mandapas are the most significant part of&#xA;  the temple. The mandapas are divided into different levels with the&#xA;  help of sculptures and pilasters. Idols of “Ashta-dikpaalakas” or&#xA;  guardians of directions, are found in the Brihadeeswara Temple making&#xA;  it one of the rarest temples in India. Six feet tall statues of Agni,&#xA;  Varuna, Indra, Yama, Vayu, Isana, Kubera and Nirriti have been placed&#xA;  in a separate temple. It is believed that the shadow of the tower over&#xA;  the gateway of the temple never falls on the ground, especially in the&#xA;  premises of the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sources:&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://haribhakt.com/secrets-of-the-tanjore-thanjavur-big-temple-built-by-raja-chola/#Interesting_Features_ofThe_Brihadeeshwara_Temple_of_Tanjore_Thanjavur_World_Heritage&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;secrets-of-the-tanjore-thanjavur-big-temple-built-by-raja-chola&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brihadeeswarar_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihadeeswarar_Temple - Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.brihadeeswarartemple.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;brihadeeswarartemple.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://tamilnadu.com/travel/tanjavur-periya-kovil.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://tamilnadu.com/travel/tanjavur-periya-kovil.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/travel/brihadeeswara-temple-an-architectural-marvel-of-ancient-india&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;brihadeeswara-temple-an-architectural-marvel-of-ancient-india- mapsofindia.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/How-did-Cholas-lift-80-tons-of-Granite-to-a-216-foot-tower-Gopuram-at-the-Tanjore-Brihadeeswarar-Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Quora Question&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://undiscoveredindiantreasures.blogspot.in/2011/06/brihadeeswara-temple-in.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;brihadeeswara-temple-in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/on-facts-less-known-about-big-temple/article1486053.ece&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Hindu newspaper article&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3577" LastEditorUserId="3577" LastEditDate="2016-05-26T06:21:15.060" LastActivityDate="2016-05-26T06:21:15.060" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11136" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7787" CreationDate="2016-03-24T08:05:56.997" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Do the &lt;em&gt;Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva)&lt;/em&gt; cleanly map onto the 3 gunas &lt;em&gt;(sattva, rajas, tamas)&lt;/em&gt;?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NO.&lt;/strong&gt; Not related in anyway. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God is above 3 modes/&lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt;s. Their physical incarnations can contain all 3 modes (like us), but Gods don't get bound by them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 7.13 — These whole universe being bewildered by the nature of these 3 modes/gunas, doesn't know me who is above (them), the transcendental Indivisible (&lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Lot of ambiguity in relation of &lt;em&gt;&quot;Trimurti&quot;&lt;/em&gt; as well. It's quite possible that such term has been popularized by various devotees over a period. There are few reasons for it.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;The 3rd name often changes. People use Shiva, Shankara, Rudra, Mahesha etc.. &quot;Shiva&quot; is worshiped in form of &lt;em&gt;Linga&lt;/em&gt;, because it's formless (&lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt;). This part doesn't even have any of these 3 modes.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&quot;Shankara/Mahesha&quot; is 1 of many &quot;Rudra&quot;s (BG 10.23), believed to be residing on Himalayas or at least earth.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&quot;Brahma&quot; is believed to be originating from navel of Vishnu &amp;amp; not the individual on his own.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though lot of dissimilarity among &lt;em&gt;Trimurti&lt;/em&gt;, let's for argument sake, believe that &lt;em&gt;Trimurti&lt;/em&gt; exists. But how can they relate by any means to these 3 modes? Let's assume &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; even with its own limitations, is somehow assigned to &quot;Vishnu&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita chapter 14 &amp;amp; 17, these 3 modes are described in detail.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; is responsible for pain &amp;amp; misery. This mode doesn't know what is right &amp;amp; wrong. This mode belongs to demons or &lt;em&gt;pitru&lt;/em&gt;s (ancestors with unfulfilled desires).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; is responsible for ignorance, lazyness &amp;amp; dumbness. This mode genuinely thinks wrong as right. It belongs to ghosts &amp;amp; lower planes of living/non-living.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 18.31 — The one who doesn't know Dharma &amp;amp; Adharma, duty &amp;amp; non-duty as it is, has &lt;strong&gt;RAjasi&lt;/strong&gt; Buddhi.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 18.32 — Covered by darkness(blindness), the one who believes Adharma as Dharma and believes other (thing)s also wrongly, has &lt;strong&gt;TAmasi&lt;/strong&gt; Buddhi.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt; BG 17.4 — &lt;sup&gt;&lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; worships divine-beings;&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;strong&gt;RAjasika&lt;/strong&gt; (worships) to Yakshas &amp;amp; RakshAs (devils or demons); &lt;strong&gt;TAmasika&lt;/strong&gt; people worship Spirits &amp;amp; other elementary divisions.&lt;/sub&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After knowing all these, for me it's hard to imagine if &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; can in anyway be related to anyone of the divine &lt;em&gt;Trimurti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Last of all, many verses of Gita suggest that &lt;strong&gt;3 modes are generated from &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, but the supreme nature (of God) is beyond these &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; or its modes&lt;/strong&gt;. These 3 modes binds &lt;em&gt;jeeva&lt;/em&gt;s, but not the supreme One.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 14.5 — O might armed, the modes of Sattva, Rajas &amp;amp; Tamas generated from Prakruti, binds the embodied Indivisible (Atman) into (subtle) body.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 7.12 — Certainly all natures: &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;RAjasa&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;TAmasa&lt;/em&gt; are from Me. Thus know that certainly I am not within them, but they are within me.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2016-03-24T08:05:56.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11137" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="101" CreationDate="2016-03-24T08:26:40.420" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am giving rough translation from Hindi Version of &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedpuran.net/2011/10/21/ved_puran/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Mahapuran&lt;/a&gt; as published by Geeta press here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sages said:- Everywhere the deities are worshipped only in their&#xA;  image. How is that Shiva is worshipped both in the image and the&#xA;  linga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suta said:- O sages, this question is holy and wondrous. Here the&#xA;  speaker is Siva Himself and not any ordinary person. I shall tell you&#xA;  what Shiva Himself had said and what I heard from my own preceptor.&#xA;  Shiva alone is Niskala (nameless and formless) since He is identical&#xA;  with supreme Brahman. &lt;strong&gt;He is also Sakala as He has an embodied form. He&#xA;  is both Sakala and Niskala. It is his Niskala aspect that the Linga is&#xA;  appropriate.&lt;/strong&gt; In the Sakala aspect the worship of His embodied form is&#xA;  appropriate. Since He has the Sakala and Niskala aspects He is&#xA;  worshipped both in the linga and in the embodied form by the people&#xA;  and is called the highest Brahman. Other deities, not being Brahman,&#xA;  have no Niskala aspect anywhere. Hence the deities are not worshipped&#xA;  in the formless linga symbol. The other deities are both non-Brahman&#xA;  and individual souls. In view of their being embodied alone they are&#xA;  worshipped solely in the bodily form. Sankara has Brahmatatva and the&#xA;  others Jivatva. This has been explained in the meaning of the Pranava&#xA;  (Om), the essence of Vedanta, by Nandikesvara when asked by&#xA;  Sanatkumara, the intelligent son of Brahma, at the mountain Mandara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanatkumara said:- The embodied form alone is observed in the worship&#xA;  of the deities other than Shiva. But both the Linga and the embodied&#xA;  forms are seen only in the worship of Shiva. Hence O benevolent one,&#xA;  please tell me precisely making me understand the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nandikeshvara said:- It is impossible to answer the question without&#xA;  revealing the secret of Brahman. O sinless one, since you are pious I&#xA;  shall tell you what Shiva Himself has said. Since Shiva has the&#xA;  bodiless aspect in virtue of His being Supreme Brahman, the Nisakal&#xA;  Lingam, in conformity with the Vedic implication, is used only in His&#xA;  worship. Since He has an embodied form as well, His embodied form is&#xA;  also worshipped and accepted by all people. According to the decision&#xA;  done in the Vedas, the embodied form alone is to be used in the&#xA;  worship of other deities who are individual souls embodied. Devas have&#xA;  only the embodied aspect in their manifestation. In sacred literature,&#xA;  both the Linga and the embodied forms are mentioned for Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva said:- Since the Linga rose high resembling a mountain of&#xA;  fire, this shall be famous as Arunachal (Aruna, means “first light or first fire” and Achal, means “mountain”)  mountains. Many holy centers&#xA;  will spring up here. A residence or death in this holy place ensures&#xA;  liberation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I have two forms : the manifest and the unmanifest. Dear sons, first in the form of the column of fire and&#xA;  afterwards in this embodied form I have expounded to you my formless&#xA;  Brhman-hood and embodied Ishwar-hood.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am the Supreme Brahman. My form is both manifest and unmanifest in&#xA;  view of Brahman-hood and Ishvatva. My duty is blessing etc., O Brahma&#xA;  and Vishnu, &lt;strong&gt;I am Brahman because of Brhatva(huge size) and&#xA;  Brmhanatva(causing to grow)&lt;/strong&gt;.O children,similarly I am atman due to&#xA;  Samatva(equality) and Vyapakatva (pervasiveness). There are five&#xA;  activities in respect of the universe beginning with&#xA;  Anugraha(liberation) and ending with Sarga(creation). Therefore, these&#xA;  activities devolve on me because I am Ishwara and not on anyone else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2jQWX.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2jQWX.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;                              &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachala&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arunachal&lt;/a&gt; or Mountain of first Fire/Light&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/D2BOn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/D2BOn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni Linga/Mountain of Fire&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kMKle.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kMKle.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swayambhu(self-formed) Linga at Amarnath&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9A0og.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9A0og.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user3870" LastEditorDisplayName="user3870" LastEditDate="2016-03-24T09:00:34.370" LastActivityDate="2016-03-24T09:00:34.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11141" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="34895" CreationDate="2016-03-24T14:12:36.093" Score="5" ViewCount="1453" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandodari#Marriage_and_later_life&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; and other blogs, when Ravana's sons and brothers perish in the war, he performs a Yajna to ensure his success. At that time, Rama sends his army to disrupt the Yajna and as a part of the disruption, Angada and the other Vanaras drag Mandodari to the Yajnashala by her hair and torture her in front of Ravana, forcing him to leave his Yajna to rescue her. Thus Ravana's Yajna is disturbed. The story is mentioned to be present in Valmiki Ramayana. But this story is neither present in valmikiramayan.net nor in the copy I have. So which Valmiki Ramayana is this story in?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore pulling a lady's hair is supposed to be a heinous crime, at least when Duhshasana does it. So why are the Vanaras spared of punishment?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2019-05-08T23:28:41.047" Title="Did the Vanaras manhandle Mandodari?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|mandodari|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11143" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-25T03:48:07.103" Score="12" ViewCount="635" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11001/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the differences between the Purva Mimamsa school and the Vedanta school is that the Purva Mimamsa school believed that Vedas only give knowledge about Dharma, whereas the Vedanta school believes the Vedas (specifically the Upanishads) also give knowledge about Brahman.  Now in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Sri Bhashya, the commentary on the Brahma Sutras written by the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya, he presents one of the Purva Mimamsa school's arguments for their belief that the Vedas do not give knowledge of Brahman.  The Purva Mimamsa argument goes that even if meditating on Brahman using the descriptions of Brahman given in the Upanishads (specifically the 32 Brahmavidyas) leads to Moksha, that does not mean that the Upanishads' descriptions of Brahman are correct or even that Brahman exists.  After all, you can cheer up a sick person or a child by telling them something that's false, so perhaps you can give someone the eternal bliss of Moksha by telling them to meditate on some made-up entity called Brahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nor must it be said that meditation is a kind of continued remembrance, and as such requires to be defined by the object remembered; and that the demand of the injunction of meditation for something to be remembered is satisfied by texts such as 'All this is that Self', 'the True, knowledge, infinite is Brahman,' &amp;amp;c., which set forth the nature and attributes of Brahman and--forming a syntactic whole with the injunctions--are a valid means of knowledge with regard to the existence of the matter they convey. For the fact is that the demand on the part of an injunction of meditation for an object to be remembered may be satisfied even by something unreal (not true), as in the case of injunctions such as 'Let him meditate upon mind as Brahman' (Kh. Up. III, 18, 1): the real existence of the object of meditation is therefore not demanded.... Even if [the Vedanta-texts] are viewed as independent sentences, they accomplish the end of man (i.e. please, gratify) by knowledge merely--being thus comparable to tales with which we soothe children or sick persons; it does not lie within their province to establish the reality of an accomplished thing, and hence Scripture cannot be viewed as a valid means for the cognition of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Ramanujacharya refutes this argument:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The assertion again that a statement referring to some accomplished thing gratifies men merely by imparting a knowledge of the thing, without being a means of knowledge with regard to its real existence--so that it would be comparable to the tales we tell to children and sick people--, can in no way be upheld. When it is ascertained that a thing has no real existence, the mere knowledge or idea of the thing does not gratify. The pleasure which stories give to children and sick people is due to the fact that they erroneously believe them to be true; if they were to find out that the matter present to their thought is untrue their pleasure would come to an end that very moment. And thus in the case of the texts of the Upanishads also. If we thought that these texts do not mean to intimate the real existence of Brahman, the mere idea of Brahman to which they give rise would not satisfy us in any way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the logic of Ramanujacharya's refutation of the Purva Mimamsa argument given above?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the gist of Ramanujacharya's argument as I understand it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If someone thought the Upanishads do not give valid knowledge about Brahman, then meditating on Brahman using the statements of the Upanishads would not get them Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But meditating on Brahman using the statements of the Upanishads does give Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, the Upanishads do give valid knowledge about Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I don't understand the justification for going from step 2 to step 3.  I agree that if the Upanishads didn't give valid knowledge about Brahman, and someone knew that, then they wouldn't be able to attain Moksha by meditating on Brahman using the statements of the Upanishads.  But what about someone who did not know that?  What if the Upanishads did not give valid knowledge about Brahman, but people thought that they did? In that case, why couldn't meditation on Brahman using the statements of the Upanishads lead to Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the issue that given an infinite amount of time, you would eventually learn that the Upanishads do not give valid knowledge about Brahman?  Or is the issue that if the Upanishads didn't give valid knowledge about Brahman, then they would only grant Moksha in certain cases (i.e. where there is ignorance), whereas we know that they actually grant Moksha in all cases?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any subcommentaries on Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya shed light on this issue? Note that I'm a Sri Vaishnava, so I'm not trying to criticize Ramanujacharya here; I'm just trying to understand what he's saying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2020-01-14T15:26:29.077" Title="What is Ramanujacharya's argument that the Upanishads must be true if they grant Moksha?" Tags="|philosophy|upanishads|brahma-sutras|ramanujacharya|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11144" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11147" CreationDate="2016-03-25T06:38:34.757" Score="2" ViewCount="193" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a relation between origin of Hinduism and Veda? &quot;Veda&quot; is considered as the oldest religious book and Hinduism is the oldest religion. Did they both originate simultaneously?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="60" LastEditorUserId="60" LastEditDate="2016-03-25T07:42:38.997" LastActivityDate="2016-03-25T07:53:01.580" Title="Is there a relation between origin of Hinduism and Veda?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-03-29T07:37:09.803" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11145" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9118" CreationDate="2016-03-25T07:23:33.910" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;■■1. Yes, Ramayana or Mahabharata may repeat in many kalpas and chaturyugas..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read Yog Vasistha there Kak Bhusundi says he had seen Ramayan 11 times and Mahabharat (Krishna) 16 times with different outcomes...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yogvasistha chapter 21&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  30&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I remember Lord Vishnu descending many times on earth to destroy ferocious rakshasa demons, and &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  is now to appear here the eleventh time under the name of Rama. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  31 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I know Lord Hari (Vishnu) has &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  come down three times in his form of the half lion half man Narasimha to thrash the demon &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hiranyakashipu as many times like a lion killing an elephant. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  32&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vishnu is yet to be born in his &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sixteenth incarnation at Vasudeva’s abode for the purpose of rescuing the earth from the burden of the &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  oppression of its tyrant lords and despots.&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulsidas in Ramcharitmanas also says Ramayan happened many times in this and other universes...The cause may be different in different kalpas and chaturyuga... One time Ram manifested to make curse of Jalandhars wife ( may your wife be abducted by other and may her purity be questioned by other) come true... Another time Narad cursed Vishnu to be dependent on monkeys as he had made him look like monkey (Hari mukh), for this he incarnated... Another time he incarnated to liberate his eternal servant Jay and Vijaya born as Ravana and Kumbhakarna... Another time to liberate two kings born as Ravana and Kumbhakarna... Another time Bhrigu cursed Vishnu to suffer wife loss... Sometime without cause in leela form... Sometime as boon to Manu and Shatrupa and soo on.....some event coincide here also.. &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;source Bal kanda and Uttar kanda of Ramcharitmanas and Vishnu puran Shiva puran and other&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;■■2. Ramayan is likely to place in 24th Treta of a kalpa.. But as God is beyond space and time it has nothing to do with specific number... But if not taken place after 24th Treta in this kalpa it still means immortality of Hanuman... Because the recent Mahabharat was in 28th Dwapar yuga where there was Hanuman( met Bhima lord Krishna and sat on chariot flag of Arjun) and we are in 28th Kali yuga...Ramayan may also have happened in current chaturyuga and its information may have been absent ( as devta referring to the period they have told in Puran may be of any kalpa they had seen)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Treta yuge chaturvinshe ravane tapseh shakshyat |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ram dashrtathi prapiye sagane shakyamiyeewan ||&amp;nbsp; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Vayu Puraan 70.88]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Chaturvinshe yuge chapi vishwamitra pure sare |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Loke ram iti khyate tejsah bhaskaropam ||&amp;nbsp; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Harivansh 22.104]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Chaturvinshe yuge vats tretayaam raghuvanshaje | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ramo naam bhavishyami chaturvhayu sanatane || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Brahmand Puraan 2.2.36.30]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;■■3. Information may have been lost due to delusion potency of Kali and Shri Hari. Also many original scriptures are lost by influence of Kali.. ( &lt;strong&gt;from description of Kali age in various Purans&lt;/strong&gt; ) stating due to Kali original scripture and interpretations are lost..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;for eg. Buddha also told even Vedas are altered in his period...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the Buddhist Vinaya Pitaka of the Mahavagga (I.245) section the Buddha names these rishis. The names of the Vedic rishis were &amp;quot;Atthako, Vâmako, Vâmadevo, Vessâmitto, Yamataggi, Angiraso, Bhâradvâjo, Vâsettho, Kassapo, and Bhagu&amp;quot;[54] but that it was altered by a few Brahmins who introduced animal &#xA;  sacrifices. The Vinaya Pitaka&amp;apos;s section Anguttara Nikaya: Panchaka Nipata says that it was on this alteration of the true Veda that the Buddha refused to pay respect to the Vedas of his time.[55]&lt;/strong&gt; &gt;&#xA;    (( &lt;em&gt;This is only for information as Vedic student can defend this statement referring Buddhism as belonging to Nastika school&lt;/em&gt; ))&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also many chaturyuga can go waste without anything... Kakbhusundi in Maharamayan tells Vasistha that there were yugas he saw where there were no mountains , no people etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 21 Maharamayan &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;35 &lt;br&gt;I remember seeing no other creature on earth except plants for the long duration of half of the four yuga &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ages. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  36 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I also remember this earth full of mountains for the space of four full yugas when there wereno men on earth and their customs and usages had no ground in it. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  37 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I remember seeing this earth filled with the bones of dead Daityas and other fossil remains rising in &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  heaps like mountains and continuing in their dilapidated and crumbling state for myriads of years&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;■■4. Prajapati Daksha also appeared many times in different kalpa and yuga and universes.  In Yogvasistha Bhusundi tells he went to see Daksh yagya twice but as the result were same in both time he didnt went to see from next time.. &#xA;(&lt;strong&gt;source chapter 21 of Maharamayan&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in tantra Mahadev being asked by Parvati about skull he was wearing he tells it was her skull in previous yugas and creations. And so events are repeatef &lt;strong&gt;source aagam doctrines&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;■■5. It is so because same story happens by a little bit different way when it is repeated in yugas and kalpas... The story are of different time lines... for eg. See the way of birth of Vasistha in different yugas..&#xA; Chapter 21 Maharamayan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O sagely son of Brahma, I remember your eight births in the eight different epochs of the world. This &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  is your eighth birth in which you have come as a guest to my nest. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  9 At one time you were born of air, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and at another of heavenly fire. One time you were produced from water, and at others from emptiness &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and of solid rock.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5486" LastEditDate="2016-04-30T13:05:28.993" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T13:05:28.993" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11146" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9049" CreationDate="2016-03-25T07:44:56.190" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;My answer is based on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/lingapurana-2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Linga Purana.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rishabha is an incarnation of Lord Shiva and he is one of the 28 similar incarnations of the Lord who are known as Yogeswaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva incarnates as a Yogeswara in each Kali Yuga to teach  &quot;Pasupatha Yoga&quot; to the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from the above link:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sages told Lomaharshana, “Please tell us about yoga.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lomaharshana complied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Yoga literally means union. It is a technique of meditation that&#xA;  enables one to realize the union between the divine soul (paramatman)&#xA;  and the individual human soul (atman or jivatman).)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva is also known as Pashupati. The technique of yoga that Shiva&#xA;  taught is known as pashupata yoga. To teach this yoga, Shiva has an&#xA;  incarnation (avatara) in every kali yuga. In the present kalpa, there&#xA;  have been twenty-eight kali yugas and there have accordingly been&#xA;  twenty-eight incarnations of Shiva, all known as Yogeshvaras. Their&#xA;  names are as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(1) Shveta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(2) Sutara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(3) Madana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(4) Suhotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(5) Kanchana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(6) Lokakshi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(7) Jaigishavya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(8) Dadhivahana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(9) Rishabha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(10) Muni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(11) Ugra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(12) Atri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(13) Vali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(14) Goutama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(15) Vedashirsha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(16) Gokarna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(17) Guhavasi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(18) Shikhandabhrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(19) Jatamali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(20) Attahasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(21) Daruka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(22) Langali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(23) Mahakaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(24) Shuli.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(25) Mundishvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(26) Sahishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(27) Somasharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(28) Jagadguru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Every one of these Yogeshvarasas had four disciples each.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In fact, it is also Shiva whose incarnation is born as Vedavyasa in&#xA;  every dvapara yuga. Since there have been twenty-eight dvapra yugas,&#xA;  there have also been twenty-eight Vedavyasas upto now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this last bit of information is not relevant to the current question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-25T08:31:38.327" LastActivityDate="2016-03-25T08:31:38.327" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11147" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11144" CreationDate="2016-03-25T07:53:01.580" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lets leave Ramayan... people are confused about 24th Treta and recent Treta in this matter...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if we go in the Mahabharat... Planetary configuration calculation gives the date 5 thousand years ago ... And by common sense Ramayan happened before that.. This date is sufficient to make it oldest religion in the world... In Valmiki Ramayan every 1st letter of 1000th verse forms Gayatri mantra which is of Rig Veda.. Which means there was Rig Veda at that time also...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People also talk about presence of Saraswati river in Rig Veda, other other like finding of archaeological sites, finding Dwarka, genetics, tribes story, etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But for me astronomical dating of whole Mahabharat book is sufficient to make it oldest religion in the world as such huge astronomical combination can not be merely imagined and written....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-03-25T07:53:01.580" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11148" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-25T10:51:00.167" Score="6" ViewCount="1317" Body="&lt;p&gt;If I want to start reading the Bhagavad Gita. What rules, if any, that I need to follow before I start reading? For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do I need to perform any religious rituals before reading the Gita?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can I read/recite it at any time? Or are some portions of the day prohibited for recital?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can I read it anywhere I want to i.e., is the place where I recite the Gita also important?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5156" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-25T19:56:23.220" LastActivityDate="2016-03-25T19:56:23.220" Title="Any rules that I need to follow if I want to read the Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|gods|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|life|superstitions|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2016-04-13T10:14:08.190" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11149" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13596" CreationDate="2016-03-25T12:47:21.200" Score="17" ViewCount="6597" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently I came across one of the key quote, which sums up Adi ShankarAchArya's &lt;em&gt;Advaita&lt;/em&gt; philosophy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahman of the Upanishads is the only Reality, and everything else—this world of manifoldness—is &lt;strong&gt;unreal&lt;/strong&gt;, is a mere appearance; the individual soul (Jiva) is identical with Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above is taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62758.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutra, Adhyasa&lt;/a&gt;. Similar translation is also found in wikipedia article &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta#Moksha_-_liberation&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Advaita Vedanta &gt; Moksha - liberation&lt;/a&gt; by western scholars (marginally better). Then I saw the Sanskrit text:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;ब्रह्म सत्यं जगत् मिथ्या, जीवो ब्रह्मैव नापरः |&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can trivially translate it to:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;BrahM&lt;/em&gt; is truth, the universe is unworthy(useless); Certainly &lt;em&gt;Jiva&lt;/em&gt;s are not different from &lt;em&gt;BrahM&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's assume &quot;BrahM&quot; is another name of &quot;Brahman&quot; (with or without Upanishada), which is the supreme One. Actually there is slight difference between &quot;not different&quot; and &quot;identical&quot;, but let's skip it for now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is with below 2 terms:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सत्यं / Satya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Does it mean &quot;real&quot; or &quot;truth&quot;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मिथ्या / Mithya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Does it mean &quot;unreal&quot; or &quot;unworthy&quot;?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Often we use term &lt;em&gt;MithyAchAra&lt;/em&gt; for &quot;useless practices&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The motive behind this Q is that, there is sharp difference between &quot;unworthy&quot; and &quot;unreal&quot;. The term &quot;unworthy&quot; depicts something &quot;useless&quot;, but still real. While &quot;unreal&quot; is plain &quot;non-existent&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: It confuses novices (like me) who may think that how can world be unreal! For the matter of argument, we are learning that &quot;world is unreal&quot; from this &quot;unreal world&quot; only, won't it paradoxically make the statement &lt;em&gt;&quot;world is unreal&quot;&lt;/em&gt; also unreal?&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-08T14:53:05.647" LastActivityDate="2016-07-04T10:45:53.423" Title="According to ShankarAchArya in Advaita, is the universe &quot;unreal&quot; or &quot;unworthy&quot;?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|advaita|sanskrit|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11150" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7767" CreationDate="2016-03-25T14:38:39.893" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Your above information is partly wrong. Tulsidas Ramcharitmanas was not direct word of Hanuman . Tulsidas got darshan of Hanuman guided by a Pretatama and by the guide of Hanuman he received vision of Shri Ram and Lakshman. He then decided to write Ramayan. First he wanted to write in Sanskrit but after Lord Shivas vision in dream to write in local language and then he started to write in Avadhi, that which was given by his Guru when at the time of giving he wasnt fully conscious and intellectual to grasp story of Lord Rama....&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva in Bhavisya Purana says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;  &lt;strong&gt;वाल्मिकी तुलसीदास कलौ देवी भविष्यती ।&#xA;   रामचन्द्र कथामेतां भाषाबद्धां करिष्यती&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning Valmiki shall incarnate as Tulsidas in Kaliyuga Devi. He will write the story of Ramchandra in local language. Valmiki's partial incarnation may have taken place in Kali yuga remaining the major form in Satya Loka...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ramcharitmanas is the story of Lord Ram in the mind of Lord Shiva and Lord Shiva telling it to Goddess Parvati, the same story being told by Yajnavalkya to Bhardwaja and also the same story told by Kakbhusundi to Garuda..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulsidas when completed Ramcharitmanas was ridiculed and not accepted as religious scripture by the so-called Sanskrit Brahmin at that time... For its test it was kept in Kashi Temple below 4 vedas and 18 Purans.. The doors were locked and when opened in the morning Ramcharitmanas was found on top with the Lord Shiva's signature as &quot;Satyam Shivam Sundaram&quot;. And then Ramcharitmanas was widely recognized and Akbar financially supported Tulsidas to print it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayan portrays Ram in a human form without omniscience. But Ramcharitmanas portrays Ram as supreme omniscient Brahman displaying human nature as a part of Leela.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parshuram comes after Sita's marriage while returning in Valmiki Ramayan. In Ramcharitmanas Parashuram entered immediately after Swyambara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramcharitmanas mentions about Rameshwaram Shiva Linga in great detail.&#xA;Valmiki Ramayan only hints about it in Lanka Kanda while Ram was returning in Pushpak he told Sita it was the place where Mahadev graced upon him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uttar Kanda of Valmiki Ramayan mentions about Ram abandoning Sita, Sita giving birth to twins in Valmiki ashram and other stories widely believed as interpolation. Uttarkanda of Ramcharitmanas is of Gudh Rahasya. It accounts for various secret Leela and Advaita theory. It doesn't mention about Sita abandoning and other..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayan doesn't mention about illusionary Sita ie.Maya Sita. As per Ramcharitmanas omniscient Ram already knowing about abduction made a Maya sita and kept Original Sita in Agni and that maya Sita was abducted by Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ramcharitmanas mentions other stories like Shiva chanting Ram Naam , Sati testing Ram , Ganesh revolving inside Ram Naam, Shiva telling Raam 3 times is equivalent to Vishnu sahasranaam.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Uttar kanda it mentions a secret story about Kakbhusundi entering in mouth of child Ram and seeing multiple of universes in Rams abdomen with many Shiva Brahma Vishnu in each universe with different Ayodha Saryu ;different Bharat Lakshman and creatures in each universe and incarnation of lord Ram in those universes. &#xA;(    &lt;strong&gt;प्रति ब्रह्मान्ड राम अवतारा ।&#xA;      देखहुॅ बालविनोद  अपारा&lt;/strong&gt; ।।)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Full text goes like this;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I saw there all such marvels as I had never seen or heard of before and such as&#xA;  could not be conceived even by the mind; how, then, can I describe them? I stayed a&#xA;  full hundred year in each of those universes and in this manner I went round and beheld&#xA;  multitudinous universes having the shape of an egg. Each universe had its own Brahmå (Creator), its own Vishnu (Preserver), ›Shiva&#xA;  (Destroyer), Manu (lord of creation presiding over a single Manvantara, consisting of a&#xA;  little more than 74 rounds of the four Yugas), regents of the quarters, human beings,Gandharvas (celestial musicians), spectres and goblins, Ki≈naras (another class of&#xA;  heavenly musicians having a human figure with the head of a horse), Råk¶asas (giants),&#xA;  quadrupeds, birds, serpents, gods and demons of all classes, all the creatures having&#xA;  a shape peculiar to that universe. The earth with its multitudinous rivers, oceans, lakes&#xA;  and mountains, nay, the entire creation in each universe had a distinctive character. In&#xA;  all these universes I saw myself in every &#xA;  universe. Each universe had its own Ayodhyå with its own Sarayµu and its own men&#xA;  and women. And listen, dear Garuda : Ramas parents Dasaratha and Kausalya&#xA;  as well as ›Råmas brothers, Bharata and others, were all different in each universe.&#xA;  In each such universe I witnessed the descent of Råma as well as the infinite variety&#xA;  of His childish sports.&lt;/strong&gt; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although Ramcharitmanas says Ram as the supreme Brahmn unlike other Vaishnav texts written by other in the similar era ( 15 16th century) which depicts only Shiva as only Tamasic and low,  Ramcharitmanas gives a great respect to Lord Shiva. Several invocations of lord Shiva are done in the starting of various kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ram in Yuddha kanda says::::&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;&quot; शड़्कर विमुख भगती चाह मोरी।&#xA;   सो नारकी मूढ मति थोरी ।। &quot; &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;He who is opposed to&#xA;Sankara and yet aspires for devotion to Me, is doomed to perdition, stupid and dull-witted&#xA;as he is.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A uniqueness of Valmiki Ramayan is that every 1st letter of 1000th sloka of 24000 verses form Gayatri mantra thus forming Gayatri mantra.. A uniqueness of Ramcharitmanas is that every sentence of it contains at least one letter स त र म representing Sita Ram....&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;While reading the middle 5 kandas of Valmiki Ramayan you are confused that whether you are reading story of Lords incarnation or story of a mere prince of Ayodhya.. But every shloka of Ramcharitmanas depicts Ram as Brahmn.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramcharitmanas contains many stories of many Puran and identify supreme Brahmn as Ram. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Western commentars have told Ramcharitmanas as &quot; living sum of indian culture&quot;  ,  &quot;bible of india&quot;  etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The most important aboutRamcharitmanas is that contains the theory of karma, reincarnation, advaita vedanta ,brahmn, jeeva, maya, ishwara etc. terms in Laymans Language...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2018-10-21T12:09:20.983" LastActivityDate="2018-10-21T12:09:20.983" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11152" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11153" CreationDate="2016-03-26T08:41:31.133" Score="8" ViewCount="6180" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omkareshwar#Legends%20and%20history&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt; about &lt;strong&gt;Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga&lt;/strong&gt;. Before I knew this one is called &lt;strong&gt;Omkareshwar&lt;/strong&gt;, But when I read in wiki, they call it &lt;strong&gt;Mamleshwar&lt;/strong&gt;. I got confused. Can anyone give insight on it? Thank you. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="647" LastActivityDate="2020-08-07T02:42:29.623" Title="Which one is a Jyotirlinga &quot;Omkareshwar&quot; or &quot;Mamleshwar&quot;" Tags="|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11153" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11152" CreationDate="2016-03-26T09:05:45.790" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Omkareswara is the 4th one among the total 12 Jyotirlingams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is situated in Shivapuri or Mamaleswara, a place in Madhya Pradesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer to the &quot;Dwadasa Jyotirlinga Stotram&quot; found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Dwadasa_Jyothir_Linga_Stotram&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sourashtre Somanadham, cha Sri Shaile Mallikarjunam, Ujjayinyam Maha&#xA;  Kalam, &lt;strong&gt;Omkara Mamaleshwaram&lt;/strong&gt;, Paralyam Vaidyanatham, cha Dakinyam&#xA;  Bhimasankaram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning of the words in bold:&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;In Mamaleswara the Jyotirlinga is called Omkara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,both &quot;Omkareswara&quot; and &quot;Mamaleswara&quot; refer to the same Jyotirlingam with Mamaleswara referring to the place where the Jyotirlinaga is situated and Omkareswara to the name or the form of the Lingam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also refer to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/12jyotirlingas.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page ,where the name of the 12 Jyotirlingams are given in bold:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Dwadasa Jyotirlinga Stotra Saurashtre &lt;strong&gt;Somanaatham&lt;/strong&gt; Cha Sree Shaile&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Mallikarjunam&lt;/strong&gt; Ujjayinyaam &lt;strong&gt;Mahaakaalam&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Omkaare&lt;/strong&gt; Mamaleswaram Himalaye to&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Kedaram&lt;/strong&gt; Daakinyaam &lt;strong&gt;Bhimashankaram&lt;/strong&gt; Vaaranaasyaam cha &lt;strong&gt;Viswesam&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Trayambakam&lt;/strong&gt; Gowtameethate Paralyaam &lt;strong&gt;Vaidyanaatham&lt;/strong&gt; cha &lt;strong&gt;Naagesam&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Daarukaavane Setubandhe &lt;strong&gt;Ramesham&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Grushnesam&lt;/strong&gt; cha Shivaalaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit-&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA; I'm adding yet another source which says exactly the opposite of what is being said in the above.It says Omkara is the place where the Jyotirlingam is situated and the Lingam is called Amareswara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a stotram composed by Nandi(the Bull) and is found in the Shiva Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/shivapuranam22.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page,the following is the description of the 12 Jyotirlingams as given by Nandi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kedaro Himavatprushthe Daakinyaam Bhimasankarah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaaranaasyam cha Viswestriumbako Gautami thatey&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saurashtrey Sommanathasva Srisaile Mallikarjunah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ujjainyam Maha Kala &lt;strong&gt;Omkare cha Amaresvarah&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaidyanathaaschitha bhumo Nagesho Daarukaananey&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sethu bandhe cha Ramesho Ghrusneswara Siva lingo&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Avatara Dvadasakamethchhambhoh Paramatmana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nandiswara described the Most Celebrated Twelve Jyotirlingas of Maha&#xA;  Deva as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kedarnath in Himalayas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhima Sankar in Dakinya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Viswesvara in Varanasi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Triambaka on the banks of River Gautami&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Somnatha in Saurashtra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mallikarjuna in Sri Sailam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maha Kala in Ujjain&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Amareswara at Omkara&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaidyanatha in Chitha Bhumi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nagesa at Daruka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rameswara at Setu Bandhana, and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ghrishneswara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also if you see the images of the 12 Jyotirlingams in the above page then you will find  that the fourth Jyotirlingam there is mentioned collectively as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Omakaramamaleswara,Sri Amalaeswara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, both of them can't be a Jyotirlingam each because there are only 12 of them &amp;amp; not 13.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,both taken together constitutes one Jyotirlingam.This is the most rational and acceptable answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T06:19:10.553" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T06:19:10.553" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11155" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8242" CreationDate="2016-03-26T15:19:25.010" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is one of the most misinterpreted verses of Ramcharitmanas. Tulsidas had no intention of showing women low by citing this verse.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have to see the context of the verse:&#xA;This verse isn't told by Ram or Tulsidas himself. This was told by &amp;quot;sea god&amp;quot; in fearful state begging his life. He can tell anything in life saving condition. Furthermore here he is shown as a villain. Ram tells him &lt;strong&gt;idiot&lt;/strong&gt;. Kakbhusundi tells him &lt;strong&gt;नीच&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; . So there is no importance of citing this verse. One can't condemn the writer of a film by citing the verse of antagonist, this case is similar.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This happens in Sundara kanda of Ramcharitmanas as following:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विनय न मानत जलधि जड़ गए तीनि दिन बीती।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;बोले राम सकोप तब भय बिनु होई न प्रीति ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Three days had elapsed, the &lt;strong&gt;crass&lt;/strong&gt; ocean would not answer the Lords prayer. Råma thereupon indignantly said&#xA;  &amp;quot;There can be no love without&#xA;  inspiring fear.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लछिमन बान सरासन आनू । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोषों बारिधि बिसिख कृसानू।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;सठ सन बिनय कुटिल सन प्रीती&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;सहज कृपन सन सुंदर नीती&lt;/strong&gt;।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ममता रत सन ग्यान कहानी। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अति लोभी सन बिरति बखानी।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;क्रोधिहि सम कामिहि हरि कथा&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ऊसर बीज बएं फल जथा।। २&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;अस कहि रघुपति चाप चढावा । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यह मत लछिमन के मन भावा।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;संधानेउ प्रभु बिसिख कराला । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उठी उदधि उर अंतर ज्वाला।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मकर उरग झष गन अकुलाने । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जात जंतु जलनिधि जब जाने ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;कनक आर भरि मनि गन नाना । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;बिप्र रूप धरी आयउ तजि माना&lt;/strong&gt;।। ४ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lakshmana, bring Me My bow and arrows; I may as well dry up the ocean with a missile presided over by the god of  fire. &lt;strong&gt;Supplication before an idiot&lt;/strong&gt; , friendship with a rogue, inculcating liberality  on a born miser, talking wisdom to one steeped&#xA;   in worldliness, glorifying dispassion before a man of excessive greed, a lecture on&#xA;   mindcontrol to an irascible man and a discourse on the exploits of Hari to a libidinous person are &lt;strong&gt;as futile as sowing seeds in a barren land.&lt;/strong&gt; So saying, the &#xA;  Lord of theRaghus strung His bow and this stand (of the Lord) delighted Lakshmans &#xA;  heart. When the Lord fitted the terrible arrow to His bow, a blazing fire broke out in the &#xA;  heart of the ocean; the alligators, serpents and fishes felt distressed. When the god presiding over the ocean found the creatures burning, he gave up his pride and,&#xA;  assuming the form of a Brahmana, came with a gold plate filled with all kinds.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  काटेहिं पइ कदरी फरइ कोटि जतन कोउ सींच।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बिनय न मान खगेस सुनु डाटेहिं पइ&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;नव नीच&lt;/strong&gt; ।। ५८ ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Though one may take infinite pains in watering a plantain it will not bear fruit unless it is hewed. Similarly, mark me, O king of birds, (continues Kakbhusundi) a &lt;strong&gt;vile fellow&lt;/strong&gt; heeds no prayer but yields only when reprimanded.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सभय सिंधु गहि पद प्रभु केरे । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  छमहु नाश सब अवगुन मेरे।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गगन समीर अनल जल धरनी । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इन्ह कइ नाथ सहज जड़ करनी।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तब प्रेरित मायाॅ उपजाए। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सृष्टि हेतु सब ग्रंथनि गाए।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रभु आयसु जेहि कहं अस कहई । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सो तेहि भाॅति रहें सुख लहई।। २ ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रभु भल कीन्ह मोहि सिख दीन्ही।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;मरजादा पुनि तुम्हरी कीन्ही।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;ढोल गवांर सूद्र पसु नारी ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;सकल ताड़ना के अधिकारी।। ३ ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;प्रभु प्रताप मैं जाब सुखाई ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;उर्तारेहि कटकु न मोरि बडाई।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;प्रभु अग्या अपेल श्रुति गाईं । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  करौं सो बेगि जो तुम्हहि सोहाई।। ४।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The god presiding over the ocean clasped the Lordís feet in dismay. Forgive, my lord, all my faults. Ether, air, fire, water and earth all these, my lord, are inert by nature. It &#xA;  is Måyå (Cosmic Nature) which brought them forth for the purpose of creation under an inspiration from You; so declare all the scriptures. One would attain happiness in life only by remaining where he has been placed by the Lord. My Lord has done well in giving me a lesson; but You have fixed certain innate treat for everyone. &lt;strong&gt;A drum, a rustic, a sudra, a beast and a woman all these deserve instructions.&lt;/strong&gt; ll be dried up &#xA;  and the army will cross over; but this will bring no credit to me. Your command, however is inviolable; thus declare the Vedas, I shall do at once what pleases You.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further the verse can be taken as positively also :&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ढोल गवाॅर =&amp;nbsp; ignorant who is like dhol (without intellect)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;nbsp; सूद्र पशु नारी = women with low animal character&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Similarly there are other dialogues too spoken by others. In Chaupai of 4th Doha of Aryanya kanda Anusuya tells Sita&amp;nbsp; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धीरज धरम मित्र अरु नारी&amp;nbsp; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;आपद काल परखिये चारी ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp; Patience, Religion, Friend and Women are tested in difficult times.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; Here 'women' are compared with 'religion', 'friend', i.e. with good qualities.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence these are all due to the context or person who is telling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-02-26T00:45:32.937" LastActivityDate="2019-02-26T00:45:32.937" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11156" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10061" CreationDate="2016-03-26T17:57:45.383" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Daksha's Yajna, Devi Sati's demise is quite well known.&#xA;When Lord Shiva received the news of Sati's demise he was furious and he created out of himself a terrifying demon called &quot;Virabhadra&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Virabhadra did defeat Lord Vishnu and his powerful weapon, the Sudarshana Chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting the relevant portions from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/kurmapurana-6.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Virabhadra had a thousand heads, a thousand feet, a thousand eyes and&#xA;  a thousand arms. His body shone with radiance like the sun at the time&#xA;  of destruction. The thousand arms held all sorts of weapons in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“What are my orders?” Virabhadra asked Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Go and destroy Daksha’s yajna,” was the reply.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Virabhadra ascended a bull and set out for Daksha’s house. He created&#xA;  thousands and thousands of demons who would aid him in the task of&#xA;  destruction. These demons were armed with spears, tridents, maces,&#xA;  clubs and stones. Parvati also created a goddess named Bhadrakali who&#xA;  would help Virabhadra.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu himself came to intervene and Virabhadra began to fight with&#xA;  Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu has a wonderful weapon named sudarshana chakra (a&#xA;  bladed-discuss) and he hurled this at Virabhadra. &lt;strong&gt;But Virabhadra&#xA;  easily repelled this weapon with his arrows. Vishnu is carried by&#xA;  Garuda, king of the birds. Garuda attacked Virabhadra, but so fierce&#xA;  was Virabhadra, that Garuda had to flee. The entire universe marvelled&#xA;  to see that Virabhadra could thus vanquish Vishnu and Garuda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,this incident records one failure of the Sudarsana Chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;- Adding yet another incident where Vishnu's weapons (including the Sudarshana Chakra) failed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This incident is mentioned in the Linga Purana where &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rishi Dadhichi proves the superiority of Shiva-Shakti to king Ksupa&lt;/a&gt;. You should read the whole story from the above link. I'm quoting below only the relevant portions from that page.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma’s son King Kshupa and Maha Muni Dadhichi the son of Maharshi&#xA;  Chyavana were good friends but got entangled in an argument whether&#xA;  Kshatriyas were superior to Brahmanas......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Dadhici accomplished indestructibility of his bones thanks to his &#xA;  exemplary devotion to Parama Shiva, the Muni retaliated King Kshupa&#xA;  and hit him hard when the latter remembered Vishnu and prayed to him&#xA;  very sincerely:....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Bhagavan appeared before the King who was a life -long Bhakta of&#xA;  his, the King narrated the entire background as to how he was insulted&#xA;  and humbled and requested Vishnu  that Dadhichi the invincible due to&#xA;  his devotion to Shiva had turned arrogant and hence must be taught a&#xA;  lesson. Vishnu assumed the form of a Brahmana and sought a boon from&#xA;  Dadhichi, the Shiva Bhakta. As Dadhichi had the powers of recognition,&#xA;  he recognised Vishnu and a smiling Vishnu complimented the Muni and&#xA;  stated &lt;strong&gt;that since the Muni was a Shiva Bhakta he should be afraid of&#xA;  nothing including Vishnu.&lt;/strong&gt; As Dadhichi asserted so and even&#xA;  belittlled Vishnu; &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu grew angry&lt;/strong&gt; with the brazen and bold&#xA;  behaviour of the Muni, &lt;strong&gt;and got ready to fight&lt;/strong&gt;; &lt;strong&gt;as Vishnu readied&#xA;  to instruct his Sudashana Chakra, Dadhichi joked that Shiva gifted the&#xA;  Chakra and thus would not hurt a Shiva Bhakta and similarly Brahmastra&#xA;  would not work anyway. Vishnu got furious and tried various other&#xA;  Astra-Shastras but Dadhichi used Kusha grass tops and the Vishnu’s&#xA;  Astras proved ineffective.&lt;/strong&gt; As a final resort Vishnu spread  his Maya&#xA;  and created crores of his own Swarupas, crores of Devas and of Munis.&#xA;  Dadhichi shouted on Vishnu, ‘Lord! Please do not utilise your old&#xA;  tricks of Vishnu Maya on me but instead look at me as Parama Shiva in&#xA;  whose body you could vision every body including yourself and the&#xA;  entire ‘Brahmanda’. As Dadhichi said so, Devatas got frightened and&#xA;  flew away and Vishnu became still and motionless! Dadhichi then cursed&#xA;  Devas for their deeds against him and forewarned them that at the time&#xA;  of Daksha Yagna in the future, Rudra Deva would teach a lesson to all&#xA;  including Vishnu! As the Maharshi said this and returned to his&#xA;  ‘Ashram’, everybody including Brahma and Devas, let alone the King&#xA;  Kshupa  followed him and paid respects to him and that Place came to&#xA;  be famed as Sthaaneshwara there after.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-30T14:57:43.877" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T14:57:43.877" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11157" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="523" CreationDate="2016-03-26T21:30:04.827" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Even though there is already an accepted answer to this question (which I don't agree with), I would like to point out the fact, that scientifically speaking, already the term &quot;Hinduism&quot; is much more complex than &quot;Christianity&quot; or &quot;Islam&quot;, which of course also renders the dating business much more difficult. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While some people identify the two, scientists of religion generally differentiate between the Vedic religion of sacrifice and &quot;classical Hinduism&quot;. So depending on what you are talking about, also the answer varies. If we identify the two, then @Vineet Menon is perfectly right to let the history of Hinduism start with the oldest parts of the Rigveda (not earlier than 1500 BC). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we don't, then we can let &quot;classical Hinduism&quot; start for example with the rise of the 6 orthodox systems of philosophy, in all probability essentially as a reaction to the philosophical and numerical winning of ground of Buddhism. We can date this somewhere between 200 BCE and 200 CE (here we can expand the discussion limitlessly). Even in this case, the Vedic Religion, though not identical with Hinduism, remains its ancestor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion: it is very much a question of how we define &quot;Hinduism&quot;. Since we don't have a single (historical) founder of the religion and no clear cut starting date, this is open to debate (and personal liking). To give an example: Some (many?) Hindus regard Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu and therefore Buddhists as Hindus. Most (all?) Buddhists would disagree. Same holds true, to a lesser extent, with Jesus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4702" LastActivityDate="2016-03-26T21:30:04.827" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11158" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-26T22:49:42.223" Score="8" ViewCount="2204" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15075.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the sage Yagnavalkya tells his disciple king Janaka about the levels of bliss among beings in different Lokas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now a hundred of these human blessings make one blessing of the fathers who have conquered the world (of the fathers). A hundred blessings of the fathers who have conquered this world make one blessing in the Gandharva world. A hundred blessings in the Gandharva world make one blessing of the Devas by merit (work, sacrifice), who obtain their godhead by merit. A hundred blessings of the Devas by merit make one blessing of the Devas by birth, also (of) a Srotriya who is without sin, and not overcome by desire. A hundred blessings of the Devas by birth make one blessing in the world of Pragâpati, also (of) a Srotriya who is without sin, and not overcome. by desire. A hundred blessings in the world of Pragâpati make one blessing in the world of Brahman, also (of) a Srotriya who is without sin, and not overcome by desire. And this is the highest blessing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc120049.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Advaitin Acharya Adi Shankarachrya says about this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This human joy multiplied a hundred times makes one unit of joy for the Manes. They are qualified by the clause ‘who have won that world of theirs,’ i.e. who have pleased the Manes by the performance of obsequial rites etc., and have won their way to their world. Their measure of joy is the human joy multiplied a hundred times. That again multiplied a hundred times makes one unit of joy in the world of the celestial minstrels. That again multiplied a hundred times makes one unit of joy for the gods by action—those who attain their godhead by their actions such as the Agnihotra enjoined by the Śrutis. Similarly one unit of joy for the gods by birth, those who are gods from their very birth, as well as of one who is versed in the Vedas, sinless, i.e. doing what is prescribed by the scriptures, and free from desire for all objects below the level of the gods by birth. That his joy equals theirs is gathered from the word ‘ca’ (and) in the text. &lt;strong&gt;That multiplied a hundred times makes one unit of joy in the world of Prajāpati, i.e. in the body of Virāj, as well as of one who is versed in the Vedas, sinless and free from desire—this has already been explained—and who meditates on him. That multiplied a hundred times makes one unit of joy in the world of Brahman, i.e. in the body of Hiraṇyagarbha, as well as of one who, etc.—already explained. After this mathematical calculations cease.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is as good an opportunity as any to clarify some pieces of Advaita terminology I'm somewhat confused about.  My question is, who are Viraj and Hiranyagarbha in Advaita terminology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By default one might assume that Hiranyagarbha refers to the god Brahma, husband of Saraswati, because Brahma was born from a golden seed or Hiranya Garbha.  But I get the sense that this is not how Advaitins use these terms.  Here is how I think they use these terms:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Viraj = Karya Brahman = Brahma husband of Saraswati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hiranyagarbha = Karana Brahman = Saguna Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karana Brahman refers to Saguna Brahman being the eternal reflection of Nirguna Brahman in the world of Avidya (according to Advaita), and being the cause of the material world.  Karya Brahman refers to the fact that Brahma is a created being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, is my understanding of Advaita terminology correct?  One thing that militates against my understanding is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saguna_brahman#Yoga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hiranyagarbha, the collection of deities in the Hindu pantheon of gods, is not saguna brahman as popularly misconstrued. Sankara clearly says that hiranyagarbha is called brahman only because of nearness to brahman. After many millions of years, the devotees who reach the worlds of gods (hiranyagarbha), will reach the state of vishnu. This is called advaita siddhi and this state can be reached here and now by one who is free from all desires and blessed by the lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia seems to be saying that Hiranyagarbha just refers to Saraswati's husband Brahma in Advaita terminology, but I think that's wrong.  I think that's just a confusion due to the fact that as I said above Brahma is often called Hiranyagarbha due to the that he was born from an egg.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any Advaita works that clarify this terminology?  By the way, I should mention that at least according to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I am a member), Saguna Brahman is considered supreme and he's equated with Para Vasudeva or the highest Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-01T21:45:53.753" Title="What is the relation between Viraj, Hiranyagarbha, Brahma, and Saguna Brahman in Advaita terminology?" Tags="|philosophy|brahma|vedanta|brahman|advaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11159" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-27T01:43:54.843" Score="19" ViewCount="1229" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the hundredth doha of the Balakanda of Ramcharitmanas it is mentioned that Ganapaty was worshipped during the marriage of Shiva &amp;amp; Parvati.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मुनी अनुसासन गनपतिहि पूजेउ संभु भवानी ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कोउ सुनी संसय करै जानी सुर अनादि जिए जानी ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot; At the direction of the sages Sambhu and &gt; Bhavani paid divine honours to Lord &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ganapati. Let no one be puzzled to hear &#xA;  this; for one should bear in mind that gods have &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  existed from time without beginning.&quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in Shiva Purana 2.109&lt;br&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once Narada had a desire to listen to the &#xA;  tales of Ganesha. Brahmaji replied- &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;There were various Ganeshas in &#xA;  different Kalpas. During the period of &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;apos;Shweta-Kalp&amp;apos;, Ganesha was &#xA;  born to Shiva and Parvati, when they went &gt; to &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kailash mountain shortly after their &#xA;  marriage.&lt;br&gt; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;■ 1) Are there  any other scriptures which mention about  this incident  ?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;■ 2) What is meant by &amp;quot;In Shweta kalpa Ganesh was born to Shiva and Parvati &amp;quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Are there mentions of Ganesha being born to some other parents during any other Kalpas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T07:10:39.427" LastActivityDate="2021-03-09T19:41:19.153" Title="Which scriptures other than the Ramcharitmanas mention that during Shiva Parvati marriage ceremony Ganapaty was worshipped?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|ganesha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11163" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-27T12:00:08.710" Score="3" ViewCount="611" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna, the son of Devaki and Vasudeva, is brought up in Gokula, and later Vrindavana, as the son of Nanda and Yashoda. Later Akrura, a Vrishni, comes and reveals to Yashoda and Nanda (and the rest of Vrindavana) that Krsna is actually the son of Devaki and Vasudeva, a Yadava Prince destined to end Kamsa's reign. This is generally visualized as a highly emotional scene, where many gopis are distraught and lamenting their fate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But just a few days (or weeks) before, during the Rasa Leela, they sing the Gopika Gita, a gem of a prayer. In this prayer, which you can &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;read here&lt;/a&gt;, the gopikas sing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na Khalu Gopikanandano Bhavan Akhiladehinam Antaratma Drk &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vikhanasarthito Vishvaguptaye, Sakha Udeyivaan Satvatam Kule&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&quot;You are not actually the son of the gopī Yaśodā, O friend, but rather the indwelling witness in the hearts of all embodied souls. Because Lord Brahmā prayed for You to come and protect the universe, You have now appeared in the Sātvata dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earlier too, in the song known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Venu Gita&lt;/a&gt;, they say,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vrndavanam Sakhi Bhuvo vVtanoti Kirtim&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yad &lt;strong&gt;Devaki Suta&lt;/strong&gt; Padambuja Labdha Lakshmih&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O friend, Vṛndāvana is spreading the glory of the earth, having obtained the treasure of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, the son of Devakī.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, how do the gopikas know beforehand that Krsna is a son of Devaki and Vasudeva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T06:33:44.390" LastActivityDate="2018-11-20T07:41:28.807" Title="How do the Gopikas know that Krishna is Devaki and Vasudeva's son?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|yashoda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11164" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-27T14:51:45.220" Score="6" ViewCount="2487" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;24th Chapter of the 9th Canto&lt;/a&gt; of Srimad Bhagavatam, as well as the &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/hv_1_35.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;35th Chapter of the Harivamsa Parva&lt;/a&gt; of the Harivamsa, speak about the Yadava dynasty till Krsna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in these two chapters, the sons of Shurasena are described. They are Vasudeva, Devabhāga, Devaśravā, Ānaka, Sṛñjaya, Śyāmaka, Kaṅka, Śamīka, Vatsaka and Vṛka. Apart from them, Vasudeva has five sisters: Pṛthā, Śrutadevā, Śrutakīrti, Śrutaśravā and Rājādhidevī. These 10 brothers and 5 sisters married (obviously) and had children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vasudeva, according to Srimad Bhagavatam married Devakī, Pauravī, Rohiṇī, Bhadrā, Madirā, Rocanā, Ilā and others (who include Devaki's sisters Śāntidevā, Upadevā, Śrīdevā, Devarakṣitā, Sahadevā, and Dhṛtadevā).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, Harivamsa gives a list of 14 wives: Rohini, Indira, Vaishakhi, Bhadra, Sunamni, Sahadeva, Shantideva. Srideva, Devaki, Vrikadevi, Devarakshita, Upadevi, Sutanu and Badava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since these lists have a few common names, let us assume that each wife had two names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now both the sources list out Vasudeva's children. Since the Harivamsa account is a bit different, I quote only the Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.24.46 — Vasudeva, by the womb of his wife Rohiṇī, begot sons such as Bala, Gada, Sāraṇa, Durmada, Vipula, Dhruva, Kṛta and others.&#xA;  SB 9.24.47-48 — From the womb of Pauravī came twelve sons, including Bhūta, Subhadra, Bhadrabāhu, Durmada and Bhadra. Nanda, Upananda, Kṛtaka, Śūra and others were born from the womb of Madirā. Bhadrā [Kauśalyā] gave birth to only one son, named Keśī.&#xA;  SB 9.24.49 — Vasudeva, by another of his wives, whose name was Rocanā, begot Hasta, Hemāṅgada and other sons. And by his wife named Ilā he begot sons headed by Uruvalka, all of whom were chief personalities in the dynasty of Yadu.&#xA;  SB 9.24.50 — From the womb of Dhṛtadevā, one of the wives of Ānakadundubhi [Vasudeva], came a son named Vipṛṣṭha. The sons of Śāntidevā, another wife of Vasudeva, were Praśama, Prasita and others.&#xA;  SB 9.24.51 — Vasudeva also had a wife named Upadevā, from whom came ten sons, headed by Rājanya, Kalpa and Varṣa. From Śrīdevā, another wife, came six sons, such as Vasu, Haṁsa and Suvaṁśa.&#xA;  SB 9.24.52 — By the semen of Vasudeva in the womb of Devarakṣitā, nine sons were born, headed by Gadā. Vasudeva, who was religion personified, also had a wife named Sahadevā, by whose womb he begot eight sons, headed by Śruta and Pravara.&#xA;  SB 9.24.53-55 — The eight sons born of Sahadevā such as Pravara and Śruta, were exact incarnations of the eight Vasus in the heavenly planets. Vasudeva also begot eight highly qualified sons through the womb of Devakī. These included Kīrtimān, Suṣeṇa, Bhadrasena, Ṛju, Sammardana, Bhadra and Saṅkarṣaṇa, the controller and serpent incarnation. The eighth son was the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself — Kṛṣṇa. The highly fortunate Subhadrā, the one daughter, was your grandmother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, according to Srimad Bhagavatam, Vasudeva had all these children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet, in something called &lt;strong&gt;Tenth Canto&lt;/strong&gt; of a scripture called &lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt;, none of these wives or their children appear on the scene. In fact, even Rohini's son is Balarama, while the rest are absent. We can argue that they were born after Kamsa's end, but then wouldn't it be too much for Rohini and the others to be having children while Mathura is under war 17 times due to Jarasandha and his 23 Akshauhinis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the basic question is: Wherefrom did these children spring forth, and into what did they return when Krsna was busy performing his leelas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T19:20:09.953" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T19:20:09.953" Title="What happened to Vasudeva's (and his brothers') horde of children?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|balarama|harivamsa|yadavas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11165" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11286" CreationDate="2016-03-27T15:20:02.790" Score="14" ViewCount="13315" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/shiva-lingam-some-scientific-truths/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;many theories&lt;/a&gt; on Internet that Shiva Lingam (the material by which Lingam is made) is radioactive and continuously water must be poured on it. By citing this, they opine that water is not fit for drinking. They also say 12 Jyotrilingams have high content of Uranium. Anyways, this Scientific speculation is off-topic for this site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://shivalingapuja.blogspot.in/2011/08/special-thanks-to-capt-js-chauhan-and.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This blog&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never consume anything which has been offered to shiv lingam, it&#xA;  brings bad omen illness, loss of money and luck. But u can have if it&#xA;  is from given specifically by priest as you cannot refuse or from shiv&#xA;  murti or idol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;http://theancientindia.blogspot.in/2013/04/spatika-lingam.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this blog&lt;/a&gt; differs and says we can drink the water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures which prohibit devotees from drinking Anointed (Abhishekam) water of Shiva Lingam? If devotees should not drink this water, what are the Spiritual or Religious reasons for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-05T13:26:08.927" LastActivityDate="2018-11-04T12:20:01.223" Title="Can devotees drink &quot;Abhishekam water&quot; of Shiva Lingam?" Tags="|shiva|belief|scripture|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11166" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11038" CreationDate="2016-03-27T16:16:28.237" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From our discussions in &lt;a href=&quot;http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/36898/gradual-threading-of-jeeava-s-from-purusha-and-merge-back&quot;&gt;the chat room&lt;/a&gt;, since we stumbled upon this, I will formalise it as an answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=15&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=7&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 15, Verse 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mamaivāḿśo jīva-loke  jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translations:&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Gambhirananda&lt;/em&gt;: It is verily a part of Mine which, becoming the eternal individual soul in the region of living beings, draws (to itself) the organs which have the mind as their sixth, and which abide in Nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Word to word&lt;/em&gt;: Among the living world, the living being (bhuta = body) is my eternal fragment only; It (fragment or body) keeps attracting 5 senses &amp;amp; mind as the 6th towards the material nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from the Gita it is said that the jiva is an 'ETERNAL' fragmented part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is without getting into any particular Vedantic Philosophy. As discussed by other answers, in Advaita, there is one more addition to this. i.e. You are not a Jiva (individual consciousness). You are Brahman (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss). This makes all of &amp;quot;jivahood&amp;quot; illusory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="119" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T09:03:43.643" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11167" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2010" CreationDate="2016-03-27T17:01:27.793" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Earth rotates in two ways by the Will of Brahama, first it rotates on its axis secondly it revolves around sun. Days and Nights are distinguished when moves on its axis. Season change when it revolves around Sun&quot;. (Vishnu Puran)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5170" LastActivityDate="2016-03-27T17:01:27.793" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11169" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3215" CreationDate="2016-03-28T00:08:34.047" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does Hinduism say about nature protection?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/panchamahayajna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;panchamahayajna's&lt;/a&gt; (the Five Great Sacrifices) of a householder is Bhuta Runa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Pandit Sri Rama Ramanuja Achari's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/uploads/5/5/4/9/5549439/the_hindu_sacrament_of_marriage.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Hindu Sacrament of Marriage&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhūta Runa&lt;/strong&gt; — &lt;strong&gt;debts to the elements&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhūta yajña — And lastly we are part of an&#xA;environment which is made up of the five elements and&#xA;consists of plant and animal life (bhūtas = elementals).&#xA;This ecosystem is vital to our survival and thus it is our&#xA;duty to continually protect it. This is done through tree&#xA;planting programs, correct farming methods and&#xA;protection of wildlife, decreasing our consumption of&#xA;valuable resources. In our homes we can take the effort&#xA;to limit the amount of water, gas and electricity&#xA;consumed, by recycling and avoiding the use of plastic&#xA;bags etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-28T00:08:34.047" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11170" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3806" CreationDate="2016-03-28T02:27:20.320" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The real point is how much value we attach to &quot;creation&quot;. When viewed in the background of the swaroopam of brahman (to the extent we can comprehend with our limited faculties), everything other than brahman is equally inconsequential.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the innermost message of upanishads. We samsaris intuitively attach great value to jnana,karma,and bhoga. For Srimannarayana these are triviyal sports. A father will watch his children sporting. No apacharam saying &quot;I create..&quot; as Nammazhwar says in Thiruvaimozhi 5-6-1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The swaroopa lakshanam of parathanthryam is put to ultimate test by Thiruvenkadamudayan. In Perumal Thirumozhi 4-10 Perumal suggested to Kulasekara azhwar &quot;let us exchange places!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaithis go to the extent of saying I (brahman)am ajnatha, akartha, abhoktha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5174" LastActivityDate="2016-03-28T02:27:20.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11172" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3806" CreationDate="2016-03-28T03:40:31.927" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Another point connected but not directly in the thread is &quot;how to study Sribhashya&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A quick survey will confirm that the predominant version of sanatana dharma is the smartha-vaishnava dharma adhering to the prescriptions of Vedas,sastras and itihasas and uncompromising on varna ashrama dharma. Srivaishnava or Ramanuja darsanam is a school fashioned on vaishnava traditions like puranas and azhwar arulicheyal. Ramanuja's achievement can be seen in the way he established that Srivaishnava siddhantha is the zenith that earlier notions had failed to comprehend. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The end product like Srimannarayana as the parabrahman, His manifestation as tatvatraya, His paratvadi panchaka roopam, His guna lila rasam,the numerous individual jivas and the eternal relationship with Him,  the bliss of eternal and loving service to Him are nowhere to be seen in the raw materials namely Vedas sastras etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such a work should be read in its entirety.Sribhashyam is mainly for vedic scholars. They were numerous in Ramanuja's times and Ramanujas command to study Sribhashya is to them, in order to endow them with the Srivaishnava grace. Another group that could benefit is the intellectual class unable to accept an intelligent supreme person. Yet another is the curious Srivaishnava eager to know the roots of his faith. For philosophers it is an intellectual feast.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Difficulties in reading individual passages are common. It may be mentioned that even the ultimate message of Gitabhashya is a matter of debate between the two sects whether it is prapatti or bhakthi. Such discussions amongst vidwans are good kalakshepa, nothing more. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5174" LastActivityDate="2016-03-28T03:40:31.927" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11173" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14787" CreationDate="2016-03-28T06:54:55.587" Score="10" ViewCount="2123" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dharmashastram.blogspot.in/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; page describes some of the Dharmas that a &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sannyasa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanyasi&lt;/a&gt;&quot; has to follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, a Sanyasi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Should always have a dhanda (bamboo staff) and kamandulu (used for abulations made of wood). If he is without these two he cannot be&#xA;  considered as a sanyasi but a chandala.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Should strictly observe celibacy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Must not travel in vehicles. Should travel by foot only.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Must shave once in two months only.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Must take biksha and eat.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Must not travel abroad.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Should not indulge on wordly affairs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Must not stay in a town more than three days. Must be in continuous travel.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Must bathe thrice daily in cold water.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Must not save money for personal use.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Must concentrate only in doing sharavana, manana, nidhidhyaasana of vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Should do the karmas like japas and poojas as said by the guru.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And many more...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question: Which scriptures are the basis of these claims?&#xA;And how is the ideal Sanyasi described in our scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-28T15:20:23.547" LastActivityDate="2016-09-07T17:29:30.263" Title="How do the scriptures describe an ideal Sanyasi?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|brahmins|sanyasi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8766" CreationDate="2016-03-28T07:33:16.317" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm answering the first part of your question regarding the composer and the source of the Mahalakshmi Ashtakam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The composer is Indra ,the king of Gods, and the Ashtaka is found in the Padma Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Nvj0m.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Nvj0m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-03-28T07:33:16.317" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11175" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3130" CreationDate="2016-03-28T10:59:00.730" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Achamana mantra in question seems to have  originated from the Padma Purana but its not &lt;strong&gt;explicitly&lt;/strong&gt; mentioned there as Achamana mantras.This is to be noted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another noteworthy point is that a common feature in most Achamanas that are found in the Smrithis/Puranas is that they  all use Vaishnava mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/padmapurana31.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....As the churning started, innumerable of the proud Danavas who&#xA;  opted for the head of thousand faced Vasuki out of pride got perished&#xA;  due to the poisonous flames where as Devas were at the tail end.&#xA;  Eventally, a massive ‘Halahala’ or the sky-rocketing poisonous flames&#xA;  engulfed the Univerese and by the grace of Three Names of Lord Vishnu&#xA;  viz. &lt;strong&gt;Om Achyutaya Namah, Om Anantaya Namah and Om Govindaya Namah,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Bhagavan Shankara gulped the blue poisonous flames in his throat thus&#xA;  giving him the epithet of Neela Kantha. By the power of the three&#xA;  names of Vishnu, there would never be any hardship faced:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Achyutaananta Govinda iti naamatrayam Maha Mantram hareh/ yo&#xA;  japetpriyato Bhaktaayaa Pranavaadhyam namontakam/ Tasya Mrityu bhayam&#xA;  naasti visharogaagnijam mahat/ Naamatrayam Maha Mantramjapedyam&#xA;  prayatatmavaan/ Kaala Mrityu bhayam chaapi tasya naasti kimanyatah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Whoever recites the Three Names viz. &lt;strong&gt;Om Achyutaaya, Om Anantaaya, and&#xA;  Om Govindaaya&lt;/strong&gt; sincerely and with dedication, none of the poisonous&#xA;  diseases or Agni- based frights/deaths would affect)!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following image is from an abridged version of Yajanavalkya Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/p4WNx.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/p4WNx.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He shall perform ācamana thrice and Unmarjana (wiping off) twice. He shall touch the mouth and other parts of the body etc. The water&#xA;  shall be undisturbed and free from bubbles. This rite is called anga&#xA;  sparsa and consists of reciting the 12 names of Vishnu while touching&#xA;  certain parts of the body&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the Achamana in question seems to be mentioned in the aforesaid Smriti as well.Here &lt;em&gt;Angasparsha&lt;/em&gt;  refers to the touching of various body parts with the 12 names of Lord Vishnu viz- Keshava,Narayana,Madhava,Govinda ....etc which follow the three sips and &amp;amp; thus completes the process .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In what follows,i'm attempting a compilation of a host(if not all) Achamana Mantras collected from varied sources followed by different Veda Shakhas,  Sects etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)3 sips with &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the Gayatri Mantra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/naradapurana6.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narada Purana&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)3 sips with the Mantras &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Keshavaya Swaha,Narayana Swaha,Govindaya Swaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10565/which-scripture-is-the-source-for-this-achamanam&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagwatam&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)3 sips with another Vishnu Mantra &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Om apavitrah pavitro va....&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With pre-collected water in a shankha or conchshell or atleast in a&#xA;  bowl of Kushaa, then perform three ‘Aachamanas’ or sips of spoonful of&#xA;  water while reciting the Mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Apavitrah pavitrovaa sarvaavasthaangatopiva,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yassmaret Pundareekaahsham sa bahyaantaraassuchih/  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This would be followed by the  Aghamarshana Mantras viz....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Linga Purana&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4)The following mantras are used by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dadhichi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Paipladins&lt;/a&gt;(a Shaka of Atharvaveda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Pranaya Swaha,Apanaya Swaha,Vyanaya Swaha,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5)Whereas for the Saunaka Shaka(of Atharva Veda) mantras are as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Jiva stha jivyasaM sarvamayurjivyasaM &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om  Upajiva sthaop jivyasaM sarvamayurjivyasaM &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Sanjiva stha Sam jivyasaM sarvamayurjivyasaM&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vbv3S.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vbv3S.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6)&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/puja-vidhi/atma-shodhan/atma-shodhan.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vidya Tatva achamana&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Atma tatvam shodyami swaha,Vidya tatvam shodayami swaha,Siva tatvam&#xA;  shodayami swaha&amp;amp; Sarva tatvam shodayami swaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;are the mantras used here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7)For Chinnamasta (or Nila Sarswati Sandhya Prayoga etc) Achamana Mantras are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om atma tatvaya swaha,Vidya tatvaya Swaha,Siva tatvaya swaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8)The followers of &lt;a href=&quot;http://theheartofthesun.com/The%20Havan.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arya Samaj&lt;/a&gt; use the following mantras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sip water from the right palm 3 times after each mantra; Om amrito&#xA;  pas-taranam-asi swaahaa. Om amrita-pidhaanam-asi swaahaa. Om Satyam&#xA;  yashah shreer mayi shreeh shra-ya-taam swaahaa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above Mantras should be from Vedas and Samhitas(because Arya Samaj gives only Vedas the status of Hindu Shastra &amp;amp; no other).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9)And yet another one(Not sure  which sampradaya/sect/shakha use it  but the mantras used are from Atharva Veda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3 Sips with the mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Sham no devir abhistaya apo bhavantu pitaye sham yor abhi sravantu&#xA;  nah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;followed by Angasparsha with  mantras like :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vag Vak ,Pranah Pranaha,Chaksush Chaksush,Shrotram Shrotram....etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purpose of posting all these(apart from a compilation attempt) &lt;strong&gt;is to show that there is no reason to believe that the Achamana  given in the question is &lt;em&gt;the Sruti Achamana&lt;/em&gt; or that it is the &lt;em&gt;original one&lt;/em&gt;(as stated in the title of the question).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-10-15T14:17:44.697" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11176" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3060" CreationDate="2016-03-28T14:12:29.697" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I modified the Kuru family tree from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/familytree.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; slightly to show how Dhritarashtra, Pandu, Vidura and the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6858/2995&quot;&gt;Kauravas&lt;/a&gt; are biological descendants of Sage Vyasa and also how the Pandavas are not his descendants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1v4Hw.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1v4Hw.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above tree however doesn't mention &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuyutsu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yuyutsu&lt;/a&gt; who the following tree from &lt;a href=&quot;http://aumamen.com/topic/mahabharata-family-tree-chart&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; shows. But neither of them show &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duhsala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dushala&lt;/a&gt;, only daughter of Dhritrashtra and Gandhari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/e4b27.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/e4b27.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-03-28T15:58:05.510" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11178" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11173" CreationDate="2016-03-28T15:02:42.270" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Which scriptures are the basis of these claims?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Physical activities of mere &quot;procedures&quot; cannot define the true form of &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;. If it were true then won't it become the guaranteed way to achieve the ultimate bliss?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;To answer your Q, I don't know which scriptures have the basis for this. This is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/500/1049&quot;&gt;partial answer&lt;/a&gt; :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;how is the ideal Sanyasi described in our scriptures?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita describes in good detail in chapter 3, 5, 6 &amp;amp; 18 beginnings. Common perception is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;SannyAsa = [Renouncing Karma] OR [Akarma]&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which is right. But understand that, &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; doesn't precisely mean &quot;Not doing &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;&quot;; rather, it means &quot;Not doing [certain] &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. Former is impossible, while latter is possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Why &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The closest English is &lt;strong&gt;Retirement&lt;/strong&gt;. A wise analytic (&lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt;) doesn't opt for &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; just because of tiredness, laziness or fear of failure. But he/she is convinced that whatever &quot;I do&quot; is just an interaction of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;'s 3 modes; in reality &quot;I don't do anything at all&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 3.27 — All &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;s are enacted in &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; by [3] modes/&lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt;s. Bewildered with ego (false identity), [true] self(&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;) believes &quot;I am the do-er&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why should one worry about worldly matters, when those are not in control anyway! How much ever one pushes to a building, it won't move a bit; then why to push?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; based &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; is renounced then automatically its reward is also renounced. This is a very strong argument for everyone to renounce their &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;s or going on the path of &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;, the conventional form of &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Below are the &lt;strong&gt;challenges&lt;/strong&gt; faced:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practicality&lt;/strong&gt;: It's simply impossible to have a body in &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;'s 3 modes &amp;amp; refraining from doing any &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;, i.e. complete &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; is impossible. To sustain a body, one needs to breath, eat, walk, sleep, &amp;amp; perform daily activities. Even just imagining &quot;I don't do Karma&quot; is also a Karma. Hence the &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; based on complete &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; has to be rephrased as, &quot;mostly generating &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;s&quot;; in other words &quot;avoiding as many &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;s as possible&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 — By not starting Karma, '[the state of] not doing Karma' is Not achieved by &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;(consciousness); and (by) Retirement&lt;sup&gt;(complete &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; based &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/sup&gt; really doesn't result in way to &lt;em&gt;SamAdhi(Moksha)&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  — Anyone for a moment doesn't sustain by generating only &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;; All have to do Karma under control of [3] modes born out of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  — By controlling sense from (doing) Karma, whose mind (still) dwells for senses, such &lt;strong&gt;foolish self (&lt;em&gt;mUdhAtma&lt;/em&gt;) is called to be under &lt;em&gt;MithyAchAra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (worthless efforts)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one's mind is already retired from sense gratification, then the purpose of &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; is fulfilled. So called &quot;procedures&quot; are irrelevant after that. Usually under influence of &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt;, some believe that the physical &quot;procedures&quot; are necessity. It can be termed as &lt;em&gt;Vikarma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Akarma Sanga&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (Attaching with 'not doing something'): &lt;em&gt;Akarma Sanga&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;happens due to conscious concern towards &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. It's a failure in developing &quot;indifference&quot; towards certain matters.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g. a point listed is &quot;Strictly observe celibacy&quot;. Celibacy has to be neither &quot;strict&quot; nor be &quot;explicitly observable&quot;. Both of these &lt;em&gt;might&lt;/em&gt; attach one towards &quot;not having sex&quot;, which is as wrong as attaching to &quot;having sex&quot;! One is too much concerned towards &quot;not doing 'it', not doing 'it', ...&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Akarma Sanga&lt;/em&gt;, where a person's focus is deviated from supreme One to &quot;not doing 'it'&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 2.47 — You have only power to (do) &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;, not anytime into reward; Let not &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; happen for reward purpose; &lt;strong&gt;Let not be attached to &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rather celibacy should be a byproduct of one's lifestyle. e.g. A married soldier while on war, naturally doesn't get involved in masturbation or sexual activity. When he is with his wife, he naturally gets involved in such pleasures. In fact, &quot;Sexual pleasure&quot; is never his concern; he is indifferent to sex. That is plain &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;, &amp;amp; no &lt;em&gt;Sanga&lt;/em&gt;. &quot;Sex&quot; is a physical process, let's not associate it with &quot;Celibacy&quot;, which is a state of mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt; based &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; based &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; was prevalent during ancient times as well. But practically everyone has to do certain &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;s to sustain self, be it too less. How much less is subjective &amp;amp; personal. Hence, Krishna redefined it as &lt;em&gt;Karma yoga&lt;/em&gt; only!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;SannyAsa = [Renouncing reward of Karma] or [Karma Yoga]&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Gita, &lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt; is also simply called &lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt; at many places, because everyone has to do &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; anyways; so prefixing &quot;Karma&quot; is redundant.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Below are few &lt;strong&gt;definitions of &lt;em&gt;SannyAsi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 5.3 — O mighty armed, Know him(her) to be always &lt;em&gt;SannyAsi&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;who neither has disliking nor desires&lt;/strong&gt;; free from dilemma, is certainly liberated from bondage happily.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 6.2 — O PAndava, what is said as &quot;&lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;&quot;, know it to be (Karma) Yoga; Anyone without retiring from vows doesn't become Yogi.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 6.4 — Only when engaged neither for senses nor in Karma of all vows, a &lt;em&gt;SannyAsi&lt;/em&gt; is said to be elevated in Yoga.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 18.2 — &lt;strong&gt;Resigning from desire-ful Karma is known as &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; among wises; Renouncing the reward of Karma is called &quot;renunciation&quot; by clever.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you may see that, true &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; is about being &quot;disengaged from vows&quot; (if any); and not otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Choice&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If both are correct, then which &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; should be chosen: &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; based or &lt;em&gt;NishkAma Karma&lt;/em&gt; based?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; BG 5.2 — Sri BhagavAna told, &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, both are excellent do-ers; but between them, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt; is better than &lt;em&gt;Karma SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;sup&gt;(&lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; based)&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T09:19:30.537" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11182" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11149" CreationDate="2016-03-29T11:15:14.950" Score="6" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;सत्यम् / Satyam = Truth &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Difference between &quot;True &amp;amp; Real&quot; or &quot;Reality vs. Truth&quot; is another topic/question that might be suitable on english.SE or philosophy.SE)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;मिथ्या / Mithya = False / Unreal&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Adi Shankara &amp;amp; Advaita Vedanta, &lt;strong&gt;world is unreal&lt;/strong&gt;. The sanskrit word मिथ्या means unreal or false. It may also be used as &lt;strong&gt;unworthy&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: for Sanskrit word meaning &amp;amp; English translation you can refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sanskritdictionary.com&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;spokensanskrit.de&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Anything is called Sat (सत्) only if it exist (and remains constant) in all the three periods of time (past,current &amp;amp; future) i.e त्रिकालाबाध सत्य. But in case of world it isn't exist before origin &amp;amp; after dissolution, plus it doesn't remain constant in three periods of time. This way it (world) is called &lt;strong&gt;मिथ्या=false (असत्)&lt;/strong&gt;. But Brahman(ब्रह्म) is &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/sat/246766/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;सत्&lt;/a&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the word &quot;जगत् मिथ्या&quot;, जगत् is also taken as माया (illusion) which can be &quot;सत्&quot; for who realizing it because of ignorance. Who tries to understand the maya, can't call it सत् as discussed in above para and neither call it असत् as realizing it and hence call it अनिर्वचनीय (Inexpressible). But For who knows the ultimate truth, there is no such thing and it becomes &lt;strong&gt;मिथ्या=unworthy&lt;/strong&gt; (insignificant).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, going to the philosophy of Advaita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudapada&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gaudapada&lt;/a&gt; (Gaudapada was the grand guru of Adi Shankaracharya) karika on Mandukya Upanishad (also known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta#Gaudapada&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Māndūkya-kārikā&lt;/a&gt;) can be considered as the first/oldest source for Advaita. In chapter 2 (वैतथ्य प्रकरण), &lt;strong&gt;मिथ्यात्व (unreality/illusion)&lt;/strong&gt; of the world is demonstrated by logical arguments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You find many-times the Sanskrit word &lt;strong&gt;&quot;वैतथ्य&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (falseness) there but as this question deals with the word &lt;strong&gt;&quot;मिथ्या&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, let me quote one verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सप्रयोजनता तेषां स्वप्ने विप्रतिपद्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मादाद्यन्तवत्त्वेन &lt;strong&gt;मिथ्यैव&lt;/strong&gt; खलु ते स्मृताः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 The utility of the objects of waking experience is contradicted in dreams; therefore they are certainly unreal. Thus both experiences, having a beginning and an end, are unreal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above verse is found two-times (2-7 and 4-32) that concludes that both state are unreal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another interesting and clear verse is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्मा य इति जायन्ते जायन्ते ते न तत्त्वतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जन्म मायोपमं तेषां सा च &lt;strong&gt;माया न विद्यते&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ ५८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;58 Birth is ascribed to the jivas; but such birth is not possible from the standpoint of Reality. Their birth is like that of an illusory object. &lt;strong&gt;That illusion, again, does not exist&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;on which Adi Shankara's commentaries states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If all existing is due to Maya (माया), then isn't maya real/actual? No; &lt;strong&gt;सा च माया न विद्यते&lt;/strong&gt; Maya is not exist. It is only the name of (non-exist) unreal thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, The conclusion is: According to Advaita, world is not exist, &lt;strong&gt;it is unreal&lt;/strong&gt;. (I recommend reading the Mandukya Upanishad with Gaudpad Karika for clear understanding of this. &lt;sup&gt;meanwhile the verses &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11190/277&quot;&gt;posted&lt;/a&gt; by Keshav may help you&lt;/sup&gt;&#xA;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt; : Including verse 231-238 from Vivekachudamani  (English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sankaracharya.org/vivekachudamani3.php#1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मैवेदं विश्वमित्येव वाणी&#xA;      श्रौती ब्रूतेऽथर्वनिष्ठा वरिष्ठा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मादेतद्ब्रह्ममात्रं हि विश्वं&#xA;      नाधिष्ठानाद्भिन्नताऽऽरोपितस्य ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This universe is verily Brahman – such is the august pronouncement of the Atharva Veda. Therefore this universe is nothing but Brahman, for that which is superimposed (on something) has no separate existence from its substratum.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सत्यं यदि स्याज्जगदेतदात्मनोऽ&#xA;      न तत्त्वहानिर्निगमाप्रमाणता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  असत्यवादित्वमपीशितुः स्या-&#xA;      न्नैतत्त्रयं साधु हितं महात्मनाम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the universe, as it is, be real, there would be no cessation of the dualistic element, the scriptures would be falsified, and the Lord Himself would be guilty of an untruth. None of these three is considered either desirable or wholesome by the noble-minded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ईश्वरो वस्तुतत्त्वज्ञो न चाहं तेष्ववस्थितः ।&#xA;  न च मत्स्थानि भूतानीत्येवमेव व्यचीक्लृपत् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lord, who knows the secret of all things has supported this view in the words: &quot;But I am not in them&quot; … &quot;nor are the beings in Me&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदि सत्यं भवेद्विश्वं सुषुप्तामुपलभ्यताम् ।&#xA;  यन्नोपलभ्यते किञ्चिदतोऽसत्स्वप्नवन्मृषा ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the universe be true, let it then be perceived in the state of deep sleep also. As it is not at all perceived, it must be unreal and false, like dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अतः पृथङ्नास्ति जगत्परात्मनः&#xA;      पृथक्प्रतीतिस्तु मृषा गुणादिवत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आरोपितस्यास्ति किमर्थवत्ताऽ-&#xA;      धिष्ठानमाभाति तथा भ्रमेण ॥ २३५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore the universe does not exist apart from the Supreme Self; and the perception of its separateness is false like the qualities (of blueness etc., in the sky). Has a superimposed attribute any meaning apart from its substratum ? It is the substratum which appears like that through delusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भ्रान्तस्य यद्यद्भ्रमतः प्रतीतं&#xA;      ब्रह्मैव तत्तद्रजतं हि शुक्तिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इदन्तया ब्रह्म सदैव रूप्यते&#xA;      त्वारोपितं ब्रह्मणि नाममात्रम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever a deluded man perceives through mistake, is Brahman and Brahman alone: The silver is nothing but the mother-of-pearl. It is Brahman which is always considered as this universe, whereas that which is superimposed on the Brahman, viz. the universe, is merely a name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अतः परं ब्रह्म सदद्वितीयं&#xA;      विशुद्धविज्ञानघनं निरञ्जनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्राशान्तमाद्यन्तविहीनमक्रियं&#xA;      निरन्तरानन्दरसस्वरूपम् ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निरस्तमायाकृतसर्वभेदं&#xA;      नित्यं सुखं निष्कलमप्रमेयम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अरूपमव्यक्तमनाख्यमव्ययं&#xA;      ज्योतिः स्वयं किञ्चिदिदं चकास्ति ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hence whatever is manifested, viz. this universe, is the Supreme Brahman Itself, the Real, the One without a second, pure, the Essence of Knowledge, taintless, serene, devoid of beginning and end, beyond activity, the Essence of Bliss Absolute – transcending all the diversities created by Maya or Nescience, eternal, ever beyond the reach of pain, indivisible, immeasurable, formless, undifferentiated, nameless, immutable, self-luminous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which clearly demonstrates that world/universe is unreal!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1] as I've discussed &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11078/277&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Also  सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं ब्रह्म (Taittariya Upanishad 2-1). Read BG 17.23 , 17.26 also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: Without doing more arguments we should focus on attaining the ultimate truth i.e Aatman (आत्मा) /Brahman (ब्रह्म). [Mundaka Upanishad 1-3 : knowing what all this things can be known], [Brihadaranyak 2-8-5]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T10:11:55.777" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11183" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14536" CreationDate="2016-03-29T14:49:11.957" Score="4" ViewCount="803" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before anyone flag this post as duplicate of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2110/why-gods-name-to-people&quot;&gt;why-gods-name-to-people&lt;/a&gt; let me clarify that this question is specific to name &lt;strong&gt;Shantanu&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;I am not asking why people name their kids with Hindu God's names&lt;/strong&gt;  hence I think it is not duplicate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As many of us already know, it is very common that Many of Hindu people have their names starting from Hindu God's names. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2110/why-gods-name-to-people&quot;&gt;reason&lt;/a&gt; to follow this practice is : &lt;strong&gt;the sin destroying effects the Lord's names.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But to the best of my knowledge, and most will agree with me, that the most famous Hindu character with the name &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shantanu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shantanu&lt;/a&gt; is in the epic Mahabharata, where Shantanu is best known for being the father of Bhishma (and not God or any incarnation of god).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His own identity is not that special when compared to his successors like his Son Bhishma or Arjuna later in his family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shantanu#Shantanu_Reunites_With_His_Son&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; does mention some good qualities of him, but that does not substantiate him to god-like status.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.namespedia.com/details/Shantanu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Meaning&lt;/a&gt; of name Shantanu is: &lt;strong&gt;Whole&lt;/strong&gt; (Does not sounds  god-like name)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Still I found many people with name Shantanu in Hindu community and that also includes few &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.namespedia.com/details/Shantanu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;famous&lt;/a&gt; personalities too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is so special Shantanu did(either in Mahabharata or any other incidence) which influenced Hindu community in general, to use his name for naming their own kids?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is there any other character with Name Shantanu who was god-like figure?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2022-03-20T18:38:12.847" Title="Why people are named after Shantanu?" Tags="|belief|gods|practice|name|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11184" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11149" CreationDate="2016-03-29T14:58:58.903" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The doctrine of Maya is expressed as a logical formulation of the nature of the world experience. The school of Advaita Vedanta views Maya in this manner, ie., the world is maya. Swami Tapasyananda explains this way of viewing the world as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.. it is necessary to say what Mayavadins, mistakenly called&#xA;  illusionists, mean by the expression maya. They think that the real&#xA;  and unreal are not contradictory terms, but only contraries with a&#xA;  middle ground between them. At one end stands the absolutely unreal or&#xA;  fictitious entities like 'horn of a hare' and the 'son of a barren&#xA;  woman'. These are mere words, without any reality. At the  other end&#xA;  stands Brahman, the absolutely real, which can never be negated by&#xA;  anything. Between these two extremes, there are two levels, forming a&#xA;  middle ground, as it were, which thought cannot exclusively classify&#xA;  with either of them. The first of these two middle categories is the&#xA;  experiences of the dream, and those caused by errors of perception....&#xA;  At the time of perception these phenomena appear absolutely real, and&#xA;  therefore, as far as the perceiver is concerned, for the moment, the&#xA;  experienced objects are there. But when the error is dispelled by&#xA;  right knowledge the illusion disappears totally, or even if the&#xA;  appearance of it persists owing to a combination of circumstances, it&#xA;  no longer deceives the perceiver... The second of these intermediate&#xA;  categories is the phenomenal world which we experience in our working&#xA;  life, and which, after all, causes us all the problems of philosophy&#xA;  and religion. The school of thought [Advaita Vedanta].. tries to&#xA;  understand it also on the analogy of the erroneous perceptions&#xA;  described above. But it would be wrong to state that they put it on a&#xA;  par with them. What they contend is that there have been men who have&#xA;  experienced an awakening corresponding to the disillusionment from&#xA;  illusory perceptions. It is an awakening into a wider consciousness,&#xA;  on gaining which - and it is then and then alone - the phenomenal&#xA;  world is recognized to be on a par with experience of illusory&#xA;  perceptions, i.e. it either disappears completely or, if it continues&#xA;  to be perceived, it is no longer felt to be, in itself, of any reality&#xA;  or value.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna's thoughts in a vedantic perspective by Swami Tapasyananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T14:58:58.903" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11185" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-29T15:12:45.850" Score="9" ViewCount="13302" Body="&lt;p&gt;My aunt refused to pluck a leaf from the Tulsi plant after sundown and when I asked her for a reason, she gave an answer with which I was not satisfied at all. So can anybody tell me if we should not pluck leaves of Tulsi plant after sundown or if there is no rule as such.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5184" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T16:43:39.430" LastActivityDate="2019-02-08T07:49:22.950" Title="Should we not pluck leaves of Tulsi after sundown?" Tags="|belief|tulasi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11186" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6524" CreationDate="2016-03-29T15:27:54.333" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since you are expecting answer in detail. Here is the story from Yog Vasistha about out of body experience (or astral travel:::&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 21 — Saraswati Explains the Practice of Meditation, Astral Travel*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saraswati continues speaking to Leela:—&#xA;  1 Soon after death occasions the lack of physical senses, the sight of the world appears to the soul as&#xA;  if he were seeing it with open eyes when he was living.&#xA;  2 Before him is presented the circle of the sky&#xA;  and its sides with the cycle of its seasons and times. He is shown the deeds of his pious and mundane&#xA;  acts, as if they were to continue to eternity.&#xA;  3 Objects never before seen or thought of also offer&#xA;  themselves to his view, like the sight of his own death in a dream, as if they were the prints in his&#xA;  memory.&#xA;  4 But the infinity of objects appearing in the empty sphere of the non-physical intellect is&#xA;  mere illusion, and the baseless city of the world, like a castle in the sky, is only the creation of&#xA;  imagination.&#xA;  5 Memory of the past world makes it known to us. Therefore, the length of a kalpa age and the&#xA;  shortness of a moment are only false impressions proceeding from the speed and slowness of our&#xA;  thoughts.&#xA;  6 Therefore knowledge based upon previous memories or otherwise is of two kinds, and things known&#xA;  without their cause are attributed to Divine Intelligence.&#xA;  7 We are also conscious of thoughts that we&#xA;  have not thought of before in our minds, such as we often have in our dreams. Another may remind us&#xA;  of our deceased parents, so we think of them.&#xA;  8 Sometimes genius supersedes the province of memory,&#xA;  as in the first creation or discovery of a thing, which afterwards is continued by its memory.&#xA;  9 According to some, those visible worlds are said to have remained in their ideal state in the Divine&#xA;  Mind. According to others, there were no pre-existent notions of these in the mind of God.&#xA;  10 According to some others, the world manifested itself not from memory but by the power and will&#xA;  of God. Still others maintain it to be the production of a sudden, fortuitous combination of intelligence&#xA;  and atomic principles (kakataliya sanyoga).&#xA;  1 1 Completely forgetting the world is called liberation. That cannot be had if consciousness is&#xA;  attached to what is desirable or is averse to the undesirable.&#xA;  1 2&#xA;  It is difficult to effect an entire&#xA;  negation of both one’s subjective and objective knowledge of his self and the existence of the outer&#xA;  world. Yet nobody can be freed without the obliteration of both.&#xA;  13 As the fallacy of taking a rope for a snake is not removed until the meaning of the word snake is&#xA;  known to be inapplicable to the rope, so no one can have rest and peace of mind unless he is&#xA;  convinced of the illusory nature of the world.&#xA;  14 Even with that, a person who is at peace with himself&#xA;  cannot be wholly at rest without divine knowledge because, even though he has rid himself of the&#xA;  devil of worldliness, the ghost of his inner ignorance may overtake him.&#xA;  15 The world is certainly a&#xA;  monster in itself without the knowledge of its Author, but the difficulty of knowing the First Cause has&#xA;  rendered it an impassable wilderness.&#xA;  16 Leela said, “If memories are the cause of one’s reincarnation, then, O goddess, tell me what were&#xA;  the causes of the birth of the brahmin couple, without the vestiges of their past memories?&#xA;  17 The goddess replied:—&#xA;  Know that Brahma the first progenitor of mankind, who was absolute in himself, did not retain anyvestige of his past memories in him.&#xA;  18 The first born, who had nothing to remember of a prior birth,&#xA;  was born in the lotus with his own intelligence (chaitanya) and not because of his memory.&#xA;  19 The&#xA;  Lord of Creatures being thus born by chance of his own genius or creative power, and without any&#xA;  assignable cause or design on his part, reflected within himself, “Now I am become another and the&#xA;  source of creation.”&#xA;  2 0 Whatever is born of itself is like a nothing that was never produced at all, but remains as the&#xA;  absolute intellect itself in the clouds (chinnabhas).&#xA;  21 The Supreme Being is the sole cause of both&#xA;  types of memories (those caused by vestiges of prior impressions, and those produced by prior&#xA;  desires). Both conditions of cause and effect are combined in Him in the sphere of his consciousness.&#xA;  22 Therefore our tranquility can only come from knowing that cause and effect are the same and that&#xA;  the auxiliary cause is in Him.&#xA;  2 3 Cause and effect are mere empty words of no significance because it is the recognition of the&#xA;  Universal Consciousness that constitutes true wisdom.&#xA;  24 Nothing seen in the physical world or known&#xA;  in the mental or spiritual worlds is ever produced. Everything exists within the consciousness of&#xA;  one’s own soul.&#xA;  25 Leela said, “What a wonderful sight you have shown me, O goddess. It is as auspicious as morning&#xA;  light and as brilliant as lightning.&#xA;  2 6 Now goddess, please satisfy my curiosity until I become&#xA;  thoroughly familiar with this knowledge through my intense application and study.&#xA;  27 Kindly take me&#xA;  to that that mountainous place where the brahmin couple, Vasishta and Arundhati, lived and show me&#xA;  their house.”&#xA;  28 The goddess replied:—&#xA;  If you want to see that sight, you have to be immaculate. You must give up your personality and your&#xA;  ego-sense and attain awareness of the unintelligible Consciousness within the soul.&#xA;  29 Then you will&#xA;  find yourself in an empty atmosphere situated in the sky that resembles the prospects of earthly men&#xA;  and the apartments of the firmament (i.e., nothing).&#xA;  30&#xA;  In this state we shall be able to see them (the&#xA;  field of another’s imagination) with all their possessions and without any obstruction. Otherwise this&#xA;  body is a great barrier in the way of spiritual vision.&#xA;  31 Leela said, “Tell me kindly, O goddess, the reason why do we not see the other world with these&#xA;  eyes, or go there with these our bodies.”&#xA;  32 The goddess replied:—&#xA;  The reason is that you take the true future as false, and you believe the untrue present as true. These&#xA;  worlds that are formless appear to your eyes as having forms, just like you see the form of a ring&#xA;  when its substance is gold.&#xA;  33 Gold, though fashioned into a circle, has no curve in it. The spirit of&#xA;  God appearing in the form of the world is not the world itself.&#xA;  34 The world is an emptiness full with&#xA;  the spirit of God. Whatever is visible is like dust appearing to fly over the sea.&#xA;  35 The ultimate substance of the world is all a false illusion. The true reality is the subjective Brahma&#xA;  alone. Our guides in Vedanta philosophy and the conviction of our consciousness are evidence of this&#xA;  truth. The believer in Brahma sees Brahma alone and no other anywhere. He looks to Brahma through&#xA;  Brahma himself, as the creator and preserver of all, and whose nature includes all other attributes in&#xA;  itself.&#xA;  37 Brahma is known not only as the author of His work of the creation of worlds, but as existent&#xA;  of himself without any causation or auxiliary causation.&#xA;  38 The practice of meditation trains you to disregard all duality and variety and to rely only on one&#xA;  unity. Until you are trained through your practice of meditation, you are barred from viewing Brahma&#xA;  in his true light.&#xA;  39 By constant practice of meditation, we become settled in this belief of unity, and&#xA;  we rest in the Supreme Spirit.&#xA;  40 Then we find our bodies to be an aerial substance that mixes with the&#xA;  air, and at last, with these our mortal frames, we are able to come to the sight of Brahma.&#xA;  41 Being&#xA;  endowed with pure, enlightened and spiritual frames (astral or subtle bodies), like those of Brahma&#xA;  and the gods, the holy saints are placed in some part of the divine essence.&#xA;  42 Without the practice of meditation, you cannot approach God with your mortal frame. A soul sullied&#xA;  by physical sensation can never see the image of God.&#xA;  43&#xA;  It is impossible for one to arrive at another’s&#xA;  castle in the sky, when he is unable to see the castle in the sky that he himself imagined.&#xA;  44 Therefore, give up your gross body and assume your light intellectual frame. Immerse yourself in&#xA;  the practice of yoga so that you may see God face to face.&#xA;  45&#xA;  It is possible to labor and build castles in&#xA;  the air. In the same way, it is possible through the practice of yoga, and in no other way, to behold&#xA;  God, either with this body or without it.&#xA;  46 Ever since the creation of this world (by the will of Brahma), there have been false conceptions of&#xA;  its existence. It has been attributed to an eternal fate, niyati (by fatalists), and to an illusory power,&#xA;  maya shakti (of Maya vadis).&#xA;  47 Leela asked, “O goddess, you said that we both shall go to the abode of the brahmin couple, but I&#xA;  ask you, how is that possible?&#xA;  48&#xA;  I am able to go there with the pure essence of my sentient soul. But&#xA;  tell me, how will you who are pure intellect (chetas) go to that place?”&#xA;  49 The goddess replied:—&#xA;  I tell you lady, Divine Will is an aerial tree and its fruits are as unsubstantial as air, having no figure&#xA;  or form or substance to them.&#xA;  50 Whatever is formed by the will of God from the pure essence of His&#xA;  intelligent nature is only a likeness of Himself and bears little difference from its original.&#xA;  51 My body&#xA;  is the same and I need not lay it aside. I find that place with my body like a breeze finds odors.&#xA;  52 As&#xA;  water mixes with water, fire with fire, and air with air, so does this spiritual body easily join with&#xA;  any material form that it likes.&#xA;  53 But a physical body cannot mix with an non-physical substance, nor&#xA;  can a solid rock become the same as the idea of a hill.&#xA;  5 4 Your body has its mental and spiritual parts. It has become physical because of its habitual&#xA;  tendency towards the physical.&#xA;  5 5 Your physical body becomes spiritual (ativahika) by leaning&#xA;  towards spirituality, as in your sleep, your protracted meditation, and your unconsciousness to fancies&#xA;  and reveries.&#xA;  56 Your spiritual nature will return to your body when your earthly desires are lessened&#xA;  and curbed within the mind.&#xA;  57 Leela said, “Say goddess, what happens to the spiritual body after it has attained its compactnessby constant practice of yoga? Does it becomes indestructible or does it perish like all other finite&#xA;  bodies?”&#xA;  58 The goddess replied:—&#xA;  Anything that exists is perishable and, of course, liable to death. But how can something die that is&#xA;  nothing and is imperishable in its nature?&#xA;  59 Again, once we realize the mistake of thinking a rope to&#xA;  be a snake, the snake disappears of itself and no one mistakes the rope anymore.&#xA;  60 Thus, as the true&#xA;  knowledge of the rope removes the false conception of the snake in it, so the recognition of the&#xA;  spiritual body dispels the misconception of its materiality.&#xA;  61 All imagery is at an end when there is no&#xA;  image at all, just like the art of carving statues must cease if there is no more stone.&#xA;  62 We clearly see our bodies as full of the spirit of God. Your gross understanding keeps you from&#xA;  seeing this.&#xA;  63&#xA;  In the beginning, when consciousness (chit) is engrossed with the imagination of the&#xA;  mind, it loses sight of the One.&#xA;  64 Leela asked, “But how can imagination trace out anything in that unity in which the divisions of time&#xA;  and space and all things are lost in an undistinguishable mass?”&#xA;  65 The goddess replied:—&#xA;  Like the bracelet in gold, waves in water, the show of truth in dreams, and the appearance of castles&#xA;  in the sky&#xA;  66 all vanish upon an accurate perception, so the imaginary attributes of the unpredictable&#xA;  God are all nothing whatever.&#xA;  67 Just like there is no dust in the sky, no attribute or partial property&#xA;  can be ascribed to God whose nature is indivisible and unimaginable, who is an unborn unity, tranquil&#xA;  and all-pervading.&#xA;  68 Whatever shines about us is the pure light of that Being who scatters His luster&#xA;  all around like a transcendental gem.&#xA;  69 Leela said, “If it is so at all times, then tell me, O goddess, how did we happen to fall into the error&#xA;  of attributing duality and diversity to His nature?”&#xA;  70 The goddess replied:—&#xA;  It was your ignorance that for so long has led you to error. The natural bane of mankind is the absence&#xA;  of reasoning, and it requires remedying by your attending to reason.&#xA;  71 When reason takes the place of&#xA;  ignorance, in a moment it introduces the light of knowledge in the soul instead of its former darkness.&#xA;  72 As reason advances, your ignorance and your bondage to prejudice are put to flight. Then you have&#xA;  an unobstructed liberation and pure understanding in this world.&#xA;  73 As long as you remained without&#xA;  reasoning on this subject, you were either sleeping or wandering in error.&#xA;  74 Now your reason and liberation are awakened and the seeds for the suppression of your desires are&#xA;  sown in your heart.&#xA;  75 At first, the nature of this physical world was neither apparent to you nor you to&#xA;  it. How long will you reside in it and what other desires have you here?&#xA;  76 Withdraw your mind from&#xA;  its thoughts of the viewer, the visible, and the vision of this world. Settle your mind on the idea of the&#xA;  entire negation of all existence. Fix your meditation solely upon the Supreme Being and sit in a state&#xA;  of unalterable unconsciousness.&#xA;  77 When the seed of renunciation has taken root and germinated in&#xA;  your heart, the sprouts of your likes and dislikes will be destroyed of themselves.&#xA;  7 8 Then the&#xA;  impression of the world will be utterly effaced from the mind and an unshaken anesthesia willovertake you all at once.&#xA;  7 9 Remaining entranced in your abstract meditation, in process of time you will have a soul as&#xA;  luminous as a star in the clear sky of heaven, free from the links of all causes and their effects for&#xA;  evermore.&lt;/strong&gt; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chapter 22 — Practice of Wisdom (Vijnana-Bhyasa)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 &lt;strong&gt;The goddess continued:—&#xA;  Objects seen in a dream prove to be false on being awaken. Similarly, belief in the reality of the body&#xA;  becomes unfounded upon dissolution of our desires.&#xA;  2 As a thing dreamt of disappears upon waking,&#xA;  so does the waking body disappear in sleep, when desires lie dormant in the soul.&#xA;  3 As our physical bodies awake after dreaming and desiring, so our spiritual bodies awake after we&#xA;  cease to think of our physical states.&#xA;  4&#xA;  In deep sleep we are devoid of desires. Similarly, in the state&#xA;  of renunciation, even though we are awake in our physical bodies, we have the tranquility of&#xA;  liberation.&#xA;  5 The desire of men liberated while living (jivan mukta) is not properly any desire at all. It&#xA;  is a pure desire relating to universal wellbeing and happiness.&#xA;  6 The sleep in which the will and wish are dormant is called deep sleep, but the dormancy of desires&#xA;  in the waking state is known as unconsciousness to delusion (moha) or unconsciousness (murchha).&#xA;  7 Again the deep sleep that is wholly devoid of desire is called the turiya or the fourth stage of yoga.&#xA;  In the waking state it is called samadhi or union with Supreme.&#xA;  8 The embodied man whose life is freed from all desires in this world is called the liberated while&#xA;  living (jivan mukta), a state unknown to those who are not liberated.&#xA;  9 When the mind becomes a pure&#xA;  essence (as in samadhi) and its desires are weakened, it becomes spiritualized (ativahika) and it&#xA;  glows and flows, like snow melts to water by application of heat.&#xA;  10 The spiritualized mind, being&#xA;  awakened, mixes with the holy spirits of departed souls in the other world.&#xA;  11 When your sense of individual ego is moderated by your practice of meditation, then the perception&#xA;  of invisible will rise of itself clearly before your mind.&#xA;  12 When spiritual knowledge gains a firm&#xA;  footing in your mind, you will perceive more other worlds than you expect.&#xA;  13 Therefore, O blameless&#xA;  lady, try your utmost to deaden your desires. When you have gained sufficient strength in that practice,&#xA;  know yourself to be liberated in this life.&#xA;  14 When the moon of your intellectual knowledge shines fully with its cooling beams, you shall have&#xA;  to leave your physical body here in order to see the other worlds.&#xA;  15 Your fleshy body has no tangible&#xA;  connection with one that is without flesh, nor can the intellectual body (lingadeha, astral body)&#xA;  perform any action of the physical system.&#xA;  16&#xA;  I have told you all this according to my best knowledge and the state of things as they are. Even&#xA;  children know that what I say is as effective as the curse or blessing of a god.&#xA;  17 The habitual reliance of men upon their gross bodies and their fond attachment to them bind their&#xA;  souls down to the earth. The weakening of earthly desires serves to clothe them with spiritual bodies.&#xA;  18 Nobody believes that he has a spiritual body, even at his death bed, but everyone thinks a dying&#xA;  man is dead with his body forever.&#xA;  19 This body however, neither dies nor is it alive at anytime. Both&#xA;  life and death, in all respects, are mere appearances of aerial dreams and desires.&#xA;  20 The life and&#xA;  death of beings here below are as false as the appearances and disappearance of people in&#xA;  imagination, or dolls in play or puppet shows.&#xA;  21 Leela said, “O goddess, the pure knowledge that you have given me has fallen on my ears acts likea healing balm to the pain caused by phenomena.&#xA;  22 Now tell me the name and nature of the practice&#xA;  for spiritualization. How it is to be perfected and what is the end of such perfection?”&#xA;  23 The goddess replied:—&#xA;  Whatever a man attempts to do here at anytime, he can hardly ever complete it without painful&#xA;  practice to the utmost of his power.&#xA;  24 The wise say that practice consists in the association of one&#xA;  thing with another, in understanding it thoroughly, and in devoting oneself solely to his object.&#xA;  25 Great souls become successful in this world who are disgusted with the world and are moderate in&#xA;  their enjoyments and desires. They do not think about seeking what they lack.&#xA;  26 Those great minds are&#xA;  said to be best trained who are graced with liberal views, are delighted with the relish of unconcern&#xA;  with the world, and are enraptured with streams of heavenly joy.&#xA;  27 Again, they are called the best&#xA;  practiced in divine knowledge who, by the light of reasoning and scripture, are employed preaching&#xA;  the absolute non-existence of any distinction between the knower and what is known in this world.&#xA;  28 What some call practical knowledge is knowing that nothing was produced in the beginning and&#xA;  nothing that is visible, such as this world or one’s self, is true at anytime.&#xA;  29 The effect of practicing meditation is a strong tendency of the soul towards the spirit of God, which&#xA;  results from an understanding of the non-existence of the visible world and the subsidence of&#xA;  passions.&#xA;  3 0 But mere knowledge of the nonexistence of the world, without subduing passions, is&#xA;  known as knowledge without practice, and is of no value to its possessor.&#xA;  31 Consciousness of the&#xA;  non-existence of the visible world is the true knowledge of the knowable. The practice of meditation&#xA;  makes this knowledge a habit in the mind and leads one to his final extinction (nirvana) .&#xA;  3 2 The&#xA;  practice of meditation prepares the mind and awakens the intelligence which lay dormant in the dark&#xA;  night of this world. Consciousness then sheds its cooling showers of reason, like dew drops in the&#xA;  frosty night of autumn.&#xA;  Valmiki speaking:—&#xA;  3 3 As the sage was lecturing in this manner, the day departed for its evening service and led the&#xA;  assembled train to their evening prayers. After the rising beams of the sun dispelled the darkness of&#xA;  night, they met again with mutual greetings.&lt;/strong&gt; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chapter 23 — Saraswati &amp;amp; Leela Meditate &amp;amp; Begin Astral Travel&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 &lt;strong&gt;Vasishta said:—&#xA;  After this conversation between Goddess Saraswati and the excellent Leela on that night, the two of&#xA;  them found Leela’s family and attendants fast asleep in the inner apartment.&#xA;  2 Saraswati and Leela&#xA;  entered the shrine that was closely shut on all sides by latches fastened to the doors and windows, and&#xA;  which was perfumed with the fragrance of heaps of flowers.&#xA;  3 They sat beside the corpse decorated&#xA;  with fresh flowers and garments. Their faces shone like the fair full moon and brightened the place.&#xA;  4 They stood motionless on the spot, as if they were sculptures engraved on marble columns, or&#xA;  pictures drawn upon the wall.&#xA;  5 They shook off all their thoughts and cares, and became as withdrawn as the faded blossoms of the&#xA;  lotus at the end of the day when their fragrance has fled.&#xA;  6 They remained still, calm and quiet and&#xA;  without any motion of their limbs, like a sheet of clouds hanging on the mountain top in the calm of&#xA;  autumn.&#xA;  7 They continued in fixed attention without any external sensation, like some lonely vines&#xA;  shriveled for lack of moisture (in samadhi meditation).&#xA;  8 They were fully impressed with the disbelief&#xA;  of their own existence, and that of all other things in the world. They were completely absorbed in the&#xA;  thought of an absolute privation of everything at large.&#xA;  9 They lost memory of the phantom of the&#xA;  phenomenal world, which is as unreal as the horn of a hare.&#xA;  10 What had no existence in the beginning&#xA;  is still non-existent at present, and what appears existent is as non-existent as water in a mirage.&#xA;  11 The two ladies became as quiet as inert nature herself, and as still as the sky before the stars rolled&#xA;  about in its ample sphere.&#xA;  12 Then they began to move with their own bodies, the goddess of wisdom in her form of intelligence&#xA;  and the queen in her intellectual and meditative mood.&#xA;  13 With their new bodies they rose as high as&#xA;  the width of a hand above the ground, then taking the forms of empty consciousness, they began to rise&#xA;  in the sky.&#xA;  1 4 Then the two ladies, their playful open eyes and by their nature of intellectual&#xA;  knowledge, ascended to the higher region of the sky.&#xA;  15 They flew higher and higher by force of their intellect and arrived at a region stretching millions of&#xA;  miles in length.&#xA;  16 The pair in their ethereal forms looked around according to their nature in search of&#xA;  some visible objects, but finding no other figure except their own, they became much more attached to&#xA;  each other by their mutual affection.&lt;/strong&gt; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chapter 24 — Description of the Astral Journey&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 &lt;strong&gt;Vasishta continued:—&#xA;  Thus ascending higher and higher, and by degrees reaching the highest station, they continued viewing&#xA;  the heavens with their hands clasped together.&#xA;  2 They saw a vast expanse like a wide extended universal ocean, deep and translucent within, but soft&#xA;  with ethereal mildness. A cooling breeze infused heavenly delight.&#xA;  3 They dived into the vast ocean of&#xA;  emptiness, all delightful and pleasant. It gave them a delight far greater in its purity than what is&#xA;  derived from the company of the virtuous.&#xA;  4 They wandered about all sides of heaven under the beams&#xA;  of the full moon shining above them. They lingered under the clear vault of clouds covering the&#xA;  mountain tops of Meru, as if under the dome of a huge white washed building.&#xA;  5 They roved by the regions of spiritual masters (siddhas, adepts) and male nature spirits&#xA;  (gandharvas). They breathed the charming fragrance of mandara garlands and, passing the lunar&#xA;  sphere, they inhaled the sweet scent exhaled by the breeze from that nectar-like lunar orb.&#xA;  6 Tired and perspiring profusely, they bathed in the lakes of showering clouds filled with the blushing&#xA;  lotuses of lurid lightning flashing within them.&#xA;  7 They freely strolled at random on all sides, and&#xA;  alighted on the tops of high mountains like fluttering bees, appearing like filaments of the lotus-like&#xA;  earth below.&#xA;  8 They also roved under the vaults of some cloud fragments scattered by the winds, and&#xA;  raining like the cascade of the Ganges River, thinking them as shower bath-houses in the air.&#xA;  9 Then&#xA;  failing in their strength, they paused in many places with slow and slackened steps.&#xA;  They saw emptiness full of great and wonderful works.&#xA;  10 They saw what they had never seen before,&#xA;  the tremendous depth of the void that was not filled up by the myriads of worlds which kept revolving&#xA;  in it.&#xA;  11 Over and over and higher and higher, they saw the celestial spheres filled with luminous orbs&#xA;  adorned with their ornamental stars wandering one above and around the other.&#xA;  12 Huge mountainous&#xA;  bodies like Mount Meru moved about in empty space and emitted a reddish glare on all sides, like a&#xA;  flame of fire from within their bowels.&#xA;  1 3 There were beautiful tablelands, like those of the&#xA;  Himalayas, with their pearly peaks of snow. There were mountains of gold spreading a golden color&#xA;  over the land.&#xA;  14&#xA;  In one place they saw mountains of emerald tinting the landscape with a lush green&#xA;  like a field of fresh grass. In other places they saw some dark cloud dimming the sight of the spectator&#xA;  and hiding the spectacle in dark blackness.&#xA;  15 They saw also tracts of blue sapphire with vines of&#xA;  parijata flowers blooming like banners in the blue skies.&#xA;  16 They saw the minds of spiritual masters (siddhas) in flight faster than the swift winds. They heard&#xA;  the vocal music of the songs of heavenly nymphs in their aerial abodes.&#xA;  17 All the great bodies in the&#xA;  universe (the planetary system) were in continual motion. Spirits of the gods and demigods moved&#xA;  about unseen by one another.&#xA;  18 Groups of spiritual beings, the kushmandas, rakshasas and pisachas,&#xA;  were seated in aerial circles at the borders. Winds and gales blew with full force in their ethereal&#xA;  course.&#xA;  19&#xA;  In some places they heard clouds roaring loudly, like the rumbling wheels of heavenly cars,&#xA;  and the noise of rapid stars resembled the blowing of pneumatic engines....&lt;/strong&gt; &gt; &#xA;  .&#xA;  .&#xA;  .&#xA;  .&#xA;   &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;and so on continues...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T15:27:54.333" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11187" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11188" CreationDate="2016-03-29T15:34:57.687" Score="8" ViewCount="3304" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is called Aravamudhan in Kumbakonam and parts of Tamil Nadu.What does the name mean and signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5184" LastActivityDate="2017-08-22T09:54:08.650" Title="Why is Lord Vishnu called Aravamudhan?" Tags="|vishnu|name|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11188" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11187" CreationDate="2016-03-29T16:10:39.377" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The name Aravamudhan means : &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;the unsatiating nectar&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is related with the recitation of amrit like devotional poems..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The legend goes like this;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Nathamuni was a great Vaishnava.&#xA;  While Nathamuni was worshipping at the local temple, he heard a few pilgrims reciting a decad of Nammalwar's Tiruvoimozhi praising Lord 'AraVamudhan'- the unsatiating nectar. This concluded saying &quot; &#xA;  those who recited these ten which formed part of my 1000 psalms &quot;would become the darling of the Gods.&quot; Nathamuni was so impressed with the poetic beauty of the decad and asked them whether they knew the full text of Tiruvoimozhi or at least point out anyone who could help. They directed him to one Parankusa daasa in Kurugur who was a disciple of Madhura kavi. &#xA;  Natha muni made straight to Kurugur but Parankusa daasa also could not help. But, he suggested that if Natha muni could recite the &quot; Kanni nun Siruthambu&quot; of Madhura kavi 12,000 times at one stretch in front of the famous tamarind tree in Adhi natha temple, he might get an insight into the original verses. This Natha muni did with utmost devotion. He obtained in his trance a vision of Nammalwar himself who personally taught him not only his own compositions but also those of all the other Alwars. Since he got his insight into the Divya &#xA;  Prabandhams through the Paasuram on Aravamudhan, he came to be known as Aaraaa Amudh Aazhwaan&quot; &#xA;  Natha muni promptly codified the treasure of devotional hymns as the 'Nalayira Divya Prabhandam'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/oppiliappan/sgati/volume1/v01005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;From Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-08-22T09:54:08.650" LastActivityDate="2017-08-22T09:54:08.650" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11189" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-29T16:19:18.080" Score="4" ViewCount="2623" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a  belief among some people that we have to wash our feet or take bath after visiting Saneeswara Temple or circumambulating Navagraha idols. I read that one should wash their feet after visiting Saneeswara Temple or circumambulating Navagraha idols. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it really necessary to wash feet after Navagraha Pradakshina?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5185" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-29T16:40:04.347" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T17:03:55.200" Title="Is it necessary to wash our feet after Navagraha Pradakshina?" Tags="|belief|temple|navagraha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11190" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11149" CreationDate="2016-03-29T16:41:44.670" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Advaita belief that the physical Universe does not exist is described in great detail in the Karika or commentary of the Mandukya Upanishad by Gaudapada, who was Adi Shankaracharya's guru's guru.  (There are some issues with Gaudapada's authorship of the Karika, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7084/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swamij.com/upanishad-mandukya-karika.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 2&lt;/a&gt; of his commentary, Gaudapada argues that just as objects we see in dreams are not real because we cannot find them when we wake up, similarly the objects seen in the waking world are not real because we cannot find them when we are dreaming:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Harih Aum. The wise declare the unreality of all entities seen in dreams, because they are located within the body and the space therein is confined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The dreamer, on account of the shortness of the time involved, cannot go out of the body and see the dream objects. Nor does he, when awakened, find himself in the places seen in the dream.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Scripture, on rational grounds, declares the non—existence of the chariots etc. perceived in dreams. Therefore the wise say that the unreality established by reason is proclaimed by scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The different objects seen in the confined space of dreams are unreal on account of their being perceived. For the same reason i.e. on account of their being perceived, the objects seen in the waking state are also unreal. The same condition i.e. the state of being perceived exists in both waking and dreaming. The only difference is the limitation of space associated with dream objects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thoughtful persons speak of the sameness of the waking and dream states on account of the similarity of the objects perceived in both states on the grounds already mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a thing is non—existent both in the beginning and in the end, it is necessarily non—existent in the present. The objects that we see are really like illusions; still they are regarded as real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The utility of the objects of waking experience is contradicted in dreams; therefore they are certainly unreal. Thus both experiences, having a beginning and an end, are unreal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The objects perceived by the dreamer, not usually seen in the waking state, owe their existence to the peculiar conditions under which the cognizer i.e. the mind functions for the time being, as with those residing in heaven. The dreamer, associating himself with the dream conditions, perceives those objects, even as a man, well instructed here, goes from one place to another and sees the peculiar objects belonging to those places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9—10. In dreams, what is imagined within the mind is illusory and what is cognized outside by the mind, real; but truly, both are known to be unreal. Similarly, in the waking state, what is imagined within by the mind is illusory and what is cognized outside by the mind, real; but both should be held, on rational grounds, to be unreal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mandukya-upanishad-karika-bhashya/d/doc143638.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is Adi Shankaracharya says in his commentary on Karika 6:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The objects perceived to exist in the waking state are unreal for this reason also, that they do not really exist either at the beginning or at the end. Such objects (of experience) as mirage, etc., do not really exist either at the beginning or at the end. Therefore they do not (really) exist in the middle either. This is the decided opinion of the world. The several objects perceived to exist really in the waking state are also of the same nature. Though they (the objects of experience) are of the same nature as illusory objects, such as mirage, etc., on account of their non-existence at the beginning and at the end, still they are regarded as real by the ignorant, that is, the persons that do not know Ātman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mandukya-upanishad-karika-bhashya/d/doc143641.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what he says in his commentary on Karikas 9 and 10:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having refuted the contention of the opponent that there exists no similarity between objects of the waking state and the abnormal (unusual) objects seen in dream, (the text proceeds to point out) the truth of the objects of waking state being (unreal) like those of dream. In the dream state also those which are mere modifications of the mind, cognized within, are illusory. For, such internal objects vanish the moment after they are cognized. In that very dream such objects as pot, etc., cognized by the mind and perceived by the sense-organs, eyes, etc., as existing outside, are held to be real. Thus, though all the dream experiences are, without doubt, known to be unreal, yet they arrange themselves as real and unreal. Both kinds of objects (in dream), imagined by the mind internally and externally, are found to be unreal. Similarly in the waking experience objects known as real and imaginary (mental) should be rationally held to be unreal. Objects, internal and external, are creations of the mind (whether they be-in the dream or in the waking state). Other matters have already been explained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, later on in the chapter Gaudapada gives his view of the true nature of reality:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;31&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As dreams, illusions and castles in the air are viewed, so is the tangible universe viewed by the wise, well versed in Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is neither dissolution nor creation, none in bondage and none practicing disciplines. There is none seeking Liberation and none liberated. This is the absolute truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Atman is imagined as the unreal objects that are perceived to exist and as Non—duality as well. The objects, too, are imagined in the non—dual Atman. Therefore Non—duality is Bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The diversity in the universe does not exist as an entity identical With Atman, nor does it exist by itself. Neither is it separate from Brahman nor is it non—separate. This is the statement of the wise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The wise, who are free from attachment, fear and anger and are well versed in the Vedas, have realized Atman as devoid of all phantasms and free from the illusion of the manifold and as non—dual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, knowing Atman as such, fix your attention on Non—duality. Having realized Non—duality, behave in the world like an inert object.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mandukya-upanishad-karika-bhashya/d/doc143663.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says on his commentary on Karika 32:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse sums up the meaning of the chapter. When duality is perceived to be illusory and Ātman alone is known as the sole Reality, then it is clearly established that all our experiences, ordinary or religious (Vedic), verily pertain to the domain of ignorance. Then one perceives that there is no dissolution, i.e., destruction (from the standpoint of Reality); no birth or creation, i.e., coming into existence; no one in bondage, i.e., no worldly being; no pupilage, i.e., no one adopting means for the attainment of liberation; no seeker after liberation, and no one free from bondage (as bondage does not exist). The Ultimate Truth is that the stage of bondage, etc., cannot exist in the absence of creation and destruction. How can it be said that there is neither creation nor destruction? It is thus replied:—There is no duality (at any time). The absence of duality is indicated by such Scriptural passages as, “When duality appears to exist....” “One who appears to see multiplicity....” “All this is verily Ātman.” “Ātman is one and without a second.” “All that exists is verily the Ātman,” etc. Birth1 or death can be predicated only of that which exists and never of what does not exist[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in chapter 4 of his commentary, Gaudapada makes the argument hat just as mountains and the like which are perceived in dreams are not real because they cannot possibly exist within the human body, so too mountains and the like which are perceived in the waking states are not real because they cannot possibly exist within Brahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;31—32. If a thing is non—existent in the beginning and in the end, it is necessarily non—existent in the present. The objects that we see are really like illusions; still they are regarded as real. The utility of the objects of waking experience is contradicted in dreams; therefore they are certainly unreal. Both experiences have a beginning and an end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;33&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All entities seen in dreams are unreal, because they are perceived inside the body. How is it possible for things that are perceived to exist, really to exist in Brahman, which is indivisible and homogeneous?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is not reasonable to think that a dreamer actually goes out in order to experience the objects seen in the dream, because of the discrepancy of the time involved in such a journey. Nor does he, when awakened, find himself in the places seen in the dream.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The dreamer, after awaking, realizes the illusoriness of the conversations he had with friends etc. in the dream state. Further, he does not possess in the waking state anything he acquired while dreaming.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The dream body is unsubstantial because the other i.e. the physical body, different from it, is perceived. Like the dream body, all things cognized by the mind are unsubstantial.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since the experience of objects in dreams is similar to the experience of objects in the waking state, waking experience is regarded as the cause of dream experience. It is only by him who admits waking experience to be the cause of dream experience that waking experience can be regarded as real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All entities are said to be unborn, since birth cannot be established as a fact. It is utterly impossible for the unreal to be born of the real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A man filled with the impressions of the unreal objects seen in the waking state sees those very things in dreams as well. But he does not see in the waking state the unreal objects seen in dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The unreal cannot have another unreality for its cause, nor can the real have the unreal for its cause. The real cannot be the cause of the real. And how utterly impossible it is for the real to be the cause of the unreal!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a person in the waking state through false knowledge appears to handle objects, whose nature is inscrutable, as if they were real, so also, in dreams, he perceives, through false knowledge, objects whose existence is possible in the dream state alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wise men teach causality only for the sake of those who, afraid of non—creation, assert the reality of external objects because they perceive such objects and also because they cling to various social and religious duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those who, because of their fear of the truth of absolute non— creation and also because of their perception of external objects, deny ajati (non—creation) are not affected by the evil consequent on the belief in creation. This evil, if there is any, is insignificant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As an elephant conjured up by a magician is taken to be real because it is perceived to exist and also because it answers to the behavior of a real elephant, so also external objects are taken to be real because they are perceived to exist and because one can deal with them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, let me end with the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mandukya-upanishad-karika-bhashya/d/doc143806.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;salutation&lt;/a&gt; that Adi Shankaracharya makes at the conclusion of his commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I salute Brahman, the destroyer of the fear of those who take refuge in It—which, though unborn, appears to be associated with birth through Its own majestic powers; which, though motionless, appears to be moving; and which, though non— dual, appears to have assumed many forms to those whose vision is deluded by the perception of diverse objects and their attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T16:41:44.670" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11191" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11189" CreationDate="2016-03-29T17:03:55.200" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://pedia.desibantu.com/vaddiparti-padmakar/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmasri Vaddiparti Padmakar&lt;/a&gt; says there's no sastra which compels us to wash our feet after &lt;em&gt;Navagraha Pradikshana&lt;/em&gt;. But if we anoint Shani Deva idol with oil (&lt;em&gt;Tailabhishekam&lt;/em&gt;) and if only Pandit or priest of temple instructs us to wash feet after &lt;em&gt;Tailabhishekam&lt;/em&gt;, then we need to wash our feet. He says that people don't wash their feet after anointing Shani Deva in Shani Shingnapur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is his &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1k4NGAK6N4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Video &lt;/a&gt;in Telugu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2016-03-29T17:03:55.200" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11192" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-29T18:49:58.640" Score="2" ViewCount="2514" Body="&lt;p&gt;In South Indian Temples Like Lord Venketesnwara Temple ,Opiliappan Temple ,Ranganathaswamy Temple ,Ramnathswamy Temple. There is arch above the main Deity Idol/Linga.This feature is absent in all temples of Remaining Indian Subcontinent. What is requirement of Arches , and why are they absent in all other temples out of South India.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MQJEZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MQJEZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;VenkateshwaraSwami&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yDrOx.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yDrOx.png&quot; alt=&quot;Ramanathaswami&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2022-05-16T06:52:23.667" Title="Why do South indian temples build arch above Deity(Idols)" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11193" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-30T00:55:33.140" Score="15" ViewCount="2838" Body="&lt;p&gt;Book IV Chapter 4 of Vishnu Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; Ikshvaku dynasty as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Rama&lt;/strong&gt; and his brothers had each two sons. Kusha and Lava were the sons of Rama; those of Lakshman were Angada and Chandraketu; the sons of Bharata were Taksha and Pushkara; and Subáhu and Śúrasena were the sons of Śatrughna. The son of &lt;strong&gt;Kusha&lt;/strong&gt; was &lt;strong&gt;Atithi;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Nishadha;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Nala;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Nabhas;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Puńdaríka;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Kshemadhanwan;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Deváníka;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Ahínagu;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Páripátra;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Dala;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Chhala;&lt;/strong&gt; his son &#xA;  was &lt;strong&gt;Uktha;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Vajranábha;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Śankhanábha;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Abhyutthitáśwa;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Viśwasaha;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Hirańyanábha,&lt;/strong&gt; who was a pupil of the mighty Yogí Jaimini, and communicated the knowledge of spiritual exercises to Yájnawalkya. The son of this saintly king was &lt;strong&gt;Pushya;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Dhruvasandhi;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Sudarśana;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Agnivarńa;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Śíghra;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Maru,&lt;/strong&gt; who through the power of devotion (Yoga) is still living in the village called Kalápa, and in a future age will be the restorer of the Kshatriya race in the solar dynasty. Maru had a son named &lt;strong&gt;Prasuśruta;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Susandhi;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Amarsha;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Mahaswat;&lt;/strong&gt; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Viśrutavat;&lt;/strong&gt; and his son was &lt;strong&gt;Vrihadbala,&lt;/strong&gt; who was &lt;em&gt;killed in the great war by Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna.&lt;/em&gt; These are the most distinguished princes in the family of Ikshvaku: whoever listens to the account of them will be purified from all his sins.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, the dynasty starting Lord Rama goes as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama&lt;/strong&gt;, Kusha, Atithi, Nisadha, Nala, Nabhas, Pundarika, Kshemadhanwan, Devanika, Ahinagu, Paripatra, Dala, Chhala, Uktha, Vajranabha, Sankhanabha, Abhyutthitaswa, Viswasaha, Hiranyanabha, Pushya, Dhruvasandhi, Sudarsana, Agnivarna, Sighra, Maru, Prasusruta, Susandhi, Amarsha, Mahaswat, Visrutavat, &lt;strong&gt;Vrihadbala&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &lt;strong&gt;Vrihadbala&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;was killed&lt;/a&gt; by Abhimanyu in the Mahabharata war. This makes it clear that there are 31 kings starting Lord Rama to Vrihadbala, so, &lt;strong&gt;31 kings (of Ikshvaku dynasty) ruled from Ramayana until Mahabharata.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Rama is said to be of 24&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Treta. Some references to support this are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Treta yuge chaturvinshe&lt;/strong&gt; ravane tapseh shakshyat |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ram dashrtathi prapiye sagane shakyamiyeewan ||&amp;nbsp; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Vayu Puraan 70.88]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Chaturvinshe yuge&lt;/strong&gt; chapi vishwamitra pure sare |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Loke ram iti khyate tejsah bhaskaropam ||&amp;nbsp; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Harivansh 22.104]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Chaturvinshe yuge vats tretayaam&lt;/strong&gt; raghuvanshaje | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ramo naam bhavishyami chaturvhayu sanatane || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Brahmand Puraan 2.2.36.30]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All of the above references are stating &amp;quot;Treta Yuge ChaturVimshe&amp;quot; i.e., Rama is of 24&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Treta. Mahabharata is of 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Dwapara and we are now in 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Kali.&lt;br&gt; &#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This means that the period from Ramayana to Mahabharata went as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;24&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Treta + 24&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Dwapara + 24&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Kali + &lt;br&gt; 25&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Satya + 25&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Treta + 25&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Dwapara + 25&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Kali + &lt;br&gt; 26&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; (Satya, Treta, Dwapara, Kali) + &lt;br&gt; 27&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; (Satya, Treta, Dwapara, Kali) + &lt;br&gt; 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Satya + 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Treta + 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Dwapara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Assuming 1 Chatur-yuga = 12000 years (4800 years of Satya, 3600 years of Treta, 2400 years of Dwapara and 1200 years of Kali), we get 54,000 years. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now, here comes the debate whether 4800 years of Satya, 2400 years of Treta etc. are &quot;Human-years&quot; or &quot;God-years&quot;:&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Assuming they're God-years:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, 54,000 Deva-years = 54000 &lt;code&gt;×&lt;/code&gt; 360 = 19,440,000 i.e., around 1.9 crore years. This means Mahabharata happened 1.9 cr. years after Ramayana took place. As there are only 31 kings ruling, &lt;strong&gt;average life of one king&lt;/strong&gt; comes to 1.9 crore &lt;code&gt;÷&lt;/code&gt; 31 &lt;strong&gt;= around 6 lakh years&lt;/strong&gt;!&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i.e., those 31 kings lived an average life of 6 lakh years.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Assuming 54,000 as Human-years:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2220/what-is-the-duration-timeline-of-the-four-yugas/16085#16085&quot;&gt;This answer&lt;/a&gt; actually suggests that they are Human-years. Then 31 kings would have an average age of about 1700 years. I also checked Linga Purana and in the chapter where ages are described it also calls 4800 years as Human-years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, whether it is human-years or deva-years, the average age of kings would be 1000+ years. Assuming it as Deva-years, their average age will be 6 lakh+ years!&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BUT&lt;/strong&gt; Srimad Bhagavatam suggests &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/11/18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; that it is Deva-year:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kṛtaṁ tretā dvāparaṁ ca kaliś ceti catur-yugam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;divyair dvādaśabhir&lt;/strong&gt; varṣaiḥ sāvadhānaṁ nirūpitam&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Maitreya said: O Vidura, the four millenniums are called the Satya-, Tretā-, Dvāpara- and Kali-yuga. The aggregate number of years of all of these combined is equal to &lt;strong&gt;twelve thousand years of the demigods.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It uses the word Divya which suggests it referring to celestial years. In such cases as already discussed &lt;em&gt;average life of those Kings would be around 6 lakh years.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we go with Linga Purana (which suggests Human-years) and Mahabharata, average life would be about 1700 years if Ramayana took place in the 24&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Treta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as discussed in the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3298/how-could-octogenarian-heroes-fight-in-mahabharata/16039#16039&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, the Vedas prescribe 100 years (to 300 years) of life to Humans. In such a case, if Ramayana occurred in recent Treta (i.e., 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Treta) then the average life of those kings would be around 193 years (if Rama was born in beginning of Treta) to 77 yrs (if Rama was born during end of Treta). This value is quite reasonable and is also in accordance with the Vedas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Bhavishya Purana also &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/38640?m=33265852#33265852&quot;&gt;suggests&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; that Rama was born in 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Treta.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;An interesting thing to note in this huge figure is that if a king married or reproduced even after 20,000 years after his birth, he'll still be alive to see his 31&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; generation!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, considering above calculations, I actually want to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What was the average age of those 31 Ikshvaku kings?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Did they live a life of about 6 lakh years (assuming Deva-years) or 1700 years (assuming 24&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Treta Human-year) or 77 to 193 years (assuming recent i.e., 28&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Treta)?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does any scripture talk about the age of those kings?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can we form a family tree of Ikshvaku kings from Ramayana to Mahabharata using data (ages of those kings) from various scriptures? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do we at least know ages of few of those 31 kings?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does any scripture record who among those 31 kings ruled in Kali-yuga of previous ages (i.e., 24&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Kali, 25&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Kali, 26&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;, 27&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; etc.)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-17T06:23:19.790" LastActivityDate="2018-01-17T06:23:19.790" Title="Ramayana ➡ Mahabharata: 31 Ikshvaku Kings. What was the (average) age of those kings?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|rama|yuga|suryavansh|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11196" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10274" CreationDate="2016-03-30T07:25:14.570" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sacred sandalwood offered to Shree Krishna and sacred &lt;em&gt;kumkum&lt;/em&gt; offered to Shree Lakshmi are to be applied as &lt;em&gt;tilak and chandlo&lt;/em&gt; by male members of the Swaminarayan Sect to identify them as members of the Swaminarayan sect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5188" LastActivityDate="2016-03-30T07:25:14.570" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11197" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10911" CreationDate="2016-03-30T07:36:54.087" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;All feel this conflicting view – we feel that we are free, but we also feel we are not free. Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V8 p 35 and available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Lectures and Discourses&lt;/em&gt; sub-heading &lt;em&gt;Discourses on Jnana-Yoga&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_8/vol_8_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_8/vol_8_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedanta says, ‘We are free and not free at the same time.’ That means that we are never free on the earthly plane, but ever free on the spiritual side. The Self is beyond both freedom and bondage. We are Brahman, we are immortal knowledge beyond the senses, we are Bliss Absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But first, does the universe repeat. The universe does repeats. This is taught in scripture.  &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 1.3.30 says (Swami Vireswarananda translator, available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And because of the sameness of names and forms (in every fresh cycle) there is no contradiction (to the eternity of the Vedic words) even in the revolving of the world cycles, as is seen from the Sruti and Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in his commentary on this verse, Sankara says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…This eternal existence of the world in gross and fine forms are brought out by the Sruti and Smriti texts. ‘As formerly the Lord ordered the sun and the moon, heaven, earth, and sky’ etc. (Rg-Veda 10.190.3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 2.1.35-36 it says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it be said (that is) not (possible) for want of any distinction in work (before creation), (we say) no, because of (the world) being without a beginning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And (that the world is without a beginning is reasonable and is also seen (from the scriptures).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sankara’s commentary on verse 35:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…is answered by the Sutra, which says that creation is without a beginning and the question of first creation cannot arise. It is like a seed and its sprout. So the individual souls have always had a previous existence and done good or bad deeds in accordance with which their lot in a subsequent creation is ordained by the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And his commentary on verse 36:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Reason tells us that creation must be without a beginning. For if the world did not exist in a potential state in the form of Samskaras (impressions), then an absolutely non-existing thing would be produced at creation. In that case even liberated souls might be reborn. Moreover people would be enjoying or suffering without having done anything to deserve it—an instance of an effect without a cause, which is absurd. It cannot be attributed to primeval ignorance, which, being one, requires the diversity of individual past work to produce varied results. The scriptures also posit the existence of the world in former cycles in texts like ‘The Lord devised the sun and moon as before’ (Rg-Veda 10.190.3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So partiality and cruelty cannot be imputed to the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V2, pp 229-31 and available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Jnana Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;Immortality&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_2/vol_2_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_2/vol_2_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the question of immortality is not yet settled. We have seen that everything in this universe is indestructible. There is nothing new; there will be nothing new. The same series of manifestations are presenting themselves alternately like a wheel, coming up and going down. All motion in this universe is in the form of waves, successively rising and falling. Systems after systems are coming out of fine forms, evolving themselves, and taking grosser forms, again melting down, as it were, and going back to the fine forms. Again they rise out of that, evolving for a certain period and slowly going back to the cause. So with all life. Each manifestation of life is coming up and then going back again. What goes down? The form. The form breaks to pieces, but it comes up again. In one sense bodies and forms even are eternal. How? Suppose we take a number of dice and throw them, and they fall in this ratio — 6 — 5 — 3 — 4. We take the dice up and throw them again and again; there must be a time when the same numbers will come again; the same combination must come. Now each particle, each atom, that is in this universe, I take for such a die, and these are being thrown out and combined again and again. All these forms before you are one combination. Here are the forms of a glass, a table, a pitcher of water, and so forth. This is one combination; in time, it will all break. But there must come a time when exactly the same combination comes again, when you will be here, and this form will be here, this subject will be talked, and this pitcher will be here. An infinite number of times this has been, and an infinite number of times this will be repeated. Thus far with the physical forms. What do we find? That even the combination of physical forms is eternally repeated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A most interesting conclusion that follows from this theory is the explanation of facts such as these: Some of you, perhaps, have seen a man who can read the past life of others and foretell the future. How is it possible for any one to see what the future will be, unless there is a regulated future? Effects of the past will recur in the future, and we see that it is so. You have seen the big Ferris Wheel in Chicago. The wheel revolves, and the little rooms in the wheel are regularly coming one after another; one set of persons gets into these, and after they have gone round the circle, they get out, and a fresh batch of people gets in. Each one of these batches is like one of these manifestations, from the lowest animals to the highest man. Nature is like the chain of the Ferris Wheel, endless and infinite, and these little carriages are the bodies or forms in which fresh batches of souls are riding, going up higher and higher until they become perfect and come out of the wheel. But the wheel goes on. And so long as the bodies are in the wheel, it can be absolutely and mathematically foretold where they will go, but not so of the souls. Thus it is possible to read the past and the future of nature with precision. We see, then, that there is recurrence of the same material phenomena at certain periods, and that the same combinations have been taking place through eternity. But that is not the immortality of the soul. No force can die, no matter can be annihilated. What becomes of it? It goes on changing, backwards and forwards, until it returns to the source from which it came. There is no motion in a straight line. Everything moves in a circle; a straight line, infinitely produced, becomes a circle. If that is the case, there cannot be eternal degeneration for any soul. It cannot be. Everything must complete the circle, and come back to its source. What are you and I and all these souls? In our discussion of evolution and involution, we have seen that you and I must be part of the cosmic consciousness, cosmic life, cosmic mind, which got involved and we must complete the circle and go back to this cosmic intelligence which is God. This cosmic intelligence is what people call Lord, or God, or Christ, or Buddha, or Brahman, what the materialists perceive as force, and the agnostics as that infinite, inexpressible beyond; and we are all parts of that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; (IX. 7-8), Krishna says (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Kunti, all the beings go back at the end of a cycle to My Prakrti. I project them forth again at the beginning of a cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Keeping My own Prakrti under control, I project forth again and again the whole of this multitude of beings which are powerless owing to the influence of (their own) nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; VIII. 19:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Prtha, after being born again and again, that very multitude of beings disappears in spite of itself at the approach of night. It comes to life at the approach of day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; XVIII. 60-61:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Being bound by your own duty born of nature, O son of Kunti, you, being helpless, will verily do that which you do not wish to do owing to indiscrimination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Arjuna, the Lord resides in the region of the heart of all creatures, revolving through Maya all the creatures (as though) mounted on a machine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Gospel if Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says (Chapter 9 – Advice to the Brahmos and available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter09.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter09.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VAIDYANATH: &quot;Sir, I have a doubt.  People speak of free will.  They say that a man can do either good or evil according to his will.  Is it true? Are we really free to do whatever we like?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MASTER: &quot;Everything depends on the will of God.  The world is His play.  He has created all these different things-great and small, strong and weak, good and bad, virtuous and vicious.  This is all His maya, His sport.  You must have observed that all the trees in a garden are not of the same kind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;As long as a man has not realized God, he thinks he is free.  It is God Himself who keeps this error in man.  Otherwise sin would have multiplied.  Man would not have been afraid of sin, and there would have been no punishment for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;But do you know the attitude of one who has realized God? He feels: 'I am the machine, and Thou, O Lord, art the Operator.  I am the house and Thou art the Indweller.  I am the chariot and Thou art the Driver.  I move as Thou movest me; I speak as Thou makest me speak.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the question becomes, if this universe and all these forms repeat and there is no free will, is a man free to do whatever he wants? No. What matters is your mind and your motive. Again, in the same chapter of &lt;em&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;, Ramakrishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;'As is a man's feeling of love, so is his gain.' Once two friends were going along the street, when they saw some people listening to a reading of the Bhagavata.  'Come, friend', said the one to the other.  'Let us hear the sacred book.' So saying he went in and sat down.  The second man peeped in and went away.  He entered a house of ill fame.  But very soon he felt disgusted with the place.  'Shame on me!' he said to himself.  'My friend has been listening to the sacred word of Hari; and see where I am!' But the friend who had been listening to the Bhagavata also became disgusted.  'What a fool I am!' he said.  'I have been listening to this fellow's blah-blah, and my friend is having a grand time.' In course of time they both died.  The messenger of Death came for the soul of the one who had listened to the Bhagavata and dragged it off to hell.  The messenger of God came for the soul of the one who had been to the house of prostitution and led it up to heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Verily, the Lord looks into a man's heart and does not judge him by what he does or where he lives.  'Krishna accepts a devotee's inner feeling of love.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In the Kartabhaja sect, the teacher, while giving initiation, says to the disciple, 'Now everything depends on your mind.' According to this sect, 'He who has the right mind find the right way and also achieves the right end.' It was through the power of his mind that Hanuman leapt over the sea.  'I am the servant of Rāma; I have repeated the holy name of Rāma.  Is there anything impossible for me?'-that was Hanuman's faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says (&lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; XVIII. 62):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Take refuge in Him alone with your whole being, O scion of the Bharata dynasty. Through His grace you will attain the supreme Peace and the eternal Abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Understand&lt;/strong&gt; that there is no free will, but &lt;strong&gt;think and act&lt;/strong&gt; as if there is free will&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-03-30T07:36:54.087" CommentCount="22" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11198" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11173" CreationDate="2016-03-30T08:04:46.280" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are a few Upanishads that describe what sannyas is and what the actions are to be followed. Those Upanishads are: &lt;em&gt;Bhiksuka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; of &lt;em&gt;Sukla Yajurveda&lt;/em&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;Naradaparivrajaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; of &lt;em&gt;Atharvanaveda&lt;/em&gt;, and the &lt;em&gt;Aruneyi Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; of the &lt;em&gt;Atharva-veda&lt;/em&gt;. The first is very short, essentially one verse, the last only 5 verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What the 'duties' (and I use the word loosely since a sannyasin has no duties) are depends upon what kind of sannyas a person is. The &lt;em&gt;Bhiksuka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; starts with (&lt;em&gt;Thirty Minor Upanishads&lt;/em&gt;, K Narayanasvami Aiyar translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among religious medicants (&lt;em&gt;bhiksus&lt;/em&gt;) who long for salvation (&lt;em&gt;moksa&lt;/em&gt;), there are four kinds, viz., &lt;em&gt;kuticaka&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;bahudaka&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;hamsa&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;paramahamsa&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 'rules' vary between the different types of sannyas mentioned above, but don't map for the most part to the link you provided. For instance, the same Upanishad says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the &lt;em&gt;hamsas&lt;/em&gt; should live not more than a night in a village, five nights in a town and seven nights in a sacred place,...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer or refute each point in the link provided would be too lengthy an answer. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-03-30T08:04:46.280" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11199" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10219" CreationDate="2016-03-30T08:19:40.247" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The universe is made of &lt;em&gt;Jeev&lt;/em&gt; or the soul, &lt;em&gt;Ishwar&lt;/em&gt;, or god and &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; or illusion. The &lt;em&gt;Jeev&lt;/em&gt; doesn't die, and is shapeless and formless. The &lt;em&gt;Jeev&lt;/em&gt; is situated inside the body, or &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt;, which is equal to a man putting on clothes. When you die, only the physical body dies, while the &lt;em&gt;Jeev&lt;/em&gt; takes on another body, which can be of an animal, micro-organism, plant ect. The purpose of life is to serve god, and when god is served, &lt;em&gt;Jeev&lt;/em&gt; can attain salvation, and spend the rest of eternity with &lt;em&gt;Ishwar&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5188" LastActivityDate="2016-03-30T08:19:40.247" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11202" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11204" CreationDate="2016-03-30T10:40:58.790" Score="15" ViewCount="4216" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question itself is motivated from this other question: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2665/what-are-different-types-of-sins&quot;&gt;What are different types of sins?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where the accepted answer cites some points from scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maha-pataka:  &lt;strong&gt;Killing a Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;, drinking liquor, theft, violation of the preceptor's bed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jatibrhamsa-pataka: &lt;strong&gt;Beating a brahmana&lt;/strong&gt;, smelling liquor or garlic, living through begging, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That made me wonder why god or whoever created us would say something like that? I mean killing or beating any living being is a sin, then why is it written explicitly for Brahmins?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes I feel like all the scriptures written by Brahmins are biased toward Brahmins?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5190" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2021-06-08T16:35:33.813" Title="Why is killing a brahmin considered sin while killing other caste people is not?" Tags="|scripture|gods|brahmins|caste-system|sin|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11203" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23430" CreationDate="2016-03-30T12:42:20.703" Score="3" ViewCount="1748" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently, I read &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedicdharmahinduism.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%BF-%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A5%E0%A4%BE/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;an article&lt;/a&gt; which describes rituals like Manushya bali (Human Sacrifice) known as &lt;strong&gt;पुरुष-मेध&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Purusha Medha&lt;/em&gt;). That article also claims that this practice is defined in the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why were these kinds of things practised and what were their consequences?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4539" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-01-17T20:44:07.647" LastActivityDate="2018-01-25T14:53:07.023" Title="Why Manushya bali (Human Sacrifice) was practised in ancient times?" Tags="|vedas|belief|yajna|vedic-rituals|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11204" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11202" CreationDate="2016-03-30T16:17:41.960" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your confusion arises because you think that Hindu scripture supports the Hindu caste system as seen today. That is not the case. The term Brahmana in Hindu scripture has a different connotation from the Brahmana of Hindu caste system. Hindu scripture is talking of Varna which is dependent on conduct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhrigu said, 'He is called a Brahmana in whom are truth, gifts,&#xA;  abstention from injury to others, compassion, shame, benevolence, and&#xA;  penance. He who is engaged in the profession of battle, who studies&#xA;  the Vedas, who makes gifts and takes wealth (from those he protects)&#xA;  is called a Kshatriya. He who earns fame from keep of cattle, who is&#xA;  employed in agriculture and the means of acquiring wealth, who is pure&#xA;  in behavior and attends to the study of Vedas, is called a Vaisya. He&#xA;  who takes pleasure in eating every kind of food, who is engaged in&#xA;  doing every kind of work, who is impure in behavior, who does not&#xA;  study the Vedas and whose conduct is unclean, is said to be a Sudra.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;If these characteristics be observable in a Sudra, and if they be not&#xA;  found in a Brahmana, then such a Sudra is no Sudra, and such a&#xA;  Brahmana is no Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b016.htm&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Santi parva, Section CLXXXIX&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can not be a Brahmana by simply being born in a Brahmana caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-03-30T16:34:44.530" LastActivityDate="2016-03-30T16:34:44.530" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11206" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11202" CreationDate="2016-03-30T18:33:14.343" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is killing a brahmin considered sin while killing other caste&#xA;people is not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's a wrong notion that only killing Brahmins is a sin and killing persons belonging to other varnas isn't.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Penances are prescribed for killing persons of other varnas as well in various scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu 11.126. One fourth (of the penance) for the murder of a Brahmana&#xA;is prescribed (as expiation) for (intentionally) killing a Kshatriya,&#xA;one-eighth for killing a Vaisya; know that it is one-sixteenth for&#xA;killing a virtuous Sudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, killing even insects is a sin what to say about killing larger animals and of course human beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu 11.70. Killing insects, small or large, or birds, eating anything&#xA;kept close to spirituous liquors, stealing fruit, firewood, or&#xA;flowers, (are offences) which make impure (Malavaha)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu 11.140. But for destroying one thousand (small) animals that have bones, or a whole cart-load of boneless (animals), he shall perform&#xA;the penance (prescribed) for the murder of a Sudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11.141. But for killing (small) animals which have bones, he should give some trifle to a Brahmana; if he injures boneless (animals), he&#xA;becomes pure by a suppressing his breath (pranayama)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11.142. For cutting fruit-trees, shrubs, creepers, lianas, or flowering plants, one hundred Rikas must be muttered&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11.143. (For destroying) any kind of creature, bred in food, in condiments, in fruit, or in flowers, the expiation is to eat clarified&#xA;butter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11.144. If a man destroys for no good purpose plants produced by cultivation, or such as spontaneously spring up in the forest, he&#xA;shall attend a cow during one day, subsisting on milk alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2021-06-08T14:36:50.230" LastActivityDate="2021-06-08T14:36:50.230" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11207" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10499" CreationDate="2016-03-31T08:30:52.930" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/mantras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page the minimum number of chants is &lt;strong&gt;3&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; the other permisible numbers are &lt;strong&gt;11,21,27 &amp;amp; 54&lt;/strong&gt;.So,in particular, &lt;strong&gt;60&lt;/strong&gt; is &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; a valid japa count number .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For mantra reciting, a lot depends on the type of mantra you intend to&#xA;  recite and the purpose. Some people recite some mantras daily. It is&#xA;  up to their convenience. The normal number of times a mantra is&#xA;  recited is &lt;strong&gt;3, 11, 21, 27, 54 and 108&lt;/strong&gt; or more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although the above info is generally valid but in some specific cases it does not apply.For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For specific Graha shanti, the number of times the mantra to be&#xA;  recited is prescribed. The prescribed time limit during which it&#xA;  should be completed is one mandala or 40 days. You are given a grace&#xA;  period of 8 days, taking into account any emergency or illness. So&#xA;  maximum 48 days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Mahanirvana Tantra Lord Sada Shiva says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The number of daily recitations can be 10,108 or 1008.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the 7th Chapter, verses 76-81:     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sandhya, whether Vaidika or Tantrika should be performed thrice daily,&#xA;  and according as the worship changes so does its service (76). The&#xA;  worshippers of the Brahma-Mantra have performed their Sandhya when&#xA;  they have made japa of the Gayatri, realizing within themselves the&#xA;  identity of the Gayatri and Brahman (77). In the case of those who are&#xA;  not Brahma-worshippers, Vaidika Sandhya consists of the worship of and&#xA;  offering of oblations to the Sun and the recitation of the Gayatri&#xA;  (78). O Gentle One! &lt;strong&gt;In all daily prayers recitation should be done one&#xA;  thousand and eight or a hundred and eight or ten times&lt;/strong&gt; (79). O Devi!&#xA;  the Shudras and Samanyas may observe any of the rites proclaimed by&#xA;  the Agamas, and by these they attain that which they desire (80). The&#xA;  three times of performance (of Sandhya) are at sunrise, at noon, and&#xA;  at sunset (81).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-11-14T11:45:09.147" LastActivityDate="2018-11-14T11:45:09.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11208" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-31T11:48:25.613" Score="7" ViewCount="1357" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usually, when we use the term Yavana, we refer to the Greeks since this is what has been told to us. The Monier Williams Dictionary too gives the meaning of Yavana as Greek.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then the following blogs tell a different story altogether.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://controversialhistory.blogspot.in/2009/10/origin-of-yavanas-greek-myth.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This blog&lt;/a&gt; says that Yavanas were &lt;strong&gt;not Greeks&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eupedia.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-26187-p-2.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This blog&lt;/a&gt; (you have to scroll down quite a bit) goes further and says that Yavanas were actually &lt;strong&gt;Egyptians&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main Yavana who appears in the Puranas is &lt;strong&gt;Kalayavana&lt;/strong&gt;, the warrior who caused Krsna to construct a whole new city named Dvaraka. He is supposed to be a son of a Yavana Queen by Sage Gaargya, when the King was unable to sire a son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Personally, I think Yavana maps more to the Greeks, due to Ionia being near Persia, which logically would have been the westward course which Gaargya took had he travelled in that direction. But then the above cited blogs have made me rethink, because one can easily travel southwards towards Egypt as opposed to northwards towards Ionia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, were the Yavanas Greeks or Egyptians?&#xA;Also, did the Greek/Egyptian Pantheon exist at that time? (Since it was only 5000 years ago, I am compelled to say yes, hence the clarification.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-31T15:31:30.403" LastActivityDate="2018-06-18T04:38:07.140" Title="Were Yavanas Greeks or Egyptian?" Tags="|krishna|history|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11209" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="927" CreationDate="2016-03-31T12:41:38.230" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although Purans do not explicitly mention Dash Avatar, but we can deduce it commonly.. Akrura prays to the incarnations of Lord inside Yamuna river (famously known as Akrura Dashavatar stuti ) when he sees the past and future incarnations of Lord there.. He prays to major 10 incarnations also adding Lord Hayagriva. He calls the form Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha as the form of Lord of Satvas [ ie. Lord Krishna ]. I think the concept of 10 Avatar came from here as the Purans do not focus so much about Lord Hayagriva...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagwat Puran&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  १०४००१७१ नमः कारणमत्स्याय प्रलयाब्धिचराय च&#xA;  १०४००१७३ हयशीष्णे नमस्तुभ्यं मधुकैटभमृत्यवे&#xA;  १०४००१८१ अकू पाराय बृहते नमाे मन्दरधारिणे&#xA;  १०४००१८३ क्षित्युद्धारविहाराय नमः शूकरमूर्तये&#xA;  १०४००१९१ नमस्तेऽद्भूतसिंहाय साधुलाेकभयापह&#xA;  १०४००१९३ वामनाय नमस्तुभ्यं क्रान्तत्रिभुवनाय च&#xA;  १०४००२०१ नमाे भृगुणां पतये द्दप्तक्षत्रवनच्छिदे&#xA;  १०४००२०३ नमस्ते रघुवर्याय रावणान्तकराय च&#xA;  १०४००२११ नमस्ते वासुदेवाय नमः सड़्करषणाय च&#xA;  १०४००२१३ प्रद्युन्मयनिरूद्धाय सात्वतां पतये नमः&#xA;  १०४००२२१ नमाे बुद्धाय शुद्धाय दैत्यदानवमाेहिने&#xA;  १०४००२२३ म्लेच्छप्रायक्षत्रहन्ते नमस्ते कल्किरूपिणे&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  17-18. I offer my obeisances to You, the &lt;strong&gt;cause of the creation, Lord Matsya,&lt;/strong&gt; who swam about in the &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ocean of dissolution, to &lt;strong&gt;Lord Hayagriva,&lt;/strong&gt; &gt; the killer of Madhu and Kaitabha, to &lt;strong&gt;the immense tortoise, [Lord &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kurma]&lt;/strong&gt; , who supported Mandara Mountain, and to &lt;strong&gt;the boar incarnation [Lord Varaha],&lt;/strong&gt; who enjoyed &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  lifting the earth. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  19. Obeisances to You, &lt;strong&gt;the amazing lion [Lord Nrisimha]&lt;/strong&gt; , who remove Your saintly devotees’ fear, and &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  to &lt;strong&gt;the dwarf Vamana&lt;/strong&gt; , who stepped over the three worlds.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  20. Obeisances to You, &lt;strong&gt;Lord of the Bhrgus [Lord Parashurama]&lt;/strong&gt; , who cut down the forest of the conceited royal order, and to &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;the best of the Raghu dynasty, Lord Rama&lt;/strong&gt; , who put an end to the demon Ravana. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  21. Obeisances to You, &lt;strong&gt;Lord of the Satvatas [Lord Krishna]&lt;/strong&gt; , &lt;em&gt;and to Your forms of Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and Aniruddha.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  22. Obeisances to Your form as &lt;strong&gt;the faultless Lord Buddha&lt;/strong&gt; , who will bewilder the Daityas and Danavas, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and to &lt;strong&gt;Lord Kalki, the annihilator&lt;/strong&gt; of the meat-eaters posing as kings. &gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Also Agam doctrines support this 10 Avatar associating with 10 Maha Vidyas of Tantra.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-03-31T12:53:48.103" LastActivityDate="2016-03-31T12:53:48.103" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11211" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6729" CreationDate="2016-03-31T13:37:11.750" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;@KeshavSrinivasan Sorry, not enough points to comment. I just stumbled across your answer. I read your dialog. Here's something to consider. According to Swami Prabhupada, there were two Kapilas, and their teachings differed on the theistic aspect. This is mentioned in the Foreword to this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prabhupada.de/Books/ToLKtSoD.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;book&lt;/a&gt;, which is suposed to contain the original Kapila's teachings. I haven't read it yet. Quote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is interesting to note, at this point, that long after Lord&#xA;  Kapila's descent, an imitation Kapila appeared on the Indian&#xA;  subcontinent and propounded a nontheistic Sankhya. That which is&#xA;  generally studied as Sankhya in the contemporary academic context is&#xA;  actually this later, nontheistic, materialistic Sankhya. The Sankhya&#xA;  philosophy, propounded by the original Kapila, is practically unknown&#xA;  in the West. Teachings of Lord Kapila, the Son of Devahuti (along with&#xA;  Srila Prabhupada's complete commentary on Kapila's Sankhya in his&#xA;  edition of Srimad-Bhagavatam) is probably the first major exposition&#xA;  in the English language on the original, theistic Sankhya. It should&#xA;  therefore be of considerable interest to scholars in this field.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jiva Goswami mentions in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prabhupada.de/kusakratha/Kusakratha_Sri%20Krishna-Sandarbha.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Krsna-sandarbha&lt;/a&gt; that this assertion is made in Padma Purana, but doesn't mention the verse's location. Quote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The original Lord Kapila and a later imposter who assumed the same&#xA;  name, are both described in the following verses of Padma Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared as Lord Kapila and spoke&#xA;    the original Sankhya philosophy, which eloquently presents the same&#xA;    philosophy expounded in all the Vedic literatures. This incarnation of&#xA;    the Lord instructed the Brahmana Asuri, many great demigods headed by&#xA;    Brahma and many sages, headed by Bhrgu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;An imposter later assumed the name Kapila and spoke an illogical,&#xA;    atheistic theory, to his disciple named Asuri and claimed his atheism&#xA;    to be the actual Sankhya philosophy. In this way there are two&#xA;    contradictory philosophies, both bearing the same name of Sankhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5207" LastEditorUserId="5207" LastEditDate="2016-04-01T01:28:44.830" LastActivityDate="2016-04-01T01:28:44.830" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11212" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11220" CreationDate="2016-03-31T15:28:31.010" Score="3" ViewCount="645" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading a book by Dalai Lama called &quot;The universe in a single atom&quot;   which relates Buddhism to science.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, it would be great to know of some books that relate Hinduism to science.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some books, which can give me some cognitive and theoretical understanding of the religion of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, religion is not just a religion to me, it is much more than that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4968" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-03-31T19:10:40.667" LastActivityDate="2016-04-01T06:41:17.217" Title="What are the some books that relate Hinduism to science?" Tags="|science|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11215" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-03-31T18:43:42.997" Score="7" ViewCount="13228" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna is also known as &lt;strong&gt;Gudakesha&lt;/strong&gt; meaning &lt;strong&gt;The one who has conquered sleep and who is not affected by sleep&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From B.G. 10.20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहं  आत्मा   गुडाकेश &#xA;  सर्व भूतस्य स्थितः &#xA;  अहं  अदिश्च्   मध्यंच &#xA;  भूतानांन्त  एव  च &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aham atma gudakesa&#xA;  sarva-bhutasaya-sthitah&#xA;  aham adis ca madhyam ca&#xA;  bhutanam anta eva ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am the Self, O &lt;strong&gt;Guḍākeśa&lt;/strong&gt;, seated in the hearts of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story of Arjuna conquering sleep and how did he do that? Are there any more Gudakesha people in this world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-04-01T06:40:57.967" LastActivityDate="2019-03-11T15:23:47.030" Title="How and when did Arjuna conquer sleep?" Tags="|puranas|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11216" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11202" CreationDate="2016-03-31T23:19:44.640" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nonviolence is an important duty for all humans in general of any caste:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Nonviolence, truthfulness, honesty, desire for the happiness and welfare of all others and freedom from lust, anger and greed constitute duties for all members of society.&quot; (Bhagavata Purana, 11.17.21)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Killing anyone or anything is considered as sinful, in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However there are rare conditions where killing is ok:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa said: O Arjuna, you should not show mercy by releasing&#xA;  this relative of a brāhmaṇa, for he has killed&#xA;  innocent boys in their sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A person who knows the principles of dharma does not kill an enemy&#xA;  who is careless, intoxicated, insane, asleep, afraid or devoid of his&#xA;  chariot. Nor does he kill a boy, a woman, a foolish creature or a&#xA;  surrendered soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A cruel and wretched person who maintains his existence at the cost of&#xA;  others’ lives deserves to be killed for his own well-being, otherwise&#xA;  he will go down by his own actions.&quot; (Bhagavata Purana, 1.7.35-37)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ahiṁsā or nonviolence is an important principle in every form of Hinduism and mentioned over and over again in many scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If one shows the symptoms of being a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya or&#xA;  śūdra, as described above, even if he has appeared in a different&#xA;  class, he should be accepted according to those symptoms of&#xA;  classification.&quot; - Bhagavata Purana, 7.11.35&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A brahmana is someone with brahminical qualities (likewise the same for the other castes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Someone who kills innocent people becomes an outcaste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Don't you know that Ravana was from a brahmin family by birth but became known as an Asura? Ram was not from a brahmin family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Overtime in this Kali Yuga the caste system became abused, distorted, and polluted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, violence does not bring people closer towards perfection or unity with God, it pushes people away from God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4942" LastEditorUserId="4942" LastEditDate="2016-04-12T02:58:20.687" LastActivityDate="2016-04-12T02:58:20.687" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11217" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-01T05:51:37.503" Score="8" ViewCount="6512" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the famous &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Raksha_Stotra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ram Raksha Stotra&lt;/a&gt;(श्रीरामरक्षास्तोत्रम्), in of the place while describing the charecteristics of Lord Rama, it is mentioned as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ध्यायेदाजानुबाहुं धृतशरधनुषं बद्धपद्‌मासनस्थं&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the meaning for above is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May he be meditated upon, &lt;strong&gt;who has arms reaching his knees&lt;/strong&gt;, who is&#xA;  holding a bow and arrows, who is seated in a lotus pose&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in the Bala Kanda of Valmiki Ramayan, below is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga1/bala_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;description&lt;/a&gt; of Lord Rama&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आजानु बाहुः सुशिराः सुललाटः सुविक्रमः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Rama is described as Ajanubahu(आजानुबाहु) which means &quot;One whose arms are long enough to reach his knees&quot; in Rama Raksha as well as Valmiki Ramayan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I do came across many images of Rama in day-to-day life (in religious places, during religious festivals etc.) but in those images, Rama does not quite appears &#xA;Ajanubahu(आजानुबाहु).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below are some images that I found on internet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4vZAi.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4vZAi.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bxGy0.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bxGy0.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this intentional? Or these image-creators does not paid much attention to the fact that how Rama really was and missed this important characteristic of his? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why Rama is not depicted as Ajanubahu(आजानुबाहु)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2016-04-04T06:47:40.823" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T19:00:47.260" Title="Why Rama is not depicted as Ajanubahu(आजानुबाहु) in idol/pictures?" Tags="|belief|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11218" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11202" CreationDate="2016-04-01T06:16:40.983" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra Committed Sin of Killing  Brahman Demon&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A group of powerful (Rakshas) demons attacked Indralok, out of terror, Indra left his kingdom and went to Brahma for the advice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma showed him a Brahman Rakshas (demon) and asked him to make that Brahman Rakshas his guru. Indra followed the orders and helped the Rakshas in Vedic rituals and Hawans but at the end of the rituals, Indra wanted to retaliate the group of demons using the offerings instead the Rakshas gave all the food offerings to his mother who was also a Rakshasni. Indra was very angry so he killed that Rakshas (demon) and his vengeful Rakshasni mother started haunting Indra wherever he went. The sin of Brahman Hatya led to his exile. So to escape from her wrath, since she was enraged and Indra killing the Brahman had committed heinous sin, he finally decided to hide himself in a flower for 100,000 years and did penance remembering Bhagwan Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu appeared and advised that killing a Brahman is irreversible sin and to dilute its impact on himself, he need to distribute sin among the pious creations of Vedic Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So pious creations of Gods were –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earth&#xA;Ocean&#xA;Trees&#xA;Women&#xA;As shown, one such pious creation of Vedic Gods were women too, so the women’s menstrual cycle was actually curse of Indra and since then they are forbidden from going to temples or holy pilgrimages. Indra passing portion of his sin to women made them impure during menstrual cycle. One more thing about women’s importance is that, there is a tradition to bow down inverted on ground in front of God but women are not allowed to do that. The reason is to offer dignity and respect: woman’s womb is considered to be very sacred and pious and by completely touching the ground even in front of God is an insult to that womb so women are not allowed to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eventually the absorption of partial Karmic reactions of Indra’s sin lead to&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cracks on Earth&#xA;Waves in Ocean Waves&#xA;Milk oozing out from Trees&#xA;Menstrual Cycle in Women&#xA;Any harm done to Indra would have led to series of drought and decimation of species, beings. As explained before, Indra was the God of wars, storms, and the heavens. So the distribution of sin among pious beings was done for the prosperity and continuum of the mankind and species.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5208" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-17T07:39:35.927" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T07:39:35.927" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11219" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-01T06:26:16.297" Score="-7" ViewCount="248" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu mythology says that Vishnu (or RAM) resides in everyone's heart. Scriptures also say that Shiva meditates on the Ram form of Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, who brought into the universe the concept of RAM for the first time?? Was Shiva brought in the concept during the early stages of the universe??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T15:10:46.057" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T15:10:46.057" Title="Who is the pioneer of the RAM concept?" Tags="|shiva|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11220" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11212" CreationDate="2016-04-01T06:41:17.217" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;What is Life? with 'Mind and Matter'&quot; by Erwin Schrodinger - winner of the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the dual nature of light, he mentions Vedanta specifically in this book&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Quantum Physics and Ultimate Reality: Mystical Writings of Great Physicists&quot; Michael Green, editor - many philosophical musings of Einstein, Schrodinger, Pauli, Planck, Bohr, Heisenberg, etc., etc. with their own thoughts and arguments as to how hard sciences fail in the end and lead to the 'One'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Spooky Action at a Distance: The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time&quot; by George Musser - published only last year, the author has no exposure to Vedanta, but when you read the book, you will the similarities of Vedanta as to where current theories are going.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Patanjali's &quot;Yoga Aphorisms&quot;. he speaks of the evolution of species thousands of years before the Darwin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-04-01T06:41:17.217" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11222" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-01T18:01:56.213" Score="3" ViewCount="125" Body="&lt;p&gt;Besides the Indian subcontinent, are there any Puranic or Vedic references or mention of other places on Earth? I know about Sri Lanka mentioned in Ramayana. But other than Lanka and India, what do our ancient scriptures say about the rest of the world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-01T22:09:30.280" LastActivityDate="2016-04-02T05:51:10.690" Title="Scriptural mention of places other than India?" Tags="|mahabharata|vedas|ramayana|puranas|history|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-04-02T08:00:57.363" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11224" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8915" CreationDate="2016-04-02T02:37:37.803" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;A couple of commentaries on Valmiki Ramayana I found at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/ecommentaries?field_commnetary_tid=8&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=1&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt; cover Sri Rama's qualities in good detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/ecommentaries?field_commnetary_tid=8&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=1&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Amritakataka&lt;/a&gt; (commentary by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/about&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shree Madhava Yogi Pranita&lt;/a&gt;, tr. by Dr. Shubra Sarma):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki’s Query to Narada 1.1.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Valmiki asks: who among men is the greatest? Who is the person embellished with all virtues? Who is &lt;strong&gt;guṇavān&lt;/strong&gt;, or who has good qualities like happiness, benevolence, etc.? Who is &lt;strong&gt;vīryavān&lt;/strong&gt; or one with special power that comes from possessing divine weapons and strength? Who is &lt;strong&gt;dharmajña&lt;/strong&gt;, or one well-versed in the Vedic and Smrti literature and knows the niceties of religion, philosophy and morality? Who is &lt;strong&gt;kṛtajña&lt;/strong&gt; or one who forgets evil deeds of others and considers even one good deed with much gratefulness? &lt;strong&gt;Satyavākya&lt;/strong&gt; is one who speaks whatever he sees or hears. &lt;strong&gt;Drdhavrata&lt;/strong&gt;, is one, even though surrounded by adversities, never forsakes the special vow to uphold dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama’s Virtues 1.1.3-6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama possesses character and wealth [&lt;strong&gt;cāritreṇa&lt;/strong&gt;], looks after the welfare of all in this world [&lt;strong&gt;sarva-bhūteṣu-hitaḥ&lt;/strong&gt;] as well as the next. He wishes Ravana, his greatest enemy well and wishes him heaven after death. He knows all about atman, anatman, etc. has the skill of social behaviour and of ruling the subjects and is therefore known as &lt;strong&gt;samartha&lt;/strong&gt;, is attractive, always remains beautiful and whose body is uniformly good-looking [&lt;strong&gt;eka priya darśanaḥ&lt;/strong&gt;]. Another view is that Rama is a person who is good-looking to only one individual. But what purpose does this interpretation serve?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama is &lt;strong&gt;ātmavān&lt;/strong&gt; that is one who has control over his desires and senses and has conquered his mind. He is described as &lt;strong&gt;jitakrodha&lt;/strong&gt;. Krodha includes desire to kill. But a person who does not indulge in unnecessary or unprovoked violence can be said to have conquered anger. He has that special glow emanating from a beautiful body which compels everyone to keep on looking, and it is known as dyuti (glow) and one who possesses that special grace is &lt;strong&gt;dyutimān&lt;/strong&gt;. Anasuyaka is one who is not jealous of another’s knowledge, wealth or progress. Jealousy is asuya and one who is not jealous is known as &lt;strong&gt;anasūyaka&lt;/strong&gt;. “Who is such a divine person who possesses all these qualities? I want to hear of him”. That was the query of Valmiki. It is quite unusual to find these qualities together in one place. Therefore I have very great anxiety to know it. I ask you because you alone are able to answer”. The word maharsi is an adjective. It is used purposefully to denote that Narada has the power to go beyond the senses. He is trilokajnah or the knower of the three worlds, bhuh, bhuvah and svah. Narada knows whatever has happened or is happening in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/ecommentaries?field_commnetary_tid=12&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=1&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tatva Deepika&lt;/a&gt; (commentary by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sribhashyam_Appalacharyulu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sribhashyam Appalacharyulu&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Valmiki’s query 1.1.2-6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Valmiki cites various qualities and asks Narada as to who in this world is endowed with all virtues? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here the word &lt;strong&gt;guna&lt;/strong&gt; means special excellences, which are separate from the ordinary visible qualities, because the reply to this question mentions such excellences.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The excellence by which one defeats the enemies without himself being injured is called Viryam and one who has it is called &lt;strong&gt;Viryavan&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dharmajna&lt;/strong&gt; is a person who knows both the general and special dharmas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krtajna&lt;/strong&gt; is he who considers even a little help rendered by others as great.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satyavak&lt;/strong&gt; is one who speaks the truth under all circumstances.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Drdhvrata&lt;/strong&gt; is he who does not break a vow until it yields the desired result.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Caritra is the behaviour that has come down as a tradition in one’s family. &lt;strong&gt;Caritrena Yuktah&lt;/strong&gt; is one who possesses all good behaviour.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The phrase &lt;strong&gt;Sarvabhutesu&lt;/strong&gt; implies that the person does good even to those that offend him. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aidvan&lt;/strong&gt; knows everything worthy of knowing. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samartha&lt;/strong&gt; is a person who is able to perform tasks which others cannot.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kascaica priyadarsanah&lt;/strong&gt; is the person whose sight is endlessly dear to all. Sight can become dear only for handsome limbs. Hence it means a person who has exquisite limbs.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atmavan&lt;/strong&gt; is one who controls his mind or who is courageous.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jitakrodhah&lt;/strong&gt; is a compound word, in this krodha implies all the six bad qualities of the mind, namely kama (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (avarice), moha (infatuation), mada (intoxication or arrogance) and matsarya (envy). Jita is one who has subdued them. So the phrase denotes he who has subdued all the six internal enemies.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dyutiman&lt;/strong&gt; is brilliant.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Asuya is finding flaws even in excellences; he who is free from asuya or feared by gods or demons in battles is &lt;strong&gt;anasuyaka&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Etat means he who possesses all the qualities cited above. Trilokajna is a person whose knowledge encompasses all the three worlds. Amantrya implies he attracted Valmiki’s attention for achieving similarity of thought. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kasya Bibhyati Devasca&lt;/strong&gt; shows the abundance of qualities that makes gods afraid. This does not apply to Brahma etc. It relates to somebody else (Rama).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Again, since an ordinary mortal cannot be expected to possess all the great qualities cited in Valmiki’s question, it finally culminates in the Supreme God who came down in human form for the world’s protection.&lt;/strong&gt; Narada is happy for the opportunity he luckily got to analogise the excellencies of the Lord. This is indicated by the word Prahrsta. Buddhva Laksyami means, ‘I am going to describe a great person who has the numerous rare qualities cited by you’. The verb Sruyatam in the imperative mood gives the idea that it was the right time for Valmiki to hear about that great man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-04-02T02:37:37.803" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11225" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2024" CreationDate="2016-04-02T05:12:13.897" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Kandadai Ramanujacharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdaejVTYqms&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They are painted likewise nowadays so that temples can be identified from a long distance&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; also to differentiate them from ordinary houses or buildings. But according to shastras, temples should be painted&#xA;with seven colours. (&lt;strong&gt;Saptha-varna-aashrithah.&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord likes color of Turmeric Powder (Yellow) most as Lord is&#xA;Peetambarasali (who likes to be clad with Yellow garments). Lord&#xA;also likes Kumkum color. So, Paramatma likes Yellow, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumkuma&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kumkuma color&lt;/a&gt;,&#xA;White and Red in decreasing order. White represents Sattva&#xA;Guna, Red represents Rajo Guna and Black represents Tamo Guna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To  show these Gunas figuratively, most of temples are painted with White&#xA;and Red as a person should have more Sattva and little Rajas and if&#xA;possible no Tamas or very minute amount of Tamas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The video is part of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhakthitv.in/category_dharmasandehalu.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Sandhehalu&lt;/a&gt; program which is telecast on Telugu Devotional channel &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhakthi_TV&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhakti TV&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-07T09:03:38.077" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11227" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11219" CreationDate="2016-04-02T06:42:57.490" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all your question is not that clear.But inspite of that let me try to answer it.Let's hope that it clears some of your doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who resides in our heart is your first question.So,let me answer that first.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's take the Sanyasa Suktam from the MahaNarayanopanishad as found &lt;a href=&quot;http://mathrusrisarada.org/Na%20Karma%20Na%20in%20English.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; .Quoting from the last two verses :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dahraṁ vipāpaṁ parameśmabhūtaṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yatpuṇḍarīkaṁ puramadhya saggaṁstham |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tatrāpi dahraṁ gaganaṁ viśoka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Stasmin yadantasta-dupāsitavyam |3|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yo vedādau svaraḥ prokto&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedānte ca pratiṣṭitaḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tasya prakṛati līnasya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yaḥ parassa &lt;strong&gt;maheśvaraḥ&lt;/strong&gt; |4|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-In the citadel of the body there is the small sinless &amp;amp; pure lotus of the heart which is the residence of the Supreme Person.Further in the interior of this small area there is the sorrowless ether.This is to be meditated upon continually. |3|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is &lt;strong&gt;Maheswaraha&lt;/strong&gt;(Lord Shiva) who transcends the syllable OM which is uttered at the commencement of the recital of the Vedas which is well established in the Upanishads &amp;amp; which alone remains after the final dissolution.|4|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,according to Sanyasa Suktam Lord Shiva(Maheswarah) resides in our heart.&#xA; and who is the object of meditation of the Sanyasis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if you read the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/invoc/in_nara.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narayana Suktam&lt;/a&gt; it also says almost the same thing in a slightly different way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/X81kT.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/X81kT.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0sNYF.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0sNYF.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,i have quoted from the most authoritative scriptures ,the Vedas, to show what it says about who resides in our heart.Its basically God who resides in it,&amp;amp; who is one but we know Him by different names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So ,you can say that Shiva resides or Narayana resides ,the meaning both being just the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, coming to your second question regarding who first emphasized the glory of Rama Nama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Vishnu_Sahasranamam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Sahasranam is found in the Mahabharatha. Literally&#xA;  translated this means thousand names of Vishnu. This is found in the&#xA;  Anushasanika Parvam (chapter relating to orders or rules to the kings)&#xA;  of Mahabharatha. ......... In the afterward to the stotra Goddess&#xA;  Parvathi asks Siva the cosmic god for an easy way to sing this stotra&#xA;  for the learned. &lt;strong&gt;He replies that it is sufficient that the learned&#xA;  one repeats the name of Rama and this is equivalent to his singing of&#xA;  sahasranama. It is important to note that this is easy method is&#xA;  prescribed to the very learned who do not have time to recite it daily&#xA;  and not for everybody,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The greatness of Rama Nama is also described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/bhavishya/bookview.php?chapnum=25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhavisya Purana&lt;/a&gt; as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama namahi tat jnyeyam Sarvaaghouga vinashanam (Rama nama itself&#xA;  would destrory all the sins).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-04-02T10:41:08.683" LastActivityDate="2016-04-02T10:41:08.683" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11228" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11185" CreationDate="2016-04-02T15:59:54.643" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your aunt did the right thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Plucking Tulasi leaves after sunset and at certain other times is strictly prohibited as per our scriptures &amp;amp;  is considered to be a big offence. The Devi Bhagawatha Purana (in Book 9; 24th Chapter) states that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whoever holds in his neck the garland made up of Tulasî wood, gets&#xA;  certainly the fruit of horse sacrifices at every step. He who does not&#xA;  keep his word, holding the Tulasî leaf in his hand, goes to the&#xA;  Kâlasûtra Hell as long as the Sun and Moon last. He who gives false&#xA;  evidence in the presence of the Tulasî leaf, goes to the Kumbhîpâka&#xA;  Hell for the life-periods of fourteen Indras. He who drinks or gets a&#xA;  bit of the Tulasî leaf water at the time of death, certainlygoes to&#xA;  Vaikuntha, ascending on a car made up of jewels. &lt;strong&gt;Those who pluck or&#xA;  cull the Tulasî leaves in the Full Moon night, on the twelfth lunar&#xA;  day, on the passing of the sun from one sign to another, the mid-day,&#xA;  or on the twilights, on the night, while applying oil on their bodies,&#xA;  on the impurity periods, and while putting on night dresses, verily&#xA;  eat off the Nârâyana’s head.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;-Adding one more source.This one is from the book called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookview.php?chapnum=24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tulasi Mahima: As regards Tulasi, it is stated that during the&#xA;  Vaidhruti and Vyatipata times, Sunday-Tuesday-Fridays, Purnima and&#xA;  Amavasyas, Sankranti days, Dwadashi Tithis and during Ashuchi days,&#xA;  plucking Tulasi is as atrocious as cutting one’s own head. &lt;strong&gt;Plucking&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Durva on Sundays, &lt;strong&gt;Tulasi on Raatris and Sandhyas&lt;/strong&gt;, Dhatri Patra in&#xA;  Kartika Month, &lt;strong&gt;no person desirous of achieving Punya would never&#xA;  attempt.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-07-10T07:05:51.063" LastActivityDate="2018-07-10T07:05:51.063" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11229" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-03T03:11:17.937" Score="2" ViewCount="434" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 Sutra 26 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Topic-15: Rejection and Reception of Merit &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  26. But where only the rejection of virtue and vice is spoken of, the reception of these by others has to be inferred, on account of the term reception being a counter-correlative of rejection. And this is on the analogy of kusas, metres, praise and recitation, as has been explained (by Jaimini).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most commentators interpret this Sutra as referring to the fact that when a person gets Moksha, their good karma and bad karma gets transferred to their friends and enemies respectively; see Adi Shankaracharya's commentary &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38169.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and Ramanujacgarya's commentary &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38169.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But as with many things, the Dvaita philosopher Madhvacharya interprets this Sutra very differently.  Madhvacharya thinks it's saying that after Moksha, liberated souls continue to meditate upon Brahman; here's what he says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AKtPF.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this except&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Brahma Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as the twice-born after the performance of the (daily) study enjoined upon them, viz., Brahma Yagna, they recite the praises (Yajus and other mantras) and the songs (of Sama Veda) wearing merely at their pleasure the Kusa Pavitra on their finger ; so ... also meditation, etc., in the world of heaven (are performed by the blessed of their own accord). For all the other injunctions are only subservient to the injunction (statement) referring to final beatitude, viz., &quot;He who knows Brahman attains to the Highest (Brahman) &quot; (Tait. III. 10).  And this optional performance of devotion etc., by the released is spoken of in such texts as, &quot; He remains singing the Saman &quot; (Tait III. 10) ; also in the Brahma Tarka, &quot;Indeed even those that have attained to heavenly bliss perform of their own accord the meditation of Hari, just as Brahmins after their regular duty recite the Vedas, observing the rule of wearing Kusa grass,  etc., (sitting with their face to the east, etc.).&quot; &lt;strong&gt;Further the Bharata says &quot;Krishna the Lord of perfect bliss is worshipped by the released from whom all wrong knowledge is swept.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss the Taittiriya Upanishad's description of liberated souls praising Vishnu using the Purushagati Saman in my question and answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5396/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is, where does the Mahabharata say that liberated souls worship Krishna?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in principle, one could check the Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya, Madhvacharya's commentary on the Mahbharata.&#xA;But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8680/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Madhvacharya's scriptural quotes are notoriously hard to track down in actual copies of texts we have in our possession.  And so I am virtually certain that Madhvacharya doesn't mention this putative quote in his Mahabharata commentary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, is anyone familiar with this Mahabharata quote?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-08-22T07:53:52.437" Title="Where does the Mahabharata say that liberated souls worship Krishna?" Tags="|mahabharata|philosophy|brahma-sutras|madhvacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11230" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11734" CreationDate="2016-04-03T05:03:54.307" Score="7" ViewCount="7278" Body="&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; states that mandir is a sanskrit word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the etymological meaning of &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;mandir&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4421" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2019-06-04T06:28:07.623" LastActivityDate="2019-06-04T06:28:07.623" Title="Etymological meaning of &quot;mandir&quot;" Tags="|temple|etymology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11231" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11215" CreationDate="2016-04-03T05:44:11.097" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to a story I know, Arjuna was so desperate of being a great archer as his guru Dronacharya blessed him so.He started practicing archery in the night without caring about sleep and tiredness. So he conquered sleep in that way I think. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story I found somewhere on the web.Now I could not find it anywhere.So I could not paste the links for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-04-04T10:08:10.190" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T10:08:10.190" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11232" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10338" CreationDate="2016-04-03T06:18:00.617" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In South India,in the temples of the Lord Vishnu, the lord is often worshipped using tamil verses which were written by the great saints of Sri Vaishnavism Azhwars.Most important and famous one is the &lt;strong&gt;Thiruppavai&lt;/strong&gt; which was written by &lt;strong&gt;Sri Aandaal(maiden name&quot;Godha devi&quot;)&lt;/strong&gt;.Thiruppavai is recited in almost all vishnu temples in the month of Dhanurmasa in the place of suprabhaatham.There are plenty of traditional works of azhwars that are chanted in Vaishnava temples during different occasions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2016-04-03T06:18:00.617" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11233" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11192" CreationDate="2016-04-03T06:58:01.560" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The arch over the deities is called as &lt;strong&gt;Makara Toranam&lt;/strong&gt;.It is considered to be the guardian of gateways and thresholds.Almost all the deities in the  south Indian temples  have  makara toranam above them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia has a page about Makara a giant sea creature which is also said as the vahana of Ganga devi.&#xA;The reason of presence of it in south India may be due to the art and sculpture loving rulers in South India who built hundreds of temples during their reign.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-04-03T07:06:36.887" LastActivityDate="2016-04-03T07:06:36.887" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11234" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10338" CreationDate="2016-04-03T07:19:16.537" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's hard to answer this question simply because the word &quot;Mantra&quot; in itself is too broad, in my opinion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, lets try to understand what is meaning of Mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantra(मंत्र) is a sacred utterance believed by practitioners to have psychological and spiritual powers. &#xA;The Sanskrit word &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;mantra&lt;/a&gt; consists of the root man- &quot;to think&quot; (also in manas &quot;mind&quot;) and the suffix -tra, designating tools or instruments, hence a literal translation would be &quot;instrument of thought&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, Mantra(मंत्र) = instrument of thought&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next, these Mantra comes in many different forms. For example: verses from the Rigveda or musical chants from the Sāmaveda can be considered as Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beside this, there is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantra#Definition&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;no formal definition of Mantra&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Considering all above points, its hard to prove or disprove what is Mantra and what is NOT a Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, to answer the question, there is  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/marathi_prayers/marathi_stotras/maruti_stotra.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Maruti Stotra&lt;/a&gt; written in Marathi, which is popular in Maharashtra India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other popular example is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman_Chalisa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hanuman Chalisa&lt;/a&gt; written in Awadhi language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These both can be considered as  stotra (and not Mantra) but one can use either whole or some verse inside it, as an &quot;&lt;strong&gt;instrument of thought&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And hence it can be termed as Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2016-04-03T07:24:49.753" LastActivityDate="2016-04-03T07:24:49.753" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11237" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-03T12:21:58.943" Score="0" ViewCount="636" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think the question in the title is complete and needs no further explanation :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT 1&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;@SwamiVishwananda answered here that there is no first birth. But if there is previous birth, maybe that previous birth is the first birth so the question now becomes what is one's previous birth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5222" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-07T15:23:01.937" LastActivityDate="2016-04-07T15:23:01.937" Title="If rebirth/reincarnation is true then what is one's first birth/incarnation?" Tags="|rebirth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2016-04-03T13:32:58.780" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11238" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11237" CreationDate="2016-04-03T13:14:23.760" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no first birth, or incarnation. In &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 2.1.35-36 (Swami Vireswarananda translator) it says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it be said (that is) not (possible) for want of any distinction in work (before creation), (we say) no, because of (the world) being without a beginning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And (that the world is without a beginning is reasonable and is also seen (from the scriptures).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sankara’s commentary on verse 35:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…is answered by the Sutra, which says that creation is without a beginning and the question of first creation cannot arise. It is like a seed and its sprout. So the individual souls have always had a previous existence and done good or bad deeds in accordance with which their lot in a subsequent creation is ordained by the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And his commentary on verse 36:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Reason tells us that creation must be without a beginning. For if the world did not exist in a potential state in the form of Samskaras (impressions), then an absolutely non-existing thing would be produced at creation. In that case even liberated souls might be reborn. Moreover people would be enjoying or suffering without having done anything to deserve it—an instance of an effect without a cause, which is absurd. It cannot be attributed to primeval ignorance, which, being one, requires the diversity of individual past work to produce varied results. The scriptures also posit the existence of the world in former cycles in texts like ‘The Lord devised the sun and moon as before’ (&lt;em&gt;Rg-Veda&lt;/em&gt; 10.190.3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So partiality and cruelty cannot be imputed to the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your soul is eternal, it has always had a previous existence, it never had a first birth.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-04-03T13:14:23.760" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11239" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-03T17:09:54.190" Score="5" ViewCount="582" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please don't get offended and i'm just curious. According to Skanda Purana, Goddess Sati self immolated in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27477/62f_chapter_19_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swayamabhuva Manvanatara of Pitri Kalpa&lt;/a&gt;. She was born again as Parvathi Devi at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27478/62f_chapter_19_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;beginning of current Vaishvara Manvantara of Swetha Varaha Kalpa&lt;/a&gt;. When Lord Rudra was carrying her body, Lord Narayana used His Sudarshana Chakra which cut Her body into different parts and these organs had fallen in different locations on Earth and these places are called as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti_Peetha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shakti Peeths&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But at the end of Kalpa, Rudra destroys Earth. But i'm not sure about transition times of Pitri Kalpa and Swetha Varaha Kalpa, as Lord Vishnu's Avatar Varaha rescued Earth from demon Hiranyaksha who hid Earth in waters. So, i think Earth was not destroyed by Rudra at end of Pitri Kalpa. Still people worship the Shakti Peets of Previous Kalpa where Goddess organs are well preserved and worshipped with high veneration. So, my questions are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Was Earth destroyed at end of previous Kalpa? If Yes, how Goddess organs were preserved during Pralaya?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Generally, what happens to Idols in various temples at the end of Kalpa? I think temples are built only in Kali Yuga. Is this true?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There's a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manikarnika_Ghat#Significance&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;legend &lt;/a&gt;for Holy City of Kashi where it will be not be destroyed even at at end of Kalpa. So, is there any story for these Shaktipeets in particular and other temples in general?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-01-10T17:17:17.160" Title="What happens to the Idols in Temples at end of Kalpa as Rudra destroys Bhuloka at end of Kalpa?" Tags="|temple|kali-yuga|shakti|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11240" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11246" CreationDate="2016-04-03T18:35:34.423" Score="7" ViewCount="753" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not Hindu but it's my understanding that there are Hindu texts that specify a caste system. Must these systems be followed, or is something like a classless society as outlined by Marx (minus the atheism bit) allowed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See also &lt;a href=&quot;https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/10485/how-can-a-classless-society-exist-with-religion&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; on &lt;a href=&quot;https://politics.stackexchange.com/&quot;&gt;Politics.SE&lt;/a&gt; (there are links to more questions at other religious sites there).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This question is different because I'm not asking about the why of the caste system, although that may provide context. This question asks is it necessary, and does the religion work with Communism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5224" LastEditorUserId="10329" LastEditDate="2018-05-26T18:09:26.487" LastActivityDate="2018-05-28T03:04:30.183" Title="Can Hinduism work in a classless society?" Tags="|scripture|culture|caste-system|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11241" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11255" CreationDate="2016-04-03T21:30:53.667" Score="6" ViewCount="1390" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did all Rakshasas descend only from Kashyapa or from other sages as well ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Were Vasishta Agasthya of Rakshasa origin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What proportion of Rakshasas were evil and what part pious and neutral judging from mythological descriptions ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T06:22:58.230" LastActivityDate="2018-01-03T06:22:58.230" Title="Do Rakshasas have a gotra?" Tags="|gotra|rakshasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11242" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6494" CreationDate="2016-04-03T23:04:29.570" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama goes to Ravana after killing him in the battlefield. During the time when Ravana lay down dying and even unable to rise, Rama seeks advice from Ravana in that state about secrets of statecraft. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the advices he gave Rama is &quot; Never put off to tomorrow what you can do today !&quot; ... I wanted to have a staircase built from heaven to Sri Lanka, but alas..&quot;  and so on , as others here also have narrated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/How_high_did_he_(Ravana)_make_it_(a_staircase_to_reach_the_heavenly_planets)%3F&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ravana bragging about HeavenStairCase&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2016-10-09T11:40:51.977" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T11:40:51.977" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11244" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7724" CreationDate="2016-04-04T04:23:24.407" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Sagotra (same-gotra) marriages are prohibited by Hindu scripture.&lt;/strong&gt; Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu03.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A damsel who is neither a Sapinda on the mother's side, nor belongs to the same family on the father's side, is recommended to twice-born men for wedlock and conjugal union.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe14/sbe1411.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what this chapter of the Vasishtha Dharma Sutras says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(A student who desires to become) a house-holder shall bathe, free from anger and elation, with the permission of his teacher, and take for a wife a young female of his own caste, who does neither belong to the same Gotra nor has the same Pravara, who has not had intercourse (with another man)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe30/sbe30026.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Gobhila Grihya Sutras says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A student, after he has studied the Veda,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And has offered a present to his Guru (i.e. to his) teacher,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;3 Should, with the permission (of his parents), take a wife,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;One who does not belong to the same Gotra,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/sbe07026.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; the Vishnu Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;9&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;No one should marry a woman belonging to the same Gotra, or descended from the same Rishi ancestors, or from the same Pravaras.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many other scriptures say the same thing.  In any case, the reason for the rule is that if two people share a patrilineal ancestor, then it's considered a form of incest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-07T14:56:43.673" LastActivityDate="2016-04-07T14:56:43.673" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11245" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13711" CreationDate="2016-04-04T04:26:18.067" Score="9" ViewCount="3386" Body="&lt;p&gt;When people recite Lord Shiva's name, they often do it in couplets, such as 'Shiva Shiva', 'Shiva Shiva', etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the correct pronunciation: &quot;Shiva&quot; - or - &quot;Siva&quot;?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that sometimes you are to pronounce &quot;sh&quot; and sometimes you just say &quot;si.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the correct way to say it with regards to saying it in couplets like I described above?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since proper pronunciation is so vital in Indian mantras, I want to make sure I pronounce it correctly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5101" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-15T23:37:40.103" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T06:26:54.993" Title="Correct way to chant Lord Shiva's name" Tags="|shiva|scripture|sanskrit|name|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11246" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11240" CreationDate="2016-04-04T05:01:54.600" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;... there are Hindu texts that specify a 'caste system'.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Caste system&amp;quot; is not in scriptures in the way to be followed. Yes there are many mentions of lot many castes as a family lineage. Probably you meant &amp;quot;division system&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;For example, lord Krishna, belonged to Warrior/Kshatriya &amp;quot;division&amp;quot;; which exists throughout the world in form of armies, lawyers, politicians, ... However his &amp;quot;caste&amp;quot; was &amp;quot;Yadu&amp;quot; (or &amp;quot;Vrushni&amp;quot;) dynasty, which is said to be diminished from its original form nearly 5000 years back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Must these systems be followed, or is something like a classless society as outlined by Marx (minus the atheism bit) allowed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whether to follow &amp;quot;caste system&amp;quot; or to continue &amp;quot;division system&amp;quot; is upto the society. The post independence India was leaned more towards Russian style &amp;quot;Communism&amp;quot; (&amp;quot;Socialism&amp;quot; to be precise) and the &amp;quot;caste system&amp;quot; co-existed with it. In recent times, it's diminishing largely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Division system&amp;quot; is not something follow-able, they exist anyhow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&amp;quot;Divisions&amp;quot; vs &amp;quot;Castes&amp;quot;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Divisions are &amp;quot;descriptions&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; of a one's spiritual nature which also relates to work he/she does. According to scriptures, there are only 4 types of divisions in a (&lt;em&gt;Vedic&lt;/em&gt;) society, no more no less. Since, it's already detailed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8218/1049&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9202/1049&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answers, let's brief them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; Or &lt;strong&gt;Intellectuals&lt;/strong&gt;: Steadiness, control, austerity, cleanliness, tolerance, sincerity, knowledge, science and faith are certainly Brahma(na)'s natural Karma (BG 18.42)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; Or &lt;strong&gt;Warriors&lt;/strong&gt;: Heroism, brightness, courage, fitness, also not running away from war, generosity and kingship are Kshatr(iya)'s natural Karma (BG 18.43)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaishya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; Or &lt;strong&gt;Businessmen&lt;/strong&gt;: Farming, cow protection (animal products), business are Vaishya's natural Karma (BG 18.44)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shudra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; Or &lt;strong&gt;Servicemen&lt;/strong&gt;: Services (in all fields) constitute natural Karma for Shudra (BG 18.44)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Castes are &amp;quot;names&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; of the families which tend to belong in these divisions. There can be several hundreds of castes throughout the world. Certain castes come into being, &amp;amp; certain diminish with time. In today's time they hardly describe any particular division.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In today's time, in 1 caste/family, members belonging to different divisions is possible. One person having attributes of multiple divisions is also possible. The exclusivity is gone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above doesn't mean that &amp;quot;castes&amp;quot; never had any relevance with &amp;quot;divisions&amp;quot;. In old times, the families belonging to particular divisions will continue marrying within those families only. Due to which births after births, certain &amp;quot;families&amp;quot; (or &amp;quot;castes&amp;quot;) would become more &amp;amp; more synonymous with a particular &amp;quot;division&amp;quot;. Logically it's true. But in today's time there is hardly much relevance due to hybridization among humans. Even if it's there, then it's hard to prove due to their work nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Analogies&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Einstein is a scientist&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;; is like describing a &amp;quot;division&amp;quot;. Whether anyone subscribe to it or not, &amp;quot;scientists&amp;quot; exist.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Now, &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;daughter of Einstein is also a scientist&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;; This is called &amp;quot;caste-ism&amp;quot;. She can be &amp;quot;scientist&amp;quot; or she cannot be. But instead of deciding it based on her nature of work (&amp;quot;division&amp;quot;), we decide based on her family lineage (&amp;quot;caste&amp;quot;).&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;With the disappearance of surname &amp;quot;Einstein&amp;quot;, this caste which supposedly belonged to division of &amp;quot;scientists&amp;quot; will be gone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) &amp;quot;Race&amp;quot; is a &amp;quot;division&amp;quot;, while countries are &amp;quot;castes&amp;quot;. Predominantly let's assume that there are mainly following races: White, Black, Brown, Yellow. In old times,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;European countries&amp;quot; belonged to &amp;quot;White&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;African countries&amp;quot; belonged to &amp;quot;Black&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;Middle &amp;amp; South-East Asian countries&amp;quot; belonged to &amp;quot;Brown&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;Far east asian countries&amp;quot; belonged to &amp;quot;Yellow&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If &amp;quot;white&amp;quot;s continue marrying &amp;quot;white&amp;quot;s &amp;amp; &amp;quot;black&amp;quot;s to &amp;quot;black&amp;quot;s in all the countries (&amp;quot;castes&amp;quot;), then the race (&amp;quot;division&amp;quot;) will be retained for their children. This is what happened in above continents for centuries in earlier times.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;But, if a white &amp;amp; black marry, then they may generate a &amp;quot;white&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;black&amp;quot; or even a &amp;quot;brown&amp;quot; baby. The baby can now belong to either of its parents' race or both or none of them. This is what happened American continents in recent times. i.e. If you see a &amp;quot;black&amp;quot; person in USA, you can't be sure that all his family lineage will be of &amp;quot;black&amp;quot; genes only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(3) On a lighter note, terming &amp;quot;Hinduism = way of life&amp;quot; is &amp;quot;division&amp;quot;, while &amp;quot;Hinduism = religion&amp;quot; is &amp;quot;caste&amp;quot;. :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;does the religion work with communism.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If atheism is removed from &amp;quot;communism&amp;quot;, the religion might work with it.  But &amp;quot;divisions&amp;quot; will always exist irrespective of religion (e.g. &amp;quot;Hinduism&amp;quot;) or social structure (e.g. &amp;quot;communism&amp;quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T06:48:39.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11247" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11073" CreationDate="2016-04-04T06:24:28.493" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes they did meet in person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm adding yet another answer which is based  on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/a&gt; as it might be interesting for others to know although not quite necessary as the question has already got the best answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from the link above:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the midst of Setu, Rama and Sita decided to install a Shiva Linga,&#xA;  not only to celebrate the victory of Virtue against Evil, but also to&#xA;  atone the killing of Ravana a Brahmana though a Demon. Hanuman was&#xA;  comissioned to fetch a genuine Shiva Linga from Varanasi Kshetra but&#xA;  as he could not reach the appointed spot at the auspicious ‘Muhurta’,&#xA;  Devi Sita prepared a Linga with Seashore sand and the Sand Linga so&#xA;  installed had thus come to stay till date-apart from the Shiva Linga&#xA;  brought by Hanuman though belatedly. &lt;strong&gt;Maha Deva appeared in his full&#xA;  Form along  with Devi Parvati before Rama and Sita in the presence of&#xA;  the ‘Rama Sena’, blessed them and assured them all as follows&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yat tavyaa sthapitam Lingam drakshyanteeha Dwijaatayah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahaapaataka samyuktaaseshaam Paapam vinashyatu/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anyaani chaiva Paapaani snaatasyatra Mahaadadhou,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Darshanaadeva Lingasya naasham yaanti na samshayaha/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yaavat sthaasyanti girayo yaavadeshaa cha Medini,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yaavat Setuscha taavaccha sthaasyaamyatra tirohitah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Snaanam daanam japah shraaddham bhavishyatya-kshayam krutam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Smarana Deva Lingasya dinapaapam pranashyati/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(‘Darshana’ or viewing of this Rameshwara Linga that was installed&#xA;  formally by Brahmanas on behalf of Shri Rama an Devi Sita should&#xA;  surely have their great sins destroyed. Taking bath in the Sea and&#xA;  worshipping the Linga would uproot the remaining blemishes and&#xA;  imperfections of a devotee. Maha Deva assured that as long as&#xA;  Mountains were existent and P rithvi was present, Setu would be in&#xA;  position and would be Maha Deva in the Rameshwara Linga. Whatever holy&#xA;  deeds like Snaana-Daana-Japa-Shraddhaas are performed at the Place&#xA;  would have multiplying and lasting effects. Even the ‘Smarana’ or the&#xA;  very thought of Rameshwara Linga from a distance would abolish the&#xA;  sins of the day!) After the Linga Pratishtha thus, Shri Rama&#xA;  administered Bharata Desha with Ayodhya as his capital for centuries&#xA;  and his Administration was acclaimed as ‘Rama Rajya’when his Subjects&#xA;  were happy, contented and without ‘Tapatrayaas’or the three kinds of&#xA;  Adhi Bhoutika like physical problems, Adhytaatmika or internal /&#xA;  psychological difficulties and Adhi Daivika or God-made complications&#xA;  like famines, earthquakes or  f loods. During his Sovereignty, Shri&#xA;  Rama’s governance excelled in Brahmana Puja, Ashwamedha Yagna and&#xA;  ‘Dharma Paalana’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T06:24:28.493" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11248" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11090" CreationDate="2016-04-04T10:04:42.763" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna is indeed is the supreme Brahman is mentioned &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in Bhagvad geeta.&#xA;In 10th chapter of Geeta He is mentioning only &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;his principle opulence&lt;/a&gt; so that normal people could understand it; since it is not possible for us to ascertain His opulence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Yes, I will tell you of My&#xA;  splendorous manifestations, but only of those which are prominent, O&#xA;  Arjuna, for My opulence is limitless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says that he is Lion among beasts; that does not mean that every lion is Krishna or that He is banyan tree among trees similarly.&#xA;Nor does it mean that other animals or trees are not His manifestations.&#xA;All are His manifestations; either directly or indirectly... '&lt;em&gt;vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti&lt;/em&gt;'(BG 7.19).&#xA;However in 10th chapter Krishna mentions &lt;strong&gt;Only His principle opulence&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;How I understand it is that &lt;strong&gt;He is the Best Among all and there is no one who could transcend Him in any field&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;i.e. among birds He is the best, among Daityas he is the best, among Demigods He is the best...... and there is no one greater than Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For example if a rich person chooses to show off his riches ; it is most likely that he will exhibit the best of what he has; now that does not mean that he doesn't own some other things that are cheaper.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Krishna is exhibiting His opulence here in terms of 'Best of things' in this material world; because by such explanation a mundane person like me can easily understand how great He is. Otherwise we know that He is great; but how great He is?.. that we don't know or we wont be able to know.&#xA;Also it is not that he shows only positive opulence but also negative opulence(but mostly positive and good; however good or bad; that duality is our perception.God is beyond such duality).&#xA;in BG 10.36 Lord Says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am also the gambling of cheats, and of the splendid I am the&#xA;  splendor. I am victory, I am adventure, and I am the strength of the&#xA;  strong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T10:04:42.763" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11249" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-04T10:15:53.997" Score="5" ViewCount="4943" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every we time go to a temple, when the priest performs archana, he asks us our Gotra. Gotra states our lineage from the sages.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In some states of South India, Brahmins and Gouds have the same gotra like Koundinya gotra, Bharadwaja gotra. See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.goudcommunity.com/gouds-gotras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I want to ask is, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How is this possible that two different varna have the same gotras when no other varna or community have the same gotra as the Brahmins?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any story related to this topic?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-05-23T20:53:16.317" LastActivityDate="2020-10-13T15:15:07.627" Title="Can different people of different varna share the same gotra?" Tags="|caste-system|brahmins|gotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11250" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14683" CreationDate="2016-04-04T11:34:27.777" Score="14" ViewCount="1089" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagvad Gita most of the slokas are in Anushtup chhandas (except a few which are in Trishtup chhandas)..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;i.e., each verse of Gita  consisting exactly of 32 letters, arranged in 4 quarters in a specific pattern of Laghus and Gurus..(except for a few verses in Trishtup meter.) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;During the real verbal discussions of Bhagvad Gita did Lord Krishna and Arjun actually speak this way in direct speech? (32 letters arranged in 4 quarters  with specific arrangement of Laghu and Guru syllables ?)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;OR, did Sage Veda Vyas re-format  their conversation in Anushtup meter for the purpose of indirect narration or record of Mahabharat ? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;ie, I mean to ask if delivered words of Lord Krishna and Arjun actually  &lt;em&gt;verbatim&lt;/em&gt; ? or did Veda Vyas convert their dialogue into such a poetic meter?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For chandas information here is a rule for Anushtup meter&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनुष्टुप्छन्दसि चत्वारः पादाः भवन्ति प्रत्येकपादे च अष्ट &gt; अक्षराणि।श्लोके षष्ठं गुरु ज्ञेयं सर्वत्र लघु पञ्चमम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  द्विचतुष्पादयोर्ह्रस्वं सप्तमं दीर्घमन्ययोः॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अस्य छन्दसः षष्ठम् अक्षरं गुरु पञ्चमम् च लघु। सप्तमम् अक्षरं प्रथमे तृतीये च पादे गुरु, द्विचतुष्पदयोः सप्तमम् अक्षरं लघु भवति। सप्तमम् अक्षरं यथाक्रमम् परिवर्तते, &#xA;  प्रथमपादे गुरु द्वितीयपादे लघु तृतियपादे गुरु चतुष्पादे लघु।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पृष्ठ ३६, सरलसंस्कृतसरणिः प्रथमो भागः, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Anushtup meter has 4 quarters, each quarter has 8 letters, 6th letter of each quarter is Guru(deergha) and 5th letter Laghu (hraswa ). The 7th letter of 1st and 3rd quarters is a Guru and of 2nd and 4th quarters a Laghu. Thus the 7th letter is converted to &lt;em&gt;(Guru, Laghu, Guru, Laghu)&lt;/em&gt; pattern in the 1,2,3,4 quarters respectively.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-18T16:16:56.550" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T18:53:38.667" Title="Are the words inside Bhagvad Gita exactly the same words used in actual conversation (ie, used By Lord Krishna and Arjuna)?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|scripture|history|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11251" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11249" CreationDate="2016-04-04T11:36:19.677" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gotra means clan.Say if some one's Gotra is Bharadwaj; than that means he is a descendant of sage Baradwaj. &#xA;Google defines Gotra as &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hindu society, the term gotra (Sanskrit: गोत्र) means clan. It&#xA;  broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line&#xA;  from a common male ancestor or patriline. Generally the gotra forms an&#xA;  exogamous unit, with the marriage within the same gotra being&#xA;  prohibited by custom, being regarded as incest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;People of different caste may have same Gotra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Caste system is recently introduced by human society. Earlier there was Varna system.There are 4 Varnas(Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishya,Shudra).&#xA;Since different offspring of 1 person may belong to different varnas(although that was not very common in ancient times); it is possible that these different people of different varna , over a time got scattered and now began to be identified by different castes.&#xA;i.e say some descendants of Atri sage became Brahmins, other kshatriyas and so on over a period of time. But now we started mis-classifying these Varna systems as caste system and as it appears now that these people now belong to different castes but have same gotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read more &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T11:36:19.677" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11252" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10171" CreationDate="2016-04-04T12:24:29.287" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna or vishnu is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/1/3/28&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Supreme Personality of Godhead&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or&#xA;  portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is&#xA;  the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets&#xA;  whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord&#xA;  incarnates to protect the theists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in Brahma Samhita(5.1) it is stated that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Krishna, who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an&#xA;  eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no&#xA;  other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is lord Brahma himself confirms that Krishna has spiritual body and hence He is not subject to dualities of material nature and is always in liberated state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/BG/7/14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Further Lord Shiva confirms&lt;/a&gt; 'mukti-pradātā sarveṣāṁ viṣṇur eva na saṁśayaḥ:'...He says:“There is no doubt that Viṣṇu is the deliverer of liberation for everyone.”&#xA;So if Vishnu is the granter of Moksha than he has to be liberated in all situations and all the time; and that is also confirmed by all the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna is not one of the Siddhas or Yogis who by some meditations power or Yoga practice has achived perfection. But He is perfect eternally and He is infallible&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He showed His parents His chatur-Bhuja Narayan form just few minutes after He was born. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is called &lt;em&gt;Achyut&lt;/em&gt; ; meaning infallible. i.e. He never forgets Himself or fall from His position. &lt;strong&gt;Hence His position can not be taken by any one ; what to speak of small living entities like us who are subject to illusion and ignorance all the time&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The highest position in this Universe is said to be that of Lord Brahma. A living entity may at most become Brahma. He can not become Shiva or Vishnu any time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T12:24:29.287" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11253" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-04T12:24:33.013" Score="6" ViewCount="3729" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before performing &lt;em&gt;sandhyavandanam&lt;/em&gt; in the evening, should a &lt;em&gt;brahmin&lt;/em&gt; take bath? Or do the &lt;em&gt;shastras&lt;/em&gt; prohibit it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We live in southern Chennai and there are times when the sun sets well over 6 or 6:30 p.m. During such times, in case I plan to take bath immediately before starting &lt;em&gt;sandhyavandanam&lt;/em&gt;, it's five to ten minutes past six, and my mom already lights the &lt;em&gt;deepam&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can I still take bath after the &lt;em&gt;deepam&lt;/em&gt; has been lit?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user560" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-01-24T08:50:36.593" LastActivityDate="2023-01-08T07:08:10.893" Title="Can we take bath in the evening after deepam has been lit?" Tags="|rituals|sandhyavandanam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11254" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-04T12:32:47.150" Score="0" ViewCount="388" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't mean to ask whether we can skip sandhyavandanam and do Gayatri japam instead. I know we can't.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Say, I feel like doing the japam at around 3 or 4 p.m. Is that allowed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user560" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T12:32:47.150" Title="Can we do Gayatri japam without its being part of Sandhyavandanam?" Tags="|time|gayatri-mantra|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-02-11T01:35:34.763" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11255" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11241" CreationDate="2016-04-04T13:51:06.337" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rakshasas and Yakshas are perhaps the only two species &lt;strong&gt;unrelated&lt;/strong&gt; to Maharshi Kashyapa. They are children of Lord Brahma. The creation of Rakshasas is described in the 4th chapter of the Uttara Kanda of Ramayana as well as in Puranas like Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Uttara Kanda, Rishi Agastya tells Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/itihaas/ramayana/valmiki-ramayana-text-with-translation/vol-iv/chapter-04/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the story of their creation&lt;/a&gt;, when Rama asked the same question as you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Accordinglyy, Lord Brahma originally created denizens of water, who upon creation were very hungry and thirsty and asked Brahma what they must do.&#xA;Brahma asked them whether they will guard the waters. The beings who said, &amp;quot;Rakshaamah&amp;quot; or 'We will protect' became &lt;strong&gt;Rakshasas&lt;/strong&gt; and those who said &amp;quot;Yakshaamah&amp;quot; or 'We will worship' became &lt;strong&gt;Yakshas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Brahma created two more beings Heti and Praheti to be the leaders of the Rakshasas. Praheti proceeded to do Tapasya, while Heti married Bhaya, the sister of Lord Yama. They had a son called Vidyutkesha, whose son was Sukeshi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sukeshi had three sons, &lt;strong&gt;Mali, Malyavan and Sumali&lt;/strong&gt;. Mali and Malyavan were killed by Vishnu during a war between Devas and Rakshasas. Sumali wanted revenge, and therefore asked his daughter &lt;strong&gt;Kaikeshi&lt;/strong&gt; to marry sage &lt;strong&gt;Vishrava&lt;/strong&gt;, the son of Pulastya, who was Kashyapa's uncle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishrava already had a wife name Idavida, whose son Kubera became the King of Yakshas by worshipping Brahma. Kaikeshi married Vishrava and their children were &lt;strong&gt;Ravana, Kumbhakarna, Vibheeshana and Surpanakha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Ravana became King, since he was the grandson of Pulastya, it became common belief that like Kashyapa was the father of Devas, Pulastya was the father (or grandfather) of all Rakshasas, which was the confusion Rama had.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to answer the question, Ravana and his family were of &lt;strong&gt;Pulastya Gotra&lt;/strong&gt;, and the rest of the Rakshasas didn't have any Gotra, as they were directly descended from Brahma. (You can call them Brahma Gotra or Heti Gotra maybe...)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T13:51:06.337" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11256" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-04T14:25:58.057" Score="2" ViewCount="447" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am aware that we need to be initiated into something like Shri Rudram or Purusha Suktam or Shri Suktam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, would learning them using audio files amount to getting initiated into them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or do we have to approach a guru in person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just for the record, I'm not opposed to learning it from a guru in person. I was just curious to know if it was all right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user560" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T14:46:00.320" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T14:46:00.320" Title="Can we learn Sri Rudram using audio?" Tags="|mantras|guru|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11257" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-04T14:49:11.593" Score="6" ViewCount="1934" Body="&lt;p&gt;Uttara Kanda (Also other Kandas) of Ramayan mentions Ravana having 10 heads and 20 arms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now 10 heads would make a body asymmetrical as there is no middle point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any mention in scriptures which tells us to which head among the 10 was Ravana's body attached to? Also Ravana is called &lt;strong&gt;Dasagriva&lt;/strong&gt; meaning having ten necks. If such is the condition how were his necks attached ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Were they in linear design or in circular design?&#xA;E.g., did his right side contain more heads or his left side (when he used to be in the form of 'Dashanan')?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any scripture mention about this ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-06T06:58:49.747" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T05:45:06.347" Title="How were the 10 heads of Ravana arranged?" Tags="|ramayana|scripture|ravana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11258" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10789" CreationDate="2016-04-04T15:24:52.493" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Markandeya Purana there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/markandeyapurana4.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter where Rishi Jaimini asks the same question to the Holy Birds viz-&quot;How could Draupadi marry the Pancha Pandavas?.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from the above link:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Apprehending the severe penance of Trishira, the son of powerful&#xA;  Brahmana Twashta, Indra suspected danger of his own position and thus&#xA;  killed Trishira. Twashta went into a rage and plucked a strand of hair&#xA;  from his head and offered it in the homa kunda (Fire Pit) by his&#xA;  mantrik power and created the mighty Vritrasura whose mission was to&#xA;  kill Indra, who had already lost his sheen since he committed a&#xA;  Brahmana. Indra deputed the Sapta Rishis to strike a deal with Vritra&#xA;  so that he would not put Indra to immediate danger; but Vritra was&#xA;  killed unawares by Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These actions angered the community of Rakshasas resulting in&#xA;  continuous warfare against Devas and Prithvi felt great burden of the&#xA;  atrocities by the demons. Prithvi appealed to Indra and the Deities&#xA;  who in turn took the forms of Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yadindradeham cha Tejasthanmumocha Swayam Vrishah, Kunthyamjaatho&#xA;  Mahatejaastatho Raja Yudhishtarah/ Balam mumocha Pavanastatho Bhimo&#xA;  vyajaayat, Shakraveeryardhatas chaiva jajney Paarthom Dhananjayah/&#xA;  Utpanno Yamalou Maadriyam Shaka Rupou Mahadyuti, Panchadhaa&#xA;  Bhagavannityamavateernah Shatukratuh/ Tasyotpanna Mahabhaaga Patni&#xA;  KrishnaHutaashanat, Shakrasyaikasya sa Patni Krishna naanyascha&#xA;  kasyachit/ Yogeeswaraah shareeraani Kurvati bahulaanyapi,&#xA;  Panchaanaameka Patnitwamityetatkathitham tav&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-Dharmaraja himself from the body  of Indra deposited his&#xA;  virility into Kunti from which was created Yudhishtara. The Deity of&#xA;  Wind viz. Pavan deposited Indra’s radiance into Kunti as a result of&#xA;  which Bhima was born. Indra gave away half of his ‘Shakti’ to Kunti&#xA;  and Dhananjaya was thus born. Indra’s virility was transferred through&#xA;  the two Ashwani Kumars to Devi Maadri and was born the pair of Nakul&#xA;  and Sahadeva. &lt;strong&gt;Indra’s ‘Amshas’ (alternatives) were manifested among&#xA;  all the five Pandava brothers clearly. Moreover, Indra’s wife Shachi&#xA;  Devi as Yagnaseni was created from ‘Agni’ and hence Draupadi was&#xA;  Indra’s own better half.Yogeswar Purush Indra could divide his own&#xA;  radiance into as many parts as per his volition.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hence, it was amply justified that Draupadi was indeed the common wife&#xA;  of the five Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The portion in bold in the above quote is the justification you're looking for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to know about the Holy Birds and how they came into existence then read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/markandeyapurana2.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of the same Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-04-04T15:49:06.967" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T15:49:06.967" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11259" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11271" CreationDate="2016-04-04T18:30:46.383" Score="11" ViewCount="14745" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1vDBkm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1vDBkm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Brahma&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UahsLm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UahsLm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;The Trimurti&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have seen many pictures and photos (such as above) of Chaturmukha Brahma  with &lt;strong&gt;white hair and white beard&lt;/strong&gt;. Why is Brahma shown as an old person? All the devatas are known to be drinking elixir (amruth). It is said that those who drink it do not feel hunger, thirst and do not age, so, &lt;em&gt;look always young&lt;/em&gt;. My question is Brahma being one of the Trimurti's, didn't He get a chance to drink elixir? Or did anyone curse Him to look like that? Is Brahma not an immortal? I know that being a Brahma is only a status.&lt;br&gt; What happens to this Brahma after his tenure is over?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-04-07T18:36:25.840" LastActivityDate="2021-11-22T00:14:20.223" Title="Why is Brahma depicted as old in pictures?" Tags="|gods|brahma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11260" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11259" CreationDate="2016-04-04T20:18:21.297" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;When you consider Brahma, he is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The teacher.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The creator, who created everything.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The knowledge.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is more portrayed as &lt;strong&gt;a teacher&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;a sage&lt;/strong&gt; with all knowledge of universe. So He is portrayed as an old man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, by the Vedas, they say:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahma is the physical reflection of the ancient Upanishadic universal Brahman. One can therefore see age and wisdom in such a depiction.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Epics-of-India-Why-is-Lord-Brahma-mostly-depicted-as-an-old-man-in-most-Indian-depictions-while-Shiva-and-Vishnu-are-not&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Why is Lord Brahma mostly depicted as an old man in most Indian depictions while Shiva and Vishnu are not?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3068" LastActivityDate="2016-04-04T20:18:21.297" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11261" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8245" CreationDate="2016-04-05T01:11:07.310" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yoga Sutra of Patanjali gives methods of achieving Siddhi (4.1):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;जन्मौषधिमन्त्रतप: समाधिजा: सिद्धय:॥ १॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  janmaushadhimantratapahsamadhijah siddhayah &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;The Siddhis (powers) are attained by birth, chemical &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  means, power of words, mortification or &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  concentration.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is Swami Vivekanandas commentary on this verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sometimes a man is born with the Siddhis, powers, of course from the exercise of powers he had in his previous birth. In this birth he is born, as it were, to enjoy the fruits of them. It is said of Kapila, the great father of the Sankhya Philosophy, that he was a born Siddha, which means, literally, a man who has attained to success.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Yogis claim that these powers can be gained by chemical means. All of you know that chemistry originally began as alchemy; men went in search of the philsopher’s stone, and elixirs of life, and so forth. In India there was a sect called the Rasayanas. Their idea was that ideality, knowledge, spirituality and religion, were all very right, but that the body was the only instrument by which to attain to all these. If the body broke now and then it would take so much more time to attain to the goal.&lt;br&gt; For instance, a man wants to practice Yoga, or wants to become spiritual. Before he has advanced very far he dies. Then he takes another body and begins again, then dies, and so on, and in this way much time will be lost in dying and in being born again. If the body could be made strong and perfect, so that it would get rid of birth and death, we should have so much more time to become spiritual.&lt;br&gt; So these Rasayanas say, first make the body very strong, and&#xA;  they claim that this body can be made immortal. The idea is that if the mind is manufacturing the body, and if it be true&#xA;  that each mind is only one particular outlet to that infinite energy, and that there is no limit to each particular outlet getting any amount of power from outside, why is it  impossible that we should keep our bodies all the time? We shall have to manufacture all the bodies that we shall ever have. &lt;br&gt;As soon as this body dies we shall have to manufacture another. If we can do that why cannot we do it just here and no, without getting out? The theory is perfectly correct. If it is possible that we live after death, and make other bodies, why is it impossible that we should have the power of making bodies here, without entirely dissolving this body, simply changing it continually? They also thought that in mercury and in sulphur was hidden the most wonderful power, and that by certain preparations of these a man could keep the body as long as he liked.&lt;br&gt; Others believed that certain drugs could bring powers, such as flying through the air, etc. Many of the most wonderful medicines of the present day we owe to the Rasayamas, notably the use of metals in medicine. Certain sects of Yogis claim that many of their principal&#xA;  teachers are still living in their old bodies. Patanjali, the great authority on Yoga, does not deny this.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;The power of words. There are certain sacred words called Mantrams, which have power, when repeated under proper conditions, to produce these extraordinary powers. We are living in the midst of such a mass of miracles, day and night, that we do not think anything of them. There is no limit to man’s power, the power of words and the power of mind.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mortification. You will find that in every religion mortifications and asceticisms have been practiced. In these religious conceptions the Hindus always go to the extremes. You will find men standing with their hands up all their lives, until their hands wither and die. Men sleep standing, day and night, until their feet swell, and, if they live, the legs become so stiff in this position that they can no more bend them, but have to stand all their lives.&lt;br&gt; I once saw a man who had raised his hands in this way, and I asked him how it felt when he did it first. He said it was awful torture. It was such torture that he had to go to a river and put himself in water, and that allayed the pain for a little. After a month he did not suffer much. Through such practices powers (Siddhis) can be attained. Concentration. &lt;br&gt;The concentration is Samadhi, and that is Yoga proper; that is the principle theme of this science, and it is the highest means. The preceding ones are only secondary, and we cannot attain to the highest through them. Samadhi is the means through which we can gain anything and everything, mental, moral or spiritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोध: ॥ २॥ (Patanjali sutra 1.2)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yogashchittavrittinirodhah &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;Yoga is restraining the mind-stuff (Chitta) from &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  taking various forms (Vrttis)&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the key to achieve siddhi through Yoga lies in mind control (all other methods described are forms of mind control).&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="15718" LastEditDate="2019-01-31T06:14:37.463" LastActivityDate="2019-01-31T06:14:37.463" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11264" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-05T07:48:49.540" Score="2" ViewCount="149" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many years ago I heard a TV presenter talking about religion, and I remember him saying something like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like [ &lt;em&gt;guru name&lt;/em&gt; ] said, religion is like a boat. It is very useful to to cross a river, but only a fool would drag the boat along with him/her after reaching the otherside.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was curious about the Guru who would state that religion was in a sense &lt;em&gt;fungible&lt;/em&gt;. I went to do some research today, but the only quotes I found seem to be very clearly &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; saying that at all:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But without true love and devotion entering into it, it remains like a boat without water. It is not difficult to push a boat that is floating in water, but extremely hard to drag the same boat on dry land. In the same way, if our life’s boat floats on the waters of true love and devotion, we can sail easily in it.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/stories-.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduism.co.za/stories-.htm&lt;/a&gt; (possibly not the best source)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it seems I mixed up the TV presenter's analogy, with the words of the Guru (that he was quoting).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However I thought I would check here - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know of a Guru who &lt;em&gt;did&lt;/em&gt; use the boat on water/land analogy to propose &quot;&lt;em&gt;Use religion while it is useful, then discard it&lt;/em&gt;&quot;? Thanks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5236" LastEditorUserId="5236" LastEditDate="2016-04-05T09:41:21.430" LastActivityDate="2016-04-05T09:41:21.430" Title="Boat on water vs boat on land story, as allegory to religion" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11266" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9499" CreationDate="2016-04-05T10:05:22.580" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it comes in Adhyatma Ramayan which is inside Brahmanda Puran. This takes place after coronation of Lord Rama. Lord Rama felt compassion toward Lord Hanuman and hence grants the knowledge .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This goes as following. First Shri Ram tells Sita to give Brahmn Gyan to Hanuman::&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adhyatma Ramayan 1.30-1.35&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is fit to be taught about the knowledge of Brahmam, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  For among those who seek that knowledge he is the first. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  When at that time after Sri Rama told like this, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Goddess called Hanuman and told him thus, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “The leading stone of the crown worn by valorous heroes, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The greatest among devotees of Rama , please hear what I say, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Please decide within your mind that God Rama is the, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The divine joy , the one and only one , one who does not have a second , the divine Brahmam, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The one who does not move, One who is not attached to anything, One who is only essence, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And that thing which cannot be known in spite of determination, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You please understand that this God Rama is pure , without stains, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One without properties , one who is not having any feelings, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One who does only good , One who is peaceful , One who is the divine soul, one who is forever &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  happy, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  A thing which does not have any birth or death and he is the divine Brahmam. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Please understand that God Rama is the cause of all , one who is spread everywhere, one who is &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  the soul of all, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One who is everything , One who is the God of all, one who is witness of all, one who is forever, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One who is everything and basis of all , one who is spread in all gods and a without sensations. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Now I would tell you the principle of mine in real terms, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  To you I have become the primeval causal basis, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And my husband who is the divine God &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Allows me to create anything just by his presence. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  All those which have been created by me due to his presence, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Are understood by foolish people as the real divine form, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Not understanding that his form does not have any birth , &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  For only those who have realized him will know About it. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In this earth , in the clan of the sun God , in Ayodhya, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The God of all was born in the form of Sri Rama....   &gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then after some description of Lord Rams deed by Goddess Sita, Lord Ram himself imparts the knowledge to Hanuman. It goes as following::&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adhyatma Ramayana 1.44-1.56&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;After the philosophy of the existence of Rama, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Was explained by Goddess Sita to the son of Anjana&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lord Rama with a pretty smile told him, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “ The souls that we all see is but the refection, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Of the form of the divine soul that exists everywhere.” &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh great monkey , My lustrous illusion , &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Without any doubt has the image in you, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Like in each and every lake , the great sky , &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Can be directly seen by you , and similar to that, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The real Divine Brahmam , the form for which. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The divine God is himself the witness is very stable, my friend, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You should understand the principle behind me, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  By the great Vedic sayings like “You are That”, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And my devotee due to the grace of Guru, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  When he understands this , without any doubt, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Would reach me and my form. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “Those who are not interested in my devotion , jump , &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Into all places where science is mentioned and love that place , &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  To those who do not have devotion, even after hundred thousand births, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  They would not get knowledge of philosophy and salvation, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Do not inform those men who do not have devotion to me, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  This fact which has been told by me as God anytime. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There is no divine advice which is above this.” &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus Lord Shiva told Goddess Parvathi, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  About the greatness of Rama , which is holy and held as great secret, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And which was told by the real Lord Rama himself to the son of wind god, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And it leads to salvation , it destroys sins , that which starts killing of darkness of the heart, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And which is the meaning of all Vedanthas, And is the principle behind Lord Rama. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  All these divine words which were taught to lord Hanuman, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  If read by a man always along with great devotion, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Without any doubt will set him free.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-04-06T02:46:15.640" LastActivityDate="2016-04-06T02:46:15.640" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11267" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-05T10:15:13.580" Score="15" ViewCount="1345" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many references in our scriptures when deads are revived to life using Amrita and Mrita Sanjeevani Vidya..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A common accepted vedic doctrine is that soul (along with manomaya, vijnamaya and aanandmaya kosha) leaves the body when the gross body (sthula sarira) isn&amp;apos;t able or fit to keep it. &lt;strong&gt;When a person becomes dead then soul along with those koshas already leave the body. Then when person are sprinkled with Amrita how those koshas along with soul return the original body ? How can they have relationship with gross dead body even after they leave the body?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of examples of reviving the dead are mentioned in scriptures are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Valmiki Ramayana Yuddha Kanda Chapter 120 Indra revives the whole dead vanara sena after agnipariksha of Sita (ie.  some Vanars revived even after more than 2 weeks after their death).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Sambhava Parva LXXVI of Mahabharata, Shukracharya revives Kacha (son of Brihaspati) when his body pieces are given to jackals, when his body paste is dissolved &gt; in ocean and when his body is reduced to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Vana Parva CCXLIV Indra revived the dead Gandharvas by sprinkling amrita. There are also many other examples of Shukracharya reviving dead, some sages reviving dead, some great saints of Kaliyuga are also credited of reviving the dead (e.g. Tulsidas).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence my questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;How does the soul of person return when Amrita is used?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;How can soul have connection with the dead gross body ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any time limit for the use of Amrita and Mrita Sanjeevani Vidya?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which Vedic doctrine best explains this process?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;What happens when Amrita is used in the dead body of that person who has already taken rebirth?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Can Shukracharya revive Rishi Dadhichi from Vajra of Indra (Dadhichi's bone) using Mrita Sanjeevani Vidya?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2018-10-05T05:27:53.497" LastActivityDate="2018-12-20T01:03:36.470" Title="How does the soul returns in the dead body when a dead person is revived using Amrita?" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|vedanta|atma|amrita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11268" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8301" CreationDate="2016-04-05T11:25:36.000" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramcharitmanas tells that 31 arrows flew simultaneously and 10 cut the heads of Ravana, 20 cut his arms and 1 hit the navel whereas Valmiki Ramayana tells that a single arrow hit Ravana's chest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Ramcharitmanas(Lanka kanda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चौ- खेंचि सरासन श्रवन लगि छाड़े सर इकतीस ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रघुनायक सायक चले मानहु काल फनीस ।। 102 ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Drawing the bow-string right up to His ear the &lt;strong&gt;Lord of the Raghus let fly thirty-one &#xA;  shafts, which flew forth like the serpents of Death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दो- सायक एक नाभि सर स्रोषा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अपर लगे भुज सिर करि रोषा।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लै सिर बाहु चले नाराचा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सिर भुज हीन रुंड महि नाचा।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धरनि धसइ धर धाव प्रचंडा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तब सर इति प्रभु कृत दुइ खंडा।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गर्जेउ मरत घोर रव भारी ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कहाँ रामु रन हतौं पचारी।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;One arrow dried up the reservoir of nectar in the navel, while the rest struck his ten heads and twenty arms with impetuosity.&lt;/strong&gt; The arrows carried off with them all his heads and arms, while the headless and armless trunk danced on the battle-field. The earth sunk under the weight of the trunk as it rushed violently on, till the Lord struck it with His arrow and split it in two. While dying he shouted with a loud and terrible roar: Where is Rama, that I may challenge and slay him in battle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Valmiki Ramayana (Yuddha Kanda):&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स वज्र इव दुर्धर्षो वज्रिबाहुविसर्जितः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कृतान्त इव चावार्यो न्यपतद्रावणोरसि || ६-१०८-१७&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That arrow, which was inviolable as a thunderbolt hurled by the arms of Indra and irresistible as Yama the lord of Death, &lt;strong&gt;fell upon Ravana&amp;apos;s chest.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स विसृष्तो महावेगह् शरीरान्तकरः शरः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  च्छेद हृदयं तस्य रावणस्य दुरात्मनः || ६-१०८-१८&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That arrow, released with great speed and which was capable of destroying the body, &lt;strong&gt;tore off the heart&lt;/strong&gt; of that evil-minded Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-04T14:47:09.520" LastActivityDate="2016-07-04T14:47:09.520" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11269" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11560" CreationDate="2016-04-05T12:41:37.560" Score="10" ViewCount="1125" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently I watched a discourse of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaganti_Koteswara_Rao&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Chaganti Koteswara Rao&lt;/a&gt; during Maha Sivaratri. He explained greatness of Shiva Lingam by citing the example of the previous birth of the Asura Mahabali. He said &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asura Mahabali was very wicked person in his previous birth. When he stole&#xA;  something, he hid on a bilva tree and when he was climbing the tree  accidentally two leaves of bilva tree fell of Shiva Lingam under the tree. At the time of his death, Yama Ganas arrived and asked him to come to Yama loka. But at the&#xA;  same time Shiva ganas also arrived and there occurred a conflict between Shiva and Yama Ganas. Lord&#xA;  Yama went there and asked Bali whether he wanted to enjoy fruits of&#xA;  Good Karma or bad karma. Mahabali said he wanted to enjoy fruits of&#xA;  good Karma (Good Karma he did was only to anoint Lingam with Bilva&#xA;  leaves accidentally). So, as a result of good fruits, he got a chance to become&#xA;  Indra for one day. After becoming Indra, Mahabali donated Swarga loka to two&#xA;  sages (don't remember their names). As a result of this good deed, he&#xA;  was destined to born as Grandson of Prahlada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I vaguely remember this story and forgive me if there are any mistakes. I could not find any source for this discourse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is, what scriptures describe the story of the previous birth of the Asura Mahabali?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-10-03T15:45:49.600" LastActivityDate="2016-10-03T15:45:49.600" Title="What scriptures describe the previous birth of Asura Mahabali?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|asuras|bali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11271" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11259" CreationDate="2016-04-05T15:37:22.253" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma is often referred to as &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=pitAmaha&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;pitamaha&quot;&lt;/a&gt; (forefather or grandfather) in scriptures, so I think some of the pictures that portray him in human form with white hair and beard is to just show how he is older than some of the other gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Valmiki Ramayana, here are a few verses that refer to Brahma as pitamaha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;इति एवम् उक्त्वा देवेशः सर्वलोक &lt;strong&gt;पितामहः&lt;/strong&gt; | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथा आगतम् तथा अगच्छत् देव लोकम् महायशाः || १-४४-१६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;16. sarva loka pitaa mahaH = for all, worlds, forefather; mahaayashaaH deva iishaH = great glorious, gods, lord of - Brahma; iti evam uktvaa = thus, this way, on saying; yathaa aagatam tathaa = as came in, like that; deva lokam agacChat = to empyrean, world, went away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On saying in this way, &lt;strong&gt;the forefather of all the worlds&lt;/strong&gt;, and the great glorious lord of all gods, &lt;strong&gt;namely Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;, went away to his empyrean world as he has came. [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga44/balasans44.htm#Verse16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bala Kanda, Sarga 44, Verse 16&lt;/a&gt;]&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;ततह् स्वायम्भुवैर्मन्रैर्ब्रह्मस्त्रमभिमन्त्रितम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हनुमांश्चिन्तयामास वरदानम् &lt;strong&gt;पितामहात्&lt;/strong&gt; || ५-४८-४०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;40. brahmaastram = (knowing it) to be missile presided over by Brahma the creator; abhimantram = and consecrated; mantraiH = by spells; svaayambhuvaiH = sacred to Brahma the creator; hanuman = Hanuma; tataH = then; chintayaamaasa = recollected; varadaanam = a boon got; pitaamahaat = by Lord Brahama; the grand-father of the entire creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Knowing it to be a missile presided over by Brahma the creator and consecrated by spells sacred to Brahma, the creator, Hanuma then recollected a boon got by &lt;strong&gt;Lord Brahma, the grand father of the entire creation.&lt;/strong&gt; [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga48/sundarasans48.htm#Verse40&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sundara Kanda, Sarga 48, Verse 40&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is no different from how Bhishma is depicted in &lt;a href=&quot;http://krishnaimages.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/4_KrishnaAttacksBhishma.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;paintings&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-04-05T15:37:22.253" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11272" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10374" CreationDate="2016-04-05T16:15:54.817" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The key to every power in Yoga comes from &lt;strong&gt;Samyama&lt;/strong&gt;. If you apply &lt;em&gt;Samyama&lt;/em&gt; to other body, then you enter that body. When the mind has attained to that state when it identifies itself with the internal impression of the object, leaving the external, and when, by long practice, that is retained by the &#xA;mind, and the mind can get into that state in a moment, that is &lt;em&gt;Samyama&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali Sutra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;त्रयम एकत्र संयम ॥ 3.4॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  trayam ekatra sanyamah &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (These) three (when practised) in regard to one object &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  is Samyama. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Commentary of Swami Vivekananda on this verse&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;When a man can direct his mind to any particular object and &#xA;  fix it there, and then keep it there for a long time,&#xA;  separating &#xA;  the object from the internal part, this is Samyama; or &#xA;  Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi, one following the other, &#xA;  and making one.&lt;/strong&gt; The form of the thing has vanished, and only &#xA;  its meaning remains in the mind.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is by applying Samyama yogi gain knowledge and power. See the verses of Patanjali sutra which describe how knowledge and power are described from power of Samyama.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By making Samyama on word, meaning, and knowledge, which are ordinarily confused, comes the knowledge of all animal sounds.3.17&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By perceiving the impressions (ie. applying Samyama on past impressions), knowledge of past life. 3.18&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By making Samyama on the signs in another’s both knowledge of that mind comes. By making Samyama on the form of the body the power of perceiving forms being obstructed, thepower of manifestation in the eye being separated, the &#xA;  Yogi’s body becomes unseen. 3.21&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By making Samyama on friendship, etc., various strength comes. 3.24&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By making Samyama on the strength of the elephant, etc., that strength comes to the Yogi. 3.25&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By making Samyama on the sun, (comes) the knowledge of the world. 3.27&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(By making Samyama) On the moon, (comes) the knowledge of the cluster of stars. 3.28&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  On the pole star (comes) the knowledge of the motions of the stars. 3.29 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence it is by the power of Samyama everything is accomplished. For the process of entering other body here is a Patanjali sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बन्धकारणशैथिल्यात प्रचारसंवेदनाच च चित्तस्य परशरिरावेश ॥3.39॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bandhakarannashaithilyat pracharasanvedanach ch chittasya parashariraveshah &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the cause of bondage has become loosened, the Yogi, by his knowledge of manifestation through the organs, enters another’s body. &#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here is commentary of Swami Vivekananda on this verse &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yogi can enter a dead body, and make it get up and move, even while he himself is working in another body. Or he can enter a living body, and hold that man’s mind and organs in check, and for the time being act through the body of that man. That is done by the Yogi coming to this discrimination of Purusa and nature. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;If he wants to enter another’s body he makes a Samyama on that body and enters it, because, not only is his Soul omnipresent, but his mind also, according to the Yogi. It is one bit of the universal mind.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Now, however, it can only work through the nerve currents in this body, but when the Yogi has loosened himself from these nerve currents, he will be able to work through other things. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence entering other body means gaining omnipotence of mind (by the practice of Samyama)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in rare cases Yogi may enter a body also with Vijnamaya kosha , Anandamaya kosha and Soul (ie. total body transfer) also in the case of ghost possession. Then body behaves through total samskaras of manomaya koshas as manomaya kosha is the store house of samskaras. Intellect also behaves in similar way as it is just the reflection of soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Remember the situation of a person who is possessed by ghost. It depends upon samskaras of manomaya kosha how his mind behaves. ie. If the samsakars of the person who is possessed are strong (godly), then ghost can't control him.] &#xA;There is no problem for the Soul in this condition because soul is the mere witness of event. Both soul witness the event. &lt;strong&gt;Soul is just like a bird in tree which just witnesses the tree.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya on Vivekchudamani says:&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Of the tree of Samsara ignorance is the seed, the identification with the body is its sprout, attachment its tender leaves, work its water, the body its trunk, the vital forces its branches, the organs its twigs, the sense-objects its flowers, various miseries due to diverse works are its fruits, and the individual soul is the bird on it.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (Verse 145)&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lastly parakaya pravesh is an advanced yoga. One can't make a person understand how sugar tastes by just saying it. He must taste it to know. Such is the case here. One must experience to understand the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-06T03:42:08.397" LastActivityDate="2016-04-06T03:42:08.397" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11273" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11259" CreationDate="2016-04-05T16:39:57.113" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;We live in Second half of Brahma i.e, we live in 51st Year of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/11/34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yad ardham āyuṣas tasya &lt;br&gt;  parārdham abhidhīyate &lt;br&gt; pūrvaḥ&#xA;parārdho ’pakrānto &lt;br&gt;  hy aparo ’dya pravartate &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The one hundred years of Brahmā’s life are divided into two parts, the&#xA;first half and the second half. The first half of the duration of&#xA;Brahmā’s life is already over, and the second half is now current.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The duration of one hundred years in the life of Brahmā has already&#xA;been discussed in many places , and it is described in&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-gītā (8.17)&lt;/a&gt; also. Fifty years of the life of Brahmā are&#xA;already over, and fifty years are yet to be completed; then, for&#xA;Brahmā also, death is inevitable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27477/62f_chapter_19_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; also states we live in second &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?beginning=0%20&amp;amp;tinput=%20Paraardha%20&amp;amp;trans=Translate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Paraardha&lt;/a&gt; of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;54-56.  In the second Parardha of Brahma, the thirteenth Kalpa was&#xA;well-known as Pitri Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pitri Kalpa was Kalpa before Sweta Varaha Kalpa and according to Skanda Purana we live in 14th day of Brahma (as 14th Kalpa is Swetha Varaha Kalpa). But some Puranas contradict this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As age of the Brahma is 51, Artists might be depicting Him as man with white beard and white hair. But Vishnu and Rudra are depicted as Young due to differences in their life spans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9290/3500&quot;&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A day of Brahma's life constitutes life of 14 Indras. A day of Vishnu&#xA;is lifetime of Brahma. A day of Rudra is life time of Vishnu. A day of Shiva is life time of Rudra. A day of SadaaShiva is life period of Shiva. A day of SAAKSHAATSHIVA is life period of SadaaShiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to this difference in lifespan, Vishnu and Rudra might be depicted as young when compared to Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9100/3500&quot;&gt;Brahma gets Moksha&lt;/a&gt; after He completes 100 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-04-05T16:39:57.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11274" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-05T17:44:05.957" Score="7" ViewCount="506" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/itihaas/ramayana/valmiki-ramayana-text-with-translation/vol-iv/chapter-06/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sixth Chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uttarakanda tells about how the devas, unable to withstand the torture of Malyavan, Mali and Sumali, the three sons of Sukesha, rushed to Lord Shiva and then to Lord Vishnu for protection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upon hearing this, Malyavan relates what happened to his brothers. In connection he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7T69k.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7T69k.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I know Hiranyakashipu was killed by Lord Narasimha, Namuchi was killed together by Vishnu and Indra using sea foam, Kalanemi and Samhrada were killed during the Samudra Mathana battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But who are &lt;strong&gt;Radheya&lt;/strong&gt; (the &lt;strong&gt;son of Radha&lt;/strong&gt;), Bahumayi(I think this is a description of Radheya), Lokapala, &lt;strong&gt;Yamala and Arjuna&lt;/strong&gt; (who as far as I know are Nalakubara and Manigriva who were freed during &lt;strong&gt;Krsnavatara&lt;/strong&gt; Yugas later), Hardikya (isn't Kritavarma called Hardikya) and &lt;strong&gt;Shumbha  and Nishumbha&lt;/strong&gt; (who were killed by &lt;strong&gt;Durga&lt;/strong&gt;)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;None of these asuras seem to be present prior to Malyavan (and he can't be predicting the future), so are they like some other asuras than those whom I have mentioned in brackets?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of all, who is &lt;strong&gt;Radheya, the son of Radha&lt;/strong&gt; (NOT Karna)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-04-05T17:44:05.957" Title="Who are the Asuras/Rakshasas Malyavan says Vishnu has slain?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|puranas|asuras|war|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11276" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-05T20:38:58.063" Score="2" ViewCount="1118" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before entering Lanka, Hanuman fell Lankini, the demoness of Lanka, with a single decisive blow using his left fist. Lankini then recollects a boon that Brahma had given her earlier. What boon (वरदानम्) from earlier times is she talking about?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O lord of Vanaras! In earlier times I had been &lt;strong&gt;given a boon by Lord Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;. Hear from me about this matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let this be known by you - whenever a Vanara conquers you with his might, then a fear will come for Rakshasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O gentle one! With your appearance now, that time has come for me. &lt;strong&gt;Ordinance of Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; is the truth and is immutable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga3/sundarasans3.htm#Verse46&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kanda, Chapter 3, Verse 46-48&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-06-01T02:22:30.020" Title="What boon did Lankini (demoness of Lanka) get from Brahma?" Tags="|ramayana|brahma|hanuman|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11277" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11278" CreationDate="2016-04-06T00:58:20.433" Score="12" ViewCount="16190" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every religious book, Vedas and Purans , units of distances such as Yojana have been tried to be converted in English in modern age. In Such Situation &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How much is the 1 second of Brahmaloka on earth ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How much it be when applied to chaturyugas and manwantars ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-31T13:19:51.620" LastActivityDate="2018-02-28T15:33:36.623" Title="How much earth year passes in 1 second of Brahmaloka?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|history|brahma|yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11278" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11277" CreationDate="2016-04-06T01:02:30.980" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1 kalpa is equal to 1000 Chaturyugas..1 Day of Brahma Loka is 1 Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;1 Chaturyuga = 12000 deva years&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;■ 1 kalpa = 12000000 deva years&lt;br&gt;&#xA;■ 12 hour of Brahmaloka= 12000000deva years&lt;br&gt;&#xA;■ 1 hour of Brahmaloka=1000000 deva years&lt;br&gt;&#xA;■ 1 second of Brahmaloka=277.7778deva years&lt;br&gt;&#xA;■1 second of Brahmaloka=277.778×360 Human years&lt;br&gt;&#xA;■1 second of Brahmaloka=100000 Human years&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Thus in 1 second of Brahmaloka 1 Lakh Human year passes..&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This means this Kaliyuga will just pass in 4.32 seconds for those who see from Brahma loka..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This means a chaturyuga passes in 43.2 seconds when seen from Brahma Loka..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This means a Manwantara passes in 12hour/14= 51 minutes when seen from Brahma Loka.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Let us apply this data in one interesting case of Bhagwat Puran in 9.3::&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Taking his own daughter, Revati, Kakudmi went to Lord Brahma in Brahmaloka, which is &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  transcendental to the three modes of material nature, and inquired about a husband for her.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When Kakudmi arrived there, Lord Brahma was engaged in hearing musical performances by the &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Gandharvas and had not a moment to talk with him. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore Kakudmi waited, and at the end of the &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  musical performances he offered his obeisances to Lord Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; and thus submitted his long-standing &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  desire. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After hearing his words, Lord Brahma, who is most powerful, laughed loudly and said to Kakudmi: O &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  King, all those whom you may have decided within the core of your heart to accept as your son-in-law &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  have passed away in the course of time. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Twenty-seven catur-yugas have already passed. Those upon whom you may have decided are now &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  gone, and so are their sons, grandsons and other descendants. You cannot even hear about their &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  names.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O King, leave here and offer your daughter to Lord Baladeva, who is still present. He is most &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  powerful. Indeed, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose plenary portion is Lord Visnu. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Your daughter is fit to be given to Him in charity. &lt;br&gt;    &gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Lets calculate how much they remain in Brahma Loka. &lt;strong&gt;Brahma tells 27 chaturyugas have already passed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As 1 chaturyuga = 43.2 seconds&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; ■27 chaturyuga = 1166.4 sec= 19.44 min.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ie, They listened the music in Brahmaloka for &lt;strong&gt;about 19.44 minutes&lt;/strong&gt; and during that time 27 chaturyugas already passed. She reached earth and married Balarama in 28th Dwapar..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Thus now remaining about 426884 years of Kaliyuga which seems so long for us just passes within 4.26 sec from Brahmaloka.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;If a person lives for full 100 years in this Kaliyuga then from Brahmaloka that time passes just in 0.001 seconds.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-04-06T01:02:30.980" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11279" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11793" CreationDate="2016-04-06T02:01:59.137" Score="9" ViewCount="1581" Body="&lt;p&gt;How was sandhyavandanam performed before the age of Vishwamitra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since the two most important parts of sandhyavandanam - arghyam and Gayatri japam - involve the Gayatri (savitri) mantra, I was curious to know what our ancestors did before that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user560" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-17T13:04:10.310" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T09:22:03.830" Title="Sandhyavandanam before the age of Vishwamitra?" Tags="|rituals|mantras|gayatri-mantra|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11283" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-06T14:47:55.420" Score="8" ViewCount="945" Body="&lt;p&gt;Third eye activation is just so hair-raising to me. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How is it related to Hinduism?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How long does it take for third eye activation and does it cause any harm in any case?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Has anyone personally experienced? When does one realize the activation of the third eye, what are the indications?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5251" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-08T13:07:30.320" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T06:25:04.827" Title="Third Eye Activation" Tags="|shiva|belief|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11284" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11158" CreationDate="2016-04-06T15:00:39.487" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a discussion of Isvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat in the Chapter 'The Lamp of the Picture' of the Advaita text Pancadasi of Sri Vidyaranya Swami.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sruti, in the passage beginning with 'the consciousness in the&#xA;  deep sleep' and ending in 'He is the Lord of all' describes this&#xA;   &lt;strong&gt;'sheath of bliss' as the Isvara&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pancadasi translated by Swami Swahananda, VI.158&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the deep sleep state passes into dream state, so Isvara who is&#xA;  known as the sheath of bliss, transforms Himself into Hiranyagarbha,&#xA;  when He, the one, wills to be many.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pancadasi VI.198&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hiranyagarbha or Sutratman, otherwise called the subtle-body, is the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;totality of the subtle bodies of all Jivas&lt;/strong&gt;. He conceives Himself as&#xA;  the totality of all egoes or 'I'- consciousnesses, like the threads of&#xA;  a piece of cloth; and He is said to be endowed with powers of&#xA;  volition, conation and cognition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pancadasi VI.200&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like a tender offshoot of a germinated corn or like a tender plant&#xA;  sprouting, Hiranyagarbha is the tender bud of the world which is still&#xA;  indistinct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pancadasi VI.203&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Virat the world appears distinct and shining,like objects in broad&#xA;  day-light or like the figures of a fully painted picture or the fruit&#xA;  of a fully matured tree. &lt;strong&gt;In Virat all the gross bodies are plainly&#xA;  seen&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pancadasi VI.204&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Visvarupa chapter and in the Purusa Sukta there is a&#xA;  description of Virat. &lt;strong&gt;From the creator Brahma to a blade of grass,&#xA;  all the objects in the world form part of Virat&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pancadasi VI.205&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Swahananda writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here Isvara is the consciousness reflected in the totality of&#xA;  bliss-sheaths. ... Each individual soul, Jiva, has three states of&#xA;  consciousness; the waking (when the Jiva is called the Visva). the&#xA;  dreaming (when he is called Taijasa) and the deep sleep (when he is&#xA;  known as Prajna). Isvara, the collective consciousness,  has also&#xA;  three corresponding states - the Vaisvanara, the Hiranyagarbha, and&#xA;  the Isvara. ... Just as the three states of a Jiva do not make him&#xA;  three, even so the three states of Isvara do not make him a triple&#xA;  personality. Just as Prajna, being the causal state of a Jiva,&#xA;  includes the other two sates of his and is the guide and controller of&#xA;  them; so the third state of Isvara, being the causal one, is the&#xA;  source, the indwelling Spirit, controller and guide of the other two&#xA;  and through them of the entire universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pancadasi translated by Swami Swahananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now that we know wha Virat, Hiranyagarbha and Isvara mean in Advaita Vedanta, how are these three related to Brahma and Saguna Brahman? The creator Brahma is part of Virat according to Pancadasi VI.205. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sruti says that this(pure universal) consciousness reflected in Maya&#xA;  is Isvara which controls Maya as well. The great Isvara is the inner&#xA;  ruler, ominiscient, and the cause of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pancadasi VI.157&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isvara who is Cit reflected on Maya, is not the same as (Nirguna) Brahman, who is Cit, the attributeless existence. Isvara is what is called Saguna Brahman or Brahman with attributes in Advaita Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankara of course considers Isvara or Brahman with attributes as ultimately unreal. He writes in his commentary on Brahma Sutra Bhasya III.II.18:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since this Self is by nature Consciousness Itself, distinctionless,&#xA;  beyond speech and mind, and can be taught by way of negating other&#xA;  things, hence in the scriptures dealing with liberation an&#xA;  illustration is cited by saying that it is &quot;like the sun reflected in&#xA;  water&quot;. Here the aspect kept in view is the one with attributes, which&#xA;  is not real and which is created by limiting adjuncts, as it is done&#xA;  in such texts, &quot;As this luminous sun, though one in itself, becomes&#xA;  multifarious owing to its entry into water divided by different pots,&#xA;  similarly this Deity, the birthless, self-effulgent Self, though one,&#xA;  seems to be diversified owing to its entry into the different bodies,&#xA;  constituting its limiting adjuncts.&quot; Similarly, 'Being but one, the&#xA;  Universal Soul is present in all beings, though One, It is seen as&#xA;  many, like the moon in water&quot; (Amritabindu, 12) and other texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya, III.II.18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2016-04-06T16:01:19.057" LastActivityDate="2016-04-06T16:01:19.057" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11285" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-06T15:32:59.097" Score="5" ViewCount="236" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras describes the Brahmavidyas, 32 lessons found in various Upanishads which can each lead you to Brahman if you meditate upon them. You can see the full list of 32 Vidyas &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 Sutra 23 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa discusses a Vidya that's not included on the standard list of 32:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Topic-12: Attributes of Brahman in Ranayaniya Not to be Combined Elsewhere &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  23. And (the attributes of Brahman such as) possession of unchallenged powers and pervasion of heaven are also not to be added to other meditations for the same reason (of association with special abodes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most commentators on the Brahma Sutras agree that these Sutras are about whether a certain Brahmavidya found in the Ranayaniya Shakha of the Sama Veda and should be combined with Brahmavidyas during meditations.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information on the Vedic Shakhas.) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sv.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the khilas (supplementary writings) of the Rânâyanîyas we meet with a passage, 'Held together are the powers among which Brahman is the best; the best Brahman in the beginning stretched out the sky,'&lt;/strong&gt; which mentions certain energies of Brahman, such as holding together its powers, entering into the sky, &amp;amp;c.  And in the Upanishad of the same (i.e. the Rânâyanîyas) we meet with vidyâs of Brahman among which the Sândilya-vidyâ is the first.--The question then arises whether the energies of Brahman just mentioned are to be inserted in those Brahma-vidyâs or not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The conclusion is that the Brahmavidya found in the &quot;khilas ... of the Ranayaniya&quot; should not be combined with other Bramavidyas, because those other Brahmavidyas deal with meditating on Brahman residing in the heart and the like, as opposed to this one which is about Brahman pervading the sky.  But my question is about where this Brahmavidya is from.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, where in the Ranayaniya Shakha of the Samaveda is the Khila text that this Brahmavidya is from?  For those who don't know, a Khila text is a text found in some versions of a scripture, but not others.  In the context of the Vedas, that means a text found in one Shakha but not others.  (Again, see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for information on Vedic Shakhas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in this case, I assume this Khila text is something found in the Ranayaniya Shakha of the Samaveda but not the Kauthuma Shakha.  Unfortunately, I don't have the Samhita of the Ranayaniya Shakha in Sanskrit, but &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sv.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this translation&lt;/a&gt; of the Samaveda Samhita claims to be based on the Ranayaniya Shakha, and it claims that &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/translationsanh00stevgoog&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this translation&lt;/a&gt; is also based on the Ranayaniya Shakha.  But I can't seem to find the Brahmavidya in either one of them.  Perhaps they're in the Brahmana or Aranyaka of the Ranayaniya Shakha (neither of which I have) instead of the Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it helps, the line I'm looking for in Sanskrit is &quot;brahma jyestha virya sambhritani brahmagre jyestham divamatatana&quot;.  I haven't found this line in the Sama Veda, but I have found this line or close variants of it in other Vedas.&#xA;For instance, here is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ARjCl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse 2.4.7.10&lt;/a&gt; of the Taittiriya Brahmana of the Yajur Veda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pra sadyo agne atyeshyanyan | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  aviryasmai charutaro babhuta | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  idenyo vapushyo vibhava | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  priyo vishamathithirmanushinam | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;brahma jyestha virya sambhritani |&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;brahmagre jyestham divamatatana |&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ritasya brahma prathamota jajne | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tenarhati brahmana sparditum kah | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brahma srucho ghritavatih | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brahmana svaravo mitah || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou quickly passest by all others, Agni, for him to whom thou hast appeared most lovely, wondrously fair, adorable, effulgent, the guest of men, the darling of the people.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Collected manly powers are topped by Brahma. Brahma at first  spread out the loftiest heaven.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Brahma was born first of all things existing. Who then is meet to be that Brahma's rival? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Brahma is fatness-dropping scoops: with Brahma was the altar&#xA;     reared. Brahma is worship, lengthened rite, the Rishis who pay sacrifice,&#xA;     the victim's Immolators. Hail!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av19022.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 19 hymn 22&lt;/a&gt; of the Atharvana Veda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;bráhmajyeṣṭʰā sámbʰr̥tā viryā̀ṇi bráhmā́gre jyéṣṭʰaṃ dívam ā́ tatāna |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bʰūtā́nāṃ brahmā́ pratʰamótá jajñe ténārhati bráhmaṇā spárdʰituṃ káḥ || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Collected manly powers are topped by Brahma. Brahma at first  spread out the loftiest heaven.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Brahma was born first of all things existing. Who then is meet to be that Brahma's rival? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does anyone know where this line can be found in the Sama Veda?  I want to see it in its original context, in case there's more to the Brahmavidya than just that one line.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T03:49:46.610" Title="Where is the Sama Veda quote referenced in the Brahma Sutras?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|upanishads|brahma-sutras|sama-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11286" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11165" CreationDate="2016-04-06T15:47:06.650" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Answer to your question is - &lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;, we can drink the Abhisekha water which is also called the &quot;Charanamrit&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/naradapurana12.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter&lt;/a&gt; in the Narada Purana which describes the Deva Puja Vidhi,  Matrika Nysasa Vidhi etc in details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from the above page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Deva Puja vidhi: Maharshi Sanat Kumara then described to Brahmarshi&#xA;  Narada the procedure of worship. Having set up the Puja Region with a&#xA;  Trikona / Chatur kona Mandala with ‘jala prokshana’, a devotee would &#xA;  recite the Mantras....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He would recite: Om Atma tatwaatmaney namah, Om Vidya tatwaatmaney&#xA;  namah, Shiva tatwa-atmaney namaha; then perform Avaahana (Welcome) of&#xA;  the ‘Ishta Devata’or the Personalised Deity present in the form of a&#xA;  ‘Pratima’ (Idol) or Shalagrama or Linga with ‘Pushpanjali’(flowers) as&#xA;  follows:....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next, the details of the Shodasaupachara Puja is mentioned which includes Abhisekham  and finally this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Procedure of ‘Visarjana’or ending of Puja is to offer flowers by&#xA;  reciting the Mamtra: Yacchha yacchha param sthaanam Jagadeesha&#xA;  Jaganmaya, Yatra Brahmaadayo Deva jaananticha Sadaashivah/ &lt;strong&gt;Thereafter,&#xA;  the devotee would sip the idol’s ‘Charanaamrita’ saying:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Akaalamrutyuharanam SarvavVyaadhi vinaashakam, Sarva paapa kshayakaram&#xA;  Vishnu paadodakamm Shubham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;MAtrikA Bheda Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;, Lord Shiva makes an interesting revelation. He says Shiva Nirmalaya is mokshaprada or giver of liberation. Anyone consuming it will attain moksha. But as a rule a Jiva has to travel through all the 84 lacs of Yonis before getting final liberation. It can not happen anytime before that. That's why Lord Shiva himself preached against the consumption of Shiva nirmalaya in various other Shastras. ( This Tantram says that he preached that in Vedas and Puranas. )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri ChandiKA UvAcha :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AgrAhyam Tava NirmAlyamgrAhyam Karanam Vibho |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MrishA VAkyam MahAdeva Katham Vadasi Yogabhrith ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri ChandikA Devi said :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[ You yourself have said in other Shastras ] that your nirmalya&#xA;  should not be consumed. Being Yogi how did you utter a lie?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Shankara Uvacha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chaturasitilaksheshu Yonigarthe Tathaiva Hi |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhramanam Kuruthe Jeevastato Mokshasya BhAjanam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Etanmadhye MahA GyAnam Yafi SyAd Veeravandite |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tada MokkshamvApnoti Bhramanam Kena VA Bhaveth ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ataeva Maheshani Gupta BhAvam MayA Kritam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shankara said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jiva gets fit for liberation only after traveling through all the 84&#xA;  lacs of yonis. Now if mahagyana is obtained by it sometime before that&#xA;  then it will be liberated. How will it travel through all the 84 lacs&#xA;  yonis then? Hey Devi, that's why i have said that for the purpose of&#xA;  maintaining secrecy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a later verse Lord Shiva clarifies that something that is said jokingly is simply a joke and not a lie. And the same is true for something that is said for maintaining secrecy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;GuptaBhAvArtham Yad VAkyam PariHAsArthameva Cha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tadarthameva Tad VAkyam Na MithyA Parameswari ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey Parameswari, whatever said for maintaining secrecy or jokingly is&#xA;  exactly that and not a lie.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, Shiva Nirmalaya is granter of liberation irrespective of who is consuming it. See the following verse from the same chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PApayukto Hi ChandAlo NirmAlyam Grihyathe YadA |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tada MokshamvApnoti Shivarupi Na CAnyathA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even if a sinful Chandala partakes my Nirmalaya he will be liberated,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  he will be like Shiva, &amp;amp; it will never happen otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the verses are from &lt;strong&gt;Sri MAtrikA Bheda Tantram's chapter 4 (or Patala 4).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-07T05:53:06.877" LastActivityDate="2017-05-07T05:53:06.877" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11287" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7038" CreationDate="2016-04-06T18:58:43.647" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is  reference of Alakshmi in the Markandeya Purana which also talks about  the family lineage in which she was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/markandeyapurana23.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page,which describes the various creations of Brahma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma also created Swayambhu Manu and his wife Shatarupa; the latter&#xA;  gave birth to girls Akruti and Prasuti; Akruti was wedded to Prajapati&#xA;  Ruchi and Prasuti was married to Daksha Prajapati. Akruti and Ruchi&#xA;  gave birth to a son Yagna and a daughter Dakshina. Prasuti and Daksha&#xA;  gave birth to twenty four daughters; these were as follows: Shraddha,&#xA;  Lakshmi, Drhiti, Tushti, Pushti, Medha, Kriya, Buddhi, Lajja, Vapu,&#xA;  Shanti, Siddhi and Kirti were wedded to Dharma; the remaining eleven&#xA;  were Khyati, Sati, Sambhuti, Smriti, Preeti, Kshama, Sannati, Anasuya,&#xA;  Urja, Swaha and Swadha were respectively married to Bhrigu, Mahadeva,&#xA;  Marichi, Angira, Pulastyha, Pulaha, Kratu, Vasishtha, Atri, Vahni and&#xA;  Pitrugana. Out of these, Dharma’s progeny were as follows: Shraddha to&#xA;  Kama, Shri to Darpa, Dhriti to Niyam, Santosh to Tushti, Lobha to&#xA;  Pushti, Medha to Shruta, Kriya to Danda, Buddhi to Bodha, Lajja to&#xA;  Vinay, Vapu to Vyavasayak, Shanti to Kshema, Siddhi to Sukha, and&#xA;  Kirti to Yasha. Shraddha’s son Kama (desire) gave birth to Harsha&#xA;  (happiness) and the latter’s son Adharma (Evil) was married to Himsa&#xA;  (Violence) and Anrut (Untruth) was born to Adharma and Himsa. In this&#xA;  family lineage emerged Nikruti, Naraka, Bhaya (Fear), Maya (Illusion),&#xA;  Vedana (Distress), Vyadhi (Disease), Jara (Old Age), Shoka (Anguish),&#xA;  Trishna (Thirst), Krodh (Anger), Mrityu (Death), &lt;strong&gt;Alakshmi&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  (Scarcity) and one of the latter’s sons was named Dussaha (Intolerant)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Btw, Alakshmi is also mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_lakshmi-sri_suktam.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Suktam&lt;/a&gt;, a Rig Vedic Hymn dedicated to Goddess Mahalakshmi ,viz-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Candraam Prabhaasaam Yashasaa Jvalantiim Shriyam Loke&#xA;  Deva-Jussttaam-Udaaraam | Taam PadminiimIim SharannamAham Prapadye&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Alakssmiir&lt;/strong&gt; Me Nashyataam Tvaam Vrnne ||5||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-04-07T07:25:14.763" LastActivityDate="2016-04-07T07:25:14.763" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11289" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11293" CreationDate="2016-04-07T03:18:47.940" Score="16" ViewCount="1973" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do we apply &lt;strong&gt;Vibuthi&lt;/strong&gt; (in 3 horizontal lines)? What does it signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it deal with more than religious beliefs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5241" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-08-26T16:29:42.320" LastActivityDate="2023-08-26T16:29:42.320" Title="What is the significance of applying Vibuthi?" Tags="|shiva|belief|vibuthi|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11291" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8440" CreationDate="2016-04-07T04:32:47.913" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pradyumna did not take part in the kurukshetra war.&lt;/strong&gt; Balarama who taught war skills to Duryodhana, in mace (gada) was also teacher for Bhima. He was well wisher of the Pandavas and did not wanted to participate in the war. He didn't want any of his family members to fight against each other. He stated if either of the two brothers Balarama or Shri Krishna fought on behalf of any side using their weapons, then the war would finish on the first day. So Balarama and no other family members of Shri Krishna took part in the war against him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Satyaki was an exception who fought for the Pandava army even Krishna promised his army to Kauravas. While Kritavarman who was one of the Maharathas gave his 1 akshauhini army of Yadava clan stayed with his army and fought for Kauravas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abhimanyu talks with his uncle Dharma Raja before entering into Padma Vyuha in Drona Parva. He mentions his teacher pradyumna several times. There he equated him sometimes with Krishna and sometimes with his father Arjuna. If Pradyumna fought in the war behalf of Pandavas, Yudhishtira would havedirectly call upon him or plot against him. There are direct references of him from Adi Parva, Sabha Parva where he participated in Rajasuya, in Vana Parva, in Mausala Parva how he dead and how he returned back to his original abode. But Pradyumna there is no single reference that he took active participation in the Kurukshetra war. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my conclusion is : &lt;em&gt;Pradyumna did &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; take part in the war&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can find the names of some Yadava warriors like Satyaki, Chekitana, Kritavarma and his son Matrikavat in the list of warriors finding behalf of two sides but there was no name of Pradyumna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sites.google.com/site/iskconcapechat/home/books-group/bhagavad-gita-as-it-is/combatants-on-the-field-of-kuruksetra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Combatants on the field of Kuruksetra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;     &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chapter 7 of Udyoga Parva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; for Bala Rama remaining neutral and not participating in the war.   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Abhimanyu-vadha Parva, [Drona Parva] of the Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt; for Abhimanyu's conversation with Yudhishtira.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-12T03:41:38.243" LastActivityDate="2018-09-12T03:41:38.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11292" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8245" CreationDate="2016-04-07T05:24:57.063" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are in fact more than one question in your question viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.How many types of Siddhis are there?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)How to achieve them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)What is Mantra Siddhi &amp;amp; how to achieve it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How many types of Siddhis are there?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Linga Purana&lt;/a&gt; describes the primary Siddhis as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A successful Yoga Practitioner is endowed with &lt;strong&gt;‘Dasha Siddhis’viz.&#xA;  Pratibha, Shravana, Vaarta, Darshana, Aaswaada and Vedana.&lt;/strong&gt; Jnaana&#xA;  Pratibha is the Siddhi of knowing about a Vastu or Vyavahar or of a&#xA;  thing of past, present or of future; this Siddhi would infuence or&#xA;  impress others. Shravana Siddhi enables a Yogi to hear or understand&#xA;  any kind of sound or conversation or a happening irrespective of&#xA;  distance or time. Vaartaa Siddhi facilitates the experience of Pancha&#xA;  Tanmatraas of sabda-sparsha-rupa-rasa and gandhas. Darshana Siddhi is&#xA;  the ability to perceive or vision of any thing irrespective of time&#xA;  and distance limitations. Aaswaada Siddhi enables tasting any&#xA;  substance and Vedana Siddhi is the power of sparsha to experience the&#xA;  shape, form or a feature of a person or thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More kinds of Siddhis are also described on the same page as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In fact a Maha Yogi is stated to possess &lt;strong&gt;sixty four kinds of&#xA;  Paisachika, Parthiva, Raakshasa, Yaaksha, Gaandharva, Aindra,&#xA;  Vyomatmika, Praajaapatya, Brahmaadi Siddhis&lt;/strong&gt; but he should discard all&#xA;  such powers in the quest of Shivatwa. Such Siddhis range from assuming&#xA;  any type of Swarupa of fatness, slimnes, childhood, youth, old age,&#xA;  man, woman, any specie of a bird-animal-reptile, mountain, water body&#xA;  and so on; ability to lift mountains, drink up an ocean, flying on&#xA;  sky, passing through a needle’s eye and endless such miracles. [&lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;  normal Siddhis are Anima (miniaturising), Mahima ( Maximising),&#xA;  Prakamya (Visioning and Hearing), Isatwa (Rulership), Vasitwa (Self&#xA;  Control), Kama Vasitwa (ability to fulfill desires), Doora Shravana&#xA;  and Doora Darshana or distant vision and hearing,  Parakaya Pravesha&#xA;  or ability to enter other’s bodies; ‘Devaanaam Saha kreedanam’ or&#xA;  playing with Devas, Yatha Sankalpa Samsiddhi or instant fulfillment of&#xA;  desires,Triloka Jnaana or knowledge of the happenings of Three Lokas; &#xA;  Control of heat and cold, Paraajaya or invincibility and so on.&lt;/strong&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to achieve Siddhis?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The method of obtaining Siddhis is by practising &quot;Ashtanga Yoga&quot;.The description of Ashtanga Yoga is found on the same page from where i quote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To control the activities or goings on in the mind is Yoga. The&#xA;  Ashtanga or Eight-Limbed Yoga comprises of Yama- Niyama- Aasana-&#xA;  Pranaayama- Pratyahara-Dharana-Dhyana-Samadhi&lt;/strong&gt;. Yama is denoted by good&#xA;  behaviour comprising Ahimsa (Non-Violence), Satya         (Truth),&#xA;  Asteya (stealing), Brahmacharya (avoidance of sex) and Aparigraha or&#xA;  Excessive acquisition. Basic Niyamas is in fact an extension of Yama:&#xA;  To refrain from hurting or torturing co-Beings physically or mentally&#xA;  is Ahimsa; to convey whatever is seen, heard, and believed is Satya&#xA;  unless it does not hurt any body is known as Satya; to desist stealing&#xA;  of other’s property by deed, thought or otherwise is called Asteya; to&#xA;  negate from relationship with another female or in respect of a female&#xA;  wih another  male, excepting the wedded woman or man as the case may&#xA;  be and this should be observed by vision, thought or deed is called&#xA;  Brahmacharya or celibacy; and to abstain from excessive acquisition of&#xA;  materials far and above one’s needs in the short run of time is stated&#xA;  to be Aparigraha. Besides the above General Principles, Niyamas also&#xA;  involve the specific deeds viz. Shoucha or Physical&#xA;  Cleanliness,Yagna-Tapa or meditation, Daana or charity, Swadhyaya or&#xA;  Memorising or Reciting the Scriptures, Indriya Nigraha or Control of&#xA;  Physical Limbs, Vratas like Chandrayana as also or to perform formal&#xA;  worship directed to specific Devatas and purposes,,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Mantra Siddhi &amp;amp; how to achieve it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantra Siddhi is a devotee's full control over the wholesome power of a Mantra &amp;amp; is obtained upon reciting a particular Mantra for a fixed number of  times with certain other constraints being imposed .First and foremost you should get your Guru to obtain a Mantra.Or else you can pray to your Ista Devta and start.Rest is quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=525&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page.&#xA;Mantra Siddhi is also called Mantra Purasarchana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;METHOD OF MANTRA PURASCHARANA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The repetition of a Mantra with rigid spiritual observances a fixed&#xA;  number of times to obtain quick spiritual progress is known as Mantra&#xA;  Purascharana. It can be performed for material progress too. The&#xA;  practitioner should observe certain rules and undergo strict dietetic&#xA;  discipline to ensure quick Mantra Siddhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During the Purascharana take only fresh vegetables, fruits, milk,&#xA;  roots, barley and Havis-Anna (rice cooked with ghee, sugar, milk). A&#xA;  Sadhaka can live on pure Bhiksha (alms) also. If you can live on milk&#xA;  alone during the period of Purascharana it is highly laudable. &lt;strong&gt;You can&#xA;  have Mantra Siddhi even by repeating the Mantra a lakh of times.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Select any holy place of pilgrimage on the banks of sacred Ganga,&#xA;  confluence of rivers, mountain valleys of charming scenery, temples,&#xA;  Tulasi gardens, below Asvattha trees or convert a portion of your&#xA;  house into a temple by keeping the picture of the Lord, burning&#xA;  incense etc., and by suitable decorations. Purascharana done in holy&#xA;  places has a benefit hundred times superior to that done in one's own&#xA;  house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You can select any Mantra for Purascharana. Your Guru Mantra or Ishta&#xA;  Mantra is the best. Sandhya time, sunrise, sunset, midday are all&#xA;  recommended for Japa. Repeat the Mantra as many lakhs of times as&#xA;  there are letters in the Mantra. You can do half of that number. In no&#xA;  case the number should be less than a lakh........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After completing the Purascharana perform Homa th the number of Japa,&#xA;  Tarpana (water libations) th the number of Homa, Marjana (sprinkling)&#xA;  th the number of Tarpana and feeding of Brahmins th the number of&#xA;  Tarpana. You can do feeding and charity according to your capacity if&#xA;  you cannot adhere to the above strictly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is recommended that you read the whole article and not just the portions i have quoted from it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-04-07T05:24:57.063" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11293" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11289" CreationDate="2016-04-07T05:45:07.803" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The significance of Bhasma  is well explained by Lord Shiva himself in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=7&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Linga Purana&lt;/a&gt; as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Significance of Bhasma: Bhagavan Shiva further analysed the&#xA;  significance of Bhasma which was product of Agni Karyaas like daily&#xA;  homas and Yagnas; the burning of ‘Sthavara Jangamaas’ by Fire would&#xA;  result in Ash:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhasmattadvihitam Sarvam Pavitramidamuttamam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhasmaanaa Veeryamaasyaaya Bhutaani parishanchati/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agnikaaryam cha yah krutwaa karishyati triyaayusham,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhasmanaa mama veeryena muchyatey Sarva kilbishey/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhaasatey –tyeva yadbhasma shubham bhaavayatey cha yat,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhakshanaat Sarva ;paapaanaam bhasmeyti parikeertitam/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ushmapaah Pitaro Jneyaa Devaa vai Somasambhavaah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agnishomaatmakam Sarvam Jagarsthaavara jangamam/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ahamagnirmahaa tejaah Somaschaishaa Mahaambikaa,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ahamagnischa Somascha Praktrutyaa Purushah Swayam/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tasmaadbhasmam Mahaa Bhaagaa madveeryamiti chochyatey,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swarveeryam vapushaa chaiva dhaarameeti vai sthitaya/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tadaaprabhruti lokeshu rakshaarthamashubheshyucha/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhasmaanaa kriyatey raksha sutikaanaam gruheshucha/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhasmasnaana vishuddhaatmaa Jita Krodho Jitendriyah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Matsameepam Samaagamya na bhuyo vinivartatey/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vratam Pashupata yogam kapilam chaiva nirmitam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purvam Pashupatim  hyetannirmitam tadanuttamam/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;Uttama Bhasma is produced by the scorching of the wood of trees and&#xA;  other materials of Nature. Shiva stated that by way of  Bhasma, he&#xA;  carried his virility to human beings.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Bhasma generated by Agni Karyaas&#xA;  while reciting the Mantras like ‘Triyaamshu’ is basically is the&#xA;  bye-product of Shiva’s ‘veerya’ and demolishes all kinds of Sins.&lt;/strong&gt; This&#xA;  ‘bhasita’ or the radiant  product  emerges from Shiva’s Body and is&#xA;  responsible for the Bhakshana of Mahaa Paapaas and hence it is called&#xA;  Bhasma. Mahadeva futher explained that the word ‘Ushmapa’ or hot and&#xA;  burnt material is ‘Pitreeshwar’ or the material consumed by the Lord&#xA;  of Pitraas, while Devataas consume Amrita or Soma Rasa; Agni is of&#xA;  Soma Swarupa; Shiva is Agni and Soma rupi is Devi Ambika; Shiva is&#xA;  Purusha and Ambika is Prakruti. &lt;strong&gt;This is the reason why Bhasma is&#xA;  called Shiva’s veerya as his Veerya is generated  from Shiva’s body.&#xA;  Thus Bhasma destroys Evil and Inauspiciousness / ‘Ashubha’ anywhere&#xA;  especially in households;&lt;/strong&gt; any person taking a bath and applies Bhasma&#xA;  is stated to be eligible for performing the Sacred Paashupata Vrata&#xA;  Kapila Yoga and is assured of Bandha vimochana or the shackles of&#xA;  Samsara to Shiva Loka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTw,it should be noted that  vibhuti is sacred to Shaivites,sandal paste is likewise to Vaishnabas and kumkumam to the Shaktas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Significance of Bhasma &amp;amp; how to properly wear it is also described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana77.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt; ;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Use of  Bhasma ( ash), preferably by  the Fire oblation performed by&#xA;  Brahmanas themselves or atleast  by burnt remains of cow dung, is to&#xA;  be smeared on forehead , shoulders and chest is as important as&#xA;  wearing Rudrakshas. Soon after bath, the use of Bhasma mixed with&#xA;  water drops as three curved lines be applied first as two top lines by&#xA;  the middle finger and ring finger from left to right and then the&#xA;  lowest line by the thumb from right to left. The applications of&#xA;  bhasma is to be done thrice a day, before the Tri-Sandhya Gayatri&#xA;  Japas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then apply Bhasma as prescribed above. If Bhasma is not applied,&#xA;  Brahmanas are not entitled to perform ‘Sandhavandana’or Gayatri Japam.&#xA;  Contrarily, no sin could enter the body once Bhasma is applied as&#xA;  prescribed. &lt;strong&gt;This is why Brahmanas take care to apply the Tripundra&#xA;  by the use of the three fingers as the ring finger represents as A,&#xA;  the middle finger represents U and the fore finger represents M from&#xA;  the Pranava Mantra OAM.&lt;/strong&gt; At the same time however, any person&#xA;  irrespective of caste could use ‘Vibhuti’ ( not the Bhasma as&#xA;  disinguished above ie. from Yajna fire or from dried cow dung burnt)&#xA;  and the application of vibhuti has far reaching beneficial impact&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devotees of Shiva hence apply  three horizontal lines of Vibhutis and when conjoined with a red kumkumam dot at the centre it represnts the union of Shiva &amp;amp; Shakti which is the cause of everything in the manifested and unmanifested creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-04-07T06:22:30.987" LastActivityDate="2016-04-07T06:22:30.987" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11294" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13567" CreationDate="2016-04-07T07:49:45.587" Score="6" ViewCount="1487" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is right way to hold the hand while doing the prayer? I found some images from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritual-practice/prayer/how-to-pray/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritual-practice/prayer/how-to-pray/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HTQj2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HTQj2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/muCMg.gif&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/muCMg.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this blog is too long. Can someone provide short answer?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3962" LastActivityDate="2016-06-07T11:45:13.993" Title="Postures of body while worship the god or during prayer?" Tags="|prayer|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11295" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12347" CreationDate="2016-04-07T08:28:31.523" Score="14" ViewCount="3952" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per  Advaita school of Vedanta; living entity is identical to supreme brahman.&#xA;Advaitins generally interpret '&lt;em&gt;Aham Brahmasmi&lt;/em&gt;' as 'I'm supreme Brahman'(please correct me if i'm wrong).&#xA;We are Brahman but right now covered by ignorance(Maya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;so my question is&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.Does that mean Maya is superior to brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.Vedanta Sutra(1.1.2) says '&lt;em&gt;Janmadyasya yatah&lt;/em&gt;' ; meaning 'from which origin  etc'.That would mean Maya has also come from Brahman. Then how can(/has) this maya taken over Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.According to Advaita After Moksha does living entity retain the individuality or merge in Brahman?(If yes then how it got its individuality the 1st time?)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2859" LastEditDate="2017-03-15T11:26:27.557" LastActivityDate="2021-06-09T12:18:59.367" Title="Is Maya superior to Brahman as per Advaita philosophy?" Tags="|brahma-sutras|advaita|maya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11296" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-07T12:19:54.713" Score="3" ViewCount="95" Body="&lt;p&gt;How to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why did I come to earth and how to retire from it?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can some person remember the reason of his existence by doing Japa or meditation?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &quot;Who am I?&quot; quest is taking too much depth but actually how to end it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-07T15:29:32.070" LastActivityDate="2016-04-07T15:29:32.070" Title="How to know why did I come to earth and how to retire from it?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|rebirth|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-02-26T11:10:02.673" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11297" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-07T13:20:56.933" Score="6" ViewCount="346" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading a book &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/VeerabrahmendraThePrecursorOfKalki1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Biography of Pothuluri Veerabrahmendra Swami&lt;/a&gt; and Author delineates the Vedic Science of development of Embryo in that book. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pothuluru_Veerabrahmendra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Veerabrahmendra Swami or Brahmam garu&lt;/a&gt; was a mystic saint who is believed to Avatar of Lord Vishnu and precursor of Kalki. Brahmam garu is famous for his work &lt;strong&gt;Kaalagnaanam&lt;/strong&gt; (literally &quot;Knowledge of time&quot;) which prophesy future events.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“In that embryo, soul enters in the 7th month. That time onwards the&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;pindam&lt;/em&gt; remains upside down. It remains covered with a layer which protects it from the &lt;em&gt;jatharagni&lt;/em&gt; (heat inside the mother’s stomach).&#xA;  In the 8th and 9th months, Jeeva (Soul) has all knowledge of his&#xA;  previous lives; and seeing the disgusting urine and faeces it feels&#xA;  very sad to stay there and repents for his past bad karmas, pleads to&#xA;  the God saying he would never do any bad deeds again and would at&#xA;  least in this life be very wise and pious person devoted to Dharma and&#xA;  god. This way he promises to God in various tones of sadness and&#xA;  requests god to free him from that hellish place which seems so&#xA;  disgusting to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;But as soon as he comes out of the womb to the actual world, due to&#xA;  Maya/Illusion as soon as he cries for the first time, he forgets all&#xA;  his previous knowledge and becomes totally ignorant!”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/gpu08.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Puranam&lt;/a&gt; too describes similar events.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;13&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There he remembers, by divine power, the Karma generated in hundreds of previous births,--and remembering, sobs for a long time,&#xA;  obtaining not the least happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Having this insight he, with hands put together, bound in seven bonds, imploring and trembling, adores in plaintive tones Him who&#xA;  placed him in the womb.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From the beginning of the seventh month, though he gains consciousness, he who is in the womb trembles and moves about because&#xA;  of the parturition winds, like a uterine worm.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;16-23. The creature says, &quot;I seek refuge in Viṣṇu; the husband of Śrī,&#xA;  the supporter of the universe, the destroyer of evil, who is&#xA;  compassionate to those who come for shelter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I am bewildered by Thy magic, as regards body and son and wife;&#xA;  misled by my egoism I am transmigrating, O Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I did good and evil actions for the sake of my dependents, and as s&#xA;  result I am tormented, while they who enjoy the fruits escape.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If I am released from this womb I will lay myself at Thy feet, and I&#xA;  will take the means by which I may obtain liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Fallen into a well of fœces and urine, I am burnt by the fire of the&#xA;  belly, and anxious to escape from it. When shall I get out?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In Him alone, who has given me this experience, and is compassionate&#xA;  to the afflicted, will I seek refuge. Let not this transmigration&#xA;  occur to me again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;But no, I wish never to come out of the womb, where misery results&#xA;  from my sinful actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Because remaining even here in great misery, bearing the fatigue,&#xA;  resorting to Thy feet I will keep myself aloof from the worlds of&#xA;  change.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;24&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Blessed Lord said: He who has thus considered, and has been ten months in the womb, endowed with insight, while praying, suddenly&#xA;  is cast out head downwards into birth, by the winds of delivery.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cast out forcibly, bending down his head, he comes out with anxiety and painfully breathless and with memory destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Having fallen on the ground he moves like a worm in excrement. He is become changed in condition, and cries loudly, deprived of&#xA;  knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the state of mind which arises in the womb, during illness, on the cremation ground, or upon hearing the Purāṇas were permanent--who&#xA;  would not be liberated from bondage!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;When he comes out of the womb, after experiencing his karma, then verily the man is bewildered by the magic of Viṣṇu.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both these texts say man is bewildered by Maya when he comes out of the womb. Does this mean that mother's womb is free from Maya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-07T15:36:47.263" LastActivityDate="2016-04-07T15:36:47.263" Title="Is Mother's womb devoid of Maya (illusion)?" Tags="|garuda-purana|maya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11298" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11353" CreationDate="2016-04-07T14:31:58.817" Score="8" ViewCount="2941" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 Sutra 32 of the Brahma Sutras says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Topic-19: People with a Mission&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;32&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Those who have a mission to fulfill continue in the corporeal state as long as the mission demands it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the commentators interpret this Sutra as saying that although in most cases when a person attains knowledge of Brahman they attain Moksha as soon as they die, in a small number of cases they take another birth in order to fulfill some role that is vital to sustaining the Universe.  In Adi Shankaracharya's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38175.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; on this Sutra, he gives some example of people who were born again for a purpose even after attaining knowledge of Brahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question here is whether for him who has reached true knowledge a new body originates after he has parted with the old one or not.--But an objection is here raised at the outset there is really no occasion for inquiring whether knowledge when reaching its perfection brings about its due effect, viz. complete isolation of the Self from all bodies or not; not any more than there is room for an inquiry whether there is cooked rice or not, after the process of cooking has reached its due termination; or, for an inquiry whether a man is satisfied by eating or not. Not so, we reply. There is indeed room for the inquiry proposed, as we know from itihâsa and purâna that some persons although knowing Brahman yet obtained new bodies. Tradition informs us, e.g. that Apântaratamas, an ancient rishi, and teacher of the Vedas, was, by the order of Vishnu, born on this earth as Krishna Dvaipâyana at the time when the Dvâparayuga was succeeded by the Kaliyuga. Similarly, Vasishtha, the son of Brahman's mind, having parted from his former body in consequence of the curse of Nimi, was, on the order of Brahman, again procreated by Mitra and Varuna. Smriti further relates that Bhrigu and other sons of Brahman's mind were again born at the sacrifice of Varuna. &lt;strong&gt;Sanatkumâra also, who likewise was a son of Brahman's mind, was, in consequence of a boon being granted to Rudra, born again as Skanda.&lt;/strong&gt; And there are similar tales about Daksha, Nârada, and others having, for various reasons, assumed new bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7044/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; I discuss Apantaratamas' rebirth as Vyasa, and in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7979/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; I discuss Vasishta's rebirth as the son of Mitra and Varuna.  But my question is, what scriptures describe Brahma's son Sanatkumara being reborn as Shiva's son Kartikeya, aka Skanda or Muruga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Sanatkumara is one of the four Kumaras, the first four mind-born sons of Brahma who are most famous for cursing Jaya and Vijaya as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2042/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, the only reference I know of to a connection between Sanatkumara and Kartikeya is in the Chandogya Upanishad, at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01160.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;end of a dialogue&lt;/a&gt; between Sanatkumara and the sage Narada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The venerable Sanatkumâra showed to Nârada after his faults had been rubbed out, the other side of darkness. &lt;strong&gt;They call Sanatkumâra Skanda, yea, Skanda they call him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any scriptures which describe the story of how and why Sanatkumara was reborn as Kartikeya?  I'm particularly interested in Adi Shankaracharya's statement that it was done &amp;quot;in consequence of a boon being granted to Rudra&amp;quot;.  What was the boon, and who gave it to Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, it's interesting to note that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam says that the four Kumaras are incarnations of Vishnu.  So that would mean that Kartikeya is an incarnation of Vishnu!  That would certainly put the discredited theories that the Venkateshwara statue is Kartikeya in a whole new light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parvati of the Mahabharata says that Krishna's son Pradyumna is an incarnation of Sanatkumara, which would put Pradyumna's fight with Kartikeya, which is part of the fight between Krishna and Shiva that I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2231/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, in an interesting light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-01T15:38:47.260" Title="What scriptures describe Brahma's son Sanatkumara being reborn as Shiva's son Kartikeya?" Tags="|brahma-sutras|adi-shankaracharya|kartikeya|chandogya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11299" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9782" CreationDate="2016-04-07T15:11:28.803" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which Hindu Scriptures say that Lord Shiva lives in Samshana?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm answering only this part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think it must be so mentioned in many scriptures but for the time being i'm only able to quote from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana7.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt;, a Stuti of Lord Shiva done by Devaguru Brihaspati .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At one place,this Stotram praises Lord Shiva as &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Smashana Vasiney&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; meaining &quot;One who lives in Smashana or the cremation grounds&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devotees are supposed to recite this Stotram at the onset of their Pradosha kala Puja to Lord Shiva;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Deva Guru Brihaspathi taught the Procedure of Worship to Bhagavan Siva&#xA;  on Kartika month’s Sukla Paksha Pournami or the full moon day.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later on, the devotee should execute hundred and eight ‘Pradakshinas’&#xA;  or circumambulations and Namaskars followed by ‘Stuti’ or commendation&#xA;  as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Siva Stuti: ‘Namo Rudraya, Neelaaya, Bhimaya Paramaatmaney, Kapardiney&#xA;  Sureshaya, Vyomakeshaya vai Namah/ Vrushabhadwajaaya Somaaya&#xA;  Somanathaaya Shambhavey, Digambaraaya Bhargaaya Umaakaanthaya vai&#xA;  Namah, Tapomayaya Bhavyaya Sivasreshthaaya Vishnavey, Vyalapriyaya&#xA;  Vyaalaaya Vyalaanaampathaye Namah / Mahidharaya Vyaghraya Pashunam&#xA;  pathaye Namah, Puraanthakaaya Simhaaya Shaardulaaya Makhaaya cha /&#xA;  Meenaya Meena nathaaya Siddhaya Parameshtiney, Kaamaanthakaya&#xA;  Buddhaaya Buddheenaam pathaye namah / Kapothaya Vishishtaaya Sishtaaya&#xA;  Sakalaatmaney, Vedaaya Veda Jeevaaya Veda Guhyaya vai Namah /&#xA;  Deerghaya Deergha Rupaya Deerghaarthaya vinaashiney, Namo&#xA;  Jagatprathishthaaya Vyomarupaaya vai Namah/ Gajaasura Mahaakaalay&#xA;  andhakaasura bhediney, Neelalohitha Suklaaya Chanda Munda Priyaya cha&#xA;  / Bhakti Priyaya Devaaya Jnaaney Jnaanavyaya cha, Maheshaya&#xA;  Namasthubhyam Mahadeva Haraaya cha / Trinetraya Tri Vedaya Vedaangaaya&#xA;  Namo Namah, Arthaya cha Artha rupaaya Paramaarthaya vai Namah / Viswa&#xA;  Bhushaya Viswaya Vishwanaadhaya vai Namah, Shankaraayacha Kaalaaya&#xA;  Kaalaavayarupiney / Aruupaaya Viruupaaya Sukshma Sukashmaya vai Namah,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Smashaana vaasiney&lt;/strong&gt; Bhuyo Namasthey krutthi vaasasey/ Shashaanka Shekharayeshaa yograbhumishayaya cha, Durgaya Durgapaaraya&#xA;  Durgaavayava sakshiney/ Linga Rupaaya Lingaaya Lingaanaam&#xA;  pathayenamah, Namah Pralaya Rupaaya Pranavarthaya vai Namah/ Namo&#xA;  Namaha kaarana kaaranaaya Mrityunjayaaya atmabahva swarupiney, Sri&#xA;  Thriyambikaayaasitikantha Sarva Gauripathey Sakala Mangala hetavey&#xA;  namah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-04-07T16:09:20.033" LastActivityDate="2016-04-07T16:09:20.033" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11300" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8462" CreationDate="2016-04-07T19:09:44.650" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although in your question you mentioned the name as &quot;&lt;strong&gt;padvallabh&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;(typo error?) I am assuming it as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shripad_Shri_Vallabha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shripad Shri Vallabha&lt;/a&gt;, who is considered as the &lt;strong&gt;first&lt;/strong&gt; avatars (incarnations) of Dattatreya. He was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.agnihotrausa.net/Shripad-Shrivallabha.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;born&lt;/a&gt; in Pithapuram, a town in Godavari district of state Andhra Pradesh in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Are there any other avatars of Lord Dattatreya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There seems to be different answers for avatars of Lord Dattatreya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://anaghadattatreyampl.weebly.com/history-of-gurus.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shripad Shrivallabha Charitra&lt;/a&gt;&quot; Dattatreya have 3 Avataras&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Shripad Shri Vallabha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Narasimha Saraswati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Akkalkot Swami Samartha Maharaj.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;strong&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/strong&gt;, Dattatreya is supposed to have taken &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dattatreya#As_an_avatar&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;16 Avatars&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Please give story of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://anaghadattatreyampl.weebly.com/history-of-gurus.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Click Here&lt;/a&gt; for More information/story about the 3 avataras mentioned in &lt;code&gt;Shripad Shrivallabha Charitra&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastActivityDate="2016-04-07T19:09:44.650" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11302" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="425" CreationDate="2016-04-07T21:35:09.470" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiv lingam is mystical mesonic structure and cosmic pillar of enery. &#xA;It represents Shiva who is manifestation of endless supreme power and enery .&#xA;Enery flows contineously around , shiv linga can absorb and can focalize and then desipers enery with vibrations around. We can recieve this and inculcate in auro which affect our karma and dashas. To turn it in positive way , we pour milk from which these vibrations are absorbs in positive manner. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5262" LastActivityDate="2016-04-07T21:35:09.470" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11304" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11307" CreationDate="2016-04-08T06:18:32.827" Score="5" ViewCount="7435" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently I saw the serial called Suryaputra Karn. There is a character called Paundraka Vasudeva who claims that he is the Original Vasudeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is this Paundraka Vasudeva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5264" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2016-04-08T08:28:24.657" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T06:22:24.150" Title="Who is Paundraka Vasudeva?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11305" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-08T06:30:50.120" Score="5" ViewCount="868" Body="&lt;p&gt;We do not remember what we did in our past lives and what we are being punished for. We don't decide where to born, who will be the parents, relatives and lot of other things? If People do really bad deeds, they should get punishment in the present life, not in the next birth. At least they will realize that they did wrong. Getting a new body &amp;amp; soul and paying the past karma is not the solution. If somebody has done very bad and spoiled somebody's life and if we don't see him/her getting punishment for that in the present life, the suffering persons life will be waste. Then its a Endless journey, doing bad/good karma, coming again and again in this World.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5264" LastActivityDate="2016-04-08T17:19:16.997" Title="Why do we need to take another birth to pay the karma of past life?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11306" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11318" CreationDate="2016-04-08T06:36:11.983" Score="2" ViewCount="777" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Geeta advocate the execution of one's dharma according to the varna system?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5264" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-12T02:49:01.013" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T02:49:01.013" Title="Does Geeta advocate the execution of one's dharma according to the varna system?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|dharma|caste-system|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11307" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11304" CreationDate="2016-04-08T07:32:30.307" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;(I spell Krishna as Krsna.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paundraka Vasudeva was the King of Pundra (hence his name was Paundraka - 'The King of Pundra'). The capital city of Pundra was Karusha. (Also it is PauNDraka as in the Da in Damaru, not Paundraka like they say in the serial.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paundraka was the son of King Vriddhasharma and Queen Shrutadeva. Shrutadeva was the sister of Vasudeva, Krsna's father. Paundraka's brother was Dantavakra, who was the rebirth of Kumbhakarna (and indirectly Vijaya, the doorkeeper of Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paundraka's story is described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;66th Chapter of the 10th Canto&lt;/a&gt; of Srimad Bhagavatam. The ministers of Paundraka once told him how great he was, comparable to Lord Vishnu. Due to this, he began thinking himself to be an avatara of Lord Vishnu. But since people already believed that Krsna was Vishnu's avatara, he decided to kill Krsna and prove that he was the real Vaasudeva. (here Vaasudeva means Vishnu, not son of Vasudeva.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore he sent a message to Krsna insulting him and ordering Krsna to give Paundraka his Sudarshana Chakra, Panchajanya Conch, Kaumodaki Gada and other weapons. Krsna laughed at Paundraka's foolishness and went with his army to Paundraka's kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After a fierce fight, Krsna threw his Sudarshana Chakra at Paundraka and killed him, as well as Paundraka's friend Kashi-raja. Later on, Kashiraja's son Sudakshina wanted to take revenge on Krsna. He performed a Tantrik Yajna and created a demoness to destroy Krsna. But Krsna once again sent his Sudarshana Chakra and since the demoness was afraid of the Chakra she returned to Kashi to kill Sudakshina. The Chakra followed her and after destroying Sudakshina and the demoness, it burnt the city of Kashi and returned to Dvaraka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. What they are showing in the serial, of Duryodhana taking Paundraka's help and Karna fighting Paundraka is complete nonsense. Nothing of that sort happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2016-04-08T08:00:51.970" LastActivityDate="2016-04-08T08:00:51.970" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11309" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="44905" CreationDate="2016-04-08T11:05:30.423" Score="12" ViewCount="26876" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata war is famous for its 18 days. However, the number of days the Ramayana war lasted isn't so popularly discussed as the Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, for how many days was the Ramayana war fought?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On which &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tithi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tithi&lt;/a&gt; (lunar day) did it start and finish?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-13T20:10:58.980" LastActivityDate="2021-02-27T17:40:58.963" Title="For how many days was the Ramayana war fought?" Tags="|ramayana|scripture|history|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11311" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7895" CreationDate="2016-04-08T12:53:29.930" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/padmapurana-10.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of the Padma Purana where Lord Shiva is describing about the various avataras of Lord Vishnu to Goddess Parvati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Describing about Sri Ram’s incarnation Lord Mahadeva told&#xA;  Parvati–‘Once, Swayambhuva Manu had expressed his desire of having&#xA;  Lord Vishnu as his son to which Lord Vishnu had agreed....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Continuing with the tale of Sri Ram, Lord Mahadeva told&#xA;  Parvati–Dasharath requested Vashishth to perform the Jaatkarm Sanskar&#xA;  of Sri Ram. In course of time Kaikeyi gave birth to &lt;strong&gt;Bharat–an&#xA;  incarnation of Panchajanya conch&lt;/strong&gt;. Similarly, Sumitra gave birth to&#xA;  two sons–Laxman and Shatrughan. &lt;strong&gt;Laxman was the incarnation of&#xA;  Sheshnag while Shatrughan was the incarnation of Sudarshan Chakra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-06T04:32:08.687" LastActivityDate="2016-11-06T04:32:08.687" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11312" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11322" CreationDate="2016-04-08T12:59:24.433" Score="6" ViewCount="2730" Body="&lt;p&gt;When we go to temples, the purohit gives theertha which is the holy water to all the devotees. Is there a particular way to cup our hand to accept it? My grandpa believes there is a way where one must keep a cloth under the hand. I just wanted to know if there is a rule for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5184" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-14T09:20:29.967" LastActivityDate="2016-12-14T09:20:29.967" Title="Is there a particular way to accept Theertha given at temples?" Tags="|temple|rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11315" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10698" CreationDate="2016-04-08T15:33:05.950" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me share with you some of my findings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Find 1&lt;/strong&gt;.:The 108 names of Skanda(Karthikeya) given by Maharshi Viswamitra is found in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana10.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Puranam&lt;/a&gt;.Refer to the Phalasruti(of reading the Ashtottara Stotram) given below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sage Viswamitra recited the following Ashtottara Namavali (108 names)&#xA;  about Skanda Deva on the most significant day of Kartika Pournami of&#xA;  which Kartikaya is fond of:...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Phalasruti: Those who recite the Ashtottara of Kartikeya become&#xA;  fearless, contented, and happy; &lt;strong&gt;a pregnant woman&lt;/strong&gt; reads or hears&#xA;  the Ashtottara would be blessed with a son of virtue and fortune; and&#xA;  if &lt;strong&gt;unmarried girls&lt;/strong&gt; read they are sure to secure ideal husbands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Find 2&lt;/strong&gt;. Refer to the Phalasruti of the Brahma Vaivarta Puranam as found on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/brahma%20vaivartha/bookview.php?chapnum=23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....It demolishes of Vighnas (obstacles of any kind) and yields fruits&#xA;  of performing Yagnas, Tirtha Darshanas, Vratas and Tapasya. There is&#xA;  no exaggeration in saying that reading this Purana excels �Veda&#xA;  Pathana�. &lt;strong&gt;Any unfortunate woman reading this&lt;/strong&gt; would result in&#xA;  prosperity to herself and her husband. The Purana Shravana or Pathana&#xA;  blesses the &lt;strong&gt;person&lt;/strong&gt; concerned with good progeny, good wife /&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;husband&lt;/strong&gt;, and name and fame. It relieves of diseases to the diseased, shackles from imprisonment, dangers from the victims of&#xA;  great risks, and panic to those experiencing fright etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Find 3&lt;/strong&gt;: From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/brahma%20vaivartha/bookview.php?chapnum=15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of the Brahma Vaivarta Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;-Devi Savitri is the mother of Vedas whom Brahma Deva worshipped first followed by all the Devas. A reputed King of Madradesha called&#xA;  Ashwapati and his queen Malati whose qualities of virtue, charity and&#xA;  devotion brought them fame in the contemporary times but had&#xA;  unfortunately no children. &lt;strong&gt;Maharshi Vasishta gave �Upadesha�&#xA;  (Instruction) of Gayatri Mantra and the royal couple performed sincere&#xA;  �japa� (repetitive muttering of Mantra)&lt;/strong&gt; and worship but to no avail;&#xA;  they shifted to Pushkara Kshetra and intensified their devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,it seems women are allowed to recite Mantras,Scriptures etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As &amp;amp; when i find more relevant references i'll keep updating my answer with them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-21T09:04:06.117" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T09:04:06.117" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11317" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-08T16:40:58.727" Score="7" ViewCount="1679" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva Gita is less known Gita (song) found in Uttara Kanda of Padma Purana. The Siva-Gita begins with episode from the Ramayana epic, where Rama is despondent over the loss of Sita. I found Shiva Gita from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vrindavana.net/academy/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/SivaGita-I.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; but this document has no commentaries from Philosophers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone provide me complete Shiva Gita in English with commentaries from eminent Shaiva or other Philosophers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-10-14T05:55:48.200" LastActivityDate="2022-02-19T15:06:20.507" Title="Shiva Gita in English with commentaries from eminent Philosophers" Tags="|shiva|shaivism|gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11318" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11306" CreationDate="2016-04-08T17:13:05.530" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Gita encourages the duty based on own mental inclination. Because if one does not like a Job, one can not perform it perfectly.  This selection of a profession based on likeness or own mental inclination is known as Varna system - Svabhavaja Karma or Guna Karma. Gita does not preach birth based Karma - Janmaja Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During Krishna time caste system was definitely prevalent as mentioned in Mahabharat and Srimad Bhagavatam. In Gita, Arjuna was afraid of Varna-shankara.&#xA;Jati based discrimination was present. It is evident from the plight of Karna, Dharmavyadha, Vidura, Ekalavya etc. Even if they were learned in society, they were deprived from social dignity due to their birth. Vidura was the then prime-minister of India, still he was considered as a Shudra, son of a maid. To correct this birth based division [Jati system], krishna mentioned in Gita 4.13 - caste is really based on Guna-Karma [by profession, not by birth]. But Indians could not appreciate Krishna's amendment till today. Unfortunately today in our society the caste division is not based on quality or action, rather it is based on birth (hereditary).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Context of Varna system in Gita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Gita, Arjuna was in fear of Varna-sankara in chapter 1 due to rigid caste system. Just imagine, such a high calibre warrior of India Arjuna was having wrong notion about intercaste marriage. He considered, it was a sin to do intercaste marriage and gave logic of denial of Pinda dana and fall into heaven etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 1. 39&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kula-ksaye pranasyanti kula-dharmah sanatanah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dharme naste kulam krtsnam adharmo 'bhibhavaty uta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;With the destruction of dynasty, the eternal family tradition is vanquished, and thus the rest of the family becomes involved in irreligious practice.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 1.40&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;adharmabhibhavat krsna pradusyanti kula-striyah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;strisu dustasu varsneya jayate varna-sankarah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When irreligious is prominent in the family, O Kṛiṣṇa, the women of the family become corrupt, and from the degradation of womanhood, O descendant of Vṛṣṇi, comes unwanted progeny.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 1.41&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sankaro narakayaiva kula-ghnanam kulasya ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;patanti pitaro hy esam lupta-pindodaka-kriyah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When there is increase of unwanted population, a hellish situation is created both for the family and for those who destroy the family tradition. In such corrupt families, there is no offering of oblations of food and water to the ancestors.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 1.42&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dosair etaih kula-ghnanam varna-sankara-karakaih&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;utsadyante jati-dharmah kula-dharmas ca sasvatah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Due to the evil deeds of the destroyers of family tradition, all kinds of  family rituals and customs are devastated.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 1.43&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;utsanna-kula-dharmanam manusyanam janardana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;narake niyatam vaso bhavatity anususruma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Krishna, maintainer of the people, I have heard from elders that those who destroy family traditions dwell always in hell.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 1.44&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;aho bata mahat papam kartum vyavasita vayam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yad rajya-sukha-lobhena hantum sva-janam udyatah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Alas, how strange it is that we are preparing to commit greatly sinful acts, driven by the desire to enjoy royal happiness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Clarification of Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna wanted to clarify these doubts on caste system and intercaste marriage related issues. He talked of a duty system based on personal likeness and mental tendencies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 4.13&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tasya kartaram api mam viddhy akartaram avyayam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Human society is divided into four Varna e.g. Brahmana(intellectuals), Kshatriya(rulers), Vaishya(businessman/industrialist), Sudra(laborers/servants) based on individual quality and action.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 18.41&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;brahmana-ksatriya-visam sudranam ca parantapa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;karmani pravibhaktani svabhava-prabhavair gunaih&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaisyas and sudras are distinguished by their qualities of work, O Orjuna, in accordance with the modes of nature or metal inclination.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 18.42&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;samo damas tapah saucam ksantir arjavam eva ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jnanam vijnanam astikyam brahma-karma svabhava-jam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness--these are the qualities by which the “brahmanas(like monks and spiritual leaders)” work.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 18.43&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sauryam tejo dhrtir daksyam yuddhe capy apalayanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;danam isvara-bhavas ca ksatram karma svabhava-jam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Heroism, power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle, generosity, and leadership are the qualities of work for the ksatriyas (like manager, politician Job).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 18.44&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;krsi-go-raksya-vanijyam vaisya-karma svabhava-jam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;paricaryatmakam karma sudrasyapi svabhava-jam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Farming, cow protection and business are the qualities of work for the vaisyas, and for the sudras there is labor and service to others.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Controversies of Gita Varna system&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few criticize Gita Varna system due to below two slokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 9.32&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mam hi partha vyapasritya ye 'pi syuh papa-yonayah&#xA;striyo vaisyas tatha sudras te 'pi yanti param gatim&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O son of Prtha, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth--women, vaisyas [merchants], as well as sudras [workers]--can approach the supreme destination.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Dvapara Yuga Women, Vaisyas and Sudras were considered as lower birth [papa yuni]. But Krishna is uplifting them by saying - they can also get knowledge through him. So they are not really lower in his eye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 3.35&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sreyan sva-dharmo vigunah para-dharmat sv-anusthitat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sva-dharme nidhanam sreyah para-dharmo bhayavahah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is far better to discharge one's prescribed duties, even though they may be faulty, than another's duties. Destruction in the course of performing one's own duty is better than engaging in another's duties, for to follow another's path is dangerous.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It appears to be a denial of freedom to change the job. But that is not correct. It just prescribes to choose a job based on own mental inclination. Don't select a job based on other's taste or likeness. So it preaches personal independence, equal chance and democracy in a society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the light of Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism failed to distinguish between cleanliness - which is external -- and holiness - which is internal -- in the context of Dalits. This is the cause of untouchability and rigid caste system in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna did not say - Jati vibhāgaśaḥ. And Krishna did not have any anti-Dalit agenda when he said - sva-dharme nidhanaṁ śreyaḥ - Gita 3.35. Caste is not the main purpose of Gita in battlefield. When people are about to die, who cares for caste? Krishna wanted to motivate Arjuna to fight and kill evil minded ones. Krishna just clarified the doubts of Arjuna raised in Gita 1.41 [patanti pitaro hy esamlupta-pindodaka-kriyah] about mass murder, intercaste marriage, Pinda dana, eternal fall in heaven etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna did not mention Jati, low-high caste etc. Neither he divides Humans. He gave the 'definition' of division of labours [tasks], not labourers [humans]. And Lord&#xA;did not apply this principle only to 60 crores Hindus. It must be for 700 crores world population. But we are not able to accept the Guna Karma division of Krishna. We follows birth based division. As Dr Ambedkar said - &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Civilized society undoubtedly needs division of labour. But in no civilized society is division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into watertight compartments.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5241" LastActivityDate="2016-04-08T17:13:05.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11320" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11305" CreationDate="2016-04-08T17:19:16.997" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karmic balance is associated with the soul, not body. Multiple births are a means to start afresh - you are born as a child, having no undesirable qualities like ego, greed, etc. So this is an opportunity given to your eternal self to now engage in the welfare of the society and do good Karma. Most people again fall prey to ego, lust, pride, etc and hence keep cycling in the birth/death process.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5241" LastActivityDate="2016-04-08T17:19:16.997" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11321" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-08T18:09:43.380" Score="1" ViewCount="135" Body="&lt;p&gt;Women are restricted from entering temples or any other holy places during their menstruation. Why so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the normal biological function of every female of every mammalian species. If talking about the abdominal/leg pain or the hormonal changes or may be weakness, why restrict? Rather why not give an option to them? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nobody ever prohibited a woman from going to office or workplace during her periods. Then why not temples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5251" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-08T19:42:04.260" LastActivityDate="2016-04-08T19:42:04.260" Title="Why are women restricted from entering temples during menstruation?" Tags="|belief|temple|rituals|tradition|women|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-04-09T11:31:07.183" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11322" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11312" CreationDate="2016-04-08T18:33:43.177" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Definitely. There is a particular way how to accept Theertha given in a temple or even while doing an achamana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Firstly,while accepting the theertha, our palm should be folded in such a way that our index finger bends and the thumb bends over  index finger. By doing like that our middle finger slightly bends forward. This is the perfect position to take Theertha.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Then our right palm should be placed in our left palm both separated by a cloth.&#xA;3.Some people sip the theertha from the palm. But theertha must be taken without making any sound and the lips should not be touched by the palm. If done so it is counted as a dosha &lt;strong&gt;equivalent to drinking blood&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After consuming theertha, some people rub their hands to their heads,stomach or to eyes saying that the theertha is auspicious.Doing so is not right. We should wash our hands. But there will be no time to wash our hands as the priest approaches us with the SHATHAGOPAM or SHATHAARI. Our hands should be wiped with a cloth and the cloth should be washed immediately after going home.&lt;br&gt; A similar question was asked in an episode of a TV show called Dharmasandehalu on Bhakthi TV and was answered by Shree Kakunuri Suryanarayana garu a well known scholar in telugu states.&lt;br&gt;For more clarifications, watch the full episode &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fJGft0Y2pM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; if you can understand telugu.    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T06:34:05.433" LastActivityDate="2016-04-09T06:34:05.433" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11324" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17397" CreationDate="2016-04-08T19:08:54.443" Score="12" ViewCount="3633" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like Grihya Sutras and Brahmanas of Vedas give details of how 16 Samskaras should be performed, is there any scripture which gives ideal procedure for finding and marrying the ideal bride or groom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the marriage like court/registered marriage and Arya Samaj temple marriage acceptable/ethical?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-02-26T18:27:34.033" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T11:01:55.813" Title="Which scripture describes the procedure for an ideal marriage including how to find the ideal bride or groom?" Tags="|vedas|marriage|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11326" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-08T21:01:44.727" Score="9" ViewCount="746" Body="&lt;p&gt;Firstly, is it true that somebody bad intentions can cause trouble and hindrance into others life? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can lemon/chilli/salt/red brown or black beads worn in wrist keep us away from the evil eyesight?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5251" LastEditorUserId="12258" LastEditDate="2021-10-18T15:41:11.370" LastActivityDate="2021-10-18T15:41:11.370" Title="Evil eyesight or dṛṣṭidōṣa" Tags="|belief|superstitions|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11327" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8626" CreationDate="2016-04-09T00:46:01.103" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Kalki will receive a horse, a sword and and an all knowing parrot (Suka) from Lord Shiva. His physical appearance is described by his wife Padmavati, Demi Gods and others too.&lt;/strong&gt;. This is described very nicely in Kalki Purana...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Lord Kalki after his sacred thread ceremony goes to Lord Parashuram to attain trainings in military arts. It is in chapter 3 of Kalki Purana:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 7 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;daksinam prarthaya vibho &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ya deya tava sanmdhau &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yayd me sarva siddhhsyad &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ya syat tvattosa kdnni&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Kalki said: О my Lord, please tell me what kind of daksina I &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  should give You so that You will be pleased, &gt; and I will thus be able to &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  achieve complete perfection in life. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 8 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;rama uvaca &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brahmana prdrthito bhumana &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kali nigraha karanat&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  visnuh sarvasrayah pumah &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sa jdtah sambhale bhavan&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parasurama said: О great soul! Long ago, Brahma prayed to Lord &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Visnu, the shelter of all living entities and the Supreme Personality of &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Godhead, to destroy the influence of Kali. I understand that You are that &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  same Supreme Personality, appearing in the village of Sambhala.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 9 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;matto vidyam swadastiam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  labdhva vedamayam sukam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  simhale ca priyam padmam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dharman samsthdpayisyasi&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You have learned the art of discharging arrows from Me. &lt;strong&gt;You will &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  imbibe transcendental knowledge from Sukadeva Gosvami, and You will &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  be awarded a powerful weapon by Lord Siva. Thereafter, You will marry &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  a woman named Padma from the island of Simhala. Your mission is to re &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  establish sanatana-dharma.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then by following the words of Lord Parashurama, Lord Kalki does penance of Lord Shiva and finally praises with hymns. Those hymns will be very popular in next Satya yuga. It is also in chapter 3 :&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 21 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;iti kalkistavam srutia &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  suvah sarvatma darsanah &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  saksdt prdha isannisah &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  parvati sahito&amp;apos;gratah&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After hearing these prayers, Lord Siva, being omniscient, appeared &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  before Lord Kalki with Parvati and spoke to Him while smiling grandly.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 22 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;kalkeh samsprsya hastena &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  samasta vayavam muda &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tamdha varaya prestha &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  varam yatte&amp;apos;bhi kdmksitam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Siva caressed the entire body of Lord Kalki with his hands and &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  then said: О foremost of all beings, please ask from me the benediction &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You desire. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 23 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;waya krtamidam. stotram &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ye pathanti jana bhuvi &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tesdm sarvartha siddhhsya &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  adiha loke paratra ca&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anyone on this earth who faithfully hears the glorious prayers that &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  you have offered me will achieve all kinds of &gt; perfection, both in this life &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and in the next. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 24 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;vidydrthim capnuydd vidydm &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dharmdrthim dharmam apruyat &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kamdn avapnuyat kdnx&amp;apos; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pathanat srvanddapi&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a student recites these prayers, his education will become fruitful, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  if a pious person recites these prayers, he will attain pious merit, and &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  if a sense enjoyer recites these prayers, he will enjoy all kinds of sense &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  gratification. Anyone who recites or hears  these prayers will have all his &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  desires fulfilled. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 25 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;warn garudam ida casvam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kamagam bahurnpnvxm &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sukamenanca sarvajfiam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  maya dattam grhana bhoh&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This horse was manifested from Garuda, and it can go anywhere at &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  will and assume many different forms. Here &gt; also is a parrot that knows everything—past, present, and future. I would like to offer You both the &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  horse and the parrot and so please accept them.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 26 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;sanasastrastra vidvamsam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sanavedartha paragam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jayinam sarvabhutanam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  warn vadisyanti manavah&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By the influence of this horse and parrot, the people of the world will &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  know You as a learned scholar of all scriptures who is a master of the art &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  of releasing arrows, and thus the conqueror &gt; of all.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 27 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;ratnat sarum kardlanca &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  karavala mahaprabham &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  grhana gurubharayah &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  prthwya bhdra sadhanam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I would also like to present You this sharp,  strong sword and so please &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  accept it. The handle of this sword is bedecked with jewels, and it is &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  extremely powerful. As such, this sword will help You to reduce the heavy &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  burden of the earth.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 28 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;m vaca dsrutya &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  namaskratya mahesvaram &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sambhala grama gamat &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  turagena tvararwitah&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After hearing all this, Lord Kalki offered His obeisances and then &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  departed for the village of Sambhala, riding on the back of the horse &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  given by Lord Siva.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 29 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;pitaram mataram bhratan &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  namaskrtya yathavidhi &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarvam tadvarnayd masa &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jamadagnyasya bhasitam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upon arriving home, Lord Kalki offered his respectful obeisances &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  to His father, mother, and brothers. He then narrated whatever had &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  happened and told them about the orders of His guru, Paras&amp;apos;urama.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then that all knowing parrot goes to island of Simhala and tells about Lord Kalki to Padmavati. When Padmavati see Lord Kalki she describes Lord Kalki as (in chapter 9):&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 20 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;sukhe bауапаt mamvedika gatam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kalkim purastad atisurya varcasam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mahamani biаса vibhusana atam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sukena sarddham tamudaiksa tesam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There, Padmavati saw her beloved Lord Kalki peacefully sleeping on &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  a raised platform that was decorated with jewels &lt;strong&gt;The effulgence of His &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  body defeated the brilliance of the sun His entire body was decorated &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  with varieties of precious jewels.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Texts 21 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;tamala nilam kamalapatim prabhum &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pitambaram caru saroja locanam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ajanu bahum prthupina laksasam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sri vatsasat kaustubha kantirajitam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The complexion of the Lord of Laksmi was dark, like a tamala tree, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and He was dressed in yellow garments He had lotus-like eyes, His arms &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  reached to His knees, and His chest was  very broad and displayed the &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mark of Srivatsa and Kaustubha gem&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Texts 22-23 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;tadadbhutam rupam aveksya padma &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  samstambhita usmrta satknartha &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  suptam tu sambodhayitum pranttam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nibarayamasa usankita sa &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kadati eso nah talo tirupi &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  maddarsanat stritiam upaiti saksat &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tadatra kim me bhanta bhaiasva &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  i arena sapa piatimena lole&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upon seeing the transcendental form of the Lord, Padmavati became &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  stunned and fearful Indeed, she became so overwhelmed with emotion &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  that she forgot to greet her Lord When Suka attempted to awaken the &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lord, she forbade him, saying If this greatly attractive hero looks at &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  me and is transformed into a woman, then what will be the use of the &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  benediction that I had received from Lord Siva.&lt;br&gt;&amp;nbsp;Truthfully, I consider &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lord Siva&amp;apos;s benediction to be a curse. [[Padmavati was formerly blessed by Lord Shiva that whoever would see her through lust he will immediately turn into women]]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Kalki&amp;apos;s physical apperance is also briefly described in chapter 10, Marriage of Lord Kalki and Padmavati..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Text 19 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  padmakalki gaurakrsnau &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vipantantard bubhau &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bahihsphutau mla pita &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vasovyajena pasyatu&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Padmavati&amp;apos;s complexion was very fair and Lord Kalki&amp;apos;s complexion &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  was dark, like a rain cloud. In this way, they appeared to materialistic &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vision to be opposite one another. Princess &gt; Padmavati was dressed in blue &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  garments, and Lord Kalki was dressed in yellow garments.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in the chapter 33 demigods appear to earth and praise Lord Kalki as::&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Demigods Arrive at Sambhala &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Disappearance of Lord Kalki &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 1 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;suta uvaca &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tato devagandh sarve &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brahmand sahitd rathaih &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  svaih svair ganaih parivrtak &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kalkirh drastm updyayuh&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suta GosvamI said: Once, all the demigods and great brahmanas, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  along with their followers, mounted their celestial chariots and went to &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  the village of Sambhala, to see Lord Kalki. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Text 2 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;maharsyah sagandharvdh &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kinnards capsarogandh &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  samdjgmuh pramuditdh &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarhbhalarh surapujitam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Many exalted sages, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, and Apsaras cheerfully &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  arrived at Sambhala, which was highly desired even by the demigods. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 3 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;tatra gawd sabhd madhye &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kalkirh kamalahcanam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tejonirhdhim prapanndndrh &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jandndm abhayapradam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As they entered the palace courtyard, they saw the greatly effulgent &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  lotus-eyed Lord Kalki giving assurances to all those who had come to take &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  shelter of Him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 4 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;rala jimutasarhkdsarh &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  digha pivara bhdhukam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kintendrka varnena &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sthiravidyun nibhena tarn&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;His transcendental body was the color of a dark rain cloud. His &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  arms were long and very powerful. His head &gt; was adorned with a brightly &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  shining crown that resembled the sun.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 5 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;sobhamanarh dyu manina &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kundalondbhi sdbhina &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  saharsdldpa vikasad &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vadanam smita sobhitam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The beauty of His face was enhanced by His earrings, which were as &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brilliant as the sun. His lotus-like face appeared to blossom as He sweetly &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  smiled while speaking.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Texts 6-7 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;krpakataksa viksepa &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pariksiptavi paksakam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tara hdrollasad vaksas &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  candrakdnta mamsriyd &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kumudvatl modavaharh &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sphurat sakrdyudhdmvaram &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarvaddnanda sandoha &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rasollasita vigraham&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Everyone surrounding Him was favored by His merciful glance. Lotus &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  flowers adorning His chest appeared more delightful because of the rays &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  of the moonstone that shone in His beautiful necklace. His garments &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  appeared like a rainbow, thus further increasing his beauty.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 8 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;ndndmaniganodyota &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dipitarh rupam adbhutam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dadrsur deva gandharvdm &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ye cdnye samupdgatdh&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His entire body shone brilliantly due to the light reflected from &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  countless jewels. This is how all the demigods, Gandharvas, and Apsaras &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  saw Lord Kalki.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T01:17:56.590" LastActivityDate="2016-04-09T01:17:56.590" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11328" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="572" CreationDate="2016-04-09T07:24:59.780" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a part of shodasa samskaras prescribed by the scriptures as the users above explained very well. But I want to say a thing. The shave is called as &lt;em&gt;Kesha Khandanam&lt;/em&gt;&#xA; when  hair is offered to god as a sacrifice or in auspicious situations like first shave.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is called as &lt;em&gt;shiromundanam&lt;/em&gt; when hair is  removed during inauspicious situations (when someone passed away) and to insult anyone. There is also an example of shiromundanam in Mahabharata. Jayadhratha (sindhu naresh) tries to abduct draupadi in the absence of Pandavas. After sometime Bhima and Arjuna rescue Draupadi. Bhima punishes him by his mighty blows. . As a symbol of insult in their hands, Bhima shaves the hair of Jayadhratha with a crescent shaped arrow with five tufts at as many places and drives him to their hermitage in the chariot. Yudhishtira orders Bhima not to kill him and set him free. Yudhishtira tells Saindhava not to do such lustful things again. The Sindhu naresh bows to Yudhishtira and the sages and leaves the place sorrowfully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source- &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03270.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Draupadi harana parva&lt;/a&gt; from Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-11-17T10:36:44.483" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T10:36:44.483" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11329" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9975" CreationDate="2016-04-09T10:53:18.587" Score="24" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What can be more ridiculous as saying reading Purans will lead you towards Hell.&lt;/strong&gt; It can be refuted just by using common sense, common logic and simple intellect.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Padma Purana itself is sufficient in refuting this statement. The verse you are talking comes in Padma Purana Uttar Khanda chapter 236&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मात्सयं कौर्मं तथा लैङ्गम् शैवं स्कान्दं तथैव च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आग्नेयं च षडेतानि तामसानि निबोधत ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Matsya Purana, Kurma Purana, Linga Purana, Shiva Purana, Skanda Purana, Agni Purana these six are Tamasic (236.20)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सात्विका मोक्षदाः प्रोक्ताः राजसा सर्वदा अशुभाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथैव तामसा देवि निरयप्राप्तिहेतवः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Among these puranas Satvika Puranas lead one to liberation, Rajasa do not cause good &gt; and tamasa puranas lead one to hell. (236.21)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Padma Purana itself refutes this verse in Swarga Khanda chapter 62. (ie. 2.62)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PURANAS--THE EMBODIMENT OF SRIHARI &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Puranas are nothing but the mediums through which Sri Hari manifests himself. Brahma Purana is said to be the Forehead of Srihari, Padma Purana is said to be the &amp;apos;heart&amp;apos; of Srihari, Vishnu Purana is said to be the &amp;apos;right arm&amp;apos; of Srihari, &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Purana is said to be the &amp;apos;left arm&amp;apos; of Srihari&lt;/strong&gt;, Shrimad Bhagawat is said to be His &amp;apos;thigh&amp;apos;, Narad Purana is said to be His &amp;apos;navel&amp;apos;, Markendeya Purana is said to be His &amp;apos;right-foot&amp;apos;, &lt;strong&gt;Agni Purana is said to be His &amp;apos;left foot&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt;, Bhavishya Purana is said to be His &amp;apos;right-knee&amp;apos;, Brahma Vaivrata Purana is said to be His &amp;amp; apos;left-knee&amp;apos;, &lt;strong&gt;Linga Purana is said to be His &amp;apos;right ankle&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt;, Varaha Purana is said to be His &amp;apos;left &#xA;  ankle&amp;apos;, &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana is said to be the hair on the body of &amp;apos;Sri Hari&lt;/strong&gt;, Vamana Purana is said to be His Skin, &lt;strong&gt;Kurma Purana is said to be His Back&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Matsya Purana is said to be His Stomach,&lt;/strong&gt; Garuda Purana is said to be His Bone Marrow and Brahmanda Purana is said to be His Bone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;All the Puranas being manifestation of different parts of Sri &#xA;Hari&amp;apos;s body are very sacred and capable of bestowing salvation.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here it clearly mentions that &amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;all the Puranas being manifestation of different parts of Sri Hari&amp;apos;s body are very sacred and capable of bestowing salvation.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; Hence there is no question of going to Hell by reading Purans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Imagine a man without his Stomach, Back, Right ankle, Left arm, Hair and Left foot. How would he look like? Such is his condition if he rejects these 6 Purans.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;He himself is doing a grave sin by depriving Lord Hari with his Stomach, Back, Right ankle, Left arm, Hair and Left foot.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Then why is there such verse in Uttar khanda of Padma Purana ?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There can be various answers. The most fitting answer is interpolation. Even if you do not believe it to be interpolation then also you can take it positively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God sometimes propagates false message for specific reason. For eg. For killing the demon Tripurasur false philosophy and texts were created. Similarly it could also be&amp;nbsp; a part of divine leela. May be it is for generating &amp;apos;Virodhi Bhakti&amp;apos; for those who can&amp;apos;t take divinities positively. For those they may meditate on Lord by their criticism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. In Shiva Gita of Padma Purana it is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनादरेण शाठ्येन परिहासेन मायया ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिवभक्तिरतश्चेत्स्यादन्त्यजोऽपि विमुच्यते ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Anyone while doing criticism or while &gt; disrespecting or due to&#xA;  jealousy if meditated or gains devotion for Shiva, he would get&#xA;  cleansed of all the sins immediately. &amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The concept &amp;apos;Virodhi Bhakti&amp;apos; itself has a great importance on its one. Its for those whose intellect can&amp;apos;t grasp the divinities positively. for eg. Kamsa, Chanur and Sishupal were liberated through it. They were constantly thinking of Lord Krishna (like in meditation) every time even it was as hatred and anger. Bhagavata Purana 10.29.15 also justifies it. It says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;15. &lt;strong&gt;Persons who constantly direct their lust, anger, fear, protective affection,  feeling of impersonal oneness or friendship toward Lord Hari are sure to become absorbed in thought of Him.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence you can yourself think that verse as an interpolation or a Verse to generate Virodhi Bhakti for those who can&amp;apos;t grasp divinities positively or you can also believe reading those 6 Purans will lead it you to Hell or you can also be a non-believer.&#xA;You are always free to choose it as per your intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-09T13:41:32.260" LastActivityDate="2016-04-09T13:41:32.260" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11330" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-09T13:59:41.097" Score="4" ViewCount="380" Body="&lt;p&gt;Narakasura, the son of Lord Varaha and Bhudevi, is quite famous. It is because of him that Lord Krsna was able to get the name Murari, Narakari, as well as whole festival dedicated to him (Deepavali). Oh, also Krsna was able to marry 16100 princesses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narakasura's story is described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/59&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;59th Chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Dasama Skandha of Srimad Bhagavatam (as well as many other scriptures, but we will restrict ourselves to Bhagavatam in this question). Since he is the son of Bhudevi and Varaha, it can be logical to assume that he could have been born anytime from the beginning of our Kalpa to the beginning of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That he is very old is vouched for by Sugriva in the Ramayana, where in the Kishkindha Kanda, Sarga 42 he directs the monkeys to search for Sitadevi, but cautions them against going to &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga42/kishkindha_42_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narakasura's kingdom&lt;/a&gt; (Sloka 31).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in the Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, Chapter 130, Vidura tells everyone how Krsna slew Narakasura, who was &lt;strong&gt;Aneka Yuga Varshayuh&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/itihaas/mahabharat/text-with-translation/vol-iii/chapter-201/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;'Of Many Yugas in Age'&lt;/a&gt; (Verse 44).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But taking all this into consideration, it is surprising that Narakasura would remain dormant for so long and attack Svargaloka only when &lt;strong&gt;Krsnavatara&lt;/strong&gt; happens. At least, that is what is presumed from the 59th Chapter of Dasama Skandha, where it is said that having lost all his riches, as well as Varuna's umbrella and Mother Aditi's earrings to Narakasura, indra rushed to Krsna for help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, did Narakasura really wait that long to attack Svarga? Or did Indra just wait for the right time and right person to lodge his complaint? If the latter is the case, when exactly did Narakasura conquer Svarga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2021-11-03T22:04:26.160" Title="When did Narakasura perform his atrocities on Svarga?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|krishna|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11331" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-09T15:46:59.587" Score="5" ViewCount="563" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, in Adhyaya 3 Pada 4 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Topic-13: Meditations Connected with Rites&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;44&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The teacher Atreya&lt;/strong&gt; thinks that the agentship for meditation belongs to the master of the sacrifice, since the Upanishads mention their results.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The (teacher) Audulomi says that it is the duty of the priest (to undertake such meditations), for he is retained for that.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And from Vedic texts also (this stands confirmed).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most commentators interpret these Sutras as referring to the Chandogya Upanishad, which prescribes meditation upon certain elements of a Yagna as a means of attaining Brahman, and the question is who should do the meditation.  A philosopher named Atreya, which means &quot;descendant of Atri&quot;, thought that the Yajamana or the person organizing the Yagna should do the meditations, but Vyasa sides with the philosopher Audolomi, who thought that the Ritvik or priest officiating at the Yagna should be the one who meditates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Baladeva Vidyabhushana, the Gaudiya Vaishnava commentator on the Brahma Sutras, interprets things very differently.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/rQRM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary, Baladeva Vidyabhushana argues that Vyasa is agreeing with both Atreya and Audolomi, but that they are speaking about a completely different subject: Atreya is saying that Vishnu takes care of all the needs of his Nirapeksha devotee, and Audolomi is saying that in doing so Vishnu is acting similar to a Ritvik or priest who takes care of the needs of his Yajamana or person organizing the Yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about what Baladeva Vidyabhushana says about this Atreya figure in his commentary on Sutra 44:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sutra 3.4.44 ... From the Lord come results, for that is heard in the Shruti-Shastra.  &lt;strong&gt;That is Dattatreya's opinion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The bodily needs of the devotee are supplied by the Supreme Personality of Godhead [svaminah].  Why is that?  The sutra explains, phala-shruteh. &quot;For that is heard in Shruti-shastra.&quot;  ... &lt;strong&gt;This is also the opinion of Dattatreya Muni.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, is it true that the Atreya figure quoted in the Brahma Sutras is the same as Vishnu's incarnation Dattatreya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Dattatreya was an ancient incarnation of Vishnu who was born to Brahma's son Atri along with Brahma's incarnation Chandra the moon god and Shiva's  incarnation Durvasa the famously angry sage.  I discuss the story of Dattatreya in my answers &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1984/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6772/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, the only work of Dattatreya that I know of is the Tripura Rahasya, a purported dialogue between Dattatreya and Parashurama.  But is this quote from the Brahma Sutras found in the Tripura Rahasya or any other work of Dattatreya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, do any scriptures or any other commentaries on the Brahma Sutras address the identity of this Atreya figure?  I'm not talking about generic discussions of the figures quoted in the Brahma Sutras, I'm looking for specific discussions of Atreya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-08-13T08:44:25.130" Title="Is Vishnu's incarnation Dattatreya quoted in the Brahma Sutras?" Tags="|vishnu|vedanta|brahma-sutras|dattatreya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11333" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11587" CreationDate="2016-04-09T19:11:17.537" Score="9" ViewCount="7335" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Lord Hanuman have a mount (vahana) like all the other Gods? I got this doubt when I have seen a &lt;em&gt;camel&lt;/em&gt; before Hanuman in a temple like Nandi before Lord Shiva.I searched the internet about this and got &lt;a href=&quot;https://premaarpan.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/camel-the-vahana-of-lord-hanuman/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer but not satisfied by it. Is this true?&lt;br&gt; It is nowhere mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana. Is this mentioned in any other scripture? If so please explain with sources.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-04-22T07:53:31.507" LastActivityDate="2016-05-22T08:29:05.127" Title="What is the vaahan (mount) of Lord Hanuman?" Tags="|hanuman|animals|vahana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11335" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10246" CreationDate="2016-04-10T02:32:41.180" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;To check the originality of verse we can use chhanda rule. That verse of 1.8 is in Anushtup chhanda hence must be true when checked by rules of Anushtup chhanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have mentioned about rules of Anushtup chhanda here[&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11250/are-the-words-inside-bhagvad-gita-exactly-the-same-words-used-in-actual-conversa]&quot;&gt;Are the words inside Bhagvad Gita exactly the same words used in actual conversation (ie, used By Lord Krishna and Arjuna)?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The rule is seperate the quarters from verse and 5th letter of each quarter must be laghu (hraso) and 6th letter of each quarter must be guru (deergha). 7th letter of 4 quarters alternate as Guru Laghu Guru Laghu respectively.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Short sounding letters are counted as Laghu.&#xA;  Laghu letters are: &lt;strong&gt;क,  कि, कु, क्र, अ, इ, उ, ऋ&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Long sounding letters are counted as Guru.&#xA;  Guru letters are: &lt;strong&gt;का, की, कू, के, कै, को, कौ, कं, आ, ई, ऊ, ऐ, ओ, औ, अं&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Letters before half letters are counted as Guru. For eg in 'अश्वत्थामा'। अ and व are counted as Guru as अ is before half letter श् and व is before half letter त्&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lets apply this in this case..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भवान् भीष्मश्च कर्णश्च कृपश्च समितिञ्जय: ।&#xA;अश्वत्थामा विकर्णश्च सौमदत्तिस्तथैव च ।।&#xA;bhavān bhīṣmaś ca karṇaś ca kṛpaś ca samitiṃjayaḥ &#xA;aśvatthāmā vikarṇaś ca saumadattistathaiva cha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lets split verses in 4 quarters. Full letters are only counted as chhanda rule.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1st quarter: भवान् भीष्मश्च कर्णश्च [8 letters]&#xA;2nd quarter: कृपश्च समितिञ्जय:  [8 letters ]&#xA;3rd quarter:  अश्वत्थामा विकर्णश्च [8 letters]&#xA;4th quarter:  सौमदत्तिस्तथैव च    [8 letters]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The disputed quarter is 4th quarter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;        4th quarter: सौमदत्तिस्तथैव च [8 letters] &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, 5th letter is &lt;strong&gt;त&lt;/strong&gt;  which is laghu(hraswo)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;          6th letter is &lt;strong&gt;थै&lt;/strong&gt; which is guru (deergha)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;           7th letter is &lt;strong&gt;व&lt;/strong&gt; which is laghu (hraswo)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Hence this verse satisfies all rules of Anushtup chhanda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;       If  4th quarter: सौमदत्तिर् जयद्रथ [8 letters]&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5th letter is &lt;strong&gt;ज&lt;/strong&gt; which is Laghu. It satisfies the rule.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6th letter is &lt;strong&gt;य&lt;/strong&gt; but it is also laghu. It had to be Guru to satisfy it. Hence it fails.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7th letter is &lt;strong&gt;द्र&lt;/strong&gt; which seems like Guru but it is Laghu in Chhanda rule. It satisfies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the verse containing &lt;strong&gt;सौमदत्तिर् जयद्रथ&lt;/strong&gt; is not correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the correct verse is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भवान् भीष्मश्च कर्णश्च कृपश्च समितिञ्जय: ।&#xA;अश्वत्थामा विकर्णश्च सौमदत्तिस्तथैव च ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-04-10T03:19:30.170" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11337" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-10T04:53:03.223" Score="9" ViewCount="1265" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading about the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_hypnosis#Temple_sleep&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Temple Sleep&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Nidra&lt;/em&gt; in Wikipedia. It was mentioned that the Ancient Hindu people used to carry the person suffering from sickness to the temple to be cured by hypnotic suggestion or &quot;temple sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was basically a practice of staying during night at a temple for meditational self-observance and communication with the deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence hypnotism as a tool for health seems to have been practised in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt; : &#xA;What scriptures/literatures in Hinduism mention the details of &lt;strong&gt;Hypnotism&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-01T16:40:30.490" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T22:29:49.577" Title="Hypnotism in Hinduism" Tags="|belief|practice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11338" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-10T10:20:38.000" Score="9" ViewCount="390" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard a story that a sankalpa (solemn vow) to destroy the snake race was taken during Janmajeya's snake sacrifice (yajna). But as that sankalpa couldn't be fulfilled as the yajna was &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astika_(Hinduism)#/media/File:Snakesacrifice.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;stopped by Astika&lt;/a&gt;. This made Agni, who was waiting for the sacrifice of all snakes, infuriated and hence &lt;strong&gt;he cursed the Vedic mantras to be ineffective just as poisonless snakes&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story sounds logical. Where is it mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-21T03:45:39.190" LastActivityDate="2019-11-08T12:03:10.443" Title="Did Agni curse Vedic mantras to become ineffective?" Tags="|vedas|mahabharata|gods|curse|agni|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11339" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-10T10:52:15.873" Score="2" ViewCount="85" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is cat's mourn considered as a bad omen? Does it indicate the death or something not so good?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5251" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-09T06:34:29.720" LastActivityDate="2018-06-09T06:34:29.720" Title="Cats mourn considered to be bad?" Tags="|belief|superstitions|omens|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11342" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11005" CreationDate="2016-04-10T14:24:42.200" Score="24" Body="&lt;p&gt;Twitching of eyes have great significance in our scriptures. There are various description of auspicious and inauspicious omens in our scriptures and eye twitching is one of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Twitching of Sita's left body parts is mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana Sundara Kanda. In chapter 27 verses 48 to 50.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निमित्तभूतमेतत्तु श्रोतुमस्या महत्प्रियम् || ५-२७-४८&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दृश्यते च स्फुरच्चक्षुः पद्मपत्रमिवायतम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Being a cause to listen to a great pleasure of Her, this &lt;strong&gt;throbbing eye&lt;/strong&gt; long like a lotus petal is being seen my me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ईषच्च हृषितो वास्या दक्षिणाया ह्यदक्षिणः || ५-२७-४९&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अकस्मादेव वैदेह्या बहुरेकः प्रकम्पते |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One left arm&lt;/strong&gt; of this straight forward Seetha suddenly has become erect and is slightly trembling.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;करेणुहस्तप्रतिमः सव्यश्चोरुरनुत्तमः || ५-२७-५०&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वेपमानः सूचयति राघवं पुरतः स्थितम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Seetha's best left thigh&lt;/strong&gt; equal to an elephant's trunk is trembling indicating Rama's standing in front of Her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana Yuddha Kanda 6.4.7&lt;/strong&gt; mentions it where Lord Ram tells about his twitching of eyelid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उपरिष्टाद्द् हि नयनम् स्फुरमाणम् इदम् मम ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विजयम् समनुप्राप्तम् शंसति इव मनो रथम्  ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;My eye which is twitching on the upper lid, is proclaiming as it were, my desire of victory coming nearer.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana Yuddha Kanda 6.65.50&lt;/strong&gt; mentions bad omen signalling Kumbhakarna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निष्पपात च गृध्रेऽस्य शूले वै पथि गच्छतः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रास्फुरन्नयनम् चास्य सव्यो बाहुरकम्पत ||&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  A vulture descended on the spike of Kumbhakarna, as he was sallying forth along the road. &amp;amp;&lt;strong&gt;His left eye twitched and his left arm throbbed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly &lt;strong&gt;Ramcharitmanas&lt;/strong&gt; also mentions about twitching of eye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sundar kanda Ramcharitmanas Chaupai of 34th Doha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  राम कृपा बल पाइ कपिंदा । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भए पच्छजुत मनहुं गिरिंदा।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हरषि राम तब कीन्ह पयाना ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सगुन भए सुंदर सुभ नाना।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जासु सकल मंगलमय कीती ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तासु पयान सगुन यह नीती।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;प्रभु पयान जाना बैदेही ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  फरकि बाम अंग जनु कहि देहीं।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जोइ जोइ सगुन जानकिहि होई । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  असगुन भयउ रावनहिं सोईं।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Getting more power from His grace the monkey chiefs vied as it were with huge mountains equipped with wings.&amp;nbsp; Råma then sallied forth glad of heart &#xA;  and many were the delightful and auspicious omens that occurred to Him . It was in the fitness of things that good omens should appear at the time of His departure (on an expedition) whose glory itself embodies all blessings. &lt;strong&gt;Videhas Daughter came to know of the Lords march; the throbbing of Her left limbs apprised Her of the same as it were.&lt;/strong&gt; But what were good omens for Janakas Daughter foreboded evil for Ravana.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, In the chaupai of 99th Doha of Ramcharitmanas&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With many such words did Trijatå comfort Sita and then returned to her residence.&#xA;  As She recalled&amp;nbsp; Ramas kind disposition Videhas Daughter was  overwhelmed with the anguish of separation from Him. She  reproached the night and the moon in many ways. &amp;quot;The night has already assumed the length of an age and does not end.&amp;quot;, She added. Disconsolate at Her separation from Lord Råma, Janakas Daughter grievously lamented within Herself. &lt;strong&gt;When Her agony of separation grew acute, Her left eye and arm throbbed. Considering it to be a good omen, She took heart and said to Herself, The gracious Hero of Raghus line will surely meet me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, twitching of right part of male and left part of female [especially eyes] is considered auspicious and vice versa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Omen signs are greatly discussed in our scriptures. You can't tell them as mere superstition. Omens are studied under &lt;strong&gt;'Shakun Shastra'&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every scripture mentions of omen before some important omens. For eg. Mahabharat mentions &lt;strong&gt;crying of jackals and other inauspicious signs when Duryodhan was born&lt;/strong&gt;. Inauspicious omens were seen just after &lt;strong&gt;Shishupals birth&lt;/strong&gt; and his parents were just about abandoning him. Similar is the case in the birth of &lt;strong&gt;Kamsa&lt;/strong&gt;. Numerous inauspicious omens are described in great detail by Veda Vyas before the &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharat war&lt;/strong&gt;. Similarly Ram mentions about colour of sky and stars before Ramayan war and so on many...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence seeing omens are a part of our scripture and culture. Hence, We should try to understand the meaning of omen we see.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-03T10:33:31.577" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T10:33:31.577" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11343" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-10T15:14:31.093" Score="0" ViewCount="107" Body="&lt;p&gt;I tried to google this question and in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharata_%28emperor%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; it is not very clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharata_%28emperor%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; suggests that India is called Bharat because of Emperor Bharata (son of Shakuntala and Dhushyant) whereas &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharata_Chakravartin&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt; suggests it is named after Bharata Chakravartin (Gomateshwar).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which story is the correct one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5259" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-15T19:48:11.803" LastActivityDate="2016-04-15T19:48:11.803" Title="How did India get its name as Bharat?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|india|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="16" ClosedDate="2016-04-10T15:30:08.733" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11344" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-10T19:56:06.043" Score="3" ViewCount="5529" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any method to clear Bramhahatya(Killing a Bramhana) Sin other than Ashwamedha Yagna?. Since Ashwamedha Involves being king and sacrificing horse which is violent method, and must be avoided if we can.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2016-08-29T12:54:11.083" Title="How to remove Bramhahatya Sin" Tags="|vedas|sin|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11346" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-04-10T22:01:52.890" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agastya&lt;/strong&gt; is the first Siddha. Siddhas were spiritual adepts who possessed the ashta siddhis, or the eight supernatural powers. Sage Agastya is considered the guru of all Siddhas, and the Siddha medicine system is believed to have been handed over to him by Lord Kartikeya, son of the Hindu God Lord Shiva and goddess Parvathi. Siddhas are the followers of Lord Shiva. His disciples and other siddhas contributed thousands of texts on Siddha literature, including medicine and form the propounders of the system in this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adityahridayam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ādityahṛdayam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; was revealed by Agastya. Rama was finding it difficult to defeat Ravana, Agastya coming to Rama's help gave him Ādityahṛdayam after which Rama defeated Ravana. He is regarded to have lived around 15000 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agastya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agastya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-11T01:09:59.290" LastActivityDate="2016-04-11T01:09:59.290" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11347" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-04-10T22:01:52.890" Score="0" Body="Agastya is one of the ancient saptarishis and a revered Vedic sage. He is also believed to be the author of Agastya Samhita. Agastya is also the Indian astronomical name of the star of Canopus, is said to be the 'cleanser of waters', since its rising coincides with the calming of the waters of the Indian Ocean. He was son of Pulastya, son of Brahma.&#xD;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-11T01:09:49.913" LastActivityDate="2016-04-11T01:09:49.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11348" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-11T03:56:14.033" Score="0" ViewCount="199" Body="&lt;p&gt;If one is a Brahmin, how can he trace his ancestors back to say 3-4 generations through gotra (lineage) of atri?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5241" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-12T16:37:16.907" LastActivityDate="2016-04-12T16:37:16.907" Title="How can a brahmin trace his ancestors?" Tags="|history|brahmins|ancestry|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2018-02-12T11:28:40.027" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11349" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-11T04:18:25.360" Score="1" ViewCount="109" Body="&lt;p&gt;In university my professor told a story or parable of why one would want to attain Moksha (and break the cycle of life and death).  The details are foggy but it generally involved a man with a wife and children that lived by the sea, and he asked an elder why he would want to achieve Moksha.  His wife and children were then killed by either a wave or a flood and the moral was that this was why, i.e. when one breaks the cycle of life and death and achieve Moksha they are one with everything and thus no longer have to deal with the grief of loving others only to lose them.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Has anyone ever heard such a parable or point to such a story online? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5282" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T16:54:48.500" Title="Parable that describes why one wants to achieve Moksha?" Tags="|moksha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11350" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2117" CreationDate="2016-04-11T07:48:16.327" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is justified because you are doing the sacrifice a favor by sending it/him/her to heaven with a golden body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You only give it/him/her momentary pain. Momentary pain is nothing compared to heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The human/animal goes to heaven. The person who sacrifices gets his/her wishes and gets meat. The Gods, Goddess is happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just for momentary pain of one animal/human every one benefits including the animal/human.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya, in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras here, goes further and argues that animal sacrifice is not even contrary to the principle of Ahimsa, because the animal experiences rewards in the afterlife which far outweigh the momentary suffering it experiences:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For Scripture declares that the killing of sacrificial animals makes them to go up to the heavenly world, and therefore is not of the nature of harm. This is declared in the text, 'The animal killed at the sacrifice having assumed a divine body goes to the heavenly world'; 'with a golden body it ascends to the heavenly world.' An action which is the means of supreme exaltation is not of the nature of harm, even if it involves some little pain; it rather is of beneficial nature.--With this the mantra also agrees: 'Thou dost not die, thou goest to the gods on easy paths; where virtuous men go, not evil-doers, there the divine Savitri may lead thee.' An act which has a healing tendency, although it may cause a transitory pain, men of insight declare to be preservative and beneficial.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8883&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8883&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the above should apply for Human Sacrifices too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Consider the words by Ramanujachrya which used scriptures and logic to show that the scriptures support animal sacrifice edited to replace animal with human.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;s&gt;animal&lt;/s&gt; human killed at the sacrifice having assumed a divine body goes to the heavenly world'; 'with a golden body &lt;s&gt;it&lt;/s&gt; he/she ascends to the heavenly world.An action which is the means of supreme exaltation is not of the nature of harm, even if it involves some little pain; it rather is of beneficial nature.--With this the mantra also agrees: 'Thou dost not die, thou goest to the gods on easy paths; where virtuous men go, not evil-doers, there the divine Savitri may lead thee.' An act which has a healing tendency, although it may cause a transitory pain, men of insight declare to be preservative and beneficial.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Ramanujs's logic is applied to human sacrifice one observes that it fits perfectly well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: I'm not says Ramanuja directly supported human sacrifice, but the logic he used can be applied to any creature including humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5284" LastEditorUserId="5284" LastEditDate="2016-04-11T13:19:50.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-11T13:19:50.163" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11351" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11337" CreationDate="2016-04-11T07:52:50.167" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his book &lt;em&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V1, section &lt;em&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, chapter 6 entitled &lt;em&gt;PRATYAHARA AND DHARANA&lt;/em&gt;, available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We hear &quot;Be good,&quot; and &quot;Be good,&quot; and &quot;Be good,&quot; taught all over the world. There is hardly a child, born in any country in the world, who has not been told, &quot;Do not steal,&quot; &quot;Do not tell a lie,&quot; but nobody tells the child how he can help doing them. Talking will not help him. Why should he not become a thief? We do not teach him how not to steal; we simply tell him, &quot;Do not steal.&quot; Only when we teach him to control his mind do we really help him. All actions, internal and external, occur when the mind joins itself to certain centres, called the organs. Willingly or unwillingly it is drawn to join itself to the centres, and that is why people do foolish deeds and feel miserable, which, if the mind were under control, they would not do. What would be the result of controlling the mind? It then would not join itself to the centres of perception, and, naturally, feeling and willing would be under control. It is clear so far. Is it possible? It is perfectly possible. You see it in modern times; the faith-healers teach people to deny misery and pain and evil. Their philosophy is rather roundabout, but it is a part of Yoga upon which they have somehow stumbled. Where they succeed in making a person throw off suffering by denying it, they really use a part of Pratyahara, as they make the mind of the person strong enough to ignore the senses. The hypnotists in a similar manner, by their suggestion, excite in the patient a sort of morbid Pratyahara for the time being. The so-called hypnotic suggestion can only act upon a weak mind. And until the operator, by means of fixed gaze or otherwise, has succeeded in putting the mind of the subject in a sort of passive, morbid condition, his suggestions never work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now the control of the centres which is established in a hypnotic patient or the patient of faith-healing, by the operator, for a time, is reprehensible, because it leads to ultimate ruin. It is not really controlling the brain centres by the power of one's own will, but is, as it were, stunning the patient's mind for a time by sudden blows which another's will delivers to it. It is not checking by means of reins and muscular strength the mad career of a fiery team, but rather by asking another to deliver heavy blows on the heads of the horses, to stun them for a time into gentleness. At each one of these processes the man operated upon loses a part of his mental energies, till at last, the mind, instead of gaining the power of perfect control, becomes a shapeless, powerless mass, and the only goal of the patient is the lunatic asylum.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Every attempt at control which is not voluntary, not with the controller's own mind, is not only disastrous, but it defeats the end. The goal of each soul is freedom, mastery — freedom from the slavery of matter and thought, mastery of external and internal nature. Instead of leading towards that, every will-current from another, in whatever form it comes, either as direct control of organs, or as forcing to control them while under a morbid condition, only rivets one link more to the already existing heavy chain of bondage of past thoughts, past superstitions. Therefore, beware how you allow yourselves to be acted upon by others. Beware how you unknowingly bring another to ruin. True, some succeed in doing good to many for a time, by giving a new trend to their propensities, but at the same time, they bring ruin to millions by the unconscious suggestions they throw around, rousing in men and women that morbid, passive, hypnotic condition which makes them almost soulless at last. Whosoever, therefore, asks any one to believe blindly, or drags people behind him by the controlling power of his superior will, does an injury to humanity, though he may not intend it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-04-11T07:52:50.167" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11352" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="236" CreationDate="2016-04-11T09:02:00.553" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;That Rama killed Vaali in an unfair manner cannot be disputed for reasons like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaali didn't have personal enmity with Rama.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rules of human society cannot be applied to the animal kingdom (my personal belief is that those called as monkeys were primitive humans who resembled apes. I don't accept that humans talked with monkeys, bears etc. The story of Ramayana has to be understood metaphorically and not literally).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Two persons (Rama and Sugreeva) fighting a single one (Vaali) is unethical by the code of conduct that existed during that time.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Killing someone from behind is also wrong according to that time.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There may be many other valid accusations. There can be many equally valid justifications but one explanation stands out and it is not based on the virtue of Rama but of Seetha Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While Rama can be regarded as the epitome of manly strength, Seetha was an embodiment of pure love. It is not as if Rama wasn't capable of love; it's just that some of the love had to be traded-off for strength. So, when Ravana abducted the compassionate Seetha, Rama became incomplete and violent without her gentle presence nearby to calm His anger and forgive the offenders. How can there be justice or mercy in a world where the goddess of compassion, Seetha Herself, has been abducted? Without Seetha, Rama was not His usual self and He lost His patience. He became Aniruddha (the Unstoppable One) and everyone standing on His way to reclaim His beloved was run over.&#xA;It is not 100% possible to support a comment in a text like Ramayana because it has to be felt from the heart than read from the brain. Also, since this text comes as a tradition from a very ancient period, there may not be an absolute proof other than what has been conveyed through tradition to those who have been fortunate enough to be at a listening distance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Aranya Kanda (3.66)&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Note especially 3.66.18&lt;/em&gt; The importance of having a compassionate woman like Seetha not only applies to Rama but also to all husbands. Power alone cannot help. Only a power that is accompanied by love can be constructive and help save the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 &amp;amp; 2. Lakshmana, son of Sumitra, consoling the mighty miserable Rama, who was afflicted with sorrow, and was weeping helplessly like an orphan, drowned in great delusion, devoid of consciousness, pressed his feet and addressed him:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3. O Rama, king Dasaratha begot you by doing a great penance and performing great deeds, just as gods begot the nectar.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  4. King Dasaratha, impelled by your virtues, and (unable to bear the) separation from you attained godhood as heard from Bharata.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  5. O Rama, if you cannot bear this sorrow that has befallen you, how can weak and ordinary persons endure (such suffering)?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  6. O best of men, if you grieve and burn the world with your brilliance, wherefrom will the (ordinary) afflicted people get relief?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  7. It is the go of the world. Yayati, son of Nahusa, shared heaven with Indra but because of his curse (for his bad conduct) suffered misfortune.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  8. To sage Vasistha, our father's priest, were born a hundred sons in a day.But all of them were killed in one day the same way.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  9. You (rigidly) adhere to truth.(Like you) the mother earth who is adored by all the worlds, is unshakeable. Yet she is seen to be shaking at times.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  10. The powerful Sun and Moon, righteous entities, who are the two eyes of these worlds and on whom everything rests firmly, also suffer eclipses sometimes.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  11. O best among men, fate spares none. Great beings, every creature, even the gods cannot escape fate.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  12. I heard that Indra and other deities are also governed by the principle of justice. Therefore, you should not bewail, O tiger among men.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  13. Even if Vaidehi (another name of Seetha) is killed or abducted, you should not grieve like ordinary men, O sinless hero.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  14. O Rama, you always see the truth. So, in the face of great difficulties men like you, whose vision is not blurred, should not lose heart.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  15. O best among men, judge the facts rightly with your intellect. The wise apply their minds and know what is right and what is wrong.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  16. Good results are not expected from the actions of persons who cannot distinguish between their virtues and vices, from those who are unstable in their deeds.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  17. O Rama, you yourself in the past have instructed me many times that way. Who can be your adviser in this matter ? You are indeed like Brihaspati (the Guru of Gods).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  18. Even gods cannot fathom your intellect. I am only trying to rouse your wisdom your sorrow has sent to sleep.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  19. O bull among the Ikshvakus, weigh your divine and human prowess before you try to kill your enemies.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  20. O best among men, where is the good in the destruction of all? Know your sinful enemy before you uproot him.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Yuddha Kandam (6.113)&lt;/strong&gt; The mercy of Seetha.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter, having joined his hands together in salutation, standing in front of Seetha in humility and free from flurry, Hanuman again spoke to Seetha (as follows):&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;If you permit me, I wish to kill all of these notorious female-demons, by whom you have been frightened earlier.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;These cruel female-demons of terrific form and behavior, with still more cruel eyes, having ugly faces, were heard by me here speaking again and again harsh words to you, who are so devoted to your husband, at Ravana’s command, when you were suffering hardships in the Ashoka grove, O divine lady!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;I wish to kill with various kinds of strokes, these cruel, extremely rough and deformed female-demons, with distorted features and terrific hairs and eyes, talking together roughly. (Pray) grant this boon to me.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;I wish to kill the female-demons, who have spoken harsh words to you and wronged you, striking them down with my fists, hand-blows, long arms, blows of my shanks and knees, by causing pain to their teeth, biting off their ears and nose and pulling out their hair, making them severely dry-mouthed, tearing them off, leaping over them, encountering them and throwing down their bodies, with their burst cheeks, necks, shoulders and ribs.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;O illustrious lady! Striking them with several blows in this way, I would destroy the female-demons of terrible form, by whom you have been threatened in the past.&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Reflecting as pondering for a while, when spoken thus by Hanuman, the compassionate Seetha, who was kind to the miserable, spoke to Hanuman as follows:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;O the foremost of monkeys! Who will be angry with servant-maids, who are dependent on their king’s command and work in obedience to the orders of others?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;All this is reaped by me, as a consequence of my bad fortune or an account of a misdeed committed by me in the past. The fruit of one’s own making is indeed experienced (in one’s life).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;O the great-armed Hanuman! Do not speak like this. This is indeed a great divine strategy. It was ordained that this type of situation is to be obtained by me, due to the application of fate. Feeble as I am in these matters, I am forgiving the servant-maids of Ravana here.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;O Hanuman! As commanded by Ravana they threatened me. As he is dead now, they will not do the threatening.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;O Hanuman! There is an old maxim possessed of merit, actually uttered by a bear in the presence of a tiger. Hear it from me:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;'A superior being does not render evil for evil, this is a maxim one should observe; the ornament of virtuous persons is their conduct.'&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;One should never harm the wicked or the good or even criminals meriting death.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;A noble soul will ever exercise compassion even towards those who enjoy injuring others or those of cruel deeds when they are actually committing them. Who is without fault?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hearing the words of Seetha, Hanuman who was skilled in speech, then replied to the faultless Seetha, Rama’s consort (as follows):&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;O divine lady! You are the apt wife of Rama, full of virtue. Give me a message in return. I will go to the place where Rama is.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5286" LastEditorUserId="5291" LastEditDate="2016-08-07T18:40:00.437" LastActivityDate="2016-08-07T18:40:00.437" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11353" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11298" CreationDate="2016-04-11T12:40:05.387" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The 37th Chapter of the Mahatmya Kanda of the Tripura Rahasya details the story of Sanatkumara incarnating as Kartikeya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Dattatreya relates the story of Lord Muruga to Parashurama, listening to which Parashurama asks Dattatreya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kathamesha Mahabhagah Skandah Tam Asuresvaram|&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;Jitavaan Shivavishnvendra-Durjeyamapi Samyuge|| (37.78)&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&quot;O Lord, how was this greatly fortunate Skanda able to conquer the king of Asuras , who was undefeatable by even Shiva, Vishnu and Indra in battle?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To which Dattatreya replied that Lord Sanat-kumara, the son of Brahma was ever peaceful and content with himself. He dwelt on the Mountain named Rshabha. Once, Lord Brahma arrived to meet his son, and Sanatkumara related a dream he had seen, of a great battle between the devas and asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yuddhamaseet Mahabhimam Asuranam Tatha Amaraih|&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;Tatra Sarve Maya Yuddhe Nihataah Balavattaraah|| (37.85)&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;Asuraas Tat Kathamidam &lt;strong&gt;Nirhetukam&lt;/strong&gt; Abhut Vada|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O Father, I saw a dream, of a great war between the asuras and the devas. I saw myself slaying all the formidable asuras in the war. I want to know how such a &lt;strong&gt;baseless&lt;/strong&gt; thing could happen!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma replied that in a past life, Sanatkumara had been a Brahmana, who having heard the account of the battle between Devas and Asuras, had vowed to defeat all the asuras and return prosperity to the devas, with the fire as his witness. But he attained his death before he could fulfil his vow, so instead of getting Moksha, he incarnated as Brahma's son Sanatkumara. Brahma also told him that whatever he had seen in the dream would actually take place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Sanatkumara asked Brahma how this was possible, Brahma told him that Sanatkumara himself would decide how this would take place, and returned to Brahmaloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Sanatkumara meditated on this statement, Lord Shiva and Devi Parvati passed by his hermitage. Seeing his composed face, Parvati (who had not seen Sanatkumara before as she was newly married) asked Lord Shiva who he was. When Shiva told her about Sanatkumara, she expressed her wish to meet him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When both Mahadeva and Girija reached the hermitage, Sanatkumara didn't notice them. After waiting for a long time, Mahadeva decided to test Sanatkumara and flew into a rage. He scolded Sanatkumara saying that his conduct did not befit him, the son of Brahma. When Sanatkumara was addressed thus, he opened his eyes and said, &quot;I won't be frightened by your curses, nor will I be excited by your boons. I have conquered both fear and excitement, thus you cannot make me react in any way, either ordinary or extra-ordinary.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When he had replied thus, Mahadeva was pleased and asked him to seek a boon. Sanatkumara laughed and said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Saadhayasva Mahadeva Esha Me Kaankshito Varah|| (37.118)&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;Maayavinam Maheshaana Naaham Vepayitum Kshamah|&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;Mahavaatair-Ivaakasham Bruhi Te Yadi Vaanchitam||(37.119)&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&quot;O Great Lord, Mahadeva, I cannot be agitated by illusions or illusionists, just like hurricanes cannot disturb the sky. Therefore, I seek this boon that, if &lt;strong&gt;you&lt;/strong&gt; have any wish, you may seek it from &lt;strong&gt;me&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upon hearing this, Mahadeva said 'Om' and continued,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yadi Dasyasi Me Kamam Prateeccha Mama Putrataam|| (37.120)&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&quot;If you shall grant my wish, then become my son!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatkumara smiled and said, &quot;I shall become your son, but &lt;strong&gt;only yours&lt;/strong&gt;, because Parvati Devi hasn't asked this boon of me!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parvati immediately argued that since the wife was entitled to half of her husband's fortunes and misfortunes, she also was entitled to being his mother. Sanatkumara consented and said, &quot;When Bhasmasura had sought the boon to turn anyone to ashes, and tired it on Shiva, he had disappeared, hearing about which you had become aggrieved and turned into a forest of reeds. I shall incarnate into &lt;strong&gt;that body&lt;/strong&gt; of yours; hence you will be my mother.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So saying, Lord Sanatkumara granted them leave, and was born as their son, in the lake (Poigai in Tamil), in the forest of reeds, Sharavanam. Thus he became Lord Muruga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T14:18:47.853" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T14:18:47.853" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11355" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11326" CreationDate="2016-04-11T13:05:32.363" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is possible but it is peripheral:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Many times, I have been asked, what to do if someone has cast an “evil&#xA;  eye” on me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first thing to do is to not bother about it. Gurudev had once&#xA;  said, this is all simply on the periphery and will just vanish in no&#xA;  time. He said any sort of “curse” is always peripheral and will go&#xA;  away very fast. However, a blessing comes from deep within and will&#xA;  stay for a very long time!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having said this, there are a few things you can do if you are feeling&#xA;  that you are the victim of an evil eye. Typically you will see that&#xA;  for absolutely no reason, you are being unwell, losing money, having&#xA;  minor accidents, friends not talking to you, etc. It could of course&#xA;  mean you have been in too many polluted places, too many shopping&#xA;  malls or are being careless and simply not being nice to people around&#xA;  you. However if that’s not the case, then it could be some petty&#xA;  jealousy of someone has rubbed off on you and you have become the&#xA;  victim of an “evil eye”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Super regular Sadhana, Seva and Satsang will blow anything negative&#xA;  away from you! Go for a dip in the sea. Or take a full body bath with&#xA;  salt water few times a week. Get someone, typically an elder woman (it&#xA;  works great with younger ones as well) to do the nullifying the evil&#xA;  eye ceremony on you (Nazar uttarna). Or go to a priest you know well&#xA;  and ask him to do it for you....&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read more here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://bawandinesh.name/the-evil-eye/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://bawandinesh.name/the-evil-eye/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, lemon, chilli etc do not work. Salt does as mentioned (dip in the sea). Is is said that the salt crystals have a cleansing frequency. I am not sure if any research has been done on that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-17T12:36:06.500" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T12:36:06.500" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11356" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-11T14:33:12.360" Score="7" ViewCount="2610" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira supporteth eighty-eight thousand Snataka Brahmanas leading domestic lives, giving unto each of them thirty slave-girls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02048.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 2: Sabha Parva: Sisupala-badha Parva: Section XLVIII&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And thus the Emperor of Indra-prastha and his family were deprived of every possession on earth, and became the bond-slaves of Duryodhan. The old king Dhrita-rashtra released them from actual slavery, but the five brothers retired to forests as homeless exiles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm referring to sale of people as personal property.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this mean that slavery was prevalent?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Were there any rules for slavery?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please state your sources.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5284" LastEditorUserId="5284" LastEditDate="2017-03-15T10:06:19.057" LastActivityDate="2020-08-18T19:43:57.853" Title="Was slavery allowed in Mahabarata times?" Tags="|mahabharata|customs|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11357" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11356" CreationDate="2016-04-11T15:10:27.527" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Slavery was allowed during Mahabharata times. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tuladhara said, ‘…&lt;strong&gt;Men are seen to own men as slaves&lt;/strong&gt;, and by beating,&#xA;  by binding, and by otherwise subjecting them to restraints, cause them&#xA;  to labor day and night. These people are not ignorant of pain that&#xA;  results from beating and fastening in chains. In every creature that&#xA;  is endued with the five senses live all the deities, Surya,&#xA;  Chandramas, the god of wind, Brahman, Prana, Kratu, and Yama (these&#xA;  dwell in living creatures). There are men that live by trafficking in&#xA;  living creatures!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-04-11T15:10:27.527" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11359" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-11T17:35:09.583" Score="4" ViewCount="806" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that our ancestors in Ancient India (Bharath)  were advanced. I just wanna know if there are any references of robots in our Hindu Scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5288" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2016-04-20T13:26:36.250" LastActivityDate="2021-07-20T17:22:57.523" Title="Are there any references of robots in Ancient India?" Tags="|history|science|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11360" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-11T18:38:54.567" Score="2" ViewCount="100" Body="&lt;p&gt;As said by one of the famous writers the important encounters in our present life have been planed by souls even before the bodies (in control of these souls) have met each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true that our soul is already acquainted with some person even before we physically meet that person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5251" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T06:32:13.927" LastActivityDate="2018-10-16T06:32:13.927" Title="Do souls (jeevas) meet or associate even before their first physical encounter?" Tags="|belief|atma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11363" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="527" CreationDate="2016-04-11T23:45:46.600" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu Purana mentions Shanta as Dashrath's daughter given to his friend, King Romapada of Anga kingdom. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was mentioned by Sage Parashar while describing the Anu-Vansh in Chaturtha Ansha - Adhyaya 18 - Shloka 18 (Vishnu Purana by Gita Press).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5290" LastActivityDate="2016-04-11T23:45:46.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11364" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11356" CreationDate="2016-04-12T03:05:45.193" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It looks like slavery was indeed allowed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhistara &quot;pawned his wife in a gamble&quot;. Which means his wife was treated as property. In other words slavery. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This proves that the modern definition of slavery did exist and was considered legal and moral.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Especially since Yudhistara was shown a glimpse of hell for telling a lie, but was given no punishment for slavery. Further I have found no references condemning slavery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it can be assumed that slavery was considered moral, legal and accepted in the Mahabaratha age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Infact Yudhistara did slave trade it on a mass level.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) He pawned his wife as property, which is treating a person as property.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) He supplied 30 slave-girls to each one of 88 thousand brahmans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: It should be taken into account that none of the slaves were men. If they were used just for forced labor it wouldn't make sense to use just women in all 26400000 cases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira supporteth eighty-eight thousand Snataka Brahmanas leading domestic lives, giving unto each of them thirty slave-girls.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02048.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02048.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5284" LastEditorUserId="5284" LastEditDate="2016-06-02T06:47:05.647" LastActivityDate="2016-06-02T06:47:05.647" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11365" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11090" CreationDate="2016-04-12T04:19:03.303" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two answers to your question found in the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Yes, I will tell you of My&#xA;  splendorous manifestations, &lt;strong&gt;but only of those which are prominent&lt;/strong&gt;, O&#xA;  Arjuna, for My opulence is limitless.&quot; (Bhagavad Gita, 10.19)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krsna is only referring to certain opulences of himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Know that all states of being – be they of goodness, passion or&#xA;  ignorance – are manifested by My energy. I am, in one sense,&#xA;  everything, but I am independent. I am not under the modes of material&#xA;  nature, for they, on the contrary, are within Me.&quot; (Bhagavad Gita,&#xA;  7.12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Krsna clarifies that He is the unborn separate from the modes of nature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means that in one way everything is Krsna but in another way everything is not Krsna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4942" LastActivityDate="2016-04-12T04:19:03.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11368" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11359" CreationDate="2016-04-12T10:45:10.467" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_robots#Early_legends&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Indian Lokapannatti&lt;/a&gt; (11th/12th century) tells the story of King Ajatashatru of Magadha who gathered the Buddhas relics and hid them in an underground stupa. The Buddha's relics were protected by &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=ItxjAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=ashoka%20robots&amp;amp;source=gbs_book_other_versions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;mechanical robots (bhuta vahana yanta)&lt;/a&gt;, from the kingdom of Roma visaya; until they were disarmed by King Ashoka.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5241" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-13T10:04:32.330" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T10:04:32.330" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11369" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-12T11:35:42.487" Score="0" ViewCount="88" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said in the epics that same events repeat in same yuga. If so, then Hanuman is going to be the next Brahma. Now does it mean the current Brahma was once Hanuman? Was current sage Vyasa, Ashwatthama in previous Dwapara-yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5288" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-13T19:53:00.030" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T19:53:00.030" Title="Was current Lord Brahma once Hanuman?" Tags="|brahma|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-02-01T15:46:24.663" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11370" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-12T17:01:10.300" Score="7" ViewCount="6408" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nagas are children of Sage Kashyapa and Kadru. Adisesha, elder among the Nagas, is bed for Lord Vishnu. Vasuki, second child, is Lord Shiva's snake. There are many other Nagas but these two Nagas are prominent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/20409/13F_Chapter_39.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 39: Story of JaratKaru of Astika Parva: Adi Parva of Mahabharatha&lt;/a&gt; describes Vasuki as Nagaraj and Nagendra which are words for &amp;quot;King of Nagas&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हितो ह्ययं सदाऽस्माकं प्रियाकारी च &lt;strong&gt;नागराट्&lt;/strong&gt;। &lt;br&gt;प्रसादं कुरु देवेश&#xA;शमयास्य मनोज्वरम्॥७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The king of the snakes is always our friend and benefactor; O lord of&#xA;the gods, be gracious to him and remove the fever of his mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मोवाच मयैव तद्वितीर्णं वै वचनं मनसाऽमराः। &lt;br&gt; एलापत्रेण नागेन&#xA;यदस्याभिहितं पुरा।।८।। &lt;br&gt; तत्करोत्वेष &lt;strong&gt;नागेन्द्रः&lt;/strong&gt; प्राप्तकालं वचः&#xA;स्वयम्। &lt;br&gt; विनशिष्यन्ति ये पापा न तु यै धर्मचारिणः॥९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said : &lt;br&gt; O immortals, I have thought in my mind what you&#xA;have said. Let the king of the snakes do what Elapatra had told him&#xA;before. When the time comes, the wicked only will be destroyed and not&#xA;the virtuous. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/20413/13F_Chapter_43.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chaper 43 Astika's bite&lt;/a&gt; says Takshaka as Nagendra, King of Snakes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;काश्यप उवाच &lt;br&gt; दश &lt;strong&gt;नागेन्द्र&lt;/strong&gt; वृक्षं त्वं यद्येतदभिमन्यसे। &lt;br&gt; अहमेनं&#xA;त्वया दष्टं जीवयिष्ये भुजंगमः॥ ३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kashyapa said: &lt;br&gt; O snake, if you are so minded, bite (the tree&#xA;then). I shall revive it, though bitten by you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagaraja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt; says Hindu texts call Adisesha, Vasuki and Takshaka by this Title.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How post of &amp;quot;King&amp;quot; can be conferred to three snakes? Are there any stories regarding coronations of any of these Nagas as King?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2020-01-01T12:15:47.993" Title="Who is the true Nagaraja, the King of Nagas?" Tags="|adisesha|naga|vasuki|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11373" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9001" CreationDate="2016-04-13T06:32:25.440" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes Hinduism is the oldest organized religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;100th to 34th century BCE&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9831 BCE&#xA;      The Neolithic Revolution begins and results in a worldwide population explosion. The first cities, states, kingdoms, and organized religions begin to emerge. The early states were usually theocracies, in which the political power is justified by religious prestige. Beginning of First Sangam, Hinduism 'Shivan' period in South India.[citation needed]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_religion&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_religion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5284" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T06:32:25.440" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11374" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-13T06:39:36.703" Score="2" ViewCount="325" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know what the function of brain is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm talking about the physical organ brain not the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do the sacred texts say about the brain?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5284" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-30T09:48:02.340" LastActivityDate="2016-12-30T09:48:02.340" Title="What is the function of brain according to Hinduism?" Tags="|consciousness|mind|body|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2017-01-12T08:24:39.450" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11375" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5" CreationDate="2016-04-13T06:44:52.400" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It looks like your question is geared to promote answers that support views on how Hinduism is greater than other religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will attempt answer parts of the question that I have knowledge about.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Can it be considered as religion like Christianity, Islam or Buddhism? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is considered a religion by almost all countries.&#xA;It is a religion according to the universally accepted definition.&#xA;Most people especially those of other faiths agree that it is a religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;like&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; word puts me in a bit of stitch. Every religion is different and may share similarities. No, religion is perfectly &lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;like&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look at most dictionary definition it is a religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) It proposes the bleief or beliefs of the cause, nature and purpose of the universe which ofcourse involves supernatural elements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Supernatural elements are involved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) The beliefs are passed on to children most of the time which happens with almost all religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4) A belief of a creator or God is involved most of the time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5) There are of course moral codes given (which many times quote or refer to or involver supernatural forces or elements).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;noun&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.&#xA;  a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.&#xA;  a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects:&#xA;  the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.&#xA;  the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices:&#xA;  a world council of religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.&#xA;  the life or state of a monk, nun, etc.:&#xA;  to enter religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.&#xA;  the practice of religious beliefs; ritual observance of faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dictionary.com/browse/religion&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.dictionary.com/browse/religion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Full Definition of religion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1&#xA;  a :  the state of a religious  b (1) :  the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) :  commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2&#xA;      :  a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3&#xA;      archaic :  scrupulous conformity :  conscientiousness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4&#xA;      :  a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5284" LastEditorUserId="5284" LastEditDate="2016-04-13T10:15:42.393" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T10:15:42.393" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11376" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-04-13T09:24:37.887" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nāgá or नाग are group of serpents who are children of Sage Kashyapa and Kadru. Naga is Indian cobra, a class of serpents found in south Asia. Adisesha, Vasuki, Takshaka and Manasa are prominent among various Naga Serpents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-13T10:15:40.013" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T10:15:40.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11377" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-04-13T09:24:37.887" Score="0" Body="Nāgá or नाग are group of serpents who are children of Sage Kashyapa and Kadru. Prominent among the Nagas are Adisesha, the elder one and bed for Lord Vishnu and Vasuki which is wrapped around neck of Lord Shiva." OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-13T10:15:57.670" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T10:15:57.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11378" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-04-13T09:28:10.827" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vasuki is second Naga child of Sage Kashyapa and Kadru. Vasuki is wore by Lord Shiva around His neck. Vasuki was used as rope by during Sagara Madhanam or churing of ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-13T10:16:01.593" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T10:16:01.593" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11379" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-04-13T09:28:10.827" Score="0" Body="Vasuki is second Naga child of Sage Kashyapa and Kadru. Vasuki is wore by Lord Shiva around His neck. Vasuki was used as rope during Sagara Madhanam or churing of ocean." OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-13T10:15:52.530" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T10:15:52.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11380" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-13T11:01:16.603" Score="2" ViewCount="58" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since some events in our lives are pre-determined and some are not (from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2399/is-our-destiny-predetermined-if-yes-then-why-do-our-actions-affect-our-karma&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), if one gets knowledge of supreme and he's able to see the future, would he see only some things (pre-determined) that will happen in the future or everything? Also, what are some records of the sages who were able to see the past and future?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T11:01:16.603" Title="What can one see of the future by realizing the Supreme?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|puranas|karma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11382" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-13T12:43:52.703" Score="4" ViewCount="283" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of us will be familiar with the story of how Krsna married Srimati Rukmini. Rukmini, due to her brother's friendship with Jarasandha, was betrothed to Shishupala. She then sent a Brahmana to Dvaraka with a message, following which Krsna came to Kundinapura and abducted her from the premises of the Gauri Temple, and bringing her to Dvaraka, married her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the Harivamsa has a &lt;strong&gt;very different&lt;/strong&gt; story to tell. It tells us of a &lt;strong&gt;Svayamvara&lt;/strong&gt; organised by Rukmi for his sister, much against the wishes of his father King Bheeshmaka. This begins from the 47th Chapter of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/harivamsa-cs-index.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vishnu Parva of Harivamsa&lt;/a&gt; and conitnues till Chapter 51.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Accordingly, when Rukmi organises this Svayamvara, all his friends, namely, Jarasandha, Shalva, Paundraka, Dantavakra, Shishupala and others come to the Svayamvara. Krsna too arrives with Balarama to attend this Svayamvara. Upon seeing Krsna, who arrives on &lt;strong&gt;Garuda&lt;/strong&gt;  (what a show-off), Jarasandha, Shalva, Dantavakra and others get instant Jnana, and &lt;strong&gt;they realise that Krsna is God&lt;/strong&gt;, and like very dharmic people, say that Rukmini is eligible to marry Krsna. Krsna arrives, and is greeted by Bheeshmaka. Both of them have a nice friendly chat, during which Krsna tells BHeeshmaka that since Rukmini is Mahalakshmi, she can marry only Krsna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bheeshmaka agrees, and after apologising to the kings, sends them home. The Kings, like Brahmajnanis, gracefully accept his apology and go back. Except, Jarasandha asks Shalva to go to Kalayavana, who attacks Krsna. It is &lt;strong&gt;after&lt;/strong&gt; this that Krsna shifts to Dvaraka, and then the usual story of Shishupala's betrothal continues, &lt;strong&gt;without the letter of Rukmini&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the main question is: Where else is this story mentioned? Because in Srimad Bhagavatam, Kalayavana arrives on the advise of &lt;strong&gt;Narada&lt;/strong&gt;, not Shalva. Also, how did all those demoniac kings become dharmic and Brahmajnanis and realise who Krsna really is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T12:43:52.703" Title="Where else is the story of Rukmini's called-off Svayamvara mentioned?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavata-purana|harivamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11383" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3855" CreationDate="2016-04-13T12:44:13.640" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Barbarika or Barbarik is the son of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghatotkacha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot; &gt;Ghatotkacha&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahilawati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ahilawati&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Barbarika was originally a yaksha, and was reborn as a man. He was bound by his principle of always fighting on the losing side, which led him to stand witness to the battle of Mahabharata without taking part in it .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ghatotkacha has been himself the son of great Bhima and Hidimba.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has granted three infallible arrows to Barbarik, which had the power to conquer the whole world. Agni god has bestowed him with a bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before the Mahabharata war began, Lord Krishna queried the warriors how many days he would take to finish Mahabharat war alone. Bhishma answered that he would take 20 days to finish the war. Dronacharya said 25 days. Karna  said he would take 24 days. Arjuna told Krishna it would take 28 days for him to complete the battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then he asked Barbari as how many days he would require? Barbari replied that he would take only a minute. Krishna baited Barbarika by mocking him for going to the great battle with only three arrows. In reply, Barbari proved to Krishna that he indeed would require only a minute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna then asks the boy whom he would favour in the war of Mahabharat. Barbarika reveals that he intends to fight from the weaker side. As Pandavas have only seven Akshouhini army, when compared to Kauravas eleven, he considers that Pandavas are weak and hence wants to support them. Krishna explains  consequence of his word to Barbari’s mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna tells that whichever side Barbari supports will only make the other side weak due to his power. Nobody has the skill or power to defeat him. Hence, he is forced to support the other side that has become weaker due to his word to his mother. Thus, in an actual war, he will keep switching between the two sides, thereby destroying the entire army of both sides and eventually only he survives. Subsequently, none of the side is victorious as he will be the only lone survivor. Hence, Krishna avoids his participation from the war by seeking his head in charity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is also known as Teen Baandhari and Khatu Shyamji. He is one of the persons who saw Shri Krishna’s vishwaroopa form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;that's little about barbarik,.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5244" LastActivityDate="2016-04-13T12:44:13.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11385" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-13T15:32:13.810" Score="0" ViewCount="303" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yuga(m) is one of the basic units of time. Most Indian scriptures mention 4 yugas namely krita yuga, treta yuga, dvapara yuga and kali yuga. Each yuga has its own time scale and is regulated by years. In that case, now we are in kali yuga and after this again krita yuga will start.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of us know above said information however, this post is aimed to bring out the unknown information of yuga. Agathiyar in his book “Agathiyar Vaatha Sowmiyam” noted that there are 18 yugas as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;கேளடா புலத்தியனே மைந்தா நீயுங்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kaeladaa Pulaththiyanae mainthaa neeyung&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  கெணிதமுள்ள யுகமதுதான் பதினெட்டுப்பா&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kenithamulla yukamathuthaan pathinettappaa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ஆளடா வரியினுகம் ஈரேழுகோடி&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  aaladaa variyinukam eeraezhukoadi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  அற்புதனார் யுகமதுதான் ஈரைந்துகோடி&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  arputhanaar yukamathuthaan eerainthukoadi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  வாளடா தன்மயுகம் ஈராறுகோடி&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vaaladaa thanmayukam eeraarukoadi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  மகத்தான ராசியுகம் ஈரெட்டுகோடி&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  makaththaana raasiyukam eerettukkoadi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  காலடா யுகமெல்லாஞ் சொல்லிவாரேன்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kaaladaa yukamellaanj sollivaaraen&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  கனமான வீராசன் நாலைந்துதானே&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kanamaana veeraasan naalainthuthaanae.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;தானென்ற விண்ணதனில் ஈரெட்டுகோடி&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  thaanaenra vinnathanil eerattukkoadi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  தருவான வாய்தனக்கு யுகம்ஏழுகோடி&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tharuvaana vaaithanakku yukamaezhukoadi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  மானென்ற மைனயுகம் இருமூன்றுகோடி&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  maanenra mainayukam irumoondrukoadi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  மகத்தான மணிகள்யுகம் இருமூன்றுகோடி&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  makaththaana manikalyukam irumoondrukoadi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  பானென்ற பணியிரதம் நான்குகோடி&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  paanenra paniyiratham naankukoadi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  பதிவான விஸ்வாசன்யுகம் மூன்றுகோடி&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pathivaana visvaasanyukam moonrukoadi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  வானென்ற வாய்தன்யுகம் ஒருகோடியாகும்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vaanenra vaaithanyukam orukoadi yaakum&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  மார்க்கமுடன் திரேதாயுகந் தன்னைப்பாரே&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  maarkkamudan thiraethaayukan thannaippaarae.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;பாரடா திரேதாயுகம் அதனைக்கேளு&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  paaradaa thiraethaayukam athanaikkaelu&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  பதினேழு லக்ஷத்தொன் பதினாயிரமாம்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pathinaezu lakshaththon pathinaayiramaam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  மேரடா கிரேதாயுகம் அதனைக்கேளு&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  maeradaa kiraethaayukam athanaikkaelu&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  விருபது லக்ஷத்தொன் பதினாயிரமாம்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  virupathu lakshaththon pathinaayiramaam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  தேரடா துவாபரயுகம் தனைக்கேளு&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  thaeradaa thuvaaparayukam thanaikkaelu&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  தீர்க்கமுடன் ஒன்பதுலக்ஷத்து ஒன்பதனாயிரமாம்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  theerkkamudan onpathulakshaththu onpatha naayiramaam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  காரடா கலியுகம் வெகு கடினமைந்தா&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kaaradaa kaliyukam veku kadinamainthaa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  கண்டுபார் லக்ஷத்து முப்பதினாயிரமாம்&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kandupaar lakshaththu muppathinaayiramaam.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agathiar’s above said poem gives information about 18 yugas as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;variyin yuga comprises of 14 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  arputhanar yuga comprises of 10 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  thanma yuga comprises of 12 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  raasi yuga comprises of 16 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sanya yuga comprises of 10 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  veera raasan yuga comprises of 20 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vin yuga comprises of 16 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vaayu yuga comprises of 7 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  maina yuga comprises of 6 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  manikal yuga comprises of 6 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  aththae yuga comprises of 19 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  paniyiratha yuga comprises of 4 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  visvaasana yuga comprises of 3 crore years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vaaithan yuga comprises of 1 crore year,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  thiraethaa (treta) yuga comprises of 17 lakhs and 9 thousand years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kiraethaa (krita) yuga comprises of 20 lakh and 10 thousand years,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dvapara yuga comprises of 9 lakh and 9 thousand years and&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  most complicated kali yuga comprises of 1 lakh and 30 thousand years.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read this on a website.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how many Yugas are actually there - 4 or 18?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5304" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditorDisplayName="user4780" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T06:28:48.300" LastActivityDate="2018-10-16T06:28:48.300" Title="How many Yugas are actually there - 4 or 18 as mentioned by Sage Agastya?" Tags="|yuga|time|agastya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11386" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3829" CreationDate="2016-04-13T16:01:10.453" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a Q&amp;amp;A where Sri Sri Ravi Shankar talks about this story mentioned in the Adhyatma Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;...Lord Rama wanted to do be victorious in battle against Ravana, and&#xA;  for that He wanted to establish a Shivalinga and worship it. Now to do&#xA;  this, a priest was needed, but in those days there were no priests&#xA;  found in Rameshwaram. So Lord Rama was in dire need of a good priest&#xA;  to perform the rituals. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana was a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva and was also a Brahmin by&#xA;  birth. So Ravana’s brother Vibhishana (who was on Lord Rama’s side),&#xA;  told Lord Rama that Ravana was very well-versed in the rituals. So&#xA;  Lord Rama sent an invitation to Ravana to come and preside as the&#xA;  priest for the pooja at Rameshwaram. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana accepted the invitation and came. But then he told Lord Rama&#xA;  that the pooja would be incomplete without his wife being present. No&#xA;  pooja or yagna can be performed without the wife’s presence. So he&#xA;  told Lord Rama, ‘Since you are a married man, both you and your wife&#xA;  have to sit together for the pooja, otherwise you cannot perform the&#xA;  pooja’. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Lord Rama said to him, ‘It is the duty of the priest to provide&#xA;  an alternative for anything that is missing. Since my wife is not with&#xA;  me (having been kept in captivity by Ravana at that time), please tell&#xA;  me what the alternative for this problem is. Can we keep a doll in her&#xA;  place as a substitute?’ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Ravana said, ‘I do not believe in alternative. I would want&#xA;  everything to be present for the worship of Lord Shiva. So I will call&#xA;  your wife here for the pooja. After the pooja, please send her back to&#xA;  Lanka’. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So Ravana brings Sita for the pooja. After the pooja, when Lord Rama&#xA;  and Sita bow down to touch the feet of the priest, that is, Ravana, to&#xA;  take blessings, then Ravana blesses Lord Rama by saying ‘Vijayi&#xA;  bhavaha’ (May victory be yours!). He had no choice but to do so. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When someone touches the feet of a priest, he is left with no choice&#xA;  but to bless that person. So Ravana had to give that blessing to Lord&#xA;  Rama for which He had organized the pooja. He also blessed Sita by&#xA;  saying ‘Sumangali bhavaha’ (May you receive all that is best and&#xA;  auspicious always!) Such was Ravana’s magnanimity. After blessing both&#xA;  of them, Ravana took Sita back to Lanka with him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is a very exciting story. We always perceive Ravana as a villain,&#xA;  but even Ravana had many good qualities in him. This is why when&#xA;  Ravana was counting his last breaths and was at his death bed on the&#xA;  battlefield, Lord Rama told Lakshmana to go and touch the feet of&#xA;  Ravana and receive knowledge from him as he lay dying on the&#xA;  battlefield. Lord Rama said, ‘If I go to him (Ravana) then he will&#xA;  leave his body and his soul will merge into Me. So before that&#xA;  happens, go and learn all that you can from him’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do you know, there is a Gita by the name Ravana? It is called Ravana&#xA;  Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of the five Gitas that are present, it is one of them. Just like you&#xA;  have the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Ashtavakra Gita, Udhhava Gita, and Guru&#xA;  Gita; there is another Gita called Ravana Gita (the song of Ravana).&#xA;  In it, Ravana teaches many sermons to Lakshmana...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the full article here:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom-q-a-15-may-2013-qa-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom-q-a-15-may-2013-qa-2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-17T12:30:15.120" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T12:30:15.120" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11388" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-13T16:24:19.683" Score="5" ViewCount="17292" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen my dad doing fasting on every &lt;strong&gt;Amavasya&lt;/strong&gt; in remembrance of my late grandfather i.e., dad's father. He usually will not have breakfast and lunch on that day and directly will have dinner with all variety of food after offering it to a photo of the grandfather and having that food later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I asked him why he does so every &lt;strong&gt;Amavasya&lt;/strong&gt;, his reply was &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Its on the remembrance of Ancestors&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; and nothing more than that. I'm not satisfied with his reply.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind doing so every &lt;strong&gt;Amavasya&lt;/strong&gt;? Does it have any significance with Hindu history and Hindu scripts? Is it more than any beliefs? Can anyone help me out with this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5241" LastEditorUserId="5486" LastEditDate="2016-04-30T12:35:51.573" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T12:35:51.573" Title="What is the reason behind fasting on Amavasya?" Tags="|belief|history|fasting|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11389" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="397" CreationDate="2016-04-13T17:00:47.167" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;To add to the previous answers, here is another interpretation: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Q: What is the signifiance of Mahalaya Amavasya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Actually this Amavasya is dedicated to the&#xA;  departed souls.  When you leave this body you are guided into another&#xA;  world by a set of Devas or Angels. Pururava, Vishvedeva - these are&#xA;  their names. They come and guide you from one level to another level. &#xA;  Mahalaya Amavasya is the day when you remember all the departed souls&#xA;  and thank them and wish peace for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is an ancient tradition in which the family members take a few&#xA;  sesame seeds and little bit of rice, and then they think of their&#xA;  ancestors and say, ‘May you be contented, may you be contented, may&#xA;  you be contented.’  They say this three times and then they drop the&#xA;  little grains of sesame seeds with some water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The significance of this ritual is to tell the departed that – If you&#xA;  still have some desires in your mind, know that they are like sesame&#xA;  seeds. They are not significant, just drop them. We will take care of&#xA;  them for you. You be free, happy and contented! There is huge universe&#xA;  in front of you. The universe is infinite, so look forward and go;&#xA;  drop whatever is pulling you back.  This is called Tarpana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tarpana means bringing satisfaction and fulfillment to the departed.&#xA;  It is done to tell them to be contented and move further. Water is the&#xA;  symbol of love. To give anyone water means giving love.  In Sanskrit,&#xA;  Ap means water and it also means love. And in Sanskrit someone who is&#xA;  very dear is called Apta.  So, in their memory, you give them water as&#xA;  a symbol of love and life and that is why this is called Mahalaya&#xA;  Amavasya. On this day think of all your ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Vedic tradition, three generations on the mother's side and&#xA;  father's side are remembered, and all others friends, relatives, and&#xA;  anyone who has crossed over to the other side. Think of them and tell&#xA;  them to be satisfied.  Usually in their memory, people also do some&#xA;  charity, by giving food to some people and to animals...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read more at: &lt;a href=&quot;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/search/label/Amavasya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/search/label/Amavasya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-17T12:34:39.587" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T12:34:39.587" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11390" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-04-13T18:28:02.070" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10125/2995&quot;&gt;Why was Lord Krishna named &quot;Krishna?&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11343/2995&quot;&gt;How did India get its name as Bharat?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9184/2995&quot;&gt;Why was Sundara Kanda named as such?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-14T03:24:29.647" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T03:24:29.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11391" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-04-13T18:28:02.070" Score="0" Body="For use in questions involving reason behind names of people, Devas, places and just about anything related to Hindu mythology, scripture, culture, etc." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-14T03:23:57.617" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T03:23:57.617" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11392" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="795" CreationDate="2016-04-13T18:44:06.623" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to one's samskara balam (strength of character), he relates himself to god like father/mother, son/daughter, guru, or friend. Anything offered to God has significance in its own way. Abhishekam is one of the known easiest way to please Him or care for Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Teertham has become holy since it has touched the body of the god while holy mantras are being chanted. It can also be seen as one of the medium to receive divine positive energy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Teertham is a (herbal) medical composition for health benefits&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Teertham is special because of the purpose of abhishekam like for health, wealth, peace of mind, removal of sins; different liquids like coconut water, milk, honey, rose water are used.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantra that is chanted while distribution/consumption of teertham is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Akala mrutyu haranam, sarva vyadhi nivaranam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     samastha papa kshaya karam, Sri Lakshmi Narayana padodakam pavanam subham. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which translates to The power of the teertham is to free you from untimely death, all forms of disease and from all sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Theertham is commonly available prasadam because of its ease of distribution &amp;amp; consumption. All other forms of prasadam are offered to Him and taken by us. Further reference on Quora is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Why-do-we-do-Abhishekam-to-God&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of its holiness, one has to take it with one hand folded enough to make well into which teertham can be poured and with other hand supporting below it to prevent spilling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-24T14:21:16.617" LastActivityDate="2018-02-24T14:21:16.617" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11393" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-04-13T19:25:38.657" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;For more, see Wikipedia article here: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harivamsa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harivamsa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-14T03:23:47.053" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T03:23:47.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11394" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-04-13T19:25:38.657" Score="0" Body="The Harivamsa (also Harivamsha; Sanskrit: Harivaṃśa हरिवंश, &quot;the lineage of Hari (Vishnu)&quot;) is an important work of Sanskrit literature, containing 16,374 verses, mostly in Anustubh metre. The text is also known as the Harivamsha Purana. This text is believed to be a khila (appendix or supplement) to the Mahabharata and is traditionally ascribed to Veda Vyasa." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-14T03:24:16.303" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T03:24:16.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11395" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="343" CreationDate="2016-04-14T00:28:04.693" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Leela of Abandoning Godesses Sita also illustrates the greatness of 'Raam Naam'.&#xA;By the mere chanting of Raam Naam and singing their virtues even animals and birds become so powerful that they gain the power of cursing Gods. Lord Ram and Sita although are beyond the rules of Karma but still act as being in Karmic influenee. Similar is the case here...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story comes in Padma Puran. There were 2 parrots living around Valmiki ashram. They used to hear some verses of Ramayan when Valmiki used to teach verses to his disciples. Thus due to continuous hearing they mastered the verses. One day they came Mithila and were singing the verses. Sita heard them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Padma Puran Chapter 57 &amp;quot;Former Birth Of Washerman&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  41-53. Lucky is that queen Janaki (i.e. Sita), &gt; having a very attractive form, who will gladly enjoy with him for a myriad years. O beautiful lady, who are you? What is your name that you cleverly and respectfully ask me to narrate (the account) of Rama?&amp;quot; Hearing these words, Janaki, telling the couple of birds about the charming and enticing (story of) her birth, said to &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  them: &amp;quot;I am that Janaki, the daughter of Janaka, whom you mentioned. I shall truly release you when that very charming &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Rama comes to me; not otherwise-—being (just) allured by your words! I shall caress you. You, having (i.e. speaking) sweet &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  words, stay happily (with me).&amp;quot; Hearing these words they trembled and were frightened. They were mutually (i.e. both)&#xA;  afraid; (and) said this to Janaki: &amp;quot;O good lady, we are birds, living in forests and resorting to trees. We wander everywhere.&#xA;  We would not get happiness (merely by staying) at home. I am pregnant. Having gone to my place and having given birth to&#xA;  sons (i.e. young ones) I shall come (back). I have told you the truth.&amp;quot; (Though) thus addressed by the female parrot, she did &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  not release her. Then her husband (i.e. the male parrot), eager, and with his face hung down spoke to her: &amp;quot;Sita, release my &#xA;  wife. How do you keep this my beautiful wife? We shall go to the forest and shall happily move in the forest. My charming &#xA;  wife would be (i.e. is) pregnant. Having performed her (i.e. after her) delivery I shall come to you, O lovely one?&amp;quot; Thus, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  addressed, she said to him: &amp;quot;O you very intelligent one, you can gladly go. I shall keep this happy one, doing what is dear to me, near me.&amp;quot; Thus addressed, the bird was unhappy; and full of tenderness, he said to her: &amp;quot;Those words which are uttered by &#xA;  the meditating saints are true: (The words are:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  54-56. &amp;apos;One should not speak, one should not speak. One should remain by resorting to silence. Otherwise, due to the &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  blemish in one&amp;apos;s utterance, the mad one would be fettered.&amp;apos; Had we not talked (to each other) on this tree, how would we have been bound? Therefore, one should resort to silence.&amp;quot; Saying so, he spoke to her: &amp;quot;Obeautiful lady, O Sita, I shall not live &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  without this wife of me. Therefore, O you charming one, leave her.&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;57-66. Though admonished with various words, she did not release her. The (parrot&amp;apos;s) wife, who was angry, and miserable, then cursed Janaka&amp;apos;s daughter: &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;As you are separating me from my husband, in the same way you will be, when pregnant, separated from Rama.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;  When she, the afflicted one, was repeatedly &gt; saying like this, her life departed due to misery, full of the distress of her husband. For her who was repeatedly remember- &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ing Rama and uttering (the name) Rama, a divine car properly arrived. The female parrot became luminous when she had gone to heaven. When she died, her husband, that lord of birds, was &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  extremely angry, and being distressed, fell into Ganga: &amp;apos;&amp;apos;&lt;strong&gt;In Rama&amp;apos;s city, full of people, I will be born as (a sudra so) that due to my words she will be dejected, and extremely unhappy due to separation (from her husband).&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; Saying so, he who was&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  distressed, angry, frightened and shaking due to separation from her, fell into the water of Ganga graced with eddies. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Due to his being angry, due to his being distressed, and due to his &lt;strong&gt;having insulted Sita, he obtained very (mean) sudrahood (as he was born as) a washerman named Krodhana. That best bird (or best brahmana) who, doing ill to the great, abandons his life through anger, obtains sudrahood after he dies. That took &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  place. Due to the words of the washerman she was censured and separated. On account of the curse of the washerman, she was separated (from Rama), and she went to the forest&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-17T17:56:53.150" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T17:56:53.150" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11397" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3349" CreationDate="2016-04-14T00:52:57.553" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu killing mother of Sukraacharya is also mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;Padma Puran Brahma Khanda Chapter 57.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;231&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Speaking thus to one another, they who were frightened, took the shelter of Kavya&amp;apos;s mother. She too granted them&#xA;  security.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Do not be afraid; give up your fear, O demons. Remain with me; (then) you will have no fear.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gods then seeing the demons protected by her, and&#xA;  without judging their strength or weakness forcibly assailed them. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then that goddess (i.e. Kavya&amp;apos;s mother) seeing the demons being murdered by gods, got angry and said to the gods: &amp;quot;I shall stupefy you with sleep.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Collecting all materials she then brought about sleep (to the gods); she rich in penance and endowed with meditation stupefied (them) with her power.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then seeing Indra paralysed (by Kavya&amp;apos;s mother) the army of gods fled. The gods, seeing Indra subdued, ran through fear.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the hosts of gods had fled, Visnu said to Indra, &amp;quot;Enter me, God bless you, O best of gods, I shall protect you.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Indra, thus addressed, entered Vishnu. Seeing him protected by Vishnu the enraged goddess said (these) words:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;O Indra, I shall now with force burn you along with Vishnu, when all the beings are looking on; see the might of my penance!&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The two gods, Indra and Vishnu, were overpowered by her. Visnu said to Indra: &amp;quot;How should I get free with you?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Indra said: &amp;quot;Kill her as long as she does not burn us, Olord; I am especially subdued by her; kill her; do not delay.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then observing her, Vishnu determined to do the evil deed of killing a woman and the lord quickly approached the distressed Indra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;243-244. &lt;strong&gt;Then Vishnu, struck with fear and moving with speed, and knowing the cruel act desired to be done by the goddess got angry, took his disc and through dread cut off her head. Seeing that dreadful murder of the woman Lord Bhrgu got angry.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;245-246. Then Vishnu was cursed by Bhrigu for his wife&amp;apos;s murder.&#xA;  Bhrigu said:Since you, knowing Dharma, have killed a lady who should not have been killed, therefore you will be born among human beings seven times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;247&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then due to that curse he is repeatedly born among human beings for the well-being of the world, when Dharma disappears from it. Then, after having spoken to Vishnu, himself bringing the head, and bringing her body and holding (the head and the body) in his hand he said:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;O goddess, I am reviving you, who were killed by Vishnu. If I know the entire sacred law or have practised it, and if I am telling the truth, (forsooth) come back to life.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then having sprinkled her with cold water, he said:&#xA;  &amp;quot;Come back to life, come back to life.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When he spoke (thus) the goddess came back to&#xA;  life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then all the beings having seen her as if awakened from sleep, uttered the words &amp;apos;good ! good !&amp;apos; from all sides.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus that Bhrigu then brought back to life that respectable lady. While the gods were watching that wonderful thing took place.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-31T13:08:37.937" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T13:08:37.937" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11398" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10614" CreationDate="2016-04-14T04:24:22.180" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What was name of Bhāratam before the rule of the King Bharatha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was &lt;strong&gt;always&lt;/strong&gt; called Bhārata even before any king by that name ruled, says &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samavedam_Shanmukha_Sarma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma&lt;/a&gt; in &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/FEEFNVUWnmQ?t=1273&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; YouTube video.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says Bhārata is the name given to Parameshwara (Supreme God) as He bears the burden of and &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=bharatha&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;protects&lt;/a&gt; the living beings and the world around as noted in this Vedic hymn:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bharatva ramanatvāt bharataha &lt;sup&gt;++&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And since we live in a world whose weight is born by Parameshwara, the world is called Bhārata and its residents Bharatha's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni-deva is also &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=bharatha&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;known as&lt;/a&gt; Bharata because he accepts or bears the oblations offered during a yajna. Since we live in the land of yajna's, the land is referred to as Bhārata or &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=HK&amp;amp;beginning=0%20&amp;amp;tinput=country%20of%20bharata&amp;amp;trans=Translate&amp;amp;direction=ES&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bharata-varsha&lt;/a&gt;. As it says in the Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;agnimicchadvam bhāratāh &lt;sup&gt;++&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So for those two reasons, the world has always been referred to as Bhārata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;++: I've not been able to find a reference to these Vedic hymns. If someone can find the correct reference or translation, I'd be happy to update my answer. Thanks.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T04:24:22.180" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11399" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-14T08:11:18.800" Score="11" ViewCount="1311" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question may seem silly. I want to know the reason why using a left hand during our daily life and in rituals. I have even seen some people who say not to accept anything with left hand. Some also say while you are wearing something new like a shirt or shoe, insert your right limb first. There are some parents who force their left handed children to change to right. Lord Hanuman enters Lanka with his &lt;strong&gt;left foot&lt;/strong&gt; first as an enemy. I'm aware of that story. Arjuna was an ambidextrous person (see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8615/was-arjuna-left-handed&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question for more) . &#xA;But no one prevented him being a left handed and none punished him. More over many of us admire him due to this quality. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone say why people prevent their children to be left-handed?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please post answers with valid reason but &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;with generalized reasons&lt;/em&gt;.  There is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/380/what-is-the-significance-of-the-right-hand?rq=1&quot;&gt;similar question&lt;/a&gt; with accepted answer but it does not cite scriptural references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2021-11-15T19:06:45.697" Title="Why using left hand is forbidden?" Tags="|belief|rituals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11401" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8994" CreationDate="2016-04-14T11:24:07.403" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;For your first question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why did Rama exile Sita?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The general reason is that in Rama Rajya, Ram used to provide everything to his people what they wanted. So he exiled Sita for the sake of people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But every general seeing thing have some deep mystic connection to something. Similar is the case here. It was because Sita was cursed by a parrot to happen that. These parrots were near Valmiki Ashram hence they have mastered some verses of Ramayana. One time they went to Mithila and Sita heard about her story singing by them. This is in Padma Puran.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Padma Puran Chapter 57 &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Former Birth Of Washerman&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  41-53. &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Lucky is that queen Janaki (i.e. Sita),  having a very attractive form, who will gladly enjoy with him for a myriad years. O beautiful lady, who are you? What is your name that you cleverly and respectfully ask me to narrate (the account) of Rama?&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&amp;quot; Hearing these words, Janaki, telling the couple of birds about the charming and enticing (story of) her birth, said to&#xA;  them: &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;I am that Janaki, the daughter of Janaka, whom you mentioned. I shall truly release you when that very charming Rama comes to me; not otherwise-—being (just) allured by your words! I shall caress you.&lt;/strong&gt; You, having (i.e. speaking) sweet words, stay happily (with me).&amp;quot; Hearing these words they trembled and were frightened. They were mutually (i.e. both)&#xA;  afraid; (and) said this to Janaki: &amp;quot;O good lady, we are birds, living in forests and resorting to trees. We wander everywhere.&#xA;  We would not get happiness (merely by staying) at home. &lt;strong&gt;I am pregnant. Having gone to my place and having given birth to&#xA;  sons (i.e. young ones) I shall come (back). I have told you the truth.&amp;quot; (Though) thus addressed by the female parrot, she did&#xA;  not release her.&lt;/strong&gt; Then her husband (i.e. the male parrot), eager, and with his face hung down spoke to her: &amp;quot;Sita, release my &#xA;  wife. How do you keep this my beautiful wife? We shall go to the forest and shall happily move in the forest. My charming &#xA;  wife would be (i.e. is) pregnant. Having performed her (i.e. after her) delivery I shall come to you, O lovely one?&amp;quot; Thus,&#xA;  addressed, she said to him: &amp;quot;O you very intelligent one, you can gladly go. I shall keep this happy one, doing what is dear to me, near me.&amp;quot; Thus addressed, the bird was unhappy; and full of tenderness, he said to her: &amp;quot;Those words which are uttered by the meditating saints are true: (The words are:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  54-56. &amp;apos;One should not speak, one should not speak. One should remain by resorting to silence. Otherwise, due to the&#xA;  blemish in one&amp;apos;s utterance, the mad one would be fettered.&amp;apos; Had we not talked (to each other) on this tree, how would we have been bound? Therefore, one should resort to silence.&amp;quot; Saying so, he spoke to her: &amp;quot;Obeautiful lady, O Sita, I shall not live without this wife of me. Therefore, O you charming one, leave her.&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;57-66. Though admonished with various words, she did not release her. The (parrot&amp;apos;s) wife, who was angry, and miserable, then cursed Janaka&amp;apos;s daughter: &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;As you are separating me from my husband, in the same way you will be, when pregnant, separated from Rama.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;  When she, the afflicted one, was repeatedly &gt; saying like this, her life departed due to misery, full of the distress of her husband. For her who was repeatedly remember- &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ing Rama and uttering (the name) Rama, a divine car properly arrived. The female parrot became luminous when she had gone to heaven. When she died, her husband, that lord of birds, was extremely angry, and being distressed, fell into Ganga: &amp;apos;&amp;apos;&lt;strong&gt;In Rama&amp;apos;s city, full of people, I will be born as (a sudra so) that due to my words she will be dejected, and extremely unhappy due to separation (from her husband).&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; Saying so, he who was distressed, angry, frightened and shaking due to separation from her, fell into the water of Ganga graced with eddies. Due to his being angry, due to his being distressed, and due to his &lt;strong&gt;having insulted Sita, he obtained very (mean) sudrahood (as he was born as) a washerman named Krodhana. That best bird (or best brahmana) who, doing ill to the great, abandons his life through anger, obtains sudrahood after he dies. That took&#xA;  place. Due to the words of the washerman she was censured and separated. On account of the curse of the washerman, she was separated (from Rama), and she went to the forest&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For your second question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why did Rama ask Sita for a second test?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again the general reason is same as before i.e., as a King for the sake of people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this also comes under a mystic leela. This was done to depart earlier from earth to his eternal abode. At that time age was very high. E.g., Dasharath was more than 60000 years old when Ram was born. But it was necessary for Rama to depart earlier as he came to rule only for 11000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Adhyatma Ramayana [ Brahmanda Puran ] Uttar kanda 7.8. Kaal disguised as sage tells Rama..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.8 To emancipate the gods you incarnated as Vaman, and &lt;strong&gt;later you dawned over earth for a period  of eleven thousand years to eliminate Ravan. The period is now over&lt;/strong&gt;, still if you wish to stay you may do that otherwise you may plan your departure to your abode of Vishnu lok.” Ram responded positively to kal and confirmed his departure back to the eternal abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence Rama had preplanned for his earlier arrival from earth. In Adhyatma Ramayan [Brahmanda Puran ] Uttar Kanda 7.4.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.4 Finding appropriate time, Sita spoke to him, &lt;strong&gt;“Gods have approached me to remind you to leave the earth&lt;/strong&gt; and move to vaikunth. They miss your presence in the celestial world. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Since I am here, you can’t leave the  earth. They advised me to first leave for eternal abode.”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Responding over the message of gods &lt;strong&gt;he planned&lt;/strong&gt; course of action with Sita, &lt;strong&gt;“On the pretext of public criticism I would discard you. You are pregnant, and you will be sent to the ashram of Valmiki. There you will give birth to two sons. Thereafter you will again &#xA;  come back to me, but to prove your chastity you will ask the earth a safe place. Accordingly the earth will split, and entering through the earth you will reach vaikunth. I &#xA;  would thereafter follow you.”&lt;/strong&gt; After this conversation, Sita left the royal garden and entered the palace. Ram continued &#xA;  in his palace meeting the people. He enquired from Vijay, a royal spy, as to what was the peoples’ impression about Sita and Kaikeyi. Ram was told, “Some people condemn the acceptance of Sita after her long stay in Lanka. They are of the impression that this incident has made their wives also wilful.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence Gods Leela are very mystic. If we go deeper and deeper we find more and more mystic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-14T15:46:55.997" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T15:46:55.997" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11403" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="795" CreationDate="2016-04-14T13:13:16.083" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It sure has a Scientific significance behind the teertham being distributed in a temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The architecture of any temple is in such a way that it satisfies the Shilpa Shastras and Vastu Sastras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The foundation of the temple is usually laid out by burying copper/metal plates. The same can be observed when the idol in the inner sanctum is placed after a lot of poojas get conducted. And this is called the &lt;a href=&quot;http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/yoga-meditation/science-of-temples/what-is-consecration/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Consecration&lt;/a&gt; of the temple. Now when you walk out of the inner sanctum and look up to the central Spire of the inner sanctum, you will notice that it has the very top of the Spire is aligned with Kalashas. The Kalashas are also made up of metal, possibly Panchaloha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer to this elaborate puzzle is that the foundation and architecture of the temple enhances the magnetic field surrounding the temple. Bigger temples have a much stronger magnetic field surrounding it. The central idol of the temple increases the concentration of the magnetic field into the small area of the place of idol that has been placed, as it conducts the magnetic field through the Kalashas above and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/yoga-meditation/science-of-temples/what-is-consecration/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Consecration&lt;/a&gt; plates below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The priest chants a lot of mantras when washing/performing abhishekam on the idol. The mantras further resonate with the idol and the inner sanctum of the temple. Hence the liquids poured on the idol is magnetically charged to the maximum due to all the above procedures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such highly magnetic substance when distributed to devotees will enhance their physiological well-being, literally. This is also the reason as to why teertham is usually only given in very small quantities, as it can have adverse effect on the health of a person if consumed beyond limit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="444" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T13:13:16.083" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11405" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-14T14:26:24.333" Score="2" ViewCount="367" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7415/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, in the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata Arjuna delivers a message to Duryodhana, urging him to reach a peaceful resolution to avert the impending war. Among other things, Arjuna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05048.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that astrologers and others have foreseen that the Pandavas are going to win:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are, with us, many aged Brahmanas, versed in various sciences, of amiable behaviour, well-born, acquainted with the cycle of the years, engaged in the study of astrology, capable of understanding with certainty the motions of planets and the conjunctions of stars as also of explaining the mysteries of fate, and answering questions relating to the future, acquainted with the signs of the Zodiac, and versed with the occurrences of every hour, who are prophesying the great destruction of the Kurus and the Srinjayas, and the ultimate victory of the Pandavas, so that Yudhishthira, who never made an enemy, already regardeth his objects fulfilled in consequence of the slaughter of his foes. And Janardana [Krishna] also, that lion among the Vrishnis, endued with the knowledge of the invisible future, without doubt, beholdeth all this. &lt;strong&gt;And I also, with unerring foresight, myself behold that future, for that foresight of mine, acquired of old, is not obstructed.&lt;/strong&gt; The sons of Dhritarashtra, if they fight, will not live. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it's no big surprise that Krishna had the ability to see the future; he is an incarnation of Vishnu after all.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, why does Arjuna say &quot;And I also, with unerring foresight, myself behold that future, for that foresight of mine, acquired of old, is not obstructed.&quot;?  When did Arjuna acquire the ability to see the future? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says he acquired it &quot;of old&quot;, but I'm not familiar with any story where was given a boon of clairvoyance.  Perhaps he acquired it in his five-year stay in Devaloka.  In any case, are there any other instances in the Mahabharata of Arjuna using this ability? That might narrow down when he acquired it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2021-10-19T23:40:44.503" Title="Did Arjuna have the ability to see the future?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|time|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11406" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-14T15:09:51.503" Score="1" ViewCount="86" Body="&lt;p&gt;There were many huge palace in Dvapara Yuga according to Ramayana and Mahabharata. or e.g. Indraprastha or cities created By Vishwakarma. What happened to them? Why none of them exists now?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5315" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-10T08:13:27.577" LastActivityDate="2020-03-10T08:13:27.577" Title="what happened to the palaces of Mahabharath?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|geography|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-04-17T18:32:24.597" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11407" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7595" CreationDate="2016-04-14T15:49:14.363" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per archaeological(deep water excavation by our own archeologist Mr. Srivnivasan and finding Lord Krishna's drowned Dwapara ), historian facts (proof of an inscription mentioned by a greek king converting to vaishavism mentioning that Lord Krishna was born 84 generations prior to his time) and scientific proofs of atomic warfare (using radioactive isotope tests in kurukshetra area), you are right that Mahabharata happened in recent past i.e, 5100+ years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to Ramayana there are 2 versions - one says that archaeological proof of the coral reefs in the ram setu and give a dating back to some 30000 years and other according to planetory software with the mentioning of stars &amp;amp; constellations position says just around 7000+ years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Found an interesting blog content whilst searching where it says that there have been 27 generations after Rama till Mahabharata where the lineage of Kusha, who is Brihadbala gets killed by Abhimanyu. Since Mahabharata happend 5000+ years from now.Now giving a calculated guess of people living for almost 100 years with better health you can give an average life of 75 per generation and it comes to 7000+ years from now. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this info helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5313" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T15:49:14.363" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11408" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5" CreationDate="2016-04-14T15:59:46.627" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;A better word than Hindu is Vedantists, followers of the Vedanta - which means followers of the 'end of the Vedas' which are the Upanishads. All modern orthodox Hindus are Vedantists, or followers of the philosophical school known more formally as the Mimamsaka. Swami Vivekananda has said that all orthodox Hindus have 3 things in common. Those three are: 1) all believe in God 2) all believe that the Vedas are the revealed word of God and 3) all believe in cycles and rebirth. Whether a monist follower of Sankara or a Vashnavite or a Shakta or a Shavite, all have these three as a common.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although many outside of India identify all Indians with the word Hindu, to be an 'orthodox' Hindu or 'orthodox' Vedantist, one has to adhere to the 3 things listed above.       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T15:59:46.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11410" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7299" CreationDate="2016-04-14T16:54:40.030" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Cj54&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma Purana Patala Khanda Chapter 105&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10-14a. Having heard these words spoken, the sages got angry and said: &amp;quot;Why have you told us these very auspicious words now? Due to your attachment to your beloved you made an unmeaning talk. You did not do our words (i.e. what we had &#xA;  asked you).&amp;quot; Then from the face of  Sambhu who was full of anger, a very wonderful flame went out; and she too had a &gt; terrible face. She seized the wife of a certain sage and was intent upon fleeing quickly, but was frightened on seeing Rama. Rama too said, &amp;quot;I shall free the brahmana-woman.&amp;quot; Again and again talking of liberating (the brahmana-woman), he went by Puspaka only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14b-17a. Rama did not remember (i.e. he forgot) to fix the arrow onto the bow. Sambhu also, seeing very auspicious forests and abodes, and strange cities, did not remember Rama. Then in a moment Rama reached the great mountain Lokaloka. Then Rama, seeing the mountain full of houses and paths (said to the brahmanas): &amp;quot;O illustrious brahmanas, tell me which way the brahmana-woman has gone.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;17b-20a. They said: &amp;quot;This way she has gone to the dark side of the mountain.&amp;quot; Rama with a pale face thought: &amp;apos;Oh, it is bad&amp;apos;. Then Sambhu, of great lustre, gave matchless light. Due to the prowess of that light, Rama went after that female deity to whom sacrifices are offered for destructive and magical purposes. The great region was full of darkness and without beings. From the primordial egg to the fragment of a broken jar, it spread over a hundred crores of yojanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;20b-23a. &lt;strong&gt;In the darkness was settled a great silver (piece of) land. There was the city of Narayana (i.e. Visnu), having lustre &#xA;  like that of a crore of suns. Seeing it, the best sages along with Rama, were amazed. Thinking (i.e. they thought): -What is&#xA;  this? How can we enter it? Could it be the fire at the time of the end of the world due to the magic power of the highest&#xA;  lord? Shall we die today or shall we have bliss?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;apos;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;23b-30. When the sages, along with Rama, were thus full of anxiety, Sambhu said: &amp;quot;ORama,listen to what I tell you today.&#xA;  For you I have brought about this illusion. This is no wonder. &lt;strong&gt;This is the great city of Narayana (i.e. Visnu). It is bright with lustre. It cannot be destroyed by heat or cold. It is accessible through knowledge (only). It is not visible to the (physical) eyes. Look above at Brahma and others who are worshipping it. Look in all directions at the pure sages who are worshipping it. Look at the four Vedas, praising the Highest Position (i.e. the highest god). O Raghava, see this Highest Lustre which the meditating sages like Sanaka, resorting to abstract meditation, are meditating upon. See also this Romasa going round and saluting. Look at these crores and crores of best sages like Valakhilya. Look at the Highest Position (i.e. the highest god) being worshipped by all women like Laksmi. It is described as the Brahman having a form and without a form. The ignorant do not (i.e. cannot) see it. (Only) those having the eyes of know- ledge (can) see it.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;31-34. On (hearing) the words of Sambhu all worshipped Acyuta, so also GirikarnI, Tulasi, Mallika and Maruta. (They saw) the high-souled ones worshipping the illustrious Janardana. They saw Narada having matted hair and a lute, uttering loudly the word (i.e. name) Narayana, having a large beard and &#xA;  a sacred thread. He too thought to his mind: &amp;apos;Who is this?&amp;apos;He (i.e. Narada), full of joy, fell at the feet of Sambhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;35-36a. The sage mentally muttered the five-lettered incantation dedicated to Siva. &amp;quot;lam blessed; I am favoured; today&#xA;  my life is fruitful, (since) I have known your place which is saluted by Brahma and others, which is inaccessible&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;36b-42. Then Sambhu said to Narada: &amp;quot;Do not say so. Behave with me in such a way that they do not recognise me. Go quickly and tell Visnu about my arrival in a short time.&amp;quot; Then, he hurriedly went and informed Visnu of everything. Then he, the yogin, taking the auspicious water with materials for worship, along with Laksmi, and surrounded by crores and crores (of followers), seizing Narada with his hand went (forth to greet him). The word Visnu does not fit in the verse! He, having Garuda as his banner said: &amp;quot;Salutation, salutation to Sankara.&amp;quot; Visnu honoured all with materials of worship and water for washing the feet. He, of an immeasurable intellect, made them enter (i.e. took them into) the auspicious Narayana pura (i.e. city of Visnu). Then remaining in the best house, &lt;strong&gt;Narayana said: &amp;quot;How have these come (here)? Who is this king ?of great glory? Human beings cannot enter this (place). This is inaccessible even to Brahma and others.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sambhu said:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  43-46a. We, dressed as sages, have come (here); and this valourous king is Ramacandra who is a portion of you. O &#xA;  Kesava, he desires to see your wife.&#xA;  Narayana (i.e. Visnu) saying, &amp;quot;All right&amp;quot;, said to Rama &amp;quot;Enter (here)&amp;quot;. Then having entered the residence, having seen Laksmi, and bowing through modesty he saluted her, and said (these) meritorious words (to her): &amp;quot;I am blessed; there is no doubt about it. Tell me what you feel.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri Devi said:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  46b-48. O Raghava, you are young; you are attracted by love for sensual enjoyments; you are handsome. That Sita, beautiful in all limbs, is your wife. Formerly you were separated from her, and being afflicted due to separation from her were, as it were, sinking. Tell me all that or you will not speak. Words accompanied by smile attract the hearts of young persons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;49-53. Having heard all those words, Ramabhadra who was restrained and composed, having bowed down his lotus-&#xA;  like face, desired to go out from there. Having tormented the best among the Raghus, with a lotus—an arrow of Cupid-&#xA;  goddess Padma, to whom Padmavana was dear, went out after him. Knowing Rama to be one devoted to his only wife, they &#xA;  came to the king (i.e. Rama) whose entire body was trembling and whose steps were faltering. &lt;strong&gt;Seeing that Siva and Visnu were &#xA;  very much amazed. &amp;quot;Oh, the firmness of his mind! His heart is not subjugated by Cupid. See his controlled steadiness. Rama &#xA;  is well-known due to that. In every respect he has auspiciousness. Nothing inauspicious is (to be found) anywhere (about him).&amp;quot; Then Rama said (these) words: &amp;quot;O lord, I would go.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-04-29T13:31:58.977" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T13:31:58.977" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11412" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7486" CreationDate="2016-04-14T18:12:30.547" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The language Tamil was originally given to the people of the south by Lord Shiva himself and the Sanskrit is 100% preserved in the south and in Thailand as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the difference in the north is due to invading Mongols, British, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5316" LastEditorUserId="4494" LastEditDate="2016-04-15T03:56:33.117" LastActivityDate="2016-04-15T03:56:33.117" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11415" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1992" CreationDate="2016-04-14T18:48:38.563" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;answer to #8 question: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After shiva cut off ganesha's original head with his trisul the head rested on shiva's trisul flew to brahmlok and came back in the form of a coconut. This shiva had to sacrifice his son's head to fulfill Parvate  wish (maang). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parvati once asked lord shiva that you have a lot of sick devotees and to do your nirajal vrat is impossible for them. If they partake milk or even a fruit their vrat will be spolit. So mata parvati asked if Shiva could produce a fruit with little water in it for his sick devotees so that they can partake the fruit inside the coconut and drink the water to maintain their vrat.&#xA;please bare in mind you are allowed to have only one coconut during the entire vrat even if you are sick&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5316" LastActivityDate="2016-04-14T18:48:38.563" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11416" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-15T03:29:17.840" Score="20" ViewCount="14604" Body="&lt;p&gt;Narayana (Nara+Aayna) is &lt;em&gt;the one who rests on water&lt;/em&gt;. But why is this Narayana, epithet of Lord Vishnu, used as suffix for Lord Surya, the Sun God? Is there any story behind this name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2019-04-25T02:46:34.927" LastActivityDate="2020-12-10T00:59:58.687" Title="Why is Lord Surya also called Suryanarayana?" Tags="|vishnu|name|surya|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11417" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-15T04:16:34.093" Score="0" ViewCount="52" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have not learned about Hindu culture but it hurts me when some people say that the tilak worn by Hindu women and men is a curse of Lord Shiva to people who laughed at him when Ganga menstruated on his forehead! Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5318" LastEditorUserId="3122" LastEditDate="2016-04-15T05:53:35.563" LastActivityDate="2016-04-15T05:53:35.563" Title="Red Tilak worn by Hindu women" Tags="|shiva|tilak|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2016-04-16T08:59:02.607" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11418" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-15T04:19:22.927" Score="2" ViewCount="297" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/y0wY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Padma Purana, in a chapter which I think is likely an interpolation, Shiva comes to Rama's court disguised as a Brahmana and tells Rama how you can derive omens by picking verses from a Purana and interpreting their significance in light of whatever problem you're trying to solve. Rama asks what happens if you don't understand a meaning of a particular verse, and Shiva says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The meaning of the verse: &lt;em&gt;Madhuni ca madhunyatra madhurmadhubhujam madhuh; madhuna madhunadyartham visani ca visani ca&lt;/em&gt; is unintelligible; it is not recommended in (finding out) an omen. So also the verse: &lt;em&gt;Ruti rute rute rorauriri raram rari-raram; evam karoti suddhatma brahmano brahmanotithih&lt;/em&gt;. This verse is intelligible in part (the latter half is intelligible: a pure-souled brahmana, the guest of Brahman, acts like this). (Therefore) it is not recommended in (finding out) an omen. O best of the Raghus, such and other verses occur in the Puranas. They have no explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Rama ultimately uses this method to find out that Vibhishana has been tied up in Sri Rangam for killing a Brahmana, and he rescues Vibhishana.  But my question is, which Puranas do the so-called unintelligible &quot;Madhuni ca&quot; and &quot;Ruti rute&quot; verses mentioned by Shiva come from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva says that the two best Puranas for deriving omens are the Skanda Purana and the Vishnu Purana.  But so far I haven't found either verse outside of the Padma Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, is it really hopeless to try to understand these two verses?  Madhu means honey, so is it possible that the verse is talking about honey? It might be connected to the Madhu Vidya found in the Upanishads, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7729/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12006/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-16T05:28:24.550" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T05:28:24.550" Title="Where are the indecipherable Puranic verses discussed by Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|rama|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11419" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11416" CreationDate="2016-04-15T04:39:46.747" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many meanings for the word Narayana. One of the meanings are the one who rests on Water. According to a verse in Narayana Suktam,&lt;br&gt;yacca kiñcijjagatsarvaṁ dṛśyate śrūyate'pi vā,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;antarbahiśca tatsarvaṁ vyāpya nārāyaṇaḥ sthitaḥ.(Narayana suktham verse 5) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever all this universe is, seen or heard of- pervading all this, from inside and outside alike, stands the supreme being (NArAyaNa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shreemannarayana is also considered as Sthithikaara among the divine trinity meaning who preserves the universe. Surya is the representation of Lord Vishnu in the material world. He is the father of this material universe because he controls time and provides sustenance for the world. Sun provides the light and energy to the world to survive. Without Sun we can not live even for a day. Lord Vishnu resides in Sun god and gives us light and energy. Sun god is also stated as the god who gives good health and te adhidevata of eyes. So people are suggested to worship Surya when they suffer with ill health. Surya NArAyaNa is the adhidevata of Gayatri mantra. Lord Rama worships Surya by a stotra called &lt;em&gt;Aditya Hrudayam&lt;/em&gt; which was told by sage Agastya and he acquires victory in the war against Ravana.&lt;br&gt;As Vishnu takes the form of Surya to give energy and light to the world to provide sustenance, He is called as Suryanarayana. There is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.arasavallisungod.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;temple&lt;/a&gt; in Andhra Pradesh in which Surya is worship as a form of Vishnu.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-04-15T04:51:53.497" LastActivityDate="2016-04-15T04:51:53.497" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11420" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11388" CreationDate="2016-04-15T06:20:37.513" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per our scriptures,each of the 15 different Tithis are ruled by some specific Deites.For example ,Moon rule the Purnima,the Nagas rule the Panchami and in particular the Pitras(ancestors) rule the Amavasya tithi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,fasting,doing charity and also doing Pitra Tarpanam(offering black sesame and water offerings) on Amavasya appease the Pitras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Varaha Purana lists the ruling Deities for all the 15 tithis as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pratipada-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agni&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dwiteeya-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aswini Kumars&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tritiya-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Goddess Gowri&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chaturthi-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Ganesha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Panchami-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nagas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sashti-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Karthikeya or Skanda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saptami-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Surya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashtami-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Ashta Matrikas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Navami-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Goddess Durga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dasami-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dasha Disha(The ten directions)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ekadasi-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kubera&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dwadasi-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=19&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Trayodashi-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chaturdasi-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=21&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Rudra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purnima-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=23&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Moon God&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Amavasya-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=22&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pitras&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He(Lord Brahma)designated �Amavasya� as the most important day for worship to&#xA;  �Pitras� and Tanmatras as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Human beings perform Tarpanas along with �Kusha� and �Tilas�on&#xA;  Amavasyas falling in each month which would indeed provide contenment&#xA;  to Pitras as well as Tanmatras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus Amavasya is required to be the special day when fast is&#xA;  observed and �tildaan� is performed without fail, and that would not&#xA;  only give satifaction to Pitras but the Kartas or the Performing&#xA;  Devotees&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-04-15T06:20:37.513" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11421" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="163" CreationDate="2016-04-15T07:13:17.333" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tilak, a mark of Hindu Sanatan Dharma, comes from the Sanskrit word ‘til’ which means sesame seed.  The sesame seed has great importance in yagnas and charity.  A tilak is imprinted on a person’s forehead because it is the location through which one can channel Divinity, thus enhancing the spiritual character of an individual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wearing Tilak (and/or Chandalo) has been a tradition of Hindu Sanatan Dharma. Every individual used to apply it on Forehead based on sect they follow. With time it has changed and now you see very few follow this practice. I still see followers of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.baps.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swaminarayan&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iskcon.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ISKCON&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://varkari.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varkari&lt;/a&gt; and few other sects do strictly apply tilak during their morning prayer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Different sects within Hindu Sanatan Dharma have different representation of Tilak:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Js3Gr.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Js3Gr.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="73" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2019-01-23T18:54:19.910" LastActivityDate="2019-01-23T18:54:19.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11424" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-15T09:12:42.667" Score="5" ViewCount="434" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do people fast on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_Navami&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rama Navami&lt;/a&gt; unlike &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna_Janmashtami&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna Janmashtami&lt;/a&gt; where we celebrate with lot of sweets?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5322" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T06:03:35.490" LastActivityDate="2022-03-02T07:45:24.610" Title="Why do most people fast on Rama Navami but not on Janmashtami?" Tags="|scripture|krishna|rama|culture|fasting|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11426" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-15T12:16:00.203" Score="7" ViewCount="2279" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said by some that in kaliyuga, naam japa is the &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; means of salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if we ignore this extreme position, does it imply that naam japa is definitely better than mantra japa in kaliyuga ?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5326" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-08T13:55:02.330" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T11:20:13.617" Title="Is naam japa better than mantra japa in kaliyuga?" Tags="|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11429" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11416" CreationDate="2016-04-15T15:15:18.053" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;The connection between Vishnu and the Sun is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44117.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda.  The gods once accidentally cut off Vishnu's head with his own bow (this is all Vishnu's Lila, of course) and the head turns into the Sun:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They spake, 'Whoever of us, through austerity, fervour, faith, sacrifice, and oblations, shall first compass the end of the sacrifice, he shall be the most excellent of us, and shall then be in common to us all.' 'So be it,' they said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu first attained it, and he became the most excellent of the gods; whence people say, 'Vishnu is the most excellent of the gods.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now he who is this Vishnu is the sacrifice; and he who is this sacrifice is yonder Âditya (the sun).&lt;/strong&gt; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Taking his bow, together with three arrows, he stepped forth. He stood, resting his head on the end of the bow. Not daring to attack him, the gods sat themselves down all around him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then the ants said--these ants (vamrî), doubtless, were that (kind called) 'upadîkâ'--'What would ye give to him who should gnaw the bowstring?'--'We would give him the (constant) enjoyment of food, and he would find water even in the desert: so we would give him every enjoyment of food.'--'So be it,' they said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Having gone nigh unto him, they gnawed his bowstring. When it was cut, the ends of the bow, springing asunder, cut off Vishnu's head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It fell with (the sound) 'ghriṅ'; and on falling it became yonder sun.&lt;/strong&gt; And the rest (of the body) lay stretched out (with the top part) towards the east. And inasmuch as it fell with (the sound) 'ghriṅ,' therefrom the Gharma (was called); and inasmuch as he was stretched out (pra-vrig,), therefrom the Pravargya (took its name).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not to keep you in suspense, the gods attached a horse head to Vishnu's body, which is how he assumed his Hayagriva form.  This was Vishnu's plan all along, to kill the horse-headed demon Hayagrivasura who had received a boon that he could only be killed by someone who was horse-headed.  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk01ch05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Devi Bhagavatam says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devas became very glad and spoke this to Visvakarmâ :--  “Kindly do this Deva work and fix Visnu's head. He will become Hayagrîva and kill the indomitable Dânava.” Sûta said :-- Hearing these words, Visvakarmâ quickly cut off with his axe, the head of a horse, brought it before the Devas and fixed it on the headless body of Visnu. By the grace of Mahâmâyâ, Bhagavân became horse-faced or Hayagrîva. Then, a few days after, Bhagavân. Hayagrîva killed that proud Dânava, the Deva's enemy, by sheer force.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the method by which the head was attached is known as the Madhu Vidya, and it was taught to the Ashwini Kumaras by the sage Dadhichi; see my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7729/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-15T15:15:18.053" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11430" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-15T17:26:18.923" Score="3" ViewCount="282" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.celextel.org/stotras/vishnu/ramashtakam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramashtakam&lt;/a&gt; which you can listen &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/410Jen0QVfk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; on YouTube, is an octet on Lord Rama and is attributed to Vyasa. It also ends with the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramashtakam padathi ya sukaram supunyam, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Vyasena bhashithamidham&lt;/strong&gt;, srunuthe manushya, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vidhyam sriyam vipula soukhyamanantha keerthim, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Samprapya deha vilaye labhathe cha moksham. || 9 || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who reads or hears this octet on Rama, which is easy to understand,&#xA;  which gives rise to good deeds, &lt;strong&gt;which is written by Sage Vyasa&lt;/strong&gt;, would&#xA;  get knowledge, wealth, pleasure and limitless fame. And once he leaves&#xA;  his body, he would also get salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Ramashtakam an independent work of Vyasa or is it taken from a Purana? Where does it appear in Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-01-10T07:37:02.010" LastActivityDate="2018-01-10T07:37:02.010" Title="Is Ramashtakam an independent work of Vyasa or part of a Purana?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|rama|vyasa|stotra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11431" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10732" CreationDate="2016-04-16T00:36:51.170" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;शुक्लाम्बरधरम् विष्णुम् शशि वर्णम् चतुर्भुजम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्रसन्नवदनम् ध्यायेत् सर्व विघ्नोपशान्तये ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot;shuklamvaram dharam vishnum sashivarnam chaturvujam |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;prasanna vadanam dhyayet sarva bighnopashantaya ||&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Let&amp;apos;s examine each word of the sloka:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;शुक्लाम्बरधरम् = शुक्ल + अम्बर + धरम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shuklamvaradharam = white+cloth+wearing&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ie, &lt;strong&gt;White cloth wearing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vishnu is especially called &lt;strong&gt;पीताम्बरम् (Pitamvaram)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; ie, Yellow cloth wearing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;विष्णुं = Lord Vishnu / All pervading, Omniscient&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(Let&amp;apos;s discuss it later below)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;शशिवर्णम् = शशि + वर्णम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sashivarnam = Moon (White) + Colour&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; ie, &lt;strong&gt;who have moon (white) coloured body.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vishnu is depicted as&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;मेघवर्णम्&lt;/strong&gt;( Meghavarnam) ie, Whose colour is like raining cloud ie, &lt;strong&gt;dark blue complexion.&lt;/strong&gt; For eg. After the dhyan shlokam of Vishnu Sahasranaamam Lord Vishnu is called &lt;strong&gt;Meghavarnam Subhangam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;चतुर्भुजम् = चतुर् + भुजम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chaturvujam = Four + Hands&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Both Lord Vishnu and Lord Ganesh have four hands.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्रसन्नवदनम् = प्रसन्न + वदनम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Prasannavadanam = Delightful + face &lt;br&gt;&#xA;ie, Having delightful face&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(Both Lord Vishnu and Lord Ganesh have delightful face)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ध्यायेत् = (I) meditate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्व विघ्नोपशान्तये = सर्व + विघ्नोप + शान्तये&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sarva Vighnopasantaye= All + obstacle + pacifier (remover)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(Both Lord Vishnu and Lord Ganesh have &lt;strong&gt;power to remove obstacles&lt;/strong&gt;) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now Lets form the complete sentence..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;First See Lord Vishnu here&lt;br&gt;&#xA;------------------------------------------&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;1) I meditate upon delightful face of four handed Lord Vishnu  who wears white clothes, who is of white complexion and who removes all obstacles.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This description doesn&amp;apos;t so much fits with Lord Vishnu. It should have been like this to exactly fit:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot;I meditate upon delightful face of four handed Lord Vishnu who wears &lt;strong&gt;yellow clothes&lt;/strong&gt;, who is of &lt;strong&gt;dark blue complexion&lt;/strong&gt; and who removes all obstacles&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now let&amp;apos;s use Omniscient /pervading lord&lt;br&gt;&#xA;-----------------------------------------------------------&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2) I meditate upon delightful face of  that four handed Omniscient (all pervading) Lord who wears white clothes and is of white complexion and who removes all obstacles.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now let&amp;apos;s check it for Lord Ganesh:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;1) Ganesha is generally &lt;strong&gt;first invoked&lt;/strong&gt; in every ceremony. This is also &lt;strong&gt;first sloka&lt;/strong&gt; of Vishnu Sahasranaam.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2) Omniscience of Lord Ganesha:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;nbsp; Everyone knows Ganesh is omniscient. Here is also a verse of Mahabharat which tells Ganesh is omniscient.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahabharat Adi Parva Section I&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;From the mysteriousness of their meaning, O Muni, no one is able, to this day, &gt; to penetrate those closely knit difficult slokas. Even the &lt;strong&gt;omniscient Ganesa&lt;/strong&gt; took a moment to consider; while Vyasa, however, continued to compose other verses in great abundance.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Removal of obstacles : Ganesh is famously known for removal of obstacles. He is also known as &lt;strong&gt;Vighnaharta&lt;/strong&gt;. His another name is &lt;strong&gt;Vinayak&lt;/strong&gt; which also means &lt;strong&gt;remover of obstacles.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence it refers to Lord Ganesha who is first invoked, who is remover of obstacles, who is omniscient, whose colour is white and who wears white/bright clothes.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;But, You may also refer this to specific form of Lord Vishnu when he is in white and when his complexion is white as it is not always necessary that Lord Vishnu always wears yellow and his complexion is always dark blue.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But this Shloka is not Dhyana Shloka of Vishnu Sahasranaamam.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Dhyana Shloka is:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhyanam:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;--------------&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kshIrodanvat-pradese suchi-mani-vilasat-saikate mautikAnAm &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mAlA-kliptA-sanasthaH sphtika-mani-nibhaiH mautikaiH manditAngaH &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Subhrair-abhrair-adabhraiH upari virachitaiH mukta-pIyUsha-varshaih &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  AnandI naH punIyAdari-nalina-gadA-Sankha-pAniH mukundaH. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;May mukundA, with the discuss, mace, conch and lotus in His hands, purify us- mukundA who is seated on a seat of garlands of pearls, in the region of the milky ocean with the sand shining by the light from pure gems; who is adorned by pearls transparent like crystals; and who is enjoying ecstatic bliss on account of pure white clouds overhead, raining showers of nectar.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhUH pAdau yasya nAbhir-viyada-suranila-candra-sUryau cha netre &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  karNa-vASaH Siro-DyauH mukhamapi dahano yasya vAsteyam abdhiH &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  antas-stham yasya viSvam sura-nara-khaga-go-bhogi-gandharva-daityaiH &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  chitram ramramyate tam tribhuvana-vapusham vishNum Isam namAmi. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;I bow to Lord vishNu who has the three worlds as His body. The Earth is His feet, and the sky His navel. Wind is His breath, and the Sun and the Moon are His eyes. Directions are His ears, and the Heaven is His head. Fire is His face and ocean His abdomen. In Him is situated the universe with diverse kinds of Gods, men, birds, cattle, serpents, gandharvas and daityas (demons)- all sporting in a charming way.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-04-16T01:03:20.167" LastActivityDate="2016-04-16T01:03:20.167" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11434" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-16T09:48:37.880" Score="3" ViewCount="4074" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well known that Lord Shani is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shani#Legends&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;son of&lt;/a&gt; Surya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shani#Legends&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;famous story&lt;/a&gt; that when Shani dev opened his eyes as a baby for the very first time, the sun went into an eclipse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is one more interesting mentioning about &lt;strong&gt;Shani and Surya&lt;/strong&gt; in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.voidcan.org/shani-chalisa/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shani Chalisa&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रवि कहं मुख महं धरि तत्काला । लेकर कूदि परयो पाताला ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This loosely &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.answers.com/Q/Can_anyone_translate_the_shani_chalisa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;translates&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; to : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swallowing the Sun(Surya), you(Shani) went to third world(पाताला )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this mean there was quarrel between Shani Dev and Surya dev? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the reason that Shani took Surya to third world(पाताला)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastActivityDate="2016-04-16T09:48:37.880" Title="Fight between Shani and Sun(Surya)?" Tags="|surya|shani|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11437" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-16T21:09:35.143" Score="4" ViewCount="944" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any relation between each choosing those 2 dates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks. Any help is appreciated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5337" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T02:44:11.943" Title="Why was Lord Rama born on the 9th tithi and Lord krishna on the 8th tithi?" Tags="|krishna|rama|time|birth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11438" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7832" CreationDate="2016-04-16T22:38:26.270" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Of course they are. &#xA;Just slightly different, which is normal after thousands of years and thousands of miles distance, because things evolve. But vedic and germanic mythology still have the same indo-european roots. Just compare the norse description of Thor, or the german description of Donar with the Rig-Veda 10.22.3-4 or 10.96. A blond man, with a blond beard and golden hammer on a chariot with two animals in front of it (yes, thats right, Indra's vajra is described like a hammer there). And he also loves too drink a lot of Soma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra is the son of Dyaus (heaven) and Prithivi (earth)&#xA;Thor/Donar is the son of Odin/Wotan (heaven) and Jörd (earth)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think most indian people do not have that much insight into north-european mythology, as most europeans know almost nothing about hinduism or the veda. That way both sides overlook the vast amount of similarities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5339" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-04-17T01:09:22.713" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T01:09:22.713" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11439" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11219" CreationDate="2016-04-17T01:38:36.573" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is not such thing as First Time in Sanatan Dharma...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Sanatana Dharma = Eternal Religion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We can not trace the origin of anything here.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In what Refrence we can call First Time?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If we assume that concept of Ram came just after his incarnation then also we can not trace origin of his incarnation..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;_______________________________________&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If we assume Lord Rama came in 24th Treta in this Manwantar. Then we are right. But it is not his first incarnation. Before these kalpas also there were incarnations of Lord Rama and Ramayan happened. For eg. Padma Purana Patala Khanda chapter 116 gives detailed story of Ramayan of previous kalpa.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence &lt;strong&gt;one can not trace the information of origin of incarnation too..&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;_______________________________________&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If we tell who pioneered in the first Kalpa ie. Brahma kalpa of Brahma then also that is not origin of that concept. Before that Brahma also there were many Brahmas. We can&amp;apos;t take a refrence point for the time. And&amp;nbsp; hence we can&amp;apos;t trace the origin.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;_______________________________________&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This question is like&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;When was first soul created ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These types of question can&amp;apos;t be explained in terms of time. They go back and back and back. Hence they are called eternal.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence there is no such thing as pioneer of Ram concept..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;_______________________________________&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Concept/Knowledge of Rama is eternal so is our soul too... &lt;strong&gt;From Advaita Perspective&lt;/strong&gt; as our soul is non different from supreme soul we possess all knowledge including concept of Rama, Brahmn and all things. &lt;strong&gt;Hence one can not give knowledge to another person, he/she can only remove ignorance from that person because the person is himself fully knowledgeable being non different from Supreme. So we all from eternity possess the concept of Rama.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;_______________________________________&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence, &lt;em&gt;If we know then we can not call it pioneered, we have simply removed veil of ignorance...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-04-17T01:47:54.627" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T01:47:54.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11440" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11437" CreationDate="2016-04-17T02:44:11.943" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although the Supreme Lord is beyond the nature of time and planetary influence, but still he acts in such a way that he is being influenced as a part of his leela.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For eg. See the verses of Valmiki Ramayan Bal kanda during birth of Lord Rama..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;_______________________________________&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततो यज्ञे समाप्ते तु ऋतूनाम् षट् समत्ययुः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततः च द्वादशे मासे चैत्रे नावमिके तिथौ || १८-८&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नक्क्षत्रे अदिति दैवत्ये स्व उच्छ संस्थेषु पंचसु |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ग्रहेषु कर्कटे लग्ने वाक्पता इंदुना सह || १८-९&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रोद्यमाने जगन्नाथम् सर्व लोक नमस्कृतम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कौसल्या अजनयत् रामम् सर्व लक्षण संयुतम् || १८-१०&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विष्णोः अर्धम् महाभागम् पुत्रम् ऐक्ष्वाकु नंदनम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लोहिताक्षम् महाबाहुम् रक्त ओष्टम् दुंदुभि स्वनम् ||१८-११&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Twice six months had rolled a way since the great sacrifice was over and, in the first month of the New Year, &lt;strong&gt;on the ninth day of the bright fortnight,&lt;/strong&gt; the Lord of the worlds chose to take human form and sent down half of His essence as the son of Kausalya (thenceforth to be known as Rama), the world-honored One, the crowning glory ot the grand line of Ikshwku, and the sum of all perfections. The constellation Punarvasu, of which Aditi was the regent, was chosen to preside at his birth. &lt;strong&gt;The Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn were in ascension in their respective houses. Aries, Capricornus, Cancer, Pisces and the Libra, Jupiter and the Moon were in conjunction ; the rising sign was Cancer.&lt;/strong&gt; And KausalyA, shone with unparalleled effulgence, even as Aditi when she gave birth to Indra, the lord of the Shining Ones, the Vajra-wielder.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;See here the nature of planets. All planets are in exalted position. Lagna was karkata (cancer). The kundali of this time and latitude( Ayodhya) best fits in describing characters of Lord. This would only happen on particular tithi and particular time of a particular place in particular year. Hence lord Rama choose to born in that particular tithi of that year. Similar is the case of Lord Krishna.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In 10.3 of Bhagavatam..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;gt;1-5. Thereafter, &lt;strong&gt;at the auspicious time for the appearance of the Lord&lt;/strong&gt;, the entire universe was &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  surcharged with all the qualities of &amp;gt;goodness, beauty and peace. The constellation Rohini appeared, as &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  did stars like Asvini. The sun, the moon and the other stars and planets were very peaceful.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence that particular tithi ie. Krishna Ashtami (ie. Rohini nakshtra) of that year was the one which could best describe qualities of Lord in that particular place and particular time as described above in case of Lord Rama.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence Lord chooses to born in such time, place tithis and nakshratas. &lt;strong&gt;Destiny exactly prepares the condition of time and place for their parents and other by the virtue of their prarabdha karmas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence although Lord is capable in stopping influence of planets but still to keep the words of Great Astrologer Sages true Lord comes in such time at which planetary positions best describes his virtues.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T02:44:11.943" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11442" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-17T03:26:55.907" Score="5" ViewCount="216" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have really enjoyed studying the yoga Vasistha and like to read other scriptures that revolve around the same topic with the same depth to it. What are some other scriptures that fit that bill?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4728" LastEditorUserId="5384" LastEditDate="2018-11-19T10:36:09.983" LastActivityDate="2018-11-19T10:36:42.110" Title="What are similar scriptures like the Yoga Vasistha?" Tags="|advaita|maya|vashishta|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2018-11-20T06:50:26.923" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11443" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9984" CreationDate="2016-04-17T07:25:08.143" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scriptures mostly use the term sky either to denote one of the panchamahabhoot or to compare it as pure atman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However some puranas and scriptures have given the nature of colour of sky in terms of some analogies..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu Purana in 2.16 gives an analogy to denote colour of sky as just apparent and illusion (but not in the context of describing colour of sky.)!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Even as the &lt;strong&gt;same sky is apparently diversified as white or blue&lt;/strong&gt;, so, soul which is in truth but one, appears to be erroneous vision distinct in different person&amp;quot;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagawat Purana in 10.20.4 tells illumination of sky as natural&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sky was then covered by dense blue clouds accompanied by lightning and thunder. Thus &lt;strong&gt;the sky and its natural illumination&lt;/strong&gt; were covered in the same way that the spirit soul is covered by the three &#xA;  modes of material nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagwata Purana in 12.8.21 tells glowing of sky due to the object which is glowing( ie. sun or moon)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagvat Puran 12.8.21&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;21&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Springtime then appeared in Markandeya&amp;apos;s asrama. Indeed, the &lt;strong&gt;evening sky, glowing with the light of the rising moon,&lt;/strong&gt; became the very face of spring, and sprouts and fresh blossoms virtually covered the multitude of trees and creepers.&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Markandeya Puran 103.9 tells Akasha (sky) as manifestations of rays of sun (ie. denoting blue colour also due to rays of sun)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I bow unto that greatest of the great, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  the Sun, the first of all. (7) Urged on by this prime energy I create water, earth, air, fire, gods and various other endless objects beginning with Om; and in due order preserve and destroy them. I can never do so of my own accord. (8) Thou art fire. By thy prowess I dry up the water and create the world and perform the first cooking process of the world. Thou art, O lord, manifest over the universe and &lt;strong&gt;identical with Akasa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharat in the end of Astika parva of Adi parva tells about the light dispersion by Meru mountain but it doesn't tell sky is blue due to it. Its just in the context of lustrous nature..Further it is about golden luster..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Sauti said, &amp;apos;There is a mountain named Meru, of blazing appearance, and looking like a heap of effulgence. The rays of the Sun falling on its peaks of golden lustre are dispersed by them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki tells blueness of sky as optical illusion to Bharadwaja in Yogavasistha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 3 — Valmiki Explains Desires &amp;amp; Describes Rama’s Pilgrimage to Bharadwaja &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 Bharadwaja said, “O brahmin, first tell me about Rama, then enlighten me by degrees with the knowledge of how to attain liberation in this life so that I may be happy forever.” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 Valmiki replied:— &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Know, holy saint, that the things seen in this world are deceiving, even as the &lt;strong&gt;blueness of the sky is an optical illusion.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore it is better to efface them in oblivion rather than to keep their memory.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vasistha explains about blueness of sky to Lord Rama in Yoga Vasistha as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoga Vasistha Chapter 114 Description of Error&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;35 Rama said, &lt;strong&gt;“Tell me sage, what is the cause of the blueness of the sky if it is not the reflection of the blue gems on the Meru’s peak?&lt;/strong&gt; Is it a collection of darkness (at night) by itself?” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;36 Vasishta replied:— &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Rama, &lt;strong&gt;the sky being only an empty vacuum cannot have the quality of blueness which is commonly attributed to it. Nor is it the bluish luster of the blue gems that are supposed to abound on the top of Meru&lt;/strong&gt;. 37 Nor is there any possibility of a body of darkness abiding in the sky when the cosmic egg is full of light (which has displaced the primeval darkness) and when the nature of light is the brightness that stretches over the extraterrestrial regions. 38 O fortunate Rama, the sky which is a vast vacuum is open to a sister of ignorance with regard to its inner hollowness. 39 As one after losing his eyesight sees only darkness all about him, so the lack of the objects of sight in the womb of emptiness gives the sky the appearance of a dark scene.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The context of asking about light of Mount Meru comes here because previously astral travellers have seen blue light emitting from Meru and causing sky blue. But it was on the astral dimension.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion: Hence scriptures describe colour of blue sky as optical illusion, as scattering of light and as reflection from Mount Meru depending on the condition and context they are describing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T07:25:08.143" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11444" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-17T08:16:37.743" Score="4" ViewCount="757" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why India is only country favouring Hinduism? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If our god has created all universe and world, they must be recognise across the world and shows his supernatural power at very corner of other part where injustices happen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why ISIS growing his terrorist activities? Lord must stop it all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5342" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2016-04-17T16:33:28.127" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T12:44:26.580" Title="Why India is only country favouring Hinduism?" Tags="|vishnu|gods|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2016-09-02T08:53:04.343" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11445" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-17T09:39:44.820" Score="5" ViewCount="1614" Body="&lt;p&gt;We generally see in temple festivals that use of crackers is a star-attraction. It always attracts a huge crowd. But it may prove fatal too as it is a risk using huge amount of crackers at a time. Do we have a history in the past about use of crackers in temple festivals? Do such activities really please god? Any mention about it in Hindu scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5241" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-20T16:09:58.827" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T06:16:35.703" Title="What is the reason behind use of crackers for temple festivals?" Tags="|history|temple|festivals|india|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2016-04-23T09:36:07.933" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11448" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9437" CreationDate="2016-04-17T11:51:23.320" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva is not the destroyer. This confusion springs up because of adopting a lens of Judeo-Christian religion into Sanatana Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Shiva is often mistranslated as 'the destroyer' and assumed to be the&#xA;  antithesis of Brahma, the 'creator' and Vishnu, the 'preserver'. We&#xA;  have seen that Brahma is not a Creator-God in the Judeo-Christian&#xA;  sense, nor is Shiva a destroyer-God as many writers today think. Shiva&#xA;  might perhaps best be described as a transformer who moves humanity&#xA;  and the universe forward in the evolution of consciousness. This&#xA;  evolution entails dissolution of the falsely constructed mental frame&#xA;  of reference (nama-rupa) and is different from destruction. The&#xA;  transformation brought by Shiva is a deconstruction process that has&#xA;  been misconstrued as destruction. The physical and material&#xA;  dissolution may also be seen as the end of a cycle – making room for&#xA;  fresh manifestation in the same way as one season gives way to&#xA;  another. The tradition emphasizes continuity, making “every apparent&#xA;  destruction, in fact, a transformation.&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Shiva is therefore also described as the lord of dance and of yoga, enlightenment and mysticism, and this is why he inspires so much more&#xA;  devotion than he would if he were thought of simply as 'destroyer'&lt;/em&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above is an excerpt from the book 'Being Different' by Rajiv Malhotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I would like to mention the translation done by Monier Williams (a professor of Sanskrit in Oxford University) in his Sanskrit-English dictionary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He gives 'in whom all things lie' as the primary meaning of Shiva,&#xA;  derived from the root &lt;em&gt;śi&lt;/em&gt;. Other important meanings of the word are&#xA;  'auspicious', 'kind', and so on. Shiva is also &lt;em&gt;'a-kala'&lt;/em&gt;, i.e.,&#xA;  beyond time, and &lt;em&gt;'sada-shiva'&lt;/em&gt;, the eternal who stays on despite and&#xA;  beyond destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-17T12:34:12.787" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T12:34:12.787" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11449" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="54" CreationDate="2016-04-17T12:06:26.707" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no such need in the Hindu dharma. Let us start by talking about the Bible first which is history-centric:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The word 'Bible' is indiscriminately used in the West to refer to the sacred scriptures of other traditions. However, as used in Jewish and Christian traditions, the term refers to a specific closed canon of history-centric texts which are regarded as the normative and authentic teachings of those religions. The core of the Jewish Bible is the Torah, which contains the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch) and a number of prophetic commentaries, songs, hymns, historical narratives and wisdom writings. For Christians, sacred scripture is the Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament) and the New Testament, which consists of the four Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, letters written to communities or individuals or churches, and the Book of Revelation. For Muslims, the sacred scripture is the Qur'an, which is seen as the corrected and perfect form of Biblical revelation, with additional, new revelations woven into it that supersede the Jewish and Christian Bible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In all cases, these scriptures have a special canonical status: they are authoritative, and also final in certain traditions. They were given at a defined point in history, usually when the religion began to spread beyond its original homeland, to establish a canon, “a textual base that would be authoritative and final. This process of forming a canon and declaring it closed happened in the Hebrew and Christian traditions in the first two centuries of the Common Era, during the period when Christianity was taking shape and the religion of Israel had to cope with the destruction of the temple and the dispersion of the people into exile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The status of sacred scripture in these traditions differs remarkably&#xA;  from the status of written texts in Indian traditions. The Hebrew&#xA;  Bible is clearly a collection of texts written at widely different&#xA;  times and in different genres, but in most Christian formations it is&#xA;  treated theologically as if it had one single author and as if the&#xA;  events described literally happened. Even the famous Ten Commandments&#xA;  are given in the context of a specific moment in the history of&#xA;  Israel, a moment which is narrated at great length though interpreted&#xA;  variously in the three Abrahamic religions. History, in short, plays a&#xA;  significant role in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seen from a Vedic point of view, the Bible is, for the most part smriti (a written historical account) as opposed to shruti (direct enlightenment experience). The Bible entirely consists of third-party accounts, what X said to Y. A gospel is a written account of the history of Jesus' life, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection and not an account of Jesus' own first-person revelations or experiences. We might call the New Testament 'Jesus Smriti' to distinguish it from shruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Furthermore, the New Testament is not written in a sacred language but&#xA;  in a kind of popular Greek which was common throughout the&#xA;  Mediterranean in its time. For Christians, this language is secular,&#xA;  and its text merely 'points to' something else, but it does not&#xA;  embody, i.e., it is not literally the person of Jesus. While some&#xA;  fundamentalist Christians insist that the Bible is inerrant in every&#xA;  detail, and the more liberal Christians hold that only the historical&#xA;  events of the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus are absolutely&#xA;  true, both camps regard the events described as the 'word' of inner&#xA;  truth and not the vibrations per se.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In contrast, and as discussed above, Indian scriptures are divided into shruti and smriti, i.e., a set of wisdom writings that reflect direct inner embodied knowing of the divine and a disparate group of second-order commentaries and contextual applications. The contextual nature of Indian culture has interplay between that which is constant and that which changes, between the stable patterns of reality and momentary reality.52 Yet each is kept distinct. Shruti is inspired and timeless revelation, an eternal authorless knowledge similar to any physics formula. On the other hand, the contextual truths of smriti are ever-changing and cannot be frozen into canons. Under new circumstances, smritis – as human constructs – must be written again and again as befits time and place. Sri Aurobindo explains this requirement as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First of all, there is undoubtedly a Truth one and eternal which we&#xA;  are seeking, from which all other truth derives, by the light of which&#xA;  all other truth finds its right place, explanation and relation to the&#xA;  scheme of knowledge … Secondly, this Truth, though it is one and&#xA;  eternal, expresses itself in Time and through the mind of man;&#xA;  therefore every Scripture must necessarily contain two elements, one&#xA;  temporary, perishable, belonging to the ideas of the period and&#xA;  country in which it was produced, the other eternal and imperishable&#xA;  and applicable in all ages and countries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; &#xA;Although shruti (such as primordial sounds) is authorless, the reader/ listener provides the context in which it is interpreted. Smriti has two contexts: that of the author who constructs it and that of the reader who interprets it.&#xA;The Judeo-Christian religions have collapsed shruti and smriti into one book and frozen it in time without the evolving context. Again, Catholicism seems to take a more sophisticated view here than does fundamentalist Protestantism. Protestants, who in principle wish to rid themselves of the control of the institutional church and its priesthood, do not recognize tradition as authoritative and normally adopt Luther's “motto: sola scriptura ('scripture alone' is authoritative). They have replaced an authoritarian church with an authoritarian book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since the Second Vatican General Council (1962–65), which laid down&#xA;  the template for the future of the Roman Catholic institutional&#xA;  church, Catholics have seen God's revelation as consisting of two&#xA;  strands, Bible and tradition, which some modern theologians would like&#xA;  to equate with shruti and smriti, respectively. But there are several&#xA;  reasons why the comparison can be taken only so far. For one thing,&#xA;  the Bible, unlike shruti, already includes a great deal of history.&#xA;  This makes the Bible smriti-dominated, which is consistent with the&#xA;  history-centric metaphysics of the Judeo-Christian traditions.&#xA;  Secondly, Christian tradition is specifically the experience of the&#xA;  Church, i.e., its history of interpretation and adaptation and not a&#xA;  set of records of the results of inner science.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The highly institutionalized structure of the Church means that its interpretations of scripture are controlled by a formal centralized authority. Dissent does exist, as in the present debates over homosexuality, women priests, stem cell research, etc., but it is usually initiated by groups marginalized or persecuted by the Church and takes effect slowly and after much resistance from authorities. Moreover, the various denominations of churches have become highly experienced at managing such threats over time. Challenging the core sacred text is deemed heresy or blasphemy. What would seem to be required are smritis that could be altered in response to the changing contexts of changing times. As it stands, any possibility of change rests with the same high priests and licensed ministers who maintain their power and control through institutional authority.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since they emerged from multiple sources and are not institutionally regulated, smritis have enabled Hinduism to remain open to change without the need for violent wars or internal schisms. Westerners find it difficult to comprehend the Indian notion of sva-dharma ('my dharma', or personalized dharma), which is flexible, specific to a given space and time, and meant to be creatively discovered.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above is an excerpt from the book Being Different by Rajiv Malhotra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-17T12:33:13.550" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T12:33:13.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11450" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-17T12:12:34.163" Score="8" ViewCount="333" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a person were to write a new Hindu smriti, to what extent is that allowed and would that be appreciated by the Hindu community? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-17T13:41:44.273" LastActivityDate="2024-04-06T07:07:18.120" Title="Does Hinduism entertain new Smritis?" Tags="|smriti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11451" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2237" CreationDate="2016-04-17T12:25:34.137" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes and No.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The concept of Avatar is very different from the concept of God in Christianity, which is based on exclusivity, history-centrism etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Christians believe Jesus alone shares complete bodily and spiritual&#xA;identity with God. Attempts are often made to describe Jesus as an&#xA;avatar, a Hindu term. The word 'avatar' in Sanskrit means 'descent&#xA;into visible form' and refers to God descending on the earth in a&#xA;human (or even non-human) form to lead us to a higher stage of&#xA;perfection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are cognate meanings here. In both contexts, though God is&#xA;omnipotent and can do and undo everything, yet he descends in a&#xA;visible form in order to operate within human laws which are his own&#xA;creations. By achieving an inner victory or a new realization,&#xA;especially in human form, the avatar creates the capacity in&#xA;consciousness for every human to achieve a similar victory or&#xA;realization. In this sense, an avatar is a kind of incarnation in the&#xA;same way that Jesus is in Christianity. He role-plays with deliberate&#xA;and voluntary self-limitation. The avatar has infinite knowledge which&#xA;he can choose to access, though ordinarily he does not, or else does&#xA;so selectively. All this would apply to Jesus during his earthly life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the differences are insurmountable given the importance of&#xA;original sin and the role of Jesus as Saviour. Antonio de Nicolas has&#xA;given one of the finest explanations of the key distinction between&#xA;Jesus the Saviour and the avatar of Hinduism. He explains Jesus as&#xA;follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Savior image [is the mediator] between God and the sinful race of&#xA;humans. We know this image also as the scapegoat, and the Substitute&#xA;King: someone chosen for the occasion to be the victim of the moment&#xA;for the salvation of the rest of the community. He gains immortal&#xA;divinity, saves other humans, brings his Father into the scene, his&#xA;followers name a Church after him, and these same followers establish&#xA;a narrative, a theology, and ethics based on principles of behavior…&#xA;The room left for individuals to improve their spiritual knowledge in&#xA;this scheme of Savior/sinner is not great, we are, after all, sinners,&#xA;born in sin, and our individual salvation is only a gift, provided we&#xA;follow the rules of ethics, and not the result of any superior&#xA;knowledge of God or deviation from this scheme. Judaism, Islam and&#xA;Christianity are the followers and founders of the model. God and the&#xA;rules of ethics come from the outside and their mission in life is to&#xA;bring all humans to surrender to this model, either through conversion&#xA;or force. The individual, in this model, is an individual only in&#xA;name, for after all, individual perfection consists in total surrender&#xA;to the model, in letting the model become embodied in the subjects in&#xA;such a way that the model, rather than the individuals, acts through&#xA;each complying individual … Wherever there is violence, the Savior&#xA;model is at work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the avatar is different:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Avatar model, on the other hand, has a larger range of human&#xA;development than the Savior's, from the Language of possibilities of&#xA;the Asat (Chaos) where all geometries of possible human forms are&#xA;waiting to be born as heroes, gods, humans etc., to the Language of&#xA;Sacrifice and Images, where all forms are to be sacrificed … The “gods&#xA;are this side of creation and they are interior embodiments of a&#xA;multiplicity of brains at work. Inner acts, rather than names, are at&#xA;work. These acts are so efficient that they may create new 'gods,' new&#xA;centers of action, to guide humans to make wise decisions. There are&#xA;no a priori norms of ethics to accommodate to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Christianity's exclusivist claim that Jesus was the only incarnation&#xA;is unacceptable to the dharmic religions. In the dharmic tradition,&#xA;each avatar comes to establish the eternal truth anew in response to&#xA;the need of the time. To accept Jesus as avatar on terms established&#xA;by Christianity would entail granting him exclusive status; this, in&#xA;turn, would invalidate all other avatars, such as Krishna, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Sri Aurobindo explains:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;India has from ancient times held strongly a belief in the reality of&#xA;the Avatara, the descent into form, the revelation of the Godhead in&#xA;humanity. In the West this belief has never really stamped itself upon&#xA;the mind because it has been presented through exoteric Christianity&#xA;as a theological dogma without any roots in the reason and general&#xA;consciousness and attitude towards life. But in India it has grown up&#xA;and persisted as a logical outcome of the Vedantic view of life and&#xA;taken firm root in the consciousness of the people. All existence is a&#xA;manifestation of God because He is the only existence and nothing can&#xA;be except as either a real figuring or else a figment of that one&#xA;reality. Therefore every conscious being is in part or in some way a&#xA;descent of the Infinite into the apparent finiteness of name and form.&#xA;But it is a veiled manifestation and there is a gradation between the&#xA;supreme being of the Divine and the consciousness shrouded partly or&#xA;wholly by ignorance of self in the finite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This God-as-Cosmos is what we call 'the world', and its divine play&#xA;evolves into the immense diversity of forms; hence, the human is in&#xA;fact God-as-human and no less. Cosmic evolution is the self-unveiling&#xA;of Di“vine Consciousness. This manifestation has a purpose, and its&#xA;truths are expressed in the form of multiple lines or trajectories,&#xA;such as: peace, harmony, power, battle-and-conquest,&#xA;knowledge-and-illumination, beauty, joy, and so on. Sri Aurobindo&#xA;explains that when God-as-human 'knows itself and acts within the&#xA;frame of the mental being and the appearance of birth, that is the&#xA;height of the conditioned manifestation; it is the full and conscious&#xA;descent of the Godhead, it is the Avatara'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the purpose of creation, the Divine Being assumes several&#xA;presiding personalities; each oversees the manifestation of particular&#xA;truths. A given personality may choose to manifest as a full&#xA;incarnation – in which case it is called an avatar – or as an&#xA;embodiment of its particular truth – in which case it is called a&#xA;vibhuti. Thus, avatar is God in visible form, and vibhuti is the&#xA;manifestation of one or more of his infinite qualities. In other&#xA;words, an avatar is a vibhuti, but a vibhuti is not necessarily an&#xA;avatar. For example, Krishna is an avatar as well as a vibhuti, but&#xA;Arjuna is a vibhuti only. Ushana, the brave king, likewise is a&#xA;vibhuti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unlike prophets, avatars do not serve as intermediaries chosen by God,&#xA;nor are they absolutely necessary in order for humans to understand&#xA;God's will in shaping history.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-Excerpt from the book Being Different by Rajiv Malhotra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T16:25:53.043" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11452" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11454" CreationDate="2016-04-17T12:27:08.883" Score="3" ViewCount="293" Body="&lt;p&gt;When a God takes avatar, what happens to the original God form. Does He remain as it is or is depleted or altered?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3241" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T03:40:26.327" Title="When a God takes Avatar, what happens to the God in the original form?" Tags="|vishnu|gods|avatars|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11453" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3556" CreationDate="2016-04-17T12:35:09.250" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is also stated that he married them because of Parashu Rama’s vow to kill the Kshatriyas as a revenge for his father’s death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;however the was one exception, that he will not kill a Kshatriya, who had Marriage Kangan on his wrist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Kangan, yellow band of Thread was used to be worn for one year from the date of marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Convinced that he could not beat Parashurama, Dasaratha married ne woman a Year to escape the wrath of Parashurama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does Valimiki Ramayana say on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda, Chapter 34, Verses 10 to 13:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dasharatha summons Sumantra to fetch all his wives when Rama was ready to to go to forest. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sumantra, after entering the gynaecium, spoke these words to those women as follows: “Oh, the venerable ladies! The king is calling you. Go there without delay. All those women, asked thus by Sumantra as per the king’s orders, went to his palace, after knowing the instructions of their husband.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda, Chapter 34, Verse 10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dasaratha said to Sumantra, “Oh, Sumantra! being all my wives, who are here. Surrounded by all of them, I want to see the virtuous Rama.”&#xA;  (‘who are here’ means available at the capital city then)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda, Chapter 34, Verse 13:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्ध सप्त शताः ताः तु प्रमदाः ताम्र लोचनाः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कौसल्याम् परिवार्य अथ शनैः जग्मुर् धृत व्रताः || २-३४-१३ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“ardha sapta shataah taah tu pramadaah taamra locanaah |&#xA;  kausalyaam parivaarya atha shanaih jagmur dhrita vrataah ||” 2-34-13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘Encircling Kausalya, three hundred fifty women, steadfast in their vow (of devotion to their husband), with their eyes reddened, went there slowly.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Book II : Ayodhya Kanda, Chapter (Sarga) 39, Verse 34 &amp;amp; 35:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama said to Queen Kausalya, His mother,  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Oh, mother! You do not grieve. You look after my father. The end of exile will come rather soon.”&#xA;  “Fourteen years will elapse, while you are asleep. you as such, will see me, duly arrived here in my entire being, surrounded by my well-wishers.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Book II : Ayodhya Kanda, Chapter (Sarga) 39, Verse 36:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एतावद् अभिनीत अर्थम् उक्त्वा स जननीम् वचः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्रयः शत शत अर्धा हि ददर्श अवेक्ष्य मातरः || २-३९-३६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;etaavad abhiniita artham uktvaa sa jananiim vacah |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  trayah shata shata ardhaa hi dadarsha avekshya maatarah || 2-39-36&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Uttering the aforesaid words of such quality and appropriate meaning to his mother, Rama thought once again and gazed at his three hundred and fifty step-mothers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Book II : Ayodhya Kanda, Chapter (Sarga) 39, Verses 37 to 40:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama joined his palms and saluted those step mothers also, who were too distressed in the same way and spoke these words which were in consonance with the spirit of righteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Please excuse me, if I have done any mistake either becuase of our living together or due to ignorance on my part. I now take leave of you all.”&#xA;  All those women, whose mind was overpowered with grief, heard the aforesaid cool submission of Rama, which was in consonance with righteousness.&#xA;  While Rama was speaking thus, an outery, resembling the wail of female cranes arose from those wives of Dasaratha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5347" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-06T07:13:51.657" LastActivityDate="2018-04-06T07:13:51.657" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11454" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11452" CreationDate="2016-04-17T12:47:53.867" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;He remains the same, only manifests in a physical form:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The avatar role-plays with deliberate and voluntary self-limitation.&#xA;  The avatar has infinite knowledge which he can choose to access,&#xA;  though ordinarily he does not, or else does so selectively&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this also, there are two types of manifestation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“For the purpose of creation, the Divine Being assumes several&#xA;  presiding personalities; each oversees the manifestation of particular&#xA;  truths. A given personality may choose to manifest as a full&#xA;  incarnation – in which case it is called an avatar – or as an&#xA;  embodiment of its particular truth – in which case it is called a&#xA;  vibhuti. Thus, avatar is God in visible form, and vibhuti is the&#xA;  manifestation of one or more of his infinite qualities. In other&#xA;  words, an avatar is a vibhuti, but a vibhuti is not necessarily an&#xA;  avatar. For example, Krishna is an avatar as well as a vibhuti, but&#xA;  Arjuna is a vibhuti only. Ushana, the brave king, likewise is a&#xA;  vibhuti”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-Excerpt from the book 'Being Different' by Rajiv Malhotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T12:47:53.867" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11455" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11445" CreationDate="2016-04-17T12:58:12.307" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, it does not please God and there is not any such mention in the scriptures. As you mentioned, the reason is rather historical because crackers were used to scare away wild animals in ancient times. This is not needed now and is just followed due to tradition. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar talks about it in this video:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/SriSriRaviShankar/videos/10153445108937536/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.facebook.com/SriSriRaviShankar/videos/10153445108937536/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T12:58:12.307" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11456" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-17T13:42:57.857" Score="9" ViewCount="854" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a person belonging to the Dalit caste is chosen to be a priest, is that allowed? I do understand that Gita says varna is by actions and not by birth. Although, in practice, we see a lot of discrimination based on the family a person is born in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T12:42:31.727" LastActivityDate="2018-04-26T16:51:55.577" Title="Can a Dalit caste person be a priest?" Tags="|belief|caste-system|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11457" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-17T15:33:12.383" Score="3" ViewCount="295" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss here. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I said, the Purva Mimamsa school doesn't focus on the Upanishads, but &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/0Znn&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Jaimini's Mimamsa Sutras discusses the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, since it is actually part of thee Brahmanas of the Vedas as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3014/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  The context of this is that some Yagnas are designed to yield rewards not in the present life, but in the afterlife, so Jaimini enters into a discussion of whether there is an Atma that survives the death of the body.  In response to the objection that Atmas don't exist because no one can point out their Atma to you, Jaimini argues that each person can only apprehend their own Atma, and that doesn't imply that other people's Atmas doesn't exist, any more than the fact that a blind man cannot see the world would imply the non-existence of the world.  He cites the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad to support his claim that a person's Atma is imperceptible to everyone else:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a matter of fact the Cognizer is self-cognized, he cannot be perceived by another, how then could he be pointed out to another? ... In support also of the view that one Self is not apprehended by another, we have the Brahmana-text — &lt;strong&gt;'Being inapprehensible, it is not apprehended' Brhaddranyaka-Upanisad, 3. 9. 25); what this means is that it is not apprehended by another&lt;/strong&gt;; — 'how so?' — because the Self has been spoken of as 'self-luminous  in the text 'Herein the Person is self-luminous' (Brihaddranyaka-Upanisad, 4. 3. 9) [which means that the Self is cognised by itself, not by another self].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now given that the Upanishads are the bread and butter of the Vedanta school, my question is, are there any thinkers belonging to the Vedanta school who agree with Jaimini's interpretation of this Brihadaranyaka verse?  Here is the verse in question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;26&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sâkalya said: 'And in what dost thou (thy body) and the Self (thy heart) abide?' Yâgñavalkya said: 'In the Prâna (breath).' Sâkalya said: 'In what does the Prâna abide?' Yâgñavalkya said: In the Apâna (down-breathing).' Sâkalya said: 'In what does the Apâna abide?' Yâgñavalkya said: 'In the Vyâna (back-breathing ).' Sâkalya said: 'In what does the Vyâna-abide?' Yâgñavalkya said: 'In the Udâna (the out-breathing).' Sâkalya said: 'In what does the Udâna abide?' Yâgñavalkya said: 'In the Samâna. That Self (âtman) is to be described by No, no! &lt;strong&gt;He is incomprehensible, for he cannot be (is not) comprehended;&lt;/strong&gt; he is imperishable, for he cannot perish; he is unattached, for he does not attach himself; unfettered, he does not suffer, he does not fail.'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now naturally Jaimini's claim that people apprehend their own Atma and not other people's Atmas would be meaningless to Adi Shankaracharya, since as an Advaitin, Adi Shankaracharya believed that there was only one Atma, namely Paramatma or Brahman, and he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34010.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras that the self which is apprehended by the mind is not the actual Atma.  So he interprets the verse as saying that Paramatnma cannot be perceived because he is Nirguna or attributeless; here's what he says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc118360.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This self is That which has been described in the Madhukānda as ‘Not this, not this’ (II. iii. 6). It is imperceptible, not perceivable. How? Because It is beyond the characteristics of effects, therefore It is imperceptible. Why? For It is never perceived. Only a differentiated object, which is within the range of the organs, can be perceived; but the Self is the opposite of that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But other Vedantic philosophies do acknowledge the existence of multiple Atmas, so is it possible that other commentaries on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad interpret the verse the same way Adi Shankaracharya does?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Dvaita philosopher Madhvacharya, despite believing in the existence of multiple Atmas, still interprets this verse as referring to Paramatma; see &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/24/items/Sacred_Books_of_the_Hindus/SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_jp2/SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_0386.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;This (Hari) is,&quot; continued Yajnavalkya, &quot;neither like Brahma, touched with misery, nor is He like Mukta Rama, untouched by misery.  This Atman is incapable of being grasped as a whole, for no one has ever been able to grasp Him.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But do any commentators believe that this verse refers to Jivatma, and the incomprehensibility refers to incomprehensibility to others?  For instance, what does Ranga Ramanuja, the Sri Vaishnava commentator on the Upanishads (not to be confused with the more famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya  Ramanujacharya), say about this verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-02-04T16:47:52.353" Title="Does anyone agree with the Mimamsa interpretation of this Upanishad verse?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|upanishads|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11459" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="97" CreationDate="2016-04-17T16:30:08.173" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism supports vegetarianism because it is ethical, healthy and environmentally good:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The debate on 'why it is good to be a vegetarian' has long been&#xA;  settled. The internet is full of information on why eating meat is not&#xA;  good for both one's own health or the environment. For example,&#xA;  according to US Department of Agriculture, 70 per cent of food&#xA;  poisoning is caused by meat, including exposure to arsenic. Another&#xA;  research says production of one kilogram of beef is responsible for as&#xA;  much carbon dioxide emission as by driving 250 km in a car.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is plenty of disturbing footage also available on what treatment&#xA;  animals are subject to in slaughterhouses, like the documentary 'Meet&#xA;  your Meat'. They are injected with hormones so that they grow faster&#xA;  and add more bulk. All these chemicals then end up in the bodies of&#xA;  people who eat this meat. But their system cannot take these chemicals&#xA;  and they eventually turn into cancers and other immune system&#xA;  disorders. The milk from these animals is also toxic and is rejected&#xA;  by the consumers' biology. In fact, large number of cases of lactose&#xA;  intolerance and diseases among meat eaters was what gave birth to the&#xA;  vegan movement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The human body is designed for a vegetarian diet. Our teeth are not&#xA;  pointed and our intestines are much longer than our bodies, very much&#xA;  like herbivores. Carnivores have short intestines through which meat&#xA;  passes easily. It passes through our intestines much more slowly and&#xA;  is very heavy to digest, sometimes taking up to 72 hours. In this&#xA;  time, it rots and ferments in our bodies. Vegetarian food, on the&#xA;  other hand, is digested within a few hours.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, ethically, environmentally and health-wise, it is a wise choice to&#xA;  be a vegetarian. It is even better to eat organic fruits and&#xA;  vegetables, which have no chemicals and fertilisers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The only reason that people still continue to eat meat is that they&#xA;  are driven by cultural habit or craving for taste. The way to overcome&#xA;  this craving is to make small time-bound commitments in the beginning&#xA;  and then gradually increasing it, like deciding not to have meat for a&#xA;  week, then two weeks and so on. People have also found ways to use&#xA;  tofu and other forms of soya to cook 'mock meat' which tastes&#xA;  identical to real meat. We have also observed that with the practice&#xA;  of meditation and pranayama, one's taste changes on its own and the&#xA;  body begins to ask for food that is conducive to keep it light and&#xA;  moves away from foods that make it otherwise. Many people have become&#xA;  vegetarian on their own after doing our workshops.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;However, today with a massive global consumer base, producing meat is&#xA;  a highly profitable business. So, there is a big lobby that does not&#xA;  want people to be educated on the harmful effects of meat and become&#xA;  vegetarian. In India, the issue of vegetarianism also assumes&#xA;  religious connotations and therefore, becomes political.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Food being an essential part of any lifestyle, people would like to&#xA;  have the right to exercise their freedom in making a choice; arguing&#xA;  or forcing anyone will not work. The right way is to make people aware&#xA;  and then let them choose for themselves. It may take some time but&#xA;  everybody realises sooner or later that short term gratification is&#xA;  not worth the long term troubles it brings. Quality of life is&#xA;  enhanced when we make choices that are life supporting.Being&#xA;  vegetarian does not just helps one's own life flourish but also that&#xA;  of other beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/article/the-smart-choice-is-to-be-vegetarian&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.speakingtree.in/article/the-smart-choice-is-to-be-vegetarian&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T16:30:08.173" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11460" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6740" CreationDate="2016-04-17T16:37:48.557" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not sure about Hindu texts but here are views of the Hindu saint Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a baby is born, along with it, a mother and a father are also&#xA;  born. Often, we are eager to teach our little ones when there is a lot&#xA;  to learn from them. A baby exudes all the qualities of an enlightened&#xA;  person. A baby lives completely in the moment. Babies practice all the&#xA;  mudras right from the beginning. They are born in adi mudra-- thumb&#xA;  tucked in a fist. They often sleep in chin mudra, index finger&#xA;  touching the thumb and chinmay mudra, with the remaining three fingers&#xA;  closed in a fist. Around the time their spine begins to develop, they&#xA;  start sucking their thumb (merudanda mudra). Through the day, they&#xA;  stretch and twist their spine or touch their toes and so on. Every&#xA;  posture of a baby is somewhere related to yoga. In fact, it appears&#xA;  that yoga was developed by looking at a baby growing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Many times, people brush aside what babies say as gibberish.&#xA;  Interestingly, children often remember things from their past lives,&#xA;  and between the age of three and seven, they start forgetting it. So,&#xA;  if you keenly listen to them talk, they may be expressing things from&#xA;  their previous birth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An individual’s life and character is shaped by four factors. One&#xA;  fourth of it comes from parents. Another one fourth is acquired&#xA;  through education and upbringing. Karma or the cause-and-effect of&#xA;  one’s actions provides another one fourth and one’s own effort make up&#xA;  the last quarter. So parents form the very first foundation of a&#xA;  child’s life. A child starts his learning process by imitating his&#xA;  parents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Children normally are keen observers. They observe everything, every&#xA;  moment. Most parents are oblivious to the fact that children are&#xA;  scrutinising them every moment. Therefore, it is important for parents&#xA;  to be free from stress because parents’ stress or joy, their character&#xA;  and attitudes get transferred to the child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Children are naturally drawn to music and dance. It is advisable to&#xA;  expose them to music which is not too aggressive, harsh and hard rock&#xA;  type.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Often parents cannot tolerate children crying. But we should not be&#xA;  too anxious to put a pacifier in the child’s mouth when it cries. It&#xA;  is good for the child to cry a little everyday for it opens up the&#xA;  lungs as well as the cranial bones. Osteopaths also testify to this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While dealing with children or educating them, one tends to give a lot&#xA;  of negative suggestions. We should be conscious of this and instead&#xA;  should give positive suggestions. Instead of saying, “Don’t go there”,&#xA;  we can say, “Come here”. Similarly, instead of saying, “Don’t throw&#xA;  the bottle”, we can say, “Keep the bottle there”. One can make an&#xA;  effort to turn suggestions more affirmative rather than negative. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Children are a blessing from the Divine. Not only do they bring&#xA;  immense joy with them, bringing them up is a highly educational&#xA;  experience for the parents. They get plenty of opportunities to become&#xA;  more caring, more patient, to lead by example and most of all, to&#xA;  shower all their love on their bundles of joy. In some sense, it will&#xA;  not be wrong to say that parents play the role of God. With so many&#xA;  flavours, parenting can be a very colourful journey and a rewarding&#xA;  one too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/article/the-fine-art-of-parenting&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.speakingtree.in/article/the-fine-art-of-parenting&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T16:37:48.557" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11461" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2058" CreationDate="2016-04-17T16:47:39.227" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer the first question: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Guru Purnima is called the day of the Master but it is actually the&#xA;  day of the Devotee. Guru Purnima is New Year for spiritual seeker.&#xA;  There are three types of people who come to the Master, the student,&#xA;  the disciple and the devotee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A student goes to a teacher and learns something, gets some&#xA;  information and then he walks out of the School. There is no more&#xA;  information, just like looking at a guidebook, like a tourist guide.&#xA;  You go with the tourist guide to see a place, and the guide shows all&#xA;  the places, or like a Traffic Police, sometimes he directs you or like&#xA;  you ask someone, “Where is what?” and they’ll give you some&#xA;  information. You take it and you say, “Well, thank you” and there it&#xA;  is finished, isn’t it? You went to primary school, middle school, and&#xA;  whatever grade you call it, you collected information; you learned&#xA;  about mind, you learned about computers, learned about mathematics,&#xA;  and learned how 2+1 is 3. The student is one, who collects&#xA;  information, but the information is not knowledge, it is not wisdom,&#xA;  is it not so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then there is the disciple, the disciple follows the example of the&#xA;  Master. But a disciple is with the Master for the sake of learning&#xA;  wisdom, for the sake of improving his life, for the sake of attaining&#xA;  enlightenment. He has a purpose, a cause, so he is not just collecting&#xA;  information, but he goes a little deeper. He is trying to bring a&#xA;  transformation in his life. He wants to make sense out of his life.&#xA;  That is a disciple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And then there is devotee. A devotee is not there even for wisdom. He&#xA;  is simply rejoicing in love. He has fallen in deep love with the&#xA;  Master, with the Infinity, with the God. He doesn’t care as to whether&#xA;  he gets enlightened or not. He doesn’t care as to whether he acquires&#xA;  a lot of knowledge or wisdom or not. But that very moment, and every&#xA;  moment, he is immersed in divine love that is enough for him or her. A&#xA;  devotee is very rare to find.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Students are in abundance, disciples are a few, but the devotees are&#xA;  rare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is nothing great to become God or be God. Whether you want or not,&#xA;  all are already Gods. A stone is also a God. You are also a God.&#xA;  Everything is God, God is already there, but it is great to become a&#xA;  devotee. Do you see this? Everything, whether you want it or not, is&#xA;  already God, but the love, devotion, has flowered somewhere. Where the&#xA;  devotion has flowered totally, the flower has blossomed, that is a&#xA;  devotee. Attraction is everywhere, love is somewhere, but devotion is&#xA;  again rare. Devotion is very beautiful. A student comes to a Master,&#xA;  Teacher, and Guru with tears in his eyes. There are so many problems,&#xA;  and when he leaves, he is carrying the same tears, but the quality of&#xA;  the tears is different, it is of gratitude. Still tears flow, but&#xA;  those are of gratitude, of love; it is so beautiful to cry in love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One, who has cried even once in love, knows the taste of it, of&#xA;  surrender and of devotion and the entire creation rejoices it. The&#xA;  entire creation is longing for only one thing, the transformed tears,&#xA;  from salty tears to sweet tears.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One of Buddha’s disciples named Sariputra got enlightened. When he got&#xA;  enlightened, Buddha told him, “Now you go ahead, go into the world and&#xA;  preach, teach and do the same work I do, carry on my work.” Now&#xA;  Sariputra left Buddha, but he was crying and crying and people asked&#xA;  him, “Why are you crying when you are enlightened?” He said, “Who&#xA;  cares about this enlightenment, it could have waited, I would have&#xA;  waited. I didn’t even bother about it or asked for it because the joy&#xA;  of being at the feet of Buddha was so great. Being a devotee was so&#xA;  great, now I am missing this, I would have preferred that to this&#xA;  enlightenment.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no separation, there is no difference, there is no distance,&#xA;  yet it has a different flavor, different joy. That is a devotee, a&#xA;  devotee can never fall, he cannot fall, and there is no chance for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Krishna was leaving his body, he spoke to Uddhava. With tears in&#xA;  his eyes, “I can’t stand the amount of devotion these Gopies have for&#xA;  me, go and tell them, these devotees of mine that only they can free&#xA;  me of their gratitude and of their love.” It is so beautiful, he&#xA;  rejoices, “Go, tell them that is the glory of devotees, I am not in&#xA;  heaven, I am not in temple, but where my devotees sing, I am right&#xA;  there”. Devotion is something that can move even the rocks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There once was a Zen Master who always thought that he was&#xA;  enlightened. He went around saying, “I am enlightened”. He happened to&#xA;  meet one of his Masters who gave him a puzzle, called ’koan’. The&#xA;  ‘koan’ was “the statue has eyes, the tears roll down silently”.&#xA;  Hearing this Zen Master was shaken and he said, “There is some depth&#xA;  in it”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Love is something that even the Divine rejoices in it. The infinity&#xA;  longs for you as much as you long for it. It is waiting to receive&#xA;  you. God is as anxious as you are to be near. So when a devotee&#xA;  flowers on this planet, God is very happy. That is why Guru Purnima is&#xA;  the day of the Devotee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like fatherhood and motherhood, there is Guru-hood. We all have to&#xA;  play Guru-hood at least to somebody. We do play! Consciously or&#xA;  unconsciously you are all Guru to somebody. You keep giving advices&#xA;  and guiding people, giving them loving care! You all do this, but do&#xA;  it 100%, without expecting anything in return: that is living the Guru&#xA;  principle. There is no difference between the divine, the Self and the&#xA;  Guru. They are all one. Meditation is relaxing and reposing. Think of&#xA;  all the things to be grateful for and ask what you want for the future&#xA;  and bless everyone. We receive so many blessings and we should also&#xA;  bless all those who are in need.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom/knowledge-sheets/guru-poornima&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom/knowledge-sheets/guru-poornima&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T16:47:39.227" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11462" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="84" CreationDate="2016-04-17T17:00:09.510" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Moksha or Enlightenment:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Enlightenment or evolution has got two steps. The first step is from&#xA;  becoming somebody to nobody. It is not getting stuck in something or&#xA;  somebody. You get stuck being somebody in two cases - either you are&#xA;  too special or you are hopeless. People get stuck in the seat. If you&#xA;  don't give them a proper seat, that's it. That pushes their button.&#xA;  “What difference does it make if I sit on the sofa or on the carpet? I&#xA;  remain what I am.” Meditation is from being somebody to becoming&#xA;  nobody. Dissolving of ego is from somebody to nobody.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The second step is from nobody to everybody. That is the state where&#xA;  you feel oneness with everybody, you feel that you are a part of&#xA;  everyone and everyone is a part of you. That is the reason why Jesus&#xA;  said, &quot;If you have to go to my Father, there is no other way, you have&#xA;  to go through me and me alone.&quot; Krishna said the same thing to Arjuna.&#xA;  He addresses him in three terms. First he says, &quot;Surrender to Him who&#xA;  lives in everybody's heart&quot;. Then he says, &quot;Just surrender to me.&quot; And&#xA;  then he says, &quot;Surrender to that divinity that is deep in yourself and&#xA;  get out of this illusion of ‘me’ and ‘you’ and all the separation.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The whole universe is one organism, one living Being. And each mind is&#xA;  just a part of that. This is the highest knowledge, the universal&#xA;  truth. You are in everybody. Only then the real service also begins.&#xA;  That service is really authentic. You see someone suffering and you&#xA;  feel you are suffering too or you see somebody getting hurt, and you&#xA;  also feel the pain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;See, the body is decaying. Whatever you do, your body is perishable.&#xA;  The direction of body is towards perishing, is towards decay. And the&#xA;  direction of your soul should be towards the immortal, the&#xA;  non-changing, imperishable. As you grow older, your mind should mature&#xA;  and look towards that eternal something that is undying, that doesn't&#xA;  age. That is deep in you: the spirit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is so much suffering in the world and that's why we need to be&#xA;  very active in giving this knowledge to as many people as possible.&#xA;  You can. All those who have learned meditation, and all those who have&#xA;  not learned meditation also, just get together, do some reading and&#xA;  satsang, meditate together, eat together; share lives together. Once&#xA;  in fifteen days, once in a month, have a sort of community&#xA;  get-together. And talk about knowledge. Instead of gossiping or&#xA;  talking something just trivial, why not talk about knowledge, wisdom?&#xA;  Putting your mind into something that is eternal is worth doing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We need to improve the quality of life. Just look at the children when&#xA;  they are in kindergarten, in nursery school; there is so much joy,&#xA;  there is so much happiness, celebration in their life. And, as they&#xA;  grow older, when they go to high school, see how they are? Do they&#xA;  grow in joy, in bliss, in celebration, or are they going towards&#xA;  violence, hatred, unfriendly behavior, stress, frustration, agitation&#xA;  and dullness? Is this what we are doing to the children? And we spend&#xA;  thousands of dollars to bring this suffering on to them. And this we&#xA;  call as education? Losing all the human qualities is called education!&#xA;  That's ridiculous, no?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And this is not an instance here and there. This is widespread, nearly&#xA;  the same all over the globe. Maybe not so much in developing countries&#xA;  but especially in all the developed countries and metropolitan cities&#xA;  - there is absolutely no human quality at all being expressed. I wouldn't say they have died out. They are there but are never&#xA;  expressed. So there is such frustration, such pain, such suffering all&#xA;  over and we need to do something about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/two-steps-to-enlightenment&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/two-steps-to-enlightenment&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T17:00:09.510" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11463" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="138" CreationDate="2016-04-17T17:08:24.143" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Every object in the universe is endowed with four characteristics:&#xA;  dharma, karma, prema and gyana. Of these, karma is the most talked&#xA;  about; it is also the most misunderstood. The Gita says: “Gahna&#xA;  Karmanyo Gathi” -- Unfathomable are the ways of karma. There are three&#xA;  types of karma: Prarabha, sanchita and agami. The first is latent&#xA;  karma, an impression or seed of action. The second is karma as action,&#xA;  and the third is karma as result. Prarabha means ‘begun’; the action&#xA;  that is already manifesting and that is yielding its effect right now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You cannot avoid it or change it, as it is already happening. Sanchita&#xA;  is accumulated karma. It is latent or manifested in the form of a&#xA;  tendency or impression in the mind. Sanchita karma can be burned off&#xA;  by spiritual practices before it manifests. Agami karma is the future&#xA;  karma of action; that which has not yet come and which will take&#xA;  effect in the future. If you commit a crime, you may not get caught&#xA;  today, but will live with the possibility that one day you may get&#xA;  caught. Karma is also always bound by time, because every action has a&#xA;  limited reaction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you do something good to people they will come to thank you and be&#xA;  grateful to you as long as they are experiencing the effect of your&#xA;  action. So, karma has only a limited sphere of its effect, be it good&#xA;  or badIt is often asked, “Why are good people made to suffer while&#xA;  those who commit injustice go unpunished?” Such questions arise when&#xA;  we see an event in its limited framework. No good action will yield a&#xA;  bad result and no bad action will bring a good result. This is the law&#xA;  of karma As you sow, so shall you reap.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you sow a mango tree, some thorny bushes may come up because of the&#xA;  seeds present in the manure brought from somewhere else. It is not the&#xA;  mango seed that brings up the thorny bush. Your mango seed will bring&#xA;  mango fruit, in due course. Karma is that which propels reincarnation.&#xA;  The stronger the impression, the greater the possibility of the next&#xA;  life being according to that. So, often you reincarnate like the&#xA;  person you hate or love. The mind which is full of different&#xA;  impressions leaves this body but the impressions await suitable&#xA;  situations to come back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the last thought is very important. Whatever you do throughout your&#xA;  life, in the last moment your mind should be free and happy. Our&#xA;  perception of suffering, of good and bad, is always relative. God is&#xA;  absolute reality; a witness of all. See God as movie director, rather&#xA;  than as a judge. He has no ill feeling for the villain and no special&#xA;  favour for the hero. Each one is playing her role. An awareness of&#xA;  dharma helps in comprehending the strange ways of karma. Whenever you&#xA;  see bad karma or someone suffering, you need to help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/article/the-ways-of-karma_23947&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.speakingtree.in/article/the-ways-of-karma_23947&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-17T17:08:24.143" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11468" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-18T03:16:18.207" Score="4" ViewCount="11574" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why are festivals not celebrated after the death of a family member for a full year? What is the reason?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-27T09:59:42.210" LastActivityDate="2018-11-27T12:48:30.190" Title="Why are festivals not celebrated for one year after a person's death?" Tags="|belief|tradition|festivals|customs|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11470" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10110" CreationDate="2016-04-18T06:18:17.713" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama in &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7T0zBCVuV7cR055dEFfNFRNQ28/view?pref=2&amp;amp;pli=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramcharitmanas Uttar kanda&lt;/a&gt; answers this question &lt;strong&gt;giving an analogy&lt;/strong&gt; to that as:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एक पिता के बिपुल कुमारा । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  होहिं पृथक गुन सील अचारा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कोउ पंडित कोउ तापस ग्याता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कोउ धनवंत सूर कोउ दाता।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कोउ सर्वग्य धर्मरत कोइ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सब पर पितहि प्रीति सम होई।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कोउ पितु भगत बचन मन कर्मा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सपनेहुँ जान न दूसर धर्मा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सो सुत प्रिय पितु प्रान समाना । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जद्यपि सो सब भाॅति अयाना।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एही बिधि जीव चराचर जेते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्रिजग देव नर असुर समेते।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अखिल बिस्व यह मोर उपाया । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सब पर मोहि बराबरि दाया।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तिन्ह मह जो परिहरि मद माया । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भजै मोहि मन बच अरु काया।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुरुष नपुंसक नारि वा जीव चराचर कोइ ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्व भाव भज कपट तजि मोहिपरम प्रिय सोइ ।! ८७ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सत्य कहउँ खग तोहि सुचि सेवक मम प्रान प्रिय ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अस बिचारी भजु मोहि परिहरिआस भरोस सब । । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This translates as&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A father has a number of sons, each differing from the others in character, temper and conduct. One is learned, another given to austerities, a third spiritually enlightened, a fourth rich, a fifth possessed of valour, a sixth charitably disposed, a seventh all-wise and an eighth intent on piety; but the father equally loves all. &lt;strong&gt;A ninth son is devoted to his father in thought, &gt; word and deed and never dreams of any other duty. This is the son whom the father loves as his own life,&lt;/strong&gt; though he be a perfect ignoramus. In a like manner all animate and inanimate beings, including the &gt; subhuman species, gods, men and demons in short, the whole of this universe is My creation and I am equally compassionate to all. Of these, however, he &gt; who adores Me in thought, word and deed, forswearing arrogance and wiles.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Be it man, woman or one lacking the characteristics of both, or, for the matter of &#xA;  that, any living being whatsoever of the animate or inanimate world, he who adores Me with all his being, giving up all guile, is supremely dear to Me. O bird, I tell you in all &#xA;  sincerity that a guileless servant is dear to Me as life. Realizing this worship Me, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  abandoning all other hope and reliance.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, although all the four brothers were&#xA;devoted to father but devotion of was Rama was incomparable to other brothers. Hence Rama was Prana-Priya to Dasharatha.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Listen it &lt;a href=&quot;https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1TWlc4i2ft8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; from 1:41:30&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-18T15:55:00.123" LastActivityDate="2016-04-18T15:55:00.123" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11472" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-18T07:53:10.580" Score="21" ViewCount="1718" Body="&lt;p&gt;To start with, no hard feelings against anyone who subscribes to Islam or &#xA;Christianity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the Muslims invaded 'Iran' or 'Egypt' they were able to convert the whole population to Islam in a few decades e.g., the present day Iran was largely Zoroastrian at that time. Also, when the Christians moved to the European region, they converted the whole population to Christianity in a few decades. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although, India has faced centuries of Muslim invasion. This was followed by nearly two centuries of Christian domination (read British). Despite this, the population of our country is largely Hindu. How is that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know there would have been many historical reasons for that. Although, I am interested in the attributes of Hinduism that allowed it and us to survive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-02-05T19:21:28.770" LastActivityDate="2021-04-14T21:39:59.063" Title="What attributes of Hinduism allowed it to survive centuries of proselytisation by Muslims and Christians?" Tags="|history|india|conversion|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11473" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-18T08:44:52.610" Score="11" ViewCount="186" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 44 of the Sabha Parva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata, during the Rajasuya Yajna of Yudhishthira, Shishupala criticises Krishna using many insults, and then Krishna retorts to Shishupala's insults directed at him. He talks about how Shishupala committed many sins, and in particular lists these sins:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;This wretch of cruel deeds, ye kings, hearing that we had gone to the city of Pragjyotisha, &lt;strong&gt;came and burnt Dwaraka,&lt;/strong&gt; although he is the son of my father's sister. While king Bhoja was sporting on the Raivataka hill, this one &lt;strong&gt;fell upon the attendants of that king and slew and led away many of them in chains to his own city.&lt;/strong&gt; Sinful in all his purpose, this wretch, in order to obstruct the sacrifice of my father, &lt;strong&gt;stole the sacrificial horse of the horse-sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt; that had been let loose under the guard of armed men.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shishupala, when Krsna was off battling Narakasura, had arrived at Dvaraka, manhandled one of the attendants and had burnt Dvaraka. He had also stolen the horse of Vasudeva's Ashvamedha Yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While Krsna lists all of these offences, none of these incidents are found either in Mahabharata or in Srimad Bhagavatam. Though since it is Krsna himself who is speaking, his words can be taken as a truthful account. So are there any scriptures which talk about Shishupala's deeds in Dvaraka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, when and how did Vasudeva conduct the &lt;strong&gt;Ashvamedha sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;, which is meant only for &lt;strong&gt;emperors&lt;/strong&gt;? The only account I know of Vasudeva's Ashvamedha is during the sequence of Prabhavati-Pradyumna Parinayam, which occurs in Harivamsa. But there, no such stealing of the horse occurs. So do any other texts talk about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2020-05-15T17:59:33.343" LastActivityDate="2020-05-15T17:59:33.343" Title="Where is the account of Shishupala's atrocities in Dvaraka?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavata-purana|harivamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11474" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7187" CreationDate="2016-04-18T09:28:05.127" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;SOURCES:Mahabharata epic:- Karna Parva and Shanti Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;                       Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjun and Karna were great warriors.But I strongly believe that Karna was stronger than Arjuna.There are a lot of misconceptions about the Virat war.&#xA;During the Virat war lord hanuman were sitting on the chariot of arjuna and thus protected his chariot from the weapons of maharathis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the virat war arjuna used his gandiva bow whereas karna used his ordinary bow and thus his bow was broken by arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;karna possessed the vijaya dhanush which was the strongest bow of all the bows.It was the bow of lord shiva and therefore there cannot be any impact of even the mighty pashupatastra on it which made karna invincible.The name of the bow itself suggest &quot;victory&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was karna who knew that he was pandavas elder brother and thus when he fought during the war there was a feeling of sympathy for the pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also karna finished 3 akshauhini sena in 6.5 days whereas arjuna killed 5.5 akshauhini sena in 18 days.This shows the superiority of karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna and Arjuna were sworn enemies in the epic, each having taken an oath to kill the other in the battle. Anticipating a likely battle to the death between Karna and Arjuna, Krishna warned Arjuna calling Karna to be the foremost of the heroes and in some versions he also referred Karna as greater archer than Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the sixteenth day, he fought with all the Pandava brothers, defeated them all in direct combat and spared each one of them after insulting them with harsh words. After the terrible death of Dussasana, he ordered his charioteer Shalya to move towards Arjuna, Karna deciding to finish him off for once and all. So violent and offensive were Karna's attacks that Arjuna's defenses soon crumbled before it. Karna then moved in for the kill. He arms his Nagastra, the same celestial weapon that was used by Indrajit against Rama in Ramayana. Intervening, Shalya tells him to aim at Arjuna's chest. Frustrated at Shalya's constant insults, Karna believes that the advice must be bad, and instead aims at Arjuna's head. Krishna saved Arjuna from certain death by lowering their chariot wheel into the earth; the arrow strikes Arjuna's helmet instead of his head. Karna and Arjuna then waged a rough war against each other. As promised to Kunti, Karna used a celestial weapon only once against Arjuna. Regaining the upper hand, Karna has a chance to kill Arjuna but spares the latter as the sun was about to set. In some versions, Lord Krishna realized that only miracles can save his ward Arjuna from death and caused the Sun to set prematurely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the seventeenth day of battle Karna used Bhargavastra against the Pandava army. When Bhargavastra was invoked into existence for the first time in history, there appeared millions and millions of ultra sharp arrows with blazing appearance. The sky was so filled with arrows that it appears like a cloud of arrows and even visibility was lost in the rain of arrows. The earth trembles and these arrows hit and killed hundreds of thousands of men, steeds, elephants and destroyed countless chariots .This astra almost exterminated the Panchala's and the Chedis. Whoever opposes the weapon become dead and the entire Pandava army ran away from the battlefield fearing this weapon.[43] Even Krishna and Arjuna had to run away from the battle field in order to escape from that weapon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna then took Arjuna away from the battlefield in order to escape from Bhargavastra and visited Yudhisthira who were outside the battlefield mortally wounded by Karna's astra's. Seeing their plight, Karna repeatedly challenged Krishna and Arjuna to come face him in battle, but Krishna kept Arjuna away from the battlefield. The Bhargavastra destroyed an Akshauhini of Pandava forces and earth appeared like an ocean of dead beings. Yudhisthira insulted Arjuna for running away from Karna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some versions of Mahabharata, Parasurama appeared in Karna's dream during the night of 15th day of battle, as requested by Lord Krishna. In order to protect Arjuna and Dharma, Krishna sought the help of his previous avatar. The avatar Parasurama explained to Karna that if he killed Arjuna, Duryodhana and chaos would ensue.[54] Parashurama asked Karna to accept death and asked him to die at the hands of Arjuna, so that the world might live in peace. Karna protested to this idea but Parasurama asked this as his Guru Dakshina. Previously, Karna never had a chance to pay his Guru Dakshina; Parasurama never asked for it either. Severely, Parasurama reminds Karna that whatever he became or attained in his life is due to the knowledge he gained from his guru. Karna accepted his guru's words and promised he would never kill Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;also after the war finished lord krishna told that it was due to lord hanuman and himself that his rath is still in a good condition. Lord hanuman told arjuna that he protected arjuna from all the weapons but was not able to protect him from the weapons of karna. Then arjuna said that the chariot is still in a good condition.Then lord hanuman removed his flag from the chariot and at that particular point of time the chariot was destroyed and the chariot got blasted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These all instances show that karna was greater warrior than arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5358" LastEditorUserId="5358" LastEditDate="2016-04-18T12:32:03.423" LastActivityDate="2016-04-18T12:32:03.423" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11475" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7653" CreationDate="2016-04-18T09:43:41.493" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is an excerpt from a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gurudev, it is said that meeting the Guru on Full Moon Day is very&#xA;  good. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  Yes. Do you know the Moon affects the ocean? On&#xA;  Full Moon Day the waves are higher. The Moon affects water – this we&#xA;  all know. Our body is made up of water. Nearly 60% of our body is made&#xA;  up of water, and it has saline content, like the ocean. So your body&#xA;  is a miniature capsule of sea water. So the Moon has an influence on&#xA;  the body and anything that influences the body influences the mind as&#xA;  well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That is why people who go crazy are called lunatics. The word itself&#xA;  says lunatics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;And that is why our ancestors have said to fast on Ekadashi (eleventh lunar day of the Hindu calendar). Why have they said this is because&#xA;  when the stomach is kept empty the toxins in the body get cleared.&#xA;  Fasting has a purifying effect on the body and it cleanses all the&#xA;  undigested food, toxins, etc.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;So if you fast three days before Full Moon then on Full Moon day you will not have any illnesses – this is the belief.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is not necessary that you must fast on every Ekadashi but it is&#xA;  good if you fast for at least two to three days in a year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/very-strange-are-ways-karma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/very-strange-are-ways-karma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-18T09:43:41.493" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11476" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-18T09:54:06.800" Score="3" ViewCount="86" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there concepts in Hindu texts which can add value to the current scientific thought via opening up avenues for innovation and research? If so, please enunciate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T10:20:54.883" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T10:20:54.883" Title="How can Hinduism add value to the current scientific thought?" Tags="|science|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2016-04-18T15:33:01.473" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11477" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11444" CreationDate="2016-04-18T11:34:52.287" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why there is no Hindu Avatar story outside India? Why all carriers of Avatars are animals found in India only?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thats because the concepts native to Hinduism originated in India. Hinduism is full of philosophical concepts and Mythology. Vedas teach worship of devatas (Indra, Agni, varuna etc) and some philosophy is found in it which is known as Monism. Then during upanishadic period this developed in to Monistic Idealism or Idealistic Monism. Then came the period of Mythology (Puranas and Itihasas). Thus all these developments are Indian thought and native to this land. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Obviously Hinduism is favored in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4526" LastActivityDate="2016-04-18T11:34:52.287" CommentCount="31" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11479" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-18T13:59:53.877" Score="18" ViewCount="4561" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been studying Hindu scriptures for few years out of curiosity to know the concept of God. The more I study the more confused I am about the identity of God according to Hindu scriptures. I am seeing atheistic philosophies which are denying the existence of God (like samkhya which basically claims there are only two realities - prakriti and purusha ie souls); then I come across mystical philosophies that define God as the spirit in all living beings - nirguna (attributeless), nirakara (formless), sudha chaitanya (pure consciousness); then I come across opposite conclusions that say God is saguna (having atributes), sakara (having form) and saying he is Vishnu; Some saying he is Shiva ..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its really confusing. I will be thankful if any one can explain in simple terms how to understand all these contradicting concepts. Saying that everything is ok and referring to same God is not convincing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4526" LastEditorUserId="5395" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T16:41:26.100" LastActivityDate="2022-04-28T04:37:30.213" Title="What is the concept of God in Hinduism?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11481" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11479" CreationDate="2016-04-18T14:33:38.790" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have expanded my answer after seeing the comments. Hindus have many schools of thought like Sankhya, Yoga, Vedanta etc. with different concepts of God. Originally Sankhya darsana was atheist. Later on it became theist. Yoga school introduces God by hand by claiming that one of the Purushas of Sankhya is not affected by the theory of Karma. A non-Hindu might indeed become confused if he enters the dense forest of Hindu thought without the guidance of a knowledgeable person. It is better to avoid all schools apart from the Vedanta school at least at the start of one's journey. The most popular school is Vedanta and I have given below ideas about God in the Vedanta school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word god does not quite represent the Hindu concept of the Divine. It is better to think in terms of the Ultimate Reality which is called Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Unknowability of Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reason is strongly stressed in Hindu dharma. Hindu dharma admits, however, that Brahman is beyond reason. For example, the Upanishads say poetically,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;The eye does not go thither, nor speech, nor the mind. We do not know It; we do not understand how anyone can teach It. It is different&#xA;from the known; It is above the unknown. Thus we have heard from the&#xA;preceptors of old who taught It to us.&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Kena Upanishad I.3-4)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;That which cannot be comprehended by the mind but by which the mind is cognized know that alone to be Brahman, and not this that&#xA;people worship here.&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Kena Upanishad I.6)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;That from which all speech with the mind turns away, not having reached it, knowing the bliss of that Brahman, man fears nothing.&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Taittirya Upanishad II.9)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;He is never seen, but is the Seer; He is never heard, but is the Hearer; He is never thought of, but is the Thinker; He is never known,&#xA;but is the knower. There is no other seer than He, there is no other&#xA;hearer than He, there is no other thinker than He, there is no other&#xA;knower than He. He is the Inner Controller - your own Self and&#xA;immortal. All else but He is perishable.&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III.7.23)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahman described!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After saying that Brahman is not knowable, beyond the reach of our minds, the Upanishads describe Brahman,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;This Self has entered into these bodies up to the very tips of the nails, as a razor lies hidden in its case, or as fire which sustains&#xA;the world lies hidden in its source....&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad I.IV.7)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;It has hands and feet everywhere, and eyes, heads and faces everywhere, and It is possessed of ears everywhere. It exists among&#xA;all the creatures, pervading all. &amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Svetasvatara Upanishad 3.16)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;He is without hands and feet, (and yet) moves and grasps; He sees, (though) without eyes; He hears (though) without ears. He knows&#xA;whatever is to be known, and of Him there is no knower. They speak of&#xA;Him as the first, the Supreme Person (Purusham mahantam). &amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Svetasvatara Upanishad 3.19)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;You are the woman, You are the man, You are the boy, (and) You are the girl too. You are the old man tottering with a stick. Taking&#xA;birth, You have Your faces everywhere. &amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.3)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;9&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;You, indeed, are the blue bee; You indeed are the green parrot having red eyes; You indeed are possessed of lightning in Your womb.&#xA;You indeed are the seasons and the seas. You indeed are without&#xA;beginning; You exist as the Omnipresent, from whom have sprung all the&#xA;worlds. &amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.4)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;10&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;As from a fire kindled with wet fuel various [kinds of] smoke issue forth, even so, my dear, the Rig Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama&#xA;Veda, the Atharvangirasa, itihasa, purana, vidya (arts), Upanishads,&#xA;slokas, sutras, anuvyakhyanas (elucidations), vyakhyanas&#xA;(explanations), sacrfices, oblations in the fire, food, drink, this&#xA;world, and all beings are all like the breath of the Infinite Reality.&#xA;From this Supreme Self are all these, indeed, breathed forth.&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.V.11)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahman known through meditation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verses 1 to 4 suggest that Brahman is unknowable to the ordinary human mind. Then how is it possible for Upanishads to describe Brahman (verses 5 to 10)? The answer is given in the following verses,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;His form does not stand within the range of the senses. No one&#xA;perceives Him with the eye. Those who know Him through the faculty of&#xA;intuition as thus seated in their heart, become immortal.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Svetasvatara Upanishad Iv.20)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The wise man relinquishes both joy and sorrow having realized, by&#xA;means of meditation on the inner Self, that ancient effulgent One,&#xA;hard to be seen, subtle, immanent, seated in the heart and residing&#xA;within the body.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Katha Upanishad I.2.12)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Human analogy and Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clear that reason can not explain Brahman nor take us there. Then can the models of Brahman as advocated by systems like Advaita Vedanta explain Brahman? Some people say that Brahman is like a principle. If Brahman is a principle then it is hard to see how Brahman projects Itself in the human mental plane to show up as forms (Saguna Brahman). Can a mere principle project? Sometimes Brahman is also thought of as an ocean of Consciousness. This idea is baffling too. Our everyday experiences are of conscious beings. So what does an ocean of Consciousness mean?Thinking of Brahman as a principle or ocean of Consciousness is simply using analogy to our normal experience. Actually nothing whatsoever can be said about Brahman except that It exists. Let me quote Sri Ramakrishna on the nature of Brahman,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;No one can say with finality that God is only 'this' and nothing&#xA;else. He is formless and again He has forms. For the bhakta He assumes&#xA;forms. But He is formless for the jnani, that is, for him who looks on&#xA;the world as a mere dream. The bhakta feels that he is one entity and&#xA;the world as another. Therefore God reveals Himself to him as a&#xA;Person. But the jnani – the Vedantist, for instance - always reasons,&#xA;applying the process of 'Not this, not this'. Through this&#xA;discrimination he realizes, by his inner perception, that the ego and&#xA;the universe are both illusory, like a dream. Then the jnani realizes&#xA;Brahman in his own consciousness. He can not describe what Brahman&#xA;is.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Do you know what I mean? Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss&#xA;Absolute, as a shore-less ocean. Through the cooling influence as it&#xA;were, of the bhakta's love, the water has frozen at places into blocks&#xA;of ice. In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His&#xA;lovers and reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of&#xA;the sun of knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn't feel&#xA;any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God's forms. What He&#xA;is can not be described. Who will describe Him? He who would do so&#xA;disappears. He cannot find his 'I' anymore.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, October 28, 1882, p 148]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What Brahman is cannot be described. All things in the world - the&#xA;Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, the six systems of philosophy - have&#xA;been defiled, like food that has been touched by the tongue. Only one&#xA;thing has not been defiled in this way, and that is Brahman. No one&#xA;has ever been able to say what Brahman is.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, August 5, 1882, p 102]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Brahman is beyond word and thought. It is said in the Vedas that&#xA;Brahman is of the nature of Bliss. It is Satchidananda. ..... In Samadhi one&#xA;attains the knowledge of Brahman - one realizes Brahman. In that state&#xA;reasoning stops altogether, and man becomes mute. He has no power to&#xA;describe the nature of Brahman.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, August 5, 1882, p 102-103]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna also says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot; Brahman is without comparison. It is impossible to explain Brahman&#xA;by analogy. It is between light and darkness. It is light, but not the&#xA;light we perceive, not material light.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, October 16, 1883, p 307]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then again Brahman has also been compared to a chameleon by Sri&#xA;Ramakrishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Listen to a story. Once a man entered a wood and saw a small animal&#xA;on a tree. He came back and told another man that he had seen a&#xA;creature of a beautiful red color on a certain tree. The second man&#xA;replied:'When I went into the wood, I also saw that animal. But why do&#xA;you call it red? It is green.' Another man who was present&#xA;contradicted them both and insisted that it was yellow. Presently&#xA;others arrived and contended that it was grey, violet, blue and so&#xA;forth and so on. At last they started quarreling among themselves. To&#xA;settle the dispute they all went to the tree. They saw a man sitting&#xA;under it. On being asked, he replied,'Yes, I live under this tree and&#xA;I know the animal very well. All your descriptions are true. Sometimes&#xA;it appears red, sometimes yellow, and at other times blue, violet,&#xA;grey, and so forth. It is a chameleon. And sometimes it has no color&#xA;at all. Now it has a color and now it has none.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In like manner, one who constantly thinks of God can know His real&#xA;nature; he alone knows that God reveals Himself to seekers in various&#xA;forms and aspects.  God has attributes; then again He has none. Only&#xA;the man who lives under the tree knows that the chameleon can appear&#xA;in various colors, and he knows, further, that the animal at times has&#xA;no colors at all. It is the others who suffer from the agony of futile&#xA;arguments........ God reveals Himself in the form which His devotee&#xA;loves most.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, October 28, 1882, p 149]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am adding this to clear up confusion. Although I am afraid that it might increase it!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirguna Brahman does not exist. It is Satchidananda. Here Sat means existence itself, chid means consciousness itself and ananda means bliss itself. &lt;strong&gt;It is impossible to say anything about Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upanishad also says that Brahman is pure consciousness, devoid of&#xA;other aspects contrary to this, and without any distinguishing&#xA;features, as in, “As a lump of salt is without interior or exterior,&#xA;entire, and purely saline in taste, even so is the Self without&#xA;interior or exterior, entire, and pure Intelligence alone”&#xA;(Brhadaranyaka Upanishad IV.v.13), which means that the Self has no&#xA;internal or external aspect apart from pure consciousness, Its nature&#xA;being mere impartite consciousness without any interstices. Just as a&#xA;lump of salt has the saline taste alone both inside and outside, and&#xA;no other taste, so also is this Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya III.ii.16&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirguna Brahman can only be expressed in negation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, the Vedas reveal through a negation of other aspects that&#xA;Brahman has no distinguishing feature, as for instance in, “Now&#xA;therefore the description (of Brahman): ‘Not this, not this’”&#xA;(Brhadaranyaka Upanishad II.iii.6), “That (Brahman) is surely&#xA;different from the known; and, again, It is above the unknown” (Kena&#xA;Upanishad I.4), “That Bliss of Brahman, failing to reach which, words&#xA;turn back along with the mind” (Taittiriya Upanishad II.ix.1), and so&#xA;on. And it is also known from the Vedic texts that Badhva being asked&#xA;by Baskali, replied merely by not uttering a word, as stated in, “He&#xA;(Baskali) said, ‘Teach me Brahman, sir.’ He (Badhva) became silent.&#xA;When the question was repeated a second and a third time he said, ‘I&#xA;have already spoken, but you cannot comprehend. That Self is&#xA;Quiescence’ “. Similarly in the Smritis, the instruction is given&#xA;through a negation of other things, as in, “I shall tell you of that&#xA;which is to be known and by knowing which one attains immortality. The&#xA;supreme Brahman is without any beginning. It can neither be called&#xA;gross (visible) nor fine (invisible)” (Gita XIII.12), and so on.&#xA;Similarly the Smriti mentions how Narayana in His cosmic form said to&#xA;Narada, “O Narada, that you see me as possessed of all the (five&#xA;divine) qualities of all elements, is only because of My Maya, called&#xA;up by Myself. For else you should not understand Me thus.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya III.ii.17&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman according to Yajnavalkya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajnavalkya said: O Gargi, it is the supreme being that the non-yogins&#xA;call gross but, in fact, that is eternal and wonderful lord; one that&#xA;is not long, not red, that has no head, that has no setting, hence&#xA;that has a lasting taste, that has no contact, no smell, no juice, no&#xA;eyes, no ears, neither speech nor mind, no brilliance, no proof [or&#xA;magnitude], no (worldly) happiness, no name, no race, no death, no&#xA;age, no ailment; that is nectarine, that is expressed by the word Om,&#xA;that is immortal, that has neither a predecessor nor a successor, that&#xA;is endless and non-external. It eats something. It does not eat&#xA;anything. ..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Linga Purana II.9.53–54&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahman does not exist&lt;/strong&gt; but is the source of all existence. Brahman, however, cannot be described in any manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where does Shiva, Vishnu come in?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Special Forms&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman also maintains special forms for helping human seekers. The various deities like Siva, Vishnu, Devi, Ganesha etc are different names and forms of Brahman. In spite of these Devatas Hinduism is not polytheistic as is clear from the following passages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Know that this entire universe is under the control of one divine&#xA;Being. The Veda that is in the soul.......regards the unity of various&#xA;creatures. When a living creature realizes this unity in consequence&#xA;of true knowledge, he is then said to attain to Brahman&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXXX&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot; The Supreme Spirit hath three condition, In the form of &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;, he&#xA;is the Creator, and in the form of &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; he is the Preserver, and in&#xA;his form as &lt;strong&gt;Rudra&lt;/strong&gt;, he is the Destroyer of the Universe&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata Vana Parva Section CCLXX&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This one divine being is called Isvara and the multiple Deities are His forms. Brahman is called Isvara when thought of as relative to the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2022-04-28T04:37:30.213" LastActivityDate="2022-04-28T04:37:30.213" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11482" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11444" CreationDate="2016-04-18T14:44:26.100" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who told you. Travel the world my dear. All the religion have only root is Sanatan Dharma. Yes there is declination takes in sanatan dhrma.&#xA;I research more then 5 religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism etc) and in conclusion they follow some shocking vedic rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is only difference in name due to local language. &lt;em&gt;They all are equal really&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;like you call tiger I call शेर.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5362" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T06:33:58.857" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T06:33:58.857" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11483" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7961" CreationDate="2016-04-18T14:44:53.140" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;One has to read Vyasa's teachings on the gods to get an answer to this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hari and Isana are equivalent&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well-adored by the Rishis, by Brahma, and by all the deities, that&#xA;great God, the Lord of the universe, otherwise called by the name of&#xA;Hari, then addressed the illustrious Isana and said these words:-He&#xA;that knows thee, knows me. He that follows thee, follows me. There is&#xA;no difference between thee and me. Do thou never think otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCCXLIII&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Partha, with a cheerful soul, and joined hands and eyes expanded&#xA;(in wonder), gazed at the god having the bull for his mark [Siva] and&#xA;who was the receptacle of every energy. And he beheld the offerings he&#xA;made every night to Vasudeva lying by the side of the Three-eyed&#xA;deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07078.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Drona Parva Section LXXXI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa has already shown the equivalence of Hari and Shiva in Mahabharata. So it is a matter of taste whether one regards Shiva as the Supreme or Vishnu as the Supreme. The different Puranas are catering to different tastes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2024-03-29T09:09:09.537" LastActivityDate="2024-03-29T09:09:09.537" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11486" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-18T17:31:21.787" Score="1" ViewCount="40" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are number of religions present today in the world. Every religion has its Holy book except Hinduism E.g Bible, Quran etc. So which is Holy book of Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also some people says that Hinduism is not a religion, it's a spell of living. Some people like Subramannyam Swami ( BJP party) say that Hinduism is the basis of all religions present in the world. So my question is  Hinduism really a religion or anything else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5321" LastActivityDate="2016-04-18T17:31:21.787" Title="Is Hinduism a religion?" Tags="|history|india|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-04-18T17:35:58.950" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11488" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-18T18:02:31.113" Score="0" ViewCount="2373" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some Muslim leaders say &lt;a href=&quot;http://m.timesofindia.com/india/Lord-Shiva-first-messenger-of-Islam-Muslim-cleric-says/articleshow/46306675.cms&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lord Shiva was the  first messenger of Islam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true or just a rumor being spread  amongst the people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5321" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T06:50:35.133" LastActivityDate="2018-12-22T08:02:12.137" Title="Was Lord Shiva first messenger of Islam?" Tags="|shiva|history|other-religions|islam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ClosedDate="2018-12-23T02:39:10.607" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11491" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11452" CreationDate="2016-04-18T19:34:47.033" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the case of Vishnu, His very name means One Who is present everywhere; so the Lord does not need to disappear somewhere else in order to be manifest before our senses. He is already here, He simply chooses where and where to manifest Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5369" LastActivityDate="2016-04-18T19:34:47.033" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11497" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11444" CreationDate="2016-04-19T07:21:33.307" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism_by_country&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism_by_country&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually there are very few countries with a significant number of Hindus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By total number, India has the most Hindus. By percentage, Nepal has the largest majority of Hindu population in the world followed by India and Mauritius.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since over 95% of all Hindus are in India, it looks like there is only one country where Hinduism is dominant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why ISIS growing his terrorist activities? Lord must stop it all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This seems off-topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5376" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T07:21:33.307" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11498" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-19T08:32:27.703" Score="1" ViewCount="298" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the branches in the Vedas ? There are 1131 branches in Vedas, some of them are extinct.&#xA;Then how we can say that the Vedas are in their original form ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वेदों की शाखाएं क्या हैं ? वेदों&#xA;  की ११३१ शाखाएं बतलाई जाती हैं,&#xA;  जो बहुत सी लुप्त हो गई हैं, तब यह कैसे&#xA;  माना जाए कि वेद मूल स्वरुप में ही हैं ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5362" LastEditorUserId="5376" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T09:47:25.373" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T09:47:25.373" Title="What are the branches in the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-01-09T10:26:21.297" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11499" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9211" CreationDate="2016-04-19T08:38:46.290" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;This story is mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana Shristi Khanda chapter 17.&lt;/strong&gt; Savitri curses all Gods and Godesses after seeing Brahma had married Gayatri as she came late in yagna. Surprising part is that in this chapter Savitri rains words of curses to all and most curses we read in several Purans and scriptures are given here by Savitri::&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;130.The priests also worshipped the blazing fire (offering) portion of the sacrificial animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;131-136.Gods desirous of receiving portions of oblations at the sacrifice then said: &amp;quot; (The sacrifice) should not be delayed; (for an act) performed late, does not give its (desired) fruit; this is the rule that is seen in the Vedas by all the learned.&amp;quot; &#xA;  When two milk (-pots) were ready, the food was jointly cooked, and when the brahmanas were invited, the adhvaryu to whom the oblation was offered had come there, and the pravargya was performed by brahmanas skilled in the Vedas; the food was being prepared. Goddess (Savitri) seeing that said angrily to Brahma who was sitting silently at the (sacrificial) session: &amp;quot;What is this misdeed you are about to do, that through lust you have abandoning me and committed a sin? She, whom you have put on your head (i.e. whom you have given so much importance) is not&#xA;  comparable with even the dust of my foot. This is what people gathered in the (sacrificial) assembly say. If you so desire, follow that command of those who are (like) gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;137-141.Through your longing for beauty you have done what is condemned by people; O lord, you were not ashamed&#xA;  of your sons nor of your grandsons; I think you have done this censurable deed through passion; you are the grandsire of gods&#xA;  and the great grandsire of the sages I How did you not feel shame when you see your own body? You have become ridiculous&#xA;  for people and have harmed me. If this is your firm feeling, then O god, live (alone); salutation (goodbye) to you; how shall I&#xA;  (be able t J) show my face to my friends? How shall I tell people that my husband has taken (another lady as) his wife?&amp;quot; &#xA;  Brahma said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;142-144.Immediately after the time of initiation, the priests prompted me: Without wife the sacrifice cannot be performed; bring your wife quickly. This (other) wife wasbrought by Indra, and presented to me by Visnu; (so) I accepted her; O you of beautiful eyebrows, pardon me for what I have done. O you of good vow, I shall not wrong you like this again. Pardon me, who have fallen at your feet; my salutation to&#xA;  you. Pulastya said:Thus addressed, she got angry, and set about to curse Brahma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;145-148.&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;If I have practised penance, if I have pleased my preceptors in the groups of brahmanas, and at various places, brahmanas will never offer you worship, except your annual worship (that falls) in the month of Kartika which the brahmanas will (alone) offer, but not other men at any other place on the earth.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; Saying these words to Brahma, she said to Indra who was nearby: &amp;quot;O Sakra, you brought the cowherdess to Brahma. Since this was a mean deed you will obtain its fruit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;149.When you will stand (ready to fight) in a battle, you will be bound by your enemies and will be reduced to a very (pitiable) plight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;150.Being without any possession, having lost your energy, you will, having faced a great defeat, live in your enemy&amp;apos;s city, &#xA;  (but) will soon be released.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;151-153.&lt;strong&gt;Having cursed Indra (like this) the goddess then spoke (these words) to Visnu: &amp;quot;When, due to the curse of Bhrgu you will be born in the mortal world, you will there (i.e.in that existence) experience the pain of separation from your wife. Your wife will be taken by your enemy beyond the great ocean; with your mind struck by grief you will not know (by whom she is) taken, and you will be unhappy along with your brother after having met with a great calamity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;154-156.&lt;strong&gt;When you will be born in the Yadu-family, you will be named Krsna; and being the attendant of beasts will wander for a long time.&amp;quot; Then the angry one said to Rudra: &amp;quot;When you will stay in the Daruvana, then, O Rudra, the angry sages will curse you; O you skull-holder, mean one, you desire to snatch away a lady from amongst us; therefore, this arrogant generative organ of yours will today fall on the ground.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;157-160.Void of manliness, you will be afflicted by the sages&amp;apos; curse. Your wife residing at the Gaiigadvara will console &#xA;  you.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;O Agni, you were formerly made all-consumer by my son Bhrgu, always righteous. How shall I burn (you) who are already burnt by him? O Agni, that Rudra will submerge you with his semen, and your tongue (i.e. your flame) will blaze more&#xA;  while consuming things not fit for a sacrifice.&amp;quot; Savitri cursed all&#xA;  the brahmanas and priests who had become the sacrificial priests for looting her husband, and who had, for nothing, &#xA;  resorted to the forest:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;161.&amp;quot;Resort to all sacred and holy places through greed only; you will always be satisfied only (when you get) food of&#xA;  others; but will not be contented with food (prepared in) your own houses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;162-164.By sacrificing that which is not to be sacrificed and by accepting what is contemptible, by earning wealth and&#xA;  spending it purposelessly—by that (your) dead bodies will only be departed spirits without obsequial rites (being offered to &#xA;  them).&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;In this way that angry (Savitri) cursed Indra, so also Visnu, Rudra, Agni, Brahma and all the brahmanas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;165-166.Having thus cursed them, she went out of the (sacrificial) assembly. Having reached the preeminent Puskara, she settled (there). She said to LaksmI who was laughing and also to the beautiful wife of Indra and also to young ladies (there) : &amp;quot;I shall go there where I won&amp;apos;t hear any sound.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;167.Then all those ladies went to their respective residences. Savitri, who was angry, set about to curse them&#xA;  too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;168.&amp;quot;Since these divine ladies have abandoned me and gone, I, who am extremely angry, shall curse them also:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;169-171.&lt;strong&gt;Laksmi shall never stay at one place. She, the mean and fickle-minded one, will stay among fools, among the &#xA;  barbarians and the mountaineers, among the foolish and the proud; so also as a result of (my) curse, you (i.e. LaksmI) will stay with mean persons such as the accursed and the wicked ones&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;172-174.Having thus given a curse (to Laksmi), she cursed Indrani: &amp;quot;When Indra, your husband, oppressed by (the sinof) murder of a brahmana, will be unhappy, and when his kingdom will be snatched away by Nahu§a, he will, having seen you, ask for you. (He will say) &amp;apos;I am Indra; how is it that this childish (lady) does not wait upon me? I shall kill all gods if I do not obtain SacI (i.e. Indraru)&amp;apos;. Then you who will have to run away, and will be alarmed and grieved, will stay in the&#xA;  house of Brhaspati, as a result of my curse, O you of wicked conduct and proud (one).&amp;quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;175-178.&lt;strong&gt;Then she pronounced a curse on all the wives of gods: &amp;quot;All these (ladies) will not get affection due from children; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  they will be scorched (with grief) day and night and will be insulted and called &amp;apos;barren&amp;apos;.&amp;quot; Gauri, of an excellent complexion was also cursed by Savitrl. She, who was weeping, was seen by &#xA;  Visnu and he propitiated her: &amp;quot;O you of large eyes, do not weep; you ever-auspicious one, (please) come on; entering the &#xA;  (sacrificial) assembly, hand over your girdle and silken garments; O you wife of Brahma, receive the initiation, I salute your feet.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;179.Thus addressed, she said to him: &amp;quot;I shall do as you say; and I shall go there where I shall not hear (any) sound.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;180-215.Having said this much, she (going) from that place and having climbed up a mountain, remained there. Remaining in front of her with great devotion, Visnu, joining his hands and having bent down, eulogised her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The curse how they turned to River is also mentioned in Padma Purana::&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana Uttara Khanda:&#xA;CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Greatness of Krsna and Veni&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prthu said: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  1-2.You told (me) that formerly Kalaha came out of the body of the merchant on the bank (of the confluence) of Krsna and Veni (and went) with the attendants of Siva and Visnu. &#xA;  (Now) O you who know Dharma, tell me about the greatness of the two rivers and that place. I have a curiosity about it.&#xA;  Narada said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3-8a.&lt;strong&gt;Krsna is actually the dark-bodied one, and Veni is god Siva. (Even) the Four-faced (Brahma) is not able to describe the greatness of their confluence.&lt;/strong&gt; Yet, I shall tell you about their origin. Listen to it. &lt;strong&gt;Formerly in the age of Caksusa Manu,&lt;/strong&gt; Manu&amp;apos;s grandfather (i.e. Brahma) was ready to perform a sacrifice on the charming peak of the Sahya mountain. Surrounded by hosts of all gods, and with Visnu and Siva, he after making the preparation for the sacrifice, went to the peak of that mountain. At the time (sacred to) god Brahma (i.e. the early part of the day) the hosts of sages like Bhrgu gathered there to initiate him. Then, through the brahmanas Visnu called the elder wife &#xA;  Svara. When she was coming slowly, Bhrgu said to Visnu: Bhrgu said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8b-9a.O Visnu, you called Svara; but she is not coming quickly. This is the transgression of the auspicious moment. How can the rite of initiation be done? Visnu said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9b-10a. If Svara is not coming quickly, then put Gayatri here (i.e. in her place). Can this wife of him also not join him in the meritorious deed? Narada said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10b-13.Rudra also, in the same way, approved of Visnu&amp;apos;s words. That Bhrgu, hearing those words, seated Gayatri to the right of Brahma, and performed the rite of initiation. O king,while they were duly performing the rite of initiation of Brahma, Svara came to the place of the sacrifice. Seeing Gayatrl initiated with Brahma, Svara due to jealousy for her co-wife, angrily said (these) words: Svara said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14-16.(When) those that do not deserve to be honoured,are honoured, and those that deserve to be honoured are ignored,&#xA;  three (inauspicious things) take place there: famine, death, fear. You have seated this younger one on my seat. Therefore, all of&#xA;  you, being devoid of consciousness will have various forms. &lt;strong&gt;Since she has sat on my seat, on the right (of Brahma), therefore let her have a body of a river invisible to the people.&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  Narada said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;17-18.Then hearing that curse, Gayatrl trembled; and getting up, she, though restrained by gods, cursed that Svara.&#xA;  &amp;quot;As Brahma is your husband, so he is also mine. You have in vain cursed me. You too (will) become a river.&amp;quot; Narada said: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;19.Then all gods led by Siva and Visnu felt grief; saluting (by prostrating) like a staff on the ground, they requested Svara:The gods said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;20-21.O goddess, since you have cursed all of us like Brahma, if we all become devoid of consciousness and turn into rivers, then these three worlds will certainly perish. You have acted imprudently. Therefore, withdraw this curse. Svara said: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;22-24.O best gods, since at the commencement of the sacrifice you did not worship the lord of the attendants (i.e Ganesa), therefore this obstacle, due to my anger, has indeed come up. Nor again, these words of me will be untrue. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore, with your portions dulled, turn into rivers.&lt;/strong&gt; We, the two cowives, shall become two rivers, flowing into the west, by means of our portions, O gods.Narada said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;25-31.O king, then hearing her words Brahma, Visnu and Siva became dulled and turned into rivers just by means of their portions. &lt;strong&gt;Visnu became Krsna, and god Siva Veni. Brahma then separately became Gariga having humps (of waves). The wise gods also, having dulled their portions, became good rivers separately (flowing) from the peaks of Sahya mountain.&lt;/strong&gt; The best rivers, (formed) with the portions of gods, flowed into the east. Gayatrl and Svara. joined together, flowing westward, came to be called Savitri. Both Visnu and Siva appointed at that sacrifice, became (known) by the names Mahabala and Atibala.O king, I am not able to describe the greatness of the &#xA;  two rivers. Gods like Brahma went (from the place) and remain, through their portions, as rivers. Every act of him who listens with devotion to this great (account of) Krsna, removing sins or causes (others) to hear it, would become meritorious, and gets the fruit due to seeing her and bathing in her (water).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T10:40:08.383" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T10:40:08.383" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11501" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-19T09:52:24.123" Score="5" ViewCount="850" Body="&lt;p&gt;Plenty of slokas in Geetha says that attachment is a bad thing and one should leave it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My doubt is &amp;quot;Can both love and attachment coexist?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us consider Yashoda as well as gopi's, I allegedly know that Yashoda and gopi's cry for Krishna's (physical body) presence. It shows that they are physically attached to Krishna. Is it attachment or love?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us consider Vasista, he didn't cry even though his sons die in front of his eyes because he has no attachment but only loves if I'm true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most people say that Yashoda and gopi have love for Krishna. If it is true, then attachment and love can coexist. Is it true? If they can coexist, then why Geetha says attachment is a bad thing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-10T23:52:05.067" LastActivityDate="2022-01-12T04:05:02.387" Title="Does attachment and love coexist?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|love|non-attachment|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11502" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11501" CreationDate="2016-04-19T10:01:43.750" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This might help:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: What is the difference between love and attachment?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Sri:&#xA;Attachment is that which gives you pain. Love is that without which&#xA;you cannot live. If love becomes attachment, then the same love which&#xA;was giving you joy, starts to inflict pain. Attachment is when you&#xA;want something in return. If you love and don't want anything in&#xA;return, then that love doesn't turn into attachment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpt from a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;https://plus.google.com/+SriSriRaviShankar/posts/DJmmZLpX5vy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://plus.google.com/+SriSriRaviShankar/posts/DJmmZLpX5vy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T10:01:43.750" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11505" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-19T10:46:36.777" Score="2" ViewCount="890" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that  greatest war was fought on the land of Kurukshetra in Mahabharata.&#xA;But I want to ask is why Kurukshetra war took place?  Was &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draupadi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Draupadi&lt;/a&gt;'s insult the only and main reason for it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5386" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-12T10:21:57.537" Title="Why Kurukshetra war took place?" Tags="|mahabharata|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11506" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-19T10:54:14.887" Score="0" ViewCount="110" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna had killed Barbarika, the grandson of Bhima, after watching his archery skills. Barbarika could have ended the war within a single day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although Barbarika had vowed to take part in the weaker side, which mean than initially he would have fought with Pandavas. Then, with the Kauravas and then with the Pandavs again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, Krishna could have asked Barbarika to forego his vow, and fight for the Pandavas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T11:03:28.787" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T11:03:28.787" Title="Why Krishna Killed Barbarika?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-09-06T07:15:04.677" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11508" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11525" CreationDate="2016-04-19T11:56:34.993" Score="7" ViewCount="4550" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ramalila.blogspot.ae/2007/03/chapter-11-ravana-goes-to-bali-for-help.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This website&lt;/a&gt; says that Ravana was not able to lift the earrings of Hiranyakashipu. It says it was when Ravana went to Patala to take help of Maharaja Bali that this event happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So Bali said, &quot;Yes, that's right. This is the earring of Hiranyakasipu. During the fight between Hiranyakasipu and Lord Nrsimhadeva, this earring fell down here. &lt;strong&gt;In your previous birth you were Hiranyakasipu, and the Lord killed you. You were much more powerful than you are now. You can't even pick up this earring that you used to wear. Now Visnu has come again, and He will surely kill you.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; But even after that example, Ravana couldn't understand. He left the kingdom of Bali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where is this story mentioned in our scriptures ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-23T15:42:23.287" LastActivityDate="2017-01-13T17:08:57.440" Title="Was Ravana not able to lift the Earrings of Hiranyakashipu?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|scripture|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11510" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-19T12:03:50.100" Score="2" ViewCount="1029" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-three_gods&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article on wikipedia which is about thirty three devatas (trayastrimsati koti). But there is no Ganesha in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to ask in which category Ganesha Belong?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5365" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-04-20T06:27:51.887" LastActivityDate="2022-06-08T04:01:17.493" Title="Is Ganesh true dev?" Tags="|ganesha|gods|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11511" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-19T12:11:32.807" Score="3" ViewCount="180" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that in India ,there is caste system.  But can anybody tell me how caste are produced ? Also,  is it present only in India ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5392" LastEditorUserId="5392" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T12:18:17.983" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T22:06:04.140" Title="How castes were produced in India?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11513" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11488" CreationDate="2016-04-19T12:42:38.250" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;First messenger of Islam is Adam, the first human being. God created Adam first and then from him Eve and from this pair we all emerged so we are all like members of a big family. Thus, Islam preaches universal brotherhood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“O Mankind! We have created you from a single pair of male and female, and made you in to nations and tribes, that you may know one another (not that you may hate each other). Surely the most honourable of you in the sight of Allah is (he, who is) the most righteous of you….” [Quran 49:13]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One mufti mohammad of luknow I guess commented that Adam-Eve are actually Shiva-parvati.  Not sure if he wanted to gain political benefit from that comment or wanted to bring peace between Hindu-Muslims but this comment is not correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know Shiva first appeared in Vedas as Rudra, one of the 33 devatas. Later he appears extensively in Hindu mythological books like in Shiva puranam etc.,  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus equating Adam and Shiva is nothing but intellectual fraud. We should present scriptures as they are without such manipulations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4526" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T12:42:38.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11515" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11511" CreationDate="2016-04-19T12:49:32.013" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The caste-system a few thousand years ago was largely &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; (profession) based. The caste-system as we see today, was artificially created and then systematically enforced by the British to dominate Hindus or India. Rajiv Malhotra in his book 'Breaking India' talks about this at great length. I would recommend that you read that book. I will post some excerpts below to just give an overview. Also, Nazism was a race based discrimination against Jews which resulted in Holocaust.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Europeans invent the Aryan race:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the eighteenth century, when the traditional religious edifice of&#xA;Europe was threatened by the Enlightenment, Europeans looked for a&#xA;golden past. Many hoped they could find it in India, which had been&#xA;the source of much of Europe's imports for centuries. In this search&#xA;for identity, they began to hypothesize and construct an idealized&#xA;'Aryan race' through a distorted reading of Indian scriptures. Fed by&#xA;virulent German nationalism, anti-Semitism and Race Science, this&#xA;manipulation ultimately led to the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Inventing the 'Dravidian race':&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the late eighteenth century, the Indologist Max Müller proposed the Aryan category strictly as a linguistic group, but it soon got transformed into the Aryan race by colonial administrators who used Race Science to make a taxonomical division of traditional Indian communities. The castes designated as 'non-Aryan' were marginalized or excluded in depictions of Hindu society. In parallel, the Church evangelists working in South India constructed a Dravidian race identity. They de-linked Tamil culture from its pan-Indian cultural matrix, and claimed that its spirituality was closer to Christianity than to the Aryan North Indian culture.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Use of Aryan theory against Jews:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Philosopher Ernest Renan (1823–92) claimed that the Hebrews brought&#xA;the gift of monotheism to the world, and that Jews were self-centered,&#xA;troublesome and static. The Aryans had noble virtues like imagination,&#xA;reason, science, arts and politics, and were therefore dynamic, and&#xA;these qualities became linked to polytheism and pantheism. Aryan&#xA;polytheism was dynamic and contrasted with the monotheistic stagnation&#xA;of the Semites. This sort of profiling led to tension between&#xA;pro-Aryan scholars and the Christian establishment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Risley's morphs Jati-Varna into Race (Caste) and freezes them:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Risley wrote that he wanted his 'scientific' research to 'detach&#xA;considerable masses of non-Aryans from the general body of Hindus'. He&#xA;adopted the popular Race Science measurement methods used by French&#xA;experts, according to which physical traits, such as the size of the&#xA;nose, were a more reliable measure than skin color. Risley was an&#xA;enthusiastic champion of the newly fashionable science called&#xA;anthropometry, which measured various parts of the head to&#xA;characterize different peoples. He used his measurements of people in&#xA;India to conclude that there was a remarkable correspondence between&#xA;two kinds of data, namely, (i) the 'gradations of type' as brought out&#xA;by certain indices of head measurements, and (ii) the 'gradations of&#xA;social preference'. This, he wrote, 'enables us to conclude that the&#xA;community of races, and not, as has frequently been argued, the&#xA;community of function, is the real determining principle . . . of the&#xA;caste system'. His 1891 ethnographic study of Bengal became the model&#xA;for similar studies across India. His program measured Bengali heads&#xA;and noses with calipers in order to establish hierarchies based on&#xA;physical body dimensions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on Risley's research, Indians were classified into seven major races located on a linear scale, with Aryans and Dravidians as the two opposite poles. He also organized 'social types' into seven groups. To protect himself, he wrote numerous disclaimers against blatant racism, and against taking things too far. Yet that was precisely what he did and wanted others to do. He claimed that according to his data, 'the correspondence between the two sets of groupings', namely, the seven races and the seven social types, was sufficiently close. He thereby concluded that Indian tribes had turned into castes. He described the various tribal types in the order of their primitiveness, positioning the Dravidians as the lowest, assigning manual labor as their 'birthright', along with human sacrifices to a goddess.16 Those tribes that had developed professional specialization became castes, while those that had remained in a limited geographic territory were still classified as tribes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the &lt;em&gt;commissioner of the 1901 census of India&lt;/em&gt;, Risley wrote the&#xA;section on caste, which was published in the highly influential&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Imperial Gazetteer of India&lt;/em&gt;, and became the template for academicians and colonial administrators to do their studies. &lt;strong&gt;He&#xA;decided that Indians consisted of &lt;em&gt;2,378 main castes and tribes (with&#xA;sub-castes), and 43 races&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; To implement his hierarchy of castes, he&#xA;decided not to list them in alphabetical order in the census forms,&#xA;but rather in order of what he considered 'social preference' based on&#xA;his evaluation of 'native public opinion'. Thus, a hierarchy was&#xA;constructed and made official. The bewildering array of castes he&#xA;listed, from which each person was required to choose when filling out&#xA;official government forms, ran into so many pages that it 'gives so&#xA;much trouble to the enumerating and testing staff and to the central&#xA;offices which compile the results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Risley translated the dharma of various jatis as 'race sentiments', and made it his ambition to scientifically prove that a comparatively pure 'Aryan type' existed in North India. His obsession with noses caught on with other colonial administrators. For example, noses of Indians became the subject of scientific inquiry for Edgar Thurston, author of the voluminous Castes and Tribes of Southern India (1909). Thurston even used his 'Lovibond Tintometer' (originally an instrument for quality-testing in breweries) to measure the racial features of Indian villagers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I first heard about this, it did not sound convincing. Although, this book talks in-depth about the large extent to which the British used an artificial caste-system to dominate India, making it very clear and evident.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T22:06:04.140" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11516" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-19T13:25:09.593" Score="4" ViewCount="3611" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know Vidura for his intellectual skills and as an advisior. But also why he didn't participate? Is it right to say that he was against Kurukshetra war? Is Krishna the reason for it again?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5241" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T14:17:09.303" Title="Why Vidura did not paticipate in Kurukshetra war?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11517" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="157" CreationDate="2016-04-19T14:37:33.693" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The caste-system a few thousand years ago was largely &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; (profession) based. The caste-system as we see today, was artificially created and then systematically enforced by the British to dominate Hindus or India. Rajiv Malhotra in his book 'Breaking India' talks about this at great length. I would recommend that you read that book. I will post some excerpts below to just give an overview.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Europeans invent the Aryan race:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the eighteenth century, when the traditional religious edifice of&#xA;Europe was threatened by the Enlightenment, Europeans looked for a&#xA;golden past. Many hoped they could find it in India, which had been&#xA;the source of much of Europe's imports for centuries. In this search&#xA;for identity, they began to hypothesize and construct an idealized&#xA;'Aryan race' through a distorted reading of Indian scriptures. Fed by&#xA;virulent German nationalism, anti-Semitism and Race Science, this&#xA;manipulation ultimately led to the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Inventing the 'Dravidian race':&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the late eighteenth century, the Indologist Max Müller proposed the Aryan category strictly as a linguistic group, but it soon got transformed into the Aryan race by colonial administrators who used Race Science to make a taxonomical division of traditional Indian communities. The castes designated as 'non-Aryan' were marginalized or excluded in depictions of Hindu society. In parallel, the Church evangelists working in South India constructed a Dravidian race identity. They de-linked Tamil culture from its pan-Indian cultural matrix, and claimed that its spirituality was closer to Christianity than to the Aryan North Indian culture.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Risley's morphs Jati-Varna into Race (Caste) and freezes them:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Risley wrote that he wanted his 'scientific' research to 'detach&#xA;considerable masses of non-Aryans from the general body of Hindus'. He&#xA;adopted the popular Race Science measurement methods used by French&#xA;experts, according to which physical traits, such as the size of the&#xA;nose, were a more reliable measure than skin color. Risley was an&#xA;enthusiastic champion of the newly fashionable science called&#xA;anthropometry, which measured various parts of the head to&#xA;characterize different peoples. He used his measurements of people in&#xA;India to conclude that there was a remarkable correspondence between&#xA;two kinds of data, namely, (i) the 'gradations of type' as brought out&#xA;by certain indices of head measurements, and (ii) the 'gradations of&#xA;social preference'. This, he wrote, 'enables us to conclude that the&#xA;community of races, and not, as has frequently been argued, the&#xA;community of function, is the real determining principle . . . of the&#xA;caste system'. His 1891 ethnographic study of Bengal became the model&#xA;for similar studies across India. His program measured Bengali heads&#xA;and noses with calipers in order to establish hierarchies based on&#xA;physical body dimensions.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on Risley's research, Indians were classified into seven major races located on a linear scale, with Aryans and Dravidians as the two opposite poles. He also organized 'social types' into seven groups. To protect himself, he wrote numerous disclaimers against blatant racism, and against taking things too far. Yet that was precisely what he did and wanted others to do. He claimed that according to his data, 'the correspondence between the two sets of groupings', namely, the seven races and the seven social types, was sufficiently close. He thereby concluded that Indian tribes had turned into castes. He described the various tribal types in the order of their primitiveness, positioning the Dravidians as the lowest, assigning manual labor as their 'birthright', along with human sacrifices to a goddess.16 Those tribes that had developed professional specialization became castes, while those that had remained in a limited geographic territory were still classified as tribes.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the &lt;em&gt;commissioner of the 1901 census of India&lt;/em&gt;, Risley wrote the&#xA;section on caste, which was published in the highly influential&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Imperial Gazetteer of India&lt;/em&gt;, and became the template for academicians and colonial administrators to do their studies. &lt;strong&gt;He&#xA;decided that Indians consisted of &lt;em&gt;2,378 main castes and tribes (with&#xA;sub-castes), and 43 races&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; To implement his hierarchy of castes, he&#xA;decided not to list them in alphabetical order in the census forms,&#xA;but rather in order of what he considered 'social preference' based on&#xA;his evaluation of 'native public opinion'. Thus, a hierarchy was&#xA;constructed and made official. The bewildering array of castes he&#xA;listed, from which each person was required to choose when filling out&#xA;official government forms, ran into so many pages that it 'gives so&#xA;much trouble to the enumerating and testing staff and to the central&#xA;offices which compile the results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Risley translated the dharma of various jatis as 'race sentiments', and made it his ambition to scientifically prove that a comparatively pure 'Aryan type' existed in North India. His obsession with noses caught on with other colonial administrators. For example, noses of Indians became the subject of scientific inquiry for Edgar Thurston, author of the voluminous Castes and Tribes of Southern India (1909). Thurston even used his 'Lovibond Tintometer' (originally an instrument for quality-testing in breweries) to measure the racial features of Indian villagers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I first heard about this, it did not sound convincing. Although, this book talks in-depth about the large extent to which the British used an artificial caste-system to dominate India, making it very clear and evident.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T22:08:52.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11518" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-19T14:41:24.073" Score="4" ViewCount="205" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do Hindu texts talk about any of this:&#xA;How does memory work? &#xA;Where is memory stored? &#xA;Or, any other references related to memory are welcome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-30T09:49:42.860" LastActivityDate="2016-12-30T09:49:42.860" Title="Do Hindu texts talk about memory?" Tags="|consciousness|smriti|mind|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11519" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-19T14:47:20.723" Score="3" ViewCount="181" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra was considered as king of Gods. But if we see his personal life, we learn that he has kidnapped many females few of whom were married and few were unmarried. Some of these were daughters/wives of Rishis/Kings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in spite of his promiscuity why is Indra worshipped by the people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5392" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-09-18T23:14:49.073" LastActivityDate="2018-09-18T23:14:49.073" Title="In spite of his promiscuity why is Indra worshipped?" Tags="|puranas|history|worship|indra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2018-09-19T09:05:44.713" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11520" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-19T15:20:32.163" Score="12" ViewCount="2396" Body="&lt;p&gt;At the starting of 12&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; chapter of Bhagavad Geeta, Arjuna asked:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवं सततयुक्ता ये भक्तास्त्वां पर्युपासते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ये चाप्यक्षरमव्यक्तं तेषां के योगवित्तमाः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English translation (from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/12/1&quot;&gt;vedabase&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna inquired: Which are considered to be more perfect, those who are always properly engaged in Your devotional service or those who worship the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna replied:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मय्यावेश्य मनो ये मां नित्ययुक्ता उपासते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  श्रद्धया परयोपेतास्ते मे युक्ततमा मताः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Those who ﬁx their minds on My personal form and are always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith are considered by Me to be most perfect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know why Krishna considers worshipping as sagun superior than worshipping as nirguna? though both attain the god (BG 12.3-4) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T07:16:37.833" Title="Why does Krishna consider/believe the devotee who worship him as saguna superior than who worship as nirguna?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|bhakti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11521" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-19T15:25:57.247" Score="1" ViewCount="1846" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parents give curse to their children when they are very angry and actually the child also did some work which is beyond the boundary of their society culture, but the child is not wrong. The curse is not seeing wrong and right it is only the curse but I want to know the remedy to reduce the risk generated due to curses in the child life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5394" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-04-20T03:11:32.840" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T03:11:32.840" Title="What are the remedies as per Hindu religion to reduce parents curse?" Tags="|belief|culture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11522" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11521" CreationDate="2016-04-19T15:48:32.743" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Following are some remedies by which you can get rid of “Pitra Dosh”:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;• By completing “Trapandi Shraad”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;• By completing the Shraad on the date on which our ancestors were expired.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;• By giving water to the Banyan tree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;• By offering water to our Pitras for the 15 days during the Shraad or on the date of their death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;• One should offer food to Brahmins on every “Amavasya”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;• By donating food items on every “Amavasya” and “Poornima” in some temple or other religious places. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more information :- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrospeak.com/article/pitra-dosha-curse-remedies&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.astrospeak.com/article/pitra-dosha-curse-remedies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5241" LastEditorUserId="5241" LastEditDate="2016-04-19T15:50:54.847" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T15:50:54.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11524" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11516" CreationDate="2016-04-19T18:35:26.047" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First Vidura was not considered as Kshatriya and He was insulted by Duryodhana&#xA;(see below)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, as accepted the&#xA;  sons of Prtha as His kinsmen, and all the kings of the world are with&#xA;  Lord Sri Krsna. He is present in His home with all His family members,&#xA;  the kings and princes of the Yadu dynasty, who have conquered an&#xA;  unlimited number of rulers, and He is their Lord.  &lt;strong&gt;You are&#xA;  maintaining offense personified, Duryodhana, as your infallible son,&#xA;  but he is envious of Lord Krsna. And because you are thus maintaining&#xA;  a nondevotee of Krsna, you are devoid of all auspicious qualities.&#xA;  Relieve yourself of this ill fortune as soon as possible and do good&#xA;  to the whole family! While speaking thus, Vidura, whose&#xA;  personal character was esteemed by respectable persons, was insulted&#xA;  by Duryodhana, who was swollen with anger and whose lips were&#xA;  trembling. Duryodhana was in company with Karna, his younger brothers&#xA;  and his maternal uncle Sakuni.  Who asked him to come here,&#xA;  this son of a kept mistress? He is so crooked that he spies in the&#xA;  interest of the enemy against those on whose support he has grown up.&#xA;  Toss him out of the palace immediately and leave him with only his&#xA;  breath.  Thus being pierced by arrows through his ears and&#xA;  afflicted to the core of his heart, Vidura placed his bow on the door&#xA;  and quit his brother’s palace&lt;/strong&gt;. He was not sorry, for he considered the&#xA;  acts of the external energy to be supreme. By his piety,&#xA;  Vidura achieved the advantages of the pious Kauravas. After leaving&#xA;  Hastinapura, he took shelter of many places of pilgrimages, which are&#xA;  the Lord’s lotus feet. With a desire to gain a high order of pious&#xA;  life, he traveled to holy places where thousands of transcendental&#xA;  forms of the Lord are situated. He began to travel alone,&#xA;  thinking only of Krsna, through various holy places like Ayodhya,&#xA;  Dvaraka and Mathura. He traveled where the grove, hill, orchard, river&#xA;  and lake are all pure and sinless and where the forms of the Unlimited&#xA;  decorate the temples. Thus he performed the pilgrim’s progress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Source : [Srimad Bhagavatam 3.1.12-18]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorUserId="553" LastEditDate="2016-04-20T14:17:09.303" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T14:17:09.303" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11525" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11508" CreationDate="2016-04-19T18:53:19.833" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-24&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana.  Ravana is going around in the Patalalokas, trying to conquer everything in sight, when he comes across a palace, which he soon discovers to be the palace of the demon Mahabali.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8097/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, after Vishnu's incarnation Vamana the dwarf defeated Mahabali, Mahabali was pushed down to Sutalaloka, one of the seven Patalalokas, and Vamana became his guard.  So Ravana offers to free Mahabali from his captivity under Vishnu, but Mahabali laughs and says that Vishnu is invincible.  He asks Ravana to move a giant earring nearby, which belonged to Mahabali's great-grandfather Hiranyakashipu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said this [Bali] the lord of Danavas again spoke unto [Ravana] the lord of Rakshas &amp;quot;O hero, O thou gifted with great strength, take that flaming discus which thou beholdest and come to my side.  I shall then relate to thee the means of eternal liberation. Do what I have told thee, O thou having long arms. Delay not O Ravana.&amp;quot; Hearing this the highly powerful Raksha proceeded, laughing, O descendant of Raghu, where that celestial kundala was. Ravana, proud of his prowess, easily took it up but could not move it by any means. And being ashamed that highly powerful one again attempted.  As soon as it was uplifted the Rakshasa dropped down on ground, bathed in a pool of blood, like unto an uprooted Sala tree. In the meantime there arose a sound from Pushpaka, and the councillors of that lord of Rakshasas cried aloud. Regaining his sense that Rakshas rose up in a moment and lowered his head in shame.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bali said to him &amp;quot;Do thou come, O foremost of Rakshasas and hear my words. O hero, the Kundala,crested with jewels, which thou didst assay to take up, is an ornament for the ear of one of my forefathers. This fell here on the ground, O thou gifted with great strength; another Kundala was thrown on the summit of the mountain. Besides these Kundalas his crown was also cast of on the ground before the altar during the encounter. Formerly none bore enmity towards my ancestor Hiranyakasipu, Time, death, or illness. He had no death during the day, night, evening or morning. O foremost of Rakshasas, he did not experience death from any weapon whatsoever. He created a dreadful enmity with Prahlada. This conflict having taken place with the high souled and heroic Prahlada there rose up a dreadful figure of Narasimha, a terror unto all, O foremost of Rakshasas. And that terrible figure casting his looks about, all the worlds were overwhelmed. Thereupon taking him up with his arms he destroyed him with his nails. The person, who is standing at the door, is this supreme Vasudeva, void of passion. I shalt now relate to thee the words of that supreme God; do than hear, if thy heart is filled with spiritual thoughts. The person, who is standing at the door, hath brought into subjection, in thousands of years, a thousand of Indras, an Ayuta of Devas and hundreds of great Rishis.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The implication is that if Ravana cannot even move Hiranyakashipu's earring, how can he possibly defeat Vishnu, who so easily killed Hiranyakashipu himself?  Mahabali then praises Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the lord Hari, Narayana, the protector of the three worlds. He is Ananta, Kapila, Jishnu and the highly effulgent Narasimha. He is Kratudhama, Sudhama, and hath the dreadful mace in his hand. He is like unto the twelve Adityas, Purana and the excellent Purusha ;he is like unto the red clouds the lord of gods and the best god. O thou having long arms, he is encircled by flames, a great devotee and fond devotees ;this lord preserveth the Universe and hath created it. And he, gifted with great strength, brought about destruction in the form of Time; and this Hari, with a discus in his hand, is sacrifice and is being worshipped in sacrifices. He is at one with all gods all beings, all worlds and all knowledge. He is all forms, the great form, Baladeva and hath long arms; he slayeth heroes, hath heroic eyes, is imperishable and the preceptor of the three worlds. All these sages, who long for final liberation, meditate upon him he, who can know this Purusha, is not sullied with sins. By remembering him, hearing of him and worshipping him, every thing can be obtained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, this chapter doesn't mention Ravana being the next birth of Hiranyakashipu, that's described in the Srimad Bhagavatam as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2042/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Also there's a very good reason why Ravana was so much less powerful than his previous birth Hiranyakashipu: the successive births of Jaya and Vijaya became weaker and weaker.  That's why Vishnu took two incarnations (Narasimha and Varaha) to defeat Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu, but Vishnu defeated both Ravana and Kumbakarna in one incarnation as Rama, and by the time of Shishupala and Dantavakra, defeating Shishupala was just a minor part of Vishnu's incarnation as Krishna, and killing Dantavakra was an afterthought.  As Jaya and Vijaya spent more time on Earth, they grew more eager to return to Vaikuntha, and so they wanted to be defeated as quickly as possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not to keep you in suspense, Ravana did not actually get the opportunity to try to free Mahabali from Vamana, because Vamana disappeared before Ravana could challenge him to a battle.  Vamana did this because if he agreed to fight he would easily kill Ravana, and that would violate Ravana's boon that he can't be killed by any god.  (Vamana is one of the 12 Adityas and thus a god.)  It's the same reason that Vishnu disappeared from Devaloka before Ravana's invasion of Devaloka, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2187/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  That's why Vishnu incarnated as Rama, so that he could defeat Ravana in human form and thus keep Brahma's boon intact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-13T17:08:57.440" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11526" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2784" CreationDate="2016-04-19T19:25:23.893" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The verse finds place in many copies of the Paraskara Grihya Sutra, but is not mentioned in early English translations of the Paraskara. This Grihya Sutra belongs to the Shukla Yajurveda school, but another contributor has found the mantra in a text of the Krishna Yajurveda school. Also, if you try to paraphrase the verse grammatically, you will find that its words can not be arranged in a meaningful and grammatically correct manner. &#xA;You shouldn't really expect an independent verse in the sutras. They elaborate upon &#xA;the ritual but always recommend the use of a Vedic verse at each step. The mantra in question is not in Vedic Sanskrit, nor can it be traced to any Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In conclusion, I suspect that it is spurious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5398" LastActivityDate="2016-04-19T19:25:23.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11527" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11551" CreationDate="2016-04-19T20:50:32.233" Score="7" ViewCount="8943" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where is the meaning of &amp;quot;inaction in action and action in inaction&amp;quot; in Bhagavadgita 4.18 ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;karmany akarma yah pasyed akarmani ca karma yah sa buddhiman manusyesu &amp;gt; sa &amp;gt; yuktah krtsna-karma-krt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Word for word:  karmani — in action; akarma — inaction; yah — one who;&#xA;pasyet — observes; akarmani — in inaction; ca — also; karma — fruitive&#xA;action; yah — one who; sah — he; buddhi-man — is intelligent;&#xA;manusyesu — in human society; sah — he; yuktah — is in the&#xA;transcendental position; krtsna-karma-krt — although engaged in all&#xA;activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:  One who sees inaction in action and action&#xA;in inaction is intelligent among men, and he is in the transcendental&#xA;position, although engaged in all sorts of activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/18&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-12-11T21:14:23.257" Title="Meaning of inaction in action and action in inaction in Bhagavadgita 4.18" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11528" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-20T00:55:29.960" Score="2" ViewCount="177" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Dr Ambedkar, atleast 11 contradicting explanations are available on the origin of vedas which he detailed in his book &quot;Riddles in Hinduism&quot;. These are his findings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) as originating from the mystical sacrifice of Purusha - Rig veda purusha suktam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) as resting on Skambha - Atharva veda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(3) as cut or scraped off from him, as being his hair and his mouth - Atharva veda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(4) as springing from Indra - Atharva veda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(5) as produced from Time - Atharva veda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(6) as produced from Agni, Vayu and Surya,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(7) as springing from Prajapati, and the Waters - Satapatha brahmana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(8) as being the breath of Brahma - Manu smriti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(9) as being dug by the Gods out of mind-ocean - Manu smriti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(10) as being the hair of Prajapati's beard - Taitteriya brahmana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(11) as being the offspring of Vac - Brihadaranyaka upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Can anyone here clarify what is the Truth and why these contradictions are there regarding such a simple question?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4526" LastEditorUserId="4526" LastEditDate="2016-04-20T14:37:41.337" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T14:37:41.337" Title="Why there are so many contradictions about the origin of vedas?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="25" ClosedDate="2016-04-20T13:28:18.057" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11529" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-20T01:10:13.400" Score="11" ViewCount="4783" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most dominant philosophy in Hinduism is that God is everywhere and in everything. I want to understand this in more detail. As per science we know that around us there are two distinct things: Space-Time and matter-energy (or simply stuff). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The stuff (matter-energy) is made of atoms and sub-atomic particles which are existing on space-time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A nice way to understand this is by comparing &lt;strong&gt;space-time&lt;/strong&gt; to a &lt;strong&gt;stage&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;stuff (matter)&lt;/strong&gt; to the &lt;strong&gt;actors on the stage&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Science still doesn't know what exactly is this &quot;space&quot; made of. Also they do not know what is &quot;time.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my question is what exactly does Hinduism (Advaita Vedanta) refer to as &lt;strong&gt;God&lt;/strong&gt; in the above space-time-matter analogy? Is God the stage or is He the actor and why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I want proper answers with proof from scriptures, not individual opinions or views.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4526" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-11-07T09:47:43.893" LastActivityDate="2019-02-22T05:17:34.650" Title="I want scripture-based explanation for &quot;God is Everywhere&quot;" Tags="|scripture|vedas|philosophy|vedanta|advaita|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11531" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11532" CreationDate="2016-04-20T05:27:04.147" Score="8" ViewCount="10390" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for a precise scriptural definition of &lt;strong&gt;Adhyatma (अध्यात्म)&lt;/strong&gt; which is also known as &lt;strong&gt;spiritual&lt;/strong&gt; in English.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Let me ask relevant questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the definition (meaning) of Adhyatma?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any scriptural definition of Adhyatma?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2018-10-20T13:00:46.717" Title="What is Adhyatma (spiritual)?" Tags="|terminology|spirituality|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11532" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11531" CreationDate="2016-04-20T05:27:04.147" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adhyatma means relating to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80tman_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atman&lt;/a&gt; or belonging to self. In other words, transcendental.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit word अध्यात्म is combination of two words : &lt;strong&gt;अधि + आत्म = अध्यात्म&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adhi(अधि) means over/upon/concerning and Aatm(आत्म) means the self/soul;&lt;br&gt;Adhyatma can be defined as : &lt;strong&gt;आत्मनि अधि इति अध्यात्म ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swadhyay.org/revolution/SpiritualRevolution.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swadhyay&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....the Sanskrit scriptures have a very precise definition of the word spirituality (adhyatma): &lt;strong&gt;&quot;aatmani adhi iti adhyatma&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, meaning all that which is performed in accordance with the wishes of the soul (aatma)is spirituality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Bhagavad Gita, 8.3 : अक्षरं ब्रह्म &lt;strong&gt;परमं स्वभावोऽध्यात्ममुच्यते&lt;/strong&gt; । means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and &lt;strong&gt;his eternal nature is called adhyātma, the self&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &quot;Spiritual&quot; means about &quot;concerning the spirit&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-11-08T00:39:21.037" LastActivityDate="2017-11-08T00:39:21.037" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11533" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="231" CreationDate="2016-04-20T06:10:27.820" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;You need help of other Puranas and shastras to understand a particular complex seeming situation in one itihaasa or one purana.  In Sanskrit its called DHARMA-SOOKSHMA meaning minute observation. People who don't understand Sanskrit read Mahabharata in other languages and those film and serial makers , not knowing the dharma-sookshma make films/serials which people think are right. And we Hindus get questions thrown at us just out of the derogatory intention that Hindu scriptures are ridiculous. Please read authentic books recommended by scholars before questioning. I see that many Hindus themselves don't know what a dharma-sookshma is and how is it dealt with by great people. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the 5 Pandavas are different forms of the one Lord Indra. Sachi is the wife of Indra. Sachi is called svarga-devata or the Shakti of Indra. (in Hindu texts related to Gods, Wife is not to be understood as in case of a human being, instead it should be understood as the God's inherent Power or Shakti). Sachi is born as Draupadi and so the Indra divides his energy into 5 forms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also interestingly , if u read the original Mahabharata, there was a very big discussion / conference held by sage vyasa with eminent people of that kingdom for a couple of days who are answerable to the subjects of that kingdom, before agreeing to the Draupadi's marriage. Vyasa has such a foresight that he expected that people of kali yuga would have such questions. Vyasa then with the power of his penance shows the people in that conference the real identities of all the 5 Pandavas as one Indra energy. So, there is no awkwardness in Draupadi marrying 5 Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paanchaaliim pratijagraaha draupadim shrim ivaaparaam Puujayaam aasa puujaarhaam zaciim deviim ivaagataam (Haridas Siddhantavagish – refer 1.200.26-27) &#xA;Markendaya Purana says clearly that Draupadi is Sachi’s incarnation. ‘Thus, to relieve Prithvi of her burden, the deities began to take incarnation on earth. Dharma and Vayu implanted Indra's radiance in the womb of Kunti. This resulted in the birth of Yudhishthir and Bheema. Then Indra himself produced Arjuna from Kunti. Nakul and Sahadev were born because of Indra's radiance implanted by Ashwini kumars in the womb of Madri. Thus all the five Pandavas originated from the same source even though they appeared as distinct entities, whereas Draupadi was none other than Shuchi, the wife of Indra, produced from the altar in Drupad's palace. In human incarnation, Draupadi got five Pandavas as her husband ( refer 5.23-26) Mahabharata scholars most often take CE for discussion and research. Here, in full agreement with Prof. P. Lal, I would quote like to quote him: &quot;CE is critical Edition. u can understand it as the authentic mahabharata version. I believe in the sanctity of an all-inclusive Mahabharata, and see no reason why such very Indian all-inclusiveness should not be respected by textual scholars who stress strict adherence to lexical principles, and pompously dismiss popular and folk passages and episodes as garrulous ‘interpolations.’”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5387" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-04-20T11:09:38.897" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T11:09:38.897" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11536" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-20T09:12:56.767" Score="3" ViewCount="141" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that Lord Krsna was always focussed on helping the Pandavas throughout their lives. Therefore, in the Mahabharata, we see him making frequent trips to  Indraprastha, Hastinapura, Kamyaka and Dvaita Vanas and Upaplavya to help the Pandavas. We also get the idea that Krsna is away on all these visits, as one can see what Krsna says about Shishupala's attack of Dvaraka &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11473/where-is-the-account-of-shishupalas-atrocities-in-dvaraka&quot;&gt;when he is away&lt;/a&gt;, as also of his sudden arrival back to Dvaraka upon Shalva's attack of Dvaraka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/69&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;69th Chapter of the Dasama Skandha&lt;/a&gt; of Srimad Bhagavatam, we see that Krsna is present in all 16108 palaces of his wives, as well as handling affairs of his kingdom &lt;em&gt;by being present in more than 16108 places at once&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If that is the case, then it is logical to assume that only one among the thousands of Krsnas went to Hastinapura and Pragjyotisha and so on. But this contradicts &lt;strong&gt;Krsna's own statements&lt;/strong&gt; made in the Rajasuya Yajna, that Shishupala misused the situations where Krsna &lt;em&gt;was away&lt;/em&gt; from Dvaraka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, did &lt;strong&gt;all the Krsnas&lt;/strong&gt; leave Dvaraka on these frequent travels, or did only one Krsna make these trips?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2018-02-08T17:03:07.843" Title="Which Krsna went to help the Pandavas?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavata-purana|pandavas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11537" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11540" CreationDate="2016-04-20T09:31:10.310" Score="0" ViewCount="376" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why are crackers burnt after a person dies in Hindu religion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5405" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T11:07:13.207" Title="Crackers after Death in Hindu religion" Tags="|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11538" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="231" CreationDate="2016-04-20T09:41:37.013" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Draupadi was also avatar of Goddess Shree or Wealth who was joint wife to five Indras, the Five Pandavas. She was to be born several times for imprisoning the Indras. First time was as Vedavati who cursed Ravana (who is another goddess Avatar Swaha, wife to Agni). She then came again as Maya-Sita especially to take revenge from Ravana while Agni hid the real Sita. Third one was partial either Damyanti (whose husband Nala was equivalent to Dharma, Vayu, Indra just like the Pandavas) and her daughter Nalayani. She married Sage Mudgala. The fifth avatar was Draupadi herself. So we find in Draupadi, a composite avatar of Kali, Parvati, Sachi, Shyamala, Usha, Bharati, Shree, Swaha, the eight goddesses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At Pandavas residence Lord Krishna took Draupadi aside and said, &quot;This awkward situation you find yourself in is of your own making. In your previous birth you had pleased Lord Shiva with your prayers. He granted a boon to you. You said that you wanted a husband and to ensure that your request was heard, you repeated it five times in all. Shiva then said that in your next life you would have five husbands.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some sources have a slightly different narration. Draupadi made her request only once but she added a long list of qualities that she wanted in her husband. Shiva said that it would be impossible to find one man with all these qualities. Hence she would have five husbands in her next life. All of them together would posses the qualities she had enumerated. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna said ,&quot; You will spend one year with each husband. Others will be forbidden to enter the chamber in which you and the husband-of-the-year are staying. If one does so, even accidentally, he would be exiled for one year.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5405" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T09:41:37.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11539" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9724" CreationDate="2016-04-20T10:33:00.120" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;co-relation between the action (what u r doing) and thought (thinking at the time of action).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So thinking should be pure/non-attachment/truthful/to save other or all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If thinking would be wrong then action would come out like that. So all these yog are to make thinking pure/truthfull. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5407" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T10:33:00.120" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11540" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11537" CreationDate="2016-04-20T11:07:13.207" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, use of crackers is not mentioned in our scriptures. Not every caste in Hindu religion burn crackers after death of a person. Crackers are burnt (now a days) during happy situations and during to celebrate anything.&lt;br&gt; When we come to your question, people also play some music while taking the dead body to the burial ground or cremation ground. It is done so to indicate that the person who has passed away was a great man and lived a great life and to celebrate his &lt;strong&gt;detachment towards worldly pleasures and journey to moksha.&lt;/strong&gt; Not all the Hindus use crackers after death. It is just a local custom. Brahmins do not burn crackers and not even use music while heading to cremation ground. Instead they chant the name of &lt;em&gt;Govinda Govinda&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt; By this we can conclude that using crackers or music after death of a person is a local custom .  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T11:07:13.207" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11541" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11529" CreationDate="2016-04-20T11:34:59.313" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;God has 2 prominent energies as per Bhagavad-Geeta; 1. Material energy and 2. Spiritual Energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The space-Time and matter both come under the material energy. Space-Time is subtler form and matter is gross.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God can be realized in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/2/11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;3 ways&lt;/a&gt; 1.Brahman 2. Paramatma and 3. Bhagawan.&#xA;In Gaudiya-Vaishnav philosophy ; Acaryas explain this by giving an analogy of sun. for example Sun is out there in sky and his radiance is everywhere; i.e. sun is present in a form of his energy(rays) in my house; but I cant say that sun has entered my house. So similarly Lord in form of Paramatma enters all the atomic,subatomic particles(material energy) and also enters in spirit souls(spiritual energy). Lord therefor in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;His unmanifested form&lt;/a&gt; (His plenary expansion as Paramatma and Brahman) is present everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All&#xA;  beings are in Me, but I am not in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna in very next verse explains that even though He is present everywhere; still He is aloof from this cosmic manifestation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like how Government's Governance(energy) pervades entire province but Head of state; say PM or President(analogous to Personal aspect of God) cannot be present everywhere.Please note; this is a crude example, do not take in literal terms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So God is present in everything and everyone but Not personally; He is present in a form of one of His manifestation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However since God is in everything; does not imply that everything is god(as per Gaudiya-Vaishnava philosophy and I guess some of other Vaishnava sampraday as well).&#xA;In this way He pervades everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So According to me its neither stage nor Actors on stage that may be compared to God&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T11:34:59.313" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11542" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2579" CreationDate="2016-04-20T14:22:15.100" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I checked telugu version of Vedas I have with me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mandala 1, hymn 156, Rishi - Dirghatama, devata - vishnu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above meaning is not there anywhere in the 5 hymns of this verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I know from the books I have studied on Hindu philosophy is that - Vishnu is one of 33 devatas in Vedas. There are hundreds of hymns for Indra, Agni, Varuna but for Vishnu and Rudra (shiva) there are very few. So they are the least important devatas in Vedas. Later during puranic period (mythology), the character of Vishnu was raised above rest of the devatas with stories such as Indra losing war with asuras and going to Vinshnu for saran (help) etc.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4526" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T14:22:15.100" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11543" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="175" CreationDate="2016-04-20T14:23:13.637" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ila (Sanskrit: इल) or Ilā (Sanskrit: इला) is an androgyne in Hindu&#xA;  mythology, known for their sex changes. As a man, he is known as Ila&#xA;  or Sudyumna and as a woman, is called Ilā. Ilā is considered the chief&#xA;  progenitor of the Lunar dynasty of Indian kings - also known as the&#xA;  Ailas (&quot;descendants of Ilā&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While many versions of the tale exist, Ila is usually described as a&#xA;  daughter or son of Vaivasvata Manu and thus the sibling of Ikshvaku,&#xA;  the founder of the Solar Dynasty. In versions in which Ila is born&#xA;  female, she changes into a male form by divine grace soon after her&#xA;  birth. After mistakenly entering a sacred grove as an adult, Ila is&#xA;  either cursed to change his/her gender every month or cursed to become&#xA;  a woman. As a woman, Ilā married Budha, the god of the planet Mercury&#xA;  and the son of the lunar deity Chandra (Soma), and bore him a son&#xA;  called Pururavas, the father of the Lunar dynasty. After the birth of&#xA;  Pururavas, Ilā is transformed into a man again and fathered three&#xA;  sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Vedas, Ilā is praised as Idā (Sanskrit: इडा), goddess of&#xA;  speech, and described as mother of Pururavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read more on this Wikipedia article: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ila_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ila_(Hinduism)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T14:23:13.637" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11544" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8744" CreationDate="2016-04-20T14:26:52.597" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/SriSriRaviShankar/posts/10151832425787536&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;talked&lt;/a&gt; about this recently: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Homosexuality has never been considered a crime in Hindu culture. In&#xA;  fact, Lord Ayyappa was born of Hari-Hara (Vishnu &amp;amp; Shiva). It is not a&#xA;  crime in any Smriti. Everyone has male &amp;amp; female elements. According to&#xA;  their dominance, tendencies show up &amp;amp; may change. Nobody should face&#xA;  discrimination because of their sexual preferences. To be branded a&#xA;  criminal for this is absurd.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-09T16:39:08.607" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T16:39:08.607" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11545" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24998" CreationDate="2016-04-20T15:29:25.570" Score="10" ViewCount="955" Body="&lt;p&gt;Complete Works &gt; Volume 7 &gt; Conversations and Dialogues &gt; From the Diary of a Disciple &gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_7/conversations_and_dialogues/from_the_diary_of_a_disciple/scc_ii.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;scc_ii&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever man knows to be the truth is of a like nature: some are lesser truths, others, higher ones in comparison with them, while the Absolute Truth is God alone. This Atman is altogether dormant in matter; in man, designated as a living being, It is partially conscious; &lt;strong&gt;while in personages like Shri Krishna, Buddha, and Shankara the same Atman has reached the superconscious stage. There is a state even beyond that, which cannot be expressed in terms of thought or language.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said that there is a stage even beyond that of Krishna! I know of the highest state as knowledge of Nirguna Brahman, what is the state even beyond that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2016-08-04T06:10:10.827" LastActivityDate="2018-03-14T10:48:25.957" Title="What is the highest state Swami Vivekananda is referring to?" Tags="|atma|brahman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11546" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11479" CreationDate="2016-04-20T18:56:54.057" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;em&gt;Its really confusing. I will be thankful if any one can explain in simple terms how to understand all these contradicting concepts.&lt;/em&gt;&quot; ... :) It is not at all surprising that you're completely confused by these, and this is because Hinduism is conglomeration of many different concepts about God in their many traditions and different explanations.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I suggest you to learn by yourself what God is, and that by studying one of the most widely read Hindu scriptures called the Bhagavad gita. Many people will tell you God is this and that ..., but if you see by yourself how God is explained there you'll see what is the most convincing to you, and that is the most important thing, and not that what others may tell you about God. After all we are all individuals and our own realization, experience and conviction (belief) is the most important to us, and not what others say.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But even the study of the Gita will not be quite simple because there are different interpretations, monistic (Advaita), and also dualistic (Vaishnava). Here again my advice is the same, we are all individuals and our own realization and conviction (belief) is the most important to us, and not what others say, so you can study the Gita with explanations by a few different traditions and see by yourself what you are convinced the true representation of the text is.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If I may suggest, here is one Vaishnava translation with an elaborate commentary of the text of the Gita as it is understood in that particular tradition: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But all that would be just a first step in knowing God. Practically speaking to know God does not depend on the study of scriptures only, but is something much more than that. This should be complemented with the development of our relationship with Him, through reverence to Him, meditation (remembrance) of Him, our devotion to Him, etc, all that you can learn from the Bhagavad gita, and then He will help you from within your heart to understand Him even more than by just some theoretical reading of scripture, as the Lord himself says in the Gita 10.8-11:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;engage in My devotional service and worship Me&quot;, &quot;The thoughts of My&#xA;  pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My&#xA;  service&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and then if they did so what will happen? It will happen this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give&#xA;  the understanding by which they can come to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad gita 9.34:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become My devotee, offer&#xA;  obeisances to Me and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me,&#xA;  surely you will come to Me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is the point. This is the essence of Hindu Dharma. If you turn to the Lord, He will help you from within the heart because He is within everyone's heart, and He can help you to understand Him.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sometimes people do not understand this simple point. So it is not just about reading and studying the scriptures and trying to fathom what is God on the mental level, but the secret of knowing God is stated in the above verses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T18:56:54.057" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11548" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11442" CreationDate="2016-04-20T19:28:30.197" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know of only one scripture ,which is comparable to the &lt;em&gt;YOGA BASISHTHA&lt;/em&gt;; that is the &lt;em&gt;BHAGAWAD GITA&lt;/em&gt; .&lt;br/&gt;In both these scriptures ,a balanced view of the &lt;em&gt;four types of activities in human life&lt;/em&gt;--&lt;strong&gt;Gyana,Yoga,Karma and Bhakti&lt;/strong&gt; , is presented.&lt;br/&gt; Other scriptures ,&lt;em&gt;HINDU or NON_HINDU&lt;/em&gt; , discuss only one or two aspects of these activities .&lt;br/&gt;Religion assumes that the main objective of Human Life, is to attain Liberation or  Enlightenment .Even Non-Religious activities , where &lt;em&gt;material pleasure or success&lt;/em&gt; are main objectives , are also composed of these four activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T19:28:30.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11549" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-20T20:16:43.330" Score="4" ViewCount="164" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.9 says this: &quot;A man should not marry a woman named after a constellation&quot;.&#xA;Now, Swati is a constellation.&#xA;So, is it wrong to marry a girl named Swati? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-20T20:16:43.330" Title="Is it wrong according to Hinduism to marry a girl name Swati?" Tags="|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11551" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11527" CreationDate="2016-04-20T21:27:22.397" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a better understanding of the verse. I would like to start with an analogy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Inaction in action: Unattachment amidst Action&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose a person is taking his food and we request him to listen to a story simultaneously. So, we would say &quot;Listen to the story while eating&quot; or an act of &quot;listening in eating&quot; is requested. This way, we urge him to listen without interrupting his eating. Similarly Sri Krsna preaches &quot;Inaction in action&quot; which means &lt;strong&gt;Inaction or unattachment should be fully practised right during the action&lt;/strong&gt;. In other words, it is desirable that unattachment be practised while the cause of the attachment (action) is in progress. Working with sense of ownership and practising unattachment after the action is just not sufficient.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Action in Inaction: Action amidst Unattachment&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let us suppose that the same person is listening to a story and we request him to take food simultaneously. So, this time an act of &quot;eating in listening&quot; is requested. Now, what does Lord mean here when he preaches &quot;Action in Inaction&quot;? &lt;strong&gt;He means that one should take up an action amidst this state of Inaction.&lt;/strong&gt; In other words, one should already be in a state of unattachment when one takes up an action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And such a man who stays unattached amidst action and performs action amidst unattachment is declared as the intelligent among men. He is well unattached although doing all sorts of activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And unsurprisingly, very similar ideal of Karma yoga was discussed by Swami Vivekananada when he was lecturing on Karma yoga. &lt;a href=&quot;http://belurmath.org/complete_works_of_swami_vivekananda/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here (Karma Yoga -&gt; Karma in its Effect on Character)&lt;/a&gt; are his words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ideal man is he who, &lt;strong&gt;in the midst of the greatest silence and solitude, finds the intensest activity, and in the midst of the intensest activity finds the silence and solitude of the desert&lt;/strong&gt;. He has learnt the secret of restraint, he has controlled himself. He goes through the streets of a big city with all its traffic, and his mind is as calm as if he were in a cave, where not a sound could reach him; and he is intensely working all the time. That is the ideal of Karma-Yoga, and if you have attained to that you have really learnt the secret of work. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse by the God and lecture by Swamiji look very similar. And it seems easy to follow what God means by &quot;Inaction&quot; is nothing but &quot;greatest silence and solitude&quot; in Swamiji's words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, as we see that in first case Lord means that unattachment should be practised while the action is in process. &#xA;And in second case, He means that action should be started amidst a state of already-in-unattachment. This way, the &lt;strong&gt;Lord preaches to be in state of unattachment all the time&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2016-04-21T11:01:00.300" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T11:01:00.300" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11554" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11555" CreationDate="2016-04-21T00:07:35.797" Score="9" ViewCount="6247" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Shalya Parva of the Mahabharata, right before Bhima's famous mace battle with Duryodhana, Krishna tells Arjuna that Bhima should fight unfairly, as that's the only way to defeat Duryodhana.  He &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09058.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells&lt;/a&gt; Arjuna that even the gods have resorted to deception in fighting against the Asuras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If he were to fight fairly, Bhimasena will never succeed in winning the victory. If, however, he fights unfairly he will be surely able to slay Duryodhana. The Asuras were vanquished by the gods with the aid of deception. &lt;strong&gt;We have heard this. Virochana was vanquished by Shakra with the aid of deception.&lt;/strong&gt; The slayer of Vala deprived Vritra of his energy by an act of deception. Therefore, let Bhimasena put forth his prowess, aided by deception! At the time of the gambling, O Dhananjaya, Bhima vowed to break the thighs of Suyodhana with his mace in battle. Let this crusher of foes, therefore, accomplish that vow of his.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm familiar with how Indra used deception to defeat the demon Vritrasura, but my question is, how did Indra use deception to defeat Virochana?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Virochana was the son of Prahlada, the one by Vishnu's incarnation Narasimha, and the father of Mahabali, the one defeated by Vishnu's incarnation Vamana.  My understanding is that good and evil alternated in that lineage: Hiranyakashipu was evil, Prahlada was good, Virochana was evil, Mahabali was good, Bana was evil, etc.  But the only story involving Indra and Virochana I know in Hindu scripture is the one found in the Chandogya Upanishad, but as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8221/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; that story just involves Brahma imparting knowledge to both Indra and Virochana, with Indra correctly interpreting the lesson and Virochana misinterpreting it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, I wouldn't put it past Indra to engage in deception against Virochana; Indra lists various acts of deception in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01241.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Kaushitaki Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know me only; that is what I deem most beneficial for man, that he should know me. I slew the three-headed son of Tvashtri; I delivered the Arunmukhas, the devotees, to the wolves (sâlâvrika); &lt;strong&gt;breaking many treaties, I killed the people of Prahlâda in heaven, the people of Puloma in the sky, the people of Kâlakañga on earth&lt;/strong&gt;. And not one hair of me was harmed there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7330/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; how Indra used deception to retake Devaloka from Prahlada.  But does anyone know any scriptures that describe Indra using deception to defeat Prahlada's son Virochana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2019-10-14T12:21:37.767" Title="How did Indra use deception to defeat Prahlada's son Virochana?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|indra|asuras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11555" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11554" CreationDate="2016-04-21T02:54:52.363" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the answer to my question in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/25345/44f_chapter_18_3.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Kedara Kanda of the Skanda Purana.  Virochana, like his future son Mahabali, is extremely generous, so Indra approaches him in the form of an old Brahmana beggar and asks him for a gift.  Virochana says that he's willing to give anything to the Brahmana, whether it's his head, his kingdom, or anything else.  So Indra actually asks for his head!  Without hesitation, Virochana cuts off his own head:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shakra once went to Virochana, the lord of the Daityas, in the guise of a Brahmana beggar.  He was desirous of killing him.  After reaching Virochana's abode, Indra spoke these words on assuming the guise an old Brahmana. &amp;quot;O king of good holy rites, O lord of Daityas, you are the (most celebrated) learned man and donor in the three worlds.  Give me (what I am going to ask). Standing in the midst of assemblies, O king of excellent fortune, Brahmanas extol your wonderful life-story and spotless fame. I am a beggar, O lord of Daityas of good holy rites; it behooves you to give me (what I beg).&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing his words, the lord of Daityas spoke these words: &amp;quot;O holy lord, what should be given (to you).  Tell me quickly.&amp;quot;  Indra in the form of a Brahmans spoke to Virochana: &amp;quot;It is a humiliating thing, yet I beg of you.  Whatever is highly pleasing and dear to you, should be given to me.  There is no doubt about it.&amp;quot;  The Asura, the son of Prahlada, laughingly spoke these words: &amp;quot;If you desire, O Brahmana, I shall give you my own head.  Even this kingdom (I shall give) without any strain.  This glory and prosperity shall not go to others.  I shall undoubtedly offer everything to you.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On being told thus by the Daitya, Indra pondered over it and said: &amp;quot;Give me your own head adorned with the crown.&amp;quot;  When these words were spoken by Shakra in the form of a Brahmana, the Asura, the son of Prahlada, joyously hurried up and cut off his own head with his own hand and gave it to Mahendra. The virtuous action performed by Prahlada previously was (of course) very difficult to do, but by resorting to Bhakti (devotion) alone of Vishnu, it was done by him with his mind devoted to him.  There is nothing greater than a charitable gift anywhere.... That charitable gifts of Virochana became well-known in all the three worlds.  Even today poets sing about (the charitable gifts) of the noble-souled king of Daityas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, this is similar in some ways to the story of how Indra retook Devaloka from Virochana's father Prahlada.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7330/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Indra disguised himself as a Brahmana and approached Prahlada, asking him how he managed to conquer the three worlds. Prahlada explained that it was because of his virtuous behavior, and he described his behavior in detail.  Prahlada was impressed that the Brahmana had patiently listened to him, so he offered him a boon.  Indra asked Prahlada to give him his good behavior. Prahlada agreed, and his good behavior left him in the form of a god. After that, gods associated with righteousness, truth, good deeds, might, and prosperity all left Prahlada and entered Indra. Thus the  rule of the three worlds was restored to Indra and the gods.  See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata for more details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So history repeats itself!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-06-11T01:07:10.753" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11556" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-21T03:17:32.437" Score="2" ViewCount="307" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna has talked about demigod in Bhagavad Gita. Can you give me some example of Demigod.&#xA;Are Hanuman, Ganesha and Kartikeya demigod ??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5416" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T03:17:32.437" Title="What are the examples of demigod?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-04-29T07:12:34.747" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11558" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-21T03:40:00.857" Score="5" ViewCount="738" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parashurama engages in a duel with Rama after Rama broke the Shiva dhanush (bow). But why couldn't Parashurama, an avatar of Lord Vishnu, recognize Rama who is also another avatar of Lord Vishnu, even before engaging in a duel with Rama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5416" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-21T15:46:31.783" LastActivityDate="2016-09-09T06:07:48.573" Title="Why couldn't Parashurama recognize Rama as Vishnu's avatar during the breaking of the Shiva dhanush (bow)?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|parashurama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11559" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10801" CreationDate="2016-04-21T04:01:14.653" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm also surprised that &lt;strong&gt;why people in this site are spreading rumours that concept of Dashavatar have no base in scripture.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is true that Lord Vishnu have countless incarnations, also major 24 incarnations but scriptures clearly mention 10 incarnation among these incarnation also. You do not need to go in Todala tantra to get base of this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some validation of Dashavatar from our scripture:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Padma Purana Uttarkhanda Chapter 229&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  40-41.Thus the state of the inner controllership of self consists in his being the innermost soul. &lt;strong&gt;Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Rama, Parasurama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki are the ten incarnations&lt;/strong&gt; of Brahman, the highest soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Padma Purana Uttarkhanda chapter 71.26-29&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narsimha,&#xA;  Vamana, so also Parasurama, Rama, Krsna, Buddha, and after him is said to be (the incarnation of) Kalki. These ten are said to be (Visnu&amp;apos;s) ten incarnations on the earth.&lt;/strong&gt; Merely by (uttering) their names, (even) the killer of a brahmana is always purified. He, by reciting, muttering, meditating upon Visnu&amp;apos;s name in any manner, is freed. There is no doubt that he would be Visnu himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni Purana  mentions these as 10 incarnation and describes each in details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(1) Matsya avatara- fish incarnation (2) Kurma avatara- turtle incarnation (3) Varaha avatara boar incarnation (4) Narasimha avatara- half-man lion incarnation (5) Vamana avatara- dwarf incarnation (6) Parashurama (7) Rama (8) Krishna (9) Buddha (10) Kalki&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After describing these 10 incarnation Agni Purana in 3.1 tells&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In every cycle (kalpa) and in every era (manvantara) Vishnu is thus born in various forms. It is a sacred duty to listen to the &lt;strong&gt;stories of the ten avataras.&lt;/strong&gt; The listener attains his desires and goes to heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana 1.86.10,11 also gives name of Dashavatar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dharma saṃrakṣaṇārthāya adharmādivinaṣṭaye&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  daityarākṣasanāśārthaṃ &lt;strong&gt;matsyaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; pūrvaṃ yathābhavat&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;kūrmo varāho nṛharirvāmano rāma ūrjitaḥ&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yathā &lt;strong&gt;dāśarathī rāmaḥ kṛṣṇobuddho&amp;apos;tha kalki&lt;/strong&gt; api [Garud, Pu. - 1.86.10,11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Varaha Purana 4.2 also tells about Dashavatara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;matsyaḥ kūrmo varāhaśca narasiṃho&amp;apos;tha vāmanaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rāmo rāmaśca kṛṣṇaśca buddhaḥ kalkī ca te daśa [Varaha. Pu. - 4.2]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Mastya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parshurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Kalki are the ten incarnations.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people also say that it is baseless because chronology is not matching. Although it is true that in refrence to time chronology from Matsya to Kurma to Varaha to Narsimha to .... doesn't matches. But when we talk about Dashavatar then this is the chronology we use. This is already validated by above verses of Purana. But still &lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna in Srimad Bhagwat 10.40 validates this chronology of Dashavatar.&lt;/strong&gt; He shows Akrura about his incarnations inside water in this chronology and Akrura Prays as: (famously known as Akrura Dashavatar Stuti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;१०४००१७१ नमः कारणमत्स्याय प्रलयाब्धिचराय च&#xA;  १०४००१७३ हयशीष्णे नमस्तुभ्यं मधुकैटभमृत्यवे&#xA;  १०४००१८१ अकू पाराय बृहते नमाे मन्दरधारिणे&#xA;  १०४००१८३ क्षित्युद्धारविहाराय नमः शूकरमूर्तये&#xA;  १०४००१९१ नमस्तेऽद्भूतसिंहाय साधुलाेकभयापह&#xA;  १०४००१९३ वामनाय नमस्तुभ्यं क्रान्तत्रिभुवनाय च&#xA;  १०४००२०१ नमाे भृगुणां पतये द्दप्तक्षत्रवनच्छिदे&#xA;  १०४००२०३ नमस्ते रघुवर्याय रावणान्तकराय च&#xA;  १०४००२११ नमस्ते वासुदेवाय नमः सड़्करषणाय च&#xA;  १०४००२१३ प्रद्युन्मयनिरूद्धाय सात्वतां पतये नमः&#xA;  १०४००२२१ नमाे बुद्धाय शुद्धाय दैत्यदानवमाेहिने&#xA;  १०४००२२३ म्लेच्छप्रायक्षत्रहन्ते नमस्ते कल्किरूपिणे&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  17-18. I offer my obeisances to You, the &lt;strong&gt;cause of the creation, Lord Matsya,&lt;/strong&gt; who swam about in the &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ocean of dissolution, to &lt;strong&gt;Lord Hayagriva,&lt;/strong&gt; &gt; the killer of Madhu and Kaitabha, to &lt;strong&gt;the immense tortoise, [Lord &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kurma]&lt;/strong&gt; , who supported Mandara Mountain, and to &lt;strong&gt;the boar incarnation [Lord Varaha],&lt;/strong&gt; who enjoyed &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  lifting the earth. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  19. Obeisances to You, &lt;strong&gt;the amazing lion [Lord Nrisimha]&lt;/strong&gt; , who remove Your saintly devotees’ fear, and &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  to &lt;strong&gt;the dwarf Vamana&lt;/strong&gt; , who stepped over the three worlds.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  20. Obeisances to You, &lt;strong&gt;Lord of the Bhrgus [Lord Parashurama]&lt;/strong&gt; , who cut down the forest of the conceited royal order, and to &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;the best of the Raghu dynasty, Lord Rama&lt;/strong&gt; , who put an end to the demon Ravana. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  21. Obeisances to You, &lt;strong&gt;Lord of the Satvatas [Lord Krishna]&lt;/strong&gt; , &lt;em&gt;and to Your forms of Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and Aniruddha.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  22. Obeisances to Your form as &lt;strong&gt;the faultless Lord Buddha&lt;/strong&gt; , who will bewilder the Daityas and Danavas, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and to &lt;strong&gt;Lord Kalki, the annihilator&lt;/strong&gt; of the meat-eaters posing as kings. &gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we can see here the order of incarnation we see as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Matsya, Hayagriva, Kurma, Varaha, Nrisimha, Vaman, Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence this chronology is validated by Lord Krishna himself and this chronology is used to denote Dash Avatars although they are not chronological in refrence with time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence Dasha Avatara concept have validation in Our Scriptures with the popular chronology.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For your question about validation of Todala tantra, it also have base in Shiva Purana. Shiva Purana in 3.16 gives Dash Avatar of Shiva and Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3.16 Dash Avatar (10 Incarnations of Shiva)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Describing about the ten incarnations and their corresponding power (Shakti), Sutji said- The first incarnation of lord Shiva was as Mahakal and his Shakti was called Mahakali. Lord Shiva took his second incarnation as Tar and his Shakti was called &amp;apos;Tara&amp;apos;. The third incarnation of Lord Shiva was as Bhuvaneshwar and his Shakti was called &amp;apos;Bhuvaneshwari&amp;apos;. Lord Shiva took his fourth incarnation as &amp;apos;Shodash&amp;apos; who was also known as &amp;apos;Srividdyesh&amp;apos; and his Shakti was called &amp;apos;Shodashi&amp;apos; or &amp;apos;Shri&amp;apos;. Lord Shiva took his fifth incarnation as Bhairav and his Shakti was called &amp;apos;Bhairavi&amp;apos;. The sixth incarnation of Lord Shiva is famous as &amp;apos;Chhinamastak&amp;apos; and his Shakti by the name of &amp;apos;Chhinamasta.Lord Shiva took his seventh incarnation as &amp;apos;Dhoomvan&amp;apos; and his Shakti was known as &amp;apos;Dhoomvati. The &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  eighth incarnation was as Baglamukh and his Shakti as Baglamukhi. The nineth incarnation of lord Shiva became famous as Matang and his Shakti as &amp;apos;Matangi&amp;apos;. Lord Shiva took his tenth incarnation as &amp;apos;Kamal&amp;apos; and his Shakti as Kamala. If these ten incarnation of Shiva are worshipped along with his ten Mahavidyas then a man attains salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Todala Tantra connects these Dash avatar of Shiva Shakti to Dash Avatar of Lord Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hence as a conclusion concept of Dashavatar have validation in Our Scriptures with its popular chronology.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-04-21T05:47:25.697" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T05:47:25.697" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11560" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11269" CreationDate="2016-04-21T04:40:01.213" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Mahabali's previous birth is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/hli7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Kedara Kanda of the Skanda Purana.    It describes a gambler who has been a really big sinner all his life.  One day he is taking some flowers, betel leaves, and sandal paste to pay a prostitute, when he is accosted by robbers who take all his possessions including his clothes, so all he has left are the flowers and the like.  He then trips and falls on the ground, whereupon he's knocked unconscious.  In the process, he drops the flowers, betas leaves, and sandal paste, making an unintentional offering to Shiva.  When he wakes up, he was filled with remorse for all the sins he has committed in life.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the gambler dies and goes to Yamaloka, where Yama is ready to give him severe punishments for all his sins, but Yama's assistant Chitragupta informs him that he had made an offering to Shiva and so is entitled to rule in Devaloka for a period of one hour and twelve minutes.  So for an hour and twelve minutes, the gambler becomes the new Indra, and out of devotion to Siva he spends his time giving away all of Indra's possessions to various rishis.  When the real Indra gets his throne back, he notices all his possessions are gone, and when he finds out what happens he complains to Yama.  Yama chastises the gambler, claiming that according to Hindu scripture charitable giving in allowed on Earth but not in Devaloka.  Yama is once again ready to punish th gambler, but Chitragupta says that charitable giving is not a sin even in Devaloka if it's done for the sake of Shiva, and that these actions have freed the gambler from all his sins.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So then the gambler is reborn as Mahabali.  By the way, Mahabali's father Virochana dies shortly before Mahabali is born, for reasons that I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11555/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, this whole story bears a striking resemblance to the story of Ajamila, the sinner described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/1/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam who attained Moksha because he accidentally said &quot;Narayana&quot; before he died.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-05-21T15:26:08.257" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11561" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11558" CreationDate="2016-04-21T05:12:35.297" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although Lord Parashuram is still living incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He is not full incarnation as Rama and Krishna..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be called Bhagwan (God) one should possess these six qualities as per Vishnu Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;aiśvaryasya samagrasya dharmasya yaśasariśrayaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jñānavairāgyayoścaiva ṣaṇṇāṃ bhaga itīraṇā&lt;/em&gt; [VP - 6.5.74]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Complete splendor, virtue, glory, opulence, knowledge, dispassion - &lt;strong&gt;these six&lt;/strong&gt; are known as &lt;em&gt;bhaga&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as per Padma Purana out of 10 incarnations only 3 incarnations (Nrisimha Rama, Krishna) possessed all these six qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Padma Purana Uttarkhanda Chapter 229&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  40-42. Thus the state of the inner-controllership of self consists in his being the innermost soul. Matsya, Kurma,Varaha, Nrisimha, Vamana, Rama, Parasurama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki are the ten incarnations of Brahman, the highest soul. &lt;strong&gt;The group of six qualities is said to exist in Nrisimha, Rama and Krishna.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence as he wasn't full incarnation of Lord Vishnu so he couldn't recognize Lord Rama &lt;strong&gt;in human form&lt;/strong&gt; at first time.. But this is only just a part of Leela of Lord Vishnu as it is not necessary that to recognize Lord one have to become full incarnation as just a devotee can also recognize Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-04-21T05:17:45.120" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T05:17:45.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11562" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-21T06:15:07.617" Score="5" ViewCount="354" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have found several websites and texts mentioning Shatapatha Brahmana says Kartikeya as son of Rudra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartikeya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; also mentions the same..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Shatapatha Brahmana refers to him as the son of Rudra and the six faces of Rudras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where is it exactly mentioned in Satapatha Brahmana ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-17T07:06:28.733" LastActivityDate="2023-02-07T07:03:53.173" Title="Where does the Shatapatha Brahmana mention Kartikeya as son of Rudra?" Tags="|vedas|shiva|gods|kartikeya|shatapatha-brahmana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11563" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11445" CreationDate="2016-04-21T06:16:35.703" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Burning crackers is an integral part of Diwali, the festival of lights. Crackers are burnt in each and every household and the festival is celebrated with a lot of dazzle and splendor. It is popular belief that burning of crackers marks the victory of good over evil and for attaining peace, prosperity, health and wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is true that fireworks was invented by the Chinese.However, burning of cracker has become an intergal part of Diwali celebration.Hence, I believe this can not become any off-topic just because there is not mention about them in scriptures.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that  Mughal emperor Akbar started organising mammoth firework displays during Diwali(This celebration is due to direct relation with Jodha Bai,as they she was allowed to follow her tradition and religion).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They called it &lt;strong&gt;aatishbazi&lt;/strong&gt; or a grand show of fireworks. It is said that the fireworks display at Akbar’s capital Agra, could be seen from the Qutab Minar in Delhi as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fOOZC.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fOOZC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;A Muslim and A Hindu lady in Diwali celebration(Notice the difference in their attires)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maybe The following link could provide more details about Mughal Diwali celebration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/down-memory-lane-blast-from-the-past/article6491805.ece&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/down-memory-lane-blast-from-the-past/article6491805.ece&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The earliest known Sanskrit text(16th century, possibly dated between 1497 and 1539,) to mention fireworks  is &lt;strong&gt;Kautukacintamani&lt;/strong&gt;, by &lt;strong&gt;Gajapati Prataparudradeva&lt;/strong&gt; of Orissa, contains a few Sanskrit verses on the ingredients needed to manufacture fireworks, including sulphur, charcoal, saltpetre, quicksilver, a hollow piece of bamboo and cow urine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before this text, in 1466, fireworks were said to be introduced in Kashmir, according to a Persian treatise on the manufacture of fireworks by Kashmiri king Zain-ul-Abidin, who reigned from 1421-1472.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also a treatise from Karnataka dated after 1400 describing a form of fireworks for display for the king, and a text in Marathi from the early 1500s describing the use of fireworks in a wedding procession. Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese voyager who traveled to India in 1518, made a reference to firecrackers in his own writing, where he described a Brahmin Gujarati wedding that included “firing of bombs and rockets in plenty, for their pleasure”.&#xA;These passage are extraction from a book titled '&lt;em&gt;A History of Fireworks in India'&lt;/em&gt;, published in 1953 by PK Gode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Evidently, the tradition of bursting firecrackers on Diwali day has been around for a 300 years or more, even if it may not have been a part of the festival in ancient times. Incorporating fireworks into the celebrations of Diwali make a symbolic sense.Famous mythologist Devdutt Pattnaik comments “Sound and light were traditionally meant to scare away misfortune.” In this sense celebrating Diwali with fireworks is not against the religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T06:16:35.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11565" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-21T07:55:39.227" Score="4" ViewCount="1267" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Vedas the God is One. Can I know who is the &quot;real&quot; God ?.Are Vishnu , Shiva and Brahma all the manifestation of the supreme Paramatman ?? If Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma are the manifestation of Paramatman, what about Ganesha, Hanuman and Durga ?? Are they paramatman too ??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5416" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T09:04:46.310" Title="Are Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma the same?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|vedas|brahma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-04-21T19:02:48.460" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11566" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15237" CreationDate="2016-04-21T08:56:01.853" Score="6" ViewCount="1469" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Telugu folklore, meaning of word &quot;Andhra&quot; is believed to be &quot;Tribe&quot;. Maharshi Vishwamitra curses his sons to go to south and lead a tribal life. Those tribes are believed to be &quot;Andhra&quot;. So, Andhraites are believed to be descendants of sage Vishwamitra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This curse is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga62/bala_62_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Balakanda of Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्व मांस भोजिनः सर्वे वासिष्ठा इव जातिषु | &lt;br&gt; पूर्णम् वर्ष सहस्रम् तु&#xA;  पृथिव्याम् अनुवत्स्यथ || १-६२-१७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot; 'You all will be whirling around the earth totally for a thousand&#xA;  years taking birth in the race that subsists on dog's meat, like the&#xA;  sons of Vashishta.' Thus Vishvamitra cursed his sons. [1-62-17]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But here Vishwamitra says to whirl around the earth. But &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=C1N7AgAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT117&amp;amp;lpg=PT117&amp;amp;dq=vishwamitra%20curses%20his%20own%20sons&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=AhoqlcTEc6&amp;amp;sig=FoxXRKV2tiHAy31GUheH-OlJTlk&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwj78dfEqp_MAhWlXaYKHT08AwkQ6AEILDAD#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=vishwamitra%20curses%20his%20own%20sons&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; mentions it differently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The compassionate Vishwamitra beckoned his sons and asked one of  them&#xA;  to sacrifice his life and replace this boy. What had gotten into &#xA;  their father? How could their father be so foolish and consider giving&#xA;  up one his own sons to save someone else's life? Vishwamitra's sons &#xA;  refused to sacrifice their lives for their cousin's. The great sage &#xA;  realized that his boys did not know that a sage had to dedicate his&#xA;  life  to serve others. And here they were — all looking to live for &#xA;  themselves rather than being happy for being offered a chance to &#xA;  serve others through their own lives. Disappointed, &lt;strong&gt;Vishwamitra &#xA;  cursed his unworthy sons to a life of selfishness in tribal &#xA;  communities.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's another variant of the legend where Vishwamitra curses his sons to go &quot;ANDHA&quot; (blind) and live a life of tribals to the south of Vindhyas and with time Andha became &quot;Andhra&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, are they any other Hindu Scriptures which describe the story of Vishwamitra cursing his sons? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-26T16:37:20.147" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T06:54:06.057" Title="What Scriptures other than Ramayana describe Vishwamitra cursing his sons?" Tags="|scripture|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11567" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11565" CreationDate="2016-04-21T09:04:46.310" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;All of them can be seen as different aspects of the Paramatman serving different purposes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are three forces: Brahma shakti, Vishnu shakti, and Shiva&#xA;  shakti. You may have one of these predominant. Brahma shakti is the&#xA;  force to create something new. Vishnu shakti is maintenance and Shiva&#xA;  shakti is bringing in transformation, filling in life, or destroying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some of you have Brahma shakti. You may create well, but you may not&#xA;  be able to maintain. For example, you may make friends very fast, but&#xA;  it does not last long.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are others who cannot create but are good at maintaining. For&#xA;  example, people have long lasting friendships but cannot make any new&#xA;  friends. In such cases, Vishnu shakti is dominant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And then there are others who have more of Shiva shakti. They bring in&#xA;  new life or transformation or they can destroy the whole set up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Guru shakti, all three shaktis have blossomed fully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So each of you first identify which shakti you have more of and aspire&#xA;  for Guru shakti. Guru makes a group but a group cannot make a Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom/knowledge-sheets/who-are-you-brahma-vishnu-mahesh-or-guru&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom/knowledge-sheets/who-are-you-brahma-vishnu-mahesh-or-guru&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps! :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T09:04:46.310" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11570" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-21T12:10:01.150" Score="2" ViewCount="155" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heared from somewhere that Lord Ganesha was created from the feculence/ turmeric  of Goddess Parvati' body while bathing for protection of herself. Is it true? if yes, how is it really possible ? Also, then how Lord Shiva is considered as the father of  Lord Ganesha? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So can anybody tell me &quot;convincible&quot; birth story of the Lord Ganesha for clarifying above doubt ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5321" LastEditorUserId="5321" LastEditDate="2016-04-21T14:30:54.547" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T22:00:12.687" Title="What is the &quot;convincible&quot; birth story of the Lord Ganesha?" Tags="|shiva|ganesha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2017-02-23T04:47:52.247" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11571" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-21T12:39:43.113" Score="1" ViewCount="77" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that King Bali wanted to become more powerful than Indradev . But he was  very famous in public for his kindness . Then&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.Why Lord Vishnu murdered King Bali in his Vaman Avatar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After killing him why Lord Vishnu asked to King Bali's followers to worship their leader ( as Balipratipada I.e.one of the day in Dipavali festival) ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5386" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T12:39:43.113" Title="Why did Lord Vishnu murder King Bali?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|avatars|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-04-22T05:40:23.747" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11572" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11208" CreationDate="2016-04-21T14:21:59.400" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada , the Yavanas are Turks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yavanas: Yavana was the name of one of the sons of Mahārāja Yayāti who&#xA;  was given the part of the world known as Turkey to rule. Therefore the&#xA;  Turks are Yavanas due to being descendants of Mahārāja Yavana. The&#xA;  Yavanas were therefore kṣatriyas, and later on, by giving up the&#xA;  brahminical culture, they became mleccha-yavanas. Descriptions of the&#xA;  Yavanas are in the Mahābhārata (Ādi-parva 85.34). Another prince,&#xA;  called Turvasu, was also known as Yavana, and his country was&#xA;  conquered by Sahadeva, one of the Pāṇḍavas. The western Yavana joined&#xA;  with Duryodhana in the Battle of Kurukṣetra under the pressure of&#xA;  Karṇa. It was also foretold that these Yavanas also would conquer&#xA;  India, and it proved to be true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: Purport Srimad Bhagatatham 2.4.18 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/4/18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/4/18&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="553" LastActivityDate="2016-04-21T14:21:59.400" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11573" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-21T15:26:24.173" Score="4" ViewCount="166" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are certain situations in my daily life which seems like I had dreamt of them before. Also sometimes I get dreams regarding my past which are blend of two different situation which can never be true(totally vague/random). Are these an indication about something or something to be neglected?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5251" LastActivityDate="2022-03-28T22:24:40.467" Title="Are our dreams associated with our past or future?" Tags="|dream|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11575" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11573" CreationDate="2016-04-21T16:00:53.847" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;This might help: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are five types of dreams:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The first type of dream is that which comes up in the form of your cravings and desires.Your unfulfilled desires come up in dreams as&#xA;  fulfillment. Have you experienced this? You want to drink water and&#xA;  you say, 'Not now.' You want to eat ice cream, pizza and you say, 'Not&#xA;  today.And then you go to bed and in your dreams you munch or eat pizza&#xA;  and you have a big scoop of ice cream. You wanted to go for a walk&#xA;  with somebody, your boyfriend or girlfriend, and you could not do it&#xA;  and in your dreams you find yourself going on a walk, going on a boat&#xA;  and skiing in the mountains. All these are your latent desires which&#xA;  come up in dreams. Desires and fears come up as dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The second type of dream is related to stress released from past experiences (which could come up). All that you have experienced in&#xA;  life comes up as dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The third type of dream is an intuitive dream. You get an intuition of what might happen in the future.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The fourth type of dream is a mixture of all these four types.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The fifth type of dream has nothing to do with you; it is to do with the place you are sleeping in. You are sleeping in a hotel in&#xA;  Italy and in the dream, you experience all the Italian sounds coming&#xA;  and all those strange languages. How many of you have experienced&#xA;  this? You hear people's dialogues which are in a completely different&#xA;  language; you have no idea what it is. But still, you continue to see&#xA;  all those things happening. This is to do with the place (space)&#xA;  there.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So these five types of dreams can occur. And the thing is, you do not&#xA;  know which one is what. Usually, it is the fourth type of dream which&#xA;  is a mixture of all these (types of dreams). So you cannot really&#xA;  distinguish and say, ‘This is my intuitive dream.’ It could be; it&#xA;  need not be. So a wise person would simply brush them all aside.&#xA;  Anyway, it is of no use. It is only a dream.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even this waking reality is a dream. Now you are all sitting here,&#xA;  tomorrow you will be somewhere else and next week all this will be a&#xA;  dream. What you would do next week is a dream right now. Your mind is&#xA;  more in a dream than it is awake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From an &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-03-21T12:58:11.303" LastActivityDate="2018-03-21T12:58:11.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11577" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-21T18:37:59.807" Score="9" ViewCount="14861" Body="&lt;p&gt;Once when I visited a Durga temple, a man who was giving out flowers to all devotees told me to tie my hair and not leave it open in the temple. I genuinely want to know the reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5409" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-03T04:00:23.147" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T04:00:23.147" Title="Why are women advised to tie their hair in temples?" Tags="|belief|temple|culture|women|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11578" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-21T19:13:47.350" Score="2" ViewCount="942" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his previous birth Karna received a boon that he can survive death a 1000 times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And to kill him once one has to pray to god for 1000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then how did he die?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5425" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-21T21:48:53.527" LastActivityDate="2020-04-21T04:37:48.073" Title="How did Karna die in his previous birth?" Tags="|mahabharata|karna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11579" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11604" CreationDate="2016-04-21T19:19:21.143" Score="3" ViewCount="6171" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is meaning of Sanskrit word Omkar/Aumkar and Omkareshwar. Please don't tell me that its jyotirlinga, I already know it, I want to know the meaning of word Omkar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5426" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T01:47:23.000" Title="What is Meaning of Omkar" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-04-25T17:42:30.897" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11581" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11577" CreationDate="2016-04-22T04:28:24.530" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Setting your hair loose is not suggested not only when you visit temples but also when you are at home. Setting your hair loose is an indication of sorrow, grief, inauspicious things poverty and sins.&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Draupadi devi in Mahabharata does not tie her hair after her insult from the Kauravas in the kurusabha. She vows that she would only tie a knot to her hair when washed with the blood of Dushhasana. She was in immense anger and grief and she set her hair loose.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Loose hair is an invitation to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyestha_%28goddess%29&quot;&gt;Jyeshta devi&lt;/a&gt;, the goddess associated with poverty, sorrow, inauspicious things and bad fortune. Tied hair (plaited) is an invitation to Lakshmi devi, goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity. Ladies who cook food and brush their teeth with loose hair are vulnerable to Jyeshta Devi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Especially, elders advise to plait the hair rather than putting a clip because the bottom part of the hair of a woman has the abiliy to awaken the power of &lt;a href=&quot;http://kundalinicare.com/?page_id=77&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kundalini Shakthi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. So it is advised to be with plaited hair than loose hair.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When you consider general reason for it, loose hair is more likely to hair fall and hair is not supposed to fall in our homes. So it should be prevented by tying it.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Hence loose hair is strictly forbidden in temples which are places of happiness and prosperity and places of God. For the reasons stated above, it is also forbidden anytime in Hindu religion.&lt;br&gt;A similar question is answered by Dr.Machiraju Venugopal in an episode of TV show called Dharmasandehalu. Watch it &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz3FF4bAmT8&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-04-22T08:27:30.193" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T08:27:30.193" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11582" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11595" CreationDate="2016-04-22T05:19:40.037" Score="12" ViewCount="40765" Body="&lt;p&gt;I remember in my childhood many elders advised me to avoid seeing owls. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That bird is considered inauspicious by many in the Hindu community. The most common reason cited for owls being inauspicious is that they have been associated with bad luck and death, and hence avoid them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Contrary to this belief, an owl is generally depicted as the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vahana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vahana&lt;/a&gt; (mount) of Goddess Lakshmi who in Hinduism is considered the deity of wealth and prosperity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, confusingly, from one point of view seeing an owl is inauspicious, but in many &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=i&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=images&amp;amp;cd=&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwj9x-KOv6HMAhUDHJQKHVlaCdcQjRwIBw&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fvedicgoddess.weebly.com%2Fjoy-ma-blog%2Fuluka-lakshmis-vahana-the-owl-by-yogi-ananda-saraswathi&amp;amp;psig=AFQjCNEgu3-_dsyBj6oYuhcSLAXF_qyZKw&amp;amp;ust=1461388654768605&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;images&lt;/a&gt; and idols, an owl is shown with Goddess Lakshmi, thus making this &quot;inauspicious&quot; bird &lt;strong&gt;visible&lt;/strong&gt; to followers of Goddess Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/K2BUP.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/K2BUP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Goddess Lakhmi with owl&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any Hindu scriptures associate owls with bad luck and death? If not then what could be the reason for owls being believed to be inauspicious?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2019-05-14T20:32:30.463" LastActivityDate="2019-05-14T20:32:30.463" Title="Why are owls considered inauspicious?" Tags="|belief|animals|omens|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11583" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11582" CreationDate="2016-04-22T06:07:56.953" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to ancient texts, Lakshmi is always accompanied by Alakshmi who is a twin sister of Lakshmi but personifies Daridra (poverty), Kalaha (strife) etc.&#xA;It is considered inauspicious to portray Alakshmi, hence art scholars are of the opinion that an owl was chosen to represent her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Lakshmi and Alakshmi(owl) as seen together, a balance is maintained but an owl as a sole entity is hence considered inauspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are different stories around Alakshmi but all trickle down to the same conclusion that she represents negativity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/lakshmi%E2%80%99s-owl.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Devdutt Patnaik's Blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: This answer is just based on my readings. I don't actually believe in such superstitions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5432" LastEditorUserId="5432" LastEditDate="2016-04-22T06:24:43.277" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T06:24:43.277" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11584" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11582" CreationDate="2016-04-22T06:30:11.483" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Auspicious and inauspicious events can be identified with some changes (such as excitements) in nature. Exited sounds and cooing sounds of birds denote bad and good omens respectively. Owl is considered to be nocturnal bird and it indicates bad omen if it flies during day times. Actually, it depends on time, place, direction, karana, sound and species. This is explained in detail in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12912/6/Chapter4_547-617p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; Agni Purana Chapter 231&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Puskara said : &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Birds let us know the good and bad indications for a man staying or leaving a country or town or (putting) a question. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All excited sounds are pointed out to indicate evil according to fortune-tellers and cooing sounds are said to indicate good results by&#xA;  fortune-tellers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The excitements of birds are said to be of six kinds based on the divisions of time, direction, place, karapa (a division of the day),&#xA;  the sound and the species (of the bird). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Each preceding (item in the above list) should be known as more powerful. The nocturnal (bird) moving in the day-time and that of the&#xA;  day-time moving in the night (are to be the excitement in time). One&#xA;  should know the malefic asterisms, ascendants and planets also as&#xA;  excited. It is known to be dhümitä (obscured), jvatita (burning) and&#xA;  angäritä (burnt) if the sun goes to or stays or leaves (a particular&#xA;  quarter). These three are remembered to be the excited ones and the&#xA;  gentle (Cooings) are of five kinds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is said to be agitated bird if it makes an excited  sound in the direction that is (termed) agitated. Similar (appellations should be&#xA;  given) to wild (birds making sound) in the village and the village&#xA;  (birds) in the forest as well as on an inauspicious tree. O Foremost&#xA;  brahmin ! The &lt;em&gt;desadipta&lt;/em&gt; (agitation in respect of a place) is known&#xA;  to be in inauspicious place. It is designated as &lt;em&gt;kriyådiPta&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  (excitement in respect of an action) if there is any action improper&#xA;  for one's own species. It is said to be the &lt;em&gt;rutadipta&lt;/em&gt; (excitement in&#xA;  respect of sound) making broken and harsh sounds. It is known to be&#xA;  the &lt;em&gt;jatidipta&lt;/em&gt; (excitement in respect of the species) in the case of&#xA;  the carnivorous species alone. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the excited characteristics of different categories  occur together it is stated to be good. If they are mixed the result  is&#xA;  said to be mixed. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The snakes, peacocks, ruddy geese, mules, pigeons, cows, light-brown horses, wild cocks, hawks, jackals, wag-tails,monkeys,&#xA;  sataghna , sparrows, cuckoos, blue jays, hawks, kapinjala the three,&#xA;  tittiri (francoline partridge), peacocks, pigeons, wag-tails,&#xA;  gallinules, parrots, cranes, cocks, skylarks  and deer are known to be&#xA;  moving about during daytime. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The fowlers, owls, farabhas, curlews, hares, turtles, jackals and pingalikas (a kind of owl) are said to be nocturnal. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ganders, deer, cats, mongooses, bears, serpents, red dogs, lions, tigers, camels, domestic boars, men, dogs, porcupines, bulls, jackals,&#xA;  wolves, cuckoos, cranes, horses, men in ragged clothes and alligators&#xA;  wander day and night.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The above seen in a group in front (of the king) making an expedition with the forces are stated to bring victory and seen on the&#xA;  back cause defeat. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;The strong omen from a bird as one sets out on a day should be explained by wise men as bearing result on the same day. O Brahmin !&#xA;  Mad ones, those concerned only with the prey, young ones, those&#xA;  mutually quarrelling and those separated by a distance should be known&#xA;  to bear no effect. The vixen howling alone or in groups of two or&#xA;  three or four forebode good. It is said to be not beneficial if five&#xA;  or six (vixen howl). It would be good if seven (vixen howl)  and there&#xA;  would be no effect if more than that.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we need to examine subtle to holistic changes in nature to understand how these characteristics  of animals, birds foretell omens. Please read (Ch- 229- 233) in Volume 2 of Agni Purana for information on these omens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T06:30:11.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11585" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11450" CreationDate="2016-04-22T06:45:49.847" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt; scope of any new Smritis .Its not like that anyone will write a book and it will be equivalent to a Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, not everyone can write a book and it becomes a Dharma Sastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/puranasindex.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are eighteen main Puranas and an equal number of subsidiary&#xA;  Puranas or Upa-Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The 18 main Puranas are: Vishnu Purana, Narada Purana, Srimad&#xA;  Bhagavata Purana, Garuda (Suparna) Purana, Padma Purana, Varaha&#xA;  Purana, Brahma Purana, Brahmanda Purana, Brahma Vaivarta Purana,&#xA;  Markandeya Purana, Bhavishya Purana, Vamana Purana, Matsya Purana,&#xA;  Kurma Purana, Linga Purana, Siva Purana, Skanda Purana (Kartika&#xA;  Purana) and Agni Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How many Puranas are there and what are they are already well described in scriptures as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WLJb2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WLJb2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,  all these Puranas already exist.So there is no scope of any new Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,which are in all the Dharma SHastras(the Smritis) are described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/06Yagyavalkya_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajnavalkya Smriti&lt;/a&gt; as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0jOxd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0jOxd.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu,Atri,Vishnu,Harita,Yajnavalkya,usana,Angira,Yama,Apastambha,Samvarta,Katyana,Vrihaspati,Parashara,Vyasa,Sankha,Likhita,Daksha,Gotama,Satatapa&#xA;  and Vashishta are the promulgators of Dharma&#xA;  shastras(Smritis).(Yajnvalkya Smriti,Chapter 1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So,to believe that  new Smritis will be composed in future is as good as not believing the Shastras.If they were to be composed then the above Yajnavalkya list would have mentioned their authors or at least some other Scriptures would have surely mentioned about them in advance&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T10:10:13.460" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T10:10:13.460" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11586" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11333" CreationDate="2016-04-22T07:08:45.490" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Camel&lt;/strong&gt; is Vahana for Sri Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Hanumat Sooktam mentions him as riding one viz:&lt;strong&gt;usthraa roodha&lt;/strong&gt;(one who is riding on a camel).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QzvyV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QzvyV.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T07:08:45.490" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11587" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11333" CreationDate="2016-04-22T08:24:21.473" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vaahan (mount) of Hanuman is &lt;strong&gt;Ushtra&lt;/strong&gt; i.e,, a camel. This is mentioned in Hanumat suktham, Hanuman mangalashasanam and other stotras.&lt;br&gt;The reason why Hanuma chose camel as his mount is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Generally camels are found in desret areas where land is filled with sand dunes. The feet of camel are perfect to move on sand dunes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As mentioned above in other answer by Rickross. Hanuman is &lt;strong&gt;Pampaatheerthavihaari&lt;/strong&gt; meaning who is fond of roaming on the banks of the river Pampa. It is because he met Shree Rama for the first time there.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hanuman is also fond of doing pradakshina to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam%27s_Bridge&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;RamaSethu&lt;/a&gt; which he along with Vanarasena helped ShreeRam to rescue Sita and kill Ravana.&lt;br&gt;As camel is fit for travelling on sand, Hanuman chose it as His mount. &#xA;&lt;br&gt;It is also mentioned in Parasara Samhita that he rode a camel and gave darshan to many of his devotees like somadatta, Dhwajadatta on a camel. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also the Dhwaja (flag) of Hanuman is a camel. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source of this answer is &lt;em&gt;Parasara Samhita&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iKvWFMusPg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hanumat suktham&lt;/a&gt; and answer to a question by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jayahanumanji.com/?page_id=2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dr.Annadanam Chidambara Shastry&lt;/a&gt; a scholar who did research on the life history of Hanuman. Watch the video &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wR9Rf2oUZ0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T08:24:21.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11588" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-22T08:54:46.510" Score="1" ViewCount="173" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article on Wikipedia which tells that Hanuman is Shiva amsha and refers to Mahabhagavatha Purana. Is it mentioned in Mahabhagavatam as such?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5322" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-04-22T09:44:19.320" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T09:44:19.320" Title="Does Mahabhagavata Purana mention Hanuman as Shiva amsha?" Tags="|shiva|bhagavata-purana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11590" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="834" CreationDate="2016-04-22T09:59:32.900" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ramakrishna once mentioned an incidence: When Sri Rama arranged for the Agnipariksha (Fire trial) for Sita mata, and She was entering the flame created for the purpose, Hanumanji was very disappointed and was about to wage a war with Sri Rama. But, it is also believed that this trial was arranged by Lord Rama only to facilitate the exchange of Maya Sita with real one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also believed that Sita Herself was strong enough to protect Herself from Ravana, but She did not do it for a few reasons:&#xA;1. Ravana got hold of Maya Sita only. &#xA;2. As the universal mother personified (even in Her Maya version), She will never kill any person... Nor even anybody can die in front of Her, such is Her love for all of us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Her strength had been demonstrated in Her childhood when She used to play with the Hara Dhanu (the famous Bow of lord Shiva) that could not be moved by any of the kings (nor even by all of them together) except Shri. Rama who eventually broke it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please remember these are only sweet beliefs for those who have attained faith and ready to believe. I don't remember the references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5436" LastEditorUserId="5436" LastEditDate="2016-04-22T10:05:14.183" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T10:05:14.183" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11591" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11230" CreationDate="2016-04-22T10:33:42.243" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sanskrit, the liturgical language of Hinduism, the word mandir means &quot;house&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_temple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit: According to Sanskrit-English Dictionary by Monier-Williams &quot;a habitation, dwelling house, palace; a temple, pagoda; an apartment; a town; a camp; any abode or dwelling&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=_3NWAAAAcAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA746&amp;amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=mandira&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=_3NWAAAAcAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA746&amp;amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=mandira&amp;amp;f=false&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-04-29T05:39:28.693" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T05:39:28.693" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11592" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-22T11:44:28.787" Score="2" ViewCount="351" Body="&lt;p&gt;This talks about what is the difference between Sruti and Smriti: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8591/what-is-difference-between-shruti-and-smriti&quot;&gt;What is difference between Shruti and Smriti?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above link also talks about what can be classified as Sruti i.e. Vedas and some related texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do all other texts come under Smriti? Or, only some other texts can be classified under Smriti and the rest do not fall under this classification?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-05-22T20:35:14.883" Title="Are there Hindu texts which do not fall under the Sruti-Smriti classification?" Tags="|smriti|sruti|classification|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11593" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-22T14:05:09.167" Score="3" ViewCount="1093" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do all those terms refer to God? If so, how is each word different from the other? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4526" LastEditorUserId="4526" LastEditDate="2016-04-23T14:05:41.497" LastActivityDate="2017-06-07T16:52:41.757" Title="What is the difference between the words parameswara iswara bhagavan paramatma Brahman?" Tags="|gods|brahman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ClosedDate="2017-06-07T16:52:18.523" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11594" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11592" CreationDate="2016-04-22T14:32:48.793" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scriptures can be broadly classified as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Veda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedas&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Smriti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Smritis&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Agama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Agama &amp;amp; Tantra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Darsana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Darsana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Itihasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Itihasa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of these 6 divisions everything except the 6th one ,viz:Itihasa, come under either Sruti or Smriti classifications.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Itihasa comprises of  the Ramayana &amp;amp; the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T14:32:48.793" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11595" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11582" CreationDate="2016-04-22T16:05:46.893" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Owls&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;pigeons&lt;/strong&gt; are mentioned in Vedas(Atharva Veda to be specific) as the messengers of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nir%E1%B9%9Bti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nirrti&lt;/a&gt;,the Goddess of misfortune ,destruction,poverty etc and hence they are considered inauspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirrti also known as Alakshmi is considered to be Goddess Lakshmi's sister.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/av5-4.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VI, 27. Charm against pigeons regarded as ominous birds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O ye gods, if the pigeon, despatched as &lt;strong&gt;the messenger of Nirriti&lt;/strong&gt; (the goddess of destruction), hath come here seeking (us out), we&#xA;  shall sing his praises, and prepare (our) ransom. May our two-footed&#xA;  and four-footed creatures be prosperous!....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VI, 29. Charm against ominous pigeons and owls.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Upon those persons yonder the winged missile shall fall! If the owl shrieks, futile shall this be, or if the pigeon takes his steps upon&#xA;  the fire!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To thy two messengers, O Nirriti&lt;/strong&gt;, who come here, despatched or not despatched, to our house, to the pigeon and to the owl, this shall be&#xA;  no place to step upon!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The owl and the pigeon are referred to in the above quote as the two messengers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-04-23T03:58:34.360" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T03:58:34.360" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11596" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-22T16:38:20.513" Score="1" ViewCount="2950" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been reading this book called &lt;em&gt;Being Different&lt;/em&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Rajiv Malhotra.&lt;/em&gt; &#xA;In this he mentions &lt;em&gt;Purva Paksha&lt;/em&gt; i.e. the art of studying the opposing parties point of view thoroughly and then presenting your viewpoint (&lt;em&gt;Uttara Paksha&lt;/em&gt;). &#xA;He gives the example of Adi Shankaracharya who engaged in a lot of debates with Buddhist scholars etc. most famously Mandana Mishra (who later becomes his devotee)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is this: Do Hindu scriptures explicitly talk about &lt;em&gt;Purva Paksha&lt;/em&gt;? If so, what do they say?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T18:49:41.873" Title="What is Purva Paksha according to Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11597" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8531" CreationDate="2016-04-22T18:05:18.587" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Our Hindu Brothers And Sisters Should Know The Facts&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb cherished the ambition of converting India into a land of Islam. This philosophy was also pleaded by Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (1569–1624), leader of the Naqashbandi School, to counter the liberal policies of Akbar's reign.The Emperor's experiment was carried out in Kashmir. The viceroy of Kashmir, Iftikar Khan (1671–1675) carried out the policy vigorously and set about converting non-Muslims by force. A group of Kashmiri Pandits (Kashmiri Hindu Brahmins), approached Guru Tegh Bahadur and asked for help.They, on the advice of the Guru, told the Mughal authorities that they would willingly embrace Islam if Guru Tegh Bahadur, did the same. &#xA;Orders of the arrest of the Guru were issued by Aurangzeb, who was in present day North West Frontier Province of Pakistan subduing Pushtun rebellion. The Guru was arrested at a place called Malikhpur near Anandpur after he had departed from Anandpur for Delhi. Before departing he appointed his son, Gobind Rai (Guru Gobind Singh) as the next Sikh Guru. &#xA;He was arrested, along with some of his followers, Bhai Dayala, Bhai Mati Das and Bhai Sati Das by Nur Muhammad Khan of the Rupnagar police post at the village Malikhpur Rangharan, in Ghanaula Parganah, and sent to Sirhind the following day. The Faujdar (Governor) of Sirhind, Dilawar Khan, ordered him to be detained in Bassi Pathana and reported the news to Delhi. His arrest was made in July 1675 and he was kept in custody for over three months. He was then cast in an iron cage and taken to Delhi in November 1675.The Guru was put in chains and ordered to be tortured until he would accept Islam. When he could not be persuaded to abandon his faith to save himself from persecution, he was asked to perform some miracles to prove his divinity. On his refusal, Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded in public at Chandni Chowk on 11 November 1675. Guru Ji is also known as &quot;Hind Di Chadar&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.N.K. Bamzi’s book, A History of Kashmir describes those days:&#xA;Iftikhar Khan… …was using force to convert the Pandits in Kashmir to Islam. Some pious men among the Pandits then met and decided to go to Amarnath and invoke the mercy of Lord Siva (at their sacred cave:editor) for deliverance from the tyrannies of the bigot. At the Amarnath cave, one of the pandits saw in a dream Lord Siva, who told him to go to Tegh Bahadur, the Ninth Sikh Guru, in the Punjab and ask for his help to save the Hindu religion. He spoke to his companions about the revelation. About 500 proceeded to Anandpur where Guru Tegh Bahadur was living.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5440" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T18:05:18.587" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11598" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9563" CreationDate="2016-04-22T18:30:40.883" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This might help:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gurudev, when something good happens, we say it is Guru kripa (grace).&#xA;Then what do we say when something bad happens? You say that having a&#xA;Guru means one is protected, then why do bad things happen?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Sri&#xA;Ravi Shankar:  Well, the divine loves everybody, however they are. If&#xA;the happening of bad things takes your faith away, then it is no&#xA;longer faith. But if faith stays in spite of all the bad things that&#xA;are happening, then the end result will always be great and wonderful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas asked Krishna for a very peculiar&#xA;boon. She said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘Lord Krishna, let bad things happen in my life.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna was shocked, he said, ‘Why do you ask for this?’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kunti said,&#xA;‘Whenever bad things happened, I know you were with me, and helped me&#xA;get over that, so I don’t mind. Every time I was in danger, I knew you&#xA;were always with me.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A realisation like that is very unique. Bad&#xA;things do not happen because you are good or not, but because you must&#xA;have done something bad in the past; that karma is showing up now, and&#xA;we have to face the consequences. If we had wrong food, it will show&#xA;up as some disease. If your state of mind was very tense, then it will&#xA;show up in your body as some disease.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom/bad-things-to-good-people&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom/bad-things-to-good-people&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T18:30:40.883" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11599" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11596" CreationDate="2016-04-22T18:43:32.420" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What I think&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purva Paksha is the Purva Mimansa Scholar(s) Adi Shankaracharya is refering to, when he says Purva Pakshin He refers to the Person who is against him or when his thoughts are directed to the purva Pakshin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly &#xA;Uttarpakshin is the one who represents Uttara Mimansa scholar's, Here(in case of Adi Shankracharya's works) he himself was representative of Uttarpaksha i.e the uttara-mimansa. Uttarmimansa is alias for &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; School of thought&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%ABm%C4%81%E1%B9%83s%C4%81#Terminology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;More on Mimansa School's&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purva_Mimamsa_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Purva Mimansa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technically sound answer&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one more interpretation by Wikipedia which I think is more relevant to this topic &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In ancient Indian &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurisprudence&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Jurisprudence&lt;/a&gt;, purva paksha referred to the complaint, with other parts of a trial consisting of uttar (the reply), kriyaa (trial or investigation by the court), and nirnaya (verdict or decision)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purva_paksha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-04-22T18:49:41.873" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T18:49:41.873" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10127" CreationDate="2016-04-22T18:51:01.717" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This might help:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Anger that is born of 'I, Me, or Mine' is the one that causes pain and&#xA;  frustration. When you realize that someone is being foolish in his&#xA;  ways and then you get angry (to correct them), then such anger is&#xA;  actually beneficial.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna got angry at Bhishma as well, in the Mahabharata war. Why&#xA;  did he get angry? It was because Bhishma was prolonging the battle&#xA;  each day for no reason whatsoever when he could have ended it. So Lord&#xA;  Krishna broke his vow (to not wield weapons or participate in battle)&#xA;  and took up the Sudarshan Chakra. At that moment, Bhishma folded his&#xA;  hands before the Lord and said, 'O Lord! This is what I was waiting&#xA;  for. If You get angry at me, then my life will be cleansed and&#xA;  benefitted. My life will be perfect and complete if I receive death at&#xA;  Your hands. So your anger too is only a blessing for me'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna was revered as a Jagatguru (the Guru&#xA;  to the entire world). Both Kauravas and Pandavas regarded Him as a&#xA;  Guru. Bhishma in fact knew this fact for certain. He knew that there&#xA;  was no one greater than Lord Krishna. So he did all this deliberately&#xA;  so that Lord Krishna gets angry, and at least by way of anger, some&#xA;  connection gets established between him and the Lord. After this&#xA;  incident, Bhishma himself gave the clever idea to the Pandavas to&#xA;  defeat him in battle. He said, 'If you make Shikhandi stand before me&#xA;  in battle, I will not take up arms and will lose the battle'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpt from a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom/the-good-anger?mobile=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom/the-good-anger?mobile=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T18:51:01.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11601" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="540" CreationDate="2016-04-22T19:08:34.657" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Caste hierarchy and discrimination is not sanctioned by the Vedas. I mentioning an excerpt from an article by Swami Venkatraman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First, caste refers to jati, not varna. Jatis are the thousands of&#xA;  indigenous social- occupational groups, while varna refers to the four&#xA;  individualized societal functions described in many texts.&#xA;  Understanding this distinction is a necessary first step. The next is&#xA;  exploring whether the Purusha Sukta really sanctions a hierarchical&#xA;  and discriminatory caste system? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is not mere academic curiosity. The solution to any problem&#xA;  relies on a correct diagnosis and even as they acknowledge the social&#xA;  history of caste-based discrimination in India, it is important for&#xA;  Hindus, and non-Hindus, to understand the terminology and know whether&#xA;  the Sukta really does sanction a birth-based hierarchy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Below is a translation of the relevant verse from &lt;em&gt;‘Purusha Sukta’&lt;/em&gt;,&#xA;  which is the 90th Sukta of the 10th mandala in the Rig Veda, and it&#xA;  talks about the entire universe as the body of God (Purusha), and of&#xA;  all creation as emerging from Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;From his mouth came forth the Brahmins&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;And of his arms were Rajanya made&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;From his thighs came the Vaishyas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;And his feet gave birth to Sudras.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At a literal reading, this indeed appears to define a hierarchical&#xA;  system of classes with the Brahmins occupying the most prestigious&#xA;  position and the Sudras being the most inferior as they emerge from&#xA;  the feet. And this has pretty much become the dominant understanding&#xA;  of the verse among academics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The best way to demonstrate the silliness of this interpretation of&#xA;  the 90th Sukta, is to actually assume it to be correct and then see&#xA;  where that leads us in terms of understanding the rest of the hymn.&#xA;  Thus, if the above verse indicates a hierarchical system, then&#xA;  presumably the body parts of the God (Purusha) from which everything&#xA;  in creation emerges, or the order in which the names are mentioned, or&#xA;  both, ought to be indicative of its superiority or otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let us test this understanding against translations of the next two&#xA;  verses from the &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;90th ‘Purusha Sukta’:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Of his mind, the Moon is born&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Of his eyes, the shining Sun&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;from his mouth, Indra and Agni,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;And of his life-breath, Vayu&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Space unfolds from his navel&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The sky well formed from his head&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;From His feet, the earth and His ears the Quarters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Thus they thought up all the worlds.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If our assumption above were true, then the moon ought to be superior&#xA;  to the sun because the mind is superior to the eyes, and also because&#xA;  the moon is mentioned first. Moreover, based on where they emerge&#xA;  from, Indra (the king of the Devas) ought to be inferior to both&#xA;  Chandra (moon) and Surya (sun) and on par with Agni (fire), which also&#xA;  is illogical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A similarly absurd comparison of the space, sky, earth with the ‘four&#xA;  directions’ will arise from the second verse. If the earth comes from&#xA;  the God’s (Purusha) feet, is it then inferior to the moon which comes&#xA;  from the mind?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is clearly no hierarchy intended, but only symbolic meanings.&#xA;  This can be driven home more clearly, if one considers what the&#xA;  ‘Purusha Sukta’ says in its entirety. It describes the God (Purusha),&#xA;  as the perennial source of all creation, as having countless heads,&#xA;  eyes and legs, manifested everywhere beyond comprehension. All&#xA;  creation is but fourth a part of him and the rest is thus, ambiguous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sukta describes a great Yajna, or a ritual sacrifice, called&#xA;  `Sarvahut’, or the ‘offering of all’. It was God (Purusha) himself who&#xA;  is worshipped in the Yajna, which is performed by Brahma, the creative&#xA;  power of the Purusha. The Devas, who are the senses of the Purusha,&#xA;  are the priests.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus, the beast of sacrifice, tied to the altar is the Purusha&#xA;  himself; all of nature is the altar; the Purusha’s heart is the fire,&#xA;  and the Purusha himself is sacrificed in the Yajna, which is the&#xA;  process of creation itself. The ‘Purusha Sukta’ does not intend to&#xA;  speak about human society and its organization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The translation of one of the final verses states the essence of&#xA;  Hinduism clearly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I know That Purusha who is glorious&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bright as the sun, beyond all darkness.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;He who knows him thus Conquers death in this birth.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I know of no other way than this.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Consider the following now:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the entire Rig Veda, it is only in the ‘Purusha Sukta’ that the&#xA;  four varnas are mentioned. However, the ‘Purusha Sukta’ itself does&#xA;  not use the word ‘varna’ and wherever the word occurs elsewhere in the&#xA;  Rig Veda, it is to be noted that it is not used to refer to the four&#xA;  types of people in society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Moreover, Hindu sacred texts clearly relate ‘varnas’ to the ‘guna’&#xA;  i.e., behavior and character, rather than the birth. The idea that&#xA;  different individuals of the same family can have different ‘varnas’&#xA;  and those individuals had a choice of ‘varnas’ are present in the &lt;em&gt;Rig&#xA;  Veda&lt;/em&gt; itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“I am a reciter of hymns, my father is a healer, my mother a grinder of corn. We desire to obtain wealth through various actions”-- Rig&#xA;  Veda 9.112.3&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“O Indra, fond of soma, would you make me the protector of people, or would you make me a ruler, or would you make me a sage who has&#xA;  consumed soma, or would you bestow infinite wealth on me?” --- Rig&#xA;  Veda 3.44.5&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“The four varnas were created by me according to differences in guna and karma; although the creator of this, know me as the non-doer being&#xA;  immutable.” -- Bhagavad Gita 4.13&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://swarajyamag.com/culture/caste-hierarchy-and-discrimination-not-sanctioned-by-the-vedas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://swarajyamag.com/culture/caste-hierarchy-and-discrimination-not-sanctioned-by-the-vedas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T19:08:34.657" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11602" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9539" CreationDate="2016-04-22T19:21:47.257" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not sure where these words are found but this article might help in interpreting the meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The nature of the Self is described as Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram:&#xA;  Truth, Tranquillity and Innocence, and Beauty. Spirituality is a&#xA;  journey from the outer world of names and forms to the subtle world of&#xA;  energies, to the innermost core of our being, the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satyam or Truth is multidimensional, unchanging in time and space. It&#xA;  is the substratum, the basis of entire creation. Shivam is the&#xA;  embodiment of calmness and tranquillity, innocence and benevolence.&#xA;  Shiva is always mentioned along with Shakti. Shakti is the primordial&#xA;  energy responsible for entire creation. Energy is the feminine aspect&#xA;  and is addressed as Mother Divine, the Devi. Like the sea and the&#xA;  waves, though seemingly separate, they are essentially the same. Like&#xA;  the light and the lamp, dancer and the dance, Shiva and Shakti, the&#xA;  creation and the creative impulse are inseparable. Sundaram is beauty.&#xA;  We move from recognising beauty outside to beauty within. Adi&#xA;  Shankaracharya in his composition Saundarya Lahiri (Waves of Beauty),&#xA;  glorifies the incomparable beauty of the Divine Mother. Here he speaks&#xA;  of Apangat or Kama, the god of love, an archer with a bow and five&#xA;  flower arrows. When Apangat hits you with his arrow of flowers, a wave&#xA;  of beauty is created inside you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The five flowers represent the five senses through which you&#xA;  experience something that is beyond the senses. You experience a wave&#xA;  of beauty rising deep inside you; you have dissolved into the&#xA;  formless. Rather, you are formless. You have come back to your nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When you look at beautiful scenery, your eyes shut and you sink into&#xA;  that ocean of beauty. When you smell a fragrant flower, the flower&#xA;  remains outside, the fragrance disappears in a void, and you drop into&#xA;  being. That is beauty. When you hear beautiful music, you become fully&#xA;  immersed in it and you no longer know what is being played. You are&#xA;  lost in the formless divinity within.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this way, Adi Shankara has described the beautiful journey from the&#xA;  gross to the subtle, the outer to the inner, the form to the formless,&#xA;  and the limited to the infinite, non-dual consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Established in such a state, you start appreciating everything from a&#xA;  thorn to a snail and a sea urchin. Dispassion to one's Self,&#xA;  dedication to society and devotion to God is the secret of undying&#xA;  beauty. Without dispassion, beauty is short-lived.Possessiveness turns&#xA;  beauty into a mirage. Devotion and wonderment is simply appreciating&#xA;  beauty without possessiveness. You see a beautiful painting and you&#xA;  want to own it, you want to take it home with you, but then you hang&#xA;  it on your wall and after a while you don't even look at it. Adi&#xA;  Shankaracharya was an embodiment of dispassion. He could fully cognise&#xA;  and experience beauty in entire creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beauty creates a thrill; it wakes up the sleeping consciousness.&#xA;  Beauty can also bring ecstasy and draw you into deep meditation.&#xA;  Meditation is complete relaxation, like a cool shower for the mind. It&#xA;  is the act of getting in touch with your own divinity, getting back to&#xA;  your nature. Your nature is truth, innocence and beauty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To be able to perceive truth or beauty in creation, calmness is&#xA;  essential. An agitated mind can neither see the truth nor appreciate&#xA;  beauty. That's why Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram always go together. The&#xA;  whole of Creation is nothing but 'Waves of Beauty'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From an article by Bhanumati Narsimhan: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/waves-beauty&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/waves-beauty&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-22T19:21:47.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11604" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11579" CreationDate="2016-04-23T01:47:23.000" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mandukya Upanishad is the shortest Upanishad with just 12 slokas.. It deals with the description of Om. Here is what it says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All this is the letter Om. A vivid explanation of this (is begun). All&#xA;  that is past, present, and future is but Om. Whatever transcends the&#xA;  three periods of time, too, is Om.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All this is certainly Brahman. This Self is Brahman. This Self, as such,&#xA;  is possessed of four quarters.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(The Self) seated in the waking state and called Vaisvanara who,&#xA;  possessed of the consciousness of the exterior, and seven limbs and&#xA;  nineteen mouths, enjoys the gross objects, is the first quarter.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(The Self) seated in the state of dream and called Taijasa who,&#xA;  possessed of the consciousness of the interior, and seven limbs and&#xA;  nineteen mouths, enjoys the subtle objects, is the second quarter.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Where the sleeper desires not a thing of enjoyment and sees not&#xA;  any dream, that state is deep sleep. (The Self) seated in the state of&#xA;  deep sleep and called Prajna, in whom everything is unified, who is&#xA;  dense with consciousness, who is full of bliss, who is certainly the&#xA;  enjoyer of bliss, and who is the door to the knowledge (of the&#xA;  preceding two states), is the third quarter.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is the Lord of all; this is omniscient; this is the in-dwelling&#xA;  controller (of all); this is the source and indeed the origin and&#xA;  dissolution of all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Fourth is thought of as that which is not conscious of the&#xA;  internal world, nor conscious of the external world, nor conscious of&#xA;  both the worlds, nor dense with consciousness, nor simple&#xA;  consciousness, nor unconsciousness, which is unseen, actionless,&#xA;  incomprehensible, uninferable, unthinkable, indescribable, whose proof&#xA;  consists in the identity of the Self (in all states), in which all&#xA;  phenomena come to a cessation, and which is unchanging, auspicious,&#xA;  and non-dual. That is the Self; that is to be known.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That same Self, from the point of view of the syllable, is Om, and&#xA;  viewed from the stand point of the letters, the quarters are the letters,&#xA;  and the letters are the quarters. The letters are a, u and m.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vaisvanara seated in the &lt;strong&gt;waking state is the first letter a&lt;/strong&gt;, owing to&#xA;  its all-pervasiveness or being the first. He who knows thus verily&#xA;  accomplishes all longings and becomes the first.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Taijasa &lt;strong&gt;seated in the dream is u,&lt;/strong&gt; the second letter (of Om), owing&#xA;  to the similarity of excellence or intermediate position. He who knows&#xA;  thus verily advances the bounds of his knowledge and becomes equal&#xA;  (to all) and none who is not a knower of Brahman is born in his family.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Prajna seated in the &lt;strong&gt;state of deep sleep is m&lt;/strong&gt;, the third letter (of&#xA;  Om), because of his being the measure or the entity wherein all&#xA;  become absorbed. He who knows thus measures all this and absorbs&#xA;  all.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That which is without letters (parts) is the Fourth, beyond&#xA;  apprehension through ordinary means, the cessation of the&#xA;  phenomenal world, the auspicious and the non-dual. Thus Om is&#xA;  certainly the Self. He who knows thus enters the Self by the Self.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T01:47:23.000" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11605" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-23T02:35:11.633" Score="1" ViewCount="128" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11560/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Kedara Kanda of the Skanda Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/hli7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; Mahabali's previous birth as a gambler who was a sinner all his life.  Before he dies, the gambler accidentally makes an offering of betel leaves, flowers, and sandal paste to Shiva.  As a result, in the afterlife Yama the god of death gives him an hour and twelve minutes to rule Devaloka.  The gambler spends his short reign as Indra giving away all of Indra's possessions, including the wish-giving Kalpavriksha tree and the flying horse Ucchaishravas (which I discuss [here]), to various Rishis.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the actual Indra regains his throne, he finds that all his possessions are gone, and when he finds out what has happened he complains to Yama.  Yama chastises the gambler, saying that charitable giving is only allowed on Earth, not in Devaloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Charitable gift is commended on the earth where the fruit of Karman is had.  In heaven charitable gift should never be given to anyone at any place.  Hence, O stupid one, you are worthy of being punished.  &lt;strong&gt;What is opposed to the injunctions of the scriptures has been perpetrated by you.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yama is just about to punish him, when Chitragupta points out that charitable giving is allowed even in Devaloka when it is done out of devotion to Shiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everything that is given away with Shiva in view either in heaven or in the world of mortal men is, it should be known, everlasting.  It is called a flawless Karman.  Hence there is no question of this gambler falling into hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the gambler is freed from the sins he had committed in life, and he is reborn as Virochana's son Mahabali, although his father Virochana dies before he's born for reasons that I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11560/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is not about the gambler himself, but rather about what Yama says to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why does Yama say that the gambler's actions are &quot;opposed to the injunctions of the scriptures&quot;?  Are there any statements in Hindu scripture that charitable giving is not allowed in Devaloka?  I'm not familiar with any scriptures that give particular rules for inhabitants of Devaloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is the point of this story that Yama is misinformed on this issue? Chitragupta says that charitable giving &quot;with Shiva in view&quot; is allowed in Devaloka.  But what about someone who engages in charitable giving for other purposes, like if he's just feeling generous?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T06:52:39.023" Title="Do any scriptures prohibit charitable giving in Devaloka?" Tags="|puranas|practice|lokas|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11606" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10732" CreationDate="2016-04-23T05:14:58.203" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Finally seem to get a satisfactory answer to the question as well as  the scriptural source for the Sloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,as anyone can see,its not surprising that  the Sloka can very well be mistaken for a Sloka of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no way one can convince oneself that the Sloka is related to Ganapaty unless one sees the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the Vishnu Sahasranama found in the  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/skandapurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana-Avantya Khanda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shuklaambaradharam Vishnum  Shashi Varnam Chaturbhujam, Prasanna&#xA;  Vadanam Dhyaaye Sarva Vighnopashaantaye/ Laabhasteshaam Jayatyeshaam&#xA;  Krutasteshaam Paraajayah, Eshaamindeevara shyaamo hridayastho&#xA;  Janardanah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;( &lt;strong&gt;In his address to Devas, Lord Brahma invoked  Shri Ganesha in the&#xA;  Swarupa of Bhagavan Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; as wearing white and clean clothing&#xA;  decked with four hands with a pleasing countenance and prayed to Him&#xA;  to appease any type of obstacle in the task being initiated. May Lord&#xA;  Janardana of Shyama Varna -blue complexion- who retains a splendid &#xA;  blue lotus in his heart bestow boons to us as he is the Emblem of&#xA;  Earnings and Magnificent Victories).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit-Further evidence that Sloka in question is just a pseudo Dhyana Sloka of Ganapaty.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following (complete?) version of the Sloka is used for &lt;strong&gt;Visvaksena Puja&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śuklām baradharaṁ viṣṇuṁ śaśi varṇaṁ caturbhujam | prasanna vadanaṁ&#xA;  dhyāyet sarva vighnopa śāntaye || yasya dviradha vaktrādyāḥ pāriṣadhya&#xA;  paraśatam | vighnam nighnanti satataṁ viśvaksena tamāśraye ||&#xA;  I take    refuge  in  &lt;strong&gt;Vishvaksena   who always  destroys    all hindrances&lt;/strong&gt;,   he  is  the general of  the elephant&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  faced attendants  and the numerous    others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rsuef.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rsuef.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That sounds quite reasonable to me since Ganapty is most often described in Scriptures &lt;strong&gt;as wearing red as opposed to white&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,almost all Dhyana Slokas of Ganapaty atleast mention one of the prominent features of Him(viz-big belly ,curved tusk,one toothed etc)in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this case that is strikingly  missing.No mention whatsoever of Vakratunda or Lambodara or the musika which is His Vahana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TtnWy.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TtnWy.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The   highest of  Yogis   meditates   constantly  upon    Ganesha,    with    a   single  tusk,   having  four    arms,   holding a&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  noose,    goad,   the Benefactor, supporting  the universe    with    his hands,  &lt;strong&gt;having    the mouse   as  his emblem, red &#xA;  in    colour, potbellied, fan-eared,  wearing red clothes,    anointed    with    red vermilion   paste,  worshipped  with&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  red   flowers,&lt;/strong&gt;  always  attentive   to  the supplications   of  the devotees,   the cause   of  the universe,   the Unsullied&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One   who was manifested  before  the universe    was created and existed prior   to  the manifestation   of  spirit&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and   matter-From the Ganapatyatharvasirsopanishat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-28T05:38:23.010" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T05:38:23.010" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11607" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8591" CreationDate="2016-04-23T05:21:42.743" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shruti&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Aruti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shruti&lt;/a&gt; when translated to English is 'that which is/was heard(by ancient seers/Rishis)'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in hinduism there is only one scripture or literature which is heard (from the divine bramhan) that is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedas&lt;/a&gt;, only the &lt;code&gt;Samhita part&lt;/code&gt; of the Vedas is shruti since it is the only part that was heard by Rishi's in their deep meditations. So due to divine origin shruti is highest Shabda pramana, no one can deny this.(Everyone including nastika Purva Mimansa School Accepts this).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;List of Shruti texts&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bramhanas&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aranyaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aranyaka&lt;/a&gt;,&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda (Samhita, Bramhanas, Aranyaka, Upanishads)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Samaveda (Samhita, Bramhanas, Aranyaka, Upanishads)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda (Samhita, Bramhanas, Aranyaka, Upanishads)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;I have written is/was in first line because Shruti's are always heard&#xA;if listener is at level of ancient seers/Rishi's.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Ideally and in my opinion only Samhitas of Vedas are Shruti, but&#xA;whole Vedas are considered Shrutis(with all four limbs) due to their&#xA;flawless compilation by Veda Vyasa.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Smriti&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smriti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smriti&lt;/a&gt; translates to 'That which must be remembered'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The remembrance is focused here due to the everyday requirement of jisp of these texts. Smriti's address our everyday life problems. The problems that we get during following our dharma(be it Swadharma , Matrudharma, Manushyadharma etc).Smriti's in General do not have divine origin they have a author who is one of the seers of Shruti's or person with Equivalent status.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like in case of Arjuna before the Start of Kaurava Pandava War he had to choose to either fight relatives or give up his Kshatra dharma &lt;a href=&quot;https://gitopadesha.wordpress.com/chapter-1-arjuna-vishada-yoga/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arjuna Vishad Yoga&lt;/a&gt;. Second case of Yudhishthira when he had to choose to lie and do the Adharma or to Speak the truth to Dronacharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drona#Dronacharya.27s_death&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Death of Dronacharya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am listing only important Smriti texts(ranked according to my priority)&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smriti#Texts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Full list of Smriti texts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shrimad Bhagwad Gita&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bramha-Sutras with suited commentary.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bramha Vidya's     Commentry on &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;these&lt;/a&gt; Upanishads  to be&#xA;remembered for lifetime&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Itihas (Ramayana, Mahabharata etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Puranas (Because of multiple conflicts)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2018-03-10T21:03:30.910" LastActivityDate="2018-03-10T21:03:30.910" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11608" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-23T05:55:13.860" Score="1" ViewCount="2309" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;Tumbe hoovu&quot; also called as &quot;Dronapushpi&quot; has a scientific name 'Leucas cephalotes' is known as favorite flower of lord Shiva. Why is that so? Is there any specific reason for this?&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/t6AEG.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/t6AEG.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;The image of the flower tumbe hoovu&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5430" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T06:47:06.543" Title="Why is Tumbe hoovu favorite of lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11609" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-23T06:24:55.073" Score="6" ViewCount="3603" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know, Sri Rama was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga18/bala_18_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Avatar of Lord Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;, Lakshama was &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/template.php?c=07uttara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;one quarter portion of Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; &lt;sup&gt;[a]&lt;/sup&gt; or avatar of Adisesha. Shatrugna and Bharatha were incarnations of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11311/3500&quot;&gt;Sudarshana Chakra and Panchajanya Shankha&lt;/a&gt; respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These three brothers, Lakshamana, Shatrugna and Bharatha married Urmila, Shrutakeerti and Mandavi respectively. Rama married Sita who was incarnation of Goddess lakshmi. As portions of Vishnu were present in His brothers, portions of Goddess Lakshmi must be present in Sita's sisters. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, how can be three sisters of Sita reconciled with concept of Goddess Lakshmi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[a] Chapter 106 of Uttarakanda &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T12:20:36.173" Title="How concept of sisters of Sita: Urmila, Shrutakeerti and Mandavi can be reconciled with concept of Mahalakshmi?" Tags="|avatars|lakshmi|sita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11610" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8591" CreationDate="2016-04-23T08:57:22.567" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes the classification is accordingly Shruti and Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Shrutis&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;em&gt;Shruti means &lt;strong&gt;'to hear'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, so all the books which are been heard by the rishis come under a general term called Shruti. The Shruti are the most sacred of the two types. The Shrutis are more truthfull and in case of hinduism termed as perfect and flawless.&#xA;The books under this category are very few being &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vedas, Upnishads and Bhagwat Gita&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;em&gt;As they are heard and termed as coming directly from god&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Smritis&lt;/strong&gt; : Smirti comes from word &lt;em&gt;Smaran meaning &lt;strong&gt;'to remember'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. As all the souls were created at the very beginning of this universe ( &lt;em&gt;yes this universe, not any other because hinduism also talks about parallel universes&lt;/em&gt; ) which can be related to the time of big bang theory ( &lt;em&gt;depicted as golden egg hatching in hinduism&lt;/em&gt; ). Now as all the souls are travelling since then taking birth and rebirth, they do forget things after a while. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Many yogis and rishis meditate and try to remember what would have taken place&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; in there previous lives even going back to when their soul was first created ie. The tiime of the big bang or the golden egg hatching. As they are trying 'to remember' (&lt;em&gt;which the meditation learning is all about&lt;/em&gt;) everything which exists and they write there findings and remembrance on book known as Smritis. The Smriti are termed not to be followed strictly, because they are not perfect and contains flaws. The Smritis talk about circumstances in the perspective of the rememberer that is why many puranas conflict in stories.&#xA;The books underthis is everything : &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Shastras, The Puranas, The Uppuranas and everything else remaining but not Vedas, Upnishads and Bhagwat Gita.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T08:57:22.567" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11611" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13662" CreationDate="2016-04-23T09:25:29.350" Score="7" ViewCount="2164" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankara&lt;/a&gt;'s guru was &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Govinda_Bhagavatpada&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Govinda Bhagavatpada&lt;/a&gt; and Govinda Bhagavatpada's guru was &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudapada&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gaudapada&lt;/a&gt;. This way Gaudapada was grand-guru of Shankaracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can find the following lines in Adi Shankara's scripture:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इति श्रीमत्परमहंसपरिव्राजकाचार्यस्य &lt;strong&gt;श्रीगोविन्दभगवत्पूज्यपादशिष्यस्य&lt;/strong&gt; श्रीमच्छङ्करभगवतः कृतौ &amp;lt;xyz&amp;gt; सम्पूर्णम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means he was a disciple of Govinda Bhagavatpada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But whenever I think about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atma_Shatkam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atmashatkam&lt;/a&gt; (आत्मषट्कम्); also known as  Nirvanashatkam (निर्वाणषट्कम्), the story is (quoted from wikipedia):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is said that that when Ādi Śaṅkara was a young boy of eight and wandering near River Narmada, seeking to find his guru, he encountered the seer &lt;strong&gt;Gaudapada&lt;/strong&gt; who asked him, &quot;Who are you?&quot;. The boy answered with these stanzas, which are known as &quot;Nirvāṇa Ṣaṭkam&quot; or Ātma Ṣaṭkam&quot;. &lt;strong&gt;Gaudapada accepted Ādi Śaṅkara as his disciple&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not relying on wikipedia only, I herd this story from many peoples. According to this, Gaudapada was a guru (not grand-guru) of Adi Shankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this confusing me to decide whether Gaudapada was guru or grand-guru of Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or I can think the possible case/solution:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Earlier Adi Shankara was discipline of Gaudapada and after Gaudapada, he was discipline of Govinda Bhagavatpada.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gaudapada and Govinda Bhagavatpada was the same person (known by different names)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above is just my assumption while facing with this confusion. But I am curious to know the fact. So, I've just asked this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-04-23T09:41:57.420" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T07:16:20.427" Title="Was Gaudapada a guru or grand-guru of Adi Shankarachrya?" Tags="|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11612" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-04-23T09:50:58.347" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-04-23T09:50:58.347" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T09:50:58.347" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11613" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-04-23T09:50:58.347" Score="0" Body="For the questions about a caste-system based on varna e.g the Chaturvarna: Brahmin,  Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudras. The mixed varnas, apostate varnas, and varnas not necessarily related to the Chaturvarna (e.g. Mleccha) are also valid for this tag." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="21895" LastEditDate="2022-01-17T19:31:57.990" LastActivityDate="2022-01-17T19:31:57.990" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11614" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11593" CreationDate="2016-04-23T10:43:25.657" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not confident to my point, and might need a bit help, still I would like to differentiate and put a more logical perspective to the question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Eshwar&lt;/strong&gt; : Its a combination of two words, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Esh + War&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Where &lt;em&gt;Esh means 'Lord','King' or 'Leader' in more general 'To rule'&lt;/em&gt;. And &lt;em&gt;Var means 'to be'&lt;/em&gt;. Combining it result as 'the one who rules'. Eshwar can be used to for the Supreme Being ( I will not called him GOD because he's greater than that word, in Hinduism GOD's take birth and die ), but it can also be used for Normal Human Beings who have or are behaving like a King or Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parameshwar&lt;/strong&gt; : Combined using &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Param+Eshwar&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, meaning The Lord of the Lords or The King of all Rules and Rulers. Well this is very close to what the Supreme Being is and can be used to nomenclate him, but at some places is also used for superior beings like gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Paramatma&lt;/strong&gt; : Combined using &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Param+Atman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, where &lt;em&gt;Param means 'Super','Supreme' or 'Greatest'&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Atman meaning 'Soul'&lt;/em&gt;. This is the perfect literal which justifies Supreme Being and cannot be used for any thing else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagwan&lt;/strong&gt; : Its been beautifully described in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/678/differences-between-ishwar-and-bhagvan&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; . But I will go a bit further and brief it out here a bit. Combined using Bhag+Wan, where Bhag meaning Supreme Wealth or Luxury ( Supreme Opulence).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; : Seems this is the only world which is not a combined for in my knowledge and is directly used to address the Supreme Being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well above all &lt;strong&gt;Paramatman and Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; are the words which are used striclty to imply supreme being in literal sentences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T10:43:25.657" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11615" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7464" CreationDate="2016-04-23T10:48:07.817" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, there are many techniques used in &lt;em&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt; for matching of horoscopes and neither of them prescribe to the prevalent caste-system. The most populist technique is the &lt;em&gt;Ashtakoota&lt;/em&gt; system which focuses only on the behavorial patterns of both the parties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These 8 factors are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt;: this factor represents the spiritual development of the partners&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vasya&lt;/em&gt;: this factor describes the degree to influence the other partner&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dina or Tara&lt;/em&gt;: this factor measures the number of Nakshatras between the Moon positions of the partners&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yoni&lt;/em&gt;: this factor measures sexual compatibility which we discussed on our Vedic sex horoscopes page&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Graha Maitri&lt;/em&gt;: this factor reflects the mental compatibility and affection. This score is about friendship&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Gana&lt;/em&gt;: this one is about the temperament and it's adviced to have the same temperament as your partner&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rasi&lt;/em&gt;: this Kuta describes the relationship between the Moon signs (and Nakshatras) of the partners&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Nadi&lt;/em&gt;: this factor is about progeny and children. In some ways it also relates to health issues between the partners&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read more here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cosmitec-astrological-compatibility-advice.com/ashtakoot-compatibility.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.cosmitec-astrological-compatibility-advice.com/ashtakoot-compatibility.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T10:48:07.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11616" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9690" CreationDate="2016-04-23T11:21:35.413" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was Risley, the commissioner of the 1901 census of India who introduced so many castes. It was the game-plan of British as part of their divide-and-rule policy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Risley wrote that he wanted his 'scientific' research to 'detach&#xA;  considerable masses of 'non-Aryans' from the general body of Hindus'.&#xA;  He adopted the popular Race Science measurement methods used by French&#xA;  experts, according to which physical traits, such as the size of the&#xA;  nose, were a more reliable measure than skin color. Risley was an&#xA;  enthusiastic champion of the newly fashionable science called&#xA;  anthropometry, which measured various parts of the head to&#xA;  characterize different peoples. He used his measurements of people in&#xA;  India to conclude that there was a remarkable correspondence between&#xA;  two kinds of data, namely, (i) the 'gradations of type' as brought out&#xA;  by certain indices of head measurements, and (ii) the 'gradations of&#xA;  social preference'. This, he wrote, 'enables us to conclude that the&#xA;  community of races, and not, as has frequently been argued, the&#xA;  community of function, is the real determining principle . . . of the&#xA;  caste system'. His 1891 ethnographic study of Bengal became the model&#xA;  for similar studies across India. His program measured Bengali heads&#xA;  and noses with calipers in order to establish hierarchies based on&#xA;  physical body dimensions.” “Based on Risley's research, Indians were&#xA;  classified into seven major races located on a linear scale, with&#xA;  Aryans and Dravidians as the two opposite poles. He also organized&#xA;  'social types' into seven groups. To protect himself, he wrote&#xA;  numerous disclaimers against blatant racism, and against taking things&#xA;  too far. Yet that was precisely what he did and wanted others to do.&#xA;  He claimed that according to his data, 'the correspondence between the&#xA;  two sets of groupings', namely, the seven races and the seven social&#xA;  types, was sufficiently close. He thereby concluded that Indian tribes&#xA;  had turned into castes. He described the various tribal types in the&#xA;  order of their primitiveness, positioning the Dravidians as the&#xA;  lowest, assigning manual labor as their 'birthright', along with human&#xA;  sacrifices to a goddess.16 Those tribes that had developed&#xA;  professional specialization became castes, while those that had&#xA;  remained in a limited geographic territory were still classified as&#xA;  tribes.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“As the commissioner of the 1901 census of India, Risley wrote the&#xA;  section on caste, which was published in the highly influential&#xA;  Imperial Gazetteer of India, and became the template for academicians&#xA;  and colonial administrators to do their studies. &lt;strong&gt;He decided that&#xA;  Indians consisted of 2,378 main castes and tribes (with sub-castes),&#xA;  and 43 races.&lt;/strong&gt; To implement his hierarchy of castes, he decided not&#xA;  to list them in alphabetical order in the census forms, but rather in&#xA;  order of what he considered 'social preference' based on his&#xA;  evaluation of 'native public opinion'. Thus, a hierarchy was&#xA;  constructed and made official. The bewildering array of castes he&#xA;  listed, from which each person was required to choose when filling out&#xA;  official government forms, ran into so many pages that it 'gives so&#xA;  much trouble to the enumerating and testing staff and to the central&#xA;  offices which compile the results.” “Risley translated the dharma of&#xA;  various jatis as 'race sentiments', and made it his ambition to&#xA;  scientifically prove that a comparatively pure 'Aryan type' existed in&#xA;  North India. His obsession with noses caught on with other colonial&#xA;  administrators. For example, noses of Indians became the subject of&#xA;  scientific inquiry for Edgar Thurston, author of the voluminous Castes&#xA;  and Tribes of Southern India (1909). Thurston even used his 'Lovibond&#xA;  Tintometer' (originally an instrument for quality-testing in&#xA;  breweries) to measure the racial features of Indian villagers.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above are excerpts from a book 'Breaking India' by Rajiv Malhotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T11:21:35.413" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11618" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9289" CreationDate="2016-04-23T12:17:43.763" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not much is said on this topic as it concerns the delicate topic of death. This might answer some of your questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is the significance of Garuda Purana after death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Garuda Purana is all about the life after death.&#xA;  How the soul goes, where, what and all that. There is only certain&#xA;  time when you are supposed to hear that, (the few days after the soul&#xA;  leaves the body) listen to it so you know where the departed soul goes&#xA;  and what happened to them. There are a lot of things in Garuda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/2-august-2011-qa-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/2-august-2011-qa-1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T12:17:43.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11619" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7560" CreationDate="2016-04-23T12:19:45.123" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question assumes that a person may never change his Varna. Drona may have felt that his Varna was that of a Kshatriya and thus opted for working as a weapons trainer. If he really refused to teach a Shudra student then he was simply wrong since he should have accepted the right of a Shudra student to change his Varna to that of a Kshatriya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other examples (apart from Drona) of people changing their Varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Example of Change of Varna in Hindu scripture&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagavan Rishabha, realising that the region of his advent was a place&#xA;  dominated by Vedic rituals, adopted the life of a religious student&#xA;  under a teacher with gifts, came back home with his blessings. He&#xA;  adopted the householder’s station of life in order to teach the world&#xA;  about the duties of that order, observed all the ceremonials and&#xA;  duties laid down in the scriptures, married a girl named Jayanti given&#xA;  to him by Indra, and begot by her a hundred sons equal to himself in&#xA;  all respects. Of all these sons, Bharata was the eldest and noblest.&#xA;  This Ajanabha Varsha came to be known after him as Bharatavarsha. Next&#xA;  to him, the eldest nine other sons ….. were elder to the remaining&#xA;  ninety. Among these ninety, another nine … became great devotees and&#xA;  teachers of the Bhakti cult. ….. &lt;strong&gt;The remaining eighty one of the&#xA;  brothers, who were humble in nature, learned in the Vedas, adepts in&#xA;  sacrificial rites, and extremely pure through their observances,&#xA;  became Brahmanas according to their father’s instruction.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana, V.4.8-13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T12:19:45.123" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11620" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8350" CreationDate="2016-04-23T14:12:48.337" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Matysa Purana, Lord Brahma composed Puranas for the first time. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23267/25F_Chapter_53_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 3 Primary Creation&lt;/a&gt; of Matsya Purana says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Before the creation of all the 'sästras, Brahmä composed the Puränas&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;which happen to be indestructible, full of words, auspicious and were&#xA;comprised of a hundred crores of the verses. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, there emerged from the mouth of Brahmä, the Vedas with&#xA;their accessories, mimctmsä and nyäya. Thereafter the sons of Brahmä,&#xA;who were engaged in the recitation of the Vedas, were born with the&#xA;desire of his mind. Because they were born of the mental desire of&#xA;Brahmä, they came to be known as the  mind-born sons of Brahmä.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is described in detail in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23267/25F_Chapter_53_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 53 of Matsya Purana.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Matsya (Vishnu) said to Manu, &amp;quot;Brahmä remembered in the beginning first the&#xA;Puränas among all the Sästras. So Puränas are the first among the&#xA;Sästras. Afterwards, Brahmä uttered out the four Vedas from His four&#xA;mouths. There was only one Puräna in the beginning of the Kalpa. It&#xA;was alone the means of the accomplishment of the three ends of man&#xA;(Dharma, Artha and Käma). And it was the only holy book consisting of&#xA;thousand millions of stanzas. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When all the regions perished by fire at the Great Dissolution, then I&#xA;recited the four Vedas, with their six Angas as well as the Puräpas,&#xA;the manifold Nyäyas, the Mimämsä and the Dharmasästra. In the&#xA;beginning of the new age, immersed myself in the furious waters, at&#xA;the time of dissolution of the universe and explained them fully to&#xA;Brahmä, Who in His turn revealed them to the Devas and the sages,&#xA;after which they spread all over the world. Therefore, the Puränas&#xA;became the source of all other Sästras. Later on, seeing the neglect&#xA;of the Purana under the changed circumstances, I repromulgated them in&#xA;every yuga, through my partial incarnation of Vyäsa. In every Dväpara&#xA;yuga, I compiled the Puränas to the extent of four lacs of slokas, and&#xA;spread them in the  world after dividing them into eighteen. Even now&#xA;the bulk of the Puräna extends to a hundred crore verses in the Deva&#xA;loka. On the universe, however, its bulk is abridged only to 4 lakhs&#xA;of 'lokas, and is divided into eighteen Puränas&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-04-24T16:03:52.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11621" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7832" CreationDate="2016-04-23T14:14:14.673" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I too think that Thor is the norse/germanic Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both of them are gods of thunder and lightning&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Both of them are regarded as protector of earth and mankind.&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Indra slays the snake Vritra.&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Thor slays the Snake Jörmungandr.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5447" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T14:14:14.673" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11622" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="598" CreationDate="2016-04-23T15:01:56.243" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Matsya, fish incarnation of Lord Vishnu, clarifies this in Matsya Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23198/25F_Chapter_4_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 4 The Story of Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; in Matysa Purana says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu asked, &amp;quot;O Omniscient lord, it is surprising to stare at the&#xA;daughter again and again which is a painful situation, but by&#xA;indulging in such a manner, how could the lotus born Brahmä not earn&#xA;any blemish? Moreover. how could the sons of Brahmä marry in the same&#xA;gotra? You kindly remove my doubt in this connection&amp;quot;. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Matsya said, &amp;quot;The rajoguna creation emerging in the form of Satarüpä&#xA;and others is divine. As the Mulaprakruti is beyond the reach of the&#xA;organs of senses, similarly the damsel Satarüpä's body was beyond the&#xA;reach of the sense organs. It possesses the divine lustre besides the&#xA;divine knowledge, therefore, the humans having the bodies of flesh&#xA;cannot be described with their mortal eyes. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the paths of the serpents are known to the serpents and those of&#xA;the birds are known to the birds alone, similarly the ways of the&#xA;divine souls like Satarüpä and others could be known to the divine&#xA;jivas alone and not to humans. O Great king, since the activities of&#xA;the gods (irrespective of their being) proper or improper, do not&#xA;yield good or bad fruits, therefore it would not be proper for the&#xA;humans to think about them. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other reason is that as Brahmä happens to be the creator of the&#xA;Vedas, similarly, Gäyatri in the form of Satarüpä is said to have been&#xA;born of the limbs of Brahmä, therefore, this union is conceived as&#xA;visible as well as invisible. Alas wherever there is Brahmä, Sarasvati&#xA;is bound to be there and wherever there is Sarasvati, Brahmä must be&#xA;there. As the sunshine cannot be separated from the sun, similarly&#xA;Gäyatrl cannot leave the company of Brahmä. Though Brahmä represents&#xA;all the Vedas and Sävitri or Gäyatri is the supreme goddess for him,&#xA;therefore Brahmä does not earn any blemish casting an evil eye over&#xA;Sarasvati. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Still Brahmä, felt shameful for his evil action at that time and he&#xA;cursed the god of love his own son. He said, &amp;quot;Since you have badly&#xA;wounded my mind with your arrows, therefore, lord Rudra will soon burn&#xA;you to ashes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-04-23T15:01:56.243" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11623" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-23T15:16:04.407" Score="4" ViewCount="413" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whenever we pray, we tend to keep our hands together. &#xA;Is there a reason why we do so ??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5409" LastActivityDate="2016-04-24T07:41:47.937" Title="Why do we join our hands in the way we do, when we pray?" Tags="|culture|tradition|prayer|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-04-24T08:51:31.833" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11628" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2167" CreationDate="2016-04-24T04:41:08.613" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23207/25F_Chapter_11_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matsya Purana Chapter 11&lt;/a&gt; narrates slightly a different story regarding how he became king of Yamaloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After getting cursed by Chaya, disguised as Sanjana, Yama develops detachment in his mind and did Tapas for Lord Shiva 20,000 years. Lord Shiva grants him the boon to become Lokapaala and powers to judge Dharma and Adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chäyä loved her son Manu much more than the other children. This step&#xA;motherly treatment was tolerated by Manu the son of Sanjfiä, but once&#xA;Yama was enraged because of this and threatened Chäyä to kick her with&#xA;his left foot. At this Chäyä pronounced a curse on Yama, &amp;quot;Your foot&#xA;shall be eaten up by the worms. The blood and puss shall always ooze&#xA;out of it.&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing the curse, the enraged Yama, went to his father and spoke,&#xA;&amp;quot;O Lord, the enraged mother has pronounced a curse on me for no reason&#xA;at all. O Lord, because of my childish habit, I had raised my right&#xA;foot once. At this, she, inspite of dissuading by the elder brother&#xA;Manu, pronounced a curse on me. Since she has attacked me by means of&#xA;a curse, therefore she does not appear to be our mother.&amp;quot; On hearing&#xA;this the sun god again said to Yama, &amp;quot;O Intelligent one, what should I&#xA;do? One has to suffer sometime due to some one's own foolishness. Or&#xA;otherwise one has to reap the reward of his own karmas. This rule is&#xA;applicable over Siva himself, then what to speak of others. Therefore,&#xA;O Son, I am giving you a cock or a peacock, which shall consume all&#xA;the worms  of your foot besides the -blood and the puss emerging out&#xA;of it.&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At these words of the father, &lt;strong&gt;the immensely glorious Yama developed&#xA;detachment in his mind. Then he went to the holy place of Gokarna&#xA;living on fruits, leaves and the air, engaged himself in severe tapas.&#xA;In this way, he adored lord Mahädeva for twenty thousand years&lt;/strong&gt;. In due&#xA;course of time, the trident bearer Siva, getting pleased with his&#xA;tapas appeared before him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Yama, in the form of a boon, achieved the position of a Lokapäla,&#xA;besides the lordship of the manes, and the powers of judgement for the&#xA;performing of dharma and adharma by the people. Siva, the lord of the&#xA;universe, bestowed all the boons on him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-04-24T04:41:08.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11629" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-24T05:47:58.930" Score="2" ViewCount="2621" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana, where it is mentioned under what circumstances did &lt;strong&gt;Urmila - Wife of Lakshmana&lt;/strong&gt; die ? Because I googled and couldn't find a valid answer to it. We know that she also opposed her own husband for supporting Rama and for taking Sita to forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5241" LastEditorUserId="5241" LastEditDate="2016-04-24T11:11:52.857" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T00:24:10.350" Title="Under what circumstances did Urmila die?" Tags="|ramayana|history|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11630" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11611" CreationDate="2016-04-24T05:58:44.307" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, the stories and Wikipedia differ from the &lt;em&gt;Sankara-Dig-Vijaya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;The Traditional Life of Sri Sankaracharya&lt;/em&gt;, by Madhava-Vidyaranya (translator Swami Tapasyananda), which is accepted by most as the most accurate biography of Sankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It clearly states that Sankara's sannyas guru was Govindapada. It does not mention any meeting with Gaudapada before meeting with Govindapada. It does state in Canto 16, 33-53, &lt;em&gt;Accession to Saradapitha&lt;/em&gt;, that Sankara has the vision of Gaudapada (much later in life) and has a conversation with him in the vision that he relates to his disciples the next day. The conversation is such that it is obvious that this is Sankara's first encounter with Gaudapada. Some of the dialogue is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He [Gaudapada] said: &quot;Govindacharya imparted to you the saving knowledge of the Atman, and you have well-realized the eternal truth of Sat-chid-ananda, the eternal and untainted being. You have acquired many disciples always attending on you...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gaudapada goes on to tell Sankara that he has interpreted his Karika most correctly and brought it out more than anyone could have. Later in the same vision/conversation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Sankara speaking]...It is, indeed, the summit of good fortune for a devotee of yours like myself that he could see you today face to face...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This vision is Sankara's one and only encounter with Gaudapada in the &lt;em&gt;Sankara-Dig-Vijaya&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-04-24T05:58:44.307" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11631" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11637" CreationDate="2016-04-24T07:34:29.827" Score="9" ViewCount="397" Body="&lt;p&gt;The chapter 13 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/a&gt;, has been translated as &lt;strong&gt;Nature, the Enjoy-er and Consciousness&lt;/strong&gt; by &lt;a href=&quot;https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.C._Bhaktivedanta_Swami_Prabhupada&quot;&gt;Bhaktivedanta Swami (Prabhupada)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sloka &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/13/21&quot;&gt;Bg 13.21&lt;/a&gt; has been translated as follows by the same author:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;the Sanskrit original&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kārya-kāraṇa-kartṛtve &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hetuḥ prakṛtir ucyate   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;puruṣaḥ sukha-duḥkhānāṁ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhoktṛtve hetur ucyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;the word for word translation:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kārya — of effect; kāraṇa — and cause; kartṛtve — in the matter of&#xA;  creation; hetuḥ — the instrument; prakṛtiḥ — material nature; ucyate —&#xA;  is said to be; puruṣaḥ — the living entity; sukha — of happiness;&#xA;  duḥkhānām — and distress; bhoktṛtve — in enjoyment; hetuḥ — the&#xA;  instrument; ucyate — is said to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nature is said to be the cause of all material causes and effects,&#xA;  whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and&#xA;  enjoyments in this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;question - see below:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;whatever desires we feed and struggle to satisfy, develops in us a nature, and this self-developed nature pushes us to desire even further.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;how can we explain this situation (with reference from the shastra please)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;person &quot;A&quot; no interest whatsoever in aviation, then in 2014 person &quot;B&quot; who was a pilot, and that triggered &quot;A&quot; the desire to fly airplanes, this made &quot;A&quot; go through a long process to become a pilot, and today &quot;A&quot; love airplanes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;where does the &quot;bija&quot; (seed) of desires come from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3294" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-04-24T08:58:21.990" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T14:56:47.153" Title="What is the seed of desire as per scripture?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|karma|prakruti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11632" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11623" CreationDate="2016-04-24T07:41:47.937" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two verses in the Bhagavad gita that talk about that, 11.35 and 11.14. You can see it at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/11/35&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/11/35&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/11/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/11/14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And the word describing this practice is &lt;em&gt;kṛtāñjali&lt;/em&gt;, meaning &quot;&lt;em&gt;one who joins the hollowed palms in reverence or to solicit a favour (holding the hollowed palms together as if to receive alms or an offering), standing in a reverent or respectful posture&lt;/em&gt;&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Arjuna did it to offer obeisances to the Supreme Lord Krishna.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Today we are also doing the same because it's a common practice in Hindu dharma as we see from the above Gita verses and other scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2016-04-24T07:41:47.937" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11633" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-24T08:52:41.360" Score="2" ViewCount="112" Body="&lt;p&gt;All Vedic astrology proves that, after many predictions of life.....if its true how will be focus on something, which we desire in our life, when its fixed we may not achieve that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many times in life we also feel this type of situation when after so much effort in life we have not got the proper results, others got that without effort or some effort.....then what is the role of karma if we will not get the things which are not in our destiny..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5455" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-24T16:35:01.707" LastActivityDate="2016-04-24T16:35:01.707" Title="Is life predefined to some extent... what will happen in our life in future?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-04-26T09:57:33.683" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11634" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11636" CreationDate="2016-04-24T13:29:14.047" Score="2" ViewCount="568" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lzzln.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Pancharatra Agamas are the foundational texts of Vaishnavism. Similarly, the foundational texts of Shaivism are known as the Shaiva Agamas, aka the Shaiva Tantras. One of the Shaiva Agamas is known as the Kirana Agama, and it takes the form of a dialogue between Shiva and Vishnu's bird Garuda.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YWVyg.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Kirana Agama, Garuda says a hymn of praise to Shiva, and in particular he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Victory to the Lord who quenched the virility of the deadly poison (emitted by the snake Vasuki at the time of the churning of the milky ocean) &lt;strong&gt;that blackened the body of Vishnu (who was then white in complexion)&lt;/strong&gt;; victory to the Lord who sustained the divine river Ganga that rushed forth from the heaven ... full of whirls and great conceit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe Vishnu's body being blackened by Vasuki during the Churning of the Ocean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/7/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam does describe Vasuki blackening the faces of the Devas, at least before Vishnu sends down rain to remedy the situation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vāsuki had thousands of eyes and mouths. From his mouths he breathed smoke and blazing fire, which affected the demons, headed by Pauloma, Kāleya, Bali and Ilvala. Thus the demons, who appeared like sarala trees burned by a forest fire, gradually became powerless.  Because the demigods were also affected by the blazing breath of Vāsuki, their bodily lusters diminished, and their garments, garlands, weapons and faces were blackened by smoke. However, by the grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, clouds appeared on the sea, pouring torrents of rain, and breezes blew, carrying particles of water from the sea waves, to give the demigods relief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Vishnu's incarnation Ajita, the Manvantara Avatara of the Chakshusha Manvantara, was one of the Devas who participated in the churning of the Ocean.  But are there any scriptures that specifically say that he was blackened?  And is there any scriptural basis for the translator's claim that he was originally white?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, I suppose if Vishnu was originally white, that would lend support to the theory that the &quot;shuklam bharadharam&quot; shloka chanted before the Vishnu Sahasranamam is addressed to Vishnu rather than Ganesha or Vishvaksena.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2016-10-05T16:09:00.593" Title="What scriptures describe Vishnu's body being blackened by Vasuki?" Tags="|vishnu|shaivism|samudra-manthan|agamas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11635" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-24T15:29:47.327" Score="0" ViewCount="72" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to rig veda, the God is one. Can anyone tell who is one and only God ? Is it Shiva,Vishnu or Brahma ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5416" LastActivityDate="2016-04-24T15:29:47.327" Title="Which GOD is the true GOD?" Tags="|vedas|gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-04-25T05:31:40.707" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11636" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11634" CreationDate="2016-04-24T15:34:52.177" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-i/chapter-09/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana chapter 9&lt;/a&gt;, it was Kalakuta poison which made Lord Vishnu black or dark blue (color of Taamala).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;91&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The excellent mountain had adamantine strength. It  rolled on the back, neck, thighs and the space between the knees  of the&#xA;noble-souled tortoise. Due to the friction of these two,  submarine&#xA;fire was generated.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Halähala poison too emerged and it was seen by  Närada.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing the deadly poison &lt;strong&gt;Kaalkuta&lt;/strong&gt;, all of them went to Satya Loka as suggested by Bhrigu Maharshi. But even Brahma on seeing the blazing Halalal couldn't help them and they all with Brahma flew to abode of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;107&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Then Devas kept Brahmä at their head and hurriedly went to Vaikuntha, because they were afraid of Kälaküta.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmä and others as well as the groups of sages sought refuge in the great lord Vishnu, the primordial Purusha, the mighty lord who had&#xA;resorted to Vaikunta, Mädhava, Adhoksaja. The groups of Suras and&#xA;Asuras sought refuge in lord Visou.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By that time, the great poison Kälaküta came there. After burning Brahma's world at the outset, it burned Vaikunta.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Visnu who dwells in the cavity of the heart of everyone, was burned by the fire of Kälaküta also with his attendants. Immediately&#xA;he acquired the colour of &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamomum_tamala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tamäla&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaikuntha also became blue in colour. It was surrounded by all the worlds. Hence, all the worlds became encircled by the poisonous substance from the waters.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vayu Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vayu-mahapurana/text-with-translation/vol-i/chapter-54/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 54&lt;/a&gt; also describes the same incident.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;विषेणोतिष्ठमानेन कालानलसमविषा। निर्दग्धो रक्तगौराङ्गः कृतः कृष्णो जनार्दनः॥&lt;/strong&gt; ५९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Janardana Visnu who was fair and reddish in complexion has been burnt by the poison that rises with lustre of black fire. He was&#xA;rendered dark-complexioned.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;दृष्ट्रा तं रक्तगौराङ्गं कृतं कृष्णं जनार्दनम्। भीताः&lt;/strong&gt; सर्वे वयं देवास्त्वामेव शरणं गताः॥ ६० ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Having seen that whitish red-hued Janardana, rendered dark-complexioned one&lt;/strong&gt;, all of us got frightened. We seek refuge under&#xA;you.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सुराणामसुराणां च श्रुत्वा वाक्यं पितामहः। प्रत्युवाच महातेजा लोकानां&#xA;हितकाम्यया॥६१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having listened to the Words of the gods and demons, highly radiant&#xA;Pitamaha Brahma replied, out of desire for the beneficence of the&#xA;worlds.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शृणुध्वं देवताः सर्वे ऋषयश्च तपोधनाः। तत्तदग्रे समुत्पन्नं मथ्यमाने&#xA;महोदधौ॥ ६२॥ &lt;br&gt; विर्ष कालानलप्रख्यं कालकूटेति विश्रुतम्। &lt;strong&gt;येन&#xA;प्रोद्भूतमात्रेण कृतः कृष्णो जनार्दनः&lt;/strong&gt;॥६३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;O you Devas, sages and saints, all of you listen. The poison,&#xA;resembling black fire, that rose up when the great ocean was being&#xA;churned is known as Kalakuta. &lt;strong&gt;Even as it rose up, (Visnu) was&#xA;rendered black.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YWVyg.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse from Kirana Aagana&lt;/a&gt; mentions the poison as &lt;em&gt;Kalakuta&lt;/em&gt; which emerged during churning of ocean. Commentator misinterpreted&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Kalakuta&lt;/em&gt; as poison of Vasuki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-10-05T16:09:00.593" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11637" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11631" CreationDate="2016-04-24T17:24:56.010" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Vivekchudamani of Adi Shankara &lt;strong&gt;Ignorance is the seed of Samsara tree. From ignorance comes Ego (Ahamkara) [Identification with body]. From Ego comes desires&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence Ego and Ignorance are seed of desires. As Ego comes from Ignorance, Ignorance is the cause and Ego is the seed of desire:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;45&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ignorance is the seed of the tree of samsara, the worldy existence. Body-identification is the sprout, desires are its tender leaves&lt;/strong&gt;, actions are its water, the body is the trunk, the Pranas are its branches, the sense-organs are its twigs, the sense-objects are its flowers, different miseries born out of the varieties of actions are the fruits and the individual soul is the bird perched upon it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then desires go on following Karmic chain from cycles of birth and rebirth until he comes out from veil of Maya. Hence choosing pilot, doctors etc. are the effects of desires of numerous births:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;342&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Even wise men cannot suddenly destroy egoism after it has once become strong, barring those who are perfectly calm through the Nirvikalpa Samadhi. &lt;strong&gt;Desires are verily the effect of innumerable births.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-04-24T17:24:56.010" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11638" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9918" CreationDate="2016-04-25T00:47:05.167" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Best definition of Lord Rudra is given by &lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna himself&lt;/strong&gt; in Harivamsha Parva [2.74 section] of Mahabharata:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रुद्रो देव त्वं रुदनाद् रावणाञ्च &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रोरुयमाणो द्रावणाच्चवातिदेवः ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Lord Rudra, You are the one who cry, who makes other cry and who removes the cry of Samsara (misery of Samsara).&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Rudra who cries:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudra takes birth as son of Lord Brahma and just after his birth he cries fiercely. He cries to give knowledge about misery of Samsara to people. Then Brahma gives him 8 Names and he enters the creation by 8 different forms. This manifestation is known as &lt;strong&gt;Ashtamurti manifestation&lt;/strong&gt; of Rudras. Just after his birth he is named as Rudra, Bhava, Sarva, Ugra, Bhima, Pasupati, Mahadeva and Ishana.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is described in Satapatha Brahmana of YajurVeda, Shiva Purana, Vishnu Purana, Srimad Bhagvatam and other Puranas also. For eg. In Yajurveda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Satapatha Brahmana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, &amp;apos;Thou art Rudra&amp;apos; And because he gave him that name, Agni became suchlike (or, that form), for Rudra is Agni: &lt;strong&gt;because he cried (rud) therefore he is Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; He said, &amp;apos;Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Rudra who makes other cry:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 11 Rudras also called &lt;strong&gt;Ekadash Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; They rule in Prana and Mind of any living thing. As 11 Rudras are present in prana and mind, so they often manifest when exalted Supreme personalities become angry:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For eg we have many scripture telling they emerge from:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;wrath of Brahma.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  wrath of Vishnu. [S.B.2.10.43]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  wrath of Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  wrath of Sesha Naga[S.B.5.25.3]...etc&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As they are already present in Prana and mind of every living being, they simply manifest from there.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is described in BrihadAranyaka Upanishad:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कतमे रुद्रा इतिः दशेमे पुरुषे प्राणाः आत्मैकादशः ते यदास्माच्छरीरान्मर्त्यादुत्क्रामन्त्यथ रोदयन्ति, तद्यद्रोदयन्ति तस्माद्रुद्रा इति ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ‘Which are the Rudras ?’ ‘The ten pranas in the human body, with the mind as the eleventh. When they depart from this mortal body, they make one’s relatives weep. &lt;strong&gt;Because they then make them weep, therefore they are called Rudras.&lt;/strong&gt;’&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Rudra who removes Cry:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the Unborn Rudra who removes the misery of Samsara. He is ParaBrahman and saguna Upasak also call him SadaShiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sri Rudram of YajurVeda states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;या ते रुद्र शिवा तनूरघोरापापकाशिनी&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutation to your Auspicious and benign form which destroys the sin.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नमः सोमाय च रुद्राय च&lt;/strong&gt; [SriRudram YajurVeda]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutation to him who is with Uma and who destroys the misery of Samsara.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the one who provides immortality by giving moksha:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मृत्युर्मुक्षिय मामृतात् ।।&lt;/strong&gt; [RigVeda 7.59.12]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who Gives moksha and Immortality&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the one who remains as self of all beings or Antaryami of their self:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;देवानां हृदयभ्यो।&lt;/strong&gt; [YajurVeda SriRudram]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who is on the heart of Devas.(as their self)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the one who is the Lord of the world:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भवस्य हेत्यै जगताम् पतये नमः&lt;/strong&gt; । [Sri Rudram]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to him who being the cause is the Lord of the Universe.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He himself is in the form of Vishnu:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नमो शिपिविष्टाय चः।&lt;/strong&gt; [Sri Rudram]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to him who is in the form of Vishnu.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the one and only one without second:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एको हि रुद्रो न द्वितियाय&lt;/strong&gt; [Svetasvatara Upa.]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Rudra is truly one and only one without second.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the one who bestows power to the Gods:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यो देवानां प्रभवश्रोच्वश्रच्&amp;nbsp; विश्वाधिपो रुद्रो महर्षि ।&lt;/strong&gt; [Svetasvatara Upa.]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He, the omniscient Rudra, the creator of the gods and the bestower of their powers, the support of the universe,&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One becomes immortal by knowing him:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;त्वं ज्ञात्वामृता भवन्ती ।&lt;/strong&gt; [Svetasvatara Upa.]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  knowing you one becomes Immortal. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;As a Conclusion:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus there are various types of Rudras. Some are who manifested as &lt;strong&gt;Ashtamurti form&lt;/strong&gt; from Brahma, some are &lt;strong&gt;Ekadash Rudra&lt;/strong&gt; (11 Rudras) who Rules Prana and Mind of beings, Ekadash Rudras also Run Pralaya during night of Brahma. There is also one Rudra who has no beginning and end. He is eternal and he is the self of all.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;These all are generally represented by the Single Name Rudra in Vedas. So, one has to understand from the description to which Rudras it is adressed.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;To remove the confusion Puranas elaborate the concepts and names of 11 Rudras are also assigned.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Mahabharat assigns names of 11 Rudras as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They were &lt;strong&gt;Mrigavayadha, Sarpa, Niriti&lt;/strong&gt; of great fame: &lt;strong&gt;Ajaikapat, Ahivradhna,&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Pinaki,&lt;/strong&gt; the oppressor of foes; &lt;strong&gt;Dahana&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Iswara,&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Kapali&lt;/strong&gt; of great splendour; and &lt;strong&gt;Sthanu&lt;/strong&gt;, and the illustrious &lt;strong&gt;Bharga.&lt;/strong&gt; These are called the eleven Rudras. [Sambhava Parva chapter 66]&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The names of Ashtamurti form are assigned as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rudra, Bhava, Sarva, Ugra, Bhima, Pasupati, Mahadeva, Ishana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Brahman who is the self of all is generally described as Linga form or also as SadaShiva. SadaShiva has five heads. They are:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sadyojata, Aghora, Vamadeva, Tatpurusha, Ishana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above five faces are also described in Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/7/19&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam 8.7&lt;/a&gt; also clearly describes &lt;strong&gt;SadaShiva&lt;/strong&gt;: for eg. S.B. 8.7.29 states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O lord, the five important Vedic mantras are &lt;strong&gt;represented by your five faces,&lt;/strong&gt; from which the thirty-eight most celebrated Vedic mantras have been generated. Your Lordship, being celebrated as Lord Śiva, is self-illuminated. &lt;strong&gt;You are directly situated as the supreme truth, known as Paramātmā.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-08T12:16:57.383" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T12:16:57.383" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11639" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-25T05:56:36.237" Score="3" ViewCount="394" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know Ved Vyasa told Ganapati to write Mahabharata as he dictated. If a live story can only be written after it is completed, it would mean Mahabharata was written during the start of the Kali Yuga since the war ended in Dwapara Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a relation of Ganapati's birth to writing of Mahabharat? Does it mean Ganapati was born during the start of the Kali Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2514" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-25T06:47:09.893" LastActivityDate="2018-09-25T06:47:09.893" Title="Ganapati's Birth in relation to writing of Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|ganesha|kali-yuga|vyasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11640" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14800" CreationDate="2016-04-25T05:57:27.407" Score="10" ViewCount="11369" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit is said to be originated from &quot;Drums of Lord Shiva&quot;. There's a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Sutras#Traditional_story_of_origin&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;famous story&lt;/a&gt; of Panini composing grammar of Sanskrit from sounds (Maheswara Sutras) of lord Shiva's Damaru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Panini was a student at a Gurukula (a system of education in the 4th&#xA;  century BC). He was a dull student, and was often teased by many of&#xA;  his friends. So, worried about his situation, the Gurumata (the wife&#xA;  of the Guru) advised him to go to the Himalayas to do tapas. So he&#xA;  went to the Himalayas and started meditating on Lord Shiva. Lord&#xA;  Shiva, pleased with Panini's strong tapas, came and danced before him&#xA;  . While dancing, the sound from his Damaru (the small drum like&#xA;  musical instrument that Shiva plays) was heard by Panini as the&#xA;  Maheshwara Sutrani. Thus, Panini wrote the Maheshwara Sutras and&#xA;  formed the Sanskrit grammar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit was composed initially in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ancientscripts.com/brahmi.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmi&lt;/a&gt; Script and later Devanagari Script was used. Sanskrit is also believed to have no script.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We all know, Sacred syllable OM, the Pranava, the Sabdha Brahman, is written as ॐ in Devanagari Script or lipi. But how is &quot;OM&quot; or &quot;AUM&quot; or ॐ written in Brahmi Script? This Image says how ॐ  was developed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XJlbh.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XJlbh.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As &quot;O&quot; is written as &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kvKEC.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kvKEC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in Brahmi as mentioned in above link, Is ॐ written as &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/viRXY.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/viRXY.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; or something else ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-25T11:04:42.943" LastActivityDate="2018-04-01T20:59:35.540" Title="How ॐ (OM) is written in Brahmi Script?" Tags="|sanskrit|om|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11641" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-25T10:20:16.890" Score="1" ViewCount="4234" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most popular story is that Kaikeyi's maid poisoned her mind. Due to this, she sent Lord Rama on a Vanvas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although, I heard a different story in a &lt;em&gt;Katha&lt;/em&gt; recently. The story goes like Lord Rama was to be coronated as the king. Although, he knew this was not his purpose of descent (of being an avatara). He shared this dilemma with Kaikeyi. Kaikeyi suggested the solution that she will send him on Vanvas. Rama said that she will become infamous for thousands of years to come. Although, Kaikeyi said that she was fine with that as long as she was born as his mother in the next birth too. Hence, Lord Rama was born as Lord Krishna, and Kaikeyi took rebirth as Yashoda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any version of the &lt;em&gt;Ramayana&lt;/em&gt; that mentions this story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T06:32:48.467" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T06:32:48.467" Title="Why did Kaikeyi send Lord Rama on Vanvas?" Tags="|ramayana|history|rama|yashoda|kaikeyi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11642" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11631" CreationDate="2016-04-25T11:29:45.857" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a very long discussion between Yudhisthira, Bhishma, Suka and Vyasa in Mahabharata Santi Parva involving many sections about emancipation. conduct, Brahman etc. There is a wonderful description of Desire by Vyasa in this discussion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa’s view of Desire&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, ‘There is a wonderful tree, called Desire, in the heart of&#xA;  a man. &lt;strong&gt;It is born of the seed called Error.&lt;/strong&gt; Wrath and pride&#xA;  constitute its large trunk. The wish for action is the basin around&#xA;  its foot (for holding the water that is to nourish it). Ignorance is&#xA;  the root of that tree, and heedlessness is the water that gives it&#xA;  sustenance. Envy constitutes its leaves. The evil acts of past lives&#xA;  supply it with vigour. Loss of judgment and anxiety are its twigs;&#xA;  grief forms its large branches; and fear is its sprout. Thirst (after&#xA;  diverse objects) that is (apparently) agreeable forms the creepers&#xA;  that twine round it on every side. Excessively greedy men, bound in&#xA;  chains of iron, sitting around that fruit-yielding tree, pay their&#xA;  adorations to it, in expectation of obtaining its fruit. He who,&#xA;  subduing those chains, cutteth down that tree and seeks to cast off&#xA;  both sorrow and joy, succeeds in attaining to the end of both. That&#xA;  foolish man who nourishes this tree by indulgence in the objects of&#xA;  the senses is destroyed by those very objects in which he indulges&#xA;  after the manner of a poisonous pill destroying the patient to whom it&#xA;  is administered. A dexterous person, however, by the aid of Yoga,&#xA;  forcibly teareth up and cutteth with the sword of Samadhi, the&#xA;  far-reaching root of this tree. One who knows that the end of all acts&#xA;  undertaken from only the desire of fruit is rebirth or chains that&#xA;  bind, succeeds in transcending all sorrow.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section CCLIV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2016-04-26T14:56:47.153" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T14:56:47.153" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11643" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11641" CreationDate="2016-04-25T11:48:49.120" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana written by Sage Valmiki is the authentic version of Ramayana. Valmiki was given a boon by Lord Brahma that when he starts writing the Ramayana, he will know the past, present of the characters. He will automatically know the ideas and thoughts of the character even though they are not met with him. Hence Ramayana written by Valmiki is true and authentic version of Ramayana. He is not paralleled to anyone even he is Rama or Ravana. He wrote what happened exactly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we come to your question, Manthara, house maid who was residing with Kaikeyi since her birth was the reason for the brainwash of Kaikeyi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manthara spoke to Kaikeyi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदा हि रामः पृथिवीमवाप्स्यति |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ध्रुवं प्रणष्टो भरतो भविष्यति |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अतो हि संचिन्तय राज्यमात्मजे |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पर्स्य चैवाद्य विवासकारणम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Rama gets the power of the kingdom Bharata will certainly gets ruined. Hence, think of a solution to get your son Bharata the kingdom and to send Rama, your enemy, to exile.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The version of story you heard might be a folklore. Many stories came into existence as such even though it is not mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana. You may read the full Ramayana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; with English translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-04-26T03:28:04.703" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T03:28:04.703" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11644" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11655" CreationDate="2016-04-25T13:08:09.887" Score="7" ViewCount="148" Body="&lt;p&gt;One &lt;em&gt;sloka&lt;/em&gt; I personally like refer to in order to remind me of spiritual advancement is in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/56&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-Gita 2.56&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;duḥkheṣv anudvigna-manāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sukheṣu vigata-spṛhaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sthita-dhīr munir ucyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Word for word:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;duḥkheṣu — in the threefold miseries; anudvigna-manāḥ — without being&#xA;agitated in mind; sukheṣu — in happiness; vigata-spṛhaḥ — without&#xA;being interested; vīta — free from; rāga — attachment; bhaya — fear;&#xA;krodhaḥ — and anger; sthita-dhīḥ — whose mind is steady; muniḥ — a&#xA;sage; ucyate — is called.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or&#xA;elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear&#xA;and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any passage(s) where Krishna states what is/how to measure spiritual advancement?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3294" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T06:31:34.613" Title="Has Krishna said explicitly how to measure spiritual advancement?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11645" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-25T14:04:00.990" Score="3" ViewCount="1189" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading about the opening ceremony of a temple, that mantras are recited to welcome the divine to reside in the Murti. What are the mantras recited?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2019-10-02T21:19:02.913" Title="What are the mantras recited in a Prana Pratishtha pooja?" Tags="|mantras|temple|idols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11646" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-25T14:16:59.683" Score="4" ViewCount="2124" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit Language is believed to have no written native script. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmic_scripts#History&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;History&lt;/a&gt; says Brahmi Script was used for Sanskrit Language during the reign of legendary Emperor Ashoka which was around 3rd century BC. But there are some claims that Brahmi script was even used before period of Ashoka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devanagari&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt; says Nagari Script was developed from Brahmi scripts and Nagari Script is very similar to Devanagari. But Brahmi Script appears very different from Nagari script. See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ancientscripts.com/brahmi.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C4%81gar%C4%AB_script&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; and compare the scripts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_Parvat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ॐ (OM) Parvat&lt;/a&gt; is a mountain in Himalayas which is situated partially in India and Nepal. Snow clad OM parvat looks like &lt;em&gt;Shabhda Brahman&lt;/em&gt; ॐ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7Iu4S.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7Iu4S.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Image Credits: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_Parvat#/media/File:Om_Parvat.JPG&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikimedia Commons&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OM symbol is generally written as ॐ in Devanagari. OM in OM Parvat is similar to &amp;quot;OM&amp;quot; of Nagari Script and Devanagari Script. Himalayas were formed &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3067960/Mystery-Indias-movement-revealed-Scientists-discover-continent-sped-Eurasia-huge-impact-created-Himalayas-80-million-years-ago.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;50 million years ago&lt;/a&gt; and so was the OM Parvat. Even according to Mythology, Himavat, personification of Himalayas and father of Parvati and Ganga was born at the beginning of Vaivasvara Manvantara as he was present during the marriage of Shiva and Parvati. So, OM Parvat was an ancient one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Is Brahmi Script older than Devanagari Script? If yes, how this can be reconciled with OM Parvat? Is OM symbol same for all Scripts, which I think not correct? I asked a question how OM is represented in Brahmi Script &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11640/3500&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-12-28T13:46:49.543" Title="Is Brahmi Script older than Devanagari Script? If yes, how this can be reconciled with ॐ Parvat?" Tags="|history|sanskrit|om|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11647" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-25T15:03:54.547" Score="8" ViewCount="413" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10174/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four disciples: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara. And in turn they started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Sampradayam. Almost all Vaishnava sects belong to one of these Sampradayas; for instance the Sri Vaishnava sect (which I belong to), the Ramanandi sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10180/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and the Swaminarayan sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10174/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) associate themselves with the Sri Sampradayam.  And the Madhvacharya sect and the Gaudiya Vaishnava sect (which ISKCON belongs to) associate themselves with the Brahma Sampradayam.  But my question is about the Rudra Sampradayam, the one founded by Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most famous Acharya associated with the Rudra Sampradayam is Vallabhacharya, the founder of the Pushtimarg sect which worships the Srinathji form of Krishna (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2950/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  The reason that Vallabhacharya's followers consider themselves part of the Rudra Sampradayam is they believe that Vallabhacharya was in the disciplic succession of Vishnusvami, an earlier Vaishnava Acharya associated with the Rudra Sampradayam.  But in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Ntx8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this journal paper&lt;/a&gt;, G. H. Bhatt argues that Vallabacharya did not actually belong to the disciplic succession of Vishnusvami, and that Vishnusvami believed in a dualistic philosophy that has no connection to Vallabacharya's philosophy of Shuddhadvaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about Bhatt's claim, but about one of the pieces of evidence that he uses to support his claim.  He quotes the Ramapatala, a purportedly centuries-old work from the Ramanandi sect which gives some information about Vishnusvami's sect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[I]n the school of Vishnusvami, Vishnukanchi is the Dharma-Shala, Markanda is the Kshetra, Indradyumna is the Vilasa, Sayujya is the Mukti, Jagannatha is the deity to be worshipped, and so also Kamala, Tulasi is the mantra, Tripurari is the Shakha, Vamadeva is the Acharya, Nayana is the Dvara, Puroshottama is the Dhama, Harinama is the food, Sunanda is the Parshada, Yajus is the Veda, Shukla is the Varna, Achyuta is the Gotra, Krishnaparibhrama near the Vata, Jalabimba is the rishi, and Nandika is the deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now some of these are understandable; Vishnukanchi is a reference to the town of Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu, which as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9980/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the home to the Varadaraja temple, and Vishnusvami is said to have some connection to the building of the Varadaraja temple.  Markanda, Indradyumna, Jagannatha, Kamala, and Puroshatthama are all references to the Puri Jagannath temple, which is where Vishnusvami is said to have established a Vaishnava Matha, now controlled by Vallabhacharya's followers.  Tripurari and Vamadeva are things associated with Shiva, which makes sense considering that Vishnusvami was in the Rudra Sampradayam.  Sayujya is a reference to the form of liberation which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6943/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. And Yajur and Shukla may be references to the origin of the Pancharatra tradition from the Shukla Yajur Veda, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7501/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, why does the Ramapatala say &quot;Jalabimba is the rishi&quot;?  Who is the sage Jalabimba and what is his connection to the Vishnusvami sect?  His name means &quot;reflection in the water&quot; if that helps.  Is it possible that Jalabimba is one of the gurus in the disciple succession between Shiva and Vishnusvami?  Does anyone know anything about the Parampara of the Rudra Sampradayam before Vishnusvami?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a side note the Ramapatala should be taken with a grain of salt, because it was published by the Ramanandi sect Acharya Bhagavadacharya, and as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10180/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; Bhagavadacharya published other documents of dubious authenticity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-19T19:55:17.020" LastActivityDate="2018-03-19T19:55:17.020" Title="Who is sage Jalabimba and what is his connection to Vishnuswami and the Rudra Sampradayam?" Tags="|shiva|history|vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11648" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-25T16:49:55.303" Score="4" ViewCount="518" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous temples of Tamil Nadu is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai&lt;/a&gt;. It is the abode of Goddess Meenakshi, and avatara of Devi Parvati and her consort, Lord Sundareshvara, an avatara of Lord Shiva. The divine couple married each other in the Tamil Month of Chitthirai (Sanskrit: Chaitra), and their marriage festival is celebrated grandly till date as the Chittirai Thiruvizha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a work called &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaivam.org/english/sen_thiruvil.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam&lt;/a&gt; by Paranjothi Munivar, are described 64 Divine Leelas of Lord Sundareshvara, from the time he ruled the city of Madurai and the Leelas he subsequently enacted for his descendants. These Leelas describe a series of Kings who ruled Madurai and performed heroic acts, including conquering Indra himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Meenakshi's father was King Malayadhvaja of the Pandya Dynasty. Incidentally, there are references in the Mahabharata that King Malayadhvaja fought in the Battle of Kurukshetra, including &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08020.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter from the Drona Parva&lt;/a&gt; which describes the valour of King Malayadhvaja. This would place the Leelas of Meenakshi-Sundareshvara in the early Kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in Srimad Bhagavatam, Dasama Skandha, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/79&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter 79&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Balarama's pilgrimage is described, and in the 15th verse, it is said, &quot;Dakshinam Mathuram Tatha&quot;, or that Lord Balarama visited Southern Mathura (Madurai). So is this a reference  to the temple of Meenakshi Devi (thereby placing her further back in time) or is it a reference to Lord Kallazhagar (Lord Vishnu and the brother of Devi Meenakshi), who resides near Madurai?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And would the above information mean that the Pandya Kings who succeeded Sundareshvarar were contemporaries of the Azhvars, who also lived during that period?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2016-04-25T16:49:55.303" Title="When did Meenakshi Avatarana and the subsequent rule of Meenakshi and Sundareshvarar's descendants occur?" Tags="|shiva|mahabharata|bhagavata-purana|alwar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11649" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11545" CreationDate="2016-04-26T00:08:21.860" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was Swami Vivekananda actually a Siddha or a fully perfected being equal to God? Perhaps maybe, but right now I don't think so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was probably a higher being, my personally feeling is that he was not fully perfected and did not achieve a nature equal to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I don't know if what he says is really true or only partially true or knowledge gained from hammered reasoning or speculation rather than gained from directly observing the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From my personal observation it seems that a human can be fully infused with the unborn even while the body is alive, but that unborn is still separate, independent, and not subject to change like body, senses, perception, etc...are so I'm not sure what Vivekananda is talking about.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other higher &quot;states&quot; are states, temporary, transient, subject to change, but the unborn is not like a &quot;state&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are my personal experiences:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One day I meditated and achieved the state of deep relaxation or&#xA;tranquility and I thought in my mind &quot;this must be what enlightenment&#xA;is like, perfect relaxation, peace&quot;...but something still didn't feel right, deep down inside I knew that I wasn't really that happy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Another day I imagined everything as a dream, and felt this type of spiritual bliss in my head (ajna chakra) and then I thought in my mind &quot;this must be what enlightenment is like, a strange type of bliss&quot;....but something still didn't feel right, deep down inside I knew that I wasn't really that happy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Then another day I focused and concentrated my mind on destroying the painful feelings inside of me, and kept doing this trying to root out my own deepest darkest insecurities then I felt this energy go from my forehead to above the top of my head and I felt it, full of confidence, doubtless, fearless, sorrowless, full of extreme enjoyment...and I knew this was it, the right path. I saw how the other &quot;states&quot; I achieved were merely temporary transient feelings, and I saw how this &quot;state&quot; was not actually a &quot;state&quot; since it was not composed of energy subject to change.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from my personal experiences I can see how humans can easily mistakenly think themselves as being enlightened, a Siddha, a fully perfected being, it is quite easy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now given my current condition I can enter into higher states (with the energy at the top of my head ajna chakra) within 5 second or less while waking, it still takes me more effort and time to raise the energy higher above the ajna chakra. I still don't believe myself to be a fully perfected being because I see many painful feelings left inside of me, right now I believe that I'm in between a normal human and a fully perfected being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was only through monitoring my bodily feelings and detecting unconscious thoughts and painful feelings inside of me could I distinguish if I had achieved perfection or not....if I hadn't done this I wouldn't be able to tell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also see how without much effort I can scientifically prove things like an afterlife, multiple timelines, karma, etc...as really real (through repeatable experiments)...but I wonder if the world is really ready for such things being undeniably scientifically proven...maybe not yet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You see this time-period we live in is quite unique. Only since around the 17th Century or so has the scientific method and Newtonian physics been known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What this means essentially is that the next fully perfected being that arises on Earth, that decides to teach, should be able to scientifically prove their claims.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A true statement will stand up to any amount of criticism and scrutiny. A fully perfected being should be able to without much effort scientifically prove their claims so that the proof stands up to any amount of criticism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Notice how true teachers of the past like Krsna, Buddha, and Jesus never feared criticism or questioning, knowing their ways as true. But the scientific method wasn't known throughout the world during their times like how it is now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means the next fully perfected one that arises on Earth and decides to become a world-teacher will likely start a golden age on Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maybe if one day I achieve perfection I might become a world-teacher or decide to remain hidden and unknown from the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After developing a little bit of concentration I was able to use this ability to heal myself of negative health conditions whenever sick with ease as well, it's very useful....works more effectively than modern medicine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in my personal opinion, what Swami Vivekananda is referring to may or may not be true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4942" LastEditorUserId="4942" LastEditDate="2016-08-03T05:02:04.927" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T05:02:04.927" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11651" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3091" CreationDate="2016-04-26T00:36:53.027" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9095/2995&quot;&gt;Varaha Purana&lt;/a&gt;, Chapter 32, The Origin of Dharma (deva), explains the complete characteristics of Dharma and how he (or it) was initially lost and then restored:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (The Origin of Fire)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prajāpāla said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-3. О great sage, how did Agni, Asvins, Gaurl, Ganapati,&#xA;  Nagas, Skanda, Aditya, Candra, Matrs, Durga, Diks, Kubera,&#xA;  Visnu, &lt;strong&gt;Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;, Siva, Pitrs and Candra take birth? How did&#xA;  all these deities of the body attain concrete forms?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  CHAPTER THIRTYTWO (&lt;strong&gt;The Origin of Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahātapas said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now listen, О king, I shall tell you about the origin of&#xA;  Dharma, its greatness and the tithi associated with it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Formerly, the eternal and pure Brahma, who is inferior&#xA;  only to the Supreme, thought of creation as well as the protection&#xA;  of the created.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then from the right side of his body came out a person&#xA;  with body smeared with white unguent and wearing white garland&#xA;  and white earrings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Seeing him who was four-footed and bull-shaped, he&#xA;  said: &quot;You be the foremost of my creation and protect all these&#xA;  beings&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Thus ordained, he protects the world with all the &lt;strong&gt;four feet&#xA;  in Krtayuga&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;three feet in Tretayuga&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;two feet in Dvaparayuga&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  and &lt;strong&gt;a single foot in Kaliyuga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dharma was established with six divisions in Brahmins,&#xA;  three in Ksatriyas, two in Vaisyas and one in Sudras. This lord&#xA;  (Dharma) is prevalent everywhere in all the islands in the earth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His four feet are&lt;/strong&gt; acclaimed as &lt;strong&gt;Guna&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;quality&lt;/strong&gt;), &lt;strong&gt;Dravya&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;substance&lt;/strong&gt;), &lt;strong&gt;Kriya&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;action&lt;/strong&gt;) and &lt;strong&gt;Jati&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;genus&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the Veda he is considered as having &lt;strong&gt;three horns&lt;/strong&gt;, Samhita, Pada and Krama. He is Omkara and has &lt;strong&gt;two heads&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;seven hands&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He was bound by the &lt;strong&gt;three svaras&lt;/strong&gt;, Udatta, Anudatia and Svarita&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;. Such was Dharma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10-11. Dharma was persecuted by Soma (moon), desirous&#xA;  of (getting for himself) Тага, the wife of his own brother Angirasa,&#xA;  and somehow escaping from him, he resorted to the expansive forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12-13. When Dharma was gone, the groups of gods began to wander about&#xA;  desiorus of killing Asuras, being bereft of dharma. The Asuras too&#xA;  similarly wandered about in the abodes of gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;14&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;As a result of Soma's sin based on the woman, Devas and Asuras fought each other with numerous weapons.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Seeing them at war with each other Narada came to his father Brahma and spoke about it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahma then mounted his swan and forbade them from fighting, and asked them about the cause of fight.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;They all said Soma to be the cause, and then he was able to see that his son Dharma had resorted to the forest because of persecution.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Then Brahma went there quickly with Devas and Asuras and saw him there four-footed, bull-like and white like the moon.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;19&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This is my first son, the sage by name Dharma, harassed by the moon desirous of the wife of his own brother.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;О Devas and Asuras, propitiate him so that your former position may be established.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Thus knowing his identity through Brahma, Devas and Asuras extolled him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devas said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;22&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&quot;Bow to you, О lord of worlds, moon-like in complexion, bow to you with divine form, the guide to heaven's path.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bow to you of the form of Karmamarga (the path of action) and omnipresent. The earth is governed by you, in fact all the three&#xA;  worlds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The other worlds like Jana, Tapas and Satya are also governed by you. Without you there is nothing, moving or stationary.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;25-26. Without you the world perishes in a moment. You are&#xA;  (the qualities) Sattva, Rajas and Tamas respectively manifesting in&#xA;  the good, the common and the bad people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;27&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bow to you the bull-shaped one with four feet, four horns, three eyes, seven hands and three joints.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;О lord, without you, we all go astray. So give us the right path as we are ignorant. You are our great refuge.&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Thus praised by gods, the lord of beings in bull's form, became pleased and spoke with benignity.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;By the very look of Dharma Devas became freed from ignorance and attached to righteousness. So too Asuras.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;31-32. Then Brahma said: &quot;O Dharma, from today onwards let your tithi be Trayodasi. He who fasts on that day and worships you will attain you and become freed of sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;33&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This forest where you have been wandering long will be known by the name 'Dharmaranya'.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The world will see you four-footed, three-footed, two-footed and single-footed respectively in the yugas Krta, Treta, Dvapara and Kali,&#xA;  and extending over earth and heaven, protecting the whole universe&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Saying this Brahma disappeared while Devas and Asuras were looking on. They too went to their homes fearlessly.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who recites to others this story of Dharma and he who propitiates his Pitrs with milky food on Trayodasi, goes to heaven and&#xA;  remains with gods.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt; Udātta is the high tone, Anudātta the low tone and Svarita a combination of the two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu01.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; the following about how Dharma diminishes with each passing Yuga and how it directly affects men or individuals:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-81. In the Krita age Dharma is four-footed and entire, and (so is) Truth; nor does any gain accrue to men by unrighteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-82. In the other (three ages), by reason of (unjust) gains (agama), Dharma is deprived successively of one foot, and through (the prevalence of) theft, falsehood, and fraud the merit (gained by men) is diminished by one fourth (in each).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-83. (Men are) free from disease, accomplish all their aims, and live four hundred years in the Krita age, but in the Treta and (in each of) the succeeding (ages) their life is lessened by one quarter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-86. In the Krita age the chief (virtue) is declared to be (the performance of) austerities, in the Treta (divine) knowledge, in the Dvapara (the performance of) sacrifices, in the Kali liberality alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Uttarakhanda of Ramayana, Sage Narada &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Ramayana_201309/Ramayana-VOL-4-Uttara-Kanda#page/n259/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains&lt;/a&gt; to Rama how Dharma has slowly deteriorated during the course of various Yugas and how it has also shortened the life-span of people in general:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing those words of the poorly king, Narada, in the presence of all&#xA;  other Rishis, replied :—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Hear, king, why this boy hath met with untimely death. And hearing&#xA;  this, O descendant of Raghu, do thou settle what thou thinkest proper.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O king, &lt;strong&gt;in the golden age&lt;/strong&gt; [Krita-yuga], only the Brahmans used to engage in&#xA;  asceticism. At that age, save the Brahmanas no other caste used to&#xA;  lead the life of an anchoret. And for this, the Brahmans were the&#xA;  highest caste, effulgent in asceticism, shorn of ignorance, above&#xA;  death and conversant with three ages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereupon at the end of the golden age, Brahmana's understanding became loose and the &lt;strong&gt;Treta Yuga set in&lt;/strong&gt;. At this age Kshatryas, gifted with the power acquired by pristine asceticism, were born. And those men, intent upon austere penances, that were born in the Treta age, were more powerful and greater devotees than those in the former age. In the golden age the Brahmanas were more powerful than the Kshatryas. But in the Treta age the Brahmanas and the Kshatryas were equally powerful. Thus in the Treta age, not beholding prominence of the Brahmanas greater than that of the Kshatryas, Manu and other religious leaders of the time composed the Sastra describing and getting in the four divisions of castes. In this wise the Treta age was prolific with virtues of the four Varnas, and many pious sacrifices and was shorn of iniquities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But being attacked a little with iniquity, one portion of sin appeared&#xA;  on earth.&lt;/strong&gt; And growing impious people lost their strength. And for&#xA;  houses and farms that were the property of the former age, &lt;strong&gt;people of&#xA;  the Treta Yuga were possessed by envy&lt;/strong&gt;, the outcome of the quality of&#xA;  darkness. And with the fading of impiety on earth during Treta, the&#xA;  soiled sin of untruth appeared. And this &lt;strong&gt;iniquity stretching one&#xA;  footstep&lt;/strong&gt;, the lease of people's lives, for sins, became limited. And&#xA;  the sin of untruth descending on earth, people, to avoid the&#xA;  extinction of life in consequence thereof, became truthful and engaged&#xA;  in many pious observances. During the Treta age the Brahmanas and&#xA;  Kshatryas engaged in austere penances and the Vaisyas and Sudras&#xA;  engaged in serving them. And the greatest piety of the Vaisyas and&#xA;  Sudras at that time consisted of serving the Brahmanas and Kshatryas&#xA;  and specially for the Sudras the highest religion was to serve people&#xA;  of all, Varnas. O foremost of kings, at the end of the Treta age,&#xA;  Vaisyas and Sudras being fully overpowered by the sin of untruth, the&#xA;  Brahmanas and the Kshatryas also grew feeble.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And &lt;strong&gt;the second foot of&#xA;  impiety being ushered into the world the Dwapara age set in&lt;/strong&gt;. O&#xA;  foremost of men, &lt;strong&gt;during this age two legs of piety being cut off&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  impiety and untruth multiplied. And in Yuga named Dwapara the Vaisyas&#xA;  engaged in devout penances. In this wise in three ages the three&#xA;  Varnas gradually engaged in ascetic performances. The piety of&#xA;  asceticism by Yugas gradually became established in three Varnas. But,&#xA;  O foremost of men, in these three Yugas the Sudras were not entitled&#xA;  to the virtues of devout penances O foremost of men, the degraded&#xA;  caste—the Sudras, during thy regeme, have engaged in austere penances.&#xA;  And in the Kali Yuga asceticism shall be established in the Sudras. O&#xA;  king, even in the Dwapara, devout penances for Sudras were considered&#xA;  as impiety, what to speak of the Treta age. O king, one Sudra, under&#xA;  the influence of vicious understanding has begun devout penances&#xA;  within thy kingdom. And for that reason this boy hath met with death.&#xA;  Calamity sets in that kingdom where a vicious-minded person commits an&#xA;  iniquity and that vicious wight and the king forsooth speedily repair&#xA;  to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vana Parva of Mahabharata, Sage Markandeya also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains&lt;/a&gt; to Yudhishthira, how lack of Dharma shows its signs in each and every individual in the society:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O bull of the Bharata race, in the Krita age, everything was free from deceit and guile and avarice and covetousness; and morality like a bull was among men, with all the four legs complete. In the Treta age sin took away one of these legs and morality had three legs. &lt;strong&gt;In the Dwapara, sin and morality are mixed half and half; and accordingly morality is said to have two legs only&lt;/strong&gt;. In the dark age (of Kali), O thou best of the Bharata race, morality mixed with three parts of sin liveth by the side of men. Accordingly morality then is said to wait on men, with only a fourth part of itself remaining. Know, O Yudhishthira, that the period of life, the energy, intellect and the physical strength of men decrease in every Yuga! &lt;strong&gt;O Pandava, the Brahmanas and Kshatriyas and Vaisyas and Sudras, (in the Kali age) will practise morality and virtue deceitfully and men in general will deceive their fellows by spreading the net of virtue&lt;/strong&gt;. And men with false reputation of learning will, by their acts, cause Truth to be contracted and concealed. And in consequence of the shortness of their lives they will not be able to acquire much knowledge. And in consequence of the littleness of their knowledge, they will have no wisdom. And for this, covetousness and avarice will overwhelm them all. And wedded to avarice and wrath and ignorance and lust men will entertain animosities towards one another, desiring to take one another's lives. And Brahmanas and Kshatriyas and Vaisyas with their virtue contracted and divested of asceticism and truth will all be reduced to an equality with the Sudras. And the lowest orders of men will rise to the position of the intermediate ones, and those in intermediate stations will, without doubt, descend to the level of the lowest ones. Even such, O Yudhishthira, will become the state of the world at the end of the Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T00:36:53.027" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11654" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-26T06:26:37.337" Score="2" ViewCount="486" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well known that Indra had gifted the Vasavi Sakti weapon to Karna in return of the Kavash and Kundal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, why is that weapon so powerful? What is the origin of Vasavi Sakti??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-04-26T07:11:37.080" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T07:11:37.080" Title="Origin of Vasavi Sakti" Tags="|indra|karna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11655" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11644" CreationDate="2016-04-26T06:31:34.613" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The recension of the Gita commented on by Sankara has this as verse 2.55. In his commentary on this verse, Sankara says (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the verses beginning from 'When one fully renounces...', and ending with the completion the Chapter, instruction about the characteristics of the man of steady wisdom and the disciplines (he has passed through) is being given both for the one who has, indeed, applied himself to steadfastness in the Yoga of Knowledge after having renounced rites and duties form the beginning (even while in the stage of celibacy), and for the one who has (applied himself to this after having passed) through the path of Karma-yoga. For in all the scriptures without exception, dealing with spirituality, whatever are the characteristics of the man of realization are themselves presented as the disciplines for an aspirant, because these (characteristics) are the result of effort. And those that are the disciplines requiring effort, they become the characteristics (of the man of realization).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;your answer is in the subsequent verses of chapter 2.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T06:31:34.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11656" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-26T06:38:58.533" Score="7" ViewCount="3023" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidura&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vidura&lt;/a&gt; was known as &lt;code&gt;Neetijnya&lt;/code&gt; in english one who has knowledge of Neeti. Neeti word Derives from the word &lt;code&gt;Naitikta&lt;/code&gt; in sanskrit, which in english is similar to Morality(&lt;a href=&quot;https://translate.google.com/#en/hi/morality&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;proof&lt;/a&gt;). Since he was the wise consultant of Dhritrashtra and was the Wisest of Kuru Dynasty he was considered wisest consultant despite being born as Shudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Dialogue between Vidura and Dhritrashtra is compiled to form the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/vidura-n.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vidura Niti&lt;/a&gt;. The Niti shastra of Vidura is considered even today as the best work of Niti/Morality knowledge,it is sort of ancient Moral Science Manual. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Considering Yudhishthira he was &lt;code&gt;Dharmajna&lt;/code&gt; one with knowledge of Dharma. He was staunch follower of Dharma,and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahaprasthanika_Parva&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;attained&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svarga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swarga&lt;/a&gt; for his pious deeds. So this means Dharma is above Niti. Since he followed Dharma more than neeti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If dharma and neeti are two different things then what is exact difference between them, and why was Yudhishtira Consulting Vidura even when he had all the Dharma knowledge, was vidura knower of Dharma and neeti both? since he was greatest consultant in Kuru Dynasty?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-04-26T10:00:28.450" LastActivityDate="2019-04-09T08:00:43.993" Title="What is difference between Neeti and Dharma" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11658" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-26T08:48:43.007" Score="4" ViewCount="1882" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that Vedas are the oldest Hindu scriptures. Although, this question is limited in context to finding out which Hindu text is considered oldest in recorded history i.e. with its year of origin recorded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T06:15:24.840" Title="Which is the oldest known Hindu text in recorded history?" Tags="|scripture|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11659" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-26T09:15:46.113" Score="2" ViewCount="781" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to vedas killing and eating animal meat are forbidden and also a sin to hindus but according to manusmiriti eating non-veg is allowed.So which is true, Manusmiriti or Vedas?  and which should I follow ?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5416" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-04-28T19:32:24.000" LastActivityDate="2023-09-23T09:16:51.503" Title="Eating non vegetarian food?" Tags="|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-04-29T02:02:12.597" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11660" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-26T09:21:06.190" Score="19" ViewCount="34177" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does any Hindu scripture mention anything about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_and_Eve&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adam and Eve&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism, who is the first person (man or woman) in this world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5416" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T04:44:04.740" LastActivityDate="2019-08-31T06:44:11.800" Title="Do Hindus believe in Adam and Eve? If not, who is the first person (man or woman) in this world?" Tags="|belief|scripture|other-religions|christianity|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11662" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11660" CreationDate="2016-04-26T12:23:17.127" Score="32" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Hindu scripture doesn't talks about Adam and Eve... &lt;strong&gt;However some people compare the story of Bhavisya Purana containing name Adam and Havyavati as Adam and Eve and their story sounds pretty much similar.&lt;/strong&gt; But we can't be sure about stories of Bhavisya Purana because it is supposed that it suffered high interpolation. &lt;strong&gt;Even if we consider story of Bhavisya purana as genuine then still Adam and Eve[Havyavati] aren't progenitor of mankind.. They are just progenitor of mlechha dharma [Foreigner religion].&lt;/strong&gt; Still if you are interested in that story of Bhavisya Purana, the story goes like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At that time the Kali purusha prayed to Lord Narayana along with his wife. After sometime the Lord apperared to him and said, &quot;This age will be a good time for you. I will fulfil your desire having various kinds of forms. &lt;strong&gt;There is a couple named Adama and his wife Havyavati. They are born from Vishnu-kardama and will increase the generations of mlecchas.&lt;/strong&gt; Saying this, the Lord disappeared. Having great joy the Kali purusha went to Nilacha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa said: &quot;Now you hear the future story narrated by Suta Goswami. This is the full story of of Kali-yuga, hearing this you will become satisfied.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the eastern side of Pradan city where there is a a big God-given forest, which is 16 square yojanas in size. &lt;strong&gt;The man named Adama was staying there under a Papa-Vriksha or a sinful tree and was eager to see his wife Havyavati. The Kali purusha quickly came there assuming the form of a serpent. He cheated them and they disobeyed Lord Vishnu. The husband ate the forbidden fruit of the sinful tree. They lived by eating air with the leaves called udumbara. After they had sons and all of them became mlecchas.&lt;/strong&gt; Adama's duration of life was nine-hundred and thirty years. He offered oblations with fruits and went to heaven with his wife. His son was named Sveta-nama, and he lived nine-hundred and twelve years. Sveta-nama's son was Anuta, who ruled one-hundred years less than his father. His son Kinasa ruled as much as his grandfather. His son Malahalla ruled eight-hundred ninety five years. His son Virada ruled 160 years. His son Hamuka was devoted to Lord Vishnu, and offering oblations of fruits he achieved salvation. He ruled 365 years and went to heaven with the same body being engaged in mleccha-dharma.&#xA;  For more read&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/BhavishyaPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to your second question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Who is the first man and women in the world?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Practically it is impossible to find the first man and women in this world. You have to understand Hindu cosmology to understand this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;_______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Literally Manu are the progenitors of Mankind hence humans are called Manushya. For eg. Present Manu is Vaivasvata Manu , son of sun God. But he is not the 1st Man of the world. He is the 7th Manu of this Kalpa [Shewta Varaha Kalpa]. 1st Manu of this Kalpa was Swayambhu Manu and his wife Shatrupa. But still they are not the first man and women of world. They are just first progenitor of man kind of this kalpa. Before this kalpa there was Pitri Kalpa and there were 14 Manus in that kalpa. Before that also there were 14 Manus in the before kalpa and so on goes...&#xA;For scriptural reference see the answer here.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6533/how-many-manus-have-been-there/6536#6536&quot;&gt;How many Manus have been there?&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;________________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Summarizing the cosmology in shortcut. Brahma lives for 100 years of Brahma loka. Each day of Brahma is equivalent to 4.3 billion years and so is his night ie. 4.3 billion years. 4.3 billion year is 1 Day of Brahma which is called Kalpa. We are now in 2nd Parardha of Brahma ie. Brahma is now 51 years old . &lt;strong&gt;Hence about 51×360=18360 Kalpas has already passed in this time of Brahma. Each Kalpa is ruled by 14 Manus. Hence up to now about 18360×14=257040 Manus ie.progenitor of mankind have already passed&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence there are about 2 lakh 57 thousands progenitor of Mankind up to this time of Brahma.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;_______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now you may ask,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Who is the 1st Manu in the 1st Day of Brahma?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1st day of Brahma is known as Brahma kalpa. There were also 14 Manus ruling that kalpa. 1st Manu of 1st Kalpa is not also the first Man of this world. It is because there were also previous Brahmas before current Brahma. &lt;strong&gt;We cannot even get information about origin of 1st Brahma they go back and back and back in time up to infinity. Hence we can't find the origin of 1st Man and Women in world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;_______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Hence it is impossible to find the first man and women as nature of time is cyclical. But Kalpantak pralaya occurs after each kalpa and physical, celestial and lower realm suffers destruction. Hence it is possible to find 1st man kind generator after that destruction ie, 1st Manu of Kalpa.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;_______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;We are currently on 28th Kali of Vaivasvat Manwantar of Shewta Varaha Kalpa. For the scriptural reference that we are in 28th chatur yuga see the answer here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7175/did-the-mahabharata-and-the-ramayana-happen-in-the-current-yuga-cycle-in-the-cur/7189#7189&quot;&gt;Did the Mahabharata and the Ramayana happen in the current Yuga cycle in the current Manvantara?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vaivasvat is 7th Manu of present kalpa. Each manu is slightly greater than 71 chatur yugas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Period of Each manu = 4.3 billion years/ 14 =ie. about 307 hundred million years.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The period of total 6 Manu= 6×307 hundred million years=about 1.84 billion years.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Passed years of Vaivasvata Manvantara= 28×4320000-427000= about 120 million years.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hence total passed time from Swayambhu Manu to present = 1.84 billion year + 120 million years = about 1.96 billion years.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence 1st progenitor of Man kind of this kalpa was about before 1.96 billion years from now. His name was Swayambhu and Brahma created him from his skin (kaya). Brahma also gave him his wife Satrupa to populate this earth. &lt;strong&gt;Thus Swayambhu and Shatrupa are first Human Progenitors of this Kalpa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[[&lt;em&gt;Note that the above calculation of 1.96 billion year is obtained by using one chaturyuga equals 12000 divine year and each divine year is 360 human year. It is supported by various Purans. But some people debate on these yuga lengths. They argue multiplication of 360 is arbitrarily assigned in Puran. Hence it may also be wrong&lt;/em&gt;]]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;________________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Hinduism supports multiverse.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagvat tells countless universes appear just like dust particles around the body of Maha Vishnu. &lt;strong&gt;Hence if we take multiverse in account then 1st origin of something in world makes no sense, we have to solve them by using concepts of infinity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What am I, a small creature measuring seven spans of my own hand? I am enclosed in a pot-like universe composed of material nature, the total material energy, false ego, ether, air, water and earth. And what is Your glory? &lt;strong&gt;Unlimited universes pass through the pores of Your body just as particles of dust pass through the openings of a screened window&lt;/strong&gt; (Bhagavata Purana 10.14.11)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-12-14T15:35:46.810" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T15:35:46.810" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11664" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-26T13:46:46.860" Score="4" ViewCount="286" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Advaita is there any difference in the &lt;code&gt;atman&lt;/code&gt; before entering maya and after exiting maya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, does the &lt;code&gt;atman&lt;/code&gt; gain or lose anything e.g., knowledge?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it gain any knowledge after exiting the maya. Is there any change in it's nature?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it merge in God or Brahman or something?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know about any change even minute that happens in the &lt;code&gt;atman&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By &lt;code&gt;atman&lt;/code&gt; I mean the &quot;soul&quot; that Vivekananda refers to as being &quot;eternal and ever blissful&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5284" LastEditorUserId="5284" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T12:34:17.247" LastActivityDate="2017-11-18T18:19:07.983" Title="According to Advaita is there any difference in the atman before entering maya and after exiting maya?" Tags="|atma|advaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11666" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-26T15:29:07.127" Score="4" ViewCount="280" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03313.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira is in grief because of the year in hiding the Pandavas are about to start.  So the sage Dhaumya cheers him up by reminding him that the gods have gone into hiding for the purpose of defeating their enemies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O king, thou art learned and capable of bearing privations, art firm in promise, and of subdued sense! Men of such stamp are not overwhelmed by any calamity whatever. Even the high-souled gods themselves have wandered over various places in disguise, for the purpose of overcoming foes. &lt;strong&gt;Indra for the purpose of overcoming his foes, dwelt in disguise in the asylum of Giriprastha, in Nishadha and thus attained his end.&lt;/strong&gt; Before taking his birth in the womb of Aditi, Vishnu for the purpose of destroying the Daityas passed a long time unrecognised, assuming the form of the Haya-griba (Horse-necked). Then how disguising himself in the form of a dwarf, he by his prowess deprived Vali of his kingdom, hath been heard by thee! And thou hast also heard how Hutasana entering into water and remaining in concealment, achieved the purpose of the gods. And O thou versed in duty, thou hast heard how Hari with the view of overcoming his foes, entered into Sakra's thunder-bolt, and lay concealed there. And, O sinless one, thou hast heard of the office the regenerate Rishi Aurva at one time performed for the gods, remaining concealed in his mother's womb. And O child, living in concealment in every part of the earth, Vivaswat, endued with excellent energy, at last entirely burnt up all his foes. And living disguised in the abode of Dasaratha, Vishnu of dreadful deeds slew the Ten-necked one in battle. Thus remaining in disguise in various places, high-souled persons have before this conquered their enemies in battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most of these stories are recognizable.  Hayagriva is the horse-headed form of Vishnu that I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11429/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. The &quot;form of a dwarf&quot; is a reference to Vishnu's incarnation Vamana. Agni (Hutasana) entering the water refers to the story described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03216.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata.  Vishnu entering Indra's thunderbolt is a reference to the story of Indra killing Vritrasura.  Aurva being &quot;concealed in his mother's womb&quot; is a reference to the story of the Vadavagni fire which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7082/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And Vishnu &quot;being disguised in the abode of Dasaratha&quot; is obviously a reference to Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what is the story of Indra dwelling &quot;in disguise in the asylum of Giriprastha, in Nishadha&quot; for the purpose of defeating his enemies?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, is Giriprastha a person or a place?  Some books say that the Mahabharata mentions Giriprastha as the capital of the kingdom of Nishada, but they cite this very Vana Parva chapter as their source!  So they may just be misinterpreting things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in my answers &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7330/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11555/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8438/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I discuss how Indra went into disguise to defeat the demons Prahlada, Virochana, and Vyamsa, respectively.  But did any of these stories take place in the kingdom of Nishada?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-05-04T09:48:52.613" Title="What is the story of Indra living in disguise in the Ashram of Giriprastha?" Tags="|mahabharata|indra|asuras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11667" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10148" CreationDate="2016-04-26T15:33:12.423" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-143&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 22 Kotirudrasamhita of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; says Shiva himself created the city of Kasi first in the cosmic plane and then brought it to earth for liberating people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suta said,&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot; Whatever things are visible on earth as substantive, as an entity in&#xA;the form of knowledge or bliss, are eternal, free from blemish,&#xA;desired for a second. That second, of the tree of salvation, was&#xA;possessed of attributes and is called Śiva. It splits into two- the&#xA;male and the female forms. The male is known as Siva, while the female&#xA;is shown as Sakti. O Excellent ascetics, the invisible Cita and Ananda&#xA;created Purusa and Prakrti, O Brāhmanas, on seeing their parents, both&#xA;Purusa and Prakrti developed a doubt. Thereafter a divine voice emerged out from the great Atman free from&#xA;attributes, “You perform penance, for the generation of the excellent&#xA;creation.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Prakrti and Purusa said, “O Lord Śiva, there is no&#xA;place for the performing of tapas. Where shall we perform tapas at&#xA;your command.Thereafter a beautiful city was built, which was the&#xA;essence of the lustre and was spread in five kosas and was quite&#xA;beautiful in which all the amenities could be found. &lt;strong&gt;Siva built the&#xA;city while remaining in the sky in the firmament near the Purusa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Visnu having been lodged in that city, became desirous of starting&#xA;creation. He performed tapas sitting in meditation. Because of his&#xA;efforts, several streams of water emerged from that place. At that&#xA;point of time, nothing was visible there. Then Visnu saw as to what&#xA;was the surprising thing found there? Then he shook his head. &lt;strong&gt;Then a&#xA;gem emerging out of his ear fell on the ground, which was turned into&#xA;a great place of pilgrimage known as &lt;em&gt;Manikarnikā&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; When the said&#xA;Manikarnikā in the form of water kept on flowing upto five kosas&#xA;(Pañcakosi), then Siva held it over the tip of his trident, Then lord&#xA;Visnu slept there with his wife Prakrti. At the command of Śiva,&#xA;Brahmā was born out of the navel of Visnu, seated over a lotus. At the&#xA;command of Śiva, he indulged into a surprising type of creation. He&#xA;created fourteen lokas around the globe. The size of the globe has&#xA;been described by the sages to be fifty crores of yojanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The living beings in the globe are bound by their karmas and as such, how could they achieve me?” Thus thinking he separated Pañcakos.&#xA;The region of Pañcakoší, bestows welfare and is the destroyer of the&#xA;evil karmas, Kāśī, illuminates the path of moksa, bestower of the&#xA;divine knowledge, and is quite dear to me,&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Śiva, the supreme&#xA;soul, there, had been consecrated as a Sivalinga known by the name of&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Avimukta&lt;/em&gt; and spoke, &lt;strong&gt;“You have been formed of my amsa as Jyotirlinga and therefore, you never leave this place.” Thus speaking&#xA;lord Śiva, grounded Kāši, with the tip of his trident and established&#xA;it on earth&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even after the completion of a divine day of Brahmā,&#xA;the city of Kāšî does not get destroyed. O Sages, at that point of&#xA;time, Sivaholds it over the tip of his trident. O Brähmanas, then Brahmā again recreates the universe, then he again&#xA;establishes Kāśī. Because of the bondages of the karmas and their&#xA;attraction thereto, it is called Kāši. The Avimukteśvara linga of Kāśī&#xA;always remains stable. It bestows salvation to the grave sinners.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many places which are dear to Shiva and Kasi is more dear to him, as said by Shiva above. However, this is the legend behind city of Kashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2018-09-05T06:20:30.167" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11668" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2331" CreationDate="2016-04-26T17:50:43.977" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama asks the same question to sages in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20764/7/Part13_Chapter5_282-321p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 79 Hanumatkeswara Section 2 Book V of Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Pg No- 293).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sages say that Hanuman was not aware of his strength when Vali was torturing Sugriva. But due to various boons he acquired, Hanuman didn't forget His strengths but He didn't remember his strength for some days. Hanuman didn't remember his strengths when Vali was torturing Sugriva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Räma said:  It is due to the might of the arms of this Hanumän, that I&#xA;was able to get back Sitä, Lakshmana, victory, kingdom, friends and&#xA;kinsmen. How could anyone except this great monkey find out the&#xA;detailed news ofJänaki? Even this friend of mine, the Lord of the&#xA;monkeys (i.e. Sugriva), would not have been able to know the news&#xA;about Jänaki. &lt;strong&gt;When the enmity (of the brothers) started (I wonder) why&#xA;Väli was not reduced to ash like grass by this Hanumän with a desire&#xA;to do something pleasing to Sugriva? When the Lord of the monkeys was&#xA;suffering torture, why was he neglected?&lt;/strong&gt; I think Hanumän did not&#xA;realize his own strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sages now explain &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1997/3500&quot;&gt;story&lt;/a&gt; of Hanuman trying to Eat Sun and Indra hitting him with Vajra. Skanda Purana narrates slightly a different version from Ramayana thereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the infant fell down almost dead due to the blow received from&#xA;the thunderbolt, Väyu (Wind God) carried him on to Mahäkälavana. For&#xA;the sake of his son, Pavana (Wind) propitiated the &lt;strong&gt;Linga&lt;/strong&gt; then. As soon&#xA;as he came into contact with the Linga, the monkey rose up like a&#xA;drying plant after being watered. He was fully restored to life, After&#xA;seeing him revived, Pavana was excessively delighted in his heart. He&#xA;took up the child quickly and said: 'My son rose up due to the contact&#xA;with this Linga. Hence this deity will become well-known as&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Hanumatkeévara&lt;/strong&gt;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the meantime Sakra came there surrounded by the&#xA;Suras, holding a garland of blue lotuses. He said: 'Since his jaw was&#xA;shattered by the thunderbolt hurled with my hand, this powerful monkey&#xA;will be called Hanumän. Varuna granted him this boon: 'He will never&#xA;meet with death. Yama granted him immunity from death due to a blow&#xA;with (his) stick. Dhanada granted him freedom from illness. Lustre was&#xA;granted by Sürya. Speedy movement was granted by Pavana, Then the&#xA;following boon was granted by the Linga in the presence of the Devas:&#xA;'He will not be killed by any of the weapons, Undoubtedly he will&#xA;become unaging and immortal, He will be a terror to the enemy. He will&#xA;grant freedom from fear to his friends. He will be invincible in&#xA;battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This the Linga said repeatedly: 'In order to exterminate the&#xA;army of the enemy and to get the favour of Räma always, &lt;strong&gt;he will not&#xA;forget his strength but due to the curse he will not remember it for&#xA;some time.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T18:02:24.520" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11669" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8025" CreationDate="2016-04-26T18:19:09.283" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The devtas are not extortionists who want to extort money from you and if you don't give send you to hell.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Giving Dāna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Giving in Hindu tradition is called dāna. The tradition of dāna goes back to Rig Veda. Yajñāḥ is making offering to the Devas(often translated as 'sacrifice'). Usually dravya i.e grains, ghee, etc are offered through agni(fire). This was an act of gratitude to the pancha bhootas and the devas also a means for connection with the divine as a friend and a guide. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dāna was not only given to the devas but also to those who are in need. Bhagavad Gita 17.20 - 17.22 talks about giving dāna(translations by Swami Mukundananda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/17/verse/20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 17.20&lt;/a&gt;: Charity given to a worthy person simply because it is right&#xA;  to give, without consideration of anything in return, at the proper&#xA;  time and in the proper place, is stated to be in the mode of goodness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/17/verse/21&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 17.21&lt;/a&gt;: But charity given with reluctance, with the hope of a return&#xA;  or in expectation of a reward, is said to be in the mode of passion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/17/verse/22&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 17.22&lt;/a&gt;: And that charity, which is given at the wrong place and&#xA;  wrong time to unworthy persons, without showing respect, or with&#xA;  contempt, is held to be of the nature of nescience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Giving Dāna to Temples&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia entry on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C4%81na#D.C4.81na_in_historical_records&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dāna in historical records&lt;/a&gt; has a good description along with sources cited of why dāna is offered to temples: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hindu temples served as charitable institutions. Burton Stein states&#xA;  that South Indian temples collected donations (melvarum) from&#xA;  devotees, during the Chola dynasty and Vijayanagara Empire periods in&#xA;  1st millennium through first half of 2nd millennium AD. These dāna&#xA;  were then used to feed people in distress as well as fund public&#xA;  projects such as irrigation and land reclamation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even today despite the apathy of the &lt;em&gt;'secular'&lt;/em&gt; government of India which grabs the money collected from temples, most temples offer anna dāna(food offering) to the public.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Giving Dāna to Priests&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Priests(pujaris/pundits) belong to the Brahmana varna. Dharmaśāstras(e.g. Manu Smriti 4-4:6, 4-7:8) prohibit them from owning property or earning income. They are supposed to live only by taking bhiksha(collecting alms by begging) from people. This was honored in the ancient times. In modern times, this system is almost non-existent. Giving money to the pujari is the modern equivalent of bhiksha. In times of need, the king used to provide to the pundits but in today's time the &lt;em&gt;secular&lt;/em&gt; government excludes those of the Brahmana varna from most of social welfare schemes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, dāna also plays a central role in Mahayana Buddhism where it is one of the 6 Pāramitās(perfections) to be achieved by a practitioner. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="14" LastEditorUserId="14" LastEditDate="2016-09-22T19:36:12.577" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T19:36:12.577" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11670" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-26T18:45:08.183" Score="7" ViewCount="975" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15072.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyaya 3 Brahmana 9&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the sage Yagnavalkya tells Vidagdha Sakalya what the eleven Rudras are associated with:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;katame rudrā iti । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;daśeme puruṣe prāṇā &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;ātmaikādaśas&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;te yadā'smāccharīrānmartyādutkrāmanty &lt;br&gt;&#xA;atha rodayanti &lt;br&gt;&#xA;tadyadrodayanti &lt;br&gt;&#xA;tasmādrudrā iti ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Vidagdha Sakalya] asked: 'Who are the Rudras?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yâgñavalkya replied: 'These ten vital breaths (prânas, the senses, i.e. the five gñânendriyas, and the five karmendriyas), and &lt;strong&gt;Âtman as the eleventh&lt;/strong&gt;. When they depart from this mortal body, they make us cry (rodayanti), and because they make us cry, they are called Rudras.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now this verse contains the word Atma, but all the commentators on the Brahma Sutras seem to agree that the word Atma here does not refer to the thing we usually denote by the word Atma, namely the soul or self.  Instead, they say it refers to something else, like the Manas or mind or the Buddhi or intelligence.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38060.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the word Âtman we have to understand the internal organ, on account of its ruling over the organs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Ramanujacharya says in his Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The organs are not seven only, but eleven, since the hands and the rest also contribute towards the experience and fruition of that which abides in the body, i.e. the soul, and have their separate offices, such as seizing, and so on. Hence it is not so, i.e. it must not be thought that the hands and the rest are not organs. Buddhi, ahankâra and kitta, on the other hand, are(not independent organs but) mere designations of the manas, according as the latter is engaged in the functions of deciding (adhyavasâya), or misconception (abhimâna, or thinking (kintâ). The organs therefore are eleven. From this it follows that in the passage 'Ten are these prânas in man, and Âtman is the eleventh'(Bri. Up. II, 4, ii), the word Âtman denotes the manas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia802606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/24/items/Sacred_Books_of_the_Hindus/SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_jp2/SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_0394.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Madhvacharya says in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ten pranas are the ten sons of Vayu, while atma, the eleventh, is Buddhi or rather the presiding deity of Buddhi, namely, Brihaspati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And for good measure, Nimbarka (the Kumara Vaishnava commentator), Srikantha Shivacharya (the Shaiva Siddhanta commentator whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8872/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and Baladeva Vidyabhushana (the Gaudiya Vaishnava commentator) also agree on this point; see &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5Bjw9.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  This seems to be a rare case of unanimous agreement among all commentators on the Brahma Sutras! (I discuss two other such cases &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8682/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7947/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, why is it that all commentators agree that the word &amp;quot;Atma&amp;quot; here does not refer to the actual Atma, but rather to the Manas or Buddhi?  What is there in the text indicates that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, is there anyone at all who does interpret this verse as referring to the actual Atma, whether the Jivatma or Paramatma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-27T13:21:02.753" Title="Why does the word &quot;Atma&quot; in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad refer to the mind rather than the actual Atma?" Tags="|philosophy|upanishads|atma|brahma-sutras|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11671" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11659" CreationDate="2016-04-26T20:36:34.967" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;What Bhagavat Gita says is,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sattva (the quality of goodness): Sattva is Calm, Saintly. Its&#xA;brings up quality that allows spiritual holiness, forgiveness and&#xA;submission to God. Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness&#xA;increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give&#xA;strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy,&#xA;fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(BG 17.8)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Raja (the quality of passion): Foods that are too bitter, too sour,&#xA;salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning are dear to those in the mode&#xA;of passion. Such foods cause distress, misery and disease. Onions&#xA;and garlic fall into this category. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(BG 17.9)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tamas (the quality of ignorance): Food prepared more than three&#xA;hours before being eaten, food that is tasteless, decomposed and&#xA;putrid, and food consisting of remnants and untouchable things is&#xA;dear to those in the mode of darkness. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(BG 17.10)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Manusmiriti,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can eat meat when his life is in danger i.e. if the condition is&#xA;such that if you don't eat meat you will die. [Manusmiriti - 5.27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both of these books did not ban non vegetarian food completely. They highly encourage vegetarian food and treat it as the quality of god. They allow non vegetarian food but discourage it heavily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I see both of the books tell us the same thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5012" LastEditorUserId="5012" LastEditDate="2023-09-23T09:16:51.503" LastActivityDate="2023-09-23T09:16:51.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11672" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11670" CreationDate="2016-04-26T21:38:01.873" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;With all due respect to the authors of these texts, the first point to be noted is that these are commentaries and not pure translations. What Madhavacharya and Bhaskaracharya meant could have been totally different. I will support this here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the Sloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कतमे रुद्रा इतिः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दशेमे पुरुषे प्राणाः आत्मैकादशः ते यदास्माच्छरीरान्मर्त्यादुत्क्रामन्त्यथ रोदयन्ति&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तद्यद्रोदयन्ति तस्माद्रुद्रा इति&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कतमे - Which of many, रुद्रा - Rudra, इतिः - Used for emphasis&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दशेमे - Ten, पुरुषे - attendants, प्राणाः - life-force energy, आत्मा - Self, एकादशः - eleventh, ते - they, यदा - when, अस्मात् - our, शरीरान् - body अमत्याः - unconsciously,  तु - used for emphasis, उत्क्रामन्ति - deviate from propriety, अथ - then, रोदयन्ति - cry&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तद् - Thereby, यत् - that, रोदयन्ति - cries, तस्मात् - on that account, रुद्रा - Rudra, इति - Used for emphasis&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which of many are Rudra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Self being the eleventh; (in our body)  the ten attendants (which pertain to the Prana or the life-force energy), on unconsciously deviating (from their true nature), they weep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereby, as they weep, they are Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentary (my humble attempt at interpretation):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a common methodology used to differentiate between the 'relative' and the 'absolute'. The absolute that is being referred to is the Self. The relative i.e. the attendants (of the Self) in the body are - the five senses, the five faculties - breath, mind, intellect, memory and ego. When these attendants deviate from their true nature, they weep. Hence, they are called Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With regards to the title question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why does the word “Atma” in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad refer to the mind?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this Shloka, it definitely does not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: Although, the words manas and atman are sometimes used interchangeably, as you have mentioned. In my personal experience, I have seen (heard) this being used by many Gurus interchangeably (if the context allows such usage).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps! :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-26T21:46:40.987" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11674" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11733" CreationDate="2016-04-27T05:18:12.460" Score="4" ViewCount="6410" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu texts are written in Sanskrit, were Hindu texts written before Pali texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-05-02T13:07:49.500" LastActivityDate="2018-02-04T13:29:47.457" Title="Is Sanskrit the oldest language? Is it older than Pali?" Tags="|sanskrit|language|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11675" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3096" CreationDate="2016-04-27T08:11:30.817" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Way of pradakshina remains the same in every stage of life in temples. We see many people touching backside of the temple and doing namaskara to it. It is wrong doing namaskar from front is only allowed and not from other sides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But pradakshina in a Shiva temple is an &lt;strong&gt;exception.&lt;/strong&gt; There is a special way of performing a pradakshina in a Shiva temple according to &lt;em&gt;Shaivagamam&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you asked in the question there are different ways of performing it for people in different ashramas of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A grihasthu should go clockwise upto the somasutra (place where the sacred water flows after performing the abhishekam and not cross it because crossing it is  considered as a sin) and coming back to chandeeshwara sthaanam in anti-clockwise direction.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A brahmachari (an unmarried person) should do a complete revolution and can cross the somasutra. This is like the way you do in other temples.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A sanyasi should do the pradakshina anti-clockwise upto the somasutra and come back to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandeshvara_Nayanar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chandeeshwara&lt;/a&gt; sthaanam in clockwise direction. Even sanyasis' are not allowed to put foot over the sacred water flown over the Shivalingam. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;While performing the pradakshina, the noise of our feet &lt;em&gt;must not be heard&lt;/em&gt;. It means we should it without making noise of our feet. If it is done without making any noise, Lord becomes very happy.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prasakshina should be done without making any sound and silently.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We think the Lingam inside the core of the temple is the only form of Shiva in a temple. But the Lord will be in &lt;strong&gt;8&lt;/strong&gt; forms in a temple. They are :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The compound wall ( To avoid the sin of ill treating the compound wall, kings used to built many walls around the main temple). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Dhwaja sthambham&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mahaa gopuram&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Gopuram in which Shiva lingam is present.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The priest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chandeeshwara swami &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Balipeetham &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Shiva Lingam &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above are the forms of Shiva in a Shiva temple. If you do anything wrong with anyone of these, you will be considered as ill treating of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Shiva lingam has five heads like Shiva. They are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thathpurusha mukham facing towards east. Lord Shiva has mastery over air. This face is responsible for maya (illusion) in our lives. Chant the mantra &lt;strong&gt;Om Thatpurusha mukhaya namaha&lt;/strong&gt; during pradakshina when you reach east.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Aghora mukham facing south. This head is believed to end the worlds during the end of the world. Chant the mantra &lt;strong&gt;Om Aghora mukhaya namaha&lt;/strong&gt; during  pradakshina when you reach south.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Saadyojatha mukham facing west. This head has mastery over the earth. Shiva starts the creation of the universe after the destruction using this face. Chant the mantra &lt;strong&gt;Om Saadyojaatha mukhaya namaha&lt;/strong&gt; during  pradakshina reaching west.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vamadeva mukham facing north. This head has the mastery over water. According to shaivagama, this face is believed as the sthithikara, form of Vishnu. Shiva gives us prosperity, good health and all other needs through this face. Chant &lt;strong&gt;Om Vamadevamukhaya namaha&lt;/strong&gt; during pradakshina when you reach north.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Fifth face of Lord Shiva is Ishana mukham facing upwards. This has mastery over the sky. After completing one pradakshina, stand where you are and chant &lt;strong&gt;Om Ishana mukhaya namaha&lt;/strong&gt;. Thus pradakshina is completed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the way of doing a pradakshina in a Shivalayam as prescribed by Shaivagamam. Pradakshina in other temples is starting from dhwajasthambham left side and going complete revolution towards right side (clock-wise). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answered the question after listening to a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZJxS3Qad-c&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;discourse&lt;/a&gt; of Brahmasri Chaganti Koteshwara Rao.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-07T04:36:03.950" LastActivityDate="2016-12-07T04:36:03.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11676" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-27T08:17:28.613" Score="2" ViewCount="3660" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chapter 4, Verse 12&lt;/a&gt; it is stated that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Men in this world desire success in fruitive activities, and therefore they &lt;strong&gt;worship the demigods&lt;/strong&gt;. Quickly, of course, men get results from fruitive work in this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all can I know who is referred to as demigod? Are Ganapathi, Hanuman and Kartikeya demigods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is worshiping a demigod bad?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5416" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-04-28T16:33:04.333" LastActivityDate="2017-05-08T07:35:49.273" Title="What is the meaning of worshiping a demigod? And is it bad to worship a demigod? [BG 4.12]" Tags="|krishna|gods|bhagavad-gita|worship|demi-god|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-04-29T03:29:19.603" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11677" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11676" CreationDate="2016-04-27T10:55:17.043" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Worshiping Demigods is not bad at all. Demigods worship is however condemned in Bhagavad Geeta, It is not Forbidden.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; in Gita Krishna says that Demigod worship is inferior to His worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender&#xA;  unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of&#xA;  worship according to their own natures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are&#xA;  limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the&#xA;  planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme&#xA;  planet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Demigods are the celestial beings with some super natural powers. They are more powerful than human beings.However they &lt;em&gt;can grant only material benefits&lt;/em&gt;.&#xA;That is some comfort for the body; ex. Indra can give nice plentyful of rains, Vayu can give good strength to man etc.&#xA;But they can not grant liberation to living entities(soul). As Shiva says(As &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatamclass.com/srimad-bhagavatam-canto-11-chapter-05-text-50/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;quoted&lt;/a&gt; by Swami Prabhupada) &lt;em&gt;'Mukti Pradata sarvesham Vishnu eva na samshaiyaha'&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Only Lord Vishnu can grant liberation to soul.Of this there is no doubt.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is the supreme personality of Godhead(Vaishnavas believe this, Shaivas believe that Shiva is supreme).&#xA;Vishnu being Absolute truth; He is non-different from His other incarnations and expansions. &lt;strong&gt;So all other celestial beings are demigods; but not Vishnu and His expansions&lt;/strong&gt;(Since I'm Vaishnava I call Him supreme). So yes Ganapati, Kartikeya etc are demigods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason why demigod worship is condemned is that; Bhagavad Geeta speaks about the highest perfection(liberation; which demigods cant give anyways).&#xA;The Goal of Human life is to attain liberation from cycle of births and deaths.&#xA;That this is the ultimate Goal of Human life is accepted by all the followers of Vedanta philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To give a crude ex. consider a university. In University there are different department Heads; also there are professors, clerks etc.&#xA;So Departmental heads have some power which is more than that of professors, Power of clerks is still less than Professors.&#xA;But principal is the authority in college. There is no one higher than him.&#xA;similarly there is 1 supreme person(Krishna/Vishnu). Demigods are like HODs. They have some power but it is given by principal(supreme being). Principal can override any one's power if he wills . &lt;strong&gt;So its better to worship supreme than to worship His subordinates.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2859" LastEditDate="2017-05-08T07:35:49.273" LastActivityDate="2017-05-08T07:35:49.273" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11678" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11736" CreationDate="2016-04-27T13:14:51.667" Score="8" ViewCount="6197" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the metals and alloys named in the Vedas and Itihasas(Ramayana &amp;amp; Mahabharatha) with special attention to mention of Iron. The general assumption is the Itihasas events could have happened in the Bronze age or earlier. What were the metals used in our ancient weaponry like swords, shields, arrows, etc as described in the earliest available sources?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-04-28T19:31:11.650" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T13:00:12.733" Title="Description of metals in Vedas and Itihasas" Tags="|scripture|weapon|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11681" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-27T13:58:13.690" Score="5" ViewCount="1597" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have encountered many random internet posts claiming Bermuda Triangle is mentioned in the Vedas, specially Rig Veda. Is it really true? &lt;br&gt;Is it mentioned in any of the Vedas or any other scripture? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story I read was about Earth giving birth to Mars and the hole being filled by iron by Ashwini Kumaras and some other similar versions. Claiming to break the mystery of Bermuda Triangle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="819" LastEditDate="2016-05-17T18:19:01.063" LastActivityDate="2016-10-16T18:02:52.153" Title="Is Bermuda Triangle really mentioned in any Hindu scripture?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11683" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-27T14:21:30.147" Score="1" ViewCount="106" Body="&lt;p&gt;To further my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11682/what-are-the-reasons-for-anti-hindu-violence-in-modern-india&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I ask this related question. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; wiki article talks in great length about anti-Hinduism and related events. Do Hindu texts about how to respond to such ideology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T06:46:30.363" Title="Do Hindu texts talk about how to respond to ideology which is against Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11684" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8959" CreationDate="2016-04-27T16:15:41.563" Score="11" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthanatrayi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prasthanatrayi&lt;/a&gt; concept of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta#Three_basic_texts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt;, Bhagavad Gita is considered as &lt;strong&gt;Smriti&lt;/strong&gt; Prashthana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As presented in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/brahma-sutra/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;forward by T.M.P Mahadevan&lt;/a&gt; in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/BrahmaSutraBhasyaGambhirananda/Brahma-sutra-bhasya-Of-Sri-Sankaracarya_Gambhirananda#page/n9/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;English translation of BrahmaSutra Bhasya of Adi Shankaracharya by Swami Gambhirananda&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......The Bhagavad-Gita comes next only to the Upanishads. It is given a status which is almost equal to that of the Upanishads. As embodying the teachings of Sri Krishna and as constituting the cream of the Epic Mahabharata, the Bhagavad-Gita occupies a unique place in the Vedantic tradition. A popular verse compares the Upanishads to the cows, the Bhagavad-Gita to the milk, Sri Krishna to the milkman, Arjuna, the Pandava hero, to the calf and the wise people to the partakers of the milk. Sri Sankara describes the Bhagavad-Gita as the quintessence of the teaching of the entire Veda (samasta-vedartha-sarasangraha-bhutam). &lt;strong&gt;As this text forms a part of the Mahabharata which is a Smriti (the remembered, ie., secondary text based on the Veda), it is called Smriti-prasthana.&lt;/strong&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Aacharyas like Adi Shankaracharya etc. also mention Bhagavad Gita's verse as &lt;strong&gt;Smriti&lt;/strong&gt; in his Bhashya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/katha_upanishad_bhashya_201803/page/n23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankaracharya's Bhashya on Katha Upanishad 3.1.11&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अत एव च गन्तृणां सर्वगतिमतां संसारिणां परा प्रकृष्टा गतिः &lt;strong&gt;&quot;यद्गत्वा न निवर्तन्ते&quot; (गीता ८/२१ ; १५/६) इति स्मृतेः&lt;/strong&gt; ।।११।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here he cited BG 8.21 and 15.6 quoting &quot;yadgatvā na nivartante&quot; means &quot;reaching which they do not return.&quot; and said &lt;strong&gt;as per Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutra itself meant Bhagavad-Gita as Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपि च स्मर्यते।।2.3.45।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38046.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;According to Adi Shankaracharya's Bhashya:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;45&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Moreover it is so stated in Smriti.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Îsvaragitâs (Bhagavad-gîtâ)&lt;/strong&gt; also it is said that the soul is a part of the Lord, 'an eternal part of me becomes the individual soul in the world of life' (&lt;strong&gt;Bha. Gî. XV, 7&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-04-19T15:38:08.090" LastActivityDate="2019-04-19T15:38:08.090" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11687" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11676" CreationDate="2016-04-27T21:05:51.963" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some Vaishnava authors use word &quot;demigod&quot; in their books to refer to the gods that are not identical with the Supreme Lord (Supreme God) which is Lord Krishna (also known as Narayana, Rama, Balarama, Ananta, Vishnu, Vasudeva, Nrisimha, Sankarshana, Matsya, Kurma, Madhusudana, Varaha, etc) per the Vaishnava understanding of the vedic knowledge.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There is nothing wrong with the word &quot;demigod&quot;. Thus &quot;demigod&quot; just means &quot;a god who is not the Supreme Lord Krishna, but is just a partial manifestation of Lord Krishna&quot;, and thus those gods that are demigods are subordinate to Lord Krishna. Actually all those demigods are servants of Lord Krishna, and are subordinate to Him. &#xA;You can see usage of that word in the books of the Gaudiya vaishnava authors such as at the vedabase: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, we can say that the demigods are Ganapathi, Hanuman, Kartikeya, and gods in heaven such as Indra (the king of heaven), Vayu (god of wind), Varuna (god of waters), Rudra (destroyer of the universe), Brahma (creator of the universe), Yama (god of death), Agni (god of fire), etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The worship of the demigods is not bad, but is not the best thing you can do in life either, because they can not give you &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; or liberation from the cycle of birth and death called &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;. But Lord Krishna can give you moksha, and so to devote ourselves to Him is much, much better than to worship of any of the demigods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The worship of the demigods is much encouraged in the Vedas such as in the Rig Veda. I talked about it at &lt;a href=&quot;http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/28943582#28943582&quot;&gt;http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/28943582#28943582&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T21:05:51.963" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11688" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9704" CreationDate="2016-04-27T22:24:40.400" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, &lt;a href=&quot;http://buddhamaitreya.org&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://buddhamaitreya.org&lt;/a&gt;. The Buddha Maitreya, the Buddha of this Age, in the reincarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ (and has been recognized and enthroned in every major Tibetan Buddhist lineage).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5470" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T22:24:40.400" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11689" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-04-27T22:40:24.740" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many scholars distort the religion and perpetuate negative stereotypes. Historically, such stereotypes were promulgated during the British Raj by several Indophobes in South Asia as a means to aggrandize sectarian divisions in Indian society, part of the divide and rule strategy employed by the British.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anti-Hindu attacks often accuse Hindus of being &quot;blasphemous&quot; for the practice of idolatry and polytheism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-28T19:26:45.137" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T19:26:45.137" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11690" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-04-27T22:40:24.740" Score="0" Body="Anti-Hinduism is a misguided negative perception or religious intolerance against the practice and practitioners of Hinduism." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-28T05:13:40.507" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T05:13:40.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11692" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2050" CreationDate="2016-04-27T23:40:22.490" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do ghosts and spirits exist in Hindu beliefs? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gurudev, Shiva is called Bhoothnath (lord of the ghosts) and he is&#xA;  surrounded by ghosts and spirits. Do ghosts really exist?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you ask me whether Shiva exists, I can&#xA;  answer, yes! But I don’t know about the ghosts around him (laughter).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yes, ghosts do exist but they are not different from him. They are in&#xA;  him. The 5 elements are known as the Panchabhutas. So Air, Water,&#xA;  Fire, Earth and Space are collectively called the five bhootatmas.&#xA;  Some souls also become ghosts and that is because even after leaving&#xA;  the body, they are not able to drop their vasanas (impressions due to&#xA;  cravings and aversions of the mind). That is because even after the&#xA;  soul leaves the body, the realization does not dawn that it is the&#xA;  eternal light, or consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is like, the food is in front of them and they are thinking of&#xA;  eating but they can’t actually eat it. The word ‘Bhootkaal’ means the&#xA;  past. This is because it has already passed, but still one is holding&#xA;  on to the impressions of it and unable to drop it. Ghosts are also&#xA;  souls but they have lost their power. They are powerless as they have&#xA;  not realized that they are souls. When the soul attains&#xA;  self-knowledge, then it becomes powerful. When they realize this, they&#xA;  no longer remain as ghosts (they are called earth bound souls).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri: &lt;a href=&quot;http://officialsrisri.blogspot.in/2014/12/gurudev-shiva-is-called-bhoothnath-lord.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://officialsrisri.blogspot.in/2014/12/gurudev-shiva-is-called-bhoothnath-lord.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T23:40:22.490" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11693" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="567" CreationDate="2016-04-27T23:56:43.673" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a person has Mars in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th house, the person is Manglik. Although, unnecessary importance should not be given to such concepts as they are limited in scope:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedic astrology is known for its negative readings in the West. As in&#xA;  India so in the West primarily to entice clients and earn from&#xA;  remedial measures. Mangal dosha is one of the most misused concepts by&#xA;  astrologers to make money and promote fear. In Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan&#xA;  we stress on the totality of a horoscope which has to have different&#xA;  shades of happiness and unhappiness, materialism and spirituality; the&#xA;  modern and ancient meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above is an excerpt from an article by Deepak Bisaria, editor at the &lt;em&gt;Journal of Astrology&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.journalofastrology.com/article.php?article_id=310&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.journalofastrology.com/article.php?article_id=310&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I would like to point out that 5 out of the 12 houses are considered for being a Manglik. This means that mathematically &lt;em&gt;40%&lt;/em&gt; of the world's population in Manglik.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T23:56:43.673" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11694" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3259" CreationDate="2016-04-27T23:58:56.670" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: What is the importance of horoscope matching when it comes to&#xA;marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A: Astrology is a science but all&#xA;astrologers are not scientists (laughter). First of all, you don’t&#xA;know whether the time of your birth and all other factors are right or&#xA;not. Sometimes, we don’t keep records and there are various factors.&#xA;There is probability in all those factors. So, if you find someone who&#xA;is good, the astrologer says, ‘Good, it does have a value but it is&#xA;always with a pinch of salt.’It is said that there was a great&#xA;astrologer of this country and he made all the horoscopes of his&#xA;daughter. But his daughter’s marriage didn’t work. It was quoted as a&#xA;probability factor.In all scientific experiments, there is always a&#xA;probability factor – may be, may not be.So we must take it with that&#xA;probability and not as definite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artoflivinguniverse.org/2014/06/Is-Horoscope-Matching-Necessary-for-Marriage.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.artoflivinguniverse.org/2014/06/Is-Horoscope-Matching-Necessary-for-Marriage.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-27T23:58:56.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11695" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="642" CreationDate="2016-04-28T00:06:30.773" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;To understand the importance of Kundli, we need to understand the importance of Astrology. Although the question ask here is different, the answer is quite relevant:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q. Dear Gurudev, astrologically I am under the influence of Rahu-Shani&#xA;planetary combination. This has made me frustrated, angry, and&#xA;irritable most of the time. I am going away from the spiritual path&#xA;and creating trouble for others around me. Please help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A:  At least you have this knowledge. If you have understood&#xA;this much, then you know that all these negative emotions are just a&#xA;passing phase. You know this is because of some planetary combination.&#xA;This is where astrology comes to your help in a big way. Suppose you&#xA;didn’t know that it is because of these planetary combinations, what&#xA;would happen to you? You would brand the whole world as negative. You&#xA;will think you are negative and you will feel dejected forever, isn’t&#xA;it so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why &lt;em&gt;Jyotish&lt;/em&gt; (astrology) is called the Eye of Wisdom. It makes&#xA;you see beyond your immediate situation, and know that it is only for&#xA;a short time, and it is going to change. You gain some unknown inner&#xA;strength from this. And you will not start blaming yourself or people&#xA;around you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is always better to blame the planets because they are so far away.&#xA;You can’t do anything about them. They move at their own pace, you&#xA;can’t hasten their movement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whenever things go wrong, the natural tendency is to blame yourself or&#xA;blame others. In either case you are at a loss. But when you put the&#xA;blame on the planets you are free from blaming others and blaming&#xA;yourself. So a certain degree of sanity comes into your life. This is&#xA;one advantage of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You should know there is always a remedy for this. What is it? Adoring&#xA;the Divine. On top of all the planets is Lord Shiva or the Shiva&#xA;Tattva. So by chanting Om Namah Shivaya, you will sail through all&#xA;this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I tell you, in any of these unfavourable situations there is always an&#xA;advantage, i.e., turning more inward and becoming more spiritual. In&#xA;favourable situations your mind is outward, so at least in&#xA;unfavourable situations you can turn your mind inward and utilize this&#xA;time for prayer and meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All of these, Rahu Bhukti, Shani Bhukti, Ketu Bhukti, etc., are all&#xA;very good for spiritual growth. The main purpose of Shani (one of the&#xA;nine cosmic influencers in Hindu astrology) is to make you more&#xA;spiritual. And how does he do it? When you are clinging on to the&#xA;outer, he brings problem there to bring you inward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are already inward, he does not have anything much to do. His&#xA;job is done so there will not be any problem also. Even if problems&#xA;are there they would be minimum, they will just come and go. So every&#xA;situation can be used for one’s benefit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/astrology---eye-wisdom&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/astrology---eye-wisdom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T00:06:30.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11696" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10033" CreationDate="2016-04-28T00:17:37.083" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brihat_Parashara_Hora_Shastra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra&lt;/a&gt; written by &lt;em&gt;Sage Parashara&lt;/em&gt; is considered the root text of Hindu astrology. It does not contain any references to 'horoscope matching'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_compatibility&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;synastrical&lt;/a&gt; methods that you mention are some of the many techniques developed by astrologers for the purpose of analysing compatibility. These does not have any root in the scriptures. Some techniques get more famous than the others e.g. &lt;em&gt;Ashtakoota&lt;/em&gt; matching is widely used in North India. Some astrologers use multilple techniques at once for horoscope matching. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T00:17:37.083" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11697" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7465" CreationDate="2016-04-28T00:37:25.580" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does practice of Kundalis or &lt;em&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt; core of the Hindu doctrine? No&#xA;There is an abundance of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_texts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu texts&lt;/a&gt; and each one is important like &lt;em&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt; is and nothing forms a core.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there might have been Hellenestic influences as you mention. These influences are common when information exchange happens. Similarly, Jyotisha has influenced Hellenistic and Islamic astrology. &lt;em&gt;Shri K.N.Rao&lt;/em&gt;, one of the most eminent Indian &lt;em&gt;Jyotish&lt;/em&gt; talks about such influence in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=video&amp;amp;cd=6&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwi194LKibDMAhVKBI4KHZahDhoQtwIIOjAF&amp;amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D0GpMqLO4A_U&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNFTIz1I2WCkFnHY7rQpJo123SrCVA&amp;amp;sig2=rb1n_3lJFaVgy1KT9TGAQw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;video&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Also, I would like to refute your claim that Jyotisha was a&#xA;  'historical accident'.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brihat_Parashara_Hora_Shastra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra&lt;/a&gt; was created&#xA;  by &lt;em&gt;Sage Parashara&lt;/em&gt;, father of &lt;em&gt;Vedavyasa&lt;/em&gt; who was the compiler of the&#xA;  epic &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhrigu_Samhita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bhrigu Saṃhitā&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is an &lt;em&gt;Jyotish&lt;/em&gt; classic&#xA;  attributed to &lt;em&gt;Maharishi Bhrigu&lt;/em&gt; during the Vedic period, &lt;em&gt;Treta&#xA;  yuga.&lt;/em&gt; Also, there were exemplary &lt;em&gt;Jyotish&lt;/em&gt; texts written later on.&#xA;  You can look for &lt;em&gt;Phaladeepika&lt;/em&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Mantreswara&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Brihat Jataka&lt;/em&gt; by&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Varahamira&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Jataka Parijata&lt;/em&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Vaidyanatha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It would suffice to say that Jyotisha forms an essential, if not core, part of the Vedic culture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T00:37:25.580" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11698" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1975" CreationDate="2016-04-28T00:47:17.757" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Death and anything related to it is considered a secret. This is called &lt;em&gt;Marana-Rahasya&lt;/em&gt; in Sanskrit. Hence, the best approach is to get this secret opened through your own experience via meditation. Although, here are some words that might shed some light:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What happens after&#xA;  death is the mind gets freed from the body, the spirit. The mind has&#xA;  memory and intelligence, so these two things become like a balloon.&#xA;  The karma, the deepest impressions form a balloon. It is like in&#xA;  sleep. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Death is nothing but a long sleep. Before going to sleep, see the last&#xA;  thought that you get, and as soon as you wake up, see what is the&#xA;  first thought that comes. Have you noticed? It will variably be the&#xA;  same though. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the physical body decays and the pranic body with all the&#xA;  impressions forms a balloon and leaves the body and hangs around. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Don’t imagine a balloon hanging around! It is a light; an energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I will give you the best example. In a television station, they&#xA;  conduct a program and then they transmit it through the dish and the&#xA;  program remains in the atmosphere – it is the same way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When you send an email from the computer, you type all the letters and&#xA;  then you press the send button. What happens? It goes into the space.&#xA;  Does your email remain in the space till it is downloaded? Even after&#xA;  several days you can download your email. Even one year later or ten&#xA;  years later you can download an email. There is no expiry date, isn’t&#xA;  that so. It is not like those greeting cards which sometimes people&#xA;  send you that expire in 24 hours. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The messages or letters you send don’t hang as letters in the space,&#xA;  it remains in the space as energy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like that every soul is a particular frequency and every thumb is&#xA;  different because a thumb is like a particular cell phone chip.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So after death, every individual energy stays, and the impressions it&#xA;  has taken, accordingly to that it experiences those stages there. But&#xA;  then after sometime that soul comes back. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The soul enters the body at three times – this is all a secret. It is&#xA;  called the birth secret and death secret.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the soul enters at the moment of conception, or it enters in the&#xA;  fifth month, or at the time of birth. So the three sections are there,&#xA;  but there is no way to determine when it enters. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So if at conception time it comes then what one should do to care for&#xA;  that? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Keep yourself happy. Usually pregnant women are kept very happy in&#xA;  India. Whatever she wants is provided to her. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I would say, don’t watch all these violent movies, and scary songs,&#xA;  and scary things. Generally light flute music would be good because it&#xA;  is soothing. It is good to listen to music, knowledge and wisdom. All&#xA;  these things would be preferable. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The soul also chooses where to be born, the place to come. According&#xA;  to its wish it will just come there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/what-happens-after-death&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/what-happens-after-death&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-28T22:22:55.190" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T22:22:55.190" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11699" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9102" CreationDate="2016-04-28T00:51:07.717" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;RigVeda Hymn 1.35.9&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shloka: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हिरण्यपाणिः सविता विचर्षणिर उभे दयावाप्र्थिवी अन्तर ईयते |  अपामीवाम&#xA;  बाधते वेति सूर्यम अभि कर्ष्णेन रजसा दयाम रणोति ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My translation: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हिरण्यपाणिः ...the golden-handed; सविता...sun; विचर्षणिर...very active&#xA;  or busy; उभे...fills; ईयते...so large; अन्तर...distance;&#xA;  दयावाप्र्थिवी... heaven and earth सूर्यम...sun; बाधते...drive&#xA;  away; अपामीवाम...disease; वेति...sets in motion; रणोति&#xA;  अभि...penetrates through; कर्ष्णेन रजसा...removes dark; दयाम... via&#xA;  compassion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The golden-handed Sun, the active, fills (with his rays) the large&#xA;  distance between the earth and heaven. He (the sun) drives away&#xA;  sickness, sets things in motion, penetrates through and removes&#xA;  darkness via his compassion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is definitely a hint to gravity here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T00:51:07.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11700" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="46" CreationDate="2016-04-28T00:54:57.610" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;See Krishna is always depicted in blue colour. You know why in blue&#xA;  colour? It means that the body is transparent as if it was not there.&#xA;  He was not a blue baby, certainly!  Even Shiva is depicted in blue.&#xA;  That doesn’t concern the physical body but inside is infinity.&#xA;  Whatever is infinity is represented by blue: sky is blue, ocean is&#xA;  blue, the great, the big, enormous depth and that bliss, that being-&#xA;  the soul. The soul is never born, but still it is born when the mind&#xA;  and the prana and the body come together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://smile-ashish.blogspot.in/2012/08/krishna-janmasthami-talk-by-sri-sri.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://smile-ashish.blogspot.in/2012/08/krishna-janmasthami-talk-by-sri-sri.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T00:54:57.610" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11701" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="109" CreationDate="2016-04-28T00:58:20.283" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: Why not to have garlic &amp;amp; onion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A: Garlic &amp;amp; onion make you&#xA;little dull. Creates tamogun. For meditators it’s not very good. For&#xA;gastric problem- garlic, for heart problem- onion. But as a regular&#xA;diet, take everyday I would not advise. It makes consciousness dull.&#xA;This universe is filled with Prana, life energy. If you area good&#xA;meditator, nothing can make you unhappy. Even if you are unhappy, it&#xA;immediately gets removed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2009_02_01_archive.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2009_02_01_archive.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T00:58:20.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11702" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5169" CreationDate="2016-04-28T01:04:04.597" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was &lt;em&gt;Anasuya&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Knowledge will be different at different levels of consciousness. At&#xA;  a particular level of consciousness you will become anasuya. Anasuya&#xA;  is devoid of fault-finding eyes. If a mirror is dusty, you need a&#xA;  duster to clean it. But if your eyes have a cataract, any amount of&#xA;  dusting will not help. So first you have to remove the cataract. Then&#xA;  you can see that the mirror is already clean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a certain mind set that always finds fault, even in the best&#xA;  conditions in the world. When you give a person with this mind set the&#xA;  best, they still find faults. Even with the best possible companion,&#xA;  or the most beautiful painting, they will still find something wrong.&#xA;  That kind of mind set cannot know the sacred Knowledge. Krishna tells&#xA;  Arjuna that he is giving him the Royal Secret, because he is anasuya.&#xA;  &quot;You are not finding fault in Me, even though you are so close.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From a distance, even craters cannot be seen. Even on a smooth&#xA;  surface there will be holes. If you are only interested in the holes,&#xA;  you will not see the magnanimity of things. If you are not in anasuya,&#xA;  Knowledge cannot blossom in you. Then there is no point in giving&#xA;  Knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Question: What about discrimination -- Wisdom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Answer: If it is in your vision, your vision will find&#xA;  discrimination. The moment you are out of the path, everything is all&#xA;  wrong, that is not anasuya. For example, you have a friendship, and&#xA;  after 10 years you decide to leave. When you leave, you do not see the&#xA;  good in that relationship. You find fault. This is not anasuya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;However, once you discover you have the wrong vision, half of the&#xA;  wrong vision has already disappeared. There is a fine line here. There&#xA;  cannot be any better example than the cataract. Instead of saying, &quot;My&#xA;  vision is blurred,&quot; you say, &quot;The whole world is not sharp.&quot; Suppose&#xA;  someone is coming in. It is windy, so you shut the door. But the&#xA;  person thinks the door has been slammed in his face! This is asuya. It&#xA;  is not anasuya. Most of the population is like this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asuya is finding fault. It is seeing malicious intent everywhere. It&#xA;  is like a child who says, &quot;Mother, you don't love me!&quot; The child's&#xA;  vision is wrong. If the mother does not love the child, who will? It&#xA;  is the same as if someone comes and says, &quot;Guruji, you don't love me!&quot;&#xA;  If I don't love them, forget about it. Nobody else in the world will!&#xA;  Where else will they find love? Nowhere. A mother may get frustrated&#xA;  but not a Master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Question: It seems as though you can't have anasuya unless you are&#xA;  enlightened?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Answer: Not always. This is an excuse. To get enlightenment, you must&#xA;  have this vision.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://riteshjgd.tripod.com/GuruGanga.html#b11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://riteshjgd.tripod.com/GuruGanga.html#b11&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T01:04:04.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11703" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5488" CreationDate="2016-04-28T01:07:42.273" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Birth is a secret. How a soul takes a body, and the criteria for selecting the place and time of birth, type of body, and parents etc. are all a secret. This is known as &lt;em&gt;Janma Rahasya&lt;/em&gt; in Sanskrit. Although, this might shed some light: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...So after death, every individual energy stays, and the impressions it&#xA;  has taken, accordingly to that it experiences those stages there. But&#xA;  then after sometime that soul comes back. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The soul enters the body at three times – this is all a secret. It is&#xA;  called the birth secret and death secret.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the soul enters at the moment of conception, or it enters in the&#xA;  fifth month, or at the time of birth. So the three sections are there,&#xA;  but there is no way to determine when it enters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/what-happens-after-death&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/what-happens-after-death&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-29T17:27:54.057" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T17:27:54.057" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11704" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2268" CreationDate="2016-04-28T01:18:06.840" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to mention what Swami Vivekananda said about Sanskrit on various occasions to enunciate its importance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Sanskrit language is so intricate, the Sanskrit of the Vedas is&#xA;  so ancient, and the Sanskrit philology so perfect, that any amount of&#xA;  discussion can be carried on for ages in regard to the meaning of one&#xA;  word. If a Pandit takes it into his head, he can render anybody's&#xA;  prattle into correct Sanskrit by force of argument and quotation of&#xA;  texts and rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In philology, our Sanskrit language is now universally acknowledged to&#xA;  be the foundation of all European languages, which, in fact, are&#xA;  nothing but jargonized Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;God spoke once. He spoke in Sanskrit, and that is the divine language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just look at Sanskrit. Look at the Sanskrit of the Brâhmanas, at&#xA;  Shabara Swâmi's commentary on the Mimâmsâ philosophy, the Mahâbhâshya&#xA;  of Patanjali, and, finally, at the great Commentary of Achârya&#xA;  Shankara: and look also at the Sanskrit of comparatively recent times.&#xA;  You will at once understand that so long as a man is alive, he talks a&#xA;  living language, but when he is dead, he speaks a dead language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great difficulty in the way is the Sanskrit language — the&#xA;  glorious language of ours; and this difficulty cannot be removed until&#xA;  — if it is possible — the whole of our nation are good Sanskrit&#xA;  scholars. You will understand the difficulty when I tell you that I&#xA;  have been studying this language all my life, and yet every new book&#xA;  is new to me. How much more difficult would it then be for people who&#xA;  never had time to study the language thoroughly!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The one idea the Hindu religions differ in from every other in the&#xA;  world, the one idea to express which the sages almost exhaust the&#xA;  vocabulary of the Sanskrit language, is that man must realise God even&#xA;  in this life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The very sound of the Sanskrit is musical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The very sound of Sanskrit words gives a prestige and a power and a&#xA;  strength to the race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swamivivekanandaquotes.org/2013/12/swami-vivekananda-sanskrit-language.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.swamivivekanandaquotes.org/2013/12/swami-vivekananda-sanskrit-language.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T01:18:06.840" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11705" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="518" CreationDate="2016-04-28T01:28:19.253" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When someone abuses you verbally, how do you feel? If someone says&#xA;  that you are a donkey, how do you feel? What does it do to you? What&#xA;  does it create? Anger! It shakes you. It creates some negative&#xA;  vibrations; you feel angry. You feel some sensations in the stomach,&#xA;  in the head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a bad word can create so much physiological reactions in you, do&#xA;  you think a very sweet name, a chanting, which includes a lot of&#xA;  energy of the cosmos does not do anything to your body?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is unscientific and stupid to think that a mantra does not do&#xA;  anything to your body. That is not the case! It does.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mantras bring out all the positive energy inside you. That is why it&#xA;  is called mantra kavach; a mantra creates the sense of an armor around&#xA;  your body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sometimes you meet some people and you feel like talking to them. You&#xA;  get good vibes from them. Sometimes you meet people and you want to&#xA;  avoid them. Do you know why? The negative vibes around a person make&#xA;  them repulsive. Mantras turn around these negative, repulsive&#xA;  vibrations, into more positive and attractive vibrations. This is the&#xA;  advantage of mantra chanting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Today, if you go to New York, you will find hundreds of places where&#xA;  they learn chanting. People go for one hour in the evenings to&#xA;  chanting classes. They chant ‘Om Namah Shivaya’,’ Om Namo Narayana’,&#xA;  ‘Sri Rama Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram’. Of course, they have a different&#xA;  pronunciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In China, they say, ‘Ladhe Ladhe’ instead of ‘Radhe Radhe’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Taiwan, 7,000 people to 8,000 people sing ‘Ladhe Govind’ instead of&#xA;  ‘Radhe Govind’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People have seen that there is an effect. And there really is!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now when should you do it? If you do chanting after pranayama and&#xA;  meditation, then it has a better result. If you do it at a superficial&#xA;  level, then it is not so effective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/does-chanting-mantras-really-work?mobile=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/does-chanting-mantras-really-work?mobile=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T01:28:19.253" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11707" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3953" CreationDate="2016-04-28T01:32:28.120" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This might answer some of your questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Today I want to tell you about three type of space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One is the external space, in which all the four elements are there.&#xA;  The second type of space is the inner space where thoughts and&#xA;  emotions come from. When you close your eyes – that is inner space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And then there is the third space. That is the space of energy where&#xA;  there is no thought, no emotion but you just feel energy. In deep&#xA;  meditation you experience that, isn’t it? Or after kriya you&#xA;  experience that space. There are no thoughts, nothing but space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One is called the Bhut Akash, the outer space, second is Chit Akash&#xA;  the space from where thoughts and emotions come, and third, Chid&#xA;  Akash, i.e., space of consciousness. Consciousness itself is another&#xA;  space deep within us. So we seldom understand; pay attention, to these&#xA;  three different spaces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whenever you are frustrated what do you say? ‘Give me some space. I&#xA;  want to be by myself.’ It is very important. All inventions come from&#xA;  these three types of space. In the Chid Akash, in the consciousness it&#xA;  is already there. All knowledge comes to Chit Akash from the Chidakash&#xA;  through thoughts and emotions. Songs come as emotions, science comes&#xA;  as thoughts and ideas and then they manifest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meditation is recognizing these three spaces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sometimes you sit and watch the vast space, put your attention there,&#xA;  and the mind also becomes blank. For how many of you it has happened?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On a nice day, cloudless sky, just bright stars are there and you just&#xA;  lie down and keep gazing at the sky. When you gaze at the sky what&#xA;  happens? That space gets created inside too. A sort of emptiness and&#xA;  you get into a meditative state. So, all the thoughts, ideas,&#xA;  everything we do remains in this space. Maybe in the future sometime&#xA;  someone will invent a device to tap into the Akashic records. Then you&#xA;  can find out what happened in 2010, 2011 and before that. What&#xA;  knowledge came, where and who was thinking what - all that can be&#xA;  reviewed sometime in the future because time has inscriptions of all&#xA;  ideas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You may have noticed in your own life, some places you get jittery and&#xA;  angry. How many have experienced this? What has happened? In that&#xA;  space there are people who have been angry or agitated. So you move&#xA;  into that space and it affects your whole behavior. And when you’re in&#xA;  good company what happens? You feel so much lighter, uplifted inside,&#xA;  totally at ease and at peace. Hasn’t this happened to you? How many&#xA;  feel this has happened, tell me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the company matters, really matters. That doesn’t mean you should&#xA;  avoid people because they are not good company. You also should be&#xA;  strong and instead of running away from negative influence you must&#xA;  positively impact any negative environment. And the meditations (in&#xA;  the advance course) will help you be very strong and stable in that&#xA;  space. So wherever you go you carry your space and you make an&#xA;  influence rather than getting affected. Not be a ping pong ball but be&#xA;  the bat so you can influence the space around you. (Clapping)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This you must strongly know so that you don’t run away from a&#xA;  situation unless or until it is so bad that it is swallowing you. Then&#xA;  you gently move away, don’t run away. Are you getting what I am&#xA;  saying?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So when children are playing the space is beautiful. When you are&#xA;  singing and everyone is singing the same tune, that space generated is&#xA;  harmonious and serene, especially the ancient songs, the old songs.&#xA;  The Sanskrit chants have an added influence because these have been in&#xA;  the Akashic record for the last 20,000 to 50,000 years. Maybe more,&#xA;  you don’t even know since when it was there. So those vibrations make&#xA;  it very benevolent and have a strong influence on the system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anything that is Divine is always universal. Are you getting what I am&#xA;  saying? Yes! Culture is different, religion is different, ways of&#xA;  dressing is different, music is different, different places, but the&#xA;  space is the same. The inner space is the same. And it is amazing that&#xA;  this science was known thousands of years ago. Good, good, good!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So many of you have just come today and you must be just relaxing. How&#xA;  many of you feel that as soon as you entered the ashram already you&#xA;  feel lighter? A different experience, a different space; you could&#xA;  feel that right! It’s obvious; even in Bangalore ashram, because there&#xA;  is meditation happening there everyday people say, ‘I just come in and&#xA;  wow, I already feel lighter. My mind is clearer’. It’s interesting how&#xA;  the universe functions, very good!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/three-types-space&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/three-types-space&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T01:32:28.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11708" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="752" CreationDate="2016-04-28T01:38:28.387" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you go to any Hindu temple, they always keep a coconut. Do you know&#xA;  why? A coconut is a symbol of human life. It is a shock absorber and&#xA;  that is how we should be in our lives, shock absorbing. A coconut&#xA;  falls from such a height but it does not break because it absorbs the&#xA;  shock. Our behavior should be like shock absorbers in the society, so&#xA;  that nobody can hurt our mind or emotions. Our body needs to be hard&#xA;  like the shell of a coconut and the mind should be like the kernel&#xA;  inside, soft and pure white and bringing feelings like the sweet water&#xA;  inside. So this is why they break a coconut in the temple and they&#xA;  keep it to signify, ‘Dear Lord, may my life be like a coconut, body&#xA;  firm and mind soft, pure and clear.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2012/04/trust-in-goodness-of-people-around.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2012/04/trust-in-goodness-of-people-around.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T01:38:28.387" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11709" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8978" CreationDate="2016-04-28T01:41:36.697" Score="0" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;from Mukundamala:&#xA;कायेन वाचा मनसेन्द्रियैर्वा ।&#xA;बुद्ध्यात्मना वा प्रकृतिस्वभावात् ।&#xA;करोमि यद्यत्सकलं परस्मै ।&#xA;नारायणयेति समर्पयामि ॥&#xA;Kaayena Vaacaa Manase[a-I]ndriyairvaa&#xA;Buddhy[i]-Aatmanaa Vaa Prakrteh Svabhaavaat |&#xA;Karomi Yad-Yat-Sakalam Parasmai&#xA;Naaraayannayeti Samarpayaami ||&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;1: Whatever I do with the Body, Speech, Mind or the Sense Organs,&#xA;2: Either by discrimination of the Intellect, or by the deeper feelings of the Heart, or by the existing Tendencies of the Mind,&#xA;3: I Do them All (i.e. Whatever work is to be done) without Ownership,&#xA;4: And I Surrender them at the feet of Sri Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;from Srimad Bhagavatam (11.2.36):&#xA;कायेन वाचा मनसेन्द्रियैर्वा &#xA;बुद्ध्यात्मना वानुसृतस्वभावात् ।&#xA;करोति यद्यत्सकलं परस्मै &#xA;नारायणयेति समर्पयेत्तत् ॥&#xA;Kaayena Vaacaa Manase[a-I]ndriyairvaa &#xA;Buddhy[i]-Aatmanaa Va-Anusrta-Svabhaavaat |&#xA;Karoti Yad-Yat-Sakalam Parasmai &#xA;Naaraayannayeti Samarpayet-Tat ||&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;1: Whatever is done with the Body, Speech, Mind or the Sense Organs, &#xA;2: Either by discrimination of the Intellect, or by the deeper feelings of the Heart, or by the existing Tendencies of the Mind,&#xA;3: The devotee does them All (i.e. Whatever work is done) without Ownership,&#xA;4: And Surrenders them at the feet of Sri Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5471" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T01:41:36.697" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11710" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="408" CreationDate="2016-04-28T01:57:39.173" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;From an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Diwali, the festival of lights, celebrates the victory of good over&#xA;  evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance. Lamps are lit&#xA;  on this day not just to decorate homes, but also to communicate a&#xA;  profound truth about life — when the darkness within is dispelled&#xA;  through the light of wisdom; the good in us wins over the evil.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Diwali, in essence, is celebrated to kindle the light of wisdom in&#xA;  every heart, the light of life in every home, and bring a smile on&#xA;  every face. Diwali is the shortened form of Deepavali, which literally&#xA;  means rows of lamps. Life has many facets and stages to it. It is&#xA;  important that we throw light on all of them, for if one aspect of our&#xA;  life is in darkness, we cannot express life in its totality. The rows&#xA;  of lamps lit on Diwali remind us that every aspect of life needs our&#xA;  attention.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lighting Good Qualities&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Every lamp that we light is symbolic of a good quality. There are good&#xA;  qualities in every human being. Some have forbearance, some have love,&#xA;  strength, generosity; others have the ability to unite people. When&#xA;  all these qualities are lit, awakened, that is Diwali. Don’t be&#xA;  satisfied with lighting one lamp; light a thousand! If you have the&#xA;  value of service in you, don’t be satisfied only with that. Light the&#xA;  lamp of wisdom in yourself and acquire knowledge. Awaken all the&#xA;  facets of your being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Letting Go&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another profound symbolism of Diwali is in lighting firecrackers. In&#xA;  life, you often become like a firecracker, waiting to explode with&#xA;  your pent-up emotions, frustration and anger. When you keep&#xA;  suppressing your emotions, cravings and aversions are bound to reach a&#xA;  point where they explode. Bursting crackers is a psychological&#xA;  exercise from ancient times to release bottled-up emotions. When you&#xA;  see an explosion outside, you feel similar sensations within as well.&#xA;  Along with the explosion, there is a lot of light as well. When you&#xA;  let go of these suppressed emotions, the light of knowledge dawns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Being in the Present&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Diwali means to be in the present — dropping the regrets of the past,&#xA;  the worries of the future, and living in the moment. The sweets and&#xA;  exchange of gifts symbolize forgetting the bickering and negativities&#xA;  of the past, and renewal of friendship for the times to come. A true&#xA;  celebration means dissolving all differences. Happiness and wisdom&#xA;  have to spread in society, and that can happen when all come together&#xA;  and celebrate. Even if one member of the family is shrouded in&#xA;  darkness, you cannot be happy. You need to kindle wisdom in every&#xA;  member of your family. Extend it to every member of society, every&#xA;  person on the planet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Spirit of Service&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Any celebration is incomplete without the spirit of service. Whatever&#xA;  we have received from the Divine we should share it with others, for&#xA;  it is in giving that we receive. That is true celebration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Diwali is a time when you throw light on the wisdom you have gained&#xA;  and welcome a new beginning. When true wisdom dawns, it gives rise to&#xA;  celebration. Celebration is the nature of the spirit and every excuse&#xA;  to celebrate is good. For the one who is not in knowledge, Diwali&#xA;  comes only once a year, but for the wise, Diwali is every moment and&#xA;  every day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the one who is not in knowledge, Diwali comes only once a year,&#xA;  but for the wise, Diwali is every moment and every day. This Diwali,&#xA;  celebrate with knowledge and take a sankalpa (vow) to serve humanity.&#xA;  Light the lamp of love in your heart; the lamp of abundance in your&#xA;  home; the lamp of compassion to serve others; the lamp of Knowledge to&#xA;  dispel the darkness of ignorance and the lamp of gratitude for the&#xA;  abundance that the Divine has bestowed on us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/diwali_b_4172058.html?section=india&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/diwali_b_4172058.html?section=india&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T01:57:39.173" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11711" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3095" CreationDate="2016-04-28T02:00:16.760" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;From an article by Bhanumati Narasimhan: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yantras are typically translated as &quot;instruments&quot;. However, its&#xA;  purpose and use has long been a mystery. How does a yantra look?&#xA;  Searching in old scriptures or even the internet yields many images,&#xA;  geographical patterns  with mystic energies, colour coded, associated&#xA;  with specific mantras and said to yield certain benefits to the wearer&#xA;  or user. Yet it does not offer a clear understanding of the raison&#xA;  d'etre of a yantra and its possibilities. For this, it is important to&#xA;  understand a little about the very nature of our existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are seven layers to our existence - body, breath, mind,&#xA;  intellect, memory, ego and the Self. The first six are subject to&#xA;  change and are impermanent. The physical body is subject to change.&#xA;  The mind oscillates between the past and the future, likes and&#xA;  dislikes. The intellect is caught between agreeing and disagreeing.&#xA;  The memory has loss and gain. Our circle of belongingness depends on&#xA;  the extent of our ego. The antidote to ego is being natural. This&#xA;  happens as the result of spiritual practices. They bring the ability&#xA;  to relax and let go. Yantras and mantras also help in this process.&#xA;  Yantras help to transcend the body consciousness and Mantras uplift&#xA;  our consciousness into the space of the Self which is Sat-Chit-Ananda&#xA;  (Existence-Knowledge-Bliss)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, what does it mean to transcend body consciousness? When we move&#xA;  from our limited identity and are established in that unbounded,&#xA;  infinite consciousness even for a few moments, it energises and&#xA;  rejuvenates us completely. The phenomena of moving beyond our limited&#xA;  identity of this body, form, shape, location is described as&#xA;  transcending body consciousness.  How does a yantra help us to do&#xA;  this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yantras are energy diagrams representing various energy fields.&#xA;  Yantras can have lines moving upward, downward or even curved lines.&#xA;  They signify the flow of energy and the nodes, the nodal points of&#xA;  various energies. Let us say we are walking on a hilly terrain. For&#xA;  some part we are climbing, then we go downhill, maybe we move on a&#xA;  curved path for a while and so on. When we climb, the energy required&#xA;  is different from going downhill. The experience of walking along&#xA;  curves is different from that of walking on a straight path or uphill.&#xA;  In this way, we can understand the various energy patterns governing&#xA;  the activities we perform. Some patterns drain and tire us. Some&#xA;  energize us. If there is dullness, lack of enthusiasm and interest,&#xA;  inertia, laziness or lethargy, we can correct our own energy field by&#xA;  focusing on the specific yantra. Now, the question arises, which is&#xA;  the yantra for me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All matter in this creation is made up of atoms that group together in&#xA;  specific patterns with specific qualities, giving rise to the various&#xA;  substances in creation. Every form or substance has atoms but the&#xA;  patterns are different. Similarly, yantras are different patterns for&#xA;  the same energy. These patterns can be cognized only with a heightened&#xA;  awareness. As each human being is unique, the great seers dedicated&#xA;  certain models for certain kinds of people based on the extent of&#xA;  refinement of their nervous system. To know which one is for us&#xA;  requires the guidance of a Master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yantras have a very definite structure and organisation. The centre or&#xA;  source of the Yantra is called the Bindu - the focal point of all&#xA;  energy, the seat of divinity. For e.g., our body with millions of&#xA;  cells has come from one single cell or bindu which multiplied and&#xA;  differentiated itself into eyes, brain, heart and all other parts of&#xA;  our body. The knowledge of the creation of the entire human body was&#xA;  present in that one cell. Similarly, the bindu is the focal point of&#xA;  all the energies that are part of this entire creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though often represented in two dimensions, Yantras can be extended&#xA;  into multi-dimensional structures. The Vedas speak of the existence of&#xA;  several dimensions of space and time beyond the 3 dimensions of space&#xA;  and one of time that we perceive. Modern science also suggests the&#xA;  same today in its search for the ultimate unified theory for this&#xA;  universe.  Movement from the source of the yantra or bindu to the&#xA;  periphery is indicative of creation - the journey from subtle to&#xA;  gross, within to the external world. The Movement from the periphery&#xA;  to the source is dissolution - the journey from the external world of&#xA;  sensory perceptions and objects to the vast infinite space within.&#xA;  This is experienced naturally in meditation. A Yantra also facilitates&#xA;  this inward journey and helps the seeker to be established in the&#xA;  space of the Supreme, undivided and indivisible Self. One who is thus&#xA;  established radiates positivity and is a storehouse of dynamism and&#xA;  creativity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/understanding-yantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/understanding-yantra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T02:00:16.760" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11712" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3358" CreationDate="2016-04-28T02:05:41.627" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;My answer is in line with that of &lt;em&gt;Dee&lt;/em&gt;. There are so many medical benefits of turmeric that religious importance is added to it to make it a daily part of life. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar narrates relevant incidents:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I want to share with you one incident that happened in 1980. I had&#xA;  organized a meeting of Ayurvedic doctors and doctors of modern&#xA;  medicine in New Delhi. It was in Vasant Vihar and there were about 50&#xA;  to 60 doctors on each side. As the conference was going on, the&#xA;  discussion of turmeric came up, and I vividly remember this discussion&#xA;  of turmeric. All the allopathic doctors said that turmeric has no&#xA;  value, it is just a pigment. They dismissed the Ayurvedic doctors who&#xA;  said that turmeric is a vayosthapan, which means it arrests ageing,&#xA;  and it creates the more ojus (vitality) in your system. This is what&#xA;  the Ayurvedic doctors kept saying but the allopathic doctors said that&#xA;  it is all total nonsense. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Today allopathy has recognized that the turmeric does the job of 19&#xA;  life saving drugs including cancer. Turmeric is an anti-viral agent if&#xA;  you have viral fever. Usually allopathic doctors say that there is no&#xA;  medicine for viral fever, just take some fresh turmeric with fresh&#xA;  lime, and that will do. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In India, we make pickles of turmeric, ginger and lemon, and this is&#xA;  the best. Turmeric is anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and an antioxidant.&#xA;  It does the work of aspirin, it is blood thinner, and it stops blood&#xA;  coagulation. It does the work of 19 important life saving drugs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In our tradition, on any auspicious event, the first thing what we buy&#xA;  is turmeric and then we buy clothes and other things. I remember when&#xA;  we got new clothes my grandmother used to put a little turmeric at the&#xA;  corner of the cloth. If it is a new cloth put some turmeric at the&#xA;  corner. Turmeric is given so much importance in our country and today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ayurveda is the medicine of the 21st century. Of course not all&#xA;  Ayurvedic preparations which people do are hygienic or scientific in&#xA;  nature. We must not ignore science, but along with science we must&#xA;  take Ayurveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artoflivinguniverse.org/2014/09/Sri-Sri-Ravi-Shankar-on-Benefits-of-Turmeric.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artoflivinguniverse.org/2014/09/Sri-Sri-Ravi-Shankar-on-Benefits-of-Turmeric.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T02:05:41.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11713" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3238" CreationDate="2016-04-28T02:13:22.043" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar talks about the 5 virtues of silence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We live in a cluttered world! Cities are cluttered, towns are&#xA;  cluttered, markets are cluttered… So is our mind. “Too much to do,&#xA;  very little time…” has almost become like a universal phenomenon,&#xA;  creating stress in almost everyone’s life. Even when one is on leave&#xA;  from work, the mind gets no rest. From the moment it wakes up till the&#xA;  time it goes to sleep, the mind is always engaged in something –&#xA;  either in something utterly useless or something very important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As it’s almost impossible to reduce the workload and increase the&#xA;  time, the only option left is to increase the energy level within us.&#xA;  When we have enough energy and enthusiasm, we are able to handle any&#xA;  challenge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Silent Energy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the question is how to increase the energy? Spiritual practices&#xA;  like meditation, yoga and pranayama do just that. They all lead one to&#xA;  a space of silence, which is charged with energy. That space of&#xA;  silence is the mother of all rest, mother of all creativity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Inner Silence is the mother of all creativity, the source of&#xA;  intuition. It is in the zone of silence that great scientific&#xA;  discoveries were made, path-breaking inventions created, wonderful&#xA;  poems and melodies emerged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Not About Just a Shut Mouth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Silence is not about just keeping the mouth shut. It’s more about&#xA;  withdrawing the senses from outward activities and turning it inward.&#xA;  The mind not getting involved in any of the five senses brings a&#xA;  certain amount of quietness inside. This leads to a state of total&#xA;  contentment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Cure-All Tool&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The virtues of silence are countless. From being a source of&#xA;  enlightenment to a balm that heals an estranged relationship, it can&#xA;  be deployed as a panacea for many a worldly problems we face in&#xA;  everyday life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Silence is the goal of all answers. If an answer does not silence the&#xA;  mind, it is no answer. Silence makes thoughts more coherent, makes one&#xA;  more intelligent. A person who does not practice silence cannot be&#xA;  intelligent at all. What he talks makes little sense. If you want to&#xA;  make sense, it has to come from silence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Beyond Words&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All of us have experienced at one time or the other, an amazing&#xA;  phenomenon. Whether in one-to-one communication, or in addressing a&#xA;  huge audience, something intangible moves people more than the words.&#xA;  We try to rationalize by attributing this to charm, charisma,&#xA;  presence, body language, etc. Yes, these all do play a role, but the&#xA;  essence of all that is the inner silence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Real communication is beyond words. If you are firmly established in&#xA;  the zone of silence, if your mind is calm, you will find yourself&#xA;  suddenly being able to influence individuals, groups, and masses. What&#xA;  a single glance can convey, a thousand conversations cannot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Sound Of Intelligence&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When we go deep into silence, we experience a form of communication&#xA;  without thoughts. This is when all the questions in one’s mind&#xA;  disappear. The highest intelligence within starts speaking. If one&#xA;  could only be totally in silence and eliminate all the noises of the&#xA;  mind, that intelligence will never fail to reveal the best solution&#xA;  even to the most critical problems.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Get On the Mat&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For short periods of time every day, meditate and stay in silence.&#xA;  When you reach that space of silence through meditation, you will&#xA;  always be guided as to what needs to be done. Silence enhances one’s&#xA;  inner strength and sharpens intellect; keeps one in a happy frame of&#xA;  mind and invokes joy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It’s now known that the amount of energy that one gets in meditation&#xA;  is much more than in sleep. Twenty minutes of meditation can equal to&#xA;  eight hours of good sleep. This formula could easily solve one of the&#xA;  most common problems working people face - working all the time and&#xA;  not getting enough sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Himalaya Within&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People often think that one cannot be successful without being&#xA;  stressful. They are made to believe that there is no nirvana without&#xA;  quitting the world. But Indian spirituality offers plenty of ways of&#xA;  rejuvenating oneself without quitting the world! The body dropping you&#xA;  is death; and you dropping the body is meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It’s time we all learn the art of dropping the world for a few minutes&#xA;  every day before it drops us. Its rejuvenating effect can make us&#xA;  better players in the world!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/5-virtues-silence&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/5-virtues-silence&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T02:13:22.043" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11714" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="253" CreationDate="2016-04-28T02:21:00.493" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Idols are a medium to move from the form to the formless. This is done because the mind finds it easy to relate to the form rather than the abstract formless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is an idol? It is a symbol. The Divinity which is formless, which&#xA;  cannot be described, which cannot be seen or touched, to see and&#xA;  understand that Divinity you need a medium. And that medium is what&#xA;  you call an idol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;God does not reside in the idol but an idol points you to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;See, in your house there is a picture of your grandfather on the wall.&#xA;  Now if someone asks you, 'Who is your grandfather?' You point to his&#xA;  picture. Is the picture your grandfather? No. Your grandfather is no&#xA;  more, but if someone asks you, you point to his picture and say ,&#xA;  'This is my grandfather'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So a picture (or idol) is a medium or a symbol, that is why it is&#xA;  called pratima (an image or idol). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And it is good that there is not just one symbol or image as God.&#xA;  Otherwise people would think of God to be that way only. That is why&#xA;  here in India, we have thousands of different images of God. You can&#xA;  see God in any of these forms, whichever is dear to you (Ishta Devta:&#xA;  referring to a particular deity being fondly revered and worshipped by&#xA;  a person or a group of people).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the rays come from the same sun but the rays have seven different&#xA;  colors. This is why we have the Pancha Devta (referring to the five&#xA;  primary deities or forms of the Divine that are honored in all rites&#xA;  and rituals: Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvati, Lord Vishnu, Lord Ganesha&#xA;  and the Sun God), and the Sapta Matrikas (referring to seven different&#xA;  forms of the Mother Divine: Brahmani, Narayani, Indrani, Maheshwari,&#xA;  Varahi, Kaumari, and Chamunda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Similarly God is one, but our ancestors have given different names and&#xA;  forms to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then there is the tradition of establishing an idol of the Divine&#xA;  through chanting, and devotional worship. Whichever form is&#xA;  established with chanting, with devotion, and is given a seat of honor&#xA;  becomes honorable. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;See, someone can simply keep the Bhagavad Gita, or the Guru Granth&#xA;  Sahib (the main scripture of the Sikhs) anywhere. But when you worship&#xA;  it, bow down before it, offer service to it, and food to it, then it&#xA;  has a different meaning. And if you also give the form a shape, or a&#xA;  face then that bring even more devotion in you. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For example, just by looking at Lord Krishna’s face, Meera Bai (a&#xA;  great Indian saint) became so deeply in love with Him. Lord Chaitanya&#xA;  Mahaprabhu (revered as one of the greatest saints and devotee of Lord&#xA;  Krishna) reached the highest state of consciousness on seeing the form&#xA;  of Lord Krishna (referring to the image of Lord Krishna standing with&#xA;  a flute in his hand, wearing a peacock crown and dressed in brilliant&#xA;  yellow dress under a tree).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who needs an idol, can use it as a staircase to reach the Divine.&#xA;  But don’t get stuck with the idol. Always remember that God is within&#xA;  you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That is why in the earlier days, the ritual of going to a temple was&#xA;  to sit with oneself (to see the Divine within) for sometime after&#xA;  looking at the idol. One should not leave the temple without sitting&#xA;  for some time. But nowadays what people do is, they sit for a few&#xA;  seconds for the sake of sitting and then get up and leave. This is&#xA;  cheating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In earlier days, the idol would be kept in the dark, in the Garbha&#xA;  Griha (the sanctum sanctorum of a temple housing the idol of the&#xA;  deity) and you could only see the deity’s face when shown with the&#xA;  light of an earthen lamp. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The message behind this is for you to remember that God resides deep&#xA;  in the caves of your heart. You need to see Him with the light of&#xA;  Self-knowledge. This is the true essence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People in ancient days would decorate the idols very beautifully, so&#xA;  that your mind would not wander here and there, and you would be&#xA;  completely captivated by the Divine. They would make beautiful idols&#xA;  out of marble, and adorn it with beautiful clothes and jewelry. It is&#xA;  like going window shopping. Many people even today go window shopping,&#xA;  isn't it. They see all the nice things and they feel good. Why? It is&#xA;  because the mind gets attracted to beautiful clothes, good fragrances,&#xA;  flowers, fruits and good food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Our ancestors knew this, and so they would keep all these items by the&#xA;  idol to retrieve the mind through five senses and directed it to the&#xA;  Divine. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Buddhists also use this strategy to capture the mind. This is why&#xA;  they make such beautiful idols of Lord Buddha and the Bodhisattvas&#xA;  from emeralds, sapphires, gold and silver. They keep flowers, fruits,&#xA;  incense and sweets before the idol so that the mind together with the&#xA;  five senses becomes centered in the Divine. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once the mind settles down, they ask you to close your eyes and&#xA;  meditate. This is the second step. In meditation you find God within&#xA;  you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a very beautiful saying, 'Manusyanam apasu Devata manishinam&#xA;  divi Devata. Balanam tosha kashteshu gyanino atmani devata'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a person asks ‘Where is God?’, the wise ones reply with this&#xA;  verse, which means, ‘For human beings, love itself is God; for the&#xA;  highly intellectual ones, they see the Divine in all Divine powers and&#xA;  Divine qualities; the less intelligent ones see God in idols of wood&#xA;  or stone; but the wise ones, see God in their own Self (Atman)’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tomorrow we will have the Chaturdashihavan in the ashram. You all can&#xA;  participate in that. As the chanting goes on, you can all meditate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;See, though there are elaborate rituals prescribed for pooja, we do&#xA;  not really need to perform them because when we meditate, we see&#xA;  everything is the Divine. But for the sake of preserving the ancient&#xA;  traditions and customs, we should perform all these rites and rituals.&#xA;  This is why we should regularly light a lamp, offer flowers to the&#xA;  deity, so that our children can learn from this and the future&#xA;  generations can be aware of our ancient traditions and rich cultural&#xA;  heritage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why do we celebrate Diwali? There is no real need to celebrate it. But&#xA;  if we do not, then how will we tell the future generations of the&#xA;  cultural and mythological significance of the festival and how our&#xA;  ancestors celebrated it and why. So if we do not do all this, then an&#xA;  ancient process, a sacred tradition will be lost. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When you go deep into all of this, you will see how wonderful&#xA;  everything is. That is why Lord Krishna says, 'Everything is Me'. So&#xA;  you need not abandon these customs and rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/what-extent-idol-worship-acceptable&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/what-extent-idol-worship-acceptable&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-28T03:05:41.307" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T03:05:41.307" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11715" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2641" CreationDate="2016-04-28T02:26:39.833" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You would have heard about &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;the seven chakras (energy centers)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; ;&#xA;  it is One Energy that manifests itself in various forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;first chakra (Muladhara)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, at the base of the spine, the&#xA;  energy manifests as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;enthusiasm or inertia&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the same life force energy comes to the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;second chakra&#xA;  (Swadhisthana)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, it manifests as &lt;strong&gt;sexual energy or creative or&#xA;  procreative energy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The same energy goes up to the navel region, the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;third chakra&#xA;  (Manipura)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, and manifests in four different forms, which relate to&#xA;  four different emotions - &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;greed, jealousy, generosity and joy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  That is why all these four emotions are depicted through the tummy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jealousy is an emotion that one feels in the stomach. Generosity is&#xA;  depicted with a large tummy, e.g., Santa Claus. Joy is also depicted&#xA;  with a big tummy, e.g., Lord Ganesha and the Laughing Buddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The same emotion comes to the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;fourth chakra (Anahata)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, the heart&#xA;  chakra; manifests as three different emotions which are &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;love,&#xA;  hatred and fear&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When this energy rises to the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;fifth chakra (Vishuddha)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, at the&#xA;  level of the throat, it symbolizes &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;grief and gratefulness&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. When&#xA;  you feel grief, the throat chokes, and when you feel grateful also,&#xA;  the throat chokes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The same energy then goes in between the eyebrows to the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;sixth&#xA;  chakra (Ajna)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, and manifests as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;anger and alertness&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Anger,&#xA;  alertness, knowledge, and wisdom are all related to the third eye&#xA;  centre.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The same energy goes to the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;seventh chakra (Sahasrara)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, at the&#xA;  top of the head and manifests as sheer bliss. That is why in any&#xA;  sanctuary experiences, when you feel total bliss, the mind immediately&#xA;  goes to the top of the head. Something shoots up to the top of the&#xA;  head and you feel blissful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, the upward movement and downward movements of energy are all the&#xA;  emotions in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/seven-centers-energy-chakras&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/seven-centers-energy-chakras&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T02:26:39.833" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11716" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7465" CreationDate="2016-04-28T02:39:34.217" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas are studied through Vedangas. Vedangas are limbs of Vedas. There are six vedangas. The six Vedangas are Siksha, Chhanda, Vyakarana, Nirukta, &lt;strong&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/strong&gt; and Kalpa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence study of Vedas is incomplete without Jyotish (science of Astrology)..&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;_____________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Here are some refrences from Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;RV3.54.19 May the Gods&amp;apos; envoy, sent to many a quarter, proclaim us sinless for our perfect safety. May Earth and Heaven, the Sun, the waters, &lt;strong&gt;hear us,&lt;/strong&gt; and the wide firmament and constellations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the word 'hear us' which certainly represents a method of astrology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;RV1.50.2 &lt;strong&gt;The constellations pass away, like thieves&lt;/strong&gt;, together with their beams, Before the all-beholding Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse is the core of vedic astrological doctrines where movement of constellations are calculated with respect to earth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Soma are the Adityas strong, by Soma mighty is the earth. &lt;strong&gt;Thus Soma in the midst of all these constellations hath his place.&lt;/strong&gt; RV10.85.2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse is the core of vedic astrological doctrines which makes Moon lord of the constellation/ nakshtras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;____________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Dawn is the head of the sacrificial horse. Heaven is his eye. The year is his soul. &lt;strong&gt;His form are the nakshatras&lt;/strong&gt; and the stars are his bones”. Taittiriya Samhita of Yajur Veda VII 5.25&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda in 19.7 mentions the name of 28 constellation/ nakshtras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda 19.7&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Prayer to the Lunar Mansions and other Powers for protection and prosperity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1The brilliant lights shining in heaven together, which through the world glide on with rapid motion. And Days, and Firmament with songs I worship, &lt;strong&gt;seeking the Twenty-eight-fold for its favour.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2&lt;strong&gt;Krittikās, Rohinī&lt;/strong&gt; be swift to hear me! Let &lt;strong&gt;Mrigasiras&lt;/strong&gt; bless me, help me &lt;strong&gt;Ārdrā!&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Punarvasu and Sūnritā, fair Pushya, the Sun, Asleshās, Maghā&lt;/strong&gt; lead me onward!&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3My bliss be &lt;strong&gt;Svāti and benignant Chitrā&lt;/strong&gt;, my right First &lt;strong&gt;Phalgunis and present Hasta. Rādhas, Visākhas, gracious Anurādhā, Jyeshthā and happy starred uninjured Mūla.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4Food shall be earlier &lt;strong&gt;Ashādhas&lt;/strong&gt; grant me; let those that follow bring me strength and vigour; With virtuous merit &lt;strong&gt;Abhijit endow me! Sravana and Sravishthās&lt;/strong&gt; make me prosper.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5&lt;strong&gt;Satabhishak&lt;/strong&gt; afford me ample freedom, and &lt;strong&gt;both the Proshtha-padas&lt;/strong&gt; guard me safely. &lt;strong&gt;Revati and the Asvayujas bring me luck, and the Bharanis&lt;/strong&gt; abundant riches!&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1Benign to me be all those Lunar Mansions to which the Moon as he moves on doth honour.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;_______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad of Yajurveda in VI-iii-1: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who wishes to attain greatness (should perform) on an auspicious day in a fortnight in which the moon waxes, and &lt;strong&gt;under a male constellation, during the northward march of the sun,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Benefitting something using position of planets and star is a part of horoscopic astrology.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;____________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Valmiki Ramayan is considered Adi-Kavya, the first written book in Sanskrit. Vedas aren't considered written they are considered revealed. See how sage Valmiki describes birth of Lord Rama in Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततो यज्ञे समाप्ते तु ऋतूनाम् षट् समत्ययुः |&#xA;  ततः च द्वादशे मासे चैत्रे नावमिके तिथौ || १८-८&#xA;  नक्क्षत्रे अदिति दैवत्ये स्व उच्छ संस्थेषु पंचसु |&#xA;  ग्रहेषु कर्कटे लग्ने वाक्पता इंदुना सह || १८-९&#xA;  प्रोद्यमाने जगन्नाथम् सर्व लोक नमस्कृतम् |&#xA;  कौसल्या अजनयत् रामम् सर्व लक्षण संयुतम् || १८-१०&#xA;  विष्णोः अर्धम् महाभागम् पुत्रम् ऐक्ष्वाकु नंदनम् |&#xA;  लोहिताक्षम् महाबाहुम् रक्त ओष्टम् दुंदुभि स्वनम् ||१८-११&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Twice six months had rolled a way since the great sacrifice was over and, in the first month of the New Year, on the ninth day of the bright fortnight,&lt;/strong&gt; the Lord of the worlds chose to take human form and sent down half of His essence as the son of Kausalya (thenceforth to be known as Rama), the world-honored One, the crowning glory ot the grand line of Ikshwku, and the sum of all perfections. The constellation Punarvasu, of which Aditi was the regent, was chosen to preside at his birth. &lt;strong&gt;The Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn were in ascension in their respective houses. Aries, Capricornus, Cancer, Pisces and the Libra, Jupiter and the Moon were in conjunction ; the rising sign was Cancer.&lt;/strong&gt; And KausalyA, shone with unparalleled effulgence, even as Aditi when she gave birth to Indra, the lord of the Shining Ones, the Vajra-wielder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From above verse to verse translation of Valmiki Ramayana you can see that astronomy is described in horoscopic/astrological way.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;________________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Simiarly see Udyoga Parva CXLIII of Mahabharata where Karna describes omen to Lord Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharat Udyoga Parva CXLIII&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All these omens, making the hairs (of the spectators) stand on their ends, indicate, O&#xA;  thou of Vrishni&amp;apos;s race, the defeat of Dhritarashtra&amp;apos;s son and the victory of Yudhishthira. &lt;strong&gt;That fierce planet of great effulgence, Sanaischara (Saturn), is afflicting the constellation called Rohini, in order to afflict greatly the creatures of the earth. The planet Angaraka (Mars), wheeling, O slayer of Madhu, towards the constellation Jeshthya, approacheth towards Anuradhas, indicating a great slaughter of friends. Without doubt, O Krishna, a terrible calamity approacheth the Kurus when specially, O thou of Vrishni&amp;apos;s race, the planet Mahapat afflicteth the constellation Chitra. The spot on the lunar disc hath changed its position; and Rahu also approacheth towards the sun.&lt;/strong&gt; Meteors are falling from the sky with loud noise and trembling motion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It clearly mentions position of planets with respect to constellation which is horoscopic astrology. Hence Horoscopic astrology is also a core of vedic doctrines. If character of person can be defined by planetary position, then matching two kundalis is just it's another aspect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-04-28T03:09:55.313" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T03:09:55.313" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11717" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3955" CreationDate="2016-04-28T02:46:59.630" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This might answer some of the questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everything in this creation has certain vibrations. Each animal is&#xA;  connected to the macrocosm and brings down a particular type of cosmic&#xA;  ray into the planet, that manifests particular vibrations. The gods&#xA;  are all depicted as riding on different vahanas (vehicles) --&#xA;  elephants attract the vibrations specific to Ganesha; tigers, the Devi&#xA;  vibrations; peacocks attract the vibrations of Lord Subramanya. Today&#xA;  scientists say, even if one animal species becomes extinct on the&#xA;  planet, the planet cannot survive. This is what our ancient people&#xA;  also said. So honour and respect every creature on the planet because&#xA;  God is present in every atom of creation. The whole creation is filled&#xA;  with consciousness, filled with knowledge. You are nothing but a&#xA;  particular vibration, a wave function, a frequency. Your body is&#xA;  emitting vibrations or energy all the time. You are losing energy and&#xA;  gaining energy from the cosmos. There is a continuous flow and every&#xA;  cell in your body is changing. You are exchanging energy all the time.&#xA;  Your consciousness is also a wave function and it has so many&#xA;  possibilities, so many avenues. It is like the sun. When the sun&#xA;  shines in your window, you can’t say, ‘Oh I have captured the sun!’&#xA;  The same sun will be there in the neighbour’s window as well, and all&#xA;  over the world. So the sun is here totally and there also totally. And&#xA;  you are just a vibration. As the body you can’t be everywhere, but as&#xA;  consciousness you can be in many places. If you have touched a flower,&#xA;  your vibrations have gone into the flower. So the whole universe is a&#xA;  field of consciousness. Many times you meet someone and you feel that&#xA;  you should stay away from them. And with some other person, you feel&#xA;  like meeting them more frequently. Many times, you wonder why someone&#xA;  dislikes you. We are unable to understand this. This is because of our&#xA;  vibrations. Most of what we convey to people is simply by our&#xA;  presence. Through speech whatever is conveyed is on the next level,&#xA;  but first the vibrations in our presence influence others. We have to&#xA;  change our vibrations, make them more positive by doing meditation and&#xA;  pranayama. Vedanta and Buddhism talk about the same thing; both talk&#xA;  about that inner consciousness, only in a slightly different way. The&#xA;  emptiness in Buddhism is the fullness in Vedanta, that matter and&#xA;  everything is vibrations, and these vibrations keep changing, and it&#xA;  can change our life. It can bring what we desire or what we want for&#xA;  us. Every day, for ten minutes meditate and become hollow and empty.&#xA;  If someone is getting annoyed, just say, ‘Hey! Wave function! The&#xA;  frequency has changed.’ If someone is happy, they have a different&#xA;  frequency. If there is jealousy, ‘Oh, they have changed to third&#xA;  frequency.’ If someone is upset, or depressed, ‘frequency has changed&#xA;  again.’ Would anyone be upset about the changing frequencies? No. So&#xA;  see everybody as nothing but frequencies. Then nothing will touch you.&#xA;  Enjoy the variety, enjoy the diversity and don’t lose your smile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-inner-truth-you-are-the-universal-wave-writes-sri-sri-ravi-shankar-2145649&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-inner-truth-you-are-the-universal-wave-writes-sri-sri-ravi-shankar-2145649&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T02:46:59.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11718" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6676" CreationDate="2016-04-28T02:53:24.150" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from talks by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Why does Krishna have the peacock feather on his head? A king is&#xA;  responsible for the whole society and that responsibility can become a&#xA;  burden, which sits on the head as the crown. But Krishna fulfills all&#xA;  his responsibility effortlessly, like a game. A mother never feels&#xA;  taking care of her children is a burden. Similarly, Krishna wears his&#xA;  responsibility lightly and plays his roles colorfully, just like the&#xA;  peacock feather on his crown.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://srisriravishankar.org/the-deeper-meaning-of-janamashtami/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://srisriravishankar.org/the-deeper-meaning-of-janamashtami/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...In the presence of pure bliss, joy, all complaints vanish and life&#xA;  appears like a play. One can look at every trouble as a challenge or&#xA;  can spend it crying and complaining. You know, what you have in your&#xA;  hand indicates what you are inside. If you have a gun in your hand, it&#xA;  indicates fear or violence. If you have a flower in your hand, it&#xA;  indicates you are like a flower. If you have a flute in your hand, you&#xA;  are like a flute — hollow and empty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://talksbysrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2013/04/the-philosophy-of-joy-talk-by-sri-sri.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://talksbysrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2013/04/the-philosophy-of-joy-talk-by-sri-sri.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T02:53:24.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11724" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11674" CreationDate="2016-04-28T17:20:55.513" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to researchers/archaeologists Sanskrit dating back to 3000 BC. and pali seem to have existed after sanskrit about 5-1 BCE ..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5477" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2016-05-02T16:17:22.063" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T16:17:22.063" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11726" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11289" CreationDate="2016-04-28T17:32:50.393" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva grants bhasmasur a wish that if he keeps his palm on anyone's head then they will be destroyed and turned into ashes. Once he keeps his palm on his head himself and turns into ashes. This is the reason of using vibhuti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5478" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T17:32:50.393" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11727" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11289" CreationDate="2016-04-28T17:34:58.230" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is the story of bhasmasur. He was granted a wish by Shiva i.e; if he touches his palm on others head they are drawn into ashes. Once he touches his own head by his palm he turn into ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Bhasma is not applied, Brahmanas are not entitled to perform Gayatri Japam. Contrarily, no sin could enter the body once Bhasma is applied as prescribed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5475" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-09-23T10:50:39.180" LastActivityDate="2016-09-23T10:50:39.180" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11728" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11388" CreationDate="2016-04-28T17:54:21.477" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;On Amavasya many people fast and offer puja to the souls of their forefathers. They also offer water to the departed souls. The Fifteen days before the Navratri there is Amavasya which is called Mahalaya. This is the time which is called Pitri paksha and is considered as a very good time to offer prayers to the departed souls and ensure that they rest in peace. Food is offered to the ancestors. It is said that lord Vishnu himself said that on these days the ancestors come to earth and if they are not offered puja and food they feel offended. There is also a popular story that Karna who was a famous character in Mahabharata after death could not get food. He was known for charity and he gave people a lot of gold but not food. When Lord Yama saw his state he advised Karna to go back to earth and feed the poor. Karna got back to earth and fed the poor during the pitri paksha. This enabled him to get food in his life after death. This is exactly why many people even today feed the poor on these days so that their forefathers get peace in their after lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5475" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T17:54:21.477" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11731" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11388" CreationDate="2016-04-28T17:59:03.180" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Amavasya is [new] moon day and Purnima is full moon day in Hindu calendars. Both Amavasya and Purnima are considered equally strong in Hindu beliefs. In the olden days people would always fast on Amavasya. It is said that if one can fast on an Amavasya that is on a Monday then all their wishes will be fulfilled. It is believed that whatever you wish for will be granted if we fast on that day.&#xA;The Vedas state that as full moon and no moon may have some influence on the human body this is exactly why on these days people are told to fast and this will ensure that the acidic content in their blood is reduced. Doing puja on a no moon and full moon day can also ensure that the people attain peace of mind and become calm.&#xA;The purpose of fasting is not simply refraining from eating and drinking but refraining from evil speech thoughts and deeds…and to be in a state of worship even while asleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said that  Fasting  creates remarkable endurance in a person,a special feeling of empathy and a sense of equality between the rich and the poor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fasting occasionally, is a key to good health. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5478" LastActivityDate="2016-04-28T17:59:03.180" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11733" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11674" CreationDate="2016-04-28T19:45:02.580" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The oldest surviving Buddhist texts in the &lt;em&gt;Pali&lt;/em&gt; language come from&#xA;  the relic chamber of a &lt;em&gt;Buddhist&lt;/em&gt; stupa at &lt;em&gt;Sri Ksetra&lt;/em&gt;. They consist&#xA;  of a twenty-leaf manuscript of solid gold and a large gilded reliquary&#xA;  of silver. A new and exhaustive palaeographic study of these&#xA;  inscriptions shows that they date from the &lt;em&gt;mid-fifth to mid-sixth&#xA;  century AD&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This link provides multiple reference to support this claim : &lt;a href=&quot;http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?t=6033&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?t=6033&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt;, a &lt;em&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/em&gt; text was written around &lt;em&gt;1500 BC&lt;/em&gt;. Although, it is said that there was an oral tradition spreading it for a very long time.&#xA;Hence, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sanskrit is older&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, as Sanskrit texts were written way back. This link provides the dates when the &lt;em&gt;Sanskrit texts&lt;/em&gt; were written including &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hindu_texts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hindu_texts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-02T16:32:04.270" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T16:32:04.270" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11734" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11230" CreationDate="2016-04-28T23:36:08.007" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before I begin, I would like to mention that the study of etymology or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirukta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nirukta&lt;/a&gt;, one of the six &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanga&lt;/a&gt;, can provide beautiful insights into the practice of &lt;em&gt;Hinduism&lt;/em&gt;. As you read further, this will be showcased. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This seemed like a simple question at first. Although, I needed to a lot of research to get the etymology of it. There are two aspects of the question that I cover: &lt;em&gt;Word roots both in and out of sync with Hinduism, Timeline of word usage and Hinduism.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Word roots&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two main viewpoints on the word root that I have come across.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;A faulty interpretation by Monier Williams:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Monier Williams&lt;/em&gt; in his &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/1872sanskriten00moniuoft&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, etymologically and philologically arranged&lt;/a&gt; says that the word &lt;em&gt;mandira&lt;/em&gt; according to some is said to be from the verb root &lt;em&gt;mand&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each word in Sanskrit language can have multiple meanings. The verb &lt;em&gt;mand&lt;/em&gt; means - to become drunk or inebriated, &lt;em&gt;to be glad, to rejoice, to exhilarate, to be praised, to be celebrated, to praise&lt;/em&gt;, to sleep, to languish, be languid, to move slowly, tarry, loiter, hesitate, stand still, pause, &lt;em&gt;to be beautiful, to shine&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The current context context in which the noun &lt;em&gt;manda&lt;/em&gt; is used in Hindi is to refer to a mentally slow person. In my opinion, Western scholars show a biased lens towards such interpretations, sometimes due to a lack of understanding of the culture as they are an outsider and sometimes due to faulty intentions. To subscribe the meaning of the word &lt;em&gt;mandira&lt;/em&gt; to the word &lt;em&gt;manda&lt;/em&gt; which has a lot of negative interpretations makes no sense. (Although, it has a lot more positive interpretations too).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;An interpretation in sync with Hinduism:&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sadly, there are not many Indian Sanskrit scholars whose etymological work is famous (atleast, not in my notice). The second interpretation comes from &lt;em&gt;Krishna G. Rampa&lt;/em&gt;l in his book &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=J4FGDtbgHB0C&amp;amp;pg=PA69&amp;amp;lpg=PA69&amp;amp;dq=Sacred%20Structures:%20Artistic%20Renditions%20of%20Hindu%20Temples%20in%20Malaysia%20and%20Singapore&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=On7zMlALOC&amp;amp;sig=vx43KtOgsA7SQBeAKx8jNZzFS5Y&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiNvOPSr7LMAhWMHo4KHWkbDMIQ6AEINDAG&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sacred Structures: Artistic Renditions of Hindu Temples in Malaysia and Singapore&lt;/a&gt;. He writes: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The word &lt;em&gt;mandira&lt;/em&gt; is derived from the words &lt;em&gt;man&lt;/em&gt; which symbolises inner-self and &lt;em&gt;dir&lt;/em&gt; which means a dwelling place. In several &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  texts, the Lord is described as one's &quot;inner-self&quot;. A &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt; temple&#xA;  can be a separate structure or part of a building. Most practising&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Hindus&lt;/em&gt; maintain an altar at their homes for daily worship and&#xA;  meditation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This interpretation makes much more sense. I would like to add to&#xA;  this. The word &lt;em&gt;mandira&lt;/em&gt; can be seen to originate from the words &lt;em&gt;manas&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  and &lt;em&gt;dhiraya&lt;/em&gt;. The word &lt;em&gt;manas&lt;/em&gt; means -  imagination, intention, mind,&#xA;  spirit, mood, perception, intelligence, desire, thought. The verb&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;dhiraya&lt;/em&gt; means -  gets comfort, is encouraged. &lt;em&gt;dhiraya&lt;/em&gt; in Sanskrit can be seen as the root of &lt;em&gt;dira&lt;/em&gt; in Hindi . &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hence, mandira&#xA;  means a place where the mind gets comfort, intelligence and&#xA;  imagination is encouraged.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above meaning have been taken from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwi0u5bBtLLMAhWDCY4KHQPsBpcQFggbMAA&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sanskritebooks.org%2F2010%2F11%2Fsamskrita-sabdartha-kaustubha-sanskrit-hindi-dictionary-dp-chaturvedi-1928%2F&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNG5yHgBQnzOXgCRwqEVwF-YDTcLUQ&amp;amp;sig2=ETK9ejTBRFWAfrPC3wf2jA&amp;amp;bvm=bv.120853415,d.c2E&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samskrita Sabdartha Kaustubha – A Sanskrit-Hindi Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Dwarikaprasad Chaturvedi&lt;/em&gt;. (I have translated the Hindi words to English for the convenience of the readers).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Timeline of word usage and Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/e01bW.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/e01bW.png&quot; alt=&quot;Usage of the word Mandir over time&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The top chart in the image shows the &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?year_start=1800&amp;amp;year_end=2008&amp;amp;corpus=15&amp;amp;smoothing=7&amp;amp;case_insensitive=on&amp;amp;content=mandir&amp;amp;direct_url=t4%3B%2Cmandir%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3BMandir%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bmandir%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BMANDIR%3B%2Cc0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;mention&lt;/a&gt; of the word &lt;em&gt;mandir&lt;/em&gt; in the &lt;em&gt;books indexed by Google&lt;/em&gt; till now. The bottom chart shows the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/mandir&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;recorded usage&lt;/a&gt; of the word &lt;em&gt;mandir&lt;/em&gt; by the &lt;em&gt;Collins-Dictionary&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The common feature in both the charts is that they peak at the year&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;1877&lt;/em&gt;. If we look at the Indian history, the first mutiny against the British was in &lt;em&gt;1857&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;It is said that after that the Brahmins tried&#xA;  to unite the Hindus against the British. This can be seen in&#xA;  correlation to the peak of the usage of the word &lt;em&gt;mandir&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although, the later parts of the Collins chart still shows low usage of the word, which might be due to their definition of usage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope this helps in answering your question. :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-29T00:35:03.807" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T00:35:03.807" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11736" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11678" CreationDate="2016-04-29T05:44:09.917" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shrutis, Smritis and Itihasas mention name and use of metal many times. The metals mentioned are iron, silver, copper, gold, lead, brass, bronze etc..&lt;/strong&gt; But this doesn't mean that they were developed in latter times. They may be obtained through Vedic Yagyas or through Gods or through secret technology unknown now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;_____________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Metals in Shrutis:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda Taittariyea Samhita 4.7.5 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May I for me the stone, clay, hills, mountains, sand, trees, &lt;strong&gt;gold, bronze, lead ,tin, iron, copper,&lt;/strong&gt; fire, water, roots, plants, what grows on ploughed land, what grows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 10.99.6 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord of the dwelling, he subdued the demon who roared aloud, six-eyed and triple-headed. Trta, made stronger by the might he lent him, struck down the boar &lt;strong&gt;with shaft whose point was iron.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 10.101.8 &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prepare the cow-stall, for there drink your heroes: stitch ye the coats of armour, wide and many. &lt;strong&gt;Make iron forts, secure from all assailants&lt;/strong&gt; let not your pitcher leak: stay it securely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 8.29.3 &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One brandishes &lt;strong&gt;in his hand an iron knife,&lt;/strong&gt; firm, in his seat amid the Deities&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 5.62.7 &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adorned &lt;strong&gt;with gold, its columns are of iron.&lt;/strong&gt; in heaven it glitters like a whip for horses; Or stablished on a field deep−spoiled and fruitful. So may we share the meath that loads your car−seat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 1.121.9 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou hurledst forth from heaven &lt;strong&gt;the iron missile,&lt;/strong&gt; brought by the Skilful, from the sling of leather, When thou, O Much-invoked, assisting Kutsa with endless deadly darts didst compass Susna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda1.58.8 &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Grant, Son of Strength, thou rich in friends, a refuge without a flaw this day to us thy praisers. O Agni, Son of Strength, &lt;strong&gt;with forts of iron&lt;/strong&gt; preserve thou from distress the man who lauds thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 4.37.4 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Strong, with &lt;strong&gt;fair chains of gold and jaws of iron,&lt;/strong&gt; ye have a splendid car and wellfed horses. Ye Sons of Strength, ye progeny of Indra, to you the best is offered to delight you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 6.71.4 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Savitar the God, the golden−handed, Friend of the home, hath risen to meet the twilight. With &lt;strong&gt;cheeks of brass&lt;/strong&gt;, with pleasant tongue, the Holy, he sends the worshipper rich gifts in plenty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda 10.1.20 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swords of good brass&lt;/strong&gt; are in our house: we know how many joints thou hast, O spell! Be sure to rise, go away from hence! O stranger, what seekest thou here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda Taittareya Samhita 1.8.12 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;l Protect me in front, protect me at the side, protect me from behind; from the quarters protect me; from all deadly things protect me. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  m Gold hued in the glowing of the dawns,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Bronze pillared&lt;/strong&gt; at the rising of the sun,&#xA;  O Varuna, O Mitra, mount your chariot seat, &#xA;  And thence behold ye Aditi and Diti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;There are so many other refrences too.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;____________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Metals in Itihasas&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayan Yuddha Kanda 6.113.20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हिरण्यं वा सुवर्णं वा रत्नानि विविधानि च ||&#xA;  राज्यं वा त्रिषु लोकेषु नैतदर्हति भाषितुम् |&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Neither silver, nor gold nor even diamonds&lt;/strong&gt; nor the sovereignty of the three worlds, can be worthy of this message.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayan Yuddha Kanda 6.65.18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आददे निशितम् शूलं वेगाच्छत्रुनिबर्हणः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वकालायसम् दीप्तं तप्तकाञ्चनभूषणम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kumbhakarna, the annihilator of enemies, speedily took up a sharp &lt;strong&gt;spike fully made of iron,&lt;/strong&gt; adorned with pure gold and splendidly shining.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishnas Sudarshan Chakra also contained component of iron..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 1: Adi Parva: Khandava-daha Parva: Section CCXXVII&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   And Pavaka then gave unto Krishna a &#xA;  discus with &lt;strong&gt;an iron pole attached to a hole in the centre.&lt;/strong&gt; And it was a fiery weapon and became his favourite. Having obtained that weapon, Krishna also became equal to the task. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maces were mainly made by iron.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 3: Vana Parva: Indralokagamana Parva: Section LI&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And amongst them will move that great warrior Bhima of terrible prowess, &lt;strong&gt;armed with his iron mace&lt;/strong&gt; held on high and capable of slaying every hero. And high above the din will be heard the twang of the Gandiva loud as the thunder of heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arrows were mainly made by iron. But sometimes also made of steel, silver and copper.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 3: Vana Parva: Tirtha-yatra Parva: Section CLXXII&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And battered and broken by the straight-coursing iron shafts, shot by me, &#xA;  the city of the Asuras, O king, fell to the earth. And they also, &lt;strong&gt;wounded by my iron arrows&lt;/strong&gt; having the speed of the thunder, began, O monarch, to go about, being urged by destiny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 4: Virata Parva: Go-harana Parva: Section LXII&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And loud was the clatter made by Arjuna&amp;apos;s &lt;strong&gt;shafts as they cleft the coats of mail belonging to mighty warriors, made of steel, silver, and copper.&lt;/strong&gt; And the field was soon covered with the corpses of warriors mounted on elephants and horses, all mangled by the shafts of Partha of great impetuosity like unto sighing snakes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wheels of chariots were made up of iron:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 1: Adi Parva: Viduragamana Parva: Section CCIX&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;There were also large iron wheels planted on them.&lt;/strong&gt; And with all these was that foremost of cities adorned. The streets were all wide and laid out excellently; and there was no fear in them of accident. And decked with innumerable mansions, the city became like unto Amaravati and came to be called Indraprastha (like unto Indra&amp;apos;s city). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;There are other many times where metals are used in Ramayan and Mahabharat&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;____________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Metals in Smritis&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Smritis mention frequent use of metals. Some of examples are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 3.17.26. Moving about in the ocean for many, many years, the mighty Hiranyaksa smote the gigantic wind-tossed waves again and again &lt;strong&gt;with his iron mace&lt;/strong&gt; and&#xA;  reached Vibhavari, the capital of Varuna. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB10.41.20The Lord saw Mathura, with its tall gates and household entrances made of crystal, its immense archways and main &lt;strong&gt;doors of gold,&lt;/strong&gt; its granaries and other &lt;strong&gt;storehouses of copper and brass,&lt;/strong&gt; and its &#xA;  impregnable moats. Beautifying the city were pleasant gardens and parks. The main intersections were fashioned of gold, and there were mansions with private pleasure gardens, along with guildhalls and&#xA;  many other buildings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana mentions Vishwakarma preparing Shiva Linga of Various metals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana 2.14&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  All the deities, then prayed to lord Shiva, who after becoming pleased instructed &amp;apos;Vishwakarma&amp;apos; to construct a &#xA;  Shivalinga for them. &lt;strong&gt;Vishwakarma then made a Shivalinga for Kuber, a Shivalinga of yellow diamond for Dharmaraj, a Shivalinga of dark coloured diamond for Varun,&lt;/strong&gt; a &lt;strong&gt;Shivalinga of Indraned diamond&lt;/strong&gt; for Vishnu and a &lt;strong&gt;goldden Shivalinga&lt;/strong&gt; for Brahmaji. Similarly Vishwadeva was given a &lt;strong&gt;Shivalinga made up of silver&lt;/strong&gt;, the Ashwini Kumars were given &lt;strong&gt;Shivalinga made up of bronze,&lt;/strong&gt; Laxmi was given a &lt;strong&gt;Shivalinga made up of Crystal&lt;/strong&gt; (Sphatik), Sun-god was given a &lt;strong&gt;Shivalinga made of copper&lt;/strong&gt; and the moon was given a &lt;strong&gt;Shivalinga made of pearl.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Above are only a few refrences. There are much more use and mention of metals in Purans&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus as a conclusion metals like iron, copper, silver, gold, brass, bronze etc. are used and mentioned frequently in our scriptures.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-04-29T12:07:06.910" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T12:07:06.910" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11737" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12030" CreationDate="2016-04-29T07:38:19.200" Score="8" ViewCount="2076" Body="&lt;p&gt;The interpretation of 'Nirguna' is different in different philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srila baldeva VidyaBhushan in His &lt;a href=&quot;https://bhaktibooks.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/vedanta-sutra_adhyaya_2-1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Govind Bashya&lt;/a&gt; (Gaudiya vaishnav commentary on vedanta sutras)interprets &lt;strong&gt;'Nirguna' as being without any material attributes;i.e. He is fully spiritual&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, Sripad Ramanujacharya interprets 'Nirguna' as to being without any negative qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacarya makes the following argument's in his Sri-Bhasya to refute the theory of Supreme being attributeless(It goes roughly as follows):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;if we see a rope and think it is a snake, that mistaken idea is due to&#xA;  the fact that there is something snake-like in the rope, namely the&#xA;  shape of the rope. Similarly, if we are really perceiving Brahman but&#xA;  we think we are seeing the world, then the attributes we are seeing in&#xA;  the world must be derived from the qualities we are seeing in Brahman&#xA;  So for instance, if we see a chair there must be something chair-like&#xA;  in Brahman, otherwise we wouldn't mistake it for a chair. And if we&#xA;  see an apple then Brahman must have some apple-like attribute, etc.&#xA;  But that cannot be if Brahman is attributeless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So I'm interested in knowing if Sripad Sankaracarya makes any such convincing arguments(I am sure He does) and what these arguments are.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedic scriptures contain various verses that states that Supreme Brahman is Nirguna. But as I've already mentioned; the interpretation of the word 'Nirguna' varies greatly in different philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ex. Vedanta Sutra; Adhyaya 1, pada 1 ;Adhikarana 5 deals explicitly with this subject matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya interprets Nirguna as without any attributes(correct me if i'm wrong). However Shankara also says that Brahman is full of eternal bliss and knowledge(&lt;em&gt;Satcitanandmaya&lt;/em&gt;) ; this is also mentioned in various scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my 1st question here is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is it wrong to say that knowledge,eternity and bliss are his attributes ; Thus concluding that He has attributes?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed by Advaitins that this nirguna Brahman expands himself in saguna form(say Lord Krishna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any difference between this Saguna expansion and Nirguna Brahman?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.&lt;strong&gt;If Saguna brahman(say Lord Krishna) is superimposition of Maya on Nirguna   Brahman; than would it mean that krishna is under the spell of Maya(illusion)?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purpose of these questions(Q.2 , Q.3) is that I'm confused with above Shankara philosophy and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this verse of Geeta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit 1:&lt;/strong&gt; I seek to find out the explanation/arguments that Shankaracharya(or other prominent acaryas in Disciplic succession) put forward to infer that supreme is without any attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit 2:&lt;/strong&gt; So; please avoid quoting a direct verse from scripture; since I'm looking what Sripad Sankaracharya comments on those(related) verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit 3:&lt;/strong&gt; I've purposely used the word &lt;em&gt;'Supreme'&lt;/em&gt; ; instead of using any specific term. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;there is sun and from sun radiates the sunlight. Sun pervades the&#xA;  world in form of his light energy. This all-pervading light does not&#xA;  have any form. But sun does have form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now If someone argues that Sunlight is Supreme(in this ex.) ; than that would be contradiction to sutra 1.1.2 ; &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Janmadi yasya yataha&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (from whome birth etc).&#xA;This is because in given example ; sunlight is the effect of Sun;It has come from sun; Sun is the cause. Thus since sunlight is not independent of sun; it is subordinate to sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T20:27:21.873" LastActivityDate="2018-09-27T13:10:12.813" Title="What arguments Adi Shankara makes to claim that Supreme is devoid of any attributes?" Tags="|krishna|brahman|brahma-sutras|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11738" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-29T09:23:55.423" Score="4" ViewCount="308" Body="&lt;p&gt;Read my previous &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8475/277&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; where I said that I think/believe that other ways should merge into Jnana ultimately but this can be considered as my opinion only. The scriptural reference supporting this is essential. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also remember that Jnana here is not limited to scriptural knowledge only but consider it as Vijanana (Realization of absolute/ultimate truth) also (as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8788/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer :  Jnana is simply referring to Vijnana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I am looking for any scriptural reference which say Karma &amp;amp; Bhakti ultimately merges into Jnana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you know any scriptural reference/support about this topic, then you are requested to answer with quotation of authentic scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T07:11:52.740" Title="Merge of Karma &amp; Bhakti into Jnana" Tags="|karma|practice|bhakti|jnana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11739" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11738" CreationDate="2016-04-29T09:24:39.223" Score="5" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Merge of Bhakti into Jnana:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Bhagavad Gita, verse 10.10 &amp;amp; 10.11 (English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7T0zBCVuV7cUDRJNTJIX01obG8/view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gitapress&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेषां सततयुक्तानां भजतां प्रीतिपूर्वकम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ददामि बुद्धियोगं तं येन मामुपयान्ति ते ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On those ever united through meditation with Me and worshipping Me with love, I confer that &lt;strong&gt;Yoga of wisdom&lt;/strong&gt; by which they come to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेषामेवानुकम्पार्थमहमज्ञानजं तमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नाशयाम्यात्मभावस्थो ज्ञानदीपेन भास्वता ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In order to bestow My compassion on them, I, dwelling in their hearts, dispel their darkness born of ignorance by the illuminating &lt;strong&gt;lamp of knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In above verses, Krishna says that he gives devotees right understanding and jnana which means person following Bhakti path will get Jnana hence they will attain absolute/ultimate truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Bhagvatam, &lt;a href=&quot;http://srimadbhagavatam.org/canto1/chapter2.html#Text%207&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse 1.2.7&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वासुदेवे भगवति भक्तियोगः प्रयोजितः&#xA;   जनयत्याशु वैराग्यं ज्ञानं च यदहैतुकम्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The practice of connecting oneself in devotion unto Vâsudeva, the Personality of Godhead, very soon &lt;strong&gt;leads to the detachment and spiritual knowledge&lt;/strong&gt; that relies on its own power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Merge of Karma into Jnana:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Bhagavad-Gita, verse 4.37 &amp;amp; 4.38:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथैधांसि समिद्धोऽग्निर्भस्मसात्कुरुतेऽर्जुन ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ज्ञानाग्निः सर्वकर्माणि भस्मसात्कुरुते तथा ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a blazing ﬁre turns ﬁrewood to ashes, O Arjuna,&lt;br&gt; so does the ﬁre of knowledge burn to ashes all reactions to material activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न हि ज्ञानेन सदृशं पवित्रमिह विद्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्स्वयं योगसंसिद्धः कालेनात्मनि विन्दति ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this world, there is nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge. Such &lt;strong&gt;knowledge is the mature fruit of all mysticism&lt;/strong&gt;. And one who has become accomplished in the practice of devotional service enjoys this knowledge within himself in due course of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've referenced the (Smriti) Bhagavad Gita for the point of the question. Though I will add the reference from (Shruti) Upanishads....  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T07:11:52.740" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T07:11:52.740" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11740" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11738" CreationDate="2016-04-29T11:56:16.743" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question is very appropriate as it includes proper submissive inquiry. That is implied from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/bg/4/34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 4.34&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The topmost path is Bhakti Yoga (although 99% population conclude jnana wrongly). This fact is based on multiple verses from Vedas. The Bhagavad Gita, which is condensed summary of all Vedas for this age is sufficient to prove this fact in multiple verse, such as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yoginām api sarveṣāṁ&#xA;mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā&#xA;śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ&#xA;sa me yukta-tamo mataḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And of all yogīs, the one with great faith who always abides in Me, thinks of Me within himself and renders transcendental loving service to Me – he is the most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all. That is My opinion. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/bg/6/47&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 6.47&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When on multiple instructions Arjuna was confused regarding which is topmost (inaction in knowledge (jnana) or action in devotion (bhakti through Karma-yoga)) in verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/bg/5/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;5.1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna replies that both are non-different and shall lead to same path (bhakti yoga as concluded in 6.47) but for people of Kali-yuga or iron age, most practical is Acting in devotion (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/5/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 5.2&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore all paths ultimately conclude in Bhakti Yoga. The Yoga Ladder goes like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma-kanda -&gt; Karma yoga -&gt; Jnana Yoga -&gt; Ashtanga Yoga -&gt; Bhakti Yoga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You must read Chapter 6 of Bhagavad Gita to conclude the impracticality of Jnana yoga in this age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4522" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T11:56:16.743" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11744" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-29T13:26:49.517" Score="6" ViewCount="1160" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.religiousforums.com/threads/scientific-miracles-in-hindu-scriptures-must-see.84199/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; website provides the following translation of the Shlokas from the RigVeda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He made this Earth fixed by different devices like hills and&#xA;  mountains in shape of pegs but it still rotates . Sun never sets; all&#xA;  parts of earth are not in Darkness.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;There are suns in all directions, the night sky being full of them.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;There are planets in all directions, but only visible in night sky.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although, neither does it provide the Shlokas or the references to them. I was wondering if anyone who has gone through the RigVeda can provide me with the original Shlokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-07T11:26:41.667" LastActivityDate="2017-01-12T18:50:19.573" Title="Finding (source/original) Shlokas in the RigVeda" Tags="|rig-veda|shloka|science|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11745" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8414" CreationDate="2016-04-29T13:30:17.883" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Zodaic specially refers to position of moon in constellation at the birth time. Although Sun-zodiac is also calculated, but the term  राशि mainly refers with respect to Moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;For Lord Krishna&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-5. Thereafter, at the auspicious time for the appearance of the Lord, the entire universe was surcharged with all the qualities of goodness, beauty and peace. &lt;strong&gt;The constellation Rohini appeared,&lt;/strong&gt; as &#xA;  did stars like Asvini. The sun, the moon and the other stars and planets were very peaceful. [10.3 Srimad Bhagvat]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in Padma Puran&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Padma Purana 4.13.27&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Having rested in (Devaki&amp;apos;s) womb for nine months and nine days, the lord of the world, the enemy of Karhsa and the son of Vasudeva, was born (on) the night &lt;strong&gt;when Rohini was in conjunction (with the Moon),&lt;/strong&gt; when clouds were thundering, of the day called Astami, (falling) in the dark fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada. Yasoda, the daughter of Virata and the wife of Nanda, gave birth to a daughter. Anakadundubhi (i.e. Vasudeva)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hence from above informations Lord Krishna was born in Rohini nakshtra&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Rohini nakshtra falls in  'वृष' / 'vrish' / Taurus constellation&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hence राशि  of Lord Krishna is वृष/vrish/Taurus ।&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;For Lord Rama&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayan Bal Kanda &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततो यज्ञे समाप्ते तु ऋतूनाम् षट् समत्ययुः |&#xA;  ततः च द्वादशे मासे चैत्रे नावमिके तिथौ || १८-८&#xA;  नक्क्षत्रे अदिति दैवत्ये स्व उच्छ संस्थेषु पंचसु |&#xA;  ग्रहेषु कर्कटे लग्ने वाक्पता इंदुना सह || १८-९&#xA;  प्रोद्यमाने जगन्नाथम् सर्व लोक नमस्कृतम् |&#xA;  कौसल्या अजनयत् रामम् सर्व लक्षण संयुतम् || १८-१०&#xA;  विष्णोः अर्धम् महाभागम् पुत्रम् ऐक्ष्वाकु नंदनम् |&#xA;  लोहिताक्षम् महाबाहुम् रक्त ओष्टम् दुंदुभि स्वनम् ||१८-११&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Twice six months had rolled a way since the great sacrifice was over and, in the first month of the New Year, on the ninth day of the bright fortnight, the Lord of the worlds chose to take human form and sent down half of His essence as the son of Kausalya (thenceforth to be known as Rama), the world-honored One, the crowning glory ot the grand line of Ikshwku, and the sum of all perfections. &lt;strong&gt;The constellation Punarvasu,&lt;/strong&gt; of which Aditi was the regent, was chosen to preside at his birth. The Sun, Mars, &lt;strong&gt;Jupiter&lt;/strong&gt;, Venus, and Saturn were in ascension in their respective houses. Aries, Capricornus, &lt;strong&gt;Cancer,&lt;/strong&gt; Pisces and the Libra, &lt;strong&gt;Jupiter and the Moon were in conjunction&lt;/strong&gt; ; the rising sign was Cancer. And KausalyA, shone with unparalleled effulgence, even as Aditi when she gave birth to Indra, the lord of the Shining Ones, the Vajra-wielder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From above Lord Rama was born in Punarvasu constellation. Punarvasu constellation falls in two zodiac, the first third quarter falls in 'Mithun' and last one quarter falls in 'karkat'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the verse also says Jupiter was in Karkat ie. Cancer. Also it says Moon and Jupiter were in conjunction. &lt;strong&gt;It means moon was also in Karkat.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence राशि of Lord Rama is कर्कट/karkat/Cancer ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T13:30:17.883" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11746" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8414" CreationDate="2016-04-29T13:41:10.527" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This set of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSrL8fNWAmk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;video&lt;/a&gt; series, consisting of 5 videos, talks about both the &lt;em&gt;Kundalis&lt;/em&gt; of &lt;em&gt;Shri Rama&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Shri Krishna&lt;/em&gt;. The video series is by &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;K.N. Rao&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, one of the most eminent &lt;em&gt;Jyotish&lt;/em&gt; in India. He discusses the two most famous (but different) &lt;em&gt;Kundalis&lt;/em&gt; out there. He then describes in great length why one of them has to be correct. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Rashi and Lagna for Shri Rama are Karkata or Cancer.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Rashi and Lagna for Shri Krishna are Vrishabha or Taurus.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The references he uses are &lt;em&gt;Valkimi Ramayana&lt;/em&gt; and the charts he received from the lineage of his &lt;em&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt; gurus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-29T14:26:03.137" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T14:26:03.137" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11747" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-29T14:06:30.917" Score="1" ViewCount="293" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11183/why-people-are-named-after-shantanu&quot;&gt;Why people are named after Shantanu?&lt;/a&gt; , this is more specific than &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2110/why-is-gods-name-used-for-people&quot;&gt;Why is God&amp;#39;s name used for people?&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard about an Indian woman (possibly Hindu) with a given name of Sati the other day. Although familiar with people being named after other gods, I found that hard to believe, but checking the internet, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sheknows.com/baby-names/name/sati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt; confirmed that Sati is an Indian female name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are women named after the goddess Sati, or is it just a coincidence (the name's only two syllables long, so it seems plausible)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5491" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T14:06:30.917" Title="Are women named after the goddess Sati?" Tags="|name|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11748" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11737" CreationDate="2016-04-29T14:44:17.883" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Supreme is beyond all of the things and attributes. However it is not wrong to say him &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satcitananda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Satcitananda&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;sub&gt; (as I've discussed for &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11182/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question when OP &lt;a href=&quot;http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/28652083#28652083&quot;&gt;asked&lt;/a&gt; it is neither called sat nor asat and my &lt;a href=&quot;http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/28672568#28672568&quot;&gt;reply&lt;/a&gt; on this.)&lt;/sub&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But remember that the right truth can only be realized. [Ken Upanishad 2.1-3]; also see the question on &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10738/277&quot;&gt;Turiya&lt;/a&gt;, [related to Mandukya Upanishad verse 6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For 2&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt; question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is there any difference between this Saguna expansion and Nirguna Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पुर्णमुदच्यते&#xA;पूर्णश्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means : Om. That is infinite, this is infinite; From That infinite this infinite comes. From That infinite, this infinite removed or added; Infinite remains infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For 3&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; question, Krishna clearly says in Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 9.4 &amp;amp; 9.5 (English translation from vedabase)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मया ततमिदं सर्वं जगदव्यक्तमूर्तिना ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि न चाहं तेष्ववस्थितः ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Me, in My &lt;strong&gt;unmanifested&lt;/strong&gt; form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न च मत्स्थानि भूतानि पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भूतभृन्न च भूतस्थो ममात्मा भूतभावनः ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Although I am the maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhere, &lt;strong&gt;I am not a part of this cosmic manifestation&lt;/strong&gt;, for My Self is the very source of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya's Argument:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Vivekachudamani:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoted verse 209-211 from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/adisankara/vivekachudamani&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nor is the blissful sheath the Supreme Self, because it is endowed with the changeful attributes, is a modification of the Prakriti, is the effect of past good deeds, and imbedded in the other sheaths which are modifications.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When all the five sheaths have been eliminated by the reasoning on Shruti passages, what remains as the culminating point of the process, is the Witness, the Knowledge Absolute - the Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This self-effulgent Atman which is distinct from the five sheaths, the Witness of the three states, the Real, the Changeless, the Untainted, the everlasting Bliss - is to be realised by the wise man as his own Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read Mandukya Upanishad with Gaudapada karika in which Advaita is demonstrated by logical arguments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Neti-Neti&quot; from Brihadaranyak Upanishad says &quot;not this! not that&quot; which means Brahman (The highest/supreme) is actually not as described or expressed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Advaita (Nondualist) school of Vedanta say the Brahman is beyond all the things and can't be characterised or expressed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If you think that Brahman is of some particular characteristics or attributes then it is limited by those attributes and hence can't be supreme&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Actually the attributes are prevailing in the mind or say it is the subject of mind or speech but- &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From Ken Upanishad 2.3 to 2.8 Brahman is not the subject of/for mind, speech, eye etc. And from Taittariya Upanishad (2.4.1 and 2.9.1) &lt;strong&gt;यतो वाचो निवर्तन्ते । अप्राप्य मनसा सह ।&lt;/strong&gt; which says that &quot;words turn back along with the mind, failing to reach Brahman&quot; (Adi Shankaracharya used this sentence many times in his commentaries)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The attributes of which (Sagun) Brahman is assumed are actually for preparatory meditation.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also visit wikipedia article on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Para_Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Para Brahman&lt;/a&gt; and the views of Advaita Vedanta on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-09-27T13:10:12.813" LastActivityDate="2018-09-27T13:10:12.813" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11749" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16609" CreationDate="2016-04-29T15:21:37.960" Score="8" ViewCount="4911" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that present Vyasa is Krishna Dwaipayana. There is a detail about him in Mahabharata. But who is Badarayana Vyasa and what is his story? In which mahayuga was he the Vyasa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-02T06:22:02.630" LastActivityDate="2017-01-02T08:24:47.457" Title="What is the story of Badarayana Vyasa?" Tags="|history|rishi|vyasa|ashwatthama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11750" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="45838" CreationDate="2016-04-29T15:21:46.603" Score="12" ViewCount="6262" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripundra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tripundra&lt;/a&gt; or &quot;three horizontals lines&quot; is the Tilak worn by Lord Shiva and His devotees. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdhva_Pundra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Urdhva Pundra&lt;/a&gt; is tilak worn by Lord Vishnu and His devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there are images of Brahma with both &lt;em&gt;tilaks&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xbLng.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xbLng.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/d3DBW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/d3DBW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many ambiguous images or representations of Lord Brahma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What's the actual Tilak worn by Lord Brahma? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did Trimurti really wear any Tilak or devotees of Shiva and Vishnu started this concept of Tilak?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-05-02T17:16:09.360" LastActivityDate="2022-02-11T18:27:31.037" Title="What Tilak or Namam does Lord Brahma have on His forehead?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahma|tilak|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11751" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-29T15:36:48.157" Score="8" ViewCount="616" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/RqqR&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Pyrva Mimamsa school, Jaimini discusses the question of whether Sanskrit words used in the Vedas have the same meaning that they have in ordinary usage, or whether they mean something entirely different.  The Purvapakshin or opponent makes the argument that they have a completely different meaning, because the Vedas speak of the cows of the gods walking on their backs, whereas the word &quot;cow&quot; in ordinary usage refers to an animal that walks on its feet:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Further we meet with the statement that &lt;strong&gt;'Uttana vai devagava vahanti' (Apastamba-Shrauta Sutra 11.7.6) which means 'that cows that belong to the deities move on their backs'&lt;/strong&gt;; and from this it follows that the animals spoken of by the word 'go' (in 'gava') are those that walk on their backs; and thus it is clear that the word 'gauh' in the Veda is different from that spoken of by that word in common parlance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jaimini refutes this by saying that this quote is an Arthavada.  For those who don't know, the Purva Mimamsa school believed that the Vedas consist primarily of two kinds of statements, Vidhis or injunctions concerning Dharma, and Arthavadas or statements that were just intended to glorify the actions prescribed in the Vedas.  The Purva Mimamsa school even classified the Upanishads' statements about Brahman as Arthavada, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11143/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11001/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So Jaimini thinks that the statement about cows of the gods were just intended to glorify some action, perhaps Yagnas done in honor of the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what is the original source of this quote about the cows of the gods walking on their backs?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, the translator attributes the quote to Apastamba Shrauta Sutras, but I think it must have originally come from somewhere in the Vedas, for multiple reasons.  First of all Shrauta Sutras are a type of Kalpa Sutra, and in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/1E9E&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Purva Mimamsa Sutras Jaimini states in no uncertain terms that he does not consider Kalpa Sutras to be a scriptural authority.  And given that Jaimini analyzes the quote in the Vidhi and Arthavada framework, he must consider it as a scriptural authority.  And more importantly, the entire subject under discussion is the meaning of words in the Vedas, so it wouldn't make sense to discuss a quote that's not in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, I should add that &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/yXHx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Tantra Vartika, one of Kumarila Bhatta's commentaries on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, gives an alternative interpretation of the quote, namely that it refers to how as the Earth makes its revolution, sometimes it appears to the residents of Devaloka like the cows that are on Earth are upside down:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Or, the passage [of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras] may refer to the fact that it is the ordinary cows of the Earth that are referred to in this [Vedic] passage, as as appearing to walk on their backs, owing to the revolutions of the Earth together with all the three worlds, as described in the Puranas.  That is to say, just as we see the gods above us, so too, when in the course of revolution the Earth reaches a point above the abode of the gods, they see the things on the Earth as above them; hence it is only natural that to them the cows walking on the Earth should appear to be walking on their backs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kumarila Bhatta, by the way, was the guru of  Mandana Mishra, the Purva Mimamsaka whom Adi Shankaracharya defeated in a debates as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6557/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And apparently he's considered by some to be an incarnation of Shiva's son Kartikeya, aka Skanda or Muruga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2021-10-05T11:02:25.227" Title="Where do the Vedas say the cows of the gods walk on their backs?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|lokas|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11753" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10267" CreationDate="2016-04-29T17:23:26.830" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As no explicit question is asked, I assume that the question is this: Are Bhakti Yoga and Raja Yoga part of either Gnana Yoga or Karma Yoga? No, they are not:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bhakti Yoga: The Path of Devotion&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God's love is unconditional. Acknowledging that&#xA;love and reflecting it back is devotion. The blossoming of devotion&#xA;towards God is the sweetest experience one can have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devotion means being in a state of complete surrender to God. It is&#xA;the desire to serve God, accompanied by love and gratitude. A devotee&#xA;sees Divinity everywhere and yet has an intense longing for the&#xA;Divine. Bhakti Yoga is one of the types of yoga mentioned in the&#xA;ancient Indian scripts which denotes the spiritual practice of&#xA;lovingly devoting oneself to a personal form of God. Bhakti is a&#xA;Sanskrit term for devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Love towards God can take many forms with many different feelings: A&#xA;true friendship with God, being a faithful servant to God, being a&#xA;beloved of God, being a child of God, being a parent to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In&#xA;devotion, one can experience total freedom from fear and worry. A&#xA;devotee transcends worldly sorrows and pains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A true devotee has no selfish desires, including the desire for&#xA;liberation. Devotion in one's heart is kindled by the grace of the&#xA;Guru, by being in the company of other devotees and by reading and&#xA;listening to the stories of other devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“When the river meets the ocean, it recognizes it is the ocean from&#xA;the beginning to the end. In the same way, the moment a devotee&#xA;surrenders to the Divine, the devotee becomes Divine.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above is from an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/bhakti-yoga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/bhakti-yoga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;em&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt; is different. Also called the Path of the Royals, it is the path of knowledge that was given to highly evolved kings. A lot of secrets are given which are only meant for the ruler and not the common people. Hence, not much is talked about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T17:23:26.830" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11754" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-29T17:38:48.390" Score="1" ViewCount="296" Body="&lt;p&gt;I saw an online discussion where a learned commentator shared that the bull in front of Shiva Linga is Rishaba and not Nandhi and associating the bull with Nandi is a general misunderstanding among Hindus. Is this true? What is the story associated with the Rishaba connection?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T17:38:48.390" Title="Bull in front of Lord Shiva's shrine is Nandi or Rishaba?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|nandi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-04-29T19:32:52.107" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11755" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11756" CreationDate="2016-04-29T17:40:51.763" Score="6" ViewCount="11728" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Rashi in Jyotisha or Hindu astrology? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it the same as sun-sign of a person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Rashi determined by the birth details of a person or by the name they have?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-14T06:40:37.630" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T14:04:14.000" Title="What is Rashi in Jyotisha or Hindu astrology?" Tags="|astrology|rashi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11756" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11755" CreationDate="2016-04-29T18:05:22.347" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rashi in Jyotisha means in which constellation among the 12 zodiac sign is a planet positioned. For eg. If Sun is positioned in Mithun then the Surya Rashi is Mithun. Similar is the case with all planets. &lt;strong&gt;But the term Rashi especially refers to the constellation in which Moon is positioned at the time of birth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Surya Rashi is the same with the Sun-sign of a person but it is not same for which we generally call Rashi because actually we are meaning to Chandra Rashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Surya Rashi is very easy to find. &lt;strong&gt;12 months of a year corresponds with 12 Rashi respectively.&lt;/strong&gt; Sun travels in each Rashi for a month. The months Baisakh, Jestha, Ashada, Shrawan, Bhadra, ....Chaitra corresponds with the Rashi as Mesha, Vrisha, Mithuna, Karkata, Simha,... Meen respectively in the order.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, for eg if a person is born on Baisakh then his Surya Rashi is Mesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This is the same reason why 1st of Magha is called Makara Sankranti and 1st of Shrawan is called Karkat Sakranti.It is because Magha is 10th Month and Makara is 10th Rashi. Sun enters Makara/Capricorn in 1st of Magha. Similar is the case with Karkat Sankranti.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rashi is determined by the birth detail of person. From birth detail, we find at which degree moon is situated.  From the degree of the moon, we find at which constellation it is situated. &lt;strong&gt;This constellation is the Rashi of a person.&lt;/strong&gt; From constellation, we find at which nakshatra is the moon situated. From Nakshatra, we find in which pada of that nakshrata is the moon situated. Then we name the person on the basis of Pada of Nakshtra it is occupying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 27 nakshtra each divided into 4 padas and a unique letter is ascribed to represent it  Thus there are total 27×4=108 unique letters to represent it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. Padas of Ashwini nakshtra is represented by letters 'chu', 'che', 'cho', 'la'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If by calculation it is found that Moon is situated in second pada of Ashwini nakshtra, Then that person is named from 'che'such as Chekitan, Chetan, Chetnath, etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, if a person is named by such methods then we can know his Rashi easily just by his name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. If someone says his name is &quot;Chudamani&quot; then from &quot;Chu&quot; we can know it is 1st pada of Ashwini, and as Ashwini falls in Mesha Rashi we can easily know his Rashi as Mesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But for this he/she should be named first based on position of the moon on padas of nakshatras. We cannot apply for any other names.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5486" LastEditDate="2016-04-30T11:12:34.527" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T11:12:34.527" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11757" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11759" CreationDate="2016-04-29T18:19:39.547" Score="6" ViewCount="857" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishvamitra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; wiki article says this without providing any reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahmarshi Vishvamitra&lt;/em&gt; is one of the most venerated rishis or sages of&#xA;  ancient times in India. He is also credited as the author of most of&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Mandala 3&lt;/em&gt; of the &lt;em&gt;Rigveda&lt;/em&gt;, including the &lt;em&gt;Gayatri Mantra&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scriptural reference available for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-29T18:34:14.053" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T18:34:14.053" Title="Is Rishi Vishvamitra the one who cognised the Gayatri mantra?" Tags="|rig-veda|rishi|gayatri-mantra|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11758" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11761" CreationDate="2016-04-29T18:27:43.053" Score="8" ViewCount="4236" Body="&lt;p&gt;The wiki articles on the following &lt;em&gt;4 Rishis&lt;/em&gt; says that: Rishi &lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt; was the son of Rishi &lt;em&gt;Vashishtha&lt;/em&gt; (to whom the text &lt;em&gt;Yoga Vashishtha&lt;/em&gt; - a conversation between him and &lt;em&gt;Shri Rama&lt;/em&gt; is ascribed), &lt;em&gt;Shakti's&lt;/em&gt; son was Rishi &lt;em&gt;Parashara&lt;/em&gt; (who wrote the &lt;em&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt; text &lt;em&gt;Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra&lt;/em&gt;) who was the father of Rishi &lt;em&gt;Vyasa&lt;/em&gt; (who wrote the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This implies that Rishi &lt;em&gt;Vyasa&lt;/em&gt; the great grandson of Rishi &lt;em&gt;Vashishtha&lt;/em&gt;. The articles do not provide any references. Is this lineage recorded in the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-04T15:38:16.760" LastActivityDate="2022-03-08T14:11:42.340" Title="Was Rishi Vyasa the great grandson of Rishi Vashishtha?" Tags="|rishi|vyasa|vashishta|parashara|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11759" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11757" CreationDate="2016-04-29T18:28:53.230" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hdwpZ.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hdwpZ.png&quot; alt=&quot;Gayatri&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Scriptual refrence is itself mentioned in Rig Veda. The Anukramani of Rig Veda gives the name of Sage to which mantra was revealed. Gayatri mantra is in 3.62.10 of Rig Veda and Anukramani mentions it's &lt;strong&gt;Rishi is Vishwamitra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the image at left top corner &lt;strong&gt;Vishwamitra&lt;/strong&gt; is mentioned as the Rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To know what does an Anukramani of Veda mean see question here:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2429/is-the-anukramani-index-of-sages-and-deities-of-the-rig-veda-available-online&quot;&gt;Is the Anukramani index of sages and deities of the Rig Veda available online?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T18:30:14.823" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11760" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8583" CreationDate="2016-04-29T18:54:39.607" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The mantras of the Vedas were heard first (Sruti) in deep meditation. The Sanskrit language was developed later based on these:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: Guruji, why are all mantras in &lt;em&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/em&gt;? What is so special about&#xA;Sanskrit?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No, &lt;em&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/em&gt; was derived later.&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Mantras&lt;/em&gt; were already there. The words of the &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt; were already&#xA;there; later on the languages was created. Not only in Sanskrit, but&#xA;when you go deeper into all languages, you will find all these&#xA;&lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a Q&amp;amp;A: &lt;a href=&quot;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2011/06/whole-world-is-made-from-that-one.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2011/06/whole-world-is-made-from-that-one.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T16:05:21.130" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11761" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11758" CreationDate="2016-04-29T18:56:26.350" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a verse Attributed to Great Sage Vyasa which goes like this&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vyAsam vasishta-naptAram Sakteh pautram akalmasham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;parAsarAtmajam vande Suka-tAtam tapo-nidhim.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which means&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vyAsa is the Great-Grandson of vasishta and the grandson of&#xA;Sakti. He is the son of parAsara and the father of Suka. I offer&#xA;my obeisance to that vyAsa who is free from all defects and is&#xA;a mine of austerities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/mar96/0037.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adi parva of Mahabharata about Vyasa's Birth&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it was thus that Vyasa was born of Satyavati through Parasara. And because he was born on an island, he was called Dwaipayana (Dwaipa or islandborn). And the learned Dwaipayana, beholding that virtue is destined to become lame by one leg each yuga (she having four legs in all) and that the period of life and the strength of men followed the yugas, and moved by the desire of obtaining the favour of Brahman and the Brahmanas, arranged the Vedas. And for this, he came to be called Vyasa (the arranger or compiler)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Parashara&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Vasishtha did not restrain him from this slaughter of the Rakshasa, from the determination of not obstructing this second vow (of his grandson). And in that sacrifice, the great Muni Parasara&lt;/code&gt; sat before three blazing fires, himself like unto a fourth fire. And the son of Saktri, like the Sun just emerging from the clouds, illuminated the whole firmament by that stainless sacrifice of his into which large were the libations poured of clarified butter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01184.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chaitraratha Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; for Parashara.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01179.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Murder of Shakti Maharishi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So Vyasa is Great-Grand-Son of Rishi Vasishta who in turn is Son of Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vasistha, Shakti, Parashara and Krishna Dwaipayana are Vyasas for 8th,&#xA;25th, 26th and 28th Mahayuga of Vaivasvara (current) Manvantara respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20660/4/Part1_Chapter2_81-160p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 24 of Linga Purana&lt;/a&gt;.(Pg No-90)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-19T15:12:57.890" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11762" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11758" CreationDate="2016-04-29T19:10:41.697" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is mentioned in several Puranas and also in Mahabharat. I give reference from Mahabharat here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Adi Parva of Mahabharat mentions Shakti as son of Vasistha during the fight of Vishwamitra and Vasistha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharat 1.178&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The great Viswamitra, endued with energy, had, a little while ago, desired to make that monarch his disciple. As the monarch, afflicted with hunger and thirst, was proceeding through the woods, he came across that best of Rishis, the illustrious son of Vasishtha, coming along the same path. The king ever victorious in battle saw that &lt;strong&gt;Muni bearing the name of Sakti, that illustrious propagator of Vasishtha&amp;apos;s race,&lt;/strong&gt; the eldest of the high-souled Vasishtha&amp;apos;s hundred sons, coming along from opposite direction. The king, beholding him said, &amp;apos;Stand out of our way.&amp;apos; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 1: Adi Parva: Adivansavatarana Parva: Section LX  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;apos;Sauti said, &amp;apos;Hearing that Janamejaya was installed in the snake-sacrifice, the learned &lt;strong&gt;Rishi Krishna-Dwaipayana went thither on the occasion. And he, the grandfather of the Pandavas, was born on an island of the Yamuna, of the virgin Kali by Sakti&amp;apos;s son, Parasara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, it is evident from above that. Son of Vasistha is Shakti, Son of Shakti is Parasara and Son of Parasara is Krishna-Dwaipayana(Veda Vyas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5486" LastEditDate="2016-04-30T08:21:35.670" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T08:21:35.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11763" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8551" CreationDate="2016-04-29T20:38:28.737" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The abstract concept of &lt;em&gt;16 Kalas&lt;/em&gt; was used in context of the level of Prana and the phases of the moon. This might give some insights:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gurudev, you have talked about &lt;em&gt;Solah Kalas&lt;/em&gt; (referring to the sixteen&#xA;  extraordinary abilities or Divine qualities). Which are these and what&#xA;  is their importance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The word &lt;em&gt;Kala&lt;/em&gt; usually refers to the extent by&#xA;  which the moon waxes (or wanes) in one day. So by this understanding,&#xA;  the Moon possesses 16 different &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt; (different phases of the&#xA;  Moon). You can observe this from one &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt; (No-moon day) to the&#xA;  next &lt;em&gt;Purnima&lt;/em&gt; (Full moon day). So if you count the number of days&#xA;  from one &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt; to the next &lt;em&gt;Purnima&lt;/em&gt;, it turns out to be 16. And&#xA;  the transition from No-Moon to the Full Moon also symbolizes moving&#xA;  from Zero (nothingness) to Fullness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the no-moon day you don’t see the moon at all, and on the full moon&#xA;  day you see the complete moon. This does not mean that the Moon is not&#xA;  there on the day of &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt;. No, it is still there. So by this&#xA;  understanding, these are called the &lt;em&gt;Solah Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. On the day of solar&#xA;  eclipse, for example, the Moon is there but it cannot be seen, that’s&#xA;  all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the word &lt;em&gt;Kala&lt;/em&gt; is a unit of measure of one’s power, or by what&#xA;  degree one has blossomed or progressed. So, someone may be like a&#xA;  half-moon, someone else may have reached to three quarters of the moon&#xA;  and so on. This was a means of measurement in the ancient days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In those days, it was said that the life or Prana in a stone is equal&#xA;  to one Kala, the water element is said to have two &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. Fire has&#xA;  three &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Vayu&lt;/em&gt; (Air element) has four, and the Space or &lt;em&gt;Akash&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  has five. Plants and trees are said to have six Kalas. Animals have&#xA;  seven &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. Human beings have eight &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it is an extraordinary human being then he is said to have nine&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. It is said that Lord Parashurama (one of the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu) had nine &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. They say Lord Rama has 12 &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. Lord&#xA;  Hanuman is greater than Him in this regard and is said to have 14&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. That is why he could help Lord Rama. Only a person who is stronger than us can help us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Devi (Mother Divine) is called &lt;em&gt;Shodashakala&lt;/em&gt; (The One with all 16&#xA;  Divine qualities or attributes). It means that she possess all divine&#xA;  and noble qualities, and lacks nothing. Lord Krishna too is said to&#xA;  have all 16 Kalas, which is why He is called as the &lt;em&gt;Solah Kala&#xA;  sampurna&lt;/em&gt; or the &lt;em&gt;Purna Avataar&lt;/em&gt;. To have all 16 &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt; means to&#xA;  possess all the 16 qualities or signs attributed to the total&#xA;  blossoming and manifestation of Divinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you see the Devi, on one side she is so beautiful and full of love&#xA;  and grace, but on the other side, she is also &lt;em&gt;Maa Kali&lt;/em&gt; (one of her&#xA;  more terrifying and violent manifestations).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She is graceful and serene, but at the same time she also has a&#xA;  terrifying and violent aspect to Her as. Goddess Durga is very&#xA;  terrifying and awe-inspiring, while Goddess Lakshmi is very calm and&#xA;  graceful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You can see all the opposite aspects of Divinity coming together in&#xA;  the Devi. The all-bestowing Goddess Lakshmi rides the harmless owl&#xA;  (the mount), and the vanquisher of evil and ignorance, Goddess Durga&#xA;  rides the fierce lion. Just imagine, where would you see both the owl,&#xA;  and the lion!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the same way Lord Krishna is also said to have possessed all the&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Solah Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. Why is this so? In Lord Krishna, you see the complete and total manifestation of Divinity in every way. He is so complete.&#xA;  He is the King of thieves. He does not steal small things, he steals&#xA;  away your very mind. That is why He is called as &lt;em&gt;Chita-Chora&lt;/em&gt; (the&#xA;  beautiful One who completely captures and steals away the mind).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is also called as &lt;em&gt;Ranchhodrai&lt;/em&gt; (meaning the cowardly one who flees&#xA;  the battlefield) in Gujarat. They say that He ran away from the&#xA;  battlefield in the middle of the war. But on the other side He lifted&#xA;  up the &lt;em&gt;Sudarshan Chakra&lt;/em&gt; (the Lord’s divine discus) to defeat&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Bhishma Pitamaha&lt;/em&gt; (the grandsire of the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the Mahabharata) . So He is very brave and valiant too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, on one side he is very brave and on the other side he is like a&#xA;  coward. One cannot even imagine how complete he is. He is obedient as&#xA;  well, but He is also the one who breaks the rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Bhagawat&lt;/em&gt;, it is mentioned at many places that Lord Krishna is&#xA;  perfect and complete in every possible aspect. That is why it is said&#xA;  that one should not emulate Lord Krishna (Laughter). Follow the path&#xA;  of Lord Rama and listen to Lord Krishna. Don’t walk in the way that&#xA;  Lord Krishna did. If you go and steal the clothes of a lady, you will&#xA;  be in big trouble (jokingly referring to one of the pastimes of the&#xA;  Lord where He steals the clothes of some ladies bathing in the river&#xA;  and hides them on a tree).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom-q-a-25-february-2014-qa-5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom-q-a-25-february-2014-qa-5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T20:38:28.737" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11764" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10870" CreationDate="2016-04-29T20:48:41.637" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Numbers are considered sacred in Hinduism, whether even or odd. We chant odd numbers first and then even numbers in the Rudrabhishekam. Here are some significance attached to numbers, both odd and even:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: Can you elaborate on the number 7, like there are 7 days in a week,&#xA;the 7 continents, the 7 chakras and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Every&#xA;number is associated with something sacred and has sacredness to it.&#xA;That’s why when the Rudrabhishekam is done, all the numbers are said.&#xA;Number 1 and 2 are very sacred. Number 3 is also sacred. Number 3 is&#xA;associated with so many things, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh; Satva,&#xA;Rajas and Tamas; Vata, Pitta and Kapha; Morning, Afternoon and&#xA;Evening; Present, Past and Future. So number 3 is very sacred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then&#xA;number 4 is more sacred. The four directions; the four Vedas has so&#xA;much sacredness attached to it. The most sacred of the symbols&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Swastika&lt;/em&gt; has four corners.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then number 5, the five elements which are&#xA;very sacred; the five organs of senses; five organs of perceptions;&#xA;five organs of action. &lt;em&gt;Pancha Devata&lt;/em&gt;, there are five important&#xA;categories of Devatas. A village panchayat has only five members and&#xA;so 5 is very sacred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then comes 6, &lt;em&gt;Shad Darshanas&lt;/em&gt;, the six systems of&#xA;Hindu philosophy; Shadangas, the six angas are very important. Then&#xA;the sixth sense, you say the mind is the sixth sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then 7; seven&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Swaras&lt;/em&gt;, seven &lt;em&gt;Chakras&lt;/em&gt;, seven days of the week, seven planets… 8 has&#xA;its own sacredness, &lt;em&gt;Ashta Dikpalakas&lt;/em&gt;, are the eight divine entities&#xA;ruling eight quarters or the universe, &lt;em&gt;Ashtadhatu&lt;/em&gt;, eight metals which&#xA;are very essential for the body. &lt;em&gt;Ashtalakshmi&lt;/em&gt;, the eight types of&#xA;wealth. So 8 has its own significance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to 9, &lt;em&gt;Navagrahas&lt;/em&gt;;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Navaratna&lt;/em&gt;, nine gems; &lt;em&gt;Navaratri&lt;/em&gt;, nine nights. In nine months a child&#xA;is born. There are nine types of bhakti. 10 and 11 is also sacred. No&#xA;number is left which is not sacred. In the West number 13 is&#xA;considered unholy, but in India no number is considered unholy or&#xA;unlucky. All the numbers are good numbers. Every number has some&#xA;significance, some glory attached to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2011_11_01_archive.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2011_11_01_archive.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T20:48:41.637" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11765" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10092" CreationDate="2016-04-29T20:57:27.037" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer the title question: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Can a non-Hindu worship a Hindu deity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord &lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt; says in the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavada Gita&lt;/em&gt; that he is equally disposed to all living beings and is partial to none.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समोऽहं सर्वभूतेषु न मे द्वेष्योऽस्ति न प्रिय: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ये भजन्ति तु मां भक्त्या€मयि ते तेषु चाप्यहम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am equally disposed to all living entities; there is neither a&#xA;  friend or foe to Me; but those who with loving sentiments render&#xA;  devotional service unto Me, such persons are in Me and I am in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-29.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-29.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T20:57:27.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11766" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-29T21:22:44.117" Score="2" ViewCount="163" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many scientific studies have been done on the chronology of the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.omilosmeleton.gr/pdf/en/indology/narahari01.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; research paper uses astronomical data  mentioned in the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt; to establish that the events of the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt; happened around &lt;em&gt;3000 BC&lt;/em&gt; (nearly &lt;em&gt;5000&lt;/em&gt; years ago). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although, many people believe that &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt; might have happened millions of years ago. My question is this: Is there any scriptural basis of these beliefs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-29T21:30:31.293" LastActivityDate="2016-12-15T13:57:16.387" Title="Beliefs on the chronology of Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|belief|history|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11767" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11289" CreationDate="2016-04-29T21:49:28.637" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vibhuti is a purifying ash. If you notice how it makes your nervous system feel when you apply it, it is felt to be calming and uplifting. A major reason for wearing holy ash, vibhuti, is that when we have it on we can be seen by the devas in the inner worlds. It also identifies us as a devotee of Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5496" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T21:49:28.637" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11771" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11283" CreationDate="2016-04-29T22:06:05.273" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The third-eye is related to the &lt;em&gt;Ajna Chakra&lt;/em&gt;, intuition and awareness. These two answers might provide some insight:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q: What is the meaning of the opening of the third eye and what do I&#xA;  feel when I experience this happening?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is intuition, don’t think there is an eye&#xA;  opening like this and something is popping up from your head. You get&#xA;  a bump or a hole in your forehead, no! You know you close your eyes&#xA;  still you feel some light; you may see or you may feel, it can be both&#xA;  ways. If someone says I am going to open your third eye and this and&#xA;  that, just don’t go into those things. I tell you, definitely not, it&#xA;  is simply hoax because I have seen so many people claiming to open the&#xA;  third eye and nothing happens really, people get a headache, an&#xA;  incurable headaches many times and you get into problems. You know&#xA;  many such cases come to us for repair, so if someone says I want to&#xA;  open your third eye tell them, thank you very much, I am happy with&#xA;  two eyes. The deeper you go in meditation your intuitive ability&#xA;  develops.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q: Guruji, why is the opening of the third eye associated with the&#xA;  destruction of desires?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know the third eye is associated with&#xA;  alertness and awareness. When you are alert, awake, more into&#xA;  knowledge then naturally the energy has moved from the lowest chakra&#xA;  to the highest. The lower things no more interest you. You know when&#xA;  you are very alert and awake the sexual energy has transformed itself&#xA;  into a different quality of consciousness. The sexual energy is when&#xA;  the back portion of our brain, our head is activated. Alertness,&#xA;  perception and awareness happen when the front portion of the brain is&#xA;  activated; the pituitary and pineal glands are getting activated. In&#xA;  the brain also they are on the opposite sides of each other. So it is&#xA;  mythologically said when the third eye opens then the gross desires&#xA;  simply evaporate, not that it is bad but they simply don’t make much&#xA;  sense anymore. That is why the intellectuals and the highly spiritual&#xA;  oriented practitioners always put something on the forehead, some&#xA;  sandal wood paste because they are focusing; doing some yoga and&#xA;  meditation so they put some sandal wood to cool the forehead, to cool&#xA;  it a little bit.  When the frontal lobe of the brain becomes more&#xA;  active, more alert, then thinking, intellectual work, creativity,&#xA;  memory they are all enhanced because all of these things are in the&#xA;  frontal lobe of the brain and sensory pleasures are all at the back of&#xA;  the brain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2011/04/deeper-you-go-in-meditation-your.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2011/04/deeper-you-go-in-meditation-your.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T22:06:05.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11772" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8660" CreationDate="2016-04-29T22:07:32.500" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The third-eye is related to the &lt;em&gt;Ajna Chakra&lt;/em&gt;, intuition and awareness. These two answers might provide some insight:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q: What is the meaning of the opening of the third eye and what do I&#xA;  feel when I experience this happening?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is intuition, don’t think there is an eye&#xA;  opening like this and something is popping up from your head. You get&#xA;  a bump or a hole in your forehead, no! You know you close your eyes&#xA;  still you feel some light; you may see or you may feel, it can be both&#xA;  ways. If someone says I am going to open your third eye and this and&#xA;  that, just don’t go into those things. I tell you, definitely not, it&#xA;  is simply hoax because I have seen so many people claiming to open the&#xA;  third eye and nothing happens really, people get a headache, an&#xA;  incurable headaches many times and you get into problems. You know&#xA;  many such cases come to us for repair, so if someone says I want to&#xA;  open your third eye tell them, thank you very much, I am happy with&#xA;  two eyes. The deeper you go in meditation your intuitive ability&#xA;  develops.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q: Guruji, why is the opening of the third eye associated with the&#xA;  destruction of desires?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know the third eye is associated with&#xA;  alertness and awareness. When you are alert, awake, more into&#xA;  knowledge then naturally the energy has moved from the lowest chakra&#xA;  to the highest. The lower things no more interest you. You know when&#xA;  you are very alert and awake the sexual energy has transformed itself&#xA;  into a different quality of consciousness. The sexual energy is when&#xA;  the back portion of our brain, our head is activated. Alertness,&#xA;  perception and awareness happen when the front portion of the brain is&#xA;  activated; the pituitary and pineal glands are getting activated. In&#xA;  the brain also they are on the opposite sides of each other. So it is&#xA;  mythologically said when the third eye opens then the gross desires&#xA;  simply evaporate, not that it is bad but they simply don’t make much&#xA;  sense anymore. That is why the intellectuals and the highly spiritual&#xA;  oriented practitioners always put something on the forehead, some&#xA;  sandal wood paste because they are focusing; doing some yoga and&#xA;  meditation so they put some sandal wood to cool the forehead, to cool&#xA;  it a little bit.  When the frontal lobe of the brain becomes more&#xA;  active, more alert, then thinking, intellectual work, creativity,&#xA;  memory they are all enhanced because all of these things are in the&#xA;  frontal lobe of the brain and sensory pleasures are all at the back of&#xA;  the brain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2011/04/deeper-you-go-in-meditation-your.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2011/04/deeper-you-go-in-meditation-your.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T22:07:32.500" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11773" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10200" CreationDate="2016-04-29T22:26:56.487" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will answer on the love part. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artoflivinguniverse.org/2012/11/narada-bhakti-sutras-sri-sri-ravi.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Narada Bhakti Sutras&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; or the aphorisms of love talk at great length about &lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt; or divine love. I am sharing a couple of &lt;em&gt;Shlokas&lt;/em&gt; here with the meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shloka 5:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;|| Yat Prapya Na Kinchid Vanchati, Na Shochati, Na Dweshti, Na Ramate,&#xA;  Notsahi Bhavati ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Having attained that, there is no more craving, no desires, there is&#xA;  no sadness, you do not hate anything, nothing else seems more&#xA;  rejoicing. (you are not over excited about anything).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shloka 6:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;||Yat Gyatva Matto Bhavati, Stabdho Bhavati, Atmaramo Bhavati||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Knowing which you become intoxicated, so still deep within&#xA;  you; you are reposing in the SELF.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-04-29T23:05:30.417" LastActivityDate="2016-04-29T23:05:30.417" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11774" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="763" CreationDate="2016-04-30T02:05:02.163" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't about other things but this act of tying the thread around the ear is sheer ignorance. In earlier days, men used to defecate in the open by squatting. The thread was tied around the ear to prevent it from touching the ground and getting contaminated. Today's generation tie the thread around their ear even when they are using western urinal in an act of mindless ritual. NO, there is no vein near the ears that help in regulating the flow of urine. Its a lie to support this mindless act. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5498" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T02:05:02.163" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11776" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-30T06:03:06.600" Score="3" ViewCount="382" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focused on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11751/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/RqqR&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa school, Jaimini discusses the question of whether Sanskrit words used in the Vedas have the same meaning that they have in ordinary usage, or whether they mean something entirely different.  The Purvapakshin or opponent makes the argument that they have a different meaning, on the basis of the following quotation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uttana vai devagava vahanti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cows that belong to the deities move on their backs&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This statement appears in the Apastamba Shrauta Sutras, but in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11751/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; I argue that it must have originally come from the Vedas.  In any case, the argument is that the word cow as it is used in the Vedas refers to an animal which walks on its back, whereas in ordinary discourse the word cow refers to an animal that walks on its feet.  Jaimini refutes this by saying that this quote is an Arthavada.  For those who don't know, the Purva Mimamsa school believed that the Vedas consist primarily of two kinds of statements, Vidhis or injunctions concerning Dharma, and Arthavadas or statements that were just intended to glorify the actions prescribed in the Vedas.  The Purva Mimamsa school even classified the Upanishads' statements about Brahman as Arthavada, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11143/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11001/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So Jaimini thinks that the statement about cows of the gods were just intended to glorify some action, perhaps Yagnas did in honour of the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/yXHx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Kumarila Bhatta's Tantra Vartika, a commentary on Purva Mimamsa Sutras, Kumarila Bhatta gives an alternative interpretation of the quote, namely that it refers to how as the Earth makes its revolution, sometimes it appears to the residents of Devaloka like the ordinary cows that are on Earth are upside down:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or, the passage [of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras] may refer to the fact that it is the ordinary cows of the Earth that are referred to in this [Vedic] passage, as appearing to walk on their backs, &lt;strong&gt;owing to the revolutions of the Earth together with all the three worlds, as described in the Puranas&lt;/strong&gt;.  That is to say, just as we see the gods above us, so too, when in the course of revolution the Earth reaches a point above the abode of the gods, they see the things on the Earth as above them; hence, it is only natural that to them the cows walking on the Earth should appear to be walking on their backs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kumarila Bhatta, by the way, was the guru of  Mandana Mishra, the Purva Mimamsaka whom Adi Shankaracharya defeated in a debate as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6557/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And apparently Kumarila Bhatta is considered by some to be an incarnation of Shiva's son Kartikeya, aka Skanda or Muruga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question isn't about Kumarila Bhatta and his interpretation, but rather his statement that &amp;quot;the revolutions of the Earth together with all the three worlds&amp;quot; are described in the Puranas.  My question is, where do the Puranas describe the revolutions of the three worlds?  And does the Earth ever &amp;quot;reach[] a point above the abode of the gods&amp;quot; as Kumarila Bhatta says?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brahmanda Purana may be a good place to start, since I recall it having a lot of information about Hindu cosmology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-12-03T19:01:50.033" Title="Where do the Puranas say the Earth goes above Devaloka?" Tags="|puranas|lokas|purva-mimamsa|cosmology|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11777" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10915" CreationDate="2016-04-30T10:33:53.937" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Origin of Long Version of Gayatri Mantra is from &lt;strong&gt;Taitteriya Aranyaka of Yajurveda in 10.35.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[[10-35-1]] &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ojo&amp;apos;si saho&amp;apos;si balamasi bhrÀjo&amp;apos;si devÀnÀÎ dhÀmanÀmÀ&amp;apos;si viÌvamasi &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  viÌvÀyussarvamasi sarvÀyurabhibhÂroÎ gÀyatrÁmÀvÀhayÀmi savitrÁmÀvÀhayÀmi &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarasvatÁmÀvÀhayÀmi chandarÍÁnÀvÀhayÀmi ÌriyamÀvÀhayÀmi gÀyatriyÀ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  gÀyatrÁcchando viÌvÀmitra ÃÍissavitÀ devatÀ&amp;apos;gnirmukhaÎ brahmÀ Ìiro &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  viÍÉurhÃdayaÙrudraÌÌikhÀ pÃthivÁ yoniÏ prÀÉÀpÀnavyÀnodÀnasamÀnÀ saprÀÉÀ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ÌvetavarÉÀ sÀÎkhyÀyanasagotrÀ gÀyatrÁ caturviÙÌatyakÍarÀ tripadÀ ÍaÊakukÍiÏ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  paÈcaÌÁrÍopanayane viniyogaÏ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;om bhu | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  om bhuvaÏ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  om suvaÏ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  on mahaÏ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  om janaÏ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  om tapaÏ || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  om satyam | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  om tathsaviturvareÉyaÎ bhargo devasya dhÁmahi | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dhiyo yo naÏ pracodayÀt | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  omÀpo jyotÁ raso&amp;apos;mÃtaÎ brahma bhÂrbhuvassuvarom |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yOxKj.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yOxKj.png&quot; alt=&quot;Gayatri Long Form&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One can see the long form of Gayatri above in the image above in 10-35-1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-04-30T10:39:24.407" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T10:39:24.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11779" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11790" CreationDate="2016-04-30T13:32:55.937" Score="3" ViewCount="479" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; wiki article mentions that &lt;em&gt;Kali Yuga&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;4,32,000&lt;/em&gt; human years old. The length of the other &lt;em&gt;Yugas&lt;/em&gt; is also in similar order of magnitude.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudeva&lt;/em&gt;, in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnDQJSM_FXs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;video&lt;/a&gt;, talks about smaller cycles of &lt;em&gt;Kaala&lt;/em&gt;. In these cycles, &lt;em&gt;Kali Yuga&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;1296&lt;/em&gt; years of length.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Paramahansa Yogananda&lt;/em&gt;, in his book, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vsc.iitm.ac.in/Home/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Yogananda-Autobiography.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Autobiography of A Yogi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; mentions a similar &lt;em&gt;1200&lt;/em&gt; period range of &lt;em&gt;Kali Yuga&lt;/em&gt; as told to him by his Guru &lt;em&gt;Sri Yukteswara&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sri Yukteswar&lt;/em&gt; discovered the mathematical application of a &lt;em&gt;24,000−year&lt;/em&gt; equinoctial cycle to our present age. The cycle is divided into an Ascending Arc and a Descending Arc, each of 12,000&#xA;  years. Within each Arc fall four Yugas or Ages, called Kali, Dwapara,&#xA;  Treta, and Satya, corresponding to the Greek ideas of Iron, Bronze,&#xA;  Silver, and Golden Ages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My guru determined by various calculations that the last Kali Yuga or&#xA;  Iron Age, of the Ascending Arc, started about A.D. 500. The Iron Age,&#xA;  1200 years in duration, is a span of materialism; it ended about A.D.&#xA;  1700. That year ushered in Dwapara Yuga, a 2400−year period of electrical and atomic−energy developments, the age of telegraph,&#xA;  radio, airplanes, and other space−annihilators.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The 3600−year period of Treta Yuga will start in A.D. 4100; its age&#xA;  will be marked by common knowledge of telepathic communications and&#xA;  other time−annihilators. During the 4800 years of Satya Yuga, final&#xA;  age in an ascending arc, the intelligence of a man will be completely&#xA;  developed; he will work in harmony with the divine plan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I have two questions: Is there any scripture which mentions these smaller cycles of &lt;em&gt;Kaala&lt;/em&gt;? Which scripture mentions the longer cycles of &lt;em&gt;Kaala&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2023-04-04T06:22:02.810" Title="Smaller cycles of Kaala or Time" Tags="|yuga|time|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11780" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-30T13:54:42.170" Score="5" ViewCount="471" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why laddus are offered as prasadam to Lord Vishnu(i.e Lord Venkateswara) in Tirumala? Is there any reason or story behind this tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2018-01-31T06:41:11.560" Title="Tirupathi Laddu Prasadam" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|tradition|venkateshwara|prasad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11781" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9098" CreationDate="2016-04-30T13:58:46.970" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt; context, a &lt;em&gt;khastriya&lt;/em&gt; fights (Although, there have been exceptions too).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer the title question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What would a Hindu be willing to die for?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we look at the &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt; leaders, just a few centuries back, or look at our soldiers, we see a great spirit of sacrifice for the nation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read about &lt;em&gt;Maharana Pratap&lt;/em&gt;, who is venered for his courage even though he lost in the &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharana_Pratap#Battle_of_Haldighati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Battle for Haldighati&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://kaavyaalaya.org/jhansi.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt; enunciates the &lt;em&gt;Shaurya&lt;/em&gt; of &lt;em&gt;Jhansi Ki Rani&lt;/em&gt; who faught valianty against the &lt;em&gt;British&lt;/em&gt; and died.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivaji&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, was a &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt; leader most famous for his courage and spirit of sacrifice. He fought under the guidance of his Guru &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samarth_Ramdas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Samartha Ramdas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (composer of the &lt;em&gt;Advaitin Vedanta&lt;/em&gt; text &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasbodh&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dasbodh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are only a few examples. There are so many more that can be given.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-01T16:56:03.637" LastActivityDate="2016-05-01T16:56:03.637" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11782" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5248" CreationDate="2016-04-30T14:13:56.143" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; The time period for Sutak changes with Region and Caste across India. So, it is always best to ask your knowledgeable elders or your family priest. However, I provide opinion of Sri Brahmasri Vaddiparthi Padmakar who is well known Hindu Scholar in Telugu states.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://pedia.desibantu.com/vaddiparti-padmakar/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmasri Vaddiparthi Padmakar&lt;/a&gt; says &quot;&lt;em&gt;Suthak&lt;/em&gt;&quot; applies only for 13 days after death of any family member except father and mother. He &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/KaG92qeHoE8?t=381&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People will inflict with &lt;em&gt;Suthak&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Mailu&lt;/em&gt; if anyone dies in their&#xA;  family or anyone with same surname. The time of this &lt;em&gt;Sutak&lt;/em&gt; depends&#xA;  on their &lt;em&gt;Sakha&lt;/em&gt; and it is generally 12 or 13 or 15 days. If mother or&#xA;  father or anyone from father's side dies, then everyone of the family&#xA;  will have undergo Sutak period for 12-15 days. But if father dies, it is called &lt;em&gt;Eti Sutakam&lt;/em&gt; and Sutak period is 1 year and for mother it is 6 months and rest of family members it is 12-15 days depending on Shakha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For Grandmother, &lt;em&gt;Suthak&lt;/em&gt; applies only for 12-15 days (depending on&#xA;  their Sakha as said before) and no ceremonies such as Marriage, House warming, Engagement, Yajna etc are allowed during Sutak Period. After&#xA;   completion of Sutak period, these ceremonies can be done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same question was asked in Telugu Programme called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhakthitv.in/category_dharmasandehalu.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Sandhehalu&lt;/a&gt; which is telecasted in Telugu Channel &quot;Bhakti TV&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-13T10:56:55.417" LastActivityDate="2018-03-13T10:56:55.417" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11783" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-30T14:39:24.920" Score="5" ViewCount="587" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know about incarnations of Vishnu, and perhaps incarnations of Brahma (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6707/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) and incarnations of Shiva.  But Indra has also taken incarnations, for instance as Vishwamitra' father Gadhi.  But my question is about the most famous incarnation of Indra in ancient times, Indra Vaikuntha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra Vaikuntha's name has nothing to do with Vishnu's abode of Vaikuntha. Indra incarnated as the son of the demoness Vikuntha, and then he conquered the Asura races throughout the three worlds.  But then, due to being in the body of an Asura, he forgot who he was and started tormenting the gods.  He only regained his true identity when a sage known as Saptagu Angirasa held his hand and praised him with a hymn.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/CAKkA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Brihaddevata, an ancient work by the sage Shaunaka, says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was an Asuri, daughter of Prajapati, Vikuntha by name.  She, desiring a son like Indra, performed very severe austerities.  She then obtained from Prajapati her desires (in the form of) various boons.  And Indra himself was born of her, as he wished to slay the Daityas and Danavas.  Once he was engaged in battle with the Danavas.  Of them he slew nine nineties and seven groups of seven.  Having shattered with the might of his arm the citadels of gold, silver, and iron, (and) having slain all (of them) in their respective spheres (yathasthanam), as arrayed on earth and the other (two worlds).  On earth he exterminated both the Kalakeyas and the race of Puloma, the archer, and in heaven the notorious (tan) offspring of Prahlada.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having obtained sovereignty among the Daityas (and) puffed up with pride by reason of his might, he began to harass the gods, being infatuated by the craft of the Asuras.  &lt;strong&gt;Now while they were being harassed by that same Asura of unlimited power, they fled for succour to Saptagu, most excellent of seers, in order that the latter should admonish him (Indra).  Now the seer called Saptagu was a dear friend of his, and (so) he praised him with the (hymn), 'We have grasped' (jagrbhma: x.47) as he took him be the hand.&lt;/strong&gt;  Then he coming to (buddhva) himself (and) rejoiced at the praise of Saptagu, praised himself with the three (hymns) 'I was' (aham bhuvam: x.48-50)[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And indeed, as you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer here, Indra Vaikuntha is the seer of hymns 48-50 of Rig Veda Book 10, which are Atmastutis or hymns of self-praise.  There's the Indra we know and love!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the identity of the Saptagu Angirasa, the sags who helped Indra.  Hymn 47 of Rig Veda Book 10 is the hymn that Saptagu told to Indra to make him remember who he really was, and in particular it says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pra saptaghuṃ ṛtadhītiṃ sumedhāṃ bṛhaspatiṃ matirachājighāti | &#xA;  ya āṅghiraso namasopasadyo.asmabhyaṃ citraṃvṛṣaṇaṃ rayiṃ dāḥ || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To Saptagu the sage, the holy-minded, to him, Bṛhaspati, the song approaches, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Aṅgiras' Son who must be met with homage: vouchsafe us mighty and reslendent riches.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is this verse saying that Saptagu Angirasa is another name for Brihaspati, the guru of the gods?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It would certainly make sense considering that Brihaspati is the son of the sage Angiras as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3106/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And epithets like &quot;dear friend&quot; of Indra and &quot;most excellent of seers&quot; sound fitting for Brihaspati.  But why would Brihaspati be called &quot;Saptagu&quot;?  According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=oxen&amp;amp;script=&amp;amp;direction=ES&amp;amp;link=yes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this dictionary&lt;/a&gt; it means &quot;driving seven oxen&quot;, and I'm not sure if Brihaspati is ever described in that way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, does anyone know scriptures that address the identity of Saptagu Angirasa?  For instance, do the Puranas ever tell the story of Indra Vaikuntha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-04-30T14:39:24.920" Title="Is Brihaspati the one who helped Indra's incarnation Indra Vaikuntha?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|indra|brihaspati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11786" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-04-30T17:03:15.543" Score="3" ViewCount="158" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, one of the greatest saints of the sixteenth century, had many disciples, of whom the six Gosvamis of Vrindavana are prominent. Sri Rupa Gosvami is one among the six Gosvamis, and he has written many books about Srimati Radharani and Lord Krsna. One of the most beautiful compilations made by him is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vrindavan.de/KRISHNA-GANODDESA-DIPIKA.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Radhakrsna Ganoddesha Deepika&lt;/a&gt;, which details every resident of Vrindavana, complete with their characteristics, appearance and clothing, as well as their daily activities, and in Radharani's case (and some of Krsna's sakhas' and sakhis' cases), her favourite pastimes, ragas, flowers, pet animals and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the onset, Sri Rupa Gosvami says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TEXT 3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The celebrated personal associates of the King and Queen of Vrndavana are briefly but truthfully described with great delight in both Vedic literatures and oral tradition. This book will also describe them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TEXT 4 AND 5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These associates of the Lord are described by the residents of Mathura-mandala, by the various books written by devotees , various Vedic literatures such as the Puranas and Agamas and by the great devotees and saintly persons. For the satisfaction of my dear friends, these associates of the Lord will now be briefly describing in writing, following the previous authorities in the path of ecstatic love of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, which are the Puranas and other Vedic literature he is referring to in the above quoted stanzas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, in the 30th Stanza, he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TEXT 30&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The friendship of Yasoda is described in the following statement of &lt;strong&gt;the Adi Purana&lt;/strong&gt; : &amp;quot; The wife of Maharaja Nanda was known by two names, Yasoda and Devaki. Partly because they share the same name (Devaki) the wife of Maharaja Nanda and the wife of Maharaja Vasudeva were great friends.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the &amp;quot;Adi Purana&amp;quot; that Sri Rupa Gosvami is referring to? A Google search tells me that it is a substantially well-quoted Purana in Gaudiya literature, but I am not familiar with any Purana with that name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, which Purana(s) and other scriptures were used as references for this monumental literature?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-11-26T11:00:07.947" Title="What is the source of Sri Radhakrsna Ganoddesha Deepika?" Tags="|krishna|puranas|gaudiya-vaishnavism|radha|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11788" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-01T04:00:54.443" Score="4" ViewCount="306" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Purva Mimamsa was borderline agnostic/atheist on the existence of the gods.  So in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/wXxY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa school, Jaimini discusses the question whether Yagnas (fire-rituals) are just for our benefit or whether they're done for the sake of the gods. The Purvapakshin or opponent argues that Yagnas are done for the sake of the gods, because the gods consume the offerings made in Yagnas.  Jaimini responds that that would only be possible if the gods had material bodies, and we have no evidence that that is the case.  So then the Purvapakshin cites verse 1 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10047.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 10 Hymn 47&lt;/a&gt; to show that Indra has a right hand:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jaghṛbhmā te dakṣiṇamindra hastaṃ vasūyavo vasupatevasūnām | &lt;br &gt;&#xA;  vidmā hi tvā ghopatiṃ śūra ghonāmasmabhyaṃcitraṃ vṛṣaṇaṃ rayiṃ dāḥ || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thy right hand have we grasped in ours, O Indra, longing for treasure, Treasure-Lord of treasures! &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Because we know thee, Hero, Lord of cattle: vouchsafe us mighty and resplendent riches.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is how Jaimini responds:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As regards the indicative text (adduced by the Purvapakshin) — 'Jaghṛbhmā te dakṣiṇam indra hastaṃ' (speaking of the 'right hand' of Indra), — it does not mean what it has been taken to mean — that 'Indra has got a right hand'; what it means is that 'we have taken hold of what is Indra's right hand': hence the sentence does not afford the notion that Indra has hands. &quot;If that is not so, then no such assertion is possible that 'we have taken hold of the hand': because this assertion clearly implies the existence of the hand, - the hand exists, which we have taken hold of .&quot;—This is not possible: even though Indra may have a hand, yet the assertion that 'we to have taken hold of the hand' does not pertain to a perceptible fact; to this extent, the assertion is certainly an impossible one : under the circumstances, the assertion can only be taken either as an absurd statement or as a merely eulogistic declaration:—And this explanation is equally possible in our view also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It might be argued that &quot;the assertion has been made by a&#xA;  person who actually took hold of Indra’s hand ''.—Our answer to that is that no such idea can be entertained; as that would imply that the Veda (as represented by the text in question) has had a beginning in time.—Nor can the text be taken as asserting that 'Someone took hold of Indra’s hands: as there can be no authority for such an assertion.—&lt;strong&gt;&quot;From this text itself we deduce by implication that there was a person who took hold of the hand.&quot;—That cannot be right; because it is possible for untrue assertions also to be made: as in the case of such ordinary assertions as 'Ten pomegranates', 'Six cakes ', and so forth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand most of Jaimini's argument, except for the part in bold.  My question is, what is Jaimini's basis for rejecting the notion that someone held Indra's hand?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Purvapakshin asserts that someone took hold of Indra's hand, and Jaimini responds that that's a baseless assertion.  Then the Purvapakshin says that it's being deduced by implication from the Vedic verse, to which Jaimini's responds &quot;it is possible for untrue assertions to be made.&quot;  What does that mean?  Is he saying that it's possible for the Vedas to make untrue assertions?  I highly doubt that, given the Purva Mimamsa school's view that the Vedas consist of eternal truths.  Or is he just reiterating his claim that the Purvapakshin's assertion is baseless? But the Purvapakshin just provided a basis, namely implication from the Vedic verse!  Also, what are the &quot;Ten pomegranates&quot; and &quot;Six cakes&quot; referring to?  Are they supposed to refer to statements in the Vedas, or statements by ordinary people or what?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, as I said above the vast majority of Hindus today belong to the Vedanta school. So it's worth noting the Vedanta school does accept the notion that the gods have material bodies; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutras Bhashya and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48125.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya.  And for those of us who are mainstream Hindus, the Rig Veda verse that's being discussed is actually about the sage Saptagu Angirasa holding Indra's hand to make him remember who he really was; see my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11783/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for the details of the story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, are there any other Purva Mimamsa works, for instance Kumarila Bhatta's Tuptika commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, which shed light on Jaimini's reasoning here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T07:30:10.783" Title="Why doesn't Purva Mimamsa accept that someone grasped Indra's hand?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|indra|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11789" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11802" CreationDate="2016-05-01T05:15:38.710" Score="13" ViewCount="2683" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per belief in Hinduism, both Rama and Krishna are incarnations of God and they really are beyond these material world things, and they probably had no reason for meditation(since they are symbols of perfections, the Supreme Being). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But through their incarnations, Rama and Krishna sets an example in front of man kind of ideal and correct way of living and basically drive people to follow the path of &lt;code&gt;Dharma&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, it is well known how important meditation is for overall progress of individual. The term meditation may includes techniques designed to promote relaxation, build internal energy or life force and develop compassion, love, patience, generosity and forgiveness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Question is did Rama or Krishna ever practised the meditation to set as an example for man kind. Are there any scriptural references mentioning Rama or Krishna doing meditation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-08-26T07:32:14.767" LastActivityDate="2021-11-06T18:29:50.980" Title="Did Rama or Krishna ever practise meditation?" Tags="|krishna|rama|meditation|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11790" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11779" CreationDate="2016-05-01T05:26:17.643" Score="3" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Is there any scripture which mentions these smaller cycles of Kaala?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vana Parva (Markandeya-Samasya Upa-parva) of The Mahabharata, Sage Markandeya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03187.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains&lt;/a&gt; the Yuga cycle to Yudhishthira as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Markandeya replied, 'Indeed, I shall explain all, after having bowed down to that Self-existent, Primordial Being, who is eternal and undeteriorating and inconceivable, and who is at once vested with and divested of attributes. O tiger among men, this Janardana attired in yellow robes is the grand Mover and Creator of all, the Soul and Framer of all things, and the lord of all! He is also called the Great, the Incomprehensible, the Wonderful and the Immaculate. He is without beginning and without end, pervades all the world, is Unchangeable and Undeteriorating. He is the Creator of all, but is himself uncreate and is the Cause of all power. His knowledge is greater than that of all the gods together. O best of kings and pre-eminent of men, after the dissolution of the universe, all this wonderful creation again comes into life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Four thousand years have been said to constitute the Krita Yuga&lt;/strong&gt;. Its dawn also, as well as its eve, hath been said to comprise four hundred years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Treta-Yuga is said to comprise three thousand years&lt;/strong&gt;, and its dawn, as well as its eve, is said to comprise three hundred years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yuga that comes next is called &lt;strong&gt;Dwapara, and it hath been computed to consist of two thousand years&lt;/strong&gt;. Its dawn, as well as its eve, is said to comprise two hundred years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The next Yuga, called Kali, is said to comprise one thousand years and its dawn, as well as eve, is said to comprise one hundred years&lt;/strong&gt;. Know, O king, that the duration of the dawn is the same as that of the eve of a Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And after the Kali Yuga is over, the Krita Yuga comes again. &lt;strong&gt;A cycle of the Yugas thus comprised a period of twelve thousand years.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A full thousand of such cycles would constitute a day of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that he doesn't use any 360x multiplier nor calls those years deity-years, so we can assume them to be normal human years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Which scripture mentions the longer cycles of Kaala?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interestingly, in Shanti Parva (Mokshadharma Upa-parva), those same years are referred to as &amp;quot;years of the deities&amp;quot;. Bhishma here &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b058.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;recollects&lt;/a&gt; the conversation, Sage Vyasa had with his son Suka, to explain to Yudhishthira the concept of &amp;quot;divisions of time&amp;quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Vyasa said, 'Only Brahma, which is without beginning and without end, unborn, blazing with effulgence, above decay, immutable, indestructible, inconceivable, and transcending knowledge, exists before the Creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rishis, measuring time, have named particular portions by particular names. Five and ten winks of the eye make what is called a Kashtha. Thirty Kashthas would make what is called a Kala. Thirty Kalas, with the tenth part of a Kala added, make what is known as a Muhurta. Thirty Muhurtas make up one day and night. Thirty days and nights are called a month, and twelve months are called a year. Persons conversant with mathematical science say that a year is made up of two ayanas (dependent on sun's motion), viz., the northern and the southern. The sun makes the day and the night for the world of man. The night is for the sleep of all living creatures, and the day is for the doing of action. A month of human beings is equal to a day and night of the Pitris. That division (as regards the Pitris) consists in this: the lighted fortnight (of men) is their day which is for the doing of acts; and the dark fortnight is their night for sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A year (of human beings) is equal to a day and night of the gods.&lt;/strong&gt; The division (as regards the gods) consists in this: the half year for which the sun travels from the vernal to the autumnal equinox is the day of the deities, and the half year for which the sun travels from the latter to the former is their night. Computing by the days and nights of human beings about which I have told thee, I shall speak of the day and night of Brahman and his years also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I shall, in their order, tell thee the number of years, that are (thus) for different purposes computed differently in respect of the Krita, the Treta, the Dwapara, and the Kali yugas. Four thousand years &lt;strong&gt;(of the deities)&lt;/strong&gt; is the duration of the first or Krita age. The morning of that epoch consists of four hundred years and its evening is of four hundred years. (The total duration, therefore, of the Krita yuga is four thousand and eight hundred years of the deities). As regards the other yugas, the duration of each gradually decreases by a quarter in respect of both the substantive period with the conjoining portion and the conjoining portion itself. (Thus the duration of the Treta is three thousand years and its morning extends for three hundred years and its evening for three hundred). The duration of the Dwapara also is two thousand years, and its morning extends for two hundred years and its evening also for two hundred. &lt;strong&gt;The duration of the Kali yuga is one thousand years, and its morning extends for one hundred years, and its evening for one hundred.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Footnote] 156:1 The Krita extends in all for 4,800 years. The Treta for 3,600; the Dwapara for 2,400; and the Kali for 1,200. These are, however, the years of the deities. Verses 15-17 and 20-21 occur in Manusmriti, Chapter I.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as per the above explanation, each Kali-yuga is 1200 deity-years (or divine years) = 432,000 human years. Vishnu Purana also &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5253/2995&quot;&gt;agrees&lt;/a&gt; with this explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://oldthoughts.wordpress.com/ancient-indian-calendars/how-many-kinds-of-yugas-are-there/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;How many kinds of Yugas are there?&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;a href=&quot;https://ancientindians.in/abouttheauthorandthisblog/about-ancientindians/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Satya Sarada Kandula&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-01T05:26:17.643" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11792" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10818" CreationDate="2016-05-01T08:19:44.607" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram is inside Samhita of Vedas. Samhitas are the most important part because they are the direct revealed words during meditation to the seers.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;_____________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram is in &lt;strong&gt;Prapathaka 5 of the Fourth Kanda of the Taittiriya Samhita&lt;/strong&gt; of the Yajur Veda. Sri Rudram is also in &lt;strong&gt;Adhyaya 16 of Vajasena Samhita&lt;/strong&gt; of Shukla Yajur Veda. Vajasaneyi Samhita consists of 66 verses in Sri Rudram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although commonly Sri Rudram refers to 4.5 of Taittariye Samhita of Yajur Veda. Both the Taittariye Samhita and Vajapayena Samhita mentions Panchakshari mantra &lt;strong&gt;Namah Shivaya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 11 Anuvak in Rudram. These 11 Anuvaks are directly from Taittariyea Samhita from 4.5.1 to 4.5.11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram mentions the word &lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; in plenty of places, the most important being &lt;strong&gt;Namah Shivaya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;_______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second verse of 1st Anuvaka itself mentions the word Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यात इषुः &lt;strong&gt;शिवतमा शिवं&lt;/strong&gt; बभूव ते धनुः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;शिवा&lt;/strong&gt; शरव्या या तव तया नाे रुद्र मृडय ॥ १ -२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ya ta Ishu &lt;strong&gt;shivatama shivam&lt;/strong&gt; babhuva te dhanuh | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; sharavya ya tava taya no Rudra mrudaya ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The third verse of the 1st Anuvaka also mentions the word Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या ते &lt;strong&gt;रुद्र शिवा&lt;/strong&gt; तनू-रघाेराऽपापकाशिनी । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तया नस्तनुवा शन्तमया गिरिशंताभिचाकशीहि ॥ १ -३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ya te &lt;strong&gt;Rudra Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; tanura ghora papakashini | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  taya nastanuva shantamaya girishanta bhichakashihi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fourth verse of the 1st Anuvaka also mentions the word Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यामिषुं गिरिशंत हस्ते बिभर्ष्यस्तवे । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;शिवां&lt;/strong&gt; गिरित्र तां कुरु मा हिसीः पुरुषं जगत् ॥ १ -४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yamishum giri shanta haste bibharsya stave | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;shivam&lt;/strong&gt; giritra tam Kuru ma higmsih purusham jagat ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fifth verse of the 1st Anuvaka also mentions the word Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शिवेन&lt;/strong&gt; वचसा त्वा गिरिशाच्छा वदामसि । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथा नः सर्वमिज्जगदयक्ष्मसुमना असत् ॥ १ -५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Shivena&lt;/strong&gt; vachasa tva giri shacchavadamasi | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yatha nah sarvam ijjaga dayakshmam sumana asatthu ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 11th verse of 1st Anuvaka also mentions the word Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अवतत्य धनुस्त्व सहस्राक्ष शतेषुधे । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निशीर्य शल्यानां मुखा &lt;strong&gt;शिवाे&lt;/strong&gt; नः सुमना भव ॥ १-११॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Avatatya dhanustvam sahasraksha Shatesudhe | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Nishirya shalyanam mukha &lt;strong&gt;shivo&lt;/strong&gt; nah sumana bhava ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most importantly 1st verse of 8th Anuvaka mentions the word Shiva as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमः साेमाय च रुद्राय च नमस्ताम्राय चारुणाय च नमः शड़्गाय च पशुपतये च नम उग्राय च भीमाय च नमाे अग्रेवधाय च दूरेवधाय च नमाे हन्त्रे च हनीयसे च नमाे वृक्ष्यभ्यो हरिकेशेभ्याे नमस्ताराय नमः शंभवे च मयाेभवे च नमः शंकराय च मयस्कराय च &lt;strong&gt;नमः शिवाय च शिवतराय च&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ ८ -१॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Namah somaya cha Rudraya cha &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Namastamraya charunaya cha &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Nama shangaya cha pashupataye cha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Nama ugraya cha bhimaya cha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Namo Agrevadhaya cha dure vadhaya cha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Namo hantre cha haniyase cha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Namo vrukshebhyo harikeshebhyo&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Nama staraya&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Namash shambhave cha mayo bhave cha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Namah shankaraya cha mayaskaraya cha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Namah Shivaya cha shivataraya cha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second verse of 10th Anuvaka also mentions the word Shiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या ते रुद्र &lt;strong&gt;शिवा तनूः शिवा विश्वाह भेषजी । &lt;br&gt;शिवा रुद्रस्य&lt;/strong&gt; भेषजी तया नाे मृड जीवसे ॥ १० -२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ya te &lt;strong&gt;Rudra Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; tanu &lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; vishvaha bheshaji, &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Rudrasya&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Bhesaji tasya no mruda jivase &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 10th verse of 10th Anuvaka also mentions the word Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मीढुष्टम &lt;strong&gt;शिवतम शिवाे&lt;/strong&gt; नः सुमना भव । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परमे व्रुक्ष अायुधं निधाय कृत्तिं वसान अाचर पिनाकं विभ्रदागहि ।।१०-१०॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Midhushthama &lt;strong&gt;shivatama shivo&lt;/strong&gt; nah sumana bhava parame vriksha Ayudhan &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nidhaya krittim vasana achara pinakam bibhradagahi |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Inside Sri Rudram after 11th Anuvaka some verses from other samhitas of Vedas are taken like Mahamrityunjaya mantra of Rig Veda Samhita is taken. One of the verse is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अयं मे हस्ताे भगवानयं मे भगवत्तरः । अयं मे विश्व-भेषजाेऽय &lt;strong&gt;शिवाभिमर्शनः&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ ४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ayam me hasto bhagwanayam me bhagawattara&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ayam me vishvabhesajoya &lt;strong&gt;shivabhimarshanaha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, In the Rudram at the end of 1st Anuvaka this verse is chanted:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नमस्ते अस्तु भगवन् विश्वेश्वराय महादेवाय त्र्यंबकाय त्रिपुरान्तकाय त्रिकाग्नी कालाय कालाग्निरुद्राय त्रिकालाग्नि नीलकण्ठाय मृत्युंजयाय सर्वेश्वराय सदाशिवाय श्रीमन्महादेवाय नम :&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Namaste astu bhagavanh vishveshvaraya mahadevaya tryambakaya tripurantakaya trikagni kalaya kalagnirudraya nilakanthaya mrutyunjayaya sarveshvaraya sadashivaya shrimanmahadevaya namah&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-18T13:52:20.043" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T13:52:20.043" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11793" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11279" CreationDate="2016-05-01T08:33:51.510" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In every age the Gayatri mantra is heard by a sage named Vishwamitra.&lt;/strong&gt;. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48127.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya, his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, Ramanujacharya explains how sages with the same names hear the same mantras after undergoing Tapasya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As words such as Indra and Vasishtha, which denote gods and Rishis, denote (not individuals only, but) classes, and as the creation of those beings is preceded by their being suggested to the creative mind through those words; for this reason the eternity of the Veda admits of being reconciled with what scripture says about the mantras and kândas (sections) of the sacred text having 'makers' and about Rishis seeing the hymns; cp. such passages as 'He chooses the makers of mantras'; 'Reverence to the Rishis who are the makers of mantras'; 'That is Agni; this is a hymn of Visvâmitra.' &lt;strong&gt;For by means of these very texts Pragâpati presents to his own mind the characteristics and powers of the different Rishis who make the different sections, hymns, and mantras, thereupon creates them endowed with those characteristics and powers, and appoints them to remember the very same sections, hymns, &amp;amp;c. The Rishis being thus gifted by Pragâpati with the requisite powers, undergo suitable preparatory austerities and finally see the mantras, and so on, proclaimed by the Vasishthas and other Rishis of former ages of the world, perfect in all their sounds and accents, without having learned them from the recitation of a teacher.&lt;/strong&gt; There is thus no conflict between the eternity of the Veda and the fact that the Rishis are the makers of its sections, hymns, and so on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea is the Brahma uses the Vedas as a blueprint for the creation of the world.  In particular Brahma, knowing that certain mantras have certain sages' names associated with them, proceeds to create sages with those very names. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the fact that the Vedas describe things that are common to every age is the reason why the Vedas seem to refer to specific stories despite being eternal; see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10352/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-05-01T08:33:51.510" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11795" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-01T21:22:02.467" Score="3" ViewCount="472" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read this quote by &lt;em&gt;Swami Vivekananda&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;God spoke once. He spoke in Sanskrit, and that is the divine language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What did he mean by this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-24T17:49:47.317" LastActivityDate="2019-10-09T00:33:31.797" Title="What did Swami Vivekananda mean when he said &quot;God spoke in Sanskrit&quot;?" Tags="|gods|sanskrit|language|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11796" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-02T01:12:11.550" Score="3" ViewCount="91" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ravana&lt;/em&gt; is depicted to have ten heads. Is there any symbolism behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-02T01:43:39.490" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T01:43:39.490" Title="What is the symbolism behind the ten heads of Ravana?" Tags="|ravana|symbolism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-09-30T06:11:31.227" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11797" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-02T01:23:49.937" Score="3" ViewCount="3797" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have not 'read' the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt; yet, but the &lt;em&gt;Hindi&lt;/em&gt; poem &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://kavitakosh.org/kk/%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A5%E0%A5%80_/_%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%80_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%B9_%22%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0%22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rashmirathi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Ramdhari Singh Dinkar&lt;/em&gt; narrates how &lt;em&gt;Shri Krishna&lt;/em&gt; tried to convince &lt;em&gt;Karna&lt;/em&gt; to get on the side of the &lt;em&gt;Pandavas&lt;/em&gt;. Yet, &lt;em&gt;Karna&lt;/em&gt; chose to fight alongside &lt;em&gt;Duryodhana&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why did &lt;em&gt;Karna&lt;/em&gt; choose not to fight on the side of the &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-07-20T09:08:52.890" Title="Why did Karna choose not to fight on the side of the Dharma?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|dharma|karna|duryodhana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11798" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-02T01:32:28.620" Score="1" ViewCount="389" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did &lt;em&gt;Dronacharya&lt;/em&gt; say or do anything to stop it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If not, why so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-17T03:58:33.880" LastActivityDate="2017-04-19T15:37:59.157" Title="What was Dronacharya's response during Draupadi's Cheerharan?" Tags="|mahabharata|draupadi|dronacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11799" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11800" CreationDate="2016-05-02T01:35:06.727" Score="5" ViewCount="1609" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that he was a &lt;em&gt;Kaurava&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read that he tried to stop &lt;em&gt;Draupadi's&lt;/em&gt; Cheerharan. Is there truth behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, did he play any other role in the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T13:20:32.250" Title="Who was Vikarna in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|kauravas|draupadi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11800" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11799" CreationDate="2016-05-02T02:31:27.920" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vikarna was one of the 101 Kauravs, the son of Dhritarastra. His order of birth was as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 1: Adi Parva: Sambhava Parva: Section CXVII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Janamejaya said, 'Please recite the names of Dhritarashtra's sons according to the order of their birth.'&#xA;  &quot;Vaisampayana said, 'Their names, O king, according to the order of birth, are Duryodhana, Yuyutsu, &#xA;  Duhsasana, Duhsaha, Duhsala, Jalasandha, Sama, Saha, Vinda and Anuvinda, Durdharsha, Suvahu, &#xA;  Dushpradharshana, Durmarshana and Durmukha, Dushkarna, and Karna; Vivinsati and &lt;strong&gt;Vikarna,&lt;/strong&gt; Sala, &#xA;  Satwa, Sulochana, Chitra and Upachitra, Chitraksha, Charuchitra, Sarasana, Durmada and Durvigaha, &#xA;  Vivitsu, Vikatanana; Urnanabha and Sunabha, then Nandaka and Upanandaka; Chitravana, &#xA;  Chitravarman, Suvarman, Durvimochana; Ayovahu, Mahavahu, Chitranga, Chitrakundala, Bhimavega, &#xA;  Bhimavala, Balaki, Balavardhana, Ugrayudha; Bhima, Karna, Kanakaya, Dridhayudha, Dridhavarman, &#xA;  Dridhakshatra, Somakitri, Anudara; Dridhasandha, Jarasandha, Satyasandha, Sada, Suvak, Ugrasravas, &#xA;  Ugrasena, Senani, Dushparajaya, Aparajita, Kundasayin, Visalaksha, Duradhara; Dridhahasta, Suhasta, &#xA;  Vatavega, and Suvarchas; Adityaketu, Vahvashin, Nagadatta, Agrayayin; Kavachin, Krathana, Kunda, &#xA;  Kundadhara, Dhanurdhara; the heroes, Ugra and Bhimaratha, Viravahu, Alolupa; Abhaya, and &#xA;  Raudrakarman, and Dridharatha; Anadhrishya, Kundabhedin, Viravi, Dhirghalochana Pramatha, and &#xA;  Pramathi and the powerful Dhirgharoma; Dirghavahu, Mahavahu, Vyudhoru, Kanakadhvaja; Kundasi &#xA;  and Virajas. Besides these hundred sons, there was a daughter named Duhsala. All were heroes and &#xA;  Atirathas, and were well-skilled in warfare. All were learned in the Vedas, and all kinds of weapons. &#xA;  And, O, king, worthy wives were in time selected for all of them by Dhritarashtra after proper &#xA;  examination. And king Dhritarashtra, O monarch, also bestowed Duhsala, in proper time and with &#xA;  proper rites, upon Jayadratha (the king of Sindhu).'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He tried to stop disrobing of Draupadi as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 2: Sabha Parva: Sisupala-badha Parva: Section LXVI&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;apos;Bhima said,--&amp;apos;If I had not known, O Dhananjaya, that the king had acted according to Kshatriya usage,&#xA;  then I would have, taking his hands together by sheer force, burnt them in a blazing fire.&amp;quot; Vaisampayana continued,--&amp;quot;Beholding the Pandavas thus distressed and the princess of Panchala also thus afflicted, &lt;strong&gt;Vikarna the son of Dhritarashtra said--&amp;apos;Ye kings, answer ye the question that hath been&#xA;  asked by Yajnaseni. If we do not judge a matter referred to us, all of us will assuredly have to go to hell without delay. How is that Bhishma and Dhritarashtra, both of whom are the oldest of the Kurus, as also&#xA;  the high-souled Vidura, do not say anything! The son of Bharadwaja who is the preceptor of us, as also Kripa, is here. Why do not these best of regenerate ones answer the question? Let also those other kings &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  assembled here from all directions answer according to their judgment this question, leaving aside all motives of gain and anger. Ye kings, answer ye the question that hath been asked by this blessed daughter of king Drupada, and declare after reflection on which side each of ye is.&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt; Thus did &lt;strong&gt;Vikarna&lt;/strong&gt; repeatedly appeal to those that were in that assembly. But those kings answered him not one word, good or ill. And Vikarna having repeatedly appealed to all the kings began to rub his hands and sigh like a snake. And at last the prince said--&amp;apos;Ye kings of the earth, ye Kauravas, whether ye answer this question or not, I will say&#xA;  what I regard as just and proper. Ye foremost of men, it hath been said that hunting, drinking, gambling, and too much enjoyment of women, are the four vices of kings. The man, that is addicted to these, liveth forsaking virtue. And people do not regard the acts done by a person who is thus improperly engaged, as of any authority. This son of Pandu, while deeply engaged in one of these vicious acts, urged thereto by deceitful gamblers, made Draupadi a stake. The innocent Draupadi is, besides, the common wife of all the sons of Pandu. And the king, having first lost himself offered her as a stake. And Suvala himself desirous of a stake, indeed prevailed upon the king to stake this Krishna. Reflecting upon all these &#xA;  circumstances, I regard Draupadi as not won.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Hearing these words, a loud uproar rose from among those present in that assembly. &lt;strong&gt;And they all applauded Vikarna and censured the son of Suvala.&lt;/strong&gt; And at that sound, the son of Radha, deprived of his senses by anger, waving his well-shaped arms, said these words,--&amp;apos;O Vikarna, many opposite and inconsistent conditions are noticeable in this assembly. Like fire produced from a faggot, consuming the&#xA;  faggot itself, this thy ire will consume thee. These personages here, though urged by Krishna, have not uttered a word. They all regard the daughter of Drupada to have been properly won. Thou alone, O son &#xA;  of Dhritarashtra in consequence of thy immature years, art bursting with wrath, for though but a boy thou speakest in the assembly as if thou wert old. O younger brother of Duryodhana, thou dost not know &#xA;  what morality truly is, for thou sayest like a fool that this Krishna who hath been (justly) won as not won at all. O son of Dhritarashtra, how dost thou regard Krishna as not won, when the eldest of the Pandavas before this assembly staked all his possessions? O bull of the Bharata race, Draupadi is included in all the possessions (of Yudhishthira). Therefore, why regardest thou Krishna who hath been justly won as &#xA;  not won? Draupadi had been mentioned (by Suvala) and approved of as a stake by the Pandavas. For what reason then dost thou yet regard her as not won? Or, if thou thinkest that bringing her hither attired&#xA;  in a single piece of cloth, is an action of impropriety, listen to certain excellent reasons I will give. O son of the Kuru race, the gods have ordained only one husband for one woman. This Draupadi, however,&#xA;  hath many husbands. Therefore, certain it is that she is an unchaste woman. To bring her, therefore, into this assembly attired though she be in one piece of cloth--even to uncover her is not at all an act that may cause surprise. Whatever wealth the Pandavas had--she herself and these Pandavas themselves,--have all &#xA;  been justly won by the son of Suvala. O Dussasana, this Vikarna speaking words of (apparent) wisdom is but a boy. Take off the robes of the Pandavas. as also the attire of Draupadi. Hearing these words the Pandavas, O Bharata, took of their upper&#xA;  garments and throwing them down sat in that assembly. Then Dussasana, O king, forcibly seizing Draupadi&amp;apos;s attire before the eyes of all, began to drag it off her person.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also fought with Arjuna in Virata Goharan Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 4: Virata Parva: Go-harana Parva: Section LIV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, when the battle began to rage furiously, the &#xA;  Kuru hero, &lt;strong&gt;Vikarna, mounted on his chariot,&lt;/strong&gt; approached that foremost of chariot-warriors, Partha, the younger &#xA;  brother of Bhima,--showering upon him terrible shafts thick and long. Then &lt;strong&gt;cutting Vikarna's bow&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  furnished with a tough string and horns overlaid with gold, Arjuna cut off his flagstaff. And &lt;strong&gt;Vikarna, &#xA;  beholding his flagstaff cut off,&lt;/strong&gt; speedily took to flight. And after Vikarna's flight, Satruntapa, unable to &#xA;  repress his ire, began to afflict Partha, that obstructer of foes and achiever of super-human feats, by &#xA;  means of a perfect shower of arrows. And drowned, as it were, in the midst of the Kuru-array, Arjuna, &#xA;  pierced by that mighty chariot-warrior,--king Satruntapa--pierced the latter in return with five and then slew &#xA;  his chariot-driver with ten shafts, and pierced by that bull of the Bharata race with an arrow capable of &#xA;  cleaving the thickest coat of mail, Satruntapa fell dead on the field of battle, like a tree from a mountain-&#xA;  top torn up by the wind....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was one of the major warrior in the side of Kaurav as Duryodhan in Bhagvad Gita 1.8 mentions his name:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भवान् भीष्मश्च कर्णश्च कृपश्च समितिञ्जय: । &#xA;  अश्वत्थामा विकर्णश्च सौमदत्तिस्तथैव च ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are personalities like you, Bhishma, Karna, Kripa, Asvatthama, &lt;strong&gt;Vikarna&lt;/strong&gt; and the son of Somadatta called Bhurisrava, who are always victorious in battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was slained by Bhima in the battle in Jayadrath Vadh Parva and he laments for Vikarnas death as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 7: Drona Parva: Jayadratha-Vadha Parva: Section CXXXVI&#xA;  The seven sons of thine that were thus slain were &#xA;  Satrunjaya, and Satrusaha, and Chitra, and Chitrayudha, and Dridha, and Chitrasena and &lt;strong&gt;Vikarna.&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  Amongst all thy sons thus slain, Vrikodara, the son of Pandu, grieved bitterly from sorrow for Vikarna &#xA;  who was dear to him. &lt;strong&gt;And Bhima said, 'Even thus was the vow made by me, viz., that all of you should &#xA;  be slain by me in battle. It is for that, O Vikarna, that thou hast been slain. My vow hath been accomplished. O &#xA;  hero, thou camest to battle, bearing in mind the duties of a Kshatriya. Thou wert ever engaged in our &#xA;  good, and especially in that of the king (our eldest brother). It is scarcely proper, therefore, for me to &#xA;  grieve for thy illustrious self.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-02T13:20:32.250" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T13:20:32.250" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11802" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11789" CreationDate="2016-05-02T06:16:27.193" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not sure if he did it regularly, but on the night before Arjuna slayed Jayadratha, Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07076.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;went into&lt;/a&gt; a state of yoga and meditation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Sanjaya said, 'Then lord Kesava, of eyes like lotus-petals, having entered the unrivalled mansion of Arjuna, touched water, and spread (for Arjuna) on the auspicious and even floor an excellent bed of Kusa blades that were of the hue of the lapis lazuli. And keeping excellent weapons around that bed, he adorned it duly with garlands of flowers and fried paddy, perfumes and other auspicious articles. And after Partha (also) had touched water, meek and submissive attendants brought the usual nightly sacrifice to the Three-eyed (Mahadeva). Then Partha, with a cheerful soul, having smeared Madhava with perfumes and adorned with floral garlands, presented unto Mahadeva the nightly offering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Govinda, with a faint smile, addressed Partha, saying, 'Blessed be thou, O Partha, lay thyself down, I leave thee.' Placing door-keepers then, and also sentinels well-armed, blessed Kesava, followed by (his charioteer) Daruka, repaired to his own tent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He then laid himself down on his white bed, and thought of diverse measures to be adopted. And the illustrious one (Kesava) of eyes like lotus petals, began for Partha's sake, to think of various means that would dispel (Partha's) grief and anxiety and enhance his prowess and splendour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of soul wrapt in yoga, that Supreme Lord of all, viz., Vishnu of wide-spread fame, who always did what was agreeable to Jishnu, &lt;strong&gt;desirous of benefiting (Arjuna), lapsed into yoga, and meditation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was none in the Pandava camp who slept that night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;happens next&lt;/a&gt; is really interesting. Arjuna, despite his anxiety, falls asleep in his tent and Krishna takes Arjuna (in Arjuna's dream) to Shiva's abode to seek his blessings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Endued with great energy, his body seemed to be flaming with a thousand eyes. &lt;strong&gt;And he was seated with Parvati&lt;/strong&gt; and many creatures of brilliant forms (around him). And his attendants were engaged in singing and playing upon musical instruments, in laughing and dancing, in moving and stretching their hands, and In uttering loud shouts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;... And Krishna and Arjuna said, 'We bow to Bhava, to Sarva, to Rudra, to the boon-giving deity. We bow to the lord of all creatures endued with life, to the god who is always fierce, to him who is called Kapardin! &lt;strong&gt;We bow to Mahadeva, to Bhima, to the Three-eyed&lt;/strong&gt;, to him who is peace and contentment. We bow to Isana, to him who is the destroyer of (Daksha's) sacrifice. Let salutations be to the slayer of Andhaka, to the father of Kumara, to him who is of blue throat, to him who is the creator.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07078.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;gets the indication&lt;/a&gt; that his vow (of slaying Jayadratha) will be soon accomplished:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;... And the god also granted him the terrible Pasupata weapon and the accomplishment of his vow. Then having thus once more obtained the Pasupata weapon from the supreme god, &lt;strong&gt;the invincible Arjuna, with hair standing on end, regarded his business to be already achieved.&lt;/strong&gt; Then Arjuna and Krishna filled with joy, paid their adorations unto the great god by bowing their heads. And permitted by Bhava both Arjuna and Kesava, those two heroes, almost immediately came back to their own camp, filled with transports of delight. Indeed, their joy was as great as that of Indra and Vishnu when those two gods, desirous of slaying Jambha, obtained the permission of Bhava that slayer of great Asuras.'&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And towards the end of Mahabharata, before deciding to give up his body too, Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;was&lt;/a&gt; apparently in a state of yoga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conversant with the truth of every topic, Vasudeva, though he was the Supreme Deity, wished to die, for dispelling all doubts and establishing a certainty of results (in the matter of human existence), simply for upholding the three worlds and for making the words of Atri’s son true. Having restrained all his senses, speech, and mind, &lt;strong&gt;Krishna laid himself down in high Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Krishna goes to Hastinapura as an emissary and stays at Vidura's place, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05094.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;also sets&lt;/a&gt; other examples like how should one start the day:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And rising from bed, Janardana of Dasarha's race, that bull amongst all the Sattwatas, went through all the customary acts of the morning. &lt;strong&gt;And having cleansed himself by a bath, recited the sacred Mantras and poured libations of clarified butter on the sacrificial fire. Madhava decked his person and began to worship the rising sun&lt;/strong&gt;. And while the unvanquished Krishna of Dasarha's race was still engaged in his morning devotions, Duryodhana and Suvala's son Sakuni came to him and said, 'Dhritarashtra is seated in his court, with all the Kurus headed by Bhishma and with all the kings of the earth. They are all soliciting thy presence, O Govinda...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama also sincerely &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga6/ayodhya_6_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;meditated&lt;/a&gt; on Lord Narayana the day before his coronation ceremony:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Vasistha left, Rama took bath and meditated on Lord Narayana with undistracted mind along with his wide-eyed wife, Seetha. [2-6-1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taking the vessel with clarified butter on his head as per scriptures, he offered to Lord Vishnu the clarified butter, by dropping it into the blazing fire. [2-6-2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama ate the remainder of clarified butter after finishing the sacrifice, which he performed for his own good, &lt;strong&gt;silently meditated on Lord Narayana with controlled mind&lt;/strong&gt; and slept along with Seetha on a properly laid bed of Kusa grass in a splendid temple of Lord Vishnu. [2-6-3, 2-6-4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T06:16:27.193" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11803" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-02T08:19:50.647" Score="0" ViewCount="1246" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen people who get &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJnKzs7bl4E&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;poonakam&lt;/a&gt; also called convulsion in medical terminology. This is usually seen during festivals of Grama Devatas in villages where the Devata manifests in ordinary people. What I observed from those instances is that those people are either from poor families or stress minded or those who are facing too much difficulties in the society. I want to know whether this is real or a type of psychological disorder that arises due to the feeling of insecurity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5511" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-02T16:18:13.623" LastActivityDate="2016-05-08T06:28:13.670" Title="Is it the feeling of insecurity that induces the feeling of getting god on to one's body?" Tags="|belief|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11804" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11805" CreationDate="2016-05-02T10:52:24.503" Score="19" ViewCount="32666" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the Saptapadi or seven promises of marriage a Hindu couple takes walking around the fire?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-09-22T12:02:19.913" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T00:56:45.563" Title="What are the Saptapadi or the seven promises of marriage?" Tags="|practice|tradition|marriage|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11805" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11804" CreationDate="2016-05-02T13:33:00.833" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;The seven steps around the fire represents seven promises taken by newly married couple in the presence of the fire. In Hindu religion, he is believed as the maintainer of life. He carries the fruits of the yajna performed by us. So seven steps are done in presence of fire. These are called as &lt;strong&gt;SaptaPadi&lt;/strong&gt; meaning seven steps in sanskrit. The couple take seven revolutions around the fire taking seven promises.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The following are the vows taken by the groom :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.‘इष एकपदी भव-सामामनुव्रताभव-पुत्रान्‍विदावहैबहूंस्‍तेसंतुजरदष्‍टय:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O' bride you have walked one step with me. Now we have become friends;hence you will become provider of food.Help me to fulfill my vowed religious observances (vrats). May we have many sons and may they have a long life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;उर्जेव्‍दिपदीभव-सामामनु० ।।(The rest should be chanted like the mantra at number 1 and the same should be repeated when each mantrai chanted.)&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  O bride, you have walked two steps with me; hence may you become one who will give me strength.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;रायस्‍पोषायत्रिपदी भव० ।। (Rest as No.1.)&lt;br&gt;O bride, since you have walked three steps with me, may you become one who will increase my wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;मायोभव्‍यायचतुष्‍पदी भव० ।। (Rest as No.1.)&lt;br&gt;Since you have walked four steps with me may you increase my happiness.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;प्रजाभ्‍य: पंच‍पदी भव० ।। (Rest as No.1.)&lt;br&gt;Since you have walked five steps with me, may you give birth to children.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;ऋतुभ्‍य:षट्‌ पदी भव० ।। (Rest as No.1.)&lt;br&gt;Since you have walked six steps with me may you give me pleasure in all seasons.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;सखासप्‍तपदीभव० ।। (Rest as No.1.)&lt;br&gt;You have walked seven steps with me, hence our friendship (relationship) has become strong.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The following are the vows taken by the bride :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;त्‍वत्तो मेऽखिलसौभाग्‍यं पुण्‍यैस्‍त्‍वं विविधै: कृतै: ।&lt;br&gt; देव ! संपादितो मह्यं वधूराद्ये पदेऽब्रवीत्‌ ।।&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; O Lord! I have had the good fortune of acquiring you due to the various types of merits acquired by me in various births.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;कुटुंबं पालयिष्‍यामि ह्यावृद्धबालकादिकम्‌ । &lt;br&gt;यथालब्‍धेन संतुष्‍ठा व्रते कन्‍या व्दितीयके ।।&lt;br&gt; I will look after your entire family, from the infant to the aged and will be happy with whatever I get for my sustenance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;मिष्‍ठान्नव्‍यंजनादिनी काले संपादये तव ।&lt;br&gt; आज्ञासंपादिनी नित्‍यं तृतीये साऽब्रवीव्दरम्‌ ।।&lt;br&gt; I will always abide by your directives and will regularly cook delicious food, vegetables, etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;शुचि: शृंगारभूषाऽहं वाङ्‌मन: कायकर्मभि: । &lt;br&gt;क्रीडि ष्‍यामि त्‍वया सार्धं तुरीये सा वदेव्दरम्‌ ।।&lt;br&gt;I will embellish myself with clean attire and will indulge in sexual play with you through acts with the mind, speech and body.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;दु:खे धीरा सुखे हृष्‍टा सुखदु:खविभागिनी ।&lt;br&gt; नाहं परतरं यामि पंचमे साऽब्रवीव्दरम्‌ ।।&lt;br&gt; I who face sorrow bravely and remain pleased in happiness will share both your happiness and sorrow and will never indulge in adultery.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;सुखेन सर्वकर्माणि करिष्‍यामि गृहे तव ।&lt;br&gt; सेवा श्वसुरयोश्चामि बन्‍धूनां सत्‍कृतिं तथा ।। यत्र त्‍वं वा अहं तत्र नाहं वञ्‍चे प्रियं क्‍वचित्‌ । नाहं प्रियेण वञ्‍चा हि कन्‍या षष्‍ठे पदेऽब्रवीत्‌ ।।&lt;br&gt;I will happily perform all your household chores. I will also serve my in-laws and will respect other relatives. I will stay wherever you stay. I will never deceive my beloved (master) and will never get deceived by him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;होमयज्ञादिकार्येषु भवामि च सहाय्‍यकृत्‌ ।&lt;br&gt; धर्मार्थकामकार्येषु मनोवृत्तानुसारिणी ।। सर्वेऽत्र साक्षिणस्‍त्‍वं मे पतिर्भूतोऽसि सांप्रतम्‌ । देहो मयार्पितस्‍तुभ्‍यं सप्‍तमे साऽब्रवीव्दरम्‌ ।।&lt;br&gt; O master! I will assist you in the rituals of sacrificial fires (homa-yajnya), etc. and will obey you with regard to Righteousness (Dharma), wealth (artha) and desire (kama). Here, in the presence of the deity of fire (Agnidev), the Brahmans, my parents and relatives you have become my master and I have offered my body unto you.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above are the vows taken by the bride and groom separately. On the whole the meaning of each step is as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First step- For nourishment of each other&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second step- To grow together in strength&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Third step- To preserve our wealth and become rich.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Forth step- To attain happiness and harmony&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fifth step- To care their children, in-laws and relatives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sixth step- For Long life togetherness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seventh Step- Life long loyalty unity and all goodness forever. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All gṛhya sūtrās speak about seven steps only. The &lt;em&gt;sath phera&lt;/em&gt; or seven circumambulations around the fire is a recent development and not said in any gṛhya sūtrās.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;https://morpankh.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/hindu-marriage-and-saptapadi-meaning-and-application-in-legal-context/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-02T17:17:54.070" LastActivityDate="2017-03-02T17:17:54.070" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11806" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8879" CreationDate="2016-05-02T14:34:25.080" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. They were kidnapped as they saw &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9995/3500&quot;&gt;Samba, who was born with Amsa of Lord Shiva&lt;/a&gt;, with lust. Samba was their son and due to this heinous act, they were cursed by Lord Krishna. This is explained in detail in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-70/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 70 of Matsya Purana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siva said— There will be 16,000 wives of Krspa in the Yuga mentioned&#xA;above. When  once, in the spring time, those ladies, having decorated&#xA;themselves with ornaments, would be drinking together on the banks of&#xA;a pond studded with full budded lotus flowers, dancing with the wind&#xA;and resounding with the melodious notes of the cuckoo and musical&#xA;tunes of the big black bee, &lt;strong&gt;they will see Lord  Sämba, beautiful like&#xA;Cupid, having eyes handsome like those of a gazelle, and wearing the&#xA;garlands of mälati, passing by.They will cast on him amorous glances,&#xA;their hearts being fired with lustful feelings and they being targets&#xA;of the arrows of Cupid.&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Krsna will come to know all that with his&#xA;mental vision, and will curse them as follows: &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Because you cherished&#xA;the desire of  amorous pastime during my absence, all of you will be&#xA;taken away by bandits&amp;quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did they overcome this situation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then those ladies, overcome with grief on account of such a curse,&#xA;will please (by their prayers), when the Lord will say: &amp;quot;Dälbhya Rsi&#xA;of eternal soul, the favourite of the Brähmaqas, will teach you a&#xA;vrata, which will be the means of your liberation from the bondage and&#xA;which will actually free you all. This vrata will be of great benefit&#xA;of futurity. With these words, the Lord of Dvärävati (Dwaraka) left&#xA;them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What previous karma made them get deluded by cupid?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dälbhya said— &amp;quot;O Ladies! In the days gone by, all of you were sporting&#xA;in the Mänsarovara lake, when Närada, chanced to go there. Then you&#xA;were the daughters of Agni, in the form of nymphs. You did not salute&#xA;the sage, but asked him how Näräyma, the Lord of the universe, would&#xA;be your husband. Närada blessed you with the boon asked for, but also&#xA;cursed you for not saluting him. He said that, by giving away two&#xA;beddings, according to prescribed rites, on the twelfth day of the&#xA;bright fortnight, in the months of Caitra and Vaiéäkha you would get&#xA;Krsna as your husband in the next life.&amp;quot; And cursed you as follows—&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Because in  your conceit of beauty and prosperity you have omitted to&#xA;salute me before putting me this question, you will also be separated&#xA;from Krsna and will be lowered to the rank of public women, after&#xA;being forcibly carried away by thieves. In consequence of the curses&#xA;of Närada and Krsna you gave way to lustful feelings and have become&#xA;prostitutes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later Sage Dalbhya taught them a Vrata (ordinance) and they were relieved of that bad situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T08:45:06.363" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T08:45:06.363" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11807" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11808" CreationDate="2016-05-02T14:52:20.797" Score="8" ViewCount="4809" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shalya&lt;/em&gt; was an uncle of two of the &lt;em&gt;Pandavas&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Nakula&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Sahadeva&lt;/em&gt;). Why did he fight on the side of the &lt;em&gt;Kauravas&lt;/em&gt; then?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if you could provide the Sanskrit Shlokas to support your answer, that would be great (although, not necessary).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-08-20T15:31:55.960" LastActivityDate="2016-08-20T15:31:55.960" Title="Why did Shalya fight on the side of the Kauravas?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|pandavas|kauravas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11808" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11807" CreationDate="2016-05-02T15:09:18.023" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shalya was the king of Madra and brother of Pandu's wife Madri, so naturally he wanted to fight on the Pandava side. But when Shalya and his army came, they were greeted by Duryodhana's men, who provided them with food, lodging, and entertainment. Shalya assumed that Yudhisthira was responsible for all this, so he wanted to reward him for the hospitality. But then he found out that Duryodhana was the one responsible, so he was forced out of a sense of honor to reward Duryodhana, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And when Salya was exceedingly pleased and ready to grant even his life, Duryodhana, who had remained concealed, came forward and showed himself to his maternal uncle. And the kind of the Madras saw him and understood that it was Duryodhana who had taken all the trouble to receive him. And Salya embraced Duryodhana and said, 'Accept something that you may desire.' Duryodhana thereupon said, 'O thou auspicious one, let thy word be true, grant me a boon. I ask thee to be the leader of all my army.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shalya was tricked into fighting on the Kaurava side, despite his love for the Pandavas. In the course of the war, he killed Abhimanyu's brother-in-law Uttara (as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3059/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;), served as thr charioteer of Karna, and finally became the general of the Kaurava side after Karna died. Ultimately Yudishthira was forced to kill Shalya, which must have been an agonizing decision.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's important to note, by the way, that even while fighting for the Kaurava side, Shalya still supported the Pandavas, and while driving Karna's chariot during Karna's fight with Arjuna he tried to demoralize Karna as much as possible. Shalya was fundamentally a good person put into a terrible situation, forced to fight his own nephews even though he knew that their cause was just.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T01:28:31.340" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11809" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-02T15:19:20.203" Score="7" ViewCount="2882" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)    In any case, in Adhyaya 1 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa discuss the issue of who is eligible for Jnana.  As I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8682/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, he says that low-caste people are not eligible for Jnana, since they don't wear the sacred thread.  But before that, he says that the gods &lt;em&gt;are&lt;/em&gt; eligible for Jnana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that leads him into a discussion of the gods in general, in particular regarding how the Vedas can be eternal if mention the names of gods who do not remain in their positions forever.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10352/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the resolution is that the same names recur in different ages.  But in his commentary on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34098.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyaya 1 Pada 3 Sutra 29&lt;/a&gt; of his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, Adi Shankaracharya gives a few other arguments for the Vedas being eternal:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[T]he eternity of the Veda is founded on the absence of the remembrance of an agent only.... The eternity of the word of the Veda has to be assumed for this very reason, that the world with its definite (eternal) species, such as gods and so on, originates from it.--&lt;strong&gt;A mantra also ('By means of the sacrifice they followed the trace of speech; they found it dwelling in the rishis,' Rig-veda Samh. X, 71, 3) shows that the speech found (by the rishis) was permanent.&lt;/strong&gt;--On this point Vedavyâsa also speaks as follows: 'Formerly the great rishis, being allowed to do so by Svayambhû, obtained, through their penance, the Vedas together with the itihâsas, which had been hidden at the end of the yuga.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss the notion that the Vedas are a blueprint for the creation of the world in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11793/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is about the Rig Vedic verse that Adi Shankaracharya cites, which is verse 3 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34098.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 71&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yajñena vācaḥ padavīyamāyan tāmanvavindannṛṣiṣupraviṣṭām | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tāmābhṛtyā vyadadhuḥ purutrā tāṃ saptarebhā abhi saṃ navante || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With sacrifice the trace of Vāk they foIlowed, and found her harbouring within the Ṛṣis. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  They brought her, dealt her forth in many places: seven singers make her tones resound in concert.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, this verse was heard during Tapasya by Brihaspati, the guru of the gods, and the subject of the hymn is listed as &quot;Jnanam&quot;.  But my question is, why does Adi Shankaracharya think that this verse proves that the Vedas are eternal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse discusses how Vak, which as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7082/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is a name of Saraswati in her capacity as goddess of speech, was found by the wise as &quot;harbouring within the Rishis.&quot; But why does that imply &quot;that the speech found (by the rishis) was permanent&quot;?  Is Adi Shankaracharya arguing that the fact that it says the speech was &quot;found&quot; within the rishis as opposed to &quot;composed&quot; by them implies that the Vedas don't have a human author?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any commentaries on Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya that shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2019-06-25T10:55:49.187" Title="Why does Adi Shankaracharya think Rig Veda 10.71.3 verse implies the Vedas are eternal?" Tags="|vedas|brahma-sutras|rig-veda|adi-shankaracharya|brihaspati|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11810" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-02T15:23:26.930" Score="3" ViewCount="110" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many images depict &lt;em&gt;Bhagawan Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; laying on his side with a hand supporting his head. What is this &lt;em&gt;Asana&lt;/em&gt; called? Also, what does it signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6utNQ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6utNQ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-02T15:33:05.023" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T15:33:05.023" Title="What is the Asana is that Bhagawan Vishnu is laying down in?" Tags="|vishnu|asana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11811" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11809" CreationDate="2016-05-02T16:24:25.093" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The  &lt;em&gt;Rishis&lt;/em&gt;, from various places, gather every once in a while to meditate as is enunciated through the tradition of &lt;em&gt;Kumbha Mela.&lt;/em&gt; In such a confluence, in deep group meditation, the &lt;em&gt;Rishis&lt;/em&gt; of yore heard sounds or &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Sruti&lt;/em&gt;). This is before the advent of any language. These sounds were then used to formulate a language which came to be known as &lt;em&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/em&gt;. Also, the sounds or the mantras heard were very recently compiled into &lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt;, since &lt;em&gt;1500 BC&lt;/em&gt;,. There was no written accounts before this and as is widely known this was an oral tradition. I reproduce my answer from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8583/which-was-developed-first-sanskrit-or-vedas/11760#11760&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to support this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: Guruji, why are all mantras in &lt;em&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/em&gt;? What is so special about&#xA;Sanskrit?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No, &lt;em&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/em&gt; was derived later.&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Mantras&lt;/em&gt; were already there. The words of the &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt; were already&#xA;there; later on the languages was created. Not only in Sanskrit, but&#xA;when you go deeper into all languages, you will find all these&#xA;&lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the &lt;em&gt;Shloka&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यज्ञेन &lt;strong&gt;वाचः&lt;/strong&gt; पदवीयमायन तामन्वविन्दन्न्र्षिषुप्रविष्टाम |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तामाभ्र्त्या वयदधुः पुरुत्रा तां सप्तरेभा अभि सं नवन्ते ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word वाचः has multiples meanings. It means &lt;em&gt;voice, word, sound&lt;/em&gt; amongst other things. (It does refer to &lt;em&gt;Goddess Saraswati&lt;/em&gt; too, the Goddess of all sounds and speech). These meanings are taken from this &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/1872sanskriten00moniuoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;dictionary&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first part of the &lt;em&gt;Shloka&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यज्ञेन वाचः पदवीयमायन तामन्वविन्दन्न्र्षिषुप्रविष्टाम |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With sacrifice the trace of &lt;em&gt;Vācha&lt;/em&gt; they followed, and found her harbouring within the &lt;em&gt;Ṛiṣhis&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, &lt;em&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/em&gt; says that when the sounds or &lt;em&gt;Vacha&lt;/em&gt; were traced to their origin, they were found harboured in the &lt;em&gt;Rishis&lt;/em&gt;. In other words, it is the &lt;em&gt;Rishis&lt;/em&gt; who heard these sounds first in deep meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is another &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=SSammk5xUUEC&amp;amp;pg=PT47&amp;amp;lpg=PT47&amp;amp;dq=rigveda%2010%2071%203&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=BL_J9Q8yKS&amp;amp;sig=_Q1U0044_zR3IEbD4uOjjsjetwc&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwi3jvuO5bvMAhUDPo4KHYJSCkUQ6AEIOjAF#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=rigveda%2010%2071%203&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translation&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Prof. Shrikant Prasoon&lt;/em&gt; to support this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The learned or the &lt;em&gt;Rishis&lt;/em&gt; receive the meaning of the great words&#xA;through their indulgence into &lt;em&gt;Yagna&lt;/em&gt;. The words were revealed to and&#xA;received by the heart of the essence-knowing &lt;em&gt;Rishis&lt;/em&gt;. After receiving&#xA;they popularised them. In this way they expressed them in the form of&#xA;the prayers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chronologically&lt;/em&gt;, these sounds were later used, spread through oral means for a very long time, a language was developed on the same, the sounds were later compiled as texts (&lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt;) around &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hindu_texts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1500 BC&lt;/a&gt;, and grammar of the language enunciated by &lt;em&gt;Panini&lt;/em&gt; in his &lt;em&gt;Ashtadhyayi&lt;/em&gt; which only happened around &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%81%E1%B9%87ini&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;4th century BC&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, as &lt;em&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/em&gt; says, the &lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt; which are the &lt;em&gt;Srutis&lt;/em&gt; as heard by the &lt;em&gt;Rishis&lt;/em&gt; in deep meditation are eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-20T14:34:09.380" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11812" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3136" CreationDate="2016-05-02T16:39:49.317" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is due to a curse pronounced on Dharmaraja by a Brahmin, when Yama killed his son as a part of His (Yama's) duty. This is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/13004/5/Chapter3_573-652p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 139 Greatness of Dharmarajeswara Book 6 Nagarakanda of Skanda Purana.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Formerly, there was a Brähmana hailing from the family of Kasyapa in&#xA;  that holy spot. He was well-known as Upädhyäya. He was devoted to the&#xA;  Vedic lore. He begot a son later in his advancing age even as he&#xA;  strictly adhered to regular study of the Vedas. He acquired ample&#xA;  wealth.  When only five years old that son expired causing great&#xA;  sorrow to his father and mother. On knowing that his son had gone to&#xA;  the abode of Dharmaräja, the Brähmaoa became angry with Vaivasvata&#xA;  (Dharmaräja). In his height of grief, he took some water in his hand.&#xA;  With mental concentration and personal cleanliness, he then pronounced&#xA;  a terrible curse on Dharmaräja. &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Since I have been made a sonless&#xA;  person by that wicked-souled one, Yama, of defiled soul, he will also&#xA;  become sonless. Further people in this world will not perform worship&#xA;  to him nor glorify his name as in the case of other heaven dwellers.&#xA;  If anyone gets up early in the morning and recalls his name, there&#xA;  shall be obstacle in his auspicious activity&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharmaraja then pleads Lord Brahma to mitigate the curse. Lord Brahma creates Ailments to take lives of people after their destined life span.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;27-30. Lord Brahma said: &quot;O Yama, all these Ailments have been employed by me. They will&#xA;  always render help to you in all matters. &lt;strong&gt;Now if anyone reaches the&#xA;  end of his life-span these should be sent always by you to take his&#xA;  life.&lt;/strong&gt; Thereby, the ignominy arising from the death of people shall&#xA;  devolve upon these alone on the earth and not on you. Therefore, at my&#xA;  behest, &lt;strong&gt;go to your own abode and be engaged in your duty.&#xA;  Undoubtedly, you will never incur a fault (sin).&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;31&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Then the Son of Ravi took all those Ailments to his world and spoke to them respectfully: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;32-34. &quot;You shall regularly ask Citragupta and go to  the earth for taking &gt;away the life of people when the proper time arrives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Yama now returns the Brahmana son to Brahmana and  son requests his father to take back curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brähmara said: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;47&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O my son, my utterance can never be untrue even if it is jokingly made. It is all the more so if uttered by a grief stricken' one. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Hence, O wise one, he will not get a son from the divine womb. due to my curse. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He will have another son (one son will be born from Sudra women known as Vidura which is explained in previous chapter) born of the&#xA;  womb of a human female by means of Räjasüya and Asvamedha. He will&#xA;  redeem him.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Of what avail is a son bom to one if he is not capable of redeeming the members of his father's family by performing excellent&#xA;  rites on the earth? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;As regards the curse uttered by me in regard to his worship earlier, O dear son, listen to what I say: &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His worship with various kinds of Mantras mentioned in the Vedas will not find a place on the earth at all, dear son.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His worship shall be with Mantras composed by humans. It will be different from that of the other Devas&lt;/strong&gt;. It is the truth that has&#xA;  been uttered by me.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This son is none other than the Yudishtara, the eldest Pandava. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the story of Vidura, &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/13004/4/Chapter2_493-572p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharmaraja was cursed by Sage Madavya&lt;/a&gt; to take birth from Sudra women. Sage Mandavya was leper and due to severe penance of his chaste wife Dhirgika, he gets relieved of Leprosy. He then inquires Lord Yama the reason for his leprosy. Lord Yama says that mandava pierced a crane with tip of spear in one of his previous births and as a result of it he was born as leper. On hearing the words of Yama, Mandava gets infuriated as he considers punishment of leprosy is unfair for such a small deed. He curses Yama to born from womb of a Shudra. Later Yama prays to Shiva and Shiva grants boon to Yama that though he will be born from womb of Shudra (Vidura), he will be man of righteous temperament.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Son of Brahmin composes a mantra for Yama beginning with &quot;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sugam nah panthah&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. This story happened at &lt;em&gt;Dharmeswara linga&lt;/em&gt; and people who pray Yama statue, installed by son of Brahmana, at this place with the above Mantra will never die prematurely. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, due to above curse, worship of Yama is rare like Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-05-03T15:18:05.343" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T15:18:05.343" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11813" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11830" CreationDate="2016-05-02T16:58:18.890" Score="5" ViewCount="3613" Body="&lt;p&gt;What does &lt;em&gt;Itihasa&lt;/em&gt; mean? Also, why no other text is classified under &lt;em&gt;Itihasa&lt;/em&gt; except these two?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-08-27T17:04:42.077" Title="Why are only Ramayana and Mahabharata classified as Itihasa?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|history|itihasa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11814" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7812" CreationDate="2016-05-02T17:14:15.127" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna's Samba was born by the grace of Lord Shiva. Lord Krishna wanted to end Yadava clan as He thought no human could win their invincible sons. Actually, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-47/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yadavas were attendants of Lord Vishnu in Vaikunta&lt;/a&gt; who incarnated as Yadavas to assist him in removing evil from Earth. So, Lord Krishna performed Pasupata Vrata to gain a son like Lord Shiva, so that He could destroy his clan as Lord Shiva is God of Destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9995/3500&quot;&gt;This chapter of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; explains meaning of His name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna of composed mind obtained his son Samba of good qualities&#xA;bequeathed by Siva who was delighted by penance.Since &lt;strong&gt;it was Shiva&#xA;accompanied by Amba, who blessed him with a son&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;he named&#xA;Jambavati's son Samba.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-70/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 70 of Matsya Purana&lt;/a&gt; mentions Shamba as Shiva Himself. Samba is epithet of Lord Shiva as explained by you in question. So, your understanding is correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T17:14:15.127" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11816" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11804" CreationDate="2016-05-02T20:46:14.350" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The tradition of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saptapadi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saptapadi&lt;/a&gt; (seven steps or seven vows) can be usually found in South Indian marriages. It is also referred to as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satphere&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saatphere&lt;/a&gt; in North India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;https://web.archive.org/web/20040616160000/http://www.bnaiyer.com/companion/paths-13.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this blog&lt;/a&gt;, the seven marriage vows you are referring to are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 1. Groom&lt;/strong&gt;: My beloved, our love became firm by walking one step with me. You will offer me the food and be helpful in every way. I will cherish you and provide for the welfare and happiness of you and our children.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Step 1. Bride&lt;/strong&gt;: This is my humble submission to you, my lord . You kindly gave me responsibility of the home, food and taking charge of the finance. I promise you that I shall discharge all responsibilities for the welfare of the family and children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 2. Groom&lt;/strong&gt;: My beloved, you have now walked the second step with me. Fill my heart with strength and courage and together we shall protect the household and children.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Step 2. Bride&lt;/strong&gt;: My lord, in your grief, I shall fill your heart with strength, In your happiness, I shall rejoice. I promise you that I will please you always with sweet words and take care of the family and children and you shall love me alone as your wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 3. Groom&lt;/strong&gt;: My beloved, now you have walked three steps with me. By virtue of this, our wealth and prosperity are bound to grow. I shall look upon all other women as my sisters. Together, we will educate our children and may they live long.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Step 3. Bride&lt;/strong&gt;: My lord, I will love you with single minded devotion as my husband. I will treat all other men as my brothers. My devotion to you is of a chaste wife and you are my joy. This is my commitment and pledge to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 4. Groom&lt;/strong&gt;: My beloved, it is a great blessing that you have walked four steps with me. You have brought auspiciousness and sacredness into my life. May we be blessed with obedient and noble children. May they be blessed with long life.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Step 4. Bride&lt;/strong&gt;: My lord, I will decorate you from your feet up with flowers, garlands and anoint you with sandal wood paste and fragrance. I will serve you and please you in every way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 5. Groom&lt;/strong&gt;: My beloved, now that you have walked the five steps with me, you have enriched my life. May God bless you. May our loved ones live long and share in our prosperity.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Step 5. Bride&lt;/strong&gt;: My lord, I share both in your joys and sorrows. Your love will make me trust and honor you. I will carry out your wishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 6. Groom&lt;/strong&gt;: My beloved, you have filled my heart with happiness by walking six steps with me. May you fill my heart with great joy and peace from time to time.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Step 6. Bride&lt;/strong&gt;: My lord, in all acts of righteousness, in material prosperity and in every form of enjoyment and divine acts, I promise you that I shall participate and shall always be with you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 7. Groom&lt;/strong&gt;: My beloved, as you walked the seven steps with me, our Love and friendship became eternal. We experienced spiritual union in God. Now you have become completely mine and I offer my life to you. Our marriage will be for ever.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Step 7. Bride&lt;/strong&gt;: My lord, as per the law of God and the Holy scriptures [Vedas] I have become your spouse. Whatever promises we gave, we have spoken with pure mind. We will be truthful to each other in all things. We will love each other for ever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After these seven steps, the marriage becomes legal by Hindu law codes [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu08.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu 8.227&lt;/a&gt;].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, they both say: &quot;Now let us make a vow together. We shall share the same food, share the strengths, the same tastes. We shall be of one mind, we shall observe the vows together; I shall be the Sama, you the Rigveda; I shall be upper world, you the earth; I shall be the Sukhilam. you the Holder; Together we shall live and beget children, and other riches. Come thou, Oh, sweet-worded girl.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the original Sanskrit verses and their in depth explanation, you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6dS6102zcBgVjdVTndBeDlfaHM/view?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; I've taken from the book &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Viv%C4%81ha_the_Hindu_Marriage_Sa%E1%B9%81sk%C4%81.html?id=x-urMD7rDeoC&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Vivāha, the Hindu Marriage Saṁskāras&lt;/a&gt; by Bhaiyārām Śarmā tr. by R. C. Prasad, but I strongly suggest you buy the full book from &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Viv%C4%81ha_the_Hindu_Marriage_Sa%E1%B9%81sk%C4%81.html?id=x-urMD7rDeoC&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; Google Books &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Viv%C4%81ha_the_Hindu_Marriage_Sa%E1%B9%81sk%C4%81.html?id=x-urMD7rDeoC&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; or Motilal Publishers &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mlbd.com/BookDecription.aspx?id=247&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people actually print out the seven vows on their wedding cards, here's an example from a Telugu wedding invite (but it only contains the vows taken by the bridegroom, so not a complete one):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TKVfR.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TKVfR.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T20:46:14.350" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11817" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12416" CreationDate="2016-05-02T22:41:52.290" Score="3" ViewCount="2124" Body="&lt;p&gt;A related question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11807/why-did-shalya-fight-on-the-side-of-the-kauravas?noredirect=1#comment29335_11807&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; discusses the role of &lt;em&gt;Shalya&lt;/em&gt; in general during the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;. It is said that &lt;em&gt;Shalya&lt;/em&gt; tried to discourage &lt;em&gt;Karna&lt;/em&gt; in the midst of the war. How did he do that? Also, how did &lt;em&gt;Karna&lt;/em&gt; respond to this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T15:02:29.810" Title="How did Shalya discourage Karna during the Mahabharata war?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11818" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10127" CreationDate="2016-05-02T23:34:30.107" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dharma: that which upholds or sustains the positive order of the world - family, community, nation and the entire universe.&#xA;Laws may be used to uphold Dharma; but Dharma is not same as Law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no written rule of Dharma or Adharma. It really depends on situation. Krishna's actions were not according to Law; but they were very much according to Dharma (as they were meant to uphold Dharma) and so cannot be called Adharma. You can call them unlawful though.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please do not intrepet this as &quot;ends justify the means&quot;. Ends can ONLY justify the means if the end goal is establishment of Dharma.&#xA;As an eg: the phrase &quot;Ahimsa Parmo Dharma&quot; is construed as meaning non-violence is ultimate dharma. But the full phrase is &quot;Ahimsa Parmo Dharma, Dharm Hinsa Tathiv Cha&quot;; ie &#xA;&quot;non-violence is ultimate dharma; so too is violence in the service of Dharma&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/sadhguru/masters-words/krishna-in-mahabharata/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Check out this written by Sadhguru&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2736" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T23:34:30.107" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11819" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="700" CreationDate="2016-05-02T23:36:41.717" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;This might provide some insights: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q: What is &lt;em&gt;pitra dosh&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri:  &lt;em&gt;Pitra dosh&lt;/em&gt; is when a soul does not have good feelings for&#xA;  its sons or daughters. It has a solution called tarpan. &lt;em&gt;Til&lt;/em&gt; (sesame&#xA;  seeds) is offered to symbolize that all the things that are going on&#xA;  in the mind of the departed soul is small like it. So when the parents&#xA;  die, the children put sesame seeds in water and put it giving&#xA;  knowledge to the parents that dont care or worry for all these sesame&#xA;  seeds like worldly thoughts, Go ahead. Even after the death, the son&#xA;  or daughter gives the same knowledge in the ear of the dead body. This&#xA;  is why they say that if there is no son or daughter then mukti is not&#xA;  possible. Why? While people are alive if they do not get anyone to&#xA;  give knowledge then at least they can get that knowledge after death&#xA;  from their son or daughter. This is &lt;em&gt;shraadh&lt;/em&gt;. This is there in every&#xA;  culture of the world. In &lt;em&gt;China&lt;/em&gt;, on one day they will burn things made&#xA;  out of paper. In &lt;em&gt;Singapore&lt;/em&gt; too. Whatever they want they make it out of&#xA;  paper and burn it. They burn these things with the feeling that&#xA;  whatever they burn they will get that with the blessings of the&#xA;  departed souls. Practice similar to it is there in &lt;em&gt;South America&lt;/em&gt;. The&#xA;  important thing is that you receive blessings from the departed soul.&#xA;  So With belief, from your heart you give and that is what is tarpan.&#xA;  Of course the life is give and take game only but the best thing to&#xA;  share is knowledge. &lt;strong&gt;If you want departed souls to get &lt;em&gt;trupti&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  (satisfaction) they you can feed the poor&lt;/strong&gt;. The blessings of the people&#xA;  fed will help the departed soul. They say for 10 days after the death&#xA;  you cry as much as you want, ask whatever you want. Then apply ghee on&#xA;  your eyes and then do &lt;em&gt;Anand Havan&lt;/em&gt;. That is communicating and&#xA;  understanding that the soul which was love while living is now&#xA;  satisfied. There is happiness in the house and after the havan, the&#xA;  fire from the havan to light the diya or candle in the house. It is&#xA;  important to understand why to do things and how to do things. The&#xA;  important thing is to remain in knowledge and be satisfied. Knowledge&#xA;  is the only thing that can free you. Actions never have and never will&#xA;  liberate anybody.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While you are alive, if you get knowledge then you will be free then&#xA;  you don't have to wait for your daughter or son to give knowledge to&#xA;  the dead body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://srisriupdates.artoflivinguniverse.org/2011/06/excerpts-from-international-art-of_18.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://srisriupdates.artoflivinguniverse.org/2011/06/excerpts-from-international-art-of_18.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, more in context of the remedies of the &lt;em&gt;Dosha&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q: Pitra dosh - what to do for that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri: All &lt;em&gt;doshas&lt;/em&gt; (defects) get rectified by &lt;em&gt;seva&lt;/em&gt;, chanting O&lt;em&gt;m Namah&#xA;  Shivaya&lt;/em&gt;, meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://srisriupdates.artoflivinguniverse.org/2011_06_01_archive.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://srisriupdates.artoflivinguniverse.org/2011_06_01_archive.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-02T23:36:41.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11822" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11825" CreationDate="2016-05-03T01:25:35.103" Score="6" ViewCount="1971" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did any &lt;em&gt;Kaurava&lt;/em&gt; survive the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt; war? If so, what happened to them after the war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T02:45:12.627" Title="Did any Kaurava survive the Mahabharata war?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|kauravas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11823" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11824" CreationDate="2016-05-03T01:33:03.377" Score="5" ViewCount="995" Body="&lt;p&gt;If so, was there any specific reason behind choosing that name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2024-01-03T08:33:22.317" Title="Was Shri Rama named by Maharishi Vashishtha?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|vashishta|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11824" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11823" CreationDate="2016-05-03T02:01:13.997" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Shri Rama was named by Sage Vasistha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana Bal kanda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अतीत्य एकादश आहम् तु नाम कर्म तथा अकरोत् |&#xA;  ज्येष्ठम् रामम् महात्मानम् भरतम् कैकयी सुतम् ||१-१८-२१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सौमित्रिम् लक्ष्मणम् इति शत्रुघ्नम् अपरम् तथा |&#xA;  वसिष्ठः परम प्रीतो नामानि कुरुते तदा || १-१८-२२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Elapsed are eleven days and the naming ceremony is performed, &lt;strong&gt;then Vashishta, the chief priest, named the high-souled elder one as Rama,&lt;/strong&gt; Kaikeyi's son as Bharata, and one son of Sumitra as Lakshmana and the other as Shatrughna [1-18-21, 22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word 'Rama' is defined as &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ramante sarve janaaH guNaiH asmin iti raamaH '&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  in whom all the people take delight for his virtuousness, thus he is Rama.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman in Ram Rahasya Upanishad tells that in the word &quot;राम&quot; . &quot;रा&quot; is taken from Ashtakshari mantra &quot; ॐ नमो नारायणाय &quot; and &quot;म&quot; is taken from Panchakshari mantra &quot;नमः शिवाय&quot; ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The true meaning of the king among the Rama mantras, as well as of the &lt;strong&gt;eight-lettered&#xA;  Narayana and five-lettered Shiva mantras&lt;/strong&gt;, is spoken of as thus:&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Where yogi-s revel in the 2 syllable mantra viz. ‘Ra ma’ where the ra syllable denotes fire&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  wherein abides illumination. Its nature as Existence-Consciousness-Bliss is regarded as the supreme meaning, the&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  consonant denoting the unchanging Brahman, and the syllable the energy of&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  manifestation.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Know that Consonants joined to Syllables are used in breathing; the sound ‘r’, of the&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nature of light, is therefore used in action.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The sound ‘ma’, is known as ‘maya’ indicating prosperity; being itself the seed-letter&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (bijakshara) is also equal to Brahman itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-03T03:26:28.477" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T03:26:28.477" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11825" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11822" CreationDate="2016-05-03T02:31:10.807" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna talks about surviving warrior of Mahabharat war in this chapter of Mahabharat:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 14: Aswamedha Parva: Anugita Parva: Section LX&#xA;  Then, in thegreat battle that ensued, the royal son of Dhritarashtra was slain by Bhimasena &#xA;  who put forth his great prowess, in the presence of many kings. After this the remnant of the Pandava &#xA;  army, as it slept in the camp, was slaughtered at night time by Drona's son who was unable to put up &#xA;  with the slaughter of his father (at the hands of Dhrishtadyumna). Their sons slain, their forces slain, &#xA;  only the five sons of Pandu are alive with myself and Yuyudhana. With Kripa and the Bhoja prince &#xA;  Kritavarman, the son of Drona represents the unslain remnant of the Kaurava army. &lt;strong&gt;Dhritarashtra's son &#xA;  Yuyutsu also escaped slaughter in consequence of his having adopted the side of the Pandavas.&lt;/strong&gt; Upon the &#xA;  slaughter of the Kaurava king (Suyodhana) with all his followers and allies, Vidura and Sanjaya have &#xA;  come to the presence of king Yudhishthira the just. Even thus did that battle occur, O lord, for eight and &#xA;  ten days. Many kings of Earth, slain therein, have ascended to Heaven.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence Yuyutsu was the only Kaurav who survived Mahabharat war as he fought in side of Pandavas. All other 99 Kauravs were killed by Bhima.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Yuyutsu wasn't son of Gandhari. He was son of Dhritarastra from another Vaisya wife named Sughada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Sambhava Parva of Mahabharat:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Janamejaya said, &amp;apos;O sinless one, thou hast narrated to me from the beginning all about the birth of &#xA;  Dhritarashtra&amp;apos;s hundred sons owing to the boon granted by the Rishi. But thou hast not told me as yet &#xA;  any particulars about the birth of the daughter. Thou hast merely said that over and above the hundred &#xA;  sons, &lt;strong&gt;there was another son named Yuyutsu begotten upon a Vaisya woman,&lt;/strong&gt; and a daughter. The great&#xA;  Rishi Vyasa of immeasurable energy said unto the daughter of the king of Gandhara that she would &#xA;  become the mother of a hundred sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He took the side of Pandava as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 6: Bhishma Parva: Bhagavat-Gita Parva: Section XLIII &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Casting his eyes then upon them, &lt;strong&gt;Yuyutsu said these words, with a cheerful heart, &#xA;  unto Kunti's son king Yudhishthira the Just,--I will fight under thee in battle, for the sake of you all, with &#xA;  the sons of Dhritarashtra, if, O king, thou wilt accept me, sinless one.'&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &quot;Yudhishthira said, 'Come, come, all of us will fight with thy foolish brothers. &lt;strong&gt;O Yuyutsu, both &#xA;  Vasudeva and we all say to thee--I accept thee, O thou of mighty arms, fight for my cause. On thee rests, &#xA;  it seems, the thread of Dhritarashtra's line as also his funeral cake.&lt;/strong&gt; O prince, O thou of great splendour, &#xA;  accept us that accept thee. The wrathful Duryodhana of wicked understanding will cease to live.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Latter Yuyutsu served as Parikshit regent as described here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 17: Mahaprasthanika Parva: Section 1&#xA;  Bhimasena and the twins fully endorsed the words that Arjuna had said. &lt;strong&gt;Resolved to retire from &#xA;  the world for earning merit, they brought Yuyutsu before them. Yudhishthira made over the kingdom to &#xA;  the son of his uncle by his Vaisya wife.&lt;/strong&gt; Installing Parikshit also on their throne, as king, the eldest &#xA;  brother of the Pandavas, filled with sorrow, addressed Subhadra, saying, ‘This son of thy son will be the &#xA;  king of the Kurus. The survivor of the Yadus, Vajra, has been made a king. Parikshit will rule in &#xA;  Hastinapura, while the Yadava prince, Vajra, will rule in Shakraprastha. He should be protected by thee. &#xA;  Never set thy heart on unrighteousness.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-03T02:45:12.627" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T02:45:12.627" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11826" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-03T04:00:05.843" Score="7" ViewCount="1932" Body="&lt;p&gt;During Krishna's time on earth, one of his greatest devotees was the sage Narada, who was also an incarnation of Vishnu as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9353/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3427/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Narada was one of the sages who proclaimed Krishna's divinity.  But the most famous story of Krishna and Narada is one that I can't seem to find a scriptural basis for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story as I understand it goes roughly as follows.  (It's found, e.g. in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=GJvfCgAAQBAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA45-IA4&amp;amp;dq=narada%20krishna%20maya&amp;amp;pg=PA45-IA4#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; which quotes Swami Vivekananda.)  One day Narada comes to Dwaraka and asks Krishna to explain to him what Maya is.  So Krishna takes Narada on a trip in the desert.  In the middle of the desert, Krishna asks Narada for water, as he (claims to be) feeling thirsty.  Narada goes a short distance and finds a nearby village, where he falls in love with a local village girl and forgets all about Krishna.  He marries her, has children, and lives wit them 12 years.  Then one a massive flood comes and his family is washed away, when suddenly he hears a voice saying &quot;Narada, what about my water.&quot;  He sees Krishna, and asks him what has happened to his wife and children.  Krishna says that none of it was real, that Narada never had a wife or children and that the village didn't even exist.  That is what Maya is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scripture does this story of Krishna producing an illusion for Narada comes from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a similar story told in this chapter and subsequent chapters of the Devi Bhagavatam.  In this account Narada asks Vishnu, not Krishna, what Maya is, and then Vishnu tells Narada to take a bath in a pond, after which Vishnu will take a bath.  Then Vishnu turns Narada into a woman and makes him forget who he is, so the woman falls in love with a king, has children, and then her children die in a war.  Finally Narada goes back to the pond, where he regains his male form, whereupon he hears Vishnu say &quot;Narada, why are you still standing in the pond?&quot;  So then Vishnu explains that his experiences weren't real and that that is what Maya is.  But the Devi Bhagavatam is considered by many to not be an authentic scripture, because it's not listed in the traditional lists of Upapuranas.  So does anyone know if other Puranas mention this story of Vishnu and Narada?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And are there any scriptures that mention the Krishna and Narada version?  I've seen claims that it's mentioned in the Matsya Puranas, but I'm not sure where.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, both versions of the story, at least at first glance, seem to lend support to Adi Sankaracharya's philosophy of Advaita, which posits that the physical world is an illusion as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11190/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So I'd be interested in how non-Advaitins interpret it.  Assuming the story is mentioned in the Matsya Purana or some other Mahapurana, there's a good chance that one or more Vaishnava Acharyas have discuss it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T14:44:11.223" Title="What scriptures describe Krishna teaching Narada about Maya?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|maya|narada|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11828" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11831" CreationDate="2016-05-03T04:41:27.030" Score="2" ViewCount="2280" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did &lt;em&gt;Shri Rama&lt;/em&gt; leave his bodily form? Did he take a &lt;em&gt;Jal Samadhi&lt;/em&gt;? If yes, what is a &lt;em&gt;Jal Samadhi&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T06:00:05.307" Title="Did Shri Rama take Jal Samadhi to leave his bodily form?" Tags="|ramayana|history|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11830" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11813" CreationDate="2016-05-03T05:15:20.270" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Iti-ha-asa&lt;/em&gt; means  &lt;strong&gt;This has happened&lt;/strong&gt;. Iti means This; ha- aasa means has happened really; Itihasas are the stories which really happened once in the past. They are not myths. Ramayana and Mahabharata  are called itihasas as they really happened many years ago. Sometimes puranas are considered as itihasas because many believe that stories and incidents in the puranas are true and even there are people who think puranas are misinterpretations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the above is the meaning of Itihasa and it is right.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itihasa#Primary_Sources_.28Sanskrit.2C_Pali.2C_Prakrit_and_Tamil.29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; and an &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPGKiYIzsgM&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt; to a question by Dr. Vaddipatla Padmakar in a show called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhakthitv.in/category_dharmasandehalu.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharmasandehalu&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-05-04T04:48:00.390" LastActivityDate="2016-05-04T04:48:00.390" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11831" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11828" CreationDate="2016-05-03T06:00:05.307" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;How Lord Rama left his mortal body is described in this section of Uttar Kanda of Valmiki Ramyana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana Uttar Kanda Section CXXIII&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  HAVING thus gone for more than a half Yojana, the descendant of Raghu espied Saraju of holy waters flowing towards the west. And having crossed that river of rising waves to some extent, &lt;strong&gt;Rama, with his followers arrived at the place where he should give up his person.&lt;/strong&gt; Thereupon at that moment, Brahma, the grandfather off all encircled by all high-souled deities and with hundred kotis of celestial cars, arrived there where Kakustha had addressed himself to repair to heaven. The aerial way was full of lustre but its brilliance was increased the more by the native effulgence of the inhabitants of heavens, always performing pious actions. There blew the holy. fragrant and delightful winds and there fell profusely celestial flowers from the hands of the deities. The place was filled with the noise of hundreds of bugles sounded by Gandharbas and Apsaras. &lt;strong&gt;And then Rama prepared him- self to descend to the waters of Saraju.&lt;/strong&gt; Thereupon the Patriarch gave vent to the following accents from the welkin—&amp;quot;Come O Vishnu; may good betide thee; by our good fortune thou art coming here; 0 Raghava hear—0 thou having mighty arms, do than enter here with thy brothers, resembling the celestials in brilliance in whatever form thou liken—either in that of the sky or in thy own Vishnu form. Thou art the refuge of the creatures—nobody knoweth thee. Thou art above the range of thought ; great immortal and imperishable; nobody knoweth thee save Maya, having wide eyes, thy former spouse. Do thou enter here thyself in whatever effulgent form thou likest.&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;Hearing the words of the Patriarch and determining everything the high-minded Ram entered there bodily with his brothers in his Vishnu form. Thereupon all the celestial: Sadhyas, Marutas, headed by Indra and Agni worshipped that deity, Vishnu.&lt;/strong&gt; So did all the celestial Rishis, Gandharvas Apsaras, Suparnas, Nagas, Yakhas, demons, Danavas and Rakshasas. Thereupon eulogising him the celestials said :—“ Our region is now freed from sins and all here have been delighted and all their desires have been fulfilled.&amp;quot; Therenpon the highly effulgent Vishnu said to the Patriarch Brahma:— “ lt behoveth thee, O thou of good vows, to allot to those people their proper regions. These illustrious ones have followed me out of love. They are worthy of my respect for they are my devotees and have renounced their persons for me.&amp;quot; Hearing the words of Vishnu, the lord Brahma, father of all creatures, said :—-All these people who have come here shall go to the region named Santanaka. This region is intended even&amp;apos;l&amp;apos;or him, who though born in the most degraded state, thinks of all objects as Vishnu. There is no question about their attaining to this region who, out of devotion, have followed thee and renounced their persons. This region has all the attributes of the Brahma region and is next to it. The monkeys and bears shall enter into their respective celestial forms. They shall enter into the deities from whom they had respectively originated. Sugriva shall enter into the Sun’s region. And they shall obtain their respective lathers’ forms among the celestials present.&amp;quot; The lord of the deities having said this, all those who were present at the holy pilgrimage of Gopratra&amp;quot; descended into the waters of Saraju with eyes lull of tears of joy. Having bathed there, given up their lives delightedly and renounced their human forms they ascended the celestial cars. And having obtained the waters of Saraju, hundreds of those that were born in the race of birds attained to the land of immortals obtaining the respective celestial forms (they had before). And in those celestial forms, they looked ei’fulgent like the deities. And going to the waters of Saraju all objects, mobile and immobile, having bathed there, repaired to the excellent celestial region. Having renounced their bodies in the water thereof all the bears, monkeys, and Rakshasas attained to the land of deities. Having thus settled in heaven all those arrived there the father. of creatures with the deities, delighted and happy, repaired to the highest heaven. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence from above it is clear that Lord Rama directly changed into Vishnu form after entering water of Sarayu. In one way it can be interpreted as Jala Samadhi too as Lord Rama human form is ended there due to entering in water. But it isn't exactly Jala Samadhi as Lord Rama directly changed into Vishnu form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Giving up life by entering in water or giving up life by the aid of Jala Tatwa is known as Jala Samadhi..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T06:00:05.307" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11834" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-03T06:45:02.547" Score="10" ViewCount="7587" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2634/different-ramayanas&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; question discusses the different versions of Ramayana available. Although, it does not discuss how the story of &lt;em&gt;Lakshmana Rekha&lt;/em&gt; is different in these various texts. I just read a comment on a separate question that Lakshmana Rekha is not mentioned in Valmiki's Ramayana. If so, I have these questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If &lt;em&gt;Lakshmana Rekha&lt;/em&gt; is not mentioned by &lt;em&gt;Rishi Valmiki&lt;/em&gt;, what is the story of &lt;em&gt;Sita's&lt;/em&gt; abduction mentioned by him?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also, from which text is the story of &lt;em&gt;Lakshmana Rekha&lt;/em&gt; taken and what is that story?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2022-02-02T06:31:12.590" Title="If Lakshmana Rekha is not in Valmiki's Ramayana, then where is it mentioned?" Tags="|ramayana|history|sita|valmiki|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11835" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14" CreationDate="2016-05-03T07:27:16.663" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The usual argument people give in favour of drugs (in the context of &lt;em&gt;Hinduism&lt;/em&gt;) is a misleading argument that &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt; consumed &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt;. Hence, it is okay for them to do so too. This argument has no base in it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q. Gurudev, we sing devotional songs in praise of Lord Shiva and Lord&#xA;  Krishna. But back home, the people there consume Bhaang (a type of&#xA;  Indian narcotic incorrectly thought to please Lord Shiva) while they&#xA;  sing praises of Lord Shiva. How should one understand all this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, if &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; consumed &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt;, then he&#xA;  also consumed the poison that came from churning the cosmic ocean. So&#xA;  should we also drink poison first, and then see if we stay alive to&#xA;  drink &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt;? Do not misunderstand all these things.&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; never consumed &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt;. The essential point to understand is that the &lt;em&gt;Shiva Tattva&lt;/em&gt; (the most fundamental&#xA;  all-pervading element in creation) resides in each and every one. An&#xA;  intoxicant like &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt; too cannot do anything to &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt;’s&#xA;  bliss, because he is above and beyond all such trivial influences. But&#xA;  chanting his name can have a positive influence on us and elevate us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a Q&amp;amp;A: &lt;a href=&quot;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2015/08/why-good-people-suffer.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2015/08/why-good-people-suffer.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T07:27:16.663" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11836" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2082" CreationDate="2016-05-03T07:33:01.707" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;My answer is in sync with the accepted answer. I would like to add that &lt;em&gt;Shri Krishna&lt;/em&gt; was a kid when he played all these &lt;em&gt;Leelas&lt;/em&gt;. This is a point that is usually missed. Hence, to read more than what is there in it would not be a good idea:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you read the &lt;em&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam&lt;/em&gt;, you will find that he performed&#xA;  this &lt;em&gt;Raas Leela&lt;/em&gt; (meaning: a pastime of the Lord) when he was just&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;14 years old&lt;/em&gt;. He was dear to everyone and would play with everyone. So do not emulate his ways but absorb all the knowledge that he has&#xA;  given through his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is very difficult to be like Lord Krishna because he is &lt;em&gt;Yogeshwar&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  (Supreme among the Yogis). He could get away with hiding someone’s&#xA;  clothes while they were bathing! (Laughter).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you carefully read about the leelas of Lord Krishna, you will not&#xA;  find that it is limited to one place or has only one kind of flavor.&#xA;  You will find every kind of flavor and color of emotion in the stories&#xA;  of Lord Krishna’s pastimes. There is humor, love, and even the pain of&#xA;  longing in his stories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So he simply went through his pastimes to bring out each and every&#xA;  color and nectar of human emotion. It is impossible to completely&#xA;  understand the personality of Lord Krishna. From whichever angle or&#xA;  perspective you see him, you will find that he is complete and perfect&#xA;  in every way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2015/08/why-good-people-suffer.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2015/08/why-good-people-suffer.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T07:33:01.707" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11837" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2498" CreationDate="2016-05-03T07:47:34.450" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Tapas&lt;/em&gt; is endurance and acceptance. Alongwith &lt;em&gt;Shri Krishna, Rishi Patanjali&lt;/em&gt; also talks about this in his &lt;em&gt;Yoga Sutras&lt;/em&gt;. Here is a commentary on the same by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Say you are traveling in a plane; it is a long-distance flight. You&#xA;  are sitting and your legs are getting numb. You are tired but you keep&#xA;  sitting. You feel heavy but still you keep sitting. You cannot say,&#xA;  &quot;Oh! I cannot sit now. I am going to get out of the plane&quot;. No way. If&#xA;  the plane is delayed, held up in the air, you have to be there. There&#xA;  is no choice. Now, if you had a choice, then you would not sit for&#xA;  eight hours like that in one place. No way. But in a plane, you sit,&#xA;  accepting it willingly, without grumbling. That is tapaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Tapaha is really experiencing opposite values without grumbling.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Do you get what I am saying? You are driving somewhere and you are&#xA;  feeling sleepy. Sleep time. You never mind, another two to three&#xA;  hours; you say, “It does not matter. I will reach home”. You will not&#xA;  say, “It is already 10 o’clock. It is my sleep time. I will sleep&#xA;  now”. You do not park your car somewhere and just go to sleep, unless&#xA;  it is absolutely unbearable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the same way, if you are hungry, you say, “No I am fasting. I want&#xA;  to have a cleansing diet. I want to cleanse my body. So I am just&#xA;  going to fast on juice or water”. You decide on your own to do some&#xA;  action which is not usual. That is tapaha. Are you getting what I am&#xA;  saying?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You know that it is beneficial, the result of this action is very&#xA;  good. “It is beneficial for me, I am going to do it”. Like doing&#xA;  exercise. People go to the gymnasium. It is not a joke, it is not&#xA;  giving them any pleasure doing that, lifting the weights. It is not a&#xA;  pleasurable job. Same with bicycling. But one does it. Why? They know&#xA;  that it is good for their system. This endurance is called tapaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-48&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-48&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T07:47:34.450" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11838" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4116" CreationDate="2016-05-03T08:12:19.103" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is considered debatable whether &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt; should be considered fantasy works or not. There are both kinds of beliefs I have come across. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another point I would like to mention is that any text, fantasy or otherwise has a deep sense of sacredness attached to it. Texts in poetic form which are an imagination of the mind of the author are broadly classified as &lt;em&gt;Kavyas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To add to the previous answers, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kalidasa's&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meghad%C5%ABta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Meghadutam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; is a very famous text where a person separated from the beloved sends clouds as his messengers to the&#xA;  beloved. This &lt;a href=&quot;http://swarajyamag.com/author/17523/suhas-mahesh&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;page&lt;/a&gt; also has a list of articles citing such works&#xA;  which can be classified under this category.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many folklores too which can be categorized in this category of fantasy. Many of these serve as instructional texts for the old and the young alike. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Two of the most famous examples would be &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchatantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Panchatantra&lt;/a&gt; by Vishnu&#xA;  Sharma, which uses talking animals as the theme of narrating stories&#xA;  and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitopadesha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hitopadesha&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;em&gt;Narayana&lt;/em&gt; which uses multiple themes to give&#xA;  advice on various issues one faces in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T08:12:19.103" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11839" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-03T08:28:09.290" Score="2" ViewCount="858" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajanta_Caves&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ajanta&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; caves have temples in the range of a &lt;em&gt;100 kms&lt;/em&gt; which have many &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt; temples. (There are &lt;em&gt;Jain&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Buddhist&lt;/em&gt; temples too).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellora_Caves#The_Kailasanatha_temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ellora&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; caves also have a lot of &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt; temples, greater in proportion as compared to the &lt;em&gt;Ajanta&lt;/em&gt; caves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt; temples have sculptures which depict many homosexual acts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can these sculptures be taken as an indicator of Hinduism's support towards homosexuality and that 'Hinduism does not see homosexuality as a crime'?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If not, what was the intention of these sculptures on the temples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T08:28:09.290" Title="Sculptures on the Hindu temples of the Ajanta and Ellora caves" Tags="|temple|homosexuality|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11842" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-03T11:26:14.220" Score="2" ViewCount="2555" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen that some websites ( like astrosage.com) creates muntha chart and then calculate the varshfal &lt;em&gt;aka&lt;/em&gt; &quot;Yearly Predictions&quot;. I've found them to be quite accurate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to learn to create a muntha chart.Can someone explain how do we create a muntha chart using vedic astrology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4421" LastActivityDate="2017-03-01T18:17:55.597" Title="How to make Muntha chart using vedic astrology?" Tags="|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11843" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4051" CreationDate="2016-05-03T15:54:12.980" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Marijuana or any other drug is not considered sacred by Hindus. There might be some exceptions where people justify it. The usual argument these people give in favour of drugs is a misleading argument that &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt; consumed &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt;. Hence, it is okay for them to do so too. This argument has no base in it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q. Gurudev, we sing devotional songs in praise of Lord Shiva and Lord&#xA;  Krishna. But back home, the people there consume Bhaang (a type of&#xA;  Indian narcotic incorrectly thought to please Lord Shiva) while they&#xA;  sing praises of Lord Shiva. How should one understand all this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, if &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; consumed &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt;, then he&#xA;  also consumed the poison that came from churning the cosmic ocean. So&#xA;  should we also drink poison first, and then see if we stay alive to&#xA;  drink &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt;? Do not misunderstand all these things.&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; never consumed &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt;. The essential point to understand is that the &lt;em&gt;Shiva Tattva&lt;/em&gt; (the most fundamental&#xA;  all-pervading element in creation) resides in each and every one. An&#xA;  intoxicant like &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt; too cannot do anything to &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt;’s&#xA;  bliss, because he is above and beyond all such trivial influences. But&#xA;  chanting his name can have a positive influence on us and elevate us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a Q&amp;amp;A: &lt;a href=&quot;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2015/08/why-good-people-suffer.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2015/08/why-good-people-suffer.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T15:54:12.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11844" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2627" CreationDate="2016-05-03T16:08:26.137" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not sure if &lt;em&gt;Sama Veda&lt;/em&gt; goes into 'types of music'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Sama Veda&lt;/em&gt; has a lot of chants and melodious rhythmic &lt;em&gt;shlokas&lt;/em&gt;. Some of the audio can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedchant.com/#sama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, it talks about &lt;em&gt;Swaras&lt;/em&gt; and musical notes etc. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/samaveda/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; page mentions multiples documents relating to this context which are available for download.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T16:08:26.137" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11845" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2627" CreationDate="2016-05-03T16:34:18.407" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Indian Music originated from the Sama Veda. This is a very prominent view of many, and is accepted by everyone who learns Carnatic Music.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rig Veda and Yajur Veda mainly use only three notes which correspond to modern Shadja, Rishabha and Nishada, with the occasional Gandhara svara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the Samaveda is sung with all seven svaras (which include in addition to the above four, Madhyama, Panchama and Dhaivata). The way Samaveda is sung resembles to an extent the scale of Raga Kharaharapriya, a major Raga in Carnatic Music, which corresponds to the Kafi Thaat of Hindusthani Music.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Almost all composers in Carnatic Music refer to music as originating from the Samaveda. Prominent among them are the Musical Trinity of Muttusvami Dikshitar, Shyama Shastri and Tyagaraja. Saint Tyagaraja has dedicated many songs to the glory of Music, and in one of his songs, titled &lt;a href=&quot;http://sahityam.net/wiki/Nada_tanumanisham&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;'Nada tanum Anisham Shankaram'&lt;/a&gt;, (or, 'Lord Shiva, the Embodiment of Music), he proclaims,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Modakara Nigamottama Samaveda Saaram Vaaram Vaaram (Nada Tanumanisham)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;(I repeatedly worship the embodiment of music), which was born from &lt;strong&gt;the Samaveda, the foremost of Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also says in another Kriti, &lt;a href=&quot;http://sahityam.net/wiki/Sobhillu_sapta_swara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;'Shobhillu Saptasvara'&lt;/a&gt;, (or, 'The Seven Svaras Shine Brightly'),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhara Rig Samadulalo Vara Gayatri Hrdayamuna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;(The Seven Svaras shine), in the Vedas headed by the &lt;strong&gt;Rig and Sama Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;, as well as in the core of the sacred Gayatri Mantra (or, in the sacred Gayatri Hridaya)&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In yet another song, &lt;a href=&quot;http://sahityam.net/wiki/Viduluku_Mrokkeda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;'Vidulaku Mrokkeda'&lt;/a&gt;, (or, 'I salute the maestroes of Music'), he says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mudamuna Shankara Krita Sama Nigama Vidulaku Nadatmaka Saptasvara (Vidulaku)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;(I salute the maestroes) who are aware of the knowledge of the seven notes, the embodiment of Music, &lt;strong&gt;found in the Samaveda&lt;/strong&gt;, which was originated from Lord Shiva (as the embodiment of Music).&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, we can understand that Indian Music has originated from the Sacred Sama Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T16:34:18.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11847" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9125" CreationDate="2016-05-03T18:53:16.913" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is because it is easier for the mind to relate to a friendly, human form as compared to abstract formlessness. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar narrates this in the context of &lt;em&gt;Arjuna&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...Even Arjuna did not want god to be in a very powerful form, in the&#xA;infinite form. He said, “Oh, no! No! Enough, enough! You show me your&#xA;simple form, your human form!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the eleventh chapter of the Bhagavad&#xA;Gita, when Krishna showed his infinite form to Arjuna, he showed his&#xA;true form. Krishna said, “Inside me you see the sun, moon, stars,&#xA;fire, earth, and all the elements. The ocean, everything you see&#xA;inside of me. Close your eyes, I’ll show you with your inner eye,”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And&#xA;Arjuna got so shaken, he was so afraid, he said, “Oh no! You look good&#xA;to me as a friend, somebody whom I can talk to nicely, this is enough&#xA;for me. Don’t show me that! Be a simple form, a human form. I love you&#xA;in the human form. You come to me in the Human form!...”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a talk: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dvorahji.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/mylittleguru.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;www.dvorahji.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/mylittleguru.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T18:53:16.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11848" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11036" CreationDate="2016-05-03T19:02:20.573" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The moon symbolizes the mind. Why only crescent shape and no other form is a very interesting question. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar explains the symbolic meaning behind this beautifully:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shiva Tattva&lt;/em&gt; is where there is no mind and the moon signifies the mind. When there is no mind then how can this ‘no mindedness’ be&#xA;  expressed and how can anybody understand it? You need a little bit of&#xA;  the mind to understand, experience and to express. The no-mind,&#xA;  infinite consciousness requires that little bit of mind to express&#xA;  itself in the manifest world. So, to express that inexpressible, that&#xA;  little mind (crescent moon) is on the head. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Wisdom is beyond the&#xA;  mind, but it needs to be expressed with a tinge of mind and this is&#xA;  symbolized by the crescent moon.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T19:02:20.573" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11849" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="798" CreationDate="2016-05-03T19:06:02.000" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Damru symbolizes the expansion and collapse of the universe, the cosmic vibration. This is also related to the cosmic sounds:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Damru symbolizes the Universe which is always expanding and&#xA;  collapsing. From an expansion it collapses and then it re-expands,&#xA;  this is the process of creation. If you see your heartbeat, it is not&#xA;  just one straight line but it is a rhythm that goes up and down. The&#xA;  whole world is nothing but rhythms; energy rising and collapsing to&#xA;  rise again. So the damru signifies that. Look at the shape of the&#xA;  damru, from expansion it collapses and again expands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The damru is also a symbol of sound. Sound is rhythm and sound is&#xA;  energy. The whole universe is nothing but a wave function, it is&#xA;  nothing but rhythms. What does quantum physics say? It says the same&#xA;  thing – the whole universe is nothing but rhythms. It is just one wave&#xA;  (&lt;em&gt;Advaita&lt;/em&gt;). So the damru signifies the non-dual nature of the&#xA;  universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T19:06:02.000" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11851" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="430" CreationDate="2016-05-03T19:16:55.683" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lingam acts as a form available to us to transcend to the formless. This is its significance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lingam&lt;/em&gt; means identification, a symbol through which you can identify what the truth is, what the reality is. What is not visible but yet&#xA;  can be identified by one thing, that is &lt;em&gt;lingam&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a baby is born, how do you know whether the the baby is a male or&#xA;  female? Only through one part of the body can you identify whether&#xA;  this baby is a boy or a girl. That is the reason the genital is also&#xA;  called &lt;em&gt;lingam&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Similarly, how do you identify the Lord of this Creation? He has no&#xA;  form! So then they said that there should be a sign to identify Him.&#xA;  So the sign, by which you identify both the male and female forms,&#xA;  combining them both to form one single symbol to identify the Lord who&#xA;  has no form or identity; who is all pervading in this entire&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Brahmanda&lt;/em&gt; (Creation), is &lt;em&gt;Shiva Lingam&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shiva Linga&lt;/em&gt; is very ancient, in fact the most ancient. From the form, you go to the formless, through the &lt;em&gt;Shiva Linga&lt;/em&gt;. It is a&#xA;  symbol that is the representation of the cosmos and the creator of the&#xA;  cosmos, as one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is the &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt;, the two principles in the&#xA;  creation. The silent un-manifest and the dynamic manifestation&#xA;  together are represented as &lt;em&gt;Shiva Linga&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T19:16:55.683" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11852" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7775" CreationDate="2016-05-03T19:20:12.997" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shiva Tandava&lt;/em&gt; has nothing to do with destruction but rather with creation. Here is an interpretation in terms of the 'dance of the consciousness':&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The whole creation is the dance of &lt;em&gt;one&lt;/em&gt; consciousness (&lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt;). The&#xA;  one consciousness danced and manifested into a million species in the&#xA;  world. So this infinite creation is the dance of Lord Shiva or &lt;em&gt;Shiva&#xA;  Tandav&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The whole world is a place of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T19:20:12.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11853" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11289" CreationDate="2016-05-03T19:32:50.083" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The connotation of Vibhuti is that it is used as a symbol for remembrance of death, the final destiny of the body. So, that is its significance: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shiva’s&lt;/em&gt; temple is the consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva is not in the stones or in temples, he is in the consciousness&#xA;  of the human beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Our body all becomes ashes, so ash signifies the last, the ultimate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vibhuti&lt;/em&gt; does not mean the ashes one puts on the head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T19:32:50.083" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11854" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10642" CreationDate="2016-05-03T19:40:21.210" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a lot of deep symbolism behind the representation of the &lt;em&gt;Nataraja&lt;/em&gt; form of &lt;em&gt;Shiva&lt;/em&gt;. This symbolism is connected with the elements and also with dance as you mention: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Natraja&lt;/em&gt; is a very beautiful symbol of the union of nature and the Divine. Natraja holds fire in one hand which represents the fire&#xA;  element, and a damru in his other hand which depicts the space&#xA;  element. Many forces in the universe are represented by a shape&#xA;  similar to that of a &lt;em&gt;damru&lt;/em&gt;, like a chromosome, or shapes of galaxies&#xA;  and so on. Time also is said to have a conical representation. ∞ is&#xA;  the symbol (shape of the &lt;em&gt;damru&lt;/em&gt;) which represents infinity. Shiva’s&#xA;  hair is open and flying representing the air element. One foot on&#xA;  ground symbolizing &lt;em&gt;prithvi&lt;/em&gt; (earth element), another in the air. One&#xA;  hand is the symbolic &lt;em&gt;abhaya hasta&lt;/em&gt;, symbolizing protection, and the&#xA;  other points to his feet, symbolizing surrender. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;With one foot&#xA;  already in the air, he has already taken a step towards the devotee&#xA;  while he says “You are dear to me”.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva is dancing (in the form of Natraja). Life should be like this.&#xA;  If both feet are stuck on the ground then you cannot dance. Even to&#xA;  walk you need to take one foot up. The entire creation is full of&#xA;  bliss. &lt;em&gt;The entire creation is dancing in bliss. The entire creation&#xA;  is longing for bliss, and Natraja&lt;/em&gt; represents that &lt;em&gt;Ananda Tattva&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  (bliss) that the whole world is longing for.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Every atom in the world is filled with the potential for action, yet it is at peace. Shiva, the principle of infinite peace and bliss&#xA;  is not inert. It is peaceful, yet dancing.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Underneath his feet, there is &lt;em&gt;demon&lt;/em&gt; (which represents desires). So&#xA;  he is standing with his foot on top of desires. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;If desires eat you&#xA;  up then you are in trouble. Only when you rise above desires and you&#xA;  are dancing on it, then it is a dance of joy and bliss.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is not just imagination, this is the truth. This energy awakens&#xA;  within us and we rise in dance. This is true. The Divine energy&#xA;  pervading the entire creation is eternally dancing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T19:40:21.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11855" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9926" CreationDate="2016-05-03T19:54:07.720" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;To add more details to the answer of Marcus, the &lt;em&gt;Rudrabhishekam&lt;/em&gt; is done in two parts and the mantras have a positive effect on the mind:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rudrabhiskek&lt;/em&gt; is an ancient chanting which was downloaded from the &lt;em&gt;Akasha&lt;/em&gt; (space). When the ancient sages sat in meditation, they heard these sounds (of the mantras), and they started transferring to other&#xA;  people what they heard (and that is how the Rudrabhishek become known&#xA;  to mankind).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The effect of Rudrabhishek is, it creates positive energy and removes negative vibrations.&lt;/em&gt; The main thing is the vibration, that is it. If&#xA;  you ask me, ’Do you know the meaning of all the chants? I will say, ’I&#xA;  also don’t know.’ It’s the vibration of the chants that is more&#xA;  important than the meaning. When Rudrabishek happens, nature&#xA;  flourishes; nature becomes joyful and happy. Mainly, it creates more&#xA;  positive vibrations; more so when people are meditating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First Part of Rudrabhishekam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two parts to &lt;em&gt;Rudrabhishekam&lt;/em&gt;, the first part says, ’Namo,&#xA;  namo, namo, namo’.&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Mana&lt;/em&gt; means &lt;em&gt;mind&lt;/em&gt;. The word mind in English comes from the Sanskrit word &lt;em&gt;Mana&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Nama&lt;/em&gt; is the reverse of the mind. &lt;em&gt;The mind going to its&#xA;  source is called Nama.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the mind goes outside to experience the world, it is &lt;em&gt;Mana&lt;/em&gt;. When&#xA;  the mind goes back to its source, it is &lt;em&gt;Nama&lt;/em&gt;, and when it goes to&#xA;  its source what does it find? It finds that &lt;em&gt;everything is made up of&#xA;  one consciousness&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Today, scientist are talking about the &lt;em&gt;God Particle&lt;/em&gt; – the one&#xA;  particle by which everything has been made. Thousands of years ago the&#xA;  Rishis said the same thing, that everything is made up of &lt;em&gt;one thing,&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  and that they called &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That which is neither male nor female, which is nothing but a Tattva&#xA;  (Tattva means principle), by which everything is made, is called&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Bramhan&lt;/em&gt;. And when that &lt;em&gt;Bramhan&lt;/em&gt; becomes personal, it is called Shiva Tattva – the innocent divinity that is in everything. That is&#xA;  why we say, ‘Namo, namo!’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the trees, in the greenery, in the birds, even in the thieves, and&#xA;  in a dacoit, everywhere, it is the same &lt;em&gt;one&lt;/em&gt; principle that present.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Second Part of Rudrabhishekam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, the second part will say, ‘Chame, chame, chame, chame.’ You have&#xA;  heard this, isn’t it?! This means, &lt;em&gt;'Everything is in me'.&lt;/em&gt; ‘Me’ in&#xA;  English comes from the Sanskrit word &lt;em&gt;’Ma’&lt;/em&gt;, which means 'Myself'. ‘Ma&#xA;  Ma’ means ’ For Me’ and ‘In Me’. So, everything is in terms of&#xA;  'Myself'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The second part is &lt;em&gt;'Everything is for me, and everything is in terms&#xA;  of me.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even for the numbers they say, ‘&lt;em&gt;Ekaachame&lt;/em&gt;’, which means, one, two,&#xA;  three, four, they are all my form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like that, ‘&lt;em&gt;Sugamchame&lt;/em&gt;’, happiness for me!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘&lt;em&gt;Abhayanchame&lt;/em&gt;’, fearlessness, happiness, health, all the good things&#xA;  in the universe, let them all come to me, and they are all part of me.&#xA;  That is it!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As this is being chanted, usually milk and water runs through the&#xA;  crystal, drop by drop. This is the ancient method. It is done with&#xA;  water, or by putting herbs in fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is Rudrabhishekam Done on Monday?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When done on Mondays it is even more special. Monday is the day of the&#xA;  moon, and the moon and mind are connected. Mantra, mind, moon, they&#xA;  are all connected somewhere. So in India, it is a tradition to have&#xA;  this chanting in the Ashrams every Monday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the five elements are used in pooja. Pooja means honoring all the&#xA;  elements. So, fire, water, incense sticks, fruits, flowers, rice,&#xA;  whatever nature has given to us, those things are used (for worship)&#xA;  along with the chanting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just doing it as a ritual is not that effective because it is said&#xA;  that &lt;em&gt;the Veda Mantras are effective when people are awake from&#xA;  within&lt;/em&gt;; for them, these mantras have more meaning. So, these mantras&#xA;  help you to go deep into meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T19:54:07.720" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11856" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11834" CreationDate="2016-05-03T22:03:51.827" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/applied-mythology/leadership/the-auditors-tragedy.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; by Devdutt Pattanaik:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This story of Lakshman Rekha, the line drawn by Lakshmana around Sita's hut, comes to us from regional Ramayanas like the &lt;strong&gt;Bengali Krittivasa Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;Telugu Ranganatha Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;, written about seven centuries years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is &lt;strong&gt;not found in&lt;/strong&gt; the old Sanskrit &lt;strong&gt;Ramayana of Valmiki&lt;/strong&gt;, written two thousand years ago, or even the oldest regional Ramayana, written in Tamil by Kamban, a thousand years ago. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the Wikipedia article &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krittivasi_Ramayan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krittivasi Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krittivasi_Ramayan#Timeline_of_Krittivasi_Ramayan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Timeline of Krittivasi Ramayan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The original Krittivasi Ramayan is dated to the first half of the &lt;strong&gt;15th century&lt;/strong&gt;. In the next four centuries, it underwent various changes at the hands of various puthi scribes. The current version of the epic was revised by Jaygopal Tarkalankar and was published in 1834. Later in the 20th century, various editions were published based on the Jaygopal Tarkalankar version.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the Wikipedia article &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranganatha_ramayan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Ranganatha Ramayanam (శ్రీ రంగనాథ రామాయణం)&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ranganatha Ramayana was written by the poet Ranganatha—also known as Gona Budda Reddy—&lt;strong&gt;between 1300 and 1310 A.D&lt;/strong&gt;. This Ramayana was composed in 17,290 couplets (in Dwipada metre). This meter is lyrical and can either be recited like the Valmiki Ramayana (written in Anustupa metre) or sung like the Ramcharitmanas (written in Doha-Chaupai). It is quite popular with both scholars and illiterates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, these are merely 'adaptations' of the Valmiki Ramayana, but still very popular.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the Ranganatha Ramayana (Telugu) available at &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/RanganathaRamayanamu/Ranganatha%20Ramayanamu#page/n191/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt;, I was able to locate the exact verse wherein the incident of Lakshmana drawing the line (Lakshmana-rekha) along the perimeter of the hut or the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parnasala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;parnashala&lt;/a&gt; they were staying in, is mentioned. Here Lakshmana is telling Sita that whoever dares to cross this line, his head will break into a thousand pieces:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zVcwN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zVcwN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Luckily, there's also a Hindi &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Ranganatha.Ramayana#page/n181/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translation&lt;/a&gt; of the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9oEPV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9oEPV.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it looks like Sita without giving a second thought to the Lakshmana-rekha just crossed the line to greet Ravana who's disguised as a sanyasi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0xOpw.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0xOpw.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thereafter, a long argument ensued, Ravana revealed his ten-headed form, Sita fell unconscious and Ravana abducted her:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qJfu6.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qJfu6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the much of the discussion between Sita and Ravana is taking place outside Sita's dwelling (for obvious reasons) in Ranganatha Ramayana, in Valmiki Ramayana however, it appears to be happening inside the house because clearly Sita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga46/aranyasans46.htm#Verse34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;invites and seats&lt;/a&gt; Ravana as she would a normal Brahmin guest:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Oh, auspicious lady, who are you? Whose are you? Also from where are you? And being lonely, what for you are moving in dreadful Dandaka forest that is adored by demons?&quot; Thus Ravana spoke to Seetha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the wicked minded Ravana praised her in this way, Vaidehi the princess from Mithila has seen him who has arrived in the getup of Brahman and started to revere him with all the respects affordable to a casual guest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She firstly fetched a seat him, then invited him with water for feet-wash, and then said to him who looked gracious in his bearing, 'alms are ready.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maithili explored him who arrived with the features of a Brahman, with a saffron-robe and alms-bowl, and finding no reason to refute him flatly, as he has come like a Brahman, she invited him as a Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-03T22:32:57.310" LastActivityDate="2016-05-03T22:32:57.310" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11857" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9127" CreationDate="2016-05-04T00:31:20.380" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;While writing &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11856/2995&quot;&gt;another answer&lt;/a&gt;, I searched if this story (Shabari feeding Rama 'tasted' berries) is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranganatha_ramayan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Ranganatha Ramayanam&lt;/a&gt;, but it's &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; there. It just says that Shabari offered various fruits to Rama and then he just ate them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rLRDi.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rLRDi.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, while comparing the above to Valmiki Ramayana at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga46/aranyasans46.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;valmikiramayan.net&lt;/a&gt;, I found the following &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga74/aranyasans74.htm#Verse17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;note&lt;/a&gt; by the translators there:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By the way, where is the scene of Rama eating fruits and eatables bitten and tasted by Shabari?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Has this old woman not offered the fruits to the guests, or just said that they are available?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We listen many stories and see many pictures telling that she gave many fruits after biting them with her own teeth to test the taste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All that is not in Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This amplification is from Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; phalaani ca supakvaani muulaani madhuraaNi ca | &lt;sup&gt;PS&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; svayam aasaadya maadhuryam pariikShya paribhakShya ca | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; pashcaat nivedayaamaasa raaghaabhyaam dhR^iDhvrataa |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;PS: I'll update my answer when I locate those exact verses or their translation from Padma Purana.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2016-05-04T00:31:20.380" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11858" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5483" CreationDate="2016-05-04T01:58:07.897" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In addition to the stories, there is also deep spiritual significance behind &lt;em&gt;Maha Shivaratri.&lt;/em&gt; It is said that this is when &lt;em&gt;Shiva Tattva&lt;/em&gt; comes down and touches the Earth: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;em&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/em&gt; (ancient texts praising the divine&#xA;  through divine stories), when Parvati asked Shiva, what pleases him&#xA;  the most, He is supposed to have replied, 'The 14th night of the new&#xA;  moon of the month of Phalgun is my favorite day. It is known as&#xA;  Shivaratri’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Celebrating the Peace Within is Shivaratri&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mahashivaratri&lt;/em&gt; is the day when the Shiva Tattva touches the earth. The consciousness, the aura or the ethereal world which is always ten&#xA;  inches above the material ground, touches the earth element on the day&#xA;  of Mahashivaratri. &lt;em&gt;It is the wedding of the material with the&#xA;  spiritual.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shiva is the soul (of everything)&lt;/em&gt; – there is no difference between the soul and Shiva. Your true nature is Shiva, and Shiva is peace,&#xA;  infinity, beauty and the non-dual one.&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Ratri means 'to take refuge'. Shivaratri is taking refuge in Shiva.&lt;/em&gt; Ratri (which translates as night) is that which gives you rest, or&#xA;  peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Three types of peace are needed:&#xA;  1. Material peace.&#xA;  2. Mental peace and&#xA;  3. Peace in the soul&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If there is disturbance around you, you cannot sit and stay peaceful.&#xA;  You need peace in your environment. You also need peace in the body&#xA;  and mind, and you need peace in the soul. You may have peace in the&#xA;  atmosphere, you may enjoy good health, and you may have peace in the&#xA;  mind to a certain extent, but &lt;em&gt;if the soul is restless, nothing can&#xA;  bring you comfort&lt;/em&gt;. So that peace is also essential.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only in the presence of all the three types of peace can there be&#xA;  complete peace. Without one, the other is incomplete. &lt;em&gt;Shivaratri is&#xA;  taking refuge in the divine consciousness which brings peace and&#xA;  solace to all layers of consciousness&lt;/em&gt;. So resting in the Shiva Tattva&#xA;  is Shivaratri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the mind, intellect and ego rests in the divine that is the real&#xA;  rest, and the deepest rest. This is why it is very useful for people&#xA;  to meditate on this day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Day for Meditation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shivaratri&lt;/em&gt; is like a new year for a &lt;em&gt;saadhak&lt;/em&gt; (seeker). It is considered as an auspicious day for spiritual growth and material&#xA;  attainment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The night on this day, when the constellations are in some particular&#xA;  position, is very auspicious for meditation. And so &lt;em&gt;it is very useful&#xA;  for people to keep awake and meditate on Shivaratri.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In ancient times, people used to say, 'Okay, if you cannot do every&#xA;  day, at least one day in a year, on Shivratri day. Do meditation and&#xA;  keep awake'.&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Wake the Divinity that is deep within you&lt;/em&gt; - this is the message. The Divinity is within you, let it wake up!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Day For Fasting&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Not eating too much, eating light and doing more meditation on this&#xA;  day helps in fulfillment of desires - this is the ancient belief.&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Like a sponge in water (a rasagulla in syrup), when mind and body is resting in the Shiva Tattva, small wishes get fulfilled effortlessly.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen on any other day. At any time when&#xA;  your heart is open and your mind is calm, prayers do get answered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People usually eat very light, some fruits or something and fast. I&#xA;  don’t recommend you fast without anything. Take some fruits or some&#xA;  light easily digestible food and spend the day awake and meditate at&#xA;  night. You don’t need to do meditation all night, just for some time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Day For Chanting Sacred Hymns&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shivratri&lt;/em&gt; day is celebrated with &lt;em&gt;Rudrabhishekam&lt;/em&gt; (singing of the ancient Vedic mantras which is accompanied with a ceremony of washing&#xA;  the Shiva Linga with milk, curd, honey, rose water, etc).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do you know,&#xA;  when we chant the Vedic mantras, these mantras bring a big change in&#xA;  the environment. It brings purity in the environment. sattva is&#xA;  increased, bad karmas are destroyed and nature celebrates. That is why&#xA;  this &lt;em&gt;Rudrabhishekam has been performed for many thousands of years&#xA;  for the well-being of all.&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;'Let there be timely rain, let there be a good harvest. Let there be health, wealth, wisdom, and liberation'&lt;/em&gt;, with these prayers it is&#xA;  performed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;To strengthen one’s connection to the Divine, Rudrabhishekam is performed.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-04T01:58:07.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11860" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-04T02:49:25.187" Score="2" ViewCount="378" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyaki&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Satyaki&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; was a student of &lt;em&gt;Arjuna&lt;/em&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How was Satyaki able to fight against &lt;em&gt;Guru Dronacharya&lt;/em&gt; for a whole day on Fourteenth day of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra_War&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kurukshetra War&lt;/a&gt; ? Was he that skilled?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyaki#Fourteenth_day&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kurukshetra War : Fourteenth day - wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satyaki defends Yudhishthira from Drona, who was attempting to capture the emperor in Arjuna's absence. Rescuing Dhristadyumna from Drona, Satyaki engages in a long fight with Drona, taking up the morning's fight. Drona gets so frustrated by Satyaki, that he even uses divine weapons, which Satyaki counters using his knowledge of divine weapons from his education under Arjuna. Eventually, Satyaki tires, and he is wounded by Drona's arrows. He is rescued by a new attack from the Upapandavas. Ultimately, Satyaki manages to stall Drona long enough that Duryodhana, frustrated with Drona's lack of progress, withdraws Drona to focus on the conflict with Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As usual, Wikipedia does not provide any references. Also, I do not trust this narration completely. Nor is it detailed. Hence, this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-26T03:11:35.063" LastActivityDate="2018-10-26T03:11:35.063" Title="How was Satyaki able to fight against Guru Dronacharya for a whole day?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|war|dronacharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11861" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-04T03:19:42.967" Score="3" ViewCount="831" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Hanoi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tower of Brahma&lt;/a&gt;, is a &lt;em&gt;mathematical&lt;/em&gt; puzzle which describes the concept of &lt;em&gt;recursion&lt;/em&gt;. Does this originate in a &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt; text? If yes, please also mention the original text of the puzzle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia describes the fable thus without giving any references:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a story about an Indian temple in &lt;em&gt;Kashi Vishwanath&lt;/em&gt; which&#xA;  contains a large room with three time-worn posts in it surrounded by&#xA;  64 golden disks. &lt;em&gt;Brahmin&lt;/em&gt; priests, acting out the command of an ancient&#xA;  prophecy, have been moving these disks, in accordance with the&#xA;  immutable rules of the Brahma, since that time. The puzzle is&#xA;  therefore also known as the &lt;em&gt;Tower of Brahma&lt;/em&gt; puzzle. According to the&#xA;  legend, when the last move of the puzzle will be completed, the world&#xA;  will end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-04T07:07:38.290" LastActivityDate="2016-05-04T07:07:38.290" Title="Is Tower of Brahma mentioned in any Hindu text?" Tags="|brahma|mathematics|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11862" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-04T03:38:12.673" Score="6" ViewCount="1779" Body="&lt;p&gt;An ongoing &lt;a href=&quot;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Varanasi-is-as-old-as-Indus-valley-civilization-finds-IIT-KGP-study/articleshow/51146196.cms?utm_content=buffer77ddf&amp;amp;utm_medium=social&amp;amp;utm_source=facebook.com&amp;amp;utm_campaign=buffer&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;study&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;IIT Kharagpur&lt;/em&gt; shows that civilization may have existed in &lt;em&gt;Varanasi&lt;/em&gt; as long as 4500 BC.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is inspired by this study. What are the references available to Varanasi or Benaras in &lt;em&gt;Ramayana&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-06-19T13:31:37.490" LastActivityDate="2022-06-19T13:31:42.787" Title="References to Varanasi in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|itihasa|kashi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11863" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-04T03:45:38.823" Score="4" ViewCount="102" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisrakh&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; wiki article says that &lt;em&gt;Bisrakh&lt;/em&gt; in Uttar Pradesh is believed to be the birthplace of &lt;em&gt;Ravana&lt;/em&gt;. Are any scriptural references available for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-06-18T13:04:42.773" LastActivityDate="2022-03-05T14:30:17.557" Title="References to Bisrakh in the scriptures" Tags="|ramayana|history|ravana|geography|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11864" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-04T03:49:31.310" Score="6" ViewCount="4459" Body="&lt;p&gt;Images depict &lt;em&gt;Ganga&lt;/em&gt; flowing out from &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva's&lt;/em&gt; head.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What is the symbolism behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Images:&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HoOPs.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HoOPs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XlKLk.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XlKLk.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5486" LastEditDate="2016-05-04T07:08:35.107" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T06:54:19.033" Title="What is the symbolism behind Ganga flowing from Lord Shiva's head?" Tags="|shiva|symbolism|ganga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11865" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-04T06:00:59.970" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-04T06:00:59.970" LastActivityDate="2016-05-04T06:00:59.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11866" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-04T06:00:59.970" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-04T06:00:59.970" LastActivityDate="2016-05-04T06:00:59.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11867" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3148" CreationDate="2016-05-04T06:58:08.413" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Prana&lt;/em&gt; is the life-force energy. One of the things that happens with evolution is the increase in level of Prana. This is enunciated by the concept of &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...In those days, it was said that the life or Prana in a stone is equal&#xA;  to one Kala, the water element is said to have two &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. Fire has&#xA;  three &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Vayu&lt;/em&gt; (Air element) has four, and the Space or &lt;em&gt;Akash&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  has five. Plants and trees are said to have six Kalas. Animals have&#xA;  seven &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. Human beings have eight &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it is an extraordinary human being then he is said to have nine&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read more here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom-q-a-25-february-2014-qa-5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom-q-a-25-february-2014-qa-5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-04T06:58:08.413" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11868" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3018" CreationDate="2016-05-04T07:30:42.047" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt; says in the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/em&gt; that the soul is eternal i.e. life neither begins nor ends. Ofcourse, the body if formed again and again as mentioned in &lt;em&gt;nobalG's&lt;/em&gt; answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TEXT 2.12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na tv evaham jatu nasam na tvam neme janadhipah na caiva na&#xA;  bhavisyamah sarve vayam atah param&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SYNONYMS&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na—never; tu—but; eva—certainly; aham—I; jātu—become; na—never;&#xA;  āsam—existed; na—it is not so; tvam—yourself; na—not; ime—all these;&#xA;  janādhipāḥ—kings; na—never; ca—also; eva—certainly; na—not like that;&#xA;  bhaviṣyāmaḥ—shall exist; sarve—all of us; vayam—we; ataḥ&#xA;  param—hereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TRANSLATION&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these&#xA;  kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asitis.com/2/12.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.asitis.com/2/12.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-04T07:30:42.047" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11869" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4001" CreationDate="2016-05-04T07:42:29.307" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; has no correlation with love as explained here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Sanskrit it is said - &lt;em&gt;“miyate anaya iti maya”&lt;/em&gt; which means ‘that&#xA;  which can be measured is maya’. Hence everything in the world that&#xA;  can be measured is considered maya, money being one such measure. &#xA;  Human values are eroded when you try to put a price tag on all that&#xA;  cannot be measured, like love, truth, wisdom and life itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As love is infinite and cannot be measured, it cannot be correlated with &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;https://artoflivingbangalore.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/the-maya-called-money-talk-by-sri-sri/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://artoflivingbangalore.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/the-maya-called-money-talk-by-sri-sri/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-04T07:42:29.307" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11874" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11875" CreationDate="2016-05-04T10:22:09.190" Score="10" ViewCount="2365" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is a part of the Shukla Yajur Veda. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad contains this verse (1.4.10):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्म वा इदमग्र आसीत्, तदात्मानमेवावेत् ‘अहं ब्रह्मास्मि’ इति । तस्मात् तत् सर्वमभवतद्यो यो देवानां प्रत्यबुध्यत स एव तदभवत्तथर्षीणां तथा मनुष्याणां तद्धेतत्पश्यन्नृषिर्वामदेवः प्रतिपेदेऽहं मनुरभवं सूर्यश्चेति । तदिदमप्येतर्हि य एवं वेदाहं ब्रह्मास्मीति स इदं सर्वं भवति तस्य ह न देवाश्चनाभूत्या ईशते । &lt;strong&gt;आत्मा ह्योषां स भवत्यथ योऽन्यां&amp;nbsp; देवतामुपास्तेऽन्योऽसावन्योऽहमस्मीति न स वेद तथा पशुरेवं स देवानाम् । यथा ह वै बहवः पशवो मनुष्यं भुञ्जयुरेवमेकैकः पुरुषो देवान्भुनक्त्येकस्मिन्नेव पशावादीयमानेऽप्रियं भवति किमु बहुषु तस्मादेषां तन्न प्रियं यदेतन्मनुष्या विद्युः ।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I-iv-10: This self was indeed Brahman in the beginning. It knew only Itself as, ‘I am Brahman’. Therefore It became all. And whoever among the gods knew It also became That; and the same with sages and men. The sage Vamadeva, while realising this (self) as That, knew, ‘I was Manu, and the sun’. And to this day whoever in like manner knows It as, ‘I am Brahman’, becomes all this (universe). Even the gods cannot prevail against him, for he becomes their self. &lt;strong&gt;While he who worships &#xA;  another god thinking, ‘He is one, and I am another’, does not know. He is like an animal to the gods. As many animals serve a man, so does each man serve the gods. Even if one animal is taken away, it causes&#xA;  anguish, what should one say of many animals ? Therefore it is not liked by them that men should know this.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the bold quoted part. As it says who worships God by thinking, &quot;He is one and I am another.&quot; are like animals to Gods. As God/Brahman is same as Jeeva in Advaita philosophy there is no problem for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But In Dvaita Philosophy a devotee always worships God thinking himself different from God as Jeeva and Brahman are different in Dvaita. Hence I want to know &lt;strong&gt;How is this verse interpreted by Dvaita philosophers? &#xA;What commentaries are made by Dvaita philosophers on that part of the verse?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-02T13:42:06.360" LastActivityDate="2017-04-27T16:47:31.860" Title="How do Dvaitins interpret this verse of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|upanishads|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|dvaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11875" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11874" CreationDate="2016-05-04T14:37:49.453" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here's how the Dvaita philosopher Madhvacharya renders the portion you put in bold, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/24/items/Sacred_Books_of_the_Hindus/SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_jp2/SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_0104.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But he worships any other god (than Brahman), he does not know.  Similarly when one worships some other devata as Ever-present, Ever-full, Ever-existing knowledge (thinking that Brahman is devoid of qualities), he also does not know.  (Such men are like beasts.)  (The true knower of Brahman is) also like a beast to the Devatas.  As many beasts go to nourish a single man (by supplying milk, etc.), so even one single knowing man nourishes many devas.  (He is beloved of the devas.)  For as in this world, when one beast is given to a man, he becomes pleased, what to say when many are given.  (Therefore, greater the number of the knowers of Brahman, greater the happiness of the devas.)  Therefore the devas do not like this that men should know (worship) (anyone else other than Vishnu as the Ever-present, etc.).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/24/items/Sacred_Books_of_the_Hindus/SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_jp2/SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_0103.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for a word-by-word breakdown.  So in Madhvacharya's view, the gods feel pleased, not threatened, when someone attains knowledge of Brahman.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Madhvacharya's &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/24/items/Sacred_Books_of_the_Hindus/SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_jp2/SBH%2014%20-%20Brahadaranyakopanisahd%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20Part%202%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201933_0116.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;interpretation&lt;/a&gt; of the most important part of the verse, namely the famous Mahavakya &quot;Aham Brahmasmi&quot; emphasized by Advaitins:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word Aham in the sentence 'Aham Brahma asmi' does not mean &quot;I&quot;, and the sentence above given does not mean &quot;I am Brahman&quot;.  On the other hand Aham means Aheyam &quot;that which cannot be neglected, cannot be avoided&quot;; similarly the word Brahma means &quot;all-full&quot;.  Asmi does not mean &quot;I am&quot; but it is a compound of two words &quot;As&quot; meaning existence and &quot;Mi&quot; meaning knowable. So Asmi means ever-existing knowledge or he whose knowledge is ever-existing and never-obscured.  Brahman knew (always realizes) the nature of His self as being Aheyam (all-pervading ruler of the world), Brahma (all-full), and Asmi (ever-existing knowledge).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Personally I find Madhvacharya's interpretation rather implausible.  In any case, Visistadvaita has another way of interpreting seemingly Advaita-sounding statements in Hindu scripture, namely that they're referring to Brahman as the Antaryami or inner self of the Jivatama; see my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7770/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-05-04T14:37:49.453" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11876" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-04T17:50:58.777" Score="0" ViewCount="71" Body="&lt;p&gt;After the Kurukshetra War, Ashwatthaman directs the Brahmastra into the wombs of the Pandava women. My question is: Why didn't one of the Pandavas simply marry and get another child? Was there any particular reason there were unable to do so?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5542" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-04T21:18:13.017" LastActivityDate="2016-05-04T21:18:13.017" Title="After Ashwatthama's massacre, why didn't any of the Pandavs marry another woman, and obtain another child?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|ashwatthama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-05-04T23:09:51.047" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11877" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11215" CreationDate="2016-05-04T19:20:18.097" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=guDAkeza&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Another literal meaning&lt;/a&gt; of 'Gudakesha' is 'he of the curly hair':&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lEtAo.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lEtAo.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you notice the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01000.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganguli translation&lt;/a&gt; of The Mahabharata at sacred-texts.com, he seems undecided about how he should translate the word 'Gudakesha' initially as it's evident from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01224.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this line&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Vaisampayana said, 'When the heroes of the Vrishni race began to speak repeatedly in this strain, Vasudeva uttered these words pregnant with deep import and consistent with true morality. &lt;strong&gt;Gudakesa&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;the conqueror of sleep&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;he of the curly hair)&lt;/strong&gt;, by what he hath done, hath not insulted our family. He hath without doubt, rather enhanced our respect. Partha knoweth that we of the Satwata race are never mercenary. The son of Pandu also regardeth a self-choice as doubtful in its results. Who also would approve of ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Asacred-texts.com%2Fhin+curly+hair&amp;amp;oq=site%3Asacred-texts.com%2Fhin+curly+hair&amp;amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58j69i59.535j0j9&amp;amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;amp;ie=UTF-8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;at most other places&lt;/a&gt;, he went with 'the curly hair' meaning of the word, including &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06034.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 10.20&lt;/a&gt; you quoted in your question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The Holy One said, --&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Well, unto thee I will declare my divine perfections, by means of the principal ones (among them), O chief of the Kurus, for there is no end to the extent of my (perfections).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am the soul, &lt;strong&gt;O thou of curly hair&lt;/strong&gt;, seated in the heart of every being, I am the beginning, and the middle, and the end also of all beings...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in Udyoga Parva, while advising Duryodhana to mend his ways, Bhishma refers to Arjuna as &amp;quot;Partha, of eyes like lotus-petals, and curly hair...&amp;quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And let that foremost of smiters, Bhima, possessed of leonine shoulders and thighs round, and long, and mighty arms, embrace thee. And then let that son of Kunti, &lt;strong&gt;Dhananjaya, called also Partha, of&lt;/strong&gt; eyes like lotus-petals, and &lt;strong&gt;curly hair&lt;/strong&gt; and conch-like neck salute thee respectfully. Then let those tigers among men, the twin Aswins, unrivalled on earth for beauty, wait on thee with affection and reverence as on their preceptor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another translation available at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/21289/15F_Chapter_209.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;IndianScriptures.com&lt;/a&gt; also translates the above almost exactly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A3x2w.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A3x2w.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later on, in Aswamedha Parva, Ganguli also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m14084.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;footnotes&lt;/a&gt; that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Vaisampayana said, 'The heroic son of Sakuni, who was a mighty car-warrior among the Gandharas, accompanied by a large force, proceeded against the &lt;strong&gt;Kuru hero of curly hair&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Footnotes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;144:1: &lt;strong&gt;The etymology of Gudakesa as the lord of Gudaka or sleep, is fanciful.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Within The Mahabharata, if there was any clear evidence of Arjuna being called Gudakesha for having conquered sleep, I'm sure Ganguli would have went with that meaning in his translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if Arjuna was especially proud of the fact that he had conquered sleep, I'm sure he too would have recited it as one of his names in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;his introduction&lt;/a&gt; to Uttara; but then he doesn't:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Arjuna said, 'I will, O son of Virata, tell thee my ten names. Listen thou and compare them with what thou hadst heard before. Listen to them with close attention and concentrated mind. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Falguna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jishnu,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kiritin,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Swetavahana,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vibhatsu,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vijaya,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Savyasachin and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dhananjaya.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So given that, to answer your second question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are there any more Gudakesha people in this world?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, in millions! :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/B004L62GEW&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Winthrop Sargeant&lt;/a&gt; also translates Gudakesha as &amp;quot;the Thick Haired One&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4EYtn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4EYtn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-07-06T20:23:32.130" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11878" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2478" CreationDate="2016-05-04T23:59:32.117" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The name Iyer or Iyengar did not exist before 300 years. Only Nambi , Mudali etc. Anirudha Birma Rayan in Emperor Raja Raja'a court of Chola empire  - 10th century AD -  was a vaishnaivite Brahman. Nambi aandar nambi in chola period was a saivite Brahmin. None of the Nayanmars including Appar,sundarar, Sambandhar etc who were Brahmins did not have Iyer tittle - or Azwars who were Vaishnavites befoe Ramanuja had iyengar title even those who were brahmins. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nayanmars and Azwars both predate Sankara and Ramanuja and saivism and Vaishnavism existed before the two Acharyans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5544" LastEditorUserId="5544" LastEditDate="2016-05-05T00:04:52.147" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T00:04:52.147" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11879" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-05T01:50:00.860" Score="7" ViewCount="12226" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question is motivated after watching the story portrayed in the opening scene of the Tamil movie Dasavatharam starring Kamal Hassan where the scene is claimed to be based on historical events of 12th century. In the scene a vaishnavite Rangaraja Nambi played by Kamal Hassan is drowned in the ocean along with the idol of Vishnu for not converting to Shaivism and for not revealing the location of Ramanuja - the great exponent of Sri Vaishnavism. My question is, is there any evidence that the Cholan king persecuted vaishnavites? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T18:53:06.407" LastActivityDate="2024-03-25T14:28:19.073" Title="Is there any historical evidence for persecution of vaishnavaites by kulothunga chola II?" Tags="|vaishnavism|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11880" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-05T02:46:26.430" Score="2" ViewCount="482" Body="&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra_War#Military_Formations&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt; article mentions a list of battle formations used in the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;. Amongst other formations, &lt;em&gt;Makara Vyuha&lt;/em&gt; is mentioned. I would like to know if the details of this Vyuha are mentioned in the Mahabharata. Is so, what is this formation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T02:46:26.430" Title="Details of the Makara Vyuha" Tags="|mahabharata|history|vyuha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11881" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-05T03:11:33.867" Score="2" ViewCount="8584" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;em&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt;, stories are used to make astrological concepts easier to learn and remember. This &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt; article describes the story of &lt;em&gt;Chandra&lt;/em&gt; as such: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Budha&lt;/em&gt;, a beautiful child, was born to Tara. Chandra claimed to be the&#xA;  father of Budha, but Tara kept silent. Budha himself got angry over&#xA;  this tussle and asked his mother to tell the truth. Tara said that&#xA;  Chandra was the father of Budha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chandra was a student of &lt;em&gt;Brihaspati&lt;/em&gt;, the Teacher of devas. Tara was&#xA;  the wife of Brihaspati. Chandra one captured Tara and forcefully&#xA;  married her. Brihaspati became angry and eventually, a war started&#xA;  between Chandra and Brihaspati. &lt;em&gt;Shukracharya&lt;/em&gt;, the teacher of the&#xA;  Asuras, joined Chandra in the battle, while The devas joined&#xA;  Brihaspati. As the battle was due to desire for Tara, it was known as&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Tarakaamayam&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Lord Brahma&lt;/em&gt;, the creator of the universe, feared the war&#xA;  might abolish the world. Hence, he came down and stopped the war. He&#xA;  convinced Tara, took her away from Chandra, and gave her back to&#xA;  Brihaspati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can this story be traced back to a Hindu text? If so, what is the story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2019-01-24T11:26:08.053" LastActivityDate="2019-01-24T11:26:08.053" Title="Story of Tara, Chandra and Tarakaamayam" Tags="|brahma|astrology|chandra|shukracharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11882" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11881" CreationDate="2016-05-05T03:34:47.647" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This story is told in this chapter of Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CHAP. VI.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kings of the lunar dynasty. Origin of Soma, or the moon: he carries off Tárá, the wife of Vrihaspati: war between the gods and Asuras in consequence: appeased by Brahmá. Birth of Budha: married to Ilá, daughter of Vaivaswata. Legend of his son Pururavas, and the nymph Urvaśí: the former institutes offerings with fire: ascends to the sphere of the Gandharbas.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MAITREYA.--You have given me, reverend preceptor, an account of the kings of the dynasty of the sun: I am now desirous to hear a description of the princes who trace their lineage from the moon, and whose race is still celebrated for glorious deeds. Thou art able to relate it to me, Brahman, if thou wilt so favour me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PARÁŚARA.--You shall hear from me, Maitreya, an account of the illustrious family of the moon, which has produced many celebrated rulers of the earth; a race adorned by the regal qualities of strength, valour, magnificence, prudence, and activity; and enumerating amongst its monarchs Nahusha, Yayáti, Kártavíryárjuna, and others equally renowned. That race will I describe to you: do you attend.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atri was the son of Brahmá, the creator of the universe, who sprang from the lotus that grew from the navel of Náráyańa. The son of Atri was Soma 1 (the moon), whom Brahmá installed as the sovereign of plants, of Brahmans, and of the stars. Soma celebrated the Rájasúya sacrifice, and from the glory thence acquired, and the extensive dominion with which he had been invested, he &lt;strong&gt;became arrogant and licentious, and carried off Tárá, the wife of Vrihaspati, the preceptor of the gods. In vain Vrihaspati sought to recover his bride; in vain Brahmá commanded, and the holy sages remonstrated; Soma refused to relinquish her. Uśanas, out of enmity to Vrihaspati, took part with Soma. Rudra, who had studied under Angiras, the father of Vrihaspati, befriended his fellow-student. In consequence of Uśanas, their preceptor, joining Soma, Jambha, Kujambha, and all the Daityas, Dánavas, and other foes of the gods, came also to his assistance; whilst Indra and all the gods were the allies of Vrihaspati. Then there ensued a fierce contest, which, being on account of Táraká (or Tárá), was termed the Tárakámaya or Táraká war.&lt;/strong&gt; In this the gods, led by Rudra, hurled their missiles on the enemy; and the Daityas with equal determination assailed the gods. Earth, shaken to her centre by the struggle between such foes, had recourse to Brahmá for protection; on which he interposed, and commanding Uśanas with the demons and Rudra with the deities to desist from strife, compelled Soma to restore Tárá to her husband. Finding that she was pregnant, Vrihaspati desired her no longer to retain her burden; and in obedience to his orders she was delivered of a son, whom she deposited in a clump of long Munja grass. The child, from the moment of its birth, was endued with a splendour that dimmed the radiance of every other divinity, and both Vrihaspati and Soma, fascinated by his beauty, claimed him as their child. The gods, in order to settle the dispute, appealed to Tárá; but she was ashamed, and would make no answer. As she still continued mute to their repeated applications, the child became incensed, and was about to curse her, saying, &quot;Unless, vile woman, you immediately declare who is my father, I will sentence you to such a fate as shall deter every female in future from hesitating to speak the truth.&quot; On this, Brahmá again interfered, and pacified the child; and then, addressing Tárá, said, &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Tell me, daughter, is this the child of Vrihaspati, or of Soma?&quot; &quot;Of Soma,&quot; said Tárá, blushing. As soon as she had spoken, the lord of the constellations, his countenance bright, and expanding with rapture, embraced his son, and said, &quot;Well done, my boy; verily thou art wise:&quot; and hence his name was Budha.&lt;/strong&gt;......&#xA;  ... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp098.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for full story.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T03:34:47.647" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11883" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3133" CreationDate="2016-05-05T03:35:22.057" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer the question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What are Mudras ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mudras&lt;/em&gt; act as switches to send Prana to different part of the body just like switches can be used to activate different parts of a circuit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Life energy can be intelligently directed through the circuitry of the&#xA;  nervous system to heal mind and body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Prana&lt;/em&gt; is the subtle life energy of body and mind. Long ago the ancient&#xA;  Masters discovered how prana moves through the complex circuitry of&#xA;  the human nervous system. They found that specific hand positions, or&#xA;  mudras, can act as extremely subtle switches to channel prana to&#xA;  particular parts of the body. Prana directed with a correct mudra&#xA;  dramatically enhances the natural healing processes in that part of&#xA;  the body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These mudras were observed by ancient Masters as the natural hand&#xA;  positions displayed by all infants and children at progressive stages&#xA;  of development.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srisri.com/44-45-text.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.srisri.com/44-45-text.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How they help and what are their type ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/yoga/health-and-wellness/mudras-yoga-at-fingertips&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; page talks about some of the Mudras with their images and&#xA;multiple benefits:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chin Mudra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hold the thumb and index finger together lightly while extending the&#xA;  remaining three fingers. The thumb and index finger need only touch&#xA;  together, without exerting any pressure. Keep the three extended&#xA;  fingers as straight as possible. The hands can then be placed on the&#xA;  thighs, facing upwards. Now, observe the flow of breath and its&#xA;  effect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Benefits of Chin Mudra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Better retention and concentration power&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Improves sleep pattern&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Increases energy in the body&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Alleviates lower backache&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chinmaya Mudra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this mudra, the thumb and forefinger form a ring and the three&#xA;  remaining fingers are curled into the palms of the hands. Again, the&#xA;  hands are placed on the thighs with palms facing upwards and deep&#xA;  comfortable ujjai breaths are taken. Once more, observe the flow of&#xA;  breath and its effect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Benefits of Chinmaya Mudra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Improves flow of energy in the body&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Stimulates digestion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adi Mudra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Adi Mudra, the thumb is placed at the base of the small finger and&#xA;  the remaining fingers curl over the thumb, forming a light fist. The&#xA;  palms are again placed facing upwards on the thighs and the breathing&#xA;  repeated. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Benefits of Adi Mudra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Relaxes the nervous system&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Helps reduce snoring&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Improves the flow of oxygen to the head&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Increases capacity of the lungs&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In each &lt;em&gt;yoga mudra&lt;/em&gt;, take at least twelve breaths and closely observe&#xA;  the flow of energy in the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are numerous different mudras, many mysterious and others&#xA;  contemporary in nature. The main texts concerning the use of mudras&#xA;  are the &lt;em&gt;Hatha Yoga Pradipika&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Gheranda Samhita&lt;/em&gt;. The Hatha Yoga&#xA;  Pradipika describes &lt;em&gt;10&lt;/em&gt; mudras and the Gheranda Samhita &lt;em&gt;25&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some Yoga mudras come natural to us. Simply by touching our hands to&#xA;  our fingers, we can affect our attitude and our perception and the&#xA;  inherent energetic power can heal the body. There is a direct&#xA;  relationship between the mudras and the five elements of the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to &lt;em&gt;Ayurveda&lt;/em&gt;, diseases are caused due to an imbalance in&#xA;  the body, which in turn is caused by lack or excess of any of the five&#xA;  elements. Our fingers have the characteristics of these elements and&#xA;  each of these five elements serve a specific and important function&#xA;  within the body. The fingers are essentially electrical circuits. The&#xA;  use of mudras adjusts the flow of energy - affecting the balance of&#xA;  air, fire, water, earth, ether and accommodating healing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are many interpretations of the various finger positions.&#xA;  Whether they are represented as aspects of the self, the three&#xA;  energies inherent in the gunas, the mind, intellect, ego, illusion or&#xA;  karma, remains a mystery. The main point being that they introduce a&#xA;  non-intellectual sensibility.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoga mudras are practiced sitting simply cross-legged, in &lt;em&gt;Vajrasana&lt;/em&gt;,&#xA;  or in lotus posture, or even by sitting comfortably in a chair.&#xA;  Ideally, &lt;em&gt;Ujjai&lt;/em&gt; breathing accompanies the more simple mudras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-06T03:21:02.913" LastActivityDate="2016-05-06T03:21:02.913" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11884" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7313" CreationDate="2016-05-05T04:16:56.327" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer the title question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why is Janmashtami an important festival in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna is associated with absolute joy or bliss. Hence, it serves as a reminder for us to move towards bliss and also to spread joy in the society:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janmashtami is the day when we celebrate the birth of Lord Krishna.&#xA;  Lord Krishna signifies Ananda (bliss, pure happiness). We express any&#xA;  happiness by celebration. So Janmashtami is celebrating the birth of&#xA;  Bliss. It is the day when that (divine) joy became manifest. Actually,&#xA;  it is not right to use the word ‘birth’ here. Lord Krishna was never&#xA;  born. That (divine) joy was always present, but it is on this day that&#xA;  it became manifest and evident (in the form of Lord Krishna). So where&#xA;  should you look for Lord Krishna? Everywhere! Lord Krishna says – ‘One&#xA;  who sees Me everywhere, in everyone, and sees everyone in Me is truly&#xA;  intelligent’. Now, no one wants to be foolish in this world. Everyone&#xA;  wants to be intelligent. So, one who recognizes the Parmatma (Supreme&#xA;  soul or all-pervading one Consciousness) as that Anand-tattva (the&#xA;  element of Bliss) that is manifest throughout Creation is truly&#xA;  intelligent. Everything has emerged from that Anand-tattva. This is&#xA;  the special message of Janmashtami. What does one need for this? You&#xA;  need to be innocent at heart; you should have that child-like&#xA;  innocence. It is said – ‘Bhole bhaav miley Raghurai’ (One attains the&#xA;  Lord through the innocence and purity of feelings).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Today’s knowledge is this: It’s time to seriously enjoy and celebrate!&#xA;  (Laughter) You can realize Lord Krishna only through deep rest. You&#xA;  cannot realize Lord Krishna through your struggle and efforts. And&#xA;  when can you get that deep rest? Deep rest happens when your mind is&#xA;  not restless and entangled with feverish desires; when it is not&#xA;  caught up in cravings and aversions. It is in those moments of deep&#xA;  rest that one witnesses the birth of Lord Krishna (here meaning divine&#xA;  bliss)...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom/sri-sri-message-janmashtami&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom/sri-sri-message-janmashtami&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T04:16:56.327" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11885" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3320" CreationDate="2016-05-05T05:05:32.930" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I find the answer by &lt;em&gt;Saurabh Chandra Patel&lt;/em&gt; incomplete. Some of the &lt;em&gt;Nakshatras&lt;/em&gt; are named after Devatas etc. For example, the &lt;em&gt;Ashwini&lt;/em&gt; twins are considered as &lt;em&gt;Devatas&lt;/em&gt;. Although, most of the Nakshatras are not e.g, Mula, Purva Ashadha, Hasta etc. &lt;em&gt;Hasta&lt;/em&gt; means hand, &lt;em&gt;Mula&lt;/em&gt; means root and these are not Devatas in itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In &lt;em&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt;, most Nakshatras are considered to be associated with&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;presiding deities&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. This can be considered as the relatoionship between these stars and the Gods. In addition to that, they are ruled by&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;different planets which are also considered Gods.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This list provides the name of the Nakshatra followed by the presiding deity followed by the ruling planet (in some cases, only the ruling planet is mentioned):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashvini * Ketu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bharani * Shukra * Venus&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krittika * Surya * Sun&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rohini * Brahmi * Chandra * Soma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mrigashirsha * Mangala&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arudra * Rahu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Punarvasu * Yamaka * Guru&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pushyami * Sidhya * Shani * Saturn&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Azlesa * Naga * Budha * Mercury&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Magha * Pitri * Ketu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purva-phalguni * Yoni* Shukra * Venus&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Uttara-phalguni * Aryamna * Surya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hasta * Savitra * Chandra * Somana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chitra * Tvastri * Mangala&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swati * Vayu Arcturus * Rahu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bishaja * Vishaka * Radha * Guru&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anuradha * Maitra * Shani * Saturn&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jyestha * Ketta * Budha * Mercury&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mula * Alakshmi * Ketu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purvazadha * Apah * Shukra * Venus&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Uttara-azadha * Vaizva * Surya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shravana * Hari * Chandra * Somana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhaniztha * Sravishtha * Mangala&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shatavishaka * Shatatakara * Rahu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purva-bhadra-pada * Prosthapada Pegasus * Guru&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Uttara-bhadra-pada * Ahira-budhnaya * Shani * Saturn&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Revati * Pushan * Budha * Mercury&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taken from the website of &lt;em&gt;Barbara Pijan Lama&lt;/em&gt;:  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/Nakshatra_radical/nakshatra_main_page.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/Nakshatra_radical/nakshatra_main_page.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-05T09:07:03.350" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T09:07:03.350" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11886" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2229" CreationDate="2016-05-05T05:17:06.817" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a misleading tradition with no reference found in scriptures (no wonder that none of the answers mention any scriptures). Sri Sri Ravi Shankar talks bout this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q. Gurudev, we sing devotional songs in praise of Lord Shiva and Lord&#xA;  Krishna. But back home, the people there consume Bhaang (a type of&#xA;  Indian narcotic incorrectly thought to please Lord Shiva) while they&#xA;  sing praises of Lord Shiva. How should one understand all this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, if &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; consumed &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt;, then he&#xA;  also consumed the poison that came from churning the cosmic ocean. So&#xA;  should we also drink poison first, and then see if we stay alive to&#xA;  drink &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt;? Do not misunderstand all these things.&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt; never consumed &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt;. The essential point to understand is that the &lt;em&gt;Shiva Tattva&lt;/em&gt; (the most fundamental&#xA;  all-pervading element in creation) resides in each and every one. An&#xA;  intoxicant like &lt;em&gt;Bhaang&lt;/em&gt; too cannot do anything to &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/em&gt;’s&#xA;  bliss, because he is above and beyond all such trivial influences. But&#xA;  chanting his name can have a positive influence on us and elevate us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a Q&amp;amp;A: &lt;a href=&quot;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2015/08/why-good-people-suffer.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2015/08/why-good-people-suffer.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T05:17:06.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11888" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2956" CreationDate="2016-05-05T05:48:05.060" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer on etymological roots of &lt;em&gt;Vajra&lt;/em&gt; as OP asks in the comment (I persume he mistyped entomology which is used in context of insects ):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word Vajra (वज्र) comes from the root &lt;em&gt;Vaj&lt;/em&gt; (वज्) which means to&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;feather an arrow&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;em&gt;Vajra&lt;/em&gt; means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hard, severe, forked, zigzag.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a thunderbolt (said to have been formed  out of the bones of the sage&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Dadhichi&lt;/em&gt;) as referenced in the &lt;em&gt;Sloka&lt;/em&gt;: आशंस्ते समितिषु सुराः सक्तवैरा हि दैत्यैरस्याधिज्ये धनुषि विजयं पौरुहूते च वज्रे&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;any weapon like a thunderbolt &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a diamond - वज्रादपि कठोराणि मुंदूनि कुसुमादपि&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;an instrument for performing jewels - मणौ वज्रसमुत्कीर्णे सुन्नस्येवास्ति मे गतिः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Steel&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a kind of talc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taken from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ldpd_7285627_000&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Vaman Shivaram Apte.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-05T06:08:35.460" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T06:08:35.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11889" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10954" CreationDate="2016-05-05T06:38:42.997" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I understand &lt;em&gt;Chitta&lt;/em&gt; is used in context of the mind-stuff (which can refer to a combination of mind, intellect, memory, ego) and is also used to refer to the Consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can look at the etymological roots which says the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Chitta (चित्त) comes from the word root Chit (चित्) which means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;to perceive, see, notice&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;to know, understand, be aware or conscious of&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;to regain consciousness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;intelligence, intellect, understanding&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;the heart, mind&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;the soul, spirit, the animating principle of life, Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taken from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ldpd_7285627_000&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Vaman Shivaram Apte.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, this might provide some insights:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: Guruji, please tell us what is Chitta?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A: Chitta is like &lt;em&gt;Aakaasha&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;(sky), that which is present everywhere inside us. Consciousness is&#xA;also known as Chitta – Chaitanya Shakti (conscious energy). &lt;em&gt;Chiti,&#xA;Chaitanya, Chitta&lt;/em&gt; – just like water, ice and vapor – are all&#xA;different forms of the same Chitta. When it solidifies, it is called&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Chitta&lt;/em&gt;, when it becomes fluid it is called &lt;em&gt;Chiti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpt from a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2012_02_01_archive.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2012_02_01_archive.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T06:38:42.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11890" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6974" CreationDate="2016-05-05T07:51:16.057" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;em&gt;Swadha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Swaha&lt;/em&gt; are used here in the context of oblation offered. Although, they mean other things too:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Swadha (स्वधा) means&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;one's own nature of determination or spontaneity&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;one's own will or pleasure&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;the oblation or food offered to the Pitris - as referenced from the Sanskrit phrase स्वधासंग्रहतत्पराः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;the food offered to the Pitris personified&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;food or oblation in general&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;one's own portion or share &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Shraadha or funeral ceremony&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maya or illusion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;an exclamation uttered on offering an oblation to the Pitris&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hence, the meaning of Swadha can either be seen as an oblation in this context or an exclamation for the same.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Swaha (स्वाहा) means&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;an oblation or offering to all god indiscriminately&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the wife of Agni&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;an exclamation used in offering oblations to the Gods&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hence, the difference between Swadha and Swaha is that Swadha is used in the context of Pitris and Swaha is used for all gods.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Namah (नमः) comes from the word root Nam (नम्) which means&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;to bow to, make obeisance to, salute (as a mark of respect)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;to submit or subject oneself, to bow down&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;to bend, go down etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above is taken from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ldpd_7285627_000&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Vaman Shivaram Apte.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This might give more insights in the context of &lt;em&gt;Namah&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mana&lt;/em&gt; means &lt;em&gt;mind&lt;/em&gt;. The word mind in English comes from the Sanskrit word &lt;em&gt;Mana&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Nama&lt;/em&gt; is the reverse of the mind. &lt;em&gt;The mind going to its&#xA;  source is called Nama.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the mind goes outside to experience the world, it is &lt;em&gt;Mana&lt;/em&gt;. When&#xA;  the mind goes back to its source, it is &lt;em&gt;Nama&lt;/em&gt;, and when it goes to&#xA;  its source what does it find? It finds that &lt;em&gt;everything is made up of&#xA;  one consciousness&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/.../understandingshiva.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T07:51:16.057" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11891" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9743" CreationDate="2016-05-05T08:17:44.413" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Different people have different beliefs as to who is 'Supreme Lord'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However; the Mahamantra &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;hare kṛiṣhṇa hare kṛiṣhṇa kṛiṣhṇa kṛiṣhṇa hare hare/&#xA;hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;is chanted mostly by the followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu(Gaudiya Vaishnavas/ISKCON).&#xA;Gaudiya Vaishnavas accept Krishna as the 'Supreme Lord'. There are references to this in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavat Purana&lt;/a&gt;(Srimad-Bhagawatam), &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bs/5/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahma Samhita&lt;/a&gt; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also krishna is not considered as mere incarnation but as Supreme lord himself by many of the vaishnavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would also like to add that there is no difference between Vishnu and His expansion. But to carry out different works;Lord has assumed different forms and exhibited only that much of opulence and potency which was required to carry out the particular mission.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;so yes Hare krishna Mahamantra does refer to supreme lord.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2859" LastEditDate="2016-06-13T08:57:27.537" LastActivityDate="2016-06-13T08:57:27.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11892" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7963" CreationDate="2016-05-05T08:36:59.967" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word Avadhoota (अवधूत) has the following meanings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;shaken, waved&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;discarded, rejected, despised&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;insulted, humiliated&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;excelled, surpassed&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;attacked, overcome&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;separated from worldly attachments and connections&lt;/strong&gt; as referenced from these two Shlokas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो विलंघ्याश्रमान्वर्णानातमन्येथ स्थितः पुमान् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अतिवर्णाश्रमी योगी अवधूतः स उच्यते ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अक्षरत्वात् वरेण्यत्वान् धूतसंसारबंधनात ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्वमस्यर्थसिन्द्वतवादवधूतोऽभिधीयते ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Chintanam (चिंतनं) has the following meanings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;thinking, thought&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sad or sorrowful thought, care, anxiety&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;reflection, consideration&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hence, Avadhoota Chintanam means the contemplation of the one who is separated from worldly attachments and connections; or thinking about the Guru (enlightened Master)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;Reference used:  &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ldpd_7285627_000&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Vaman Shivaram Apte.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T08:36:59.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11893" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6895" CreationDate="2016-05-05T09:34:30.803" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;To word Darshana (दर्शन) has the following meanings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;seeing,looking perceived, become visible or manifested&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;showing, exhibiting&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;demonstrating, teaching&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Marga (मार्ग) means&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a way, road, path&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and is derived from the verb root Marg (मार्ग्)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;to seek, seek for&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hence, Marga Darshana would mean to demonstrate a path for the seeker. It is used in the context of spiritual guidance, or guidance for any other way.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, a person who knows already knows the way or has crossed over the (spiritual) path can provide &lt;em&gt;Marga Darshana&lt;/em&gt;. In this context, a Guru or an enlightened Master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a limited context, a personal with knowledge of a specific aspect can provide guidance for that aspect only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ldpd_7285627_000&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Vaman Shivaram Apte.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T09:34:30.803" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11894" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="158" CreationDate="2016-05-05T09:57:51.143" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Chinmoy talks about the meaning of Swastika here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When seen in the vital plane, Agni has seven arms in the form of a&#xA;  swastika. ‘Swastika’ is an old Sanskrit word that is quite often&#xA;  associated with Agni. What does the swastika mean? The exoteric&#xA;  meaning is good luck, prosperity and success. The esoteric&#xA;  significance of the swastika is inner progress, inner achievement,&#xA;  inner fulfilment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, looking at the etymological roots of the word &lt;em&gt;Swastika&lt;/em&gt; gives a lot of beautiful insights.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Swastika (स्वास्तिक) is derived from the Sanskrit root स्वस्तिक &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/ldpd_7285627_000#page/n1177/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;meaning&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a kind of mystical mark on persons or things meaning &lt;strong&gt;good luck&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a lucky object&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the meeting of &lt;strong&gt;four&lt;/strong&gt; roads&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;the crossing of the arms&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a mansion or &lt;strong&gt;temple&lt;/strong&gt; of a particular form with a terrace in front&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;a particular mode of sitting practised by Yogis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence, it can be referred from the meanings that a Swastika symbolizes good luck. The symbolism in context of the number &lt;em&gt;four&lt;/em&gt; has already been answered by &lt;em&gt;Ankit&lt;/em&gt;. In my opinion, it could also be an abstract symbol for &lt;em&gt;meditation&lt;/em&gt; (the crossing over of palms, with one palm over the other, while sitting in meditation). It could also be an abstract representation for a &lt;em&gt;temple&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References used:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ldpd_7285627_000&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Vaman Shivaram Apte.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/dcg-6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/dcg-6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T19:14:05.830" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T19:14:05.830" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11895" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2044" CreationDate="2016-05-05T10:20:18.067" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The symbolic meaning behind Kailasa is that it represents celebration. Also, it is interesting to note that Shiva also said to reside in the Smashana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The abode of Shiva is in Mount Kailasa, and the &lt;em&gt;smashana&lt;/em&gt; (the&#xA;  cremation ground). &lt;em&gt;Kailasa&lt;/em&gt; means 'where there is only celebration',&#xA;  and &lt;em&gt;smashana&lt;/em&gt; is where there is only void. The Divinity dwells in the&#xA;  void as well as in celebration. And in you there is void, in you there&#xA;  is celebration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An explanation from an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/1536824014/name/understandingshiva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/17184919/1536824014/name/understandingshiva.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-05T16:41:05.423" LastActivityDate="2016-05-05T16:41:05.423" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11896" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11897" CreationDate="2016-05-05T10:44:52.557" Score="14" ViewCount="3127" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that  तत्त्वमसि (Tat Tvam Asi) is the Mahavakya. So, I want to know what are the Mahavakyas and which are they?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-18T10:15:00.323" LastActivityDate="2019-05-11T07:08:40.940" Title="What are Mahavakyas?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11897" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11896" CreationDate="2016-05-05T10:44:52.557" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Mahavakyas are &amp;quot;Grand Pronouncements&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Great Sayings&amp;quot; usually taken from Upanishads. They have profound significance in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The four Mahavakyas (महावाक्यानि) are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1. Prajñānaṃ Brahma (प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From Aitareya Upanishad 3.3 of the Rig Veda.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also called लक्षणा वाक्य. It is about (pure) consciousness of Brahman&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2. Tat Tvam Asi (तत्त्वमसि)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7 of the Sama Veda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also called उपदेश वाक्य. It is about to preach that &amp;quot;You are that (Brahman)&amp;quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3. Ahaṃ Brahmāsmi (अहं ब्रह्मास्मि)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 of the Yajur Veda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also called अनुभव वाक्य. It is about to realize that I am Brahman.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4. Ayaṃ Ātmā Brahma (अयं आत्माब्रह्म)&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From Mandukya Upanishad 1.2 of the Atharva Veda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also called अनुसंधान वाक्य. It is about to research or make understand that The self (Atman) is Brahman.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though there are also other Mahavakyas besides these but these four are considered most important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-01-23T02:08:40.343" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11898" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11344" CreationDate="2016-05-05T11:23:46.520" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many methods to remove Brahmahatya Sin and visiting Kasi (Varanasi) is one among them. This is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-182/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 182 - Mahatmya of Kasi Tirtha of Matsya Purana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आदेहपतनाद्यावत् क्षेत्रं यो न विमुंचति। &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;न केवलं ब्रह्महत्या&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;प्राकृता च निवर्त्तते।। १६ ।।&lt;br&gt;  प्राप्य विश्वेश्वरं देवं न सा&#xA;भूयोऽभिजायते। &lt;br&gt; अनन्यमानसो भूत्वा योऽविमुक्तं न मुंचति।। १७॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्य देव: सदा तुष्टः सर्वान् कामान् प्रयच्छति। &lt;br&gt; द्वारं&#xA;यत्सांख्ययोगानां स तत्र वसति प्रभुः।। १८ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who goes there anytime is purified of the sin of even killing a&#xA;Brähmana.&lt;/strong&gt; One who continually resides there, for all his life, unmoved&#xA;in mind, is not only purified of his sin committed in this life, but&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;also of his Brahmahatyā sin in his previous birth&lt;/strong&gt;, and attains Visveswara (Siva) and does not get any other births. He gets the favour of Siva and all&#xA;his desire are fulfilled, and he gets the same end as the knower of&#xA;Sāmkhya does. He remains there all his lives and never quits it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T05:25:11.750" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11899" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-05T14:43:35.330" Score="16" ViewCount="2045" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous incarnations of Vishnu is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurma&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma the tortoise&lt;/a&gt;, who helped the gods during the Churning of the Ocean.  Now I had always assumed that the story of the churning of the ocean only took place in the Chakshusha Manvantara.  For those who don't know, the four Yugas together make up one Mahayuga, and a thousand Mahayugas make up one Kalpa or day of Brahma.  But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6536/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, a Kalpa is also divided into fourteen periods called Manvantaras, and during each Manvantara humanity is ruled by a different Manu, there is a different Indra ruling the three world, there is a different set of Saptarishis, etc.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we are living in the seventh Manvantara of the present Kalpa, known as the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  And I thought that the Churning of the Ocean only took place in the Chakshusha Manvantara.  For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/5/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and subsequent chapters of the Srimad Bhagavatam describes the story of the Churning of the Ocean which took place in the Chakshusha Manvantara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Cakṣu known as Cākṣuṣa was the sixth Manu. He had many sons, headed by Pūru, Pūruṣa and Sudyumna.  During the reign of Cākṣuṣa Manu, the King of heaven was known as Mantradruma. Among the demigods were the Āpyas, and among the great sages were Haviṣmān and Vīraka.  In this sixth manvantara millennium, Lord Viṣṇu, the master of the universe, appeared in His partial expansion. He was begotten by Vairāja in the womb of his wife, Devasambhūti, and His name was Ajita.  By churning the Ocean of Milk, Ajita produced nectar for the demigods. In the form of a tortoise, He moved here and there, carrying on His back the great mountain known as Mandara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now I think this may not be the only time that the story of the Churning of the Ocean took place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga45/bala_45_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and subsequent chapters of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, Vishwamitra tells Rama and Lakshmana a story about the Churning of the Ocean:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, Rama, I tell of the legend of Indra as I was told and listen to it as I tell. What really chanced in this country, oh, Raghava, that be listened in its quintessence. *Once in Krita era, oh, Rama, the sons of Lady Diti were extremely energetic ones in their brawniness, whereas the sons of her younger sister Lady Aditi were venerable, vigorous and highly righteous ones.**  Oh, tigerly-man, Rama, there was a thinking to those great-souls then, as to 'how we shall [thrive] deathless, ageless and wasteless...' Thus thought the sons of Diti and Aditi. For them who were thinking thus on that subject a thought occurred to those masterminds, 'on churning the Milky Ocean, therein we get its elixir, indeed.  Then on deciding to churn the Milky Ocean, they made Vasuki, the mighty King of Snakes, with thousand heads, as the churning rope and Mt. Mandara as stirrer and those who have unlimited energy started churning the Milky Ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Adityas, i.e. the sons of Aditi, were not the gods who ruled in the Chakshusha Manvantara, rather they're the gods ruling right now in the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  So my question is, did the Churning of the Ocean happen again in one of the Satya Yugas of the Vaivasvata Manvantara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it did happen more than once, that would explain a long-standing confusion I've had: Garuda transported mount Mandara to the ocean of milk, and the churning of the ocean produced the flying horse Ucchaishravas.  Yet before Garuda was born, Garuda's mother Vinata and her co-wife Kadru had a bet over the color of Ucchaishravas' tail as he was flying through the sky.  Perhaps this sort of thing can be explained by the Ucchaishravas that Vinata and Kadru bet on being from a previous Churning of the Ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, given that Vishwamitra is telling the story of the Churning of the Ocean to Rama, is it possible that the story is described in the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2023-04-25T14:56:13.890" Title="Did the Churning of the Ocean happen again in the Vaivasvata Manvantara?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|time|samudra-manthan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="24" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11901" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-05T16:51:52.330" Score="7" ViewCount="697" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do we know how the Lokayatas thought about the two fundamental concepts of the Upanishads &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand that one original meaning of &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; is &quot;magic force&quot;, in Vedic times ascribed to the correct recitation during the sacrifice (&lt;em&gt;Hillebrandt, A.: Encyclopedics of Religion and Ethics, vol II,&lt;/em&gt; 1910). But during the time of the early Upanishads the term &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; transformed into a hypothetical cosmic force. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition, the word &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt; originally denoted a reflexive pronoun &quot;self&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Olivelle, Patrick: Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism&lt;/em&gt;, 2009). But later &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt; changed into a hypothetical characteristic of the human person. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad contains many controversial discussions about what is Brahman, what constitutes Atman, and how are both linked. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence my question: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did the Lokayatas take part in this speculative discussion? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Or did the Lokayatas just cut the Gordian knot by rejecting any philosophical meaning of these two terms?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Added&lt;/strong&gt; due to Amit Saxena's comments:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Olivelle, loc.cit.: &quot;Atman has many meanings and usages in the upanishadic vocabulary. It is often used simply as a reflexive pronoun.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hillebrandt, loc.cit.: &quot;Haug is therefore justified in his conjecture that 'in the Rigveda it [brahman] denotes a mysterious power which can be called forth by various ceremonies' and in the definition which he gives of it as 'the magical force which is derived from the orderly co-operation of the hymns, the chants, and the sacrificial gifts'.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please do not present further interpretations of the terms &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;. That's not my question. If you do not agree with the referenced statements, just skip them :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastEditorUserId="967" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T08:54:42.240" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T08:54:42.240" Title="Lokayatas about Brahman and Atman" Tags="|upanishads|atma|brahman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11903" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-05T17:50:18.887" Score="8" ViewCount="680" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is clear from Geetha that a soul takes rebirth until it attains moksha state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also clear from Geetha that Krishna reincarnates as himself for the establishment of dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do Krishna's relationships with other souls (when they too are reborn) repeat or vary from one yuga to other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To put it clearly, let's say soul &lt;em&gt;S&lt;/em&gt; lived as wife of Krishna in Dwapara yuga, and &lt;em&gt;S&lt;/em&gt; also takes rebirth when Krishna reincarnates, will Krishna take &lt;em&gt;S&lt;/em&gt; as his wife or can he take &lt;em&gt;S&lt;/em&gt; as his mother, brother, sister, friend etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E.g., Yashoda was the mother of Krishna in last Dwapara yuga. Suppose Krishna and Yashoda take rebirth, then is it always going to be a mother-son relation? Similarly, Subhadra was the sister of Krishna earlier and if they both take rebirth, are they again going to be sister-brother?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My doubt is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any evidence in our texts that says god can or cannot change his relations with other souls during his incarnations?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-06T04:10:48.207" LastActivityDate="2016-05-20T21:17:47.137" Title="Will Yashoda's soul be Krishna's mother again in the next Dwapara yuga? Do relationships with God's incarnations remain same across yugas?" Tags="|krishna|gods|avatars|yuga|atma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11905" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7961" CreationDate="2016-05-06T01:33:16.847" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me explain with an analogy :&lt;br&gt;&#xA;To a chaste (pativrata) wife, her husband is the supreme. She doesn't look up to any other man. &lt;em&gt;Subjectively&lt;/em&gt;, there is no god greater than her husband. She doesn't go around comparing her husband with other husbands to find out who is the greatest husband &lt;em&gt;Objectively&lt;/em&gt;. But if another woman comes nearby and claims that &lt;em&gt;her&lt;/em&gt; husband is the greatest, she has every right to get angry and retort that her own husband is greater.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Every wife on the planet is a mixture of 3 gunas - sattva, rajas &amp;amp; tamas. Depending on her individual tastes, she may marry a man of sattva guna, rajo guna or tamo guna, and then obey him in her daily life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in above analogy, replace wife with Man, husband with God, marry/obey with following Puranas, and Sattva with Vishnu, Rajas with Brahma, and Tamas with Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa realizes that it is the strength of bhakti or pativrata or attachment to husband that is more important than which husband they are married to, and that over several births, people will change gunas. Since there are people of different gunas, and to each guna, a particular God is favorite, each Purana extols a different God. Vyasa was not depicting an Objective supreme deity, but a Subjective supreme deity specifically for the readers of each Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if we want to get into the argument of who is the Objective supreme deity, it would be like the wives fighting against each other. As long as we are all subject to the 3-gunas, we will have our different opinions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2016-05-06T01:50:22.213" LastActivityDate="2016-05-06T01:50:22.213" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11906" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11941" CreationDate="2016-05-06T07:18:01.310" Score="8" ViewCount="2036" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for an accompanied translation in either Hindi or English. A translation done by an Indian author would be preferred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-27T08:24:21.437" LastActivityDate="2019-01-30T06:19:08.237" Title="Where can I find an online version of the Adhyatma Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|translation-request|resource|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11907" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11943" CreationDate="2016-05-06T07:32:04.247" Score="3" ViewCount="718" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard different versions of this story, especially &lt;em&gt;Parashurama's&lt;/em&gt; response. Hence, this question. I would like to know the original story mentioned in &lt;em&gt;Valmiki's Ramayana.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11558/why-couldnt-parashurama-recognize-rama-as-vishnus-avatar-during-the-breaking-o&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; question discusses why they engaged in a duel (assuming that they did) but does not talk about the story of the assumed duel itself, which I am interested in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10086/other-than-being-a-god-what-speciality-did-rama-have-to-lift-and-break-shiva-dha&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question talks about the reasons why &lt;em&gt;Shri Rama&lt;/em&gt; was able to lift the &lt;em&gt;Dhanush&lt;/em&gt;, without talking about the original story itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T06:24:28.773" Title="Did Shri Rama break Parashurama's Dhanusha during the Swayamvara? If so, how did Parashurama respond to this?" Tags="|ramayana|history|rama|parashurama|swayamvar|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11908" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-06T07:51:39.330" Score="6" ViewCount="801" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Akshaya Patra mentioned in the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;? If so, what is the story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Paramahansa Yogananda&lt;/em&gt;, is his book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vsc.iitm.ac.in/Home/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Yogananda-Autobiography.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Autobiography of A Yogi&lt;/a&gt; , narrates a similar incident &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...“As soon as each man had expressed his preferences, the FAKIR&#xA;  addressed himself to the inexhaustible Hazrat. A great rattle ensued;&#xA;  gold platters filled with intricately−prepared curries, hot LUCHIS,&#xA;  and many out−of−season fruits, landed from nowhere at our feet. All&#xA;  the food was delicious. After feasting for an hour, we started to&#xA;  leave the room. A tremendous noise, as though dishes were being piled&#xA;  up, caused us to turn around. Lo! there was no sign of the glittering&#xA;  plates or the remnants of the meal.”...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, is it related to &lt;em&gt;Akshaya Tritiya?&lt;/em&gt; If so, what is the connection?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2155/how-is-akshaya-tritiya-celebrated&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; question discusses various possible reasons behind the festival of Askhaya Tritiya without any mention to the Akshaya Patra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-11-03T03:47:23.117" Title="What is the story of Akshaya Patra? How is this related to Akshaya Tritiya?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11909" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-06T07:59:50.687" Score="3" ViewCount="158" Body="&lt;p&gt;Subramanian Swamy said in a video that God owns the temple, and the pundit only acts as a 'trustee'. Is this validated by the &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt; scriptures? Also, assuming it is validated, is this applicable to all Hindu temples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can a private person, a private group, or a public entity like a government not own a temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3650/what-do-hindu-scriptures-say-about-hindu-temples&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; question discusses various other aspects of a temple without going into property rights.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2020-07-08T11:41:31.860" Title="Who owns a Hindu temple according to Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|temple|priests|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11910" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-06T11:35:39.850" Score="2" ViewCount="125" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read this on a forum:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sahadeva could predict the future, but he was also cursed to die if he revealed it to anyone. He didn't reveal the outcome of the war to Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9310/sahadevas-knowledge-of-future&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question says that Sahadeva could do this because he 'ate part of Pandu's brain'!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the original story from the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-05-06T22:27:12.923" Title="Could Sahadeva predict the future?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|history|siddhi|sahadeva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-05-06T22:30:31.447" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11911" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11907" CreationDate="2016-05-06T11:44:21.800" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer the first part of the question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Shri Rama break Parashurama's Dhanusha during the Swayamvara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Valmiki's Ramayana, that bow was of Lord Shiva and he gave it to Devaraata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवरात इति ख्यातो निमेः ज्येष्ठो मही पतिः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;न्यासो अयम् तस्य भगवन् हस्ते दत्तो महात्मना || १-६६-८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oh, godly sage, there was a king renowned as Devaraata, sixth one from Nimi, [the originator of our lineage,] and this bow was handed down to him for custodial care by the Sublime Soul, Shiva...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga66/bala_66_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga66/bala_66_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, this bow was of Lord Shiva not Lord Parashurama.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then Lord Rama break that bow easily:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पश्यताम् नृ सहस्राणाम् बहूनाम् रघुनंदनः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;आरोपयत् स धर्मात्मा स लीलम् इव तत् धनुः || १-६७-१६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While many thousands of men are witnessing that right-minded Rama the legatee of Raghu stringed the bow effortlessly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आरोपयित्वा मौर्वीम् च पूरयामास वीर्यवान् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;तत् बभंज धनुर् मध्ये नरश्रेष्ठो महायशाः || १-६७-१७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, that dextrous one has stringed that bow with bowstring and started to stretch it up to his ear to examine its tautness, but that glorious one who is foremost among men, Rama, broke that bow medially.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T06:24:28.773" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11914" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11915" CreationDate="2016-05-06T12:13:35.533" Score="0" ViewCount="190" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is theory of GOD as per Ramcharitamanasa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jake bal biracnhi hari isa&#xA;  palat srujat harat dasasisa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sunderkanda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-05-06T12:16:18.690" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T07:00:18.920" Title="Theory of GOD from Ramcharitmanas? No date of end of world theory" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ramcharitmanas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11915" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11914" CreationDate="2016-05-06T12:15:34.297" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many &lt;a href=&quot;http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/List_of_predictions_of_the_end_of_the_world&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;prophecies&lt;/a&gt; of end of the world. But as per Ramcharitmanasa Lord Rama is Human form of Vishnu and because of his will power or desire Lord Vishnu Lord Shiva and Lord Brahma generates operates and destroys the world. It is written in hindi lines by Sage tulsidas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;by whose might, O ten-headed monster, Brahma, Hari (Vishnu) and Isha(Shiva) carry on their respective function of creation, preservation and destruction;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually these deities manifest in some human to do the work of deities. Such humans face mental disorders like bipolar mood disorders. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can not deny power of any deity or goddess but when they appear / manifest in our body we can feel the power of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally this happens when elections are near. It is very sophisticated time for patients like this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the psychotic disorder event happens, the patient see animals. for example if the patient is praying to shiva he will see nandi near his area of location. Otherwise birds try to show him way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another theory is Lord is making Nimitta and doing his works by giving spiritual powers to patient. Patient will see minor tragedies or chamatkars and by fear will chant Lord's name more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this time babies are born, old people dies and big events occur in world. I feel no shame if someone downvote as this is experience based answer but I feel to share it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note: Chanting Lord's name is good upto some extent like 12-14 hours. Exceeding that will lead one to disorders.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-05-09T07:00:18.920" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T07:00:18.920" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11917" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11901" CreationDate="2016-05-06T12:29:21.593" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;first, Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would recommend you first read this answer on Hindusim SE - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10634/what-is-the-etymology-of-brahman-brahmin/10635#10635&quot;&gt;What is the etymology of brahman/brahmin?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his &lt;em&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/em&gt; to the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; (I. I. 1.), Ramanujacharya says (Swami Vireswarananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word ‘Brahman’ is derived from the root ‘&lt;em&gt;brh&lt;/em&gt;’ which denotes greatness, and is therefore applicable to all objects which have the quality of greatness, but more aptly to that object which by nature and by qualities possesses this greatness to an infinite degree, hence the word ‘Brahman’ denotes that supreme Person who is the abode of all auspicious qualities to an infinite degree and is free from all worldly taint.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in his book &lt;em&gt;Bhamati and Vivarana Schools of Advaita Vedanta: A Critical Approach&lt;/em&gt;, p 190, P.S. Roodurmun says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As for the meaning of the word ‘&lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;’ itself, Padmapada says [in his book Pancapadika] that with reference to the root &lt;em&gt;Brh&lt;/em&gt; (to be great) from which is derived, the word Brahman is denotative of an entity possessed of unexcelled magnitude, which meaning alone fits in with other appellations namely, Absolute Existence (&lt;em&gt;Satyam&lt;/em&gt;), Consciousness, (&lt;em&gt;Jnanam&lt;/em&gt;), Infinite (&lt;em&gt;Anantam&lt;/em&gt;), as per the Vedanta text—“&lt;em&gt;Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahma&lt;/em&gt;”. Hence, says Padmapada, because of the absence of sense of limitedness occasioned by the delimitation of time, some entity that is constant and therefore eternal is intimated by the term &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[p 192]…The author of of the Pancapadika says concludingly that the meaning of the root ‘&lt;em&gt;Brh&lt;/em&gt;” will be complete only if the whole universe lies within the scope of (&lt;em&gt;Brahman’s&lt;/em&gt;) Consciousness or omniscience, and is under Its control, as Sankara himself says: &quot;There verily exists an entity referred to as &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; having Eternity, Purity, Consciousness, Freedom, Omniscience, and Omnipotence as its characteristics, as is revealed by the root ‘&lt;em&gt;Brh&lt;/em&gt;' itself&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says that when the term Maya first appears in the Rig Veda, it is used in what can be translated as ‘magic’ or ‘illusion’; or as ‘magic force’ and only later in the Upanishads evolved into ‘cosmic force’; but nowhere is the meaning of Brahman associated with ‘magic’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ATMAN&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said in a lecture (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V3, p 401, available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Lectures from Colombo to Almora&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;The Vedanta&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I will not translate this word [Âtman] to you in English, because the idea does not exist in Europe; it is untranslatable. The modern attempt of German philosophers is to translate the word Atman by the word &quot;Self&quot;, and until that word is universally accepted, it is impossible to use it. So, call it as Self or anything, it is our Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translation of Atman as ‘Self’ or ‘self’ (there is no universal agreement as to the capitalization) is at best a &lt;em&gt;signifier&lt;/em&gt; for the word Atman when rendered into English, and should not be taken as a literal translation or universally accepted translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again in &lt;em&gt;Bhamati and Vivarana Schools of Advaita Vedanta: A Critical Approach&lt;/em&gt;, p 191-192, P.S. Roodurmun says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sankara, by asserting the existence of the Self (&lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;) and by identifying it with &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, proves the existence of the Supreme Being. This, he says, is very much within the experience of one and all or else, instead of cognition “I am”, everyone would have the cognition “I am not”, which is absurd. Reacting to this, Padmapada says that Atman is identifiable with &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; on account of the assertion by the Vedanta texts in this sense. And this &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt; is indeed the entity designated by the ego (&lt;em&gt;aham&lt;/em&gt;) in this empirical world. Hence, the ego itself is &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;. Clarifying this point further, the author of the Pancapadika says that ‘the word &lt;em&gt;aham&lt;/em&gt; means Consciousness divested of all limiting adjuncts’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Atman is Brahman, and is never the 'human person' meant. The innermost soul of man is the atman, and the atman is the same as Brahman. For further references, see Mundukya Upanishad I. 2. And Sankara’s commentary on it. This verse contains the Mahavakya – “&lt;em&gt;ayam atma brahma&lt;/em&gt;&quot; – This Self is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Carvaka (Lokayatas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his book &lt;em&gt;The Spiritual Heritage of India&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Prabhavananda says (p 17):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The systems of Indian philosophy fall into two main divisions according as they do or do not accept the authority of the Vedas. All systems except Buddhism and Jainism are pronounced astika—meaning, in effect, orthodox; these two, which deny the authority of the primary scriptures, are nastika—unorthodox. If, however, we interpret astika literally—belief in existence after death—then all systems of thought, with the exception of the system attributed to Carvaka are astika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What Carvaka really taught, or whether there was a philosopher named Carvika at all, it is difficult to know, for we hear of him only through refutation, by various other schools of thought, of a philosophy of sensualism attributed to him. This philosophy was, in effect, but the simple philosophy of skepticism which appears as a crosscurrent in every age and every country. The name Carvaka literally means sweet word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some oriental scholars translate nastika as atheist. But if this meaning of the word is applied to Buddhism and Jainism because they reject an anthropomorphic God, then it should be applied also to many of the orthodox schools. The Samkhya philosophy, for example, denies God as creator, yet it is held to be orthodox.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Curiously, there is no equivalent in Sanskrit for the word atheism. In the Gita mention is made of those who do not believe in God, the intelligent principle, but these are spoken of merely as of ‘deluded intellect.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in his introduction to his translation of the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras According to Sri Sankara&lt;/em&gt; (available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&lt;/a&gt;) Swami Vireswarananda says (pp ii-iii):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…Traces of opposition against the religion of the Vedas are found in the Vedas themselves. This tidal wave of rationalism in its extreme form gave rise to to such schools of thought as the Carvakas, which were extremely materialistic and anti-religious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the age immediately preceding Buddha and during his lifetime there was a great religious and philosophical upheaval in India. From the Brahma-jala-Sutras we learn that in his time there were as many as sixty-two different schools of philosophy in India. We also learn from Buddhistic literature the names of number of teachers who were venerated in Aryavarta at the time—like Purana Kasyapa, Katyayana, Makkali Gosala, Nigantha Nathaputra the founder of Jainism and others. While these great souls represented Indian culture from an anti-Vedic standpoint there were many great names that represented the culture from the traditional standpoint—names that are venerated by Hindu religion and culture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The destructive criticism of everything in the old system by the Carvakas and others set the orthodox section to organize their belief on a more rationalistic basis and render it immune against all such criticism. This led to the foundation of the six systems of orthodox Hindu philosophy—orthodox [footnote – Astika (orthodox) and Nasika (heterodox) had nothing to do with belief or non-belief in the existence of God. Samkhya and Mimamsa which did not accept an Iswara were yet regarded Astika (orthodox)] in the sense they accepted the authority of the Vedas in things transcendental—while there were others who did not accept this authority and therefore were dubbed heterodox, though otherwise they too were the outcome of Upanisadic thought. The acceptance of the authority of the Vedas by these orthodox schools, however, does not mean that they accepted them &lt;em&gt;in toto&lt;/em&gt;. Their allegiance to the Vedas varied widely and often was too loose. Of the six orthodox schools, &lt;em&gt;viz&lt;/em&gt; Nyaya, Vaisesika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa and Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta [all modern Hindus], the last two are intimately connected with the Vedas, which is one of the reasons they are not mentioned in the Jaina and Buddhistic literature, while the others are mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you read the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; with either Sankara’s or Ramunuja’s commentary (link for Sankara’s above), arguments are made in various verses against the Carvakas views. But as pointed out above, no literature of theirs has survived. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T08:27:52.163" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11919" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-06T12:56:26.587" Score="3" ViewCount="540" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karna is widely known as &lt;em&gt;Daana Veera Karna&lt;/em&gt;. What are the incidents from the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt; that establish this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/4055/why-is-karna-special-in-mahabharata&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; question talks about a lot of other qualities Karna had.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-08-29T10:48:37.110" Title="Why is Karna known as Daana Veera?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11921" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-06T13:06:32.173" Score="2" ViewCount="90" Body="&lt;p&gt;A person can donate his time, money etc etc. Which of these &lt;em&gt;Daana&lt;/em&gt; is considered the highest according to Hindu beliefs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-06T13:06:32.173" Title="Which is considered as the highest form of generosity according to Hinduism?" Tags="|belief|daana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11928" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-06T13:46:01.297" Score="1" ViewCount="69" Body="&lt;p&gt;Would a text written by a &lt;em&gt;Rishi&lt;/em&gt; classified as &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt; scripture? If yes, are there any exceptions where a text written by a Rishi would not be considered as a &lt;em&gt;Hindu&lt;/em&gt; scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-06T18:47:44.083" Title="Would a text written by a Rishi classified as Hindu scripture?" Tags="|rishi|classification|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11929" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11931" CreationDate="2016-05-06T13:51:30.997" Score="2" ViewCount="411" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanada_(philosopher)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; wiki article describes &lt;em&gt;Kanada&lt;/em&gt; as both a sage and a philosopher. Was he a &lt;em&gt;Rishi&lt;/em&gt; or a mere philosopher?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2019-07-15T13:06:45.487" Title="Was Kanada a Rishi?" Tags="|rishi|kanada|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11930" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11928" CreationDate="2016-05-06T16:28:23.310" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes.Surya is right. E.g., Brahmā Purāṇa is a work of Agastya ṛṣi(Rishi). That said, our ṛṣis are deemed authorities, meaning that if they asserted something (even without proof), it has weight which means their commandments are to be followed at all times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Keep in mind that there are various hierarchies of ṛṣis and this information helps us to gauge their teachings' genuineness/importance → only ① Mahā &amp;amp; ② Brahma ṛṣis' say hold weight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5091" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-05-06T18:47:44.083" LastActivityDate="2016-05-06T18:47:44.083" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11931" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11929" CreationDate="2016-05-06T16:50:33.587" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. He was indeed a ṛṣi. But what kind of a ṛṣi was He? What was his expertise? From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanada_(philosopher)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;that wiki article you mentioned&lt;/a&gt;, it's obvious Kaṇāda pioneered the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaisheshika#Literature_of_Vaisheshika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaiśeṣika&lt;/a&gt; vāda school, one of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dar%C5%9Bana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ṣaḍ Darśanas | 6 major Philosophies&lt;/a&gt; in &lt;em&gt;Hinduism&lt;/em&gt;. Nevertheless, due to his (exalted) rank he was that of a seer, hence the prefixed title of « Maharṣi » to his name Kaṇāda i.e., He is addressed (and famous) as Maharṣi Kaṇāda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, let me throw some light on the various level of ṛṣis. Ratna Kośa &lt;sup&gt;[A]&lt;/sup&gt; &amp;amp; TriKāṇḍaŚeṣa (now extinct; from the whatever scattered quotes of them we have from the various vedic literatures) list 7 level of Ṛṣis which are being enumerated in their decreasing order of greatness as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Deva-Born (= not of human origin):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;① Brahmarṣi i.e., born from Brahmā e.g. Brahmarṣi Vasiṣṭha&lt;sup&gt;[B]&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;sup&gt;[C]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;② Devarṣi i.e., born out of Deva e.g. Devarṣi Nārada Muni&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Human-Born:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;③ Maharṣi, the greatest of all ṛṣis who are of human race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;④ Paramarṣi, slightly below than Maharṣi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;⑤ Kāṇḍarṣi, dealing with a certain Kāṇḍa — Chapter — of a Śāstra or Wing e.g., Jaimini (Mīmāṁsā propounder)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;⑥ Śrutarṣi, one of the best preceptors of Śāstra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;⑦ Rājarṣi, last and least in merit e. g., Viśvāmitra, Ṛtuparṇa, King Janaka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[A]&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Ratna Kośa&lt;/strong&gt; -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sapta brahmarṣi devarṣi maharṣi paramarṣayaḥ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;kāṇḍarṣiśca śrutarṣiśca rājarṣiśca kramāvarāḥ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;[B]&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp041.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Viṣṇu Purāṇa B1: 7.5&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;[C]&lt;/sup&gt; Vāyu Purāṇa Vol. 1, 9.62&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5091" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-07-15T13:06:45.487" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11932" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-06T19:02:52.957" Score="2" ViewCount="276" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_martial_arts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Indian Martial Arts&lt;/a&gt; is one of the most ancient martial art technique. Since a kshatriya's duty involves learning martial arts and dictates him to learn Martial Arts for the same purpose. So with this context are there any hindu scriptures (Preferably Ramayana/Mahabharat as they have Kshatriya centered stories) that have information on  Ancient Martial Arts and Techniques involved, which were used in Epic wars. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any other Scripture which gives detailed information on ancient Indian (mostly extinct) martial arts? What was reference book/manual to learn Martial arts and war techniques which ancient fighters used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the full list of arts a warrior should learn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-05-06T19:42:25.510" LastActivityDate="2016-05-06T19:42:25.510" Title="Martial arts and hinduism" Tags="|scripture|kshatriya|war|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11933" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-06T22:47:17.400" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-06T22:47:17.400" LastActivityDate="2016-05-06T22:47:17.400" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11934" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-06T22:47:17.400" Score="0" Body="Sahadeva (Sanskrit: सहदेव), from the Hindu epic Mahabharata, was the youngest of the five Pandava brothers. Nakula and Sahadeva were twins born to Madri, who had invoked the Ashwini Kumaras using Kunti's boon." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T03:51:00.503" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T03:51:00.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11935" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-06T22:52:10.370" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-06T22:52:10.370" LastActivityDate="2016-05-06T22:52:10.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11936" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-06T22:52:10.370" Score="0" Body="Ramcharitmanas is an epic poem in the Awadhi dialect of Hindi, composed by the 16th-century Indian bhakti poet Goswami Tulsidas (c.1532–1623). Ramcharitmanas literally means &quot;Lake of the deeds of Rama&quot;. The core of the work is considered by some to be a poetic retelling of the events of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T03:49:56.863" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T03:49:56.863" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11937" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-06T23:06:43.110" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;His Vishishtadvaita (qualified monism) philosophy has competed with the Dvaita (theistic dualism) philosophy of Madhvacharya, and Advaita (monism) philosophy of Adi Shankara, together the three most influential Vedantic philosophies of the 2&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt; millennium.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja presented the epistemic and soteriological importance of bhakti, or the devotion to a personal God (Vishnu in Ramanuja's case) as a means to spiritual liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His theories assert that there exists a plurality and distinction between Atman (souls) and Brahman (metaphysical, ultimate reality), while he also affirmed that there is unity of all souls and that the individual soul has the potential to realize identity with the Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/27zRjm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/27zRjm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T03:50:43.033" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T03:50:43.033" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11938" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-06T23:06:43.110" Score="0" Body="Ramanuja was a Hindu theologian, philosopher, and one of the most important exponent of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T03:50:04.127" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T03:50:04.127" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11939" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-06T23:17:36.157" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-06T23:17:36.157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-06T23:17:36.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11940" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-06T23:17:36.157" Score="0" Body="A female deity, e.g., Parvati, Lakshmi, Durga etc." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T03:50:55.457" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T03:50:55.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11941" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11906" CreationDate="2016-05-07T00:12:51.497" Score="10" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Unabridged English translation by Rai Bahadur Lala Baij Nath: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TheAdhyatmaRamayana&quot;&gt;https://archive.org/details/TheAdhyatmaRamayana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Link to &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/download/TheAdhyatmaRamayana/The%20adhyatma%20ramayana_text.pdf&quot;&gt;PDF&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hindi translation by Munilal (with original Sanskrit verses):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/AdhyatmaRamayana&quot;&gt;https://archive.org/details/AdhyatmaRamayana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Link to &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/download/AdhyatmaRamayana/GitaPress-AdhyatmaRamayan-Unabridged-Munilalsanskrit-hindi.pdf&quot;&gt;PDF&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Abridged English translation by Srikrishna Prapnnachari: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiadivine.org/content/files/file/21-adhyatma-ramayana-in-english-pdf/?do=download&amp;amp;csrfKey=32cd2d3182eab9691bf1440d6bc79d2e&quot;&gt;indiadivine.org&lt;/a&gt; (PDF)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T00:12:51.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11942" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8072" CreationDate="2016-05-07T04:32:10.030" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;em&gt;Kamala Nayanam&lt;/em&gt; is a symbolic one used to describe the qualities of Bhagavan Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q. What is Kamala Nayanam? One with eyes like a lotus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A. What does Kamala Nayanam mean? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kamal is lotus. Nayan is eyes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kamal is in water, but doesn't get wet and is fully blossomed. The mud&#xA;  doesn't get stuck to it. If you can see, but nothing enters inside...&#xA;  See, but no desires comes because you see.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Eyes that are bright, with all the energy reflected in them and ones&#xA;  that don't get affected or have any desire by whatever they see.&#xA;  That's Kamala Nayanam!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/khurshedbatliwala/photos/a.120539484652321.9874.109971269042476/1143651385674454/?type=3&amp;amp;theater&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Referenced&lt;/a&gt; from a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T04:32:10.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11943" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11907" CreationDate="2016-05-07T04:32:27.410" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Valimiki Ramayana, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11558/2995&quot;&gt;duel&lt;/a&gt; between Dasaratha-Rama and Parashu-Rama that you mentioned in your question does not happen during Sita's Swayamvara, but a little later when Parashurama confronts Dasaratha, Rama &amp;amp; others when they are returning to Ayodhya after the wedding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also it seems like you are mixing the two bows because there are two bows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva's bow&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Dhanush&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pinaka&lt;/a&gt;): Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga67/balasans67.htm#Verse17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;breaks&lt;/a&gt; this bow during Sita's Swayamvara. Although Parashurama learns about it, he's nowhere in the vicinity when this happens. Shiva's bow was in Janaka's possession since long time. You can read how Janaka inherited it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga66/bala_66_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu's bow&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharanga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sharanga&lt;/a&gt;): Parashurama inherits this bow from his father, Sage Jamadagni. When he confronts Rama, Parashurama hands over this bow to Rama inciting him to demonstrate his power. After showing his prowess, Rama doesn't break the bow though, he simply hands it over to Varuna. And Parashurama retreats to Mt. Mahendra. The following describes their encounter in little more detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Addressing Rama, Parashurama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga75/balasans75.htm#Verse26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रुत्वा तु धनुषो भेदम् ततो अहम् द्रुतम् आगतः || १-७५-२६ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत् एवम् वैष्णवम् राम पितृ पैतामहम् महत् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  क्षत्र धर्मम् पुरस् कृत्य गृह्णीष्व धनुर् उत्तमम् || १-७५-२७ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing about the breakage of Shiva's longbow, then I promptly came here. Thereby, oh, Rama, wield this supernatural and superlative longbow of Vishnu, which is passed on to me from my forefathers and my father. &lt;strong&gt;Keep your fealty to Kshatriya-hood in view, and wield this as you have wielded Shiva's longbow...&lt;/strong&gt; [1-75-26b, 27]&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  योजयस्व धनुः श्रेष्ठे शरम् पर पुरम् जयम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यदि शक्तः असि काकुत्स्थ द्वन्द्वम् दास्यामि ते ततः || १-७५-२८ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Take an aim with an arrow&lt;/strong&gt; that conquers enemy's citadels fixing it on this supramundane longbow... and oh, Kakutstha, &lt;strong&gt;should you be capable of it, thereafter I will give you a duel&lt;/strong&gt;... [1-75-27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama, after taking Vishnu's bow from Parashurama, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga76/balasans76.htm#Verse6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;replies&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मणो असि इति पूज्यो मे विश्वामित्र कृतेन च | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मात् शक्तो न ते राम मोक्तुम् प्राण हरम् शरम् || १-७६-६ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, Rama of Bhaargava, even if you are a Brahman you are eliminable, but because of your relationship with Vishvamitra, and because you are a venerable one for me, &lt;strong&gt;I am disinclined to release this arrow that exterminates your life...&lt;/strong&gt; [1-76-6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इमाम् वा त्वत् गतिम् राम तपो बल समार्जितान् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लोकान् अप्रतिमान् वा अपि हनिष्यामि यत् इच्छसि || १-७६-७ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, Bhaargava Rama, either this motility of yours at the speed of your mind, or even those unparalleled realms of heavens which you have earned by the power of your ascesis, &lt;strong&gt;I will eliminate whichever you wish&lt;/strong&gt;... [1-76-7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashurama is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga76/balasans76.htm#Verse11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;overwhelmed&lt;/a&gt; by Rama's intensity and tells Rama to aim his arrow toward (and destroy) the regions he (Parashurama) has conquered by his asceticism and spare his course and the Earth: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जडी कृते तदा लोके रामे वर धनुर् धरे | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  निर्वीर्यो जामदग्न्यो असौ रमो रामम् उदैक्षत || १-७६-११ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, when Rama is ready to take aim with the arrow on that inscrutable longbow, and when the worlds are being rendered as insentient, then that &lt;strong&gt;Rama of Jamadagni is rendered vigourless&lt;/strong&gt; and he stared up at Rama of Dasharatha. [1-76-11]&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तम् इमाम् मत् गतिम् वीर हन्तुम् न अर्हसि राघव | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनो जवम् गमिष्यामि महेन्द्रम् पर्वत उत्तमम् || १-७६-१५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereby oh, valiant one, it will be inapt of you to impair this motility of mine, oh, Raghava, I will depart with the speed of cerebration to Mt. Mahendra, a par excellent mountain... [1-76-15]&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लोकाः तु अप्रतिमा राम निर्जिताः तपसा मया | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जहि तान् शर मुख्येन मा भूत् कालस्य पर्ययः || १-७६-१६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But I triumphed over matchless realms of heavens with my ascesis, oh, Rama, you may hash them up with that irreversible arrow... let there be no time-lag... [1-76-16]&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स हतान् दृश्य रामेण स्वान् लोकान् तपसा आर्जितान् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जामदग्न्यो जगाम आशु महेन्द्रम् पर्वतोत्तमम् || १-७६-२२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On seeing all of his realms of heavens are shot-blasted by Rama of Dasharatha, Rama of Jamadagni vanished in a trice to Mt. Mahendra, the heavenly mountain.&lt;/strong&gt; [1-76-22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama then &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga77/balasans77.htm#Verse1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;hands over&lt;/a&gt; the Sharanga to Varuna: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गते रामे प्रशांत आत्मा रामो दाशरथिः धनुः |  &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  वरुणाय अप्रमेयाय ददौ हस्ते महायशाः || १-७७-१  &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the departure of Rama of Jamadagni, that most glorious Rama of Dasharatha is quietened at heart, and he gave away that longbow of Vishnu into the hand of inimitable Rain-god. [1-77-1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to read the story of their encounter at a stretch, I found this &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Ramayana_201309/Ramayana-VOL-1-Bala-Ayodhya-Kanda#page/n181/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translation&lt;/a&gt; to be much better than the verse by verse translation at valmikiramayan.net.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may also find these &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga76/balasans76.htm#Verse4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;notes&lt;/a&gt; from the translators at valmikiramayan.net useful:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Raghava, the nimble-handed vanquisher of his opponents, speaking thus in high dudgeon expropriated that estimable weapon, namely the longbow of Vishnu, from the hand of Bhaargava Rama, along with the long-arrow that is already fitted on it... [1-76-4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&quot;and, along the same lines Rama also said to have extricated the essential nature of Bhaargava...' The above said 'distancing' of these two Rama-s has another purpose. Rama has certain innate nature of making his observers enchanted by his very personality. Even Ravana looks at him adoringly in the war scene. This apart, his hand has certain ability to extricate the innate nature of others, should he lay his hand on them. We rarely see him touching or patting others, except for Seetha, Lakshmana, Hanuma, and say a squirrel etc. So, it is believed that, Rama has now expropriated the essential nature of Vishnu from Bhaargava Rama, while snatching the bow from his hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;For this Padma Puraana says: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;iti uktvaa devii vaiShNavyaa shaktyaa tad gataayaa saha | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    jagraaha vaiShNavam caapam vinayena ca liilayaa || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;'oh, Devi Parvati, &lt;strong&gt;saying so Rama took away the Vishnu's anima from Bhaargava Rama, along with bow of Vishnu, sportily and obediently, too&lt;/strong&gt;...' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Thus, Rama of Dasharatha bade goodbye to his earlier incarnation, Parashu Rama, as two swords cannot be in one sheath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T05:10:44.020" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11944" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-07T04:51:34.297" Score="10" ViewCount="1198" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people may know that Sanjeevini(संजीवनी)is a lithophytic plant. In Hinduism, this plant is well known, and it is mentioned in the Hanuman Chalisa as well as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लाय सँजीवनि लखन जियाए। श्रीरघुबीर हरषि उर लाए॥ ११ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: You brought the Sanjivini, the life saving herb and&#xA;  revitalized Lakshman. Out of elation, Rama embraced you&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanjeevini(संजीवनी) is mentioned in the Ramayana when, during the battle between Rama and Ravana, Ravana's brother Vibhishana killed Ravana's horses, so Ravana got down from his chariot and threw a powerful spear at Vibhishana, but Lakshmana shot the spear down with three arrows. Angered by this, Ravana threw an even more formidable spear at Lakshmana, fatally wounding him. Sugriva's father-in-law Sushena sent Hanuman to retrieve the herbs called Vishalya Karani, Savarni Karani, &lt;strong&gt;Sanjiva&lt;/strong&gt; Karani, and Sandhana Karani from the peak of Mount Oushadi. Hanuman couldn't identify the herbs on that mountain, so he brought the mountain peak itself to Lanka, and then Sushena used the herbs to heal Lakshmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence Hanuman is famously depicted carrying this mountain itself like in below image:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/B7TV3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/B7TV3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the medical benefit of Sanjeevini was very much known,and it was generally considered as &quot;life saving&quot; Herb (Sanjeevini word itself loosely translates to &lt;em&gt;One that infuses life&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;strong&gt;my question is&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;em&gt;Is there a mention of use of this Sanjeevini plant during Mahabharata war?&lt;/em&gt; For sure, many important warriors from both side of war would have been benefited by this herb had it being used to cure those warriors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or this &quot;knowledge&quot; about Sanjeevini and other herbs as life saving herb was lost with time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2016-05-08T13:07:09.730" LastActivityDate="2018-04-29T06:58:44.237" Title="Use of Sanjeevini(संजीवनी) booti(herb) in Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11946" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7893" CreationDate="2016-05-07T05:09:19.853" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar talked about the five signs of a SatGuru (the answer is from the point of view of a third person listening the dialogue:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q. Gurudev, how do I know that you are a real SatGuru and not a fake?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A. There are 5 things that manifest in your life when the Grace of a&#xA;  SatGuru touches you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For no reason at all, you feel happy. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Your problems and challenges seem trivial and manageable. You feel empowered.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Abundance dawns. There is no lack. There is contentment, but there is no complacency.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The words that the Guru speaks are relevant, appealing to your life circumstance and crystal clear. They sparkle with the magic of&#xA;  Knowledge. Even the most mundane thing can teach you how to live life&#xA;  if you know how to wrangle that Knowledge out of it…&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Gurudev said this, I picked up a chocolate from the basket near&#xA;  His feet and asked Him, How can chocolate teach you how to live life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He replied in a blink – Be like Chocolate! Firm, but Sweet!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;All your talents manifest. People who never even dreamt that they could do wonderful stuff, amaze themselves by what they manage to&#xA;  accomplish!!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Referenced from: &lt;a href=&quot;http://bawandinesh.name/the-five-signs-of-a-satguru-and-a-chance-to-win-a-macbook-pro/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://bawandinesh.name/the-five-signs-of-a-satguru-and-a-chance-to-win-a-macbook-pro/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T05:09:19.853" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11952" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11957" CreationDate="2016-05-07T07:02:19.517" Score="7" ViewCount="383" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/236/why-did-lord-rama-strike-from-behind-to-kill-vaali/3837#3837&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; question on Baali mentions that the arrows used by &lt;em&gt;Shri Rama&lt;/em&gt; used to kill &lt;em&gt;Baali&lt;/em&gt; were also used to kill Kumbhakarna. Shri Rama used a 100 arrows and even those could not kill KumbhaKarna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story &lt;em&gt;KumbhaKarna's&lt;/em&gt; death? How did he die?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2022-01-28T10:56:30.967" Title="What is the story of KumbhaKarna's death?" Tags="|ramayana|history|rama|vali|kumbhakarna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11953" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-07T07:05:45.917" Score="2" ViewCount="1604" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kumbhakarna&lt;/em&gt; was the brother of Ravana. What is the meaning of this name? Is there any significance behind this name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbhakarna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt; says it means pot-eared. By this logic, Karna was named after an ear. I find this difficult to digest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-07-04T05:48:33.097" LastActivityDate="2018-07-04T05:48:33.097" Title="What is the significance of the name Kumbhakarna?" Tags="|ramayana|name|etymology|kumbhakarna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11956" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10999" CreationDate="2016-05-07T10:33:28.280" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Excess of honey gives toxication in our blood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmachari ashram is also called brahmacharya deeksha. There are many rules to be followed during this stage of life. In the olden days,. Children on reaching on appropriate age were performed upanayanam and taken to the gurukulas. They lived in gurukulas till they completed their studies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Students were only allowed to eat unless their teacher and his wife has their meal. Performing sandhyavandanam thrice a day, Sleeping on the floor, eating meals once a day, ont falling prey to the activities which involve rajas, not sleeping in the afternoon and in the sunset time (asura sandhya) were the rules followed by the brahmacharis. These are the promises done by the pupil towards the parents. while taking upananyanam saying &quot;bāḍham&quot; which means promising he will indeed do that. Satvika aharam was prescribed to the students and not allowed to have mrushtanna bhojanam (meal of tastiest meal including all tastes) on some auspicious days. So there were some restrictions on diet to students in brahmacharya deeksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we consider your question, the word honey has both the meanings &lt;strong&gt;honey and alcohol&lt;/strong&gt;.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is an incident in &lt;em&gt;Valmiki Ramayanam Sundara Kanda &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga62/sundara_62_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sarga 62&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; in which Vanras along with Hanuma, angada and other Vanaras enter a garden known as &lt;em&gt;Madhuvana&lt;/em&gt; after knowing the news that Hanuman has seen Sita in Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;केचित् पीत्वा अपविध्यन्ति मधूनि मधु पिन्गलाः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मधु उच्चिष्टेन केचिच् च जघ्नुः अन्योन्यम् उत्कटाः || ५-६२-१०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some monkeys, with their skin-colour as yellow as honey, after drinking vessels of honey, also threw some honey away. Some others, with the remnant of honey in their arms, after drinking, whipped up one another with their excessive &lt;strong&gt;intoxication&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपरे वृक्ष मूलेषु शाखाम् गृह्य व्यवस्थितः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अत्यर्थम् च मद ग्लानाः पर्णानि आस्तीर्य शेरते || ५-६२-११&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some others, seizing a branch of a tree, stood rooted at the foot of a tree. Some, who were highly intoxicated, laid down spreading leaves on the ground. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उन्मत्त भूताः प्लवगा मधु मत्ताः च हृष्टवत् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  क्षिपन्ति अपि तथा अन्योन्यम् स्खलन्ति अपि तथा अपरे || ५-६२-१२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those monkeys, who were intoxicated by drinking the honey, became inebriated and started pushing one another cheerfully and some others began to &lt;strong&gt;stumble&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From above shlokas, it is clear that Vanaras drank honey but did not drink alcohol. But they were intoxicated and began to stumble with excessive intake of honey. It brought toxication in their body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is acceptable that a Brahmachari should not eat honey during his studies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-19T08:04:16.473" LastActivityDate="2018-09-19T08:04:16.473" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11957" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11952" CreationDate="2016-05-07T11:53:32.057" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, It is true that those arrows which killed Vali also couldn't do any harm to Kumbhakarna. Here is how Valmiki Ramayana describes Kumbhakarnas Death::&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दर्शयेक्ष्वाकुशार्दूल वीर्यम् गात्रेषु मे लघु |&#xA;  ततस्त्वां भक्षयिष्यामि दृष्टपौरुषविक्रमम् || ६-६७-१५२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O faultless excellent Rama born in Ikshavaku dynasty! Show your prowess on my limbs. After seeing your strength and prowess, I will be devouring you.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स कुम्भकर्णस्य वचो निशम्य |&#xA;  रामः सुपुङ्खान्विससर्ज बाणान् |&#xA;  तैराहतो वज्रसमप्रवेगैर् |&#xA;  न चुक्षुभे न व्यथते सुराइः || ६-६७-१५३&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hearing the words of Kumbhakarna, that Rama released plumed arrows. Even after struck by them, whose speed was equal to a thunderbolt, that demon was neither shaken nor afflicted.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यैः सायकैः सालवरा निकृत्ता |&#xA;  वाली हतो वानरपुङ्गवश् च |&#xA;  ते कुम्भकर्णस्य तदा शरीरं |&#xA;  वज्रोपमा न व्यथयां प्रचक्रुः || ६-६७-१५४&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Those arrows, which chopped off the Sala trees and killed Vali the foremost of monkeys, could not torment Kumbhakarna's body which was like a thunderbolt.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स वारिधारा इव सायकांस्तान् |&#xA;  पिबन् शरीरेण महेन्द्रशत्रुः |&#xA;  जघान रामस्य शरप्रवेगं |&#xA;  व्याविध्य तं मुद्गरमुग्रवेगम् || ६-६७-१५५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sucking those arrows with his body, as mountains suck up torments of water, that Kumbhakarna, flourishing his hammer with terrible speed, hindered the tremendous speed of Rama's arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततस्तु रक्षः क्षतजानुलिप्तं |&#xA;  वित्रासनं देवमहाचमूनाम् |&#xA;  व्याविध्य तं मुद्गरमुग्रवेगं |&#xA;  विद्रावयामास चमूं हरीणाम् || ६-६७-१५६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, flourishing that hammer which was smeared with blood and which can frighten the great army of celestials, in terrific speed, that demon scared away the army of monkeys.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वायव्यमादाय ततो वरास्त्रं |&#xA;  रामः प्रचिक्षेप निशाचराय |&#xA;  समुद्गरम् तेन जहार बाहुं |&#xA;  स कृत्तबाहुस्तुमुलं ननाद || ६-६७-१५७&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thereupon, taking a great missile called Vayavya, Rama hurled it on the demon. By that weapon, he chopped off Kumbhakarna's arm along with the hammer. With his arm chopped off, Kumbhakarna roared tumultuously.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स तस्य बाहुर्गिरिशृङ्गकल्पः |&#xA;  समुद्गरो राघवबाणकृत्तः |&#xA;  पपात तस्मिन् हरिराजसैन्ये |&#xA;  जघान ताम् वानरवाहिनीं च || ६-६७-१५८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Kumbhakarna's arm, identical to a mountain-peak, which was chopped off by Rama's arrow, fell along with the hammer on that army of Sugreeva and killed that regiment of monkeys.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ते वानरा भग्नहतावशेषाः |&#xA;  पर्यन्तमाश्रित्य तदा विषण्णाः |&#xA;  प्रपिडिताङ्गा ददृशुः सुघोरं |&#xA;  नरेन्द्ररक्षोऽधिपसंनिपातम् || ६-६७-१५९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those monkeys who had escaped being broken and slain by that arm, though dejected with their tormented limbs and taking recourse to the sides, witnessed a highly terrific encounter between Rama and Kumbhakarna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स कुम्भकर्णोऽस्त्रनिकृत्तबाहुर् |&#xA;  र्महासिकृत्ताग्र इवाचलेन्द्रः |&#xA;  उत्पाटयामास करेण वृक्षं |&#xA;  ततोऽभिदुद्राव रणे नरेन्द्रम् || ६-६७-१६०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having an arm chopped off by the arrow like a mountain-peak chopped off by a gigantic sword, that Kumbhakarna with his another arm, pulled up a tree by its roots and then ran towards Rama the lord of men in that battle-front.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स तस्य बाहुम् सह सालवृक्षं |&#xA;  समुद्यतं पन्नगभोगकल्पम् |&#xA;  ऐन्द्रास्त्रयुक्तेन जहार रामो |&#xA;  बाणेन जाम्बूनदचित्रितेन || ६-६७-१६१&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By his arrow, which was made variegated by gold and furnished with a mystic spell of Indra used for charming it, Rama chopped off Kumbhakarna's remaining arm, appearing like the coil of a serpent along with his uprooted palm-tree.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स कुम्भकर्णस्य भुजो निकृत्तः |&#xA;  पपात भूमौ गिरिसंनिकाशः |&#xA;  विवेष्टमानो निजघान वृक्षान् |&#xA;  शैलाञ्शिलावानरराक्षसांश् च || ६-६७-१६२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Kumbhakarna's arm, which appeared like a hill, was chopped off and fell down on the ground. Wallowing hither and thither, it dashed with trees, rocks, monkeys and demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तम् छिन्नबाहुम् समवेक्ष्य रामः |&#xA;  समापतन्तम् सहसा नदन्तम् |&#xA;  द्वावर्धचन्द्रौ निशितौ प्रगृह्य |&#xA;  चिच्छेद पादौ युधि राक्षसस्य || ६-६७-१६३&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Seeing Kumbhakarna with his arms chopped off, abruptly with a roar, coming upon him and taking two sharp arrows with a shape of a half-moon each, Rama chopped off the feet of the demon in that battle.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तौ तस्य पादौ प्रदिशो दिशश्च |&#xA;  गिरेर्गुहाश्चैव महार्णवम् च |&#xA;  लङ्काम् च सेनाम् कपिराक्षसानां |&#xA;  विनादयन्तौ विनिपेततुश्च || ६-६७-१६४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Creating a resound everywhere in all directions, even in hill-caves, in the great ocean, in Lanka as also in the armies of monkeys and demons, Kumbhakarna's feet fell down.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निकृत्तबाहुर्विनिकृत्तपादो |&#xA;  विदार्य वक्त्रं वडवामुखाभम् |&#xA;  दुद्राव रामम् सहसाभिगर्जन् |&#xA;  राहुर्यथा चन्द्रमिवान्तरिक्षे || ६-६७-१६५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Widely opening his mouth like the mouth of a submarine fire and roaring, Kumbhakarna whose arms and feet were cut off, ran (with thighs) quickly towards Rama, like Rahu the seizer-demon going to seize the moon in the sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अपूरयत्तस्य मुखं शिताग्रै |&#xA;  रामः शरैर्हेमपिनद्धपुङ्खैः |&#xA;  स पूर्णवक्त्रो न शशाक वक्तुं |&#xA;  चुकूज कृच्छ्रेण मुमोह चापि || ६-६७-१६६&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama filled up Kumbhakarna's mouth with sharply pointed arrows, having shafts covered with gold. With his mouth full of arrows, Kumbhakarna was unable to speak. He moaned with difficulty and even became unconscious.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अथाददे सूर्यमरीचिकल्पं |&#xA;  स ब्रह्मदण्डान्तककालकल्पम् |&#xA;  अरिष्टमैन्द्रं निशितम् सुपुङ्खं |&#xA;  रामः शरं मारुततुल्यवेगम् || ६-६७-१६७&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thereupon, that Rama got hold of an arrow spelled with a missile presided over by Indra the lord of celestials, effulgent as sun's rays, resembling the rod of Brahma the lord of creation as also the destructive Kala, the Time-Spirit, and having its speed equal to the wind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तम् वज्रजाम्बूनदचारुपुङ्खं |&#xA;  प्रदीप्तसूर्यज्वलनप्रकाशम् |&#xA;  महेन्द्रवज्राशनितुल्यवेगं |&#xA;  रामः प्रचिक्षेप निशाचराय || ६-६७-१६८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama discharged against the demon, that arrow, whose shaft was inlaid with diamonds and gold, which was shining as the dazzling sun and fire set ablaze, and which vied with the speed of Indra's thunderbolt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स सायको राघवबाहुचोदितो |&#xA;  दिशः स्वभासा दश सम्प्रकाशयन् |&#xA;  विधूमवैश्वानरदीप्तदर्शनो |&#xA;  जगाम शक्राशनितुल्यविक्रमः || ६-६७-१६९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That arrow, propelled by Rama's arm, with a terrific aspect like the smokeless fire, having a formidable energy of Indra's thunderbolt and illuminating the ten quarters with its own splendour, proceeded forward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स तन्महापर्वतकूटसंनिभं |&#xA;  सुवृत्तदंष्ट्रं चलचारुकुण्डलम् |&#xA;  चकर्त रक्षोऽधिपतेः शिरस्तदा |&#xA;  यथैव वृत्रस्य पुरा पुरन्दरः || ६-६७-१७०&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That Rama slashed Kumbhakarna's head, which was looking like a huge mountain-peak, having well-rounded tusks and with charming and quivering ear-rings, as like Indra the destroyer of strong-holds, in the past, chopped off the head of Vritra, the demon of darkness and drought.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कुम्भकर्णशिरो भाति कुण्डलालम्कृतं महत् |&#xA;  आदित्येऽभ्युदिते रात्रौ मध्यस्थ इव चन्द्रमाः || ६-६७-१७१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The large Kumbhakarna's head, adorned with ear-rings, shone like the moon being in the middle, when the constellation, Punarvasu (presided over by Aditi the mother of gods and consisting of twin-stars) has risen at the night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-07T11:59:02.173" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T11:59:02.173" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11958" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7961" CreationDate="2016-05-07T12:58:42.530" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This confusion about who is supreme God disappears when we realise Hinduism is not a unitary religion but family of few closely related religions. We call vaishnavism, shaivism, shaktism, smarta as &quot;sects&quot; of Hinduism but each of them have theology, philosophy and traditions to qualify as religion on their own. Problem is most of the modern Hindus are non-sectarian but puranas were written by people from various Hindu sects even though they are all attributed to Vyasa. This attribution may not have meant to be taken literally, may have been part of literary tradition. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyasa#Other_texts_attributed&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyasa#Other_texts_attributed&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Modern Hindus should not get confused by this squabbling between sects about name of supreme being and remember instruction given in sruti. &quot;Ekam Sat, Vipra Bahudha vadanti&quot;. Truth is one, sages call it by many names. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5576" LastActivityDate="2016-05-07T12:58:42.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11959" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-07T20:31:56.497" Score="10" ViewCount="938" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard a story that many weapons including Indra's Vajra was created with Sage Dadhichi's bone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was only one weapon (Vajra) created? If no, then I want to know exactly which weapons are created? And who have attributed them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And is there any mention of this story in our scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-08T06:29:17.853" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T06:29:17.853" Title="What are the weapons created by Sage Dadhichi's bone?" Tags="|scripture|indra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11960" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16318" CreationDate="2016-05-08T04:36:57.520" Score="3" ViewCount="2724" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is meaning of the word &lt;em&gt;'Kamakshi'&lt;/em&gt;? What does the word 'Kama' here refers to ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="124" LastEditDate="2016-05-08T05:49:00.993" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T14:44:08.873" Title="What is the meaning of Kamakshi" Tags="|puranas|name|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11962" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11960" CreationDate="2016-05-08T06:15:40.060" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, &lt;em&gt;Kamakshi&lt;/em&gt; is considered a form of the Devi. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalita_Sahasranama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lalita Sahasranamam&lt;/a&gt; also mentions Kamakshi as one of the 1000 names of the &lt;em&gt;Devi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Kamah (कामः) has the following meanings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;wish, desire&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;object of desire&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;affection, love&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;love or desire of sensual enjoyments, considered as one of the ends of&#xA;  life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;desire of carnal gratification, lust&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the god of love&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a name of Pradyumna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a name of Balarama&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a kind of mango tree&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the Supreme Being&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The word Akshi (अक्षि) means&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;the eye&lt;/strong&gt; (which grasps or sees objects)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the number two&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The most common meaning of the word &lt;em&gt;Kamah&lt;/em&gt; used here is in the context of desire. Hence, Kamakshi can be taken to mean &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'one whose sight fulfills all desires'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. In my opinion, this can be interpreted in the context of Darshana. It is said, when the Guru looks at you directly (eye-contact), that is considered very auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I imagine it could also be interpreted as &lt;em&gt;one whose eyes are full of love&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ldpd_7285627_000&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Vaman Shivaram Apte.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-08T06:15:40.060" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11963" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11803" CreationDate="2016-05-08T06:28:13.670" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There may be numerous reasons behind the poonakam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can be psychological excitement for his favorite god.&#xA;It can be due to transmission of energy from the deity to the devotee.&#xA;It can be result of yogic energized charkas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one can not completely with hold this energy/excitement/joy received, it may over flow and exhibit  as poonakam. This manifestation can be real or can be just excitement or can be a bluff public stunt. If god has really come to one's body, then he would experience oneness and experience the tranquility. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When in hardships people generally pray more and be devoted more and hence your observation may be true to some extent. I knew many people who are secure enough (economically, physically &amp;amp; mentally) but still get poonakam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2016-05-08T06:28:13.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11964" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-08T07:39:17.560" Score="6" ViewCount="177" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vai%C5%9Be%E1%B9%A3ika_S%C5%ABtra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaisheshika Sutra&lt;/a&gt; is the most prominent text of the Vaisheshika school of thought, one of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dar%C5%9Bana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shad Darshanas&lt;/a&gt; in Hinduism. It was written by &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://firstip.org/legendary-scientists/maharshi-kanada-the-propunder-of-atomic-theory600-bce&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Maharshi Kanada&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanada_(philosopher)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt; article says that it talks about atoms, diatomic molecules and triatomic molecules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the Shlokas where these are mentioned, if anyone has read the text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-08T07:45:58.580" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T06:04:52.673" Title="On atoms, diatomic and triatomic molecules - Vaisheshika Sutra" Tags="|science|kanada|vaisheshika|shad-darshana|vaisheshika-sutra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ClosedDate="2017-02-03T07:36:56.653" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11965" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6692" CreationDate="2016-05-08T09:06:51.803" Score="1" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the « the names » has been explicitly mentioned, then obviously it is inferring to Viṣṇu Sahasrāra Nāma since the source is a Vaiṣṇava&#xA;grantha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Otherwise if  « the name » is mentioned, it is implying to chant one  name (to whichever appeals to you).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A note on technical jargon:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Usually in Hindu śāstras, « &lt;strong&gt;chant&lt;/strong&gt; » = &lt;strong&gt;japa&lt;/strong&gt; i.e., doing japa mālā of that name, which means getting   into some kind of spiritual practice where you sit and perform japa  on a mālā to the Lord name in the form of your iṣṭadeva (i.e., your preferred rūpa of God).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hari n‌āma&lt;/strong&gt; is the technical term employed for this. It is symoblic which means it can mean God in any rūpa in which you can see him. An implied meaning means your « &lt;strong&gt;iṣṭadevatā nāma&lt;/strong&gt; » which can also mean Śiva, in case you are attracted to him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5091" LastEditorUserId="5091" LastEditDate="2016-05-08T09:16:23.427" LastActivityDate="2016-05-08T09:16:23.427" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11966" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11520" CreationDate="2016-05-08T12:58:38.087" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Good question. This love of Lord for His Saguna worshippers is discussed in verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/47&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;6.47&lt;/a&gt; also.&#xA;There should not be a question of which is better as Lord Himself declares that both attain the God in verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/12/3-4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;12.4&lt;/a&gt;. Following is an attempt to write an answer without showing disrespect to any of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Saguna: Worship of all-inclusive God&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krsna has declared in verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/30&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;7.30&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those in full consciousness of Me, who know Me, the Supreme Lord, to be the governing principle of the material manifestation, of the demigods, and of all methods of sacriﬁce, can understand and know Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, even at the time of death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as per the Lord, He (Saguna Krsna) is the one who governs material world, celestial world, all methods of sacrifice and actions. His Saguna form is the all-inclusive God including Brahman, jeeva, actions and everything. And Saguna worshippers worship this all-inclusive form of God as they believe that it is God who has become everything. And knowing that Nirguna worshippers worship the Brahman and deny the rest, it can be said that Nirguna worship is worship of a part of all-inclusive God and Saguna worship is the worship of the all-inclusive God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Devotion: Essence of all paths&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can one be determined to become a Karma-Yogi or a Jnana-Yogi if one has not felt the attraction of doing selfless service or living devoid of all boundations? This attraction of attainment of the highest is the driving force in every path. Devotion is nothing but intensified form of this attraction directed to God! Therefore, Devotion is the essence of each and every path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Devotion and Discrimination&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worshippers of Nirguna follow the path of Discrimination while that of Saguna follow the path of Devotion.&#xA;Nirguna worshippers discriminate between God and non-God. They practice dispassion for non-God part of the universe. But Saguna worshippers know only of devotion. They practice seeing God everywhere, there is no such thing as non-God for them; hence Devotion is more embracing and welcoming than Discrimination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Love surpasses all&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it is Devotion, and not Knowledge, that is the delight of the all-delightful Lord. It is Love the force of which even the almighty Lord cannot resist. Nirguna worshippers have attainment of salvation as their aim. And Love is a divine stage even ahead of salvation. It is beyond salvation, enlightenment, self-knowledge and everything. Sri Ramakrishna would often sing a song describing the glory of Love &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter08.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Master sang: Though I am never loath to grant salvation,&#xA;  I hesitate indeed to grant pure love.&#xA;  Whoever wins &lt;strong&gt;pure love surpasses all&lt;/strong&gt;;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Glory of pure love is unlimited. Sri Ramacharitamanas also discusses this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/ramacharitamanas/ayodhya402-480.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Love alone attracts Sri Råma&lt;/strong&gt;; let those who are curious take note of it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/ramacharitamanas/uttar949-1022.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; are the words of Sri Rama on love and knowledge:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is an easy and pleasant road, brethren, that of devotion to&#xA;  My feet, extolled in the Puråƒas and Vedas. &lt;strong&gt;Gnosis is difficult to attain&lt;/strong&gt; and beset with&#xA;  numerous obstacles. The path is rugged and there is no solid ground for the mind to rest&#xA;  on. &lt;strong&gt;Scarcely one attains it after a hard struggle; yet, lacking in Devotion, the man fails to&#xA;  win My love.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, this is a very good question and even a book would be shorter for a proper answer to this. This is all I could attempt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T00:06:25.843" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T00:06:25.843" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11967" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8082" CreationDate="2016-05-08T13:31:01.497" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kundalini raising and uniting it with Sahasrara Chakra is one of the very easiest way to get Mokshya.&lt;/strong&gt; It mostly exists in hidden form in our texts, it is because Gods (devatas) do not want us that we achieve salvation easily as cited in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad(1.4.10) also cited in the starting of Shiva Gita in Padma Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;_______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although it is in hidden form in all our texts. But still we can get direct information about it by the grace of great Acharyas like Adi Shankara, Guru Gorakhnath, Mahavatar Babaji, Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, Swami Vivekananda and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya also told uniting Kundalini Shakti from Muladhara to Sahasrara chakra is same as being uniting with Brahman. Here is an excerpt from Traditional Shankara Digvijaya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankara Digvijaya Canto 12&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (25-37) Then the Acharya reached the temple of Mookambika of great spiritual power, which was surrounded by a dense and attractive growth of trees and plants like mango trees, jack trees, palms, pomegranates, sugar cane and the like. With eyes brimming with tears of bliss and with all the hairs on end, that great sage&#xA;  Sankara, possessed of the spirit of universal benevolence, recited the following hymn in praise of the Divine Mother with a heart&#xA;  overflowing with devotion: &amp;quot;0 Mother! It is the three hundred and sixty rays of light proceeding from Thy lotus feet that reflect &#xA;  all through the year as the light of the sun, the moon and the fire. Men versed in Thy worship according to the ritualistic code adore Thee with sixtyfour proceedures of worship and with rich offerings including costly garments. Others worship Thee with non-material offerings. &lt;strong&gt;They offer Thee worship with these sixtyfour procedures&#xA;  in the six psychic centres along the Sushumna path.&lt;/strong&gt; Ordinary people worship Thee with material offerings; middling devotees with mental offerings followed by physical offerings; and great ones with spiritual worship only. But when one is established in Non-dual Consciousness, no question of worship or adoration&#xA;  arises. Thou hast thirty eight aspects, of which five lead to liberation. Wise men always adore Thy feet which excel every other aspect. As the fire of cosmic destruction, Thou bumest up the&#xA;  universe; as life-giving ambrosia, Thou createst the worlds; and as the soul of immortality, Thou preservest it and redeemest the Jivas. Those who contemplate Thee in these three aspects attain spiritual felicity. Those who want to adore Thee first grasp the truth about Thee from the instruction of the Guru, then realise it in Samadhi, and attain to the state of Non-duality. &lt;strong&gt;Those who meditate on Thee in the lowest Chakras, known as Muladhara and Swadhisthana, are prompted by worldly desires and attain only to them.&lt;/strong&gt; Those who adore Thee in Manipura just reach the gate of Thy spiritual being. Those who meditate on Thee in the Anahata-chakra, attain to Thy region; those who do so in the Visuddhi-chakra attain closeness to Thee; and those doing &amp;apos;so in the Ajna-chakra attain to equality of bliss with Thee. &lt;strong&gt;The highest type of Sadhakas who meditate on Thee in the thousand-petalled lotus in the head, known otherwise as Dhruva-mandala, overcome the interest in the four forms of communion and attain to oneness with Thee.&lt;/strong&gt; These four forms of communion are: the unity of Sri Chakra and the six Chakras in the body; the unity of the Mantras pertaining to the Sri Chakra and the· six Chakras; the unity of Sri Chakra and Thyself; and the unity of the Mantras of Sri Chakra and Thyself. The Sadhaka recognises all these forms of unity.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as Adi Shankara tells &quot;attain to oneness with Thee&quot;... Thus denoting we become Brahman by that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru Gorakhnath in his Hatha Yoga Pradipika states that those who have awakened kundalini obtains ParamPadam (Highest state)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suptā ghuruprasādena yadā jāgharti kundalī &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tadā sarvāni padmāni bhidyante ghranthayoapi cha ।।2।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;When the sleeping Kundalinî awakens by favour of a guru, then all the lotuses (in the six chakras or centres) and all the knots are pierced through.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Prānasya śūnyapadavī tadā rājapathāyate &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tadā chittam nirālambam tadā kālasya vañchanam ।।3।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Susumnâ (Sûnya Padavî) becomes a main road for the passage of Prâna, and the mind then becomes free from all connections (with its objects of enjoyments) and &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Death is then evaded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śaktimadhye manah krtvā śaktim mānasamadhyaghām &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Manasā mana ālokya dhārayetparamam padam ।।54।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Placing the mind into the Kundalini, and getting the latter into the mind, by looking upon the Buddhi (intellect) with mind (reflexively), the Param Pada (Brahma) should be obtained.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus one gets united with Brahman when Kundalini is awakened and gets united to Sahasrara chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Great Yogi Rama Krishna Paramhamsa also told the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gospel of Ramakrishna &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Awake, Mother! Awake! How long Thou hast been asleep In the lotus of the Muladhara! Fulfil Thy secret function, Mother: Rise to the thousand-petalled lotus within the head, Where mighty Shiva has His dwelling; Swiftly pierce the six lotuses And take away my grief, O Essence of Consciousness!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt; [Page no. 267]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;_____________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda in commentary of 1.34th Patanjali Yoga Sutra says:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One they call Ida, another Pingala, and the third Susumna. Pingala, according to them, is on the right side of the spinal column, and the Ida is on the left side, and in the middle of this spinal column is the Susumna, a vacant channel. Ida and Pingala, according&#xA;  to them, are the currents working in every man, and through these currents, we are performing all the functions of life. &lt;strong&gt;Susumna is present in all, as a possibility; but it works only in the Yogi.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the commentary of 2.50th Sutra he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By place is meant that the Prana is held to &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  some particular part of the body. By time is meant how long the Prana should be confined to a certain place, and so we are told how many seconds to keep on motion, and how many seconds to keep another. &lt;strong&gt;The result of this Pranayama is Udghata, awakening the Kundalini.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;--------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus one gets united with Brahman when Kundalini pierces the Sahasrara chakra. It is same as being one with Brahman. &lt;strong&gt;If you take it as being same with Shiva residing in Sahasrara with Saguna aspect then it is equivalent to Sayujya mukti. If you have theory of duality ie, Jiva can never be Brahman then such type of Mokshya is equivalent to Ekatwa ie. just united with Atman not Brahman.. Thus it depends on your belief about the type of Mokshya yogi get from this type. If Non Dualism is right then person is united with Brahman and hence mokshya is eternal and if Dualism is right person is united with his Atman only [ie.Ekatwa] thus is non-eternal.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;_____________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the location of 7 chakras in our body one doesn't require hidden meaning of scriptures also. One can get direct knowledge by Pratakshya Praman (ie. Direct Perception)..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The place where solid waste comes is associated with solidity (ie.Bhu tatwa) thus  named as Muladhar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The place where liquid waste (Jala tatwa) comes in our body is located just above it. Thus that area named as Swadhisthana .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Above it is the place where Agni tatwa causes digestion in our body thus Manipura is named in that area.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Above it is the place where Vayu tatwa is in our body.( ie. Lungs is there). Thus that area is named as Anhata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Above three chakras are related to Akash tatwa each goes on being more subtler on going above. First sound produced from vocal chord which is element of Akash tatwa, that area named as Vissuddha. Then light perceived in the eye area named as Ajna. And the most subtlest which even transcends Akash Tatwa is pure consciousness thus that area named as Sahasrara chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus these 7 chakras are the representation of elements from below ie Bhu tatwa, Jala tatwa, Agni tatwa, Vayu tatwa and Akash tatwa and thus finally transcending the Akash tatwa too. Thus Mokshya happens when Kundalini shakti goes on transcending these Panchamahabhuta. Thus the location and function of each chakra can be directly perceived by direct perception....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T12:44:51.267" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T12:44:51.267" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11968" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2341" CreationDate="2016-05-08T14:11:37.600" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The fact is that both in the Ramayan and Mahabharat the so called good sides(i.e. Sri Ram's side and the Pandavas respectively) were weaker than the bad side (Ravan's and the Kauravas respectively). So the good side cheated to win, plain and simple. Ram and Laxman even though they were avatars could not have defeated indrajeet had not vibhishan betrayed indrajeet. Ram and Laxman broke the rules of war and attacked indrajeet while he was praying. Regarding angad defeating indrajeet, so that did not happen, angad killed his charioteer and killed his horses but he was not able to defeat indrajeet once he started using maya tactics infact Indrajeet was actually stronger than GOD......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5579" LastActivityDate="2016-05-08T14:11:37.600" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11970" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7404" CreationDate="2016-05-08T14:22:35.250" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;An avatar voluntarily chooses not to access all knowledge and power for reasons known best to them. Rajiv Malhotra talks about this in his book:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The avatar role-plays with deliberate and voluntary self-limitation.&#xA;  The avatar has infinite knowledge which he can choose to access,&#xA;  though ordinarily he does not, or else does so selectively&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I imagine this is applicable in the context of Krishna not stopping the Sakti weapon .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-Excerpt from the book 'Being Different' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-08T14:22:35.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11971" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-08T16:11:31.857" Score="3" ViewCount="373" Body="&lt;p&gt;I remember watching in one of the versions of &lt;em&gt;Ramayana&lt;/em&gt; on TV that Shri Rama praised Kumbhakarna as a great warrior after he was killed. Did Shri Rama respond in any manner to their deaths? If so, what was the response?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T11:58:42.283" Title="What was Shri Rama's response after the death of Kumbhakarna and Ravana?" Tags="|ramayana|history|rama|ravana|kumbhakarna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11972" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-08T16:36:02.847" Score="1" ViewCount="152" Body="&lt;p&gt;Guru Ashtakam is a hymn said to be composed by Adi Shankaracharya. Can it be traced back to any of the texts written by him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T14:33:41.723" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T14:33:41.723" Title="Source of Guru Ashtakam" Tags="|scripture|history|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11974" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-08T22:18:52.380" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-08T22:18:52.380" LastActivityDate="2016-05-08T22:18:52.380" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11975" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-08T22:18:52.380" Score="0" Body="In the Hindu epic Ramayana, the vanara Vali was king of Kishkindha, a son of Indra, elder brother of Sugriva and father of Angada. He was killed by Lord Rama, an avatar of Vishnu.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;Not to be confused with Bali Chakravarthi or Maha Bali mentioned in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa)." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-09T01:58:23.213" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T01:58:23.213" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11976" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11977" CreationDate="2016-05-09T00:46:01.767" Score="13" ViewCount="1293" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shankara Digvijaya states that when Adi Shankara reached temple of Hari Shankara then he composed &lt;strong&gt;such verses with ambiguous meaning which could praise for both Shiva and Vishnu at the same time.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From there the Acharya, who was on a pilgrimage to all holy places, next &#xA;  proceeded to the temple of Hari-Sankara. The image there being the combined form of Shiva and Vishnu, this place of pilgrimage is &#xA;  equal in holiness to Kailasa and Vaikuntha put together. &lt;strong&gt;There, with a hymn having a double meaning, so as to refer to both Shiva &#xA;  and Vishnu simultaneously, he praised the Deity Hari-Sankara.&lt;/strong&gt; who, as it were to dispel the doubts of people who looked upon Shiva and Vishnu as two, has manifested in a single form, with hand held in the pose indicative of Non-duality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want the verses of &lt;strong&gt;Hari Sankara stotra with it's double meaning.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-02-24T03:21:07.553" LastActivityDate="2022-03-03T01:00:07.700" Title="What is the mystery of Hari Sankara Stotra composed by Adi Shankara?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|vedanta|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11977" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11976" CreationDate="2016-05-09T00:57:06.037" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here, is that Stotra composed by Adi-Shankara. It has 11 verses and &lt;strong&gt;gives such double meanings that it can be used to praise Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu at the same time.&lt;/strong&gt; It goes on praising 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu and Balarama avatar also in one side while in other side the same verses praises Lord Shiva (at the same time) due to it's double meaning nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महासोमकलाविलासं गामादरेणा अकलयन्न नादिम्   |&#xA;  मैनं महः किंचन दिव्यमङ्गीकुर्वन्  विभूर्मे कुशलानि कुर्यात् || १&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu: May the worshipful being Mahavishnu, who assumed the &lt;strong&gt;form of the Fish in the cosmic waters&lt;/strong&gt; and restored to its proper place, the earth that had taken shape of a boat, bless me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva: May the great god Shiva who has the crescent moon on his forehead, who is wedded to Parvati, the daughter of Mena, and who is always associated with his Bull - grant me all that is auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो मन्दरागं दधदादितेयान् सुधाभुजः स्मा अतनुते विषादी |&#xA;  स्वामद्रिलोलोचितचारुमूर्ते कृपामपारां स भवान् विधत्ताम् || २&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu: May that being (Mahavishnu), who assumed &lt;strong&gt;the form of a tortoise&lt;/strong&gt; to support the churning rod of Mandara mountain and who thus helped the Devas, be gracious onto me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva: May I have the grace of that great god Shiva who has assumed a suitable form for his sportive manifestations on the mount Kailasa, who is adored by Mandara flowers, and who drank poison for the protection of the Devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उल्लासयन्यो महिमानमुच्चैः स्फुरद्वराहीशकलेवरो अभूत् |&#xA;  तस्मै विदध्मः करयोरजस्रं सायन्तनाम्भोरुहसामरस्यम्   || ३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu: I fold my hands in adoration of Him who incarnated as the &lt;strong&gt;great cosmic Boar&lt;/strong&gt; and restored the earth to her position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva: I fold my hands in adoration of Him who shines with the great serpent Vasuki as his ornament and who sustains the devotee in his devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समावहन् केसरितां वरां यः सुरद्विषत्कुञ्जरमाजधान |&#xA;  प्रह्लादमुल्लासितमादधानं पञ्चाननं तं प्रणुमः पुराणम् || ४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu: I adore Mahavishnu, &lt;strong&gt;the Man-Lion&lt;/strong&gt;, who destroyed Hiranyakashipu, the king of the Asuras, and was extremely solicitous about the welfare of Prahlada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva: I worship Him, who has five faces, who holds the Ganga in his hair, and who gladdened the hearts of the Devas by the destruction of Gajasura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उदैत्तु बल्याहरणाभिलाषो यो वामनं हार्यजिनं वसानः |&#xA;  तपांसि कान्तारहितो व्यतानीदाध्यो अवतादाश्रमिणामयं नः || ५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu: I prostrate before &lt;strong&gt;the great Vamana&lt;/strong&gt; who performed austerities as a Brahmacharin with deer skin as his wearing cloth, who was without a consort, and who got back the worlds from the Asura, Bali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva: I salute lord Shiva who was desirous of getting the sacrificial offerings at Daksha-prajapati's yagnya, who lost his consort Sati, and who thenceforth performed austerities as a Brahmacharin, and who looks handsome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;येनाधिको घत्तरवारिणा अशु जितो अर्जुनः सङ्गररङ्गभूमौ |&#xA;  नक्षत्रनाथस्फुरितेन तेन केनापि वयं सनाथाः || ६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu: May I receive the protection of Mahavishnu who incarnated &lt;strong&gt;himself as Parashurama&lt;/strong&gt;, who had the brilliant form of a Brahmacharin, who was luminous like the moon, and who defeated Kartaviryaarjuna in battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva: May I receive the protection of Shiva, who as a Kirata defeated Arjuna and who has the river Ganga and the disc of the moon in his matted locks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विलासिना अलीकभवेन धाम्न्ना कामं द्विषन्तं स दशास्यमस्यन् |&#xA;  देवो धरापत्यकुचोष्मसाक्षी देयादमन्दात्मसुखानुभूतिम् || ७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu: May &lt;strong&gt;Rama who with the prowess&lt;/strong&gt; attained by the knowledge of numerous divine missiles, defeated Ravana, and who had Sita as his consort, bestow happiness upon me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva: May the great god Shiva who dispels all untruth by the brilliance of Truth-nature, and who destroyed Kamadeva (Cupid) having ten-pronged manifestations, and who had the daughter of the mountains as his consort, bestow happiness upon me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उत्तालकेतुः स्थिरधर्ममूर्तिर्हलाहलस्विकरणोग्रकण्ठः |&#xA;  स रोहिणी शानिशचुम्ब्यमाननिजोत्तमाङ्गे अवतु को अपि भूमा || ८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu: May &lt;strong&gt;Balarama, who has the palm tree as his standard&lt;/strong&gt;, who is an embodiment of Eternal Dharma, who is forbidding on account of his fierce voice under the influence of liquor and the plough weapon on his shoulder, who is fondled by his father Vasudeva, and who is of indescribable brilliance - protect me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva: May Shiva who excels as a dancer, who is of the nature of Moksha-dharma, whose neck looks forbidding by the brilliance of the poison Halahala sticking to it, whose crown is kissed by the moon, and who is of indescribable brilliance - protect me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विनायकेना अकलिताहितापं निषेदषोत्सङ्गभुवि प्रह्रष्यन् |&#xA;  यः पूतनामोहक चित्तवृत्तिरव्यदसौ को अपि कलापभूषः || ९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu: May I receive the protection of Mahavishnu having by his side Garuda, who incites terror in the minds of serpents, and &lt;strong&gt;who in his Krishna-incarnation&lt;/strong&gt; charmed even the mind of Putana, and who has a crown of peacock feathers adorning his head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva: May I be protected by the lord Shiva, in whose lap Vinayaka seated embracing him with his trunk, who has the Ganga on his crown, whose name is sanctifying, who presents himself in the minds of those who meditate on him, and who has the moon as his decoration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पाठितकेतोर्जयिने प्रतीतसर्वज्ञ्यभावाय दयैकसीम्न्ने |&#xA;  प्रायः क्रतु द्वेषकृतदराय बोधौकदाम्न्ने स्पृहयामि भूम्न्ने || १०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu: I worship the spiritual radiance manifested as &lt;strong&gt;Buddha, who was all-knowing,&lt;/strong&gt; who was the conqueror of Mara, who was full of mercy, who was of the nature of Bodha (spiritual conciousness), and who was the adored of those who were opponents of Yagnyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva: I worship that spiritual radiance Shiva, who is all-knowing, who is the destroyer of Cupid (Mara), who is full of mercy, who is all knowledge, and who is praised by those who destroyed the Yagnya of Daksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्यतीत्य चेतोविषयं जनानां विध्योतमानाय तमोनिहन्त्रे |&#xA;  भूम्न्ने सदावासकृताशयाय भूयांसि मे सन्तुतमां नमांसि || ११&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu: I offer my salutations to Mahavishnu as &lt;strong&gt;Kalki-incarnation, who assumes a body of inconceivable splendour,&lt;/strong&gt; who removes the world's darkness of ignorance by spiritual illumination, and whose advent is specially for destruction of evil ones and the protection of the good and the holy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva: I salute lord Shiva whose inconceivably holy form removes the world's ignorance by its spiritual splendour, and who resides ever in holy places like Kashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: From &lt;a href=&quot;http://exploreananda.blogspot.ae/2013_12_01_archive.html?view=sidebar&amp;amp;m=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-11T03:58:27.733" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T03:58:27.733" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11978" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11979" CreationDate="2016-05-09T05:20:40.347" Score="8" ViewCount="1231" Body="&lt;p&gt;Narada Bhakti Sutras or aphorisms of love was a text written by Narada Muni. In this, he talks about the various attributes of Bhakti or Divine love. What are the different types of Bhakti as mentioned in it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-09T05:27:24.557" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T05:27:24.557" Title="What are the different types of Divine love mentioned in the Narada Bhakti Sutras?" Tags="|bhakti|narada|love|narada-bhakti-sutra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11979" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11978" CreationDate="2016-05-09T05:25:31.140" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reference to different types of Bhakti or Divine love is found the Shloka 82 of the Narada Bhakti Sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shloka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;|Gunmahatmyasakti roopasakti poojasakti smaranasakti dasyasakti |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;|| Sakhyasakti vatsalyasakti kantasakti atmanivedanasakti ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;|| tanmayatasakti paramavirhasakti rupa ekadha api ekadashadha bhavati ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;…Though it is only one, there are eleven flavours of Love:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gunmahatmyasakti&lt;/strong&gt; - adoring the qualities&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Roopasakti&lt;/strong&gt; - adoring the form&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Poojasakti&lt;/strong&gt; - worship&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Smaranasakti&lt;/strong&gt; - constant rememberance of the Divine&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dasyasakti&lt;/strong&gt; - wanting to serve the God&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sakhyasakti&lt;/strong&gt; - companionship, taking God as one’s beloved&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vatsalyasakti&lt;/strong&gt; - considering God as one’s child&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kantasakti&lt;/strong&gt; - considering God as one’s own partner. As centre of attraction of all sorts in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atmanivedanasakti&lt;/strong&gt; - Offering every moment, this entire body, mind - physical, mental emotional; entire life, total letting go.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tanmayatasakti&lt;/strong&gt; - Being immersed in knowledge that he is already in you and every part is immersed in Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Paramavirhasakti&lt;/strong&gt; - longing, excruciating longing&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Referenced from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artoflivinguniverse.org/2012/11/narad-bhakti-sutras-sutra-82-a.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; commentary on the Narada Bhakti Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T05:25:31.140" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11980" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12004" CreationDate="2016-05-09T05:42:19.473" Score="1" ViewCount="987" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was looking for various prescriptive Shlokas on the speech of a person. Came across this one with no references mentioned:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रियवाक्य प्रदानेन सर्वे तुष्यन्ति जन्तवः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मात् तथैव कर्तव्यं वचने का दरिद्रता&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know, which text can this can be traced back to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-16T01:50:00.123" Title="References for a Shloka on speech" Tags="|history|shloka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11981" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11971" CreationDate="2016-05-09T07:16:22.260" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Valmiki's Ramayana, I didn't get any reference That Rama praised Kumbhakarna after his death but when Ravana was slayed, his brother Vibhishana laments a lot, then Rama comforts him as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वदन्तं हेतुमद्वाक्यं परिदृष्टर्थनिश्चयम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      रामः शोकसमाविष्टमित्युवाच विभीषणम् || ६-१०९-१४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Ravana did not die in battle, without making an effort. He has fallen in combat,&#xA;eventhough he was endowed with terrible prowess and exhibited extra ordinary&#xA;enthusiasm of a very exalted type and remained confident throughout.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नायं विनष्टो निश्चेष्टः समरे चण्डविक्रमः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      अत्युन्नतमहोत्साहः पतितोऽयमशङ्कितः || ६-१०९-१५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;There is no occasion to grieve for him having fallen into death in the battle-field&#xA;and by whom the development of his country was wished for, while remaining steadfast&#xA;in the duty of Kshatriya the warrior.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नैवं विनष्टाः शोच्यन्ते क्षत्रधर्मव्यवस्थिताः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      वृद्धिमाशंसमाना ये निपतन्ति रणाजिरे || ६-१०९-१६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;There is no occasion to grieve for his having been brought under the sway of death&#xA;by whom intelligent as he was, all the three worlds including indra were frightened.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;येन सेन्द्रास्त्रयो लोकास्त्रासिता युधि धीमता |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      तस्मिन् कालसमायुक्ते न कालः परिशोचितुम् || ६-१०९-१७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;In the past, none has ever been exclusively victorious in a combat. A hero either&#xA;has been killed by his adversaries or had killed the enemies in battle.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नैकान्तविजयो युद्धे भूतपूर्वः कदाचन |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      परैर्वा हन्यते वीरः परान्वा हन्ति संयुगे || ६-१०९-१८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Such is the destiny proclaimed by the ancients, as highly esteemed for a warrior.&#xA;A warrior killed in battle, does not deserve to be mourned. Such is the&#xA;ascertainment of the sacred scriptures.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T11:58:42.283" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T11:58:42.283" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11983" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-09T08:07:12.647" Score="5" ViewCount="3185" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have come across two opinions on this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This was his actual name&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;His actual name was Suyodhana and he was later on known as Duryodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was Duryodhana's actual name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2020-04-16T13:22:25.867" Title="What was Duryodhana's actual name?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|name|duryodhana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11984" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3161" CreationDate="2016-05-09T08:51:59.837" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The interpretation that VichitraVeerya could mean 'strange semen' comes form projecting Hindi meanings on Sanskrit words. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hindi, Vichitra (विचित्र) means strange. In Sanskrit, strange is not the primary meaning of the word Vichitra, which has the following meanings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;diversified, variegated, spotted, speckled&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;various, varied&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;painted&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;beautiful, lovely&lt;/strong&gt; as exemplified in the verse: क्वचिद्विचित्रं जलयंचमंदिरं&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;wonderful&lt;/strong&gt;, surprising, strange&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Veeryaha (वीर्यः) has the following meanings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;heroism, prowess, &lt;strong&gt;valour&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vigour, strength&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;virility&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;energy, firmness, courage&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;power, potency&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;efficacy (of medicines)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;semen virile&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;splendurous&lt;/strong&gt;, lustre&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the seed of plants&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;dignity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, VichitraVeerya could mean the child when born was lovely and beautiful. It could also mean wonderful, courages, splendorous, dignified etc. This sounds like a very good choice of name (at that time) with the word having so many nice meanings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I think it would be relevant to mention here that the word Veeryajah (वीर्यजः) means 'a son'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I were to pick one of the combinations of the words, I would say &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;VichitraVirya means 'lovely and valorous'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ldpd_7285627_000&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Vaman Shivaram Apte.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-09T11:15:14.770" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T11:15:14.770" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11985" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11983" CreationDate="2016-05-09T09:36:25.030" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Both are names for the same person and often used interchangeably. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duryodhana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Suyodhan&lt;/a&gt; means one who is good with arms (in warfare). Duryodhan means unconquerable warrior. Naturally there can be many who are good in battle but there can be only ONE who is unconquerable, by definition. Duryodhan was more unique and it stuck. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastEditorUserId="4764" LastEditDate="2017-01-18T04:22:21.693" LastActivityDate="2017-01-18T04:22:21.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11986" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="11991" CreationDate="2016-05-09T09:57:49.053" Score="4" ViewCount="232" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many different stories on Ramayana. Which is the original ? And, why was it manipulated by so many great writers ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-09T10:05:20.870" LastActivityDate="2017-08-12T10:48:55.903" Title="Why are there different books on Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-05-10T10:52:29.533" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11987" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3132" CreationDate="2016-05-09T10:18:06.253" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, it is not celebrated according to the English calendar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the point of view of &lt;em&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt;, Makara Sankranti is celebrate &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;when Surya (Sun) enters Makara Rashi (the zodiac named Capricorn).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As, Jyotisha follows a &lt;em&gt;sidereal&lt;/em&gt; (moveable) zodiac, these dates can change i.e. Surya can enter Makara on a different date. The question itself says that it can fall either on 14th or 15th. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The English calendar follows a &lt;em&gt;tropical&lt;/em&gt; (fixed) zodiac, where they assume that Sun enters Capricorn on the same date every year which is not in sync with the facts (only an assumption). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidereal_and_tropical_astrology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; article can be referred to learn more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps! :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T10:18:06.253" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11988" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8527" CreationDate="2016-05-09T10:54:17.197" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it can be seen as different names for the same consciousness. Shiva and Vishnu can also be seen as different dimensions of the Brahman. I like to think of it as different flavors of the ice-cream. This might provide some more insights:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q: Gurudev, even though there is no difference between Lord Vishu and&#xA;  Lord Shiva, who originated from whom? The Vishnu Purana glorifies Lord&#xA;  Vishnu and the Shiva Purana glorifies Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A: When you think, who originated from whom, you&#xA;  are thinking on linear terms. But truth is not linear, it is&#xA;  spherical.  That is why this is also true and that is also true. From&#xA;  which side you see, that is where it comes from.  If you see from that&#xA;  side then that is true. If you see it from this side then this is&#xA;  true. But both are same actually. This is what spherical thinking is. &#xA;  It depends from where you start and where you go.  Shiva and Vishnu&#xA;  are different, yet both are the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2012/11/symbolism-of-five-headed-cobra.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2012/11/symbolism-of-five-headed-cobra.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T10:54:17.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11989" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="327" CreationDate="2016-05-09T11:04:21.827" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Snakes are a symbol of alertness. They signify the raising of awareness as a result of meditation. I assume the number used (3, 5 or 7) is just an artistic rendition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you look at the mythological pictures, you will find Mahavir&#xA;  sitting with a five headed cobra behind him. Or Lord Vishnu is sitting&#xA;  in meditation and there is a cobra behind him. Even in the pictures of&#xA;  Rishis, you will find a cobra with its hood open at the back. Have you&#xA;  seen such pictures? It is a very subtle thing!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;See, when you are sitting in meditation, what is happening? Your&#xA;  consciousness is getting alert, opened and awakened, as though in your&#xA;  back ground there is a thousand headed cobra. Cobra signifies&#xA;  alertness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How many of you feel a lot of alertness in the back of your head&#xA;  during meditation? A sort of wakefulness!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the cobra is a symbol of the energy that raises and opens up;&#xA;  energy which is alert and at the same time restfulness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is not that there was really a cobra at the back of their head, it&#xA;  is a symbol of wakefulness in the deep state of rest, and that is&#xA;  meditation – totally restful, wanting nothing, doing nothing, being&#xA;  nothing and being open, like the hood of a cobra; alert without any&#xA;  effort.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two types of descriptions for this. In one they talk about a&#xA;  Cobra, and in another they talk about a flower; it is like a&#xA;  thousand-petaled lotus, blossoming on the top of the head; on the&#xA;  crown chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So some describe it as a flower, very delicate, and some describe it&#xA;  as a cobra which means alert. Both fit very well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2012/11/symbolism-of-five-headed-cobra.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://celebrating-silence-of-life.blogspot.in/2012/11/symbolism-of-five-headed-cobra.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T11:04:21.827" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11991" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11986" CreationDate="2016-05-09T11:34:55.300" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The original and authentic version is &lt;strong&gt;Ramayana written by Sage Valmiki&lt;/strong&gt;. It is considered as authentic version because he has a boon from Brahma that he would know the feelings and thoughts of the Ramayana character on his wish. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रहस्यम् च प्रकाशम् च यद् वृत्तम् तस्य धीमतः || 1-2-33 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रामस्य सह सौमित्रे राक्षसानाम् च सर्वशः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वैदेह्याः च एव यद् वृत्तम् प्रकाशम् यदि वा रहः || 1-2-34 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत् च अपि अविदितम् सर्वम् विदितम् ते भविष्यति |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The adventures of valorous Rama along with Lakshmana, and the misadventures of demons, &lt;strong&gt;known or unknown in every detail, and even the plight of Vaidehi which is either revealed or un-revealed so far, and whatever legend that has happened, all that will also be known to you, even if it were to be unknown, as yet&lt;/strong&gt;... &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga2/balasans2.htm#Verse33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[1-2-33b-35a]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न ते वाक् अनृता काव्ये काचित् अत्र भविष्यति || 1-2-35 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कुरु राम कथाम् पुण्याम् श्लोक बद्धाम् मनोरमाम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You shall versify the heart pleasing and merit-yielding legend of Rama, and not a single word of yours will be unfounded in this epic... [1-2-35b-36a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the unparalleled version. He appreciates Ravana equally to Rama or Hanuman and doesn't show any difference as Ravana is a negative character. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga18/sundara_18_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sundara Kanda&lt;/a&gt;,  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स तथाप्युग्रतेजाः सन्निर्धूतस्तस्य तेजसा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पत्रगुह्यान्तरे सक्तो हनुमान् संवृतोऽभवत् || ५-१८-३१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus Hanuma although of terrible energy was overshadowed by Ravana's brilliance and became rooted behind a group of leaves and was concealed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Valmiki shows the brilliance (tejassu) of Ravana. It clearly says that Hanuma was overshadowed by Ravana's energy. This is just an example of his impartiality.  If Valmiki wanted to defame Ravana, there wouldn't be such verse.  There are many instances where Ravana is praised as great. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later many great writers got inspired by this Ramayana and wrote their own Ramayanas. Some didn't like this impartiality. Some translated the book into their mother tongues and some modified and some recreated it by adding (eg: lakshmana rekha, ) and modifying (eg: abduction of Sita) some incidents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the base story remains the same. But Valmiki Ramayana has a special essence in it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-12T10:48:55.903" LastActivityDate="2017-08-12T10:48:55.903" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11992" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2010" CreationDate="2016-05-09T12:19:15.383" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to science too, Earth is static, it depends on the frame of reference. If you take the &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocentric_model&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Geocentric model&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, Earth is static as it is considered the frame of reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is in sync with &lt;em&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt;. It is argued that as Earth and its inhabitants are to be studied, so Earth should be considered the centre point (frame of reference). Movement of planets, with Earth as static, is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnpmEqT-tYc&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;considered and calculated&lt;/a&gt; in great details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What the &lt;em&gt;Shlokas&lt;/em&gt; say is also perfectly in sync with these points of view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T05:06:30.160" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T05:06:30.160" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11993" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="163" CreationDate="2016-05-09T12:31:52.813" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The tilak on the forehead symbolizes the importance of the third-eye or the Ajna Chakra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q:  Gurudev, what is the significance of applying tilak on the&#xA;  forehead (referring to the portion of the forehead between the&#xA;  eyebrows)? What does it represent? Married women in our country also&#xA;  apply the tilak. What is the reason behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A:  The third eye is present there (referring to the center associated&#xA;  with alertness or awareness). So there is a custom of applying sandal&#xA;  paste or other things at the location of pineal and pituitary glands&#xA;  which have a great effect on our body and mind. One reason for&#xA;  applying the paste is to give respect to that portion of the forehead.&#xA;  It stimulates our attention.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whenever you think, what do you do? Your hand automatically goes at&#xA;  this place. When you make a mistake, your hand goes at the head. When&#xA;  you think or deeply ponder over something or some problem comes then&#xA;  too you keep your hand like this. If you go to any country or any&#xA;  corner of the world, you find that everywhere people think like this.&#xA;  This is the seat of wisdom. It is the &lt;em&gt;peetha&lt;/em&gt; (seat) of knowledge. That&#xA;  is why &lt;em&gt;chandan&lt;/em&gt; (sandal paste), &lt;em&gt;kumkum&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;sindoor&lt;/em&gt; (vermillion powder)&#xA;  is applied there. It is symbolic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a Q&amp;amp;A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: &lt;a href=&quot;http://qnawithsrisri.artoflivinguniverse.org/2014/11/qna-with-sri-sri_26.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://qnawithsrisri.artoflivinguniverse.org/2014/11/qna-with-sri-sri_26.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T12:31:52.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="11996" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3132" CreationDate="2016-05-09T15:16:34.610" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;A simple logic:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who gave English Calendar to Bhishma Pitamaha to leave his body on Makara Sankranti?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma Pitamaha left his body on the day of Makara Sankranti. He wishfully remained alive up to the day of Makara Sankranti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 13: Anusasana Parva: Section CLXVII &#xA;  The Mighty Bhishma then, taking the strong hand of Yudhishthira, addressed him in a voice deep as that of the clouds. That thorough master of words said, 'By good luck, O son of Kunti, thou hast come here with all thy counsellors, O Yudhishthira! &lt;strong&gt;The thousand-rayed maker of day, the holy Surya has begun his northward course.&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  I have been lying on my bed here for eight and fifty nights. Stretched on these sharp-&#xA;  pointed arrows I have felt this period to be as long as if it was a century. O Yudhishthira, the lunar &lt;strong&gt;month of Magha&lt;/strong&gt; has come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Makara Sankranti is not by English Calendar. It falls when the Sun Enters the Capricorn (Makara) constellation. It usually happens in January 14th/15th but it doesn't mean that it is calculated by English Calendar. It isn't always necessary that Makara Sankranti falls in January 14th/15th.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="15425" LastEditDate="2018-11-19T06:45:26.737" LastActivityDate="2018-11-19T06:45:26.737" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="11998" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-09T16:08:03.990" Score="4" ViewCount="185" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jyeshtha in Sanskrit means 'the eldest'. Why is Jyeshtha called as the eldest Nakshatra in Jyotisha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T05:38:01.760" LastActivityDate="2019-05-20T02:25:16.160" Title="Why is the Jyeshtha Nakshatra named so?" Tags="|nakshatra|astrology|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12002" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15594" CreationDate="2016-05-09T17:31:30.063" Score="15" ViewCount="4222" Body="&lt;p&gt;Currently I am reading Sundara Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana. In this kanda, there is a sarga/chapter named &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga27/sundara_27_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Trijata Swapnam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; meaning the dream of the ogre Trijata. She narrates her dream to other ogres and says that she has seen bad omens about Ravana, Kumbhakarna, Indrajeet and Lanka. She says that she has seen good omens about Shree Rama, Lakshmana and Vibheeshana. This dream shows good omens to Sita and bad omens to the entire Rakshasa kula. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I have a doubt about this shloka in the sarga. The shloka in that sarga is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वराहेण दशग्रीवः शिंशुमारेण चेन्द्रजित् ||&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;उष्ट्रेण&lt;/strong&gt; कुम्भकर्णश्च प्रयाता दक्षिणां दिशम्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana by a pig, Indrajit by a porpoise, Kumbhakarna by a &lt;strong&gt;camel&lt;/strong&gt; set out in southern direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can understand that the pig is not considered as auspicious as it is filthy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why is the camel considered to be an inauspicious being? If it is so, then why did Hanuman is said as &lt;em&gt;ushtraroodha&lt;/em&gt; meaning one with camel as mount in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iKvWFMusPg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hanumat sooktam&lt;/a&gt;? As Valmiki Ramayana is authentic, no doubting it. But who is the author of Hanumat sooktam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-09T06:40:16.130" LastActivityDate="2018-06-09T14:11:28.033" Title="Is sitting on a camel in a dream inauspicious?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|ravana|animals|dream|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12003" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12002" CreationDate="2016-05-09T21:50:29.047" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't think there is anything inauspicious about riding camels because, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga73/yuddhasans73.htm#Verse10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;in Yuddha Kanda&lt;/a&gt;, Indrajit's Rakshasa army rode atop camels among other war animals:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तं प्रस्थितं महात्मानमनुजग्मुर्महाबलाः| &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  संहर्षमाणा बहवो धनुःप्रवरपाणयः || ६-७३-१० &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गजस्कन्धगताः के चित्के चित्परमवाजिभिः| &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  व्याघ्रवृश्चिकमार्जारखरोष्ट्ट्रैश्च भुजम्गमैः || ६-७३-११ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वराहैः श्वापदैः सिम्हैर्जम्बुकैः पर्वतोपमैः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  काकहंसमयूरैश्च राक्षसा भीमविक्रमाः || ६-७३-१२ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रासमुद्गरनिस्त्रिंश परश्वधगदाधराः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भुशुण्डिमुद्गरायष्टिशतग्नीपरिघायुधाः || ६-७३-१३ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Many mighty demons with terrific prowess, with joy, holding excellent bows in their hands, carrying lances, sharp-edged spears, swords, axes and maces as also armed with Bhushundis (probably a kind of fire arms), mallets, cudgels, Shataghnis (cylindrical piece of wood studded with iron spikes) and iron rods, &lt;strong&gt;followed that great souled Indrajit&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Some rode on the back of&lt;/strong&gt; elephants, some ascended excellent horses, tigers, scorpions, cats, donkeys and &lt;strong&gt;camels&lt;/strong&gt;, looking.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uttarakhanda of Ramayana also &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Ramayana_201309/Ramayana-VOL-4-Uttara-Kanda#page/n129/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentions&lt;/a&gt; Rakshasas using camels, porpoises (whales) etc:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And all the Rakshasas went covering the sky,&#xA;  some on asses, &lt;strong&gt;some on camels&lt;/strong&gt;, some on horses, &lt;strong&gt;some on&#xA;  quick-coursing porpoises&lt;/strong&gt; and some on huge serpents. And&#xA;  beholding Ravana proceed, hundreds of Daityas, inimical&#xA;  to the celestials, followed him. Having arrived at the city&#xA;  of Madhu and entered there the ten-necked demon did&#xA;  not behold Madhu but espied his sister.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, setting out in &lt;strong&gt;southern direction&lt;/strong&gt; could mean inauspicious as it says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga27/sundarasans27.htm#Verse28&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;in a verse&lt;/a&gt; ahead of the verse you quoted in your question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कण्ठे बद्ध्वा दशग्रीवं प्रमदा रक्तवासिनी || ५-२७-२८ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  काळी कर्दमलिप्ताङ्गी दिशं याम्यां प्रकर्षति |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;28&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;pramadaa = a woman; raktavaasinii = with red clothes; kaLii = who was black; kardamaliptaa~Ngii = with body smeared with dirt; badhvaa = tying; dashagriivam = Ravana; kaNThe = by the throat; prakarShati = was pulling him; yaamyaam disham = in southern direction.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A woman with red clothes, who was black, with body smeared with dirt, tying Ravana by the throat, was &lt;strong&gt;pulling him in southern direction&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-09T22:46:09.400" LastActivityDate="2016-05-09T22:46:09.400" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12004" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11980" CreationDate="2016-05-09T23:16:17.650" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रियवाक्यप्रदानेन सर्वे तुष्यन्ति जन्तवः। &lt;br&gt;  तस्मात्तदेव वक्तव्यं&#xA;  वचने का दरिद्रता ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Speaking pleasing words satisfies all living entities. Therefore, only&#xA;  pleasing words should be spoken. What poverty exists in speech?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;– Subhashita Manjari – 14.288&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=NItihbSm3poC&amp;amp;lpg=PP1&amp;amp;dq=editions%3AjAS4P62aMCMC&amp;amp;pg=PA78#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=speaking%20pleasing%20words&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Immortal Sayings By B. R Suhas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. I don't think your question is valid for this site though because &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhashita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Subhashita&lt;/a&gt; is Sanskrit literature but not necessarily Hindu literature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-05-16T01:50:00.123" LastActivityDate="2016-05-16T01:50:00.123" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12005" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="35931" CreationDate="2016-05-10T00:22:57.600" Score="3" ViewCount="782" Body="&lt;p&gt;I casually asked someone at a temple and they just smiled and said this is how it is. I almost wanted to ask &quot;what will you offer if Krishna were to visit&quot; but restrained myself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2987" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-08-07T14:45:35.867" LastActivityDate="2019-08-07T14:45:35.867" Title="If Krishna's favorite food was butter, why do temples offer sugar as prasadam?" Tags="|krishna|temple|prasad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12006" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12182" CreationDate="2016-05-10T03:08:25.057" Score="12" ViewCount="701" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Rig Veda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01084.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 1 Hymn 84&lt;/a&gt; was heard by the sage Gautama and it's addressed to Indra.  In any case, here are two of the verses of the hymn:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;indro dadhīco asthabhirvṛtrāṇyapratiṣkutaḥ |  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jaghāna navatīrnava || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ichannaśvasya yacchiraḥ parvateṣvapaśritam | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tad vidaccharyaṇāvati || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13 With bones of Dadhyach for his arms, Indra, resistless in attack, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Struck nine-and-ninety Vṛtras dead. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  14 He, searching for the horse's head, removed among the mountains, found &lt;br&gt;At Śaryaṇāvān what he sought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://web.archive.org/web/20080228161829/http://www.geocities.com/ravi_sans/rv1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Sayana's commentary on verse 13 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dadhyanch = Dadhicha and Dadhichi, a sage. His bones formed the thunderbolt of Indra. Dadhyanch, son of Atharvan, like the asuras, was intimidated and tranquilized by his appearance; but, when he went to svarga, the asuras overspread the whole earth. Indra, inquiring what had become of him and if something of him was left behind, was told that the horse's head with which he had at one time taught the Madhuvidya to the Ashvins, was somewhere in existence, but no one knew where. After a search, it was found in the lake Sharyanavat, near Kurukshetra. With the bones of the skull, Indra slew the asuras (i.e. foiled the nine times ninety or eight hundred and ten, strategems or devices of the asuras or Vritras). The number is accounted for by the legend that in the beginning, the asuri  maya (demoniac illusion) was practised in the three worlds, for three periods (past, present, and future), thus becoming nine-fold; each was exerted with three s'aktis or energies, thus becoming twenty seven; each was again modified by the three gunas, thus becoming eighty-one; the scene of their display extended to each of the ten regions of space, thus becoming the nine times ninety of the text, or 810.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me explain what Sayana is saying.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2527/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Shiva blessed Dadhichi with invincible bones.  Then later, Indra needed a powerful weapon to defeat the demon Vritrasura, so Dadhichi sacrificed his own life so that the bones of his rib cage could be fashioned into a weapon.  Indra succesfully used this weapon, the famous Vajra or thunderbolt, to kill Vritrasura. But Sayana says that this had an unintended consequence: while Dadhichi was alive the Asuras were intimidated by him, so as soon as he died the overran the Earth.  And the Vajra alone wasn't enough to stop them.  So Indra asked Dadhichi, who was now dead and residing in Devaloka, whether he had any more bones left.  Dadhichi said that his old horse head was still somewhere on Earth.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7729/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, while he was alive Dadhichi had knowledge of the Madhu Vidya, which is one of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;32 Brahmavidyas&lt;/a&gt; and which has the power to bring a person back from the dead.  Indra had threatened to cut off Dadhichi's head if he ever told anyone the Madhu Vidya.  But once the Ashwini Kumaras wanted to learn the Madhu Vidya, so they hatched a plan with Dadhichi: they cut off his head and replaced it with a horse head.  Dadhichi then taught them the Madhu Vidya, and when Indra found out he followed through on his threat and cut off Dadhichi's horse head.  Then the Ashwini Kumaras reattached Dadhichi's human head and used the Madhu Vidya to bring him back to life.  In any case, Indra ironically now needed Dadhichi's horse head. So he searched for it and found it in the Sharyanavat lake near Kurukshetra, and then presumably had the bones of the horse skull fashioned into a weapon and used it to defeat the Asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe Sayana's story of Indra defeating Asuras using Dadhichi's old horse head?  Is it just alluded to in verses of the Rig Veda, or is the full story given somewhere? Is it discussed anywhere in the Brahmanas of the Vedas?  They often provide more detail on stories alluded to in the Samhitas.  Is it possible the story discussed in the Puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a side note the reason that the Aswini Kumaras wanted the Madhu Vidya in the first place is that as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11429/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu as part of his Lilas once had his head cut off.  So the Aswini Kumaras learned the Madhu Vidya so that they could reattach a head to Vishnu's body; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44117.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda.  This is how Vishnu's famous horse-headed incarnation Hayagriva was created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T06:53:47.983" Title="What scriptures describe Indra defeating Asuras using Dadhichi's old horse head?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|indra|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12007" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-10T04:54:38.053" Score="3" ViewCount="457" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holydham.com/ramanujacaryas-visit-to-navadvipa/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;I read a Story of Sripad Ramanujacarya&lt;/a&gt;; when He was in Jagannath Puri.&#xA;The story goes roughly like this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord jagannath being pleased with Ramanujacarya; instructed Him to go to Mayapur to see the Leela of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu(Leela was unmenifest at that time).&#xA;So Ramanujacarya leaving His disciples there went to Navadvip and Lord revealed Himself there to Ramanujacarya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Lord jagannath instructed Ramanujacarya to keep the divinity of Lord Chaitanya hidden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same story is narrated &lt;a href=&quot;http://bvml.org/SR/index.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is this story known among other sects; apart from Gaudiya vaishnava sect?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2019-01-20T06:12:43.947" Title="Did Ramanujacarya ever go to Navadvip(Mayapur)?" Tags="|history|ramanujacharya|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12008" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-10T05:54:15.233" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T05:54:15.233" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T05:54:15.233" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12009" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-10T05:54:15.233" Score="0" Body="Maharishi Kanada was the author of the Vaisheshika Sutras, the most prominent text of the Vaisheshika school of thought, one of the Shat Darshanas in Hinduism." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T08:10:06.460" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T08:10:06.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12010" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-10T06:00:36.483" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T06:00:36.483" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T06:00:36.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12011" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-10T06:00:36.483" Score="0" Body="Maharishi Vashishtha is one of the Saptarishis (seven great Rishis) in the seventh, i.e. the present Manvantara, or age of Manu. He was also the Guru of Shri Rama as exemplified in the text Yoga Vashishtha." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T08:09:37.050" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T08:09:37.050" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12012" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-10T06:04:05.173" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T06:04:05.173" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T06:04:05.173" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12013" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-10T06:04:05.173" Score="0" Body="Gayatri mantra is a highly revered mantra cognized by Brahmarshi Vishwamitra, as mentioned in the Rig Veda." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-05-23T08:15:24.077" LastActivityDate="2018-05-23T08:15:24.077" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12014" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-10T06:06:42.407" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T06:06:42.407" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T06:06:42.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12015" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-10T06:06:42.407" Score="0" Body="Om is the most sacred primordial sound. It is also used in the beginning of mantras" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T08:09:47.740" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T08:09:47.740" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12016" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-10T06:08:30.523" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T06:08:30.523" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T06:08:30.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12017" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-10T06:08:30.523" Score="0" Body="The Garuda Purāṇa is one of the eighteen major Puranas. It is essentially a dialogue between Lord Vishnu and Garuda. This Purana did famous for dealing with issues of Hindu philosophy connected with death, funeral rites and reincarnation." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-09-11T15:56:00.297" LastActivityDate="2021-09-11T15:56:00.297" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12018" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-10T07:07:12.323" Score="4" ViewCount="783" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancha_Bhoota&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; wiki page mentions that the &lt;em&gt;Charvakas&lt;/em&gt; did not accept Akasha as a basic element as it is not tangible and according to them, there are only four basic elements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to know why Akasha is considered as a &lt;em&gt;Bhoota&lt;/em&gt; (basic element) according to the &lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: I just would like to know the Vedic viewpoint (Uttara Paksha) before I delve into what Charvakas are saying (Purva Paksha). No disrespect is intended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2018-09-21T11:56:55.417" Title="Why is Akasha considered as a basic element in the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|panchabhoota|akasha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12019" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12020" CreationDate="2016-05-10T07:31:54.240" Score="11" ViewCount="3541" Body="&lt;p&gt;Me and my friend had a debate on whether Vedas talks about Moksha or not. My friend told me that there is a verse in Rigveda which tells Shiva grants Moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true? Does Rigveda really mention that Shiva grants Moksha ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5591" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T12:25:24.493" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T15:50:49.537" Title="Where does Rig Veda say that Shiva is the God who grants Moksha?" Tags="|shiva|vedas|scripture|moksha|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12020" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12019" CreationDate="2016-05-10T08:09:52.783" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda in 7.59.12 tells Shiva [Rudra] is the God who grants eternal Mokshya.&lt;/strong&gt; Rishi Vasistha is the Seer and Rudra is the devta and it invokes the Three Eyed One.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The verse is:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ pushtivardhanam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  urvārukamiva bandhanānmṛmrityor mokshiye maamritat ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The simple meaning of verse is:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  We worship the Three-eyed Lord who is fragrant and who nourishes and nurtures all beings. As is the ripened cucumber freed from its bondage (to the creeper), may He &lt;strong&gt;liberate us from death for the sake of immortality.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Here the emphasis is in:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  = मृत्यु + मोक्ष + मम अमृतात्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ie. Death + Mokshya + (to me) Immortality&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ie. &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva Gives Immortal Mokshya ie. Eternal Mokshya/ Eternal Liberation.&lt;/strong&gt; The above verse became popularly known as Mokshyadayani mantra and Mahamrityunjaya mantra.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Auspicious form of Rudra is known as Shiva&amp;nbsp; and Fierce form of Shiva is known as Rudra.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is evident from this verse of YajurVeda..&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या ते रुद्र शिवा तनू-रघाेराऽपापकाशिनी । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तया नस्तनुवा शन्तमया गिरिशंताभिचाकशीहि ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ya te Rudra Shiva tanura ghora papakashini taya nastanuva shantamaya girisamta bhichakashihi || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [ YajurvedaTaittariya Samhita 4.5.1.1]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lord Rudra, you who dwell on Mountain and who confer happiness, &lt;strong&gt;by that form of yours which is not terrible [ie. Shiva form],&lt;/strong&gt; which will not injure us, and which is highly auspicious, behold and illuminate us.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the emphasis is in:&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;या ते रुद्र शिवा तनू-रघाेरा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ie. When Rudra becomes अघोर (Aghora) ie. not fierce then he is Shiva (ie. Auspicious)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Lord Shiva who is highly Auspicious grants eternal Mokshya to the devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T10:01:08.103" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T10:01:08.103" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12021" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9678" CreationDate="2016-05-10T09:29:25.330" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna being a complete Vishnu/Bhagavaan is mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhaagvat Purana 1.3.28&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or&#xA;  portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is&#xA;  the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets&#xA;  whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord&#xA;  incarnates to protect the theists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence on the authority of Bhagavatam we accept krishna as complete Vishnu or as Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In His commentary on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-Geeta(2.2)&lt;/a&gt; A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami writes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit word bhagavān is explained by the great authority&#xA;  Parāśara Muni, the father of Vyāsadeva. The Supreme Personality who&#xA;  possesses all riches, all strength, all fame, all beauty, all&#xA;  knowledge and all renunciation is called Bhagavān. There are many&#xA;  persons who are very rich, very powerful, very beautiful, very famous,&#xA;  very learned and very much detached, but no one can claim that he&#xA;  possesses all riches, all strength, etc., entirely. Only Kṛṣṇa can&#xA;  claim this because He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This definition is given in Vishnu Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Chapter 10 of Bhagvad Geeta Krishna shows His opulence; that He is full in these 6 opulence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No other incarnation as long as I know exhibits such opulence; However I would like to mention that Krishna,Ram,Vishnu are considered to be expansions of same supreme Lord and are non-different from Gaudiya Vaishnava  perspective.&#xA;However for welfare of people, to uphold religion and anhilate the demons god has assumed different forms at different times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T09:29:25.330" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12022" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9678" CreationDate="2016-05-10T09:37:53.390" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna showed completeness in his Divine incarnation. He shows one quality in one event, and the exact opposite quality comes forth in another event. The abstract concept of &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt; is used to describe that Shri Krishna was a complete avatar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q. Gurudev, you have talked about &lt;em&gt;Solah Kalas&lt;/em&gt; (referring to the sixteen&#xA;  extraordinary abilities or Divine qualities). Which are these and what&#xA;  is their importance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The word &lt;em&gt;Kala&lt;/em&gt; usually refers to the extent by&#xA;  which the moon waxes (or wanes) in one day. So by this understanding,&#xA;  the Moon possesses 16 different &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt; (different phases of the&#xA;  Moon). You can observe this from one &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt; (No-moon day) to the&#xA;  next &lt;em&gt;Purnima&lt;/em&gt; (Full moon day). So if you count the number of days&#xA;  from one &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt; to the next &lt;em&gt;Purnima&lt;/em&gt;, it turns out to be 16. And&#xA;  the transition from No-Moon to the Full Moon also symbolizes moving&#xA;  from Zero (nothingness) to Fullness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the no-moon day you don’t see the moon at all, and on the full moon&#xA;  day you see the complete moon. This does not mean that the Moon is not&#xA;  there on the day of &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt;. No, it is still there. So by this&#xA;  understanding, these are called the &lt;em&gt;Solah Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. On the day of solar&#xA;  eclipse, for example, the Moon is there but it cannot be seen, that’s&#xA;  all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the word &lt;em&gt;Kala&lt;/em&gt; is a unit of measure of one’s power, or by what&#xA;  degree one has blossomed or progressed. So, someone may be like a&#xA;  half-moon, someone else may have reached to three quarters of the moon&#xA;  and so on. This was a means of measurement in the ancient days...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...They say Lord Rama has 12 Kalas. Lord Hanuman is greater than Him in this  regard and is said to have 14 Kalas. That is why he could help Lord Rama. Only a person who is stronger than us can help us...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...In the same way Lord Krishna is also said to have possessed all the&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Solah Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. Why is this so? In Lord Krishna, you see the complete and total manifestation of Divinity in every way. He is so complete.&#xA;  He is the King of thieves. He does not steal small things, he steals&#xA;  away your very mind. That is why He is called as &lt;em&gt;Chita-Chora&lt;/em&gt; (the&#xA;  beautiful One who completely captures and steals away the mind).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is also called as &lt;em&gt;Ranchhodrai&lt;/em&gt; (meaning the cowardly one who flees&#xA;  the battlefield) in Gujarat. They say that He ran away from the&#xA;  battlefield in the middle of the war. But on the other side He lifted&#xA;  up the &lt;em&gt;Sudarshan Chakra&lt;/em&gt; (the Lord’s divine discus) to defeat&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Bhishma Pitamaha&lt;/em&gt; (the grandsire of the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the Mahabharata) . So He is very brave and valiant too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, on one side he is very brave and on the other side he is like a&#xA;  coward. One cannot even imagine how complete he is. He is obedient as&#xA;  well, but He is also the one who breaks the rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Bhagawat&lt;/em&gt;, it is mentioned at many places that Lord Krishna is&#xA;  perfect and complete in every possible aspect. That is why it is said&#xA;  that one should not emulate Lord Krishna (Laughter). Follow the path&#xA;  of Lord Rama and listen to Lord Krishna. Don’t walk in the way that&#xA;  Lord Krishna did. If you go and steal the clothes of a lady, you will&#xA;  be in big trouble (jokingly referring to one of the pastimes of the&#xA;  Lord where He steals the clothes of some ladies bathing in the river&#xA;  and hides them on a tree).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom-q-a-25-february-2014-qa-5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom-q-a-25-february-2014-qa-5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T09:37:53.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12023" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7754" CreationDate="2016-05-10T09:43:35.480" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do not think this finds a root in the scriptures. Although, it is a belief held by many people. The abstract concept of &lt;em&gt;16 Kalas&lt;/em&gt; was used, in context of the phases of the moon, to explain this. This answer might give some insights with regards to Shri Rama, Shri Krishna, Hanumana and Parashurama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gurudev, you have talked about &lt;em&gt;Solah Kalas&lt;/em&gt; (referring to the sixteen&#xA;  extraordinary abilities or Divine qualities). Which are these and what&#xA;  is their importance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The word &lt;em&gt;Kala&lt;/em&gt; usually refers to the extent by&#xA;  which the moon waxes (or wanes) in one day. So by this understanding,&#xA;  the Moon possesses 16 different &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt; (different phases of the&#xA;  Moon). You can observe this from one &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt; (No-moon day) to the&#xA;  next &lt;em&gt;Purnima&lt;/em&gt; (Full moon day). So if you count the number of days&#xA;  from one &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt; to the next &lt;em&gt;Purnima&lt;/em&gt;, it turns out to be 16. And&#xA;  the transition from No-Moon to the Full Moon also symbolizes moving&#xA;  from Zero (nothingness) to Fullness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the no-moon day you don’t see the moon at all, and on the full moon&#xA;  day you see the complete moon. This does not mean that the Moon is not&#xA;  there on the day of &lt;em&gt;Amavasya&lt;/em&gt;. No, it is still there. So by this&#xA;  understanding, these are called the &lt;em&gt;Solah Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. On the day of solar&#xA;  eclipse, for example, the Moon is there but it cannot be seen, that’s&#xA;  all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the word &lt;em&gt;Kala&lt;/em&gt; is a unit of measure of one’s power, or by what&#xA;  degree one has blossomed or progressed. So, someone may be like a&#xA;  half-moon, someone else may have reached to three quarters of the moon&#xA;  and so on. This was a means of measurement in the ancient days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In those days, it was said that the life or Prana in a stone is equal&#xA;  to one Kala, the water element is said to have two &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. Fire has&#xA;  three &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Vayu&lt;/em&gt; (Air element) has four, and the Space or &lt;em&gt;Akash&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  has five. Plants and trees are said to have six Kalas. Animals have&#xA;  seven &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. Human beings have eight &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it is an extraordinary human being then he is said to have nine&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. It is said that Lord Parashurama (one of the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu) had nine &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. They say Lord Rama has 12 &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. Lord&#xA;  Hanuman is greater than Him in this regard and is said to have 14&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. That is why he could help Lord Rama. Only a person who is stronger than us can help us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Devi (Mother Divine) is called &lt;em&gt;Shodashakala&lt;/em&gt; (The One with all 16&#xA;  Divine qualities or attributes). It means that she possess all divine&#xA;  and noble qualities, and lacks nothing. Lord Krishna too is said to&#xA;  have all 16 Kalas, which is why He is called as the &lt;em&gt;Solah Kala&#xA;  sampurna&lt;/em&gt; or the &lt;em&gt;Purna Avataar&lt;/em&gt;. To have all 16 &lt;em&gt;Kalas&lt;/em&gt; means to&#xA;  possess all the 16 qualities or signs attributed to the total&#xA;  blossoming and manifestation of Divinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you see the Devi, on one side she is so beautiful and full of love&#xA;  and grace, but on the other side, she is also &lt;em&gt;Maa Kali&lt;/em&gt; (one of her&#xA;  more terrifying and violent manifestations).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She is graceful and serene, but at the same time she also has a&#xA;  terrifying and violent aspect to Her as. Goddess Durga is very&#xA;  terrifying and awe-inspiring, while Goddess Lakshmi is very calm and&#xA;  graceful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You can see all the opposite aspects of Divinity coming together in&#xA;  the Devi. The all-bestowing Goddess Lakshmi rides the harmless owl&#xA;  (the mount), and the vanquisher of evil and ignorance, Goddess Durga&#xA;  rides the fierce lion. Just imagine, where would you see both the owl,&#xA;  and the lion!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the same way Lord Krishna is also said to have possessed all the&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Solah Kalas&lt;/em&gt;. Why is this so? In Lord Krishna, you see the complete and total manifestation of Divinity in every way. He is so complete.&#xA;  He is the King of thieves. He does not steal small things, he steals&#xA;  away your very mind. That is why He is called as &lt;em&gt;Chita-Chora&lt;/em&gt; (the&#xA;  beautiful One who completely captures and steals away the mind).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is also called as &lt;em&gt;Ranchhodrai&lt;/em&gt; (meaning the cowardly one who flees&#xA;  the battlefield) in Gujarat. They say that He ran away from the&#xA;  battlefield in the middle of the war. But on the other side He lifted&#xA;  up the &lt;em&gt;Sudarshan Chakra&lt;/em&gt; (the Lord’s divine discus) to defeat&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Bhishma Pitamaha&lt;/em&gt; (the grandsire of the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the Mahabharata) . So He is very brave and valiant too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, on one side he is very brave and on the other side he is like a&#xA;  coward. One cannot even imagine how complete he is. He is obedient as&#xA;  well, but He is also the one who breaks the rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Bhagawat&lt;/em&gt;, it is mentioned at many places that Lord Krishna is&#xA;  perfect and complete in every possible aspect. That is why it is said&#xA;  that one should not emulate Lord Krishna (Laughter). Follow the path&#xA;  of Lord Rama and listen to Lord Krishna. Don’t walk in the way that&#xA;  Lord Krishna did. If you go and steal the clothes of a lady, you will&#xA;  be in big trouble (jokingly referring to one of the pastimes of the&#xA;  Lord where He steals the clothes of some ladies bathing in the river&#xA;  and hides them on a tree).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom-q-a-25-february-2014-qa-5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/wisdom-q-a-25-february-2014-qa-5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T09:43:35.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12024" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-10T10:18:05.870" Score="4" ViewCount="549" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kaumari is considered as one of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/indian-religions/hinduism/sapta-matrikas-the-seven-divine-mothers/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sapta Matrikas&lt;/a&gt; (7 forms of Divine Mother). She is also associated with the Kanya Kumari form of Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://murugan.org/research/kaumari-iconography.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;references&lt;/a&gt; to the Kaumari form of Devi are found in - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devi Mahatmya, found in the Markandeya Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kumārarūpā Kaumarī mayūravaravāhanā |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;raktavastradharā tad vacchūlaśaktidharā mata ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kumārarūpadhāri ca Kumāra-jananī tathā |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kumāraripuhantri ca Kaumārī tena sā smrtā ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taittirīya Aranyaka found in the Yajur Veda (here she is addressed as Durga):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kātyāyanyā vidmahe Kanyākumārī dhīmahi, tan no Durgiḥ pracodayāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Matsya Purāna  (it describes her as the daughter of Lalitā and mentions Māyipuri as a place sacred to her):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Māyāpuryām Kumāri tu santāne Lalitā tathā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi_Kanya_Kumari&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt; articles claims that the Kanya Kumari form is also mentioned in the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Narayana Upanishad, without any references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Question: Which other scriptures mention the Kaumari or Kanya Kumari form of the Devi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-04T08:29:10.633" LastActivityDate="2018-10-04T08:29:10.633" Title="References to the Kaumari form of Devi" Tags="|puranas|goddess|devi|durga|matrika|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12026" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-10T11:58:34.757" Score="1" ViewCount="136" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that Karna after death was asked by Dharmaraj for donation of food. Karna denied that he did not give donation of food and was asked to take birth again because donation of food is higher than donation of any other things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do scriptures say about this incidence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T11:58:34.757" Title="Donation of food is higher than donation of other things?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12027" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2797" CreationDate="2016-05-10T13:37:34.393" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, the words myth or mythology are used to denigrate and caste a strong doubt on our own history. Also, many Hindus do the same. The reasons for which I imagine are: fear, confusion about our own origins, shame, leftover intellectual colonization by the &lt;em&gt;British&lt;/em&gt;, brainwashing by the &lt;em&gt;Judeo-Christian&lt;/em&gt; thoughts or all of these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to support my opinions by providing the definition of these two words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A &lt;em&gt;myth&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/myth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;defined&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Merriam-Webster&lt;/em&gt; dictionary as &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Merriam-Webster&lt;/em&gt; dictionary &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mythology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;defines&lt;/a&gt; &lt;em&gt;mythology&lt;/em&gt; as such&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the myths of a particular group or culture&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ideas that are believed by many people but that are not true&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence, any use of the word mythology instead of history (especially in cases where events have proven to be historical accounts) comes from a questionable intent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T13:37:34.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12028" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9724" CreationDate="2016-05-10T13:57:55.907" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The words Yoga, Anvaya and Samnvaya have a lot of meanings. Although, I will mention the most relevant ones in this context. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt; means - union&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Anvaya&lt;/em&gt; means - to follow, be connected with, conform to&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The verb &lt;em&gt;Samanvitah&lt;/em&gt; means - to be endowed with&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Geeta anvayah yoga samanvayah&lt;/em&gt; means &lt;em&gt;by following, being connected with and conforming to the Gita; one is endowed with the union (with Divinity)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ldpd_7285627_000&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Vaman Shivaram Apte.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T13:57:55.907" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12029" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-10T14:28:12.300" Score="7" ViewCount="6118" Body="&lt;p&gt;A portion of the poem Rashmirathi by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, also known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramprasadbismil.blogspot.in/2010/09/krishna-ki-chetawani.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna Ki Chetavani&lt;/a&gt; describes the interaction between Krishna and Duryodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the Pandavas return from Vanavasa, Krishna goes to meet Duryodhana and proposes a solution to stop the impending war like situation. Duryodhana does not listen and instead tries to capture Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..दुर्योधन वह भी दे ना सका&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आशीष समाज की न ले सका&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उलटे हरि को बाँधने चला&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जो था असाध्य साधने चला&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt; जब नाश मनुज पर छाता है&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पहले विवेक मर जाता है..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Krishna then shows his 'true form' to Duryodhana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..ये देख गगन मुझमे लय है&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ये देख पवन मुझमे लय है&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मुझमे विलीन झनकार सकल&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मुझमे लय है संसार सकल&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt; अमरत्व फूलता है मुझमे&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;संहार झूलता है मुझमे..&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although, this does not affect Duryodhana accept his solution. Krishna then announces the war and leaves.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the original story from the Mahabharata. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-27T12:27:06.760" LastActivityDate="2016-11-27T12:27:06.760" Title="Interaction between Krishna and Duryodhana to stop the war" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|history|duryodhana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12030" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11737" CreationDate="2016-05-10T14:37:15.540" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Shankaraacharya discusses the nature of the Supreme in Brahma Sutra Bhasya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahman is only formless to be sure, for that is the dominant mode (of the Upanishad teaching).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman is surely to be known as having no form constituted by color&#xA;  etc, and not as having it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;For that is the dominant teaching&quot;, inasmuch as it has been&#xA;  established under the aphorism, &quot;But that Brahman is known from the&#xA;  Upanishads, because of their being connected with Brahman as their&#xA;  main import&quot; (I.i.4), that the texts like the following have for their&#xA;  main purport the transcendental Brahman which is the Self, and not any&#xA;  other subject-matter: &quot;It is neither gross, nor minute, neither short&#xA;  nor long&quot; (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad III.viii.8), &quot;Soundless, touchless,&#xA;  colorless, undiminishing&quot; (Katha Upanishad I.iii.15), &quot;That which is&#xA;  known as Space is the accomplisher of name and form; That in which&#xA;  they are included is Brahman&quot; (Chandogya Upanishad VIII.xiv.1),&#xA;  &quot;Purusa is transcendental, since He is formless, and He is coextensive&#xA;  with all that is external and internal, since He is birthless&quot;&#xA;  (Mundaka Upanishad II.i.2), &quot;That Brahman is without prior or&#xA;  posterior, without interior and exterior. The Self, the perceiver of&#xA;  everything, is Brahman&quot; (Brhadaranayaka Upanishad II.v.19), and so on.&#xA;  Hence in sentences of this kind, the formless Brahman alone, just as&#xA;  It is spoken of by the texts themselves, has to be accepted. But the&#xA;  other texts, speaking of Brahman with form, have the injunctipns about&#xA;  meditations as their main objectives. So long as they do not lead to&#xA;  some contradiction, their apparent meanings should be accepted. But&#xA;  when they involve a contradiction, the principle to be followed for&#xA;  deciding one or the other is that, those that have the formless&#xA;  Brahman as their main purport are more authoritative than the others&#xA;  which have not that as their main purport. It is according to this&#xA;  that one is driven to the conclusion that Brahman is formless and not&#xA;  its opposite, though texts having both the purports are in evidence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Opponent: What would then be the fate of the texts speaking of forms?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedantin: Hence comes the reply.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma-Sutra-Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya III.ii.14 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And like light, Brahman can (be assumed to) have different appearances, so that the scriptures may not become purposeless.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though the light of the sun or moon spreads over the whole space,&#xA;  still when it comes in contact with adjuncts like fingers etc., it&#xA;  seems to assume the forms, straight or bent, as those adjuncts may&#xA;  have; similarly Brahman, too, seems to have the forms of earth etc.,&#xA;  when in contact with those things. And it is, nothing contradictory to&#xA;  enjoin meditations on Brahman based on those forms. Thus the sentences&#xA;  presenting Brahman as having forms do not become meaningless, for it&#xA;  is not proper to interpret some Vedic sentences as having meaning and&#xA;  the others as meaningless, since they are all valid. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Opponent: Even so, does not the assertion made earlier that Brahman&#xA;  cannot have  a dual characteristic even in association with limiting&#xA;  adjuncts, stand contradicted?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedantin: We say, no, since whatsoever is brought about by an adjunct&#xA;  is ot the essential characteristic of a thing, since the adjuncts&#xA;  themselves are conjured up by ignorance. And we said in the respective&#xA;  contexts that all social and Vedic behaviors crop up only when the&#xA;  beginningless nescience is taken for granted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma-Sutra-Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya III.ii.15 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Upanishad also declares Brahman to be Consciousness alone.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Upanishad also says that Brahman is pure consciousness, devoid of&#xA;  other aspects contrary to this, and without any distinguishing&#xA;  feature, as in, &quot;As a lump of salt is without interior or exterior,&#xA;  entire, and purely saline in taste, even so is the Self without&#xA;  interior or exterior, entire and pure Intelligence alone&quot;&#xA;  (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad IV.v.13) which means that the Self has no&#xA;  internal or external aspect apart from pure consciousness. Its nature&#xA;  being mere impartite consciousness without any interstices, just as&#xA;  lump of salt has the saline taste alone both inside and outside, and&#xA;  no other taste, so also is this Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma-Sutra-Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya III.ii.16&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answers to sub-questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is no right or wrong about considering knowledge, consciousness and bliss to be His attributes. Bhaktas think of Him as a Person and consider these as His attibutes. Advaita Vedanta considers Brahman as knowledge itself, as consciousness itself and bliss itself and do not consider these as attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Advaita Vedanta does not consider Saguna Brahman as expansion of Nirguna Brahman. Nirguna Brahman is seen as Saguna Brahman due to Avidya or nescience.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Krishna is Lord of Maya and is not under spell of Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2016-05-10T15:21:34.773" LastActivityDate="2016-05-10T15:21:34.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12032" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12033" CreationDate="2016-05-10T18:44:33.660" Score="9" ViewCount="2163" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Ravana of Ramayana is worshipped like god and also considered as a demon? I know he was a great king who kept his kingdom and administration in an organized manner. He was also a Shiv bhakt. But still he is considered as a demon in Ramayana because he kidnapped Sita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4739" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-22T12:07:40.000" LastActivityDate="2022-01-29T07:22:57.503" Title="Why Ravana of Ramayana is worshipped like god and also considered as a demon?" Tags="|ramayana|scripture|rama|ravana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12033" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12032" CreationDate="2016-05-11T00:54:36.430" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we go by Uttar Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana then his act of Kidnapping Sita is also considered not bad. It is told he did it to get liberation from hand of Rama. The Story is in Section XLIII of Uttar Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agastya Rishi is describing stories to Rama. Now he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O king. I shall now again relate to thee another divine theme. &lt;strong&gt;O RAma I shall now describe to thee why did Ravana steal Sita ? Do hear it attentively.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Agastya describes story of Ravana meeting with the great Sage Sanatkumara. He questions about liberation to the sage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Being slain by Hari to what position do the Daityas, Danavas and Rakshasas attain? And why do Hari destroy them ?” Then there Sanatkumar replied :—“ Whoever are slain by the celestials do reside in their region. And being banished there from. they again take their birth on earth. Thus by the misery and apiness acquired in their pristine existence, they go ough births and deaths. &lt;strong&gt;O king, all the monarchs, slained by Janarddana,holding discus and the lord of the triple world, ained to his own region; even his anger becometh like a boon.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then after hearing this Ravana began to think how should he plan to be killed by Hari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing those words given vent to bythe great ascetic Sanatkumar the night-ranger Ravana, being worked up with delight and surprise, &lt;strong&gt;began to meditate how he should enter into conflict with Hari.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then from Sanatkumara he gains information that Hari will be born in Treta in Ikshvaku dynasty as Rama. Sanatkumar also tells about Rama will be abandoned from Kingdom and come to Dandaka forest. Then he plans to Kidnap Sita so that Rama may kill and liberate him, so that not only he, all his clans will be liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;the vicious souled Ravana stole away Sita with a view to meet death at thy hands.&lt;/strong&gt; Thou art NarAyana, holding discus, conch and club ; thou hast in thy hands....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, from above we can know Ravana was a great devotee of Hari, Hara (Shiva) and Brahma too.. But this story remains as hidden secret in other Kandas. In other Kandas act of Kidnapping Sita is described as Ravan being overcomed by Tamastatwa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it depends on you how you consider Ravana. As a devotee or as an evil.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="8071" LastEditDate="2016-11-02T02:38:30.970" LastActivityDate="2016-11-02T02:38:30.970" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12035" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-11T04:38:24.417" Score="6" ViewCount="432" Body="&lt;p&gt;The distance from the Earth to various heavenly bodies is mainly a subject discussed in the Puranas. In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7262/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, I discuss how the distance from the Earth to Devaloka is given as 100,000 Yojanas in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7262/36&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana.  But there are a few verses in the Brahmanas of the Vedas which also discusses this subject.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First there is &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902701.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/12/items/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif.zip&amp;amp;file=pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_0488.tif&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Panchavimsha Brahmana of the Sama Veda (aka the Tandya Mahabrahmana), which says that Devaloka is located at an extremely short distance equal to the height of a thousand cows stacked on top of each other:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'The world of heaven is as far removed from this earthly world,' they say, 'as a thousand cows standing the one above the other.'  Therefore, they say: 'He who sacrifices with a sacrifice at which a thousand dark shins are given, reaches these worlds.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then there is &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902701.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/12/items/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif.zip&amp;amp;file=pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_0684.tif&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another except&lt;/a&gt; from the Panchavimsha Brahmana of the Sama Veda, which says the distance between Earth and Devaloka is the same as the length of the Saraswati river, which is covered by 40 days on horseback:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At a distance of a journey of forty days on horseback from the spot where the Sarasvati is lost (in the sands of the desert), is situated Plaksha prasravana.  At the same distance from here (from the earth) (is situated) the world of heaven: they go to the world of heaven by a journey commensurate with the Sarasvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then there is &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ys1a4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda, which says that the distance is the distance covered by 1000 days on horseback: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A thousand should be recited for one desiring heaven; the world of heaven is at a distance of a thousand journeys of a horse hence; (they serve) for the attainment of the world of heaven, the securing, the going to (the world of heaven).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, to add additional confusion, &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902701.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/12/items/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif.zip&amp;amp;file=pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_0596.tif&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;yet another excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Panchavimsha Brahmana provides many different figures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who sacrifices with a thousand (cows) (as dakshina) is not deprived of space in yonder world.  Now yonder world (the world of heaven) is as far distance from this (earthly) world as is the distance from here of a thousand cows put above one another.  He who sacrifices with a thousand pervades these worlds.  But the distance (may be) also a thousand yojanas (miles), or a thousand-day's journey on a horse (on horseback or on a chariot), or a thousand-day's journey (on foot).  That he reaches by each successive cow.  These (cows), forsooth, are given in order to tread upon (yonder world).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, why do the Brahmanas of the Vedas provide so many different figures for the distance between Devaloka?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the issue that different routes to Devaloka are of different lengths, or that horses and cows are of different sizes in different Yugas, or that the distance between the Earth and Devaloka changes over time, or what? The last one is a possibility because as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11776/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Purva Mimamsa Acharya Kumarila Bhatta claims that the Puranass discuss the revolution of the Earth along with the three worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I don't what scientific speculation, I just want to find out if things like Sayana's commentaries on the Vedas shed light on these verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T08:44:20.377" Title="Why do the Vedas give multiple figures for the distance between Earth and Devaloka?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|lokas|sama-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12037" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-11T05:58:06.047" Score="4" ViewCount="663" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Kurukshetra war, the Pandava side represented Dharma, and the Kaurava side adharma.Then, why numerous warriors in the Pandavas' side also died in the battle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-17T03:56:05.170" LastActivityDate="2021-04-07T05:56:52.077" Title="Dharma and adharma sides of the Kurukshetra war" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12038" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3563" CreationDate="2016-05-11T06:20:17.290" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma (The Creator of Universe ) having rajasik Guna. It is not in the domain to give Moksha. Hence , there are no temples of Brahma barring one or two. Similarly , Lord Siva (Destroyer) having Tamasik Guna can give reward of Bhoga (Enjoyments) ,but still it takes great effort ( as it is out of their domain) to give Moksha to His devotees , like Banasur , Kannapa etc. Moreover, Lord Vishnu (Sustainer) having Satvik Guna is giver of Moksha , it takes great great effort to give Bhoga (enjoyments) to his devotees like Sudama. The comments, which are given by me as a Sadhaka , not to hurt anyone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5604" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-05-11T07:25:06.397" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T07:25:06.397" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12040" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-11T07:57:43.920" Score="3" ViewCount="90" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Gods and Goddesses (Devas and Devis) have their own vehicles, mounts or vahanas which comprise various types of animals and birds? Do they have some physical significance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T06:46:18.910" Title="Vahanas of Gods" Tags="|puranas|gods|tradition|animals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12042" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-11T08:21:25.467" Score="1" ViewCount="503" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per our Vedic literature, Vish (Vishnu) means creator and Shiv (Shiva) means evil destroyer. I was wondering similar word-meaning similarity between Sati and Sita. Is there any historical evidence for their names as like in Vish &amp;amp; Shiv?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4640" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T09:41:49.617" Title="Like Vish and Shiv have reverse spelling and opposite effects, does Sita and Sati have some reason behind their names?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|sita|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12043" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8921" CreationDate="2016-05-11T08:46:58.720" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Ganesh and Kumara both are mentioned in Vedas. Here are the references.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;रुद्रो रुद्रश्च दन्तिश्च नन्दिः षण्मुख एव च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गरुडो ब्रह्मा विष्णुश्च नारसिहंस्तथैव च ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rudro rudrascha dantischa nandi sanmukha eva cha |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  garudo brahma vishnuscha narsimhastathaiva cha ||&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;[Yajurveda Taitteriya Aranyaka 10.1.15]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The names of God mentioned are:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Rudra, Danti, Nandi, Shanmukha, Garuda, Brahma, Vishnu, Narsimha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  As you can see the whole first line mentions the name of Shiva family:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  i.e,. Rudra, Danti, Nandi, Shanmukh&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shanmukh (six faced) is another name of Kumara.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Danti(tusked one) is another name of Ganesha. It is also evident from this Ganesha Gayatri mantra mentioned in Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;तत्पुरुषाय विद्महे वक्रतुन्डाय धीमहि तन्नो दन्ति प्रचोदयात् ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om tatpurushaye vidmahe vakratundaye dhimahi tanno danti prachodayat | &lt;strong&gt;[YajurVeda Taittariya Aranyaka 10.1.5 ]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We meditate upon Him who has a curved trunk. May the tusked One guide us on the right path.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  As you know Vakratunda is a name of Ganesh and it names also Danti (tusked one) at the same time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Also Kumara Gayatri is mentioned below it in &lt;strong&gt;Yajurveda Taittariya Aranyaka 10.1.6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तत्पुरुषाय विद्महे महासेनाय धीमहि तन्नो षण्मुख  प्रचोदयात् ।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  tatpurushaye vidmahe mahasenaya dhimahi tanno shanmukha prachodayat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We meditate upon Him who is great commander (of devas), may Shanmukha (sixfaced i.e., Kumara) guide us on right path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajurveda Taittariye Samhita 4.5.4.1&lt;/strong&gt; contains this verse:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नमो गणेभ्यो गणपतिभ्येश्च भो नमो:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  namo ganebhyo ganapatibhyescha bho namo |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutations to him who is in (Gana) host and who is in Ganapati (i.e., Lord of host)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Also in Rig Veda:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ॐ गणानां त्वा गणपतिं हवामहे कविं कवीनामुपमश्रवस्तमम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ज्येष्ठराजं ब्रह्मणां ब्रह्मणस्पत आ नः षृण्वन्नूतिभिः सीदसादनम् ॥ [RigVeda 2.23.1]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  We call thee, Lord and Leader of the heavenly hosts, the wise among the wise, the most famous of all, the King supreme of prayers, O Brahmaṇaspati: hear us with help; sit down in place of sacrifice.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although the devata of this mantra is Brahmanaspati Veda scholars use this mantra to summon Ganesha as it satisfies all characters of Ganesh.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Some people also equate Brahmanaspati as Brihaspati. Some also say Brihaspati is aspect of Ganesh. But some debate Brihaspati is son of Angiras. Whatever it may be. We are not here for speculation.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But if we go by Jnana Kanda Marga, then Angiras, Brihaspati and Brahmanspati have special meaning. Here is how Brihadaranyaka Upanishad of Yajurveda describes it.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I-iii-19: It is called Ayasya &lt;strong&gt;Angirasa&lt;/strong&gt;, for it is the essence of the members (of the body). The vital force is indeed the essence of the members. Of course it is their essence. (For instance), from whichever member the vital force departs, right there it withers. Therefore this is of course the essence of the members. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I-iii-20: This alone is also &lt;strong&gt;Brihaspati&lt;/strong&gt; (lord of the Rik). Speech is indeed Brihati (Rik) and this is its lord. Therefore this is also Brihaspati. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I-iii-21: This alone is also &lt;strong&gt;Brahmanaspati&lt;/strong&gt; (lord of the Yajus). Speech is indeed Brahman (yajus), and this is its lord. Therefore this is also Brahmanaspati.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence if we go by Jnana Kanda Marga:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;nbsp;Angirasa= Anga + Rasa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;nbsp; i.e., Vital fluid of body.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;From Vital fluid of mouth(Angiras) comes the speech/Vak shakti (Brihaspati, Brahmanaspati). Hence by Jnana kanda we see them separately. Also Brihaspati is considered lord of Rik and Brahmanaspati considered lord of Yajus.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For the question why Ganesh isn&amp;apos;t mentioned in Valmikiramayan. &lt;em&gt;It is because Ganesh wasn&amp;apos;t so much popular at that time. He was the chief leader of Gana of Shiva. Kumara/ Kartikeya is mentioned as he is commander of Vedic Gods like Indra. At that time dominance of Indra like God was more as evident from fight between Krishna and Indra when he stopped worship of Indra.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Furthermore if we go by Sabda Brahman Concept people who recite ValmikiRamayan also worship Ganesh. This verse is in Phala Shruti of Yuddha Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विनायकश्च शाम्यन्ति गृहे तिष्ठन्ति यस्य वै ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विजयेत महीं राजा प्रवासि स्वस्तिमान् भवेत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the word &amp;quot;विनायकश्च शाम्यन्ति&amp;quot; i.e., Vinayakascha Samyenti. i.e., Obstacles are removed. Although it is not calling Vinayaka. It is just used to denote obstacle. But by Sabda Brahman Concept one doesn&amp;apos;t need to be aware of God also when it is chanted as evident from story of Valmiki (i.e., Mara Mara), also evident from story of Ajamila (i.e., Calling his son Narayana). &lt;strong&gt;Thus who is reciting Valmiki Ramayana if not aware of Lord Ganesh also then he still worships him. Same case applies in the other mantra where Gods name is used. This is the same reason how the seer of &amp;quot;Gananam tva Ganapatim....&amp;quot; of Rigveda i.e., Grutsduma became a great devotee of Ganesha later.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For the question why Ganesh isn&amp;apos;t mentioned in Bhagvad Gita? You have to ask this question to Lord Krishna. Furthermore Bhagvad Gita is only popular in present time, It is just a very small portion of&amp;nbsp; Mahabharata. It became popular after Sankaracharya wrote commentary on Bhagvad Gita. Before that time Hinduism was dominated by Purva Mimamsha which doesn&amp;apos;t go for Jnana marga.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For your question who is elder? As far as I know Vedas don&amp;apos;t discuss who is elder. I don&amp;apos;t want to cite Puranic stories as you don&amp;apos;t believe in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-21T11:11:47.933" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T11:11:47.933" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12044" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12042" CreationDate="2016-05-11T09:29:51.417" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are no concepts like you are saying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dhatu 'Vish' means Pervading.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dhatu 'Shiv' means Auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In what sense are you seeing evil destruction in Auspicious?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, they are not opposite by no ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name 'Sita' means furrow as she was born while Janaka was ploughing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name 'Sati' from dhatu 'Sat' which have several meanings like truth, existence. Also Sati means extremely chaste women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-11T09:41:49.617" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T09:41:49.617" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12046" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14674" CreationDate="2016-05-11T10:09:51.240" Score="4" ViewCount="421" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is personal to follow dharma. But still there are necessary to follow some rules like nitya krama and niyama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is it necessary to follow Nitya Karma and Niyama(rules)? Also practically how many of them can be followed individually for a samsari?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-05-11T11:25:32.413" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T07:24:32.300" Title="Why is it necessary to follow Nitya Karma and Niyama(rules)?" Tags="|karma|yama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12047" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12048" CreationDate="2016-05-11T10:16:03.413" Score="4" ViewCount="88" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are vaishnavism patha and shaivism patha leads to same parmatman / GOD ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T10:16:54.807" Title="Are vaishnava patha and shaivitee patha leads to same parmatman?" Tags="|vaishnavism|shaivism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12048" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12047" CreationDate="2016-05-11T10:16:54.807" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, both leads to same parmatman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्रयी साङ्ख्यं योगः पशुपतिमतं वैष्णवमिति&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रभिन्ने प्रस्थाने परमिदमदः पथ्यमिति च।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रुचीनां वैचित्र्यादृजुकुटिल नानापथजुषां&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नृणामेको गम्यस्त्वमसि पयसामर्णव इव॥ ७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The different practices based on the three Vedas, SaMkhya, Yoga, Pashupata-mata, VaishhNava-mata etc . are but different paths (to reach to the Greatest Truth) and people on account of their different aptitude choose from them whatever they think best and deserved to be accepted . But as the sea is the final resting place for all types of streams , You are the only reaching place  for all people whichever path,straight or zigzag, they may accept .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Mahimna Strotra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T10:16:54.807" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12049" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12050" CreationDate="2016-05-11T10:20:42.700" Score="3" ViewCount="250" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the universe eternal or temporary? It is most importantly observed to differentiate illusion and truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-08-12T13:56:05.010" LastActivityDate="2019-08-15T14:56:06.763" Title="Is the universe eternal or temporary?" Tags="|universe|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12050" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12049" CreationDate="2016-05-11T10:22:04.503" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This illusory world is both eternal and temporary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ध्रुवं कश्चित्‌ सर्वं सकलमपरस्त्वध्रुवमिदं&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;परो ध्रौव्याऽध्रौव्ये जगति गदति व्यस्तविषये।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;समस्तेऽप्येतस्मिन्‌ पुरमथन तैर्विस्मित इव&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्तुवन्‌ जिह्रेमि त्वां न खलु ननु धृष्टा मुखरता॥ ९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O, Destroyer Of  ( Three ) Cities Shiva, some persons call this Universe eternal ( ever lasting), others call it temporary, and yet others call it both eternal and temporary . Hence, being surprised ( perplexed ) by  these contradictory opinions on this subject, I am really becoming immodest in loquaciously praising You .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Mahimna Strotra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Absolute GOD is universal, omnipresent and all knowing. Nobody is able to destroy it. And Illusory world that we see which is relative is temporary upto our death or judgement day or end of our time on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta Lord said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;avyaktanadini bhutani vyaktamadhyani bharat avyaktanidhannyanaiva tatra ka paridevana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This universe is always disappeared in start, appearing in middle and again disappeared in end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-21T08:53:59.847" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12051" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12052" CreationDate="2016-05-11T10:27:26.250" Score="1" ViewCount="113" Body="&lt;p&gt;What happens when Shiva dance? Shiva the mightiest of mighty and also merciful by whose eye brows all gods work. What happens when this auspicious dance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T10:28:36.910" Title="What happens when Shiva dance?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12052" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12051" CreationDate="2016-05-11T10:28:36.910" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dedicated to Shiva From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ms.uky.edu/%7Esohum/sanskrit/mahimna/mahimna.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahimna strotra&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मही पादाघाताद्‌ व्रजति सहसा संशयपदं&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पदं विष्णोर्भ्राम्यद्‌ भुज-परिघ-रुग्ण-ग्रह- गणम्‌।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मुहुर्द्यौर्दौस्थ्यं यात्यनिभृत-जटा-ताडित-तटा&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जगद्रक्षायै त्वं नटसि ननु वामैव विभुता॥ १६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You dance for protecting the world, but strangely, your glorious act appears to produce the opposite result in that the earth suddenly struck by your dancing feet doubts that it is coming to an end; even VishhNu's domain is shaken in fear when your mace like arms bruise the planets; the godly region feels miserable when its banks are struck by your agitated matted locks (of hair)!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T10:28:36.910" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12053" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2175" CreationDate="2016-05-11T10:32:23.067" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ms.uky.edu/%7Esohum/sanskrit/mahimna/mahimna.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva mahimna strotra&lt;/a&gt; shiva gave chakra to vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हरिस्ते साहस्रं कमल बलिमाधाय पदयोः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यदेकोने तस्मिन्‌ निजमुदहरन्नेत्रकमलम्‌।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गतो भक्त्युद्रेकः परिणतिमसौ चक्रवपुषः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्रयाणां रक्षायै त्रिपुरहर  जागर्ति जगताम्‌॥ १९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;VishhNu once brought 1000 lotuses and  was placing them at your feet; after placing 999 flowers he found that one was missing; he plucked out one of his own eyes and offered it as a lotus; this supreme exemplification of devotion on his part was transformed into the wheel (sudarshana chakra) in his hand, which he uses for protecting the world .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T10:32:23.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12055" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-11T11:23:47.977" Score="0" ViewCount="40" Body="&lt;p&gt;If person breaks legs of animals Whether he has to spend this karma in animal birth or he can spend in human birth also?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5609" LastEditorUserId="5609" LastEditDate="2016-05-11T11:38:49.393" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T11:38:49.393" Title="Papa karma and rebirth" Tags="|jiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-05-11T11:30:22.657" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12059" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-11T12:55:02.247" Score="3" ViewCount="101" Body="&lt;p&gt;God Murugan is known as lord Shiva's son and also called as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartikeya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kartikeya&lt;/a&gt;. He used to be called as Tamil god and famous in Tamil Hindus. Is he known to all Hindus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1082" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T06:31:33.097" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T06:31:33.097" Title="God murugan is considered as tamil god. Is he known to all hindus?" Tags="|shiva|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-05-14T06:07:59.497" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12060" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-11T12:56:52.000" Score="18" ViewCount="6113" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to learn &amp;amp; study the Advaita Vedanta. So, which are the principle texts/scriptures of Advaita Vedanta? In other words which are the major text/scripture related to Advaita Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that (Mukhya) Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Bhagavad Gita are the Prasthanatrayi of Vedanta and Adi Shankaracharya's commentries on them can be considered as the principle texts for Advaita. In addition to these I am looking for the important texts/scriptures that are related to Advaita Vedanta (e.g Vivekachudamani)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Adi Shankaracharya was the founder/expounder of Advaita Vedanta, so &lt;em&gt;I am specially looking for worthy texts/scriptures from Adi Shankaracharya that are related to Advaita (say core work or considered as very important for Advaita Vedanta)&lt;/em&gt;. Though you can suggest others' texts also which are related to Advaita Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence List the important texts/scriptures of (related to) Advaita Vedanta with a bit of description for each.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T14:02:38.690" LastActivityDate="2022-07-13T05:37:19.097" Title="Which are the principle texts/scriptures of Advaita Vedanta?" Tags="|scripture|vedanta|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12061" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9017" CreationDate="2016-05-11T13:25:54.950" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am posting an answer because spurious accounts and half-baked , mostly ignorant theories are being offered as answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankaracharya was a Nambudiri Brahmin and this is stated in Madhaviya Sankara Vijayam, a translation of which is provided on Sringeri's website. I quote from this website and the bold emphasis is mine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Madhaviya Shankara Vijayam, the most popular and widely accepted&#xA;  account of Sri Adi Shankara’s life, describes the advent of Sri Adi&#xA;  Shankara thus – ‘The One sitting under the banyan tree, Lord&#xA;  Dakshinamurti (Shiva), the Teacher of the Supreme Truth through the&#xA;  medium of silence, left his place of meditation. He is now moving&#xA;  about in the form of Shankaracharya, imparting his precious advice of&#xA;  knowledge to the world, which has been caught in the boundless dense&#xA;  forests of ignorance and is threatened seriously by the approaching&#xA;  flames of the forest fires of family bondage.’ –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अज्ञानान्तर्गहनपतितान् आत्मविद्योपदेशैः त्रातुम् लोकान्&#xA;  भवदवशिखातापपापच्यमानान् । मुक्त्वा मौनं वटविटपिनो मूलतो निष्पतन्ती&#xA;  शंभोर्मूर्तिः चरति भुवने शंकराचार्यरूपा ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shankara was born to Aryamba and Shivaguru, a Nambudri Brahmana who belonged to the Vedic branch of Krishna Yajur Veda.&lt;/strong&gt; Shankara’s&#xA;  birthplace was Kalady in Kerala, on the banks of the Poorna river.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sringeri.net/history/sri-adi-shankaracharya/biography/abridged-madhaviya-shankara-digvijayam/part-1&quot;&gt;http://www.sringeri.net/history/sri-adi-shankaracharya/biography/abridged-madhaviya-shankara-digvijayam/part-1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kanchi Kamakoti website states his gotram as Atri and also re-affirms that he was a Yajurvedi Nambudiri brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Acharya's Gotra was Atri and he was a Krishna Yajurvedi. He is known&#xA;  to be a Nambudari Brahmana by birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/advaita/truefacts.html&quot;&gt;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/advaita/truefacts.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T13:25:54.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12062" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9560" CreationDate="2016-05-11T14:37:04.110" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would definitely say that given the scriptural sources, the goddess has only the lion as her mount. But please note that iconographical instructions often give descriptions which are not strictly consistent with the stories. Again, sometimes painters and iconographers take liberties. While the Devimahatmya categorically mentions the lion as the goddess's only vehicle, there are beautiful Pahari paintings where she is fighting Mahishasura while riding on a tiger. Famous Sanskrit scholar Alf Hiltebeitel has also remarked that if one goes by the actual representations of the goddess over the centuries, then the lion and the tiger seem interchangeable as her vehicle. Moreover, scholars have also argued that a half-tiger and half-woman figure inscribed on an Indus seal is actually a prototype of the goddess riding on a tiger, thus hinting that the goddess's association with the tiger predates her association with the lion, and dates back to prehistoric times when Hindu mythology didn't exist in its Classical form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5610" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T14:37:04.110" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12063" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1964" CreationDate="2016-05-11T15:20:33.113" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Aranya Kanda, while &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga4/aranyasans4.htm#Verse34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;narrating&lt;/a&gt; the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viradha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Viradha&lt;/a&gt; vadha, Valmiki compares the Rama-Lakshmana duo with Sun and Moon:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततः तु तौ कांचन चित्र कार्मुकौ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निहत्य रक्षः परिगृह्य मैथिलीम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विजह्रतुः तौ मुदितौ महावने &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दिवि स्थितौ &lt;strong&gt;चन्द्र दिवाकरौ इव&lt;/strong&gt; || ३-४-३४ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;34&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;tataH = then; kaanchana chitra kaarmukau = those having golden, dazzling, bows; tau = then, they two; nihatya rakshaH = on killing, the demon; parigR^ihya = took; maithiliim = Maithili; muditau = gladly; mahaa vane = in great, forests; divi sthitau = in skies, staying; tau = two; &lt;strong&gt;chandra divaakaraaH iva&lt;/strong&gt; = &lt;strong&gt;Moon, Sun, like&lt;/strong&gt;; vijahratuH = journeyed on.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then they two who have dazzling golden bows have eliminated that demon and retrieved Seetha, and they gladly journeyed on in that great forest like the two entities abiding on the skies, &lt;strong&gt;namely the Sun and Moon&lt;/strong&gt;. [3-4-34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commenting on this shlokha, the translators at valmikiramayan.net say:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The simile of sun and moon is of some importance. It will not be clear as to, who is compared with Sun and who with Moon, unless some ancient commentaries are touched. &lt;strong&gt;Rama is compared with Chandra, the Moon, because, Moon will not travel without his wives. All the celestial stars are the wives of the Moon, and they twinkle before the Moon's arrival, in order to welcome him into the night. Hence Rama is suffixed with Chandra, compounding to Sri Ramachandra.&lt;/strong&gt; On the other hand, Sun does not travel along with his wife, namely Chaya, the Shadow, but she always will be at his hind. We the living beings are in between the Sun and his wife Chaya. If we face Sun in the morning times, she will be at our back, and in the evenings, when the Sun is at our back, Chaya, shadow will be in front of us, reminding us of our lengthening shadow of life. Thus we are in between the light and shadow. The Sun is also called karma saakshi, [Witness of Deeds.] Our own shadow, shortens with the ascending Sun and lengthens as the dusk of our day or life increases. Hence Sun's travel is wife-less one, and Lakshmana is thus compared with the Sun, for he does not have his wife travelling with him now. And Lakshmana is another karma saakshi [Witness of Events] in the Ramayana. &lt;strong&gt;In another way of commenting it is said that both of them are said to be moon-like in their appeasing personalities and sun-like in their radiant valour.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-05-11T15:20:33.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12064" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-11T17:02:05.770" Score="1" ViewCount="141" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://firstip.org/legendary-scientists/maharshi-kanada-the-propunder-of-atomic-theory600-bce&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Maharshi Kanada&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; was the founder of the Vaisheshika school of thought, one of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dar%C5%9Bana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shad Darshanas&lt;/a&gt; in Hinduism. He wrote the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vai%C5%9Be%E1%B9%A3ika_S%C5%ABtra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vaisheshika Sutras&lt;/a&gt;, the most prominent text of this school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does he say about the relationship between cause and effect?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T07:12:03.397" Title="What is the relationship between cause and effect as enunciated by Maharishi Kanada?" Tags="|kanada|vaisheshika|shad-darshana|vaisheshika-sutra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12065" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12064" CreationDate="2016-05-11T17:09:40.837" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Maharishi Kanada&lt;/em&gt; talks about the relationship between cause and effect in the following Shlokas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/34/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shloka 1.2.1&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कारणभवात् कार्य्याभावः   ।। १ । २ । १ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कारणभवात्  (Kaaranabhaavaat), from the non-existence of cause&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कार्य्याभावः  (Kaaryyabhaavah), non-existence of effect&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Non-existence of effect (follows) from the non-existence of cause&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/36/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shloka 1.2.2&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न तु कार्य्याभावात् कारणभावः   ।। १ । २ । २ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न (Na), not&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तु (Tu), but&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कार्य्याभावात् (Kaaryyabhaavat), from non-existence of effect&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कारणभावः (Kaaranabhaavah), non-existence of causes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But non-existence of cause (does) not (follow) from the non-existence&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;of effect&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/68/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shloka 2.1.24&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कारणगुणपूर्व्वकः कार्य्यगुणो दृष्टः  ।। २ । १ । २४ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कारणगुणपूर्व्वकः (Kaarana-guna-poorvakah), preceded by the attributes of cause&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कार्य्यगुणः  (Kaaryya-gunah), attributes of the effect&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दृष्टः (Drishtah), is seen or observed&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Attribute of the effect is seen to be preceded by the Attribute of the cause&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g. The colour (attribute) of an object is perceived before any attribute of the Earth element (cause) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Vaisesika sutras of Kanada -  Translated by Nandalal Sinha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T07:12:03.397" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T07:12:03.397" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12067" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9737" CreationDate="2016-05-12T05:41:33.607" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vaikuntha means a place where there's no kuntha (worries/suffering). So definitely this planet can't have vaikuntha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as locating the same is concerned, best of luck but unless you've your kundalini awakened and raised, you can't locate or experience Vaikuntha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the scriptures, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch03.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;So there are endless Brahmâs, Visnus, and Mahes’varas. In every Brahmânda, there is Brahmâ, Visnu, and Mahes’a. Each Brahmânda extends from Pâtâla to the Brahmâloka. The abode of Vaikuntha is higher than that (i. e. it is situated outside of Brahmânda), again the abode of Goloka is fifty koti yojanas (50 x 10 x 4 x 2 million miles) higher than Vaikuntha. This Goloka Dhâma is eternal and real as S’ri Krisna is eternal and real.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2343" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T05:41:33.607" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12068" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-12T05:51:26.880" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T05:51:26.880" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T05:51:26.880" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12069" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-12T05:51:26.880" Score="0" Body="Questions about Sukracharya, a God of planet Venus and Guru of Asuras, Daityas." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T11:15:14.470" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T11:15:14.470" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12070" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12060" CreationDate="2016-05-12T05:55:38.840" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the purest Advaitic texts is the &lt;em&gt;Astavakra Samhita&lt;/em&gt;. This is the only book that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa kept in his room. Again, it is pure Advaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another is the &lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt; by Sri Vidyaranya Swami. He was the Sankaracharya of the Sringeri Math from 1377-1386. Considered one of the great commentators on Sankara and Advaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another good Advaita text is the &lt;em&gt;Vedantasara&lt;/em&gt; by Sadananda, 15th or 16th century if my memory serves me correctly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides the &lt;em&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/em&gt; you already mentioned, two other great works of Sankara are his &lt;em&gt;Atmabodha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Saundarya-Lahari&lt;/em&gt;. Sankara had many minor works, two that are noteworthy include the &lt;em&gt;Aparoksanubhuti&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;Panchikaranam&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In modern times, Swami Vivekananda's work &lt;em&gt;Jnana Yoga&lt;/em&gt; is an Advaita text, as well as numerous books of Ramana Maharishi's teachings. Anandamayi Ma's teachings contain Advaita teachings, but I don't remember a particular book about her as being a purely Advaita text per se.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some modern good studies from an academic standpoint on Advaita include &lt;em&gt;Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy&lt;/em&gt; by David Loy (a comparison of the non-dual philosophies of Adviata, Buddhism, Taoism, among others), &lt;em&gt;Bhamati and Vivarana Schools of Advaita Vedanta: A Critical Approach&lt;/em&gt; by P.S. Roodurmun. Two books that have come to my recent attention are &lt;em&gt;A Study of Advaita in Buddhism, Vedanta, and Kashmir Shaivism: The Advaita Tradition in Indian Philosophy&lt;/em&gt; by Chandradhar Sharma, and &lt;em&gt;The Advaita Vedanta of Brahma-Siddhi&lt;/em&gt; by Surendranath Dasgupta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last book is a work on the &lt;em&gt;Brahma-siddhi&lt;/em&gt; by Mandana Misra. He is one of the few advaita commentators prior to Shankara to have survived to the present day, the other being Gaudapada's &lt;em&gt;Karika&lt;/em&gt;, Gaudapada's commentary on the &lt;em&gt;Mandukya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt;.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-12-08T04:34:51.043" LastActivityDate="2017-12-08T04:34:51.043" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12071" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14161" CreationDate="2016-05-12T06:30:35.037" Score="13" ViewCount="2324" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know who is the supreme god according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nath&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nath Sampraday&lt;/a&gt; ? &#xA;And what are the main scriptures of Nath Sampraday ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-16T12:39:50.017" LastActivityDate="2018-03-10T08:17:30.753" Title="Who is the supreme god according to Nath sampraday?" Tags="|scripture|gods|sects|yogi|nath|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12072" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2416" CreationDate="2016-05-12T06:50:35.567" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Creation is a subject of experience. Scriptures do give answers of how all things were created. E.G. refer Devi Bhagavatam (9th book, chapter 3) for example. But unless you have a direct experience, it'd just be an idea you've got from somewhere with no way to verify it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So leaving creation, the better question for us is &quot;why are we here?&quot;&#xA;Gita gives answer. We're here because of our desires. As long as we have even a single desire related to this world, we'd have to come to fulfill it. It's not our karma that binds us, our desires do. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna says (paraphrasing) that only fool thinks that God does everything and we're mere puppets. God has given us free will and created us in his image. So we're free to make a choice. If our choices are guided by selfish desires, we become bound to this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nature runs on a self-fulfilling prophecy, God doesn't interfere in day-to-day workings of the nature. Even God's avataras are bound to reap fruits of karma when descent on this plain (lot of examples from Sri Ram's/Sri Krishna's life).&#xA;There's no ceasing of karma as long as we're alive here. Which also means that the fruits of our karma has to be reaped by us till then. Nature has a karma bank in this city of universe and each one of us has an account in it. As long as we remain in here, we've to put deposits. We can only withdraw what we have deposited.&#xA;But if we have no desire to remain in a city, the bank can't bind us. We can thus forgo the entire deposit and be liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2343" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T06:50:35.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12073" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-12T07:21:44.073" Score="0" ViewCount="190" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the signs of &lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt; as enunciated by different Rishis in Narada Bhakti Sutras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada Muni mentions Rishi Parashara, Rishi Garga and Rishi Shandilya in this text. What are the viewpoints of these Rishis on Bhakti?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T11:36:43.240" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T11:36:43.240" Title="What are the signs of Divine love as enunciated by different Rishis in Narada Bhakti Sutras?" Tags="|rishi|bhakti|narada|love|narada-bhakti-sutra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12074" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12073" CreationDate="2016-05-12T07:28:52.790" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As is considered a tradition, Narada Muni first describes the viewpoints of various other Rishis. After that, he presents his own viewpoint.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तल्लक्षणानि वाच्यन्ते नानामतभेदात्   ।।            १५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Different rishis, different traditions have spoken about this divine love and its characteristics. But they are all different - different perceptions. The Truth is the same but they saw different characteristics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पूजादिष्वनुराग इति पाराशर्यः   ।।             १६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rishi Parashara&lt;/em&gt;, one of the pioneers of the Vedic tradition, said, “A deep interest in &lt;em&gt;Pooja&lt;/em&gt; is a sign of Divine Love.” ‘Poo’ means fullness; ‘Ja’ means that which is born out of fullness. When you are so full and you are so grateful, what you do from that state of mind, of existence, is Pooja.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कथादिष्विति गर्गः   ।।         १७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rishi Garga&lt;/em&gt; said Katha, means story - talking about the glory of divine. Listening and talking about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आत्मरत्यविरोधेनेति शाण्डिल्यः   ।।     १८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rishi Shandilya&lt;/em&gt; says a characteristic of (divine) love is rejoicing in the &lt;em&gt;Self&lt;/em&gt; without any conflict.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नारदस्तु तदर्पिताखिलाचारता तद्विस्मरणे परमव्याकुलतेति   ।।   १९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having enunciated what other Rishis say, now &lt;em&gt;Narada&lt;/em&gt; comes to his own way of looking at Divine Love. He says, &quot;But my opinion is &lt;em&gt;tadarpitakhilacharita&lt;/em&gt;&quot; - &lt;em&gt;offering all my actions, all my attitudes, all my tendencies to the Divine&lt;/em&gt;. And becoming extremely uncomfortable when one forgets divine, is the real characteristic of Divine love.” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अस्त्येवमेवम्   ।।    २०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथा व्रजगोपिकानाम्    ।।    २१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is like that. Like it happened to the &lt;em&gt;Gopis of Vrindavan&lt;/em&gt;. Every move they made was for the Divine, their mind, their soul was all immersed in &lt;em&gt;Lord Krishna&lt;/em&gt;. How they were utterly in dismay, when, even for a moment, they forgot their beloved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Referenced from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artoflivinguniverse.org/2012/11/narad-bhakti-sutras-sutra-15.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; commentary on the Narada Bhakti Sutras (Shlokas 15-21)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T08:07:12.873" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T08:07:12.873" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12075" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-12T08:20:38.880" Score="11" ViewCount="5895" Body="&lt;p&gt;This research paper, &lt;a href=&quot;http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/9804020&quot;&gt;The Speed of Light and Puranic Cosmology&lt;/a&gt;, by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhash_Kak&quot;&gt;Subash Kak&lt;/a&gt; discusses the various notions of distance between places and also the speed of Sun, light etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It mentions that the speed of light is mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taittiriya_Shakha&quot;&gt;Taittiriya Brahmana&lt;/a&gt; of the Yajurveda (in a commentary by &lt;em&gt;Bhatta Bhaskara&lt;/em&gt;). This speed is also mentioned to be part of an old &lt;em&gt;puranic&lt;/em&gt; tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The speed of light is mentioned as &lt;strong&gt;2,202 yojanas per half nimesa&lt;/strong&gt;  which &lt;strong&gt;converts to the correct speed of light&lt;/strong&gt; (186,000 miles per second).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Question: What is the Shloka where the mention to speed of light is found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T11:13:01.937" LastActivityDate="2020-12-21T08:55:14.170" Title="The speed of light - Taittirya Brahmana of the Yajurveda" Tags="|yajur-veda|science|taittirya-brahmana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12076" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-12T08:55:03.210" Score="5" ViewCount="253" Body="&lt;p&gt;I remember reading about an allegory which uses the Moon and its shadow in water to describe the viewpoints of &lt;em&gt;Dvaita, Advaita and Vishishta Advaita.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I cannot seem to find it online now. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone have a reference to that? Or, a reproduction from memory is also welcome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-08T03:23:24.093" LastActivityDate="2018-09-08T03:23:24.093" Title="Allegory of the Moon and its shadow - Dvaita, Advaita and Vishishta Advaita" Tags="|philosophy|advaita|vishishtadvaita|dvaita|chandra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12077" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3679" CreationDate="2016-05-12T09:12:30.410" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Great saints can know everything if they want to. The potential is there. When the word '&lt;em&gt;Sarvagyaata&lt;/em&gt;' or Omniscient is used, it indicates a potency to know everything. Although, they choose not to intervene too much in the mundane aspects, unless required.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The avatar role-plays with deliberate and voluntary self-limitation.&#xA;  The avatar has infinite knowledge which he can choose to access,&#xA;  though ordinarily he does not, or else does so selectively&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;--Excerpt from the book 'Being Different' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T09:12:30.410" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12078" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="902" CreationDate="2016-05-12T09:26:44.030" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from it being the name of the Lord Shiva, the word itself has following meanings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;auspicious, propitious, lucky&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;in good health or condition, happy, prosperous, fortunate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ldpd_7285627_000&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Vaman Shivaram Apte.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Also, this is an insightful explanation of the word by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...In the same way, nothing is significant when you see the macrosm.&#xA;  This earth is invisible. Even the sun is like a small dot. It’s like a&#xA;  semi-seed, a mustard seed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where is this galaxy floating?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The latest scientific evidence says the galaxy is floating in dark&#xA;  energy and dark matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dark, not because of religious connotations, but because you don’t see&#xA;  them. The Rig Veda (an ancient Indian text) speaks of this many&#xA;  thousands of years ago. In the beginning, the dark substance was&#xA;  enveloped by dark energy. From that the Milky Way came out. This&#xA;  substance by which everything is made up of – is what you are made up&#xA;  off too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It’s like so many bulbs - and they are all linked because of one&#xA;  electricity. This one thing that is underneath the whole creation is&#xA;  called Shiva. In meditation, drop all the dualities and relax and&#xA;  repose in that Shiva principle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;That silent and potent principle is called Shiva&lt;/em&gt;. You know where the&#xA;  word Shiva came from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;When you want people to be quiet, you say – shhhhh. When something is&#xA;  wonderful, you say ‘wow’. That’s Shiva.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;the wonder of silence is Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The most beautiful and wonderful silence is deep within your hearts&#xA;  and minds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2009/04/what-sri-sri-said_05.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2009/04/what-sri-sri-said_05.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T09:26:44.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12080" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12075" CreationDate="2016-05-12T10:42:59.010" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;The speed of light is not directly from the Samhita. It is given by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayana&quot;&gt;Sayana&lt;/a&gt; in commenting 1.50.4 verse of RigVeda. The devata of the verse is Surya. The verse is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तरणिविश्वदर्शवो ज्योतिष्कृदसि सूर्य । विश्वमा भासि रोचनम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Swift and all beautiful art thou, &lt;strong&gt;O Surya, maker of the light, Illuming all the radiant realm.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As it talks about maker of light. Commentary of Sayana in this verse is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तथा च स्मर्यत योजनानां &lt;strong&gt;सहस्रम् द्वे द्वे शते द्वे च योजने&lt;/strong&gt; । एकेन &lt;strong&gt;निमिषार्धेन&lt;/strong&gt; क्रममाण नमोऽस्तु ते ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tathA cha smaryata yojanAnAM sahasram dve dve shate dve cha yojane | ekena nimiShArdhena kramamANa namo.astu te ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is remembered, [O Sun] bow to you, you who traverse &lt;strong&gt;2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here it is talking about speed of Sun. But as it is in the commentary of verse containing &lt;strong&gt;maker of light&lt;/strong&gt;, it is taken as speed of light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here by calculation from Purana we know 1 nimisha = 16/75 seconds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. 2.8 of Vishnu Purana says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fifteen twinklings of the eye (Nimeshas) make a Káshthá; thirty Káshthás, a Kalá; thirty Kalás, a Muhúrtta (forty-eight minutes); and thirty Muhúrttas, a day and night: the portions of the day are longer or shorter, as has been explained; but the Sandhyá is always the same in increase or decrease, being only one Muhúrtta. From the period that a line may be drawn across the sun (or that half his orb is visible) to the expiration of three Muhúrttas (two hours and twenty-four minutes), that interval is called Prátar (morning), forming a fifth portion of the day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The summary is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15 nimesha = 1 kastha &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  30 kastha =1 kala &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  30 kala = 1 muhurta &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  30 muhurta = 1 day-and-night&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus 1 nimisha = 86400/(30×30×30×15) =16/75 sec.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus half-nimisha= 16/150 seconds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the distance yojana is highly debatable when converted to metre. Using 1 yojana= 9 mile (which is a general standard value). The value of Yojana is difficult in conversion. It is because value are defined as this way. For eg. In Markandaye Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10 Paramáńus = 1 Parasúkshma; 10 Parasúkshmas = 1 Trasareńu; &#xA;  10 Trasareńus = 1 particle of dust, or Mahírajas; 10 Mahírajasas = 1 Bálágra, 'hair's &#xA;  point;' 10 Bálágras = 1 Likhyá; 10 Likhyás= 1 Yúka; to Yúkas = 1 heart of barley &#xA;  (Yavodara); 10 Yavodaras = 1 grain of barley of middle size; 10 barley grains = 1 finger, &#xA;  or inch; 6 fingers = a Pada, or foot (the breadth of it); 2 Padas = 1 Vitasti, or span; 2 &#xA;  spans = 1 Hasta, or cubit; 4 Hastas = a Dhanu, a Danda, or staff, or 2 Nárikás; 2000 &#xA;  Dhanus = a Gavyúti; 4 Gavyútis = a Yojana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus it is very difficult to convert exact value of Yojana. Standard value is taken as 8-9 miles. It is obtained as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Normally 1 hasta= 45 cm. (Hasta is length of hand from elbow to tip of middle finger)&#xA;  We can measure it. Also see &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasta_(unit)&quot;&gt;Hasta here&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  Thus from above Puranic data.&#xA;  1 yojana = 45×4×2000×4 = 1440000 cm = 9 miles&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Speed=2202×9×150/16= 185793 miles/ second.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The standard scientific value for speed of light is 186322 miles/ second.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus they are pretty close together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The points to be considered here are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-- &lt;em&gt;The verse itself do not mention the value as speed of light. But as it is in the commentary of &quot;maker of light&quot; people have associated it with speed of light.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-- &lt;em&gt;The value of yojana is a debatable value.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T11:23:38.190" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T11:23:38.190" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12081" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-12T12:34:17.010" Score="5" ViewCount="359" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the arguments given by people (incorrectly) to show oppression in Hinduism is that the &lt;em&gt;Brahmins&lt;/em&gt; were elites and unfairly discriminated against the lower caste people, also known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Brahminism&quot;&gt;anti-Brahminism&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The counter argument given is that there have been many &lt;em&gt;Rishis&lt;/em&gt; who had parents of lower caste (&lt;em&gt;Sudras or Dalits&lt;/em&gt;). Although, due to their knowledge they came to be known as Rishis. Hence, caste was determined back then &lt;em&gt;by merit and not by birth.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Caste_System6.htm&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; website lists a number of such examples of Rishis with lower caste parents, without any references. Rishi Vyasa, Rishi Valmiki, Rishi Aitareya, Rishi Parashara, Rishi Vashishtha and Rishi Vidura are mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can all or any of these examples be traced back in the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="119" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T15:15:32.670" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T08:50:56.403" Title="Examples on the flexibility of Varna in ancient times" Tags="|history|rishi|caste-system|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12082" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-12T14:31:00.347" Score="8" ViewCount="237" Body="&lt;p&gt;Questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu scripture or shastras, what portion of his earnings should a son contribute, to the parents or family?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does this amount vary if the son is married vs. unmarried?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4441" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-21T03:12:13.393" LastActivityDate="2016-05-21T03:12:13.393" Title="What portion of his earnings should a son contribute to support his parents?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|dharma-shastras|parents|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12083" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12089" CreationDate="2016-05-12T14:34:03.503" Score="7" ViewCount="8139" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I understand, in &lt;em&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/em&gt;, Amavasya and Poornima are being related to the positions of Surya (Sun) and Chandra (Moon). What is this relationship?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do these positions change in between an Amavasya and Poornima?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, how are these positions correlated with Surya Grahana and Chandra Grahana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T06:53:51.477" LastActivityDate="2016-05-17T17:21:29.447" Title="How is the position of Surya and Chandra related to Amavasya and Poornima?" Tags="|surya|chandra|astrology|poornima|amavasya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12084" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-12T16:22:34.413" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The supreme Devi took birth as Uma, the daughter of Himavan (Himalaya mountains) and Mena. Being the daughter of Himavan earned her the name of Goddess Parvati. She is the Shakti and divine consort of Lord Shiva and resides with him on Mount Kailasa. Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva’s sons are Lord Skanda and Lord Vinayaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="20129" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-01-12T12:18:02.290" LastActivityDate="2021-01-12T12:18:02.290" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12085" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-12T16:22:34.413" Score="0" Body="Goddess Parvati is  the power and divine consort of Lord Shiva." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T08:26:55.197" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T08:26:55.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12086" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-12T16:24:08.390" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-12T16:24:08.390" LastActivityDate="2016-05-12T16:24:08.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12087" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-12T16:24:08.390" Score="0" Body="In Hinduism, the river Ganga is the most holy river, also revered in her form as a goddess. The Ganga flows through svarloka, Bhuvarloka, and the northern region of Bharatakhanda." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-09-11T15:58:57.543" LastActivityDate="2021-09-11T15:58:57.543" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12088" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12040" CreationDate="2016-05-12T16:57:57.387" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think Gods have been assigned their respective animals as vahanas to describe which quality or the ability that they posses. E.g., Surya deva rides on an horse-driven chariot. The qualities of Horse is linked with Surya-deva, i.e., being fast or quick etc., Vishnu has Garuda  as his vehicle because Garuda can fly very high and can get a bigger picture of earth. It can also fly great distances which indicates Vishnu deva travels great distances to maintain the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T06:46:18.910" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T06:46:18.910" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12089" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12083" CreationDate="2016-05-12T17:02:02.023" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Normally Surya changes it's position by 1 degree per day. As there are 30 degrees in a Rashi hence Surya changes it's Rashi in a month. Change in Surya Rashi also indicates change in Solar Month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;In Amavasya:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the day of Amavasya Surya and Chandra are in same Rashi. Also there comes a time when they come in exactly same degree. For eg. In Baisakh Surya is in Mesha Rashi. This means In the Amavasya of Baisakh Chandra will also be in Mesha Rashi. Due to this person who is born in Baisakh Amavasya have Mesha Rashi. And by the same method Surya is in Vrish, Mithun, Karkat.... and so on in the month Jestha, Ashad, Shrawan and so on. Hence in the Amavasya of these month Chandra is in these Rashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;In Purnima:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the day of Purnima Surya and Chandra are 180 degrees apart each other. ie. They are 6 Rashis apart each other. For eg. As Surya is in Mesha in Baisakh, in Baisakh Purnima Chandra will be in 6 Rashi after Mesha ie (Mesha + 6 Rashi apart ) = Tula Rashi.. In the same way for other months also Surya and Chandra are 180 degrees apart during Purnima.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Eclipse case:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is chance of lunar eclipse in every Poornima and solar eclipse in every Amavasya. But it doesn't happen.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;An eclipse does not happen at every new or full moon, because the plane of the orbit of the Moon around the Earth is tilted with respect to the plane of the orbit of the Earth around the Sun (the ecliptic): so as seen from the Earth, when the Moon is nearest to the Sun (new moon) or at largest distance (full moon), the three bodies usually are not exactly on the same line.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T07:05:53.750" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12090" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12091" CreationDate="2016-05-13T01:44:39.457" Score="3" ViewCount="342" Body="&lt;p&gt;In North India, I observe that my female colleagues wear bangles(and a lot of them) for some days after their marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have tried googling it, but haven't found much help from google. &lt;strong&gt;So, what exactly is the tradition called?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And also, is there any specific amount of time(days) for which they are supposed to wear the bangles?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3837" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T07:31:43.053" Title="What is the tradition of wearing bangles for some days after marriage?" Tags="|marriage|tradition|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12091" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12090" CreationDate="2016-05-13T07:31:43.053" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am posting the answer based on this &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Choora&amp;amp;oldid=685002574&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This tradition is known as &lt;strong&gt;Choora Ceremony&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Choorae (plural) may contain different coloured bangles in various combinations,&#xA;but the most common combination is red and white. The choora is worn by the bride&#xA;for 40 days from the day she puts it on and on the 40th day only her husband can&#xA;remove it for her.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T07:31:43.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12092" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12081" CreationDate="2016-05-13T08:50:56.403" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;You may find the birth of Vyasa In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk02ch05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Hearing this firm resolve of Bhîsma; the fisherman gave over his beautiful daughter&#xA;to the king S’antanu. Thus S’antanu married the dear Satyavatî; but he was quite&#xA;unaware of the wonderful birth of Vyâsa Deva.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Stayavati, mother of Vyasa was daughter of fisherman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Birth of Vidura can also be traced in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk02ch06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Thus S’antanu married Satyavatî; two sons were born to her and they died in course&#xA;of time. Out of Vyâsa Deva's semen, Dhritarâstra was born. Ambikâ Devî, the mother&#xA;of Dhritarâstra closed her eyes on seeing Veda Vyâsa; hence Dhritarâstra was born&#xA;blind. Seeing Dhritarâstra blind Satyavatî asked Vyâsa to go to Ambâlikâ (Pându's&#xA;mother); the princess Ambâlikâ, mother of Pându turned pale at the sight of Vyâsa;&#xA;hence her son became of a pale colour out of Vyâsa's wrath. Hence the name of the&#xA;son was Pându. Next the maid servant, expert in the science of amorous pleasures,&#xA;satisfied Vyâsa; hence her son Vidura was born of Dharma's part and became truthful&#xA;and holy.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mother of Vidura was a maid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T08:50:56.403" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12093" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-13T09:52:03.787" Score="3" ViewCount="192" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.siddhayoga.org/baba-muktananda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Swami Muktananda&lt;/a&gt;'s autobiography, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/556830.Play_of_Consciousness&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&quot;Play of Consciousness&quot;&lt;/a&gt; he refers to having visions of himself in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gurusofindia.org/gurus-wisdom?id=503&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;one short chapter&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I began to have a new experience. As the lights appeared in&#xA;  meditation, I would see myself sitting opposite, even when I opened my&#xA;  eyes. Sometimes, when I had been doing tasks before meditating, I&#xA;  would see myself doing them in meditation. If I had been wandering in&#xA;  the orange orchard, I would see myself strolling here and there. This&#xA;  was another source of wonder for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[...]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later, I learned from certain books on yoga that this is called “&#xA;  pratika-darshan ”, vision of one’s own form, and that it is a sign of&#xA;  complete purification of the body. My body was now very thin, but full&#xA;  of energy. I was still meditating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my searches on the Internet at least I've been unable to find any other book that talks about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'd appreciate help in finding more information on this phenomenon. Ideally the books on Yoga referred to by Swami Muktananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2979" LastActivityDate="2018-05-01T11:52:09.793" Title="Vision of one's own self or pratika darshan" Tags="|scripture|yoga|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12094" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12096" CreationDate="2016-05-13T13:57:55.393" Score="2" ViewCount="503" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question is simple. others find it duplicate but still it's unique in terms of meditations next level.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read that, for meditation, there are many different ways to stay focused.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g. focusing on breath, third eye, heart beat etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, while meditating I can't find anything like third eye or any part of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what's the base?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5244" LastEditorUserId="5244" LastEditDate="2016-05-14T07:34:07.643" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T07:34:07.643" Title="How to focus on third eye while meditating?" Tags="|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12095" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-13T14:09:28.153" Score="3" ViewCount="122" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard that Arjuna &amp;amp; Karna had various wars before the main war of Maharabharata and Arjuna won all the times. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did it happen? Because Karna was better warrior than Arjuna which was revealed by none other than Lord Shri Krishna after Kurukshetra war was over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the question is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did Arjuna defeat Karna easily?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Was Lord Shri Krishna with Arjuna at that time and did he help him while battling with Karna?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What exactly happened? Can I get answer in detail?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5625" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-14T06:45:57.000" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T06:45:57.000" Title="How did Karna lose all the battle against Arjuna?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|karna|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2016-05-14T07:34:05.410" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12096" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12094" CreationDate="2016-05-13T14:11:38.727" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;You do not focus in meditation. It is the exactly opposite of that. Meditation is not concentration, it is de-concentration. You just have to relax. Ofcourse, high energy is needed to be able to relax, hence it is preceded by Pranayama and Kriya Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q – What is Meditation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar – Many believe that meditation is concentration&#xA;  or that it takes a lot of effort. Meditation is not concentration. It&#xA;  is the opposite of concentration. If you have to drive anywhere, you&#xA;  need concentration. If you simply have to relax at home, there need&#xA;  not be any effort. You don’t need concentration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meditation is deep relaxation and no concentration. So, if thoughts&#xA;  come during meditation, we do not try to chase them. The more we chase&#xA;  them, the more they come. If you want to get rid of a thought, it will&#xA;  not be easy. It will come back in a stronger way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, we have another strategy. If bad thoughts come to us, we hug them,&#xA;  we shake hands with them. Then, they disappear. If good thoughts come,&#xA;  we give them a hug, then they become quiet. We do not try to stop any&#xA;  thoughts, it’s an effortless practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taken from: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/meditation/srisri-meditation/sound-to-silence&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/meditation/srisri-meditation/sound-to-silence&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was lucky to be introduced to meditation at the age of 17. I would recommend that rather than doing it on your own, you learn it from a proper teacher. There are many such good organisations teaching meditation - Art of Living foundation, Isha Yoga foundation etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps! :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T14:11:38.727" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12098" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-13T16:24:05.880" Score="6" ViewCount="2934" Body="&lt;p&gt;You may be familiar with God &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayyappan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ayyappa&lt;/a&gt;. He is also known as Manikanta. He is the main deity of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarimala&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sabarimala&lt;/a&gt; temple. He took the incarnation to kill the demon &lt;strong&gt;Mahishi&lt;/strong&gt; who is the sister of Mahishasura. She wants to take revenge of her brother's death and makes penance for Brahma. She gets the boon from Brahma that she could be killed by a child born with fusion of two males. Ayyappan is born by the fusion of Mohini incarnation of Vishnu and Shiva. Later he kills Mahishi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After thinking of this story, a few questions flashed in my mind. They are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Where was the mention of this demon Mahishi in puranas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How many times did Mahavishnu take the avatara as Jaganmohini?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In which yuga did the story of Ayyappa happen?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T04:18:28.900" Title="What is the story of Mahishi?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|puranas|ayyappa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12099" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-13T16:25:03.657" Score="2" ViewCount="201" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandogya_Upanishad#Structure&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; wiki article says that the Chandogya Upanishad discusses the possible ways of biological origins of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are these ways?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, which Shloka talks about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T16:33:42.130" Title="Biological origins of life - Chandogya Upanishad" Tags="|life|chandogya-upanishad|science|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12100" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12099" CreationDate="2016-05-13T16:28:09.403" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Chandogya Upansihada says that there are &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;three&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; possible biological origins of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/ChandogyaUpanishat.pdf&quot;&gt;Shloka 6.3.1&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेषां खल्वेषां भूतानां त्रीण्येव बीजानी भवन्त्याण्डजं&#xA;  जीवजमुद्भिज्जमिति  ।। ६ । ३ । १ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Translation of the Shloka, as found in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English#page/n323/mode/2up&quot;&gt;Chandogya Upanishad - Translated by Ganganath Jha&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verily, of these Beings there are only three origins - Born from Egg,&#xA;  Born from Living Being, and Born from Roots.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;em&gt;Beejam&lt;/em&gt; can refer to roots, seeds, grains etc., essentially talking about the plant kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T16:33:42.130" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T16:33:42.130" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12101" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6741" CreationDate="2016-05-13T17:41:19.243" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the &lt;em&gt;Kaala-Chakra&lt;/em&gt; (Wheel of Time) rotates, various changes happen. Different types of societies exist over different periods of time. Even within societies, different trends can be seen spatially. Hence, to generalize that women did not have any privileges earlier is a deeply faulted and biased notion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer the title question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Was Polyandry allowed prior to Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Yoga Vashishtha, the conversation between Sage Vashishtha and Bhusunda mentions polyandry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Vasishstha asked:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You enjoy such longevity as would suggest that you have attained final liberation! And, you are wise, brave and a great yogi. &lt;strong&gt;Pray, tell me what extra-ordinary events you remember, relating to this and the previous world-cycles.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhusunda narrates in details, a lot of events. I am mentioning the part relevant to this answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhusunda said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....During my lifetime I have seen the appearance and disappearance of&#xA;  countless Manu (the progenitor of Human race). At one time the world&#xA;  was devoid of the gods and demons, but was one radiant cosmic egg. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;At&#xA;  another time, the earth was populated by&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Brahmana who were addicted to&#xA;  alcohol, sudra who ridiculed the gods, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;and polyandrous women&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. I also&#xA;  remember another epoch when the earth was covered with forests, when&#xA;  the ocean could not even be imagined...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhusunda continues like this for quite a while. Although, I hope this answers your question! :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.estudantedavedanta.net/The-Supreme-Yoga-Swami-Venkatesananda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;www.estudantedavedanta.net/The-Supreme-Yoga-Swami-Venkatesananda.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shloka number: 6.1.21.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T17:41:19.243" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12102" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-13T17:57:51.377" Score="2" ViewCount="263" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yoga Vashishtha, is a conversation between &lt;em&gt;Maharishi Vashistha&lt;/em&gt; and Shri Rama. &lt;em&gt;Shri Rama&lt;/em&gt;, when young, comes to the palace back after travelling the country and is very despondent. Rishi Vashishtha gives him knowledge and the conversation happens on various topics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Yoga Vashishtha&lt;/em&gt; covers the mysterious topics of time, space, consciousness etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although, the question is: Are there any records on the evolution of Earth mentioned in the text?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T18:08:27.260" Title="Evolution of Earth - Yoga Vashishtha" Tags="|history|rama|vashishta|yoga-vashishtha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12103" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-13T18:00:44.447" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T18:00:44.447" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T18:00:44.447" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12104" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-13T18:00:44.447" Score="0" Body="Abhimanyu was the son of Arjuna and Subhadra. He was the nephew of Lord Krishna and was married to Uttara, the princess of Matsya Kingdom. He was an incarnation of Varchas, son of Chandra. Abhimanyu was killed on the 13th day of the Kurukshetra War." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T21:41:43.360" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T21:41:43.360" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12105" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12102" CreationDate="2016-05-13T18:00:44.983" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Yoga Vashishtha, the conversation between Sage Vashishtha and Bhusunda mentions how Earth evolved over time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sage Vasishstha asked:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You enjoy such longevity as would suggest that you have attained final&#xA;  liberation! And, you are wise, brave and a great yogi. &lt;strong&gt;Pray, tell me&#xA;  what extra-ordinary events you remember, relating to this and the&#xA;  previous world-cycles.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhusunda narrates such events in great details. I am mentioning only a part of the answer here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhusunda said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…I remember that once upon a time there was nothing on this Earth,&#xA;  neither trees and plants, nor even mountains. For a period of eleven&#xA;  thousand years the Earth was under lava… &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…[Later] apart from the polar region, the rest of the Earth was&#xA;  covered by water. And then forests enveloped the Earth, and great&#xA;  asuras (demons) ruled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then there arose great mountains, but without any human inhabitants.&#xA;  For a period of ten thousand years, the&#xA;  Earth was covered with the corpses of the asuras (daityas)…”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhusunda continues like this for quite a time, narrating more events. For more, read here:  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.estudantedavedanta.net/The-Supreme-Yoga-Swami-Venkatesananda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;www.estudantedavedanta.net/The-Supreme-Yoga-Swami-Venkatesananda.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shloka number: 6.1.21.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T18:08:27.260" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T18:08:27.260" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12106" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-13T18:33:18.333" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T18:33:18.333" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T18:33:18.333" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12107" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-13T18:33:18.333" Score="0" Body="Ghatotkacha is an important character in the Mahabharata. His name comes from his head, which was hairless (utkaca) and shaped like a ghatam. Ghatotkacha was the son of the Pandava Bhima and the Rakshasi Hidimbi. His maternal parentage made him half-Rakshasa and gave him many magical powers such as the ability to fly, to increase or decrease his size and to become invisible. He was an important fighter from the Pandava side in the Kurukshetra war." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-13T21:41:46.017" LastActivityDate="2016-05-13T21:41:46.017" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12109" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14616" CreationDate="2016-05-14T02:19:10.357" Score="11" ViewCount="874" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Khandana Khanda Khadya is a work by the 12th century Advaitin philosopher Shri Harsha which seeks to demonstrate that all supposed means of knowledge are invalid.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11001/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, in Hindu philosophy there are three main Pramanas or valid means of knowledge: Pratyaksha or sensory evidence, Anumana or reasoning, and Shabda or revelation/scripture.  This terminology was developed by the Nyaya school (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11118/36a&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6912/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and it's accepted by all schools of Hindu philosophy.  But Advaitins believe that these Pramanas are only valid in the perspective of someone still living under Maya.  So the purpose of Shri Harsha's work is to show that all these Pramanas are ultimately unreliable, as a means of demonstrating the Advaita view that the world is an illusion (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11190/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in &lt;a href=&quot;http://goo.gl/xufZuu?gdriveurl&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Khandana Khanda Khadya, Shri Harsha tries to refute the Nyaya school's view of cause and effect.  For those who don't know, the Nyaya school believed that something is a cause of a phenomenon if the appearance of the phenomenon requires that thing to exist.  So for instance, fire is the cause of smoke because if we see smoke, then we know that fire must exist.  But Shri Harsha, since he subscribed to the Advaita theory of Maya, believed the exact opposite: instead of the appearance of an effect being based on the existence of the cause, he thought the appearance of an effect is based on the &lt;em&gt;non-existence&lt;/em&gt; of the cause!  So for instance, he thought that the appearance of smoke was caused by non-existent fire, not existent fire (because he thought all fires were ultimately illusory).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, here is Shri Harsha's argument for why the cause of a phenomenon can never have real existence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Causal efficiency cannot belong to that which has real being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I. ‘If a cause be that into the nature of which real existence (sattā) enters as an essential element, then, for this very reason, the cause has no real being.' &lt;br&gt;&#xA;II. 'If, on the other hand, real being does not essentially enter into the nature of the cause, then, for this very reason, the cause has not real being.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning of this stanza is as follows:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I. &lt;strong&gt;If the nature of the cause be such that it implies as an essential element real existence, then to say that the generic character ‘real existence' (sattā) belongs to the cause would involve the absurdity of something (real existence) residing partially in itself (i. e. that real existence which goes to constitute the nature of the cause).&lt;/strong&gt; Even if the thing qualified by real existence (i.e. the cause with such existence as an essential element of itself) were considered as something different from real existence (sattā) (so that the said absurdity would not arise), we could not accept the sattā (in the latter sense, i. e. the sattā which is predicated of the cause) to be the same with the real being that enters into the nature of the cause; for it is a recognised principle that no more than a thing can reside in itself, can it reside in that of which it already is an essential attribute. It would therefore be necessary to assume another existence as residing in the cause qualified by existence ; and as this would mean that existence does not enter into the nature of the cause, the cause would have to be regarded as ‘not really existing.' And if, in order to avoid this, we were to assume a series of existences, one after the other, there would be no end of such assumptions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nor will you escape from this predicament by taking the long step of assuming an infinity of different kinds of real existence. For if you assume different kinds of real existence, you relinquish the very foundation on which the generic conception of ‘existence' rests, and hence lose the idea of even the first existence. Seeking to establish the notion of existence you thus have lost the basis of it, and are worse off than before! ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;II. Let us then consider the second alternative stated in para. 44, viz., that that which really is constitutes the cause, without ‘real being' entering into it as an essential element.—On this view, we point out, that which has no real being also may be a cause, since real being and non-being equally do not enter into the nature of the cause.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the logic of Shri Harsha's argument that the cause of a phenomenon cannot have real existence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He seems to find some kind of contradiction between the statement &amp;quot;The nature of the cause is such that it implies as an essential element real existence.&amp;quot; and the statement &amp;quot;The generic character ‘real existence' (sattā) belongs to the cause.&amp;quot;  But I can't seem to even tell the difference between the two statements, let alone see a contradiction between them.  What is the difference between saying that real existence is an essential element of the cause and saying that real existence belongs to the cause? To my mind, both of these statement are obviously true.  But Shri Harsha seems to believe that if both statements are true, that leads to a contradiction, and that if the first statement is false, then there is no compelling argument why the second statement must be true.  None of this makes much sense to me, so does anyone know of any commentaries which shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, what is the origin of the &amp;quot;If a cause be that into the nature of which ...&amp;quot; verse given in the beginning of the quotation?  Is that just a verse composed by Shri Harsha, or is he quoting some other work?  If he is quoting some other work, perhaps that work might clarify the logic of his argument.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2024-01-10T08:35:40.297" Title="What is the Advaita argument for why causes can't have real existence?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|advaita|maya|nyaya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12111" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10274" CreationDate="2016-05-14T05:09:44.147" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The tilak is adorned by male satsangis on four parts of their body using Gopichandan (a yellow paste sanctified by the Gopis, which is found on the banks of the Lake Gopi in Dwarika). It is impressed on the forehead, chest and both the upper arms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The forehead is the symbol of knowledge. The soul resides inside the heart. Almighty God Supreme resides in the soul, it is for this reason that a tilak is made on the chest.  Our strength is characterised by the arms, thereby applying tilak on the arms utilises our strength in performing good deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The benefit of having a tilak mark is of very great value. It protects you from worldly bondage, whilst maintaining the body as holy as the temple of God. It destroys any sins committed during the day. With out it, acts such as reciting the name of God, performing sacrificial fire and the study of scriptures are not accepted by God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5631" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T05:09:44.147" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12120" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-14T06:09:40.770" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-14T06:09:40.770" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T06:09:40.770" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12121" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-14T06:09:40.770" Score="0" Body="Vaisheshika Sutra is the most prominent text of the Vaisheshika school of thought, one of the Shat Darshanas in Hinduism. This was written by Maharishi Kanada." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-14T14:25:11.817" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T14:25:11.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12124" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12131" CreationDate="2016-05-14T06:38:23.587" Score="5" ViewCount="11451" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shri &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.journalofastrology.com/article.php?article_id=241&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bangalore Venkata Raman&lt;/a&gt; in his book &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore_Venkata_Raman#Books&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Predictive Astrology&lt;/a&gt; briefly mentions three types of Rashis - Sirodaya, Prushtodaya and Ubhayodaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are these Rashis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More importantly, where do these concepts find application?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2022-09-10T15:20:16.913" Title="Rashi in Jyotisha - Sirodaya, Prushtodaya and Ubhayodaya" Tags="|astrology|rashi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12125" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-14T08:17:45.760" Score="6" ViewCount="1131" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Vedas or Gita does the Antim sanskar last 3 days, 13 days or one day? Is there any written instructions in any veda or the Gita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5643" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-05T02:41:29.847" LastActivityDate="2020-09-21T12:08:15.797" Title="According to the Vedas The Antim sanskar should it be 13 days or 3 days or one day?" Tags="|vedas|rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12126" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-14T08:54:50.547" Score="6" ViewCount="1859" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ram Raksha Stotra (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Raksha_Stotra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;श्रीरामरक्षास्तोत्रम्&lt;/a&gt;) is a Sanskrit stotra, hymn of praise, used as a prayer for protection to Lord Rama. This stotra is Written by &lt;code&gt;Budha Kaushika&lt;/code&gt; Rishi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8911/who-was-budha-kaushika&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; Question, there is not a lot of information about Budha Kaushika Rishi like his date of birth and when he created Ram Raksha Stotra &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://joyfulslokas.blogspot.in/2010/09/shiva-raksha-stotram.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Raksha stotra&lt;/a&gt;, It is a Sanskrit stotra, hymn of praise, used as a prayer for protection to Lord Shiva. This stotra is Written by &lt;code&gt;Yagnavalkya&lt;/code&gt; Rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one reads these 2 stotra, both are &lt;strong&gt;almost identical&lt;/strong&gt; to each other in terms of its format because in each of this stotra, we are asking Rama and Shiva to protect different parts of our body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, deity is different but there are other similarities too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's consider below instance, from Shiva Raksha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इमां नारायणः स्वप्ने शिवरक्षां यथाऽऽदिशत् । प्रातरुत्थाय योगीन्द्रो&#xA;  याज्ञवल्क्यः तथाऽलिखत् ॥१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For this protection of Lord Shiva was revealed, By Lord Vishnu in the&#xA;  dream to Yagna Valkya, Who wrote it, as he was told, as soon as he&#xA;  woke up in the morning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And this Instance from Ram Raksha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आदिष्टवान् यथा स्वप्ने रामरक्षामिमां हर: । तथा लिखितवान् प्रात:&#xA;  प्रबुद्धो बुधकौशिक: ॥१५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This protective hymn of Rama, as told by Shiva (Hara) in the dream ।&#xA;  Was written down (as told) by the enlightened (by Shiva's visitation)&#xA;  Budhakoushika in the morning (upon waking up) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Above, even the seed of origin of these 2 stotra appears so much similar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Question&lt;/strong&gt;: Which out of Ram Raksha or Shiva Raksha is written first? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I guess if we can get the life duration of it's Author(like who was older between Budha Kaushika Rishi or Yagnavalkya Rishi) then we can probably say which one is composed first, but unfortunately I could not found much life info about these 2 Author Rushis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T15:46:46.833" Title="Ram Raksha or Shiva Raksha : Which one was written first?" Tags="|shiva|rama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12128" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-14T11:21:22.957" Score="4" ViewCount="851" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I understand, &lt;em&gt;yogini&lt;/em&gt; simply refers to a female yogi or a female rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are &lt;em&gt;yoginis&lt;/em&gt; according to Hindu scriptures?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devdutt Pattnaik, one of the populist writers on Hinduism, in his book &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=xolzAwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA65&amp;amp;lpg=PA65&amp;amp;dq=yoginis%20%22wild%20erotic%20creatures%22&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=T_WdXrzIiw&amp;amp;sig=JIljSSKXVxeEhrvoM5U8Urn01YI&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiEyY2Gt9nMAhXCu48KHZsmAcgQ6AEINjAF#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=yoginis%20%22wild%20erotic%20creatures%22&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indian Mythology: Tales, Symbols, and Rituals from the Heart of the Subcontinent&lt;/a&gt; mentions this &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;yoginis&lt;/em&gt; of Hinduism, who are handmaidens of the Goddess and are&#xA;  wild erotic creatures, recall the witches' coven of the Christian&#xA;  mythosphere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am pretty sure, it does not refer to wild erotic creatures. Although, I would like to gather more information before I counter this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any truth in what Mr Pattnaik says?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-26T21:40:10.390" LastActivityDate="2016-11-26T21:40:10.390" Title="Are Yoginis wild erotic creatures? Is there any truth in it?" Tags="|rishi|women|sex|devi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12130" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10150" CreationDate="2016-05-14T12:30:10.040" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer this question you have to travel back up-to the start of the clan yadav and puru. &#xA;Yayati the father of Yadu (father of yadav clan) and Puru (father of puru clan) asked their children to exchange their youth with him. Yadu refused to do that and said you already have lived your youth so doing that will be against my dharma. While Puru being obedient agreed to exchange his youth with his father. Thus Yayati cursed Yadu that he or any of his descendants will never become a king. To prove this curse as wrongly given; also indian mythology says that disobeying elders on right terms(DHARMA) is not wrong, Lord Krishna gave rebirth to Parixita (from yadu clan) and he became one of the greatest kings of all time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5647" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T12:30:10.040" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12131" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12124" CreationDate="2016-05-14T13:16:29.577" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the name implies::&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;शिरोदय = शिर + उदय = Head + Rising:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ie. Those Rashis which rise through their head part while rising are Sheerodaya Rashi. Head and hind part of Rashi can be separated because Rashis are specific constellation having specific pattern of animals or object. ie. When they rise at east when head part is seen first while rising then they are called Sheerodaya Rashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sheerodaya Rashi are: Mithun (Gemini), Simha (Leo), Kanya (Virgo), Tula (Libra), Vrishchik (Scorpio), Kumbha (Aquarius).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;पृष्ठोदय = पृष्ठ + उदय = Hind + Rising::&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ie  Those Rashi which rise through their back part while rising are called Pristhodaya Rashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pristhodaya Rashi are: Mesha (Aries), Vrish (Taurus), Karkat (Cancer), Dhanu (Saggitarus), Makara (Capricorn).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;उभयोदय = उभय + उदय = Both + Rising&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ie. Those Rashis which rise from their both head and hind part are called Ubhayodaya Rashi. Pisces is the Ubhayodaya Rashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Application:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The application of Sheersodaya, Pristhodaya and Ubhayodaya Rashi are useful in finding Rashi Bala (Power of Rashi) and Dasha Bala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rashi Bala:&lt;/strong&gt; Ubahayodaya Rashi are powerful at both day and night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pristhodaya Rashi along with Gemini are powerful at night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sheershodaya Rashi: Powerful at day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above method to determine Rashi bala( potency of Rashi) is only one of the many methods to determine Rashi Bala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dasha Bhuktani:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;During the period of planets ie. Dasha if the planet is situated at Seershodaya Rashi then it gives more fruits especially in first half of Dasha, if Pristhodaya then it gives more fruits especially in last half of Dasha, if Ubhayodaya gives fruit throught the Dasha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But again this is only one of the aspect among many other aspects to determine Dasha Bhuktani Period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T13:25:41.247" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12133" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4146" CreationDate="2016-05-14T15:33:46.447" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The oldest calendar I found in a panchangam published by a Sanskrit University for this year(2016) is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kalpadergatabda: 1972949117 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shristyadergatabda: 1955885117 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kalergatabda: 5117 &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Saksamvatsar: 1938 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ishaviyasamvatsar: 2016-2017 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vikram samvatsar: 2073 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, &#xA;Kalergatabda means from beginning of Kali age and it gives present year as 5117.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kalpadergatabda means from beginning of Kalpa and it gives present year as 1972949117. I don't know how it calculated such a precise value.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shristyadergatabda means beginning of Shristi(Creation) in the Kalpa and it gives 1955885117 as present year. One may wonder why Shristyadergatabda isn't calculated from 1st day of Brahma, it is because creatures are in seed form in night of Brahma, so the continuation of calendar can't take place when calculated from 1st day of Brahma as worlds are destroyed in Kalpantak pralaya.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Here, the interesting thing to observe is Kalpadergatabda is 1972949117 and Shristyadergatabda is 1955885117.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we subtract: 1972949117-1955885117=17064000&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This implies creation occured about 17 million years after starting of this Kalpa.&lt;/strong&gt; We have stories that Brahma created after some time when earth was created because earth was taken by Hiranyaksha in water at beginning. But I don't know how it calculated this time elapse as 17 million and  64 thousands years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence &lt;strong&gt;Kalpadergatabda is the oldest Calendar.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;_______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;For your another question use of calendar in our scripture. We don't find change in our calendar system because they were calculated by Trikaldarshi Sages and hence are eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Years were calculated from both Lunar basis and Solar basis. This is evident from these verses of Valmiki Ramayana as you can see in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11437/why-was-lord-rama-born-on-the-9th-tithi-and-lord-krishna-on-the-8th-tithi/11440#11440&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;As you can see there ninth day of bright fortnight is also there which is a lunar basis and Sun in Aries is also there which is a solar basis.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also as you know Bhishma Pitamaha left his body in Makar Sankranti (when Sun is in Capricorn) which is solar basis and tithis are frequently used in Mahabharat which is Lunar basis. You can see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3132/why-does-makar-sankranti-follow-english-calendar/11996#11996&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;_______________________________________&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus both solar and lunar sytem were used. &#xA;&lt;em&gt;But solar year is 365 days and Lunar year is 29.5×12=354 days. Thus in 3 years Solar year becomes 3×365=1095 days and in 3 years Lunar year becomes 3×354=1062 days. The difference is 33 days. Thus there is 1 month more in Solar year in 3 years.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But for the synchronization of Luni-Solar calendar that specific month is termed as Adhikamasa and in this way Lunar and Solar calendar were continuously adjusted and it is done till now too.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Itihasas(scripture) doesn't directly speak about 7 days of week but as you can see in that verse of Valmiki Ramayana where all 7 planets are discussed. So days of week could easily be calculated. Days are just named on the basis of ruling planet at sunrise.&#xA;For eg. If the ruling planet during Sunrise is Moon than that day is Monday, if Saturn then that day is Saturday, if sun that day is Sunday, if Mars that day is Tuesday and so on. So the days of week are just representation of which planet ruled at sunrise at that day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In this way our calendar systems were eternal.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T15:39:52.400" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12134" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10774" CreationDate="2016-05-14T17:30:27.950" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't think Goddess Manasa(মনসা) lives in bengal! because she is a goddess.God or Goddess don't live in earth. you might know goddess Manasa has 12 major names, one of them is Vaishnavi. though Surasa is the name of kashyap muni's wife one of the dahsha putriee. Goddess Manasa is also called Surasa. such like Padmavati is the name of goddess Lakshmi, but Goddess Manasa is also called Padma or Padmavati too. Manasa devi is a form of Shakti.as mata saraswati is power of knowledge, mata Lakshmi is power of wealth, mata parvati is power of stamina or kriya shakti. same to same Mata Manasa devi is the power of will that means ishsha shakti or chinta shakti. In Adya strotram it is said that,  adi parashakti lives in nether world in the form of vaishnavi.and she lives in manidweepam in the form of Surasa.  so it is clear that Mata Manasa devi maybe  lives in manidweepam or she lives in nether world ( patal lok). By the way, goddess Manasa is not a just bengali devi! She is also worshiped entire Indian subcontinent in many forms,,,,, such south Indian people worship her by the names Karumariamman( Not Mariamman), Nagathamman,Nagamma, Nageswari amman etc.&#xA;so i think You got your answer my friend  :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5648" LastEditorUserId="5648" LastEditDate="2016-05-14T17:48:07.307" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T17:48:07.307" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12135" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-14T21:35:42.500" Score="2" ViewCount="53" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a saying in hindi &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bacche bhagwan ka roop hote hai&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;literally meaning &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kids are incarnation or manifestation of Bramhan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Bhagwan is used to refer Bramahan or the Ishta devta (for Smartha people).&#xA;So this means that it is just a saying derived from the happy and blissful nature of kids(since bramhan is Sat-chit-Ananda) or it has a scriptural basis?.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2016-05-14T21:35:42.500" Title="Are infants and small children really manifestation of Bramhan" Tags="|scripture|life|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12137" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-15T07:40:51.203" Score="17" ViewCount="1116" Body="&lt;p&gt;Below is the passage from Shanti Parva of Mahabharat in the chapter 320. It describes how Suka (the son of Veda Vyas) attained moksha. When Suka through his power of Yoga goes in position of attaining moksha, Vyas is grieving for his son and following him through the path of subtle Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Adopting the subtle path of high Yoga, Vyasa of austere penances, reached within the twinkling of the eye that spot whence Suka first undertook his journey. Proceeding along the same way, Vyasa beheld the mountain summit rent in twain and through which Suka has passed. Encountering the Island-born ascetic, the Rishis began to represent to him the achievements of his son. Vyasa, however, began to indulge in lamentations, loudly calling upon his son by name and causing the three worlds to resound with the noise he made. &lt;strong&gt;Meanwhile, the righteous-souled Suka, who had entered the elements, had become their soul and acquired omnipresence, answered his sire by uttering the monosyllable Bho in the form of an echo. At this, the entire universe of mobile and immobile creatures, uttering the monosyllable Bho, echoed the answer of Suka.&lt;/strong&gt; From that time to this, when sounds are uttered in mountain-caves or on mountain-breasts, the latter, as if in answer to Suka still echo them (with the monosyllable Bho). Having cast off all the attributes of sound, etc., and showing his Yoga-prowess in the manner of his disappearance, Suka in this way attained to the highest station.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As one can read in the above passage it clearly says, &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;'the righteous-souled Suka, who had entered the elements, had become their soul and acquired omnipresence'&lt;/strong&gt;. Becoming the self of anything and gaining omnipresence everywhere is not possible for Jeeva in Dvaita and Vishistadvaita philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Also I think it is not logical to say that it is referring Antaryami of Vishnu (which Vishistadvaitins commonly  do) for explaining omnipresence as it clearly says his soul after entering elements gained omnipresence and not only that entire universe echoed his voice when he replied to Vyasa which also clearly shows he became self of all after becoming one with Brahman/after attaining moksha.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For the Advaita philosophy, this passage is just like the explanation of Advaita philosophy. As it clearly shows soul is Brahman as it became self of all when it comes out from veil of Maya/attains moksha.&lt;/strong&gt; For me this passage is also the explanation of this Shruti verse of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11874/how-do-dvaitins-interpret-this-verse-of-brihadaranyaka-upanishad&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; ie. it says &quot;.... &#xA;Even the gods cannot prevail against him, for he becomes their self...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As, some have pointed it out, it is not Advaita philosophy (In case) then well, It's then Advait philosophy of Kashmiri Shaivism where in ShivvyApti whole universe becomes one's own body because of merging into Shiva. As Spanda Karika says this &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as all knowability, etc., in respect of the body occurs when it is pervaded by that spanda principle, even so when the yogi is established in his essential Self, he will have &lt;strong&gt;omniscience, omnipresence etc. everywhere.&lt;/strong&gt; verse 7.(3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, as you can see in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/22079/what-is-the-size-of-the-soul-according-to-the-different-astika-schools/22080#22080&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer these dualistic &amp;amp; semi dualistic philosophies don't believe in omnipresence of AtmA. So, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have any commentators/propounders of Dvaita and Vishistadvaita philosophy interpreted/commented on  these verses of Mahabharat ? How can these things be interpreted by Dvaitins and Vishistadvaitins ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-11-26T14:56:40.997" LastActivityDate="2021-02-04T16:54:51.457" Title="How do Dvaitins and Vishistadvaitins interpret this passage of Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|vedanta|advaita|vishishtadvaita|dvaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12138" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="694" CreationDate="2016-05-15T08:36:02.507" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As a chariot of war, &quot;Kapi Dhwaja&quot; was certainly a quadriga (drawn by 4 horses).&#xA;At that time, chariot of war where build for fast movement and efficiency. Therefore, it was probably build to be light in weight, which also implies 2 wheels only (instead of 4).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said that, we have to consider that every elements is symbolic. Some say 5 horses, because they represent our 5 senses that needs to be controlled. Some say 4 horses, because they represent our 4 basic emotions (i.e.: fear, joy, anger and sadness) that needs to be controlled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are controlled, by Krishna which represents &quot;knowledge/wisdom&quot; or &quot;gnosis&quot; as the &quot;solar logos&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5653" LastActivityDate="2016-05-15T08:36:02.507" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12139" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-15T09:46:58.370" Score="0" ViewCount="555" Body="&lt;p&gt;The major problem in India is caste system . What is hindu scriptures stands on caste system ? Does hindu scriptures support or forbid caste system ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5416" LastActivityDate="2016-05-15T10:38:26.403" Title="What does hindu scriptures say about caste system?" Tags="|scripture|caste-system|gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-05-16T03:29:07.073" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12140" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12139" CreationDate="2016-05-15T10:38:26.403" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The present caste system as it exists today is a colonial reformulation that the British created to further their colonial rule and this caste system has no religious basis in Varna concept expounded in Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please read this essay wherein I have elaborated on this-&quot;Does 'Varna' provide a religious basis for the present Caste System&quot;- &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.academia.edu/25109071/Does_Varna_provide_a_religious_basis_for_the_present_Caste_System&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.academia.edu/25109071/Does_Varna_provide_a_religious_basis_for_the_present_Caste_System&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2016-05-15T10:38:26.403" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12141" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-15T10:47:51.760" Score="4" ViewCount="1373" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I am aware of the Ritu Samskara performed at the onset of menstruation of a girl is usually depended on various local traditions and one may not find any details about it in smritis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet, I would like the learned members to share-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If any secondary literature gives any details about the ritual.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Any details about in which different regions of India it is celebrated and how it is celebrated there. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anecdotal explanations will be appreciated as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-30T09:57:44.500" LastActivityDate="2017-12-09T21:35:24.087" Title="Can anybody share details about Ritu Samskara?" Tags="|rituals|practice|smriti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12142" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-15T12:08:56.690" Score="3" ViewCount="329" Body="&lt;p&gt;How do astrologers writes a Horoscope of new born child? Can they be accurate in determining one's life partner or destiny?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2018-11-20T21:55:36.850" LastActivityDate="2018-11-20T21:55:36.850" Title="How Horoscopes (Jataka) are written?" Tags="|belief|scripture|tradition|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12143" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-15T12:14:33.407" Score="3" ViewCount="140" Body="&lt;p&gt;How are daily horoscopes written and published in newspapers and magazines? Can they be same for people under one zodiac sign (i.e &lt;em&gt;rashi&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-11-20T21:21:05.480" LastActivityDate="2018-11-20T21:21:05.480" Title="How are Daily Horoscopes Written?" Tags="|astrology|tradition|horoscopes|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12144" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-15T12:17:21.137" Score="2" ViewCount="589" Body="&lt;p&gt;When my grandfather passed away, my family did not pray for 11 days till the 11th day ceremony. Also we were vegetarian during that period. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I asked my family but I did not get a convincing answer. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why should we be vegetarian these days?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why we should not pray these days?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5416" LastEditorUserId="12071" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T12:06:23.650" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T12:06:23.650" Title="Why after the death of a family member or a close relatives they won't pray till the 11th day ceremony?" Tags="|rituals|death|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12145" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-15T14:57:54.303" Score="3" ViewCount="307" Body="&lt;p&gt;Celibacy is considered as one of the greatest virtues of a student seeking knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the methods proposed by Hindu scriptures, by which a student can keep his/her celibacy or practice of abstinence intact, in this new age?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4441" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-28T06:03:36.170" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T06:57:09.797" Title="Celibacy - Methods proposed by scriptures for a student" Tags="|scripture|dharma|brahmacharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12146" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12158" CreationDate="2016-05-15T15:28:53.317" Score="4" ViewCount="631" Body="&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt; article on Rig Veda says that there are 4,32,000 syllables in all the shlokas combined. It also says that the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatapatha_Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana&lt;/a&gt; of the Yajur Veda mentions this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where is this mentioned? Did they actually count the total number of syllables?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-28T11:48:01.507" LastActivityDate="2016-08-15T11:20:08.823" Title="The number of syllables in the Rig Veda - 4,32,000" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|yajur-veda|shatapatha-brahmana|numbers|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12147" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-15T16:40:55.577" Score="4" ViewCount="311" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shulba_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sulba Sutras&lt;/a&gt; are texts belonging to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Arauta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srauta&lt;/a&gt; ritual (based on &lt;em&gt;Sruti&lt;/em&gt;) containing geometry of &lt;em&gt;Yagna&lt;/em&gt; related constructions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where can I find an online version of the Sulba Sutras by Baudhayana? By original, I mean the Sanskrit Shlokas should be there. Translation is not a requisite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-06-30T05:35:37.313" LastActivityDate="2019-06-30T05:53:42.427" Title="Online version of Sulba Sutras by Baudhayana" Tags="|resource|sruti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12148" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12145" CreationDate="2016-05-15T16:43:39.880" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;8 things to avoid in order to maintain strict brahmacharya by Sridhara Swami - &lt;a href=&quot;http://selfdefinition.org/celibacy/quotes/sridhar-swami-eight-aspects-of-brahmacharya.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://selfdefinition.org/celibacy/quotes/sridhar-swami-eight-aspects-of-brahmacharya.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also greatly helps if you avoid rajasic/tamasic foods - meat, liquor, onion &amp;amp; garlic - because they stimulate nerves &amp;amp; sexual desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2016-05-15T16:43:39.880" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12149" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12157" CreationDate="2016-05-15T17:57:30.070" Score="4" ViewCount="194" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.shunya.net/shunyas_blog/2007/10/its-all-in-the-.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; article mentions an excerpt from A.L. Basham's book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/606352.A_Cultural_History_of_India&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;A Cultural History of India&lt;/a&gt;. The excerpt goes on to give a lot of examples about mathematics in the Vedas. I am mentioning the relevant part&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Of particular interest is the Satapatha Brahmana, which lists all&#xA;  the factors of 720 as far as 24...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this is true, this indicates a knowledge of divisbility of numbers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where is such a list mentioned in the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was this purely a mathematical endeavour? Or, was there some other reason behind this? e.g. in the Sulba Sutras, geometry was studied to do construction for the &lt;em&gt;Yagyas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-06-15T11:02:17.107" Title="Knowledge of divisibility of numbers in the Vedas - Shatapatha Brahmana" Tags="|vedas|yajur-veda|shatapatha-brahmana|mathematics|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12150" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-15T18:29:48.563" Score="8" ViewCount="37863" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/4vedasanskrit.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; page mentions all the Sanskrit Shlokas of the Rig Veda. Here is the very first one&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अग्निमीळे पुरोहितं यज्ञस्य देवमृत्विजम् । होतारं रत्नधातमम् १&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I tried looking for translations by an Indian author, with no avail. The most prominent translation is by a guy called Ralph Griffith (the one on the sacred-texts website) which for a lack of better words 'sucks thoroughly'. (The Sanskrit Shloka mentioned on this site also has mistakes)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can figure out that it starts with invoking Agni (which I was surprised to find). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, does anyone have a proper translation for the Shloka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-26T07:19:50.777" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T07:56:18.683" Title="Translation of the very first Mantra of the Rig Veda" Tags="|mantras|translation-request|rig-veda|agni|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12151" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-15T18:42:13.133" Score="8" ViewCount="3263" Body="&lt;p&gt;To extend my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12150/translation-of-the-very-first-shloka-of-the-rig-veda&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I am looking for a translation of the Rig Veda by an Indian author. A translation either in English or Hindi would do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigVedaInHindi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;one&lt;/a&gt; in Hindi by Ramgovind Trivedi, but it is not that great either.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2020-06-13T16:26:52.437" Title="Translation of Rig Veda by an Indian author" Tags="|rig-veda|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12152" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="276" CreationDate="2016-05-15T20:37:46.107" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Rama did exile Sita. This story is narrated in the Uttara Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason for the exile can be traced to this particular conversation Rama has with one of his counselors, Bhadra, who upon Rama's request gives an account of both good and bad things the people of Ayodhya generally speak of his actions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing the words of Bhadra, Rāma said :– &amp;quot;Without hiding anything, do&#xA;you relate everything from the beginning vent to by the citizens.&#xA;Hearing the good and bad opinions of the citizens I shall desist from&#xA;bad actions and engage in good ones.&amp;quot;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hear, O king, I shall relate to you all those unpleasant things frequently dwelt upon by people in court-yards, markets, public roads, forests and gardens...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rāvana did forcibly place Sitā on her lap; how can then Rāma enjoy&#xA;delight in her company?&lt;/strong&gt; Having taken her to the city of Lankä, Rāvana&#xA;did keep her in the Aśoka forest and Sitā was brought under the&#xA;control of Ráksasas. Still Rāma has not been worked up with hatred by&#xA;Sitā. &lt;strong&gt;From now we shall also brook the bad conduct of our wives — for&#xA;the subjects always tread the footsteps of their King.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/29169/9f_chapter_43.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttara Kanda, Chapter 43&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hearing those words, Rama contemplates and then later explaining his reasons instructs Lakshmana to leave Sita at Valmiki's ashram:&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hear, what the citizens have been talking about me and Sītā. The citizens as well as the inhabitants of provinces have been showering censures upon me...you know how in the solitary forest of Dandaka, Sitā was stolen away by Rāvana and how have I slain him. At that time even I was stricken with anxiety regarding Sītā that how I could take her home since she had resided in the house of the Rākşasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To secure my confidence, Sitā, in your very presence, entered fire. At that time, O Saumitri, fire, carrying sacrificial oblations and the wind of the sky declared Sītā’s innocence before the celestials. in the presence of all the Rsis and Do you, O Laksmana, next morning Indra, the king of the celestials, himself handed over the chaste Sitä to me in the island of Lańkā. &lt;strong&gt;My mind know Sītā as chaste for ever.&lt;/strong&gt; So, at that time, I came back to Ayodhyá with Sītā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now a great sorrow consequent upon the censure of the citizens and villagers has pierced my heart. He, who is notorious on this earth and as long as that notoriety remains current, is classed among the vile. Even the celestials speak ill of bad name — whereas fame is adored in all the regions. Therefore the high-souled exert their best to acquire reputations. O foremost of men, what to speak of the daughter of Janaka — &lt;strong&gt;I can even renounce my life and yourselves in fear of a bad name.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do you therefore perceive into what great abyss of sorrow and ill-fame I have fallen. Up to this time I have never experienced such a mighty grief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ascending the car driven by Sumantra, take away SItă to another country.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;There is a picturesque hermitage of the high-souled Vălmîki situated on the Tamasă on the other side of the river Gangå. Do you, O delight of Raghus, soon come back, leaving behind Sītā in that lonely place.&lt;/strong&gt; Do you carry out my words. Do you not speak anything regarding Sītā's banishment...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ere this Sītā had communicated her intention of beholding the hermitages of ascetics on the banks of the Gañgå. Let that desire of hers be now satisfied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While saying this, the eyes of the virtuous-souled Rāma were covered with tears. Sighing hard like to an elephant, he, with a heart stricken with grief, departed to his own quarter in the company of his brothers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/29183/9f_chapter_45.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttara Kanda, Chapter 45&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Towards the end of Ramayana, Rama does make one last attempt to prove Sita's chastity in front of everyone with the help of Valmiki's attestation:&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And understanding from the story that Kuša and Lava were Jānaki's sons, Rāma mentioning her name said before the assembly:- &lt;strong&gt;Send a good emissary to the illustrious Välmiki and let him communicate to the ascetics that if Jānaki is sinless and has lead a pure life in the forest; let her give proof of purity by the great ascetic’s permission.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let the emissaries learn well the intention of the ascetic in this and if SItā is at heart willing to bring in proofs. To uphold her as well as mine purity, let Maithili, the daughter of Janaka, swear before the assembly in the morning of the next day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing the words of Rāma, messengers went to Vālmīki and saluting the high-souled (ascetic) burning in his effulgence and of incomparable lustre, communicated to him, in sweet words all what Rāma had said. &lt;strong&gt;Hearing the words of the messengers and understanding Rāma’s intention the ascetic said. What Rāma has said shall be satisfied. May good betide you. Husband is the greatest god for women. So Sita shall carry out his behests.&lt;/strong&gt; The great ascetic having said this, the highly powerful emissaries, approaching Räma, communicated to him what the Muni had said. Hearing the words of the high-souled Vālmīki, Rāma was greatly delighted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/29231/9f_chapter_95.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttara Kanda, Chapter 95&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next morning, Valmiki testifies before Rama's assembly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There upon having entered that huge assemblage in company of Sitā, the&#xA;great ascetic Vālmīki addressed Rāma, saying: O son of Dašaratha, in&#xA;fear of calumny, you did renounce her near my hermitage, albeit Sitā&#xA;is pure and follows the ways of morality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Rāma of firm vows, you are afraid of the censure of the people. SItā&#xA;has becoming willing to give testimony (of her purity) for removing&#xA;the calumny of the public; do you mercifully give her permission in&#xA;this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I tell you the truth, O Rāma, that these irrepressible twin brothers&#xA;are your sons, O descendant of Raghu. I am the tenth son of Pracetă,&#xA;so, far from speaking untruth it does not even spring up in my mind. I&#xA;therefore know the truth that these twins are your sons. I have&#xA;performed austere penances for many thousand years; I now swear before&#xA;you, that if this Maithili is found touched by any sin I shall not&#xA;reap the fruit of my ascetic observances extending over many thousand&#xA;years.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have never perpetrated before a crime either, in my mind, body, or&#xA;speech. If Maithili is found divested of sin I may then partake of the&#xA;fruits of piety.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O descendant of Raghu, finding Sītā pure in mind and five elements of&#xA;body I took her near the spring in the forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides this Sītā, of pure ways, divested of sins and ever considering&#xA;her husband as deity, shall give testimony this day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have been afraid of the public calumny. O Son of a king, your mind&#xA;being possessed by the fear of public scandal regarding her husband as&#xA;a god; I came to know this by virtue of my discriminative knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/29232/9f_chapter_96.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttara Kanda, Chapter 96&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama then accepting Kusa and Lava as his sons, apologizes to Valmiki:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Brähmana, vilification of the people is very powerful. Although I know that Jānaki has not been touched by any sin still I have renounced her. Do you therefore forgive me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that these twin brothers Kuša and Lava are my sons. Yet if Jānaki gives evidence of her own purity before the assembly I shall be greatly satisfied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/29235/9f_chapter_97.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttara Kanda, Chapter 97&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now although Sita testifies as Rama wanted, the result is not what he had expected because as part of her testimony, Sita is also praying for her mother Vasundharā ([Bhū-Devī][6]) to take her back.&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereupon beholding all people assembled there, Janaka's daughter,&#xA;wearing a red cloth, with her face and looks downwards and folded&#xA;palms said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have never thought of any other person in my mind but&#xA;Rāma, by the strength of this virtue let the goddess Vasundharā give&#xA;me room.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have always with my mind, body and words prayed for Rāma's&#xA;well-being and by virtue hereof may the goddess Vasundharā give me&#xA;room in her womb.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have never thought for other than Rāma. If it is true, may the&#xA;goddess Vasundharā give me room in her womb.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As soon as Sītā swore in this wise a wonderful incident took place.&#xA;From inside the earth a celestial and excellent throne rose up. It was&#xA;carried on head by the Nāgas of unmitigated prowess, having celestial&#xA;persons and adorned with celestial jewels and ornaments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Having stretched out her arms and taken Maithili, the goddess earth&#xA;welcomed her and placed her on the throne. And while seated on the&#xA;throne she was entering the earth, she was covered with the continued&#xA;showers of celestial flowers&lt;/strong&gt;...Beholding Sitā's censure thus removed all&#xA;animals, animate or inanimate, either on earth or in the sky, were&#xA;greatly delighted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/29235/9f_chapter_97.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttara Kanda, Chapter 97&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T11:56:49.620" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12153" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-16T01:05:05.223" Score="3" ViewCount="3047" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1217.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Satapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda describes how the ancient king Videha Madhava founded the kingdom of Videha, the kingdom that  Sita's father Janaka later ruled.  Once Videha Madhava had Agni the fire god inside his mouth, and he didn't want to speak for fear of letting him out.  But the sage Gautama, who was the guru of Videha Madhava, knowing that Agni was there kept reciting Vedic hymns in praise of Agni, and that triggered Agni to come out and create a massive fire that spread east from the Saraswati river until it reached the Sadanira river:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Mâthava, the (king of) Videgha, carried Agni Vaisvânara in his mouth. The Rishi Gotama Râhûgana was his family priest. When addressed (by the latter), he made no answer to him, fearing lest Agni might fall from his mouth. He (the priest) began to invoke the latter with verses of the Rig-veda, 'We kindle thee at the sacrifice, O wise Agni, thee the radiant, the mighty caller to the sacrificial feast (Rig-veda V, 26, 3)!--O Videgha!' He (the king) did not answer. (The priest went on), 'Upwards, O Agni, dart thy brilliant, shining rays, thy flames, thy beams (Rig-veda VIII, 44, 16)!--O Videgha-a-a!' Still he did not answer. (The priest continued), 'Thee, O butter-sprinkled one, we invoke! (Rig-veda V, 26, 2);' so much he uttered, when at the very mentioning of butter, Agni Vaisvânara flashed forth from the (king's) mouth: he was unable to hold him back; he issued from his mouth, and fell down on this earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mâthava, the Videgha, was at that time on the (river) Sarasvatî. He (Agni) thence went burning along this earth towards the east; and Gotama Râhûgana and the Videgha Mâthava followed after him as he was burning along. He burnt over (dried up) all these rivers. Now that (river), which is called 'Sadânîrâ,' flows from the northern (Himâlaya) mountain: that one he did not burn over. That one the Brâhmans did not cross in former times, thinking, 'it has not been burnt over by Agni Vaisvânara.' Now-a-days, however, there are many Brâhmans to the east of it. At that time it (the land east of the Sadânîrâ) was very uncultivated, very marshy, because it had not been tasted by Agni Vaisvânara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now-a-days, however, it is very cultivated, for the Brâhmans have caused (Agni) to taste it through sacrifices. Even in late summer that (river), as it were, rages along: so cold is it, not having been burnt over by Agni Vaisvânara.  Mâthava, the Videgha, then said (to Agni), 'Where am I to abide?' 'To the east of this (river) be thy abode!' said he. Even now this (river) forms the boundary of the Kosalas and Videhas; for these are the Mâthavas (or descendants of Mâthava). Gotama Râhûgana then said (to Mâthava), 'Why didst thou not answer when addressed by us?' He replied, 'Agni Vaisvânara was in my mouth; I did not reply, lest he should escape from my mouth.' 'How then did this happen?'--'At the moment when thou didst utter the words, &amp;quot;(Thee), O butter-sprinkled one, we invoke!&amp;quot; just then, at the mention of butter, Agni Vaisvânara flashed forth from my mouth; I was unable to hold him back, he issued from my mouth.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And indeed, in ancient times the kingdom of Videha lay east of the Sadanira river, the modern-day &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandaki_River&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gandaki river&lt;/a&gt; in Nepal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, why was Agni inside Videha Madhava's mouth in the first place?  Did he intentionally enter Videha Madhava's mouth to make him found the kingdom of Videha?  Was Videha Madhava's some kind of Yogi who would regularly have fire in his mouth for some reason, or was this just a one-incident?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, Western Indologists speculate that Agni symbolizes here the force of civilization which drove the Vedic people eastward across India.  But I'm interested in what Hindu scripture has to say.  Is this story discussed in any Puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-17T13:01:36.370" Title="Why was Agni inside the mouth of the first king of Videha?" Tags="|vedas|yajur-veda|shatapatha-brahmana|agni|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12154" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-16T04:09:34.340" Score="3" ViewCount="18368" Body="&lt;p&gt;After the death of a person,a ritual/ceremony will be held on the 11th day. What is the significance ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People from different community will held on different date such as on the 9th,14th or 16th day . Actually,when should the ritual/ceremony be held after death ? Is it on the 11th day or 16th day? (please answer according to scripture)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5654" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2016-05-16T06:53:58.580" LastActivityDate="2017-11-21T05:38:45.347" Title="What is the significance of 11th day ritual after death?" Tags="|rituals|death|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12155" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3667" CreationDate="2016-05-16T06:22:42.193" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Its all because of &quot;LOKO BHINNA RUCHI&quot; people have different taste.&#xA;People like worship god in different ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example Christians like to light candle in front of Jesus.&#xA;Christians presents Wine in church like we saw in PK movie.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus likes to light Deepam in temple.&#xA;Hindus presents Coconut, flowers, agarbattis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like wise i guess people who didn't like some concepts in Sanatana Dharma followed Mohammed and Jesus believed, like them most so base of all religion would be Sanatana Dharma but they migrated and started new religions separately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As every one know the word Sai Baba also says &quot;Sabka Malik Ek&quot;&#xA;In Kannada also we say &quot;Devanobba Nama Halavu&quot; one god many names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you see Sanatana Dharma is oldest of all other religions. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_religion&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_religion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1188" LastEditorUserId="1188" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T13:18:04.050" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T13:18:04.050" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12156" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12176" CreationDate="2016-05-16T07:40:53.223" Score="8" ViewCount="2851" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagvad Gita , Lord Vishnu says, Worship me alone :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-23.html&quot;&gt;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-09-23.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even those who, being devoted to other gods and endowed with faith,&#xA;  worship (them), they also, O son of Kunti, worship Me alone (though)&#xA;  following the wrong method.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Bhagvan clearly says worshipping other gods is wrong or is a unauthorised manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is worship of Prabhu Shriram is wrong or Unauthorised?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is chanting name of Lord Shriram is unauthorised worship of almighty god although he was one of the avataras of Lord Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is chanting name of krishna is the only authorised namajapa or worship in our hinduism???&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one worships Bhagavan Shriramkrishna then will it be unauthorised?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clarify.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-05-17T11:55:05.050" LastActivityDate="2022-07-15T18:34:41.943" Title="Worship of one god and worship of Shri Ram" Tags="|vishnu|belief|bhagavad-gita|worship|japa|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12157" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12149" CreationDate="2016-05-16T07:44:51.927" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana gives the divisibility of number 720 which is represented as 360 days + 360 nights. It is used in the case of number and division of bricks and stones which is used in fire altar preparation. Not only this, it also gives information on how microcosm used in fire altar is related with macrocosm. In this way, it also gives information about division of time:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:1. Verily, Prajapati, the year, is Agni, and King Soma, the moon. He himself, indeed, proclaimed (taught) his own self to Yagñavakas Râgastambâyana, saying, 'As many lights as there are of mine, so many are my bricks.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:2. Now in this Prajapati, the year, there are seven hundred and twenty days and nights, his lights, (being) those bricks; three hundred and sixty enclosing-stones , and three hundred and sixty bricks with (special) formulas. This Prajâpati, the year, has created all existing things, both what breathes and the breathless, both gods and men. Having created all existing things, he felt like one emptied out, and was afraid of death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:3. He bethought himself, 'How can I get these beings back into my body? how can I put them back into my body? how can I be again the body of all these beings?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:4. He &lt;strong&gt;divided his body into two; there were three hundred and sixty bricks in the one&lt;/strong&gt;, and as many in the other: he did trot succeed 2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:5. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;three bodies,--in each of them there were three eighties of bricks&lt;/strong&gt; I he did not succeed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:6. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;four bodies of a hundred and eighty bricks&lt;/strong&gt; each: he did not succeed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:7. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;five bodies,--in each of them there were a hundred and forty-four bricks:&lt;/strong&gt; he did not succeed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:8. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;six bodies of a hundred and twenty bricks each:&lt;/strong&gt; he did not succeed. He did not develop himself sevenfold 3.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:9. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;eight bodies of ninety bricks each:&lt;/strong&gt; he did not succeed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:10. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;nine bodies of eighty bricks each:&lt;/strong&gt; he did not succeed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:11. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;ten bodies of seventy-two bricks each:&lt;/strong&gt; he did not succeed. He did not develop elevenfold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:12. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;twelve bodies of sixty bricks each:&lt;/strong&gt; he did not succeed. He did not develop either thirteenfold or fourteenfold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:13. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;fifteen bodies of forty-eight bricks each:&lt;/strong&gt; he did not succeed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:14. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;sixteen bodies of forty-five bricks each:&lt;/strong&gt; he did not succeed. He did not develop seventeenfold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:15. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;eighteen bodies of forty bricks each:&lt;/strong&gt; he did not succeed. He did not develop nineteenfold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:16. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;twenty bodies of thirty-six bricks each&lt;/strong&gt;: he did not succeed. He did not develop either twenty-one-fold, or twenty-two-fold, or twenty-three-fold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:17. He made himself &lt;strong&gt;twenty-four bodies of thirty bricks each.&lt;/strong&gt; There he stopped, at the fifteenth; and because he stopped at the fifteenth arrangement 1 there are fifteen forms of the waxing, and fifteen of the waning (moon).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10:4:2:18. &lt;strong&gt;And because he made himself twenty-four bodies, therefore the year consists of twenty-four half-months. With these twenty-four bodies of thirty bricks each he had not developed (sufficiently). He saw the fifteen parts of the day, the muhûrtas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as we can see above number 720 which is combination of 360 days + 360 nights is divided as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;720 = 360×2 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  720=240×3 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  720=180×4 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  720=144×5 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  720=120×6 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  720=90×8 &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  720=80×9 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  720=72×10 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  720=60×12 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  720=48×15 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  720=45×16 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  720=40×18 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  720=36×20 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  720=30×24 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as division of 720 is stopped at 30×24. Thus there are half of 24 months (as 720 is day+night of year so half is done here) in a year. Thus there are 15 muhurtas in a day and 15 in night thus total 30. As division stops in 15th division thus 15 waxing and 15 waning days in a month. Thus there are 30 days in a month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-15T11:02:17.107" LastActivityDate="2016-06-15T11:02:17.107" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12158" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12146" CreationDate="2016-05-16T07:55:43.400" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, It is true that Rig Veda consists of 4,32,000 syllables. It is verified by Shatapatha Brahmana in 10:4:2:23&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He arranged the Rik-verses into twelve thousand of Brihatîs&lt;/strong&gt; , for of that extent are the verses created by Prajapati. At-the thirtieth arrangement they came to an end in the Paṅktis; and because it was at the thirtieth arrangement that they came to an end, there are thirty nights in the month; and because it was in the Paṅktis, therefore Prajapati is 'pankta' (fivefold). &lt;strong&gt;There are one hundred-and-eight hundred Paṅktis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see above, the Rik verses (verses of RigVeda) are equivalent to 12,000 Brihatis. Brihati is a Vedic meter and a Brihati meter consists of 36 syllables. Thus total no.of syllables in Rig Veda are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;12000×36=432000&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also it tells RigVeda is equivalent to 10800 Panktis. Pankti is also a vedic meter containing 40 syllables.&#xA;Thus the no. of syllables in Rig Veda becomes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;10800×40=432000.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, there are 4,32,000 syllables in RigVeda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-28T13:39:07.677" LastActivityDate="2016-06-28T13:39:07.677" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12159" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-16T11:42:00.737" Score="3" ViewCount="522" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are some good books available on Jyotisha online?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am preferably looking for books for beginners, although any references are welcome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T09:03:29.167" Title="Online books on Jyotisha" Tags="|astrology|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12160" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-16T11:53:44.220" Score="0" ViewCount="1054" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Doniger#Recognition&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wendy Doniger&lt;/a&gt; is a celebrated indologist and has written many books on Hinduism.&#xA;Amongst other things, &lt;a href=&quot;http://rajivmalhotra.com/library/articles/risa-lila-1-wendys-child-syndrome/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what she says on the Bhagavad Gita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;“The Bhagavad Gita is not as nice a book as some Americans think…Throughout the Mahabharata … Krishna goads human beings into all&#xA;  sorts of murderous and self-destructive behaviors such as war…. The&#xA;  Gita is a dishonest book …”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Wendy Doniger, Professor of History of Religions, University of&#xA;  Chicago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Quoted in Philadelphia Inquirer, 19 November, 2000.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the response to this according to Hinduism? Is there any truth in this kind of perspective?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I ask a question about the viewpoint of her student Devdutt Pattnaik &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12128/devdutt-pattnaik-says-yoginis-are-wild-erotic-creatures-is-there-any-truth-in-i&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T06:07:33.210" Title="Wendy Doniger and the Bhagavad Gita" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-11-26T20:38:13.790" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12161" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12142" CreationDate="2016-05-16T13:05:44.267" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The astrological charts of a new-born baby are written taking the moment when the child takes its first breath (independent of its mother). The planetary positions at that moment determine the pre-destined portion of the child's life (prarabdha Karma that the child brings from its previous incarnations/births). Hence, the Natal horoscope (Jataka) will greatly shape the proceedings of the individual's course of life and will play a predominant role in influencing its will, determining the circumstances that the he/she will face and conditioning the abilities at different ages. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said that, the individual can use its free will to counteract the influences and, by virtue of blessing from higher souls, the individual can endure (and in certain occasions, overcome) the pre-destined fate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answering your second question, there is a curse on astrology that no human can have a accurate (100%) prediction on all aspects such as what, why, how, where, when and by whom (at the same time). However, with reasonable accuracy and precision, destiny can be deciphered (with decently accurately but limited precision). Life partner being a subset of destiny can also be predicted. Most predictions will be indicative and significantly reliable given that the astrologer is well learnt, the dashas and antardashas of the astrologer is reasonably favorable, has yogas that made him an astrologer with Vak Siddhi (capable of saying things that come true) and the querist has the bhagya to know the truth at that juncture of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though all this looks complex by analysis, it is an experiential learning that will help have a better understanding. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5655" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-16T13:10:23.563" LastActivityDate="2016-05-16T13:10:23.563" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12162" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12083" CreationDate="2016-05-16T14:01:21.930" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The ancients have observed that everyday the Luminaries (includes both the ☽|Moon &amp;amp; ☼|Sun) dance throughout the &lt;strong&gt;BhūMaṇḍala&lt;/strong&gt; (i.e., Zodiac taken as sky) as &lt;strong&gt;Rādhā &amp;amp; Kṛṣṇa&lt;/strong&gt; (or alternately, Kṛṣṇa and the Gopīs). Now, every soli-lunar distance of 12° span marks &lt;strong&gt;1 Tithi | 1 lunation&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Amāvāsya: Moon's stay-period with the Sun&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When both luminaries occupies the same sign (space), where moon is exactly 12° behind the former i.e., at 348° from the sun, then Amāvāsya, which is the fifthteen Tithi, begins.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From then on, as moon ingresses closer to Sun's proximity i.e., at 354° onwards, Moon goes into a stage of combustion due to its proximity to sūrya's orb.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Then &lt;strong&gt;just after Amāvāsya&lt;/strong&gt;, the next soli-lunar 12° span marks the first Tithi and, in jyotiṣa parlance it is known as &lt;strong&gt;Kṛṣṇa Pratipada&lt;/strong&gt;.  From &lt;strong&gt;Amāvāsya&lt;/strong&gt;, the first half of the &lt;strong&gt;Kṛṣṇa Pratipada Tithi span&lt;/strong&gt; i.e., in the first 6°, Moon is seen to be coming out of that combusted-state and thence, from 7° onwards such a Moon is said to be purified (&lt;strong&gt;pavamāna&lt;/strong&gt;) for it is a no longer combusted avasthā.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pūrṇimā: Moon's farthest-distance from the Sun&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conversely, whenever Moon becomes exactly 180° away i.e., at equidistant = vis-à-vis to the Sun — such distance is called &lt;strong&gt;Pūrṇimā&lt;/strong&gt;, and as such moon gets full raśmi (rays) of the sun at such distance.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;To sum it all up, when Moon joins sun, it's &lt;strong&gt;Amāvāsya&lt;/strong&gt;. On the other hand, when Moon is opposite to the sun, it's &lt;strong&gt;Pūrṇima&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grahaṇa Kāla|Eclipse&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the times, usually on &lt;strong&gt;Pūrṇimā&lt;/strong&gt;s and &lt;strong&gt;Amāvāsya&lt;/strong&gt;s, because the earth, sun &amp;amp; moon don't align on the same axis, therefore no eclipse occur. The day they all align (assuming it's Pūrṇimā or Amāvāsya), it's an eclipse: solar or lunar. It simply means either of the luminaries is getting blocked due to them being aligned exactly on the same axis. A schematic (visual) representation (from geocentric viewpoint) is given below to ease things out:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sūrya Grahaṇa|  ☽ ☼ ⟶ Here, Sun gets blocked [by the moon], hence the name &lt;strong&gt;Sūrya Grahaṇa&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Candra Grahaṇa| ☽  ☼  ⟶ Here, Moon gets blocked [by the earth], hence the name &lt;strong&gt;Candra Grahaṇa&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such knowledge were common among the ancients Vaidika ṛṣis and thus, they even have some Ṛk&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; composed in relation to this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SPIRITUAL TIPS&lt;/strong&gt;|During Sūrya Grahaṇa, it's one of the most spiritual time to get in contact with the divine. As such, it is said that Śiva power is the greatest during eclipse. Hence, such time is conducive (and is encouraged in various śāstras, like the ones mentioned below) for dāna, spiritual practice etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;These astronomical technicalities as described above form part of the &lt;strong&gt;Tithi basics&lt;/strong&gt; and, on the other hand &lt;strong&gt;Tithi, Karaṇa,&lt;/strong&gt; etc., are parcels of the Pañcāṅga framework. Many classical jyotiṣa (Astronomical) granthas (literatures)&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; cover them all.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Footnotes&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;strong&gt;ṚgVeda 5.040, Sūrya Maṇḍala&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yat tvā sūrya svarbhānus&lt;br&gt; tamasā vidhyad āsuraḥ ।&lt;br&gt; akṣetra-vid&#xA;  yathā mughdho&lt;br&gt; bhuvanāni adīdhayuḥ ॥ 5.040.05&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; यत् त्वा&#xA;  सूर्य स्वर्भानुस्&lt;br&gt; तमसा विध्यद् आसुरः ।&lt;br&gt; अक्षेत्र-विद् यथा&#xA;  मुघ्धो&lt;br&gt; भुवनानि अदीधयुः ॥ ५.०४०.०५&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Tr. O Sūrya, when Svarbhānu&#xA;  (Rāhu) had gulped you by his shadow, the whole world in that darkness&#xA;  moment had become so shocked that, it was as if they had gone strayed.. having no clue where to go.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;yaṁ vai sūryaṃ svarbhānus&lt;br&gt;     tamasā vidhyad āsuraḥ ।&lt;br&gt; atrayaḥ&#xA;  tam anu &lt;br&gt;  avindan na ha anye aśaknuvan ॥ 05.040.9&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; यं वै&#xA;  सूर्यं स्वर्भानुस्&lt;br&gt;    तमसा विध्यद् आसुरः ।&lt;br&gt; अत्रयः तम् अनु &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अविन्दन् न ह अन्ये अशक्नुवन् ॥ ०५.०४०.९&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Tr. The same You (i.e., that&#xA;  eclipsed-Sun) were later freed by Maharṣi Atri. He achieved a feat which&#xA;  nobody else could.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Some Astronomical classical literatures by Indian (genius) astronomers&lt;/strong&gt; are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma Sphuṭa Siddhānta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gaṇita Yukti Bhāṣā of Jyeṣṭhadeva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Laghu Bhāskarīya of Bhāskarācārya I&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahā Bhāskarīya of Bhāskarācārya I&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Siddhānta Darpaṇa of Sāmanta Candraśekhara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Siddhānta Śiromaṇi of Bhāskarācārya 2&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sūrya Siddhānta of Maya (Yāmala Bhāskara Stream)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tantra saṅgraha of Nīlakaṇṭha Somayājī&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vāṭeśvara Siddhānta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Āryabhaṭṭīya of Āryabhaṭṭa&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5091" LastEditorUserId="5091" LastEditDate="2016-05-17T17:21:29.447" LastActivityDate="2016-05-17T17:21:29.447" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12164" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-16T14:37:51.377" Score="4" ViewCount="861" Body="&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman#Meeting_with_Rama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt; article describes that when Sugreeva sent Hanuman as an emissary to meet Rama and Lakshmana. It also claims that on seeing Hanuman, Shri Rama praised Hanuman greatly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is this meeting described in the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am specifically interested in the original Sanskrit Shlokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-14T07:32:56.227" LastActivityDate="2017-05-03T06:40:05.040" Title="First meeting between Hanuman and Shree Rama" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|rama|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12168" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-17T00:58:04.977" Score="4" ViewCount="138" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that if a person converts to Sanatana Dharma, he still cannot be fully accepted as a Hindu because he has no caste? If it is so, then how can such person convince others that he is a sincere devotee of any Hindu God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5661" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T16:41:50.487" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T17:08:26.560" Title="Does caste matter for a person converting to Sanatana Dharma? Will he be fully accepted as a Hindu though he has no caste?" Tags="|other-religions|caste-system|conversion|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12169" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15525" CreationDate="2016-05-17T03:47:13.830" Score="13" ViewCount="19873" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bharathkidilse.blogspot.in/2009/10/bathing-snanam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; says that bathing without a cloth is not correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://brahminrituals.blogspot.in/2013_06_01_archive.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;It&lt;/a&gt; says that one should not bath without clothes in sacred rivers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some articles say that, since there are no personal bathrooms in old times, people use to bathe in clothes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is bathing without cloth an insult to Varuna deva and Vayu deva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any textual evidence(in Hindu scriptures) to bathe with clothes only? Or is the rule added according to time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-11T00:16:44.767" LastActivityDate="2024-02-24T08:37:24.040" Title="Is bathing without cloth a sin?" Tags="|rituals|bath|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12170" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-17T06:04:38.203" Score="10" ViewCount="1860" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question is specific to kukke Subramanya temple present in Dakshina Kannada District of Karnataka (refer : &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukke_Subramanya_Temple&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukke_Subramanya_Temple&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main presiding deity is Subramanya i,e, a Shaiva deity. But the governing mutt belongs to Madhwa sampradaya i.e. Vaishnava sampradaya. Does anyone know the reason for this? Just curious to know the real history.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, as per temple history, Adi Shankaracharya stayed here during his digvijaya yatra and composed strotra praising the deity. So why not a Shankara mutt in this place?&#xA;Just curious to know the real history. No question of hurting any faith here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2022-05-20T11:46:31.487" Title="Why Kukke Subramanya temple has a Madhwa mutt?" Tags="|vaishnavism|shaivism|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12171" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12150" CreationDate="2016-05-17T06:13:13.013" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me post the relevant part from the comment here for the benefit of the users.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/sri_chinmoy/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Chinmoy&lt;/a&gt; was a spiritual master who wrote on various topics especially in the form of poetry. Here, he talks about Agni and the first Shloka of the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘Agni’ means fire. This fire refers to the aspiring flame that rises&#xA;  from our inmost being; again, ‘Agni’ also refers to the fire god&#xA;  himself. We are all aspirants; we are all seekers of the infinite&#xA;  Truth. It is we who have to embody Agni, the flame of aspiration, in&#xA;  the inmost recesses of our hearts. We also have to grow upwards with&#xA;  this flame until we become the embodiment of Agni, the fire god&#xA;  himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I wish to offer you the following sloka from the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agnimile purohitam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yagyasya devamrtvijam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hotaram ratnadhatamam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agni mile means “I adore or worship the flame, Agni.” Purohitam&#xA;  yagyasya means “the priest, the household priest, of the sacrifice.”&#xA;  Devam means divine and rtvijam is the priest or minister who&#xA;  officiates at the sacrifice. Hotaram is the Summoner or the Invoker.&#xA;  Ratnadha means “the one who founds or establishes the jewel of&#xA;  ecstasy, the inner wealth, the nectar&quot;; tamam is the superlative of&#xA;  Ratnadha. Ratnadhatamam is “the one who more than anyone else&#xA;  establishes the inner ecstasy.” So the first verse in the Rig Veda&#xA;  dedicated to Agni runs thus in free translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O Agni, I adore Thee,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O priest, O divine minister&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who officiates at the divine Sacrifice,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who is also the invoker, the Summoner,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who most bestows the divine wealth upon us.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also continues to mention the limitation of this translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I would like to say that translation can never do justice to these&#xA;  sublime and profound Sanskrit words. I use the English words ‘priest’&#xA;  and ‘minister’, but I get to be excused for doing so. These English&#xA;  equivalents can never convey the meaning of the word rtvik, the&#xA;  invoker, the Summoner of the Supreme, the one who officiates at the&#xA;  sacrifice. Anyone who knows both Sanskrit and English will immediately&#xA;  feel that there is a yawning gulf between the Sanskrit words rtvik and&#xA;  hotaram and the English words ‘priest’ and ‘minister’ and so forth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more, read here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/dcg-6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/dcg-6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-17T06:19:59.953" LastActivityDate="2016-05-17T06:19:59.953" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12172" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12156" CreationDate="2016-05-17T07:05:33.047" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Based on different interpretation, it can be understood differently.&#xA;As per hindu tradition, we can say that there are so many gods and damons. &#xA;Even though people worship lots of gods and damons, ultimately these gods get energy/resource from ultimate Brahman. Hence even though they worship any form/god, it goes to same ultimate Brahman. This is gist of it.&#xA;You may find details about this here &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://journeygita.blogspot.in/2012/08/bhagavad-gita-verse-23-chapter-9.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://journeygita.blogspot.in/2012/08/bhagavad-gita-verse-23-chapter-9.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read through the different commentaries especially by Adi Shankara to know more&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2016-05-17T07:05:33.047" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12173" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-17T07:41:11.970" Score="8" ViewCount="4427" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know at what age Shri Krishna left Vrindavan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptural references available for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-06-04T16:13:12.640" LastActivityDate="2023-06-04T16:13:12.640" Title="At what age did Shri Krishna leave Vrindavan?" Tags="|krishna|history|vrindavana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3850" CreationDate="2016-05-17T09:11:40.007" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The best way when a snake bites is to run to the hospital for treatment. It is because we are in Kali Yuga now and we rarely find person who have mantra siddhis. We can also rarely do mantra siddhis on our own without Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But we can use mantras on the way while running to hospital or when reaching hospital is not possible.&#xA;The fear we have after snakebite is fear of death hence we can chant death removing/ Mahamrityunjaya Mantra for this purpose (while in the way to hospital):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्&#xA;  उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ pushtivardhanam&#xA;  urvārukamiva bandhanānmṛmrityor mokshiye maamritat ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Several mantras are given in Panchanga Calendars also. I don't know from where they are taken. It is written in Panchanga calendars that chanting this mantra and blowing air to body will remove poison (might be tested in emergency condition): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ कुरकुलये हुं फट् स्वाहा ।&#xA;  Om Kurkulaye Hum Phat Swaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Panchanga calendars give some preventive measures to remove fear of snakes before being bitten from certain area/house. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मुनीराज आस्तकनम्&#xA;   muniraaj aastakanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ आस्तिकाय नमः ।&#xA;  Om Aastikaye Namaha &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above mantra invoke the snake 'Astika' who is saver of snake race in serpent Yagna conducted by Janamjaye in Mahabharat. But I don't know the origin of above mantras. As I have already told they are found in Panchanga calendars. But there is also no loss in chanting these mantras while walking in grassy areas and snake fearing areas as it is of preventive nature ie. Preventing snake bite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are interested in Puranic Methods then Garuda Purana and Agni Purana contains procedures of snake poison removal. It is also told a person who have read or listened or donated Garuda Purana is safe from being bitten by snake as he gains Garuda-tatwa from it.&#xA;Anyway Garuda Purana in chapter 20 gives the method for poison removal of snake:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter XX - Mantra-cures (curative formulas) of snakebite as narrated by Śhiva&#xA;  Suta said:—I will now now describe the highly secret mantrams narrated by Shiva. His weapons are the noose, the bow, the discus, the club, the dart and Pattisha. Having used these weapons inspired with mantrams in a battle a king conquers his enemies. The mantram for purifying the mantrans should be first written on a lotus petal. Om is the Brahma Vijam. Hrim is the Vishnu Vijam. These three Vijams should be assigned to the head of Shiva thrice in order.&#xA;  Om, Hrim, Hrim.&#xA;  Having taken up the dart in his hand he should whirl it in the sky. By seeing it all the evil stars and serpents are destroyed. Having held the smoky coloured bow by the hand a man should meditate on it in the sky. By it the wicked serpents, the evil stars, clouds and Rakshasas are destroyed. This mantram protects the three worlds, what to speak of the land of mortals?&#xA;  Om, jum, Sam, Hum, Phat. Eight sticks of Catechu wood, inspired with mantrams, should be placed on the ground. That will prevent the falling of thunder-bolt. The eight sticks should be inspired with great mantram described by Garuda. The ground should be dug twenty one times in the night. This will ward off the dangers proceeding from lightning, mouse, and thunder-bolt.&#xA;  The mantram is:—Hara, Kshara, amala, Vashat, added with Vindu Sadasiva.&#xA;  Om, Hram, salutation unto Sadashiva.&#xA;  He should then assign pinda (balls of rice) effulgent like Darimi flowers with the fore-finger. By seeing it the evil clouds, lightning and other enemies viz. the Rakshasas, goblins and female ghosts fly away into the ten quarters.&#xA;  Om, Hrim, salutation unto Ganesha. Om, Hrim, salutation unto the chakra of Sthambhana.&#xA;  Om, em, salutation unto the Damaras of the three worlds.&#xA;  This pinda is called Bhairava which counteracts the effect of poison and the evil effects of the hostile planets. It protects the field and grinds the goblins and Rakshasas.&#xA;  Om, Namas. Having meditated on the thunder-bolt of his hand he should ward off the evil influence of wicked clouds and with Vajra Mudra all the ghosts, the enemies with poison. Om, Kshum, Namas. He should meditate on his left hand. It destroys all venomous creatures.&#xA;  Om, Hram, Namas. The very recitation of this mantram destroys the evil clouds and stars. Having meditated on death he should consume the universe with the destroying weapon.&#xA;  Om, Kshma, Namas.&#xA;  Meditating on Bhairava one should remove the evil influences of stars, goblins and poison.&#xA;  Om lasat, jhvaksha Svāhā. This mantram destroys the enemies of the field vis, the evil stars, goblins, poison and birds.&#xA;  Om Ksham Namas. The figure of a cistern should be drawn with blood and then the names of planets should be written there.&#xA;  Om, Mara, Mara, Maraya, Maraya Svāhā. Om, Hum, Phat, Svāhā.&#xA;  The dart should be inspired mentally with eight hundred mantrams. It destroys all the enemies.&#xA;  With higher energies the lower ones should be suppressed. Then the mantrams should be practised in Puraka and should be again well inspired in Kumbhaka. They should then be received with Pranava. When the mantrams are thus properly received and used they yield fruts like servants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also other methods like inserting  peepal branch in both ears and other and other so on. As I am repeteadly saying the only way in this present condition (ie. Kaliyuga) is to go to a hospital. One may use mantra methods while he is on the way to hospital, or while hospital is not avaliable or antidote is finished, or when hospital can't treat due to seriousness. I'm not doubting the potency of mantras by emphasizing on the word Hospital but I'm doubting the potency of person who chants mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-17T09:35:51.310" LastActivityDate="2016-05-17T09:35:51.310" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12176" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12156" CreationDate="2016-05-17T11:54:25.437" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Worship others is not unauthorize. It is a big system and other gods are also part of the system. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a word &quot;Ramsification&quot; means subdivisions of a big system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu holds Rajas nature and he knows how to tackle Arjuna in Mahabharata so he told him that only worship me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu also knew other people's karma and also the fate of the war also the end of the war. But to execute it through the soul of Arjuna he guided him to give his chariot in the hands of Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any Hindu chant or invocation starts with &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aum which means I bow to all Gods and I salute them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the name of the lord is chanted like Om namah shivay, Om Ramay namah or Om namo bhagawate Vasudevay or Om Krishnay namah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other than this Shree is the starting point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shree Krushna Sharanam mama&#xA;  Shree Shivay Namah&#xA;  Shree Ramay Namah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shree means Auspicious. Means do auspicious to me. &quot;Shubham kuru&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-05-17T12:03:10.153" LastActivityDate="2016-05-17T12:03:10.153" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12178" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-17T15:27:33.297" Score="5" ViewCount="166" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902701.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/12/items/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif.zip&amp;amp;file=pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_0687.tif&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Panchavimsha Brahmana of the Sama Veda, aka the Tandya Mahabrahmana, a certain Yagna which can only performed in Kurukshetra is described.  The Panchavimsha Brahmana mentions a story which demonstrates the greatness of Kurukshetra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra and Rushama made a wager: &quot;Whichever of us shall first run round the earth shall be the winner.&quot;  Indra ran round the earth, Rushama ran round Kurukshetra (only).  She said &quot;I have conquered thee.&quot;  But Indra said &quot;It is I that have conquered thee.&quot;  They went to the Gods for a decision.  The Gods said: &quot;Kurukshetra is as great as the vedi of Prajapati.&quot;  So neither of the two won.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story bears a striking resemblance to the famous story of Shiva's sons Kartikeya and Ganesha having a footrace around the world.  Kartikeya runs around the world, whereas Ganesha just circumambulates his parents Shiva and Parvati.  Because parents are considered to be the world of the son, Ganesha is declare the winner and is given the desired reward (either getting to be married first in North Indian versions, or getting a Jnana fruit in South Indian versions).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, who is this woman Rushama who had a race with Indra?  And what was the purpose of the bet?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it helps, a male figure named Rushama is mentioned in verse 12 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv08003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Book 8 Hymn 3&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śaghdhī no asya yad dha pauramāvitha dhiya indra siṣāsataḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śaghdhi yathā ruśamaṃ śyāvakaṃ kṛpamindra prāvaḥ svarṇaram || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Help for us, Indra, as thou helpest Paura once, this man's devotions bent on gain. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Help, as thou gavest Ruśama and Śyāvaka and Svarṇara and Kṛpa aid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm not sure if the male Rushama has any connection with the female Rushama.  In any case, does anyone know if any other scriptures discuss Indra's race with Rushama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T18:04:58.137" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T18:04:58.137" Title="Who is the woman Rushama who had a footrace around the world with Indra?" Tags="|vedas|indra|sama-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12180" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-17T18:23:17.977" Score="5" ViewCount="348" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe26/sbe2614.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda describes the Subrahmanya hymn, which despite its name has no connection to Shiva's son.  It's a hymn recited in the beginning of Yagnas in order to invite Indra to the ritual. Here's how it addresses Indra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;16&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Thereupon he recites the Subrahmanyâ litany. Even as one would say to those for whom he intends to prepare a meal, 'On such and such a day I will prepare a meal for you;' so does he thereby announce the sacrifice to the gods. 'Subrahmanyôm! Subrahmanyôm! Subrahmanyôm!' thus he calls, for the Brahman indeed moves the gods onward. Thrice he says it, because the sacrifice is threefold.&#xA;  17.'Come, O Indra!' Indra is the deity of the sacrifice: therefore he says, 'Come, O Indra!' 'Come, O lord of the bay steeds! Ram of Medhâtithi! Wife of Vrishanasva! Bestriding buffalo! Lover of Ahalyâ!' Thereby he wishes him joy in those affairs of his.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'O Kausika, Brahman, thou who callest thee Gautama.' Just so has this (formula) been devised in these days by Âruni, to wit, 'thou who callest thee Gautama:' he may say it, if he choose, and if he does not choose, he need not attend to it. 'In so and so many days, to the Soma-feast,' (stating) in how many days from hence the pressing is to be.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of these references are understandable, for instance &quot;lover of Ahalya&quot; and &quot;Gautama&quot; are references to Indra having an affair with Ahalya while disguised as her husband Gautama as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9025/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And &quot;wife of Vrishnasva&quot; is a reference to the fact that he had an affair with the sage Vrishnasva's daughter while disguised as the girl's mother.  But I'm interested in the fact that Indra is addressed as &quot;Kaushika&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Kaushika is a term for the descendants of the ancient lunar dynasty king Kusha.  The most famous Kaushikas are the sage Vishwamitra and his descendants.  In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/555Yc.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Jaiminiya Brahmana of the Sama Veda provides an expansion for why Indra is addressed as Kaushika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O Brahman Kaushika, who callest thyself Kaushika.&quot; Verily when he got into a mighty encounter with the Asuras, at that time he put the Vedas away.  He learnt them, indeed, of Vishwamitra.  That is why he called himself Kaushika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of Indra relearning the Vedas from Vishwamitra? Did his battle with the Asuras wipe his memory of the Vedas, or did he make himself forget the Vedas so that he could fight ruthlessly against the Asuras, or what? Could this be a reference to his incarnation as Indra Vaikuntha, in which as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11783/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; he lost memory of who he was?  And in any case, why did he relearn the Vedas from Vishwamitra of all people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, I should mention that the commentator Sayana interprets the use of Kaushika in a different way, namely that it's a reference to Indra's incarnation as Vishwamitra's father Gadhi.  Now obviously I would trust the Jaiminiya Brahmana over Sayana's commentary, but I suppose both could be true: Gadhi could have asked his son Vishwamitra to reteach him the Vedas!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-18T08:56:38.380" LastActivityDate="2018-01-18T08:56:38.380" Title="What is the story of Indra relearning the Vedas from Vishwamitra?" Tags="|vedas|indra|yajur-veda|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12181" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12240" CreationDate="2016-05-17T18:32:39.010" Score="5" ViewCount="612" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://utkarshspeak.blogspot.in/2010/10/mythical-explanation-of-eclipse-indian.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; blog article talks how the demonic form of &lt;em&gt;Svarbhanu&lt;/em&gt; is used to explain the phenomenon of eclipse. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svarbh%C4%81nu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; wiki article also says that Svarbhanu is a name used for &lt;em&gt;Rahu&lt;/em&gt; in Puranas. It also claims that the first mention of Svarbhanu can be found in the Rig Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story of Svarbhanu as found in the &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-08-24T06:16:45.720" LastActivityDate="2016-11-11T07:25:10.190" Title="Rig Veda - The demon Svarbhanu, Rahu and eclipse" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|eclipse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12182" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12006" CreationDate="2016-05-17T20:09:15.370" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The story is told in the Brahmanas of the Sama Veda.&lt;/strong&gt;. Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rxVIS.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Jaiminiya Brahmana of the Sama Veda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dadhyanch the Atharvana was famous, learned in sacred lore. Whenever any of the Asuras espied him from afar then these were laid low and lost their heads. And he went up to heaven. Indra pushed by Asuras and Ashvins' said: &quot;Where, pray, is Dadhyanch the Atharvana?&quot; They told him: &quot;Sir, he went up to the heavenly world.&quot; He said: &quot;Is nothing left of him here?&quot; They told him: &quot;There was that horse's head with which he proclaimed divine wisdom ... to the Ashvins; but we do not know what became of it.&quot; &quot;Search for it.&quot; They searched for it. &quot;Searching for the horse's head that was hid away in the mountains, he found it in the Sharyanavant.&quot; Sharyanavant indeed is the name of a river in the back part of Kurukshetra. Having found it, they fetched it and gave it to him. He always held it in sight of the Asuras. Whenever any of the Asuras espied him from afar, then these were laid low and lost their heads. He, indeed, slew ninety Asuras by means of these bones. Thus he is rival-conquering, victorious. &quot;Indra the invincible slew with the bones of Dadhyanch ninety foes.&quot; He overcomes ninety, slays his hateful rival, who knows thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found the answer in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.jstor.org/stable/592298&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this journal paper&lt;/a&gt; from the 1800's, which also says that Sayana's description of the story is actually a quote from the Shatyayana Brahmana of the Sama Veda, a text which is now lost but did exist in the 14th century when Sayana was writing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-12-02T06:53:47.983" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T06:53:47.983" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12183" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-18T02:48:40.710" Score="8" ViewCount="672" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism is it the case that:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a married person does any charity from &amp;quot;His own earned income&amp;quot; (not from the income of his wife or forefathers), then half of his Punya is given to his wife and half to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if he is unmarried then full Punya goes in his account.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2022-11-14T12:53:18.663" LastActivityDate="2023-12-09T15:02:05.227" Title="Punnya from donation / charity for married person in Hinduism" Tags="|belief|men|punyam|wife|paap|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12184" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-18T04:40:16.287" Score="12" ViewCount="2157" Body="&lt;p&gt;Soul is infinite, omnipresent, i.e, it is present in our body and outside our body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda [&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_2/Jnana-Yoga/The_Atman&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2/Jnana-Yoga/The-Atman&lt;/a&gt;] :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the Atman, beyond all, the Infinite, beyond the known, beyond the knowable; in and through That we see the universe. It is the only Reality. It is this table; It is the audience before me; It is the wall; It is everything, minus the name and form. Take away the form of the table, take away the name; what remains is It.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People say the seat of soul is in the heart of beings. How is that even possible? By restricting it to a particular location, we are making it finite and soul is infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Astavakra Samhita I.19:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as a mirror exists within and without the image reflected in it, so the&#xA;Supreme Self exists inside and outside this body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;aham ātmā guḍākeśa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sarva-bhūtāśaya-sthitaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;aham ādiś ca madhyaṁ ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhūtānām anta eva ca &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;(10.20)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning-&lt;/strong&gt; I am the Supersoul, O Arjuna, seated in the hearts of all living entities. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When people die, we say that their soul has passed, which under any case cannot happen because there is not a place where a soul can go because it exists everywhere. Atman cannot have any &amp;quot;hole&amp;quot; in it, it must exist everywhere at all the times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a person dies, soul should still be present in their bodies. So what exactly makes a person die?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2021-11-13T20:08:23.037" Title="How can a person die if soul never leaves the body?" Tags="|atma|brahman|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12185" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16879" CreationDate="2016-05-18T06:22:15.567" Score="9" ViewCount="1859" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from Gayatri mantra  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ॐ तत्पुरुषाय विद्महे महादेवाय धीमहि&#xA;तन्नो रुद्रः प्रचोदयात्॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Tatpurushaya Vidmahe Mahadevaya Dhimahi&#xA;Tanno Rudrah Prachodayat॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and Rudram- Chamakam and Namakam. Are there any other specific mantras or puja to worship Lord Rudra ? Or my question is &quot;What is the proper way to worship Lord Rudra&quot; ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4640" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T11:26:18.977" LastActivityDate="2022-08-11T06:29:29.330" Title="Which mantras should be recited to properly worship Lord Rudra?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|vedas|puranas|mantras|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12186" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12156" CreationDate="2016-05-18T06:32:13.807" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is difficult to understand the meaning of this verse when you pull it out of context. When reading this verse one needs to read the other verses starting with verse 15 and ending with verse 28.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More specifically, verses 24 and 25 answer verse 23. verse 24 reads (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I indeed am the enjoyer as also the Lord of all sacrifices; but they do not know Me in reality. Therefore they fall.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna is saying (and whether you think of Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead or as Brahman is not important, but you are thinking of Him as the Supreme) is that He is the ultimate enjoyer of all sacrifices, even those offered to other gods. What is important, however, is the intent of the worshiper. If you look on the god that you are worshiping as Krishna (the Supreme Personality of Godhead or Brahman) than it is ok. If you are worshiping the god as the god and NOT as Krishna (the Supreme Personality of Godhead or Brahman) than Krishna says at the end of the verse &quot;they fall&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does He mean by 'fall'? At the end of his commentary on verse 24, Sankara says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The result of sacrifice is inevitable even for those who worship ignorantly out of their devotion to other deities. How?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Krishna says in verse 25:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Votaries of the gods reach the gods; votaries of the manes go to the manes; the worshipers of the Beings reach the Beings; and those who worship Me reach Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And at the end of his commentary on this verse, Sankara says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although the effort (involved) is the same, still owing to ignorance they do not worship Me exclusively. Therefore they attain lesser results, this is the meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in verse 27:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Kunti, whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer as sacrifice, whatever you give and whatever austerities you undertake, (all) that offer to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worship Rama. Worship Krishna. Worship Shiva. Worship Durga. Worship Ramakrishna. Worship Christ. Worship Agni. BUT do not worship them as different deities. worship them as representations of the One Godhead that pervades and stands behind them all.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T06:32:13.807" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12187" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12184" CreationDate="2016-05-18T06:46:25.613" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a state of ignorance, we see our Atman as separate from Brahman (although, we get a glimpse of more sometimes). Hence, when a person dies, that imagined separate identity just stops identifying itself with the body. This might give some insights:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What happens after death? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  What happens after death is the mind gets freed&#xA;  from the body, the spirit. The mind has memory and intelligence, so&#xA;  these two things become like a balloon. The karma, the deepest&#xA;  impressions form a balloon. It is like in sleep. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Death is nothing but a long sleep. Before going to sleep, see the last&#xA;  thought that you get, and as soon as you wake up, see what is the&#xA;  first thought that comes. Have you noticed? It will variably be the&#xA;  same though. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the physical body decays and the pranic body with all the&#xA;  impressions forms a balloon and leaves the body and hangs around. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Don’t imagine a balloon hanging around! It is a light; an energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I will give you the best example. In a television station, they&#xA;  conduct a program and then they transmit it through the dish and the&#xA;  program remains in the atmosphere – it is the same way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When you send an email from the computer, you type all the letters and&#xA;  then you press the send button. What happens? It goes into the space.&#xA;  Does your email remain in the space till it is downloaded? Even after&#xA;  several days you can download your email. Even one year later or ten&#xA;  years later you can download an email. There is no expiry date, isn’t&#xA;  that so. It is not like those greeting cards which sometimes people&#xA;  send you that expire in 24 hours. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The messages or letters you send don’t hang as letters in the space,&#xA;  it remains in the space as energy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like that every soul is a particular frequency and every thumb is&#xA;  different because a thumb is like a particular cell phone chip.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So after death, every individual energy stays, and the impressions it&#xA;  has taken, accordingly to that it experiences those stages there. But&#xA;  then after sometime that soul comes back...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taken from: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/what-happens-after-death&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.artofliving.org/what-happens-after-death&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T09:21:40.700" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T09:21:40.700" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12189" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12156" CreationDate="2016-05-18T07:41:50.320" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Here Bhagvan clearly says worshiping other gods is wrong or is an unauthorized manner.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna doesn't say that&lt;/strong&gt;. He just says that the method is not proper, but the worship does pay its due by reaching to him indirectly. Here is the correct translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 9.23 — The devotees of other &lt;em&gt;DevatA&lt;/em&gt;s worshiping (them) full of faith, they also worship &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Me&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; only with non-methodical way.&lt;/sub&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Understadning &quot;Me&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &quot;Me&quot; creates a great confusion and also gives a chance for bad criticism.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Krishna's &quot;Me&quot; doesn't refer to his personal form of &quot;VAsudeva&quot; alone. During discourse of Gita, Krisha is believed to be in the highest spiritual level of everything, which we call as &lt;em&gt;BrahM&lt;/em&gt; (or Brahman). This is the &lt;strong&gt;4th state&lt;/strong&gt; in every aspect. Different names, but same meaning. i.e.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Among modes, it's &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atma/ShunyatA&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (beyond, &lt;em&gt;Sattva, Rajas, Tamas&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Among awareness, it's &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Turiya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (beyond, &lt;em&gt;JAgrut, Swapna, NidrA&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Among enjoyers/&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;, it's &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (beyond &lt;em&gt;Dharma, Artha, KAma&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Among visuals, it's &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Divya Drushti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (beyond height, width, depth)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Among acts, it's &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Leela&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (beyond &lt;em&gt;Dharma, Adaharma, Vidharma&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Among Karma, it's &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (beyond &lt;em&gt;Satkarma, Dushkarma, Vikarma&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &quot;VAsudeva&quot; (Krishna as person) is also &quot;worshipable&quot; (BG 10.37), but so is &quot;Arjuna&quot;, &quot;PrahalAda&quot;, &quot;VyAsa&quot;, &quot;RAma&quot; and many more described in Gita chapter 10.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;So is worship of Prabhu Shriram is wrong or Unauthorised?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A devotee gets compelled by own self, for whom to worship. In Gita, &lt;em&gt;RAma&lt;/em&gt; is anyway included:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 10.31 — Among purifiers, I am wind; &lt;strong&gt;Among carriers of weapons, I am &lt;em&gt;RAma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;; Among aquatics, I am the crocodile; Among water streams, I am &lt;em&gt;JAhnavi (Ganga)&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RAma can be &lt;em&gt;Raghupati RAma, Parashu RAma, Valadev Bala RAma&lt;/em&gt;. Similarly, &quot;Wind&quot; can be &lt;em&gt;Pavana-putra HanumAna, VAyu-putra Bhima&lt;/em&gt;. In spirituality, take everything as perceptions or choices. Being judgmental, may create conflicts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what if someone 'worshipable' hasn't &quot;made&quot; into the list of chapter-10? :-) Luckily, Krishna was aware of this. There can be many entities pre &amp;amp; post Gita, which were quite worshipable by various beings. Hence Krishna ends the list with following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; BG 10.41 — Whichever influential excellence(&lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt;) [entity] certainly has prosperity(&lt;em&gt;Shrimad&lt;/em&gt;) or energy(&lt;em&gt;Urjita&lt;/em&gt;); those you know to be possible as part of My aura only. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can even worship our own self (BG 10.20) as well; because &quot;Self&quot;(&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;) is actually Krishna's &quot;Me&quot; only. Similar to Advaita or Buddhism's &lt;em&gt;ShunyatA&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Is chanting name of Lord Shriram is unauthorised worship of almighty god although he was one of the avataras of Lord Vishnu?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Chanting(&lt;em&gt;Japa&lt;/em&gt;)&quot; anything with devotion is fine. Be it, &quot;RAma, RAma, RAma&quot; or &quot;Krishna, Krishna, Krishna&quot; or &quot;Hare RAma ...&quot; or &quot;ShivAy ...&quot; or &quot;Aum ...&quot; or GAyatri or even &quot;Money, Money, Money&quot; (Kuber BG 10.23).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 10.25 — Among great &lt;em&gt;Rishi&lt;/em&gt;s, I am Bhrugu; Among voices, I am the indestructible (&lt;em&gt;Aum&lt;/em&gt;); &lt;strong&gt;Among perseverance(&lt;em&gt;Yagna&lt;/em&gt;), I am continuation of &quot;Chanting(&lt;em&gt;Japa&lt;/em&gt;)&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;; Among stationary-s, I am the snowy place(&lt;em&gt;HimAlaya&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Importance of Chanting&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chanting is one methodical way to fix one's consciousness to the 'entity' being chanted.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Throughout the life [un]knowingly, we are simply preparing our &quot;state of consciousness&quot; for death. During the final moments, whatever our consciousness remembers or bewilders or explores, that is achieved by it. If the part of it is fixed on supreme and part of it is in worldly matters, then the former part disappears in supreme and the latter part returns back to the worldly matters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;[BG 8.6] — Also [when] the body is left remembering this or that &quot;Nature&quot; at the end, O son of Kunti, [it] always approaches towards establishing those nature(s) only.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;If one worships Bhagavan Shriramkrishna then will it be unauthorised?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;. It's quite fine. He was after all a &lt;em&gt;BrahmachAri&lt;/em&gt;. Discard the notion of &lt;em&gt;BrahamachAri&lt;/em&gt; as &quot;person not having sex&quot;. Rather it means, the person who &quot;acts as per god's will&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Brham + AchAra&lt;/em&gt;). Whatever they do, is one or the other form of &lt;em&gt;leela&lt;/em&gt;. During death, if a person's mind is fixed upon Shri RAmaKrishna Paramahamsa, then his/her consciousness will get whatever state of him only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact, I would go on to say that, if our heart suggests us to worship something so called &quot;sinful&quot; or &quot;unauthorized&quot;, then we should do that. Act of &quot;Worship&quot; fixes our consciousness towards one-ness. Ultimately that one-ness will merge with other one-ness and finally the supreme one. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Jainism, RAvana (&amp;amp; Karna) are eligible to be &lt;em&gt;Tirthankara&lt;/em&gt; along with Sri Krishna, BalarAma, VyAsa. Because, whoever has fixed their mind unto supreme (with any kind of emotion), tends to become the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 9.30 — Even if an evil doer worships me with no other devotion, is considered saint(&lt;em&gt;SAdhu&lt;/em&gt;) only, for being situated rightly. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Already seeing good answers &amp;amp; comments. Since you &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8510/killing-animals-karma-and-our-birth/8553?noredirect=1#comment30127_8553&quot;&gt;asked to answer&lt;/a&gt;, I am giving another point of view, to support that worshiping other forms is correct.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T07:41:50.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12190" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12184" CreationDate="2016-05-18T08:31:36.123" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Very first thing is that we know that soul does leave the body at the time of death(Gita 2.13).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood&#xA;to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at&#xA;death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now the question is of the soul being infinite or infinitesimal?&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;various upanishads state the size of soul(atman) as atomic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (5.9):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bālāgra-śata-bhāgasya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śatadhā kalpitasya ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhāgo jīvaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sa cānantyāya kalpate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the upper point of a hair is divided into one hundred parts and&#xA;again each of such parts is further divided into one hundred parts,&#xA;each such part is the measurement of the dimension of the spirit soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly other references(Katha Upanishad and Mundaka Upanishad) to size of soul are given &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So what is the difference between a dead and alive body?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Definitely presence of soul(Consciousness). The same verse which i have linked above states&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That which pervades the entire body you should know to be&#xA;indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SO this verse talks about consciousness which is indestructible. So even though the soul is very minute; it spreads its influence all over the body in the form of consciousness. Consciousness is the symptom of soul. Dead matter is not conscious. If I pinch a dead body it does not feel pain but alive person does.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Vaishnav perspective the soul is minute and God is infinite. God pervades this entire universe.&#xA;manifestation of God in form of Paramatma exists everywhere even in minute subatomic particle. However soul or atman is not present in dead matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse by Swami Vivekananda that you have quoted above also does not equate the matter and spirit. He says everything minus form and name is Brahman. He is not saying everything is spirit. Because we also know from Bhagvad Geeta that there are 2 separate energies; matter and spirit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vivekananda does identify in above verse that soul is situated in the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T08:56:26.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12191" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8629" CreationDate="2016-05-18T08:57:47.243" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kaala&lt;/em&gt; is Time, represented by the Kaala Chakra, worshipped independently or Yama as a presiding deity. The text &lt;em&gt;Yoga Vashishtha&lt;/em&gt;, a conversation between Maharishi Vashishtha and Shri Rama, has multiple references on Kaala providing beautiful insights:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• Time cannot be analyzed; for however much it is divided it survives&#xA;  indestructible. [1.23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• There is another aspect of this time, the end of action&#xA;  (&lt;em&gt;kritanta&lt;/em&gt;), according to the law of nature (&lt;em&gt;niyati&lt;/em&gt;). [1.25.6-7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• The world is like a potter’s wheel: the wheel looks as if it stands&#xA;  still, though it revolves at a terrific speed. [1.27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• Just as space does not have a fixed span, time does not have a fixed&#xA;  span either. Just as the world and its creation are mere appearances,&#xA;  a moment and an epoch are also imaginary. [3.20]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• Infinite consciousness held in itself the notion of a unit of time&#xA;  equal to one-millionth of the twinkling of an eye: and from this&#xA;  evolved the time- scale right upto an epoch consisting of several&#xA;  revolutions of the four ages, which is the life-span of one cosmic&#xA;  creation. Infinite conscious- ness itself is uninvolved in these, for&#xA;  it is devoid of rising and setting (which are essential to all&#xA;  time-scales), and it devoid of a beginning, middle and end. [3.61]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/9903010&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/9903010&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T08:57:47.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12192" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-18T10:40:55.730" Score="4" ViewCount="244" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman could fly, there are numerous descriptions of people with a lot of rare Siddhis. In the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Autobiography-of-a-Yogi-by-Paramahansa-Yogananda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Autobiography of A Yogi&lt;/a&gt;, there are accounts of people who could levitate, summon materials from ethereal realms, can exist at multiples places at once etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How much importance should be given to these Siddhis according to Hindu scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T10:40:55.730" Title="How much importance should be given to Siddhis according to Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|siddhi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12193" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12192" CreationDate="2016-05-18T10:40:55.730" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yoga Vashishtha, is a conversation between Shri Rama and Maharishi Vashishtha. Shri Rama asks a similar question to which Maharishi Vashishtha responds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rama&lt;/em&gt; asked:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord, why do we not see many of these liberated sages traversing the&#xA;  sky now?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vashishtha&lt;/em&gt; replied:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Flying in the sky and other powers are natural to some beings, O Rama.&#xA;  The extraordinary powers and faculties which are observed in this&#xA;  world are natural to those beings - not to sages of self-knowledge.&#xA;  Supernatural faculties (like flying in the air) are developed by even&#xA;  those who are devoid of self-knowledge or liberation, by the&#xA;  utilisation of certain substances or by certain practices. All this&#xA;  does not interest the man of self-knowledge who is utterly content in&#xA;  himself. &lt;strong&gt;They who, in pursuit of pleasures, acquire these powers&#xA;  tainted by ignorance, are surely full of ignorance; the sages of&#xA;  self-knowledge do not adopt such a course.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whether one is a knower of truth or ignorant of it, powers like flying&#xA;  in the air accrue to one who engages himself in some practices. But&#xA;  the sage of self-knowledge has no desire to acquire these. These&#xA;  practices bestow their fruit on anyone, for such is their nature.&#xA;  Poison kills all, wine intoxicates all, even so these practices bring&#xA;  about the ability to fly etc., but they who have attained the supreme&#xA;  self-knowledge are not interested in these, O Rama. They are gained&#xA;  only by those who are full of desires; but the sage is free from the&#xA;  least desire for anything. Self-knowledge is the greatest gain; how&#xA;  does the sage of self-knowledge entertain any desire for anything&#xA;  else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.estudantedavedanta.net/The-Supreme-Yoga-Swami-Venkatesananda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.estudantedavedanta.net/The-Supreme-Yoga-Swami-Venkatesananda.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T10:40:55.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12194" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-18T10:47:08.433" Score="3" ViewCount="568" Body="&lt;p&gt;How is Jyotisha used to predict the level of health of a person? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How are Rashis, Bhavas, Grahas etc. correlated with a person's physical well-being?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, how is Jyotisha related to Ayurveda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T05:01:32.167" Title="Aspects of Jyotisha - Medical astrology" Tags="|ayurveda|astrology|health|body|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12195" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-18T11:57:21.843" Score="1" ViewCount="182" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a person does many good deeds in his life. There are very few say 25% bad deeds in his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he enjoys all the fruits of his 75% good deeds in heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then which kind of family he gets born?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In rich family ? Or Poor / Bad family ? (for getting fruits of 25% bad deeds)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clarify.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="2869" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T12:03:21.113" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T12:09:15.283" Title="Birth after enjoying all good deeds in Heaven" Tags="|belief|gods|bhagavad-gita|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12196" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-18T12:10:07.977" Score="8" ViewCount="5184" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which actions of ours are offensive towards gods? (Drinking, Dating, Masturbation, eating non veg etc). Can anyone provide me a list with some explanation? Are these sins? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4294" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T19:21:37.860" LastActivityDate="2017-10-20T13:15:01.703" Title="In Hinduism, which of our actions make god angry against us?" Tags="|gods|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12197" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12143" CreationDate="2016-05-18T12:51:24.780" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, they cannot be the same for different people. That is just a way to make money and fool people. I will answer this question from a mathematical point of view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The daily horoscopes published in newspapers and magazines are based on the Sun sign.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, there can be 12 possible sun signs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The current population of the planet is around 7 billion. Assuming, equal distribution of the 12 signs, each sun sign will have around 600 million people! Statistically, they all cannot have the same events happening to them on the same day (every day).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actual horoscope making and reading is way more complex. In the birth chart, there are &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/bAstrHom.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;9 planets, 12 signs and 12 houses&lt;/a&gt;. Temporally, there is a system called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/VimshottariDasha/1VimshottariDasha_mainpage.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dasha&lt;/a&gt; which keeps changing. &lt;em&gt;This results in a huge number of possible combinations.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To add to this, I have not included the &lt;em&gt;subjective&lt;/em&gt; aspect of horoscope reading which makes it a very &lt;em&gt;intuitive&lt;/em&gt; art.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T12:51:24.780" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12198" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10524" CreationDate="2016-05-18T13:09:01.480" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;One aspect is that Shani and Shiva are both connected to Kaala (Time). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Jyotisha, Shani himself is named as Kaala mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/Graha/Shani/1Shani_main_page.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hora Sara 2.39&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva is called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mah%C4%81k%C4%81la&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Maha Kaala&lt;/a&gt; i.e. Lord of Time or &lt;em&gt;one who is beyond time.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Shani is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/Graha/Shani/1Shani_main_page.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;known as&lt;/a&gt; &lt;em&gt;suryasuta, suryaja, suryanandana, suryaputra, suryasuta, suryatanaya, suryatmaja&lt;/em&gt;; indicating that he is a son of Surya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T13:09:01.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12199" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3667" CreationDate="2016-05-18T13:56:04.323" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two aspects of this question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, &lt;em&gt;I sense a separation assigned between Krishna and the Supreme being&lt;/em&gt;. It is not only about getting powers from there, when you meditate upon Brahman, you become that. This has been the experience of many Rishis over time. Hence, any apparent difference is illusory. Krishna, says in the Bhagavad Gita, that He is the source of everything. Hence, whether you meditate upon Him or the Supreme being, it is the same thing. It was, infact, easier to meditate upon Krishna (for Arjuna) because Krishna was available there in His physical form and not as some abstract notion. Here is what Krishna says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Arjuna, understand me as the eternal origin of all living entities.&#xA;  I am the wisdom of the spiritually intelligent and the prowess of the&#xA;  powerful.  7.10.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second, you have to look at &lt;em&gt;the context in which the knowledge is given&lt;/em&gt;. Krishna gave knowledge in battlefield, Ashtavakra gave knowledge to Janaka in a royal palace. Hence, some of the knowledge is universal and some is context-based. The condition in which Jesus, Buddha or anyone gave knowledge would have been different. The current situation is different and a Guru or a spiritual master will give the knowledge in different way in today's era. In my opinion, &lt;em&gt;this context-based knowledge is the root for the origin and difference in religion.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-10.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-07-10.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T13:56:04.323" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12201" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:20:24.037" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:20:24.037" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:20:24.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12202" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:20:24.037" Score="0" Body="Vyuha is a battle formation. Most references for vyuha are found in the Mahabharata." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:54:48.097" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:54:48.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12203" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:24:20.650" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:24:20.650" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:24:20.650" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12204" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:24:20.650" Score="0" Body="Narada Bhakti Sutra or aphorisms of love is a text written by Narada Muni. It talks about the various aspects of Bhakti or Divine love." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:53:58.627" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:53:58.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12205" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:27:47.967" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:27:47.967" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:27:47.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12206" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:27:47.967" Score="0" Body="Chandogya Upanishad or Chhandogya Upansihad is a text in the Chandogya Brahmana of the Sama Veda. Its name is derived form Chhanda or poetic meters used in Sanskrit." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:54:26.643" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:54:26.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12207" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:30:52.577" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:30:52.577" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:30:52.577" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12208" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:30:52.577" Score="0" Body="Yoga Vashistha is a text in which Maharishi Vashishtha gives knowledge to Shri Rama. It is in the form of conversation between the two of them." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:53:42.270" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:53:42.270" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12209" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:33:17.417" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:33:17.417" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:33:17.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12210" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:33:17.417" Score="0" Body="Shad-darshana refers to the six prominent schools of thoughts in Hinduism." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:55:22.927" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:55:22.927" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12211" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:34:26.580" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:34:26.580" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:34:26.580" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12212" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:34:26.580" Score="0" Body="Vaisheshika is one of the Shad-Darshanas, the six prominent schools of thoughts in Hinduism." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:55:40.020" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:55:40.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12213" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:36:44.717" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:36:44.717" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:36:44.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12214" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:36:44.717" Score="0" Body="Chakravyuha is the most popular vyuha (battle formation) mentioned in the Mahabharata." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:53:38.410" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:53:38.410" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12215" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:44:45.687" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:44:45.687" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:44:45.687" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12216" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:44:45.687" Score="0" Body="Asana is a physical posture not to be confused with exercise. It is defined in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as 'Sthiram Sukham Asanam' i.e. that which is comfortable and balanced (posture) is an Asana." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:53:51.753" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:53:51.753" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12217" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:46:11.253" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:46:11.253" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:46:11.253" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12218" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:46:11.253" Score="0" Body="Conversion is the changing of your religion." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:54:29.427" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:54:29.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12219" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:50:55.107" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:50:55.107" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:50:55.107" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12220" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:50:55.107" Score="0" Body="Maharishi Parashara is accredited as the author of the first Purana, the Vishnu Purana. He also wrote the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, the foundational text of Jyotisha or astrology." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:55:36.347" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:55:36.347" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12221" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:53:16.980" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:53:16.980" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:53:16.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12222" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:53:16.980" Score="0" Body="Amavasya is a tithi or day in the Hindu lunar month. It is the day when Chandra or Moon is not visible in the night sky. This is also known as the new moon day." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:55:30.003" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:55:30.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12223" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:54:55.520" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:54:55.520" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:54:55.520" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12224" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:54:55.520" Score="0" Body="Poornima is a tithi or day in the hindu lunar month. It is the day when Chandra or Moon is visible in the night sky to the fullest extent. It is also known as the full moon day." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:55:19.677" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:55:19.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12225" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:56:32.823" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:56:32.823" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:56:32.823" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12226" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:56:32.823" Score="0" Body="Srauta refers to texts or rituals based on Sruti." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:54:44.627" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:54:44.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12227" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:57:24.657" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-18T18:57:24.657" LastActivityDate="2016-05-18T18:57:24.657" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12228" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-18T18:57:24.657" Score="0" Body="Akasha or space is one of the Pancha Mahaboota in Hinduism." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T01:54:04.863" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T01:54:04.863" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12229" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-18T23:52:27.083" Score="5" ViewCount="417" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana, aka the Talavakara Upanishad Brahmana, is a confusingly named text which is actually an Aranyaka of the Sama Veda, not a Brahmana or Upanishad.  It does contain within it the famous Kena Upanishad which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but my question is about a different part of the text.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/K8Ai&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana, the birth of Brahma and what ensued after it is described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The brahman created Prajapati.  It created him without seeing, without mouth.  Him lying not looking, without mouth, the brahman entered.  That [became?] human.  Verily the brahman is breath.  Breath, indeed, entered him thus.  He arose, a generator of progeny.Him the Rakshasas fastened on.  &lt;strong&gt;Him one singing this same saman rescued.&lt;/strong&gt;  Because he singing (gayan) rescued (atrayata), that is the reason why the gayatra[-saman] is called so.... By means of the bodiless saman he shook off this one's bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who is the one who rescued Brahma from demons by singing the Gayatra Saman hymn of the Sama Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think the story being referred to is the one told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/20/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Out of disgust, Brahmā threw off the body of ignorance, and taking this opportunity, Yakṣas and Rākṣasas sprang for possession of the body, which continued to exist in the form of night. Night is the source of hunger and thirst. Overpowered by hunger and thirst, they ran to devour Brahmā from all sides and cried, “Spare him not! Eat him up!” Brahmā, the head of the demigods, full of anxiety, asked them, “Do not eat me, but protect me. You are born from me and have become my sons. Therefore you are Yakṣas and Rākṣasas.” He then created the chief demigods, who were shining with the glory of goodness. He dropped before them the effulgent form of daytime, and the demigods sportingly took possession of it. Lord Brahmā then gave birth to the demons from his buttocks, and they were very fond of sex. Because they were too lustful, they approached him for copulation. The worshipful Brahmā first laughed at their stupidity, but finding the shameless asuras close upon him, he grew indignant and ran in great haste out of fear. He approached the Personality of Godhead, who bestows all boons and who dispels the agony of His devotees and of those who take shelter of His lotus feet. He manifests His innumerable transcendental forms for the satisfaction of His devotees. Lord Brahmā, approaching the Lord, addressed Him thus: &quot;My Lord, please protect me from these sinful demons, who were created by me under Your order. They are infuriated by an appetite for sex and have come to attack me.  My Lord, You are the only one capable of ending the affliction of the distressed and inflicting agony on those who never resort to Your feet.&quot; The Lord, who can distinctly see the minds of others, perceived Brahmā’s distress and said to him: “Cast off this impure body of yours.” Thus commanded by the Lord, Brahmā cast off his body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is the Vishnu the person who rescued Brahma in that Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana?  If so, did he sing the Gayatra Saman in the process, even if the Srimad Bhagavatam doesn't mention it?  Or did someone, perhaps Brahma himself, pray to Vishnu using the Gayatra Saman to get Vishnu to rescue Brahma from the demons? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Sayana's commentary shed any light on this?  Are there any other scriptures that describe someone rescuing Brahma by chanting the Gayatra Saman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-05-20T13:12:16.553" Title="Who saved Brahma from demons by singing the Sama Veda?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|brahma|sama-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12230" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-19T01:37:24.217" Score="4" ViewCount="213" Body="&lt;p&gt;I went to a temple about a few weeks ago. On the wall of this temple, it was written that it is prohibited to consecrate water to Lord Hanuman according to scriptures. At that time, I could not ask priest about this and did Google around a little bit, but did not find any reference to this. Does anybody know about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. Varun deva had blessed him with a boon that he can never be harmed by water. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5674" LastEditorUserId="5674" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T05:06:32.223" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T05:06:32.223" Title="Why one should not consecrate water to Lord Hanuman?" Tags="|worship|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12231" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12237" CreationDate="2016-05-19T14:24:21.147" Score="4" ViewCount="3251" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the relationship between &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancha_Bhoota&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pancha Mahabhuta&lt;/a&gt; and Rashi in Jyotisha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-20T12:40:02.270" Title="Jyotisha - Relation between Pancha Mahabhuta and Rashi" Tags="|astrology|panchabhoota|rashi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12232" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-19T14:43:46.483" Score="3" ViewCount="827" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana, aka the Talavakara Upanishad Brahmana, is a confusingly named text which is actually an Aranyaka of the Sama Veda, not a Brahmana or Upanishad.  It contains within it the famous Kena Upanishad which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but my question is about a different part of the text.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12229/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana discusses how someone rescued Brahma from demons by singing the Gayatra Saman, an important hymn of the Sama Veda.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But after that, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/uIno&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; it gives the Guru Parampara by which the Gayatra Saman was passed down.  Here's the beginning of it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That is the immortal gayatra[-saman].  By means of it Prajapati went unto immortality, by means of it the gods, by means of it the sages (rishi).  That the same &lt;strong&gt;the brahman told to Prajapati; Prajapati to Parameshthin Prajapatya&lt;/strong&gt;, Parameshthin Prajapatya to god Savitar, god Savitar to Agni, Agni to Indra, Indra to Kashyapa, Kashyapa to Rishyashringa Kashyapa, ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss here, Rishyasringa is the priest who conducted Dasharatha's Putrakameshti Yagna.  But my question is, who is the figure &quot;Prajapati&quot; that Brahman taught the Gayatra Saman to, and who is the figure &quot;Parameshthin Prajapatya&quot; that this Prajapati taught it to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Up until now, I had assumed that Prajapati and Parameshthin were just two names of the creator god Brahma, the husband of Saraswati.  For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15063.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad gives the Guru Parampara of the Madhu Vidya (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7729/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and it says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;53&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vyashti from Sanâru,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sanâru from Sanâtana,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sanâtana from Sanaga,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sanaga from Parameshthin,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parameshthin from Brahman,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahman is Svayambhu, self-existent.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adoration to Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe43/sbe4375.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Satapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda discusses the following Guru Parampara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;9&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Now the line of succession (of teachers). The same as far as Sâmgîvîputra. Sâmgîvîputra (received it) from Mândûkâyani, Mândûkâyani from Mândavya, Mândavya from Kautsa, Kautsa from Mâhitthi, Mâhitthi from Vâmakakshâyana, Vâmakakshâyana from Vâtsya, Vâtsya from Sândilya, Sândilya from Kusri, Kusri from Yagñavakas Râgastambâyana, Yagñavakas Râgastambâyana from Tura Kâvasheya, Tura Kâvasheya from Pragâpati, &lt;strong&gt;Pragâpati from Brahman (n.)&lt;/strong&gt;. Brahman is the self-existent: reverence be to Brahman!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Until now I had assumed that &quot;Parameshthin from Brahman&quot; and &quot;Prajapati from Brahman&quot; were just two ways of saying the same thing, namely that the creator god Brahma was a disciple of Vishnu.  But the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana quote above seems to be treating Prajapati and Parameshthin Prajapatya as two different people.  So who are these two figures, and which one of them is Brahma?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11158/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; about Adi Shankaracharya's use of the terms &quot;Viraj&quot; and &quot;Hiranyagarbha&quot; may be relevant to all this.  Also, on a side note it's interesting that Indra taught his father Kashyapa the Gayatra Saman.  Usually it's the other way around.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-08T03:19:35.777" LastActivityDate="2018-09-06T11:23:02.147" Title="What is the difference between Prajapati and Parameshthin Prajapatya, and which one is Brahma?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|brahma|sama-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12233" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12234" CreationDate="2016-05-19T16:02:32.697" Score="4" ViewCount="5853" Body="&lt;p&gt;Two common things among most Kshatriyas were:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Marrying many women&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Having many children&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we see most kings described in the Puranas, most of them seem to have met with these two conditions. These are valid too, as it was necessary to propagate your dynasty so that you could maintain your line as well as efficiently rule your kingdom once one expanded it by conquering other kingdoms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know that Dhritarashtra had a hundred and one sons, out of whom the prominent sons are Duryodhana, Duhshasana and (due to his role in Draupadi's Mana Samrakshana) Vikarna. But even though Vyasa lists out the other Kauravas, as far as I know, the only Kaurava described living a family life is Duryodhana, who married Bhanumati, the princess of Kalinga, and had two children - Lakshmana (who was slain by Abhimanyu in battle) and Lakshmanaa (who married Krsna's son Samba).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, does Vyasa give any information as to whether the other 100 brothers (including Yuyutsu) were married, and whether they had children?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-19T16:44:47.690" LastActivityDate="2019-03-12T04:11:55.707" Title="Were all the Kauravas married?" Tags="|mahabharata|kauravas|duryodhana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12234" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12233" CreationDate="2016-05-19T19:02:02.617" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, the other lesser-known Kauravas were also married and had children but Vyasa and the other Mahabharata characters don't seem to address their wives and children by their first names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Abhimanyu-vadha upa-parva of Drona Parva, Duhsasana's son &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07046.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;strikes&lt;/a&gt; Abhimanyu with his mace:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Next, he [Abhimanyu] slew ten car-warriors of the Brahma-Vasatiya race, and then ten huge elephants. Proceeding next towards the car of &lt;strong&gt;Duhsasana's son&lt;/strong&gt;, he crushed the latter's car and steeds, pressing them down into the earth. The invincible son of Duhsasan, then, O sire, taking up his mace, rushed at Abhimanyu. saying, 'Wait, Wait!' Then those cousins, those two heroes, with upraised maces, began to strike each other, desirous of achieving each other's death, like three-eyed (Mahadeva) and (the Asura) Andhaka in the days of old. I ach of those chastisers of foes, struck with the other's mace-ends fell down on the earth, like two uprooted standards erected to the honour of Indra. Then &lt;strong&gt;Duhsasana's son&lt;/strong&gt;, that enhancer of the fame of the Kurus, rising up first, &lt;strong&gt;struck Abhimanyu with the mace on the crown of his head&lt;/strong&gt;, as the latter, was on the point of rising. Stupefied with the violence of that stroke as also with the fatigue he had undergone, that slayer of hostile hosts, viz., the son of Subhadra, fell on the earth, deprived of his senses. Thus, O king, was one slain by many in battle&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Stri Parva, Gandhari &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;laments&lt;/a&gt; her dead sons along with their wives and also her son-in-law (Duhshala's husband):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gandhari said, ‘There, O Madhava, &lt;strong&gt;my son Vikarna&lt;/strong&gt;, applauded by the wise, lieth on the bare ground, slain by Bhima and mangled horribly! Deprived of life, O slayer of Madhu, Vikarna lieth in the midst of (slain) elephants like the moon in the autumnal sky surrounded by blue clouds. His broad palm, cased in leathern fence, and scarred by constant wielding of the bow, is pierced with difficulty by vultures desirous of feeding upon it. &lt;strong&gt;His helpless young wife&lt;/strong&gt;, O Madhava, is continually endeavouring, without success, to drive away those vultures desirous of feeding on carrion. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ... &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ... &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  At that time, O Janardana, when Jayadratha, assisted by the Kekayas, endeavoured to ravish Draupadi, he deserved to be slain by the Pandavas! From regard, however, &lt;strong&gt;for Duhshala, they set him free on that occasion&lt;/strong&gt;. Why, O Krishna, did they not show some regard for that Duhshala once more? That daughter of mine, of tender years, is now crying in grief. She is striking her body with her own hands and censuring the Pandavas. &lt;strong&gt;What, O Krishna, can be a greater grief to me than that my daughter of tender years should be a widow and all my daughters-in-law should become lordless.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-05-19T19:02:02.617" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12235" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-19T19:32:44.433" Score="7" ViewCount="395" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pantheon.org/articles/k/kubera.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This encyclopedia&lt;/a&gt; of Hindu mythology says the following about how Kubera became a god:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two versions of how Kubera was elevated to the stature of a god. The first version postulates that Kubera performed stringent austerities for thousands of years and, as a reward, was promoted. &lt;strong&gt;Another rather more romantic version is that one day Kubera had gone to rob a temple of Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;, who is the king of robbers. During the robbery Kubera's taper had somehow been blown out. No matter how hard the dwarf tried he could not relight the taper. Nevertheless, he persisted with his efforts no matter how nefarious they were and, on the tenth attempt, he succeeded. Shiva is a benign god who is often pleased by the most illogical of efforts. This perseverance of Kubera's in his attempt to rob the god's temple won him much admiration from Shiva who subsequently granted the dwarf access to the Hindu pantheon of gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know the 'first version' is &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_003.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;narrated&lt;/a&gt; in Uttara Kanda of Ramayana where Kubera (a.k.a Vaishravana) practiced severe austerities and impresses Lord Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what's the source of the alternate story where Kubera robs a temple of Shiva? Is it mentioned in Padma Purana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2022-02-15T10:40:50.560" Title="Which scripture talks about the story of Kubera robbing a temple of Shiva?" Tags="|ramayana|puranas|padma-purana|kubera|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12237" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12231" CreationDate="2016-05-20T01:16:45.740" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the material world is made up of five great elements/PanchaMahabhuta, everything is associated it with. Similarly in Jyotish the 12 constellation are also related with it. It shows which constellation/Rashi is characterized by which Tatwa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to classification by &lt;strong&gt;Brihat Parashar Horashastra  from 4.6-4.24:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(1) Ar(Mesha), Le(Simha) and Sg(Dhanu) are called &lt;strong&gt;agni rasis&lt;/strong&gt; or fiery rasis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(2) Ta(Vrisha), Vi(Kanya) and Cp(Makara) are called &lt;strong&gt;bhoo rasis&lt;/strong&gt; or earthy rasis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(3) Ge(Mithun), Li(Tula) and Aq(Kumbha) are called &lt;strong&gt;vaayu rasis&lt;/strong&gt; or airy rasis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(4) Cn(Karkat), Sc(Vrischik) and Pi(Meen) are called &lt;strong&gt;jala rasis&lt;/strong&gt; or watery rasis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(5) The 5th element of aakaasa or ether is present in every rasi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Significance in Jyotish:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This classification of Rashi based on the Panchatatwa is of great significance in Jyotish. We can find the nature of person by studying the Tatwas and their potencies in a birth chart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For example, the 5th house in one’s chart shows one’s emotional nature. The 5th house in a fiery sign may show a normally angry, aggressive or determined person. The 5th house in an earthy sign may show a &#xA;  balanced, logical and stable person. The 5th house in an airy sign may show someone with unstable and wandering emotions. The 5th house in a watery sign may show one with an imaginative and creative mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-20T12:40:02.270" LastActivityDate="2016-05-20T12:40:02.270" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12240" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12181" CreationDate="2016-05-20T07:04:04.133" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story about Svarbhanu is found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv05040.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here in English&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv05040.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here in Sanskrit&lt;/a&gt; in Rig Veda, Book 5, HYMN XL.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आ याह्य अद्रिभिः सुतं सोमं सोमपते पिब | &#xA;  वर्षन्न इन्द्र वर्षभिर वर्त्रहन्तम || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वर्षा गरावा वर्षा मदो वर्षा सोमो अयं सुतः | &#xA;  वर्षन्न इन्द्र वर्षभिर वर्त्रहन्तम || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वर्षा तवा वर्षणं हुवे वज्रिञ चित्राभिर ऊतिभिः | &#xA;  वर्षन्न इन्द्र वर्षभिर वर्त्रहन्तम || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रजीषी वज्री वर्षभस तुराषाट छुष्मी राजा वर्त्रहा सोमपावा | &#xA;  युक्त्वा हरिभ्याम उप यासद अर्वाङ माध्यंदिने सवने मत्सद इन्द्रः || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यत तवा सूर्य सवर्भानुस तमसाविध्यद आसुरः | &#xA;  अक्षेत्रविद यथा मुग्धो भुवनान्य अदीधयुः || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सवर्भानोर अध यद इन्द्र माया अवो दिवो वर्तमाना अवाहन | &#xA;  गूळ्हं सूर्यं तमसापव्रतेन तुरीयेण बरह्मणाविन्दद अत्रिः || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मा माम इमं तव सन्तम अत्र इरस्या दरुग्धो भियसा नि गारीत | &#xA;  तवम मित्रो असि सत्यराधास तौ मेहावतं वरुणश च राजा || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गराव्णो बरह्मा युयुजानः सपर्यन कीरिणा देवान नमसोपशिक्षन | &#xA;  अत्रिः सूर्यस्य दिवि चक्षुर आधात सवर्भानोर अप माया अघुक्षत || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यं वै सूर्यं सवर्भानुस तमसाविध्यद आसुरः | &#xA;  अत्रयस तम अन्व अविन्दन नह्य अन्ये अशक्नुवन ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is the English translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;COME thou to what the stones have pressed, drink Soma, O thou Soma's Lord,&#xA;  Indra best Vṛtra-slayer Strong One, with the Strong.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Strong is the stone, the draught is strong, strong is this Soma that is pressed,&#xA;  Indra, best Vṛtra-slayer, Strong One with the Strong.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As strong I call on thee the Strong, O Thunder-armed, with various aids,&#xA;  Indra, best Vṛtra-slayer, Strong One with the Strong.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Impetuous, Thunderer, Strong, quelling the mighty, King, potent, Vṛtra-slayer, Soma-drinker,&#xA;  May he come hither with his yoked Bay Horses; may Indra gladden him at the noon libation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O Sūrya, when the Asura's descendant Svarbhanu, pierced thee through and through with darkness,&#xA;  All creatures looked like one who is bewildered, who knoweth not the place where he is standing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What time thou smotest down Svarbhanu's magic that spread itself beneath the sky, O Indra,&#xA;  By his fourth sacred prayer Atri discovered Sūrya concealed in gloom that stayed his function.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let not the oppressor with this dread, through anger swallow me up, for I am thine, O Atri.&#xA;  Mitra art thou, the sender of true blessings: thou and King Varuṇa be both my helpers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Brahman Atri, as he set the press-stones, serving the Gods with praise and adoration,&#xA;  Established in the heaven the eye of Sūrya, and caused Svarbhanu's magic arts to vanish.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Atris found the Sun again, him whom Svarbhanu of the brood&#xA;  Of Asuras had pierced with gloom. This none besides had power to do.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-11T07:25:10.190" LastActivityDate="2016-11-11T07:25:10.190" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12241" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-20T08:51:16.110" Score="1" ViewCount="40" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before the Kurukshetra war, while giving the Gita knowledge to Arjuna, Krishna said that he is the Indra among Devas, and the Vajra among the weapons, and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: why did not he mention about his own Sudarshan Chakra? Does it mean that his Chakra is less powerful than Vajra??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastActivityDate="2016-05-20T08:51:16.110" Title="Krishna the Vajra among weapons" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-05-21T15:23:24.147" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12242" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8991" CreationDate="2016-05-20T11:10:58.120" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are different values of Yojana used in different Hindu texts. This research paper, &lt;a href=&quot;http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/9804020&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Speed of Light and Puranic Cosmology&lt;/a&gt;, by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhash_Kak&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Subash Kak&lt;/a&gt; discusses two such values in details. He calls them Standard Yojana and Puranic Yojana. Hence, this premise on which the inference is made is shaky.&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Also, I would like to give evidences, in terms of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tourslanka.com/ramayana/#the-fall-of-ravana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;multiple places&lt;/a&gt;, which suggest that Sri Lanka is the Ravana's Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weragantota&lt;/strong&gt; means the Place of Aircraft landing in Sinhala. This is the first place Sita Devi was brought to Lankapura&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sita Devi was kept at queen Mandothari’s palace at Lankapura. The&#xA;  place Sita was held captive is called &lt;strong&gt;Sita Kotuwa&lt;/strong&gt;; which means&#xA;  Sita’s Fort in Sinhala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is believed Rāvana had an aircraft repair centre at &lt;strong&gt;Gurulupotha&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  close to Sita Kotuwa. Gurulupotha means Parts of Birds in Sinhala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ashok Vatika&lt;/strong&gt; is a garden where Rāvana held Sita captive. This is in the area of Sita Eliya, close to the city of &lt;em&gt;Nuwara Eliya&lt;/em&gt;. The&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Sita Amman Temple&lt;/em&gt; is located at this spot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whilst crossing the ocean, Hanuman was tested by Surasa Devi, the Naga&#xA;  maiden en-route to Lanka. This place is now called &lt;strong&gt;Nagadeepa&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuman on the way back to India rested at &lt;strong&gt;Mani Kattuthar&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rāvanagoda&lt;/strong&gt; which means Ravana’s place in the Kotmale area is one such complex of tunnels and caves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gayathri Peedum&lt;/strong&gt; is the place where Ravana’s son Mehganath was granted super natural powers by Lord Shiva prior to the battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Neelawari&lt;/strong&gt; is located in the North of the country in the Jaffna peninsula is a place Lord Rama shot an arrow to the ground to obtain&#xA;  water for his army upon arriving Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dondra, Seenigama &amp;amp; Hikkaduwa&lt;/strong&gt; are places in the South of Lanka where Sugriva (king of Vanaras) prepared for his onslaught on king&#xA;  Ravana’s forces from the Southern flank.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dunuwila&lt;/strong&gt; is a place from which Lord Rama fired the Brahmastra at king Rāvana who was directing the war from &lt;strong&gt;Laggala&lt;/strong&gt;, where he was&#xA;  killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Rāvana’s death, his body was kept at &lt;strong&gt;Yahangala&lt;/strong&gt;, Divan or Bed&#xA;  Rock in Sinhala for the country men to pay their respect for their&#xA;  departed King.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In the end, there is &lt;strong&gt;Setu Samudram&lt;/strong&gt; which connects India and Sri&#xA;  Lanka.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have not included all the places mentioned in the reference. There are so many more.&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Some people believe that Ramayana happened around 7000 years ago. Others believe that it happened even farther back. In either case, the argument about flora is not valid because of two reasons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One, there is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;continental drift&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. India and Sri Lanka would not have been at the same place so many millenia back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Two, the &lt;em&gt;flora&lt;/em&gt; itself evolves and changes over the millenia. So, what existed then need not exist now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-20T11:10:58.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12243" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2537" CreationDate="2016-05-20T12:53:40.943" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not sure if &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brihat_Parashara_Hora_Shastra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra&lt;/a&gt;, which is a foundational text of astrology has any such references. Although, &lt;em&gt;Upaya&lt;/em&gt; or providing remedial measures is considered a part of Jyotisha. Many astrologers do recommend gems as a remedy. I believe they do have some minimal effect but not a lot. Also, this might provide some insights:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q: In astrology many astrologers recommend wearing certain gem stones&#xA;  and rings. Do you recommend wearing those things and if you are on the&#xA;  spiritual path do you need to wear those things?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No you don’t need to, of course everything&#xA;  has some influence on you but you know you are much more&#xA;  powerful than a piece of stone. So if you like you can do it.&#xA;  Otherwise chant ‘Om Namah Shivaya’, that is most powerful mantra which&#xA;  takes care of all the bad effects of any planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2011_05_01_archive.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://wisdomfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.in/2011_05_01_archive.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-20T12:53:40.943" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12244" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12247" CreationDate="2016-05-20T16:10:35.973" Score="3" ViewCount="876" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_manthan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; wiki article gives an overview of the Samudra Manthana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the very first thing/person that came out of it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-20T17:28:46.467" Title="What was the first object that came out of Samudra Manthana?" Tags="|samudra-manthan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12245" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-20T16:35:53.837" Score="2" ViewCount="126" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ny%C4%81ya_S%C5%ABtras#Theory_of_causality&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nyaya Sutra&lt;/a&gt;, written by Maharishi Gautama,  is the foundational text of the Nyaya school of thought, one of the Shad-Darshanas in Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amongst other things, this text talks about the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ny%C4%81ya_S%C5%ABtras#Theory_of_causality&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;theory of causality&lt;/a&gt;. The reference provides interpretations by multiple authors on such a relationship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the Shlokas in the Nyaya Sutras which give the essence of relationship between cause and effect? I am looking for the original Shlokas with translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who are interested in such a relationship, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12064/what-is-the-relationship-between-cause-and-effect-as-enunciated-by-maharishi-kan&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question talks about the Viasheshika viewpoint on the cause and effect relationship. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12109/what-is-the-advaita-argument-against-real-things-being-causes&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; question talks about the Advaita viewpoint.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-05-20T16:35:53.837" Title="What is the relationship between cause and effect according to Nyaya Sutras?" Tags="|advaita|nyaya|vaisheshika|nyaya-sutra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12247" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12244" CreationDate="2016-05-20T17:22:06.633" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Samudra Mathana is described in several Puranas and both of the Itihasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Srimad Bhagavatam, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Eighth Canto&lt;/a&gt; details the story of Samudra Mathana from Chapters 5 to 11.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Seventh Chapter, this is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/7/18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;SB 8.7.18&lt;/a&gt; — The fish, sharks, tortoises and snakes were most agitated and perturbed. The entire ocean became turbulent, and even the large aquatic animals like whales, water elephants, crocodiles and timiṅgila fish [large whales that can swallow small whales] came to the surface. While the ocean was being churned in this way, &lt;strong&gt;it first produced a fiercely dangerous poison called hālahala.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Srimad Ramayana, the Samudra Mathana is related by Vishvamitra to Rama and Lakshmana in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga45/bala_45_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;45th Sarga of Balakanda&lt;/a&gt;. In that, he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;After a thousand years, the Thousand-headed serpent Vaasuki, which is being used as churning rope, is incapacitated to bear the friction of churning and fanged the cliffs of Mt. Mandara. &lt;strong&gt;Thereby a great lot of venom is disgorged from the heads of that serpent Vaasuki, which venom on melting the rocks of Mt. Mandara became the holocaustic poison called haalahala.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (1.45.19)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata, this is described in the Astika Parva of the Adi Parva, in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01019.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;19th Chapter&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata however, &lt;strong&gt;Chandra&lt;/strong&gt; is said to appear first and the Halahala Poison seems to appear &lt;strong&gt;last&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Ati Nirmathanad Eva Kalakutah Tatah Parah|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Jagadaavrtya Sahasa Sadhoomo Agniriva Jvalan|| (1.19.42)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Because of great churning, there appeared then the deadly poison, which enveloped the world with its vapours, resembling fire, which burns everything.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is described after describing the various ratnas that emerge from the ocean, beginning with Chandra and ending with Airavata. But after describing the swallowing of the poison by Mahadeva, Sauti once again describes the asuras desiring to possess Lakshmi and Amrita, even though they have already emerged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This difference can be reconciled in three ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;By citing Kalpa/Manvantara Bheda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;By citing the particular verse as being interpolated&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;By analysing the manner of presentation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the third method, we can assume that the poison was the first to appear. The verse reads, &quot;Kalakutah &lt;strong&gt;Tatah Parah&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; which can mean, &quot;the deadly poison, then (emerged).&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or it can also read, &quot;the deadly poison, after which (Tatah Parah), (everything else emerged).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is similar to how Shukabrahma Rishi says that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/1/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;he learnt Bhagavatam at the beginning of Dvapara Yuga&lt;/a&gt; when he actually learnt it &lt;strong&gt;at the end&lt;/strong&gt;. The analogy made is that when we consider a tree, the roots of the tree are its beginning, but we call its leaves and branches as the beginning as that is what we first notice. Similarly, Shukabrahma Rishi calls the end of Dvapara as the beginning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this case too, although the roots of the tree - Kalakuta poison - is the first, the leaves of the tree - Chandra, Lakshmi, Apsaras and others - are described first, and the poison is described last.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, we can conclude that by (most) scriptural accounts, the Kalakuta poison was the first to emerge during Samudra Mathana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2016-05-20T17:28:46.467" LastActivityDate="2016-05-20T17:28:46.467" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12249" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-20T19:18:57.757" Score="1" ViewCount="710" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Advaita&lt;/a&gt; is philosophy Propagated by Adi Shankaracharya, Adi shankaracharya/Advaita(original) accepts Vedas and Vedanta Prashnatrayi(Bramha Sutras, Shrimad Bhagwad Gita,Upanishads) Scriptures while he(Adi shankaracharya so his sect) rejects all Agamas including Pancharatra which is origin of Shrimad Bhagwad Gita philosophy. Since there are some Shaiva and Shakta Agamas which have &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamachara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vamachara&lt;/a&gt; followers, so does Advaita Sect accpets them as these(vamachara) people claim to follow advaita philosophy. If Yes, then how is it justified to include agama followers in a sect which rejects all agamas?.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-05-20T05:18:11.810" LastActivityDate="2018-05-20T05:18:11.810" Title="Does Advaita accept vamchara followers?" Tags="|vedanta|agamas|tantra|sects|vamachara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12250" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12082" CreationDate="2016-05-20T20:43:41.327" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm unable to find the exact source on Google, but I remember reading it long back, so moderators may delete this comment, or if anyone remembers the source, you can edit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1/6th of a man's earnings is taken by King for taxes. Of the remaining 5/6, a man should allocate 1/6 for savings for times of distress, 1/6 for charity for poor and handicapped, 1/6 for daily needs for himself and family (includes wife, children and parents), 1/6 for bandhus (brothers, sisters, relatives in need, friends asking for loans etc.), 1/6 for personal pleasure, and i forgot the last sixth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, this mainly applies to olden days when mostly vaishyas (merchants) used to earn and they would support brahmins (scholars) and kshatriyas (warriors) by alms and taxes respectively. There was also not much distinction between caring for wife/children vs. caring for parents because they were all part of the 'family'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not sure if this is relevant to your question, but once a  man is married, scriptures state his wealth is shared equally by his wife (she has to 'admit' every expenditure, including donations, by sprinkling water, as you can see in almost every Vedic ritual priests conduct).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2016-05-20T20:53:12.143" LastActivityDate="2016-05-20T20:53:12.143" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12251" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11903" CreationDate="2016-05-20T21:17:47.137" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna is divine consciousness in His absolute purest form and he takes Avatars (not rebirths, there is a very important difference here). Traditionally and repeatedly Krishna, or Visnhu or Adi Purush ShreeHari has chosen Rishi Kashyap as his father and Aditi as his mother. Rishi Kashyap incarnated as Vasudeva and Aditi as Devaki in Krishna Avatar. Earlier Vishnu had taken birth as &quot;Vishnu&quot; directly as a son of Rishi Kashyap and Aditi. Aditi always remains wife or Shakti of Kashyap hence She never becomes Krishna's wife like you put it. Neither does Lakshmi ever become Krishna's mother. This is the truth.&#xA;As for Yashoda, she was a foster mother to Krishna not his birth mother. That was the soul contract.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5692" LastActivityDate="2016-05-20T21:17:47.137" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12252" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-21T05:33:29.343" Score="4" ViewCount="82" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to study entire Ramayana written by Valmiki because he is given not only the story but technology also present in it so please tell me where I can find entire Valmiki poems up to 22,000 poems please show me a way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5693" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-11T18:14:49.730" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T18:14:49.730" Title="Where can I find entire Ramayana written by Valmiki without losing a single verse?" Tags="|ramayana|translation-request|valmiki|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-01-12T02:05:01.897" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12253" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12255" CreationDate="2016-05-21T07:12:10.483" Score="1" ViewCount="1625" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do not properly understand the rationale behind Krishna chasing Bhishma with a chariot wheel during the Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since, Bhishma became unstoppable, Arjuna could have used the divine weapons acquired from Indra during his Swarga visit. Even, Arjuna possessed the formidable Pasupata astra of Shiva. Then, why Arjuna did not use all these against Bhisma??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, Krishna had to take up the wheel to kill Bhishma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastActivityDate="2016-05-21T08:27:08.353" Title="Krishna Rushing at Bhishma With a Chariot Wheel" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-05-25T18:03:10.140" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12255" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12253" CreationDate="2016-05-21T08:27:08.353" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhishma is known for his vow that Bhishma will always protect the king of kuru clan. So he was fighting from Duryodhana's side. Bhishma was brahmachari and was strictly performing celibacy. So he was most powerful in Mahabharata war. Arjuna was unable to kill Bhishma because of his feelings and guts for his grand parent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing this Krishna was in trouble that whose vow should be broken? &lt;strong&gt;Krishna's vow of not taking any weapon or Bhishma's vow.&lt;/strong&gt; So Krishna broke his vow for the sake of Bhishma's lifetime celibacy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mene meri pratigya tod di teri pratigya khatar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;means&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I broke my vow for the sake of your vow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was stopping Krishna for not breaking vow but could not understand what Krishna was doing. Arjuna stood and promised Krishna that he will fight with full passion now-onwards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other side Bhishma stood on his vow but forgot that one should not protect sinner. Thus Bhishma was fallen by the arrows of Arjuna because Bhishma was cursed that all his sins will become arrow and will pin down his body in his end time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-05-21T08:27:08.353" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12256" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12287" CreationDate="2016-05-21T08:36:00.633" Score="0" ViewCount="97" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story of self manifested Shrinathji Temple story of Rajasthan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-13T17:34:05.487" LastActivityDate="2018-09-13T17:34:05.487" Title="Story of swayambhuva Shrinathji temple" Tags="|krishna|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12257" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-21T08:42:31.283" Score="5" ViewCount="1180" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question discusses how poison was the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12244/what-was-the-first-object-that-came-out-of-samudra-manthana&quot;&gt;first thing that came out of Samudra Manthana.&lt;/a&gt; Shiva drank that poison to save everyone and is known as Neelakantha. The poison itself is called हलाहलं (Halahalam) or कालकूटं (KaalaKootam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard that the word हलाहलं is mentioned in different forms in different texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, this wiki article describes (maybe not correctly) two of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halahala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;meanings of KaalaKootam&lt;/a&gt; as 'black mass' or 'time puzzle'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is the poison given these two names - हलाहलं and कालकूटं ? Is there any hidden symbolism behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T03:23:34.027" Title="Why is the poison that came out of Samudra Manthana called Halahalam and Kaalakootam?" Tags="|samudra-manthan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12258" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-21T08:58:17.377" Score="8" ViewCount="11385" Body="&lt;p&gt;Daana has been &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C4%81na#D.C4.81na_in_Hindu_scriptures&quot;&gt;praised in the Rig Veda&lt;/a&gt; and the Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 5.2.3. says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तदेतत्त्रयँ शिक्षेद् दमं दानं दयामिति&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;essentially glorifying generosity, compassion and mental restraint.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;According to Hinduism, what percentage of one's income should be donated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-09-09T16:03:19.497" Title="How much percent of one's income should be given to charity?" Tags="|upanishads|rig-veda|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|daana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12259" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12260" CreationDate="2016-05-21T09:28:17.070" Score="1" ViewCount="60" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does GOD know us before our mind and body is developed ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-19T07:57:30.107" LastActivityDate="2020-06-19T07:57:30.107" Title="Does GOD know us before our mind and body is developed?" Tags="|gods|mind|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12260" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12259" CreationDate="2016-05-21T09:30:53.893" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes GOD know us before our min or body is existed. Mind and heart will lead us to wrong direction, but only by following the soul one reaches GOD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Mahimna Strotra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अतीतः पन्थानं तव च महिमा वाङ्मानसयोरतद्व्यावृत्त्या यं चकितमभिधत्ते श्रुतिरपि।&#xA;स कस्य स्तोतव्यः कतिविधगुणः कस्य विषयः पदे त्वर्वाचीने पतति न मनः कस्य न वचः॥२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your greatness is beyond the reach of mind and speech. Who can properly&#xA;praise that which even the Vedas describe with trepidation, by means of'&#xA;'neti-neti / not this, not this'? How many qualities does He possess? By&#xA;whom can He be perceived? Yet whose mind and speech do not turn to&#xA;the form later taken by Him (saguna) (2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-21T09:30:53.893" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12261" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12262" CreationDate="2016-05-21T09:33:02.407" Score="1" ViewCount="166" Body="&lt;p&gt;How can one purify speech? Speech or tongue is part of indriyas and mother Saraswati is the owner of it. So, how to purify one's speech?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-24T18:18:40.740" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T18:34:23.820" Title="How to purify one's speech?" Tags="|practice|yoga|indriyas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12262" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12261" CreationDate="2016-05-21T09:35:51.967" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;One can either do Japa or praise Mother Saraswati or Lord Shiva to purify speech. Pushpadanta had purified his speech by singing Mahimna Strotra as he was Gandharva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मधुस्फीता वाचः परमममृतं निर्मितवतस्तव ब्रह्मन्किं वागपि सुरगुरोर्विस्मयपदम्।&#xA;मम त्वेनां वाणीं गुणकथनपुण्येन भवतः पुनामीत्यर्थेऽस्मिन् पुरमथन बुद्धिर्व्यवसिता॥३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oh Brahma --the Absolute-- (brahman)!, is it (kim) surprising (vismayapadam) that even (api) the guru --preceptor-- (guroḥ) of the gods (sura) --i.e. &amp;quot;Bṛhaspati&amp;quot;-- (had uttered) word(s) (vāk) (in praise) of You (tava), who are the author --nirmitavān-- (nirmitavataḥ) of the Supreme (paramam) Nectar (amṛtam) --i.e. &amp;quot;the Veda-s&amp;quot;-- which consists of words (vācaḥ) abounding (sphītāḥ) in the honey (of knowledge) (madhu)? &amp;quot;I purify (punāmi) my (mama... enām) speech (vāṇīm) indeed (tu) by means of the meritorious act (puṇyena) of describing (kathana) Your (bhavataḥ) qualities or attributes (guṇa)&amp;quot;... for this purpose (ityarthe), (my) intellect (buddhiḥ) has resolutely undertaken (vyavasitā) this (task) (asmin), oh Destroyer (mathana) of the (three) cities (pura)! --i.e. Śiva is called &amp;quot;puramathana&amp;quot; because He destroyed the three cities belonging to the three sons of the demon known as Tāraka--||3||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-21T09:35:51.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12263" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12264" CreationDate="2016-05-21T09:53:05.803" Score="1" ViewCount="79" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the glory of hymn of Shiva in spiritual life ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-05-21T09:53:15.180" Title="What is the glory of hymn of shiva in spiritual life?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12264" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12263" CreationDate="2016-05-21T09:53:15.180" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;From Mahimna Strotra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दीक्षा दानं तपस्तीर्थं योगयागादिकाः क्रियाः।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;महिम्नः स्तव पाठस्य कलां नार्हन्ति षोडशीम्॥३५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Initiation into spiritual life, charities, austerities, pilgrimages, practice of&#xA;yoga, performance of sacrificial rites - none of these give even a sixteenth&#xA;part of the merit that one gets by reciting the hymn on the greatness of&#xA;Shiva. (36)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just one hymn of shiva and all others even sacrificial acts are not in comparision to even sixteenth part of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-21T09:53:15.180" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12265" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12267" CreationDate="2016-05-21T09:54:57.547" Score="-1" ViewCount="1170" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Lord shiva is the most powerful GOD? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-05-21T09:59:47.433" LastActivityDate="2016-05-21T09:59:47.433" Title="Why Lord shiva is the most powerful GOD?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-05-21T15:19:16.003" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12266" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-21T09:58:30.533" Score="12" ViewCount="964" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda has said that avataras are always different from ordinary gurus even if they have attained the highest state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Complete Works/Volume 5/&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_5/Questions_and_Answers/VII_Guru,_Avatara,_Yoga,_Japa,_Seva&quot;&gt;Questions and Answers&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q.—Cannot the spiritual teacher make the aspirant fit?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A.— &lt;strong&gt;An Avatâra can. Not an ordinary Guru.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q.—Is there no easy way to liberation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A.—&quot;There is no royal road to Geometry&quot;—&lt;strong&gt;except for those who have been fortunate enough to come in contact with an Avatara.&lt;/strong&gt; Paramahamsa Deva used to say, &quot;One who is having his last birth shall somehow or other see me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q.—What is the meaning of &quot;क्षणमिह सज्जनसंगतिरेका&quot;—&quot;Even a moment's association with the holy ones serves to take one beyond this relative existence&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A.—A fit person coming in contact with a true Sadhu attains to liberation. True Sadhus are very rare, but their influence is such that a great writer has said, &quot;Hypocrisy is the tribute which vice pays to virtue.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;But Avataras are Kapâlamochanas, that is, they can alter the doom of people. They can stir the whole world.&lt;/strong&gt; The least dangerous and best form of worship is worshipping man. One who has got the idea of Brahman in a man has realised it in the whole universe. Monasticism and the householder's life are both good, according to different circumstances. Knowledge is the only thing necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is saying that Avataras can give liberation so why can't ordinary realized gurus do that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who can alter the doom of people is the Lord. No sadhu, however advanced, can claim this unique position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why no sadhu can claim this unique position? Speaking from Advaita perspective, the moment you get realized, you become aware of your true nature. You realize that you are no different from indivisible Brahman and that is what Avatara is: God in human form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what exactly is the difference between avataras and normal gurus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="3872" LastEditDate="2017-11-20T15:37:35.463" LastActivityDate="2019-01-01T05:52:34.410" Title="How is avatara different from realized souls?" Tags="|avatars|guru|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12267" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12265" CreationDate="2016-05-21T09:59:12.837" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com.ar/en/shiva-mahimna-stotram-normal-translation/597&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahimna Strotra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;महेशान्नापरो देवो महिम्नो नापरा स्तुतिः।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;अघोरान्नापरो मन्त्रो नास्ति तत्त्वं गुरोः परम्॥३७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no god (devaḥ) that is higher (aparaḥ) than Mahesha --an epithet of Siva meaning &amp;quot;great Lord&amp;quot;-- , there is no hymn of praise (stutiḥ) which is higher than (this) Sivamahimnaḥ stotram . There is no Mantra --a sacred word-- which is higher than Aghora --an epithet of Shiva meaning &amp;quot;not terrific&amp;quot;-- (and) there is no  principle (tattvam) that is superior to the Guru --in the sense of the fifth &amp;quot;kṛtya&amp;quot; or action of Śiva, which bestows divine Grace upon a limited being-- ||37||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-21T09:59:12.837" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12268" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-21T10:00:58.747" Score="6" ViewCount="3544" Body="&lt;p&gt;The universe is split up into many island-universes, as&#xA;described in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=Ttlg-vUmi-4C&amp;amp;pg=PA545&amp;amp;dq=I%20saw%20countless%20creations%20though%20they%20did%20not%20know%20of%20one%20an-%20other%E2%80%99s%20existence&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwif1-HL8urMAhXFMI8KHX12C-MQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=I%20saw%20countless%20creations%20though%20they%20did%20not%20know%20of%20one%20an-%20other%E2%80%99s%20existence&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yoga Vashishtha 6.2.60&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I saw countless creations though they did not know of one another’s&#xA;  existence. Some were coming into being, others were perishing, all&#xA;  of them had different shielding atmospheres (from five to thirty-six&#xA;  atmospheres). There were different elements in each, they were&#xA;  inhabited by different types of beings in different stages of&#xA;  evolution.. [In] some there was apparent natural order in others there&#xA;  was utter disorder, in some there was no light and hence no&#xA;  time-sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I imagine this is talking about various planets in different stages of evolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there similar accounts in other Hindu scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2017-08-20T12:54:55.950" Title="Which Hindu scriptures talk about multiple universes or planets?" Tags="|vashishta|science|yoga-vashishtha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-06-28T17:40:00.500" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12269" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-21T11:19:35.663" Score="6" ViewCount="174" Body="&lt;p&gt;In story of Srinivasa/&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Venkateswara&lt;/a&gt;,a Cowherd loses prana by the shocking Darshan of Shriman Narayana. The cowherd must be very lucky man to have died after having darshan of Shriman Narayana and he must have been granted moksha. So what is the past of the Cowherd, did he attain moksha after that birth. Why was the jiva inside the body of cowherd chosen for this task?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-07T16:16:43.907" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T16:16:43.907" Title="What is the story of the cowherd who died of shock after Shrinivasa's Darshan?" Tags="|vishnu|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12272" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-21T15:15:01.110" Score="13" ViewCount="30213" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know that &lt;sup&gt;(and Keshav Srinivasan has &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/search?q=The+most+popular+school+of+Hindu+philosophy+is+the+Vedanta+school&quot;&gt;written&lt;/a&gt; many times)&lt;/sup&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there are sub schools of Vedanta which are graphically shown &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Subschools_of_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/69zOO.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/69zOO.png&quot; alt=&quot;scren-shot&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among them &lt;strong&gt;Advaita (अद्वैत) &amp;amp; Vishishtadvaita (विशिष्टाद्वैत)&lt;/strong&gt; are the most popular schools of Vedanta. I know about Advaita Vedanta but don't about Vishishtadvaita much. I want to compare both philosophies and study the difference between them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, What are the differences between Advaita &amp;amp; Vishishtadvaita ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2022-04-14T12:00:58.567" Title="Differences between Advaita &amp; Vishishtadvaita" Tags="|advaita|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12276" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12249" CreationDate="2016-05-22T05:41:12.903" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his book The Spiritual Heritage of India, Swami Prabhavananda says (pp 143-145, section heading: The Tantras):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Tantras are the scriptures by means of which knowledge is spread in order to save humanity from ignorance. They are also known as Agamas--revelations, in conformity, that is, with the revelations of the Vedas. Their authorship is unknown though there is a tradition that Siva uttered them to his divine consort Sakti (the Divine Mother), and that through her they reached mankind. Their date is uncertain, but since Buddha was familiar with them they are obviously pre-Buddhistic. Buddhistic Tantras exist, however, belonging to the Tibetian school of Buddhism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The original Tantras are divided into three main groups according as the deity chosen to worship is Vishnu, Siva, or Sakti. Thus there are Vaisnava Agamas (or Pancaratra), the Saiva Agamas, and the Sakta Agamas, besides the later Buddhistic Agamas composed in Tibet. The Sakta group is the most popular, so much so that the word Tantra has come to mean, generally though mistakenly, only the Sakta Agamas.  It is those that we shall give our attention.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Tantras are broadly divided into three parts; sadhana, which include spiritual practices and disciplines and ritualistic forms of worship; siddhi, or attainments from such practices; and philosophy. Let us examine the last of these first.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The philosophy of the Tantras is based upon the Upanishads. It is nondualistic,, upholding the identity of the individual soul with Siva-Sakti--that is, in the language of the Upanishads and of Samkara [Adi Sankara], the identity of the individual self with Brahman, ot the Universal Self. Samkara calls the creative power of the universe maya, or illusion, the universe for him possessing in itself no absolute reality, whereas the Tantras call the creative Sakti, or God the Mother, and regard the universe as her play when she has become mind and matter. Here, in their interpretation of reality, the Tantras apparently approach the philosophy of Ramanuja, who looked upon the universe of mind and matter as a transformation of Brahman--as, in effect, the body of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Sakti, or God the Mother, is not distinct from Siva, or Brahman, the Absolute of the Upanishads, but is the power of the Absolute. In the transcendental plane, which is static, where there is but one undivided, absolute existence, and where there is no universe, the truth is known as Siva, or the Absolute Existence-Knowledge-Bliss; but in the active, immanent plane, that is, the plane in which the universe is known, there is experienced by the seer the play of Sakti, of God the Mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...The teachings of the Tantras are never at variance with those of the Upanishads. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his footnote to the first sentence above, Swami Prabhavananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of all Indian scriptures, the Tantras are most often misunderstood by Western scholars, and even native scholars are not altogether free from error in dealing with them. But I must declare in this connection that in recent years one Western student of Eastern philosophy, Sir John Woodruffe, an Englishman and at one time Chief Justice of the High Court of Calcutta, has through a lifetime devoted to the study of Tantric literature, done yeoman service in the cause of a proper understanding of these difficult scriptures, both through translations of original manuscripts and through correct interpretations of their spirit. 'Tantra Shastra [scriptures]', he says, '--(is) generally spoken of as a jumble of &quot;black magic&quot;, and &quot;erotic mysticism&quot;, cemented together by a ritual which is &quot;meaningless mummery&quot;. A large number of persons who talk in this strain have never had a Tantra in their hands, and such Orientals as have read some portions of these scriptures have not generally understood them, otherwise they would not have found them so &quot;meaningless&quot;. They may be bad or they may be good, but they have a meaning. Men are not such fools as to believe in what is meaningless.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vamachara has been universally condemned by all seers as a path as the vast majority of people that try it easily fall further into tamas and materiality. What is thought of as Vamachara practices make up a very very small part of the Agamas, and is most often misinterpreted in wrong ways when it comes to the practice. Swami Vivekananda condemned the practice of Vamachara. Although Ramakrishna Paramahamsa would not condemn anyone and only referred to Vamachara as the sweepers back door entrance to a house, &lt;em&gt;he did not condone it or accept it&lt;/em&gt;. He looked down on the practice and always encouraged the correct path and would have nothing to do with those who practiced it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a final note, most people do not realize it, but the pujas that are celebrated by everyone are based on the Tantras.        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-12-18T07:43:57.353" LastActivityDate="2016-12-18T07:43:57.353" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12278" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12422" CreationDate="2016-05-22T08:05:23.467" Score="6" ViewCount="9096" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story of the birth of Mandodari (Ravana's wife) ? And how she get married with Ravana ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-05-23T08:19:52.497" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T05:37:46.013" Title="What is the story of the birth of Mandodari?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|mandodari|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12279" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12321" CreationDate="2016-05-22T09:03:21.317" Score="10" ViewCount="2656" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the early movements that was important to the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts or Agamas consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu. Since the Pancharatra Agamas originated from Narayana himself, they're followed by pretty much all mainstream Vaishnavas today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first time I came across the word '&lt;em&gt;Pancharatra&lt;/em&gt;' was in case of Narada Pancharatra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every subsequent time I came across this word I thought Pancharatra refers to Narada Pancharatra. Basically, I had this idea that there is one scripture; Narada Pancharatra just like any other scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I went through different questions on this site and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this wiki page&lt;/a&gt;; I realised that Pancharatra is not a single scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the question is;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the different Pancharatra texts (I read that there are around 200 of them); please mention the principal ones.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the basis to classify a text as a Pancharatra text?&#xA;Ex. Bhagavad-Geeta is classified as Pancharatra text. What could be the reason to refer Geeta as a Pancharatra text?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-24T16:29:24.763" LastActivityDate="2023-04-02T03:47:59.473" Title="What exactly are Pancharatra texts?" Tags="|vaishnavism|pancharatra|vishnu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12280" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12281" CreationDate="2016-05-22T10:10:49.170" Score="5" ViewCount="2094" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone tell a good book of Mahabharata in English version?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The one I know is The Mahabharata: Complete and Unabridged (10 volumes) by Bibek Debroy (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/mahabharata-complete-and-unabridged-set-of-10-volumes-NAJ762/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;www.exoticindiaart.com&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/H7MWR.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/H7MWR.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other versions available?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know this is a meta question but don't have enough reputation to ask in meta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5701" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-30T03:58:21.820" LastActivityDate="2020-04-01T21:25:20.287" Title="Book for Mahabharata (English version)" Tags="|mahabharata|translation-request|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12281" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12280" CreationDate="2016-05-22T10:17:07.130" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;A good English version translation is by Kisari Mohan Ganguli. It is complete scannable and full translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can download it here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/MahabharataOfVyasa-EnglishTranslationByKMGanguli.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/MahabharataOfVyasa-EnglishTranslationByKMGanguli.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-22T13:05:09.320" LastActivityDate="2016-05-22T13:05:09.320" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12282" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16541" CreationDate="2016-05-22T12:46:11.567" Score="24" ViewCount="4550" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that Hindu scriptures classified as Shruti and Smriti but don't know &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;much&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; about Aagama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to know about Agama Scripture:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the Agama Scriptures?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are they related to Vedas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How did they originate or come into existence?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And are they classified as Shruti or Smriti?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-27T06:59:24.180" LastActivityDate="2021-03-12T08:03:24.623" Title="What are the Agama scriptures? Are they related to Shruti/Vedas?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|agamas|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12283" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-22T17:57:42.123" Score="8" ViewCount="1259" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came to know by chanting &quot;Aditya Hrudayam&quot; slokas we can win over enemies and get good friends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to eliminate negative thoughts, ideas, emotions in our mind and stop generation of those(evil thoughts) in mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And at the same time I would like to cultivate continuous generation of positive and good thoughts and always mind filed with those good and positive thoughts, ideas and emotions in my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any Hymns, slokas those can help to achieve above stated objective?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1131" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-05-23T05:57:04.017" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T04:49:13.693" Title="Hymn or slokas for eliminating evil thoughts and cultivation positive and good thoughts?" Tags="|shloka|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12285" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-23T06:00:33.580" Score="1" ViewCount="76" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story behind Swaminarayana ? There are many temples known as Akshardham in delhi and gujarat. They worship mainly Swaminarayana. What is the story behind them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T12:39:36.923" Title="Who is swaminarayana?" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-05-31T10:09:04.933" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12286" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8627" CreationDate="2016-05-23T07:13:36.677" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sita was actually the daughter of Lord Agni and Mandodari. Mondodari was very beautiful and Agni got  thrilled saying her beauty . In the union Sita was born However Agni promised that Sita was born to destroy Ravanas dynasty . However you will remin as virgin only . She was asked to put Sita somewhere. Manodari filled all necessary things for the child including ornaments and asked the servants to Dispose off the child at a far away place. She was thus buried in a casket at Jankas plouging field. As Janaka had no issue he was asked to plough the field . During the act the casket was retrieved and Sitha came into the hands of Janaka. As he came ploughing field which is also called Sita , she was named thus. &#xA;Later she was married to Rama.&#xA;When Rama went to exile in forest Lord agni came and told Rama that I will take away Sita and give you Mayua Sita, Original Sita will be returned durting Agni Pravesh. &#xA;In order to get back the Original Sita the Agni Pariksha was conducted. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5699" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-23T08:02:29.067" LastActivityDate="2016-05-23T08:02:29.067" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12287" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12256" CreationDate="2016-05-23T07:52:56.073" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Story of Shri Nathji:&#xA;Shri Nathji temple is main temple for followers of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudra_Sampradaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rudra Sampradaya&lt;/a&gt; in Vaishnavism which was propagated by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallabha_Acharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vallabhacharya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;History&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Swarup or divine form of Shrinathji is said to be self-manifested.The idol of the Lord Krishna was being transferred to a safer place from Govardhan to protect it from the anti-Hindu, iconoclastic and barbarian destruction of the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb by the Head Goswami of the 1st House of Pushti Marg in 1669, Shri Dauji Maharaj. When the idol reached the spot at village Sihad or Sinhad, the wheels of bullock cart in which the idol was being transported sank axle-deep in mud and could not be moved any farther. The accompanying priests realised that the particular place was the Lord's chosen spot and accordingly, a temple was built there under the rule and protection of the then Maharana Raj Singh of Mewar.Shrinathji Temple is also known as 'Haveli of Shrinathji’ (mansion).The temple was built by Goswami priests in 1672.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Legend&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed Shrinathji used to travel to Mewar to play dice with a Princess by the name of Ajab Kauri. She was upset whenever her beloved Shrinathji would go back to Vraj and asked him to stay with her in the palace. Lord Shrinathji said that one day He would make her palace His home. This palace is the current temple of Shrinathji.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Presently, Shrinathji is worshiped by priests from this kul (genealogical descendants) of Vallabhacharya, in all Havelis around the world, which have also been established exclusively by them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinathji_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2016-05-23T07:52:56.073" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12288" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-23T08:20:50.047" Score="2" ViewCount="794" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen that at some temples especially of Mother Paravati, there are statues of Kaal Bhairav whereas in others there are statues of Hanumanji. Why is this difference? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it because the shakti peethas are protected by Kaalbhairav at those sites which are from the time Hanumanji was not born so they are more ancient?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T09:54:34.117" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T09:54:34.117" Title="Kaal Bhairav idol vs Hanuman idol in Goddess temples" Tags="|temple|hanuman|goddess|bhairava|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12289" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13681" CreationDate="2016-05-23T08:26:07.433" Score="3" ViewCount="1453" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Vaishno devi story? I have heard that Hanumanji fought with kaal bhairav in this story, is it right? Because Kaal Bhairav asked meat and wine instead of vegetarian food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-05-26T09:39:43.693" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T12:32:03.337" Title="What is the Vaishno devi story?" Tags="|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12290" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12386" CreationDate="2016-05-23T08:29:13.557" Score="6" ViewCount="3204" Body="&lt;p&gt;How shiva became Tripurari ? I have heard that Brahma became charioteer and other deities became chariot? And still they say shiva does not need anything but was playing with the stuff of devas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-29T05:17:29.637" LastActivityDate="2016-05-29T05:17:29.637" Title="How Lord Shiva became Tripurari?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12292" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23527" CreationDate="2016-05-23T08:36:26.453" Score="8" ViewCount="1315" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard a story in which Shiva sees only demons are left on earth and opens third eye. Saraswati takes powers from shiva's third eye and saves the world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i4sFf.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i4sFf.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;shiva&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once Shiva saw the world filled with evil. He decided to clean it and opened his third eye from which came a great fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva opened his third eye Saraswati took the form of a river and absorbed the fire. She took it into the sea where it formed a fire-spitting creature called Badavagni. Saraswati declared, &quot;As long as man is wise, the animal will remain here, but if man becomes corrupt, this beast will destroy the world.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read more at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fairytales/indian_mythology_stories/saraswati_saves_the_world.htm#Kts49XlOtDrYWOdQ.99&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fairytales/indian_mythology_stories/saraswati_saves_the_world.htm#Kts49XlOtDrYWOdQ.99&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this true story from scriptures or just a story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-19T09:11:54.117" LastActivityDate="2018-01-19T09:11:54.117" Title="Do any of the scriptures mention the story of Badavagni/Vadavagni?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|saraswati|rivers|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12294" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9563" CreationDate="2016-05-23T09:47:06.250" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://archive.aweber.com/usr_course/FrZem/h/Wednesday_11_May_2016_Prayer.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Original Link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question: Why Bad Things Happen&#xA;  to Good People?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As you mentioned in the 9 May 2016 Thought for the Day, in a situation&#xA;  where greedy, remorseless, revengeful, powerful, scheming people play&#xA;  their dirty games and harass, abuse, insult, cause losses to and&#xA;  disturb the gentle devotees fully aware of the situation--why does&#xA;  this happen to the devotees when they are under the shelter of&#xA;  Krishna? Does Krishna penalize dirty, corrupt people and protect&#xA;  devotees? How and when? Why God delays in answering our prayers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gurudeva, how to serve spiritual master, Tulasi devi, and Krishna for&#xA;  their pleasure, not just to get moksha and Goloka dhama, but in pure&#xA;  devotional service to be with them always. Kindly elaborate. Your&#xA;  insignificant student,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rajendra  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Answer: For a True Devotee Everything is Good&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A devotee accepts the hell of this material world as a wonderful&#xA;  reminder from the unlimitedly merciful Lord Sri Krishna that this&#xA;  material world is not our actual home. Everyone is punished and&#xA;  rewarded according to their previous pious and sinful activities. You&#xA;  cannot change that with prayer. Prayer is for awakening the pure love&#xA;  of God within our hearts so that we can get out of this material&#xA;  world.  It is not for getting better facilities in this material&#xA;  world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By purely serving the spiritual master Tulasi devi and Lord Krishna&#xA;  are automatically pleased. Srila Prabhupada describes nicely below how&#xA;  to serve the spiritual master:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;A disciple should serve the spiritual master as a menial servant, and&#xA;  whatever he has in his possession should be dedicated to the spiritual&#xA;  master: pranair arthair dhiya vaca. Everyone has his life, his wealth,&#xA;  his intelligence and his words, and all of them should be offered to&#xA;  the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the via medium of the&#xA;  spiritual master.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sankarshan Das Adhikari&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another &lt;a href=&quot;http://archive.aweber.com/usr_course/GqjO./h/Wednesday_10_April_2013_Don_t.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; discussing this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and yet another &lt;a href=&quot;http://archive.aweber.com/usr_course/KbFHn/h/Thursday_21_November.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; explaining this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will need to scroll down to the daily Question Answer section on the website.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4522" LastActivityDate="2016-05-23T09:47:06.250" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12295" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12318" CreationDate="2016-05-23T10:26:40.243" Score="4" ViewCount="534" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Shiva is called Nataraja? Is Shiva the king of something?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vIibw.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vIibw.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;shiva&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T08:24:10.360" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T08:24:10.360" Title="Why Shiva is called Nataraja?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12296" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16108" CreationDate="2016-05-23T10:30:39.937" Score="13" ViewCount="2360" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is Shiva called Bholenath? What does it mean by Bholenath? Please explain story too if exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is Shiva also called Bhootnath, Amarnath, Kedarnath, Omakara etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does it mean by kedar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-02-23T18:36:24.613" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T18:36:24.613" Title="Why is Shiva called &quot;Bholenath&quot;, Bhootnath, Amarnath, Kedarnath, Omakara etc.?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|history|name|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12297" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19602" CreationDate="2016-05-23T10:48:16.443" Score="4" ViewCount="3314" Body="&lt;p&gt;When will the Kalyug end? Are there symbols written in scripture? Like men will have long hairs. Like that are there any symbols written in scriptures that this incidents will indicate the end of kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T08:27:08.000" LastActivityDate="2020-03-09T09:28:41.780" Title="When will the Kalyug end? Are there symbols written in scripture?" Tags="|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12298" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12310" CreationDate="2016-05-23T10:51:43.790" Score="6" ViewCount="311" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who was Ashtavakra? I have heard that he was nachiketa's brother and was having great knowledge. What is his story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-19T07:58:54.943" LastActivityDate="2020-06-19T07:58:54.943" Title="Who was Nachiketa's brother Ashtavakra?" Tags="|itihasa|ashtavakra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12299" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19313" CreationDate="2016-05-23T10:53:28.500" Score="6" ViewCount="1936" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Krishna is called Ranchhod or Ranchhod ray. In Gujarat we also sing &lt;strong&gt;Jay Ranchhod Makhanchor&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T06:29:36.507" Title="Why Krishna is called Ranchhod?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12300" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-23T11:00:51.820" Score="2" ViewCount="247" Body="&lt;p&gt;Once, in a battle, the deities were defeated by the asuras. Tormented by arrows, they sought help from king Muchukunda. King Muchukunda agreed to help them and fought against the asuras for a long time.[2] Since the deities did not have an able commander, king Muchukunda protected them against the onslaught by asuras, until the deities got an able commander like Kartikeya, the son of Lord Shiva. Then Indra said to the king Muchukunda, &quot;O king, we, the deities are indebted to you for the help and protection which you have given us, by sacrificing your own family life. Here in the heaven, one year equals three hundred and sixty years of the earth (relatively). Since, it has been a long time, there is no sign of your kingdom and family because it has been destroyed with the passage of time. We are happy and pleased with you, so ask for any boon except Moksha (liberation) because Moksha (liberation) is beyond our capacities&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Muchkunda asks Indra for a boon to sleep. While fighting on the side of the deities, King Muchukunda did not get an opportunity to sleep even for a moment. Now, since his responsibilities were over, overcome by tiredness, he was feeling very sleepy. So, he said, &quot;O King of the deities, I want to sleep. Anyone who dares to disturb my sleep should get burnt to ashes immediately&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra said, &quot;So be it, go to the earth and enjoy your sleep, one who awakens you would be reduced to ashes&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this, King Muchukunda descended to earth and selected a cave on a hill [some locate this to mount Girnar ], where he could sleep without being disturbed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later he was used by Krishna to kill kalyavana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in above incident is proof of einstein's theory of relativity. Are there any other incidence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-05-26T09:54:01.027" LastActivityDate="2016-05-26T09:54:01.027" Title="In the heaven, one year equals three hundred and sixty years of the earth (theory of time relatively)" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-05-23T14:23:35.990" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12301" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12296" CreationDate="2016-05-23T11:03:42.290" Score="8" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nath (Sanskrit word) simply refers to Lord/Refuge/Owner etc. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhola (Hindi word) stands for tenderhearted or kindhearted. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that Shiva is &lt;strong&gt;easily pleased&lt;/strong&gt;/glad by devotion. Also it can be considered as the lord of simple-hearted or innocent perople. So, Shiva is also called Bholenath. Bhootnath means the lord of bhoot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read story of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhasmasur&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhasmasur&lt;/a&gt; and various Devas and Danavas that are graced (or pleased) from Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-05-23T11:22:42.293" LastActivityDate="2016-05-23T11:22:42.293" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12302" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12306" CreationDate="2016-05-23T11:13:36.653" Score="7" ViewCount="691" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Saibaba is worshipped as a deity in Hindu temples? Does Hinduism allow saint or sages to be worshipped too? If yes then why other Hindu saints are not worshipped?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have seen people performing Aarti of saibaba and having prasad too. Are Saints and sages deities?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-12T07:42:07.253" LastActivityDate="2018-03-12T07:42:07.253" Title="Why Saibaba is worshipped as a deity in Hindu temples?" Tags="|temple|worship|sai|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-05-25T17:48:00.757" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12303" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="28926" CreationDate="2016-05-23T11:16:08.367" Score="6" ViewCount="1769" Body="&lt;p&gt;What should one do to have marriage or son early in life? Which deity should be worshipped for this purpose?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T06:40:20.763" LastActivityDate="2020-10-01T16:21:24.407" Title="Which deity should be worshipped to have marriage or son early in life?" Tags="|worship|marriage|life|children|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12304" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-23T11:22:59.560" Score="2" ViewCount="57" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma has 4 faces, shiva has 3 eyes , vishnu has 4 arms and many deities has many various shapes. Why? were they mutating their body or they had power of soul? Does any scripture state something about such mechanisms?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-03-03T11:08:12.650" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T11:08:12.650" Title="Why Deities had more faces and humans have only one?" Tags="|gods|symbolism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12305" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13826" CreationDate="2016-05-23T11:25:53.387" Score="0" ViewCount="100" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any incidence of Aakashvaani in scriptures except Krishna birth? Bhavishyavani of something in scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-06-27T05:45:45.017" LastActivityDate="2016-06-27T05:45:45.017" Title="Is there any incidence of Portend or fortell (bhavishyavani) in scriptures except Krishna birth?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12306" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12302" CreationDate="2016-05-23T11:28:57.247" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Hinduism allows the worship of sages and saints. In fact, we deify gurus and not just worship them, we worship their slippers (pAdukAs). Examples of sages and saints worshipped in temples:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mantralaya Raghavendra Swami (madhwa saint and guru)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nrsimha Saraswati&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Akalkot Maharaj&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Manikya Prabhu and others in the Dattatreya Sampradaya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;We worship at the shrines of previous acharyas in the Sankara mathas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;We worship the sankara pAdukAs in Sankara mathas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sankaracharya himself&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Saint SantRam in Nadiad&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bapa Sitaram in Kathiyavad, Gujarat&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shirdi Baba was worshipped in Hindu tradition even while he was alive. After he left his mortal coil, the worship continued in the same fashion. I suspect one of the reasons that Shirdi Baba  is worshipped in Hindu temples is due to the government's Endowments Department which noticed Babaji's following and seized the business opportunity. They started placing navagrahas and other idols in Babaji's temples so that they can claim the temple's earnings. So, basically Hindus took over Baba and not the other way around. I do not have sources to back this up except hearsay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Personal note: I am an ardent devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-01-18T08:00:30.667" LastActivityDate="2018-01-18T08:00:30.667" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12307" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-23T11:46:22.097" Score="5" ViewCount="754" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Hanuman ever meet Lord Dattatreya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any incident involving both?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-23T22:32:02.950" LastActivityDate="2016-05-23T22:32:02.950" Title="Did Hanuman ever meet Lord Dattatreya?" Tags="|hanuman|dattatreya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12308" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-23T13:14:24.380" Score="5" ViewCount="842" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Narsimha is one of the prominent Vishnu's incarnation. Vishnu is believed to have taken Narsimha avatar to destroy the demon king Hiranyakashipu, as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described in Shrimad Bhagwat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narasimha#Lord_Narasi.E1.B9.81ha_and_Prahl.C4.81da&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; it is mentioned that after killing Hiraṇyakaśipu, none of the present demigods are able to calm Narasiṁha's wrath. After Hiraṇyakaśipu was killed, the Lord continued to be very angry, and the demigods, could not pacify Him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in order to pacify Lord Narsimha, all the gods and goddesses call his consort, &lt;strong&gt;Lakshmi&lt;/strong&gt;, who assumes the form of Pratyangira and pacifies the Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Question is&lt;/strong&gt; : Which scripture describe Lakshmi assuming form of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratyangira&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pratyangira&lt;/a&gt;, also called as &lt;strong&gt;Narasimhi&lt;/strong&gt;, to pacify Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Side Note&lt;/em&gt;: As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagvat&lt;/a&gt;, it is Prahlāda who came forward and pacified the Lord’s anger, and not Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastActivityDate="2016-05-23T13:14:24.380" Title="Which scripture describes Lakshmi pacifying Narsimha?" Tags="|lakshmi|narasimha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12309" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-23T14:52:19.907" Score="15" ViewCount="9540" Body="&lt;p&gt;This wiki article &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajanbahu_(term)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; AjanubAhu as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a person, whose length of arms is so that his finger touch his knee&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also claims that many Hindu Gods, saints, kings or great warriors are AjanubAhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any deeper spiritual significance to this term?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2019-06-25T06:14:18.257" LastActivityDate="2023-06-24T02:15:45.710" Title="What is the significance of or symbolism behind AjanubAhu (आजानुबाहु)?" Tags="|symbolism|terminology|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12310" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12298" CreationDate="2016-05-23T17:08:31.193" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do not know that Ashtavakra is the brother of Nachiketa but the story of Ashtavakra is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03132.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sage Uddalaka had a disciple named Kahoda of subdued passions, and entirely devoted to the service of his preceptor and who had continued his studies long. The Brahmana had served his tutor long, and his preceptor, recognising his service, gave him his own daughter, Sujata, in marriage, as well as a mastery over the Shastras. And she became with child, radiant as fire. And the embryo addressed his father while employed in reading, 'O father, thou hast been reading the whole night, but (of all that) thy reading doth not seem to me correct. Even in my fetal state I have, by thy favour, become versed in the Shastras and the Vedas with their several branches. I say, O father, that what proceeds from thy mouth, is not correct.' Thus insulted in the presence of his disciples, the great sage in anger cursed his child in the womb, saying, 'Because thou speakest thus even while in the womb, therefore thou shalt be crooked in eight parts of the body.' &lt;strong&gt;The child was accordingly born crooked, and the great sage was ever after known by the name of Ashtavakra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-11-02T12:28:57.653" LastActivityDate="2016-11-02T12:28:57.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12311" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-23T18:05:18.993" Score="10" ViewCount="5343" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question came to my mind when I heard/noticed about Indradhanush (hindi/Sanskrit name for Rainbow). So If Indradhanush is really Bow of Indra does it have a significance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scientifically Indradhanush is made by Surya and Varuna i.e. Sunlight and Rain Droplets, is it  mentioned in Hindu scriptures with same scientific accuracy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-05-26T09:51:30.307" LastActivityDate="2023-10-01T08:32:41.867" Title="Is Indradhanush really bow of Indra?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|indra|weapon|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12313" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-24T06:05:33.500" Score="5" ViewCount="5785" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question is related to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12311/is-indradhanusha-really-bow-of-indra&quot;&gt;Rainbow question&lt;/a&gt; in which I ask about the validity of the word Indra-Dhanusha in Hindu Mythology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know what are the other weapons Indra has since he is DevaRaja king of Gods he must have a great weaponry. I know that he uses Vajra the great weapon made out of Rishi Dadhichi's Spine , but just vajra is not enough since he is king. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-12-09T07:12:39.783" Title="What are the weapons used by Indra other than Vajra" Tags="|indra|weapon|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12314" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-24T06:39:13.440" Score="1" ViewCount="76" Body="&lt;p&gt;If I was a person who belong to some other religion and later converted to Hinduism. How my caste would be determined?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Indian society, I see that the caste is determined based on birth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Surely, my profession should not play a factor in this because :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I am not doing business(vaishyas); &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nor am I a warrior(Kshatriyas) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I don't teach any vedas (so not Brahmin)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I have no Idea what Shudra's are responsible for ? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3394" LastActivityDate="2016-05-24T06:39:13.440" Title="How caste is determined?" Tags="|caste-system|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-05-25T02:50:35.950" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12316" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12319" CreationDate="2016-05-24T09:35:19.470" Score="2" ViewCount="199" Body="&lt;p&gt;Has anyone on this website seen God or talked with any form or aspect of Brahman? Did anybody ever meet God? Please write your experiences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T21:11:22.157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T21:11:22.157" Title="Has anyone on this website seen God or talked with any form of Brahman?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-05-24T11:44:53.663" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12317" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12272" CreationDate="2016-05-24T10:30:03.270" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following &lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/16569663/199185405/name/Dvaita,+Advaita+and+Vishishtadvaita_Comman+man%26%2339%3Bs+perspective_D2_draft.docx?download=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;Balarama Murty Vempaty&lt;/em&gt; discusses the three philosophies - Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita and Advaita. It also talks about the role of Karma, Gnana and Bhakti in these philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the book, &lt;em&gt;'Hanumat Vibhuti'&lt;/em&gt;, Sri Rama asks Hanuman to describe&#xA;their relationship. Hanuman responds:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;deha bhudhaya dasoham, jiva bhudhaya tvamansha; atma bhudhaya&#xA;tvamevaham, iti me nisicat mati&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;From the standpoint of the physical body, I am Your servant. From the standpoint of Jeeva (soul), I am part of You. From the standpoint&#xA;of Atman, You and I are one and the same. This is my confirmed&#xA;opinion.”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This sloka sums up the connection between the three systems of&#xA;philosophy Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita and Advaita as they illuminate&#xA;Bhakti , Sraddha and Jnana, the very fundamental traits needed to&#xA;realize God and enjoy the Bliss.  Hanuman’s life through his different&#xA;roles exemplifies how all the three paths of Karma, Bhakti and Jnana&#xA;lead to salvation!. Let us go over the meaning as it relates to three&#xA;philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;From the standpoint of the physical body, I am His servant”&lt;/em&gt;; there is a difference between the Lord and me, as the name and form are&#xA;different. The Lord is my master and I am indeed His servant. &lt;strong&gt;This&#xA;is the Dvaita philosophy followed by Madhvacharya and several&#xA;others.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the standpoint of a Jeeva (Soul), an individual dwelling in the&#xA;body, I am the one conditioned by the mind and intellect which are&#xA;always centered upon You, &lt;em&gt;I am the part and You are the whole.&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;This is fundamental to Vishishtdvaita followed by Ramanujacharya and others.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But from the standpoint of the Atman, the essential Self,&#xA;&lt;em&gt;I and the Lord are one and the same.&lt;/em&gt; There is only one, that is Ananda, Pure Bliss! This is my firm conviction.”  &lt;strong&gt;This is the&#xA;concept of Advaita philosophy followed by Adi Sankaracharya.&lt;/strong&gt;  The&#xA;interpretations in bold letters are mine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many scholars and philosophers have debated the fundamental&#xA;relationship between God, Man and Creation. The unity of existence is&#xA;one of the great themes of &lt;strong&gt;Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt; and an essential pillar of its&#xA;philosophy. Unity is the song of life; it is the grand theme&#xA;underlying the rich variations that exist throughout the cosmos.&#xA;Whatever we see, whatever we experience, is only a manifestation of&#xA;this eternal oneness. The divinity at the core of our being is the&#xA;same divinity that illumines the sun, the moon, and the stars. &lt;em&gt;Karma,&#xA;Jnana and Bhakti are major ways to explore and understand that&#xA;divinity at the core.&lt;/em&gt; Karma and Jnana are the basis of Vedas and&#xA;Upanishads. Bhakti is a post-Vedic concept evolved through the&#xA;blending of Karma (found in Vedas) and Upasana (found in Aranyakas).&#xA;Bhakti is fundamental to Dvaita and Vishishtadvaita.  The Alwars are&#xA;the most ancient Vaishnava poet-saints of Tamilnadu who with intense&#xA;devotional love for Vishnu sang the mystic glory of the Lord.  The&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQXPjuwbC3Q&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Divya Prabandham&lt;/a&gt;, a collection of hymns of Alwars, is placed side&#xA;by side with Vedas by Vishishtadvaitins.  Later theologians of&#xA;Vaishnava faith tried to combine Karma and Jnana aspects with Bhakti&#xA;and thus came Vaishnavism followed by Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya.&#xA;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu popularized Bhakti in the North as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhaktiyoga is defined as the ‘continuous stream of remembrance of God,&#xA;uninterrupted like the flow of oil and characterized by the eight fold&#xA;limbs of Yama, Niyama etc.’ Adi Sankara, who propounded Jnana as the&#xA;only basis for salvation defines Bhakti  in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/vivekachudamani/index.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/a&gt; as&#xA;&lt;em&gt;‘Svasvarupaanusandhanaam Bhaktirityabhidhiyate’&lt;/em&gt; meaning the same continuous flow of thought ‘Thou Art That’. We shall examine how these&#xA;definitions apply to the three systems of philosophy below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dvaita Philosophy&lt;/strong&gt;: According to Madhvacharya, the Dualist, the Universe and the living souls are separate from God. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/gurus/acharyas/sri-madhvacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Madhvacharya&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;speaks of living beings as the servants of God and advocates the&#xA;reality of five-fold differences between: 1) Individual Soul and God,&#xA;2) Soul and Soul, 3) Soul and Matter, 4) God and Matter, and 5) Matter&#xA;and Matter. This is the basis on which we mentioned that Dvaita&#xA;philosophy is based on body level perspective as seen and felt by the&#xA;senses of the relationship between God, Soul (Man) and Matter.  In&#xA;this philosophy the Supreme Being is Vishnu or Narayana. HE is the&#xA;personal first cause. HE is the Intelligent Governor of the world. He&#xA;lives in Vaikuntha along with Lakshmi, His consort. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vaisnava.com/sbt_life.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chaitanya&#xA;Mahprabhu&lt;/a&gt; and others also follow this kind of approach. Under Dvaita&#xA;philosophy, the Soul (Jeeva) upon liberation does not lose its&#xA;distinct identity, which is different from Vishnu, nor does it become&#xA;equal to Him in any respect. It is most appealing to the common man&#xA;irrespective of caste or creed since it is based on intense devotion,&#xA;Bhakti, that ultimately leads to Jnana and Salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishishtadvaita Philosophy&lt;/strong&gt;:   Visistadvaita, or Qualified Non-dualism, according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/Ramanuja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramanuja&lt;/a&gt;, accepts the ultimate Reality to be&#xA;Brahman; but the individual souls and the universe (Matter) are also&#xA;real, being parts of Brahman or modes of His manifestation. Brahman,&#xA;with the universe and the individual souls, constitutes the whole of&#xA;Reality. The metaphor of the pomegranate fruit is chosen to illustrate&#xA;the philosophy of this school. The seeds are the living souls and the&#xA;rind is the universe and one cannot think of the fruit without the&#xA;seeds and the rind. A Visishtadvaitin wants to become like Lord&#xA;Narayana and enjoy the divine bliss. He does not wish to merge himself&#xA;or become identical with the Lord. He wishes to remain as a spark or a&#xA;ray of HIS Consciousness.  &lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Prapatti&lt;/em&gt; (total surrender) are&#xA;the means of achieving salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Advaita Philosophy&lt;/strong&gt;:  According to the Non-dualist, Brahman or Pure Consciousness is the only Reality; the universe of names and forms is&#xA;unreal, and man, in his true essence, is one with Brahman.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://artoflivingsblog.com/sri-adi-shankaracharya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sankaracharya&lt;/a&gt; proclaimed this as  as &lt;em&gt;“Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithya&#xA;Jeevo Brahmaiva na parah”.&lt;/em&gt;  An Advaita Jnani merges himself and&#xA;becomes one with Brahman just like all the rivers lose their identity&#xA;once they merge into the big Ocean. His goal is to become identical&#xA;with Brahman. It is based on the definition of God as &lt;em&gt;‘Ekam Eva&#xA;Advitiyam Brahma’&lt;/em&gt; (one and only one Reality without a second) given in&#xA;Vedas and supported by the four Maha Vakyas of ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Vedanta-parijata-saurabhaOfNimbarkaAndVedanta-kaustubhaOfSrinivasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;’,&#xA;namely, &lt;em&gt;‘Prgnanam Brahma’, Aham Brahma Asmi’, ‘Tat Tvam Asi’, and&#xA;‘Ayam Atma Brahma’&lt;/em&gt;. For our purpose we can say that they all mean the&#xA;same that is: The Atma meaning Consciousness is all pervading and the&#xA;same Consciousness is also in me with no difference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artoflivinguniverse.org/2012/11/narad-bhakti-sutras-sutra-1.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhakti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, the&#xA;main emphasis in Dvaita and Vishishtdvaita is a form of &lt;em&gt;Savikalpa&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;(with form and shape) mode of modification of the mind in the form of&#xA;God after it attains moksha, whereas Brahmagnana is the form of&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Nirvikalpa&lt;/em&gt; (formless, shapeless) mode of modification of the mind in&#xA;the form of Brahman the only one without second is the emphasis of&#xA;Advaita philosophy. While the goal of Bhakti of the Dvaita and&#xA;Vishishtadvaita philosophies is developing unsurpassable love towards&#xA;God, &lt;em&gt;Brhamagnana&lt;/em&gt; of Advaita dispels the Ignorance which is held as the&#xA;root cause of all sufferings and leads to Moksha by the Vedic&#xA;pronunciation &lt;em&gt;‘Brahma Vid Brahmaiva Bhavati’&lt;/em&gt; (the knower of Brahman&#xA;becomes Brahman).  The Advaitic school has extolled the qualities and&#xA;pleasures of Bhakti so eloquently that for the ordinary man there&#xA;should be no doubt about the fundamental role of Bhakti in Advaita.&#xA;Adi Sankara has established the tradition of ritually worshipping&#xA;together all the five divinities – &lt;em&gt;Surya&lt;/em&gt; - the Sun-God; &lt;em&gt;Sakti&lt;/em&gt; - the&#xA;Mother; &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Ganesha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Siva&lt;/em&gt; in a sophisticated ritual called the&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/articles/panchayatana_puja.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;PanchAyatana Puja&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, wherein the said divinities are worshipped not in&#xA;their human-like forms but in certain symbols in the form of stones.&#xA;It is as though the devotee trains himself to take the mind from the&#xA;forms to the formless while at the same time allowing full scope for&#xA;one’s emotional feelings of devotion and surrender. The first step in&#xA;understanding the non-dual philosophy of Sankara is this&#xA;non-difference of &lt;em&gt;Siva&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;. The next step is to realize that&#xA;this one God is not only transcendent but also immanent in every one&#xA;of the living beings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In conclusion, all schools of philosophy specify the rituals, pujas,&#xA;havans, bhajans etc., to cleanse the mind of impurities (&lt;em&gt;Chitta&#xA;Suddhi&lt;/em&gt;) as the first step.  The next step is really to develop&#xA;practice of intense Bhakti to steady the mind on &lt;em&gt;saguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (Ishta&#xA;Devata or God). The last step of complete surrender to or merge in the&#xA;&lt;em&gt;nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt; is where the differences appear in the three&#xA;philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After reading this article, I would say personally I believe in a mix of Vishishtadvaita and Advaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I am dealing with the world, &lt;em&gt;Paramarthika&lt;/em&gt;, I cannot ignore the world - Vishishtadvaita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I am meditating etc., &lt;em&gt;Vyavharika&lt;/em&gt;, I can repose -  Advaita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many years ago, when I had just started meditating, I would have said that I believed in Dvaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="27170" LastEditDate="2022-04-14T12:00:58.567" LastActivityDate="2022-04-14T12:00:58.567" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12318" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12295" CreationDate="2016-05-24T10:41:49.307" Score="5" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nat (Sanskrit word) stands for dance&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Raj (Sanskrit word) stands for sovereign or king.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that Shiva does dance called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandava&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tandava&lt;/a&gt; when it is required to destroy the universe. This dance (Tandava) of Shiva is believed as vigorous dance that is the source of the cycle of creation, preservation and dissolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to it's significance of controlling the universe by energy of dance (Tandava), Shiva is called supreme lord of dance i.e Natraj (नटराज).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2016-05-24T10:41:49.307" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12319" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12316" CreationDate="2016-05-24T10:50:23.827" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question will not be answered by any one who has really had any experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You should not reveal these matters to others even if questioned.&#xA;  Matters of divine significance have to be protected from publicity, if&#xA;  they are to fructify.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana VIII.17.20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-05-24T10:50:23.827" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12320" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-24T11:49:34.807" Score="3" ViewCount="616" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the Varna of:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;an engineer&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;a singer&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;a doctor&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have chosen a few random samples to understand the Varna system better. How would these be classified as - Brahmin, Vaishya, Sudra and Kshatriya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or, is it valid to apply the Varna classification to the profession of person? Can guna-karma translate into profession?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T05:33:04.297" Title="Can the Guna-Karma classification of the Varna system be translated into profession?" Tags="|caste-system|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12321" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12279" CreationDate="2016-05-24T12:20:42.467" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Pancharatra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pancharatra texts are Vaishnava Agama Shastras, the name pancharatra literally means 'five nights', since these scriptures were revealed by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara-Narayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sage Narayana&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  in 5 Nights to all the Rishis. Sage Narayana was so generous to us humans that he preserved ancient Ekayana shakha of Shukla Yajurveda and created agamas out of it so that everybody irrespective of caste creed sexuality could worship Shriman Naryana, and realize the truth that he is the Supreme Being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-- &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;As quoted in wiki - Pancharatra&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra#Pancharatra_Texts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;List of Pancharatra texts&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yoga knowledge that Shri Krishna talks about is addressed in Chapter 4 of Shrimad Bhagwad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8795/why-wasnt-bhagavad-gita-available-at-the-time-of-ramayana&quot;&gt;Here is relevant disscussion&lt;/a&gt;, how it was transfered from Him(Shriman Narayana) to Lord Bramha &amp;amp; so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The knowledge he is talking about is of Panchartara tradition . Bhishma taught this knowledge to Yudhishtira &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanti_Parva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shanti Parva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Articles/vyasa.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chronology of Shrimad Bhagwad Gita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-12-26T17:21:21.477" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12322" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12320" CreationDate="2016-05-24T13:50:14.197" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;from my perspective, engineer-Doctor or singer can be anyone from vaidic society, as i read some books like Mahabharat(Aranya parva, shanti parva), Bhagvad Geeta, Meluha(set of books who is best to educate our vedic cast system as per my brief's).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;now let's take some notes here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;A son of Brahmin, if he fails to complete his education, becomes a     &#xA;Shudra. Similarly, son of a Shudra or even a Dasyu, if he completes his &#xA;education can become a Brahmin, Kshatriya or Vaishya. This is pure     &#xA;meritocracy. The way degrees are accorded today, Yajnopaveet was &#xA;provided in Vedic system. Further, non-compliance with the code of &#xA;conduct for each Varna could result in taking away of the Yajnopaveet.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;for example, Parsuram, by born he was Bramhin but as per their karma can you put them in category of bramhin as they demolished  kshatriya form whole world several times..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so, what is the actual Varna system in our Vedic time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;In Vedic culture, everyone is considered to be born as Shudra. Then &#xA;based on his or her education, one becomes a Brahmin, Kshatriya or &#xA;Vaishya. This completion of education is considered to be a second &#xA;birth. Hence these three Varnas are called “Dwija” or twice-born. But &#xA;those who remain uneducated for whatever reasons are not discarded from &#xA;society. They continue as Shudra and perform support-activities for the&#xA;society.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another example MR. Ravan, who is by born Bramhin, a great shiv bhakt and pandit and .. and lots more but actually he is considered as RAKSHASH (forgive me lord Ravan). so in another word a varna vyavastha is also depends on what person think, what he want to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;but for only your Question perspectives,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An engineer should be in &lt;strong&gt;category of Bramahin,&lt;/strong&gt; why? because Lord &lt;strong&gt;Vishvakarma&lt;/strong&gt; is bramhin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A singer is &lt;strong&gt;Vaishya,&lt;/strong&gt; for example Apsara's,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and a doctor is also a &lt;strong&gt;bramhin&lt;/strong&gt; , Lord &lt;strong&gt;Dhanvantri&lt;/strong&gt;..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The original varna system was quite flexible in which one’s varna could be changed based on one’s skill and was not fixed as is often understood.&#xA;There is no element of birth-based discrimination of any manner in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5244" LastEditorUserId="5244" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T05:33:04.297" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T05:33:04.297" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12323" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-24T17:51:57.423" Score="3" ViewCount="3028" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which hand do i have to put on the back of the head while getting a tilak on the forehead? If someone applies tilak on my forehead, i should place my hand on the back of my head. But do I have to use the right hand or the left?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5719" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T08:35:41.380" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T08:35:41.380" Title="Which hand should be used for supporting head while applying Tilak on the forehead?" Tags="|culture|tilak|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12325" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-24T18:54:43.613" Score="0" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karma Indriyas - five agents of actions: Vak (organ of speech), Pani (hands), Pada (feet), Upashtam (organ of generation) and Payu or Guda (organ of excretion)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jnana Indriyas - five agents of perception: hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word-explanation of the term indriya is: &quot;indassa kammam indriyam.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means the act of ruling, or of controlling, by rulers. &quot;The act of ruling by rulers&quot; means that wherever the ruler rules, nobody can go against him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T04:24:16.933" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T04:24:16.933" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12326" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-24T18:54:43.613" Score="0" Body="Use this tag for any questions involving the senses or Indriyas. Indriya (literally &quot;belonging to or agreeable to Indra&quot;) is the Sanskrit and Pali term for physical strength or ability in general, and for the senses more specifically." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T04:24:21.900" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T04:24:21.900" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12327" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-25T02:03:35.853" Score="1" ViewCount="335" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can any god among 330 million  Hindu gods  save a sinner and make him/her holy? Please give references from  Hindu Scriptures. (Not your own version as a Hindu  but quotation from an authentic religious book.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5717" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T10:05:48.147" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T18:01:13.107" Title="Sin and holiness" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|belief|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12328" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12327" CreationDate="2016-05-25T05:38:44.380" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The only thing that can for sure remove all the sins committed by a person is Sharanagati, Surrendering to the Lotus feet of Lord Shriman Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shrimad Bhagwad Gita Chapter 18 verse Shloka 66&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज, मामेकम् शरनम् व्रज । अहम् त्वा सर्व पापेभ्यो मोक्श्यामि मा शुच​&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Completely relinquishing all Dharmas, take refuge in Me alone. I will release you from all sins, grieve not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translating word by word&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'Relinquishing all Dharmas’&lt;/strong&gt;  means the complete abandonment of the notion of agency, proprietorship, results etc., in the practice of Karma, Jñāna and Bhakti Yogas which are the means (dharmas) for attaining the highest good when done as Divine Service.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'I will release you from all sins'&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;means that I will free you from all obstacles that&#xA;prevent you from attaining Me; consisting of [the karmic reaction of] innumerable acts of doing what is forbidden and neglecting what is bidden. Accumulating from beginingless times [the reactions of] these deeds cause obstacles in spiritual development.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Alternative Interpretation&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Bhakti Yoga is possible only for those individuals&#xA;who love the Lord intensely and who are free from all negative karma. One’s karmic&#xA;reactions (sins) are obstacles in the path of developing loving devotion and are so&#xA;numerous that the expiatory rites which would exculpate them could not possibly be&#xA;performed in the limited time of one life span. Arjuna therefore thought that he was&#xA;incapable of practicing Bhakti Yoga. To remedy Arjuna's despondency the Lord said:&#xA;'Completely relinquishing all Dharmas, take refuge in Me alone.' The term ‘Dharma’ used&#xA;in this context would apply to the expiatory rites. So in order to successfully commence&#xA;Bhakti Yoga, surrender to Me alone. I am supremely compassionate, the refuge of all&#xA;without distinction, an ocean of maternal solicitude for those dependent on Me. I will&#xA;release you from all sins, which have been explained as obstacles to the practice of Bhakti&#xA;Yoga — grieve not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As TheDestroyer mentioned you have to be completly loyal to yourself and god,you should feel guilty for committing those sins, then and only then there is meaning to sharanagati, you should love Shriman Narayana who is supreme bramhan&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA; or love nirguna bramhan if you think advaita is correct&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/uploads/5/5/4/9/5549439/ramanuja_gita_bhashya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://asitis.com/18/66.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yet another Interpretation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-05-25T08:30:08.777" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T08:30:08.777" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12329" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-25T08:34:53.043" Score="13" ViewCount="8004" Body="&lt;p&gt;In India, every house has something called Kula Devata or Family Deity. What is the historical reason for having such Family deity, and on what basis are family deities assigned to families? Is there any historical, ancestral or political connection between the Deity and the family that worships it? Does it have any relation to the region in which the Deity resides? As I see, there is no strict caste specific restriction on having a particular Deity as your Kula Devata. Can anyone here shed light on this, or mention similar practices being followed elsewhere in the world/other religions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5712" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2021-03-08T06:54:05.647" LastActivityDate="2021-03-08T06:54:05.647" Title="What is the origin of Kula Devata or Family Deity?" Tags="|gods|tradition|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12332" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5394" CreationDate="2016-05-25T09:24:26.773" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will tell you one nice story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Lord Shiva wondered if I am the destroyer can I destroy Brahma and Vishnu too?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu came to know about this so he and Brahma visited Kailas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou art Mahadeva the eternal origin of all seeds, please share whats on your mind with us as we are the same entity from roots.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva shared his thought and they all three started discussion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu was very curious what would happen so he insisted Lord Shiva to apply for the next on Lord Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Please destroy me o father&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva started destruction and only ashes left in place of Lord Brahma. Suddenly a voice appeared&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is creation of ashes so where there is creation I exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Lord Brahma menifested from Ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now there was a turn of Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O almighty Lord Please destroy me but keep destruction continue on my ashes until the ashes also destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva did the same and ashes appeared in place of Lord Vishnu because of Shiva's power. Shiva continued to destroy even ashes. The ashes got very small even smaller and then at some stage ashes left effects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After some time noise appeared &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where there is preservation of even a particle I exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Lord Vishnu appeared from ashes. Lord Shiva now knew that so he decided to burn self in ashes. Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma furiously watching to him because Shiva decided to kill himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They both tried to stop him but he did not listen and burnt him. Because of this action All of three became ashes. Everywhere was darkness only. The whole universe became dark.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suddenly voice appeared&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is creation of ashes so I exists&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma appeared. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is preservation of ashes. So I exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu appeared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Preservation and creation is not possible without Destruction So I always exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva appeared and put ashes all around the body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think Brahmastra is only a concept. Even if such weapon exists it will not affect almighty deities. And Even if affects nothing happens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T09:24:26.773" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12333" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12367" CreationDate="2016-05-25T09:29:16.353" Score="1" ViewCount="484" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Hindu culture allow eating hotel food? I have heard that Swaminarayan and Brahma Kumaris say not to eat food at a hotel or restaurant. Why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-26T21:49:17.583" LastActivityDate="2016-06-07T08:47:21.733" Title="Does Hindu culture allow eating Hotel food?" Tags="|belief|food|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12334" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12339" CreationDate="2016-05-25T09:32:59.863" Score="3" ViewCount="681" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahman is said to be amorphous in nature. Apart from the main question in the title, here is a sub-query:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can we keep away from Brahman after seeing or realizing it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-30T22:56:06.260" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T23:39:25.753" Title="Is the true nature of Brahman, Saguna or Nirguna?" Tags="|philosophy|brahman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12335" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-25T09:45:09.977" Score="2" ViewCount="37" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was there any civilisation in the world which evolved without the concept of god? Apparently the Piraha people have no concept of numbers, time, or a supreme being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T04:40:55.847" LastActivityDate="2020-03-09T04:40:55.847" Title="Was there any civilisation in the world which evolved without the concept of god?" Tags="|gods|universe|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-05-25T14:15:58.690" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12337" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13561" CreationDate="2016-05-25T09:47:43.163" Score="8" ViewCount="4547" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Shiva Purana which 28 avatars of Shiva did he tell to Brahma? Also Shiva said the names of Sage Vyasa of each Mahayuga. What are those?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-09-04T13:57:36.647" LastActivityDate="2021-02-22T18:54:40.543" Title="As per Shiva Purana what are the 28 avatars of Shiva as said to Brahma?" Tags="|shiva|avatars|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12338" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12334" CreationDate="2016-05-25T13:00:02.630" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma is name of one of 3 Shakti (god) Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. Brahma is also known as Creator. He is responsible for creation/Birth/Formation of everything on Universe.&#xA;Shagun means good things/ Good sign/ Positive Symbol.&#xA;Nirgun means Bad Qualities/ negative qualities inside human being, the qualities which are responsible for destruction of mankind/human body also known as Durgun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="772" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T13:00:02.630" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12339" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12334" CreationDate="2016-05-25T13:24:30.020" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The creative principle of the universe is called Brahma in Sanskrit. Brahma, who is depicted as emerging from the navel lotus of Narayana, is a metaphor for all of creation: its laws, its inherent intelligence, and its consciously manifested potencies which operate as sages, saints, rishis, devas, celestials, and divine beings of all kinds of nature, temperament and description. Narayana is the Sanskrit name given in the Upanishads to that which is the sum and substance of all the manifested and unmanifested realms. Narayana is that which is neither created nor destroyed but transcends the creation, life and destruction of the universe. Brahma creates, operates in the form of this universe for trillions of years, then dissolves back into Narayana. Narayana, however, is neither created nor destroyed. Later, another Brahma appears to begin the process again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since the term &quot;Brahma&quot; does not appear in the Vedas, its creation stems from the Sanskrit word &quot;Brih&quot; which means &quot;'to grow&quot; or &quot;to expand.&quot; In this way, it became synonymous with Hiranyagharba: The Golden Egg of Creation. Growing from the Navel Lotus of Narayana, Brahma is the name for the principle which creates all of the manifest realms. Since the Vedas proclaim in the Purusha Suktam that &quot;three quarters of this universe are in indestructible realms above,&quot; then clearly Brahma, with his finite duration, is connected to the realms of the universe which we inhabit which are subject to creation and dissolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma was endowed with his &quot;spouse&quot; (Saraswati) and consciousness at the time of creation. Brahma made certain &quot;beings&quot; solely by the power of his mind and thought. These beings are called the mind-born sons of Brahma. The state of their consciousness is summarized by the title Brahma Rishi: Seer with the Understanding of Brahma. Brahma Rishis, in turn, can confer this state of consciousness upon others who prove themselves capable and worthy. For an example of the conferring of the state of Brahma Rishi upon one being by another, see the Story of Vishwamitra in the Chapter on the Gayatri Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To further understand the concept of Brahma and his relation to the universe as we know it, it is helpful to view the cosmos through the lens of the Vedic descriptions of the life of the universe as interpreted in human years. Here are cycles of time as recorded in the Vedas and Upanishads.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saguna and Nirgun&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NIRGUNA is the eternal all-pervading and omnipresent divine consciousness.&#xA;SAGUNA is the manifestation of God in form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sun is a graphic simile for this. Sunlight is the Nirguna form of the sun, and the celestial body is the Saguna form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When God manifests in form he appears to be limited by his form, but his presence is unlimited and all-pervading. Nothing exists without God’s presence. God is omnipresent and absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God is in everything, and everything is in God. God exists in everything that we call “good” as well as in everything we describe as “bad”. In God there is no limitation or differentiation, only unity. Nirguna God is pure energy, the living and conscious power that is at work in the Universe. Reality, the Supreme Self, is Nirguna God.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.chakras.net/yoga-principles/21-nirguna-and-saguna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3779" LastActivityDate="2016-05-25T13:24:30.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12347" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11295" CreationDate="2016-05-26T11:05:24.770" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Maya can never be supreme as it operates only in Vyavaharik level. According to Advaita there are three levels of reality:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paramarthika Satyam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vyavaharik Satyam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pratibhasik Satyam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vyavaharika level the world exists like real, even if one says that everything is Maya or Brahman or Avidya still he/she has to function as per rules of the world like one has to eat food, and in food also one can't eat stone (saying that both food and stone are differentiation of the same thing). Regarding this we find quotes of Adi Shankara like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Brihadaranya Upanishad Bhasya 3.5.1 Adi Shankara says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्ववादिनामपि अपरिहार्य: &lt;strong&gt;परमार्थ&lt;/strong&gt;-संव्यवहारकृतो &lt;strong&gt;व्यवहारः&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In fact, all schools must admit the existence or non-existence of the phenomenal world according as it is viewed from the relative or the absolute standpoint.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in the Taittariya Upanishad Bhasya 2.6 also Shankara mentions about Paramarthika and Vyavaharika levels of reality. On its commentary by Sureshwaracharya also he mentions the same. This site gives a passage &lt;a href=&quot;https://adbhutam.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/paramarthika-vyavaharika-satyam/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;written&lt;/a&gt; by an Advaitin AchyutaKrishnananda Tirtha which also specifically mentions the terms Paramarthika, Vyavaharika and Pratibhasika type of reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramarthika Satyam:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the absolute reality. &lt;strong&gt;In this level neither Ishwara nor Maya exists.&lt;/strong&gt; Only Brahman exists in Sat-Chit-Aananda Swarupa. Here Sat means pure existence of Brahman, Chit means pure consciousness of Brahman and Aananda means infinite blissfull state of Brahman. There is neither any creation nor any destruction in this state. Just Brahman exists in Satchitaananda form.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyavaharik Satyam:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This type of reality is called Ishwara Shristi. This is the reality at that level when universe is covered by Maya of Ishwara. Maya is the potential energy of Ishwara. For eg. We see Mirage in desert. That is illusion. We know it but we can't remove it by knowing it. We can just understand that it is illusion. Similar is the level of Vyavaharika Satyam. We can only understand Maya of Ishwara.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pratibhasika Satyam:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This type of reality is also known as Jeeva Shristi. We ourselves create these types of reality in our mind. For eg. In our dreams. Dream world is created by ourselves. Another example is seeing rope as snake in dim light. These type of illusions are instantaneously removed after knowing the truth. But illusions of Vyavaharik level can't be removed,we can only understand it (&lt;strong&gt;ie. Mirage still exists even if we have knowledge that it is an illusion&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ishwara himselfs creates this Universe by the power of Maya. Ishwara does so because creating is his nature. Ishwara is neither inside the creation nor outside the creation but Ishwara is itself creation. Ishwara creates with the help of Maya. Maya has two powers.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aavaran Shakti&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vikshepa Shakti&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aavaran Shakti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the covering power of Maya. By this power the beings in creation forget that they are 'Brahman'.Vivekachudamani verse 113 tells that Aavaran Shakti or Avritti Shakti is due to Tamas Guna of Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vikshepa Shakti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the projecting power. By this power the universe which we see is projected in this way we see and observe.Vivekachudamani verse 111 tells that Vikshepa Shakti is due to Rajas part of Maya and it is projecting power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Is Ishwara under influence of Maya ?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ishwara himself is the wielder of Maya, Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.10 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मायां तु प्रकृतिं विद्यान्मायिनं च महेश्वरम्|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Maya is Prakriti and Maheswara (Ishwara) is the wielder of Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara in Vivekachudamani says that Maya is Shakti of Ishwara ie. Paramesha Shakti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अव्यक्तनाम्नी परमेशशक्तिरनाद्यविद्या त्रिगुणात्मिका परा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कार्यानुमेया सुद्यियैव माया यया जगत्सर्वमिदं प्रसूयते।। 108&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maya&lt;/strong&gt; or Avidya called undifferentiated (Avyakta) &lt;strong&gt;is the power of the Lord.&lt;/strong&gt; It is without beginning is made of three Gunas and is superior to the effects. She is to be inferred by one of clear intellect only from the effects she produces. It is She who brings forth this whole universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ishwara is Saguna and saguna form is taken by the help of Maya. But still the nature of Ishwara is defined as Sarvagya (ie. All knowing).&#xA;Example in Kena Upanishad Bhasya when Uma manifests among devas, in that section Adi Shankara has mention Saguna Ishwara (in that case case Shiva) as 'Sarvajna Ishwara'. Thus Ishwara has various qualities like Sarvajnata and hence he can't be deluded by Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;How Ishwara creates ?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Creation is the innate nature of Ishwara. As Taittariya Upanishad says &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.6.1 &lt;strong&gt;He (the Self) wished, “Let me be many, let me be born.&lt;/strong&gt; He undertook a deliberation. Having deliberated, he created all this that exists. That (Brahman), having created (that), entered into that very thing. And having entered there, It became the formed and the formless, the defined and the undefined..&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he wished and he became many. So he himself is the creation. So everything in this Vyavaharik level (including ourselves) which we see is simply Ishwara himself.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What is the origin of Maya?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maya is generally called called as Anirvachaniye (inexplicible). In the above quote also we see Adi Shankara says Maya as &amp;quot;It is without beginning&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;to be inferred by Clear intellect only&amp;quot;. One gets deluded by Maya due to Vaasanas (desires) which are accumulated in the mind. How desires originated ? Desires are originated because it is originating now. It is seen through 'Pratakshya Pramanam' ie. Direct Perception. We can't trace first origin of it. But it originated because it caused Maya and Maya caused Ishwara Shristi. And as we can see Ishwara Shristi right now here, thus it originated. As we can't trace first origin of vasaana and hence we can't also trace origin of Maya and it leads to infinite regression. And Hence Maya is called to be existing from beginning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How we got individuality ?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Paramarthika level there is no individuality as only Brahman in Satchidananda Swarup exists there. But in Vyavaharik level we see individuality. As Vyavaharik level is due to Maya of Ishwara. Hence it is responsible for our individuality. As Upanishads declare 'he became many...'. Thus at this time individuality arose  due to Aavaran(covering) power of Maya. &lt;strong&gt;It is described as Akash GhatAkash Vaad. Here Aakash is infinite and Ghat akash means part inside infinite.&lt;/strong&gt; Due to influence of Maya a small portion called Ghat-Akash is covered by Mind Intellect and other sheath to satisfy it's desire (called vaasanas). Individuality arises at this stage.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Standard analogy example:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The standard example given to represent creation in Advaita is dream world. We see dream due to unsatisfied desires remained as impressions in our mind which are called Vasanas. Due to Nidra Shakti (analogous to Maya Shakti) we see dream and due to Vikshepa(projecting power) we create a new dream world. Just as Ishwara creates this world by himself (multiplying). Due to Anavaran (covering) power of Nidra shakti (ie. Maya) we forget we are dreaming and as we ourselves are also in dream world and now we began to think world and us as separate. This process continues until we possesses sharp intellect with Jnanam. Thus creation by Ishwara is analogous to our creation of dream world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Moksha:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha in Advaita is not like other philosophies like Visishistadvaita, Dvaita and other where a Jeeva goes to Kailash/ Vaikuntha and enjoys with Lord there (though if one attains lokas like Brahmaloka and Vishnuloka through sadhana he doesn't return from there as his Jnana is guranteed there (Shankara Bhasya 3.3.31)). In Advaita everyone is already '&lt;strong&gt;Nitya Jeevan Mukta' ie. Already Liberated itself.&lt;/strong&gt; Only knowledge is required to know this. When he gets knowledge he gets liberated immediately instantaneously (in the same way darkness is instantaneously removed from candle.) This state is also mentioned in Dakshinamurty stotra of Adi Shankara as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;प्रागस्वाप्समिति प्रबोधसमये यः प्रत्यभिज्ञायते,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot; That state is experienced during Spiritual Awakening whereby one clearly Perceives that &amp;quot;Before I was Sleeping&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He may go on doing normal activity inside body to destroy Prarabdha karamas. But he is not affected by such Karmas as he knows he is not that body, mind and intellect but he is the Supreme Sat-Chidananda-Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What happens after death?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no meaning of death here. It is just casting of Sthula Sarira. As he don't possess desire he isn't attracted to have any new Sharira/body. So he don't have rebirth. He is in the highest blissfull state so he doesn't desire to do any other thing or to get reborn in Samsara or other.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Even the Gods can't prevent him from doing anything as he is the self of everything(ie. Even God's also) as Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.4.10 And to this day whoever in like manner knows It as, ‘I am Brahman’, becomes all this (universe). &lt;strong&gt;Even the gods cannot prevail against him, for he becomes their self.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But he rarely chooses to do anything as he is in the most blissful state. So anything he does is of lower bliss than that state. But he may also, as Suka in Mahabharat did so one time. He pronounces 'Bho' and entire universe pronounced 'Bho' as he had became self of all. He did it to calm grieving Veda Vyas.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meanwhile, the righteous-souled Suka, who had entered the elements, had become their soul and acquired omnipresence, answered his sire by uttering the monosyllable Bho in the form of an echo. At this, the entire universe of mobile and immobile creatures, uttering the monosyllable Bho, echoed the answer of Suka.&lt;/strong&gt; (Shanti Parva chapter 320)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus for other people after moksha also he gets individuality as moksha/liberation can happen while being in Sarira also. But for him there is no individuality as he donot identify himself as body, mind and intellect. After death also sheath of mind and intellect are there. But he may choose only to live in Paramarthika level by casting off mind and intellect thus we may here call it lost it's individuality. But there is no meaning of calling it losing individuality as individuality itself was illusion at the first time and creation itself took place by &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot; he became many...&amp;quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: I had written this answer several years ago. Today, I have added&#xA;some more references to it. As I'm not initiated into the lineage&#xA;established by Adi Shankara (and as true knowledge is obtained through&#xA;Guru Parampara) it is possible that I might have misrepresented some of&#xA;the core principles of Shankara Advaita in this answer. If you feel&#xA;that something is being misrepresented please do comment about it or&#xA;correct it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2021-06-09T12:18:59.367" LastActivityDate="2021-06-09T12:18:59.367" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12349" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-26T11:13:38.443" Score="5" ViewCount="2172" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Aarti(आरती)&lt;/a&gt; is one of the popular Hindu religious ritual of worship in which light from wicks soaked in ghee (purified butter) or camphor is offered to one or more deities. Aarti also refer to the songs sung in praise of the deity, when lamps are being offered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Aarti is done, the priest usually circulates the &lt;em&gt;Aarti Plate&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Lamp&lt;/em&gt; to all devotees present right there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it seems everyone have their own way of &quot;receiving&quot; this Aarti. Some people cup their down-turned hands over the flame and then raise their palms to their forehead or some other don't cup their hands and just takes it with un-folded palms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Question is&lt;/strong&gt; : What is the correct way of receiving/taking/consuming the Aarti as per Hinduism? Are there any scripture which helps disclosing this information? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2016-08-10T07:31:21.957" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T07:31:21.957" Title="Correct way of receiving Aarti" Tags="|belief|rituals|worship|puja|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12350" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-26T15:07:04.053" Score="6" ViewCount="89" Body="&lt;p&gt;This wiki article discusses the various aspects of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;marriage in Hinduism.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism, what are the necessary and sufficient rituals for a wedding?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g. Is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11804/what-are-the-saptapadi-or-the-seven-promises-of-marriage&quot;&gt;Saptapadi&lt;/a&gt; an essential ritual or just a recommended one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T17:30:17.320" Title="What are the essential rituals for a wedding according to Hinduism?" Tags="|rituals|marriage|samskara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-03-01T09:16:22.520" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12351" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-26T15:47:41.937" Score="2" ViewCount="182" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Z-Ho&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Taittiriya Brahmana of the Yajur Veda describes the building of the Savitra altar, during which the names of the days and nights of the Hindu calendar are recited.  The Taittiriya Brahmana mentions a story which demonstrates the importance of knowing the names of the days and nights:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janaka, the king of Videha, met the Days and the Nights. They (these deities, the Days and the Nights) said to him: “Verily, he who knows us will go on living, free from evil; he will attain the full measure of life, he will conquer the heavenly world, and for him food will not waste away in the yonder world.”—Verily, he will go on living, free from evil; he will attain the full measure of life, he will conquer the heavenly world, he who thus knows; and for him food will not waste away in the yonder world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(A bit redundant, isn't it?) My question is, what is the story of Janaka meeting the gods of the days and nights?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, who is this king Janaka?  Most people only know Janaka as the name of Sita's father.  But Janaka was the name given to pretty much all the kings of Videha, not just Sita's father, whose personal name was Siradhvaja.  However, I think it may refer to Sita's father in this instance, because he is known to have had contact with the gods.  When Mithila was under siege by kings who wanted to marry Sita, he got the armies of the gods to help defend the city; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga66/bala_66_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does anyone know any scripture which describes Sitaa's father Janaka or any other Janaka meeting with the gods of the days and nights?  And who are the gods of the days and nights anyway?  The Taittieiya Brahmana gives their names, but is anything more known about them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-05-27T13:58:03.923" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T13:58:03.923" Title="What is the story of Janaka meeting with the gods of the Days and Nights?" Tags="|vedas|yajur-veda|vedic-gods|taittirya-brahmana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12353" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11295" CreationDate="2016-05-26T16:55:29.333" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before one can answer the three questions, one has to understand some concepts of Advaita Vedanta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ignorance or Avidya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaita Vedanta says that ignorance of Brahman has created this world.&#xA;Ignorance, which is the opposite of knowledge (jnana-virodhi), is not&#xA;something negative. It has a positive character (bhavarupa). It has&#xA;two powers: (1) the veiling power (avarana-shakti) and (2) the power&#xA;of projection (vikshepa-shakti). Ignorance has the power to cover or&#xA;veil the Reality, which is Brahman, and also the power to project this&#xA;world on the veiled or covered Reality. The world is the product of&#xA;mula-avidya. The individual ego, which is part of this world, is also&#xA;the product of mula-avidya. Consciousness associated with this ego is&#xA;called the Atman or the Jivatman. Between the Jivatman and Brahman&#xA;(Paramatman) there is a thin veil of ignorance. It is like a cloud&#xA;that does not all an individual to see the sun. In this analogy the&#xA;Brahman is the sun and the patch of cloud is the ignorance of the&#xA;individual. When this individual’s ignorance is dispelled by the&#xA;knowledge of Brahman, he or she will have the experience of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'Journey from many to one &lt;em&gt;essentials of Advaita Vedanta&lt;/em&gt;' by Swami Bhaskarananda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Existence&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gaudapada’s name is specially associated with the theory known as&#xA;Ajata-vada. This theory may also be called the theory of&#xA;non-origination. According to Ajata-vada, the perceptual world in&#xA;which we exist was never created. This theory rejects all causality.&#xA;It does not accept that there is any cause or source of this&#xA;perceptual world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankaracharya recognizes three kinds of existence (satta): (1)&#xA;empirical existence (vyavaharika satta), (2) apparent existence&#xA;(pratibhasika satta) and (3) ultimate existence (paramarthika satta).&#xA;He recognizes the empirical existence of this world but not its&#xA;ultimate existence. Only Brahman has ‘ultimate existence’. Compared to&#xA;Brahman this world has ‘empirical existence’ only. Therefore this&#xA;world is only an apparent transformation (vivarta) of Brahman. It is&#xA;not a real transformation (parinama). The word mithya means something&#xA;that has been imagined in Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'Journey from many to one &lt;em&gt;essentials of Advaita Vedanta&lt;/em&gt;' by Swami Bhaskarananda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maya and Creation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the point of view of Advaita Vedanta, maya and avidya are the&#xA;same. Just as avidya or ignorance has the powers, as it were, to hide&#xA;Brahman and project something else, such as the world, on it, so also&#xA;maya, as it were, can cover up Brahman and project the world onto it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maya cannot really cover the Reality that is Brahman. A patch of cloud&#xA;can never cover the sun. It only covers the eyes of those who are&#xA;looking at the sun. In the same way maya covers our knowing ability&#xA;and thus obstructs our knowledge of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any act of knowing, the ‘knower’ and the object known’ have to be&#xA;separate from each other. They cannot be the same. In order for us to&#xA;know maya, it has to be separate from us. Individuals like us are the&#xA;products of maya and we are all posited within the domain of maya.&#xA;Maya and we individuals are not separate from each other, just as&#xA;chocolate and a bear-shaped chocolate candy are not different from&#xA;each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we are identical with maya, we cannot know maya. For this reason,&#xA;maya is not only unknowable; it is inexplicable as well&#xA;(anirvachaniya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'Journey from many to one &lt;em&gt;essentials of Advaita Vedanta&lt;/em&gt;' by Swami Bhaskarananda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jivanmukta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Advaita Vedanta a jivanmukta, or one who is liberated&#xA;here and now, has realized that Brahman alone is real and the world is&#xA;illusory. Therefore, one may argue that experience of Brahman there&#xA;should not be any awareness of the physical body or the world around&#xA;it. But the continuance of the physical body or the world is not&#xA;incompatible with the idea of liberation according to Advaita Vedanta.&#xA;Before liberation, one surely thinks of oneself as the body. After&#xA;liberation, however, one realizes that the physical body and the world&#xA;have only an illusory appearance. Even though they appear to exist&#xA;they do not really exist. From the viewpoint of Advaita Vedanta&#xA;liberation is only a change of perspective. Since the physical body is&#xA;not real, its continued appearance, or its eventual disappearance, is&#xA;no problem for the jivanmukta. To a jivanmukta the body and the world&#xA;are like a dream. The only difference between an ordinary dreamer and&#xA;a jivanmukta is that the ordinary dreamer, while dreaming, does not&#xA;know that it is a dream. But a Jivanmukta always knows that he or she&#xA;is the dreamer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'Journey from many to one &lt;em&gt;essentials of Advaita Vedanta&lt;/em&gt;' by Swami Bhaskarananda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is Maya superior to Brahman?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This question can not be answered as Maya is unknowable and inexplicable. At the level of Ishvara, Maya may be thought of as His power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Has Maya taken over Brahman?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again this question has no answer since Maya is unknowable and inexplicable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does a living entity retain individuality or merge in Brahman? If the answer is yes, then when did he get it the first time?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Jivanmukta finds that the universe, individuality etc are all unreal. It is not whether a Jivanmukta retains individuality or merges with Brahman. The concept of merging is a dualistic idea. The Jivanmukta is himself Brahman. So the concepts like individuality and merging do not exist in the state of moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2021-06-09T10:31:52.670" LastActivityDate="2021-06-09T10:31:52.670" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12354" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7472" CreationDate="2016-05-26T23:59:05.513" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The standard version that you hear about Vali defeating Ravana can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_034.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Ramayana_201309/Ramayana-VOL-4-Uttara-Kanda#page/n157/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in Uttara Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana, but according to Motilal Banarsidass Publishers' &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft#page/106/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puranic Encyclopedia by Vettam Mani&lt;/a&gt;, there's a more interesting story that's also from the Uttara Kanda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6) Defeating Rāvana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bāli had got a boon from the Gods that he would get half the strength of his opponent who stood face to face with him in fight.&lt;/strong&gt; This power enabled Bāli to defeat all his foes and bring the countries in all directions under his sway. Ravana heard about this and decided to overpower Báli somehow or other and approached Kiskindhā, Bāli knew this. His minister, Taran, went to Rāvana and told him about the power of Băli and of the boon by which Bāli got half the strength of his opponent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Rāvana heard of this peculiar boon he decided to kill Bali. His idea was to kill Bāli by going behind him when he went to the sea-shore to take bath in the morning. Next morning Băli went to the eastern sea-shore and began his prayer and meditation. &lt;strong&gt;Rāvana approached Bāli from behind and sat close to him. Perhaps the idea of Rāvana might have been to take Bāli by his tail and beat him on the ground.&lt;/strong&gt; Bāli knew that Rāvana was sitting behind him. But pretending that he knew nothing put his long tail on the body of Rāvana, and passed it lengthwise and breadthwise through every part of his body and tied him like a bundle of faggots, and made a jump into the air. within a short time he visited all the usual places and reached Kiskindhä. Seeing Rāvana hanging by the tail of Bali, even the women folk laughed. &lt;strong&gt;Thus Rāvana admitted defeat. Bāli let him go unhurt.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;Uttara Rāmāyana&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe the above story is present in some Sanskrit version of Uttara Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana and that has not been translated into English yet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Notice that even in English translation of Uttara Kanda at &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Ramayana_201309/Ramayana-VOL-4-Uttara-Kanda#page/n157/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;archive.org&lt;/a&gt;, Ravana approaches Vali with silent steps. Now why would a powerful king like Ravana approach his opponent silently from behind? So maybe there's some truth to the boon Vali had that &amp;quot;he would get half the strength of his opponent who stood face to face&amp;quot; and Ravana was simply trying to avoid a confrontation so he had a better chance of defeating Vali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereupon having descended from his Pushpaka car he [Ravana] &lt;strong&gt;with silent steps approached Vali&lt;/strong&gt; to bring him under his grasp....&lt;strong&gt;Vali was seated with his back (towards Ravana)&lt;/strong&gt;;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T00:07:42.433" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12355" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="290" CreationDate="2016-05-27T04:37:10.130" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the Puranic Encyclopedia's listing of &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft#page/426/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krsna-16000 women&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmā had given the boon to the 16000 daughters of Narakāsura in their previous birth that Visnu would marry them in their next birth. While even the Devas were suffering on account of Narakāsura, Sri Krsna along with Satyabhāmā mounted Garuda, went to Prāgjyotișa, the kingdom of Narakāsura, defeated him in fight and released his 16000 daughters from captivity. He returned with them to Dvārakā, assumed the guise of 16000 men and married those 16000 girls. He built a palace for each of his 16000 wives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krsna's 16008 wives&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The eight women, i.e. Rukmini, Jämbawati, Satyabhāmā, Kālindi, Mitravindā, Satyā, Kaikeyī (Bhadrā), Lakşmaņā and the 16000 daughters of Narakāsura constituted Krsna's harem. (The 16000 daughters of Narakāsura are not mentioned by name in the Purānas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Harivamsa however &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_063.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; those 16,000 women held captive by Narakāsura are actually gandharva's and apsara's and not his daughters:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;gandharvANAM cha yAH kanyA jahAra narako balI |&#xA;yAshcha devamanuShyANaM sapta chApsarasAM gaNAH ||2-63-12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The powerful narakAa took away many gandharva maiden&lt;/strong&gt;. He also took away deva maidens, women and seven groups of divine women (apsarA).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;chaturdasha sahasrANi ekaviMshachChatAni cha |&#xA;ekaveNIdharAH sarvAH satImArgamanuvratAH ||2-63-13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They were &lt;strong&gt;fourteen thousand and twentyone hundred&lt;/strong&gt; [16,100] women in all. All were with single plait of hair and observing the vow of faithful wife (sati).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read how Krishna wedded each of his 8 principal wives &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft#page/424/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mausala Parva of Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that, following Krishna's death, some of those 8 wives gave up their lives while others resorted to penance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rukmini, the princess of Gandhara, Saivya, Haimavati, and queen Jamvabati ascended the funeral pyre. Satyabhama and other dear wives of Krishna entered the woods, O king, resolved to set themselves to the practice of penances. They began to live on fruits and roots and pass their time in the contemplation of Hari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Svargarohanika Parva of Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentions&lt;/a&gt; that the other 16,000 wives of Krishna also gave up their human form and transformed into apsara's:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The holy and illustrious Ananta (who had taken birth as Balarama) proceeded to the region below the Earth. Through the command of the Grandsire, he, aided by his Yoga power, supported the Earth. Vasudeva was a portion of that eternal god of gods called Narayana. Accordingly, he entered into Narayana. &lt;strong&gt;16,000 women had been married to Vasudeva as his wives. When the time came, O Janamejaya, they, plunged into the Sarasvati.&lt;/strong&gt; Casting off their (human) bodies there, they re-ascended to Heaven. &lt;strong&gt;Transformed into Apsaras, they approached the presence of Vasudeva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T04:45:15.360" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12357" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9958" CreationDate="2016-05-27T05:54:29.370" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata epic, which describes the Kurukshetra war, the two sides agree on the following rules:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Fighting must begin no earlier than sunrise and should end by exact sunset. (Broken on the 14th day, after Jayadratha was slain). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Multiple warriors must not attack a single warrior. (Broken several times, most notably in the 13th day, when Abhimanyu was slain).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Two warriors may duel, or engage in prolonged personal combat, only if they carry the same weapons and they are on the same mount (no mount, a horse, an elephant, or a chariot). (Broken several times).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No warrior may kill or injure a warrior who has surrendered. (Violated when Satyaki slew an unarmed Burishravas).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One who surrenders becomes a prisoner of war and will then be subject to the protections of a prisoner of war. (There were no prisoners of war taken, in the Kurukshetra War).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No warrior may kill or injure an unarmed warrior. (Arjuna slew Karna when the latter was helpless).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No warrior may kill or injure an unconscious warrior. (Broken when Abhimanyu was slain).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No warrior may kill or injure a person or animal not taking part in the war. (Broken several times when warriors slew horses of their enemies).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No warrior may kill or injure a warrior whose back is turned away. (Shakuni broke that rule).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No warrior may strike an animal not considered a direct threat.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The rules specific to each weapon must be followed. For example, it is prohibited to strike below the waist in mace warfare.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Warriors must not engage in any 'unfair' warfare whatsoever.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The lives of women, prisoners of war, and farmers are sacred.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Land should not be pillaged.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;References:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma-yuddha#Dharma-yuddha_in_the_Mahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma-yuddha in the Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://daily.bhaskar.com/news/JM-know-the-strict-rules-of-battle-followed-in-mahabharata-4392368-PHO.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Strict Rules of Battle Followed in Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/mahabharata-battle-rules-of-war/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Battle - Rules of War&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://kurukshetralive.com/kurukshetra-war-interesting-facts/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurukshetra War - Interesting Facts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4455" LastEditorUserId="9250" LastEditDate="2018-12-21T12:54:30.863" LastActivityDate="2018-12-21T12:54:30.863" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12358" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-27T05:55:17.087" Score="12" ViewCount="7869" Body="&lt;p&gt;During the fight between Arjuna and Karna in the Kurukshetra war, Karna's chariot moved backwards by more than 7 steps when Arjuna's arrow hit the chariot, while Arjuna's chariot moved backwards by only two steps when Karna's arrows hit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna applauded Karna. To this, Arjuna asked that why was Krishna applauding Karna when he was able to bring back the chariot only by two steps. Krishna replied that on the chariot, Mahabali Hanuman was sitting, Krishna himself was sitting; even then Karna moved the chariot backwards by two steps; Krishna also asked Arjuna to imagine what would have happened if they were not on his chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, my question is: Hanuman was in the flag of the chariot and he was without a material body. If the weight would have been too great, then how did the horses pull the chariot?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taking into account these facts, then what is so special about Karna being able to move the chariot?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-08-29T00:44:31.787" LastActivityDate="2020-05-09T05:34:21.337" Title="Karna pushing Arjuna's chariot by two steps" Tags="|mahabharata|hanuman|arjuna|karna|war|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12360" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2802" CreationDate="2016-05-27T07:18:43.487" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the Sri Roopa Goswami (Laghu Bhagvatamritam), the Kalpa Avatars mostly happen once in a kalpa. Lord Ram has come in the 24th Divya Yuga of this manvantra, we are in the 28th Divya Yuga. The will of Lord is supreme and sometime it may change. Like Lord Vamana has already come twice in this Manvantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5735" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T07:18:43.487" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12361" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3666" CreationDate="2016-05-27T10:45:09.307" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva himself is the controller of time. So, there is no use of waiting for specific time while being devoted towards Lord Shiva. But still if specific time is choosen then morning after rising from the bed is considered best. Lord Krishna himself also used to chant Sri Rudram daily after rising from bed in the morning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasudeva said, &amp;apos;I shall recite to thee the good that I have acquired and the fame that I have won through the grace of that high-souled one. Verily, I shall discourse to thee on the topic, after having bowed unto Kapardin. &lt;strong&gt;O king, listen to me as I recite to thee that Sata-rudriya which I repeat; with restrained senses, every morning after rising from bed. The great lord of all creatures, viz., the Grandsire Brahman himself, endued with wealth of penances, composed those Mantras, after having observed especial penances for some time.&lt;/strong&gt; O sire it is Sankara who created all the creatures in the universe, mobile and immobile. There is no being that is higher, O monarch, than Mahadeva. Verily, he is the highest of all beings in the three worlds........ (Mahabharata Anushashana Parva CLX)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For rituals it may differ from people. You can simply chant it being devoted to Lord Shiva. Some also use special rituals using Karanyas-Anganyas, Kavacham and so on. If you want these Karanyas Anganyas and Kavacha procedures and their order of chanting, you can see &lt;a href=&quot;https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ISik_cjsmJA&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; video. It isn't necessary that you should stand in river and chant it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the benefits of chanting Sri Rudram, Kaivalya Upanishad says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;25&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who studies the Shatarudriya, is purified as by the Fires, is purified from the sin of drinking, purified from the sin of killing a Brahmana, from deeds done knowingly or unawares. Through this he has his refuge in Shiva, the Supreme Self. &lt;strong&gt;One who belongs to the highest order of life should repeat this always or once (a day).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By means of this, one attains the Knowledge that destroys the ocean of Samsara or repeated transmigration. Therefore, knowing thus one attains the fruit of Kaivalya or liberation, verily one attains liberation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-27T10:54:32.450" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T10:54:32.450" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12362" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-27T14:42:23.947" Score="1" ViewCount="108" Body="&lt;p&gt;Trying to understand &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shraddhadeva_Manu#The_Great_Deluge&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;the great deluge&lt;/a&gt; in Hinduism, I am in need of some clarifications. Do not assume any prior knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When did this great deluge exactly happen according to Hindu scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are deluge and world destruction at each kalpa period two different events or one and the same? Or was the deluge just one time event so it's something unrelated to world destruction at the end of kalpa cycle? In this case how are the Manvantara divided? What happens with world as we know it at the end of each Manu period that demands creation of a new Manu?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to some sources each Manu is created by supreme deity itself, but, as it appears in some sources, the 7&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Manu was a king with well defined ancestors, and of course the rishis were already with him to save, how come?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5737" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-27T20:38:05.370" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T20:38:05.370" Title="Deluge in Hinduism - some clarifications needed" Tags="|yuga|time|manu|cosmology|manvantara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2018-09-08T06:22:19.440" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12363" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9424" CreationDate="2016-05-27T14:56:37.847" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The exact answer of the question - Why did Lord Rama pray to the Sea God? And &#xA;source of the story that was quoted about Nala and Neela are also provided in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/ramacharitamanas/sundar745-804.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sundar-Kanda of Shree Tulsidas  Ramacharitamanas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  (PDF Download Link).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar to Valmiki Ramayana, Ramcharitamanas also tells us that Lord  Rama prayed to  the Sea God on the advice of Vibhishana in  order to construct a  bridge over the sea for the passage of Vanaras. So Lord Rama in order to take permission to build a bridge over sea , prayed to Sea God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Choupai -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुनत बिहसि बोले रघुबीरा | एसेहिं करब धरहु मन धीरा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अस कहि प्रभु अनुजहि समुजाई | सिन्धु समीप गए रघुराई ||३||&lt;br&gt; प्रथम प्रनाम कीन्ह सिरु नाई | बैठै पुनि तट दर्भ डसाई |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; जबहिं बिभीषन&#xA;  प्रभु पाहिं आए | पाछे रावन दूत पठाए || ४||   (Dupai – 50) &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sunata bihasi bole raghubira, aisehin karaba dharahu mana dheera &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  asa kahi prabhu anujahi samujhaee, sindhu samipa gae raghuraee 3.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  prathama pranåma kihna siru naae, baithai puni tat darbha ˛dasaee &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jabahiÚ bibhishana prabhu pahin aaye, paache ravana duta pathaye .4&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Reassuring His younger brother (Laxmana) with these words the &lt;strong&gt;Lord&#xA;  of the Raghus went to the seashore. First of all He bowed His head and&#xA;  greeted the ocean and then, spreading some Kusha grass on the shore,&#xA;  took His seat thereon.&lt;/strong&gt; As soon as Vibhishana proceeded towards the&#xA;  Lord, Ravana sent spies after him.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राम तेज बल बुधि बिपुलाई | सेष सहत सत सकहिं न गाई || &lt;br&gt; सक सर एक सोषि&#xA;  सत सागर | तव भ्राताहि पून्छेउ नय नागर || १||&lt;br&gt; तासु बचन सुनि सागर&#xA;  पाहीं | मागत पन्थ कृपा मन माहिं ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;सुनत बचन बिहसा दससीसा | जौ असि मति सहाय कृत किसा ||२||&lt;br&gt; सहज भीरु कर बचन द्रुढाई | सागर सन ठानी माचलाई |&lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; मृढ मृषा का करिसी बडाई | रिपु&#xA;  बल बुद्धि थाह मैं पाई || ३||  - (Dupai -55)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rama teja bala budhi bipulai seshaa sahasa sata sakahin na gaai .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  saka sara eka soshii sata sagara, tava bhratahi pµu¡ cheu naya&#xA;  nagar.&lt;br&gt; tasu bachana suni sagara pahin, magata pantha krupa mana&#xA;  mahin&lt;br&gt; sunata bacana bihasa dasasisa , jau asi mati sahaya kruta&#xA;  kisa&lt;br&gt; sahaja bhiru kara bacana dhrudai , sagara sana thaani&#xA;  machalaee&lt;br&gt; mrudha  mrusha ka karasi badaee | ripu bala buddhi thaha&#xA;  mai paaee.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A hundred thousand sesas  would fail to describe the greatness of&#xA;  Shree Rama's  valour, strength and intelligence. With a single shaft He&#xA;  could dry up a hundred seas;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;yet, being a master of propriety, He consulted your brother Vibhishana and in accordance with his suggestion He is asking passage&#xA;  of the ocean with a heart full of compassion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-05-26T03:49:47.060" LastActivityDate="2018-05-26T03:49:47.060" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12364" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="33186" CreationDate="2016-05-27T15:46:27.823" Score="8" ViewCount="1664" Body="&lt;p&gt;Perhaps the most famous story from the Upanishads is the story of Nachiketa, told in the Katha Upanishad of the Yajur Veda.  Nachiketa was the young son of the sage Vajashravas (who may or may not be the same as the sage Uddalaka Aruni whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10331/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Once Vajashravas performed a Yagna where he was giving away all his possessions, so Nachiketa asked &amp;quot;Who will you give me away to?&amp;quot;  Annoyed, Vajashravas said &amp;quot;I will give you to the god of death.&amp;quot;  Nachiketa took that seriouslh and immediately proceeded to Yama's palace, where he waited for three days for Yama to come.  Now it's a sin to have a Brahmin wait in your house without inviting him in and providing him food, so Yama offered Nachiketa three boons to make up for it.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15010.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Katha Upanishad describes what Nachiketa wished for:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nakiketas said: 'O Death, as the first of the three boons I choose that Gautama, my father, be pacified, kind, and free from anger towards me; and that he may know me and greet me, when I shall have been dismissed by thee.' Yama said: 'Through my favour Auddâlaki Âruni, thy father, will know thee, and be again towards thee as he was before. He shall sleep peacefully through the night, and free from anger, after having seen thee freed from the mouth of death.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nakiketas said: '&lt;strong&gt;In the heaven-world there is no fear; thou art not there, O Death, and no one is afraid on account of old age. Leaving behind both hunger and thirst, and out of the reach of sorrow, all rejoice in the world of heaven. Thou knowest, O Death, the fire-sacrifice which leads us to heaven; tell it to me, for I am full of faith. Those who live in the heaven-world reach immortality,--this I ask as my second boon.&lt;/strong&gt;'  Yama said: 'I tell it thee, learn it from me, and when thou understandest that fire-sacrifice which leads to heaven, know, O Nakiketas, that it is the attainment of the endless worlds, and their firm support, hidden in darkness.' Yama then told him that fire-sacrifice, the beginning of all the worlds, and what bricks are required for the altar, and how many, and how they are to be placed. And Nakiketas repeated all as it had been told to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Mrityu, being pleased with him, said again: The generous, being satisfied, said to him: 'I give thee now another boon; that fire-sacrifice shall be named after thee, take also this many-coloured chain. &lt;strong&gt;He who has three times performed this Nâkiketa rite, and has been united with the three (father, mother, and teacher), and has performed the three duties (study, sacrifice, almsgiving) overcomes birth and death.&lt;/strong&gt; When he has learnt and understood this fire, which knows (or makes us know) all that is born of Brahman, which is venerable and divine, then he obtains everlasting peace. He who knows the three Nâkiketa fires, and knowing the three, piles up the Nâkiketa sacrifice, he, having first thrown off the chains of death, rejoices in the world of heaven, beyond the reach of grief. This, O Nakiketas, is thy fire which leads to heaven, and which thou hast chosen as thy second boon. That fire all men will proclaim. Choose now, O Nakiketas, thy third boon.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nakiketas said: 'There is that doubt, when a man is dead,--some saying, he is; others, he is not. This I should like to know, taught by thee; this is the third of my boons.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yama responds to the third boon in the form of a discourse that forms the bulk of the Katha Upanishad.  But my question is about the second boon, in which Nachiketa receives the procedure for a ritual that is now known as the Nachiketa Yagna, described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Yw0J&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Taittiriya Brahmana of the Yajur Veda.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48148.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya says about it in the Sri Bhashya, his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nakiketas desirous of Release having been allowed by Death to choose three boons, chooses for his first boon that his father should be well disposed towards him--without which he could not hope for spiritual welfare. &lt;strong&gt;For his second boon he chooses the knowledge of the Nakiketa-fire, which is a means towards final Release. 'Thou knowest, O Death, the fire-sacrifice which leads to heaven; tell it to me, full of faith. Those who live in the heaven-world reach Immortality--this I ask as my second boon.' The term 'heaven-world' here denotes the highest aim of man, i.e. Release, as appears from the declaration that those who live there enjoy freedom from old age and death; from the fact that further on (I, 1, 26) works leading to perishable results are disparaged; and from what Yama says in reply to the second demand 'He who thrice performs this Nâkiketa-rite overcomes birth and death.'&lt;/strong&gt; As his third boon he, in the form of a question referring to final release, actually enquires about three things, viz. 'the nature of the end to be reached, i.e. Release; the nature of him who wishes to reach that end; and the nature of the means to reach it, i.e. of meditation assisted by certain works. Yama, having tested Nakiketas' fitness to receive the desired instruction, thereupon begins to teach him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I am a member) believes that there are two main paths to Moksha, Bhakti Yoga and Sharanagati.  Bhakti Yoga involves devotional service to Vishnu, and it involves also doing Karma Yoga, i.e. doing your Dharma while giving up the fruit of your actions, and doing Jnana Yoga, i.e. meditating upon Brahman using the &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;32 Brahmavidyas&lt;/a&gt; found in the Upanishads.  So it basically involves the complete set of teachings found in the Bhagavad Gita.  Sharanagati involves a simple act of surrender to the lotus feet of Sri,an Narayana.  It is performed using the Dvaya mantra which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7971/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and the fact that it's guaranteed to give you Moksha is described in the Charama Shloka of the Bhagavad Gita which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6504/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Sri Vaishnavas believe that Bhakti Yoga is a very difficult path to follow, especially given the diminished capacities of humans in the Kali Yuga, whereas Sharanagati gives easy and immediate results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Ramanujacharya says that the Nachiketa is a &amp;quot;means towards final Release&amp;quot;, in contrast to other Yagnas which are &amp;quot;works leading to perishable results.&amp;quot;  So my question is, do Sri Vaishnavas believe that the Nachiketa Yagna is an independent means of attaining Moksha?  That is to say, do Sri Vaishnavas believe that someone who does the Nachiketa Yagna, without ever meditating upon Brahman or surrendering to the lotus feet of Sriman Narayana, will get Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could it be that the Nachiketa Yagna does not grant Moksha by itself, but rather it leads the person to Jnana of Brahman, and that Jnana leads them to attain Moksha?  Or is Ramanujacharya just saying that if one does the Nachiketa Yagna in concert with Bhakti Yoga or Sharanagati then they will get Moksha, or what?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Ranga Ramanuja, the Sri Vaishnava commentator on the Upanishads, address this issue in his commentary on the Katha Upanishad?  Are there any subcommentaries on the Sri Bhashya that shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-02-22T18:21:32.233" Title="Do Sri Vaishnavas believe the Nachiketa Yagna grants Moksha by itself?" Tags="|vaishnavism|upanishads|sri-vaishnava|yajna|katha-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12365" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12369" CreationDate="2016-05-27T15:52:24.410" Score="25" ViewCount="32968" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_of_the_Earth&quot;&gt;shape of Earth&lt;/a&gt; according to Hindu scriptures? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is widely believed that the round shape of &lt;em&gt;Earth&lt;/em&gt; was known for a long time. Although, is this mentioned at any specific place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-29T12:08:46.903" LastActivityDate="2022-09-24T17:30:20.540" Title="What is the shape of Earth according to Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|history|earth|science|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12366" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-27T15:57:29.970" Score="4" ViewCount="2779" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many temples have a pointed top. Other structures have a decreasing diameter as the height increases (near the top).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any significance behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those interested, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2920/what-is-the-significance-of-different-types-of-flag-posts-on-the-top-of-temples&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; discusses the use of flags on temple tops.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-06-03T01:44:07.253" Title="Why is the top of a temple pointed?" Tags="|temple|symbolism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2018-02-04T11:50:15.447" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12367" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12333" CreationDate="2016-05-27T15:58:01.553" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes in Hindu dharma its allowed to eat hotel food. And no restrictions for taking food outside. Hindu dharma is quite liberal  and advocates personal feelings , thoughts , interest and free will.&#xA;In Hindu culture food is considered sacred and termed as  &quot; BHARAMA&quot; itself ( अन्न ब्रहम). Since ancient times and even today their is &#xA;tradition (अन्न छत्रम)  of giving food to whom it is needed. A lot of temples offering such service to needy since ancient times even today and will in future . A lot of students, travellers and other  peoples were and is using this service. So its allowed to eat outside when its necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since hotels ,messes are relatively new concepts,  Where one pays for food and is a public place. Considering the harmful effects of eating regularly in hotels and outside due to  hygiene ,quality of food. In modern Hindu dharma its said to bring ill effects to health.  Otherwise their is no such barrier in Hindu Dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T15:58:01.553" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12368" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-27T16:04:06.660" Score="2" ViewCount="116" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is believed that in ancient times, the Rishis and the Gurus used to guide the kings regarding how to run the kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nowadays, we see many countries have a separation of the government and the religion (at-least officially) e.g. in the US, there is a separation of Church and State (although, it is said that the Church has a lot of control on the politics)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do Hindu scriptures say on the role of religion in politics?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T09:50:20.747" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T09:50:20.747" Title="What do Hindu scriptures say about the relationship between religion and politics?" Tags="|dharma|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12369" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12365" CreationDate="2016-05-27T16:09:19.160" Score="29" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Aitareya Brahmana of RigVeda 3.44&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The Sun does never set nor rise. When people think the Sun is setting (it is not so). For after having arrived at the end of the day it makes itself produce two opposite effects, making night to what is below and day to what is on the other side…Having reached the end of the night, it makes itself produce two opposite effects, making day to what is below and night to what is on the other side. In fact, the Sun never sets….”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar verse also occurs in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.21.9 as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यत्रोदेति तस्य ह समानसूत्रनिपाते निम्‍लोचति यत्र क्‍वचन स्यन्देनाभितपति तस्य हैष समानसूत्रनिपाते प्रस्वापयति तत्र गतं न पश्यन्ति ये तं समनुपश्येरन् &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yatrodeti tasya ha samāna-sūtra-nipāte nimlocati yatra kvacana syandenābhitapati tasya haiṣa samāna-sūtra-nipāte prasvāpayati tatra gataṁ na paśyanti ye taṁ samanupaśyeran&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;People living in countries at points diametrically opposite to where the sun is first seen rising will see the sun setting, and if a straight line were drawn from a point where the sun is at midday, the people in countries at the opposite end of the line would be experiencing midnight. Similarly, if people residing where the sun is setting were to go to countries diametrically opposite, they would not see the sun in the same condition.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verses clearly shows that earth should be of round shape.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It becomes more crystal clear from &lt;strong&gt;YogaVasistha MahaRamayana:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 30 Description of Universe&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Rama said, “Tell me sage, why do we refer to up and down, forward and backward, if there is no such thing in space and nature?” &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  10 Vasishta said:— &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There is only one space enveloping all things. The worlds seen in the infinite and indiscernible womb of emptiness are like worms moving on the surface of water. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  11 All these bodies that move about in &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  the world by their lack of freedom are thought to be up and down relative to our position on earth. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  12 &lt;strong&gt;So when there are ants on an earthen ball, all its sides are reckoned below that are under their feet, and those as above which are over their backs.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  13 &lt;strong&gt;Such is this ball of earth&lt;/strong&gt; in one of these worlds, covered by vegetables and animals moving on it, and by gods, demons and men walking upon it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the shape of earth is round/spherical as per our Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit Update (Thanks for @Surya for giving link):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most basically the term earth and Geography are represented by the word &lt;strong&gt;Bhugol&lt;/strong&gt;. Where Bhu stands for land and earth and 'Gol' means round/sphere. Some of the references from scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न वै महाराज भगवताे मायागुणविभूतेः काष्ठां मनसा वचसा वाधिगन्तुमलं विबुधायुषापि पुरुषस्तस्मात्प्राधान्येनैव &lt;strong&gt;भूगाेलकविशेषं&lt;/strong&gt; नामरुपमानलक्षणताे व्याख्यास्यामः । (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.16.4)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मूर्धन्यर्पितमणुवत्सहस्रमूर्न्घो ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;भूगाेलं&lt;/strong&gt; सगिरिसरित्समुद्रसत्वम् । (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.25.12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In above word 'भूगोल (Bhugola) is used. Thus the most basic etymology also proves the fact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="7961" LastEditDate="2020-01-10T03:50:24.950" LastActivityDate="2020-01-10T03:50:24.950" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12370" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-27T16:09:51.047" Score="5" ViewCount="1662" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story goes that a snake who wanted to take revenge on Arjuna landed itself in Karna's quiver. The snake requested Karna to shoot the arrow he was on, so that it could kill Arjuna. Although, Karna refused to do so as it would be unethical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this story find mention in the Mahabharata or any other text?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T12:55:09.373" Title="A snake in Karna's quiver" Tags="|mahabharata|history|arjuna|karna|naga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12371" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-27T16:29:26.457" Score="2" ViewCount="40" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/RajivMalhotra.Official/photos/a.137731093046903.31225.137726233047389/639393519547322/?type=3&amp;amp;theater&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;priests of other religions&lt;/a&gt; allowed to take part in Kumbh Mela?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or, is it only a confluence of Hindu saints?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ttXNG.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ttXNG.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-27T16:29:26.457" Title="Are priests of other religions allowed to take part in Kumbh Mela?" Tags="|other-religions|kumbh-mela|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12373" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8228" CreationDate="2016-05-27T22:18:06.893" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here's one Sanskrit text with Hindi translation of Manu Smriti by Pandit Girija Prasad Dvivedi on archive.org: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ManuSmritHindi-GpDwivedi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ManuSmritHindi-GpDwivedi&lt;/a&gt; &amp;nbsp; (PDF: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/download/ManuSmritHindi-GpDwivedi/ManuSmritHindi-GpDwivedi_text.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ManuSmritHindi-GpDwivedi_text.pdf&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The English translation of Manu Smriti is available at &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/manu.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sacred-texts.com&lt;/a&gt; (George Bühler) and also on &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/lawsofman00manu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;archive.org&lt;/a&gt; (Max Müller).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another English tr. of &lt;em&gt;Manusmriti with the Commentary of Medhatithi&lt;/em&gt; is available at: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi#contents&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wisdomlib.org&lt;/a&gt; (work in progress)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-29T21:48:09.440" LastActivityDate="2016-11-29T21:48:09.440" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12374" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-28T04:24:49.180" Score="8" ViewCount="400" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, just like in the Shanti Parva, Bhishma gives advice to Yudishthira and concerning how to be a good king and how to be good person, while he is lying on a bed of arrows after the end of the Kurukshetra war.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;, Bhishma tells Yudhishthira about various actions which are rewarded and punished in the afterlife.  One part of the list seems rather peculiar to me, though:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śastravikrayakāś caiva kartāraś ca yudhiṣṭhira &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  śalyānāṃ dhanuṣāṃ caiva te vai nirayagāminaḥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They who sell weapons, they who forge weapons, they who make shafts, and they who make bows, have to sink in hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, is it always a sin to make weapons?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the verse just saying that people shouldn't go into a weapons-making as a business?  Or is it actually saying that it is forbidden for anyone to make a weapon under any circumstances? It would be rather strange if making weapons is categorically forbidden; how in the world would Kshatriyas get the weapons they need then?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do the Manu Smriti or other Dharma Shastras shed any light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-07-11T03:26:13.013" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T09:41:14.927" Title="Is it always a sin to make weapons?" Tags="|mahabharata|weapon|sin|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12375" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11670" CreationDate="2016-05-28T06:04:22.793" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It isn't always necessary that people always intrepret &lt;strong&gt;'Atman' as Mind in this case&lt;/strong&gt;. Most people have interpreted it because it tells &lt;strong&gt;'ten are pranas'&lt;/strong&gt; first and then tells &lt;strong&gt;'Atman as eleventh'.&lt;/strong&gt; As Pranas and Mind are interrelated (Mind can be controlled through Pranas) most people have interpreted it as referring to Mind . Also, Commentators intrepret a verse as per their belief system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a translation from the book 'The Ten Principal Upanishads' by  Shree Purohit Swami and W.B.Yeats.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'What are the Vasus?' &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  'Fire, earth, wind, sky, sun, moon, stars, heaven.'  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  'What are the eleven Rudras?' &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  'Five living fires, five senses &lt;strong&gt;and the personal Self&lt;/strong&gt;. &#xA;  When they leave our body, they make us cry out; hence &#xA;  their name Rudra.' &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  'What are Adityas?' &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  'Twelve months of the year; they pass carrying &#xA;  everything; hence their name.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So they have translated it as personal self which means soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Swami Dayananda Saraswati in his book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/download/satyarth_prakash_eng.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;'Satyarth Prakash' / The Light of Truth&lt;/a&gt; intreprets it meaning it to be Soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These eight are called Vasus, because they are abode of all that lives, moves or exists. The eleven Rudras are the ten pranas - nervauric forces - enlivening the human body &lt;strong&gt;and the eleventh is the human spirit.&lt;/strong&gt; These are called Rudras because when they desert the body, it becomes dead and the relations of the deceased, consequently, begin to weep. &lt;em&gt;[Page no. 204]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in page no. 365&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These texts lend no support to Shaiva and other creeds, for Rudra means God, &lt;strong&gt;vital air, the soul&lt;/strong&gt; and heat. The text relating to Rudra would mean that we should render obeisance to God Who is the Punisher of all evils doers, and should take proper food to keep up the animal heat in &#xA;  the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-28T06:10:38.137" LastActivityDate="2016-05-28T06:10:38.137" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12376" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-28T07:13:42.303" Score="16" ViewCount="6859" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that there are 18 puranas in the Hindu mythology. The puranas were composed one after the another. What is the sequential order of the puranas, from the first to the last?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-19T08:01:46.957" LastActivityDate="2020-06-19T08:01:46.957" Title="Sequential Order of Puranas" Tags="|scripture|puranas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12377" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-28T08:23:47.703" Score="6" ViewCount="626" Body="&lt;p&gt;During the episode of Sita's abduction in the Valmiki Ramayana, it is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga49/aranya_49_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentioned&lt;/a&gt; that Budha grabs the Rohini in firmament. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इति उक्त्वा मैथिलीम् वाक्यम् प्रिय अर्हाम् प्रिय वादिनीम् || ३-४९-१५&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   अभिगम्य सुदुष्ट आत्मा राक्षसः काम मोहितः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   जग्राह रावणः सीताम् बुधः खे रोहिणीम् इव ||       ३-४९-१६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On saying that sentence to Maithili, who by herself is a nice talker and who is a proper one for addressing with nice words, that verily evil-minded demon Ravana maddened by lust drew nigh of Seetha and grabbed her, as Budha, the mercury grabs the Star Rohini in firmament. [3-49-15b, 16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is which scriptures describes the complete story of Budha grabbing his mother Rohini? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-19T08:08:35.417" LastActivityDate="2020-06-19T08:08:35.417" Title="What is the story of Budha grabbing the Star Rohini?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12378" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11908" CreationDate="2016-05-28T13:51:10.167" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the story mentioned in Mahabharata &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Vivaswan said, 'Thou shall obtain all that thou desirest. I shall provide thee with food for five and seven years together. And, O king, accept this copper-vessel which I give unto thee. And, O thou of excellent vows, as long as Panchali will hold this vessel, without partaking of its contents fruits and roots and meat and vegetables cooked in thy kitchen, these four kinds of food shall from this day be inexhaustible. And, on the fourteenth year from this, thou shall regain thy kingdom.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I didn't find any reference for the relationship between Akshaya Patra and Akshaya Tritiya but &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akshaya_Tritiya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in the Wikipedia it is mentioned. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, Yudhishthira receives the Akshaya patra, which he uses to serve food for all the needy in his kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-03T03:47:23.117" LastActivityDate="2017-11-03T03:47:23.117" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12381" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12272" CreationDate="2016-05-28T18:46:39.387" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Vishishtadvaita is the main principle of Sri-Vaisnav Sampradaye.and it is very beautiful described and easily can understand by anyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are total three famous opinions in Vaisnav Samprdaye:&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;1. Advaita&lt;/strong&gt; - &lt;strong&gt;Sri Sankracharya&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;2. Dvaita&lt;/strong&gt; - &lt;strong&gt;Sri Madvacharaya&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;3. Vishishtadvaita&lt;/strong&gt; - &lt;strong&gt;Sri Ramanujacharya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are total three types of &lt;strong&gt;Shrutis&lt;/strong&gt; in Vedas/Scriptures:&#xA;1. Abhed Shruti ( Advaita)- Where Supreme lord (Super-Soul) and living-entity (Sub-Soul) is one they are not different from each other. &#xA;2. Bhed Shruti (Dvaita)- Where Supreme Lord (Super-Soul) and living-entity (individual soul) is not one but they are different from each other. &#xA;3. Gatak Shruti ( Vishishtadvaita)- It is Solution of above two opposite Elements (Abhed tatva &amp;amp; Bhed tatva) is truth .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Vishishtavaidta is based on Gatak Shruti.and this thing is also beautifully described in the Sri-Bhasya by the author of Sri-Bhasya, Sri-Ramanujacharya. &#xA;Every Mysterious Elements ,principle &amp;amp; ArthaPanchak** are depend on Vishishtavaita Prinicple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you will understand this main principle then you can easily understand all mysterious thing which is in Sri-Vaishnav Sampradaye.This Principal gives solution of Gatak Shruti even also gives a solution of the Abhed(Advaita) and Bhed(Dvaita).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally people think that this principle is only applicable for those who belongs to Sri-Vaisnav (Ramanuja) Sampradya.But it's wrong, because this principle is already presented before it was invented. Sri- Ramanuja only put light on this principle through the help of Scirputers (Granths/Purans).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we know Shreemad-Bhagvad Gita is universally accepted.Elements which were described by &lt;strong&gt;Sri Lord Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; to Arjun is all are &lt;strong&gt;Sri Vishitadvaita principle&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's we will understand Sri-Vishistadvaita Principle from Shreemad-Bhagvad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;क्षेत्रज्ञं चापि मां विद्धि सर्वक्षेत्रेषु भारत।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोर्ज्ञानं यत्तज्ज्ञानं मतं मम।।13.3।।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;-And know Me also as the Kṣetrajña in all Fields, O Arjuna. The knowledge of both the Field&#xA;and its Knower is, in My view, the highest knowledge. &#xA;Even Sri-Ramanuja is also commented in Sri-Bhasya:&quot; The Characteristics &amp;amp; Form of nature and soul are to live as body of Supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अहमात्मा गुडाकेश सर्वभूताशयस्थितः।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;अहमादिश्च मध्यं च भूतानामन्त एव च।।10.20।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-I am the Self, O Gudakesha (Arjuna —Conqueror-of-sleep), dwelling in the hearts of all beings.&#xA;I verily am the beginning, the middle and also the end of all beings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Understand by Visishadivata: In the body there is one soul and also there is one super-soul who is also present within the body. ( Four-armed Visnu).So, That's mean Supreme Lord, living-entity(we) and nature is not one.It's rebuttal or disclose the principle of Advaita.And also it can't be distinct or apart like the body and soul can't be apart from each other.So, It's rebuttal or disclose the principle of Dvaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;उत्तमः पुरुषस्त्वन्यः परमात्मेत्युदाहृतः।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;यो लोकत्रयमाविश्य बिभर्त्यव्यय ईश्वरः।।15.17।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-Distinct from these is the Supreme Person, described as the Supreme Self [in the Vedas], He&#xA;who pervading the threefold universe, supports it as the Immutable One and the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Visishtadivata : Here it's rebuttal the Abhed Shruti ( Advaita). The Greatest man Supreme lord who is distinct from us.Even though he is enter in us and take care of us and also maintain our body system. So, we can directly understand from the Sloka Supreme Lord is different from us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अहं वैश्वानरो भूत्वा प्राणिनां देहमाश्रितः।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;प्राणापानसमायुक्तः पचाम्यन्नं चतुर्विधम्।।15.14।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-Becoming the Vaishvanara Agni, I function within the bodies of all living beings. In&#xA;association with the Prana and the Apana, I digest the four kinds of food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Visishtadivata : Lord Visnu is so Mercy-full that he enters in us as supersoul and digest the food which is taken by us.If lord is not distinct from us then how he can digest our Food?.So,It's rebuttal or disclose the principle of &lt;em&gt;Advaita&lt;/em&gt;.&#xA;If lord is distinct from us then we don't need to think of digest the food. It's means we are capable to digest food by oursleves. It's also not right.So,It's rebuttal or disclose the principle of &lt;em&gt;Dvaita&lt;/em&gt;.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Visishtadvaita principle is tell us like as we can't discriminate the white color from the white clothes. even though they both are different from each other like same as Davita and Advaita can't be discriminate from each other. even thogh they both are different from each other and same as we and Suprme Lord Visnu are different from each other but also not differentiate from each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are so many slokas in Bhagvad Gita where we can see the principle of Visisthadvaita like 18.61,15.15,10.31,10.42,15.13,7.6 to 7.12, 9.4 to 9.6 and 10.41.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri-Ramanuja the great saint we thankful to him because he disclose the confusion of Dvaita and Advaita.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jay Shreeman-Narayan&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Jay Shree Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Om Namo Narayan.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="15718" LastEditDate="2019-03-25T14:38:22.767" LastActivityDate="2019-03-25T14:38:22.767" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12384" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-28T21:34:23.290" Score="4" ViewCount="1163" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I know Isckon devotes make the convince to the people through the help of the Brahma-samhita. &#xA;And per my research (all vedas/purans/upnisad) I didn't find any valid proof of Brahma-samhita.It's not present in any scriptures. So, why they are trying to guide the people which has no evidence in scriptures.??!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now another thing they believe that Lord Narayan(Visnu) has lower quality than Lord Krishna.Lord Narayan is expansion of Lord Krishna.But I never find this type of thing in any Purans/uponisad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 18 purans and each and every are created by sri vyasdev and they are divided in their particular modes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3 qualities&lt;/strong&gt;: truth, passion, and indifference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sattva (Godness):&lt;/strong&gt; Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, Naradeya Purana, Garuda Purana, Padma Purana, Varaha Purana&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Rajas(&quot;passion&quot;):&lt;/strong&gt; Brahmanda Purana, Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Markandeya Purana, Bhavishya Purana, Vamana Purana, Brahma Purana &#xA; &lt;strong&gt;Tamas (&quot;indifference&quot;):&lt;/strong&gt; Matsya Purana, Kurma purana, Linga Purana, Shiva Purana, Skanda Purana, Agni Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as we Pure Vaishnav we only accept the Sattva Modes of Scriptures.&#xA;So my point is that all sattva gun scriptures claimed and sing glories of Lord Narayan as Supreme. Why Iskcon try to misinterpreted the Scriptures to the people. I didn't find any evidence where it said like Lord Narayan is lower quality and he is expansion of Lord Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another thing if you said like that he is expansion of Lord Krishna, then you are coming to the &lt;strong&gt;Guru-sisya parampara, In your Parampara Naradmuni, vyasdeva and prahalad maharaj comes,&lt;/strong&gt; but they all are pure devotes of lord Narayan.&#xA;Naradmuni as per Narad Puran.&#xA;Vyasdeva is incarnation of lord Vishnu, which evidence is in Visnu-Sahstranam strotram.&#xA;Prahalad Maharaj is pure devote of lord Vishnu as described in Srimad -Bhagvatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Iskcon's Devotes making fool to people in name of Brahma-samhita, which has no evidence.&#xA;and also misinterpreted the Scriptures as per their own speculation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe that the Lord Krishna is the Supreme, but Lord Krishna is incarnation of the Lord Narayan, Lord Narayan came as Lord Krishna on the earth, so many scriptures are their which has this evidence.&#xA;Then why Iskcon making fool to discriminate the Lord Narayan from the Lord Krishna and telling people like different quality and everything.&#xA;It is not real knowledge ... they convince people on baseless scriptures, spread ignorance in people.&#xA;Devotion is doesn't exist Where discrimination comes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if anyone have some valid information about this then plz share with me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2016-05-30T12:38:42.610" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T12:38:42.610" Title="Why Iskcon believe krishna is supreme and also follow Brahma-samhita without evidence?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-05-28T22:18:28.770" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12386" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12290" CreationDate="2016-05-29T04:52:20.487" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva became Tripurai by destroying Three (Tri) cities (Pura) made up of iron gold and silver. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;YajurVeda Taittariya Samhita 6.2.3&lt;/strong&gt; mentions this story as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Asuras had three citadels; the lowest was of iron, then there was one of silver, then one of gold. The gods could not conquer them; they sought to conquer them by siege; therefore they say--both those who know thus and those who do not--&amp;apos;By siege they conquer great citadels.&amp;apos; They made ready an arrow, &lt;strong&gt;Agni as the point, Soma as the socket, Visnu as the shaft.&lt;/strong&gt; They said, &amp;apos;Who shall shoot it?&amp;apos; [1] &amp;apos;Rudra&amp;apos;, they said, &amp;apos;Rudra is cruel, let him shoot it.&amp;apos; He said, &amp;apos;Let me choose a boon; let me be overlord of creatures.&amp;apos; Therefore is Rudra overlord of creatures. &lt;strong&gt;Rudra let it go; it cleft the three citadels and drove the Asuras away from these worlds.&lt;/strong&gt; The observance of the Upasads is for the driving away of foes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the eosteric sense Tripura destruction means destruction of three (Tri) places (puras) created by Illusion (Mayasura). It may be Satwa, Rajas, Tamas or Sthula, Sukshma, Karana Sariras or whatever else formed by Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case the above story of Veda Samhita is explained in Mahabharat Drona Parva section 102 as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Formerly, the valiant Asuras had, in heaven, three cities. Each of those cities was excellent and large. One was made of iron, another of silver, and the third of gold. The golden city belonged to Kamalaksha, the silver city to Tarakaksha, and the third, made of iron, had Vidyunmalin for its lord. With all his weapons, Maghavat (Indra) was unable to make any impression on those cities. Afflicted (by the Asuras), all the gods sought the protection of Rudra. Approaching him, all the gods with Vasava at their head, said, 'These terrible &#xA;  dwellers of the triple city have received boons from Brahma. Filled with pride in consequence of those &#xA;  boons, they are greatly afflicting the universe, O Lord of the gods, none, save thee, is competent to slay &#xA;  them. Therefore, O Mahadeva, slay these enemies of the gods: O Rudra, creatures slain in every &#xA;  sacrifice shall then be thine. Thus addressed by the gods, Mahadeva thus accepted their request, moved &#xA;  by the desire of benefiting them, and said, 'I will overthrow these Asuras. And Hara made the two &#xA;  mountains, viz., Gandhamadana and Vindhya, the two poles of his car. And Sankara made the earth with &#xA;  her oceans and forests his battle car. And the three-eyed deity made that prince of snakes, viz., Sesha, the &#xA;  Aksha, of that car. And that God of gods, the wielder of Pinaka, made the moon and the sun the two &#xA;  wheels of that vehicle. And the triple-eyed Lord made Elapatra and Pushpadanta, the two pins of the &#xA;  yoke. And the valiant Mahadeva made the Malaya mountains the yoke, and the great Takshaka&#xA;  the string for tying the yoke to the poles, and the creatures about him the traces of the steed. And &#xA;  Maheswara made the four Vedas his four steeds. And that lord of the three worlds made the &#xA;  supplementary Vedas the bridle-bits. And Mahadeva made Gayatri and Savitri the reins, the syllable Om&#xA;  the whip, and Brahma the driver. And making the Mandara mountains the bow, Vasuki the bowstring, &#xA;  Vishnu his excellent shaft, Agni the arrow-head, and Vayu the two wings of that shafts, Yama the &#xA;  feathers in its tail, lightning the whetting stone, and Meru the standard, Siva, riding on that excellent car &#xA;  which was composed of all the celestial forces, proceeded for the destruction of the triple city. Indeed, &#xA;  Sthanu, that foremost of smiter, that Destroyer of Asuras, that handsome warrior of immeasurable &#xA;  prowess, adored by the celestials, O Partha, and by Rishis possessing wealth of asceticism, caused an &#xA;  excellent and unrivalled array called after his own name, and stood immovable for a thousand years. &#xA;  When, however, the three cities came together in the firmament, the lord Mahadeva. pierced them with &#xA;  that terrible shaft of his, consisting of three knots. The Danavas were unable to gaze at that shafts &#xA;  inspired with Yuga-fire and composed of Vishnu and Soma. While the triple city commenced to burn, &#xA;  the goddess Parvati repaired thither to behold the sight. She had then on her lap, a child having a bald &#xA;  head with five clumps of hair on it. The goddess asked the deities as to who that child was. Sakra, &#xA;  through ill-feeling endeavoured to strike that child with his thunderbolt. The divine lord Mahadeva (for &#xA;  the child was none other), smiling, quickly paralysed the arm of the enraged Sakra. Then god Sakra, &#xA;  with his arm paralysed accompanied by all the celestials, speedily repaired to the lord Brahma of &#xA;  unfading glory. Bowing unto him with their heads, they addressed Brahma with joined hands and said, &#xA;  'Some wonderful creature, O Brahma, lying on the lap of Parvati, in the form of a child, was behold by &#xA;  us but not saluted. We have all been vanquished by him. We, therefore, desire to ask thee as to who he &#xA;  may be. Indeed, that boy, without fighting, hath with the greatest ease vanquished us all with Purandara &#xA;  at our head.' Hearing these words of theirs, Brahma. that foremost of all persons, acquainted with &#xA;  Brahma, reflected for a moment and understood that boy of immeasurable energy to be none else than &#xA;  the divine Sambhu, Addressing then, those foremost of celestials with Sakra at their head, Brahma said, &#xA;  'That child is the divine Hara the Lord of the entire mobile and immobile universe. There is nothing &#xA;  superior to Maheswara. That Being of immeasurable splendour who was beheld by you all with Uma, &#xA;  that divine lord, had assumed the form of a child for Uma's sake. Let us all go unto him. That divine and&#xA;  illustrious one is the Supreme Lord of the world. Ye gods, ye could not recognise that master of the &#xA;  universe.' Then all the gods with the Grandsire repaired to that child, endued with the effulgence of the &#xA;  morning sun. Beholding Maheswara, and knowing that he was the Supreme Being, the Grandsire &#xA;  Brahma thus adored him: Thou art Sacrifice, O lord, thou art the stay and refuge of the universe. Thou &#xA;  art Bhava, thou art Mahadeva, thou art the abode (of all things),and thou art the highest refuge. This whole universe with its mobile and immobile creatures, is pervaded by thee. O holy one, O lord of the past and the future, O lord of the world, O protector of the universe, &#xA;  let Sakra, afflicted with thy wrath, have thy grace.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story is also described in Karna Parva chapter 34 with details about construction of chariot:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;‘&quot;The gods said, ‘Gathering all forms that may be found in the three worlds and taking portions of each, &#xA;  we will each, O Lord of the gods, construct a car of great energy for thee. It will be a large car, the &#xA;  handiwork of Viswakarman, designed with intelligence.’ Saying this, those tigers among the gods began the construction of that car. And they made Vishnu and Soma and Hutasana the arrow for Sankara’s use. Agni became the staff, and Soma became the head, and Vishnu the point, O king, of that foremost of arrows. The goddess Earth, with her large cities and towns, her mountains and forests and islands, that home of diverse creatures, was made the car. The Mandara mountain was made its axle; and the great river Ganga was made its Jangha; and the points of the compass, cardinal and subsidiary became the &#xA;  ornaments of the car. The constellations became its shaft; the Krita age became its yoke; and that best of &#xA;  Snakes, viz., Vasuki, became the Kuvara of that car. Himavat and Vindhya mountains became its &#xA;  Apaskara and Adhishthana; and the Udaya and the Asta mountains were made the wheels of that car by &#xA;  those foremost ones among the gods. They made the excellent Ocean, that abode of the Danavas its &#xA;  other axle. The seven Rishis became the protectors of the wheels of that car. Ganga and Sarasvati and &#xA;  Sindhu and the Sky became its Dhura; all the other rivers and all the waters became the chords for &#xA;  binding the several limbs of that car. Day and Night and the other divisions of time such as Kalas and &#xA;  Kasthas, and the Seasons became its Amukarsha. The blazing planets and the stars became its wooden &#xA;  fence; Religion, Profit, and Pleasure, united together, became its Trivenu. The herbs and the creepers, &#xA;  decked with flowers and fruits, became its bells. Making the Sun and the Moon equal, these were made &#xA;  the (other two) wheels of that foremost of cars. Day and Night were made its auspicious wings on the &#xA;  right and left. The ten foremost of snakes having Dhritarashtra for their first, all exceedingly strong, &#xA;  formed the (other) shaft of that car. The Sky was made its (other) yoke, and the clouds called &#xA;  Samvartaka and Valahaka were the leathern strings of the yoke. The two Twilights and Dhritri and &#xA;  Medha and Sthiti and Sannati, and the firmament bespangled with planets and stars, were made the skins for covering that car. Those Regents of the world, viz., the Lords of the gods, of the waters, of the dead, &#xA;  and of treasures, were made the steeds of that car. Kalaprishtha, and Nahusha, and Karkotaka, and &#xA;  Dhananjaya and the other snakes became the chords for binding the manes of the steeds. The cardinal &#xA;  and the subsidiary directions became the reins of the steeds of that car. The Vedic sound Vashat became &#xA;  the goad, and Gayatri became the string attached to that goad. The four auspicious days were made the &#xA;  traces of the steeds, and the pitris presiding over them were made the hooks and pins. Action and truth &#xA;  and ascetic penances and profit were made the chords of that car. The Mind became the ground upon &#xA;  which that car stood, and Speech the tracks upon which it was to proceed. Beautiful banners of various &#xA;  hues waved in the air. With lightning and Indra’s bow attached to it, that blazing car gave fierce light. &#xA;  That space of time which, on a former occasion, had, in the Sacrifice of the high-souled Ishana, been &#xA;  fixed as a Year, became the bow, and the goddess Savitri became the loud-sounding bow-string. A &#xA;  celestial coat of mail was made, decked with costly gems, and impenetrable and effulgent, sprung from &#xA;  the wheel of Time. That golden mountain, viz., the beautiful Meru, became the flagstaff, and the clouds &#xA;  decked with flashes of lightning became its banners. Thus equipped, that car shone brilliantly like a &#xA;  blazing fire in the midst of the priests officiating at a sacrifice. Beholding that car properly equipped, the &#xA;  gods became filled with wonder. Seeing the energies of the entire universe united together in one place, &#xA;  O sire, the gods wondered, and at last represented unto that illustrious Deity that the car was ready. &#xA;  After, O monarch, that best of cars had thus been constructed by the gods, O tiger among men, for &#xA;  grinding their foes, Sankara placed upon it his own celestial weapons Making the sky its flagstaff, he &#xA;  placed upon it his bovine bull. The Brahmana’s rod, the rod of Death, Rudra’s rod, and Fever became &#xA;  the protectors of the sides of that car and stood with faces turned towards all sides. Atharvan and &#xA;  Angirasa became the protectors of the car-wheels of that illustrious warrior. The Rigveda, the Samaveda, &#xA;  and the Puranas stood in advance of that car. The histories and the Yajurveda became the protectors of &#xA;  the rear. All sacred Speeches and all the Sciences stood around it, and all hymns, O monarch, and the &#xA;  Vedic sound of Vashat also. And the syllable Om, O king, standing in the van of that car, made it &#xA;  exceedingly beautiful. Having made the Year adorned with the six seasons his bow, he made his own &#xA;  shadow the irrefragable string of that bow in that battle. The illustrious Rudra is Death’s self. The Year &#xA;  became his bow; Kala Ratri the Death-night therefore, which is Rudra’s shadow, became the indestructible string of that bow. Vishnu and Agni and Soma became (as already said) the arrow. The universe is said to consist of Agni and Soma. The universe is similarly said to consist of Vishnu. Vishnu is, again, the Soul of the holy Bhava of immeasurable energy. For this the touch of that bow-string became unbearable to the Asuras. And the lord Sankara cast on that arrow his own irresistible and fierce wrath, the unbearable fire of anger, viz., that which was born of wrath of Bhrigu and Angirasa. Then He called Nila Rohita (Blue and Red or smoke)—that terrible deity robed in skins,—looking like 10,000  Suns, and shrouded by the fire of superabundant Energy, blazed up with splendour. That discomfiter of even him that is difficult of being discomfited, that victor, that slayer of all haters of Brahma, called also Hara, that rescuer of the righteous and destroyer of the unrighteous, viz., the illustrious Sthanu, accompanied by many beings of terrible might and terrible forms that were endued with the speed of the mind and capable of agitating and crushing all foes, as if with all the fourteen faculties of the soul awake about him, looked exceedingly resplendent. Having his limbs for their refuge, this entire universe of &#xA;  mobile and immobile creatures that were present there, O king, looked beautiful, presenting a highly &#xA;  wonderful appearance. Beholding that car, duly equipped, he cased himself in mail and armed himself &#xA;  with the bow, and took up that celestial shaft born of Soma and Vishnu and Agni. The gods, O king, &#xA;  then commanded that foremost of celestials, viz., Wind, to breathe after that puissant Deity all the &#xA;  fragrance that he carries. Then Mahadeva, terrifying the very gods, and making the very Earth tremble, &#xA;  ascended that car resolutely. Then the great Rishis, the Gandharvas, those throngs of gods and those &#xA;  diverse tribes of Apsaras began to praise that Lord of the gods while he was about to ascend that car. &#xA;  Adored by the regenerate Rishis, and praised by the eulogists and diverse tribes of dancing Apsaras well-&#xA;  versed in the art of dancing, that boon-giving lord, armed with scimitar and arrow and bow, looked very &#xA;  beautiful. Smiling, he then asked the gods, ‘Who will become my driver?’ The gods answered him, &#xA;  saying, ‘He whom thou wilt appoint, will, O Lord of the gods, without doubt, become thy driver!’ Unto &#xA;  them the god replied, ‘Reflecting yourselves, without delay make him my driver who is superior to me!’ &#xA;  Hearing these words uttered by that high-souled Deity, the gods repaired unto the Grandsire and &#xA;  inclining him to grace, said these words, ‘We have accomplished everything, O holy one, that thou hadst &#xA;  ordered us to do in the matter of afflicting the foes of celestials. The Deity having the bull for his mark &#xA;  has been gratified with us. A car hath been constructed by us, equipped with many wonderful weapons. &#xA;  We do not, however, know who is to become the driver of that foremost of cars. Therefore, let some &#xA;  foremost one among the gods be appointed as the driver. O holy one, it behoveth thee to make true those &#xA;  words that thou, O lord, hadst then said to us. Before this, O god, thou hadst even said to us that thou &#xA;  wouldst do us good. It behoveth thee to accomplish that promise. That irresistible and best of cars, that &#xA;  router of our foes, hath been constructed out of the component parts of the celestials. The Deity armed &#xA;  with Pinaka hath been made the warrior who is to stand on it. Striking the Danavas with fear, he is &#xA;  prepared for battle. The four Vedas have become the four foremost of steeds. With her mountains, the &#xA;  Earth has become the car of that high-souled one. The stars have become the adornments of that vehicle. &#xA;  (As already said) Hara is the warrior. We do not, however, see who is to become the driver. A driver &#xA;  should be sought for that car who is superior to all these. Equal to thee in importance is that car, O god,&#xA;  and Hara is the warrior. Armour, and weapons, and bow, these we have got already, O Grandsire. Except &#xA;  thee, we do not behold any person that can make its driver. Thou art endued with every accomplishment. &#xA;  Thou, O lord, art superior to all the gods. Mounting upon that car with speed, hold the reins of those &#xA;  foremost of steeds, for the victory of the celestials and the destruction of their foes.’ It has been heard by &#xA;  us that bowing with their heads unto the Grandsire that Lord of the three worlds, the gods sought to gratify him for inducing him to accept the drivership.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way Lord Shiva became Tripurantaka/Tripurari (destroyer of three cities ).&#xA;The question of why he was helped by Other Gods is like why Lord Rama was helped by Vanara Sena in Ramayana ? In fact the whole story of chariot construction and position of God's in it has deep Yogic significance. They are just like Path of Kundalini Awakening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-29T05:00:16.660" LastActivityDate="2016-05-29T05:00:16.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12387" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12388" CreationDate="2016-05-29T09:33:25.637" Score="11" ViewCount="1031" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many misconceptions that Lord Shiva is Tamasic God and scriptures of Him are Tamasic Scriptures. Some people even suggest not to read His stories as they are ostensibly believed to be tamasic puranas. This &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11329/3500&quot;&gt;concept of Tamasic Puranas can be refuted&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-41/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; clarifies this by saying Rudra as Taamasic outside but Satvic inside.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;परं ब्रह्माद्वयो नित्योऽनन्तः पूर्णो निरञ्जनः। &lt;br&gt; अन्तस्तमो&#xA;वहिःसत्त्वस्त्रिजगत्पालको हरिः।। ५९॥ &lt;br&gt;अन्तः&#xA;सत्त्वस्तमोबाह्यस्त्रिजगल्लयकृद्धरः।। ६० ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am the Supreme Brahman the eternal one, endless, perfect, complete&#xA;and spotless. Visnu, the protector of the three worlds, has tamas&#xA;inside, but Sattva outside. &lt;strong&gt;Hara who causes dissolution of three&#xA;worlds has sattva within, but tamas outside&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अन्तर्बहिरजश्चैव त्रिजगत्सृष्टिकृद्विधिः। &lt;br&gt; एवं गुणास्त्रिदेवेषु&#xA;गुणभिन्नः शिवः स्मृतः।। ६१।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmā on the other hand having rajoguna inside as well outside,&#xA;creates the three worlds. Thus all the three gods have their&#xA;respective qualities while Siva is different from all the gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But those people say this could be an interpolation. Indeed there are many contradictory statements in Smriti (in all Puranas). Words of Shruti are considered as ultimate Truths. When Smriti contradict each other, people resort to Sruti to know the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, do Vedas or Shruti describe Shiva or Rudra with gunas other than Tamas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2023-01-12T13:00:45.057" Title="Do Vedas or Shruti describe Lord Shiva as Sattva (सत्व)?" Tags="|shiva|vedas|shiva-purana|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12388" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12387" CreationDate="2016-05-29T10:15:51.780" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taittariya Samhita of YajurVeda in 4.5.2&lt;/strong&gt; salutes Lord Shiva by stating him to be the &lt;strong&gt;Lord of Satwas&lt;/strong&gt;.  It is also a portion of Sri Rudram. It is also stated in &lt;strong&gt;Vajasenai Samhita in 16.20&lt;/strong&gt;.These words are infallible and they were heard by Brahma during deep meditation. So Lord Brahma himself is the Rishi of these mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमः कृत्स्नवीताय धावते &lt;strong&gt;सत्वनां पतये नमः&lt;/strong&gt; ।&#xA;  Nama Kritsnavitaya Dhavate &lt;strong&gt;Satwanaam Pataya Namaha :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कृत्स्नवीताय - Pervading in all worlds,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धावते-  One who runs (in order to save devotees),&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सत्वनां पतये -    to the lord of the Satwas (virtuous quality),&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमः-  prostration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whole meaning is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Salutations to the all pervading who runs (to protect the devotees), and Salutations to him(Lord Shiva) &lt;strong&gt;who is Lord of Satwas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As above explained;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सत्वनां पतये नमः (Sattwanam Pataya Namaha)&lt;/strong&gt; means Prostration to the lord of the Satwas (virtuous quality).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence there is no meaning of citing the other Verses to show Lord Shiva as Tamasic. As the &lt;strong&gt;Samhitas directly declare him to be the 'Lord of Satwas'.&lt;/strong&gt; Other statements simply can be dismissed as overriding power of Shrutis, or interpolations. Or they may have been used to represent a specific form of Lord Shiva only and not in General.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-05-29T10:45:22.643" LastActivityDate="2016-05-29T10:45:22.643" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12390" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-29T11:40:14.523" Score="6" ViewCount="630" Body="&lt;p&gt;In various scriptures, it is noted that our soul resides in our heart. What is the significance of soul residing in our heart? Why residing in the heart?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T18:08:49.430" Title="Why does our soul reside in our heart? What does that mean?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12391" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12390" CreationDate="2016-05-29T11:51:41.040" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think it is referring to an emotional connection rather than an intellectual one. This is also the reason why Bhakti is emphasised so much because you can go on analysing, it has no end. Also, this might give some insights:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Head understands head and heart understands heart. Nose can only&#xA;  smell; eye can only see; ears can only hear, ears cannot see. So,&#xA;  heart can feel, isn’t it? We try to put the heart in the head and the&#xA;  head in the heart and it doesn’t seem to work. Your heart feels&#xA;  something is beautiful, head says it is beautiful. We cling on to the&#xA;  word in the mind, we don’t feel it. We repeat the word ‘beautiful’ and&#xA;  it doesn’t seem beautiful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The same thing goes for love. You talk too much about love, you get&#xA;  stuck in the head and it doesn’t rise in the heart. In silence love&#xA;  emits, radiates. We are not separate. We are all one. I know you all&#xA;  and when you go deep inside you, you know me also. We are not&#xA;  strangers...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have also at some other places, references to using your heart being made in the sense of using your intuition. For more, read this &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=24&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwj1zeOxmv_MAhWFuI8KHRpKBQ44ChAWCFcwDQ&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Flkm.fri.uni-lj.si%2Fxaigor%2Fslo%2Fmodrosti%2Fsri-columns.doc&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNGbVU8yyReS0Zu9LUNF2WJbFXqXiw&amp;amp;sig2=RNcqme0BE1F_0jV_ZOOq6w&amp;amp;bvm=bv.123325700,d.c2I&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-29T11:51:41.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12392" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-29T11:52:27.950" Score="6" ViewCount="17086" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the question says, why a husband is called पतीपरमेश्वर? What does that mean for a wife?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, our scriptures say that one who devotes to the the Supreme Soul at the time of death, reaches the supreme soul. Rather whatever we think at the time of death, we attain that state after death.&#xA;So, whom should a wife devote to at the time of death? Husband (पतीपरमेश्वर) or Supreme Soul, in order to attain Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastActivityDate="2020-12-08T16:30:01.020" Title="Why a husband is called पतीपरमेश्वर (Pati Parmeshwar)? Whom should a wife devote to at time of death?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12393" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12395" CreationDate="2016-05-29T17:15:33.273" Score="5" ViewCount="307" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vidyaranya, aka Madhavacharya (not to be confused with the Dvaita philosopher Madhvacharya), was a famous Advaitin philosopher who was the Shankaracharya of Sringeri and the brother of Sayana, the famous commentator on the Vedas.  (I wrote a fictional story about Vidyaranya &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/xFjv&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  Vidyaranya helped found the Vijayanagara Empire, and he composed many famous works including the Sarvadarshana Sangraha (a summary of all philosophical schools) and the Panchadasi (a summary of Advaita).  But my question is about another work of Vidyaranya, the Pranava Mimamsa, which is a work about significance and use of the syllable Om.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A8jM8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Pranava Mimamsa, Vidyaranya argues that when Hindu scripture says &amp;quot;pranavasya rishi Brahma&amp;quot;, meaning &amp;quot;Of the syllable Om, the sage who heard it during meditation is Brahma&amp;quot;, it's referring to the supreme Brahman, not to the creator god Brahma.  Vidyaranya cites several scriptures to show that Brahma was not the seer of the syllable Om, rather Brahma learnt the Vedas along with Om from the supreme Brahman.  In particular, he says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He, the incarnate power of Vishnu's intelligence, declares in the Satyavata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;With the heart he extended Brahman to the first sage.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning is as follows: &amp;quot;who&amp;quot;, i.e. the Highest Self, &amp;quot;with the heart&amp;quot;, i.e. mentally, &amp;quot;extended&amp;quot;, i.e. explained, &amp;quot;Brahman&amp;quot;, i.e. the Vedas, &amp;quot;to the first sage&amp;quot;, i.e. to Hiranyagarbha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I'm pretty sure the incarnation of Vishnu being quoted is Vyasa, for two reasons.  First of all, &amp;quot;incarnate power of Vishnu's intelligence&amp;quot; seems like a translation of &amp;quot;Jnana-Shakti Avatara of Vishnu&amp;quot;, which is an often-used appellation of Vyasa.  Second of all, I assume &amp;quot;Satyavata&amp;quot; refers to the fact that Vyasa is the son of Parashara and Satyavati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what work of Vyasa is Vidyaranya quoting here?  Vyasa is the author of the Mahabharata, the Puranas, and the Brahma Sutras, as well as the compiler of the Vedas.  Now if a work was called by the appellation &amp;quot;Satyavata&amp;quot;, it seems to me that it would probably refer to the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does anyone know if this verse occurs in the Mahabharata or any other scripture?  The translator says &amp;quot;I have not been able to identify the verse.&amp;quot;  If it helps, the verse is given in Sanskrit &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/esml0.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; it's verse 47.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2021-06-14T18:52:10.560" LastActivityDate="2021-06-14T18:52:10.560" Title="What work of Vyasa says the Vedas were taught to Brahma through the heart?" Tags="|mahabharata|advaita|bhagavata-purana|vyasa|om|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12395" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12393" CreationDate="2016-05-29T17:41:01.693" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vidyaranya is talking about Srimad Bhagavatam. Bhagavatam says in its very first sloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janmadyasya Yatah Anvayad Itaratah Cha Artheshu Abhijnah Svaraat|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Tene Brahma Hrdaa Ya Adikavaye&lt;/strong&gt; Muhyanti Yat Surayah|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tejo Vaari Mrdaam Yatha Vinimayah Yatra Trisargo Amrsha|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Dhaamna Svena Sada Nirastakuhakam Satyam Param Dheemahi|| Bhagavatam 1.1.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I meditate upon Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. &lt;strong&gt;It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmājī, the original living being.&lt;/strong&gt; By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth.&quot; (Bhaktivedanta Swami Translation)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you notice Vidyaranya has quoted the exact words as in Bhagavatam - Tene Brahma Hrdaa Adikavaye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Lord taught the Vedas by heart to Brahmadeva who was the first sage - Adi Kavi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2016-05-29T17:41:01.693" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12396" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-29T18:16:53.293" Score="3" ViewCount="644" Body="&lt;p&gt;Urdhwareta is one of the 1000 names given to Lord Shriman Narayana in Vishnu Sahastranaam, which literally means ithyphallic. Same name is given to the Last 24th Avatar of Lord Rudra named &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakulish&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lakulish&lt;/a&gt;. Now since Lord Rudra is worshipped as Linga, it may be okay for him to be Urdhwareta but as Shriman Narayana is full of Sattva and other auspicious qualities, how is it suitable for him to be Urdhwareta as it is indication for Lust inside a human being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if Shriman Narayana or Lord Rudra both are urdhwareta how is it respectful and ethical to write that name in scriptures and worship them by that name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-15T10:42:03.167" Title="Is it respectful to praise/refer gods by the name 'Urdhwareta&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|scripture|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12398" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12032" CreationDate="2016-05-30T03:47:17.653" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sundara Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana, Hanuman addressing Ravana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga51/sundarasans51.htm#Verse28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; the following verses which I think sum up Ravana's life:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न तु धर्म उपसम्हारम् अधर्म फल सम्हितम् || ५-५१-२८ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;तत् एव फलम् अन्वेति धर्मः च अधर्म नाशनः | &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fruit of righteousness does not exist together with the result of unrighteousness (even though he practices virtue). That consequence of unrighteousness alone follows him. Righteousness in abundance destroys unrighteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्राप्तम् धर्म फलम् तावत् भवता न अत्र संशयः || ५-५१-२९ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;फलम् अस्य अपि अधर्मस्य क्षिप्रम् एव प्रपत्स्यसे | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;You already obtained the fruit of virtue till now. There is no doubt about it. In no time, you will obtain the fruit of unrighteousness also.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;If you are interested in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sribhashyam_Appalacharyulu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sribhashyam Appalacharyulu&lt;/a&gt;'s commentary (Tatva Deepika) on the above verses, you can read it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/ecommentaries?field_commnetary_tid=12&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=5&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=51&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now those who consider Ravana a hero might be reveling in some of his so-called virtues, e.g.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;His &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_010.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;penance to get boons&lt;/a&gt; from Lord Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this was motivated by jealousy towards his stepbrother Kubera as explained &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_009.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_016.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;singing praises&lt;/a&gt; for Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, he did this only on the advice of his ministers when his arms were trapped under Mt. Kailash and there was nothing else he could do to free himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know he was a great king who kept his kingdom and administration in an organized manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suppose that's because he consulted and listened to his ministers early on and was riding on good fortune and the boons he received from lords Brahma and Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But again the Lanka that he ruled was also &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_015.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;forcibly taken&lt;/a&gt; from Kubera. Now compare that to what Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga97/ayodhyasans97.htm#Verse5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells&lt;/a&gt; his brother Lakshmana in Ayodhya Kanda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;धर्ममर्थं च कामं च पृथिवीं चापि लक्ष्मण | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;इच्छामि भवतामर्थे एतत् प्रतिशृणोमि ते || २-९७-५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O, Lakshmana! It is for your sake I desire virtue, legitimately acquired wealth and pleasure or even the earth itself. I promise this to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भ्रातृइणां संग्रहार्थं च सुखार्थं चापि लक्ष्मण | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;राज्यमप्यहमिच्छामि सत्येनायुधमालभे || २-९७-६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O, Lakshmana! I desire the throne only for the protection and happiness of my brothers. I touch my weapon and swear this fact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Long before Ravana kidnaps Sita, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_026.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;rapes Rambha&lt;/a&gt; and also &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_017.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;molests Vedavati&lt;/a&gt;. Both his brothers, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga63/yuddha_63_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kumbakarna&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga10/yuddha_10_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vibhishana&lt;/a&gt; question his actions after Sita's kidnapping and also advice him to release her and save both Lanka and its people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing the lamentation of Ravana, Kumbhakarna laughed at a full volume and spoke as follows: &amp;quot;The same bad consequence, which was imagined by us earlier while taking the final decision after our consultation, is faced by you now, due to your &lt;strong&gt;utter disregard of the words spoken by your well-wishers&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course Ravana doesn't listen to them. Poor Kumbakarna decides to side with Ravana out of loyalty. Vibhishana however chooses dharma over his brother and seeks Rama's help and becomes instrumental in Ravana's downfall.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the above just goes on to show what a bad person and a bad king Ravana is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why most Hindus and adherents of Valmiki Ramayana don't consider Ravana a god nor do they worship him. In fact, another name &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga4/balasans4.htm#Verse7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;given&lt;/a&gt; to Ramayana by Valmiki is &lt;em&gt;poulastya vadha&lt;/em&gt; (Ravana's elimination).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there are some people in India like the Gond tribals of Maharashtra as mentioned in &lt;em&gt;The Hindu&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/omar-rashid-on-ravan-worship/article7799972.ece&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt;, who don't consider themselves Hindus nor do they believe in Valmiki Ramayana, so it's understandable they consider Ravana their god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Our understanding of Dussehra is different. It doesn’t signify the slaying of Ravan but implies ‘Dassar Puja’, or the worship of weapons,” says Vasudevrao Tekam, a descendant of the Gond king of Lanjhigarh in Odisha. Tekam was among the many Gond guests present at the function. “&lt;strong&gt;We have nothing to do with Hinduism. Gonds believe in totems. We are the warisdars of Ravan: Ravanvanshis. We are not Hindus.&lt;/strong&gt; We are being forced to be Hindus...” Tekam’s disowning of Aryan terminologies is indicative of the Gonds’ counter-narrative.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to their version, Ravan was a Gond king who was slain by Aryan invaders. He was the tenth dharmaguru of the tribe, carrying forward the legacy of Kupar Lingo, the supreme deity and heroic ancestor of Gonds, who gave them their phratry structures and lifestyle values.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, A. K. Ramanujan says the following in his essay &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft3j49n8h7&amp;amp;chunk.id=d0e2353&amp;amp;toc.depth=1&amp;amp;toc.id=d0e1254&amp;amp;brand=eschol&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Three Hundred Ramayanas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jaina Tellings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we enter the world of Jains' tellings, the Rama story no longer carries Hindu values. &lt;strong&gt;Indeed the Jaina texts express the feeling that the Hindus, especially the Brahmins, have maligned Ravana, made him into a villain.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;... &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vimalasuri the Jains opens the story not with Rama's genealogy and greatness, but with Ravana's. Ravana is one of the sixty-three leaders or salakapurusas of the Jaina tradition. He is noble, learned, earns all his magical powers and weapons through austerities (tapas), and is a devotee of Jaina masters. To please one of them, &lt;strong&gt;he even takes a vow that he will not touch any unwilling woman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So depending on which Ramayana one follows one could end up viewing Ravana as their hero or villain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other references:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h38EHdIodA4&amp;amp;list=PLZ83joYJYmWSpFnlr5aa6rOOucwe9gb-m&amp;amp;index=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana - Answering Pertinent Questions&lt;/a&gt; with Shatavadhani Dr. R Ganesh (YouTube playlist)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-25T03:22:47.003" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12399" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12280" CreationDate="2016-05-30T05:23:18.580" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are some book recommendations by Shatavadhani Dr. R Ganesh from his YouTube video &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/z8G_ubZv8cg?t=101&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;How do I get into the world of Mahabharata? Where do I start?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://tinyurl.com/shbdor6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://tinyurl.com/v5exqsm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata by Kamala Subramaniam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/mahabharata-NAK811/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Mahabharata by Dr. N.V.R. Krishnamacharya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A couple of free online translations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kisari Mohan Ganguli's translation at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sacred-texts.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Unabridged, but this is from 1896 so uses archaic English ('thou art', 'thou hast' etc.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/itihaas/mahabharat/text-with-translation/vol-i/chapter-01/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;hinduscriptures.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Unabridged, verse by verse translation. Not sure who the author or publisher is - the website ingeniously removed all those details!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-04-01T21:25:20.287" LastActivityDate="2020-04-01T21:25:20.287" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12400" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="29265" CreationDate="2016-05-30T05:58:30.447" Score="13" ViewCount="1445" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading Mukhya Upanishads, I found there are many verses that say who does Upasana upon Brahman or Om, is led up or reach/attain to Brahmaloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example: (Verses from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sanskrit/by-category/doc_upanishhat.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskritdocuments&lt;/a&gt; and English translations from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/upan/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sacred-texts&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prashnopanishad 5.5:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यः पुनरेतं त्रिमात्रेणोमित्येतेनैवाक्षरेण परं पुरुषमभि-&#xA;  ध्यायीत स तेजसि सूर्ये सम्पन्नः । यथा पादोदरस्त्वचा&#xA;  विनिर्भुच्यत एवं ह वै स पाप्मना विनिर्भुक्तः &lt;strong&gt;स&#xA;  सामभिरुन्नीयते ब्रह्मलोकं स एतस्माज्जीवघनात् परात्परं&#xA;  पुरुशयं पुरुषमीक्षते&lt;/strong&gt; । तदेतौ श्लोकौ भवतः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Again, he who meditates with this syllable AUM of three Mâtrâs, on the Highest Person, he comes to light and to the sun. And as a snake is freed from its skin, so is he freed from evil. He is led up by the Sâman-verses to the Brahma-world; and from him, full of life (Hiranyagarbha, the lord of the Satya-Loka ), he learns to see the all-pervading, the Highest Person. And there are these two Slokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mundakopanishad 3.2.6:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वेदान्तविज्ञानसुनिश्चितार्थाः&#xA;  संन्यासयोगाद् यतयः शुद्धसत्त्वाः ।&#xA;  ते ब्रह्मलोकेषु परान्तकाले&#xA;  परामृताः परिमुच्यन्ति सर्वे ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having well ascertained the object of the knowledge of the Vedânta, and having purified their nature by the Yoga of renunciation, all anchorites, enjoying the highest immortality, become free at the time of the great end (death) in the worlds of Brahmâ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also refer Kathopanishad 1.2.17, 1.3.16 etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Now going to the point&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read the following verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kathopanishad 2.3.4:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इह चेदशकद्बोद्धुं प्राक्षरीरस्य विस्रसः ।&#xA;  ततः सर्गेषु लोकेषु शरीरत्वाय कल्पते ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'If a man could not understand it before the falling asunder of his body, then he has to take body again in the worlds of creation.'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 2.3.5:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथादर्शे तथात्मनि यथा स्वप्ने तथा पितृलोके ।&#xA;  यथाप्सु परीव ददृशे तथा गन्धर्वलोके&#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;छायातपयोरिव ब्रह्मलोके&lt;/strong&gt; ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'As in a mirror, so (Brahman may be seen clearly) here in this 'body; as in a dream, in the world of the Fathers; as in the water, he is seen about in the world of the Gandharvas; &lt;strong&gt;as in light and shade, in the world of Brahmâ.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya's commentaries on above verses say that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is essential to know and realize Brahman in this Loka because Brahman can't only be realized correctly/clearly in other Lokas except for Brahmaloka. And it is very hard to attain Brahmaloka.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In other Lokas, the knowledge and realization of Brahman are unclear and only in Brahmaloka it is clearly realized like light and shadow.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After knowing this now, I am curious to know the Brahmaloka because all the other Lokas are tied to the cycle of birth and death, in other words, they are temporary (returning) and not permanent (non-returning). In case of current/this Loka, it is also under the influence of Maya but one can know and realize Brahman clearly in this Loka with the help of clear intellect. BUT Brahmaloka is the only one which is non-returning i.e once one attain it, he realizes Brahman clearly and ultimately attain Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is Brahmaloka? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How does one realize Brahman in Brahmaloka like light and shadow (as discussed above)? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any scripture that describes the life at Brahmaloka?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Btw, I also want to discuss on kirtan/hymn by Narsinh Mehta which is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.anirdesh.com/kirtan/index.php?lang=EN&amp;amp;part=1&amp;amp;no=891&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ભૂતલ ભક્તિ પદારથ મોટું બ્રહ્મલોકમાં નાહીં રે&lt;/a&gt; in which the title line says that &lt;em&gt;Devotion is the big/important thing in this Loka which is not present in Brahma Loka&lt;/em&gt; i.e Brahmaloka has no devotion. Another interesting line is હરિના જન તો મુક્તિ ન માગે, માગે જનમોજનમ અવતાર રે which means people of Hari don't want Mukti, instead, they ask/want birth-rebirth descent/incarnation for devotion.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="12071" LastEditDate="2018-01-16T09:53:56.447" LastActivityDate="2018-09-27T14:36:31.930" Title="Want to know about Brahmaloka" Tags="|scripture|upanishads|brahman|lokas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12401" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-30T10:16:40.873" Score="1" ViewCount="62" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Gujarat as well as other states like Maharashtra there is a tale &quot; Hari ichcha bhali hashe&quot; or &quot;Hari's will shall be for good.&quot; What is the reason/myth/story behind that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T10:16:40.873" Title="&quot;Hari's desire will be better&quot; - A Tale" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12403" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-30T12:12:05.590" Score="6" ViewCount="1609" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman had sat on the flag of Arjuna's chariot during the Kurukshetra war. But, what was it for?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was not even a single instance in which Hanuman played any role.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-05-30T20:19:25.947" LastActivityDate="2020-01-23T06:37:35.353" Title="Hanuman's Role in Kurukshetra" Tags="|mahabharata|hanuman|arjuna|bhima|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12404" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-30T12:26:40.000" Score="8" ViewCount="2018" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which is the largest Hindu temple (in terms of area) in the world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some say it is &lt;a href=&quot;http://detechter.com/25-amazing-facts-about-hinduism-that-most-hindus-probably-wouldnt-know/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Angkor Wat&lt;/a&gt; in Cambodia. Although, others say it is a Buddhist temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2021-02-24T04:34:49.057" Title="Which is the largest Hindu temple in the world?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12407" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-30T12:44:09.023" Score="2" ViewCount="764" Body="&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal#cite_note-168&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt; article claims that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As it is believed that Ne Muni established Nepal, some important&#xA;  priests in Nepal are called &quot;Tirthaguru Nemuni&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any more details available about the saint? Do any scriptures mention him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2018-10-27T18:38:56.190" Title="Was Nepal formed by a Hindu saint called Ne Muni?" Tags="|saint|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12408" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-30T12:49:45.537" Score="3" ViewCount="308" Body="&lt;p&gt;This website talks about the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ancient.eu/Hindu_Architecture/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;features of a Hindu temple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Worshippers consider that energy flows out in all directions from the&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;garbhagriha&lt;/em&gt;, and this is reflected in the architecture of the&#xA;  surrounding parts of the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this just a belief? Or, is it related to the architecture of the temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T07:49:37.097" Title="Are Hindu temples designed in such a way that the spiritual energy flows out of the garbagriha?" Tags="|temple|architecture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-06-05T03:57:44.633" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12409" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-30T12:58:58.333" Score="5" ViewCount="409" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Artha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Kama&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; are considered as the &lt;a href=&quot;http://ekatvam.org/liberation/dharma-artha-kama-moksha.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;four goals of life&lt;/a&gt; according to Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One might argue that &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; is the highest amongst all four.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the remaining three - &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Artha&lt;/em&gt; and Kama - which is higher? Or, is it even valid to compare them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if Kama (fulfillment of desires) is considered one of the goals, why are texts like &lt;em&gt;Kamasutra&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3752/is-kamasutra-a-hindu-religious-text&quot;&gt;frowned upon&lt;/a&gt; as exemplified in this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When &lt;em&gt;Artha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Kama&lt;/em&gt; are part of the Hindu religion as goals, should texts written on them not be considered as religious texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2023-04-12T09:08:50.847" Title="Precedence among the four Purushartha" Tags="|moksha|dharma|artha|kama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12410" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-30T13:08:33.803" Score="2" ViewCount="105" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indus-era-8000-years-old-not-5500-ended-because-of-weaker-monsoon/articleshow/52485332.cms&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;latest research&lt;/a&gt; by IIT Kharagpur and ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) has upgraded the date of the Indus Valley civilization to 8000 BC as compared to 5500 BC as previously believed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In addition, researchers have found proof of a pre-Harappan&#xA;  civilization that existed for at least 1,000 years before this (8000 BC).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does this mean for the Hindu history? Could any of the events recorded have happened in these places?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-30T14:19:10.450" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T14:19:10.450" Title="Indus Valley civilization dates back to 8000 BC or earlier - effects of the new research" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-06-05T03:57:37.553" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12415" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12403" CreationDate="2016-05-30T14:00:52.807" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;We are all familiar with His extremely important role in Ramayana. But only a few of us know that Lord Hanuman also appears in the epic Mahabharata, twice. It is a well-known fact that Lord Hanuman is one of the 'Chiranjeevis'. Chiranjeevis are the people who are supposed to be immortals. Hanuman, being one of the Chiranjeevis has been granted with the boon to live forever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we find Lord Hanuman being mentioned in Mahabharata. Lord Hanuman is also considered the brother of Bhima as they have the same father, Vayu. Therefore the first mention of Lord Hanuman in Mahabharata comes when He meets Bhima during the Pandavas exile and the second time when Lord Hanuman protected the chariot of Arjuna throughout the battle of Kurukshetra by residing in Arjuna's flag &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.boldsky.com/yoga-spirituality/faith-mysticism/2014/role-of-lord-hanuman-in-mahabharata-040456.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;read more here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3779" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T14:00:52.807" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12416" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11817" CreationDate="2016-05-30T14:07:11.043" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Shalya discouraging Karna is discussed &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Addressing Shalya, Karna said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Accepting those words (of Duryodhana), the foremost of chariot-warriors stationed on his chariot, viz., the son of Radha, addressed&#xA;  Shalya, that warrior accomplished in battle, saying, &quot;Urge the steeds,&#xA;  O mighty-armed one, so that I may slay Dhananjaya and Bhimasena and&#xA;  both the twins and king Yudhishthira. O Shalya, let Dhananjaya behold&#xA;  today the might of my arms, when I will be engaged in shooting shafts&#xA;  winged with Kanka feathers in hundreds and thousands. Today, O Shalya,&#xA;  I will shoot shafts with great energy for the destruction of the&#xA;  Pandavas and the victory of Duryodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In reply to this Shalya said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Suta's son, why dost thou think so low of the sons of Pandu, all of whom are endued with great might, all of whom are great bowmen,&#xA;  and all of whom are acquainted with every weapon? They are&#xA;  unretreating, of great good fortune, invincible, and of prowess&#xA;  incapable of being baffled. They are capable of inspiring fear in the&#xA;  heart of Indra himself. When, son of Radha thou wilt hear the twang of&#xA;  Gandiva in battle, resembling the peal of the thunder itself, thou&#xA;  wilt not then utter such speeches. When thou wilt behold Dharma's son&#xA;  and the twins causing a canopy, like that of the clouds in the welkin,&#xA;  with their sharp arrows, and the other invincible kings (of the&#xA;  Pandava army), endued with great lightness of hands and shooting&#xA;  (showers of shafts) and weakening their foes, then thou wilt not utter&#xA;  such words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Disregarding those words spoken by the ruler of the Madras, Karna addressing him endued with great activity, saying, &quot;Proceed.&quot;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the next chapter following conversation has been done:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Reflecting on the mighty feats of Partha, and burning with&#xA;  self-conceit and pride, and blazing with wrath and breathing long and&#xA;  hard, he addressed Shalya and said these words: &quot;When stationed on my&#xA;  chariot and armed with my bow, I would not take fright at Indra himself&#xA;  armed with the thunder and excited with wrath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shalya said, &quot;Forbear, forbear, O Karna, from such bragging. Thou art in transports of delight and sayest what thou shouldst never&#xA;  say. Where is Dhananjaya, that foremost of men, and where again, art&#xA;  thou, O lowest of men? Who else, save Arjuna, could take away the&#xA;  younger sister of (Keshava) that foremost of all persons, having&#xA;  forcibly agitated the home of the Yadus that was protected by the&#xA;  younger brother of Indra and that resembled heaven itself that is&#xA;  guarded by the chief of celestials? What man save Arjuna who is endued&#xA;  with prowess that is equal to the prowess of the chief of the&#xA;  celestials, could on the occasion of the dispute caused by the&#xA;  slaughter of an animal, summon Bhava the Lord of Lords, the Creator of&#xA;  the worlds, to battle? For the sake of honouring Agni, Jaya had&#xA;  vanquished asuras and gods and great snakes and men and birds and&#xA;  pishacas and yakshas and rakshasas with his shafts and gave unto that&#xA;  god the food he had desired. Dost thou remember, O Karna, the occasion&#xA;  when, slaughtering those foes in large numbers with his excellent&#xA;  shafts endued with the effulgence of the Sun, Phalguna liberated&#xA;  Dhritarashtra's son himself among the Kurus? Dost thou remember the&#xA;  occasion when, thyself having been the first to fly away, the&#xA;  quarrelsome sons of Dhritarashtra were liberated by the Pandavas after&#xA;  the latter had defeated those rangers of the skies (the gandharvas&#xA;  headed by Citraratha)? On the occasion also of the seizure of&#xA;  (Virata's) kine, the Kauravas, swelling with numbers in respect of&#xA;  both men and animals, and having the preceptor and the preceptor's son&#xA;  and Bhishma amongst them, were vanquished by that foremost of men.&#xA;  Why, O son of Suta, didst thou not vanquish Arjuna then? For thy&#xA;  destruction another excellent battle has now presented itself. If thou&#xA;  dost not fly away from fear of thy enemy, know O Suta's son, that as&#xA;  soon as thou goest to battle thou wilt be slain.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-30T15:02:29.810" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T15:02:29.810" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12417" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-30T15:58:56.030" Score="4" ViewCount="6824" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is known about the Kaustubh Mani that came out of the Samudra Manthana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This wiki article says that the gem is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaustubha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;worn by Vishnu.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any texts which go into more details? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-12-27T12:29:44.217" Title="What is known about the Kaustubh Mani that came out of the Samudra Manthana?" Tags="|vishnu|samudra-manthan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12419" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12403" CreationDate="2016-05-30T20:14:42.187" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman played a very minor role in the Kurukshetra war because Bhima softly declines Hanuman's offer for help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O descendant of Bharata, with fraternal feeling ask from me a boon. &lt;strong&gt;If you desire that I shall go to Hastinapur and kill the insignificant sons of Dhritarashtra&lt;/strong&gt;, I shall even do this (for your sake) or that I shall grind that city with Stone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Or that I shall bind Duryodhana and bring him here. O greatly powerful hero, even this I shall do today&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having heard the words of that high-souled one, Bhimasena with a delighted heart thus spoke to Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“O foremost of monkeys, O mighty-armed hero, &lt;strong&gt;I consider all this already performed by you&lt;/strong&gt;. Good come to you. I ask you to be pleased with me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O mighty-armed hero, when you have become our protector, &lt;strong&gt;the Pandavas have (already) secured their lord.&lt;/strong&gt; With your effulgence we shall conquer all our enemies.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having been thus addressed, Hanuman then spoke to Bhimasena, “From fraternal affection and friendship, I shall do you good.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By rushing into the enemy’s force armed with numerous arrows and javelins when you shall give forth lion-like roars, O hero, O greatly powerful one,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I shall then with my own (shouts) add to your shouts. Remaining on Vijaya's (Arjuna) flag-staff, I shall send forth fearful shouts. Which will damp the courage of your enemies. You will then be able to destroy them with ease.&lt;/strong&gt;”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having thus spoken to the son of Pandu, Hanuman first pointed out to him the way and disappeared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/20887/14F_Chapter_151.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahābhārata - Vana Parva - Chapter 151&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T20:14:42.187" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12420" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2454" CreationDate="2016-05-30T22:47:09.727" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana's upper body was made of vajras (diamonds) and hence no one can kill him by striking anywhere on his upper body. This is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03250.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;explained&lt;/a&gt; in Vana Parva of Mahabharata when Duryodhana wants to starve himself to death following his shameful defeat at the hands of Chitrasena in front of the Pandavas. The danavas realizing this summon him to patala and explain him his true purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The Danavas said, 'O Suyodhana, O great king? O perpetuator of the race of Bharata, thou art ever surrounded by heroes and illustrious men. Why hast thou, then, undertaken to do such a rash act as the vow of starvation? The suicide ever sinketh into hell and becometh the subject of calumnious speech. Nor do intelligent persons like thee ever set their hands to acts that are sinful and opposed to their best interests and striking at the very root of their purposes. Restrain this resolve of thine, therefore, O king, which is destructive of morality, profit, and happiness, of fame, prowess, and energy, and which enhanceth the joy of foes O exalted king, know the truth, the celestial origin of thy soul, and the maker of thy body, and then summon thou patience to thy aid. In days of old. O king, we have obtained thee, by ascetic austerities from Maheswara. &lt;strong&gt;The upper part of thy body is wholly made of an assemblage of Vajras, and is, therefore, invulnerable to weapons of every description&lt;/strong&gt;, O sinless one. The lower part of thy body, capable of captivating the female heart by its comeliness was made of flowers by the goddess herself--the wife of Mahadeva. Thy body is thus, O best of kings, the creation of Maheswara himself and his goddess. Therefore, O tiger among kings, thou art of celestial origin, not human.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So while Duryodhana can be defeated in battle he cannot be killed, which is why Bhima had to strike him below the waist following Krishna's advice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;'Vasudeva said, &quot;The instruction received by them hath been equal. Bhima, however, is possessed of greater might, while the son of Dhritarashtra is possessed of greater skill and hath laboured more. If he were to fight fairly, Bhimasena will never succeed in winning the victory. If, however, he fights unfairly he will be surely able to slay Duryodhana. The Asuras were vanquished by the gods with the aid of deception. We have heard this. Virochana was vanquished by Shakra with the aid of deception. The slayer of Vala deprived Vritra of his energy by an act of deception. Therefore, let Bhimasena put forth his prowess, aided by deception! &lt;strong&gt;At the time of the gambling, O Dhananjaya, Bhima vowed to break the thighs of Suyodhana with his mace in battle. Let this crusher of foes, therefore, accomplish that vow of his. Let him with deception, slay the Kuru king who is full of deception.&lt;/strong&gt; If Bhima, depending upon his might alone, were to fight fairly, king Yudhishthira will have to incur great danger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can further read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10625/2995&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; to understand how this act of Bhima is justified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-05-30T22:47:09.727" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12421" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-31T04:50:10.410" Score="2" ViewCount="541" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the correct pronunciation of Om? Is it Om, Aum, Oom or any other pronunciation? People pronunce it many different ways. Arya Samajials pronounce it as Oom. Chinese, Japanese and Tibetans have their own pronunciation. So, what is the correct true pronunciation of Om?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4690" LastActivityDate="2020-07-17T02:56:44.530" Title="Pronunciation of Om" Tags="|om|language|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12422" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12278" CreationDate="2016-05-31T05:37:46.013" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft#page/476/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Puranic Encyclopedia&lt;/a&gt;, the Uttara Rāmāyana narrates the story of how an apsara named Madhurā turned into a frog and then into Mandodari who becomes the adopted daughter of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayasura&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mayasura&lt;/a&gt; and his apsara-wife Hema:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayasura&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Maya&lt;/a&gt;, an asura, was born to Kasyapaprajāpati of his wife Danu. Once Maya went to Devaloka to see the dances of the celestial maidens there. Devas came to know that Maya was in love with the nymph Hema and they married her to Maya. Maya went to the southern valley of Himawān and lived there with Hema constructing there a city called Hemapura. They got two sons Māyāvi and Dundubhi. But they grieved over the lack of a daughter and she went to a side of Himavān and started penance there to get the blessings of Śiva. Once a celestial damsel named Madhurā after observing Somavāravrata went to Kailāsa to pay obeisance to Siva. Pârvati was absent from the place then, having gone to attend the birthday celebrations of one of her sons. So Madhura met Siva sitting lonely and this led to a clandestine sexual union between them. When Pârvati returned she saw traces of the ashes from the body of Siva on the naked breast of Madhura and Parvati in her anger cursed Madhură to live in a well for twelve years ás a frog. Siva was stupefied at the curse and he went to the well and consoled her by saying that she would after the twelve years of life as a frog become a very beautiful maiden and would be married by a man of great fame and valour. It was near this well that Maya and his wise were performing penance to get a daughter. &lt;strong&gt;After twelve years the frog changed itself into a beautiful maiden and cried loudly from the well. Hearing the cry Maya and Hemä, who were nearby peeped into the well and seeing the young girl took her home and brought her up giving her the name Mandodari.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rāvana returning after his victory march by that way visited Maya and seeing the girl fell in love with her and married her according to Vedic rites and took her to Lańkā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rāvana got three sons of her, Meghanāda, Atikāya and Aksakumâra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Puranic Encyclopedia by Vettam Mani&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The story is slightly different in the Uttara Kanda of Ramayana available at &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Ramayana_201309/Ramayana-VOL-4-Uttara-Kanda#page/n65/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;archive.org&lt;/a&gt;, where there is no mention of the frog story and according to it, Mandodari was the biological daughter of Maya and Hema:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereat Maya, O Rama, answered that night-ranger [Ravana], when&#xA;  he had asked this,—'Listen. I shall tell thee all about this.&#xA;  Thou mayst ere this have heard of an Apsara named Hema.&#xA;  She like unto the Paulomi of Satakratu was bestowed on me&#xA;  by the gods. And I passed a thousand years, being devoted&#xA;  to her. Thirteen years have passed away since she had gone&#xA;  on a business of the celestials, as also the fourteenth year.&#xA;  Then I through my extraordinary skill constructed a golden&#xA;  palace, adorned with diamonds and lapises. There I dwelt,&#xA;  aggrieved and sorrowful on account of her separation. From&#xA;  thence, taking my daughter, I have come to this wood. &lt;strong&gt;This,&#xA;  O king, is my daughter, grown in her womb.&lt;/strong&gt; I have come&#xA;  hither with her, seeking for her husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And on this wife of mine I have also begat two sons ;— the first is Mayavi and the next Dundubhi. Thus have I truly related everything unto thee that hadst asked for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, my child, how can I know thee now? Who art thou? Thus addressed, the Rakshasa humbly said, — 'Ten-necked by name, I am the son of the ascetic, Paulastya, who was born as the third son of Brahma.' Thus accosted, O Rama, by that lord of Rakshasas, that Danava and foremost of Danavas, Maya, learning that he was the son of the Maharshi, Paulastya, there desired in his heart to give away his daughter to him. And taking her hand with his own, Maya — lord of Daityas - laughing, said unto that lord of the Rakshasas, - '&lt;strong&gt;This daughter of mine, O king, borne by the Apsara, Hema, this my daughter named Mandodari do thou accept as thy wife.&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Well' thereupon the Ten-necked answered him, O Rama And lighting a fire, he took her hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maya, O Rama, knew the curse of the sage touching him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Ramayana_201309/Ramayana-VOL-4-Uttara-Kanda#page/n7/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Uttara Kanda of Ramayana by M N Dutt&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T05:37:46.013" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12423" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11015" CreationDate="2016-05-31T06:37:42.543" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Uttara Kanda of Ramayana, Ravana &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Ramayana_201309/Ramayana-VOL-4-Uttara-Kanda#page/n123/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;kidnapped&lt;/a&gt; many other women, although there is no exact number to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While thus returning the vicious-souled &lt;strong&gt;Ravana,&#xA;  with delight, carried away stealthily, on his way, the&#xA;  daughters of the royal saints, celestials and Danavas.&#xA;  And whatever beautiful damsel he saw, married or unmarried,&#xA;  that demon held them captive in his car, having slain all their&#xA;  friends and relatives. In this wise he got on his chariot&#xA;  many a female of the Nagas, Rakshas, Asuras, Yakshas,&#xA;  Danavas and of men.&lt;/strong&gt; And they, all afflicted, shed tears, hot&#xA;  as firey flames, caused by fear and fire of grief. As the ocean&#xA;  is filled with the currents of the rivers so that car was flooded&#xA;  with their tears originating from fear and sorrow. And wept&#xA;  there in the chariot, hundreds of the females of Nagas,&#xA;  Gandharvas, of great ascetics,Daityas and of Danavas. They&#xA;  had long airs, graceful persons, countenances resembling the&#xA;  full-moon, rising breast, slender waist like that of a black-bee&#xA;  and were graceful with back like the pole of a car. They were&#xA;  like the females of the celestials and the burning gold and&#xA;  were all afflicted by grief, sorrow and terror and were young.&#xA;  And the car was ablaze on all sides with the sighings of those&#xA;  damsels and Pushpaka looked like the chamber where fire u&#xA;  kept perpetually. The countenance and eyes, of those&#xA;  beautiful damsels, brought under the subjection of the tennecked&#xA;  .demon, and afflicted with sorrow, looked poorly like&#xA;  a hind attacked by a lion. Some thought—&quot;Will he eat rac&#xA;  up&quot; and another, stricken with sorrow, thought—&quot;Will he&#xA;  destroy me?&quot; Thus remembering their mothers, fathers,&#xA;  husbands and brothers, all those females, overwhelmed with&#xA;  grief and sorrow, bewailed, some exclaiming — &quot;What shall&#xA;  befall my son in my absence? Alas! into what ocean of&#xA;  grief my mother or brother is sunk? Alas ! what shall my&#xA;  husband do in my absence ? Therefore, O death, I propitiate&#xA;  thee, do thou take me, who am subject to miseries. Alas !&#xA;  what an iniquity did I perpetrate in my former birth in my&#xA;  another body ? Therefore, we all, overwhelmed with grief,&#xA;  are sunk in the ocean of sorrow — and I do not behold the&#xA;  of my miseries. Oh ! fie upon humanity ; there is none more&#xA;  vile than a man for they are weak. As the stars disappear&#xA;  with the rising of the sun in time, so our husbands have been destroyed&#xA;  by the powerful Ravana. Oh ! highly powerful is&#xA;  this Raksha and he is mad after devising the means of destruction. Alas ! being engaged in such vile actions, he does not consider himself cursed ; he is as powerful as he is vicious.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;And though the ravishment of another's wife is a great sin, still that vile Rakshasa is enjoying us who belong to others.&#xA;  Therefore this vicious-minded one shall meet with death, by his own actions.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the same rampage, Ravana accidentally kills Surpanakha's husband too so he sends her off to live in the Dandaka forest under the protection of Khara and Dushana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do thou ever reside by the side of thy rich brother Khara and&#xA;  he shall be the lord of fourteen thousand Rakshasas. That&#xA;  highly powerful one shall give food and clothes to all those&#xA;  Rakshasas. He is thy cousin and that night-ranger shall&#xA;  always carry out thy orders. Let that hero now speedily go&#xA;  to protect the Dandaka forest and the highly powerful&#xA;  Dushana shall be the commander of his forces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the heroic Khara shall always obey thy words and be the lord of&#xA;  Rakshasas assuming shapes at will.&quot; Having said this the&#xA;  Ten-necked demon issued orders to his army—fourteen thousand&#xA;  highly powerful Rakshasas. Being encircled by those&#xA;  grim-visaged Rakshasas, Khara, undaunted, speedily came to&#xA;  the Dandaka forest. There he governed without thorns and&#xA;  Surpanakha too also resided in the forest of Dandaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T06:37:42.543" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12424" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12421" CreationDate="2016-05-31T07:01:17.067" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is like saying the alphabet 'O' and Mmmmmm. So it's Ommmmm. And the humming sound which its product is the basic calming monotone that helps one to meditate. &#xA;Focus on the hum as if you're hearing from your throat or the middle of forehead (3rd eye).&#xA;That is what has been for ages for every meditation group/religion &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5766" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T07:01:17.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12425" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12408" CreationDate="2016-05-31T07:07:27.820" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a belief and the architecture is likewise.&#xA;It is often told that in older times(like 500-600) years ago temples were not just made.&#xA;An idol was selected. And often place with copper underneath it to channelise the energy around it. The temple hence was built around this energy chakra and the idol. &#xA;So the temple is for the idol but not the idol for the temple. This meant the main focus was the energy of faith flowed from one point to everywhere(and hence the ritual of a parikrama clockwise).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5766" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T07:07:27.820" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12426" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12446" CreationDate="2016-05-31T07:39:08.047" Score="2" ViewCount="167" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've seen some mentions of complete self surrender, or for example Krishna's 'abandon all dharmas and surrender unto me'. Fine, suppose I decide to do that. How would I know what God's will is at any moment? Whatever I innately feel like doing? I can never know what God's will actually is, only what I believe/feel it to be (which is probably wrong). Should I just forget all my duties and act spontaneously all the time? An adult can't function like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5750" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T22:49:38.870" Title="How do I know what the will of God is, if I want to surrender to it?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12427" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12408" CreationDate="2016-05-31T07:49:37.097" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Each and every part of the temple is created based on architecture principle which ultimately leads to spiritual energy source. Let me answer for specific part of temple - Dome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look around the web and find for the shape of nuclear reactor then the answer should be - Dome. Because it is proven that Dome shape is used to produce energy. So, all the Jyotirling are have Dome shape as Ling itself is source of energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T07:49:37.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12428" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-31T09:58:53.543" Score="3" ViewCount="363" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu &lt;em&gt;Puranas&lt;/em&gt;, there are two mentions of southward spread of &lt;em&gt;vedic&lt;/em&gt; civilization, one was by Agastya &lt;em&gt;Muni&lt;/em&gt; and the other by &lt;em&gt;Parashurama&lt;/em&gt; after he decimated 21 generations of &lt;em&gt;Kshatriyas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it known about the chronological sequence of these two unrelated events?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2024-02-02T06:04:00.453" Title="Who travelled southwards first? Agastya or Parashurama" Tags="|history|india|parashurama|agastya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12431" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11031" CreationDate="2016-05-31T12:05:07.613" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shakti also refers to the feminine form of Divine in general. There are Shakta Upansihads which worship these different forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saubhagyalakshmi_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saubhagyalakshmi Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; is a Shakta Upanishad related to the &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt; which worships &lt;em&gt;Lakshmi&lt;/em&gt; form of Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarasvati-rahasya_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sarasvati-rahasya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;em&gt;Krishna Yajurveda&lt;/em&gt; worships &lt;em&gt;Saraswati&lt;/em&gt; form of Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence, Lakshmi and Saraswati are worshipped as part of the Shakta texts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, you might be interested to know the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;em&gt;Atharva Veda&lt;/em&gt; worships &lt;em&gt;Durga&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sita_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sita Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;em&gt;Atharva Veda&lt;/em&gt; worships &lt;em&gt;Sita&lt;/em&gt; as a form of the Shakti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahvricha_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bahvricha Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt; worships the &lt;em&gt;feminine&lt;/em&gt; form of the Devi in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-11-08T19:45:05.640" LastActivityDate="2016-11-08T19:45:05.640" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12432" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-31T12:07:11.547" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-31T12:07:11.547" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T12:07:11.547" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12433" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-31T12:07:11.547" Score="0" Body="Shakti is the feminine form of the Divine worshipped as Parvati, Lakshmi, Saraswati and many other forms." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-31T13:11:27.373" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T13:11:27.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12434" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-05-31T12:07:42.253" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-05-31T12:07:42.253" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T12:07:42.253" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12435" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-05-31T12:07:42.253" Score="0" Body="Devi is the feminine form of the Divine worshipped as Parvati, Lakshmi, Saraswati and many other forms. Also, known as Shakti." OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-05-31T15:33:35.563" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T15:33:35.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12436" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-31T14:11:15.637" Score="5" ViewCount="332" Body="&lt;p&gt;A very famous allegory used by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/miscl/adi.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/a&gt; is that he says my worship is like water worshipping to the ocean. Where is it found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-04T15:35:10.977" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T15:35:10.977" Title="Where does Adi Shankara use the allegory of water worshipping to the sea?" Tags="|worship|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12437" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12436" CreationDate="2016-05-31T14:11:15.637" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the many wonderful compositions of Adi Shankaracharya is the &lt;em&gt;Soundarya Lahari&lt;/em&gt; (Waves of Beauty). This poem worships &lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt;, the feminine form of the Divine. At the end of Soundarya Lahari, Adi Shankara says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hW4v0.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hW4v0.png&quot; alt=&quot;Soundarya Lahari&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Goddess who is the source of all words,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This poem which is made of words,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That you only made,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is like showing the camphor lamp to the Sun,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is like offering as ablation to the moon,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The water got from the moon stone,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And is like offering water worship,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To the sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References used:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://shankaracharya.org/soundarya_lahari.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://shankaracharya.org/soundarya_lahari.php&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_devii/saundaryalahari.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_devii/saundaryalahari.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T14:11:15.637" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12438" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18341" CreationDate="2016-05-31T14:42:58.227" Score="4" ViewCount="940" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Parashu Rama sanitized earth by killing kshatirya generations for 21 times. From what Dharma calls that the one who is humble and does not raise a weapon he should be granted sharanagati, &amp;amp; due to this Lord Parshuram would have been merciful to the Kshatriyas who surrendered to him. So according to this formulation of Dharma how many Kshatriyas were left alive after each wipe-off for kshatriyas?.(Lord Parashu Rama did 21 such wipe-offs). &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parashurama#Death_of_Jamadagni&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; is the reason for doing 21 wipe-off, killing 21 generations of Kshatriyas.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2021-05-09T22:02:53.077" LastActivityDate="2021-05-09T22:02:53.077" Title="Leftover Kshatriyas after Lord Parashurama's genocide" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|parashurama|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12439" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-31T15:44:47.137" Score="7" ViewCount="653" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per western model of human evolution, modern humans are more advanced than our ancestors thousands and millions years ago. Then how could our ancestors could have built up such a massive literature of Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads with knowledge of everything if they are considered to be primitive by western models of evolution?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastActivityDate="2016-06-05T16:08:30.963" Title="How does western model of human evolution fit with Vedic literature?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|puranas|history|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12440" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-31T19:00:36.793" Score="8" ViewCount="755" Body="&lt;p&gt;Regarding Lord Hanuman's special powers namely Anima &amp;amp; Garima, Goswami Tulsidas in his Hanuman Chalisa says 'Ashta Siddhi Nava Nidhi ke Daata; Asa bara deena Janaki Maata' (verse 30) meaning Hanuman got these powers from Seeta Maata whereas in Valmiki Ramayan (VR) it is said that He got these powers from Surya Bhagavan. Which is correct ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5771" LastActivityDate="2021-06-30T10:52:18.273" Title="Regarding Lord Hanuman's special powers" Tags="|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12441" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-31T19:07:58.700" Score="3" ViewCount="113" Body="&lt;p&gt;My cousin has seen a symbol similar to this at 'Ujjain Simhast Kumbh 2016'. He send this to me wondering if I recognize it, but I don't.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know anything about this symbol?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WwmRn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WwmRn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5770" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-01T07:21:52.833" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T07:21:52.833" Title="Does anyone recognize this symbol?" Tags="|symbolism|symbols|kumbh-mela|identification-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12442" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="29747" CreationDate="2016-05-31T19:22:44.570" Score="7" ViewCount="362" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any original manuscript of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_martial_arts&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dhanurveda&lt;/a&gt; or the original text which can be read online.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2023-05-31T15:56:53.480" Title="Dhanurveda original manuscript" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12443" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-31T19:36:06.377" Score="2" ViewCount="487" Body="&lt;p&gt;As, I know that, when Lord Rama broke the Shiva-Bow,and for that reason Lord Parsuram came to the hall and challenge to the Lord Rama to war with him?Did they don't know each-other before that incidence they both are Visnu avatar ? anyone have some idea about it?.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2016-06-01T16:39:29.753" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T21:56:49.387" Title="In the Ramayan, Did Lord Parsuram Knew that Lord rama is Visnu avatar?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|rama|parashurama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2016-06-04T13:20:35.963" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12444" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12443" CreationDate="2016-05-31T21:34:13.253" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are different types of avataras - purna &amp;amp; avesha . &lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/avatara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;purna avatara (Rama) - Lord himself&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;avesha avatara : These itself are of 2 types :&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Parashurama (all powers of Lord endowed within a jivatma)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Kartaviryarjuna (some powers of Lord endowed within a jivatma)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are in decreasing order of shakti, so Rama defeated Parashuram who defeated Kartiviryarjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, yes, Parashurama realized that Rama was a purna avatar after he grabbed vishnu dhanus from him, and offered all his tapas to Rama realizing that his time was over, then went for more penance in mountains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2016-06-01T21:56:49.387" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T21:56:49.387" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12445" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12439" CreationDate="2016-05-31T22:04:24.200" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Darwin's theory of evolution states that there is a physical chain of birth from amoeba to man, meaning your great^great^^100-grandfather was a single cell organism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whereas padma purana mentions there are 8.4 million 'species' :  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati krmayo rudra-sankhyakah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  paksinam dasa-laksanam trimsal-laksani pasavah catur-laksani manusah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;900,000 species of aquatics&#xA;2,000,000 species of plants&#xA;1,100,000 species of insects/worms/reptiles&#xA;1,000,000 species of birds&#xA;3,000,000 species of animals&#xA;400,000 species of humans&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note - this definition of species is different from modern one that implies reproducible offspring.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We believe that each soul migrates through one of these 84 lakh bodies, until it reaches human form when it can either obtain mukti, or fall back in samsara (either in higher worlds from satya-svarga-loka or in lower worlds from atala-patala-loka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 3 types of knowledge :  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;facts perceived by senses (pratyaksha)  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;inferences based on previous facts perceived by brain (anumana)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;knowledge gained from shastras/vedas (shabdam)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In our own experience, we know that the first two are fallible and prone to error. Whereas shabdam has never been wrong so far and will never be  because it is apaurusheya (not created by anyone).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In modern theory of evolution, there are 2 knowledge types - facts &amp;amp; inferences :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;facts - DNA resemblance between apes &amp;amp; humans, gene mutation, fossil&#xA;records   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;inference - amoeba's great^n-grandon son had features of&#xA;fish, whose great^n-grandson had features of ape, whose&#xA;great^n-grandson is now human&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The facts cannot be argued, but the inference can. I can make another inference that the atma/soul migrates from one lower form to another in each birth, just like a student going from 1st grade to 12th. The curriculum (DNA) is very close between 1st grade (amoeba) &amp;amp; 2nd grade (fish), or 11th grade(ape) and 12th (human), otherwise students cannot understand the new syllabus easily. Within each grade, there are many subjects and specialties that students can adapt to (gene mutation) to based on their environment (natural selection) and the best students get the highest marks, while others are demoted to lower grade (survival of fittest).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is common knowledge that science deals with physical matters, while religion deals with spirituality. So most inferences that western theories make are centered around the body, because science only accepts first 2 types of knowledge (senses and intuition) while eastern theories are centered around soul, so they accept the 3rd type of knowledge (vedas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, Darwin came pretty close to figuring out the spiritual theory of evolution. He himself mentions in the landmark Origin of Species book that his works are speculative in nature. But atheists nowadays have used him as the mascot to push their agendas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2016-05-31T22:09:28.983" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T22:09:28.983" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12446" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12426" CreationDate="2016-05-31T22:39:03.883" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The will of god is not some esoteric unknown thing. It is mentioned in all vedas/dharma shastras/itihasa puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Don't lie, don't steal, treat everyone with respect and love etc. - these are the common wills of god, applicable to everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Study &amp;amp; teach vedas, fight for your country, do business, work under others - these are specific wills of god, based both on your birth and your qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do all of above without caring about results - this is the ultimate will of god, because it will lead you to moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you go to office and work, and you do it for money, you have to wait until end of month to get paycheck. But getting paycheck is not under your control, that is under company's control. If you get it, you're happy, if not, you're unhappy. That means, you voluntarily put your happiness in someone else's hands. But if you don't care about the money, and you're only doing it to help the company, that means you don't care about the results and you're happy as soon as you completed the work. The money may come, or it may not, but you don't care so you're carefree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But how can anyone work without caring about money? What about food &amp;amp; mortgage &amp;amp; taking care of wife and kids ? Again, apply same logic. Just like you work to help the company, you use the money the company gives to help your family because it is your duty (which you decided to undertake when you got married). Forget about the fruits of helping your family, like a loving wife or obedient son because, those things are again like the paycheck, they're not under your control and may or may not happen. You'll be happy the moment you use the money you earned to provide livelihood for your family, and won't be worried about whether or not they will love you back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what is meant in Gita - 'karmanyeva adhikaraste maphaleshu kadachana' - your rights are only to the work, not to the fruits.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Because you literally cannot control the results completely by yourself, you are dependent on others (not just other humans, but 5 elements, your body, god, all of them have to cooperate).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as the proverb goes - 'atmavasham sukham, paravasham dukham' - independence is happiness, dependence is sadness. So the best way to be happy is to be independent, and the best way to be independent is to 'surrender' the results of your actions.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;That doesn't mean you should do whatever you want (killing, stealing etc.) and not care about results. You should do what god wants you to do (dharma), and you should do it just because he wants you to (nishkamya karma - work without desire for fruits)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Think of it as your son obeying you just because you're his father, and for no other personal gain. Won't you be happy and shower him with love and give him whatever he needs ? That's what god will do if you obey him just for sake of obeying. But you don't even care if god does you any good in return, because you can derive happiness simply by following his orders. And finally, when you get bored of even that happiness, then there is nothing holding you on earth and you attain moksha and you are always happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2016-05-31T22:49:38.870" LastActivityDate="2016-05-31T22:49:38.870" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12447" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-05-31T23:02:55.560" Score="10" ViewCount="477" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some say Shiva is the supreme God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some say Shiva is energy and cannot be destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I agree on both !!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does this mean Lord Shiva will reincarnate himself with the birth of Prithvi ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5774" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-06-01T08:12:57.217" LastActivityDate="2017-02-05T09:00:46.327" Title="If Shiva is a supreme god or form of energy, so will he reincarnate himself as Shiva again with birth of Prithvi?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12448" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12440" CreationDate="2016-06-01T00:40:29.293" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;As your question is related with &lt;strong&gt;Anima (able to reduce size upto atom)&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Garima (able to increase size as will).&lt;/strong&gt; Even in Ramcharitmanas Hanuman already had Anima and Laghima siddhis:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;SundarKanda 9th Doha&lt;/strong&gt; there is a story with Hanuman and Surasha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जस जस सुरसा बदनु बढ़ावा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तासु दून कपि रूप देखावा॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As Surasa began to increase her body, &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman began to increase his body size twice.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this shows he already had &lt;strong&gt;Garima siddhi:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सोरह जोजन मुख तेहिं ठयऊ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;तुरत पवनसुत बत्तिस भयऊ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As (Surasa made) her body of 16 Yojanas. Hanuman quickly made his body of 32 Yojanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this clearly shows he already had &lt;strong&gt;Garima siddhi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in the same event:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सत जोजन तेहिं आनन कीन्हा। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;अति लघु रूप पवनसुत लीन्हा॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;As she made her body of 100 Yojanas, the Son of Wind-God made his body very very small.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from above it is clear that Hanuman also had &lt;strong&gt;Anima Siddhi&lt;/strong&gt; before meeting Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, he already had Anima and Garima siddhi before meeting Sita. He also makes his body size small while entering Lanka. He received those two Siddhis from Suryadeva. Upto this there is no contradiction in Tulsidas sayings and Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about that verse of Hanuman Chalisa ?&#xA;Tulsidas is referring to that event of Sundar Kanda where Sita blesses Hanuman for Immortality, Siddhis and Ram-Bhakt in &lt;strong&gt;16th Doha of SundarKanda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आसिष दीन्हि रामप्रिय जाना। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;होहु तात बल सील निधाना॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;अजर अमर गुन निधि सुत होहू। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;करहुँ बहुत रघुनायक छोहू॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;करहुँ कृपा प्रभु अस सुनि काना। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;निर्भर प्रेम मगन हनुमाना॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recognising him as the beloved of  Rama She gave him Her blessing: &lt;strong&gt;May you become a repository of strength and Nidhis&lt;/strong&gt;, dear son. May you ever remain &lt;strong&gt;immune from old age and death and prove to be a storehouse of good qualities&lt;/strong&gt;, and my son; and may the Lord of the Raghus shower His abundant grace on you. The moment the words May the Lord be gracious to you reached his ears Hanuman was utterly overwhelmed with emotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Tulsidas in that verse of Hanuman Chalisa is referring to this event. But this event differs from Valmiki Ramayana. In Valmiki Ramayana Lord Rama blesses him to be immortal. But here Hanuman is blessed by Sita. This may be due to Kalpabheda( difference of Kalpa causing different in event). Or you can take story as per your Understandings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-06-30T10:52:18.273" LastActivityDate="2021-06-30T10:52:18.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12449" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3241" CreationDate="2016-06-01T01:35:11.150" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Chinamaya mission, Gita Chapter 4 sloka 24 is chanted. Our Swami Dheerananda in Washington DC gives meaning to this sloka- &quot;Lord Sri Krishna impresses upon Arjuna that the whole life is yajna. Yajna means selfless dedicated service. Even the act of eating food is a yajan. Eating food is not merely for enjoying food, but to sustain my body, so I can do my duties cheerfully&quot;. This sloka can be chanted before any meals.&#xA;When the Mission members gather for annual camps, whole Chapter 15 of Bhagvad Gita is usually chanted before lunch and dinner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5775" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-06-01T05:55:50.160" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T05:55:50.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12452" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-01T07:04:07.470" Score="1" ViewCount="77" Body="&lt;p&gt;I often heard the term Karma-Bhumi, and also heard that India is Karma-Bhumi? So any one Know or is there any evidence in scriptures? Kindly share.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2016-06-01T07:10:13.687" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T07:10:13.687" Title="Why India is Known as Karma-Bhumi?" Tags="|scripture|india|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-06-01T08:14:07.530" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12453" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-01T08:46:56.797" Score="7" ViewCount="381" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in this answer, the Pancharatra Agamas are the foundational texts of Vaishnavism. Similarly, the foundational texts of Shaivism are known as the Shaiva Agamas, aka the Shaiva Tantras.  My question is about a Shaiva Agama known as the Parakhya Tantra, which I discussed earlier &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10645/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9291/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, in the worldview of the Shaiva Agamas, the order of gods from lowest to highest is Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheshwara, and Sadashiva.   They are said to govern the five functions of creation, preservation, destruction, obscuration, and revelation, and they correpond to the five heads of Sadashiva which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10730/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9989/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/TOIw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Parakhya Tantra, the etymology of these five names is described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Or rather (va) there is but one supreme Lord who has different forms (bhedaih sthitah) that are [different] in [no more than] their names (namagaih).  [He is called] Brahma because he is great (brihattvat), because he fills (bramhakatvat) or because He possesses Brahman [va brahmayogatah].  &lt;strong&gt;He is called Vishnu because it is His nature to be powerful (prabhavashilatvat), because He is the source of the universe (prabhavo jagatah), He is omniscient (prabhuh).&lt;/strong&gt; Because He drives away affliction (rujam dravayate) He is called Rudra, since the affliction is destroyed (rujah kshayat).  Because He possesses all the attributes of sovereignty (sarvaishvaryagunashleshat), the sovereign Lord (ishvara) [is called] Mahesvara.  He is Sadashiva [bexause he is] always favourable (sadakantah), or [because] Shiva means situated at rest.  Thus there exists, called with various names, only one Lord of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of these etymologies make sense, or at least they conform to the standard pattern of etymologies in Hindu scripture, namely that the word being defined has some similarity in sounds to the word used to define it.  But I'm interested in the etymologies given for the name &quot;Vishnu&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Parakhya Tantra connects Vishnu to three attributes: prabhavashilatvat or being powerful by his very nature, prabhavo jagatah or being the source or the Universe, and prabhu or being omniscient.  But my question is, why do none of these definitions have anything resembling the sound of the name &quot;Vishnu&quot;? This is in contrast to the standard definition of Vishnu found in Yaska's Nirukta and elsewhere connecting Vishnu to the root Vish meaning to pervade, so that Vishnu means he who pervades all things.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it possible the Parakhya Tantra isn't providing an etymology for the name &quot;Vishnu&quot; as such, but rather the etymology of some other name of Vishnu?  It could be Prabhu or something that starts with Prabhu, like Prabhava or Prabhakara.  Does anyone know another scriptures tha give these definitions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T14:49:34.363" Title="What does the meaning of &quot;Vishnu&quot; have to do with the word &quot;Prabhu&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|shaivism|name|agamas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12454" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12455" CreationDate="2016-06-01T11:14:56.433" Score="9" ViewCount="892" Body="&lt;p&gt;One question raised in my mind, why lord Vishnu incarnates only in Bhartha Varsha (India)? It is little bit confusing for me, because I can't find any valid resources. Please provide some evidence through the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-24T10:44:52.810" LastActivityDate="2016-11-24T10:44:52.810" Title="Why Lord Vishnu incarnates only in Bharata Varsha (India)?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|india|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12455" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12454" CreationDate="2016-06-01T14:20:21.003" Score="4" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we just talk about known oldest Civilization, Indus&#xA;civilization(mohenjo daro or harappa civilization) comes into our&#xA;mind.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you List the Oldest civilizations, you will not find more that 10-12, That means that other world was not developed/grown enough or&#xA;people didn't live there at that time. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Referencing from the above point we can conclude, As Indian scripture says, We are living in KALYUGA which is 5000 year old, That time no other place was developed enough.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This way you might link the logic (connect the dots)..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kalyuga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ancienthistorylists.com/ancient-civilizations/10-oldest-ancient-civilizations-ever-existed/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Oldest Civilizations&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5781" LastEditorUserId="5781" LastEditDate="2016-06-01T14:32:43.847" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T14:32:43.847" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12456" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9857" CreationDate="2016-06-01T14:28:46.797" Score="5" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;His mother was Kshatriya (Kunti) that is why He has been considered as Kshatriya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He brought up as child of chief charioteer of King Dhritrashtra.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As per Mahabharata, Parshurama only taught to Brahmins but When Parshurama go to know that  Karna is a &lt;strong&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/strong&gt;, Parshurama laid curse upon Karna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Karna&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5781" LastEditorUserId="5781" LastEditDate="2016-06-01T19:21:14.050" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T19:21:14.050" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12458" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21821" CreationDate="2016-06-01T16:26:19.323" Score="13" ViewCount="1716" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu holds a Disc (Chakra), Conch (Sankha), Komidi Gadha, and also holds other elements like a lotus in his hand. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any explanation in scriptures of why Lord Vishnu holds these particular weapons? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="9250" LastEditDate="2019-02-25T20:04:55.890" LastActivityDate="2019-02-25T20:04:55.890" Title="What is the significance of the weapons and other items held by the Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|weapon|symbolism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12460" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-01T17:36:27.497" Score="2" ViewCount="183" Body="&lt;p&gt;Devi or Shakti is the feminine form of the Divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the names given to the Devi in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripura_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tripura Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T17:36:27.497" Title="What are the names given to the Devi in the Tripura Upanishad of the Rig Veda?" Tags="|rig-veda|shakti|devi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12461" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12460" CreationDate="2016-06-01T17:36:27.497" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sixth shloka of the Tripura Upanishad gives the following names to the Devi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मदन्तिका मानिनी मङला च सुभगा सा सुन्दरी शुद्धमत्ता ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लज्जा&#xA;मतिस्तुष्टिरिष्टा च पुष्टा लक्ष्मीरुमा ललिता लालपन्ती ।। ६ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The Divine Mother] is variously known as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madantika, joyous;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manini, proud;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mangala, auspicious;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and Subhaga, prosperous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And she is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sundari, beautiful;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shuddhamatta, pure;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lajja, modest;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mati, intelligent;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tushti, satisfied;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ishta, desired;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pushta, nourished;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmi, wealthy;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uma, splendorous;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and Lalita, eloquent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.academia.edu/19972388/Tripura_Upanishad_English_Translation_Prabuddha_Bharata_January_2016&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.academia.edu/19972388/Tripura_Upanishad_English_Translation_Prabuddha_Bharata_January_2016&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T17:36:27.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12462" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-01T17:42:24.133" Score="8" ViewCount="104" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the rituals to be followed by a girl who has recently obtained legal divorce?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5782" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-06-01T18:49:29.287" LastActivityDate="2022-07-10T11:22:53.247" Title="Rituals to be followed on confirmation of legal divorce" Tags="|rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12463" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3964" CreationDate="2016-06-01T17:50:28.780" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer the title question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Are there any female rishis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, there are many. I would like to give one example here of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lopamudra#cite_ref-5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lopamudra&lt;/a&gt;. She was the wife of Sage Agastya. There are &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lopamudra#In_Rigveda&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;verses in the Rig Veda&lt;/a&gt; which are attributed to her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.academia.edu/19972388/Tripura_Upanishad_English_Translation_Prabuddha_Bharata_January_2016&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tripura Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda mentions a mantra attributed to her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shashtam saptamamatha vahnisarathimasya mulatrikamaveshayantah.&#xA;  Kathyam kavim kalpakam kamamisham tushtuvamso amritattvam bhajante.&#xA;  (9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of this [the mantra described in the previous verse], removing the&#xA;  [first] three root syllables, [the letters ha, sa, and ka represented&#xA;  by the words], shashta, six; saptama, seven; and vahni, fire; have to&#xA;  be added [and it will form the Lopamudra mantra]. By praising and&#xA;  praying the Lord—who is described in the Vedas, the substratum of the&#xA;  imagined universe, [and] who is described in the scriptures—they&#xA;  attain immortality. (9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T17:50:28.780" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12464" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-01T18:29:12.257" Score="4" ViewCount="9028" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virupaksha_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Virupaksha temple&lt;/a&gt; in Hampi - Karnataka, dedicated to Shiva. It is also part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Similarly, there is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virupaksha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Virupaksha temple&lt;/a&gt; in Pattadakal, Karnataka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Virupaksha is a name used for Bhagvan Shiva. What is the significance behind this name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T18:29:12.257" Title="Why is Bhagvan Shiva known as Virupaksha?" Tags="|shiva|symbolism|name|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12465" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12464" CreationDate="2016-06-01T18:29:12.257" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Virupaksha refers to the formless awareness all around us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Virupaksha&lt;/em&gt; means eyes without the form; many people use this word as a&#xA;  name. &lt;em&gt;Virupa&lt;/em&gt; means no form, and &lt;em&gt;aksha&lt;/em&gt; means eyes, it means eyes&#xA;  without the form. When you go a little deeper, then you see that the&#xA;  consciousness can see without the eyes, feel without the skin, taste&#xA;  without the tongue, and hear without the ears; this is Yoga Samadhi.&#xA;  Such things start happening in deep ‘samadhi’, just like in dreams?&#xA;  You dream without any of the five senses; you smell, taste, you do&#xA;  everything, right? So virupaksha is the consciousness that has eyes&#xA;  but no form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;http://qnawithsrisri.artoflivinguniverse.org/2014/01/qna-with-sri-sri_7.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://qnawithsrisri.artoflivinguniverse.org/2014/01/qna-with-sri-sri_7.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T18:29:12.257" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12466" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12478" CreationDate="2016-06-01T18:44:21.107" Score="14" ViewCount="6869" Body="&lt;p&gt;Another Question Suddenly raised in my mind, I know that there is Bhagvad-Gita which is told by Lord Krishna. But I heard about other Gita which is told by lord krishna like Uddhav-Gita, So, Do you know the exact number of the Gita which is told by lord krishna him-self?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:The Question is Different from this question: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10181/5&quot;&gt;Difference between different types of Gita (Uddhava-Gita, Rudra-Gita etc.)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Because, I want to know the Gita which is told by lord himself with name.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Please Share your idea with some valid resources like from Our Scriptures.&#xA;Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2020-03-01T23:41:51.033" Title="How many types of Gita spoken by Lord Krishna(Vishnu) himself?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|scripture|gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12467" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12470" CreationDate="2016-06-01T19:37:02.230" Score="5" ViewCount="2441" Body="&lt;p&gt;As, I heard this incidence one of my vaisnav friend, Once the demons stole the four vedas from the lord brahma and by the help of Lord Vishnu, lord brahma got back the Vedas.&#xA;I am not sure about this incidence, But if you know about this incidence then kindly share, or Is there any scriptures which claimed that fact.then please share your idea.&#xA;Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastActivityDate="2016-07-09T04:08:12.197" Title="How Lord Brahma get back Vedas Which was Stolen by the Demons?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|brahma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-07-12T12:12:06.430" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12469" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-01T20:24:49.563" Score="1" ViewCount="55" Body="&lt;p&gt;In our Hinduism, there is one Custom, that we break the coconut before start any new-work, like opening of shop and so many other-things, So what is Important of breaking a Coconut before starting new things,&#xA;Is there any evidence in our Scriptures which claimed this thing? &#xA;Please share your Idea.!!&#xA;Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastActivityDate="2016-06-01T20:24:49.563" Title="Why we are breaking coconut before start any new-work?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-06-01T22:54:39.310" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12470" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12467" CreationDate="2016-06-02T04:25:41.140" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;This story is mentioned in Shanti Parva of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c047.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; when Madhu and Kaitabha the two daityas stolen Vedas from Lord Brahma. Then Brahma prayed to Lord Vishnu and then pleased by his prayers Vishnu takes Hayagriv form to restore the vedas. It is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While engaged in thinking of Creation, he recollects his own high&#xA;  attributes. From this springs the four-faced Brahma representing the&#xA;  Consciousness of Anirudha. The illustrious Brahma, otherwise called&#xA;  Hiranyagarbha, is the Grandsire of all the worlds. Endued with eyes&#xA;  like lotus petals, he takes birth within the Lotus that springs from&#xA;  (the navel of) Anirudha. Seated on that Lotus, the illustrious,&#xA;  puissant, and eternal Brahma of wonderful aspect saw that the waters&#xA;  were on all sides. Adopting the attribute of Sattwa Brahma, otherwise&#xA;  called Parameshthi, then commenced to create the universe. In the&#xA;  primeval Lotus that was endued with the effulgence of the Sun, two&#xA;  drops of water had been cast by Narayana that were fraught with great&#xA;  merit. The illustrious Narayana, without beginning and without end,&#xA;  and transcending destruction, cast his eyes on those two drops of&#xA;  water. One of those two drops of water, of very beautiful and bright&#xA;  form, looked like a drop of honey. From that drop sprang, at the&#xA;  command of Narayana, a Daitya of the name of Madhu made up of the&#xA;  attribute of Tamas (Dullness). The other drop of water within the&#xA;  Lotus was very hard. From it sprang the Daitya Kaitabha made up of the&#xA;  attribute of Rajas. Endued thus with the attributes of Tamas and&#xA;  Rajas, the two Daityas possessed of might and armed with maces,&#xA;  immediately after their birth, began to rove within that vast primeval&#xA;  Lotus. They beheld within it Brahma of immeasurable effulgence,&#xA;  engaged in creating the four Vedas, each endued with the most&#xA;  delightful form. &lt;strong&gt;Those two foremost of Asuras, possessed of bodies,&#xA;  beholding the four Vedas, suddenly seized them in the very sight of&#xA;  their Creator. The two mighty Danavas, having seized the eternal&#xA;  Vedas, quickly dived into the ocean of waters which they saw and&#xA;  proceeded to its bottom.&lt;/strong&gt; Seeing the Vedas forcibly taken away from&#xA;  him, Brahma became filled with grief. Robbed of the Vedas in this way,&#xA;  Brahma then addressed the Supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus praised by Brahma, the illustrious Purusha, with face turned towards every side, then shook off his slumber, resolved to recover&#xA;  the Vedas (from the Daityas that had forcibly snatched them away).&#xA;  Applying his Yoga-puissance, he assumed a second form. His body,&#xA;  equipt with an excellent nose, became as bright as the Moon. He&#xA;  assumed an equine head of great effulgence, which was the abode of the&#xA;  Vedas. The firmament, with all its luminaries and constellations,&#xA;  became the crown of his head. His locks of hair were long and flowing,&#xA;  and had the splendour of the rays of the Sun. The regions above and&#xA;  below became his two ears. The Earth became his forehead. The two&#xA;  rivers Ganga and Saraswati became his two hips. The two oceans became&#xA;  his two eye-brows. The Sun and the Moon became his two eyes. The&#xA;  twilight became his nose. The syllable Om became his memory and&#xA;  intelligence. The lightning became his tongue. The Soma-drinking&#xA;  Pitris became, it is said, his teeth. The two regions of felicity,&#xA;  viz., Goloka and Brahmaloka, became his upper and lower lips. The&#xA;  terrible night that succeeds universal destruction, and that&#xA;  transcends the three attributes, became his neck. Having assumed this&#xA;  form endued with the equine head and having diverse things for its&#xA;  diverse limbs, the Lord of the universe disappeared then and there,&#xA;  and proceeded to the nether regions. Having reached those regions, he&#xA;  set himself to high Yoga. Adopting a voice regulated by the rules of&#xA;  the science called Siksha, he began to utter loudly Vedic Mantras. His&#xA;  pronunciation was distinct and reverberated through the air, and was&#xA;  sweet in every respect. The sound of his voice filled the nether&#xA;  region from end to end. Endued with the properties of all the&#xA;  elements, it was productive of great benefits. The two Asuras, making&#xA;  an appointment with the Vedas in respect of the time when they would&#xA;  come back to take them up again, threw them down in the nether region,&#xA;  and ran towards the spot whence those sounds appeared to come.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meanwhile, O king, the Supreme Lord with the equine head, otherwise&#xA;  called Hari, who was himself in the nether region, took up all the&#xA;  Vedas. Returning to where Brahma was staying, he gave the Vedas unto&#xA;  him. Having restored the Vedas unto Brahma, the Supreme Lord once more&#xA;  returned to his own nature.&lt;/strong&gt; The Supreme Lord also established his form&#xA;  with the equine head in the North-Eastern region of the great ocean.&#xA;  Having (in this way) established him who was the abode of the Vedas,&#xA;  he once more became the equine-headed form that he was. The two&#xA;  Danavas Madhu and Kaitabha, not finding the person from whom those&#xA;  sounds proceeded, quickly came back to that spot. They cast their eyes&#xA;  around but beheld that the spot on which they had thrown the Vedas was&#xA;  empty. Those two foremost of mighty Beings, adopting great speed of&#xA;  motion, rose from the nether region. Returning to where the primeval&#xA;  Lotus was that had given them birth, they saw the puissant Being, the&#xA;  original Creator, staying in the form of Aniruddha of fair complexion&#xA;  and endued with a splendour resembling that of the Moon. Of&#xA;  immeasurable prowess, he was under the influence of Yoga-sleep, his&#xA;  body stretched on the waters and occupying a space as vast as itself.&#xA;  Possessed of great effulgence and endued with the attribute of&#xA;  stainless Sattwa, the body of the Supreme Lord lay on the excellent&#xA;  hood of a snake that seemed to emit flames of fire for the&#xA;  resplendence attaching to it. Beholding the Lord thus lying, the two&#xA;  foremost of Danavas roared out a loud laugh. Endued with the&#xA;  attributes of Rajas and Tamas, they said.--'This is that Being of&#xA;  white complexion. He is now lying asleep. Without doubt, this one has&#xA;  brought the Vedas away from the nether region. Whose is he? Whose is&#xA;  he? Who is he? Why is he thus asleep on the hood of a snake: Uttering&#xA;  these words, the two Danavas awakened Hari from his Yoga-slumber. The&#xA;  foremost of Beings, (viz., Narayana), thus awakened, understood that&#xA;  the two Danavas intended to have an encounter with him in battle.&#xA;  Beholding the two foremost of Asuras prepared to do battle with him,&#xA;  he also set his mind to gratify that desire of theirs. Thereupon an&#xA;  encounter took place between those two on one side and Narayana on the&#xA;  other. The Asuras Madhu and Kaitabha were embodiments of the&#xA;  attributes of Rajas and Tamas. Narayana slew them both for gratifying&#xA;  Brahma. He thence came to be called by the name of Madhusudana (slayer&#xA;  of Madhu). Having compassed the destruction of the two Asuras and&#xA;  restored the Vedas to Brahma, the Supreme Being dispelled the grief of&#xA;  Brahma. Aided then by Hari and assisted by the Vedas, Brahma created&#xA;  all the worlds with their mobile and immobile creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-09T04:08:12.197" LastActivityDate="2016-07-09T04:08:12.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12472" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-02T06:07:23.363" Score="3" ViewCount="701" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karna possessed the deadly Vasavi Shakti weapon during the Kurukshetra war. He could kill Arjuna at anytime during the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, did Krishna keep Karna's mind under illusion, so that he did not use that weapon?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-06-05T03:32:39.023" LastActivityDate="2016-06-05T03:33:30.260" Title="Krishna keeping Karna's mind under illusion to prevent him from using the Shakti weapon" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12473" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18453" CreationDate="2016-06-02T06:47:20.577" Score="6" ViewCount="175" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a Person regularly donates (financial donation at good place for good reason) some percentage of her/his monthly income, she/he accumulates Good Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But If that person is already having some sort of financial loan on her/him like Car Loan, Home Loan, &lt;strong&gt;then does she/he gets Punnya out of that donation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that Donation acceptable to Almighty God ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-05-27T08:13:54.153" LastActivityDate="2017-05-27T08:13:54.153" Title="Does Donation (Daan) give Punnya if person is already having Loan on her/him?" Tags="|belief|gods|bhagavad-gita|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12474" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12492" CreationDate="2016-06-02T09:17:15.290" Score="6" ViewCount="446" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do ancient scriptures, texts and traditions tell us about the river Indus (Sindhu)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there references to the Indus River Civilisation in the Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Has there been a significance of Indus like Ganga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5766" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-06-02T16:35:24.507" LastActivityDate="2016-06-02T17:05:19.507" Title="Indus river and Hinduism" Tags="|mahabharata|scripture|tradition|ganga|sindhu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12475" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11356" CreationDate="2016-06-02T10:34:24.937" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/9/7/20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; answers your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note: Sacrifice in the text needn't mean cutting of throat as modern so-called priests do. Sacrifice then meant rejuvenating of life through mantras.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the point is, whether it existed or not, our conception about slavery might be wrong. Vineet's comment is important to note in your question. There is a huge difference between modern conception of slavery and the spiritual conception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, air was clean and sex was considered dirty. Today sex is considered clean and the air is dirty. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the spiritual sense, to accept the position of a servant (slavery) is a very high position. Rather, Shrila Prabhupada, founder of International Society for Krishna Consciousness said - the more one is a servant, the better he advances in spiritual life (dasanudas). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is called paramparā system. You have to learn how to become&#xA;  servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa. The more you become in the lower&#xA;  position—servant, servant, servant, servant, servant, hundreds times&#xA;  servant, servant—then more you are advanced. Here in this material&#xA;  world everyone is trying to be master of the master. Just opposite.&#xA;  And the spiritual world, the endeavor is to become servant's servant.&#xA;  This is the secret.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Lecture on BG 2.2 -- London, August 3, 1973]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In material world, our experience of being subserviant to a master is very bitter but in the spiritual world, there is no difference between the master and servant. Because there, everything is Absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why we see Krishna, although The Supreme Personality of Godhead, wants to accept the position of Arjuna's chariot driver, which is a very humiliating service if you know the ways how the chariot driver is guided to turn (through kicks). So the modern understanding of slavery is to be rectified. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything in those times was aimed at making spiritual progress. A shudra would be engaged in the service of a brahmana so that they can make progress towards the brahmana varna in the later births gradually. A good example is Srila Narada Muni, who was a son of a maidservant. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I hope there is a good understanding of trading then and today. Today's trading is completely centered around gratifying one's own senses. Then, it was all centered around Vedic conception or pleasure of the Supreme Lord Krishna or other demigods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4522" LastEditorUserId="4522" LastEditDate="2016-06-02T10:39:43.433" LastActivityDate="2016-06-02T10:39:43.433" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12476" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-02T10:40:06.197" Score="7" ViewCount="1691" Body="&lt;p&gt;As a pure Vaishnav Devotee, we are putting a tilak on our head, But why lord himself putting Tilak on his forehead.? Is there any logic behind? any scriptures mentioned this logic?please share your idea.&#xA;Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2016-06-02T12:20:51.410" LastActivityDate="2019-04-28T16:35:48.597" Title="Why even Lord Vishnu put Tilak (Gopi-Chandan) on his forehead?" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|vaishnavism|tilak|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12477" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12366" CreationDate="2016-06-02T11:07:40.083" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The two types of structures you seem to describe are:&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Plan-temple-konarak.png&quot; alt=&quot;Temple plans -- Wikipedia&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Hindu temple has a Shikhara (Vimana or Spire) that rises symmetrically above the central core of the temple. These spires come in many designs and shapes, but they all have mathematical precision and geometric symbolism. One of the common principles found in Hindu temple spires is circles and turning-squares theme (left), and a concentric layering design (right) that flows from one to the other as it rises towards the sky.&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Hindu_temple_Spire_design_principle_concentric_circles_squares_Vastu_Purusa_Mandala_without_label.svg/1024px-Hindu_temple_Spire_design_principle_concentric_circles_squares_Vastu_Purusa_Mandala_without_label.svg.png&quot; alt=&quot;Geometric patterns in Hindu temples&quot;&gt;&#xA;Scholars suggest that this shape is inspired by cosmic mountain of Meru or Himalayan Kailasa, the abode of gods according to Vedic mythology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Why-do-most-of-the-Temples-in-India-have-a-dome-or-conical-shaped-structure&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This link&lt;/a&gt; also speaks about the history and evolution of different types of domes in Hindu temples. For instance, it refers to the various parts of the shikhara representing different elements. There was also an evolution towards better formed concentric spires with thinner tops as architectural practices evolved (warning: I cannot vouch for this theory myself, I merely cite it)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hpQzZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hpQzZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Elements of a shikhara&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5727" LastEditorUserId="5727" LastEditDate="2016-06-03T01:44:07.253" LastActivityDate="2016-06-03T01:44:07.253" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12478" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12466" CreationDate="2016-06-02T11:37:21.217" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;The type of Gita spoken by Lord Krishna are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Bhagvad Gita-&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a 700 verse scripture from the Mahabharata adhyaaya 25 to 42(18 chapters) of Bhishmaparva between the Pandava Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna who acts as his guide and charioteer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Anu Gita-&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna tells this Gita when Arjuna tells that he had forgotten Bhagvad Gita. It occurs in the Mahabharata in the Ashwamedha Parva. Adhyaaya 16. The conversation is between Pandava Prince Arjuna and Shri Krishna after the war and coronation of Yudhisthira as King.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Hamsa Gita/ Uddhava Gita-&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is in Shrimad Bhagavat Puran, Skandha 11,verse 40 section 6 to section 29 comprising of more than 1000 verses and consists of Krishna’s final discourse to Uddhava before Krishna leaves his mortal coil on Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want by other incarnation of Vishnu as well then:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Avadhutha Gita-&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is based on the principles of Advaitha Vedanta and is said to have been sung by Lord Dattatreya who was considered an Avadhuta or a saint born on this earth beyond ego concsciousness and duality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Kapila Gita-&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is from Shrimad Bhagavat Purana, Skandha 3, Chapters 23 to 33. It is the story of how Sage Kapila offers solace to his old mother Devahuti whose soul is hungering for spiritual knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Rama Gita-&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is from Adhyaatma Ramayan which is a part of Brahmanda Purana in the 5th Sarga of the Uttara Khanda which is the common Gita generally referred to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4) Vyasa Gita -&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is from Kurma Purana, from 12th Adhyaaya onwards of Uttara Vibhaaga and Sage Vyaasa teaches the highest path to self knowledge. It emphasizes the unity of faiths and on the philosophy of non dualism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Refrences used from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/vedic-knowledge/sacred-scriptures/gita/gita-its-various-kinds&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-06-15T13:44:30.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12479" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12480" CreationDate="2016-06-02T12:46:50.337" Score="6" ViewCount="5849" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard this fact that actual origin was Ganga is Lord Vishnu's lotus feet, and it held on shiva's head by the brahma? please share me the actual source from scriptures.&#xA;Thanks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastActivityDate="2024-01-04T16:38:01.463" Title="Actual origin of Ganga was from Lord Vishnu's Lotus feet?" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|ganga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12480" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12479" CreationDate="2016-06-02T13:11:27.310" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is what Vishnu Purana says about Ganga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana 2.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  From that third region of the atmosphere, or seat of Vishńu, proceeds the stream that washes away all sin, the river Gangá, embrowned with the unguents of the nymphs of heaven, who have sported in her waters. &lt;strong&gt;Having her source in the nail of the great toe of Vishńu&amp;apos;s left foot,&lt;/strong&gt; Dhruva receives her, and sustains her day and night devoutly on his head; and thence the seven Rishis practise the exercises of austerity in her waters, wreathing their braided locks with her waves. The orb of the moon, encompassed by her accumulated current, derives augmented lustre from her contact. Falling from on high, as she issues from the moon; she alights on the summit of Meru, and thence flows to the four quarters of the earth, for its purification. The Śítá, Alakanandá, Chakshu, and Bhadrá are four branches of but one river, divided according to the regions towards which it proceeds. The branch that is known as the Alakanandá was borne affectionately by Mahádeva, upon his head, for more than a hundred years, and was the river which raised to heaven the sinful sons of Sagara, by washing their ashes. The offences of any man who bathes in this river are immediately expiated, and unprecedented virtue is engendered. Its waters, offered by sons to their ancestors in faith for three years, yield to the latter rarely attainable gratification. Men of the twice-born orders, who offer sacrifice in this river to the lord of sacrifice, Purushottama, obtain whatever they desire, either here or in heaven. Saints who are purified from all soil by bathing in its waters, and whose minds are intent on Keśava, acquire thereby final liberation. This sacred stream, heard of, desired, seen, touched, bathed in, or hymned, day by day, sanctifies all beings; and those who, even at a distance of a hundred leagues, exclaim &amp;quot;Gangá, Gangá,&amp;quot; atone for the sins committed during three previous lives. The place whence this river proceeds, for the purification of the three worlds, is the third division of the celestial regions, the seat of Vishńu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here also Bhagvagt-Puran says about Ganga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhavat Purana canto 5 chapter 17&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sukadeva Gosvämi said: My dear King, Lord Vishnu, the enjoyer of all&#xA;  sacrifices, appeared as Vämanadeva in the sacrificial arena of Bali Mahäräja.&#xA;  Then He extended His left foot to the end of the universe and pierced a hole in&#xA;  its covering with the nail of His big toe. Through the hole, the pure water of&#xA;  the Causal Ocean entered this universe as the Ganges River. Having washed&#xA;  the lotus feet of the Lord, which are covered with reddish powder, the water of&#xA;  the Ganges acquired a very beautiful pink color. Every living being can&#xA;  immediately purify his mind of material contamination by touching the&#xA;  transcendental water of the Ganges, yet its waters remain ever pure. Because&#xA;  the Ganges directly touches the lotus feet of the Lord before descending within&#xA;  this universe, she is known as Vishnupadé. Later she received other names like&#xA;  Jähnavé and Bhägérathé. After one thousand millenniums, the water of the&#xA;  Ganges descended on Dhruvaloka, the topmost planet in this universe.&#xA;  Therefore all learned sages and scholars proclaim Dhruvaloka to be Vishnupada&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2016-06-02T13:36:21.797" LastActivityDate="2016-06-02T13:36:21.797" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12481" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12482" CreationDate="2016-06-02T14:23:37.287" Score="11" ViewCount="5606" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question is that Lord Shiva is also Vaishnava (Devotee of Lord Vishnu). Because I read this fact before from one scripture, so anybody can attach that scripture which claimed that Siva is greatest Vaishnav. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-23T11:34:54.083" LastActivityDate="2023-01-29T12:27:16.993" Title="Is Lord Shiva First Vaishnava (Devotee of Lord Vishnu)?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|scripture|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12482" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12481" CreationDate="2016-06-02T14:39:52.250" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/13/16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 12.13.16&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nimna-gānāṁ yathā gaṅgā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    devānām acyuto yathā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    purāṇānām idam tathā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as Ganga among rivers, Achyuta among gods, Shambu among Vaishnavas, This (Bhagavatam) is the same among Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-23T11:33:46.087" LastActivityDate="2016-10-23T11:33:46.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12483" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13543" CreationDate="2016-06-02T14:54:27.080" Score="5" ViewCount="6603" Body="&lt;p&gt;This article mentions this about &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.academia.edu/16028337/VEDIC_SCIENCE_AND_ENVIRONMENT&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Earth in Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Earth is represented as goddess, which feeds everyone. All the forms&#xA;  of earth and of life on it are the children of earth. Rivers, trees&#xA;  animals are attendants of the earth goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do the Vedas say about the Earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-10-02T20:24:23.823" Title="What do the Vedas say about the Earth?" Tags="|vedas|earth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12484" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-02T15:00:40.873" Score="6" ViewCount="219" Body="&lt;p&gt;This article mentions &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.academia.edu/16028337/VEDIC_SCIENCE_AND_ENVIRONMENT&quot;&gt;the forests, and healing properties of plants and animals&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Similarly the Rig-Veda mentions about the forest goddess and healing&#xA;  properties of plants, tribes of fishes, goats, and etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does the Rig Veda say about the forests and healing properties of plants and animals?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T14:26:55.980" Title="What does the Rig Veda say about the forests and healing properties of plants and animals" Tags="|rig-veda|animals|plants|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12485" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12487" CreationDate="2016-06-02T15:03:34.780" Score="5" ViewCount="1536" Body="&lt;p&gt;This article mentions about &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.academia.edu/16028337/VEDIC_SCIENCE_AND_ENVIRONMENT&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;cows in Atharva Veda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Cow is believed as theomorphic animal in Atharva-veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does the Atharva Veda say about cows?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-06-02T16:02:31.557" Title="What does the Atharva Veda say about cows?" Tags="|cows|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12486" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-02T15:07:03.287" Score="3" ViewCount="178" Body="&lt;p&gt;This article mentions about &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.academia.edu/16028337/VEDIC_SCIENCE_AND_ENVIRONMENT&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;biodiversity, environment and ecology in the Yajur Veda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Knowledge of biodiversity, interrelation between living species and&#xA;  the environment, the need to maintain natural dynamism, and the&#xA;  natural way of transgressing the ecological principles are mentioned&#xA;  in Yajur-veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Shlokas of the Yajur Veda confirm or deny the above statement?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-06-02T15:07:03.287" Title="Biodiversity, environment and ecology - Yajur Veda" Tags="|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12487" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12485" CreationDate="2016-06-02T15:39:18.720" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av09007.htm&quot;&gt;Atharvaveda Khanda 9 Suktha 7 &lt;/a&gt;describes cow as theomorphic  animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prajapati and Parameshthin are the two horns, Indra is the head, Agni&#xA;  the forehead, Yama the joint of the neck. King Soma is the brain, Sky&#xA;  is the upper jaw, Earth is the lower jaw. Lightning is the tongue, the&#xA;  Maruts are the teeth, Revati is the neck, the Krittikās are the&#xA;  shoulders, the Gharma s the shoulder-bar.His universe is Vāyu, Svarga&#xA;  is his world, Krishpadram is the tendons and Vertebrae. The Syena&#xA;  ceremony is the breast, Air is the region of the belly,Brihaspati is&#xA;  the hump, Brihatī the breast-bone and cartilages of the ribs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The consorts of the Gods are the ribs, the attendants are ribs. Mitra&#xA;  and Varuna are the shoulder-blades. Tvashtar and Aryaman the&#xA;  fore-arms, Mahādeva is the arms. Indrāni is the hinder parts, Vāyu the&#xA;  tail, Pavamāna the hair. Priestly rank and princely power are the&#xA;  hips, and strength is the thigh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhātar and Savitar are the two knee-bones, the Gandharvas are the legs&#xA;  the Apsarases are bits of the feet, Aditi is the hooves. Thought is&#xA;  the heart, intelligence is the liver, law the pericardium. Hunger is&#xA;  the belly, refreshing drink is the rectum, mountains are the inward&#xA;  parts.Wrath is the kidneys, anger the testes, offspring the generative&#xA;  organ.The river is the womb, the Lords of the Rain are the breasts,the&#xA;  thunder is the udder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The All-embracing (Aditi) is the hide, the herbs are her hair, and the&#xA;  Lunar Mansions her form. The hosts of Gods are her entrails, man are&#xA;  her bowels, and demons her abdomen. Rākshasas are the blood, the Other&#xA;  Folk are the contents of the Stomach. The rain-cloud is her fat, her&#xA;  resting-place her marrow. Sitting he is Agni, when he hath stood up he&#xA;  is the Asvins. Standing east-wards he is Indra, standing southwards,&#xA;  Yama. Standing westwards he is Dhātar, standing northwards Savitar.&#xA;  When he hath got his grass he is King Soma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is Mitra when he looks about him, and when he hath turned round he&#xA;  is joy.When he is yoking he belongs to the All-Gods, when yoked he is&#xA;  Prajāpati, when unyoked he is All.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This verily is omniform, wearing all forms, bovine-formed. Upon him&#xA;  wait omniform beasts, wearing every shape, each one who hath this&#xA;  knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Sanskrit verses, see &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicreserve.mum.edu/atharva_veda/atharva_veda.pdf&quot;&gt;Atharvaveda Khanda 9 Suktha 7&lt;/a&gt; (Pg No- 311 and 312)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-06-02T16:02:31.557" LastActivityDate="2016-06-02T16:02:31.557" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12488" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3964" CreationDate="2016-06-02T15:40:42.537" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;please have a look at the link to get an idea of &lt;strong&gt;female rishis and their contributions.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2015/01/27/compilers-composers-rig-veda-six-major-families/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2015/01/27/compilers-composers-rig-veda-six-major-families/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vakdevi :composed eight riks of 125 Sukta, Book X and Rig Veda,These riks are known as Devi-Sukta. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Biswavara: She belonged to the Atri clan composed hymns on beauty, loving and gentle ideas of a women&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Aditi : Wife of Sage Kashyapa and mother of the twelve devas. Aditi is credited with composing five hymns of R. V.X, 153 Sukta. She has also composed the fifth, sixth and the seventh hymns of R. V., IV and 18 Sukta&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Apala:compsed the eight hymns of R.V. VIII and 91 Sukta&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yami: She has written the first, third, fifth, seventh, and eleventh hymns of R.V, 10 Sukta and the five hymns of 154th Sukta.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lopamudra: She was the Princess of Vidarbha and wife of the great sage Agastya. She has composed the first two hymns of the 179th Sukta of Book I of the Rig Veda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Romasa:composed the seventh hymn of 126th Sukta, Book I, and Rig Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maitreyi :of the one thousand hymns of RV, 10 are accredited to Maitreyi, the woman seer and philosopher. She also contributed towards the enhancement of her sage-husband Yajnavalkya's personality and flowering of his spiritual thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gargi : Vedic prophetess and daughter of sage Vachaknu, composed several hymns that questioned the origin of all existence.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gosha Kakshivathi :Granddaughter of Dirghatamas and daughter of Kakshivat.She is the composer of Rigveda (10.39-41)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Surya Savitri :composed Sukta 10:85 of RV&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shashvati Angiras- She was the wife of Yadava king Asanga Playogi. Her hymns are present in Rigveda ( 8.2)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5785" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-05-16T04:31:00.333" LastActivityDate="2019-05-16T04:31:00.333" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12489" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12499" CreationDate="2016-06-02T16:28:26.000" Score="5" ViewCount="550" Body="&lt;p&gt;This book talks about &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=PoMCFSqGnAQC&amp;amp;pg=PA61&amp;amp;lpg=PA61&amp;amp;dq=prashna+upanishad&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=rldB3WeDM0&amp;amp;sig=MChTv0sZyD8OPwC-Y1Q2cyF128U&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwih0OGC4InNAhUOS48KHc1FBxM4HhDoAQggMAE#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=prashna%20upanishad&amp;amp;f=false&quot;&gt;Pitrayana and Devayana in the Prashna Upansihad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This interesting Upanishad deals in six questions put by six seekers of Brahaman to the sage Pippalada....the concepts of Pitrayana and Devayana are also presented.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does the Prashna Upanishad say about Pitrayana and Devayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-08-15T16:07:59.860" Title="What does the Prashna Upanishad say about Pitrayana and Devayana?" Tags="|upanishads|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12490" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-06-02T16:50:29.877" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-06-02T16:50:29.877" LastActivityDate="2016-06-02T16:50:29.877" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12491" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-06-02T16:50:29.877" Score="0" Body="Indus river or Sindhu (Tibetan, Sanskrit and Sindhi) is a great trans-Himalayan river of South Asia. It is one of the longest rivers in the world, with a length of some 2,000 miles (3,200 km)." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-06-03T01:13:03.630" LastActivityDate="2016-06-03T01:13:03.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12492" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12474" CreationDate="2016-06-02T17:05:19.507" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-x/suktha-li-to-c/suktha-75&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rigveda Mandala 10 Shuktha 75&lt;/a&gt; describes Sindhu river.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Waters, the worshipper addresses to you excellent praise in the dwelling of the institutor of the rite; they flowed by sevens through&#xA;the three (worlds); but the Sindhu surpasses (all) the (other) streams&#xA;in strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For your course, Sindhu, Varuna tore open a path, since you hastened towards food; you go by a lofty road down upon the earth, by&#xA;which (road) you reign in the sight of all worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The sound goeth forth in heaven above the earth; (Sindhu) with shining wave animates his endless speed; as rains issue thundering&#xA;from the cloud, so Sindhu (thunders) when he advances roaring like a&#xA;bull.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Like mothers crying for their sons (the other rivers) hasten towards you, Sindhu, like milch cows with their milk; you lead your&#xA;two wings like a king going to battle when you march in the van of the&#xA;streams that are descending (with you).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Accept this my praise, Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Sutudri, Parusni, Marudvedha with Asikni, and Vitasta,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;You, Sindhu, in order to reach the swift-rnoving Gomati, have united, yourself first with the Trstama: (now be united) with the&#xA;Susartu, the Rasa, the Sveti, the Kubha, and the Mehatnu, in&#xA;conjunction with which streams you do advance. listen, Arjikiya with&#xA;SuSoma. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Straight-flowing,white-coloured,bright-shining(Sindhu) bear along in its might the rapid waters; the inviolable sindhu, the most&#xA;efficacious of the efficacious, is speckled like a mare' beautiful as&#xA;a handsome woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The sindhu is rich in horses, rich in chariots, rich in clothes, rich in gold ornaments, well-made, rich in food, rich in wool, ever&#xA;fresh, alounding in Silama plants, and the auspicious river wears&#xA;honey-growing (flowers).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-06-02T17:05:19.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12493" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12484" CreationDate="2016-06-02T17:19:40.927" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv10097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; Rig Veda mention the qualities of herbs and plants:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या ओषधीः पूर्वा जाता देवेभ्यस्त्रियुगं पुरा | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      मनैनु बभ्रूणामहं शतं धामानि सप्त च || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      शतं वो अम्ब धामानि सहस्रमुत वो रुहः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      अधाशतक्रत्वो यूयमिमं मे अगदं कर्त || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      ओषधीः परति मोदध्वं पुष्पवतीः परसूवरीः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      अश्वािव सजित्वरीर्वीरुधः पारयिष्ण्वः || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      ओषधीरिति मातरस्तद वो देवीरुप बरुवे | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      सनेयमश्वंगां वास आत्मानं तव पूरुष || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      अश्वत्थे वो निषदनं पर्णे वो वसतिष कर्ता | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      गोभाज इत्किलासथ यत सनवथ पूरुषम || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      यत्रौषधीः समग्मत राजानः समिताविव | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      विप्रः सौच्यते भिषग रक्षोहामीवचातनः || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      अश्वावतीं सोमावतीमूर्जयन्तीमुदोजसम | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      आवित्सिसर्वा ओषधीरस्मा अरिष्टतातये || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      उच्छुष्मा ओषधीनां गावो गोष्ठादिवेरते | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      धनंसनिष्यन्तीनामात्मानं तव पूरुष || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      इष्क्र्तिर्नाम वो माताथो यूयं सथ निष्क्र्तीः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      सीराःपतत्र्णी सथन यदामयति निष कर्थ || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      अति विश्वाः परिष्ठा सतेन इव वरजमक्रमुः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      ओषधीःप्राचुच्यवुर्यत किं च तन्वो रपः || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      यदिमा वाजयन्नहमोषधीर्हस्त आदधे | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      आत्मायक्ष्मस्य नश्यति पुरा जीवग्र्भो यथा || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      यस्यौषधीः परसर्पथाङगम-अञ्गं परुष-परुः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      ततोयक्ष्मं वि बाधध्व उग्रो मध्यमशीरिव || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      साकं यक्ष्म पर पत चाषेण किकिदीविना | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      साकंवातस्य धराज्या साकं नश्य निहाकया || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      अन्या वो अन्यामवत्वन्यान्यस्या उपावत | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      ताः सर्वाःसंविदाना इदं मे परावता वचः || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      याः फलिनीर्या अफला अपुष्पा याश्च पुष्पिणीः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      बर्हस्पतिप्रसूतास्ता नो मुञ्चन्त्वंहसः || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      मुञ्चन्तु मा शपथ्यादथो वरुण्यादुत | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      अथो यमस्यपड्बीशात सर्वस्माद देवकिल्बिषात || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      अवपतन्तीरवदन दिव ओषधयस परि | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      यं जीवमश्नवामहै न स रिष्याति पूरुषः || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      या ओषधीः सोमराज्ञीर्बह्वीः शतविचक्षणाः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      तासां तवमस्युत्तमारं कामाय शं हर्दे || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      ओषधीः सोमराज्ञीर्विष्ठिताः पर्थिवीमनु | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      बर्हस्पतिप्रसूता अस्यै सं दत्त वीर्यम || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      मा वो रिषत खनिता यस्मै चाहं खनामि वः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      दविपच्चतुष्पदस्माकं सर्वमस्त्वनातुरम || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      याश्चेदमुपश्र्ण्वन्ति याश्च दूरं परागताः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      सर्वाः संगत्य वीरुधो.अस्यै सं दत्त वीर्यम || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      ओषधयः सं वदन्ते सोमेन सह राज्ञा | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      यस्मै कर्णोतिब्राह्मणस्तं राजन पारयामसि || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      तवमुत्तमास्योषधे तव वर्क्षा उपस्तयः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      उपस्तिरस्तुसो.अस्माकं यो अस्मानभिदासति || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is its translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;HERBS that sprang up in time of&#xA;  old, there ages earlier than the Gods,—&#xA;  Of these, whose hue is brown, will I declare the hundred powers and seven.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ye, Mothers, have a hundred homes, yea, and a thousand thousanr growths.&#xA;  Do ye who have a thousand powers free this my patient from disease.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Be glad and joyful in the Plants, both blossoming and bearing fruit,&#xA;  Plants that will lead us to success like mares who conquer in the race.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Plants, by this name I speak to you, Mothers, to you&#xA;  the Goddesses:Steed, cow, and garment may I win, &#xA;  win back thy very self, O man.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Holy Fig tree is your home, your mansion is the Parna tree:&#xA;  Winners of cattle shali ye be if ye regain for me this man.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who hath store of Herbs at hand like Kings amid a crowd of men,—&#xA;  Physician is that sage's name, fiend-slayer, chaser of disease.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Herbs rich in Soma, rich in steeds, in nourishments, in strengthening power,—&#xA;  All these have I provided here, that this man may be whole again.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The healing virtues of the Plants stream forth like cattle from the stall,—&#xA;  Plants that shall win me store of wealth, and save thy vital breath, O man.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Reliever is your mother's name, and hence Restorers are ye called.&#xA;  Rivers are ye with wings that fly: keep far whatever brings disease.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Over all fences have they passed, as steals a thief into the fold.&#xA;  The Plants have driven from the frame whatever malady was there.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When, bringing back the vanished strength, I hold these herbs within my hand, The spirit of disease departs ere he can seize upon&#xA;  the life.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He through whose frame, O Plants, ye creep member by member, joint by joint,—&#xA;  From him ye drive away disease like some strong arbiter of strife.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Fly, Spirit of Disease, begone, with the blue jay and kingfisher.&#xA;  Fly with the wind's impetuousspeed, vanish together with the storm.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Help every one the other, lend assistance each of you to each,&#xA;  All of you be accordant, give furtherance to this speech of mine.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Let fruitful Plants, and fruitless, those that blossom, and the blossomless,&#xA;  Urged onward by Bṛhaspati, release us from our pain and grief;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Release me from the curse's plague and woe that comes from Varuṇa;&#xA;  Free me from Yama's fetter, from sin and offence against the Gods.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;What time, descending from the sky, the Plants flew earthward, thus they spake:&#xA;  No evil shall befall the man whom while he liveth we pervade,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Of all the many Plants whose King is, Soma, Plants of hundred forms,&#xA;  Thou art the Plant most excellent, prompt to the wish, sweet to the heart.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O all ye various Herbs whose King is Soma, that o’erspread the earth,&#xA;  Urged onward by Bṛhaspati, combine your virtue in this Plant.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Unharmed be he who digs you up, unharmed the man for whom I dig:&#xA;  And let no malady attack biped or quadruped of ours.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;All Plants that hear this speech, and those that have departed far away,&#xA;  Come all assembled and confer your healing power upon this Herb.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;With Soma as their Sovran Lord the Plants hold colloquy and say:&#xA;  O King, we save from death the man whose cure a Brahman undertakes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Most excellent of all art thou, O Plant thy vassals are the trees.&#xA;  Let him be subject to our power, the man who seeks to injure us.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv10146.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; it mentions about Aranyani or Forest Goddess:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अरण्यान्यरण्यान्यसौ या परेव नश्यसि | &lt;br&gt; कथाग्रामं न पर्छसि न तवा&#xA;  भीरिव विन्दती.अ.अ.अन || &lt;br&gt; वर्षारवाय वदते यदुपावति चिच्चिकः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आघाटिभिरिवधावयन्नरण्यानिर्महीयते || &lt;br&gt; उत गाव इवादन्त्युत वेश्मेव&#xA;  दर्श्यते | &lt;br&gt; उतो अरण्यानिःसायं शकटीरिव सर्जति || &lt;br&gt; गामङगैष आ&#xA;  हवयति दार्वङगैषो अपावधीत | &lt;br&gt; वसन्नरण्यान्यां सायमक्रुक्षदिति मन्यते&#xA;  || &lt;br&gt; न वा अरण्यानिर्हन्त्यन्यश्चेन नाभिगछति | &lt;br&gt; सवादोःफलस्य&#xA;  जग्ध्वाय यथाकामं नि पद्यते || &lt;br&gt; आञ्जनगन्धिं सुरभिं&#xA;  बह्वन्नामक्र्षीवलाम | &lt;br&gt; पराहम्म्र्गाणां मातरमरण्यानिमशंसिषम ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10146.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is its translation &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;GODDESS of wild and forest who seemest to vanish from the sight. How is it that thou seekest not the village? Art thou not afraid?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;What time the grasshopper replies and swells the shrill cicala's voice, Seeming to sound with tinkling bells, the Lady of the Wood&#xA;  exults.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And, yonder, cattle seem to graze, what seems a dwelling-place appears: Or else at eve the Lady of the Forest seems to free the&#xA;  wains.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Here one is calling to his cow, another there hath felled a tree: At eve the dweller in the wood fancies that somebody hath screamed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Goddess never slays, unless some murderous enemy approach. Man eats of savoury fruit and then takes, even as he wills, his rest.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Now have I praised the Forest Queen, sweet-scented, redolent of balm, The Mother of all sylvan things, who tills not but hath stores&#xA;  of food&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T14:26:55.980" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T14:26:55.980" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12494" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12496" CreationDate="2016-06-02T18:55:34.817" Score="5" ViewCount="563" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Vishnu Sahastranaam, there is a name 'jiva' assigned to Lord Shriman Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;jivo&lt;/strong&gt; vinayita sahskhi mukundomita vikramahaa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Vishistaadvaita Philosophy jiva and Bramhan are different entities and Bramhan pervades everything, Bramhan resides inside the jiva as Antaryami. Bramhan is Shriman Narayana, but if jiva is a name for Bramhan (as in the Vishnusahastranaam) does it mean that Jiva is Bramhan , if so it inclines towards Abheda or Advaita Philosophy instead of Ghataka or Vishistaadvaita philosophy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-07-01T14:36:59.343" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T23:10:29.480" Title="How does Vishistaadvaita philosophy explain 'jiva' name for Lord Shriman Narayana" Tags="|vishnu|philosophy|sri-vaishnava|vishishtadvaita|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12495" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-02T19:20:52.580" Score="5" ViewCount="523" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amrita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Amrita&lt;/a&gt; or Amurta is the divine potion for eternal life which is given to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_%28Hinduism%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devas&lt;/a&gt;. So if the Amruta gives eternal life to the Devtas or Devas in Swargaloka how is Swargaloka annihilated during end of every Manvantara, i.e. Partial Destruction of whole Creation, replacing the Posts like that of Indra, Yama, Agni, Varuna, Vayu etc with new jivas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2016-06-02T23:56:02.777" Title="How do devtas die and are replaced in every Manvantara if they have amrit" Tags="|gods|pralaya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12496" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12494" CreationDate="2016-06-02T20:36:25.740" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pGSBA.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Parashara Bhattar says in his commentary on the Vishnu Sahasranamam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Individual souls are called Jivas.  The Lord redeems Jivas and makes them live in Him.  He makes them satvatas (devotees) and infuses spiritual life into them.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satvata is another term for Bhagavata or follower of Pancharatra.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information on Pancharatra.)  In any case, I'm reminded of two verses from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 10&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.  To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a more general explanation for why Vishnu would be referred to with a term that denotes the individual soul, see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[T]he highest Self has the indiviual souls for its body, and ... &lt;strong&gt;hence words such as 'I' and 'thou,' which denote individual beings, extend in their connotation up to the highest Self&lt;/strong&gt;... As the Rishi Vâmadeva perceiving that Brahman is the inner Self of all, that all things constitute its body, and that &lt;strong&gt;the meaning of words denoting a body extends up to the principle embodied&lt;/strong&gt;, denotes with the word 'I' the highest Brahman to which he himself stands in the relation of a body, and then predicates of this 'I' Manu Sûrya and other beings--'Seeing this the Rishi. Vâmadeva understood, I am Manu, I am Sûrya' (Bri. Up. I, 4, 10). Similarly Prahlâda says, 'As the Infinite one abides within all, he constitutes my &quot;I&quot; also; all is from me, I am all, within me is all.' (Vi. Pu. I, 19, 85.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T14:40:07.747" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12497" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12494" CreationDate="2016-06-02T20:55:24.717" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here I am trying to figure out answer of your question from Vishnu-Sastranam Strotram, Bhagvad Gita &amp;amp; Sri Ramanujacharaya (Vishitaadvaita) Phiosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Let's first we look-out the Sloka&#xA;Translation of particualr Sloka of Visnu-Sajasrnam Strotram:&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;jīvō vinayitāsākṣī mukundōmitavikramaḥ |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning:&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Jivo:One who as the Kshetragya or knower of the field or the&#xA;body, is associated with the Pranas&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Vinayitā-sākṣī: One who witnesses the Vinayita or worshipful&#xA;attitude of all devotees.&#xA;Mukundaḥ: One who bestows Mukti or Liberation.&#xA;Amitavikramaḥ: One whose three strides were limitless&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, we under-stand it from Gita Chapter 13 Sloka 1,2,3:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;śrī arjuna uvāca&#xA;prakṛtiṃ puruṣaṃ caiva kṣetraṃ kṣetrajñam eva ca |&#xA;etad veditum icchāmi jñānaṃ jñeyaṃ ca keśava || 1 ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna Asked&#xA;O Kesava, I desire to learn about the spirit and about matter, about the Field and its Knower, about&#xA;knowledge and the knower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Śrī Bhagavān uvāca&#xA;idaṃ śarīraṃ kaunteya kṣetram ityabhidhīyate |&#xA;etad yo vetti taṃ prāhuḥ kṣetrajñā iti tad vidaḥ || 2 ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Lord said:&#xA;This body, O Arjuna, is called the Field (Kṣetra). One who knows it is called the ‘Knower of&#xA;the Field’ (Kṣetrajña), by the enlightened ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kṣetrajñaṃ cāpi māṃ viddhi sarva kṣetreṣu bhārata |&#xA;kṣetra kṣetrajñayor-jñānaṃ yat tajjñānam mataṃ param || 3 ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And know Me also as the Kṣetrajña in all Fields, O Arjuna. The knowledge of both the Field&#xA;and its Knower is, in My view, the highest knowledge.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now, Understand throgh the philosophy of Sri Ramanujacharaya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In reference to the body one says; ‘I am a god’, ‘I am a human’, ‘I am fat’, ‘I am thin’&#xA;etc. according to the principle of co-ordinate predication (samānādhikaraṇya) the ‘I’&#xA;referred to is the experiencing Self (jivātman), and that which is experienced [as fat, thin&#xA;etc] refers to something other than the Self i.e. the body. The enlightened ones&#xA;understand that the body is only the Field where the fruits of past deeds are reaped by&#xA;the Self, which is different from the body.&#xA;It is obvious that when one sees an object like a pot which is different from one's body,&#xA;one thinks — 'I, a god, see this pot' or 'I, a human see it' etc., in this case one is&#xA;identifying with one’s body by the principle of samānādhikaraṇya. In the same way one&#xA;also experiences the body as an object of knowledge when one says:— ‘I know this&#xA;body.’ Thus, if the body is a knowable object, it must be different from the knowing&#xA;subject. Therefore, the Self as Field-knower (Kṣetrajña), is different from the body&#xA;which is an object of knowledge like a pot and other things.&#xA;But in practical terms one's body is inseparable from oneself; for it constitutes a&#xA;fundamental attribute of the Self like the 'cow-ness' of the cow. The knowing Self is&#xA;however unique in being an eternal and subtle form of consciousness and can only&#xA;perceive itself through a mind refined by Yoga and not by mundane awareness. The&#xA;ignorant regard the Self as being a physical phenomena because of its intimate&#xA;involvement with material nature. Sri Krishna thus declares later on:— ‘When, being&#xA;associated with the Guṇas, the Self departs or stays or experiences the deluded perceive&#xA;it not, only those who are enlightened see’. (15.10).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the Overself, Krishna is the ‘Field-Knower’ in all the bodies such as those of gods,&#xA;humans, animals and antigods. By the expression 'also' (api) it can be inferred that the&#xA;body itself is also a manifestation of Krishna. Just as the body cannot exist separately&#xA;from the ātman on account of its being an attribute [eg. like the mango and its taste]&#xA;and consequently when referring to the body one actually refers to the ātman according&#xA;to the principle of co-ordinate predication, in the same manner, both the body (Field)&#xA;and the Self (Field-Knower), on account of both of their being inseparable attributes of&#xA;Krishna’s can thus be denoted as ‘one with Krishna’.&#xA;The Veda teaches that the Supreme Being is the Overself both the Kṣetra (Field) and the&#xA;Kṣetrajña (Jīva), because of their being like His ‘body’ [corporeality]. For example see&#xA;the passages from the Brhad-aranyaka Upanishad beginning with 3.7.3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From this Sloka which I mentioned 13.3 &lt;strong&gt;kṣetrajñaṃ cāpi māṃ viddhi sarva kṣetreṣu bhārata |&#xA;kṣetra kṣetrajñayor-jñānaṃ yat tajjñānam mataṃ param || 3 ||&#xA;3. And know Me also as the Kṣetrajña in all Fields, O Arjuna. The knowledge of both the Field&#xA;and its Knower is, in My view, the highest knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Advaitin claims that this passage teaches absolute identity between the Jīva and Iśvara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let's understand it as per the Sri Ramanujacharaya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rāmānuja’s position is that the relationship is not one of absolute ontological identity but only&#xA;one of identity of reference of several inseparable entities to a common substratum — known&#xA;technically as Samānādhikaraṇya or co-ordinate predication. The literal meaning of the expression&#xA;is 'the relation of abiding in a common substratum'. The relation of the Jīva and Prakrti to Iśvara is&#xA;as of body and self or as a mode (Prakara) and its substratum. The relation between the body and&#xA;Self of an ordinary being is, only separable at death. But it is inseparable in the case of Iśvara and&#xA;this Jīva-cum-Prakrti ‘body’. In this sense Iśvara is the Field-knower (Kṣetrajña) of the Field&#xA;(Kṣetra) constituted of all individual entities sentient and insentient, just as in each individual&#xA;152&#xA;personality the Jīva and the body are the field-knower and the field respectively.&#xA;Being in co-ordinate predication (Samānādhikaraṇya), Brahman is an inseparable but mutually&#xA;distinct complex of the Prakrti, Jīva and Iśvara. the cosmic mode of body constituted of Prakrti&#xA;and Puruṣa is at intervals in alternate states of latency and patency (Pralaya and Sṛṣṭi or dissolution&#xA;and manifestation). As the Essence-self of a complex whole, He can be denoted by any of the&#xA;terms entering into it—Iśvara, Prakrti or Jīva. Brahman is sometimes mentioned in the Vedas as&#xA;Asat (non-existent) when everything is in latency in Pralaya, and as Sat (existent) when all&#xA;entities are in manifestations (Sṛṣṭi). All these expressions denote Him only. He is described in&#xA;some texts as attributeless. It means only that He is without any undesirable negative qualities. He&#xA;is on the other hand endowed with countless auspicious attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we are moving to that particualr sloka of Vishnu Sahastrnam&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;jīvō vinayitāsākṣī mukundōmitavikramaḥ |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here Jivo as I mentioned One who as the Kshetragya or Knower Of the Field&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, It's like Super-Soul(Jiva) &amp;amp; sub-soul(Jiva), Super-soul jiva is only one but sub-soul can be many likes Living-entites,demigods etc etc, So in that particular Sloka the Jiva belongs to Super-Soul which is the knower of the Field.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, In your mind this doubt will come if the sub-soul can also knower of the Field So why not he is same level of Bramhan, But here is your dobut clear in this particular sloka of bhagvat Gita which I mentioned before&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kṣetrajñaṃ cāpi māṃ viddhi sarva kṣetreṣu bhārata |&#xA;kṣetra kṣetrajñayor-jñānaṃ yat tajjñānam mataṃ param || 3 ||&#xA;3. And know Me also as the Kṣetrajña in all Fields, O Arjuna. The knowledge of both the Field and its Knower is, in My view, the highest knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sub-souls(jiva) are &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Field-Knower&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; of his own body, But the Lord Vishnu(Kirshna) is the &lt;strong&gt;‘Field-Knower’&lt;/strong&gt; in all the bodies such as those of gods,humans, animals and antigods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Hope your Doubt clear of your particular sloka that's Jiva refers to the Lord Shriman-narayan who is super-soul, that's jiva is not address to the sub-soul (jiva)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And as In Vishitaadvaita Philosophy&#xA;The Visishtadvaita principle is tell us like as we can't discriminate the white color from the white clothes. even though they both are different from each other like same as Davita and Advaita can't be discriminate from each other. even thogh they both are different from each other and same as we and Suprme Lord Visnu are different from each other but also not differentiate from each other.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T23:10:29.480" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12499" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12489" CreationDate="2016-06-03T00:56:31.113" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is what Prashna Upanishad tells about Pitriyana [Southern course] and Devayana[Northern course]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;संवत्सरो वै प्रजापतिस्तस्यत्यने &lt;strong&gt;दक्षिणं चोत्तरं च तद्येह वै&lt;/strong&gt; तदिष्टापूर्ते कृतमित्युपासते ते चान्द्रमसमेव लोकमभिजयन्ते त एव पुनरावर्तन्ते तस्मादेत ऋषय प्रजाकामा &lt;strong&gt;दक्षिणं प्रतिपद्यन्ते&lt;/strong&gt; एष ह वै रयिर्यः पितृयाणः ९ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I-9: The year is verily the Lord of creatures. Of Him &lt;strong&gt;there are two Courses, the Southern[Pitriyana] and the Northern[Devayana].&lt;/strong&gt; As to that, those, who follow, in that way, the sacrifices and public good etc., that are products of action, conquer the very world of the moon. It is they who come back. (Since this is so), hence these seers of heaven, who are desirous of progeny, &lt;strong&gt;attain the Southern Course&lt;/strong&gt;. That which is the Course of the Manes is verily food. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अथोत्तरेणा तपसा&lt;/strong&gt; ब्रह्मचर्येण श्रद्धया विद्यात्मानमन्विष्यादित्यमभिजयन्ते एतद्वै प्राणानामायतनमेतदमृतमभयमेतत्  परायणमेत्तस्मान्न पुनरावर्तन्त इत्येष निरोधस्तदेष श्लोक १० &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I-10: Again, by searching for the Self through the control of the senses, brahmacharya, faith and meditation, they conquer the sun (by proceeding) &lt;strong&gt;along the Northern Course.[Devayana]&lt;/strong&gt; This is the resort of all that lives; this is indestructible; this is fearless; this is the highest goal, for from this they do not come back. This is unrealisable (to the ignorant).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-07-29T17:06:31.953" LastActivityDate="2016-07-29T17:06:31.953" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12500" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12501" CreationDate="2016-06-03T06:57:48.870" Score="3" ViewCount="755" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am going to explain to clear the doubt of Relation between Jiva and Brahman Through the Visistadvaita Philsophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is totally different form &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12272/5746&quot;&gt;Differences between Advaita &amp;amp; Vishishtadvaita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here is doubt come from this question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12494/5746&quot;&gt;How does Vishistaadvaita philosophy explain &amp;#39;jiva&amp;#39; name for Lord Shriman Narayana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T19:23:58.703" Title="The Theory of Relation as per Visistadvaita Philosophy" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|brahman|ramanujacharya|vishishtadvaita|jiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12501" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12500" CreationDate="2016-06-03T06:57:48.870" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;We will see Visisthadvaita Philosophy in detail and also clear the doubts of Advaita and Dvaita philosophy as well as Abhed,Bhed Sruti (Advaita &amp;amp; Dvaita) and also demonstrate Gatak sruti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here we also understand this Philosophy from the Basic, I will try my best to demonstrate this Philosophy through the Sruti , Bhagvad-Gita and Ramanuja-Philosophy so, we can eailsy understand the main concept of Visisthadavita Philosophy and also the relation between Brahman &amp;amp; Jiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Understand words in my answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jad=unconcsious=Dead-elements(Nature/Earth)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chetan=Concsious=Living-elements (Human-beings,gods,antigods,animals etc)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maya=Illusion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Visesan(विशेषण)= Adjactive, Visesya(विशेष्य)= Substantive , Visistha (विशिष्ट)= Individual&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First Let's see what Gatak sruti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gatak Sruti:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;visisthacye visisthacye visistha visithayodaitam visisthadiatam |&#xA;sukhsma jadchetan visistha sthulam chidchidrisithayordriatam bhedithertha: ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without Adjactive (विशेषण) there is no meaning of Substantive (विशेष्य). in-other word who is free from Adjactive (विशेषण) is called&#xA;Individual (विशिष्ट).&lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu is Individual (विशिष्ट)&lt;/strong&gt; who is different from jad(unconscious) and Chetan (conscious),even-though they are&#xA;not different from &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; is called &lt;strong&gt;Visisthaadivate.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like we can not sperate the Virtue (गुण) from Virtuness (गुणी), same way Adjactive( Jad(Nature), Chetan(Living-Beings)) can't be&#xA;sperated from the Visistha (Individual) (Lord Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like body and soul both are different from each other but we can't sperated both thing from each-other. same way jad-chetan and Supreme Lord Vishnu are different yet we can't sperated jad-chetan (Nature &amp;amp; Living-beings) and Lord vishnu(Super-soul) from each-other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jad and Chetan (Nature and Living beings) are body of the Lord Vishnu (Supreme Lord), and in this way very beautifully&#xA;include the both bhed Shruti (Dvaita) and abhed Shruti (Advaita).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like Living-beings(Souls) do all the work through his body same-way, Lord Vishnu does his every work through jad and Chetan (Living-entities , nature).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Example will clear your doubt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For Example&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Randomly we call the person whose name is Gopal, so he will turn around and will stare us, because we call him with his name.But we know body is jad (deadly thing, unconscious), If there is no soul(Consciousness) in the body then we will called that &amp;quot;Dead Body&amp;quot; rather than Gopal,Why? because there is no Soul in that body.So,that's mean Gopal is title (Degree) for that particular soul. Then why that particualr body turn around and stare us when we called to Gopal??!!.So, that's mean there is no different between gopal and his body,but difference is there we know (Because Gopal is only title/degree for that specific body, If the body is no more then there is no meaning of Gopal).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same-way Lord and living-beings,nature(jad&amp;amp;chetan) are different ( Davita Philosophy) but they are connected as &amp;quot;body to soul&amp;quot; relation to the supreme lord. so that's why both are same (Advaita Philosophy). ( Here Soul is Lord Vishnu and  body is living-beings &amp;amp; nature)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here body (Jad/Chetan Both(nature/all living beings):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Body: Human-beings, animals , demigods, antigods,gods, nature, all univers etc etc&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Soul: Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More simple example we can take, Mango and it's taste , we know that mango and it's taste both are different (Dviata philosophy) from each other,In other hand,they both are same(Adviata Philosophy)we can't separate both of them (mango &amp;amp; it's taste) from each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the solution given by the Visisthadviata Philosophy through the Gatak-Sruti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to read more Details then you can read Sri-ramanujacharaya &amp;quot;Vedarth Sangraha&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here another sloka from Gatak Sruti:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yamatama Na Ved yesaya Atama Sariram |&#xA;Yum Pruthvi na ved yesaya Pruthvi Sariram ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Living-Beings are body of Lord, Living beings don't know this thing, Nature (Earth) is the body of Lord, even nature doesn't know this thing.&#xA;Living-Beings and Maya(Nature) is the body of Lord and the Lord Vishnu is the seated as soul in that body (living-beings &amp;amp; nature).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Sri-Valmiki Ramayan This Sloka indicates:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jagat sarvah sariram tey saitharya tey Vasudhatalam.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning : This all Univers is body of yours (Lord Vishnu), and the all things in nature is depended on you(Lord Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Vishnu Puran this sloka indicates:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sarvah vai harestanu...|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning: All the elements(Living-Beings, Nature) are body of Lord Shri Hari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's we understand from the &lt;strong&gt;Bhagvad-Gita (Chapter 9 sloka 4,5,6,8,9,10)&lt;/strong&gt; which encouraged the Philosophy of Visisthadvaita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mayā tatam idaṃ sarvaṃ jagad avyakta mūrtinā |&#xA;mat-sthāni sarva bhūtāni na cāhaṃ teṣv-avasthitaḥ || 4 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This entire universe is pervaded by Me, in an unmanifest form. All beings abide in Me, but&#xA;I do not abide in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This entire universe — composed of both sentient and insentient beings, is pervaded by Me&#xA;— the inner controller whose essential nature is unmanifest. The meaning is that all this&#xA;universe is pervaded by Krishna the Principal (śeṣi) so that He may sustain and manage it.&#xA;This [doctrine of] universal pervasion by an inner controller, who is invisible to all beings,&#xA;is taught in the Antaryāmi- Brāhmaṇa.&#xA;So also Krishna’s primacy over everything is taught.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;na ca mat-sthāni bhūtāni paśya me yogam aiśvaram |&#xA;bhūta-bhṛnna ca bhūtastho mamātmā bhūta-bhāvanaḥ || 5 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And yet beings do not abide in Me. Behold My divine Yoga, I am the upholder of all&#xA;beings and yet I am not in them. My will alone causes their existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“I am not in them” means — “I do not depend on them for My existence. I do not need&#xA;any help from them to exist. And yet beings do not abide in Me, as I do not support them as&#xA;a jug or any other kind of vessel supports the water contained in it. How then are they&#xA;contained? By My will. Behold My divine Yogic Power, namely, My wonderful Divine&#xA;qualities, unique to Me alone and having no comparison elsewhere. What are these&#xA;qualities? I am the sustainer of all beings and yet I am not in them — My will alone keeps&#xA;them in existence.”&#xA;The gist is that Krishna is the supporter of all beings, and yet He derives no personal&#xA;assistance whatever from them. His will alone projects, sustains and controls all beings.&#xA;Sri Krishna gives an illustration to show how all beings depend on His will for their&#xA;existence and activity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yathākāśa-sthito nityaṃ vāyuḥ sarvatrago mahān |&#xA;tathā sarvāṇi bhūtāni mat-sthānīty-upadhāraya || 6 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the mighty wind moving everywhere, ever remains in space, even so, know that all&#xA;beings abide in Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mighty wind exists and moves everywhere in space without any perceivable support.&#xA;So it has to be admitted that the powerful air-current is dependent on Me for its existence&#xA;and is being upheld by Me alone. Even so, know that all entities abide in Me, who am&#xA;invisible to them, and that they are upheld by Me alone. The Vedic sages declare thus: —&#xA;The origin of clouds, the waters of the ocean remaining within bounds, the phases of the&#xA;moon, the strong movements of the gale, the flash of lightning and the movements of the&#xA;sun—all these are marvellous manifestations of the power of Vishnu. (?)&#xA;The meaning is that they are all the marvellous miracles which are unique to Vishnu. The&#xA;Vedas and other texts also declare likewise:&#xA;‘Verily O Gargi, at the command of that imperishable One, the sun and the moon stand&#xA;apart’ (Br. Up., 3.8.9,)&#xA;‘Through the fear of Him the wind blows, through the fear of Him the sun rises, through&#xA;the fear of Him Agni and Indra perform their duties’ (Tai. Up., 2.8.1).&#xA;It has been declared that the existence and activity of all beings originate by the will of the&#xA;Supreme Being, who is totally independent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Sri Krishna declares that the origin and&#xA;dissolution of all entities also are accomplished by His will only:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sarva bhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṃ yānti māmikām |&#xA;kalpa-kṣaye punas-tāni kalpādau visṛjāmy-aham || 7 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All beings, O Arjuna, are assimilated into My Nature (Prakrti) at the end of a cycle of time&#xA;(kalpa). Again I send them forth at the beginning of a new cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the mobile and immobile entities enter into Krishna’s Being (Prakrti) at the end of a&#xA;cycle, of Brahma’s life. This Prakrti (Nature), constituting the Divine Being, is described&#xA;by the term Tamas, as it cannot be differentiated into name and form. Manu also concurs:&#xA;‘This universe became Tamas.... by an act of [divine] will. He produced it out of His body’ (Manu,&#xA;1.5.8).&#xA;The Vedas also declare this: —&#xA;‘He whose physical nature is Unmanifest’ (Sub. Up., 7);&#xA;‘The Unmanifest (avyakta) merges into the Imperishable (akṣara), the akṣara into&#xA;(Darkness) Tamas’ (Ibid., 2);&#xA;and also —&#xA;‘There was Darkness (Tamas); consciousness was in the beginning concealed by&#xA;Darkness (Tamas)’ (Tai. Br. ii:8-9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;prakṛtiṃ svām-avaṣṭabhya visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ |&#xA;bhūta-grāmam imaṃ kṛtsnam avaśaṃ prakṛter-vaśāt || 8 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Animating my own Nature [Prakrti], I send forth again and again all this multitude of&#xA;beings, helpless under the sway of Prakrti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“I develop it eightfold and send forth this fourfold aggregate of beings; gods, animals,&#xA;humans and inanimate things, time after time. All these entities are helpless, being under&#xA;the sway of Prakrti comprising the three Gunas which cause delusion.”If this is so, it may&#xA;be argued that the inequalities of creation are due to the Lord being&#xA;cruel or partial etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To this, the Lord answers: —&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;na ca māṃ tāni karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanañjaya |&#xA;udāsīnavad-āsīnam asaktaṃ teṣu karmasu || 9 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But these actions do not bind Me, O Dhanañjaya, for I remain detached from them,&#xA;remaining like one indifferent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“But results like the inequality of creation do not bind Me. I cannot be accused of such&#xA;negative qualities as cruelty, partiality etc, because the differences of conditions like being&#xA;born as a god, human being, animal or vegetable are all caused by the previous actions&#xA;(Karmas) of individual Jīvas themselves. I am unaffected by these inequalities.”&#xA;Accordingly, the author of the Vedanta-sutras says: —&#xA;‘There is no partiality or lack of compassion in Him, because creation is dependent on&#xA;Karma, for so Scripture declares’ (Br. Sutra., 2.1.34),&#xA;and&#xA;‘If it be said that there can be no Karma on account of non-distinction [between Jīvas and&#xA;Brahman prior to creation], it is replied that this is incorrect, because both the Jīvas and&#xA;Karma are beginningless....’ (Ibid. 2.1.35).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram |&#xA;hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate || 10 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Under My supervision, Prakrti produces all beings that move and move not. Indeed,&#xA;because of this, O Kaunteya, does the world revolve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Behold in this wonderful phenomena the cosmic dominion inherent in Krishna, and&#xA;personal characteristics such as sovereignty, true resolve and being free from cruelty and&#xA;similar defects! So declare the Vedas:—&#xA;‘The possessor of Maya [the Lord] projects this universe out of this [Prakrti in its subtle&#xA;state]. Another [the individual Self] is confined by Maya in the world. One should know&#xA;the Maya to be the Prakrti. And the possessor of Maya to be the Mighty Lord’ (Sve. Up.,&#xA;4;9-10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another Sloka of &lt;strong&gt;Bhagvad-Gita ( Chapter 7 Sloka 7,12)&lt;/strong&gt; which encouraged the Philosophy of Visisthadvaita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mattaḥ parataraṃ nānyat kiñcid-asti dhanañjayaḥ |&#xA;mayi sarvam idaṃ protaṃ sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva || 7 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is nothing whatsoever higher than Me, O Arjuna. All this is strung on Me, as clusters of&#xA;gems on a thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“I am absolutely superior to all things in two ways:&#xA;(1) I am the cause of both the Natures (Prakṛtis) and I am also their Proprietor (śeṣin).&#xA;The Jīvas exercise control over their bodies as they are the inner proprietors (śeṣin) and&#xA;I am the Proprietor of all Jīvas.&#xA;(2) I am also the Supreme Being because I possess knowledge, untiring strength,&#xA;sovereignty, immutability, creative power and splendour in an infinite degree.&#xA;The totality of all the sentient and insentient beings, whether in their [unmanifest] causal&#xA;state or in their [manifest] state of effect, is strung on Me, who abide as their Self, as a&#xA;cluster of gems on a thread — in other words they have their rest and support in Me.”&#xA;And it is established that the entire Universe [of sentient and insentient entities] and&#xA;Brahman (the Supreme Being) exist in the [symbiotic] relationship of body and spirit as&#xA;declared by the Antaryami-Brahmana and other texts: —&#xA;‘He whose body is the earth’ (Br. Up., 3.7-3),&#xA;‘He whose body is the Self’ (Br. U. Madh., 3.7.22),&#xA;‘He is the Over-Self of all beings, immaculate,&#xA;He is the Lord in the supreme heaven, He is the one Nārāyaṇa’ (Sub.Up., 7).&#xA;Everything constitutes the “corporeality” and is an “expression” of the Supreme Being&#xA;who is their Over-Self, thus the Supreme Being alone exists, and all [existing] things&#xA;are only His modes [of expression]. Therefore all terms used in common parlance for&#xA;different things denote Him only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ye caiva sāttvikā bhāvā rājasāstāmasāśca ye |&#xA;matta eveti tān-viddhi na tvahaṃ teṣu te mayi || 12 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Know that all those states of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas have their origin in Me alone. But I am&#xA;not in them; they are in Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Three modes of Illusion (Triguni Maya) is depended on Lord Vishnu, Lord Vishnu is not Depended on this Maya, Lord is not Indulge in this Samsara (Mortal World).&#xA;like same-way soul is not indulge in body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The one of the Best Sloka of &lt;strong&gt;Bhagvad Gita (Chapter 10 Sloka 41)&lt;/strong&gt; which is summary of Visisthadvaita Philosophy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yad yad vibhūtimat sattvaṃ śrīmad ūrjitam eva ca |&#xA;tat tad evāvagaccha tvaṃ mama tejo’ṃśa saṃbhavam || 41 ||*£&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Know for certain that whatever has sovereignty, splendour and brilliance is produced by a mere&#xA;fraction of My potency.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every Living and Non-Living elements is the body of the Lord and Lord is the Soul of that body, and this the Summary of Sri Visithadviata Philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, We can say that we got the overall conclusion and Summary of the Ses-Seshi Relation, Soul-Body Relation, Master-Servant Relation, Ulitimate Form of Lord, Bhed and Abhed Sruthi As it is , from the  Sri Visisthadviata Philosophy,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri-Ramanuja&lt;/strong&gt; put very great effort to clear the all doubts and easily can reach to the supreme lord. You can also refer &lt;strong&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Visithadviata Philosophy of Sri-Ramanujacharya&lt;/strong&gt; and also &lt;strong&gt;Vedarth-Sangraha&lt;/strong&gt; for deepest Knowledge of the &lt;strong&gt;Visisthadvaita Philosophy &amp;amp; the Supreme Truth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also refer,&lt;strong&gt;The Realtion theory of Visistadvaita,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Philosophical logic is based on the truths of determinate knowledge, &lt;strong&gt;savisesa-jnaana&lt;/strong&gt; and the principle of &lt;strong&gt;samanadhikaranya&lt;/strong&gt;. It throws light on the problem of external and internal relations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the theory of external relations, the relations are said to make no difference to the terms related. The objects are external to the relation, and one substance does not pass into and become another. What exists alone is cognized. Knowledge is the awareness of external objects by the knowing subject, and such experience makes no difference to the existing objects.The external objects are given not as things, but as objects to a subject. They form the ksetra. They do not depend on the self or ksetrajna for their existence. Cit, the percipient self, and acit, the perceived object, are externally connected, mutually exclusive and eternally real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Knowledge presupposes not only the independence of the subject and the object, but also the existence of plurality of knowing subjects and knowable objects. The self is not always the subject of knowledge as, in social relations, each self is both subject and object. Inter-subjective intercourse and social concern for one another would be impossible if there is no subject-object relation among different persons.If the object is considered outside there, outside the mind, it cannot be known. Similarly if the subject is inside, it is shut up in itself. Thus, there is no way of escape from skepticism on the one hand and subjectivism on the other. To avoid these pitfalls, the theory of external relations and epistemological realism is to be restated in terms of the logic of aprthak-siddha-visesana, inseparable attributes and the theory of ontological non-dualism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For example,&lt;/strong&gt; the relation between the hand and the pen is external. But the relation between the hand and the fingers is internal and organic. Externality implies the reality of the eternal differences of the facts of cit and acit. But in relation to the whole, which is their inner essence, they become inseparable and correlative factors. As such they lose their independence and exclusiveness.&#xA;Thus the plurality of cit and acit becomes acceptable while the pluralistic view is rejected. The cosmos is not subject or object, but is subject-object. Appropriately it is defined as universe, but not multi-verse. As parts, cit and acit are mutually exclusive and indifferent. But as parts of the all-pervasive consciousness of the inner-self, which sustains them, they are internally and organically related.&#xA;Qualities and relations depend on the whole of reality as their background. Internal relations are grounded in the nature of the terms related not as separate terms as such, but as terms connoting the ultimate ground of existence and experience as visista and visesya. The visesana is an attribute of the visesya or adjective of the whole. It is vitally related to it as its mode or prakara, like the fragrance and the flower. It is also like the vowel related to the consonant, and the body to its self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The visista is thus not a mechanical whole of indifferent parts. Nor is it the totality of attributes. The judgment ‘this rose is fragrant’ is not a unity of the substance and its quality,or the subject-object relation, as explained by the bheda-abheda theory of the identity and difference. Incidentally, this theory regards identity and difference as two moments of reality. In its philosophic aspect, this view expounds reality as the Absolute consisting of God and the finite centres.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Visistadvaita,&lt;/strong&gt; however, holds that the Absolute is not God and the finite beings, but is God in the finite beings, as their sustaining ground. While the visesya or prakarin is one, the visesanas or prakaras are many. The Brahman and the world are not two, but one, the Brahaman in the world.&#xA;The metaphysical view of Visistadavaita is opposed to the mathematical view of addition. Likewise, it is different from the adjectival theory of the Absolute, which explains the finite self as the essential quality of the Infinite and its connection of content. The finite self is an inseparable attribute of the Infinite as its aprthak-siddha-visesana or prakara. At the same time, it is a separate self, persevering in its own being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The visesana is substance and quality, dravya-guna like light and its radiation. As quality or mode, it derives its substantiality from the self-effulgent atman. But as substance, it has its own monadic being. A quality is quality of a substance. But, when it is also a substance, it admits of relation.The connection between atman and Paramatman is not merely the logical view of substance and attribute, but the spiritual view of two selves that are eternally existent. They are not externally related, for Paramatman is defined as the inner self and the essence of the jiva, its antaryamin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This view avoids the monadic exclusiveness on one hand and the modal inclusiveness on the other. The Visistadvaita insight of the Brahman as the antaryamin throws a flood of light even on logical problems, and provides a comprehensive view of reality.The self and the objects in nature are independent entities existentially, and are externally related. But they have their meaning and value in the Absolute as the All-self, and they are related to It internally as Its modes or prakaras. The Absolute is self-related and has Its own inner identity. At the same time, It is related to cit and acit, which are Its modes. This interpretation avoids the fallacies of skepticism and of infinite regress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When Ramanuja says&lt;/strong&gt; that all knowledge is of the real, &lt;strong&gt;sarvam vijnaana-jaatam yathartham,&lt;/strong&gt; he does not accept the realistic contention that knowledge comes from the external object through the sense organ, and the mind passively receives the sense impressions like a blank sheet of paper. The self with its jnaana and its psychophysical changes is as real as the external objects or prakrti with all its tattvas.Knowledge is revelatory and not representative. As what exists alone is cognized, Ramanuja’s view is justified in its conclusion that the existence of a thing is independent of our experience of it. Further there is an external relation between an object and its awareness by the self. The thought of an object is not the object, but is about it. A thing is known as it exists and not otherwise. It is wrong to say that it exists because it is known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nature exists for consciousness, and not in consciousness as its idea. If realism, as a philosophy, insists on the primacy of matter over the self, and rules out the role of jnaana, it leads to pan-objectivism and lapses into materialism. Idealism is justified if it accepts dharmabhuta-jnaana as the presupposition of experience. But it is to be refuted if it ignores the reality of the external object given in sense perception, and explains it as a mental state or construction based on relations either internal or relevant.&#xA;If the internal relation alone is accepted, then space, time and causality are a priori forms belonging to the very structure of thought superimposed on the manifold of the sense. According to this view, the world seems to be real, and yet is not real. In such a case, there is no difference between waking and dream consciousness. What we know is what we seem to know, and it is only an ‘as if’. Then thought cannot grasp reality, and the theory of knowledge becomes no theory of knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sankaracharya&lt;/strong&gt; is well aware of the defects of extreme idealism. He combats it by admitting the realistic view that the external object is not an idea or a projection of thought. It has an objective reality. The waking state is different in kind from the dream state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Visistadvaita&lt;/strong&gt; absolutism checks the extremes of realism and idealism. It points out the defects of the pure object philosophy and the pure subject philosophy by insisting on the reality of ksetrajna, the knowing subject and the ksetra, the knowable object. It also insists on the correlativity of the subject-object relation and the immanence of the atman in cit and acit. Atman enters into cit as itself, enters into the object and then becomes the self of the object.If the object alone is taken as the real, it leads to the realistic view ending in materialism. If manas and buddhi are alone considered reality, there is mentalism and rationalism. If the self alone is considered existent, it is monadism or personalism. If the Brahman alone is considered existent, it is a-cosmism. But Visistadvaita accepts all these existents, and assigns a place and value to each one of them. It explains all selves and objects of knowledge as the living embodiments of the inner self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Visistadvaita thus affirms the duality of the subject-object relation within the unity of experience between the one experiencing and the thing experienced, but denies their dualism. It relies on the eternity of cit and acit as the one experiencing or the experienced, but abolishes their externality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You can also refer my others answers for understanding this Philosophy here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12497/5746&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12497/5746&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12381/5746&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12381/5746&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12501/5746&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12501/5746&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adiyen Ramanuja Dasen&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srimatey Ramanujaye Namah:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jay Shreemanarayan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T19:23:58.703" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12502" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-03T09:24:30.140" Score="4" ViewCount="15855" Body="&lt;p&gt;During the Kurukshetra war, after Karna killed Ghatotkhasa with the Vasavi Sakti weapon; Krishna started dancing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing this Bhima asked why he did so when the son of Bhima was killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To this Krishna replied that if Ghatotkasha was not killed then Arjun was sure to be the victim the next day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I could not understand is: Arjuna possessed the Pasupata, and the Vajra....then, how would he fail to counter the Vasavi Sakti weapon ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-03T12:31:19.663" LastActivityDate="2019-03-21T18:43:07.007" Title="Was Vasavi Sakti more powerful than Pasupata?" Tags="|mahabharata|shiva|indra|weapon|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12503" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-03T10:32:15.913" Score="2" ViewCount="1320" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is explanation for the following &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishishtadvaita#Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;relationships&lt;/a&gt; between jiva and bramhan and which is most appropriate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-06-03T17:44:33.707" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T18:51:35.010" Title="Relationship between Jiva, Bramhan, World according to Vishitadvaita" Tags="|philosophy|brahman|advaita|vishishtadvaita|jiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-06-03T16:41:41.127" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12504" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12502" CreationDate="2016-06-03T11:05:21.390" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is what Lord Shiva tells while giving Pasupatastra to Arjuna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhava replied, 'O powerful one. I will give to thee that favourite weapon of mine called the &lt;strong&gt;Pasupata.&lt;/strong&gt; O son of Pandu, thou art capable of holding, hurling, and withdrawing it. &lt;strong&gt;Neither the chief himself of the gods, nor Yama, nor the king of the Yakshas, nor Varuna, nor Vayu, knoweth it.&lt;/strong&gt; How could men know anything of it? But, O son of Pritha, this weapon should not be hurled without adequate cause; for if hurled at any foe of little might it may destroy the whole universe. &lt;strong&gt;In the three worlds with all their mobile and immobile creatures, there is none who is incapable of being slain by this weapon. And it may be hurled by the mind, by the eye, by words, and by the bow.'&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;[VanaParva Chapter 60]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Vasavi Shaki was ultimate then Indra would have remained unconquerable with the aid of that weapon. But it was necessary to make use of that weapon to Karna as he had received it as return gift from Indra and to keep word of Indra it was necessary to destroy one thing by the help of that Shakti. Here is what Indra says while giving it to Karna;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing this, Indra said, 'As thou, O&#xA;Karna, art bent upon observing the truth, thy person shall not be unsightly, or shall any scar remain on it. And, O thou best of those that are graced with speech, O Karna, thou shall be possessed of complexion&#xA;and energy of thy father him self. &lt;strong&gt;And if, maddened by wrath, thou hurlest this dart, while there are still other weapons with thee, and when thy life also is not in imminent peril, it will fall even on thyself.'&#xA;Karna answered, 'As thou directest me, O Sakra, I shall hurl this Vasavi dart only when I am in imminent peril! Truly I tell thee this!&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;[VanaParva Chapter 308]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to keep the above words of Indra if Karna used in such circumstances then it was necessary that one target gets destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore Pasupatastra is not a simple weapon which is to be hurled to mortals. Here is what Arjuna says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the god Tryamvaka said unto me, 'I will give. O Pandava, my own weapon Raudra shall attend upon thee.' Thereupon Mahadeva, well-pleased,&#xA;granted to me the mighty weapon, Pasupata. And, having granted that eternal weapon, &lt;strong&gt;he also said unto me, This must never be hurled at mortals. If discharged at any person of small energy, it would consume the universe.&lt;/strong&gt; Shouldst thou (at any time) be hard pressed, thou mayst discharge it. And when all thy weapons have been completely baffled, thou mayst hurl it.' Then when he having the bull for his mark, had been thus gratified, there stood manifest by my side that celestial weapon, of resistless force capable of baffling all weapons and destructive of foes and the hewer of hostile forces and unrivalled and difficult to be borne even by the celestials, the demons and the Rakshasas. Then at the command of that god, I sat me down there. And in my very sight the god vanished from the spot.'&amp;quot; &lt;em&gt;[VanaParva chapter 166]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Then what is the use of possessing Pasupatastra?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just having knowledge of invoking it is sufficient to make a person victorious. One doesn't need to use it. Here is what Lord Krishna tells to Arjuna when Arjuna vows to kill Jayadtatha next day:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; I tell thee that the sun setteth quickly.' The bird-bannered Krishna hearing this cause of Partha's grief, touched water and sat with face turned to the east. And then that hero, of eyes like lotus leaves, and possessed of great energy, said these words for the benefit of Pandu's son who had resolved upon the slaughter of the ruler of the Sindhus, '&lt;strong&gt;O Partha, there is an indestructible, supreme weapon of the name of Pasupata.&lt;/strong&gt; With it the god Maheswara slew in battle all the Daityas! &lt;strong&gt;If thou rememberest it now, thou shalt then be able to slay Jayadratha tomorrow.&lt;/strong&gt; If it is unknown to thee (now), adore within thy heart the god having the bull for his mark. Thinking of that god in thy mind, remember him, O Dhananjaya! Thou art his devotee. Through his grace thou shalt obtain that rich possession.' Hearing these words of Krishna, Dhananjaya, having touched water, sat on the earth with concentrated mind and thought of the god Bhava. After he had thus sat with rapt mind at that hour called Brahma of auspicious indications, Arjuna saw himself journeying through the sky with Kesava. &lt;em&gt;[Drona Parva Chapter 80]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, one doesn't need to hurl Pasupatastra, it's rememberance alone is sufficient.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-03T13:03:40.507" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12505" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12503" CreationDate="2016-06-03T12:11:44.860" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here your All Doubts will Clear of Visisthadvaita Philosophy.Here also clear the Philosophy of Advaita and Dvaita as well as Abhed,Bhed Sruti (Advaita &amp;amp; Dvaita) and also demonstrate Gatak sruti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here we will understand this Philosophy from the Basic, I will try my best to demonstrate this Philosophy through the Sruti , Bhagvad-Gita and Ramanuja-Philosophy so, we can eailsy understand the main concept of Visisthadavita Philosophy and also the relation between Brahman &amp;amp; Jiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Understand words in my answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jad=unconcsious=Dead-elements(Nature/Earth)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chetan=Concsious=Living-elements (Human-beings,gods,antigods,animals etc)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maya=Illusion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Visesan(विशेषण)= Adjactive, Visesya(विशेष्य)= Substantive , Visistha (विशिष्ट)= Individual&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First Let's see what Gatak sruti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gatak Sruti:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;visisthacye visisthacye visistha visithayodaitam visisthadiatam |&#xA;  sukhsma jadchetan visistha sthulam chidchidrisithayordriatam bhedithertha: ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Without Adjactive (विशेषण) there is no meaning of Substantive (विशेष्य). in-other word who is free from Adjactive (विशेषण) is called&#xA;  Individual (विशिष्ट).&lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu is Individual (विशिष्ट)&lt;/strong&gt; who is different from jad(unconscious) and Chetan (conscious),even-though they are&#xA;  not different from &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; is called &lt;strong&gt;Visisthaadivate.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like we can not sperate the Virtue (गुण) from Virtuness (गुणी), same way Adjactive( Jad(Nature), Chetan(Living-Beings)) can't be&#xA;  sperated from the &lt;strong&gt;Visistha (Individual) (Lord Vishnu)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like body and soul both are different from each other but we can't sperated both thing from each-other. same way jad-chetan and Supreme Lord Vishnu are different yet we can't sperated jad-chetan (Nature &amp;amp; Living-beings) and Lord vishnu(Super-soul) from each-other.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jad and Chetan (Nature and Living beings) are body of the &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu (Supreme Lord)&lt;/strong&gt;, and in this way very beautifully&#xA;  include the both **bhed Shruti (Dvaita) and abhed Shruti (Advaita).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like Living-beings(Souls) do all the work through his body same-way, Lord Vishnu does his every work through jad and Chetan (Living-entities , nature).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Example will clear your doubt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For Example&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Randomly we call the person whose name is Gopal,so he will turn around and will stare us, because we call him with his name.But we know body is jad (deadly thing, unconscious), If there is no soul(Consciousness) in the body then we will called that &quot;Dead Body&quot; rather than Gopal,Why? because there is no Soul in that body.So,that's mean Gopal is title (Degree) for that particular soul. then why that particualr body turn around and stare us when we called to Gopal??!!.So, that's mean there is no different between gopal and his body,but difference is there we know (Because Gopal is only title/degree for that specific body, If the body is no more then there is no meaning of Gopal).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same-way Lord and living-beings,nature(jad&amp;amp;chetan) are different ( Davita Philosophy) but they are connected as &quot;body to soul&quot; relation to the supreme lord. so that's why both are same (Advaita Philosophy). ( Here Soul is Lord Vishnu and  body is living-beings &amp;amp; nature)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here body (Jad/Chetan Both(nature/all living beings):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Body: Human-beings, animals , demigods, antigods,gods, nature, all univers etc etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Soul: Lord Vishnu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More simple example we can take, Mango and it's taste , we know that mango and it's taste both are different (Dviata philosophy) from each other,In other hand,they both are same(Adviata Philosophy)we can't separate both of them (mango &amp;amp; it's taste) from each other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the solution given by the Visisthadviata Philosophy through the Gatak-Sruti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you want to read more Details then you can read Sri-ramanujacharaya &quot;Vedarth Sangraha&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here another sloka from Gatak Sruti:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yamatama Na Ved yesaya Atama Sariram |&#xA;  Yum Pruthvi na ved yesaya Pruthvi Sariram ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Living-Beings are body of Lord, Living beings don't know this thing, Nature (Earth) is the body of Lord, even nature doesn't know this thing.&#xA;Living-Beings and Maya(Nature) is the body of Lord and the Lord Vishnu is the seated as soul in that body (living-beings &amp;amp; nature).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Sri-Valmiki Ramayan This Sloka indicates:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jagat sarvah sariram tey saitharya tey Vasudhatalam.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning : This all Univers is body of yours (Lord Vishnu), and the all things in nature is depended on you(Lord Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Vishnu Puran this sloka indicates:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarvah vai harestanu...|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning: All the elements(Living-Beings, Nature) are body of Lord Shri Hari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let's we understand from the &lt;strong&gt;Bhagvad-Gita (Chapter 9 sloka 4,5,6,8,9,10)&lt;/strong&gt; which encouraged the Philosophy of Visisthadvaita &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mayā tatam idaṃ sarvaṃ jagad avyakta mūrtinā |&#xA;  mat-sthāni sarva bhūtāni na cāhaṃ teṣv-avasthitaḥ || 4 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This entire universe is pervaded by Me, in an unmanifest form. All beings abide in Me, but&#xA;I do not abide in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This entire universe — composed of both sentient and insentient beings, is pervaded by Me&#xA;— the inner controller whose essential nature is unmanifest. The meaning is that all this&#xA;universe is pervaded by Krishna the Principal (śeṣi) so that He may sustain and manage it.&#xA;This [doctrine of] universal pervasion by an inner controller, who is invisible to all beings,&#xA;is taught in the Antaryāmi- Brāhmaṇa.&#xA;So also Krishna’s primacy over everything is taught.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na ca mat-sthāni bhūtāni paśya me yogam aiśvaram |&#xA;  bhūta-bhṛnna ca bhūtastho mamātmā bhūta-bhāvanaḥ || 5 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And yet beings do not abide in Me. Behold My divine Yoga, I am the upholder of all&#xA;beings and yet I am not in them. My will alone causes their existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“I am not in them” means — “I do not depend on them for My existence. I do not need&#xA;any help from them to exist. And yet beings do not abide in Me, as I do not support them as&#xA;a jug or any other kind of vessel supports the water contained in it. How then are they&#xA;contained? By My will. Behold My divine Yogic Power, namely, My wonderful Divine&#xA;qualities, unique to Me alone and having no comparison elsewhere. What are these&#xA;qualities? I am the sustainer of all beings and yet I am not in them — My will alone keeps&#xA;them in existence.”&#xA;The gist is that Krishna is the supporter of all beings, and yet He derives no personal&#xA;assistance whatever from them. His will alone projects, sustains and controls all beings.&#xA;Sri Krishna gives an illustration to show how all beings depend on His will for their&#xA;existence and activity;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yathākāśa-sthito nityaṃ vāyuḥ sarvatrago mahān |&#xA;  tathā sarvāṇi bhūtāni mat-sthānīty-upadhāraya || 6 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the mighty wind moving everywhere, ever remains in space, even so, know that all&#xA;beings abide in Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mighty wind exists and moves everywhere in space without any perceivable support.&#xA;So it has to be admitted that the powerful air-current is dependent on Me for its existence&#xA;and is being upheld by Me alone. Even so, know that all entities abide in Me, who am&#xA;invisible to them, and that they are upheld by Me alone. The Vedic sages declare thus: —&#xA;The origin of clouds, the waters of the ocean remaining within bounds, the phases of the&#xA;moon, the strong movements of the gale, the flash of lightning and the movements of the&#xA;sun—all these are marvellous manifestations of the power of Vishnu. (?)&#xA;The meaning is that they are all the marvellous miracles which are unique to Vishnu. The&#xA;Vedas and other texts also declare likewise:&#xA;‘Verily O Gargi, at the command of that imperishable One, the sun and the moon stand&#xA;apart’ (Br. Up., 3.8.9,)&#xA;‘Through the fear of Him the wind blows, through the fear of Him the sun rises, through&#xA;the fear of Him Agni and Indra perform their duties’ (Tai. Up., 2.8.1).&#xA;It has been declared that the existence and activity of all beings originate by the will of the&#xA;Supreme Being, who is totally independent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now Sri Krishna declares that the origin and&#xA;dissolution of all entities also are accomplished by His will only:—&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarva bhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṃ yānti māmikām |&#xA;  kalpa-kṣaye punas-tāni kalpādau visṛjāmy-aham || 7 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All beings, O Arjuna, are assimilated into My Nature (Prakrti) at the end of a cycle of time&#xA;(kalpa). Again I send them forth at the beginning of a new cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the mobile and immobile entities enter into Krishna’s Being (Prakrti) at the end of a&#xA;cycle, of Brahma’s life. This Prakrti (Nature), constituting the Divine Being, is described&#xA;by the term Tamas, as it cannot be differentiated into name and form. Manu also concurs:&#xA;‘This universe became Tamas.... by an act of [divine] will. He produced it out of His body’ (Manu,&#xA;1.5.8).&#xA;The Vedas also declare this: —&#xA;‘He whose physical nature is Unmanifest’ (Sub. Up., 7);&#xA;‘The Unmanifest (avyakta) merges into the Imperishable (akṣara), the akṣara into&#xA;(Darkness) Tamas’ (Ibid., 2);&#xA;and also —&#xA;‘There was Darkness (Tamas); consciousness was in the beginning concealed by&#xA;Darkness (Tamas)’ (Tai. Br. ii:8-9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prakṛtiṃ svām-avaṣṭabhya visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ |&#xA;  bhūta-grāmam imaṃ kṛtsnam avaśaṃ prakṛter-vaśāt || 8 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Animating my own Nature [Prakrti], I send forth again and again all this multitude of&#xA;beings, helpless under the sway of Prakrti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“I develop it eightfold and send forth this fourfold aggregate of beings; gods, animals,&#xA;humans and inanimate things, time after time. All these entities are helpless, being under&#xA;the sway of Prakrti comprising the three Gunas which cause delusion.”If this is so, it may &#xA;be argued that the inequalities of creation are due to the Lord being&#xA;cruel or partial etc.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To this, the Lord answers: —&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na ca māṃ tāni karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanañjaya |&#xA;  udāsīnavad-āsīnam asaktaṃ teṣu karmasu || 9 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But these actions do not bind Me, O Dhanañjaya, for I remain detached from them,&#xA;remaining like one indifferent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“But results like the inequality of creation do not bind Me. I cannot be accused of such&#xA;negative qualities as cruelty, partiality etc, because the differences of conditions like being&#xA;born as a god, human being, animal or vegetable are all caused by the previous actions&#xA;(Karmas) of individual Jīvas themselves. I am unaffected by these inequalities.”&#xA;Accordingly, the author of the Vedanta-sutras says: —&#xA;‘There is no partiality or lack of compassion in Him, because creation is dependent on&#xA;Karma, for so Scripture declares’ (Br. Sutra., 2.1.34),&#xA;and&#xA;‘If it be said that there can be no Karma on account of non-distinction [between Jīvas and&#xA;Brahman prior to creation], it is replied that this is incorrect, because both the Jīvas and&#xA;Karma are beginningless....’ (Ibid. 2.1.35).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram |&#xA;  hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate || 10 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Under My supervision, Prakrti produces all beings that move and move not. Indeed,&#xA;because of this, O Kaunteya, does the world revolve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Behold in this wonderful phenomena the cosmic dominion inherent in Krishna, and&#xA;personal characteristics such as sovereignty, true resolve and being free from cruelty and&#xA;similar defects! So declare the Vedas:—&#xA;‘The possessor of Maya [the Lord] projects this universe out of this [Prakrti in its subtle&#xA;state]. Another [the individual Self] is confined by Maya in the world. One should know&#xA;the Maya to be the Prakrti. And the possessor of Maya to be the Mighty Lord’ (Sve. Up.,&#xA;4;9-10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another Sloka of &lt;strong&gt;Bhagvad-Gita ( Chapter 7 Sloka 7,12)&lt;/strong&gt; which encouraged the Philosophy of Visisthadvaita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mattaḥ parataraṃ nānyat kiñcid-asti dhanañjayaḥ |&#xA;  mayi sarvam idaṃ protaṃ sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva || 7 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is nothing whatsoever higher than Me, O Arjuna. All this is strung on Me, as clusters of&#xA;gems on a thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“I am absolutely superior to all things in two ways:&#xA;(1) I am the cause of both the Natures (Prakṛtis) and I am also their Proprietor (śeṣin).&#xA;The Jīvas exercise control over their bodies as they are the inner proprietors (śeṣin) and&#xA;I am the Proprietor of all Jīvas.&#xA;(2) I am also the Supreme Being because I possess knowledge, untiring strength,&#xA;sovereignty, immutability, creative power and splendour in an infinite degree.&#xA;The totality of all the sentient and insentient beings, whether in their [unmanifest] causal&#xA;state or in their [manifest] state of effect, is strung on Me, who abide as their Self, as a&#xA;cluster of gems on a thread — in other words they have their rest and support in Me.”&#xA;And it is established that the entire Universe [of sentient and insentient entities] and&#xA;Brahman (the Supreme Being) exist in the [symbiotic] relationship of body and spirit as&#xA;declared by the Antaryami-Brahmana and other texts: —&#xA;‘He whose body is the earth’ (Br. Up., 3.7-3),&#xA;‘He whose body is the Self’ (Br. U. Madh., 3.7.22),&#xA;‘He is the Over-Self of all beings, immaculate,&#xA;He is the Lord in the supreme heaven, He is the one Nārāyaṇa’ (Sub.Up., 7).&#xA;Everything constitutes the “corporeality” and is an “expression” of the Supreme Being&#xA;who is their Over-Self, thus the Supreme Being alone exists, and all [existing] things&#xA;are only His modes [of expression]. Therefore all terms used in common parlance for&#xA;different things denote Him only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ye caiva sāttvikā bhāvā rājasāstāmasāśca ye |&#xA;  matta eveti tān-viddhi na tvahaṃ teṣu te mayi || 12 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Know that all those states of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas have their origin in Me alone. But I am&#xA;not in them; they are in Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Three modes of Illusion (Triguni Maya) is depended on Lord Vishnu, Lord Vishnu is not Depended on this Maya, Lord is not Indulge in this Samsara (Mortal World).&#xA;like same-way soul is not indulge in body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The one of the Best Sloka of Bhagvad Gita (Chapter 10 Sloka 41) which is summary of Visisthadvaita Philosophy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yad yad vibhūtimat sattvaṃ śrīmad ūrjitam eva ca |&#xA;  tat tad evāvagaccha tvaṃ mama tejo’ṃśa saṃbhavam || 41 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Know for certain that whatever has sovereignty, splendour and brilliance is produced by a mere&#xA;fraction of My potency.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja-Philosophy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every Living and Non-Living elements is the body of the Lord and Lord is the Soul of that body, and this the Summary of Sri Visithadviata Philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, We can say that we got the overall conclusion and Summary of the Ses-Seshi Relation, Soul-Body Relation, Master-Servant Relation, Ulitimate Form of Lord, Bhed and Abhed Sruthi As it is , from the  Sri Visisthadviata Philosophy, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri-Ramanuja&lt;/strong&gt; put very great effort to clear the all doubts and easily can reach to the supreme lord. You can also refer &lt;strong&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Visithadviata Philosophy of Sri-Ramanujacharya&lt;/strong&gt; and also &lt;strong&gt;Vedarth-Sangraha&lt;/strong&gt; for deepest Knowledge of the &lt;strong&gt;Visisthadvaita Philosophy &amp;amp; the Supreme Truth.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You can also refer my others answers for understanding this Philosophy here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12497/5746&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12497/5746&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12381/5746&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12381/5746&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12501/5746&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12501/5746&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adiyen Ramanuja Dasen&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srimatey Ramanujaye Namah:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jay Sri-man Narayan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T18:51:35.010" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12506" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12507" CreationDate="2016-06-03T16:02:11.033" Score="6" ViewCount="4055" Body="&lt;p&gt;Takshaka was king of Nagas and at the time of Mahabharata was fighting against Pandava, but why and how did Arjuna killed the innocent wife of Takshaka. How is it righteous to kill a woman according to Dharmashastras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-17T14:58:32.373" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T14:58:32.373" Title="Why did Arjuna kill Takshak's wife?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|arjuna|naga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12507" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12506" CreationDate="2016-06-04T00:56:02.953" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1991/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, a king named Shwetaki once conducted a Yagna (fire-ritual) for twelve years, and having consumed all the ghee (clarified butter) that was offered into the fire, Agni the fire god felt lethargic. So he consulted Brahma, who told him to consume the Khandava forest and all its inhabitants, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01226.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O exalted one, thou hast eaten, for twelve years, a continuous stream of sacrificial butter poured into thy mouth! It is for this that illness hath seized thee. But, O Agni, grieve not for it. Thou shalt soon regain thy own nature. I shall dispel this surfeit of thine and the time for it is even come. &lt;strong&gt;The dreadful forest Khandava, that abode of the enemies of the gods, which thou hadst of old once consumed to ashes at the request of the gods, hath now become the home of numerous creatures.&lt;/strong&gt; When thou will have eaten the fat of those creatures, thou shalt regain thy own nature. Proceed thither in haste to consume that forest with its living population. Thou wilt then be cured of thy malady.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni was initially unsuccessful in destroying the forest, but then Brahma informed him that the ancient sages Nara and Narayana, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, had reincarnated on the earth as Arjuna and Krishna.  Now Arjuna and Krishna happened to be in the Khandava forest at the time, so Agni asked them for their help:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then that Brahmana addressed Arjuna and Vasudeva of the Satwata race, saying, 'Ye who are now staying so near unto Khandava are the two foremost of heroes on earth. I am a voracious Brahmana that always eateth much. O thou of the Vrishni race, and O Partha, I solicit you to gratify me by giving me sufficient food.' Thus addressed by the Brahmana, Krishna and the son of Pandu answered him, saying, 'O, tell us what kind of food will gratify thee so that we may endeavour to give it thee.' The illustrious Brahmana, thus replied to, said unto those heroes who were enquiring after the kind of food he sought, 'I do not desire to eat ordinary food. Know that I am Agni! Give me that food which suiteth me. This forest of Khandava is always protected by Indra. And as it is protected by the illustrious one, I always fail to consume it. In that forest dwelleth, with his followers and family, a Naga, called Takshaka, who is the friend of Indra. It is for him that the wielder of the thunderbolt protecteth this forest. Many other creatures also are thus protected here for the sake of Takshaka. Desiring to consume the forest I succeed not in my attempts in consequence of Indra's prowess. Beholding me blazing forth, he always poureth upon me water from the clouds. Therefore, I succeed not in consuming the forest of Khandava, although I desire very much to do so. I have now come to you--you who are both skilled in weapons! If you help me I will surely consume this forest: for even this is the food that is desired by me! As ye are conversant with excellent weapons, I pray you to prevent those showers from descending and any of the creatures from escaping, when I begin to consume this forest!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna and Arjuna agreed to help him, so as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1991/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; Agni got Varuna the ocean god to give them divine weapons including the Sudarshana Chakra and the Gandiva bow.  Then Agni got down to the business of destroying the forest and its inhabitants, while Krishna and Arjuna helped make sure nobody put out the fire or escaped.  As Agni mentioned, the Naga king Takshaka who lived in the Khandava forest was a friend of Indra, so Krishna and Arjuna single-handedly fought against the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, it was during this great battle that Takshaka's wife was killed.  Takshaka was away at the time, but his wife and son were there.  Takshaka's wife tried to take her son and escape, but she was killed by Arjuna, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01230.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the sky above that forest was thus covered with the arrows of Arjuna no living creature could then escape from below. And it so happened that while that forest was burning, Takshaka, the chief of the Nagas, was not there, having gone at that time to the field of Kurukshetra. But Aswasena, the mighty son of Takshaka, was there. He made great efforts to escape from that fire; but confined by Arjuna's shafts he succeeded not in finding a way. It was then that his mother, the daughter of a snake, determined to save him by swallowing him first. His mother first swallowed his head and then was swallowing his tail. And desirous of saving her son, the sea-snake rose (up from the earth) while still employed in swallowing her son's tail. But Arjuna as soon as he beheld her escaping, severed her head from her body by means of a sharp and keen-edged arrow. Indra saw all this, and desiring to save his friend's son, the wielder of the thunderbolt, by raising a violent wind, deprived Arjuna of consciousness. During those few moments, Aswasena succeeded in effecting his escape.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, Takshaka's son Ashvasena later tried to avenge his mother's death by helping Karna in his fight against Arjuna, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Karna Parva of the Mahabharata.  And Takshaka himself killed Arjuna's grandson Parikshit, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, Arjuna's justification for killing Takshaka's wife is the same as his justification for killing the other inhabitants of the Khandava forest, namely that he had promised to help Agni and that the inhabitants of the forest posed a threat to the gods.  In fact that is why Brahma selected the Khandava forest in the first place.  See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2964/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for how evil the Nagas were.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as to your question about killing women, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga25/bala_25_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, Vishwamitra explains to Rama that a Kshatriya is allowed to kill a woman if she is engaging in evil:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Compassion regarding the elimination of a female is ungermane, oh, best one among men, since a prince has to effectuate it intending the welfare of four categories of society.... To the nominee who bears the burden of kingdom this is the age-old duty, and hence oh, Rama, the legatee of Kakutstha, eliminate this infamy, as goodness is inevident in her, isn't it? Oh, Rama, the protector of people, we have heard that Indra once eliminated Manthara, the daughter of Virochana, when she wished to annihilate earth, haven't we? And Rama, once Vishnu wiped out even the wife of sage Bhrigu and sage Shukracarya's mother when she wished the world to become one without a governing factor, namely Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I posted questions about these two stories &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3321/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3349/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, it is because of the Khandava forest battle that Maya, architect of the Asuras, agreed to build the city of Indraprastha.  So it's interesting to note that if Krishna and Arjuna had not helped Agni, Delhi would be a swamp today!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T04:40:35.503" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12508" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-04T04:44:10.317" Score="5" ViewCount="412" Body="&lt;p&gt;As said in some puranas and in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7311/is-hanuman-going-to-be-future-brahma&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Hanuman will become the next Bramha. Also, as we all know, Bramha's wife, or to be exact,&lt;em&gt;shakti&lt;/em&gt;,is Saraswati. Now, the &lt;em&gt;shakti&lt;/em&gt; provides power to their respective husbands. In Bramha's case, his &lt;em&gt;shakti&lt;/em&gt; is very important as Saraswati provides the knowledge and creativity needed for creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, since Hanuman is a bachelor,he would not marry Saraswati. Hence, will she still exist in the future?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Morever, without her, he would lack the knowledge and creativity needed for him to creation. Plus, he would not have power/energy without a &lt;em&gt;shakti&lt;/em&gt; and may cease to exist to. Besides, even Mahadeva (greatest of the gods) requires his &lt;em&gt;shakti&lt;/em&gt; to function. Thus will Hanuman be able to create the universe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-03-18T14:49:41.763" Title="Will Saraswati exist in the future?" Tags="|hanuman|yuga|saraswati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12509" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-04T05:30:15.133" Score="2" ViewCount="2027" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know, the karmic accounts of good karma and bad karma are different. If we do good karma, we get good fruits, and if we do bad karma, we get bad fruits. Good karmas do not counter-balance bad karmas. If we have done bad karma, we will get bad fruits irrespective of good karma we do later on. Just like an arrow already shot cannot be taken back, karma that has already set out in motion cannot be escaped from. It will catch you sooner or later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then how do we hear people saying that by doing some rituals, our bad karmas (sins) will get washed away? Ex. Bathing in Ganga, visiting some holy place, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12327/sin-and-holiness&quot;&gt;Sin and holiness&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10874/t%C4%ABrtha-and-sins-cleaning&quot;&gt;tīrtha and sins cleaning&lt;/a&gt; don't have any explanation as to why people think that these rituals will wash away sins&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T09:50:00.123" Title="Can bad karma or sins be really washed away?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|bhagavad-gita|rituals|karma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-06-08T08:02:51.690" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12510" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12509" CreationDate="2016-06-04T05:51:16.490" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;18.66&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:- Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. &lt;strong&gt;I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions.&lt;/strong&gt; Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T05:51:16.490" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12512" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-04T09:10:53.000" Score="2" ViewCount="315" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Vaisnavs esepcially in Sri-vaisnavas,&lt;/strong&gt; belief that &lt;strong&gt;Prapatti-Yog(Surrender) is higher than Bhakti, Karma and Gyan Yog.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Said lots of about Karma,Gyan and Bhakti yog in Bhagvad Gita but at last he said (Prapatti Yog) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya&#xA;     mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo&#xA;  mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ [18.66]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:- Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As, we know It's Final Statement and absolute truth , we do'not need other scriptuers to support this statement and do'not need to dobut on Lord Statement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But,Still only for knowledge there are any scriptures which are support or mention the same statement in our Hinduism.Please Share your Idea.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thanks..!!!&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastActivityDate="2016-07-04T10:40:54.080" Title="Prapatti-Yog (Surrender) is higher than Bhakti ,Karma &amp; Gyan Yog?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|scripture|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12514" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12512" CreationDate="2016-06-04T09:47:14.977" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Hare Krishna Maha-mantra has been prescribed by Lord Brahma in the Kalisantarana Upanishad (5; 6) of Krishna Yajur Veda as follows: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare | hare rAma hare rAma rAma rAma hare hare || &#xA;iti shodashakam nAmnAm kali-kalmasha-nAshanam | nAtah pArataropayah sarva-vedeshu drishyate ||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma instructs his son and disciple, Narada Muni as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The sixteen words of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra - (Hare Krishna Hare&#xA;  Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare) -&#xA;  are especially meant for counteracting the sins of Kali-yuga. To save&#xA;  oneself from the contamination of Kali-yuga there is no other&#xA;  alternative, but to chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra.After searching&#xA;  through all the Vedic scriptures one cannot find a method of religion&#xA;  for this age (Kali-yuga) so sublime as the chanting of the Hare Krishna &#xA;  maha-mantra.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have mistaken considering path of surrender to be higher than bhakti. Surrender is a limb of Bhakti Yoga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/bg/18/67&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;verse&lt;/a&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This conﬁdential knowledge may never be explained to those who are not&#xA;  austere, or devoted, or engaged in devotional service, nor to one who&#xA;  is envious of Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact, in the very beginning Krishna has spoken to Arjuna that the qualification to get the revelation of Bhagavad Gita within the heart, as Arjuna got it, is through bhakti ONLY.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 4.3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is&#xA;  today told by Me to you because you are &lt;strong&gt;My devotee&lt;/strong&gt; as well as My&#xA;  friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this&#xA;  science.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To clarify any misconception or jugglery of grammar to show Bhakti as inferior to Gyana, etc or a part of it Krishna has spoken the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/47&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 6.47&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And of all yogīs, the one with great faith who always abides in Me,&#xA;  thinks of Me within himself and renders transcendental loving service&#xA;  to Me – he is the most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the&#xA;  highest of all. That is My opinion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/11/55&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 11.55&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My dear Arjuna, he who engages in My pure devotional service, free from the contaminations of fruitive activities and mental speculation, he who works for Me, who makes Me the supreme goal of his life, and who is friendly to every living being – he certainly comes to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fruitive activities points to Karma Kanda and mental speculation to Gyana and Dhyana Yoga. Devotional service undoubtedly is Bhakti Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there is no difference between Bhakti Yoga and Surrender. Surrender is the topmost limb of Bhakti Yoga. Surrendering by following the instructions of Lord Shri Krishna is Bhakti Yoga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I would recommend you to become well versed with Bhagavad Gita first. That is sufficient in itself in this age of Kaliyuga. Too many shastras means too much of jugglery as I often read here. That's why for Kaliyuga, Bhagavad Gita was delivered, personally spoken by the Lord Himself, right before it's start.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can learn further by subscribing to free online course &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.joincourse.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ultimate Self Realization Course&lt;/a&gt;. It has 18000+ subscribers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4522" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T09:47:14.977" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12515" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12509" CreationDate="2016-06-04T09:50:00.123" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The rituals such as these are designed to eliminate the basic and primary fear from our mind at first place and  as a start and motivation towards living good life.&#xA; Since their are many ways prescribed in ancient texts to wash away sins, bad karma ,negative thoughts etc. Like Chanting shlokas ,listining  to puranas ,total devotion &#xA; etc.Those who cant do such things in practical life,  has a easy way out to wash away sins,bad karmas by these rituals. its soul purpose is to free the mind from bondage &#xA;of these thoughts and burden. Another purpose of performing such rituals is to motivate us to go to pilgrimage and to expand our knowledge obout this world. In my Experience&#xA; ,when we go to pligrimage apart from expanding our world it serves to ease out our fear about our actions ,sins and motivates us to act good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bad sins can not be washed away from us unless we are out of fear about them. since the perception about our sins, negative thoughts ,bad karmas resides in our mind we wont be &#xA;able to get rid from  them completely. Our mind and consciousness  always reminds us about that. So by doing Counterbalancing acts to these we can get rid of fear of sin ,bad karma from our mind&#xA;and replacing these fears with confidence ,only by acting in right way. Like helping others , understanding others ,following ones dharma, respecting every one including nature etc.&#xA; Yes its definitely possible to wash away or sins,bad karma ,negative thoughts etc. by acting just right and balancing our bad deeds with good ones.And to make ourselves free from bondage of fear of sins. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please refer  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/sinner.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduism.co.za/sinner.htm&lt;/a&gt; for more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T09:50:00.123" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12516" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24301" CreationDate="2016-06-04T10:06:10.073" Score="6" ViewCount="986" Body="&lt;p&gt;There was a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/amarchitrakatha/photos/a.314396308601566.68055.313807031993827/1104894032885119/?type=3&amp;amp;comment_id=1104951962879326&amp;amp;comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;quiz on Ramayana&lt;/a&gt; yesterday by Amar Chitra Katha.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;One of the participants asked this question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Which daughter of King Dasharatha and Kaushalya was adopted by the King of Anga Desh and his wife since he had no child of his own ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was surprised as I had never heard of this &quot;fact&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I searched and read about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shanta&lt;/a&gt;, and also &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/527/what-scriptures-describe-shanta-as-dasharathas-daughter?rq=1&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; describes that that there is none in Valmiki's Ramayana, but in Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I want to ask is :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why do we have so many versions of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana#Variant_versions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;(or any other scripture for that matter) which creates confusion&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="314" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2018-02-13T11:34:04.337" Title="Why is Shanta (Daughter of King Dasratha) not mentioned in Valmiki's Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12517" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13604" CreationDate="2016-06-04T10:29:19.677" Score="8" ViewCount="1361" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone tell me why do Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe in Brahma Samhita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2017-08-07T16:24:22.937" LastActivityDate="2022-12-22T07:48:01.413" Title="Why do Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe in Brahma samhita?" Tags="|belief|gaudiya-vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12518" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="12519" CreationDate="2016-06-04T14:27:53.353" Score="5" ViewCount="1063" Body="&lt;p&gt;How exactly time has been defined? And are their any stories related to starting and ending of time in Hinduism scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-03-02T12:13:33.787" LastActivityDate="2018-03-02T12:13:33.787" Title="In hinduism how has &quot;Kala&quot; or time been described?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2018-03-03T09:18:03.430" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12519" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12518" CreationDate="2016-06-04T15:26:48.840" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna(Narayan) is the Lord of Time&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna(Narayan)&lt;/strong&gt; Himself is &lt;strong&gt;time&lt;/strong&gt; like he is mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;Bhagvad Gita:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रह्लादश्चास्मि दैत्यानां कालः कलयतामहम् ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मृगाणां च मृगेन्द्रोऽहं वैनतेयश्च पक्षिणाम् ॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;(Chapter 10, Solka 30)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am the water-god, and the manes. I am the controller of death. &lt;strong&gt;I am the time&lt;/strong&gt; or death among the healers, lion among the beasts, and the king of birds among birds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There are many scriptures which is provided the time/kal details&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Vishnu Puran&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Accroding to Cosmic Time&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TG6TV.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TG6TV.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Accroding to earth Time&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8RHNE.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8RHNE.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Accroding to Vishnu Purun chapter III (Theory) (Tables already inculded this information with in it)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Measure of time. Moments or Káshthás,; day and night; fortnight, month, year,divine year: Yugas, or ages: Maháyuga, or great age: day of Brahmá: periods of the Manus: a Manwantara: night of Brahmá, and destruction of the world: a year of Brahmá:his life: a Kalpa: a Parárrdha: the past, or Pádma Kalpa: the present, or Váráha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MAITREYA.--How can creative agency be attributed to that Brahma, who is without&#xA;  qualities, illimitable, pure, and free from imperfection?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PARÁSARA.--The essential properties of existent things are objects of observation, of which no fore knowledge is attainable; and creation, and hundreds of properties, belong to Brahma, as inseparable parts of his essence, as heat, oh chief of sages, is inherent in fire.Hear then how the deity Náráyána, in the person of Brahmá, the great parent of the world,created all existent things.&#xA;  Brahmá is said to be born: a familiar phrase, to signify his manifestation; and, as the peculiar measure of his presence, a hundred of his years is said to constitute his life: that period is also called Param, and the half of it, Parárddham. I have already declared to you, oh sinless Brahman, that Time is a form of Vishnu: hear now how it is applied to measure the duration of Brahmá, and of all other sentient beings, as well as of those which are unconscious, as the mountains, oceans, and the like.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh best of sages, fifteen twinklings of the eye make a Káshthá; thirty Káshthás, one Kalá;&#xA;  and thirty Kalás, one Muhúrtta. Thirty Muhúrttas constitute a day and night of mortals:&#xA;  thirty such days make a month, divided into two half-months: six months form an Ayana&#xA;  (the period of the sun's progress north or south of the ecliptic): and two Ayanas compose&#xA;  a year. The southern Ayana is a night, and the northern a day of the gods. Twelve&#xA;  thousand divine years, each composed of (three hundred and sixty) such days, constitute&#xA;  the period of the four Yugas, or ages. They are thus distributed: the Krita age has four&#xA;  thousand divine years; the Tretá three thousand; the Dwápara two thousand; and the Kali age one thousand: so those acquainted with antiquity have declared.&#xA;  The period that precedes a Yuga is called a Sandhyá, and it is of as many hundred years as there are thousands in the Yuga: and the period that follows a Yuga, termed the Sandhyánsa, is of similar duration. The interval between the Sandhyá and the Sandhyánsa is the Yuga, denominated Krita, Tretá, &amp;amp;c. The Krita, Tretá, Dwápara, and Kali,constitute a great age, or aggregate of four ages: a thousand such aggregates are a day ofBrahmá, and fourteen Menus reign within that term. Hear the division of time which they measure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seven Rishis, certain (secondary) divinities, Indra, Manu, and the kings his sons, are created and perish at one period; and the interval, called a Manwantara, is equal to seventy-one times the number of years contained in the four Yugas, with some additional years: this is the duration of the Manu, the (attendant) divinities, and the rest, which is equal to 852.000 divine years, or to 306.720.000 years of mortals, independent of the additional period. Fourteen times this period constitutes a Bráhma day, that is, a day of Brahmá; the term (Bráhma) being the derivative form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the end of this day a dissolution of the universe occurs, when all the three worlds,earth, and the regions of space, are consumed with fire. The dwellers of Maharloka (theregion inhabited by the saints who survive the world), distressed by the heat, repair then to Janaloka (the region of holy men after their decease). When the-three worlds are but one mighty ocean, Brahmá, who is one with Náráyana, satiate with the demolition of the universe, sleeps upon his serpent-bed--contemplated, the lotus born, by the ascetic inhabitants of the Janaloka--for a night of equal duration with his day; at the close of&#xA;  which he creates anew.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of such days and nights is a year of Brahmá composed; and a hundred such years&#xA;  constitute his whole life. One Parárddha, or half his existence, has expired, terminating with the Mahá Kalpa called Pádma. The Kalpa (or day of Brahmá) termed Váráha is the first of the second period of Brahmá's existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You can also refer Shrimad-Bhagvad Puran, For More details of Creation of this world and minute details of creations and time.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2016-06-04T17:30:56.397" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T17:30:56.397" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12520" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-04T17:01:31.450" Score="15" ViewCount="1426" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata, Arjuna is frequently described as Kadipdhvaja, or the one who has a monkey flag.  In the popular imagination, this flag is associated with Hanuman.  And this association does have a scriptural basis; in Bhima's encounter with Hanuman, which I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2100/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Hanuman tells him that during the battle of Kurukshetra he will emit shouts from the flag of Arjuna's chariot to intimidate the Kauravas.  See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03150.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From fraternal feeling and affection, I will do good unto thee, by diving into the army of thy foes copiously furnished with arrows and javelins. And, O highly powerful one, O hero, when thou shall give leonine roars, then shall I with my own, add force to shouts. Remaining on the flagstaff of Arjuna's car will I emit fierce shouts that will damp the energy of thy foes. Thereby ye will slay them easily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what is the origin of Arjuna's monkey flag?  Was it always a flag associated with Hanuman, or did Hanuman just enter it during the Mahabharata war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story I've always heard about the monkey flag is the one told in the Bengali Mahabharata and in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/sDgm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Amar Chitra Katha comic book &amp;quot;Tales of Arjuna&amp;quot;.  Arjuna once goes on a pilgrimage to Rameshwaram, at the southern tip of India, and sees Rama's bridge.  He boasts that if he were Rama, he wouldn't need the help of the Vanaras in building a bridge, he could make a sturdy bridge to Lanka with his arrows.  Now Hanuman happens to be in the area, so he takes the form of a small monkey and makes a wager with Arjuna that if Arjuna builds a bridge of arrows, he wil be able to break it.  The conditions are that if Arjuna wins then the monkey becomes his slave, and if the monkey wins then Arjuna has to commit suicide.  In any case, Arjuna builds a bridge of arrows, but then the monkey just touches it and it breaks.  Arjuna is devastated, and is about to jump into a funeral pyre when a Brahmana boy comes there and suggests that Arjuna and the monkey have a rematch, with the boy being the judge.  They agree, and Arjuna makes another bridge.  This time Hanuman is not able to break it, even when he becomes gigantic.  It is at that moment that Hanuman realizes that the boy is nothing but his beloved Rama, and Arjuna realizes the boy is his beloved Krishna.  In any case, Krishna resolves the dispute by telling Hanuman to appear on the flag of Arjuna's chariot, to fulfill the conditions of the bet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm not aware of any scriptures that describe this story.  And also, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3101/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Arjuna received his chariot from Varuna the ocean god, who got it from Chandra the moon god.  And when he got it, it already had the monkey flag; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01228.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The smoke-bannered celestial [Agni] welcoming with reverence [Varuna] the ruler of the waters, that fourth of the Lokapalas, said unto that eternal god of gods, &amp;quot;Give me without loss of time that bow and quiver, and &lt;strong&gt;that ape-bannered car&lt;/strong&gt; also, which were obtained from king Soma.&amp;quot;  ... Varuna also gave two inexhaustible quivers, and he also gave a car furnished with celestial weapons and &lt;strong&gt;whose banner bore a large ape&lt;/strong&gt;.... It had been made by Viswakarman, the architect of the universe and one of the lords of creation, after severe ascetic meditation. Its splendour, like that of the sun, was so great that no one could gaze at it. It was the very car from which the lord Soma had vanquished the Danavas.  Resplendent with beauty, it looked like an evening cloud reflecting the effulgence of the setting sun. It was furnished with an excellent flag-staff of golden colour and great beauty. &lt;strong&gt;And there sat upon that flag-staff a celestial ape of form fierce like that of a lion or a tiger. Stationed on high, the ape seemed bent upon burning everything it beheld.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So did the chariot have the monkey flag from the time it was made by Vishwakarma and used by Chandra, and if so who does it depict?  Was it always meant to depict Hanuman, or does it depict some other &amp;quot;celestial ape&amp;quot; and did Hanuman just enter into the flag during the Mahabharata war?  It could depict Vrishakapi, an ape described in the Vedas who was a ally of Indra but also had an affair with Indra's wife Shachi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, does anyone know any scriptures which describe either Arjuna's encounter with Hanuman or some other origin of Arjuna's monkey flag?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: The user sv. just pointed me to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04039.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Virata Parva of the Mahabharata, where Dronacharya recognizes Arjuna while the latter is dressed like a woman.  Here's what Dronacharya says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O offspring of the Ganges, apparelled as a woman, this is Kiriti called after a tree, the son of the enemy of the mountains, and having on his banner &lt;strong&gt;the sign of devastator of the gardens of Lanka's lord&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the translator claims this verse does not appear in all manuscripts, but assuming it's authentic it's further evidence that Arjuna's monkey flag was always associated with Hanuman, who is the one who burned the gardens of Ravana.  But on the other hand, it makes it all the more strange that the flag was already on the chariot when Varuna gave it to Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5622" LastEditDate="2020-11-11T06:06:44.183" LastActivityDate="2022-02-12T12:07:09.930" Title="What scriptures describe the origin of Arjuna's monkey flag?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|hanuman|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="12521" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-04T17:48:30.250" Score="6" ViewCount="727" Body="&lt;p&gt;Widows had their head shaved and forced into seclusion in South. Why??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5805" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-07T13:08:26.710" LastActivityDate="2017-02-17T15:54:38.817" Title="Why was Widow re-marriage not tolerated in South India?" Tags="|practice|culture|dharma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12523" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13587" CreationDate="2016-06-04T19:05:55.570" Score="1" ViewCount="602" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the name of sub-abodes which are in the Vaikuntha planet  , as I know some of them is Ayodhya (Rama abode) , Vrindavan (Krishna abode). But is there any other abodes which are reside in &lt;strong&gt;Vaikuntha Planet.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Please share with some scriptures evidence..&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thanks !!!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2016-06-04T19:21:41.323" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T04:18:13.503" Title="How many other sub-abodes in Vainkuntha Abode (Planet)?" Tags="|vishnu|lokas|vaikuntha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12524" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-06-04T19:12:58.920" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-06-04T19:12:58.920" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T19:12:58.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12525" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-06-04T19:12:58.920" Score="0" Body="Vaikuntha, Paramapadam, Vishnupada (Vishnu's feet), or Param Padam (the Supreme Abode) is the celestial home of Vishnu." OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2016-06-04T20:51:26.193" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T20:51:26.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12526" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12521" CreationDate="2016-06-04T20:43:11.317" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Because it is forbidden in scripture.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu09.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti says that a widow cannot remarry, except for her brother-in-law under certain circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;64&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;By twice-born men a widow must not be appointed to (cohabit with) any other (than her husband); for they who appoint (her) to another (man), will violate the eternal law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the sacred texts which refer to marriage the appointment (of widows) is nowhere mentioned, nor is the re-marriage of widows prescribed in the rules concerning marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This practice which is reprehended by the learned of the twice-born castes as fit for cattle is said (to have occurred) even among men, while Vena ruled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;That chief of royal sages who formerly possessed the whole world, caused a confusion of the castes (varna), his intellect being destroyed by lust.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since that (time) the virtuous censure that (man) who in his folly appoints a woman, whose husband died, to (bear) children (to another man).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the (future) husband of a maiden dies after troth verbally plighted, her brother-in-law shall wed her according to the following rule.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Having, according to the rule, espoused her (who must be) clad in white garments and be intent on purity, he shall approach her once in each proper season until issue (be had).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01105.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Be the husband dead or alive, it shall not be lawful for a woman to have connection with another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, there is one exception to the rule, namely that if her first marriage has not been consummated then a widow can marry again.  See &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe14/sbe1420.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vasishta Dharma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;74&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;'If a damsel at the death of her husband had been merely wedded by (the recitation of) sacred texts, and if the marriage had not been consummated, she may be married again.'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some say that the virgin wife or widow,--one, that is, whose marriage has not been consummated with her husband by actual sexual congress in consequence of his absence or death,--may be allowed to unite herself with her husband's younger brother or such other relation. The husband dying before such consummation, the virgin-widow may either surrender herself to her husband's younger brother or betake herself to the practice of penances&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, I should note that this verse from the Brahma Vaivarta Purana says that a widow marrying her brother-in-law is no longer allowed in the Kali Yuga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this Age of Kali, five acts are forbidden: the offering of a horse in sacrifice, the offering of a cow in sacrifice, the acceptance of the order of sannyāsa, the offering of oblations of flesh to the forefathers, and a man’s begetting children in his brother’s wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But like many verses of the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, this verse is considered by many to be an interpolation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T20:43:11.317" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12527" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13532" CreationDate="2016-06-04T21:51:35.417" Score="5" ViewCount="32498" Body="&lt;p&gt;I thought people from India, partly due to Hinduism being widespread, would be vegetarian or even vegan. But I've recently been to an Indian restaurant and even though cow meat was not on the menu as expected, there were several items derived from milk products.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, do Hindus eat milk products?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5807" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-06T07:40:49.520" LastActivityDate="2021-11-29T12:55:14.443" Title="Do Hindus consume milk products?" Tags="|food|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="12528" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12527" CreationDate="2016-06-04T23:14:56.020" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, absolutely. Hindus consume all kinds of dairy products. Despite the fact that the cow is holy, Hindus domesticate cows and use the cow for milk, but they will not kill the cow for meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5808" LastActivityDate="2016-06-04T23:14:56.020" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13529" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13530" CreationDate="2016-06-05T02:30:14.547" Score="8" ViewCount="2939" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sadashiva is described as being eternal form of Lord Shiva. He is represented with Five-faces and ten hands. &#xA;The five heads of Sadashiva are known as &lt;strong&gt;Sadyojata&lt;/strong&gt; [West facing], &lt;strong&gt;Vamadeva&lt;/strong&gt; [North facing], &lt;strong&gt;Aghora&lt;/strong&gt; [South facing], &lt;strong&gt;Tatpurusha&lt;/strong&gt;[East facing] and &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; [Upward facing].&#xA;He is shown with weapons and various symbolisms in his 10 hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eSydp.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eSydp.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Lord Sadashiva&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are these weapons and symbolisms that are in the hands of Sadashiva? And what do they Signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-06T07:39:57.050" LastActivityDate="2016-06-06T07:39:57.050" Title="What are the symbols and weapons in the hand of Sadashiva?" Tags="|shiva|shaivism|symbolism|weapon|agamas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13530" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13529" CreationDate="2016-06-05T02:51:12.747" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kamika Agama is one of the principle Shaiva Agamas. It was &lt;strong&gt;revealed from the Ishana face of Sadasiva.&lt;/strong&gt; It describes weapons, symbols and form of Sadashiva as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Five faces; ten shoulders; effulgence of crystal; three eyes; tranquil composure; crest adorned with the crescent moon; locks of matted hair bound with serpent; mounted on the lion-throne constituted of mantras; seated on the white lotus(designed on the throne); adorned with various ornaments such as the ear-rings, karnika, hara, kati sutra, bandhana, keyura, kataka, channavira and others; eternal age of sixteen years; supremely beautiful and auspiciously charming; face beautified with gentle smile; &lt;strong&gt;holding the trident, parasu, khadga, vajra and fire in His right hands; holding the abhaya-mudra, pasa, ghanta, naga and ankusa in His left hands.&lt;/strong&gt; Or, the weapons held in the hands are told in a different way. Varada-mudra, abhaya- mudra, khadvanga, sakti and sula in the right hands; damaru, sarpa, aksha mala and indivara-flower in the left hands. Lord Sadasiva should be meditated as associated with these lineaments. &lt;em&gt;[Kamika Agama 330-334]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the weapons and symbols in right hands are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trishula, Parasu, Khadga, Vajra, Fire&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The weapons and symbols in left hands are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abhaya mudra, Pasa, Ghanta, Naga, Ankusha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Siginificance:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His three eyes are to be considered as symbolizing the three powers- iccha, jnana and kriya; the cresecent&#xA;moon denotes His power of all-knowing; &lt;strong&gt;ten hands represent the ten directions; the trident denotes His three qualities –sattva, rajas and tamas functioning in the pure realm; parasu denotes His nature of eterenal existence; khadga represents His invincible prowess; vajra denotes His state of unshakable firmness; fire denotes His destructive power, the power which incinerates the roots and knots of bondage and the&#xA;luminous power which illumines the objects of the worlds for the sake of those existing in the pure maya; the naga denotes the power of supporting and sustatining everything and the power of disposing the things allocated to all the beings; pasa denotes the three bonds- maya, karma and mala; the ghanta represents the the nuture of basic sound which makes known the the form constituted of mantra; abhaya-mudra denotes His power of protecting all the worlds; ankusa represents the power of regulating and meting out the enjoyments obtainable to the souls according to their karmic fruits and controlling the souls to experience only those pertaining to them. In this way, the weapons held in His ten hands should be understood as representative of the power relevant to each of them.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;[ Kamika Agama 335-340]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the symbolic significance is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ten hands&lt;/strong&gt; = Ten direction &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Trishul&lt;/strong&gt; = Three qualities (Sattva, Rajas, Tamas) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Parasu&lt;/strong&gt; = Eternal Existence &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Khadga&lt;/strong&gt; = Invincible power &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Vajra&lt;/strong&gt; = Unshakeable firmness &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Fire&lt;/strong&gt; = destructive power &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Naga&lt;/strong&gt; = Supporting, Sustaining, Disposing power &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Pasa&lt;/strong&gt; = Bonds (Maya, Karma, Mala) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Ghanta&lt;/strong&gt; = Basic sound (forming mantras) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Abhaya Mudra&lt;/strong&gt; = Protecting power &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Ankusa&lt;/strong&gt; = soul regulating and controlling power&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-05T10:32:08.220" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13531" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12472" CreationDate="2016-06-05T03:27:09.277" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Krishna did control Karna's and his associates' minds to some extent to protect Arjuna and himself as he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07179.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;clarifies&lt;/a&gt; to Satyaki when he posed the same question after Ghatotkacha was killed by Karna using Indra's Shakti weapon (referred to as the &quot;dart&quot; below):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satyaki of prowess incapable of being baffled, asked the mighty-armed Krishna about the great car-warrior, Karna, saving, '&lt;strong&gt;O Janardana, even this had been Karna's firm resolution, viz., that he would hurl that dart of immeasurable energy at Phalguna. Why, however, did not the Suta's son actually hurt it then at him?&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasudeva said, 'Duhsasana and Karna and Sakuni and the ruler of the Sindhus, with Duryodhana at their head, had frequently debated on this subject. Addressing Karna, they used to say, 'O Karna. O great bowman, O thou of immeasurable prowess in battle, O foremost of all victors, this dart should not be hurled at any one else than that great car-warrior, viz., Kunti's son, Partha or Dhananjaya. He is the most celebrated amongst them, like Vasava amongst the gods. He being slain, all the other Pandavas with the Srinjayas will be heartless like fireless celestials!' Karna having assented to this, saying 'So be it' (the desire of) slaughtering the wielder of Gandiva, O bull amongst the Sinis, was ever present in Karna's heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I, however, O foremost of warriors, always used to stupefy the son of Radha. It was for this that he did not hurl the dart at Pandu's son&lt;/strong&gt;, owning white steeds. As long as I could not baffle that means of Phalguna's death, I had neither sleep, nor joy in my heart, O foremost of warriors! Beholding that dart, therefore, rendered futile through Ghatotkacha, O bull amongst the Sinis, I regarded Dhananjaya today to have been rescued from within the jaws of Death. I do not regard my sire, my mother, yourselves, my brothers, ay, my very life, so worthy of protection as Vibhatsu in battle. If there be anything more precious than the sovereignty of the three worlds, I do not, O Satwata, desire (to enjoy) it without Pritha's son, Dhananjaya (to share it with me). Beholding Dhananjaya, therefore, like one returned from the dead, these transports of delight, O Yuyudhana, have been mine. It was for this that I had despatched the Rakshasa unto Karna for battle. None else was capable of withstanding, in the night, Karna in battle.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07179.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Section CLXXXII, Ghatotkacha-vadha Parva, Drona Parva&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Dhritarashtra also asks Sanjaya the same question and he too &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07180.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;replies&lt;/a&gt; that every night they would make up their minds to use the Vasavi Shakti on Krishna or Arjuna but they would simply forget about the weapon next day in the battle:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhritarashtra said, 'I see, O sire, that this act of Karna and Duryodhana and Suvala's son, Sakuni, and of thyself, in especial, hath been very much against the dictates of policy. &lt;strong&gt;Indeed, when you knew that dart could always slay one person in battle, and that it was incapable of being either borne or baffled by the very gods with Vasava at their head, why then, O Sanjaya, was it not hurled by Karna at Devaki's son, or Phalguna, while he was engaged with this in battle before?&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanjaya said, 'Returning from battle every day, O monarch, all of us, O foremost one of Kuru's race, used to debate in the night and say unto Karna. &lt;strong&gt;Tomorrow morning, O Karna, this dart should be hurled at either Kesava or Arjuna.' When, however, the morning came, O king, through destiny, both Karna and the other warriors forgot that resolution.&lt;/strong&gt; I think destiny to be supreme, since Karna, with that dart in his hands, did not slay in battle either Partha or Devaki's son, Krishna. Indeed, because his understanding was afflicted by destiny itself, it is for this that he did not, &lt;strong&gt;stupefied by the illusion of the gods&lt;/strong&gt;, hurl that fatal dart of Vasava, though he had it in his hand, at Devaki's son, Krishna for his destruction or at Partha endued with prowess like Indra's, O lord!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07180.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Section CLXXXIII, Ghatotkacha-vadha Parva, Drona Parva&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-06-05T03:33:30.260" LastActivityDate="2016-06-05T03:33:30.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13532" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12527" CreationDate="2016-06-05T03:59:35.410" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Hindus eat milk products. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12487/3500&quot;&gt;Cow is described as theomorphic animal&lt;/a&gt; in Vedas (meaning knowledge) which are highest truths. So, Hindus revere cow as their mother and God. But we consume products like milk, yogurt, ghee, butter. As cow is revered as God and mother, Hindus don't kill Cow and bull for their meat. Cow is also described as Earth many times in Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna, avatar of Lord Vishnu, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/kb/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;likes butter very much&lt;/a&gt;. Milk Products gives &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2660/3500&quot;&gt;Sattva Guna&lt;/a&gt; while flesh of any animal gives Tamas Guna. So, some Hindus follow Vegetarian diet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-06-05T03:59:35.410" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13533" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13536" CreationDate="2016-06-05T05:07:59.237" Score="5" ViewCount="682" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the kings and rulers in Ancient Hinduisms almost always are &lt;strong&gt;dynastic&lt;/strong&gt;. They got the kingdom just because they are born to king. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana is the classic example: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Rama&lt;/a&gt; is born as the eldest son of Kaushalya and Dasharatha, ruler of Ayodhya Kingdom. As per the traditions during those times, ultimately son of Dasharatha ruled the Ayodhya Kingdom. Even when Rama was sent for exile, it was Dasharatha's other sons who were ruling the Ayodhya Kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is just one example of dynasty based rule and many such examples can be given from Mahabharata and other Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The irony is the Country &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;India&lt;/a&gt; which is home to Hinduism and has largest population of Hindus is now a largest parliamentary democracy with almost no history(to the best of my knowledge) of being governed by the rules and laws of democracy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Question is&lt;/strong&gt;: Are there any Hindu scriptures which mentions the need or necessity of Political democracy, the governance system for the people, by the people? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2016-06-05T06:09:39.420" LastActivityDate="2022-10-03T15:37:55.270" Title="Democracy in Hinduism" Tags="|scripture|belief|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13535" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-05T07:09:15.750" Score="9" ViewCount="2172" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently got profound interest in learning Hindu slokas. But I am having very hard time memorizing them. How can I do this. The slokas I am trying are AdityaHridayam, Suryashtakam, BhagavadGita, Govinda Namalu, Hanuman Chalisa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6811" LastActivityDate="2018-04-11T13:06:26.957" Title="How can I memorize complex hindu slokas?" Tags="|vishnu|mantras|shloka|teaching|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13536" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13533" CreationDate="2016-06-05T07:09:44.577" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda, the first three chapters are about how Rama was chosen as the successor of Dasharatha to the throne of Ayodhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga1/ayodhya_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;first chapter of Ayodhya Kanda&lt;/a&gt; lists the various virtues of Prince Rama from verses 6 to 44.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki describes Rama as the repository of all virtues, and compares Kausalya to Mother Aditi (who shines by her son Indra's prowess). Rama is said to be &lt;strong&gt;Anupama Soonuh&lt;/strong&gt; or &quot;An Incomparable Son&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of his good qualities are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was soft spoken&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He always saw only the good in others&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was an excellent warrior&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He took interest in the welfare of the people&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was an excellent orator&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was very wise&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was loved by the people&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He never spoke lies&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was a good strategist&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He had a taste for knowledge and fine arts&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was devoted to serving the people&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was comparable to Brhaspati in wisdom, Yamaraja in justice and Indra in valour&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing these qualities of Rama, Dasaratha decided to coronate Rama as his successor. This decision was &lt;em&gt;not influenced by Rama being the eldest son&lt;/em&gt;. Furthermore, Rama was supported by both the royal family as well as the common people as a suitable successor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Dasaratha decided to coronate Rama, the first thing he does is to &lt;em&gt;call an assembly of people&lt;/em&gt; to present his decision.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nananagaravaastavyan Prithak Jaanapadaan Api|&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;Samaaniyaaya Medinyaah Pradhaanan Prithiveepateen||&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&quot;Dasaratha called for other kings and officers staying in various cities and villages in his kingdom separately.&quot; (Ayodhya Kanda 1.45)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dasaratha, in the assembly, states the reasons for his retirement, and announces his decision to coronate Rama as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So'ham Vishramam Icchaami Putram Krtva Prajaahite|&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;Sannikrshtaan Imaan Sarvaan Anumaanya Dvijarshabhaan||&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&quot;I desire to take rest, entrusting the rule to my son for the benefit of the people, &lt;strong&gt;after obtaining consent from all those best Brahmans&lt;/strong&gt; who are close to me.&quot; (Ayodhya Kanda 2.10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dasaratha then goes on to list the various virtues of Rama, and then &lt;strong&gt;asks the assembly&lt;/strong&gt; whether his decision is fair:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yadi Idam Me'nurupaardham Maya Saadhu Sumantritam|&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;Bhavanto Me'numantyantaam &lt;strong&gt;Katham Vaa Karavaanyaham&lt;/strong&gt;||&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&quot;I am telling this after lot of thinking. Give consent to me if you feel this to be good and befitting. &lt;strong&gt;How else shall I do it?&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (Ayodhya Kanda 2.15)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He further &lt;strong&gt;invites the assembly to debate his decision, presenting the pros and cons of Rama's candidature with a neutral viewpoint&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yadyapi Eshaa Mama Preetih Hitam Anyad Vichintyataam|&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;Anyaa &lt;strong&gt;Madhyasthachintaa Hi&lt;/strong&gt; Vimardaabhyadhikodaya||&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&quot;This is my desire. Yet, let there be thinking on any other beneficial way. &lt;strong&gt;Thinking by impartial neutral people will be distinctive and well developed&lt;/strong&gt; through grinding of opposing views (i.e. Reviewing and rebuttal of negative points).&quot; (Ayodhya Kanda 2.16)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upon Dasaratha's proclamation, the whole assembly roared their assent, such that &quot;The building appeared trembling by the sweet and reverberating sound made by the gathering of people there with their fond uproar.&quot; (Ayodhya Kanda 2.18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brahmanas then discussed the matter and arriving at a consensus, told Dasaratha, &quot;All of us want to see Rama, with long arms, the hero with great might born in the clan of Raghu , his face protected by a white umbrella, moving on a great elephant.&quot; (Ayodhya Kanda 2.22)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Dasaratha receives such a welcome to his decision, he questions the assembly, as to &lt;strong&gt;why did they immediately give their consent&lt;/strong&gt; without much thought, when Dasaratha himself is an able administrator.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The kings then reply, in no less than &lt;strong&gt;29 verses&lt;/strong&gt; (from verses 26 to 54) as to why Rama should be chosen as king, which shows that it was a people's choice &lt;em&gt;as well as the fact that Rama was Dasaratha's son&lt;/em&gt;. That is, Rama being Dasaratha's son is a mere complementary fact to the real reason of him being the choice of the people of Ayodhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The third chapter consists of Dasaratha annoucing his decision to Rama (notice how this decision is told to Rama only after the assembly is dismissed) and informs him of his various duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus we can see that though the rule was that of a Monarchy, and though it was dynastic, it was very much with the consent of the people of the kingdom. Thus, we can find, (within the Ramayana at least) the concept of Democracy &lt;strong&gt;within a Monarchy&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&#xA;Also in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga128/yuddha_128_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;final chapter of the Yuddha Kanda&lt;/a&gt; Valmiki describes the rule of Rama from verse 95 to the end of the chapter, describing it as an ideal rule.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, the decision to abandon Sita in the forest was &lt;strong&gt;also a decision taken due to the views of the citizens of Ayodhya&lt;/strong&gt;, (regardless of our views of Rama) which shows how Rama respected the views of the people. Even when he has to accept Sita once more, he knows that Sita is the foremost woman among all, but he still urges her to demonstrate her chastity to the people so that they can accept her as their queen, which just illustrates that he was bound to the decisions of people, and could not make his own decisions about the kingdom without consulting his subjects. All this re-illustrates this concept of democracy within monarchy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2016-06-05T07:21:18.723" LastActivityDate="2016-06-05T07:21:18.723" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13537" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13538" CreationDate="2016-06-05T09:04:18.233" Score="11" ViewCount="6108" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the ending part of  Vishnu Sahasranaam Stotra these verses are recited:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पार्वत्युवाच :&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  केनोपायेन लघुनां विष्णुर्नामसहस्रकम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पठ्यते पंण्डितैर नित्यं श्रोतुमिच्छाम्यहं प्रभो ॥ 26 ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;pArvatyuvAcha: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  keno pAyena lagunA vishNor nAma sahasrakam | paTyate paNDitair nityam shrotumicchAmyaham prabho ||&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Parvati said &amp;quot;O lord what is the short method to recite Vishnu Sahasranaam (if I am not able). What is to be chanted for it?&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ईश्वर उवाच &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;श्रीराम राम रामेती रमे रामे मनोरमे । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सहस्रनाम तत्तुल्यं रामनाम वरानने ॥&lt;/strong&gt; 27 ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;ishwara uvAcha: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sri rAma rAma rAmethi rame rAme manorame | sahasranAma thatthulyam rAma nAma varAnane |&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ishwara said &amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;O beautiful one!, Chant Rama Rama Rama which rejoices the mind. It is equal to thousand name of Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verses aren't found in Mahabharata where Bhishma recites Vishnu Sahasranaam. From where are these verses taken ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-07T12:14:22.357" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T16:07:10.363" Title="Where is the mention of 'Chanting Rama three times is equal to chanting 1000 names of Vishnu'?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|scripture|puranas|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13538" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13537" CreationDate="2016-06-05T09:06:15.963" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;These verses are found in &lt;strong&gt;Uttar Khanda of Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; in chapter 71. These verses are the last two verses of that chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parvati Said:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  330. if I am unable to recite every day these thousand names of Visnu, then tell me, O bull-bannered god, that name, by which I shall get that fruit (obtained by the recital of Visnu&amp;apos;s thousand names). &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Mahadeva said: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  331. &lt;strong&gt;O you beautiful one, O you charming one, (recite) &amp;apos;Rama, Rama, Rama&amp;apos;. The thousand names are equal to that.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  &lt;em&gt;[Chapter 71 Vishnu&amp;apos;s One Thousand Names]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-05T09:14:09.477" LastActivityDate="2016-06-05T09:14:09.477" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13539" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8589" CreationDate="2016-06-05T10:01:56.630" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is true. It is clearly mentioned in fifth chapter of  &lt;strong&gt;Rama Rahasya Upanishad.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanaka and other ascetics asked Hanuman: “ Tell us the meaning of Sri Rama mantra”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuman replied: “Among the Rama mantras the 6-lettered is the king among them all; though as mentioned earlier they exist as one-, or two-, or three, or four, or five syllables or even as six-, or seven-, or eight, or even as many more syllables. Lord Shiva knows in essence the glory of the six-syllables (mantra): &lt;strong&gt;The true meaning of the king among the Rama mantras, as well as of the eight-lettered Narayana and five-lettered Shiva mantras, is spoken of as thus: Where yogi-s revel in the 2 syllable mantra viz. ‘Ra ma’ where the ra syllable denotes fire wherein abides illumination.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-05T10:08:13.837" LastActivityDate="2016-06-05T10:08:13.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13540" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13535" CreationDate="2016-06-05T10:35:36.190" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;listening the shlokas with audio source is also very effective method to memorize shlokas (if possible). We tend to quickly grasp or  memorize what  we hear and our mind repeats it, keeps it in memory. By this method we also get familiar with the pace and exact pronunciation of words, shlokas. &#xA;As we all are familiar with our experience related to songs, we tend to memorize and repeat the songs we listen. The same rule also applied to shlokas. Also combining  the methods stated above by all , Its more simpler to do the thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-05T12:39:23.970" LastActivityDate="2016-06-05T12:39:23.970" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13541" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13542" CreationDate="2016-06-05T11:54:32.483" Score="5" ViewCount="503" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any relationship between Hare Krishnas and Hindus, or do these belong to two entirely different religions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5807" LastActivityDate="2016-06-06T00:26:21.177" Title="Relationship between Hare Krishnas and Hindus?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-06-06T15:29:29.980" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13542" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13541" CreationDate="2016-06-05T12:02:56.903" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hare Krishnas are Hindus as they worship Lord Krishna. Krishna is the 8th incarnation of Lord Vishnu(among the major incarnations).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hare Krishnas chant the Mahamantra &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare:&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which is from Kali-Santarana Upanishad. Upanishad are part of Vedas. So they follow Vedic religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Hare Krishnas are not the only Hindus. Hare Krishnas believe Lord Krishna to be supreme, Shaivites believe Lord Shiva to be Supreme, Vaisnavas believe Lord Vishnu to be Supreme, Shaktas believe Devi to be Supreme, Ganapatyas believe Lord Ganesh to be Supreme, Suryaties believe Lord Surya (Sun God) to be Supreme, Shankhyas don't believe in God (Prakirti and Purush do all for them) and so on.... But they all are considered Hindus (as they all accept authority of Vedas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So basically, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All Hare Krishnas can be considered Hindus, but all Hindus aren't Hare Krishnas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-06T00:26:21.177" LastActivityDate="2016-06-06T00:26:21.177" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13543" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12483" CreationDate="2016-06-05T13:52:22.967" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Hinduism Earth is sacred and considered as  Mother of all living beings BHUDEVI (भूदेवी). She is also called as Prithivi ,Vasundhara or vasudha  (पृथ्वी ,वसुधरा ,वसुधा).&lt;/strong&gt; Hindus revere the earth as a symbol of tolerance forbearance , patience and steadfastness. Mother earth is respected for all her natural resources especially the forests ,herbs ,minirals and the vegetation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;समुद्रवसने देवि पर्वतस्तनमण्डले । विष्णुपत्नि नमस्तुभ्यं पादस्पर्शं&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;क्षमस्वमे ॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - &quot; O devi ! you are clothed with water , mountains are on&#xA;  your chest , you the consort of Visnu I bow you and ask you to forgive&#xA;  me for standing on you&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the hymns and quotes from various vedic texts are given below -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva veda says &quot;The earth is mother ,Firmament the father&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;it further says &lt;strong&gt;&quot; Mata Bhumi putroham prithivyah &quot;  (माता भूमि पुत्रोहं पृथिव्या:) Meaning &quot;Earth is my mother I am her son&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;See &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=vVipAAAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA365&amp;amp;lpg=PA365&amp;amp;dq=%22The%20earth%20is%20mother%20,Firmament%20the%20father%22%20atharva%20veda%20sanskrit&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=RsOlVH5VWx&amp;amp;sig=U6WYG2F5BsaPj0WHOAI6mvpHur4&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiv2IvG4YHPAhWDgI8KHZNrAL4Q6AEIHzAB#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%22The%20earth%20is%20mother%20%2CFirmament%20the%20father%22%20atharva%20veda%20sanskrit&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt; Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There  are scores of other verses that glorify Mother Earth. The hymn of these verses is known as &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Prithivi Sukta&lt;/strong&gt; &quot; in AtharvaVeda .In these verses, prithi is described as vasudhara or vasudha (Possessor of wealth).See&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jaimaa.org/articles/prithvi-sukta-hymn-to-the-earth-atharva-veda/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt; Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hiranyavaksha&lt;/strong&gt; ( one with golden bosom ). She is worshipped for&#xA;  providing food and prosperity , sustaning the animal world and for&#xA;  growth of forests and herbs , for providing space for lakes ,rivers&#xA;  and large water bodies. she is discribed as holding Fire (AGNI) in her&#xA;  belly (center of earth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Earth - brown, black, red and multi-colored the firm Earth protected&#xA;  by Indra, on this Earth may I stand - unvanquished, unhurt, unslain.&#xA;  This earth, our mother, has nurtured consciousness from the slime of&#xA;  the primeval ocean billions of years ago and has sustained the human&#xA;  race for countless centuries. Will we repay our debts to our mother by&#xA;  converting her into a burnt out cinder circling the sun into eternity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot; BHU- Suktam (भू-सूक्तं) &quot;&lt;/strong&gt;  in &quot;Taittirya Samhita &quot; also  states qualities of mother earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;विश्वस्वं मातरमोषधीनां ध्रुवां भूमिं पृथिवीं धर्मणा धृताम् ।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;शिवां स्योनामनु चरेम विश्वहा ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishvasvam Maataram-Ossadhiinaam Dhruvaam Bhuumim Prthiviim Dharmannaa&#xA;  Dhrtaam | Shivaam Syonaam-Anu Carema Vishvahaa ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;:&#xA;  17.1: (Salutations to Mother Earth) The Herbs (Plants) which are like Mothers of the World(who sustains us) grows on the Immovable&#xA;  Earth (Bhumi); the Earth which is held byDharma, ...&#xA;  17.2: ... and in which Auspiciousness gently pervades throughout the World.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गिरयस्ते पर्वता हिमवन्तोऽरण्यं ते पृथिवि स्योनमस्तु ।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;बभ्रुं कृष्णां रोहिणीं विश्वरूपां ध्रुवां भूमिं पृथिवीमिन्द्रगुप्ताम्&lt;/strong&gt; ।&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अजीतेऽहतो अक्षतोऽध्यष्ठां पृथिवीमहम् ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Girayas-Te Parvataa Himavanto-[A]rannyam Te Prthivi Syonam-Astu |&#xA;  Babhrum Krssnnaam Rohinniim Vishvaruupaam Dhruvaam Bhuumim&#xA;  Prthiviim-Indra-Guptaam | Ajiite-[A]hato Akssato-[A]dhyasstthaam&#xA;  Prthiviim-Aham ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  11.1: (Salutations to Mother Earth) O Mother Earth, May Your Hills and Snow-Clad Mountains (spread its coolness within us);&#xA;  May Your Forests spread its delight within us,&#xA;  11.2: You present a Vishwarupa with Your many colours - Babhru (Brown) (of mountains),Krishna (Blue) (of rivers), Rohini (Red) (of flowers);&#xA;  (But behind all these enchanting appearances) O Mother Earth, You are&#xA;  like Dhruva - Firm and Immovable; And You are protected by Indra,&#xA;  11.3: (On Your firm foundation) Which is Unconquered, Unslayed and Unbroken Whole, Istand firm (and whole, O&#xA;  Mother).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;विश्वंभरा वसुधानी प्रतिष्ठा हिरण्यवक्षा जगतो निवेशनी&lt;/strong&gt; ।&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;वैश्वानरं बिभ्रती भूमिरग्निमिन्द्रऋषभा द्रविणे&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;नो दधातु ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishvambharaa Vasudhaanii Pratisstthaa Hirannya-Vakssaa Jagato&#xA;  Niveshanii | Vaishvaanaram Bibhratii Bhuumir-Agnim-Indra-Rssabhaa&#xA;  Dravinne No Dadhaatu ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;:&#xA;  6.1: (Salutations to Mother Earth) She is Vishwambhara (All-Bearing), She is Vasudhaa(Producer of all Wealth), She is Pratishtha (Foundation&#xA;  on which we live), She isHiranyavaksha (of Golden Bosom) and&#xA;  the Dwelling Place of the World,&#xA;  6.2: She holds the Vaishvanara (The Universal Fire) within Her, the Fire which empowers Indra and Rishabha; May the Mother Earth&#xA;  bestow on us (the splendour of that Fire and make us strong).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;असंबाधं बध्यतो मानवानां यस्या उद्वतः प्रवतः समं बहु ।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;नानावीर्या ओषधीर्या&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;बिभर्ति पृथिवी नः प्रथतां राध्यतां नः ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asambaadham Badhyato Maanavaanaam Yasyaa Udvatah Pravatah Samam Bahu |&#xA;  Naanaa-Viiryaa Ossadhiiryaa Bibharti Prthivii Nah Prathataam&#xA;  Raadhyataam Nah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;:&#xA;  2.1: (Salutations to Mother Earth) Who extends Unimpeded Freedom (both outer and inner) to Human Beings through Her&#xA;  Mountains, Slopes and Plains,&#xA;  2.2: She bears many Plants and Medicinal Herbs of various Potencies; May She extend Her Riches to us (and make us healthy).&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/bhumi-bhumi_sukta.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhumi-Suktam ,भूमि-सूक्तं&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gayatries for Bhumi Devi - (भू-गायत्री मंत्र)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ॐ धनुर्धराययी च विद्महे  सर्व सिद्धि:च धीमहि तन्नो धरा प्रचोदयात ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Om Dhanurdharayi ch vidmahey serva siddhi ch dhimahi tanno dhara prachodayat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ॐ वसुंधाराय विद्महे भूतधात्रीय धीमहि तन्नो भूमि प्रचोदयात ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Om Vasundharaya vidhmaye bhutdhatriya dhimahi tanno bhumi prachodayat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dhevee.org/bhoomi-devi-gayatri-mantra/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhu Gayatri 1&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rudraksha-ratna.com/articles/goddess-bhumidevi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-09-10T16:53:56.267" LastActivityDate="2016-09-10T16:53:56.267" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13546" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12439" CreationDate="2016-06-05T16:08:30.963" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Firstly, Darwinian evolution occurs at a scale of millions of years, whereas the Vedas, Puranas, etc. are dated within the last 5000 years. There is no suggestion of any significant evolutionary transformation in humans in the last 5 millennia. However, this is also the answer to your question-- Darwinian evolution is at a larger timescale than the knowledge of our ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, it is surely a stretch to claim that this literature had a &lt;code&gt;knowledge of everything&lt;/code&gt;. The texts you speak of describe rituals, philosophy and practices that were enlightened when they were first conceived, but can hardly be said to be accurate in the 21st century. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope you do not mean to treat mythology as history, and claim that a &lt;code&gt;vanar sena&lt;/code&gt; can be legitimately fitted into our past as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/4157/amit-saxena&quot;&gt;@Amit Saxena&lt;/a&gt; suggests.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5727" LastActivityDate="2016-06-05T16:08:30.963" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13548" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13848" CreationDate="2016-06-05T18:11:09.890" Score="7" ViewCount="1047" Body="&lt;p&gt;what are the advantages if we wake up before sunrise according to our scriptures.&#xA;Thanks!!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-06-27T11:35:53.763" LastActivityDate="2016-06-28T17:12:40.193" Title="What are the advantages if we wake up before Sun-rise according to Vedas?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13549" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-05T20:31:10.227" Score="9" ViewCount="2231" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Nala-Damayanti story &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03053.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;narrated&lt;/a&gt; by sage Vrihadaswa to Yudhishthira, there's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03066.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;mention of&lt;/a&gt; the Naga, Karkotaka, who bites and disfigures Nala for his own good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what's the story of Karkotaka deceiving sage Narada? Why did he deceive Narada?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;King Nala saw a mighty conflagration that was raging in that dense forest. And in the midst of that conflagration, he heard the voice of some creature,&#xA;  repeatedly crying aloud, 'O righteous Nala, come hither.' And answering,&#xA;  'Fear not,' he entered into the midst of the fire and beheld a mighty&#xA;  Naga lying in coils. And the Naga with joined hands, and trembling, spake&#xA;  unto Nala, saying, '&lt;strong&gt;O king, that I am a snake, Karkotaka by name. I had&#xA;  deceived the great Rishi Narada of high ascetic merit&lt;/strong&gt;, and by him have I&#xA;  been cursed in wrath, O king of men, even in words such as these: 'Stay&#xA;  thou here like an immobile thing, until one Nala taketh thee hence. And,&#xA;  indeed, on the spot to which he will carry thee, there shalt thou he&#xA;  freed from my curse. It is for that curse of his that I am unable to stir&#xA;  one step. I will instruct thee in respect of thy welfare. It behoveth&#xA;  thee to deliver me. I will be thy friend. There is no snake equal to me.&#xA;  I will be light in thy hands. Taking me up, do thou speedily go hence.'&#xA;  Having said this, that prince of snakes became as small as the thumb. And&#xA;  taking him up, Nala went to a spot free from fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2021-10-04T21:06:40.583" Title="What's the story of the serpent Karkotaka deceiving sage Narada?" Tags="|mahabharata|narada|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13550" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13551" CreationDate="2016-06-06T11:14:36.703" Score="6" ViewCount="341" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Merit different from Good Karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is repeatedly doing a meritorious act called Good Karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Somewhere I read that one drop of acid ruins a good and tasty soup. In the same way once person a got very angry, it wiped out all the merits done by him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does anger really wipe out all the merits done by the person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a person gets angry, then does all his charity acts, or only all kinds of meritorious acts get wiped out?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aren't there separate accounts (or baskets) for good and bad deeds? E.g., if a man does charity and gets angry upon someone then don't both these fructify separately?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-28T20:55:07.187" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T20:55:07.187" Title="Merits vs. Good Karma vs. Acting out of Anger" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|karma|dharma|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13551" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13550" CreationDate="2016-06-06T11:30:07.957" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Basically there are two types of Merit Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Done for getting Punya-Karma.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Good work done with an intention of getting good results of that deed. A person may do good work with a view of getting reward either from God, or from other circumstances or in next life. Such Karma are called &lt;strong&gt;Punya Karma&lt;/strong&gt;. Doing punya karma is good but these karma gets nullified after getting Reward of that Karma.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Done as Dharmic activity:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Good work done without having intention of getting some good from that. This type of Karma through KarmaYoga is the best Karma as it do not lead to attachment and this type of Karma lead a person towards the door of Mokshya.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being angry doesn't wipe merits of events when the events are not interconnected...But If you become angry in the events related to that Karma then only it deteriorates that Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Lord Rama who is the highest standard of Dharma (Maryada Purushottama) was angry in certain events like... anger with Sea-God, anger with Sugriv etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-06T11:30:07.957" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13552" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13553" CreationDate="2016-06-06T12:52:21.417" Score="4" ViewCount="722" Body="&lt;p&gt;This two term Krsna Paksh( Path of Darkness) and Sukla Paksh(Path of Brightness) are mentioned in Bhagvad-Gita,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here is Sloka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;śukla-kṛṣṇe gatī hyete jagataḥ śāśvate mate |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ekayā yāty-anāvṛtim anyāyāvartate punaḥ || 8.26 ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These two paths, the bright and the dark, are said to be everlasting. By the former, one attains&#xA;the state of non-return, by the other, one returns again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any other scripture which is mentioned and elaborate this term.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-01-24T06:58:44.390" Title="What is Krsna Paksh( Darkness) &amp; Sukla Paksh(Brightness) in Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|bhagavad-gita|upanishads|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13553" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13552" CreationDate="2016-06-06T12:52:21.417" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As, We know in Bhagvad-Gita Lord Himself declare the two path. when soul will leave his body,then by his/her fortune or arrangement of god, it will pass aways through either Sukla Paksh ( Bright) or Krsna Paksh ( Dark).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is described Lord Himself in Bhagavad Gita in this two Sloka,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(1) &amp;quot;Paht of Light&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;agnir-jyotir-ahaḥ śuklaḥ ṣaṇmāsā uttarāyaṇam |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tatra prayātā gacchanti brahma brahma-vido janāḥ || 8.24 ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Light in the form of fire, the day, the bright fortnight, the six months of the northern course&#xA;of the sun — the knowers of Brahman who take this path go to the Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;and (2) is &amp;quot;Path of Darkness&amp;quot;:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;dhūmo rātris-tathā kṛṣṇaḥ ṣaṇmāsā dakṣiṇāyanam |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tatra cāndramasaṃ jyotir-yogī prāpya nivartate || 8.25 ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Smoke, night, the dark fortnight, the six months of the southern course of the sun — the Yogi&#xA;who takes this path reaches the light of the moon and returns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Vedas both the bright and dark paths are said to be everlasting in&#xA;relation to both the enlightened ones and those who simply do various good deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Prasna Upanisad Sloka 9 &amp;amp; 10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krsna Paksh&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sa.nvatsaro vai prajaapatistasyaayane dakshinam chottaram cha | tadye ha vai tadishhtaapuurte kritamityupaasate te chaandramasameva lokamabhijayante | ta eva punaraavartante tasmaadeta rishhayah prajaakaamaa dakshinam pratipadyante |  eshha ha vai rayiryah pitriyaanah || 9||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Path of Darkness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The year is indeed Prajapati  and there arc two paths thereof: the Southern and the Northern. Those who follow  the path of Karma alone by the performance of sacrificial and pious acts obtain  only the World of the Moon and certainly they do return. Therefore those sages who  desire offspring travel by the Southern Path. The matter (Rayi) is verily the  path of the Forefathers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;and Sloka 10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sukla Paksh&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;athottarena tapasaa brahmacharyena shraddhayaa vidyayaa.a. atmaanamanvishhyaadityamabhijayante| etadvai praanaanaamaa yatanametad amritamabhayametat.h paraayanametasmaanna punaraavartanta ityeshha nirodhastadeshha shlokah || 10||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Path of Brightness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But those who seek the Self  through austerity, chastity, faith and knowledge, travel by the Northern Path  and gain the Sun. The Sun, verily, is the goal of all living creatures, the Immortal,  the Fearless; this is the final goal. From there they do not return, for, this  is the end. For this there is a mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Chāṇḍogya Upaniṣad V.X.I-III states:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Path of Brightness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who know this and those who worship with faith, meditate in the forest etc., they&#xA;go to the light’. (Chan. Up., 5.10.1),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Path of Darkness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;’But those who in the village perform Vedic and secular acts of a meritorious nature and the giving of alms — they pass to the smoke’. (ibid., 5.10.3).**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-01-24T06:58:44.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13554" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-06T16:36:28.950" Score="7" ViewCount="440" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the Pravaras used at the time of Sankalpam? I used to utter srimukh shandilya gotrah Tri Pravarah.&#xA;Is there any scripture which define Pravara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-02-19T09:20:04.807" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T09:20:04.807" Title="What are the Pravaras used at the time of sankalpam?" Tags="|history|sankalpa|gotra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13555" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13586" CreationDate="2016-06-06T18:09:36.597" Score="0" ViewCount="517" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Gaudiya Sampradaye followed the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali-Sa%E1%B9%87%E1%B9%AD%C4%81ra%E1%B9%87a_Upani%E1%B9%A3ad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kali Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; of Krsna Yajurveda.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2016-06-08T16:53:58.170" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T16:53:58.170" Title="Why Gaudiya Sampradaya follow Kali-Upanishad?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|mantras|gaudiya-vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13557" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13535" CreationDate="2016-06-06T18:32:54.900" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you really want to remember shlokas of Sanskrit language of Hindu holy books, then first of all you have to learn Sanskrit deeply.(It is required for all of us Hindus, because we are nearer to miss our valuable ideas that our Vedas and Upanishads provided to us.) And then, start with a small book of Sanskrit shlokas, say &quot;Shikshapatri&quot; by Bhagwan Swaminarayan which is a very small book containing all Hindu ideas and niyams(rules that must be followed by each Human being to have a peaceful and a happy life). One important thing to note is that clearly read a translation given below the shlokas to understand the meaning of the Sanskrit words. And then go to some big books containing many shlokas in Sanskrit, say Shrimad Bhagwad Gita, a small part of Shrimad Bhagwad Purana. You will definitely see your improvement in Sanskrit shlokas remembrance and understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6822" LastEditorUserId="6822" LastEditDate="2016-06-17T10:53:41.207" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T10:53:41.207" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13559" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13575" CreationDate="2016-06-07T03:01:12.647" Score="9" ViewCount="345" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nearly everyone knows the famous story of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9023/was-the-story-of-adultery-of-indra-in-the-story-of-ahalya-a-prakshipta/9025#9025&quot;&gt;Adulteration of Indra with Ahalya.&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;But there is a story of how Ahalya was married to Gautama Rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard there was competition among Gods to marry Ahalya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/when-lord-indra-was-cursed-for-lust&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This website here&lt;/a&gt; also mentions the story I have heard. It tells:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma announced that &lt;strong&gt;he would marry Ahalya to the person who would travel around the earth and come back first.&lt;/strong&gt; On hearing Brahma's words, all the Devtas and Rishis embarked upon their journey. At the same time, while going back to his ashram, Maharshi Gautama saw baby Kamdhenu (divine cow) taking birth. Looking at that site, the sage got overwhelmed by the prominence of the creator and out of respect, did a circumbulation of the cow and a Shivling....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma came to know everything through his meditation powers. He told Rishi Gautama that a cow which had given birth was equal to the earth with seven islands and to move around it (perform parikrama) and the Shivling was equal to travelling around Earth. Brahma was impressed by the patience, knowledge and penance of Rishi Gautam and told him that he deserved to get married to Ahalya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which scripture mention this story of Race among Gods to marry Ahalya ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T10:28:14.193" Title="Which scripture mention Race among the Gods to marry Ahalya?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|gods|indra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13560" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9369" CreationDate="2016-06-07T04:31:23.067" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;He was same as Dhanvantari, avatar of Lord Vishnu, who was born to Dīrghatama, as Dīrghatama did penance to Him for son. This is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12922/4/Chapter2_801-880p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 67 Section 3 Upodhghaatapaada of Brahmanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Pg 851- 852).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages said : &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9.Who is Dhanvantari, the lord who was born among human beings ? We wish to know this. Recount that unto us, O scorcher of enemies( ? )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Süta replied :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10-13a. Let the origin of Dhanvantari be heard, O Brähmanas. &lt;strong&gt;He was&#xA;born formerly when the ocean was being churned, for the sake of&#xA;nectar. At the outset, he was born before the Kalasa (pot)&lt;/strong&gt; . He was&#xA;encircled by a halo of glory all round. On seeing him having&#xA;accomplished his task suddenly,  Vishnu who was standing by are born&#xA;of water&amp;quot;. Hence, he is remembered as Abja (water-born). &lt;strong&gt;Abja said&#xA;to lord, I am your son.&lt;/strong&gt; Allot me my share and place  in the world, O&#xA;excellent god.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;13b-19. On being told thus, the lord said after review in the factual&#xA;position, ' 'The division of the Yajna has already been made by the&#xA;sons of Diti as well as the Suras. The due performance of Homas etc.&#xA;has been laid down in the Vedas by the great sages. It is not possible&#xA;to get Homa performed unto you at any time. As you are born subsequent&#xA;to Vedas O god, you have no Mantra (assignable to you). &lt;strong&gt;O lord, in&#xA;your second incarnation you will earn reputation in the  world.&lt;/strong&gt; Then&#xA;you will attain the super-natural powers like Anima (minuteness) and&#xA;others. O lord, you will attain Devahood with this selfsame body.&#xA;Brähmanas (and other twice-born ones) shall worship you with&#xA;Caturmantras (i.e. Mantras from  the four Vedas) , ghee offerings and&#xA;Gavyas (materials of worship obtained from milk, milk products). You&#xA;will once again reproduce the Äyurveda (the Science Of Medicine) .&#xA;These incidents and events are inevitable and have already been&#xA;visualized by the lotus-born lord (Brahmä) earlier. Undoubtedly you&#xA;will be born in the second Dväpara Yuga&amp;quot;. Therefore, after granting&#xA;the boon, disappeared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;20&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When the second Dväpara arrived, king Dirgha arrived, the ruler of Kåsi, a descendant of Sunahotra being desirous of a son, performed&#xA;a penance&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The king desired to propitiate lord Dhanvantari for the sake of a son. Thereupon, Dhanvantari urged the king to choose a boon as he&#xA;pleased.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The king said :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;22&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'O lord, if you are pleased with. me, be my son,bestower of my goal&amp;quot;.&lt;/strong&gt; After saying &amp;quot;So be it&amp;quot;, the lord vanished there itself.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;23-24. Lord Dhanvantari was then born in his abode. He was a great&#xA;king, the ruler of Käsi, the dispeller of all ailments. He learned the&#xA;science of Medicine—Äyurveda along with its therapeutics from&#xA;Bharadväja. He classified it into eight sections and taught them to&#xA;different disciples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-07T04:37:16.833" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13561" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12337" CreationDate="2016-06-07T05:40:39.740" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-83/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-84/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; of Satarudrasamhita of Shiva Purana describes the 28 Avatars of Shiva. Shiva takes these avatars at end of every Dvapara Yuga with  Vyasa to teach Yoga techniques for people of Kali Yuga. He will have 4 disciples in each Yuga and these disciples teach the people of Kali Yuga and help them in liberation. These are the names of Avatars of Shiva in chronological order in this Vaivastara Manvnatara of Svetavaraha Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sveta muni&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sutaara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Damana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Suhotra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kanka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lokaaksi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jaigeesaavya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dashivaahana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rsabha (well known Avatar of Shiva)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brgu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaali&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Puru&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bali&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gautama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vedavarsin&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gokarna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Grhasvami&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sikhandi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jaatimali&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Attahas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Daaruka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Laanguli Bheema&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sveta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sooli&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dandi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sahinsu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Somasarma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yogatma and becomes popular by name Lakuli.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakuli is identified as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakulish&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lakulish&lt;/a&gt; who revived&#xA;Pasupata Sect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For different Vyasas, see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9386/3500&quot;&gt;this answer.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Shiva Purana doesn't contain some names. So, those names are taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/21487/7/Part1_Chapter5_293-336p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Pg No- 333)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-07-16T08:53:13.277" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13564" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13571" CreationDate="2016-06-07T08:38:42.417" Score="4" ViewCount="216" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism says after death again birth has to be taken to enjoy the good deeds or to get punishment for bad deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Islam , it is believed that god sends us to Heaven if number of bad deeds are less than number of good deeds or man is sent to Hell. But man borns only once and life given to him is a Test.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism says it is necessary to do Pitru Shradhha ( for ancestors) otherwise man faces difficulties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But non-hindus dont do any kind of shradhha ,  still every thing is OK for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question arises what is true ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or there are different gods of different religions exists and when man dies , he is treated by god accoording to his religion ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whome to believe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastActivityDate="2016-06-09T17:06:00.173" Title="Are Gods different for different religions? Whom to believe?" Tags="|belief|gods|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2016-06-07T10:20:55.410" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13565" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2296" CreationDate="2016-06-07T08:43:19.793" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Dharma-Dev and Bhaktimata (Ghanshyam's parents) asked Markandeya Rishi to name Ghanshyam, he predicted that Ghanshyam would be known as Nilkanth throughout the world. Later, when he left home after his parent's death to travel, he was known as Nilkanth Varni. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: Vachnamrut&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5188" LastActivityDate="2016-06-07T08:43:19.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13566" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12333" CreationDate="2016-06-07T08:47:21.733" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Eating food at a hotel itself is not considered a sin. However, I know that followers of the Swaminarayan Sect traditionally do eat eat hotel food as they do not know who has &lt;em&gt;made&lt;/em&gt; the food. The Shikshapatri states that the devotees of Swaminarayan may not eat food prepared by people of the lower castes, therefore they avoid eating hotel food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5188" LastActivityDate="2016-06-07T08:47:21.733" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13567" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11294" CreationDate="2016-06-07T09:24:00.263" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure if Puranas and Vedas provide the Scientific explanation/speculation for various position of hands and fingers while worshiping the God. Very less information is present about Chakras in Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12915/3/Chapter1_1-80p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Agni Purana Part 1 Chapter 26&lt;/a&gt; (Pg No- 66 and 67) provides various positions but doesn't provide any Scientific explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(I now) describe the characteristic of (the different) positions of fingers (mudrä) (which) bring (the worshipper)  nearer (to the object of worship). Anjali (folding of hands)  is the first&#xA;  mudrä. (The second) is the Vandani (fingers interlocked) to be placed&#xA;  near the heart. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;With the left fist folded and the thumb erect, the right thumb interwoven with the erect left thumb is said to be (the third one). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(These are) the three common formations. The (following are) not common. By the unyoking of the smallest and other fingers eight&#xA;  positions (are formed) in order. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The first eight basic syllables are repeated in order. One has to bend the three fingers commencing with the little finger, with the&#xA;  thumb. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;One has to raise up the to the face the ninth mystic syllable. Then the left hand is raised up and bent half slowly. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;These are the mudras of the limbs of Varäha in order. Then the left fist having been kept closed, the fingers are released one by one. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The same position is held by the right hand also and the previous position is bent down. The left fist (is held) with the thumb erect.&#xA;  This results in the accomplishment of the mudra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neither those nuance and subtle things (of given website) have proper scriptural evidence nor they were recounted by a sage in Advanced Tapasya. So, these instructions of Agni Purana can be followed without considering them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-06-07T11:45:13.993" LastActivityDate="2016-06-07T11:45:13.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13568" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13564" CreationDate="2016-06-07T09:32:53.390" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Check this link.. Thers a good attempt to answer your question..&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://leewoof.org/2012/11/05/if-theres-one-god-why-all-the-different-religions/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://leewoof.org/2012/11/05/if-theres-one-god-why-all-the-different-religions/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2826" LastActivityDate="2016-06-07T09:32:53.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13569" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-07T09:33:29.677" Score="5" ViewCount="408" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagwad Gita Chapter 10 verse 20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहमात्मा गुडाकेश सर्वभुताशयस्थित​: ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहमादिश्च मध्यं च भुतानामन्त एव च ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am the Self, O Gudakesha (Arjuna —Conqueror-of-sleep), dwelling in the hearts of all beings.I am verily am the Beginning, the middle and also the end of all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Explanation According to Advaita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This one verse from Brihadaranyak upanishad to explain Advaita philosophy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अहम् ब्रम्हास्मि / Aham Bramhhasmi&lt;/strong&gt; I am(the self or atman) the bramhan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Explanation according to Vishitadvaita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Enthroned as such within the atma of all living entities as paramatma the Supreme Lord is the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings and their cause, their evolution and their dissolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Bhagwad Ramanujacharya's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-10-18.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita Bhasya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse is consistent with Vishitadvaita and Adivata thought school but how is this verse explained by Dvaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-27T20:42:51.503" Title="How does dvaita theory counteract/explain BG 10:20" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|atma|brahman|dvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13570" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-07T09:55:32.477" Score="3" ViewCount="1243" Body="&lt;p&gt;In our native place we bhakthakodees are planning to place a shiv Ling in the existing temple. Can someone throw some light on the procedure of installing shiv ling in temple and also if there are any prescribed dimensions (height, width of the three parts) of the lingam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Primarily I am asking the about the rituals before the installation like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What homam has to be done?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are Astabandham rituals to be done for the first installation?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does the shivling have to undergo 18 days or 41 days rituals (not sure about the procedure).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What should be the dimension of the shivling sculptured?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6825" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-09T01:41:05.093" LastActivityDate="2018-11-09T01:41:05.093" Title="What is the ritual procedure for linga sthapana in a temple?" Tags="|shiva|rituals|temple|shiva-lingam|pranapratishtha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13571" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13564" CreationDate="2016-06-07T10:25:43.693" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;First thing you have to study about the oldest religion, As we all know it is &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Sanatan Dharama&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, and Hinduism is not different religion, it itself Sanatan Dharama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as per the researching, we know that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hinduism&lt;/a&gt; is oldest once, so, but obvious,It is a root of all other religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now According to Bhagavad Gita, There are &lt;strong&gt;total three types of Faith&lt;/strong&gt; in Person,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(1)Sattvic Faith (Mode of Goodness)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(2)Rajasic Faith (Mode of Passion)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(3)Tamasic Faith (Mode of Ignorance)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we look out the &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/strong&gt; Chapter 17&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;arjuna uvāca:&#xA;ye śāstra vidhim utsṛjya yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ |&#xA;teṣāṃ niṣṭhā tu kā kṛṣṇa satvam āho rajas tamaḥ ||17.1 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arjuna said :What is the position O Krishna of those who disregard the injunctions of the Shastra, yet&#xA;  worship with conviction (śraddhā)? Is it Sattva, Rajas or Tamas'?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śrī bhagavān uvāca:&#xA;trividhā bhavati śraddhā dehināṃ sā svabhāvajā |&#xA;sātvikī rājasī caiva tāmasī ceti tāṃ śṛṇu ||17.2 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Blessed Lord said: Threefold is the conviction of embodied beings, inherent in their own nature, classified as&#xA;  Sattvic, Rajasic and Tamasic — listen to the teaching about it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sattvānurūpā sarvasya śraddhā bhavati bhārata |&#xA;śraddhāmayo’yaṃ puruṣo yo yacchraddhaḥ sa eva saḥ ||17.3 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The conviction of each person, O Arjuna, is in accordance with one's character. A personconsists of conviction, and whatever one's conviction is, that verily one is&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yajante sātvikā devān yakṣa rakṣāṃsi rājasāḥ |&#xA;pretān bhūtagaṇāṃścānye yajante tāmasā janāḥ ||17.4 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Sattvic types worship the gods. The Rajasic types worship Yakshas and Rakshasas, and the&#xA;  others, classified as Tamasic, worship Pretas and the host of Bhūtas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now You have to focus on this Sloka of Bhagavad-Gita.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;aśāstra vihitaṃ ghoraṃ tapyante ye tapo janāḥ |&#xA;dambhāhaṅkāra saṃyuktāḥ kāma rāga balānvitāḥ ||17.5 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Those who practice severe self-discipline (tapas) not enjoined by the Śāstras, through&#xA;  ostentation and egoism, and impelled by the force of passion and attachment;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;karṣayantaḥ śarīrasthaṃ bhūta-grāmam acetasaḥ |&#xA;māṃ caivāntaḥ śarīrasthaṃ tān viddhyāsura niścayān ||17.6 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;These foolish people, torture the material components of their bodies and Me also who dwell&#xA;  within the body — know them to be non-divine in their faith.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, Satavic person always follow the instrcutions which is given in Vedas/Upanisad.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Sloka is also Siginficant here &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 16 Sloka 23&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yaḥ śāstra vidhim utsṛjya vartate kāma kārataḥ |&#xA;na sa siddhim avāpnoti na sukhaṃ na parāṃ gatim || 23 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Whoever disregarding the ordinances of the Scriptures, acts under the influence of personal&#xA;  desire, attains neither perfection nor happiness, nor the Supreme State.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Truth is that other religons which are Man-Made, Hindusim is only religon which is come from the Lord Him-self  where you can acheive the Supreme Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;India is KaramaBhumi as you know, because India is only place where you can do practice of Self-Realization and esepcially in Hindusim.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Sloka is very Siginificant if some one is unsuccessful in practicing in Self-Realization here &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 6 Sloka 41,42,43&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;prāpya puṇya-kṛtāṃ lokān uṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥ |&#xA;śucināṃ śrīmatāṃ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo ‘bhijāyate || 41 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Having attained to the realms of the righteous and dwelt there for many long years, one who&#xA;  has fallen from Yoga is born again in the house of the pure and prosperous.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;athavā yoginām eva kule bhavati dhīmatām |&#xA;etaddhi durlabhataraṃ loke janma yadīdṛśam || 42 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Or one is born into a family of wise Yogis; but verily such a birth in this world is very&#xA;  difficult to obtain.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tatra taṃ buddhi saṃyogaṃ labhate paurva-dehikam |&#xA;yatate ca tato bhūyaḥ saṃsiddhau kurunandana || 43 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There, O Arjuna, one regains the disposition of mind which one had acquired in the former&#xA;  body, and from there one strives more than before for success in Yoga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now At-last This Sloka is Very Important &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 7 Sloka 19.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bahūnāṃ janmanām ante jñānavān māṃ prapadyate |&#xA;vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ || 19 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;At the end of many births, the enlightened one takes refuge in Me, realising that&#xA;  ‘Vasudeva is everything’— It is very hard to find such a great-person.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, You have to understand that  the ultimate achievement of innumerable good births — namely taking refuge in&#xA;Krishna. After passing through countless good births, one obtains the insight:— “I find&#xA;my ultimate joy in being a dependant (shesha) of Vasudeva. I am such that my essence,&#xA;existence and activities are completely under His control. He is superior to all others&#xA;because of His innumerable auspicious attributes.” After realising this, one takes refuge in&#xA;Krishna, ie., meditates on Him, with the understanding —&#xA;“Vasudeva alone is my highest goal and also the means for attaining it, and whatever other&#xA;desire remains in my mind, He alone, is all that for me too.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's Meaning is that you follow what-ever religons even Hindusim , but when you not understand that the every-thing is Lord Narayan&lt;/strong&gt; then you have to take birth again and again whether you follow Islamic , Christian Buddhist or what-ever religions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this term this sloka is also very -siginficant Chapter 15.15&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sarvasya cāhaṃ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṃ ca |&#xA;vedaiśca sarvair aham eva vedyo vedānta-kṛd vedavid eva cāham || 15 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And I am located in the hearts of all. From Me come memory, knowledge and their absence&#xA;  also. Indeed, I alone am that which is to be known from all the Vedas. I bring about the fruition of&#xA;  the rituals of Vedas; I alone am the knower of the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Lord Krishna Declare that he is &lt;strong&gt;essense of the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Lord Narayan(Vishnu)&lt;/strong&gt; to be the supreme god as described by Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even you learn the vedas by yourself you will come at this point that Lord Narayan is Supreme and his only final stage.But it is very difficult to learn Vedas by yourself, it will take 45 to 50 years or even long time to read the vedas and huge amount time to understanding the vedas maybe more than one birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the Solution for that Lord him-slef declare to the Arjuna because same dobut was in Arjuna's mind,it is impossible to learn and understand the vedas and its essence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;as Described in Bhagavad Gita very important chapter 4 Sloka 34 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā |&#xA;upadekṣayanti te jñānaṃ jñāninas-tattva-darśinaḥ || 34 || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Just try to learn the truth by approaching a Spirtuial master (GURU). Inquire him submissively and render service unto him. The Self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you becuase they have seen truth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Acheive the Self-Realization you have to follow the Guru-Sisya Parampara&#xA;(disciple succession).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Sloka is also very very Significant here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śraddhāvāllabhate jñānaṃ tatparaḥ saṃyatendriyaḥ |&#xA;jñānaṃ labdhvā parāṃ śāntim acireṇādhigacchati || 4.39 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who has faith, who is dedicated to serivce of Guru, and who has controlled the senses, attains&#xA;  enlightenment. Having attained enlightenment, one obtains Supreme Peace.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our Vedas have so much Information about the all things, even you can find in Kali-Puran or may be in bhavisya puran, everything is mentioned in that when Islam will born momhmad pagimbar will create the other religons and so, on everything .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But Remember one thing the truth, this all things are only for bewildering people, becasue Self-realization path is not so easy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Sloka perfect for it &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;manuṣyāṇāṃ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye |&#xA;yatatām-api siddhānāṃ kaścin māṃ vetti tattvataḥ || 3 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Among thousands of men, perhaps one strives for perfection; even among those who strive for&#xA;  perfection, one only may know Me; and among those who know Me, one alone perhaps, knows&#xA;  Me in reality.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among the thousand only one can know the supreme truth so, remember all this thing and follow the path of rightousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, My advice to you if you follow the hindu dharma , read Bhagavad Gita follow the Guru ( only Authorized Spritual Master from the Vedas), because we already knew the importance  of Guru, lord krishna himself declared that as I previously described in the Sloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But , At the end Lord krishna Himslef leave the all things on Arjuna whether he want to believe all thing or not. &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 18.63&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;iti te jñānam ākhyātaṃ guhyād guhyataraṃ mayā |&#xA;vimṛśyaitad aśeṣeṇa yathecchasi tathā kuru || 63 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus I have taught you that knowledge which is the greatest of all mysteries. Reflecting on it&#xA;  thoroughly, do what you will.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Lord Krishna gave him Ulitmate truth but at-last Lord Krishna leave all thing on Arjuna, Becasue Lord never extort (steal) independence of Soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here I can only give the knowledge form the Bhagavad Gita and through the scripture, accepting or not is upto you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope This will Help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2016-06-09T17:06:00.173" LastActivityDate="2016-06-09T17:06:00.173" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13572" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-07T12:19:28.227" Score="2" ViewCount="195" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many scriptures describe how Lord Vishnu got the Sudarshan Chakra - some say that he got it from Shiva; while, other say he got it from Viswakarma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, coming to the description of creation of the universe, when Vishnu manifested in the Anirudhha form; he had held in his four hands, the mace, lotus, shell and the chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what is the authentic version of how he got the chakra? How can these stories be reconciled?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T09:47:09.693" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T09:47:09.693" Title="How can the story of Vishnu getting Sudarshana Chakra later be reconciled with Aniruddha holding the Chakra at the time of creation?" Tags="|vishnu|weapon|sudarsana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13573" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13574" CreationDate="2016-06-07T12:22:36.350" Score="5" ViewCount="30258" Body="&lt;p&gt;As, we know the term &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Stithpragya&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; is mentioned in Bhagavad Gita.But what is actually meaning of the Stithpragya.?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T17:38:31.880" Title="What is the term &quot;Stithpragya&quot; (Steady wisdom) according to Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13574" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13573" CreationDate="2016-06-07T12:22:36.350" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Para sympathetic state of mind is known as &lt;strong&gt;Stithpragya.&lt;/strong&gt; We all  live in the sympathetic states with period of anxiety and depression always .  In Bhagwat Gita Krishna described the stithpragya , state of mind as the state where both loss and gains does not affect an individual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are happy to see things through; when the going is good.  But in trying times, our happiness just disappears.&#xA;It is here that a balance is required to be maintained. In the Holy Gita, Lord Krishna taught Arjuna &lt;strong&gt;the process of maintaining equilibrium (Stith Pragya)&lt;/strong&gt; in all situations. Lord Krishna exhorted Arjuna to repose his entire faith in Him.  Krishna wanted Arjuna to play his role without worrying for the result of his actions. So, it is best to adjust with the circumstances when they do not seem favorable and wait for good times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now let's understand from the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;arjuna uvāca&#xA;sthita-prajñāsya kā bhāṣā samādhisthasya keśava |&#xA;sthita-dhīḥ kiṁ prabhāṣata kim āsīta vrajeta kim || 2.54 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna said:&#xA;  What is the mode of speech, O Krishna, of one of steady wisdom who is established in the&#xA;  control of the mind? What will one of steady wisdom say? How does he sit? How does he move?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śrī bhagavān uvāca&#xA;prajahāti yadā kāmān sarvān pārtha manogatān |&#xA;ātmany-evātmanā tuṣṭaḥ sthita-prajñās tad-ocyate || 2.55 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lord said: When one relinquishes all the desires arising in the mind, O Arjuna, when one is satisfied in&#xA;  oneself with the Self, then one is said to be of steady wisdom (sthita-prajña).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the highest form of devotion to enlightenment. Then, the lower state, not far below&#xA;it, of one established in steady intellect, is described;—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;duḥkheṣv-anudvigna-manāḥ sukheṣu vigata spṛhaḥ |&#xA;vīta-rāga bhaya krodhaḥ sthita-dhīr munir ucyate || 2.56 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One whose mind is not perturbed by pain, who does not hanker after pleasures, who is free&#xA;  from desire, fear and anger — is called a sage of steady intellect (sthita-dhi)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even when there are reasons for grief like separation from beloved ones, the enlightened&#xA;one’s mind is not perturbed. He has no craving for sense enjoyment, he has no hankering&#xA;for them. He is free from desire, fear and anger;— desire is craving for objects not yet&#xA;obtained. Fear is mental agitation produced by the awareness of factors which cause&#xA;separation from objects that one loves, or by encountering that which is undesirable.&#xA;Anger is a disturbed state of mind which produces aggression directed at another sentient&#xA;being who is perceived as the cause of separation from the beloved object or when&#xA;confronting what is undesirable. An aspirant of this sort, who constantly meditates on the&#xA;Self, is said to have attained steady intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yaḥ sarvatrān-abhisnehas tat tat prāpya śubhāśubham |&#xA;nābhinandati na dveṣṭi tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā || 2.57 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who has no attachment anywhere, who, when encountering the agreeable or the disagreeable&#xA;  feels neither attraction nor aversion — his wisdom is firmly established (prajñā-pratiṣṭhitā).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who has no attraction at all for pleasing objects, ie., who is indifferent to them, and who does not feel either attraction nor repulsion when involved with, or separated from attractive or repulsive objects respectively, who neither delights in the former, nor is repulsed by the latter — has attained established wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yadā saṁharate cāyaṁ kūrmo’ṅgānīva sarvaśaḥ |&#xA;indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā || 2.58 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When one is able to withdraw the senses from the objects of senses on every side, as a tortoise&#xA;  withdraws its limbs, then one's wisdom is firmly established.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When one is able to draw the sense-organs away from the sense-objects like a tortoise&#xA;withdrawing all its limbs, and fixing its mind on its Self — he too is said to have attained&#xA;steady wisdom.&#xA;Thus there are four stages in the progression to enlightenment38, each stage giving rise to&#xA;the succeeding stage. Now Sri Krishna speaks of the difficulties of [both] the attainment&#xA;of resolute dedication to enlightenment and the means of that attainment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is very important to maintain the steady wisdom,on the path of self-realization, but it is also very diffcult to maintain steady wisdom that is also declared by lord himself you can look out the Chapter 2 Sloka 59 onwards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But to reach Supreme Abode we have to be Steady and purely devoted to Supreme Lord Krishna (Narayan)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2016-06-08T17:38:31.880" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T17:38:31.880" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13575" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13559" CreationDate="2016-06-07T12:27:58.870" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20270/3/Chapter%201-20_759-838p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahma Puran of Gautami Mahatmya, Chapter-16, Page No.- 819&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When lord Brahma has created Ahalya, everyone wanted to marry her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On seeing her, Indra, Agni, Varuna and other devas told me sevarally, &quot;O Lord of&#xA;      Devas, she should be given to me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gautama had also made some effort to get Ahalya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Devas have gone, Gautama, the lord of sages, too made some effort like&#xA;      this for the sake of Ahalya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the meantime, O brahmin, the divine cow Kama-dhenu had partially delivered&#xA;      her calf. Gautama saw her thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Remembering &quot;This is the Earth&quot; be circumambulated her. Then he circumambulated&#xA;      the Linga of the lord of Devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After circumambulating both of them Gautama the excellent sage decided thus- &quot;Devas&#xA;      have not completed even one round of the Earth. I have completed two rounds.&quot; After&#xA;      deciding thus, that sage came near me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that Gautama has said these word to Lord Brahma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Brahma, the entire earth has been circumambulated by me. What is proper in this&#xA;      connection? O lord of Devas, you know it better yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord Brahma said following words to Gautama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By meditation I understood it and I said to Gautama: &quot;The lady of beautiful&#xA;      eyebrows will be given to you alone. The circumambulation has been completed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-08-24T10:28:14.193" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T10:28:14.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13576" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-07T13:23:41.240" Score="12" ViewCount="1632" Body="&lt;p&gt;The slaying of Rukmi by Lord Balarama is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/61&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_061.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harivamsa&lt;/a&gt; and  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp145.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/killingofrukmi.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This page&lt;/a&gt; gives a comparative study of all three texts as to how they differ in the details of the incident.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The basic story is summarised thus:&#xA;On the occasion of Krsna's grandson Aniruddha's marriage to Rochana, the granddaughter of Rukmi, Rukmi organised a game of dice, and was joined by the King of Kalinga, Ashmaka, Pandya and other kingdoms. Balarama agreed to play with Rukmi, and so placing their wealth as stakes began playing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Balarama was winning most of the time, Rukmi decided to cheat, and so he played deceitfully and boasted to Balarama that he won. Enraged by his deceit, Balarama lifted his mace and killed Rukmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The question is this&lt;/em&gt;: How does RUkmi's actions (cheating in the dice game) justify Balarama killing him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two more famous dice games in our scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The one between Nala and Pushkara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The one between Kauravas and Pandavas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In both the above games too, there is a lot of deceit involved. In the first case, Pushkara cheats in the game and exiles Nala, who after learning the art of dice, returns and wins back his kingdom from Pushkara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the second case, Shakuni cheats to a large extent, which causes the enslaving and mistreatment of Draupadi, following which due to Draupadi's virtuosity, the Pandavas are freed, &lt;em&gt;and they return to Indraprastha&lt;/em&gt; (after which they come back for the second game).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In both cases, the cheater is not punished with death, but is ousted in some way or the other. So how does Rukmi's deceit not grant him a punishment similar to the above two cases, but instead amounts to his death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2022-02-02T14:57:05.073" Title="How is Rukmi's killing by Balarama justified?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|dharma|vishnu-purana|balarama|harivamsa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13577" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13585" CreationDate="2016-06-07T16:19:00.263" Score="6" ViewCount="401" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the six kinds of renunciation that are mentioned in the Vedas or other Hindu scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-07-08T04:04:05.523" LastActivityDate="2016-09-30T05:45:35.133" Title="Can anyone tell me the six kinds of renunciation described in Hindu scripture?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13578" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14851" CreationDate="2016-06-07T16:28:32.183" Score="2" ViewCount="6240" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone tell me the different types of Astra(weapons) mentioned in the Mahabharata?&#xA;Thanks!!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2016-06-09T15:30:49.343" LastActivityDate="2019-01-25T05:07:29.680" Title="Different types of Astra (Weapons) which are mentioned in Mahabharata?" Tags="|scripture|weapon|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13579" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12257" CreationDate="2016-06-07T16:47:25.743" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Amarakosha gives the names Kalakuta and Halahala to the poison of the Nagas in Bhogivarga or The Section about Snakes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Amarapadavivrtti&lt;/strong&gt; Commentary By Lingayasuri gives the following meanings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kalakoota:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalavarnasya Kootah Iti - The poison (fumes) that is black in colour&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalam Yamam Api Kootayati Iti Va - That which burns even Yama, the god of Death&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Halahalam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Halati Vilikhati Jatharam Na Halati Cha - That which ploughs and twists the stomach while simultaneously straightening it (in short, torturing and re-torturing a person)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Amarapadaparijata&lt;/strong&gt; of Mallinatha says the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Halahalam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hrdaye Halahalam Mahad Visham - Halahala is a toxic poison to the heart (implying that it can cause instant death)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2016-06-07T16:47:25.743" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13580" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-07T16:55:35.717" Score="4" ViewCount="193" Body="&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia's many articles on Upanishads (e.g &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahma Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;, etc. many minor Upanishads) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Telugu anthology of 108 Upanishads of the Muktika canon, narrated by Rama to Hanuman, this Upanishad is listed at number...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I just want to know Is the concept of Muktika canon originated from any Telugu anthology? or Which Telugu anthology constitutes this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2016-06-07T16:55:35.717" Title="Muktika canon and Telugu anthology" Tags="|scripture|upanishads|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13581" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13582" CreationDate="2016-06-07T19:09:05.427" Score="4" ViewCount="9917" Body="&lt;p&gt;Today I've heard Swahas song &quot;Om namah Shivaya&quot; from album Salutations. There was text: &quot;Om namah Shivaya, Om namah Hari Hari&quot;. I was looking for meaning and founded bhajan &quot;Hari Om Namah Shivaya&quot;... What does it mean? I thought Hari is name of lord Vishnu... Does the word Hari have any other meanings? Thank you&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4985" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T19:47:28.107" Title="Meaning of Hari om namah Shivaya" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13582" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13581" CreationDate="2016-06-07T20:44:40.900" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;First we see the meaning of the Om,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mundaka Upanishad in the second Mundakam (part), suggests the&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om meaining&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;means to knowing the Self and the Brahman to be meditation, self-reflection and introspection, that can be aided by the symbol Om. It is life, it is speech, it is mind. That is the real. It is immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_Namah_Shivaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Om Namah Shivaya&lt;/a&gt; is one of the most beloved and ancient Hindu mantras. It comes from part of a Hindu prayer, the &lt;strong&gt;Shri Rudram Chamakam&lt;/strong&gt;, which is found in the second oldest of the vedic texts, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajurveda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;YajurVeda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om namah Shivay:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thespiritualsun.com/practices/texts/hindu/om-namah-shivaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a salutation to Shiva, meaning “I bow to Shiva.” It is also seen as a salutation to the divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Namah Shivaya is a panchaskara mantra, meaning it’s made up of five syllables or literally the five holy letters (na – mah – shi – vaa – ya). It is preceded by Om or Aum, which is said to be the sacred primordial sound. The five holy vowels are the seed sounds of the five elements of creation—earth, water, fire, air, and ether—and as one chants it, one is working through the process of creation in reverse, hence perhaps the mantra’s reputed power of destroying manifestations of sin and imperfections.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, you are right Hari refers to  &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu (Narayan)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hari Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri Chaitanya Upanishad Text 12 From the Atharva Veda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hari” means “He who unties [harati] the knot of material desire in the hearts of the living entities”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om namah Hari Hari&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a salutation to Lord Vishnu, meaning “I bow to Lord Vishnu.” It is also seen as a salutation to the divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But for Lord Narayan (Vishnu) there is described Mantra in Vedas is &lt;strong&gt;Om namo Narayan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Narayana Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Namo Narayanayeti mantra upasaka Vaikuntha bhuvanam gamishyati, or ‘Whosoever chants the „Om Namo Narayanaya mantra” reaches the ultimate goal Vaikuntha planet where one attains eternal enchanted life.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaikuntha is the supreme spiritual abode; there is nothing that exists beyond Vaikuntha, Vaikuntha signifies „no desires”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In your Question, Hari Om Namah Shivay, as I know there is no such mantra in vedas, it is man-made Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Harivamsha Parva of Mahabharata in 2.125.29:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Shivaya Vishnu roopaya , shivarupaya Vishnuve , shivashca hirdhayagam Vishnu , Vishnuscha hridayagam shive “&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva is in the form of Vishnu, as Vishnu is in the form of Shiva  . Shiva is in the heart of Vishnu as Vishnu is in the heart of Shiva. ONE CANNOT be without the OTHER.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Your Mantra is Only Combination of both Vaishnavites and Shaivites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hari= Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om=  knowing the Self and the Brahman to be meditation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Namah = Salutation (Bow down)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shivay= Lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope it will help you&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T19:47:28.107" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13583" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13584" CreationDate="2016-06-07T21:14:34.347" Score="6" ViewCount="480" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are the names of the quadruple expansion of the Supreme Lord Vishnu. We also know that they are described in many verses in Smriti literature like Puranas, Mahabharata, Pancaratra scriptures, etc.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are they mentioned anywhere in Shruti? I'm specifically interested to know whether one of them, Lord Aniruddha, is mentioned anywhere in Shruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="2790" LastEditDate="2017-02-15T23:41:40.200" LastActivityDate="2017-02-15T23:41:40.200" Title="Is Lord Aniruddha mentioned anywhere in Shruti?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|vaishnavism|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13584" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13583" CreationDate="2016-06-08T01:05:00.923" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aniruddha is mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/mudgala.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mudgala Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda, which explains the Purusha Sukta of the Rig Veda (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7661/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I. A SUMMARY OF PURUSHASUKTA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We shall explain the Purusha-sukta: In ‘a thousand-headed’ thousand means countless; the word ‘ten fingers’, means infinite distance, by the first stanza Vishnu’s pervasion in space is stated, by the second the pervasion in time; the third speaks of his giving liberation. The glory of Vishnu is given in ‘Etavan’ (so much is his greatness). The same stanza states his four-fold nature. ‘Tripad’ etc., &lt;strong&gt;speaks of the glory of Aniruddha&lt;/strong&gt;. In ‘from that Virat was born’ has been shown the origin of Prakriti and Purusha from a quarter of Hari. By ‘Yat Purushena’ the sacrifice of creation is stated as well as Moksha. In ‘Tasmad’ world creations are stated. ‘Vedaham’ speaks of Hari’s glory. By ‘Yajnena’ is stated the end of creation and liberation. One who knows it becomes liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;II. THE SUPREME MYSTERY&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Mudgalopanishad the greatness of Purusha-sukta has been stated in detail. Vasudeva instructed the knowledge of Bhagavan to Indra; again imparted to the humble Indra the great mystery with two sections of the Purusha-sukta. These two are: The Purusha described above gave up the object which was beyond the scope of name and form, hard for worldly people to understand and took a form with a thousand parts and capable of giving Moksha on sight, for uplifting the suffering Devas and others. In that form, pervading the world he was beyond it by an infinite distance. This Narayana was the Past, Present and the Future. And was the giver of Moksha to all. He is greater than the greatest – none is greater than He.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He made himself into four parts and with three of them exists in the heaven. &lt;strong&gt;By the fourth, the Aniruddha (for of) Narayana, all worlds have come to be.&lt;/strong&gt; This (part of) Narayana created Prakriti (Matter) for making the worlds (Prakriti stands for the four-faced Brahma). &lt;strong&gt;In full form the latter did not know the work of creation – this Aniruddha-Narayana told him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman ! Meditate upon your organs as the sacrifice, the firm body of the sheaths as the oblation, me as Agni, the spring season as ghee, summer as fuel, autumn as the six tastes of food and make the offering in Agni and touch the body – this will make the body (strong like) Vajra (diamond). Thence will appear the products like animals. From the, the world of moving and unmoving things. It must be understood that the manner of liberation is stated by the combination of Jiva and Paramatman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whoever knows this Creation and Liberation lives a full life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Mudgala Upanishad identifies the Sahasrashirsha Purusha praised in the Purusha Sukta with Vishnu's Vyuha form Aniruddha, just as the Pancharatra Agamas do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T04:03:07.883" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13585" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13577" CreationDate="2016-06-08T02:22:45.063" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The six kinds of renunciation are described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Sanatsujatiya, which is a dialogue between Dhritarashtra and the sage Sanatsujata (often equated with Sanatkumara) before the start of the Mahabharata war.  Here is what Sanatsujata says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The six kinds of renunciation are all commendable. They are these: The first is never experiencing joy on occasions of prosperity. The second is the abandonment of sacrifices, prayers, and pious acts. That which is called the third, O king, is the abandonment of desire or withdrawing from the world. Indeed, it is in consequence of this third kind of renunciation of desire, which is evidenced by the abandonment of all objects of enjoyment (without enjoying them) and not their abandonment after having enjoyed them to the fill, nor by abandonment after acquisition, nor by abandonment only after one has become incompetent to enjoy from loss of appetite. The fourth kind of renunciation consists in this: One should not grieve nor suffer his self to be afflicted by grief when one's actions fail, notwithstanding one's possession of all the virtues and all kinds of wealth. Or, when anything disagreeable happens, one feeleth no pain. The fifth kind of renunciation consists in not soliciting even one's sons, wives, and others that may all be very dear. The sixth kind consists in giving away to a deserving person who solicits, which act of gifts is always productive of merit. By these again, one acquires the knowledge of Self. As regards this last attribute, it involves eight qualities. These are truth, meditation, distinction of subject and object, capacity for drawing inferences, withdrawal from the world, never taking what belongeth to others, the practices of Brahmacharya vows (abstinence), and non-acceptance (of gifts).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm reminded of the Sadhana Saptaka, the sevenfold discipline of Bhakti Yoga followed by Sri Vaishnavas.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9325/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, it originates from Tanka's Chandogya Upanishad Vakya, which is an ancient pre-Shankara commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad that is now lost.  Here is how Ramanujacharya describes the Sadhana Saptaka in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48006.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Sri Bhashya, his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vâkyakâra also declares that steady remembrance results only from abstention, and so on; his words being 'This (viz. steady remembrance= meditation) is obtained through abstention (viveka), freeness of mind (vimoka), repetition (abhyâsa), works (kriyâ), virtuous conduct (kalyâna), freedom from dejection (anavasâda), absence of exultation (anuddharsha); according to feasibility and scriptural statement.' The Vâkyakâra also gives definitions of all these terms. Abstention (viveka) means keeping the body clean from all food, impure either owing to species (such as the flesh of certain animals), or abode (such as food belonging to a Kândâla or the like), or accidental cause (such as food into which a hair or the like has fallen). The scriptural passage authorising this point is Kh. Up. VII, 26, 'The food being pure, the mind becomes pure; the mind being pure, there results steady remembrance.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Freeness of mind (vimoka) means absence of attachment to desires. The authoritative passage here is 'Let him meditate with a calm mind' (Kh. Up. III, 14, 1). Repetition means continued practice. For this point the Bhâshya-kâra quotes an authoritative text from Smriti, viz.: 'Having constantly been absorbed in the thought of that being' (sadâ tadbhâvabhâvitah; Bha. Gî.VIII, 6). By 'works' (kriyâ) is understood the performance, according to one's ability, of the five great sacrifices. The authoritative passages here are 'This person who performs works is the best of those who know Brahman' (Mu. Up. III, 1, 4); and 'Him Brâhmanas seek to know by recitation of the Veda, by sacrifice, by gifts, by penance, by fasting' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 22).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By virtuous conduct (kalyânâni) are meant truthfulness, honesty, kindness, liberality, gentleness, absence of covetousness. Confirmatory texts are 'By truth he is to be obtained' (Mu. Up. III, 1, 5) and 'to them belongs that pure Brahman-world' (Pr. Up. I, 16).--That lowness of spirit or want of cheerfulness which results from unfavourable conditions of place or time and the remembrance of causes of sorrow, is denoted by the term 'dejection'; the contrary of this is 'freedom from dejection.' The relevant scriptural passage is 'This Self cannot be obtained by one lacking in strength' (Mu. Up. III, 2, 4). 'Exultation' is that satisfaction of mind which springs from circumstances opposite to those just mentioned; the contrary is 'absence of exultation.' Overgreat satisfaction also stands in the way (of meditation). The scriptural passage for this is 'Calm, subdued,' &amp;amp;c. (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 23).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vakyakara refers to Tanka, and the Bhashyakara refers to Dramidacharya who wrote a Bhashya or commentary on Tanka's Vakya.  Both Tanka and Dramidacharya were ancient commentators who lived long before the time of Adi Shankaracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-30T05:45:35.133" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13586" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13555" CreationDate="2016-06-08T03:57:26.450" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nitaibol! Gaudiya Vaishnav here. There is no mis-interpretation of the Mantra at all. All the Gaudiya Acharyas, from the time of Lord Chaitanya have quoted the Mahamantra to be:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, &#xA;Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The change to Hare Rama first, was made in recent manuscripts by Ramanandis who wished to give more importance to Lord Rama. Actually, you will see, there are some scholars, like Jagad Guru Ramabhadracharya who despite being a Ramanandi, sings the mantra with &quot;Hare Krsna&quot; first. The oldest surviving manuscript we have of Kali Santarana Upanisad is a 17th century copy with the commentary by the Advaitin scholar Brahmayogin Ramacandrendra Sarasvati. It is only from this copy, that the &quot;Hare Rama&quot; appears first. However I doubt the authenticity of that manuscript because we see already in the 15th Century, people were chanting the Mahamantra in its correct order of &quot;Hare Krsna&quot; first. We know this because Dhyanachandra Goswami, in his Gaura Govindarcana Smarana Paddhati quotes Sanat-Kumar Samhita as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;hare-krsnau dvir avrttau&#xA;krsna tadrk tatha hare&#xA;hare rama tatha rama&#xA;tatha tadrg ghare manuh&#xA;hare krsna hare krsna&#xA;krsna krsna hare hare&#xA;hare rama hare rama&#xA;rama rama hare hare&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The words ‘Hare Krsna’ are to be repeated twice, then ‘Krsna’ and ‘Hare’ are to be repeated separately twice. Similarly, ‘Hare Rama’, ‘Rama’ and ‘Hare’ are also repeated twice. The mantra will thus be – Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also the order of the Mahamantra found in scriptures such as Brahmananda Purana, Vayu Purana and also later Chaitanya Upanisad and Ananta Samhita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is natural that many people in other sampradayas will consider these references as interpolations . We can also say the same in case of them . We have the references intact from our acharyas who were true vairagis and need no interpolation to prove themselves . The whole world is a witness to their scholarship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are instances where Srila Jiva Goswami in his sandarbhas has referred to the scriptural quotes presented by Sri Madhavacharya without actually verifying them . Srila Madhavacharya is our sampradaya acharya . Sri Jiva had faith in the scholarship of Madhavacharya . Similarly our faith in the words of our sampradaya acharyas is intact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nowadays many references are lost in time and the world knows very well that only a few percent of the entire vedic texts exists today . So there is no point arguing with sastric  references the acharyas provided 500 years ago . Some might be lost in time but the knowledge is preserved in their books and available to us. This is the importance of knowledge transferred through guru parampara . This is the importance of being connected through a bonafide sampradaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nitaibol!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4381" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T03:57:26.450" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13587" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12523" CreationDate="2016-06-08T04:18:13.503" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nitaibol!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It depends on which Sampradaya you follow. The traditional 2 Vaishnav schools (Sri Vaishnavs and Dvaitins) believe that there is only Vaikuntha. We Gaudiyas believe that there are Vaikuntha planets, but many varieties according to the mood of the devotee. Most of the reference of Goloka comes from Sri Brahma Samhita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sahasra-patra-kamalaḿ&#xA;  gokulākhyaḿ mahat padam&#xA;  tat-karṇikāraḿ tad-dhāma&#xA;  tad-anantāḿśa-sambhavam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The superexcellent station of Kṛṣṇa, which is known as Gokula, has thousands of petals and a corolla like that of a lotus sprouted from a part of His infinitary aspect, the whorl of the leaves being the actual abode of Kṛṣṇa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;catur-asraḿ tat-paritaḥ&#xA;  śvetadvīpākhyam adbhutam&#xA;  catur-asraḿ catur-mūrteś&#xA;  catur-dhāma catuṣ-kṛtam&#xA;  caturbhiḥ puruṣārthaiś ca&#xA;  caturbhir hetubhir vṛtam&#xA;  śūlair daśabhir ānaddham&#xA;  ūrdhvādho dig-vidikṣv api&#xA;  aṣṭabhir nidhibhir juṣṭam&#xA;  aṣṭabhiḥ siddhibhis tathā&#xA;  manu-rūpaiś ca daśabhir&#xA;  dik-pālaiḥ parito vṛtam&#xA;  śyāmair gauraiś ca raktaiś ca&#xA;  śuklaiś ca pārṣadarṣabhaiḥ&#xA;  śobhitaḿ śaktibhis tābhir&#xA;  adbhutābhiḥ samantataḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[The surrounding external plane of Gokula is described in this verse.] There is a mysterious quadrangular place named Śvetadvīpa surrounding the outskirts of Gokula. Śvetadvīpa is divided into four parts on all sides. The abode of Vāsudeva, Sańkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are separately located in each of these four parts. These four divided abodes are enveloped by the fourfold human requirements such as piety, wealth, passion and liberation, as also by the four Vedas, viz., Ṛg, Sāma, Yajur and Atharva, which deal with the mantra and which are the bases of achievements of the fourfold mundane requirements. Ten tridents are fixed in the ten directions, including the zenith and nadir. The eight directions are decorated with the eight jewels of Mahāpadma, Padma, Śańkha, Makara, Kacchapa, Mukunda, Kunda, and Nīla. There are ten protectors [dik-pālas] of the ten directions in the form of mantra. The associates of the hues of blue, yellow, red and white and the extraordinary potencies bearing the names of Vimala, etc., shine on all sides.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Chaitanya Upanisad, we are also told that Goloka Dhama is divided into two compartments (one for Krsna Lila and one for Gaura Lila):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;rahasyasn te vadisyarni—jahnavi-tire navadvipe golokakhye dhamni govindo dvi-bhujo gaurah sarvatma maha-puruso rnahatma maha-yogi tri- gunatitah satva-rupo bhakti Ioke kasyatiti, tad ete sloka bhavanti (5)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Brahma replied, &quot;I will tell you the confidential truth. On the bank of the Jahnavi, in Navadvipa Dhama, which is known as Goloka, Govinda with two arms, golden complexion, the Supersoul, the greatest Personality, the greatest Yogi, the Supreme Being, Who is transcendental to the modes of nature, and Whose form is truth, will appear to manifest devotional service ( bhakti ) in this world. These verses describe that.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also many references to Goloka in Narada Pancaratra (tat sarvopari goloke; goloko nitya-vaikuntho yathakaso yatha disah - &quot;The eternal spiritual world of Goloka is situated in the spiritual sky.&quot; ), Brahmavaivarta Purana 4.1.14, 4.9.14,15, 4.67.60 and Harivamsa (Visnu Parva 19 - gavam eva tu goloko).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as what my Gurudev has told me, there are the Vaikuntha Planets (with all the Visnus with different four hand combination), then there is Ayodhya (where Lord Rama resides), then there is Goloka (where Lord Krsna and Gaura reside).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4381" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T04:18:13.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13588" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3825" CreationDate="2016-06-08T04:57:27.333" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Unabridged Shiva Maha Purana is now available in text searchable format on archive.org. This is the same Motilal Banarsidas Edition. Download PDF with text format.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/SivaPuranaJ.L.ShastriPart1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/SivaPuranaJ.L.ShastriPart2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/SivaPuranaJ.L.ShastriPart3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/SivaPuranaJ.L.ShastriPart4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;if you want to read Shiva Maha Purana in Sanskrit with English translation, read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Purana on Indian Scriptures&lt;/a&gt;. This version is not text searchable. BTW, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indianscriptures&lt;/a&gt; is very good site if you want to read scriptures in both Sanskrit and English.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additionally, if you are interested you can read complete Linga Maha Purana in text searchable format there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/LingaPuranaJ.L.ShastriPart1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/LingaPuranaJ.L.ShastriPart2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Voume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Visit &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/linga-mahapurana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indian Scriptures&lt;/a&gt;, if you want read in both Sanskrit and English.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T05:10:29.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13590" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-06-08T04:58:21.720" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-06-08T04:58:21.720" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T04:58:21.720" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13591" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-06-08T04:58:21.720" Score="0" Body="Questions about Vishishtadvaita (literally &quot;Advaita with uniqueness; qualifications&quot;) , a sub school of Vedanta philosophy propounded by Sri Ramanujacharya that describes the self and universe as an essential (non-separable) part of Brahman." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-06-08T05:52:45.423" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T05:52:45.423" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13592" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-06-08T05:06:17.840" Score="0" Body="&lt;h3&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvaita_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dvaita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dvaita is a sub school in the Vedanta philosophy which was founded in 13th century by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhvacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Madhvacharya&lt;/a&gt;. The word Dvaita is a Sanskrit word which means duality or dualism. It believes that paramatma (God) and jivatma (living beings) are separate entities. This is in contrast to the advaita philosophy which believes that God and the human soul is one. The Haridasa school of music is also strongly related to the Dvaita school. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Important People in the Dvaita Lineage&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhvacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Madhvacharya&lt;/a&gt; - Founder of Dvaita philosophy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabha_Tirtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padmanabha Tirtha&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naraharitirtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Naraharitirtha&lt;/a&gt; - Disciples of Madhvacharya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayatirtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jayatirtha&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyasatirtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vyasatirtha&lt;/a&gt; - who along with Madhvacharya, are called as the Dvaita Munitraya or triumvirate of dvaita philosophers.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayendra_Tirtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vijayendra Tirtha&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadiraja_Tirtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vadiraja Tirtha&lt;/a&gt; - Disciples of Vyasatirtha, who spread the philosophy deep into south India.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raghavendra_Tirtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Raghavendra Tirtha&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4459" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-02T12:44:46.563" LastActivityDate="2018-02-02T12:44:46.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13593" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-06-08T05:06:17.840" Score="0" Body="Questions about Dvaita (literally duality or dualism), a sub school of Vedanta philosophy propounded by Madhvacharya that is a dualistic interpretation of scriptures and describes the real difference between individual souls, matter and God." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-06-08T05:10:48.313" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T05:10:48.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13596" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11149" CreationDate="2016-06-08T07:43:48.863" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a common popular misconception in People that according to Advaita World doesn't exist at all. It is not true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we are deciding reality of things as per Advaita. Then, Advaita itself gives three level of reality to us:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)Paramarthika Satyam/ Absolute Reality level &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;2)Vyavaharika Satyam/ Ishwara Shristi level &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;3)Pratibhasika Satyam/ Jeeva Shristi level &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have given their definition &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11295/what-is-the-position-of-mayaillusion-as-per-advaita-doctrine-or-according-to/12347#12347&quot;&gt;with examples in my answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now applying the popular statement:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Brahman Satyam Jagan Mithya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in all these three reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1)Applying in Paramarthika Satyam level:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this level there is neither Ishwara nor Maya. Just Brahman exist in Sat-Chid-Aananda form. It is somewhat like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is neither dissolution nor creation, none in bondage and none practicing disciplines. There is none seeking Liberation and none liberated. This is the absolute truth. &lt;em&gt;[Gaudapada Karika Chapter 2 verse 32]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is neither creation nor destruction in this level. As there is neither creation nor destruction. Hence world doesn't exist at all in this level. &lt;strong&gt;So here 'Mithya' means 'Unreal' or that which doesn't exist.&lt;/strong&gt; Brahman is both real and truth as truth is real and real is truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2)Applying in Vyavaharika Satyam level:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This level is Ishwara Shristi. The Universe which we see and perceive now is through the Maya of Ishwara. So Universe exists at this level (through the Maya of Ishwara). But Universe which we see and perceive now is of this kind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a thing is non—existent both in the beginning and in the end, it is necessarily non—existent in the present. The objects that we see are really like illusions; still they are regarded as real. &lt;em&gt;[GaudaPada Karika Chapter 2 verse 6]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the objects created in this Universe were non-existent in the beginning and also will not exist in future, so being real (for a certain time being) also is actually like an illusion. &lt;strong&gt;So from the level of Vyavaharik Satyam level 'Mithya' means unworthy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3)Applying in Pratibhasika Satyam level:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no need to apply in this level. As this level is Jeeva Shristi. ie. Created by ourselves like dream, seeing rope as snake, hallucinations etc.. So, by the direct perception from Vyavaharik level we know these things are unreal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the reality of something in Advaita depends on from which level of reality are we perceiving the truth. &lt;strong&gt;From Absolute level of reality world doesn't exist. So, mithya means 'Unreal' here. From Ishwara Shristi level world objects are there but they are for a time being only hence Mithya means 'Unworthy' from this level.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-04T10:45:53.423" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13597" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13598" CreationDate="2016-06-08T09:28:18.617" Score="28" ViewCount="19467" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a popular verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शिवाय विष्णुरूपाय शिवरूपाय विष्णवे । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिवस्य हृदयं विष्णुर्विष्णोश्च हृदयं शिवः ॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;“Shivaya VishnuRoopaya , Shivarupaya Vishnave , Shivasya hirdayam VishnurVishnoscha hridayam Shivah “&lt;br&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shiva is in the form of Vishnu, as Vishnu is in the form of Shiva . Shiva is in the heart of Vishnu as Vishnu is in the heart of Shiva. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nnMHK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nnMHK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Hari-Hara&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;However, Some people are always in debate regarding Supremacy of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. In the Puranas also Shaiva Puranas call Shiva as Lord of Vishnu and Vaishnava Puranas call Vishnu as Lord of Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there some statement in scripture calling Vishnu as Lord of Shiva and Shiva as Lord of Vishnu ? If it is, where is it stated ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-06T14:46:42.293" LastActivityDate="2019-03-05T12:40:52.597" Title="Where is the mention of 'Shiva is Supreme Lord of Vishnu and Vishnu is Supreme Lord of Shiva'?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|shiva|scripture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13598" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13597" CreationDate="2016-06-08T09:30:01.150" Score="30" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva being Supreme Lord of Vishnu and Lord Vishnu being Supreme Lord of Shiva is stated in &lt;strong&gt;Harivamsa Parva of Mahabharata in 2.125.41&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रुद्रस्य परमो विष्णुर्विष्णोश्च परम: शिवः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एक एव द्विधा भूतो लोके चरति नित्यसः ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;rudrasya paramo viShNurviShNoshcha paramaH shivaH |&lt;br&gt;eka eva dvidhA bhUto loke charati nityashaH ||2.125.41&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The supreme lord of Rudra (Shiva) is Vishnu and the supreme lord of Vishnu is Shiva. The same lord is moving in the world always in two forms.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in Harivamsha Parva of Mahabharata in 2.125.29&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिवाय विष्णुरूपाय विष्णवे शिवरूपिणे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथान्तरं न पश्यमि तेन तौ दिशतः शिवम् ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;shivAya viShNurUpAya viShNave shivarUpiNe |&lt;br&gt;yathAntaraM na pashyAmi tena tau dishataH shivam || 2.125.29&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva is in the form of Vishnu and Vishnu is in the form of Shiva. There is no difference between them and both provide Auspiciousness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-06T14:37:52.840" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T14:37:52.840" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13600" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-08T10:19:22.350" Score="5" ViewCount="7035" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question concerns vibhishana and sugreeva of ramayana. After Vibhishana was made the king of Lanka and Sugreeva returned to rishyamukh hill what happened to them after that and how did they die?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4825" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-20T04:35:10.997" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T04:35:16.473" Title="What happened to vibhishana and sugreeva?" Tags="|ramayana|vibhishana|sugriva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13601" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13603" CreationDate="2016-06-08T11:05:54.760" Score="7" ViewCount="13845" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are different symbols present on Lord Vishnu's Lotus Feet, I found from Internet,But my question is that what they represent and Is there any evidence in Scripture and Is there any meaning behind this symbols.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/w57xj.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/w57xj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lhQ4F.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lhQ4F.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7Qkwc.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7Qkwc.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-06-18T08:42:38.367" LastActivityDate="2017-05-03T06:53:47.633" Title="Symbol's Meaning on Lord Vishnu's Lotus feet?" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|symbols|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13602" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13605" CreationDate="2016-06-08T11:19:12.227" Score="3" ViewCount="406" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do all VedAnta philosophies, that is, philosophies based on badarAyana's brahma sutra, reject creation of souls by God? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-10-21T04:00:21.403" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T04:00:21.403" Title="Soul-creation and Vedanta" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|atma|brahma-sutras|jiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-06-08T15:26:37.487" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13603" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13601" CreationDate="2016-06-08T13:05:29.850" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jaya Nitai! Accept my Pranams. My Gurudeva compiled a few meanings of these auspicious marks on the hands and feet of the Lord, which you can read here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/Essays_and_Articles/Other_Essays/Nityananda-gauranga-kara-pada-yugala-dhyana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://nitaaiveda.com/Essays_and_Articles/Other_Essays/Nityananda-gauranga-kara-pada-yugala-dhyana.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note, here my Gurudev is talking about the marks on the Lotus Feet and Hands of Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga Bhagavan (whom we Gaudiyas worship as non-different from Sri Sri Balaram Krsna), so these meanings can also be applied to Lord Vishnu too.  The Gaudiya acharyas wrote quite a lot on this. Jiva Goswami wrote a short work called &quot;Shri-kara-pada-yugala-samsmrti&quot;, which reveals the meanings of the marks on the Lotus Hands of Sri Radha Krsna. You can read the descriptions from that here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.radhakunda.com/personalities/lotus_feet_krsna.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.radhakunda.com/personalities/lotus_feet_krsna.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the closest I can find online, to the meanings of these auspicious symbols. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;edit: So I will give you a few quotes of the most important marks:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Conch (shankha) - This auspicious mark indicates that those who take shelter of&#xA;  The Lord lotus feet are always rescued from all sorts of distress. Just as during the arati ceremony the conchshell is used to hold water that is offered directly after the fire of the ghee-lamp, similarly His feet hold transcendental water that soothes Their devotees from the blazing fire of material miseries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fish (matsya) - This mark shows that just as a fish cannot live without water,&#xA;  similarly the surrendered devotees cannot live a moment with-out directly&#xA;  associating with The lotus feet of the Lord and His Holy Names.It also means that the mind is very fickle, just like a fish who wavers this way and that, and so only after much medita-tion on Their lotus feet while chanting Their Holy Names it will finally become steady and fixed of the Lord. It also indicates that Their feet will come to live in one's heart only if the heart has been liquified by soft loving emotions; Their feet do not thrive where&#xA;  it is dry. And it is a reminder that during the great universal devastation and flood Lord Hari assumed the form of Matsya, the fish-incarnation, and thereby saved His devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lotus (kamala) - This mark increases greed for nectar in the minds of the&#xA;  beelike devotees who meditate on The lotus feet of The Lord. Furthermore,&#xA;  This mark also shows that the goddess of fortune, Shri Lakshmi Devi, always&#xA;  resides at His feet rendering humble service. It signifies that His feet are&#xA;  so soft that they can only be compared to lotus petals; indeed, upon first&#xA;  glancing at Their lotus feet. you would think you are directly seeing fresh&#xA;  lotus blossoms. It also reveals that just as a lotus blooms by day and contracts&#xA;  by night, similarly those who remain steeped in meditation on the Lotus Feet and&#xA;  Holy Names of Their Lordships always feel the blossoming unfolding of' brilliant spiritual ecstacies that dispel the darkness of ignorance. This mark also indicates that just as bees live inside lotus flowers, similarly the minds of the Vaishnavs always reside in the nectar of Their lotus feet. It also shows that this lotus (or consciousness of Their lotus feet) will not grow unless there is profusion of prema-jala or the water of pure divine love.&#xA;  It also means that the bee of the devotee's mind cannot fly beyond the bondage&#xA;  of gyana (speculative knowledge) and vairagya (renunciation) without the&#xA;  temptation offered by the superior nectar of Their lotus feet. It denotes that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Barleycorn - This mark signifies that the devotees of The Lord receive all enjoyable opulences of prosperity by serving Their feet. It also means that once one finds shelter at Their feet and Holy Name, then the devotee's former journey through many many births and deaths is actually very tiny, just like a single grain of barley. It further demonstrates that just as the barley grains are the sustenance of life for living beings, similarly it is widely celebrated that Their glorious feet are the nourishment for all souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Disc (chakra) - This mark cuts down the six enemies of The devotees of The Lord - lust. anger, greed, illusion, envy, and bewilderment. It indicates tejas or the principle of brilliance by which. They destroy the darkness of sin from within Their own devotees' hearts.Furthermore, this mark on Krsna's feet shows that He is the ruler of His own kingdoms formed by the circle of Navadvipa-mandala and Vraja-mandala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Half-moon (ardha-chandra) - This mark symbolizes how The lotus feet of Their&#xA;  Lordships truly accomplish the desired objectives of the devotees. It signifies that even gods like Lord Shiva have decorated their own heads with the soles of Their feet and their mouths by Their Holy Name. It also shows that devotees who likewise decorate their own heads with Their feet can become exalted like Shiva. Just as the moon showers nectar with its cooling rays, similarly Their feet shower nectar upon Their devotees, extinguishing the three-fold material miseries. So that the minds of thedevotees may reside at Their feet. They bear the symbol of the moon (which is the devata or presiding deity of the mind) upon Their feet. Just as the moon is one, yet destroys the darkness seen by many people simultaneously, similarly the Lord Gauranga is one and yet by His cleverness can deliver many souls at the same time. The half-moon also indicates that since Their toenails appear like ten splendorous full moons, the real moon has shriveled up in shame and appears in half-form. It also means that the half-hearted attempts of those who are abhakta (improperly devoted), kurasika (relishing transcendental topics with the wrong attitude); and kutila (crooked or duplicious) cannot approach Their&#xA;  feet. Also, just as the half-moon is in the process of increasing, similarly the&#xA;  benefit for one who is day-by-day expanding the glorification of Their feet and&#xA;  Holy Names in a spotless manner certainly increases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more beautiful meaning but there are the primary ones. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4381" LastEditorUserId="4381" LastEditDate="2016-06-08T14:16:52.600" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T14:16:52.600" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13604" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12517" CreationDate="2016-06-08T13:37:09.427" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Anyway, if I may, I would like to explain our reasoning behind why we accept unorthodox scriptures like the Brahma Samhita. There is unfortunately a lot of misconceptions about Gaudiya Vaishnavism and this is soiling the view the Hindu community has of it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, in Hinduism there are a lot of sects and sampradayas and they all have, at times, quite differing beliefs. This is because the acharyas of those sects use different shastras in order to support their siddhanta. The categorization of the Puranas, for example, as sattva,raja and tamo and the verses that contribute to this are accepted by the Vaishnav schools, but rejected by the others. Some Hindu Sampradayas accept only the Karma Khanda portions of the Vedas and reject the Upanishads. Even in the study of Vedanta, there is a lot of difference. The traditional 3 schools of Vedanta (Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhavacharya) focus on the prasthana-trayi, while we Gaudiyas for example, focus on Srimad Bhagavatam (as we interpret that to be the essence of Vedanta).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What, in essence, I am saying is that even Vedic authority derives itself from the Guru Parampara. It is the foundation of all knowledge, because the Guru (and acharyas) tell us which scripture is authentic and which are interpolated. That is why, we Gaudiyas accept Brahma Samhita, because it was a shastra which was believed by our acharyas (like Jiva Goswami and Bhaktivinoda Thakur) to be authentic. In Chaitanya Charitamrta it is told that Lord Chaitanya traveled to South India (Tamil Nadu) and found a copy of one chapter of the Samhita and copied it by hand. So Brahma Samhita is authentic to us, and the evidence is because Lord Chaitanya and our Acharyas accept it. In-fact this is the case for many if not all Sampradayas. For example one may raise the question; &quot;Why should we accept the Prasthana Trayi? Such a concept is in-fact not found anywhere in Sruti or Smrti&quot; The answer to that of-course is we accept Prathana Trayi because we have faith in the words of Acharyas like Sankaracharya and Ramanunajacharya who accepted them also. The source of all knowledge is in actuality faith in the Acharyas. Trying to approach the scriptures in any other way, will often lead a student to great confusion. That is why Sruti declares:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau &lt;br&gt;&#xA;     tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ prakāśante mahātmanaḥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed. (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.23)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4381" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T10:55:48.663" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T10:55:48.663" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13605" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13602" CreationDate="2016-06-08T14:52:39.543" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, all Vedantic philosophies say the Jiva does not originate from Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;  In Adhyaya 2 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras, the defining text of the Vedanta school, Vyasa says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Topic-11: Origin of the Soul &lt;br&gt;&#xA;17. The individual soul has no origin; because the Upanishads do not mention this, because its eternality is known from them and (because of other reasons).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the commentators on the Brahma Sutras agree on this issue.  Here is what Adi Shankaracharya says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Brahma Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a Self called the living one (the individual soul), which rules the body and the senses, and is connected with the fruits of actions. With regard to that Self the conflict of scriptural passages suggests the doubt, whether it is produced from Brahman like ether and the other elements, or if, like Brahman itself, it is unproduced. Some scriptural passages, by comparing it to sparks proceeding from a fire and so on, intimate that the living soul is produced from Brahman; from others again we learn that the highest Brahman, without undergoing any modification, passes, by entering into its effects (the elements), into the condition of the individual soul. These latter passages do not thus record an origination of the individual soul....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To all this we reply, that the individual soul is not a product.--Why?--On account of the absence of scriptural statement. For in the chapters which treat of the creation, the production of the soul is, in most cases, not mentioned.--But, it was admitted above that the circumstance of something not being stated in some places does not invalidate the statements made about it elsewhere.--True, that was admitted; but we now declare that the production of the soul is not possible.--Why?--'On account of the eternity, &amp;amp;c., resulting from them' (i.e. the scriptural passages). The word '&amp;amp;c.' implies non-originatedness and similar attributes.... From all this it follows that the individual soul does not either originate or undergo destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Ramanujacharya says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48264.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sûtras so far have stated that this entire world, from Ether downwards, originates from the highest Brahman. It now becomes a matter for discussion whether the individual soul also originates in the same way or not.... To this the Sûtra replies, 'Not the Self, on account of scriptural statement.' The Self is not produced, since certain texts directly deny its origination; cp. 'the intelligent one is not born nor does he die' (Ka. Up. I, 2, 18); 'There are two unborn ones, one intelligent and strong, the other non-intelligent and weak' (Svet. Up. I, 9). And the eternity of the soul is learned from the same texts, cp. 'There is one eternal thinker,' &amp;amp;c. (Ka. Up. II,5, 13); 'Unborn, eternal, everlasting is that ancient one; he is not killed though the body is killed' (Ka. Up. I, 2, 18).--For these reasons the soul is not produced.... Texts such as 'Pragâpati sent forth the creatures,' which declare the origination of the soul, really mean only to state that the souls are by turns associated with or dissociated from bodies--the effect of which is that their intelligence is either contracted or expanded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Madhvacharya says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RnRkn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Brahma Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the text &amp;quot;He who is the eternal of the eternal&amp;quot; (Kath. V. 13), the indestructability has been said of the individual soul too.  There is another text which says, &amp;quot;All these intelligent beings proceed (from their mother's womb)&amp;quot; hence there is a conflict between the texts.  To reconcile them, the Sutrakara says: ... Though the soul is eternal, still it is possible to speak of him as being born, with reference to the (embodied) condition (to which he is subjected).  And this is said in the Vyoma Samhita. &amp;quot;From the eternal Lord the eternal beings of intelligence are born.  It is with reference to the condition of their bodily existence, birth or creation is predicated of them (souls).&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Baladeva Vidyabhushana says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/cKft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Govinda Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because he is the origin of everything, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has no other origin from which He was created.  This has already been described.  Now we will determine the nature of the individual spirit soul.  Fist the idea that the individual soul has an origin will be refuted.... The individual spirit soul was never created. Why not?  The Sutra explains: &amp;quot;shruteh&amp;quot; (because of the statements of Shruti-shastra).  In Katha Upanishad (1.2.18) it is said: ... &amp;quot;O wise one, for the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time.  He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being.  He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, and primeval.  He is not slain when the body is slain.&amp;quot;  That the individual spirit soul was never born is also declares in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (1.9) ... &amp;quot;Neither the Supreme Personality of Godhead nor the individual spirit souls were ever born.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Srikantha Shivacharya says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sxnkw.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Srikantha Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the former section, Akasha, etc., are said to have been born directly from Brahman.  Here a doubt arises as to whether, on the same principle, jiva also is born of Brahman or not.... Atman is not born; for the shruti declares &amp;quot;the intelligent has neither born nor death;&amp;quot; ... The Shruti illustrating creation by sparks of fire only points to their manifestation in name and form, but not to their birth; otherwise it would involve the fallacy of one's deeds being destroyed without yielding their fruits, and to other such fallacies.  Wherefore jiva is not born of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, here is what Nimbarka says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/ZpwJ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Vedanta Parijata Saurabha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The individual soul does not originate.  Why?  Because there is no text about its having origin by nature; and because from the scriptural texts 'A wise man is neither born nor dies' (Katha. 2.18) 'Eternal among the eternal' (Katha 5.13) 'An unborn one, verily, lies by, enjoying' (Shvet. 4.5) and so on, the eternity of the individual soul is known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are all the commentaries on the Brahma Sutras I have, and they're unanimous in their conclusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, you may be wondering, if the Jiva is eternal and never originated from Brahman, what has it been doing with its time?  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, it has taken infinitely many births going infinitely far back in time, without any starting point.  Here is what Adi Shankaracharya says in another section of his Brahma Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[F]or although the activity of the soul is not independent, yet the soul does act. The Lord indeed causes it to act, but it acts itself. Moreover, the Lord in causing it to act now has regard to its former efforts, and he caused it to act in a former existence, having regard to its efforts previous to that existence; &lt;strong&gt;a regressus against which, considering the eternity of the samsâra, no objections can be raised.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, there are some people who accept the authority of the Upanishads but not the Brahma Sutras.  This applies to many philosophical Shaivites, for instance many adherents of Shaiva Siddhanta sect as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10296/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Now there are some Shaiva Siddhantins who do subscribe to the Vedanta school, like Srikantha Shivacharya whom I quoted above.  But others reject the Brahma Sutras, and in particular the Saiva Siddhanta Church believes that the Jiva does originate from Brahman as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8919/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But if we are defining the Vedanta school in terms of adherence to the Brahma Sutras, then the Vedanta school is unanimous in its verdict that the Jiva never originated from Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-26T15:16:25.103" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13606" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13583" CreationDate="2016-06-08T18:09:49.543" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Aniruddha together with Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa and Pradyumna is mentioned in the Gopala tapani Upanishad of the Paippalada branch of the Atharva Veda:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sribabaji.org/mgm_data/files/Sri_Gopala-Tapani_Upanishad.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sribabaji.org/mgm_data/files/Sri_Gopala-Tapani_Upanishad.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 101&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om. Obeisances to Krishna, who is Vasudeva, Sankarsana,&#xA;  Pradyumna, and &lt;strong&gt;Aniruddha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 48   There are these verses: Lord Krishna, accompanied by  His&#xA;  three potencies, and by Balarama, &lt;strong&gt;Aniruddha&lt;/strong&gt;,  Pradyumna, and Rukmini,&#xA;  stays in delightful Mathura Puri, which is worshipped by Brahma and&#xA;  the  other demigods and protected by the conch, cakra, club, and&#xA;  sarnga bow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Text 48 (b)   These four names are identical with the name Om.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2016-06-08T18:09:49.543" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13608" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10691" CreationDate="2016-06-09T04:15:47.960" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanumaan did not know Mandodari by her name for sure.&#xA;Ravana's wife Mandodari was a good soul. It is said that her divinity was one of the great strength for Ravana. &#xA;When Hanumaan was in search of Sita, he mistook mandodari for Sita sighting her divinity.&#xA;But with one reason he decided that it was not Sita. That reason was, a &quot;pathi Baktha&quot; like Sita will surely not be able to have such a deep sleep with out any worry when she is away from her husband Rama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With only this Hanumman decided it has to be Mandodari who was sleeping under the tree undisturbed and happily and it could not be Sita Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6836" LastActivityDate="2016-06-09T04:15:47.960" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13609" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="881" CreationDate="2016-06-09T07:17:44.227" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every religion teaches us that we all are children of God, we all are from same family. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe in the concept of &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasudhaiva_Kutumbakam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;vasudheva kutumbhakam&lt;/a&gt;&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Still the holy scripts or religious books of every religion ask us to follow one particular God because it is easy for us get confused and our mind starts contradicting one belief if we listen to the other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mythology, may it be of any religion, is contradicting in itself as it is either narration, edited version, translation etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Somewhere I feel it has lost its true meaning and message behind these holy scripts, that was originally about humanity, love and compassion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We all are fighting on one topic and trying to prove our point, &quot;my religion is better than yours, or it is the only true religion&quot;. All this for what purpose, I don't understand this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the message is same, why argue, why can't we be different and still love each other, irrespective of our religious beliefs and differences. When God loves all equally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever religious beliefs one follows, it doesn't mean to be disrespectful of other's beliefs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You want to seek God you'll find everywhere or you want find differences, you'll find that too. It's up to you what you seek. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worshipping Jesus or any other way is completely your personal choice. Faith in God doesn't need approvals from human. Believe what you feel is right and try and keep positive emotions. Worship God not religions. God is only one, religions are many. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6837" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2016-06-09T14:34:51.230" LastActivityDate="2016-06-09T14:34:51.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13610" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-09T08:05:20.870" Score="1" ViewCount="91" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every time I come across a religious scripts on how to meditate on gods name, first that comes in why can't we all come together as one. Why can't we project God &amp;amp; Humanity above all and focus on verses or sayings from different religious scripts that unites us, brings us together. Is it so difficult? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not much into religious activities or rituals,but yes I had the privilege of visiting various worship place, including churches, temples, dargahs, gurdwaras. I still go whenever I get chance. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All I do is meditation. I've read this blog and found you guys have very good knowledge of religious scripts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And curiosity bug bit me, can we find verses from different religious books with simlar meaning. I beleive we can, or I should say &quot;you guys can&quot;. You're really good at it as you all are thoroughly knowledgeable. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So guys it's my humble request let's project God's universalism and humanity, love and compassion. We already have had enough of this religious intolerance issues recently. Let's work towards peace, all we have is one home planet - earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God bless you all&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6837" LastEditorUserId="6837" LastEditDate="2016-06-09T08:10:29.530" LastActivityDate="2016-06-09T08:10:29.530" Title="God as Universal religion, humanity as prayer" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-06-09T08:19:48.670" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13611" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9537" CreationDate="2016-06-09T08:30:35.600" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;All divya astras are weapons of a single divine energy &quot; &lt;strong&gt;Tejas&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; or ﬁery energy.” .&#xA;This energy is channelled into the physical world by their wielders, with the &lt;strong&gt;correct mantras&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;Through incantations (mantras)a divya astra is generally united with a normal weapon (sastra) typically arrows – which&#xA;obviously makes the Divine astra very very effective. Divine weapons are closely connected with  emotions such as rage and anger. When unleashed they&#xA;invoke all the raw power of a warrior’s fury,  infused with the tejas of the gods, and thus are capable of laying waste hundreds of opponents&#xA;in one concentrated act of violence &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most divine weapons are named after the deities who preside over them, and, in general, they manifest the natural phenomena associated&#xA;with the particular powers they reﬂect. For example, the &quot;Agneya astra&quot; (“Fire-weapon”) belonging to Agni, the god of ﬁre and&#xA;the Vaarun astra (“Water-weapon”) belonging to Varun . a, the water deity, creates water. Thus, a large array of divine weapons exists,&#xA;which produce storms, lightning, ﬁre, wind, typhoons, mountains, rain etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;one needs &quot;Tapas&quot; and self &quot;Tejas &quot;both to acquire and employ divine&#xA;  weapons successfully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But due to change in time (Kaliyuga) Power(bala), intuition (buddhi)&#xA;  ,Tejasa ,tolerance, Foresight (pratipatti) has declined and  this&#xA;  consequently resulted  loss in the potential life expectancy of&#xA;  humans.  So in kaliyuga no one can employ divine weapons,  This is&#xA;  because of a decline in e potential amount of tejas any given&#xA;  individual can acquire. Thus the divine weapons are withdrawn from&#xA;  circulation ,and returned to their Divine owners.**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref.-DIVINE WEAPONS AND TEJAS IN THE TWO INDIAN EPICS (PDF paper)&#xA;     by JARROD L. WHITAKER ,University of Texas at Austin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-06-15T06:20:58.290" LastActivityDate="2016-06-15T06:20:58.290" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13614" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7754" CreationDate="2016-06-09T11:27:49.970" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know whether there are concepts of Kalas or something like that in Avatars. The only place in Padma Purana which I have found compares Avatars as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Padma Purana Uttarkhanda Chapter 229&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  40-42. Thus the state of the inner-controllership of self consists in his being the innermost soul. &lt;strong&gt;Matsya, Kurma,Varaha, Nrisimha, Vamana, Rama, Parasurama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki are the ten incarnations of Brahman, the highest soul. The group of six qualities is said to exist in Nrisimha, Rama and Krishna.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The six qualities mentioned above are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aiśvaryasya samagrasya dharmasya yaśasariśrayaḥ&#xA;  jñānavairāgyayoścaiva ṣaṇṇāṃ bhaga itīraṇā &lt;em&gt;[VishnuPurana - 6.5.74]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Complete splendor, virtue, glory, opulence, knowledge, dispassion - these six are known as bhaga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above six qualities are the one which makes &lt;strong&gt;'Bhagwan'&lt;/strong&gt; ie. Having 'Bhag' qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as Per that statement of PadmaPurana the incarnation which had all six qualities were:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nrisimha, Rama, and Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Nrisimha, Rama and Krishna can be considered full incarnation if we compare. So, I think making Lord Rama 14 kalas and Lord Krishna 16 Kalas has no basis in scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-21T11:08:03.290" LastActivityDate="2016-07-21T11:08:03.290" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13615" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13616" CreationDate="2016-06-09T13:06:44.057" Score="3" ViewCount="5725" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Importance of Guru in our daily life as well as spiritual life? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-21T13:18:54.080" LastActivityDate="2018-11-21T13:18:54.080" Title="Importance of Guru (गुरु) in our daily Life as well as in Spiritual Life?" Tags="|guru|spirituality|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-06-09T14:35:48.943" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13616" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13615" CreationDate="2016-06-09T13:06:44.057" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jay Sriman-Narayan ! Dandvat Pranam ! Here I am going to tell you the importance of Guru in Spiritual life. Guru can't be described in short because his mercy is infinite.&lt;strong&gt;It's my request to you Please read once and Patiently, It will help you alot.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guru (गुरु)&lt;/strong&gt; Meaning from &lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/guru&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; : If we Seperate the letter &lt;strong&gt;Gu(गु)= remove darkness&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;ru(रु)= Bring Brightness&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru is a person who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and uses it to guide others. Literally a preceptor who shows others knowledge (light) and destroys ignorance (darkness). It is also used for teacher or guide in the religious or sense. The guru is seen as a sacred conduit for wisdom and guidance, and finding a satguru (True Guru) is often held to be a prerequisite for attaining self-realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Very Well-known Sloka From Vishwasara Tantram of&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्री गुरुस्तोत्रम्:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णुर्गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गुरुरेव परं ब्रह्म तस्मै श्रीगुरवे नमः ॥१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Guru is &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;, the Guru is &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;, the Guru Deva is &lt;strong&gt;Maheswara (Shiva)&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;The Guru is Verily the &lt;strong&gt;Para-Brahman (Supreme Brahman)&lt;/strong&gt;; Salutations to that Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru is a Tri-dev and he is even Par-Brahman, there are lots of glories described in our Scriptures for Guru, and you can find more sloka of &lt;strong&gt;श्री गुरुस्तोत्रम्&lt;/strong&gt; from &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_gurudeva-guru_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How we can find Real and Genuine Guru ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a really important thing to find real Guru (Spiritual Master), who can guide us and help us to reach to the Supreme Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A guru must be a direct representative of Lord who distributes the instructions of Lord without any change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, The Real Guru never interrupt Lord Instruction and also never interrupt the Scripture for his own Sense Satisfaction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Real Guru always instruct to his/her disciple which is described in scriptures. He never instructs by his own speculation and which is not in scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Person who interrupts scriptures by his own speculation and if his instructions are also contradicted with the scriptures then he is not a real and genuine guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a most Important thing to understand to find real and Genuine Guru to make progress in spiritual life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Otherwise &lt;strong&gt;Doha of kabirji&lt;/strong&gt; is significant here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गुरु कीजिए जानि के, पानी पीजै छानि ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;बिना विचारे गुरु करे, परे चौरासी खानि॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have to choose Guru very carefully and wisely.If we make Guru without thinking,then we have to again take birth throughout the 84 lacs species of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is very dangerous to make guru with-out checking him, whether he is real and authenticate guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Choose Guru who is authenticated from Sastra/Scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why we have to make Guru?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also important to know that why we have to make Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everybody thinks that he/she is capable of reaching through the supreme truth without help from Guru.we can find by ourselves, we are thinking it by our ego or ignorance that we can achieve without the help of Guru, but it is impossible as to hold sand in our fist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Mundaka Upanisad 1.2.12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet: ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To learn the truths of spirit, one must approach spiritual master,who also has such teacher. This preceptor must be fixed in the Absolute Truth&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who wants spiritual knowledge must approach a genuine guru who comes in a lineage of self-realised teachers.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Srimad-Bhagavatam  Chapter 3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam ||SB 11.3.21||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;one who is very interested in understanding the activities in the spiritual world must search out a guru a bonafide representative of Lord. From all angles of vision, therefore, the word guru is especially meant for the bona fide representative of Lord and no one else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We will take few Example from our Scripture :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Story of Dhruva Maharaj&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;from &lt;strong&gt;Srimad-Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt; Fourth Canto:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhruv was the son of King Uttanpad. The king had two wives: Suruchi and Suniti. Suruchi had a son named Uttam and Suniti had two sons. Dhruv was Suniti's eldest son. Suruchi was the king's favourite queen. Whilst the king loved her and her son Uttam, he ignored Suniti and her son. Once Uttam sat in his father's lap. Dhruv too tried to sit beside his stepbrother. At this Suruchi shouted to him, &amp;quot; You cannot sit there. If you want to sit in the king's lap you shall have to prove your worthiness and undergo serious penance.&amp;quot;Dhruv could not bear the insult and he resolved to go to the forest and please Bhagwan Vishnu by praying to Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On the way he met Naradji, who tried to stop him. &amp;quot;You are just a small child. The forest is full of dangerous animals. How will you bear the winter's cold and the summer heat. Go back home,&amp;quot; he said. Dhruv replied, &amp;quot;O learned sage! Even at the cost of my life and all the rigours of the forest, I will prove myself worthy to sit in the lap of the king, my father, by undergoing great Penance and pleasing God.&amp;quot; Penance means to fast, to meditate and to live a very simple life. Naradji was pleased with Dhruv's dedication and fearlessness and he showed him the place and the method to practice penance.&lt;/strong&gt; Then Dhruv reached a place in the forest called Madhuvan. He stood on one leg and started praying to God. Dhruv was so absorbed in his penance that the difficulties of forest life did not affect him at all. He had only one goal - to please and to meet God. He prayed for more than five months, standing on one leg. One day Bhagwan Vishnu was pleased with his devotion and He appered before Dhruv. &amp;quot;I am pleased with your devotion, my child. Tell me, what do you wish?&amp;quot; Bhagwan Vishnu asked Dhruv.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;O God, I wish your blessings and love from my parents,&amp;quot; Dhruv replied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;All your wishes shall be fulfilled my child.&amp;quot; Saying this he vanished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhruv had achieved his goal. He had pleased God and had met him. Now he returned to the kingdom. The king welcomed Dhruv with full honor and respect. Suruchi, too, hugged Dhruv and he became everybody's favorite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, Dhruv was made the king and he served people with love and dedication.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, we can see here from the help of Naradji, Dhruva could reach to the Supreme truth, with-out help of Guru Naradji, Dhruva could not be success in his path.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also put 100 % faith towards our Guru like Dhruva Maharaj Did, he put 100% faith on Naradji and he became success in his path.So, If you make authenticate guru and you don't put faith on him then it is also worthless.you can't be reach to the supreme truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Story of Valamiki Rishi&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;from Ramayan Uttara Kanda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During Treta Yug, a time thousands of years ago, a man named Ratnakar lived in the forests along the banks of the holy river Ganga. Ratnakar was a cruel hunter and a fearless thief. Everyone was afraid of Ratnakar! When he walked in the forest, even the birds would fly to their nests, and the animals would look for a place to hide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day, Ratnakar was hiding by the side of a forest pathway, waiting for a victim. Along came the great sage Naradji, who was walking peacefully, admiring the beauty of the forest and singing kirtans in praise of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ratnakar jumped out in front of him and demanded, &amp;quot;Hand over all you have or else!&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With love flowing from his eyes, Naradji said smilingly, &amp;quot;My dear man, all that I have are these rags I wear. If you want them, you may take them!&amp;quot;  Naradji's fearlessness surprised Ratnakar. As Ratnakar gazed in Naradji's eyes, his cruel mind melted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Naradji saw this transformation and lovingly explained to Ratnakar how stealing and killing animals was very sinful. He reminded Ratnakar that although his family was eager to share the fruits of his bad actions, they would not share his sins.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Upon this realisation, Ratnakar fell to Naradji's feet and asked for forgiveness.  Naradji taught him to recite the sacred name of Ram. Ratnakar sat down in the forest and continued chanting with closed eyes. His concentration was so deep that he remained in meditation for years.  In fact, he sat there so long in meditation that an anthill grew all around and above him!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One day Naradji came that way and carefully cleared away the anthill. With a kind smile, Naradji declared Ratnakar a sage, &amp;quot;As you are now reborn from a 'Val-mika' (ant-hill), from now you'll be known as Valmiki.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With tears of joy in his eyes, the sage Valmiki began his new life. He built an ashram near the river Ganga that provided refuge to Sitaji, wife of Shri Bhagwan  Ram.  It was at this ashram that Valmiki rishi composed the Ramayan!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here we can See that if we get the Authenticate Guru, like Narada Muni, then our chance of getting the Supreme truth is High. like Valmiki rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now we finally Understand it from Bhagavad-Gita, Let's see which advise Lord Krishna gave to arjuna regarding Guru.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;as Described in &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita chapter 4 Sloka 34&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तद्विद्धि प्रणिपातेन परिप्रश्नेन सेवया।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उपदेक्ष्यन्ति ते ज्ञानं ज्ञानिनस्तत्त्वदर्शिनः।।4.34।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just try to learn the truth by approaching a &lt;strong&gt;Spirtuial master (GURU)&lt;/strong&gt;. Inquire him submissively and render service unto him. The Self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you becuase they have seen truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can only seek the Ultimate Truth by devoted to Guru only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From this Sloka of Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रद्धावाँल्लभते ज्ञानं तत्परः संयतेन्द्रियः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ज्ञानं लब्ध्वा परां शान्तिमचिरेणाधिगच्छति।।4.39।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who has faith, &lt;strong&gt;who is dedicated to serivce of Guru&lt;/strong&gt;, and who has controlled the senses, attains enlightenment. Having attained enlightenment, one obtains Supreme Peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Arjuna became disciple of Lord Krishna for seeking a truth,Lord Krisha became Guru to gave Ulitmate Knowlege to Arjuna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From this Sloka of Bhagavad Gita chapter 2 sloka 7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;@rjuna uvach:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कार्पण्यदोषोपहतस्वभावः पृच्छामि त्वां धर्मसंमूढचेताः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यच्छ्रेयः स्यान्निश्िचतं ब्रूहि तन्मे शिष्यस्तेऽहं शाधि मां त्वां प्रपन्नम्।।2.7।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjun said : With my heart stricken by the weakness of pity, with my mind perplexed about my duty, I request you to teach me conclusively what is good for me.&lt;strong&gt;I am your disciple. Instruct me who have taken refuge in you.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,Now days Lord Krishna is persent in form of authenticate Guru from Scriptures, and we are in condition like Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Arjuna used his wiseness and choosed Guru like Lord Krishna, Same Dhruv Maharaj as well as Valamiki Choosed Naradji.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, we have to use our wiseness and choose a Guru who can liberate us from this body and take us to the Supreme Abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Put Faith on Guru our Spritiual Master, like arjuna, Dhruv maharaj and Valmiki, and we Definetly reach to the Lord's lotus feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Types of Gurus&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is an &lt;strong&gt;diksha guru (initiating guru)&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;shiksha guru (an instructing guru), and even chaitya guru (the “guru within”)&lt;/strong&gt;. An &lt;strong&gt;initiating guru&lt;/strong&gt; is a person who formally accepts a student into a &lt;strong&gt;sampradaya (religious order)&lt;/strong&gt;. This kind of &lt;strong&gt;guru gives a mantra and other articles of initiation in a ceremony called diksha&lt;/strong&gt;. The instructing guru is the teacher who actually trains the student. Sometimes the instructing guru and the initiating guru are the same person. The guru within is said to be the “wee” voice of God within the heart that tells a person how to act, and so on. Conscience might be the best word to describe this type of guru. &lt;strong&gt;In fact, it is considered that God is the original guru and all other forms of guru represent this one original guru. The expression sat guru (“eternal guru”) is often used to indicate God as the original guru.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Respect and Honour to Guru&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A guru is given great respect, even to the point of offering worship (guru puja). &lt;strong&gt;One full-moon each year (during July/August) is even called the Guru Purnima&lt;/strong&gt; and is dedicated to the worship of guru. To have a guru who acts as the master is an essential part of spiritual growth and so to feel respect for and to want to honor one’s guru is natural and healthy. However, there is a tendency within Hinduism for the development of guru “cults” where the worship of guru supersedes the worship of God. This generally takes place when the original idea of guru as teacher becomes diminished and is replaced by the idea of guru as &amp;quot;blesser.&amp;quot; To be blessed by a guru is considered the greatest thing, but people forget that the real blessing of a guru comes in the form of study, discipline, and hard work that leads to knowledge and wisdom and not just with the touch of a hand. The idea of the guru as blesser is a debasement of the true role of a guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As, I said Guru's mercy is infinite, It is the only short description of his mercy.I can fill-up more than 100 posts from the Scriptures and there are lots of scriptures who sing the glories of Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, Here my point is that, follow the Guru which is authenticated from scripture and take shelter of him.Respect him worship him with full faith.Always follow his instruction, then by his mercy you will easily understand the Ultimate Truth and reach to the Supreme Abode.!!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dasanu Das,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्रीमते रामानुजाय नमः||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;जय श्रीमन नारायण:||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-09T16:23:31.200" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13620" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13622" CreationDate="2016-06-09T16:35:07.837" Score="6" ViewCount="949" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard a story that Lord Brahma has done Yajna in Gaya on the body of Gayasur. But I want to know the scriptural basis of this story if any or how Gaya, the place, has became famous?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2021-04-12T22:55:10.957" LastActivityDate="2021-04-12T22:55:10.957" Title="What is the story of Gaya Tirth?" Tags="|puranas|brahma|yajna|reference-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13621" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8997" CreationDate="2016-06-09T17:46:06.383" Score="7" Body="&lt;h3&gt;1) What is Pashupatastra ?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pashupatastra is the personal favourite weapon of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like weapons of Lord Brahma,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;= Brahmastra, Brahmashirastra, etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;weapons of Lord Vishnu,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;= Narayanastra, Vaishnavastra, etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;similarly weapons of Lord Shiva,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;= Pashupatastra, Maheswarastra, Raudrastra, etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Literally,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pasupatastra = Weapon of Pasupati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there can be two category. One is special Pasupatastra (which Arjuna received) which is very powerful. One General Category can fall as denoting weapon of Pasupati (ie. It may be any weapons containing power of Pasupati).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;General category Pasupatastra is described one time in Mahabharat. It was used by Drona  and Arjuna simply destroyed it. It was not that special Pasupatastra received by Arjuna as Arjuna cuts it simply. Also, Lord Shiva had told 'No man know it..' while giving Pasupatastra to Arjuna. So, it is not that special Pasupatastra. It is just used to denote weapon presided by some subtle power of Pasupati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; When Drona failed to gain any ascendency over the son of Pandu, the son of Bharadwaja, that warrior acquainted with the course of all weapons, invoked into existence the Aindra, &lt;strong&gt;the Pasupata,&lt;/strong&gt; the Tvashtra, the Vayavya, and the Yamya weapons. As soon as those weapons, issued from Drona's bow, &lt;strong&gt;Dhananjaya destroyed them quickly.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;[Drona Parva chapter 188]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However generally if we call Pashupatastra then the special weapon (which Arjuna had received) is understood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva himself describes here what Pashupatastra is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhava replied, &lt;strong&gt;'O powerful one. I will give to thee that favourite weapon of mine called the Pasupata.&lt;/strong&gt; O son of Pandu, thou art capable of holding, hurling, and withdrawing it. &lt;strong&gt;Neither the chief himself of the gods, nor Yama, nor the king of the Yakshas, nor Varuna, nor Vayu, knoweth it. How could men know anything of it?&lt;/strong&gt; But, O son of Pritha, this weapon should not be hurled without adequate cause; for &lt;strong&gt;if hurled at any foe of little might it may destroy the whole universe. In the three worlds with all their mobile and immobile creatures, there is none who is incapable of being slain by this weapon. And it may be hurled by the mind, by the eye, by words, and by the bow.'&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; [VanaParva Chapter 60]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2)Why did Lord Shiva get it in first place?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is personal weapon of Pasupati. So it is always with him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhava replied, 'O powerful one. &lt;strong&gt;I will give to thee that favourite weapon of mine called the Pasupata.&lt;/strong&gt; O son of Pandu, thou art capable of holding, hurling, and withdrawing it. Neither the chief himself of the gods, nor Yama, nor the king of the Yakshas, nor Varuna, nor Vayu, knoweth it. How could men know anything of it? &lt;em&gt;[VanaParva Chapter 60]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva had united Pasupatastra with Shaft used in the Tripura Dahana incident:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Sarva, having stringed his bow and&#xA;aimed that shaft with which he had united the Pasupata weapon, waited thinking of the triple city.&lt;/strong&gt; And O king, as Rudra thus stood, holding his bow, the three cities during that time became united. When the&#xA;three cities, losing their separate characters became united, tumultuous became the joy of the high-&#xA;souled gods. Then all the gods, the Siddhas, and the great Rishis, uttered the word Jaya, adoring&#xA;Maheshwara. &lt;em&gt;[Karna Parva Chapter 34]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Was it the all-knowing Krishna who urged Arjuna to acquire this astra?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna had received Pasupatastra two times from Lord Shiva. At first time by the words of Indra, Arjuna starts penance for Lord Shiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus addressed, the slayer of Vritra,&lt;/strong&gt; worshipped of the worlds, consoling him with gentle words, spare unto the son of Pandu, saying, '&lt;strong&gt;When thou art able to behold the three-eyed trident-bearing Siva, the lord of all creatures, it is then, O child, that I will give thee all the celestial weapons.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore, strive thou to obtain the sight of the highest of the gods; for it is only after thou hast seen him. O son of Kunti, that thou will obtain all thy wishes.' Having spoken thus unto Phalguna, Sakra disappeared then and there, and Arjuna, devoting himself to asceticism, remained at that spot.&amp;quot; &lt;em&gt;[VanaParva chapter 37]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as long time had passed Arjuna forgots the knowledge to invoke Pasupatastra during Kurukshetra war. Thus before the day of Jayadratha Vadh Lord Krishna by Yogic path took him to Kailash to receive Pasupatastra again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Through his grace thou shalt obtain that rich possession.' Hearing these words of Krishna, Dhananjaya, having touched water, sat on the earth with concentrated mind and thought of the god Bhava. After he had thus sat with rapt mind at that hour called Brahma of auspicious indications, Arjuna saw himself journeying through the sky with Kesava. &lt;em&gt;[Drona Parva Chapter 80]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then both of them gratified Lord Shiva and Arjuna received Pasupatastra one more time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the god also granted him the terrible Pasupata weapon and the accomplishment of his vow. &lt;strong&gt;Then having thus once more obtained the Pasupata weapon from the supreme god,&lt;/strong&gt; the invincible Arjuna, with hair standing on end, regarded his business to be already&#xA;achieved. Then Arjuna and Krishna filled with joy, paid their adorations unto the great god by bowing their heads. And permitted by Bhava both Arjuna and Kesava, those two heroes, almost immediately&#xA;came back to their own camp, filled with transports of delight. &lt;em&gt;[Drona Parva Chapter 80]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4)Did Arjuna really use it in the Kurukshetra war? If he didn't, why did he get it from Lord Shiva?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pashupatastra was never used in Kurukshetra war. There is popular misconception that Arjuna had used it to slay Jayadratha. It is not true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arrow which killed Jayadratha was like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sorely afflicting those mighty car-warriors of thy army thus, the son of Pandu took up a terrible arrow of fiery splendour. Looking like the thunderbolt of Indra, and inspired with divine mantras, that formidable arrow was capable of bearing any strain. And it had been always worshipped with incense and garlands of flowers. Duly inspiring it (by mantras) with the force of the thunderbolt, that descendant, of Kuru, viz., the mighty-armed Arjuna, fixed it on Gandiva. &lt;em&gt;[Jayadratha Vadh Parva]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then why Did Lord Krishna took him to Kailash to receive Pasupatastra  before the day of Jayadratha Vadha?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is because just knowledge of invoking Pasupatastra is sufficient to make one victorious and powerful. It works subtly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then that hero, of eyes like lotus leaves, and possessed of great energy, said these words for the benefit of Pandu's son who had resolved upon the slaughter of the ruler of the Sindhus, &lt;strong&gt;'O Partha, there is an indestructible, supreme weapon of the name of Pasupata.&lt;/strong&gt; With it the god Maheswara slew in battle all the Daityas! &lt;strong&gt;If thou rememberest it now, thou shalt then be able to slay Jayadratha tomorrow.&lt;/strong&gt; If it is unknown to thee (now), adore within thy heart the god having the bull for his mark. Thinking of that god in thy mind, remember him, O Dhananjaya! &lt;em&gt;[Drona Parva Chapter 80]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, Pasupatastra is not a weapon which is to be hurled to mortals. It was to be used only in extreme emergency.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the god Tryamvaka said unto me, 'I will give. O Pandava, my own weapon Raudra shall attend upon thee.' Thereupon Mahadeva, well-pleased, granted to me the mighty weapon, Pasupata. And, having granted that eternal weapon, he also said unto me, &lt;strong&gt;This must never be hurled at mortals. If discharged at any person of small energy, it would consume the universe.&lt;/strong&gt; Shouldst thou (at any time) be hard pressed, thou mayst discharge it. And when all thy weapons have been completely baffled, thou mayst hurl it.'  &lt;em&gt;[Vana Parva chapter 166]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-09T18:42:08.663" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13622" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13620" CreationDate="2016-06-09T17:57:42.867" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vayu-mahapurana/text-with-translation/vol-ii/chapter-106/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;106&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vayu-mahapurana/text-with-translation/vol-ii/chapter-107/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;107&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vayu-mahapurana/text-with-translation/vol-ii/chapter-108/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;108&lt;/a&gt; - Part 2 of Vayu Purana describes the story of Gaya in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayasura was Asura (demon) who did a severe penance. Devas with Shiva went to Vishnu and at suggestion of Lord Vishnu they went to Gayasura to grant him boon. Gayasura &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vayu-mahapurana/text-with-translation/vol-ii/chapter-108/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;requested &lt;/a&gt;Devas to make him holiest of all things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऊचुस्तं वासुदेवाद्याः किमर्थ तप्यते त्वया। संतुष्टाः स्वागताः सर्वे&#xA;वरं ब्रूहि गयासुर।।१५।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vásudeva and others spoke to him- “For what purpose, this penance is&#xA;being performed by you, O Gayåsura? We have all arrived here fully&#xA;satisfied. You may ask for a boon.” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गयासुर उवाच यदि तुष्टाः स्य मे देवा ब्रह्मविष्णुमहेश्वराः।&#xA;सर्वदेवद्विजातिभ्यो यज्ञतीर्थशिलोच्यात्॥१६॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;देवेभ्योऽतिपवित्रोऽहमृषिभ्योऽपि शिवाव्ययात्। मन्त्रेभ्यो देवदेवीभ्यो&#xA;योगिभ्यश्चापि सर्वशः।।१७।। &lt;br&gt; न्यासिभ्यश्चापि कर्मिभ्यो धर्मिभिश्च&#xA;तथा पुनः। ज्ञ(य)तिपवित्रेभ्यः पवित्रः स्यां सदा सुराः।।१८।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayåsura spoke– In case you are pleased with me, O Gods, Brahmā, Visnu&#xA;and Maheśvara, may I be ever holier than these– than all the gods and&#xA;Brähmanas; than all the Yajñas, tirthas and Silocaya (mountains); than&#xA;all the sages; than even the unchanging Siva; than all the Mantras;&#xA;than all the lords of Devas; than all the Yogins; than all the&#xA;renouncers; than all the performers of holy rites; than all the&#xA;religious ones; than all the sacred Yatis. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As he became holier than Devas, Devas were devoid of work and went to abode of Vishnu. Vishnu said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गत्वाऽसुरं प्रार्थयस्व यज्ञार्थं देहि देहकम्। विष्णूक्त: ससुरो ब्रह्मा&#xA;गत्वाऽपश्यन्महासुरम्।।२४।। &lt;br&gt; “Go and request the Asura thus, ‘Give&#xA;your body for the purpose of a sacrifice’.” Urged by Visnu, Brahmá&#xA;went there accompanied by Devas and saw the great Asura. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मोवाच पृथिव्यां यानि तीर्थानि दृष्टानि भ्रमता मया। यज्ञार्थं न तु&#xA;ते तानि पवित्राणि शरीरत:।२८।। &lt;br&gt; Brahmā replied— All the tirthas&#xA;(places of pilgrimage) seen by me while on the prowl, are not as pure&#xA;as your body, for the purpose of sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्वया देहे पवित्रत्वं प्राप्तं विष्णुप्रसादतः। अतः पवित्रं देहं त्वं&#xA;यज्ञार्थं देहि मेऽसुर।२९।। &lt;br&gt; By you in frame, purity has been&#xA;achieved by the grace of Visnu. Therefore, O Asura, you offer to me&#xA;your pure frame for the purpose of a sacrifice. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गयासुर उवाच धन्योऽहं देवदेवेश यद्देहं प्रार्थ्यते त्वया। पितृवंशः&#xA;कृतार्थो मे देहे यागं करोषि चेत्॥३०  ।। &lt;br&gt;Gayāsura replied— I stands&#xA;blessed, O gods of gods (Devadeveša) that by you, (my) body is being&#xA;solicited as such. In case you offer a sacrifice over my body, the&#xA;manes in my family shall be contented.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्वयैवोत्पादितो देहः पवित्रस्तु त्वया कृतः। सर्वेषामुपकाराय यागोऽवश्यं&#xA;भवत्विति।।३१।। &lt;br&gt; By you alone has been created this body (of mine)&#xA;and by you only, it has been rendered sacred or sanctified. For the&#xA;benefit of all, may the sacrifice comes to an existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्युक्तवा सोऽपतद्भूमौ श्वेतकल्पे गयासुरः। ब्रह्मा संभृतसंभारो&#xA;मानसानृत्विजोऽसृजत्।।३२।। &lt;br&gt; Having said so, the demon Gaya,&#xA;collapsed on the ground during the Svetakalpa. He adhered to the&#xA;south-western quarter on the Kolāhala mountain. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्युक्त्वा सोऽपतद्भूमौ श्वेतकल्पे गयासुरः। नैऋतीं दिशमाश्रित्य तदा&#xA;कोलाहले गिरौ।३३॥ &lt;br&gt; Having turned the head in the north and having&#xA;directed the feet in the south, Brahmā, having requisites gathered,&#xA;created the mindborn sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devas then started Yagna and thereafter Brahma asked to bring Sacrificial pole to fix in nearby lake (Brahmasara) and asked Dharma to place a slab on head of Gayasura. Gayasura, who was gullible, asked Devas to press the slab with their feet. All Devas with Rudra, Brahma and Vishnu stood on the slab to stabilize it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आगत्य विष्णुः क्षीराब्धे: शिलायां संस्थितोऽभवत्। जनार्दनाभिधानेन&#xA;पुण्डरीकेतिनामत्। शिलायां निश्चलार्थं हि स्वयमादिगदाधरः।५५।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Having come from the milk ocean, Visnu himself, became stationed over&#xA;the stone slab, with the name of Janārdana and also by the appellation&#xA;of Pundarika. The primordial mace wielder himself stood there to&#xA;steady the slab, for stabilising (the demon).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;निश्चलार्थं&#xA;पञ्चधाऽऽसीच्छिलायां प्रपितामहः। पितामहोऽथ फल्ग्वीशः केदारः&#xA;कनकेश्वरः।५६।। &lt;br&gt; ब्रह्मा स्थितः स्वयं तत्र गजरूपी विनायकः।&#xA;गयादित्यश्चोत्तराकोँ दक्षिणाकस्त्रिधा रविः।।५७।। &lt;br&gt; For stabilising&#xA;(the demon Gaya), Brahmâ divided himself into five, viz. Prapitāmaha&#xA;(Great-grandfather), Pitāmaha (Grandfather), Phalgvíša (Master of&#xA;Phalgu), Kedara and Kanakešvara. Brahmā in the form of an&#xA;elephant-normed Vināyaka (i.e. Ganeśa) stood there. Gayāditya,&#xA;Uttarārka and Daksinārkathese were the three manifestations of Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लक्ष्मीः सीताभिधानेन गौरी च मङ्गलाह्वया। गायत्री चैव सावित्री&#xA;त्रिसंध्या च सरस्वती॥५८॥ &lt;br&gt; Laksmi stood there in the name of Sitā,&#xA;Gauri in the name of Mangalâ and Sarasvati stationed herself in three&#xA;forms, viz. Gāyatri, Sávtiri and Sandhyā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इन्द्रो बृहस्पतिः पूषा&#xA;वसवोऽष्टौ महाबलाः। विश्वे देवाश्चाऽऽश्चिनेयौ (मारुतो विश्वनायकः।&#xA;सयक्षोरगगन्धर्वास्तस्थुर्देवाः स्वशक्तिभि:।५९।। &lt;br&gt; Indra, Brhaspati,&#xA;Püsan, the eight highly strong Vasus, Viśvedevas, the two Ašviní&#xA;Devas, Maruts, the leader of the universe accompanied by Devas, Uragas&#xA;and Gandharvas stood there along with their respective Saktis&#xA;(powers).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आद्यया गदया चासौ यस्मादैत्य स्थिरीकृतः। स्थित इत्येव हरिणा&#xA;तस्मादादिगदाधरः।।६०।।&lt;br&gt; Since the Daitya was brought to stagnation&#xA;by the primordial club and Hari stood there, on that account, he&#xA;became famous as ĀdiGadādhara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayasura finally realized that it was a ploy to trick him. Devas then pleased with his sincere devotion gave him the boon that holy city would be named after him (as Gaya) and they (Devas) perennially would stay there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-06-09T17:57:42.867" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13623" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13624" CreationDate="2016-06-10T02:47:21.740" Score="18" ViewCount="1114" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Philosophy of Buddhism is directly refuted itself in Brahma Sutras. But refutation of Philosophy doesn't mean that the path is not Valid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For eg. Adi Shankaracharya also refuted the Philosophy of Pancharatra Agamas. But he still considered Pancharatra are able to give Mokshya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara himself respects Buddha in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11976/what-is-the-mystery-of-hari-sankara-stotra-composed-by-adi-shankara/11977#11977&quot;&gt;Hari Shankara Stotra&lt;/a&gt; as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पाठितकेतोर्जयिने प्रतीतसर्वज्ञ्यभावाय दयैकसीम्न्ने |&lt;br&gt; प्रायः क्रतु द्वेषकृतदराय बोधौकदाम्न्ने स्पृहयामि भूम्न्ने || १० &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;I worship the spiritual radiance manifested as Buddha, who was all-knowing, who was the conqueror of Mara, who was full of mercy, who was of the nature of Bodha (spiritual conciousness), and who was the adored of those who were opponents of Yajnas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name Buddha is itself Sacred in Hindu scripture. He is also considered as 9th incarnation of Lord Vishnu among the major incarnations. Although there are also Hindu scriptures which call Buddha as deceiver. Padma Purana itself state that &lt;em&gt;'uttering'&lt;/em&gt; name of Buddha can cleanse the sin of Brahmahatya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Padma Purana Uttarkhanda chapter 71.26-29&#xA;  Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narsimha, Vamana, so also Parasurama, Rama, Krishna, &lt;strong&gt;Buddha,&lt;/strong&gt; and after him is said to be (the incarnation of) Kalki. These ten are said to be (Vishnu's) ten incarnations on the earth. &lt;strong&gt;Merely by (uttering) their names, (even) the killer of a brahmana is always purified. He, by reciting, muttering, meditating upon Vishnu's name in any manner, is freed.&lt;/strong&gt; There is no doubt that he would be Vishnu himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such is the power of just name of 'Buddha'. &#xA;Another popular misconception about &lt;em&gt;'Buddha'&lt;/em&gt; in people is that he rejected the Vedas. But in fact Buddha rejected the Vedas because he considered Vedas avaliable at his time were altered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Buddhist Vinaya Pitaka of the Mahavagga (I.245) section the Buddha names these rishis. The names of the Vedic rishis were &quot;Atthako, Vâmako, Vâmadevo, Vessâmitto, Yamataggi, Angiraso, Bhâradvâjo, Vâsettho, Kassapo, and Bhagu&quot; but that it was altered by a few Brahmins who introduced animal sacrifices. The Vinaya Pitaka's section Anguttara Nikaya: &lt;strong&gt;Panchaka Nipata says that it was on this alteration of the true Veda that the Buddha refused to pay respect to the Vedas of his time.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the reason why Buddha rejected Vedas was because &lt;strong&gt;he considered&lt;/strong&gt; True forms of Vedas were altered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, &lt;strong&gt;Are there any Hindu scriptures which Validate also the path of Buddhism ? Is Buddhism also considered a Path which can help to realise the supreme ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T02:03:35.433" Title="Where is Buddhism also considered a Valid Path in Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|buddhism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13624" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13623" CreationDate="2016-06-10T02:50:08.957" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;22nd Chapter of YajnaVaibhava Khanda of Suta Samhita of Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; deals with the validity of various paths. The chapter itself is named as as '&lt;strong&gt;MargaPramanya Nirnaya'&lt;/strong&gt; which means '&lt;strong&gt;Decision of Validity of Paths'&lt;/strong&gt;. There the Path of Buddhas and Arhatas is also considered one among the many paths.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथातः संप्रवक्ष्यामि मार्गप्रमाण्यनिर्णयम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;श्रद्धया सहिता यूयं श्रृणुश्वं मुनिपुड़्गवा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वेदांश्च धर्मशास्त्राणि पुराणं भारतं तथा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वेदाड़्गान्युपवेदांश्च कामिकाद्यागामानपि ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कापालं लाकुलं चैव ययोर्भेदान्ह्विजर्षभा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तथा पाशुपतं सोमं भैरवप्रमुखागमान् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तेषामेवोभेदांश्च शतशोऽथ सहस्रशः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;विष्वागमांस्तथा &lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्मान्बुद्धार्हद्यागमानपि&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;लोकायत तर्कशास्त्रं बहुविस्तरसंयुतम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मीमांसामतिगम्भीरां सांख्ययोगौ तथैव च ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अनेक भेदभिन्नानि तथा शास्त्रान्तराणि च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;निर्ममे शंकर साक्षात्सर्वज्ञः संग्रहेणतु ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Listen with faith, O sages, to what I say as to the truth of the various paths. Vedas, Dharmasastras, Purana, Bharata, Vedangas and minor Vedas; Kamika and other agamas; Kapala and Lakula in all their variety; the Pasupata, Soma, Bhairava and other agamas with their hundred varieties: Vaishnava and Brahma agamas; &lt;strong&gt;the agamas of the Buddhas and the Arhats;&lt;/strong&gt; Lokayata, and the Tarkasastras in all their vastness; the profound Mimamsa, as also Sankhya and Yoga; &lt;strong&gt;all these and many more Sastras, the Omniscient Divine Being has made in brief.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Why There are Many Paths ?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अधिकारिविभेदेन नैकस्यैव सदा द्विजा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तर्कैरेते हि मार्गास्तु न हन्तव्या मनीषिभि ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यथा तोयप्रवाहाणां समुद्र: परमावधि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तथैव सर्व मार्गाणां साक्षान्निष्ठा महेश्वरः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The wise say that each of these sastras is intended for a particular class according to the individual qualification, not all for one.&lt;/strong&gt; These paths are not to be rudely handled by the learned subjecting them to rigorous unrelenting logic. As all streams ultimately empty themselves into the ocean, so all these paths ultimately lead to the Mahesvara (/Great Lord) Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus each path and shastras are according to individual qualification of People.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;How Lord helps from Other Paths ?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्तन्मार्गेनुगुण्येन साधकत्वं ह्युपैति सः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तत्प्रसादात्क्रमान्मार्गान्विशिष्टानेति मानवः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तत्र तत्र स्थितो देवः प्रसादं कुरुतेऽस्य तु ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सोपानक्रमतो देवा वेदमार्गस्य हेतवः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Worshipped in what form so ever by people as ordained in their respective scriptures. He assumes that form and takes the devotee on to the next higher step, By His Grace man attains to superior paths. The Divine Being worshipped in the form in which He is represented in these paths takes the devotee step by step onward to the path of the Veda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Why can't other Paths be wrong ?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्मादुक्तेन मार्गेण शिवेन कथिता अमी ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मार्गा मानं न चामानं मृषावादी कथं शिव ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;महाकारुणिको देवः सर्वज्ञो निर्मल खलु ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तथाऽपि वेदो मार्गाणामुत्तम: सर्वसाधक ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Thus these paths, laid out as they are by Shiva, are all of them true and serviceable. How can Shiva be a deceiver?&lt;/strong&gt; He is supremely merciful, omniscient, and altogether stainless. Yet of all the paths, the  path  of  the  Veda  is  the  best.  as  conducing  to  all  good.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, as Lord is merciful he can't be deceiver. Other paths are also there because of his wish. So, in the 'Decision of Validity of Paths' ,Buddhism is also considered a valid Path among the many Paths although the best Path is the Vedic Path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T02:03:35.433" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13625" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9475" CreationDate="2016-06-10T03:01:21.387" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are Dhanyamalini and Mandodari one and the same?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;, Dhānyamālinī (a.k.a Dhānyamāli and Dhanyamālā) and Mandodari are &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; the same person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Yuddha Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana, Vibhishana while explaining to Rama who Atikāya is, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga71/yuddharoman71.htm#Verse30&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that he's the son of Dhānyamālinī:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasya bāhum samāśritya laṅkā bhavati nirbhayā | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tanayam dhānyamālinyā atikāyamimam viduḥ || 6-71-30&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is Atikaya, the &lt;strong&gt;son of Dhanyamali&lt;/strong&gt;. Lanka is feeling fearless, by resting on his arm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translators at valmikiramayan.net also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga71/yuddha_71_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;note&lt;/a&gt; that Dhānyamāli is one of the other wives of Ravana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing Atikaya, the colossal demon, coming towards him on a chariot, Rama asks Vibhishana who he is Vibhishana introduces Atikaya, as being a son of Ravana and &lt;strong&gt;Dhanyamali (another consort of Ravana)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Interestingly, citing Kamba Rāmāyana, the Puranic Encyclopedia &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft#page/72/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that Atikāya was the adopted son of Dhānyamālinī:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) Birth. There is a story about the birth of Atikāya in the Yuddha Kānda of Kamba Rāmāyana: After his victory over Kubera, Rāvana was returning in his Puspaka Vimana. On his way he saw some beautiful Gandharva women playing in the valley of Mayuragiri. Their leader was Citrängi, the wife of Citrängada.&#xA;  Rāvana seduced her and had a secret union with her. At once she became pregnant and gave birth to a dazzlingly bright baby. The mother handed over the child to Rāvana and returned to the world of the Gandharvas. Rāvana, in his paternal love, took the child into the Vimana and proceeded. On the way, the vimāna knocked against a mountain peak and the baby was thrown overboard and fell in the forest. Ravana stopped the Vimána and made a search for the baby in the forest. He found the child without the slightest injury, smiling and lying on a flat rock in the deep woods. He failed in his attempt to take it up even though he used ten of his hands. The child began to grow steadily in size. Then he tried again to lift the baby up using all his twenty arms. The boy, who had by this time grown into enormous size, suddenly sprang up and getting into the Vimána took his seat in it. Rāvana gave him the name Atikāya. &lt;strong&gt;On his arrival in Lañkā, he presented him as adopted son to the barren Dhanyamālā, Atikāya was brought up by Dhanyamālā&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why did Valmiki mention two different names narrating the same incident?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One explanation could be, to avoid being repetitive, Valmiki, the poet, has only mentioned one incident (involving Dhānyamālinī) when it was happening live in front of Hanuman, and the other incident (involving Mandodari) at a later time. Also, after all, as Hanuman &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga58/sundaraitrans58.htm#Verse64&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;narrates&lt;/a&gt;, Ravana was accompanied by multiple wives on his way to see Sita in the Ashoka vana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tato aham parama udvignaḥ svarūpam pratyasamharam | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  aham ca śiṃśapā vṛkṣe pakṣī iva gahane sthitaḥ || 5-58-63&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Then, I was very much frightened and contracted my physique. I, on my part, remained hidden like a bird in that Simsupa tree dense with foliage.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tato rāvaṇa dārāḥ ca rāvaṇaḥ ca mahābalaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tam deśam samanuprāptā yatra sītā abhavat sthitā || 5-58-64&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, the mighty &lt;strong&gt;Ravana and his wives&lt;/strong&gt; reached that place where Seetha was staying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-06-10T03:01:21.387" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13626" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-10T04:45:42.063" Score="13" ViewCount="1660" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Advaita Vedanta, there are three levels of reality:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pāramārthika (परमार्थिक)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vyāvahārika (व्यवहारिक)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prāthibhāsika (प्रतिभासिक)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The wikipedia article on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta#Ontology_-_the_nature_of_Being&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Advaita Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; says that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankara uses sublation as the criterion to postulate an ontological hierarchy of three levels&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in a recent &lt;a href=&quot;http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/30205730#30205730&quot;&gt;chat&lt;/a&gt; I found that it is told by Adi Shankaracharya. These three levels of reality are very helpful to understand the absolute truth. (Visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12347/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13596/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know if it is described by Adi Shankaracharya, and if it's so, in which text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More accurately, &lt;strong&gt;Which scripture are they defined in?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2019-05-23T14:37:59.373" Title="Which scriptures defines the three levels of reality?" Tags="|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13629" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10684" CreationDate="2016-06-10T09:25:12.093" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;She was indeed born like that from left half portion of Brahma. Many Puranas such as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6793/3500&quot;&gt;Shiva Purana, Matysa Purana&lt;/a&gt; describes this birth story of Sarasvati. But Brahmavaivartara Purana describes slightly a different version of her birth. It says Sarasvati was born from left part of Dharma who was born from chest of Sri Krishna. Brahmavaivartara Purana is Krishna- centric text and it says Krishna is Supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सौतिरुवाच &lt;br&gt; आाविर्बभूव कन्यैका धर्मस्य वामपाश्र्वतः।&#xA;  मूर्तिमूर्तिमती साक्षाद् द्वितीया कमलालया॥ ५३॥ &lt;br&gt;आविर्बभूव&#xA;  तत्पश्चान्मुखत: परमात्मनः। एका देवी शुक्लवर्णा वीणापुस्तकधारिणी॥५४॥&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;कोटिपूर्णेदुशोभाढया शरत्पङ्कजलोचना। वह्निशुद्धांशुकाधाना&#xA;  रत्नभूषणभूषिता॥ ५५ ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Sauti said : “At that point of time a beautiful girl emerged out&#xA;  of the left part of Dharma who resembled completely with Laksmi. She&#xA;  was known by the name of Mūrti. Thereafter, a female with white&#xA;  complexion emerged out of the mount of the lord, holding a book and a&#xA;  lute. She had the lustre of crores of suns. Her eyes resembled the&#xA;  lotus flowers of the winter season. She had bright costumes and was&#xA;  adorned with the bright gold ornaments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सस्मिता सुदती श्यामा सुन्दरीणां च सुन्दरी। श्रेष्ठा श्रुतीनां&#xA;  शास्त्राणां विदुषां जननी परा।। ५६ ।। &lt;br&gt;वागाधिष्ठातृदेवी सा&#xA;  कवीनामिष्टदेवता। शुद्धसत्त्वस्वरूपा च शान्तरूपा सरस्वती॥ ५७॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गोविन्दपुरतः स्थित्वा जगौ प्रथमतः सुखम्। तन्नामगुणकीर्तिं च वीणया सा&#xA;  ननर्त च।५८।। &lt;br&gt;कृतानि यानि कर्माणि कल्ये कल्ये युगे युगे। तानि&#xA;  सर्वाणि हरिणा तुष्टाव च पुटाञ्जलिः।। ५९ ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She wore a serene smile on her face and she had beautiful teeth. She&#xA;  was the damsel of sixteen year’s age. &lt;strong&gt;She was the best of all the&#xA;  beauties in the universe and all the Srutis, Šāstras and the&#xA;  intelligence emerged out of him. She controlled the speech, the&#xA;  goddess, of all the poets, an incarnation of purity and was known as&#xA;  Sarasvati with a peaceful look.&lt;/strong&gt; Standing before Krsna, she played on&#xA;  Wind and then danced. She sang in praise of the lord, highlighting all&#xA;  the chief events of his earlier incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Saraswati manifested as Goddess of Knowledge, music, and speech. There's no particular story of acquiring these qualities or skills. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-06-10T09:33:42.520" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13630" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13631" CreationDate="2016-06-10T13:14:38.003" Score="1" ViewCount="359" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shri Krishna said regarding four Natures to Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this Sloka of Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियविशां शूद्राणां च परंतप।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कर्माणि प्रविभक्तानि स्वभावप्रभवैर्गुणैः।।18.41।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The nature of Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras are due to their respective inherent dispositions. The meaning is that their past Karma has been the cause of determining births as Brahmanas etc. The Sattva and other Gunas are the result of such Karma.... The duties and works assigned to them according to the Gunas constituting their inherent nature, are expounded and allotted by the Sastras in the order described.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here I m only talking about the four Natures&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;So, How four Natures came into existence according to Scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-01-24T08:04:58.233" Title="How Four Natures created which are described in Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|bhagavad-gita|brahma|caste-system|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13631" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13630" CreationDate="2016-06-10T13:14:38.003" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;So, In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna told in Moksha-Sanyasyog about the Natures and their respective modes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These all four Natures created by lord Brahma himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found the source of it.&#xA;Creation of Four Natures is described in the &lt;strong&gt;Padma Puran of Shristhi Khand&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On being asked by Bhishma about the origin of the four prominent&#xA;  castes, Sage Pulastya said--- Lord Brahma created the Brahmins and&#xA;  the Kshatriyas from his mouth and chest respectively. Similarly,&#xA;  Vaishyas and Shudras manifested from Lord Brahma's thigh and feet&#xA;  respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: If anyone can find Sanskrit verse of above explanation feel free to add it in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5746" LastEditorUserId="5746" LastEditDate="2018-01-24T08:04:58.233" LastActivityDate="2018-01-24T08:04:58.233" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13632" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13630" CreationDate="2016-06-10T14:30:36.527" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Purush Sukta, hymn 10.90 of Rigveda describes creation of four varnas as such. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/vedas-purusha_suktam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/vedas-purusha_suktam.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मणोऽस्य मुखमासीद् बाहू राजन्यः कृतः ।&#xA;  ऊरू तदस्य यद्वैश्यः पद्भ्यां शूद्रो अजायत ॥१२॥&#xA;  Braahmanno-Asya Mukham-Aasiid Baahuu Raajanyah Krtah |&#xA;  Uuruu Tad-Asya Yad-Vaishyah Padbhyaam Shuudro Ajaayata ||12||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;  12.1: The Brahmanas were His Mouth, the Kshatriyas became His Arms,&#xA;  12.2: The Vaishyas were His Thighs, and from His pair of Feet were born the Shudras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Btw translation of Bhagwad Gita verse you have posted is more commentary from particular sampradaya than word to word translation. Here is word to word translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/18/verse/41&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/18/verse/41&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brāhmaṇa—of the priestly class; kṣhatriya—the warrior and administrative class; viśhām—the mercantile and farming class; śhūdrāṇām—of the worker class; cha—and; parantapa—Arjun, subduer of the enemies; karmāṇi—duties; pravibhaktāni—distributed; svabhāva-prabhavaiḥ-guṇaiḥ—work based on one’s nature and guṇas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="6830" LastEditDate="2016-06-10T14:44:49.003" LastActivityDate="2016-06-10T14:44:49.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13633" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-10T16:28:53.083" Score="8" ViewCount="2142" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the development of Vaishnavism; it is the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).  Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2756/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the course of their poems the Alwars have praised 108 sacred places of Vishnu, known as the Divya Desams. One of the Divya Desams is Thirukkolur, which is the birthplace of Madhurakavi Alwar (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9866/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) and the site of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaithamanidhi_Perumal_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaithamanidhi Perumal Vishnu Temple&lt;/a&gt;. The story of the temple seems to bear some similarity to the story of Govindaraja, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/179/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, so I may ask about that in future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about Thirukkolur's main claim to fame.  The famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya was once walking into the town of Thirukkolur, when he saw a little girl walking in the opposite direction.  He asked her where she was coming from, and she said Thirukkolur.  So he told her everyone goes to Thirukkolur to Sriman Narayana, so what possible reason could she have for leaving.  She responded with a set of 81 statements, now known as the Thirukkolur Penpillai Rahasyam or &amp;quot;The secret told by the little girl from Thirukkolur&amp;quot;.  She listed 81 great devotees of Vishnu, her point being &amp;quot;since I am not like these 81 great devotees, why does it matter if I am in Thirukkolur or not&amp;quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the sixth statement the little girl made was &amp;quot;piNa virundhittEnO kaNdAkarNanaip pOlE&amp;quot; meaning &amp;quot;Am I like Kandakarna?&amp;quot;  The story as I understand it goes roughly as follows.  There was once a cannibalistic demon named Kandakarna who asked Shiva for Moksha for him and his brother.  Shiva informed Kandakarna that Shiva once received a boon from Vishnu that Vishnu would come as Krishna to Mount Kailash and pray to Shiva.  So Shiva suggested that Kandakarna could use that opportunity to attain Moksha.  So when Krishna came to Kailash, Kandakarna killed a sage and offered the sage's dead body to Krishna!  Krishna, in his boundless compassion, granted Moksha to Kandakarna, his brother, and the sage he killed.  Here's how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.acharya.org/v/ThirukkolurammalVarththaigal/ThirukkolurammalVarththaigal-06.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt; describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kandakarnan was a spirit that ate dead bodies. He was an ardent devotee of Shiva and as such hung a bell in his ear to prevent him from hearing Narayana's name being said. Hence he was called kaNdAkarNan. One time he went to Kailasha and prayed to Shiva to help him leave the spirit state and attain moksha. Shiva told him that he could not give him liberation and that only Narayana could do that. However, he gave the spirit a suggestion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva said &amp;quot;Lord Narayana has appeared on earth as Sri Krishna now. I asked Him one time to give me an opportunity to give Him a boon. He agreed and told me that He would come to Kailasha as Krishna and get a boon from me. When He comes here for that, if you pray to Him, He will give you what you seek&amp;quot;. He also gave a description of Krishna's form to Kandakarnan so he would recognize Krishna when he saw Him.  Kandakarna then thanked Shiva, removed the bell from his ear and keeping Krishna's image and name in his mind started waiting for His arrival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day, he saw Krishna from a distance and recognized Him right away. Immediately he killed a rishi who was nearby with a spear and brought the body to Krishna. Stopping Krishna he said &amp;quot;I have heard from Shiva that You are the one capable of giving moksha. I just now killed this rishi and brought his body just for You. Please accpet my offering&amp;quot; and prayed to Him sincerely. He did that because the shastras say that whatever a person eats according to his state, he should offer that to the divinity that he prays to, before eating it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since he had offered something to Krishna and only to Him, with great sincerity, Krishna accepted the offering and granted him moksha. He also granted to moksha to Kandakarna's brother, based on his prayer. It is understood that the rishi who was killed by Kandakarna and offered to Krishna also attained moksha. Thirukkolur Ammal is asking &amp;quot;Am I capable of praying to the Lord as sincerely as Kandakarna did?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe the story of Kandakarna?  He isn't mentioned during the account of Krishna's visit to Kailash in the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata.  So is it possible that his story mentioned in the Puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what race did Kandakarna belong to?  Was he a Pisacha, or a Bhuta, or what?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T08:34:00.283" Title="What scriptures describe Krishna granting Moksha to Ghantakarna, a Pishacha who killed a rishi?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13634" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13578" CreationDate="2016-06-11T07:52:42.220" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Following are the weapons mentioned in Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06048.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06049.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aindra weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06059.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahendra weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06059.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indra weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pramohana weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prajna weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06086.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varuna weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06102.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;solar weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06103.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vayavya weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06103.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saila weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parjanya weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Soma weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parameshthi weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prajapati weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dhatri weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Savitri weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tashtri weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saiva weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07019.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tvashtra weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07027.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaishnava weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07028.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aditya weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07030.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agneya weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gandharva weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pasupata weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07153.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yamya weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07172.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anjalika weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07172.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Asani of Rudra's&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07178.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sthunakarna weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07191.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narayana weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08053.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Naga weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08053.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sauparna weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhargava weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10012.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmashira weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10012.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Discus of Krishna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03230.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Trident of Siva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also some other weapons are mentioned as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mace&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sword&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Spear&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This list is not inexhaustible. So, it will be updated in time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2019-01-25T05:07:29.680" LastActivityDate="2019-01-25T05:07:29.680" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13635" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13636" CreationDate="2016-06-11T14:03:29.013" Score="7" ViewCount="12036" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sweta-Varaha&lt;/strong&gt; as the name refers &lt;strong&gt;White-Boar.&lt;/strong&gt; But the Varaha avatar of Lord Vishnu which lifted the earth from waters was of dark-blue complexion. Varaha avatar which killed Hiranyaksha was also dark blue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some statements from scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Harivamsa Parva of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Having a colour, similar to that of a dark blue rain cloud,&lt;/strong&gt; with a sound similar to the thunder of a rain cloud, with a body similar to that of a huge mountain, with his fang shining like the white island”. [Harivamsa Parva 3.34.31]&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The mighty boar, whose eyes were like the lotus, and whose body, vast as the Níla mountain, was of the &lt;strong&gt;dark colour of the lotus leaves,&lt;/strong&gt; uplifted upon his ample tusks the earth from the lowest regions”. [Vishnu Purana 1.04.26]&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagvata Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the Lord, playing like an elephant, suspended the earth on the edge of His curved white tusks. He &lt;strong&gt;assumed a bluish complexion like that of a tamala&lt;/strong&gt; tree, and thus the sages, headed by Brahma, could understand Him to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead and offered respectful obeisances unto the Lord. [Srimad Bhagavatam 3.13.33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Varaha which killed Hiranyakshya was also of dark blue colour as stated here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The slayer of asuras, sparkled with the conch and chakra (wheel) like a &lt;strong&gt;dark blue rain&lt;/strong&gt; bearing cloud sparkles between the sun and the moon”. [Harivamsa Parva 3.39.14]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then why is the Present Kalpa named Sweta-Varaha Kalpa? Why was it named so? It denotes which event ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;[Note: the name kalpa before 5 Kalpas from present Kalpa was Varaha Kalpa]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-11T15:09:30.077" LastActivityDate="2020-04-30T13:19:29.840" Title="Why is present Kalpa named as Sweta-Varaha Kalpa?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|scripture|puranas|yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13636" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13635" CreationDate="2016-06-11T14:06:08.813" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Present Kalpa is named Sweta-Varaha because &lt;strong&gt;Lingodbhava&lt;/strong&gt; incident took place just before beginning of this Kalpa. Lingodahbhava refers to that incident when Lord Shiva manifested as Agni Stambha. In the beginning of the current Kalpa, the fight between Vishnu and Brahma had occurred to prove that the Supreme Being was one of them. Lord Shiva intervened and appeared as the agni-stambha in between them. Brahma assuming the form of a swan (Hamsa) flew upwards and Vishnu assuming the form of a boar (Varaha) moved downwards. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नारायणोपि विश्वात्मा &lt;strong&gt;सुश्वेतोह्याभवत्तदा&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दशयोजन विस्तीर्णे सतयोजन मायेतम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मेरुपर्वतवर्षसमानम् गौरतीक्ष्णनोग्रदमस्थीनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कालादित्यसमाभाषं दिर्घघ्नोमम् अहास्वनम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ह्रस्वापादम् विचित्राड़्गम्जैत्रम् धृधमनौपामम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वाराहकारमास्थाय गतवामस्तद्धौ जवात् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एवं वर्ष सहस्रं च चरणविष्णुर्द्योगत ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथाप्रभृति लोकेसु &lt;strong&gt;श्वेतवाराहसज्ञांकः&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And the soul of the universe, viz. Narayana assumed the &lt;strong&gt;form of a white complexioned boar&lt;/strong&gt; spreading hundred yojanas in height and ten yojana in girth. Having his chin as like as the meru mountain shining with white hue and having sharp-pointed teeth, resembling the radiance of the form of the sun which is seen at the time of destruction of the universe, having a long nose, creating huge noise, having medium feet, and strange looking parts, stern, victorious; assuming such an incomparable form of the boar, he with an excellent speed, moved downwards. This way for thousands of years, Vishnu travelled down and down. &lt;strong&gt;In remembrance of that incident from that day, that Kalpa was famed as ṣvētavārāha kalpa.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;[Shiva Purana: 2.7.56-59]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the very name of Kalpa is in rememberance of that everlasting Agni-Linga of Lord Shiva. &lt;strong&gt;In Mahabharat Vyasa states it as:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And since he is great and ancient and is the source of life and of its continuance, &lt;strong&gt;and since his Phallic emblem is everlasting, he is for that reason called Sthanu.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;[Drona Parva Chapter 102]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-06-11T14:06:08.813" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13637" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-12T03:10:52.560" Score="7" ViewCount="2217" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the famous stotras for Lord Surya in Hinduism is &lt;a href=&quot;https://omshivam.wordpress.com/ayurveda-knowlwdge-of-life/surya-namaskar/surya-ashtakam/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;श्रीसूर्याष्टकम्&lt;/a&gt; (Surya ashtakam). In the last line of this सूर्याष्टकम्, there is a mention of &lt;strong&gt;Surya Loka&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्त्रीतैलमधुमांसानि ये त्यजन्ति रवेर्दिने । न व्याधि शोक दारिद्र्यं&#xA;  सूर्य लोकं च गच्छति ॥११॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: He who ceases from intimate company of women, oil bath, meat, honey on Sunday, will not be affected by miseries caused due to diseases, worries or poverty and shall live happily; at the end He will depart (directly) to Sūryaloka – the abode of Lord Sūrya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it seems that Sūryaloka is the abode of Lord Sūrya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/brahma/brahma_05.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;An Analysis of the Brahma Sutra&lt;/a&gt; by Swami Krishnananda, it is mentioned that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Highly purified souls travel through the rays of the sun to the orb of&#xA;  the sun. The rays of the sun are the paths through which the soul&#xA;  travels higher and reaches the Sun. In order to go to the sun, the&#xA;  soul has to be as bright, as powerful, as pure as the Sun. The soul&#xA;  gets purified in Surya Loka (Solar Region).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Question is&lt;/strong&gt; : Which Hindu scriptures describe in detail about the Sūryaloka? Is there any mention of any interesting story leading to the formation of Sūryaloka ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-13T01:37:59.690" LastActivityDate="2017-12-13T01:37:59.690" Title="Where is the mention of Surya Loka(सूर्य लोकं) in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|surya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13638" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-12T03:32:01.367" Score="6" ViewCount="737" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do any of the  Hinduism scriptures say that someone was killed by Lord Shiva and thus he got Moksha? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-21T08:50:52.627" LastActivityDate="2019-11-22T03:17:04.490" Title="Do beings killed by Lord Shiva get Moksha?" Tags="|shiva|moksha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13639" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="237" CreationDate="2016-06-12T04:35:49.390" Score="43" Body="&lt;p&gt;Basically by asking &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;How were Trimurthis born?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; This question is asking &amp;quot;Who is the originator of whom?&amp;quot; Or &amp;quot;Who is the Ishwara?&amp;quot; Several answers are given here, but most of them are only from their perspective. Here I present all perspectives of all Trimurty.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Brahma:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajurveda Shatapatha Brahmana 6.1.3.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verily, Prajâpati [Brahma] alone was here in the beginning. He desired, 'May I exist,&lt;/strong&gt; may I reproduce myself!' He toiled, he practised austerity (or, became heated). From him, worn out and heated, the waters were created: from that heated Person the waters are born.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As it clearly says 'Brahma' alone was there. So, there is no question of being someone (Vishnu/ ShivaLinga) to produce him. He self existed as per his desire.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As he wished 'May I reproduce' he started creation. So, 2.6.1 of Taittariya Upanishad applies to Brahma:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.6.1 He (the Self) wished, &lt;strong&gt;“Let me be many, let me be born.&lt;/strong&gt; He undertook a deliberation. Having deliberated, he created all this that exists. That (Brahman), having created (that), entered into that very thing. And having entered there, It became the formed and the formless, the defined and the undefined..&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, Brahma is himself the 'Brahman'.&lt;/strong&gt; He is the self of all. So, everything we see and perceive is simply just him. So, Brahma is the Ishwara. He desires so he is also Intellectual cause of creation. He created water, foam, gods... etc. So, he is Material cause also. So, Krishna saying in Gita &amp;quot;No one knows my origin. I'm without beginning... etc..&amp;quot; simply applies to this eternal Self only. Thus Brahma alone created all. There was no one in beginning to create him. He self-existed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Vishnu:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahopanishad of Samaveda&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;I-1-4. Then we shall expound the Mahopanishad. &lt;strong&gt;They say Narayana was alone. There were not Brahma, Shiva, Waters, Fire and Soma, Heaven and Earth, Stars, Sun and Moon.&lt;/strong&gt; He could not be happy. From the (desire of) the Paramatman, the Yajnastoma (hymn known as Avyakta) is said to have arisen.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As it clearly says Narayana alone was there. So he is the creator of all. Also in &lt;strong&gt;Taittariya Aranyaka of Yajurveda 10.13&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Narayana is the Supreme Reality designated as Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; Narayana is the highest (Self). Narayana is the supreme Light. Narayana is the infinite Self. [Narayana is the most excellent meditator and meditation.] &lt;strong&gt;Whatsoever there is in this world known through perception (because of their proximity) or known through report (because of their distance), all that is pervaded by Narayana within and without.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As it says &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;whatsoever in world is simply Narayana&amp;quot;...&lt;/strong&gt; so the stories describing creation by Brahma and Shiva are simply the creation by Narayana as everything is Narayana. Vaishnav Puranas mention this thing as:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayan alone was there ---- He appeared as sleeping in water--Lotus bud came from his Navel ---- It was sum total of fruitive activity of living entity --- Vishnu entered as supersoul in that lotus bud --- He impregnated it with material modes of nature--- Then Brahma was born there---- During the creation process he became angry---  Rudra emerged from the forehead of angry Brahma--- and so on the creation continued... &lt;br&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/8/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam 3.8&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam 3.12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, from above Lord Vishnu himself is the creator of Trimurty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Shiva:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad of Krishna YajurVeda&lt;/strong&gt; (which is considered among the principle 12 Upanishads) declares this:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rudra is truly one; for the knowers of Brahman do not admit the existence of a second, He alone rules all the worlds by His powers. He dwells as the inner Self of every living being. After having created all the worlds, He, their Protector, takes them back into Himself at the end of time.&lt;/strong&gt; [Svetasvatara Upanishad 3.2]&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As there is no second. So, stories denoting creation by Vishnu and Brahma are simply Rudra itself.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He, the omniscient Rudra, the creator of the gods and the bestower of their powers, the support of the universe, &lt;strong&gt;He who, in the beginning, gave birth to Hiranyagarbha&lt;/strong&gt; −may He endow us with clear intellect! [Svetasvatar Upanishad 3.4]&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what &lt;strong&gt;Taittariya Aranyaka of Yajurveda in 10.23,24&lt;/strong&gt; declares in passage of Rudra:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Supreme Brahman, the Absolute Reality,&lt;/strong&gt; has become an androgynous Person in the form of Umamaheshvara, dark blue and reddish brown in hue, absolutely chaste and possessing uncommon eyes. Salutations to Him alone who is the Soul of the universe or whose form is the universe. &lt;strong&gt;All this verily is Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; To Rudra who is such we offer our salutation. We salute again and again that Being, Rudra, who alone is the light and the Soul of creatures. &lt;strong&gt;The material universe the created beings and whatever there is manifoldly and profusely created in the past and in the present in the form of the world, all that is indeed this Rudra. Salutations be to Rudra who is such.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As he himself gave birth to Hiranyagarbha. So, there is no question of birth of Rudra from Brahmas forehead. It wasn't Shiva, they were just incarnations of Shiva. Shiva isn't among the Rudras who came from head of Brahma. Mahabharat states it several time. Here is one instance only:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Mokshadharma Parva: Section CCLXXXIV&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot;Daksha said, 'We have many Rudras armed with lances and bearing matted locks on their heads. &lt;strong&gt;They are eleven in number. I know them all, but I do not know who this  Maheswara is.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, now it is clear that Shiva already existed before manifesting as Rudra from forehead of Brahma. So, Shiva is the creator of all as he is the Supreme Brahman. Also he manifests himself from forehead of Brahma, multiplies himself to 11 in number and helps in creation by Brahma by entering in 8 different forms. The summary of Shaiva Puranas (Shiva and Linga Purans) is as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parabrahman denoted by Linga of Shiva Shakti--- From right side Brahma came---From left side Vishnu came---- later Brahma boast to Vishnu to see creation in Beeja form by entering in his stomach--- Vishnu enters and sees a Universe in Beeja form--- Vishnu come out--- Vishnu tell Brahma to enter in his stomach and see--- Brahma enters from mouth--- Brahma gets shocked on seeing multiverses in stomach of Vishnu--- he wanted to come out--- Vishnu blocked all 9 exits of his body--- Brahma remained blocked there--- Brahma then comes out from Navel of Vishnu--- thus as he came from Navel of Vishnu he became son of Vishnu-- then debate started between Brahma and Vishnu-- latter in the creation process Rudra came from forehead of Brahma--- then sustained the creation. &lt;em&gt;[Linga Purana 2.2]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa in Mahabharat states this process (ie. Vishnu coming from Linga as):&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kesava is that devoted worshipper of Rudra who has sprung from Rudra himself. Kesava always worship the Lord Shiva, regarding his Phallic emblem to be the origin of the universe.&lt;/strong&gt;  The Lord Kesava always worshippeth Siva in the Phallic emblem as the origin of all. [Drona Vadh Parva chapter 201] &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note that above portion of Mahabharata is Jaya section the original 8800 verses of Mahabharata ie. Direct narration by Sanjaya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, from above Lord Shiva is creator of Trimurty.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Finally,&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from one perspective we see one truth and from another persepective we see another truth. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Mahabharat says this:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Spirit hath three condition. In the form of Brahma, he is the Creator, and in the form of Vishnu he is the Preserver, and in his form as Rudra, he is the Destroyer of the Universe. [Mahabharata Vana Parva Section CCLXX]&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Harivamsa Parva of Mahabharat (2.125 section) says this:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remember that Rudra (Shiva) has the soul of fire and ViShNu has the soul of soma (nectar, moon). &lt;strong&gt;All the world including the fixed and movable beings have the combined souls of fire and soma (Shiva and ViShNu).&lt;/strong&gt; The supreme lord of Rudra (Shiva) is ViShNu and the supreme lord of ViShNu is Shiva (Rudra). The same lord is moving in the world always in two forms. &lt;strong&gt;ViShNu does not exist without ShaNkara (Shiva) and Shiva does not exist without Keshava&lt;/strong&gt; (ViShNu). Hence, Rudra (Shiva) and Upendra (ViShNu) have attained oneness, since long before.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the truth is what is above mentioned. One doesn't need to boast that what he tells and thinks is the only truth by citing verses from his own perspective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-12T19:10:17.077" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13640" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13743" CreationDate="2016-06-12T15:19:09.557" Score="1" ViewCount="873" Body="&lt;p&gt;What happens to a Guru when he dies in Gaudiya System?&#xA;For example, some guru dies, who will be the next guru? His disciple or whom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6826" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-08-04T19:56:06.440" LastActivityDate="2017-02-10T18:09:44.353" Title="What happens to a Guru when he dies?" Tags="|krishna|guru|gaudiya-vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9019" CreationDate="2016-06-12T17:18:10.340" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;A soul is born immediately in some OR the other form among the 84lakh species as per his Karmas attached to him. If he is on path of gaining punya he becomes a better being than now and steps towards next level in his next bitrth.  This ritual of Shradhaa to be performed every year is only to make the minds of the people confused and to keep them connected to it. &#xA;The only thing hardly every person should do is remember every year and pray for their well being in the birth they have taken&#xA;Performing upto one year has some sence as the process of taking birth again takes nearly 9-10 months for which we help them by prayers continously for better birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6856" LastActivityDate="2016-06-12T17:18:10.340" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13645" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13646" CreationDate="2016-06-13T02:31:44.930" Score="8" ViewCount="2515" Body="&lt;p&gt;I asked this question so that there becomes a question analogous to this question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7698/where-does-the-linga-purana-declare-vishnu-to-be-the-supreme-soul&quot;&gt;Where does the Linga Purana declare Vishnu to be the supreme soul?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It becomes interesting to know about mystic nature of Puranas. So, my question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although being a Vaishnav Purana where does PadmaPurana Declares SadShiva to be originator of Brahma Vishnu and Maheshwor ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T14:24:14.663" Title="Where does the Padma Purana declares SadaShiva to be the originator of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|scripture|puranas|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13646" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13645" CreationDate="2016-06-13T02:40:54.917" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Padma Purana declares Sada Shiva to be originator of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwor in &lt;strong&gt;Patala Khanda chapter 108&lt;/strong&gt; while describing origin of Sacred ash:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Rama said:&#xA;  1. O illustrious one, tell about the origin of the sacred &#xA;  ash, the greatness of the sacred ash, and the religious merit (earned) through the application of the sacred ash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sambhu said:&#xA;  2-8a. O Rama, I shall tell you about the origin of the &#xA;  sacred ash. (I shall tell you about its effect) by (just) remembering or telling about it. O king, listen to it. &lt;strong&gt;He who is that eternal god Sadasiva, who is saluted by Brahma, who has three eyes, who is the prop of virtues, who is beyond qualities, who is unchangeable and immutable, had once a desire to create on &#xA;  seeing the three qualities in himself—this triad of qualities should be known as the three Vedas. O dear one, having divided himself and the region there, he created on his right side the son, viz. Brahma and Hari from his left side. At the back side he created Maheswara (i.e. Shiva); thus the mighty one created &#xA;  three sons. As soon as they were born they became the three gods—Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; They distinctly spoke these words: &quot;Who are you? Who are we?&quot; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; To those sons Shiva said: &quot;You are the sons, (and) I am your father. O sons, resort to these three qualities which are the cause of (all) acts.&quot;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The sons said:&#xA;  8b-16. O lord, who should resort to which quality and how long? How can there be the cessation from the qualities? Tell this to us. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shiva said:&#xA;  As long as you have (i.e. retain your) knowledge or as long as you live, each one of these qualities should be retained by you. Brahma should retain the quality of Sattva (i.e. goodness), Visnu should retain Rajas (i.e. activity) and Mahesvara (should keep) Tamas (i.e. ignorance or darkness). &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; As soon as the lord of gods had said this, Brahma took up Sattva. He could not move it; then how could he be capable of holding it? Abandoning that quality, he took up the quality of &#xA;  Rajas. He was not able to move it; (so) he took up the Tamas quality. He was not able to move it. He fell down and wept; and Visnu held the Rajas quality with his left hand. (Then) Mahesa held the Tamas quality with his two fingers; one, i.e. Visnu, with his two fingers, took up the Sattva (quality). He &#xA;  sustained Brahma at the footstool, and danced. The giver of the boons, having seen Siva who was dancing, who had a graceful form, whose form was (fair) like the cow's milk, who was young and had three eyes, who held everything, who caused joy, said to his sons:&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; Shiva said:&#xA;  17-18. O son, I am pleased (with you). Ask for a boon as desired (by you).&#xA;  Then the son said to the father: &quot;Give this boon tome: &#xA;  O auspicious one, let the worship intended for me be yours. You should always remain in me; you, the immutable one, are me only.&quot; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shiva said:&#xA;  19-20. O magnanimous one, this will happen; there is no doubt. These two reddish and fair, Brahma and Visnu are my two sons. They are the fine soft hair of the armpits, they have my form and are innocent.&#xA;  Then he said to Brahma: &quot;You resort to (i.e. take) this one quality.&quot; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Brahma said:&#xA;  21-22a. O lord, I am not able to hold the quality indicated by you. O god, I shall sustain the Rajas (quality); let Hari resort to the Sattva (quality). This god will hold the remaining quality. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Sambhu said:&#xA;  22b-24. After having taken the qualities, those gods were not able always to hold them. For being able to sustain (them) they again said to Siva (i.e. the lord): &quot;We are not able to hold these qualities for all the time. O lord if you are the giver of boons, (then) give us the capacity (to hold them).&quot; Then hearing their words, Siva said (these) words. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shiva said:&#xA;  25-28. Of all (powers), the power of knowledge (alone) is called power. Vidya (i.e. knowledge) resorts to the three qualities. Ignorance also resorts to them. Please hold the essence of the three qualities after burning them. You should hold that what would be (remaining) there. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then his son said (these) words: &quot;There cannot be burning without fire.&quot;  &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shiva said: &quot;Fire certainly exists in the eye of &#xA;  Sankara. These three qualities are the cow; and knowledge would be(i e. is) the auspicious cowdung. Upanisad is said to be the urine (of the cow). Then one should prepare the sacred ash from them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-13T02:56:06.427" LastActivityDate="2016-06-13T02:56:06.427" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13647" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="435" CreationDate="2016-06-13T04:59:30.190" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As your question is asking &lt;strong&gt;'Why Shiva being an ascetic also lives a family life ?&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One has to understand &lt;strong&gt;'Shiva Tatwa'&lt;/strong&gt; to understand this. It is because everything exists in Shiva and hence he manifests himself in two opposite forms which contradict each other:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's see some example of Shiva Tatwam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) Fierceness and Auspiciousness&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Begin from name. One name is 'Rudra' which means 'fierce', 'terror'. Another name is 'Shiva' which means 'auspicious', 'bliss'. Now how can auspicious and terror exist together ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) Destruction and affection&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is Destroyer. But he is also 'Pasupati' or Lord of creatures and Sankara (Giver of Pleasure). Now how can a destroyer become their Lord? How can a destroyer give pleasure?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3) Attachment and Detachment&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is detached from everything. He is the ideal for Sanyasi. But he cries when Sati self-immolated. How can a detached person cry and become like mad ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4) Moha and Manmatha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He himself is the destroyer of 'Kama&quot; but he falls in love with Mohini? How can a destroyer of Kama be attracted towards Mohini ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5) Satwik and Tamasik&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He smears himself with ash of cemetry, lives with Ghosts and Pisachas which are tamasic and considered impure. But the most purest Ganga is flowing from his head. They are existing together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6) Family&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Family of Shiva is also very mysterious. For eg. Vahana (Riding Vehicle) of Ganesh is mouse. Vahana of Shiva is Ox. Vahana of Kumara is Peacock. Vahana of Parvati/Durga is considered Cat/ Tiger. Now lets see. Cat eats mouse. Tiger eats Ox. Peacock eats snake and rat. But they live mutually in family of Shiva. This is the symbolic representation of Shiva Tatwa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the similar way just as fierceness and auspiciousness, love and detachment, tamasic and satwik, destruction and lordship exists simultaneously in Shiva. &lt;strong&gt;So, asceticism and family life also exist simultaneously. This is the beauty of Shiva Tatwa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram of Yajurveda states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;रथेभ्यो रथपतिभ्यो नमो नमः नमः सुतायहन्ताय, रथकारेम्यो नमो नमः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Salutation to him who is chariot, who is rider of chariot, who is charioteer and who is maker of Chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he himself makes chariot. He himself is the chariot. He himself rides chariot. He himself drives chariot. So, everything is him everything is his Leela.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-13T05:15:27.880" LastActivityDate="2016-06-13T05:15:27.880" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13649" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13650" CreationDate="2016-06-13T06:00:41.617" Score="20" ViewCount="5741" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally people have a severe misconception that Shiva is represented by the name 'Rudra' only in Vedas. Various names used today used for Lord Shiva are from Vedas.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rThE7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rThE7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Lord Shiva&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some names are only in Puranas and Mahabharat whereas some names are directly from Vedas. Shiva is known by various names like Sambhu, Shankara, Bholenath, Nilakantha, Mahadeva, Maheshwara and so many other names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are the most popular names of Lord Shiva used today which are taken from Vedas? And What is the meaning of those names?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-09T04:26:29.143" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T04:26:29.143" Title="What names of Lord Shiva used today are from Vedas?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|shiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13650" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13649" CreationDate="2016-06-13T06:07:06.327" Score="23" Body="&lt;p&gt;Name of God represents the attribute of God. Since a single Name doesn't cover all the attributes of God multiple names are given to cover the attributes of God. Lord Shiva has infinite attributes. Vedas themselves give multiple names to Lord Shiva so that they can cover maximum attributes of Lord Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here I have prepared famous names of Lord Shiva which are directly from Vedas. &lt;strong&gt;I have also attached commentary of either Lord Krishna or sage Vyasa from Mahabharat to understand meaning of those names. Here are the names:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;1) Shiva&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva is the most famous name which means auspicious. Vajasena Samhita of Yajurveda 3.60 clearly states &amp;quot;Shivo Namaasi Swadhistite&amp;quot; ie. &amp;quot;You are known by the name &lt;strong&gt;Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt; 4.5.8 of Taittariya Samhita of YajurVeda, 16.49 of Vajasena Samhita of YajurVeda gives this name. &lt;em&gt;Lord Krishna states:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since by all his acts he performs sacrifices for all and seeks the good of every creature, therefore he is called Shiva  or the auspicious one. &lt;em&gt;[Anushasana Parva clxi]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;2) Mahadeva&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is one of the most popular name. It is stated in Satapatha Brahmana of Yajurveda in 6.1.3.16, Taittariya Aranyaka 10.20.1. &lt;em&gt;Lord Krishna states:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since he is the foremost of all the deities, and since his dominion and acquisitions are very extensive, and since he protects the extensive universe, therefore he is called Mahadeva. &lt;em&gt;[Anusasana Parva clxi]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;3) Pasupati&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pasupati is another popular name of Lord Shiva. It is stated in several places like T.S.4.5.4,8 ; Satapatha Brahmana 6.1.3.12, Taittariya Aranyaka 10.22.1, T.S. 6.2.3 etc..&lt;em&gt;Vyasa states:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And since he always protecteth the creatures (of the universe) and sporteth with them, and since also he is the lord of all creatures, therefore is he called Pasupati.&#xA;&lt;em&gt;[Drona Vadh Parva ccii]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;4) Shankara&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is another popular name of Lord Shiva. Taittariya Samhita 4.5.8, Vajasena Samhita 16.49 states this name. Shankara means 'One who provides Pleasure'&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;5) Rudra&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It denotes fierce aspect of Lord Shiva. It is stated many times like T.S. 4.5.4, Satapatha Brahmana 6.1.3.10 etc.. &lt;em&gt;Lord Krishna states&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And since he burneth, since he is fierce, since he is endued with great prowess, and since he devoureth flesh and blood and marrow, he is for this called Rudra. &lt;em&gt;[Anushashana Parva clxi]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;6) Ishana&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is name of Lord Shiva denoting Lordship. 2.33.9 of Rigveda states 'Isanadasya Bhuvanasya' meaning Lord of World, Satapatha Brahmana 6.1.3.17 and Taittariya Aranyaka 10.21.1 also state this name. &lt;em&gt;Vyasa states:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He that is the embodiment of heaven, earth and sky, the Divine Lord, the protector of the universe, the great Master, the giver of boons, called also Isana. &lt;em&gt;[DronaParva ccii]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;7) Bhava&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is another popular name meaning cause. It is stated in T.S.4.5.4, Satapatha Brahmana 6.1.3.15. &lt;em&gt;Vyasa states:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And since, he is the Past, the Future, and the Present, and, in fact, everything in the universe, and since he is the origin of the past, the future, and the present, he is for that reason called Bhava. &lt;em&gt;[Drona Parva ccii]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;8) Tryambaka&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This name is stated in 7.59.12 of Rigveda, 1.8.6.i of Taittriya Samhita, 3.60 of Vajasena Samhita. It means three-eyed. Also means Lord of three world. &lt;em&gt;Vyasa states:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And since three goddesses adore and have recourse to that Lord of the universe, viz., Firmament, Water and Earth, he is for that reason called Tryamvaka. And since Maheswara by means of his two eyes closed (in meditation), created through sheer force of will a third eye on his forehead, he is for that reason called the Three-eyed. &lt;em&gt;[Drona Parva ccii]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;9) Maheswara&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is another popular name of Lord Shiva meaning Great Lord. It is stated in Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda in 10.12.3. It is also stated in Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.10. Ishwara is stated in 10.21 of Taittariya Aranyaka. Mahabharat states this name more than 120 times. &lt;em&gt;Lord Krishna states:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because he is great (Mahat) and the Supreme Lord of all (Iswara), therefore he is called Maheswara. &lt;em&gt;[Anusasana Parva clxi, Vyasa also states the same in Drona Parva ccii]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;10) Sadashiva&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sadashiva which means Eternal Shiva. This name is stated in Taittariya Aranyaka 10.21.1 and Maitreyopanishad 2.6&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;11) Umapati &lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10.22.1 of Taitariya Aranyaka states Lord Shiva as Umapati and Ambikapati. Uma is consort of Shiva/ Personified Brahma Vidya. Ambika means mother of world. Thus Ambikapati means Lord of mother of World.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;12) Sarva&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is stated in 4.5.4 of T.S., 6.1.3.11 of Satapatha Brahmana and other places also. Literally it means 'All'. &lt;em&gt;Vyasa states:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is Yoga and the lord of Yoga; he is called  Sarva, and is the Lord of all the worlds. &lt;em&gt;[Drona Parva ccii]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;13) Ishwara&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is also denoted by the name 'Ishwara'. Although it applies for other Gods too. Ishwara is stated in Taittariya Aranyaka 10.21.1 &lt;em&gt;Lord Krishna states:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is he who is always engaged in all that is&#xA;good and evil in the three worlds. In consequence of his fullest control over all objects of enjoyment he is called Ishwara (the Supreme Lord or Master). &lt;em&gt;[Anusasana parva clxi]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;14) Nilagriva&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means blue-necked one. It is stated several times. For eg. In Taittariya Samhita 4.5.1. This name is the origin of Popular name &lt;strong&gt;Nilakantha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;15) Kapardin&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means one with matted Hair. This is stated several times. For eg. In Taittariya Samhita 4.5.4&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;16) Kala&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although Lord Shiva is more populary known as Mahakaal as his consort is Mahakali. 'Kala' name which means 'who is time' is stated in Taittariya Aranyaka 10.18.1&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;17) Tripurari &lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tripurari means destroyer of three cities made by Asuras. So, Lord Shiva is Tripurantaka.  Name got from story of Taittariya Samhita of YajurVeda 6.2.3.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;18) Sithikantha &lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sithikantha meaning white throated one. It denotes the white colour of ash around Lord Shivas name. This name is frequently used in Sri Rudram part of YajurVeda like in Taittariya Samhita 4.5.4.&#xA;There are other Several Names like &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Ugra&lt;/strong&gt; [Satapatha Brahmana 6.1.3.13]= meaning fierce&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Bhima&lt;/strong&gt; [T.S. 4.5.7]=meaning giant&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Aghora&lt;/strong&gt; [T.A. 10.19.1]=meaning Benign &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Bhutanamadhipati&lt;/strong&gt; [V.S. 16.48] = meaning Lord of all beings.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Vamadeva&lt;/strong&gt; [Taittariya Aranyaka 10.18.1], &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Virupakshya&lt;/strong&gt; [Taittariya Aranyaka 10.22.1]=meaning having uncommon(odd) eyes and other names too denoting infinite Attributes of Lord Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; Note: here, T.S. =Taittariya Samhita of YajurVeda, V.S. = Vajasena Samhita of YajurVeda, T.A.= Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-07T13:22:02.750" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13651" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3237" CreationDate="2016-06-13T08:10:35.687" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe that it is pure causeless mercy of the Supreme Lord that we can't remember our past life experiences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can't handle the traumatic situations of this one life; what to speak of countless other previous lives?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways in Srimad Bhagavatam Lord kapila explains how the child loses one's memory when he comes out of the womb of mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;this is explained in third canto of Bhagavatam; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 31&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pushed downward all of a sudden by the wind, the child comes out with&#xA;great trouble, head downward, breathless and deprived of memory due to&#xA;severe agony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in commentary  A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31/23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;writes&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the child comes&#xA;out of the abdomen through the narrow passage, due to pressure there&#xA;the breathing system completely stops, and due to agony the child&#xA;loses his memory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;the next verse(3.31.24) says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The child thus falls on the ground, smeared with stool and blood, and&#xA;plays just like a worm germinated from the stool. He loses his&#xA;superior knowledge and cries under the spell of māyā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note:&lt;strong&gt;Also I'am not sure if dog remembers their past life. However I dont think so.For there are no strong evidences in its support.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2023-10-11T03:52:07.423" LastActivityDate="2023-10-11T03:52:07.423" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13654" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13635" CreationDate="2016-06-13T10:55:46.233" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;what i know is that shvet-these r munis living on himalayas &amp;amp; another reason name shvet of kalpa is that in this kalpa shiva &amp;amp; brahma's clothes r white..like as vayu purana says in description of previous kalpas the red colored kalpa has red colored clothes &amp;amp; all red red gods &amp;amp; tridev also as i m saying this in very short..varaha is as u said its that this kalpa started with varaha incarnation &amp;amp; there r 3 types of kalpa 1)varaha 2)brahma 3)padma...&amp;amp; i ain't promoting self but i wrote about them here-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slideshare.net/Shivamner/shivam2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.slideshare.net/Shivamner/shivam2&lt;/a&gt; hope it is allowed here...in comments of that i wrote!:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4752" LastActivityDate="2016-06-13T10:55:46.233" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13656" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12518" CreationDate="2016-06-13T11:13:56.153" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XeGNs.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XeGNs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;of flood it is..that water above firmament that is out of universe comes inside for flood which is karanodak sea's water where universe floats&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;we basically follow time calculation system called Kalpa...a day of brahma is of 4320000000 yrs &amp;amp; so much length is night too...like this 360 day+nights in 1 yr &amp;amp; his life span is of 100(in brahmanda puran it is 108) yrs...now we r at 51st yr's 1st day's 7th manvantar's 28th kaliyuga's 5117th yr...world starting is said like a bubble from karanodakshayi vishnu's body rises..just like story of chinese pangu in 1000 yrs it breaks &amp;amp; 1 man appears...he is brahma &amp;amp; after his 1st day the brahmanda gets filled with water &amp;amp; there appears &amp;amp; resides garbhodakshayi vishnu on who's navel lotus next day brahma rises...btw time speed is different at different places like our 1 yr is 1 day+night of heavenly gods..our 1 month is 1 day+night of pitr...any more further info u need tell me!:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp; sorry i have to find iskcon's those so many articles like on 1 article i can't tell i got all this info...it took various articles but iskcon will support as yes they do say so!sorry my tantrums again but pls pardon as i have a point in answer so..sorry me very casual type guy so pardon pls pls i can prove why my answer right but tell me what exactly i didn't told so as all i understood was this &amp;amp; i know i m mistaking somewhere so...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4752" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-19T17:39:15.583" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13658" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12421" CreationDate="2016-06-13T11:26:18.483" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Either there r 2 or there r 3 pronunciations told of Pranav. 1)ओSम् this is pluta o &amp;amp; ends with half m which is anunasik naad end. This pronunciation contains a+u+a+m= a+u=o &amp;amp; o+a = pluta o. This is told in taittiriya pratishakhya text.&#xA;2)औँ - anusvar or chandrabindu when nothing ahead r half m automatically in Sanskrit mantras. In Shukla yajurved anusvar is gkaar yukta eg. Gananam tvam ganapati gum havaamahe. &amp;amp; in tantra we find pronunciation ङ् of anusvar &amp;amp; also anusvar is told to occur only before consonants र श ष स ह ज्ञ &amp;amp; y l w has chandrabindu before it. Ideally. In Sanskrit. Chandrabindu allophone of n &amp;amp; anusvar of m but when appear last both are m automatically &amp;amp; no difference then. Almost all script's Om symbol or the one widely used is siddham script aum means almost all scripts use au+chandrabindu character as symbol. &amp;amp; as per Krishna yajurved Pathshala in Satara Maharashtra's head teacher have told me he has heard aum pronunciation of Pranav in few yajnas he attended. This is a+a+u+m.&#xA;3)ओम् = akaar to Brahma ukaar to Vishnu makaar mahesh zaaniyela onkar pradhaan Roop ganeshache as written by saint tukaram. So if we look it as akaar is Brahma tatva ukaar Vishnu tatva &amp;amp; mkaar mahesh tatva then previous both have 2 a 1 u 1 m. So if we look this as 3 tatvas told of onkar then 2 pronunciations exist. If we take Om as pronunciation too then 3.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4752" LastEditorUserId="4752" LastEditDate="2019-05-29T13:03:52.890" LastActivityDate="2019-05-29T13:03:52.890" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13659" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-13T11:33:02.600" Score="8" ViewCount="13456" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sex is necessary for continuing our generations. What do our scriptures say about sex? What do they say about steps to take for having healthy children and what things we have to do before, during and after sex for this purpose? Any procedure, activities, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T02:09:48.573" Title="What do the scriptures say about sexual life?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|sex|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13662" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11611" CreationDate="2016-06-13T14:21:12.500" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara told Nirvana Shatakam on being questioned by Govindapada. Here is what Madhaviya Shankara Digvijaya tells:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meeting with Govindapada and accepting Sanyasa&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (89-96) Travelling a long distance, that young Sannyasin; with staff in hand and wearing new Kashaya dress, arrived at the forest hermitage of sage Govinda towards one evening, even like the sun at the western horizon. The shade of tall trees on [he river &#xA;  bank and the cool breeze blowing through them assuaged his bodily exhaustion very soon, while the sight of deer skins and bark clothes on the pranches of bushes indicated to him that he had arrived at a hermitage. Desirous of being initiated into Brahman-&#xA;  knowledge there, he sought the advice of the ascetic inhabitants of the place. As directed by them, he approached sage Govinda's residence, a cave with an entrance only a cubit in width. Tn the presence of the hermits, he went round the cave three times, and then &#xA;  falling prostrate at its door, began to chant a hymn in praise of sage Govinda full of the spirit of devotion to the Guru. He said, ··1 worship Thee, the incarnation of the great serpent Sesha, who is the bed of Mahavishnu, an ornament of Shiva, and the one on whose head the earth with all its mountains and rivers rest. Thou art the &#xA;  same sage Patanjali, a manifestation of Adisesha. who.sc thousand faces put his disciples to fright and who thereupon assumed a gentle form with a single face. Thou alone, as Patanjali. produced the great &#xA;  work on Yoga, as also the exegesis on the grammatical treatise of Panini. 0 far-famed one' Thou didst attain to the highest spiritual realisation from the instruction of the great Gaudapada,.a disciple of Suka the son ofVyasa. Praying to Thee for instruction in the truth &#xA;  of Brahman, I salute Thee, the repository.of all great virtues ,&quot;  &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Praised thus, the sage came out of superconscicus &#xA;  state and asked, ··&lt;strong&gt;Who are you?&quot; In reply Sankara said the following, indicative of his great spiritual enlightenment: &quot;Revered Sir. I am neither the earth, nor water. nor fire, nor air. nor sky. nor any of their properties. I am not the senses and the mind even. I am Siva, the divisionless essence of Consciousness.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; Hearing these words, pregnant with the spirit of non-dualistic consciousness, the sage was delighted beyond description and replied: &quot;Dear boy, &#xA;  through the supersensuous insight which the experience of Samadhi has given me, I see that you are the great God Siva come on earth in human fonn.&quot; Then, in observance of the customary rules for &#xA;  establishing the relationship between the teacher and the disciple, the sage extended his feet through the mouth of the cave, which the would-be disciple worshipped with all devotion and ceremony. &#xA;  One may have an inborn knowledge of the Truth, but it is the scriptural dictum that one should be instructed duly by a teacher. So Sankara perfonned the worship of the teacher, and through the devoted service of him, became the object of his loving affection. &#xA;  Highly pleased with the disciple's service, the sage imparted to him the knowledge of Brahman through the four Maha-Vakyas (great Vedic sentences) Prajnanam Brahma (Brahman is pure Conscious-&#xA;  ness): Aham Brahmiismi (I am Brahman); Tat-twam-asi (Thou art That); Ayamatmii Brahma (This Atman is Brahman). He was then taught the Vedanta Sutras of Vyasa, and through them, the innermost essence of the Vedanta philosophy. &lt;strong&gt;Vyasa was the son of Parasara, and Suka, of Vyasa. Suka had as his disciple &#xA;  Gaudapada, and Gaudapada had as his disciple Govindapada, from whom Sankara now received initiation in the knowledge of Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; Govindapada was considered an incarnation of Adisesha, &#xA;  described in the Puranas as the serpent supporting the worlds, and it was from him that the world teacher Sankara learned all the Sastras as a disciple, with the undertaking that he would do his best to spread that knowledge among men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above bolded(first bolded) is a part of Nirvana Shatakam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Gaudapada, Sankara just got vision of him and he found him delighted as Sankara had correctly interpreted Gaudapada Karika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only vision of Gaudapada is described as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Vision Of Gaudapada&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  (33-53) Sometime after he was free from the disease, the Acharya, while sitting on the sandy bed of Ganga for meditation, saw before him the form of sage Gaudapada. He shone like a night-lotus blooming under the glory. of evening clouds reflecting &#xA;  the light of the setting sun. In one hand of his was a Kamandalu of sparkling metal resembling the inside lustre of lotus flowers, while the finger tips of the other counted a rosary ·of Rudraksha beads, round which honey bees hummed, mistaking them to be &#xA;  blue lotus buds. The Acharya prostrated himself before Gaudapada in great excitement and then stood before him in an attitude of great respect with hands held in salutation. Gaudapada now began to speak, casting all around his glances, which resembled the waves of the Milk Ocean, and the lustre of his smile that excelled &#xA;  the soothing influence of moonlight. He said: &quot;Govindacharya imparted to you the saving knowledge of the Atman, and you have well realised the eternal truth of Sat-chid-ananda, the eternal and untainted Being. You have also acquired many disciples always attending. on you-disciples who have their minds at peace and senses. under control and who are endowed with devotion, faith, renunciation and strong urge t~ have direct· experience of Brahman. You have gained mastery over the six instinctive urges of the mind .. You have gained proficiency in the six-limbed Yoga. &#xA;  You have acquired the six-fold spiritual excellences. Your mind has become one with the Eternal Being. I hope all these attainments are yours already.&quot; To these enquiries of Gaudapada, Sankara answered with great emotion and humility: &quot;Honoured Master! By your grace all those excellences you have mentioned can certainly accru~ to me. What is there unattainable for one on &#xA;  whom your gracious look has fallen? A glance of yours can make a fool a scholar, a sinner a saint, a dumb man an eloquent speaker, and a lascivious person a paragon of purity. Who in the world can understand even an iota of your vast and endless greatness? &#xA;  It was only to you that SUka, the great son of Vyasa, imparted the. truth of Brahman out of the fulness of his heart. The greatness of that Suka, your teacher, was such that even at birth he was endowed with the knowledge of Brahman. Immediately he was &#xA;  born, he abanondedhearth and home and became an illumined wanderer, so that his father Vyasa had to go after him, calling '0 my son! my son!' And as the father Vyasa, the commentator on the Yoga aphorisms, cried out like this, he, the son Suka, replied in the form of reverberations of voices coming from the trees. &#xA;  To such an extent had that great Suka attained identification, through knowledge, with all existence. You are that limitless receptacle of knowledge that was filled with spiritual inspiration by that illustrious personage. It is, indeed, the summit of good &#xA;  fortune for a devotee of yours like myself that he could see you today face to face.&quot; At these words Gaudapada said: &quot;My child, hearing about your unique excellences, I, though unrufHed always, have come in the surge of love to meet you. With great joy I heard &#xA;  from Govinda that from your mind has arisen the sun of a com-mentary that has broughtthe lotus of my Karika on the Mandukya into full bloom, spreading the fragrance of its import everywhere.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;Thereupon, the Acharya read out with all humility his commentaries &#xA;  on the Mandukya Upanishad and Gaudapada's Karika on the same. Highly pleased with the comm.entary, Gaudapada said, &quot;0 emperor of the realm of scholarship! On hearing your very clear and correct interpretation of my Karika, my mind is bursting &#xA;  with joy and I feel an irresistible prompting to give you a boon. Choose whatever you like!&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; Sankara replied: &quot;When I met you, in whom the splendour of Suka resides, I have received the vision of Mahavishnu Himself. What greater boon can be sought by me &#xA;  whose thought revolves always around that Supreme Being only?&quot; Deathless and desireless, that great sage Gaudapada thereupon disappeared, blessing the Acharya, who spent much of that night narrating to his disciples all that had happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Gaudapada is Grand-Guru of Adi-Shankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-13T14:32:19.167" LastActivityDate="2016-06-13T14:32:19.167" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13663" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-13T15:59:00.750" Score="1" ViewCount="373" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in this question, the famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya once visited the town of Thirukkolur in order to see the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaithamanidhi_Perumal_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaithamanidhi Perumal Vishnu temple&lt;/a&gt;, when he saw a little girl walking out of the town.  He asked her, given that everyone wants to go into to Thirukkolur to see Sriman Narayana, why would she ever want to go out of the town? She responded with a set of 81 statements, now known as the Thirukkolur Penpillai Rahasyam, or &amp;quot;the secret told by the little girl from Thirukkolur&amp;quot;.  She listed 81 great devotees of Vishnu, the implication being &amp;quot;Since I am not like these illustrious devotees, why does it matter whether I'm in Thirukkolur or not?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in my question here, I asked about the statement, concerning the demon Khandakarna who got Moksha by worshiping Krishna.  But now I'm interested in the last statement, &amp;quot;thuRai vERu seydhEnO pagavaraip pOlE&amp;quot;, meaning &amp;quot;Am I like Bagavar?&amp;quot;  The story as I understand it goes roughly as follows.  There was once a Vaishnava Brahmana named Villiputtur Bagavar who lived in Thiruvahindrapuram, the site of the Devanatha Perumal Vishnu temple which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5294/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Like other Brahmanas, every day he would perform Sandhyavandanam in the local river, except he would do so in a different part of the river than the rest of them.  The other Brahmanas were confused by his behavior, so one day they asked him why he didn't want to perform Sandhyavandanam with them.  He explained, &amp;quot;You are only doing your Varnashrama Dharma for the sake of material rewards, either in this world or the next.  But I am doing my Varnashrama Dharma as a service to Sriman Narayana, and my only goal is Moksha.  So I don't want have any association with you.&amp;quot;  Here's how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.acharya.org/v/ThirukkolurammalVarththaigal/ThirukkolurammalVarththaigal-81.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt; describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Thiruvayindrapuram lived a Srivaishnava called Villipuththur Bagavar. When he went to the river to perform his daily anushatanams, he would always go to a different part of the river and not to the place where most others would go. One time the Brahmins who were in their area of the river asked Bagavar &amp;quot;O! Swami. Why do you not perform your anushatanams in our place?&amp;quot; Bagavar replied &amp;quot;We are Srivaishnavas that follow Swami Ramanuja. We perform these nityanushatanams only as a service to Sriman Narayana. You are brahmins that follow varNashrama dharma. You perform the nityanushtanams as part of your varNa. Therefore, the two of us cannot mix&amp;quot;. Bagavar was either a brahmin who had understood the true nature of the soul or was a sanyasi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thirukkolur Ammal is asking &amp;quot;Did I understand the greatness of service and separate from those who follow only the dharma anushatana?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who is this Villiputhur Bagavar, and when did he live?  The webpage quoted above calls him a &amp;quot;Srivaishnava&amp;quot;, so did he live after the establishment of the Sri Vaishnava sect by Nathamuni (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3039/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;)?  Or is he a more ancient devotee of Vishnu mentioned in the Puranas or other scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And is his name really Bagavar, or is that just a Tamil spelling of Bhagavata, which is a term for followers of Pancharatra (as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;)?  Also, Villiputtur is a town which is now known as Srivilliputtur, and it's the birthplace of two Alwars, Periyalwar and his daughter Andal.  If &amp;quot;Villiputtur Bagavar&amp;quot; really means &amp;quot;the Bhagavata from Srivilliputtur&amp;quot;, then it could refer to Periyalwar.  Did he ever live in Thiruvahindrapuram?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, if it helps, &lt;a href=&quot;http://divyaprabandham.koyil.org/index.php/2015/02/gyana-saram-13-pande-uyir-anaiththum/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt; says that the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Manavala Mamunigal mentions the story in his Jnana Saram Vyakhyanam.  Also, the ashram of the Sri Ramanuja Mission Trust, a Sri Vaishnava charitable organization, has a statue of Villiputhur Bagavar among their statues of Sri Vaishnava Acharyas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2wMdt.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;sample image&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that may just be because he's a figure revered by Sri Vaishnavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T14:35:33.340" Title="Who is Villiputhur Bagavar, the Vaishnava Brahmin who refused to associate with ordinary Brahmins?" Tags="|vishnu|history|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13665" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13659" CreationDate="2016-06-13T19:37:05.177" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu samskaras cover an individual’s entire life span from conception to funeral rites. Hindus believe sexual intimacy between married couples is a sacred act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sex life is especially meant for having good children&lt;/strong&gt;. The circumstances for creating good children are mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;Kama-sastra of Vatsyaayana&lt;/strong&gt;, the scripture in which&#xA; suitable guidelines are provided for a glorious sex life. Everything needed is mentioned in various scriptures. Kama Sutra   is an ancient   text widely considered to&#xA; be the standard work on human sexual behavior in Sanskrit written by &lt;strong&gt;Vatsyaayana&lt;/strong&gt;.  It includes a &#xA; section on practical advice on sexual intercourse.   &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Kaama&lt;/strong&gt;” which is one of the four &lt;strong&gt;Purushaarthaas&lt;/strong&gt; or Human goals of life, means   sensual as well as sexual&#xA; pleasure and &quot;Sootra” literally means a thread.  Sootra means aphorism.    Kama sutra is not just an exclusive sex manual; it  presents itself as a guide to Grihastaasrama,&#xA; family life to lead virtuous and gracious living .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good sexual relations have been considered as a sacred responsibility in Hindu way of Life and have been ceremoniously observed offering prayers to their favorite&#xA; gods and goddesses.  Before engaging in sexual intercourse, both the husband and the wife must consider their mental condition, the particular time, the husband’s direction, and  obedience to &#xA; the demigods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Vedic ritual called &lt;strong&gt;Garbhadhana-samskara&lt;/strong&gt; is very important for generating good population. Our focus should not be to check the growth of the population,&#xA; but to generate good population.The conditions for having good progeny in society are that the husband should be disciplined in religious and regulative principles and the&#xA; wife should be  faithful to the husband. In Bhagavad-gita (7.11) it is said that sexual intercourse according to&#xA; religious principles is a divine act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sa ya ichchet putro me suklo jaayeta vedamanubraveeta&#xA;  sarvam-aayuriyaaditi ksheerodanam paachayitvaa&#xA;  sarpishmantam-asneeyataam-eeswarau janayitavyai         (6-4-14)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Saunaka defines Garbhadana as “the rite by the performance of which a woman receives the rethas (semen) scattered by her husband called Garbhalambhanam or&#xA; Garbadaanam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nishekaad baijikam chaino gaarbhikam chapamrijyate |  kshetra&#xA;  samaskaarasiddhischa garbaadaana phalam smritam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A well planned mating of the couple ensures a suitable conception that results in a capable child. &#xA; The negative qualities in the semen and the ovum become ineffective.  A good conception is the fruit of understanding and mutual planning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa yaavaanha vai vaajapeyena yajamaanasya lokoe bhavati taavaanasya&#xA;  lokoe bhavati ya evam vidwaanadhopahaasam charatyaasaam) streenaaam&#xA;  sukritam vringkte atha   ya idamavidwanadhoepahaasam charatyasya&#xA;  striyah sukritam  vrinjate || (6-4-3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If a person copulates conceiving it as a holy sacrifice,&lt;/strong&gt; he becomes the recipient of as much respect in the world as a man gets performing Vaajapayee fire &#xA; sacrifice. He gets all the good fortunes of those women. But if a person engages in   this copulation without thinking of it as a &lt;strong&gt;holy sacrifice (Homa)&lt;/strong&gt; the women&#xA; will take away all his merits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sa yaam-icchchet-kaamyetam-eti | tasyaam-artham nishthaaya mukhena&#xA;  mukha(m)-sadhaamyopastham-asyaa abhimrisya&#xA;  japed-“angaad-angaat-sambhavaci hridayaad- adhijaayase  | sa&#xA;  tvamangakashaayo asi digdhaviddhaamiva maadaye-maam-amoom mayeeti ||”&#xA;  (6-49)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the husband loves the wife and desires he gets into the mood of mating and recites the mantra:    “You are born from every one of our limbs and also sprung from our &#xA; intellect. You are the essence of our limbs. May this wife of mine be anointed with happiness! May she be happy with me!”&#xA;  Then in the act mating he recites the following mantra: “…..&lt;strong&gt;Indriyena te retasaa reta aadhadaameeti garbhinyeva bhavati ||&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA; ”  “By my strength and seed, I make you bear  your seed” and she verily becomes pregnant.  (6-4-11)&#xA;  [Sexual act description part in this mantra has not been included.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In   Sushruta Samhita 2/46/50 it is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aahaar-aachaara-cheshtaabhir-yaadrisobhih samanvitee |  Stree-pumso&#xA;  samupeyaatam tayoh puthro-api  taadrisah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Depending on the diet, temperament and behavior, of the man and woman at the time of physica&#xA; intimacy, the son born of such a union will   also have a similar temperament. (Sushruta is the famous ancient physician of Ayurveda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sa ya ichchet putro me suklo jaayeta vedamanubraveeta&#xA;  sarvam-aayuriyaaditi ksheerodanam paachayitvaa&#xA;  sarpishmantam-asneeyataam-eeswarau janayitavyai         (6-4-14)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one wishes to have a fair child, study  one Veda and attain full term of life; he and his wife should eat rice cooked in milk mixed with clarified butter. Then they &#xA; will succeed in their mission. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Highly enlightened parent can train a child so that the child will not have to come back again to this miserable world. Parents should see to it&#xA; that the child born of them does not enter the womb of a mother again.&#xA; according to the Vedic ritual called Garbhadhana-samskara is very important for generating good population. Our focus should not be to check &#xA; the growth of the population, but to generate good population .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad in its fourth section describes the &lt;strong&gt;Putramanthana&lt;/strong&gt; mantra rites by which a house-holder can get a   worthy son or a worthy daughter. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Geetaa says in 7-11 &lt;strong&gt;Dharmaviruddho bhooteshu kaamosmi&lt;/strong&gt;” –I am the lust (sexual desire)   in  all living beings  not conflicting with Dharma  for the sacred and sole&#xA; purpose of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lust with proper application is a virtue and not a sin&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source-:  &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=iZ5RAAAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA388&amp;amp;lpg=PA388&amp;amp;dq=Sex+life+is+especially+meant&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=PJIxkQuJaI&amp;amp;sig=itOvrROnYfChA3C847RVfB4y31Q&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjyk_7cx83NAhVIqI8KHZUGB8gQ6AEIIjAE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Google books&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-30T08:31:36.593" LastActivityDate="2016-06-30T08:31:36.593" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13668" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13669" CreationDate="2016-06-14T05:37:07.233" Score="10" ViewCount="5763" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many of my friends married recently and all of them were either unhappy or divorced. I was wondering if there is any mantra or verse that ask god to provide very nice wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any verse to have nice wife?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-28T05:49:18.227" LastActivityDate="2018-04-29T00:58:58.117" Title="Is there any verse to have nice wife?" Tags="|belief|mantras|women|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13669" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13668" CreationDate="2016-06-14T05:37:07.233" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;From Markendya Purana there is Argalastrotram created by Vishnu sage. There is a verse in that. Taken from Durga saptashati of Markandeya Purana .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पत्नीं मनोरमाम देहि मनोवृत्तानुसारिणिम &lt;br&gt; तारिणीमदुर्गसंसारसागरस्य&#xA;  कुलोद्भवाम &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;patnim manoramaam dehi manovrittanusarineem &lt;br&gt;taarineem durgasansar sagarasye kulodbhavaam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Give me a wife in harmony with my mind; that makes the life journey easier for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse is chanted in time of Pratah(6-9 AM) and sayam (6-9 PM). And the direction of sitting should be north.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taken from Durga saptashati of Markandeya Purana &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-06-16T11:50:46.167" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T11:50:46.167" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13671" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-14T07:28:39.253" Score="1" ViewCount="314" Body="&lt;p&gt;[&lt;em&gt;This is a question I'd asked on Yahoo! Answers some time ago which did not elicit any particularly helpful responses thereat.&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both the thousand-armed Hehaya king Kārtavīryārjuna and the ten-headed Rākṣasa Rāvaṇa are said to have conquered the entire universe at some point, subduing even the gods in the heavens themselves; and each one of them was eventually defeated and killed by an avatāra [incarnation] of the god Viṣṇu [Vishnu]. Kārtavīryārjuna supposedly ruled the world, from his capital of Māhiṣmatī, for 86,000 years! Also he once captured and imprisoned Rāvaṇa for an entire year before Rāvaṇa's grandfather Pulastya brokered his grandson's release and Kārtavīryārjuna and Rāvaṇa became friends for life. So how can they both have ruled the universe if they lived in the same time-period (and especially considering the extraordinary length of Kārtavīryārjuna's reign)? Did they share the throne, or alternate their rule, at any point?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Kārtavīryārjuna was killed by Viṣṇu's 6th avatāra, Paraśurāma, while Rāvaṇa was killed by Viṣṇu's 7th avatāra, Rāma (or Rāmacandra), then eventually Rāvaṇa must have been emperor for a while after Kārtavīryārjuna's death. But what about when both emperors were alive, and friends?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And how does Kārtavīryārjuna's conquest of the universe fit in to the story about the foundation of the kingdom of Laṅkā, when Rāvaṇa's grandfather Sumali and Sumali's brothers Mali and Malyavan attacked Devāloka, the home of the gods, and were killed by Viṣṇu? Was Kārtavīryārjuna ruling over Devāloka at the time of the three brothers' attack?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6862" LastEditorUserId="6862" LastEditDate="2016-06-15T04:57:49.400" LastActivityDate="2024-01-22T15:04:37.183" Title="Which king was more powerful between Kārtavīryārjuna and Rāvaṇa, and did they ever share their thrones with each other?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|gods|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13672" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-14T08:39:35.797" Score="2" ViewCount="430" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism acknowledges god as omnipresent - he is present everywhere and in every soul. He is said to have created the cosmos. Then, why did he create demons and does he manifests in demons too?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6875" LastActivityDate="2016-06-15T05:07:53.550" Title="Are demons (asuras) a manifestation of the supreme being?" Tags="|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13673" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2044" CreationDate="2016-06-14T08:54:34.820" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is symbolically represented as dwelling in Mount Kailash because he is said to be too iridescent, vivacious and fiery. The mountain's cool and serene environment and the goddess Ganga on his matted locks atone for his fiery nature. (Although Goddess Ganga flows from his locks for an another reason). Being the supreme lord, he is ever absorbed in meditation on himself to regulate the cosmos.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6875" LastEditorUserId="6875" LastEditDate="2016-06-14T09:28:36.493" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T09:28:36.493" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13674" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13671" CreationDate="2016-06-14T09:48:08.350" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karthiveerarjuna won over ravana hence all other worlds were pleased he never attacked devloka or other spaces.&#xA;He ruled on earth.whereas Ravan won Indra too.&#xA;Ravan hence ruled earth,devlok and pathal lok (by default, since he was not just ravan..he was Ravanasura..an assured or one who dwells in patjala)&#xA;Source: Ramayana and Parusurama stories&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6876" LastEditorUserId="6876" LastEditDate="2016-06-14T09:53:57.157" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T09:53:57.157" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13676" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13671" CreationDate="2016-06-14T10:30:12.360" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kartavira Arjun was younger than Ravana. He is supposed to have  subdued Ravana when he was married and Ravana was still a teenager then. Wikipedia doesn't mention their friendship. Kartavira Arjun must have grown at a faster pace than Ravan because of the blessings of Lord Dattatreya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abridged from : &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartavirya_Arjuna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartavirya_Arjuna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6875" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T10:30:12.360" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13677" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12313" CreationDate="2016-06-14T11:36:33.740" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Goad is a weapon he has also...like he is sometimes shown with lotus also..&amp;amp; sometimes with akshamala &amp;amp; kalash too...like these things r shown in his 4 hands image...source-shodhganga's article:)&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/74856/15/15_chapter%208.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/74856/15/15_chapter%208.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4752" LastEditorUserId="4752" LastEditDate="2016-06-16T13:34:25.400" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T13:34:25.400" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13678" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12289" CreationDate="2016-06-14T11:47:52.667" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes that story of kalbhairav is true but this story i m gonna tell is also a story of her...&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dollsofindia.com/library/vaishno-devi/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.dollsofindia.com/library/vaishno-devi/&lt;/a&gt; she was an incarnation of tridevis &amp;amp; she will marry kalki bhagwan in future...:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4752" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T11:47:52.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13679" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12268" CreationDate="2016-06-14T11:55:40.017" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes...we use this phrase-Ananta koti brahmanda nayaka=uncountable crores of universes's lord...there r uncountable numbers of universes &amp;amp; our universe size is the smallest size universe with brahma having 4 heads...there r universes with millions of heads brahma!all universes r bubbles formed from skin pores of Karanodakshayi Vishnu...&amp;amp; story of that bubble which forms an egg is same like chinese pangu story...that egg is silent for 1000 yrs &amp;amp; then it breaks &amp;amp; a man appears in it who is brahma &amp;amp; forms the universe then after 1st day(kalpa)universe get filled with water &amp;amp; there appears garbhodakshayi vishnu on who's navel lotus brahma resides till the end..so in day water level is 1/2 of universe egg &amp;amp; in pralaya it is full...same similarity u will find in all other famous religion's cosmology...:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4752" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T11:55:40.017" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13680" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12195" CreationDate="2016-06-14T12:09:15.283" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;if he don't have enough punya to be a man then that soul after heavenly pleasures take birth again of ants donkeys pigs etc. 84 lakh kinds of births...human body is greater than of gods as only we can do karma &amp;amp; attain salvation...so it needs way big punya or god's mercy to be a man...we all have become indra &amp;amp; then again ant rat pig etc. that too uncountable times!:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4752" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T12:09:15.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13681" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12289" CreationDate="2016-06-14T12:26:35.687" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the legend, during the period when Adi Shakti was busy in annihiliting the Asuras, Her three main manifestations viz. Mata Maha Kali, Mata Maha Lakshmi and Mata Maha Saraswati got together one day and pooled their collective Tejas or spiritual strength. A stunningly bright light emanated from the place where the Tejas of the three manifestations coalesced and a beautiful young girl emerged out of this Tejas. The young girl asked them, &quot;Why have I been created?'' The Devis explained to her that they had created her so that she would live on earth and spend her time in upholding righteousness.&#xA;The Devis added, &quot;Now, go and take birth in the house of Ratankar and his wife who reside in the southern part of India, and who are great devotees of ours. Live on earth. Uphold righteousness and evolve yourself spiritually so that you reach higher levels of consciousness. Once you have attained the appropriate level of consciousness you will merge into Vishnu and become one with him.'' So saying they blessed the girl. Sometimes later a very beautiful girl child was born to Ratankar and his wife. The couple named the child Vaishnavi. The girl right from her childhood displayed a hunger for knowledge which was like a vortex and which no amount of teaching and learning could sufficiently satiate. Subsequently, Vaishnavi started looking into her inner self for knowledge, and soon learned the art of meditation and realized that meditation and penance only could bring her close to her greater objective. Vaishnavi thus relinquished all household comforts and went deep into the forest for Tapasaya (meditation). Meanwhile, Lord Rama, during his fourteen years of exile happened to visit Vaishnavi who recognized him immediately as no ordinary being but the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, and immediately asked him to merge her into himself so that she could become one with the supreme creator. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However Lord Rama, knowing that it was not the appropriate time, dissuaded her by saying that he would visit her again after the end of his exile, and at that time if she succeeded in recognizing him, he would fulfill her wish. True to his words, Rama visited her again after being victorious in the battle, but this time he did so in the disguise of an old man. Unfortunately, Vaishnavi was unable to recognize him this time and was distraught. Upon this, Lord Rama consoled her that the appropriate time for her being one with the creator had not come, and that time would come eventually in 'Kaliyug' when He (Rama) would be in his incarnation of 'Kalki'. Rama also directed her to meditate, and set up an Ashram at the base of Trikuta hills, to elevate her level of spirituality so as to bless mankind and rid the poor and destitute of their sufferings.Only then would 'Vishnu' merge her into himself. Vaishnavi, immediately set off for the northern part and after immense hardships, reached the foot of the Trikuta Hills. After reaching there she set up her ashram there and began to meditate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As predicted by Lord Rama, her glory spread far and wide, and people began to flock to her Ashram to seek her blessings. As time passed,  MahaYogi Guru Goraksh Nath ji who had a vision of the episode between Lord Rama and Vaishnavi in the retrospective time frame, became curious to find out whether Vaishnavi has been able to attain a high level of spirituality or not. He, therefore, sent his most able disciple 'Bhairon Nath' to find out the truth. Bhairon Nath on locating the ashram started observing Vaishnavi secretly, and realised that though a 'Sadhvi' she always carried bow and arrows with her, and was always surrounded by langoors (apes) and a ferocious looking lion. Bhairon Nath was enamored by Vaishnavi's extraordinary beauty, and losing all good sense he began to pester Vaishnavi to marry him. Meanwhile a staunch devotee of Vaiashnavi, Mata Sridhar organised a Bhandara (Community meal) in which the whole village and MahaYogi Guru Goraksh Nath ji along with all his followers including Bhairon were invited. During the course of Bhandara Bhairon Nath attempted to grab Vaishnavi but she tried her best to daunt him. On failing to do so, Vaishnavi decided to flee away into the mountains to continue her Tapasaya undisturbed. Bhairon Nath however chased her to her destination. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The goddess after halting at (present day) Banganga, Charan Paduka, and Adhkwari, finally reached the holy cave Shrine. When Bhairon Nath continued to follow her despite the goddess trying to avoid a confrontation, the goddess was compelled to kill him. Bhairon Nath met his ultimate fate when the goddess, just outside the mouth of the cave, beheaded him. The severed head of Bhairon fell with a force at a distant hilltop. Bhairon Nath upon death realised the futility of his mission and prayed to the deity to forgive him. The almighty Mata ( Mother Goddess) had mercy on Bhairon and gave him a boon that every devotee of the goddess would have to have the Darshans of Bhairon after having the Darshans of the Goddess and only then would the yatra of a devotee be complete. Meanwhile, Vaishnavi decided to shed off her human form and assuming the face of a rock she immersed her self into meditation forever. Thus Vaishnavi, in the form of a five and a half feet tall rock with three heads or the Pindies on the top is the ultimate destination of a devotee. These Pindies constitute the Sanctum Sanctorum of the holy cave known as the shrine of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Ji, which is revered by one and all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note that &quot;Bairon&quot; who fought with Vaishnavi Devi was not Lord Kaal Bhairav - an incarnation of the Supreme God Shiva. It's highly illogical and foolishness to associate the saint Bairon with Lord Kaalbhairav. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.maavaishnodevi.org/mata_vaishno_devi_ji.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.maavaishnodevi.org/mata_vaishno_devi_ji.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6875" LastEditorUserId="6875" LastEditDate="2016-06-14T12:32:03.337" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T12:32:03.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13685" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11578" CreationDate="2016-06-14T14:59:53.897" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;he was dambhodbhav demon in last birth...as u know nar &amp;amp; narayan who were arjun &amp;amp; krishna of next birth defeated him...dambhodbhav got boon of 1000 sheilds &amp;amp; whoever break sheild will die...nar used to fight 1000 yrs &amp;amp; narayan used to meditate then when nar break the sheild &amp;amp; die the narayan by mediation's punya used to bring nar back to life &amp;amp; then nar meditate &amp;amp; narayan fight &amp;amp; so on they broke 999 sheilds but then with 1 sheild left the demon ran to abode of sun &amp;amp; then took birth of karna...&amp;amp; it is also said that after karna birth karna took a birth of devotee of lord shiva who was siru thonda nayanar...as per south indian beliefs...:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4752" LastActivityDate="2016-06-14T14:59:53.897" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13687" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-15T02:22:58.377" Score="2" ViewCount="968" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their poetry in praise of Vishnu. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the development of Vaishnavism; it is the principles and beliefs embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).  Now one of the Alwars was known as Thondaradippodi Alwar, who is considered an incarnation of Vishnu's Vanamala garland as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7838/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  He gets the name Thondaradippodi, which means &quot;the dust of devotees' feet&quot;, because he was so humble that he wore the dust of Vaishnavas' feet on his forehead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srivaishnavan.com/upload3/tirumalai1.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this poem&lt;/a&gt; from Thondaradippodi Alwar's collection of poems Thirumalai, he says this in praise of the Ranganatha statue in Sri Rangam (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6845/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6512/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;moitta val vinaiyuL ninru moonru ezhuttu uDaiya pErAl &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  kattira bandum anrE parAngadi kaNDu koNDAn | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  ittanai aDiyarAnArkku irangum nam aranganAya &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  pittanai peTTrum andO piraviyuL piNangumArE ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Standing in deep sin, singing the three syllabled name ‘Govinda’, the fabled Khattirabandu attained the highest state.&lt;/strong&gt; Despite the easy reach of a mad Lord called Ranga who melts for his devotees, how people suffer rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the figure Kshatrabandhu alluded in the verse.  Kshatrabandhu is also mentioned in Thirukkolur Penpillai Rahasyam, which as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/13633/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; is a list of 81 statements told to the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya by little girl from the town of Thirukkolur.  The ninth statement is &quot;mUnRezhuththuch sonnEnO kshathrabandhuvaip pOlE&quot;, meaning &quot;Am I like Kshatrabandu who said three letters?&quot;  Here's how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.acharya.org/v/ThirukkolurammalVarththaigal/ThirukkolurammalVarththaigal-09.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt; explains the meaning of this statement:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kshathrabandhu was the son of King Vishvaratha. His real name is not known. Kshathrabandhu means the lowest person amongst Kshatriyas. Because of his lowly character, he was called Kshathrabandhu. Unable to tolerate his behaviour the people of the kingdom chased him into the forest. Even in the forest he continued in his ways of torturing others.&#xA;  One time, a rishi came into the forest where Kshathrabandhu was staying. Due to the extreme heat, he became very thirsty. Seeing a pond he went there to drink the water, slipped and fell into the pond. When Kshathrabandhu saw this, somehow he felt pity on the rishi and pulled him out of the pond. Then he gave him something to eat and massaged his body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The rishi woke up and asked Kshathrabandhu his story and why he was living in such a forest. Kshathrabandhu told him his entire history without hiding anything. Wishing to correct him, the rishi gave him some very good advise. Kshathrabandhu replied &quot;O Rishi! My bad nature was born with me and will not leave me. There is no point trying to make me a better person&quot;. The rishi then taught him the Lord's divine name Govinda which is made of three aksharas. He then told Kshathrabandhu to keep repeating this nAma even if he continues in his bad ways. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From that day onward, Kshathrabandhu started repeating the Lord's name all the time. Because of that, after his death, he &lt;strong&gt;was reborn as a Brahmin&lt;/strong&gt; and became an ardent devotee of the Lord. After that, he attained the Lord's feet.  His story has been sung by Thondaradippodi Azhvar in his Thirumaalai. Thirukkolur Ammal is asking &quot;Did I spend my time saying the Lord's name made up of three aksharas, like Kshathrabandhu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe the story of the prince Kshatrabandhu chanting the name Govinda?  And what happened after he chanted it?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the website quoted above correct about him being reborn as a Brahmana?  Thondaradippodi Alwar says he attained &quot;the highest state&quot;, but does that mean Moksha or just the highest station in society, namely a Brahmana?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, this isn't the only story where a person accrues great benefits from chanting a name of Vishnu; there's the story of the sinner Ajamila who attained Moksha because he accidentally said Narayana when he died.  And there's the story discussed in my question here, of the sage Dirghatamas being cured of blindness after chanting the name Keshava.  So make sure you say my name!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I just found another reference to Kshatrabandhu in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/DViX&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Rahasyatraya Sara, a work by the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is said in the Smritis: &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Kshatrabandhu, who was the worst of sinners,&lt;/strong&gt; and Pundarika, the virtuous - both of them obtained moksha or release from bondage by virtue of their having acharyas.&quot; It is thus declared that in the case of every one, the only means of securing moksha is to have an acharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm not sure what Smritis he's referring to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2018-06-15T03:22:27.900" Title="What happened to the sinner Kshatrabandhu after he chanted Govinda?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13688" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13698" CreationDate="2016-06-15T04:56:35.007" Score="4" ViewCount="3296" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently I started learning how to play Flute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While practicing I was asked by a &lt;strong&gt;senior priest&lt;/strong&gt; near by, not to play Flute in night. On asking reason he gave me some incomplete clue stating it is some thing to do with &lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;I just wanted to know is there a valid reason behind it or it is wrong statement? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4382" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-16T12:21:46.057" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T12:21:46.057" Title="Playing flute in night is prohibited?" Tags="|superstitions|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-06-19T09:50:13.213" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13689" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13672" CreationDate="2016-06-15T05:07:53.550" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;God (Brahman) has created (more correctly projected) the universe, but we (each individual jiva) creates its own karma, we are responsible for our own karma. Krishna says in the Gita (9.4-5):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Me in My unmanifested form, are all things in this universe pervaded. All beings exist in Me, but I do not exist in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And yet the beings do not dwell in Me--behold that is My divine mystery. My spirit, which is the support of all beings and the source of all things, does not dwell in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the unmanifested pervades everything but does not dwell in them. So what you call demons are jivas whose karmic actions have made them demons. Like all jivas, their existence as demons is not forever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think your question is also trying to ask why is their evil? Because of maya. Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V2, section &lt;em&gt;Jnana Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, lecture &lt;em&gt;Maya and Illusion&lt;/em&gt;, available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_2/vol_2_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_2/vol_2_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Again, we often hear that it is one of the features of evolution that it eliminates evil, and this evil being continually eliminated from the world, at last only good will remain. That is very nice to hear, and it panders to the vanity of those who have enough of this world's goods, who have not a hard struggle to face every clay and are not being crushed under the wheel of this so-called evolution. It is very good and comforting indeed to such fortunate ones. The common herd may surfer, but they do not care; let them die, they are of no consequence. Very good, yet this argument is fallacious from beginning to end. It takes for granted, in the first place, that manifested good and evil in this world are two absolute realities. In the second place, it make, at still worse assumption that the amount of good is an increasing quantity and the amount of evil is a decreasing quantity. So, if evil is being eliminated in this way by what they call evolution, there will come a time when all this evil will be eliminated and what remains will be all good. Very easy to say, but can it be proved that evil is a lessening quantity? Take, for instance, the man who lives in a forest, who does not know how to cultivate the mind, cannot read a book, has not heard of such a thing as writing. If he is severely wounded, he is soon all right again; while we die if we get a scratch. Machines are making things cheap, making for progress and evolution, but millions are crushed, that one may become rich; while one becomes rich, thousands at the same time become poorer and poorer, and whole masses of human beings are made slaves. That way it is going on. The animal man lives in the senses. If he does not get enough to eat, he is miserable; or if something happens to his body, he is miserable. In the senses both his misery and his happiness begin and end. As soon as this man progresses, as soon as his horizon of happiness increases, his horizon of unhappiness increases proportionately. The man in the forest does not know what it is to be jealous, to be in the law courts, to pay taxes, to be blamed by society, to be ruled over day and night by the most tremendous tyranny that human diabolism ever invented, which pries into the secrets of every human heart. He does not know how man becomes a thousand times more diabolical than any other animal, with all his vain knowledge and with all his pride. Thus it is that, as we emerge out of the senses, we develop higher powers of enjoyment, and at the same time we have to develop higher powers of suffering too. The nerves become finer and capable off more suffering. In every society, we often find that the ignorant, common man, when abused, does not feel much, but he feels a good thrashing. But the gentleman cannot bear a single word of abuse; he has become so finely nerved. Misery has increased with his susceptibility to happiness. This does not go much to prove the evolutionist's case. As we increase our power to be happy, we also increase our power to suffer, and sometimes I am inclined to think that if we increase our power to become happy in arithmetical progression, we shall increase, on the other hand, our power to become miserable in geometrical progression. We who are progressing know that the more we progress, the more avenues are opened to pain as well as to pleasure. And this is Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus we find that Maya is not a theory for the explanation of the world; it is simply a statement of facts as they exist, that the very basis of our being is contradiction, that everywhere we have to move through this tremendous contradiction, that wherever there is good, there must also be evil, and wherever there is evil, there must be some good, wherever there is life, death must follow as its shadow, and everyone who smiles will have to weep, and vice versa. Nor can this state of things be remedied. We may verily imagine that there will be a place where there will be only good and no evil, where we shall only smile and never weep. This is impossible in the very nature of things; for the conditions will remain the same. Wherever there is the power of producing a smile in us, there lurks the power of producing tears. Wherever there is the power of producing happiness, there lurks somewhere the power of making us miserable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus the Vedanta philosophy is neither optimistic nor pessimistic. It voices both these views and takes things as they are. It admits that this world is a mixture of good and evil, happiness and misery, and that to increase the one, one must of necessity increase the other. There will never be a perfectly good or bad world, because the very idea is a contradiction in terms. The great secret revealed by this analysis is that good and bad are not two cut-and-dried, separate existences. There is not one thing in this world of ours which you can label as good and good alone, and there is not one thing in the universe which you can label as bad and bad alone. The very same phenomenon which is appearing to be good now, may appear to be bad tomorrow. The same thing which is producing misery in one, may produce happiness in another. The fire that burns the child, may cook a good meal for a starving man. The same nerves that carry the sensations of misery carry also the sensations of happiness. The only way to stop evil, therefore, is to stop good also; there is no other way. To stop death, we shall have to stop life also. Life without death and happiness without misery are contradictions, and neither can be found alone, because each of them is but a different manifestation of the same thing. What I thought to be good yesterday, I do not think to be good now. When I look back upon my life and see what were my ideals at different times, I final this to be so. At one time my ideal was to drive a strong pair of horses; at another time I thought, if I could make a certain kind of sweetmeat, I should be perfectly happy; later I imagined that I should be entirely satisfied if I had a wife and children and plenty of money. Today I laugh at all these ideals as mere childish nonsense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedanta says, there must come a time when we shall look back and laugh at the ideals which make us afraid of giving up our individuality. Each one of us wants to keep this body for an indefinite time, thinking we shall be very happy, but there will come a time when we shall laugh at this idea. Now, if such be the truth, we are in a state of hopeless contradiction — neither existence nor non-existence, neither misery nor happiness, but a mixture of them. What, then, is the use of Vedanta and all other philosophies and religions? And, above all, what is the use of doing good work? This is a question that comes to the mind. If it is true that you cannot do good without doing evil, and whenever you try to create happiness there will always be misery, people will ask you, &quot;What is the use of doing good?&quot; The answer is in the first place, that we must work for lessening misery, for that is the only way to make ourselves happy. Every one of us finds it out sooner or later in our lives. The bright ones find it out a little earlier, and the dull ones a little later. The dull ones pay very dearly for the discovery and the bright ones less dearly. In the second place, we must do our part, because that is the only way of getting out of this life of contradiction. Both the forces of good and evil will keep the universe alive for us, until we awake from our dreams and give up this building of mud pies. That lesson we shall have to learn, and it will take a long, long time to learn it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Evil and goodness come and go, demons come and go, universes come and go, the Soul endures for ever. Realize your identity with the Soul. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-06-15T05:07:53.550" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13691" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-15T06:30:24.237" Score="3" ViewCount="186" Body="&lt;p&gt;So called Western Industrial Revolution happened only 200 years ago as compared to millions of years of human existence on earth. The period of 200 years is extremely short in front of duration of human existence on earth. Moreover the digital technology came into being only since 50 years. Everything, be it our way of life, thinking, impact on nature and environment, etc. has happened at an extremely rapid abnormal pace in just these few years as compared to millions of years of human existence. Do the scriptures say anything about such rapid abnormal changes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit: This question is not a duplicate of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16054/in-any-scripture-are-there-any-records-of-climate-change-example-with-solution&quot;&gt;In any scripture, are there any records of climate change? Example with Solutions?&lt;/a&gt; since that question mentions only about Climate changes, whereas the changes that I'm referring to are all sorts of changes like technological changes, psychological changes, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-01-18T14:14:12.523" Title="Do the scriptures say anything about the very rapid abnormal changes happening right now?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|puranas|upanishads|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13692" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10312" CreationDate="2016-06-15T08:18:58.863" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, the Brahmaputra river was not created by Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was actually created by Parashuram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashuram, after beheading his mother, found his axe sticking to his palm because he had committed a sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To relive the sin, he went to several places, but without any success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, he went to Manasarovar, where he could relieve himself of the sin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He then decided to make way for the water in the sarovar to go to various places on the earth as a river. The river is Brahmaputra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastActivityDate="2016-06-15T08:18:58.863" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13694" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="593" CreationDate="2016-06-15T11:58:02.353" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma isn't creator of just one planet's life but of universe. A universe has many planets with life in them but one Brahma is creator of one universe and so there are uncountable universes with Brahmas having upto millions of heads &amp;amp; our universe and Brahma are the smallest with Brahma having 4 heads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources: - Chaitanya Charitamrita ISKCON &amp;amp; upper 2 lines are from reference of Yoga Vasishta that there are many alien planets with life in them &amp;amp; none of them knows about the other. And &lt;a href=&quot;http://scsmathinternational.com/guidance/2015/150615-SanatanSikha-BrahmasRealm.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://scsmathinternational.com/guidance/2015/150615-SanatanSikha-BrahmasRealm.php&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4752" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T09:43:45.577" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T09:43:45.577" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13695" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-15T12:20:26.670" Score="1" ViewCount="78" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have Idols of &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Sridevi&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Bhudevi&lt;/em&gt; of metal, dating back to many generations. We would like to gold plate the Idols. After they are gold plated what are we supposed to do so that the Idols can regain the Energy? If &lt;em&gt;prana prathishta&lt;/em&gt; will help, how to do it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6887" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T09:17:50.207" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T09:17:50.207" Title="Does gold plating of Idols affect their energy?" Tags="|worship|idols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13697" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13668" CreationDate="2016-06-15T16:15:14.367" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;GODDESS DURGA MANTRA FOR ATTAINMENT OF A GOOD WIFE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marriage is a sacred union that binds two individuals. It ties them legally and emotionally. It is the sacred bond for the whole life. So every boy longs for a good wife. The regular and continuous chant of the following mantra by the boy helps him get the good wife of his choice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Process of Mantra Jap:-&#xA;After getting fresh from daily routine sit on a rug facing east or north in a separate room or at any suitable place. Keep a framed picture of Devi Durga in front of you. Close your eyes and meditate on Devi Durga feeling that she is present everywhere. She is the symbol of power and energy. She is known as the universal mother. She has the power  to fulfill the desires of a person who has full faith in her. I bow to that mother, I bow to Devi Durga, I bow to Shakti.&#xA;After this feeling and prayer, repeat (Jap or chant) the following Mantra at least 324 times (three Malas) or 540 times (five Malas). The more Jap you do, the better it is. For desired result the mantra should be recited for 125000 (one lac twenty five) times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mantra is as follows:- &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Patneem Manoramaam Dehi Manovrittaanu Saarineem &lt;br&gt; Taarineem Durg&#xA;  Sansaar Saagarasya Kulodbhavaam.' &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'पत्नीं  मनोरमां देहि मनोवृतानु सारिणीम ! &lt;br&gt; तारिणीम  दुर्ग संसार &#xA;  सागरस्य  कुलोद्भवाम !!, &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the Jap is over do not leave the place immediately. After the mantra Jap sit very quietly, close your eyes and reflect upon the infinitive love of devi Durga. Have a feeling in your mind that Devi Durga has accepted your prayer. She is pouring her blessings upon you. She is giving you the boon of having a good wife. And also have the faith that you will certainly have a good wife with the grace of Devi Durga.&#xA;After it fold your hands and pay your respects to goddess Durga and leave the place of Pooja and commence your routine duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astromuhurat.com/2012/10/6-remedy-durga-mantra.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.astromuhurat.com/2012/10/6-remedy-durga-mantra.html?m=1&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6875" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-06-16T10:34:40.400" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T10:34:40.400" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13698" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13688" CreationDate="2016-06-15T18:51:00.617" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna was a  Cowherd &quot;Gaupal&quot;, he used to en·tice the animals and humans by his flute playing in vrudavana.  This custom were followed since ancient times by most Cowherd, of playing flute to call their animals back and to show the way toward him.  Since flute has long history with Cowherd and cows. By playing it at night would agitate the cows, and other animals. The second thought might be is, as the wind instrument &quot;Basuri&quot;  or flute has  &quot;Karun&quot; (करुण स्वर) or tender sound, which might evoke sadness in our minds at night time. So it might have been not advised to play flute at night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is more philosophical, but its based on our beliefs and stories told by our parents, thus may not have valid references but is centered towards the Hindu philosophy of harmony with nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu Primary Sources: A Sectarian Reader.&#xA;By Carl Olson      page no - 297&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;World Flutelore: Folktales, Myths, and Other Stories of Magical Flute Power.&#xA;By Dale A. Olsen - page no. 196 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are avaliable on google books.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-06-16T06:09:28.887" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T06:09:28.887" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13699" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-15T19:40:40.080" Score="1" ViewCount="178" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know we have Vedas and other sacred writings which explained many things even before scientific discoveries were made like distance of sun, rotation and revolution of earth etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what and how does those scriptures explain about Aliens and Dinosaurs?. We are pretty sure that they exists or existed and how is it explained?. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have this feel that hinduism or be it any religion and very idea of God were all put forward only after the evolution of humans. I am not denying the existence of god or completely agree about the existence. I am just curious to know and find relation in whatever I understand. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6890" LastEditorUserId="6890" LastEditDate="2016-06-15T19:52:20.527" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T04:49:33.780" Title="How does Hinduism explain about Aliens or Dinosaurs?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|belief|gods|science|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-06-16T12:18:30.977" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13702" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10599" CreationDate="2016-06-16T11:01:03.403" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.himalayanacademy.com/readlearn&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.himalayanacademy.com/readlearn&lt;/a&gt; has got lot of basic Hinduism articles.  Advance stuff is all sectarian though.  But articles which specifically talk about Hinduism are not.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T11:01:03.403" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13703" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9517" CreationDate="2016-06-16T11:15:01.150" Score="39" Body="&lt;p&gt;Very special procedures are applied to preserve Vedas. Here are some of them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;1) Divisional Protection:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Veda Výas divides Veda at the end of Dwapar into Rig, Yajur and Sama so that it becomes suitable for men of Kaliyuga so that they can just study part of it as they do not have enough memory and intellect to learn all. For eg. There have been several Vedas Vyasa for this purpose, the present Veda Vyasa being Krishna Dwaipayana. For eg. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3617/who-all-were-the-different-ved-vyas/3618#3618&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; &#xA; is what Vishnu Purana tells:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Twenty-eight times have the Vedas been arranged by the great Rishis in the Vaivaswata Manwantara in the Dwápara age, and consequently eight and twenty Vyásas have passed away; by whom, in their respective periods, the Veda has been divided into four. In the first Dwápara age the distribution was made by Swayambhu (Brahmá) himself; in the second, the arranger of the Veda (Veda-vyása) was Prajápati (or Manu); in the third, Uśanas; in the fourth, Vrihaspati; in the fifth, Savitri; in the sixth, Mrityu (Death, or Yama); in the seventh, Indra; in the eighth, Vaśisht́ha; in the ninth, Sáraswata; in the tenth, Tridháman; in the eleventh, Trivrishan; in the twelfth, Bharadwája; in the thirteenth, Antaríksha; in the fourteenth.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also families are associated with Shakhas and it is duty of descendent of that family at least to learn his Shakhas and Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;2) Meter protection:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samhitas are the most important part of Vedas as they are the heard words during meditation. Samhitas of Vedas are itself revealed in specific meters such that not a single syllable can be removed or added from it. For eg. Gayatri mantra of Rigveda is in Gayatri meter and it contains 24 letters. In the similar way Samhitas are revealed in other chhandas like Anusthub, Jagati etc. For eg:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gayatri=&lt;/strong&gt; 24 syllables in total. 3 verses each of 8 syllables.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anushtup=&lt;/strong&gt; 32 syllables in total. 4 verses each of 8 syllables.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brihati=&lt;/strong&gt; 36 syllables in total. 2 verses of 8 syllables, 1 verse of 12 syllables and 1 verse of 8 syllables.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pankti=&lt;/strong&gt; 40 syllables in total. 5 verses each of 8 syllables.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trishtubh=&lt;/strong&gt; 44 syllables in total. 4 verses each of 11 syllables.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jagati=&lt;/strong&gt; 48 syllables in total. 4 verses each of 12 syllables.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And so on other meters also. As each meter has specific number of letter so it helps in protecting Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;3) Swara Protection:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is an advanced method of protection. It protects not only words of Vedas but also tone of Chanting. Vedas are chanted in level of pitch. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;i)Uddata&lt;/strong&gt; = Pronounced in Normal pitch. Syllables aren't marked for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ii)Anudatta&lt;/strong&gt; = Pronounced in Lower pitch. Syllables are marked by sign &quot;_&quot; below it. Syllables bearing such signs are chanted with lower pitch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;iii)Swarita&lt;/strong&gt; = Pronounced in Higher pitch. Syllables are marked with longer ' sign above it. They are chanted with higher pitch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;iv) Dirgha swarita&lt;/strong&gt; = It is Swarita pronounced for longer time period. Represented by longer '' sign above syllable. For eg. Here is an example of Swara marks:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XSdXh.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XSdXh.png&quot; alt=&quot;Rig-Gayatri&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A single mantra has various signs in various places thus giving a specific tone to it. Thus Swara protection protects even tone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;4) Mudra protection:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To protect even the tone more precisely, Mudras ie. position of specific position of hands and heads are moved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;udātta - right hand to shoulder &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  anudātta - hand to knee &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  svarita - hand moved to 45 degree angle to the body &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;udātta - head up &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  anudātta - head down &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  svarita - head turned slightly to the side&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;udātta - palm turned up &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  anudātta - palm down &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  svarita- hand moved horizontaly to the right &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;udātta - thumb on index finger &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  anudātta - thumb on little finger &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  svarita - thumb on ring finger&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way an advanced Veda reader can immediately recognize mistake in pronounciation just by looking the chanters hand position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;5) Patha protection:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also advanced method applied for protection of Vedas. It includes method of recitation of Vedas by repitition of syllables and words. There are various Patha methods like 'Vakya', 'Krama', 'Pada', 'Jata', 'Ghana' etc.. Among them Ghana is the most advanced method. In Ghana recitation single syllable is recited 13 times. The pattern is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1-2, 2-1, 1-2-3, 3-2-1, 1-2-3 ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2-3, 3-2, 2-3-4, 4-3-2, 2-3-4।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3-4, 4-3, 3-4-5, 5-4-3, 3-4-5।.....&#xA;For eg. Gayatri mantra is chanted in Ghana Path in this way:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ तत् सवितुस् सवितुस् तत् तत् सवितुर् वरेण्यं वरेण्यं सवितुस् तत् तत् सवितुर् वरेण्यम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सवितुर् वरेण्यं वरेण्यं सवितुस् सवितुर् वरेण्यं भर्गो भर्गो वरेण्यं सवितुस् सवितुर् वरेण्यं भर्गः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वरेण्यं भर्गो भर्गो वरेण्यं वरेण्यं भर्गो देवस्य देवस्य भर्गो वरेण्यं वरेण्यं भर्गो देवस्य।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भर्गो देवस्य देवस्य भर्गो भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि धीमहि देवस्य भर्गो भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवस्य धीमहि धीमहि देवस्य देवस्य धीमहि धीमहि इति धीमहि।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धियो यो यो धियो धियो यो नो नो यो धियो धियो यो नः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यो नो नो यो यो नः प्रचोदयत् प्रचोदयत् नो यो यो नः प्रचोदयत्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नः प्रचोदयत् प्रचोदयत् नो नः प्रचोदयत् प्रचोदयत् इति प्रचोदयत्॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus a 24 syllabled Gayatri becomes such long in this Ghana Path. It helps both in memorization and preservation of Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg if I have to say '&lt;strong&gt;I am writing answer here&lt;/strong&gt;' in Ghana format. I have to recite like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am - am I - I am writing - writing am I - I am writing, am writing - writing am - am writing answer - answer writing am - am writing answer, writing answer - answer writing - writing answer here - here answer writing - writing answer here, answer here - here answer - answer here ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way our Vedas were preserved by Vocal tradition from teacher to disciple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Veda parts:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas are divided into four parts: &lt;strong&gt;Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads.&lt;/strong&gt; Generally by saying Vedas only Samhita part is understood. However Other are also equally important as well. Brahmanas and Aranyakas are also protected using Swara marks and recitations although Samhitas are preserved most importantly. Due to less importatce in preservation of Brahmanas and Aranyakas, several Brahmanas and Aranyakas are already lost. But in the part of Upanishads it is said that some Upanishads were composed latter and they just claim to be associated with Vedas. Muktika Upanishad listing 108 Upanishads are generally considered Valid but still there is debate among the authenticity of these 108 Upanishads and Muktika Upanishad itself. However there are principle 13 Upanishads quoted by Badarayana in Brahma Sutras. They are considered the most authentic. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Chhandogya, Brihadaranyaka, Kaushitaki, Shvetashvatara, Mahanarayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no question of authenticity for these Upanishads. However there are other authentic Upanishads as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Summarizing in shortcut:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A capable student learns Vedas from a learned teacher. He recites those mantras consisting specific number of syllables  in specific tone, repeats them in specific pattern, moves his body parts (hands and head) in specific way for each syallble. In this way he learns in extremely precise way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T15:46:37.533" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13704" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3608" CreationDate="2016-06-16T12:45:27.020" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although Brahma Sutras are very concise 555 aphorisms and they do not themselves mention from where they are taken. However they can be traced to 13 Upanishads as I also mention in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9517/procedures-used-for-preserving-the-integrity-of-the-vedas/13703#13703&quot;&gt;here &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cincinnatitemple.com/articles/Veda_Books.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This book&lt;/a&gt; lists those 13 Upanishads quoted in Brahma Sutras. It says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We are dealing here only with the famous thirteen Upanishads which are associated with a Brahmana book or Aranyaka book, typically constituting their ending chapter or chapters. They are famous because the great commentator on Upanishads, Badarayana quoted only from these 13 Upanishads in his classic sutra book, &amp;quot;brahma sutras&amp;apos;&amp;apos;. They are: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Chhandogya, Brihadaranyaka, Kaushitaki, Shvetashvatara, Mahanarayana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus above mentioned 13 Upanishads are quoted inside Brahma Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T15:13:26.233" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13705" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9984" CreationDate="2016-06-16T13:31:23.250" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;the emerald mountain or why sky appears blue it is stated in Hinduism &amp;amp; Islamic cosmology that a mountain range named Lokaloka or Qaf encircles the universe &amp;amp; is of emerald so the reflection of it makes sky appear blue...u can find Hindu cosmology best at ISKCON pages &amp;amp; Qaf there's a hadith when prophet muhammad (s.a.w.)visits the qaf mountain where there were 2 cities jabulqa &amp;amp; jabulsa..:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4752" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T13:31:23.250" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13710" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10498" CreationDate="2016-06-16T17:07:30.727" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Goddess Adi Shakti is energy. Just pure, powerful and vivacious energy. She is too powerful to be seen by even devas. She has 3 divine tangible forms - Goddess Parvati / Durga , Laxmi and Saraswathi. As Parvati, she is married to Lord Shiva as Laxmi to Lord Vishnu and Saraswathi to Lord Brahma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Tridevis combined together are still not as great as Adi Shakti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are just her divine tangible forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, your 6 yrs old , 5 yrs old and 3 years old self cannot stand a match with you . Can they?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6875" LastActivityDate="2016-06-16T17:07:30.727" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13711" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11245" CreationDate="2016-06-17T05:18:59.787" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13649/what-names-of-lord-shiva-used-today-are-from-vedas/13650#13650&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Shiva is the name taken from Samhita of Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is 4.5.8 of Taittariya Samhita stating the name Shiva.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qvj4H.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qvj4H.png&quot; alt=&quot;Taittariya Shiva&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;Here is 16.49 of Vajasena Samhita stating the name Shiva.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0YUEG.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0YUEG.png&quot; alt=&quot;Vajasena Shiva&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;As from above image&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;'शिव'&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;is used there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ie,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;श&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;is used. Which is pronounced as &lt;strong&gt;'Sh'.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the correct pronounciation is &lt;strong&gt;Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Here 'a' is not long. If you pronounce with long 'a' ie. 'Shivaa' then it refers to consort of Shiva ie. Uma/Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However for the purpose of Devotional chanting, it doesn't matter whether you chant 'Shiva' or 'Siva' because in devotional chanting God sees our intention and devotion not our pronounciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. Ramcharitmanas is a devotional masterpiece. There Tulsidas uses the name like 'Lakhan' for 'Laxmana', 'Siya' for 'Sita' and so on. Also in Hanuman Chalisa composed by Tulsidas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sukshma rupa dhari &lt;strong&gt;Siyahi&lt;/strong&gt; dikhawa &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(You showed your minute form to &lt;strong&gt;Sita&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Laaye Sajivana &lt;strong&gt;Lakhana&lt;/strong&gt; Jiyaye &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(Bringing Sanjivani you Saved &lt;strong&gt;Lakshmana&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus pronounciation doesn't matter so much in devotional chanting. But it is better to pronounce in correct way. One needs extremely precise pronounciation while chanting Veda Samhitas only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T06:26:54.993" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13712" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9527" CreationDate="2016-06-17T07:09:15.470" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Going to the question: Do plants have souls?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, many scriptures discuss the birth of Jiva as a tree. Example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chhandogya Upanishad 5-10-6:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अभ्रं भूत्वा मेघो भवति मेघो भूत्वा प्रवर्षति&#xA;  त इह व्रीहियवा ओषधिवनस्पतयस्तिलमाषा इति&#xA;  जायन्तेऽतो वै खलु दुर्निष्प्रपतरं यो यो ह्यन्नमत्ति&#xA;  यो रेतः सिञ्चति तद्भूय एव भवति ॥ ५.१०.६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having become mist, he becomes a cloud, having become a cloud, he rains down. Then &lt;strong&gt;he is born as rice and corn, herbs and trees, sesamum. and beans.&lt;/strong&gt;..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: Quoted Sanskrit verse from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/chhaandogya.html?lang=sa&quot;&gt;sanskritdocuments&lt;/a&gt; and English translation from sacred-texts.com&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chhandogya Upanishad 6-11-1 &amp;amp; 6-11-2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्राचीनशाल औपमन्यवः सत्ययज्ञः&#xA;  पौलुषिरिन्द्रद्युम्नो भाल्लवेयो जनः शार्कराक्ष्यो&#xA;  बुडिल आश्वतराश्विस्ते हैते महाशाला महाश्रोत्रियाः&#xA;  समेत्य मीमाꣳसां चक्रुः को न आत्मा किं ब्रह्मेति ॥ ५.११.१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ते ह सम्पादयाञ्चक्रुरुद्दालको वै भगवन्तोऽयमारुणिः&#xA;  सम्प्रतीममात्मानं वैश्वानरमध्येति तꣳ&#xA;  हन्ताभ्यागच्छामेति तꣳ हाभ्याजग्मुः ॥ ५.११.२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.If some one were to strike at the root of this large tree here, it would bleed, but live. If he were to strike at its stem, it would bleed, but live. If he were to strike at its top, it would bleed, but live. Pervaded by the living Self that tree stands firm, drinking in its nourishment and rejoicing;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.But if the life (the living Self) leaves one of its branches, that branch withers; if it leaves a second, that branch withers; if it leaves a third, that branch withers. If it leaves the whole tree, the whole tree withers . In exactly the same manner, my son, know this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commentary of Adi Shankaracharya on second verse ends with saying that :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...That the tree is ensouled by the' Living Self' has been indicated by the phenomena of the flowing of juices and withering of-as shown by the illustration also vouched for the Vedic text; which means that immovable (apparently inanimate) objects (like the tree) are endowed with sentience; and this also shows that there is no truth in the Bauddha and Vaisheika view that' immovable objects are insentient.' -(2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English_djvu.txt&quot;&gt;archive.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kath-Upanishad 2-2-7:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;योनिमन्ये प्रपद्यन्ते शरीरत्वाय देहिनः ।&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;स्थाणुमन्येऽनुसंयन्ति&lt;/strong&gt; यथाकर्म यथाश्रुतम् ॥ ७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some of those who have born with bodies (the human beings), requiring other bodies reach the entry point again (the womb). &lt;strong&gt;Some others reach the state of plants (or other stationary objects)&lt;/strong&gt;. All these happen according to their actions, thoughts and knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note:Above English translation quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedarahasya.net/katha-5.htm&quot;&gt;vedarahasya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya's commentries on this verse also interprets as &lt;strong&gt;वृक्षादीस्थावरभावम्&lt;/strong&gt; means trees/plants etc. stationary aspects/objects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, as it is mentioned that Jivas take birth as trees/plants, they have souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-06-17T14:52:56.700" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T14:52:56.700" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13715" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-17T09:08:18.677" Score="2" ViewCount="613" Body="&lt;p&gt;.There is a verse in Rigveda(1,50-4)&#xA; &quot;Yojananam sahastra dwe dwe shathe dwe cha yojane Aken nimishardhena krammana Namosthuthe&quot;&#xA;In this verse poet respects to sunlight who moves 2202 yojana in half minute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we actually convert yojana to kose and kose to yard and yard to metres.we actually get 299,792,458m/s which is the modern accepted answer. Do the early poets conducted any experiment to measure or the question end up philosophically;because it took about 300 years to calculate speed of light for scientific community.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6905" LastEditorUserId="6905" LastEditDate="2016-08-13T13:04:00.460" LastActivityDate="2016-08-13T13:04:00.460" Title="Measurement of speed of light in Rigveda" Tags="|rig-veda|science|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-06-19T18:27:34.720" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13717" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13718" CreationDate="2016-06-17T09:52:54.413" Score="3" ViewCount="9280" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Surya Narayana's &lt;strong&gt;Ratha Saradhi&lt;/strong&gt; (Charioteer) Aruna doesn't have both legs. What exactly is the story behind losing his legs and becoming ratha saradhi of lord Surya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6905" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-06-17T10:55:15.503" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T10:55:15.503" Title="Why Aruna doesn't have legs and how did he become charioteer of Surya?" Tags="|surya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13718" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13717" CreationDate="2016-06-17T10:35:12.713" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Birth story of AruNa is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION XVI Astika Parva- Adi Parva of Mahabharata.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Sauti said, ' O Brahmana, in the golden age, Prajapati had two&#xA;  daughters. O sinless one, the sisters were endowed with wonderful&#xA;  beauty. Named Kadru and Vinata, they became the wives of Kasyapa.&#xA;  Kasyapa derived great pleasure from his two wedded wives and being&#xA;  gratified he, resembling Prajapati himself, offered to give each of&#xA;  them a boon. Hearing that their lord was willing to confer on them&#xA;  their choice blessings, those excellent ladies felt transports of joy.&#xA;  Kadru wished to have for sons a thousand snakes all of equal&#xA;  splendour. And Vinata wished to bring forth two sons surpassing the&#xA;  thousand offsprings of Kadru in strength, energy, size of body, and&#xA;  prowess. Unto Kadru her lord gave that boon about a multitude of&#xA;  offspring. And unto Vinata also, Kasyapa said, 'Be it so!' Then&#xA;  Vinata, having; obtained her prayer, rejoiced greatly. Obtaining two&#xA;  sons of superior prowess, she regarded her boon fulfilled. Kadru also&#xA;  obtained her thousand sons of equal splendour. 'Bear the embryos&#xA;  carefully,' said Kasyapa, and then he went into the forest, leaving&#xA;  his two wives pleased with his blessings.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Sauti continued, 'O best of regenerate ones, after a long time, Kadru&#xA;  brought forth a thousand eggs, and Vinata two. Their maid-servants&#xA;  deposited the eggs separately in warm vessels. Five hundred years&#xA;  passed away, and the thousand eggs produced by Kadru burst and out&#xA;  came the progeny. But the twins of Vinata did not appear. &lt;strong&gt;Vinata was&#xA;  jealous, and therefore she broke one of the eggs and found in it an&#xA;  embryo with the upper part developed but the lower one undeveloped.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  At this, the child in the egg became angry and cursed his mother,&#xA;  saying. 'Since thou hast prematurely broken this egg, thou shall serve&#xA;  as a slave. Shouldst thou wait five hundred years and not destroy, or&#xA;  render the other egg half-developed, by breaking it through&#xA;  impatience, then the illustrious child within it will deliver thee&#xA;  from slavery! And if thou wouldst have the child strong, thou must&#xA;  take tender care of the egg for all this time!' Thus cursing his&#xA;  mother, the child rose to the sky. O Brahmana, even he is the&#xA;  charioteer of Surya, always seen in the hour of morning!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Aruna was upper part of embryo, he doesn't have legs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After churning of ocean, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/491/3500&quot;&gt;Surya and Chandra caught Danava Rahu&lt;/a&gt; drinking nectar or Amrita in disguise. Though Lord Vishnu used His Sudharshana Chakra to sever his head, Nectar had already reached his throat and severed parts Rahu and Ketu attained immortality. Now as an act of retaliation, Rahu and Ketu started devouring (hiding) them for some time (what we call eclipses). Lord Surya thought Devas were acting as mere spectators to these events and decided to burn three worlds. Aruna stopped this intensity and became his Ratha Saradhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION XXIV Astika Parva- Adiparva of Mahabharta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;And Garuda said, 'Let no creature be afraid; as ye are in a fright at&#xA;  the sight of my terrible form, I shall diminish my energy.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Sauti continued, 'Then that bird capable of going everywhere at will,&#xA;  that ranger of the skies capable of calling to his aid any measure of&#xA;  energy, bearing Aruna on his back, wended from his father's home and&#xA;  arrived at his mother's side on the other shore of the great ocean.&#xA;  And he placed Aruna of great splendour in the eastern regions, just at&#xA;  a time when Surya had resolved to burn the worlds with his fierce&#xA;  rays.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Saunaka said, 'When did the revered Surya resolve at the time to burn&#xA;  the worlds? What wrong was done to him by the gods that provoked his&#xA;  ire?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Sauti said, 'O sinless one, when Rahu was drinking nectar among the&#xA;  gods at the time of the churning of the ocean he was pointed out to&#xA;  the gods by Surya and Soma, and from that time he conceived an enmity&#xA;  towards those deities. And upon this Rahu sought to devour his&#xA;  afflictor (Surya), became wroth, and thought, 'Oh, this enmity of Rahu&#xA;  towards me hath sprung from my desire of benefiting the gods. And this&#xA;  dire consequence I alone have to sustain. Indeed, at this pass help I&#xA;  obtain not. And before the very eyes of the denizens of heaven I am&#xA;  going to be devoured and they brook it quietly. Therefore, for the&#xA;  destruction of the worlds must I strive.' And with this resolution he&#xA;  went to the mountains of the west.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;And from that place he began to radiate his heat around for the&#xA;  destruction of the world. And then the great Rishis, approaching the&#xA;  gods, spake unto them, 'Lo, in the middle of the night springeth a&#xA;  great heat striking terror into every heart, and destructive of the&#xA;  three worlds.' Then the gods, accompanied by the Rishis, wended to the&#xA;  Grandsire, and said unto him, 'O what is this great heat today that&#xA;  causeth such panic? Surya hath not yet risen, still the destruction&#xA;  (of the world) is obvious. O Lord, what will happen when he doth&#xA;  rise?&quot; The Grandsire replied, 'Indeed, Surya is prepared to rise today&#xA;  for the destruction of the world. As soon as he will appear he will&#xA;  burn everything into a heap of ashes. By me, however, hath the remedy&#xA;  been provided beforehand. The intelligent son of Kasyapa is known to&#xA;  all by the name of Aruna. He is huge of body and of great splendour;&#xA;  he shall stay in front of Surya, &lt;strong&gt;doing the duty of his charioteer&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  and taking away all the energy of the former. And this will ensure the&#xA;  welfare of the worlds, of the Rishis, and of the dwellers in heaven.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Sauti continued, 'Aruna, at the behest of the Grandsire, did all that&#xA;  he was ordered to do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T10:35:12.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13719" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13722" CreationDate="2016-06-17T10:42:33.973" Score="3" ViewCount="172" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since we all know that man is evaluation from monkeys.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Previously all our anscestors were monkey.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So law of karma today, do gets applied to Monkeys also?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastActivityDate="2016-08-08T19:32:22.337" Title="Law of karma applies to monkeys also?" Tags="|belief|gods|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-06-17T15:17:22.623" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13720" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9527" CreationDate="2016-06-17T10:45:40.733" Score="7" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;अहमात्मा गुडाकेश सर्वभूताशयस्थितः।&#xA;&#xA;अहमादिश्च मध्यं च भूतानामन्त एव च ॥१०- २०॥&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am seated in the heart of all living entities. ... The ātmā or eternal soul is enthroned in the etheric heart of all living beings. ... Hence, Shree Krishna declares that he is situated in the heart of all living beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism trees and plants have been adored not only with devotion but &#xA;have been affectionately fondled and almost treated as members of a family. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kalidasa&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA; mentions kindly spirits like &lt;strong&gt;Vanadevatas&lt;/strong&gt;  who had been &#xA;companions of &lt;strong&gt;Sakuntala&lt;/strong&gt; in the forest, &lt;strong&gt;almost shedding tears&lt;/strong&gt; when she left &#xA;her sylvan home for her residence in the palace of her husband, the king, and &#xA;hastened to give her presents of silken garments and jewels worthy of a &#xA;princess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When &lt;strong&gt;Sita&lt;/strong&gt; was abandoned by Lakshmana in the forest at the &#xA;command of Rama, &lt;strong&gt;Sita’s sorrow stirred the trees and plants, and along with &#xA;animals and birds, they too expressed their grief by shedding flowers like&#xA;large drops of tears.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnusahasranama&lt;/strong&gt;, Vishnu is mentioned as the very embodiment of  imposing trees like Udumbara, Asvattha, Asoka and Nyagrodha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Siva is himself conceived as a yupa, post fashioned in Khadira or Sami&#xA;  wood. Sami has fire inside it;  Rudra is also the embodiment of fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Poets  love to use the word Sthanu for Siva and Aparna (lit. leafless)&#xA;  for Parvati to  suggest that even the dry tree trunk (sathanu) bears&#xA;  shoots in  association with Aparna (saparna). Oshadhis or medicinal&#xA;  plants   respond to the light of the moon as effectively as the humans&#xA;  in their joy for  moonlight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the Vedic hymns the oshndhis have been conceived as &#xA;sentient and in the puraana the Vanadevatas are described as lovable, sylvan &#xA;deities.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Name of sages who received enlightenment under them, &#xA;thus making the trees sacred. For instance Aswattha (Ficus religiosa) is the  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bodhi tree of Sakya Muni or Buddha;&#xA; Nyagrodha (Ficus bengalensis) of Kasyapa;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Udumbara (Ficus glomerata) of Kanaka muni; Sirisa (Albizzia &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;labbek) of Krakuchhanda; Asoka (Saraca indica) of Vipaswi; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pundarika (Nelumbium speciosum) of Sikhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The simple faith of the &lt;strong&gt;Cheta&lt;/strong&gt; in &lt;strong&gt;MIC Mrihchhakatika&lt;/strong&gt; assumes that &#xA;the (watchful) eye of the &lt;strong&gt;vanadevata&lt;/strong&gt; is as effective as that of the sun and &#xA;moon that are witnesses of the good and bad deeds of people on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So Hinduism strongly believes in concept of &quot;The soul&quot; in plants .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source -: PDF paper by arvind gupte. www.arvindguptatoys.com › shaktigupta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-06-29T15:22:37.753" LastActivityDate="2016-06-29T15:22:37.753" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13721" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22770" CreationDate="2016-06-17T11:25:45.973" Score="5" ViewCount="2590" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who were the &lt;strong&gt;cooking Masters&lt;/strong&gt; (MasterChefs) from Epic &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt; and what are their stories. Where one can find their stories ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-06-17T12:23:11.540" LastActivityDate="2017-12-15T18:58:42.887" Title="MasterChef (cooking Masters) from Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13722" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13719" CreationDate="2016-06-17T12:09:13.820" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Law of Karma applies only to the Humans. Now, you might think then how do monkeys get reborn in a different being without Karma affecting. The straight answer is that Humans are the only living beings to whom Karma is applied and when Humans don't have a good life to have Heaven(Badrikashram, Shwetdweep, Vaikunth, Golok, Akshardham-the ultimate dwelling from where no one gets rebirth in any form in earth or heaven. etc..) then that human gets rebirth in the form of any living creature( may be Human again or birds, animals, trees, insects, bacteria, etc.. which are 8400000 living creatures in all. The word used is &quot;chorashi&quot; meaning &quot;Eighty Four&quot; because there are 8400000 different types of living creatures in which he can get a birth). Also, according to &quot;Vachanamrut&quot; by Bhagwan Swaminarayan, He said that this isn't a first birth of yours, but we all have taken births in all the forms many a times till now and He also told that we all have drank enough milk of mother that is equal to the water in the oceans in this earth. Thus, Humans are given birth according to his Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shastriji Maharaj(Yagnapurush Das)-Spiritual Successor of Bhagwan Swaminarayan once told his devotee that,&quot;This tree should be cut now because we need to give this aatma a birth in a human body.&quot; One of his devotee had no child so he told that,&quot;This aatma will take birth in your family the next year.&quot; (explanation-That aatma had got birth in a Human body but his Karma made him birth into a tree)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also present Spiritual successor of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, HDH Pramukh Swami Maharaj who is currently at Sarangpur, Gujarat(India) got a phone call many years back of his devotee from an outer country,&quot;My son is unhealthy since long. Please help us.&quot; Pramukh Swami said,&quot;Listen, your child will get well after few days, but will again get disease and then he will meet the death.&quot; Parents of that child got shocked after listening this and questioned why was He saying that thing! Pramukh Swami replied,&quot;Your child is a &quot;mumukshu jiv&quot; (meaning-seeker of God who wants moksh only) of the last birth. So he is given a birth in Satsangi family to attain Moksh and God will take child to Akshardham.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This reveals that Karma applies to Humans and not other animals. After paying births in different bodies according to Karma, we get birth into Human body again to attian Moksh-which is a final stand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6822" LastEditorUserId="6822" LastEditDate="2016-08-08T19:32:22.337" LastActivityDate="2016-08-08T19:32:22.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13723" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13721" CreationDate="2016-06-17T12:11:14.267" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nala is a culinary expert who is the king of Nishadha.and Bhimasena was a very good cook like Nala.He spent his last year of exile in the kingdom of Virata.(Virata Parva,Mahabharata) He disguised himself as a cook named Vallabh.Bhima is believed to be the first to have cooked the famous dish ''Aviyal''.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6904" LastEditorUserId="6904" LastEditDate="2016-06-17T12:16:22.333" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T12:16:22.333" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13724" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13727" CreationDate="2016-06-17T12:41:11.893" Score="3" ViewCount="713" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nowadays people evolved more and more. These people when they perform punya karya like dhaana they gain punya,but people who don't have bhakthi on god ,too perform punya karya for gaining punya for their generation or themselves. This is a type of selfishness while worshipping god .Do they actually gain punya or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To make it clearly; Do selfishness while worshipping actually gain punya or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6905" LastActivityDate="2016-06-30T08:32:52.243" Title="Selfishness in Bhakthi" Tags="|belief|worship|human|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13725" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="45644" CreationDate="2016-06-17T14:08:24.847" Score="9" ViewCount="578" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gita 10.37 talks about Usanas or Acharya Shukra. Is Shukra to be considered a graha or a kavi in the Gita context? Some one told me that the implication of the Gita identifying Shukra only as Kavi and not as graha is that Vedanta does not accept the validity of Jyotish. Hence I asked the above question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-06-20T13:57:17.307" LastActivityDate="2021-04-06T06:56:36.467" Title="Does Vedanta accept the validity of Jyotish?" Tags="|vedanta|astrology|navagraha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13726" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9527" CreationDate="2016-06-17T14:25:40.940" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Plants possess consciousness and experience pleasure and pain according to Manu Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These (plants) which are surrounded by multiform Darkness, the result&#xA;  of their acts (in former existences),possess internal consciousness&#xA;  and experience pleasure and pain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 1.49&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above shloka suggests that plants have Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T14:25:40.940" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13727" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13724" CreationDate="2016-06-17T15:14:18.610" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jaya Nitai! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will try and give an answer from a Vaishnav (Gaudiya) point of view. In Bhagavad Gita 7.16, Sri Krsna tells us that 4 types of people will approach the Lord (in the mood of Bhakti): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;catur-vidhā bhajante māḿ&#xA;  janāḥ su-kṛtino ’rjuna&#xA;  ārto jijñāsur arthārthī&#xA;  jñānī ca bharatarṣabha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O best among the Bharatas, four kinds of pious men begin to render devotional service unto Me—the distressed, the desire of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, even those who have selfish desires can perform Bhakti, and get immense pious credits (punya) from the action. In fact, performing Bhakti of the Lord is even more powerful then many normal Punya Karya (like giving charity etc).  In Skanda Purana (quoted in Hari Bhakti Vilasa) it is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;go-koti-danam grahane khagasya&#xA;       prayaga-gangodaka-kalpa-vasah&#xA;  yajnayutam meru-suvarna-danam&#xA;       govinda-kirter na samam shatamshaih&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Neither giving millions of cows in charity, nor residing at Prayaga by the Ganges for a kalpa, nor performing millions of yajnas, nor giving a Mount Meru of gold in charity brings a benefit equal to one-hundredth part of the benefit obtained by chanting the holy names of Lord Govinda.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dana-vrata-tapas-tirtha-&#xA;       kshetradinam ca yah sthitah&#xA;  shaktayo deva-mahatam&#xA;       sarva-papa-harah shubhah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;rajasuyashvamedhanam&#xA;       jnana-sadhyatma-vastunah&#xA;  akrishya harina sarvah&#xA;       sthapita sveshu namasu&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Lord Hari has gathered from charity, vows, austerities, pilgrimages, the demigods, the great saints, the rajasuya and ashvamedha yajnas, and the study of transcendental knowledge all their powers to bring auspiciousness and remove sins, and placed these powers in His holy names.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;pratar utthaya yo vishnum&#xA;       satatam paripujayet&#xA;  agnishtoma-sahasrasya&#xA;       labhate phalam uttamam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;A person who regularly rises early and worships Lord Vishnu attains a pious result better than that obtained by performing a thousand agnishtoma-yajnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shastra is filled with literally hundreds of these statements (especially in Srimad Bhagavatam, which says that Bhakti can easily grant Mukti, what to speak of artha, kama etc). Srila Sanatana Goswami has compiled a list of various verses from Scripture confirming this in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Sanatana_Goswami/Hari_Bhakti_Vilasa/Eleventh_Vilasa.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;11th Chapter of Hari Bhakti Vilasa&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;*na niskrtair uditair brahma-vadibhis&#xA;  tatha visuddhyaty aghavan vratadibhih&#xA;  yatha harer nama-padair udahrtais&#xA;  tad uttamasloka-gunopalambhakam *&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;By following the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies or undergoing atonement, sinful men do not become as purified as by chanting once the holy name of Lord Hari. although ritualistic atonement may free one from sinful reactions, it does not awaken devotional service, unlike the chanting of the Lord's names, which reminds one of the Lord. Bhag. 6.2.11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also read in Srimad Bhagavatam, the story of Ajamila, who out of selfish reasons called out &quot;Narayana&quot; at the time of his death, yet attained Mukti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, when such Bhakti is done for selfish reasons (i.e for Bhukti or pleasure of body) then such Bhakti is called &lt;em&gt;Karma-Mishra&lt;/em&gt; Bhakti (Bhakti that is contaminated with Karmic activity). Similarly, when Bhakti is performed with the desire for liberation, it is called &lt;em&gt;Jnana Mishra&lt;/em&gt; Bhakti. Bhakti reaches its purest form (called &lt;em&gt;Suddha Bhakti&lt;/em&gt;) when it is performed out of no other desire than to please the senses of the Lord. Such Bhakti can be called &quot;selfless&quot;. Srila Rupa Goswami writes in his &lt;em&gt;Bhaktirasamrta Sindhu&lt;/em&gt; the following definition of Bhakti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmadyanavrtam&#xA;  anukulyena krsnanusilanam bhaktir-uttama&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Perpetual, ardent endeavor meant exclusively for Sri Krsna and performed out of genuine kindness* to Him, when neither prone to any selfish, ulterior desires nor eclipsed by impersonal knowledge, fruitive work, or any other occupation, is known as uttama-bhakti (highest Bhakti)&quot;-Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.1.11)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in conclusion, selfishness in Bhakti does give immense pious credit (punya) and even Mukti, but these are simply fractions of the power of Bhakti. The true fruit of Bhakti (and Nama Sankirtan) is the manifestation of &lt;em&gt;Bhagavata Prema&lt;/em&gt; (Love for God) which is intrinsically selfless and causeless for it is the eternal nature of the soul. This mood is encapsulated so beautifully by Bhagavan Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the 4rd Shloka of His Sikshastakam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;na dhanam na janam na sundarim&#xA;  kavitam va jagad-isha kamaye&#xA;  mama janmani janmanishvare&#xA;  bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki twayi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor do I desire beautiful women, nor do I want any number of followers. I only want Your causeless devotional service birth after birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope this helped,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daso'mi&#xA;Nitai das&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4381" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T15:14:18.610" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13728" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3667" CreationDate="2016-06-17T15:24:28.563" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jaya Nitai! Others have given wonderful answers. I would like to actually quote an article written by our Acharya Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur on the reason why there are many different religions and sects:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sectarianism is a natural byproduct of the Absolute Truth. When acaryas first ascertain and instruct the Truth, it is not polluted with sectarianism. But the rules and regulations received through disciplic succession regarding the goal and the method of achieving it are changed in due course of time according to the mentality and locale of the people. A rule that is followed by one society is not necessarily accepted in another society. That is why one community is different from another. As a community gradually develops more respect for its own standards, it develops hatred towards other communities and considers their standards inferior. These sectarian symptoms are seen in all countries since time immemorial. This is prominent amongst neophytes and found to some extent amongst madhyama-adhikaris. Amongst uttama-adhikaris, however, there is no trace of sectarianism. Adherence to a particular standart is the prominent symptom of a society. There are three types of standards-alocakagata, alocanagata, and alocyagata. Alocakagata is when sectarianists accept some external signs. Examples of alocakagata are tilaka, neck beads, saffron robes, and the baptism that is practiced abroad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The different activities practiced in the process of worship are called alocanagata. Examples of alocanagata are sacrifices, austerities, fire sacrifices, vows, studying scriptures, deity worship, constructing temples, respecting the purity of various trees and rivers, dressing like sannyasis, acting like acaryas, dressing like brahmacaris or grhasthas, closing one s eyes, respecting particular types of books, rules and regulations in eating, and respecting the purity of particular times and places. The examples of alocyagata are attributing personalism or impersonalism on the Supreme Lord, installing deities, exhibiting the mood of an incarnation of the Lord, speculating on heaven and hell, and describing the future destination of the soul. The different forms of these spiritual activities create divisions of sectarianism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Differences that arise from places, times, languages, behaviors, foods, dresses, and natures of various communities are incorporated within people s spiritual practices and gradually make one community so completely different from another community that even the consideration that everyone is a human being may cease to exist. Due to these differences there is disagreement, cessation of social intercourse, and fighting, even up to the point of killing one another. When an asslike mentality becomes prominent within the kanistha-adhikaris, they certainly indulge in these things. But if they develop a swanlike mentality, then they do not take part in quarrels; rather, they endeavor to attain a higher level. Madhyama-adhikaris do not quarrel so much about external standards, but they are always attacked by philosophical disagreements. Sometimes they condemn the standards of neophytes and establish their own standards as superior. They condemn the neophytes deity worship in order to establish the worshipable Lord as formless. In such cases, they are also considered asslike people. Otherwise, if they had a swanlike mentality and a desire to attain a higher level, they would respect others practices and inquire about higher topics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Contradictions actually arise only due to asslike mentality. Swanlike persons consider the necessity for different practices according to one‘s qualification, so they are naturally detached from sectarian quarrels. In this regard, it should be understood that both asslike and swanlike people are found amongst the kanistha-adhikaris and madhyama-adhikaris. I do not expect that asslike people will accept this book with respect. If neophytes and madhyama-adhikaris become completely indifferent in regard to the contradictions found in various practices and try to advance further, then they become swanlike persons. Then they are our respectable and dear friends. Although swanlike personalities may accept a particular practice from birth or childhood according to instructions they have received, they nevertheless remain indifferent and nonsectarian&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4381" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T15:24:28.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13729" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13724" CreationDate="2016-06-17T16:16:55.090" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word Bhakti (devotion) taken from the sanskrit word 'Bhaj', meaning 'to be attached to God' .Bhakti is a sacred, higher emotion with sublime sentiments that unites the devotees with the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चतुर्विधा भजन्ते मां जना: सुकृतिनोऽर्जुन | आर्तो जिज्ञासुरर्थार्थी&#xA;  ज्ञानी च भरतर्षभ || 7.16 Geeta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;chatur-vidhā bhajante māṁ janāḥ sukṛitino ’rjuna&#xA;ārto jijñāsur arthārthī jñānī cha bharatarṣhabha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O best among the Bharatas, four kinds of pious men begin to render devotional service unto Me—the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their are various kind of bhakties , told in Hinduism  One classification &#xA;Sakamya &lt;strong&gt;(सकाम)**and Nishkamya **(निष्काम&lt;/strong&gt;)Bhakti. Sakamya Bhakti is devotion with desire for material gains. Another kind is of Nishkamya Bhakti, where one dose not wish any material gain, but offers pure devotion to god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another classification-&#xA; &quot;Apara-Bhakti&quot;&lt;strong&gt;(अपरा)&lt;/strong&gt; and &quot;Para&quot;&lt;strong&gt;(परा)&lt;/strong&gt; bhakti. Apara-Bhakti is for beginners in Yoga. The beginner decorates an image with flowers and garlands, rings the bell, offers Naivedya (food-offerings) etc.&#xA;The Bhakta here regards the Lord as a Supreme Person, who is immanent in that image and who can be propitiated through that form only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Para-Bhakti, the highest form of Bhakti. He sees the Lord and Lord alone everywhere and feels His Power manifest as the entire universe.&#xA; There are five kinds of Bhava in Bhakti. They are Shanta, (संत)Dasya, (दास)Sakhya,(सख्ख्या )Vatsalyaand  (वासल्या)Madhurya(मधुर) Bhavas. These Bhavas or feelings are natural to human beings and so these are easy to practice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Srimad-Bhagavata and the Vishnu Purana it is told that the nine forms of Bhakti are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sravana &lt;strong&gt;(श्रवण)&lt;/strong&gt; (hearing of God's Lilas and stories),Kirtana &lt;strong&gt;(कीर्तन)&lt;/strong&gt;(singing of His glories),Smarana &lt;strong&gt;(समरण)&lt;/strong&gt;(remembrance of His name and presence),Padasevana &lt;strong&gt;(पादसेवन)&lt;/strong&gt;(service of His feet),Archana &lt;strong&gt;(अर्चना)&lt;/strong&gt;(worship of God),Vandana &lt;strong&gt;(वंदना)&lt;/strong&gt;(prostration to Lord),Dasya &lt;strong&gt;(दास्या)&lt;/strong&gt;(cultivating the Bhava of a servant with God),Sakhya &lt;strong&gt;(सख्य)&lt;/strong&gt;( (cultivation of the friend-Bhava) andAtmanivedana**(आत्मनिवेदन)** (complete surrender of the self).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Comming to your question. The answer according to &lt;strong&gt;Shree krishna in &quot;Bhagvad Geeta&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;In selfish bhakti **although you will get material gain ,Punya&lt;/strong&gt; (as you have asked) &#xA;But &lt;strong&gt;you will not get&lt;/strong&gt; supreme satisfaction, immortality and Moksha through Sakamya Bhakti.(selfish bhakti).   Aspire for Nishkamya Bhakti. Your heart will be purified and the Divine Grace will descend upon you. Be in communion with the Lord, &lt;strong&gt;you will become one with the Lord.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So yes even devotion with selfish cause could gain you punya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=496&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://sivanandaonline.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-30T08:32:52.243" LastActivityDate="2016-06-30T08:32:52.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13730" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6735" CreationDate="2016-06-17T16:50:42.510" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;after answer of keshav sriniwasan &amp;amp; comment of neil i wanna add a little more detail that we r in 5117th yr of 28th Kaliyuga of 7th Manvantar of 51st year's 1st day...while i wanna add a unique fact about brahma's time calculation that this is surya siddhanta while go on the link of vateshwar siddhanta that we according to it r in www.new1.dli.ernet.in/data1/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005b65_135.pdf 8th yr's 6th month's 15 days complete &amp;amp; 6 manvantar's 27th chaturyuga's 4th yuga's same 5117th yr...just adding knowledge:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4752" LastActivityDate="2016-06-17T16:50:42.510" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13732" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-17T20:09:40.417" Score="10" ViewCount="2308" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Vedic astrology, the sidereal zodaic, the band of stars surrounding the Sun's apparent path in the sky, is divided into 12 equal Rashis or zodiac signs.  A person's Janma Rashi is the zodiac sign that the Moon appears in at the time of their birth.  And a person's Janma Lagna is the zodiac sign that appears at the Eastern horizon at the time of their birth.  For example, my Janma Rashi is Rishabha or Taurus, and my Janma Lagna is Simha or Leo; see my birthchart &lt;a href=&quot;http://planetarypositions.com/horoscope-calculations/generate-horoscope.php?va_name_horo1=Keshav+Srinivasan&amp;amp;va_date_horo1=17&amp;amp;va_month_horo1=4&amp;amp;va_year_horo1=1991&amp;amp;va_hh_horo1=15&amp;amp;va_mm_horo1=10&amp;amp;va_tz_hour_horo1=4&amp;amp;va_tz_min_horo1=00&amp;amp;va_tz_ew_horo1=W&amp;amp;va_dst_horo1=No&amp;amp;va_place_of_birth_horo1=New+Brunswick%2C+NJ%2C+United+States&amp;amp;city2=New+Brunswick&amp;amp;va_latitude_deg_horo1=40&amp;amp;va_latitude_min_horo1=29&amp;amp;va_lat_ns_horo1=N&amp;amp;va_longitude_deg_horo1=74&amp;amp;va_longitude_min_horo1=27&amp;amp;va_lon_ew_horo1=W&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  (I actually have the same Nakshatra and Rashi as Krishna!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in my case, my Janma Rashi is different from my Janma Lagna, but based on scriptural descriptions of their births, I found out that in the case of Rama and Krishna they're the same.  Rama had Karkata Rashi and Karkata Lagna, and Krishna had Ribhasa Rashi and Rishabha Lagna; see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8538/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  And I just found out that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, whom Gaudiya Vaishnavas consider to be an incarnation, had Simha Rashi and Simha Lagna.  And Ramanujacharya, whom Sri Vaishnavas (like myself) consider to be an incarnation, had Karkata Rashi and Karkata Lagna, just like Rama!  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, is there some kind of rule that all incarnations of Vishnu have their Janma Rashi and Janma Lagna as the same?  Now if someone's Janma Rashi is the same as their Janma Lagna, that would mean that at time of their birth, the moon was aligned with a certain zodiac sign, and the Eastern horizon was aligned with the same zodiac sign, so the moon and the Eastern horizon were aligned with each other.  That means that all the figures mentioned above were born at moonrise, i.e. the time when the moon first emerges in the sky (which is not necessarily at night).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any scriptures which say that incarnations of Vishnu are always born at moonrise?  By the way, if I'm not mistaken the orbit of the moon relative to the Earth and the rotation of the Earth relative to the fixed stars (in the sidereal zodiac) are completely uncorrelated, so the probability that Rama, Krishna, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and Ramanujacharya would all have this property by chance is less than 1 in 20,000.  So clearly something is going on here.  Do any works on Vedic astrology say that there's something special about people born at moonrise, and do all incarnations of Vishnu belong to this category?  What about at least the Purna Avataras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2022-08-06T20:37:39.350" Title="Are all incarnations of Vishnu born at moonrise?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|avatars|astrology|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13735" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13725" CreationDate="2016-06-18T07:51:07.323" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is the full &lt;a href=&quot;http://asitis.com/10/37.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 10.37&lt;/a&gt; for quick analysis:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vrsninam vasudevo 'smi pandavanam dhananjayah muninam apy aham vyasah&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;kavinam usana kavih&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us first try to understand what is mean by &lt;code&gt;kavih&lt;/code&gt;. I guess most of us use the word ‘Kavi’ for a poet. But it seems it has more &lt;a href=&quot;http://asitis.com/10/37.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;deep meaning&lt;/a&gt; : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kavis are those who are capable of thinking thoroughly on any subject&#xA;  matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &quot;&lt;strong&gt;thinking&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; usually associate with living beings. Hence, this hints us that in BG 10.37, a person is referred as a Kavi (one who can think thoroughly on any subject) and not Graha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vibhuti &lt;a href=&quot;http://asitis.com/10/37.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Usana&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in BG 10.37 have qualities such as intelligence, far-seeing &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Uśanā was the spiritual master of the demons; he was extremely&#xA;  intelligent, far-seeing, political and spiritual in every way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After checking &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-10-35.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;4 different translation and analysis&lt;/a&gt;, it further reinforces that, in BG 10.37,Shukra to be considered as kavi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, at least to me, it seems that in BG 10.37, &lt;strong&gt;Shukra to be considered as kavi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastActivityDate="2016-06-18T07:51:07.323" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13736" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13724" CreationDate="2016-06-18T07:55:48.123" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Law of karma is universal law.  It doesn't just apply to bhaktas.  It applies to atheists also.  Same way atheists earn pApam if they do something bad,  atheists also earn punyam if they do something good like dAna.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One never has to enjoy or endure the good and bad acts of another. Indeed, one enjoys and endures the fruits of only those acts that one does oneself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Mahabharata, xii.291&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b118.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b118.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="6830" LastEditDate="2016-06-18T08:11:22.543" LastActivityDate="2016-06-18T08:11:22.543" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13737" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13633" CreationDate="2016-06-18T11:35:13.457" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;As said by @surya, the story of Ghantakarna is mentioned in the Bhavishya Parva of Harivamsa. I didn't found any version of it in English but I have read the story in Hindi version by Geeta Press Gorakhpur 8th edition chapter 83.&#xA;I found the similar story mentioned &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dvaipayana.net/krishnanattam/ghantakarna.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Ghantakarna episode is described in 11 chapters (chapter 73 to 83) in Bhavishya Parva of Harivamsa, the supplement to Mahabharata.&#xA;  Rugmini requests Krishna for a son equal to him. To achieve this, Krishna decides to go to Kailasa to please Siva (Rugmini's request for a son - chapter 73).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The subsequent chapters are Speech on the eve of Journey to Kailasa (chapter 74),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Preparation for the Journey (chapter 75)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Entering Badari (chapter 76) and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Reception at Badari (chapter 77).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the evening, Krishna goes to the banks of Ganga and starts meditation.&#xA;  Krishna's meditation is disturbed by some sounds. Krishna sees that he is&#xA;  surrounded by many hunter dogs and other wild animals. The dark night is made as bright as the day by a large number of torches. Krishna sees a number of ghosts and pisacas. (Appearance of Pisacas - chapter 78).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Krishna looks on, two pisacas with swollen chins and protruding tongues arrive, chanting Vishnu's names and praising the greatness of Vishnu. (Arrival of Pisacas - chapter 79)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Without realising that Krishna is the same person whom they are praising,&#xA;  the pisacas question Krishna about him. Krishna answers that he, born in Yadu Race is on his way to Kailasa to meet Siva. The pisacas introduce themselves as Ghantakarnas, servants of Kubera (God of Wealth) and disciples of Siva. Being Vishnu-haters, they wore bells (Ghantas) on their ears (Karna) to ensure that Vishnu's names do not enter their ears. Having pleased Siva with their devotion, Ghantakarnas prayed Siva for salvation. Siva advised that since only Vishnu can grant salvation, they should worship Vishnu and proceed to Dwaraka to meet him. Ghantakarnas explained that the hunt is to conduct a Vishnu Pooja (Worship of Vishnu). Then they start meditation. (Meditation of Ghantakarna - chapter 80)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pleased by their devotion, Krishna reveals his true form in the minds of these two meditating devotees. The Ghantakarnas are happy by the vision of Vishnu (Ghantakarna's Vision of Vishnu - chapter 81).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upon opening their eyes, they saw Vishnu standing in front of them exactly as they had seen him during meditation. Overjoyed to see Vishnu,they start dancing. They praise (Praise by Ghantakarnas - chapter 82)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Ghantakarnas offer Krishna a piece of flesh from the fresh dead body of a brahmin&lt;/strong&gt;, saying that that is the best food. Krishna says he is pleased with their devotion, but politely refuses the offering. He converts the Ghantakarnas to divine bodies and sends them to heaven. The Ghantakarnas request a boon from Krishna that those who think about the meeting of Ghantakarnas with Vishnu shall become purified in mind and thoughts (Grant of Salvation to Ghantakarnas - chapter 83 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-18T07:34:26.387" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T07:34:26.387" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13738" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-18T12:49:59.743" Score="2" ViewCount="1249" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many of my friends married recently and all of them were either unhappy or divorced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can any one tell me any verses/slokas to get married to nice husband?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6912" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-04-30T15:55:05.933" LastActivityDate="2018-04-30T15:55:05.933" Title="Is there any verse to have nice husband?" Tags="|mantras|men|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13742" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2641" CreationDate="2016-06-19T11:07:01.737" Score="35" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chakras are the major energy centres of our subtle body. So, there are not only 7 but many other chakras also. However 7 Chakras are considered the main. The refrences of 7 chakras and Kundalini Shakti are in Puranas and Upanishads. &lt;strong&gt;Lalita Sahasranama stotra from Brahmanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; gives the most precise description of Kundalini in just 3 verses.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मूलाधारैक निलया ब्रह्यग्रन्थि विभेदिनी । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;मणि पूरान्तरुदिता विष्णुग्रन्थि विभेदिनी ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;आज्ञा चक्रान्तरालस्था रुद्रग्रन्थि विभेदिनी । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;सहस्राराम्बुजारूढा सुधा साराभिवर्षिणी ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तडिल्लता समरुचि: षट्चक्रोपरि संस्थिता । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;महासक्ति: कुण्डलिनी विसतन्तु तनीयसी ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Muladharaika nilaya bramhagrandhi vibhedini। Manipurantarudita vishnugrandhi vibhedine।। – 38 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Aagyna-chakrantaralasdha rudra-grandhi vibhedini। Sahasraranbujaruda sudhasarabhivarshinee।। – 39 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Tatillata samaruchi shatchakropari sansdhita। Mahashakti-kundalini bisatantu taniyasi।। – 40&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;You are the one sitting in the &lt;strong&gt;Muladhara&lt;/strong&gt;, you are the one who pierce the knot of Brahma (&lt;strong&gt;Brahma Granthi&lt;/strong&gt;). You are the one in the &lt;strong&gt;Manipura,&lt;/strong&gt; you are the one who pierce the knot of Vishnu (&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Granthi&lt;/strong&gt;). You are the one in the &lt;strong&gt;Ajna Chakra,&lt;/strong&gt; you are the one who pierce the knot of Rudra (&lt;strong&gt;Rudra Granthi&lt;/strong&gt;). And reaching in the &lt;strong&gt;Sahasrara&lt;/strong&gt; you rain the Nectar (Soma) / Amrita there. Bright  like Lightning you reach above the Six chakras. You are &lt;strong&gt;Kundalini&lt;/strong&gt; the great energy which is subtle in nerves.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from above we can know there are &lt;strong&gt;7 Chakras including Sahasrara chakra.&lt;/strong&gt; There are &lt;strong&gt;three knots&lt;/strong&gt; called &lt;strong&gt;Brahma granthi, Vishnu granthi and Rudra granthi.&lt;/strong&gt; These knots are formed because Ida and Pingala nadi which are left and Sushumna nadi ties in these Chakra and forms knots. Thus it makes difficult to pass Kundalini from these Chakra. As first knot is itself present in Muladhara so it becomes a bit difficult to Kundalini Shakti to pierce this knot. Brahma knot is present around Manipura and Swadhisthana area. Vishnu knot is present in Manipura and Anhata area. Rudra knot is present in Ajna Chakra area.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ufFaS.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ufFaS.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Knots of Kundalini Yoga&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Thus Kundalini travels the three great steps from Brahma granthi to Vishnu Granthi, from Vishnu Granthi to Rudra granthi and from Rudra granthi to the Highest place then there nectar flows. This process resembles the story of RigVeda in which Vishnu takes three steps, reaches the highest place in third step and then Soma (Nectar) flows [RigVeda1.32.12]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Other chakras are also mentioned in Lalita Sahasranama from verse no. 98 to verse no. 109.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chakras are also described in &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana in the chapter &amp;quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27398/61f_chapter_254_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Tandava Dance of Shankara&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;.&lt;/strong&gt; There it describes how music originated from Chakras. It has also relation with Beeja mantra associated with Chakras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;30&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sriraga, the most charming one. is the first son of lsvara. He occupied a seat &lt;strong&gt;in the middle of the eyebrows.&lt;/strong&gt; He is the giver of the supreme Brahman (Parabrahman), &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;31 In the centre there of is the excellent Gana born of Mahesa. The second (Raga) originated from the waist region. it is Vasanta of great repute. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;32. Pancama (name of a Raga) is the third one, the ornament of the universe. It originated from &lt;strong&gt;Visuddhi Chakra&lt;/strong&gt; (situated in the inner throat). It is marked by the principle Mahat.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;33. &lt;strong&gt;The Anahata Chakra&lt;/strong&gt; originated from the heart of Maheswara. The Raga Bhairava which itself is Bhairava (terrible) originated fom the region of nostril. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;34. This Chakra is named &lt;strong&gt;Manipuraka&lt;/strong&gt; and it is indeed the bestower of salvation. The fifty Varnas (letters) named Anka originated from Maheswara. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;35. The twelve Rasis (signs of the zodiac) and the constellations originated from &lt;strong&gt;Svadhisthana&lt;/strong&gt; (Chakra) along With the seeds of the universe. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;36. The organ of generation of Isa gets enlarged in a moment. Then Retas (semen virile) issues forth and the universe is created from the Rents. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;37. From the &lt;strong&gt;Adhara Chakra&lt;/strong&gt; the great sixth (Raga) named Nata Narayana originated, It is the favourite son of Mahesa. It is Nila (blue in colour) and it has the exploit of Vishu. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;38. These personified Ragas assisted by their wives (Raginis) originated thus. Their wives originated from the region of the head of the Pinaka-bearing Lord.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OzH6L.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OzH6L.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;positionofchakra&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Suta Samhita of Skanda Purana has a separate chapter called '&lt;strong&gt;NadiChakra Nirupana&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;. It deals in details about the position of Nadi and Chakras.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There are about 20 &lt;strong&gt;Yoga Upanishads&lt;/strong&gt; which deal with the description of Nadis and Chakras.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For eg. &lt;strong&gt;Hamsa Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; (4th verse) says this:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Now we shall explain the true nature of Hamsa and Paramahamsa for the benefit of a Brahmacharin (a seeker after Brahman or celibate), who has his desires under control, is devoted to his guru and always&#xA;contemplates (as) Hamsa and realise thus: It (Hamsa) is permeating all bodies like fire (or heat) in all kinds of wood or oil in all kinds of gingelly seeds. Having known (It) thus, one does not meet with death. &lt;strong&gt;Having contracted the anus (with the heels pressed against it), having raised the Vayu (breath) from (Mula) Adhara (Chakra), having made circuit thrice round Svadhisthana, having gone to Manipuraka, having crossed Anahata, having controlled Prana in Visuddhi and then having reached Ajna, one contemplates in Brahmarandhra (in the head) and having meditated there always ‘I am of three Matras’, cognises (his&#xA;Self) and becomes formless. The Sisna has two sides (left and right from head to foot). This is that Paramahamsa (Supreme Hamsa or Higher Self) having the resplendence of Crores of suns and by whom all this world is pervaded.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dhyana Bindu Upanishad:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;52-53. Of these, the chief ones are ten and carry the Pranas. Ida, Pingala, Susumna, Gandhari, Hastijihva, Pusha, Yasasvini, Alambusa, Kuhuh and Sankhini are said to be the ten. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;54-55(a). This Chakra of the Nadis should ever be known by the Yogins. &lt;strong&gt;The three Nadis Ida, Pingala and Susumna are said to carry Prana always and have as their Devatas, moon, sun and Agni.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;55(b)-56(a). &lt;strong&gt;Ida is on the left side and Pingala on the right side, while the Susumna is in the middle. These three are known to be the paths of Prana.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;56(b)-57. Prana, Apana, Samana, Udana and Vyana; Naga, Kurma, Krikara, Devadatta and Dhananjaya; of these, the first five are called Pranas, etc., and last five Naga, etc., are called Vayus (or sub-Pranas). &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;58. All these are situated (or run along) the one thousand Nadis, (being) in the form of (or producing) life. Jiva which is under the influence of Prana and Apana goes up and down. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chapter 3 of &lt;strong&gt;Yoga Kundalini Upanishad:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8(b)-9(a). Having known Vayu, the above-mentioned Bindu and the Sattva-Prakriti as well as the six Chakras, one should enter the Sukha-Mandala (the Sahasrara).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;9(b)-11. &lt;strong&gt;There are six Chakras. Muladhara is in the anus; Svadhisthana is near the genital organ; Manipuraka is in the navel; Anahata is in the heart; Visuddhi is at the root of the neck and Ajna is in the head (between the two eyebrows).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;12. &lt;strong&gt;Having known these six Mandalas (spheres), one should enter the Sukha-Mandala (Sahasrara), drawing up the Vayu and should send it (Vayu) upwards.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;13. &lt;strong&gt;He who practises thus (the control of) Vayu becomes one with Brahmanda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other superb texts like Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Goraksha Shatakam written by Guru Gorakhnath and other Agama texts which deal in detail about Kundalini Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk07ch35.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This Chapter of Devi Bhagvata Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; consists of very precise description of Chakras and Nadis. It also deals with some minor chakras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;49&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pierce, then, the Lingams (the lustrous Svayambhu Âdi Lingam) in the several Chakras above-mentioned and transfer along with it the heart united with the Shakti to the Sahasrâra (the Thousand petalled Lotus). Then meditate the S'aktî united with Sambhu there. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;50-51. There is produced in the Vindu Chakra, out of the intercourse of Shiva and Shakti, a kind of nectar-juice, resembling a sort of red-dye (lac). With that Nectar of Joy, the wise Yogis make the Mâyâ S'aktî, yielding successes in Yoga, drink; then pleasing all the Devas in the six Chakras with the offerings of that Nectar, the Yogi brings the S'aktî down again on the Mûlâdhâra Lotus. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;52. Thus by daily practising this, all the above mantras will no doubt, be made to come to complete success.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/4/25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam&lt;/a&gt; from 4.4.24-27 also describes Sati Leaving her body through Kundalini Yoga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कृत्वा समानावनिलौ जितासना सोदानमुत्थात्य च नाभिचक्रतः ।&#xA;Then she carried the life air upwards and placed it in the position of equilibrium near the Nabhi Chakra/ Navel Chakra [Manipura Chakra.] (S.B. 4.4.25)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; also describes some concepts of Kundalini as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14630/is-kundalini-concept-alien-to-vaishnavism/14895#14895&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;answer here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xeI2j.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xeI2j.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;BeejaMantra with Chakra&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Brief Summary:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There are 7 major Chakras in our subtle body. The final chakra ie. Sometimes Sahasrara is not also counted as Chakra as it is the final destination.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2) The seven chakras are situated in backbone region in subtle body. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;3) Muladhara is in perenium area. Swadhisthana is a little bit above it. Manipura is in navel region. Anhata is in heart region. Visuddhi is in throat region. Ajna is in middle of eyebrow region and Sahasrara is in top of head.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;4) These 7 chakras are related with various elements as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8082/yogic-liberation-like-raising-kundalini-vs-bhakti-path/11967#11967&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;5) Kundalini Shakti (serpent energy) is situated in Mualdhara chakra in normal condition. Rising the Kundalini from Muladhara and making it go to Sahasrara is the main aim of mystic Yogis.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;6) Brahma granthi, Vishnu granthi and Rudra granthi are the knots in the path. They are loosened by other Yogic exercises like Kumbhaka, Rechaka, Puraka and leaving attachment. Brahma granthi loosens by transcending material attachment, Vishnu granthi loosens by transcending emotional attachment and Rudra granthi loosens by even transcending  spritual attachment.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;7) The path of Kundalini is through the Sushumna nadi, the Ida bearing moon sign being left to it and Pingala bearing sun sign being right to it.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;8) When Kundalini pierces Rudra granthi and reaches Sahasrara then it becomes one with it, then the person becomes one with the Universe and attains liberation (Kaivalya).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Kundalini-untold-story-Om-Swami/dp/8184958625&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kundalini: An untold story&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_Swami&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Om Swami&lt;/a&gt; for additional information about Mythology (History) of Kundalini Vidya and its practice (though it is highly recommended to learn this Kundalini Yoga under a competent Guru).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T15:40:01.930" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13743" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13640" CreationDate="2016-06-19T11:27:03.427" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Guru-shishya&lt;/strong&gt; tradition, lineage, or Parampara denotes a &#xA;succession of teachers and disciples in the traditional Hinduism culture. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The tradition of spiritual relationship and mentoring where teachings &#xA;are transmitted from a Guru (Teacher) to a Shishya (Disciple) .&#xA;Such knowledge, whether it be Vedic, Agamic, Architectural, &#xA;Musical or Spiritual, is carried through the relationship &#xA;between the Teacher( Guru) and the Disciple (Shishya). This &#xA;relationship is based on the efforts of the Guru, and the respect, &#xA;commitment, devotion and obedience of the Disciple, is the best method &#xA;for spiritual or material  knowledge to be carried forward. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We generally  make a slight distinction between &lt;strong&gt;Gurukula&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;system and &lt;strong&gt;Guru-Sishya Parampara&lt;/strong&gt;, though the way of teaching &amp;amp; learning &#xA;on principles, is  almost the same. The difference is that the &#xA;Gurukula system can be compared to the present day residence or &#xA;boarding schools. Thus, a group of students lives with and study &#xA;under one single Guru, till they complete  their education.This is going on since Vedic times. By using this method, any form of art,music,dance etc., were taught.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Guru-sishya Parampara&lt;/strong&gt; is considered as learning on a one-to-&#xA;one basis (The teacher and a Single student), the student being living &#xA;in the teacher’s house and learning without any specific timing , as per the teacher’s convenience. And meantime helping the teacher in his day today works.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Gurukula system&lt;/strong&gt; is an effective medium to preserve &#xA;traditional art forms without losing the values for this many &#xA;generations. The family tradition of imparting education was also there. In this system a teacher teaches to group of multiple students. Student being living &#xA;in the teacher’s house and learning.And meantime helping the teacher in his day today works. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Advaita tradition: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नारायण समारंभाम् व्यासः शंकर मध्यमां |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      अस्मदाचार्य पर्यन्तां वंदे गुरु परम्पराम् ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nārāyaṇa samāraṃbhām vyāsaḥ śaṃkara madhyamāṃ |&lt;br&gt; asmadācārya paryantāṃ vaṃde guru paramparām&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: salutation to the lineage starting with lord Narayana, with&#xA;  Ved- Vyasa and Adi Sankara in the middle and continuing up to my&#xA;  immediate teacher.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ध्यान मूलं गुरु मूर्ति , पूजा मूलं गुरु पदम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मन्त्र मूलं गुरु :वाक्यं , मोक्ष मूलं गुरु कृपा ।।&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  dhyāna mūlaṃ guru mūrti , pūjā mūlaṃ guru padam ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mantra mūlaṃ guru :vākyaṃ , mokṣa mūlaṃ guru kṛpā ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: Guru's murti/idol/body is the object of meditation, his feet, the objects of worship, his words the objects of chanting. All this is&#xA;  because in his grace lies the source of liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Usually, first guru in any lineage defines the goals and broadly gives paths to achieve those. &lt;strong&gt;(Lakshya Nirdesa)&lt;/strong&gt; The subsequent ones define paths that suit the times, in a way that they lead to the goals set by the first teacher or Guru and are not in conflict with the philosophy of the tradition &lt;strong&gt;(Marga Nirdesa)&lt;/strong&gt;. Guru, the teacher &lt;strong&gt;Teacher is accorded highest respect, and is equated to God&lt;/strong&gt;. The famous sanskrut verse tells us -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णुर्गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गुरुः साक्षात् परं ब्रह्म तस्मै श्रीगुरवे नमः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gururbrahmā gururviṣṇurgururdevo maheśvaraḥ ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  guruḥ sākṣāt paraṃ brahma tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; Guru is Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesha, in fact guru is Prabrahma&#xA;  himself, the Brahman, the Absolute. Salutations to such guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We do not regard the Guru as a human being . Hence, he is not a body; and therefore, he does not die. The immortal Guru maintains an immortal relationship with the shishya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fact is  that &lt;strong&gt;every learning experience need not necessarily have the&#xA;  same guru,&lt;/strong&gt; is best brought out by the example of &lt;strong&gt;Avadhoot Dattatreya&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  who acknowledged more than &lt;strong&gt;30 gurus&lt;/strong&gt; as his preceptors. For him, any&#xA;  person who brought about his enlightenment was a guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shrimad Bhagvad Gita&lt;/strong&gt; too highlights the highest values of the guru-shishya parampara. In an act of reverence, Arjuna shoots arrows as a homage at the feet of his teachers, Dronacharya and Bhishma Pitahmaha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;shishya learns not only in the physical presence of the guru, but also in the absence of the guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shishya therefore must always  remember his guru and his teaching and follw the path accordingly&lt;/strong&gt; and spread the teachings of his for goodness for others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many Guru-Sishya paramparas in Sanatana Dharma, which have come down uninterrupted over time. All the Vidyas and literature like &lt;strong&gt;Vedas, Vedangas, Darsanas and Dharma sutras&lt;/strong&gt; have come down as Guru-Sishya paramparas. For example branches of Veda have come down as Guru-Sishya paramparas. &lt;strong&gt;Various schools of spiritual philosophy such as Advaita, Vishishta Advaita and Dvaita have come down as Guru-Sishya paramparas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Guru-Sishya_parampara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Guru-Sishya_parampara&lt;/a&gt; and various other internet sources.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-10T18:09:44.353" LastActivityDate="2017-02-10T18:09:44.353" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13744" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-19T15:31:36.590" Score="8" ViewCount="1246" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/13633/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya once visited the town of Thirukkolur in order to see the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaithamanidhi_Perumal_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaithamanidhi Perumal Vishnu temple&lt;/a&gt;, when he saw a little girl walking out of the town. He asked her, given that everyone wants to go into to Thirukkolur to see Sriman Narayana, why would she ever want to go out of the town? She responded with a set of 81 statements, now known as the Thirukkolur Penpillai Rahasyam, or &amp;quot;the secret told by the little girl from Thirukkolur&amp;quot;. She listed 81 great devotees of Vishnu, the implication being &amp;quot;Since I am not like these illustrious devotees, why does it matter whether I'm in Thirukkolur or not?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/13633/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I asked about the sixth statement, concerning the demon Khandakarna who got Moksha by worshiping Krishna. But now I'm interested in the 52nd statement, &amp;quot;ingu illai enREnO dhadhipANdanaip pOlE&amp;quot;, meaning &amp;quot;Am I like Dadhipanda who said 'He's not here.'?&amp;quot;  The story as I understand it goes roughly as follows.  Yashoda was once running to beat Krishna with a stick, for some mischief he had done.  So Krishna asked Dadhipanda, a nearby yogurt vendor, to hide him in his yogurt pot.  Dadhipandan agreed, and when Yashoda came there Dadhipandan lied and said &amp;quot;Krishna isn't here.&amp;quot;  When Yashoda left, Krishna asked to be let out of the pot, but Dadhipandan  said her would only let him out if he gave Moksha to him and his pot.  Krishna agreed, so Dadhipanda let him out.  Here's how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.acharya.org/v/ThirukkolurammalVarththaigal/ThirukkolurammalVarththaigal-52.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt; describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name Dhadhipanda means one who has a large yogurt pot. Each day, Dhadhipanda would take a large pot of yogurt and go about selling it. In the evening, he would come back with the empty pot and rest outside his home. One day, Krishna was sitting in his mother Yashoda's lap and drinking milk. Suddenly she remembered leaving milk on the stove and she left Krishna and ran inside to take the milk before it got overheated. Krishna became angry at that and threw a stone on a pot containing ghee. When Yashoda returned, she saw the broken ghee pot while Krishna sat innocently nearby. She became angry at Him and called out to Him while brandishing a small stick. Krishna began to run crying and Yashoda started to run behind Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While running to escape His mother, Krishna saw Dhadhipanda and his pot. So, he told him &amp;quot;O Dhadhipanda! My mother is angry with me and she is going to hit me. Please hide me in your pot and tell her that you did not see me&amp;quot;. So, Dhadhipanda hid Krishna in his pot. When Yashoda came there and asked if he had seen Krishna and if He was hiding there, he lied &amp;quot;He is not here&amp;quot;. Believing him, Yashoda left. Krishna then called out from inside the pot &amp;quot;O Dhadhipanda! I am not able to breathe inside here. Please let me out&amp;quot;. Dhadhipanda was graced at that time by the Lord and he realized that Sri Krishna was the supreme. So, he told Krishna &amp;quot;O Krishna! Only if You promise to give me moksha, will I let you out&amp;quot;. After a short argument Krishna agreed to it Not satisfied, Dhadhipanda also asked for moksha for his pot and Krishna acquiesced. As promised, Krishna gave moksha to both Dhadhipanda and his pot.  No one can say, upon whom the Lord's grace would fall. In the previous varththai, one saw that His grace fell on Prahlada who told that He was everywhere; in this varththai, it is seen that He gave moksha to Dhadhipanda who said that He was not there (near him).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thirukkolur Ammal is asking &amp;quot;Did I say a lie (that He was not present nearby) for His sake, like Dhadhipanda did?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe this story of Krishna hiding in Dadhipanda's pot and granting Moksha to Dadhipanda and his pot?  As far as I can tell, it's not mentioned in the accounts of Krishna's childhood in the Harivamsa, Vishnu Purana, and Srimad Bhagavatam.  Is it mentioned in any other Puranas?  Is it at least mentioned in the Alwars' poems?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For what it's worth, the Sri Vaishnsava Acharya Vedanta Desikan alludes to the story in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6h0ji.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Rahasyatraya Sara, in the course of describing Vishnu's boundless generosity:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Supreme generosity is the liberality in making gifts which makes a person feel that he has not done enough, even when he has given all that he has possesses without any thought of the slightest endeavor on the part of the person benefited, the greatness of the benefit conferred or the unworthiness of the beneficiary.  This is a quality which induces men like Dadhibanda and others to ask with importunity the great benefits of spiritual life even for those who are connected with them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/srirangasri/archives/nov01/msg00009.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this forum post&lt;/a&gt; says that a Sri Vaishnava named Pillai Perumal Iyengar, who used to make garlands for the Ranganatha statue in Sri Rangam, once asked Vishnu  for Moksha.  This caused Ranganatha to get up from his lying down position and ask &amp;quot;Why do you think you deserve Moksha?&amp;quot;  Pillar Perumal Iyengar responded &amp;quot;I'm not claiming that I deserve it, but you gave Moksha to Dadhipanda and his pot when they did not deserve it.&amp;quot;  Then Rangnatha lied back down!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does anyone know if there's a scriptural basis for the story of Dadhipanda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-08-09T05:00:00.187" Title="What scriptures describe Krishna hiding from Yashoda in Dadhipandan's yogurt pot?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13747" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-20T04:31:44.327" Score="11" ViewCount="336" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the timeline of the battle of the 10 kings mentioned in the Vedas? What are the circumstances that lead to the battle and also, what is the best account(translated) of the events surrounding the battle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2016-06-20T04:31:44.327" Title="Timeline of the battle of the ten kings in the Vedas" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13748" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3611" CreationDate="2016-06-20T10:49:32.203" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;It depends on which name you are referring. If the name you are referring are present in Samhita section of Vedas ie. In heard portions, then such names are eternal and they are authorless. They are eternal as Vedas are eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. If you are asking for the name Shiva and Vishnu then these names are eternal and authorless as Samhitas (heard portions) mention them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Vishnu:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name &amp;quot;Vishnu&amp;quot; exists in many verses of Samhita portion of Vedas like&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 1.22.17, R.V. 1.154.1, R.V.1.156.4 etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the name &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Vishnu&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; exists itself in Samhita so it is &lt;strong&gt;eternal name and authorless,&lt;/strong&gt; if someone seems to give the same name in some place and time then it doesn't mean it originated at that time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Narayana&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; also exist in parts of Vedas like Taittariya Aranyaka. Although it is not heard portion but still Aranyakas are considered eternal coming from the Guru Parampara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taittariya Aranyaka 10.13 mentions the name Narayana as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/237/how-were-the-trimurthi-born/13639#13639&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Shiva:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13649/what-names-of-lord-shiva-used-today-are-from-vedas/13650#13650&quot;&gt;here,&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; is the name taken from the Samhita (heard) portion of Vedas. Other names from Taittariya and Vajasena Samhita of Yajurveda are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rudra, Shiva, Shankara, Nilagriva, Pasupati, Ishana, Trayambaka,&lt;/strong&gt; etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above names are heard in meditation and written as Samhitas. So, these are eternal names and authorless as Vedas are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the names like &lt;strong&gt;Bholenath&lt;/strong&gt; which is not present in Samhitas are given by Gods, Devotees, etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Lord Shiva manifests as Rudra from Brahmas forehead then Brahma gives name to Lord Rudra. They are 11 in number. As per Mahabharat their names are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mrigavyadha, Sarpa, Nriti, Ajaikapat, Ahirudhana, Pinaki, Dahana, Ishwara, Kapali, Sthanu, Bharga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we can see some names of these Rudras coincide with the names of Lord Shiva. For eg. Pinaki, Ishwara, Kapali and Sthanu are also the names of Lord Shiva. So, this is just coincidence that name matches because apperance and some attributes of Lord Shiva and Rudras are somewhat same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva isn't among the 11 Rudras as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/237/how-were-the-trimurthi-born/13639#13639&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar is the case of Srimad Bhagvatam in 3.12.12,13 section:&#xA;First of all the Sanskrit text mentions the name as &amp;quot;महाञ्छिव&amp;quot; (Mahanxiva) and it has been interpreted as Mahan and Shiva. Even if it means 'Shiva' then it is just the name of one Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahmā said: &amp;quot;My dear boy Rudra, you have eleven other names: Manyu, Manu, Mahinasa, Mahān, &lt;strong&gt;Śiva,&lt;/strong&gt; Ṛtadhvaja, Ugraretā, Bhava, Kāla, Vāmadeva and Dhṛtavrata. O Rudra, you also have eleven wives, called the Rudrāṇīs, and they are as follows: Dhī, Dhṛti, Rasalā, Umā, &lt;strong&gt;Niyut,&lt;/strong&gt; Sarpi, Ilā, Ambikā, Irāvatī, Svadhā and Dīkṣā.&amp;quot; [S.B. 3.12.12,13]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we can see from above the fifth Rudra is named as &lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; and his wife (ie. Fifth Rudrani) is &lt;strong&gt;Niyut.&lt;/strong&gt; So, it isn't referring to Lord Shiva. So, also the names like Uma, Ambika which are appearing above and are Rudranis and associated with other Rudras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Other names:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, by the same logic if the name are present in Vedas then it is eternal. If the names are present on Samhita (heard portions) then they are not only eternal but also authorless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If someone appears to give the Same name  then this doesn't mean that name originated from that time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-20T14:35:50.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13749" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-20T11:32:42.533" Score="7" ViewCount="257" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm a hindu girl I used to visit temple daily and devotee of lord Vishnu. Once my friend (she belongs to other religion) asked me that why your hindu gods needs relationship such as wife, children etc. Please Anyone helps me to answer her..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6932" LastEditorUserId="6932" LastEditDate="2016-06-20T11:38:05.747" LastActivityDate="2016-06-22T16:27:36.217" Title="Why do God need relationship?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13750" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-20T11:46:42.240" Score="7" ViewCount="299" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that the Vedas are considered most basic and important scripture of Hinduism. Vedas are believed to be words from Ishvara (अपौरुषेय). And the Upanishads are the part of Vedas which are full of spiritual knowledge and are known as Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I am looking for praises (स्तुति) to Vedas &amp;amp; Upanishads which may have been composed by sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-06-21T03:46:27.120" LastActivityDate="2016-10-12T11:57:09.210" Title="Looking for the Stuti (verses that praise) of Vedas and Upanishads" Tags="|vedas|scripture|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13751" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13749" CreationDate="2016-06-20T11:57:32.020" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;God is not in the Relationship but Relationships themselves are due to God.&lt;/strong&gt; God himself creates this relationship by the power of his Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For e.g. Adi Shankara in Dakshinmurty Stotram tells:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विश्वं पश्यति कार्यकारणतया स्वस्वामिसम्बन्धतः&#xA;  शिष्याचार्यतया तथैव पितृपुत्राद्यात्मना भेदतः ।&#xA;  स्वप्ने जाग्रति वा य एष पुरुषो मायापरिभ्रामितः&#xA;  तस्मै श्रीगुरुमूर्तये नम इदं श्रीदक्षिणामूर्तये ॥८॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He whose power of Maya which enables one to See the World&lt;/strong&gt; as Cause and Effect, &lt;strong&gt;as Possessor-Possession Relations,&lt;/strong&gt; as the Disciple-Teacher, and Also &lt;strong&gt;as Father-Son Relations etc,&lt;/strong&gt; are all Differentiations within the One Atman, In Dream or Waking state, He, the One Purusha is always present, and (as if) Maya Wanders over Him and gives rise to all these Differentiations, Salutations to Him, the Personification of Our Inner Guru Who Awakens This Knowledge through His Profound Silence; Salutation to Sri Dakshinamurthy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the Relationship of God and relationship of ourselves also which we perceive are simply due to potency of Lord. ie. &lt;strong&gt;Relationship itself is perceived due to power of Lord.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-06-22T16:27:36.217" LastActivityDate="2016-06-22T16:27:36.217" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13752" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13757" CreationDate="2016-06-20T11:58:07.193" Score="12" ViewCount="8972" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that the question asked before &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9907/277&quot;&gt;What is dharma?&lt;/a&gt; but the question and answer shows what Dharma is according to Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am interested in the explanation of Dharma according to shruti. So, I want to know what is Dharma according to Veda &amp;amp; Upanishad. Upanishad constitutes of teaching the knowledge to shishya (student) from guru (teacher). So, I think Upanishad may defines and explains what is Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-04-24T08:36:15.370" LastActivityDate="2018-11-27T07:57:42.650" Title="What is Dharma according to Veda or Upanishad?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|dharma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13753" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-20T13:32:33.073" Score="6" ViewCount="922" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are views of different sects of hinduism ( like Shaivism, Shaktism, etc) about exorcism and is there any vedic reference to it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6875" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-09-22T07:27:59.857" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T07:27:59.857" Title="What does hinduism say about exorcism" Tags="|vedas|sects|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13755" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6535" CreationDate="2016-06-20T15:39:11.403" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You should purchase this book-SRI SAMKARA'S VIVEKACUDAMANI WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE SANSKRIT COMMENTARY OF SRI CHANDRASEKHARA BHARATI OF SRINGERI (English)- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flipkart.com/sri-samkara-s-vivekacudamani-english-translation-sanskrit-commentary-chandrasekhara-bharati-sringeri-english/p/itmdyu5jqvgrr6vf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.flipkart.com/sri-samkara-s-vivekacudamani-english-translation-sanskrit-commentary-chandrasekhara-bharati-sringeri-english/p/itmdyu5jqvgrr6vf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book contains english translation of Sanskrit commentary on Vivekachoodamani written by late Jagadguru Sri Chandrashekara Bharati Mahaswami of Sringeri Peetham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastActivityDate="2016-06-20T15:39:11.403" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13757" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13752" CreationDate="2016-06-20T16:40:49.407" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dharma&lt;/strong&gt; is one of those Sanskrit  words that defy all attempts at an exact rendering in English or any other tongue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the hymns of the Rig-Veda ( &lt;strong&gt;ऋग्वेद&lt;/strong&gt;) &lt;strong&gt;the word Dharma seems to be used either as adjective or a noun&lt;/strong&gt; (In the form &lt;strong&gt;&quot;DHARMAN&quot; (धर्मान्)&lt;/strong&gt; generally NATURE of things and comes at least  56 times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is very difficult to say what the exact meaning of the word Dharma was in the ancient period of Hinduism. The word is clearly derived from root&#xA; &quot;Dharma&quot; (to Uphold,to Support,to Nourish).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In most cases the meaning of Dharma has &quot;Religious Ordinances or Rites as Rig-Veda The ref. &quot;tāni dharmāṇi prathamānyāsan&quot; (&lt;strong&gt;तानि धर्माणि प्रथमान्यासन्&lt;/strong&gt;) from Purusha suktam.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Similarly we have words &quot;Prathama Dharma&quot; (&lt;strong&gt;प्रथम धर्मं&lt;/strong&gt; i.e., The Primeval first ordinance) - Rig-VEDA. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can see that the word &quot;&lt;strong&gt;SANATA DHARMANI&quot; (&quot;सनात धर्माणि&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;) (Ancient ordinance) occuring in Rig-Veda&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In these passages the meaning seems to be &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Fixed principles or Rules of conduct.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &quot;VAJASANEYA SAMHITA&quot;(11.3 and 5.27) the above sense of the word &quot;Dharman&quot; are found.  And we have words (acitti yat (AV. acittya cet) tava dharma yuyopima RV.7.89). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &quot;VAJASANEYA SAMHITA&quot; 10.9.17 the word Dharma seems to be used in the sense of &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Merit acquired by the performance of religious rite&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Aitareya Brahmana (ऐतरेय ब्राह्मण)&lt;/strong&gt;  the word Dharma seems to be used  in an abstract sense. eg. &lt;strong&gt;&quot;The whole Body of Religious Duties&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Chandagya upanishad (छान्दोग्य उपनिषद् )&lt;/strong&gt; , there is an important passage talking about the meaning of the word Dharma. According&#xA;to it there are three branches of of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Constituted by austerities (i.e. being stage of BRAHMACHARYA) that is  dwelling in house of Guru and following the rules of school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)  Constituted by sacrifice, study and charity(i.e., the stage of House holder or Grihastha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) (Sanyasi संन्यासि) i.e. Retired life or living non materialistic life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word Dharma has passed through several transitions of meaning throughout time and finally the most  significant meaning has come to be  &lt;strong&gt;&quot;The privileges,duties and obligations of man ,his standard of conduct as a member of community.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Taittirīya  -upanishad  तैत्तिरीय उपनिषद् 1.2&lt;/strong&gt;  says &quot; Speak the truth ,practice your own Dharma. (स्वधर्म).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly &lt;strong&gt;Shree Baghavad-Gita&lt;/strong&gt;  uses the word Svadharma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः&lt;/strong&gt; परधर्मो भयावहः ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śreyānsvadharmo viguṇaḥ paradharmātsvanuṣṭhitāt |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;svadharme nidhanaṃ śreyaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; paradharmo bhayāvahaḥ ||             &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Manu-smriti मनु-स्मृति&lt;/strong&gt;(1.1) tells us that sages or Rishis requested Manu to impart instructions in the dharma of all the varnas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Yājñavalkya -Smriti) याज्ञवल्क्य स्मृति&lt;/strong&gt; uses the word in the same way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: &lt;a href=&quot;http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/bot/pdf/bot_2000_01-03_03.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Vedic and Buddhist concept of &quot;Dharma&quot;&lt;/a&gt; (book) by Prof. P.G.Yogi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Towards the end of the story of Mahabharata (&lt;strong&gt;महाभारत&lt;/strong&gt;),Veda Vyasa (&lt;strong&gt;व्यास&lt;/strong&gt;)&#xA;through the five slokas known as the &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Bharatasavitri&quot; (भारत सवीत्री)&lt;/strong&gt; emphasizes as to how important the quality of righteousness is to both the human life and the society and that if righteousness is abandoned and unrighteousness supported, not only is the entire clan ruined but it also causes a great deal of harm to the society. In order to attain Artha and Kama, one has to tread the path of Dharma.  &lt;strong&gt;Ved-Vyasa (व्यास)&lt;/strong&gt; expresses by raising both his hands up and shouting aloud as if to convey the agony he felt about not being heard. The following sanskrit sloka explains this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;उद्धव: बहुविरोमंयेषु नच कश्चि चरोतीम।धर्मःधर्मेच: कामे:च साधर्मातः &#xA;  किंनं सेव्यते।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नजातकामः नाभयः नं लोभाः। धर्मम त्याजे जीवितःस्याः पितार्थो।&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नित्यो धर्मः सुखःदुःखेत यानीत्ये।। जीवो नित्यो हेतू  ऱ्हासयातवनित्यह&#xA;  ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Najatakama nnabhaya nnalobhath dharmam thyaje jeevitha syapihethoho&#xA;  nithyo dharmaha sukhadukhethyanithye jeevo nithyo hethu&#xA;  rasyathvanithyaha&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dharma should never be forsaken for artha, kama, fear of or for&#xA;  protection of one's life. Dharma lends happiness to living beings.&#xA;  Happiness and sorrow are temporary phases of life. If the 'jiva'&#xA;  abandons dharma which gives everlasting contentment, then it causes&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;धर्मेच: अर्थे: चकामेच: मॊक्षेचं भरतहर्षभ:।&#xA;      यद्यस्ती तद अन्यत्र येनेस्ती नतत क्वचित: ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adi Parva , Mahabharat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ved Dharma (वेद धर्म) according to Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the Veda Dharma outlined by Ved Vyasa (व्यास)?  &lt;strong&gt;It is the predefined&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;frame or Niyati (नियती)&lt;/strong&gt; which is the basis of the ancient Hindu culture, lifestyle and civilisation. &lt;strong&gt;This Dharma holds together the entire universe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Paramacharya Kanchi Kamakoti Peethadipathi Sri Chandrasekharendra&#xA;  Saraswati (परम आचार्य कांची कामकोठी पीठाम श्री. चांद्रशेखरानंद&#xA;  सरस्वती) asserts &quot;Dharma contributes to both spiritualism and&#xA;  worldliness. &quot;Dharma is 'vishwambhari'  (विश्वम्भरी) i.e., the entire&#xA;  universe is supported by dharma. The qualities of stability and purity&#xA;  of the universe is attributed to Dharma&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-04-24T19:48:00.680" LastActivityDate="2017-04-24T19:48:00.680" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13758" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-20T18:55:08.867" Score="7" ViewCount="293" Body="&lt;p&gt;What sort of relationship do the worshippers have to the Vedic deities such as Indra, Agni and Varna? Looking ahead: Do you think it is similar to or different from the relationships to later deities (Shiva, Vishnu, Krishna)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6935" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T14:02:42.013" Title="Relationship with Gods" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|krishna|indra|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13759" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-20T19:48:09.967" Score="2" ViewCount="45" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does it state outright &amp;amp; clearly anywhere in Hindu scriptures &amp;amp; holy books to NOT eat non veg food? Also, is it true that old rishi munis made sacrificial ceremonies of goat, cows and buffalo during Puja? &#xA;Please support your explanation with specific reference from scriptures or holy books.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks a lot!&#xA;Aney D. Patel&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6937" LastActivityDate="2016-06-20T19:48:09.967" Title="Controversial topics over veg vs non veg and ceremonial sacrifices of animals" Tags="|scripture|puranas|worship|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-06-21T03:55:05.833" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13760" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-21T06:49:46.967" Score="2" ViewCount="199" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do any Vaishnava sects consider Vaishnava agamas as &quot;Sruti&quot; by their own internal sectarian definition of &quot;Sruti&quot;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="6830" LastEditDate="2016-06-21T07:51:17.200" LastActivityDate="2016-06-21T07:51:17.200" Title="Which Vaishnava Sects consider Vaishnava Agama Sruti and which don't?" Tags="|vaishnavism|agamas|sruti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13761" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13749" CreationDate="2016-06-21T10:18:48.377" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu gods do not need relationships. It is how ordinary humans whose minds are not capable of grasping the infinite in all its fullness view God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No one, except the perfected sage, can worship Him in His fullness,&#xA;  since the human mind can grasp only limited aspects of Him. The more&#xA;  an individual or a community is evolved, the more noble and&#xA;  comprehensive will be their conception of the Deity. But the less&#xA;  evolved man too is adoring the same Deity, grasping such aspects of&#xA;  His as his undeveloped mind would allow. It is just like various forms&#xA;  being chipped from a huge block of marble. The more skilled the&#xA;  workman, the more artistic will be the forms chipped out of the block.&#xA;  Even if it is crude, it is of the same block. Such are the various&#xA;  conceptions of the Deity; &lt;strong&gt;none can claim that his conception embraces&#xA;  the whole of Him, because He cannot be contained within the limitation&#xA;  of a mind, as a bottle cannot contain the whole of the sea.&lt;/strong&gt; He reveals&#xA;  only what one is fit to receive. So according to the stages of human&#xA;  evolution, there will be different conceptions of the Deity, and the&#xA;  followers of one, even if they think theirs is more refined, need not&#xA;  look down upon others as heathens or Kaffirs worshipping false&#xA;  Deities, and consider themselves alone as the followers of the true&#xA;  Deity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavad Gita translated by Swami Tapasyananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-06-21T10:18:48.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13762" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-21T10:59:01.510" Score="0" ViewCount="192" Body="&lt;p&gt;Could anybody tell me how many years are remaining in Kali Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6941" LastActivityDate="2016-06-21T12:05:18.267" Title="How many years are remaining in Kali Yuga?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-06-21T15:26:15.000" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13765" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-21T13:30:55.103" Score="2" ViewCount="91" Body="&lt;p&gt;Humanity is at the advent of developing Self Aware Artificial Intelligence. What do ancient scriptures, sayings, traditions etc. Tell us about the definition of being a living entity? Will self conscious machines be &quot;living&quot; in the eyes of ancients?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5766" LastEditorUserId="5766" LastEditDate="2016-06-26T06:35:54.917" LastActivityDate="2016-06-26T06:35:54.917" Title="Does being alive have a definition?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|upanishads|life|consciousness|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-06-23T13:43:26.743" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13768" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13786" CreationDate="2016-06-22T05:47:20.393" Score="4" ViewCount="4390" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the lord Krishna and Narayana both are same? Please anybody answer my question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6941" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T06:04:29.413" Title="Is Krishna and Narayana both are same?" Tags="|krishna|vishnu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13769" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2132" CreationDate="2016-06-22T07:21:37.363" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Panchjanya conch is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_033.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Parva of Harivamsa&lt;/a&gt;. After completing their study, Krishna and Balaram want to give guru dakshina to guru Sandipani. Sandipani already knew the power of both so he asked for his son who was drowned in the sea. To fulfill this, Krishna went into the sea where he killed demon Panchjanya and got the conch. It is described as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;guruM sAndIpaniM kR^iShNaH kR^itakR^ityo.abhyabhAShata |&#xA;      gurvarthaM kiM dadAnIti rAmeNa saha bhArata ||2-33-10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O bhArata (janamejaya)! (After completing the studies), kR^iShNa and balarAma, fully satisfied, asked the teacher sAndIpani: What should we offer you (as guru-dakShiNa)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tayoH prabhAvaM sa j~nAtvA guruH provAcha hR^iShTavAn |&#xA;      putramichChAmyahaM dattaM yo mR^ito lavaNAmbhasi ||2-33-11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Realising their splendour, the jubilant teacher told them: I desire my son who drowned in the salt ocean to be returned to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;putra eko.api me jAtaH sa chApi timinA hataH |&#xA;      prabhAse tIrthayAtrAyAM taM me tvaM punarAnaya ||2-33-12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I had only one son who was killed by a whale during the pilgrimage to prabhAsa. You please bring him back to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tathetyevAbravItkR^iShNo rAmasyAnumate sthitaH |&#xA;      gatvA samudraM tejasvI viveshAntarjalaM hariH ||2-33-13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kR^iShNa, with the permission of balarAma, said: Let it be so. Hari (kR^iShNa) dazzling with splendour went to the ocean and entered the water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;samudraH prA~njalirbhUtvA darshayAmAsa svaM tadA |&#xA;      tamAha kR^iShNaH kvAsau bhoH putraH sAndIpaneriti ||2-33-14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing him there, the ocean, appeared with folded hands. kR^iShNa asked the Ocean: Where is the son of sAndIpani?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;samudraH pratyuvAchedaM daityaH pa~nchajano mahAn |&#xA;      timirUpeNa taM bAlaM grastavAniti mAdhava ||2-33-15&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Ocean answered: O mAdhava (kR^iShNa)! The great daitya pan~nchajana, in the form of a whale, swallowed the boy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa pa~nchajanamAsAdya jaghAna puruShottamaH |&#xA;      na chAsasAda taM bAlaM guruputraM tadAchyutaH ||2-33-16&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;puruShottama (kR^iShNa) went and killed pa~nchajana. Then achyuta (kR^iShNa) did not find the boy, the teacher's son, there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa tu pa~nchajanaM hatvA sha~NkhaM lebhe janArdanaH |&#xA;      yastu devamanuShyeShu pA~nchajanya iti shrutaH ||2-33-17&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Killing pa~nchajana, janArdana (kR^iShNa) &lt;strong&gt;obtained the conch which is known as pA~nchajanya&lt;/strong&gt; among the gods and men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same story is described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/45&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimada Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 45&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.45.40 — The ocean replied: O Lord Kṛṣṇa, it was not I who abducted him, but a demonic descendant of Diti named Pañcajana, who travels in the water in the form of a conch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.45.41 — “Indeed,” the ocean said, “that demon has taken him away.” Hearing this, &lt;strong&gt;Lord Kṛṣṇa entered the ocean, found Pañcajana and killed him&lt;/strong&gt;. But the Lord did not find the boy within the demon’s belly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.45.42-44 — &lt;strong&gt;Lord Janārdana took the conchshell that had grown around the demon’s body and went back to the chariot&lt;/strong&gt;. Then He proceeded to Saṁyamanī, the beloved capital of Yamarāja, the lord of death. Upon arriving there with Lord Balarāma, He loudly blew His conchshell, and Yamarāja, who keeps the conditioned souls in check, came as soon as he heard the resounding vibration. Yamarāja elaborately worshiped the two Lords with great devotion, and then he addressed Lord Kṛṣṇa, who lives in everyone’s heart: “O Supreme Lord Viṣṇu, what shall I do for You and Lord Balarāma, who are playing the part of ordinary humans?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.45.45 — The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Suffering the bondage of his past activity, My spiritual master’s son was brought here to you. O great King, obey My command and bring this boy to Me without delay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.45.46 — Yamarāja said, “So be it,” and brought forth the guru’s son. Then those two most exalted Yadus presented the boy to Their spiritual master and said to him, “Please select another boon.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.45.47 — The spiritual master said: My dear boys, You two have completely fulfilled the disciple’s obligation to reward his spiritual master. Indeed, with disciples like You, what further desires could a guru have?&#xA;  SB 10.45.48 — O heroes, now please return home. May Your fame sanctify the world, and may the Vedic hymns be ever fresh in Your minds, both in this life and the next.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.45.49 — Thus receiving Their guru’s permission to leave, the two Lords returned to Their city on Their chariot, which moved as swiftly as the wind and resounded like a cloud.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.45.50 — All the citizens rejoiced upon seeing Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, whom they had not seen for many days. The people felt just like those who have lost their wealth and then regained it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="93" LastEditDate="2018-05-22T13:33:29.390" LastActivityDate="2018-05-22T13:33:29.390" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13771" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-22T07:42:11.607" Score="2" ViewCount="160" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here we are saying Brahman is formless. But in Vedas some truth is saying there is only one, in some it is saying it is having divine form, in some say soul and supreme soul are always different and we can not attain supreme soul stage anytime through Mukti or ultimate liberation and in Vedas it is explained by non dual, qualified dual, dual truths.How is it this to be considered as a proper explanation when spoken in three different voices in Vedas itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6946" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T13:02:38.757" LastActivityDate="2020-06-17T13:02:38.757" Title="When Brahaman is formless how can we have description of this aspect in Vedas through Abhetha, Betha and kadaka sruthis?" Tags="|vedanta|brahman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13774" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2043" CreationDate="2016-06-22T09:37:52.190" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna fighting with Agni and Varuna is described in Vishnu Parva of Harivamsa. These events happened at the time of Aniruddha marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fighting with Agni happened just when entering in the Shonitpur, the city of Banasur. It is &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_122.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described in Harivamsa, Vishnu Parva, Chapter - 122 as follows&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then (bala)rAma spoke these words to kR^iShNa who is incomparable in battle:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(balarAma said:) O kR^iShNa! We have lost our splendor. How did this happen which&#xA;      never occurred before?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All of us are covered by a golden colour. There is no doubt. Tell us the reason&#xA;      why this is so? Are we going by the side of the meru mountain?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The auspicious lord (kR^iShNa) said:&#xA;      O the oppressor of foes (balarAma)! Understand that the city of bANa is certainly&#xA;      near. The fire has come out (of the city) blazing for protecting the city.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We are opposed all over by the splendor of the fire AhavanIya. O the one who has&#xA;      the plough as weapon (balarAma)! That is why the change of colour has occurred&#xA;      to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The auspicious (bala)rAma said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If we are near the city and if we have lost our splendor, then think with your&#xA;      intellect and do the next according to your wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The auspicious lord (kR^iShNa) said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O the son of vinatA (garuDa)! Do what is to be done here next. After you do what&#xA;      is to be done according to you, I shall do the best what is to be done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaishampAyana said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(O janamejaya!) Hearing what was told by the son of vasudeva (kR^iShNa), the&#xA;      powerful garuDa who can take up any form as he desires, created thousands of faces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Afterwards, the highly powerful son of vinatA (garuDa) went to the river ga~NgA.&#xA;      Jumping into the divine river AkAshaga~Nga, he drank lots of water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The splendorous son of vinata (garuDa) showered water standing above. The son of&#xA;      vinata (garuDa), the one having intellect, extinguished the fire with water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fire AhavanIya was thus pacified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Ahavaniya defeated some other fires also fought. This is described as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the fire was subdued, the king of birds, garuDa proceeded further, making&#xA;      terrible and loud sounds by waving his wings powerfully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing them there, the followers of rudra (shiva), the fires wondered: Who are&#xA;      these men having different terrible forms, mounted on garuDa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What purpose did they come here? Who are these three? Those fires of the mountain&#xA;      could not reach any decision.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the fires fought the battle with the three yAdava-s. While they were engaged&#xA;      in the battle, loud sounds were heard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing those loud sounds, similar to the roaring of lions, a~Ngiras, the one&#xA;      with intellect, sent his man (to find out).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(a~Ngiras said:) Go to the place where the battle is going on. Do not delay. See&#xA;      everything (the battle) and come back. Saying this, the man was sent quickly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saying let it be, the person went to see the battle between the son of vasudeva&#xA;      (kR^iShNa) and the fires in the great battle field.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All those fires, kalmASha, kusuma, dahana, shoShNa as also the highly powerful&#xA;      tapana,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;those five fires are famous in the consecration by uttering svahA (while offering&#xA;      oblation to fire ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are other highly splendorous fires along with their armies, named piThara,&#xA;      pataga, svarNa, shvA, gAdha as well as bhrAja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These five fires based on svadhA were also fighting there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Two fires, great souls with the great splendor of jyotiShToma division and based&#xA;      on vaShaTkAra also fought there, mounted on the chariot of fire and holding&#xA;      sparkling arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among them the great sage a~Ngiras dazzled in the battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing sage a~Ngiras releasing sharp arrows in the battle, kR^iShNa became angry.&#xA;      Smiling again and again, he said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All of you fires! Halt! I shall create fear for you. Burning in the splendor of&#xA;      my arrows, you will run far away in all directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then sage a~Ngiras came running with a sparkling trident, becoming angry to take&#xA;      away the life of kR^iShNa in the great battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kR^iShNa cut the sparkling trident with his crescent shaped sharp arrows similar&#xA;      to those of the god of death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the great soul kR^iShNa split the chest of sage a~Ngiras with sparkling&#xA;      arrows named sthUNakarNa, equal to those of the god of death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a~Ngiras was distressed with blood flowing from his body. He suddenly fell down&#xA;      on earth with his stunned body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the remaining fires, the four sons of brahmA ran away quickly to the city of&#xA;      bANa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the fighting between Krishna and Varuna happened just after the marriage of Aniruddha as &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_127.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described in Harivamsa, Vishnu Parva, Chapter - 127&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Travelling through the sky, they reached the place of varuNa. The great souls&#xA;      saw thousands of the cows yielding divine milk, having many colours, moving in the&#xA;      forest near the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Knowing about the cows, depending on the words of kumbhANDa, kR^iShNa, the best&#xA;      among strikers and also the expert who knows the truth,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ecognizing them as the cows of bANa, decided to have them. The one who is foremost&#xA;      in the world, the one who does not have any decline, kR^iShNa, seated on garuDa,&#xA;      said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The auspicious lord kR^iShNa said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O the son of vinatA (garuDa)! Proceed to the place where the wealth of cows of&#xA;      bANa is. It is said that immortality is achieved by drinking their milk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;satyabhAma told me: Bring the cows of bANa for me. By drinking their milk, the&#xA;      great demons do not become old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Living beings (it is said), discarding decay, will become unaffected by old age&#xA;      (by drinking their milk). If right conduct is not compromised, bring the cows.&#xA;      Let there be good to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Otherwise, if any compromise is to be done in your work, do not keep your mind on&#xA;      this. Thus satyA (satyabhAmA) told me. I have recognized the cows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;garuDa said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These cows see me. Seeing me, all of them begin to enter the residence of varuNa&#xA;      immediately. Do what is to be done here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(vaishampAyana continued: O janamejaya!) Saying this, garuDa agitating the ocean by&#xA;      generating winds by fanning his wings, entered the residence of varuNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing that garuDa has entered the residence of varuNa, all the beings of the ocean&#xA;      became confused and started moving.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the army of varuNa, most difficult to conquer, knowing this, arrived there,&#xA;      taking various weapons, in front of the son of vasudeva (kR^iShNa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then there was a terrible battle between the beings of the ocean and the enemy of&#xA;      serpents (garuDa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Garuda has defeated the being of ocean, Varuna himself appeared with his army.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The lord of water, highly furious, along with his sons, grandsons and army, shook&#xA;      his great bow, as though he was challenging for battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;lord varuNa, arrived there immediately, blowing his conch. The angry lord, varuNa&#xA;      shot a group of arrows at hari (kR^iShNa) as if he was hara (shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the one who agitates people, kR^iShNa, blew his conch pA~nchajanyaM,&#xA;      born from water (obtained from ocean). The highly powerful kR^iShNa covered all&#xA;      directions with groups of arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then varuNa was oppressed by a pure group of arrows in the battle. varuNa battled&#xA;      with kR^iShNa smiling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Invoking the terrible weapon vaiShNava in the battle, the son of vasudeva&#xA;      (kR^iShNa)spoke as follows to the one with intellect (varuNa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(kR^iShNa said) I have taken this highly terrible weapon, vaiShNava, the killer of&#xA;      enemies, for killing you. Now you shall stop.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aiming the vaiShNava arrow at lord varuNa, lord kR^iShNa readied himself. The&#xA;      highly powerful varuNa took up the weapon vAruNa and roared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Water jets emerged from the weapon of varuNa. The one who wins battles,&#xA;      (kR^iShNa) prepared to shoot the vaiShNava weapon to control the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The water jets shot by varuNa began to boil. The vAruNa weapon was burned as the&#xA;      vaiShNava weapon blazed again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the highly powerful vaiShNava arrow blazed, all of them ran away in all&#xA;      directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this Varuna praised Krishna and seek forgiveness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T11:43:35.150" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T11:43:35.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13777" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13778" CreationDate="2016-06-22T21:45:47.830" Score="8" ViewCount="595" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are so many different practices that people call yoga. What is the most authentic in terms of being supported by Hindu scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6955" LastActivityDate="2016-06-23T02:50:44.063" Title="What is the most authentic form of yoga?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13778" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13777" CreationDate="2016-06-23T01:24:18.100" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &lt;strong&gt;Yoga&lt;/strong&gt; is formed from the dhatu &lt;strong&gt;'Yuj'.&lt;/strong&gt; Panini Dhatupad says following for the meaning of dhatu 'Yuj'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yuj samadhau: Samadhi.&lt;/strong&gt;  So, yoga means attaining Samadhi state/ fourth/ turiya state. So, any path that can lead to Turiya/ Samadhi state can be called Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yuj yoge: Union.&lt;/strong&gt; So, when something is united it is called Yoga. When two atoms are united then it is also called yoga between two atoms. Similarly Union of individual with God/ Universe is Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yuj samyamane: Censure.&lt;/strong&gt; Censuring thought waves in mental pond to see the self within clearly. It is like cleaning the mental mirror to see our own self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, any path that leads one to Samadhi or Union with something or stopping of thought waves can be called Yoga. As there can be many paths for this so there are many Yogas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 18 Chapters of Bhagvad Gita are classified as Yoga. It is because single chapter can lead one to the Turiya state or Union with something. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chapter 1 : Visada Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 2 : Sankhya Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 3 : Karma Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 4 : Jnana Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 5 : Karma Vairagya Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 6 : Abhyasa Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 7 : Paramahamsa Vijnana Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 8 : Aksara-Parabrahman Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 9 : Raja-Vidya-Guhya Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 10 : Vibhuti-Vistara-Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 11 : Visvarupa-Darsana Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 12 : Bhakti Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 13 : Ksetra-Ksetrajna Vibhaga Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 14 : Gunatraya-Vibhaga Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 15 : Purusottama Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 16 : Daivasura-Sampad-Vibhaga Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 17 : Sraddhatraya-Vibhaga Yoga &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Chapter 18 : Moksa-Opadesa Yoga &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among these Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga are most popular in todays time. Some Yoga fall in sub branches of these Yogas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Ashtanga Yoga:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the name implies it is eight limbed Yoga. The eight limbs are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yam, Niyam, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali in 'Patanjali Yoga Sutras' describes this Yoga. Several other Puranas also describe it.&#xA;As in the eight limbs the final limb is 'Samadhi'. So Ashtanga Yogas main goal is to reach to Samadhi. But todays people don't even think about attaining Samadhi. They just practice Asana (specific position) and Pranayama (breathing techniques). And people now think main goal of Yoga is for removing diseases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Kundalini Yoga:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kundalini Yoga is also somewhat popular. It is also scriptual based as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2641/reference-to-the-7-chakras-in-hinduism/13742#13742&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uniting the Kundalini (Shakti) with Shiva sitting in Sahasrara by crossing 6 chakras in the path and thus attaining Kaivalya is Kundalini Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Hatha Yoga:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is based on six limbs which are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samādhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shat-Kriyas applied for purification of body are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Netī, Dhautī, Naulī, Basti, Kapālabhātī, Trāṭaka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are related with fully cleansing body including internal organs, 'Trataka' is used to gain extreme concenteration and thus leading to Samadhi. It was discovered by Guru Gorakhnath, Matsendra Nath and Other Nava Naths. So, mostly people of Nath Sampradaya Practice this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Raja Yoga:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is related with controlling of mind. It is also described in Bhagvad Gita chapter 6. For eg verse 6 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;A yogi should always try to concentrate his mind, retiring into solitude and living alone, having subdued his mind and body and got rid of his desires and possessions.&amp;quot;&#xA;For more details see answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9043/what-is-raj-yoga-is-it-related-to-jnana-yoga&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Kriya Yoga:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is advanced Raja Yoga mixed with Pranayama exercises. See answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6764/what-is-kriya-yoga/6773#6773&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt; for more details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There can be other several Yogas like Mantra Yoga (attaining union through mantras), Tantra Yoga, Yantra Yoga and so on many other Yogas. As there can be infinite paths to reach Supreme or to Unite with something, so there are infinite Yogas. One should choose path/paths which is/are suitable for him and finally be united with what he desires&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-23T02:50:44.063" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13780" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-23T04:59:45.490" Score="5" ViewCount="796" Body="&lt;p&gt;How do Hindu scriptures define Ākāśa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A little bit of background:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ākāśa &lt;code&gt;-&amp;gt;&lt;/code&gt; Vāyu &lt;code&gt;-&amp;gt;&lt;/code&gt; Agni &lt;code&gt;-&amp;gt;&lt;/code&gt; Jala &lt;code&gt;-&amp;gt;&lt;/code&gt; Pṛthvī – this is the order of creation of the 5 elements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their corresponding qualities are – sound, touch, sight, taste and smell – which are each inclusive of the previous element's quality. Meaning, if there is a place in this universe where Vāyu exists, we can hear &amp;amp; feel it, but cannot see, taste or smell. If there is a place where Agni exists, we can hear, feel &amp;amp; see it, but cannot taste or smell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Modern science says sound cannot travel in vacuum. But light does because we can see Sun which is 100 million miles away. According to the order of elemental creation, where light exists, sound can too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, is vacuum not same as Ākāśa? I thought ākāśa just meant space where something can exist or move about.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-22T23:19:50.617" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T06:39:28.467" Title="How do Hindu scriptures define Ākāśa? Is it space or vacuum or something else?" Tags="|scripture|panchabhoota|akasha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13782" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12508" CreationDate="2016-06-23T08:09:53.160" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Anjaneya is Shi Ranji vi till the end of this kali yuga. Therefore , there is a chance  of reborn again as Brahma in the next yuga if he takes another form, not as Anjaneya. Maybe another Anjaneya will be born in the next (coming) Thretha yuga&#xA;when Rama is again born. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6946" LastActivityDate="2016-06-23T08:09:53.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13783" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-23T08:19:54.110" Score="2" ViewCount="3295" Body="&lt;p&gt;Muruga is created from the third eye of Shiva. The five faces of Shiva are&#xA;Sadyojata, Aghora, Tatpurusham, Ishana and Vamadeva. Where is the sixth&#xA;face of Shiva to create another face for Subramanya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6946" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-11T10:03:13.050" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T10:03:13.050" Title="When Shiva has five faces how does Subramanya have six faces?" Tags="|shiva|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13784" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-23T09:07:13.023" Score="3" ViewCount="343" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here Vishnu disguised in the form of Ashura made his wife lose chastity, he was not punished.But When Brahma entered the abode of Parvathy, his fifth head was severed and shiva attained Brahma Kabala and Brahma did not have temples in the earth and also has only four heads because of his act.Even Shiva as Bhishadana made rishi's wife abandon chastity due to rishis ignoring god and believe only in  karma. How these stories justified when there is partiality to Brahma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6946" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-21T17:58:19.967" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T18:00:16.663" Title="When Vishnu himself with the form of Vridhrasura made Brindha lose chastity, how come Brahma alone cursed for entering Parvathi abode with 5 heads?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|karma|brahma|curse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13786" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13768" CreationDate="2016-06-23T09:54:02.067" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jaya Nitai!! Hi everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I was wondering this question posted, and today while reading Chaitanya Charitamrta (the biography of Lord Chaitanya), I found a beautiful conversation between Sri Chaitanya and one of His great disciples Venkata Bhatta. Srila Venkata Bhatta was a Sri Vaishnav who worshiped Sri Sri Lakshmi-Narayana, and he and Lord Chaitanya would often joke about whether Krsna or Narayan was &quot;higher&quot;. Of course Lord Chaitanya bought up some of the traditional points we Gaudiyas bring up (about the qualities of Krsna, Lakshmi in Rasa Lila etc), but what stood out to me was the Lord's words at the end of the conversation. They were so beautiful...nearly made me cry. Coming from the mouth of a Vaishnav like Lord Chaitanya, I am sure other Vaishnav members would enjoy this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 9.152 — The Lord pacified Veṅkaṭa Bhaṭṭa by saying, “Actually whatever I have said is by way of jest. Now you can hear from Me the conclusion of the śāstras, in which every Vaiṣṇava devotee has firm faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 9.153 — “There is no difference between Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Nārāyaṇa, for They are of the same form. Similarly, there is no difference between the gopīs and the goddess of fortune, for they also are of the same form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 9.154 — “The goddess of fortune enjoys the association of Kṛṣṇa through the gopīs. One should not differentiate between the forms of the Lord, for such a conception is offensive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 9.155 — “There is no difference between the transcendental forms of the Lord. Different forms are manifested due to different attachments of different devotees. Actually the Lord is one, but He appears in different forms just to satisfy His devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 9.156 — “ ‘When the jewel known as vaidūrya touches various other materials, it appears to be separated into different colors, and consequently its forms also appear different. Similarly, according to the meditational ecstasy of the devotee, the Lord, who is known as Acyuta [“the infallible one”], appears in different forms, although He is essentially one.’ ”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 9.157 — Veṅkaṭa Bhaṭṭa then said, “I am an ordinary fallen living entity, but You are Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 9.158 — “The transcendental pastimes of the Lord are unfathomable, and I do not know anything about them. Whatever You say I accept as the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 9.159 — “I have been engaged in the service of Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa, and it is due to Their mercy that I have been able to see Your lotus feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 9.160 — “Out of Your causeless mercy You have told me of the glories of Lord Kṛṣṇa. No one can reach the end of the opulence, qualities and forms of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 9.161 — “I can now understand that devotional service unto Lord Kṛṣṇa is the supreme form of worship. Out of Your causeless mercy You have made my life successful simply by explaining the facts.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 9.162 — After saying this, Veṅkaṭa Bhaṭṭa fell down before the lotus feet of the Lord, and the Lord, out of His causeless mercy, embraced him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this discussion, the Lord quote a very important verse from Narada Pancaratra as shown below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;maṇir yathā vibhāgena&#xA;  nīla-pītādibhir yutaḥ&#xA;  rūpa-bhedam avāpnoti&#xA;  dhyāna-bhedāt tathācyutaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“ ‘When the jewel known as vaidūrya touches various other materials, it appears to be separated into different colors, and consequently its forms also appear different. Similarly, according to the meditational ecstasy of the devotee, the Lord, who is known as Acyuta [“the infallible one”], appears in different forms, although He is essentially one.’ ”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Hari, who goes by many names (like Narayan,Krsna,Rama) etc is a great actor. His different avatars are like His different costumes that He displays to please His devotees. For His devotees in Vrndavana, who are not in the mood of awe and reverence, the Lord manifests as Sri Krsna in the form of a simple cowherd boy and performs earthly pastimes. For His devotees in Ayodhya and Vaikuntha, who are in the mood  of awe and reference, the Lord manifests beautiful forms like Rama and Visnu. Lord Rama battles so many great demons, and in this form, the devotees can enjoy the moods of war (called &lt;em&gt;Raudra rasa&lt;/em&gt;). In-fact the Lord is such a good actor, that everyone may even forget sometimes that He is God (even the Lord Himself) due to the influence of His Yogamaya. This is confirmed in Srimad Bhagavatam by Kunti Devi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;māyā-javanikācchannam&#xA;   ajñādhokṣajam avyayam&#xA;  na lakṣyase mūḍha-dṛśā&#xA;   naṭo nāṭyadharo yathā&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Being beyond the range of limited sense perception, You are the eternally irreproachable factor covered by the curtain of deluding energy. You are invisible to the foolish observer, exactly as an actor dressed as a player is not recognized.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, in actuality there is no difference between Krsna and Narayana. They are both two forms of the same personality. They are different due to the different pastimes they perform, their different associates and different forms. Also when we enter into discussions about &quot;who came first, Visnu or Krsna?&quot; we forget that both forms of the Lord are eternal and beyond the touch of time. All the &lt;em&gt;nitya avatars&lt;/em&gt; of the Lord are eternally present in the spiritual world of Sri Vaikuntha, which is beyond the touch of material time (and hence conceptions of past present and future).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know I have repeated what everyone has said, but I wanted to make an official answer with some quotes from scripture. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4381" LastActivityDate="2016-06-23T09:54:02.067" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13787" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13783" CreationDate="2016-06-23T10:03:42.483" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whether SadaShiva has five heads (with sixth Adhomukha head called Nilakantha) or MahaSadaShiva has 25 heads while revealing Agamas or Shankara form has only one head while living in Kailash, it has nothing to do with the six heads of Kartikeya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03224.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat Vana Parva section 224&lt;/a&gt; describes birth of Kartikeya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Markandeya continued, 'Then Agni, filled with great joy and delight, married Swaha in the guise of &#xA;  Siva, and that lady joyfully cohabiting with him, held the semen virile in her hands. And then she &#xA;  thought within herself that those who would observe her in that disguise in the forest, would cast an &#xA;  unmerited slur upon the conduct of those Brahmana ladies in connection with Agni. Therefore, to &#xA;  prevent this, she should assume the disguise of a bird, and in that state she should more easily get out of &#xA;  the forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Markandeya continued, 'Then assuming the disguise of a winged creature, she went out of the forest and &#xA;  reached the White Mountain begirt with clumps of heath and other plants and trees, and guarded by &#xA;  strange seven-headed serpents with poison in their very looks, and abounding with Rakshasas, male and &#xA;  female Pisachas, terrible spirits, and various kinds of birds and animals. That excellent lady quickly &#xA;  ascending a peak of those mountains, threw that semen into a golden lake. And then assuming &#xA;  successively the forms of the wives of the high-souled seven Rishis, she continued to dally with Agni. But on account of the great ascetic merit of Arundhati and her devotion to her husband (Vasishtha), she was unable to assume her form. And, O chief of Kuru's race, &lt;strong&gt;the lady Swaha on the first lunar day threw six times into &#xA;  that lake the semen of Agni. And thrown there, it produced a male child endowed with great power.&lt;/strong&gt; And from the fact of its being regarded by the Rishis as cast off, the child born therefrom came to be called&#xA;  by the name of Skanda. &lt;strong&gt;And the child had six faces, twelve ears,&lt;/strong&gt; as many eyes, hands, and feet, one &#xA;  neck, and one stomach. And it first assumed a form on the second lunar day, and it grew to the size of a &#xA;  little child on the third. And the limbs of Guha were developed on the fourth day. And being surrounded &#xA;  by masses of red clouds flashing forth lightning, it shone like the Sun rising in the midst of a mass of red &#xA;  clouds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Kartikeya has six heads because Swaha (wife of Agni) received seed of Lord Shiva from Agni and she threw it in the lake &lt;strong&gt;Six times&lt;/strong&gt; thus making the born child &lt;strong&gt;Six-Headed.&lt;/strong&gt; Of course it was preordained that Kartikeya would have six heads but it has no relation with the number of Heads of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-23T10:10:52.787" LastActivityDate="2016-06-23T10:10:52.787" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13788" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12159" CreationDate="2016-06-23T10:26:25.503" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedicastrologer.org/articles/index.htm#astro&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vedic astrology&lt;/a&gt; by  PVR Narasimha Rao&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is not a very good collection of books on Astrology for online reads. And if they are there, not many are from validated sources or legal copy.&#xA;I have read and listen to the works of PVR Narasimha Rao. He is taking astrology to a new level. This is good for beginners.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also other way of learning astrology, which is by reading the case studies.&#xA;Barbara Pijan's website will help you in this.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.barbarapijan.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.barbarapijan.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5053" LastActivityDate="2016-06-23T10:26:25.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13789" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-23T15:58:00.297" Score="6" ViewCount="323" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know whether there are any ideals or principles in Sanathana Dharma that make it distinctly different from other religious faiths of the world?  What qualities or principles does Sanathana Dharma profess other than what the rest of the world religions have contributed for the welfare of humanity and betterment of our planet?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6960" LastActivityDate="2016-08-04T17:07:17.587" Title="What are the qualities or attributes that differentiate Sanathana Dharma from other religious faiths?" Tags="|belief|philosophy|culture|other-religions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13791" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-23T16:46:38.350" Score="7" ViewCount="2969" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why lord Rama was called Raghunath? What is the meaning of this word and why he named so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6962" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-11-27T11:54:47.123" LastActivityDate="2017-11-27T11:54:47.123" Title="Why Lord Rama was called Raghunath and when?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|rama|etymology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13793" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3925" CreationDate="2016-06-23T22:23:35.473" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Re-birth depends mainly on two points,Will of your subconscious mind and purity of atma.&#xA;The rebirth process is very simple and is similar to cloud -rain-water-vapours -clouds and re-rain. &#xA;   Purity of atma is dependent  on his karma.Like water with impurities will not evaporate unless separated from impurities.The purer the water the lighter will be it's weight and higher it can reach.For rebirth one has to attain a definite height.&#xA;This process is very similar to the process of cracking of crude oil.&#xA;  Each and every karma either purifies or impures the soul.The more bad karma will lead to more impurities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6966" LastActivityDate="2016-06-23T22:23:35.473" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13794" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="450" CreationDate="2016-06-24T00:36:39.123" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jwalaprasad Ramayan &quot;Uttarkanda&quot; Doha 29 Chaupai 7 &quot;Asa Kahi Kapil Nija Hriday Vidara Roma Roma Prabhu Naam Udara&quot;. Here, Jwalaprasad Explores this further that Hanumanji rips His chest to reveal Ram within Him. This was witnessed by everyone present. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6969" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T00:36:39.123" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13795" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13791" CreationDate="2016-06-24T00:41:37.823" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Raghu&lt;/strong&gt; was one of the great renowned King of Ikshvaku dynasty. His father was Dirghabahu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His son was Aja. Son of Aja was Dasaratha and son of Dasaratha were Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, Shatrughna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Khatwánga was Dírghabáhu; his son was &lt;strong&gt;Raghu; his son was Aja; his son was Daśaratha.&lt;/strong&gt; The god from whose navel the lotus springs became fourfold, as the four sons of Daśaratha, Ráma, Lakshmańa, Bharata, and Śatrughna, for the protection of the world. Ráma, whilst yet a boy, accompanied Viswámitra, to protect his sacrifice, and slew &#xA;  Tádaká. &lt;em&gt;[Vishnu Purana 4.4]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus &lt;strong&gt;Raghu&lt;/strong&gt; was the great grandfather of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Rama&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name Raghu itself means fast one derived from his chariot riding abilities. He was a great heroic personality in his time. So &lt;strong&gt;Lord Rama got Patronymic  name from him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, RaghuNath means Lord of the Raghus. Meaning Lord of the Dynasty of Raghu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as Lord Krishna is also called &lt;strong&gt;Yadunath&lt;/strong&gt; meaning Lord of Yadavas. Similarly Lord Rama is called &lt;strong&gt;Raghunath&lt;/strong&gt; meaning Lord of descendant of Raghus / Lord of Ikshvaku dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-28T13:28:30.857" LastActivityDate="2016-06-28T13:28:30.857" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13797" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13801" CreationDate="2016-06-24T04:18:13.047" Score="2" ViewCount="153" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm going to visit puri dham in coming days.Now I have a query in my mind, is there any specific reason Why Lord Chaitanya leaves his life in Puri dham?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If anybody has answer please tell me in short form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6941" LastEditorUserId="6941" LastEditDate="2016-06-24T05:02:54.833" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T06:47:23.877" Title="Why Lord Chaitanya leaves his incarnation in Puri dham?" Tags="|krishna|vishnu|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13798" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6682" CreationDate="2016-06-24T05:24:38.027" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In skanda purana prabhas khanda(7.1.105.42-43) of Tatpurusa Kalpa names of indras are given.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indras are Visvabhuk, vipascit, sukirti, sibi, vibhu, manobhuva, ojasvin, the powerful bali, adbhuta, santi, ramya, devavara, vrsa rtadhaman, divassvamin and suci. These are the fourteen sakras(indras).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6973" LastEditorUserId="6973" LastEditDate="2016-06-24T05:36:04.317" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T05:36:04.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13801" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13797" CreationDate="2016-06-24T06:47:23.877" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, as Lord Chaitanya, Sri Krsna accepts the mood of Srimati Radharani (and that is why Lord Chaitanya's color is golden, like the color of Radharani). Puri Dhama is a place where the &lt;em&gt;vipralambha&lt;/em&gt; (separation) pastimes of Lord Chaitanya occur. You see, in Puri, the Lord becomes almost completely immersed in the mood and &lt;em&gt;mahabhava&lt;/em&gt; of Radharani. Just like when Lord Krsna leaves Vrndavana and resides in Dwaraka, Radharani burns in separation from Him; Lord Chaitanya although seeing Lord Jagannatha (who is Krsna but in Dwaraka) burns in separation from Him in the mood of Radha. And just like Radha is consoled by Her Sakhis, Lord Chaitanya is consoled by Swarupa Damodara (who is Visakha) and Ramananda Raya (who is Lalita). Chaitanya Charitamrta describes that the Lord was so intense:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;svakīyasya prāṇārbuda-sadṛśa-goṣṭhasya virahāt&#xA;  pralāpān unmādāt satatam ati kurvan vikala-dhīḥ&#xA;  dadhad bhittau śaśvad vadana-vidhu-gharṣeṇa rudhiraṁ&#xA;  kṣatotthaṁ gaurāṅgo hṛdaya udayan māṁ madayati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Because of separation from His many friends in Vṛndāvana, who were like His own life, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu spoke like a madman. His intelligence was transformed. Day and night He rubbed His moonlike face against the walls, and blood flowed from the injuries. May that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu rise in my heart and make me mad with love.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When this mood of separation reached it absolute climax, the Lord left His body (some say He merged into the deity of Lord Jagganatha, others say He merged into the Ganga, some say into Tota Gopinath). So the reason is, Puri Dhama represents the separation pastimes of Lord Chaitanya and its subsequent climax and that is why He left at that place. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4381" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T06:47:23.877" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13802" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11864" CreationDate="2016-06-24T06:54:19.033" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Ganga was to decend on Earth it had such a vigorous flow that it could destroy the Earth. So Shiva locked her up in his hair and controlled it's flow to save the Mother Earth.&#xA; So one symbolism is Anything that is turbulent, uncontrollable, that can be brought under control by the Great Lord , every restless being becomes peaceful ,calm and tranquil under his wings. He is the Lord who can channelise tremendous energy in the right constructive path. &#xA;2) The holy Ganges represents purity. So Lord Shiva is the source of all purity that exists on Eearth. He absorbs all the negativety and lets purity flops everything . &#xA;OM NAMAH SHIVAY ....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6974" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T06:54:19.033" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13803" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13789" CreationDate="2016-06-24T07:15:18.707" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are various attributes which differentiate Sanatana Dharma from other religions. Some of the main attributes are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;1) One Goal Many Paths:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is one of the main attribute of Sanatana Dharma. Due to this attribute there are many Paths to reach the supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A popular RigVeda Verse 1.164.46 declares:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एकं सद्विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;ekaM sadvipraa bahudhaa vadanti&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Wise people explain the same truth in different ways.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there are many paths in Sanatana Dharma. &lt;strong&gt;Advaita&lt;/strong&gt; declares there is nothing other than God. &lt;strong&gt;Vishistadvaita&lt;/strong&gt; declares Jeeva and God have body soul relationship and are not completely same. &lt;strong&gt;Dvaita&lt;/strong&gt; declares Jeeva and God are completely different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some philosophy declare this world is fully illusion, some declare it is real. Some declare God having form and infinite attributes is Supreme, Some declare formless God without attributes is Supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Popular verse of Mahmina stotra says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रयी साङ्ख्यं योगः पशुपतिमतं वैष्णवमिति&#xA;  प्रभिन्ने प्रस्थाने परमिदमदः पथ्यमिति च।&#xA;  रुचीनां वैचित्र्यादृजुकुटिल नानापथजुषां&#xA;  नृणामेको गम्यस्त्वमसि पयसामर्णव इव॥ ७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The different practices based on the three Vedas, SaMkhya, Yoga, Pashupata-mata, VaishhNava-mata etc . are but different paths (to reach to the Greatest Truth) and people on account of their different aptitude choose from them whatever they think best and deserved to be accepted . But as the sea is the final resting place for all types of streams , You are the only reaching place for all people whichever path,straight or zigzag, they may accept .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some say Lord Shiva is Supreme Brahman and is the final destination, Some Say Lord Vishnu is Supreme Brahman and is the final destination, Some Say the Supreme which is formless and attributeless is the final Destination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most interesting thing is that each of them &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/237/how-were-the-trimurthi-born/13639#13639&quot;&gt;can quote many verses&lt;/a&gt; from scripture to prove their Point. So, there are many path to realize the Supreme. In the chapter of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13623/where-is-buddhism-also-considered-a-valid-path-in-hindu-scriptures/13624#13624&quot;&gt;'Validity of Various Path'&lt;/a&gt;&#xA; itself Suta Samhita of Skandha Purana states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथा तोयप्रवाहाणां समुद्र: परमावधि ।&#xA;  तथैव सर्व मार्गाणां साक्षान्निष्ठा महेश्वरः ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;As all streams ultimately empty themselves into the ocean, so all these paths ultimately lead to the Great Lord Himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the statement that &quot;Truth is one, Wise call it by different names&quot; is one of the most important attribute of Sanatana Dharma. This is the same reason how the development of other religions like  Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism became possible in Land of Sanatana Dharma although they reject authority of Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;2) Devotion even in Hatredness:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also one of the important attribute of Sanatana Dharma. Generally 'Devotion' means love towards God. But there is an interesting concept in Sanatana Dharma that hatred and enmity towards God is also considered Devotion. It is called &lt;strong&gt;Virodhi Bhakti.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;For eg. Shiva Gita section of Padma Purana says:&#xA;For eg. In Shiva Gita of Padma Purana it is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनादरेण शाठ्येन परिहासेन मायया ।&#xA;  शिवभक्तिरतश्चेत्स्यादन्त्यजोऽपि विमुच्यते ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Anyone while doing criticism or while disrespecting&lt;/strong&gt; or due to jealousy if meditated or gains devotion for Shiva, he would get cleansed of all the sins immediately. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus criticizing and disrespecting God is also considered devotion. It seems a weird thing but it is true. It is because his mind is constantly absorbed in thoughts of Supreme when he is criticizing and hating Supreme also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 10.29.15 also says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;15. &lt;strong&gt;Persons who constantly direct their lust, anger, fear, protective affection, feeling of impersonal oneness or friendship toward Lord Hari are sure to become absorbed in thought of Him.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the same reason how Shishupala, Kamsa and other demons were able to achieve salvation. It is because their mind were constantly absorbed with thoughts of Supreme which helped them to get liberation. Some demons even use this type of devotion to get Liberation. Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12032/why-ravana-of-ramayana-is-worshipped-like-god-and-also-considered-as-a-demon/12033#12033&quot;&gt;Agastya Rishi tells Rama&lt;/a&gt; why Ravana kidnapped Sita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing those words given vent to bythe great ascetic Sanatkumar the night-ranger Ravana, being worked up with delight and surprise, &lt;strong&gt;began to meditate how he should enter into conflict with Hari......the vicious souled Ravana stole away Sita with a view to meet death at thy hands.&lt;/strong&gt; Thou art NarAyana, holding discus, conch and club ; thou hast in thy hands....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, some even use these type of Virodhi Bhakti to get liberation from God. However this should not be taken as license to hate and disrespect God. These are for only those whose intellect can't capture infinite mercy of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;3) Leela Of God:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Leela&quot; is one of the important attribute of Santana Dharma. In other religions only prophet of God come to  give message to people. However in Sanatana Dharma God himself manifests among people themselves and do Leela. Lord Krishna in Bhagvad Gita [4.7] states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदा यदा ही धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत ! &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानम सृज्याहम !!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O scion of the Bharata dynasty, whenever there is a decline in Dharma and increase of adharma,  &lt;strong&gt;then do I manifest Myself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God not only incarnates but also shows human like behaviour. Ignorant people do not understand these Leelas of God and call it ignorant and foolishness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God  incarnating in human form also cries, laughs, fights, kills, liberates and do so much human like things. Sometimes Sages and even gods are confused seeing the Human like behaviour of Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. Some leelas shown by Lord are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;-Lord Rama crying and weeping while losing Sita in forest. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -Lord Krishna hiding clothes of Gopinis, creating Rasa and dancing among Gopinis. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -Lord Shiva beheading his son (Ganesha), being attracted towards apsara Tilottama and Mohini. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -Lord Shiva wandering holding dead body of Sati.. and so on other many Leelas...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every Leela performed by Lord also has deep meaning also. But intellect of ignorants do not simply understand it. For eg.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hiding clothes by Lord Krishna has deep meaning in telling removing barrier and attachment between Atma and Paramatma, &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -Lord Shiva beheading Ganesha has deep meaning in removing Maila-Buddhi (dirt formed intellect) of Ganesha and adding Purush element in Prakirti formed Ganesh and so on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some Leelas are very hard to decipher and even great Sages can't understand it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; &lt;em&gt;There are many other Attributes of Sanatana Dharma. One can feel free to edit and add verses if he/she wants to add other important attributes.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T14:26:34.783" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13804" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3859" CreationDate="2016-06-24T07:38:10.783" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to me the only entity required is a heart full of devotion and a mind filled with His thought.&#xA;Externally you need curd ghee honey water and bilva leaves. Pour the water at the last. One thing is never pour coconut water on the shiv linga. I don't know the specific reason . And chant his name continuously while doing the puja. You will get a detailed answer on this topic in the site called Quora.( you type your question on Google and the quora link will come). But as Geeta mentions God sees the love in the offerings . Just think of God all the time and no more ritual is needed. Moreover Lord Shivas other name is Ashutosh that is who is contented in very little and very easily.  Pouring only water is also accepted. &#xA;Time - dawn or morning is the best time. Then your mind is most pure. It's better to take a bath before doing it. On Google search for a pdf book called Lord Siva by Swami Sivananda. Things are well explained there . Hope it helps.&#xA;OM NAMAH SHIVAY......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6974" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T07:38:10.783" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13805" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3771" CreationDate="2016-06-24T12:39:30.453" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas are &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Aruti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shruti&lt;/a&gt; texts. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sayanacharya&lt;/a&gt; in his commentaries on Rigveda, said that मंत्र ब्राह्मणात्मको वेद that means Mantra (मंत्र) and Brahmanatmak (ब्राह्मणात्मक) combined are considered as Veda. Here mantra refers to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smahita&lt;/a&gt; and Brahmanatmak refers to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmangranth&lt;/a&gt;. So, Vedas are composed of Samhita and Brahmangranth. The end part of Brahmangranth is Aaranyak and the end part of Aranyak is Upanishad. &lt;sup&gt;(Only one - Isha Upanishad is the last chapter of Shukla Yajurved Samhita)&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Vedas are sub-classified into Samhita, Brahman, Aaranyak and Upanishad. Upanishads are also known/refereed  as Vedanta (as the last parts of Veda). Upanishads are very important text/source in the philosophy of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; and known as Shruti prashthan or Upadesh prashthan for &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prasthanatrayi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no particular sequence/order of reading Vedas but Rigveda are the considered oldest and important Veda. You can start reading anyone from four Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also there is no strict sequence of reading Upanishads but there is a &lt;em&gt;traditional sequence&lt;/em&gt; according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muktik%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Muktika Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;. Eleven Upanishads are considered &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukhya_Upanishads&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mukhya Upanishads&lt;/a&gt; as Adi Shankaracharya and other acharyas have written Bhasya (commentaries) on them which are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Īśā (ईश), also known as Īśāvāsya (ईशावास्य) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kena (केन)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaṭha (कठ)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Praṣna (प्रश्न)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Muṇḍaka (मुण्डक)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Māṇḍūkya (माण्डुक्य)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Taittirīya (तैत्तिरीय)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aitareya (ऐतरेय)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chāndogya (छान्दोग्य)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brihadaranyaka (बृहदारण्यक) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shvetashvatara (श्वेताश्वतर)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;First ten are as listed in Muktika Upanishad. Some includes Kaushitaki and Maitri Upanishads in the list of principle Upanishads.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can start reading the Upanishads in the traditional sequence/order listed above. &lt;br&gt;&lt;sub&gt;(I've also &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/578/277&quot;&gt;read&lt;/a&gt; in similar order)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: First two-three are easy to start and understand and develops your mind and intellect to understand next.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T12:58:29.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13806" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8958" CreationDate="2016-06-24T13:39:56.600" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, this is the wrong information given by Zakir naik. But I would like to thank him to read the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata or I want to give him a suggestion that he should read properly and then give any speech about our Hindu religion. Now I am showing the proper information about that chapter no 88 - 89 of the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata that what Bhishma tells:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/u1jy0.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/u1jy0.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;strong text&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6982" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-12-08T04:28:50.453" LastActivityDate="2017-12-08T04:28:50.453" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13807" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-24T16:13:24.003" Score="2" ViewCount="9250" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why at end of all rituals  and prayers we chant श्री कृष्ण अर्पण अस्तु (Sri Krishna arpan mastu)? Can Rama or Shiva names replace Krishna's name? From which scripture is this phrase taken? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T20:09:26.003" Title="Shri Krishna arpan mastu" Tags="|krishna|scripture|rituals|practice|prayer|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-08-16T18:11:32.463" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13808" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17068" CreationDate="2016-06-24T18:30:08.137" Score="17" ViewCount="1556" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story and principle behind adding the word &amp;quot;Shree&amp;quot; श्री before our sacred religious books like &amp;quot;Shreemad Bhagvat श्रीमद भागवत &amp;quot;, Shreemad Bhagvad Gita श्रीमद भगवदगीता&amp;quot; etc. When was this tradition born.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-06-01T22:55:55.543" LastActivityDate="2022-06-01T22:55:55.543" Title="The story and Principle of adding &quot;shree&quot; &quot;श्री&quot; before our sacred religious books?" Tags="|scripture|belief|bhagavad-gita|bhagavata-purana|tradition|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13809" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10039" CreationDate="2016-06-24T18:52:13.127" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, the inscription is written in old Khmer. I can't make out most of the text. What I can make out however appears to be names of divisions and rulers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Sruk Kandal&quot; = middle division&#xA;&quot;Mratang&quot; = title&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is probably a list detailing offerings to the temple and who offered them. Are you sure it's from Angkor Thom? It uses the virama, which is usually only used in older inscriptions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for your other question, the Khmer script is derived from Pallava. The vast majority of Sanskrit inscriptions from medieval Cambodia is written in the Pallava derived script. I only know of one inscription that uses a North Indic Nagari style script. It's in the national museum in Phnom Penh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6985" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T18:52:13.127" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13810" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13789" CreationDate="2016-06-24T18:59:45.877" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanatan Dharma (सनातन धर्म) Or Vedic Dharma (वैदिक धर्म)&lt;/strong&gt; and it's Vedic spiritual way represents  the view that &quot;Every creature is sacred&quot;. Spiritually we are all of the same quality. As explained in the &lt;strong&gt;Shree Ishopanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;(ईशोपनिषद)&lt;/strong&gt; -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ईशा वाक्यम इदं सर्वमं , यत् किंचा जगत्याम जगत&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ishavasyam idam sarvam, yat kincha jagatyam jagat,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;which means that everything in this creation, both animate and&#xA;  inanimate, is part of the Lord’s energy, and that God’s energy is&#xA;  within all of us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatan Dharma (सनातन धर्म)  or Vedic Dharma (वैदिक धर्म)  lead all of &lt;strong&gt;mankind&lt;/strong&gt; towards  glory, peace, prosperity, and elevates society to liberation from this earthly existence.  And takes us to the spiritual dimension. This is why Sanatan Dharma is meant to help all of society, and not to divide society into those who are “saved” and those who are not saved , unlike others. &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;It's  a univarsal way of life.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The attainment of &lt;strong&gt;Moksha (मोक्ष) or liberation from material existence&lt;/strong&gt; is unique in  Sanatan Dharma (सनातन धर्म ) or Vedic धर्म (वैदिक धर्म)  ,because most religions gives the idea of only reaching  the heaven, which is still a part of the material creation. Yes,&quot; Moksha&quot; also means &lt;strong&gt;rising above material suffering, ignorance, and the attainment of the Eternal Truth and Bliss&lt;/strong&gt;, right here and right now, in this life. It is not necessarily something that only can be attained after death. Whereas the other religions often give importance to moral conduct, social behavior, ethics, etc. for reaching heaven in the next life, but with the idea of continuing the enjoyments of material life, so gives little emphasis on deeper spiritual philosophy. So in those religions there remains many philosophical questions for which there are limited  answers.&lt;strong&gt;Sanatan Dharma  gives an individual the freedom to choose which process or path he or she  to accept in reaching a natural level of spiritual realization.and to attain Moksha&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;That is why no  Hinduism sect has tried to propagate or increase their followers through the use of the force&lt;/strong&gt; or Sword through fear of torture,  or other such means. &lt;strong&gt;It is spread only through the purity of its teachings and the means by which people can use it for their own enlightenment&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Shanti : Shanti :Shanti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are few religion which safeguards very tiny creatures like fly,&#xA;  ant, worm or insect. It is our Vedic or Sanatan religion which does this in&#xA;  a Dharmic way. Supporting of offering   food to these&#xA;  creatures, telling us not to harm them or to kill them &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ref.Apastambha Dharma sutra अपस्तंभ धर्मसूत्र.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanatan Dharma (सनातन धर्म) respects all the Dharmas&lt;/strong&gt; , their teachings, daities and beliefs , &lt;strong&gt;never critised them.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;This is also why anyone of any religion can easily live amongst those who follow Vedic Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thease are some of the few unique qualities of Sanatan Dharma in my opinion &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-04T17:07:17.587" LastActivityDate="2016-08-04T17:07:17.587" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13811" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13807" CreationDate="2016-06-24T20:09:26.003" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It isn't necessary that all prayers and rituals should end with &quot;Shree Krishnarpanamastu&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There were also rituals before the birth of Lord Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Shree Krishnarpanamastu&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; means &quot;I offer this prayer to Krishna&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the prayer is done for Lord Rama then at last &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Shree Ramachandrarpanamastu&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; or &quot;Shree SitaRamaChandrarpanamastu&quot; is spoken meaning &quot;I offer this prayer to Lord Rama&quot; or &quot;I offer this prayer to Sita Rama&quot; Similarly for prayers done for LordShiva &quot;Shivarpanamstu&quot; and similar terms are chanted meaning &quot;I offer this prayer to LordShiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg In the popular &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Raksha_Stotra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;RamaRaksha Stotram&lt;/a&gt; at the last:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्री सीतारामचंद्रार्पणमस्तु&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Shree SitaRamaChandrarpanamastu&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I offer this prayer to Sita and Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the prayer there is &lt;strong&gt;'Prityartham'&lt;/strong&gt; part which denotes prayer is done for pleasing whom. For eg .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Rama Raksha Stotra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्रीसीतारामचंद्रप्रीत्यर्थे&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;ShreeSitaRamaChandraPrityarthye&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (This hymn is) for pleasing Sita and Rama&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as this hymn is for pleasing Sita and Rama, at last &quot;ShreeSitaRamaChandrarpanamastu&quot; is chanted denoting &quot;Offering to Sita and Rama&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Shiva Raksha Stotra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्री सदाशिव प्रित्यर्थम्&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Shree SadaShiva Prityartham&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (This hymn is) for pleasing SadaShiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as this hymn is for pleasing SadaShiva hence at last &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Shree SadaShivaarpanamastu&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; is spoken meaning &quot;I offer this prayer to SadaShiva&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may also chant &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Shree Krishnaarparnamstu&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; in every prayer thinking that every prayer finally reaches to Lord Krishna. But it is his own belief. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hymn is offered to him for whose pleasure that hymn is chanted ie. Hymn is offered to that Lord whose name is in &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Prityartham&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; Part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-06-24T20:09:26.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13812" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12268" CreationDate="2016-06-25T12:14:27.173" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes they do exist. One example is in Devi Bhagavatam, Tritiya Skandha which describes the story of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva visiting Sridevi. On the way, they watch many Vishnus, Indras, Brahmas and Sivas and many other Brahmandas. That is why Lalita Sahasranama calls her Aneka Koti Brahmanda Janani Divya Vigraha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other example is in Skanda MahaPurana Kedara Khanda Chapter 10 Sloka 43 says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dadarśa pretatulyāni liṃgaśaktyātmikāni caḥ brahmāṇḍagoḻakānyeva koṭiśaḥ paramāṇuvat ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;brahmāṇḍagoḻakānyeva koṭiśaḥ paramāṇuvat meaning crores of atom sized Brahmandas &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="6986" LastEditDate="2016-06-25T12:33:55.700" LastActivityDate="2016-06-25T12:33:55.700" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13813" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13808" CreationDate="2016-06-25T15:30:16.973" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jaya Nitai! I know a partial answer to your question, and I will try and share all I know. This is what I was taught by my superiors. So the traditional meaning of the word श्री, is that it is a name of Maha-Lakshmi, the Goddess of fortune and prosperity. We see that this link is quite old (due to the presence of the Sri Suktam in the Rg Veda). Now, according to Puranic literature, Lakshmi (Sri) is the eternal consort and associate of Bhagavan Vishnu. Since Lord Vishnu is always invoked with His consort (since they are never separated), Sri was added before any Name of Lord Vishnu and all things associated with Him (like Sri Rama, and even things like Srimad Bhagavatam). So when we say &quot;Sri Rama&quot; we are actually calling upon Lord Rama, and His consort Sri (In the form of Sita Devi). In a similar way, Srimad Bhagavat invokes Lord Krsna in the form of the Bhagavata Grantha (which is non-different from Him) and also His consort (who is Sri). Th Scriptures which describe Lord Vishnu are non-different from Him, and therefore it is appropriate to place Sri before it. Another meaning that can be taken is that those who read and study these scriptures, will get the blessing of Sri. It is very rare to actually see &quot;Sri&quot; placed before the names of gods like Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As this usage became common, people began to use &quot;Sri&quot; as a title to mean &quot;those blessed by Shri; i.e those who are spiritually wealthy, prosperous and auspicious&quot;. As a result, all those things related to Lord Vishnu (such as His devotees; the Vaishnavs etc) were also given the label of &quot;Sri&quot;. In our tradition, many great personalities and Acharyas are respectfully given the title of &quot;Sri&quot;, showing they are blessed with wealth and prosperity (not necessarily material, but spiritual). In the Bengali tradition, we use the slight modification of the word Sri, (Srila) to address our past acharyas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in conclusion, the title of &quot;Sri&quot; means Lakshmi and thus was used before the name of Lord Vishnu and His avatars. Later it became associated with all those related to Him, and then later the term became used vaguely to mean anything or anyone that is (spiritually) prosperous and wealthy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daso'mi&#xA;Nitai Dasa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4381" LastEditorUserId="4381" LastEditDate="2016-06-25T15:38:46.060" LastActivityDate="2016-06-25T15:38:46.060" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13814" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12268" CreationDate="2016-06-25T18:15:46.530" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There  is a Shloka in  &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&lt;/strong&gt; mentationing the concept of Multiverse OR Parallel Universes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुरुषोऽण्डं विनिर्भिद्य यदासौ स विनिर्गतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आत्मनोऽयनमन्विच्छन्नपोऽस्राक्षीच्छुचिः शुचीः ॥10॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;puruṣo ’ṇḍaṁ vinirbhidya  yadāsau sa vinirgataḥ &lt;br&gt;ātmano ’yanam&#xA;  anvicchann  apo ’srākṣīc chuciḥ śucīḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After separating the different universes,&lt;/strong&gt; the gigantic universal form of the Lord [Mahā-Viṣṇu], which came out of the Causal Ocean, the&#xA;  place of appearance for the first puruṣa-avatāra, entered into each of&#xA;  the separate universes, desiring to lie on the created transcendental&#xA;  water [Garbhodaka].&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/10/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 2.10.10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly there is another shloka in Bhagvtama – Skanda 6 –Chapter 16 –shloka 37 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्षित्यादिभिरेष किलावृतः सप्तभिर्दशगुणोत्तरैरण्डकोशः ।&lt;br&gt; यत्र&#xA;  पतत्यणुकल्पः सहाण्डकोटिकोटिभिस्तदनन्तः ॥37॥&gt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kṣity-ādibhir eṣa kilāvṛtaḥ saptabhir daśa-guṇottarair&#xA;  aṇḍa-kośaḥ&lt;br&gt; yatra pataty aṇu-kalpaḥ sahāṇḍa-koṭi-koṭibhis&#xA;  tad anantaḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Every universe is covered by seven layers — earth, water, fire, air,&#xA;  sky, the total energy and false ego — each ten times greater than the&#xA;  previous one. T&lt;strong&gt;here are innumerable universes besides this one, and&#xA;  although they are unlimitedly large,&lt;/strong&gt; they move about like atoms in&#xA;  You. Therefore You are called unlimited [ananta].&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/16/37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 6.16.37&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-08-20T12:54:55.950" LastActivityDate="2017-08-20T12:54:55.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13815" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13819" CreationDate="2016-06-25T21:36:46.800" Score="6" ViewCount="262" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across this quote: Only when space is rolled up like a piece of leather will there be an end to suffering apart from knowing god - Svetasvatara Upanisad, VI 20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The quote is in a Science Fiction book (Eternity by Greg Bear) but the quote seems to be genuine. What does Hinduism say about the nature of space that indicates it can be &quot;rolled up&quot;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6988" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-07-08T18:07:16.450" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T18:07:16.450" Title="How can you roll up space?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|upanishads|vedanta|nature|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13816" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-25T22:13:56.927" Score="2" ViewCount="2738" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have had a theft at home and i was told that  reciting the &lt;em&gt;Kaartaviryaarjuna mantra&lt;/em&gt; would help in restoring lost wealth (Jewels, Cash)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6989" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-06-26T04:50:45.917" LastActivityDate="2016-06-26T07:43:13.633" Title="Can lost wealth be restored by reciting the kaarta virya arjuna mantra?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13818" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2786" CreationDate="2016-06-25T22:45:45.203" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;More than transferring the sins of past lives to others, the recommended way to reduce the bad karmas of a person from his past life is to to do good things participate in charity helping the poor and needy building temples and operating NGOs without a profit motive etc etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6989" LastActivityDate="2016-06-25T22:45:45.203" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13819" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13815" CreationDate="2016-06-26T00:55:44.227" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The mantra is not talking about rolling the sky, it's just used in analogous comparision:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निष्कलं निष्क्रिय शान्तं निरवद्यं निरञ्जनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अमृतस्य पर सेतुं दग्धेन्धनमिवानलम् ।। 19&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;यदा चर्मवदाकाशं वेष्टयिष्यन्ति मानवा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदा देवमविज्ञाय दुःखस्यान्तो भविष्यति ।।&lt;/strong&gt; 20 &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  When men shall roll up space as if it were a piece of hide, then there will be an end of misery without one’s cultivating the Knowledge of the Lord, who is without parts, without actions, tranquil, blameless, unattached, the supreme bridge to Immortality, and like a fire that has consumed all its fuel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It doesn't mean one can roll up the sky. It means &lt;strong&gt;just as it is never possible to roll up the sky&lt;/strong&gt; as a piece of leather, in the same way it is utterly impossible to put an end to miseries of the world without the &#xA;knowledge of the Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what commentary of AdiShankara tells about this verse (although it is debated that whether Shankara wrote commentary on this Upanishad or not):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is a beautiful way of explaining a difficult topic. &lt;strong&gt;The Mantra says that just as it is never possible to roll up the akasa (sky) as a piece of leather (like a piece of suit-length cloth) so it is utterly impossible to put an end to miseries of the world without the knowledge of the Lord.&lt;/strong&gt; Only when something impossible happens will misery cease without one’s realizing God in one’s heart. That God has been described in various terms. Brahman is free from the slightest trace of &#xA;  phenomenality. It is like blazing charcoal which burns radiantly after the wood is consumed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita says: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;naadatte kasyachit paapam na chaiva sukritam vibhuh &#xA;  ajnaanenaavritam jnaanam tena muhyanti jantavah //5.15 //&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Nor does the all-pervading Spirit take on the merit or demerit of any. Knowledge is &#xA;  enveloped in ignorance and hence beings get deluded. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;jnaanena tu tadajnaanam yeshaam naashitamaatmanah &#xA;  teshaam aadityavajjnaanam prakaashayati tatparam // 5.16 //&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  But to those whose ignorance is destroyed by the Knowledge of the Self, that knowledge, &#xA;  like the Sun, reveals the Supreme (Brahman). &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;tadbuddhayas tadaatmaanas tannishthaas tatparaayanaah &#xA;  gacchantyapunaraavrittim jnaana nirdhoota kalmashaah // 5.17 //&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Fixing their minds on Him, at one with Him, abiding in Him, realizing Him alone as the &#xA;  Supreme Goal, they reach a state, from which there is no return, their sins having been &#xA;  destroyed by their Knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-26T01:01:45.897" LastActivityDate="2016-06-26T01:01:45.897" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13821" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8958" CreationDate="2016-06-26T06:48:24.860" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;No. It doesn't support cow sacrifice though cow sacrifice is allowed during &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe26/sbe2661.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yagnas&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibek_Debroy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bibek Debroy&lt;/a&gt;'s translation of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bori.ac.in/mahabharata_project.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BORI&lt;/a&gt; critical edition is critical edition of Mahabharta. You can read Anushasana Parva of BORI critical edition (Sanskrit) from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/unic/mbh13_sa.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मासानष्टौ पार्षतेन रौरवेण नवैव तु |&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;गवयस्य&lt;/strong&gt; तु मांसेन तृप्तिः&#xA;  स्याद्दशमासिकी ||७||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मासानेकादश प्रीतिः पितॄणां माहिषेण तु |&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;गव्येन&lt;/strong&gt; दत्ते श्राद्धे तु&#xA;  संवत्सरमिहोच्यते ||८||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथा गव्यं तथा युक्तं पायसं सर्पिषा सह |&lt;br&gt; वाध्रीणसस्य मांसेन&#xA;  तृप्तिर्द्वादशवार्षिकी ||९||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how Bibek Debroy translates these verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With the meat of &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;gavaya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; they are content for ten&#xA;  months. With the meat of buffaloes, the ancestors are delighted for&#xA;  eleven months. If the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;product from a cow&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; is given at&#xA;  a funeral ceremony, the satisfaction is said to last for an entire&#xA;  year. The product from a cow can be mixed with payasam and ghee. With&#xA;  the flesh of vardhinasa, the satisfaction lasts for twelve years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And footnotes say,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; The gayal or mithun. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; We haven’t glossed over this in the translation. The text doesn’t say meat, it says product.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayal&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gayal&lt;/a&gt; or mithun is an Ox and not &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Gau&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; or cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-29T06:33:46.487" LastActivityDate="2016-11-29T06:33:46.487" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13822" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13816" CreationDate="2016-06-26T07:43:13.633" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Disclaimer&lt;/strong&gt;: I guess no one can &lt;strong&gt;Guarantee&lt;/strong&gt; that reciting of Kaartaviryaarjuna mantra would restore the lost wealth, it is more a question of &lt;strong&gt;your&lt;/strong&gt; faith and belief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence all I am doing here is trying to answer based on what is mentioned in stotra about Kartavirya Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartavirya_Arjuna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kartavirya Arjuna&lt;/a&gt; was a legendary king of an ancient Haihayas kingdom with capital at Mahishamati. He is described as having a thousand hands and a great devotee of god Dattatreya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, in the very first stanza of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_vishhnu/kArtavIrya12.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;कार्तवीर्य द्वादशनामस्तोत्रम्&lt;/a&gt;, below lines are mentioned:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कार्तवीर्यार्जुनो नाम राजा बाहुसहस्रवान् । तस्य स्मरणमात्रेण गतं नष्टं&#xA;च लभ्यते ॥ १॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This loosly &lt;strong&gt;translates&lt;/strong&gt; to something like &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;the lost stuff is restored by remembering कार्तवीर्यार्जुनो नाम राजा&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_vishhnu/kArtavIrya12.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;one more version&lt;/a&gt; of कार्तवीर्य stotram containing his twelve&#xA;names, which also once agian mentions the same thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि कार्तवीर्यस्य यः स्मरेत् ॥ २॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अनष्टद्रव्यता तस्य नष्टस्य पुनरागमः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सम्पदस्तस्य जायन्ते जनास्तस्य वशो सदा ॥ ३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses say that one who remembers the twelve names of the great&#xA;Arjuna, son of Kritavirya, will be blessed with prosperity.&#xA;He will draw (attract) people to him. He will not lose his wealth or&#xA;property by theft etc., and will also get back the money that&#xA;he had lost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, there is mention of restoration of wealth, by reciting the name of Kritavirya Arjuna, but as I said before, it is more a question of your faith and belief. &lt;strong&gt;It is then upto you to let us know if it worked for You!! Keep us posted&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-06-26T07:43:13.633" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13823" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8631" CreationDate="2016-06-26T11:40:48.807" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Bhagvan uvacha&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; meaning &lt;strong&gt;&quot;God spoke&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; is used in several texts, not only in Bhagvad Gita. There are many Puranas using &quot;Bhagvan uvacha&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharat itself &quot;Bhagvan uvacha&quot; is used in several places other than Bhagvad Gita. &quot;Bhagvan uvacha&quot; is also used when Lord Shiva is speaking. Lord Shiva speaking is denoted using &quot;Maheswara Uvacha&quot;, &quot;Mahadeva Uvacha&quot;, &quot;Bhagvan Uvacha&quot; etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. Lets take example of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs03040.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;chapter 40&lt;/a&gt; of Vana Parva where Lord Shiva in the form of Kirat goes in front of Arjuna. Here are some of the quotes from that chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भगवान् उवाच:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नरस्त्वं पूर्वदेहै वै नारायणसहायवान् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वदर्यां तप्तवानुग्रं तपो वर्षायुतान्बहून् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Bhagvan Said:&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;apos;Thou wert in thy former life Nara, the friend of Narayana. In Vadari wert thou engaged in fierce ascetic austerities for several thousands of years.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then after sometime Arjuna asks weapons from Lord Shiva and at last:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अर्जुन उवाच:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एष मे प्रथम: कामो भगवन्भगनेत्रहन् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वत्प्रसाद्विनिर्वृत्तः समर्थ : स्यामहं यथा ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna Said:&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;O illustrious destroyer of the eyes of Bhaga, even this is my foremost desire, viz., that I may be able to fight with them and obtain success.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord Shiva gives Pasupatastra to Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भगवान् उवाच:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ददानि तेऽस्त्रं दयितमहं पाशुपतं महत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  समर्थो धारणे मोक्षे संहारे चापि पाण्डव ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नैतद्वेद महेन्द्रोऽपि न यमो न च यक्षराट् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वरुणो वाथ वा वायु: कुतो वेत्स्यन्ति मानवा ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Bhagvan Said:&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;O powerful one. I will give to thee that favourite weapon of mine called the Pasupata. O son of Pandu, thou art capable of holding, hurling, and withdrawing it. Neither the chief himself of the gods, nor Yama, nor the king of the Yakshas, nor Varuna, nor Vayu, knoweth it. How could men know anything of it? &amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus as we can see from above the conversation between Arjuna and Lord Shiva is in the format of &quot;Arjuna Uvacha&quot; and &quot;Bhagvan Uvacha&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt; Thus the term &quot;Bhagvan uvacha&quot; is also frequently used in other places itself in the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-26T12:21:39.333" LastActivityDate="2016-06-26T12:21:39.333" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13824" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13831" CreationDate="2016-06-26T15:34:53.110" Score="9" ViewCount="62704" Body="&lt;p&gt;When a person dies, what happens after that? Does he go to Yama Loka like this answer suggest: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2004/3872&quot;&gt;What happens after death?&lt;/a&gt; or he remains at &quot;familiar&quot; places for 10 days?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sivananda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/afterdeath.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The soul which passes out of the body after death is termed ‘Preta’, one that is bound on its onward march to the Beyond. &lt;strong&gt;The soul in its disembodied form hovers about its original and familiar places for ten days. It is in the form of a ghost during these ten days.&lt;/strong&gt; The astral body takes shape from day to day with the formation of the head, eyes, and other limbs of the Linga Sarira, fed and nourished by the sesamum and water poured out in libation over the stones which represent the ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says only on 11th day does the soul departs to Yama Loka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The soul is fully embodied on the eleventh day. It starts on its journey to the judgement seat of Lord Yama, the God of death.&lt;/strong&gt; It takes one full year from the time of death to reach Lord Yama’s place. The path is beset with obstacles, distress and difficulties. The man who has done the most wicked deeds suffers more. But the difficulties can be removed and the journey be rendered easy and comfortable by the oblations and offerings given by the son of the deceased during the first year of the soul’s journey and by feeding pure and learned Brahmins. The son should offer rice-balls to the father, without weeping.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have read the same thing at other places also that the soul remains at home for around 10 days and that might be the reason why 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th day after death is important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-19T06:21:20.670" LastActivityDate="2018-06-19T06:21:20.670" Title="Does the soul remain at home for 10 days after death?" Tags="|atma|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13825" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7985" CreationDate="2016-06-26T18:38:59.580" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;As it is already said in above answer that marriage between elder bride and younger groom is restricted but for answering the second part of this question that asks for the reference of such marriage, there is a very famous example of marriage between Lord Balarama and Revati is described in Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/3/32&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; where Lord Brahma says following words to Kakudmi (Revati's father):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tat putra-pautra-naptṝṇāṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;gotrāṇi ca na śṛṇmahe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kālo ’bhiyātas tri-ṇava-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;catur-yuga-vikalpitaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Twenty-seven catur-yugas have already passed. Those upon whom you may have decided are now gone, and so are their sons, grandsons and other descendants. You cannot even hear about their names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-17T07:45:48.770" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13826" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12305" CreationDate="2016-06-27T02:20:36.393" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In fact there are lots of incidents. One example occurs in Mahabharata Vana Parva&#xA;in the story of Bhageeratha. The sloka is athāntarikṣācchuśrāva vācaṃ gambhīraniḥsvanām । meaning a loud voice spoke from Aakash or Antariksha. You can refer that at &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/mahabharata02ramauoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://archive.org/details/mahabharata02ramauoft&lt;/a&gt; page 346 (of the document, not the book) sloka 21.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-06-27T02:20:36.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13827" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13828" CreationDate="2016-06-27T02:37:24.257" Score="17" ViewCount="72371" Body="&lt;p&gt;This mantra is very famous, mostly also used in TV shows while showing Yajnas. This is also known as Shanti Path Mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ भद्रं कर्णेभिः शृणुयाम देवाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भद्रं पश्येमाक्षभिर्यजत्राः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्थिरैरङ्गैस्तुष्टुवागँसस्तनूभिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  व्यशेम देवहितं यदायूः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;स्वस्ति न इन्द्रो वृद्धश्रवाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्वस्ति नः पूषा विश्ववेदाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्वस्ति नस्ताक्षर्यो अरिष्टनेमिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्वस्ति नो ब्रुहस्पतिर्दधातु ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om Bhadram Karnebhiḥ Srinuyaam Devah।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Bhadram Pashyem Akshabhir Yajatrah।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sthirair Angais Tushtuvagamsas Tanoobhih।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vyashema Devahitam Yadaayooh।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Swasti Na Indro Vriddhashrava।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Swasti Na Poosha Vishwa-Vedaah।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Swasti Nastaaksharyo Arishtanemih।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Swasti No Brihaspatir-dadhaatu।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om, Shaanti Shaanti Shaanti।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From where are these mantras taken? And what are their meanings ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-08-08T10:07:08.640" LastActivityDate="2016-12-18T23:20:59.980" Title="What is the meaning of &quot;Swasti na Indro Vridhhashravaha...&quot;?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|gods|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13828" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13827" CreationDate="2016-06-27T02:40:34.717" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;This whole mantra forms the first passage of Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda. The first verse &amp;quot;Om Bhadram Karnebhi Srinuyaam Devaha&amp;quot; also exists in RigVeda 1.89.8&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here is the meaning of the above mantra:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ भद्रं कर्णेभिः शृणुयाम देवाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Om Bhadram Karnebhiḥ Srinuyaam Devah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om, May we hear what is Auspicious with our ears,Oh Gods&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भद्रं पश्येमाक्षभिर्यजत्राः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Bhadram Pashyem Akshabhir Yajatrah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May we see what is Auspicious With our eyes, Oh holy ones worthy of Worship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्थिरैरङ्गैस्तुष्टुवागँसस्तनूभिः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Sthirair Angais Tushtuvagamsas Tanoobhih&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May we live a life of satisfaction with strong organs and Healthy body&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्यशेम देवहितं यदायूः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Vyashema Devahitam Yadaayooh&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May we Praise the Lord during the life span given to us by the Gods&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वस्ति न इन्द्रो वृद्धश्रवाः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Swasti Na Indro Vriddhashravah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May God Indra of Great fame bless us&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वस्ति नः पूषा विश्ववेदाः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Swasti Na Poosha Vishwa-Vedaah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May the Omniscient Poosha bless us&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वस्ति नस्ताक्षर्यो अरिष्टनेमिः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Swasti Nastaaksharyo Arishtanemih&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May the Protector Garuda bless us&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वस्ति नो ब्रुहस्पतिर्दधातु&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Swasti No Brihaspatir-dadhaatu&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May Lord Brihaspati protect us&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Om, Shaanti Shaanti Shaanti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om, Peace, Peace, Peace&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence in a single paragraph the mantra means:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, May we hear what is Auspicious with our ears,Oh Gods. May we see what is Auspicious With our eyes, Oh holy ones worthy of Worship. May we live a life of satisfaction with strong organs and Healthy body. May we Praise the Lord during the life span given to us by the Gods. May God Indra of Great fame bless us. May the Omniscient Poosha bless us. May the Protector Garuda bless us. May Lord Brihaspati protect us. Om, Peace, Peace, Peace&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; Refrences used from &lt;a href=&quot;http://aumamen.com/mantra/om-bhadram-karnebhih-shrinuyama-devah&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-27T03:31:36.057" LastActivityDate="2016-06-27T03:31:36.057" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13829" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9543" CreationDate="2016-06-27T03:33:20.997" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sanatana Dharma, we usually speak of five karmas - Nitya Karma, Naimittika Karma, Kamya Karma and Nishiddha Karma and prayaschitta karma. Nitya Karma includes Sandhyavandanam, Agni Karyam, Deva yagnam etc which are compulsory activities. Naimittika Karma are those which depends on Time (Kaalam) and Space (Desa) like festivals etc. Kamya Karma is one which is performed desiring something like yagnas, daanas etc. Nishiddha Karma are those which are prohibited like sleeping at sun rise and sunset, etc. Prayaschitta Karma are those prescribed as compensatory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we talk of Paapa and Punya, we can define many ways, but simply stating Punya is one which takes you towards God and Paapam is one which takes you far from God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as who decides which is to be done and not to be done, Veda is the only authority to determine. This is said by Bhagvan himself in Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16 Verse 24 as &quot;Let the Sastras be your authority in ascertaing what ought to be done and what not to be done (Sastra here means Veda)&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma is living according to Vedas. Dharma has no Kaala Dosham i.e it does not change with time. Do not take this in wrong sense. Being obedient to parents is one's duty irrespective of which time you live in. Speaking truth is dharma all the time, where as karma depends on time -  Sleep is to be done at night, Aswamedha yagna is prohibited in Kaliyuga etc. Doing proper Karma (through body, mind and speech) at proper time can be roughly stated as Dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="6986" LastEditDate="2016-06-27T03:49:06.533" LastActivityDate="2016-06-27T03:49:06.533" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13830" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13832" CreationDate="2016-06-27T04:04:34.137" Score="2" ViewCount="1597" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is the creator of all Energy and Sources in the Universe?I want to know the name of the God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6941" LastEditorUserId="6941" LastEditDate="2016-06-28T04:03:19.173" LastActivityDate="2016-06-28T04:03:19.173" Title="Who is the Creator of all Energy and Sources in the Universe?" Tags="|shiva|krishna|puranas|brahma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-06-28T16:36:37.350" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13831" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13824" CreationDate="2016-06-27T04:07:09.773" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, It does. It has been explicitly stated in Preta Khanda Chapter 15, Verse 72 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600207.us.archive.org/19/items/GarudaPuranaEnglishMotilal3VolumesIn1/Garuda%20Purana%20English%20-%20Motilal%20-%203%20Volumes%20in%201.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देहं प्राप्तः क्षुधाविष्टो गृहे द्वारे च तिष्ठति । &lt;br&gt; दशमेऽहनि यः&#xA;  पिण्डस्तं दद्यादामिषेण तु ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having assumed a new body tormented by hunger he stands at the&#xA;  threshold of his house. The tenth day pinda should be accompanied with&#xA;  the offering of flesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that he goes to yamaloka. Please read that chapter and Preta Khanda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-06-27T08:18:46.480" LastActivityDate="2016-06-27T08:18:46.480" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13832" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13830" CreationDate="2016-06-27T04:14:11.277" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahman is the both material and intellectual cause of creation in Vedanta:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वं खल्विदं ब्रह्म तज्जलानिति शान्त उपासीत अथ खलु क्रतुमयः पुरुषो यथाक्रतुरस्मिल्लोके पुरुषो भवति तथेतः प्रेत्य भवति स क्रतुं कुर्वीतः । [Chandogya Upanishad: 3.14.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;III-xiv-1: Verily, all this universe is Brahman. &lt;strong&gt;From Him do all things originate, into Him do they dissolve and by Him are they sustained.&lt;/strong&gt; On Him should one meditate in tranquillity. For as is one’s faith, such &#xA;  indeed one is; and as is one’s faith in this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if you want to personify the above 'Brahman', you may call him &lt;strong&gt;Krishna/Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; by quoting verses from &lt;em&gt;Bhagvad Gita,&lt;/em&gt; You may call him &lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; by quoting verses from &lt;em&gt;Svestasvatara Upanishad.&lt;/em&gt; You may call him both &lt;strong&gt;Shiva and Narayana&lt;/strong&gt; by quoting passages from &lt;em&gt;Taittariya Aranyaka.&lt;/em&gt; You may call him &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; by quoting passages from &lt;em&gt;Satapatha Brahmana.&lt;/em&gt; You may call him &lt;strong&gt;Ganesha&lt;/strong&gt; by quoting &lt;em&gt;Ganapati Atharvashirsha&lt;/em&gt;. You may call Brahman as &lt;strong&gt;Shakti&lt;/strong&gt; by quoting &lt;em&gt;Devi Gita and Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/em&gt; and so on...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/237/how-were-the-trimurthi-born/13639#13639&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; for scriptual refrences of above points.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-06-27T10:14:52.483" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13834" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12060" CreationDate="2016-06-27T06:09:57.893" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from the works of Adi Sankara Bhagavatpada mentioned by Swami Vishwananda. I would like to say a few words. If you want to know about its philosophy like bird's view, there are many books available like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sringeri.net/2013/06/20/publication/book/the-great-equation.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Great Equation&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.amazon.in/Enlightening-Expositions-Philosophical-Vidyatheertha-Mahaswamigal-ebook/dp/B00IC57CU6?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;keywords=abhinava%20vidyateertha&amp;amp;qid=1467006064&amp;amp;ref_=sr_1_fkmr0_1&amp;amp;sr=8-1-fkmr0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Enlightening Expositions: Philosophical Expositions of Sringeri Jagadguru Sri Abhinava Vidyatheertha Mahaswamigal&lt;/a&gt; , &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.amazon.in/Didactic-Treatises-Vidyatheertha-Mahaswamigal-Shankaracharya-ebook/dp/B00J273YAU/ref=pd_sim_351_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;dpID=51A%2Bjxca55L&amp;amp;dpSrc=sims&amp;amp;preST=_OU31_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&amp;amp;psc=1&amp;amp;refRID=PC232X81JECP9D8DZDH6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Didactic Treatises: Essays penned by His Holiness Jagadguru Abhinava Vidyatheertha Mahaswamigal the 35th Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham&lt;/a&gt; and many. The complete list of Adi Sankara Bhagavatpada's works can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/texts/shankara_works.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to study deep into the technicality of Advaita Vedanta, first and foremost you must be well versed with Sanskrit (Ashtadhyayi etc). Second &lt;a href=&quot;https://8mqhag.bn1304.livefilestore.com/y3m6RxJIDxP1_b7dAz4xq-wSup-qtPwi-v5QldlpCauZybQVOGRzD506PPP1UbtdJFwVXDH4wI2y0ZcjWWwYuAYegESHpuShphgjAM5_ZKWki_kFhU3oNP7e8g2BQ1gRoVO/vedanta%20paribhasha%20(prakashika).pdf?psid=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta Paribhasha&lt;/a&gt; is for a beginner as the name suggests, it gives introduction to the technicality of Advaita Vedanta. Usually traditional Advaita students consider it as a pre-requisite. The hindi lectures to Vedanta Paribhasha can be found &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_2KW3e9H3WVENNz8c01eX_w-tiIL-NW8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sringeri.net/2015/04/24/publication/book/sri-dakshinamurti-stotram-vol-i.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Dakshinamoorty Stotram&lt;/a&gt; available in two volumes is a must book one must seriously read. It expounds the heart of Advaita very neatly. One of the famous Jivanmuktas of recent times Sri Ramana Maharshi's &lt;a href=&quot;http://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Talks-with-Sri-Ramana-Maharshi--complete.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.beezone.com/Ramana/tripura%20rahasya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Tripura Rahasya&lt;/a&gt; are some of my favourites and both are excellent books. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jagadguru Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati mahaswami of Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham has written commentary on Viveka Choodamani which can be found &lt;a href=&quot;https://8mqhag.bn1304.livefilestore.com/y3m_zvPyh1oP8d7fPIzKaGMcSd5q6avPg16UodFhEfVpvs873F424ylP4Hqrewgr_Xc6bmj4RQZyH7mmUY_i9M9IWklmV2WFjAc8tDuifBmUZseo_vz2MMgy09FJUuTcxNI/viveka%20chudamani.pdf?psid=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Bhagavadgita and other texts with various Bhashyams can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ignca.nic.in/sanskrit.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Bhagavadgita with Adi Sankaracharya's Bhashyam translated can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spiritual-teaching.org/ewExternalFiles/Bhagavad%20Gita%20-%20comm%20Sankara,%20tr.%20Aiyar.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.info/sri_mani_dravid.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dr. Mani Dravid Sastrigal&lt;/a&gt; a learned and well demanded scholar in Advaita Vedanta, translation of parts of his lectures on Brahma Sutras is available at &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/snsastri/brahmasutra1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/snsastri/brahmasutra2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/snsastri/brahmasutra3.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; which are equally intellectually appeasing and satisfying at the same time. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWSU0IMTLiX2Ftr3Y3jNdw&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Advaita Academy&lt;/a&gt;'s Channel on Youtube is a wonderful resource which contains many lectures starting from basic Sanskrit to Prasthana Traya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The list can go on, but I can say one thing, diving into the deep technicality of Vedanta gives you the real juice only if you can learn it under the guidance of a live teacher. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sringeri.net/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sringeri Sarada Peetham&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham&lt;/a&gt; offer many works related to Advaita Vedanta. This &lt;a href=&quot;https://onedrive.live.com/?id=64CA520E752D39ED%21300&amp;amp;cid=64CA520E752D39ED&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Onedrive&lt;/a&gt; link contains some documents related to Advaita Vedanta. You can refer to the wiki page &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for the list of gurus and works related to Advaita Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="6986" LastEditDate="2016-06-28T23:37:24.397" LastActivityDate="2016-06-28T23:37:24.397" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13835" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13849" CreationDate="2016-06-27T09:03:43.760" Score="3" ViewCount="3317" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Wikipedia &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narayanastra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narayanastra&lt;/a&gt;, it is mentioned that Aswathama used Narayanastra against Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also mentions that the owner of Narayanastra is &lt;code&gt;Lord Narayana&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did Aswathama get hold of this ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="360" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-28T12:51:07.150" LastActivityDate="2016-07-28T12:51:07.150" Title="How did Aswathama get Narayanastra?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|pandavas|vishnu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13836" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-27T09:46:47.503" Score="0" ViewCount="44" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any clue in Hinduism religion that depicts Tree has life? If anyone has answer please answer it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6941" LastEditorUserId="6941" LastEditDate="2016-06-27T10:56:40.263" LastActivityDate="2016-06-27T10:56:40.263" Title="Is there any clue in Hinduism religion that depicts &quot;Tree has life&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|krishna|puranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-06-27T11:22:09.567" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13837" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11670" CreationDate="2016-06-27T10:28:20.180" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Atma can mean the body, the mind or the soul. It can mean any of these. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It depends on the speaker of the sloka what he/she means by it. So the word may mean any of these 3 in context to the speaker. Mostly it refers to the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The real atma is the soul for that is the only reality - spiritual, eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The body is material on a gross level and the mind too, on a subtle level. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now a philosopher may sometimes misinterpret as well, deviating from the teachings of the acharyas. This needs to be confirmed by referring to the commentaries of the acharyas coming the same sampradaya. They must be the same. Sometimes we may see suggestions/opinions amongst the commentaries but it ultimately concludes to the same aspect of the Absolute Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example when we use the word atmarama - atma here cannot possibly mean body or mind. Satisfaction is of the soul only. &#xA;It is also of the body and mind, but that is temporary, that is not real and eternal. It may be encouraged though in some part of Vedas to encourage materially attached class of men who cannot take to the higher truth. But real atma is the self, the soul. The other meanings must ultimately conclude towards the actual self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4522" LastActivityDate="2016-06-27T10:28:20.180" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13838" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13843" CreationDate="2016-06-27T11:11:08.580" Score="2" ViewCount="325" Body="&lt;p&gt;How to preserve ancient Hindu culture and traditions in modern days? What steps should be taken to preserve the culture by children, adults and old aged people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-06-29T15:05:05.387" Title="How to preserve ancient Hindu culture and traditions in modern days?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-06-27T15:15:21.980" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13839" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13738" CreationDate="2016-06-27T11:20:10.670" Score="3" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Gauri/Jaya Parvati Vrata to get husband like GOD Shiva&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When observing Jaya Parvati vrat, one cannot eat tomato, salt, and vegetables. It is believed that Jaya Parvati vrat brings happiness and blesses the girl with a good husband and a happy married life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An important Hindu ritual, Gauri Parvati Vrata is observed by unmarried women and young girls. Also known as Gouri Vrata or Gauri Vrat, this ritual is performed during the Hindu month of Ashadha and is dedicated to Goddess Parvati. Goddess Parvati is also referred to as Gauri. According to the Gregorian calendar, the date of this fast usually falls in the month of July or August. Gauri Parvati Vrat is immensely observed by the unmarried girls in the Indian state of Gujarat. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to legends, Goddess Parvati had carried out intense austerities (tapas) in order to get Lord Shiva as her husband. Since then, unmarried females have been observing this fast on the pretext of obtaining an ideal and devoted husband, just like Lord Shiva. Gauri Parvati Vrat is observed for five days beginning on the Ekadashi day in the month of Ashada in the waxing phase of the moon. The fast ends on the day of Purnima. A partial fast is observed wherein the girls perform pujas for Goddess Parvati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jayaparvati Vrat katha or the story or legend of Jaya parvati vrat is associated with a Brahmin woman who observed this vrat to get her husband free from his curse(was not really a curse). The divine couple Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati is worshipped during this Vrat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a legend behind the Jaya Parvati Vrat. There was a Brahmin couple. They were devotees of Lord Shiva. They had everything in their life but a child. They used to worship Lord Shiva every day in the temple. Lord Shiva was propitiated with the devotion of the couple and there was a revelation which said ‘My Shiva Linga is at a certain place in the jungle. No body is performing its puja. If you go there and perform its puja, then your wishes will be fulfilled.’ The Brahmin couple was pleased when they heard this. They went to the jungle and found out the place where Lord Shiva’s Shiva Linga was. The couple found the Linga and the Brahmin went in search for flowers to perform the puja, where he was bitten by a snake and fell unconscious. His wife got worried as her husband did not return and went in search for him. She prayed intensely for her husband’s safety. Lord Shiva saw the true devotion of the Brahmin woman and brought her husband back to consciousness. Later, the couple prayed at the Linga and they were blessed with a son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-06-27T11:20:10.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13840" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13909" CreationDate="2016-06-27T11:25:36.637" Score="5" ViewCount="439" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any verse or mantra to become opulent, rich , magnificent and wealthy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-07-18T05:54:57.540" LastActivityDate="2020-02-02T08:17:32.980" Title="Is there any verse or mantra to become opulent?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13842" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-27T11:36:51.283" Score="0" ViewCount="7616" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it Compulsory  to give name(to Baby) according to Rashi (राशि) in Hinduism ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3319" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-06-27T12:05:26.147" LastActivityDate="2016-06-29T13:49:13.667" Title="Is it compulsory to give name according to Rashi in Hinduism?" Tags="|astrology|name|rashi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13843" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13838" CreationDate="2016-06-27T12:55:54.373" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the primary needs for Vedic culture  (वैदिक धर्म) / Sanatan Dharma  (सनातन धर्म) right now, especially in places like Modern India, is the  preservation, protection, promotion and perpetuation of its existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Preservation-:&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;Chieldren, adults, senior citizens have to work in ways to preserve the culture to make sure it will also be around over the long term so others can learn about it, take advantage of its wisdom, and even follow it for their own spiritual progress. This may include, but not limited to, such things as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Preserve the great and ancient Vedic texts,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Preserve the main yoga systems, the dharmas that lead to God,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Preserve the temples and let them be freely maintained by those Hindus and devotees who are most sincere and qualified,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Distribute this literature for colleges, schools, personal homes, so it can spread,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Educate people in this knowledge, especially the youth so they are aware of it and know it,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Practice the traditions, such as the holidays and spiritual paths in everyday life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;   &lt;strong&gt;PROTECTION-:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if we do what we can to preserve the tradition, it may also come under attack in many ways. So we have to help protect it by:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Overcoming negative impressions that people may try to use to unnecessarily criticize or demean it,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Be on guard for negative press in newspapers or television, and work to correct it,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Watch for the use of devious ways and false statements that are said to convert people from the Vedic path to some other religion,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PROMOTION: -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Promotion of some form is a must. And the Vedic tradition is one of the most profound and dynamic cultures the world has ever seen. Therefore, there is a great need to let others know about it. This does not mean that you have to be in a conversion campaign, but you can certainly share what you know of it. Many people are looking for deeper levels of spirituality, but they do not know where to look, or they do not know the depth of what the Vedic path or its knowledge has to offer. Someone has to be willing to tell them. In fact, we all should be willing. Therefore:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Everyone can be a Vedic Ambassador to simply share with other seekers the ways the Vedic culture has helped them and what they have gotten out of it, the difference it has made in their life,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Promote it as a spiritual path that can help solve many of the world’s problems,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Distribute the simpler portions of the Vedic texts, such as Bhagavad-gita, or various forms of introductory literature that can introduce and easily explain what the Vedic path is .&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Offer classes on yoga and Vedic philosophy for the same reason,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And hold programs wherein the youth can also be a part of it and practice it,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Arrange for radio or even cable TV programs so everyone can learn from it or stay connected.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PERPETUATION:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is why we do all of the above. How can we keep Vedic culture a flourishing and dynamic path? By doing all of the above, and providing the means to show people how to practice it. Without the preservation, protection, and promotion of Vedic culture, it cannot be perpetuated. This is where such things as the following can be helpful:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Establish and maintain temples that help uphold and show how to practice the Vedic traditions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hold classes and study groups, either at temples or at homes, wherein people get together to comfortably converse on various topics of the Vedic texts to help everyone understand it and how deep or practical it is, and then invite friends to join,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; 3)     There are many other points that can be listed. But the main issue is that we have to work to keep the Vedic culture very much alive and available for everyone. It is what I call the &quot;last bastion of deep spiritual truth.&quot; If this should ever disappear, the world will never know what it has lost.&#xA;4) Some people may say that it is an eternal religion, Sanatana-dharma, so it will never fade away. But have they really read the Bhagavad-gita, wherein Lord Krishna explains that one of the reasons why He appeared was to re-establish the Vedic Dharma, which had become lost?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;        &lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna says,&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god, Vivasvan, and Vivasvan instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Iksvaku. This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost. That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend; therefore you can understand the transcendental mystery of this science.&quot; (Bg.4.1-3) श्री. भगवद गीता &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;  So, yes, it is eternal but can disappear from the face of the     earth, and does at times. It is up to those of us who are serious and sincere to make sure that it can continue being a practical spiritual culture far into the future by helping it&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वेपि सुखिनः सन्तु सर्वे सन्तु निरामयः।&#xA;सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत् ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ॐ शांतिः शांतिः शांतिः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source material is taken from - Preservation, Protection, Promotion and Perpetuation of Vedic Culture&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;by Stephen Knapp&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-06-29T15:05:05.387" LastActivityDate="2016-06-29T15:05:05.387" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13847" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-27T16:32:04.270" Score="5" ViewCount="326" Body="&lt;p&gt;If I make some one feel good, irrespective who he is(good/evil, poor or rich, Boss or subordinate), by saying good words, good compliments, by praising for their achievements or good qualities. Can it be considered as Punya Karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Hindu Dharma Sastra is saying about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1131" LastActivityDate="2019-10-05T06:45:50.647" Title="Making others feel good with words - Is it Punya Karma?" Tags="|punyam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13848" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13548" CreationDate="2016-06-27T16:42:36.667" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Humanity's relationship with nature is unbreakable. We depend on her for everything -- sunshine, rain, food, air, clothing and more. Hence it is imperative that her laws &#xA;are not flouted. The one and a half hours just before sunrise is known as Brahmamuhurta. At this time the expanse of the sky will have a rosy-red hue. A few stars may &#xA;also be visible. This sacred interval is also known as the Amritavela. This is the best time to get out of bed and meet the day. All the birds and animals that Mother &#xA;Nature has assigned to awake at this time are indeed up by then. Hence they are able to enjoy the sacred bliss of those pristine moments during the Amritavela.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कुचेलीनं दान्तामलोपचरिनं । भवाशीनं निष्टुरभाशीनं च ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सूर्योदयेच स्थमितां शयनं ।। विममुच्चती श्री यदी चक्रपाणी ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kuchelinam dantamalopacharinam ,Bahvashinam nishthurabhashinam cha&#xA;Sooryodaye chastamite shayanam , Vimunchati sreer yadi chakrapanih&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, those who arise at this time will experience increased health, strength and spiritual lustre. The following verses from the ancient Hindu text, &#xA; &lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda (9.68.22)&lt;/strong&gt;, makes it clear that &quot;Bathing in the rays of the rising sun at this time will destroy many illnesses.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उदायांनित्य रश्मीहिभी: शिर्षणोहो: रोगाः निनाश: ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Udyannaditya rashmibhih seershno rogamaneenashah.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Obviously the meaning here is that the rays of the rising sun have certain special qualities that are not found in the sunrays at other times. &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Atharva Veda&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;अथर्ववेद&lt;/strong&gt; describes the curative power of the rays of the rising sun:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The rising sun removes all the factors which cause death.&quot; (17.1.30).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The rosy rays of the rising sun cure heart disease and paleness.&quot; (17.1.30).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are some examples. Similarly, the &lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda ऋग्वेद,&lt;/strong&gt;  text, also describes how the rising sun dispels all heart disease and jaundice &lt;strong&gt;(Rig Veda 1.50.11).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures exhort us to sit facing the east at sunrise, to perform worship (sandhya) and a fire sacrifice (homa). The &lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagavata&lt;/strong&gt;, the gold mine of devotion,&#xA;Says that the main means of acquiring health through worship of the sun is the surya namaskara. (&quot;Arogyam bhaskaradichhet.) The surya namaskara is also to be performed &#xA;facing the sun. &lt;strong&gt;All this can be completed only if we wake up before dawn.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्ममुहूर्ते उत्तीहीष्टेथ । स्वस्थो रक्षःमायूषः ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahme muhurte utthishteth&#xA;Swastho raksharthamayushah&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Ashtangahridaya: Sutrasthana)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-06-28T17:12:40.193" LastActivityDate="2016-06-28T17:12:40.193" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13849" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13835" CreationDate="2016-06-27T18:32:51.550" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07192.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; in Drona Parva of Mahabharata Ashwathama himself mentioned that Lord Narayana has given Narayanastra to Drona and him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Formerly on one occasion, Narayana, assuming the from of a Brahmana, came to my father. Bowing unto him, my father presented his offerings unto him in due form. Taking them himself, the divine Lord offered to give him a boon. My father then solicited that supreme weapon called Narayana. The divine Lord, the &#xA;  foremost of all gods, addressing my sire, said, No man shall ever become thy equal in battle. This weapon, however, O Brahmana, should never be used in haste. It never comes back without effecting the destruction of the foe. I know none whom  it may not slay, O lord! Indeed, It would slay even the unslayable. Therefore, it should not be used (without the greatest deliberation). This mighty weapon, O scorcher of foes, should never be hurled upon persons that abandon their cars or weapons in battle, or upon those that seek for quarter or those that wield themselves up. He who seeketh to afflict in battle the unslayable with it, is himself exceedingly afflicted by it! '--My sire thus received that weapon. &lt;strong&gt;Then Lord Narayana, addressing myself also, said, 'With the aid of this weapon, thou too shalt pour diverse showers of celestial weapons in battle and &#xA;   blaze with energy in consequence of it.&lt;/strong&gt; Having said these words,  the divine Lord ascended to heaven. Even this is the history of the Narayana weapon which has been obtained by my sire's son. With that I will rout and slay the Pandavas, the Panchalas,  the Matsyas, and the Kaikeyas, in battle, like Sachi's lord routing and slaying the Asuras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-11T10:11:27.410" LastActivityDate="2016-07-11T10:11:27.410" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13850" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13840" CreationDate="2016-06-27T20:17:17.000" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15619/3500&quot;&gt;famous verse&lt;/a&gt; (don't recall source):  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arogyam bhaskarad ichcheth&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sriyam ichcheth uthasanath&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Iswarath jnana manvichcheth&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Moksham ichcheth janardanath&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who want health, pray to Bhaskara (Sun)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Similarly from Agni, get wealth&lt;br&gt;&#xA;From Shiva, get knowledge&lt;br&gt;&#xA;From Vishnu, get moksha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantras for specific desires are very rare, and must be obtained by proper humility from correct guru, and then chanted with all rules, regulations &amp;amp; bhakti for them to have any effect, or they can have bad opposite effects. There are shlokas I'm aware of for wealth (although I didn't try them with intention of gaining wealth for myself, but only say them as duty).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is like asking to get PhD in 1 week. It cannot be done easily. I'd suggest you ask your family elders, guru, local temple priest or pray to god with devotion for guidance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-11-03T09:01:16.520" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13851" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13738" CreationDate="2016-06-27T20:33:54.537" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;For compatibility of marriages, Jatakam (translated as horoscope) matching is necessary, along with gotra and other physical compatibilities.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This must be done before a marriage takes place, obviously :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nowadays, people marry within gotra (sagotra marriage is similar to marrying brother or sister, but not that weird), or their parents did not bother to note the proper time of birth and the wrong janma-patrika (birth-chart) is calculated, or they don't care about all rules of jataka mathching..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2016-06-27T20:33:54.537" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13852" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13856" CreationDate="2016-06-28T04:15:33.327" Score="5" ViewCount="10184" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Maa Kali, Devi Durga ,Maa Parvati, Maa Jagadhatri all are same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6941" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-01T12:52:18.500" LastActivityDate="2016-07-01T12:52:18.500" Title="Is Maa Kali, Devi Durga, Maa Parvati, Maa Jagadhatri all are same?" Tags="|shiva|durga|parvati|kali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-07-01T08:02:34.657" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13853" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-28T05:30:32.983" Score="11" ViewCount="2321" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why man is mortal? Suppose one person is very religious and very responsible family person as well.He is very much dedicated/ respectful to god and he loves his family very much and he don't want to leave the world.Then what is the logic behind the death of that person.What is the reason behind dying people irrespective of good or bad activity? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt; There are lot of wise person/ scholar posted their valuable analysis and opinions against my questing and I'm really thankful to each of them, but there are still few discursive thought/confusions in my mind that's why I still remaining this question unanswered.Thanks for sharing your knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6941" LastEditorUserId="6941" LastEditDate="2016-07-06T12:47:39.800" LastActivityDate="2019-12-05T02:56:06.273" Title="Why man is mortal irrespective of good or bad activity?" Tags="|krishna|atma|rebirth|death|life|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13854" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20251" CreationDate="2016-06-28T05:36:46.227" Score="20" ViewCount="31595" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why eating rice is prohibited on Ekadashi? It is practiced in some parts of India (I am not sure about this practice in all parts of India).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any story or scriptural basis for this belief available?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-12-11T12:42:41.113" LastActivityDate="2018-09-29T11:47:45.340" Title="Why eating rice is prohibited on Ekadashi?" Tags="|vishnu|belief|practice|vrata|ekadashi|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13855" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13853" CreationDate="2016-06-28T07:26:29.627" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why is man mortal?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are not mortal. In fact no living being in true sense is mortal. it  is only owing to our ignorance that we think that we are being born, growing, dying etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in Bhagavad Geeta Krishna Says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood&#xA;  to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at&#xA;  death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is only body that dies at the time of death but soul is imperishable(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 2.20&lt;/a&gt;). Our body is constantly changing at every moment. At some point we had a body of infant; than a boy, .... So in this process we can see that our body is changing but we feel like same person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So what is it that has not changed? What is that which animates this body?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A simple logic may be applied. No machine in this world works without a touch of living entity so how can this machine of body work independently? ex If some one thinks that the aeroplane flies on its own; then such a person will be called fool. that is because we know that aeroplane is simply made out of dead matter and so is our body; and we know that dead matter cannot move.&#xA;But intelligent man will think; just like a pilot in aeroplane; there must be some one inside that moves this body and when that 'some one'(Soul) leaves the body; this body becomes useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where Does the soul go after quitting current body?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;krishna says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 8.6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of&#xA;  Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So whatever desires a person has at the time of death; soul gets a body that is fit to fulfill those desires.&#xA;Just like how air carries aroma so does subtle body(mind and intelligence) take the soul to another body.&#xA;So in this way soul transmigrates from one body to another untill he comes to the true knowledge and is freed from all desires and duality of this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the reason for desires?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 3.37&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna,&#xA;  which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later&#xA;  transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of&#xA;  this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is lust only that gives rise to unlimited desires. Lust here means mentality to enjoy selfishly or to simply engage in sense gratification out of ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why We have to take birth inspite of doing good Karma?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Inspite of doing pious activities such as charity etc; still person has to take birth and die again and again. This is because good karma gives you pious credits and hence you have to come in this world again to enjoy the good karma you have earned and in case a person commits sinful activities he has to come to suffer the reactions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless both type of activities bind the doer to this material world unless he cuts the thread of attachment with the sword of knowledge and engage himself in service of Supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit1:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why does the soul Come to this mortal world?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;originally we are all the spiritual energy of God(souls). Soul is by nature full of eternal bliss and knowledge. The spirit soul however has minute degree of independence. When this indepence is properly used. it is used in service of Supreme lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However sometimes due to this minute independence soul wishes to lord it over the things. i.e. he becomes envious of God. We can see that all around. people drowned in ignorance wants to become the master of their family, state country etc. Originally Krishna(or Vishnu) is the master of everything(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/5/29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 5.29&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate&#xA;  beneﬁciary of all sacriﬁces and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all&#xA;  planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living&#xA;  entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So for such envious souls; they are put in this world. This world is just like a prison house for such envious souls. Anyone(as you state in your question) who doesnt want to get out of this prison house is under the spell of illusion and hence must transmigrate from one body to another. This world is actually very miserable but owing to our ignorance we find it very nice. Even in Geeta Krishna says(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 8.15&lt;/a&gt;) that it is a miserable place for living entities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never&#xA;  return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because&#xA;  they have attained the highest perfection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit2:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the reason for repeated birth and death in this material world?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is only desire for personal sense Gratification that binds the soul to a chain of repeated birth and death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically God respects our free will; and if out of sheer ignorance , someone wants to carry on in this world then that wish is fulfilled.i.e. whatever wish a person has at the time of quitting current body; he gets the next body based on that. This is the reason Krishna says at the end of Geeta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more conﬁdential.&#xA;  Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He  doesn't force Arjuna to fight the battle.Instead it leaves it fully up to him.If God did not respect the free will of us He would not have said that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to get out of this world?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;krishna makes it very clear in Bhagavad Geeta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall&#xA;  deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord makes it clear that by surrendering unto Him ; we will be delivered from this samsara. When a person is fully situated in Knowledge of supreme and has transcended all the dualities of this world; he finally comes to the point of total surrender to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2859" LastEditDate="2016-06-30T11:31:51.980" LastActivityDate="2016-06-30T11:31:51.980" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13856" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13852" CreationDate="2016-06-28T09:05:37.893" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let's answer this question keeping the refrence point as &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Consort of Lord Shiva&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it be known that they all are consort of Lord Shiva, then it is known they all are same, as &lt;strong&gt;Adi-Shakti&lt;/strong&gt; herself is the consort of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajurveda Taittariya Aranyaka 10.21.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अम्बिकापतये उमापतये पशुपतये नमो नम:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to Him who is Lord of Ambika, who is Lord of Uma who is the Lord of creatures ie. Pasupati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, from above it is clear that consort of Lord Shiva are Ambika and Uma. Ambika is also known as mother of world. Uma is also known as Parvati / Sati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, from above it is clear that Uma, Parvati, Ambika, Sati are the same Godesses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Lets come on the name &lt;strong&gt;Durga&lt;/strong&gt;. In Devi Mahatmyam itself Durga is prayed as &quot;Salutations to her who is consort of Shiva.... &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Bhishma Parva consists of section where Arjuna worships Godesses Durga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou art the science of Brahma among sciences, and thou that art that sleep of creatures from which there is no waking. &lt;strong&gt;O mother of Skanda, O thou that possessest the six (highest) attributes,&lt;/strong&gt; O Durga, O thou that dwellest in accessible regions, thou art described as Swaha, and Swadha,  as Kala, as Kashta, and as Saraswati, as Savitra the mother of the Vedas, and as the science of Vedanta. With inner soul cleansed, I praise thee. O great goddess, let victory always attend me through thy grace on the field of battle. &lt;em&gt;[Bhishma Parva: Section XXIII]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As it clearly says Durga as &lt;strong&gt;Mother of Skanda.&lt;/strong&gt; So, she is same as Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It becomes more clear in Virata Parva section of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O, Kali, O Kali, thou art the great Kali,&lt;/strong&gt; ever fond of wine and meat and animal sacrifice. Capable of going everywhere at will, and bestowing boons on thy devotees, thou art ever followed in thy journeys by Brahma and the other gods. By them that call upon thee for the relief of their burdens, and by them also that bow to thee at daybreak on Earth, there is nothing that cannot be attained in respect either of offspring or wealth. And because thou rescuest people from difficulties whether when they are afflicted in the wilderness or sinking in the great ocean, &lt;strong&gt;it is for this that thou art called Durga by all.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;[Virata Parva: Section VI]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from above it is clear the one who is &lt;strong&gt;Kali&lt;/strong&gt; is the same who is &lt;strong&gt;Durga&lt;/strong&gt; and she is the same &lt;strong&gt;Parvati/ Uma/ Ambika. Jagatdhatri&lt;/strong&gt; is simply another name of Ambika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As they are same it is common that one form may quickly manifest from her another form. For eg. Devi Mahatmya of Markandeya Purana describes Ambika manifesting from Parvati:&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Rishi said, when the deities applauded Parvati, O prince! she went to perform ablution in the water of Janhavi. She asked them, &amp;quot;Whom did you greet there.&amp;quot; The resplendent Siva emanated from her body, and spoke thus to her. &amp;quot;They recited my praises, because they were expelled by the giant Sumbha, all the deities retreated before Nisumbha in the war.&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;From the body of Parvati, Ambika issued,&lt;/strong&gt; and was denominated Kouciki throughout the universe. When she had emanated from Parvati, (who turned black), she was called Kouciki and resorted about Himachala. Her transcendent form beautiful, and creating admiration was seen by Chanda and Munda, who were attendants of Sumbha and Nisumbha.&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;[Markandeya Purana chapter 85]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then why different names?&#xA;It's because each name emphasize different attributes of Supreme Godesses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ambika&lt;/strong&gt; denotes her attribute who is mother of all. &lt;strong&gt;Kali&lt;/strong&gt; denotes the aspect of annhilation and time. &lt;strong&gt;Durga&lt;/strong&gt; represents her attribute of invincibility. &lt;strong&gt;Uma&lt;/strong&gt; represents the aspect of Brahma Vidya, &lt;strong&gt;Parvati&lt;/strong&gt; represent the aspect of purity and so on....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-28T13:33:26.307" LastActivityDate="2016-06-28T13:33:26.307" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13857" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13853" CreationDate="2016-06-28T10:47:28.340" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why man is mortal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conception of man, woman, Indian, American, etc. is not real, they are in relation to the body. The body however is not the real self as already described in the above answer with proper shlokas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Srimad Bhagavatam 10.84.12, it is stated that anyone who identifies oneself with the body or considers particular land to be worshipable due to one's birth (mera bharat mahan, etc.) , he is an ass, because human birth is meant to understand &quot;I am not this body&quot; but an active principle or spirit soul, beyond all these temporary designations. The soul is immortal. The body is dying however at every moment. So depends whom we are identifying ourselves currently with.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suppose one person is very religious and very responsible family&#xA;  person as well.He is very much dedicated/ respectful to god and he&#xA;  loves his family so much and he don't want to leave the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That cannot be understood without accessing Vedas under a bonafide guru whether one is religious. People challenge - &quot;Why take to spirituality or God? Do good, that's sufficient&quot;. But people generally do not even know what's good. They think of good in terms of the body, not the soul. It is just like cleaning the cage instead of feeding the dying bird inside the cage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person may be charitable to beggars. This is pious. But according to the 17th chapter of Bhagavad Gita, there &#xA;are various divisions of charity: Goodness, passion and ignorance. So from the prespective of a spiritually educated person,&#xA;charity to poors may be religious or good, but if that beggar instead utilizes that money to get intoxicated, &#xA;such charity comes under the category of ignorance and what others may consider to be a very religious act, turned out to&#xA;be an ignorant act due to lack of proper knowledge. Rather, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gta 3rd chapter, any food that is &#xA;not offered to Him, is sin only. So faithless people cannot understand this and shall consider they are sinless while at &#xA;every moment of their breath they are killing million bacterias and sinning every moment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then what is the logic behind the death of that person.What is the&#xA;  reason behind dying people irrespective of good or bad activity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So point is not to disgust/scare you but to make realize - as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami says - &quot;This world is fool's paradise.&quot; And Krishna says this material world is &quot;dukhalayam ashashvatam&quot;. Just like toilets are called &quot;shauchalyaya&quot;&#xA;this world is called &quot;dukha-alyaya&quot;. This is not meant for wise men. The reason behind people's dying has hence been explained &#xA;that this material world is martyaloka - place of isery and death. You may not know but you are changing body at this very moment and hence dying every second. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore Krishna speaks of the transcendental world beyond birth,death, old age and disease. And Krishna says the goal of human birth is athato brahma jigyasa - to inquire about the Absolute Truth and not for sense enjoyment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lastly, the good and bad of this world ultimately is still tinged with bad, even good, because it is connected in relation to bodily identification. The qualities in relation to serving Krishna or God are transcendental and actual qualities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So all the pains and difficulties are for a sincere soul to realize that this is not my real identity or existence and I must inquire - who am I? How can I understand? What will the results be? And follow it. You can begin so by reading the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/bg/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita As It Is&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also now wish to add this point for readers in general although it may read out something else but is a fact. The self realized men who see all living entities as equal due to seeing everything on the platform of atma or Brahman are called panditah. This means that they see even animals on equal platform and do not slaughter them. They see the same soul inside the animal and plant as well. &#xA;Unfortunately, we see so many missionaries and organizations that are advertising on humanitarianism, etc. to serve humans and &quot;do good&quot; but on the other hand slaughter animals to satisfy their tongues. So this is another aspect how someone may look externally to be very religious or &quot;good&quot; or &quot;social servant&quot; but is still a loser having not known that he is a spirit soul and so are all the living entities.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4522" LastEditorUserId="4522" LastEditDate="2016-06-28T10:59:08.870" LastActivityDate="2016-06-28T10:59:08.870" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13858" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13853" CreationDate="2016-06-28T11:24:07.377" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, we believe in rebirth (पुनर्जन्म, &lt;em&gt;punarjanma&lt;/em&gt;) and reincarnation of souls. The soul is immortal and non-perishable. The soul is indistinguishable part of the &lt;em&gt;jīva&lt;/em&gt;, or living being, who is subjected to impurities of attachment, delusion, and law of Karma. Death is therefore not a great calamity, not an end at all but a natural process in the existence of living being or &lt;em&gt;jīva&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism unless the soul is liberated, no life or afterlife are permanent, they are both parts of &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;The Grand illusion&amp;quot; or &lt;em&gt;Māyā&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Death is a temporary cessation of physical activity, a necessary means of recycling the resources, re-energize itself, review its programs and policies and plans for the next phase of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Each rebirth, the soul is offered an opportunity to learn and overcome its inconsistencies and blemishing so that it (the soul) can return to its original form at the time of liberation and thus completing its cycle. our good or bad deeds are our actions which only serves the purpose to get one step closer or further from knowing the truth and merging with divinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this process for a living being or &lt;em&gt;jīva&lt;/em&gt; who have served his purpose, or when are too weary or exhausted by suffering to bear the burden of physical existence any longer. The &lt;em&gt;jīva&lt;/em&gt; who is suffering, death is a resurrection from the painful tortures of flesh into awakened peace and calmness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय  नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि | &lt;br&gt;तथा शरीराणि&#xA;विहाय जीर्णा- l न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ।।  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=2&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=22&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 2.22&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya, Navani grhnati naro ‘parani &lt;br&gt; Tatha&#xA;sarirani vihaya jirnany, Anyani samyati navani dehi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.22 As after rejecting worn-out clothes a man takes up other new ones, &lt;br&gt; likewise after rejecting worn-out bodies the embodied one unites with other new ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this cycle, everyone good or bad gets one step closer or further to merging with divinity. Everyone good or bad has to undergo through this cycle, which starts with birth and ends with death. No matter good, bad or ugly we encounter death.&#xA;In order to born again till libration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जातस्य हि ध्रुवो मृत्युर्ध्रुवं जन्म मृतस्य च।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्मादपरिहार्येऽर्थे न त्वं शोचितुमहर्सि।।       &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=2&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=27&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad  Gita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 2.27&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jātasya hi dhruvo mṛtyur dhruvaṁ janma mṛtasya ca &lt;br&gt;&#xA;tasmād aparihārye ’rthena tvaṁ śocitum arhasi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; For to the one that is born - death is certain - and certain is birth for the one that has died. The events of death and re-birth&#xA;are thus unavoidable, and one should not grieve for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-12-02T13:23:50.070" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13859" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9024" CreationDate="2016-06-28T12:35:13.933" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is definitely not Imagination. Krishna is clearly speaking here about His &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/11/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;universal form&lt;/a&gt; as quoted in above answer by Keshav.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, O son of&#xA;  Pṛthā, see now My opulences, hundreds of thousands of varied divine&#xA;  and multicolored forms. O best of the Bhāratas, see here the different&#xA;  manifestations of Ādityas, Vasus, Rudras, Aśvinī-kumāras and all the&#xA;  other demigods. Behold the many wonderful things which no one has ever&#xA;  seen or heard of before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More over later &lt;strong&gt;Sanjaya is admitting that he is also seeing&lt;/strong&gt; the same thing(BG 11.9).&#xA;So here Sanjaya uses the word &lt;em&gt;' darśayām āsa'&lt;/em&gt; which means &lt;em&gt;'Showed'&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanjaya doesnt say that 'Arjuna saw the universal form'. Sanjaya is admitting that even he saw the Lord menifesting His universal form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sañjaya said: O King, having spoken thus, the Supreme Lord of all&#xA;  mystic power, the Personality of Godhead, displayed His universal form&#xA;  to Arjuna.&#xA;  Arjuna saw in that universal form unlimited mouths, unlimited eyes,&#xA;  unlimited wonderful visions. The form was decorated with many&#xA;  celestial ornaments and bore many divine upraised weapons. He wore&#xA;  celestial garlands and garments, and many divine scents were smeared&#xA;  over His body. All was wondrous, brilliant, unlimited, all-expanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sanjaya goes on for quite some time in acknowledging same things which Arjuna confirms that he is seeing in universal form.&#xA;Of course Lord Krishna and Arjuna are higher authorities than Sanjaya.&#xA;But than Sanjaya is also seeing the same thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How could two different people imagine the same thing at same time?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not only Sanjaya but in the end Barbarik; a rakshasa also acknowledges the mystic opulence of Lord as exhibited by Krishna in Kurukshetra battlefield.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2859" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T10:26:30.313" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T10:26:30.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13861" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13854" CreationDate="2016-06-28T13:32:38.050" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a quotation from the Skanda Purana admonishing that a person who eats grains on Ekadasi becomes a murderer of his mother, father, brother and spiritual master,&#xA;and even if he is elevated to a Vaikuntha planet, he falls down.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Ekadasi, everything is cooked for Vishnu, including regular grains&#xA;and dhal, but it is enjoined that a Vaisnava should not even take&#xA;vishnu-prasadam on Ekadasi.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;It is not recommended  for one to accept any kind of grain on Ekadasi&lt;/strong&gt;, even if it is offered to Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The foods to be avoided on Ekadashi-:  Grains (wheat, &lt;strong&gt;rice&lt;/strong&gt;, etc.), Dahl, peas, bean type vegetables, Mustard , sesame&#xA;(wheat flour, mustard oil, soya bean oil etc.) For instance, care should be taken in using powdered spices, which, if mixed with flour, should not be used on Ekadasi.&#xA;Particularly, commercially prepared powdered asafoetida (hing) is always mixed with flour and is not to be used on Ekadasi. &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;#Why eating rice is prohibited on Ekadashi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What food items are to be avoided on Ekadashi day is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-vi/chapter-56/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  -Vol – 6  of 20 – Book II –Vaishnav Kanda – Chapter 12 – Uninterrupted Ekadashi vow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;21-25 : One who is devotee of Vishnu should avoid the following ten&#xA;items on the Dasami days : (meal in)  bell metal vessel , meat ,masura&#xA;pulse, canakas (chickpea) , &lt;strong&gt;grain called kodravas&lt;/strong&gt; ,greens , honey&#xA;,other men’s food , subsequent meal and sexual intercourse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;What food items are to be avoided on Ekadashi day and why is in detail described in **Padma Purana -  Vol. 10 - chapter 22 - Book page -3513**&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Rishi  jaimini asked Vyasa “ I desire to hear of the benefits of fasting on Ekadashi and How it is observed&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;76-81. Having got up in the morning on the tenth (day) a man should&#xA;brush his teeth. Then he should bathe without (smearing his body with)&#xA;oil and (remain) without food. Then having worshipped Vishnu by&#xA;offering water for washing his feet etc., he should, being highly&#xA;devoted to the meditation of Vishnu, take one meal (only). On the tenth&#xA;he should avoid (eating) flesh, salt, meat, pulses, big beans, so also&#xA;vegetables. On the tenth he should avoid eating twice, the food of&#xA;another (man),  of bell-metal. On the tenth he should avoid&#xA;nimba-leaf, egg-plant fruit, and dry citron, so also milk without ghee.&#xA;On the tenth he should avoid eating too much, very much enjoying and&#xA;eating food and tambula.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;82&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O best brahmana, just those articles which are prohibited on the tenth are also undoubtedly prohibited on the twelfth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the story of Vishnu granting a place  for &lt;strong&gt;Papa Purusha&lt;/strong&gt;  (Personification of Sin man)  in grains in given in details , its said that on Ekadashi day this Papa-Purusha takes shelter in all kind of grains and food items  we generally eat everyday. So its advised to avoid all type of grains including rice on Ekadashi day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a specific reference of Not eating grains   on Ekadashi day in Caitanya-caritāmṛta  Ādi 15:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mātā bale, — tāi diba, yā tumi māgibe&lt;br&gt; prabhu kahe, — ekādaśīte&#xA;anna nā khāibe&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His mother replied, “My dear son, I will give You whatever You ask.”&#xA;Then the Lord said, “My dear mother, please do not eat grains on the&#xA;Ekādaśī day.”   -  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/15/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adi/15/9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purport:&lt;/strong&gt;  There is a quotation from the Skanda Purāṇaadmonishing that&#xA;a person who eats grains on Ekādaśī becomes a murderer of his mother,&#xA;father, brother and spiritual master, and even if he is elevated to a&#xA;Vaikuṇṭha planet, he falls down. On Ekādaśī, everything is cooked for&#xA;Viṣṇu, including regular grains and dhal, but it is enjoined that a&#xA;Vaiṣṇava should not even take viṣṇu-prasādamon Ekādaśī. It is said&#xA;that a Vaiṣṇava does not accept anything eatable that is not offered&#xA;to Lord Viṣṇu, but on Ekādaśī a Vaiṣṇava should not touch even&#xA;mahā-prasādam offered to Viṣṇu, although such prasādam may be kept for&#xA;being eaten the next day. It is strictly forbidden for one to accept&#xA;any kind of grain on Ekādaśī, even if it is offered to Lord Viṣṇu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śacī kahe, — nā khāiba, bhāla-i kahilā  sei haite ekādaśī karite&#xA;lāgilā&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mother Śacī said, “You have spoken very nicely. I shall not eat grains&#xA;on Ekādaśī.” From that day, she began to observe fasting on Ekādaśī.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/15/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adi/15/10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So its clear from above examples that one should avoid normal food items we prepare in everyday meals like Dal , Rice , Grains , vegetables etc. Ekadashi day. Also its clear from Padma-Purana description that the items which are to be prohibited on Dashami day also to be avoided on Ekadashi day.&#xA;So Rice is a grain item and being grain and its used in Prasada  of Lord Vishnu and because on Ekadashi day the Prasada of Lord Vishnu is not to be consumed. Is prohibited on Ekadashi day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason is also stated in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/brahmavaivarta-purana/vol-ii/chapter-26/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BrahmaVaivarta Purana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; - Krishna Janma Kanda  - Chapter 26 - Performing of  Ekadashi Vrata. page no.227-228 .Its said there that the person who eats rice on Ekadashi vrata falls to hell. Because sins like Brahma Hatya and others resides in rice that day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सत्यं  सर्वाणि पापानि ब्रह्महत्यादिकानिच |&lt;br&gt; सन्तेवौदनमाश्रित्य&#xA;श्रीकृष्णव्रतवासरे ||23||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the sire like Brahma-hatya and others resides in the cooked rice&#xA;during the Ekadashi -Vrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भुक्त्वैतानि च पापानि यो  भुङ्क्ते तत्र मन्धति |&lt;br&gt; इहातिपातकी सोSपी&#xA;यात्यन्ते नरकं ध्रुवम् ||24||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore , the one who consumes the cooked rice on that day , he&#xA;contributes to all the sins .Becoming a great sinner on earth , he&#xA;ultimately falls to the hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2018-09-29T11:47:45.340" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13862" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-28T16:36:16.793" Score="3" ViewCount="1619" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it okay to rub Vibuthi or Tilak off one's forehead? Does it amount to insulting god?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6875" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-10-09T18:53:58.720" LastActivityDate="2023-10-09T18:53:58.720" Title="Is it a sin to rub Vibuthi or Tilak off the forehead?" Tags="|belief|sin|tilak|vibuthi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13863" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13847" CreationDate="2016-06-28T17:31:12.243" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Two things are to be noted. Regarding &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ioPLF53GXU&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;truth&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;सत्यं ब्रूयात् प्रियं ब्रूयात् न ब्रूयात् सत्यमप्रियम् |&#xA;प्रियं च नानृतं ब्रूयात् एष धर्म: सनातन: ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should always speak the truth. One should always speak kind words. Do  not  speak truth that hurts. Do not lie for the sake of pleasing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Praise, Jagadguru Sri Chandrasekhara paramacharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham once in his Anugraha Bhashanams &lt;a href=&quot;https://mahaperiyavaa.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/divine-thoughts-108/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;said that&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;If we praise a person for his good qualities, he will have greater enthusiasm to cultivate them further. But there should be restraint in praise too - praise indeed is a tricky thing. That is why the wise say :  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रत्यक्षे गुरवः स्तुत्या परोक्षेमित्र बान्धवाः । कर्मान्ते दास भृत्याश्च पुत्रा कदाचन ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isvara and the Guru alone may be praised directly. Friends and relatives, instead of being praised to their face, must be spoken of well to others. You may praise your servant after the job entitled to him is done. (It is like patting a horse after ride). You may never praise your son&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as Punya is considered, since Isvara has given us this body and organs, in order to put them to good use for pleasing God (Paramesvara/Narayana Preetyartham), one should always try to speak kind and soothing words to anyone in difficulty to get them out of it or for the welfare of others because Speech is a special gift given only to human in the whole 8400000 Jivas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-06-28T17:31:12.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13866" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13862" CreationDate="2016-06-28T18:30:33.040" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't have an internet source for this, but I have heard in upanyasams (spiritual discourses) that No, we are not allowed to remove Thiruman, Vibuthi, Kumkum purposely. If it happens by accident, that's fine, and we need to re-apply.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In modern world, we don't want to show to others our religious markings, so either we do not apply them at all, or we apply them in morning after bath, and erase them before leaving to work.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But a compromise is to apply it faintly, and not erase it. Over course of day, with sweating/oil on face, it is only visible for acute observers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another name for the things we apply on forehead is called - Namam (or name), because they are applied by saying God's name. So, even if actual chandan, tilak or vibuthi is missing, you can use sand, or water, intone God's name and apply it. You can do this if you think the original will be too visible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2016-06-28T18:30:33.040" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13869" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-28T22:01:26.013" Score="3" ViewCount="67" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dJQV4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dJQV4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found this in an apartment I recently moved into. I've been interested in Hinduism and Buddhism for a number of years but have close to no knowledge of the traditions (I have taken some university courses). I was just wondering which gods are depicted here and what exactly is going on. I suspect the figure at the bottom may be Kali because of the ornaments she's holding, but also I've never seen Kali on a horse so I'm probably wrong. If this question should be directed on a different site please let me know. Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7013" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-06-29T08:15:14.743" LastActivityDate="2016-06-29T08:15:14.743" Title="What is the nature of this depiction? Which Gods are presented here?" Tags="|gods|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13870" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13869" CreationDate="2016-06-28T23:11:17.643" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, this picture has nothing to do with Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma). This is a Buddhist picture of Tara and her 21 forms. If you count them, leaving out the central figure and the figure on horse below the central figure, there are 21 others around. A similar depiction of the same image in color is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DsL4J.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DsL4J.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also recognition in some schools of Buddhism of twenty-one Tārās. A practice text entitled In Praise of the 21 Tārās, is recited during the morning in all four sects of Tibetan Buddhism ( Refer to Wiki Pages &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(Buddhism)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praises_to_the_Twenty-One_Taras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;). The list of names of 21 Taras can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/A%20-%20Tibetan%20Buddhism/Subjects/Tantra/Practices-%20(Sadhanas%20and%20commentaries)/Tara/Tara%20-%20The%20Mother%20of%20All%20Buddhas/Tara,%20the%20Mother%20of%20all%20Buddhas.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Twenty-one_Taras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. The Praise to 21 Taras is &lt;a href=&quot;https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/prayers/21tarasltrrdr.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-06-28T23:11:17.643" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13872" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-29T05:58:04.350" Score="8" ViewCount="6211" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vijaya dhanush was given to Karna by Parashurama. What had happened to the bow after Karna's death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-30T02:06:19.097" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T07:30:25.073" Title="What happened to the Vijaya bow after Karna's death?" Tags="|mahabharata|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13873" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-29T09:12:34.403" Score="3" ViewCount="103" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Which ancient writtings  , Shlokas , Books we find more description about Human Mind ? eg. description of Human Mind's characteristics , qualities, It's strength and weakness etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What texts gives advice to our mind and guides us about our good behaviour in society? For example , A 15 th century saint from western India (Deccan) named &quot;Ramdasa&quot; written a book advising our mind. Name of the book is &quot;Manache Shlok&quot; Or Shlokas for Mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note- Although all our texts including Gita is grand advice to ourselves ,our mind. I want specific writtings about Human Mind.And my question is more philosophical rather than scientific.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-21T18:04:21.117" LastActivityDate="2016-07-21T18:04:21.117" Title="Description obout Qualities of Human Mind and Advice for Mind , from Ancient Hinduism texts?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|philosophy|mind|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13874" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-29T11:14:29.527" Score="11" ViewCount="999" Body="&lt;p&gt;A fella gave me an idea about translating Hindu texts to Chinese and others for preaching. Chinese chanting mantras in their native Chinese. Does Hinduism allow or recommend this practice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E.g., this is the translation of Mahamrtyunjaya mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PIbQQ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PIbQQ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Hinduism allow such translation and then chanting of mantras by reading from native Chinese script?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4690" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-04T06:20:26.123" LastActivityDate="2023-05-12T22:01:24.227" Title="Does Hinduism allow chanting translated Vedic mantras?" Tags="|mantras|translation-request|prayer|language|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13875" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13854" CreationDate="2016-06-29T13:09:01.617" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In general, there are multiple reasons for any rule in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, w.r.t asking people to not to eat rice on Ekadashi&#xA;It is to &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Make sure, people eat other grains &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why?&#xA;    a. People/consumers get benefitted from the proteins/vitamins from other grains.&#xA;    b. Helps farmer to grow alternate crops which benefits in maintaining soil fertility.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Cleanse Stomach - if you intend to keep fast by not eating rice.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7017" LastEditorUserId="7017" LastEditDate="2016-07-01T05:17:42.500" LastActivityDate="2016-07-01T05:17:42.500" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13876" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13842" CreationDate="2016-06-29T13:49:13.667" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Depends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In earlier days, people doesn't used to record the day of Birth, even if they do many are not educated enough to remember those 60 Lunar years (after which it is believed in Hinduism that we would have similar years).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, naming after the nakshatra/rashi helped them track things, without having to search through documents available at the village intellectual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These days, I have seen people keeping a middle name based on nakshatra &amp;amp; dropping it in official records.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regards&#xA;Narendra N&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7017" LastActivityDate="2016-06-29T13:49:13.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13877" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9323" CreationDate="2016-06-29T16:14:03.000" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma is said to have created death. The figure of Death is picturesquely described in the Mahabharata as 'a dark woman, wearing red garments, with red eyes and red palms and soles, adorned with divine ear-rings and ornaments' and she is given the job of 'destroying all creatures, imbeciles and scholars' without exception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Lord Brahma indirectly kills demons through his first female - 'Death'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note : Here, death is represented as a female and Lord Yama works under her. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Check out : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ancient.eu/Brahma/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.ancient.eu/Brahma/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6875" LastActivityDate="2016-06-29T16:14:03.000" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13878" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-29T21:24:53.377" Score="3" ViewCount="904" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonar_crater_lake&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lonar crater lake&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in Skanda Purana or Padma Purana as the following excerpt from Wikipedia claims? If so, in what context?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Historicity&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The lake was first mentioned in ancient scriptures such as the &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;strong&gt;Padma Puran&lt;/strong&gt; and the Ain-i-Akbari.&lt;sup&gt;[18]&lt;/sup&gt; The first European to visit the lake was a British officer, J.E. Alexander, in 1823.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/ancient-city-found-in-india-irradiated-from-atomic-blast&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This article&lt;/a&gt; claims:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Giant Unexplained Crater Near Bombay&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another curious sign of an ancient nuclear war in India is a giant crater near Bombay. The nearly circular 2,154-metre-diameter Lonar crater, located 400 kilometres northeast of Bombay and aged at less than 50,000 years old, &lt;strong&gt;could be related to nuclear warfare of antiquity&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be clear, I'm not looking for speculation about the nuclear warfare, my question is just about what those Puranas say about the lake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-06-29T23:29:51.143" LastActivityDate="2019-02-22T13:30:48.687" Title="Is the Lonar crater lake mentioned in Skanda Purana or Padma Purana?" Tags="|puranas|history|india|skanda-purana|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13879" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="270" CreationDate="2016-06-30T02:49:46.890" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vyoman-wwwzblogcom.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Zoroaster = Hari ?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantra of the Universal Soul: Gae-ush Urva-nem&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Earth’s Souls’ lament: Ys29.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In anguish;  wailed Mother Earth, taking the shape of the self sacrificing Cow.&#xA;Why &amp;amp; for what purpose have I been created, what hands have moulded me,&#xA;The degenerate forces of Hate, Deceit &amp;amp; Violence, encircle me---strangulate me,&#xA;For me , there is no Protector, other than you.&#xA;Guide me, I plead with thee, to a safe shelter through an efficient &amp;amp; powerful Saviour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amongst the Par-asu tribes of  the 16 aryan lands,  Zarathushtra was born, in answer to this appeal of mother earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam (X.1.17-18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The earth, oppressed by schemes of the princes proud,&#xA;Leagued in their might with countless demon hosts&#xA;Bowed down with this great burden,&#xA;She approached her great creator, seeking help from him,&#xA;Wearing the shape of a Cow, two streams of tears,&#xA;Flowing adown her face, lamenting loud,&#xA;And piteously, with heavy heart she stood,&#xA;And poured out to her lord, her suffering soul&#xA;In answer to this appeal, we are told that Sri Krishna was born. &#xA;Interestingly, this name &quot;Krsna&quot; also appears in the Farvardin Yasht as that of a good King.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2353" LastActivityDate="2016-06-30T02:49:46.890" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13881" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13878" CreationDate="2016-06-30T05:37:28.453" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; states the story of deamon &lt;em&gt;Lonasura&lt;/em&gt; who was slain by an &lt;em&gt;avatara&lt;/em&gt; of Vishnu by the name &lt;em&gt;daitya Sudan&lt;/em&gt; who was hiding in the lake. The story is narrated &lt;a href=&quot;https://agarwaltv.wordpress.com/2016/02/05/lonar-crater-lake-and-vishnu-as-daityasudan-in-skanda-padma-purana/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;as&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Skanda Purana legend states that a demon named Lonasur became insolent and devastated surrounding countries. He even challenged gods. The people appealed to Lord Vishnu to destroy him. He therefore assumed the form of handsome youth named Daityasudan and could find from demon’s sisters about demon’s hiding place, he removed the lid of den and destroyed the demon. The present Lonar Lake is claimed to be the den of the demon; the water was mixed with his blood and the salts occurred in the water through his flesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's a temple atop the crator dedicated to Daitya Sudan.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jhpDK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jhpDK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;P.S. I tried searching for the exact verses in translations of Padma and Skanda Purana, but couldn't find them.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2016-06-30T05:37:28.453" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13883" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-30T08:05:00.760" Score="1" ViewCount="328" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman once got cursed that he would not remember his powers until someone reminded him of his powers. But the effect of that curse ended when Lord Jambavanth reminded Hanuman of his power before he jumped over the sea to reach Lanka of Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when Hanuman was cursed, he was still a kid and at that time he had a lot of enemies like Vaali and Ravan. How did he survive or protect himself from them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5302" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-06-30T15:13:37.953" LastActivityDate="2016-06-30T15:13:37.953" Title="How did Hanuman manage to survive after he got cursed?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="16" ClosedDate="2017-01-02T11:35:39.480" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13884" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7456" CreationDate="2016-06-30T09:38:55.887" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;These type of questions can't be answered in absolute perspective: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One can generate infinite number of questions regarding why some &lt;em&gt;xyz deity&lt;/em&gt; did only a particular role in particular &lt;em&gt;abc story&lt;/em&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though let&amp;apos;s try to answer this question relatively.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Shaivites may say that even Lord Vishnu wasn&amp;apos;t able to consume poison so it was necessary for Lord Shankara to consume it. Vaishnavs may claim that Shiva was able to consume poison only due to grace of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However let&amp;apos;s look this story from Vedic Perspective.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vedic Samhitas (Taittariya and Vajasena) samhita describes Lord Rudra as Nilagriva in various places. For eg. In Taittariya Samhita 4.5.1:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Namo Astu Nilagrivaya Sahasrakshya&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to the &lt;strong&gt;blue-necked one&lt;/strong&gt; and to the one having 1000 eyes (ie. All seeing)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nilagriva means blue necked one.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As Vedic Samhitas are eternal, so it becomes necessary that some events make the neck of Lord Rudra blue. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, to respect the Vedic statements Lord Shankara consumed the poison and made his neck blue thus being Nilakantha/Nilagriva. So, Lord Vishnu didn&amp;apos;t drank because it was just like pre-ordained event at that time.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In Response to &lt;strong&gt;@Krishnas&lt;/strong&gt; answer Rudra being Mahadeva, Devadeva etc.. only after performing Sarvamedha Yajna. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The context of the verse should only be taken in relative perspective because it contradicts with Shruti passages if taken in absolute perspective.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Satapatha Brahmana of YajurVeda clearly gives story of birth of Lord Rudra from Brahma. Brahma just after the birth itself clearly states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You are Mahadeva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are Ishana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in the above chapter of Ashtamurti Manifestation of Rudras &lt;strong&gt;he is Mahadeva(the great God), Ishana(the Ruler) from his birth. So, there is no meaning of saying he became only after performing Yajnas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It also contradicts Shruti passage of Taittariya Aranyaka[10.21] which calls Lord Shiva as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ishwara SarvaBhutanam&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; Lord of All Time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As he is Ishwara of SarvaBhuta (All time) so there is no meaning of saying he became only after doing something.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, it becomes clear that Mahabharat passage is actually stating Mahadeva is the soul of Gods, as it says &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Hutwatatmaanam&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; ie. Giving self as oblation and then being God of Gods. ie. That Mahabharata passage is actually explaining the Shruti passage of Svestasvatara Upanishad like:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He, &lt;strong&gt;the omniscient Rudra, the creator of the gods and the bestower of their powers,&lt;/strong&gt; the support of the universe, He who, in the beginning, gave birth to Hiranyagarbha−may He endow us with clear intellect! [3.4]&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is actually explaining How Lord Shiva created Gods, became self of them by giving oblation of his own self. As the Puranas state &amp;quot;This whole world is the transmutation of Yajna.&amp;quot; So that verse is actually explaining how the oblation of self of Mahadeva became self of Gods ie. Devadeva or God of Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-06-30T09:49:37.720" LastActivityDate="2016-06-30T09:49:37.720" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13885" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="791" CreationDate="2016-06-30T10:48:26.693" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Padma Purana Vol 2 is available &lt;a href=&quot;https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=FF76E5FB53795C42&amp;amp;id=FF76E5FB53795C42%21109&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. I ask  if anyone has found Vol 1, please kindly post the link.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-06-30T10:48:26.693" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13889" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-06-30T16:08:03.737" Score="7" ViewCount="5293" Body="&lt;p&gt;If Krishna wants, he can give Moksha to everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/66&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;18.66&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:-&lt;/strong&gt; Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By his grace, he can free anyone from sins. Why his grace will only fall if one surrenders to him? Why doesn't he give Moksha to everyone? Because everyone's ultimate goal is Moksha so just give them Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahamsa &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter08.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is another class of devotees, known as Kripasiddha, that is to say, those on whom the grace of God descends all of a sudden and who at once attain His vision and Knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt;  Such people may be likened to a room that has been dark a thousand years, which, when a lamp is brought into it, becomes light immediately, not little by little.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is possible that every single creature could get Moksha just by the grace of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T08:21:12.830" Title="Why doesn't Lord Krishna give Moksha to everyone?" Tags="|krishna|moksha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13890" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9782" CreationDate="2016-06-30T16:42:16.750" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is stated in Anushasana Parva of Mahabharata. Lord Shiva himself answers this question on being asked by Uma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Uma said, &lt;strong&gt;'Thou hast many abodes in heaven, of diverse forms and possessed of every comfort and &#xA;  luxury. Why, O holy one, dost thou reside in the crematorium,&lt;/strong&gt; abandoning all those delightful &#xA;  mansions? The crematorium is full of the hair and bones (of the dead), abounds with vulture and jackals, &#xA;  and is strewn with hundreds of funeral pyres. Full of carrion and muddy with fat and blood, with entrails &#xA;  and bones strewn all over it, and always echoing with the howls of jackals, it is certainly an unclean &#xA;  place.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Maheswara said, 'I always wander over the whole earth in search of a sacred spot. &lt;strong&gt;I do not, however, see any spot that is more sacred than the crematorium.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence, of all abodes, the crematorium pleases my heart most, shaded that it generally is by branches of the banian and adorned with torn garlands of flowers. O thou of sweet smiles, the multitudes of ghostly beings that are my companions love to reside in such spots. I do not like, O goddess, to reside anywhere without those ghostly creatures being by my side. Hence, the crematorium is a sacred abode to me. Indeed, O auspicious lady, it seems to me to be the very heaven. &lt;strong&gt;Highly sacred and possessed of great merit, the crematorium is much applauded by persons desirous of having holy abodes.'&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;[Anushasana Parva section CXLI]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-06-30T16:42:16.750" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13891" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13892" CreationDate="2016-06-30T17:40:33.127" Score="14" ViewCount="554" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was going through the below &lt;a href=&quot;https://mr.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%97%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%9A%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0/%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF_%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE&quot;&gt;lines&lt;/a&gt; from a very famous &lt;a href=&quot;https://mr.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%97%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%9A%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0&quot;&gt;गुरूचरित्र&lt;/a&gt; (Guru Charitra)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीगुरु म्हणती शिष्यांसी । तुम्ही आश्रमी संन्यासी । राहूं नये पांच&#xA;  दिवशीं । एके ठायीं वास करीत ॥१६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In above lines, there is clear advice that those who are &lt;strong&gt;Sanyasi&lt;/strong&gt;(तुम्ही आश्रमी संन्यासी) they should not stay at one place (एके ठायीं वास करीत) for more than 5 days (राहूं नये पांच दिवशीं) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What could be the reason behind such advice? Do any other Hindu scriptures mentions similar advice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2016-06-30T17:47:24.870" LastActivityDate="2018-01-28T07:01:31.847" Title="Why Sanyasi (संन्यासी) shouldn't stay at a place for Long?" Tags="|scripture|belief|practice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13892" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13891" CreationDate="2016-06-30T21:41:07.043" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism, man has been advised to retire from material world after completion of the three ashram  or phases of life. i.e. Brahmacharya (student) ब्रह्मचर्य  आश्रम , Grihastha (householder) गृहस्थ आश्रम , Vanaprastha (retired) वानप्रस्थाश्रम , Sannyasa (hermit ) संन्यास आश्रम. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विनेषु च विहृत्‍यैवं तृतीयं भागमायुष: ।&#xA;       चतुर्थमायुषो भागं त्‍यक्‍त्‍वा सङ्‌गान्‍परिव्रजेत्‌ ।। – मनुस्‍मृति ६.३३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: After the third phase of  life &#xA;  ( retired ) one has to leave material world in the next phase and &#xA;  renounce.  [Manusmruti 6.33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their are some rules laid out for sannyasis  सन्यासि (who choose this path  as hermatic life).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the rule is , a sannyasi must not stay in one place for certain number of days or months. I think the reason is ,when we stay at some place for some time , we get attached to it , its surroundings and people etc. But if you choose sannyasi life it is not proper to be again getting attracted towards material life. So considering this situation , to prevent a sannyasi from attaching to material world , this rule is described.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="4066" LastEditDate="2016-07-01T06:05:15.787" LastActivityDate="2016-07-01T06:05:15.787" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13893" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13889" CreationDate="2016-06-30T21:54:47.310" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think Shree Krishna expects us to do the right things and live our life, do our karma according to  &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvad Geeta श्रीमद भगवद्गीता&lt;/strong&gt; as told by himself. And through our kama , finally to come to him. So he wont offer moksha to everyone , but wants everyone to achive it themself by following his teachings and ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तस्मात सर्वेषु कालेषु माम अनुस्मर युध्य च ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मय्य अर्पितमनॊबुद्धिर माम एवैष्यस्य असंशयः॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमद भगवद गीता . Chapter 8 shlok 7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tasmāt—therefore; sarveṣu—always; kāleṣu—time; mām—unto Me; anusmara—go on remembering; yudhya—fight; ca—also; mayi—unto Me; arpita—surrender; manaḥ—mind; buddhiḥ—intellect; mām—unto Me; eva—surely; eṣyasi—will attain; asaṁśayaḥ—beyond a doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:-&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Kṛiṣhṇa and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-01T06:10:58.037" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13895" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12409" CreationDate="2016-07-01T01:53:22.370" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;What every little I have learnt from great scholars I am sharing here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As &quot; D &quot; mentioned -out of four &quot;Purushardhas&quot;  Dharma is the pivot and one should adopt  &quot;Dharmic Kama&quot;  and &quot;Dharmic Artha&quot; and the fourth one will automatically come to you  that is &quot; Moksha&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;you take a long stick - measure it into &quot;1/3 of it's length&quot; and start cutting into first / second / third. When you cut the 3rd piece you will end up with 4th piece as well. That means if you follow Dharma / Artha / kama as explained above you will get the 4th piece Moksha easy ( thanks to that great scholar who made it so simple for me)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can't really comment on &quot;Vatsyana&quot; , as it needs  deeper understanding inlines of a learned scholar... ( except the key tenets of conjugal pleasure)and  for me it is more in line with &quot;KAULA&quot; marga which is a dangerous path. and if we interpret it wrongly, pitfalls are we may go back in the evolution cycle in terms of next births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May god bless &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7024" LastActivityDate="2016-07-01T01:53:22.370" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13896" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-01T07:16:22.473" Score="5" ViewCount="950" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know if Krishna had drove the chariot away while arjuna fought with Karna. This is shown in Suryaputra Karn and also in the Star TV Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-07-01T09:52:39.627" LastActivityDate="2017-10-17T13:32:23.370" Title="Krishna Driving Chariot Away While Fighting Karna" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|karna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13897" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10176" CreationDate="2016-07-01T08:28:19.517" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;No. This is not right.&#xA;Krishna doesnt speak about Pandavas in Uddaha Gita.&#xA;In Uddhava Gita, Lord Krishna gives upadesha to Udhava and finally asks him to go to Badrikashram to do severe penance. &#xA;More info here : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/A-Bird%60s-Eye-View-of-the-Uddhava-Gita-4.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/A-Bird%60s-Eye-View-of-the-Uddhava-Gita-4.aspx&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, analyzing Krishna's character in Bhagavata and Mahabharata, Krishna will never say that 'Duryodhana had Viveka'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But its true that Krishna says Dharmaraja lacks Viveka in couple of occasions in Mahabharata. I'm referring to Original Vyasa bharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2876" LastActivityDate="2016-07-01T08:28:19.517" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13898" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-01T09:44:31.080" Score="6" ViewCount="562" Body="&lt;p&gt;If one knows that what has to happen will happen, by the will of Supreme, then why do we protect our dharma? We do not control the results (fruits). By the will of Supreme, if dharma has to stay, it will, and if it does not have to, it will not. Then why should we try to protect our dharma when the results are not in our hands?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T01:58:54.680" Title="Why fight against adharma if everything is already planned?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|karma|dharma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13899" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13898" CreationDate="2016-07-01T10:26:26.260" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;By considering the point &amp;quot;Everything is already planned&amp;quot;, then literally everything is planned including our fight against Adharma. Means we cannot stop ourselves in playing our part which is planned for us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to the scriptural basis, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagvad Gita in Chapter three Karma Yoga&lt;/a&gt; section says that everyone is forced to work helplessly according to their qualities. Even no one can maintain their physical body without work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bg 3.3 — The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O sinless Arjuna, I have already explained that there are two classes of men who try to realize the self. Some are inclined to understand it by empirical, philosophical speculation, and others by devotional service.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bg 3.4 — Not by merely abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor by renunciation alone can one attain perfection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bg 3.5 — Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bg 3.6 — One who restrains the senses of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bg 3.7 — On the other hand, if a sincere person tries to control the active senses by the mind and begins karma-yoga [in Kṛṣṇa consciousness] without attachment, he is by far superior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bg 3.8 — Perform your prescribed duty, for doing so is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one’s physical body without work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bg 3.9 — Work done as a sacriﬁce for Viṣṇu has to be performed; otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. Therefore, O son of Kuntī, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain free from bondage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T17:28:13.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13900" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13903" CreationDate="2016-07-01T10:49:01.963" Score="12" ViewCount="3748" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu traditional calender Their are 12 months (मास) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chaitra (चैत्र), Vaisakha (वैशाख), Jyaistha (जेष्ठ), Asadha (आषाढ), Sravana (श्रावण), Bhadrapada (भाद्रपद), Asvina (अश्विन), Kartika (कार्तिक), Agrahayana (अग्रहायन), Pausa (पौष), Magha (माघ), and Phalguna (फाल्गुन).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who have first given the names to Months? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the meanig of each Month's name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are their any stories related to these Names?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-07-01T14:55:45.697" LastActivityDate="2022-07-03T11:37:50.347" Title="The story behind Names of Hindu calender Months?" Tags="|culture|tradition|panchang|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13901" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-01T11:17:40.440" Score="8" ViewCount="2331" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wish to know everything that the scriptures say about Kali demon of Kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="4166" LastEditDate="2016-07-01T12:12:44.413" LastActivityDate="2016-10-20T10:05:05.917" Title="What do the scriptures say about Kali demon of Kaliyuga?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|scripture|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13902" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13901" CreationDate="2016-07-01T11:50:01.647" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here, is description of Kali demon from Kalki Purana;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the annihilation, the secondary creator of the universe, Lord Brahma, the grandfather of everyone, who was born on the universal lotus flower, created Sin personified, having a black complexion, from his back.&#xA;  The name of Sin personified was Adharma By faithfully hearing about, chanting, and remembering the descendents of Adharma, one quickly becomes freed from all sinful reactions. The wife of Adharma, (Irrehgion), was named Mithya, (Falsehood)&#xA;  She was very beautiful, and had eyes like those of a cat They had a son named Dambha, (Pride), who was always very angry and eneigetic. Dambha had a sister named Maya, and within her womb, he begot&#xA;  a son named Lobha, (Greed), and a daughter named Nikrti, (Cunning) Lobha begot a son named Krodha, (Anger), in the womb of Nikrti. Himsa, (Envy), was Krodha's sister. &lt;strong&gt;From the womb of Himsa, Krodha&#xA;  begot a son named Kali. Kali is always seen to be holding his genitals in his left hand. His complexion is very black, like black ointment that has been mixed with oil. Kali's abdomen is like that of a crow, his face is frightening to behold, and his tongue is red and appears to be full of greed. His appearance is&#xA;  very fearful and a bad smell emanates from his body. Kali is very fond of playing chess, drinking wine, enjoying the company of prostitutes, and&#xA;  associating with gold merchants. Kali's sister was Durukti, (Harsh Speech). From Durukti's womb,&#xA;  Kali begot a son named Bhaya, (Fear), and a daughter named, Mrtyu (Death). Bhaya begot a son named Niraya (Hell) from the womb of Mrtyu and Niraya begot ten thousand sons in the womb of his sister, Yatana&#xA;  (Excessive Pain).&lt;/strong&gt; Thus I have described the destructive progeny of Kali, who were all blasphemers of genuine religious principles. All these relatives of Kali were the destroyers of sacrifice, study of the Vedas, and charity, because they transgressed all the Vedic principles of religion. They were reservoirs of mental distress, disease, old age, destruction of religious principles, sorrow, lamentation, and fear. &lt;em&gt;[Kalki Purana 1.14-22]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-07-01T11:50:01.647" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13903" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13900" CreationDate="2016-07-01T12:23:15.287" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;These 12 months are derived from the &lt;strong&gt;name of nakshtras.&lt;/strong&gt; As I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7465/is-the-practice-of-kundalis-matching-part-of-the-core-hindu-doctrine/11716#11716&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the names of nakshtras are itself stated in &lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda.&lt;/strong&gt; In a particular month there is high probability of occurring full moon in particular nakshtra. Of course it may not occur exactly but it occurs near.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharshi Upamanyu in Vyaviya Samhita &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A3%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE_%E0%A5%AD_(%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE)/%E0%A4%89%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B0_%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%97%E0%A4%83/%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%83_%E0%A5%A8%E0%A5%AE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 7&lt;/a&gt; of Shiva Mahapurana also mentions relation between name of month and its relation with Nakshatras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पौषे पुष्यनक्षत्रे कुर्यान्नीराजनं विभोः ॥ ७.२,२८.६&#xA;माघे मघाख्ये नक्षत्रे प्रदद्याद्घृतकंबलम् ॥ ७.२,२८.६&#xA;फाल्गुने चोत्तरान्ते वै प्रारभेत महोत्सवम् ॥ ७.२,२८.७&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;चैत्रे चित्रापौर्णमास्यां&lt;/strong&gt; दोलां कुर्याद्यथाविधि ॥ ७.२,२८.७&#xA;वैशाख्यां तु विशाखायां कुर्यात्पुष्पमहालयम् ॥ ७.२,२८.८&#xA;ज्येष्ठे मूलाख्यनक्षत्रे शीतकुम्भं प्रदापयेत् ॥ ७.२,२८.८&#xA;आषाढे चोत्तराषाढे पवित्रारोपणं तथा ॥ ७.२,२८.९ (Shiva Purana chapter 7, Vyayaviya Samhita) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the Pushya nakshatra in the month of Poush. Magha nakshatra in the month of Magha. Uttara (falguni) in month of Falguna. &lt;strong&gt;In the month of Chaitra on the full-moon day Chitra nakshatra&lt;/strong&gt;. Vishakha nakshatra in the month of Vaisakha. Mula nakshatra in the month of Jestha (which is near Jyestha nakshatra). Uttarashadha nakshatra in the month of Ashadha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above reference is clear to establish that month names are directly related with Nakshatra names. Especially by the word &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;चैत्रे चित्रापौर्णमास्यां&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, Maharshi Upamanyu directly tells that in the month of Chaitra when Purnima is in Chitra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the basis of this 15 nakshtras were choosen and months were named on the basis of that name. For eg. There is high probability of occurring full moon in or near Visakha nakshtra in Vaisakha and so that full moon is termed as Vaisakh Poornima and the month is named Vaisakh. The above Shiva Purana chapter in some places differs with the name of Nakshatra in some places, like it says Mula in Jestha, but if we look closely Mula and Jyestha nakshatra are close, so if full moon occurs on Mula, it is closer to Jyestha, and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the months are derived from these nakshtras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chitra&lt;/strong&gt; Nakshtra = &lt;strong&gt;Chaitra&lt;/strong&gt; month &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Visakha&lt;/strong&gt; Nakshtra = &lt;strong&gt;Vaisakha&lt;/strong&gt; month &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Jyestha&lt;/strong&gt; Nakshtra = &lt;strong&gt;Jyestha month&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Purva &lt;strong&gt;Aashaadha,&lt;/strong&gt; Uttara &lt;strong&gt;Aashaadha&lt;/strong&gt; Nakshtras = &lt;strong&gt;Aasadha&lt;/strong&gt; month &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Sravana&lt;/strong&gt; Nakshtra = &lt;strong&gt;Sraavana&lt;/strong&gt; month &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Uttara &lt;strong&gt;Bhaadrapada,&lt;/strong&gt; Poorva &lt;strong&gt;Bhaadrapada&lt;/strong&gt; Nakshtras = &lt;strong&gt;Bhadra&lt;/strong&gt; month &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Asvini&lt;/strong&gt; Nakshtra =   &lt;strong&gt;Asvina&lt;/strong&gt; month &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Krittika&lt;/strong&gt; nakshtra = &lt;strong&gt;Kaartika&lt;/strong&gt; month &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Mrigashira&lt;/strong&gt; nakshtra =   &lt;strong&gt;Maarghasira&lt;/strong&gt; month &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Pushya&lt;/strong&gt; nakshtra = &lt;strong&gt;Pausa&lt;/strong&gt; month &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Maghaa&lt;/strong&gt;  nakshtra = &lt;strong&gt;Magha&lt;/strong&gt; month &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Uttara &lt;strong&gt;Phalguni,&lt;/strong&gt; Purva &lt;strong&gt;Phalguni&lt;/strong&gt; nakshtras = &lt;strong&gt;Phalguna&lt;/strong&gt; month&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The full moon either occurs in those nakshatras or near those nakshatras of a particular month and hence these months derive their name from those nakshatras. Also, refer to this &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part6/chap13.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kamakoti article&lt;/a&gt; for further information on how the names of these Months got changed across various places and times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2022-06-28T12:32:13.643" LastActivityDate="2022-06-28T12:32:13.643" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13904" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-01T13:27:50.060" Score="9" ViewCount="1814" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that there are 12 Surya namaskar mantra that are also described in question here &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/657/correct-way-of-surya-namaskar&quot;&gt;Correct way of Surya namaskar?&lt;/a&gt;. But I want to know what is the origin of Surya namskar mantra? Which scripture describes about it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T09:10:14.507" Title="What is the origin of twelve Surya namaskar mantra?" Tags="|scripture|gods|mantras|surya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13905" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13910" CreationDate="2016-07-01T15:27:18.493" Score="5" ViewCount="3324" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story of Jadbharat and his rebirth as deer? How he get salvation even in form of deer?&#xA;This question came in my mind while reading &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhakti-yoga-meditation.com/jnani-jadbharat.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; blog.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-10T13:18:51.083" LastActivityDate="2016-10-06T05:46:08.847" Title="What is the story of Jadbharat?" Tags="|puranas|bhagavata-purana|bhakti|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13906" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13904" CreationDate="2016-07-01T15:45:06.177" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will try to give answer to your question about origin of Surya NamskarMantras.-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their are 108 various names of Surya discribed in ancient scriptures eg. these names can be found in 4 vedas. i.e. Rugved (ऋग्वेद), Atherva Ved (अथर्ववेद) , Yajur Ved (यजुर्वेद) and Sam Ved (सामवेद)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their are many Vedic refrences for origin of these 108 names , Like , &lt;strong&gt;Adityahridayam (आदित्य रहृदयम).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the shlokas are given below - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आदित्यः सविता सूर्यः खगः पूषा गभस्तिमान्। सुवर्णसदृशो भानुर्हिरण्यरेता&#xA;  दिवाकरः॥ १०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हिरण्यगर्भः शिशिरस्तपनो भास्करो रविः अग्निगर्भोऽदितेः पुत्रः शङ्खः&#xA;  शिशिरनाशनः॥ १२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adityahridayam (आदित्य रहृदयम).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their are also refrences from &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Surya Gayatri (सूर्य गायत्री)&lt;/strong&gt; shlokas ,which contain  some of these 108 names. Some of the shlokas are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) ऊँ आदित्याय विदमहे दिवाकराय धीमहि तन्न: सूर्य: प्रचोदयात&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) ऊँ  भास्कराय विदमहे दिवा कराया धीमहि तन्नो सूर्य प्रचोदयात&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So we can say that , the 12 surya Namskar Mantras  origin is from vedas. The 12 surya Namskar Mantras are created using various names discribed in all above mentioned and various other sources. Like Surya Gayatri and Adityahridayam.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please check the links for more info about 108 Names of Sun and Surya Gayatri and Adityahridayam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adityahridayam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adityahridayam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-names/gods/lord-surya/108-surya-names.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-names/gods/lord-surya/108-surya-names.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bolguru.com/surya-gayatri-mantra-in-hindi-sanskrit-english-with-me&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://bolguru.com/surya-gayatri-mantra-in-hindi-sanskrit-english-with-me&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-02T06:03:07.633" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T06:03:07.633" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13909" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13840" CreationDate="2016-07-02T06:42:43.597" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Their is similar shloka , I have found relating to your question. Their may be many more shlokas or mantras similar to this , but it I find this more closely related to question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रद्धां मेधां यशः प्रज्ञां विद्यां बुद्धिं श्रियं बलम् ।  आयुष्यं तेज&#xA;  आरोग्यं देहि मे हव्यवाहन ॥ ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O  Messenger (Agni) give me faith, wisdom, glory, understanding,&#xA;  learning, intellect, wealth, power, longetivity, lusture, and health..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T06:42:43.597" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13910" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13905" CreationDate="2016-07-02T07:50:24.587" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/faXsK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/faXsK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;The story from &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Puran (विष्णू पुराण) is-:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Long  ago there was a king named &lt;strong&gt;Bharata (भरत)&lt;/strong&gt;. His father was &lt;strong&gt;Rishabha (ऋषभ)&lt;/strong&gt; and were living in a place called &lt;strong&gt;Shalagrama (शाळग्राम).&lt;/strong&gt; He was great devotee of Lord Vishnu (श्री विष्णू) .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One time  Bharata had gone to bath in a river. A &lt;strong&gt;deer&lt;/strong&gt; was also their  drinking water . While the deer was drinking water, there was the terrible roar of a &lt;strong&gt;lion&lt;/strong&gt;. The deer gave a frightened leap and gave an untimely birth. The baby fell into the river. The mother deer died as a result of the leap. But Bharata rescued the baby deer from the water and brought it home to his ashrama (आश्रम). Every day, the king fed the baby and slowly, the deer grew bigger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharata greately attached to the deer . He had given up his kingdom, his sons, and his friends and forgotten them all. But he could not forget the deer. If the deer was late in returning to the ashrama, he would worry that it might have been eaten up by a wolf or a tiger or a lion. He would be happy only when the deer returned. And because Bharata thought about the deer so much, he forgot to think of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many years passed. Bharata was dying near the deer and thinking about deer . Since he thought of the deer while dying, he was born as a deer in his next life. The only difference was that he was born as a &lt;strong&gt;jatismara deer,&lt;/strong&gt; that is, a deer that remembered the incidents of its past life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a deer, Bharata came again to Shalagrama because he remembered his old place. He lived on dry leaves and dry grass and eventually died. He was &lt;strong&gt;reborn&lt;/strong&gt; as a &lt;strong&gt;jatismara brahmana&lt;/strong&gt; . In this life he was truly learned, well versed in all the shastras. He had attained the supreme knowledge or Moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He moved so little that he came to known as Jababharata.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We also can  find story of jadabharata his rebirth and his life in &quot;Shreemat Bhagavat Mahapurana&quot; (7, 8 , 9 ,10th chapter) .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please check the link for another source-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-vishnu-purana/d/doc57597.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jadbharta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-10-06T05:46:08.847" LastActivityDate="2016-10-06T05:46:08.847" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13911" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13889" CreationDate="2016-07-02T08:36:39.720" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before looking into the answer let us first look at few questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why did Government create prison houses?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Government has the power to release all the prisoners.Why doesn't the head of Government release all of them?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many Vaishnav acharyas compare this material world(that includes different heavenly and hellish planets) to a prison house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So why was this material world created?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Actually This material world is eternal it was never created.(BG 13.20)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Material nature and the living entities should be understood to be&#xA;  beginningless. Their transformations and the modes of matter are&#xA;  products of material nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who are envious of GOD are sent to this world. We can see that everybody here wants to lord it over material nature; some one wants to be a master of his family, someone master of his country, master of his job etc. But in reality Krishna is the master of entire cosmic creation. I discuss this matter in more detail in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13853/why-man-is-mortal-irrespective-of-good-or-bad-activity/13855#13855&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why Doesn't Krishna grant liberation to all?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The living entities in this world may be broadly classified in 2 categories. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;those who are engaged in sense gratification(serving the illusory&#xA;energy of krishna )&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Those who are engaged in service of God(PATH OF SELF REALIZATION)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows&#xA;  My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if someone wants to serve external illusory energy of GOD; Krishna grants his desire and sends such person to this world/or keeps the person in this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically God doesn't interfere with out free will(I discuss this free will in my above linked answer).Because there is no point in showing a gun to a girl and asking her to say 'I Love You' :D . In that circumstance anyone will say as you dictate. God does not impose himself on us. We came here by our wish so he wants us to return on our own wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So point here is :&lt;strong&gt;He sent us to this world because we wanted to come here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How do we know that Krishna respects our will?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of Geeta Krishna Says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more conﬁdential.&#xA;  Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So here he is not forcing Arjuna to carry out His(Krishna's) will instead asks Arjuna to do as he wishes to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition I would also mention a small story(I guess its a folk tale but i'm not sure):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Story goes roughly like this:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Once sage Narada was visiting different places of pilgrimage on earth where he saw many people engaged in worshiping Vishnu. He was bewildered as to how come Vaikuntha is so vacant. These people are so pious they must be in Vaikuntha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when he reached Vaikuntha He asked Lord Narayana about it. lord said 'You can bring all of them here if they wish to'. Narada became happy and came back on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He asked people if they desire to come to Vaikuntha. Half of them did not know what Vaikuntha was and others were just not interested since they were deeply attached to their kinsmen etc. then Narada realized what is the condition of living entities of this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;P.S.&lt;/strong&gt;: I have given a crude example of Prison houses built by government. SO Based on criminal actions of person judiciary system send a person to prison. however Krishna sees intentions and desires and accordingly places a person in different abode.Krishna being the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/13/23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;supersoul&lt;/a&gt; in everyone's heart is aware of the intentions of all living beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer, who is&#xA;  the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and&#xA;  permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit1:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Great Acaryas have descended in this world over period of time.&#xA;Someone might ask are Acharyas(great Vedantist such as Shankara,Ramanuja,Madhav etc.) envious of GOD?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In answer we can look back to our example of Prison House. Sometimes police in-charge, minister or in some cases even head of state may enter a prison to see that administration is going on well. However it is not wise to think that they are prisoners.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically there are two types of living entities&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nitya-Mukta(Eternally liberated)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nitya-baddha(Eternally Bound)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Most of great Acaryas(Not all may be) are considered as Nitya-Mukta or are considered as incarnation of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They descent by their own will for delivering the fallen souls.Ex. if above mentioned great acaryas had never descended to this world we would have never been able to discuss this matter as we are doing right now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I wish to be liberated. Why am I still in this world and Not liberated?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again revisiting our example.If prisoner says 'release me'; will authorities release him? obviously answer is 'No'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To release a prisoner there are 2 main factors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the punishment give?has he served the period?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Has he transformed;and is all criminal mentality Gone?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So here in our case above point 1 will correspond to:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How much baggage of Karama do you carry? &lt;strong&gt;You have to repeat cycle of birth and death untill you have suffered or enjoyed for your past karma.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2nd Point will correspond to &#xA;Do we really have sincere desire for liberation and are we really trying hard for that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna Says(BG 9.34):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become My devotee, offer&#xA;  obeisances to Me and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me,&#xA;  surely you will come to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna repeats above verse in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/65&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;18.65&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And finally He says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall&#xA;  deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we have to examine ourself across these factors. We just cant say 'oh!I want moksh' and that Krishna will come and liberate you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is like saying 'Oh Krishna!Please make me rich' and expecting that he will come and make you rich then and there.&#xA;This is common sense. After you cultivate a plant you have to wait for long time till that plant becomes tree and gives you fruits.This is simple law of nature. And being in this world we are bound by these laws of nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit2:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also disagree* with the statement that according to you Ramkrishna makes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason being;if Krishna gave liberation to anyone randomly(withou any qualification); then that would mean that Krishna is biased. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But it is confirmed in Geeta and Vedanta sutra that Krishna is not biased towards anyone.For Him everyone is equal.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;note: * I disagree if he meant that without any qualification moksha is given. Sometimes it may seem like a person is all of the sudden liberated, but we do not know of his pious credit and spiritual advancement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T16:58:29.820" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13912" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13840" CreationDate="2016-07-02T11:02:28.343" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a famous Rigveda khila part &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/lyrics/stotram/maha-lakshmi/translation/shree-suktam-with-lakshmi-suktam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Suktam&lt;/a&gt; is available. By chanting this one can become wealthy and glorious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the effect of mantras only depends upon faith, devotion and method of chanting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हरिः ॐ हिरण्यवर्णां हरिणीं सुवर्णरजतस्र​जाम् ।&#xA;  चन्द्रां हिरण्मयीं लक्ष्मीं जातवेदो म आवह ॥१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.1: Who is of Golden Colour, Beautiful and Adorned with Gold and Silver Garlands. (Gold represents Sun or the Fire of Tapas; Silver represents Moon or the Bliss and Beauty of Pure Sattva.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.2: Who is like the Moon with a Golden Aura, Who is Lakshmi, the Embodiment of Sri; O Jatavedo, please Invoke for Me that Lakshmi. (Moon represents the Bliss and Beauty of Pure Sattva and the Golden Aura represents the Fire of Tapas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तां म आवह जातवेदो लक्ष्मीमनपगामिनीम् ।&#xA;  यस्यां हिरण्यं विन्देयं गामश्वं पुरुषानहम् ॥२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.1: (Harih Om) O Jatavedo, Invoke for Me that Lakshmi, Who does not Go Away, (Sri is Non-Moving, All-Pervasive and the Underlying Essence of All Beauty. Devi Lakshmi as the Embodiment of Sri is thus Non-Moving in Her essential nature.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.2: &lt;strong&gt;By Whose Golden Touch, I will Obtain Cattle, Horses, Progeny and Servants&lt;/strong&gt;. (Golden Touch represents the Fire of Tapas which manifests in us as the Energy of Effort by the Grace of the Devi. Cattle, Horses etc are external manifestations of Sri following the effort.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अश्वपूर्वां रथमध्यां हस्तिनादप्रबोधिनीम् ।&#xA;  श्रियं देवीमुपह्वये श्रीर्मा देवी जुषताम् ॥३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.1: (Harih Om. O Jatavedo, Invoke for me that Lakshmi) Who is Abiding in the Chariot of Sri ( in the Middle ) which is driven by Horses in Front and Whose Appearance is Heralded by the Trumpet of Elephants, (Chariot represents the Abode of Sri and Horses represents the Energy of Effort. The Trumpet of Elephants represents the Awakening of Wisdom.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.2: Invoke the Devi who is the Embodiment of Sri Nearer so that the Devi of Prosperity becomes Pleased with Me. (Prosperity is the external manifestation of Sri and is therefore pleased when Sri is Invoked.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कां सोस्मितां हिरण्यप्राकारामार्द्रां ज्वलन्तीं तृप्तां तर्पयन्तीम् ।&#xA;  पद्मे स्थितां पद्मवर्णां तामिहोपह्वये श्रियम् ॥४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.1: (Harih Om. O Jatavedo, Invoke for me that Lakshmi) Who is Having a Beautiful Smile and Who is Enclosed by a Soft Golden Glow; &lt;strong&gt;Who is eternally Satisfied and Satisfies all those to whom She Reveals Herself&lt;/strong&gt;, (Beautiful Smile represents the Trancendental Beauty of Sri Who is Enclosed by the Golden Glow of the Fire of Tapas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.2: Who Abides in the Lotus and has the Colour of the Lotus; (O Jatavedo) Invoke that Lakshmi Here, Who is the Embodiment of Sri. (Lotus represents the Lotus of Kundalini.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रभासां यशसा लोके देवजुष्टामुदाराम् ।&#xA;  पद्मिनीमीं शरणमहं प्रपद्येऽलक्ष्मीर्मे नश्यतां त्वां वृणे ॥५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.1: (Harih Om. O Jatavedo, Invoke for me that Lakshmi) Who is the Embodiment of Sri and Whose Glory Shines like the Splendour of the Moon in all the Worlds; Who is Noble and Who is Worshipped by the Devas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.2: I take Refuge at Her Feet, Who Abides in the Lotus; &lt;strong&gt;By Her Grace, let the Alakshmi (in the form of Evil, Distress and Poverty) within and without be Destroyed&lt;/strong&gt;. (Lotus represents the Lotus of Kundalini.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आदित्यवर्णे तपसोऽधिजातो वनस्पतिस्तव वृक्षोऽथ बिल्वः ।&#xA;  तस्य फलानि तपसानुदन्तु मायान्तरायाश्च बाह्या अलक्ष्मीः ॥६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.1: (Harih Om. O Jatavedo, Invoke for me that Lakshmi) Who is of the Colour of the Sun and Born of Tapas; the Tapas which is like a Huge Sacred Bilva Tree, (The Golden Colour of the Sun represents the Fire of Tapas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.2: Let the Fruit of That Tree of Tapas Drive Away the Delusion and Ignorance Within and the Alakshmi (in the form of Evil, Distress and Poverty) Outside.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उपैतु मां देवसखः कीर्तिश्च मणिना सह ।&#xA;  प्रादुर्भूतोऽस्मि राष्ट्रेऽस्मिन् कीर्तिमृद्धिं ददातु मे ॥७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.1: (Harih Om. O Jatavedo, Invoke for me that Lakshmi) &lt;strong&gt;By Whose Presence will Come Near me the Companions of the Devas along with Glory (Inner Prosperity) and various Jewels (Outer Prosperity)&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.2: And I will be Reborn in the Realm of Sri (signifying Inner Transformation towards Purity) &lt;strong&gt;which will Grant me Inner Glory and Outer Prosperity&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्षुत्पिपासामलां ज्येष्ठामलक्ष्मीं नाशयाम्यहम् ।&#xA;  अभूतिमसमृद्धिं च सर्वां निर्णुद गृहात् ॥८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.1: (Harih Om. O Jatavedo, Invoke for me that Lakshmi) Whose Presence will Destroy Hunger, Thirst and Impurity associated with Her Elder Sister Alakshmi,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.2: And Drive Away the Wretchedness and Ill-Fortune from My House.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गन्धद्वारां दुराधर्षां नित्यपुष्टां करीषिणीम् ।&#xA;  ईश्वरींग् सर्वभूतानां तामिहोपह्वये श्रियम् ॥९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.1: (Harih Om. O Jatavedo, Invoke for me that Lakshmi) Who is the Source of All Fragrances, Who is Difficult to Approach, Who is Always Filled with Abundance and leaves a Residue of Abundance wherever She Reveals Herself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.2: Who is the Ruling Power in All Beings; (O Jatavedo) Please Invoke Her Here, Who is the Embodiment of Sri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मनसः काममाकूतिं वाचः सत्यमशीमहि ।&#xA;  पशूनां रूपमन्नस्य मयि श्रीः श्रयतां यशः ॥१०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.1: (Harih Om. O Jatavedo, Invoke for me that Lakshmi) For Whom my Heart Truly Yearns and to Whom my Speech Truly tries to Reach,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.2: &lt;strong&gt;By Whose Presence will come Cattle, Beauty and Food in my Life as (External) Prosperity&lt;/strong&gt; and Who will Reside (i.e. Reveal) in me as (Inner) Glory of Sri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कर्दमेन प्रजाभूता सम्भव कर्दम ।&#xA;  श्रियं वासय मे कुले मातरं पद्ममालिनीम् ॥११॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.1: (Harih Om. O Kardama, Invoke for me your Mother) As Kardama ( referring to Earth represented by Mud ) acts as the substratum for the Existence of Mankind, Similarly O Kardama (now referring to sage Kardama, the son of Devi Lakshmi) you Stay with me,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.2: And be the cause to bring your Mother to Dwell in My Family; Your Mother who is the Embodiment of Sri and Encircled by Lotuses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आपः सृजन्तु स्निग्धानि चिक्लीत वस गृहे ।&#xA;  नि च देवी मातरं श्रियं वासय कुले ॥१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.1: (Harih Om. O Chiklita, Invoke for me your Mother) As Chiklita ( referring to Moisture represented by Water ) Creates Loveliness in all things by its presence, similarly O Chiklita (now referring to Chiklita, the son of Devi Lakshmi) you Stay with me,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.2: And by your presence bring your Mother, the Devi who is the Embodiment of Sri (and essence of all Loveliness) to Dwell in my Family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आर्द्रां पुष्करिणीं पुष्टिं पिङ्गलां पद्ममालिनीम् ।&#xA;  चन्द्रां हिरण्मयीं लक्ष्मीं जातवेदो म आवह ॥१३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13.1: (Harih Om. O Jatavedo, Invoke for me that Lakshmi) Who is like the Moisture of a Lotus Pond which Nourishes a Soul (with Her Soothing Loveliness); and Who is Encircled by Light Yellow Lotuses,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13.2: Who is like a Moon with a Golden Aura; O Jatavedo, please Invoke that Lakshmi for me. (Devi Lakshmi in the form of a Moon represents the Transcendental Bliss and Beauty of Sri. This Soothing Loveliness is compared with the Moisture of a Lotus Pond which Nourishes a Soul. )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आर्द्रां यः करिणीं यष्टिं सुवर्णां हेममालिनीम् ।&#xA;  सूर्यां हिरण्मयीं लक्ष्मीं जातवेदो म आवह ॥१४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14.1: (Harih Om. O Jatavedo, Invoke for me that Lakshmi) Who is like the Moisture (figuratively representing Energy) which Supports the Performance of Activities; and Who is Encircled by Gold (Glow of the Fire of Tapas),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14.2: Who is like a Sun with a Golden Aura; O Jatavedo, please Invoke that Lakshmi for me. (Devi Lakshmi in the form of a Sun represents the Fire of Tapas. This Fire is compared with the moisture within activities, the moisture figuratively signifying energy. The Fire of Tapas manifests as the Energy of Activities.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तां म आवह जातवेदो लक्ष्मीमनपगामिनीम् ।&#xA;  यस्यां हिरण्यं प्रभूतं गावो दास्योऽश्वान् विन्देयं पूरुषानहम् ॥१५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15.1: (Harih Om). O Jatavedo, Invoke for me that Lakshmi, Who does not Go Away, (Sri is Non-Moving, All-Pervasive and the Underlying Essence of All Beauty. Devi Lakshmi as the Embodiment of Sri is thus Non-Moving in Her essential nature.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15.2: &lt;strong&gt;By Whose Golden Touch I will obtain (i.e. Sri will be manifested as) Abundant Cattle, Servants, Horses and Progeny&lt;/strong&gt;. (Golden Touch represents the Fire of Tapas which manifests in us as the Energy of Effort by the grace of the Devi. Cattle, Horses etc are external manifestations of Sri following the effort.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यः शुचिः प्रयतो भूत्वा जुहुयादाज्यमन्वहम् ।&#xA;  सूक्तं पञ्चदशर्चं च श्रीकामः सततं जपेत् ॥१६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;16.1: Those who after Becoming Bodily Clean and Devotionally Disposed perform Sacrificial Offering with Butter Day after Day,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;16.2: By Constantly Reciting the Fifteen Verses of Sri Suktam will have their Longing for Sri Fulfilled by the Grace of Devi Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पद्मानने पद्म ऊरु पद्माक्षी पद्मासम्भवे ।&#xA;  त्वं मां भजस्व पद्माक्षी येन सौख्यं लभाम्यहम् ॥१७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;17.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) Whose Face is of Lotus, Who is supported (indicated by Thigh ) by Lotus, Whose Eyes are of Lotus and Who is Born of Lotus. (Lotus indicates Kundalini. Face indicates the nature of a person, thighs indicate support and eyes indicate the spiritual vision. This verse describes the transcendental nature of Mother Lakshmi. She is born of Yoga, united with Yoga and revealed to a devotee in his spiritual vision.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;17.2: O Mother, You manifest in Me in the Spiritual Vision (indicated by Lotus Eyes ) born of intense Devotion by Which I am filled with (i.e. Obtain ) Divine Bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अश्वदायि गोदायि धनदायि महाधने ।&#xA;  धनं मे जुषताम् देवी सर्वकामांश्च देहि मे ॥१८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) &lt;strong&gt;Who is the Giver of Horses, Cows and Wealth to all&lt;/strong&gt;; and Who is the Source of the Great Abundance in this World.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18.2: &lt;strong&gt;O Devi, Please be Gracious to grant Wealth&lt;/strong&gt; (both inner and outer) to Me and Fulfil All my Aspirations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुत्रपौत्र धनं धान्यं हस्त्यश्वादिगवे रथम् ।&#xA;  प्रजानां भवसि माता आयुष्मन्तं करोतु माम् ॥१९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;19.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) &lt;strong&gt;O Mother, bestow us with Children and Grandchildren to continue our lineage; and Wealth, Grains, Elephants, Horses, Cows and Carriages for our daily use&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;19.2: We Are Your Children, O Mother; Please make our lives Long and full of Vigour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धनमग्निर्धनं वायुर्धनं सूर्यो धनं वसुः ।&#xA;  धनमिन्द्रो बृहस्पतिर्वरुणं धनमश्नुते ॥२०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;20.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) O Mother, You (indicated by Dhanam) are the Power behind Agni (the God of Fire), You are the Power behind Vayu (the God of Wind), You are the Power behind Surya (the God of Sun), You are the Power behind the Vasus (celestial beings).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;20.2: You are the Power behind Indra, Vrhaspati and Varuna (the God of Water); You are the All-Pervading Essence behind Everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वैनतेय सोमं पिब सोमं पिबतु वृत्रहा ।&#xA;  सोमं धनस्य सोमिनो मह्यं ददातु ॥२१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;21.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) Those who carry Sri Vishnu in their Heart (like Garuda, the son of Vinata carries Him on his back) always drink Soma (the Divine Bliss within); Let all Drink that Soma by Destroying their inner Enemies of desires (thus gaining nearness to Sri Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;21.2: That Soma originates from Sri Who is the embodiment of Soma (the Divine Bliss); O Mother, please Give that Soma to Me too, You Who are the possessor of that Soma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न क्रोधो न च मात्सर्य न लोभो नाशुभा मतिः ।&#xA;  भवन्ति कृतपुण्यानां भक्तानां श्रीसूक्तं जपेत्सदा ॥२२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;22.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) Neither Anger Nor Jealousy, Neither Greed Nor Evil Intentions ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;22.2: Can Exist in the Devotees who have acquired Merit by Always Reciting with Devotion the great Sri Suktam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वर्षन्तु ते विभावरि दिवो अभ्रस्य विद्युतः ।&#xA;  रोहन्तु सर्वबीजान्यव ब्रह्म द्विषो जहि ॥२३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;23.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) O Mother, Please Shower Your Light of Grace like Lightning in a Sky filled with Thunder-Cloud...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;23.2: And Ascend All the Seeds of Differentiation to a higher spiritual plane; O Mother, You are of the nature of Brahman and Destroyer of all Hatred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पद्मप्रिये पद्म पद्महस्ते पद्मालये पद्मदलायताक्षि ।&#xA;  विश्वप्रिये विष्णु मनोऽनुकूले त्वत्पादपद्मं मयि सन्निधत्स्व ॥२४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;24.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) Who is Fond of Lotuses, Who is the Possessor of Lotuses, Who Holds Lotuses in Her Hands, Who Dwells in the Abode of Lotuses and Whose Eyes are like Lotus Petals. (Lotus indicates Kundalini)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;24.2: Who is Fond of the Worldly Manifestations which are Directed towards (i.e. Agreeable to) Sri Vishnu (i.e. follows the path of Dharma); O Mother, bless me so that I Gain Nearness to Your Lotus Feet Within Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या सा पद्मासनस्था विपुलकटितटी पद्मपत्रायताक्षी ।&#xA;  गम्भीरा वर्तनाभिः स्तनभर नमिता शुभ्र वस्त्रोत्तरीया ॥२५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;25.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) Who Stands on Lotus with Her Beautiful Form, with Wide Hip and Eyes like the Lotus Leaf.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;25.2: Her Deep Navel (indicating Depth of Character) is Bent Inwards, and with Her Full Bosom (indicating Abundance and Compassion) She is slightly Bent Down (towards the Devotees); and She is Dressed in Pure White Garments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लक्ष्मीर्दिव्यैर्गजेन्द्रैर्मणिगणखचितैस्स्नापिता हेमकुम्भैः ।&#xA;  नित्यं सा पद्महस्ता मम वसतु गृहे सर्वमाङ्गल्ययुक्ता ॥२६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;26.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) Who is Bathed with Water from Golden Pitcher by the Best of Celestial Elephants who are Studded with Various Gems,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;26.2: Who is Eternal with Lotus in Her Hands; Who is United with All the Auspicious Attributes; O Mother, Please Reside in My House and make it Auspicious by Your Presence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लक्ष्मीं क्षीरसमुद्र राजतनयां श्रीरङ्गधामेश्वरीम् ।&#xA;  दासीभूतसमस्त देव वनितां लोकैक दीपांकुराम् ॥२७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;27.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) Who is the Daughter of the King of Ocean; Who is the Great Goddess Residing in Kseera Samudra (literally Milky Ocean), the Abode of Sri Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;27.2: Who is Served by the Devas along with their Servants, and Who is the One Light in all the Worlds which Sprouts behind every Manifestation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीमन्मन्दकटाक्षलब्ध विभव ब्रह्मेन्द्रगङ्गाधराम् ।&#xA;  त्वां त्रैलोक्य कुटुम्बिनीं सरसिजां वन्दे मुकुन्दप्रियाम् ॥२८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;28.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) By Obtaining Whose Grace through Her Beautiful Soft Glance, Lord Brahma, Indra and Gangadhara (Shiva) become Great,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;28.2: O Mother, You blossom in the Three Worlds like a Lotus as the Mother of the Vast Family; You are Praised by All and You are the Beloved of Mukunda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सिद्धलक्ष्मीर्मोक्षलक्ष्मीर्जयलक्ष्मीस्सरस्वती ।&#xA;  श्रीलक्ष्मीर्वरलक्ष्मीश्च प्रसन्ना मम सर्वदा ॥२९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;29.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) O Mother, May Your different Forms - Siddha Lakshmi, Moksha Lakshmi, Jaya Lakshmi, Saraswati...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;29.2: Sri Lakshmi and Vara Lakshmi ... Always be Gracious to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वरांकुशौ पाशमभीतिमुद्रां करैर्वहन्तीं कमलासनस्थाम् ।&#xA;  बालार्क कोटि प्रतिभां त्रिणेत्रां भजेहमाद्यां जगदीस्वरीं त्वाम् ॥३०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;30.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) From Your Four Hands - first in Vara Mudra ( Gesture of Boon-Giving ), second Holding Angkusha ( Hook ), third Holding a Pasha ( Noose ) and fourth in Abhiti Mudra ( Gesture of Fearlessness ) - Flows Boons, Assurance of Help during Obstacles, Assurance of Breaking our Bondages and Fearlessness; As You Stand on the Lotus (to shower grace on the devotees).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;30.2: I Worship You, O Primordial Goddess of the Universe, from Whose Three Eyes Appear Millions of Newly Risen Suns (i.e. different worlds).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वमङ्गलमाङ्गल्ये शिवे सर्वार्थ साधिके ।&#xA;  शरण्ये त्र्यम्बके देवि नारायणि नमोऽस्तु ते ॥३१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;31.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) Who is the Auspiciousness in All the Auspicious, Auspiciousness Herself and Complete with All the Auspicious Attributes,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;31.2: I Salute You O Narayani, the Devi Who is the Giver of Refuge and with Three Eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सरसिजनिलये सरोजहस्ते धवलतरांशुक गन्धमाल्यशोभे ।&#xA;  भगवति हरिवल्लभे मनोज्ञे त्रिभुवनभूतिकरि प्रसीद मह्यम् ॥३२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;32.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) Who Abides in Lotus and Holds Lotus in Her Hands; Dressed in Dazzling White Garments and Decorated with the most Fragrant Garlands, She Radiates a Divine Aura,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;32.2: O Goddess, You are Dearer than the Dearest of Hari and the most Captivating; You are the Source of Wellbeing and Prosperity of all the Three Worlds; O Mother, Please be Gracious to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विष्णुपत्नीं क्षमां देवीं माधवीं माधवप्रियाम् ।&#xA;  विष्णोः प्रियसखीं देवीं नमाम्यच्युतवल्लभाम् ॥३३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;33.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) O Devi, You are the Consort of Sri Vishnu and the embodiment of Forbearance; You are One with Madhava (in essence) and extremely Dear to Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;33.2: I Salute You O Devi Who is the Dear Companion of Sri Vishnu and extremely Beloved of Acyuta (another name of Sri Vishnu literally meaning Infallible).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महालक्ष्मी च विद्महे विष्णुपत्नीं च धीमहि ।&#xA;  तन्नो लक्ष्मीः प्रचोदयात् ॥३४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;34.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) May we Know the Divine Essence of Mahalakshmi by Meditating on Her, who is the Consort of Sri Vishnu,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;34.2: Let That Divine Essence of Lakshmi Awaken our Spiritual Consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीवर्चस्यमायुष्यमारोग्यमाविधात् पवमानं महियते ।&#xA;  धनं धान्यं पशुं बहुपुत्रलाभं शतसंवत्सरं दीर्घमायुः ॥३५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;35.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) O Mother, Let Your Auspiciousness Flow in our lives as the Vital Power, making our lives Long and Healthy, and filled with Joy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;35.2: &lt;strong&gt;And let Your Auspiciousness manifest around as Wealth, Grains, Cattle and Many Offsprings who live Happily for Hundred Years&lt;/strong&gt;; who live Happily throughout their Long Lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ऋणरोगादिदारिद्र्यपापक्षुदपमृत्यवः ।&#xA;  भयशोकमनस्तापा नश्यन्तु मम सर्वदा ॥३६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;36.1: (Harih Om, Salutations to Mother Lakshmi) &lt;strong&gt;O Mother, (please remove my) Debts, Illness, Poverty, Sins, Hunger and the possibility of Accidental Death&lt;/strong&gt; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;36.2: and also remove my Fear, Sorrow and Mental Anguish; O Mother, Please Remove them Always.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;य एवं वेद ॐ महादेव्यै च विष्णुपत्नीं च धीमहि ।&#xA;  तन्नो लक्ष्मीः प्रचोदयात् ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥३७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;37.1: This (the Essence of Mahalakshmi) Indeed is Veda (the ultimate Knowledge), May we Know the Divine Essence of the Great Devi by Meditating on Her, who is the Consort of Sri Vishnu,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;37.2: Let That Divine Essence of Lakshmi Awaken our Spiritual Consciousness, Om Peace Peace Peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As suggested by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13840/is-there-any-verse-or-mantra-to-become-opulent/13912?noredirect=1#comment39075_13912&quot;&gt;Moonstar in comments&lt;/a&gt; that Sri Suktam is a Vedic mantra and everyone cannot recite this. So, there is an alternative &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_devii/kanaka-tr.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kanakadhara Stotra&lt;/a&gt; composed by Shankaracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अङ्गं हरेः पुलकभूषणमाश्रयन्ती&#xA;  भृङ्गाङ्गनेव मुकुलाभरणं तमालम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अङ्गीकृताखिलविभूतिरपाङ्गलीला&#xA;  माङ्गल्यदाऽस्तु मम मङ्गलदेवतायाः ॥ १॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The dark Tamala tree in full bloom attracts the female&#xA;  beetle and even so MahalakShmi is attracted and finds&#xA;  happiness in the fragrant and dark-complexioned body&#xA;  of Hari and makes it tingle with joy. May she bestow on&#xA;  me prosperity by her auspicious glance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मुग्धा मुहुर्विदधती वदने मुरारेः&#xA;  प्रेमत्रपाप्रणिहितानि गतागतानि ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;माला दृशोर्मधुकरीव महोत्पले या&#xA;  सा मे श्रियं दिशतु सागरसंभवायाः ॥ २॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The shy love-laden sidelong glance of the beauteous&#xA;  dark eyes of the daughter oof the Milky Ocean, returns&#xA;  again and again to the beauteous lotus face of Murari,&#xA;  just like the black bee constantly returning and flitting&#xA;  about the beautiful blue lotus flower. I pray that these&#xA;  glances be bestowed upon me to bless me with prosperity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आमीलिताक्षमधिगम्य मुदा मुकुन्दं&#xA;  आनन्दकन्दमनिमेषमनङ्गतन्त्रम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आकेकरस्थितकनीनिकपक्ष्मनेत्रं&#xA;  भूत्यै भवेन्मम भुजङ्गशयाङ्गनायाः ॥ ३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The eyes of Mukunda remain closed in ecstasy. The beauteous&#xA;  dark eyes of LakShmi remain fixed on Mukunda in love and&#xA;  wonder and remain open without blinking. May these eyes of&#xA;  MahalakShmi fall on me and bless me with prosperity and happiness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बाह्वन्तरे मधुजितः श्रितकौस्तुभे या&#xA;  हारावलीव हरिनीलमयी विभाति ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कामप्रदा भगवतोऽपि कटाक्षमाला&#xA;  कल्याणमावहतु मे कमलालयायाः ॥ ४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu whose chest is adorned by the Kaustubha&#xA;  Mala is also adorned by the series of the beauteous&#xA;  glances of Goddess MahalakShmi. This string of glances&#xA;  resembles a necklace of precious blue stones of&#xA;  Indraneela and they are capable of fulfilling all the wishes&#xA;  of Hari Himself. May this string of glances be directed&#xA;  towards me so that it will bring me auspiciousness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कालाम्बुदालिललितोरसि कैटभारेः&#xA;  धाराधरे स्फुरति या तडिदङ्गनेव ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मातुस्समस्तजगतां महनीयमूर्तिः&#xA;  भद्राणि मे दिशतु भार्गवनन्दनायाः ॥ ५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MahalakShmi shining on the dark broad chest of&#xA;  Mahavishnu is like the streak of lightning illuminating&#xA;  the dark rain clouds. May she, the daughter of the&#xA;  Sage Bhargava worshipped as Mother by the entire&#xA;  universe, bring me auspiciousness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्राप्तं पदं प्रथमतः खलु यत्प्रभावात्&#xA;  माङ्गल्यभाजि मधुमाथिनि मन्मथेन ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मय्यापतेत्तदिह मन्थरमीक्षणार्धं&#xA;  मन्दालसं च मकरालयकन्यकायाः ॥ ६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The God of Love, Manmatha, could gain access to&#xA;  Madhusudana (the destroyer of the demon Madhu, i.e.&#xA;  Vishnu) only because he was favored with the blessing&#xA;  glance from MahalakShmi . May her auspicious indolent&#xA;  sideglance fall on me (May she bless me with prosperity&#xA;  by looking at me in passing at least for a moment&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विश्वामरेन्द्रपदविभ्रमदानदक्षं&#xA;  आनन्दहेतुरधिकं मुरविद्विषोऽपि ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ईषन्निषीदतु मयि क्षणमीक्षणार्धम्&#xA;  इन्दीवरोदरसहोदरमिन्दिरायाः ॥ ७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The status of the king of kings or the exal;ted position&#xA;  of an Indra are given effortlessly by MahalakShmi by a mere&#xA;  momentary glance. Murari (Vishnu) who is supreme bliss&#xA;  itself is made happy by it. May this glance from the blue-&#xA;  lotus eyes of LakShmi fall on me for a moment at least.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दृष्ट्या त्रिविष्टपपदं सुलभं लभन्ते ।&#xA;  दृष्टिः प्रहृष्टकमलोदरदीप्तिरिष्टां&#xA;  पुष्टिं कृषीष्ट मम पुष्करविष्टरायाः ॥ ८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The higher worlds like Swarga which are difficult of attainment&#xA;  and for which great sacrifices like Ashwamedha are performed&#xA;  become easily attainable by the compassion filled look of the&#xA;  lotus eyes of MahalakShmi . May she look at me so that I may&#xA;  attain my heart's desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दद्याद्दयानुपवनो द्रविणाम्बुधारां&#xA;  अस्मिन्नकिञ्चनविहङ्गशिशौ विषण्णे ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दुष्कर्मधर्ममपनीय चिराय दूरं&#xA;  नारायणप्रणयिनीनयनाम्बुवाहः ॥ ९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The dark rain clouds driven by the monsoon winds&#xA;  releases rain on the parched earth and quench the&#xA;  thirst of the Chataka bird and brings prosperity on the&#xA;  earth. In like manner may the dark eyes of MahalakShmi&#xA;  resembling the rain cloud wafted by the breeze of compassion&#xA;  relese the rain of prosperity on this devotee of a Chataka&#xA;  bird stricken with the load of accumulated sins so that&#xA;  the sins are washed away and prosperity bestowed upon him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गीर्देवतेति गरुडध्वजसुन्दरीति&#xA;  शाकम्भरीति शशिशेखरवल्लभेति ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सृष्टिस्थितिप्रलयकेलिषु संस्थितायै&#xA;  तस्यै नमस्त्रिभुवनैकगुरोस्तरुण्यै ॥ १०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We offer obeisance to the Goddess MahalakShmi,&#xA;  the consort of Narayana, the preceptor of all the three&#xA;  worlds. She is variously known as Saraswati the Goddess&#xA;  of Learning, as Goddess LakShmi, the Divine consort&#xA;  of Mahavishnu, as Shakambhari or as Parvati the consort&#xA;  of Lord Maheshwara. Verily it is she who is playfully engaged&#xA;  in creation, protaction and final destruction of the Universe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रुत्यै नमोऽस्तु शुभकर्मफलप्रसूत्यै&#xA;  रत्यै नमोऽस्तु रमणीयगुणार्णवायै ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शक्त्यै नमोऽस्तु शतपत्रनिकेतनायै&#xA;  पुष्ट्यै नमोऽस्तु पुरुषोत्तमवल्लभायै ॥ ११॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Goddess as the very manifestation of the Vedas,&#xA;  you grant the fruits of godd action. Beautiful in form like&#xA;  Rati Devi you are the very ocean of superlatively&#xA;  beautiful qualities. Having your abode in the beautiful&#xA;  lotus of a hundred petals, you are Shakti personified.&#xA;  O consort of Purushottama, You are the Goddess of&#xA;  plenty. Please accept my obeisance&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमोऽस्तु नालीकनिभाननायै&#xA;  नमोऽस्तु दुग्धोदधिजन्मभूम्यै ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमोऽस्तु सोमामृतसोदरायै&#xA;  नमोऽस्तु नारायणवल्लभायै ॥ १२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Consort of Narayana! Whose face is as beautiful&#xA;  as the lotus in bloom, I bow down to thee . Born&#xA;  out of the milky ocean, along with the moon and the&#xA;  Divine nectar, O Goddess! accept my pranams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमोऽस्तु हेमाम्बुजपीठिकायै&#xA;  नमोऽस्तु भूमण्डलनायिकायै ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमोऽस्तु देवादिदयापरायै&#xA;  नमोऽस्तु शार्ङ्गायुधवल्लभायै ॥ १३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I prostrate before you, O Goddess, who are seated&#xA;  on the Golden Lotus, who is Goddess of the earth, the&#xA;  consort of Narayana, compassionate to the Devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमोऽस्तु  देव्यै भृगुनन्दनायै&#xA;  नमोऽस्तु विष्णोरुरसि स्थितायै ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमोऽस्तु लक्ष्म्यै कमलालयायै&#xA;  नमोऽस्तु दामोदरवल्लभायै ॥ १४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My obeisance to you, O daughter of Bhrigu, consort&#xA;  of Damadara. O LakShmi, seated on Lotus and adorning&#xA;  the broad chest of Mahavishnu, my salutations to Thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमोऽस्तु कान्त्यै कमलेक्षणायै&#xA;  नमोऽस्तु भूत्यै भुवनप्रसूत्यै ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमोऽस्तु देवादिभिरर्चितायै&#xA;  नमोऽस्तु नन्दात्मजवल्लभायै ॥ १५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Consort of Gopala, the son of Nanda, you&#xA;  are worshipped by the Devas. You are Jyoti&#xA;  incarnate, I prostrate before Thee. Your eyes&#xA;  are like lotus petals. You have created the world&#xA;  and you bestow prosperity. Please accept my&#xA;  salutations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सम्पत्कराणि सकलेन्द्रियनन्दनानि&#xA;  साम्राज्यदानविभवानि सरोरुहाक्षि ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्वद्वन्दनानि दुरितोद्धरणोद्यतानि&#xA;  मामेव मातरनिशं कलयन्तु मान्ये ॥ १६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May I always have the desire to prostrate before you&#xA;  because a pranam to you is capable of bestowing all&#xA;  prosperity and will bring happiness to all the senses.&#xA;  Worshipping O Lotus-eyed Goddess not only removes&#xA;  all miseries but it confers happiness and plenty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यत्कटाक्षसमुपासनाविधिः&#xA;  सेवकस्य सकलार्थसम्पदः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;संतनोति वचनाङ्गमानसैः&#xA;  त्वां मुरारिहृदयेश्वरीं भजे ॥ १७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The devotee who worships your KatakSha (sidelong&#xA;  glance) is blessed with wealth and prosperity. To you,&#xA;  the queen who dominates the heart of Vishnu, my&#xA;  pranamas, through word, thought, and deed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सरसिजनिलये सरोजहस्ते&#xA;  धवलतमांशुकगन्धमाल्यशोभे ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भगवति हरिवल्लभे मनोज्ञे&#xA;  त्रिभुवनभूतिकरि प्रसीद मह्यम् ॥ १८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seated on the lotus with the lotus flower in your hand,&#xA;  dresed in dazzling white and adorned with garlands and&#xA;  sandalwood paste, you gladden our hearts. O Goddess,&#xA;  the consort of Vishnu you who confer prosperity on all&#xA;  the three worlds, please show compassion towards me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दिग् हस्तिभिः कनककुंभमुखावसृष्ट-&#xA;  स्वर्वाहिनीविमलचारुजलप्लुताङ्गीम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रातर्नमामि जगतां जननीमशेष-&#xA;  लोकाधिनाथगृहिणीममृताब्धिपुत्रीम् ॥ १९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O mother of all the worlds, consort of Vishnu the lord of&#xA;  the Universe, the Dig-gajas (the celestial elephants guarding&#xA;  various directions) bathe you everyday with waters of the&#xA;  Deva Ganga poured ouitfrom golden vessels. O daughter of&#xA;  the milky ocean, I prostrate before Thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कमले कमलाक्षवल्लभे त्वं&#xA;  करुणापूरतरङ्गितैरपाङ्गैः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अवलोकय मामकिञ्चनानां&#xA;  प्रथमं पात्रमकृत्रिमं दयायाः ॥ २०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Goddess LakShmi, consort of the Lotus-eyed&#xA;  Mahavishnu, direct your gaze filled with compassion&#xA;  at me, your devotee who am the poorest of the poor,&#xA;  so that I may become the true recipient of the benefits&#xA;  of your compassion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देवि प्रसीद जगदीश्वरि लोकमातः&#xA;  कल्याणगात्रि कमलेक्षणजीवनाथे ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दारिद्र्यभीतिहृदयं शरणागतं माम्&#xA;  आलोकय प्रतिदिनं सदयैरपाङ्गैः ॥ २१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Goddess, controller of the Universe and protector&#xA;  of the people, blessing with your limbs, and gazing with&#xA;  your lotus-like eyes, forgive me. With my heart filled with&#xA;  fear of poverty, I surrender myself wholly to you, that you&#xA;  may watch over me every day with unbroken compassion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्तुवन्ति ये स्तुतिभिरमीभिरन्वहं&#xA;  त्रयीमयीं त्रिभुवनमातरं रमाम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गुणाधिका गुरुतरभाग्यभागिनो&#xA;  भवन्ति ते भुवि बुधभाविताशयाः ॥ २२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who sing the praise of MahalakShmi who&#xA;  is the vedas personified, by these stotras everyday&#xA;  will be blessed with all good qualities, unsurpassed&#xA;  good fortune and powers of the intellect which will&#xA;  earn praise from even the learned&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-11-03T13:12:23.840" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13914" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7978" CreationDate="2016-07-02T12:23:28.550" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;as far as i know sai baba is associated both hindu and muslim. &#xA;sai baba is called avtar or lord shiva. for more detail information you can go here- &lt;a href=&quot;http://askshirdisaibaba.in/ask-shirdi-sai-baba-question-answers-miracles-jadu-help-best-song-lyrics-aarti-wallpepar-hd-images-free-download-shayari-sms-messages-whatsapp-status-update-hindi/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://askshirdisaibaba.in/ask-shirdi-sai-baba-question-answers-miracles-jadu-help-best-song-lyrics-aarti-wallpepar-hd-images-free-download-shayari-sms-messages-whatsapp-status-update-hindi/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7043" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T12:23:28.550" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13916" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3651" CreationDate="2016-07-02T12:34:18.363" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;chatter om namo shivay. this mantra is very helpful for killing ego, fear and negative thoughts. for personality development tips, you can have some tips here- &lt;a href=&quot;http://sapfullform.com/personality-development-tips-for-students-in-hindi-language-pdf-download/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://sapfullform.com/personality-development-tips-for-students-in-hindi-language-pdf-download/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7043" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T12:34:18.363" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13917" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-02T14:06:20.427" Score="2" ViewCount="97" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wish to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-destinations.com/tibet/mount-kailash&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;circumambulate around Mount Kailash&lt;/a&gt; on foot. This is roughly 33 miles of mountaineous terrain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many people do this for spiritual reasons, i.e circumambulate once to wash away your sins, circumambulate 108 times to attain nirvana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I just want to circumambulate around Mount Kailash because I want to. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What type of training do I require? I understand this can take years, even decades.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some information about me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;lady in mid-30s (people swear I am in early 20s)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;5'4&quot;, 140lbs (last time I weighed myself was Jan 2016)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;mostly eat fruits, veggies, fiber&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;exercise 4 to 5 days a week, perform &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skinsheen.com/userfiles/image/sun.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Surya Namaskar&lt;/a&gt; (started with 3 reps in Summer 2015, I'm up to 69 reps now, goal to reach 108 reps by end of 2017), plus light weights&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T14:06:20.427" Title="Wish to Circumambulate Around Mt. Kailash" Tags="|shiva|karma|moksha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-07-02T14:41:17.607" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13920" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9181" CreationDate="2016-07-02T15:41:43.767" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no hard and fast rule that since one god is the avatar or amsha of another one, all that is valid for the parent or source god is valid for the other also. But Yes, You can use Bilva (Bel) leaves to worship Hanuman. It is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sanskritupload/parAsharasamhitAhanupatcharitra1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Parasara Samhita Hanuman Charitam Chapter 49 (एकोन पञ्चाशत्पटलः) Sloka 7&lt;/a&gt; that Bilva leaves are used in Puja of Hanuman Ji. The sloka is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तिलाक्षतान् श्वेतवर्णान् शालीया नव्रणानपि ।&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;बिल्वामलक&lt;/strong&gt; दूर्वाश्च अरविन्दवनं तथा ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;बिल्वामलक means Bilva and Amalaka (Amla) Leaves can be used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T15:41:43.767" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13922" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-02T15:55:34.580" Score="2" ViewCount="149" Body="&lt;p&gt;I thought according to Hinduism, it is proper for woman to conceive at night. If she conceives at daytime, the children are weak and short-lived. I read it on a website that has explicit paintings, hence I didn't provide the link.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, I am watching Shiv Mahapuran and this episode mentions how demons and gods belong to same father, Sage Kashyap. However, the mother of the demons, Diti desires to conceive at night so that her children can become strong like demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the YouTUBE link, starting at that scene (26 minutes and 10 seconds)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8zMexFpXk0&amp;amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;amp;t=26m10s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Diti, Mother of Demons&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clarify, what is the Hindu belief on best time a woman should conceive for healthy, honest, children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2016-07-04T06:08:58.293" LastActivityDate="2016-07-04T06:08:58.293" Title="Hindu Belief on Conception" Tags="|superstitions|birth|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13924" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3664" CreationDate="2016-07-02T22:23:44.760" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sage Ruchi's story is described in both &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/GarudaPuranaEnglishMotilal3VolumesIn1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana Vol 1 (Chapters 88-90)&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/markandeya-purana/chapter-91/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Markandeya Purana (Chapters 92-95)&lt;/a&gt;. It is a long story, speaking of shortly it goes like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Ruchi had spent his time travelling around the earth. He was a&#xA;bachelor and was not interested in marrying. He never had a house and&#xA;only meditated and wandered. His ancestors visited him. They asked&#xA;Ruchi the reason for not marrying. They explained to him that it is&#xA;his duty to get married and have sons as unless he has a son, they&#xA;will be in hell. They also suggested that only meditation would give&#xA;him a place in heaven. Nor will you be able to attain heaven through&#xA;meditation alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ruchi told them that he has no desire to get into a marital relation.&#xA;He believed that attachment would bring unhappiness and the soul gets&#xA;ruined. However his ancestors persuaded him to get married to which&#xA;sage Ruchi finally agreed. As he was poor he wondered who would marry&#xA;a poor old man like him. In order to get a solution he did penance for&#xA;Lord Brahma and Lord Brahma appeared. On hearing Sage Ruchi's wish,&#xA;Brahma asked him to pray to his ancestors and said that he would be a Prajapati. Ruchi prayed to the manes and they were pleased with his prayers and produced an apsara named Pramlocha. Pramlocha had a  daughter called Malini from Varuna's son Puskara. She offered the hand of Malini for Ruchi. Their son is called Rouchya who will be the 13th Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicreserve.mum.edu/puranas/padma_purana_1srishti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma Purana Srishti Khanda Chapter 7 &amp;amp; Sloka 111&lt;/a&gt; states रुचेः प्रजापतेः पुत्रोरौच्योनामभविष्यति&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/GarudaPuranaEnglishMotilal3VolumesIn1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 5 of Garuda Purana Vol 1&lt;/a&gt; and all other puranas (chapters dealing with Srishti and Manvantaras) like Markandeya Purana, Padma Purana, Vayu Purana and Linga Purana etc., state that Prajapati Ruchi is married to Akuti and they had two children Yagna and Dakshina. Yagna and Dakshina married together and they had 12 children and the story goes on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My opinion is that later at some point Ruchi should have married Akuti too and gave birth to Yagna and Dakshina as it is not abnormal for Prajapatis to have more than one wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Story of Ruchi can also be found &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=XakxUK85CL4C&amp;amp;pg=PA104&amp;amp;lpg=PA104&amp;amp;dq=rauchya&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=zmiKw0WsAR&amp;amp;sig=b8qs-fD8JpUAhaw6hX1uWV4eqHg&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwi6ofr-ydXNAhXMu48KHQRuAxMQ6AEIMTAF#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=rauchya&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; at Page 104 briefly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-07-02T22:28:51.863" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13925" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2625" CreationDate="2016-07-03T00:16:51.560" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Santi Parva of Mahabharata, while Lord Sri Krishna describes Arjuna the significance of his different names, speaks of the name &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c041.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;pṛśnigarbha&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word Prisni includes food, the Vedas, water, and nectar. These&#xA;  four are always in my stomach. Hence am I called by the name of&#xA;  Prisnigarbha. The Rishis have said that once on a time when the Rishi&#xA;  Trita was thrown into a well by Ekata and Dwiti, the distressed Trita&#xA;  invoked me, saying,--O Prisnigarbha, do thou rescue the fallen Trita!&#xA;  That foremost of Rishis, viz., Trita, the spiritual son of Brahma,&#xA;  having called on me thus, was rescued from the pit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of Trita can be found in Salya Parva of Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Apart from this I was not able to get any references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-07-03T00:16:51.560" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13927" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-03T02:04:30.080" Score="1" ViewCount="563" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are the rituals like anta-yatra, agni sanskar, pindi- dan, tri-pindi shraddha and narayan nag bali mentioned specifically in pre manusmriti texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7046" LastActivityDate="2016-07-03T02:32:37.540" Title="Rituals after death" Tags="|rituals|karma|moksha|death|afterlife|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13928" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13927" CreationDate="2016-07-03T02:32:37.540" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do not know about the dating of texts, but yes Preta Kanda of Garuda Purana discusses elaborately the rituals one has to do after a person's demise. Here are a few lines  from Garuda Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When it is ascertained that life has gone out of the body, the son&#xA;  should bathe and wash the corpse with pure water without delay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The corpse should be laid lightly on earth with its head to the south.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O bird, preta pinda is given inorder to comfort the deceased.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ten day period of asaucha has been prescribed for the relatives on&#xA;  the father side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even other puranas like Padma Purana, Markandeya Purana etc talk about Sraddha ceremony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The document that is recited usually at a person's death is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/garuda-purana-saroddhara-GPA188/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana Sarodhara&lt;/a&gt; is treated as equivalent to Garuda Purana. Garuda Purana full version is &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600207.us.archive.org/19/items/GarudaPuranaEnglishMotilal3VolumesIn1/Garuda%20Purana%20English%20-%20Motilal%20-%203%20Volumes%20in%201.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-07-03T02:32:37.540" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13929" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21653" CreationDate="2016-07-03T05:56:24.483" Score="9" ViewCount="6515" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duryodhana#Act_of_Friendship&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; cites the following story to show how strong the friendship between Karna and Duryodhana was. But what's the origin of this story? Did Karna really play dice with Duryodhana's wife, Bhanumati, according to Vyasa's Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Act of Friendship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Duryodhana's wife Bhanumati and his close friend Karna were playing a game of dice. The stake between them was substantial. As the game progressed, it was evident that Karna was winning and Bhanumati was losing. Just then Duryodhana entered his queen's chamber. Seeing her husband coming, she was about to stand up. As she was just rising, Karna, thinking that she was trying to get away from the embarrassment of certain defeat in the game, snatched at her drape, studded with pearls. Tugged at by Karna's powerful hands, the thread snapped and all the pearls rolled on the floor. Queen Bhanumati was stunned and did not know what to say or do. Seeing her shocked state, Karna turned around and saw his friend Duryodhana. Karna was embarrassed; here he was, in the royal chamber, playing a game of dice with his friend's wife and, as if this was not enough, he had the audacity to catch her clothes. Surely, Duryodhana would not tolerate such immodesty. He readied himself for the inevitable punishment. As both she and Karna look down sheepishly, unable to meet Duryodhana's eyes, the Kaurava scion only asks:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Should I just collect the beads, or string them as well.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Both Bhanumati and Karna had misjudged him. He had implicit faith and great love for his queen and greater was his faith on his friend Karna. He does not suspect or get angry with Karna but instead helps him in picking up the pearls.&lt;sup&gt;[15][16]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2019-03-12T00:41:51.207" Title="Did Karna really play dice with Duryodhana's wife, Bhanumati?" Tags="|mahabharata|karna|duryodhana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13930" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13971" CreationDate="2016-07-03T07:10:00.153" Score="4" ViewCount="9710" Body="&lt;p&gt;In which parva and in what context does Vyasa say the following shlokha in the Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can listen to it here: &lt;a href=&quot;https://clyp.it/bqm01ao5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://clyp.it/bqm01ao5&lt;/a&gt;, I tried transliterating it as below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasmin yadAvartitavyO yOmanushyaha tasmin tadAvartitavyam sadharmaha mAyAcharo mAyayAvArarenah sAdhvachArah sAdhunA prathyupeyah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He's supposedly speaking on how to beat adharma with adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-07-05T00:03:10.067" LastActivityDate="2016-07-05T15:41:52.477" Title="Where does Vyasa say this shlokha in the Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|vyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13933" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7698" CreationDate="2016-07-03T08:42:10.943" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Uttara Bhaga of Linga Purana consists a section called &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Mahatmya&lt;/strong&gt; which talks about greatness Vishnu. &lt;strong&gt;1st chapter to 8th chapter of UttaraBhaga describes the greatness of Lord Vishnu:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The first quote comes from &lt;em&gt;UttaraBhaga chapter 1 verse 7.&lt;/em&gt; Sage Markandaye states that verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;य एकः पुरुषः श्रेष्ठ: परमात्मा जनार्दन ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यस्माद्ब्रह्मा ततः सर्वं समाश्रित्यैव मुच्यते ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Janardana is the only Purusha, excellent being and highest soul (Paramatma). Brahma and all other are born from him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second quote comes from Linga Purana Chapter 24 &amp;quot;Incarnations of Lord Shiva&amp;quot;. Lord Brahma states that verse there. The verse is 24.143 and it is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न हि विष्णुमया काचिद्गतिरन्या विधियते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इत्येवं सततं वेदा गायन्ति नात्र संशयः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There is no other Gods besides that of Vishnu. This is what has been ordained daily by the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-12-16T04:20:41.390" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T04:20:41.390" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13934" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13935" CreationDate="2016-07-03T12:17:25.163" Score="3" ViewCount="1950" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story of Sage Dhaumya and his disciple Aruni? How did Aruni get the name Uddalaka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-12T10:36:01.317" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T05:22:32.690" Title="What is the story of Sage Dhaumya and his disciple Aruni?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13935" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13934" CreationDate="2016-07-03T12:24:10.467" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Sage Dhaumya and his disciple Aruni is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;About this time there was a Rishi, Ayoda-Dhaumya by name. And Ayoda-Dhaumya had three disciples, Upamanyu, Aruni, and Veda. And the Rishi bade one of these disciples, Aruni of Panchala, to go and stop up a breach in the water-course of a certain field. And Aruni of Panchala, thus ordered by his preceptor, repaired to the spot. And having gone there he saw that he could not stop up the breach in the water-course by ordinary means. And he was distressed because he could not do his preceptor's bidding. But at length he saw a way and said, 'Well, I will do it in this way.' He then went down into the breach and lay down himself there. And the water was thus confined.&#xA;  &quot;And some time after, the preceptor Ayoda-Dhaumya asked his other disciples where Aruni of Panchala was. And they answered, 'Sir, he hath been sent by yourself saying, 'Go, stop up the breach in the water-course&#xA;  of the field,' Thus reminded, Dhaumya, addressing his pupils, said, 'Then let us all go to the place where he is.'&#xA;  &quot;And having arrived there, he shouted, 'Ho Aruni of Panchala! Where art thou? Come hither, my child.' And Aruni hearing the voice of his preceptor speedily came out of the water-course and stood before his preceptor. And addressing the latter, Aruni said, 'Here I am in the breach of the water-course. Not having been able to devise any other means, I entered myself for the purpose of preventing the water running out. It is only upon hearing thy voice that, having left it and allowed the waters to escape, I have stood before thee. I salute thee, Master; tell me what I have to do.'&#xA;  &quot;The preceptor, thus addressed, replied, '&lt;strong&gt;Because in getting up from the ditch thou hast opened the water-course, thenceforth shalt thou be called Uddalaka as a mark of thy preceptor's favour&lt;/strong&gt;. And because my words have been obeyed by thee, thou shalt obtain good fortune. And all the Vedas shall shine in thee and all the Dharmasastras also.' And Aruni, thus addressed by his preceptor, went to the country after his heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T05:22:32.690" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T05:22:32.690" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13936" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7812" CreationDate="2016-07-03T12:34:43.123" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Samba means Sa + Amba ie. Attended/ accompanied by Amba or With Amba.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स + अम्बा = साम्ब (ie. With Amba) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स + उमा = सोम (ie. With Uma) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स + उमा + स्कन्ध = सोमस्कन्ध (ie. With Uma and Skandha)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above all are names of Lord Shiva. Samba is frequently used in scriptures to denote Shiva and Shakti aspect simultaneously. They are used frequently in Linga Purana and Shiva Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here I give examples of Skandha Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवमुक्त्वा महादेवः &lt;strong&gt;साम्बः&lt;/strong&gt; संसारमोचक । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सत्य ज्ञान परानन्दस्तत्रैवान्तरधीयत ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Mahadeva who is with Amba( ie. &lt;strong&gt;Samba&lt;/strong&gt;) is the liberator of the world. He is truth, knowledge and infinite bliss. &lt;em&gt;[Skandha Purana Suta Samhita YajnaVaibhava Khanda]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in Yajnabhaiva Khanda Sarva Shastra Sangrata, Suta Samhita; Skandha Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वैश्वर्यैण संपन्न: सर्वेश सर्व कारणम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शंभुरेव सदा &lt;strong&gt;साम्बो&lt;/strong&gt; न विष्णुर्न प्रजापति ।। 25।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Always with all Aishwarya, Lord of All and cause of All. Such is Sambhu who is with Amba (&lt;strong&gt;Samba&lt;/strong&gt;). Neither Vishnu nor Prajapati (Brahma) are like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in the same place,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिवंकरत्वं संपूर्णं शिवस्यैव परात्मन: । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;साम्बमूर्तिधरस्यास्य&lt;/strong&gt; जगतः कारणस्य हि ।। 27।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Everything is Shiva itself. Shiva is the Supreme Soul itself. &lt;strong&gt;He creates the form accompanied by Amba (ie. Samba form) just to be the cause of creation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-07-03T12:34:43.123" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13938" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-03T16:37:52.223" Score="8" ViewCount="1586" Body="&lt;p&gt;Western literature describes a host of mythical creatures like the hippogriff; werewolf; basilisk; centaur. Hindu religion also has a vast literature which describes similar albeit different mythological beings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are these beings in specific terms? What is the Hindu view as to the existence of such &quot;fanciful beings&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1131" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-15T08:12:08.627" LastActivityDate="2018-02-15T08:43:54.143" Title="Hindu view of fantastical creatures in scriptures" Tags="|scripture|puranas|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13939" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13938" CreationDate="2016-07-03T17:25:00.340" Score="-4" Body="&lt;p&gt;These are all fantastical creatures.  In the Hindu epics and Puranic texts, many fantastical creatures are described.  If one believes in the Yuga theory, a Satya Yuga (&quot;Golden Age&quot;) did exist in the ancient, misty past.  Many individuals with psionic powers and siddhis did exist back then.  Did these individuals have the arcane knowledge of genetic engineering and/or creating fantastical creatures with powerful thought-forms? This is certainly a distinct possibility.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Researchers are finding out that the ancient Sumerian civilization had such arcane knowledge.  The ancient Vedic civilization would have been contemporaneous with both the Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations.  All of these cultures described fantastical creatures.  Are all these creatures mere mythological constructs? Perhaps, they existed during an advanced and distant age.  Our ancestors may have had distant memories of these &quot;fantastical creatures&quot; passed down via the oral and written traditions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastActivityDate="2016-07-03T17:25:00.340" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13940" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4038" CreationDate="2016-07-03T18:19:38.853" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Hinduism provides a broad spectrum of belief positions: from atheism to agnosticism and all the way to theism.  In the latter category, there are individuals who posit the existence of an impersonal, attribute-less Brahman versus the ultimate existence of a personal Ishvar (with its dualistic implications).  This array of permutations and combinations has enriched the Indian philosophical tradition.  Just look at the various perspectives of the Vedantins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The responses posted above regarding the Shad Darshan System (Six Classical Philosophical Schools) and its divergent views of a personal Creator have nicely described the versatility and heterogeneity of the beautiful Indian psyche.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastActivityDate="2016-07-03T18:19:38.853" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13941" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13938" CreationDate="2016-07-03T18:21:26.810" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are various stories related to Non Human Races in Hindu Mythology. Not similar with the names or the Description you have provided (Hippogriff , WereWolf ,Basilisk ,Centaur ). &lt;strong&gt;Basically theses are of Western Origin.&lt;/strong&gt; We have In Hinduism our own set of creatures which were described in our &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Purans&quot; (पुराण).&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;The word &quot;Puran&quot; or &quot;Puranas&quot; means, what is ancient, and are simply Mythological Stories , &lt;strong&gt;But they are not &quot;Myths&quot; or &quot;fiction&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;They are real events ,described by means of stories.&lt;/strong&gt;(Their are evidences to prove   authenticity of  stories of &quot;Puranas&quot;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am  providing the list of some of the creatures (Non Human) Discribed in Hindu &quot;puranas&quot; or &quot;Mythological Stories&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) Apsara (अप्सरा)&lt;/strong&gt; - An Apsara is a female spirit of the clouds and waters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) Gandharva (गंधर्व)&lt;/strong&gt; - Are male nature spirits, husbands of the Apsaras. Some are part animal , usually a bird or horse . They have superb musical skills. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3) Garuda (गरुड)&lt;/strong&gt; - The Garuda is a large bird-like creature, or humanoid bird that appears in &quot;Puranas&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4) Naga (नाग)&lt;/strong&gt; - Deity or class of entity or being, taking the form of a very great Snake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5) Rakshsa (राक्षस)&lt;/strong&gt; - Is a demonic being from Hindu &quot;Puranas&quot; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6) Yaksha (यक्ष)&lt;/strong&gt; - The name of a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, who are Caretakers of the natural treasures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7) Vidyadharas (विद्याधर)&lt;/strong&gt; - literally &quot;wisdom-holders&quot;) are a group of supernatural beings in Hindu Puranas who possess magical powers.&#xA;etc. the list is broad. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can find description  of such creatures in puranas .&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;And they  are not generally described in &quot;Vedas&quot;.  or &quot;Shastras&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;Veda&quot; and &quot;Shastras&quot; are very different from &quot;Puranas&quot; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please find more info. about such creatures &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Non-human_races_in_Hindu_mythology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-04T07:38:54.243" LastActivityDate="2016-07-04T07:38:54.243" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13944" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21438" CreationDate="2016-07-03T20:19:55.663" Score="11" ViewCount="3755" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many contemporary groups (fundamentalist Christians and Muslims; secular liberals; Marxists) have denounced the &quot;Manu Smriti&quot; text as a source of discrimination against the &quot;lesser castes&quot; as well as against women.  One researcher from the Arya Samaj has said that the &quot;Manu Smriti&quot; text has been altered (via addition of later shlokas) throughout the centuries in order to give economic and political power to the Brahmins and Kshatriyas.  This same researcher states that the true and original verses of Lord Manu did not contain such discrimination and inequality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the validity of such accusations and assertions? Please provide guidance to all the interested individuals of Hindu Dharma living abroad who don't have access to the primary textual sources of &quot;Manu Smriti&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastActivityDate="2024-01-01T01:36:06.747" Title="Manu Smriti as a source of controversy" Tags="|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="33" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13945" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7896" CreationDate="2016-07-04T03:22:07.473" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dakshinamurty form of Lord Shiva is described in Suta Samhita of &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; in Mochak Kathanam of Mukti Khanda. Here is the description of form:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गड़्गाधरं शिवं शान्तं लसत्केयूरमण्डितम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वाभरणसंयुक्तं सर्वलक्षणसंयुक्तम् ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;वीरासने&lt;/strong&gt; समासीनं वेदयज्ञोपवीतिनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भस्माधाराभिरामं तं नागाभरणभूषितम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  व्याघ्रचर्माम्बरं शुद्धं योगपट्टावृतं शुभम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वेषां &lt;strong&gt;प्राणिनामात्माज्ञानापस्मारपृष्ठत&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विन्यस्तचरणं सम्यज्ञानमुद्राधरंहरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वविज्ञानरत्नानां कोशभूतं सुपुस्तकम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दधानं सर्वतत्वाक्षमालिकां कुण्डिकामपि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्वात्मभूत परानन्द पराशक्त्यर्धविग्रहम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धर्मरुप वृषोपेतं धार्मिक वेदपारगै ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;मुनिभि: संवृतं मायावटमूलाश्रितं शुभम्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इशानं सर्वविद्यानामीश्वेरश्वरमव्ययम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उत्पत्त्यादितिनिर्मुक्तमोंकारकमलासनम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;स्वातमविद्याप्रदानेन&lt;/strong&gt; सदा संसारमोचकम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रुद्रं परमकारुण्यात्सर्वप्राणिहितेरतम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उपासकानां सर्वेषामभीष्टसकलप्रदम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;दक्षिणामूर्तिदेवाख्यं&lt;/strong&gt; जगत्सर्गादिकारणम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  समागत्य महाभक्त्या दण्डवत्पृथिवीतले ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रणम्य बहुशोदेवं समाराध्य यथाबलम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रुद्र यत्ते मुखं तेन दक्षिणंपाहि मामिति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उक्त्वा पुनः पुनर्देवं पूजयामास भक्तितः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुनर्देवो महादेवो &lt;strong&gt;दक्षिणामूर्तिरीश्वर:&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रदत्त्वा स्वात्मविज्ञान तस्मै विप्रायसुव्रता ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्य संसारविच्छेदमकरोदम्बिकापति। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बहवो &lt;strong&gt;दक्षिणामूर्ति&lt;/strong&gt; प्रसादादेव जन्ततः ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The one bearing Ganga in his head, Shiva; &lt;strong&gt;is silent,&lt;/strong&gt; with his hairs tied. He can give anything to anyone and he is full of all attributes. He is sitting in &lt;strong&gt;Virasana Position&lt;/strong&gt; and wearing a Vedic Yajnopavita. He is covered by the ashes and his ornaments are snakes. He is sitting in tigerskin made for sitting in Yogic position. He is giving AtmaJnana to all creatures through silence. &lt;strong&gt;His left foot is in right thigh and his hand is on JnanaMudra.&lt;/strong&gt; He is the embodiment of all jewels of knowledge. He is giving all tatwa just through his eyes. He himself is in fully trancsendental blissful state, transcending even Shakti. &lt;strong&gt;Sages which are like embodiment of Dharma tree and who have transcended even Vedas, they are sitting around that Banayan tree.&lt;/strong&gt; Ishana himself is the all knowledge, he is the Lord and also unmanifested, He manifests just by the sound Om, the one who is sitting in Lotus. &lt;strong&gt;Providing knowledge of Self&lt;/strong&gt; he is always the liberator of self. Such is Rudra and his compassion who always wants good for creatures. The one who do Austerity for him is sure to have fulfilled his desires, He is that &lt;strong&gt;Dakshinamurty divine&lt;/strong&gt; and is the cause of this whole world. The great devotees salute him by keeping head on earth. I salute him and adore him with my limited abilities. Rudra I surrender to your form which is facing south. I worship again and again through my devotion. &lt;strong&gt;Oh Lord Mahadeva in the form of Dakshinamurti, you provide knowledge of self,&lt;/strong&gt; thus intelligent worship you. Thus for liberating creatures from this cycle of Samsara, oh Lord of Ambika, you take the form of &lt;strong&gt;Dakshninamurti&lt;/strong&gt; being like a fruit for all.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Dakshinmurty is also described briefly in &lt;strong&gt;Lalita Sahasranama of Brahmanda Purana.&lt;/strong&gt; There Shakti is called Dakshinmurty Rupini as Shakti is Shiva herself and Shiva just remains in unmanifested state without Shakti; (it is actually through Shakti Shiva assumes forns:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वतन्त्रा सर्वतन्त्रेशी &lt;strong&gt;दक्षिणामूर्ति रुपिणी&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सनकादि समाराध्या शिवज्ञान प्रदायीनि ।।140।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are independent. You are the presiding deity over all Tantras. &lt;strong&gt;You are the who takes form of Dakshinamurty who is adored by Sanaka and other sages and who provides knowledge of Supreme.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The form &lt;strong&gt;resembling Dakshinamurty&lt;/strong&gt; form is also described in &lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam&lt;/strong&gt; from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/6/31&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; although the name Dakshinmurty is not used:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;S.B.4.6.31,32 (&lt;strong&gt;Banayana tree&lt;/strong&gt;); S.B.4.6.33 (&lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva sitting under that tree&lt;/strong&gt;); S.B.4.6.34 (&lt;strong&gt;Surrounded by Sanata Kumaras and other Saints&lt;/strong&gt; and Silent), S.B.4.6.35 (Lord Shiva in full perfection); S.B.4.6.36 (&lt;strong&gt;Virasana&lt;/strong&gt; and hand in Tarka mudra)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A mantra adressing Lord Dakshinamurty is also in the &lt;strong&gt;Narada Purana (III.91)&lt;/strong&gt; and Dakshinamurty is also described there:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dakshinamurtaye should be uttered first, then homage unto you who reside at the root of the banayan tree, obeisance unto him who is deeply engrossed in meditation, then to Rudra and Sambhu. Tãra (Om) and Hrim should enclose the mantra. The mantra consists of thirty six syllables. It is the bestower of all desired gods. Suka is the sage and Anushtup is the metre. &lt;strong&gt;The deity is Sambhu Dakshinãmurti.&lt;/strong&gt; There is a lofty banyan tree on the ridge of the Himãlayas frequented by Siddhas and Kinnaras. The tree has fruits shining like rubies. It has shadowed sunlight by its far extending branches. The full-blown trees are embraced by the clusters of creepers in full bloom. The place has been rendered cool by the winds blowing over the mountain streams Howing out of the rock crevasses. Groups of cdestial damels sing while the flocks of peacocks dance. Different quarters are resonant by the cooing of cuckoos. The region is frequented by the animals which have eschewed their mutual animosity. It is beautified by fragrant flowers of both aquatic and terrestrial origin. lt is conti- nuously and happily resorted to by the sages, Suka and others. It is frequently supervised by the gods, chief of whom is Indra and who are accompanied by their womenfolk and others. The banyan tree is beautilied by the thickly grown emerald-like leaves. It is embellished as though with hanging ornaments made of the nine precious gems. &lt;strong&gt;It is a wonderful tree the shade of which is capable of dispelling worldly distress. Shiva is seated at its root in an auspicious throne set beautifully, studded with jewels.&lt;/strong&gt; His embellishments are immeasurable. His face resembles the autumnal moon. He resembles the mountain Kailasa, has three eyes and the crescent moon decorating his matted hair. He is seated in the heroic posture. He holds the posture of the hatchet, deer and has placed the delicate hand on the knee. He has kept a serpent firmly fixed under his arm pit. He should meditate on Siva in his pleasant mood. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-05-09T03:55:33.010" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T03:55:33.010" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13947" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="537" CreationDate="2016-07-04T07:11:23.333" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma muhurta  is a period one and a half hours before sunrise or more precisely 1Hr 36 Mins before sunrise.  96 Minutes = 2 Muhūrta or 4 Ghaṭīkā,and each Muhurta lasting for 48 minutes. Literally meaning &quot;The Creator's Hour&quot;, it is traditionally the last phase or muhurta of the night and is considered an auspicious time for all practices of yoga and most appropriate for meditation, worship or any other religious practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7051" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-07-04T13:41:19.443" LastActivityDate="2016-07-04T13:41:19.443" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13948" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2457" CreationDate="2016-07-04T07:39:19.230" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha is a permanent state because sruti says so. Brahma Sutras 4.4.22 says (Swami Vireswarananda translator, available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(There is) no return (for those released souls); on account of scriptural declaration (to that effect).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his commentary to this verse, Sankara references 2 Upanishads - the Chandogya Upanishad 8.6.6:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Going up by that way, one reaches immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 6.2.15:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They no more return to this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, what is meant by the 'soul' and the 'state of the soul' after moksha, depends upon whether you are a follower of the advaita, the vishishadvaita, or dvaita school - which is a different question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-07-04T07:39:19.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13950" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13889" CreationDate="2016-07-04T12:50:35.580" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;While visiting the site after a while, I really liked this Q. I would also agree with &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13889/why-doesnt-lord-krishna-give-moksha-to-everyone#comment33351_13889&quot;&gt;@Sai's answer comment&lt;/a&gt;. At the same time your counter arguments (to that comment &amp;amp; other answers) are quite interesting and those led me to write this down. Sometimes, we ask something as a way of expression. Deep down we know that, we don't want an answer from other sources, but via same place from where the question actually came: &quot;the deep down&quot;. This answer might act as a helper.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If '&lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt;' wants, he can give Moksha to everyone. By '&lt;em&gt;his&lt;/em&gt;' grace, '&lt;em&gt;he&lt;/em&gt;' can free anyone from sins. Why '&lt;em&gt;his&lt;/em&gt;' grace will only fall if one surrenders to '&lt;em&gt;him&lt;/em&gt;'? Why doesn't '&lt;em&gt;he&lt;/em&gt;' give Moksha to everyone?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In your queries, I have highlighted &quot;Krishna&quot;, &quot;he&quot;, &quot;his&quot;, &quot;him&quot; etc.. If you think the personal form of VAsudeva Krishna, who was a YAdava prince, ruled in Mathura &amp;amp; Dwarka, married to Rukmani, cousin of PAndava, spoke Gita -- as a &quot;giver of Moksha&quot;, then I fear that it's a wrong perception. Of course that body which lived for 100+ years was divine &amp;amp; godly, but that body was/is/will-be NOT responsible for the Moksha received by various &lt;em&gt;Jiva&lt;/em&gt;s (includes him) before, during &amp;amp; after his time in earth or other planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While perceiving &quot;God&quot;: the Vaishnava-s refer -- &quot;Krishna&quot;, many prefer -- &quot;Shiva&quot;, Advaitans refer -- &quot;Brahman&quot;, Muslims/Sufi-s as -- &quot;Allah&quot; &amp;amp; so on.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;During Gita, that ultimate was referred as &quot;Me&quot;. But we innocently connect it to Krishna, because he spoke. Plz refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12189/1049&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Understanding &quot;Me&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In summary, &lt;em&gt;&quot;Atma&quot;, &quot;Turiya&quot;, &quot;Moksha&quot;, &quot;Leela&quot;, &quot;Akarma (in Karma)&quot;&lt;/em&gt; are different names of that &quot;Me&quot; only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are various understandings of ultimate liberation. One should choose, whichever suits.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Whatever Krishna described as &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;, realizing that itself is Moksha. Some describe it as &lt;em&gt;(nirvikalpa) SamAdhi&lt;/em&gt; as well. Again, what is that?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;IMO, the best objectification of this state was done in Buddhism as attaining &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9A%C5%ABnyat%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;ShunyatA&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;em&gt;NirvAna&lt;/em&gt;). The complete void-ness, nothingness is the true nature of God. The same has been repeated in many indirect ways in Gita, and once in a direct way:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 8.21 — &lt;strong&gt;What is called as &quot;Unmanifested Indestructible&quot;, that's known as the final state (&lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/strong&gt;. Gaining which [one] doesn't return, is &quot;My&quot; transcendental destination.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At 1st, it appears strange to term &quot;God = Nothing&quot;, but that has been implied in Gita again &amp;amp; again. From &lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt; school of thinking, &quot;Nothing&quot; finally remains when you apply &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neti_neti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Neti Neti&lt;/a&gt; on everything which comes your way.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Apart from Gautam Buddha, the modern day Yogis like Ramana Maharshi, Osho (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.osho.com/iosho/library/read-book/online-library-nothingness-attainment-empty-b62d0897-33a?p=c45b9abd157a615d0eab25dfe044d8e1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;see here&lt;/a&gt;) &amp;amp; Jaggi Vasudev have also advocated this &quot;nothingness&quot; as the true nature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Why his grace will only fall if one surrenders to him? Why doesn't 'he' give Moksha to everyone?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Probably you think, &quot;If we surrender to God, then God grants Moksha&quot;, where God &amp;amp; Moksha are different.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But as I described above, the &quot;Me&quot; (God) &amp;amp; &quot;Moksha&quot; are just same. It simplifies that: &quot;One who surrenders to 'Me', gets 'Me'&quot; or &quot;One who surrenders to 'Moksha', gets 'Moksha'&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may counter argue that, why that surrender-ship (&lt;em&gt;SharanAgati&lt;/em&gt;) is not coming automatically?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Well, that happens too. Ultimately all gets &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; by merging into that &quot;Me&quot; during the end of universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 9.7 — O son of Kunti, all elementary world becomes &quot;My&quot; nature at end of cycle(&lt;em&gt;Kalpa&lt;/em&gt;); Again I create them at the beginning of the cycle.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So at least half of the time (night), everything remains in the state of Moksha for sure. But I believe, your question is during the other half (day). Hence root of your queries is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Why shouldn't state of Moksha persist straight away?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, actually it does! What we (ignorantly) call our &quot;self&quot; is just a minute part of the &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; - a dumb interaction of materials. The true &quot;self&quot; is Moksha (&quot;Me&quot;) only.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The whole chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 13&lt;/a&gt; is dedicated to this &amp;amp; hopefully answers your question.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There are 3 entities which relates all of us:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: Visible universe constituting &lt;em&gt;Sattva, Rajas, Tamas&lt;/em&gt;. All elementary world consists of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. It's also called &lt;em&gt;mAyA&lt;/em&gt;, because it illusions the timelessness into past, present &amp;amp; future. Body &amp;amp; senses including mind belongs here. This entity completely differentiates you &amp;amp; I. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: The enjoyer or consumer. Also called as &lt;em&gt;Kshetragya&lt;/em&gt; according to BG 13.2. It witnesses (otherwise dumb) &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; as the reality. However, what constitutes &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; how it's different from &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; is bit shadowy &amp;amp; ambiguous to me. The closest objectification I have found is &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt; as equivalent of &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;. Refer BG 3.42 &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10799/1049&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Buddhi vs Mann&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. This entity partially differentiates you &amp;amp; I, as both of our &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;s are Witnesses, but they are witnessing different interactions of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: The true &quot;self&quot;. This is the 'creator'/'sustainer' of both &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;. This entity (rather no entity) merges you &amp;amp; I into &lt;strong&gt;same&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;Me&quot;. i.e. the &lt;em&gt;ShunyatA&lt;/em&gt;/&quot;nothingness&quot; as discussed before.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 13.20 — Know that &lt;em&gt;Prakruti &amp;amp; Purusha&lt;/em&gt;, both are certainly beginning-less; Transformations and &lt;em&gt;Guna-s (sattva, rajas, tamas)&lt;/em&gt; are known to be possible due to &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 13.21 — &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;'s purposes are said to be Activity - Reason - Creation; &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;'s purpose is said to consume happiness &amp;amp; sorrow.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when we ask the question, &quot;Why Moksha is not given to everyone straight away?&quot; &quot;Why the Universe is created at first?&quot; &quot;Why all these miseries?&quot; and so on. -- These questions are being raised only due to the interactions of the &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;'s modes only. Ofcourse, this answer also!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Why are they happening? -- So that the enjoyer termed as &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; inside that body can consume that.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not only happiness, but the &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; in us wants to enjoy the misery &amp;amp; sorrow as well; Because it still differentiates this sorrow from the happiness. The moment this (sorrow vs happiness) &amp;amp; all other dualities disappears, this &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; also disappears. The disappearance of &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; is called, '&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; being merged to the &lt;em&gt;ShunyatA&lt;/em&gt;'. The state of nothing-ness is Moksha or &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; is doing all the time when the &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; is 'enjoying' the &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;? -- The &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; or &quot;Me&quot; remains unaffected and continues pervading without being spoiled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 13.31 — When one realizes that the diversity of elementary world(&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;) is rooted in the One [which has] expanded, that attains &lt;em&gt;BrahM&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 13.32 — Being beginning-less, being formless, the indivisible (0 / n = 0) transcendental &quot;self&quot;(&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;) being in body neither does anything nor gets affected, O son of Kunti.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 13.33 — How the space being subtle doesn't get affected, the &quot;self&quot;(&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;) being pervading everywhere in the body doesn't get affected.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-07-05T04:58:13.243" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13951" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16127" CreationDate="2016-07-04T13:55:54.987" Score="6" ViewCount="713" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have always been fascinated by the section of the fabulous &quot;Yoga Sutras&quot; which describe the &quot;siddhis&quot; (psionic powers).  Sri Patanjali did a marvelous task of organizing and codifying the Yoga Darshan during the ancient aeon.  Do the Scriptures explain how these &quot;siddhis&quot; work? Are they to be taken literally or are they metaphorical and allegorical?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T16:26:21.113" Title="Scriptural Explanation of the &quot;Siddhis&quot; of the &quot;Yoga Sutras&quot;" Tags="|siddhi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13952" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-04T14:36:16.097" Score="8" ViewCount="931" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit has been termed as &quot;Language of the Gods&quot;.  Its versatility and power have even been extolled by the modern scholars of linguistics.  Sri Panini helped to codify the classical form of Sanskrit.  Prior to him, the Vedas were composed in an older form of Sanskrit (Vedic Sanskrit) which is different from classical Sanskrit.  Vedic Sanskrit is also more difficult to decipher than classical Sanskrit.  The modern scholars of languages are trying to understand the origin of Sanskrit; there are still many gaps in their current knowledge base.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have our Hindu Acharyas and/or scriptures spoken about the origin of this mysterious &quot;Language of the Gods&quot;? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Was Sanskrit an &quot;eternal language&quot; which our ancient Rishis &quot;discovered&quot; during their deep meditational states of consciousness?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditDate="2020-05-07T01:21:48.593" LastActivityDate="2020-12-06T22:02:52.540" Title="The Mysterious Origin of the Divine Sanskrit Language" Tags="|vedas|sanskrit|language|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13953" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7611" CreationDate="2016-07-04T15:00:37.787" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;David Frawley and Michel Danino have formulated compelling arguments against the &quot;Aryan Invasion Theory&quot;.  Dr. Frawley's book is entitled, &quot;In Search of the Cradle of Civilization&quot;.  His collaboraters were Georg Feuerstein (a scholar regarding the history of Yoga) and Subhash Kak (a scholar researching the archaeo-astronomy of the Vedic texts).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dr. Edwin Bryant's book (cited above) presents both sides of the debate.  During a personal email communication with me during the Spring of 2016, he did state that the current Indus Valley Civilization (whose language system is still open to debate and speculation) most likely is of Vedic origin.  This last piece of evidence would shift the debate in favor of the &quot;OIT&quot; theory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mighty Bal Gangadhar Tilak composed a book entitled, &quot;Arctic Home in the Vedas&quot; (published in 1903).  In this manuscript, he proposes the North Pole as the original homeland of the Aryans (during the pre-glacial period); they eventually departed from the North Pole circa 8000 BCE due to the ice deluge.  This is an interesting theoretical variation in the debate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Traditional Acharyas and Spiritual Pillars like Dayanand Saraswati (Arya Samaj), Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, and more recently the late Pandurang Shastri Athavale (founder of the Swadhyaya movement) have always decried the tendency of the Western historians to posit an Aryan invasion.  More recent evidence (including genetic evidence) has now shifted the debate away from an Aryan invasion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please visit these books to obtain a greater understanding of this fascinating debate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Link to YouTube playlist: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10tDjMdX_nA&amp;amp;list=PLpLmekO2E3ZxfgHTkVMWDxnOv_lu5XEBl&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Exploring Indian Civilization by Michel Danino, IIT Kanpur&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-11T01:17:51.343" LastActivityDate="2017-02-11T01:17:51.343" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13954" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-04T15:20:54.840" Score="2" ViewCount="148" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the overall Hindu scriptural tradition, does meat-eating impede spiritual progress? I know that the classical Vaishnava traditions seem to prohibit it.  How about the other sects and paths within the grand Hindu Faith? Do the Vedas comment on this aspect?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastActivityDate="2016-07-04T15:20:54.840" Title="Meat-eating and Hinduism" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-07-04T15:51:27.443" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13955" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14302" CreationDate="2016-07-04T17:19:43.517" Score="4" ViewCount="590" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Vratas  (व्रत )&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; described in Hinduism. e.g. &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Haritalika (हरितालिका)&quot; , &quot;Rushi Panchami (ऋषि पंचमी)&lt;/strong&gt; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures pointing towards importance of &quot;vratas&quot; in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-15T08:16:41.443" LastActivityDate="2023-11-21T16:11:52.630" Title="What is the significance of &quot; Vratas&quot; ( व्रत ) In Hinduism?" Tags="|puranas|culture|dharma|tradition|ayurveda|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13956" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-04T17:38:33.513" Score="2" ViewCount="65" Body="&lt;p&gt;The late Mohanlal Agrawal had written two volumes entitled, &quot;Aghor Nagara Vage&quot;. In these two volumes, he recounts his extraordinary and surreal encounters with the authentic yogis and sages of northern India as well as Nepal.  Various phenomena defying the conventional laws of physics and nature are detailed.  Throughout the book, he makes references to the Aghora-Panth sadhus and yogis.  They believe in a form of strict non-dualism and are sometimes regarded as &quot;sinister&quot; and &quot;heretical&quot; by the conventional Hindu population.  Academic scholars have described the Aghora-Panth as unorthodox and antinomian.  Where in the Grand Tree of Hinduism does this Aghora-Panth exist? Is it an obscure branch of Shaivism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastActivityDate="2016-07-04T17:38:33.513" Title="Nature of Aghora-Panth Yogis" Tags="|yogi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13957" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-04T18:29:15.703" Score="3" ViewCount="628" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before reciting the Vishnu Sahasranamam, it is traditional to recite the following Shloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शुक्लाम्बरधरं विष्णुं शशिवर्णं चतुर्भुजम् | प्रसन्न वदनं धयायेत सर्वविघ्नोपशान्तये  ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shuklambaradharam vishnum shashivarnam chaturbhujam |&#xA;Prassanavadanam dhyayet sarvavighnopashantayae||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Robed in white he pervades the world, shining like moonlight, four-armed lord, unto his smiling face we pray for removing all obstacles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now there has been a long-standing controversy as to who the Devata of this verse is.  Some people think it's addressed to Ganesha, since it mentions removing obstacles.  Others think it's addressed to Vishnu, because it has the word vishnum in it, it's associated with the Vishnu Sahasranamam, and they argue that Vishnu is more than capable of removing any obstacle.  And still others think it refers to Vishnu's general Vishvaksena, since he is worshipped by Sri Vaishnavas to remove obstacles and the Shuklambharadharam verse is often juxtaposed with the &amp;quot;Yasya dvirada&amp;quot; verse explicitly invoking Vishvaksena.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is not about the controversy itself, but about the scriptural basis for this verse.  The Vishnu Sahasranamam was most famously told by Bhishma to Yudhisthira in the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, but the Anushasana Parva doesn't mention the verse at all.  The only place I know of in Hindu scripture is in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Jfgkz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Avantya Khanda of Skanda Purana, where Brahma gives the Shuklambharadham verse, but does not say anything about its Devata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what scriptures other than the Skanda Purana contain the Shuklambharadharam verse?  Is it mentioned in any Pancharatra Agamas?  I assume that is where the traditional procedure for chanting the Sahasranamam comes from.  And do any scriptures which mention it explicitly mention the Devata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-05T21:20:53.907" Title="What scriptures other than the Skanda Purana contain the Shuklambharadharam verse?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|sri-vaishnava|skanda-purana|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13958" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-04T20:52:24.983" Score="6" ViewCount="291" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;Mantra&quot;, &quot;Yantra&quot;, and &quot;Tantra&quot; are terms in the Sanskrit language.  Can someone with expertise define their true meaning in the context of Vedic philosophy and how the three terms may be inter-related?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T09:21:45.860" Title="Triad of Mantra, Yantra, and Tantra" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13959" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14016" CreationDate="2016-07-04T23:41:05.517" Score="9" ViewCount="4762" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some people &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Did-Mahabharata-begin-with-a-dog/answer/Praveen-Atreya?srid=TNBy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;say&lt;/a&gt; that the tale of Mahabharata starts and ends with a dog. When they say &lt;em&gt;ends with a dog&lt;/em&gt;, they are referring to Yama-disguised-as-a-dog who follows Yudhishtira and other Pandavas on their final walk up the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swargarohini&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Himalayas&lt;/a&gt; to retire from the world. This is &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m17/m17001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;narrated&lt;/a&gt; in the Mahaprasthanika Parva of the Mahabharata and the picture below depicts the scene.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xxPrW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xxPrW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But where is the story of Mahabharata starting with a dog narrated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarama#Epics&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; has the following picture of Janamejaya's brothers beating up a dog which came to see the yajna proceedings just out of curiosity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rjFnf.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rjFnf.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T07:45:46.070" Title="Did the story of Mahabharata start (and end) with a dog?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|animals|janamejaya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13960" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-05T02:44:20.527" Score="5" ViewCount="50" Body="&lt;p&gt;The various commentators of the Shad Darshan system make references to the Charvakas and the Lokayatas.  These two groups seem to have been the Materialists and Naturalists of ancient India.  I think that there may have even been a third group termed the &quot;Nihilists&quot; (doctrine that human life is meaningless).  I don't know the Sanskrit term for the Nihilists.  At any rate, all three groups are vilified by the proponents of the six classical schools in the Shad Darshan system.  Did any of these marginal and atheistic groups play a positive role in the development of classical Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastActivityDate="2016-07-05T02:44:20.527" Title="The Materialists and Naturalists" Tags="|shad-darshana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13961" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9630" CreationDate="2016-07-05T06:31:28.817" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vijaya is the one of the ten names of Arjuna. In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Virata Parva of Mahabharata, SECTION XLIV&lt;/a&gt;, Arjuna has told his ten names to Uttara (Son of Virata) described as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna said, 'I will, O son of Virata, tell thee my ten names. Listen thou and compare them with what thou hadst heard before. Listen to them with close attention and concentrated mind. They are Arjuna, Falguna, Jishnu, Kiritin, Swetavahana, Vibhatsu, &lt;strong&gt;Vijaya&lt;/strong&gt;, Krishna, Savyasachin and Dhananjaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Arjuna is a well known friend of Krishna as told by Arjuna in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavad Gita&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 11.41-42 — Thinking of You as my friend, I have rashly addressed You “O Kṛṣṇa,” “O Yādava,” “&lt;strong&gt;O my friend&lt;/strong&gt;,” not knowing Your glories. Please forgive whatever I may have done in madness or in love. I have dishonored You many times, jesting as we relaxed, lay on the same bed, or sat or ate together, sometimes alone and sometimes in front of many friends. O infallible one, please excuse me for all those offenses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in my opinion &lt;strong&gt;Shri Krishna is clearly talking about Arjuna&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-24T08:17:50.970" LastActivityDate="2017-05-24T08:17:50.970" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13962" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13965" CreationDate="2016-07-05T07:45:17.577" Score="8" ViewCount="1205" Body="&lt;p&gt;How  Rushies (ऋषी) , Poets (कवी) described Monsoon Season (वर्षा ऋतू)   in ancient Scriptures , shlokas , Subhasitas (सुभाषित) , Plays etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any description of Rainy season / Monsoon Season in &quot;Vedas&quot; (वेद) ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-05T08:44:57.867" LastActivityDate="2016-09-15T11:04:57.363" Title="How Monsoon Season or Rainy Season (वर्षा ऋतू) has been described in Ancient scriptures of Hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|culture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13964" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13962" CreationDate="2016-07-05T09:10:19.000" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Rainy season is mentioned in Vedas. It is considered the best season according to Chandogya Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad II.16.1(translated by Swami Gambhirananda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Spring is Himkara, summer is Prastava, &lt;strong&gt;rains are Udgitha&lt;/strong&gt;, autumn is Pratihara, (early and late) winter is Nidhana. This Vairaja(Sama) is fully established on the seasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2016-07-05T09:10:19.000" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13965" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13962" CreationDate="2016-07-05T09:21:29.323" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The rainy season is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_010.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Harivamsa Mahatmya&lt;/a&gt;, which is Khila of Mahabharata in details. The story is told by Sage Vaishampayan to Janmejay as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaishaMpAyana said:&#xA;  (O janamejaya), after arriving at vR^indAvana, the two handsome sons of vasudeva wandered in the forest tending to calves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They completed the (remaining) summer time in the forest happily, playing with gopa-boys and bathing in the river yamunA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the rainy season lighting desires in the mind arrived. Great clouds adorned with rainbows (shakrachApa) on the belly, covered the sky and it started raining heavily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It was difficult to see the sun. The earth covered with grass was not visible. The earth appeared as if it regained youth since its surface was swept by strong winds spraying fresh water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The insects such as indragopakula drenched in the rain. The forest fires and the smokes were extinguished completely. The forest looked charming.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It was the time for peacocks with large feathers to dance. The sounds of their joyful mingling could be heard everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the new rains, the trunks of young kadamba trees looked beautiful with the new clouds, providing food for butterflies and bees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The kuTaja and kadamba trees enhanced the beauty of the forest with their flowers and fragrance. The clouds destroyed the heat of summer. The earth was happy with rain water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The hills which were scorched by the sun rays and burned by blazing forest fires, breathed new life after being soaked with rain water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Strong winds blew everywhere. Huge clouds showered heavy rains. The earth, taken over by the sky, appeared like the city of a king. (strong winds blew like flags and huge clouds appeared like huge palaces of a king's city - nIlakaNTha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In some places, kadamba trees were in full bloom. In some other places, mushrooms flourished like ornaments. The forest appeared lit with nIpa flowers in full bloom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Drenched by indra's rain water, the fragrance of earth spread by winds, agitated the minds of people everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The entire earth was filled with the sound of humming bees, croaking frogs and singing peacocks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Flowing forcefully with large whirlpools and abundant water obtained from the rains, the rivers increased their breadth uprooting trees from the banks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The birds with their wings wet in the heavy rain, refused to leave the tree tops as though they were exhausted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sun was immersed in the bellies of the rain clouds, which were dense with water and rumbling with rain, in the sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Covered with green grass and drenched in heavy rain, it became difficult to find paths which were indicated by the trees on both sides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The peaks of hills having trees whose top branches were cut as though struck by vajra, crumbled on the ground due to strong currents of water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The rain water from the clouds flowed through the land, according to the level. The low areas became full, flooding the forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the heavy rain, following the thunder of the clouds, wild elephants raised their heads, holding their trunks up. It appeared as though the clouds have descended on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing that the rainy season has arrived and water bearing clouds have covered the sky, the son of rohiNi (balarAma) spoke these appropriate words to kR^iShNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kR^iShNa, look at the dark clouds which are shining with groups of birds, as though decorated with ornaments. Stealing the colour of your body, they have gone up in the sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is the time for you to sleep. (It is known in purANA-s that viShNu sleeps during the four months of the rainy season -footnote on page 295, harivaMsha - gItA press). The sky has the colour of your body. In the rainy season, the moon remains incognito, like you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the rainy season arrives, the blue sky appears black due to the presence of black rain clouds and shines like a blue lotus flower, as if bad days have come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;See kR^iShNa, covered by the dark rain clouds, the govardhana hill which nourishes the cows, appears beautiful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because of rain water, the black deer have become intoxicated. They appear happy as they roam in the forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O lotus eyed one! Bathed by rain water, the new green grass is happily covering the earth fully with blades.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because of the arrival of rain clouds, there is no shortage of wealth (lakshmi) for the hills, the source of rivers, the forests and the land with plants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O dAmodara! The rain clouds, which induce people living in foreign lands to return home, forced by fast winds, roar loudly and show their pride.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O hari who took the form of trivikrama! Without arrows and string, the tricoloured rainbow decorates your third foot (sky).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sun, the eye of sky, does not shine while moving in the sky (in the rainy season). The sun's heat producing rays are cooled by the clouds and it looks ray-less.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The clouds shower incessant rain, spreading in the sky like a group of oceans. The clouds unite the sky with earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Due to heavy rainfall on earth, the strong wind blows carrying the fragrance of the flowers of nIpa, arjuna and kadambA trees, stimulating the minds of people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It has started raining heavily. Big clouds have come closer to the earth. It looks as if the sky has merged with a deep and unlimited ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It looks as if the sky is getting ready for a battle, with a sword of rain, shield of lightning and a weapon of rainbow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Handsome! (kR^iShNa)! The mountain peaks, the top of forests and the tree tops look enchanting, covered by dark clouds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sky covered with dark clouds resembling a herd of elephants spraying water with their trunks, appears having the same colour as the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The cool wind coming from the waves of the ocean is blowing carrying small drops of water, shaking the grass and keepers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because of the water released by the rain clouds, the moon has disappeared in the night. The sun is drowned in the sky. The ten directions are not seen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The entire sky is alive with the clouds agitated by winds. The farmers are unable to differentiate between day and night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kR^iShNa! See vR^indAvanaM, devoid of the bad effects of heat and decorated by the water showered by the clouds, beautiful as the chaitraratha forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hus glorifying the rainy season in vR^indAvana, kR^iShNa's mighty elder brother, returned to vraja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also there is a beautiful description of rainy season by great Kalidas in poem &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sha/sha18.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ritusamhar&lt;/a&gt;, The Season.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The rain advances like a king&#xA;    In awful majesty;&#xA;  Hear, dearest, how his thunders ring&#xA;    Like royal drums, and see&#xA;  His lightning-banners wave; a cloud&#xA;    For elephant he rides,&#xA;  And finds his welcome from the crowd&#xA;    Of lovers and of brides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The clouds, a mighty army, march&#xA;    With drumlike thundering&#xA;  And stretch upon the rainbow's arch&#xA;    The lightning's flashing string;&#xA;  The cruel arrows of the rain&#xA;    Smite them who love, apart&#xA;  From whom they love, with stinging pain,&#xA;    And pierce them to the heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The forest seems to show its glee&#xA;    In flowering nipa plants;&#xA;  In waving twigs of many a tree&#xA;    Wind-swept, it seems to dance;&#xA;  Its ketak-blossom's opening sheath&#xA;    Is like a smile put on&#xA;  To greet the rain's reviving breath,&#xA;    Now pain and heat are gone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To you, dear, may the cloudy time&#xA;    Bring all that you desire,&#xA;  Bring every pleasure, perfect, prime,&#xA;    To set a bride on fire;&#xA;  May rain whereby life wakes and shines&#xA;    Where there is power of life,&#xA;  The unchanging friend of clinging vines,&#xA;    Shower blessings on my wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also the rainy season is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga28/kishkindha_28_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ramayana, Kishkindha Kand&lt;/a&gt; by Sri Rama to Lakshmana during his &lt;code&gt;Chaturmas&lt;/code&gt;. I am not providing all verses of though have linked the whole chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स तदा वालिनम् हत्वा सुग्रीवम् अभिषिच्य च |&#xA;  वसन् माल्यवतः पृष्टे रामो लक्ष्मणम् अब्रवीत् || ३-२८-१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama spoke to Lakshmana while residing on the mountainside of Mt. Malayavata, also known as Mt. Prasavana, ensuing the elimination of Vali and enthronement of Sugreeva. [3-28-1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अयम् स कालः संप्राप्तः समयो अद्य जल आगमः |&#xA;  संपश्य त्वम् नभो मेघैः संवृतम् गिरि संनिभैः || ३-२८-२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is that time of which we thought and it has come to pass. Now it is rainy season. You see the sky fully covered with mountainous clouds. [3-28-2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नव मास धृतम् गर्भम् भास्कारस्य गभस्तिभिः |&#xA;  पीत्वा रसम् समुद्राणाम् द्यौः प्रसूते रसायनम् || ३-२८-३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sustaining a nine-month pregnancy, impregnated through the Sun with his sunrays guzzling the essence of oceans, the heaven is giving birth to the elixir of life. [3-28-3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शक्यम् अंबरम् आरुह्य मेघ सोपान पंक्तिभिः |&#xA;  कुटज अर्जुन मालाभिः अलंकर्तुम् दिवाकरम् || ३-२८-४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is very likely to climb up the flight of stairs of clouds to bedeck the sun with the garlands of white wild-jasmines, and red Arjuna flowers, in these days. [3-28-4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;संध्या राग उत्थितैः ताम्रैः अंतेषु अधिक पाण्डुरैः |&#xA;  स्निग्धैः अभ्र पट च्छेदैः बद्ध व्रणम् इव अंबरम् || ३-२८-५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those clouds with pure white edges, and with reddish hue of sunset extending on them, look like soft pieces of cloth bandaged on the gashes of sky. [3-28-5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मन्द मारुत निःश्वासम् संध्या चंदन रंजितम् |&#xA;  आपाण्डु जलदम् भाति काम आतुरम् इव अंबरम् || ३-२८-६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Slothful breezes as her sighs, sunset tingeing her as sandal paste, the sky with blanched clouds on her face appears like the one sighing for love. [3-28-6]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एषा घर्म परिक्लिष्टा नव वारि परिप्लुता |&#xA;  सीता इव शोक संतप्ता मही बाष्पम् विमुंचति || ३-२८-७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Overly agonised with the searing-summer, but thoroughly wetted with new waters, this earth looks like Seetha, both implacably outpouring tears. [3-28-7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मेघ उदर विनिर्मुक्ताः कर्पूर दल शीतलाः |&#xA;  शक्यम् अंजलिभिः पातुम् वाताः केतकि गन्धिनः || ३-२८-८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Freed from the wombs of clouds, cool as the leaves of minty-camphor, perfumed with the fragrance of Mogra plants, such as these breezes are it is possible to have a draught of them with the bowl of palms. [3-28-8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एष फुल्ल अर्जुनः शैलः केतकैः अधिवासितः |&#xA;  सुग्रीव इव शान्त अरिः धाराभिः अभिषिच्यते || ३-२८-९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This mountain with fully bloomed Arjuna flowers, further fragranced by Ketaka flowers is being anointed with downpours on a par with Sugreeva, who is anointed when his enemy is silenced. [3-28-9]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मेघ कृष्ण अजिन धरा धारा यज्ञ उपवीतिनः |&#xA;  मारुत आपूरित गुहाः प्राधीता इव पर्वताः || ३-२८-१०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Donning clouds as black deer skins, torrents as sacred-threads, and caves replete with breezes as vocals, the mountains look like young-scholars reciting Veda-s. [3-28-10]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कशाभिः इव हैमीभिः विद्युद्भिः इव ताडितम् |&#xA;  अन्तः स्तनित निर्घोषम् सवेदनम् इव अंबरम् || ३-२८-११&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While the flashes of lightning are whipping the sky as if they are the golden whips, it is letting out rattle of thunders holding out against its inly throes. [3-28-11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्वचित् बाष्प अभिसंरुद्धान् वर्ष आगम समुत्सुकान् |&#xA;  कुटजान् पश्य सौमित्रे पुष्टितान् गिरि सानुषु |&#xA;  मम शोक अभिभूतस्य काम संदीपनान् स्थितान् || ३-२८-१४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Feeling happy with the arrival of rain wild jasmine plants standing somewhere on the terraces of mountain are flowered, and they are thickly covered with droplets of vapour, as if they are the tears of happiness hovering round the flower like faces of ladyloves at the arrival of their lovers, and such plants are becoming inciters of passion in me, who am let down by my sorrow for my ladylove. [3-28-14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्यामिश्रितम् सर्ज कदंब पुष्पैः&#xA;  नवम् जलम् पर्वत धातु ताम्रम् |&#xA;  मयूर केकाभिः अनुप्रयातम्&#xA;  शैल अपगाः शीघ्रतरम् वहन्ति || ३-२८-१८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Coalesced with Sarja and Wild-jasmine flowers, and also with the coppery ores of the mountain, the new waters are swiftly transiting towards ocean, while screams of peacocks haunting them. [3-28-18]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वर्ष उदक आअप्यायित शाद्वलानि&#xA;  प्रवृत्त नृत्त उत्सव बर्हिणानि |&#xA;  वनानि निर्वृष्ट बलाहकानि&#xA;  पश्य अपराह्णेषु अधिकम् विभान्ति || ३-२८-२१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When clouds have completely rained on the greenery pasturelands are satiated with rainwater and peacocks are stimulated to dancing carnivals, thus it is extremely splendorous in afternoons, behold it. [3-28-21]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वहन्ति वर्षन्ति नदन्ति भान्ति&#xA;  ध्यायन्ति नृत्यन्ति समाश्वसन्ति |&#xA;  नद्यो घना मत्त गजा वन अन्ताः&#xA;  प्रिया विहीनाः शिखिनः प्लवंगाः || ३-२८-२७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rivers are surging, clouds are showering, rutty elephants are shrilling, forest interiors are shining, loverless are speculating, and peacocks are rocking, monkeys are resolving to stay at one place, for this is the rainy season. [3-28-27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नद्यः समुद्वाहित चक्रवाका&#xA;  तटानि शीर्णानि अपवाहयित्वा |&#xA;  दृप्ता नव प्राभृत पूर्ण भोगा&#xA;  द्रुतम् स्व भर्तारम् उपोप यान्ति || ३-२८-३९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prideful rivers are swiftly surging near and near of their lover-like ocean overflowing their own battered riverbanks, and in doing so they are swinging and seesawing flights of ruddy gees flying on their bosom, where the curvatures of bird-flight look like the new, full-fledged, seducible, nubile breasts of the river, and in doing so the river is also lugging other items of romance, namely flowers and fruits, steeped in their new waters. [3-28-39]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;घन उपगूढम् गगनम् न तारा&#xA;  न भास्करो दर्शनम् अभ्युपैति |&#xA;  नवैः जल ओघैः धरणी वितृप्ता&#xA;  तमो विलिप्ता न दिशः प्रकाशाः || ३-२८-४७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sky is closely enshrouded with clouds, neither sun nor stars are getting around for a glimpse, earth is fully satiated with the torrents of new water, enswathed in obscurity the precincts are unilluminated... [3-28-47]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुरताम् अर्द विच्छिन्नाः स्वर्ग स्त्री हार मौक्तिकाः |&#xA;  पतन्ति च अतुलाः दिक्षु तोय धाराः समन्ततः || ३-२८-५१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like the strings of pearls of heavenly females plopping down when broken in the friction of lovemaking, excellent streams of water are falling all over and in all directions. [3-28-51]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मासि प्रौष्ठपदे ब्रह्म ब्राह्मणानाम् विवक्षताम् |&#xA;  अयम् अध्याय समयः सामगानाम् उपस्थितः || ३-२८-५४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The month of Bhaadrapada, August-September, is the time for learning the singing of Sama Veda, and this is the time that has come for those Brahmans who concern themselves for learning the singing of Sama Veda. [3-28-54]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-09-15T11:04:57.363" LastActivityDate="2016-09-15T11:04:57.363" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13967" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13938" CreationDate="2016-07-05T09:32:51.510" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can add Kinnara to the list. Either half-human and half-horse in Hinduism, or a bird with a human head according to Buddhism. The Harivamsa explains there was a period between 2 yugas (i believe Dvapara -&gt; Kali) when the Kinnaras came into being. It is possible these creatures existed throughout the world (for example, compare the similarities of the mythical creatures from Mesopotamia)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/kinnara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kinnaras&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastActivityDate="2016-07-05T09:32:51.510" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13969" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13990" CreationDate="2016-07-05T11:09:44.987" Score="20" ViewCount="1223" Body="&lt;p&gt;Questions &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8508/how-was-the-universe-created/8525#8525&quot;&gt;How was the Universe created?&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5230/what-is-the-source-of-creation-according-to-upanishads&quot;&gt;What is the source of creation according to Upanishads?&lt;/a&gt; talk about many aspects of creation. But my questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the need of creation? Why Brahma wants to become many?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What will happen if nothing will exist in this universe? Will it affect Iswara?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any relation between existence of Supreme Brahma, Devas and human?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2018-12-14T15:59:54.740" Title="What is the need of creation?" Tags="|puranas|upanishads|creation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13971" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13930" CreationDate="2016-07-05T14:20:06.163" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The verse can be found in Shanti Parva &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs12110.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 110 and verse 26&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यस्मिन्यथा वर्तते यो मनुष्य: स्तस्मिंस्तथा वर्तितव्यं स धर्मः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;मायाचारो मायया वर्तितव्य; साध्वाचार साधुना प्रत्युदय ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;yasmin yathā vartate yo manuṣyas; tasmiṃs tathā vartitavyaṃ sa dharmaḥ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;māyācāro māyayā vartitavyaḥ; sādhvācāraḥ sādhunā pratyudeyaḥ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/itihaas/mahabharat/text-with-translation/vol-vii/chapter-109/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should treat another as the latter does to him. A deceitful person should be thwarted with deceit, while an honest man should be treated with honesty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, it's not Vyasa who said it but Bhishma who was responding to Yudhishtira's question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How should a person act who wishes to follow virtue?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-07-05T15:41:52.477" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13972" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10638" CreationDate="2016-07-05T14:33:30.940" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Partha means that matter which belongs to earth (prithvi). Once the Prana leaves the body we call it Parthiva shareera. Arjuna represents that Jeevatma and hence he is also called Partha and Krishna being the charioteer of this Partha (Jeevatma) he is called Parthasarathy.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7067" LastActivityDate="2016-07-05T14:33:30.940" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13973" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10638" CreationDate="2016-07-05T15:34:15.543" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The first one is the correct one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mama + upātta samasta duritakṣayadvārā śrī parameśvara prītyartham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mama + upātta = mamopātta &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;upātta is to acquire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;partha is name of arjuna  and other meanings can also be said. but the correct one is mamopatta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning of the line goes as To please lord parameshwara, mama upaata = given to me or obtained by me, samasta duritakshayadwara, through decreasing the sins &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so as a whole, it goes as Through the decreasing of sins obtained by me or given to me and to please the lord parameshwara, so and so karyam like saayam sandhyaam upasishye.i am doing evening sandhya worship&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-07-05T15:34:15.543" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13974" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-05T22:06:04.653" Score="13" ViewCount="1208" Body="&lt;p&gt;After Krishna's efforts to avert the Kurukshetra war fail, as one final attempt, he tries to win Karna over to the Pandava side, but in doing so, does Krishna suggest that Draupadi would accept Karna as her sixth husband?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganguli &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05140.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translates&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs05138.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;15 rājanyā rājakanyāś cāpy ānayantv abhiṣecanam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      &lt;strong&gt;ṣaṣṭhe ca tvāṃ tathā kāle draupady upagamiṣyati&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let queens and princesses bring golden and silver and earthen jars (full of water) and delicious herbs and all kinds of seeds and gems, and creepers, for thy installation. &lt;strong&gt;During the sixth period, Draupadi also will come to thee (as a wife).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An alternate translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/21292/15F_Chapter_211.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हिरण्मयांश्च ते कुम्भान् राजतान् पार्थिवांस्तथा। &lt;br&gt; ओषध्यः सर्वबीजानि सर्वरत्नानि वीरुधः।।१४।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;राजन्या राजकन्याश्चाप्यानयन्त्वाभिषेचनम्॥१५॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;षष्ठे त्वां च तथा काले द्रौपद्युपगमिष्यति।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Golden water pots as also silver and earthen ones (filled with water) and medicinal herbs and all sorts of seeds and gems, let the wives of kings and daughters of kings bring for your anointment (in the kingship). &lt;strong&gt;During the sixth period Draupadi too will come to you as to a husband.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does &amp;quot;sixth period&amp;quot; in the above mean? And in what sense did Krishna say &amp;quot;will come to you&amp;quot; in the second line or verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2024-01-09T22:51:39.317" Title="In trying to win Karna over to the Pandava side, did Krishna suggest that Draupadi would accept him as her sixth husband?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|karna|draupadi|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13976" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13944" CreationDate="2016-07-06T00:15:25.763" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dr. Surendra Kumar of the Arya Samaj has written a concise and critical commentary of the &quot;Manu Smriti&quot;.  A scanned version can be located on-line via Google.  In this commentary, Dr. Kumar states that spurious interpolations have been made to the original text of the &quot;Manu Smriti&quot; over time.  The interpolated verses seem to be written in a different style of Sanskrit and they also tend to be &quot;irrelevant and out of context but also thematically discordant&quot;.  These interpolated verses were added to the original manuscript by various interpolaters throughout history who had vested interests in maintaining socio-economic and political power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his critical analysis, Dr. Kumar concludes that the original verses seem to embody Maharishi Manu as &quot;a legal luminary and religiously righteous sage&quot;.  These original verses embody &quot;noble and just laws&quot; of the time-period as well as displaying &quot;due considerations to a man's potentialities, actions and abilities&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In brief, it seems as though the &quot;Manu Smriti&quot; discusses noble and well-balanced principles on the one hand, while other verses embody extremely objectionable principles (which seem quite anti-Manu in essence).  These other verses also seem to be written in a different style of Sanskrit and seem out of context in the overall flow of the manuscript.  Hence, the probability of interpolation of verses by vested groups is quite high.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the end, I agree with Dr. Kumar's conclusions.  Maharishi Manu was a stellar shastrakar and smritikar during the epoch of monarchy.  I highly doubt that such a brilliant individual would include paradoxically contradicting verses within the same manuscript.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is true that we cannot import all of the original verses of Maharishi Manu to our contemporary pluralistic society (founded on democratic principles).  However, there is much within &quot;Manu Smriti&quot; which can be studied and emulated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dr. Surendra Kumar's arguments can be found in &quot;Opposition to Manu: Why&quot;.  It is published by the Arsh Sahitya Prachar Trust (Delhi). A copy of this concise booklet has been scanned online; one can find it easily via a Google search.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'll end this response with a very relevant comment from Dr. Surendra Kumar (from the &quot;Foreword&quot; section of the booklet):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;No system in the world is completely foolproof or wholly acceptable.  Even the present social and political system is not perfect.  If some flaw creeps into the system then it can be remedied.  Our ancient saints and sages have suggested to us a panacea for tackling such unwarranted situations:&#xA;[Sanskrit verse quoted from Taittiriya Upanishad, I-II-2]&#xA;This means that good actions of others should be embraced and imitated and not the rest.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastActivityDate="2016-07-06T00:15:25.763" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13979" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-06T02:22:59.230" Score="4" ViewCount="1386" Body="&lt;p&gt;How can Adi Sesha and Garuda coexist in Vaikunta as they are sworn enemies?&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2lwMw.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2lwMw.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Garuda and Adi Sesha in Vaikunta&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6875" LastActivityDate="2020-08-29T18:18:46.220" Title="Garuda and Adi Sesha" Tags="|vishnu|adisesha|naga|garuda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13980" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13974" CreationDate="2016-07-06T02:42:19.963" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sixth period means after five Pandavas. This is how &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibek_Debroy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bibek Debroy&lt;/a&gt; translates &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/unic/mbh05_sa.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; (which is taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/mahabharata-bori.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BORI critical version&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हिरण्मयांश्च ते कुम्भान्राजतान्पार्थिवांस्तथा |&lt;br&gt; ओषध्यः सर्वबीजानि&#xA;  सर्वरत्नानि वीरुधः ||१४||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राजन्या राजकन्याश्चाप्यानयन्त्वभिषेचनम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;षष्ठे च त्वां तथा काले द्रौपद्युपगमिष्यति&lt;/strong&gt; ||१५||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The kings and princes who have gathered together in the cause of the&#xA;  Pandavas and all the Andhakas and Vrishnis will grasp your feet. The&#xA;  kings, the wives of kings and the daughters of kings will bring gold,&#xA;  silver and earthen vessels, herbs, all kinds of seeds, all kinds of&#xA;  gems and creepers for your anointment&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;strong&gt;At the sixth point&#xA;  in time&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Droupadi will have intercourse with you.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Footnotes say &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; As King. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; After the five Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-29T06:29:48.883" LastActivityDate="2016-11-29T06:29:48.883" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13981" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-06T06:39:53.370" Score="5" ViewCount="576" Body="&lt;p&gt;How are dates assigned to Vedas and Scriptures according by historians? Do they really indicates the date of origin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2018-06-20T22:39:18.133" Title="Dates of Vedas and scriptures" Tags="|vedas|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13982" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-06T08:18:51.357" Score="7" ViewCount="3328" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who was Dhasharatha's second wife?&#xA;Sumitra or Kaikeyi?&#xA;Some tell it is Kaikeyi but others say it is Sumitra. Please clarify.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6832" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-06T14:41:57.670" LastActivityDate="2022-01-06T09:13:28.383" Title="Who was Dasharatha's second wife?" Tags="|ramayana|dasharatha|kaikeyi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13984" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13982" CreationDate="2016-07-06T12:25:16.920" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Valmiki Ramayan, Kaikeyi is the second wife of King Dasharatha. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/content?language=dv&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=3&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=16&amp;amp;field_sloka_value=37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Aranya Kand&lt;/a&gt;, when Lakshmana is criticizing Kaikeyi then Sri Rama told to Lakshmana not to use harsh words against our second mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न तेऽम्बा मध्यमा तात गर्हितव्या कथञ्चन।&#xA;  तामेवेक्ष्वाकुनाथस्य भरतस्य कथां कुरु।।3.16.37।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O dear, Kaikeyi, our second mother, is never to be criticised like that. You may, however, speak more of Bharata, the lord of the Iksvakus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-22T12:02:48.680" LastActivityDate="2016-07-22T12:02:48.680" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13985" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-06T12:45:38.837" Score="1" ViewCount="241" Body="&lt;p&gt;What exactly does the dharma say in the tricky circumstances or situation where a brahmin community girl loves and willing to marry a non-brahmin hindu/non-religion boy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Dharma is to be followed by her parents (especially girl's father), her siblings or others based on the Bhagavad Gita/Vedas/Shastra/other scriptures/puranas etc...?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3747" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T06:16:05.617" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T06:16:05.617" Title="What is the exact dharma to be followed in case of a marriage outside the caste or religion?" Tags="|dharma|marriage|caste-system|dharma-shastras|brahmins|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ClosedDate="2018-10-17T05:07:13.880" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13986" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9078" CreationDate="2016-07-06T13:09:18.297" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found most of the Puranas on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;www.indianscriptures.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of them are in English.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm linking a screenshot to mark the ones in English so that it is easier to understand. The Agni Purana is with the green dot because it is in Hindi not English.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/koJbk.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/koJbk.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They haven't provided an index of the contents but most indexes would be available on Exotic India Art's Book Search, in the description.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for copyright issues the site says it is fine to download for personal use.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this was of some help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-11-06T13:59:10.060" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="13988" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10400" CreationDate="2016-07-06T17:12:17.723" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;These are some of the sanskrit shlokas or verses from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga2/ayodhya_2_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ayodhya kanda&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot; (अयोध्या कांड) , &quot;Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;(वाल्मिकी रामायण)&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;describing&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;physical appearance of &quot;Lord Rama(राम)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इच्छामो हि &lt;strong&gt;महाबाहुं&lt;/strong&gt; रघुवीरं महाबलम् |&#xA;  गजेन महता यान्तं रामं छत्रावृताननम् || २-२-२२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All of us want to see Rama, &lt;strong&gt;with long arms&lt;/strong&gt;, the hero with great&#xA;  might born in the clan of Raghu , his face protected by a white&#xA;  umbrella, moving on a great elephant.&quot;  &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तं चन्द्रमिव पुष्येण युक्तं&lt;/strong&gt; धर्मभृतां वरम् |&#xA;  यौवराज्ये नियोक्तास्मि प्रीतः पुरुषपुङ्गवम् || २-२-१२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Joyfully, I shall appoint Rama, &lt;strong&gt;who shines like the moon together&#xA;  with Pushya star,&lt;/strong&gt; who is the best among the protectors of&#xA;  righteousness and who is an excellent man, to the realm of prince.&quot;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सुभ्रूरायतताम्राक्ष्हस्साक्ष्हाद्विष्णुरिव&lt;/strong&gt; स्वयम् |&#xA;  रामो लोकाभिरामोऽयं शौर्यवीर्यपराक्रमैः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama, who enchants the world, &lt;strong&gt;has beautiful eyebrows. He has red and&#xA;  broad eyes.&lt;/strong&gt; He is absolutely like the God Vishnu himself in&#xA;  strength, heroism and valour.&quot;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेषामायाचितं देव त्वत्प्रसादा त्समृद्ध्यताम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   &lt;strong&gt;राममिन्दीवरश्यामं&lt;/strong&gt; सर्वशत्रुनिबर्हणम् || २-२-५३&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पश्यामो यौवराज्यस्थं तव राजोत्तमाऽअत्मजम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Oh best of kings, Dasaratha ! We shall see Rama adorned with princely&#xA;  kingdom. Your son &lt;strong&gt;Rama has the complexion of a black lotus flower&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  and annihilates all his enemies. Let the wish of the people be&#xA;  fulfilled by your grace.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also find some shlokas describing &lt;strong&gt;Physical appearance of Shree Rama in Puranas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here what &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana Says...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गुर्वर्थे त्यक्तराज्यो व्यचरदनुवनं।&lt;strong&gt;पद्मपद्भ्यां&lt;/strong&gt; प्रियाया: ॥४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gurv-arthe tyakta-rājyo vyacarad anuvanaṁ padma-padbhyāṁ priyāyāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;- To keep the promise of His father intact, Lord Rāmacandra immediately gave up the position of king and, accompanied by His wife,&#xA;  mother Sītā, wandered from one forest to another on &lt;strong&gt;His lotus feet,&#xA;  which were so delicate&lt;/strong&gt; that they were unable to bear even the touch&#xA;  of Sītā’s palms.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/10/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 9.10.4&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-24T13:34:11.473" LastActivityDate="2016-12-24T13:34:11.473" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13989" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11215" CreationDate="2016-07-07T05:08:53.310" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gudakesha = gudaka + isha = sleep + lord = one who conquered sleep (refers to Arjuna)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since a Sanskrit word can have different meanings, we need to take the context to determine the correct one. Take this verse for e.g. :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;evam uktva hrishikesham gudakesha: parantapa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hrishikesha = hrishika + isha = senses + lord = one who conquered senses (refers to Krishna)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Vyasa is immediately referring to Arjuna in the next word as Gudakesha, there is no point in pointing out his curly hair in that context, but rather to show that the &lt;em&gt;conqueror of sleep&lt;/em&gt; is talking to the &lt;em&gt;conqueror of senses.&lt;/em&gt; And the next word after that is Parantapa (scorcher of foes). Again it is unlikely to point out his curly hair just before calling him a great warrior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more thing to note with all translations - The original is in Sanskrit. People who translate it into English, which is a western language, use their western cultures &amp;amp; mindset to interpret the words. To get original intent, you need to listen to proper gurus who have devoted their lives to spirituality, are of satvik guna etc. The best way to get this is through upanyasams (spiritual discourses).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Back to your question of when he conquered sleep:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;During Gurukul under Dronacharya, Arjuna was eating at night under a lamp, when a wind blew the lamp out. But his hand automatically placed the food in his mouth even though it was pitch dark. He realized he did not need light to control his arm. So he started practicing shooting in the dark (at night without sleeping).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding other people who conquered sleep:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vishvamitra gave 2 mantras - Bala &amp;amp; AtiBala to Rama &amp;amp; Lakshmana when he took them to protect his Yagna. I'm not sure which corresponds to which - but one of the mantras conquers hunger and the other conquers sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - Mahabharata by Vyasa and Ramayana by Valmiki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2016-07-07T05:08:53.310" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13990" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13969" CreationDate="2016-07-07T06:17:53.187" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Sankara there is no creation. There is only &lt;em&gt;vivarta vada&lt;/em&gt; - apparent manifestation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Complete Works&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, V3, pp 12-14, also available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/lectures_and_discourses/lectures_and_discourses_contents.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lectures and Discourses&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/lectures_and_discourses/the_free_soul.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Free Soul&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Before going into the practical part, we will take up one more intellectual question. So far the logic is tremendously rigorous. If man reasons, there is no place for him to stand until he comes to this, that there is but One Existence, that everything else is nothing. There is no other way left for rational mankind but to take this view. But how is it that what is infinite, ever perfect, ever blessed, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, has come under these delusions? It is the same question that has been asked all the world over. In the vulgar form the question becomes, &quot;How did sin come into this world?&quot; This is the most vulgar and sensuous form of the question, and the other is the most philosophic form, but the answer is the same. The same question has been asked in various grades and fashions, but in its lower forms it finds no solution, because the stories of apples and serpents and women do not give the explanation. In that state, the question is childish, and so is the answer. But the question has assumed very high proportions now: &quot;How did this illusion come?&quot; And the answer is as fine. The answer is that we cannot expect any answer to an impossible question. The very question is impossible in terms. You have no right to ask that question. Why? What is perfection? That which is beyond time, space, and causation — that is perfect. Then you ask how the perfect became imperfect. In logical language the question may be put in this form: &quot;How did that which is beyond causation become caused?&quot; You contradict yourself. You first admit it is beyond causation, and then ask what causes it. This question can only be asked within the limits of causation. As far as time and space and causation extend, so far can this question be asked. But beyond that it will be nonsense to ask it, because the question is illogical. Within time, space, and causation it can never be answered, and what answer may lie beyond these limits can only be known when we have transcended them; therefore the wise will let this question rest. When a man is ill, he devotes himself to curing his disease without insisting that he must first learn how he came to have it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is another form of this question, a little lower, but more practical and illustrative: What produced this delusion? Can any reality produce delusion? Certainly not. We see that one delusion produces another, and so on. It is delusion always that produces delusion. It is disease that produces disease, and not health that produces disease. The wave is the same thing as the water, the effect is the cause in another form. The effect is delusion, and therefore the cause must be delusion. What produced this delusion? Another delusion. And so on without beginning. The only question that remains for you to ask is: Does not this break your monism, because you get two existences in the universe, one yourself and the other the delusion? The answer is: Delusion cannot be called an existence. Thousands of dreams come into your life, but do not form any part of your life. Dreams come and go; they have no existence. To call delusion existence will be sophistry. Therefore there is only one individual existence in the universe, ever free, and ever blessed; and that is what you are. This is the last conclusion reached by the Advaitists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to answer your question more directly, there is no 'need' for creation. Why did Brahma want to become many? Do you mean Brahman or Brahma? If Brahman, the Upanishads simply say that he became many. The Taittiriya Upanishad (3.1) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That from which these beings are born, by which they live after birth and into which they they enter at death--try to know That. That is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Aitareya Upanishad (1.1.1-2) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This universe, my dear, was but the Real (Sat) in the beginning--One only without a second [ekamevadvitiyam]. It thought, 'may I be many, (the Atman) willed, &quot;Let me project world!' So It projected these worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your next question is not logical. You ask - what will happen if nothing will exist in this universe? If the universe exists, then &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt; exists - the universe implies existence, if not of anything else, of the 5 subtle elements. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Iswara is simply the Nirguna Brahman seen through the lens of maya. Our brains are too small and must think in terms of name and form. We cannot conceive of That which is beyond name and form, so we give the Unmanifest a name and form so that we can try to comprehend It.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the relation between the Brahman, the Devas, and human? It is all One simply appearing as many. The devas and humans are all jivas that are caught in the meshes of maya. It is all Brahman. The Chandogya Upanishad says (3.14.1):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All this is verily Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-07-08T21:52:26.950" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T21:52:26.950" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13992" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="13993" CreationDate="2016-07-07T07:42:37.110" Score="5" ViewCount="1363" Body="&lt;p&gt;We generally regard the term &quot;Chaitanya&quot; (चैतन्य) for liveliness or the force responsible to carry out lively activities. And the soul as part of Parabramha or Supreme soul (परब्रह्म).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Are &quot;Chaitanya&quot; (चैतन्य) and &quot;Soul&quot; (आत्मा) same or different?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) If different , what are the differences?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-10T10:21:22.597" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T10:21:22.597" Title="&quot;Chaitanya&quot; (चैतन्य) and &quot;Soul&quot; (आत्मा) , Same or Different?" Tags="|vedanta|atma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13993" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13992" CreationDate="2016-07-07T08:33:52.087" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Atman is defined as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सच्चिदानन्द स्वरुप&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sacchidananda Swarupa &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Form of Sat, Chid and Aananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sat swarupa&lt;/strong&gt; means &lt;strong&gt;pure existence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chid swarupa&lt;/strong&gt; means &lt;strong&gt;pure consciousness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aananda swarupa&lt;/strong&gt; means &lt;strong&gt;infinite blissfull state.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chid Swarupa ie. Consciousness ie., Chaitanya Swarupa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;Chaitanya and Soul aren't exactly same. Chaitanya is one of the state of Atman,&lt;/strong&gt; the other states being pure existence and infinite bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-07-07T08:33:52.087" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13994" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-07T10:26:41.100" Score="13" ViewCount="5593" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why didn't Krishna help or save Pandavas when they played the game of dice with Kauravas and Shakuni?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-07-11T15:52:09.233" LastActivityDate="2016-07-13T10:44:05.397" Title="Krishna's role in game of dice" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|pandavas|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13995" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13992" CreationDate="2016-07-07T11:25:41.100" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are infinite energies of the Absolute (ananta), but they can all be divided into spiritual and material. Spiritual have at least some freedom, material are totally predictable, with zero freedom. Hari-nāma-cintāmani uses the terms &quot;&lt;strong&gt;cit&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; and &quot;&lt;strong&gt;acit&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; respectively to refer to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;cit&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; means &quot;consciousness&quot; and &quot;&lt;strong&gt;chaitanya&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; means &quot;&lt;strong&gt;one endowed with consciousness&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;ātmā&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; means &quot;&lt;strong&gt;self&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; and also has the connotation of atomicity, as the basic unit of something. The usual meaning of &quot;ātmā&quot; is &quot;soul&quot; or the smallest indivisible fragment of spiritual energy, but in various contexts &quot;ātmā&quot; can refer to the body, the mind, the soul or the supreme soul (which are 4 different concepts).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For most practical purposes both terms are synonymous (and also synonymous with &quot;jīva&quot;), but they are stressing a different aspect of the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="113" LastActivityDate="2016-07-07T11:25:41.100" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="13998" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10661" CreationDate="2016-07-07T14:33:42.670" Score="19" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Any Shiva bhakt will be shocked if they read about this!&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One doesn't need to get shocked from this story. It can be interpreted in various ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;i) Vaishnavite Interpretation:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story shows even Shiva is bewildered by Maya of Vishnu. So, Vishnu is Supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;ii) Shaivite Interpretation:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story shows Vishnu is Prakriti tatwa (feminine) and Shiva being Purusha is attracted to Prakriti. So, as Shiva is Purush as clearly seen from this story, Shiva is Supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;iii) General Interpretation:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is Just Leela of God and done for the specific purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to your second question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Also, he is already married to Parvati, who is Tripura Sundari, the most beautiful woman in the three worlds?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you closely look at the story of Brahmanda Purana you will find that Vishnu is changed into the form of Tripura Sundari or Uma herself. It looks like 1.5 of Rudra Hridaya Upanishad which states &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;She who is Uma, she herself is in the form of Vishnu”.&lt;/strong&gt; Here are some relevant portions from Brahmanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Meanwhile, Vishnu began to meditate on Sri Lalita Mahatripurasundari, &lt;strong&gt;who was his very own Self. By completely identifying himself with Maheshwari, Vishnu manifested himself in her form.&lt;/strong&gt; She looked as if she were the very personification of the sentiment of erotica. Decorated with all kinds of ornaments, she appeared on the battlefield and brought the battle to a sudden halt. Enchanting the demons with a smile. The &lt;strong&gt;parting of her hair was decorated with a vermilion mark. Her crown was decorated with the half-moon.&lt;/strong&gt; Her eyes were filled with intoxication. Filled with desire, Shiva followed her and taken her into his embrace, as a result of which he ejaculated his semen. Immediately, an immensely powerful god named ‘Maha-Shaasta’, who was capable of destroying crores of demons, originated from Shiva’s semen&amp;quot;. &lt;em&gt;[Brahmanda Purana Lalitopakhyana chapter 2]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as evident from the above description, Mohini form of Vishnu is just, &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu being converted in the form of Tripura Sundari.&lt;/strong&gt; That's why Mahadeva is attracted to her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-03-26T06:49:08.043" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14002" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13994" CreationDate="2016-07-07T18:17:59.823" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;To understand any lila of God, one has to remember that it is free from any mundane contamination [janma karma ca me divyam, BG-4.9]. It has two purposes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;God is enjoying with His devotees: God is the director and supreme hero, who assigns different roles to His devotees - some as heroes (eg. Pandavas) and some as villains (eg. Kauravas) [nato natya dharo yatha, SB-1.8.19]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is giving us a lesson: teaching us the righteous way and attracting us to Him [dharma samsthapanarthaya, BG-4.8]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Game of dice gives us many important teachings, some of which are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lust is our greatest enemy [kama esa krodha esa, BG-3.37]: Duryodhana and party, although powerful warriors, were suffering from intense lust and envy towards Pandavas. If we allow lust to control us, how demoniac we become.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Disrespecting chaste women brings devastation: Game of dice led to disrobing of mother Draupadi. This heinous act brought annihilation to entire dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The importance of surrender to God: As long as we depend on ourselves and our material means, we are baffled. But complete surrender to God brings all protection. Mother Draupadi finally took exclusive shelter of Krishna and set a great example for us.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, Krishna is always saving His devotees [na me bhaktah pranasyati, BG-9.13] like Pandavas and directing their lives. And setting a great example that how great souls like Pandavas behave in extreme dangers. Our situation is much more comfortable, but we lack surrender.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is very instructive to read what queen Kunti (mother of Pandavas) says on this in SB-1.8&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References: BG = Bhagavad Gita, SB = Srimad Bhagavat Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read more at: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7087" LastActivityDate="2016-07-07T18:17:59.823" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14004" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14013" CreationDate="2016-07-07T18:37:53.440" Score="1" ViewCount="515" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;strong&gt;Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt; is very popular, but who used it first?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some references in during British era ,but when exactly this word was used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="614" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T02:45:53.617" Title="Who coined the word Hinduism?" Tags="|india|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-07-08T03:15:09.027" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14005" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-07T18:51:43.177" Score="1" ViewCount="2065" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagwad Gita Chapter 2 verse 45:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रैगुण्य विषया  वेदा:  निस्त्रैगुण्यो  भवार्जुन |&#xA;  निर्द्वन्दो नित्य  सत्वस्थो  &lt;code&gt;निर्योग  क्षेम&lt;/code&gt; आत्मवान ||2.45||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;trai-gunya visaya veda nistrai-gunyo bhavarjuna |&#xA;  nir-dwando nitya satvastho nir-&lt;code&gt;yoga kshema&lt;/code&gt; atmavan||2.45||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas deal with the three Modes of Material Nature (Guṇas), O Arjuna. You must free&#xA;  yourself from these three Guṇas and from the pairs of opposites. Abide in pure Sattva; never care to&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;acquire things and to protect what has been acquired&lt;/strong&gt;(this is yogaksheama part), but be established in the ātman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/uploads/5/5/4/9/5549439/ramanuja_gita_bhashya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagwad Ramanujacharya's commentry&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagwad Gita Chapter 9 verse 22 :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनन्यस्चिन्तयन्तो  मां  ये  जना:   पर्युपासते  |&#xA;  तेषां  नित्याभियुक्तानां  योगक्षेमं  वहाम्यहम् ||9.22||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ananyaschintayanto mam ye janaha paryupasate |&#xA;  tesham nityabhiyuktanam yoga-kshemam vahamyaham||9.22||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are those who, not being mindful of anything else, adore Me alone, aspiring after eternal&#xA;  union with Me. I Myself take charge of their prosperity and welfare (Yoga and Kṣema).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further Commentary on the Verse by Bhagwad Ramanujacharya: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who, excluding everything else and having no other purpose, meditate on Me as their&#xA;  only goal, because without Me they are unable to sustain themselves. In the case of such&#xA;  devotees aspiring after eternal unification with Me, &lt;strong&gt;I Myself undertake the responsibility of&#xA;  bringing them to Myself —Yoga (prosperity) and of preserving them in that state for ever —&#xA;  Kṣema (welfare).&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; The meaning is that they do not return to Samsara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is 2.45 talking in material context , while 9.22 is talking in a totally different Philosophical context?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If 9.22 is analyzed in a little bit materialistic context we can say that for an Anayabhakta(who is fully devoted to lord and doesn't do anything else, not even for his own livelihood) Shriman Narayan supreme Bramhan himself looks for/handles his livelihood and bhakta's wealth preservation (any type of wealth). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But seeing the pure philosophical commentry I think there is not material aspect in 9.22. While 2.45 has material aspect because it is talking about three gunas which are material in nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is more correct interpretation of 9.22 and 2.45 with yogakshema. Is material interpretation of 9.22 wrong or greedy because if analyzed materialistically it is more of an assurance or faith strengthening verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2016-07-20T05:45:13.327" Title="Why does 'Yogakshema' word has different context in BG 2.45 and BG 9.22" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|scripture|bhagavad-gita|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14006" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-07T19:10:01.577" Score="3" ViewCount="297" Body="&lt;p&gt;Definition of Yoga as Defined by Bhagwan Shri Krishna in Bhagwad Gita Chapter 2 verse 48 is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;योगस्थ कृरु कर्माणि सङ्गंत्यक्त्वा धनञ्जय |&#xA;  सिद्ध्यासिध्यो समो भूत्वा &lt;code&gt;समत्वं योग उच्यते&lt;/code&gt;||२.४८||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yogasthakuru karmani sangam tyaktva dhananjaya|&#xA;  siddhya-asidhhyoh samo bhutva&lt;code&gt;samatvam yoga uchyate&lt;/code&gt;||2.48|| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandoning attachment and established in Yoga, perform works, viewing success and failure&#xA;  with an even mind. Equipoise is said to be Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentary by Bhagwad Ramanujacharya :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandoning the attachment to kingdom, relatives etc., establish yourself in Yoga, engage&#xA;  in war and other such activities. Perform these with equanimity as regards success and&#xA;  failure resulting from victory or defeat which are inherent in them. Yoga is defined in this&#xA;  verse as &quot;equanimity with regard to success and failure.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So formally Yoga is defined in this verse as  :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samtvam yoga uchyate&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;or &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;equanimity with regard to success and failure.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is about the Characters in Mahabharata and most known people who were present in Kurushketra war whose behaviour was such that they are fit to be known as yogi according to this definition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For E.g. Yudhishthir was every time in yoga because irrespective of situation good or bad he was always following Dharma as in Dharma Shastras, without a second thought so he can be a yogi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma on the other hand was trapped in his own karma (words to different people) and was not following dhrama even thought he knew it , it means he didn't have a sama buddhi to analyze the situation and thus he was not fit for the title of yogi. etc etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: If this question is too broad to answer let me know in the comments section I will edit the question and restrict the parameters of analysis (characters).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2016-07-07T19:10:01.577" Title="Which characters in Mahabharata and Mahabharata war are fit in definition of 'Yoga'" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|yoga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14013" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14004" CreationDate="2016-07-08T02:40:16.247" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is from the time of Indo-Aryans when the the ancient Indus river was called 'Sindhu'. &#xA;Now there was some language which you pronounce 's' as 'h', so when the people speaking this language came to India, they called the river Sindhu and people living beyond the river as 'Hindu'. (I've read it in a book I can't remember)&#xA;And they also say that Hindu is Urdu for Hind which is Persian. &#xA;So basically, it is all related to the Indus river being called as Sindhu. Somehow, over a period of time it may have changed from Hind to Hindu or from Sindhu to Hindu directly. But that's where it originated.&#xA;While Hinduism refers to the ancient religion that we have, it is however not related to the religion itself. It is just a name to refer to the religion. And at present, there is a vast confusion over this term. People claim to be 'hindu' referring to being an 'Indian' and while Hindu is thought to be related the religion Hinduism, muslims in India today feel a confusion over it. There is an identity crises, if I may, at this time in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7089" LastEditorUserId="7089" LastEditDate="2016-07-08T02:45:53.617" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T02:45:53.617" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14014" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3879" CreationDate="2016-07-08T03:33:29.430" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of us know about Parvati but Shiva has many wives, which are the symbols of feminine power. All of these goddesses are well known and worshipped. Their names are Shakti, Parvati, Uma, Durga and Kali. Each of these goddesses stands for something significant – Parvati is the goddess of love and romance. Uma is the goddess of motherhood. Durga is the goddess of justice and Kali, the last of the four, is known to be the goddess of death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7090" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T03:33:29.430" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14015" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13979" CreationDate="2016-07-08T07:14:42.453" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Lord Krishna has chastised Kaliya Naag and ordered him to leave river Yamuna, the Kaliya has requested to free him from the fear of Garuda. Then Shri Krishna has told him that Garuda will not attack on you because you have my footprints on your head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This incident is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.16.63 — Out of fear of Garuḍa, you left Ramaṇaka Island and came to take shelter of this lake. But because you are now marked with My footprints, Garuḍa will no longer try to eat you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_012.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Harivamsa&lt;/a&gt; as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When you live in the ocean, seeing the marks of my feet on your hoods, garuDa, the enemy of serpents will never harm you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as we know that Shri Krishna is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;incarnation&lt;/a&gt; of Lord Vishnu and Garuda is the mount of Lord Vishnu and Shesha is the bed of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in this way Garuda cannot kill or fight with Shesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T07:14:42.453" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14016" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13959" CreationDate="2016-07-08T07:45:46.070" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is true that Mahabharata starts with a dog. The story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva, Section 3 (Paushya Parva)&lt;/a&gt; as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sauti said, &amp;quot;Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit, was, with his brothers, attending his long sacrifice on the plains of Kurukshetra. His brothers were three, Srutasena, Ugrasena, and Bhimasena. And as they were sitting at the sacrifice, there arrived at the spot an &lt;strong&gt;offspring of Sarama&lt;/strong&gt; (the celestial bitch). And belaboured by the brothers of Janamejaya, he ran away to his mother, crying in pain. And his mother seeing him crying exceedingly asked him, 'Why criest thou so? Who hath beaten thee? And being thus questioned, he said unto his mother, 'I have been belaboured by the brothers of Janamejaya.' And his mother replied, 'Thou hast committed some fault for which hast thou been beaten!' He answered, 'I have not committed any fault. I have not touched the sacrificial butter with my tongue, nor have I even cast a look upon it.' His mother Sarama hearing this and much distressed at the affliction of her son went to the place where Janamejaya with his brothers was at his long-extending sacrifice. And she addressed Janamejaya in anger, saying, 'This my son hath committed no fault: he hath not looked upon your sacrificial butter, nor hath he touched it with his tongue. Wherefore hath he been beaten?' They said not a word in reply; whereupon she said, 'As ye have beaten my son who hath committed no fault, therefore shall evil come upon ye, when ye least expect it.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Janamejaya, thus addressed by the celestial bitch, Sarama, became exceedingly alarmed and dejected. And after the sacrifice was concluded returned to Hastinapura, and began to take great pains in searching for a Purohita who could by procuring absolution for his sin, neutralise the effect of the curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T07:45:46.070" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14017" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13896" CreationDate="2016-07-08T12:22:44.080" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it was real .i had searched full details about many occasions of the war for nearly 2 years and still doing it on the day of karna's death (17th day of kurukshetra war) ARJUN came to the battlefield with a strong team of warriors with him ,they were Bheem immediately behind him ,nakul in his left ,sahadev dhrishtathuyman in his right ,and some other powerful warriors with him and krishna driving the chariot (who can save arjun at any cost)and hanuman's insigna in his chariot flag which resembles that he got hanuman's eternal support too apart from his ARCHERY SKILL AND GANDIVA but unlike arjun KARNA came to the battle field with his elder SON VRISHASENA who is a terrible warrior like his father (in a duel with ARJUN he pierced arjun in his lefthand and krishna in left shoulder) he is mentioned as a MAHARATHI by BHISHMA and he was even powerful than ABHIMANYU who was tutored by krishna,while vrishasena by his own father GREAT KARNA but unfortunately arjun killed him on the same day of karna's death to take revenge for abhimantu's death karna had his other two sons near his chariot (they too trained by karna) together they heading towards arjuns troop unlike arjun KARNA believed in his skill even more than his vijaya bow and his kavach kundal on the previous day(16th day) and the present day karna showed a thundering skill of archery which never showed by anyone in karna parva of mahabharath krishna says to arjun &quot;OH MY DEAR FRIEND THE MAN STANDING INFRONT IS A LION IN TEXTURE AND A DESTROYER LIKE LORD SHIVA HIMSELF HE IS EITHER EQUAL TO YOU OR SUPERIOR TO YOU IT IS IMPOSSIBLE YOU TO BEAT HIM&quot;So krishna is in a hurry to kill karna eventhough in adharma way so he drove the chariot from karna's chariot who nearly going to kill arjun within a minute as he want karn to chase him and got his chariot wheel struck in mud and the rest is HISTORY .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7094" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T12:22:44.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14018" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9175" CreationDate="2016-07-08T13:31:52.973" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, you can kill a mosquito as it may eventually lead to damage of your body. This is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Sri_Yukteswar_Giri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Yuktewsar Giri&lt;/a&gt; says to disciple &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramahansa_Yogananda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Paramahamsa Yoganada&lt;/a&gt; in the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Autobiography-Yogi-Complete-Free-CD/dp/818953551X&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Autobiography of a Yogi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The instructive mosquitoes served for another early lesson at the&#xA;  ashram. It was the gentle hour of dusk. My guru was matchlessly&#xA;  interpreting the ancient texts. At his feet, I was in perfect peace. A&#xA;  rude mosquito entered the idyl and competed for my attention. As it&#xA;  dug a poisonous hypodermic needle into my thigh, I automatically raised&#xA;  an avenging hand. Reprieve from impending execution! An opportune&#xA;  memory came to me of one of Patanjali's yoga aphorisms-that on ahimsa&#xA;  (harmlessness).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Why didn't you finish the job?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Master! Do you advocate taking life?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;No; but the deathblow already had been struck in your mind.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I don't understand.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Patanjali's meaning was the removal of desire to kill.&quot; Sri Yukteswar&#xA;  had found my mental processes an open book. &quot;This world is&#xA;  inconveniently arranged for a literal practice of ahimsa. Man may be&#xA;  compelled to exterminate harmful creatures. He is not under similar&#xA;  compulsion to feel anger or animosity. All forms of life have equal&#xA;  right to the air of maya. The saint who uncovers the secret of&#xA;  creation will be in harmony with its countless bewildering&#xA;  expressions. All men may approach that understanding who curb the&#xA;  inner passion for destruction.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Guruji, should one offer himself a sacrifice rather than kill a wild&#xA;  beast?&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;No; man's body is precious. It has the highest evolutionary value&#xA;  because of unique brain and spinal centers. These enable the advanced&#xA;  devotee to fully grasp and express the loftiest aspects of divinity.&#xA;  No lower form is so equipped. It is true that one incurs the debt of a&#xA;  minor sin if he is forced to kill an animal or any living thing. But&#xA;  the Vedas teach that wanton loss of a human body is a serious&#xA;  transgression against the karmic law.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I sighed in relief; scriptural reinforcement of one's natural&#xA;  instincts is not always forthcoming.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-07-08T13:37:10.387" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T13:37:10.387" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14019" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14005" CreationDate="2016-07-08T15:19:06.620" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In simple term, gaining the things (that is not achieved yet) is called yog (योग) and protecting the things that is earned is called kshem (क्षेम).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason why should be interpreted differently:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verses around 2.45 deals with those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence. For those people the things to gain are more and more material wealth &amp;amp; pleasure and things to preserve are the earned material things and related pleasure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the verse 9.22 deals with devotees who worship Kṛṣṇa. As those people are engaged in devotional service, i.e are surrendering fully to the Lord, they deserve or the thing to gain is (association with) God and Lord protects this devotion of those person to Lord and protect them failing down to samsara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence,  योगक्षेम in 2.45 is interpreted as gaining and preserving material wealth and related pleasure whereas in 9.22 योगक्षेम is attaining God-devotion/consciousness/realization and protecting from miserable samsara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to this difference Krishna ask to be free from such योगक्षेम (discussed in 2.45) for whose karma is sakam (सकाम) and ask to &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/niryogak%E1%B9%A3ema/117183/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;निर्योगक्षेम&lt;/a&gt;. And  ensures the योगक्षेम (discussed in 9.22) by Krishna for devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also read purport from vedabase &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/45&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;2.45&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;9.22&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2016-07-08T15:19:06.620" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14020" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12417" CreationDate="2016-07-08T22:28:27.063" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Word &quot;Kausthubha&quot;  is a combination of two  words,&lt;br&gt;&#xA; Kausa+Abha(कौस्थ+अभा).Abha means Light or Grace , Luster , Brightness etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सशंख चक्रं सकिरीत कुण्डलं, &#xA;  सपीत वस्त्रं सर्सि रुहेक्षनं । &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  सहार &lt;strong&gt;वक्षस्थल कौस्तुभश्रियं&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  नमामि विष्णुं शिरसा चतुर्भुजं ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sashankha chakraM sakiriita kuNDalaM, sapiita vastraM sarsi&#xA;  ruhekshanaM sahaar &lt;strong&gt;vakshasthala kaustubhashriyaM,&lt;/strong&gt; namaami viShNuM&#xA;  shirsaa chaturbhujaM &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_vishnu-sashankhachakram.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Stuti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We find mentioning of Kausthubha Mani in various places in puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कौस्तुभाख्यमभूद्&lt;/strong&gt; रत्नं पद्मरागो महोदधे:।&lt;br&gt; तस्मिन्हरी: स्पृहं चक्रे वक्षोsलङ्करणे मणौ॥५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kaustubhākhyam abhūd&lt;/strong&gt; ratnaṁ  padmarāgo mahodadheḥ tasmin maṇau spṛhāṁ cakre  vakṣo-’laṅkaraṇe hariḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning- Generated thereafter from the great ocean were the celebrated&#xA;  gems &lt;strong&gt;Kaustubha-maṇi&lt;/strong&gt; and Padmarāga-maṇi. &lt;strong&gt;Lord Viṣṇu, to decorate His&#xA;  chest, desired to possess them.&lt;/strong&gt; Generated next was the pārijāta&#xA;  flower, which decorates the celestial planets. O King, as you fulfill&#xA;  the desires of everyone on this planet by fulfilling all ambitions,&#xA;  the pārijāta fulfills the desires of everyone.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/8/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shreemad Bhagvatam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to various legends -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kausthubha Mani (Gem , Jewel) (कौस्तुभ मणी) is a very precious jewel came  out &quot;Samudra Manthan&quot;  or The churning of the Ocean of milk  by Devatas &amp;amp; Asuras.&#xA; This Jewel is worn by &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Lord Vishnu&quot; (भगवान विष्णू)&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;On his chest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Kausthubha Mani&quot; is &lt;strong&gt;very bright jewel&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;This &quot;Kausthubha Mani&quot;  is said to be &lt;strong&gt;having no hole or defect in it. And also no string attached to it&lt;/strong&gt; Because &quot;lord Vishnu&quot; , does not like any defect or string ( String word which is used here as to denote non bondage to anything). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that where this Kausthubha Mani rests , no calamity occures there.&#xA;In another belief this jewel is representation of Lord Vishnu's brightness as Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-27T12:29:44.217" LastActivityDate="2016-12-27T12:29:44.217" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14022" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14035" CreationDate="2016-07-09T04:54:43.290" Score="7" ViewCount="828" Body="&lt;p&gt;I started reading the BrahmaSutra and have completed 1.2. I found Vedavyasa mentions Jaimini in his sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;साक्षादप्यविरोधं जैमिनिः।।1.2.28।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Jaimini (declares that there is) no contradiction even (if by Vaisvanara) (Brahman is) directly (taken as the object of worship).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सम्पत्तेरिति जैमिनिस्तथा हि दर्शयति।।1.2.31।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Because of imaginary identity the Supreme Lord may be called Pradesamatra (span long). So says Jaimini because so (the Sruti) declares&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: Quoted English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/bs_00.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know that Jaimini was a student (शिष्य) of VedVyasa and is popular for the Mimamsa school and Mimansa Sutra. So, I just think how was it happened that VedVyasa mention Jaimini's opinion/saying in his Sutra and then also taught him? In other words, Jaimini should (had) given Mimamsa Sutras before the BrahmaSutra of VedVyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, following questions are raised in my mind:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why did Vedvyasa take his student Jaimini's saying/opinion in his Brahma Sutra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Was Brahma Sutra written before or after Jaimini's Mimamsa Sutra?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-17T16:00:23.980" LastActivityDate="2019-12-05T09:21:30.367" Title="Why did Vedvyasa mention his shishya Jaimini's opinion/saying in Brahma Sutra?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahma-sutras|vyasa|jaimini|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14023" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-07-09T05:16:47.760" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-07-09T05:16:47.760" LastActivityDate="2016-07-09T05:16:47.760" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14024" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-07-09T05:16:47.760" Score="0" Body="Questions about Rishi Jaimini (जैमिनि), known for  Purva Mimamsa Sutras and Mimamsa school of philosophy. Jaimini was a student of Vedvyasa who taught Samaveda to Jaimini." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-07-09T07:33:39.530" LastActivityDate="2016-07-09T07:33:39.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14025" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8210" CreationDate="2016-07-09T07:48:07.893" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rudra is both Born and Unborn.&lt;/strong&gt; As I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9918/who-is-rudra-deva/11638#11638&quot;&gt;here,&lt;/a&gt;&#xA; Rudra means who cries, who makes other cry and who removes the cry of Samsara.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There may be confusion regarding born and unborn nature of Rudra with the Smriti. However &lt;strong&gt;Vedas themselves attest both Born and Unborn Rudra:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Unborn Rudra:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the ParaBrahman or self of all. He is &lt;strong&gt;represented in formless Linga form&lt;/strong&gt; or Saguna Upasakas also call him &lt;strong&gt;SadaShiva.&lt;/strong&gt; He is unborn and eternal. He is without beginning and end.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vedas themselves declare this Rudra who existed before Prajapati and who caused Prajapati to do action:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;व्रात्य आसीदीयमान एव स प्रजापतिं समैरयत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स प्रजापति: सुवर्णमात्मन्नपश्यत्तत्प्राजनयत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तदेकमभवत्तल्ललाममभवत्तन्महदभवत्तज्जेष्ठमभवत्तद्ब्रह्माभवत्तत्तपोऽभवत्तत्सत्यमभवत्तेन प्राजायत ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सोऽवर्धत स महानभवत्स &lt;strong&gt;महादेवोऽभवत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स देवानामीशां पर्यैत्स &lt;strong&gt;ईशानोऽभवत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स एकव्रात्योऽभवत्स धनुरादत्त तदेवेन्द्रधनुः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;नीलमस्योदरं लोहितं&lt;/strong&gt; पृष्ठम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नीलेनैवाप्रियं भ्रातृव्यं प्रोर्णोति लोहितेन द्विषन्तं विध्यतीति  ब्रह्मवादिनो वदन्ति ।।  [&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 15:1&lt;/strong&gt;]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;There was Vratya . He roused Prajapati to action.&lt;/strong&gt; Prajapati beheld gold in himself and engendered it. That became unique, that became distinguished, that became great, that became excellent, that became Brahman, that became Tapas, that became Truth: &lt;strong&gt;through that he (Vratya) was born.&lt;/strong&gt; He grew, he became great, &lt;strong&gt;he became Mahadeva.&lt;/strong&gt; He gained the lordship of the Gods. &lt;strong&gt;He became Ishana.&lt;/strong&gt; He became Eka Vratya. He held a bow, even that Bow of Indra. His belly is dark-blue, his back is red (&lt;strong&gt;Nila Lohita&lt;/strong&gt;). With dark-blue he envelops a detested rival, with red he pierces the man who hates him: so the knowers of Brahman say.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As clearly evident from above Shruti passage, the one who caused Prajapati [Brahma] to action is the same who was born from him and was known by the name of Mahadeva, Ishana, Nilalohita, etc.. ie. He himself was the cause of his birth and he was controlling Prajapati himself before his birth itself ie. He is unborn. So, anyone who think Shiva is only son of Brahma directly contradict with this Shruti passage. Thus they are wrong. That's why Svetasvatara Upanishad declare:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो देवानां प्रभवश्रोच्वश्रच्  विश्वाधिपो रुद्रो महर्षि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;हिरण्यगर्भं जनयामानस पूर्वं स नो बुद्धया शुभया संयुनक्तु।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;He, the &lt;strong&gt;omniscient Rudra,&lt;/strong&gt; the creator of the gods and the bestower of their powers, the support of the universe, &lt;strong&gt;He who, in the beginning, gave birth to Hiranyagarbha&lt;/strong&gt;−may He endow us with clear intellect!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is that SadaShiva who is the cause of all causes. He himself is in the form of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For eg  He himself became Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स यद्ध्रुवां दिशमनु व्यचलद्विष्णुर्भूत्वानुव्य चलद्विराजमन्नादिं कृत्वा ।। विराजान्नाद्यान्नमत्ति य एवं वेद।। [&lt;strong&gt;Atharvaveda 15.14&lt;/strong&gt;]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;He (Vratya/ Mahadeva/ Ishana ), when he went away to the stedfast region, went away &lt;strong&gt;having become Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; and having made Virāj an eater of food”.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why SriRudram of YajurVeda declares:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नमो गिरिशाय च शिपिविष्टाय च मेढुष्टमाय च&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutations to him who is in the form of Girisha (Shiva), Sipivishta (Vishnu) and Medhustama (Brahma).&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also illustrated in Smriti passages like:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For eg. Mahabharat Anushasana Parva chapter 14 states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;योऽसृजद्दक्षिणादङ्गाद्बर्ह्मणं लोकसंभवम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वामपाश्र्वातथा विष्णु लोकरक्षार्थमीश्वर ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;युगान्ते चैव संप्राप्ते रुद्रमङ्गात्सृजत्प्रभु ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;You create &lt;strong&gt;Brahma from Right side&lt;/strong&gt; and make the creation of world possible. &lt;strong&gt;From the Left side you emerge as Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; for protection of entire world. You &lt;strong&gt;create Rudra&lt;/strong&gt; for the end of the world from your body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Srimad Bhagvatam 8.7.23 states the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गुणमय्या स्वशक्तयास्य सर्गस्थित्यत्ययान्विभो ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;धत्से यदा स्वद्धग्भूमन्ब्रह्मविष्णुशिवाभिधाम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;O Lord [&lt;strong&gt;SadaShiva&lt;/strong&gt;], you are self-effulgent and supreme. You create this material world by your personal energy, and &lt;strong&gt;you assume the names Brahmā, Viṣhṇu and Maheśvara when you act in creation, maintenance and annihilation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Padma Purana also states the same thing in Patala Khanda chapter 108:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;य एकः शाश्वतोदेवोब्रह्मवंद्यः सदाशिवः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;त्रिलोचनो गुणाधारोगुणातीतोऽक्षरोव्ययः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पृथक्कृत्वात्मनस्तातत्रस्थानंविभयज्यच ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;दक्षिणांगेसृजत्पुरंब्रह्माणंवामतोहरिम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पृष्ठदेशोमहेशानंत्रीन्पुत्रानसृजद्विभुः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;जातमात्रास्त्रयोदेवाब्रह्मविष्णुमहेश्वराः।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;He who is &lt;strong&gt;that eternal god SadaShiva,&lt;/strong&gt; who is saluted by Brahma, who has three eyes, who is the prop of virtues, who is beyond qualities, who is unchangeable and immutable. O dear one, having divided himself and the region there, &lt;strong&gt;he created on his right side the son, viz. Brahma and Hari from his left side. At the back side he created Mahesh;&lt;/strong&gt; thus the mighty one created three sons. As soon as they were born they became the three gods—Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus the Unborn SadaShiva who is the cause of all causes and who is not son of Brahma but he himself is the Generator of Brahma is attested in both Shruti and Smriti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But this SadaShiva is also called by the name Rudra in Vedas. There are also Born Rudras described in Vedas. So, one has to look the context to know whether Born Rudra or Unborn Rudra (SadaShiva) is described.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;SadaShiva is described of having 5 heads. His five heads are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sadyojata, Vamadeva, Aghora, Tatpurush, Ishana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These 5 heads are described in Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda from 10.17 to 10.21. The Upper facing head Ishana is the Ishwara of the world at all times. Hence, Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda [10.21] declares:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ईशान सर्वविद्यानां ईश्वर सर्वभूतानां ब्रह्माधिपति ब्रह्मणोधिपति ब्रह्मा शिवो मे अस्तु सदाशिवोम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;May the Supreme Ishana who is the ruler of all knowledge, controller of all created beings, the preserver of the Vedas and the one overlord of Hiranyagarbha, be benign to me. &lt;strong&gt;I am the SadaShiva described thus and denoted by Pranava.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam&lt;/strong&gt; also describes &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/7/29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;form of SadaShiva&lt;/a&gt; as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मुखानि पञ्चोपनिषदस्यवेश यैस्त्रिंशदष्टोत्तरमन्त्रवर्ग ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यतच्छिवाख्यं परमात्मतत्त्वं देव स्वयंज्योतिरवास्थितिस्ते।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;O lord, the five important Vedic mantras are represented by &lt;strong&gt;your five faces,&lt;/strong&gt; from which the thirty-eight most celebrated Vedic mantras have been generated. Your Lordship, being celebrated as Lord Śhiva, is self-illuminated. &lt;strong&gt;You are directly situated as the supreme truth, known as Paramātmā.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, SadaShiva or Linga form Parameshwara is the cause of all causes. He is the Unborn Rudra described in Svetasvatara Upanishad and other Shruti passages like:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवानां हृदयभ्यो। [YajurVeda SriRudram]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;who is on the heart of Devas (as their self).&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;भवस्य हेत्यै जगताम् पतये नमः । [Sri Rudram]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutations to him who being the cause is the Lord of the Universe. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; मृत्युर्मुक्षिय मामृतात् ।। [RigVeda 7.59.12] who Gives moksha and Immortality. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; नमः सोमाय च रुद्राय च [SriRudram YajurVeda] Salutation to him who is with Uma and who destroys the misery of Samsara. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; एको हि रुद्रो न द्वितियाय [Svetasvatara Upa.] Rudra is truly one and only one without second. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; त्वं ज्ञात्वामृता भवन्ती । [Svetasvatara Upa.] knowing you one becomes Immortal.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus SadaShiva is the Unborn and eternal Rudra who is the cause of all causes.. Shankara who is sitting in Kailash Parvata with Parvati is just physical manifestation/incarnation of SadaShiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Born Rudra:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are various types of born Rudras as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9918/who-is-rudra-deva/11638#11638&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Vedas themselves attest born Rudras also. The story of &lt;strong&gt;Ashtamurti manifestation&lt;/strong&gt; of Rudras is described in detail in Kaushtiki Brahmana and Satapatha Brahmana. He cried just after he was born. That's why Brahma named him Rudra (rud=cry) as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Satapatha Brahmana.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He said to him, 'Thou art Rudra' And because he gave him that name, Agni became suchlike (or, that form), for Rudra is Agni: because he cried (rud) therefore he is Rudra. He said, 'Surely, I am mightier than that: give me yet a name!'&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma goes on naming his 8 forms as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rudra, Bhava, Sarva, Ugra, Bhima, Pasupati, Mahadeva, Ishana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also Ekadash Rudras who are incarnation of Lord Shiva:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;They Rule on Prana and Mind of Body as described in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कतमे रुद्रा इतिः दशेमे पुरुषे प्राणाः आत्मैकादशः ते यदास्माच्छरीरान्मर्त्यादुत्क्रामन्त्यथ रोदयन्ति, तद्यद्रोदयन्ति तस्माद्रुद्रा इति ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;‘Which are the Rudras ?’ ‘The &lt;strong&gt;ten pranas&lt;/strong&gt; in the human body, with the &lt;strong&gt;mind as the eleventh.&lt;/strong&gt; When they depart from this mortal body, they make one’s relatives weep. Because they then make them weep, therefore they are called Rudras.’&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudras are given birth by other also for eg:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Srimad Bhagvatam 6.6 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;17-18. &lt;strong&gt;Sarupa, the wife of Bhuta, gave birth to the ten million Rudras,&lt;/strong&gt; of whom the eleven principle Rudras were Raivata, Aja, Bhava, Bhima, Vama, Ugra, Vrsakapi, Ajaikapat, Ahirbradhna, Bahurupa &lt;br&gt;&#xA;and Mahan. Their associates, the ghosts and goblins, who are very fearful, were born of the other wife of Bhuta.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudras are also born from Narayana also:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Narayana Upanishad says: &amp;quot;Narayana Rudro Jayet&amp;quot; or Rudra was born from Narayana.&#xA;In Mahabharat Shanti Parva chapter 342 also Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He should be known as one that has sprung from my wrath.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam 5.25.3 also tells Rudras manifesting from wrath of Sesha Naag:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the time of devastation, when Lord Anantadeva desires to destroy the entire creation, He becomes slightly angry. Then from between His two eyebrows appears three-eyed Rudra, carrying a trident. This &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Rudra, who is known as Sankarsana, is the embodiment of the eleven Rudras, or incarnations of Lord Siva. He appears in order to devastate the entire creation.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as we see from above &lt;strong&gt;Rudras get birth from Brahma, Vishnu, Sarupa, Shiva, Sesha, etc.. in different conditions.&lt;/strong&gt; Also the name of Ekadash Rudras change frequently in Puranas due to KalpaBheda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Incarnations of Lord Shiva:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are various incarnations of Lord Shiva the most famous being Ashtamurti Manifestation. He manifest as son of Brahma in 8 different forms and enters the creation as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudra, Bhava, Sarva, Ugra, Bhima, Pasupati, Mahadeva, Ishana&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ekadash Rudras are also his incarnations. Their name frequently changes in Puranas due to KalpaBheda.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Besides Ashtamurti incarnation and Ekadash Rudra incarnation there are also other incarnations in various Kalpas and Mahayugas:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12959/3/Chapter1_1070-1148p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from ShatRudra Samhita of Shiva Purana describes incarnation in various Kalpas like:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sadyojata incarnation in Svetalohita Kalpa. Vamadeva incarnation in Rakta Kalpa. Aghora incarnation in Pitavasas Kalpa. Ishana incarnation in Visvarupa Kalpa.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12959/3/Chapter1_1070-1148p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;same excerpt&lt;/a&gt; in Chapter 5 also lists various incarnation taking place in various Mahayugas. These incarnations were named as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bali, Gautama, Vedasira, Gokarna, Guhavasin, Sikhandin, Jati, Malin, Doruka, Bhava, Halayudha, Sveta, Sulin, Mundisvara, Sahisnu, Somasarma, Lakulin.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Death of Rudra:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are not any scripture which mention Rudras died at particular time. Personally I think at the end of Kalpa or Mahakalpa they merge back to Lord Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Also there are also not any scripture which state Shiva/Rudra is a title and one can achieve this position by doing this and this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-09T11:34:44.857" CommentCount="25" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14026" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-09T13:19:11.943" Score="13" ViewCount="590" Body="&lt;p&gt;South Indian temples are a lot different from North Indian temples. When we enter into the temple, there are lot of other gods and demi gods inside. Some people go straight to see the 'Moolavar'(the main diety). Some people first see all the other devas and gods whose idols are present surrounding the main diety. I am confused which way to follow. Also I am wondering whether our sacred scriptures have any guidelines for this. What are the rules, do's and don't 's inside a temple. Are there different rules for shaivite and vaishnava temples? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastActivityDate="2017-03-19T11:31:35.770" Title="Guidelines inside any south Indian temple" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|vedas|puranas|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14028" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7070" CreationDate="2016-07-10T11:07:25.437" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Pasupatinath ShivaLinga is described in &lt;strong&gt;Koti Rudra Samhita&lt;/strong&gt; of Shiva Purana in chapter 11 &amp;apos;Pasupatinath Linga&amp;apos;:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नयपालाख्यां&lt;/strong&gt; तु प्रसिद्धायां महितले ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;लिङ्ग पशुपतिशाख्यं&lt;/strong&gt; सर्वकामफलप्रदम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिरोभागस्वरुपेण शिवलिङ्गं तदस्ति हि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्कथां वर्णयिष्यामि केदारेश्वरवर्णने ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;A Linga named Pasupati became established in Nepal and it is able to fulfill all desires.&lt;/strong&gt; The Linga as the form of the head and it&amp;apos;s story will be narrated with the greatness of Kedareshwara.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story hinted above is in Koti Rudra Samhita chapter 19 where Kedareshwara Linga is described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तद्दिनं हि समारभ्य केदारेश्वर एव च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पूजितो येन भक्त्या वै दुःख स्वपनेऽपि दुर्लभम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यो वै हि पाण्डवान्दृष्ट्वा माहिषं रुपमास्थित ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मायामास्थाय तत्रैव पालायनपरोऽभवत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धृतश्च पाण्डवैस्तत्र ह्यवाङ्मुखतया स्थित ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुच्छं चैव धृतं तैस्तु प्रर्थितश्च पुनः पुनः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तद्रुपेण स्थितस्तत्र भक्तवत्सलनामभाक् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;नयपाले शिरोभागो गतस्द्रुपतः स्थितः&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Whosever adored Kedara Shiva in the past they never came across any suffering or grief even in the dreams. He is the one, who on seeing Pandavas assumed the form of a he-buffalo, using his magical powers and tried to run away. But when he was caught by Pandavas by the tail, he stood there lowering his neck. They held his tail, who prayed him again and again. Then Shiva who is well disposed towards his devotees, established himself there in the same form. &lt;strong&gt;The portion of head appeared in Nepal.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One of the special feature of Pasupatinath ShivaLinga is that five heads are formed in the linga itself.&lt;/strong&gt; The east facing &lt;strong&gt;Tatpurusha,&lt;/strong&gt; the north facing &lt;strong&gt;Ardhanarishwara&lt;/strong&gt; (Vamadeva), the west facing &lt;strong&gt;Sadyojata&lt;/strong&gt; and the South facing &lt;strong&gt;Aghora.&lt;/strong&gt; The upward facing&amp;nbsp; Ishana is Nirakara (formless) whereas other faces are present in Linga itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-10T11:11:48.933" LastActivityDate="2016-07-10T11:11:48.933" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14030" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7662" CreationDate="2016-07-10T16:02:10.157" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, obviously he ate, because kshatriyas of that time period ate meat and were allowed to hunt and eat all edible animals. It is mentioned in Bibek Debroy's Mahabharata that Krishna and Arjuna used to hunt in the forests near Indraprastha.  That's true. There's no fault of them. Its their accordance to dharma and cooperate with it. Yudhisthira also ate deer in the dwaitavana and is also mentioned and so they moved to the kamyaka woods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7107" LastEditorUserId="7639" LastEditDate="2016-09-11T09:40:52.797" LastActivityDate="2016-09-11T09:40:52.797" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14033" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-10T19:37:27.947" Score="6" ViewCount="1127" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since ancient times India is known as the land of sages and their valuable teachings. The great sages of India devoted their lives towards the enlightenment of mankind. They have occupied special place in Hinduism. The names of some of them are given below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vasishtha (योग वशिष्ठ) , Agastya (अगस्त्य) , Adi Shankaracharya (आदि शंकराचार्य) , Valmiki (वाल्मिकी) , Ved Vyas ( व्यास) etc. These sages or Rishis were living life in their Hermitages (आश्रम).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I want to know , the ancient locations of the Hermitages. I.e. where were they located. ? Are there any mentioning in Scriptures about this.?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Not particularly all locations , some of it will also do)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T14:03:16.703" LastActivityDate="2022-01-12T08:36:43.283" Title="Ancient sages or Rishis (ऋषी) and Locations of their hermitages (आश्रम)" Tags="|scripture|belief|history|geography|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14035" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14022" CreationDate="2016-07-11T05:15:38.387" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's because Vyasa and Jaimini were working together.&lt;/strong&gt; Vyasa and two of his disciples, Jaimini and Kasakritsna, together composed a unified work called the Mimamsa Shastra, designed to analyze the meaning of the Vedas in all its aspects.  It consisted of 20 Adhyayas or chapters: the 12 Adhyayas of Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas (i.e. the Brahmanas and Aranyakas); the 4 Adhyayas of Kasakritsna's now-lost Devata Kanda Sutras, analyzing the Devata Kanda of the Vedas (i.e. the Samhitas); and the 4 Adhyayas of Vyasa's Brahma Sutras, analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas (i.e. the Upanishads).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea is that a student, after he has learned the Vedas, assumes that Dharma leads to the highest good, and so he studies the Purva Mimamsa Sutras to learn the precise nature of Dharma, especially the performance of Yagnas.  But then by studying the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the student realizes that the fruit of following Dharma is only temporary happiness.  So then the student turns to the Devata Kanda, as he assumes that meditating upon the gods leads to the highest good.  But the Devata Kanda Sutras reveal that meditating upon ordinary Devas doesn't lead to the highest good.  So then the student realizes that Brahman is the only source of eternal happiness (the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/27&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;dharma sukhasyaikantikasya&lt;/a&gt; to quote the Gita), and so as the first Sutra of the Brahma Sutras says, &quot;Athato Brahmajijnasa&quot; - &quot;Now therefore there is a desire to know Brahman.&quot;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt; what Ramanujacharya says about this Sutra  in the Sri Bhashya, his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The purport of the entire Sûtra then is as follows: 'Since the fruit of works known through the earlier part of the Mîmâmsâ is limited and non-permanent, and since the fruit of the knowledge of Brahman--which knowledge is to be reached through the latter part of the Mîmâmsâ--is unlimited and permanent; for this reason Brahman is to be known, after the knowledge of works has previously taken place.'--The same meaning is expressed by the Vrittikâra when saying 'after the comprehension of works has taken place there follows the enquiry into Brahman.' And that the enquiry into works and that into Brahman constitute one body of doctrine, &lt;strong&gt;he (the Vrittikâra) will declare later on 'this Sârîraka-doctrine is connected with Gaimini's doctrine as contained in sixteen adhyâyas; this proves the two to constitute one body of doctrine.'&lt;/strong&gt; Hence the earlier and the later Mîmâmsâ are separate only in so far as there is a difference of matter to be taught by each; in the same way as the two halves of the Pûrva Mîmâmsâ-sûtras, consisting of six adhyâyas each, are separate 1; and as each adhyâya is separate. &lt;strong&gt;The entire Mîmâmsâ-sâtra--which begins with the Sûtra 'Now therefore the enquiry into religious duty' and concludes with the Sûtra '(From there is) no return on account of scriptural statement'--has, owing to the special character of the contents, a definite order of internal succession.&lt;/strong&gt; This is as follows. At first the precept 'one is to learn one's own text (svâdhyâya)' enjoins the apprehension of that aggregate of syllables which is called 'Veda,' and is here referred to as 'svâdhyâya.' Next there arises the desire to know of what nature the 'Learning' enjoined is to be, and how it is to be done....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From all these it is understood that the study enjoined has for its result the apprehension of the aggregate of syllables called Veda, on the part of a pupil who has been initiated by a teacher sprung from a good family, leading a virtuous life, and possessing purity of soul; who practises certain special observances and restrictions; and who learns by repeating what is recited by the teacher.... It is further observed that the Veda thus apprehended through reading spontaneously gives rise to the ideas of certain things subserving certain purposes. A person, therefore, who has formed notions of those things immediately, i.e. on the mere apprehension of the text of the Veda through reading, thereupon naturally applies himself to the study of the Mimâmsa, which consists in a methodical discussion of the sentences constituting the text of the Veda, and has for its result the accurate determination of the nature of those things and their different modes. &lt;strong&gt;Through this study the student ascertains the character of the injunctions of work which form part of the Veda, and observes that all work leads only to non-permanent results; and as, on the other hand, he immediately becomes aware that the Upanishad sections--which form part of the Veda which he has apprehended through reading--refer to an infinite and permanent result, viz. immortality&lt;/strong&gt;, he applies himself to the study of the Sârîraka-Mîmâmsâ, which consists in a systematic discussion of the Vedânta-texts, and has for its result the accurate determination of their sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vrittikara refers to the Vyasa's disciple Baudhayana, whom I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3198/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, because Vyasa, Jaimini, and Kasakritsna were all composing their respective works simultaneously, they often reference each others' views.  That does not mean, however that they always cite each others' views with approval.  For instance, in the beginning of Adhyaya 3 Pada 4 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa refutes Jaimini's views concerning a fundamental difference between the Purva Mimamsa school, namely the purpose of knowledge of the Atma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Topic-1: Knowledge not a Subsidiary of Rites&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Badarayana thinks that liberation results from this (knowledge of the Self), (as presented in the Upanishads), because the Vedic texts declare so.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jaimini thinks that since the Self holds a subservient position in rites etc., the mention of the result of knowledge is (merely) in glorification of the agent, as is the case elsewhere.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(This is confirmed) on the strength of what is revealed about the behaviour (of the knowers of Brahman).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(This is so) because the Upanishad declares this.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(This is so), because both knowledge and work follow the Self (when it transmigrates).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(And this is so) because rites are enjoined for one who is possessed of that (knowledge of the Vedas).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And (this follows) from the restrictive texts.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But Badarayana’s view stands unshaken because of the instruction that the supreme Self is even greater (than the agent); for so it is revealed (by the Upanishads). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But the Upanishadic declaration (of conduct) is equally in evidence (proving that knowledge is not subservient to religious acts). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But some references are given with approval.  For instance, in Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 Sutra 5 of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, Jaimini approvingly cites Vyasa's statement that the Vedas are eternal; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/mlLV/download&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Shabara's commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The mention of 'Badarayana' means that 'what is stated here is the opinion of Badarayana'; and the name is mentioned only for showing reverence to Badarayana, and it does not mean that what is stated is not the author's (Jaimini's) opinion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a side note it's rather strange that Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa school has philosophical differences with the Vyasa's Vedanta school, for instance the differences I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9382/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11143/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, when Jaimini was a shishya of Vyasa.  That is why I have long suspected that Jaimini did not actually believe the things he was saying.  Vyasa may have instructed Jaimini to invent a coherent philosophical system where Dharma is considered the highest good, just so that students will study the system and come away with the conclusion that the fruits of Dharma are temporary and thus Brahman ought to be inquired into.  But that's just speculation on my part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I found another reference to the unified nature of the Mimamsa Shastra in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38196.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya.  According to Adi Shankaracharya, in Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 Sutra 53 of the Brahma Sutras Vyasa discusses the fact that the soul is different from the body.  (Ramanujacharya interprets this Sutra very differently, but that's a subject for another time.)  Now a hypothetical opponent objects to this, on the grounds that that the soul being different from the body is already established in the Purva Mimamsa Sutras and thus it is improper for Vyasa to discuss the same subject again.  Adi Shankaracharya responds by pointing out that Jaimini himself doesn't actually discuss the soul being different from the body, only Shabara's commentary on Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras discusses it.  So it's perfectly legitimate for Vyasa to discuss it now:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, an objection is raised, already in the first pâda which stands at the head of this Sâstra (i.e. the first pâda of the Pûrva Mîmâmsâ-sûtras) there has been declared the existence of a Self which is different from the body and hence capable of enjoying the fruits taught by the Sâstra.--True, this has been declared there by the author of the bhâshya, but there is in that place no Sûtra about the existence of the Self. Here, on the other hand, the Sûtrakâra himself establishes the existence of the Self after having disposed of a preliminary objection. And from hence the teacher Sabara Svâmin has taken the matter for his discussion of the point in the chapter treating of the means of right knowledge. For the same reason the reverend Upavarsha remarks in the first tantra--where an opportunity offers itself for the discussion of the existence of the Self--'We will discuss this in the Sârîraka,' and allows the matter to rest there. Here, where we are engaged in an inquiry into the pious meditations which are matter of injunction, a discussion of the existence of the Self is introduced in order to show that the whole Sâstra depends thereon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This entire argument rests on the premise that the Brahma Sutras are a continuation of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras and thus what is discussed in one shouldn't be repeated in the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-08-20T00:45:54.567" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14036" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4022" CreationDate="2016-07-11T05:47:58.313" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramanuja must have been misconstrued as reincarnation of Adisesha or Lakshmana or Balarama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja was named &quot;Ilaiya Azhwar&quot; and was not named &quot;Rama-anuja&quot;.  &quot;Ilaiya Azhwar&quot; means &quot;Young Azhwar&quot;. No where in any texts we have Rama or Krishna being referred to as Azhwar such as &quot;Rama Azhawar&quot; or &quot;Kriahna Azhwar&quot; and hence Ilya Azhwar doesn't mean brother of Rama or Krishna but the one who was destined to propogate the works of original &quot;Azhwars&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Sri Sankara Bhagavad Pada originally established &quot;Vaishnavism&quot; &amp;amp; not &quot;Saivism&quot; as misconstrued by his followers as Sri Sankara only lived 34 years and died at a very young age with disciples who were all older than him they have established what is now being followed by the Sankara Matam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is well known that When Sri Sankara was establishing his works he had to perform soul migration to be a married man to win over an argument.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He was the one who won many Jain and Buddhists and converted them to the current modern Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In order to please the non-believers of Vedas he established the &quot;Advidam&quot; - bringing the focus from VOID &amp;amp; Nirvana of Buddhists and Jains&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sri Sankara brought out the Bhagavad Gita from Mahabharata and created what is now known as &quot;Gito Upanishad&quot; by writing commentary on the teachings of Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;His very first work was &quot;Sri Kanakathara Sthostram&quot; on Lakshmi Thayar.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;His most famous work &quot;Moga Mudhra&quot; commonly known as &quot;Bhaja Govindam&quot; establishes the fact that he infact promoted every one to sing the name of Sriman Narayana for Moksha&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sri Sankara and Sri Ramanuja share same birth days seperated by a century &amp;amp; few odd years.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Sri Ramanuja was an avatar of Sri Adhisesha he would have born on Ayilyam nakshatram and not on Arudhra Which is the star of Siva&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramanuja was married man (Sri Sankara felt this being deficient in his life)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramanuja lived the full $120 years of life expected of any Human being on earth and established what he failed to achieve when he was born as Adhi Sankara&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence it is very much true that Siva only reincarnated as Sri Ramanuja and established &quot;vaishnavism&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because Siva was considered Adhi Sankara the Vaishanvites decided not to call Sri Ramanuja the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;whereas Siva only tells his wife Parvathy the easiest to get the benefit of chanting all 1000 names was to chant &quot;Sri Rama&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siva only tells Sri Lakshmi Ashtothra Sada Nama to his wife Parvathy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Anjaneya is believed to be Siva/Rudra's reincarnation and because Ravana was Siva Bhaktha he did &quot;hithobathesam&quot; as Rama Dhootha to protect Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All conversations between Bhootha Ganas and Lord Siva were all explaining how Sriman Narayana created the Jagat/universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence it is without doubt that Lard Siva reincarnated as Sri Rmanuja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Always in many puranas Siva only has come as Guru helpin ggood souls gain Moksha that can only be granted by Sriman Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7110" LastActivityDate="2016-07-11T05:47:58.313" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14037" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-07-11T06:37:25.837" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-07-11T06:37:25.837" LastActivityDate="2016-07-11T06:37:25.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14038" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-07-11T06:37:25.837" Score="0" Body="The Nath tradition is a heterodox siddha tradition containing many sub-sects. It was founded by Matsyendranath and further developed by Gorakshanath." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-11T09:36:26.913" LastActivityDate="2016-07-11T09:36:26.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14040" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14041" CreationDate="2016-07-11T10:56:23.807" Score="9" ViewCount="5111" Body="&lt;p&gt;As most of us know that Lord Parashurama got his axe (Parashu) from Lord Shiva. Same story is mention in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parashurama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parashurama, a Brahmin, &lt;strong&gt;received his famous axe after undertaking terrible penance to please Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;, who in turn taught him Kalaripayattu (the mother of all martial arts).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of Lord Shiva giving &lt;code&gt;Parashu&lt;/code&gt; to Lord Parashurama and which scripture describe this event?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-10T04:32:08.683" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T10:13:16.233" Title="What is the story of Lord Parashurama getting his axe from Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|parashurama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14041" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14040" CreationDate="2016-07-11T13:09:46.880" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Lord Parashurama receiving axe from Lord Shiva is described in Brahmanda Purana. It is described in part 2 chapter 24: &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Penance of Parashurama; His acquisition of the knowledge of astras&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. You can &lt;a href=&quot;https://doc-0k-bc-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/ha0ro937gcuc7l7deffksulhg5h7mbp1/trko7snv2egdk6q7lvecftnll5knjqnc/1468238400000/02058467015715614041/*/0ByTrbPQHgxJdWUtwaTFfTmxjZzA?e=download&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;download this book here.&lt;/a&gt; Here is how Brahmanda Purana narrates the event:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having traversed thus all over the earth at the behest of god Sambhu, the descendant of Bhrgu went again to that land where he had been living before penance. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  After going there, O king, and staying there itself, he devoutly worshiped lord Umapati by means of austerities and holy Observances. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  It was in the meantime, O king, that a long-drawn war took place between the Devas and the Asuras causing horripilation. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thereupon the excessively powerful Asuras defeated the gods and acquired the glory and riches of the Devas. They had nothing to fear from anywhere.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Devas who had been defeated in the war— Vasava (Indra) and all the others whose assets and magnificent glory had been seized by their enemies sought refuge in Sankara. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  After propitiating the lord of the universe by means of obeiscence and eulogies about his victory, the Devas requested the Pinaka wielding Lord (Siva) to destroy the Asuras. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thereupon, O king, Sambhu, the bestower of boons on the Devas, promised to them the slaughter of the Danavas and spoke thus to Mahodara. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In the southern sector of Himalayas, a sage‘s son of great penance, named Rama, is performing penance directed towards me. He is very brilliant. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Go there now itself, O Mahodara and convey my behest to him. Even as he is performing penance let him be brought here without delay&amp;quot;. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  On being ordered thus, Mahodara bowed down to the lord after saying &amp;quot;So be it”, and went with the velocity of the Wind to the place where Rama was settled down. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  After reaching that spot and seeing Rama the greet sage performing penance, he humbly spoke these words. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “O excellent one among the descendants of Bhrigu Lord Sambhu wishes to see you. I have come here at his behest. Hence, come to the presence of his lotus-like feet&amp;quot;. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  On hearing his words, BhArgava got up quickly, received his behest approvingly with his head (bowed down). and replied—“So be it&amp;quot;. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thereupon, Mahodara with great speed led Rama immediately to a place by the side of Sambhu on the Kailash, the excellent mountain. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The most excellent scion of the family ‘Bhrgu saw Sankara who endears himself to his devotees. accompanied by the goblins as well as Indra and other immortal beings (ie. gods). &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The lord was being eulogised by Narada and another ascetic: whose wealth was penance. He was being attended upon by the Gandharvas who were singing, and by the groups of Apsaras who were dancing. The lord of the Devas had the hide of an elephant for his garment and had smeared the entire body with the holy ashes. The three~eyed moon-crested Lord had the tawny-matted hair over his head. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He had adorned himself with serpents serving the purpose of ornaments. His lips and arms were long. He was gentle. His lotus-like face appeared delighted. O king, he was seated on a golden slap in the midst of the assembly of the Devas. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The most excellent one among the descendants of Bhrgu approached the lord of the Devas with palms joined in reverence. His entire body had hairs standing on end as a result of his vision of Srikantha. He went near Hara with his body drenched in tears of joy. He was excited due to delight, he uttered the words, ”Obeisance to you, O lord of the Devas&amp;quot; several times. Finally, he fell down at the feet of the enemy of the three Puras (ie. god Siva). &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Amidst the groups of the Devas who were looking on, ‘the delighted lord Siva lifted up the most excellent scion of the family of Bhrigu. With an enthusiastic smile and eagerness, he spoke these sweet words to Rama whose lotus-like face appeared pleasant. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then Girvanas (Devas) have been attacked by the hosts of Daityas. They were dislodged from their abodes. Unable to kill them they have approached me. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hence, at my behest I! well as with I desire to do something pleasing to the Devas, O Rama, kill the entire hosts of Daityas. You are considered capable of it by me”. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then Rama bowed down to Sarva. Even as all the Deva: stood listening, Rama spoke these words very humbly with palm joined in reverence. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   “O lord, you are omniscient. You are the immanent soul of everyone. Hence, is not (what I am going to say) known to you (already)&amp;nbsp; Still, listen to the words I submit. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  If it is impossible for Sankara and other Devas to kill the asuras how can they be killed by me single handedly ? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I am ignorant of miraculous missiles, O lord of the Devas. I am not an expert in warfare. How can I kill all the enemies of the Deva: without any weapon whatsoever ?“ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  On being told by him thus, the lord of the Devas transferred to that noble-souled Rama white lustrous splendor of Shiva, full of miraculous missiles, as brilliant as the fire of Death. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  After handing over his own axe that could overpower all other weapons, the Lord delighted within himself, said to Rama even as the Devas stood listening. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “Due to my grace, O gentle one, may there be sufficient power in you enabling you to kill all the enemies of the Devas, and be unassailable In all your enemity. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Go ahead with this weapon alone and tight with your enemies. You yourself will duly come to know and possess the skill in war.&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vasistha said : &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;On being instructed thus by Sambhu, Rama bowed down to him, and accepted the axe pertaining to Siva, and was bent upon the slaughter of the enemies of the Devas.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Thereupon, Rama who was born of a part of splendor of Vishnu and who was equipped with devotion to Rudra shone like the splendor of the sun accompanied by his brilliance.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Permitted by the three-eyed lord and accompanied by all the Devas he went ahead to slay the Asuras. He. moved to fight with them till the end. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thereupon, once Again there broke out the war of the Devas with the Asuras, O king. They were endeavoring to conquer the three worlds. Hence the war was extremely terrible. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then Rama of mighty arms became infuriated in that excessively terrifying battle. He killed the great Asuras with his axe. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Killing the Daityas in thousands by means of strokes resembling the thunderbolt, the infuriated Ram moved about in the battlefield like another god of &amp;apos;Death. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  After killing all the Daityas in a trice, Rama the most excellent one among those who strike (with a weapon) exterminated them and gratified all the Devas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Everyone among the Daityas and the Danavas was being struck at by Rama. Those who survived the slaughter saw Rama everywhere and became frightened. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  When the entire host: of the Asuras were either killed or routed, the Devas took leave of Rama and went again to the Heaven. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  After killing the son of Diti and bidding farewell to the Devas, Rama resorted to his hermitage with his mind attached to the activities of penance. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That rage of great intellect made the image of a hunter of deer representing Sambhu and devotedly worshiped it in his hermitage, with perfect self-control. He duly appropriated him with fragrant incense, beautiful flowers, food offerings, obesicences, and eulogies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2016-08-04T07:52:45.423" LastActivityDate="2016-08-04T07:52:45.423" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14042" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13994" CreationDate="2016-07-11T15:47:38.830" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna simply wasn't around at the time to prevent the game of dice. He was busy fighting Sālva who had earlier besieged Dwaraka (to avenge Shishupala's death) during Krishna's absence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this is what Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03013.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; addressing Yudhishtira, in Vana Parva of Mahabharata, on how he would have prevented the dice game from happening at all:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vasudeva said, &amp;quot;O lord of earth, &lt;strong&gt;if I had been present at Dwaraka, then, O king, this evil would not have befallen thee! And, O irrepressible one, coming unto the gambling-match, even if uninvited by the son of Ambika (Dhritarashtra), or Duryodhana, or by the other Kauravas, I would have prevented the game from taking place&lt;/strong&gt;, by showing its many evils, summoning to my aid Bhishma and Drona and Kripa, and Vahlika! O exalted one, for thy sake I would have told the son of Vichitravirya--O foremost of monarchs, let thy sons have nothing to do with dice!--I would have shown the many evils (of dice) through which thou hast fallen into such distress and the son of Virasena was formerly deprived of his kingdom! O king, unthought of evils, befall a man from dice! I would have described how a man once engaged in the game continueth to play (from desire of victory).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Women, dice, hunting and drinking to which people become addicted in consequence of temptation, have been regarded as the four evils that deprive a man of prosperity. And those versed in the Sastras are of opinion that evils attend upon all these. They also that are addicted to dice know all its evils. O thou of mighty arms, appearing before the son of Ambika, I would have pointed out that through dice men in a day lose their possessions, and fall into distress, and are deprived of their untasted wealth, and exchange harsh words! O perpetuator of the Kuru race, I would have pointed out these and other attendant evils! If he had accepted my words thus addressed, the welfare of the Kurus as also virtue itself would both have been secured!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And, O foremost of kings, if he had rejected my gentle counsels offered as medicine, then, O best of the Bharata race, I would have compelled him by force! And, if those who wait at his court, professing to be his friends but in reality his foes, had supported him, then I would have slain them all&lt;/strong&gt;, along with those gamblers, there present!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Kauravya, &lt;strong&gt;it is owing to my absence from the Anartta country at that time that thou hast fallen into such distress begot of dice!&lt;/strong&gt; O thou best of Kurus, O son of Pandu, on arriving at Dwaraka I learnt from Yuyudhana all about thy calamity! And, O foremost of kings, directly I heard it with a heart sore agitated by grief, have I speedily come here wishing to see thee, O king! Alas! O bull of the Bharata race, ye have all fallen into dire distress! I see thee with thy brothers plunged in misfortune!&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-11T15:47:38.830" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14043" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-11T17:15:13.730" Score="1" ViewCount="1002" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuttikrishna_Marar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13356486-bharatha-paryatanam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bharata Paryatanam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (Travel through Bharata), another important work of &lt;strong&gt;Kuttikrishna Marar&lt;/strong&gt; is a critical exposition of the characters and main events in the epic Mahabharata. Bharata Paryatanam shows his immense knowledge of the epic, Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Has this been translated to English? If yes, where can I find the translation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-07-11T17:15:13.730" Title="English translation of Bharata Paryatanam by Kuttikrishna Marar?" Tags="|mahabharata|translation-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14044" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-11T18:53:35.243" Score="5" ViewCount="431" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna had many sons but I am unable to find any reference of his sons in Mahabharata war. So where were they during the war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7118" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-07-11T22:11:06.983" LastActivityDate="2016-08-19T04:54:19.693" Title="What were Shri Krishna's sons doing during Mahabharat war?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14045" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7396" CreationDate="2016-07-11T20:09:01.813" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Kandadai Ramanujacharya while answering &lt;strong&gt;What is Ishti?&lt;/strong&gt; (e.g., putra-kama-&lt;strong&gt;ishti&lt;/strong&gt;) in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BB81l9LG2M&amp;amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;amp;t=775&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; episode of Telugu Bhakthi TV program Dharma Sandehalu says the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That which fulfills your desire is called Ishti. In a broader sense ishti is a yajna but when the yajna is done for just a few hours in a single day to fulfill one's minor desires, it is called ishti. Ishti is done to please the God that can fulfill those particular desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The different yajna's depending on the actual time you spend on them are classified as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ishti&lt;/strong&gt; (1 or 2 hours, e.g., Lakshmi-Narayana Ishti, Sudarshana Ishti, Narasimha Ishti, Hayagriva Ishti (for better studies), Vishwaksena Ishti (to remove obstacles) and Vaibhava Ishti (for wealth)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Homam&lt;/strong&gt; (1 day)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajna&lt;/strong&gt; (3, 5, 11 days or 3 months)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maha-yaagam&lt;/strong&gt; (1 or 2 months)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Advaram&lt;/strong&gt; (6 months or 1 year)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satram&lt;/strong&gt; (50, 100, 500 years or 1000 years)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-07-11T20:09:01.813" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14050" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10780" CreationDate="2016-07-12T10:24:52.237" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maharshi  Kanad ( महर्षी कणाद)&lt;/strong&gt;  was born in 600 BC in Prabhas Kshetra (प्रभास क्षेत्र)  near Dwaraka (द्वारका) in Gujarat, India. He is also known as Kashyap Rushi (कश्यप ऋषी)&#xA; Once &lt;strong&gt;Kashyap Rushi&lt;/strong&gt;  was on a pilgrimage to Prayag when he saw thousands of pilgrims lettering  Rice grains and flowers  in the streets &#xA; which they offered at the temple.  Rishi Kashyap, began collecting the grains of  that rice.&#xA; People gathered around him to see why he is collecting grains from the street. People asked kashapa why he is doing so ? &#xA; He said   that each single grain  in itself may&#xA; seem worthless, but a collection of hundred grains make up a person's meal, the collection many meals would &#xA;feed an entire family and ultimately the entire mankind was made of many families, thus even a single grain of rice was as&#xA; important as all the valuable riches in this world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since then, people started calling him ‘Kanad’, (कणाद) as ‘Kan’ (कण) in Sanskrit.&#xA;‘&lt;strong&gt;the smallest particle&lt;/strong&gt;’. &#xA;Kanad carried out study about this unknown world of small particles  and stated his theories about Kana &lt;strong&gt;(atom) (अणू)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For this discovery people gave him the title Maharshi Kanad (महर्षी कणाद).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his work &lt;strong&gt;Vaisheshika (वैषेशीका) sutras&lt;/strong&gt;. He has described the smallest particle (Kana or &#xA;Atom) (कण , अणू). The Scriptures are from Vaisheshika sutras by him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;अणूसंयोगस्तवप्रतिषिद्ध&lt;/strong&gt;:     -     4.2.4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-   Anusanyog (अणूसंयोग )=Conjunction of atoms  Tu (तू) = But &#xA;  ,   Apratisiddhah (अप्रतिषिद्ध:)= Not denied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2)&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;अतोविपरितमणु&lt;/strong&gt;        -           7.1.10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - Atah (अत:) = Of this Viparith (विपरितः)=Contrary  Anu(अणू)=&#xA;  The minima of magnitude&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The contrary of this is Anu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3) अग्नेरूर्ध्वज्वलनं वायोस्तीर्यक्वपवनमणूनां मनसश्र्चशदयं&#xA;   कर्मादृष्ढकरितम ।।     5.2.13&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-   Agne (अग्ने)= Of fire.   Urdhwajwalanam (ऊर्ध्व ज्वलनं) =&#xA;  Flaming Upward &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vayoh (वायो:)= Of air   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tiryak (तिर्यक)=sideward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Pawanam) पवनं = Of wind Anunam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(अणुनां) = Of  fundamental particles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mansah (मनस:) = Of Mind&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ch (च)= And&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adyam  (आद्यमं)= Initial, first &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karma drusha karitam(कर्मादृष्ढकरितम) = action caused by adristam or&#xA;  invisible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The initial upward flaming of fire, the initial sideward blowing of&#xA; air and the initial action (motion) of anu, and of mind are caused by&#xA;adristam or Invisible.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read More &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-technology/indian-sage-who-developed-atomic-theory-2600-years-ago-001399&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-12T16:54:34.257" LastActivityDate="2016-07-12T16:54:34.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14052" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16985" CreationDate="2016-07-12T13:56:22.547" Score="3" ViewCount="148977" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the major things that Lizard falls on our part of human body and its predict our destiny?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is any hopeful source said as truth like in Puranas or in Panjangams?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7052" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-03T13:25:50.707" LastActivityDate="2019-06-07T11:42:45.510" Title="Significance of lizard falls on our Human Body" Tags="|astrology|superstitions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14054" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3658" CreationDate="2016-07-12T17:32:21.060" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am giving the answer based on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryabharati.org/mahabharat/mahabharen.asp?ln=en&amp;amp;bk=05&amp;amp;pt=a&amp;amp;pg=159&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Udyog Parva, Bhagvat Yan Parva, chapter CLIX&lt;/a&gt;. According to this, Krishna got Sharang bow after killing Narakasur/Bhaumasur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Baffling the nooses of Mura and slaying by his might that Asura, and vanquishing Naraka, the son of earth, Hrishikesa, while recovering the begemmed ear-rings of Aditi, with sixteen thousand girls and various kinds of jewels and gems, &lt;strong&gt;obtained that excellent bow called Sarnga&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And according to Shrimada Bhagvatam, Lord Krishna first killed Narakasur as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/59&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.59&lt;/a&gt; and after then he killed Shalva as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/77&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.7 7&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T10:21:29.997" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T10:21:29.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14056" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10780" CreationDate="2016-07-13T00:24:32.897" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vaiśeṣika is one of the six classical schools of Indian philosophy.  It is known for its naturalism and was founded by Sage Kanada Kashyap.  The Encyclopedia Britannica cites 2nd-3rd century CE as the possible time-period of its founding.  However, Dr. Subhash Kak has placed the formation of the Vaiśeṣika system to 600 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Within this fascinating Darśana, an atomic theory is proposed.  According to the description in Encyclopedia Brittanica (on-line edition, updated 5/2015):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Vaiśeṣika system holds that the smallest, indivisible, indestructible part of the world is an atom (anu). All physical things are a combination of the atoms of earth, water, fire, and air. Inactive and motionless in themselves, the atoms are put into motion by God’s will, through the unseen forces of moral merit and demerit.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to April Holloway (Editor of the &quot;Ancient Origins&quot; website), Acharya Kanad formulated this atomic theory 2,500 years before John Dalton proposed the modern reiteration of atomic theory in chemistry and physics.  According to the eminent Australian Indologist, A.L. Basham, the ideas of Rishi Kanad Kashyap were &quot;brilliant imaginative explanations of the physical structure of the world, and in a large measure, agreed with the discoveries of modern physics.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amita Chatterjee, Professor of Philosophy &amp;amp; Coordinator of the Centre for Cognitive Science, has written about the Vaiśeṣika system in the Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy.  Along with Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika is described as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;...committed to common-sense realism and pluralism in their ontology; believe in the creation of the world from material atoms that conjoin to generate this world by the will of God and in accordance with the accumulated merits and demerits of individual agents; accept a theory of causation according to which a new effect is produced by its cause and is not a mere manifestation of the cause; and admit that liberation means absolute cessation of suffering, a state where the liberated self is without any consciousness.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note how the description of liberation within the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika dyad differs from the other Darśanas (like Yoga and Vedānta).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Vaiśeṣika Sutras, there are 9 categories of reality:&#xA;1) Four classes of atoms (earth, water, light, air);&#xA;2) Ākāśa [ Sanskrit: आकाश ] = space or aether;&#xA;3) Kāla = time;&#xA;4) Dik = direction;&#xA;5) Ātman = soul (i.e., an infinite number of souls);&#xA;6) Manas = mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Indian-American scientist, Dr. Subhash Kak:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;In my own study of the Vaiśeṣika, I have become convinced that Kaṇāda is perhaps the greatest physicist before Newton.... he anticipated most of Newton’s laws of motion. Further, he attempted something that no physicist to date has dared to do: he created a formal system that includes space, time, matter, as well as observers.&quot;&lt;/em&gt; [Passage is from &quot;The Greatest Unsung Indian&quot;, published in Swarajya]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastActivityDate="2016-07-13T00:24:32.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14058" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-13T06:10:03.083" Score="6" ViewCount="895" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for verses in scriptures which mention homosexuality specifically, that is man having sex with man or woman having sex with woman, not vague terms like napumsaka or kliba which can mean anything like neuter, hermaphrodite or transgender. Only verse I have been able to find so far has been Manusmriti 11:175 from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/dharma/manusmriti_2.asp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/dharma/manusmriti_2.asp&lt;/a&gt; AND &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu11.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu11.htm&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;175&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A twice-born man who commits an unnatural offence with a male, or has intercourse with a female in a cart drawn by oxen, in water, or in the day-time, shall bathe, dressed in his clothes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know any other verse from dharmasutras or dharmashastras which prescribe penance for homosexual act or verse from any puranas which describe tortures suffered by homosexuals in hell? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="6830" LastEditDate="2016-07-18T00:16:22.660" LastActivityDate="2021-12-06T15:22:45.690" Title="Verses about homosexuality" Tags="|puranas|dharma-shastras|homosexuality|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14059" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14191" CreationDate="2016-07-13T08:30:58.963" Score="20" ViewCount="12372" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently read an article on the internet claiming that Shri Radha might not be real but an imaginary character and the reason they gave was that although Shri Radha has been given much preference than Rukmini, Her reference is not found in any major Puranas of Lord Vishnu or Lord Krishna. Her reference is only found in Bramha Vaivarta Purana and texts written by Poet Jaidev. If She had been such an important part of Lord Krishna's life then She should have been mentioned in other major Vaishnav Puranas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I wanted to check whether this is true and or not and if not, then which all Puranas or other important Hindu texts contains references about Her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="3790" LastEditDate="2018-01-20T19:04:18.497" LastActivityDate="2023-05-15T12:09:52.903" Title="Which all early Hindu scriptures contain references about Shri Radha?" Tags="|krishna|radha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14060" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-13T08:47:03.793" Score="6" ViewCount="1027" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can someone post me a free downloadable link to the original Sanskrit e-book of 'Tripura Rahasya'?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have the English translation given by Wikipedia. But I was in need of the Sanskrit version.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could anyone help me in this regard? I would appreciate any help forwarded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7129" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-07-31T12:33:05.770" LastActivityDate="2022-07-31T13:11:17.393" Title="Original sanskrit e-book of 'Tripura Rahasya'" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|translation-request|sanskrit|tripura-rahasyam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14061" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14044" CreationDate="2016-07-13T09:06:23.433" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You must acknowledge the fact that Shri Krishna, had vowed not to participate in the war as a warrior. He had confirmed to Duryodhana and Arjuna, who had visited Lord Krishna, to request him to join their sides, that he could not choose between the two, because they both were equally dear to him. So he would split his army which would fight, on one side and himself who would not pick a weapon on another side. And it was up to them to choose between him and his army. Duryodhana chose the army and Arjuna chose Shri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when the father vows not to pick a weapon, how could his son be expected to pick a weapon and take sides?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7129" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-07-20T04:30:05.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-20T04:30:05.163" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14062" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14060" CreationDate="2016-07-13T09:22:53.917" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tripura Rahasya (Sanskrit) Mahatmya Kanda can be found &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/document/28966805/Tripura-Rahasya-Mahatmya-Khanda-Sanskrit-Text&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and Jnana Kanda can be found &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/document/28968187/Tripura-Rahasya-Jnana-Khanda-Sanskrit-Text&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-07-13T09:22:53.917" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14063" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7924" CreationDate="2016-07-13T10:42:51.503" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata (Sanskrit with Hindi Meaning) published by Gita Press Gorakhpur (Page 685 of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/mahabharata06ramauoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;document&lt;/a&gt;) also it is written अमृताशोऽमृतवपुः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-07-13T10:42:51.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14064" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13994" CreationDate="2016-07-13T10:44:05.397" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This query needs a long elaboration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Explanation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What we fail to recognise is that Lord Krishna, was neither the protector of Pandavas nor the destroyer of Kauravas.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was the establisher of DHARMA whenever it was being trampled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now who was destroying the Dharma here? Kauravas or the Pandavas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is popular belief that, the Kauravas were destroying the Dharma, while the Pandavas were protecting the Dharma. Which is absolutely wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both the Kauravas and the Pandavas had human weaknesses. Dharma is always destroyed by 'Human weaknesses'. The Kauravas and the Pandavas were both hand in hand in destroying the Dharma. Both were equally liable. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it would be surprising to say that Pandavas were destroying Dharma. A few evidences are here below;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1] When Draupadi ridiculed Duryodhana saying 'Blind son of a Blind Father', she trampled Dharma. It was her human weakness, that made her say it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2] People ask why Shri Krishna didn't stop Dharmaraya from playing Dice? But the true question to be asked is; Why couldn't Dharamaraya restrain himself from playing? It is because the game of Dice was irresistible to him, another human weakness. He became a victim of his own weakness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it was both the Kauravas and the Pandavas, who jointly destroyed dharma. They, including Draupadi, were responsible for Draupadi/any-woman to be brought dragging by her hair and de-robed in public. It is not important who the woman is, but this would set a precedent. If this could happen to Draupadi, then it could happen to any woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the question would arise, if both the Kauravas and the Pandavas were both destroyers of Dharma, then why did Shri Krishna take the sides of Pandavas? I will cut short the explanation and come directly to the core.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna took the sides of both the Kauravas and the Pandavas. How?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pandavas wanted to take revenge. Shri Krishna said, revenge is another human weakness and another method of destroying Dharma. He stopped and pacified them and said; what is necessary is, not revenge, but a correction of the wrong and re-establishment of Dharma. What was needed was, returning to Pandavas, the property that is rightly theirs, by Kauravas. If that is done, the wrong stands corrected and Dharma gets established. That's all. So he stopped Pandavas from taking revenge and went to Duryodhana. Asked him to correct the mistake and establish the Dharma. He refused to correct it. It is then that Shri Krishna asked the Pandavas to take what is rightly theirs by war. But he had given Duryodhana a chance to correct himself. When he didn't, Shri Krishna supported the Pandavas in correcting the mistake, [a mistake committed by both]. Actually he was not supporting the pandavas. He was merely helping them in correcting the mistake and re-establishing the Dharma. He was on the side of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ultimately in the war both the Kauravas and the Pandavas, paid the price. Both lost their dear one's. But Dharma was established. Duryodhana was not allowed to get away with his mistakes. Neither were Pandavas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming back to the original question. Dharma does not prevent anybody from doing what they like. You want to play Dice, play it. It lets everybody to have free will. But beware that you do not cross the limits. Beware that you do not get carried away by your weaknesses and trample the Dharma. Dharma is not going to get trampled. It will re-establish itself. And you will pay the price for trampling it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To see it in another way; half glass full is half glass empty and both are same. Shri Krishna was on nobody's side. He was on the side of Dharma. Remember? The Shreemad-Bhagavdgeeta begins with;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Dharma samsthaapanaarthaaya sambhavaami yuge yuge&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he wouldn't stop &lt;strong&gt;anybody&lt;/strong&gt; from playing the Dice, not only the Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regards&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7129" LastActivityDate="2016-07-13T10:44:05.397" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14065" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14121" CreationDate="2016-07-13T10:45:32.607" Score="7" ViewCount="4519" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8162/why-maharishi-bhrigu-was-so-powerful&quot;&gt;Why Maharishi Bhrigu was so powerful?&lt;/a&gt; mention about Sage Bhrigu testing Lord Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know what is the story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2016-07-19T16:11:02.460" Title="What is the story of Sage Bhrigu testing Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|bhagavata-purana|brahma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14066" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-07-13T12:31:07.153" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-07-13T12:31:07.153" LastActivityDate="2016-07-13T12:31:07.153" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14067" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-07-13T12:31:07.153" Score="0" Body="Janamejaya, a Kuru king and son of Parikshit." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-13T15:43:28.360" LastActivityDate="2016-07-13T15:43:28.360" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14069" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12160" CreationDate="2016-07-13T15:07:06.010" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna tried to pacify Duryodhana, by asking him to return what he had wrongly won through deception in the game of Dice. But Duryodhana refused. Instead Duryodhana took the ultimate step of even trying to capture Shri Krishna. And so Shri Krishna took the step of going to war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Wendy Doniger, would have to tell us how she would convince Duryodhana to give back to Pandavas their property?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wendy Doniger, would have to tell us how she would have convinced Adolf Hitler to give up expansion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wendy Doniger, would have to tell us how she would have convinced Mr. Gaddafi to give up power and establish democracy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wendy Doniger, would have to tell us how she would convince Al Baghdadi, to surrender?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wendy Doniger, would have to tell us how she would convince Dawood Ibrahim to surrender?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wendy Doniger, would have to tell us how she would ...... I think those above examples are enough to comprehend what my point is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Shri Krishna did was not war. It was justice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7129" LastEditorUserId="7129" LastEditDate="2016-07-14T06:15:28.803" LastActivityDate="2016-07-14T06:15:28.803" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14070" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11797" CreationDate="2016-07-13T15:39:54.070" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;When the whole world, including his mother did not come to his rescue when he was ridiculed for his low status, it was Duryodhana who elevated his status. Though Duryodhana did not do it out of compassion, though Duryodhana did it to enrol a great archer equivalent to Arjuna, on his side, Karna was indebted by that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Krishna came to persuade him to come to the side of Dharma, Karna refused because, Karna's feeling of indebtedness was so enormous that it outweighed his sense of duty towards Dharma. He failed to recognise that no duty is higher than the duty towards Dharma. He failed to recognise that what Duryodhana had done to him was not out of compassion, but out of greed. They called themselves friends. They were not. Duryodhana was a Lord and Karna was a slave. Duryodhana had bought out Karna. Karna had sold himself to Duryodhana. Karna had completely submitted to Duryodhana. They were master and slave. That is the great failure of a great human being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7129" LastEditorUserId="7129" LastEditDate="2016-07-14T06:28:36.993" LastActivityDate="2016-07-14T06:28:36.993" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14073" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12160" CreationDate="2016-07-13T18:31:21.300" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Wendy doniger &quot;was&quot; a celebrated indologist. Rajiv Malhotra for long exposed the credibility of writing of wendy and her ilk. &#xA; he argued and presented case for her willfull wrong use of Freudian Psychoanalysis &amp;amp; eroticization &amp;amp; deliberate mistranslation of Indic Scriptures and gross inaccuracies by her and her camp.&#xA;For instance her student Kripal refers to Ramakrishna as having  homosexual tendencies  and molesting his disciple Swami Vivekanda  using wrong translation of bengali scriptures.&#xA;For More information please refer to This 12 yr old article written by him &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rajivmalhotra.com/library/articles/risa-lila-1-wendys-child-syndrome/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://rajivmalhotra.com/library/articles/risa-lila-1-wendys-child-syndrome/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna, the 19th century Hindu saint, has been declared by these scholars as being a sexually-abused homosexual, and it has become “academically established” by Wendy Doniger’s students that Ramakrishna was a child molester, and had also forced homosexual activities upon Vivekananda. Furthermore, it has become part of this new “discovery” that Ramakrishna’s mystical experiences, and indeed those of Hindu mystics in general, are pathological sexual conditions that need to be psychoanalyzed as such. Furthermore, these scholars have concluded that the entire Hindu society needs to be psychoanalyzed in terms of sexual deviance, in order to understand modern Indian society and politics objectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Other conclusions by these well-placed scholars include: Ganesha’s trunk symbolizes a “limp phallus”; his broken tusk is a symbol for the castration-complex of the Hindu male; his large belly is a proof of the Hindu male’s enormous appetite for oral sex. Shiva, is interpreted as a womanizer, who encourages ritual rape, prostitution and murder, and his worship is linked to violence and destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some Wendy doniger books have been withdrawn by publishers themselves, after their gross inaccuracies were established.&#xA;She was being perpetuated by the left, as being an authority on hinduism. Who manifested/bestowed that authority-ship on her, is unknown. It is like Kim kadarshian is famous for being famous. Her ilk's just repetition that she is authority does not make her an authority. It was pointed out that she is writing with christian missionary zeal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://writingcave.com/withdrawal-wendy-donigers-book-text-petition/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://writingcave.com/withdrawal-wendy-donigers-book-text-petition/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7133" LastActivityDate="2016-07-13T18:31:21.300" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14074" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10135" CreationDate="2016-07-13T18:37:59.537" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No. Dharma is neither the good path, nor is it what you feel is right path. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma is that path, which is truly right. And to decide what is truly right, one should become the 'all-knowing'. Only the one who knows all, can decide what is truly right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as Bhshma's decision is concerned, he was more attached to his vows than Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only person in the entire Mahabharata, who was totally and unflinchingly attached to Dharma, was Shri Krishna. He was all knowing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7129" LastActivityDate="2016-07-13T18:37:59.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14076" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11656" CreationDate="2016-07-14T07:34:21.690" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Good exploring, Yogi. Deserves upvote.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here below is the explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are two, very different, words but very closely related.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neeti is - '&lt;em&gt;code of conduct&lt;/em&gt;'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma is - '&lt;em&gt;to hold on to what is true and just&lt;/em&gt;'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand Neeti &amp;amp; Dharma better, one needs to explore the relation between them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here below is how they are related; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Keep in mind the above definitions, while investigating their relationship.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is Neeti to create a code of conduct that upholds &lt;em&gt;truth and justice&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is Dharma, to establish, i.e, to make prevail, that &lt;em&gt;code of conduct&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope your exploration is satisfied. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Keep going, and share with us, whatever new you find.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have marked this as my favourite, question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good luck.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit 1:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as the demand for citing from scriptures; what I want to aprise the readers about here is, what I have said in the answer above, is an extract of what I have read and contemplated through the years &amp;amp; further it is not feasible to establish right here through scriptural evidences, how I have arrived at that answer, because; the concepts of Dharma &amp;amp; Neeti have been discussed &amp;amp; debated since times immemorial in innumerable texts. If I have to show, how I derived that answer, I will have to write a thesis then! right here! It has taken me nearly my life time to arrive at that result. But anyway I will cite one quote from a scripture, which shows that Dharma &amp;amp; Truth go hand in hand. In Hinduism, there is a genre of texts called 'Dharmashstras', which are exclusive treatises on Dharma stating the duties, responsibilities and ethics to oneself, to family and as a member of society. This quote is from &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Vashishta Dharmashastra&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. But before that, I would like to discuss on what @Yogi has said and show that Truth &amp;amp; Justice are not different. They are the two view points of the same thing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, @Yogi said;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quote &quot;justification is result of human analysis&quot; Unquote. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I said above, Truth &amp;amp; justice are the two different faces of the same coin. They are inseperable. They go hand in hand. They do not exist in the absence of one another. Now let me show where the above statement that &quot;justification is result of human analysis&quot; goes wrong. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Justification is of two kinds; depending upon who justifies; because the Justifier is of two kinds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two kinds of Justifiers are: one is the Ignorant &amp;amp; the other is the All-Knowing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The justification made by the ignorant is always wrong and so unjust.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the justification made by the All-knowing is always right and so just.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This also shows that, what is wrong is unjust &amp;amp; vice versa. And what is right is just &amp;amp; vice versa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So now the question arises as to what is right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is; Truth is always right. Truth can never be wrong. And nothing else can ever be right. What is wrong is not Truth. And above all;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only an All-knowing person can do justice because only he can arrive at the Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to the scriptural evidence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vashishta Dharmasutra hints that, Dharma and Truth, and now Justice [It has been shown above, i.e, Truth &amp;amp; Justice are the two different faces of the same coin.], all three, go hand in hand. In Chapter-30, Sutra-1, it says; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduonline.co/vedicreserve/kalpa/dharma/vasishtha_dharma_sutra.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduonline.co/vedicreserve/kalpa/dharma/vasishtha_dharma_sutra.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;धर्मं चरत माधर्मं, सत्यम वदत मानृतम्।&quot;,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;which translates to- &quot;Take the course of Dharma and not Adharma, speak the Truth and not the Untruth&quot;. It is said so because the two i.e, Dharma &amp;amp; Truth do not exist without one another. And from above discussion we have seen that, Truth &amp;amp; Justice are the same thing. So,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma is upholding of &quot;Truth &amp;amp; Justice&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7129" LastEditorUserId="7129" LastEditDate="2016-07-18T02:31:39.033" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T02:31:39.033" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14077" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11505" CreationDate="2016-07-14T08:02:32.483" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Was Draupadi's insult the only and main reason for it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. That is not the only reason. There were many reasons. Among them are:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The hatred of Kauravas towards Pandavas since childhood.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The difference of opinion as to who should be the successor to the throne.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The intolerance of Kauravas about the prosperity of Pandavas at Indrprastha.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The deceptive dice game.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Duryodhana's greed.&#xA;.... And so on and so forth&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7129" LastEditorUserId="3872" LastEditDate="2016-08-12T10:21:57.537" LastActivityDate="2016-08-12T10:21:57.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14078" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10848" CreationDate="2016-07-14T08:06:23.143" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is strangled to death, as a sacrificial animal in the yaga ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shatapatha Brahmana describes in great detail the Vedic rituals regarding; the preparation of altars, ceremonial objects, ritual recitations, and the Soma libation, along with the symbolic attributes of every aspect of the rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are the excerpts of the ritual of the 'Ashvamedha', as described in the Shatapatha Brahmana. [Here only those sections that relate to the original posters's question have been given].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let me present a brief reason as given by the scriptures as to why the ritual of the 'Ashvamedha' is carried out.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44079.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana/Thirteenth Kanda/13:1:6:3&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verily, the Asvamedha means royal sway: it is after royal sway that these strive who guard the horse. Those of them who reach the end become the royal sway, but those who do not reach the end are cut off from royal sway. Wherefore let him who holds royal sway perform the horse-sacrifice; for, verily, whosoever performs the horse-sacrifice, without possessing power, is poured (swept) away.--Now, were unfriendly, men to get hold of the horse, his sacrifice would be cut in twain, and he would become the poorer for it. A hundred men clad in armour guard it for the continuity and uninterrupted performance of the sacrifice; and he will not become the poorer for it; (but if it be lost) they should fetch another (horse), and sprinkle it: this is the expiation in that case.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;The steps of the ritual of 'Ashvamedha' :&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44084.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana/Thirteenth Kanda/13:2:2:2&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A horse, a hornless he-goat, and a Gomriga 4' these they bind to the central stake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana/Thirteenth Kanda/13:2:2:3 to 13:2:2:12:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And further several other animals are also bound.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read 13:2:2:3 to 13:2:2:12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana/Thirteenth Kanda/13:2:2:13:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let him rather bind seventeen animals to the central stake; for seventeenfold is Pragâpati, and the Asvamedha is Pragâpati,--thus for the obtainment of the Asvamedha. And sixteen (victims he binds) to each of the other (stakes), for of sixteen parts (kalâ) consists all this (universe); all this (universe) he thus gains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44089.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana/Thirteenth Kanda/13:2:7:1&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the victims have been bound (to the stakes), the Adhvaryu takes the sprinkling-water in order to sprinkle the horse. Whilst the Sacrificer holds on to him behind, he (in sprinkling the horse) runs rapidly through the formula used at the Soma-sacrifice, and then commences the one for the Asvamedha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44089.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana/Thirteenth Kanda/13:2:7:11 to 13:2:7:15&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From 13:2:7:11 to 13:2:7:15; these hymns describe that by the sacrifice, the horse does not die but it goes to the gods. Even Agni, Vayu and Sun were animals and they were sacrificed and now they rule world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;The following are the sections that describe the strangling of the horse:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana/Thirteenth Kanda/13:2:8:1&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the gods, when going upwards, did not know (the way to) the heavenly world, but the horse knew it: when they go upwards with the horse, it is in order to know (the way to) the heavenly world. 'A cloth, an upper cloth, and gold,' this is what they spread out for the horse: thereon they quiet (slay) it, as (is done) for no other victim; and thus they separate it from the other victims.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana/Thirteenth Kanda/13:2:8:2&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When they quiet a victim they kill it. Whilst it is being quieted, he (the Adhvaryu) offers (three) oblations, with (Vâg. S. XXIII, 18), 'To the breath hail! to the off-breathing hail! to the through-breathing hail!' he thereby lays the vital airs into it, and thus offering is made by him with this victim as a living one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;The following section describes the slaughtering of the horse.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44084.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana/Thirteenth Kanda/13:2:2:16&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The slaughtering-knife of the horse is made of gold, those of the paryaṅgyas' of copper, and those of the others of iron; for gold is (shining) light, and the Asvamedha is the royal office: he thus bestows light upon the royal office. And by means of the golden light (or, by the light of the gold), the Sacrificer also goes to the heavenly world; and he, moreover, makes it a gleam of light shining after him, for him to reach the heavenly world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana/Thirteenth Kanda/13:2:2:19:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as to why there are iron ones for the others,--the other animals, indeed, are the peasantry, and this--to wit, iron--is a form of the peasantry: he thus combines the peasantry with the peasantry. On a rattan mat (lying) north (of the Âhavanîya) they cut the portions of the horse(-flesh); for the horse is of anushtubh nature, and related to the Anushtubh is that (northern) quarter: he thus places that (horse) in its own quarter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana/Thirteenth Kanda/13:3:4:1&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verily, the horse is slaughtered for all the deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7129" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-02-22T15:54:03.407" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14079" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14085" CreationDate="2016-07-14T09:26:56.127" Score="0" ViewCount="1164" Body="&lt;p&gt;In India, a land of Hindus, cows are worshiped across the nation. Any significance of it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-07-14T11:31:53.883" Title="What is the significance of cows in Hinduism?" Tags="|krishna|scripture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-07-14T12:29:36.050" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14080" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14079" CreationDate="2016-07-14T09:26:56.127" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Cows are the only animals that gives milk to humanity. As a baby takes birth only a mother can feed it. Comparing this two, we can say cow is mother who is sacrificing milk which is prerogative of its own child for humanity.Many medicines are made from the urine of cows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a verse&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gavo me vyagrato santu gavo me santu prushtata, gavo me hridaye santu gavam madhye vasamyaham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Lord Krishna says cows contain all deities in them and in the heart of cow saintly properties reside. Lord Krishna narrates himself as he is Kamdhenu among cows in Goloka.(Land of cows) who fulfills every desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus cows are considered very important and pious animal when Goddess Gayatri became cow and stood behind Lord Dattatreya and in the same fashion she supported Lord Krishna too. This is the reason why cows are there in the pictures of Lord Dattatreya and Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Umiyamata, incarnation of Mother Parvati also has cow as her vehicle. Following cows are placid and calm, they are also great virtuous donors. As per astrology feeding cow is considered virtuous acts that removes any kind of trouble. Pacifying cows also gives peace in life. Therefore, cow is worshiped as a mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-07-14T09:26:56.127" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14081" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12160" CreationDate="2016-07-14T09:48:44.020" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The statement by Wendy Donniger &quot;The Bhagvat Gita is not a nice book ......&quot; is height of academic dishonesty. She is deliberately creating confusion between Maha Bharat and Bhagvat Gita. Bhagvat Gita is only a chapter of Maha Bharat. It contains sermons by Shri Krishna to Arjun. Bhagvat Gita contains spiritual truths only. Bhagvat Gita does not glorify war. In Bhagvat Gita Shri Krishna says to Arjun you should fight for the truth as your duty without any fear because you are Atman that does not get destroyed. After that Shri Krishna explains to Arjun what Atman is and how does it relate to Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7139" LastActivityDate="2016-07-14T09:48:44.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14085" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14079" CreationDate="2016-07-14T11:31:53.883" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गाव: स्वर्गस्य सोपानं गाव: स्वर्गेपी पूजितः । गाव: कामदुहो&#xA;  देव्यो:नांन्यत किंचित परं स्मृतं ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Cows are the path to heaven, they are worshipable even in heaven. Cows&#xA;  grant a desirable objects, therefore there is nothing superior to the&#xA;  cows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(गाव:) = cow&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्म सूर्यसमं ज्योतिर्ध्य: समुद्र: समं सर:।&#xA;   इंद्र: पृथीव्य:वर्षीययाँ गोस्तु मात्रा न विद्यते ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma Vidya, (ब्रह्म विद्या) which grants supreme bliss is compared&#xA;  to the Sun.Earth to Indra  deva but the cow, which does unlimited&#xA;  welfare to hunamy, cannot be compared to anything cow is without any&#xA;  comparison. Indeed there is no other being like a cow, which does&#xA;  welfare to human beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yajurved (यजुर्वेद) 23.48&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रजावतीः सुयवसे रुशन्तीः शुध्द अपः सुप्रपाणे पिबन्तीः। मा वस्तेन ईशत&#xA;  माघशंसः परि वो रुद्रस्य हेतिर्वृणक्तु।। &#xA;                 (अथर्व.-7.75.1)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Athervaveda (अथर्ववेद)  there are verses which states that the cow&#xA;  are be protected and. It is considered a sin to kill a cow&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Hinduism We Respect, Honour and Adore the cow and Calf .&#xA;In Hinduism or Sanatan Dharma (सनातन धर्म) We see Cow as a Godess and as Mother (माँ). Therefore, the cow is considered a sacred animal&lt;/strong&gt;, as she sustains us and our babies , elderly people etc with her  milk. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since from ages Cow dung is  used as fuel in our houses as it is high in methane, and can generate heat and electricity.  Village houses are plastered with a mud/cow dung mixture, which insulates the walls and floors from extreme hot and cold temperatures. &#xA;dung is also rich in minerals, and makes an excellent fertilize in our farms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;surabhi cow (सुरभि गाय)&lt;/strong&gt; descended from the spiritual worlds and manifested herself in the heavenly spheres from the aroma of celestial nectar for the benefit of all created beings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So cow is the most Holy Animal in Sanatan Dharma (सनातन धर्म)  Or Hinduism ,  She contains all 33 Crore Gods in her.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-07-14T11:31:53.883" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14087" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14090" CreationDate="2016-07-14T12:30:04.003" Score="5" ViewCount="1448" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13900/the-story-behind-names-of-hindu-calender-months&quot;&gt;The story behind Names of Hindu calender Months?&lt;/a&gt; describes the popular name of Hindu months. These are as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_calendar#Month_names&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;follows&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chaitra, Vaiśākha, Jyeṣṭha, Āṣāḍha, Śrāvaṇa, Bhādrapada, Ashvin, Kārtika, Agrahāyaṇa (Mārgaśīrṣa), Pauṣa, Māgha, Phālguna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These months are related to Moon-god and may be called as Lunar Months. Now I am looking for the name of Hindu Solar Months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, does Hindu Solar Months exist? If yes, which scripture describe of the name of months related to Sun-god? And are those name of months related to twelve Adityas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T11:07:28.873" Title="What are the name of Hindu months based on Sun-god?" Tags="|scripture|bhagavata-purana|surya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14088" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-14T13:06:11.173" Score="3" ViewCount="171" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read somewhere that Arjuna became depressed in the test by lord Hanuman and he got some lessons from the lord. What is the story from the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-19T10:24:30.337" LastActivityDate="2018-09-19T10:24:30.337" Title="What is the story of Arjuna becoming depressed when lord Hanuman tested him?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|hanuman|arjuna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14089" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-14T15:30:37.200" Score="0" ViewCount="238" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the sangalpam for Dhakyanam in USA for July 15, 2016?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7142" LastActivityDate="2016-08-20T22:33:38.343" Title="Sangalpam for Dhakshyanam in USA?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14090" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14087" CreationDate="2016-07-14T15:59:18.230" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The months related to Sun-god are described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam, Twelfth canto, chapter 11&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All twelve months are related to twelve Adityas as described in Bhagvatam by Sri Sūta Gosvāmī to Śrī Śaunaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.33 — My dear sage, Dhātā as the sun-god, Kṛtasthalī as the Apsarā, Heti as the Rākṣasa, Vāsuki as the Nāga, Rathakṛt as the Yakṣa, Pulastya as the sage and Tumburu as the Gandharva rule the &lt;strong&gt;month of Madhu&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.34 — Aryamā as the sun-god, Pulaha as the sage, Athaujā as the Yakṣa, Praheti as the Rākṣasa, Puñjikasthalī as the Apsarā, Nārada as the Gandharva and Kacchanīra as the Nāga rule the &lt;strong&gt;month of Mādhava&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.35 — Mitra as the sun-god, Atri as the sage, Pauruṣeya as the Rākṣasa, Takṣaka as the Nāga, Menakā as the Apsarā, Hāhā as the Gandharva and Rathasvana as the Yakṣa rule the &lt;strong&gt;month of Śukra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.36 — Vasiṣṭha as the sage, Varuṇa as the sun-god, Rambhā as the Apsarā, Sahajanya as the Rākṣasa, Hūhū as the Gandharva, Śukra as the Nāga and Citrasvana as the Yakṣa rule the &lt;strong&gt;month of Śuci&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.37 — Indra as the sun-god, Viśvāvasu as the Gandharva, Śrotā as the Yakṣa, Elāpatra as the Nāga, Aṅgirā as the sage, Pramlocā as the Apsarā and Varya as the Rākṣasa rule the &lt;strong&gt;month of Nabhas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.38 — Vivasvān as the sun-god, Ugrasena as the Gandharva, Vyāghra as the Rākṣasa, Āsāraṇa as the Yakṣa, Bhṛgu as the sage, Anumlocā as the Apsarā and Śaṅkhapāla as the Nāga rule the &lt;strong&gt;month of Nabhasya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.39 — Pūṣā as the sun-god, Dhanañjaya as the Nāga, Vāta as the Rākṣasa, Suṣeṇa as the Gandharva, Suruci as the Yakṣa, Ghṛtācī as the Apsarā and Gautama as the sage rule the &lt;strong&gt;month of Tapas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.40 — Ṛtu as the Yakṣa, Varcā as the Rākṣasa, Bharadvāja as the sage, Parjanya as the sun-god, Senajit as the Apsarā, Viśva as the Gandharva and Airāvata as the Nāga rule the &lt;strong&gt;month known as Tapasya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.41 — Aṁśu as the sun-god, Kaśyapa as the sage, Tārkṣya as the Yakṣa, Ṛtasena as the Gandharva, Urvaśī as the Apsarā, Vidyucchatru as the Rākṣasa and Mahāśaṅkha as the Nāga rule the &lt;strong&gt;month of Sahas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.42 — Bhaga as the sun-god, Sphūrja as the Rākṣasa, Ariṣṭanemi as the Gandharva, Ūrṇa as the Yakṣa, Āyur as the sage, Karkoṭaka as the Nāga and Pūrvacitti as the Apsarā rule the &lt;strong&gt;month of Puṣya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.43 — Tvaṣṭā as the sun-god; Jamadagni, the son of Ṛcīka, as the sage; Kambalāśva as the Nāga; Tilottamā as the Apsarā; Brahmāpeta as the Rākṣasa; Śatajit as the Yakṣa; and Dhṛtarāṣṭra as the Gandharva maintain the &lt;strong&gt;month of Iṣa&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.44 — Viṣṇu as the sun-god, Aśvatara as the Nāga, Rambhā as the Apsarā, Sūryavarcā as the Gandharva, Satyajit as the Yakṣa, Viśvāmitra as the sage and Makhāpeta as the Rākṣasa rule the &lt;strong&gt;month of Ūrja&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T11:07:28.873" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14091" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14005" CreationDate="2016-07-14T16:44:51.027" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no different context &amp;amp; no contradiction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) 2.45 says &lt;strong&gt;don't you care&lt;/strong&gt; for yogkshema while being aatmavaan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) 9.22 says &lt;strong&gt;I take care&lt;/strong&gt; of it for you. If you are fixated in me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7143" LastActivityDate="2016-07-14T16:44:51.027" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14092" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4010" CreationDate="2016-07-14T18:07:54.753" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;1) &lt;strong&gt;DAITYAS&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;(दैत्य)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daityas are race of demons and Giants Living in Sutala&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;(सुताल)&lt;/strong&gt; one of the 14 lokas.&#xA; they were greatly devoted to their deities followed Vedic rituals, undertook severe penance, and offered incredible offerings to Deties. &lt;strong&gt;Hiranyakashipu,&lt;br&gt;&#xA; Sishupala, Virochana and Bali were some renowned daityas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daityas often Raise a war against the Devas and Distrubed their religious ceremonies. They often winning and the gods had to ask divine dispensation&#xA; to get back power.&lt;/strong&gt; The daityas cooperated with the gods in &lt;strong&gt;churning the ocean&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;(समुद्र मंथन)&lt;/strong&gt; to obtain the nectar from it, but the gods did not wish to share it with them. &lt;strong&gt;Rahu and Ketu&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;(राहु-केतु)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daityas showed resistance to spiritual forces,&lt;/strong&gt;  That way they show the opposing force required to &#xA; maintain natural equilibrium and harmony.  (Daityas are opposite to gods ). &#xA; Daityas are demons in an adverse sense they are identical with  asuras,&#xA; They are antagonizing, blind forces in nature, expressed as reaction, opposition, and same as evil for some people they are good  and bad  for others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Danavas&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;(दानव)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kashyapa is the forefather of Asuras  Kashyapa's children born of Diti are called daityas. His children born of another wife Danu are Danavas.&#xA; &lt;strong&gt;Collectively, Daityas and Danavas are called Asuras.&lt;/strong&gt; They are half bothers of devas Some of the famous asuras are &lt;strong&gt;Bali, Banasura,&#xA; Shambarasura, and Mahishasura.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Rakshsas&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;(राक्षस)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to leagend.. -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During creation, once Brahma felt very hungry and angry. From his anger originated two rakshasas called Heti and Praheti.&#xA; They were very cruel and evil minded. They killed and ate lot many brahmins and cows. Heti married Bhaya, the daughter of&#xA; Kala. A son called Vidyutkesa was born to them. His wife was Salakantaka. They abandoned a child born to them in the Himalayas &#xA; who received the blessings of Shiva and Parvathy. This child was named Sukesha. He married the daughter of a gandharva called Devavati.&#xA; They had three sons- Malyavan, Sumali and Mali. Through severe austerities they received the blessings of Brahma and became indefeatable.&#xA; Thus they became very arrogant and cruel.They made Lanka their capital.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Rakshasas multiplied in thousands&lt;/strong&gt; -. e.g Ravana,&#xA; Vibhishana, Kumbhakarna and Shurpanakha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sources- Various sources &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryabhatt.com/astrology%20book/astrologyD.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.aryabhatt.com/astrology%20book/astrologyD.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-14T19:03:36.577" LastActivityDate="2016-07-14T19:03:36.577" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14093" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-14T19:01:12.840" Score="6" ViewCount="787" Body="&lt;p&gt;We mostly hear about notorious and very diverse nature of Shri Krishna, personally I have never herd about the nature of Shri Rama in his various phases of life and the amount of knowledge he posses (in case of krishna his wisdom is well propagated as Shrimad Bhagwad Gita). Krishna had a body made out of full sattva and because of that his body never aged beyond 25 years so he was like gods who do not age. What about lord Rama? People also talk about the Thunderous characteristic voice of Shriman Narayanas purna avatars did Rama had such voice and what is the reason of having such deep voice? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2016-09-19T10:32:23.013" Title="How was the nature of rama in all phases of his life?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14096" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14093" CreationDate="2016-07-15T04:35:09.813" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Valmiki and Narada talk about SriRama's 16 qualities in the very first shlokas of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga1/bala_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;guna-vaan  &#xA;virya-vaan  &#xA;dharma-gnya  &#xA;kruta-gnya  &#xA;satya-vaakya  &#xA;drida-vrata  &#xA;chaaritrena-yukta  &#xA;sarvabhuteshu-hita  &#xA;vidvaan  &#xA;samartha  &#xA;eka-priya-darshana  &#xA;aatma-vaan  &#xA;jita-krodha  &#xA;dyuti-maan  &#xA;anasuyaka  &#xA;bibhyati-deva&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the many phases of his life, each of these qualities was shown in practice by Maryada Purushottam Ram. You may like to listen to Ramayana upanyasam from satvik gurus to learn when and where he displayed them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since both Rama &amp;amp; Krishna are just different avataras of the same MahaVishnu, their physical bodies are shudda-satva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2016-07-15T04:35:09.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14097" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14089" CreationDate="2016-07-15T04:40:06.873" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ranganatha.org&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://ranganatha.org&lt;/a&gt; has a 2016 calendar pdf.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;instead of&#xA;jambu-dveepe, bharatha-varshe, bharatha-khande, say:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;krouncha-dveepe, ramanaka-varshe, gotheertha-khande&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;other maasa,nakshatra,tithi,vaar etc. can be seen from calendar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://prapatti.com/slokas/sanskrit/upaakarma.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2016-07-21T22:01:35.920" LastActivityDate="2016-07-21T22:01:35.920" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14098" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12128" CreationDate="2016-07-15T04:52:18.610" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer briefly, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devdutt Pattanaik is a student of Wendy Doniger, that makes him a recipient and a promoter of Wendy's School of Eotic Hinduism. Wendy Doniger has written a lot of books on the erotic misrepresentation of Hinduism and its symbols, Devadasis etc, so I wouldnt be surprised if Devdutt Pattaniak doesnt agree with her misrepresentation and blatant racism against Hindu Symbols and Gods and Goddesses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly Devdutt Pattanaik is an ardent follower of Wendy Doniger even when in her bad days of getting her book removed from the Indian Bookstores. I havent had seen a single criticism of Devdutt for Wendy's works. That makes him a culprit by association.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thirdly, there is an article on his website on Tantra: &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/secret-of-tantra.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/secret-of-tantra.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I will give you a few excerpts of the article  &quot;Around the 6th century AD, when the first Tantras appeared, India was getting impatient with the monastic ideologies of Buddism and Jainism, which a thousand years earlier had emerged as a powerful alternative to hollow Vedic ritualism. But Buddhist detachment and Jain austerity demanded too much discipline. More and more people turned to the solitary sorcerer-sages such as siddhas who for centuries had wandered the countryside displaying the power to channel cosmic forces at will.&lt;/em&gt;&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So basically he means that Tantra was a vedic response to Buddhism and Jainism and that the Vedic religion was hollow and had only rituals. Tantra was lucrative and easy to do since it lacked the austerities of Buddhist self discipline (another way of saying is that Hindu Brahmins made tantra easy to follow and it was good because it was infused with sex and spirituality.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;They included blood sacrifice (mamsa), offerings of alcohol (madya) and sexual union (maithuna)A person of any caste could follow the rituals, provided he had been found suitable and initiated by a guru. The sex clearly broke all rules of civilized conduct – the sexual partner could not be one’s wife, a member of the lower castes was preferred.  Some scriptures even recommended incest. And there were a few that even suggested use of a dead body. Sex did not take place in the house. It took place either in a shrine or the crematorium, often under the supervision of the guru, after various rites of purification, consumption of hallucinogenic agents and invocation of fearsome deities visualized as violent and sexual beings.&lt;/em&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So tantra broke all rules and regulations, all austerities needed to live a Dharmic life, there was no caste barrier, incest was permitted, sex with other women and low caste women was permitted, they could consume all kinds of intoxicants and the best part is that they would be legitimized by a Guru. The next part is a masterstroke:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Tantra is full of powerful and autonomous and fearsome goddesses such as the Mahvidyas and Yoginis who are quite unlike their docile counterparts in mainstream religions. However, the texts and rituals are always prescribed for men, not women. The sadhaka and the siddha are always men. The woman who is part of the ritual is merely an instrument, an extremely critical instrument, to achieve the goal. Like semen, menstrual blood, was believed to have magical powers. However, unlike semen, menstrual blood was not under voluntary control, making women inferior beings. The sadhaka used copulation to use the power of the menstrual blood to help him ‘reverse’ the flow of his semen&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So basically he says that the Yoginis were powerful and wild creatures but they were just objects of sexual gratification for the men who i think he has presumed to be docile creatures when compared to their female counterparts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This following statement is another Gem of Devdutt's Vocabulary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Tantra seems to force every individual to acknowledge the reality of Nature that culture tries to suppress, repress, deny and reject through legal, ethical and moral systems. It forces us to confront the dark secrets we shove into our subconscious: that life is impersonal, life feeds on life, that society bridles natural impulses of sex and violence for the sake of order. Beneath the values, standards, prejudices and judgements, there is the world of infinite possibilities, and probabilities, a magical world – sexual or otherwise – that is accessible to anyone provided one is willing to risk the security and the comfort of the given.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7149" LastActivityDate="2016-07-15T04:52:18.610" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14099" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-15T04:57:34.250" Score="3" ViewCount="152" Body="&lt;p&gt;A background:&#xA;We have seen a lot of prominent Hindu Leaders, spiritual and Socio-political alike answering the question: that all the religions are the same. I have yet to see this answer when asked to an Islamic or a Christian Clergy.So, Are all religions the same or is just Hinduism engulfed in the myth of Sameness of all religions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7149" LastActivityDate="2016-07-16T08:02:22.923" Title="Are all religions the same or is just Hinduism engulfed in the myth of Sameness of all religions?" Tags="|history|guru|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14101" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14111" CreationDate="2016-07-15T06:58:51.163" Score="3" ViewCount="535" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is story of Lord Brahma's Palace &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Aparajita&quot; (अपराजिता)&lt;/strong&gt;? Which is according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=dOgQqfkhTAYC&amp;amp;pg=PT195&amp;amp;lpg=PT195&amp;amp;dq=bhramas%20palace%20aparajita&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=7lAlEW9ryo&amp;amp;sig=0nDbejDnWBsGPMXajLAkvS1M9io&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiPgaKRsvXNAhUMOI8KHV9ACW0Q6AEIIzAC#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=bhramas%20palace%20aparajita&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; book , is located in his world and   mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Kausitaki Upanishada&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-15T11:52:06.377" LastActivityDate="2016-07-15T13:35:05.507" Title="Story of Lord Brahmas Palace &quot; Aparajita&quot;?" Tags="|brahma|upanishads|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14103" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-15T09:42:47.870" Score="1" ViewCount="97" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nowadays Pithru Karya is not being performed with proper religious injunctions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What will happen if:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;one does not perform the Pithru Karya at all or &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;on the other hand if performed by a Purohit who's telling the mantras fast and the doer cannot follow them and utters them incorrectly.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What will be the retro effect for both (person and priest) in these circumstances?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-23T17:02:43.890" LastActivityDate="2018-01-14T10:54:49.270" Title="Pithru karya and modern purohits" Tags="|scripture|rituals|pitru|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2018-01-14T10:54:11.490" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14109" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-15T11:18:27.100" Score="4" ViewCount="570" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was told by a person that the last 2 pradakshinams to be done anti clockwise for rahu and kethu. But one other kurukkal said that you do all the nine in clockwise only. &#xA;Which to be followed? kindly give the reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7154" LastEditDate="2016-07-19T11:23:16.177" LastActivityDate="2022-03-18T09:05:05.573" Title="Pradikshinam of navagraha" Tags="|practice|navagraha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14110" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14112" CreationDate="2016-07-15T11:56:20.190" Score="6" ViewCount="427" Body="&lt;p&gt;Today 15-July-2016, As per Hindu calendar, the day is being celebrated as Dev-Shayani Ekadashi or देवशयनी एकादशी.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that this is &lt;strong&gt;different&lt;/strong&gt; from the usual &lt;strong&gt;Ekadashi&lt;/strong&gt; which is discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7653/what-is-the-importance-of-ekadashi&quot;&gt;this post&lt;/a&gt; on Hinduism.SE &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shayani_Ekadashi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;, On this day images of Vishnu and Lakshmi are worshipped, the entire night is spent singing prayers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that Vishnu falls asleep in Ksheersagar - cosmic ocean of milk - on Shesha nāga, the cosmic serpent. That is why the day is also called Dev-Shayani Ekadashi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu finally awakens from his slumber &lt;strong&gt;four months&lt;/strong&gt; later on &lt;strong&gt;Prabodhini&lt;/strong&gt; Ekadashi. And this 4-month period is also called as Chaturmas (meaning &quot;four months&quot;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Question is&lt;/strong&gt; : Are there any Hindu scriptures which mentions about this day when Vishnu falls asleep in Ksheersagar for the duration of 4-Months?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T12:08:48.097" Title="Devshayani or Harishayani or Toli Ekadashi : Is there a Scriptural references?" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|belief|practice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14111" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14101" CreationDate="2016-07-15T13:24:21.690" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kausitaki Upanishad describe the Palace Aparajita in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01239.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He (at the time of death), having reached the path of the gods, comes to the world of Agni (fire), to the world of Vâyu (air), to the world of Varuna, to the world of Indra, to the world of Pragâpati (Virâg), to the world of &lt;strong&gt;Brahman (Hiranyagarbha)&lt;/strong&gt;. In that world there is the lake Âra, the moments called Yeshtiha, the river Vigarâ (age-less), the tree Ilya 5, the city Sâlagya, the palace &lt;strong&gt;Aparâgita&lt;/strong&gt; (unconquerable), the door-keepers Indra and Pragâpati, the hall of Brahman, called Vibhu (built by vibhu, egoism), the throne Vikakshanâ (buddhi, perception), the couch Amitaugas (endless splendour), and the beloved Mânasî (mind) and her image Kâkshushî (eye), who, as if taking flowers, are weaving the worlds, and the Apsaras, the Ambâs (sruti, sacred scriptures), and Ambâyavîs (buddhi, understanding), and the rivers Ambayâs (leading to the knowledge of Brahman). To this world he who knows this (who knows the Paryaṅka-vidyâ) approaches. Brahman says to him: 'Run towards him (servants) with such worship as is due to myself. He has reached the river Vigarâ (age-less), he will never age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He approaches the tree Ilya, and the odour of Brahman reaches him. He approaches the city Sâlagya, and the flavour of Brahman reaches him. He approaches the palace Aparâgita, and the splendour of Brahman reaches him. He approaches the door-keepers Indra and Pragâpati, and they run away from him. He approaches the hall Vibhu, and the glory of Brahman reaches him (he thinks, I am Brahman). He approaches the throne Vikakshanâ. The Sâman verses, Brihad and Rathantara, are the eastern feet of that throne; the Sâman verses, Syaita and Naudhasa, its western feet; the Sâman verses, Vairûpa and Vairâga, its sides lengthways (south and north); the Sâman verses, Sâkvara and Raivata, its sides crossways (east and west). That throne is Pragñâ, knowledge, for by knowledge (self-knowledge) he sees clearly. He approaches the couch Amitaugas. That is Prâna (speech). The past and the future are its eastern feet; prosperity and earth its western feet; the Sâman verses, Brihad and Rathantara, are the two sides lengthways of the couch (south and north);the Sâman verses, Bhadra and Yagñâyagñîya, are its cross-sides at the head and feet (east and west); the Rik and Sâman are the long sheets (east and west); the Yagus the cross-sheets (south and north); the moon-beam the cushion; the Udgîtha the (white) coverlet; prosperity the pillow. On this couch sits Brahman, and he who knows this (who knows himself one with Brahman sitting on the couch) mounts it first with one foot only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-15T13:35:05.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14112" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14110" CreationDate="2016-07-15T15:27:46.883" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Devashayani Ekadashi is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/qECb&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Puroshotthama Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana.  It says that on Ashadhi, i.e. the Shukla Paksha Ekadashi of the month of Ashadhi, Vishnu goes to sleep for a four-month period, and that during this period Vishnu is not present in any sacred places on Earth other than in Puroshotthama Kshetra, the site of the Puri Jagannath temple:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Henceforth I shall describe the excellent festival of (the Deity's) going to bed.  With Ashadhi as the starting point, Hari's sleep covers the four months of the rainy season from Ashadhi (eleventh day in the bright half of Ashadhi) when the sun goes to the Zodiac of Cancer to Kartikki (eleventh day of the bright half of Kartikka).  This is the most meritorious period for the propitiation of Hari.... The Lord remains asleep on the couch of the serpent's (Sesha's) body during these four months. The Sire of the universe is not present then in any of the other sacred places.  But he stays here [Puroshotthama Kshetra] visibly as though in his abode of Vaikuntha.  During all the twelve months the Lord is in his embodied form here.  If he is seen with one's eye especially during these four months, he is the bestower of salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It then describes the Chaturmasya Vrata, a vow that one can undertake during the four months of Vishnu's sleep.  The Chaturmasya Vrata is also described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/P-Td&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Achara Kanda of the Garuda Purana, although it doesn't mention that the reason for the Vrata is Vishnu's sleep during this period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-08-17T16:58:43.023" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T16:58:43.023" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14114" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14123" CreationDate="2016-07-15T18:05:04.417" Score="10" ViewCount="2639" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Chapter 33 of book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Autobiography-Yogi-Paramahansa-Yogananda/dp/0876120796&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Autobiography of a Yogi&lt;/a&gt;, Yogananda says that &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Babaji&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is Mahaavatar (great incarnation). Sri Mahavatar Babaji is believed to be avatar of Shiva who is still teaching Kriya Yoga to people of Kali Yuga in Himalayas. In the book &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.amazon.in/Apprenticed-Himalayan-Master-Yogis-Autobiography-ebook/dp/B007F2I3F0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master &lt;/a&gt;, Sri M mentions &lt;em&gt;Sri Guru Babaji changing his form to &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavatar_Babaji&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yoganada explains the difference between Jivanmukta and Paramukta in his books as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Upanishads have minutely classified every stage of spiritual&#xA;  advancement. A siddha (&quot;perfected being&quot;) has progressed from the&#xA;  state of a &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;jivanmukta&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (&quot;freed while living&quot;) to that of a &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;paramukta&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  (&quot;supremely free&quot;-full power over death); the latter has completely&#xA;  escaped from the mayic thralldom and its reincarnational round. &lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;  paramukta therefore seldom returns to a physical body; if he does, he&#xA;  is an avatar, a divinely appointed medium of supernal blessings on the&#xA;  world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An avatar is unsubject to the universal economy; his pure body,&#xA;  visible as a light image, is free from any debtto nature. The casual&#xA;  gaze may see nothing extraordinary in an avatar's form but it casts no&#xA;  shadow nor makes any footprint on the ground. These are outward&#xA;  symbolic proofs of an inward lack of darkness and material bondage.&#xA;  Such a God-man alone knows the Truth behind the relativities of life&#xA;  and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is not Babaji but about difference between Jivanmukta and Paramukta. According to Advaita, in reality Atman is Brahman and due to Maya Atman doesn't know its true nature. Jivan mukta is someone who got realization while living in this Maya. He still lives in this Maya but doesn't feel it or perceive it. Yogananda says Paramukta is pure light and manifests as physical body (called as Avatar) at its will. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does that mean when Jivanmukta leaves his physical body, he becomes Paramukta?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is generally said, Lord Vishnu, the preserver takes Avatar but according to Advaita, World with Saguna forms of God (Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra) disappear when we realize. Who really takes avatar according to Advaita? Nirguna Brahman or Saguna Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please answer these questions only from view of Adishankaracharya Advaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T14:47:06.973" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T14:47:06.973" Title="How does Adishankaracharya Advaita explain concept of Avatar?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|avatars|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14115" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10057" CreationDate="2016-07-15T19:32:42.937" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mahabharatha gives a quantitative description  of the number of army contingents &lt;em&gt;(Akshauhnees)&lt;/em&gt;, their individual strengths, commander's rank for which strength of army &lt;em&gt;(Athiradha, Maharatha etc)&lt;/em&gt; etc.When bridge to Lanka was made there was numerical estimate of number of days it would take to build the bridge and number of  &lt;em&gt;Vanaras&lt;/em&gt;  needed to execute the work. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also precise measurement of time. Every event was recorded with moon/sun calender   which is unthinkable without a sufficiently satisfactory numbering &lt;em&gt;vyavaharic&lt;/em&gt; system. Aryabhata just put in place a system on a sound scientific basis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Needless to say even today we compute time for the marriages etc.as per ancient practices. Muhoortham time fixing practice would not have survived &lt;em&gt;to this day&lt;/em&gt; if it had no evidenced/confirmed benefits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-04-18T09:38:08.033" LastActivityDate="2017-04-18T09:38:08.033" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14116" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14180" CreationDate="2016-07-15T20:28:26.267" Score="3" ViewCount="3066" Body="&lt;p&gt;If I am correctly informed, even in Satya loka one continues to exist as an independent being. Is somewhere described if and how is one able to leave individual existence behind and completely merge with the absolute?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have also heard that Kṛṣṇa and Kālikā śaktī may help shed more light on this, but I couldn't find any related information.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7161" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T11:43:10.767" Title="Beyond Satya loka ie. the end to separate existence?" Tags="|krishna|lokas|shakti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14117" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-15T20:55:52.597" Score="4" ViewCount="7121" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Mandan Mishra was defeated by Shankaracharya, then UbhayaBbharti asked questions about grihastha ashram and about science of sex. Then shankaracharya had to go into body of a king, to be able to answer those questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So exactly what were those questions asked by Bharti?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7162" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-07-22T15:21:54.567" LastActivityDate="2016-07-22T15:21:54.567" Title="What exact questions were asked to Shankaracharya by Mandan mishra's wife ubhaya bharti?" Tags="|history|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14118" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14117" CreationDate="2016-07-16T01:06:25.087" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ubhaya Bharati's questions are given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Wb5K&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Madhaviya Shankara Digvijaya, the traditional biography of Adi Shankaracharya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Discuss with me the science and the art of love between the sexes (Kusumastra sastram).  Enumerate its forms and expressions.  What is its nature and what are its centres?  How does it vary in the sexes during the bright and dark fortnights?  What are its manifestations in man and woman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Adi Shankaracharya never actually answered these questions.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/UA-u&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This later excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Madhaviya Shankara Digvijaya says that when Adi Shankaracharya comes back for the debate, Ubhaya Bharati, who is considered by Advaitins to be an incarnation of Saraswati, leaves this world and goes to Brahmaloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if for some reason you still want Adi Shankaracharya's insights on this subject, &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/m71n&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Madhaviya Shankara Digvijaya relates that while Adi Shankaracharya inhabits the body of the king Amaruka, he composes a work on Kama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Besides, he studies during this time the Sutras that the sage Vatsayana had made on this subject together with all the commentaries on the same, and had also produced a new work of great profundity on the theme, bearing the name of Amaruka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That work is the Amaru Shatakam, and you can read it &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/amarushataka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Some Advaitins claim that in this work Adi Shankaracharya merely used the language of Kama to convey the ideas of Advaita.  Personally, I'm not a follower of Adi Shankaracharya so I'm skeptical of this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2016-07-16T01:06:25.087" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14120" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14117" CreationDate="2016-07-16T06:41:33.540" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There have been several different digvijayas of Adi Sankara. Swami Tapasyananda goes into very lengthy scholarly discussion of the different ones as well as the history behind the one of the most accepted ones known as the Madhviya-sankara-vijaya in his Introduction to his translation of this work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The discussion and points are lengthy. Since your question asks only about the 'supposed' argument between Sankara and Bharti, I will only address that as there are many problems and divergent views that are addressed in the Introduction. Swami Tapasyananda writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...The Editors of the 1868 edition, Navadweep Goswami and Jayanarayana Tarkapanchanana, have stated in their Preface that 'their edition has been prepared in the light of three texts they could get--one in Nagari letters which was procured with great difficulty, another in Telugu characters procured with equal difficulty; and still another in Bengali alphabets made on the basis of the above texts'. There is no reason why this text should not be given an equal importance as the one edited by Dr. Veezhinathan. According to the text of the Calcutta edition, Anantanandagiri is giving the history, not of 'Adi-Sankara who was born at Kaladi'. but of a Sankaracharya 'who was born immaculately to Visishta of Chidambaram', who continued to live at Chidambaram itself, took Sannyasa there, and who went on Dig-vijaya tours that are entirely different from the routes that Adi-Sankara us supposed to have taken in several of the other Vijayas. This Sankara is very largely concerned with reforming the various cults that prevailed in the country and very little with philosophy. &lt;strong&gt;The controversy with Mandana, which is one of the most glorious episodes in Adi-Sankara's life, finds a casual mention in the form of a synopsis. In this, as also in entering Amaruka's body and in the writing of the Bhashyas, the two Sankaracharyas are mixed up&lt;/strong&gt;...So Anantanandagiri's text cannot be taken as a conclusive proof...It is only one of the traditions supported by some manuscripts. There is every possibility that this Chidambaram Sankaracharya is the Abhinava-Sankara, whom even modern scholars have mistakenly identified with Adi-Sankara and given 788 A.D. as his time. Besides, Anantanandagiri, the author, calls the hero of his work his Parama-guru (his teacher's teacher). This makes the matter all the more confusing. For, no one has recorded that Adi-Sankara or his disciples had a disciple called Anantanandagiri. Anandagiri (quite different from Anantanandagiri) was Sankara's disciple, and the &lt;em&gt;Prachina-Sankara-vijaya&lt;/em&gt; attributed to him (a book quite different from Anantanandagiri's) is not available anywhere now. The point that we want to make out by these critical remarks is that it is not very desirable to take a dogmatic position on such points where no final view is possible with existing information. The best that can be said is that it is one of the the traditions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as a poem, it is a unique and fitting tribute to Adi-Sankara. Whether one accepts all the mythological tales that occur are up to the reader.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-07-16T06:41:33.540" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14121" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14065" CreationDate="2016-07-16T06:51:57.590" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Sage Bhrigu testing the Trinity is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/89&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagvatam 10th Canto, Chapter 89&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once a group of sages were performing yagna on the bank of river Saraswati. Then there a controversy arose that who is supreme among three chief deities. Then sage Bhrigu went to test them and ultimately Lord Vishnu was declared as Supreme by him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.89.3 — To test how well Lord Brahmā was situated in the mode of goodness, Bhṛgu failed to bow down to him or glorify him with prayers. The lord became angry at him, inflamed into fury by his own passion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.89.4 — Though anger toward his son was now rising within his heart, Lord Brahmā was able to subdue it by applying his intelligence, in the same way that fire is extinguished by its own product, water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.89.5 — Bhṛgu then went to Mount Kailāsa. There Lord Śiva stood up and happily came forward to embrace his brother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.89.6-7 — But Bhṛgu refused his embrace, telling him, “You are a deviant heretic.” At this Lord Śiva became angry, and his eyes burned ferociously. He raised his trident and was about to kill Bhṛgu when Goddess Devī fell at his feet and spoke some words to pacify him. Bhṛgu then left that place and went to Vaikuṇṭha, where Lord Janārdana resides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.89.8-9 — There he went up to the Supreme Lord, who was lying with His head on the lap of His consort, Śrī, and kicked Him on the chest. The Lord then rose, along with Goddess Lakṣmī, as a sign of respect. Coming down from His bedstead, that supreme goal of all pure devotees bowed His head to the floor before the sage and told him, ‘Welcome, brāhmaṇa. Please sit in this chair and rest awhile. Kindly forgive us, dear master, for not noticing your arrival.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.89.10-11 — “Please purify Me, My realm and the realms of the universal rulers devoted to Me by giving us the water that has washed your feet. This holy water is indeed what makes all places of pilgrimage sacred. Today, my lord, I have become the exclusive shelter of the goddess of fortune, Lakṣmī; she will consent to reside on My chest because your foot has rid it of sins.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.89.12 — Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Bhṛgu felt satisfied and delighted to hear the solemn words spoken by Lord Vaikuṇṭha. Overwhelmed with devotional ecstasy, he remained silent, his eyes brimming with tears.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.89.13 — O King, Bhṛgu then returned to the sacrificial arena of the wise Vedic authorities and described his entire experience to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-19T16:11:02.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14122" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14099" CreationDate="2016-07-16T08:02:22.923" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedanta is unique among religions as it is founded on principles, not a particular personality. Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V3 pp 249-251, also available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Lectures from Colombo to Almora&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;The Sages of India&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is a peculiarity which we have to understand — that our religion preaches an Impersonal Personal God. It preaches any amount of impersonal laws plus any amount of personality, but the very fountain-head of our religion is in the Shrutis, the Vedas, which are perfectly impersonal; the persons all come in the Smritis and Puranas — the great Avatâras, Incarnations of God, Prophets, and so forth. And this ought also to be observed that except our religion every other religion in the world depends upon the life or lives of some personal founder or founders. Christianity is built upon the life of Jesus Christ, Mohammedanism upon Mohammed, Buddhism upon Buddha, Jainism upon the Jinas, and so on. It naturally follows that there must be in all these religions a good deal of fight about what they call the historical evidences of these great personalities. If at any time the historical evidences about the existence of these personages in ancient times become weak, the whole building of the religion tumbles down and is broken to pieces. We escaped this fate because our religion is not based upon persons but on principles. That you obey your religion is not because it came through the authority of a sage, no, not even of an Incarnation. Krishna is not the authority of the Vedas, but the Vedas are the authority of Krishna himself. His glory is that he is the greatest preacher of the Vedas that ever existed. So with the other Incarnations; so with all our sages. Our first principle is that all that is necessary for the perfection of man and for attaining unto freedom is there in the Vedas. You cannot find anything new. You cannot go beyond a perfect unity, which is the goal of all knowledge; this has been already reached there, and it is impossible to go beyond the unity. Religious knowledge became complete when Tat Twam Asi (Thou art That) was discovered, and that was in the Vedas. What remained was the guidance of people from time to time according to different times and places, according to different circumstances and environments; people had to be guided along the old, old path, and for this these great teachers came, these great sages. Nothing can bear out more clearly this position than the celebrated saying of Shri Krishna in the Gitâ: &quot;Whenever virtue subsides and irreligion prevails, I create Myself for the protection of the good; for the destruction of all immorality I am coming from time to time.&quot; This is the idea in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What follows? That on the one hand, there are these eternal principles which stand upon their own foundations without depending on any reasoning even, much less on the authority of sages however great, of Incarnations however brilliant they may have been. We may remark that as this is the unique position in India, our claim is that the Vedanta only can be the universal religion, that it is already the existing universal religion in the world, because it teaches principles and not persons. No religion built upon a person can be taken up as a type by all the races of mankind. In our own country we find that there have been so many grand characters; in even a small city many persons are taken up as types by the different minds in that one city. How is it possible that one person as Mohammed or Buddha or Christ, can be taken up as the one type for the whole world, nay, that the whole of morality, ethics, spirituality, and religion can be true only from the sanction of that one person, and one person alone? Now, the Vedantic religion does not require any such personal authority. Its sanction is the eternal nature of man, its ethics are based upon the eternal spiritual solidarity of man, already existing, already attained and not to be attained. On the other hand, from the very earliest times, our sages have been feeling conscious of this fact that the vast majority of mankind require a personality. They must have a Personal God in some form or other. The very Buddha who declared against the existence of a Personal God had not died fifty years before his disciples manufactured a Personal God out of him. The Personal God is necessary, and at the same time we know that instead of and better than vain imaginations of a Personal God, which in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred are unworthy of human worship we have in this world, living and walking in our midst, living Gods, now and then. These are more worthy of worship than any imaginary God, any creation of our imagination, that is to say, any idea of God which we can form. Shri Krishna is much greater than any idea of God you or I can have. Buddha is a much higher idea, a more living and idolised idea, than the ideal you or I can conceive of in our minds; and therefore it is that they always command the worship of mankind even to the exclusion of all imaginary deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This our sages knew, and, therefore, left it open to all Indian people to worship such great Personages, such Incarnations. Nay, the greatest of these Incarnations goes further: &quot;Wherever an extraordinary spiritual power is manifested by external man, know that I am there, it is from Me that that manifestation comes.&quot; That leaves the door open for the Hindu to worship the Incarnations of all the countries in the world. The Hindu can worship any sage and any saint from any country whatsoever, and as a fact we know that we go and worship many times in the churches of the Christians, and many, many times in the Mohammedan mosques, and that is good. Why not? Ours, as I have said, is the universal religion. It is inclusive enough, it is broad enough to include all the ideals. All the ideals of religion that already exist in the world can be immediately included, and we can patiently wait for all the ideals that are to come in the future to be taken in the same fashion, embraced in the infinite arms of the religion of the Vedanta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, yes, Vedanta is unique in that it can include all religions within its umbrella.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-07-16T08:02:22.923" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14123" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14114" CreationDate="2016-07-16T10:42:39.090" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adi Sankara taught that God incarnated. In his &lt;em&gt;Introduction&lt;/em&gt; to his commentary on the Gita, Sankara says (&lt;em&gt;Bhagavad Gita with the commentary of Sankaracarya&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Gambhirananda translator, pp 3-5):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When, after a long time, dharma became overpowered by adharma (vice), and adharma increased owing to the deterioration of discriminative knowledge, caused by the rise of desire in the minds of the followers (of this dharma), then, as tradition goes, Visnu, called Narayana, the Prime Mover, took birth--as part of Himself--as Krsna, the son of Devaki by Vasudeva, for the protection of Brahminhood which is Brahman manifest on earth, and for ensuring the stability of the world...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And He, the Lord, endowed with Knowledge, Sovereignty, Power, Strength, Valour and Formidability, exercises His command over His own Maya which naturally belongs to (Him as) Visnu, and which goes by the name Primal Nature...and as such, through His own Maya, He appears as if embodied, as if born, and as if favouring people--though by His nature, He is birthless, changeless, the Lord of all creatures, eternal, pure, conscious and free.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and further in the same book Krishna says in the Gita IV. 7-9:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O scion of the Bharata dynasty, whenever there is a decline of virtue and increase of vice, then do I manifest Myself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the protection of the pious, the destruction of the evil-doers, and establishing virtue, I manifest Myself in every age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who thus knows truly the divine birth and actions of Mine does not get rebirth after casting off the body. He attains Me, O Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Sankara makes no comments on these verses in his commentary. He accepted Krishna's words regarding incarnations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now regarding your comments on Paramukta and Jivamukta. Either you are misinterpreting Yogananda or he has taken some license in his interpretation. The &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; define jivamukta in 4.1.13-14 (Adhikarana 9). It says and Sankara's commentary follows (&lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras according to Sri Sankara&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Vireswarananda translator, pp 418-420, also available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc78348.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc78348.html&lt;/a&gt;):  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;13&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When that (Brahman) is realized (there result) the non-clinging and destruction of the subsequent and previous sins respectively, because it is (so) declared (by the scriptures).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Sankara's commentary] The state of Jivanmukti is described here. The opponent holds that Liberation is attained, in spite of Knowledge, only after one has experienced the results of one’s sins committed before illumination. For the Smritis say, “Karma is not destroyed before it has given its results.” The law of Karma is inexorable. This Sutra says that when a person attains Knowledge, all his past sins are destroyed and future sins do not cling to him. For by realizing Brahman he experiences that he never was, nor is, nor will be an agent, and such a person cannot be affected by the result of sins. The scriptures also declare that. “Just as cotton growing on reeds is burnt when thrown into fire, even so are burnt the sins of one who knowing this offers Agnihotra” (Chh. 5. 24. 3); “The fetters of the heart are broken, all doubts are solved, and all works are destroyed when He who is high and low is seen” (Mu. 2. 2. 8); “As water does not wet the lotus leaf, even so no sins cling to him who knows it” (Chh. 4. 14. 3). What the Smritis say about the inexorability of the law of Karma is true only of ordinary people, and does not hold good in the case of the knowers of Brahman. And in this way alone can Liberation result—by snapping the chain of work. Otherwise Liberation can never take place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;14&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Thus there is non-clinging of the other (i.e. virtue) also; but at death (Liberation i.e. Videhamukti is certain).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Sankara's commentary] As a knower of Brahman has no idea of agency he is not affected by good deeds also. He goes beyond vice and virtue. “He overcomes both” (Brih. 4. 4. 22). And as he is not touched by vice or virtue after illumination, and as his past sins are destroyed by Knowledge, his Liberation at death is certain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not familiar with the term Paramukta. A Jivamukta attains oneness with Nirguna Brahman - Videhamukti. The term Avatar is a term usually meaning Incarnation of God - Iswara. A freed soul that attains Saguna Brahman attains all powers except creation. A freed soul is not Saguna Brahman. Again in the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, very last part of the book, 4.4.4-22 discusses this very topic. I will quote only two verses, see the link for my information. Verses 4.4.17-18 says (same link given before):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;17&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(The released soul attains all lordly powers) except the power of creation etc., on account of (Iswara being) the subject-matter (of all texts where creation etc. are described), and (the released souls) not being mentioned (in that connection).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Sankara's commentary] The question is raised whether those who by worshipping the qualified Brahman attain Brahma-loka and lordly powers, have limited or unlimited powers. The opponent holds that it should be unlimited, because of the scriptural texts, “They can roam, at will in all the worlds” (Chh. 7. 25. 2, 8. 1. 6); “To him all the gods offer worship” (Taitt. 1. 5). This Sutra says that the released souls attain lordly powers without the power of creating, preserving, and destroying the universe. Barring this power they get all other powers. Why ? Because Iswara is the subject-matter of all the texts dealing with creation etc., while the liberated souls arc not mentioned at all in this connection. Moreover, this would lead to many Iswaras, which may give rise to a conflict of wills with respect to creation etc. Therefore the powers of the liberated souls are not absolute but limited, and are dependent on the will of Iswara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;18&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If it be said (that the released soul attains absolute powers) on account of direct teaching (of the scriptures), (we say) no, for the scriptures declare (that the released soul attains Him) who entrusts the sun etc. (with their offices) and resides in those spheres.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Sankara's commentary] “He becomes the lord of himself” (Taitt. 1. 6). From the direct teaching of the Sruti the opponent holds that the released soul attains absolute powers. The Sutra says that his powers -depend on the Lord, for the text cited further on says, “He attains the Lord of the mind”, the Lord who abides in spheres like the sun etc. and entrusts the sun etc. with offices. Therefore from this latter part of the text it is clear that the released soul gets its powers from the Lord and depends on Him. Hence its powers are not unlimited.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2016-07-17T10:30:26.943" LastActivityDate="2016-07-17T10:30:26.943" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14125" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-16T16:21:59.957" Score="5" ViewCount="407" Body="&lt;p&gt;I asked this because of an incident happened to me in the past. I was coming back from Vaishno Devi (Pilgrimage), and it was the Dusshera (Ravana's Death Anniversary) so I visited nearby big field in which Ravan was going to be burned. After it burned all people rush towards it and collected all the burned leftover sticks of the statue. I haven't seen this collection of sticks(bamboo sticks) practice elsewhere. At least not in my own state. When I asked a person why are they collecting sticks from the Ravana's statue's leftovers, he replied that it is a good thing to be kept at home as it prevents fighting between the married couples. He explained me the reason that is the Ravan and Mandodari never fought. So is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7080" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-11T04:50:48.663" LastActivityDate="2017-04-11T04:50:48.663" Title="Is It true that Ravana and Mandodari never had a fight between them?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|mandodari|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14126" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10049" CreationDate="2016-07-16T20:09:17.647" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Viswamitra was the son of king Gadhi and hence was a Kshatriya. After his father he becomes the king. Once when he was wandering in the forest for hunting, and had become very weak, due to thirst and hunger, he reached at the hermitage of Sage Vasishtha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01178.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Adi Parva SECTION CLXXVII&lt;/a&gt;, sage Vasishtha has welcomed him and his army properly by the grace of divine cow Nandini. This divine cow was able to fulfill all demands of anyone. After seeing that cow, king Viswamitra desired for her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And, O prince, the son of Gadhi, gratified with everything and applauding the cow named Nandini, addressed the Rishi, saying, 'O Brahmana, O great Muni, give me thy Naridini in exchange for ten thousand kine, or my kingdom. Enjoy thou my kingdom (giving me thy cow).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But sage Vasishtha has refused to give the cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing these words of Viswamitra, Vasishtha said, 'O sinless one, this cow hath been kept by me for the sake of the gods, guests, and the Pitris, as also for my sacrifices. I cannot give Nandini in exchange for even thy kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that there was a great battle between Viswamitra and Vasishtha. And finally sage Vasishtha has been victorious. Then Viswamitra has thought that Brahmana has more power than Kshatriya. Then he decided to become a Brahmarshi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Viswamitra, beholding this wonderful feat that resulted from Brahmana prowess, became disgusted with Kshatriya prowess and said, 'O, fie on Kshatriya prowess! Brahmana prowess is true prowess! In judging of strength and weakness, I see that asceticism is true strength.' Saying this, the monarch, abandoning his large domains and regal splendour and turning his back upon all pleasures, set his mind on asceticism. Crowned with success in asceticism and filling the three worlds with the heat of his ascetic penances, he afflicted all creatures and finally became a Brahmana. The son of Kusika at last drank Soma with Indra himself (in Heaven).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01179.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION CLXXVIII&lt;/a&gt;, the story of Sage Vasishtha son is described. Sage Vasishtha has hundred sons, eldest of them is Saktri. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was, O Partha, a king in this world, named Kalmashapada, who was of the race of Ikshvaku and was unequalled on earth for prowess. One day the king went from his capital into the woods for purposes of hunting, and this grinder of foes pierced (with his arrows) many deer and wild boars. And in those deep woods the king also slew many rhinoceroses. Engaged in sport for some length of time, the monarch became very much fatigued and at last he gave up the chase, desiring to rest awhile.&#xA;  &quot;The great Viswamitra, endued with energy, had, a little while ago, desired to make that monarch his disciple. As the monarch, afflicted with hunger and thirst, was proceeding through the woods, he came across that best of Rishis, the illustrious son of Vasishtha, coming along the same path. The king ever victorious in battle saw that Muni bearing the name of Saktri, that illustrious propagator of Vasishtha's race, the eldest of the high-souled Vasishtha's hundred sons, coming along from opposite direction. The king, beholding him said, 'Stand out of our way.' The Rishi, addressing the monarch in a conciliatory manner, said unto him sweetly, 'O king, this is my way. This is the eternal rule of morality indicated in every treatise on duty and religion, viz., that a king should ever make way for Brahmanas.' Thus did they address each other respecting their right of way. 'Stand aside, stand aside', were the words they said unto each other. The Rishi, who was in the right, did not yield, nor did the king yield to him from pride and anger. That best of monarchs, enraged at the Rishi, refusing to yield him the way, acted like a Rakshasa, striking him with his whip. Thus whipped by the monarch, that best of Rishis, the son of Vasishtha, was deprived of his senses by anger, and speedily cursed that first of monarchs, saying, 'O worst of kings, since thou persecutest like a Rakshasa an ascetic, thou shalt from this day, became a Rakshasa subsisting on human flesh! Hence, thou worst of kings! thou shalt wander over the earth, affecting human form!' Thus did the Rishi Sakti, endued with great prowess, speak unto king Kalmashapada. At this time Viswamitra, between whom and Vasishtha there was a dispute about the discipleship of Kalmashapada, approached the place where that monarch and Vasishtha's son were. And, O Partha, that Rishi of severe ascetic penances, viz., Viswamitra of great energy, approached the pair (knowing by his spiritual insight that they had been thus quarrelling with each other). After the curse had been pronounced, that best of monarchs knew that Rishi to be Vasishtha's son and equal unto Vasishtha himself in energy. And, O Bharata, Viswamitra, desirous of benefiting himself, remained on that spot, concealed from the sight of both by making himself invisible. Then that best of monarchs, thus cursed by Saktri, desiring to propitiate the Rishi began to humbly beseech him. And, O chief of the Kurus, Viswamitra, ascertaining the disposition of the king (and fearing that the difference might be made up), ordered a Rakshasa to enter the body of the king. And a Rakshasa of the name of Kinkara then entered the monarch's body in obedience to Saktri's curse and Viswamitra's command. And knowing, O chastiser of foes, that the Rakshasa had possessed himself of the monarch, that best of Rishis, Viswamitra, then left the spot and went away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that, the Rakshas first killed sage Saktri and then his younger brothers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A little while after, O Bharata, that best of monarchs, deprived of all his senses by the Rakshasa within him, beholding Saktri who had cursed him, said, 'Because thou hast pronounced on me this extraordinary curse, therefore, I shall begin my life of cannibalism by devouring thee.' Having said this, the king immediately slew Saktri and ate him up, like a tiger eating the animal it was fond of. Beholding Saktri thus slain and devoured, Viswamitra repeatedly urged that Rakshasa (who was within the monarch) against the other sons of Vasishtha. Like a wrathful lion devouring small animals, that Rakshasa soon devoured the other sons of the illustrious Vasishtha that were junior to Saktri in age. But Vasishtha, learning that all his sons had been caused to be slain by Viswamitra, patiently bore his grief like the great mountain that bears the earth. That best of Munis, that foremost of intelligent men, was resolved rather to sacrifice his own life than exterminate (in anger) the race of Kusikas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-10-19T13:36:11.580" LastActivityDate="2018-10-19T13:36:11.580" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14127" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8720" CreationDate="2016-07-16T23:20:42.343" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are various stories about how Ganesha got the elephant head but &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saiaustin.org/Lord%20Ganesha.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;the most comprehensive one&lt;/a&gt; I have encountered states that it originated from Gajasura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To put it briefly, Gajasura asked Shiva for everyone to remember his head after death, to which Shivji responded affirmatively by releasing him from the samsaric wheel, taking his head to be later mounted on Ganesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The whole episode was taking place at Mount Kailash, but I don't know of any specific information regarding elephant's body after liberation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the sake of preservation (in case linked pdf becomes unavailable), I will quote the whole story about Shiva and Gajasura that resulted in Ganesha obtaining the latter's head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once, there lived an Asura (demon) with all the characteristics of an&#xA;  elephant, called Gajasura. He was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva.&#xA;  Gajasura has undergone a severe penance (or tapas) for many years to&#xA;  receive special boons. Lord Shiva was pleased by this austerity, and&#xA;  decided to grant him a boon. The demon wished that he could emanate&#xA;  fire continually from his own body so that no one could ever dare to&#xA;  approach him. The Lord granted him his request. Gajasura was not&#xA;  satisfied with that, and continued his penance. Lord Shiva appeared&#xA;  again in front of him. This time the demon asked Shiva to reside in&#xA;  his stomach. Shiva granted his request, and he took up residence in&#xA;  Gajasura’s belly immediately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is also known as Bhola Shankar because He is the God, who&#xA;  satisfies easily, and grants boon to His devotees whatever they desire&#xA;  without regard for the consequences. From time to time, this created&#xA;  complicated situations, and put Himself into some trouble. Meanwhile&#xA;  on Mount Kailash, Goddess Parvati, Lord Shiva’s wife, was worried&#xA;  about Lord Shiva’s whereabouts. She searched for Him everywhere&#xA;  without any luck. As a last resource, she went to Lord Vishnu,&#xA;  requesting him to find her husband. He, who knows everything, assured&#xA;  her that Shiva was fine, and asked her to go back to Kailash. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Vishnu, the wise director of the cosmic game, staged a small&#xA;  play. He changed his appearance into a flutist, transformed Shiva’s&#xA;  vehicle Nandi (the bull) into a dancing bull, and performed a&#xA;  wonderful dance in front of Gajasura. The enchanting performance of&#xA;  the bull sent the demon into intense joy, and he asked the flutist to&#xA;  tell him what he desired. The musical Vishnu responded: &quot;Can you give&#xA;  me that which I ask?&quot; Gajasura replied: &quot;Who do you take me for? I can&#xA;  immediately give you whatever you ask.&quot; The flutist then said: &quot;If&#xA;  that's so, liberate Shiva from your stomach.&quot; Gajasura understood then&#xA;  that this must have been no other than Vishnu himself, the only one&#xA;  who could have known that secret and he threw himself at his feet.&#xA;  Having liberated Shiva, he asked him for one last gift: &quot;I have been&#xA;  blessed by you with many gifts; my last request is that everyone&#xA;  remembers me adoring my head when I am dead.&quot; To fulfill this wish,&#xA;  Lord Shiva severed Gajasura’s head and freed him from the cycle of&#xA;  birth and death. He carries the head along with him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parvati at Kailash came to know of Lord Vishnu’s victory and her&#xA;  husband’s return. She was very happy, and wished to take a bath. She&#xA;  created a boy out of the dough that she uses in her bath, and gave a&#xA;  life to guard the entrance of her house. She asked him not to allow&#xA;  anyone inside. After saying this, she went inside to take the bath.&#xA;  Meanwhile, Lord Shiva returned home. When he tried to enter the house,&#xA;  the boy stopped him at the door as he was unable to recognize his&#xA;  father, Lord Shiva. In anger, Shiva cut off the boy’s head with his&#xA;  trident (Trishul). Parvati was unaware of what had happened and&#xA;  received Lord Shiva with warmth, for he had returned after a long&#xA;  period. During the course of their conversation, Shiva mentions the&#xA;  incident at the palace gates and tells her about severing the child’s&#xA;  head. When Parvati heard about that, she burst into tears. Shiva also&#xA;  felt sorry for his anger. In order to console Parvati, Shiva sent out&#xA;  his troops (Ganas) to search for the boy’s head. When they couldn’t&#xA;  find the head, Shiva attached the boy’s head with that of Gajasura,&#xA;  and revived him. After looking at the child (Ganesha), Parvati asked&#xA;  Shiva that who will consider this god with the face of an elephant.&#xA;  Shiva blessed the child, Ganesha that everyone would worship Ganesha&#xA;  before beginning any work, and people will worship him first before&#xA;  any other God in any kind of undertaking.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7161" LastEditorDisplayName="user7161" LastEditDate="2016-07-17T11:21:27.210" LastActivityDate="2016-07-17T11:21:27.210" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14129" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-17T06:42:32.993" Score="8" ViewCount="981" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the important characters in Mahabharata war is &lt;strong&gt;Shikhandi&lt;/strong&gt; who was one of the reason for the defeat of Bhishma during the Mahabharata war. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikhandi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;brief story&lt;/a&gt; of previous life of Shikhandi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shikhandi had been born in a previous lifetime as a woman named Amba.&#xA;  Along with her sisters Ambika and Ambalika, she was taken by force by&#xA;  Bhishma from their Swayamvara. He presented them to Satyavati for&#xA;  marriage to Vichitravirya, the crown prince of Hastinapur.&#xA;  Vichitravirya married only her sisters, because Amba told Bhishma that&#xA;  she had been promised to the Salwa, the King of Saubala and was not&#xA;  ready to marry anyone else. Hearing this from her, Bhishma sent Amba&#xA;  with grandeur to Shalva's place. But Shalva rejected her as well, in&#xA;  shame of losing the combat against Bhishma at the Swayamvara. Amba&#xA;  then returned to Bhishma and demanded that he marry her. He declined&#xA;  since he had already taken a vow of celibacy. Enraged that she was&#xA;  going to be an unmarried woman, she swore to kill him, and tried to&#xA;  persuade other kings to wage a war with Bhishma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In next birth, Amba is born as Shikhandi to take a revenge against Bhishma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, as per the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Sahasranama#First_100_Names&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;shiva-sahasranama stotra&lt;/a&gt;, one of the name of Lord Shiva is &lt;strong&gt;Shikhandi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Question is&lt;/strong&gt; : Is there a scriptural reference where there is mention of why Shikhandi is named so(named after Lord Shiva)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Sahasranama#First_100_Names&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;meaning of Shikhandi&lt;/a&gt; is : The Lord with beautiful matted hair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2016-07-17T06:52:53.723" LastActivityDate="2022-02-12T11:57:47.097" Title="Why Shikhandi is named after Lord Shiva?" Tags="|mahabharata|shiva|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14130" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15196" CreationDate="2016-07-17T06:43:53.937" Score="11" ViewCount="4144" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rishi Valmiki is the author of the Great Epic Ramayana. What are whereabouts of his earlier life? I have heard something like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8327/how-accurate-is-the-depiction-of-valmiki-in-valmiki-pratibha&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; about him (that he was dacoit) is there a way to prove or disprove this speculation? In India specially in north India there is Valmiki Samaj which claims to be descendant of Sage Valmiki, and that society is considered as &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=3&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjJu5P58fnNAhXHv48KHZgjA4QQFggjMAI&amp;amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDalit&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNEubp9joyg0xRioxg5NyIdfwybVPA&amp;amp;sig2=ZoLjORqTSWEj91oDhglmyA&amp;amp;bvm=bv.127178174,d.c2I&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;dalit&lt;/a&gt;. So how does Valmiki become a Bramhin. What does Shastras say about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2020-05-09T06:40:10.783" Title="On Identity of Sage Valmiki" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|rishi|valmiki|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14131" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="31551" CreationDate="2016-07-17T07:16:17.187" Score="6" ViewCount="367" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading Acharya Sri Vedanta Deshika's Rahastraya Introduction, where I found out about the Hamsa sandesha - a collection of 110 (first part 60 shlokas and second part 50 shlokas) verses which Shri Rama writes a letter to Shri Sita Devi when she was in the Ashoka Vatika in Lanka. The letter was delivered by a hamsa or Swan that is why it is known as hamsa sandesha (a message of the Swan). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the summary (if possible) and actual message body and why did Shri Rama choose Swan instead of hanuman with superhuman powers which he sent later with the ring? Also is it possible that this letter is a fictional creation by Acharya Shri Vedanta Deshika? Since Acharya Shri Vedanta Deshika also worked on it I think it may not be a fictional creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T06:19:12.823" LastActivityDate="2018-12-23T03:56:54.733" Title="Hamsa Sandesha - a real incident or a fictional work?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14133" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14149" CreationDate="2016-07-17T09:05:30.667" Score="4" ViewCount="351" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Shree Ganesha  Or Shree Ganapati likes &lt;strong&gt;Sweet Dumplings or Modaka (मोदक)&lt;/strong&gt; so much.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which are the sanskrit Scriptures from Puranas denoting this favourite food of Shree Ganesha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-07-19T21:55:37.013" Title="Shree Ganesha and Sweet Dumplings (मोदक)?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|ganesha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14134" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-17T12:48:42.410" Score="2" ViewCount="2329" Body="&lt;p&gt;When does a Mahadasha start for an individual?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg, for a person born in Punarvasu nakshatra when does his Guru-Mahadasha start? Just at the time of his birth or any other particular time? How to find it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7169" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T05:45:56.740" Title="When does a Mahadasha start for an individual?" Tags="|astrology|nakshatra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14135" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14140" CreationDate="2016-07-17T15:35:26.273" Score="16" ViewCount="4956" Body="&lt;p&gt;As Lord Shiva is himself one of the Trimurti, he must be a त्रिकालज्ञ (trikālajña) i.e., knower of past, present and future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he's a trikālajña, why didn't he know that he was going to behead his own son, Vināyaka (Ganesha)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="647" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-23T20:01:42.427" LastActivityDate="2022-05-15T04:20:08.147" Title="Why didn't Lord Shiva realize that he was beheading his own son?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|ganesha|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14137" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14135" CreationDate="2016-07-17T15:56:02.883" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to quote the following text hope this helps&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The story goes that Parvati created a boy out of dirt from her body&#xA;  and appointed him to guard the doorstep. The first question that comes&#xA;  is how could Parvati, the Goddess Herself, have so much dirt? Parvati&#xA;  symbolizes the triguna sattva, rajas and tamas. The entire creation is&#xA;  made up of trigunas. The dosha or imperfections that originate out of&#xA;  the triguna is an obstruction for the functioning of Prakriti. That&#xA;  was the boy that Parvati created to stand guard at the door.Shiva is&#xA;  Shuddha Chaitanya, pure consciousness. Like the sun does not recognize&#xA;  darkness and cuts through it, Shiva does not recognize dosha and slays&#xA;  the impurity. But Prakriti cannot stay without impurity. So Shiva&#xA;  replaces the dosha with the head of an elephant, which symbolizes&#xA;  knowledge. Through knowledge, all the doshas or obstructions of&#xA;  Prakriti can be taken care of. This is the spiritual and metaphysical&#xA;  meaning of Ganpati being slain. So worshipping Ganpati as the remover&#xA;  of obstacles and the giver of gyana, knowledge is the most amazing&#xA;  depiction of the nature of consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more info refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/indian-religions/hinduism/why-lord-shiva-did-not-recognize-his-own-son/&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because lord Ganesha was created with mud his buddhi(intellect) was dushit(contaminated) he didn't respected other gods &amp;amp; rishis who came and tried to tell him the truth that Lord Shiva was his father. So that's the reason Shiva cut his head and replaced it with the one of an elephant which is a symbol of knowledge. &#xA;The elephant whose head was cut and replaced with that of Lord Ganesha his name of Gajasura. You can search about him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7171" LastActivityDate="2016-07-17T15:56:02.883" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14138" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-17T16:09:51.340" Score="2" ViewCount="69" Body="&lt;p&gt;What verse of Vishnu purana compares every incident and activity happening in this universe as a yajna-karma? and how does the bad incidents like appereance of kali and birth of kali(people getting wicked) be described as yajna? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do vishitadvaita philosopher's explain this notion of everything is yajna? Is this core concept of vedanta and pancharatra??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-07-17T16:18:13.230" LastActivityDate="2016-07-17T16:18:13.230" Title="Everything is Yajna" Tags="|vishnu-purana|yajna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14140" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14135" CreationDate="2016-07-17T16:50:34.113" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;This whole event is a series of interconnected Chain events. I'm here summarizing the chain events:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Boon to Gajasura:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gajasura was a devotee of Lord Shiva and he got a boon that his head would be revered in future as described in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8720/what-happened-to-the-body-of-elephant-whose-head-was-attached-to-lord-ganesha/14127#14127&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Curse to Lord Shiva:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva once killed Surya and Kasyapa (father of Surya) cursed him as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3704/why-was-surya-killed-by-lord-shiva/3710#3710&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He struck Surya with a trident and this made the entire world plunge into darkness. Surya was the sage Kashyapa's son and so, for this act, &lt;strong&gt;Kashyapa cursed Shiva. &amp;quot;Just as you pierced my son's chest with a trident, your son's head will be chopped off one day,&amp;quot; said Kashyapa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Son of Shiva-Shakti:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha (Vinayaka) was only son of Prakriti tatwa as made only by Parvati. Lord Shiva transformed Purush tatwa to Vinayaka from his Trishula while beheading him. And thus he philosophically became son of both Shiva and Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4) Removing Maila Buddhi:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha was formed from dirt/mud by Parvati. So his intellect had also became dirt formed intellect. As a result he couldn't recognise the Supreme Shiva and other Gods, Sages also. So, Beheading the head removed the dirt formed intellect and it also removed only Maya/Prakirti/Parvati formed intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;These all events described above are interconnected as Chain events. So, Beheading Vinayaka (Ganesha) by Lord Shiva was necessary.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T08:37:58.970" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14141" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-17T19:13:46.780" Score="4" ViewCount="415" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism, at least the modern version, is often called democratic contrasting with the popular Abrahamic religions, whose monotheistic and scriptures based aspects are well known. The nature of the Hindu religion letting people practice any rituals, have faith in any godmen etc is often cited to support the previous statement. Yet, there are many practices of many Hindus that are derided as superstitious by other Hindus. (I use Hindu broadly, and include both nominal and practicing ones.) Even such widespread practices as believing that a priest gets possessed by god and god answers queries through him is considered superstitious and dismissed with disdain. Somehow this looks paradoxical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To an outsider, or a non practicing Hindu rationalist leaning towards agnosticism or atheism, Hindus worshiping half human half animal entities is no more superstitious than (or as superstitious as) Hindus seeing omen in such things as black cat crossing path, single sneeze, broken mirrors and bangles etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That makes me postulate that those activities that don't find any mention in any of the vast corpus of scriptures are considered superstitious. Is this correct? Or does Hinduism actually define superstition in such a way that mainstream practices are excluded?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A related question: Is believing that thunder is due to Indra, rain due to Varuna etc considered superstitious, religious, or amusing and foolishness. I ask this because modern Hinduism is far removed from its Vedic roots when it comes to considering who are gods and which gods can be worshiped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7174" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T03:57:03.110" Title="Does Hinduism define superstition?" Tags="|scripture|practice|superstitions|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14143" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14145" CreationDate="2016-07-18T02:13:34.843" Score="1" ViewCount="133" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to ask that : what is sadhu? Are there any parameters defined for that. Are they need to be Vairagi? What is the difference between Sadhu And Sajjan? I mean to ask Sadhu is Derived from sadhana (possibly I may be wrong) so to become a sadhu is it must become a vai ragi or it means whatever life you live (you can marry and have a family) but you are a true devotee and disciplined? I mean the Srimad Bhagwat Geeta's Teaching That Work Is Workship&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7080" LastEditorUserId="7080" LastEditDate="2016-07-18T16:27:42.440" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T16:27:42.440" Title="What is Sadhu? Is Any Parameters That Defines Them? Difference from Sajjan(good will person)" Tags="|saint|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-07-19T11:23:25.503" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14145" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14143" CreationDate="2016-07-18T03:23:43.030" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Basic meaning of Sadhu and Vairagi is someone who is a complete renunciate, for whom everything on and including earth belongs to them, yet they own nothing. &#xA;Sajjan means a virtuous person who takes care to always follow the path of righteousness, but they have not necessarily renounced possessions. Mahadev is the greatest Sadhu / Vairagi. Saints are said to be sajjan. Even a common man can be sajjan if he chooses. But it is not easy to be a complete renunciate.&#xA; - source: various chapters of Mahabharat Book 12 Mokshadharma Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7179" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T03:23:43.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14146" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14141" CreationDate="2016-07-18T03:35:27.607" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism doesn't define superstition per se. People define supersttion. Just like people, communities, etc. change, so do their beliefs. Superstitons, at least the ones that you have mentioned have come out from the experiences, beliefs, upbringing, culture and societal values of the people of those times. These things keep changing. Yesterday that was a superstition, tomorrow it will be a joke, the day after tomorrow, who knows it will be a valid belief again. &#xA; Hinduism has no one set of rules. If you read Mahabharat (book 12 Section 2), two consecutive chapters tell different ways of how the world was formed. While the details are different, the basic idea is the same. The same goes with manner of worship or choice of which diety to follow. Everyone must follow their own faith in whichever way they want as long as it does not go against the basic values if humanity and morality ( which everyone knows just by instinct).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7179" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T03:35:27.607" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14147" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-18T05:23:56.207" Score="17" ViewCount="6742" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva Tandava Stotram is a hymn dedicated to Lord Shiva and it describes the daily evening dance of Tandava. It also poetically describes destroying aspects of Shiva. Shiva Tandava Stotram mentioned by Dr. Sarasvati Mohan on &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_shiva/shivTAND_meaning.html&quot;&gt;Sanskrit documents website&lt;/a&gt; has two Slokas which are less known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निलिम्प नाथनागरी कदम्ब मौलमल्लिका- &lt;br&gt; निगुम्फनिर्भक्षरन्म&#xA;  धूष्णिकामनोहरः । &lt;br&gt; तनोतु नो मनोमुदं विनोदिनींमहनिशं &lt;br&gt; परिश्रय&#xA;  परं पदं तदङ्गजत्विषां चयः ॥ १४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रचण्ड वाडवानल प्रभाशुभप्रचारणी &lt;br&gt; महाष्टसिद्धिकामिनी जनावहूत&#xA;  जल्पना । &lt;br&gt; विमुक्त वाम लोचनो विवाहकालिकध्वनिः &lt;br&gt; शिवेति&#xA;  मन्त्रभूषगो जगज्जयाय जायताम् ॥ १५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above two slokas are not known to many. I checked for Shiva Tandava Stotram in two variants of Uttara Kanda of Ramayana (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TheRamayanaUttaraKandam&quot;&gt;Manmatha Nath Ramayana&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/&quot;&gt;on this site&lt;/a&gt;). Both of them don't have Shiva Tandava Stotram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Scripture (Ithihasa or Purana or any Smriti) has Shiva Tandava Stotram? Please provide Sankrit text if possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-26T10:45:16.327" LastActivityDate="2021-07-20T17:43:52.713" Title="Which Scripture mentions the famous Shiva Tandava Stotram?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|ravana|stotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14149" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14133" CreationDate="2016-07-18T07:51:06.600" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_ganesha-ganapati_atharvashirsha.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ganapati Atharvashirsa&lt;/a&gt; (गणपति   अथर्वशीर्ष) is a minor Upanishad from the Atharvaveda.It extolls Lord Ganesh as Absolute Reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantra mention&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो मोदकसहस्रेण यजति स वाञ्छितफलमवाप्नोति ॥१६.४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who worships (Ganapati) with thousand Modakas (a type of Sweetmeat), he will obtain his Desired Fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Sankar in his famous work Ganesha Panchratanam opens with following line,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मुदाकरात्तमोदकं सदा विमुक्तिसाधकं&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who Holds the Divine Joy in His Hand as Modaka (a sweetmeat) and Who Always strives to Accomplish the Liberation of His Devotees towards that Divine Joy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Ashtottara Shatanamavali, Lord Ganesha is described as,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मोदकप्रियाय means one who loves modaka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-07-18T08:28:16.877" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T08:28:16.877" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14150" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13633" CreationDate="2016-07-18T08:18:07.110" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ghantarkarna hasn't received moksha yet. &lt;strong&gt;However his moksha is granted due to boon by Lord Krishna.&lt;/strong&gt; He will attain Sayujya with Vishnu after the period of present Indra is over. It is described in chapter 83 Bhavishya Parva of Harivamsha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततः प्रोवाच भगवान् स्थितं काममिवापरम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अक्षयः स्वर्गवासस्ते यावदिन्द्रो वसिष्यति । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तावत् स्वर्गी भवानस्तु शाशनान्मम नान्यतः ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;नष्टे शक्रे ततः स्वर्गात् सायुज्यं मम गच्छतु&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  योऽयं भ्राता तव स्वर्गी यावदिन्द्रो भवेत् तथा ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Bhagvan (Krishna) spoke to that Ghantakarna who was standing as like Kamadeva. Lord told &quot;You will remain in heaven upto this period of Indra. You will be under me there and not in other place.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;When the period of this Indra becomes over then you will attain Sayujya with me.&lt;/strong&gt; Your brother will also enjoy heaven upto period of this Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding your second question to which race he belonged to. &lt;strong&gt;He belongs to Pisacha race.&lt;/strong&gt; His speaking is denoted by using 'Pisacha Uvacha'. Also in chapter 80 Bhavisya Parva he introduces himself to Lord Krishna as a Pisacha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;घण्टाकर्णोऽस्मि नाम्नाहं &lt;strong&gt;पिशाचो&lt;/strong&gt; घोरदर्शनः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मासंदो विकृतो घोरः साक्षान्मृत्युरिवापरः ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I'm a terrible &lt;strong&gt;Pisacha&lt;/strong&gt; by the name Ghantakarna. I'm violent, terrible consumer of meat and I'm as Kala to the living beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-18T08:34:00.283" LastActivityDate="2016-07-18T08:34:00.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14151" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-18T09:41:03.647" Score="6" ViewCount="1128" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Jauhar the same as Sati? If not what is the difference and what is the origin of these terms?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-02-17T17:43:14.557" LastActivityDate="2018-02-17T17:43:14.557" Title="What is the difference between Sati and Jauhar?" Tags="|practice|dharma|women|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14153" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-18T16:24:04.887" Score="5" ViewCount="1600" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is purpose/reason of using &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivaishnava_Urdhva_Pundra#Thiruman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thiruman&lt;/a&gt; katti for making Urdhwapundra or Namam, What is relation of Thiruman to Shriman Narayana? How is it holy clay?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-08-14T02:07:56.907" LastActivityDate="2021-08-28T17:03:25.277" Title="Why is Thiruman Sacred?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|practice|sri-vaishnava|tilak|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14158" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2058" CreationDate="2016-07-19T07:51:02.300" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अखण्डमण्डलाकारं व्याप्तं येन चराचरम् ।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;तत्पदं दर्शितं येन तस्मै श्रीगुरवे नमः ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Akhanndda-Mannddala-Akaaram Vyaaptam Yena Cara-Acaram | Tat-Padam&#xA;Darshitam Yena Tasmai Shrii-Gurave Namah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Salutations to the Guru ,Whose Form is an Indivisible&#xA;Whole of Presence, and By Whom is Pervaded the Moving and&#xA;the Non-MovingBeings,  By Whom is Revealed  that Feet , Salutations to&#xA;that Guru.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_gurudeva-guru_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;See More&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The festival of &lt;strong&gt;Guru Purnima, (गुरु पौर्णिमा)&lt;/strong&gt; is dedicated to &lt;strong&gt;shree Ved Vyasa&lt;/strong&gt; and also known as &lt;strong&gt;Vyasa Purnima (व्यास पौर्णिमा)&lt;/strong&gt; is celebrated on the full moon day of &lt;strong&gt;Hindu Month Ashad (आषाढ़)&lt;/strong&gt; . The &lt;strong&gt;River Beas (बियास)&lt;/strong&gt;  is  named after Ved Vyasa. He practiced penance on its banks and compiled the four Vedas, the Mahabharat and the Eighteen Purana there. Vyasa is considered by Hindus as Chiranjivi (चिरंजीवी) or immortal, one who is still living and walking the earth for the well-being of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa Purnima or Guru Purnima is a day of great significance in Hinduism. Guru Purnima or Vyasa Purnima is a  &lt;strong&gt;symbol of the Guru-shishya tradition&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;Guru or teachers play key role in one’s life. Spiritual gurus nurtures and modifies our lives. They make us understand the difference between right and wrong and good and evil.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On this day, all  devotees,  disciples , Students  worship Shree Ved Vyasa in honor of his divine personage and all Hindu's perform a 'puja' of their respective &amp;quot;Guru's  or Gurudevs&amp;quot; (गुरुदेव). By touching the feet of Guru's , they receive their well whishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/vedic-knowledge/info-gallery/guru-purnima&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Read more about Guru Purnima&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T20:55:04.960" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14160" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-19T09:59:40.570" Score="1" ViewCount="641" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is fond of Tulasi leaves and Lord Shiva likes bilvam. So, similarly which leaf is favored by Lord Brahma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-07T06:05:38.347" LastActivityDate="2018-09-07T06:05:38.347" Title="Which is the favorite leaf of Lord Brahma?" Tags="|rituals|brahma|plants|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14161" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12071" CreationDate="2016-07-19T11:27:52.870" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Natha Sampradaya Acknowledges Dwaita-Advaita Vilakshana Vada. It is both Dvaita and Advaita. At absolute level it recognises formless, nameless thing as Absolute truth which is called by the name Para Shiva. The Absolute level is described as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनामेति स्वयंमनादि सिद्धमेकमेवानादिनिधनं सिद्धसिद्धान्तप्रसिद्धं तस्येच्छामात्राधर्माधर्मिणी निजा शक्तिः प्रसिद्धा । &lt;em&gt;[Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati 1.5]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;That nameless (and formless and manifestationless) Supreme Spirit is eternally self-existent, absolutely one (i.e. differenceless), without any birth or death (or modification). This is the well-known conception (about Reality) of the Siddhas (enlightened seers).&lt;/strong&gt; His unique Power, which is eternally inherent in His nature and one with Him and which is of the character of Pure Will (i.e. without any manifestation or any object of will or process of willing in the transcendent plane) is also well-known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same thing is illustrated in Goraksha Samhita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न ब्रह्मा विष्णु-रुद्रो न सुरपति-सुरः नैव पृथ्वी न चापः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नैवाग्नीनपी वायुर् न च गगनतलम् न दिशो नैव कालः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न वेदा नैव यज्ञा न च रवि शशि नौ न विधिर् नैव कल्पः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;स्वः ज्योतिः सत्यम् एकम् जयति तव पदम् सच्चिदानन्द मूर्त्ये&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  No distinctive existence of Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra and Indra and other Deities is there; nor is there any existence of earth or water or fire or air or sky; time and the directions (which imply space) do not exist; the vedas and the yajnas, the sun and the moon, the laws and the cyclic order are all absent; &lt;strong&gt;Your true Self alone shines as the sole self-luminous Absolute Reality, O You, who reveal Yourself as pure and perfect Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That formless nameless truth is known by the name ParaShiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अकुलं कुलमाद्यत्ते कुलं चाकुलमिच्छति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;जल बुद्धवद्न्यायादेकाकारः परः शिवः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अतएवः परमकारणं परमेश्वर परात्परः शिव ।। &lt;em&gt;[Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati 4.1]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Unmanifest embraces manifest, and manifested yearns for unmanifested. The relation is analogous to that between water and water-bubbles. &lt;strong&gt;In reality Para-Siva (Supreme Spirit) is absolutely One.&lt;/strong&gt; Thus Para Shiva is the cause of all causes, Parameshwara and Greatest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However there is also Dvaita in the relative reality. The Dvaita is Shiva and Shakti. In the absolute level Shiva and Shakti are one and same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva has five-fold manifestation. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपरम्परं परमं पदं शून्यं निरञ्जनमं परमात्मेति । &lt;em&gt;[Siddha Siddhanta Pranali 1.15]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Aparamparam, Parampadam, Shunyam, Niranjanam, Paramatmam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shakti also is in five-fold manifestation. They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निजा पराऽपरा सूक्ष्मा कुण्डली तासु पञ्चधा । &lt;em&gt;[Siddha Siddhanta Pranali 1.14]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Nija, Para, Apara, Sukshma, Kundalini&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The five-fold manifestation of Shiva corresponds with fivefold manifestation of Shakti. ie. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aparamparam Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; corresponds with &lt;strong&gt;Nija Shakti.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Parampadam Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; corresponds with &lt;strong&gt;Para-Shakti.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Shunya Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; corresponds with &lt;strong&gt;Apara Shakti.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Niranjanam Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; corresponds with &lt;strong&gt;Sukshma Shakti&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Paramatmam Shiva corresponds with Kundalini Shakti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, as a conclusion Natha Sampradaya Acknowledges &lt;strong&gt;Para-Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; which is nameless and formless (=similar as Advaita Nirguna Brahman) as absolute reality. From the absolute reality there rises Duality as Shiva and Shakti (which is responsible for creation of world). &lt;em&gt;Then there is five-fold manifestation of Shiva and five-fold manifestation of Shakti which correspond to each other.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shiva-Shakti being same also manifest as duality for the creation of world hence the philosophy is called Dvaitadvaita-Vilakshana Vaad.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to second part of question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are the main scriptures of Natha Sampradaya?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Natha-Sampradaya is theistic school. ie. It does acknowledges the authority of Vedas. However it mainly focuses on Yoga Upanishads like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoga Kundalini Upanishad, Dhyana Bindu Upanishad, Hamsha Upanishad, Sandilya Upanishad, etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Texts written by Gorakhnath are also its major texts. Some of them are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Goraksha Samhita, Goraksha Shataka, Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, Yoga Siddhanta Paddhati, Viveka Martanda, etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Matsendranth authored these texts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Matsendra Samhita, Kulananda Tantra, Jnana Karika, Akula Vira-Tantra, etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly other texts are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Natha Sutra, Shiva Gita, Dattatreya Samhita, etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the main characteristic of Natha Sampradaya texts are they do not involve in explaining philosophy and giving logical explanation. &lt;em&gt;They believe absolute truth is beyond mind, intellect and truth and it can't be explained in words. So, they deal only with teaching yoga practices and other methods, so that seeker can directly witness the truth himself.&lt;/em&gt; However, Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati authored by Guru Gorakhnath somehow describes philosophical matters also. To know more about philosophy of Natha Sampradya and Guru Gorakhnath one can download &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/scannedbooks/forencoding/Goraksha_SiddhaSiddhantaPaddhati_Amaraughaprabodha_Yogamartanda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-20T15:36:52.550" LastActivityDate="2016-07-20T15:36:52.550" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14162" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10370" CreationDate="2016-07-19T13:33:50.370" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Interesting Facts &amp;amp; Fascinating Story of Hanuman Chalisa!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman Chalisa has &lt;em&gt;40 Chaupais&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Chalis&lt;/em&gt;=40 in &lt;em&gt;Hindi&lt;/em&gt;) on Hanuman is a devotional hymn dedicated to Bajrang Bali by the Great Indian poet, philosopher and saint Shri Goswami Tulsidas. Born in the 16th century, Tulsidas authored &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman_Chalisa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hanuman Chalisa&lt;/a&gt; in Awadhi language when he was quite young.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hanuman Chalisa Tells Us The Distance Between Earth &amp;amp; Sun&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Hanuman was very young, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8001/why-did-hanumana-want-to-eat-the-sun/8022#8022&quot;&gt;he flew from Earth to the sky in the direction of the Sun to eat it, assuming it to be a ripe, luscious fruit&lt;/a&gt;. Tulsidas while stating this incident in the &lt;em&gt;chalisa&lt;/em&gt; in simple languages gives the distance between Earth and the Sun. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Line is –  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“जुग सहस्र जोजन पर भानू।&#xA;  लील्यो ताहि मधुर फल जानू॥ १८ ॥”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sun is at the distance of &lt;em&gt;sahastra&lt;/em&gt;(thousand) &lt;em&gt;yojan&lt;/em&gt;(an anstonomical unit of distance).   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After certain intellectuals decoded this famous line of Hanuman Chalisa by Tulsidas they could find the distance of Earth, they found that tt is exactly the same as that discovered by scientist later.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the year 1653, astronomer Christian Huygens with his guesswork estimated the distance from earth to the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let’s see what the intellectuals (Garjajev’s Research Group) got after decoding the lines:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1 Yuga is 12000 years&lt;br&gt;&#xA;1 Sahastra is 1000.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;1 Yojan is 8 miles&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus,  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yuga Shastra Yojan par Bhanu&lt;/em&gt;  means &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;12000 X 1000 X 8 = 96000000 miles&lt;br&gt;&#xA;and 1 mile is 1.6 km&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, 96000000 X 1.6 = 1536000000 km&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the exact round figure distance of earth from Sun on 3rd July because studies mention the distance of 152,093,481 km from earth to sun during the aphelion (The period when earth is farthest from the Sun).&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/k-4/features/F_Measuring_the_Distance_Student_Pages.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This is very close to the current figure by NASA.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7190" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-04-28T05:57:40.943" LastActivityDate="2017-04-28T05:57:40.943" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14163" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14164" CreationDate="2016-07-19T14:12:14.303" Score="6" ViewCount="3800" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism why do we people offer prasad after every sacred ceremony?&#xA;Is it related to some ancient belief and has some logical benefits?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4825" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-01-08T09:43:37.867" LastActivityDate="2019-01-08T09:43:37.867" Title="Why do we people offer Prasad?" Tags="|prasad|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14164" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14163" CreationDate="2016-07-19T16:29:30.890" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Offering the prasad is referred to the prasad that is offered to lord first and then it is to be served among all the persons who will be present there.&#xA;It is believe that the prasad work as blessings which is transferred through prasad.&#xA;The prasad is not only sweet or pure water(amrit).It can be anything like tulsi leaves or anything good like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope it will help you.&#xA;Thank you.&#xA;Hare krishna :) :) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6826" LastActivityDate="2016-07-19T16:29:30.890" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14165" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8064" CreationDate="2016-07-19T17:19:47.093" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/25324/44f_chapter_10_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Pg-77) mentions it. When the whole Kalakuta poison covered the entire Brahmanda, Shiva took the form of Linga to save the Brahmanda. In midst of that, Shiva taught Ganesha the truth of Universe and creation. The sages got a doubt that how Shiva was explaining Ganesha when whole Brahmanda was under effect of Kalakuta poison and Lomasa explained it as below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages asked:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;27&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If this entire universe consisting of the mobile and immobile beings is included within Prakrti, how is it then that Ganesa  was&#xA;able to preserve his separate entity? Let this be explained.&#xA;Lomasa replied:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesa was directly born of Prakrti herself.  Ganesvara has the same form as that of Siva himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;29-30. A battle ensued between Siva and that noble-souled  one who had&#xA;been Präkrta (born of Prakrti) due to ignorance.  That battle&#xA;continued without a break for a long time. &lt;strong&gt;On observing that he was&#xA;invincible as long as he was riding  an elephant,&lt;/strong&gt; Sambhu hit him&#xA;with his trident and toppled him  down along with the elephant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;31&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Then Mahädeva the scorcher of enemies, was eulogized  by the Supreme Power (Prakrti). The lord then said to the great  Sakti, &amp;quot;O&#xA;splendid lady, choose your boon.&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;32-33. Then an excellent boon was chosen from Mahä-  deva: &amp;quot;O lord, he&#xA;who was killed by you was undoubtedly my  son. Being born of a part of&#xA;Prakrti, he is deluded. Hence he  does not know you. In order to&#xA;gratify me, resuscitate this son  of mine.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-07-19T17:19:47.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14166" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14133" CreationDate="2016-07-19T21:55:37.013" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesha's favourite food is &lt;strong&gt;Sweet Dumplings or Modaka.&lt;/strong&gt; Hindu's offer Modakas to Shree Ganesha as Neveydyam (नैवेद्यम) on &lt;strong&gt;Sankasti Chaturthi and Ganesh Chaturthi (संकष्टि चतुर्थी &amp;amp; गणेश चतुर्थी)&lt;/strong&gt; celebrations.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Shree Adi Shankarachrya (आदि शंकराचार्य)&lt;/strong&gt; describes about Sweet Dumplings or Modaka  in his &lt;strong&gt;Shree Ganesha Pancharatnam stotra (श्री गणेश पंचरत्नम स्तोत्र).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मुदाकरात्त&lt;strong&gt;मोदकं&lt;/strong&gt; सदा विमुक्तिसाधकं कलाधरावतंसकं विलासिलोकरक्षकम् ।&#xA;  अनायकैकनायकं विनाशितेभदैत्यकं नताशुभाशुनाशकं नमामि तं विनायकम् ॥१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mudaa-Karaatta-Modakam Sadaa Vimukti-Saadhakam Kalaa-Dhara-Avatamsakam&#xA;  Vilaasi-Loka-Rakssakam | Anaayakai[a-E]ka-Naayakam&#xA;  Vinaashitebha-Daityakam Nata-Ashubha-Ashu-Naashakam Namaami Vinaayakam&#xA;  ||1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;  1.1: (Salutations to Sri Vinayaka) Who Holds the Divine Joy in His Hand asModaka ( sweet dumpling) and Who Always strives&#xA;  to Accomplish the Liberation of His Devotees towards that Divine Joy,&#xA;  1.2: Who Holds the Digit of the Moon as His Ornament and with a JoyfulSpirit Protects the World,&#xA;  1.3: Who is without any Master but is Himself the only Master for His Devotees, and Protects them by Destroying the (inner) Demons,&#xA;  1.4: To those who Surrender to Him, He Destroys the Inauspicioustendencies Quickly;&#xA;  I Salute Sri Vinayaka and surrender to Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More on Ganesh Pancharatnam Stotra - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha_pancharatnam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt; here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See Full Ganesh Pancharatnam Stotra -&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_ganesha-ganesha_pancharatnam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt; here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-07-19T21:55:37.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14169" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-20T06:41:27.017" Score="1" ViewCount="155" Body="&lt;p&gt;If there is a death in the house [especially parents] what is the time frame to conduct Homam? Should it be performed after Varushapdhigam  [after one year of ceremony]? &#xA;Albeit I am doing homams this answer I do not know. Kindly quote from  puranas or bhagavathams where the solution exists.&#xA;This question is not for debate, discussion or arguments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-07-20T06:41:27.017" Title="Time Frame to perform Homam" Tags="|puranas|rituals|customs|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14170" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13600" CreationDate="2016-07-20T06:56:14.340" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Uttara Kand of Valmiki Ramayan, Vibhishana didn't die. He was commanded by Sri Rama to rule over Lanka. And Sugriva entered in Sarayu. It is described &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-121&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;as&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apprised of Rama's determination of going to heaven, Vanaras, born of the Devas, Rishis and Gandharvas taking Sugriva before them, came there to see Rama. And they all said &amp;quot;O Rama, O foremost of men, if thou dost repair to heaven forsaking us all, it will be hurling Yama s rod upon us.&amp;quot; The highly powerful &lt;strong&gt;Sugriva too saluting Rama said: &amp;quot;O lord of men, having placed Angada on the throne I have come hither&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have determined upon following thee, O King.&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;Hearing the words of Vanaras, Rama said that their desire would be fulilled&lt;/strong&gt;. He then said to Vibhishana the king of Rakshasas: &lt;strong&gt;As long as people shall breathe, O Vibhishana, O highly powerful lord of Rakshasas, thou shalt preserve thy body in Lanka&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As long as the moon, the sun and the earth shall exist and as long as my story shall remain current, thy kingdom shall be in existence. Thou didst, out of friendship, carry out my behests and perform my works. Do thou piously govern thy subjects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should not speak any thing else. What shall I say more unto thee, O highly powerful lord of Rakshasas. Worship Jagannatha (the lord of the world), the presiding deity of the Ikshwaku race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As described in above paragraphs, Sugriva also want to take Jala Samadhi and Sri Rama has fulfilled his wish. And at last Sugriva soul has entered in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-123&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sun&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vanaras and bears shall enter into their respective celestial forms. They shall enter into the Devas from whom they had respectively originated. Sugriva shall enter into the Sun s region.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02030.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Sabha Parva&lt;/a&gt;, it is described that Sahadeva has met Vibhishana while journeying for the purpose of Rajasuya Yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, O king of kings, that slayer of all foes, the virtuous and intelligent &lt;strong&gt;son of Madri having arrived at the sea-shore, then despatched with great assurance messengers unto the illustrious Vibhishana&lt;/strong&gt;, the grandson of Pulastya. And the monarch willingly accepted the sway of the son of Pandu, for that intelligent and exalted king regarded it all as the act of Time. And he sent unto the son of Pandu diverse kinds of jewels and gems, and sandal and also wood, and many celestial ornaments, and much costly apparel, and many valuable pearls. And the intelligent Sahadeva, accepting them all, returned to his own kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T04:35:16.473" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14171" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14163" CreationDate="2016-07-20T07:54:12.363" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prasad or Prasadam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hindu tradition or in Hinduism , people perform various kind of &amp;quot;Poojas&amp;quot; (पूजा) (devotional service) at homes , offices , factories and in public places , to worship various kind of gods , and to get blessings from them , show their devotion and respect toward gods. eg. SatyaNaraya Pooja , Vastu Shanti Pooja. etc. After Pooja ceremony Hindu's offer &lt;strong&gt;Neywedyam (नैवेद्य)&lt;/strong&gt; to gods or food offering to gods.Devotees believes that god accepts this food and fulfil their wishes in return.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After Neywedyam devotees share this food among all as Prasad Or Prasadam (प्रसाद , प्रसादम).&lt;/strong&gt; As this is considered God's blessed food. Or Sacred Food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God's Prasad is consided in Hinduism as '&lt;strong&gt;Anna Brahma' (अन्न ब्रह्म)&lt;/strong&gt;. Paprasad includes items like &lt;strong&gt;rice, ghee rice, mixed rice, cumin seed and asaphoetida-ginger rice mixed with salt, and dishes like sweet dal (Daliya दलिया) , plain dal mixed with vegetables, Mixed curries of different types (Sanbhar सांबर), Saaga Bhaja', (शाक सब्जी) or Mix vegetables etc.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Significance -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In its material sense, prasada is establish   a process of giving and receiving between a human Devotee and the divine god. It creates a bond in beween Humans beings &amp;amp; in-between Gods and Humans.&#xA;So &lt;strong&gt;prasad or Prasadam serves purpose of bondoing people and God together.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can find a nice  story related to Prasad or prasadam in Satyanarayan Katha (सत्यनारायण कथा). &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyanarayan_Puja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-20T07:54:12.363" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14172" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14163" CreationDate="2016-07-20T08:54:23.240" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu tradition Prasadam is the must in any temple that is offered to the Lord. Example we can take Pongal as Prasad. The pongal is made and kept before the deity and some tulsi leaves are put on that.Pronouncing 6 lines of mantra water is sprinkled  with some flower petals on the pongal. Again Punar neivedyam is done by repeating the same 6 lines mantra by sprinkling water with some flower petals. Half of the flower petals will be put in the pongal and the remaining half to the Lotus feet of the deity. Because of the neivedyam done, the taste of the Prasad will be marvellous ---mean to say the bonding between the deity and human takes place and the Prasad is offered to all devotees which will cause good to the devotees.&#xA;Synopisis is that all the things are God given and we have to offer to him before we consume. That is why Prasad is done and offered. In srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple sugar pongal is offered by 10/30 pm everyday to the God. Made of rice, jaggery,cashew, dried grapes with lot of ghee the taste is tremendous. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T12:55:04.647" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T12:55:04.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14173" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11797" CreationDate="2016-07-20T09:08:52.890" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karna very well understood that he is the son of Pandu (in theory) and Krishna is talking about securing &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; back. However, he had following reasons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kunti abandoned him without thinking about his well being&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was raised by Adhiratha's &amp;amp; his wife RAdhA in a &lt;em&gt;Suta&lt;/em&gt; traditions, hence his loyalty was not bound with PAndava-s&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He enjoyed uninterrupted kingdom for years under Duryodhana &amp;amp; was&#xA;obliged by his friendship&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna was a good match for 1:1 combat with Arjuna; and hence he was the major confidence for Duryodhana to prepare his armies to fight against powerful PAndava-s&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Karna's own words from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05141.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Udyoga Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Karna said&lt;/strong&gt;, 'Without doubt, &lt;strong&gt;O Kesava, thou hast said these words from thy love, affection, and friendship for me&lt;/strong&gt;, as also in consequence of thy desire of doing me good, O thou of Vrishni's race. I know all that thou hast said unto me. &lt;strong&gt;Morally, I am the son of Pandu&lt;/strong&gt;, as also in consequence of the injunctions of the scriptures, as thou, O Krishna, thinkest. My mother, while a maiden, bore me in her womb, O Janardana, through her connection with Surya. And at the command of Surya himself, she abandoned me as soon as I was born. Even thus, O Krishna, I came into the world. Morally, therefore, I am the son of Pandu. &lt;strong&gt;Kunti, however, abandoned me without thinking of my welfare&lt;/strong&gt;. The Suta, Adhiratha, as soon as he beheld me, took me to his home, and from her affection for me, Radha's breasts were filled with milk that very day, and she, O Madhava, cleansed my urine and evacuations. How can one like us, conversant with duties and ever engaged in listening to scriptures deprive her of her Pinda? So also &lt;strong&gt;Adhiratha&lt;/strong&gt; of the Suta class regardeth me as a son, and I too, from affection, &lt;strong&gt;always regard him as (my) father&lt;/strong&gt;. O Madhava, that Adhiratha, O Janardana, from paternal affection caused all the rites of infancy to be performed on my person, according to the rules prescribed in the scriptures. It is that Adhiratha, again, who caused the name Vasusena to be bestowed upon me by the Brahmanas. When also I attained to youth, I married wives according to his selections. Through them have been born my sons and grandsons, O Janardana. My heart also, O Krishna, and all the bonds of affection and love, are fixed on them. From joy or fear. O Govinda. &lt;strong&gt;I cannot venture to destroy those bonds&lt;/strong&gt; even for the sake of the whole earth or heaps of gold. In consequence also of my connection &lt;strong&gt;with Duryodhana of Dhritarashtra's race, I have, O Krishna, enjoyed sovereignty for thirteen years&lt;/strong&gt;, without a thorn on my side. I have performed many sacrifices, always however in connection with persons of the Suta tribe. All my family rites and marriage rites have been performed with the Sutas. Obtaining me, O Krishna, Duryodhana hath, O thou of Vrishni's race, made this preparations for an armed encounter and provoked hostilities with the sons of Pandu. And it is for this, O Achyuta, that in the battle (that will ensue), &lt;strong&gt;I have been chosen as the great antagonist of Arjuna to advance against him in a single combat&lt;/strong&gt;. For the sake of death, or the ties of blood, or fear, or temptation, I cannot venture, O Janardana, to behave falsely towards the intelligent son of Dhritarashtra. If I do not now engage in a single combat with Arjuna, this will, O Hrishikesa, be inglorious for both myself and Partha...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In subsequent conversation, Karna also suggests to Krishna not to disclose the secret of him being son of Kunti. Otherwise it would cause Yudhishtira not to accept won kingdom. However that is not the part of the question, so not adding that text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2016-07-20T09:08:52.890" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8587" CreationDate="2016-07-20T10:32:04.010" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana, almost all Vanaras are the incarnation or Ansha of some deity and so was the Nala. Nala was the son of Vishvakarma (the divine architect) and he had a boon of his father. It is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga22/yuddha_22_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yuddha Kand, Chapter 22&lt;/a&gt; as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अयम् सौम्य नलो नाम तनुजो विश्व कर्मणः |&#xA;  पित्रा दत्त वरः श्रीमान् प्रतिमो विश्व कर्मणः || २-२२-४४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O, excellent man! This one, named Nala, a glorious person, is the son of Vishvakarma; who was given a boon by his father and is equal to Visvakarma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एष सेतुम् महाउत्साहः करोतु मयि वानरः |&#xA;  तम् अहम् धारयिष्यामि तथा हि एष यथा पिता || २-२२-४५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let this greatly energetic monkey build a bridge across me. I can hold that bridge. He is just the same as his father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-19T07:11:08.333" LastActivityDate="2017-05-19T07:11:08.333" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14175" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14153" CreationDate="2016-07-20T10:32:39.657" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimathe Ramanujaya namaha!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thiruman is obtained from medium grade metamorphic rock. It is defined by having more than 50% platy and elongated minerals. It is found mainly in Melkote, Karnataka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pundraka -(Urdhva pundra in Sanskrit), (Thiruman, or Thirunamam in Tamil) - ritual mark, means holy mud, is applied on the foreheads of devotees of Sri Narayana, and Lord Vishnu himself wears it on His forehead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devotees apply it as a mark of respect to Lord Vishnu, denoting they are holding His Lotus Feet on their forehead. The two white lines represent the feet of the Lord, and the red line represents Lakshmi Thaayar who is ever present with Him. According to other sources, the left line represent Lord Brahma, the right line Lord Siva and the middle portion is where Lord Narayana dwells with Mother Lakshmi.&#xA;The meaning of Him wearing it is to show the Bhaktha that the protection to him is from all possible direction, if he surrenders to the Lord.&#xA;Each thiruman placed on the body represents a different name of Sriman Narayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;forehead Kesava&#xA;belly Narayana&#xA;chest  Madhava&#xA;throat Govinda&#xA;right side Vishnu&#xA;right arm Madhusudana&#xA;right shoulder Trivikrama&#xA;left side Vamana&#xA;left arm Sridhara&#xA;left shoulder Hrisikesha&#xA;upper back Padmanabha&#xA;lower back Damodara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2020-12-01T15:04:12.537" LastActivityDate="2020-12-01T15:04:12.537" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14176" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9887" CreationDate="2016-07-20T12:00:27.300" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas clearly state about multiple rebirth in many places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some relevant quotes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kathopanishad of Krishna YajurVeda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हन्त त इदं प्रवक्ष्यामि गुह्यं ब्रह्म सनातनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथा च मरणं प्राप्य आत्मा भवति गौतम ॥ ६॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  योनिमन्ये प्रपद्यन्ते शरीरत्वाय देहिनः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्थाणुमन्येऽनुसंयन्ति यथाकर्म यथाश्रुतम् ॥ ७॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2-II-6. I will describe to thee, O Gautama, this secret ancient Brahman and also &lt;strong&gt;what becomes of the Self after death.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2-II-7. &lt;strong&gt;Some jivas enter the womb for assuming bodies; others go into the unmoving, in accordance with their karma and with their knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BrihadAranyaka Upanishad of Shukla YajurVeda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ज॒यन्ति, ते॒ धूम॒मभिस॒म्भवन्ति,धूमा॒द्रा॒त्रिॅ रा॒त्रेरपक्षीयमाणपक्ष॒म् अपक्षीयमाणपक्षा॒द्या॒न्ष॒ण्मा॒सान्दक्षिणा॒दित्य॒ ए॒ति,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मा॒सेभ्यः पितृलोकं॒, पितृलोका॒च्चन्द्रं॒;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ते॒ चन्द्रं॒ प्रा॒प्या॒न्नं भवन्ति;ता॒ स् त॒त्र देवा॒ य॒था सो॒म रा॒जानम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आ॒प्यायस्व,अ॒पक्षीयस्वे॒ति एव॒मेना स् त॒त्र भक्षयन्ति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ते॒षां यदा॒ त॒त्पर्यवै॒ति अ॒थेम॒मेवा॒काश॒मभिनि॒ष्पद्यन्त,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आकाशा॒द्वायुं॒,वायो॒र्वृष्टिं॒,वृष्टेः॒ पृथिवीं॒; ते॒ पृथिवीं॒ प्राप्या॒न्नं भवन्ति; ततो योषाग्नौ जायन्ते । त॒ एव॒मेवा॒नुप॒रिवर्तन्ते॒ ।अथ य॒ एतौ॒ प॒न्थानौ न॒ विदुः॒ ते॒ कीटाः॒, पत॒ङ्गा,य॒दिदं॒ दन्दशू॒कम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  VI-ii-16: While those who conquer the worlds through sacrifices, charity and austerity, reach the deity of smoke, from him the deity of the night, from him the deity of the fortnight in which the moon wanes, from him the deities of the six months in which the sun travels southward, from them the deity of the world of the manes, and from him the moon. Reaching the moon they become food. There the gods enjoy them as the priests drink the shining Soma juice (gradually, saying, as it were), ‘Flourish, dwindle’. &lt;strong&gt;And when their past work is exhausted,&lt;/strong&gt; they reach (become like) this ether, from the ether air, from air rain, and from rain the earth. Reaching the earth they become food. Then they are again offered in the fire of man, thence in the fire of woman, whence they are born (and perform rites) with a view to going to other worlds. Thus do they rotate. &lt;strong&gt;While those others who do not know these two ways become insects and moths, and these frequently biting things (gnats and mosquitoes).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad of SamaVeda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तद्य इह रमणीयचरणा अभ्याशो ह यत्ते रमणीयां&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  योनिमापद्येरन्ब्राह्मणयोनिं वा क्षत्रिययोनिं वा वैश्ययोनिं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वाथ य इह कपूयचरणा अभ्याशो ह यत्ते कपूयां&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  योनिमापद्येरञ्श्वयोनिं वा सूकरयोनिं वा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चण्डालयोनिं वा ॥ ५.१०.७॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  V-x-7: Among them, &lt;strong&gt;those who have good residual results of action here&lt;/strong&gt; (earned in this world and left as residue after the enjoyment in the region of the moon), &lt;strong&gt;quickly reach a good womb,&lt;/strong&gt; the womb of a&#xA;  Brahmana, or of a Kshatriya or of a Vaisya. But those who have bad residual results of action &lt;strong&gt;quickly reach an evil womb,&lt;/strong&gt; the womb of a dog or of a hog or of a Chandala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Vedas not only suggest but also clearly describe concepts of multiple Rebirths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-07-20T12:00:27.300" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14177" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9986" CreationDate="2016-07-20T12:15:40.500" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This information is obtained from various online sources and scholars who have done sufficient research in this area.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rigveda (Mandala X, Sukta 130, Mantra 3), we have the statement&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'kAsIt pramA pratimA'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;which means 'what was the size and what was the deity form (mUrti form) of that God?'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sayana's Bhashya for 'pratimA' here goes as 'pratimA means the vigraha form which the God takes in order to accept the sacrificial offerings in a yajna' (haviH prati yogitvena mIyate nirmIyata iti pratimA devatA'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition, there is a description of the yajna called 'iShTishayanaM'. (Taittiriya Samhita 5.2.7) There is an instruction to conduct the yajna with a form similar to that of Garuda using bricks. Here, we also find the following statement:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'If one worships the golden mUrti of Purusha seated on the mUrti of that bird, the conductor of the sacrifices (yajamAna) obtains all glory'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is an obvious reference to Lord Vishnu seated on His mount, Garuda.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition, it is said in the Ramayana that Rama worshiped Lord Vishnu (Himself) in the mUrti form inside ayodhya (in Ayodhya Kanda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this worship, Valmiki states that Lord Rama performed a Vedic yajna in the temple for the purpose of this worship. In addition, when Rama goes to the hermitage of Agastya (in Aranya Kanda), he finds that Agastya, the sage, had consecrated the mUrti forms of many Vedic devatas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These two incidents also support the fact that mUrti pUja is supported by the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in Vyasa Mahabharata has references to deity worship of Siva by Aswatthama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Deity worship is as as old as Vedas themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is truly unfortunate, that well known individuals and modern day Gurus make irresponsible statements' like there were no Idol or deity worship in ancient Indian scriptures (Here I am assuming what Marcus has quoted is true)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even, Linga worship is nothing but deity, saguna worship only, however hard and deseperately one tries to argue Nirguna and what not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such irresponsible statements will only strengthen the Abrahamic religions and  in the process might hurt our Sanatana Hindu dharma, in the long run.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to Raama worshiping Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Valmiki Ramayana 6.123.19 verse of Yuddha Khanda is as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etat kukShau samudrasya skandhaavaaraniveshanam || 6-123-19&#xA;atra puurvaM mahaadevaH prasaadamakarotprabhuH |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now many people jump to conclusions that this word Mahadeva word refers to Siva only trying to infer meanings by referring to contexts where Siva is addressed as Mahadeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Mahadeva word can also be an epithet used to address Lord of Ocean in this context, as there are many instances in Vedas, ithihasas, puranas where common names like Mahadeva, Iswara, Maheswara etc are used to address other deities also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentaries on Valmiki Ramayana by Maheswara tirtha (Advatin) called tattva dipa and Bhushana of Govinda Raja clearly say that the &amp;quot;Mahadeva&amp;quot; in the verse 6.123.19 of Valmiki Ramayana refers to Lord of Ocean, Samudraraja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maheshvara Tirtha, the advaitic commentator, says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mahAdeva is samudrarAja only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also says, even if mahAdeva is Siva, it only refers to his aShTamUrti form as water, who served bhagavAn by bearing the rocks that formed the sEthu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;maheshvara tIrtha  further shows why mahAdeva is samudra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) It is more suited to the context,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) according to nighaNTu shAstras, &amp;quot;mahat&amp;quot; is a name for water, and hence &amp;quot;mahAdeva&amp;quot; is the deity who controls the water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With all the above proofs, it is safe to conclude that Mahadeva in verse 6.123.19 of Valmiki Ramayana refers to Lord of Ocean or Samudraraja only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To further add to these the first Ramayana in vernacular, Indian languages, Kamba Ramayana by famous Poet Kamban in tamil in 9-10 century doesnt say anything about Raama worshipping Linga or Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From all these it is very clear there was no worship of Siva or Linga by Raama in Valmiki Ramayana in Yuddha Khanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-21T10:43:19.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14179" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-20T18:23:50.050" Score="10" ViewCount="4112" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/philosophy/associates/demigods/kandarpa.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kandarpa&lt;/a&gt; is a person who only uses his sexual power to beget good children from his dharmapatni or wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So for being a kandarpa, a person can only have sexual contact with his wife for having children. Therefore any type of sexual activity without this holy purpose is cause of attachment. Some even consider non-kardarpa bhoga as sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if being kandarpa is ideal and not sinful then, &lt;strong&gt;does this mean using contraceptive methods specifically condoms&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;birth control pills are sins&lt;/strong&gt; because we waste our seed without a reason (i.e., being non-kandarpa)?&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What do Dharma Shastras say about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasectomy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vasectomy&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is Vasectomy considered a contraception and thus a sin?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-24T00:00:28.153" LastActivityDate="2019-02-26T01:19:36.740" Title="On use of contraceptive methods and enjoying sex-life without being kandarpa" Tags="|dharma|marriage|sin|sex|kamadeva|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14180" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14116" CreationDate="2016-07-20T23:45:45.807" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is my preliminary answer. This is per the understanding of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, but is more or less like in other Vaishnava traditions although there could be some differences in understanding:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satyaloka is also known as Brahmaloka, it is a planet of god Brahma, who is one of 3 main gods per the Hindu dharma: Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva (Rudra). It is said that this is the highest material planet in this material universe, so there is no material planet or world (loka) above it. See, even the word &lt;em&gt;brahmaloka&lt;/em&gt; is explained as &quot;planet or world of god Brahma&quot; (&lt;em&gt;brahma&lt;/em&gt; -- god Brahma; &lt;em&gt;loka&lt;/em&gt; -- planet, the world).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is said in the Bhagavad-gita 8.16 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/16&lt;/a&gt; that from the highest planet in the material world (Brahmaloka planet) down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place, but they who attain to Lord Krishna never take birth again because they are souls who are free or liberated from &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt; (repeated births and deaths), ie they have achieved &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; (liberation).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is also confirmed in the previous verse 8.15 where it is stated that those souls have attained the highest perfection, ie there is no perfection higher than that:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/15&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After attaining Me&lt;/strong&gt;, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, &lt;strong&gt;never&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;return to this temporary world&lt;/strong&gt;, which is full of miseries, &lt;strong&gt;because&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;they have attained the highest perfection&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So even if you go to the Satyaloka also known as Brahmaloka (planet of god Brahma), you'll not be liberated from &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt; (repeated births and deaths), ie you'll not achieve &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; (liberation).  But if you go to the Lord Krishna's own planet or the world, his abode, you'll attain to the highest perfection and you'll be liberated from &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;, and you can stay there forever, eternally, as a liberated soul (&lt;em&gt;mukta&lt;/em&gt; soul, or one who has achieved &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;). Thus the position of the Lord Krishna's planet is higher or superior in quality to the planet of god Brahma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a difference in understanding of this issue per the different systems of Vedanta. It could be that per understanding of the Advaita system of Vedanta when we realize ourselves as an Atma we stay to be that Atma and thus we are completely one with the Absolute, and we lose our individual existence of a jiva (jivatma).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But per understanding of all the systems of Vaishnava Vedanta when we realise ourselves as an atma (jivatma) and the Lord as the huge Atma (Paramatma) we stay to be that individual jiva (jivatma) forever, eternally, and thus we never become one with the Absolute completely, and we never lose our individual existence of a jiva, even when we reach Brahman. Thus even when we get moksha (liberation) and when we reach Brahman, we stay to be an individual jivatma, and we have our eternal relationship with our Lord who is Paramatma, and that continues forever, eternally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus per the Vaishnava systems of Vedanta when you realize yourself as a soul (jivatma) in the relationship with your Lord (Paramatma), ie Lord Krishna, you go to his supreme abode or planet called Goloka that is said to be in Vaikuntha eternal world. There you can stay eternally as a liberated soul achieved &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; (liberation).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;That is the highest possible achievement and a spiritual perfection for the soul, and there is nothing higher than this. Vaishnava systems do not accept an idea that a jiva soul (jivatma) can lose his individual existence as a jiva soul and completely became one with Brahman. According to the Vaishnava systems a jiva soul (jivatma) stay to exist eternally as one individual with Brahman (or Paramatma) who is also eternal but other individual in the form of Lord Krishna (Vishnu or Narayana), there in his eternal abode of Vaikuntha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kailash is said to be the abode of Lord Rudra (Shiva) in this material world. So it is not eternal and it is not superior in quality to the material planets of the material world. Thus it's not an abode of eternal &lt;em&gt;mukti&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; (liberation) from &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I'm not sure what you wanted to ask about &lt;em&gt;shakti&lt;/em&gt;.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many Shaiva traditions, and as far as I know some of them believe philosophical concepts similar to Vaishnavas, like I said above in the answer just as Vaishnavas who are devotees (bhaktas) of Lord Vishnu will reach their eternal Lord Vishnu (Krishna) in Vaikuntha and stay there together with Him eternally in the state of &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; (liberation), similarly devotees (bhaktas) of Lord Shiva will also reach their Lord Shiva on his own planet called Sadashivaloka in the world that is above this material world and thus above Satyaloka, and they will stay there eternally in the state of &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; (liberation). Thus there is no loss of individuality of jivatma. This Sadashivaloka planet is also eternal like Vaikuntha or Goloka, and it is also a place of eternal &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; (liberation). Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe that also.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But what is important to understand here is that this Lord Shiva who is sometimes called Sadashiva is not the same as Shiva who is one of the 3 main gods in this material universe (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva), but is other god Shiva and is eternal Lord who is living eternally on Sadashivaloka which is one of the planets in Vaikuntha. Thus there are two different gods called Shiva or Rudra. One is living here in this material universe, and the other is there in Vaikuntha on his own eternal planet Sadashivaloka. If you reach Lord Shiva living here in this material universe you will not be liberated from &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;. You'll be liberated in &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; only if you reach Lord Shiva (Sadashiva) living there on Sadashivaloka in Vaikuntha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there could be some Shaiva traditions who believe philosophical concepts similar to Advaita Vedanta system. They believe that they will become completely one with Shiva and that they will lose individual existence as jivatma, and that &quot;Shiva&quot; is not a person or God, but is some impersonal entity without any personal features, similarly like Advaitins believe. There could be other beliefs also. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The concept of Shakti is not quite related to all this. But it can be said that Shakti is power or energy of God who appears as a personal female entity (goddess) in the form of His consort, and she is His servant and eternal devotee. Thus Lord Vishnu's &lt;em&gt;shakti&lt;/em&gt; is goddess Lakshmi, ie Lord Vishnu's eternal consort. And Lord Sadashiva's &lt;em&gt;shakti&lt;/em&gt; is goddess Durga who is his eternal consort. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="2790" LastEditDate="2016-08-12T04:38:31.167" LastActivityDate="2016-08-12T04:38:31.167" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14181" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-21T02:00:04.873" Score="2" ViewCount="66" Body="&lt;p&gt;Body can move automatically ? Or there is somebody or now days or may be confidential God is moving ? If all this questions answered is yes GOD is created and moving. Then one last question what we are doing in this miserable world with three types of life childish, youngish and old age with limited life ? Thank-you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7077" LastActivityDate="2016-07-21T02:41:20.440" Title="God is created all the life of world" Tags="|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-07-21T05:55:52.777" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14182" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14181" CreationDate="2016-07-21T02:28:38.277" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Brahman is the ultimate cause of everything in Vedanta. Kenopanishad starts with beautiful questioning regarding this matter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;केनेषितं पतति प्रेषितं मनः&#xA;      केन प्राणः प्रथमः प्रैति युक्तः ।&#xA;  केनेषितां वाचमिमां वदन्ति&#xA;      चक्षुः श्रोत्रं क उ देवो युनक्ति ॥ १॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रोत्रस्य श्रोत्रं मनसो मनो यद्&#xA;      वाचो ह वाचं स उ प्राणस्य प्राणः ।&#xA;  चक्षुषश्चक्षुरतिमुच्य धीराः&#xA;      प्रेत्यास्माल्लोकादमृता भवन्ति ॥ २॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न तत्र चक्षुर्गच्छति न वाग्गच्छति नो मनः ।&#xA;  न विद्मो न विजानीमो यथैतदनुशिष्यात् ॥ ३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्यदेव तद्विदितादथो अविदितादधि ।&#xA;  इति शुश्रुम पूर्वेषां ये नस्तद्व्याचचक्षिरे ॥ ४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I-1. Wished by whom is the mind directed to fall (on its objects)? Directed by whom does the foremost vital air move? By whom is wished this speech which the people utter? Who is the radiant being that unites the eye and the ear (with their objects)? &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I-2. Because He is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech of speech, the vital air of the vital air, and the eye of the eye, the wise, freeing themselves (from the identity with the senses) and renouncing&#xA;  the world, become immortal. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I-3. The eye does not reach there, nor speech, nor mind, nor do we know (Its mature). Therefore we don’t know how to impart instruction (about It). Distinct indeed is That from the known and distinct from the unknown. Thus have we heard from the ancients who expounded It to us. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I-4. &lt;strong&gt;That which is not uttered by speech, that by which the word is expressed, know That alone to be Brahman,&lt;/strong&gt; and not this (non-Brahman) which is being worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then for your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why is our body undergoes childhood, young and old stages and finally we have to die?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We get body due to past life actions. Had we get body of gods (devatas) then we won't suffer from oldness (but still we would have death of that body).&#xA;Chandogya Upanishad states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तद्य इह रमणीयचरणा अभ्याशो ह यत्ते रमणीयां&#xA;  योनिमापद्येरन्ब्राह्मणयोनिं वा क्षत्रिययोनिं वा वैश्ययोनिं&#xA;  वाथ य इह कपूयचरणा अभ्याशो ह यत्ते कपूयां&#xA;  योनिमापद्येरञ्श्वयोनिं वा सूकरयोनिं वा&#xA;  चण्डालयोनिं वा ॥ ५.१०.७॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  V-x-7: Among them, &lt;strong&gt;those who have good residual results of action here&lt;/strong&gt; (earned in this world and left as residue after the enjoyment in the region of the moon), quickly &lt;strong&gt;reach a good womb,&lt;/strong&gt; the womb of a Brahmana, or of a Kshatriya or of a Vaisya. But those &lt;strong&gt;who have bad residual results of action&lt;/strong&gt; quickly &lt;strong&gt;reach an evil womb, the womb of a dog or of a hog&lt;/strong&gt; or of a Chandala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is past life action which determines in which type of body we are now. However there are great saints like Markandeya who have stopped ageing even in human body also. It is also related with their Karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding misery of Samsara, actually there is no misery at all (according to Advaita). It is just perceived due to Ignorance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is neither dissolution nor creation, &lt;strong&gt;none in bondage&lt;/strong&gt; and none practicing disciplines. &lt;strong&gt;There is none seeking Liberation and none liberated.&lt;/strong&gt; This is the absolute truth. [Gaudapada Karika Chapter 2 verse 32]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the goal of life (according to Advaita) is just to remove veil of ignorance through Jnanam so that we may see the absolute truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-21T02:41:20.440" LastActivityDate="2016-07-21T02:41:20.440" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14183" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="919" CreationDate="2016-07-21T04:47:55.250" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually Ayurveda is upaveda of Rigveda according to Charaka which are logically and theoretically affiliated in the ancient time. Ayurveda is firstly described in the Mahabharata (achikitsiya granth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7202" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-06-25T09:38:09.363" LastActivityDate="2019-06-25T09:38:09.363" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14184" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-21T05:05:15.560" Score="2" ViewCount="474" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the purna avatara of Vishnu, in Mahabharatha, depicted in Bhagavad Gita, In his complete form Vishnu advises yoga states and core of the upanishads and vedas to Arjuna.At the start He shows himself as the &quot;one and only&quot;,with all the gods and entire cosmos in him.&#xA;Being &quot;Advaita&quot;.&#xA;The question is: how come Hinduism still is the most supported Polytheism?&#xA;Why did Krishna Give the knowledge of vedas to a Kshatriya,as Arjuna was instead of anyone Brahmana kula ?&#xA;Why should the single god as in Krishna worship someone in himself as in Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7201" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-21T15:50:22.170" LastActivityDate="2016-07-21T15:50:22.170" Title="Monotheism and Hinduism" Tags="|mahabharata|shiva|vedas|krishna|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14185" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14939" CreationDate="2016-07-21T06:03:36.973" Score="10" ViewCount="1798" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am doing Shivan pooja the following way:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Flowers/prasadam for guru, followed by small shlokam for guru&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Flowers/prasadam for Ganesh, followed by chanting Om gum ganapathaye namaha 108 times&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chanting rudram and doing Shivan abhishekam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Abhishekam is done by first pouring water, then milk, then pouring water again. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Then decorating Shiva (i.e. flowers, thilakam, etc)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Singing Sivan song&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Finally, showing arthi and singing Mantra pushpam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But is this the proper way of doing so? I am doing this based on readings online, but I want to be advised on proper protocol. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5101" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-07-21T06:14:18.430" LastActivityDate="2016-09-15T09:43:19.293" Title="What is the proper way to do Shiva Pooja?" Tags="|shiva|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14186" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14184" CreationDate="2016-07-21T06:38:58.253" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism recognises one non Dual Supreme God. Many Gods seen are just the forms of the one Supreme Lord. Actually these Gods are called Devatas but in English they are wrongly translated as Gods, some also translate them as demi-gods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, most of the Gods in Hinduism are either direct form of Supreme Lord or they are just title and one can get them by doing virtuous action. For eg. Indra is a name of Devata (god), but every person has potential to become Indra by doing Virtuous action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However the Supreme Lord is non dual and only one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad (6.11) states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एको देवः&lt;/strong&gt; सर्वभूतेषु गूढः सर्वव्यापी सर्वभूतान्तरात्मा।&#xA;  कर्माध्यक्षः सर्वभूताधिवासः साक्षी चेता केवलो निर्गुणश्च ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The non−dual&lt;/strong&gt; and resplendent &lt;strong&gt;Lord&lt;/strong&gt; is hidden in all beings. All−pervading, the inmost Self&#xA;  of all creatures, the impeller to actions, abiding in all things, He is the Witness, the Animator&#xA;  and the Absolute, free from gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the term &lt;strong&gt;Eko Deva&lt;/strong&gt; is used it means one Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now philosophical difference arises. As per Advaita the self of all including Gods also is Nirguna Brahman which is formless and attributeless. So, Nirguna Brahman became the only one Lord and self of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Vishishtadvaita one God which has form is the self of the self or Antaryami of the self. As per Vaishnavas it is Lord Vishnu who remains as self of self and as per Shaivites it is Lord Shiva who remains as self of self. But still they all tell there is only one God who is self of self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding many varieties of Gods having various name and forms, they are just manifestations of the single non dual God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding worship of different Gods, if they are worshipped by desiring salvation/ liberation all finally lead towards the single non dual lord finally. Skandha Purana [Yajna Vaibhava Khanda] states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथा तोय प्रवाहाणां समुद्र परमावधि । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथैव सर्व मार्गाणां साक्षान्निष्ठा महेश्वर ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Just as all path of streams finally reach to the Great Sea. Similarly all Paths for God lead to the Great God himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-21T10:28:04.017" LastActivityDate="2016-07-21T10:28:04.017" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14187" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14196" CreationDate="2016-07-21T07:48:19.893" Score="5" ViewCount="1520" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Shani's Sade Sati really affects our luck. I have heard from many people that Shani's Sade Sati have ill effects on our luck and career. What is it and What's its origin? Also what are the remedies for it to lower its affect?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4739" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-07-22T07:39:54.390" LastActivityDate="2016-07-22T07:39:54.390" Title="Does Shani Sade Sati really affects?" Tags="|belief|astrology|shani|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14188" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14093" CreationDate="2016-07-21T09:14:55.910" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In kamba Ramayanam, Kambar states that Lord Rama is always quiet, he do not get angry, soft spoken, never hate anybody, respect shown to parents, elders, rishis etc. Of course Lord Rama showed how a human should live by having these qualities. For that only he took that avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-07-21T09:14:55.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14189" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10025" CreationDate="2016-07-21T09:38:43.563" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shaving/Haircut also called Kshoura Karma is not allowed on all days. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When shaving beard, start from right side. then cut the mustache, armpits and then at last haircut. Then shave whichever hairs are are to be shaven and then cut the nails at the end.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ekadasi, Chaturdasi, Amavasya, Poornima, Sankranti, Vyatipaata, days of Vrata and sraaddha, Tuesday and Saturday are prohibited for Kshoura Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kshoura Karma on sunday, saturday, tuesday will decrease the life by 1,7,8 months respectively. Kshoura Karma on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday will increase life by 7,5,10,11 months respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those Gruhastha who want or have sons are not allowed to do on Monday. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those who want Vidya and Lakshmi are not allowed on Thursday.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above points are taken from &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia802504.us.archive.org/34/items/HindiBookNityaKarmPoojaPrakashCompletebyGitaPress/Hindi%20Book-Nitya-Karm-Pooja-Prakash(Complete)by%20Gita%20Press.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nitya Karma Puja Prakash by Gita Press&lt;/a&gt;. They cite references from Gruhya Sutras, Taittiriya Brahmanam and Varahi Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do not know about Sanyasi Dharmas, so I am not quoting them. But one can refer to Yati Dharma Sangraha of Vishweswara Saraswati (published as 60th book in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Anandashram_Samskrita_Granthavali_Anandashram_Sanskrit_Series&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anandashram Sanskrit Series&lt;/a&gt; marked as ASS_060 ) which describes the Kshoura Vidhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-07-21T09:38:43.563" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14190" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="679" CreationDate="2016-07-21T10:43:30.010" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two versions of this story that I know. One version can be found in Mahabharata, Ashwamedha Parva &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m14009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION IX&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m14010.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION X&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vrihaspati said, &quot;O Indra, I have heard that Marutta will perform a great&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sacrifice at which exquisite presents will be given by him (to Brahmanas) and that at his sacrifice Samvarta will act as the officiating priest, and therefore do I desire that he may not officiate as priest at that sacrifice.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra said, &quot;Thou, O Brahmana, hast attained all the object of thy desire when thou hast become the excellent priest of the gods, versed in all the sacred hymns, and hast overreached the influence of death and dotage, what can Samvarta do to thee now?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vrihaspati said, &quot;Prosperity of a rival is always painful to one's feelings, and for this reason too, thou dost with try attendant gods persecute the Asuras with their kith and kin, and kill the most prosperous among them; hence, O Lord of the gods, am I changed in appearance at the thought that my rival is prospering, therefore, O Indra, do thou, by all means, restrain Samvarta and king Marutta.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra turning to Agni said, &quot;Do thou, O Jataveda, following my direction, go to king Marutta to present Vrihaspati to him, and say unto him that this Vrihaspati will officiate at his sacrifice and make him immortal.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agni said, &quot;I shall presently, O adorable one, repair thither as thy messenger, to present Vrihaspati to king Marutta; and to make Indra's words true, and to show respect to Vrihaspati, Agni departed.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, &quot;Then the high-souled fire-god went on his errand, devastating all the forests and trees, like unto the mighty wind, roaring and revolving at random at the end of the winter season.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Marutta said, &quot;Behold! I find the fire-god come in his own embodiment, this day, therefore do thou, O Muni, offer him a seat and water, and a cow, and water for washing the feet.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agni said, &quot;I accept thy offerings of water, seat, and water for washing the feet, O sinless one, do thou know me as the messenger of Indra, come to thee, in accordance with his directions.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Marutta said, &quot;O Fire-god, is the glorious Lord of the Celestials happy, and is he pleased with us, and are the other gods loyal to him? Do thou enlighten me duly on all these points.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agni said, &quot;O lord of the earth, Sakra is perfectly happy, he is pleased with thee, and wishes to make thee free from senility, and all the other gods are loyal to him. Do thou, O king, listen to the message of the Lord of the Celestials. And the object for which he has sent me to thee is to present Vrihaspati to Marutta. O prince, let this priest (of the Celestials) perform thy sacrifice, and make thee, who art only a mortal, attain immortality.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Marutta said, &quot;This twice-born Brahmana Samvarta will perform my sacrifice, and I pray to Vrihaspati, that he having acted as priest to Mahendra (Indra), it does not look well for him now to act as priest to mortal men.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agni said, &quot;If this Vrihaspati officiate as thy priest, then shalt thou by the blessings of Devaraja (Indra) attain the highest region in the celestial mansion and attaining fame shalt thou certainly conquer the heavenly region. And, O lord of men, if Vrihaspati act as thy priest, thou shalt be able to conquer all the regions inhabited by men, and the heavenly regions, and all the highest regions created by Prajapati and even the entire kingdom of the gods.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samvarta said, &quot;Thou must never come again thus to present Vrihaspati to Marutta: for know, O Pavaka, (Agni) if thou dost, I losing my temper, will burn thee with my fierce evil eyes.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Indra send a Gandharva naming Dhritrastra to convey his message.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Indra said, &quot;Even so it is; the might of Brahmanas is great and there are none more powerful than Brahmanas, but I can never bear with equanimity the insolent pride of Avikshita's son, and so shall I smite him with my thunderbolt. Therefore, O Dhritarashtra, do thou according to my direction repair to king Marutta attended by Samvarta, and deliver this message to him--'Do thou, O prince, accept Vrihaspati as thy spiritual preceptor, as otherwise, I shall strike thee with my terrific thunderbolt.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, &quot;Then Dhritarashtra betook himself to that monarch's court and delivered this message to him from Vasava.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhritarashtra said, &quot;O lord of men, know that I am Dhritarashtra the Gandharva, come here with the object of delivering to thee the message of Indra. Do thou, O lion among kings, listen to the words which the high-souled lord of all the worlds meant for thee,--That one of incomprehensible achievements (Indra) only said this much, 'Do thou accept Vrihaspati as thy officiating priest for the sacrifice, or if thou do not comply with my request, I shall strike thee with my terrific thunderbolt.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Marutta said, &quot;Thou, O Purandara, the Viswadevas, the Vasus and the Aswins ye all know, that in this world there is no escape from the consequences of playing false to a friend; it is a great sin like unto that of murdering a Brahman. Let Vrihaspati (therefore) officiate as priest to that Mahendra the supreme Deva (god), the highest one wielding the thunderbolt, and O prince, Samvarta will act as my priest, as neither his (Indra's) words, nor thine commend themselves to me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Gandharva said, &quot;Do thou, O lion among princes, listen to the terrible war-cry of Vasava roaring, in the heavens. Assuredly, and openly will Mahendra hurl his thunderbolt at thee. Do thou therefore be-think thyself of thy good, for this is the time to do it.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, &quot;Thus accosted by Dhritarashtra, and hearing the roar of howling Vasava, the king communicated this intelligence to Samvarta steadfast in devotion and the highest of all virtuous men.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Marutta said, &quot;Verily this rain-cloud floating in the air indicates that Indra must be near at present, therefore, O prince of Brahmanas, I seek shelter from thee. Do thou, O best of Brahmanas, remove this fear of Indra from my mind. The Wielder of the thunderbolt is coming encompassing the ten directions of space with his terrible and superhuman refulgence and my assistants at this sacrificial assembly have been overcome with fright.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samvarta said, &quot;O lion among kings, thy fear of Sakra will soon be dispelled, and I shall soon remove this terrible pain by means of my magic lore (incantation); be calm and have no fear of being overpowered by India. Thou hast nothing to fear from the god of a hundred sacrifices. I shall use my staying charms, O king, and the weapons of all the gods will avail them not. Let the lightening flash in all the directions of space, and the winds entering into the clouds pour down the showers amid the forests and the waters deluge the heavens and the flashes of lightning that are seen will avail not. Thou hast nothing to fear, let Vasava pour down the rains and plast his terrific thunderbolt where he will, floating among the watery masses (clouds) for thy destruction, for the god Vahnni (Agni) will protect thee in every way, and make thee attain all the objects of thy desire.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Marutta said, &quot;This appalling crash of the thunderbolt together with the howling of the winds, seem terrible to my ears and my heart is afflicted again and again, O Brahmana, and my peace of mind is gone at present.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samvarta said, &quot;O king, the fear in thy mind from this terrible thunderbolt will leave thee presently. I shall dispel the thunder by the aid of the winds, and setting aside all fear from thy mind, do thou accept a boon from me according to thy heart's desire, and I shall accomplish it for thee.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Marutta said, &quot;I desire, O Brahmana, that Indra all on a sudden should come in person at this sacrifice, and accept the oblation offered to him, and that all the other gods also come and take their own shares of the offerings and accept the libations of Soma offered to them.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samvarta said, &quot;I have by the power of my incantations attracted Indra in person to this sacrifice. Behold, O monarch, Indra coming with his horses, and worshipped by the other gods hastening to this sacrifice.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the lord of the Devas attended by the other gods and riding in his chariot drawn by the most excellent steeds, approached the sacrificial altar of that son of Avikshit and drank the Soma libations of that unrivalled monarch. And king Marutta with his priest rose to receive Indra coming with the host of gods and well-pleased in mind, he welcomed the lord of the Devas with due and foremost honours according to the Sastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samvarta said, &quot;Welcome to thee, O Indra, by thy presence here, O learned one, this sacrifice has been made grand. O slayer or Vala and Vritra. do thou again quaff this Soma juiced produced by me today.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Marutta said, &quot;Do thou look with kindness upon me, I bow unto thee, O Indra, by thy presence, my sacrifice has been perfected, and my life too blessed with good results. O Surendra, this excellent Brahmana, the younger brother of Vrihaspati is engaged in performing my sacrifices.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra said. &quot;&lt;strong&gt;I know thy priest, this highly energetic ascetic, the younger brother of Vrihaspati, at whose invitation I have come to this sacrifice. I am, O monarch, well-pleased with thee and my resentment against thee hath been destroyed.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samvarta said, &quot;If, O prince of the Devas, thou art pleased with us, do thou thyself give all the directions for this sacrifice, and O Surendra, thyself ordain the sacrificial portions (for the gods), so that, O god, all the world may know that it hath been done by thee.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, &quot;Thus accosted by the son of Angira, Sakra himself gave directions to all the gods to erect the hall of assembly, and a thousand well-furnished excellent rooms looking grand as in a picture, and speedily to complete the staircase massive and durable, for the ascent of the Gandharvas and Apsaras and to furnish that portion of the sacrificial ground reserved for the dance of the Apsaras, like unto the palace of Indra in the heaven. O king, thus directed, the renowned dwellers of heaven speedily fulfilled the directions of Sakra. And then, O king, Indra well-pleased and adored, thus said to king Marutta,--O prince, by associating with thee at this sacrifice, thine ancestors who have gone before thee, as well as the other gods have been highly gratified and have accepted the oblations offered by thee. And now, O king, let the foremost of regenerate beings offer on the sacrificial altar a red bull appertaining to the Fire-god and a sacred and duly consecrated blue bull with a variegated skin, appertaining to the Viswedevas. Then, O king, the sacrificial ceremony grew in splendour, wherein the gods themselves collected the food, and Sakra, the lord of the gods, possessed of horses, and worshipped by the Brahmanas, became an assistant at the sacrifice. &lt;strong&gt;And then the high-souled Samvarta ascending the altar, and looking radiant as the second embodiment of the blazing fire, loudly addressing the gods with complaisance, offered oblations of clarified butter to the fire with incantation of the sacred hymns. And then the slayer of Vala first drank the Soma juice, and then the assembly of other gods drank Soma. And then in happiness and with the king's permission they returned home and well-pleased and delighted&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the yagna was completed successfully. Almost similar version of story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimada Bhagavatam SB 9.2&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.2.26 — From Karandhama came a son named Avīkṣit, and from Avīkṣit a son named Marutta, who was the emperor. The great mystic Saṁvarta, the son of Aṅgirā, engaged Marutta in performing a sacrifice [yajña].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.2.27 — The sacrificial paraphernalia of King Marutta was extremely beautiful, for everything was made of gold. Indeed, no other sacrifice could compare to his.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.2.28 — In that sacrifice, King Indra became intoxicated by drinking a large quantity of soma-rasa. The brāhmaṇas received ample contributions, and therefore they were satisfied. For that sacrifice, the various demigods who control the winds offered foodstuffs, and the Viśvedevas were members of the assembly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, another version of story is described in Uttar Kanda of Ramayana. But there are two versions of translation existed. First from &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then taking up his bow and arrows, that king of men went out for encounter; but Samavatta stood in the way. And that great sage said unto Marutta words informed with affection If thou hear my speech, thou shouldst not fight. If this Maheshvara sacrifice should remain incomplete, it will burn up thy dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where is the fight of one initiated in a sacrifice? And where is the passion of one initiated in a sacrifice ?And victory is ever uncetain ;and the Rakshasa is dificult to vanquish. And thereupon, the lord of Earth Marutta desisted in consonance with the instructions of his spiitual preceptor; and composed addressed himself to completing the sacrifice, giving up his bow with the arrow set. And thereat considering him as defeated, Suka proclaimed this all round; and from delight cried aloud, Victory unto Ravana And &lt;strong&gt;then devouring the Maharshis that were present at the place of sacrifice, Ravana, satiated with their blood, again went to the earth&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.oocities.org/bhagvatjee/vraamaayan/kathaa/7vuttar/11sarg17.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After having said thus, when Marut got ready to fight, then Samvart Muni said affectionately - &quot;Hey Raajan, You are doing Maheshwar Yagya. It is not proper to fight at this time. Who has been initiated into Yagya, he should not be angry and he should not fight. Besides Raavan is very mighty. It is impossible to win him in war. Obeying Muni, Marut kept his bow and arrow and started doing his Yagya. At that time Shuk said happily - &quot;Raavan has won.&quot; So Hey Raam, &lt;strong&gt;When Raakshas couldn't quench their thirst with the blood of Rishi present there, they proceeded on their way&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, now focusing on Ramayana, the story of Samvarta and Marutta is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.oocities.org/bhagvatjee/vraamaayan/kathaa/7vuttar/11sarg17.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Satya Yuga&lt;/a&gt; which is previous to Treta Yuga in which Sri Rama was born. My taking from this is &lt;strong&gt;Samvarta must be still alive because in the Treta Yuga of Sri Rama, Lord Parshuram has met Samvarta after the marriage of Sri Rama&lt;/strong&gt;. This story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.beezone.com/Ramana/tripura%20rahasya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tripura Rahasya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing on one occasion of the prowess of Rama, his&#xA;  wrath rekindled and he came back to challenge him. Rama&#xA;  was born of Dasaratha who, though a Kshattriya, escaped&#xA;  his doom by a ruse. Rama accepted Parasurama’s challenge&#xA;  and got the better of him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parasurama returned crest-fallen and on his way met&#xA;  an Avadhuta named Samvarta, the brother of Brihaspati&lt;/strong&gt;. Later&#xA;  he encountered Sri Dattatreya who instructed him in the&#xA;  Truth and so led him to salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.27. In the past, I did not understand even a little of&#xA;  what &lt;strong&gt;Samvarta&lt;/strong&gt; told me when I met him on the way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.29. But it is not clear to me what &lt;strong&gt;Samvarta&lt;/strong&gt; said in&#xA;  reply to my query on creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.8. Unexpectedly I met &lt;strong&gt;Samvarta&lt;/strong&gt;, the Lord of the Avadhutas,&#xA;  and instinctively recognised him to be like fire in embers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.13. What &lt;strong&gt;Samvarta&lt;/strong&gt; said is not  at all clear to me. I have&#xA;  learnt the Gospel of Tripura well. It is undoubtedly an incentive to devotion to Her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.15. Lord, kindly explain what &lt;strong&gt;Samvarta&lt;/strong&gt; told me before. It is certain that I cannot realise the goal until it is made known to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.18. Later I heard &lt;strong&gt;Samvarta&lt;/strong&gt; say that the fruits of all&#xA;  these acts are only trivial. I consider those acts of no account&#xA;  which yield only trifling results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.25. I have noticed that &lt;strong&gt;Samvarta&lt;/strong&gt;, the Lord, is quite&#xA;  happy, being completely free from any sense of obligation&#xA;  to act and its disastrous results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.8-9. Association with the Sages is alone said to lead to&#xA;  the highest good. Your contact with &lt;strong&gt;Samvarta&lt;/strong&gt; has led you to this stage of enlightenment, which is the forerunner of&#xA;  emancipation. On being approached, the Sages teach the&#xA;  greatest good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-03T15:33:28.087" LastActivityDate="2016-10-03T15:33:28.087" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14191" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14059" CreationDate="2016-07-21T11:59:18.900" Score="24" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimati Radharani is mentioned in many Puranas like the Padma, Skanda, Narada, Brahmanda, Brahmavaivarta, Matsya, Shiva Puranas as well as the Devi Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, her worship is mentioned in the 7th as well as 20th Chapters of the Bhumikanda (Volume 5 of Translation), in The Radhashtami and Radhadamodara Vrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, the Patalakhanda (Volume 6), Chapter 71 is about the greatness of Radhakrishna, and the subsequent few chapters describe the various Leelas of the divine couple, including one Leela where the Pandava &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna&lt;/strong&gt; Is transported to Vrindavana, where he becomes a Gopika called Arjuni and is blessed with the darshan of Radhakrishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Narada Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, (Volume 3), the 89th chapter describes the &lt;em&gt;Yugala Sahasranama&lt;/em&gt; or 1000 names of both Radha and Krishna, where the first 500 names are Krishna's and the second 500 are Radharani’s names. It also includes, in its Uttarabhaga, a chapter about Vrindavana Mahatmya (Volume 5, Chapter 80), where Sage Narada becomes a gopi in Vrindavana to take part in Srimati Radharani’s Leelas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, Vaishnava Khanda, Bhagavata Mahatmya talks about Srimati Radharani. The 1st chapter (Volume 6) contains the famous statement, “Atma Tu Radhika Tasya” – Radharani is Krishna's soul. The Vasudeva Mahatmya (Volume 7), Chapters 16 and 17 describe Goloka and the manifestation of Radhakrishna for Narada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, Upodghata Parva, the last few chapters tell the story of Parashurama. In these chapters, Parashurama receives the hymn called Krishna Prema-Amrta from Rishi Agastya. He goes to Kailasa to meet Lord Shiva, where he chops off Lord Ganesha’s tusk. When Parvati Devi is furious with Parashurama, Lord Krishna and Radharani arrive from Goloka to appease Parvati. Their arrival and subsequent stotra is described in the 42nd and 43rd chapters of the Upodghata Parva (Volume 2 of Brahmanda Purana). The Stotra ‘Grhe Radha Vane Radha’ is also said to be from this Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Matsya Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, when listing the goddesses of various cities, says, “Rukmini Dvaravatyam Tu &lt;strong&gt;Radha Vrindavane Vane&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, the Yuddhakanda of Rudrasamhita contains the story of Shankhachuda, who is actually Sridama, the Sakha of Lord Krishna in Goloka, who incarnates as a demon due to the curse of Radharani. In this, the 30th and 31st Chapter narrate how Lord Krishna and Radha (owing to this being a Shiva-centric Purana), plead forgiveness from Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Brahmavaivarta Purana&lt;/strong&gt; is completely about Radhakrishna, though owing to a considerable number of interpolations in this Purana, and it's being well known, I leave it unquoted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Devi Bhagavata Purana&lt;/strong&gt; dedicates its entire Navama Skandha (Ninth Canto) to the glories of Radhakrishna and their Leelas in Goloka and the rest of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to &lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt;, there are many who say that Shukabrahma, who recited the Bhagavatam, was a pure devotee of Radhakrishna, and so uttering their pastimes would cause him to lose his consciousness and therefore leave the Purana incomplete. Hence he refers to her using common nouns such as ‘Kaachit’ (One Girl), ‘Saa Vadhuh’ (That Bride (of Krishna)), and ‘Priya’, (Beloved).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from these references, the sloka &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/30/28&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Anayaradhito Nunam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; gives her name in the phrase &lt;em&gt;Aa&lt;strong&gt;radhi&lt;/strong&gt;to&lt;/em&gt; - as purported by Sri Vishvanatha Chakravarti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is Radharani who delivers the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/47&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;'Bhramara Gita'&lt;/a&gt; where she talks to a bee thinking it to be Krishna's messenger when Uddhava visits Vrindavana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the Second Canto, Fourth Chapter, when Shukabrahma Rishi says the Dhyana Slokas, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/4/14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;meditates upon Lord Hari in his Eternal Abode&lt;/a&gt; with all his Shaktis and Opulences. The name he gives to Vishnu’s Energy is ‘Raadhas’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from that, as user @brahmajijnasa said, the Brihad Brahma Samhita, Narada Pancaratra, Sanatkumara-samhita, Garga Samhita, Brihad-gautamiya-tantra, Urdhvamnaya-tantra and the Purusa-bodhini Upanishad give references to Srimati Radharani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Narada Pancharatra&lt;/strong&gt; gives the Radha Kavacha and the Radha Sahasranama Stotra as told by Lord Shiva to Devi Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Garga Samhita&lt;/strong&gt; is also devoted to the story of Radhakrishna, and how the divine couple performed their Leelas in Vrindavana, and also describes their separation and eventual reunion in Siddhashrama, after the elapse of the hundred-year curse of separation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: In the &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, during the description of Rasa Leela in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/visnu-purana/chapter-93/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 13&lt;/a&gt; of Book 5, there are seven slokas (slokas 32-38) describing Krishna leaving the Rasa Mandala and going off with a special Gopi into the forest. The other Gopis also describe their footprints, and Krishna's adorning her with flowers and leaving her some distance away. This is almost the same as in the Bhagavatam. The word used here (where there it is Anayaradhito) is &lt;em&gt;Vishnur &lt;strong&gt;Abhyarchito&lt;/strong&gt; Yaya&lt;/em&gt; - Vishnu was worshipped extensively by her. Therefore we can infer that this Gopika is Srimati Radharani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2018-01-20T19:17:03.883" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14192" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-21T12:13:33.763" Score="0" ViewCount="236" Body="&lt;p&gt;In temples we can find in pillars a monkey type animal in  sitting posture. When we go round the pillar there is a saying that dhosham will catch. How to get rid of this dhosham?&#xA;Another instance when the sacred thread of a Brahmin is cut by force, a severe brahama hathi dhosham will catch. Any parikarams for this? What will be the duration of this dhosham in years?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7154" LastEditDate="2016-07-22T06:26:31.013" LastActivityDate="2016-07-22T06:26:31.013" Title="Bramhahatya / Brahma Hathi Dosham" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-07-26T09:44:25.417" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14194" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14179" CreationDate="2016-07-21T12:55:33.463" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;One thing is very clear that a man should mate with his wife only. As far as contraceptive methods are considered, I cannot say about women, but as far as men are considered, though a contraception is used, man's semen is either in his body or it will be outside the body. Release of semen should serve purpose and that too it is begetting child with wife only. Also mating with wife has many rules prescribed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chapter 5 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801300.us.archive.org/6/items/SivaPuranaJ.L.ShastriPart3/Siva%20Purana%20-%20J.L.Shastri%20-%20Part%203.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uma Samhita of Siva Purana&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yatheṣṭa ceṣṭā niśśaṃkāssaṃtiṣṭhaṃti ramaṃti ca । .... (Sloka 12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;etāni khalu sarvāṇi karmāṇi muni sattama ।&#xA;  sumahatpātakānyāhuśśivaniṃdā samāni ca॥ (Sloka 22)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A person who without any hesitation behaves, ramaṃti&#xA;  meaning intercourse ..... the list goes on and then etāni khalu&#xA;  sarvāṇi karmāṇi, all these deeds sumahatpātakānyāhuśśivaniṃdā samāni&#xA;  ca are considered great sins equal to abuse of Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The following are sins on a par with that of defiling teacher’s bed—the non-disposal of marriageable daughters by giving them in&#xA;  marriage to deserving husbands, having sexual intercourse with the&#xA;  wives of sons and friends or with the sisters, raping virgins;&#xA;  cohabitation with an intoxicated woman or a woman of one’s own caste.&#xA;  (Slokas 38-40)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chapter 6 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801300.us.archive.org/6/items/SivaPuranaJ.L.ShastriPart3/Siva%20Purana%20-%20J.L.Shastri%20-%20Part%203.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uma Samhita of Siva Purana&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;malice towards good men, illicit approach to another man’s wife, defiling the virgins of good men, carrying on affairs with women&#xA;  through fraudulent means, sexual intercourse during new moon and full&#xA;  moon days during day time, or in the vaginal passages of animals, or&#xA;  through other passages, emits semen or intercourse in water, or&#xA;  cohabits with a woman in her monthly course, undergo agony due to&#xA;  another man’s wife are all sins.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Releasing semen on earth also is considered a sin. The Devi Bhagavatam's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch10.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 10 of Ninth Skandam&lt;/a&gt; says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kāmī bhūmau ca rahasi vīryatyāgaṃ karoti yaḥ । bhūmireṇu pramāṇaṃ ca&#xA;  varṣaṃ tiṣṭhati raurave ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If anybody, out of his amorous passion &lt;strong&gt;casts his semen privately on&#xA;  the suface of the ground&lt;/strong&gt;, he will have to suffer the torments of&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Raurava hell&lt;/strong&gt; for as many years as are the numbers of dust particles on&#xA;  that area.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we think properly, earth is Vishnu Kaanta, mother to us. So the semen released is placed on mother which is a terrible sin even to speak or write or think.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavatam says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupadabooks.com/sb&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 26 of Fifth Skanda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yas tv iha vai savarṇāṁ bhāryāṁ dvijo retaḥ pāyayati kāma-mohitas taṁ&#xA;  pāpa-kṛtam amutra retaḥ-kulyāyāṁ pātayitvā retaḥ sampāyayanti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a foolish member of the twice-born classes [brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and&#xA;  vaiśya] forces his wife to drink his semen out of a lusty desire to&#xA;  keep her under control, he is put after death into the hell known as&#xA;  Lālābhakṣa. There he is thrown into a flowing river of semen, which he&#xA;  is forced to drink.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So whether one uses or doesn't use contraception, release of semen voluntarily or involuntarily is considered a big sin. &lt;strong&gt;The only kshetra to place one's veeryam is his wife's womb.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every Purana has chapters on &lt;strong&gt;Sadaachara, Description of Hells&lt;/strong&gt;. Some puranas has special chapters dedicated to aspects of Earth, water, doing intercourse etc. Go through them thoroughly. Listing out the points in them from all puranas tells us that marriage, intercourse, sleep, food everything in Sanatana Dharma is linked to Dharma always. &lt;strong&gt;Artha and Kaama without Dharma does not bring us any good&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note: Do not analyse the births of mahatmas like Vasishta, Rishyasringa, Vyasa etc.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-24T00:29:21.273" LastActivityDate="2016-11-24T00:29:21.273" CommentCount="25" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14195" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7742" CreationDate="2016-07-21T13:19:27.080" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The original story is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03308.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Vana Parva, SECTION CCCVIII&lt;/a&gt;. According to this, Indra has obtained Kavach and Kundal from Karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana said, &amp;quot;And when the king of the celestials presented himself in the guise of a Brahmana, beholding him, Kama said, 'Welcome!' And not knowing his intention, Adhiratha's son addressed the Brahmana, saying, 'Of a necklace of gold, and beauteous damsels, and villages with plenty of kine, which shall I give thee?' Thereupon the Brahmana replied, 'I ask thee not to give me either a necklace of gold, or fair damsels, or any other agreeable object. To those do thou give them that ask for them. If, O sinless one, thou art sincere in thy vow, then wilt thou, cutting off (from thy person) this coat of mail born with thy body, and these ear-rings also, bestow them on me! I desire, O chastiser of foes, that thou mayst speedily give me these; for, this one gain of mine will be considered as superior to every other gain!' Hearing these words, Kama, said, 'O Brahmana, I will give thee homestead land, and fair damsels, and kine, and fields; but my mail and ear-rings I am unable to give thee!'&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana continued, &amp;quot;Although thus urged with various words by Karna, still, O chief of the Bharata race, that Brahmana did not ask for any other boon. And although Karna sought to pacify him to the best of his power, and worshipped him duly, yet that best of Brahmanas did not ask for any other boon. And when that foremost of Brahmanas did not ask for any other boon, Radha's son again spake unto him with a smile, 'My mail, O regenerate one, hath been born with my body, and this pair of ear-rings hath arisen from Amrita. It is for these that I am unslayable in the worlds. Therefore, I cannot part with them. Do thou, O bull among Brahmanas, accept from me the entire kingdom of the earth, rid of enemies and full of prosperity! O foremost of regenerate ones, if I am deprived of my ear-rings, and the mail born with my body, I shall be liable to be vanquished by the foes!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana continued, &amp;quot;When the illustrious slayer of Paka refused to ask for any other boon, Kama with a smile again addressed him, saying, 'O god of gods, even before this, &lt;strong&gt;I had recognised thee, O Lord! O Sakra&lt;/strong&gt;, it is not proper for me to confer on thee any unprofitable boon, for thou art the very lord of the celestials! On the contrary, being as thou art the Creator and lord of all beings, it is thou that shouldst confer boons on me! If, O god, I give thee this coat of mail and ear-rings, then I am sure to meet with destruction, and thou shalt also undergo ridicule! Therefore, O Sakra, take my earrings and excellent mail in exchange for something conferred by thee on me! Otherwise, I will not bestow them on thee!' Thereupon Sakra replied, 'Even before I had come to thee, Surya had known of my purpose and without doubt, it is he that hath unfolded everything unto thee! O Karna, be it as thou wishest! O son, except the thunder-bolt alone, tell me what it is that thou desirest to have!'&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-21T13:19:27.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14196" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14187" CreationDate="2016-07-21T13:51:53.183" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shani dev ( शनि देव )&lt;/strong&gt; is one of the Navagrah (नवग्रह) &lt;strong&gt;from astrology point of Hinduism Or Jyotish Shastra (ज्योतिष शास्त्र).&lt;/strong&gt;  He is Planet Saturn.and is also known  as Shanishwra (शनैश्चर).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See More On SADE-SATI &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedicscholar.com/sadesatti.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  mantras for pleasing Shani Bhagvan is from the famous &lt;strong&gt;NAVAGRAHA STOTRAM  (नवग्रह स्तोत्र)&lt;/strong&gt; composed by &lt;strong&gt;Shri Veda Vyasa (वेद व्यास).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नीलांजन समाभासम रवि पुत्रम यमाग्रजं ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;छाया मार्तान्ड समभुतम तं नमामि शनिश्चरम ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;NILANJANA SAMABHASAM RAVI PUTRAM YAMAGRAJAM | CHAYA MARTHANDA&#xA;  SAMBHUTAM TAM NAMAMI SHANAISCHARAM ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-  Oh god dressed in blue silk, who has a blue body, Who wears&#xA;  a crown, who sits on vulture, Who gives misfortunes, who is armed with&#xA;  a bow, Who has four hands and who is son of Sun God, Be pleased with&#xA;  me always and happily grant me boons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Story Of Piplad Rushi (पिपलाद ऋषि) and Shani Deva :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; Story from Treta Yuga, once there was a terrible famine. &lt;strong&gt;Dadhichi Rushi (दधिची ऋषि)&lt;/strong&gt; with his family decided to go to a different place. They all were very hungry. And died because of Hunger. One of the sons of Dadhichi Rushi sat under a Peepal Tree (. पिंपळ , पिपल ,अश्वत्थ ) He started eating peepal leaves and mediate everyday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day  Narad Muni going from that area seen him and asked him to chant this mantra - &lt;strong&gt;(&quot;Om Namo Bhagvate Vasudevaya  ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय&quot;)&lt;/strong&gt;. He started Reciting this mantra.When  Lord Vishnu asked Narad Muni about this  boy , Narada told Lord  Vishnu  about him and his family and all this happened due to &lt;strong&gt;Shani peedha (शनि पीड़ा).&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Vishnu blessed him , and he then came to be known as Piplad Rushi .When Rushi Piplad with  his angry eyes looked at shani deva , shani could not face his Teja or power and fell on the ground.Then all the gods came near Piplad and asked him to calm down They also blessed him with a boon that whoever will remember Piplad story during Shani trouble, will get rid of it.&#xA;So According to Hindu traditions, to get rid of Shani Grih peedha, Maharshi Piplad is rememberd.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gaganmeet.blogspot.in/2009/05/lord-shani-his-famous-stories.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;See Above Story from BLOG&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Acoording to Popular belief of Joytisha -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The impact of Sadesati is supposed to be felt differently by people of different moon signs. It is said that people of Moon sign Aquarius (कुंभ राशि ) do not have any ill effects from Sadesati, while people of Moon sign Leo (सिंह राशि) feel the most impact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-07-21T13:51:53.183" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14199" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14187" CreationDate="2016-07-22T07:12:52.687" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shani's effects are very dangerous. It is a lazy planet. Definitely it affects career, health etc. If you recite Hanuman chalisa shani will not catch you at all. Shani told hanuman that I should catch you as per the dasa. Hanuman said I am in the work of Lord Rama now. Do not catch me. Shani said I have to. Hanuman replied catch my shoulder. Shani did that. Hanuman flied in the sky very fast. Shani could not bear the speed. He pleaded leave me. Hanuman came to ground. Shani got some energy and said I will catch your feet and did that. Hanuman ran very fast and shani was hit by thorns, stones etc. Again he pleaded leave me.&#xA;He at once told hanuman I will not catch you.I will not catch those  who recite your name  with devotion.  This was extracted from Kudumba Jodidam.Hope this clarifies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-07-22T07:12:52.687" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14200" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-22T07:32:53.770" Score="2" ViewCount="1792" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know that if a person is non hindu then what is the punishment for him after dying as a non hindu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7211" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T13:07:44.153" Title="What is the punishment for a person who is not Hindu?" Tags="|teaching|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14201" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8664" CreationDate="2016-07-22T08:06:39.257" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12912/7/Chapter5_618-649p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agni Purana, Chapter 245&lt;/a&gt; describes the story of Nandaka sword as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma performed a sacrifice on the banks of celestial Ganges on the peaks of the Meru (mountain). When he was contemplating at the sacrifice he saw the demon Loha (that causes) obstruction. As he was thinking about that, &lt;strong&gt;a great mighty form appeared from the fire&lt;/strong&gt; in front of him. He bowed down to the lord (Brahma) and the celestials greeted him with joy. &lt;strong&gt;Lord Hari took the sword (called) Nandaka from the demon&lt;/strong&gt; as requested by the celestials. The lord seized it slowly and it became unsheathed. The sword was blue (in colour) with gem (studded) handle. Then the demon became (endowed with) hundred hands. That demon mad the celestials run away in the battlefield by means of the mace. the body of the demon was cut by lord Hari with the sword and (the parts of) the body fell on the earth and all of them became pieces of iron on account of their contact with the (sword) Nandaka. After having killed him lord Hari gave him a boon (saying) &quot;Your holy body would become (the material) for weapons on the earth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindi translation is trying to say that the great mighty form which appeared from the fire is known as Nandaka.&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oZaF9.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oZaF9.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, I have found the good &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?redir_esc=y&amp;amp;id=8pk3AQAAIAAJ&amp;amp;dq=editions%3AHf_y_hfJUZ8C&amp;amp;focus=searchwithinvolume&amp;amp;q=Nandaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translation&lt;/a&gt; of story which is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The god bowed down to Brahman and all the gods humbled themselves before him as well. The god Hari took the sword Nandaka from the hands of Fire-god, and the whole haven was jubilant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-22T11:30:46.393" LastActivityDate="2016-07-22T11:30:46.393" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14202" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8484" CreationDate="2016-07-22T12:45:02.583" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mother Sati gave up her body through the process of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2641/reference-to-the-7-chakras-in-hinduism/13742#13742&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kundalini Yoga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; And &lt;strong&gt;leaving the body through the path of Yoga is not called Suicide.&lt;/strong&gt; Here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/4/25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;describes the event:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इत्यध्वरे दक्षमनूद्य शत्रुहन्क्षितावुदीचीं निषसाद शान्तवाक् । स्पृष्टा जलं पीतदुकूलसंवृतानिमील्य &lt;strong&gt;द्दग्योगपथं&lt;/strong&gt; समाविशत् ।। कृत्वा समानावनिलौ जितासना सोदानमुत्थात्य च &lt;strong&gt;नाभिचक्रतः&lt;/strong&gt; । शनैर्ह्र्दि स्थात्य धियोरसि स्थितं कण्ठाद्भ्रुवोर्मध्यमनिन्दितानयत् ।।&#xA;  एवं स्वदेह महतां महीयसा मुहुः समारोपितमंकमादरात् ।&#xA;  जिहासती दक्षरुषा मनस्विनी दधार गात्रेष्वनिलाग्निधारणाम् ।। ततः स्वभर्तश्चरणाम्बुजासवं जगद्गुरोश्र्चिन्तयति न चापरम् । ददर्श देहो हतकल्मषः सती सद्यः प्रजज्वाल समाधि जाग्निना ।। &lt;strong&gt;[S.B. 4.4.24-27]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O annihilator of enemies, while thus speaking to her father in the arena of sacrifice, Satī sat down on the ground and faced north. Dressed in saffron garments, she sanctified herself with water and closed her eyes to &lt;strong&gt;absorb herself in the process of mystic yoga.&lt;/strong&gt; First of all she sat in the required sitting posture, and then she carried the life air upwards and placed it in the position of equilibrium near the Nabhi Chakra [&lt;strong&gt;Manipura Chakra&lt;/strong&gt;]. Then she raised her life air, mixed with intelligence, to the heart [&lt;strong&gt;Anhata Chakra&lt;/strong&gt;] and then gradually towards the pulmonary passage, to the throat [&lt;strong&gt;Visuddha Chakra&lt;/strong&gt;] and from there to between her eyebrows [&lt;strong&gt;Ajna Chakra&lt;/strong&gt;]. Thus, in order to give up her body, which had been so respectfully and affectionately seated on the lap of Lord Śhiva, who is worshiped by great sages and saints, Satī, due to anger towards her father, began to meditate on the fiery air within the body. Satī concentrated all her meditation on the holy lotus feet of her husband, Lord Śhiva, who is the supreme spiritual master of all the world. Thus she became completely cleansed of all taints of sin &lt;strong&gt;and quit her body in a blazing fire by meditation on the fiery elements.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from above it is clear she left her body through path of highly mystic yoga. And furthermore she is always with SadaShiva in her true form Amba and also represented as &lt;strong&gt;Samba-SadaShiva.&lt;/strong&gt; She took birth latter from Menavati as Parvati and again married to Lord Shankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-07-22T12:55:34.637" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14203" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8664" CreationDate="2016-07-22T13:28:49.197" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;End of kali yuga Lord Vishnu comes in a white horse with Nandaka the sword and destroys the evil forces in a lightning manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Purana says that Nandaka, &quot;the pure sword&quot; represents jnana&#xA;  (knowledge), which is created from vidya (translated variously as&#xA;  wisdom, knowledge, science, learning, scholarship, philosophy), its&#xA;  sheath is avidya (ignorance or illusion). The Varaha Purana describes&#xA;  it as the destroyer of ignorance. - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandaka#Symbolism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every ornament and weapon relates to the alwars in which Peyalwar is the sword Nandaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-07-26T09:03:08.313" LastActivityDate="2016-07-26T09:03:08.313" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14204" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16783" CreationDate="2016-07-22T13:52:05.673" Score="6" ViewCount="748" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a branch of philosophy in Hinduism about aesthetics? By aesthetics I mean the western notions of the term as we currently understand to be one of the main branches of western philosophy. I do not know the equivalent terminologies in Hinduism, but I am interested in comparable notions dealing with questions of aesthetics and value judgements. Is there an active scholarship in this realm of Hinduism? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2794" LastEditorUserId="2794" LastEditDate="2017-01-17T14:00:08.367" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T09:06:17.717" Title="Aesthetics in Hinduism" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|culture|terminology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14206" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14208" CreationDate="2016-07-23T22:10:38.123" Score="18" ViewCount="8230" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am learning about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tibettravel.org/trekking-tibet/kailash-trek.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mount Kailash&lt;/a&gt; (Lord Shiva's abode).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Somewhere I read that before people came to India from Central Asia (bringing Vedas, Hinduism, etc), the natives in Indian subcontinent followed Shavism, or worship of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Two questions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is this accurate?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is Lord Shiva of Nepali descent, i.e. a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-10782099&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gurhka&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I find this so fascinating ...... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please point me in the right direction&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T13:29:25.400" LastActivityDate="2023-06-30T08:56:12.137" Title="What is the Vedic Origin of Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|vedas|history|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14207" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-24T01:58:42.253" Score="1" ViewCount="1056" Body="&lt;p&gt;1) Where exactly &lt;code&gt;Shambhala village&lt;/code&gt; is located? Is Shangri-La, Tibet will be called as Shambhala, Birth place of Lord Kalki? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Why Lord Kalki, Son of VishnuYashyas will be born out of India in Shambhala village in Tibet? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Are there any previous Avatars of Lord born or lived in different geographical locations or countries other than India, SriLanka? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4) Who is Mother and Siblings of Lord Kalki?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5) What are the key differences between Kalki Avatar and ParushuRama Avatar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6) Where will Goddess Lakshmi be born during Lord Kalki Avatara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7) How many years Lord Kalki will rule and re-establish 'Dharma' on earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3747" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2016-07-24T08:33:35.627" LastActivityDate="2016-07-24T08:33:35.627" Title="Is Shangri-La, Tibet will be called as Shambhala, Birth place of Lord Kalki?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|bhagavata-purana|vishnu-purana|kalki|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-01-07T12:13:34.243" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14208" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14206" CreationDate="2016-07-24T03:43:30.823" Score="31" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you are going through some western speculations. But &lt;strong&gt;whether there was Shaivism in a certain place doesn't matter at all. It's because Vedas are revealed scriptures and it's mantras are heard during deep meditation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Lord Shiva is revealed itself to Vedas through Vedic seers during their deep meditation. In Vedas Lord Shiva is called by the name Rudra mostly. As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9918/who-is-rudra-deva/11638#11638&quot;&gt;answer here,&lt;/a&gt; there are various types of Rudras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Rudras who cry. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2) Rudras who makes other cry. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3) Rudra who removes the cry of Samsara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And all three types of Rudras are described in Vedas. One has to distinguish to which Rudra is it addressed by looking at the meaning and context of the mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are various hymns dedicated to Lord Rudra itself in RigVeda. The most celebrated mantra Mahamrityunjaya mantra or Mokshadayani mantra is itself in &lt;strong&gt;RigVeda in 7.59.12:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्&#xA;  उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;We worship the Three-eyed Lord&lt;/strong&gt; who is fragrant and who nourishes and nurtures all beings. As is the ripened cucumber freed from its bondage (to the creeper), &lt;strong&gt;may He liberate us from death&lt;/strong&gt; for the sake of immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mantra asks liberation or moksha from the three-eyed one and devata of this mantra is Lord Rudra.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;RigVeda 2.33.9&lt;/strong&gt; states Lord Rudra as eternal Ruler (never departing Godhead) of the World:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्थिरेभिरङ्गै पुरुरूप उग्रो बभ्रुः शुक्रेभिः पिपिशे हिरण्यै ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ईशानादस्य भुवनस्य भुरेर्न वा उ योषद्रुद्रासुर्यम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  With firm limbs, multiform, the strong, the tawny adorns himself with bright gold decorations. &lt;strong&gt;The strength of Godhead never departs from Rudra, him who is Sovran of this world,&lt;/strong&gt; the mighty.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to YajurVeda, there is a celebrated hymn called &lt;strong&gt;Sri Rudram.&lt;/strong&gt; It exists in both Vajasneya Samhita of &lt;strong&gt;Shukla YajurVeda [16th chapter]&lt;/strong&gt; and Taittariya Samhita of &lt;strong&gt;Krishna Yajurveda[4.5.1-4.5.11].&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It establishes omnipresent and omnipotency of Lord Rudra and &lt;strong&gt;it sings more than 300 names of Lord Rudra/Lord Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Shiva is the only one in Vedas who is hailed by many names. He is the one of which Vedas themselves sing Sahasranama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The popular mantra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमः शिवाय ।। (Namaha Shivaya)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;is itself derived from the middle of this hymn, Sri Rudram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other names which are derived from this famous Sri Rudram hymn are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva, Shankara, Bhava, Sarva, Pasupati, Nilagriva, Sitikantha, Kapardin, Nilalohita, etc..&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, most of the names of Lord Shiva used today are derived from Vedas, as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13649/what-names-of-lord-shiva-used-today-are-from-vedas/13650#13650&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we go in &lt;strong&gt;AtharvaVeda&lt;/strong&gt; there are several hymns related to Lord Rudra/ Shiva. In Atharvaveda there is a famous Vratya-Rudra Sukta, which directly establishes Shiva [SadaShiva] who existed before Prajapati/Brahma and who is the creator of all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्रात्य आसीदीयमान एव स प्रजापतिं समैरयत् ।।&#xA;  स प्रजापति: सुवर्णमात्मन्नपश्यत्तत्प्राजनयत् ।।&#xA;  तदेकमभवत्तल्ललाममभवत्तन्महदभवत्तज्जेष्ठमभवत्तद्ब्रह्माभवत्तत्तपोऽभवत्तत्सत्यमभवत्तेन प्राजायत ।।&#xA;  सोऽवर्धत स महानभवत्स &lt;strong&gt;महादेवोऽ&lt;/strong&gt;भवत् ।।&#xA;  स देवानामीशां पर्यैत्स &lt;strong&gt;ईशानोऽ&lt;/strong&gt;भवत् ।।&#xA;  स एकव्रात्योऽभवत्स धनुरादत्त तदेवेन्द्रधनुः ।।&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;नीलमस्योदरं लोहितं&lt;/strong&gt; पृष्ठम् ।।&#xA;  नीलेनैवाप्रियं भ्रातृव्यं प्रोर्णोति लोहितेन द्विषन्तं विध्यतीति  ब्रह्मवादिनो वदन्ति ।।  &lt;strong&gt;[Atharva Veda 15:1]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was Vratya . He roused Prajapati to action. Prajapati beheld gold in himself and engendered it. That became unique, that became distinguished, that became great, that became excellent, that became Brahman, that became Tapas, that became Truth: through that he (Vratya) was born. He grew, he became great, he became &lt;strong&gt;Mahadeva.&lt;/strong&gt; He gained the lordship of the Gods. He became &lt;strong&gt;Ishana.&lt;/strong&gt; He became Eka Vratya. He held a bow, even that Bow of Indra. His belly is dark-blue, his back is red (&lt;strong&gt;Nila Lolita&lt;/strong&gt;). With dark-blue he envelops a detested rival, with red he pierces the man who hates him: so the knowers of Brahman say.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It further goes on telling how Lord Shiva created everything of this world in details from 15.1 - 15.15. Also, you can see my answer here &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8210/is-shiva-or-rudra-born-and-is-he-still-alive-was-he-killed-or-merged-with-supre/14025#14025&quot;&gt;regarding birth of Rudra.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also &lt;strong&gt;Atharvaveda in 11.2.16&lt;/strong&gt; states Lord Shiva as the God who is to be saluted in morning, day and night ie. at every time:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमः सायं नमः प्रातर्नमो रात्र्या नमो दिवा । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भवाय च शर्वाय चोभाभ्यामकरं नमः ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations in the morning, salutations in night and Salutations in the day. &lt;strong&gt;To Bhava and Sarva&lt;/strong&gt; salutations through our hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus from above it is clear that Lord Shiva is celebrated through Vedic revelations.&lt;/strong&gt; The above are part of only Samhitas ie. Heard mantras during meditation. If we go in Aranyakas, Brahmanas and Upanishads Lord Shiva is also most important there:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rudra hymns 10th chapter of Taittariya Aranyaka of Yajurveda establishes Rudra as everything and Rudra himself as the ParaBrahman. There are also various celebrated names of Lord Shiva in that hymn. For eg.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sadyojata, Tatpurush, Vamadeva, Aghora, Ishana, Mahadeva, Sadashiva Kala, Pasupati, Ambikapati, Umapati, Ishwara, etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Upanishads, one of the most celebrated Upanishad, &lt;strong&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; establishes Rudra as ParaBrahman and cause of everything. It also contains celebrated names like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rudra, Hara, Shiva, Maheswara, Ishana, Isa, etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad in 3.11 Summarizes as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वानन शिरोग्रीवः सर्वभूतगुहाशयः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;सर्वव्यापी स भगवांस्तस्मात् सर्वगतः शिवः&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ ११॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  All faces are His faces; all heads, His heads; all necks, His necks. He dwells in the hearts of all beings. &lt;strong&gt;He is the all—pervading Bhagavan. Therefore He is omnipresent Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;strong&gt;Kailash&lt;/strong&gt; is stated in Maitreyaopanishad [2.1] as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ भगवान्मैत्रेयः &lt;strong&gt;कैलासं&lt;/strong&gt; जगाम तं गत्वोवाच&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भो भगवन्परमतत्त्वरहस्यमनुब्रूहीति ॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then the revered sage &lt;strong&gt;Maitreya went to Kailasa.&lt;/strong&gt; Approaching him (the Lord) he said: ‘Lord, expound to me the secret of the supreme Truth’. The great god said to him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also Upanishads describing Lord Shiva like Kaivalya Upanishad, AtharvaShira Upanishad, NilaRudra Upanishad, KalagniRudra Upanishad, etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Lord Shiva is revealed to Vedic seers itself through Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may wonder if Lord Shiva is revealed through Vedas then,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;why there are extensive hymns for Gods like Agni and Indra and others and relatively few hymns for Lord Rudra?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's because every God are just manifestations of Lord Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“agnirvai sa devastasyaitāni nāmāni śarva iti yathā prācyā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ācakṣate bhava iti yathā bāhīkāḥ paśūnām patī rudro ‘gniriti&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tānyasyāśāntānyevetarāṇi nāmānyagnirityeva śāntatamaṃ tasmādagnaya iti kriyate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sviṣṭakṛta iti ” (Shatapatha Brahmana 1:7:3:8)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “&lt;strong&gt;Agni is That god;&lt;/strong&gt;–his are these names: &lt;strong&gt;Sarva,&lt;/strong&gt; as the eastern &lt;strong&gt;people call him; Bhava,&lt;/strong&gt; as the Bâhîkas (call him); &lt;strong&gt;Pasûnâm pati (‘lord of creatures Pasupati), Rudra, Agni.&lt;/strong&gt; The name Agni, doubtless, is the most calm, and the other names of his are uncalm: hence it is offered to (him under the name of) ‘Agni,’ and to (him as) the Svishtakrit”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from above Vedic passage, it becomes clear that Agni is just form/ manifestation of Lord Rudra. So extensive hymns of Vedas related to Agni are finally addressed to Lord Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, Indra is also a manifestation of Lord Rudra. AtharvaVeda calls Rudra as slayer of Vritta which is actually Indra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“sahasrākṣáu vr̥trahánā huveháṃ dūrégavyūtī stuvánn my ugráu |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yā́v asyéśathe dvipádo yáu cátuṣpadas táu no muñcatam áṃhasaḥ ||” (Atharvaveda 4:28:03)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “&lt;strong&gt;The thousand-eyed slayers of Vritra&lt;/strong&gt; both do I invoke. I go praising the two strong gods (ugrau) whose pastures extend far. &lt;strong&gt;Ye who rule all these two-footed and four-footed creatures [Pasupati],&lt;/strong&gt; deliver us from grief and trouble”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And not only this, there is a famous chapter in Satapatha Brahmana of YajurVeda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;which states&lt;/a&gt; everything like fire, water, air, sun, moon, etc... gained their characteristics features because Lord Shiva manifested as Ashtamurti Rupa ie. He entered in all those 8 things as Purusha and made them active. Satapatha Brahmana of YajurVeda from 6.1.3.10 to 6.1.3.17 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rudra is Agni.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sarva is Water (Varuna).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Pasupati is Plants (Vanaspati).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ugra is Air (Vayu).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Asani is Lightening.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Bhava is Raingod (Parjanya).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Mahadeva is Moon (Chandra/Soma/Mind).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ishana is Sun (Surya/ Atman)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, it is clear the whole world is pervaded by the forms of Lord Rudra. So as Rudra is actually Agni, Vayu, Varuna, Soma, Surya, etc.. as seen from above Shruti passage (of YajurVeda). So actually Vedic hymns to all these Gods are actually praying various forms and manifestations of Lord Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He himself also dwells as self in all. He is also situated in heart of Gods as their self. So, Sri Rudram of Yajurveda states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देवानां ह्रदयभ्यो ।&#xA;  who is situated in hearts of Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As everything in this world is just manifestation of Lord Rudra only thats why &lt;strong&gt;YajurVeda 5.5.9&lt;/strong&gt; states in a single sentence as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो रुद्रो अग्नौ यो अप्सु य ओषधिषु । यो रुद्रो विश्वा भुवना विवेश तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “The Rudra in the fire, in the waters, in the plants, the &lt;strong&gt;Rudra that hath entered the whole world, to that Rudra be homage”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As everything is just manifestation of Lord Rudra only, there is nothing second than Rudra, thats why Svetasvatara Upanishad in a single verse states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एको हि रुद्रो न द्वितियाय &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There is Rudra only, there doesn't exist a second.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda states the same in 10.24&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वो वै रुद्रस्तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु । पुरुषो वै रुद्रसन्मह ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Everything is Verily this Rudra. Salutations to Rudra who is such.&lt;/strong&gt; Rudra himself is the Purusha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same fact is also beautifully illustrated in Vajasena Samhita of Yajurveda chapter 16 (ie. Sri Rudram part):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रथेभ्यो रथपतिभ्यो नमो नमः नमः सुतायहन्ताय, रथकारेम्यो नमो नमः&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Salutation to him who is chariot, who is rider of chariot, who is charioteer and who is maker of Chariot.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he himself makes chariot. He himself is the chariot. He himself rides chariot. He himself drives chariot. So, everything is him everything is his Leela.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, from above it is clear Lord Shiva is revealed through celebrated Vedic Hymns during meditation of Vedic seers.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding your second question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is Lord Shiva of Nepali descent, i.e. a Gurkha ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As established from above Vedic passages and mantras, Lord Shiva existed before creation itself ie. He was present when there were not the earth, sun, moon, time etc... So, he who is unborn and lord of the universe, how can he have the nationality of a specific country?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the name Gurkha, it comes from Gorkha district of Nepal. It was  kept Gorkha in the remembrance of saint Guru Gorakhnath, an incarnation of Lord Shiva. There is also a famous place called Gorakh-Kali where Guru Gorakhnath and Goddesses Kali are worshiped. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T12:00:16.353" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T12:00:16.353" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14209" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-24T14:21:11.990" Score="2" ViewCount="1665" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shree Bhagavad-Gita  is available in different prints or Versions (according to different authors) in the  market. Which one is most authentic one , according with meaning and how one should select the right print for oneself? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7208" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-28T17:35:32.113" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T10:37:12.127" Title="Is every print of Shree Bhagavad-Gita the authentic one?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14211" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18406" CreationDate="2016-07-24T17:27:16.863" Score="7" ViewCount="1382" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DqCML.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DqCML.png&quot; alt=&quot;The Matrix Movie Redpill&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Almost a decade ago I saw the movie the Matrix. I had to see it twice to understand the full idea. It seemed like a new idea at the time: that the world we live in is just an imaginary world; in the real world we are enslaved by machines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.coursera.org/learn/science-of-meditation&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;course I took on meditation&lt;/a&gt;, the instructor, Robert Wright, mentioned that many people he spoke to drew parallels between the movie The Matrix and and also Buddhism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It wasn't until I picked up the Bhagavad-Gita sometime after seeing the movie that I was able to see the same idea in the Asvattha Tree, the tree of transmigration found in Chapter 15 of the Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Its branches spread from earth to the heavans, and the powers of nature give them life. Its buds are the pleasures of the senses. Far down below, its roots roots stretch into the world of men, binding a mortal through selfish actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Men do not see the changing form of the that tree, nor its beginning, nor its end, nor where its roots are. But let the wise see, and with the strong sword of dispassion let him cut this strong strong-rooted tree, and seek that path where-from those who go for refuge never return...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also found a picture of the Asvattha tree that I found in a book owned by my aunt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EJn7Q.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EJn7Q.png&quot; alt=&quot;Asvattha tree&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm really fascinated by this idea.Are there any other mentions of the Asvattha tree anywhere else that I can go to to find out more information? Is the tree mentioned in any of the commentaries?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7226" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-21T17:36:12.373" LastActivityDate="2017-05-21T17:36:20.903" Title="More information about the idea of Asvattha, the tree of transmigration found in Chapter 15 of Bhagavad Gita" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14213" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14292" CreationDate="2016-07-25T06:50:38.937" Score="5" ViewCount="549" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been worshipped in linga form from time beginning as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt;. Godesses Saraswati in Linga Purana states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वं लिंगमयं लोकं सर्वं लिंगे प्रतिष्ठितम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्मात्सर्वं परित्यज्य स्थापयेत्पूजयेच्च तत् ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The whole world is identical with the Linga. Everything is founded on the Linga. Hence, one shall eschew everything, install the Linga and worship it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verses itself establishes glory of Linga. Among the Lingas also there are 12 major Jyotirlingas which are most important. Shiva Purana in &lt;strong&gt;Koti Rudra Samhita, DwadashaJyotirlinga Mahatmya Chapter&lt;/strong&gt; sates:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं&lt;/strong&gt; च श्री शैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उज्जयिन्यां महाकालमोंकारे परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;केदारं हिमवत्पृष्ठे डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाराणास्यां च विश्वेशं त्रयम्बकं गौतमीतटे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैद्यनाथं चिताभूमौ नागेशं दारुकावने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सेतुबन्धे तु रामेशं घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रात्यस्त्थाय यः पठेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तं सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Somanath in Saurastra, Mallikarjuna in Shri Saile, Mahakala in Ujjaiyana and Parameshawara also manifested as Omkara. Kedara in Himavat and Bhima Shankara in Dakinya. Vishewaswara in Varanasi and Trayambaka in side of Gautami. Vaidyanath in ChitaBhumi and  Nageshwara in forest of Daruka. Rameshwara in Setubandha and Ghusmeshwara in Shivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;These name of 12 Jyotirlingas who recites in morning, he gets freed from all sins and is eligible to get all Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotirlingas&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in another similar popular Shloka too which is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre &lt;strong&gt;Somanāthaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; ca Śrīśaile Mallikārjunam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ujjayinyāṃ Mahākālam Omkāram Mamleśhwaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraly Vaidyanāthaṃ cha Ḍākinyāṃ Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setubandhe tu Rāmeśaṃ Nāgeśhaṃ Dārukāvane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vārāṇasyāṃ tu Viśveśaṃ Tryambakaṃ Gautamītaṭe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himālaye tu Kedāraṃ Ghuśmeśaṃ ca Śivālaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first Jyotirlinga mentioned is Somanatha Jyotirlinga. I want to know, what is the story of formation of Somanath Jyotirlinga? Why Lord Shiva manifested himself in Somanath Jyotirlinga? And how this Jyotirlinga get its name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Somanath temple is situated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/place/Somnath,+Gujarat,+India/@20.9032368,70.3729674,14z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x3bfd328b9ce28aeb:0x6d2efaa0d9eda083!8m2!3d20.9060022!4d70.3843721?hl=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saurashtra (Gujarat)&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bvOW0.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bvOW0.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Anhilwara - Own work, Public Domain, &lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18227742&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18227742&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-22T07:24:24.383" Title="What is the story of Somanath Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14214" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="101" CreationDate="2016-07-25T07:57:07.853" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question can be answered into two aspects:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Why is Linga form worshipped ?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2) Why is Shiva primarily worshipped in Linga form ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;1) Why is Linga form worshipped ?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among the 18 major Mahapuranas one of the Purana is named &lt;strong&gt;Linga Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, thus glorifying the status of Linga.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Linga is worshipped because Linga contains everything of this world. In the Linga Purana [part 2 chapter 46], once sages have debate regarding why Linga form is worshipped. Then Goddess Saraswati comes there and states this fact:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथांतरिक्षे विपुला साक्षाद्देवी सरस्वती ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अलं मुनीनां प्रश्नोऽयमिति वाचा बभूव ह ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;सर्वं लिंगमयं लोकं सर्वं लिंगे प्रतिष्ठितम् ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मात्सर्वं परित्यज्य स्थापयेत्पूजयेच्च तत् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  May the questions of the sages stop. &lt;strong&gt;The whole world is identical with the Linga. Everything is found on the Linga.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence, one shall eschew everything, install the Linga and worship it.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Saraswati also states all Gods are situated in a Linga. She states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वेषुस्वेषु च पक्षेषु प्रदानास्ते यथा द्विजाः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्रह्मा हरश्च भगवान्विष्णुर्देवी रमा धरा ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लक्ष्मीर्धृति: स्मृति: प्रज्ञा धरा दुर्गा शची तथा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रुद्राश्च वसव: स्कन्दो विशाख: शाख यव च ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नैगमेशश्च भगवाँल्लोकपाला ग्रहास्तथा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वे नंदिपुरोगाश्च गणा गणपति: प्रभु: ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पितरो मुनय: सर्वे कुबेराद्याश्च सुप्रभा: ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आदित्या वसव: सांख्या अश्चिनौ च भिषग्वरौ ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विश्वेदेवाश्व साध्याश्च पशव: पक्षिणों मृगा:। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्रह्मादिस्थावरांतं च सर्वं लिंगे प्रतिष्ठितम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मात्सर्वं परित्यज्य स्थापयेल्लिंगमव्ययम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यत्नेन स्थापितं सर्वं पूजितं पूजयेद्यदि ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  All the deities like Brahma, śiva, Earth, Lakshmi, dhṛti, smṛti, prajñā, durgā, śacī, Rudra, Vasu, Skanda, viśākha, śākha, naigameśa, dikapalakās(guardians of the directions), the planets, gaṇās, nandī, Ganapati, pitṛ gaṇās, ṛṣis , kubera, āditya, sāṃkhya, aśvinīkumārās- the best of the physicians, viśvadevās, sādhyās , paśus, birds and animals, besides all the mobile and immobiles, starting from Brahma are established in the linga. Therefore, leaving aside everything, linga should be consecrated. After consecrating it  with all the efforts, incase, one adores the shivalinga, then he gets adorable by all.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as every Gods are situated in Linga it is highly auspicious to worship Linga. Trinities are situated in Linga and it is also stated in the next chapter ie. [Part 2 chapter 47] of Linga Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मूले ब्रह्मा वसति भगवान्मध्यभागे च विष्णु: ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वेशानः पशुपतिरजो रुद्रमूर्तिर्वरेण्यः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lord Brahma resides at the root, Lord Vishnu in the middle. The lord of all unborn Pasupati in the form of Rudra resides at the top.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as Godesses Saraswati herself state &amp;quot;Sarva Linge Pratisthitam&amp;quot; ie. &amp;quot;Everything is situated in Linga&amp;quot;. So, worship of Linga is highly auspicious and hence Linga form is worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;2) Why is Shiva primarily worshipped in Linga form ?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, here comes this question. Other Gods and Godesses are worshipped in idol form whereas why Shiva is worshipped primarily in Linga form?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;It is related with the inseparable relation of Shiva and Shakti and linga form represents it.&lt;/strong&gt; The relationship of Uma and Maheswara is like that of word and meaning. It is illustrated in Vayaviya samhita Shiva Purana, Shiva-Shakti Vibhuti chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शब्दजालमशेषं तु धत्ते सर्वस्य वल्लभा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अर्थस्वरुपमखिलं धत्ते मुग्धेन्दुशेखरः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The beloved&amp;nbsp; of Shiva &lt;strong&gt;(Uma) is in the form of words.&lt;/strong&gt; The moon crested Lord &lt;strong&gt;(Maheswara) is in the form of meaning of those words.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, just as meaning is formless and it gets manifested through words. In the similar way formless Shiva gets manifested through Shakti. The same chapter also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवं परस्परापेक्षा शक्तिशक्तिमतोः स्थिता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न शिवेन विना शक्तिर्न शक्त्या च विना शिवः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There is mutual dependence between Shakti and Shaktiman. &lt;strong&gt;There is no Shakti without Shiva and no Shiva without Shakti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The inseparable relationship of Shiva and Shakti is also shown by image or idol form of ArdhaNarishwara form. However Linga form is the only form which establishes word-meaning relationship. It is because &lt;strong&gt;formless Shiva gets manifested in Linga form through the base of Shakti.&lt;/strong&gt; It is shown in Linga Purana [part 2 chapter 47]:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विशोध्य स्थापत्येद्भक्त्या सवेदिकमनुत्तमम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;लिंगवेदी उमा देवी लिंगं साक्षान् महेश्वर&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Devotee shall clean Linga along with the pedestal and then devoutly install it. The &lt;strong&gt;pedestal of the Linga is Godess Uma&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;the Linga is Maheswara himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as pedestal of Linga is Uma/ Shakti herself, thus it establishes inseparable Shiva-Shakti relationship. It shows that Nirguna Shiva gets manifested as the base of Shakti. So as it represents the Nirguna aspect, Shiva Purana [Videysavara samhita chapter 5] states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रुपित्वात्सकलस्तद्वत्तस्मात्सकलनिष्कल ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निष्कलत्त्वान्निराकारं लिंगं तस्य समागतम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He is also Sakala as he has an embodied form. He is both Sakala and Niskala (formless/Nirguna). &lt;strong&gt;It is in his Niskala aspect that the Linga is appropriate as it represents formless aspect.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it also denotes the infiniteness of Linga as stated by Vyasa in Drona Parva [Chapter 202] of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दहत्यूर्ध्वं स्थितो यच्म प्राणेत्पतिस्थितश्चयत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;स्थितलिङ्गस्य पन्नित्यं&lt;/strong&gt; तस्मात्स्थाणुरिति स्मृतः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Since he is great and ancient and is the source of the life and it&amp;apos;s continuence and since &lt;strong&gt;his Linga form is everlasting,&lt;/strong&gt; he is for that reason called Sthanu.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Lord Shiva is primarily worshipped in Linga form because it is the only form which establishes inseparable relationship of Shiva-Shakti, it represents manifestation of Nirguna in Saguna form and Linga is identical with the Universe itself and it&amp;nbsp; represents infinity too. Thus it is best to worship Lord Shiva in Linga form.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Misconceptions:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are also answers which state Lord Shiva is primarily worshipped in Linga form due to curse of Sage Bhrigu. It is wrong because Lord Shiva is worshipped in Linga form from time beginning.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Curse of Bhrigu took place in recent Kaliyuga while Lord Shiva is worshipped in Linga form much much before that.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For eg. Rama worshipped Lord Shiva in Linga form. It is stated in Padma Purana [Patala Khanda chapter 104] and Lord Rama himself states it as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विभिषणः कथमसौबद्धः श्रृंखलयानृभि: ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मत्स्थापितंशिवलिङ्गंदृष्ट्वारामेश्वरंत्वहो ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh, how is it that Vibhisana seeing &lt;strong&gt;the Linga of Shiva, (called) Ramesvara and installed by me,&lt;/strong&gt; is bound with chains.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And most importantly, curse of Bhrigu took place in this Kaliyuga, whereas there is a Mahapurana named Linga Purana which is among 18 Mahapuranas which is fully related with worship, origin, importance of Lingas and it is not that Vyasa wrote this Purana after curse by Bhrigu.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, it is not due to curse of Bhrigu. Lord Shiva is always worshipped primarily in Linga form from time beginning.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The establishment of 12 Jyotirlinga:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Somanath Jyotirlinga, Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga, Mahakala Jyotirlinga, Omkareshwara Jyotirlinga, Kedareshwara Jyotirlinga, Bhimashankara Jyotirlinga, Visveswara Jyotirlinga, Trayambakeshwara Jyotirlinga, Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga, Nageswara Jyotirlinga, Rameshwara Jyotirlinga, Ghusmeshwara Jyotirlinga&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All Jyotirlingas were established in Linga form from the time of their establishment. &lt;strong&gt;They took much and much before curse of Bhrigu.&lt;/strong&gt; Some took place even before birth of Parvati. &lt;em&gt;For eg. Moon God established Somanath Linga during the time of Daksha Prajapati when he curses Moon God. Similarly Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga is related during the period of Ravana. And similarly all Jyotirlinga were established already before curse of Bhrigu.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover Skanda Purana describes more than 108 Shiva lingas which were already established before curse of Bhrigu. Shiva Purana also states about Lingas like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rudresvara linga, Bhuteshwara linga, Bhimeshwara linga, Guptesvara linga, Vatukeswara linga, Kumareswara linga, Kameswara linga, Nadiswara linga, etc.. etc... so much&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And these all were established in Linga form the beginning ie. Lord Shiva manifested himself as Linga form in those places. It is not that someone changed the image/idol from there and established Linga after curse of Bhrigu.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus it clearly shows that Lord Shiva was worshipped in Linga form from time beginning and it is not due to curse of Bhrigu. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharat also clearly states Lord Shiva to be worshipped in Linga form&lt;/strong&gt; (and it is also before curse of Bhrigu). Lord Krishna in Anushasana Parva Dana Dharma section and Vyasa in Drona Parva[chapter 202] state the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ऋषयश्चैव देवाश्च गन्धर्वात्सरसस्तथा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लिङ्गमस्यार्चयन्ति स्म तच्मात्यूर्ध्वं समास्थितम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Rishis, the Gods,&lt;/strong&gt; the Gandharvas and Apsaras, &lt;strong&gt;always worship the Linga form&lt;/strong&gt; which is supposed to stand upright.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from the above facts it is ridiculous to say that Linga worship started after curse of Bhrigu. Curse of Bhrigu may have created only some coincidental circumstances. That&amp;apos;s it only. Lord Shiva is worshipped in Linga form from time beginning.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Finally,&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worshipping of Linga is highly auspicious as it contains all Gods and Goddesses, as it is identical with the Universe itself, as it represents the Nirguna Brahman, as it represents inseparable relation of Shiva-Shakti.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Lord Krishna in Anushashana Parva Dana Dharma section and Vyasa in &lt;em&gt;Drona Parva [Chapter 202]&lt;/em&gt; states;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पूजयेद्विग्रहं यस्तु लिङ्ग वापि समर्चयेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लिङ्ग पूजयिता नित्यं महतीं श्रियमश्रुत ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He who adoreth Linga form of that high souled God, always obtained prosperity by that act.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And worship of Shiva Linga is in accordance with the Shruti/ Vedas. Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda in 10.16.2 states:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भवाय नमः । भवलिङ्गाय नमः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शर्वाय नमः । शर्वलिङ्गाय नमः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;शिवाय नमः । शिवलिङ्गाय नमः&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ज्वलाय नमः । ज्वललिङ्गाय नमः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutation to Bhava and Salutations to Linga of Bhava. Salutations to Sarva and Salutations to Linga of Sarva. &lt;strong&gt;Salutations to Shiva and Salutations to Linga of Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to your form of fire and Salutations to the Linga of fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-17T04:41:51.183" LastActivityDate="2017-05-17T04:41:51.183" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14219" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-25T11:48:19.903" Score="7" ViewCount="8536" Body="&lt;p&gt;During Pradosha timings 4:30 to 6 PM on Trayodasi thithi,  in case of vaishnavites why Lord Narasimha is worshipped and what is the significance of this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-28T18:43:58.410" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T13:49:36.420" Title="Why Lord Narasimha is worshipped during pradosha timings" Tags="|belief|practice|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14220" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14219" CreationDate="2016-07-25T12:28:05.080" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The legend of Narasimham and Prahalad goes like this,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hiranyakashipu asks for a tricky boon. That he would &lt;em&gt;not die either on earth or in space; nor in fire nor in water; &lt;strong&gt;neither during day nor at night&lt;/strong&gt;; neither inside nor outside (of a home); nor by a human, animal or God; neither by inanimate nor by animate being&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma grants the boon. With virtually no fear of death he unleashes terror... (SB 7.3.35-38)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prahlada, Hiranyakashipu's son who is a stauch Vishnu devotee declares the omnipresence of Lord Vishnu and refuses to worship his own father as the Lord of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Hiranyakashipu points to a pillar and asks if Vishnu is present in it. Prahlada nods in affirmative. Angered at it, he draws his sword and cuts the pillar; Narasimha appears out of the broken pillar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narasimha (being a man-lion god form) kills Hiranyakashipu. He comes out to kill at the &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;pradosha or twilight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (neither day nor night);on the doorsteps of his palace (neither inside nor outside); uses his nails to kill (neither animate nor inanimate); puts him on his lap before killing (neither earth nor in space). Thus making power of the boon ineffective. (SB 7.8)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, pradosha is the time when Narasimha completed his principal objective of his avatara and thus rescused Prahalada. Vishnu devotees observe silence or &lt;em&gt;mauna&lt;/em&gt; during the period. No &lt;em&gt;mantras&lt;/em&gt; are recited during the period either.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-26T06:31:15.887" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14221" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14225" CreationDate="2016-07-25T12:54:15.740" Score="4" ViewCount="5154" Body="&lt;p&gt;I love tattoing and I am a devotee of lord krishna. I think whether tattoing god's name on body is a sin as I am a girl? Does hinduism allow tattoing? Is there any notes about tattoing in puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6913" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2019-06-27T14:04:03.933" LastActivityDate="2019-06-27T14:04:03.933" Title="Is tattoing alowed in hinduism?" Tags="|practice|customs|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14222" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-25T17:11:32.437" Score="9" ViewCount="1441" Body="&lt;p&gt;From Mandukya Upanishad V:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यत्र सुप्तो न कञ्चन कामं कामयते न कञ्चन स्वप्नं&#xA;  पश्यति तत्&#xA;  सुषुप्तम् । सुषुप्तस्थान एकीभूतः &lt;strong&gt;प्रज्ञानघन&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  एवानन्दमयो&#xA;  ह्यानन्दभुक् चेतो मुखः &lt;strong&gt;प्राज्ञस्तृतीयः पादः&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ ५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5. Where the sleeper desires not a thing of enjoyment and sees not any dream, that state is deep sleep. (The Self) seated in the state of deep sleep and called Prajna, in whom everything is unified, who is dense with consciousness, who is full of bliss, who is certainly the enjoyer of bliss, and who is the door to the knowledge (of the preceding two states), is the third quarter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Shushupti is called &lt;strong&gt;प्रज्ञानघन&lt;/strong&gt;. Prajnan (प्रज्ञान) means knowledge, wisdom or intelligence and &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/praj%C3%B1%C4%81naghana/142991/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prajnanghana&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spokensanskrit.de/index.php?beginning=0+&amp;amp;tinput=+%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%9E%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%98%E0%A4%A8&amp;amp;trans=Translate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;means&lt;/a&gt; nothing but knowledge. It can be interpreted as full of knowledge/consciousness or dense with (or mass of) consciousness. The self in this state is called &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/pr%C4%81j%C3%B1a/151308/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;प्राज्ञ (Prajna)&lt;/a&gt; which means intellectual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But for the state of deep sleep, we can say that actually there is no*  consciousness or no any state like mass of consciousness, In other words, it seems the state is &lt;em&gt;full of ignorance&lt;/em&gt;* instead of &lt;em&gt;mass of consciousness&lt;/em&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;* Read the following verse which clearly describe shushupti as unconscious or full of ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Chhandogya Upanishad 8.11:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तद्यत्रैतत्सुप्तः समस्तः सम्प्रसन्नः स्वप्नं न विजानात्येष&#xA;  आत्मेति होवाचैतदमृतमभयमेतद्ब्रह्मेति स ह शान्तहृदयः&#xA;  प्रवव्राज स हाप्राप्यैव देवानेतद्भयं ददर्श नाह&#xA;  खल्वयमेवꣳ सम्प्रत्यात्मानं जानात्ययमहमस्मीति&#xA;  नो एवेमानि भूतानि विनाशमेवापीतो भवति नाहमत्र&#xA;  भोग्यं पश्यामीति ॥ ८.११.१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VIII-xi-1: Prajapati said, 'He who is fully asleep, composed, serene and knows no dream, he is the Atman. He is the immortal, the fearless. He is Brahman'. Indra went away satisfied in his heart. But even before reaching the gods he saw this difficulty: 'In truth this &lt;strong&gt;one does not know himself now as &quot;I am he&quot;, nor indeed these beings&lt;/strong&gt;. It seems as if he has gone to annihilation. I see no good in this'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स समित्पाणिः पुनरेयाय तꣳ ह प्रजापतिरुवाच&#xA;  मघवन्यच्छान्तहृदयः प्राव्राजीः किमिच्छन्पुनरागम इति&#xA;  स होवाच नाह खल्वयं भगव एवꣳ सम्प्रत्यात्मानं&#xA;  जानात्ययमहमस्मीति नो एवेमानि भूतानि&#xA;  विनाशमेवापीतो भवति नाहमत्र भोग्यं पश्यामीति&#xA;  ॥ ८.११.२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VIII-xi-2: He came back again, fuel in hand. Prajapati asked him, 'Desiring what, O Indra, have you come back, since you went away satisfied in your heart?' He replied, 'Revered sir, in truth this &lt;strong&gt;one does not know himself as &quot;I am he&quot;, nor indeed these beings. It seems as if he has gone to annihilation. I see no good in this'.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Help me to understand why Shushupti is called प्रज्ञानघन/Prajnanaghana  (mass of conscious) and the self in this state is called प्राज्ञ/Prajna (intellectual) even there is no knowledge/realization of the self and ignorance of truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: Sanskrit verses are quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sanskritdocuments.org&lt;/a&gt; and English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/upanishads-atharva-veda/mandukya-upanishad/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;celextel.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-09-17T05:51:54.667" LastActivityDate="2018-09-17T05:51:54.667" Title="Why is the state of shushupti (deep sleep) called prajnanaghana (mass of consciousness)?" Tags="|upanishads|consciousness|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14223" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14226" CreationDate="2016-07-26T05:32:27.877" Score="7" ViewCount="3678" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been worshipped in Linga form from time beginning as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Among the Lingas there are 12 Jyotirlingas which are of special importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatmya of 12 Jyotirlingas is described in Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana in the chapter &amp;quot;Dwadash Jyotirlinga Mahatmya&amp;quot;. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च &lt;strong&gt;श्री शैले मल्लिकार्जुनम्&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उज्जयिन्यां महाकालमोंकारे परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;केदारं हिमवत्पृष्ठे डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाराणास्यां च विश्वेशं त्रयम्बकं गौतमीतटे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैद्यनाथं चिताभूमौ नागेशं दारुकावने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सेतुबन्धे तु रामेशं घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रात्यस्त्थाय यः पठेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तं सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Somanath in Saurastra, Mallikarjuna in Shri Saile, Mahakala in Ujjaiyana and Parameshawara also manifested as Omkara. Kedara in Himavat and Bhima Shankara in Dakinya. Vishewaswara in Varanasi and Trayambaka in side of Gautami. Vaidyanath in ChitaBhumi and  Nageshwara in forest of Daruka. Rameshwara in Setubandha and Ghusmeshwara in Shivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;These name of 12 Jyotirlingas who recites in morning, he gets freed from all sins and is eligible to get all Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotirlingas&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the similar popular verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre Somanāthaṃ ca Śrīśaile &lt;strong&gt;Mallikārjunam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ujjayinyāṃ Mahākālam Omkāram Mamleśhwaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraly Vaidyanāthaṃ cha Ḍākinyāṃ Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setubandhe tu Rāmeśaṃ Nāgeśhaṃ Dārukāvane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vārāṇasyāṃ tu Viśveśaṃ Tryambakaṃ Gautamītaṭe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himālaye tu Kedāraṃ Ghuśmeśaṃ ca Śivālaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already asked a question about Somanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14213/what-is-the-story-of-somanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Somanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt;. Now I want to know the story of Mallikarjun Jyotirling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mallikarjun temple is situated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/place/16%C2%B004%2727.0%22N+78%C2%B052%2705.0%22E/@16.074167,78.868056,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d16.074167!4d78.868056?hl=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srisailam Andhra Pradesh&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hErEK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hErEK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;(Taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srisailamonline.com/aboutsrisailam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;official website&lt;/a&gt; of Srisailam Devastanam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-21T09:43:44.363" Title="What is the story of Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14224" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-26T05:48:19.517" Score="1" ViewCount="64" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are some similar characteristics found in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nammalvar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Nammalwar&lt;/a&gt; and Jadabaratha. Can the answer be given in detail by mentioning the characteristics?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-14T03:50:59.917" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T03:50:59.917" Title="What are the similar characteristics of Swami Nammalwar and Jadabaratha?" Tags="|scripture|alwar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14225" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14221" CreationDate="2016-07-26T06:07:25.080" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Puranas do not speak about tattoos. &#xA;Tattoing of God's name on body should not be done. In vaishnava Brahmin tradition we have to emboss the shanku and chakra on the shoulders after upanayanam, not God's name. It has to be given due respect.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The human body will be buried or lit into flames after the atma separates from it. If you tattoo God's name this will also go into the mud or consigned to flames which is not acceptable. Lord Krishna the sarveswaran should not be treated like this. He is the preserver and he is Omni-present. Hope this clarifies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T07:26:31.743" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T07:26:31.743" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14226" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14223" CreationDate="2016-07-26T06:22:21.553" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The stories of all jyotirlingas are described in KotiRudraSamhita of Shiva Mahapurana. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-136/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 15&lt;/a&gt; of same Samhita describes the story of Sri Mallikarjuna or Malleswara in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After going around the earth, Kartikeya reaches Kaliasa and Narada communicates him about the marriage of Ganesha. Kartikeya knowing this leaves Kailasa and goes to Krauncha mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तच्छुत्वा स कुमारो हि प्रणम्य पितरौ च तौ। &lt;br&gt;जगाम पर्वतं क्रौञ्चं&#xA;पितृभ्यां वारितोऽपि हि।। ५ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing this, Kumāra, offering his salutation to his parents,&#xA;proceeded on to the Krausica mountain for living there, much against&#xA;the advice of his parents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कुमारस्य वियोगेन तन्माता गिरिजा यदा। &lt;br&gt;दुःखिताऽऽसीत्तदा&#xA;शम्भुस्तामुवाच सुबोधकृत्॥६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the departure of Kumāra, his mother Girijã felt extremely&#xA;painful at heart. Then Siva advised her appropriately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कथं प्रिये! दु:खितासि न दुःखं कुरु पार्वति!। &lt;br&gt; आयास्यति सुतः&#xA;सुभ्रूस्त्यज्यतां दुःखमुत्कटम्।७।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He said, “O Beloved Pârvati, why do you feel anxious? O Damsel with&#xA;beautiful eyebrows, your son would return, you better get relieved of&#xA;the mental agony.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सा यदा च न तं मेने पार्वती दुःखिता भृशम्। तदा च प्रेषितास्तत्र शङ्करेण&#xA;सुरर्षयः॥८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Pârvati was so suffering from the mental agony, she did not&#xA;listen to Śiva, then Śiva sent the divine sages to Skanda's place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devas, Sages and Shiva ganas request Kumara Kartikeya to return Kailasa but Kumara doesn't heed to anyone and finally Shiva-Parvati go and frequently visit that place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथो सुदुःखितौ दीनौ लोकाचारकरौ तदा। &lt;br&gt;जग्मतुस्तत्र&#xA;सुस्नेहात्स्वपुत्रो यत्र संस्थितः।। १४।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then both of them feeling painful, displaying the worldly traditions,&#xA;because of their love for their son, went to the place where their son&#xA;was lodged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स पुत्रश्च कुमाराख्यः पित्रोरागमनं गिरेः। &lt;br&gt;ज्ञात्वा दूरं&#xA;गतोऽस्नेहाद्योजनत्रयमेव च।। १५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kumāra, on the other hand, knowing about the arrival of his parents,&#xA;discarding his attraction for the Krausica mountain went to a place&#xA;located at a distance of three yojanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;क्रौञ्चे च पर्वते दूरं गते तस्मिन्स्वपुत्रके। &lt;br&gt;तौ च तत्र समासीनौ&#xA;ज्योतिरूपं समाश्रितौ।। १६ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the departure of their son from the Krausica mountain, both of&#xA;them taking to the form of Jyoti (flame) established themselves at the&#xA;Krausica mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुत्रस्नेहातुरौ तौ वे शिवौ पर्वणि पर्वणि। &lt;br&gt;दर्शनार्थं कुमारस्य&#xA;स्वपुत्रस्य हि गच्छतः॥ १७।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of their love for their son, both Śiva and Pârvati used to go&#xA;to the place of their son, in order to have a look at him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अमावस्यादिने शम्भुः स्वयं गच्छति तत्र हि। &lt;br&gt;पौर्णमासीदिने तत्र&#xA;पार्वती गच्छति ध्रुवम्॥ १८॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śiva used to go to that place on the moonless day while Pârvati went&#xA;there on the full-moon day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तद्दिनं हि समारभ्य मल्लिकार्जुनसम्भवम्। लिङ्गं चैव शिवस्यैकं प्रसिद्धं&#xA;भुवनत्रये।। १९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since that date Mallikarjuna-linga earned popularity in the three&#xA;worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-07-26T06:39:00.100" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14227" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-26T09:20:09.400" Score="4" ViewCount="83" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Hindu religion&lt;/strong&gt; most of the time after worship of &lt;strong&gt;God and Goddess&lt;/strong&gt; we throw the waste material, pictures in river and these things become a cause of pollution some time that like we are insulting God Please suggest some better ways for it. &#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Please click on this link and watch this video to know what's happening&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/vishku.bharat/videos/t.100000313023558/1136224746397949/?type=2&amp;amp;theater&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;watch the video&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7235" LastActivityDate="2016-07-26T11:55:46.893" Title="What is the best way to solve Pollution problem on the name of God?" Tags="|history|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-07-26T15:22:14.437" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14229" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-26T10:27:04.383" Score="0" ViewCount="5800" Body="&lt;p&gt;Comparison between Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva by each parts, qualities, astras etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7236" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-26T15:52:38.820" LastActivityDate="2016-07-26T15:52:38.820" Title="Comparison between Vishnu and Shiva?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahma|shakti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-07-26T14:14:27.693" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14231" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14229" CreationDate="2016-07-26T10:48:31.573" Score="-1" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Vishnu is quite whereas Lord Shiva gets angry easily.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Vishnu offer boon with thorough care whereas Lord Shiva will grant boon if he was praised. This is applicable to Lord Brahma also.&#xA;Example--Ravana got the boons from Lord Shiva and once he went to kailash and tried to shake it. At last he was killed by Lord Vishnu.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Vishnu's main weapons are shanku and chakra whereas Lord Shiva's weapon is trident.[soolam]&#xA;4.Albeit Lord Vishnu is described as preserver and Lord Shiva as destroyer in charanagathi Tatwa it is mentioned as Lord Vishnu is one and all. Creator, preserver and destroyer.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Vishnu is sky blue in colour [Yoga sleep in milky ocean] and Lord Shiva is dark blue from neck to feet because he drank the poison from the churn of Amirtham.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu puranam, Shiva puranam, Bagavatham, Kodayin Paadhai are the books from where the citings can be seen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-07-26T10:48:31.573" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14233" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14229" CreationDate="2016-07-26T11:11:08.547" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva both are of infinite qualities and infinite attributes. They are the same Lord moving in two different forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna in &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt; in the &lt;strong&gt;Banasura fight chapter&lt;/strong&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अविद्यामोहितात्मान&lt;/strong&gt; पुरुषा भिन्न दर्शिन । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वदन्ति भेद पश्यन्ति चावयोरन्तर हरः ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Person whose Atman is deluded by Avidya sees difference between me and Hara (Shiva). He alone sees and talks difference between me and Hara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above verse Lord Krishna uses the term &lt;strong&gt;&quot;AvidyaMohitatmana&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; ie. Whose Atman is deluded by Avidya/Ignorance.&#xA;Similarly Harivamsha Parva of Mahabharata in Banasura fight chapter states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एक एव द्विध भूतो लोके चरति नित्यस&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The same Lord is always moving in World in two different forms (ie. Shiva and Vishnu)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as they are same, quality of one Lord definitely belongs to another Lord. Similarly their wearing, astra and clothes belong to each other as they are same. However this relation is hard to conceive for people as they are deluded by ignorance. Even Lord Brahma sees this relation in dream, [Harivamsha Parva Mahabharata Banasura fight episode (2.125 section)]:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हरं च हरिरुपेण हरिं च हररुपिणम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;शङ्खचक्रगदापाणि पीताम्बरधरं हरम्&lt;/strong&gt;।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hara was on the form of Hari and Hari was on the form of Hara. &lt;strong&gt;Hara&lt;/strong&gt; was wearing yellow clothes and &lt;strong&gt;in his hands were Sankha, Chakra and Gada.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;त्रिशुलपट्टिशधरं व्याघ्रचर्मधरं हरिम्&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गरुडस्थ चापि हरं हरिं च वृषभध्वजम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Hari&lt;/strong&gt; was wearing tiger skin and &lt;strong&gt;holding a Trishula.&lt;/strong&gt; Hara was riding on Garuda and Hari was riding on bull.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the same chapter, when Brahma tells the above fact, then Markandaye states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिवाय विष्णु रुपाय विष्णवे शिवरुपिने । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथान्तरं न पश्यमि तेन तौ दिष्ट: शिवम् ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva is in the form of Vishnu and Vishnu is in the form of Shiva. There is no difference between them and both provide Auspiciousness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-07-26T12:02:06.470" LastActivityDate="2016-07-26T12:02:06.470" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14234" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14179" CreationDate="2016-07-26T11:52:13.467" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;em&gt;Kandarpa&lt;/em&gt; is a person who only uses his sexual power to beget good children from his &lt;em&gt;Dharma patni&lt;/em&gt; or wife.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Correct&lt;/strong&gt;. The link in question refers below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 10.28 — Among weapons I am the thunderbolt; among cows I am kamadhenu. &lt;strong&gt;I am Kandarpa - the procreator&lt;/strong&gt;, and among serpents I am Vasuki.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BTW, according to &lt;em&gt;GAndharva&lt;/em&gt; tradition, having sex is a form of marriage in certain situations. We can equate it to present form of &quot;live-in relationship&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;So for being a kandarpa a person can only have sexual contact with his wife for having children.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, but no strictness of &quot;wife&quot;, though it's &lt;em&gt;DhArmik&lt;/em&gt;. In MahAbhArata, VyAsa had &lt;em&gt;Niyoga&lt;/em&gt; with 3 women and Kunti had &lt;em&gt;Niyoga&lt;/em&gt; with 3 men (spiritual forms). It's never seen as a sin. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10289/what-is-the-punishment-for-consensual-sex-in-hinduism/11030#11030&quot;&gt;Reference for more details&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is 1 of the few absolute forms, where there is no &quot;among&quot;, i.e. no comparison (e.g. &quot;among X-s I am Y&quot;). When a living entity is born, it's no lesser than a phenomena. Whatever is influential, is part of divine opulence only [BG 10.41]. Hence &lt;em&gt;Kandarpa&lt;/em&gt; is related more with procreation &amp;amp; less with sex. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;So if being kandarpa is ideal and not sinful then, does this mean using contraceptive methods specifically condoms, and birth control pills must be a sin because we waste our seed without a reason (i.e being non-kandarpa)?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If sex is done for sense gratification, then yes it creates an attachment.  But certain sins are inevitable. For example, a hungry kid will steal the food, rather than thinking about sin. Same goes for adults wanting sexual pleasure.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;One can just hold it from outside, but would continue to crave from within, which accumulates in even bigger sin of &lt;em&gt;Dambha&lt;/em&gt;(hypocrisy) [BG 3.6].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A way is to commit an action &amp;amp; offer it to god, who stays within as a consumer of all senses. If one's conscience is convinced about &quot;I am not the do-er&quot; then there is No attachment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 18.14 — The particular place(body) also [as] performer and various organs of different types and different gestures and the Divine is the fifth.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 18.15 — By body - speech - mind, human initiates whichever actions, [be it] justful or reverse, these five are the causes.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;18.16 — These(above listed) being there, one who sees self as the do-er due to unintelligence, that ignorant certainly doesn't see [properly].&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Current foods - scaled high in taste quotient are amplifier of &quot;mode of passion&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Rajas guna&lt;/em&gt;), which increases sensual desires. Amorous pleasure (sex) is 1 among them. One can overcome it in following ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Check on food &amp;amp; control the desires properly &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Have sex &amp;amp; take the responsibility of children (just to make it&#xA;godly?)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Use contraceptive methods for birth control &amp;amp; safety; Parallely, don't be divulged into it too much&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With today's time, option 3 is better. Apart from high population growth, if a child is born, then parents have to brought it up. Abandoning an innocent is the worst thing to do. Better to pull out rather than pulling out from the responsibility.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Osho, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.osho.com/iosho/library/read-book/online-library-contraceptives-pregnant-children-6a27d9a3-1b3?p=07311c508b9c7c98d7951b80d5494134&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;contraceptives are great blessings to mankind&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-07-26T11:59:55.857" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14235" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14227" CreationDate="2016-07-26T11:55:46.893" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of five god elements is water. We pretty well know each river represents a deity and we celebrate &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushkaram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pushkaram&lt;/a&gt;  to worship the river. Before taking bath we invoke holy river waters by the following mantra to remove our external &amp;amp; internal impurities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ganga Cha Yamuna Chaiva Godavari Saraswati, Narmada Sindhu Kaveri&#xA;  Jalesmin Sannidhim Kuru&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though industry &amp;amp; local municipal bodies are responsible, lets us try to understand how a person can be inspired to realize. In this ecosystem every &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legendary_creatures_in_Hindu_mythology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;living creatures&lt;/a&gt; like humans, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vahana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;animals&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sacred_trees_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;plants&lt;/a&gt;, birds are forms of god, all of these need water to live, so we end up indirectly offering impurity to god. While it is presumed we’ve the primary understanding, we need to co relate many of our acts to its consequences for easy understanding of layman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Don’t excrete in river, same water will be used for abhishekam   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Don’t dump waste in river, same water will be used for sankalpam for&#xA;puja rituals, annadanam, drinking by animals &amp;amp; humans.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Don’t use soap/detergents in river, don’t leave plastic or other artificial&#xA;products in river, it effects marine life (kurma/mascha avataras,&#xA;other vehicles of gods)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On top of this every movable &amp;amp; immovable, living &amp;amp; lifeless are the forms of god. Hence our every act is a worship to god and should be done with utmost understanding and serenity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2016-07-26T11:55:46.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14236" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14237" CreationDate="2016-07-26T16:09:54.267" Score="6" ViewCount="3437" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the Story Of Shree Yagnavalkya Rishi giving back his Knowladge to his Guru Shree Vaisampayana (वैशंपायन).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story of Shree Yagnavalkya Rishi and Godess Saraswati?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-08-18T03:06:42.070" LastActivityDate="2016-08-18T03:06:42.070" Title="Stories Of Yagnavalkya Rishi (याज्ञवल्क्य ऋषि)" Tags="|puranas|guru|saraswati|yajnavalkya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14237" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14236" CreationDate="2016-07-26T17:33:08.130" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Yagnavalkya giving back his knowledge is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp079.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana.  As I discuss in this answer, after Vyasa compiled the mantras of the Vedas into the four books that we call the Vedic Samhitas, he taught the Vedas to various disciples, who each started their own Shakha or Vedic school.  In particular, he taught the Yajur Veda to his disciple Vaishampayana, who is most famous for narrating the Mahabharata to Arjuna's great-grandson Janamejaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Vaishampayana once accidentally killed his own nephew, so he asked his disciples to repent for the sin of Brahmahatya on his behalf.  Most of the disciples agreed, but his favorite disciple, Yagnavalkya, refused because he did not want to participate in a ritual with the other disciples.  Vaishampayana was furious and demanded that Yagnavalkya give back everything Vaishampayana had taught him, and so vomited out the Yajur Veda.  Vaishampayana' other shishyas then turned into Tittiris or partridges and ate up the Yajur Veda, which is why one of the Shakhas of the Krishna Yajur Veda goes by the name Taittiriya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of the tree of the Yajur-veda there are twenty-seven branches, which Vaiśampáyana, the pupil of Vyása, compiled, and taught to as many disciples. Amongst these, Yájnawalkya, the son of Brahmaráta, was distinguished for piety and obedience to his preceptor. It had been formerly agreed by the Munis, that any one of them who, at a certain time, did not join an assembly held on mount Meru should incur the guilt of killing a Brahman, within a period of seven nights. Vaiśampáyana alone failed to keep the appointment, and consequently killed, by an accidental kick with his foot, the child of his sister. He then addressed his scholars, and desired them to perform the penance expiatory of Brahmanicide on his behalf. Without any hesitation Yájnawalkya refused, and said, &amp;quot;How shall I engage in penance with these miserable and inefficient Brahmans?&amp;quot; On which his Guru, being incensed, commanded him to relinquish all that he had learnt from him. &amp;quot;You speak contemptuously,&amp;quot; he observed, &amp;quot;of these young Brahmans, but of what use is a disciple who disobeys my commands?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I spoke,&amp;quot; replied Yájnawalkya, &amp;quot;in perfect faith; but as to what I have read from you, I have had enough: it is no more than this--&amp;quot; (acting as if he would eject it from his stomach); when he brought up the texts of the Yajush in substance stained with blood. He then departed. The other scholars of Vaiśampáyana, transforming themselves to partridges (Tittiri), picked up the texts which he had disgorged, and which from that circumstance were called Taittiríya; and the disciples were called the Charaka professors of the Yajush, from Charańa, 'going through' or 'performing' the expiatory rites enjoined by their master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Yagnavalkya, having lost the knowledge of the Yajur Veda, engaged in Tapasya to Surya the sun god to regain his lost knowledge.  Surya appeared before him in the form of a horse, and retaught him the Yajur Veda, but in a different form: while the Krishna Yajur Veda that Vaishampayana had taught him had the Samhita and Brahmana portions all mixed up (as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3247/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), the Shukla Yajur Veda that Surya taught him had the Samhita clearly separated.  In any case, because Surya had taught it to Yajnavalkya in the form of a Vaja or horse, one of the Shakhas of the Shukla Yajur Veda is called Vajasaneyaka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yájnawalkya, who was perfect in ascetic practices, addressed himself strenuously to the sun, being anxious to recover possession of the texts of the Yajush. &amp;quot;Glory to the sun,&amp;quot; he exclaimed, &amp;quot;the gate of liberation, the fountain of bright radiance, the triple source of splendour, as the Rig, the Yajur, and the Sáma Vedas. Glory to him, who, as fire and the moon, is one with the cause of the universe: to the sun, that is charged with radiant heat, and with the Sushumna ray (by which the moon is fed with light): to him who is one with the notion of time, and all its divisions of hours, minutes, and seconds: to him who is to be meditated upon as the visible form of Vishńu, as the impersonation of the mystic Om: to him who nourishes the troops of the gods, having filled the moon with his rays; who feeds the Pitris with nectar and ambrosia, and who nourishes mankind with rain; who pours down or absorbs the waters in the time of the rains, of cold, and of heat. Glory be to Brahmá, the sun, in the form of the three seasons: he who alone is the dispeller of the darkness of this earth, of which he is the sovereign lord: to the god who is clad in the raiment of purity be adoration. Glory to the sun, until whose rising man is incapable of devout acts, and water does not purify, and touched by whose rays the world is fitted for religious rites: to him who is the centre and source of purification. Glory to Savitrí, to Súrya, to Bháskara, to Vivaswat, to Áditya, to the first-born of gods or demons. I adore the eye of the universe, borne in a golden car, whose banners scatter ambrosia.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus eulogized by Yájnawalkya, the sun, in the form of a horse, appeared to him, and said, &amp;quot;Demand what you desire.&amp;quot; To which the sage, having prostrated himself before the lord of day, replied, &amp;quot;Give me a knowledge of those texts of the Yajush with which even my preceptor is unacquainted.&amp;quot; Accordingly the sun imparted to him the texts of the Yajush called Ayátayáma (unstudied), which were unknown to Vaiśampáyana: and because these were revealed by the sun in the form of a horse, the Brahmans who study this portion of the Yajush are called Vájis (horses). Fifteen branches of this school sprang from Kańwa and other pupils of Yájnawalkya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Concerning the story of Yagnavalkya and Saraswati, that has to do with an additional element to the above story described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Devi Bhagavatam.  In this account, when Surya appears before Yagnavalkya, he just tells Yagnavalkya to pray to Saraswati, who actually fulfills Yagnavalkya's boon:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Nârada! I now describe the Stotra (hymn) of Sarasvatî Devî, yielding, all desires that Yâjñavalkya, the best of the Risis recited in days of yore to Her. The Muni Yajñavalkya forgot all the Vedas out of the curse of Guru and with a very sad heart went to the Sun, the great merit-giving place. There he practised austerities for a time when the Lolâkhya Sun became visible to him, when, being overpowered by great sorrow, he began to cry repeatedly; and then he sang hymns to him. Then Bhagavân Sûrya Deva became pleased and taught him all the Vedas with their Amgas (limbs) and said :-- “O Child! Now sing hymns to Sarasvatî Devî that you get back your memory.” Thus saying, the Sun disappeared. The Muni Yâjñavalkya finished his bath and with his heart full of devotion began to sing hymns to the Vâg Devî, the Goddess of Speech.... Thus saying, the Maharsi Yâjñavalkya, who had observed fasting, bowed down to the Devî Sarasvatî with great devotion and began to cry frequently. Then the Mahâmâyâ Sarasvatî, of the nature of Light could not hide Herself away. She became visible to him and said “O Child! You be good Kavîndra (Indra of the poets).”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the Devi Bhagavatam is widely considered not to be either an authentic Mahapurana or Upapurana, so take this with a grain of salt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-26T17:33:08.130" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14239" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-26T18:38:09.617" Score="1" ViewCount="62" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why the religion start from India only?? why not from other country??&#xA;If the first Lord took birth,why he/she took birth in india only or if he give birth to demigods,why only in india??&#xA;why not pakistan??why not america or anywhere else??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6826" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-18T15:48:39.593" LastActivityDate="2018-03-18T15:48:39.593" Title="Existence of Religion in India only" Tags="|other-religions|india|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-07-28T03:31:40.560" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14240" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14033" CreationDate="2016-07-26T20:58:51.120" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Durvasa Rishi ashram was supposed to have been near Mathura on the banks of Yamuna.&#xA;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.radha.name/holy-places-gallery/uttar-pradesh-vraja/vraja-vrindavan/mathura/durvasa-muni-ashrama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the ashrams of Rishi Vishwamitra, Kapila Muni and Dadhichi Rishi was on the left banks of river Prachi (of Prachi Mahatmya) nearby Puri in Odisha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: http://odisha.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/2012/July/engpdf/71-83.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rishyashringa ashram was near modern day Sringeri in Karnataka. (source wiki)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Matanga Muni ashram which he shared with apsara Urvashi is also being identified on banks of Prachi river near Cuttack, Odisha. Source is above pdf document.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am trying to get extracts from the related scriptures and post shortly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7241" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T13:59:04.657" LastActivityDate="2018-01-03T13:59:04.657" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14241" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-26T21:38:03.880" Score="1" ViewCount="295" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone please direct me to the links for english translations of Vamadeva Samhita and Kapila Samhita along with the original Sanskrit verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7241" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T11:09:34.397" LastActivityDate="2018-10-16T11:09:34.397" Title="Translations for Vamadeva Samhita &amp; Kapila Samhita required" Tags="|scripture|translation-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14243" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14252" CreationDate="2016-07-27T06:08:15.323" Score="5" ViewCount="2288" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been worshipped in Linga form from time beginning as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Among the Lingas there are 12 Jyotirlingas which are of special importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatmya of 12 Jyotirlingas is described in Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana in the chapter &amp;quot;Dwadash Jyotirlinga Mahatmya&amp;quot;. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च श्री शैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उज्जयिन्यां &lt;strong&gt;महाकाल&lt;/strong&gt;मोंकारे परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;केदारं हिमवत्पृष्ठे डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाराणास्यां च विश्वेशं त्रयम्बकं गौतमीतटे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैद्यनाथं चिताभूमौ नागेशं दारुकावने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सेतुबन्धे तु रामेशं घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रात्यस्त्थाय यः पठेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तं सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Somanath in Saurashtra, Mallikarjuna in Shri Saile, Mahakala in Ujjaiyana and Parameshawara also manifested as Omkara. Kedara in Himavat and Bhima Shankara in Dakinya. Vishewaswara in Varanasi and Trayambaka in side of Gautami. Vaidyanath in ChitaBhumi and  Nageshwara in forest of Daruka. Rameshwara in Setubandha and Ghusmeshwara in Shivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;These name of 12 Jyotirlingas who recites in morning, he gets freed from all sins and is eligible to get all Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotirlingas&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the similar popular verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre Somanāthaṃ ca Śrīśaile Mallikārjunam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ujjayinyāṃ &lt;strong&gt;Mahākālam&lt;/strong&gt; Omkāram Mamleśhwaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraly Vaidyanāthaṃ cha Ḍākinyāṃ Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setubandhe tu Rāmeśaṃ Nāgeśhaṃ Dārukāvane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vārāṇasyāṃ tu Viśveśaṃ Tryambakaṃ Gautamītaṭe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himālaye tu Kedāraṃ Ghuśmeśaṃ ca Śivālaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already asked a question about Somanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14213/what-is-the-story-of-somanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Somanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mallikarjun &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14223/what-is-the-story-of-mallikarjuna-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt;. Now I want to know the story of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahakaleshwar temple is situated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Mahakaleshwar+Jyotirlinga/@23.1827177,75.7682178,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x3024e4d1bd13cc22!8m2!3d23.1827177!4d75.7682178&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ypKxI.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ypKxI.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By LRBurdak - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, &lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3797963&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3797963&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2023-09-18T10:41:37.903" Title="What is the story of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14244" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14267" CreationDate="2016-07-27T06:14:18.900" Score="1" ViewCount="991" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do we do Shashtanga Namaskara near Kodimaram/Flag Pole/Dwajastamaba ? I often watched people also doing Namaskaram near Garbha Gruha (inner sanctorum)? Please clarify me which one is the right way and procedure to do Namaskaram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6913" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-07-27T06:39:17.250" LastActivityDate="2018-11-02T19:39:58.420" Title="What is significance of Shashtanga Namaskaram near Kodimaram/Dwajastambha/flagpole?" Tags="|belief|culture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14245" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-27T06:58:53.343" Score="14" ViewCount="678" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why did &lt;em&gt;moha&lt;/em&gt; (disillusion) arise in Arjuna in the battle of Mahabharata, why didn't the same thing (disillusion) happen to him when Duryodhana &amp;amp; co. attacked King Virata during the agyatvasa of Pandavas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On that occasion, Arjuna and other Pandavas fought with all and even won the battle. So what's the reason for not getting disillusioned during the agyatvasa war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7235" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-21T16:38:35.657" LastActivityDate="2020-03-26T16:41:09.920" Title="Why did moha (disillusion) arise in Arjuna only before the Kurukshetra war in Mahabharata but not the previous battles?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14247" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-27T08:43:52.590" Score="3" ViewCount="337" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, each of the four Vedas consists of four portions: Samhitas, the core part of the Vedas which consist of mantras heard from the gods; Brahmanas, commentaries on the Samhitas which provide instructions on the proper conducting of important Vedic Yagnas; Aranyakas, which provide instructions for Yagnas meant for forest-dwellers and hermits; and Upanishads, which consist of conversations between teachers and students which clarify the philosophical teachings of the Vedas.  But as I discuss in this question, the Isha Upanishad has a very different origin: it isn't some supplement or commentary, rather it is part of the Samhita of the Shukla Yajur Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I mentioned above, the mantras of the Samhitas were generally used in Vedic Yagnas (fire-rituals), in a precise fashion delineated in the Brahmanas and Aranyakas of the Vedas.  But in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800201.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/4/items/upanishadssrisan00sita/upanishadssrisan00sita_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=upanishadssrisan00sita_jp2/upanishadssrisan00sita_0009.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Isha Upanishad, Adi Shankaracharya says that the mantras found in the Isha Upanishad were never used in Vedic Yagnas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adoration to the Brahman.  The mantras beginning with Isavasyam, etc., have not been utilized in rituals, because the serve the purpose of enlightening us on the true nature of the Atman, who is not an anga of, i.e. not connected with, Karma.  The true nature of the Atman consists, as will be described, in its purity being untouched by sin, oneness, being eternal, having no body, omnipresence, etc., and as that conflicts with Karma, it is only reasonable that these mantras should not be utilized in rituals[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss the issue of knowledge of the Atma not being a supplement to Karma &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14035/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.   But my question is, is Adi Shankaracharya correct that the mantras of the Isha Upanishad were never used in Vedic Yagnas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do other commentators on the Isha Upanishad agree or disagree with Adi Shankaracharya here?  If it helps, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Sacred_Books_of_the_Hindus/SBH%2001%20-%20Upanishads%20-%20Isa%20to%20Mandukya%20with%20Madhwa%20Bhashya%20English%20Translation%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201911&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is Madhvacharya's Dvaita commentary and &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/zZZt/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is Vedanta Desikan's Visistadvaita commentary; neither of them seem to address this issue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, do any Brahmanas or Aranyakas of the Vedas reference the Isha Upanishad in their descriptions of Yagnas?  The Brahmana of the Shukla Yajur Veda is the Shatapatha Brahmana, and as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3014/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; it contains an Aranyaka within it, but often Brahmanas and Aranyakas from one Vedas will reference mantras found in another Vedas.  So it's possible other Brahmanas and Aranyakas may reference it.  Also, does anyone know if the Isha Upanishad is mentioned in Shrauta Sutras, since they compile instructions for various Vedic Yagnas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-10-11T02:19:15.427" Title="Were the mantras of the Isha Upanishad ever used in Yagnas?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|adi-shankaracharya|yajna|isha-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14248" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-27T09:01:58.423" Score="7" ViewCount="5915" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want the English/Hindi translation of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudgala_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mudgala Purana&lt;/a&gt;. Where can I find this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" OwnerDisplayName="Triyugi Narayan Mani" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-07-29T07:14:58.290" LastActivityDate="2018-03-15T06:40:27.950" Title="Where can I read English/Hindi version of Mudgala Purana?" Tags="|puranas|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14250" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-27T10:20:55.543" Score="7" ViewCount="867" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Advaita Vedanta, The famous Mahavakyas out of the four is अहं ब्रह्म अस्मिति,from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 of the Yajur Veda, which means &quot;I am Brahman&quot; or &quot;I am Divine&quot;.  There are various Bhashyas and explanation on this particular Mahavakya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to my understanding,in this phrase, there are two words- 'I' and 'Brahman/Divine'. It is clear that still there is a difference between &quot;अहं&quot;i.e. self(or one's ego) and &quot;ब्रह्म&quot;. Then how can this vakya be a base for Advaita Philosophy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-21T12:27:14.843" LastActivityDate="2018-11-21T12:27:14.843" Title="Aham Brahmasmi and Advaita Vedanta" Tags="|upanishads|brahman|advaita|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14251" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10911" CreationDate="2016-07-27T11:33:27.157" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before presenting the discussion about Fate and Free Will, I would like to quote some statement. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The scriptural (vedas) teachings are directed towards the entire humanity and therefore the teachings are many and varied in keeping with the level of the people. Therefore whatever are relevant to one person or a group of people will not be relevant to others and therefore if we superficially look at the entire vedic teaching, it may appear to be confusing and also in some places contradictory. - Swami Paramarthananda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is a very beautiful tradition. So Guru is not dispensable if you want to have knowledge. If you want to get confused you can read on your own. - Swami Dayananda Saraswati.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above statements were taken from the video &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OOxm0KCFRw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So instead of quoting from different texts, I will present the content as a dialogue between a disciple and a guru. The discussion took place between the celebrated renowned Jeevanmukta &lt;strong&gt;Sri Sri Jagadguru Sankaracharya Chandrasekhara Bharati Mahaswami&lt;/strong&gt;, the 34th Peethadhipati of Sringeri Sarada Peetham and his disciple. The conversation is taken from the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/B0026WAR80&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dialogues with the Guru&lt;/a&gt; by R. Krishna Swami Iyer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One evening a disciple approached His Holiness with a view to obtain&#xA;  some valuable instruction, but found words wanting to express his&#xA;  intention and His Holiness came to his relief by starting the&#xA;  conversation himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His Holiness&lt;/strong&gt;: I hope you are pursuing your studies in the Vedanta as usual.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Disciple&lt;/strong&gt;: I cannot say that I make any regular study, but I do study somewhat off and on.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: In the course of your studies, you would have been faced with many doubts.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;:  I cannot say that I have studied deep enough even for that.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: I do not mean the doubts, which arise when we endeavor to grasp the technicalities of the Vedanta system, but only those broad&#xA;  problems, which present themselves to any one who makes an attempt at&#xA;  serious thinking.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: Certainly, there are very many such doubts.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Will you formulate one of such doubts and tell me how you have tried to solve it?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;:  I shall mention one of such doubts, which is repeatedly coming up to my mind and for which I have found no solution yet. I shall be&#xA;  very grateful if your Holiness will solve it for me.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Please mention it.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: It is no other than the problem of the eternal conflict between fate   and   free-will.  What   are   their   respective provinces and&#xA;  how can the conflict be avoided?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: The problem is indeed a very great one and would baffle the intellect of the highest thinkers, if presented in the way you have&#xA;  done it.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: What is wrong with my presentation?  In fact,  I only stated my problem and did not even explain how I find it difficult to solve.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Your difficulty arises even in that mere statement of the problem.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: How?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: A conflict is conceivable and possible only if there are two things. There can be no conflict if there is only a single thing.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: But here there are two things fate and free-will.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Exactly,  It is just that assumption that is responsible for the problem arising in your mind.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: It is not my assumption at all. How can I ignore the fact that they do exist as independent factors, whether I grant their existence&#xA;  or not.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: That is where you are wrong again.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: How?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: As a follower of our Sanatana Dharma, you must know that fate is nothing extraneous to yourself, but is only the sum total of the&#xA;  results of your past actions. As God is but the dispenser of the&#xA;  fruits of your actions, fate, representing those fruits, is not His&#xA;  creation but only yours. Free-will is what you exercise when you act&#xA;  now.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: Still I do not see how they are not two distinct things.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Have it this way. Fate is past  karma,  free-will is present karma. Both are really one, that is, karma,  though they may differ in&#xA;  the matter of time. There can be no conflict when they are really one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: But the difference in time is a vital difference which we cannot possibly overlook.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: I do not want you to overlook it, but only to study it more deeply.   The present is before you and, by the exercise of free-will,&#xA;  you can attempt to shape it. The past is past and is therefore beyond&#xA;  your vision and is rightly called adrishta, the unseen. You cannot&#xA;  reasonably attempt to find out the relative strength of two things&#xA;  unless both of them are before you.  But, by our very definition,&#xA;  free-will, the present karma alone is before you and fate, the past&#xA;  karma, is invisible.   Even if you see two wrestlers physically&#xA;  squatting before you, you cannot decide about their relative strength.&#xA;  For, one may have weight, the other agility; one muscles and the other&#xA;  tenacity; one the benefit of practice and the other of coolness of&#xA;  judgement and so on. We can on these grounds go on building arguments&#xA;  on arguments to prove that a particular wrestler will be the winner.&#xA;  But experience shows that each of these qualifications may fail at any&#xA;  time or may prove to be a disqualification. The only reasonable,&#xA;  practical and sure method of determining their relative strength is to&#xA;  ask them to wrestle with each other. While this is so, how do you&#xA;  expect to find by means of arguments a solution to the problem of the&#xA;  relative value of fate and free-will when the former by its very&#xA;  nature is unseen!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: Is there no way then of solving this problem?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: There is this way. The wrestlers must fight with each other and prove which of them is the stronger.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: In other words, the problem of conflict will get solved only at the end of the conflict. But at that time the problem will have ceased&#xA;  to have any practical significance.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Not only so, it will cease to exist.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: That is, before the conflict begins, the problem is incapable of solution, and, after the conflict ends, it is no longer necessary&#xA;  to find a solution.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Just so. In either case, it is profitless to embark on the enquiry as to the relative strength of fate and free-will.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: Does  Your   Holiness   then   mean   to   say   that   we   must resign ourselves to fate?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Certainly not. On the other hand, you must devote yourself to free-will.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: How can that be?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Fate, as I told you, is the resultant of the past exercise of your free-will. By exercising your free-will in the past, you brought&#xA;  on the resultant fate. By exercising your free-will in the present, I&#xA;  want you to wipe out your past record if it hurts you, or to add to it&#xA;  if you find it enjoyable. In any case, whether for acquiring more&#xA;  happiness or for reducing  misery, you have to exercise your free-will&#xA;  in the present.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;:  But the exercise of free-will however well directed, very often fails to secure the desired result, as fate steps in and&#xA;  nullifies the action of free-will.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: You are again ignoring our definition of fate. It is not an extraneous and a new thing which steps in to nullify your freewill. On&#xA;  the other hand, it is already in you.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: It may be so, but its  existence is  felt only when it comes into conflict with free-will How can we possibly wipe out   the   past&#xA;  record  when   we   do   not   know   nor   have   the means of&#xA;  knowing what it is?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Except to a very few highly advanced souls, the past certainly remains unknown. But even our ignorance of it is very often an&#xA;  advantage to us. For, if we happen to know all the limitless varieties&#xA;  of results which we have accumulated by our actions in this life and&#xA;  the countless lives that have preceded it, we will be simply staggered&#xA;  at the magnitude and number of such results and give up in despair any&#xA;  attempt to overcome or mitigate them. Even in this life, forgetfulness&#xA;  is a boon which the merciful God has been pleased to bestow on us, so&#xA;  that we may not be buried at any moment with a recollection of all&#xA;  that has transpired in the past. Similarly, the divine spark in us is&#xA;  ever bright with hope and makes it possible for us to confidently&#xA;  exercise our free-will.    It is not for us to belittle the&#xA;  significance of these two boons—forgetfulness of the past and hope for&#xA;  the future.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: Our ignorance of the past may be useful in not deterring the exercise of the free-will and hope may stimulate that exercise. All&#xA;  the same, it cannot be denied that fate very often does present a&#xA;  formidable obstacle in the way of such exercise.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: It is not quite correct to say that fate places obstacles in the way of free-will. On the other hand, by seeming to oppose our&#xA;  efforts, it tells us what is the extent of free-will that is necessary&#xA;  now to bear fruit. Ordinarily for the purpose of   securing   a&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  single   benefit,   a   particular   activity   is   prescribed; but&#xA;  we do not know how intensively or how repeatedly that activity has to&#xA;  be pursued or persisted in. If we do not succeed at the very first&#xA;  attempt, we can easily deduce that in the past we have exercised our&#xA;  free-will just in the opposite direction. that the resultant of that&#xA;  past activity has first to be eliminated and that our present effort&#xA;  must be proportionate to  that past activity. Thus, the obstacle which&#xA;  fate seems to offer is just the gauge by which we have to guide our&#xA;  present activities.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: The   obstacle   is   seen   only   after   the   exercise   of   our free-will, how can that help us to guide our activities at the&#xA;  start?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: It need not guide us at the start. At the start, you must not be obsessed at all with the idea that there will be any obstacle in&#xA;  your way.  Start with boundless hope and with the presumption that&#xA;  there is nothing in the way of your ex exercising the free-will. If&#xA;  you do not succeed, tell yourself that there has been in the past a&#xA;  counter-influence brought on by yourself by exercising your freewill&#xA;  in the other direction and, therefore, you must now exercise your&#xA;  free-will with re-doubled vigor and persistence to achieve your&#xA;  object. Tell yourself that, inasmuch as the seeming obstacle is of&#xA;  your own making, it is certainly within your competence to overcome&#xA;  it. If you do not succeed even after this renewed effort, there can be&#xA;  absolutely no justification for despair, for fate being but a creature&#xA;  of your free-will can never be stronger than freewill. Your failure&#xA;  only means that your present exercise of freewill is not sufficient to&#xA;  counteract the result of the past exercise of it. In other words,&#xA;  there is no question of a relative proportion between fate and&#xA;  free-will as distinct factors in life. The relative proportion is only&#xA;  as between the intensity of our past action and the intensity of our&#xA;  present action.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;:  But even so, the relative intensity can be realized only at the end of our present effort in a particular direction.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: It is always so in the case of everything which is adrishta or unseen. Take, for example, a nail driven into a wooden pillar. When&#xA;  you see it for the first time, you actually see, say, an inch of it&#xA;  projecting out of the pillar. The rest of it has gone into the wood&#xA;  and you cannot now see what exact length of the nail is embedded in&#xA;  the wood. That length, therefore, is unseen or adrishta, so far as you&#xA;  are concerned. Beautifully varnished as the pillar is, you do not know&#xA;  what is the composition of the wood in which the nail is driven. That&#xA;  also is unseen or adrishta. Now suppose you want to pull that nail&#xA;  out, can you tell me how many pulls will be necessary and how powerful&#xA;  each pull has to be?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: How can I fix the number of pulls now? The number and the intensity of the pulls depend upon the length which has gone into the&#xA;  wood.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Certainly so. And the length which has gone into the wood is not arbitrary, but depended upon the number of strokes which drove it&#xA;  in and the intensity of each of such strokes and the resistance which&#xA;  the wood offered to them.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;:  It is so.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: The number and intensity of the pulls needed to take out the nail depend therefore upon the number and intensity of the strokes&#xA;  which drove it in.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: Yes.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: But the strokes that drove in the nail are now unseen and unsee-able. They relate to the past and are  adrishta.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: Yes.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Do we desist from the attempt to pull out the nail simply because we happen to be ignorant of the length of the nail in the wood&#xA;  or of the number and intensity of the strokes which drove it in? Or,&#xA;  do we persist and persevere in pulling it out by increasing the number&#xA;  and the intensity of our present efforts to pull it out?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: Certainly, as practical men we adopt the latter course.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Adopt the same course in every effort of yours. Exert yourself as much as you can. Your will must succeed in the end.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;:  But there certainly are many things which are impossible to attain even after the utmost exertion.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: There you are mistaken. If there is any thing, it is by its very nature capable of being experienced. There is nothing which is&#xA;  really unattainable. A thing, however, may be unattainable to us at&#xA;  the particular stage at which we are, or with the qualifications that&#xA;  we possess. The attainability or otherwise of a particular thing is&#xA;  thus not an absolute characteristic of that thing but is relative and&#xA;  proportionate to our capacity to attain it.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: The success or failure of an effort can be known definitely only at the end. How are we then to know beforehand whether with our&#xA;  present capacity we may or may not exert ourselves to attain a&#xA;  particular object, and whether it is the right kind of exertion for&#xA;  the attainment of that object.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: Your question is certainly a very pertinent one. The whole aim of our Dharma sastras is to give a detailed answer to your question.&#xA;  They analyze our capacities, or competency, and prescribe the&#xA;  activities which a person endowed with a particular adhikara can&#xA;  undertake. The activities are various and numberless, as the&#xA;  capacities also happen to be various and numberless. Regulation of&#xA;  activities or, in other words, the directing of free-will into&#xA;  channels least harmful and most beneficial to the aspirant, is the&#xA;  main function of religion. Such regulated activity is called&#xA;  svadharma. Religion does not fetter man's free-will. It leaves him&#xA;  quite free to act, but tells him at the same time what is good for him&#xA;  and what is not. The responsibility is entirely and solely his. He&#xA;  cannot escape it by blaming fate, for fate is of his own making, nor&#xA;  by blaming God, for He is but the dispenser of fruits in accordance&#xA;  with the merits of actions. You are the master of your own destiny. It&#xA;  is for you to make it, to better it or to mar it. This is your&#xA;  privilege. This is your responsibility.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;:  I quite realize this. But often it so happens that I am not really the master of myself I know for instance, quite well that a&#xA;  particular act is wrong, at the same time, I feel impelled to do it.&#xA;  Similarly, I know that another act is right, at the same time,&#xA;  however, I feel powerless to do it. It seems to me that there is some&#xA;  power which is able to control or defy my free-will. So long as that&#xA;  power is potent, how can I be called the master of my own destiny?&#xA;  What is that power but fate?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: You are evidently confusing together two distinct things. Fate is a thing quite different from the other which you call a power.&#xA;  Suppose you handle an instrument for the first time. You will do it&#xA;  very clumsily and with great effort. The next time, however, you use&#xA;  it, you will do so less clumsily and with less effort. With repeated&#xA;  uses, you will have learnt to use it easily and without any effort.&#xA;  That is, the facility and ease with which you use a particular thing&#xA;  increase with the number of times you use it. The repeated and&#xA;  familiar use will leave behind a tendency to use it. The first time a&#xA;  man steals, he does so with great effort and much fear; the next time&#xA;  both his effort and fear are much less. As opportunities increase,&#xA;  stealing will become a normal habit with him and will require no&#xA;  effort at all. This habit will generate in him a tendency to steal&#xA;  even when there is no necessity to steal. It is this tendency which&#xA;  goes by the name vasana. The power which makes you act as if against&#xA;  your will is only the vasana which itself is of your own making. This&#xA;  is not fate. The punishment or reward, in the shape of pain or&#xA;  pleasure, which is the inevitable consequence of an act, bad or good,&#xA;  is alone the province of fate or destiny. The vasana which the doing&#xA;  of an act leaves behind in the mind in the shape of a taste, a greater&#xA;  facility or a greater tendency for doing the same act once again, is&#xA;  quite a different thing. It may be that the punishment or the reward&#xA;  of a past act is, in ordinary circumstances, unavoidable, if there is&#xA;  no counter-effort; but the vasana can be easily handled if only we&#xA;  exercise our free-will correctly.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;: But the number of vasanas or tendencies that rule our hearts are endless. How can we possibly control them?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HH&lt;/strong&gt;: The essential nature of a  vasana is to seek expression in outward acts. This characteristic is common to all vasanas, good and&#xA;  bad. The stream of vasana, the vasana-sarit, as it is called, has two&#xA;  currents, the good and the bad. If you try to dam up the entire&#xA;  stream, there may be danger. The sastras, therefore, do not ask you to&#xA;  attempt that. On the other hand, they ask you to submit yourself to be&#xA;  led by the good vasana current and to resist being led away by the bad&#xA;  vasana current. When you know that a particular vasana is rising up in&#xA;  your mind, you cannot possibly say that you are at its mercy. You have&#xA;  your wits about you and the responsibility of deciding whether you&#xA;  will encourage it or not is entirely yours. The sastras enunciate in&#xA;  detail what vasanas are good and have to be encouraged and what&#xA;  vasanas are bad and have to be overcome. When, by dint of practice,&#xA;  you have made all your vaasanas good and practically eliminated the&#xA;  chance of any bad vasanas leading you astray, the sastras take upon&#xA;  themselves the function of teaching you how to free your free-will&#xA;  even from the need of being led by good vasanas. You will gradually be&#xA;  led on to a stage when your free-will will be entirely free from any&#xA;  sort of coloring due to any vasanas. At that stage, your mind will be&#xA;  pure as crystal and all motive for particular action will cease to be.&#xA;  Freedom from the results of particular actions is an inevitable&#xA;  consequence. Both fate and vasana disappear. There is freedom for ever&#xA;  more and that freedom is called moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Still you might have doubts, but instead of reaching a conclusion based on our opinion and understanding alone, it is better to clarify these in by approaching a sadguru or we can take their words for granted having faith that one day we will understand what is said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope This Helps You. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="6986" LastEditDate="2016-07-27T12:21:10.383" LastActivityDate="2016-07-27T12:21:10.383" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14252" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14243" CreationDate="2016-07-27T12:52:11.117" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following are the two stories about Mahakaleswara told in the Koti Rudra Samhita of Siva Maha Purana taken from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/SivaPuranaJ.L.ShastriPart3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Origin of Mahakaleshwar Linga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary&lt;/strong&gt;: A Brahmin named Vedapriya, who was devoted to Siva, lived there with his four sons in the sanctifying city of Avanti. The sons were also engaged in the worship of Shiva. The four sons were Devapriy, Priyamedhas, Sukrta, and Dharmavahin. the power of their merit, happiness increased on the earth and  the city of Avanti was enveloped in brahminical splendour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages said: —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O Suta, you know everything by Vyasa’s favour. We are never satiated by hearing about the Jyotirlingas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hence O holy lord, be kind to us and narrate the third Jyotirlinga to us now. Suta said : —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O brahmins, if I remain in the company of you all, the glorious ones, I am blessed and contented. Blessed indeed is the association of saintly men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hence, considering it my good fortune, I shall narrate the sanctifying sin-destroying divine story. Please listen to this story respectfully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is a beautiful city Avanti144 yielding liberation to all souls. It is a favourite of Siva, highly meritorious and sanctifying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;An excellent brahmin engrossed in the performance of auspicious rites lived there. He studied the Vedas and performed the Vedic rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The brahmin maintained sacrificial fires. He was the devotee of Siva. Everyday he worshipped the idol of Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This brahmin Vedapriya was always interested in acquiring perfect knowledge. After securing the fruits of holy rites he attained the  goal of the good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O excellent sages, he had four sons like him. They were not inferior to their parents and they were ever engaged in the worship of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The eldest was Devapriya The next was Priyamedhas. The third was Sukrta and the fourth was Dharmavahin of good rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thanks to the power of their merit, happiness increased on the earth even as the moon waxes incessantly in the bright half of the month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Their good qualities too flourished delighting and pleasing all. That city was enveloped in the brahminical splendour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O excellent brahmins, let the excellent event that happened in the meantime be heard. I shall narrate it in the manner I have heard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary&lt;/strong&gt;: There was a great Asura Dusana on the Ratnamala hill. He was very powerful. He was the king of the Daityas. The boons from Lord Brahma gave him immense power. He defeated the gods and stopped Vedic rites all over the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;14&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was a great Asura Dusana on the Ratnamala hill. He was very powerful. He was the king of the Daityas incessantly engaged in hating&#xA;virtue and virtuous rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thanks to the grant of boons by Brahma he considered the whole universe insignificant. The gods were defeated by him and ousted from their places and positions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vedic rites and rites according to Smritis all over the earth were smothered by that wicked fellow like rabbits by a lion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Whatever Vedic rites were there in the shrines and holy centres were stopped by him. Dharma was exiled to a distant place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary&lt;/strong&gt;: Dusanasura along with his army attacked the city of Avanti and harassed all its people. Vedapriya and his sons were not distressed by the arrival of Dusanasura and continued with their meditation on Lord Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;18&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;“There is a beautiful city Avanti.” Thinking that what the Asura did, hear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Accompanied by a vast army, the great Asura Dusana went there desiring to harm the brahmins staying in the city.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After reaching the place, that great knave, that hater of brahmins called four hefty Daityas to him and said these words. The Daitya said:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why don’t the wicked brahmins do as I say ? Ali these, engaged in Vedic rites and rituals are worthy of being punished by me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O excellent Daityas, the gods and the kings in the world have been defeated by me. Why should not the brahmins be kept in my control ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If they wish to live happily let them abandon the rites of Siva and the rituals of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Otherwise it is doubtful that they will continue to live. I have said this truthfully. Hence, do that unhesitatingly. Suta said:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On hearing this and receiving the instruction the four Daityas besieged the four quarters of the city like the fires of dissolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On coming to know of the intent of the Daityas, the brahmins were not at all distressed because they were engaged in meditating on Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Resorting to courage, the brahmins did not move even a line’s breadth from meditation. With Siva to help who can remain in distress ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the meantime, the whole of that auspicious city was overrun by them. The people were harassed and they rushed against the brahmins.The people said : —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O holy lords, what shall be done ? The wicked Asuras have come. People are tortured. They have come very near. Suta said:~&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On hearing their words, the brahmins, the sons of Vedapriya, placing their faith in Siva for ever, spoke to them. The Brahmins said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Listen, we do not have an army to frighten the wicked Asuras. We do not have weapons to drive them back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The general dishonour and insult reflects on him who supports us. Moreover, what can happen to Siva who is omnipotent?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let lord Siva protect us from the terror of the Asuras. Except Siva, favourably disposed to his devotees there is no other refuge. Suta said:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Emboldened thus they performed the worship of&#xA;Siva’s earthern idol. They sat firmly engaged in meditation. On seeing  them thus the mighty Dusana shouted “Let them be killed. Let them be bound.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the brahmins, the sons of Vedapriya engrossed in meditation on Siva did not hear the shouts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary&lt;/strong&gt;: When Dusanasura was about to kill the Brahmin and his 4 sons. Lord Shiva rose up as Mahakala and burnt Dusanasura and his army to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;36&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the wicked Daitya desired to kill the Brahmins, the spot near the Parthiva idol caved in with a loud report.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From the chasm thus created, Siva rose up assuming a hideous form. He became famous as Mahakala, the slayer of the wicked and the goal of&#xA;the good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I am Mahakala (the great god of death) risen up against the wicked like you. O sinful one, go away, leave the presence of these brahmins.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After saying this Siva reduced Du$ana and his army, to ashes immediately with a mere sound of Hum.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dusana and a portion of his army too were killed by Siva the great soul. A part of the army fled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just as darkness is dispelled on seeing the sun, so also that army was destroyed on seeing Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Divine drums were sounded. Shower of flowers fell. Vishnu, Brahma and other gods came there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After bowing to the benefactor of the worlds, the brahmins joined their palms in reverence and eulogised him with different hymns&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary&lt;/strong&gt;: Lord Siva asked them to choose the boon they wished to have. The Brahmins requested Lord Siva to grant them liberation and to stay in that auspicious place. Lord Siva granted their wishes and remained there for the protection of his devotees. The supporting base of Lord Siva in the form of Linga extended to 3 KMs in each of the four directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;44&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After consoling the brahmins the delighted Siva asked the Brahmins to choose the boon they wished to have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On hearing it, the devout brahmins with palms joined in reverence and heads bent down bowed to Siva and said. The brahmins said : —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O lord, the chastiser of the wicked, O Siva, grant us liberation from the ocean of worldly existence. O Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O Siva, you shall stay here itself for the protection of the people. O lord Siva, save those who see you. Suta said : —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Requested thus, Siva remained in that auspicious chasm for the protection of his devotees after granting them the goal of the good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The brahmins attained salvation. The supporting base of Siva in the form of Linga extended to 3 kilometres in each of the four directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O brahmins, Siva became famous as Mahakalesvara. On seeing this image no one will have misery even in dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A man worshipping this image with a cherished desire in his mind will attain the same here and salvation hereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O great ones with good rites, the origin and the greatness of Mahakala has thus been narrated to you. What else do you wish to hear?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Further Greatness of Mahakaleshwara&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages said : —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O most intelligent one, please mention again the greatness of the Jyotirlinga Mahakala, the protector of his devotees. Suta said: —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O brahmins, listen with interest to the devotion enhancing greatness of Mahakala, the protector of the devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Ujjayini there was a king Candrasena, a devotee of Siva, who had conquered his sense-organs and who knew the principles of all Sastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O brahmins, the Gana Manibhadra, honoured by the people, the chief of the Ganas of Siva, was a friend of that king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Once the liberal-minded Gana-chief Manibhadra, gave him the great jewel Cintamani, out of pleasure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The jewel was as brilliant as the sun. It shone like Kaustubha. It blessed auspiciously when meditated upon, heard of or sighted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Any thing made of bell-metal, copper, tin or stone touched with its brilliant surface turned into gold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wearing that gem round his neck the king Candrasena, dependent on Siva shone well like the sun in the midst of gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On hearing that the excellent king Candrasena had the Cintamani round his neck, the kings on the earth were agitated in their hearts due to greed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The kings ignorantly trying to rival with him, begged of Candrasena, that jewel secured from the god. They used various means to get the jewel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O brahmins, the importunity of the kings was rendered futile by Candrasena, a staunch devotee of Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Disappointed and offended thus by him the kings of all the lands became wrathful against him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then the kings fully equipped with the four types of armies146 attempted to conquer Candrasena in the battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They joined together, consulted and conspired with one another. With a vast army they laid siege to the four main gates of Ujjayini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On seeing his city thus attacked by the kings, the king Candrasena sought refuge in Mahakalesvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Without doubts and hesitations, without taking in any food that king of steady resolve worshipped Mahakala day and night without turning his mind to anything else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then the lord Siva, delighted in his mind, concocted a means in order to save him. Listen to that with attention.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O brahmins, at that very time a certain cowherdess roaming here and there in that excellent city accompanied by her child came near Mahakala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;She had lost her husband. She carried her babe five years old. With great devotion she watched the Mahakala worship performed by the monarch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After witnessing the wonderful Siva-worship performed by him and bowing down she returned to her camp.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The son of that cowherdess who had watched everything out of curiosity, thought of performing Siva’s worship similarly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He brought a fine pebble from somewhere and considered it his Sivalinga. He placed it in a vacant place not far from his camp.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;23&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Various articles were conceived by him as sweet scents, ornaments, cloth, incense, lamp, rice grains and foodgrains in the course of his worship.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;24&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Worshipping again and again with delightful leaves and flowers he danced in various ways and made obeisance again and again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As his mind was engrossed in the worship of Siva the cowherdess, his mother called him to take his meals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the son engrossed in the worship did not like to take meals though called many times, the mother went there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;27&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;On seeing him  seated in front of Siva with eyes closed she angrily caught hold of his hand, dragged him and beat him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;28&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the son did not come away even after being dragged and struck she threw the image far off and spoiled his worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rebuking her son who was lamenting piteously the infuriated cowherdess entered her house again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On seeing his worship spoilt by his mother, the boy fell down and lamented, “O lord, O lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In his excessive grief he became unconscious suddenly. Regaining consciousness after a while he opened his eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Immediately the camp became a beautiful temple of Mahakala. Thanks to the blessings of Siva, that child saw all these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The doorway was made of gold. There were excellent festoons at the doorstep. The temple had a shining dais set with costly and pure blue diamonds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The temple was equipped with many golden pot like domes, shining jewel-bedecked columns and the floor paved with crystal bricks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the midst, the cowherd’s son saw a jewel- bedecked linga of Siva, the storehouse of mercy, along with the articles he used for worshipping.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On seeing these, the boy was much surprised in his mind. He got up immediately. It seemed as if he was immersed in the ocean of great bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He eulogised and bowed to Siva again and again. When the sun set the boy came out of the Siva temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then he saw his own camp as beautiful as the city of Indra. It had been suddenly transformed into one of gold, of variegated nature and shining much.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He entered the house equipped with everything brilliant and glittering in the night. Jewels and gold pieces were scattered everywhere. He was joyous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There he saw his mother sleeping. She was like a celestial lady with all divine characteristics. Her limbs shone and glittered with ornamental jewelry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O brahmins, then that son, the special object of Siva’s blessings, excited due to happiness awakened his mother immediately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Getting up and seeing everything unprecedentedly wonderful, she was as it were immersed in great bliss. She embraced her son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hearing everything of the benign favour of the lord of Parvati from her son she sent word of it to the monarch who was worshipping Siva constantly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The king who had concluded the observance of rites during the night came there immediately and saw the refulgence of the cowherd’s son in propitiating Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On seeing everything in the company of his ministers and chief priest the king was immersed in the ocean of great bliss and emboldened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shedding tears of love and repeating the names of Siva with pleasure, the king Candrasena embraced the boy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O brahmins, there was a great and wonderful jubilation. Excited with happiness they sang the glorious songs of lord Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On account of this wonderful event, this manifestation of the greatness of Siva and the flutter in the midst of the citizens, the night elapsed as though it was only a moment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The kings who had besieged the city for an attack heard of this event in the morning through their spies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Extremely surprised on hearing it the kings who had come there met together and consulted one another. The kings said : —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This king Candrasena is a devotee of Siva and hence invincible. The king of Ujjayini, the city of Mahakala, is never distressed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The king Candrasena is a great devotee of Siva inasmuch as even children in his city observe Siva’s rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Certainly Siva will be furious if we offend him. We will be doomed if Siva is furious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hence we shall make an alliance with him. In that case lord Siva will be compassionate to us. Suta said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus deciding, the kings abandoned their enmity. They regained purity of mind. They were pleased. They abandoned their weapons and missiles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Permitted and encouraged by Candrasena they entered UjjayinI, the beautiful city of Mahakala and worshipped him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then they went to the house of the cowherdess. They praised her good fortune with divine blessings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They were welcomed and honoured by Candrasena there. Seated on a very worthy seat they congratulated him and were surprised.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Seeing the shrine of Siva and the Siva-Linga that rose up, thanks to the power of the son of the cowherdess they fixed their mind in Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The delighted kings, sought the sympathy of Siva and presented several valuable things to the cowherd boy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The kings made him the chieftain of cowherds in all their different lands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the meantime Hanumat, the brilliant lord of monkeys, worshipped by the gods manifested himself there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The kings were bewildered at his arrival. They rose up in reverence and made obeisance to him perfectly humble in their devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Worshipped by them and seated in their midst the lord of monkeys embraced the cowherd boy and glanced at the kings and said. Hanumat said : —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Weal unto ye all, O kings and all the souls here, listen. Except Siva there is no other goal to human beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This cowherd boy fortunately saw the worship of Siva. Without the use of mantras he worshipped Siva and attained happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This boy, the most excellent devotee of Siva, the enhancer of the glory of cowherds, shall enjoy all pleasures here and attain salvation hereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In his race, in the eighth generation, there will be a famous cowherd Nanda. Vishnu himself will be born as his son, Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Henceforth this cowherd boy will attain glory all over the world in the name of Srikara. Suta said: —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After saying this, the son of Anjana the lord of monkeys in the form of Siva mercifully glanced at the kings and Candrasena.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He then initiated the intelligent cowherd child Srikara with pleasure in the rites of Siva pleasing to the lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O brahmins even as all of them were glancing at Candrasena and Srikara, the delighted Hanumat vanished there itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The delighted kings who were duly honoured took leave of Candrasena and returned the way they had come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The brilliant Srikara, initiated by Hanumat, propitiated Siva along with brahmins well-versed in sacred rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The king Candrasena and Srikara, the cowherd boy, worshipped Mahakala with great devotion and pleasure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In due course, Srikara and Candrasena propitiating Mahakala attained the great region of lord Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Such is the phallic form of Siva Mahakala, the goal of the good, the slayer of the wicked in every respect who is favourably disposed towards his devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus the great secret, the sanctifying narrative that bestows all happiness, conducive to heaven and enhancing devotion to Siva has been narrated to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2023-09-18T10:41:37.903" LastActivityDate="2023-09-18T10:41:37.903" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14253" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11670" CreationDate="2016-07-27T13:21:02.753" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The context here is that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajnavalkya answers and points out that it is difficult to name 3306 devatas because only 33 devatas are well known and famous and their&#xA;  names alone can be enumerated. Then what to call them? Yajnavalkya&#xA;  says all those devatas are only mahimanah. They are only mahimanah the&#xA;  expressions or the facets of 33 devatas&lt;/strong&gt;. 3306 are only&#xA;  manifestations of the thirty-three devatas. Then Sakalya asks&#xA;  Yajnavalkya if you don’t want to name 3306 devatas, now please tell me&#xA;  who are the 33 devatas. Yajnavalkya says that it is easy for me to&#xA;  enumerate; they are 33 devatas viz., eight Vasus, eleven Rudras and&#xA;  twelve adhityas; they are thirty-one devatas and add Indra and&#xA;  Prajapathi that will make thirty-three devatas. Still the answer is&#xA;  incomplete. Sakalya is not happy. Now Sakalya’s question is who are&#xA;  the eight Vasus, who are the eleven Rudras and who are the twelve&#xA;  adhityas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Remember Yajnavalkya will get the cows only if he is an expert in Purva Bagha and vedanta of the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt; Veda includes karma as well as&#xA;  jnana kanda. We should know that Yajnavalkya is being tested as to&#xA;  whether he is an expert in Veda Purva bagha as also vedanta so that he&#xA;  will get the title of Brahmavid. It is in this context Sakalya is&#xA;  grilling Yajnavalkya with&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;questions on Veda Purva bagha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the meaning of the verse regarding ekadasha rudras goes as &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who are the ekadasa the eleven Rudras? Here Yajnavalkya gives a&#xA;  subjective interpretation. He says the ekadasa Rudras are ten Indrias,&#xA;  ten sense organs and one mind is the eleven Rudras. In this mantra the&#xA;  word prana means indriyam and the ten organs in the human body are the&#xA;  eleven Rudras. The upanisad gives the reason why they are called&#xA;  Rudras. At the time of death the eleven organs depart from the mortal&#xA;  body and they make others weep because, they make other people weep&#xA;  [Rud] and therefore the organs are called Rudras. It makes the dying&#xA;  person as also the kith and kin cry therefore they are called Rudras.&#xA;  Rodayadi Iti Rudrah. Rud means cry in Sanskrit. These are the second&#xA;  group of devatas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this is the reason the word atma here is taken as manas or mind an organ of the body but not the actual atma as we are talking about karma kanda or veda purva bhaga describing the deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above lines are taken from the discourses on Brihadaranyaka Upanishad based on Adi Sankaracharya's commentary (&lt;a href=&quot;http://arshaavinash.in/index.php/download/brihadaranyaka-upanisad-swami-paramarthananda/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;transcript of classes&lt;/a&gt; ) by Swami Paramarthananda, a direct disciple of Swami Dayananda Saraswati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-07-27T13:21:02.753" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14254" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14250" CreationDate="2016-07-27T13:47:43.363" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;One has to see the full context regarding &lt;strong&gt;how the Mahavakya is spoken.&lt;/strong&gt; The complete verse from Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्म वा इदमग्र आसीत्, तदात्मानमेवावेत् ‘अहं ब्रह्मास्मि’ इति । तस्मात् तत् सर्वमभवतद्यो यो देवानां प्रत्यबुध्यत स एव तदभवत्तथर्षीणां तथा मनुष्याणां तद्धेतत्पश्यन्नृषिर्वामदेवः प्रतिपेदेऽहं मनुरभवं सूर्यश्चेति । तदिदमप्येतर्हि य एवं वेदाहं ब्रह्मास्मीति स इदं सर्वं भवति तस्य ह न देवाश्चनाभूत्या ईशते । आत्मा ह्योषां स भवत्यथ योऽन्यां&amp;nbsp; देवतामुपास्तेऽन्योऽसावन्योऽहमस्मीति न स वेद तथा पशुरेवं स देवानाम् । यथा ह वै बहवः पशवो मनुष्यं भुञ्जयुरेवमेकैकः पुरुषो देवान्भुनक्त्येकस्मिन्नेव पशावादीयमानेऽप्रियं भवति किमु बहुषु तस्मादेषां तन्न प्रियं यदेतन्मनुष्या विद्युः । &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I-iv-10: &lt;strong&gt;This self was indeed Brahman in the beginning. It knew only Itself as, ‘I am Brahman’. Therefore It became all.&lt;/strong&gt; And whoever among the gods knew It also became That; and the same with sages and men. The sage Vamadeva, while realising this (self) as That, knew, ‘I was Manu, and the sun’. &lt;strong&gt;And to this day whoever in like manner knows It as, ‘I am Brahman’, becomes all this (universe).&lt;/strong&gt; Even the gods cannot prevail against him, for &lt;strong&gt;he becomes their self.&lt;/strong&gt; While he who worships another god thinking, ‘He is one, and I am another’, does not know. He is like an animal to the gods. As many animals serve a man, so does each man serve the gods. Even if one animal is taken away, it causes anguish, what should one say of many animals ? Therefore it is not liked by them that men should know this.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope the above paragraph itself clears your confusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the beginning, also Brahman is telling &quot;I am Brahman&quot; and now also it is telling &quot;I am Brahman&quot;. In fact, Brahman doesn't change at all. There is only &lt;strong&gt;Vivarta Vada&lt;/strong&gt; (apparent modification). So, the notion of individuality is itself perceived due to Avidya. So, the question of egoistic &quot;Aham&quot; doesn't rise at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Aham Brahamasmi&quot; in Advaita is called &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11896/what-are-mahavakyas/11897#11897&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anubhava Mahavakya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; ie.. this is to &lt;strong&gt;realize&lt;/strong&gt; I am Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-08-06T09:47:11.933" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14255" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11344" CreationDate="2016-07-27T16:00:50.737" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Anushashan Parva, SECTION XXV&lt;/a&gt;, Yudhishthira has asked to Bhishma about the greatness of sacred waters. In this context Bhishma  told the story in which Sage Angiras has described the greatness of sacred waters to Gautama. According to Sage Angiras bathing in some sacred waters one can be freed from the sin of Brahmanicide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By bathing, after a fast of three days and purifying the mind of all evil passions, in the large lake of Bhrigu Kunda, one becomes &lt;strong&gt;cleansed of even the sin of Brahmanicide&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bathing in Asmaprishtha and Niravinda mountains and Kraunchapadi,--all three in Gaya--one becomes &lt;strong&gt;cleansed of the sin of Brahmanicide&lt;/strong&gt;. A bath in the first place cleanses one of a single Brahmanicide; a bath in the second cleanses one of two offences of that character; and a bath in the third cleanses one of three such offences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Repairing to Indratoya in the vicinity of the mountains of Gandhamadana and next to Karatoya in the country called Kuranga, one should observe a fast for three days and then bathe in those sacred waters with a concentrated heart and pure body. &lt;strong&gt;By doing this, one is sure to acquire the merit of a Horse-sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bathing in Ganga hrada and the tirtha known by the name of Utpalavana and daily offering oblations of water there for a full month to the Pitris, &lt;strong&gt;one acquires the merit of a Horse-sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bathing in the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna as also at the tirtha in the Kalanjara mountains and offering every day oblations of water to the Pitris for a full month, &lt;strong&gt;one acquires the merit that attaches to ten Horse-sacrifices&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bathing in Utpataka and then in Ashtavakra and offering oblations of water to the Pitris every day for twelve days in succession, abstaining the while from food, &lt;strong&gt;one acquires the merits of a Horse-sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Observing a fast for three days and bathing in the tirtha known as Kulya and reciting the sacred mantras that go by the name of Aghamarshana, &lt;strong&gt;one attains the merit of a horse-sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-29T12:54:11.083" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14256" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-27T18:25:16.450" Score="7" ViewCount="9376" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kumara Swamy or Kartikeya is also worshipped as Subrahmanya swamy (snake form). What is the story behind taking this form? Which Purana states it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-07-28T05:17:36.110" LastActivityDate="2016-10-19T16:06:57.450" Title="What is the story of Kumara Swamy or Kartikeya taking the form of Subrahmanya (snake)?" Tags="|puranas|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14257" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-28T03:11:17.180" Score="9" ViewCount="38920" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sandhyavandanam is a Nitya karma of every Dvija(twice born). It is performed when the sun and the stars are together visible which means early morning and late evening when the sun is on the horizon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My doubt is, if by any chance a person misses this sandhya period can he perform his Nitya karma even after the sunrise and sunset. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-08-22T10:54:41.073" LastActivityDate="2023-01-03T23:35:28.813" Title="Time to perform Sandhyavandanam" Tags="|rituals|vedic-rituals|sandhyavandanam|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14260" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14257" CreationDate="2016-07-28T05:19:54.330" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Chandrasekhara Paramacharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/newlayout/template/hindudharma.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Daytime, we have seen, is divided into eight parts. But it can also be&#xA;  divided into five, each of six nadikas. If the sun rises at 6, 6 to 8.&#xA;  24 is morning or &quot;pratah-kala&quot;; 8. 24 to 10. 48 is &quot;sangava-kala&quot;; and&#xA;  10. 48 to&#xA;  1. 12 is &quot;madhyahnika&quot;. From 1. 12 to 3. 36 it is &quot;aparahna&quot;; and from 3. 36 to 6 (or sunset) is &quot;sayam-kala&quot;. (The time close to sunset is &quot;pradosa&quot;. &quot;Dosa&quot; means night, the prefix &quot;pra&quot; meaning &quot;pre&quot; or&#xA;  &quot;before&quot;. The English &quot;pre' is derived from &quot;pra&quot;. Pradosa thus is the&#xA;  time before night).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if you miss these periods, one should perform giving prayaschitta arghya but one should not perform after night 9 pm, but do it mentally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="6986" LastEditDate="2016-09-15T01:24:12.173" LastActivityDate="2016-09-15T01:24:12.173" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14261" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="29158" CreationDate="2016-07-28T05:34:32.243" Score="4" ViewCount="286" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which commentaries of the Kena Upanishad exist?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides Shankara's well-known commentary, are there other commentaries which are recommendable?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT:&lt;/strong&gt; I did not find the answer to my specific question in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3794/2995&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2023-08-13T02:25:50.733" Title="Commentary on Kena Upanishad besides Shankara's?" Tags="|upanishads|kena-upanishad|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14262" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14268" CreationDate="2016-07-28T06:02:10.420" Score="2" ViewCount="3361" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the materials  should be discarded each month in this 4 month vrata  period?  Like dal,cumins,milk, curd etc, Vegetable, fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-28T18:41:34.743" LastActivityDate="2016-07-28T18:41:34.743" Title="Materials to be avoided during Chatur Masa Vrata?" Tags="|belief|culture|tradition|food|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14264" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14272" CreationDate="2016-07-28T06:29:21.370" Score="4" ViewCount="1359" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been worshipped in Linga form from time beginning as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Among the Lingas there are 12 Jyotirlingas which are of special importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatmya of 12 Jyotirlingas is described in Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana in the chapter &amp;quot;Dwadash Jyotirlinga Mahatmya&amp;quot;. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च श्री शैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उज्जयिन्यां महाकाल&lt;strong&gt;मोंकारे&lt;/strong&gt; परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;केदारं हिमवत्पृष्ठे डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाराणास्यां च विश्वेशं त्रयम्बकं गौतमीतटे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैद्यनाथं चिताभूमौ नागेशं दारुकावने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सेतुबन्धे तु रामेशं घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रात्यस्त्थाय यः पठेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तं सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Somanath in Saurashtra, Mallikarjuna in Shri Saile, Mahakala in Ujjaiyana and Parameshawara also manifested as Omkara. Kedara in Himavat and Bhima Shankara in Dakinya. Vishewaswara in Varanasi and Trayambaka in side of Gautami. Vaidyanath in ChitaBhumi and  Nageshwara in forest of Daruka. Rameshwara in Setubandha and Ghusmeshwara in Shivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;These name of 12 Jyotirlingas who recites in morning, he gets freed from all sins and is eligible to get all Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotirlingas&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the similar popular verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre Somanāthaṃ ca Śrīśaile Mallikārjunam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ujjayinyāṃ Mahākālam &lt;strong&gt;Omkāram&lt;/strong&gt; Mamleśhwaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraly Vaidyanāthaṃ cha Ḍākinyāṃ Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setubandhe tu Rāmeśaṃ Nāgeśhaṃ Dārukāvane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vārāṇasyāṃ tu Viśveśaṃ Tryambakaṃ Gautamītaṭe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himālaye tu Kedāraṃ Ghuśmeśaṃ ca Śivālaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already asked a question about Somanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14213/what-is-the-story-of-somanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Somanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mallikarjun &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14223/what-is-the-story-of-mallikarjuna-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mahakaleshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14243/what-is-the-story-of-mahakaleshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt;. Now I want to know the story of &lt;strong&gt;Omkareshwar&lt;/strong&gt; Jyotirling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Omkareshwar temple is situated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/place/22%C2%B014%2744.1%22N+76%C2%B009%2703.8%22E/@22.245583,76.151056,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d22.245583!4d76.151056?hl=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Eeoml.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Eeoml.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Bernard Gagnon - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, &lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31736612&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31736612&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-05-06T05:38:30.413" Title="What is the story of Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14265" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14257" CreationDate="2016-07-28T07:40:43.123" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Three sandhya vandanams to be performed everyday. &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Pratha sandhya vandham&lt;/strong&gt; It should be performed during sun rise. If you do after this prayaschita argyam to be done [usually it can be done from one hour of sunrise].Example if sun rise is 6:15 am then the prayaschita should be completed within 7:15 am.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madyaniham--It should be done by afternoon 12 pm. But nowadays ìn office we cannot do. Hence Kanchi Paramaacharya said that it can be done by 8/45 am.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sayam Sandhya vandanam--At sunset it has to be done. After returning from office  till 9pm you can perform this by doing prayaschitham argyam. Nowadays due to traffic jam and all you can do till 9/30 pm the prayaschitham as elders say that it should not be missed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T10:30:01.923" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T10:30:01.923" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14266" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-28T08:26:59.797" Score="2" ViewCount="180" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are the texts of Magha Purana, Kartika Purana and Vaisakha Purana available in English or Sanskrit. If they are taken from major puranas, which puranas contain them? Magha purana is said to be part of Vayu purana. But I cannot find it in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/VayuPuranaG.V.TagarePart1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/VayuPuranaG.V.TagarePart2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="6986" LastEditDate="2016-07-28T08:36:07.810" LastActivityDate="2016-07-28T08:36:07.810" Title="Are the texts of Magha Purana, Kartika Purana and Vaisakha Purana available in Sanskrit or English?" Tags="|puranas|vayupurana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14267" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14244" CreationDate="2016-07-28T09:00:53.217" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;@Gayatri--You have to do the namaskaram near the dwajasthamba or kodimaram only. That too before seeing God you have to do this --  at the entry point. Because the Lord is supreme of the entire world and he sees thru dwajasthamba. You should not do namaskaram near sanctum sanctorum as this is garbhagriha which is surrounded by mantra avahanams and on the peeta the Lord stand and gives blessings to the devotees. He is surrounded by the prathispanam of mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-11-02T19:39:58.420" LastActivityDate="2018-11-02T19:39:58.420" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14268" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14262" CreationDate="2016-07-28T10:01:50.943" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chaturmas’ is the period of four months from Ashadh Shukla Ekadashi (Eleventh day of the bright fortnight of the Hindu lunar month of Ashadh) to Kartik Shukla Ekadashi (Eleventh day of the bright fortnight of the Hindu lunar month of Kartik) or Ashadh Pournima (Full-moon day) to Kartik Pournima.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This four months period  in a year is assigned  for penance, austerities, fasting, bathing in holy rivers and religious observances for all. Devotees   observe some form of vow, be it of silence or not eating  a favourite food item, or taking only a single meal  a day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During this period Deities or Gods take  sleep or Mahanidra.So it's believed that &#xA;demons become active during this time.  The scriptures say that, ‘to protect oneself from these demons each one should undertake some vrat (Vowed religious observance).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वार्षिकांश्चतुरो मासान् वाहयेत् केनचिन्नरः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;व्रतेन न चेदाप्नोति किल्मिषं वत्सरोद्भवम् ।।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning : Every year during chaturmas, we should undertake some vrat&#xA;  otherwise we will incur the sin of samvatsarodbhav.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Comming to your question , what materials is to be avoided is i think pretty personal question and may vary from region to region .But according to beliefs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to popular belief...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devotee,s avoide certain food iteams. e.g. Salty foods, Spicy foods,  In some regions devotees avoide certain food iteams during each months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Shravan Month they avoid leafy vegetables , Non-Vegetarian food etc.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;During Bhadrapada  Month curd is avoided.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Ashwin Month Milk is avoided.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Kartik Month Dal, Pulses are avoided.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-28T10:52:22.447" LastActivityDate="2016-07-28T10:52:22.447" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14270" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3240" CreationDate="2016-07-28T10:38:22.453" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The daily rituals of a Man is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp085.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana, Book 3, Chapter 11&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let the wise man awake in the Muhúrtta of Brahmá. (or in the third Muhúrtta, about two hours before sunrise), and with a composed mind meditate on two of the objects of life (virtue and wealth), and on topics not incompatible with them. Let him also think upon desire, as not conflicting with the other two; and thus contemplate with equal indifference the three ends of life, for the purpose of counter- acting the unseen consequences of good or evil acts. Let him avoid wealth and desire, if they give uneasiness to virtue; and abstain from virtuous or religious acts, if they involve misery, or are censured by the world. Having risen, he must offer adoration to the sun; and then, in the south-east quarter, at the distance of a bowshot or more, or any where remote from the village, void the impurities of nature. The water that remains after washing his feet he must throw away into the courtyard of the house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let him perform these actions in silence, and without delay; covering his head with a cloth, and the ground with grass. Let him not take, for the purposes of cleanliness, earth from an ant-hill, nor a rat-hole, nor from water, nor from the residue of what has been so used, nor soil that has been employed to plaster a cottage, nor such as has been thrown up by insects, or turned over by the plough. All such kinds of earth let him avoid, as means of purification. One handful is sufficient after voiding urine; three after passing ordure: then ten handfulls are to be rubbed over the left hand, and seven over both hands. Let him then rince his mouth with water that is pure, neither fetid, nor frothy, nor full of bubbles; and again use earth to cleanse his feet, washing them well with water. He is to drink water then three times, and twice wash his face with it; and next touch with it his head, the cavities of the eyes, ears, and nostrils, the forehead, the navel, and the heart. Having finally washed his mouth, a man is to clean and dress his hair, and to decorate his person, before a glass, with unguents, garlands, and perfumes. He is then, according to the custom of his caste, to acquire wealth, for the sake of subsistence; and with a lively faith worship the gods. Sacrifices with the acid juice, those with clarified butter, and those with offerings of food, are comprehended in wealth: wherefore let men exert themselves to acquire wealth for these purposes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As preparatory to all established rites of devotion the householder should bathe in the water of a river, a pond, a natural channel, or a mountain torrent; or he may bathe upon dry ground, with water drawn from a well, or taken from a, river, or other source, where there is any objection to bathing on the spot. When bathed, and clad in clean clothes, let him devoutly offer libations to the gods, sages, and progenitors, with the parts of the hand severally sacred to each. He must scatter water thrice, to gratify the gods; as many times, to please the Rishis; and once, to propitiate Prajápati: he must also make three libations, to satisfy the progenitors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He must then present, with the part of the hand sacred to the manes, water to his paternal grandfather and great-grandfather, to his maternal grandfather, great-grandfather, and his father; and at pleasure to his own mother and his mother's mother and grandmother, to the wife of his preceptor, to his preceptor, his maternal uncle, and other relations, to a dear friend, and to the king. Let him also, after libations have been made to the gods and the rest, present others at pleasure for the benefit of all beings, reciting inaudibly this prayer; 'May the gods, demons, Yakshas, serpents, Rákshasas, Gandharbas, Pisáchas, Guhyakas, Siddhas, Kushmáńd́as, trees, birds, fish, all that people the waters, or the earth, or the air, be propitiated by the water I have presented to them. This water is given by me for the alleviation of the pains of all those who are suffering in the realms of hell. May all those who are my kindred, and not my kindred, and who were my relations in a former life, all who desire libations from me, receive satisfaction from this water. May this water and sesamum, presented by me, relieve the hunger and thirst of all who are suffering from those inflictions, wheresoever they may be.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having then rinced his mouth, he is to offer water to the sun, touching his forehead with his hands joined, and with this prayer; 'Salutation to Vivaswat, the radiant, the glory of Vishńu; to the pure illuminator of the world; to Savitrí, the granter of the fruit of acts.' He is then to perform the worship of the house, presenting to his tutelary deity water, flowers, and incense. He is next to offer oblations with fire, not preceded by any other rite, to Brahmá 8. Having invoked Prajápati, let him pour oblations reverently to his household gods, to Káśyapa and to Anumati, in succession. The residue of the oblation let him offer to the earth, to water, and to rain, in a pitcher at hand; and to Dhátri and Vidhátri at the doors of his house, and in the middle of it to Brahmá.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The householder is then to remain at eventide in his courtyard as long as it takes to milk a cow, or longer if he pleases, to await the arrival of a guest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let a man therefore be assiduous in discharging the duties of hospitality; for he who eats his food without bestowing any upon a guest feeds only upon iniquity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the next place the householder must provide food for a married damsel, remaining in her father's dwelling; for any one who is ill; for a pregnant woman; for the aged and the infants of his house; and then he may eat himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having eaten sufficiently, the householder is then to rinse his mouth, with his face turned towards the east or the north; and having again sipped water, he is to wash his hands from the wrist downwards. With a pleased and tranquil spirit he is then to take a seat, and call to memory his tutelary deity; and then he is thus to pray: 'May fire, excited by air, convert this food into the earthly elements of this frame, and in the space afforded by the etherial atmosphere cause it to digest, and yield me satisfaction! May this food, in its assimilation, contribute to the vigour of the earth, water, fire, and air of my body, and afford unmixed gratification! May Agasti, Agni, and submarine fire effect the digestion of the food of which I have eaten; may they grant me the happiness which its conversion into nutriment engenders; and may health ever animate my form! May Vishńu, who is the chief principle of all invested with bodily structure and the organs of sense, be propitiated by my faith in him, and influence the assimilation of the invigorating food which I have eaten! For verily Vishńu is the eater and the food and the nutriment: and through this belief may that which I have eaten be digested.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having repeated this prayer, the householder should rub his stomach with his hand, and without indolence perform such rites as confer repose, passing the day in such amusements as are authorized by holy writings, and are not incompatible with the practices of the righteous; until the Sandhyá, when he must engage in pious meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the Sandhyá, at the close of the day he must perform the usual rites before the sun has quite set; and in the morning he must perform them before the stars have disappeared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the evening, then, having again dressed food, let the wife of the householder, in order to obtain the fruit of the Vaiśwadeva rite, give food, without prayers, to outcasts and unclean spirits. Let the householder himself, according to his means, again shew hospitality to any guest who may arrive, welcoming him with the salutation of evening, water for his feet, a seat, a supper, and a bed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After eating his evening meal, and having washed his feet, the householder is to go to rest. His bed is to be entire, and made of wood: it is not to be scanty, nor cracked, nor uneven, nor dirty, nor infested by insects, nor without a bedding: and he is to sleep with his head either to the east or to the south; any other position is unhealthy. In due season a man should approach his wife, when a fortunate asterism prevails, in an auspicious moment, and on even nights, if she is not unbathed, sick, unwell, averse, angry, pregnant, hungry, or over-fed. He should be also free from similar imperfections, should be neatly attired and adorned, and animated by tenderness and affection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-28T10:38:22.453" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14272" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14264" CreationDate="2016-07-28T12:04:37.643" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Taking your yesterday's suggestion into account, the answer is posted short. The story about Mahakaleswara told in the Koti Rudra Samhita of Siva Maha Purana taken from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/SivaPuranaJ.L.ShastriPart3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. The below is passage is taken from Kanchi Kamakoti Website in which the essence of different puranas is listed. The link for Jyotirlingas is &lt;a href=&quot;http://kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/shivapuranam22.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Situated in the banks of River Narmada on the Mandhata (Shivapuri)&#xA;Island formed in the shape of OM in Sanskrit, Omkareswar is one of the&#xA;Jyotirlingas besides another Amareswar Linga. The Legend was that Sage&#xA;Narada visited Vindhya Raja and the latter bragged that Vindya was the&#xA;highest and most powerful Mountain in the entire World. Narada replied&#xA;that perhaps Meru was the greatest in terms of height and might.&#xA;Vindhya Raja felt jealous and executed severe ‘Tapasya’ and pleased&#xA;Maha Siva and requested that He should always be present in the&#xA;Vindhyas and establish a Linga of Bhagavan on the banks of Narmada&#xA;near to Vindhya. Hence the Omkara Jyotirlinga there. Puffed by Siva’s&#xA;presence there, Vindhya Raja grew taller and taller to compete with&#xA;Sumeru. This obstructed Sun God’s routine circumambulation of the&#xA;Universe and He had to return half way turning half of the Universe&#xA;dark. Bhagavati asked Sage Agastya from Kasi to visit Vindhya Raja who&#xA;out of veneration bent down to touch the feet of Agastya who asked&#xA;Vindhya to be in that position till he returned and he never came&#xA;again from the South!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-28T12:04:37.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14273" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-28T12:12:55.770" Score="3" ViewCount="1279" Body="&lt;p&gt;Babruvahana was a son of Arjun and Chitrangada who ends up killing his own father with an arrow. Uloopi the step mother of Babruvahana used a gem to bring Arjuna back to life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know how Uloopi was the step mother of Babruvahana and what happened to Chitrangada after Arjuna left Manipur? How could Bhishma and Babruvahana both being incarnations of the Vasu Prabasha exist at the same time? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-20T06:47:01.250" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T06:47:01.250" Title="Babruvahana in Mahabarata" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|bhishma|naga|vasu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14279" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14219" CreationDate="2016-07-28T17:44:48.977" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though the answer above is correct but as it is required here to quote from specific Purana, so I am quoting from Narsingh Purana which is considered to be Uppurana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story is mentioned in Narsingh Purana Chapter 44.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तावद्धता युद्ध्यमाना दैत्याः कोटिसहस्त्रशः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नरसिंहेन यावच्च नभोभागं गतो रविःः।।२७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Until sun is not set (gone to west), lord Narsingh was fighting with lacs and crores of demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शस्त्रास्त्रवर्षचतुरं हिरण्यकशिपुं जवात्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रगृहृं तु बलाद्राजन् नरसिंहो महाबलः।।२८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when sun is about to set, the almighty Narsingh has forcefully grabbed the knower of all weapons Hiranyakashipu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;संंध्याकाले गृहद्वारि स्थित्वारी स्थाप्य तं रिपुम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वज्रतुल्यमहोरस्कं हिरण्यकशिपुं रुषा।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नखैः किसलयमिव दारयत्याह सोसुरः।।२९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then at the time of evening at the door lord Narsingh plunked down Hiranyakashipu on his thigh and started tearing him by his nails.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;- I have sanskrit and hindi version of this book. The english translation is written by me. So, if anyone got any issue please suggest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-28T17:44:48.977" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14281" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14361" CreationDate="2016-07-28T19:07:24.690" Score="2" ViewCount="805" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Gandhari married Dhritarashtra, she took an extremely severe oath of remaining blind-folded all her life.Was Gandhari in any way inspired by the example of Bhishma, who was in fact the great Kshatriya who came to her father, asking for her hand in marriage to prince Dhritarashtra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-09-11T18:07:38.060" LastActivityDate="2022-03-01T16:28:01.417" Title="Why Gandhari remained blind-folded all her life" Tags="|mahabharata|marriage|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14282" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9179" CreationDate="2016-07-28T22:13:25.517" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, there is just one English translation (an abridged one) of the Kumaravyasa Bharata done by D. Sheshagiri Rao.  The translation is reads rather strained and lacks fluency.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A team of translators, including myself, is currently working on a project of translating significant parts of the Kumaravyasa Bharata to be published in 3 volumes, under the Murty Classical Library of India series, by the Harvard University Press.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7259" LastActivityDate="2016-07-28T22:13:25.517" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14284" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-29T04:22:30.700" Score="5" ViewCount="2526" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to caste-system based on Manu-smriti, only the first three categories i.e.,  Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas are allowed to wears the sacred thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why are Sudras not entitled to wear the sacred thread and learn Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-02T06:04:34.687" LastActivityDate="2022-01-07T20:56:25.077" Title="Why don't Sudras wear a sacred thread?" Tags="|scripture|rituals|caste-system|brahmins|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14286" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-29T05:34:13.687" Score="1" ViewCount="363" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading history book, I found that Manu had 10 sons. Sharyati (son of Manu) also had one son and daughter named Anart and Sukanya respectively. Where Sukanya married with Chyavan Rushi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Here is a confusion. If Manu was the first human on earth then from where this Chyavan Rushi comes? I also read that Brahma also had 8 sons. So is there possibility that both generation (Manu's and Brahma's) are living on earth same time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="338" LastActivityDate="2016-07-29T10:46:52.887" Title="Relation between Bhrugu and Manu" Tags="|manu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14287" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14293" CreationDate="2016-07-29T06:30:30.073" Score="6" ViewCount="4959" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been worshipped in Linga form from time beginning as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Among the Lingas there are 12 Jyotirlingas which are of special importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatmya of 12 Jyotirlingas is described in Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana in the chapter &amp;quot;Dwadash Jyotirlinga Mahatmya&amp;quot;. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च श्री शैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उज्जयिन्यां महाकालमोंकारे परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;केदारं हिमवत्पृष्ठे डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाराणास्यां च विश्वेशं त्रयम्बकं गौतमीतटे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;वैद्यनाथं&lt;/strong&gt; चिताभूमौ नागेशं दारुकावने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सेतुबन्धे तु रामेशं घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रात्यस्त्थाय यः पठेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तं सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Somanath in Saurashtra, Mallikarjuna in Shri Saile, Mahakala in Ujjaiyana and Parameshawara also manifested as Omkara. Kedara in Himavat and Bhima Shankara in Dakinya. Vishewaswara in Varanasi and Trayambaka in side of Gautami. Vaidyanath in ChitaBhumi and  Nageshwara in forest of Daruka. Rameshwara in Setubandha and Ghusmeshwara in Shivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;These name of 12 Jyotirlingas who recites in morning, he gets freed from all sins and is eligible to get all Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotirlingas&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the similar popular verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre Somanāthaṃ ca Śrīśaile Mallikārjunam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ujjayinyāṃ Mahākālam Omkāram Mamleśhwaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraly &lt;strong&gt;Vaidyanāthaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; cha Ḍākinyāṃ Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setubandhe tu Rāmeśaṃ Nāgeśhaṃ Dārukāvane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vārāṇasyāṃ tu Viśveśaṃ Tryambakaṃ Gautamītaṭe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himālaye tu Kedāraṃ Ghuśmeśaṃ ca Śivālaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already asked a question about Somanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14213/what-is-the-story-of-somanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Somanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mallikarjun &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14223/what-is-the-story-of-mallikarjuna-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mahakaleshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14243/what-is-the-story-of-mahakaleshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Omkareshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14264/what-is-the-story-of-omkareshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt;. Now I want to know the story of &lt;strong&gt;Vaidyanath&lt;/strong&gt; Jyotirling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidyanath_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaidyanath&lt;/a&gt; temple is situated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/place/24%C2%B029%2733.0%22N+86%C2%B042%2700.0%22E/@24.4925,86.7,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d24.4925!4d86.7?hl=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Deoghar, Jharkhand&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UdkGe.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UdkGe.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By William Hodges - &lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31452951&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31452951&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-01-12T06:06:00.157" Title="What is the story of Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14288" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14248" CreationDate="2016-07-29T07:40:58.123" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mudgala Purana is the Uppurana (sub - Purana) which have collection of life stories of lord Ganesha. &#xA;here are few links where you get more information on Mudgala Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801004.us.archive.org/3/items/mudgalapurana/mudgalapurANa.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;PDF [Sanskrit]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudgala_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipidea&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.transliteral.org/pages/i120106161238/view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Marathi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://theganeshaexperience.com/tag/mudgala-purana/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cincinnatitemple.com/articles/Ganesha-e-Book.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;PDF [Eng]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;for More Purana try link below where you can download the nearby all purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://vedpuran.net/2011/10/21/ved_puran/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Purana's list&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="772" LastEditorUserId="772" LastEditDate="2016-08-09T11:51:11.683" LastActivityDate="2016-08-09T11:51:11.683" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14290" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14286" CreationDate="2016-07-29T10:24:54.450" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Svayambhu Manu(1st Manu) was the son of lord Brahma.Sage Bhrigu is also a son of Lord Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chyavana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt; Sharyati was the son of Vaivasvata Manu(7th Manu).&#xA;And as you have mentioned;Sukanya was his daughter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chyavan rishi married Sukanya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chyavan rishi was the son of Sage Bhrigu.It is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi parva&lt;/a&gt; of MahaBharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Sauti said, 'O Brahmana, Chyavana, the son of Bhrigu, begot a son in&#xA;the womb of his wife Sukanya. And that son was the illustrious Pramati&#xA;of resplendent energy. And Pramati begot in the womb of Ghritachi a&#xA;son called Ruru. And Ruru begot on his wife Pramadvara a son called&#xA;Sunaka. And I shall relate to you in detail, O Brahmana, the entire&#xA;history of Ruru of abundant energy. O listen to it then in full!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the relation would be that Bhrigu's son(Chyavan) married the Grand-Daughter of manu(VaiVasvata).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-29T10:46:52.887" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14291" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14200" CreationDate="2016-07-29T11:09:23.517" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;No Punishment--If you follow the principles laid in your religion then no punishment will be there also. As Shirdi Sai said Ram and Rahim are one. There is no difference in them. Punishment is based on one's Karma whether if it is balanced, decreased or increased.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-07-29T11:09:23.517" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14292" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14213" CreationDate="2016-07-29T12:48:01.160" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Somnatha Jyotirlinga is first of the Jyotirlingas on Earth (Bhooloka). Story of Somesvara is described in detail in both Shiva Mahapurana and Skanda Maha Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-135/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 14&lt;/a&gt; of RudraSamhita of Shiva Purana describes the story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daksha's 27 daughters were married to Soma, the moon God. But Moon God always loved Rohini more compared to other wives. This made other wives infuriated and they explained their tale of suffering to their father Daksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सप्तविंशन्मिताः कन्या दक्षेण च महात्मना। &lt;br&gt;तेन चन्द्रमसे दत्ता&#xA;अश्विन्याद्या मुनीश्वराः॥ ५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O great sage, his (Daksha) daughters,&#xA;twenty-seven in number, Ašvini and others, were given in marriage to&#xA;the moon by Dakša, the great soul. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चन्द्रं च स्वामिनं प्राप्य शोभमाना विशेषतः।&lt;br&gt; चन्द्रोऽपि चैव ताः&#xA;प्राप्य शोभते स्म निरन्तरम्।। ६ ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Achieving the moon as their&#xA;lord, all the girls felt graceful. The moon also felt graceful with&#xA;them. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हेम्ना चैव मणिर्भाति मणिना हेम चैव हि।&lt;br&gt; एवं च समये तस्य यञ्जातं&#xA;श्रूयतामिति॥७॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gold looks graceful with the gem and same is&#xA;the case of gems with the gold. Now you listen to what happened&#xA;thereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वास्वपि च पत्रीषु रोहिणीनाम या स्मृता। &lt;br&gt; यथैका सा प्रिया&#xA;चासीत्तथाऽन्या न कदाचन॥८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of all the twenty-seven wives, he did&#xA;not love any one so much at anytime as he loved Rohiņī. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अन्याश्च दुःखमापन्नाः पितरं शरणं ययुः। &lt;br&gt; गत्वा तस्मै च यद्दुःखं तथा&#xA;ताभिर्निवेदितम्॥९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rest of the wives of the moon went to&#xA;their father, feeling painful and took refuge with him. They explained&#xA;the tale of their sufferings to their father. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daskha tried to convince Soma, but moon God didn't heed. Daksha cursed the Soma to get consumed by disease (waning).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दक्षश्चैवं स सम्प्रार्थ्य चन्द्रं जामातरं स्वयम्। &lt;br&gt;जगाम मन्दिरं&#xA;स्वं वै निश्चयं परमं गतः।। १३॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sūta said, “Thus requesting to moon, his son-in-law, Daksa returned to&#xA;his place feeling satisfied.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चन्द्रोऽपि वचनं तस्य न चकार विमोहितः। &lt;br&gt;शिवमायाप्रभावेण यया&#xA;सम्मोहितं जगत्॥ १४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The moon on the other hand, having been over-powered with the delusion&#xA;of Siva,did not bother about the advice of Daksa. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रूयतां चन्द्र! यत्पूर्व प्रार्थितो बहुधा मया। &lt;br&gt; न मानितं त्वया&#xA;यस्मात्तस्मात्त्वं च क्षयी भव।। १८ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daksa said, “O Moon, you listen, I have made several requests to you&#xA;which remain unheaded. Therefore you will suffer from the &lt;strong&gt;disease of&#xA;consumption&lt;/strong&gt;.” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूत उवाच &lt;br&gt; इत्युक्त तेन चन्द्रो वै क्षयी जातः क्षणादिह।&#xA;&lt;br&gt;हाहाकारो महानासीत्तदेन्दौ क्षीणतां गते॥ १९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sūta said, “At these words of Daksa, the moon atonce attracted the&#xA;consumption disease, with the moon’s attracting the ailment of&#xA;consumption, there was a turmoil everywhere. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the sages with Devas being unsettled by changes went to &lt;em&gt;Prabhasa Khanda&lt;/em&gt; and said to Soma to worship Shiva with &lt;em&gt;Mahamrutyunja mantra&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्थाप्य चन्द्रं प्रभासे च स्वं स्वं धाम ययुर्मुदा॥३८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Invoking all the holy places there, including Sarasvati, they started&#xA;adoring Siva by Mrtyuñjaya-pujan-vidhi. The gods and the ascetics,&#xA;with the spotless intentions, seated the moon at the Prabhāsa-kSetra,&#xA;and went back to their respective places. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चन्द्रेण च तपस्तमं षण्मासं च निरन्तरम्। &lt;br&gt;मृत्युञ्जयेन मन्त्रेण&#xA;पूजितो वृषभध्वजः।। ३९ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The moon performed the adoration of Siva &lt;strong&gt;reciting the&#xA;Mrtyuñjaya-mantra and performed tapas continuously for six months&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pleased with his penance, Shiva appeared to Soma and asked for a boon. Soma asked to forgive him and cure from that disease of consumption. Shiva said he would go through period of waning and waxing for period of fortnight continuously.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिव उवाच &lt;br&gt; पक्षे च क्षीयतां चन्द्र! कला ते च दिने दिने। &lt;br&gt;पुनश्च&#xA;वर्द्धतां पक्षे सा कला च निरन्तरम्।। ४५ ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śiva said, “In a fortnight, you will get reduced by a digit daily and&#xA;in the next fortnight, it would go on increasing in the same&#xA;sequence.” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pleased with devotion of moon and at request of Devas, Shiva then took form of Linga there as Somnathesvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चन्द्रस्य यशसे तत्र नाम्ना चन्द्रस्य शङ्करः।। ५०॥ &lt;br&gt; सोमेश्वरश्च&#xA;नाम्नाऽऽरीद्विख्यातो भुवनत्रये। &lt;br&gt; क्षयकुष्ठादिरोगाणां नाशक:&#xA;पूजनाद्द्वजाः।। ५१।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siva then felt happy with the gods. In order to&#xA;enhance the glory and greatness of the region, besides that of the&#xA;moon, Šiva established himself there in the form of Someşvara and&#xA;became famous in the three worlds. O Brähmanas, by his worship, Šiva&#xA;becomes the destroyer of the ailments like consumption, leprosy and&#xA;others. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Story of Somnatha is also described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/13005/6/Chapter4_241-320p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 63&lt;/a&gt; Nagara Khanda of Skanda Purana (Pg: 259) and Chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-xix/chapter-22/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;22&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-xix/chapter-23/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;23&lt;/a&gt; Section one of Prabhasa Kandha of Skanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Greatness of Somnatha Linga is described in much detail in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-xix/chapter-06/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 6&lt;/a&gt; Section one of Prabhasa Kandha of Skanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-07-29T13:02:34.750" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14293" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14287" CreationDate="2016-07-29T17:44:48.230" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are three Shree Shiv Jyotirlinga's with name Vaidyanath in India as -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga - Deogarh: -Baidyanath Dham  , Deogarh district of Jharkhand.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga - Parli Village ,  Parli Vaidyanath temple  , Beed District , Maharastra State&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3)  Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga - Kangra:- Baijnath , Himachal Pradesh State.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/bharatavarsha/pilgrimages/pilgrimages_of_shiva.php#Jyotirlingas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;More here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this answer I am giving information about Parali-Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga in Maharastra State.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parali  village is located on the slopes of Meru or Naganarayana Mountain. Parali is an ancient village located near three rivers, Brahma, Venu and Saraswati, because of the presence of one of the twelve JyotirLingas of Shankara, it has become famous. This village is also known as Kantipur, Madhyarekha Vaijayanti or Jayanti. It is 26 kilometers from Ambejogai in the Beed district. (Maharastra , India).&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jyotirlingadarshan.in/vaidyanath.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;More here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Shiva MahaPuran KotiRudra Samhita 1:21:24  (शिव महापुराण कोटि रूद्र संहिता)  the location of Baidyanath (वैद्यनाथ) is identified as&quot;chidabhoomi&quot; (चिदा भूमि) - which is possibly the ancient name of Deoghar (देव घर).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पूर्वोत्तरे  प्रज्वलिक निधाने ।  सदा वसंतम गिरीजा संमेतं ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सुराससुरधित पादपद्मम । श्री वैद्यनाथ ताममहं नमामि ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Poorvothare prajwalika nidhane sada vasantham girija sametham&#xA;  surasuraradhitha padapadmam srivaidyanatham thamaham namami&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वैद्याभ्यं पूजितं सत्यं , लिंगमेतत्त पुरातनं ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वैद्यनाथमिति प्रख्यातं सर्वकाम:प्रदायकं।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaidyabhyam Poojitam Satyam, Lingametat puratamam Vaidyanathamiti&#xA;  prakhyatam Sarvakamapradayakam”.&#xA;  Here Lord Vishnu  helped the Devas to obtain Amrit. Therefore, this place is also known as ‘Vaidyanath&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In material sence -:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are lot's of useful medicinal plants and herbs , in the nearby jungle , and mountain range , that's why Parali Jyotirling is also known as &quot;Baidyanath&quot;  meaning Lord of vaidyanath( वैद्य)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The story According to Shree Shiva Maha Puran-:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana (Kotirudra Samhita 28): Ravana worships Shiva in Kailasha: Once Ravana, who was full of pride worshipped Lord Shiva in the Kailasha mountain. When he could not please Shiva, he performed more severe tapas. Thereafter he performed tapas at Siddhisthana on the southern side of the mountains within a cluster of trees. He dug up a pit, lighted fire in it, and placing the Shiva Linga nearby, performed homas. In summer he performed tapas in panchagni (five fires), during rainy season he sat on the bare earth, and during winter he performed tapas in water. But even then Shiva was not pleased, because Shiva is not pleased with evil-minded persons. Thereafter Ravana became noble and started offering his heads to Shiva, one by one daily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva gives boon to Ravana: After offering nine heads, when he was about to offer his tenth head, Shiva appeared and prevented him. Shiva also restored all his other heads and bestowed on him immense prowess. Also, as a boon Ravana wanted to take Lord Shiva himself to Lanka. Shiva instead gave him a Shiva Linga and told him that wherever he kept it on the ground, it will get fixed there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While carrying the Shiva Linga, Ravana felt a great urge to ease himself due to Shiva Maya. Seeing a cowherd boy, he gave him the Linga to hold for sometime. But the cowherd boy was unable to bear the weight of the Linga for long, and placed it on the ground. The Linga got fixed there and came to be known as Vaidyanatheshwara. It bestows both worldly prosperity and salvation, and removes sins by a mere look. After Ravana left, the gods came there, worshipped that Shiva Linga and returned to their respective abodes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ नमः शिवाय&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-09-21T06:31:03.690" LastActivityDate="2016-09-21T06:31:03.690" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14294" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12266" CreationDate="2016-07-29T18:15:09.043" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Guru is God. God is Guru. Guru’s lineage starts from the ultimate parambrahma to the current Guru. So we praise the Guru lineage/parampara like &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narayana samarambham vyasa sankara madhyamam asmad acarya paryantam&#xA;  vande guru paramparaam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sadasiva samarambham sankaracarya madhyamam asmad acarya paryantam&#xA;  vande guru paramparam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dattatreya Samarambham Nrisimhadika Madhyamam Saccidananda Paryantam&#xA;  Vande Guru Paramparam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gnana or true knowledge can be gained only by the grace of Guru. He knows our eligibility and uplifts us to attain self realization. This may happen in one lifetime or may take several hundreds of births. After attaining the ultimate oneness state of gnana by experience and realization, he is equal to all other Gurus and Gods.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When God purposely descends to earth as Guru, it is presumed that avatar Guru teaches knowledge where as realized Guru may or may not teach others unless otherwise asked. Realized Guru may choose to have low or zero disciples (May also can have more or equal no of disciples compared to avatar Guru). He may teach or indulge Himself into samadhi. A Guru who meditates in forests or mountains is doing equal favor compared to a guru who physically teaches &amp;amp; guides the disciple. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a word avatar guru has knowledge by birth since god himself decided to come in the form of guru where as a normal human until self realization will face his karma and progress towards enlightenment. After this both are same and realized soul will experiences &amp;amp; realizes himself as reflection of parambramha and merges into oneness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="65" LastActivityDate="2016-07-29T18:15:09.043" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14295" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="642" CreationDate="2016-07-29T18:16:39.287" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;First we have to know one thing that , whole universe is one organic unity so whatever happening in universe indirectly or directly effect us and other things in a way. It could be good or bad , But it can be changed through the channeling of energy by different ways.Its a science which assist to be in harmony with universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7267" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-29T19:02:33.873" LastActivityDate="2016-07-29T19:02:33.873" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14296" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11416" CreationDate="2016-07-29T19:30:30.790" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagvatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 12.11&lt;/a&gt; describes Lord Hari created Sun god through his beginningless material energy and is so indifferent from Lord Hari. And even Sri Narayan is always with him in all twelve months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.29 — Sūta Gosvāmī said: The sun travels among all the planets and thus regulates their movements. It has been created by Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Soul of all embodied beings, through His beginningless material energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.30 — The sun-god, being nondifferent from Lord Hari, is the one soul of all the worlds and their original creator. He is the source of all the ritualistic activities prescribed in the Vedas and has been given many names by the Vedic sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.31 — Being the source of the material energy, the Personality of Godhead Lord Hari in His expansion as the sun-god is described in nine aspects, O Śaunaka: the time, the place, the endeavor, the performer, the instrument, the specific ritual, the scripture, the paraphernalia of worship and the result to be achieved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 12.11.32 — The Supreme Personality of Godhead, manifesting His potency of time as the sun-god, travels about in each of the twelve months, beginning with Madhu, to regulate planetary motion within the universe. Traveling with the sun-god in each of the twelve months is a different set of six associates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as Sun god is the material energy of Lord Narayana that's why he must be called as Surya Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For hindu months related to Sun god, I have written a question and answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14087/what-are-the-name-of-hindu-months-based-on-sun-god&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-07-29T19:30:30.790" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14297" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-07-29T23:59:39.347" Score="3" ViewCount="867" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most Hindus who worship Shree Vishnu wear &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdhva_Pundra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Urdhva Pundra&lt;/a&gt; (Thirunamam) on their forehead. What does this symbol represent?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7269" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-03-20T11:49:59.753" LastActivityDate="2018-05-14T05:25:22.023" Title="What does Urdhva Pundra (Thirunamam) represent?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|symbolism|tilak|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14298" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14303" CreationDate="2016-07-30T02:40:45.740" Score="7" ViewCount="3931" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eaglespace.com/spirit/gayatrig.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This Web Site&lt;/a&gt; , I have come across a description of various fires a grihastha (householder) was expected to keep in his house during Vedic period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  exact passage from  website is as below-:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Every grihastha (householder) was expected to keep 5 or 3 sacred fires  (Five fires: Ahavaneeya, Dakshagni, Garhapatya, Sawta, Aavasadha ) in his house to perform Vedic rituals.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So , I simply want to know more about these 5 types of sacred fires.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was their purpose? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which hymns from Vedas mentioned them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2016-07-30T16:07:09.037" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T16:58:24.057" Title="Different types of sacred fires from Vedic Period?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|yajna|agni|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14301" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5207" CreationDate="2016-07-30T09:48:08.940" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Narasimhas nails an incarnation of Sudarsana Chakra&#xA;Lord Nrsimha is so exalted that even His nails are glorified by the Vaishnava acharyas! In the Sudarsana-sata-nama stotra of the Sri Vaishnava sampradaya, it is said that Lord Narayana's Sudarshana Chakra descended as the tusk of Varaha, the axe of Parasurama, and the nails of Nrsimha. In this way, the nails of Nrsimha accompany the Lord in His various avatars.&#xA;      Trivikram Panditacarya a disciple of Srila Madhavacarya wrote the Nakha Stuti ,meditation on Lord Narasimhadevas nails : Nakha-Stuti - First Sloka pantu asman puruhuuta vairi balavat matanga madhyat ghata kumbi uchadri vipatana adikapatu pratyeka vajrayitabr &#xA;&quot;O Sri Nrsimha, who is omnipresent, may your nails protect me and others at all times. Just as a lion attacks powerful elephant groups and splits apart their heads with its nails and the vajrayudha (Indra's defense weapon) splits the highest mountains, in the similar way, the Asuras (who through the blessings of Sri Brahma, Rudra and the demigods) are like powerful exhilarating elephants who are easily killed by each of Sri Nrsimha's nails which are precious and powerful.&quot; &#xA;Second Sloka&#xA; prathatha shrimadkanteravasya sunakhara darita arati duura pradvastha dvanta shanta pravitata mansa bhavitah buribhagai &#xA;&quot;All demigods are devoted to and praying to these nails, which eliminates all bad elements in this world. They are very [devoted to] these nails as it will give all six senses of a brahmana or good qualities of the devataas. These nails will even give complete knowledge and the demigods   come out of the darkness (of ignorance) by praying to these nails, they    get peace and knowledge of all the qualities of Sri Hari.&quot; &#xA;Third Sloka lakshmiikanta samantata kalayan opi eshita te samam pashyami naiv yah uttamavastu ataratah astama rasaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;O Sri Nrsimha, whos consort is  Sri Lakshmi, there is no body equal to you. If there is any thing which is equal, it is 'astama rasa' the famous six essences. Similarly, there is nobody equal or uttama [more excellent] than you.&quot; &#xA;Fourth Sloka yad roksha roksha utkara daksha netra kutila prant opita agni spurat khadhyotopama vishpulinga basita brahm esha shakra otkara &quot;There are many Brahma's, many Rudra's, many Indra's and all of these and other demigods became ashes by  of your smallest glance. Your glance  is like the smallest firefly [a twinkling insect which glows in night], yet it has the brightness of the sun's rays&#xA;Shri Narasimha Slokas and Stotrams&#xA;Vedanta desika (a vaisnava saint from the Sri Sampradaya) has written a Sudarshana Ashtakam:&#xA;Pratibhatasreni Bhishana,Varagunasthoma Bhushana Janibhyasthana Taarana, Jagadavasthaana Karana, Nikhiladushkarma Karsaana, Nigamasaddharma Darsana Jaya Jaya Sri sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana. 1&#xA; Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Who is fearsome to hoards of enemies of devotees Who is ornament for all blessed actions, Who helps one to cross sea of samsara, Who stabilizes the entire universe, Who cuts off accumulated sins of bad actions, And who teaches righteous conduct&#xA;. Subhajagadrupa Mandana, Suraganathrasa Khandana Satamakabrahma vandita, Satapatabrahma Nandita, Pratitavidvat Sapakshita, Bhajata Ahirbudhnya Lakshita Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana. &#xA;2 Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Who is the ornament of him who is Lord of universe, Who removes the fear of all asuras towards devas, Who is worshipped by Lord Brahma and hosts of others, Who is worshipped by Sat Pada Brahmana, Who is on the part of devotees for overcoming contestants, And who is worshipped by Lord Shiva.&#xA; Sphutata-Dijjaala Pinjara, Pruthutarajwaala Panjara Parigata Pratnavigraha, Padutaraprajna Durgraha, Praharana Grama Manditha, Parijana Thraana Panditha Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana. &#xA;3 Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Who is surrounded by resplendent light like a halo, Who is surrounded by forms of Vishnu, Who is difficult for even great scholars to grasp, And who helps devotees to cross problems.&#xA; Nijapatapreetha saddgana, Nirupathispeetha Shad Guna Nigama NirvyuDa Vaibhava, Nijapara Vyuha Vaibhava, Hari Haya Dweshi Daarana, Hara Pura Plosha Kaarana Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana.&#xA;4 Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Who is firmly attached to righteous people, Who is the natural home for six good assets, Who took the form with a horse's neck, And who was the reason for destruction of the cities by Shiva. &#xA;Dhanuja visthaara Kartana,Janitamisraa Vikartana Dhanujavidya Nikartana, Bhajatavidya Nivatana, Amara drushtasva Vikrama, Samara Jushta Bramikrama Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana.&#xA; 5 Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Who destroys the spread of asuras, Who removes the sorrows of birth, aging and death, Who wins over the art of war of asuras, Who removes the false knowledge from his devotees, Whose valour is praised by devas, And who rotates in various ways in a war.&#xA; Prathimukhaaleeta Bandhura, Pruthumahaheti Danthura Vikatamaaya Bahishkrutha,Vividhamaalaa Parishkrutha, Sthiramahaayantra Tantritha, Dhruta Daya Tantra Yantrita Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana. &#xA;6&#xA;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Who appeared with a fast forward gait, And whose gait appeared very pretty, Who is surrounded by several weapons, And expels the illusions sent by enemy in case of war, Who decorates himself with several garlands, Who wears mercy and blesses devotees, Who worship him through tantra and yantras. &#xA;Mahita Sampath Sadhakshara, Vihitasampath Shatakshara Shatarachakra Pratisishtita ,Sakala Tattva Prathishtita, Vividha Sankalpaka Kalpaka,Vibhudhasankalpa Kalpaka Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana .&#xA;7 Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA; Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Who gives wealth of salvation to those who, Chant your six lettered mantra, Who gives incomparable wealth to those who, Chant your six lettered mantra, Who is available in yantra of six corners, Who is a form in which all knowledge exists, Who is able to complete all deeds that you take up, And who is the kalpaka tree fulfilling all wishes.&#xA; Bhuvana Netra Trayeemaya, Savanatejastrayeemaya Niravadhisvaadhu Chinmaya, Nikhila Sakthe Jaganmaya, Amita Viswakriyaamaya, Samitavishvagbhayaamaya Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana. &#xA;8 Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, &#xA;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana, Who is the three Vedas which are the eye of the world, Who is the form of the three fires of yagas, Who is the eternal knowledge of true knowledge, Who is a form of the power of universe, Who is accomplisher of deeds that you take up, And who destroys all fears occurring in the world.&#xA; Verse 9: Phala Sruthi Dwichatushkamidam Prabhoothasaaram patathaam Venkatanayaka Praneetham, Vishamepi Manorata: Pradhaavan na Vihanyeta Rataangadhuryagupta:&#xA; This octet which fulfills all desires, Which gives the inner meaning of Lord Sudarshana,&#xA;this is the Narasimha Gayatri mantra:&#xA;vajra nakhaya vidmahe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tikshna damstraya dhimahi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tan no narasimhah prachodayat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Let us meditate on He who is known as the possessor of nails as hard as thunderbolts and sharp teeth. Let us be enthused by Lord Narasimhadeva.&quot;&#xA;We daily should pray to Lord Narasimhadeva:&#xA;SB 5.18.8&#xA;oṁ namo bhagavate narasiṁhāya namas tejas-tejase āvir-āvirbhava vajra-nakha vajra-daṁṣṭra karmāśayān randhaya randhaya tamo grasa grasa om svāhā; abhayam abhayam ātmani bhūyiṣṭhā oṁ kṣraum.&#xA;Word for word: &#xA;om — O Lord; namaḥ — my respectful obeisances; bhagavate — unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead; nara-siṁhāya — known as Lord Nṛsiṁha; namaḥ — obeisances; tejaḥ-tejase — the power of all power; āviḥ-āvirbhava— please be fully manifest; vajra-nakha — O You who possess nails like thunderbolts; vajra-daṁṣṭra — O You who possess teeth like thunderbolts; karma-āśayān — demoniac desires to be happy by material activities;randhaya randhaya — kindly vanquish; tamaḥ — ignorance in the material world; grasa — kindly drive away;grasa — kindly drive away; om — O my Lord; svāhā — respectful oblations; abhayam — fearlessness; abhayam— fearlessness; ātmani — in my mind; bhūyiṣṭhāḥ — may You appear; om — O Lord; kṣraum — the bīja, or seed, of mantras offering prayers to Lord Nṛsiṁha.&#xA;Translation: &#xA;I offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, the source of all power. O my Lord who possess nails and teeth just like thunderbolts, kindly vanquish our demonlike desires for fruitive activity in this material world. Please appear in our hearts and drive away our ignorance so that by Your mercy we may become fearless in the struggle for existence in this material world.&#xA;Thus ends chapter 18 of Sri Narasimha: Lord Narasimhas nails an incarnation of Sudarsana Chakra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7272" LastActivityDate="2016-07-30T09:48:08.940" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14302" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13955" CreationDate="2016-07-30T10:52:52.100" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vraat (Sanskrit : व्रत) means &quot;vow, resolve, devotion&quot;, and refers to the practice of austerity, particularly in matters related to foods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So simply  speaking , Vrata means to accept some rules of restrictive discipline.In &lt;strong&gt;spiritual or Adhyatmik (आध्यात्मिक)&lt;/strong&gt; perspective Vrat means to apply control over our  physical sense organs,with a solemn vow to observe regulatory discipline.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of Varata in Hinduism -:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vrata is a resolution with a special purpose in mind. Devotees believe a great will power exists within such resolution. &lt;strong&gt;Vrata and Vows adds power to the internal consciousness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word  Vrata in spiritual or Adhyatmik sense also means to &lt;strong&gt;move near to the supreme  God.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devotees refrain  or avoid themselves from food and water,on the day of Vrata to please the God.&lt;strong&gt;The fasting aspect of Vrata or Upavas (उपवास) makes the mind strong and increases its firmness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vrata bestows all kinds of advantage at the physical and spiritual levels. During the observance of vrat, devotee's completely abstains from food, or partly abstains from food and this gives &lt;strong&gt;physiological rest to the digestive apparatus, which in turn awakens and increases the digestive power, leading to ease (comfort) of digestion and purification of the mind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  fasting aspect of Vrata or Upavas (उपवास) &lt;strong&gt;makes the mind strong and increases its firmness&lt;/strong&gt; and the stories connected with Vrat, if their purport is understood, can transform the life of a person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devotees believes resolution is a means to awaken our dormant powers (सुप्त शक्ति).&lt;/strong&gt; Just as a person will employ all his powers to (successfully) attain any difficult objective, in the same way, to accomplish the objective of his resolution, he gathers all his powers and uses them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One such vrata is known as &lt;strong&gt;Ekadasi vrata&lt;/strong&gt;,  because it is performed ekadashi day . Each vrat has a mahatme (glories) (माहात्म्य) that describe the spiritual benefits of that particular fast.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there are various physical as well as mental benefits of keeping the vratas. And in turn help devotees live happy ,healthy life and brings them closer to god. So Vratas have their significance in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=SJyJfZqQw4EC&amp;amp;pg=PA41&amp;amp;lpg=PA41&amp;amp;dq=In%20which%20purana%20importance%20of%20vrata%20is%20described&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=mPKs66Xmtx&amp;amp;sig=c5P_-nP7zgMWJFxh_y2JeKNhLc0&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=In%20which%20purana%20importance%20of%20vrata%20is%20described&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varah Puran&lt;/a&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=O5JZBgAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT30&amp;amp;lpg=PT30&amp;amp;dq=narad%20purana%20shlokas%20about%20vrata&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=1PZ_1UlpS3&amp;amp;sig=RM5RCaqUnsqn5oNoD14QUdXdTTM&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjh6PuY3prOAhXFOI8KHQwMB4sQ6AEIOTAD#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=narad%20purana%20shlokas%20about%20vrata&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narad Puran&lt;/a&gt; also describes some of the Vratas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: the above  answer is compiled with taking help from these web sites &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shreedarshan.com/hindu-vrat.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/vrat-.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2019-04-18T11:20:22.770" LastActivityDate="2019-04-18T11:20:22.770" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14303" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14298" CreationDate="2016-07-30T13:22:18.197" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manusmriti&lt;/a&gt;, the three fires Garhapatya, Dakshinagni and Ahavaniya are compared with father, mother and teacher respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पिता वै गार्हपत्योग्निर्माताग्निर्दक्षिणाः स्मृताः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गुरुराहवनीयस्तु साग्नित्रेता गरीयसी ।। २३१ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;231&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The father, forsooth, is stated to be the Garhapatya fire, the mother the Dakshinagni, but the teacher the Ahavaniya fire; this triad of fires is most venerable.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्रिष्वप्रमाद्यन्नेतेषु त्रील्लोलोकान् विजयेद्गृही ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दीप्यमानः स्ववपुषाः देववद्यिवि मोदते ।। २३२ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;232&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He who neglects not those three, (even after he has become) a householder, will conquer the three worlds and, radiant in body like a god, he will enjoy bliss in heaven.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The glory of Ahavaniya and Garhapatya fire is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajurved KANDA VI&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For this world the Garhapatya fire is piled up; for yonder world the Ahavaniya. If he were to cast it on-the Garhapatya fire, he would be rich in cattle in this world; if on the Ahavaniya, he would be rich in cattle in yonder world he casts it on both; verily he makes him rich in cattle in both worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv01.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajurved KANDA I&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He falls away from this world who pays reverence to the Ahavaniya; he pays reverence to the Garhapatya; verily he rests on this world, and also he makes amends to the Garhapatya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T16:58:24.057" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14304" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14308" CreationDate="2016-07-30T17:08:07.623" Score="3" ViewCount="2952" Body="&lt;p&gt;In spiritual practices of Hinduism or Adhyatma ,We often hear these three words -: &#xA;1) Sadhana 2) Tapasya 3) Yoga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are -:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Are these terms  similar or related to each other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) What are the actual meaning and significance of these terms  in relation with our General as well as Spiritual life (Adhyatmik life).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-07-30T17:25:36.167" LastActivityDate="2016-08-02T04:00:31.833" Title="Meaning of Sadhana , Tapasya and Yoga (साधना ,तपस्या &amp; योग)?" Tags="|philosophy|practice|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14306" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14315" CreationDate="2016-07-30T18:55:26.900" Score="11" ViewCount="1485" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is 108 significant in Hinduism? What is the scientific/mathematic/spiritual/religious significance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We are told to aim for 108 reps of Surya Namaskar (I'm on 69 reps a day, LOL)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If you circumambulate Mount Kailash 108 times, you attain moksha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to this YouTube video, &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/aIuyFiYhAAA?t=3m59s&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Holy Kailash Pilgrimage, starts at 4:04&lt;/a&gt;, if you go through 108 frigid water spouts (in a Nepal temple), you attain moksha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please enlighten me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2020-09-21T15:27:04.390" LastActivityDate="2020-09-21T15:27:04.390" Title="Please Explain The Number 108" Tags="|moksha|science|spirituality|mathematics|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14307" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14281" CreationDate="2016-07-30T19:15:50.150" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to 1998 Mahabharat series, Gandhari felt it an honor to marry Dhritarashtra. Even if she were to lose her beauty, it wouldn't matter because Dhritarashtra couldn't see anyway.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later in the series (I think during Mahabharat war, or before it), Gandhari says she didn't want to refuse anything to someone as great as Bhishma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for the actual blindfolding, she says it's wife's duty to share husband's world. In this case, a world of blindless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="3378" LastEditDate="2016-07-30T22:34:16.170" LastActivityDate="2016-07-30T22:34:16.170" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14308" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14304" CreationDate="2016-07-31T05:58:00.793" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sharing an excerpt from my article on Sadhana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sadhna, in general may refer to any effort/action (Karma) that is put&#xA;  to achieve a specific goal. But in many Hindu philosophical&#xA;  literatures, it specifically refers to any effort put to achieve a&#xA;  spiritual goal. Literally the word “Sadhana” is derived from root word&#xA;  “sadh” (to accomplish) and refers to any means or instrument to&#xA;  accomplish a desired objective. Swami Chidananda of Divine Life&#xA;  society defines sadhana as “the active effort to obtain that which is&#xA;  possible of being obtained through effort”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is interesting to note that, even though sadhana includes rituals&#xA;  and practices like mantra jap, havan, puja etc, it is usually assumed&#xA;  to be confined only to them. But it is not so. Sadhna may refer to any&#xA;  spiritual effort put by an individual. It may be a person deciding to&#xA;  speak only truth, to lead a non-corrupt life or to remain celibate&#xA;  throughout his life, all these are sadhna only. The key is, the effort&#xA;  must be put with sincerity and must be practiced relentlessly.&#xA;  Further, any activity practiced in harmony with surrounding nature and&#xA;  the entire cosmos constitute a spiritual sadhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Every sadhna is an action i.e. Karma, hence many argue that no amount&#xA;  of sadhna/karma can deliver enlightment as it can be attained only by&#xA;  the grace of God and hence by surrendering to him. But this grace of&#xA;  God is not randomly given; instead it dawns on only those who are&#xA;  Adhikaari (competent) to receive it. The absolute dedication and&#xA;  surrendering towards God does not come spontaneously to everyone.&#xA;  Sadhana helps an individual to develop this surrender and dedication&#xA;  and achieve the Adhikaara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The goal of any spiritual sadhana is to increase concentration and&#xA;  make the mind still. It helps to make an individual detached and&#xA;  become Stitahprajna (stable/equilibrium). But this detachment is&#xA;  neither disinterest towards objects of outer world nor apathy towards&#xA;  people; instead it is pure selfless love for the whole cosmos without&#xA;  any discrimination or selfish attachment. What actually Sadhana does&#xA;  is to burn away the burden of past karmas that are blocking one’s&#xA;  journey towards the source. Hence, the ultimate end result of any&#xA;  spiritual Sadhana is Jnana (Enlightment) and complete merger with the&#xA;  Cosmos/God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read full article here- &lt;a href=&quot;http://nithinsridhar.blogspot.in/2010/11/understanding-hinduism-sadhana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://nithinsridhar.blogspot.in/2010/11/understanding-hinduism-sadhana.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Yoga, here is another excerpt from one of my article-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoga literally means “Union” or “Conjunction”. Patanjali Yoga Sutra&#xA;  (1.2-3) defines Yoga as a state wherein the patterns (vrittis) of the&#xA;  mind has been removed or stilled, so that the “seer” (i.e. Atman, the&#xA;  Witness) abides in his real nature”. Hence, yoga is a state of&#xA;  Samadhi, wherein the Self or Atman has been isolated from the&#xA;  limitations of Non-Self entities like body and mind so that the Atman&#xA;  alone shines. This state is achieved by stilling the mind by causing&#xA;  all the various thought-modifications of the mind to cease. Just as&#xA;  various thoughts and dreams are products of modifications of&#xA;  “manas/mind”. Similarly, from purely subjective perspective the&#xA;  objective universe one perceives is also due to the modifications of&#xA;  one’s mind. The Atman is the witness and the body and the mind are the&#xA;  objects. Hence, when the mind is stilled and the modifications of mind&#xA;  are brought into a stop, the objects merge into the subject and the&#xA;  Atman which is the subject alone remains. This state of Samadhi is&#xA;  called as “Yoga” or “Union” because there is a Union of duality of&#xA;  object and subject giving rise to the non-dual abidance in Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read the full article on Yoga here- &lt;a href=&quot;http://nithinsridhar.blogspot.in/2015/04/secularization-or-destruction-of-yoga.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://nithinsridhar.blogspot.in/2015/04/secularization-or-destruction-of-yoga.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tapas, in simple terms refers to Austerity, Self-control, spiritual practice and may at times be used as synonymous to Sadhana or Yoga as well. Here is another excerpt, from an article about how Menstruation is a period of Tapas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, first, let us examine the Hindu notion of Tapas. Hindu tradition&#xA;  recognizes that some kind of Tapas is necessary to attain any&#xA;  goal-sacred or secular- in life. In the simplest terms, Tapas refers&#xA;  to austerity or hardship. Without facing hardships, without overcoming&#xA;  obstacles, no work is accomplished. Recognizing this, the Hindu&#xA;  scriptures have charted out how one can use this Tapas to attain&#xA;  material welfare and spiritual emancipation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At a deeper level, Tapas is defined as restrainment of the body, mind,&#xA;  and the senses. And all austere practices and self-restrictions have&#xA;  been laid out with an aim to achieve this restrainment. The stress on&#xA;  sense-restrainment has been placed owing to the fact that only through&#xA;  such a restrainment of the physical actions and the mental thoughts,&#xA;  would a person be able to attain detachment and dispassion and free&#xA;  oneself from the internal impurities like lust, anger, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus, the scriptures declare that through Tapas, one destroys ones&#xA;  impurities (of the body and mind) [Yoga Sutras of Patanjanli 2.43] and attains self-purification.&#xA;  The importance of austerity in the Hindu tradition could be gauged by&#xA;  the fact that, just like Shaucha, Tapas is also listed among the&#xA;  Niyamas of Yoga [Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali 2.32]; among the basic Samanya Dharma; and is considered&#xA;  vital for practicing Vedanta [Vivekachoodamani (Verse 22-23)].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Various Hindu rituals and practices have been designed with the&#xA;  purpose to act as austerity to help one attain detachment and&#xA;  self-purification. Beginning with Samskaras like Garbadhana (ceremony&#xA;  marking the intention to give birth to a child) and Vivaha (marriage),&#xA;  the daily ritual performances like that of Sandhyopasana, and various&#xA;  kinds of vratas (vows of austerity, usually fasting) and pujas along&#xA;  with their different rules and regulations that are performed&#xA;  periodically, are all aimed to act as Tapas or ‘Austere practices’&#xA;  that would help individuals to purify themselves and become free from&#xA;  Adharmic (unrighteous) actions that they may have committed through&#xA;  their body, mind, and speech- intentionally or unintentionally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In other words, tapas not only aims to help an individual to become&#xA;  free from some of the Adharmas committed in the past, but also helps&#xA;  him/her to become detached and gain control over his/her senses and&#xA;  thus helps in preventing him/her from committing more Adharma in&#xA;  future. Hence, Austerity and self-purification play a very vital role&#xA;  in aiding an individual in his journey towards the ultimate Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the link to full article- &lt;a href=&quot;http://indiafacts.org/hindu-view-of-menstruation-ii-menstruation-as-austerity-and-self-purification/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://indiafacts.org/hindu-view-of-menstruation-ii-menstruation-as-austerity-and-self-purification/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3477" LastEditorUserId="3477" LastEditDate="2016-08-02T04:00:31.833" LastActivityDate="2016-08-02T04:00:31.833" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14312" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14319" CreationDate="2016-08-01T03:39:16.900" Score="6" ViewCount="2420" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ravana was said to be a staunch  devotee of Lord Shiva.And it is said that  Ravana obtained some boons from Lord Shiva, after doing a lot of penances.&#xA;What are the boons given to Ravana by Lord Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2019-08-13T03:27:41.153" LastActivityDate="2019-08-13T03:27:41.153" Title="Boons given to Ravana by Lord Shiva" Tags="|shiva|ramayana|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14313" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14325" CreationDate="2016-08-01T04:26:55.047" Score="1" ViewCount="1135" Body="&lt;p&gt;The end of Dwapara Yuga is easy to find, which is the end of Shree Krishna avatara. But the others, I cannot find any answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7283" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-01T11:46:37.907" LastActivityDate="2023-08-14T09:15:16.490" Title="What earthly events marks the end of Satya and Treta Yuga?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14314" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6752" CreationDate="2016-08-01T06:03:42.553" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I agree sitting in lotus position is best for meditation. &#xA;As sleeping or lying down pose renders sleep. &#xA;Standing is a more hurried pose with poor &#xA;concentration. &#xA;Kneeling is a more namaz posture ,&#xA;If we see Hindu Temples &amp;amp; priests they normally use lotus position for prayers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7284" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-01T07:02:17.203" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T07:02:17.203" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14315" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14306" CreationDate="2016-08-01T07:25:17.437" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Vedic cosmology, number 108 is the basis of creation. Number 108 represent our universe. 108 represent the whole of our existence. 108 is a number which resonates throughout the universe.&#xA;Please refere following link for more details&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mallstuffs.com/Blogs/BlogDetails.aspx?BlogId=264&amp;amp;BlogType=Spiritual&amp;amp;Topic=Why%20number%20108%20is%20holy%20and%20auspicious%20in%20Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.mallstuffs.com/Blogs/BlogDetails.aspx?BlogId=264&amp;amp;BlogType=Spiritual&amp;amp;Topic=Why%20number%20108%20is%20holy%20and%20auspicious%20in%20Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7286" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T07:25:17.437" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14316" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14317" CreationDate="2016-08-01T07:37:43.100" Score="9" ViewCount="11598" Body="&lt;p&gt;How exactly does Ghanapatha work and can someone point me to examples? I have heard that Ghanapatha is a very useful way of preserving information by combining phrases in different permutations. For instance, if we consider &quot;1&quot;, &quot;2,&quot; and &quot;3&quot; to be their own phrases, then ganapata would be something like&#xA;121323. But can someone provide more concrete examples and explanations?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5101" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-02-02T10:32:10.213" LastActivityDate="2021-01-26T21:13:28.557" Title="Sanskrit examples of Ghanapatha recitation?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|sanskrit|vedic-chanting|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14317" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14316" CreationDate="2016-08-01T08:11:50.797" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ghanapatha&lt;/strong&gt; is one of the most advanced method of Veda Patha. Syllables are continuously repeated to and fro in a certain pattern. A syllable can get repeated upto 13 times in Ghana Patha. So, reciting Vedas in Ghanapatha gives fruit 13 times more than normal recitation. As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9517/procedures-used-for-preserving-the-integrity-of-the-vedas/13703#13703&quot;&gt;answer here,&lt;/a&gt; Ghanapatha is one of the methods useful for presentation of Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The pattern for Ghana Patha is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1-2, 2-1, 1-2-3, 3-2-1, 1-2-3 ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2-3, 3-2, 2-3-4, 4-3-2, 2-3-4।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3-4, 4-3, 3-4-5, 5-4-3, 3-4-5।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4-5, 5-4, 4-5-6, 6-5-4, 4-5-6।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. One of the popular Mantra of Rig Veda is &lt;strong&gt;Mahamrityunjaya Mantra&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA; of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It goes as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tryambakam yajaamahe sugandhim pushTi vardhanam | &#xA;  urvaarukamiva bandhanaan mrutyor muksheeya maamrutaat || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ghana Patha recitation of this mantra goes as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tryambakam yajaamahe yajaamahe tryambakam tryambakam yajaamahe sugandhigm &#xA;  sugandhim yajaamahe tryambakam tryambakam yajaamahe sugandhim | &#xA;  tryambakamititri - ambakam || &#xA;  yajaamahe sugandhigm sugandhim yajaamahe yajaamahe sugandhim &#xA;  pushTivardhanam pushTivardhanagm sugandhim yajaamahe yajaamahe sugandhim &#xA;  pushTivardhanam | &#xA;  sugandhim pushTivardhanam pushTivardhanagm sugandhigm sugandhim &#xA;  pushTivardhanam | sugandhimitisu - gandhim pushTivardhana - mitipushTi - &#xA;  vardhanam || &#xA;  urvaarukamivevorvaaruka - murvaarukamiva bandhanaadbandhanaadi vorvaaruka - &#xA;  murvaarukamiva bandhanaat | &#xA;  iva bandhanaadbandhanaadiveva bandhanaanmrutyo - rmrutyo - rbandhanaadiveva &#xA;  bandhanaanmrutyoho | &#xA;  bandhanaanmrutyo - mrutyorbandhanaadbandhanaanmrutyo - rmuksheeya muksheeya &#xA;  mrutyo – rbandhanaad bandhanaan mrutyor muksheeya |&#xA;  mrutyor muksheeya muksheeya mrutyormrutyo - rmuksheeya maa maa muksheeya &#xA;  rmrutyormrutyo - rmuksheeya maa | &#xA;  muksheeya maa maa muksheeya muksheeya maamrutaadamrutaanmaa muksheeya &#xA;  muksheeya maamrutaat | maamrutaadamrutaanmaa maamrutaat | &#xA;  amrutaadityamrutaat ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can hear Ghana Path recitation of Mrityunjaya mantra in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JuWzf1UeyMs&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;YouTube video.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus a mantra becomes such long in Ghana Patha. It helps in both preservation of Vedas and generation of powerful vedic vibrations. Also here &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9517/procedures-used-for-preserving-the-integrity-of-the-vedas/13703#13703&quot;&gt;in this answer,&lt;/a&gt; I discuss about Ghana patha recitation of Gayatri mantra and English sentences also. Also one can listen Ghana Patha of Gayatri in &lt;a href=&quot;https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0gDJgnhF23Y&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt;, also GhanaPatha recitation of central Sri Rudram hymn having &quot;Namaha Shivaya Cha&quot; is available in &lt;a href=&quot;https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL5A6D7AFD0226C5FC&amp;amp;v=RoxzEHbE9fY&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T11:18:37.563" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14318" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14306" CreationDate="2016-08-01T08:18:42.843" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The number 108 is important because it is a multiple of the number 9. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Numbers 18, 108, 1008, 10008 are all multiples of 9 which is a mystic&#xA;  number. All multiples of 9 added together ultimately become number 9.&#xA;  This can be verified (16x9=144; 1+4+4=9). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The mystic number 9 is arrived at thiswise: The universe is constituted&#xA;  of the three factors - time, space and causation. The universe is&#xA;  constituted of the three Gunas (ingredients) - sattva, rajas and&#xA;  tamas. The universe is constituted of the three functions - creation,&#xA;  preservation and destruction. This three times three making nine has&#xA;  made nine a mystic number. It exhausts the definition of the&#xA;  phenomenal universe.   Twice nine or eighteen makes the Mahabharata&#xA;  scheme complete.  The eighteen Parvas define in detail the career of&#xA;  man on earth. The eighteen chapters in the Gita make Yoga philosophy&#xA;  complete. The eighteen day warfare makes the warrior's exploits&#xA;  complete. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Eighteen are the divisions of the armies of the contending parties&#xA;  -Pandavas and Kauravas. The one having seven and the other eleven. Thus all the available human forces mobilized were eighteen in number.&#xA;  The Mahabharata is thus an exposition of the human possibilities and&#xA;  achievements graded into eighteen, the first multiple of nine, a&#xA;  mystic number. The higher multiples of it [like 108] signify further&#xA;  ranging into divine regions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF:Swami Chidbhavananda in his commentary on the Gita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T08:18:42.843" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14319" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14312" CreationDate="2016-08-01T09:19:23.130" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;One story of Lord Shiva giving boons to Ravana is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttar Kand of Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After defeating his elder brother Kubera, Ravana is passing through Kailash mountain in Pushpak viman. Then by the effect of pride, he lifted the Kailash mountain that trembles Goddess Parvati and other Ganas. Then Lord Shiva pressed the mountain by his toe and that struck Ravana's hands. In pain, Ravana has praised Lord Shiva. And finally Lord Shiva pleased with him and give &lt;code&gt;Chandrahas&lt;/code&gt; sword.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But without heading Nandi s speech, that highly powerful one Dasanana coming to the mountan, said, O Gopati, I will even uproot this mountain, for whom Pushpaka was deprived of its motion as I was journeying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It must be known by what inluence Bhavaswara spoteth here king like. He doth not know that an occasion of fear hath presented itself? Having said this, O Rama, Ravana seizing the mountain with his arms, lifted it up at once; and then the mountain trembled greatly. And in consequence of the mountain shaking the attendants of the deity (dwelling in it) also shook.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Parvati also trembled and embraced Maheshvara. And then, O Rama, Mahadeva foremost of the deities even Hara, as in sport pressed the mount with his great toe. And thereat his arms, resembling blocks of stone felt the shock and then there the councilors of that Raksha were struck with amaze.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Raksha, from wrath and the pain felt in his arms, set up a shout that shook the entire triune world. And his councillors considered it as the concussion of the thunder at the universal disruption. And then the Devas with Indra at their head shook on their way; and the sea was wild and the mountains shook.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Yakshas and Vidyadharas and Siddhas asked, What is this. Do thou propitiate Uma s lord the blue throated Mahadeva; for, O Dasanana, save him thy refuge see we none in this matter. Bowing thyself down, do thou seek him as thy shelter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the kind Sankara, on being gratified, will confer on thee his favor. Thus accosted by his councillors, the Ten faced one, bowing down to him having the bull for his standard, began to hymn him with various Soma hymns; and the Raksha passed away a good thousand years in lamentations. And thereat that Lord Mahadeva, pleased, set free the hands of Dasanana stationed at the top of the mount, and O Rama, addressed him, saying, O Dasanana, pleased am I with thee on account of thy hymns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus accosted by Sambhu, Lanka s lord said of himself. If thou art pleased with me, grant me a boon, who ask thee for it. I have already obtained a boon, bestowing on me immunity from death at the hands of Devas, Gandharvas and Danavas; and Rakshasas and Guhyakas and Nagas; and others also that are of more than oridinary strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Man count I not O god :They, I deem, are insigniicant. I have also, O destroyer of Tripura, received a long lease of life from Brahma. Now I wish to pass the remainder of my days in peace: and do thou grant me a weapon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus addressed by him, Ravana(,) &lt;strong&gt;Sankara gave him an exceedingly effulgent sword, famed as Chandrahasa; and the master of spectres then also granted him peace for the rest of his life&lt;/strong&gt;. And making (the sword) over to him, Sambhu said, Thou must not disregard this. If disregarded, it will for certain come (back) to me Having thus received his name from Maheshvara, Ravana, saluting Mahadeva, ascended Pushpaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T09:19:23.130" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14321" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14306" CreationDate="2016-08-01T10:39:16.267" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;108 number has a very special significance in our religion. We have Ashtottara Sata Namavali, 108 pradakshinas etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In our religion we have 27 nakshatras and each nakshatram has 4&#xA;  paadas. The veda states that there are 84 lakhs of types of jivas. Any&#xA;  jiva among all these must be born among these 27 nakshatras only. 27&#xA;  stars each containing 4 paadas= &lt;strong&gt;27x4 = 108&lt;/strong&gt;. Anyone who recites&#xA;  Ashtottara Satanamavali prays knowingly or unknowingly the welfare of&#xA;  all the jivas in the entire universe as Sanatana Dharma always says&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T10:39:16.267" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14323" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14200" CreationDate="2016-08-01T12:57:51.867" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are some wrong ways mere Yes or No for your question can be taken. If I say the answer as Yes there is a so and so punishment (though there is none), I would be presenting you Hindu religion in a mis-interpreted and wrong way. Since the answer is a No, still it can go wrong. So No punishment also means&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It does not give anyone even a Hindu to leave all the duties ordained on him/her by his religion.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Just to escape the duties of one's religion or for any of one's own selfish motives one cannot change religion.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no punishment. Before giving references, Let me clarify you certain things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is a name that was given very recently to this religion. But its original name was always Sanatana Dharma which means that it flowed perennially from time immemorial. In olden days and in yugas this is the only dharma that existed. This fact is always evident by the teachings of the scriptures and acharyas. Rama or Krishna did not establish Hinduism, they were the followers of Sanatana Dharma. Just to state one fact among them,  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga18/kishkindha_18_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki's Ramayanam Kishkindha Kanda Sarga 18&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Rama in response to Vali's questions says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This earth&lt;/strong&gt; with its mountains, woods, and forests, even along with the&#xA;authority to condone or condemn the animals, birds, and humans on it&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;belongs to Ikshvakus&lt;/strong&gt;. He who is virtue-souled, truth-abiding,&#xA;plain-speaking, and the knower of the import of probity, pleasures,&#xA;and prosperity, and the one who is concerned in controlling or&#xA;condoning his subjects, &lt;strong&gt;that Bharata is the ruler of earth&lt;/strong&gt;. In whom&#xA;both scrupulousness and benignancy are there, truthfulness is firmed&#xA;up, and valour as evinced by scriptures is evident, and he who is the&#xA;knower of time and place is the king, namely Bharata. Holding his&#xA;virtuous decree desiring to keep up the continuum of righteousness, we&#xA;and some other kings are wayfaring this earth in its entirety.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in the lecture on &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlfETa7RK0I&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Evolution as per Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt;, HH Tridandi Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar Swami mentions that Puranas state that the whole earth was once in the shape of quadrilateral and after Sagara's sons digged it, all divided as different parts (moderns call it continental drift). After that &lt;strong&gt;world looked like a rabbit eating a bush&lt;/strong&gt;. That is the reason we say in pravara &lt;strong&gt;chatuh sagara paryantam&lt;/strong&gt;, if land as a single mass is quadrilateral then on all four sides it has four oceans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This proves that the whole earth was under the kingship of a one king (Lord Rama) in Treta Yuga itself. Later with advent of Kali Yuga, due to the decline of Sanatana Dharma in every other part of the world, the new religions or to state in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnNfDRsRcTA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the words of Swami Dayanada Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;the neo-religions&amp;quot; had come up. That is why they are called mataas, one which originated from a person's mind. But what we call Hinduism today was always there from time immemorial. We did not evolve from apes, but all were the children of God call it brahma, prajapati, vishnu, Siva, Lalita or any name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Punishment for not being a Hindu&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Since no other mataas existed until recent times, it might be hard to find scriptural evidences for the punishment of not being a Hindu. So, instead I would like to state in the words of Acharyas present in Sanatana Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jagadguru Shankaracharya Abhinava Vidya Tirtha Mahaswami of Sringeri Sarada Peetham&lt;/strong&gt;, a well known &lt;strong&gt;jivanmukta&lt;/strong&gt; once said &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Each person should follow his own religion. One should not claim their path to be the only path or abuse other paths&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;. Also I quote up &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/sringeri/vilasa_4.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;a conversation&lt;/a&gt; which happened with him which would be helpful.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some young men had the Darshan of Sri Mahasannidhanam and said,&#xA;'People belonging to other religions are trying to convert Hindus to&#xA;other religions by offering jobs, money and other materialistic&#xA;comforts. This is greatly harming the Hindu society. Please take some&#xA;action to prevent these unlawful religious conversions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahasannidhanam replied, '&lt;strong&gt;What do you mean by religion?&lt;/strong&gt; We have to&#xA;first understand this clearly. The only way to know this is through&#xA;the Shastras. &lt;strong&gt;Religion i.e. Mata is related to 'mati' or intellect.&#xA;The caste of a person i.e. 'jAti' is related to 'janana' or birth.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Take the example of a certain breed of a cow. Can we simply change its&#xA;qualities to resemble another breed by changing its name? &lt;strong&gt;What is now&#xA;called Hindu dharma is actually Sanatana Vaidika dharma. That whose&#xA;beginning is not known is referred to as 'Sanatana'. If you take the&#xA;example of most other religions today, it has been started by a&#xA;particular person and has a date from which it came to existence. Our&#xA;Sanatana dharma has neither such known beginning nor has it been&#xA;established by a single person. One should clearly understand the&#xA;difference between jAti and mati. How to change one's mata? By&#xA;advising an atheist, his mata can be changed and he can be made a&#xA;theist. But jAti can never be changed. We think, 'he was a Hindu, he&#xA;now became a Christian'. But in reality that is not possible. A person&#xA;who leaves his own dharma for various reasons like material comforts&#xA;is called 'bhraShTa'.&lt;/strong&gt; You told me that various groups of organizations&#xA;have been converting Hindus to other religions. This fact was already&#xA;understood by our ancients and they have classified victims of&#xA;conversion into four different categories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Our dharma imposes certain rules and restrictions.&lt;/strong&gt; It advises people&#xA;to eat Satvic food and give up Tamasic foods like onions, garlic, meat&#xA;and fish. It asks us to stay away from liquor and tobacco. It asks us&#xA;to keep fasts for Ekadashi, Shivaratri etc. It bans eating anywhere,&#xA;anything and with anyone. &lt;strong&gt;Some people think, 'God has given us tongue&#xA;solely to enjoy the taste of various foods. Why should one follow&#xA;rules of eating only certain things and with certain people? Such&#xA;people who do not want to follow rules and want to enjoy 'eating' get&#xA;converted to other religions which have no disciplinary rules.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rules related to marriage are very strict in our dharma&lt;/strong&gt;. People fro&#xA;the same Gotra are not allowed to mary as this amounts to a brother&#xA;marrying his sister. Also, one is not allowed to marry a lady elder to&#xA;him in age. One is also required to see the lineage of the&#xA;bride's/groom's family. &lt;strong&gt;Some get converted to other religions, which&#xA;have no such rules, to enjoy marriage with anyone desired.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Dharma classifies the society into Shudra, Vaishya, Kshatriya and&#xA;Brahmana, and rules and duties increase exponentially from Shudras to&#xA;Brahmanas.&lt;/strong&gt; A Brahmana has to follow special rules like waking up&#xA;before sunrise, offering Arghya exactly during sunrise,&#xA;Sandhyavandana, worship of Gods, Brahma Yajna, Vaishwadeva, Agnihotra,&#xA;Aupasana etc. &lt;strong&gt;There are other religions which proclaim, 'You don't&#xA;have to do anything. All your sins will be forgiven. Whatever sins you&#xA;commit, if you pray that day, your sins will be forgiven. People, who&#xA;want to perform no Karmas, get attracted to religions as these where&#xA;there are no assigned duties.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A person who fails to follow his own dharma is called 'bhraShTa'. In&#xA;olden days, such a person would be kept away from the society. When he&#xA;realized his mistake, repented for the same and purified himself, the&#xA;society would accept him back.&lt;/strong&gt; If a religion says, 'You don't have to&#xA;repent for your mistake and do anything to correct yourself. Just tell&#xA;us what you did and we will assure you forgiveness. A bhraShTa would&#xA;naturally choose the easier way out and get converted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I am also aware that the poor and needy get converted for the sake of&#xA;money and employment. But this trend of converting people from&#xA;Sanatana Vaidika dharma to other religions has been present from time&#xA;immemorial.&lt;/strong&gt; But have not we emerged victorious every time? All we need&#xA;to do is to educate our people about the greatness of Sanatana Vaidika&#xA;dharma. Once people realize the timeless worth of our culture,&#xA;conversions will recede drastically.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In our society, we have the Varnashrama dharma, which is incorrectly&#xA;projected as casteism, racism and what not? But one should observe&#xA;that other religions also have various divisions within them. Once a&#xA;Muslim priest belonging to the Sunni community told me, 'All those&#xA;belonging to Sunni community go to heaven and those belonging to Shia&#xA;community go to hell. I was speaking to a Roman Catholic priest one&#xA;day and he said, 'My driver for today was a protestant. I could not&#xA;even drink water during my journey today. How could I drink water in&#xA;front of him? Won't it get contaminated? I belong to the orthodox&#xA;church. I am quoting these to highlight the fact that differences are&#xA;there in all societies and this is not just restricted to the Hindu&#xA;society.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Our dharma has imposed some rules called 'samAna dharma' for all the&#xA;four Varnas: non-violence, truth, not desiring other's property,&#xA;cleanliness of mind, words and body, control over the organs of action&#xA;and sense. Now don't you think the other religions also speak of these&#xA;qualities? Any community following these will find peace and&#xA;fulfillment'.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His Holiness Sri Sri Sri Tridandi Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar Swami &lt;a href=&quot;http://chinnajeeyar.guru/chinnajeeyar/about-chinna-jeeyar-swamiji/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;SERVE ALL BEINGS AS SERVICE TO GOD. WORSHIP YOUR OWN RESPECT ALL”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahamsa&lt;/strong&gt; said &amp;quot;I have practised all religions—Hinduism, Islam, Christianity—and I have also followed the paths of the different Hindu sects. &lt;strong&gt;I have found that it is the same God toward whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths.&lt;/strong&gt; I see men quarrelling in the name of religion—Hindus, Mohammedans, Brahmos, Vaishnavas, and the rest. But they never reflect that He who is called Krishna is also called Siva, and bears the name of the Primal Energy, Jesus, and Allah as well.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swami Dayananda Saraswati&lt;/strong&gt; explains &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4sEMVJuDCY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Conversion is Violence&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many other great gurus like Shiridi Sai Baba were against this. (I might add the reference later)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&#xA;P.S: It is not my intention to hurt anyone's feelings, just stating the facts. Every religion should live in harmony with others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T13:07:44.153" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14324" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14116" CreationDate="2016-08-01T13:27:02.957" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma Loka is highest in material creation. Above this situated Devi Loka where Maa Durga  will reside as vayu purana confirms. Above Devi Loka is Maheshdham where Mahadev with Parvati, Ganesh and Murugan in the Loka. All of them are eternal. Above this is Karana Ocean where Karanavavasayi Vishnu resides. He manifests uncountable universes. Above that is Vaikuntha where Lord Narayana resides with Devi Lakshmi. Above this is Goloka where Adi Purusha, Govinda resides with 3 Sakti and Radhe as His consort. Above this is Mani Dvipa where Buvaneswari and Buvaneswara resides. Entire existence is underneath it. Above this is Brahman. Before existence, there were a Loka created before Mani Dvipa, that is Sadasivaloka. Brahman manifests Himself into Lord Sadasiva. He is God Almighty of Hinduism. Kurma purana explains vibhuti yoga of Siva as He says&quot;That is my greatest abode, The Brahman,&quot;. So, Lord Sadasiva resides there with His Consort Adi Sakti. Buvaneswari in Mani Dvipa is one sixteen thousandth of Adi Sakti. She is another manifestation of Her. She builds Mani Dvipa in her own will. Goloka was created by Lord Mahadev in Maheshdham &quot;please refer Shiva purana rudrasamhita section 2 Narration of Sati chapter 25 for proof J.L.Shastri Part 1&quot;. Now u know the Supreme Lord is Lord Sadasiva. I'm advaitic. I'm not shaivism but advaitic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7292" LastEditorUserId="7298" LastEditDate="2016-08-02T07:33:00.733" LastActivityDate="2016-08-02T07:33:00.733" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14325" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14313" CreationDate="2016-08-01T16:52:26.843" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The two earthly events happened at the end of Satya Yuga. The first one with Raja Harishchandra's rule &amp;amp; the second one with Ajapala's rule on current 28th Mahayuga. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc626846.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Skanda Purana mentiones goddess Bhairavi was called as Ajapaleshvari by this king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The end of Treta Yuga happened with the end of lord rama avatara. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc371757.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; from the same Purana mentioned that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7282" LastEditorUserId="25676" LastEditDate="2023-08-06T19:53:02.807" LastActivityDate="2023-08-06T19:53:02.807" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14326" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-01T19:23:08.600" Score="3" ViewCount="281" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nearly every book about the classical Upanishads emphasizes their importance for every Hindu. The Upanishads are considered part of Shruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;My question asks for the relevance of the Upanishads for the religious belief of the &lt;strong&gt;majority&lt;/strong&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;contemporary&lt;/strong&gt; Hindus. Please note that my question refers to contemporary Hindus and to the majority.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I assume that most non-theistic passages of the Upanishads are too abstract and their basic terms like atman, brahman, vidya too sophisticated to play a decisive role for the religious belief of the majority. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition, I assume that the theistic myths from the Puranas, the bhakti way, and murti puja are much more relevant in daily life than the study of the Upanishads. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But because I do not live within any Hindu community I cannot check my assumptions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2016-08-06T10:24:32.610" LastActivityDate="2016-08-07T04:22:09.067" Title="Influence of the classical Upanishads on the belief of the maiority of contemporary Hindus" Tags="|puranas|upanishads|puja|bhakti|idols|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14327" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14284" CreationDate="2016-08-01T19:25:51.697" Score="5" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When a person wears a sacred thread he must follow certain rules &amp;amp; should remain pious all the time. Everyone can't follow all these rules. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the past era, The people were divided in different Varna according to the kind of the work they did. Since Sudras were the people who did odd jobs. That's why they not used to wear sacred thread.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But now there are many Communities like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.awgp.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gayatri Pariwar&lt;/a&gt; , follwers of these communities wear The sacred Thread irrespective of their varna or castes.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This should be very clear that now whoever wants to wear sacred threads may wear it, if he is ready to follow the rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7282" LastActivityDate="2016-08-01T19:25:51.697" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14328" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14331" CreationDate="2016-08-01T20:16:00.883" Score="3" ViewCount="256" Body="&lt;p&gt;Inspired by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14147/314&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, I want to find out the source and origin of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchakshara_Stotra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiv Panchakshara Stotra&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Please provide with original scriptural text, if possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="314" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-08-02T01:19:37.907" Title="What is the source and origin of Shiv Panchaakshar Strotam?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14330" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14147" CreationDate="2016-08-01T21:05:08.137" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Tandava_Stotram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiv Tandava Strotam&lt;/a&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B5_%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A1%E0%A4%B5_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;शिवताण्डवस्तोत्रम्&lt;/a&gt;) is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stotra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;hymn&lt;/a&gt; or eulogy(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/the-shiva-tandava-stotra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ode of praise&lt;/a&gt;) dedicated to Lord Shiva, it poetically describes &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theshivaexperience.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ardhanareeswara-form-of-hindu-god-shiva-goddess-parvati-300x277.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the beauty&lt;/a&gt; and power of Lord Shiv in every aspect possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-best-slokas-or-stotras-in-Sanskrit/answer/Minakhi-Prasad-Misra?srid=t5m7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; that the strotam was &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2684/314&quot;&gt;created and sung&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Raavana&lt;/a&gt;. He was so filled with ego that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hotstar.com/tv/devon-ke-dev-mahadev/12/dashanan-is-named-ravana/1000000634&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;he tried to lift Mount Kailash&lt;/a&gt;, but then almighty Shiva &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/sawvbnAIoIM?t=6m58s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;when he was&lt;/a&gt; out his toe on the Earth, thus Ravana's hands got stuck! He started crying, and began singing to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravananugraha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;please lord Shiva&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The original scripture is not known!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its chhanda is Panchaamar Chhand(पञ्चचामर छन्द).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पञ्च-चामर छन्द में लघु -दीर्घ [१२ x ८ =24] होते हैं, सोलह १६ वर्ण यति ८, ८ होता है&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;meaning:&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;The stotra is in the Panchachaamara Chhanda. It has 16 syllables per line of the quatrain, with Laghu (short syllable) and Guru (long syllable) characters alternating&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चार चरण का वर्णिक छंद&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;प्रत्येक चरण में लघु गुरु के क्रम से सोलह वर्ण / अक्षर&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;ल ला - ल ला - ल ला - ल ला - ल ला - ल ला - ल ला - ल ला&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;रावण रचित शिव ताण्डव स्तोत्र&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;जटाटवीगलज्जल प्रवाहपावितस्थले&lt;/code&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;गलेऽवलम्ब्य लम्बितां भुजंगतुंगमालिकाम्‌। &lt;/code&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;डमड्डमड्डमड्डमनिनादवड्डमर्वयं &lt;/code&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;चकार चंडतांडवं तनोतु नः शिवः शिवम।&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some say that Raavan &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saivism.net/prayers/tandava.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;took inspiration&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/samveda/samveda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sam veda&lt;/a&gt;, but again strotam is not there in it, also not in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TheRamayanaUttaraKandam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayan&lt;/a&gt;, maybe because these events took place before the birth of Rama. Also, it might be independently available as said in above comments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;have sent an email to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_shiva/shivTAND_meaning.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translation source&lt;/a&gt; you mentioned, also asked my brother to provide any scriptures available.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Update: Just received a mail:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The source is not known so most likely independent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nandu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-- Sent from my Android phone with mail.com Mail. Please excuse typos and my brevity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://sanskritdocuments.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="314" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2021-07-20T17:43:52.713" LastActivityDate="2021-07-20T17:43:52.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14331" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14328" CreationDate="2016-08-02T01:19:37.907" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva Panchakshar stotram was composed by Adi Shankara. There is also another Shiva Panchakshara stotra avaliable in Shiva Purana. However the popular one starting from &quot;Nagendrahaaraya Trilochanaya.... &quot; was composed by Adi Shankaracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the stotra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इति श्रीमच्छङ्कराचार्यविरचितं शिवपञ्चाक्षर स्तोत्रम् सम्पूर्णं ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus ends the Shiva Panchakshar Stotra composed by Adi Shankaracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The full text of Shiva Panchakshara Stotra goes as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नागेन्द्रहाराय त्रिलोचनाय &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भस्माङ्गरागाय महेश्वराय । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नित्याय शुद्धाय दिगम्बराय &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मै नकाराय नमः शिवाय ॥१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मन्दाकिनीसलिलचन्दनचर्चिताय &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नन्दीश्वरप्रमथनाथमहेश्वराय । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मन्दारपुष्पबहुपुष्पसुपूजिताय &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मै मकाराय नमः शिवाय ॥२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिवाय गौरीवदनाब्जवृन्दसूर्याय &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दक्षाध्वरनाशकाय । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  श्रीनीलकण्ठाय वृषध्वजाय &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मै शिकाराय नमः शिवाय ॥३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वशिष्ठकुम्भोद्भवगौतमार्यमूनीन्द्रदेवार्चितशेखराय । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चन्द्रार्कवैश्वानरलोचनाय &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मै वकाराय नमः शिवाय ॥४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यक्षस्वरुपाय जटाधराय &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पिनाकहस्ताय सनातनाय । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दिव्याय देवाय दिगम्बराय &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मै यकाराय नमः शिवाय ॥५॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; फलश्रुती &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पञ्चाक्षरमिदं पुण्यं यः पठेच्छिवसंनिधौ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिवलोकमावाप्नोति शिवेन सह मोदते ॥६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;।।इति श्रीमच्छङ्कराचार्यविरचितं शिवपञ्चाक्षर स्तोत्रम् सम्पूर्णं।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-08-02T01:19:37.907" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14334" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="237" CreationDate="2016-08-02T06:11:08.847" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a flow to read Puranas.Note: Gunas are not for the book or for the Lord in it but to the people whom read. For example, If an individual knows nothing about Hinduism. They should read Puranas as introduction to Hinduism. First one has to read tamasic purana. Tamasic Purana introduces one to Supreme Lord Sadasiva, Lord Mahadev, Adi Sakthi, Maa Durga, Lord Krsna, Lord Narayana and etc. Supreme Lord of Tamasic Purana is Lord Sadasivaa. In some places Lord Sadasiva is mentioned as Lord Shiva. Some mention as Lord Mahadev. Proofs refer Rudrasamhita section 1: creation chapter 6 J.L.Shastri A.I.T.M, u guys will understand. Second up, reading rajas purana. This purunas mainly proclaims Supremacy of Mula Prikriti (Devi Buvaneswari) and Mula Purusha (Lord Krsna). After reading tamasic purana, one will be elavated from tamas guna to rajas guna. You will also understand why they are proclaimed to be supreme. Because it under the will of Lord Sadasiva and Lord Mahadev. Then, we move to Sattva purana where Lord Narayana and Lord Mahadev proclaimed to be Supreme. As the flow complete, one will be nirguna. After that only u can find Brahman. After 2 years of reading essence of purana and original puranas as well, I came to an conclusion that Lord Sadasiva Supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Update:&#xA;Trimurthi came to existenance (Universe) individually. Lord Brahma from Brahma loka is from Garbhodakasayi Vishnu, fourth manifestation of Lord Vishnu. Garbhodakasayi Vishnu ( Lord Vishnu in Trinity) is from Karanavavasayi Vishnu. Lord Rudra ( Veerabhadra) is from Lord Mahadev. Karanavavasayi Vishnu is from Lord Narayana. Lord Mahadev from Lord Sadasiva. Lord Narayana from Lord Krsna. Lord Krsna from Lord Sadasiva. Adi Sakthi (Durga) is from Adi sakthi (Buvaneswari). Adi Sakthi (Buvaneswari) from Adi Sakthi (consort of Sadasiva) in Sadasivadham. This is how entire Gods and Trimurthis came into existenance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7298" LastEditorUserId="7298" LastEditDate="2016-08-02T14:23:05.483" LastActivityDate="2016-08-02T14:23:05.483" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14335" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-02T06:20:08.030" Score="3" ViewCount="132" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently discovered this practice and I am ready to devote time and effort for what I believe. I just need guidance&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7299" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-11-29T15:35:00.803" LastActivityDate="2016-11-29T15:35:00.803" Title="What can be my first step in my transformation to Hinduism?" Tags="|conversion|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-08-02T11:40:57.760" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14336" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-02T06:57:35.697" Score="8" ViewCount="10970" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a saying that a child born in Moola, Ashlesya, Jyeshta, Maga is inauspicious. Is this properly explained in any religious books? This question is pursuant to astrology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-14T06:44:35.623" LastActivityDate="2019-01-08T12:10:09.473" Title="Why children born in Moola, Ashlesya, Jyeshta and Maga Nakshtras (stars) are considered inauspicious?" Tags="|belief|astrology|nakshatra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14337" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14342" CreationDate="2016-08-02T07:05:36.733" Score="6" ViewCount="1875" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been worshipped in Linga form from time beginning as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Among the Lingas there are 12 Jyotirlingas which are of special importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatmya of 12 Jyotirlingas is described in Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana in the chapter &amp;quot;Dwadash Jyotirlinga Mahatmya&amp;quot;. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च श्री शैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उज्जयिन्यां महाकालमोंकारे परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;केदारं हिमवत्पृष्ठे डाकिन्यां &lt;strong&gt;भीमशङ्करम्&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाराणास्यां च विश्वेशं त्रयम्बकं गौतमीतटे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैद्यनाथं चिताभूमौ नागेशं दारुकावने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सेतुबन्धे तु रामेशं घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रात्यस्त्थाय यः पठेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तं सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Somanath in Saurashtra, Mallikarjuna in Shri Saile, Mahakala in Ujjaiyana and Parameshawara also manifested as Omkara. Kedara in Himavat and Bhima Shankara in Dakinya. Vishewaswara in Varanasi and Trayambaka in side of Gautami. Vaidyanath in ChitaBhumi and  Nageshwara in forest of Daruka. Rameshwara in Setubandha and Ghusmeshwara in Shivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;These name of 12 Jyotirlingas who recites in morning, he gets freed from all sins and is eligible to get all Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotirlingas&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the similar popular verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre Somanāthaṃ ca Śrīśaile Mallikārjunam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ujjayinyāṃ Mahākālam Omkāram Mamleśhwaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraly Vaidyanāthaṃ cha Ḍākinyāṃ &lt;strong&gt;Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setubandhe tu Rāmeśaṃ Nāgeśhaṃ Dārukāvane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vārāṇasyāṃ tu Viśveśaṃ Tryambakaṃ Gautamītaṭe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himālaye tu Kedāraṃ Ghuśmeśaṃ ca Śivālaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already asked a question about Somanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14213/what-is-the-story-of-somanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Somanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mallikarjun &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14223/what-is-the-story-of-mallikarjuna-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mahakaleshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14243/what-is-the-story-of-mahakaleshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Omkareshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14264/what-is-the-story-of-omkareshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Vaidyanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14287/what-is-the-story-of-vaidyanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt;. Now I want to know the story of Bheemshankar Jyotirling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bheemshankar temple is situated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/place/19%C2%B004%2719.2%22N+73%C2%B032%2709.6%22E/@19.072,73.536,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d19.072!4d73.536?hl=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pune, Maharashtra&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0pcce.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0pcce.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By SaurabhJain at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Kiran_Gopi using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, &lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12142756&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12142756&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-06T10:32:37.747" Title="What is the story of Bheemshankar Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14338" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14335" CreationDate="2016-08-02T08:55:09.973" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recommend to learn Hinduism in &lt;strong&gt;theory&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;practice&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Concerning the theory I recommend taking an online course at an academic institution, e.g., look at &lt;a href=&quot;http://ced.ochs.org.uk/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://ced.ochs.org.uk/&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;If possible you can also take classes at a university of your city which has a department of indology or Hindu studies. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Concerning practice I recommend to look for a Hindu community in your neighbourhood and to visit their meetings and religious services.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I assume you will find both ways quite different, at best they will complement each other. But it's not unlikely that they will contradict each other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is a broad culture which encompasses a lot of different teachings and practical ways. There is no accordance which teachings are correct. And no interpretation of the canonical literature is authoritative. The most frequently quoted literature are the Vedas including the Upanishads as well as the Bhagavadgita, the Ramayana and the Puranas.&#xA;My personal advice is not to follow too prematurely a specific Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="967" LastActivityDate="2016-08-02T08:55:09.973" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14340" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15120" CreationDate="2016-08-02T09:08:57.637" Score="2" ViewCount="1960" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came to know there are 27 &lt;strong&gt;Yogams&lt;/strong&gt; and 11 &lt;strong&gt;Karnams&lt;/strong&gt;. Half a thithi is one karnam. In this too 7 karnams will move and 4 karnams will not. Are there any instances in smritis [manu] or puranas [any]or bagavatham about the importance and benefits of  yogam and karnam? Because when we do &lt;strong&gt;sankalpa&lt;/strong&gt; these two find a place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-24T08:08:57.323" Title="Yogam and Karnam" Tags="|scripture|puranas|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14341" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14326" CreationDate="2016-08-02T09:13:14.847" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda writes (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, Vol 4, pp 334-6 and available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Writings: Prose&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;Reply to the Madras Address&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one be asked to point out the system of thought towards which as a centre all the ancient and modern Indian thoughts have converged, if one wants to see the real backbone of Hinduism in all its various manifestations, the Sutras of Vyasa [i.e. the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;] will unquestionably be pointed out as constituting all that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Either one hears the Advaita-Keshari roaring in peals of thunder — the Asti, Bhâti, and Priya —  (Exists (Sat), Shines (Chit), Is beloved (Ânanda) — the three indicatives of Brahman.) amidst the heart-stopping solemnities of the Himalayan forests, mixing with the solemn cadence of the river of heaven, or listens to the cooing of the Piyâ, Pitam in the beautiful bowers of the grove of Vrindâ: whether one mingles with the sedate meditations of the monasteries of Varanasi or the ecstatic dances of the followers of the Prophet of Nadia; whether one sits at the feet of the teacher of the Vishishtâdvaita system with its Vadakale, Tenkale, (The two divisions of the Ramanuja sect.) and all the other subdivisions, or listens with reverence to the Acharyas of the Mâdhva school; whether one hears the martial &quot;Wâ Guruki Fateh&quot; (Victory to the Guru) of the secular Sikhs or the sermons on the Grantha Sâhib of the Udâsis and Nirmalâs; whether he salutes the Sannyâsin disciples of Kabir with &quot;Sat Sâhib&quot; and listens with joy to the Sâkhis (Bhajans); whether he pores upon the wonderful lore of that reformer of Rajputana, Dâdu, or the works of his royal disciple, Sundaradâsa, down to the great Nishchaladâsa, the celebrated author of Vichâra sâgara, which book has more influence in India than any that has been written in any language within the last three centuries; if even one asks the Bhangi Mehtar of Northern India to sit down and give an account of the teachings of his Lâlguru — one will find that all these various teachers and schools have as their basis that system whose authority is the Shruti, Gitâ its divine commentary, the Shâriraka-Sutras its organised system, and all the different sects in India, from the Paramahamsa Parivrâjakâchâryas to the poor despised Mehtar disciples of Lâlguru, are different manifestations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The three Prasthânas, (&quot;Courses&quot;, viz, the Upanishad (Shruti), the Gita, and the Shariraka-Sutras [i.e. the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;].) then, in their different explanations as Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita, or Advaita, with a few minor recensions, form the &quot;authorities&quot; of the Hindu religion. The Purânas, the modern representations of the ancient Nârâsamsi (anecdote portion of the Vedas), supply the mythology, and the Tantras, the modern representations of the Brâhmanas (ritual and explanatory portion of the Vedas), supply the ritual. Thus the three Prasthanas, as authorities, are common to all the sects; but as to the Puranas and Tantras, each sect has its own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Tantras, as we have said, represent the Vedic rituals in a modified form; and before any one jumps into the most absurd conclusions about them, I will advise him to read the Tantras in conjunction with the Brahmanas, especially the Adhvaryu portion. And most of the Mantras, used in the Tantras, will be found taken verbatim from their Brahmanas. As to their influence, apart from the Shrauta and Smârta rituals, all the forms of the rituals in vogue from the Himalayas to the Comorin have been taken from the Tantras, and they direct the worship of the Shâkta, or Shaiva, or Vaishnava, and all the others alike.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of course, I do not pretend that all the Hindus are thoroughly acquainted with these sources of their religion. Many, especially in lower Bengal, have not heard of the names of these sects and these great systems; but consciously or unconsciously, it is the plan laid down in the three Prasthanas that they are all working out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wherever, on the other hand, the Hindi language is spoken, even the lowest classes have more knowledge of the Vedantic religion than many of the highest in lower Bengal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are regional differences and there are sect differences. As Vivekananda points out, within Hindi speaking regions there is a great penetration of the advaitic school. Also as he points out, purana can mean different books to different sects.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-08-02T09:13:14.847" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14342" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14337" CreationDate="2016-08-02T14:53:09.293" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shree Bhimashankar JyotirLinga&lt;/strong&gt; temple is the famous Shiva Mahadeva temple of Maharashtra state (India).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The temple of Bhima Shankara  Jyotirling is built in &lt;strong&gt;Hemadpanthi style&lt;/strong&gt;. It is decorated with the Dashavatar statues. Bhimashankara Temple is situated in a picturesque extreme end of the Sahayadri Ranges and provides a wonderful view of the forts, the rivers, and the hill stations around. The dense forests surrounding the high ranges also play an abode to the rare species of flora and fauna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shree Rudrasamhita sloka which is given in reference to Bhimashankar told, &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Daakine Bhimashankaram&quot; (परल्यां वैद्यनाथं च डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम्)&lt;/strong&gt; In the Assam State (India) there is one  temple of Bhimashankar which is situated in Bhimapur mountain near Guwahati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Famous saints from Maharastra ,Gangadhar Pandit,  Samarth Ramdas, Sridhar Swamy, Nara Hari Malo, and other saints describe BheemaShankara as JyotirLinga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to Shiv Purana -:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the ancient times a demons by the name &lt;strong&gt;Tripurasura&lt;/strong&gt; acquired great&#xA;  power.  by penance  Lord Shree Mahadeva. Lord Shree Mahadeva being&#xA;  kind granted the boon of immortality to demon Tripurasur . After&#xA;  getting  this boon he started harassing  Devas in Swarg (Heavens),&#xA;  Naraka (Hell) and Patal (Nether world). Gods from these three&#xA;  lokas or kingdoms got afraid of this demon &amp;amp;prayed Lord Shree&#xA;  Mahadeva.  Then Lord  Shree Mahadev Himself came to destroy Tripurasur&#xA;  by praying Goddess Shree Parvati to assist him in the task , Lord Shree&#xA;  Mahadeva then took   colossal form  (Virat) of &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Ardha-Nari Nateshwar &quot;&#xA;  (Half Male &amp;amp;Half Female)&lt;/strong&gt; . Tripurasur feared when he saw this avatar&#xA;  of Lord Mahadeva. They both fought with each other. In the end, Lord&#xA;  Shiva Mahadeva in this form   killed the wicked demon and set to&#xA;  their worlds, or Tribhuvan, free. Lord Mahadeva in his colossal form&#xA;  got  very tired. In order to get some rest, He settled here on the&#xA;  high area of the Sahyadri mountains , sweat started pouring down from&#xA;  his huge body in thousands of streams. It all joined together and&#xA;  collected in a pond or Kund. The river that started from there is&#xA;  known as Bhima, which can be seen even today. Devotees then prayed to&#xA;  Bhimakaya Rudra thus: “In order to save the good people, reside here&#xA;  forever”. Bholenath listened to the devotees and stayed there as a&#xA;  JyotirLinga forever.That's why the JyotirLinga is called  Daakine&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;DakinyaBhimashankaram (डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम्)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another Story-:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once demon called Bhima lived with his mother Karkati in the dense forests of&#xA;  Dakini, on the lofty ranges of the Sahaydris. Bhima was so cruel that&#xA;  everyone was scared of him. One day, Bhima urged his mother to tell&#xA;  him who his father was and why had he abandoned them in the wilderness&#xA;  of the forest. His mother revealed that he was the son of Kumbhakarna,&#xA;  the younger brother of the demon King Ravana, she also told him that&#xA;  Lord Shree Vishnu in his incarnation as Lord Shree Rama annihilated&#xA;  Kumbhakarna. Then demon  Bhima got angry and he vowed to avenge Lord&#xA;  Vishnu.  Bhima performed severe penance to please Lord Brahma. The&#xA;  Brahma was pleased by Bhima and granted him immense prowess. With so&#xA;  much power, Bhima began to cause havoc in the three worlds. He&#xA;  defeated King Indra and conquered the heavens. He also defeated a&#xA;  staunch devotee of Lord Shiv - Kamrupeshwar and put him in the&#xA;  dungeons. All this angered the Gods and then along with Lord Brahma&#xA;  beseeched Lord Shiv to come for their rescue to which Lord Shiv&#xA;  agreed. Tyrant Bhima asked Kamrupeshwar to worship him instead of Lord&#xA;  Shiv. When Kamrupeshwar refused, Bhima raised his sword to strike the&#xA;  Shiv Linga. But as soon as he raised his sword, Lord Shiv appeared&#xA;  before him in full magnificence. Then the terrible war began. Holy&#xA;  sage Narad appeared and requested Lord Shiv to put an end to this war.&#xA;  It was then that Lord Shiv reduced the evil demon to ashes and thus&#xA;  concluded the saga of tyranny. All the Gods and the holy sages present&#xA;  there requested Lord Shiv to make this place his abode. Lord Shiv thus&#xA;  manifested himself in the form of the Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga. It is&#xA;  believed that the sweat that poured forth from Lord Shiv’s body after&#xA;  the battle formed the Bhimarathi River.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the source see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.charanamrit.com/temple/bhimashankar-temple-history-and-legends-112&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Importance of Bhima Shankar Jyotirling Temple -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this temple, Lord Shree  Shiva Mahadeva  is shown in &lt;strong&gt;Half man and Half woman (Ardha Narishwara)&lt;/strong&gt; form. There is a continuous water flow from this Jyotirlinga, which is the specialty of this place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2016-08-06T10:32:37.747" LastActivityDate="2016-08-06T10:32:37.747" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14343" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-02T15:45:18.663" Score="4" ViewCount="267" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Anukramani I provided in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the sage who heard most of the hymns in the Fourth Mandala of the Rig Veda was the sage Vamadeva, a descendant of the sage Gautama. Two of the hymns of this Mandala deal mainly with Garuda's theft of the Soma/Amrita (nectar of immortality) from Devaloka.  But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4050/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the beginnings of these two hymns are considered by the Upanishads to be of profound philosophical significance.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04026.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Rig Veda Book 4 Hymn 26 begins:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I was aforetime Manu, I was Sūrya: I am the sage Kakṣīvān, holy singer. Kutsa the son of Ārjuni I master. I am the sapient Uśanā behold me.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I have bestowed the earth upon the Ārya, and rain upon the man who brings oblation. I guided forth the loudly-roaring waters, and the Gods moved according to my pleasure.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the wild joy of Soma I demolished Śambara's forts, ninety-and-nine, together; And, utterly, the hundredth habitation, when helping Divodāsa Atithigva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15055.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Brihadaranyaka Upanishads says about it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verily in the beginning this was Brahman, that Brahman knew (its) Self only, saying, 'I am Brahman.' From it all this sprang. Thus, whatever Deva was awakened (so as to know Brahman), he indeed became that (Brahman); and the same with Rishis and men. The Rishi Vâmadeva saw and understood it, singing, 'I was Manu (moon), I was the sun.' Therefore now also he who thus knows that he is Brahman, becomes all this, and even the Devas cannot prevent it, for he himself is their Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04027.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how Rig Veda Book 4 Hymn 27 begins:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I. As I lay within the womb, considered all generations of these Gods in order. A hundred iron fortresses confined me but forth I flew with rapid speed a Falcon.&#xA;  2. Not at his own free pleasure did he bear me: he conquered with his strength and manly courage. Straightway the Bold One left the fiends behind him and passed the winds as he grew yet more mighty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01225.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Aitareya Upanishads says about it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And this has been declared by a Rishi (Rv. IV, 27, 1): 'While dwelling in the womb, I discovered all the births of these Devas. A hundred iron strongholds kept me, but I escaped quickly down like a falcon.' Vâmadeva, lying in the womb, has thus declared this.** And having this knowledge he stepped forth, after this dissolution of the body, and having obtained all his desires in that heavenly world, became immortal, yea, he became immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, are these two hymns of Vamadeva ever used in Vedic Yagnas?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I ask is that as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14247/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Isha Upanishad occurs in the Samhitas of the Vedas, but Adi Shankaracharya claims that it is never recited during Vedic Yagnas because it deals with Jnana.  So I wanted to examine whether two other Vedic hymns that are considered to be about Jnana are also excluded from Yagnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does anyone know if Rig Veda Book 4 Hymns 26 and 27 are ever mentioned in the Brahmanas or Aranyakas of the Vedas?  It would help if I could find whether these two hymns also occur in other Vedas, that way I could look in the Brahmanas and Aranyakas of those other Vedas.  Does anyone have an index of what hymns of the Rig Veda occur in other Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-10-03T15:40:20.150" Title="Are two Jnana-related Vedic hymns of Vamadeva ever used in Yagnas?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|vedanta|rig-veda|yajna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14344" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-02T21:08:43.753" Score="5" ViewCount="288" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am writing my thesis on aerodynamics for aircraft and as a opening quotes I am planning to mention about aerodynamics in vedic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any good vedic 2-line quote which glorifies air, aircraft or aerodynamics?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4507" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T02:02:07.113" Title="2-line quotes on aerodynamics or air" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14345" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14336" CreationDate="2016-08-03T01:33:49.093" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do not know where you heard this saying but it is far from true. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/Nakshatra_radical/nakshatra_main_page.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;birth star&lt;/a&gt; is the star-group the Moon occupies at the time of the birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/Nakshatra_radical/09ashlesha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ashlesha&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/Nakshatra_radical/18jyestha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Jyeshtha&lt;/a&gt; are rules by Budha (Mercury). Budha is friendly to Chandra (Moon), although their nature are quite different. Budha is the intellect and Chandra is the emotion. Hence, there may be some conflict at times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Mula and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.barbarapijan.com/bpa/Nakshatra_radical/10magha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Magha&lt;/a&gt; are ruled by Ketu. Now, one might argue that Ketu is a spiritual planet and may give hardship in the material plane. Although, in that case, same logic should be applied to Rahu or Shani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To sum it up, even if there is any inauspicious effect at all, it is a small part of a very big picture. When looking at all the dimensions of a chart, these combinations lose their relative value.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T01:33:49.093" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14346" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14344" CreationDate="2016-08-03T02:02:07.113" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are some, you can pick whichever you like most.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shantipath of the Taittiriya Upanishad declares this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namaste Vayo, tvam eva pratyaksham Brahmasi.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘O, Vayu, you are the directly perceivable Brahman.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://vedanet.com/2012/06/13/vayu-rahasya-the-secret-of-vayu/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://vedanet.com/2012/06/13/vayu-rahasya-the-secret-of-vayu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;The following is part of Vayu Stuti by Madhavacharya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vayudeva, You are the life giving force, whose kingdom extends in the&#xA;  entire earthly world, the planets and the heaven (Swarga). You who&#xA;  given birth to these kingdoms, sustained and ruled them and have the&#xA;  ability to destroy them as well with yourself being indestructible. We&#xA;  plead with you to destroy the charlatans and lead us to moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://dvaitavedanta.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/ocr_vayustuti1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://dvaitavedanta.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/ocr_vayustuti1.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Some of the hymns on Vayu found in the Rig-Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Drive thy horses, Vayu, come to us with love, come well-inclined and&#xA;  loving us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Vayu, with your splendid bounty come&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/rigveda/vayu_1.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/rigveda/vayu_1.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T02:02:07.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14348" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14547" CreationDate="2016-08-03T06:04:37.087" Score="2" ViewCount="378" Body="&lt;p&gt;Baijnath is famous for its 13th-century temple dedicated to Shiva as Vaidyanath, ‘the Lord of physicians’. The Baijnath temple has been continuously under worship ever since its construction in 1204 A.D.The Swayambhuva form of Shivalinga is enshrined in the sanctum of the temple that has five projections on each side and is surmounted with a tall curvilinear Shikhara.The famous Madurai Meenakshi temple in Madurai also has a Swayambhuva Shiva linga.It is understood that the Swayambhuva form of Shivalinga is also there in other places.What is the meaning/significance of the Swayambhuva form of Shivalinga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-08-03T08:52:25.787" LastActivityDate="2016-08-20T06:58:45.210" Title="Swayambhuva form of Shivalinga" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14349" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14350" CreationDate="2016-08-03T06:05:41.273" Score="7" ViewCount="3657" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been worshipped in Linga form from time beginning as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Among the Lingas there are 12 Jyotirlingas which are of special importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatmya of 12 Jyotirlingas is described in Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana in the chapter &amp;quot;Dwadash Jyotirlinga Mahatmya&amp;quot;. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च श्री शैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उज्जयिन्यां महाकालमोंकारे परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;केदारं हिमवत्पृष्ठे डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाराणास्यां च विश्वेशं त्रयम्बकं गौतमीतटे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैद्यनाथं चिताभूमौ नागेशं दारुकावने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सेतुबन्धे तु &lt;strong&gt;रामेशं&lt;/strong&gt; घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रात्यस्त्थाय यः पठेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तं सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Somanath in Saurashtra, Mallikarjuna in Shri Saile, Mahakala in Ujjaiyana and Parameshawara also manifested as Omkara. Kedara in Himavat and Bhima Shankara in Dakinya. Vishewaswara in Varanasi and Trayambaka in side of Gautami. Vaidyanath in ChitaBhumi and  Nageshwara in forest of Daruka. Rameshwara in Setubandha and Ghusmeshwara in Shivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;These name of 12 Jyotirlingas who recites in morning, he gets freed from all sins and is eligible to get all Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotirlingas&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the similar popular verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre Somanāthaṃ ca Śrīśaile Mallikārjunam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ujjayinyāṃ Mahākālam Omkāram Mamleśhwaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraly Vaidyanāthaṃ cha Ḍākinyāṃ Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setubandhe tu &lt;strong&gt;Rāmeśaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; Nāgeśhaṃ Dārukāvane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vārāṇasyāṃ tu Viśveśaṃ Tryambakaṃ Gautamītaṭe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himālaye tu Kedāraṃ Ghuśmeśaṃ ca Śivālaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already asked a question about Somanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14213/what-is-the-story-of-somanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Somanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mallikarjun &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14223/what-is-the-story-of-mallikarjuna-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mahakaleshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14243/what-is-the-story-of-mahakaleshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Omkareshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14264/what-is-the-story-of-omkareshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Vaidyanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14287/what-is-the-story-of-vaidyanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Bheemshankar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14337/what-is-the-story-of-bheemshankar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Bheemshankar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt;. Now I want to know the story of Rameshwaram Jyotirling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rameshwaram temple is situated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/place/9%C2%B017%2717.2%22N+79%C2%B019%2702.2%22E/@9.288106,79.317282,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d9.288106!4d79.317282?hl=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/x9NNm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/x9NNm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Ssriram mt - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, &lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48384927&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48384927&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-22T07:14:45.700" Title="What is the story of Rameshwaram Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14350" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14349" CreationDate="2016-08-03T06:41:50.520" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama worshipped Lord Shiva in Linga form during the Setubandha event and Lord Shiva established himself as Jyoti Swarupa there and that Linga became popular as Rameshwaram Jyotirlinga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rameshwaram is one of the popular pilgrimage site and it is one of the Char-Dham. Rameshwara Jyotirlinga is described in several Puranas like Shiva Purana, Brahmanda Purana, Padma Purana, etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Adhyatma Ramayana of Brahmanda Purana, Lord Rama gives boon that  &lt;em&gt;&quot;Whoever after having Darshan of Rameshwara Mahadeva, goes Kashi and brings water in pot and offers to Rameshwara and throws that pot to sea, He gets salvation.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is how Yuddha Kanda of Adhyatma Ramayana of Brahmanda Purana narrates the event:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सेतुमारभमाणस्तु तत्र रामेश्वरं शिवम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  संस्थाप्य पूजयित्वाह रामो लोकहिताय च ॥ १॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रणमेत्सेतुबन्धं यो दृष्ट्वा रामेश्वरं शिवम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्रह्महत्यादिपापेभ्यो मुच्यते मदनुग्रहात् ॥ २॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सेतुबन्धे नरः स्नात्वा दृष्ट्वा रामेश्वरं हरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सङ्कल्पनियतो भूत्वा गत्वा वाराणसीं नरः ॥ ३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आनीय गङ्गासलिलं रामेशमभिषिच्य च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  समुद्रे क्षिप्ततद्भारो ब्रह्म प्राप्नोत्यसंशयम् ॥ ४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  During the construction of bridge, &lt;strong&gt;Rama installed Mahadev and worshipped him calling by the name Rameshwar Mahadev.&lt;/strong&gt; He described his glory, “If someone visits the bridge (setubandh), and prostrates to Rameshwar mahadev he is liberated of the severest of sin of killing Brahmins.” Rama stated, “One should bathe here in sea, and having darshan of Rameshwar Mahadev, he should go to kashi, to fetch ganga water. Offering the Ganga water of Kashi over Rameshwar Mahadev, he should throw the pot in sea. &lt;strong&gt;Thus, he is bound to get salvation.&lt;/strong&gt;”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may get confused whether Rama installed idol form or Linga form. But it is Linga form and Lord Rama himself states it in &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; Patala Khanda chapter 104:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विभिषणः कथमसौबद्धः श्रृंखलयानृभि: ।&#xA;  मत्स्थापितंशिवलिङ्गंदृष्ट्वारामेश्वरंत्वहो ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, how is it that Vibhisana seeing the &lt;strong&gt;Linga of Shiva, (called) Ramesvara and installed by me,&lt;/strong&gt; is bound with chains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above verse Rama tells &quot;Mat Sthapitam Shiva Linga&quot;... ie. That Shiva Linga installed by me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-08-03T06:52:36.477" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T06:52:36.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14351" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-03T09:14:52.760" Score="2" ViewCount="169" Body="&lt;p&gt;In some Brahmin Sects there exists practice of pouring milk on Naga statues on Thai and Aadi Fridays. Has it been mentioned in any puranas?What is the significance ?  Why it is not applicable to all Brahmin sects?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T09:14:52.760" Title="Pouring of Milk on Naga" Tags="|belief|rituals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14353" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8616" CreationDate="2016-08-03T09:57:16.857" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pakshi&lt;/strong&gt; in this context is &lt;strong&gt;not bird&lt;/strong&gt;, but &lt;strong&gt;Sukshma Sariram&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Swami Paramarthananda Saraswati&lt;/strong&gt;, a direct disciple of &lt;strong&gt;Swami Dayananda Saraswati of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam&lt;/strong&gt; has taught Brihadaranyaka Upanishad with Sankaracharya Bhashya. The transcript of his classes on Brihadaranyaka Upanishad can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://arshaavinash.in/index.php/download/brihadaranyaka-upanisad-swami-paramarthananda/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and audio form can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/AudioLibrary/Discources/CommentaryonBrhadharanyakaUpanishadParamarthananda.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. As far as the expanation of 18th mantra is considered, it is the 10 audio file named &quot;05-19-07_67 Mantra2&quot; in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/BrhadharanyakaUpanishadPart05&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt;. The below is the transcript of his talk. There might be some spelling mistakes, so I suggest you listen to his lecture also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus in the 16 and 17th mantra the context is mentioned. Then in the&#xA;  18th and 19th mantra we get a summary of the teaching Madhu vidya. The&#xA;  essence of the teaching is the sarvatma bhavah. Thus Maitreyi&#xA;  brahmanam and Madhu brahmanam are complementary to each other; both&#xA;  together reveal the Idam sarvam edayam Atma sarvatma bhava. Atma alone&#xA;  is in the form the entire universe. And this sarvatma bhava is&#xA;  revealed in the mantra 18, which we took up in the last class.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The meaning of this mantra is purusah eva sarvam chakre. The word&#xA;  chakre means it is verbal form ‘He created’. The paramatma or the&#xA;  purusah created everything out of ‘Himself’. How is the creation&#xA;  bahusyam? I will create not out of some other raw material but I will&#xA;  create everything out of ‘Myself’. When you say creating out of&#xA;  ‘Paramatma itself’, it means paramatma ‘Itself’ became the creation.&#xA;  And that is the meaning of chakre. Thus purusah himself became the&#xA;  two-legged beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here the word puraha means the physical bodies; so purusah paramatma&#xA;  became all the two legged physical bodies like that of human beings&#xA;  and catuspada puraha chakre the very same paramatma created the&#xA;  four-legged physical bodies. In short paramatma ‘became’ all the&#xA;  sthoola sarirams of all the physical bodies; ‘became’ should be&#xA;  inverted commas for paramatma never undergo any change to become&#xA;  physical bodies and we have to supply the words ‘as though’ to&#xA;  indicate that he entered all the physical bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is vivartha upadana karanam not parinami upadana karanam. By saying&#xA;  that what is the corollary that we get is that when I say paramatma&#xA;  became the physical bodies ‘as though’ it means paramatma is of the&#xA;  higher order of reality and physical bodies are of the lower order of&#xA;  reality and paramatma is paramarthika sathyam and jivatma sarirams are&#xA;  related to vyavaharika sathyam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having become all the physical bodies what did the paramatma do? I&#xA;  told you in the last class word paksi in this context is sukshma&#xA;  sariram. Having become the sukshma sarirams, he became ‘as though’ as&#xA;  many sthoola sarirams are there so many sukshma sarirams are also&#xA;  there and ‘He’ become manifold sukshma sarirams ‘as though’. Whatever&#xA;  paramatma does is ot be taken ‘as though’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the paramatma in the form of sukshma sariram entered all the&#xA;  sthoola sarirams. Thereafter wards all the transactions begin because&#xA;  paramatma by itself is not available for any transactions. Here there&#xA;  is sthoola sukshma sariram complex and there are so many sthoola&#xA;  sukshma sariram complexes and therefore there is a teaching going on&#xA;  and the teacher being paramatma and students also being paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Both guru and sisya are paramatma only it is stated here. Then the&#xA;  upanisad explains the mantra. Because of this job, paramatma gets a&#xA;  special title purusah. And the upanisad defines the word purusah in&#xA;  this portion and two types of derivations are given for the word. The&#xA;  first definition of purusah is ‘puri sayanad’ purusah because&#xA;  paramatma resides in the physical body it is called purusah. And puri&#xA;  means sthoola sarire sayanad saha means residing and sukshma sarira&#xA;  rupena sayanad. This is the first derivation. The second derivation is&#xA;  purayati sarvam iti purusah. One who pervades everything; one who&#xA;  fills up everything; one who inheres everything is called purusah.&#xA;  Both these derivations are given in the brahmana portion. Sava ayam&#xA;  purusah means that this Atma is sarvasu poorsu bhavati the Atma is&#xA;  present in all the sthoola sarirams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atma is in the form of sukshma sarira rupena paksi rupena bhavati.&#xA;  Then purisayah iti pursaha. This means in the body dwells Atma; since&#xA;  it is the body dwelling therefore it is called purusah. Paksi rupena&#xA;  here means the sukshma sariram. This is the first derivation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now the second derivation comes. The upanisad wants to point out atma&#xA;  pervades everything but instead of putting in a positive language the&#xA;  upanisad puts it in double negative language to give emphasis to the&#xA;  statement. Upanisad says ‘nothing is not pervaded by purusah’. Then na&#xA;  enena kinchana na anavrutam. In fact, asamvrutam is the same as&#xA;  anavrutam. Adhi Sankaracharya makes a subtle difference. He says&#xA;  paramatma is in and through all the body. Everything is inhered by&#xA;  paramatma. Instead of everything is inhered the upanisad says nothing&#xA;  is not inhered by paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To put it in simple language paramatma is inherent in all and&#xA;  paramatma is the immanent principle in all. It is like as the clay is&#xA;  inherent in all pots; just water is inherent in all waves; just rope&#xA;  is inherent in imaginary snake; just waker is inherent in every dream&#xA;  objects similarly paramatma is inherent in all. In fact paramatma is&#xA;  the content of all, therefore paramatma fills up all, and therefore&#xA;  paramatma is purusah. With this the first summary is over. Summary is&#xA;  paramatma is every thing. Remember sarvatma bhava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T09:57:16.857" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14354" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2268" CreationDate="2016-08-03T11:07:09.450" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please note that I do not mention about the datings and roots where it came from. I will just try to show some valid points.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit is special and sacred in many ways. I will try to cite you some examples regarding its speciality. Regarding the sacredness of it, one has to take the words of mahatmas and acharyas as valid, because often scientific explanation may not be possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the most beautiful, structured and interesting language to learn. The charm of Sanskrit language can be demonstrated using an example. Consider the following sentence&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 'small boy' hit the 'red ball' 'with his bat'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose I form some sentences by just changing the positions of the words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The small bat hit the red ball with his boy&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The small ball hit the red bat with his boy&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The red ball hit the small bat with his boy&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The red boy hit the small ball with his bat&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning is either changed or there is no meaning at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we write the original sentence in sanskrit, it is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लघुः बालकः (small boy) दण्डेन (with his bat) रक्तं कन्दुकं (red ball) प्रहृतवान् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;let us jumble the words of the above sentence&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लघुः बालकः  प्रहृतवान्   रक्तं कन्दुकं  दण्डेन ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लघुः दण्डेन  प्रहृतवान्   रक्तं कन्दुकं  बालकः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लघुः  कन्दुकं प्रहृतवान्   रक्तं दण्डेन  बालकः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रक्तं कन्दुकं प्रहृतवान् लघुः दण्डेन बालकः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In all the above sentences, the meaning has not changed. लघुः is in prathama vibhakti, बालकः is in prathama vibhakti, so only those two will join but not others. रक्तं is in dvitiya vibhakti, कन्दुकं is in dvitiya vibhakti, and only those two will join. So in this way the meaning is not changed and all the above four sentences are correct. This is the fundamental enabling feature of sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as far as gramatically sentence is not wrong, you can put the words anywhere, they will attach together. That is why sanskrit students are taught padachheda and anvaya (which ones to put together) for a sloka. Because in English the words are words, they donot relate or attach to their subjects or objects. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sanskrit, each letter represents one and only one sound. In English, the letter 'a' for example may indicate many sounds (fat, fate, far,etc), but not so in Sanskrit. The alphabet is systematically arranged according to the structure of the mouth. It is &lt;strong&gt;essential&lt;/strong&gt; to use the correct mouth position and not to merely imitate an approximation of the sound.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many such specialities. That is why learning Sanskrit is not merely language, but it is the science of sound. One has to experience it and know it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-08-03T11:07:09.450" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14355" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-03T11:11:36.000" Score="4" ViewCount="1106" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vāmakeśvara Taṃtra text with its sanskrit text or English translation or both, Is it available online or offline?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T08:11:37.773" LastActivityDate="2017-03-16T08:13:30.347" Title="Is the Vāmakeśvara Taṃtra available with English Translation or Sanskrit Text?" Tags="|shiva|translation-request|tantra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14356" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-03T16:22:46.553" Score="3" ViewCount="125" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a graduate student at UW-Milwaukee in the United States and I am currently doing object research at the Milwaukee Public Museum. The specific object I have a questions about is listed in the catalogue as an eighteenth century bronze Statue of  Shree Vishnu from Bengal, India. What is peculiar about this object is that it has eight arms (instead of the traditional 4) that hold a conch, bow, shield and lotus flower on the left, and a discus, sword, mace, and one unidentified object on the right (through my research I have not been able to find a match, and there is a possibility that part of the object has broken off making identification difficult); he also has a mustache which I have seen on very few other depictions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tgP4Fl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tgP4Fl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Image from front&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Nsq1Cl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Nsq1Cl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;image 2 from rear&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xHdwDl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xHdwDl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Image focus on a weapon held&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CcC2Sl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CcC2Sl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;image 4 specifically focusing othe weapons&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the style of this object reminiscent of Indian/Hindu culture, or is it possibly Southeast Asian?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know what the unidentified object is and its symbolic properties? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any symbolism attached to all of these objects being together? Is this figure supposed to represent one of Vishnu's dashavatara, or possibly the form he took to fight Kali or any other God? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone confirm the age and provenance of this object? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7312" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-15T05:38:10.887" LastActivityDate="2018-02-15T05:38:10.887" Title="Who is this in the image and what are the objects held in the arms?" Tags="|vishnu|identification-request|idols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14358" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-04T01:30:22.480" Score="8" ViewCount="535" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Euthanasia&lt;/a&gt; considered morally right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it acceptable under certain conditions, for example, if a person is in extreme pain?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7313" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-05-08T22:19:53.907" LastActivityDate="2019-10-05T17:21:18.390" Title="Is Euthanasia considered morally right?" Tags="|dharma|death|dharma-shastras|ethics|health|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14359" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14368" CreationDate="2016-08-04T06:10:21.407" Score="5" ViewCount="4540" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been worshipped in Linga form from time beginning as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Among the Lingas there are 12 Jyotirlingas which are of special importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatmya of 12 Jyotirlingas is described in Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana in the chapter &amp;quot;Dwadash Jyotirlinga Mahatmya&amp;quot;. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च श्री शैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उज्जयिन्यां महाकालमोंकारे परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;केदारं हिमवत्पृष्ठे डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाराणास्यां च विश्वेशं त्रयम्बकं गौतमीतटे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैद्यनाथं चिताभूमौ &lt;strong&gt;नागेशं&lt;/strong&gt; दारुकावने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सेतुबन्धे तु रामेशं घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रात्यस्त्थाय यः पठेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तं सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Somanath in Saurashtra, Mallikarjuna in Shri Saile, Mahakala in Ujjaiyana and Parameshawara also manifested as Omkara. Kedara in Himavat and Bhima Shankara in Dakinya. Vishewaswara in Varanasi and Trayambaka in side of Gautami. Vaidyanath in ChitaBhumi and  Nageshwara in forest of Daruka. Rameshwara in Setubandha and Ghusmeshwara in Shivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;These name of 12 Jyotirlingas who recites in morning, he gets freed from all sins and is eligible to get all Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotirlingas&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the similar popular verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre Somanāthaṃ ca Śrīśaile Mallikārjunam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ujjayinyāṃ Mahākālam Omkāram Mamleśhwaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraly Vaidyanāthaṃ cha Ḍākinyāṃ Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setubandhe tu Rāmeśaṃ &lt;strong&gt;Nāgeśhaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; Dārukāvane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vārāṇasyāṃ tu Viśveśaṃ Tryambakaṃ Gautamītaṭe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himālaye tu Kedāraṃ Ghuśmeśaṃ ca Śivālaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already asked a question about Somanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14213/what-is-the-story-of-somanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Somanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mallikarjun &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14223/what-is-the-story-of-mallikarjuna-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mahakaleshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14243/what-is-the-story-of-mahakaleshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Omkareshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14264/what-is-the-story-of-omkareshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Vaidyanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14287/what-is-the-story-of-vaidyanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Bheemshankar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14337/what-is-the-story-of-bheemshankar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Bheemshankar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Rameshwaram &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14349/what-is-the-story-of-rameshwaram-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Rameshwaram Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt;. Now I want to know the story of Nageshwar Jyotirling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nageshwar temple is situated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/place/22%C2%B020%2709.2%22N+69%C2%B005%2712.8%22E/@22.3359,69.0869,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d22.3359!4d69.0869?hl=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dwarka, Gujrat&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0IiAZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0IiAZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16410550&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Image source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T19:00:57.113" Title="What is the story of Nageshwar Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14360" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-04T08:46:00.210" Score="2" ViewCount="270" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gods are often born on Earth (Bhulok). As you know these incarnations are known as &lt;em&gt;avatars&lt;/em&gt;. A popularly known avatars is Shree Krishna. However as per my knowledge, avatars are born as humans (Manava) on Bhulok. Are there any avatars who are not Manavas, e.g. Apsaras, Nagas in other lokas? If not, why don't the gods incarnate as mythical creatures in other lokas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-08-04T08:57:36.900" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T09:36:20.773" Title="Do the gods incarnate as mythical creatures in other lokas?" Tags="|puranas|avatars|lokas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14361" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14281" CreationDate="2016-08-04T10:23:09.947" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gandhari has blindfolded her eyes because of love and respect towards her husband Dhritarashtra. I don't think there is a role or impact of Bhishma on this incident.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01111.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sambhava Parva of Adi Parva, Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Soon after Bhishma heard from the Brahmanas that Gandhari, the amiable daughter of Suvala, having worshipped Hara (Siva) had obtained from the deity the boon that she should have a century of sons. Bhishma, the grandfather of the Kurus, having heard this, sent messengers unto the king of Gandhara. King Suvala at first hesitated on account of the blindness of the bridegroom, but taking into consideration the blood of the Kurus, their fame and behaviour, he gave his virtuous daughter unto Dhritarashtra and the chaste &lt;strong&gt;Gandhari hearing that Dhritarashtra was blind and that her parents had consented to marry her to him, from love and respect for her future husband, blindfolded her own eyes&lt;/strong&gt;. Sakuni, the son of Suvala, bringing unto the Kurus his sister endued with youth and beauty, formally gave her away unto Dhritarashtra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2016-08-04T10:23:09.947" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14362" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-04T11:14:23.330" Score="1" ViewCount="209" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Vaishnava Tradition Poigai, Bootham and Pey Alwars are called Mudhal Alwargal. What is the background of this and why not other 9 alwars are not called mudhal alwars?Further which amsa of Lord Vishnu these Mudal alwars emanated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer needed from suitable Hindu related purana ithihasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-14T03:45:34.720" LastActivityDate="2017-02-14T03:45:34.720" Title="Mudhal Alwargal" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|alwar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14363" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-04T20:38:24.237" Score="1" ViewCount="660" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sulabha Janaka Samvada is a conversation between the female saint Sulabha and king Janaka. This conversation is revealed by Bhishma to Yudhisthira in the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c020.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;translation&lt;/a&gt; of the Sulabha Janaka Samvada is by Kisari Mohan Ganguli. With due respect to the author, it is very difficult to read (in arcane English) and is at some places wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where can I find a good translation for the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-08-04T20:38:24.237" Title="Where can I find a good translation of the Sulabha Janaka Samvada of the Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|bhishma|janaka|yudhisthira|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14364" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14363" CreationDate="2016-08-04T20:38:24.237" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found an excellent translation by Ram Narayan Dutt Shastri, but it is in Hindi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://archive.org/details/mahabharat05ramauoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://archive.org/details/mahabharat05ramauoft&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I had to work on a project where the conversation had to be translated. Here is my humble attempt at an English translation (uploaded on the &lt;em&gt;Academia&lt;/em&gt; website):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.academia.edu/27543247/English_translation_of_the_Sulabha_Janaka_Samvada_found_in_the_Shanti_Parva_of_the_Mahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.academia.edu/27543247/English_translation_of_the_Sulabha_Janaka_Samvada_found_in_the_Shanti_Parva_of_the_Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-08-04T20:38:24.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14365" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-05T05:05:53.297" Score="18" ViewCount="5138" Body="&lt;p&gt;River Ganga is considered sacred in Santana Dharma. Padma Purana declares that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mānyeyaṃsarvadālokepavitrāpāpanāśinī [Pdm. Pu. - 6.22.9]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She is pure, destroyer of sins and always honored in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every year large number of people take their holy dip in river Ganga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet we find ourselves reaping the karmic action of our sinful act. Does this contradicts the proclamation made in Purana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NgDFI.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NgDFI.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;image of River Ganges&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-13T11:39:58.880" LastActivityDate="2018-08-05T10:01:49.360" Title="Does taking a dip in the Ganges River actually wash away your sins?" Tags="|sin|padma-purana|ganga|rivers|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14366" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-05T06:02:16.063" Score="10" ViewCount="2268" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Agnihotra is a twice-daily Vedic Yagna that is required to be performed by all Dvijas.  (It's not as commonly practiced nowadays, because it can be substituted with Naivedyam, which constitutes a Pranagnihotra; see Yamunacharya's &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/AgamaPramanyamSktEng&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agama Pramanya&lt;/a&gt; for more details.) In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1251.htm#&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda lists a bunch of reasons for why one should or should not approach the fires of the Agnihotra, before ultimately concluding that one should.  Here's one such reason:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;atʰa yásmānnòpatíṣṭʰeta | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;ubʰáye ha vā́ idamágre sahā̀surdevā́śca manuṣyā̀śca tadyáddʰa sma manuṣyā̀ṇāṃ na bʰávati táddʰa sma devā́nyācanta idaṃ vaí no nā̀stīdáṃ no 'stvíti te tásyā evá yāñcyā́yai dvéṣeṇa devā́stiróbʰūtā néddʰinásāni neddveṣyó 'sānī́ti tásmānnópatiṣṭʰeta ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then as to why he should not approach them. &lt;strong&gt;Now in the beginning both the gods and men were together here. And whatever did not belong to the men, for that they importuned the gods, saying, 'This is not ours: let it be ours!' Being indignant at this importunity, the gods then disappeared.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence (it may be argued) one should not approach (the fires), fearing lest he should offend them, lest he should become hateful to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of the gods disappearing from the Earth because humans asked them for too many things?  When (e.g. in what Yuga) did this take place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suppose this could explain why there are lots of references in Hindu scriptures to the gods residing on Earth, and also why the gods are said for reside in Lokas other than Devaloka.  For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9190/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; this describes how Amaravati is a city of the gods at the foot of Mount Meru in Bhuloka, and yet Amaravati is also the capital of Devaloka.  It's possible that the gods used to live in the Bhuloka Amaravati, and then left and went to Devaloka due to being offended by human beings.   Also, Hindu scripture frequently says that the land of the Uttarakurus on the Northern side of the Himalayas is a land inhabited by gods, so perhaps that is where the gods lived before leaving the Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know any other scriptures that describe this story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2020-07-20T18:36:43.983" LastActivityDate="2020-07-20T18:36:43.983" Title="What is the story of the gods disappearing from the Earth?" Tags="|vedas|gods|yajur-veda|shatapatha-brahmana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14367" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14371" CreationDate="2016-08-05T06:27:10.713" Score="8" ViewCount="906" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been worshipped in Linga form from time beginning as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Among the Lingas there are 12 Jyotirlingas which are of special importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatmya of 12 Jyotirlingas is described in Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana in the chapter &amp;quot;Dwadash Jyotirlinga Mahatmya&amp;quot;. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च श्री शैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उज्जयिन्यां महाकालमोंकारे परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;केदारं हिमवत्पृष्ठे डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाराणास्यां च &lt;strong&gt;विश्वेशं&lt;/strong&gt; त्रयम्बकं गौतमीतटे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैद्यनाथं चिताभूमौ नागेशं दारुकावने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सेतुबन्धे तु रामेशं घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रात्यस्त्थाय यः पठेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तं सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Somanath in Saurashtra, Mallikarjuna in Shri Saile, Mahakala in Ujjaiyana and Parameshawara also manifested as Omkara. Kedara in Himavat and Bhima Shankara in Dakinya. Vishewaswara in Varanasi and Trayambaka in side of Gautami. Vaidyanath in ChitaBhumi and  Nageshwara in forest of Daruka. Rameshwara in Setubandha and Ghusmeshwara in Shivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;These name of 12 Jyotirlingas who recites in morning, he gets freed from all sins and is eligible to get all Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotirlingas&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the similar popular verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre Somanāthaṃ ca Śrīśaile Mallikārjunam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ujjayinyāṃ Mahākālam Omkāram Mamleśhwaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraly Vaidyanāthaṃ cha Ḍākinyāṃ Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setubandhe tu Rāmeśaṃ Nāgeśhaṃ Dārukāvane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vārāṇasyāṃ tu &lt;strong&gt;Viśveśaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; Tryambakaṃ Gautamītaṭe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himālaye tu Kedāraṃ Ghuśmeśaṃ ca Śivālaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already asked a question about Somanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14213/what-is-the-story-of-somanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Somanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mallikarjun &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14223/what-is-the-story-of-mallikarjuna-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mahakaleshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14243/what-is-the-story-of-mahakaleshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Omkareshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14264/what-is-the-story-of-omkareshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Vaidyanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14287/what-is-the-story-of-vaidyanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Bheemshankar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14337/what-is-the-story-of-bheemshankar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Bheemshankar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Rameshwaram &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14349/what-is-the-story-of-rameshwaram-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Rameshwaram Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Nageshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14359/what-is-the-story-of-nageshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Nageshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt;. Now I want to know the story of Vishwanath Jyotirling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishwanatha temple is situated on the bank of River Ganga in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/place/25%C2%B018%2738.8%22N+83%C2%B000%2738.2%22E/@25.310775,83.010614,16z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d25.310775!4d83.010614?hl=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/C6cQB.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/C6cQB.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Unknown - &lt;a href=&quot;http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll123/id/78278&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll123/id/78278&lt;/a&gt;, Public Domain, &lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30895506&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30895506&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-05T12:51:05.690" Title="What is the story of Kasi Vishwanatha Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14368" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14359" CreationDate="2016-08-05T07:54:22.217" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shree Nageshwar  Joytirlinga Temple or Nagnath Temple&lt;/strong&gt; is located on the route between Gomati Dwarka and the Bait Dwarka Island on the coast of Saurashtra in Gujarat  state of (India).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this Jyotirlinga lord Shiva is worshipped as Nageswara form . Two other sites with same name  are in India, one near Audhgram near Purna in Andhra Pradesh and another near Almora in Uttar Pradesh also enshrine temples to Nageswara. The actual location of the legendary forest of Darukavana is debated. No other important clues indicate the location of the Jyotirlinga. 'Darukavana' remains the only clue. See &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nageshvara_Jyotirlinga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nageshwar was believed to be known as '&lt;strong&gt;Darukavana&lt;/strong&gt;', which is an ancient epic name of a forest in India. Below are two well-known legends attached to this mystical temple:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Temple&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their is a special feature of this Nageshwar Shivlinga apart from round black-stoned Shivalingas, this one is made up of Dwaraka Shila, a raw yellowish stone with sharp edges comprising of small chakras. The Linga at Nageshwar is a &lt;strong&gt;Tri-mukhi Rudraksha&lt;/strong&gt; which is around 40 cm high and 30 cm in diameter. At Nageshwar we can also find goddess Parvati along with the Shivlinga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Importance of Nageshwar Joytirlinga&lt;/strong&gt; -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Literally, the word Nageshwar is given to the Lord of all Cobras (Naag) who is always found coiled around the neck of Lord Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence, it is said that any person who prays at Lord Nageshwar Temple permanently attains a poison free mind and body.&#xA;The temple has great mythological importance i hinduism and it is believed that Lord Krishna used to pay his obeisance to Lord Shiva by performing Rudrabhishekam and in the later period Shree Shankaracharya founded his Western Math here at Kalika Peeth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the first legend, 'Balakhilyas', a group of dwarf sages worshipped Lord Shiva in Darukavana for long a time. To test their devotion and patience, Shiva came to them as a nude ascetic wearing only nagas [serpants] on his body. Wives of sages got attracted to the saint and went after him, leaving their husbands behind. Sages got very disturbed and outraged by this.They lost their patience and cursed the ascetic to loose his linga [one of the limited meanings is Phallus, but it has has a deeper theistic symbolism]. Shiva linga fell on the earth and the whole world trembled. Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu came to Lord Shiva, requesting him to save the earth from destruction and take back his linga. Shiva consoled them and took back his linga. &lt;strong&gt;[From Vamana Purana CH.6th &amp;amp; 45th]&lt;/strong&gt;. Lord Shiva promised his divine presence in Darukavana as 'jyothirlinga' for ever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Another story -:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;goes hundreds of years ago in the Shiv Purana, about a demon couple named &lt;strong&gt;Daruka&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Daruki&lt;/strong&gt;, after whom was named Daruka Van (forest), later known as Dwarka. Daruki was a devotee of Parvati and was blessed by her. He misused her blessings and tryranized the local folks. One day he captured a Shiva devotee called Supriya who was one of the pilgrims on a boat. The demon imprisoned her along with several others at his capital Darukavana. Supriya advised all prisoners to recite the Shiva mantra ‘Aum Namaha Shivayay’ to protect them. When Daruka came to know about this he ran to kill Supriya. Instantly Lord Shiva appeared in the form of a jyothirlinga from the earth. He could not kill the demon who was blessed by his own wife, Parvati, but he assured Supriya that he would protect him in the form of a linga. The linga here thus came to be worshipped.&#xA;Source - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gujarattourism.com/destination/details/10/312&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;One&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mahapurana.com/shiva-puranas/koti-rudra-samhita/the-origin-of-nageshwar-jyotirlinga/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Two&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A shloka related to Nagnath Joytirlinga***&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एतद् य: श्रृणुयान्नित्यं नागेशद्भवमादरात्। सर्वान् कामनियाद् धीमान्&#xA;  महापातकनशनान्।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;**Add original source of this if found.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-05T09:58:46.527" LastActivityDate="2016-08-05T09:58:46.527" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14369" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14372" CreationDate="2016-08-05T08:06:10.943" Score="2" ViewCount="1131" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am familiar with some of the Bhakti Parampara Poet-saints from Western and Northen part of India and their works. Some of them are -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saint Dyaneshwar&lt;/strong&gt; - commentary on Shree Bhagavad Gita (Dyneshwari, Bhavarthdeepika)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saint Tukaram&lt;/strong&gt; - Abhanga , Kirtan (community-oriented group singing and dancing form of Bhakti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saint Eknath&lt;/strong&gt; - Eknathi Bhagvat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saint Namdev&lt;/strong&gt; - Abhangas , Bhajans. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saint Muktabai&lt;/strong&gt; - Preachings to Saint Changdev.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saint Ramdas&lt;/strong&gt;- Shri Manāche Shloka, advises to mind about  ethical behaviour and love for God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saint Tulsidas&lt;/strong&gt; - Shree Ramacharta Manas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saint Meerabai&lt;/strong&gt;- Bajan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saint Kabir-&lt;/strong&gt;  Kabir -Dohe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Saints are Representing &lt;strong&gt;Bhakti Parampara Or Bhakti Tradiation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I don't know much  about  Similar Bhakti Parampara Saints from &lt;strong&gt;South India region i.e., Namely from the States Kerala , Karnataka , Tamil Nadu , Andhra Pradesh&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So I want to know more about some of the Saints who are associated with Bhakti Parampara or Bhakti Tradiation. Preferably from 12th century to 16th Century and about their literary works.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note - You can give answer state wise also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-19T17:43:10.450" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T17:43:10.450" Title="Bhakti Parampara saints from South Indian states" Tags="|history|philosophy|saint|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14370" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="213" CreationDate="2016-08-05T08:27:52.130" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read of two different theories that explain why Ganesh ji is worshiped before any puja. Both these stories are also linked to the story of the birth of Ganesh ji.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Version 1&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Probably the most common story of Ganesh ji's birth is the story of his creation by Parvati devi so he could guard her palace in Mount Kailash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Parvati devi was taking bath, Mahadev Shiv ji returned home but was stopped from entering the palace by Ganesh ji who wanted to protect the promise he had made to his mother Devi Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Angered by Ganesh ji's challenge and unaware that he was Devi Parvati's son, Mahadev Shiv attacked Ganesh and destroyed his head. Later, when Parvati ji realized what had happened, she was angry and threatened to destroy the world. She declared that she would stop her rampage only if Ganesh was brought back to life and then declared as equivalent to the foremost Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Realizing his folly, Shiv bhagwan offered to correct his mistake and requested Vishnu ji to fetch the head of the first living creature facing in the north direction that the latter spotted. This happened to be an Elephant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Soon after, Ganesh ji was brought back to life with an Elephant head by Shiv bhagwan and was declared to be the foremost Hindu God who was to be worshiped before all other Gods. As a result, Ganesh ji is worshiped at the beginning of every puja till date.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Version 2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This version of the story talks about the demon Gajasura (Elephant headed demon) who after painful penance to Shiv bhagwan was granted an armor that nobody in the world could destroy. Gajasura went on a rampage torturing the residents of the planet and slowly beginning to challenge the Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also continued with his penance to Shiv bhagwan who once again offered to grant him a wish. This time, Gajasura decided to play a trick on Shiv bhagwan and requested the latter to take residence in his stomach. Unable to see through Gajasura's trickery, Shiv bhagwan agreed. (this is also why Shiv ji is called Bhole-nath i.e. a simpleton who is unable to see through tricks).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When days later, Parvati Devi was unable to track her husband Shiv ji, she approached Vishnu bhagwan for help. Vishnu ji being omniscient knew what Gajasura had done and so he disguised himself as a comedian with Nandi (the follower of Lord Shiva) transformed as a bull.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu ji, in his disguise, and Nandi approached Gajasura and performed a comedy play for the latter. Pleased by the entertainment, Gajasura looked at Vishnu ji in disguise and offered to grant any wish that the latter asked for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taking advantage of this, Vishnu ji asked Gajasura to free Shiv bhagwan from his stomach. At this moment, Gajasura realized that the performer had to be Vishnu ji because nobody else could have known that Shiv bhagwan was locked in his stomach.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He agreed to free Shiv ji by tearing his stomach but in return asked Vishnu ji and Shiv ji to grant him another wish. He requested that he be remembered by all residents of the earth for eternity and that they all worship his face.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To grant his wish, Shiv ji called his son Ganesh and replaced his head with that of Gajasura. Further, Shiv ji declared that Ganesh be worshiped before all other Hindu Gods thus ensuring that Gajasura's name continued to be remembered by one and all for eternity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a result, Ganesh ji is worshiped before every puja as a fulfillment of Gajasura's wish to Shiv bhagwan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedsutra.com/lord-ganesh-origins-stories/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Stories of Ganesh ji&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7320" LastActivityDate="2016-08-05T08:27:52.130" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14371" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14367" CreationDate="2016-08-05T08:48:07.017" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Greatness of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanasi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kasi&lt;/a&gt; (Varanasi) and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashi_Vishwanath_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kasi Vishwanatha Temple &lt;/a&gt; are described in many Puranas. Kasi is known as &lt;em&gt;Avimukta Kshetra&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-143&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 22 of Kotirudra Samhita of Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt; describes the origin of city of Kasi and Lord Vishwanatha in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During creation, &lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt; got split into a Purusha and Prakriti (Saguna form as Shiva-Shakti; metaphorically Atma and Nature). The Nirguna Brahman (Sada Shiva) ordained Suguna forms to do a Tapasya for creation of first best being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चिदानन्दस्वरूपं च निर्विकारं सनातनम्॥ २॥ &lt;br&gt;तस्यैव&#xA;कैवल्यतरोर्द्वितीयेच्छा ततोऽभवत्। &lt;br&gt;स एव सगुणो जातः शिव&#xA;इत्यभिधीयते।। ३॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever things are visible on earth as substantive, as an entity in&#xA;the form of knowledge or bliss, are eternal, free from blemish,&#xA;desired for a second. That second, of the tree of salvation, was&#xA;possessed of attributes and is called Śiva.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स एव हि द्विजो जातः पुंस्त्रीरूपप्रभेदतः। &lt;br&gt; यः पुमान् स शिवः ख्यातः&#xA;स्त्रीशक्तिः सा हि कथ्यते। ४।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It split into two- the male and the female forms. The male is known&#xA;as Siva, while the female is shown as Sakti (Saguna forms).&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चिदानन्दस्वरूपाभ्यां पुरुषावपि निर्मितौ।। ५॥ &lt;br&gt;अदृष्टाभ्यां तदा&#xA;ताभ्यां स्वभावान्मुनिसत्तमाः। &lt;br&gt; तावद्दृष्ट्वा तदा तौ च स्वमातृपितरौ&#xA;द्विजाः। &lt;br&gt;महासंशयमापन्नौ प्रकृतिः पुरुषश्च तौ।। ६ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Excellent ascetics, the invisible Cita and Ananda created Purusa and&#xA;Prakrti, O Brāhmanas, on seeing their parents, both Purusa and Prakrti&#xA;developed a doubt. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदा वाणी समुत्पन्ना निर्गुणात्परमात्मनः। &lt;br&gt; तपश्चैव प्रकर्तव्यं ततः&#xA;सृष्टिरनुत्तमा।।७।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter a divine voice emerged out from the great Atman free from&#xA;attributes, “You perform penance, for the generation of the excellent&#xA;creation.” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then these Purusha-Prakriti or Shiva-Shakti asked the Supreme Nirguna SadaShiva the place where they could do tapasya. The Nirguna Shiva by staying in Sky or Cosmos then created wonderful city of five &lt;em&gt;Koshas&lt;/em&gt; in length in cosmos. Then Lord Vishnu did Tapasya in that city and waters emerged from Him and the creation happened. The Jewel of his ear fell on a place on Earth when He came back to normal state after Tapasya and that Place is known as &lt;strong&gt;Mani&lt;/strong&gt;karnika which is now called as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manikarnika_Ghat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manikarnika Ghat&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततश्च तेजसः सारं पञ्चक्रोशात्मकं शुभम्। &lt;br&gt;सर्वोपकरणैर्युक्तं सुन्दरं&#xA;नगरं तथा।।९।।&lt;br&gt; निर्माय प्रेषितं तत्स्वं निर्गुणेन शिवेन च।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अन्तरिक्षे स्थितं तच्च पुरुषस्य समीपतः।। १० ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter a beautiful city was built, which was the essence of the&#xA;lustre and was spread in five kosas and was quite beautiful in which&#xA;all the amenities could be found. Siva built the city while remaining&#xA;in the sky in the firmament near the Purusa.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदाधिष्ठाय हरिणा सृष्टिकामनया ततः। &lt;br&gt; बहुकालं तपस्तप्तं&#xA;तद्धयानमवलम्ब्य च।। ११॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Visnu having been lodged in that city, became desirous of starting&#xA;creation. He performed tapas sitting in meditation. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रमेण जलधाराश्च विविधाश्चाभवंस्तदा। &lt;br&gt;ताभिर्व्यामं च तच्छून्यं&#xA;नान्यत्किञ्चिददृश्यत॥ १२॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of his efforts, several streams of water emerged from that&#xA;place. At that point of time, nothing was visible there.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततश्च विष्णुना दृष्ट्वा किमेतद्दृश्यतेऽद्भुतम्। &lt;br&gt; इत्याश्चर्यं तदा&#xA;दृष्ट्वा शिरसः कम्पनं कृतम्।। १३ ।। &lt;br&gt;  Then Visnu saw as to what&#xA;was the surprising thing found there? Then he shook his head. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततश्च पतितः कर्णान्मणिश्च पुरतः प्रभोः। &lt;br&gt; तद्वभूव महत्तीर्थ नामतो&#xA;मणिकर्णिका॥ १४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then a gem emerging out of his ear fell on the ground, which was&#xA;turned into a great place of pilgrimage known as Manikarnikā. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Cosmic Shiva held that city with His trident and placed it on Earth where Jewel fell and this city of five Koshas is called Kashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जलौघे प्लाव्यमाना सा पञ्चक्रोशी यदाभवत्। &lt;br&gt; निर्गुणेन शिवेनाशु&#xA;त्रिशूलेन धृता तदा॥ १५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the said Manikarnikā in the form of water kept on flowing upto&#xA;five kosas (Pañcakosi), then Siva held it over the tip of his&#xA;trident.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To get rid of evil karmas and to remove bondage and to grant Moksha, Nirguna Shiva consecrated a Jyotirlinga with amsa of Him known as &lt;em&gt;Avimukta Linga&lt;/em&gt; which grants the Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अविमुक्तं स्वयं लिङ्गं स्थापितं परमात्मना। &lt;br&gt;न कदाचित्त्वया&#xA;त्याज्यमिदं क्षेत्रं ममांशकम्॥ २१॥&lt;br&gt; Lord Śiva, the supreme soul,&#xA;there, had been consecrated as a Sivalinga known by the name of&#xA;Avimukta and spoke, “You have been formed of my amsa as Jyotirlinga&#xA;and therefore, you never leave this place.” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्युक्त्वा च त्रिशूलात्स्वादवतार्य हर:स्वयम्। &lt;br&gt; मोचयामास भुवने&#xA;मत्र्यलोके हि काशिकाम्॥ २२॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus speaking lord Śiva, grounded Kāši, with the tip of his trident&#xA;and established it on earth.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मणश्च दिने सा हि न विनश्यति निश्चितम्। &lt;br&gt; तदा शिवस्त्रिशूलेन&#xA;दधाति मुनयश्च ताम्।। २३ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even after the completion of a divine&#xA;day of Brahmā, the city of Kāšî does not get destroyed. O Sages, at&#xA;that point of time, Siva holds it over the tip of his trident. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुनश्च ब्रह्मणा सृष्टौ कृतायां स्थाप्यते द्विजाः । &lt;br&gt;कर्मणां&#xA;कर्षणाचैव काशीति परिपठ्यते॥ २४॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Brähmanas, then Brahmā again recreates the universe, then he again&#xA;establishes Kāśī. Because of the bondages of the karmas and their&#xA;attraction thereto, it is called Kāši. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirguna Shiva then ordained Saguna Shiva  to never leave this place. From that time, Suguna Vishwanatha Shiva (Shankara or Rudra) always stays at that place with Avimukteswara (formed from amsa of Nirguna Shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Lord Shiva also grants Moksha in Kashi area for the beings. Kailash Samhita of Shiva Purana in 3.2 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अतस्तदेव जानीयात्प्रणव सर्वकारणम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;निर्विकारी मुमुक्षुर्मां निर्गुणं परमेश्वरम् ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;एनमेव हि देवेशि सर्वमन्त्रशि रोमणिम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;काश्यामहं प्रदास्यामि जीवानां मुक्तिहतवे ।।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence he who aspires for salvation and is free from aberration shall understand the Pranava as the cause of all, and Me as the Nirguna Parameshwara. &lt;strong&gt;I give this crest-jewel of mantras at Kashi for the liberation of all individual souls.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-08-05T12:51:05.690" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14372" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14369" CreationDate="2016-08-05T09:35:25.830" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I must have skipped some of the great saint in my answer, I seriously apologies for that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adi Shankara&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;His works in Sanskrit discuss the unity of the ātman and Nirguna Brahman &quot;brahman without attributes&quot;. He wrote copious commentaries on the Vedic canon (Brahma Sutras, Principal Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita) in support of his thesis. His works elaborate on ideas found in the Upanishads. Shankara's publications criticised the ritually-oriented Mīmāṃsā school of Hinduism. He also explained the key difference between Hinduism and Buddhism, stating that Hinduism asserts &quot;Atman (Soul, Self) exists&quot;, while Buddhism asserts that there is &quot;no Soul, no Self&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankara travelled across the Indian subcontinent to propagate his philosophy through discourses and debates with other thinkers. He established the importance of monastic life as sanctioned in the Upanishads and Brahma Sutra, in a time when the Mīmāṃsā school established strict ritualism and ridiculed monasticism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saint Ramanuja (1060-1118)&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;His philosophical foundations for devotionalism were influential to the Bhakti movement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Madhvacharya&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;As a teenager, he became a Sanyasin, also known as Purna Prajña and Ananda Tīrtha. A Hindu philosopher and the chief proponent of the Dvaita (dualism) school of Vedanta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Raghavendra Swami&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;was a renowned Madhwa saint, philosopher and proponent of Dvaita philosophy established by Sri Madhvacharya. He is worshiped as a Guru&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Alvar saints from South India&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Tamil poet-saints of South India who espoused bhakti (devotion) to the Hindu god Vishnu or his avatar Krishna in their songs of longing, ecstasy and service. They are venerated especially in Vaishnavism, which regards Vishnu or Krishna as the Supreme Being. find more detail &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvars&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bodhidharma 5th or 6th century&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-19T16:49:38.337" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T16:49:38.337" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14373" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-05T10:17:49.957" Score="1" ViewCount="98" Body="&lt;p&gt;Susumna Naadi gets activated when a conch is blown. As per Hindu tradition during aarthi a conch is being blown and during death it is used. Generally if we blow a conch the respiratory tract will be clean because we leave air out thru conch from the inhaled one thru nose. Has it been mentioned in any scripture that conch should not be blown at ordinary times?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-08-05T10:17:49.957" Title="Can we blow Conch?" Tags="|scripture|belief|rituals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14374" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3563" CreationDate="2016-08-05T11:05:11.413" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Various sects would have own views regarding this. Vaishnavas might tell moksha is not possible without grace of Lord Vishnu, similarly Shaivites might tell it is not possible without grace of Lord Shiva and similar for other sects like Shaktas, Ganapatyas, etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However we can take help of Shruti verses or eternal Veda sentences in such cases:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;1) Lord Shiva:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are various answers here which state Lord Shiva can't grant moksha. However this is not statement of Vedas, it's their own imaginations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is the only God in Samhitas of Vedas from whom the revealed mantras during meditations ask for Moksha. RigVeda 7.59.12, Taittariya Samhita of YajurVeda in 1.8.6.i, Vajasena Samhita of YajurVeda in 3.60 declare the same statement as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;We worship the Three-eyed Lord&lt;/strong&gt; who is fragrant and who nourishes and nurtures all beings. As is the ripened cucumber freed from its bondage (to the creeper), &lt;strong&gt;may He liberate us from death&lt;/strong&gt; for the sake of immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् &#xA;  = मृत्यु + मोक्ष + मम अमृतात्&#xA;  ie. Moksha through death for immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also 10.17 of Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda clearly declares:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सद्योजातं प्रपद्यामि सद्योजाताय वै नमो नमः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भवे भवे नाति भवे भवस्व मां भवोद्भवाय नमः॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I take refuge in Sadyojata. Verily I salute Sadyojata again and again. &lt;strong&gt;O Sadyojata, do not consign me to repeated birth; lead me beyond birth, into the state of bliss and liberation.&lt;/strong&gt; I bow down to Him who is the source of transmigratory existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is purely imagination of persons who think Lord Shiva can't grant Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same fact is repeated again and again in Smriti passages like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. In Anushasana Parva of Mahabharata Devas pray Lord Shiva as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शक्रोऽसि मरुतां देव पितृणां धर्मराजसि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्रह्मलोकश्च लोकानां &lt;strong&gt;गतीनां मोक्ष उच्यसे&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are Shakra among the Marut Devas, Dharma among the Pitris, Brahma Loka among the Lokas and &lt;strong&gt;Moksha among the paths (gati).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Lord Shiva is also known by the name Bholenath, he readily grants Moksha out of compassion of beings. One of the such place is Kashi. Thats why even the Srimad Bhagvatam tells Kashi as best among the holy places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्षेत्राणां चैव सर्वेषां यथा काशी अनुत्तमा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथा पुराणव्रातानां श्रीमद्भागवतं द्विज ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Just as Kashi is the best among the holy places,&lt;/strong&gt; in the Similar way Srimad Bhagvatam is best among the Puranas. [S.B. 12.13.17]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam tells Kashi as best among the holy places because it is that place where Lord Shiva readily grants Moksha. Kailash Samhita of Shiva Purana in 3.2 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अतस्तदेव जानीयात्प्रणव सर्वकारणम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निर्विकारी मुमुक्षुर्मां निर्गुणं परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एनमेव हि देवेशि सर्वमन्त्रशि रोमणिम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  काश्यामहं प्रदास्यामि जीवानां मुक्तिहतवे ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hence he who aspires for salvation and is free from aberration shall understand the Pranava as the cause of all, and Me as the Nirguna Parameshwara. &lt;strong&gt;I give this crest-jewel of mantras at Kashi for the liberation of all individual souls.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear from both Shruti and Smritis that Lord Shiva grants Moksha. Moreover in the Shiva Purana and Skandha Purana and in many other Puranas there are many stories and events where Lord Shiva provides moksha and it is not that Vyasa fakely claimed in Puranas that they attained Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;2) Lord Vishnu:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not aware of any Vedic Samhita mantras that ask for Moksha from Lord Vishnu. Maybe there are in Brahmanas and Upanishads (one can inform me if he/she knows).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However this doesn't mean that Lord Vishnu can't provide Moksha. Moksha provider of Vedas ie. Lord Shiva himself states that Lord Vishnu is the God who grants moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Harivamsha Parva, Lord Shiva tells to Ghantakarna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मुक्ति प्रदाता सर्वेषां विष्णुर्वे न संशय ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;There is no doubt that Viṣṇu is the deliverer of liberation for everyone.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva himself didn't gave Moksha to Ghantakarna because he used to severly hate Lord Vishnu. He used to tie bells in ear so that he may not be able to hear name of Lord Vishnu and thus his name became GhantaKarna. Due to extreme hatredness towards Lord Vishnu (Virodhi Bhakti) he became eligible to get moksha through Lord Vishnu and later Lord Krishna gives him a boon that he would attain Sayujya with Vishnu after period of present Indra is over as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13633/what-scriptures-describe-krishna-granting-moksha-to-ghantakarna-a-pishacha-who/14150#14150&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in Bhagvad Gita 18.66 Lord Krishna states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो &lt;strong&gt;मोक्षयिष्यामि&lt;/strong&gt; मा शुच: ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abandon all varieties of dharmas and simply surrender unto me alone. &lt;strong&gt;I shall liberate you&lt;/strong&gt; from all sinful reactions; do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also from various stories of Vishnu Purana, Padma Purana and Harivamsha and other Puranas we can know Lord Vishnu provided Moksha to various persons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;3) Advaita type:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the Advaita type moksha, even if a person reaches Parampadam of Vishnu or Sadashiva Loka of Lord Shiva, still he may not be Jeevan mukta. However he won't return from there as Lord Krishna tells in Gita &quot; those who have attained my place do not return.&quot; and hence their Jnana is granted. However as they are still under Nama-Rupa they maynot be JeevanMukta. They still need Jnana to realize oneself as the Supreme Nirguna Brahman without any forms and attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in Advaita God doesn't directly give moksha, or devotion doesn't directly provide moksha. God provides Jnana which will finally make one Jeevan Mukta. And Jnana can also be provided by Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-08-05T13:40:18.470" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14376" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14894" CreationDate="2016-08-05T13:31:26.073" Score="3" ViewCount="7389" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently saw an episode of TV Serial 'Siya Ke Ram' and there it showed that there was a son of Ravana apart from the common ones we know. I am not sure of his name but it was shown that he was a devotee of Narayana (Lord Vishnu) and Ravana earlier kept him in a secluded place and forcing him not to worship Narayana. But later, Ravana offers him that if he fights against Lord Rama then he will be allowed to worship Narayana. Son accepts the offer and goes to fight again Lord Rama. What comes next is yet to be seen in further episodes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know whether this story is described in Valmiki's Ramayana. If not then where is this story covered. What is the actual story of this incident according to the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastActivityDate="2017-12-03T13:37:58.533" Title="What is the story of the son of Ravana who was a devotee of Narayana?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|rama|ravana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14377" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14379" CreationDate="2016-08-05T16:24:23.340" Score="11" ViewCount="1901" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavan is a term which is commonly used,by several traditions. What is the definition of Bhagavan as per Vishnu Purana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2019-03-02T05:12:08.577" LastActivityDate="2019-03-02T05:12:08.577" Title="Definition of Bhagavan as per Vishnu Purana" Tags="|terminology|vishnu-purana|etymology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14378" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14365" CreationDate="2016-08-05T16:24:53.707" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;The only way to cleanse one of sins permanently is to bathe in the Atman. What does bathing in a Tirtha mean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tirtha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tuladhara said, ‘ All rivers are as sacred as the Saraswati, and all&#xA;  mountains are sacred. O Jajali, the Soul is itself a Tirtha. Do not&#xA;  wander about on the Earth for visiting sacred places. A person, by&#xA;  observing these duties ( that I have spoken of and that do not involve&#xA;  injury to other creatures), and by seeking that acquisition of merit agreeably to his own ability, certainly succeeds in obtaining blessed region hereafter.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXIII)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Benefits of Tirtha or Pilgrimage near sacred waters&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira said, ‘Do thou tell me, O grandsire, of that which is&#xA;  regarded as the foremost of all Tirthas. Indeed, it behoveth thee to&#xA;  expound to me what that Tirtha is which conduces to the greatest&#xA;  purity’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma said,’ Without doubt, all Tirthas are possessed of merit.&#xA;  Listen, however, with attention to me as I tell thee what the Tirtha,&#xA;  the cleanser, is of men endued with wisdom. Adhering to eternal Truth,&#xA;  one should bathe in the Tirtha called Manasa (Atman), which is unfathomable (for its depth), stainless, and pure, and which has Truth for its waters and the understanding for its lake. The fruits in the form of cleansing, that one acquires in that Tirtha, are freedoms from cupidity, sincerity, truthfulness, mildness (of behavior), compassion, abstention from injuring any creature, self-restraint, and tranquility. Those men that are freed from attachments, that are divested of pride, that transcend all pairs of opposites (such as pleasure and pain, praise, and blame, heat and cold, etc.), that have no spouses and children and houses and gardens, etc. that are endued with purity, and that subsist upon the alms given to them by others, are regarded as Tirthas. He who is acquainted with the truth of all things and who is freed from the idea of meum (self), is said to be the highest Tirtha. In searching the indications of purity, the gaze should ever be directed towards these attributes. Those persons from whose souls the attributes of Sattwa and Rajas and Tamas have been washed off, they who, regardless of (external) purity and impurity pursue the ends they have proposed to themselves, they who have renounced everything, they who are possessed of omniscience and endued with universal sight, and they who are of pure conduct, are regarded as Tirthas possessing the power of cleansing. &lt;strong&gt;That man whose limbs only are wet with water is not regarded as one that is washed. He,on the other hand, is regarded as washed who has washed himself by self-denial.&lt;/strong&gt; Even such a person is said to be pure both inwardly and outwardly. They who never concern themselves with what is past, they who feel no attachment to acquisitions that are present, indeed, they who are free from desire, are said to be possessed of the highest purity. Knowledge is said to constitute the especial purity of the body. So also freedom from desire, and cheerfulness of mind. Purity of conduct constitutes the purity of the mind. &lt;strong&gt;The purity that one attains by ablutions in sacred waters is regarded as inferior. Verily, that purity which arises from knowledge, is regarded as the best.&lt;/strong&gt; Those ablutions, which one performs with a blazing mind in the waters of the knowledge of Brahma in the Tirtha called Manasa (Atman), are the true ablutions of those that are conversant with Truth. That man who is possessed of true purity of conduct and who is always devoted to the preservation of a proper attitude towards all, indeed, he who is possessed of (pure) attributes and merit, is regarded as truly pure. These that I have mentioned have been said to be the Tirthas that inhere to the body. Do thou listen to me as I tell thee what those sacred Tirthas are that are situate on the earth also. Even as especial attributes that inhere to the body have been said to be sacred, there are particular spots on earth as well, and particular waters, that are regarded as sacred. By reciting the names of the Tirthas, by performing ablutions there and by offering oblations to the Pitris in those places, one’s sins are washed off. Verily, those men whose sins are washed off succeed in attaining to heaven when they leave this world. In consequence of their association with persons that are righteous, through the especial efficacy of the earth itself of those spots and of particular waters, there are certain portions of the earth that have come to be regarded as sacred. The Tirthas of the mind are separate and distinct from those of the earth. That person who bathes in both attains to success without any delay. As strength without exertion, or exertion without strength can never accomplish anything, singly, and as these, when combined, can accomplish all things, even so one that becomes endued with the purity that is contributed by the Tirthas in the body as also by that which is contributed by the Tirthas on the earth, becomes truly pure and attains to success. That purity which is derived from both sources is the best.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva, Section CVIII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-08-05T16:24:53.707" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14379" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14377" CreationDate="2016-08-05T16:31:30.783" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Vishnupurana-English-MnDutt&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt; defines Bhagavān as follows,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उत्पत्तिं प्रलयं चैव भूतानामागतिं गतिम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    वेत्तिं विद्यामविद्यां च स वाच्यो भगवानिति ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who understands the creation and dissolution, the appearance and disappearance of beings, the wisdom and ignorance, should be called Bhagavān. — Vishnu Purana, VI.5.78 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same text defines Bhaga and provides the etymological roots as follows &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; Knowledge is of two kinds, that which is derived from scripture, and that which is derived from reflection. Brahma that is the word is composed of scripture; Brahma that is supreme is produced of reflection. Ignorance is utter darkness, in which knowledge, obtained through any sense (as that of hearing), shines like a lamp; but the knowledge that is derived from reflection breaks upon the obscurity like the sun. (...) That which is imperceptible, undecaying, inconceivable, unborn, inexhaustible, indescribable; which has neither form, nor hands, nor feet; which is almighty, omnipresent, eternal; the cause of all things, and without cause; permeating all, itself unpenetrated, and from which all things proceed; that is the object which the wise behold, that is Brahma, that is the supreme state, that is the subject of contemplation to those who desire liberation, that is the thing spoken of by the Vedas,the infinitely subtle, supreme condition of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; That essence of the supreme is defined by the term Bhagavat. The word Bhagavat is the denomination of that primeval and eternal god: and he who fully understands the meaning of that expression, is possessed of holy wisdom, the sum and substance of the Vedas. The word Bhagavat is a convenient form to be used in the adoration of that supreme being, to whom no term is applicable; and therefore Bhagavat expresses that supreme spirit, which is individual, almighty, and the cause of causes of all things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The letter Bh implies the cherisher and supporter of the universe. By ga is understood the leader, impeller, or creator. The dissyllable Bhaga indicates the six properties, dominion, might, glory, splendour, wisdom, and dispassion. The purport of the letter va is that elemental spirit in which all beings exist, and which exists in all beings. And thus this great word Bhagavan is the name of Vásudeva, who is one with the supreme Brahma, and of no one else. This word therefore, which is the general denomination of an adorable object, is not used in reference to the supreme in a general, but a special signification. When applied to any other (thing or person) it is used in its customary or general import. In the latter case it may purport one who knows the origin and end and revolutions of beings, and what is wisdom, what ignorance. In the former it denotes wisdom, energy, power, dominion, might, glory, without end, and without defect.  — Vishnu Purana, VI.5 [14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Bhagavan is explained thus by Parasara Muni:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who is full in six opulences, who has full strength, full fame, wealth, knowledge, beauty and renunciation, is Bhagavan, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The details of Kalyana Gunas of Bhagavan, are given in the answer&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15014/which-scripture-describes-six-kalyana-gunas-auspicious-attributes-of-vishnu/15015#15015&quot;&gt;Which scripture describes six kalyana gunas (auspicious attributes) of Vishnu?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-06-11T05:16:14.207" LastActivityDate="2018-06-11T05:16:14.207" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14382" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-06T00:56:34.000" Score="1" ViewCount="2355" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indonesia has a different version of theMahabharata from the Indian version ofMahabharata in many parts of the story. TheMahabharata was translated into (old)Javanese under the reign of king Dharmawangsa of Medang (r. 990-1006).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;source:&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata_(Indonesia)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata_(Indonesia)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apparently there are many differences in the Indonesian Mahabharata and the one Ved Vyasa wrote.Could somebody tell me the differences of this two tales?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorDisplayName="user4627" LastEditDate="2016-08-07T13:44:58.620" LastActivityDate="2016-09-06T13:49:29.130" Title="What are the differences between the Indonesian Mahabharata and the Hindu Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|other-religions|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14384" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-06T07:34:23.773" Score="6" ViewCount="5924" Body="&lt;p&gt;We often see in Movies and Television series that shows few incidents in which something bad/negative happens if the glass breaks or fire goes off from the lamps which are lightened in temples or pooja room. And that is considered as apshagun/bad omen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it true or superstitious?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any reference from scripture? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-09T06:30:45.407" LastActivityDate="2018-06-09T06:30:45.407" Title="Is breaking of glass and fire going off from lamps a bad omen?" Tags="|belief|omens|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14385" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14384" CreationDate="2016-08-06T08:10:54.670" Score="1" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it true or superstitious?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Calling those things apshagun has no connection with superstitions nor they are just 'religious' things. In previous days, we had no sources of power like we have today. People used to depend on sunlight in day and candle or 'diya' in night. So diya bujhna i.e. Fire going off used to be really bad thing  as they end up in darkness. that's why it is considered as 'not good' (Apshagun i.e. Which does not bring Shagun) thing, but unfortunately even in this era we carried that education as it is without even thinking cause behind it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar thing you can say about breaking of glass. We have plain marble floors today at our home. But in previous time (few centuries, not too much previous as glass was not even invented that early), they didn't have such cleanable floors. So breaking glass on that rough muddy floor and then picking all the tiny pieces up without vacuum cleaner can be really tiring (plus no guarantee of cleaning it 100%). That's why it is also considered as 'not good thing' again. There is no such thing as apshagun as our Hindu religion heavily based on science and causes not just religious beliefs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any reference from scripture? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well I don't exactly know the answer of that question as there is not just one holy book in Hindu religion and I have not read all of them. But I can tell you this definitely that There will not be anything in any holy book telling about superstitions without giving the &quot;cause&quot; behind it. you just have to think about it and research if possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6957" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-01-30T05:58:04.337" LastActivityDate="2018-01-30T05:58:04.337" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14387" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14382" CreationDate="2016-08-06T10:14:20.670" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vyasa's Mahabartha was composed as Kakawin Bhāratayuddha in the 11th century under the patronage of King Dharmawangsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhisma's visit to the Kingdom of Kashi&lt;/strong&gt;:&#xA;King Shantanu and  Satyavati  sends Bhisma to join the swayamvara in Kasi to win the three princesses Amba, Ambika and Ambalika for his two younger brothers, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. In the Indian version, Shantanu and Chitrangada are already dead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amba falls in love with Bhisma and wants to marry him. Bhisma tries hard to convince her of the promise that he undertook. He asks Amba to marry with her lover, Salwa, the King of Soba Kingdom. But she has already admitted Bhisma as her husband. Bhisma tries to scare her with his arrow.Unintentionally the arrow gets shot, and Amba is killed. Amba's spirit curses Bhisma that in Barata Yudha(i.e. Kurukshetra war) she would pick-up his soul through a lady-warrior expert in archery. Bhisma deeply regrets the accident because he has also started loving Amba. After his death in Barata yudha, his soul and Amba's, live together happily in eternal life in heaven. There is no Bhisma-Parashuram duel here or Amba's reincarnation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Draupadi's Swamvara&lt;/strong&gt;: Here there is no archery competition. The winner of the contest is to be the one, who can defeat, Patih Gandamana, uncle of Draupadi,( a character introduced in Indonesian version) in a duel battle.Meanwhile, Kunti and Pandavas decide to join the contest, with the purpose to get a wife for Yudhishthira. As Bhima is already a married man, he represents Yudhishthira and defeats Gandamana and wins her for his elder brother. Gandamana knows of his imminent death and gives his strength to Bhima before his death. That it is Bhima and not Arjuna who wins Draupadi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Karna-Arjuna meeting:&lt;/strong&gt; The most touching and tearful moment in the Indonesian version is the Karna-Arjuna meeting on the eve of Karna's first day as the  commander in chief of Kaurava army's. Arjuna secretly visits him. He has the most difficult moment in his life. Arjuna suddenly stands in front of him, kneels and greets him respectfully and says clearly, &lt;em&gt;'Please accept my sincere respects and Pandava's respect to you.'&lt;/em&gt; Karna is deeply moved. His eyes are filled with tears. Arjuna proposes to make him the emperor of Hastinapura and hopes that he will join them. They speak emotionally with each other and express love for each other. Finally, they decide to adhere to their Kshatriya duties and fight in next day's battle. Then they embrace each other again without a word and Arjuna leaves with Karna's permission.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next day after Karna kills Ghatothkacha; Karna's chariot is scattered to pieces when  Ghatothkacha's body falls from the sky.With no chariot, he meets Arjuna directly. He is aware that Arjuna calibre. But he is happy to be killed by a mighty, powerful brother.Finally, Arjuna releases his Pasupati arrow piercing Karna through the neck. Karna's death is mourned deeply by both sides. The Pandava family performs Karna's funeral rites with full honor.In the Indian version, Karna is beheaded.It is only at the end of the war after Kunti reveals Karnas' identity to the Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This only a smaller portion of the variation in Indonesian Mahabartha.There are many of them.The following link can provide you with more information and comparison in great detail. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&amp;amp;sd=Articles&amp;amp;ArticleID=1751&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Variations in Indonesian Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Regional versions&lt;/a&gt;section of Wikipedia page provides with some variation between Vyasa and Indonesian Mahabartha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2016-08-07T05:12:49.013" LastActivityDate="2016-08-07T05:12:49.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14388" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="916" CreationDate="2016-08-06T12:55:41.507" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes,  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu11.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manusmriti&lt;/a&gt;  forbids sexual intercourse with a virgin girl (without marriage). It consists provisions for the atonement of this sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Carnal intercourse with sisters by the same mother, &lt;strong&gt;with (unmarried) maidens&lt;/strong&gt;, with females of the lowest castes, with the wives of a friend, or of a son, they declare to be equal to the violation of a Guru's bed.[59]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who has had sexual intercourse with sisters by the same mother, with the wives of a friend, or of a son, &lt;strong&gt;with unmarried maidens&lt;/strong&gt;, and with females of the lowest castes, shall perform the penance, prescribed for the violation of a Guru's bed.[171]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-22T12:12:39.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14389" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-06T14:06:25.077" Score="1" ViewCount="250" Body="&lt;p&gt;We've had Jesus, Lord Chaitanya, and Srila Prabhupada who has shared valuable knowledge of God and lead by example of how to serve The Lord with pure devotion. Will there be a time (in Kali Yuga) where the world could experience a spiritual advance being such as the 3 mentioned above?     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7274" LastActivityDate="2016-08-07T08:48:01.130" Title="will there be another influential pure devotee of Krishna in the remaining time of kali yuga?" Tags="|krishna|yuga|bhakti|kali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14391" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14326" CreationDate="2016-08-07T04:22:09.067" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a western academic view that the classical Upanishads do not support Bhakti marga and thus these Upanishads do not play any role in the life of most Hindus who live according to the Puranas. The Vedanta tradition does not accept this view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mental activities relating to the Saguna Brahman - such as are&#xA;  described in the Shandilya Vidya are upasanas or &lt;strong&gt;devotions&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedantasara of Sadananda Yogindra 12 translated by Swami Nikhilananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Sadananda Yogindra links the Shandilya Vidya of the Chandogya Upanishad with Bhakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The famous Shandilya Vidya of Chandogya Upanishad starts with the following shloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verily, all this universe is Brahman. From Him do all things&#xA;  originate, into Him do they dissolve and by Him are they sustained.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;On Him should one meditate in tranquility.&lt;/strong&gt; For as is one's faith, such indeed one is; and as is one's faith in this world, such one&#xA;  becomes on departing hence. Let one therefore cultivate faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad 3.14.1 translated by Swami Swahananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The key sentence is the bolded line 'santa upashita' (On Him should one meditate in tranquility). Since it is not possible to meditate on the Infinite Nirguna Brahman (since no bottle can contain the whole of the Infinite sea, i.e. it is impossible for the human mind to think of the entire Nirguna Brahman) it is possible to meditate only on Saguna Brahman and thus the Chandogya Upanishad is here supporting Bhakti marga. Thus according to Vedanta tradition the popular Bhakti marga described in the Puranas is derived from the classical Upanishads which do play a role in the life of ordinary Hindus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-08-07T04:22:09.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14393" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14389" CreationDate="2016-08-07T08:48:01.130" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there were, there are and there will always be such exemplary people in all time. We just do not have the capability to identify them or they may not be known to all. In Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 7, Verses 16,17, the Lord says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चतुर्विधा भजन्ते मां जनाः सुकृतिनोऽर्जुन । आर्तो जिज्ञासुरर्थार्थी&#xA;  ज्ञानी च भरतर्षभ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Arjuna, the people, given to good actions who worship me are&#xA;  four-fold. They are, the one in distress, the one who wants security&#xA;  and pleasure, the one who wishes to know (Me), and the one who knows&#xA;  (Me), O foremost in the family of Bharata!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेषां ज्ञानी नित्ययुक्त एकभक्तिर्विशिष्यते । प्रियो हि&#xA;  ज्ञानिनोऽत्यर्थमहं स च मम प्रियः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among these, the jnani, always united (to me), his devotion resolved&#xA;  in oneness, is distinguished because I am totally beloved to him and&#xA;  he is absolutely My beloved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we take the times after Chaitanya and Prabhupada, there have always been many such personalities, like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, Sringeri Jagadgurus like Chandrasekhara Bharati, Abhinava Vidyateertha Mahaswami, Kanchi Paramacharya, Anandamayi Ma, Tridandi Ramanuja Pedajeeyar Swami, Shiridi Sai Baba, Sri Vasudevananda Saraswati or Tembe Swamy and many more people like them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even between Chaitanya and Prabhupada there have been many people of such nature. We just have to be able to identify them. These people are jnanis (whether Advaita, Visishtadvaita etc) who dedicated and devoted their whole life to God and Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So people of such stature exist always in all times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-08-07T08:48:01.130" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14394" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-07T11:43:12.647" Score="6" ViewCount="1623" Body="&lt;p&gt;Everyone is aware that Guru Gita is considered to be taken from Uttara Khanda of Skanda Puranam. But I cannot find in the links provided &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9078/complete-english-translations-of-puranas&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Is there any other version of Skanda Purana uttara Khanda which contains guru gita available online/offline with sanskrit text and translation? Please help me with this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2022-08-23T07:46:32.893" Title="Which chapter of Skanda Purana contains Guru Gita?" Tags="|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14395" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="147" CreationDate="2016-08-07T13:29:22.633" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;My answer is positive......i read a para somewhere that was like this-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;bhoot,pishach,pret,churail aur jinnh.....hamesha they aur hamesha rahenge kyonki bhagwaan hamesha they aur hamesha rahenge,aakhiri hisaab ke baad bhi.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to expand it in my language as......yes, evil spirits/entities exist in hindu mythology and will continue to exist until dooms day but god always existed and will always exist after the doomsday.i also read an article somewhere that-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;agar manushya bure kaam karne lage ya uska bure kaam karne ka mann hone lage joki pehle ek achcha vyakti tha..........toh iska matlab hai ki uske saath koi pret aatma jud gayi hai jo apni ikshhaon(wishes) ko puri karna chahti hai.woh achche aur bure dono kaam karwa sakti hai&quot;............but in my views'koi aatma ya keh sakte hain bhoot bure kaam hi karwaata hai kyonki agar woh achche kaam karwaana chahta toh usko pehle hi mukti mil jaati'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7340" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-07T16:43:57.673" LastActivityDate="2016-08-07T16:43:57.673" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14396" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-07T15:40:03.730" Score="5" ViewCount="185" Body="&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda describes how Brahma created the Devas and Asuras from his breath.  After he created both, he realized that the Asuras were evil, so he decided to fight them.  The Shatapatha Brahmana says that while it may seem like the Devas are defeating the Asuras, really Brahma is the one responsible for defeating the Asuras, and he's just using the Devas to accomplish this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Desirous of offspring, he went on singing praises and toiling. He laid the power of reproduction into his own self. By (the breath of) his mouth he created the gods: the gods were created on entering the sky; and this is the godhead of the gods (deva) that they were created on entering the sky (div). Having created them, there was, as it were, daylight for him; and this also is the godhead of the gods that, after creating them, there was, as it were, daylight (diva) for him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And by the downward breathing he created the Asuras: they were created on entering this earth. Having created them there was, as it were, darkness for him. He knew, 'Verily, I have created evil for myself since, after creating, there has come to be, as it were, darkness for me.' Even then he smote them with evil, and owing to this it was that they were overcome; whence people say, 'Not true is that regarding (the fight between) the gods and Asuras which is related partly in the tale and partly in the legend; for it was even then that Pragâpati smote them with evil, and it was owing to this that they were overcome.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Therefore it is with reference to this that the Rishi has said, 'Not for a single day hast thou fought, nor hast thou any enemy, O Maghavan illusion is what they say concerning thy battles; no foe hast thou fought either to-day or aforetime.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is about the quote given at the end of this passage.  In the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads, whenever the text says &quot;a Rishi has said this&quot;, what it means is that it's quoting a Vedic verse heard during meditation by a Rishi, i.e. a mantra occurring in the Samhitas of the Vedas.  So my question is, where is the Vedic verse that says that Indra has not fought (of his own accord) for a single day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it helps, here's the verse in Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na tvaṃ yuyutse katamaccanāharna te'mitro maghavankaścanāsti | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  māyetsā te yāni yuddhānyāhurnādya śatruṃ na nu purā yuyutsa ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I at least found the second half of this verse in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10054.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 54&lt;/a&gt; of the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yadacarastanvā vāvṛdhāno balānīndra prabruvāṇo janeṣu | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;māyet sā te yāni yuddhānyāhurnādya śatruṃ nanupurā vivitse&lt;/strong&gt; || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When thou wast roaming, waxen strong in body, telling thy might, Indra, among the people, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;All that men called thy battles was illusion: no foe hast thou to-day, nor erst hast found one.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani given in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, this is a hymn heard during Tapasya by the sage Brihaduktha Vamadevya.  So he may be the Rishi alluded to in the Shatapatha Brahmana.  But where in the Vedic Samhitas is the first half of the verse is from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, on a side note it's not clear whether the four-headed god Brahma is being described here, because there's an ambiguity between Prajapati and Parameshthin Prajapatya which I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12232/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T15:18:45.017" Title="Where is the Vedic verse that says Indra has never fought for a single day?" Tags="|vedas|indra|yajur-veda|shatapatha-brahmana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14397" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14401" CreationDate="2016-08-07T17:51:47.610" Score="3" ViewCount="493" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading about great &lt;strong&gt;Rushi Shree Yajnavalkya&lt;/strong&gt; , I have came across a story about him &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1379&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Read here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the short story -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once King Janaka of Videha wanted to know from which real&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmanishtha&lt;/strong&gt; (one who is well-versed in  the scriptures and&#xA;established in &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Jnana&lt;/strong&gt;. to receive Brahma Vidya.)  In order to&#xA;find out who was the real Brahma-nishtha, Janaka performed a huge&#xA;Bahu-dakshina   sacrifice to which all the Rishis from far and wide&#xA;were invited. And he offered one thousand   cows with their calves,&#xA;all their horns being decked with enormous gold. Then he proclaimed to&#xA;the assembled ones, &amp;quot;Whosoever is the best Brahmana amongst you may&#xA;drive these cows home&amp;quot;.   None dared to get up and take away the cows&#xA;as they were afraid of censure by the others. But  Yajnavalkya stood&#xA;up and asked his disciple Samasravas to drive the cows home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other Brahmanas got angry at this and said to one another, &amp;quot;How&#xA;can he declare himself to  be the best among us?&amp;quot;. Thereupon several&#xA;Rishis challenged Yajnavalkya with many questions on  transcendental&#xA;matters to all of which Yajnavalkya gave prompt reply. There was a&#xA;great debate  in which &lt;strong&gt;Yajnavalkya won over all the others&lt;/strong&gt;. Janaka was&#xA;convinced that Yajnavalkya was the  best Brahma-nishtha and received&#xA;Brahma Vidya from him thereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many Rushies asked so many questions to him about various subjects during this question answer session including &amp;quot;Asvala&amp;quot; -King Jankas priest ,&#xA;Rishi &amp;quot;Artabhaga&amp;quot; of the family of Jaratkaru , Rishi &amp;quot;Bhujyu&amp;quot; of the Lahya family ,Ushasti Chakrayana , Kahola Kaushitakeya. And &lt;strong&gt;Gargi,(a female rushi) the daughter of&#xA;Vachaknu.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.searchforlight.org/Anubhuti/AnubhutiVol2no1/Nolini%20kant%20Gupta(p)parable,rishi%20yajnavalkya,1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Read here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Similarly, he also debated with another of his teachers, Uddalaka, thus overcoming him during this.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Yajnavalkya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Read Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My question is -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the debate that was took place between Shree Yajnavalkya and his Guru (Teacher) Shree Uddalaka during  the King Janakas sacrifice.?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-07-03T07:16:51.860" Title="What debate took place between Shree Yajnavalkya Rushi and his Guru Shree Uddalaka during the King Janakas sacrifice?" Tags="|yajur-veda|janaka|yajnavalkya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14398" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14402" CreationDate="2016-08-07T18:49:51.503" Score="4" ViewCount="1239" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently watched &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poLjq0u4_5A&amp;amp;ab_channel=AjayDevgn&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shivaay&lt;/a&gt; trailer thus asking few question on this.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;1) In this trailer why Lord Shiva is called &lt;b&gt;Indivisible&lt;/b&gt;. I know its literal meaning but what it means mythologically.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2) Why is Shiva called &lt;b&gt;Mahaekaki&lt;/b&gt; i.e. loneliest of all?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;3) Why is this line said,&quot;&lt;b&gt;Ram bhi uska, Ravaan bhi uska&lt;/b&gt;&quot;? I know Ravaan was Shiva Bakht but Ram was Vishnu avataar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4828" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T03:24:22.987" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T03:24:22.987" Title="Why is Lord Shiva called indivisible, Ram &amp; Ravan in Shivaay Trailer?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14400" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-08T01:20:50.117" Score="5" ViewCount="167" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to this YouTUBE video, Lord Krishna appears to Devaki and Vasudeva in Evil Kansa's prison.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/Xp061xsX6j0?t=26m19s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lord Krishna visits Devaki and Vasudeva in Evil Kansa's Prison&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna tells Devaki how to get salvation, but Devaki says she doesn't wish for salvation. Instead, she wishes to have mother-son relationship with Lord Krishna (who is really incarnation of Lord Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Scriptures, why would anyone want to forgo salvation? This is new to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-08-18T13:25:39.983" LastActivityDate="2016-08-18T13:25:39.983" Title="Why does Devaki forego Salvation?" Tags="|krishna|moksha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14401" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14397" CreationDate="2016-08-08T01:38:19.267" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The debate of Yajnavalkya with Gargi and his teacher Uddalaka is in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is  with Gargi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;iii-vi-1: Then Gargi, the daughter of Vacaknu, asked him, ‘Yajnavalkya’,&#xA;  she said, ‘if all this is pervaded by water, by what is water pervaded ?’&#xA;  ‘By air, O Gargi’. ‘By what is air pervaded?’ ‘By the sky, O Gargi’. ‘By&#xA;  what is the sky pervaded ?’ ‘By the world of the Gandharvas, O Gargi’.&#xA;  ‘By what is the world of the Gandharvas pervaded ?’ ‘By the sun, O&#xA;  Gargi.’ ‘By what is the sun pervaded ?’ ‘By the moon, O Gargi.’ ‘By&#xA;  what is the moon pervaded ?’ ‘By the stars, O Gargi’. ‘By what are the&#xA;  stars pervaded ?’ ‘By the world of the gods, O Gargi’. ‘By what is the&#xA;  world of the gods pervaded ?’ ‘By the world of Indra, O Gargi’. By what&#xA;  is the world of Indra pervaded?’ ‘By the world of Viraj, O Gargi’. ‘By&#xA;  what is the world of Viraj pervaded?’ ‘ By the world of Hiranyagarbha,&#xA;  O Gargi’. ‘By what is the world of Hiranyagarbha pervaded ?’ He said,&#xA;  ‘Do not, O Gargi, push your inquiry too far, lest your head should fall&#xA;  off. You are questioning about a deity that should not be reasoned&#xA;  about. Do not, O Gargi, push your inquiry too far.’ Thereupon Gargi, the&#xA;  daughter of Vacaknu, kept silent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then after this debate with Uddalaka starts as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;III-vii-1: Then Uddalaka, the son of Aruna, asked him. ‘Yajnavalkya’,&#xA;  said, ‘in Madra we lived in the house of Patanchala Kapya (descendant&#xA;  of Kapi), studying the scriptures on sacrifices. His wife was possessed&#xA;  by a Gandharva. We asked him who he was. He said, &quot;Kabandha, the&#xA;  son of Atharvan&quot;. He said to Patanchala Kapya and those who studied&#xA;  the scriptures on sacrifices, &quot;Kapya, do you know that Sutra by which&#xA;  this life, the next life and all beings are held together ?&quot; Patanchala&#xA;  Kapya said, &quot;I do not know it, sir&quot;. The Gandharva said to him and the&#xA;  students, &quot;Kapya, do you know that Internal Ruler who controls this and&#xA;  the next life and all beings from within ?&quot; Patanchala Kapya said, &quot;I do&#xA;  not know Him, sir&quot;. The Gandharva said to him and the students, &quot;He&#xA;  who knows that Sutra and that Internal Ruler as above indeed knows&#xA;  Brahman, knows the worlds, knows the gods, knows the Vedas, knows&#xA;  beings, knows the self, and knows everything&quot;. He explained it all to&#xA;  them. I know it. If you, Yajnavalkya, do not know that Sutra and that&#xA;  Internal Ruler, and still take away the cows that belong only to the&#xA;  knowers of Brahman, your head shall fall off’. ‘I know, O Gautama, that&#xA;  Sutra and that Internal Ruler’. ‘Any one can say, &quot;I know, I know&quot;. Tell&#xA;  us what you know.’ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-2: He said, ‘Vayu, O Gautama, is that Sutra. Through this Sutra or&#xA;  Vayu this and the next life and all beings are held together. Therefore,&#xA;  O Gautama, when a man dies, they say that his limbs have been&#xA;  loosened, for they are held together, O Gautama, by the Sutra or&#xA;  Vayu.’ ‘Quite so, Yajnavalkya. Now describe the Internal Ruler.’ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-3: He who inhabits the earth, but is within it, whom the earth&#xA;  does not know, whose body is the earth, and who controls the earth from within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-4: He who inhabits water, but is within it, whom water does not&#xA;  know, whose body is water, and who controls water from within, is the&#xA;  Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-5: He who inhabits fire, but is within it, whom fire does not know,&#xA;  whose body is fire, and who controls fire from within, is the Internal&#xA;  Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-6: He who inhabits the sky, but is within it, whom the sky does&#xA;  not know, whose body is the sky, and who controls the sky from within,&#xA;  is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-7: He who inhabits air, but is within it, whom air does not know,&#xA;  whose body is air, and who controls air from within, is the Internal&#xA;  Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-8: He who inhabits heaven, but is within it, whom heaven does&#xA;  not know, whose body is heaven, and who controls heaven from within,&#xA;  is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-9: He who inhabits the sun, but is within it, whom the sun does&#xA;  not know, whose body is the sun, and who controls the sun from within,&#xA;  is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-10: He who inhabits the quarters, but is within it, whom the&#xA;  quarters does not know, whose body is the quarters, and who controls&#xA;  the quarters from within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-11: He who inhabits the moon and stars, but is within it, whom&#xA;  the moon and stars does not know, whose body is the moon and stars,&#xA;  and who controls the moon and stars from within, is the Internal Ruler,&#xA;  your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-12: He who inhabits the ether, but is within it, whom the ether&#xA;  does not know, whose body is the ether, and who controls the ether&#xA;  from within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-13: He who inhabits darkness, but is within it, whom darkness&#xA;  does not know, whose body is darkness, and who controls darkness&#xA;  from within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self.&#xA;  III-vii-14: He who inhabits light, but is within it, whom light does not&#xA;  know, whose body is light, and who controls light from within, is the&#xA;  Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. This much with reference to the&#xA;  gods. Now with reference to the beings. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-15: He who inhabits all beings, but is within it, whom no being&#xA;  knows, whose body is all beings, and who controls all beings from&#xA;  within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. This much with&#xA;  reference to the beings. Now with reference to the body. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-16: He who inhabits the nose, but is within it, whom the nose&#xA;  does not know, whose body is the nose, and who controls the nose&#xA;  from within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-17: He who inhabits the organ of speech, but is within it, whom&#xA;  the organ of speech does not know, whose body is the organ of&#xA;  speech, and who controls the organ of speech from within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-18: He who inhabits the eye, but is within it, whom the eye does&#xA;  not know, whose body is the eye, and who controls the eye from&#xA;  within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-19: He who inhabits the ear, but is within it, whom the ear does&#xA;  not know, whose body is the ear, and who controls the ear from within,&#xA;  is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-20: He who inhabits the mind (Manas), but is within it, whom the&#xA;  mind does not know, whose body is the mind, and who controls the&#xA;  mind from within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-21: He who inhabits the skin, but is within it, whom the skin does&#xA;  not know, whose body is the skin, and who controls the skin from&#xA;  within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-22: He who inhabits the intellect, but is within it, whom the&#xA;  intellect does not know, whose body is the intellect, and who controls&#xA;  the intellect from within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-vii-23: He who inhabits the organ of generation, but is within it,&#xA;  whom the organ of generation does not know, whose body is the organ&#xA;  of generation, and who controls the organ of generation from within, is&#xA;  the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self. He is never seen, but is the&#xA;  Witness; He is never heard, but is the Hearer; He is never thought, but&#xA;  is the Thinker; He is never known, but is the Knower. There is no other&#xA;  witness but Him, no other hearer but Him, no other thinker but Him, no&#xA;  other knower but Him. He is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self.&#xA;  Everything else but Him is mortal.’ Thereupon Uddalaka, the son of&#xA;  Aruna, kept silent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brief about the topics on which the debate took place -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After brief Question Answer session between Gargi and Shree Yajnavalkya Rushi , Shree Uddalaka Aruni , Yajnavalkya's own teacher came forward to question him.&#xA;Uddalaka Aruni begins by asking Yajnavalkya about the &lt;strong&gt;Inner controller (Anteryamin ,अंतरयामी )&lt;/strong&gt;.He made it quite clear to Yajnavalkya that he knows the answer to his &#xA;question.&lt;strong&gt;Thereupon Yajnavalkya gives a grand speech about Atman as the inner controller&lt;/strong&gt; , and Uddalka Aruni eventually  is silent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-07-03T07:16:51.860" LastActivityDate="2018-07-03T07:16:51.860" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14402" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14398" CreationDate="2016-08-08T02:22:10.507" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all it is not necessary that a trailer would show everything fully scripture based.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It looks like Ajay Devagan doesn't consider Lord Shiva as mere Destroyer or Transformer but  he considers Lord Shiva as &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/ajaydevgn/status/598525714548133893?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Supreme Brahman&lt;/a&gt; (Creator, Protector and Destroyer). This is also evident from his statement&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;ना आदि ना अंत है उसका, वो सबका ना इनका उनका, वही शून्य है वही इकाय,&#xA;जिसके भीतर बसा शिवाय।&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With no beginning and no end, indivisible, equal to all, nothing and&#xA;yet everything, Shiva is in all of us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, all these points can be answered from Supreme perspective of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Indivisiblty of Lord Shiva:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the absolute level and absolute truth is that there doesn't exist another than Shiva. The whole world we see different is just due to relative perception. It is confirmed in Svetasvatara Upanishad [3.2] as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एको हि रुद्रो न द्वितीयाय तस्थु-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;         र्य इमांल्लोकानीशत ईशनीभिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्रत्यङ् जनास्तिष्ठति सञ्चुकोचान्तकाले&lt;br&gt;&#xA;         संसृज्य विश्वा भुवनानि गोपाः ॥ २॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Rudra is truly one; for the knowers of Brahman do not admit the existence of a second,&lt;/strong&gt; He alone rules all the worlds by His powers. He dwells as the inner Self of every living being. After having created all the worlds, He, their Protector, takes them back into Himself at the end of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if there is only one. How can he be divided?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda [10.24] states the changing world and whatever we see and perceive is simply Lord Shiva/Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विश्वं भूतं भुवनं चित्रं बहुधा जातं जायमानं च&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यत् । सर्वो ह्येष रुद्रस्तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु ॥ १॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The whole universe the created beings and whatever there is manifoldly and profusely created in the past and in the present in the form of the world, all that is indeed this Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations be to Rudra who is such.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as everything is Rudra only in both absolute and relative level and there doesn't exist second. It is obvious that he can be called Indivisible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Shiva as alone: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the relative perception level Lord Shiva isn't alone, he is always with Uma. But again from absolute level, as also established from above passages as there is no second, so he would obviously be alone. It is further confirmed in Svetasvatara Upanishad [4.18] as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दाऽतमस्तान्न दिवा न रात्रिः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;           न सन्नचासच्छिव एव केवलः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तदक्षरं तत् सवितुर्वरेण्यं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;           प्रज्ञा च तस्मात् प्रसृता पुराणी ॥ १८॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;When there is no darkness of ignorance, there is no day or night, neither being nor non—being; Shiva alone exists.&lt;/strong&gt; That immutable Reality is the meaning of &amp;quot;That&amp;quot;; It is adored by the Sun. From It has proceeded the ancient wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) He is for both Rama and Ravana:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Rama and Ravana were devotees of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14293/3500&quot;&gt;worshiped&lt;/a&gt; Lord Shiva with sincere devotion at Mount Kaliasa offering his nine heads. In summer he performed tapas in panchagni (five fires), during rainy season he sat on the bare earth, and during winter he performed tapas in water. Finally when his ego was subdued, Lord Shiva granted Ravana boons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama also worshiped Lord Shiva. This is what He says to Sita Devi in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga123/yuddha_123_frame.htm#Verse19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 19 of Yuddha Kanda - Book Of War, Chapter [Sarga] 123, Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एतत् कुक्षौ समुद्रस्य स्कन्धावारनिवेशनम् || ६-१२३-१९ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;अत्र पूर्वं&#xA;महादेवः प्रसादमकरोत्प्रभुः&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;See this island, located in the middle of the ocean, where my troops&#xA;were stationed. &lt;strong&gt;At this place, the lord Shiva (the supreme deity)&#xA;formerly bestowed his grace on me.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One among the 12 Jyotirlingas ie. Sri Rameshwaram Jyotirlinga was established by Lord Rama, as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14349/what-is-the-story-of-rameshwaram-jyotirlinga/14350#14350&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T12:49:36.977" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14404" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14411" CreationDate="2016-08-08T05:34:30.627" Score="6" ViewCount="262" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been worshipped in Linga form from time beginning as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Among the Lingas there are 12 Jyotirlingas which are of special importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatmya of 12 Jyotirlingas is described in Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana in the chapter &amp;quot;Dwadash Jyotirlinga Mahatmya&amp;quot;. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च श्री शैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उज्जयिन्यां महाकालमोंकारे परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;केदारं हिमवत्पृष्ठे डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाराणास्यां च विश्वेशं &lt;strong&gt;त्रयम्बकं&lt;/strong&gt; गौतमीतटे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैद्यनाथं चिताभूमौ नागेशं दारुकावने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सेतुबन्धे तु रामेशं घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रात्यस्त्थाय यः पठेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तं सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Somanath in Saurashtra, Mallikarjuna in Shri Saile, Mahakala in Ujjaiyana and Parameshawara also manifested as Omkara. Kedara in Himavat and Bhima Shankara in Dakinya. Vishewaswara in Varanasi and Trayambaka in side of Gautami. Vaidyanath in ChitaBhumi and  Nageshwara in forest of Daruka. Rameshwara in Setubandha and Ghusmeshwara in Shivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;These name of 12 Jyotirlingas who recites in morning, he gets freed from all sins and is eligible to get all Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotirlingas&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the similar popular verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre Somanāthaṃ ca Śrīśaile Mallikārjunam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ujjayinyāṃ Mahākālam Omkāram Mamleśhwaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraly Vaidyanāthaṃ cha Ḍākinyāṃ Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setubandhe tu Rāmeśaṃ Nāgeśhaṃ Dārukāvane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vārāṇasyāṃ tu Viśveśaṃ &lt;strong&gt;Tryambakaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; Gautamītaṭe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himālaye tu Kedāraṃ Ghuśmeśaṃ ca Śivālaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already asked a question about Somanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14213/what-is-the-story-of-somanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Somanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mallikarjun &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14223/what-is-the-story-of-mallikarjuna-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mahakaleshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14243/what-is-the-story-of-mahakaleshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Omkareshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14264/what-is-the-story-of-omkareshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Vaidyanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14287/what-is-the-story-of-vaidyanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Bheemshankar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14337/what-is-the-story-of-bheemshankar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Bheemshankar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Rameshwaram &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14349/what-is-the-story-of-rameshwaram-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Rameshwaram Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Nageshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14359/what-is-the-story-of-nageshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Nageshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Vishwanatha &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14367/what-is-the-story-of-kasi-vishwanatha-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Kasi Vishwanatha Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt;. Now I want to know the story of Trayambakeshwara Jyotirling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Trayambakeshwara temple is situated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/place/19%C2%B055%2756.0%22N+73%C2%B031%2751.0%22E/@19.932222,73.530833,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d19.932222!4d73.530833?hl=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nashik, Maharashtra&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bSywh.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bSywh.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Niraj Suryawanshi - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, &lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29271240&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29271240&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-08T14:57:38.340" Title="What is the story of Trayambakeshwara Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14405" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14406" CreationDate="2016-08-08T05:38:20.477" Score="5" ViewCount="788" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is believed that the presiding deity, of the Ramanathaswamy Temple(in Rameswaram)viz the Lingam of Lord Ramanathaswamy(Lord Shiva), was consecrated by Lord Sri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is learnt that in the Ramcharitmanas, poet Goswami Tulsidas  mentions about Rameswaram Shivalinga in great detail.What are the salient features of Rameswaram Shivalinga mentioned in Ramacharitmanas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-06-23T06:03:52.033" LastActivityDate="2018-06-23T06:03:52.033" Title="What are the salient features of Rameswaram Shivalinga mentioned in Ramacharitmanas?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|shiva-lingam|ramcharitmanas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14406" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14405" CreationDate="2016-08-08T05:56:20.613" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is how Ramcharitmanas Describes establishment of Shiva Linga by Lord Rama. The Lanka Kanda 1st Dohas Chaupai mentions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सैल बिसाल आनि कपि देहीं। कंदुक इव नल नील ते लेहीं।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देखि सेतु अति सुंदर रचना। बिहसि कृपानिधि बोले बचना।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परम रम्य उत्तम यह धरनी। महिमा अमित जाइ नहिं बरनी।।  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  करिहउँ इहाँ संभु थापना। मोरे हृदयँ परम कलपना।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुनि कपीस बहु दूत पठाए। मुनिबर सकल बोलि लै आए।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;लिंग थापि बिधिवत करि पूजा। सिव समान प्रिय मोहि न दूजा।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सिव द्रोही मम भगत कहावा। सो नर सपनेहुँ मोहि न पावा।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  संकर बिमुख भगति चह मोरी। सो नारकी मूढ़ मति थोरी।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The monkeys brought huge mountains, which were received like playballs by Nala and Nila. When the All-merciful saw the exceedingly beautiful construction of the bridge, He smiled and observed thus: ìThis is a most delightful and excellent spot; its glory is&#xA;  immeasurable and cannot be described in words. I will install (an emblem of) Lord Sambhu here: it is the crowning ambition of My heart. Hearing this the lord of the monkeys despatched a number of messengers, who invited and fetched all the great sages. Having installed an linga of Lord Shiva and worshipped It with due solemnity, &lt;strong&gt;He said, &quot;No one else is so dear to Me as Shiva. An enemy of Shiva although he calls&#xA;  himself a devotee of Mine, cannot attain to Me even in a dream. He who is opposed to Shankara and yet aspires for devotion to Me, is doomed to perdition, stupid and dull-witted as he is.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the 2nd Doha states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;संकर प्रिय मम द्रोही सिव द्रोही मम दास। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ते नर करहि कलप भरि घोर नरक महुँ बास।।2।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Men, who, though devoted to Shankara, are hostile to Me and even so those who are enemies of Shiva but votaries of Mine shall have their abode in the most frightful hell till the end of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the Chaupai of 2nd Doha states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;जे रामेस्वर दरसनु करिहहिं। ते तनु तजि मम लोक सिधरिहहिं।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जो गंगाजलु आनि चढ़ाइहि। सो साजुज्य मुक्ति नर पाइहि।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  होइ अकाम जो छल तजि सेइहि। भगति मोरि तेहि संकर देइहि।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मम कृत सेतु जो दरसनु करिही। सो बिनु श्रम भवसागर तरिही।।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  राम बचन सब के जिय भाए। मुनिबर निज निज आश्रम आए।।  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गिरिजा रघुपति कै यह रीती। संतत करहिं प्रनत पर प्रीती।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बाँधा सेतु नील नल नागर। राम कृपाँ जसु भयउ उजागर।।  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बूड़हिं आनहि बोरहिं जेई। भए उपल बोहित सम तेई।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महिमा यह न जलधि कइ बरनी। पाहन गुन न कपिन्ह कइ करनी।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They who will behold Lord Ramesvara will, on quitting the body, go direct to My sphere in heaven. And a man who takes the water of the Gangå and pours it on the Lord will attain liberation in the form of absorption into My being. Again, whosoever adores the Lord in a disinterested spirit and without guile, will be blessed by Sankara with devotion to Me. And he who sees the bridge erected by me will be able to cross the ocean of worldly existence without any exertion.&lt;/strong&gt; Ramas words gladdened the heart of all and the great sages returned each to his own hermitage. Girijå, (says Sankara,) such is the way of the Lord of the Raghus: He ever loves those who take refuge in Him. The clever Nala and Nila constructed the bridge and by Råma's grace their renown spread far and wide. Those very rocks that not only sink themselves but cause even other things to sink alongwith them floated like so many rafts. This is, however, not ascribed to any miraculous power of the ocean, nor to a virtue of the rocks themselves, nor again to any skill of the monkeys.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can listen audio of above verses in the beginning of Lanka Kanda &lt;a href=&quot;https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WOI03lzegXY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the mention of getting salvation through Rameshwaram Jyotirlinga is also described in Yuddha Kanda of Brahmanda Purana as I describe in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14349/what-is-the-story-of-rameshwaram-jyotirlinga/14350#14350&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-06-23T05:59:30.110" LastActivityDate="2018-06-23T05:59:30.110" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14407" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-08T08:39:59.633" Score="2" ViewCount="140" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the means explained by Lord Shri Krishna, by which  Devotion, Knowledge and Detachment, can be integrated together in the Kaliyuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-05-24T17:24:31.677" LastActivityDate="2018-05-24T17:24:31.677" Title="Means by which Devotion , Knowledge and Detachment, can be integrated together in the Kaliyuga" Tags="|krishna|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14408" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-08T10:03:07.313" Score="5" ViewCount="1143" Body="&lt;p&gt;It might sound surprising but is a fact, as it is written in the Mahabharata itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kauravas had done many sins in their lifetime, yet they had attained the heaven after death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, does it mean that they did not get the punishment after death for their wrong doings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3050" LastActivityDate="2016-10-08T05:24:40.323" Title="Kauravas Attaining Heaven" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14409" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14408" CreationDate="2016-08-08T10:36:16.597" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Yudhisthira saw Duryodhana in heaven and the Pandavas in hell. Yudhisthira was very upset at seeing Duryodhana having fun in heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra explained to Yudhisthira, '…He who enjoys first the fruits of his good acts  must afterwards endure Hell. He, on the other hand, who first endures Hell, must afterwards endure Heaven. He whose sinful acts are many, enjoys Heaven first. It is for this, O king, that desirous of doing thee good, I caused thee to be sent for having a view of Hell.  Thou hadst, by a pretence, deceived Drona in the matter of his son. Thou hast, in consequence thereof, been shown Hell by deception. After the manner of thyself , Bhima and Arjuna, and Draupadi, have all been shown the place of sinners  by an act of deception. Come, O chief of men, all of them have been cleansed of their sins. All those kings who have sided with thee and who have been slain in battle, have all attained to heaven....'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Swargarohanika Parva Section III&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-08-08T10:36:16.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14410" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-08T12:14:51.260" Score="11" ViewCount="12878" Body="&lt;p&gt;All Hindu women cover their heads in Temples and during prayers which shows respect towards God. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.boldsky.com/yoga-spirituality/faith-mysticism/2014/why-indian-women-cover-their-head-047138.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; I have found &lt;em&gt;there is no mention of women covering their head in any of the Hindu texts.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;If it is not mentioned any where then how we came to know about this?&lt;/strong&gt; Also in other religions Males cover their heads as well, So does it exist in our culture also?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T04:58:30.967" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T23:47:24.837" Title="Why do Hindus cover their head?" Tags="|temple|worship|culture|women|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14411" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14404" CreationDate="2016-08-08T14:57:38.340" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Triyamabakeswara Jyotirlinga is related to origin of River Godavari, Rishi Gautama and Ganga River. Shiva Linga here has faces of 3 Gods of Hindu Trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara and thus Shiva linga here is called Trimbakeshwara Jyotirlinga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chapters &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-145/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;24&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-146/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;25&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-147/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;26&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-148/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;27&lt;/a&gt; of Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Mahapurana describes the story of Triyambakeswara Jyotirlinga in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once the region near &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmagiri_(hill),_Maharashtra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmagiri Hills&lt;/a&gt; of Sahyadri Mountains (Western Ghats) got inflicted with drought. Gautama Rishi with his wife Ahalya and disciples lived there. For benevolence of region, Gautama Maharshi did hard tapasya of Pranayama for 10,000 years. Varunadeva granted him the boon and asked him to dug a pit and divine water emerged out from pit and region prospered with various crops.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There were also other sages who lived there in that region. Once a quarrel happened between disciples of Gautama and wives of other sages. Disciples of Gautama were made to wait. Disciples of Gautama enraged and complained to Ahalya. Ahalya somehow managed to get water but wives of those sages enraged and rebuked her. The wives incited their husbands by saying concocted stories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sages to retaliate prayed sincerely to Lord Ganesha. Lord Ganesha appeared before them and sages requested Ganesha to send Gautama out of hermitage. Ganesha initially was reluctant but finally obliged saying to sages that they must accept the consequences their action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha went to the paddy fields of Gautama disguised as Cow and started grazing those paddy fields. Gautama Muni drove the Cow with straw and Cow died instantly by mere touch and other sages censured him of &lt;em&gt;Go-Hatya&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कम्पमाना च सा गत्वा तत्र तद्वरयोगतः। &lt;br&gt; व्रीहीन्सम्भक्षयामास यवांश्च&#xA;मुनिसत्तमाः।। ३० ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O excellent sages, staggering and faltering, the cow, because of the&#xA;boon grazed fields of barley and paddy. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एतस्मिन्नन्तरे दैवाद्गौतमस्तत्र चागतः। &lt;br&gt; स&#xA;दयालुस्तृणस्तम्बैर्वारयामास तां तदा।। ३१॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the meantime, the merciful Gautama also arrived there as a matter&#xA;of chance. He drove out the cow with the use of Straw.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तृणस्तम्बेन सा स्पृष्टा पपात पृथिवीतले। &lt;br&gt; मृता च तत्क्षणादेवतदृषेः&#xA;पश्यतस्तदा।। ३२ ।। &lt;br&gt; With the mere touch of the straw, the cow fell&#xA;on earth and died in full view of the sage.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those wicked sages ordered Gautama to leave that place. Sage Gautama moved to new place which was at distance of &lt;em&gt;Krosa&lt;/em&gt;. Gautama Muni feeling repented requested other sages to prescribe a method to get rid of sin of killing the cow. The sages suggested some methods and asked to choose one method. gautama Muni chose to Worship &lt;em&gt;Parthiva Linga.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पार्थिवानां तथा पूजां गिरेः प्रक्रमणं तथा। &lt;br&gt;करिष्यामि मुनिश्रेष्ठा!&#xA;आाज्ञया श्रीमतामिह॥५६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saying that, “As per your command I shall resort to the adoration of&#xA;Parthiva linga and shall go round the mountain.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्युक्त्वा सर्षिवर्यश्च कृत्वा प्रक्रमणं गिरेः। &lt;br&gt;पूजयामास निर्माय&#xA;पार्थिवान्मुनिसत्तमः॥५७॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus speaking the excellent sage, after&#xA;going round the mountain, made a Pärthivalinga and adored it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For his tapasya, Lord Shiva appeared with His Ganas and asked for a boon. Gautama Muni asked to relieve from sin of killing cow. Lord Shiva enlightened him saying that it was conspiracy hatched by wicked Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिव उवाच &lt;br&gt; धन्योऽसि कृतकृत्योऽसि निष्पापोऽसि सदा मुने!। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;एतैर्दुष्टैः किल त्वं च छलितोऽसि खलात्मभिः॥ ६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śiva said, “O Sage, you are quite graceful, successful, unblemished&#xA;and sinless. The wicked sages have cheated you, they are sinful,&#xA;wicked and killers.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gautama Muni considered wicked Brahmanas plan as boon as he got the opportunity to see Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva asked him another boon and Gautama Muni asked Shiva to give Ganga for benevolence of world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततस्तु शङ्करो देवः पृथिव्याश्च दिवश्च सः। &lt;br&gt; सारं चैव समुद्धृत्य&#xA;रक्षितं पूर्वमेव तत्॥२१॥ &lt;br&gt;विवाहे ब्रह्मणा दत्तमवशिष्ट च किञ्चन।&#xA;&lt;br&gt; तत्तस्मै दत्तवाञ्शम्भुर्मुनये भक्तवत्सलः।। २२ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Siva, took out the essence of the heaven and earth, which had&#xA;been extracted earlier, and was given by Brahmā to Śiva in the&#xA;marriage of the latter, besides the remaining water of the Gangă, was&#xA;given away to Gautama by lord Śiva, who is well disposed towards his&#xA;devotees. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गङ्गाजलं तदा तत्र स्त्रीरूपमभवत्परम्। &lt;br&gt;तस्याश्चैव ऋषिश्रेष्ठ:&#xA;स्तुतिं कृत्वा नतिं व्यधात्॥ २३॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The water of the Gangă, then took to the form of a damsel. The sage&#xA;Gautama, then eulogising her, bowed in reverence to her. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गौतम उवाच &lt;br&gt; धन्यासि कृतकृत्यासि पावितं भुवनं त्वया। &lt;br&gt;मां च पावय&#xA;गङ्गे त्वं पतन्तं निरये ध्रुवम्॥ २४॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gautama said, “You are graceful, blessed and successful. You have&#xA;purified the earth. O Gangă, you purify me since I am falling in the&#xA;hell.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganga then said to sage that after purifying him, she would go to her abode. Then Shiva ordered Ganga to stay there till end of 28th Kaliyuga of Vaivasra Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Ganga  requested Mahadeva to stay there with His consort and Ganas. Devas eulogized them and said they would visit that place when Jupiter comes to Leo.&#xA;There Ganga and Shiva stayed there as Gautami (Godavari) and Triyambakeswara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वे ऊचुः &lt;br&gt; सिंहराशौ यदा स्याद्वै गुरुः सर्वसुहृत्तमः।&lt;br&gt; तदा वयं&#xA;च सर्वे त्वागमिष्यामो न संशयः।।४३।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the gods said, “When the Jupiter, the most friendly to all, comes&#xA;to the zodiac of Leo, then all of us will arrive here. There is no&#xA;doubt about it. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सा गङ्गा गौतमी नाम्ना लिङ्ग व्यम्बकमीरितम्। &lt;br&gt; ख्याताख्यातं बभूवाथ&#xA;महापातकनाशनम्॥ ५० ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Gangā came to be known by the name of Gautami, while the&#xA;Šivalinga WaS known by the name of Tryambakesvara. Both of them wash&#xA;out the grave sins.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तद्दिनं हि समारभ्य सिंहस्थे च वृहस्पतौ।&lt;br&gt; आायान्ति सर्वतीर्थानि&#xA;क्षेत्राणि दैवतानि च।। ५१।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since that date, at the time of Jupiter’s entry into the zodiac Leo,&#xA;all the tirthas, kşetras, and the gods visit the place.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-08-08T14:57:38.340" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14413" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="517" CreationDate="2016-08-08T23:22:07.400" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am sorry.. may be i have to recheck the above.. definitely from vedas the mangala sruthi has started.. which are....&#xA; loka samastha sukhhino bhavanthu on wards.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so i have kind of mixed  it up with Aaditya hridayam.... Somehow I remember both of them being chanted  together .. like at the end of aaditya hridayam.. i remember the loka samastha being chanted.. back in N.Parur  our Vadyar. taught us Aadityahridayam..at the Paandi Samooha madam in the  Sasthamkovil premises.. in the years early 70s ...we were 10 - 15 girls and we were taught to chant Lalitha sahasranamam,Soundariya lahari ,ganesha sthothram( Mudakaratha modakam) ,Aditya hrudayam, and even started with Sivananda lahari..&#xA;The boys were taught Vushnu sahasranamam, Syamaka dantakam,Siva kavacham...etc...&#xA;We used to play there, learn the sthothram and come back homd after school.. &#xA;Feel so nostalgic.. Uma, Gayathri,.. me, Pushpa,...&#xA;Later we were used to be invited to chant these in the Theru houses one after another &#xA;and by the end of the year, both Lalitha sahasranamam and Soundariya lahari we had by-hearted&#xA;.. even now remember all of it byheart..&#xA;though few years of non chanting has resulted in  forgetting the order of Soundariya lahari versus.&#xA;but... .otherwise all versus are. hridistham..Namaskarams to our Guru .. Vadhyar.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7349" LastActivityDate="2016-08-08T23:22:07.400" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14414" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14418" CreationDate="2016-08-09T06:29:39.933" Score="7" ViewCount="579" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been worshipped in Linga form from time beginning as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Among the Lingas there are 12 Jyotirlingas which are of special importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatmya of 12 Jyotirlingas is described in Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana in the chapter &amp;quot;Dwadash Jyotirlinga Mahatmya&amp;quot;. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च श्री शैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उज्जयिन्यां महाकालमोंकारे परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;केदारं&lt;/strong&gt; हिमवत्पृष्ठे डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाराणास्यां च विश्वेशं त्रयम्बकं गौतमीतटे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैद्यनाथं चिताभूमौ नागेशं दारुकावने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सेतुबन्धे तु रामेशं घुश्मेशं च शिवालये ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रात्यस्त्थाय यः पठेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तं सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Somanath in Saurashtra, Mallikarjuna in Shri Saile, Mahakala in Ujjaiyana and Parameshawara also manifested as Omkara. Kedara in Himavat and Bhima Shankara in Dakinya. Vishewaswara in Varanasi and Trayambaka in side of Gautami. Vaidyanath in ChitaBhumi and  Nageshwara in forest of Daruka. Rameshwara in Setubandha and Ghusmeshwara in Shivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;These name of 12 Jyotirlingas who recites in morning, he gets freed from all sins and is eligible to get all Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotirlingas&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the similar popular verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre Somanāthaṃ ca Śrīśaile Mallikārjunam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ujjayinyāṃ Mahākālam Omkāram Mamleśhwaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraly Vaidyanāthaṃ cha Ḍākinyāṃ Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setubandhe tu Rāmeśaṃ Nāgeśhaṃ Dārukāvane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vārāṇasyāṃ tu Viśveśaṃ Tryambakaṃ Gautamītaṭe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himālaye tu &lt;strong&gt;Kedāraṃ&lt;/strong&gt; Ghuśmeśaṃ ca Śivālaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already asked a question about Somanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14213/what-is-the-story-of-somanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Somanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mallikarjun &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14223/what-is-the-story-of-mallikarjuna-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mahakaleshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14243/what-is-the-story-of-mahakaleshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Omkareshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14264/what-is-the-story-of-omkareshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Vaidyanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14287/what-is-the-story-of-vaidyanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Bheemshankar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14337/what-is-the-story-of-bheemshankar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Bheemshankar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Rameshwaram &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14349/what-is-the-story-of-rameshwaram-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Rameshwaram Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Nageshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14359/what-is-the-story-of-nageshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Nageshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Vishwanatha &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14367/what-is-the-story-of-kasi-vishwanatha-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Kasi Vishwanatha Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Trayambakeshwara &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14404/what-is-the-story-of-trayambakeshwara-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Trayambakeshwara Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt;. Now I want to know the story of Kedarnath Jyotirling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kedarnath temple is situated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/place/30%C2%B044%2706.7%22N+79%C2%B004%2700.9%22E/@30.735194,79.066917,12z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d30.735194!4d79.066917?hl=en&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttarakhand&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ziyXF.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ziyXF.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Shaq774 at en.wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia Source at wikipedia, Public Domain, &lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4624438&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4624438&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-09T12:30:03.537" Title="What is the story of Kedarnath Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14415" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14416" CreationDate="2016-08-09T09:37:41.203" Score="3" ViewCount="5189" Body="&lt;p&gt;Goddess Lakshmi  is the goddess of wealth, fortune and prosperity. Goddess Lakshmi is the “eternal” consort  and shakti (energy) of God Vishnu.&#xA;Goddess Lakshmi is also considered as, another aspect of the Supreme Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  iconography of Goddess Lakshmi  shows her with four hands, which represent the four goals of human life considered important to the Hindu way of life: dharma, kama, artha, and moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The goddess  typically stands or sits like a yogini on a lotus pedestal and holds lotus in her hand, a symbolism for fortune, self-knowledge and spiritual liberation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Lakshmi is also seen serving the Lotus feet of God Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the &lt;strong&gt;spiritual&lt;/strong&gt; significance of  Goddess Lakshmi serving the Lotus feet of God Vishnu? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-06-06T17:32:12.063" LastActivityDate="2018-06-07T11:21:04.860" Title="Spiritual significance of Goddess Lakshmi serving the Lotus feet of God Vishnu" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavata-purana|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14416" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14415" CreationDate="2016-08-09T09:41:40.987" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Goddess Lakshmi (Sanskrit: लक्ष्मी} is the goddess of wealth, fortune and prosperity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess Lakshmi is the “eternal” consort and shakti (energy) of God Vishnu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess Lakshmi is also considered as, another aspect of the Supreme Goddess.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Lakshmi serving Vishnu's feet should &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; be taken literally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;strong&gt;should&lt;/strong&gt; only be &lt;strong&gt;perceived&lt;/strong&gt; to &lt;strong&gt;understand&lt;/strong&gt; the &lt;strong&gt;devotional&lt;/strong&gt; aspect of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Lakshmi is always seen worshipping  the Lotus feet of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/11/33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.11.33)&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The goddess of fortune, although by nature very restless and moving, could not quit the Supreme’s feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma explains the significance of this form of devotion, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/14/58&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatham 10.14.58&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Murāri, the enemy of the Mura demon, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf’s hoof-print. Their goal is paraṁ padam, Vaikuṇṭha, the place where there are no material miseries, not the place where there is danger at every step.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though &lt;strong&gt;Goddess Lakshmi&lt;/strong&gt; is the Goddess of wealth and presides over all forms of prosperity, the  goddess  &lt;strong&gt;shows&lt;/strong&gt; to the world that &lt;strong&gt;serving&lt;/strong&gt; the &lt;strong&gt;Supreme&lt;/strong&gt;  is &lt;strong&gt;greater&lt;/strong&gt; than all the treasures on earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference - Srimad Bhagavatham(Bhāgavata Purāṇa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference link:-&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb?gclid=COTrlOjKl9ACFc6HaAodm0UHiA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb?gclid=COTrlOjKl9ACFc6HaAodm0UHiA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-06-07T11:21:04.860" LastActivityDate="2018-06-07T11:21:04.860" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14417" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14219" CreationDate="2016-08-09T10:08:57.483" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Found this in indiadevine site (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiadivine.org/content/topic/980214-krishnanarayanalord-siva/?do=findComment&amp;amp;comment=5784716&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.indiadivine.org/content/topic/980214-krishnanarayanalord-siva/?do=findComment&amp;amp;comment=5784716&lt;/a&gt;)  Wish to share the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narasimha is Narayana and Sadashiva &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Problem is that many people hasn't understood &quot;Narasimhadeva&quot;.&#xA;  Narasimhadeva has no beginning  or end. He is Original &quot;Narayana&quot;. He&#xA;  is source of all avatars. He is source of heat of the sun and keeping&#xA;  cool laxmi maa (parashakti) on his chest/lap. He has nine planets in&#xA;  his divine face. All panch buthas are at his feet. All gods do their&#xA;  job by his fear or bakthi towards him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is keeping yoga-maya as his illusinory energy. He is the aadi&#xA;  omkara jwala. He is Narayana. All mantras, tantras, sastras, weapons&#xA;  come from him and surrender within him. He generated Maha-Sudarshana&#xA;  Chakra from it all gods got their weapons. He controls the time thru&#xA;  his kala-chakra. (behind every sudarsha chakra shrine you can see&#xA;  narasimha sitting). He ends everything thru his third eye at end of&#xA;  kalpa. At that time he himself is Sada-shiva or mahaa-kalaa. For&#xA;  Vaishnavas he gives his divine darshan thru his divine Vasudeva form.&#xA;  For Shaivas [rudras followers (not pseudo-shaivas)] or Siddas or&#xA;  Rishis he gives watever powers they ask by giving darshan in form of&#xA;  divine aadi-jyoti.   They worship him in form of Linga. He is the one&#xA;  who resides within each linga. Rudra represents our body. Linga&#xA;  represents our aatma.   Inside our aatma &quot;narasimha&quot; resides as&#xA;  aatma-jyothi. In all shiva temples you can see rudra outside as&#xA;  urchava, since hes outside the linga. Inside linga it is &quot;Narasimha -&#xA;  the param jyoti&quot; residing. Whenever siddhas enjoy bliss of this jyoti&#xA;  they dance with joy. Since this dance is divine, this dance is taken&#xA;  as form of worship. Rudra being a chief of all siddhas dances in this&#xA;  way so hes called nataraja. Dance is called bharatanatyam. During&#xA;  shivarathri siddhas (including rudra) realises this parama-jyoti. So&#xA;  special Worship is done at siddha pittas, rudra temples and&#xA;  shiva-lingas as parama-jyoti is residing inside the linga (aatma).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The above truth is beautifully illustrated by Madhvacharya.&#xA;  Shivarathri are celebreated by Madhvas also. Pradhosam is celebreated&#xA;  in all great Narasimha temples. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At Pradosham time Narashima give's darshan to everyone. At this time&#xA;  he accepts all prayers of devas, rudra, brahma and gurus. So at&#xA;  pradosham time, in shiva temples only nandi is collecting prayer from&#xA;  us as rudra is busy in worshippine narasimha (eventhough shaivatees&#xA;  will say something reverse).   When Rudra tells in his Gita that&#xA;  Sada-Siva is supreme, he is actually referring Narayana(Narasimha).&#xA;  Since Gita told by Rudra (in padma purana) may create confusion, all&#xA;  acharyas took &quot;Bhagavath Gita&quot; told by Lord Krishna (narasimha&#xA;  himself) as authorotative. Read Narasimha Upanishads, Narashima&#xA;  Sahasranama and Narasihma Purana. There everything explained clearly. &#xA;  Also Read Sri Vedantha Desikars commentary about Narasimhadeva. he&#xA;  clearly explains above. Also Nammalwar told It is Narasimha residing&#xA;  everywhere. Even in Vishnu Sahasranama it is Narasimha pointed out at&#xA;  many times. It is narasimha praised as Sadashiva in &quot;shiva&#xA;  sahasranama&quot;. All Gods have praised stotras in praise of Narashima.&#xA;  Even Narasimhas own avatars have worshiped  and praised Narasimhadeva.&#xA;  So whenever someone tells Rama/krishna worshipped linga then it should&#xA;  be understood that they worshiiped Narasimha thru linga. Worshpiing&#xA;  Narasimha in form of linga is very ancient method as its easy to make&#xA;  a linga than sculpting his divine form. Only after people gained&#xA;  mastery over crafts they started sculpting narasimha and his divine&#xA;  forms. Both Madhvacharya and Vedantha desikar had told that when&#xA;  narasimha killed hiranyakashipu, blood of hiranya was consumed by&#xA;  narasimadeva to wash off his sins(as requested by prahlada alwar), [in&#xA;  narasimha temples panaga representing blood is given as prasada to&#xA;  narasimhadeva]. hiranyas hide(skin) was worn by virabadra, hiranyas&#xA;  head is accepted by Kaalidevi, hiranyas soul is given to saraba(death&#xA;  ie., rudra) who made sure that this aatma will born again according to&#xA;  its karma. Even death(saraba) is controlled by Narasimha only.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Narsimhadeva's anger was calmed down by Prahladalwar's prayers (as God&#xA;  stoops down to devotees pure prayers, he cant be controlled thru&#xA;  ahankara). But shivapurana being tamasic it illustrates everything as&#xA;  reverse just as kaali devotees wrongly tell as though kaali defeated&#xA;  rudra (but actually rudra defeated kaali). It is Narasimhadeva&#xA;  standing in his divine form as &quot;Venkateswara&quot; in Tirumala as to his&#xA;  devotees as he always gives darshan thru his divine Vasudeva form.&#xA;  Since Vaishnavas are soft-hearted Narasimha always gives darshan in&#xA;  form of divine Vasudeva form. Thats why worshiping Narasimha in form&#xA;  of Vasudeva, Rama, krishna is much more prevalent than form of&#xA;  Narasimha himself. Om Namo Narayanaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-08-10T13:49:36.420" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T13:49:36.420" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14418" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14414" CreationDate="2016-08-09T12:23:41.990" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3712/3500&quot;&gt;Nara-Narayana&lt;/a&gt; were two prominent sages, who were sons of Yama and previous births of Arjuna and Krishna respectively. They lived in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badrinath&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Badrikashrama&lt;/a&gt; and they were known for their fight with &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6941/3500&quot;&gt;Sahasrakavacha&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These sages did Tapasya for Lord Shiva daily and Shiva used to come here as &lt;em&gt;Parthiva Linga&lt;/em&gt; pleased by their blessings. He stayed there as Kedarnatha Jyotirlinga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of Kedarnatha Jyotirlinga is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-140/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 19&lt;/a&gt; Kotirudra Samhita of Shiva Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूत उवाच&lt;br&gt; नरनारायणाख्यौ याववतारौ हरेर्द्विजाः।&lt;br&gt; तेषाते भारते&#xA;खण्डे बदर्याश्रम एव हि॥ १॥&lt;br&gt; ताभ्यां सम्प्रार्थितः शम्भुः पार्थिवे&#xA;पूजनाय वै।&lt;br&gt; आयाति नित्यं तल्लिङ्गे भक्ताधीनतया शिवः।। २ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sūta said, “Nara-Nārāyaņa, the two incarnations of Visnu, are&#xA;performing penance at Badrikāśrama Khanda in Bhārata-varsa. Śiva, in&#xA;order to accept their worship of the Pärthiva-linga arrives there&#xA;daily. This is because Siva is always subservient to his devotees&#xA;arrives there daily. This is because Siva is always subservient to his&#xA;devotees. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एवं पूजयतोः शम्भुं तयोर्विष्ण्ववतारयोः। &lt;br&gt; चिरकालो व्यतीयाय&#xA;शैवयोर्धर्मपुत्रयोः।। ३॥&lt;br&gt; Those two incarnations of Visnu, and&#xA;spiritual sons of Śiva, adored Siva there for a long time. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एकस्मिन्समये तत्र प्रसन्नः परमेश्वरः।।&lt;br&gt; प्रत्युवाच प्रसन्नोऽस्मि&#xA;वरो मे व्रियतामिति।।४॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once the delightful Siva told them, “I am pleased with you. You better&#xA;ask for your desired boon.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्युक्ते च तदा तेन नरो नारायणः स्वयम्। &lt;br&gt;ऊचतुर्वचनं तत्र लोकानां&#xA;हितकाम्यया॥५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At these words of Šiva, Nara-Nārāyana, spoke to Śiva, keeping in view&#xA;the welfare of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नरनारायणावूचतुः&lt;br&gt; यदि प्रसन्नेो देवेश ! यदि देयो वरस्त्वया।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्थीयतां स्वेन रूपेण पूजार्थं शङ्कर! स्वयम्।। ६ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nara-Nārāyana said, “O Lord of gods, in case you are pleased with us&#xA;and intend to bestow a boon, then you stay here forever for our&#xA;adoration.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूत उवाच&lt;br&gt; इत्युक्तस्तु तदा ताभ्यां केदारे हिमसंश्रये।&lt;br&gt; स्वयं च&#xA;शङ्करस्तस्थौ ज्योतीरूपो महेश्वरः।।७।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sūta said, “When both of them thus spoke, Šiva got himself established&#xA;over the snow clad Kedara mountain, in Jyotirlinga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ताभ्यां च पूजितश्चैव सर्वदुःखभयापहः।&lt;br&gt; लोकानामुपकारार्थं भक्तानां&#xA;दर्शनाय वै॥८॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The linga, having been adored by both of them (Nara-Nārāyaņa) the&#xA;linga, which removed all types of dangers and pains, for the benefit&#xA;of the people and for the devotees to have a look at it, was lodged,&#xA;there, which could be seen even today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्वयं स्थितस्तदा शम्भुः केदारेश्वरसंज्ञकः।&lt;br&gt; भक्ताभीष्टप्रदो नित्यं&#xA;दर्शनादर्चनादपि।।९।।&lt;br&gt; Śiva is found present there in the form of&#xA;Kedaresvara. The lord fulfills the desires of all who have an audience&#xA;with the linga or worship it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-08-09T12:30:03.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14421" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19216" CreationDate="2016-08-09T15:54:46.830" Score="2" ViewCount="849" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Indian tradition,before a newly constructed house or rented house is occupied Griha pravesham(house warming ceremony) is performed.What are the real significances of this ritual? What is the consequence of not performing this ritual?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T16:56:12.680" Title="Significance of House-warming (Griha pravesham) ceremony" Tags="|belief|rituals|tradition|vastu-shastra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14422" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14426" CreationDate="2016-08-09T17:55:47.243" Score="9" ViewCount="2765" Body="&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Suryopasana&amp;quot; (सूर्योपासना) ie. Worship of Surya deva or Sun god&lt;/strong&gt; is a very ancient tradition of Hinduism. We can find its origins in our Vedas. Lots of mantras are there about Surya Deva or the Sun god in all four Vedas. Some of them are from&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;1) Saura Suktas from Rug-Veda 2) Surya Namaskar Mantras 3) Surya Upanishad from Atharvaved.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suryopasana or worship of the sun god is also the purpose of &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Sandhyavandanam&amp;quot; (संध्यावंदन)&lt;/strong&gt; , a daily ritual carried out in the morning, afternoon, and evening to praise Surya Deva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are the benefits of Suryopasana&amp;quot; described in Vedas and Upanishads&lt;/strong&gt;,  &lt;strong&gt;Preferably with mentioning of Sanskrit Mantras.&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-05-11T18:11:48.697" LastActivityDate="2023-05-11T18:11:48.697" Title="Benefits of &quot;Suryaopassna&quot; (सूर्योपासना) or Sun worship described in Vedas and upanishdas?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|tradition|surya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14425" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14472" CreationDate="2016-08-10T06:00:10.983" Score="5" ViewCount="223" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has been worshipped in Linga form from time beginning as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Among the Lingas there are 12 Jyotirlingas which are of special importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahatmya of 12 Jyotirlingas is described in Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana in the chapter &amp;quot;Dwadash Jyotirlinga Mahatmya&amp;quot;. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौराष्ट्रे सोमनाथं च श्री शैले मल्लिकार्जुनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उज्जयिन्यां महाकालमोंकारे परमेश्वरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;केदारं हिमवत्पृष्ठे डाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाराणास्यां च विश्वेशं त्रयम्बकं गौतमीतटे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैद्यनाथं चिताभूमौ नागेशं दारुकावने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सेतुबन्धे तु रामेशं &lt;strong&gt;घुश्मेशं&lt;/strong&gt; च शिवालये ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रात्यस्त्थाय यः पठेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तं सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Somanath in Saurashtra, Mallikarjuna in Shri Saile, Mahakala in Ujjaiyana and Parameshawara also manifested as Omkara. Kedara in Himavat and Bhima Shankara in Dakinya. Vishewaswara in Varanasi and Trayambaka in side of Gautami. Vaidyanath in ChitaBhumi and  Nageshwara in forest of Daruka. Rameshwara in Setubandha and Ghusmeshwara in Shivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;These name of 12 Jyotirlingas who recites in morning, he gets freed from all sins and is eligible to get all Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are twelve &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga#Sanskrit_Sloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotirlingas&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the similar popular verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saurāṣṭre Somanāthaṃ ca Śrīśaile Mallikārjunam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ujjayinyāṃ Mahākālam Omkāram Mamleśhwaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paraly Vaidyanāthaṃ cha Ḍākinyāṃ Bhīmaśhaṅkaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setubandhe tu Rāmeśaṃ Nāgeśhaṃ Dārukāvane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vārāṇasyāṃ tu Viśveśaṃ Tryambakaṃ Gautamītaṭe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himālaye tu Kedāraṃ &lt;strong&gt;Ghuśmeśaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; ca Śivālaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etāni jyotirliṅgāni sāyaṃ prātaḥ paṭhennaraḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saptajanmakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ smaraṇena vinaśyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have already asked a question about Somanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14213/what-is-the-story-of-somanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Somanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mallikarjun &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14223/what-is-the-story-of-mallikarjuna-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Mahakaleshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14243/what-is-the-story-of-mahakaleshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Omkareshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14264/what-is-the-story-of-omkareshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Vaidyanath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14287/what-is-the-story-of-vaidyanath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Bheemshankar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14337/what-is-the-story-of-bheemshankar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Bheemshankar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Rameshwaram &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14349/what-is-the-story-of-rameshwaram-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Rameshwaram Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Nageshwar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14359/what-is-the-story-of-nageshwar-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Nageshwar Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Vishwanatha &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14367/what-is-the-story-of-kasi-vishwanatha-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Kasi Vishwanatha Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Trayambakeshwara &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14404/what-is-the-story-of-trayambakeshwara-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Trayambakeshwara Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; and Kedarnath &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14414/what-is-the-story-of-kedarnath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Kedarnath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt;. Now I want to know the story of Ghushmeshwara Jyotirling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ghushmeshwara temple is situated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/place/26%C2%B011%2754.0%22N+76%C2%B002%2725.0%22E/@26.198333,76.040278,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d26.198333!4d76.040278?hl=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7BbKa.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7BbKa.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Ghushmeshwar jyotirlinga - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, &lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24530632&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24530632&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-12T14:47:24.450" Title="What is the story of Ghushmeshwara Jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|scripture|temple|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14426" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14422" CreationDate="2016-08-10T06:54:10.770" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Praying to Sun god (Suryopasana) has many benefits described in Vedas. According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01050.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rig Veda, Book 1, Hymn 50&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;code&gt;Surya&lt;/code&gt; is the remover of heart disease and yellowness of body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उद्यन्नद्य मित्रमह आरोहन्नुत्तरां दिवम | &#xA;  हर्द्रोगं ममसूर्य हरिमाणं च नाशय || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11 Rising this day, O rich in friends, ascending to the loftier heaven,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sūrya remove my heart's disease, take from me this my yellow hue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also praying to &lt;code&gt;Surya&lt;/code&gt; can give us strength and can remove various diseases as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rig Veda, Book 10, Hymn 37&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;येन सूर्य जयोतिषा बाधसे तमो जगच्च विश्वमुदियर्षिभानुना | &#xA;  तेनास्मद विश्वामनिरामनाहुतिमपामीवामप दुष्वप्न्यं सुव || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 O Sūrya, with the light whereby thou scatterest gloom, and with thy ray impellest every moving thing,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Keep far from us all feeble, worthless sacrifice, and drive away disease and every evil dream.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Surya&lt;/code&gt; is the provider of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;happiness and maximum age&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तं नो दयावाप्र्थिवी तन न आप इन्द्रः शर्ण्वन्तु मरुतोहवं वचः | &#xA;  मा शूने भूम सूर्यस्य सन्द्र्शिभद्रं जीवन्तो जरणामशीमहि || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 This invocation, these our words may Heaven and Earth, and Indra and the Waters and the Maruts hear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ne’er may we suffer want in presence of the Sun, and, living happy lives, may we attain old age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विश्वाहा तवा सुमनसः सुचक्षसः परजावन्तो अनमीवानागसः | &#xA;  उद्यन्तं तवा मित्रमहो दिवे-दिवे जयोग जीवाःप्रति पश्येम सूर्य || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 Cheerful in spirit, evermore, and keen of sight, with store of children, free from sickness and from sin,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Long-living, may we look, O Sūrya, upon thee uprising day by day, thou great as Mitra is!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महि जयोतिर्बिभ्रतं तवा विचक्षण भास्वन्तं चक्षुषे चक्षुषे मयः | &#xA;  आरोहन्तं बर्हतः पाजसस परि वयंजीवाः परति पश्येम सूर्य || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8 Sūrya, may we live long and look upon thee still, thee, O Far-seeing One, bringing the glorious light,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The radiant God, the spring of joy to every eye, as thou art mounting up o’er the high shining flood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Surya&lt;/code&gt; is also capable of giving &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;pure innocence, strength, and health&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्य ते विश्वा भुवनानि केतुना पर चेरते नि च विशन्तेक्तुभिः | &#xA;  अनागास्त्वेन हरिकेश सूर्याह्नाह्ना नोवस्यसा-वस्यसोदिहि || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9 Thou by whose lustre all the world of life comes forth, and by thy beams again returns unto its rest,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Sūrya with the golden hair, ascend for us day after day, still bringing purer innocence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शं नो भव चक्षसा शं नो अह्ना शं भानुना शंहिमा शं घर्णेन | &#xA;  यथा शमध्वञ्छमसद दुरोणेतत सूर्य दरविणं धेहि चित्रम || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10 Bless us with shine, bless us with perfect daylight, bless us with cold, with fervent heat and lustre.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bestow on us, O Sūrya, varied riches, to bless us in our home and when we travel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अस्माकं देवा उभयाय जन्मने शर्म यछत दविपदेचतुष्पदे | &#xA;  अदत पिबदूर्जयमानमाशितं तदस्मेशं योररपो दधातन || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11 Gods, to our living creatures of both kinds vouchsafe protection, both to bipeds and to quadrupeds,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That they may drink and eat invigorating food. So grant us health and strength and perfect innocence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As suggested by @Tezz, According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.suyajna.org/files/rudram.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yajur Veda 4.5.1&lt;/a&gt; &lt;code&gt;Surya&lt;/code&gt; is the form of &lt;code&gt;Rudra&lt;/code&gt;. So, he is the provider of happiness to everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;असौ योsवसर्पति   नीलग्रीवो     विलोहितः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उतैनं गोपा अदृशन्नदृशन्नुदहार्यः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उतैनं विश्वा भूतानि स दृष्टो मृडयाति नः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The black-throated Rudra who has assumed the form of the sun that glows red when rising. Him the cowherds, the women carrying water, and all the creatures behold. He, who is seen by all, let Him send happiness to us. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-08-10T08:41:13.310" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T08:41:13.310" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14427" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10662" CreationDate="2016-08-10T07:02:20.620" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Godesses Ambika who is also known by the name Godesses Durga is the Mahisasura Mardini (slayer of Mahisasura). Precisely speaking it is Chandika form of Godesses Ambika who slays Mahisasura:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chaptet 81 to Chapter 93 of &lt;strong&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/strong&gt; is called &lt;strong&gt;Devi Mahatmyam&lt;/strong&gt; and it sings the Glory of Devi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all Mahisasura defeats all gods and take their position as described in chapter 82:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देवासुरमभूद्युद्धं पूर्णमब्दशतं पुरा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महिषेऽसुराणामधिपे देवानां च पुरन्दरे॥२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्रासुरैर्महावीर्यैर्देवसैन्यं पराजितम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जित्वा च सकलान् देवानिन्द्रोऽभून्महिषासुरः॥३॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In former times war was waged between the deities and demons for the full space of one hundred years; also between Mahisha-sura, the greatest of demons, and Purandara (Indra). The Asura of ample heroism repulsed the army of the Devas; &lt;strong&gt;Mahishasura vanquished all the gods and became as Indra.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then in the same chapter Gods go to Brahma and pray him to give him relief from Mahisasura. Then from the combined energy of Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu, Indra and etc... all Gods Godesses Ambika/ Durga manifest as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इत्थं निशम्य देवानां वचांसि मधुसूदनः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चकार कोपं शम्भुश्च भ्रुकुटीकुटिलाननौ॥९॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततोऽतिकोपपूर्णस्य चक्रिणो वदनात्ततः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निश्‍चक्राम महत्तेजो ब्रह्मणः शंकरस्य च॥१०॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अन्येषां चैव देवानां शक्रादीनां शरीरतः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निर्गतं सुमहत्तेजस्तच्चैक्यं समगच्छत॥११॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अतीव तेजसः कूटं ज्वलन्तमिव पर्वतम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ददृशुस्ते सुरास्तत्र ज्वालाव्याप्तदिगन्तरम्॥१२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अतुलं तत्र तत्तेजः सर्वदेवशरीरजम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एकस्थं तदभून्नारी व्याप्तलोकत्रयं त्विषा॥१३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Madhusudana hearkened to the words of the deities; &lt;strong&gt;Sambhu was wroth contracting his brows with furious ire. Afterwards, Chakrini&amp;apos;s face was transported with rage, abundance of light issued from Bramha and Sankara.&lt;/strong&gt; An immense mass of light proceeded from the bodies of Sakra and all the other Devas, and conglomerated. This effulgent lustre appeared as a flaming mountain: the Suras having seen the flame receded to the extremities of regions. &lt;strong&gt;The peerless light issued from the bodies of all the Devas and the phenomenon was transfigured as a woman extending through the three worlds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then all Gods give their respective weapons, Himavat gives Lion and so on.. Then Godesses Ambika marches to slay Mahisasura. Then the slaying of Mahisasura is described in chapter 83:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवं संक्षीयमाणे तु स्वसैन्ये महिषासुरः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  माहिषेण स्वरूपेण त्रासयामास तान् गणान्॥२१॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कांश्‍चित्तुण्डप्रहारेण खुरक्षेपैस्तथापरान्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लाङ्‌गूलताडितांश्‍चान्याञ्छृङ्‌गाभ्यां च विदारितान्॥२२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वेगेन कांश्‍चिदपरान्नादेन भ्रमणेन च।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निःश्वासपवनेनान्यान् पातयामास भूतले॥२३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निपात्य प्रमथानीकमभ्यधावत सोऽसुरः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सिंहं हन्तुं महादेव्याः कोपं चक्रे ततोऽम्बिका॥२४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोऽपि कोपान्महावीर्यः खुरक्षुण्णमहीतलः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  श्रृङ्‌गाभ्यां पर्वतानुच्चांश्चिक्षेप च ननाद च॥२५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वेगभ्रमणविक्षुण्णा मही तस्य व्यशीर्यत।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लाङ्‌गूलेनाहतश्‍चाब्धिः प्लावयामास सर्वतः॥२६॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धुतश्रृङ्‌गविभिन्नाश्‍च खण्डं* खण्डं ययुर्घनाः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  श्‍वासानिलास्ताः शतशो निपेतुर्नभसोऽचलाः॥२७॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इति क्रोधसमाध्मातमापतन्तं महासुरम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दृष्ट्‌वा सा चण्डिका कोपं तद्वधाय तदाकरोत्॥२८॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सा क्षिप्त्वा तस्य वै पाशं तं बबन्ध महासुरम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्याज माहिषं रूपं सोऽपि बद्धो महामृधे॥२९॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततः सिंहोऽभवत्सद्यो यावत्तस्याम्बिका शिरः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  छिनत्ति तावत्पुरुषः खड्‌गपाणिरदृश्यत॥३०॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत एवाशु पुरुषं देवी चिच्छेद सायकैः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तं खड्‌गचर्मणा सार्धं ततः सोऽभून्महागजः॥३१॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  करेण च महासिंहं तं चकर्ष जगर्ज च।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कर्षतस्तु करं देवी खड्‌गेन निरकृन्तत॥३२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततो महासुरो भूयो माहिषं वपुरास्थितः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथैव क्षोभयामास त्रैलोक्यं सचराचरम्॥३३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततः क्रुद्धा जगन्माता चण्डिका पानमुत्तमम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पपौ पुनः पुनश्‍चैव जहासारुणलोचना॥३४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ननर्द चासुरः सोऽपि बलवीर्यमदोद्‌धतः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विषाणाभ्यां च चिक्षेप चण्डिकां प्रति भूधरान्॥३५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सा च तान् प्रहितांस्तेन चूर्णयन्ती शरोत्करैः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उवाच तं मदोद्‌धूतमुखरागाकुलाक्षरम्॥३६॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  While she was thus destroying his army, Mahishasura impeded those Ganas in the form of Mahisha. Some by biting with his mouth, and others by kicking with his hoofs, some by the lashes of his tail and by the goring of his horns. Some of them by the loudness of his bellow, by his burning breath he made them to fall to the ground. The Asura having caused Pramadas to fall, angrily ran to kill the lion of the goddess. The great hero enraged, tore up the earth with his hoofs and cast down the highest hills. He speedily turned about, cracked the earth, lashed the ocean with his tail, and made it to overflow everywhere. The clouds were dispersed by his long horns, the mountains and sky were blown into hundred pieces by his breath and sighs. The great Asura wrathfully bellowed! Chandika looked, highly enraged and endeavoured to lay hold on him. She threw out a Pasa to bind him, he was tied, and relinquished his buffaloe&amp;apos;s form in this great combat. &lt;strong&gt;He instantly turned into a lion, within the time that Ambika cut of this head; he then converted himself into a man, held a sword and disappeared.&lt;/strong&gt; Afterwards the goddess pierced him with her arrows, he with his sword and shield turned into a mighty elephant. The elephant pulled the lion with his trunk, and made a terrific noise, the goddess cut his proboscis with her sword. Afterwards the great Asura &#xA;  assumed the form of a buffaloe, and terrified the three Lokas of animates and inanimates. The passionate Chandika, matron of the world, frequently drank excellent liquor, bearing wrathful redness in her eyes. The Asura being highly endowed with bravery and lust, furiously hurled mountains with his horns &lt;strong&gt;on Chandika.&lt;/strong&gt; She pulverized them with her strong arrows, and with increased intoxication and angry looking face. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  देव्युवाच॥३७॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गर्ज गर्ज क्षणं मूढ मधु यावत्पिबाम्यहम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मया त्वयि हतेऽत्रैव गर्जिष्यन्त्याशु देवताः॥३८ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Devi cried &quot;Oh! vain noise! noise! wait a moment until I perfectly drink this madhu; when you are slain by me here, all the gods will exclaim.&quot; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ऋषिरुवाच॥३९॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एवमुक्त्वा समुत्पत्य साऽऽरूढा तं महासुरम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पादेनाक्रम्य कण्ठे च शूलेनैनमताडयत्॥४०॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततः सोऽपि पदाऽऽक्रान्तस्तया निजमुखात्ततः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अर्धनिष्क्रान्त एवासीद् देव्या वीर्येण संवृतः॥४१॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अर्धनिष्क्रान्त एवासौ युध्यमानो महासुरः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तया महासिना देव्या शिरश्छित्त्वा निपातितः॥४२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततो हाहाकृतं सर्वं दैत्यसैन्यं ननाश तत्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रहर्षं च परं जग्मुः सकला देवतागणाः॥४३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तुष्टुवुस्तां सुरा देवीं सह दिव्यैर्महर्षिभिः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जगुर्गन्धर्वपतयो ननृतुश्‍चाप्सरोगणाः॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Rishi said, she laid hold on the great Asura, (who advanced towards her conveyance), with her feet, she struck him with her Sula. &lt;strong&gt;When he was caught hold on by her feet, his half real form from his face became manifest; the goddess was surrounded by a blaze of glory. The great Asura being half issued and fighting with her, the goddess cut off his head with her ample sword.&lt;/strong&gt; Afterwards every one exclaimed, that the army of the Daitya was annihilated; then a multitude of deities were highly delighted. The band of deities, with the magnificient sages applauded the goddess, the kings of Gandharvas sung, Apsaras danced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from above description, it is clear it is Godesses Chandika (a form of Ambika), who slayed Mahisasura.&#xA;Then, Gods pray with Godesses Ambika in chapter 84, after she slays Mahisasura. There is a beautiful long prayer. The prayer goes as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देव्या यया ततमिदं जगदात्मशक्त्या&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निश्‍शेषदेवगणशक्तिसमूहमूर्त्या।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तामम्बिकामखिलदेवमहर्षिपूज्यां&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भक्त्या नताः स्म विदधातु शुभानि सा नः॥३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;O Goddess! by thy power this world was created with spirits and gods of different and numerous forms. O Ambika! thou art revered by all the deities; the magnificent sages faithfully prostrate themselves to thee: mayest thou give us prosperity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a Side note, from the chapter 85, story of Sumbha and Nisumbha begins, and at that time there is no need for Gods, to manifest Ambika from their powers. At this time Ambika directly come from body of Parvati and goes to slay Sumbha, Nisumbha and other Daityas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवं स्तवादियुक्तानां देवानां तत्र पार्वती।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्नातुमभ्याययौ तोये जाह्नव्या नृपनन्दन॥८४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  साब्रवीत्तान् सुरान् सुभ्रूर्भवद्भिः स्तूयतेऽत्र का।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शरीरकोशतश्‍चास्याः समुद्भूताब्रवीच्छिवा॥८५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्तोत्रं ममैतत् क्रियते शुम्भदैत्यनिराकृतैः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवैः समेतैः समरे निशुम्भेन पराजितैः॥८६॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शरीर कोशाद्यत्तस्याः पार्वत्या निःसृताम्बिका।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कौशिकीति समस्तेषु ततो लोकेषु गीयते॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Rishi said, &lt;strong&gt;when the deities applauded Parvati,&lt;/strong&gt; O prince! she went to perform ablution in the water of Janhavi. She asked them, &amp;quot;Whom did you greet there.&amp;quot; The resplendent Shiva emanated from her body, and spoke thus to her. &amp;quot;They recited my praises, because they were expelled by the giant Sumbha, all the deities retreated before Nisumbha in the war.&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;From the body of Parvati, Ambika issued,&lt;/strong&gt; and was denominated Kouciki throughout the universe. When she had emanated from Parvati, (who turned black), she was called Kouciki and resorted about Himachala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I speculate is at the time of Mahisasura slaying event, Parvati was not born yet (she was born only &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9633/when-did-parvati-devi-marry-shiva&quot;&gt;after Chakshusha Manvanatara&lt;/a&gt;, ) while Sati already died in Pitri Kalpa and there was no physical form of Shakti whom Devas could evoke to kill Mahisasura. So, it was necessary that all use their Shakti and manifest from there (as Shakti is pervaded in power of all), and thus Ambika/Durga issued from there at that time. While in case of Sumbha and Nisumbha, Parvati was already there and Devas simply go and pray to Parvati and then Godesses Ambika manifested from Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Edit Update:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in question Devi Bhagvatam quotes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This Lady was Mahâ Laksmî;&lt;/strong&gt; composed of the three qualities of the three colours, beautiful, and fascinating to the universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MahaLakshmi mentioned here is not consort of Lord Vishnu. I explain it in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15717/is-there-any-hierarchy-for-devis-incarnations/16238#16238&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;answer here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Quoting from that answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततोऽम्बिकां परां शक्तिं महालक्ष्मीस्वरुपिणीम् ।&#xA;  तुष्टुवुस्ते सुराः सर्वे भक्तिगद्गदया गिरा ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Gods then prayed to the Supreme &lt;strong&gt;Godesses Ambika in the form of MahaLakshmi&lt;/strong&gt; with choked voice in devotion.&#xA;  . &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  . &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  . &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एवं ते कथितो राजन्महालक्ष्म्याः समुद्भवः ।&#xA;  सरस्वत्यास्त्तथोत्त्पत्तिं श्रृणु सुस्थेन चेतसा ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O King in this way &lt;strong&gt;the origin of MahaLakshmi&lt;/strong&gt; has been spoken to you. Now with a cool mind listen to origin of (Maha)Saraswati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, MahaLakshmi described here is just form of Godesses Ambika and not consort of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T11:44:08.100" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14428" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8591" CreationDate="2016-08-10T07:30:02.307" Score="22" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Aruti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shruti&lt;/a&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/%C5%9Bruti/240493/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;श्रुति&lt;/a&gt;) means that which has been heard or communicated from the beginning. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Veda&lt;/a&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;वेद&lt;/a&gt;) are Shruti scripture&lt;/strong&gt;. It is said/believed that Rishi in the state of Tapasya heard Vedas directly from Parabrahma/Parameshwara, In other words Rishi attained this &lt;strong&gt;jnana&lt;/strong&gt; in state of samadhi which is called Shruti. So, Vedas are called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apauru%E1%B9%A3ey%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;अपौरुषेय&lt;/a&gt; that means it is not created by man i.e impersonal/authorless and believed to be the words of Ishwara, eternal. Rishish are द्रष्टा (seers) rather than author of Veda. There are four Vedas : Rigveda(ऋग्वेद), Samaveda(सामवेद), Yajurveda(यजुर्वेद) &amp;amp; Athrvaveda(अथर्ववेद).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vedas are &lt;em&gt;basically&lt;/em&gt; classified into two categories: 1.Mantra(मन्त्र) / Samhita(संहिता) part 2.&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmanas&lt;/a&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A3_%E0%A4%97%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%A5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ब्राह्मणग्रन्थ&lt;/a&gt;) part. Actually Samhita is the core part of Veda (which is heard by Rishis) and Brahmanas are the interpretation and commentaries on Mantra/Samhita part of Vedas which helps to  explain, understand the meaning and significance of Veda and also provides the way of doing rites (i.e rituals). As it gives Karma Kanda in Vedic Yajna, known as Karma Kanda (कर्मकाण्ड) part of Veda. (Each Brahamana is associated with one of the 4 Vedas)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Due to very much significance/influence of Brahmanas (ब्राह्मणग्रन्थ), it is considered as the part of Veda and hence classified as Shruti. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sayanacharya&lt;/a&gt; in his Bhashya on Rigveda, said that मंत्र ब्राह्मणात्मको वेद which means Mantra(मंत्र) and Brahmanatmak(ब्राह्मणात्मक) combined forms Veda. मन्त्रब्राह्मणयोर्वेदनामधेयम् (From &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%82_%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8C%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D/%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%83_%E0%A5%A8%E0%A5%AA&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aapstamb Srauta Sutra&lt;/a&gt;) means Mantra as well as Brahmana parts are Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahmanas constitutes Aaranyaka (आरण्यक) at the end and Aaranyaka constitues Upanishads(उपनिषद्) at the end. In other words, Aaranyaka are extracted from Brahmanas and Upanishads are extracted from Aaranyaka (except from Isha Upanishad which is the last part of Shulka Yajurveda Samhita). So, Vedas are &lt;em&gt;generally&lt;/em&gt; classified into to 1.Samhita 2.Brahmana 3.Aaranyaka 4.Upanishad&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hence &lt;strong&gt;Four Vedas i.e Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and  Athrvaveda with Samhita, Brahmana, Aaranyaka &amp;amp; Upanishad are Shruti texts&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smriti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smriti&lt;/a&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/sm%E1%B9%9Bti/276092/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;स्मृति&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/sm%E1%B9%9Bti/276093/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;) means which is remembered or which is based upon memory. In other words, which is produced out of human intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;These are texts written/composed by Rishi and handed down by tradition. So, in contrast to Shruti which is authorless (divine origin), Smriti is derivative work (produced out of intellect) that is usually attributed to an author. Smriti texts are written on the basis of or inspired by Shruti but given less importance/supremacy than Shruti.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Major &lt;strong&gt;Smriti scriptures&lt;/strong&gt; are: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedang&lt;/a&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%97&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;वेदाङ्ग&lt;/a&gt;), &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/Upaveda&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upaveda&lt;/a&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%89%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;उपवेद&lt;/a&gt;), Upang(उपांग), &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma%C5%9B%C4%81stra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma-Sutra/Shstra&lt;/a&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;धर्मसूत्र&lt;/a&gt;) [including popular Smriti scriptures by sage Manu, Yajnavalkya, Narad, Parasar etc.] and other &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sutras&lt;/a&gt;, 18 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puranas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purans&lt;/a&gt;(पुराण), &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itihasa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Itihasa&lt;/a&gt; i.e Ramayana, Mahabharata (Bhagavad Gita) etc., Commentaries(भाष्य) on various Shruti texts by Aacharyas including Brahma Sutra etc. and various scriptures on Darshan Shastra (Sankhya,Yoga, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, Nyaya etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Above mentioned classification of Smriti (e.g everything other than Shruti) is in broader sense whereas in specific/strict sense, Smriti refers to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/31497/277&quot;&gt;18 Smriti texts&lt;/a&gt; which are also called Dharma Shastras and hence Vedangas, Puranas, Darshanas, Itihasas etc. are classified in separate categories.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80gama_%28Hinduism%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aagama&lt;/a&gt;(आगम) (literally means 'that which has come down' or 'acquisition of knowledge' ) scriptures (Including Tantra and Yantra part) are also often considered as Shruti scriptures parallel to Nigama(निगम) (i.e Vedas). (Though some Aagamic scripture is not considered as Shruti/canonical sometimes). Visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12282/277&quot;&gt;What are the Agama scriptures? Are they related to Shruti/Vedas?&lt;/a&gt; for further information.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Referances:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wikipedia.org&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;'s articles on relevant topics&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%80:%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%82_%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bharatdiscovery&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindupedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduwebsite.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hinduwebsite&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditorDisplayName="user9072" LastEditDate="2019-10-30T04:17:38.670" LastActivityDate="2019-10-30T04:17:38.670" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14429" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14457" CreationDate="2016-08-10T07:48:23.263" Score="3" ViewCount="1729" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha is a concept, just like life after death &amp;amp; re-birth. We have various incidents where some child remembers things about previous life. Looking at these incidents we conclude that there may be life after death. &#xA;Can anyone provide similar proofs that any human being has attained Moksha? Any sign, any scriptures providing signs of proof that a human being has attained Moksha after his death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7360" LastEditorUserId="7360" LastEditDate="2016-08-10T13:59:14.127" LastActivityDate="2016-08-11T10:26:04.250" Title="Are there any proof of Moksha" Tags="|moksha|rebirth|afterlife|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="14" ClosedDate="2016-08-11T16:20:52.503" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14430" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14422" CreationDate="2016-08-10T08:32:01.503" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to add this answer of mine as suplimentory  to above one.&#xA;Various benifits of Suryopasana or sun worship  also are described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/suryopan.html?lang=sa%20Which%20is%20a%20minor%20Upanishad%20and%20is%20in%20Atharvaveda.&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Suryopanishad (सूर्योपनिषद)&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;Which is part of Atharvveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;य एतां महाभागः प्रातः पठति स भाग्यवाञ्जायते । पशून्विन्दति । वेदार्थं&#xA;  लभते । त्रिकालमेतज्जप्त्वा क्रतुशतफलमवाप्नोति । यो हस्तादित्ये जपति स&#xA;  महामृत्युं तरति य एवं वेद ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who recites this mantra at dawn, becomes fortunate  , will get&#xA;  live-stock , masters vedas. Reciting this at three periods (Dawn ,&#xA;  Midday , Eve) ,he gets fruit of hundred yagnas. He who recites this&#xA;  when the sun is in Hasta Nakshtra will conqures death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सूर्याभिमुखो जप्त्वा महाव्याधिभयात्प्रमुच्यते । अलक्ष्मीर्नश्यति ।&#xA;  अभक्ष्यभक्षणात्पूतो भवति । अगम्यागमनात्पूतो भवति । पतितसम्भाषणात्पूतो&#xA;  भवति । असत्सम्भाषणात्पूतो भवति । मध्याह्ने सूराभिमुखः पठेत् ।&#xA;  सद्योत्पन्नपञ्चमहापातकात्प्रमुच्यते । सैषां सावित्रीं विद्यां न&#xA;  किञ्चिदपि न कस्मैचित्प्रशंसयेत् ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If this suryopasana mantra is recited facing the sun ,one is released&#xA;  from fear of great diseases. He will be free of poverty. At midday if&#xA;  one recites this mantra , facing the sun, he is released from five&#xA;  great sins. One should be careful about giving this mantra to&#xA;  unworthy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-10T08:48:17.473" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T08:48:17.473" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14431" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14432" CreationDate="2016-08-10T08:59:05.073" Score="8" ViewCount="3347" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kubera(also known as Kuber or Kuvera) is known as the &quot;treasurer of the Gods&quot;.How did he get that coveted responsibility? What is the story explaining this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-06-13T17:55:09.997" LastActivityDate="2018-06-13T17:55:09.997" Title="Story of Kubera, the treasurer of the Gods" Tags="|ramayana|kubera|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14432" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14431" CreationDate="2016-08-10T09:42:36.650" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Kuber Gayatri Mantra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ॐ यक्षराजय विद्महे वैश्रवणाय धीमहि । तन्नो कुबेर: प्रचोदयात:।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Om Yaksharaajaya Vidmahay, Vaishravanaya Dhimahi, Tanno Kubera&#xA;  Prachodayat.” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This means: “We meditate on Kuber, the king of the Yakshas, and son of&#xA;  Vishravana. May that god of wealth inspire and illumine us.” This&#xA;  mantra is often uttered to gain Kuber's blessings in the form of&#xA;  prosperity and acquisition of wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kuber (also called Kubera or Kuvera), the lord of riches and treasures, is a demi-god in Hinduism.The meaning of the name ‘Kuber’ in Sanskrit is ‘ill-shaped’ or ‘deformed’ although some say that his name is derived from ‘kumba,’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He performed austerities for thousands of years, and received as a boon from Brahmā that he should be the god of riches&lt;/strong&gt;, and one of the guardians of the world&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to myths, Kuber was Lord Brahma’s mind- born grandson, who deserted his father Vaisravana, and went to his grandfather. Brahma, as a reward made him immortal, and appointed him to be the god of riches, with Lanka for his capital, and the car Pushpak for his Vehicle. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp39.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;See Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kubera is often described as a friend of Shiva in the epics. The Padma Purana  says that Kubera prayed to Shiva for many years, and Shiva granted him the kingship of Yakshas. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubera&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;See Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T09:42:36.650" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14433" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="580" CreationDate="2016-08-10T10:19:09.617" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord hanuman is worshipped on Tuesday because on this day Hanuman ji applied sindoor all over his body to please Lord Rama. By seeing this Lord Rama becomes extremely happy and blessed Lord Hanuman that whomsoever will worship you on Tuesday his/her wishes will be fulfilled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7363" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T10:19:09.617" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14434" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-08-10T10:22:19.653" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-08-10T10:22:19.653" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T10:22:19.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14435" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-08-10T10:22:19.653" Score="0" Body="For the questions about yajnavalkya, a sage &amp; philosopher. Popular for contribution in Shatapatha Brahmana and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-08-10T12:10:29.847" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T12:10:29.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14436" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9398" CreationDate="2016-08-10T10:58:10.460" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of &lt;strong&gt;Andhakasura&lt;/strong&gt; is told in Vishnu Parva of Harivamsha of Mahabharata in chapter 86 and chapter 87.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_086.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;chapter 86&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; which describes birth and boon of Andhaka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Diti makes Kasyapa happy and thus Kasyapa offers the boon:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VaishampAyana said&#xA;  Long ago, after her sons were slain by Vishnu, the splendorous Vishnu, Diti worshipped Kashyapa, the son of Marichi, by doing penance. O the one of bharata race! Diti performed penance, appropriate to various times and served, obeyed and treated the sage sweetly. Then Kashyapa was pleased. The one with the wealth of penance (Kashyapa) told her: O good one! I am pleased with you. O the one who is fixed in penance! Ask for a boon. O lord! O the best among those who observe dharma! &lt;strong&gt;The devas killed my sons. I desire to have a highly valiant son who cannot be killed by the devas. O the daughter of DakSha! O goddess! You shall have a son who cannot be killed by the deva-s. O the one having eyes beautiful as lotus! There is no doubt in this, but leaving Rudra, the true lord of deva-s (except Shiva, no other deva will be able to kill him), because I have no power on him.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence your son shall always protect himself from him (lord Shiva). &#xA;  (VaishampAyana said: O Janamejaya!) Saying this, kashyapa, who speaks the truth, touched the belly of goddess (diti ) with his finger. Then she delivered a son. O the son of kuru! (janamejaya! vaishampAyana continued) He had one thousand arms, one thousand heads, two thousand eyes and that many number of legs. O the one of bharata race! Even though he was not blind, he behaved as if he was blind. Then those who reside there, called him by the name Andhaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Andhaka starts tormenting everyone and Devas also:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The one with wicked intellect (andhaka) broke the trees in the forest and destroyed gardens. &lt;strong&gt;He took away by force, the horses, sons of uchchaiHshravaH (divine horse) from heaven.&lt;/strong&gt; O the one of bharata race! (O Janamejaya! VaishampAyana continued) (Andhaka), proud due to the boon, took away forcefully, the divine elephants, sons of the elephants of directions, as the deva-s were watching. The wicked soul, the thorn of deva-s, created obstacles to those who satisfy the deva-s with sacrifices and penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the Devas together thought of slaying him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O The best among those who observe dharma! (Janamejaya! VaishampAyana continued) All the sages, who worship brahma, distressed by andhaka, together thought about slaying him. Among them, bR^ihaspati, the one with intellect said: The death of this demon cannot happen in any way, except by rudra (shiva). While giving the boon, Kashyapa said as follows: I am not capable of protecting him from rudra (shiva).&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Let us think about that way, by which, the eternal Sharva (Shiva), the auspicious lord will know about the distress caused for all beings.&lt;/strong&gt; The lord of the world (Shiva), the lord who knows about the distress, the ultimate refuge of the good, will wipe away the tears. The lord of deva-s, the preceptor of the world, Bhava (Shiva) has a pledge to protect the good, especially the brahmins, from the bad. Let all of us seek the refuge of nArada, the best among the twice born. He will find a way, since he is the companion of Bhava (Shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Narada on the way meets Andhaka and he asks about flowers of Mandara mountain. Narada tells about it's importancd then he begins to act importantly. This is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_087.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;chapter 87&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; of the same Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Many lions (kings of animals) roamed on the mountain. There were many herds of deer on the mountain. &lt;strong&gt;The demon, proud of his power,&lt;/strong&gt; told the mandara mountain, which appeared in the body form.&#xA;  (Andhaka said) You know that I cannot be killed due to the power of the boon given by my father. All the three worlds, along with the moving and unmoving beings are under my control. O mountain! No one ever wishes to fight me due to fear. O great mountain! I am aware of the forest of pArijAta (mandAra, Erythrina Indica) which exist on your summit, decorated with flowers that provides all desires. That forest is the best jewel here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then he starts behaving more arrogantly. He starts crushing mountains. Lord Shiva reaches there to slay Andhaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Andhaka spoke thus, &lt;strong&gt;the great lord (Shiva), holding a spear, mounted on a bull, arrived there for killing Andhaka.&lt;/strong&gt; As Hara, the lord of the group of bhUtas, having intellect, became angry, along with his followers, all the three world trembled. The rivers flowed upwards. Water caught fire and burned brightly. Due to the splendor of Shiva, the entire directions caught fire. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord Shiva finally killed Andhaka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The lord released his spear, having splendor as blazing fire. That terrible spear struck on the chest of andhaka. It reduced the terrible demon Andhaka, a thorn for the good people, to ashes.&lt;/strong&gt; Then the groups of devas, all the sages having wealth of penance praised and pleased ShaNkara (Shiva) as he killed the enemy of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-08-10T11:12:15.313" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T11:12:15.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14437" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14398" CreationDate="2016-08-10T11:41:18.283" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;All living entities, being a spirit soul, are indivisible. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;nainaṁ &lt;strong&gt;chindanti&lt;/strong&gt; śastrāṇi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;na cainaṁ kledayanty āpo&lt;br&gt;&#xA;na śoṣayati mārutaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The soul can &lt;strong&gt;never be cut to pieces by any weapon&lt;/strong&gt;, nor burned by ﬁre, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind.&quot; (BG 2.23)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  word ekaki is used in various places throughout scriptures. BG 6.30 is one such verse. It means alone. Alone means from material point of view he may be alone but he is always absorbed in trance and hence remains aloof from materialistic audience, in that sense alone. Internally he's always associating with Supreme Lord or Paramatma seeing His presence everywhere in every atom. Of course this is a higher state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the statement - Ravana and Ram are Shiva's is misleading and incorrect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the time of Ramayana war, Ravana prayed to Shiva for protection, but Shiva didn't appear to protect Ravana from Rama, why? This was questioned by Parvati devi to Shiva: &quot;Why are you not protecting your devotee Ravana while he is praying to you?&quot; Shiva replied that Paravati devi didn't see his opponent who is Lord Rama Himself, his (Lord Shiva's) master. Hence Lord Shiva couldn't do anything. Else why he didn't give protection to Ravana against Lord Rama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Lord Ram's worshiping Shiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your father makes you sit on his lap or shoulder, does that mean you become superior to your father? Krishna lifted the footwear of his father on his head. He was chastised by his mother. Does that make them superior to Him? Krishna liked being defeated by his friends, so have they become superior? No. That's 3rd class conclusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No one can understand this aspect of krishna at least by gyana and karma. Only by Bhakti yoga can one understand the transcendental activities of Krishna, not by gyana. Proof?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was not a sannyasi, not a gyani, he was a kshatriya householder and Krishna instructed Him: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/bg/4/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bg 4.3&lt;/a&gt; — &quot;That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are &lt;strong&gt;My devotee as well as My friend&lt;/strong&gt; and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the end Arjuna completely understood Krishna and accepted Him as Supreme not out of sentimentality but as approved by other Acharyas (as per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/bg/10/12-13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 10.12-13&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Krishna's qualities cannot be understood externally or merely by shastra. In Bhakti Yoga, the devotee and master are on absolute level. that is why we see Krishna accepted to become charioteer of Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is Vishnu tattva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lastly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“[Lord Śiva addressed his wife, Durgā:] ‘O Varānanā, I chant the holy name of Rāma, Rāma, Rāma and thus enjoy this beautiful sound. This holy name of Rāmacandra is equal to one thousand holy names of Lord Viṣṇu.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a verse from the Brhad-visnu-sahasranama-stotra in the Uttara-khanda of the Padma Purana (72.335).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also see that Banasura was a devotee of Shiva. He misused his tapasya to get such a boon from Lord Shiva that Krishna had to come to rescue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If everything is Brahman and nothing beyond, why then the Brahmavadis distinguish between chapati and processed chapati that comes from stomach (human excreta) since everything is one? Monist means no duality, everything one. So they must not distinguish between the two :P &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4522" LastEditorUserId="4522" LastEditDate="2016-08-10T12:02:27.883" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T12:02:27.883" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14438" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14441" CreationDate="2016-08-10T16:10:53.100" Score="14" ViewCount="2165" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama was born as the eldest son of Kausalya and Dasharatha and become the ruler of Ayodhya Kingdom. Can Rama be considered as Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-08-10T18:12:12.603" LastActivityDate="2023-04-30T06:56:37.723" Title="Was Rama a god?" Tags="|ramayana|gods|rama|vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14439" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14429" CreationDate="2016-08-10T16:37:14.137" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am posting below Swami Vivekananda’s initial experiences reported by Swami Nikhilananda’s introductory essay in his book ‘The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During his second visit, about a month later, suddenly, at the touch&#xA;  of the Master, Narendra felt overwhelmed and saw the walls of the room&#xA;  and everything around him whirling and vanishing. &quot;What are you doing&#xA;  to me?&quot; he cried in terror. &quot;I have father and mother at home.&quot; He saw&#xA;  his own ego and the whole universe almost swallowed in a nameless&#xA;  void. With a laugh the Master easily restored him. Narendra thought he&#xA;  might have been hypnotized, but he could not understand how a&#xA;  monomaniac could cast a spell over the mind of a strong person like&#xA;  himself.    But during his third visit Narendra fared no better. This&#xA;  time, at the Master's touch, he lost consciousness entirely. ....   A&#xA;  few more meetings completely removed from Narendra's mind the last&#xA;  traces of the notion that Sri Ramakrishna might be a monomaniac or&#xA;  wily hypnotist. ...   ..Narendra, because of his Brahmo upbringing,&#xA;  considered it wholly blasphemous to look on man as one with his&#xA;  Creator. One day at the temple garden he laughingly said to a friend:&#xA;  &quot;How silly! This jug is God! This cup is God! Whatever we see is God!&#xA;  And we too are God! Nothing could be more absurd.&quot; Sri Ramakrishna&#xA;  came out of his room and gently touched him. Spellbound, he&#xA;  immediately perceived that everything in the world was indeed God. A&#xA;  new universe opened around him. Returning home in a dazed state, he&#xA;  found there too that the food, the plate, the eater himself, the&#xA;  people around him, were all God. When he walked in the street, he saw&#xA;  that the cabs, the horses, the streams of people, the buildings, were&#xA;  all Brahman. ..... It took him a number of days to recover his normal&#xA;  self. He had a foretaste of the great experiences yet to come and&#xA;  realized that the words of the Vedanta were true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna translated by Swami Nikhilananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-08-10T16:37:14.137" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14440" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14438" CreationDate="2016-08-10T17:01:25.387" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana Ayodhya Kanda  provides answer to this question. See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga1/ayodhya_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तेषामपि महातेजा रामो रतिकरः पितुः |&lt;br&gt; स्वयम्भूरिव भूतानां बभूव गुणवत्तरः&#xA;  || २-१-६&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;RaamaH = Rama; svayambhuuriva = like the Brahma;bhuutaanaaM = among all the living beings; guNavattaraH = the most virtuous; teshhaamapi =&#xA;  among those brothers;mahaatejaH = the mightiest; ratikaraH babhuuva =&#xA;  was a source of joy; pituH = for his father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama, like the Brahma among all the living beings, the most virtuous&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  among those brothers and the mightiest was a great source of joy for&#xA;  his father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स हि देवै रुदीर्णस्य रावणस्य वधार्थिभिः |&lt;br&gt; अर्थितो मानुषे लोके जज्ञे&#xA;  विष्णुः सनातनः || २-१-७&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;saH = That Rama; sanaatanaH = the eternal; vishhnuH= Vishnu; jajJNehi = was born; maanushhe loke = on the earth; arthita =&#xA;  as urged by; devaihi = gods; vadhaarthibhihi= to kill; udiirNasya&#xA;  raavaNasya = the egoistic Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Rama - was He not the eternal &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; who was born on earth as&#xA;  prayed by celestials to kill the egoistic Ravana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana Yuddha Kanda (Book of war) further declare that -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रियते सततं राम: स हि विष्णु: सनातन:|&lt;br&gt;अदिदेवो महाबाहु हरी: नारायण: प्रभु: ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning -   Above all,  shree Ramachandra who is (part of) &lt;strong&gt;Shree Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; ,  which is sanatan. ie. Ever present. Shree Rama is &lt;strong&gt;Adidev&lt;/strong&gt; ,   Mahabahu ,  &lt;strong&gt;Hari&lt;/strong&gt; and literally &lt;strong&gt;Shree Narayana&lt;/strong&gt; himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-17T09:36:16.750" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T09:36:16.750" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14441" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14438" CreationDate="2016-08-10T17:08:33.657" Score="23" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes,  Sri Rama, the son of Dasharatha is the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. So, he himself is the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga16/bala_16_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Baala Kanda&lt;/a&gt; that all world had become sad because of Ravana. Then all Devas along with Lord Brahma prayed to Lord Vishnu. Then Lord Vishnu pleased by them and promised to take birth as the son of Dasharatha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततो नारायणो देवो विषुणुः नियुक्तः सुर सत्तमैः |&#xA;  जानन् अपि सुरान् एवम् श्लक्ष्णम् वचनम् अब्रवीत् || १-१६-१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later when the Omnipresent Narayana is thus nominated by best gods, and though he knows the outcome, he gently spoke these words to gods in this way. [1-16-1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उपायः को वधे तस्य राक्ष्साधिपतेः सुराः |&#xA;  यम् अहम् तम् समास्थाय निहन्याम् ऋषि कण्टकम् || १-१६-२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is the idea to eliminate that demon's chief Ravana, oh, gods, adopting which stratej~n I will have to eliminate that thorn in the side of sages?&quot; Thus Vishnu asked the gods. [1-16-2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवम् उक्ताः सुराः सर्वे प्रत्यूचुः विष्णुम् अव्ययम् |&#xA;  मानुषम् रूपम् आस्थाय रावणम् जहि संयुगे || १-१६-३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asked thus all the gods said to that sempiternal Vishnu, &quot;on assuming a human form, eliminate Ravana in a war.&quot; [1-16-3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स हि तेपे तपः तीव्रम् दीर्घ कालम् अरिंदम |&#xA;  येन तुष्टोऽभवत् ब्रह्मा लोक कृत् लोक पूर्वजः || १-१६-४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, destroyer of enemies, he that Ravana undertook a vehement ascesis for a long period, thereby the creator of worlds and the first born one Brahma, felt gladsome of his ascesis. [1-16-4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सन्तुष्टः प्रददौ तस्मै राक्षसाय वरम् प्रभुः |&#xA;  नानाविधेभ्यो भूतेभ्यो भयम् न अन्यत्र मानुषात् || १-१६-५&#xA;  अवज्ञाताः पुरा तेन वरदाने हि मानवाः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satisfied with his ascesis Brahma gave boon to that demon that he shall have no fear for his life from many kinds of beings, excepting humans, because that demon indeed slighted humans earlier at the time of bestowing boon. [1-16-5, 6a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवम् पितामहात् तस्मात् वरदानेन गर्वितः || १-१६-६&#xA;  उत्सादयति लोकान् त्रीईन् स्त्रियः च अपि अपकर्षति |&#xA;  तस्मात् तस्य वधो दृष्टो मानुषेभ्यः परन्तप || १-१६-७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus, on getting boon from the Forefather Brahma he has become arrogant and torturing the three worlds, and he is even abducting women. As such, oh, enemy destroyer Vishnu, his elimination is envisaged through humans alone.&quot; So said gods to Vishnu. [1-16-6b, 7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इति एतत् वचनम् श्रुत्वा सुराणाम् विष्णुः आत्मवान् |&#xA;  पितरम् रोचयामास तदा दशरथम् नृपम् || १-१६-८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing that speech of gods said that way, he that kind-hearted &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu then chose Dasharatha as his father in human world.&lt;/strong&gt; [1-16-8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from Ramayana, Rama has been mentioned in various other scriptures as the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/22&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 1.3.22&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nara-devatvam āpannaḥ&#xA;   sura-kārya-cikīrṣayā&#xA;  samudra-nigrahādīni&#xA;   cakre vīryāṇy ataḥ param&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the eighteenth incarnation, the Lord appeared as King Rāma&lt;/strong&gt;. In order to perform some pleasing work for the demigods, He exhibited superhuman powers by controlling the Indian Ocean and then killing the atheist King Rāvaṇa, who was on the other side of the sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-08-11T15:50:35.907" LastActivityDate="2016-08-11T15:50:35.907" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14443" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2826" CreationDate="2016-08-11T01:45:55.030" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are three levels of Rishis in Vajasaneyi Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sarvanukrama Sukta of Vajasaneyi Samhita states the Rishi for whole Vajasaneyi Samhita is Rishi Vivasvan. He is the &lt;strong&gt;first level of Rishi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इषेत्वादि खं ब्रह्मान्त विवस्वान् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It was taught by Vivasvan (hence he is the Rishi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the Rishi for whole Vajasaneyi Samhita is Rishi Vivasvan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then comes second level of Rishi. &lt;strong&gt;Second level of Rishi&lt;/strong&gt; are those who became Rishi due to being prescribed by Brahmanas and they are Rishis as per divisions made by Brahmanas. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततः प्रतिकर्म - विभागेन ब्राह्मणानुसारेण ऋषयो वेदितव्या ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus the ritualistic division as per the Brahmana and they are Rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also states these Rishis are &amp;quot;DarshaPurnamasa Vishesha&amp;quot; and they are of Deva level. It also gives two exceptions who are not Devas but still can be Rishi of this level. They are Yajnavalkya and Dadhyang Atharvan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then again there is &lt;strong&gt;Third level of Rishi&lt;/strong&gt; who became entitled with the position 'Rishi' due to mastery in respective Vedic mantras. They are called Vaiyektika Stara Sambaddha Rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming for:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Isha Upanishad:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isha Upanishad is the 40th chapter of Vajasaneyi Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Rishi:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rishi in 1st level = Rishi Vivasvan &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Rishi in 2nd level = Rishi Dadhyang Atharvan &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Rishi in 3rd level:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1st verse to 14th verse of Vajasenayei Samhita&#xA;= Rishi Dadhyang Atharvan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;15th verse and 17th verse of Vajasaneyi Samhita&#xA;= Rishi Dadhyang Atharvan, Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;16th verse of Vajasaneyi Samhita = Rishi Agastya.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Kt3CS.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Kt3CS.png&quot; alt=&quot;AnukramaniShuklaYajurVeda&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Devata:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devata is &lt;strong&gt;Atma&lt;/strong&gt; for 1st to 14th verse and 17th verse. The 17th verse is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हिरण्मयेन पात्रेण सत्यस्यापिहितं मुखम्  ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तत्त्वं पूषन्नपावृणु सत्यधर्माय दृष्टये॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;17 The Real's face is hidden by a vessel formed of golden light. The Spirit yonder in the Sun, the Spirit dwelling there am I. OM! Heaven! Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devata is both &lt;strong&gt;Atma&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Paramatma&lt;/strong&gt; for verse 15:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वायुरनिलममृत ।  मथेदं भस्मान्त शरीरम्  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA; ॐ क्रतो स्मर कृत स्मर । ॐ क्रतो स्मर कृत स्मर ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;15 My breath reach everlasting Air! In ashes let my body end. OM! Mind, remember thou; remember thou my sphere; remember thou my deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devata is &lt;strong&gt;Agni&lt;/strong&gt; for the 16th verse of Vajasaneyi Samhita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; अग्ने नय सुपथा राये अस्मान् विश्वानि देव वयुनानि विद्वान्  । युयोध्यस्मज्जुहुराणमेनो भूयिष्ठां ते नमौक्तिं विधेम  ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;16 By goodly path lead us to riches, Agni, thou God who knowest all our works and wisdom. Remove the sin that makes us stray and wander: most ample adoration will we bring thee.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can read the above information of Rishi, Devata, Chhanda with the Samhita also (in  Hindi and Sanskrit) from this book named &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedpuran.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/yajurved.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajurveda Samhita.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-11T03:59:08.027" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14445" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14451" CreationDate="2016-08-11T05:59:44.977" Score="13" ViewCount="6781" Body="&lt;p&gt;King Shantanu blessed his son Bhishma with Ichcha Mrityu (he could choose the time of his death, making him immortal till his chosen time of death).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But , king Shantanu was not a God or an Avatar of God, for the boon to actualize.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma  lived a long life of righteous actions and purity in every aspect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is- Did the boon actually come true because of the karma of Bhishma? What do the scriptures have to say  with regard to this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-08-11T06:31:29.933" LastActivityDate="2016-09-05T07:13:34.493" Title="Bhisma and the Boon of Ichcha Mrityu" Tags="|mahabharata|bhishma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14446" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-08-11T06:06:05.187" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-08-11T06:06:05.187" LastActivityDate="2016-08-11T06:06:05.187" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14447" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-08-11T06:06:05.187" Score="0" Body="For the questions about Shruti (Sanskrit: श्रुति) (literally &quot;which has been heard&quot;) scriptures which are believed to be heard directly from Parabrahma/Parmeshwara in the state of Tapasya by ancient Rishis. These texts are considered as eternal and divine origin." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-08-11T10:46:44.613" LastActivityDate="2016-08-11T10:46:44.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14448" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-11T06:14:09.113" Score="8" ViewCount="1406" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Deepawali&lt;/a&gt; is the one of the main festival of India. It is celebrated because Lord Rama has reached Ayodhya on this day after gaining victory over Ravana (mainly in northern part of India). Deepawali is celebrated on Kaartika Amavasya (darkest new moon night).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/408/what-is-the-significance-of-the-festival-diwali-why-is-it-celebrated&quot;&gt;What is the significance of the festival Diwali? Why is it celebrated?&lt;/a&gt; discuss about the significance of Deepawali. But my question is: Which scripture mention Lord Rama reached Ayodhya on Kaartika Amavasya (Deepawali) after 14 years of exile?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also, is there any scripture which claims Lord Rama has slayed Ravana on Vijayadashami?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T18:41:44.127" LastActivityDate="2022-01-17T12:06:49.093" Title="Which scripture mention Lord Rama reached Ayodhya on Kaartika Amavasya (Deepawali) after 14 years of exile?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|rama|festivals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14449" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-08-11T06:19:06.950" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-08-11T06:19:06.950" LastActivityDate="2016-08-11T06:19:06.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14450" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-08-11T06:19:06.950" Score="0" Body="For the questions about Smriti (Sanskrit:स्मृति) (literally &quot;which is remembered&quot;) scriptures. These texts are usually attributed to an author and produced out of human intellect." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-08-11T10:46:41.207" LastActivityDate="2016-08-11T10:46:41.207" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14451" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14445" CreationDate="2016-08-11T06:49:00.440" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shantanu was no ordinary being. He was Avatar of Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu himself says this in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu had three wives, Ganga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. Saraswati felt that Sri Hari was partial to Lakshmi and Ganga and cursed others to born as tree and rivers . Ganga inturn cursed Saraswati to born as Rivers. Lord Vishnu placatetd them by saying that they would return His abode after purifying people of Bhooloka. He also said to Ganga that He would born as Shantanu and marry Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Gange! You will also have to take incarnation in Bhârata as a river, purifying all the worlds, to destroy the sins of&#xA;the inhabitants of Bhârata. Bhagiratha will take you there after much entreating and worshipping you; and you will be famous by the name Bhagirathî, the most sanctifying river in the world. &lt;strong&gt;There, the Ocean born of my parts, and the King S'ântanu also born of my parts will be your husbands.&lt;/strong&gt; O Bharatî! Let you go also and incarnate in part in Bhârata under the curse of Gangâ. O Good-natured One! Now go in full Amsas to Brahmâ and become His wife. Let Gangâ go also in Her fullness to S'iva. Let Padmâ remain with Me. Padmâ is of a peaceful nature, void of anger, devoted to Me and of a Sâttvika nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt;, that Shantanu is not an ordinary person. He is very virtuous and of great energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those old men that were touched by this monarch not only felt an indescribable sensation of pleasure but also became restored to youth. Therefore, this monarch was called Santanu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some other qualities of Shantanu is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The monarch Santanu, the most adored of the gods and royal sages, was known in all the worlds for his wisdom, virtues, and truthfulness (of speech). The qualities of self-control, liberality, forgiveness, intelligence, modesty, patience and superior energy ever dwelt in that bull among men, viz., Santanu, that great being endued with these accomplishments and conversant with both religion and profit, the monarch was at once the protector of the Bharata race and all human beings. His neck was marked with (three) lines, like a conch-shell; his shoulders were broad, and he resembled in prowess an infuriated elephant. It would seem that all the auspicious signs of royalty dwelt in his person, considering that to be their fittest abode. Men, seeing the behaviour of that monarch of great achievements came to know that virtue was ever superior to pleasure and profit. These were the attributes that dwelt in that great being--that bull among men--Santanu. And truly there was never a king like Santanu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Bhishma has helped his father (Shantanu) in marrying Satyavati, he became very pleased with him and granted the boon of death at will (Ichhamrityu) as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Santanu also, hearing of the extraordinary achievements of his son, became highly gratified and bestowed upon the high-souled prince the boon of death at will, saying, 'Death shall never come to thee as long as thou desirest to live. Truly death shall approach thee, O sinless one, having first obtained thy command.'&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06120.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabhara, Bhishma Parva&lt;/a&gt; when Arjuna has pierced Bhishma with arrows by the help of Shikhandi, Bhishma himself admits it that now its time to fulfill his fathers boon of death at will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus cut off by the angry Arjuna, that dart then fell down like a flash of lightning separated from a mass of clouds. Beholding his dart cut off, Bhishma became filled with rage. That hero, that subjugator of hostile cities, then began to reflect. And he said unto himself, 'With only a single bow I could slay all the Pandavas, if the mighty Vishnu himself had not been their protector. For two reasons, however, I will not fight with the Pandavas, viz., their unslayableness, and the femininity of Sikhandin. Formerly, when my sire wedded Kali, &lt;strong&gt;he pleased (with me) gave me two boons, viz., that I should be incapable of being slain in battle, and that my death should depend on my own choice. I should, however, now wish my own death&lt;/strong&gt;, this being the proper hour.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The boon that was granted to me by my illustrious sire, to the effect that my death would depend on my own wish O, let that boon become true&lt;/strong&gt;. I will hold my life, since I have control in the matter of laying it down.' Having said these words to those swans, he continued to lie down on his bed of arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-05T07:13:34.493" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14452" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14456" CreationDate="2016-08-11T07:31:41.927" Score="2" ViewCount="836" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Siva penned this stotram on Lord Narasimha  and said that if this is recited in the morning, afternoon and evening with devotion they will attain peace, blissful and healthy life.In total there 13 slokas. If found in any puranas with meaning can somebody share to sharpen my knowledge?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-08-13T12:56:39.877" LastActivityDate="2016-08-13T12:56:39.877" Title="Mantra Rajapada Stotram" Tags="|prayer|shloka|narasimha|linga-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14454" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-11T08:28:42.230" Score="7" ViewCount="2263" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the connection between Kali and Kaliyug? Kaalii is the goddess that takes the darkness away (Kali) but which scripture does it come from? And is there an explanation of the close connection of the the two words?&#xA;Thanks &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7378" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-18T06:34:17.637" LastActivityDate="2017-12-18T06:35:28.817" Title="What is the connection between Kali and Kaliyug?" Tags="|kali-yuga|kali|dasha-mahavidya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14456" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14452" CreationDate="2016-08-11T08:47:55.450" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Mantra Raja Pada Stotra is from Ahirbudhyna Samhita, a Pancharatra text. It was told by Lord Shiva himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The stotra with the meaning goes as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पाञ्चरात्र आगमीय अहिर्बुध्न्य संहितात्&#xA;  श्री मन्त्र राज पद स्तोत्रम्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PanchaRatra Agama associated Ahirbudhyna Samhita,&#xA;  Sri Mantra Raja Pada Stotram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्री ईश्वर उवाच -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ishwara Said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वृत्तोत्फुल्लविशालाक्षं विपक्षक्षयदीक्षितम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      निनादत्रस्तविश्वाण्डं विष्णुमुग्रं नमाम्यहम् ॥ १॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He who is having big and round eyes, He who has taken a vow to kill the enemies, He who by His fierce roars is shaking the entire world, to such a ferocious Lord, I offer my salutations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वैरवध्यतां प्राप्तं सबलौघं दितेः सुतम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      नखाग्रैः शकलीचक्रे यस्तं वीरं नमाम्यहम् ॥ २॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He who with His sharp nails tore to pieces the asura, the son of Diti who could not be killed by anyone along with His large armies. To such a valorous person, I offer my salutations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पदावष्टब्धपातालं मूर्धाविष्टत्रिविष्टपम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      भुजप्रविष्टाष्टदिशं महाविष्णुं नमाम्यहम् ॥ ३॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I offer my salutations to Maha Vishnu, whose feet touch the nether lands, whose forehead touches the heaven and whose hands spread in all directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ज्योतींष्यर्केन्दुनक्षत्रज्वलनादीन्यनुक्रमात् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      ज्वलन्ति तेजसा यस्य तं ज्वलन्तं नमाम्यहम् ॥ ४॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He after whose luster the luminary bodies, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars and Fire are effulgent and are shining, to that resplendent One I offer my salutations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वेन्द्रियैरपि विना सर्वं सर्वत्र सर्वदा । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      यो जानाति नमाम्याद्यं तमहं सर्वतोमुखम् ॥ ५॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He who knows everything, all the time, and at all places, without the help of the senses, to such primal person who has faces in all directions, I offer my salutations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नरवत् सिंहवच्चैव यस्य रूपं महात्मनः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      महासटं महादंष्ट्रं तं नृसिंहं नमाम्यहम् ॥ ६॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  To that Form of the Lord, which is half man and half lion, complete with the mane, the canine teeth, to such a divine Lord Nrsimha, I offer my salutations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यन्नामस्मरणाद् भीताः भूतवेतालराक्षसाः ।  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      रोगाद्याश्च प्रणश्यन्ति भीषणं तं नमाम्यहम् ॥ ७॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  By the mere thought of whose name, devils, demons, asuras get frightened, acute diseases get cured, to such a frightening One, I offer my salutations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वोऽपि यं समाश्रित्य सकलं भद्रमश्नुते । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      श्रिया च भद्रया जुष्टो यस्तं भद्रं नमाम्यहम् ॥ ८॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I offer my salutations to the Lord, the repository of good things, worshipping whom all the people are able to obtain auspicious things. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;साक्षात् स्वकाले सम्प्राप्तं मृत्युं शत्रुगणान्वितम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      भक्तानां नाशयेद् यस्तु मृत्युमृत्युं नमाम्यहम् ॥ ९॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He who is &quot;Death to Death&quot; and He who destroys death and hosts of enemies of the devotees by arriving at the right moment, to Him I offer my salutations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमस्कारात्मकं यस्मै विधायाऽऽत्मनिवेदनम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      त्यक्तदुःखोऽकिलान् कामान् अश्नन्तं तं नमाम्यहम् ॥ १०॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I bow down to the One by offering obeisance to whom in the form of One’s own self, people get rid of all miseries and obtain their desired objects.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दासभूताः स्वतः सर्वे ह्यात्मानः परमात्मनः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      अतोऽहमपि ते दासः इति मत्वा नमाम्यहम् ॥ ११॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  All the living beings are, by nature, servants of the Supreme Being, I am prostrating to You, with the awareness that I am also for the same reason, Your servant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;              फलश्रुतिः &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शङ्करेणादरात् प्रोक्तं पदानां तत्त्वनिर्णयम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      त्रिसन्ध्यं यः पठेत् तस्य श्रीर्विद्याऽऽयुश्च वर्धते ॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The meaning of the words had been explained by Lord Siva out of affection. Whosoever reads this hymn with faith, thrice a day (at Sunrise, mid-day and evening) would have a great increase in prosperity (shree) knowledge (vidya) longevity (Ayush) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्री मन्त्र राज पद स्तोत्रम् &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus ends the Mantra Raja Pada Stotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-08-11T09:08:13.547" LastActivityDate="2016-08-11T09:08:13.547" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14457" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14429" CreationDate="2016-08-11T10:26:04.250" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are no signs or proofs that a person has attained moksha after death to the ordinary person. Similarly, there is no sign or proof that a living man has attained moksha. In his &lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt;, Sri Vidyaranya Swami says (VI. 287-288):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Enlightened  men may differ in their behavior because of the nature of their fructifying Karma. This should not make the learned think otherwise about the truth of knowledge resulting in liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let the enlightened people behave in any way according to their fructifying Karma, but their knowledge is the same and their liberation is the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in his commentary on the first verse, verse 287, Swami Swahananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no uniform rule about how a knower will behave. A well-known verse says: 'Krishna lived a life of enjoyment, Suka renounced even before Vedic initiation, vast empires were ruled by Rama and Janaka and Vasistha was a great ritualist, but all of them had the same illumination.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the &lt;em&gt;Introduction&lt;/em&gt; to Swami Swahananda's translation of the &lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt;, T.M.P. Mahadevan says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The final court of appeal is experience,--the plenary experience, which is the fruit of inquiry. In fact, the texts of scripture are but indicators of that experience. Thus, in Vedanta, the nature of Truth is sought to be expounded on the triple basis of scripture [hearing], reasoning [reflecting], and experience [meditating] (&lt;em&gt;srutyuktyanubhutibhyah&lt;/em&gt;, V, 56, &amp;amp; XI, 89).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-08-11T10:26:04.250" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14458" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14459" CreationDate="2016-08-11T13:23:07.630" Score="5" ViewCount="1211" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which Alwar is called as Amaladhipiran? How many hymns has he composed in nalayira divya prabandham? On which God he has sung the hymns? I came to know that God himself told the priest to carry this alwar on his shoulders as the former had thrown stone and blood started pouring from latter's head. Finally he merged with God's feet as a jyothi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-08-19T15:42:09.850" LastActivityDate="2016-10-08T17:30:22.610" Title="Amalanadhipiran" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14459" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14458" CreationDate="2016-08-11T15:36:29.367" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwar you are referring to is Thiruppan Alwar, who was an incarnation of Vishnu's Srivatsa mark as I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7838/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  He has composed exactly one poem in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham.  As you alluded to, he was carried into the Sri Rangam temple by Loka Saranga Muni, where upon seeing the Ranganatha statue (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6829/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) he spontaneously composed a 10-verse poem called Amalanadipiran, which you can listen to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wyAc_8UTGo&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://dravidaveda.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=153&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The perfect-first-Lord is the radiant king of the celestials and resident of Venkatam surrounded by fragrant groves. His golden rule is just and blemish less. He made ​​me a slave of his devotees. He is the Lord of Arangam surrounded by lofty walls. O, his auspicious lotus feet have come to stay in my eyes!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With glee in his heart, he measured the Earth; his crown touched the roof of the Universe. He is the Kakuthstha Lord Rama, who rained arrows and killed the Rakshasas clan: He is the Lord of Arangam surrounded by fragrant groves. My mind hovers over the red vestures on his dark frame!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He stands in, the monkey forest of Venkatam hills over the North, worshipped by the celestials. He reclines on a serpent in Arangam. Over his sunset-red vesture, the beautiful lotus-seat of Brahma rises from his navel, obsessing my heart and spirit!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He shot arrows and felled the ten heads of Ravana, the king of fortified Lanka. He is the ocean-hued reclining in Arangam where peacocks dance to the song of bumble-bees. Aho; the cummerbund over his belly remains in my heart and haunts me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Relieving me of my load of misdeeds, the Lord of Arangam made ​​me his devotee; and what is more, he entered into me. What great penance did I do, I do not know. O, His' auspicious garland-chest has possessed me!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Lord saved the crescent-crested Siva from sin. He swallowed, the world, the people, the space, the Earth, the seven mountains and all else. He resides in Arangam city surrounded by flower groves that hum with bees. O, see his neck elevates my spirits!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He wields the discus and conch in his hands. His body is like a dark mountain. He is my master with a tall crown wafting the fragrance of Tulasi. He is the wonder-Lord of Arangam reclining on a serpent bed. Aho, his red lips have won my heart over!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first causes Lord, hard to reach even for the gods, the perfect Lord residing in Arangam, is the one who, tore into the tyrant Hiranya Kasipu's bowels. His face is set with dark wide red eyes. Aho, those eyes have made ​​me intemperate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He swallowed seven worlds and lay as a child on a fig leaf. He reclines on a serpent in Arangam. He wears a beautiful gem-set garland and a necklace of pearls on his dark frame. Aho, his matchless beauty has stolen my heart!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dark-hued Lord is, the Lord who came as a cowherd-lad and stole buffer, He is the Lord of gods, and the Lord of Arangam also. He has stolen my heart. After seeing my Lord of ambrosial delight, my eyes will see naught else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-11T15:36:29.367" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14460" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8976" CreationDate="2016-08-11T18:56:16.500" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;its a lock unlocked by the sound waves of a particular person's voice when he says a particular word (spell). the lock consists of many mechanical links. the sound waves gets amplified and forced on a small mechanical link. the movement gets converted into some other movements of different parts and the door unlocks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;if another person tries to open with same spell or different spell, the sound waves generated are directed to other side which causes danger like communicating with nearest snakes and make them attack&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7381" LastActivityDate="2016-08-11T18:56:16.500" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14461" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2906" CreationDate="2016-08-12T01:13:06.813" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Anukramani of Shukla Yajurveda Vajasaneyi Samhita is available in this book named &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedpuran.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/yajurved.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajurveda Samhita.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; It gives &quot;Prakaran&quot; which means to which ritualistic purpose is it used, &quot;Rishi&quot; which means who heard the mantras, &quot;Devata&quot; which means to which God is it addressed and &quot;Chhanda&quot; which means in which Vedic metre are the mantras. The book contains Sanskrit mantras in Devanagari script with Hindi translation of the mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prakarana and 2nd Level of Rishi is avaliable in page no. 13 of this book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devata and 3rd Level of Rishi is avaliable just after each chapter is finished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2826/who-is-the-seer-of-the-isha-upanishad/14443#14443&quot;&gt;answer here,&lt;/a&gt; there are three level of Rishis for Vajasaneyi Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) 1st level of Rishi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इषेत्वादि खं ब्रह्मान्त विवस्वान् ।।&#xA;  It was taught by Vivasvan (hence he is the Rishi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus the Rishi for whole Vajasaneyi Samhita is Rishi Vivasvan.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) 2nd level of Rishi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततः प्रतिकर्म - विभागेन ब्राह्मणानुसारेण ऋषयो वेदितव्या ।।&#xA;  Thus the ritualistic division as per the Brahmana and they are Rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are DarshaPurnamasha Prakaran Rishi and are of Deva level (except Yajnavalkya and Dadhichi) and they are Rishi due to division by Brahmana Grantha. It is avaliable in page no. 13 of the above book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) 3rd level of Rishi:&#xA;They are called Rishi due to mastery in respective Vedic mantras. They are called Vaiyektika Stara Sambaddha Rishi. It is available just after each chapter ends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who can't read Devanagari script (Sanskrit/ Hindi), I have compiled here information about 2nd level of Rishi and in which prakarana (ritual) they are used:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&lt;strong&gt;Ritual&lt;/strong&gt; // Chapter // &lt;strong&gt;Rishi&lt;/strong&gt; ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Darshapurnamasa// &lt;strong&gt;1.1- 2.28&lt;/strong&gt; // ParamesthiPrajapati or Devagana Prajapati]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Pitriyajna// &lt;strong&gt;2.29 - 2.34&lt;/strong&gt; // Prajapati ]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Ajnyaadheya// &lt;strong&gt;3.1- 3.8&lt;/strong&gt;// Prajapati, DevaSena, Agni or Gandharva]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Agnihotra// &lt;strong&gt;3.9 - 3.10&lt;/strong&gt; // Prajapati]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Yajamanagni Upasthan// &lt;strong&gt;3.11- 3.36&lt;/strong&gt; // Devagana]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Aagotopasthan// &lt;strong&gt;3.37 - 3.43&lt;/strong&gt; // Aditya ]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Chaturmasya// &lt;strong&gt;3.44 - 3.63&lt;/strong&gt; // Prajapati]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Agnistoma// &lt;strong&gt;4.1 - 8.32&lt;/strong&gt; // Prajapati]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Satropasthan// &lt;strong&gt;8.51- 8.53&lt;/strong&gt; // Devagana]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Naimittika// &lt;strong&gt;8.54 - 8.63&lt;/strong&gt; // Vasistha ]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Vajapeya// &lt;strong&gt;9.1- 9.34&lt;/strong&gt;// Brihaspati-Indra]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Rajasuya// &lt;strong&gt;9.35- 10.30&lt;/strong&gt; // Varuna ]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Charaksautramani// &lt;strong&gt;10.31- 10.34&lt;/strong&gt; // Ashwinikumar]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Agnichayan// &lt;strong&gt;11-18&lt;/strong&gt; // Prajapati/Sadhyagana]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Sautramani// &lt;strong&gt;19-21&lt;/strong&gt; // Prajapati]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Ashwamedha// &lt;strong&gt;22-25 and 29th chapter&lt;/strong&gt; //Prajapati]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Agnikodhya// &lt;strong&gt;27&lt;/strong&gt; // Prajapati]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Purushmedha// &lt;strong&gt;30-31&lt;/strong&gt; // Narayanpurusha]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Sarvamedha// &lt;strong&gt;32&lt;/strong&gt; // Brahma Swayambhu]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Anarabhyadhit// &lt;strong&gt;33.55 - 34.58&lt;/strong&gt; // Aditya- Yajnavalkya]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Pitrodhyaa// &lt;strong&gt;35&lt;/strong&gt; // Aditya/Devagana]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Pravaryagnikascha Medhopanisat// &lt;strong&gt;36&lt;/strong&gt; // Dadhyang Atharvan]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Mahabir Sambharan Prokshanati// &lt;strong&gt;37&lt;/strong&gt; // Dadhyang Atharvan]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Mahabir Nirupane Dharmadugtohanam// &lt;strong&gt;38&lt;/strong&gt; // Dadhyang Atharvan]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Pravargya Dharmabhede Prayaschit // &lt;strong&gt;39&lt;/strong&gt; // Dadhyang Atharvan]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [Ishavasyopanishad// &lt;strong&gt;40&lt;/strong&gt; // Dadhyang Atharvan]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-08-12T11:31:28.627" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14462" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14247" CreationDate="2016-08-12T01:21:39.800" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;To which Ritual a mantra is adressed is avaliable in Anukramani of Veda in the Prakarana Part. Prakarana means dealing with rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have compiled Prakarana part of Vajasaneyi Samhita in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2906/has-the-anukramani-of-the-shukla-yajur-veda-ever-been-published-in-any-form/14461#14461&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it is clear from that information that Prakarana part of 4oth chapter (ie. Isha Upanishad) is not associated with any ritual and is written as &lt;strong&gt;Ishavasyopanishad.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&lt;strong&gt;Ritual&lt;/strong&gt; // Chapter // Rishi ] &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Ishavasyopanishad&lt;/strong&gt;// 40 // Dadhyang Atharvan]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, as it has no ritualistic purpose and Prakarana written as Ishavasyopanishad clearly shows it is not used for Karma Kanda and just used for Jnana Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-08-12T01:21:39.800" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14464" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-12T06:36:50.180" Score="1" ViewCount="149" Body="&lt;p&gt;Today world is celebrating the Varalakshmi vratham. What is the significance of this? Has it been mentioned in devi bhagavatham? What is the procedure to perform this vratham? Also explain the benefits of performing the vratam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-12-08T08:15:43.060" LastActivityDate="2018-12-08T08:15:43.060" Title="Varalakshmi Vratham" Tags="|festivals|lakshmi|vrata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14465" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-12T06:37:06.893" Score="6" ViewCount="198" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Anushashan Parva, SECTION XXV&lt;/a&gt;, it is mentioned that by bathing in Bhrigu Kunda after fasting of three days, Brahmanacide (Brahma hatya) sin can be removed as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11344/how-to-remove-bramhahatya-sin/14255#14255&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By bathing, after a fast of three days and purifying the mind of all evil passions, in the large lake of Bhrigu Kunda, one becomes cleansed of even the sin of Brahmanicide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is why Bhrigu Kunda has so much importance? Is there any story mentioned in scriptures about it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-10-04T15:42:21.593" Title="What is the importance of Bhrigu Kunda?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|puranas|upanishads|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14466" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14465" CreationDate="2016-08-12T07:54:56.920" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/2_epic/mbh/mbh_13_u.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The original Sanskrit&lt;/a&gt; somehow uses chapter 26 for the translation provided. You might be interested to find the word Bhṛgutuṅga is used. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/excerpts/bala/bala-notes.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Clay Sanskrit Library - notes on Ramāyana’s first book&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhṛgutunda: This literally means “Bhṛgu’s belly” or “Bhṛgu’s navel.” Tunda is marked as a doubtful reading in the text; the most common variant is bhṛgutuṅga. The commentators agree that this is a place, but they interpret it somewhat differently. According to Ct, it refers to the specific peak of a mountain called Bhṛgutuṅga. Cr, on the other hand, thinks that is a “place associated with Bhṛgus.” Cg, who has the same reading as the critical text, understands, “on the inside — the belly (tunda) — of the slope of Bhṛgu’s mountain.” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Purāṇic Encyclopaedia:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhṛgutuṅga: A peak on which the sage Bhṛgu performed tapas. Ṛcīka had lived there with his wife and children. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bālakāṇḍa, 61st Sarga)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="5384" LastEditDate="2016-08-12T08:31:05.693" LastActivityDate="2016-08-12T08:31:05.693" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14467" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3044" CreationDate="2016-08-12T08:06:30.673" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I come to the conclusion that Jatayu and Dasharatha became friends in the battle with Sambarasura as mentioned in Kamba Ramayana.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is my Justification,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The mentioned event of Dasharatha meeting Lord Sani in Amar Chitra Katha comic differs from the one told &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/a&gt;. I would consider Padma Purana more reliable than a comic. There is no mention of Jatayu or even Dashartha falling from sky in Padma Purana. Here is how the incident is described in Padma Purana,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once, the royal astrologer of Dasharath was petrified at the prospect&#xA;  of Shani entering the constellation of Rohini and warned him of its&#xA;  dire consequences. 'If the Shani is not prevented from entering&#xA;  Rohini, then famine would occur lasting for more than twelve years.'&#xA;  said the royal astrologers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dasharath went above the sky to subdue the might of Shani well armed&#xA;  with divine weapons. Shani became terrified on seeing Dasharath in&#xA;  such a menacing mood and expressed his willingness to fulfill his&#xA;  desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;- Section 1.5.3, Dasharatha Pacifies Shani, Padma Purana. &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/PadmaPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[1]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vcscsd.org/content/balabhavan/18-Puranas.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[2]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The mnetioned story of Dasharatha rescuing Kousalya is present in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananda_Ramayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anandha Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;. There is no mention of Jatayu there too. Again I find Anandha Ramayana to be more reliable than the webpage linked in the question. Here is what Anantha Ramayana tells about it,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is the time when Dasaratha's marriage with Kausalya is being fixed.&#xA;  Dasaratha is enjoying himself on the Sarayu river in a boat.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana calls for Brahma and asks Him who will cause his (Ravana's)&#xA;  death.  Brahma tells him that Lord Narayana will be born to Dasaratha &#xA;  and Kausalya as Rama and will kill Ravana.  He also tells him that&#xA;  Dasaratha and Kausalya are going to be married in 5 days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana gets on his pushpaka vimana with several asuras and goes to&#xA;  Ayodhya, fights with Dasaratha and breaks the boat Dasaratha is in. &#xA;  Dasaratha and Sumantra somehow escape holding on to a piece of the&#xA;  boat and float down  the Sarayu river, reach the Ganges and eventually&#xA;  the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana proceeds to fight Kausalya's father (the Kosala king) and&#xA;  abducts  Kausalya. On the way to Lanka, he decides to hide Kausalya in&#xA;  a safe  place and leaves her in the custody of a shark, after placing&#xA;  her in a  box.  The shark carries the box in its mouth.  Sometime&#xA;  later, the  shark happens to encounter another shark. It places the&#xA;  box in a nearby  island and starts fighting.  In the meantime,&#xA;  Dasaratha and Sumantra, who  are floating in the ocean, discover this&#xA;  box and open it.  They are  surprised to see Kausalya.  Dasaratha&#xA;  marries Kausalya immediately in  gandharva vivaha fashion and all the&#xA;  three stay put in the box, exchanging  stories. The shark carries the&#xA;  box again into the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana calls Brahma and boasts that he has killed Dasaratha and&#xA;  abducted  Kausalya.  Brahma laughs and tells him that they have&#xA;  already been married. The angered Ravana calls for the shark and opens&#xA;  the box; out come the  three people. The scared Ravana tries to kill&#xA;  them with his sword.  Brahma tries to console him saying, &quot; You put&#xA;  only one girl in the box and now she has become three.  Is it not&#xA;  possible that many more will be coming out of the box? Rama could be&#xA;  one of them.  Just close the box and send it to Ayodhya&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, Ravana asks his servants to leave the box near Ayodhya.  The box&#xA;  is  discovered by the people of Ayodhya.  The Kosala king gives his&#xA;  daughter, Kausalya, in marriage to Dasaratha in a formal ceremony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;- Sara Kandam, Chapter-1, Ananda Ramayana.&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananda_Ramayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[4]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/apr97/0052.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[5]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see Ananda Ramayanam has no mention of Jatayu helping Dasharatha in rescuing Kousalya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the other two stories in reliable sources has no mention of Jatayu and differ from the ones linked in the question, I say that Jatayu and Dasharatha have met as told in Kamba Ramayana which is as follows,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'தயிர் உடைக்கும் மத்து என்ன உலகை நலி சம்பரனைத் தடிந்த அந் நாள், அயிர்&#xA;  கிடக்கும் கடல் வலயத்தவர் அறிய, &quot;நீ உடல்; நான் ஆவி&quot; என்று செயிர்&#xA;  கிடத்தல் செய்யாத திரு மனத்தாய்! செப்பினாய்; திறம்பா, நின் சொல்; உயிர்&#xA;  கிடக்க, உடலை விசும்பு ஏற்றினார், உணர்வு இறந்த கூற்றினாரே&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;- சடாயு காண் படலம், ஆரணிய காண்டம், கம்ப இராமாயனம்&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.chennailibrary.com/kambar/aaraniya/sadaayukaanpadalam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Translated version&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2712.Oh Dasaratha who has a pretty mind without any guilt , When you like the churner which breaks the curd killed Sambarasura , Who was&#xA;  giving sorrow to the beings of the world , you said , Making the world&#xA;  scattered with soft dust and surrounded by the sea that, “You are the&#xA;  body and I am the soul”, and your words will not change , But with&#xA;  soul lying here , the ignorant Yama has taken the body to the heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;- Aranya Kandam, Kamba Ramayanam.&lt;a href=&quot;https://englishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com/2014/07/kamba-ramayanam-aranya-kandam-padalam-1.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[7]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;External Links :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma Purana - Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/PadmaPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma Purana - Hinduonline.co&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vcscsd.org/content/balabhavan/18-Puranas.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;18 Puranas pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananda_Ramayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ananda Ramayana - Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/apr97/0052.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ananda Ramayana English version - Ramanuja.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.chennailibrary.com/kambar/aaraniya/sadaayukaanpadalam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aranya Kandam, Kamba Ramayanam - Tamil&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://englishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com/2014/07/kamba-ramayanam-aranya-kandam-padalam-1.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aranya Kandam, Kamba Ramayanam - English&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5012" LastEditorUserId="5012" LastEditDate="2018-08-28T10:24:23.580" LastActivityDate="2018-08-28T10:24:23.580" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14468" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14569" CreationDate="2016-08-12T08:21:28.513" Score="6" ViewCount="4391" Body="&lt;p&gt;The bow Gandiva  was created by Lord Brahma, the Creator.&#xA;No ordinary person could wield the Gandiva bow.&#xA;It was one of the most sought after celestial  bows.&#xA;And it was worshiped by Devas, Gandharvas and Danavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did Arjuna get the bow Gandiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story behind Arjuna getting the Gandiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-12T15:39:40.913" LastActivityDate="2018-06-12T15:39:40.913" Title="How did Arjuna get the celestial bow Gandiva?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|weapon|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14469" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-12T09:39:50.993" Score="2" ViewCount="171" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the songs composed by Kotpuli Nayanar on Lord Siva and in which number he comes out of total 63 Nayanars?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-30T17:34:57.913" LastActivityDate="2017-09-30T17:34:57.913" Title="What are some hymns composed by Kotpuli Nayanar?" Tags="|shiva|nayanar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14472" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14425" CreationDate="2016-08-12T14:47:24.450" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Ghušamesvara,the twelfth Jyotirlińga is described in detail in Chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-153/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;32&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-154/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;33&lt;/a&gt; of Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Mahapurana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Northern region near Devagiri hill, there lived a Brahmana of Bharadwaja clan named Sudhrama. He was well proficient in Vedas and Dharma. He had a wife called Sudeha who was chaste and devoted to Lord Shiva. Though she was devoted, she was barren.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दक्षिणस्यां दिशि श्रेष्ठो गिरिर्देवेतिसंज्ञकः। &lt;br&gt;महाशोभान्वितो&#xA;नित्यं राजतेऽद्भुतदर्शनः।। २॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is an excellent mountain Devagiri in the northern region which&#xA;it looks quite charming. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्यैव निकटे कश्चिद्भारद्वाजकुलोद्भवः।&lt;br&gt; सुधर्मा नाम विप्रश्च&#xA;न्यवसद्ब्रह्मवित्तमः॥ ३॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Close to that, there lives a Brähmana, born in Bhardvāja race, known&#xA;by the name of Sudharmā and who was well-versed in all the four&#xA;Vedas.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्य प्रिया सुदेहा च शिवधर्मपरायणा। &lt;br&gt;पतिसेवापरा नित्यं&#xA;गृहकर्मविचक्षणा।।४।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His wife named Sudehā was immensely devoted to Śiva. She was also&#xA;devoted to her husband and was well-versed in her household&#xA;duties.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Brahmin though he didn't possess child, never felt bad and used to think that it was his Karma and will of the Lord. But neighbors used to rebuke Sudeha as barren women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कदाचिच्च सुदेहा वै गेहे च सहवासिनः।&lt;br&gt; जगाम प्रियगोष्ठ्यर्थं&#xA;विवादस्तत्र सङ्गतः।। १६ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Sudehā, went with her maids to the abode of her neighbour, where&#xA;the marriage was being performed.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्पत्नी स्त्रीस्वभावाच्च भर्त्सिता सा तया तदा। &lt;br&gt;उक्ता चेति&#xA;दुरुक्त्या वै सुदेहा विप्रकामिनी॥ १७॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There, Sudharmā's wife was rebuked by the ladies of the neighbourhood&#xA;calling her as a neutral woman. At these words, Sudehā felt painful at&#xA;heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पत्न्यवाच&lt;br&gt; अपुत्रिणि! कथं गर्व कुरुषे पुत्रिणी ह्यहम्।&lt;br&gt; मद्धनं&#xA;भोक्ष्यते पुत्रो धनं ते कश्च भोक्ष्यते।। १८ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The neighbouring women said, “O Sonless woman, why are you arrogant? I&#xA;am the mother of a son who would inherit my wealth, but you have none&#xA;to inherit your riches. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नूनं हरिष्यते राजा त्वद्धनं नात्र संशयः।&lt;br&gt; धिग्धिक्त्वां ते धनं&#xA;धिक्ल धिक्ते मानं हि वन्ध्यके॥ १९॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course the king will surely confiscate your entire property. You&#xA;are a barren woman, disgrace to you, your wealth, your honour as well&#xA;as your prestige.”&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूत उवाच&lt;br&gt; भर्सिता ताभिरिति सा गृहमागत्य दुःखिता।&lt;br&gt; स्वामिने&#xA;कथयामास तदुक्तं सर्वमादरात्।। २० ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sūta said, “Having been thus scolded by her neighbour, she was&#xA;depressed and she returned home. Then she narrated to her husband all&#xA;that happened in the neighbourhood and the harsh words spoken by the&#xA;ladies there.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She requested her husband to conduct a Yajna for begetting son and he agreed after persistent demands. Her husband gave her insignia flower but she missed it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अग्नेरग्रेऽक्षिपत्पुष्पद्वयं विप्रो ह्यतन्द्रितः। &lt;br&gt; मनसा दक्षिणं&#xA;पुष्पं तं मेने पुत्रकामदम्॥ २५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The conscious Brähmana then offered two flowers in the sacrificial&#xA;fire, thinking in his mind that the right side flower would yield a&#xA;Son. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एवं कृत्वा पणं पत्नीमुवाच ब्राह्मणः स च।&lt;br&gt; अनयोग्राह्यमेकं ते पुष्पं&#xA;पुत्रफलाप्तये॥२६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With this resolve, the Brähmana told his wife. You shall take one of&#xA;these two flowers to decide about your getting a son.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तया च मनसा धृत्वा पुत्रश्चैव भवेन्मम। &lt;br&gt; तदा च स्वामिना यच्च धृतं&#xA;पुष्पं समेतु माम्।। २७॥&lt;br&gt; इत्युक्त्वा च तया तत्र नमस्कृत्य शिवं&#xA;तदा।&lt;br&gt; नत्वा चाग्निं पुनः प्रार्थ्य गृहीतं पुष्पमेककम्॥ २८॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She thought, “I shall surely have a son. Let the insignia flower come&#xA;to me.” Then she bowed in reverence to Śiva and the yajñafire.” After&#xA;eulogising again, she picked up one of the two flowers.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्वामिना चिन्तितं यच्च तद्गृहीतं तया न हि।&lt;br&gt; सुदेहया विमोहेन&#xA;शिवेच्छासम्भवेन वै॥ २९॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The insignia flower was missed by her due to delusion caused by the&#xA;desire of Śiva. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Sudeha as a desire to have son, asked her husband to marry her younger sister &lt;strong&gt;Ghušma&lt;/strong&gt;  and husband agreed after persuasions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्येवं प्रार्थितः सोऽपि सुधर्मा प्रियया तया। &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;घुश्मा&lt;/strong&gt; तां&#xA;समुपायंस्त विवाहविधिना द्विजः॥४१॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the insistence of his wife, the Brähmana Sudharmă, married the girl&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Ghušma&lt;/strong&gt; with all the due ceremonies.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sudeha, as ordained by Sastra, served her younger sister after the marriage. Ghusma was ardent devotee of Lord Shiva and served lord Shiva with fervent devotion. She used to bath daily 101 Shiva Lingas in near by lake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कनिष्ठा चैव या पत्नी स्वस्रनुज्ञामवाप्य च। &lt;br&gt;पार्थिवान्सा चकाराशु&#xA;नित्यमेकोत्तरं शतम्॥ ४५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The younger wife with the approval of his sister, made hundred and one&#xA;lingas of Śiva daily.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विधानपूर्वकं घुश्मा सोपचारसमन्वितम्।&lt;br&gt; कृत्वा तान्प्राक्षिपत्तत्र&#xA;तडागे निकटस्थिते॥ ४६ ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the auspicious religious provisions, Ghusmã, rendered&#xA;devotional worship to these lingas and consigned them daily in the&#xA;lake nearby.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एवं नित्यं सा चकार शिवपूजां स्वकामदाम्।&lt;br&gt; विसृज्य पुनरावाह्य&#xA;तत्सपर्याविधानतः।। ४७॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way she performed the wishfulfilling adoration of Siva daily&#xA;making them and then consigning them in the nearby lake as per the&#xA;existing tradition with devotion.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कुर्वन्त्या नित्यमेवं हि तस्याः शङ्करपूजनम्। &lt;br&gt;लक्षसङ्खयाऽभवत्पूर्णा&#xA;सर्वकामफलप्रदा॥ ४८॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus performing the worship of Śiva regularly she completed the&#xA;adoration of a hundred thousand lingas, which could yield the benefits&#xA;of all the desires.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to this devotion, Ghusma begot a son and Sudeha started hating Gushma after son was born. After some years, Sudharma decided to marry his son. During marriage, the felicitations of neighbors made Sudeha more jealous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एतस्मिन्नन्तरे विप्राः कन्यां दातुं समागताः।&lt;br&gt; विवाहं तस्य तत्रैव&#xA;चकार विधिवच्च सः॥४॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After a few days, a Brähmana arrived there in order to give his&#xA;daughter to the son in marriage and the father of the boy&#xA;appropriately married the boy with the girl.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सुधर्मा घुश्मया सार्द्धमानन्दं परमं गतः।&lt;br&gt; सर्वे सम्बन्धिनस्तस्यां&#xA;घुश्मायां मानमादधुः॥५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sudharmā was quite happy with his second wife Ghušma and because of&#xA;this, all the relatives, honoured Ghušmá, enormously.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तं दृष्ट्वा सा सुदेहा हि मनसि ज्वलिता तदा।&lt;br&gt; अत्यन्तं दुःखमापन्ना हा&#xA;हतास्मीति वादिनी।। ६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact Sudehā felt burning in heart by observing her sister Ghušmā.&#xA;She felt that she was quite unfortunate and thus remained&#xA;defeated.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just after the marriage, Sudeha connived to kill son of Sudeha. One night she cut limbs of son and threw them into lake where Ghusma used to worship Shiva Lingas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एकस्मिन्दिवसे ज्येष्ठा सुप्तं पुत्रं वधूंयुतम्। &lt;br&gt;चिच्छिदे निशि&#xA;चाङ्गेषु गृहीत्वा छुरिकां च सा॥ १५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once during the night, as the son was sleeping with his wife, she took&#xA;out a big knife and cut off his limbs.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वाङ्ग खण्डयामास रात्री घुश्मासुतस्य सा।&lt;br&gt; नीत्वा सरसि&#xA;तत्रैवाक्षिपद्दृप्ता महाबला॥ १६॥&lt;br&gt; यत्र क्षिप्तानि लिङ्गानि घुश्यया&#xA;नित्यमेव हि।&lt;br&gt; तत्र क्षिप्त्वा समायाता सुष्वाप सुखमागता॥ १७॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the elder wife cut off the limbs of Ghušma’s son, during the&#xA;night. Since she was quite strong, she carried the limbs to the lake,&#xA;where the earthen lingas of Śiva were daily consigned into the water&#xA;by Ghušmā. After consigning the son’s limbs in the lake water, she&#xA;returned home and slept.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After seeing blood stains, daughter-in-law was worried but not Gushma. She was of calm composure and did her daily worship of 101 Lingas in nearby lake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रात:काले समुत्थाय वधूः शयां विलोक्य सा। &lt;br&gt;रुधिराद्र&#xA;देहखण्डैर्युक्तां दुःखमुपागता॥ २०॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the bride got up in the morning, she found the bed was soaked in&#xA;blood. She also found the pieces of flesh there. She therefore felt&#xA;painful.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;घुश्मा चापि तदा तस्या वध्वा दुःखं निशम्य सा।&lt;br&gt;न चचाल&#xA;व्रतात्तस्मान्नित्यपार्थिवपूजनात्॥२४॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ghušma, heard the miserable lamentation of the bride, but did not&#xA;discard the performing of the sacred rites, besides the daily&#xA;adoration of Siva in the form of earthen lingas.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मनश्चैवोत्सुकं नैव जातं तस्या मनागपि। &lt;br&gt;भर्त्तापि च&#xA;तथैवासीद्यावद्व्रतविधिर्भवेत्॥ २५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Her mind was free from disturbance. The husband also did not shed away&#xA;his calm, till the completion of the daily worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मध्याह्ने पूजनान्ते च दृष्ट्वा शयां भयावहाम्।&lt;br&gt; तथापि न तदा&#xA;किञ्चित्कृतं दुःखं हि घुश्मया॥ २६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The worship of Śiva was ended at noon, then she looked at the terrible&#xA;bed but inspite of that Ghušmá did not feel painful at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She completed Puja at noon and after completion she said that Lord Shiva would take care of her son. The son came from lake alive and even after resurrection of her son, she was with equanimity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मध्याह्ने पूजनान्ते च दृष्ट्वा शयां भयावहाम्। &lt;br&gt;तथापि न तदा&#xA;किञ्चित्कृतं दुःखं हि घुश्मया॥ २६॥&lt;br&gt; The worship of Śiva was ended&#xA;at noon, then she looked at the terrible bed but inspite of that&#xA;Ghušmá did not feel painful at all.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;येनैव चार्पितश्चायं स वै रक्षां करिष्यति। &lt;br&gt;भक्तप्रियः स विख्यातः&#xA;कालकालः सतां गतिः॥ २७॥ यदि नो रक्षिता शम्भुरीश्वरः प्रभुरेकलः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मालाकार इवासौ यान्युङ्ते तान्वियुनक्ति च।। २८॥&lt;br&gt; अद्य मे चिन्त्या&#xA;किं स्यादिति तत्त्वं विचार्य सा।&lt;br&gt; न चकार तदा दुःखं शिवे धैर्य&#xA;समागता॥ २९॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She uttered, “The one who has given the boy shall protect him too. He&#xA;is the destroyer of Kāla, the goal of the noble people. He is well&#xA;known as the favourite of his devotees. He is ours protector, the sole&#xA;lord, and resembles a gardener. He can separate those who are united&#xA;by him. What shall I gain by worrying over (the death of the son)?&#xA;Thus realising the truth and getting enthusiastic in dedicating&#xA;herself to Śiva, she did not grieve much.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;क्षिप्त्वा च पार्थिवांस्तत्र परावर्त्तत सा यदा। &lt;br&gt;तदा&#xA;पुत्रस्तडागस्थो दृश्यते स्म तटे तया॥ ३१॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the earthen lingas were consigned by her, thereafter she found&#xA;her son standing on the bank of the lake.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुत्र उवाच&lt;br&gt; मातरं हि मिलिष्यामि मृतोऽहं जीवतोऽधुना। &lt;br&gt;तव&#xA;पुण्यप्रभावाद्धि कृपया शङ्करस्य वै॥ ३२॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The son said, “I would like to see my mother. After my death, I have&#xA;been brought back to life by lord Śiva because of the grace of my&#xA;mother and the grace of lord Śiva.”&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूत उवाच&lt;br&gt; जीवितं तं सुतं दृष्ट्वा घुश्मा सा तत्प्रसूर्द्विजाः।&#xA;&lt;br&gt;प्रहृष्टा नाभवत्तत्र दुःखिता न यथा पुरा।। ३३ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sūta said, “O Brāhmanas, finding that her son had been brought back to&#xA;life, the mother did not feel so delightful, since she did not feel so&#xA;painful even at his death earlier.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva appeared before and explained the evil plan of her elder sister. She asked Lord Shiva to forgive her sister. When lord Shiva asked her boon, She asked Him to stay there as Linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूत उवाच &lt;br&gt; सोवाच तद्वचः श्रुत्वा यदि देयो वरस्त्वया।&lt;br&gt; लोकानां&#xA;चैव रक्षार्थमत्र स्थेयं मदाख्यया॥४३॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śiva said, “O Ghušma, you better ask for another boon that could be&#xA;beneficial to you which will be granted by me. I am immensely please&#xA;with your devotion and your nature of being free from attachment.”&#xA;Sūta said, “Hearing these words of Śiva Ghusmã said, “In case the lord&#xA;is desirous of granting a boon to me, then you stay here in my name,&#xA;for the protection of the universe.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदोवाच शिवस्तत्र सुप्रसन्नो महेश्वरः। &lt;br&gt; स्थास्येऽत्र &lt;strong&gt;तव नाम्नाहं&#xA;घुश्मेशाख्यः&lt;/strong&gt; सुखप्रदः।।४४।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At this Siva felt delighted and he said, “I shall be lodged here in&#xA;your name and shall be known as Ghušmešvara in order to bestow&#xA;comforts over the people.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;घुश्मेशाख्यं सुप्रसिद्धं लिङ्गं मे जायतां शुभम्। &lt;br&gt; इदं सरस्तु&#xA;लिङ्गानामालयं जायतां सदा।। ४५॥&lt;br&gt; The Sivalinga of mine shall be&#xA;known as Ghušmešvara besides being sacred and famous. This lake too&#xA;(would be auspicious as well) being the store house of the Sivalingas&#xA;for all times to come.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तस्माच्छिवालयं&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;नाम प्रसिद्धं भुवनत्रये।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;सर्वकामप्रदं होतद्दर्शनात्स्यात्सदा सर:॥४६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This place would be popular in the three worlds and &lt;strong&gt;shall be known&#xA;as Śivālaya (the abode of Śiva)&lt;/strong&gt;. This lake too will fulfill all the&#xA;desires of the people at its mere sight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Location of Jyotirlinga:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two Temples with similar names, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghushmeshwar,_Rajasthan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ghusmeshwar&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grishneshwar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Grishneswar&lt;/a&gt;. But Ghusmeswar in Rajastan looks like the original 12th Jyotirlinga as that temple is situated near Devagiri and lake. It is also called as Shivalay, which was changed to Shival and Shiwar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-08-12T14:47:24.450" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14474" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-08-13T04:39:06.563" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-08-13T04:39:06.563" LastActivityDate="2016-08-13T04:39:06.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14475" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-08-13T04:39:06.563" Score="0" Body="Questions about Sandhyavandana (Sanskrit:संध्यावन्दन), a ritual performed three times in a day, as instructed by Guru to Dvija whose Upanayanam is done and Yajnopavita is received." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-08-14T08:41:49.963" LastActivityDate="2016-08-14T08:41:49.963" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14476" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-08-13T04:47:28.813" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-08-13T04:47:28.813" LastActivityDate="2016-08-13T04:47:28.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14477" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-08-13T04:47:28.813" Score="0" Body="For the questions that deals with Janaka (जनक), a king of Videha/Mithila and father of Sita (Character of Ramayana)." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-08-14T13:52:17.700" LastActivityDate="2016-08-14T13:52:17.700" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14478" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-13T06:18:02.040" Score="19" ViewCount="49593" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most popular and widely used Shloka in Hinduism is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः करमध्ये सरस्वती ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;करमूले तु गोविन्दः प्रभाते करदर्शनम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;karAgre vasate lakShmIH kara-madhye sarasvatI |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kara-moole tu govindaH prabhAte kara-darshanam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: At the &lt;strong&gt;Top&lt;/strong&gt; of the Hand (i.e. Palm) Dwell Devi Lakshmi and at the &lt;strong&gt;Middle&lt;/strong&gt; of the Hand Dwell Devi Saraswati,&#xA; At the &lt;strong&gt;Base&lt;/strong&gt; of the Hand Dwell Sri Govinda; Therefore one should Look at one's Hands in the Early Morning and contemplate on Them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It seems like &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.practicalsanskrit.com/2009/07/force-is-in-your-hands.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;another&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; version with small modification also exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः करमध्ये सरस्वती ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;करमूले स्थिता गौरी मंगलं करदर्शनम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;karAgre vasate lakShmIH, kara-madhye saraswatI |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kara-moole sthitA gaurI, mangalaM kara-darshanam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The difference is instead of Lord Govinda, the second version mentions about Gauri at the base of the Hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which Hindu scripture has the mention of the above shloka and which version is mentioned out of the above two?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorDisplayName="user17294" LastEditDate="2019-03-17T00:59:52.363" LastActivityDate="2019-03-17T00:59:52.363" Title="Origin of कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः (karaagre vasate lakshmi)" Tags="|identification-request|shloka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14479" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14485" CreationDate="2016-08-13T10:26:19.673" Score="4" ViewCount="5190" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Pandava princes spent nearly 12 years in the forest and were leading a life of courage and discipline.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The time had come for the Pandavas to live in Agyata Vasa (living Incognito).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the quest of a mysterious deer, Yudhishthira, became exhausted and thirsty. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His brother Nakula ventured out to fetch water and found a beautiful lake.&#xA;However, he did not return and lost his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise,  the other three brothers of Yudhishthira , also did not return and died,trying to fetch water from the lake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira , however succeeded in getting his brothers revived back to life- and the Pandavas  continued their Exile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story with regard to this event,  as mentioned in the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2019-02-23T13:37:15.980" LastActivityDate="2019-02-23T13:37:15.980" Title="Yudhishthira got his brothers revived from death" Tags="|mahabharata|yudhisthira|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14480" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-13T10:35:40.657" Score="1" ViewCount="93" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came to know recently that Garuda willnot fly and lizard will not make sound in and around Kasi for a distance of  45 miles. Any reason from puranas??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-08-13T10:35:40.657" Title="Garuda and Lizard" Tags="|scripture|puranas|garuda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14481" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2968" CreationDate="2016-08-13T10:41:34.973" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Garuda Puranam can be read at home. The discussion between Lord Vishnu and Garuda after death how the atma travels thru several difficult places. How a human being should live in this earth when he has ben given opportunity. There are 28 hells described based on the sins committed by a person during his life in earth. Giri publications Tamil version costing Rs.40  can be read. Ir in the google type garuda puranam and youwill get in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-08-13T10:41:34.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14484" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14454" CreationDate="2016-08-13T11:31:19.057" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism (or Sanatana Dharma), there is a beautiful concept where even the non living things and abstract ideas also exist in personified form. It is because Consciousness runs everything as Shrutis/ Vedas state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म (Aitreya Upanishad 3.3) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11896/what-are-mahavakyas/11897#11897&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prajnanam Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;ie. Pure Consciousness is Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Shrutis/Vedas also state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वं खल्विदं ब्रह्म (Chhandogya Upanishad 3.14.1) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Sarva Khalvidam Brahman&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;ie. Everything is Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, from above as we know everything is Brahman and we also know pure consciousness is Brahman. So,we can say &lt;strong&gt;Everything is Pure Consciousness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, even non - living things and abstract ideas also exist in personified form. For eg. Days and Nights are phenomenon but there exists a personified form of Days and Nights.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Vedas are eternal voices. But they also exist in personified form. For eg. RigVeda has it's own form, own shape. And same for other Vedas like Samaveda, YajurVeda and Atharvaveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And not only this there are personified form of Anger (Krodha), Attachment (Moha), Buddhi (Intellect), etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the similar way among the four Yugas namely:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga and KaliYuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They all exist in their personified form also.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kali Yuga as the name implies is the age of darkness. So, Kali is personification of age of darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Puranic accounts the present age running is Kali Yuga / Kali age. And the personified Kaliyuga is the Kali. Kali has it's respective forms and attributes as reflected by the present age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His main agenda is to spread violence, adharma and cruelty in the society. He tries his best to trigger such events. He will be defeated by coming incarnation of Lord Vishnu named Kalki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the description of Kali demon from Kalki Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the annihilation, the secondary creator of the universe, Lord Brahma, the grandfather of everyone, who was born on the universal lotus flower, created Sin personified, having a black complexion, from his back. The name of Sin personified was Adharma By faithfully hearing about, chanting, and remembering the descendents of Adharma, one quickly becomes freed from all sinful reactions. &lt;strong&gt;The wife of Adharma (Irreligion), was named Mithya (Falsehood), She was very beautiful, and had eyes like those of a cat They had a son named Dambha (Pride), who was always very angry and eneigetic. Dambha had a sister named Maya, and within her womb, he begot a son named Lobha, (Greed), and a daughter named Nikrti (Cunning), Lobha begot a son named Krodha (Anger), in the womb of Nikrti. Himsa (Violence), was Krodha's sister. From the womb of Himsa, Krodha begot a son named Kali. Kali is always seen to be holding his genitals in his left hand. His complexion is very black, like black ointment that has been mixed with oil. Kali's abdomen is like that of a crow, his face is frightening to behold, and his tongue is red and appears to be full of greed. His appearance is very fearful and a bad smell emanates from his body. Kali is very fond of playing chess, drinking wine, enjoying the company of prostitutes, and associating with gold merchants.&lt;/strong&gt; Kali's sister was Durukti, (Harsh Speech). From Durukti's womb, Kali begot a son named Bhaya, (Fear), and a daughter named, Mrtyu (Death). Bhaya begot a son named Niraya (Hell) from the womb of Mrtyu and Niraya begot ten thousand sons in the womb of his sister, Yatana (Excessive Pain). Thus I have described the destructive progeny of Kali, who were all blasphemers of genuine religious principles. All these relatives of Kali were the destroyers of sacrifice, study of the Vedas, and charity, because they transgressed all the Vedic principles of religion. They were reservoirs of mental distress, disease, old age, destruction of religious principles, sorrow, lamentation, and fear. [Kalki Purana 1.14-22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, his form and birth clearly describe his attribute.&#xA;As seen above he is born from Violence and Anger. Harsh speech is his sister. From his sister he begot a son named Fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One doesn't need to wonder or be surprised seeing the above description. How can Violence and Anger be father and mother and etc.. etc.. questions.? As I already told before, everything, even the abstract ideas have their own personified form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand Kaali (with long 'a') is name of Goddess and she is one of the forms of Goddess Durga. She is Supremely merciful and mother of all and at the same time She is also terrible Annhilator of even time. Kala means time and Kaali is one who rules or even annhilates time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is one of the story of Godesses Kali when she was invoked during encounter with two demons named Chanda and Munda and she emerges from Forehead of Ambika. It is inside Devi Mahatmyam of Markandeya Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततः कोपं चकारोच्चैरम्बिका तानरीन् प्रति। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;कोपेन चास्या वदनं मषीवर्णमभूत्तदा॥५॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;भ्रुकुटीकुटिलात्तस्या ललाटफलकाद्द्रुतम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;काली करालवदना विनिष्क्रान्तासिपाशिनी॥६॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;विचित्रखट्‌वाङ्‌गधरा नरमालाविभूषणा। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;द्वीपिचर्मपरीधाना शुष्कमांसातिभैरवा॥७॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;अतिविस्तारवदना जिह्वाललनभीषणा। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;निमग्नारक्तनयना नादापूरितदिङ्‌मुखा॥८॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;सा वेगेनाभिपतिता घातयन्ती महासुरान्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;सैन्ये तत्र सुरारीणामभक्षयत तद्‌बलम्॥९॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thereupon Ambika became terribly angry with those foes, and her anger her countenance then became dark as ink. &lt;strong&gt;Out from the surface of her forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with a sword and noose.&lt;/strong&gt; Bearing the strange skull-topped staff, decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger’s skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep-sunk reddish eyes and filling the regions of the sky with her roars, and falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great asuras in that army, she devoured those hosts of the foes of the devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-12-18T06:35:28.817" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14485" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14479" CreationDate="2016-08-13T16:45:14.193" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of encounter of Yaksha and Pandava is mentioned in Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03310.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION CCCX&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03311.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION CCCX&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the vanavas, Pandavas were wandering in forests and once they felt thirsty. Then Yudhishthira has asked to Nakula to look for the water. He found a lake and when he is going to drink water, a hidden voice has warned him that he could not drink water before answering his questions. But Nakula has ignored that voice and drank the water and felt dead on ground. Same thing happened with Sahadeva , Arjuna and Bhimasen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then king Yudhishthira addressed Nakula saying, 'Do thou, O son of Madri, climb this tree and look around the ten points of the horizon. Do thou see whether there is water near us or such trees as grow on watery grounds! O child, these thy brothers are all fatigued and thirsty.' Thereupon saying, 'So be it,' Nakula speedily climbed up a tree, and having looked around, said unto his eldest brother, 'O king, I see many a tree that groweth by the water-side, and I hear also the cries of cranes. Therefore, without doubt, water must be somewhere here.' Hearing these words, Kunti's son Yudhishthira, firm in truth, said, 'O amiable one, go thou and fetch water in these quivers!' Saying, 'So be it,' at the command of his eldest brother Nakula quickly proceeded towards the place where there was water and soon came upon it. And beholding a crystal lake inhabited by cranes he desired to drink of it, when he heard these words from the sky, 'O child, do not commit this rash act! This lake hath already been in my possession. Do thou, O son of Madri, first answer my questions and then drink of this water and take away (as much as thou requirest). Nakula, however, who was exceedingly thirsty, disregarding these words, drank of the cool water, and having drunk of it, dropped down dead. And, O represser of foes, seeing Nakula's delay, Yudhishthira the son of Kunti said unto Sahadeva, the heroic brother of Nakula, 'O Sahadeva, it is long since our brother, he who was born immediately before thee, hath gone from hence! Do thou, therefore, go and bring back thy uterine brother, together with water.' At this, Sahadeva, saying, 'So be it,' set out in that direction; and coming to the spot, beheld his brother lying dead on the ground. And afflicted at the death of his brother, and suffering severely from thirst, he advanced towards the water, when these words were heard by him, 'O child, do not commit this rash act! This lake hath already been in my possession. First answer my question, and then drink of the water and take away as much as thou mayst require.' Sahadeva, however, who was extremely thirsty, disregarding these words, drank of the water, and having drunk of it, dropped down dead. Then Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, said unto Vijaya, 'It is long since, O Vibhatsu, that thy two brothers have gone, O represser of foes! Blessed be thou! Do thou bring them back, together with water. Thou art, O child, the refuge of us all when plunged in distress!' Thus addressed, the intelligent Gudakesa, taking his bow and arrows and also his naked sword, set out tor that lake of waters. And reaching that spot, he whose car was drawn by white steeds beheld those tigers among men, his two younger brothers who had come to fetch water, lying dead there. And seeing them as if asleep, that lion among men, exceedingly aggrieved, raised his bow and began to look around that wood. But he found none in that mighty forest. And, being fatigued, he who was capable of drawing the bow by his left hand as well, rushed in the direction of the water. And as he was rushing (towards the water), he heard these words from the sky, 'Why dost thou approach this water? Thou shalt not be able to drink of it by force. If thou, O Kaunteya, can answer the question I will put to thee, then only shalt thou drink of the water and take away as much as thou requirest, O Bharata!' Thus forbidden, the son of Pritha said, 'Do thou forbid me by appearing before me! And when thou shalt be sorely pierced with my arrows, thou wilt not then again speak in this way!' Having said this, Partha covered all sides with arrows inspired by mantras. And he also displayed his skill in shooting at an invisible mark by sound alone. And, O bull of the Bharata race, sorely afflicted with thirst, he discharged barbed darts and javelins and iron arrows, and showered on the sky innumerable shafts incapable of being baffled. Thereupon, the invisible Yaksha said, 'What need of all this trouble, O son of Pritha? Do thou drink only after answering my questions! If thou drink, however, without answering my questions, thou shalt die immediately after.' Thus addressed, Pritha's son Dhananjaya capable of drawing the bow with his left hand as well, disregarding those words, drank of the water, and immediately after dropped down dead. And (seeing Dhananjaya's delay) Kunti's son Yudhishthira addressed Bhimasena, saying, 'O represser of foes, it is a long while that Nakula and Sahadeva and Vibhatsu have gone to fetch water, and they have not come yet, O Bharata! Good betide thee! Do thou bring them back, together with water!' Thereupon saying, 'So be it,' Bhimasena set out for that place where those tigers among men, his brothers, lay dead. And beholding them, Bhima afflicted though he was with thirst, was exceedingly distressed. And that mighty armed hero thought all that to have been the act of some Yaksha or Rakshasa. And Pritha's son Vrikodara thought, 'I shall surely have to fight today. Let me, therefore, first appease my thirst.' Then that bull of the Bharata race rushed forward with the intention of drinking. Thereupon the Yaksha said, 'O child, do not commit this rash act! This lake hath already been in my possession. Do thou first answer my questions, and then drink and take away as much water as thou requirest!'&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus addressed by that Yaksha of immeasurable energy, Bhima, without answering his questions, drank of the water. And as soon as he drank, he fell down dead on the spot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When none of his brothers returned, Yudhishthira became worried and started searching them. He too found the same lake. Then seeing his brothers condition he started lamenting and when he wanted to enter in the lake for ablution, the same voice warned him and Yudhishthira has agreed to answer his questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And having concluded this for certain, he began to perform his ablutions in that lake. And while he descended into it, he heard these words from the sky, uttered by the Yaksha,--'I am a crane, living on tiny fish. It is by me that thy younger brothers have been brought under the sway of the lord of departed spirits. If, thou, O prince, answer not the questions put by me, even thou shalt number the fifth corpse. Do not, O child, act rashly! This lake hath already been in my possession. Having answered my questions first, do thou, O Kunti's son, drink and carry away (as much as thou requirest)!' Hearing these words, Yudhishthira said, 'Art thou the foremost of the Rudras, or of the Vasus, or of the Marutas? I ask, what god art thou? This could not have been done by a bird! Who is it that hath overthrown the four mighty mountains, viz., the Himavat, the Paripatra, the Vindhya, and the Malaya? Great is the feat done by thee, thou foremost of strong persons! Those whom neither gods, nor Gandharvas nor Asuras, nor Rakshasas could endure in mighty conflict, have been slain by thee! Therefore, exceedingly wonderful is the deed done by thee! I do not know what thy business may be, nor do I know thy purpose. Therefore, great is the curiosity and fear also that have taken possession of me? My mind is greatly agitated, and as my head also is aching, I ask thee, therefore, O worshipful one, who art thou that stayest here?' Hearing these words the Yaksha said, 'I am, good betide thee, a Yaksha, and not an amphibious bird. It is by me that all these brothers of thine, endued with mighty prowess, have been slain!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing these accursed words couched in harsh syllabus, 1 Yudhishthira, O king, approaching the Yaksha who had spoken then, stood there. And that bull among the Bharatas then beheld that Yaksha of unusual eyes and huge body tall like a palmyra-palm and looking like fire or the Sun, and irresistible and gigantic like a mountain, staying on a tree, and uttering a loud roar deep as that of the clouds. And the Yaksha said, 'These thy brothers, O king, repeatedly forbidden by me, would forcibly take away water. It is for this that they have been slain by me! He that wisheth to live, should not, O king, drink this water! O son of Pritha, act not rashly! This lake hath already been in my possession. Do thou, O son of Kunti, first answer my questions, and then take away as much as thou likest!' Yudhishthira said, 'I do not, O Yaksha, covet, what is already in thy possession! O bull among male beings, virtuous persons never approve that one should applaud his own self (without boasting, I shall, therefore, answer thy questions, according to my intelligence). Do thou ask me!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Yaksha has asked numerous questions and Yudhishthira has answered all questions correctly. You may read all questions and answers &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03311.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then pleased by Yudhishthira answers, Yaksha has asked him that which one of your brothers should become alive? Then Yudhishthira has told that he want Nakula to be alive. Yaksha asked him why he want Nakula, then Yudhishthira replied that his father has two wives, Kunti and Madri and he want atleast one son of Madri to be alive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yaksha said,--'Thou hast, O king truly answered who is a man, and what man possesseth every kind of wealth. Therefore, let one only amongst thy brothers, whom thou mayst wish, get up with life!' Yudhishthira answered,--'Let this one that is of darkish hue, whose eyes are red, who is tall like a large Sala tree, whose chest is broad and arms long, let this Nakula, O Yaksha, get up with life! The Yaksha rejoined,-'This Bhimasena is dear unto thee, and this Arjuna also is one upon whom all of you depend! Why, then, O king dost thou, wish a step-brother to get up with his life! How canst thou, forsaking Bhima whose strength is equal to that of ten thousand elephants, wish Nakula to live? People said that this Bhima was dear to thee. From what motive then dost thou wish a step-brother to revive? Forsaking Arjuna the might of whose arm is worshipped by all the sons of Pandu, why dost thou wish Nakula to revive?' Yudhishthira said,--'If virtue is sacrificed, he that sacrificeth it, is himself lost. So virtue also cherisheth the cherisher. Therefore taking care that virtue by being sacrificed may not sacrifice us, I never forsake virtue. Abstention from injury is the highest virtue, and is, I ween, even higher than the highest object of attainment. I endeavour to practise that virtue. Therefore, let Nakula, O Yaksha, revive! Let men know that the king is always virtuous! I will never depart from my duty. Let Nakula, therefore, revive! My father had two wives, Kunti and Madri. Let both of them have children. This is what I wish. As Kunti is to me, so also is Madri. There is no difference between them in my eye. I desire to act equally towards my mothers. Therefore, let Nakula live?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then again pleased with Yudhishthira, Yaksha has revived all Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yaksha said,--'Since abstention from injury is regarded by thee as higher than both profit and pleasure, therefore, let all thy brothers live, O bull of Bharata race!&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-13T16:45:14.193" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14487" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22704" CreationDate="2016-08-14T05:54:27.637" Score="6" ViewCount="12762" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you all know, Kalki is the avatar that Vishnu will take to end the Kali Yuga. In the Kalki Purana,it is stated that his wife will be Padma,an incarnation of Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,as per the lore of Vaishno Devi,another incarnation of Lakshmi,Rama promised her that during Kaliyuga, he would take an avatar of Kalki and would then marry her. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence,my question is, who will Kalki marry?Padma or Vaishno Devi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastActivityDate="2018-03-25T15:09:14.137" Title="Who will Kalki marry?" Tags="|lakshmi|kali-yuga|devi|kalki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14490" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14491" CreationDate="2016-08-14T18:37:16.840" Score="2" ViewCount="1724" Body="&lt;p&gt;Grandsire Bhishma was one of the Central characters of the Mahabharata epic. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma was the son of king Shantanu and Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the details of Bhishma's birth ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2020-03-03T23:45:46.113" LastActivityDate="2020-03-03T23:45:46.113" Title="What are the details of Bhishma's birth?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhishma|ganga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14491" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14490" CreationDate="2016-08-14T18:37:16.840" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of  Bhishma’s birth, is explained in –&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Mahabharata book 1:Adi Parva:Sambhava Parva:Sections XCVI, XCVII and XCVIII&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;The details are as under:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.Ganga is cursed by Brahma to live on earth.The 8 Vasus also get cursed by Rishi Vasishtha to live on earth.The Vasus request Ganga to become their mother on earth.They also request Ganga to throw them into water, immediately on birth, so as to return back to heaven quickly. Ganga accepts their request.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.As cursed by Brahma, Ganga comes down to earth.A very virtuous  king named  Pradeepa, spent many years in ascetic penances at the source of river Ganges.One day Ganga meets king Pradeepa  and expresses a desire to become his wife.King Pradeepa declines politely and promises to make Ganga his daughter-in-law instead.A son Shantanu{Ishvaku king, Mahabhisha re-born, due to  a curse by Brahma} is born to king Pradeepa in his old age.King Pradeepa keeps his promise to make Ganga his daughter-in-law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.Shantanu promises never to question any acts of Ganga . Ganga and Shantanu get married.Eight children are born to them{being the eight Vasus cursed by rishi Vasishtha}.Seven children are thrown in water by Ganga  immediately as they are born.When the 8th child{Vasu Prabhasa re-born on earth} is about to be thrown in water, king Shantanu breaks his promise and stops Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4.The reply given by Ganga and the  events that follow are as under:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganga replied, 'O thou desirous of offspring, thou hast already become the first{best} of those that have children. I shall not destroy this child of thine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But according to our agreement, the period of my stay with thee is at an end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am Ganga, the daughter of Jahnu. I am ever worshipped by the great sages;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have lived with thee so long for accomplishing the purposes of the celestials. The eight illustrious Vasus endued with great energy had, from Vasishtha's curse, to assume human forms. On earth, besides thee, there was none else to deserve the honour of being their begetter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no woman also on earth except one like me, a celestial of human form, to become their mother. I assumed a human form to bring them forth. Thou also, having become the father of the eight Vasus, hast acquired many regions of perennial bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was also agreed between myself and the Vasus that I should free them from their human forms as soon as they would be born. I have thus freed them from the curse of the Rishi Apava. Blest be thou; I leave thee, O king!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But rear thou this child of rigid vows. That I should live with thee so&#xA;long was the promise I gave to the Vasus. And let this child be called Gangadatta.'&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5.The 8th child Gangadatta was thus not thrown in water. The child was named Devavrata ,and  went on to become Bhishma ,one of the most illustrious characters of Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-03-02T15:37:41.733" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14492" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-14T20:34:54.110" Score="4" ViewCount="1152" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upakarma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upakarma&lt;/a&gt; or Avni Avittam is a ritual performed before/on Shravan Paurnima/Pournami (it depends on Veda). Generally Rigveda Upakarma is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/ceremony/upakarma/rigveda/rigveda-upakarma-date-time.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;one day&lt;/a&gt; behind Yajurveda Upakarma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What shastra/Scripture describe the astronomical calculations and the procedural details of Upakarma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-08-19T04:05:35.047" LastActivityDate="2021-01-25T17:37:27.047" Title="What scriptures describe the UpAkarma dates calculation and performance details" Tags="|scripture|festivals|vedic-rituals|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14493" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-15T00:44:09.987" Score="4" ViewCount="1364" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm really confused.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this Lord Krishna episode, &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/Jq3TC1_8P6M?t=28m29s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lord Krishna Naming&lt;/a&gt;, the Sage knows that Lord Krishna lives in Go Lok with Radha. And it seems his adoptive father, Nanda knows of this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I always thought people knew of Lord Krishna AFTER he was born, lived on Earth, and then departed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, people knew of Lord Vishnu who is re-incarnated as Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clarify. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastActivityDate="2019-04-26T12:27:42.077" Title="Did People Know of Lord Krishna BEFORE He Was Born" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|radha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14494" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14492" CreationDate="2016-08-15T09:20:57.360" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Upakarma or Shravani  उपकर्म / श्रावणी)&lt;/strong&gt; is a Vedic ritual celebrated every year generally on the full Moon day of the Lunar Month &lt;strong&gt;Sravana (श्रावण)&lt;/strong&gt; that falls during August–September months of English calendar which also coincides with the monsoon season. Upakarma is referred to as &lt;strong&gt;Avani&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Avittam&lt;/strong&gt; in &lt;strong&gt;Tamil&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Jandhyala Punnama in Telugu, and Janivarada Habba in Kannada.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upakarma is a Sanskrit word (Upa + Karma). Literally Upa means before and Karma means an action. Upakarma means an action performed &lt;strong&gt;before beginning the Vedic studies.&lt;/strong&gt; Upa also refers to nearness or close touch with Upanishads (Vedas). In simple terms Upakarma refers to &lt;strong&gt;changing of sacred (Holy) thread called Yagnopaveetham&lt;/strong&gt; on this day by the three varnas &lt;strong&gt;(Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vysyas).&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.madhwas.com/aachaaravyavahara/upakarma-vidhi.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;See Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Upakarma Vidhi (Procedure) -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;संप्राप्ते श्रवणस्यांतेय पौर्णिमास्याम दिनोदये , स्नानं कुर्वन्ति ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मतिमान स्मृति श्रुति विधानतः / उपाकर्मादिकं प्रोक्तंऋषिनाम चैव&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;तर्पणं&lt;/strong&gt;।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शुद्राणाम मंत्र राहितं स्नानं दानं च श्याशतै उपकर्माणि कर्तव्यामृशीणं&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;चैव पूजनं।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - On the arrival of shravan Month Pournami’s Sun Rise, Wismen&#xA;perform  Upaakarmaadika Karmaas including Tarpanam as per the&#xA;Intructions ofVeda Shastraas. After the Upakarma, the duty is to&#xA;perform Puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhavishya Puran&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To &lt;strong&gt;Rigvedis&lt;/strong&gt;, ‘Upaakarma Kaala’ is determined on Shravana Shukla Paksha  Purnima in Shravana Nakshatra and Panchami’s Hasta Nakshatra; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To &lt;strong&gt;Yajurvedis&lt;/strong&gt; also, Upaakarma Kaala is suitable to Shravana Purnami’s Shravana Nakshatra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As regards &lt;strong&gt;Saama Vedis,&lt;/strong&gt; the decision is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सामवेदिनाम भाद्रपद शुक्ले हस्त नक्षत्रं मुख्यकालः।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;संक्रांत्यादि  दोषांणं तत्र संभवे श्रावण अस्ये हस्तोग्राह्य इति ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirnaysindhu निर्णयसिन्धु / Dharma Sindhu धर्म सिन्धु&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; Saam Vedinaam Bhadrapada Shukley Hastaa Nakshatram Mukhyakaalah,&#xA;Sankraantyaadi doshana tatraa sambhavey Shraavana aasey Hastograahya&#xA;iti Nirnaya Sindhuh/ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - To Saama Vedikaas, Bhadra pada Shukla Paksha Hastaa&#xA;Nakshatra is the best option for performing Upaakarma;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To &lt;strong&gt;Atharva Vedis&lt;/strong&gt;, both the options of Shraavana Purnima and Bhaadrapada Purnima are equally acceptable. Purnima however has to be Udaya Vyapini or should span upto Sun Rise next.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Upaakarma Saamaanya Nirnaya or General Rule-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The normal practice of performing Upaakarma to ‘Sarva Shaakhaas’  is in Shravana- Bhadrapada Maasaas.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookview.php?chapnum=6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;See Full Details&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-15T09:20:57.360" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14505" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-16T05:09:38.233" Score="1" ViewCount="349" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Vishnu temples theertha Prasad is offered and thereafter sadari is kept. Some archakas say do not apply the theertha after consuming because sadari is kept on the head which is Nammalwar [sadagopan]. If we apply the remaining theertha it is like abusing sadari as our salaiva also will go on our head with the left out small pinch of theertha. But in big temples like Ranganathaswamy temple of srirangam they will not say this. Any puranic evidence for this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-08-16T05:09:38.233" Title="Theertha Prasad and Sadari" Tags="|belief|puranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14507" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13955" CreationDate="2016-08-16T06:30:36.777" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vrat is fasting on a particular day in the worship of particular&#xA;Diety. while the real meaning of Upwas is looking inward up means in&#xA;vas means to stay. your are turning your senses inward to look for the&#xA;atman inside to know who you are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090426004853AAbXBCZ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source yahoo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-16T06:30:36.777" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14508" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14512" CreationDate="2016-08-16T08:20:17.613" Score="5" ViewCount="3940" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wonder why there is no context about Lord Rama previous incarnation of Lord Vishnu before Lord Krishna. Only Hanuman is mentioned in the story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7406" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-08-18T03:07:00.573" LastActivityDate="2016-08-18T03:07:00.573" Title="Why is Lord Rama never mentioned in the Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14509" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-16T10:17:42.527" Score="2" ViewCount="1534" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do we join hands while praying or greeting or even when we apologise? What are the origin and significance of this practice?&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/r6O0w.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/r6O0w.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-08-24T10:41:01.430" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T10:41:01.430" Title="Meaning of Namaste (Folded hands)" Tags="|rituals|samskara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-08-19T03:01:59.017" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14510" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14509" CreationDate="2016-08-16T11:10:22.403" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Sanskrit the word is namah + te = namaste which means “I bow to you” - my greetings, salutations or prostration to you. The word ‘namaha’ can also be literally interpreted as &quot;na ma&quot; (not mine). It has a spiritual significance of negating or reducing one's ego in the presence of another. In Kannada, it is called Namaskara and Namaskaragalu; in Tamil, Kumpiṭu; in Telugu, Dandamu, Dandaalu, Namaskaralu and Pranamamu; in Bengali, Nōmōshkar and Prōnäm; and in Assamese, Nômôskar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/od/artculture/p/namaste.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-08-16T11:10:22.403" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14511" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-16T12:18:58.377" Score="2" ViewCount="231" Body="&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia mentions that Rik-Veda has 432 000 syllables and refers to Satapatha Brahmana as the source of this information.&#xA;Satapatha Brahmana 10:4:2:23 states the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;He arranged the Rik-verses into twelve thousand of Brihatîs, for of that extent are the verses created by Prajapati. At the thirtieth arrangement they came to an end in the Paṅktis; and because it was at the thirtieth arrangement that they came to an end, there are thirty nights in the month; and because it was in the Paṅktis, therefore Prajapati is 'pankta' (fivefold). There are one hundred-and-eight hundred Paṅktis.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12000 (Brihatis) x 36 (syllables) = 432000&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10800 (Panktis) x 40 (syllables) = 432000&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions: Does Rik-Veda consist of Brihati meters with 36 syllables, or of Pankti meters with 40 syllables? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it consists of both, then the total amount of syllables would be 864000.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to my understanding Rik-Veda has many different meters, like Trishtubh, Gayatri, Jagati etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who can explain to me the Satapatha Brahmana text?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning of the thirtieth arrangement where the Brihatis came to an end in the Panktis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(I am writing Rik with ka instead of ga, because my Guru'ji says ka is more original, only later it developed into ga. R stands for infinite dynamism of the absolute Being and ka stands for its point value.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7402" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-10T12:31:46.410" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T12:31:46.410" Title="Satapatha Brahmana 10:4:2:23" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|shatapatha-brahmana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14512" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14508" CreationDate="2016-08-16T14:37:59.313" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama is mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita which is a part of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pavanaḥ pavatām asmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;rāmaḥ śastra-bhṛtām aham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jhaṣāṇāṁ makaraś cāsmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;srotasām asmi jāhnavī&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:-&lt;/strong&gt; Of puriﬁers I am the wind, of the wielders of weapons &lt;strong&gt;I am Rāma&lt;/strong&gt;, of ﬁshes I am the shark, and of ﬂowing rivers I am the Ganges.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T06:18:50.910" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14513" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14508" CreationDate="2016-08-16T15:59:33.120" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama is mentioned many times in the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6765/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, once while the Pandavas and Draupadi while living in the forest, Duhsala's husband Jayadratha kidnapped Draupadi, and the Pandavas rescue her.  Afterwards, Yudhishthira was despondent that he allowed his wife to be kidnapped, so he asked Markandeya whether there was anyone in history who was as miserable as he was.  Markandeya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03272.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; there was such an individual, Rama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O bull of the Bharata race, even Rama suffered unparalleled misery, for the evil-minded Ravana, king of the Rakshasas, having recourse to deceit and overpowering the vulture Jatayu, forcibly carried away his wife Sita from his asylum in the woods. Indeed, Rama, with the help of Sugriva, brought her back, constructing a bridge across the sea, and consuming Lanka with his keen-edged arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira wanted to know more about Rama's story, so Markandeya told Yudhishthira the full Ramayana, from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03272.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03289.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the Drona Parva of the Mahabharata, Yudhisthira is despondent because of the death of Bhima's son Ghatotkacha, so the sage Vyasa comes to the battlefield and tells Yudhisthira about a dialogue that the sage Narada had with a king named Srinjaya after Srinjaya's son had died.  Narada tells Srinjaya that he shouldn't feel so bad that his son has died, when death has even befallen illustrious people of extraordinary achievement.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07056.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva, Narada cites Rama as one such example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama, the son of Dasaratha, O Srinjaya, we hear, fell a prey to death. His subjects were as much delighted with him, as a sire is delighted with the children of his loins. Endued with immeasurable energy, countless virtues were there in him. Of unfading glory, Rama, the elder brother of Lakshmana, at the command of his father, lived for fourteen years in the woods, with his wife. That bull among men slew in Janasthana fourteen thousand Rakshasas for the protection of the ascetics. While dwelling there, the Rakshasa called Ravana, beguiling both him and his companion (Lakshmana) abducted his wife, the princess of Videha. Like the Three-eyed (Mahadeva), in days of old, slaying (the Asura) Andhaka, Rama in wrath slew in battle that offender of Pulastya's race who had never before been vanquished by any foe. Indeed, the mighty-armed Rama slew in battle that descendant of Pulastya's race with all his kinsmen and followers, that Rakshasa who was incapable of being slain by the gods and the Asuras together, that wretch who was a thorn unto the gods and the Brahmanas. In consequence of his affectionate treatment of his subjects, the celestials worshipped Rama. Filling the entire earth with his achievements, he was much applauded even by the celestial Rishis.... Youthful in shape, of a dark-blue hue, of red eyes, possessed of the tread of an infuriated elephant, with arms reaching down to the knees, and beautiful and massive, of leonine shoulders, of great strength, and beloved by all creatures, Rama ruled his kingdom for eleven thousand years. His subjects always uttered his name. While Rama ruled his kingdom, the world became extremely beautiful. Taking at last his four kinds of subjects with him Rama went to heaven, having established his own line consisting of eight houses on the earth. When even he died, O Srinjaya, who was superior to thee in respect of the four cardinal virtues and superior to thy son, thou shouldst not lament, saying 'Oh, Swaitya, Oh, Swaitya,' for thy son who performed no sacrifice and made no sacrificial present.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c039.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, Vishnu's Aniruddha form (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7661/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) tells Narada about the different incarnations he is going to take in future, and in particular he says this: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Towards the close of Treta and the beginning of Dwapara, I shall take birth as Rama, the son of Dasaratha in Iskshaku's royal line. At that time, the two Rishis viz., the two sons of Prajapati, called by the names of Ekata and Dwita, will in consequence of the injury done by them unto their brother Trita, have to take birth as apes, losing the beauty of the human form. Those apes that shall take birth in the race of Ekata and Dwita, shall become endued with great strength and mighty energy and will equal Sakra himself in prowess. All those apes, O regenerate one, will become my allies for accomplishing the business of the deities. I shall then slay the terrible lord of the Rakshasas, that wretch of Pulastya's race, viz., the fierce Ravana, that throne of all the worlds, together with all his children and followers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are just three prominent examples, but there are many others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-08-16T15:59:33.120" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14516" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21203" CreationDate="2016-08-16T18:24:22.037" Score="8" ViewCount="956" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important to the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu. Since the Pancharatra texts originated from Narayana himself, they are followed by pretty much all mainstream Vaishnava Sampradayas, whether Sri Vaishnavas, Madhvas, Gaudiya Vaishnavas, etc. But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3977/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, there's another group of Vishnu-worshippers who worship Vishnu according to an entirely different set of texts, the Vaikhanasas. The Vaikhanasas form a tiny minority, but they run a lot of famous Vishnu temples including the world-renowned &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara_Temple,_Tirumala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumala Venkateshwara temple&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now compared to mainstream Vaishnavas, Vaikhanasas put less emphasis on Vedantic philosophy and more emphasis on rituals; Vaikhanasa doctrines are more about the construction and worship of idols and the like.   But they still do engage in philosophy; the most famous Vaikhanasa philosopher is Srinivasa Dikshitar, a 13th century priest of Tirupati who wrote the Vaikhanasa commentary on the Brahma Sutras as I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10187/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is about another work of Srinivasa Dikshitar, the Dashavidhahetunirupana, which is a commentary on the Sutra texts of the Vaikhanasa Shakha (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7501/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  In chapter 105 of that work he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/vaisn/sdahen_u.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; (translation courtesy of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9493/what-is-the-story-of-upashloka?noredirect=1#comment35177_9493&quot;&gt;@Surya&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śrībhāgavate daśamaskandhe: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;trivakrāyām upaślokaḥ putraḥ kṛṣṇam anuvrataḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śiṣyas sākṣān nāradasya dadau cittam akhaṇḍitam || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tenoktaṃ sāttvataṃ tantraṃ yat jñātvā mokṣabhāg bhavet | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yatra strīśūdradāsānāṃ saṃskāro vaiṣṇavaḥ smṛtaḥ ||&quot; iti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Srimad Bhagavatam, in the tenth Skandha [there is a quote which says] this: &quot;Lord Krishna begat Upashloka in Trivakra. He was the sincere disciple of Devarshi Narada and learnt from him the Satvata Tantra which gives Moksha to its knower. The Satvata Tantra narrates the Vaishnava Samskaras for women, Shudras and Dasas.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This quote interests me for two reasons.  First of all, it alludes to the story of Krishna having a child named Upashloka with the hunchback Kubja, AKA Trivakra or Sairandhri, immediately after killing Kamsa.  As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9493/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, this is a story mentioned in the Narayaneeyam, a poem summarizing the Srimad Bhagavatam, but it doesn't seem to be mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam itself.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second of all, it relates to an important Vaikhanasa belief.  The Pancharatra Agamas, referred to as Satvata Tantra here, prescribe an initiation ritual called Pancha Samskara, which among other things involves the branding of one's shoulders with the Shankha and Chakra symbols as you can see in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7jG3GJ8NK0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt;.  But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9212/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Vaikhanasa Brahmins consider themselves to be &quot;Garbha Vaishnavas&quot;, i.e. they believe the Vishnu comes and initiates them in the womb into Vaikhanasa.  So as described in page 130 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=pUGdEvJ5GTQC&amp;amp;lpg=PA130&amp;amp;dq=upasloka&amp;amp;pg=PA130#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=upasloka&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;, Vaikhanasas believe that only low-caste people and women should do the branding ritual, and Srinivasa Dikshitar cites the putative Bhagavatam quote above to justify this belief.  Now as a Sri Vaishnava, I think Brahmanas should also perform the Pancharatra initiation ritual, and I think that quote is just saying that the ritual can also be done by low-caste people and women.  But regardless I'm interested in finding the quote.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, where in the 10th Skandha of the Srimad Bhagavatam is the quote given by Srinivasa Dikshitar?  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the ISKCON translation of the 10th Skanda by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada; the quote doesn't seem to be there. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But is it possible that there are multiple recensions of the Srimas Bhagavatam, and that the quote is simply not present in the particular manuscript used in the ISKCON translation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T16:20:19.957" Title="Where does Srimad Bhagavatam book 10 describe Krishna's son Upashloka and Pancharatra initiation?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|vaishnavism|vaikhanasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14517" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-16T23:38:26.230" Score="0" ViewCount="301" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is another deity besides Ganesha who destroys obstacles. He has a big mask for a face. He is more direct then Ganesha. I forget his name, does some one know who he is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7424" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-08-17T14:01:50.700" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T14:01:50.700" Title="Which is an alternative deity that destroys obstacles?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14519" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14517" CreationDate="2016-08-17T03:57:21.413" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Maha Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; is also worshiped for removing obstacles from our lives. As this beautiful sanskrit shloka describes -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शुक्लाम्बरधरं विष्णुं शशिवर्णं चतुर्भुजम् ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रसन्नवदनं ध्यायेत् सर्वविघ्नोपशान्तये ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shukla-Ambara-Dharam Vissnnum Shashi-Varnnam Catur-Bhujam |&#xA;  Prasanna-Vadanam Dhyaayet Sarva-Vighno[a-U]pashaantaye ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: 1: (We Meditate on Sri Vishnu) Who is Wearing White Clothes,&#xA;  Who is All-Pervading, Who isBright in Appearance like the Moon and Who&#xA;  is Having Four Hands, 2: Who is Having a Compassionate and Gracious&#xA;  Face, Let us Meditate on Him To &lt;strong&gt;Ward of all Obstacles.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source -&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_vishnu-shuklambaradharam_vishnum.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Maha Shree Vishnu Shloka&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T03:57:21.413" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14520" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14548" CreationDate="2016-08-17T05:08:55.560" Score="9" ViewCount="1075" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am trying to understand from a spiritual point of view what distinguishes the dead from the living.&#xA;I read in Bhagavad Geeta 7.5 that there is an inferior and superior nature of the self. The superior living on the inferior.&#xA;But what exactly is the difference?&#xA;I am confused because this implies that only living beings such as humans, animals, cells, etc. have a soul and dead matter doesn't. But then in the Upanishads it is stated that the Self (Soul) is everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4974" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-08-22T11:46:02.037" LastActivityDate="2016-08-22T11:46:02.037" Title="What is the difference between living beings and dead matter according to scriptures?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|upanishads|atma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14521" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-17T05:49:06.917" Score="7" ViewCount="420" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the sage who heard Rig Veda Book 5 Hymn 61 from the gods is Shyavashva Atreya.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv05061.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the hymn says in part:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 O heroes lordliest of all, who are ye that have singly come &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Forth from a region most remote? ... &lt;br&gt;&#xA;5 May she gain cattle for her meed, hundreds of sheep and steeds and kine, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Who threw embracing arms around the hero whom gyavaiva praised. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;6 Yea, many a woman is more firm and better than the man who turns &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Away from Gods, and offers not. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;7 She who discerns the weak and worn, the man who thirsts and is in want &lt;br&gt;&#xA;She sets her mind upon the Gods. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;8 And yet full many a one, unpraised, mean niggard, is entitled man:&#xA;Only in weregild is he such. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;9 And she, the young, the joyous-spirited, divulged the path to Śyāva, yea, to me.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Two red steeds carried me to Purumīlha's side, that sage of far-extended fame, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;10 Him who, like Vaidadasvi, like Taranta, hath bestowed on me&#xA;A hundred cows in liberal gift. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;11 They who are borne by rapid steeds, drinking the meath that gives delight, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;They have attained high glories here.... &lt;br&gt;&#xA;17 O Urmya, bear thou far away to Darbhya this my hymn of praise, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Songs, Goddess, as if chariot-borne. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;18 From me to Rathaviti say, when he hath pressed the Soma juice, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The wish I had departeth not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story behind this hymn is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/BvEl&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Brihaddevata, a work by the sage Shaunaka.  It's a beautiful love story. Atri's son sage Archananas once performed a Yagna for a king named Rathaviti. During the Yagna, Archananas' son Shyavashva saw Rathaviti's daughter and immediately fell in love with her. So Shyavashva asked Rathaviti permission to marry his daughter. Rathaviti was quite willing, but Rathaviti's came from a family of Rajarishis, so she wanted her daughter to marry someone who is the seer of a Vedic mantra. Since Shyavashva wasn't the seer of any Vedic mantras, the marriage proposal was rejected. So Archananas and Shyavashva came back from the Yagna disappointed.  On the way, they met a royal family, who gave Shyavasva a lot of wealth. But that only made Shyavasva more miserable, because he realized that all the wealth in the world would not get him the woman he loved. Finally Shyavasva came home, and then the Maruts appeared before him. Upon seeing them he suddenly became the seer of Vedic mantras, specifically mantras addressed to Maruts. So then Shyavashva finally got to marry the princess:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was a royal seer famous by the name of Rathaviti Darbhya. That king being about to sacrifice went to Atri and propitiated him.  And making known his identity and the object he had in view, as he stood with folded hands, he chose the seer Archananas, the son of Atri, to officiate as (his) priest.  He, accompanied by his son, went to the king for the performance of the sacrifice. Now the son of Archananas, Atri's son, was Shyavashva, who had been gladly taught by his father all the Vedas with their members (anga) and subordinate members (upanga).  Then Archananas having gone with his son, performed the sacrifice for the king.  And as the sacrifice was in progress, he saw the illustrious daughter of the king.  The thought occurred to him that the princess might become his daughter-in-law.  Then the heart of Shyavashva too became fixed on her; and so he said to the institutor of the sacrifice: &amp;quot;Ally yourself with me, O king.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The king wishing to give his daughter to Shyavashva, said to his royal consort: &amp;quot;What is your opinion?  I (desire to) give the girl to Shyavashva. For a son of Atri would be no contemptible (adurbala) son-in-law for us.&amp;quot;  She on her part said to the king: &amp;quot;I have been born in a family of royal seers; one who is not a seer should not be our son-in-law; this (youth) has not seen formulas.  Let the girl be given to a seer: she would this become a mother (amba) of the Veda; for a certain seer regards one who sees formulas as a father of the Veda.&amp;quot;  The king, after conferring with his wife, refused him (saying), &amp;quot;No one is worthy to be (our) son-in-law who is not a seer.&amp;quot;  The seer, being rejected by him, returned, when the sacrifice was over; but the heart of Shyavashva returned not from the girl.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So these two returned; they both met Shashiyasi and Taranta and king Purumilha.  Now the two kings Taranta and Purumilha were seers, sons of Vidadashva.  These two kings paid homage to the two seers.  And the king (Taranta) showed the seer's son to his royal consort; and with Taranta's approval she gave manifold wealth, goats and sheep, cows and horses, to Shyavashva, did Shashiyasi.  Father and son, (thus) honored by the institutions of the sacrifice, went to their hermitage of Atri.  And they saluted Atri, the great seer, of brilliant splendor.  (But) Shyavashva thought: &amp;quot;Because I have not seen (any) formula, I have, alas! not obtained the maiden beautiful in all her limbs.  Could I but become a seer of formula, my joy would be great.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To him as he thus reflected in the forest the host of the Maruts appeared.  He standing at his (atmanah) side, quite (iva) similar in form and equal in age, the Maruts, with gold on their breasts.  Seeing the gods similar in age, with the figures of men, Shyavashva, astonished, then asked the Maruts, &amp;quot;Who are ye?&amp;quot; (ke shtha: v.61.1).  Then, however he became aware that they were the divine Maruts, the sons of Rudra.  Having observed (this), he also praised them with the stanzas &amp;quot;They that ride&amp;quot; (ya im vahante: v.61.11). For the seer considered it a great transgression on his part, that, as soon as he had seen them, he did not praise them, and that he asked them, &amp;quot;Who are ye?&amp;quot;  Being praised and being delighted with their praise, the sons of Prishni (the Maruts) as they went along, taking off the gold from their breasts, gave it to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when the Maruts had gone thence, the illustrious Shyavashva went in thought to the daughter of Rathaviti.  He only just (sadyah) a seer, wishing to declare himself to Rathaviti, commissioned Night on a message with the two (stanzas) &amp;quot;This my song of praise&amp;quot; (etam me stomam: v.61.17,18) and to her (Night) who did not see (Rathaviti), he discerning (him) with the eye of a seer, said, &amp;quot;Here he dwells&amp;quot; (esha ksheti) &amp;quot;on a delightful ridge of the Himavat&amp;quot;.  Urged by the goddess Night, after learning his instructions, the son of Darbha, taking the girl with him, approached Archananas, and after clasping his feet, standing bent forward with folded hands, he announced his name (saying), &amp;quot;I am Rathavithi, son of Darbha: inasmuch as I refused you formerly when you desired an alliance with me, forgive me for that.  I pay homage to you; and do not, adorable one, be wroth with me.  You are the son of a seer, a seer yourself you are, adorable one, the father of a seer.  Come, accept this (girl) as your daughter-in-law.&amp;quot;   So said the king, and honoring him with water to was his feet (padya), with the water of hospitality (arghya) and with a mixture of honey (madhuparka), and giving him a hundred white (shukla) steeds, he dismissed him to his home.  And the seer, on his part, having praised Shashiyasi, and Taranta, and king Purumilha with the six (stanzas) &amp;quot;May she gain&amp;quot; (sanat: v.61.5-10), departed to his abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe this love story of Shyavashva Atreya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the story described in the Brahmanas or Aranyakas of the Vedas? Purumilha and Taranta, the two kings who gave wealth to Shyavashva, are described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia802701.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/12/items/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif.zip&amp;amp;file=pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_0379.tif&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Panchavimsha Brahmana of the Sama Veda and &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oaKE6.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Jaiminiya Brahmana of the Sama Veda.    But these excerpts seem to be about a completely unrelated story involving Purumilha and Taranta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, the term &amp;quot;Maruts&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Rudras&amp;quot; are often used interchangeably, so the gods who appeared before Shyavashva may have been the Rudras.  Also, does anyone know the family that Rathaviti's wife belonged to?  It's interesting that all of her ancestors were Rajarishis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-27T16:06:29.407" Title="What scriptures describe the love story of the sage Shyavashva Atreya?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14522" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14564" CreationDate="2016-08-17T09:02:54.660" Score="3" ViewCount="2719" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dronacharya was trained in the specialised field of weapon science,by the illustrious Sage(Rishi) Agnivesa, who was earlier a disciple of Sage Bharadwaja(Dronacharya's father).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dronacharya also obtained all weapons of Lord Parashurama,along with the whole science of arms with its rules and mysteries,as a free gift from Lord Parashurama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dronacharya was selected by Grandsire Bhishma, as the Guru(Preceptor), to give  weapon science training to all the Kaurava and Pandava brothers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the Guru Dakshina(Preceptorial fee) asked by Guru Dronacharya from the princes on completion of their training ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-07-07T14:00:59.687" LastActivityDate="2018-07-07T14:00:59.687" Title="What was the Guru Dakshina(Preceptorial fee) asked by Guru Dronacharya from the pupils on completion of their training?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|dronacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14524" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-17T09:10:18.173" Score="3" ViewCount="413" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are lot of gods and saint in Hindu culture . But how many ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7430" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-08-17T13:56:43.890" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T13:56:43.890" Title="How many Gods are In Hindu Culture?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-08-22T05:23:53.143" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14525" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14524" CreationDate="2016-08-17T10:12:14.013" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 33 Gods. It is mentioned many times in Vedas .  This&#xA;transition from 33 to 330 million came after Upanishadic Age.&#xA;Upanishads taught that Ultimate reality is a single supreme soul&#xA;Brahman.  The count went to millions in an attempt to poetically&#xA;express the infinitude of the universe, to capture the all-pervading&#xA;reality. This is how 330 million gods made sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Where-does-the-count-of-330-million-Hindu-Gods-come-from&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source quora&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 33 different gods. Shivji, Vishnuji and Brahmaji are three major Hindu Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T10:12:14.013" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14528" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-17T14:04:55.880" Score="3" ViewCount="698" Body="&lt;p&gt;After the death of Sri Krishna, what happened to his belongings? I heard somewhere that his flute is still hidden in some secret place in India. &#xA;Is there any scriptural evidence to prove that his belongings other than his heart are hidden somewhere in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7406" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-08-27T11:32:08.990" LastActivityDate="2016-08-27T11:32:08.990" Title="Is it true that Sri Krishna's flute is still hidden somewhere in India?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="16" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-08-27T11:40:41.007" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14529" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14454" CreationDate="2016-08-17T14:48:15.937" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a connection between Kali and Kali yuga, but Kali in this regard is not a goddess but is the personality of Kali, who is the cause of all irreligion, the master of Kali-yuga, who was lower than a śūdra, disguised as a king.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;You can read about that in the Bhagavatam, canto 1, chapters 16 and 17 at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suggest you to read those two chapters and you'll see in detail who exactly Kali is and how is he related to the age of Kali or Kali yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T14:48:15.937" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14530" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-17T16:59:21.940" Score="3" ViewCount="10927" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गङ्गेच यमुने चैव गोदावरी सरस्वति । &lt;strong&gt;नर्मदा&lt;/strong&gt; सिन्धु कावेरी जलेऽस्मिन्&#xA;  संनिधिं कुरु ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Gange Cha Yamune Chaiva Godavari Saraswati,   &lt;strong&gt;Narmada&lt;/strong&gt; Sindhu Kaveri&#xA;  Jalesmin Sannidhim Kuru&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning  O Holy Rivers Ganga and Yamuna, and also Godavari,&#xA;  Saraswati,  &lt;strong&gt;Narmada&lt;/strong&gt;, Sindhu and Kaveri; Please be Present in this&#xA;  Water Near Me (and make it Holy).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning While performing Puja -:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I call for the presence of divine waters   from the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri.  The rivers&#xA;  are goddesses and I pray to them  for their blessings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This shloka is also recited during taking bath in these sacred  rivers. This article tells us more about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parikrama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&quot;Narmada Parikrama&quot;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are About Holy Narmada River -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) What is the story of Narmada River and its origin from puranas ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) What is the significance Of &quot;Narmada Parikrama&quot; told in our scriptures ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-10-07T06:31:09.703" Title="What is the story Of River Narmada from Puranas and significance of Narmada Parikrama?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|tradition|rivers|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14531" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12502" CreationDate="2016-08-17T19:18:12.513" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The implied meaning of boon or curse is more important. The Shakthi kills any one enemy means that the weapon is capable of consuming one enemy only, of course, despite his other abilities. What that enemy has at his command and what his repertoire  is full of, all these will not count. The shakthi is so powerful that it would not allow that much ability of the opponent to make use of what he has with him too, no matter even if  his asthras are more powerful. There is hence no question of Pasupatha failing against Shakthi, since there would not be a question of employing it at all. Possession or knowledge does not mean its prayoga. no prayoga, no failure, so no escape from shakthi.Might be clear now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7438" LastActivityDate="2016-08-17T19:18:12.513" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14533" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10138" CreationDate="2016-08-18T07:33:33.347" Score="-1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Shaktism and Hindu mythology, Adi Para Shakti—the&#xA;Goddess, Devi—is the Supreme Being. She is also popularly referred to&#xA;as &amp;quot;Adi Shakti&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Parama Shakti&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Maha Shakti&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Mahadevi&amp;quot;, or even&#xA;simply as &amp;quot;Shakti&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;Parama&amp;quot; means absolute, &amp;quot;Satya&amp;quot; means the Truth&#xA;as per many shakta texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Parashakti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source wikipeida&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Durga (Hindustani pronunciation: [ˈd̪ʊrɡaː]; Sanskrit: दुर्गा),&#xA;meaning &amp;quot;the inaccessible&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;the invincible&amp;quot;, is the most popular&#xA;incarnation of Devi and one of the main forms of the Goddess Shakti in&#xA;the Hindu pantheon. Durga is the original manifested form of Mother&#xA;Parvati or Adi-Parashakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Durga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source wikipeida&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-18T07:33:33.347" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14536" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11183" CreationDate="2016-08-18T13:08:01.160" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavata, THE NINTH BOOK, &#xA;Chapter VI, On the coming in this world of Laksmî, Gangâ and Sarasvatî&lt;/a&gt; , Shantanu was avatar of Lord Vishnu. This could be the reason for naming people after him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu had three wives, Ganga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi. Saraswathi felt that Sri Hari was partial to Lakshmi and Ganga and cursed others to born as tree and rivers . Ganga inturn cursed Saraswathi to born as Rivers. Lord Vishnu placated them by saying that they would return His abode after purifying people of Booloka. He also said to Ganga that He would born as Shantanu and marry Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Gange! You will also have to take incarnation in Bhârata as a river, purifying all the worlds, to destroy the sins of the inhabitants of Bhârata. Bhagiratha will take you there after much entreating and worshipping you; and you will be famous by the name Bhagirathî, the most sanctifying river in the world. &lt;strong&gt;There, the Ocean born of my parts, and the King S'ântanu also born of my parts will be your husbands&lt;/strong&gt;. O Bharatî! Let you go also and incarnate in part in Bhârata under the curse of Gangâ. O Good-natured One! Now go in full Amsas to Brahmâ and become His wife. Let Gangâ go also in Her fullness to S'iva. Let Padmâ remain with Me. Padmâ is of a peaceful nature, void of anger, devoted to Me and of a Sâttvika nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2016-08-18T13:08:01.160" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14540" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-19T09:40:21.160" Score="12" ViewCount="6216" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parsvanatha was the 23rd tirthankara of Jainism. He was very popular and belonged to Ikshvaku dynasty like other tirthankaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He has a lot of temples across India, the most popular of which is at Shikhar Ji, also known as Parsvnatha hills where it is believed he got Moksha. There is another temple that belongs to him which is present in Nakoda, Rajasthan known as Nakoda Parsvnath. It is extremely popular Jain temple but the most popular deity there is not Parsvnath but Bhairav! Because the area is Nakoda, he is known by the name of Nakoda Bhairav.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dz7sF.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dz7sF.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his lower left hand is the Damaru and in upper left hand is Trishula so he is the same Bhairava which can be found in many Shiva temples. The story of the origin of this idol in Nakoda goes like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are stories of Jain statues that were hidden underground to protect them from attacks by intolerant rulers and chieftains during the first half of the second millennium. Many such statues were forgotten and some are still dug out today. The statue of Pārśvanātha or Lord Pārśva in Nākoḍā – Nākoḍā Pārśvanātha – was rediscovered in this way in 1455.&#xA;  According to the story, a Jain lay man had a dream in which Nākoḍā Bhairava told him of the long-forgotten statue of Pārśvanātha or Lord Pārśva, the 23rd Jina, and where it was hidden. The statue was then discovered and installed in the Nākoḍā temple by the Kharatara-gaccha monk Kīrtiratna-sūri. As Kīrtiratna-sūri was carrying the rediscovered statue of Pārśva, people spontaneously formed a procession behind him. &lt;strong&gt;They saw Nākoḍā Bhairava in the form of a boy dancing and walking with them, eventually causing them to stop in Nākoḍā&lt;/strong&gt;. Kīrtiratna-sūri decided to keep the Pārśvanātha statue there and installed the aniconic image – piṇḍākar – of Nākoḍā Bhairava by the temple entrance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the story, Bhairava was extremely happy to see the Parsvnath idol which is pretty odd because Bhairava has nothing to do with Jainism. So there has to be something special in Parsvanatha that made Bhairava very happy. I think Parsvanatha might be an avatar of Shiva. Interestingly enough, Parsvanatha was born in Kashi, the city of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another unique aspect of Parsvanatha is that he is associated with snake. When I read snake and Shiva, it only reminds me of Vasuki so could that mean Parsvanatha was avatar of Vasuki?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-19T10:36:13.657" LastActivityDate="2022-12-12T17:50:19.283" Title="Was Parsvanatha, the 23rd tirthankara of Jainism, an avatar of Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|avatars|other-religions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14541" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10269" CreationDate="2016-08-19T10:35:10.480" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In olden days there was no concept as other religions. so it was not necessary to give a name to hinduism. it was only called SANATAN dharm or only dharm back then. so this verse is not genuine&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7396" LastActivityDate="2016-08-19T10:35:10.480" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14544" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14754" CreationDate="2016-08-19T14:57:45.603" Score="4" ViewCount="1043" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karna was the son of Kunti and Surya, the Sun God. He was born with divine gold armour and earrings and was bright and beautiful like the Sun. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the birth of the child, Kunti once again became a virgin as a result of a boon granted by Surya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the divine plan for her, Kunti was to bear the child, and not  raise it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna, was reputed to be the only warrior capable of defeating Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, he could not  play any significant part in the Mahabharata war, as a warrior. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One aspect of Karna’s personality,which made him renowned, was the quality of benevolence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna was with the Adharmic side{the Kauravas}, in the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But,he also performed some good acts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were the good acts  performed by Karna in the epic, Mahabharata?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-10T16:26:07.133" LastActivityDate="2018-05-12T17:35:37.410" Title="What were the good acts performed by Karna in the epic, Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14545" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-19T19:37:09.933" Score="2" ViewCount="105" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking to get married in the next few years and would like to know where in our scriptures it is written how to win a chaste wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to stress not the victory of winning a chaste wife, but how to develop the characteristics of that man who deserves to have a chaste wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to build my character to an ideal man according to our scriptures. I read a little in Maha-Nirvana-Tantra in Swami Vivekananda's vol.1 about the duties of a householder, but it doesn't give instructions for the transition from Brahmacari to householder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read one verse from Kamasutra, but was utterly dissapointed at it since it says that one has to use sly tricks to win a woman. As soon as I read that I felt like burning that book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;thank you&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4974" LastActivityDate="2016-08-19T19:37:09.933" Title="What are the instructions by our scriptures on how to win a chaste wife with integrity?" Tags="|dharma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14546" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="646" CreationDate="2016-08-20T01:13:28.353" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;They are a few children that I have found.They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)&lt;strong&gt;Ekvira&lt;/strong&gt;.You can find his full story here in Keshav Srinivasan's answer here: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8470/why-revantha-the-youngest-son-of-sun-god-went-to-vishnus-abode&quot;&gt;Why Revantha the youngest Son of Sun god went to Vishnu&amp;#39;s abode?&lt;/a&gt; In short,Lakshmi incarnated as a horse and she and Vishnu had a son,Ekvira,who is adopted by a mortal king.Ekvira evantually marries a princess,whom he saves from a ogre.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)&lt;strong&gt;Amritavalli and Sundravalli&lt;/strong&gt;.They&lt;br&gt;&#xA;born out of the tears of joy of Narayana during his incarnation as Trivikrama &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Lord Subrahmanya was staying at Kanda Verpu, the two daughters of Lord Mahavishnu, Amritavalli and Sundaravalli, who cherished the desire of becoming the consorts of Subrahmanya, went to Sanavana Poigai and commenced austere penance to fulfil their desires. Pleased with their prayer and worship, Lord Subrahmanya appeared before them and told Amritavalli: &quot;You will be brought up by Indra as his daughter and I shall marry you in due course.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Her younger sister Sundaravalli was also graced with a similar blessing. She was born to Sage Sivamuni and brought up by Nambi, the headman of hunters. Amritavalli took the form of a female child and went to Mount Meru the abode of Indra, and told him: &quot;I am the daughter of Mahavishnu and the responsibility of looking after me has been entrusted to you.' On hearing this, Indra became very happy and directed Airavatam, his white elephant, to take care of the child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sources:&lt;a href=&quot;http://murugan.org/temples/tiruparankundram-legends.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://murugan.org/temples/tiruparankundram-legends.htm&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://tamildeities.blogspot.sg/2013/08/amirtavalli-sundaravalli.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://tamildeities.blogspot.sg/2013/08/amirtavalli-sundaravalli.html?m=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)&lt;strong&gt;Kamadeva&lt;/strong&gt;.Kama,or Manmatha,is said to be the son of both Vishnu and Lakshmi.Furthermore,he incarnated as Prayudma,the son of Krishna and Rukmini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4)&lt;strong&gt;The eighteen sons of Lakshmi&lt;/strong&gt;.It is believed that Devi Lakshmi herself is blessed with eighteen sons. The devotees chant following names on every Friday to please and to get blessings of Goddess Lakshmi.You can see the list here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-goddesses/lakshmi/lakshmi-children/goddess-lakshmi-sons-names.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-goddesses/lakshmi/lakshmi-children/goddess-lakshmi-sons-names.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-08-20T01:13:28.353" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14547" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14348" CreationDate="2016-08-20T06:58:45.210" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swayambhu as you may know means originated on its own.They appear suddenly or mysteriously without any human efforts. Also mostly science do not have answer as to how Shiva Swayambhu has come into existence. This whole thing sounds like a majestic/divine experience and usually people who believe god tend to bow to such special mysteries. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below are some points that may help understand the significance of Swayambhu Shivlinga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swayambhu type of Shivlinga has tremendous amount of spiritual energy, and that is one common reason that these are mostly situated inside the ground.  Below picture may help understand the spiritual energy in Shiva lingam.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DAiRz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DAiRz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Jyotirlinga&lt;/strong&gt; Shivlings have the maximum amount of intense Shiva Principle in them; &lt;a href=&quot;http://forumforhinduawakening.org/dharma/blog/shiva-lingam/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;followed by the Swayambhu Shivlings&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Swayambhu Shivlinga are created due to the resolve (sankalp) of Lord Shiva. The discovery of such a Shiva lingam happens when devotees get a Divine inspiration to look for it, and after the discovery its worship begins.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence Swayambhu are in general seems more superior to man-made idol, &lt;strong&gt;psychologically&lt;/strong&gt;, and that is why Swayambhu has a special place/respect in Hinduism!    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastActivityDate="2016-08-20T06:58:45.210" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14548" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14520" CreationDate="2016-08-20T11:08:26.027" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, your interpretation of verse 7.5 is almost there, but not quite, which leads to your confusion. It is best to read verses 4-7 together and not separately. Verse 4 refers to the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;apparent&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; division of Brahman, the Self, when seen through Maya. According to Sankara’s commentary on this verse, the elements referred to in the verse are the subtle elements and not the gross elements (&lt;em&gt;Bhagavad Gita with the Commentary of Sankaracarya&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Gambhirananda translator). These are the apparent divisions of Mahamaya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 5 refers to the fact that it is really Brahman alone that is behind Maya and is the real cause and upholder of the universe. The two verses are meant to contrast that the perceiver of the universe, the individual jiva, is identified with the only real Perceiver of the universe, the universal Jiva, Brahman (verse 5); and that the universe being perceived is due to egoism, one of the eight-fold divisions of Maya referred to (verse 4). Sankara says in his commentary on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...By &lt;em&gt;anankarah&lt;/em&gt;, egoism, is meant the Unmanifest, associated with (Cosmic) ignorance. As food mixed with poison is called poison, similarly the Unmanifest, which is the primordial Cause, is called egoism since it is imbued with the impressions resulting from egoism; and egoism is the impelling force (of all). It is indeed seen in the world, that egoism is the impelling cause behind all endeavor. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 6 and 7 then tries to spell it out more succulently by stating that these two Prakritis are only Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand this more clearly, Sri Vidyaranya Swami says in his &lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt; 15.7-8 (Swami Swahananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Another Sruti says): ‘The supreme Self, though one only, exists in every object. Like the moon reflected in water, though one It appears as many.’ (Amrtabindu Upanishad 12.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The moon which is reflected in water is faint in muddy water and clear in pure water. Similarly Brahman is two-fold according to the quality of the Vrittis (modification) of the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this imply that only living things have souls and dead matter doesn’t? Yes and no. &lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt; 15.20 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Existence, consciousness, and bliss—these are the three-fold nature of Brahman. In objects like clay, stone, and so forth, only existence is manifest, whereas the other two are not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And verse 23:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The two, absence of consciousness, and misery, and non-existence—these are the three forms of Maya. Non-existence is illustrated by such expressions as ‘the horns of a man’; absence of consciousness is seen in such objects as wood, stone, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is consciousness and misery? These two are egoism, referred to in Gita verse 7.4. Without these two present, then you have only matter—stone, wood, etc. which are constituted from the other subtle elements referred to in the same verse.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally we read again in the Gita (9.4-5, Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This whole world is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest form. All beings exist in Me, but I am not contained in them!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nor do the beings dwell in Me, Behold My divine Yoga! I am the sustainer and originator of beings, but My Self is not contained in all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Brahman pervades and sustains all, is omnipresent in all—but Brahman unmanifest remains separate from Maya. This is the eternal divine mystery. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-08-20T11:08:26.027" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14550" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3198" CreationDate="2016-08-20T15:16:59.303" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Ramanujacharya quotes from Baudhayana's Vritti several times.&lt;/strong&gt;. First of all, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; his commentary on Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 Sutra 1 of the Brahma Sutras, Ramanujacharya gives two quotes from Baudhayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The purport of the entire Sûtra then is as follows: 'Since the fruit of works known through the earlier part of the Mîmâmsâ is limited and non-permanent, and since the fruit of the knowledge of Brahman--which knowledge is to be reached through the latter part of the Mîmâmsâ--is unlimited and permanent; for this reason Brahman is to be known, after the knowledge of works has previously taken place.'--The same meaning is expressed by the Vrittikâra when saying &lt;strong&gt;'after the comprehension of works has taken place there follows the enquiry into Brahman.'&lt;/strong&gt; And that the enquiry into works and that into Brahman constitute one body of doctrine, he (the Vrittikâra) will declare later on &lt;strong&gt;'this Sârîraka-doctrine is connected with Gaimini's doctrine as contained in sixteen adhyâyas; this proves the two to constitute one body of doctrine.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss this subject in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14035/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, another instance of this is in Ramanujacharya's commentary on Adhyaya 1 Pada Sutra 10, where he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Up to the time of final release there arise in the soul invested by name and form the cognitions of objects different from itself. During deep sleep the souls divest themselves of names and forms, and are embraced by the 'Sat' only; but in the waking state they again invest themselves with names and forms, and thus bear corresponding distinctive names and forms. This, other scriptural texts also distinctly declare, 'When a man lying in deep sleep sees no dream whatever, he becomes one with that prâna alone;--from that Self the prânas proceed, each towards its place' (Kau.Up. 111,3); 'Whatever these creatures are here, whether a lion or a wolf or a boar or a gnat or a mosquito, that they become again' (Kh. Up. VI, 9, 3).--Hence the term 'Sat' denotes the highest Brahman, the all-knowing highest Lord, the highest Person. Thus the Vrittikâra also says, &lt;strong&gt;'Then he becomes united with the Sat--this is proved by (all creatures) entering into it and coming back out of it.'&lt;/strong&gt; And Scripture also says, 'Embraced by the intelligent Self.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then in his commentary on Adhyaya 1 Pada 3 Sutra 7, Ramanujacharya says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48106.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now in the text under discussion instruction is given about a being called 'the True,' and possessing the attribute of 'bhûman,' as being something additional to the individual soul; and this being called 'the True' is none other than the highest Brahman. Just as in the series of beings beginning with name and ending with breath, each successive being is mentioned in addition to the preceding one--wherefrom we conclude that it is something really different from what precedes; so that being also which is called 'the True,' and which is mentioned in addition to the individual Self called Prâna, is something different from the individual Self, and this being called 'the True' is the same as the Bhûman; in other words, the text teaches that the Bhûman is the highest Brahman called 'the True.' This the Vrittikâra also declares: &lt;strong&gt;'But the Bhûman only. The Bhûman is Brahman, because in the series beginning with name instruction is given about it subsequently to the individual Self.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally in his commentary on Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 Sutra 31, Ramanujacharyas says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the fact that the text, 'And indeed to him who thus knows the Brahma-upanishad. the sun does not rise and does not set; for him there is day once and for all,' calls the whole Madhuvidyâ a 'Brahma'--upanishad, and that the reward declared is the attainment of Vasu-hood, and so on, leading up to the attainment of Brahman, we clearly are entitled to infer that the meditations which the text enjoins, viz. on the different parts of the sun viewed as objects of enjoyment for the Vasus, and so on, really are meant as meditations on Brahman as abiding in those different forms. Meditation on the Vasus and similar beings is thus seen to be possible for the Vasus themselves. And as Brahman really constitutes the only object of meditation, we also see the appropriateness of the text discussed above, 'On him the gods meditate as the light of lights.' The Vrittikâra expresses the same opinion, &lt;strong&gt;'For there is possibility with regard to the Madhu-vidyâ, and so on, Brahman only being the object of meditation everywhere.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, Adi Shankaracharya also quotes from a Vrititkara whom he calls Upavarsha.  He disagrees with Upavarsha in a number of places, for instance on the issue discussed in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6558/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, which is why a lot of scholars think Adi Shankaracharya's commentary is less faithful to the original meaning of the Brahma Sutras compared to Ramanujacharya.  In any case, it's not clear whether Upavarsha is the same person as Baudhayana or whether two different Vrittis on the Brahma Sutras existed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-08-20T15:16:59.303" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14551" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14562" CreationDate="2016-08-20T20:42:14.070" Score="4" ViewCount="873" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna fell in love with Subhadra, the sister of Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Arjuna consulted Lord Krishna, he advised Arjuna to abduct Subhadra before marriage.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the details of Arjuna and Subhadra marriage? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-08-22T08:46:12.740" LastActivityDate="2016-08-22T08:46:12.740" Title="Arjuna and Subhadra marriage" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|subhadra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14552" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-21T00:43:50.333" Score="9" ViewCount="461" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, in Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa says &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;53&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;eka ātmanaḥ śarīre bhāvāt &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some deny the existence of the soul, its existence being dependent on the existence of the body. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;54&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;vyatirekastadbhāvabhāvitvānna tūpalabdhivat &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this is not so; there is a distinction (between the soul and the body) because consciousness may not exist even when the body exists, as it is in the case of perception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This translation is written from the viewpoint of the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, who believes that in these Sutras Vyasa is demonstrating that there exists a soul which is different from the body.  Now in this section of Adi Shankaracharya's  Brahma Sutra Bhashya, a hypothetical opponent raises the objection that it's improper for Vyasa to discuss this subject, because it was already discussed in the Purva Mimamsa Sutras. (As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14035/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras and Vyasa's Brahma Sutras originally formed a unified Mimamsa Shastra.) Adi Shankaracharya responds that the existence of the soul is only discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/ufG0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Shabara's commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, which I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11457/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, it's not discussed by Jaimini himself in the Purva Mimamsa Sutras.  So it's fine for Vyasa to discuss it in the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, an objection is raised, already in the first pâda which stands at the head of this Sâstra (i.e. the first pâda of the Pûrva Mîmâmsâ-sûtras) there has been declared the existence of a Self which is different from the body and hence capable of enjoying the fruits taught by the Sâstra.--True, this has been declared there by the author of the bhâshya, but there is in that place no Sûtra about the existence of the Self. Here, on the other hand, the Sûtrakâra himself establishes the existence of the Self after having disposed of a preliminary objection. And from hence the teacher Sabara Svâmin has taken the matter for his discussion of the point in the chapter treating of the means of right knowledge. &lt;strong&gt;For the same reason the reverend Upavarsha remarks in the first tantra--where an opportunity offers itself for the discussion of the existence of the Self--'We will discuss this in the Sârîraka,' and allows the matter to rest there.&lt;/strong&gt;  Here, where we are engaged in an inquiry into the pious meditations which are matter of injunction, a discussion of the existence of the Self is introduced in order to show that the whole Sâstra depends thereon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in Adi Shankaracharya's statement about Upavarsha.  For those who don't know, Upavarsha was an ancient commentator who wrote a Vritti or commentary on the entire Mimamsa Shastra, i.e. both the Purva Mimamsa Sutras and the Brahma Sutras.  That Vritti is now lost, but it seems that in the part of it that discusses the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, when the subject of the existence of the soul comes up Upavarsha says &amp;quot;We will discuss this in the Sârîraka&amp;quot;, i.e. in the Brahma Sutras.  And Adi Shankaracharya is saying that Upavarsha is referring to the two Sutras of the Brahma Sutras quoted above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But my question is, how do Ramanujacharya and others interpret that Upavarsha quote?&lt;/strong&gt;  The thing is, unlike Adi Shankaracharya other commentators on the Brahma Sutras do not think that these two Sutras are talking about the existence of the soul at all.  Ramanujacharya thinks that these Sutras are about the fact that during meditation, one must conceive of one's own soul in its released state, not its state while inhabiting a body; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48435.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya.  And Ramanujacharya isn't the only commentator on the Brahma Sutras who says this; &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/UoVa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Nimbarka's commentary and &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yfYmr.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Srikantha Shivacharya's commentary say essentially the same thing.  So since they don't think that these two Sutras are about the existence of the soul, how do they interpret Upavarsha's words? Do they believe that Vyasa discusses the existence of the soul elsewhere in the Brahma Sutras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now one possibility is they don't view Upavarsha's Vritti as authoritative, but in Ramanujacharya's case I don't think that's true; the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan equates Upavarsha with Baudhayana, and Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya is based on Baudhayana's Vritti as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3198/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it possible that Upavarsha is just saying &lt;em&gt;he&lt;/em&gt; will discuss the existence of the soul in the part of his commentary that discusses the Brahma Sutras, not that Vyasa himself actually discusses it in the Brahma Sutras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T15:46:44.190" Title="How does Ramanujacharya interpret a quote from Upavarsha's ancient Vritti?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|sri-vaishnava|brahma-sutras|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14554" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12109" CreationDate="2016-08-21T06:11:13.730" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;You don't have a clear understanding of the text and the argument is not just an advaita argument, but is also supported by Ramanuja in his &lt;em&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/em&gt;. The original argument that Harsha is explaining appears in &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;. The argument is given by Vyasa in &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 2.1.26-33. Both Sankara and Ramanuja support Vyasa's view in this text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the text from the Brahma Sutras with Sankara's commentary (Swami Vireswarananda translator, available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;26&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(Brahman’s being the cause of the world involves) either the possibility of the entire (Brahman being modified) or the violation of the scriptural statement that Brahman is without parts.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If Brahman is without parts and yet the material cause of the world, then we have to admit that the entire Brahman becomes changed into this multiform world. So there will be no Brahman left, but only the effect, the world. Moreover, it would contradict the scriptural text that Brahman is immutable. If on the other hand it is said that the whole of It does not undergo modification, but only a part, then we shall have to accept that Brahman is made up of parts, which is denied by scriptural texts. In either case it leads to a dilemma, and so Brahman cannot be the cause of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;27&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But (it cannot be like that) on account of scriptural texts (supporting both the apparently contradictory views) and on account of (Brahman) being based on the scripture only.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘But’ refutes the view of the former Sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The entire Brahman does not undergo change, though the scriptures say that the world originates from Brahman. Witness such texts as, “One foot (quarter) of Him is all beings, and three feet are what is immortal in heaven” (Chh. 3. 12. 6). And as in matters supersensuous the Srutis alone are authority, we have to accept that both these opposite views are true, though it does not stand to reason. The thing is, the change in Brahman is only apparent and not real. Hence both the views expressed by the Sruti are true. It is on this basis that the apparently contradictory texts become reconciled and not otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;28&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And because in the individual soul also (as in the case of magicians etc.) diverse (creation exists). Similarly (with Brahman).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Sutra establishes the view of the former by citing an example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the dream state there appears in the individual self, which is one and indivisible, diversity resembling the waking state (See Brih. 4. 3. 10), and yet the indivisible character of the self is not marred by it. We see also magicians, for instance, producing a multiple creation without any change in themselves. Similarly this diverse creation springs from Brahman through Its inscrutable power of Mâyâ, though Brahman Itself remains unchanged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And on account of the opponent’s own view being subject to these very objections.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the Pradhâna is taken to be the First Cause, as the opponents of the Vedântic view (the Sânkhyas) hold, in that case also, as the Pradhâna too is without parts, the Sânkhyan view will be equally subject to the objections raised against Brahman as the First Cause, The Vedânta viewpoint has, however, answered all these objections, while the Sânkhyas and Vaiseshikas cannot answer them, the changes being real according to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;30&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And (Brahman is) endowed with all (powers), because it is seen (from the scriptures).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Generally we see that men endowed with a physical body possess such powers. But since Brahman has no body, it is not likely that It can possess such powers—so says the opponent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Sutra gives proof of Brahman’s being endowed with Mâyâ Sakti, the power of Nescience. Various scriptural texts declare that Brahman possesses all powers. “The great Lord is the Mâyin (the ruler of Mâyâ)” (Svet. 4. 10). See also Chh. 8. 14. 4 and 8. 7. 1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;31&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If it be said that because (Brahman) is devoid of organs (it is) not (able to create, though endowed with powers), (we say) this has (already) been explained.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Brahman is devoid of organs. It cannot create. Moreover, It is described as “Not this, not this”, which precludes all attributes; so how can It possess any powers? This Sutra replies that it has already been explained in 2. 1. 4. and 2. 1. 25 that with respect to Brahman the scripture alone is authority and not reason. The scripture declares that Brahman, although devoid of organs, possesses all capacities. “Grasping without hands, moving swiftly without feet” etc. (Svet. 3. 19). Though Brahman is without attributes, yet on account of Mâyâ or Nescience It can be taken to possess all powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;32&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(Brahman is) not (the creator of the world) on account of (every activity) having a motive.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Granting that Brahman possesses all powers for creation, a further objection is raised against Its being the cause. Nobody engages himself in anything without a motive or purpose. Everything is undertaken by people to satisfy .some desire. But Brahman is self-sufficient, therefore It has nothing to gain by the creation; hence we cannot expect It to engage Itself in such a useless creation. Therefore Brahman cannot be the cause of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;33&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But (Brahman’s creative activity) is mere pastime, as is seen in the world.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even as kings without any motive behind are seen to engage in acts for mere pastime, or even as men breathe without a purpose, for it is their very nature, or even as children play out of mere fun, so also Brahman without any purpose engages Itself in creating this world of diversity. This answers the objection raised in the previous Sutra against Brahman’s being the cause of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramauja makes similar arguments in support of Vyasa in his commentary. For example, in his commentary to verse 2.1.27, Ramanuja says (&lt;em&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Vireswarananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'But' refutes the view of the former &lt;em&gt;Sutra&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no dilemma whatsoever for scriptures declare that Brahman is without parts and yet the material cause of the world is multiform. It may be said that even scripture cannot say what is absurd as for example, 'water with fire'. But in matters supersensuous scriptures alone are authority and ordinary standards of reasoning do not apply there. Whatever this is established by the proper means of knowledge with respect to it must be taken to be of a nature as declared by that particular source of knowledge. Brahman is unique and beyond ordinary comprehension. It is quite unlike everything we experience in this world and possesses infinite powers. You cannot apply here the reasoning which holds good in our ordinary experience and with respect to things of finite power. The rule of invariable concomitance of two qualities or things (&lt;em&gt;vyapti&lt;/em&gt;) which holds true in the worldly experience cannot be applicable in the case of Brahman. In the world we know that those who have eyes and ears see things and hear sounds and &lt;em&gt;vice versa&lt;/em&gt; those who do not have eyes or ears do not see things or hear sounds. So we conclude that those who see and hear have eyes and ears. To conclude from this that because Brahman sees and hears It must have be having eyes and ears will not be correct, for texts like, 'without eyes It sees, without ears It hears' etc. clearly declare that Brahman has no eyes, ears etc. though It sees, hears, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So also the principle that causal things which produce effects have parts is not applicable in the case of Brahman; for texts declare It to be without parts and yet the material cause of the world. So we have to accept this view expressed by texts and there is no room for any doubt as to how Brahman without parts could become many. This is already explained in Sat Vidya....    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You also quote Harsha as saying &quot;And if, in order to avoid this, we were to assume a series of existences, one after the other, there would be no end of such assumptions.&quot; This statement is in support of &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 2.2.13, Vyasa's argument against the Vaisesika theory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this clarifies Harsha's arguments. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2016-08-22T15:37:01.550" LastActivityDate="2016-08-22T15:37:01.550" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14555" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14530" CreationDate="2016-08-21T09:36:38.173" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गतं तदैव मे भवं त्वदम्बुवीक्षितं यदा&#xA;  मृकण्डसूनुशौनकासुरारिसेवि सर्वदा ।&#xA;  पुनर्भवाब्धिजन्मजं भवाब्धिदुःखवर्मदे&#xA;  त्वदीयपादपङ्कजं नमामि देवि नर्मदे&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: Salutations to Devi Narmada O Devi, after I have seen&#xA;  Your Divine Water, my attachment to the Worldly Life has indeed&#xA;  vanished, ... Your Water, which is revered by the son of Rishi&#xA;  Mrikandu (The son of Rishi Mrikandu was Rishi Markandeya), Rishi&#xA;  Shaunaka, and the enemies of the Asuras (i.e. Devas), Your Water which&#xA;  is a Protective Shield against the Sorrows of the Ocean of Worldly&#xA;  Existence, caused by repeated Births in this Ocean of Samsara (Worldly&#xA;  Existence), O Devi Narmada, I Bow down to Your Lotus Feet, Please give&#xA;  me Your Refuge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word  &lt;strong&gt;Narmada (नर्मदा)&lt;/strong&gt; means ‘Magnificent Mother’. The holy river Narmada is the form or Rupa (रूप) of Goddess Narmada,who like Ganga (गंगा) removes the sins of those who bath in her waters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NARMADA RIVER:&lt;/strong&gt; River Narmada is one of the most sacred of the seven holy rivers of India. The river originate  in a small reservoir named as &lt;strong&gt;Narmada Kund (नर्मदा कुंड)&lt;/strong&gt;  on the &lt;strong&gt;Amarkantak Hills (अमरकंटक).&lt;/strong&gt; Also known as &lt;strong&gt;Rewa (रेवा)&lt;/strong&gt; .There is less mention of the Narmada in Vedic literature but addressed in the &lt;strong&gt;Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabaratha, Vashistha Samhita and Shatapatha Brahmana.&lt;/strong&gt; It is said that the Puranic name of Amarkantak was &lt;strong&gt;Riksh&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Parvat (ऋक्ष पर्वत).&lt;/strong&gt; About some thousand years ago a Suryavanshi samrat established a town in the Riksh parvat valley and called it Mandhata. The queen of samrat  gave the title Narmada to the river. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are various myths surrounding Goddess Narmada. One is  that &lt;strong&gt;she was born from the body of Siva.&lt;/strong&gt; Goddess Narmada was slim and beautiful. Gods and demons wanted to marry her; she had to flee and dodge the prospects. However, she was able to disappear then they were in the proximity. She played hide and seek with them and one inference of Narmada is her playful attitude of dodging. Finally she surrenders herself to Lord Shiva. The Lord was pleased in her absolute devotion and saranagathi. Siva blessed her and said, &quot;May you become a holy river, and may your waters always be full! This is not such a story but is the spiritual philosophy of the concealing and revealing aspects of Shiva himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Another legend&lt;/strong&gt; states that, once Lord Shiva meditated so hard that he started perspiring. Shiva’s sweat accumulated in a tank and started flowing in the form of a river – the Narmada. Another legend has it that two teardrops that fell from the eyes of Lord Brahma, yielded two rivers – the Narmada and the Sone. Legends have it that, even Ganga bathes in Narmada waters, in the shape of a black cow. This event is witnessed as a holy day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ancient world history records mentions her as &lt;strong&gt;‘Nammadus&lt;/strong&gt;’. ‘&lt;strong&gt;Narma’(नर्म)&lt;/strong&gt; means ‘tenderness’ and &lt;strong&gt;Narmada is also described as the most sacred and best among the holy rivers in some scriptures.&lt;/strong&gt; It is believed that merely by seeing the Narmada, a man is freed from all his sins and becomes pure. Adi Shankaracharya met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada on t&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MAJOR TEMPLES:&lt;/strong&gt; The banks of Narmada are have many   temples and pilgrimage sites. Pilgrims perform a holy pilgrimage of a Parikrama or Circumambulation of the river. This is called the &lt;strong&gt;Narmada Parikrama.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Amarkantak (Neck of Shiva in Sanskrit language) or Teerathraj (the King of Pilgrimages)&#xA;1)Maheshwar, Omkareshwar &#xA;2) Mahadev Temple at Anusya.&#xA;3) Siddeshwar Mandir in the central portion of the river.&#xA; 4)Surpaneshwar Shiva Temple.&#xA; 5)Chaubis Avatar temple&#xA; 6)Chausath Yogini (sixty four yoginis) with attendents of Durga &#xA; 7)Narmada Udagam or the sacred source housing a stone state of 8)Goddess Narmada.&#xA;9) Bhrigu Rishi temple and Bhojpur Shiva temple in Bharuch&#xA;10) Shri Ram Janki temple&#xA;11) Vangeshwar Temple&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So because of lots of pilgrimage sites on her banks, Yogies , sanits , and people perform Narmada parikrama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MYTHOLOGY&lt;/strong&gt;: According to mythology, Lord Shiva once sat on the peak of Amarkantak Hills in a beautiful trance that gave birth to a female form. He named her &quot;Narmada&quot; since she had inspired &quot;Narma&quot; or tenderness in his heart. He also blessed her with lifelong freedom. However, the Gods tried to capture her and she slipped through their fingers taking the form of the River Narmada. It is also believed that the river is often called Shankari, meaning daughter of Shankar, a name attributed to Lord Shiva. The river then had pebbles rolling on its river bed to take the shape of his emblem the Linga with the inscription &quot;Narmada Ke Kanker utte Sankar&quot; which means in Hindi that ‘pebble stones of Narmada gets a personified form of Shiva’. These lingam shaped stones are called Banalinga or as &lt;strong&gt;Banashivalingas (बाणलिंग , बाणशिवलिंग)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other myth is of Narmada falling in love with the Sonbhadra, another river flowing on the Chhota Nagpur plateau. Hence it earned the name Rewa for flowing through its rocky bed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The the banks of Narmada houses the ashrams of Bhirgu Rishi, Kapila Muni and Markandeya Rishi. Thirdly the Pandavas also resided along the Narmada riverbanks and gained benefits during their exile. Some of these details are found in the Mahabaratha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adi Shankara&lt;/strong&gt; met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada (भगवत्पन्द) on the banks of river Narmada. He travelled north from his village in search of a Brahman realised Guru. Having passed through several hermitages, he came to the banks of Narmada. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Legends have it that the great &lt;strong&gt;Ganga&lt;/strong&gt; visits the Narmada once a year in the guise of a black cow to cleanse herself of all her collected sins! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rewa khnada of Skenda Purana describes stories of Narmada River.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_narmada-reva_mahatmya_varnanam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;See Rewa Mahatmya (रेवा माहात्म्य) &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See more Info on Narmada River &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicgoddess.weebly.com/joy-ma-blog/narmada-devi-yogi-ananda-saraswathi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt; Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-08-21T09:36:38.173" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14556" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14676" CreationDate="2016-08-21T14:36:28.953" Score="13" ViewCount="1617" Body="&lt;p&gt;On learning about the  whereabouts of Goddess Sita  from Jatayu’s brother Sampati, the brave Hanuman crossed the endless seas and proceeded to Lanka.&#xA;He found Goddess Sita in Ashoka Vatika and assured her that God Sri Rama would  attack Lanka soon ,to  free her from Ravana’s captivity.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On completion of his meeting with  Goddess Sita,  Hanuman took a decision to implement the strategy of &quot;open&quot; assault. And accordingly, started destroying the royal garden of Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो ब्राह्मम् अस्त्रम् वेदान् च वेद वेदविदाम् वरः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स त्वाम् दाशरथी रामो देवि कौशलम् अब्रवीत् || ५-३४-३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Divine Lady! Rama the son of Dasaratha, who is excellent among the knowers of Veda and who knows Brahma's missile (a mythical weapon which deals infallible destruction) and Vedas the sacred knowledge, enquired about your welfare.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अल्प शेषम् इदम् कार्यम् दृष्टा इयम् असित ईक्षणा |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रीन् उपायान् अतिक्रम्य चतुर्थ इह दृश्यते || ५-४१-२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have seen this black-eyed Seetha. There is only a little that remains to be done by me. Abandoning the three strategies for success{viz, sowing dissension, negotiation and bribery},I have to implement here the fourth strategy viz. open assault.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततः तद्त् हनुमान् वीरो बभन्ज प्रमदा वनम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मत्त द्विज समाघुष्टम् नाना द्रुम लता युतम् || ५-४१-१५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, the valiant Hanuma laid waste the royal garden attached to the gynaecium resonant with cries of birds in heat and endowed with various kinds of trees and creepers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman was subsequently  taken as prisoner by Indrajit, the son of Ravana, and  taken to the court of Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अवध्योऽयमिति ज्ञात्वा तमस्त्रेणास्त्रतत्त्ववित् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निजग्राह महाबाहुर्मारुतात्मजमिन्द्रजित् || ५-४८-३७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indrajit, who knows the true nature of missiles, feeling certain that he was incapable of being killed, bound that Hanuma, the son of wind-god, by that missile presided over by Brahma the Creator.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And during the meeting of Hanuman with Ravana in his Court,Ravana ordered that Hanuman’s tail  be set on fire as a punishment. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आज्ञापयत् राक्षस इन्द्रः पुरम् सर्वम् सचत्वरम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लान्गूलेन प्रदीप्तेन रक्षोभिः परिणीयताम् || ५-५३-५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana ordered that let the monkey be carried around with his burning tail by the demons in the entire city around its cross-roads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman, being the greatest devotee of God Sri Rama,was only focussed on chanting the name of God Sri Rama, despite his tail being set on fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदिभर्तुर्हतार्थाय चरन्तम् भर्तृशासनात् || ५-५३-१२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बध्नन्त्येते दुरात्मनो न तु मे निष्कृतिः कृता |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If these evil-minded demons fasten me who is acting for the good of Sri Rama my lord, because of the command by their lord, no rebuff has been done to me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is : &lt;strong&gt;Which specific attributes of a great devotee are  highlighted in this exemplary  devotional state of Hanuman, mentioned above&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Which text on Bhakti Yoga can amplify these qualities?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-19T10:46:01.850" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T14:40:47.553" Title="Hanuman and the highest state of Sri Rama bhakti" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|bhakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14557" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2776" CreationDate="2016-08-21T17:16:50.297" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Life is nothing but nothing but thoughts generated from brain, Happiness,unhappiness,like dislike, anger, fear, Greedy etc.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Geetha -2.14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When you are free from these thoughts&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;( Yoga - Padhanjali suthra 1.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can realise athma&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Padhanjali Suthra - 1.3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Athma is god dwells in one's heart            Kada upanishad - 2.1.7, Dhaithriya uapanishad 1.6.1,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aham Phramasmi&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Pragadharanya Upanishad - 1.4.9-10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Combining all these You can realise God You have to kill/sacrifice/remove thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thoughts are covered by three malas (Dirt) Ego (Anava) Greediness (Kanmam) Illusion (Maya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coconut is covered by three 1. Fibre( Ego), 2. Pith (Greediness)- these two are in combined state. 3. Shell (Maya) - Very hard to remove. Inside white kernel(Brain- which is having millions of thoughts Like coconut is having milk/Oil)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To realise God sacrifice your thoughts- Remove Fibre,Pith and Break shell and submit the white kernel of the coconut to God, That is thoughts about God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7460" LastEditorUserId="27796" LastEditDate="2022-07-16T04:15:47.583" LastActivityDate="2022-07-16T04:15:47.583" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14558" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-21T23:58:03.327" Score="5" ViewCount="493" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was at the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pura_Ulun_Danu_Bratan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pura Ulun Danu Bratan&lt;/a&gt; in Bali, Indonesia, where I took the following photos, which – I was told by our guide – represents the 9 direction gods, their color, and their weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Center is Shiva, North is Vishnu, but I don't remember the rest. However, our guide clearly said Indra does not belong to the 9 gods. Later I looked up &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_directions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt; which seems to have conflicting information. Then there's also &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya_Majapahit&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Surya Majapahit&lt;/a&gt; which also shows some difference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are the 9 directional gods in Hinduism in Bali, and how are they different from other Hinduism traditions?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Vzq6o.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Vzq6o.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/aj7I2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/aj7I2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7461" LastEditorUserId="7461" LastEditDate="2016-08-22T10:38:38.897" LastActivityDate="2016-08-22T10:38:38.897" Title="Difference between 9 direction gods in Balinese Hinduism and other Hinduism" Tags="|gods|symbolism|bali|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14559" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14560" CreationDate="2016-08-22T00:17:07.670" Score="9" ViewCount="1852" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am watching &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/srXGB1kHj9U?t=9m4s&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;video on Shri Krishna&lt;/a&gt;. Please tell me what &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/srXGB1kHj9U?t=9m4s&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prahlad is chanting&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They don't mention in subtitles, and it's hard for me to understand. (I speak English only.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank You.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-09-24T14:45:44.863" LastActivityDate="2022-05-19T08:31:16.950" Title="What is Prahlad Chanting" Tags="|vishnu|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14560" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14559" CreationDate="2016-08-22T00:57:19.073" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The mantra being chanted is &quot;oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya&quot;, which means &quot;Om! Salutations to Bhagavan Vāsudeva.&quot;  Bhagavan literally means the one who has wealth, but in this context it means &quot;supreme being&quot;.  And Vāsudeva is a name of Vishnu.  In any case, this mantra occurs in the very first verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam, which says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/1/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  janmādy asya yato ’nvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ svarāṭ &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  tejo-vāri-mṛdāṁ yathā vinimayo yatra tri-sargo ’mṛṣā &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  dhāmnā svena sadā nirasta-kuhakaṁ satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O my Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmājī, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss this verse in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12393/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, by the way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, it's great that you're watching Shri Krishna.  I watched that show when I was in Kindergarten, and it was one of the main shows that got me interested in learning more about Hinduism. It led me to read Amar Chitra Katha comic books, which greatly increased my knowledge of Hindu stories and ultimately led me to start reading Hindu scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-08-22T00:57:19.073" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14562" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14551" CreationDate="2016-08-22T05:54:03.753" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is mentioned in Mahabharata, Adi Parva. Once Bhojas, Vrishnis and Andhakas are celebrating mountain-festival on Raivatak mountain. Arjuna was also present there. There he saw Subhadra and fell in love with her. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01222.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;He consulted Krishna about this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While wandering there, they saw the handsome daughter of Vasudeva, Bhadra by name, decked with every ornament, in the midst of her maids. As soon as Arjuna beheld her he was possessed by the god of desire. Then, O Bharata, that tiger among men, Krishna, observing Partha contemplate her with absorbed attention, said with a smile, 'How is this? Can the heart of one that rangeth the woods be agitated by the god of desire? This is my sister, O Partha, and the uterine sister of Sarana. Blest be thou, her name is Bhadra and she is the favourite daughter of my father. Tell me if thy heart is fixed upon her, for I shall then speak to my father myself.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Arjuna answered, 'She is Vasudeva's daughter and Vasudeva's (Krishna) sister; endued with so much beauty, whom can she not fascinate? If this thy sister, this maid of the Vrishni race, becometh my wife, truly may I win prosperity in everything. Tell me, O Janardana, by what means I may obtain her. To get her I will achieve anything that is achievable by man.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Vasudeva answered, 'O bull amongst men, self-choice hath been ordained for the marriage of Kshatriyas. But that is doubtful (in its consequences), O Partha, as we do not know this girl's temper and disposition. In the case of Kshatriyas that are brave, a forcible abduction for purposes of marriage is applauded, as the learned have said. Therefore O Arjuna, carry away this my beautiful sister by force, for who knows what she may do at a self-choice.' Then Krishna and Arjuna, having thus settled as to what should be done sent some speedy messengers unto Yudhishthira at Indraprastha, informing him of everything. The strong-armed Yudhishthira, as soon as he heard it, gave his assent to it.'&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this, when Subhadra went on Raivatak mountain, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01223.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arjuna has kidnapped her&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile Subhadra, having paid her homage unto that prince of hills, Raivataka and having worshipped the deities and made the Brahmanas utter benedictions upon her, and having also walked round the hill, was coming towards Dwaravati. The son of Kunti, afflicted with the shafts of the god of desire, suddenly rushed towards that Yadava girl of faultless features and forcibly took her into his car. Having seized that girl of sweet smiles, that tiger among men proceeded in his car of gold towards his own city (Indraprastha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Vrishnis have heard about this incident, they became very angry but has been &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01224.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;cooled down by Lord Krishna&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the heroes of the Vrishni race began to speak repeatedly in this strain, Vasudeva uttered these words pregnant with deep import and consistent with true morality. Gudakesa (the conqueror of sleep or he of the curly hair), by what he hath done, hath not insulted our family. He hath without doubt, rather enhanced our respect. Partha knoweth that we of the Satwata race are never mercenary. The son of Pandu also regardeth a self-choice as doubtful in its results. Who also would approve of accepting a bride in gift as if she were an animal? What man again is there on earth that would sell his offspring? I think Arjuna, seeing these faults in all the other methods took the maiden away by force, according to the ordinance. This alliance is very proper. Subhadra is a renowned girl. Partha too possesseth renown. Perhaps, thinking of all this, Arjuna hath taken her away by force. Who is there that would not desire to have Arjuna for a friend, who is born in the race of Bharata and the renowned Santanu, and the son also of the daughter of Kuntibhoja? I do not see, in all the worlds with Indra and the Rudras, the person that can by force vanquish Partha in battle, except the three-eyed god Mahadeva. His car is well-known. Yoked thereunto are those steeds of mine. Partha as a warrior is well-known; and his lightness of hand is well-known. Who shall be equal to him? Even this is my opinion: go ye cheerfully after Dhananjaya and by conciliation stop him and bring him back. If Partha goes to his city after having vanquished us by force, our fame will be gone. There is no disgrace, however, in conciliation.' Hearing, O monarch, those words of Vasudeva, they did as he directed. Stopped by them, Arjuna returned to Dwaraka and was united in marriage with Subhadra. Worshipped by the sons of Vrishni's race, Arjuna, sporting there as he pleased, passed a whole year in Dwaraka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-22T05:54:03.753" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14563" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-22T09:04:49.667" Score="5" ViewCount="4850" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is Durva grass offered to Lord Ganesha ? What is the significance of praying Ganesha with durva grass ?Can any other flower or leaves  used as a substitute for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8GPMp.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8GPMp.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-08-24T10:19:52.550" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T10:19:52.550" Title="Why Durva grass is dear to Lord Ganesha" Tags="|rituals|ganesha|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14564" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14522" CreationDate="2016-08-22T11:18:05.057" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;This story is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01141.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva, Sambhava Parva&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Pandavas and Kauravas have completed their education, Guru Drona has asked for preceptorial fee. He has asked for the capture of Drupada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vaisampayana continued, 'Beholding the Pandavas and the son of Dhritarashtra accomplished in arms, Drona thought the time had come when he could demand the preceptorial fee. And, O king, assembling his pupils one day together, the preceptor Drona asked of them the fee, saying, '&lt;strong&gt;Seize Drupada, the king of Panchala in battle and bring him unto me. That shall be the most acceptable fee&lt;/strong&gt;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After hearing this, Kauravas and Pandavas had attacked on Panchal (Drupad's kingdom). First Kauravas had attacked but were defeated by Drupad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And careering over the field of battle like a fiery wheel, king Drupada with his arrows smote Duryodhana and Vikarna and even the mighty Karna and many other heroic princes and numberless warriors, and slaked their thirst for battle. Then all the citizens showered upon the Kurus various missiles like clouds showering rain-drops upon the earth. Young and old, they all rushed to battle, assailing the Kurus with vigour. The Kauravas, then, O Bharata, beholding the battle become frightful, broke and fled wailing towards the Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Pandavas had attacked on Drupad and army. Arjuna has captured Drupada and bring him to his &lt;code&gt;Guru&lt;/code&gt; Drona.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The king of the Panchalas, beholding his general thus discomfited in the encounter, himself began to shower his arrows upon the Pandava prince. Then Arjuna, that foremost of warriors, crowned with success, began to fight furiously, and quickly cutting his enemy's bow in twain as also his flagstaff which he caused to fall down, pierced his antagonist's horses, and charioteer also with five arrows. Then throwing aside his bow Arjuna took his quiver, and taking out a scimitar and sending forth a loud shout, leaped from his own chariot upon that of his foe. And standing there with perfect fearlessness he seized Drupada as Garuda seizeth a huge snake after agitating the waters of the ocean. At the sight of this, the Panchala troops ran away in all directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2016-08-22T11:18:05.057" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14565" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14520" CreationDate="2016-08-22T11:39:36.087" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;You're right that living beings have soul and dead matter hasn't. Let me clarify your following confusion:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then in the Upanishads it is stated that the Self (Soul) is everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Upanishads and Brahma Sutra, Brahman (ब्रह्म) is निमित्तोपादान कारण (material &amp;amp; sufficient cause) for all the creation i.e all these are made from and made by Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when you're refereeing to the self (soul), there are two meanings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Individual Self, also called Jivatma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Supreme self, also called Paramatma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the verse you've mentioned (7.5) clearly say about Jiva (Individual soul) using &lt;code&gt;jīva-bhūtāṁ&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may find in many scriptures which say 'Only one fourth of Brahman makes up the world.' Aitareya, Taitteriya and Chhandogya Upanishad discuss how the world is made from (and by) Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, How &lt;code&gt;the self&lt;/code&gt; (soul) is everything is explained with the help of Advaita and Vishishtadvaita Vedanta as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to Advaita, the Universe/World and the individuality of the self appears because of ignorance (अज्ञान)! and there is only one truth - Brahman (Supreme Self)&lt;/strong&gt; (You may be aware of Advaita Sound : &lt;code&gt;ब्रह्म सत्यं जगत् मिथ्या&lt;/code&gt; means  Brahman is the only truth, the world is unreal, and there is ultimately no difference between Brahman and individual self!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://shankaracharya.org/vivekachudamani3.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vivkekachudamani&lt;/a&gt; (विवेकचूडामणि) verse 226-231 that demonstrate how everything is verily Brahman. And verse 241-249 states the non-duality of Atman (Individual Self) and Brahman (Supreme Self). Fore more explanation/understanding you can read Aparokshanubhuti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And hence the clarification to your confusion is explained how the Self (Soul) is everything!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to Vishishtadvaita&lt;/strong&gt;, universe/world is real and created by and of/from Brahman (The Supreme Self). In other words, Brahman transforms one fourth of the self into creation as explained earlier. And talking about Jivatma (Individual Soul), Brahman (Supreme Self) dwells inside Jivatma (Individual Self). &lt;strong&gt;There is body-soul (Sharira-Shariri) relationship between world and Brahman and between Jivatma and Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;So while talking about the Self (Soul) is everything, it should be  interpreted as the Supreme Self (not Individual Self). So, Brahman (Supreme Self) is everything because it is in world/universe as well as in Jivatma and everywhere outside them also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verses (You've mentioned in question) 7.4 and 7.5 talking about insentient (जड़) and sentient (चेतन) receptively and said are प्रकृति of Krishna which is explained with the help of Advaita and Vishishtadvaita above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion: &lt;strong&gt;सर्व खल्विदं ब्रह्म ।&lt;/strong&gt; (Chhandogya Upanishad 3.14.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-22T11:45:14.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14568" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11611" CreationDate="2016-08-22T17:08:57.420" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;true    shankera was seen smelt  by gaudapada from samadhi cave on the banks o0f river narmada   and ordered govindapada  to initiate him sanyasa deeksha  and brahma vidya.gaudapadacharya mutt the oldest mutt in india was established  by him  and present reigning 77th pontiff shivanand saraswathi   at  goa  a saraswath peetham.this  information  is  in the  history  book of the  mutt  which  i am having.  and see my blog   ramchandra kamath paramguru shri gaudapada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7469" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T07:16:20.427" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T07:16:20.427" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14569" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14468" CreationDate="2016-08-22T19:53:59.780" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;How Arjuna acquired the celestial  bow Gandiva is explained as under.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma advised Agni{Fire God} to consume the Khandava forest, as the dreadful forest, which was the abode of the enemies of the gods{and which Agni  had once consumed to ashes at the request of the gods, earlier},had become the home of numerous creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma also advised Agni to consume the Khandava forest for regaining his health. Agni had developed an illness due to excessive consumption of sacrificial butter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the  sacrifice of  king Swetaki, Agni had drunk clarified butter for twelve years. Indeed, clarified butter had been poured into Agni's mouth in a continuous stream for that period. Having drunk so much butter, Agni, satiated, desired not to drink butter again from the hand of anybody else at any other sacrifice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agni became pale, having lost his colour, and he could not shine as before. He felt a loss of appetite from surfeit, and his energy itself decreased and sickness afflicted him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni made valiant efforts to consume the Khandava forest.But, Indra foiled the attempts of Agni by sending heavy downpours of water,  as he wanted to protect Takshaka the Naga ,living in that forest.Agni tried seven times to achieve his objective, but each of his attempts met with failure as Indra  foiled all of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni again approached Lord Brahma and informed him that all his attempts were getting foiled, due to Indra.Lord Brahma then informed Agni that Narayana and Nara had taken birth as Lord Sri Krishna and Arjuna.  And Agni was asked to take the help of Arjuna and Lord Sri Krishna to consume the Khandava forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni then approached Arjuna and Lord Sri Krishna, who were resting near the Yamuna river and explained his problem to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna and Lord Sri Krishna agreed to help Agni. But,Arjuna,pointed out his requirements to Agni and said:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have numberless excellent celestial weapons with which I can fight even many wielders of the thunderbolt. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, O exalted one, I have no bow suited to the strength of my arms, and capable of bearing the might I may put forth in battle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In consequence of the lightness of my hands also I require arrows that must never be exhausted. My car also is scarcely able to bear load of arrows that I would desire to keep by me. I desire celestial steeds of pure white, possessing the speed of the wind; and a car possessing the splendour of the sun and the clatter of whose wheels should resemble the roar of the clouds. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni then paid his respects to Varuna and  made the following request :- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Give me without loss of time that bow and quiver, and that ape-bannered car also, which were obtained from king Soma. Partha will achieve a great task with Gandiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Varuna  then gave Arjuna that wonderful jewel of a bow{Gandiva} that was endued with great energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That bow was the enhancer of fame and achievements, and was incapable of being injured by any weapon. It was the chief of all weapons, and the grinder of them all. And it was the smiter of hostile armies and was alone equal to a hundred thousand bows. It was the multiplier of kingdoms, and was variegated with excellent colours. It was well-adorned, and beautiful to behold, and without a mark of weakness or injury anywhere. And it was always worshipped both by the celestials and the Gandharvas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Varuna also gave two inexhaustible quivers, and he also gave a car furnished with celestial weapons and whose banner bore a large ape. Yoked unto that car were steeds white as silver of the fleecy clouds, and born in the region of the Gandharvas, and decked with golden harness, and resembling in fleetness the wind or the mind. And it was equipped with implement of war, and was incapable of being vanquished by the celestials or the Asuras. Its splendour was great and the sounds of its wheels was tremendous. It delighted the heart of every creature that looked at it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As explained in the aforesaid paragraphs, Arjuna thus acquired the bow Gandiva, from Varuna,with Agni's help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01226.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Book:1,Adi Parva, Khandava-daha Parva.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-06-12T14:59:46.077" LastActivityDate="2018-06-12T14:59:46.077" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14571" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-23T05:11:37.983" Score="0" ViewCount="84" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am Shruthi. I am a devotee of lord Shiva. I just want know few things regarding lord Shiv's appearance.Like he is wearing snake around his neck,his thrishul, the bhasma ,the reason for his third eye. Can anybody give me the exact answers for all these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regards&#xA;Shruthi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7473" LastActivityDate="2016-08-23T05:11:37.983" Title="I want to know the reason behind lord Shiva wearing snake around his neck and how he got the third eye" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-08-23T05:29:09.400" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14572" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-23T06:42:44.770" Score="3" ViewCount="94" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it correct to take the God's photos kept in temple by some others under the tree? We should not take the broken ones, I know. Recently I found a new plastic laminated srirangapatna ranganatha swamy photo and the next day a brand new Raghavendra swamy laminated not even the plastic removed. I asked the archaka and took both the photos. Incidentally it was 345th brindavana aradana for Ragavendra swamy on Saturday [Madhya Aradhana]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T07:14:50.233" Title="God's photo kept in temple" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-08-26T05:02:37.390" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14574" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14563" CreationDate="2016-08-23T07:12:23.360" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यो दूर्वाङ्कुरैर्यजति स वैश्रवणोपमो भवति ।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;यो लाजैर्यजति स यशोवान् भवति । स मेधावान् भवति ।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;यो मोदकसहस्रेण यजति स वाञ्छितफलमवाप्नोति ।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;यस्साज्यसमिद्भिर्यजति स सर्वं लभते स सर्वं लभते ॥१६॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;16.1: He who worships (Ganapati) with tender Durva Grass will become Prosperous like Kubera,&#xA;  16.2: He who worships (Ganapati) with Parched Rice will become Glorious (i.e. will have Name and Fame),&#xA;  16.3: He will (also) become Medhavan (filled with Medha or retentive capacity of the mind),&#xA;  16.4: He who worships (Ganapati) with thousand Modakas (a type of Sweetmeat), he willobtain his Desired Fruits,&#xA;  16.5: He who worships (Ganapati) with Twigs dipped in Ghee, he obtains Everything, he obtains Everything,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganapati Atharvashirsha (Ganapati Upanishad)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The legend Of Analasura and  Shree Ganesh -:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Story Of Durva&lt;/strong&gt; -: Once a demon named Analasura caused trouble in the heavens. He emitted fire from his eyes and destroyed whatever came in his way. The Gods frightened and asked Lord Ganesha’s help . Shree Ganesha assured them that He will finish off the demon and restore peace. In the faught with , Analasura  attacking Lord Ganesha with fire Him. At that time Lord Ganesha, took the giant form and swallowed  the demon . After this , Lord Ganesha felt extremely uneasy due to the heat inside His body. So, the moon came to His help and stood on Ganesha’s head. Thus, He was named ‘Bhaalachandra’ (भालचंद्र). Lord Vishnu gave His lotus to bring down the heat, Lord Shiva tied His cobra around Ganesha’s belly. But nothing could cure the heat. Finally, a few sages came with 21 durvas and placed it on Ganesha’s head. Miraculously, the heat went off.  &lt;strong&gt;And thus Durva grass became dear to Shree Ganesha .So Lord Ganesha declared that whoever worships Him with durva grass will forever receive His blessings.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ganesh is easily pleased. Just by offering Him a little durva grass. (21 blades). &#xA;According to Ayurveda Durva grass also has some medicinal properties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-08-23T07:12:23.360" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14575" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-23T10:58:50.550" Score="-1" ViewCount="177" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana is the clean one in which Lord Rama fought with Ravana face to face and at last Dharma won. Killing of vali is not acceptable in that. But in Mahabaratha there are many connivances like hiding the sun thru chakra, getting the kavacha kundala from karna [karna is mightier than arjuna] etc.Dharma only won at last. From that time onwards kali entered this earth [after Krishna went to his place]. What teaching we should learn from the connivances of Mahabaratha?&#xA;Krishna is not in Ramayana. I have given both the qualities of Rama and Krishna and wanted a comparison thought. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7154" LastEditDate="2016-08-26T05:04:36.460" LastActivityDate="2016-08-26T05:04:36.460" Title="Mahabaratha and Ramayana" Tags="|mahabharata|scripture|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-08-27T11:43:31.273" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14578" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-24T03:23:58.920" Score="10" ViewCount="3702" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a person i.e., a human form dies, then is it possible for him to have his next birth as an animal per his pāpa or puṇya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I'm asking this question is, I came across the theory below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a boy fails in the 5&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; standard at school, then he remains in 5&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; std. He is neither allowed to go to 4&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; std. nor the 6&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same way, if a person dies in human form, then how is it possible that he degrades into animal form as per his karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-31T04:16:40.050" LastActivityDate="2016-12-31T04:27:02.620" Title="Is it possible for one to have animal birth after human birth?" Tags="|belief|philosophy|karma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14579" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14578" CreationDate="2016-08-24T04:25:07.383" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, this is a possibility according to the Vedanta schools of Sri Madhva and Sri Vallabha. This view is based on the following shloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Kunti! Falling into demoniac wombs, in life after life, they&#xA;  go to still lower states of degradation, without attaining Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 16.20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the basis of such texts, some schools of Vedanta like those of Sri&#xA;  Madhva and Sri Vallabha have propounded the theory of &lt;em&gt;taratamya&lt;/em&gt; or&#xA;  inherent qualitative differences in Jivas, some being made for&#xA;  salvation and others for degradation. There is no eternal damnation in&#xA;  Hinduism, but this confinement to '&lt;em&gt;adhamam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;gatim&lt;/em&gt;' or continued&#xA;  embodiments among the lowest creatures like insects, fish, snakes&#xA;  etc., corresponds to it as the wages for confirmed evil doers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Tapasyananda in his translation of Srimad Bhagavad Gita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also this shloka in the Upanishads that explicitly states that a human being can be born as an animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among them, those who have good residual results of actions here&#xA;  (earned in this world and left as residue after the enjoyment in the&#xA;  region of the moon), quickly reach a good womb, the womb of a&#xA;  Brahmana, or of a Ksatriya or of a Vaisya. But those who have bad&#xA;  residual results of action quickly reach an evil womb, the womb of a&#xA;  dog or of a hog or of a Candala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad 5.10.7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T04:25:07.383" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14582" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14589" CreationDate="2016-08-24T09:13:24.107" Score="7" ViewCount="57288" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can we keep the Siva Linga at home and is this good or bad for families? Some of the Lord Shiva's devotees are advising me to avoid the Shiva Linga to keep in home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7052" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-08-24T13:11:42.727" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T13:42:07.780" Title="Can we keep Shiva Linga at home?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14586" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9056" CreationDate="2016-08-24T11:06:00.123" Score="-2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fire is considered as the most pious above all. You can definitely&#xA;  burn the torn photographs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If there is anything solid left like frames or statues you can put&#xA;  them in any lake or river, like विसर्जन .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-dispose-Hindu-God-photo-frames-idols-etc-without-any-pollution&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Reference Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="7052" LastEditDate="2016-08-24T11:11:45.357" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T11:11:45.357" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14587" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-24T11:34:38.320" Score="0" ViewCount="133" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read an article of Srimati Tulasi-devi &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vrindavan-dham.com/worshiping-tulasi/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(Reference)&lt;/a&gt; and its importance also. Amazing and awesome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;1. there is any other historical incidents about the Tulasi Madam in Hinduism and puranas.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;2. And how Tulasi related to only in Lord Vishnu (Perumal) temples giving as theertam (holy water)&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could you please anyone can explain in brief with source articles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7052" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T11:53:31.260" Title="Importance and Worshiping of Tulasi-devi in every resident" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-08-25T14:31:15.017" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14588" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14587" CreationDate="2016-08-24T11:53:31.260" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kindly refer  &lt;strong&gt;Mattapaliyil malarnda Paramporul&lt;/strong&gt; a tamil book by Lakshmi Narasimhachar in which it has been mentioned in srivaikundam a tulsi plant is found next to 10 other plants.Lord Narasimha telling to Thayar Rajyalakshmi in mattapali [in Andhra] how there will be tulsi plants in srivaikundam and how the fragrance come from that. If Krishna is offered a tulsi leaf he is the most satisfied. Based on this our ancestors planted tulsi plant in the house on the maadams by lighting a lamp in the evening and putting a kolam in the morning. Like Lord shiva is fond of Bilva leaf Lord Vishnu is fond of Tulsi leaf. Tulsi leaf should not be plucked in a hard manner. It should be softly plucked that too after bath in the mornings within 8 am only. Tulsi gayatri is &lt;strong&gt;TULASI PATRAYE VITMAHE  MAHA LAKSHMAICHA DEEMAHE   THANNO TULASI PRACHODAYAATH&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T11:53:31.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14589" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14582" CreationDate="2016-08-24T13:10:08.450" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Shiva Linga can be kept in your house but you must follow some rules to keep Shiva Linga in your house, as we invited Shiva into Linga by doing Prana Pratista.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzTMgC3W7Q0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dr.Annadanam Chidambara Sastri&lt;/a&gt; gives some instructions one must follow to keep Shiva Linga at home. This video is part of Telugu Program called Dharma Sandhehalu which is aired on Bhakti TV.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva has two forms. Akalam and Sakalam. Akalam is Nirguna form&#xA;  (unmanifested) which is worshiped in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14214/3500&quot;&gt;Linga&lt;/a&gt;. Sakalam is manifested form&#xA;  with Goddess Parvathi as Parameswara. It is said that by anointing&#xA;  Shiva Linga with water and offering Bilva leaves to linga (placing&#xA;  those leaves on top of Linga), we can tie Kamadhenu in our house.&#xA;  There is no Dosham in keeping Shiva linga at home. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is suggested to do &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/425/3500&quot;&gt;Abhishekam&lt;/a&gt; to linga and offer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/873/3500&quot;&gt;Bilva leaves&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  daily. If you go to other place, you can immerse Shiva Linga in rice.&#xA;  It's not mandatory to know &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11792/3500&quot;&gt;Namaka-Chamaka&lt;/a&gt; Mantras (Sri Rudram) to do&#xA;  Abhisheka but heartfelt Abhisheka with water is enough. Make sure the&#xA;  Puja Room is clean and sacred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T13:10:08.450" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14591" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14597" CreationDate="2016-08-24T15:53:28.303" Score="4" ViewCount="588" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are dreams created by Jivatma or Paramatma? What is the take of Badarayana as per Brahma Sutras and the three principal commentators on it viz. Ramanuja, Shankara and Madhva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please provide relevant quotes from genuine scripture and commentaries and don't indulge in scientific explanations or speculations&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-09-21T14:08:21.177" LastActivityDate="2016-09-21T14:08:21.177" Title="Are dreams created by Jivatma or Paramatma?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahma-sutras|jiva|dream|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14592" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-08-24T15:57:24.460" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Water is of special significance in Hinduism, not only for its life-sustaining properties, but also because of its use in rituals and because of the stress given to &#xA;cleanliness. Bathing also has religious significance, especially in rivers considered sacred. &lt;strong&gt;Mother Ganga (the Ganges) is considered to purify the bather of sins&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are seven principle holy rivers, although others, such as the Krishna in South India, are also important. Of the seven, the &lt;strong&gt;Ganges (Ganga), Yamuna, and &#xA;Sarasvati are most important.&lt;/strong&gt; According to different opinions, the Sarasvati is now invisible, extinct or running underground, and meets with the Ganga and Yamuna at&#xA; Prayaga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Most rivers are considered female and are personified as goddesses.&lt;/strong&gt; Ganga, who features in the Mahabharata, is usually shown riding on a crocodile (see right)&#xA;. Yamuna is shown in much iconography connected with the Pushti Marg sampradaya, and rides on a turtle. The famous story of the descent of Ganga-devi is connected &#xA;with Vishnu and with Shiva, who is depicted with the Ganges entering the locks of his hair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-24T18:31:32.433" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T18:31:32.433" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14593" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-08-24T15:57:24.460" Score="0" Body="Holy Rivers in Hinduism " OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-24T18:31:27.290" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T18:31:27.290" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14594" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-24T16:22:45.660" Score="5" ViewCount="1761" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna who is avatara of Lord Vishnu is said have to revealed his chaturbhuja form to many during his avatara. Who are the those to whom Lord Krishna revealed his divine chaturbhuja form ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover are their any instances quoted by any acharyas how Lord Krishna moved around i.e In his chaturbhuja form or two armed form?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please quote verses from scriptures or refer to the specific verse number from genuine scriptures? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please dont indulge in tangential discussions like which form is superior etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="10329" LastEditDate="2019-06-02T04:25:37.017" LastActivityDate="2019-06-02T04:25:37.017" Title="Did Lord Krishna move around with four arms or two arms?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14595" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14594" CreationDate="2016-08-24T16:48:48.753" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/3/9-10/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;, Vasudeva saw Lord Krishna with four hands just after His birth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tam adbhutaṁ bālakam ambujekṣaṇaṁ&lt;br&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;catur-bhujaṁ&#xA;  śaṅkha-gadādy-udāyudham&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; śrīvatsa-lakṣmaṁ gala-śobhi-kaustubhaṁ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   pītāmbaraṁ sāndra-payoda-saubhagam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mahārha-vaidūrya-kirīṭa-kuṇḍala-&lt;br&gt;  tviṣā&#xA;  pariṣvakta-sahasra-kuntalam&lt;br&gt; uddāma-kāñcy-aṅgada-kaṅkaṇādibhir&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   virocamānaṁ vasudeva aikṣata&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasudeva then saw the newborn child, who had very wonderful lotuslike&#xA;  eyes and &lt;strong&gt;who bore in His four hands the four weapons śaṅkha, cakra,&#xA;  gadā and padma&lt;/strong&gt;. On His chest was the mark of Śrīvatsa and on His neck&#xA;  the brilliant Kaustubha gem. Dressed in yellow, His body blackish like&#xA;  a dense cloud, His scattered hair fully grown, and His helmet and&#xA;  earrings sparkling uncommonly with the valuable gem Vaidūrya, the&#xA;  child, decorated with a brilliant belt, armlets, bangles and other&#xA;  ornaments, appeared very wonderful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_004.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harivamsa Parva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata doesn't mention explicitly His Chaturbhuja form at the time of birth. It mentions just Srivatsa and some divine signs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vasudevashcha taM rAtrau jAtaM putramadhokShajam ||2-4-21 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;shrIvatsalakShaNaM dR^iShTvA yutaM divyaishcha lakShaNaiH&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasudeva saw his son, adhokShaja (kR^iShNa), &lt;strong&gt;who was born that night.&#xA;  He saw the divine signs and marks such as shrIvatsa&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;uvAcha vasudevastu rUpaM saMhara vai prabho ||2-4-22&lt;br&gt; bhIto.aham&#xA;  deva kaMsasya tasmAdevaM bravImyaham | &lt;br&gt; mama putrA hatAstena tava&#xA;  jyeShThAmbujekShaNa ||2-4-23&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vasudeva said: Lord, please withdraw your form. I am terrified of&#xA;  kaMsa. Hence I am saying this. O lord with lotus eyes! My sons, your&#xA;  elder brothers, were killed by kaMsa.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaishampAyana uvAcha&lt;br&gt; vasudevavachaH shrutvA rUpaM chAharadachyutaH&#xA;  | &lt;br&gt; anuj~nApya pitR^itvena nanda gopagR^ihaM naya ||2-4-24&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaishampAyana said:&lt;br&gt; Hearing the words of vasudeva, achyuta&#xA;  (viShNu) concealed his form. He persuaded his father to take him to&#xA;  the house of nandagopa.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-08-24T17:16:25.057" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T17:16:25.057" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14596" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-24T17:05:13.400" Score="6" ViewCount="694" Body="&lt;p&gt;Susupti is a state of deep sleep in which there is no experience of dreams (Svapnanubhavah)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does Badarayana say about it in Brahma sutras and what is take of Advatin, Visiatadvaitins and Dvaitins on this susupti state?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please provide relevant quotes from scriptures and various explanations as per valid commentators and commentaries?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-09-10T05:10:24.540" LastActivityDate="2016-09-10T05:10:24.540" Title="What does Brahma sutras say about Susupti state?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14597" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14591" CreationDate="2016-08-24T17:54:09.153" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya says that dreams are created by the Jiva, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Brahma Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The statement made above that in the Kâthaka the highest Self is spoken of as the shaper of dreams is untrue; for another scriptural passage ascribes that activity to the individual soul, 'He himself destroying, he himself shaping dreams with his own splendour, with his own light' (Bri. Up. IV, 3, 9). And in the Kâthaka Upanishad itself also we infer from the form of the sentence, 'That one who wakes in us while we are asleep,'--which is an anuvâda, i.e. an additional statement about something well known--that he who is there proclaimed as the shaper of lovely things is nobody else than the (well-known) individual soul. The other passage which forms the complementary continuation of the one just quoted ('That indeed is the Bright, that is Brahman') discards the notion of the separate existence of the individual soul and teaches that it is nothing but Brahman, analogously to the passage 'That art thou.' And this interpretation does not conflict with Brahman being the general subject-matter.--Nor do we thereby deny altogether that the highest (prâgña) Self is active in dreams; for as being the Lord of all it may be considered as the guide and ruler of the soul in all its states. We only maintain that the world connected with the intermediate state (i.e. the world of dreams) is not real in the same sense as the world consisting of ether and so on is real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya says that dreams are created by Brahman, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48347.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; and subsequent sections of his Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The things appearing in dreams-chariots, lotus tanks, and so on--are absolute Mâyâ, i.e. things created by the Supreme Person. For the term 'Mâyâ' denotes wonderful things, as appears from passages such as 'She was born in the race of Ganaka, appearing like the wonderful power of the divine being in bodily shape' (devamâyâ). The sense of the passage 'there are no chariots,' &amp;amp;c. then is--there are no chariots and horses to be perceived by any other person but the dreaming one; and then 'he creates chariots,' &amp;amp;c.--i. e. the Supreme Person creates things to be perceived by the dreamer and persisting for a certain time only. Those things therefore are of a wonderful nature (but not illusions). And the creation of such wonderful things is possible for the Supreme Person who can immediately realise all his wishes; but not for the individual soul. The latter also, indeed, fundamentally possesses that power; but as in the Samsâra state the true nature of the soul is not fully manifested, it is then incapable of accomplishing such wonderful creations. The text 'the person shaping one desired thing after the other' declares the Supreme Person to be the creator, for the clauses immediately preceding and following that text (viz. 'He who is awake in those who sleep'; and 'that is the Bright, that is Brahman, that alone is called the Immortal; all worlds are contained in it and no one goes beyond'--Ka. Up. II, 5, 8) mention attributes distinctively characteristic of the Supreme Person. And the Bri. Up. text, 'For he is the maker,' must therefore, in agreement with the Katha-text, also be understood as declaring that it is the Supreme Person only that creates the things seen in a dream.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhvacharya also says that dreams are created by Brahman, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/LFr9a.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Brahma Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The creation (of things) in the intermediate state (of dreaming) (as well as their withdrawal) is the work of the Lord, as scripture says that.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even dreams are not presented in cognition except by Him ( without the agency of the Lord).  This appears from the Sruti &amp;quot;In the state of dream (in the sky, in Svarga, or in heaven), there are no chariots, no horses, no paths; but at that time only the same Lord creates chariots, horses, paths, etc.&amp;quot; (Bri. VI. iii. 10).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And most other commentators on the Brahma Sutras agree with Ramanujacharya, as you can see in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/LFr9a.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Srikantha Shivacharya's commentary, &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/d5mrg.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Baladeva Vidyabhushana's commentary, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/CS9s&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Nimbarka's commentary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T17:54:09.153" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14599" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8699" CreationDate="2016-08-24T18:41:40.417" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason Rishis aren't born in the Kali Yuga is due to transgression of Brahmacharya, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe02/sbe0208.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Apastamba Dharma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The word 'austerity' (must be understood to apply) to (the observance of) the rules (of studentship).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If they are transgressed, study drives out the knowledge of the Veda acquired already, from the (offender) and from his children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Besides he will go to hell, and his life will be shortened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On account of that (transgression of the rules of studentship) no Rishis are born amongst the men of later ages.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But some in their new birth, on account of a residue of the merit acquired by their actions (in former lives), become (similar to) Rishis by their knowledge (of the Veda),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Like Svetaketu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Haradatta says in his commentary on these Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amongst the avaras means &amp;quot;amongst the men of modern times, those who live in the Kaliyuga.&amp;quot; No Rishis are born means &amp;quot;there are none who see (receive the revelation of) Mantras, Vedic texts.&amp;quot; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is it then that men in our days, though they transgress the rules prescribed for students, learn the four Vedas with little trouble? (The answer is), By virtue of a residue of the reward (due) for the proper observance of those rules (of studentship) in a former Yuga. Therefore Âpastamba says, Sûtra 6 &amp;quot;But some,&amp;quot; &amp;amp;c. New existence means &amp;quot;new birth (life).&amp;quot; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like Svetaketu. For Svetaketu learned the four Vedas in a short time; as we read in the Khândogya Upanishad (Prapâthaka VI, 1).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss the Apastamba Dharma Sutras' statement about Shwetaketu in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10881/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-24T18:41:40.417" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14600" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14602" CreationDate="2016-08-24T20:10:44.230" Score="6" ViewCount="2613" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Hindu scriptures,&#xA;What are the things one can do in daily life that would reduce anger, greed, lust, fear and ego over time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please don't say &quot;surrender yourself to the lord&quot; that's not what I am looking for. Also &quot;do your karma&quot; &amp;amp; &quot;follow your dharma&quot; does not count because they are way too high level for a poor soul like me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastEditorUserId="7442" LastEditDate="2016-08-24T21:05:32.020" LastActivityDate="2016-08-26T03:04:43.670" Title="What can I do to reduce anger, greed, lust, fear and ego?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|upanishads|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-08-26T15:00:03.457" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14601" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14612" CreationDate="2016-08-24T20:34:04.890" Score="5" ViewCount="944" Body="&lt;p&gt;A deceptive plot was hatched by Duryodhana and his friends, to get the Pandavas, along with their mother Kunti, killed at Varnavata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the Pandavas were forewarned by Vidura about the possibility of  danger to their lives, during the stay at Varnavata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eventually, the Pandavas escaped the danger and the  death-trap at Varnavata.&#xA;How did the Pandavas escape the death- trap at Varnavata?&#xA;What are the details of the incident?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-05-21T23:50:29.450" LastActivityDate="2022-09-22T22:11:05.267" Title="How did the Pandavas escape a death- trap at Varnavata?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14602" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14600" CreationDate="2016-08-24T23:35:24.073" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question is about  overcoming or wining &lt;strong&gt;Shadripus (षड्रिपु) meaning the six enemies of Human beings&lt;/strong&gt; , as told in Hinduism. They are as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lust (Sanskrit: Kama) (काम)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Greed (Sanskrit: Lobha)(लोभ)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anger (Sanskrit: Krodha)(क्रोध)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pride (Sanskrit: Mada)(मद)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Attachment (Sanskrit: Moha)(मोहा)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Covetousness (Sanskrit: Matsarya)(मत्सर)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadripu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;six enemies&lt;/a&gt; of man can become an obstacle in his spiritual progress and material progress. These qualities cannot be helpful in achieving material benefits, not to speak of spiritual progress. So, one should try to give up such qualities. In my view , for this one can practice :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yoga, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Meditation ,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pranayama (Breathing excercise) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;and the recitation ofvarious shanti mantras (With advice of spiritual teacher or Guru )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;also one can practice  reading sacred texts and attending discourse&#xA;of saints, Gurus etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a simple advice given in &lt;strong&gt;Epic Mahabharata's section of Udyoga Parva&lt;/strong&gt;   about conquering these six enemies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अक्रोधेन जयेत् क्रोधमसाधुं साधुना जयेत् ।&lt;/strong&gt;     &lt;strong&gt;जयेत् कदर्यं दानेन जयेत्&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;सत्येन चानृतम्&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a-krodhéna jayét krodham_asādhum sādhunā jayét | jayét kadaryam &#xA;  dānéna, jayét satyéna chānṛitam || [IAST]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conquer anger by calmness; evil by good; miserliness by charity and&#xA;  lies by truth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-mbh-05:section-39&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Udyog Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additional Ref. For Shloka : &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritpearls.blogspot.in/2010/06/june-26th.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://sanskritpearls.blogspot.in/2010/06/june-26th.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2016-08-25T12:02:40.467" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T12:02:40.467" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14604" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14582" CreationDate="2016-08-25T04:55:21.963" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva Linga can be kept in house. But you must follow some rules to keep Shiva Linga in your house. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Get up early in the morning , take bath, pluck flowers and first do linga pooja. You should do trikala pooja. This pooja is 3 times pooja  during a day. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T04:55:21.963" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14605" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14575" CreationDate="2016-08-25T05:12:52.180" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, it is all about Dharma at the end of the day. Dharma was/is considered to be the backbone of human society. If some Adharma has to be committed to preserve Dharma in the society, either god in his avatar form or his deva or human subordinates would have to do it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me put this into perspective for you. Just imagine that in Mahabharata there were no Maharathis and Athimaharathis (Great warriors) such as Karna, Guru Drona, and Bishma. Duryodhana and Shakuni would not even have had the courage to invite the Pandavas to the gambling arena which eventually led both sides into war. To so called &quot;nullify&quot; and make both sides almost equally powerful, Lord Krishna had to use Adharmic methods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No one can deny that both sides of the battlefield committed Adharma. If blocking the sun was Adharma, so is the killing of Abhimanyu by Karna, Guru Drona, Bishma and other warriors simultaneously. The main reason Abhimanyu was killed is Jayathradha. He closed the Chakra Vyuha and prevented the Pandavas from entering and all of warriors simultaneously attacked Abhimanyu after they learned that he could not be defeated individually by any one of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adharma is done to uphold Dharma all the time. In school and at home teachers and parents sometimes slap their kids in order to instill some values in them. If a child is being disrespectful to the elderly, then you have to scold or even hit the child to make the child abide to Dharmic values. Slapping, hitting and scolding may sound like Adharma but it is done to correct and uphold Dharma in the society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What leads you and others towards god is Dharma and prevents you from realizing god is Adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7488" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T05:12:52.180" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14606" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14596" CreationDate="2016-08-25T06:19:25.200" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Jiva dwells in Brahman during deep sleep.&lt;/strong&gt;. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38110.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Brahma Sutra Bhashya, Adi Shankaracharya says that even though the Upanishads speak of the Jiva dwelling in the veins or pericardium during deep sleep, those are just the means by which it comes to dwell in Brahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'The absence of that,' i.e. the absence of dreams--which absence constitutes the essence of deep sleep-takes place 'in the nâdîs and in the Self;' i.e. in deep sleep the soul goes into both together, not optionally into either.--How is this known?--'From scripture.'--Scripture says of all those things, the nâdîs, &amp;amp;c., that they are the place of deep sleep; and those statements we must combine into one, as the hypothesis of option would involve partial refutation.... That again the nâdîs and the pericardium have to be combined as places of deep sleep appears from their being mentioned together in one sentence ('Through them he moves forth and rests in the purîtat). That that which is (sat) and the intelligent Self (prâgña) are only names of Brahman is well known; hence scripture mentions only three places of deep sleep, viz. the nâdîs, the pericardium, and Brahman. Among these three again Brahman alone is the lasting place of deep sleep; the nâdîs and the pericardium are mere roads leading to it. Moreover (to explain further the difference of the manner in which the soul, in deep sleep, enters into the nâdîs, the pericardium and Brahman respectively), the nâdîs and the pericardium are (in deep sleep) merely the abode of the limiting adjuncts of the soul; in them the soul's organs abide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nor do we finally maintain that the nâdîs, the pericardium, and Brahman are to be added to each other as being equally places of deep sleep. For by the knowledge that the nâdîs and the pericardium are places of sleep, nothing is gained, as scripture teaches neither that some special fruit is connected with that knowledge nor that it is the subordinate member of some work, &amp;amp;c., connected with certain results. We, on the other hand, do want to prove that that Brahman is the lasting abode of the soul in the state of deep sleep; that is a knowledge which has its own uses, viz. the ascertainment of Brahman being the Self of the soul, and the ascertainment of the soul being essentially non-connected with the worlds that appear in the waking and in the dreaming state. Hence the Self alone is the place of deep sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya says the same thing in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48351.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next the state of deep dreamless sleep is enquired into. Scripture says, 'When a man is asleep, reposing and at perfect rest, so that he sees no dream, then he lies asleep in those nâdîs' (Kh. Up. VIII, 6, 3); 'When he is in profound sleep and is conscious of nothing, there are seventy-two thousand veins called hita which from the heart spread through the pericardium. Through them he moves forth and rests in the pericardium' (Bri. Up. II, 1, 19). 'When a man sleeps here, he becomes united with the True' (Kh. Up. VI, 8, 1). These texts declare the veins, the pericardium, and Brahman to be the place of deep sleep; and hence there is a doubt whether each of them in turns, or all of them together, are that place. There is an option between them, since they are not in mutual dependence, and since the sleeping soul cannot at the same time be in several places!--To this the Sûtra replies--the absence of dreams, i.e. deep sleep takes place in the veins, in the pericardium, and in the highest Self together; since these three are declared by Scripture. When different alternatives may be combined, on the ground of there being different effects in each case, it is improper to assume an option which implies sublation of some of the alternatives. And in the present case such combination is possible, the veins and the pericardium holding the position of a mansion, as it were, and a couch within the mansion, while Brahman is the pillow, as it were. Thus Brahman alone is the immediate resting-place of the sleeping soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhvacharya also says the same thing in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xNPvx.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Brahma Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The state of sleep which is the absence of wakefulness and dreams, is brought about within the Lord present within the Nadis.  For the scriptural passages say &amp;quot;Then (in sleep) in these Nadis (in the Sushumna), the soul is come (Ch. VIII. 6. 3) &amp;quot;O dear one, during the state of sleep, this person (soul) comes to be with Sat (the supreme Lord)&amp;quot; (Ch. VI. 8. 1).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And for good measure, &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HJ7au.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Srikantha Shivacharya's commentary, &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/y5heU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Baladeva Vidyabhushana's commentary, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/JaiD&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Nimbarka's commentary also say the same thing.  This seems to be a rare case of unanimous agreement among all commentators on the Brahma Sutras!  (I discuss other such cases &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11670/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8682/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7947/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, Adhyaya 3 Pada 2 of the Brahma Sutras also discusses two related issues: first, that the same soul which went to sleep wakes up from sleep in the same body, and second, that fainting is a state that's like half-way between deep sleep and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T06:19:25.200" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14607" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12370" CreationDate="2016-08-25T06:50:08.430" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, the story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Karna Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;. When Arjuna and Karna were engaged in war, the snake Aswasena (whose mother has been burned by Arjuna in Khandava Vana), has entered at the arrow of Karna. Karna has fired that arrow without seeing that snake but Lord Krishna has pressed the chariot down in earth in some extent. Thus, Arjuna has been saved by Lord Krishna but his diadem has been destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Suta's son then fixed on his bow-string that foe-killing, exceedingly keen, snake-mouthed, blazing, and fierce shaft, which had been polished according to rule, and which he had long kept for the sake of Partha's destruction. Stretching his bow-string to his ear, Karna fixed that shaft of fierce energy and blazing splendour, that ever-worshipped weapon which lay within a golden quiver amid sandal dust, and aimed it at Partha. Indeed, he aimed that blazing arrow, born in Airavata's race, for cutting off Phalguna's head in battle. All the points of the compass and the welkin became ablaze and terrible meteors, and thunderbolts fell. When that snake of the form of an arrow was fixed on the bow-string, the Regents of the world, including Sakra, set up loud wails. &lt;strong&gt;The Suta's son did not know that the snake Aswasena had entered his arrow by the aid of his Yoga powers&lt;/strong&gt;. Beholding Vaikartana aim that arrow, the high-souled ruler of the Madras, addressing Karna, said, &amp;quot;This arrow, O Karna, will not succeed in striking off Arjuna's head. Searching carefully, fix another arrow that may succeed in striking off thy enemy's head.&amp;quot; Endued with great activity, the Suta's son, with eyes burning in wrath, then said unto the ruler of the Madras, &amp;quot;O Shalya, Karna never aimeth an arrow twice. Persons like us never become crooked warriors.&amp;quot; Having said these words, Karna, with great care, let off that shaft which he had worshipped for many long years. Bent upon winning the victory, O king, he quickly said unto his rival, &amp;quot;Thou art slain, O Phalguna!&amp;quot; Sped from Karna's arms, that shaft of awful whizz, resembling fire or the sun in splendour, as it left the bow-string, blazed up in the welkin and seemed to divide it by a line such as is visible on the crown of a woman dividing her tresses. &lt;strong&gt;Beholding that shaft blazing in the welkin, the slayer of Kamsa, Madhava, with great speed and the greatest ease, pressed down with his feet that excellent car, causing it to sink about a cubit deep&lt;/strong&gt;. At this, the steeds, white as the rays of the moon and decked in trappings of gold, bending their knees, laid themselves down on the ground. Indeed, seeing that snake (in the form of an arrow) aimed by Karna, Madhava, that foremost of all persons endued with might, put forth his strength and thus pressed down with his feet that car into the earth, whereat the steeds, (as already said) bending down their knees, laid themselves down upon the earth when the car itself had sank into it. Then loud sounds arose in the welkin in applause of Vasudeva. Many celestial voices were heard, and celestial flowers were showered upon Krishna, and leonine shouts also were uttered. When the car had thus been pressed down into the earth through the exertions of the slayer of Madhu, the excellent ornament of Arjuna's head, celebrated throughout the earth, the welkin, heaven, and the waters, the Suta's son swept off from the crown of his rival, with that arrow, in consequence of the very nature of that snaky weapon and the great care and wrath with which it had been shot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Aswasena has been failed in doing any harm to Arjuna, he requested Karna to fire him once more at Arjuna by arrow. But Karna has refused to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having burnt the gold-decked diadem of Arjuna displayed on his head, he desired to come to Arjuna once more with great speed. Asked, however, by Karna (who saw him but knew him not), he said these words, &amp;quot;Thou hadst sped me, O Karna, without having seen me. It was for this that I could not strike off Arjuna's head. Do thou quickly shoot me once again, after seeing me well. I shall then slay thy foe and mine too.&amp;quot; Thus addressed in that battle by him, the Suta's son said, &amp;quot;Who are you possessed of such fierce form?&amp;quot; The snake answered, saying, &amp;quot;Know me as one that has been wronged by Partha. My enmity towards him is due to his having slain my mother. If the wielder of the thunderbolt himself were to protect Partha, the latter would still have to go to the domains of the king of the pitris. Do not disregard me. Do my bidding. I will slay thy foe. Shoot me without delay.&amp;quot; Hearing those words, Karna said, &amp;quot;Karna, O snake, never desires to have victory in battle today by relying on another's might. &lt;strong&gt;Even if I have to slay a hundred Arjunas, I will not, O snake, still shoot the same shaft twice.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; Once more addressing him in the midst of battle, that best of men, viz., Surya's son, Karna, said, &amp;quot;Aided by the nature of my other snaky weapons, and by resolute effort and wrath, I shall slay Partha. Be thou happy and go elsewhere.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Aswasena has assumed the form of arrow and attacked on Arjuna but later killed by Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus addressed, in battle, by Karna, that prince of snakes, unable from rage to bear those words, himself proceeded, O king, for the slaughter of Partha, having assumed the form of an arrow. Of fierce form, the desire he ardently cherished was the destruction of his enemy. Then Krishna, addressing Partha in that encounter, said into him, &amp;quot;Slay that great snake inimical to thee.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Jishnu, turning his face in rage, cut off, with six keen shafts, that snake in the welkin as the latter was coursing in a slanting direction. His body thus cut off, he fell down on the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T12:55:09.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14608" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-25T06:54:19.133" Score="0" ViewCount="35" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Ranganatha of srirangam or srirangapatna  and Lord Venkatachalapathy of Tirupati are not coming under ten  Avatars of God Vishnu. Why is it so? Any reference from puranas will be of great help to understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-03-18T17:57:32.930" LastActivityDate="2017-03-18T17:57:32.930" Title="Avatarams of God" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|avatars|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-08-25T06:59:31.300" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14610" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14611" CreationDate="2016-08-25T07:39:51.223" Score="0" ViewCount="763" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Moksha guaranteed if I have Pancha Samskaram (Samashrayanam) done for me? I heard that Perumal promised Swamy Ramanujacharya that anyone who has Pancha Samskaram (Samashrayanam) done will get Moksha. Is that true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7488" LastEditorUserId="7488" LastEditDate="2016-08-25T08:30:47.823" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T10:50:01.773" Title="Is Moksham guaranteed if have Phanchasamskaram done for me?" Tags="|rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14611" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14610" CreationDate="2016-08-25T10:50:01.773" Score="4" Body="&lt;h1&gt;What is Samashrayanam?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samashrayanam can be defined as a process or custom in Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya  'to approach (Acharya) with  sincerity'. During the process of Samashrayanam, the Acharya takes the person    as his shishya or disciple, irrespective of his caste, creed or other differences. Concurrently, it is also expected that the shishya is to live as per the wishes of the Acharya. Thus the person gets the link to the rich Sri Vaishnava heritage. The most revered Pancha Samskaram is performed when one takes the process of Samashrayanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What about the life after taking the process of Samashrayanam?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samashrayanam is indeed a great turning point in the life of Jeevathma, who has got entangled in the maze of life and death.  The Pancha Samskaram (or the five-fold-purification) performed is invaluable. But , one has to keep up the Samskaram by his regular devotional activities. The Pancha Samskarams performed to the person loses significance and potential, if he gets involved in worldly activites and pleasures throwing more indifference to the Paramatman(Sriman Narayana). After all, the ultimate purpose of Pancha Samskaram is to make a person eligible to take part in the various activities of the Sanatana Dharma and to serve the Divya Dhampathi (Sriman Narayana and His consort, Sri Mahalakshmi). Sharanagadhi towards the Lord must be the only objective in our life.  Samashrayanam helps in a great way to make a person progress towards achieving this goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mudaliandan.com/samashrayanam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pancha Samskaram (Samashrayanam)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://anudinam.org/2013/09/10/pancha-samskara-samasrayanam-a-dialogue/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sources1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.angelfire.com/de/bhakthimargam/faqsamash.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sources2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7052" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T10:50:01.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14612" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14601" CreationDate="2016-08-25T14:12:45.803" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The details (briefly) go thus: the citizens felt that the eldest Kuru-son should become now the King as the present King was old and blind. Duryodhan went mad with jealousy and the old resentment against the Pandavs all came back. He then requested his father to send the Pandavs and Kunti to Varnavat on some pretext. Dhritarashtra was not easily persuaded but his son convinced him anyway. In a few days, when the festival of Pashupati was about to be celebrated in Varnavat, the Pandavs and Kunti wished to attend it. Dhristarashtra saw this as an opportunity and spoke a lot about the festival and the delights of the city, in order to make them go. Meanwhile, Duryodhan and his brothers and friends start to win over the people's hearts by being very generous with the state's treasure.&#xA;When the Pandavs actually go to Varnavat, Duryodhan, unbeknownst to his father, already has a house of lac and other inflammable materials built there. &#xA;Vidur warns the Pandavs with riddles before they go and Yudhishthir being intelligent, finds the hidden meaning of his words and suspects great danger, so the brothers spend their days in Varnavat cautiously. Vidur later sends a helper to dig a tunnel under the house for them to get away. After the tunnel is finished, Bhim (2nd Pandav) sets fire to the house and gets out by the tunnel. Vidur makes sure that the architect, the tribal woman and her sons who built the house of lac die in the fire, so that the news of the Pandav's death will spread everywhere and they will have some peace before they decide to come back home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The details of the story are available in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01148.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Book 1, Adi Parva, Jatugriha Parva,&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharat Book 1 - &gt; Jatugriha Parva. I am sure I have not got all the great details, but you can read the story in this chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7179" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-09-16T21:53:15.607" LastActivityDate="2018-09-16T21:53:15.607" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14613" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14540" CreationDate="2016-08-25T15:02:38.940" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parsvanatha was an avatar of Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru Gobind Singh wrote a composition  - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranath_Avtar&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parasnath Avatar&lt;/a&gt; which is present inside &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudra_Avtar&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rudra Avatar&lt;/a&gt; which itself can be found in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasam_Granth&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dasam Granth&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dasam Granth contains a lot of topics that cover the 24 avatars of Vishnu, 7 avatars of Brahma and includes 2 avatars of Rudra - Dattatreya and Parsvanatha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T15:02:38.940" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14614" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-25T15:34:12.520" Score="4" ViewCount="299" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the oldest schools of Vedanta which existed long before Shankara is Sabda- Brahma vivarta vada. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The exponents of this school of thought as stated by Swami Vedanta Desika ( famous SriVaishnava acharya belonging to 13 th century) are Bhartrihari and Halayudha who belonged to school of grammarians.Though they are primarily grammarians and have contributed scholarly works including a commentary on Patanjali Mahabhasya ( commentary on Panini sutras), they too have attempted to give a vedantic complexion to their theories by conceiving Sabda or sound as Brahman, the Ultimate reality of Upanishads. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhartrhari : Sabda Brahman is the only ultimate reality and all the world is vivarta (illusory) manifestation of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Halayudha : Sabda Brahman alone is the life energy of all entities in the universe and the entire universe is the modification ( Parinama) of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Desikan quotes the central doctrine of Halayudha as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sabda Brahma yadekam yac-chaitanyam ca sarvabhutanam !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yat Parinamam tribhuvanam Akhilam idam jayanthi as Vani !!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning : Sabda Brahma, the one reality without a second, is the life energy of all beings and the entire universe is a modification of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Desikan refutes these theories as untenable in his famous works&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) What does Brahma sutras of Badarayana say about this Sabda Brahman school of thought?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) Do any of the acharyas viz Ramanuja, Shankara or Madhva say anything about this school of thought?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(3) What are the objections raised and refutations by Swami Desikan against Sabda Brahman school of thought?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please quote from valid references and valid commentaries, accordingly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2016-08-26T08:03:53.447" LastActivityDate="2016-08-26T08:03:53.447" Title="What are objections on Sabda Brahman school thought?" Tags="|brahman|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14616" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12109" CreationDate="2016-08-25T20:57:21.983" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The boldface passage is easy to understand, the rest of the argument, not so much. Sri Harsha seems to deal with a one-level ontology similar to scholastics', where attributes (essential properties) are things in their own right. His &quot;nature&quot; seems to correspond to scholastic &quot;essence&quot;, the sum total of attributes. To untangle the argument let us abbreviate &quot;real existence&quot; by the scholastic Latinism esse, which, like most scholastics (except Thomists), Sri Harsha considers an attribute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Boldface argument:&lt;/strong&gt; What he says in the boldface passage is that cause=(esse,...), where I list the constituting attributes in parentheses, and we can not have esse=cause because then esse=(esse,...). And this is not allowed because a thing can not be its own attribute (&quot;&lt;em&gt;the absurdity of something (real existence) residing partially in itself&lt;/em&gt;&quot;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Recognized principle&quot;:&lt;/strong&gt; Then it gets murky. Sri Harsha allows that the thing, which is the cause, is not the esse itself but something more: thing=(esse,...). We also have cause=(esse,...), and I see no problem with thing=cause=(esse,...). But he does. For some reason the same esse can not underlie the thing both as a thing and as a cause, or rather it has to underlie it/them twice, thing=cause=(esse,esse,...) (&quot;&lt;em&gt;It would therefore be necessary to assume another existence as residing in the cause qualified by existence&lt;/em&gt;&quot;). But according to the &quot;recognized principle&quot; nothing can be an attribute of the same thing twice (&quot;&lt;em&gt;no more... can it reside in that of which it already is an essential attribute&lt;/em&gt;&quot;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Accidental esse:&lt;/strong&gt; After that it gets even murkier. Apparently, we are now envisioning non-essential properties, perhaps what scholastics called accidentals, so we have to refine the notation. I will list accidentals after the vertical line. So we have something like thing=cause=(esse,...| esse,...), and while esse can not underlie the thing as a thing and the thing as a cause both essentially, it can apparently underlie one essentially, and the other, say the cause, only accidentally. That is not good enough though, &quot;&lt;em&gt;but then the cause would have to be regarded as ‘not really existing'&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Multiple esses:&lt;/strong&gt; Finally, the splitting of esse is allowed, say into esseT and esseC (actually, it seems that it was already done previously, and we tacitly had thing=cause=(esseT,...| esseC,...), but ok). Now we can have thing=cause=(esseT, esseC,...), which again I see no problem with. But Sri Harsha thinks that to get it to &quot;really&quot; exist we need to &quot;unify&quot; the two esses. So we get something like thing=cause=(esseT, esseC, esseTC...), and then an infinite regress. This does not deter him in itself, but even taking the &quot;&lt;em&gt;long step&lt;/em&gt;&quot; of creating the requisite esses all at once does not work for another reason. Because the esse was supposed to be the &quot;&lt;em&gt;generic conception&lt;/em&gt;&quot; of existence, and so had to unify all existences including all our specialized esses, which are thereby revealed as not esses at all, &quot;&lt;em&gt;seeking to establish the notion of existence you thus have lost the basis of it&lt;/em&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary:&lt;/strong&gt; Try as I might I can not see a reading of this argument upon which it is not badly circular at a key juncture. To apply the &quot;recognized principle&quot; Sri Harsha must claim (and appears to) that the same single esse can not be the attribute of the thing and the cause, both as such. But on his interpretation of real existence as an attribute this just rephrases the conclusion. Namely, that nothing really existent can be a cause, which is what he set out to &lt;em&gt;prove&lt;/em&gt;. The rest of the argument seems superfluous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This answer is cross-posted from a &lt;a href=&quot;https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/37427/what-is-the-logical-structure-of-this-argument-by-a-hindu-philosopher-about-caus/37438#37438&quot;&gt;related thread on Philosophy SE&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7493" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:42:22.737" LastActivityDate="2016-08-25T20:57:21.983" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14617" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15433" CreationDate="2016-08-25T22:03:57.460" Score="3" ViewCount="2006" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/2_epic/mbh/mbh_01_u.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, following is what looks like the dhyana shloka (opening prayer) for the Mahabharata. I'm looking for an English translation of the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;01,000.000*0001_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  jayati parāśarasūnuḥ satyavatīhṛdayanandano vyāsaḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0001_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  yasyāsyakamalakośe vāṅmayam amṛtaṃ pibati lokaḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0002_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  dharmadṛḍhabaddhamūlo vedaskandhaḥ purāṇaśākhāḍhyaḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0002_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  kratukusumo mokṣaphalo jayati kalpadrumo viṣṇuḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0003_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  pitāmahādyaṃ pravadanti ṣaṣṭhaṃ; maharṣim akṣayyavibhūtiyuktam&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0003_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  nārāyaṇasyāṃśajam ekaputraṃ; dvaipāyanaṃ vedanidhiṃ namāmi&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0004_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  pārāśaryavacassarojam amalaṃ gītārthagandhotkaṭaṃ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0004_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  nānākhyānakakesaraṃ harikathāsaṃbodhanābodhitam&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0004_03  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  loke sajjanaṣaṭpadair aharahaḥ pepīyamānaṃ mudā&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0004_04  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  bhūyād bhāratapaṅkajaṃ kalimalapradhvaṃsi naḥ śreyase&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0005_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  yaḥ śvetatvam upāgataḥ kṛtayuge tretāyuge raktatāṃ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0005_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  yugme yaḥ kapilaḥ kalau ca bhagavān kṛṣṇatvam āyāga *&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0005_03  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  . . . . . . . danti munayo yo yogibhir gīyate&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0005_04  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  sa brahmā yadi vā haro yadi śivo yaḥ ko 'pi tasmai namaḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0006_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  vāgīśādyāḥ sumanasaḥ sarvārthānām u . . .&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0006_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  . . tvā kṛtakṛtyāḥ syus taṃ namāmi gajānanam&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0007_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  vyāsaṃ vasiṣṭhanaptāraṃ śakteḥ pautram akalmaṣam&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0007_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  parāśarātmajaṃ vande śukatātaṃ taponidhim&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0008_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  acaturvadano brahmā dvibāhur a . . . .&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0008_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  abhālalocanaḥ śambhur bhagavān bādarāyaṇaḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0009_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  śuklāmbaradharaṃ devaṃ śaśivarṇaṃ caturbhujam&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0009_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  prasannavadanaṃ dhyāyet sarvavighnopaśāntaye&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0010_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  jñānānandamayaṃ devaṃ nirmalaṃ sphaṭikākṛtim&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0010_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  ādhāraṃ sarvavidyānāṃ hayagrīvam upāsmahe&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0011_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  vyāsāya viṣṇurūpāya vyāsarūpāya viṣṇave&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0011_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  namo vai brahmanidhaye vāsiṣṭhāya namo namaḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0012_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  namo dharmāya mahate namaḥ kṛṣṇāya vedhase&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0012_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  brāhmaṇebhyo namaskṛtvā dharmān vakṣyāmi śāśvatān&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0013_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  abhraśyāmaḥ piṅgajaṭābaddhakalāpaḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0013_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  prāṃśur daṇḍī kṛṣṇamṛgatvakparidhānaḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0013_03  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  sākṣāl lokān pāvayamānaḥ kavimukhyaḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0013_04  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  pārāśaryaḥ parvasu rūpaṃ vivṛṇotu&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0014_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  aśubhāni nirācaṣṭe tanoti śubhasaṃtatim&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0014_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  smṛtamātreṇa yaḥ puṃsāṃ brahma tan maṅgalaṃ viduḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0015_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  dharmo vivardhati yudhiṣṭhirakīrtanena&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0015_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  pāpaṃ praṇaśyati vṛkodarakīrtanena&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0015_03  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  śatrur vinaśyati dhanaṃjayakīrtanena&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0015_04  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  mādrīsutau kathayatāṃ na bhavanti rogāḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0016_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  sarasvatīpadaṃ vande śriyaḥ patim umāpatim&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0016_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  tviṣāṃ patiṃ gaṇapatiṃ bṛhaspatimukhān ṛṣīn&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0017_01  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  nārāyaṇaṃ suraguruṃ jagadekanāthaṃ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0017_02  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  bhaktapriyaṃ sakalalokanamaskṛtaṃ ca&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0017_03  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  traiguṇyavarjitam ajaṃ vibhum ādyam īśaṃ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,000.000*0017_04  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  vande bhavaghnam asurāsurasiddhavandyam&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-05-25T04:40:24.557" Title="English translation of dhyana shloka (opening prayer) of Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14618" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7342" CreationDate="2016-08-26T00:00:14.223" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It depends on which form of Hinduism (the word 'Hindu' refers to almost every religion from India besides Buddhism and Jainism) you're referring to. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In most forms of Hinduism the cow is not particularly auspicious and there is nothing against eating beef, that seems to be an idea introduced to India relatively recently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As to where the idea comes from is unknown, but no earlier scriptures mention it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact Swami Vivekananda &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_3/Lectures_from_Colombo_to_Almora/Reply_to_the_Address_of_Welcome_at_Madura&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;You will be astonished if I tell you, that according to old&#xA;  ceremonials, he is not a good Hindu who does not eat beef. On certain&#xA;  occasions he must sacrifice a bull and eat it&quot; (Swami Vivekananda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clear that earlier Hindus ate beef and it is still uncertain where the sacred cow idea comes from. It is also clear that certain forms of Hinduism are against eating all meat but not beef specifically or only beef.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Foreigners were often called &quot;mlecchas&quot; or meat-eaters, but it's not against eating beef only but all meat in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no scripture that claims that the cow has 33 crores gods in it, that idea was likely a recent idea passed down through tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Vedas there are 33 main deities, they are mentioned frequently in Buddhism also, The Buddha is considered as an incarnation of God to many Hindus but according to The Buddha the Vedas come from the &quot;Heaven of the Thirty-Three&quot; which is merely a temporary heavenly world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of The Buddha's disciples, Kumara (who was an enlightened arahant) debated a skeptical atheist prince Payasi, here's &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=2b3BAgAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA262&amp;amp;lpg=PA262&amp;amp;dq=%22Well,%20Reverend%20Kumara,%20I%20had%20friends%20who%20followed%20the%20right%20path,%20who%20were%20very%20good%20people%20and%20citizens%20in%20every%20respect.%20By%20any%20right,%20as%20certain%20Holy%20men%20have%20said,%20they%20should%20have%20gone%20to%20the%20Heaven%20of%20the%20Thirty%20Three%20Gods.%20Yet,%20when%20one%20of%20them%20died,%20I%20said%20to%20him,%20%22You%20have%20always%20been%20trustworthy%20and%20dependable.%20Certain%20Holy%20men%20say%20that,%20because%20of%20your%20lifestyle%20and%20because%20you%20followed%20the%20right%20path,%20you%20will%20be%20reborn%20in%20the%20Heaven%20of%20the%20Thirty%20Three%20Gods.%20If%20this%20is%20so,%20please%20come%20and%20tell%20me%20if%20it%20is%20true,%20or%20send%20a%20messenger%20to%20tell%20me%20if%20it%20is%20true.%20To%20date,%20they%20have%20neither%20contacted%20me%20nor%20sent%20a%20messenger.%22&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=-Fr1IfTy_I&amp;amp;sig=qJ6NhOXDZWDBcJGqtn6juw5M2hg&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwi9iNiJ0LzQAhULQ48KHRGoD84Q6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%22Well%2C%20Reverend%20Kumara%2C%20I%20had%20friends%20who%20followed%20the%20right%20path%2C%20who%20were%20very%20good%20people%20and%20citizens%20in%20every%20respect.%20By%20any%20right%2C%20as%20certain%20Holy%20men%20have%20said%2C%20they%20should%20have%20gone%20to%20the%20Heaven%20of%20the%20Thirty%20Three%20Gods.%20Yet%2C%20when%20one%20of%20them%20died%2C%20I%20said%20to%20him%2C%20%22You%20have%20always%20been%20trustworthy%20and%20dependable.%20Certain%20Holy%20men%20say%20that%2C%20because%20of%20your%20lifestyle%20and%20because%20you%20followed%20the%20right%20path%2C%20you%20will%20be%20reborn%20in%20the%20Heaven%20of%20the%20Thirty%20Three%20Gods.%20If%20this%20is%20so%2C%20please%20come%20and%20tell%20me%20if%20it%20is%20true%2C%20or%20send%20a%20messenger%20to%20tell%20me%20if%20it%20is%20true.%20To%20date%2C%20they%20have%20neither%20contacted%20me%20nor%20sent%20a%20messenger.%22&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;part of the debate&lt;/a&gt; that mentions the Heaven of the Thirty-Three:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Well, Reverend Kumara, I had friends who followed the right path, who&#xA;  were very good people and citizens in every respect. By any right, as&#xA;  certain Holy men have said, they should have gone to the Heaven of the&#xA;  Thirty Three Gods. Yet, when one of them died, I said to him, &quot;You&#xA;  have always been trustworthy and dependable. Certain Holy men say&#xA;  that, because of your lifestyle and because you followed the right&#xA;  path, you will be reborn in the Heaven of the Thirty Three Gods. If&#xA;  this is so, please come and tell me if it is true, or send a messenger&#xA;  to tell me if it is true. To date, they have neither contacted me nor&#xA;  sent a messenger.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Hmm. Well, Prince… Consider this. In the Heaven of the Thirty Three&#xA;  Gods, time passes at a different pace, and people live much longer. In&#xA;  the period of our century, one hundred years, only a single day,&#xA;  twenty four hours would have passed for them. Thirty of these hundred&#xA;  year days make up one of their months, twelve such months make a year&#xA;  and a thousand such years is roughly the life span of those born into&#xA;  the Heaven of the Thirty Three Gods. Suppose your friend decided, &quot;I&#xA;  will go back to that unclean world just long enough to deliver my&#xA;  message to the Prince – I shall set out tomorrow. Or perhaps, after I&#xA;  have seen some more of this place, in two or three days, I will set&#xA;  out to go see him.&quot; – would he have been able to?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Of course not, Reverend Kumara, because, by the reasoning you have&#xA;  given, we should all be long dead by the time he had spent three days&#xA;  there. However, I do not think that those born in the Heaven of the&#xA;  Thirty Three Gods would be so long lived, or that time has a different&#xA;  pace. How do you know about their lifespan or their time?&quot; (Payasi Sutta)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interesting discussion from around 500 BC isn't it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas don't seem to revere the cow as particularly auspicious or special either nor does any earlier scripture so it is still unclear where the idea comes from.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that Caitanya was against it and revered the cow, but he is from the late Middle Ages so perhaps the idea of the sacred cow arose or gained popularity in India during the Middle Ages for agricultural reasons (which is relatively recently).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4942" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T15:00:28.660" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T15:00:28.660" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14620" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-26T04:02:51.023" Score="3" ViewCount="2962" Body="&lt;p&gt;I somewhere heard that same gothras cannot get married. I have a friend who belongs to the gothras Srivatsa loved a boy of gothra Bhargavasa. Is there any possibility that both gothras are same but have different names?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7494" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-08-26T05:18:40.803" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T10:50:37.230" Title="Two different names of same gothras" Tags="|belief|culture|marriage|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14621" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14623" CreationDate="2016-08-26T05:00:38.273" Score="4" ViewCount="12110" Body="&lt;p&gt;Navagrahas do not face each other. They will not see each other. What is the religious reason for this? Any specifics in puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2017-06-03T13:20:00.130" Title="Navagrahas directions" Tags="|navagraha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14623" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14621" CreationDate="2016-08-26T07:37:21.453" Score="1" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Since Sun is at the center and other eight are around him in eight directions, they have to be placed &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOT facing each other so that people can easily pray to any particular graham/ grahams. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please read this info: Source - Navagraha placement in a temple and how to worship &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Agama Pradishta, Surya occupies the central place, Chandra on Surya’s east, Budha on his south, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brihaspati on his west, Shukra on his north, Mangala on his south-east, Shani on his south-west, Rahu on &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;north-west and Ketu in the north-east. Temples such as Suryanar temple, Tiruvidadaimarudur, Tiruvaiyaru &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and Tirucchirappalli follow this system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Navagraha-Pranapratishta_Agama&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vaidika Pradishta, Surya is still in the centre, but Shukra is in the east, Mangala in the south, Shani &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in the west, Brihaspati in the north, Chandra in the south-east, Rahu in the south-west, Ketu in the north&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-west and Budha in the north-east.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Extracted from Navagraha Puranam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-08-26T07:37:21.453" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14624" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14621" CreationDate="2016-08-26T07:40:08.853" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is only in south India Navagrahas face 8 different direction, with Sun in the middle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As per Hindu legend, Sage Kalava was suffering from serious ailments&#xA;  along with leprosy. He prayed to the Navagrahas, the nine planet&#xA;  deities. The planets were pleased by his devotion and offered cure to&#xA;  the sage. Brahma, the Hindu god of creation, was angered as he felt&#xA;  that the planets have no powers to provide boons to humans. He cursed&#xA;  the nine planets to suffer from leprosy and were sent down to earth in&#xA;  Vellurukku Vanam, the white wild flower jungle - the modern time&#xA;  Suryanar Kovil. The planets prayed to Shiva to relieve them off the&#xA;  curse. Shiva appeared to them and said that the place belonged to them&#xA;  and they would have to grace the devotees worshipping them from the&#xA;  place. This is the only temple where there are separate shrines for&#xA;  each of the planet deities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bihar a temple of 1910 consist navagrahas in a row. Devotees can have a darshan of navagraha planets in the same side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navagraha_temples_in_Tamil_Nadu#Legend&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-05-26T17:09:55.323" LastActivityDate="2017-05-26T17:09:55.323" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14625" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12329" CreationDate="2016-08-26T08:58:03.223" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kula Devata or Family Deity can come from about four sources as far as I know. I shall state the sources below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One of your ancestors, who sometimes might have had mythical powers &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A god that every one in the family agreed upon to be assigened as their Kula     Devata long time ago &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A deity belonging to a specific region that your ancestors moved to later on and started worshiping as they settled down over there&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sometimes, in extremely rare cases someone who helped your ancestor in times of need, such as during war (like helped your ancestors win a war) or difficulty may be assigned as your Kula Devata or equal to your Kula devata in honours.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have my own examples that I would like to state to give examples. I am from a Kshatriya kula who actually lived and ruled a region in Rajasthan about 1000 years ago and they moved further south to Karnataka and finally settled near the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu and have stayed there for about 500 years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only a group of five brothers came to the village that I am from and established a settlement there and one of them was a Brahmachari and was very well versed in the Vedas and also possessed mystic powers as he was a practitioner of the Siddha tradition. Thus we in our native village regard him as our Kula Devata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These 5 brothers also had members of the same Kula staying outside of my village in other villages so our Kula had Goddess Kali as our Kula devata. This was not because she is our original Kula devata but since we moved to that region and she was being worshiped by the local people, members of our kula bought the temple complex by giving gold to the people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The original worshipers of Goddess Kali then left the region and moved toward Kerala, toward the west. Few years later, they heard that my Kula was flourishing with prosperity and so they wanted Goddess Kali back. They decided to wage a war during the month of Phalguni on Amavasya. We successfully won the war but with the help of a local chieftain of another kula. So we respect as much as we respect our Kula devata, Goddess Kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7488" LastActivityDate="2016-08-26T08:58:03.223" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14627" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-26T10:37:50.227" Score="13" ViewCount="2108" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is extremely difficult for us to find the name of Devi Radharani's name in the Srimad Bhagvatam, how can this be when she was the foremost of the Gopis who were with Krishna. This even led an argument between Gaudiya Vaishnavite Acharyas and Acharyas from other sects where the latter argued that Srimati Radharani should not be worshipped together with Krishna as her name is not found in the Srimad Bhagvatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Gaudiya Vaishnava Acharyas have revealed that the word 'Radha' can be found in&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;anayaradhito nunam&#xA;  bhagavan harir isvarah&#xA;  yan no vihaya govindah&#xA;  prito yam anayad rahah &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in the word aradhita, the name Radha has been derived. However, the name of Radharani is directly mentioned in other Puranas. So why be so conservative in mentioning Devi's name in one of the most important scriptures talking about the history of Sri Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7488" LastActivityDate="2022-10-26T13:04:48.740" Title="Why be so secretive in mentioning Devi Radharani's name in Srimad Bhagavatam" Tags="|scripture|krishna|radha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14628" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8699" CreationDate="2016-08-26T11:48:02.877" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There are a lot of saints in present time.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You might have heard of Mahavatar Babaji, the guru of Lahiri Mahasaya who was the guru of Sri Yukteswar Giri who in turn was the guru of Paramahamsa Yogananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sv7ee.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sv7ee.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is believed to be born 2500 years ago and is alive till date. Of course, there are many more saints who are at this moment present on earth, most of them are in Himalayas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2016-08-26T11:48:02.877" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14630" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-26T12:13:37.037" Score="6" ViewCount="1538" Body="&lt;p&gt;The references mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13742/489&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer to the Kundalini Concept are based on the Smartha concept and inclined to Shaivism. Is there any comment or reference to such a concept in the Pancharatra Agamas/ Vaishnava Agamas or anywhere in Vaishnavism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2022-11-30T14:42:07.487" LastActivityDate="2023-06-14T12:47:19.180" Title="Is Kundalini Concept alien to Vaishnavism?" Tags="|scripture|vaishnavism|vedanta|sri-vaishnava|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14631" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-26T12:22:04.717" Score="0" ViewCount="433" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which alwar was a thief and turned by the Lord to alwar? How many hymns he composed in Divya prabandam? What answers he got from his wife when he said he steals for livelihood?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-08-26T12:25:53.013" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T14:12:38.363" Title="Thief turned into Alwar" Tags="|scripture|alwar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14632" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11919" CreationDate="2016-08-26T13:15:46.383" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03307.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Vana Parva&lt;/a&gt;, it is mentioned that if someone ask for anything after bathing and Sun-worship, Karna will not refuse this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And when, O foremost of monarchs, Karna after rising from the water, used at mid-day to worship the effulgent Surya with joined hands, the Brahmanas used to solicit him for wealth. And at that time there was nothing that he would not give away to the twice-born ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its one example is, &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03308.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indra has asked his Kavacha and Kundala&lt;/a&gt; and Karna has given that. Though Karna knew that it will be the reason of his destruction. I have already discussed this story &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7742/who-obtained-karnas-kavach-and-kundala/14195#14195&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the illustrious slayer of Paka refused to ask for any other boon, Kama with a smile again addressed him, saying, 'O god of gods, even before this, I had recognised thee, O Lord! O Sakra, it is not proper for me to confer on thee any unprofitable boon, for thou art the very lord of the celestials! On the contrary, being as thou art the Creator and lord of all beings, it is thou that shouldst confer boons on me! If, O god, I give thee this coat of mail and ear-rings, then I am sure to meet with destruction, and thou shalt also undergo ridicule! Therefore, O Sakra, take my earrings and excellent mail in exchange for something conferred by thee on me! Otherwise, I will not bestow them on thee!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other incident which proves Karna as Daan Veera is when &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05146.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kunti has asked him to join Pandavas side&lt;/a&gt; in battle, Karna had refused it but promised that he will not kill Yudhishthira, Bhima, Nakula and Sahadeva. He has said to Kunti that, &quot;Your five sons will be alive by the end of the war. Either I will die or Arjuna&quot;. And in the war Karna has fulfilled that wish of Kunti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Except Arjuna, thy other sons, Yudhishthira, Bhima, and the twins, though capable of being withstood by me in tight and capable also of being slain, shall not yet be slain by me. It is with Arjuna alone, among all the combatants of Yudhishthira, that I will fight. Slaying Arjuna in battle, I shall achieve great merit, or slain by Savyasachin, I shall be covered with glory. O famous lady, the number of thy sons will never be less than five. Five it will always be,--either with me, or with Arjuna, and myself slain.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-08-27T15:22:23.043" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14633" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15376" CreationDate="2016-08-26T13:17:03.240" Score="2" ViewCount="290" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which is the birth place of this nayanar and what significance he has done to Saivism? Do not give the link Wikipedia. Apart from that any info thru ithihasas kindly quote.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T07:38:49.650" Title="Kungiliya Kalaya Nayanar" Tags="|shiva|nayanar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14634" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14631" CreationDate="2016-08-26T13:19:13.927" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;He is Thirumangai Alwar. He married Kumudavalli Deviyar who was the daughter of a Vaishnavite doctor. Thirumangai   Alwar is a very brave person in fact he was not a thief at first, once he turned into a Vaishnavite, Kumudavalli Deviyar asked him to promise her that he would feed 1008 Vaishnavites daily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unable to bear the expenses he resorted to robbery. Since he was a built, muscular and strong person many feared him. Once he stopped a bridegroom and tried to remove the toe ring of the bride but he could not. They were none other than Sriman Narayana and Lakshmi Devi. Lord Narayana himself initiated him by revealing the meaning of the Ashtaaksharam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From then on he gave up robbing. He composed 6 poems. He is the last of the 12 Alwars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He has written the following poems,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Periya Thirumozhi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tirunedundandaham&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Siriya Thirumadal&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Periya Thirumadal&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tirukurandandam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thiruvazhuk Koorirupai&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7488" LastEditorUserId="7488" LastEditDate="2016-08-28T11:01:16.070" LastActivityDate="2016-08-28T11:01:16.070" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14636" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14407" CreationDate="2016-08-26T15:13:11.853" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;srimad bhagavatam saptahika especially(10th and 11th books) is the means by which to integrate bhakti ,jnana and vairagya in kaliyuga infact this is what gives the three power and enthusiasm in this yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7504" LastActivityDate="2016-08-26T15:13:11.853" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14638" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14641" CreationDate="2016-08-26T16:31:41.853" Score="3" ViewCount="1374" Body="&lt;p&gt;Subsequent to their miraculous escape from the house of lac in Varnavat, the Pandavas along with their  mother Kunti ,roamed around/lived in the forests for a long period of time.&#xA;One day, Arjuna had a very fierce encounter with a Gandharva in the forest,whom he defeated using Celestial weapons.The Gandharva gave each of the Pandava brothers a hundred steeds, born in the country of the Gandharvas.The Gandharva also gifted Arjuna the unique science of Chakshushi.&#xA;What is Chakshushi?&#xA;What are the details of the story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-11-12T11:23:00.187" LastActivityDate="2018-11-12T11:23:00.187" Title="Arjuna is gifted Chakshushi by a Gandharva" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|gandharva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14639" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-26T18:25:42.663" Score="0" ViewCount="2750" Body="&lt;p&gt;Varanamayiram composed by Kodai Nachiyar is a classic one. What are the benefits a devotee can obtain by reciting this? Can selected slokas be recited every day?Answers not from wikipedia or divyadesam. Purana reference is must.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2019-08-31T13:01:36.140" Title="Benefits of Varanamayiram" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14638" CreationDate="2016-08-26T19:19:15.170" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since you asked especially about Chakshushi Vidya, I am quoting only those slokas relevant about Chakshushi Vidya from &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800208.us.archive.org/21/items/mahabharata01ramauoft/mahabharata01ramauoft.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chaitraratha Parva of Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चाक्षुषी नाम विद्येयं यां सोमाय ददौ मनुः । ददौ स विश्वावसवे मम&#xA;  विश्वावसुर्ददौ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The vidya called Chakshushi was given by Manu to Soma. Soma gave it&#xA;  Vishvavasu and Vishvavasu gave it to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यच्चक्षुषा द्रष्टुमिच्छेत् त्रिषु लोकेषु किंचन । तत् पश्येद् यादृशं&#xA;  चेच्छेत् तादृषं द्रष्टुमर्हति ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One can see whatever one want in whatever form one wants in all three&#xA;  worlds with this vidya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एकपादेन षण्मासान् स्थितो विद्यां लभेदिमाम् । अनुनेप्याम्यहं विद्यां&#xA;  स्वयं तुभ्यं व्रतेऽकृते ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This vidya is to be obtained by standing on one leg for six months&#xA;  which I am giving to you without such necessity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्जुन उवाच - यदि प्रीतेन मे दत्तं संशये जीवितस्य वा । विद्या धनं&#xA;  श्रुतं वापि न तद् गंधर्व रोचये॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna Said: O Gandharva, If you are giving this Vidya,wealth and&#xA;  sastra even out of affection or fear of life, I will not accept such&#xA;  gift.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गंधर्व उवाच - संयोगो वै प्रीतिकरो महत्सु प्रतिदृश्यते । जीवितस्य&#xA;  प्रदानेन प्रीतो विद्यां ददामि ते ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्वत्तोऽप्यहं ग्रहीक्ष्यामि अस्त्रमाग्नेयमुत्तमम् । तथैव योग्यं&#xA;  बीभत्सो चिराय भरतर्षभ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gandharva said: A meeting with Mahatma is ever a source of&#xA;  gratification; besides you have given me my life. Gratified with you,&#xA;  I will give you my Chakshushi Vidya. That the obligation, however, may&#xA;  not all be on one side, I will take from you, O Beebhatsa, your&#xA;  Agneyastra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्जुन उवाच - त्वत्तोऽस्त्रेण वृणोभ्यश्वान् संयोगः शाश्वतोऽस्तु नौ ।&#xA;  सखे तद् ब्रूहि गन्धर्व युष्मभ्यो यद् भयं भवेत् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna said: Okay, I will give you Agneyastra in exchange for the&#xA;  horses and let our friendship live long.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to know the whole story you can refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01173.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. So Arjuna only accepted the horses but not Chakshushi Vidya offered by Gandharva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="6986" LastEditDate="2016-08-26T22:43:31.417" LastActivityDate="2016-08-26T22:43:31.417" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14646" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14627" CreationDate="2016-08-27T11:01:50.870" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Radha has been perceived differently by different people down the ages. She is sometimes the adulterous and amorous lover of Krishna and at others his divine consort. This perhaps makes her the most confusing character in Indian mythology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the eastern religious tradition, she is however accepted as a beloved of Lord Krishna but the wife of another, sometimes mentioned by name as Aiyyan.&#xA;Anyway, Krishna without Radha is unthinkable, and I consider the view accepted by general tradition as appropriate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;..........&#xA;Part 1&#xA;Krishna went to his mother, Yashoda, and turned on the full force of his charm. &quot;Mother,&quot; he said, &quot;I want you to send a message to Radha's family, asking for her hand in marriage.&quot; Yashoda thought this was another of Krishna's pranks. But when Krishna persisted she replied firmly and clearly.&#xA;She said, &quot; You cannot marry Radha for several reasons. She is engaged to Aiyyan. You are the son of a chief and her family is much lower in status. She is older than you. And she is a brazen girl, totally unfit to be a wife.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna then used his final weapon. He threatened that his mother would not only lose a lovely daughter-in-law if she refused, but also her son. Yashoda then asked him to settle the matter with his father. So Krishna went to Nand and repeated his request. His father said with a wink, &quot;I have noticed that you are spending more and more time with the girls lately. No wonder you want one for yourself. There are many chieftains who would willingly wed their daughters to you.&quot; Krishna interrupted and said that he wanted to marry Radha and not a chieftain's daughter. The arguments were repeated. Finally Nand said he was no match for Krishna in a debate. Their family priest, Sage Garg, was arriving the next day and Nand would refer the matter to him.&#xA;Krishna told Sage Garg that since he and Radha desired each other, they should get married. Garg replied that desire as a reason for mating is the way of animals. The matching of temperaments, family backgrounds and future plans should be considered while selecting a spouse. Krishna stated that even as per these considerations he could not find any fault with his choice. Radha's temperament was perfectly matched to his, their family backgrounds were similar and both of them would be spending the rest of their lives in Vrindavan doing what the men and women of Vrindavan had always been doing.&#xA;Sage Garg then said, &quot;I think it is time to tell you the truth about your birth. You are the eighth son of Prince Vasudev and Devaki. It was prophesied that you would kill your maternal uncle Kansa and deliver the Yadava race from his tyranny. Hence you were secretly brought to Gokul and were brought up as the son of Nand and Yashoda. The great sage Vyasa has foretold that you will be the leader of the Yadava race and the saviour of all humanity. Hence I have brought Sage Sandipani with me, who is to begin your education in the scriptures, procedures of governance and the art of warfare. We all have great expectations of you. Radha is a village girl. She will not be a suitable companion in this endeavour. That is why we are against this marriage.&quot;&#xA;Krishna quietly digested what had been said and then replied softly but firmly. &quot;First of all I would like to aver that Nand and Yashoda are my parents and I will always look upon them as such. Then I would request you to keep the story of my birth a secret from the people of Vrindavan till it is time for me to leave. If they learn the truth then their attitude towards me will change and this I will not be able to bear. You say that I am to deliver all humanity from suffering. I cannot begin this formidable task by thrusting the person who loves me the most into unbearable suffering.&#xA;From the moment Radha saw me tied to the mortar eight years ago, there has not been a single day that she has not waited for me. With every breath that she has drawn she has taken my name. For her spring comes when I come to meet her and winter begins when I leave her. If I had died fighting Kaliya, the poisonous snake, many in Vrindavan would have been heart broken. Mother would have never stopped crying and father would have lost his smile forever. But Radha would have given up her life there and then. Radha lives for me and in me and I live for her and in her. If you prevent this marriage, you will be depriving me of the right and power to carry out the great tasks you want me to. I beseech you with folded hands to grant your consent.&quot;&#xA;Sage Garg was overcome by the rationality and intensity of this speech. He gave his consent. Radha's joy knew no bound. And in the celebrations that followed Aiyyan was forgotten.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Part 2&#xA;The news that Krishna was leaving spread like wildfire throughout Vrindavan. The youth sensed that they were losing a staunch friend; the maidens sensed that they were losing a man of their dreams and Radha....&#xA;Before Radha could even begin to ponder upon the consequences, the melodious sound of a flute wafted throughout the village. The women left what they were doing and ran to the Madhuban. There was no time to wear their ornaments or comb their hair. While running they tried to arrange their clothes to give an appearance of modesty but soon gave up. Radha picked up her anklets and raced ahead of everyone else, her bosom heaving with excitement. Her Kahn was calling her. Krishna was standing in his usual spot, his right leg crossed over his left, and playing his flute with gay abandon. Radha cuddled up to him and began to sway in the rhythm of his music. The other maidens formed circles around them and began to dance. The men folk, the elders and children too had come there, but were watching from a distance, so as not to embarrass the dancers.&#xA;Every maiden wanted Krishna to dance only with her, every maiden imagined that Krishna was dancing only with her and the spectators could see a multitude of Krishnas, each dancing separately with one of the lasses. Such is the power of love; such is the power of faith. This was the Maharasa or the &quot;great dance&quot;. When the dancing stopped Krishna and Radha were missing.&#xA;Radha and Krishna were heading for their favourite nook in the Madhuban, near the Yamuna river. Radha was in Krishna's arms, her tousled head resting on his shoulder.&#xA;&quot;Will you always be like this, Kahn?&quot; asked Radha.&#xA;&quot;Always,&quot; he replied, &quot;Till the sun and the moon endure.&quot;&#xA;But Radha was not satisfied by this assurance. &quot;Will you always remember me?&quot; she asked.&#xA;&quot;How can I forget you,&quot; replied Krishna, &quot;You are my Goddess of beauty and joy.&quot;&#xA;They reached their destination and huddled close together on the mossy grass. They kissed tentatively at first, but the pent-up passions soon engulfed them and they united in body and soul. After a while Radha got up and began to tie her disheveled tresses into a knot. &quot;Will we always be together after we are married,&quot; she inquired uncertainly. Krishna replied that they were inseparable and that they had just got married according to the Gandharva tradition. According to the this tradition, sexual intercourse among consenting couples was tantamount to the marriage rituals provided the male was of royal descent.&#xA;&quot;You will always be my prince,&quot; said Radha, &quot;but you are not of royal blood. And I do not regret our love making so you do not have to justify it.&quot; Then Krishna narrated the story of his birth, of his being the redeemer and his leaving for Mathura before dawn. Radha let the whole narration sink in and appeared to be forming some decisions of her own. &quot;Is there anything that can make you stay?&quot; she asked.&#xA;&quot;Nothing can hold me from my destiny and my duty.&quot; Replied Krishna firmly. &quot;Why do you worry? Are you afraid that I will die at Kansa's hands? It will be over soon and then I will call you to Mathura&quot;&#xA;&quot;No, I am sure that you will kill Kansa. And then you will become the king of the Yadavas. A lot of people will look up to you, will bow down before you, and will depend on you. You will become the saviour of humanity,&quot; said Radha.&#xA;&quot;And you will be my queen, by my side always,&quot; added Krishna.&#xA;&quot;No,&quot; replied Radha surely. &quot;I am a poor cowherd girl. I will be lost in the palace intrigues. There will be many princesses wooing you and wanting you at any cost. I will be awkward and gawky compared to them. This village girl will be a handicap to you in your new avatar. For you will undeniably change. Your life will be filled with politics and manipulations. You will fight wars and participate in destruction. That will be a part of your destiny and I don't pass judgment. But the Kahn I loved was a cowherd boy, whose calling in life was to graze cattle, who played the flute and danced in the woods and whose crown was a peacock feather and weapon was a bamboo staff. I will not be able to see you in any other form.&quot; Radha was now sobbing convulsively and Krishna has to take her in his arms to calm her down.&#xA;After regaining her composure Radha continued. &quot;Please listen to me Kahn! Let me stay here and take care of your parents. Here in Vrindavan I will see you in the waters of the Yamuna, the slopes of Govardhan and the trees of Madhuban and hence I will always be with the Kahn I knew.&quot;&#xA;They sat silently for a while reflecting on the past, savouring the last moments of togetherness and coming to terms with the future. Krishna broke the silence. &quot;You are right Radha. In Mathura I will have to change and if you come with me then you will have to change as well. I will not be the Krishna you knew and you will not be the Radha I knew. We will not be able to replicate the magic we weaved here. And without either of us here, Vrindavan too will wither away. But if you stay back, then Vrindavan will become an enduring shrine to our love and you will be its deity.&quot; Krishna then told Radha that preparations had been made for them to get married in the Vedic manner and since the auspicious moment was drawing near they should return. Radha requested that Krishna leave his flute behind as a gift to her and Krishna readily agreed.&#xA;It was time for the final parting. The villagers had turned out to personally meet Krishna. Radha stood beside her mother in law, dressed in bridal finery, her face covered modestly by her sari. From time to time she looked up at Krishna, each glance a pledge of eternal devotion. Krishna's eyes met Radha's each time and he smiled at her reassuringly. Any other communication in front of the elders would be out of place. So no words were said and no hands touched. Krishna touched his mother's feet and mounted the bullock cart with Nand, Balaram and Akrura. Radha looked without blinking at the cart till it disappeared round the corner and then fainted. Krishna never set foot in Vrindavan again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Part 3&#xA;Krishna never set foot in Vrindavan again. But legend has it that he did come face to face with Radha once, later … much later. After he had killed Kansa and become the leader of the Yadavas. After he had shifted his capital from Mathura to Dwarka. After he had married Rukmini and Satyabhama and the others.&#xA;It was at the occasion of a total solar eclipse. A massive congregation had gathered at the field of Kurukshetra to bathe in the holy tank of Syamantapanchaka after the eclipse. (It was said that a dip in this tank after eclipses purified the soul. It was here that the great sage Parshurama had come to atone for killing the evil kings and warriors. He established that all killing is sinful, even when the persons killed are evil and deserve to die, even killing in war. Hence all killings have to be atoned for.) All the major kingdoms were represented. Krishna was leading the Yadavas. Dhritarashtra of Hastinapur was there with his sons the Kauravas and nephews the Pandavas. So were many other kings. Little did they know that soon they would be engaged in a do or die battle on this very field some years later. Many common folk had come as well. Among them was the cowherd community of Vrindavan.&#xA;When Krishna's parents, Vasudev and Devaki learnt of this they wanted to meet Nand and Yashoda. They had never met Krishna's foster parents and wanted to thank them for taking care of their son in his formative years. The meeting was a very emotional one. Balaram met his old cronies and reminisced about old times.&#xA;But when Krishna came face to face with Radha no words were said. No hands stretched to meet each other, no smile played upon lips and no eyes sparkled with delight. Only a million thoughts flashed through each mind and a deluge of tears flowed from each pair of eyes. Radha had promised not to get involved with Krishna's later life and she intended to keep that promise. Krishna did not want to say or do something that would make things difficult for Radha. They stood staring stonily at each other till all the thoughts were exhausted and the eyes were dry. Though Krishna and Radha had been physically separated, they had been inseparable spiritually and would continue to be so till the end of the world. Radha had seen the splendour in which Krishna's wives lived and the joy he lavished on them. But she knew that his tears were for her alone and that each drop was more valuable than all the riches of the world. Krishna knew that Vrindavan would be enshrined forever because of Radha's sacrifice. Both were assured that they had taken the correct decision many years ago. Without saying anything they said everything and went their separate ways. They never saw each other again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mohitinhere.blogspot.in/2005/08/mysterious-radha-and-her-last-meeting.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This link&lt;/a&gt; may not answer your question but it will help you. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7439" LastEditorUserId="7439" LastEditDate="2016-08-29T08:33:53.353" LastActivityDate="2016-08-29T08:33:53.353" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14647" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14652" CreationDate="2016-08-27T13:11:06.047" Score="3" ViewCount="3212" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the story of Kartikeya, the god destroyed the demon Tarakasura.Some stories claim that he even killed the demon's brothers,Surapadman and another demon,whose name I have forgotten.However,other than this story,I have not come across any other tales of Kartikeya vanquishing demons.Has Kartikeya kill any other demons too?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-27T13:25:02.240" LastActivityDate="2016-08-27T16:58:32.493" Title="Has Kartikeya kill any other demons other than Tarakasura?" Tags="|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14649" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14639" CreationDate="2016-08-27T15:16:16.513" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In general, you won't find Puranic references to Andal ormthe Alwars except in the forms of prophecy, since most of the Alwars were born after the Puranas were written.  So if you want to know the benefits of reciting a particular Alwar pasuram, your best bet is to turn to the works of Sri Vaishnava Acharyas, not the Puranas.  Now thankfully the first Sri Vaishnava Acharya Nathamuni, who as I discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3039/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; compiled the Alwars' poems into the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, composed a Phala Shruti for each poem outlining the benefits of reciting it.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://dravidaveda.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=855&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the Phala Shruti for Andal's Vaaranam Aayiram poem:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AyanukkAha tAn kaNDa kanAvinai &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vEyar puhazh villiputtoor kOn kOdai Sol | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tooya tamizh mAlai eeraindum vallavar &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vAyu nan makkaLai peTTru mahizhvarE ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This decad of pure Tamil verses by famous Villiputtur-king’s daughter Goda, describes her dream of marrying the cowherd-Lord. Those who sing it will be blest with good progeny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why this poem is recited so often in weddings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that's not the only benefit of reciting it.  Ultimately the purpose of reciting the Alwars' poems is that they encourage devotion to Vishnu and thereby can lead a person to being united with the lotus feet of Sriman Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me also quote a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/alvars/andal/nt/nt-taniyan2.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Taniyan&lt;/a&gt; or invocatory verse  which the first Sri Vaishnava Acharya of the Vanamamalai Matham (the Sri Vaishnava Matham I belong to) composed about the Nachiyar Thirumozhi, the collection of Andal's poems that Vaaranam Aayiram is a part of:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kOlasuri Sangai mAyan sevvAyin guNam vinavum &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  seelattinaL ten tirumalli nAdi, sezhunguzhal mel &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mAlait toDai ten arangarukkeeyum madippuDaiya &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sOlaikkiLi, avaL tooya naRpAdam tuNai namakke&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This taniyan states emphatically that only the sacred feet of ANDAL, whose sweet words resemble those of a garden parrot, and who brought greatness to the vEyar kulam of periyAzhwAr, are the refuge for us (today, tomorrow and for ever).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, to answer your other question, yes, you can recite any Alwar Pasuram at any time; they don't have caste restrictions or other restrictions unlike the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-08-27T15:16:16.513" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14651" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14647" CreationDate="2016-08-27T15:29:57.093" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It seems like there is an evidence/story in &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/SkandaPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; about Kartikeya killing &lt;strong&gt;many demons&lt;/strong&gt; along with a prominent  demon called &lt;strong&gt;Pralamb&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is how Skanda purana describe the incidence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A demon named Pralamb had escaped unharmed in the battle fought&#xA;  between the deities and demons. As the deities were busy installing&#xA;  Shivalingas at different places, Pralamb started to torment their&#xA;  families in their absence. The deities got this information from Kumud&#xA;  who appeared at the time when the deities were digging up a reservoir&#xA;  near 'Siddheshwar' temple.All the deities requested Kartikeya to do&#xA;  something. Kartikeya released his fiery weapon, Shakti in the&#xA;  direction of Pralamb. Shakti pierced the heart of earth and went right&#xA;  up to Patal loka where Pralamb lived with the surviving demons. All&#xA;  the demons were killed within few moments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, yes, Kartikeya may be more known for killing Tarakasur, he also killed several other demons too, as per Skanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastActivityDate="2016-08-27T15:29:57.093" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14652" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14647" CreationDate="2016-08-27T15:34:59.823" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गांगेयस्ताम्रचूडश्च ब्रह्मचारी शिखिध्वजः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;तारकारिरुमापुत्रः क्रौंचारिश्च षडाननः ॥२॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gaangeyas-Taamra-Cuuddashca Brahmacaarii Shikhi-Dhvajah |&#xA;  Taaraka-Arir-Umaa-Putrah Krauncaa-Rishca Ssaddaananah ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;  2.1: (Salutations to Sri Kartikeya) Who is Loved by Mother Ganga and His FollowerTamrachuda, Who is Celebate and has Peacock as His Emblem,&#xA;  2.2: Who is the Enemy of Tarakasura and Krauncasura, Who is the Son of Devi Uma and has Six Faces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_murugan-kartikeya_pragya_vivardhana_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kartikeya Pragya Vivardhana Stotram &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kartikeya is a Hindu deity also known as Skanda and Murugan and Subhramanya.(कार्तिकेय , स्कन्द , मुरुगन , सुब्रह्मण्य)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We find mentioning of Skanda Or Kartikeya  in Salya Parva  Of &lt;strong&gt;Great Epic Mahabharata.(शल्य पर्व. महाभारत)  book 9 Chapter 46 ,&lt;/strong&gt; and his stories about fighting and killing of many daityas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;These are excerpts -:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thousands of daityas, O king, were burnt with the flames that issued&#xA;  from Skanda's dart, while others breathed their last, terrified by the&#xA;  roars of Skanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The adorable Skanda, inflamed with rage, quickly slew the son&#xA;  of &lt;strong&gt;daitya chief (Bali)&lt;/strong&gt; along with his younger brother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He then, in that battle, slew Mahisha&lt;/strong&gt; who was surrounded by eight padmas of daityas. He &lt;strong&gt;next slew Tripada&lt;/strong&gt; who was surrounded&#xA;  by a 1,000 ajutas of daityas. The puissant Skanda then slew Hradodara,&#xA;  who was surrounded by tennikharvas of daityas,  Then Bali's son Vana&#xA;  of great might, getting upon the &lt;strong&gt;Kraunca&lt;/strong&gt; mountain, battled with&#xA;  the celestial host. Possessed of great intelligence, the great&#xA;  generalissimo Skanda rushed against that foe of the gods. From fear of&#xA;  Kartikeya, he took shelter within the Kraunca mountain. Inflamed with&#xA;  rage, the adorable Kartikeya then pierced that mountain with that dart&#xA;  given him by Agni. The mountain was called Kraunca (crane) because of&#xA;  the sound it always produced resembled the cry of a crane. That&#xA;  mountain was variegated with shala trees. The apes and elephants on it&#xA;  were affrighted. The birds that had their abode on it rose up and&#xA;  wheeled around in the welkin. The snakes began to dart down its sides.&#xA;  It resounded also with the cries of leopards and bears in large&#xA;  numbers that ran hither and thither in fear. Other forests on it rang&#xA;  with the cries of hundreds upon hundreds of animals.Sharabhas and&#xA;  lions suddenly ran out. In consequence of all this that mountain,&#xA;  though it was reduced to a very pitiable plight, still assumed a very&#xA;  beautiful aspect. The vidyadharas dwelling on its summits soared into&#xA;  the air. The kinnaras also became very anxious, distracted by the fear&#xA;  caused by the fall of Skanda's dart. The daityas then, by hundreds and&#xA;  thousands, came out of that blazing mountain, all clad in beautiful&#xA;  ornaments and garlands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09046.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Shalya Parva Book 9 chapter 46&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-08-27T16:58:32.493" LastActivityDate="2016-08-27T16:58:32.493" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14653" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11813" CreationDate="2016-08-27T17:04:42.077" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the book, &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekharendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; says how Itihāsas are different from Purānas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the learned and the unlettered alike in our country the Rāmāyaņa&#xA;  and the Mahābhārata have for centuries been like their two eyes,&#xA;  pointing to them the path of dharma. The two poetic works are not&#xA;  included among the Purāņas and are accorded a special place as&#xA;  &quot;itihāsas&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Itihāsam&quot; = &quot;iti-ha-asam&quot; (it happened thus). The &quot;ha&quot; in the middle&#xA;  means &quot;without doubt&quot;, &quot;truly&quot;. So an &quot;itihāsa&quot; means a true story,&#xA;  also a contemporary account. Vālmīki composed the Rāmāyana during the&#xA;  lifetime of Rāma. Vyāsa, author of the Mahābhārata, lived during the&#xA;  time of the five Pandavas and was witness to the events narrated by&#xA;  him in his epic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Pura&quot; means &quot;in the past&quot;. That which gives an account of what&#xA;  happened in the past is a &quot;Purana&quot;, even though it may contain&#xA;  predictions about the future also. The term can also mean what was&#xA;  composed in the past. The genre called &quot;novel&quot; written in prose came&#xA;  after a long period in literature dominated by poetry and drama. When&#xA;  the novel was introduced into India it came to be called &quot;navīnam&quot;. If&#xA;  &quot;navīnam&quot; means new, purāna means old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Purāņa must have five characteristic features – (lakshanas). The&#xA;  first is &quot;sarga&quot; (creation of the cosmos); the second is &quot;prati-sarga&quot;&#xA;  (how eon after eon it expanded); the third is &quot;vamsa&quot; (the lineage of&#xA;  living creatures beginning with the children of Brahmā); the fourth is&#xA;  Manvantara (dealing with the ages of the 14 Manus, forefathers of&#xA;  mankind during the 1,000 caturyugas), and the fifth is &quot;vamsānucarita&quot;&#xA;  (genealogy of the rulers of the nation including the solar and lunar&#xA;  dynasties). Besides there are descriptions of the earth, the heavens,&#xA;  the different worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Purāņas Vyāsa has dealt with the stories or events of the past&#xA;  which of course is in keeping with their name (that is &quot;Purāņas&quot;). But&#xA;  how? Vyāsa could see into the past as he could into the future. So&#xA;  what he has written of the past must be an eyewitness account.&#xA;  However, his contemporaries would not have known about them. The&#xA;  Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana are different. When these works were&#xA;  first made known to the world most people must have been familiar with&#xA;  the characters and events described in them. There is thus no reason to&#xA;  doubt their authenticity. The &quot;ha&quot; in &quot;itihāsa&quot; confirms this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-08-27T17:04:42.077" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14655" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-28T03:51:44.443" Score="2" ViewCount="1303" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Atma resides in the body and the body is made up of billions of cells. So lets say someone donates blood or simply some of their cells are isolated, do the blood cells and the isolated cells also carry the Atma of that person? Has anything like this been stated in the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not asking where the Atma is located, I am asking if it can be &quot;transferred&quot; from one person to another when we donate blood or something like that because our blood has cells and cells are living things, so do they have an atma that is different from mine or do they carry my Atman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7488" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-04-23T03:25:20.913" LastActivityDate="2019-04-23T03:25:20.913" Title="Atma and cells in the body" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14658" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="334" CreationDate="2016-08-28T15:21:57.553" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You remove your shirt because your shirt has been stitched and one shouldn't wear stitched clothes in a temple. In olden times, the women folks too did not wear stitched clothes and covered their upper body with cotton clothes tied around their upper body (mulla chakku).It has nothing to do with caste. All that came in later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7524" LastActivityDate="2016-08-28T15:21:57.553" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14659" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14693" CreationDate="2016-08-28T15:27:27.473" Score="8" ViewCount="1403" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama was an  Avatar of God Vishnu. Sita, his wife, was also an  avatar of Goddess Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sita personifies the ideal wife in the epic, Valmiki Ramayana. She complemented Sri Rama in every aspect of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The values that  Sita  enshrined and adhered to, at every point  in the course of a demanding life,  as exemplified in  the Valmiki Ramayana,  are also the values of&#xA;womanly virtue held sacred by countless generations.&#xA;The great monk, Swami Vivekananda described the immortality of  Sita’s story as under :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;All our mythology may vanish, even our Vedas may depart, and our Sanskrit language may vanish for ever, but so long as there will be five Hindus living, even if only seeking the most vulgar patois, there will be the story of Sita present.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any written works or commentaries where the great monk, Swami Vivekananda has talked about Goddess Sita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-08-28T16:07:52.987" LastActivityDate="2019-01-27T10:15:25.487" Title="Swami Vivekananda Commentaries on Sita" Tags="|sita|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14660" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14684" CreationDate="2016-08-28T16:57:28.833" Score="5" ViewCount="1158" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indian logicians and philosophers have been involved in philosophical debates from ancient times. They have laid down rules not only the method of conducting and regulating  a debate but also the eligibility of a person to enter it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the various types of philosophical debates accepted by Indian philosophical systems?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the various rules to regulate a philosophical debate as per ancient Indian school of thought?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please quote the rules and references of debate from any genuine scripture or commentaries of acharyas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T18:56:27.570" Title="What are the rules of philosophical debates in ancient India?" Tags="|nyaya|nyaya-sutra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14661" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14662" CreationDate="2016-08-29T06:09:26.903" Score="2" ViewCount="312" Body="&lt;p&gt;108 slokas composed by Thiruvarangat amudhanar is a description about Ramanujacharya. A small temple for him inside sudarsana temple in srirangam prevails. Apart from this any temple for him? I need the meaning of first 10 slokas in a brief manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-10-03T15:43:50.670" LastActivityDate="2016-10-03T15:43:50.670" Title="Upadesa Rathnamalai" Tags="|temple|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14662" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14661" CreationDate="2016-08-29T07:30:02.827" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, Thiruvarangathu Amudhanar's 108-verse poem in praise of Ramanujacharya is called the Ramanuja Nootrandhadhi.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja-nootrandadi.blogspot.com/2013/12/ramanuja-nurranthathi.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; are the first ten verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O Hean! Come let us recite Ramanuja's name.  He set men of learning on the proper track.  He worshipped the feet of the prolific poet Maran who rendered mouthfuls of praise for the lord who bears the lotus dame Lakshmi on his chest, May we always live close to his lotus feet.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I cannot understand this good fortune. My heart does not think of anything other than the extreme benevolence of Ramanuja.  He gave up the company of men who do not contemplate the lotus feet of the nectar-groves-surrounded-Arangam lord, and only sought the feet of the kuraiyalur king. Tirumangai Alvar.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O Benevolent Heart! cutting as under the cords of association with men of devilish birth, you placed me at the feet of the most worshipful beloved ones of our peerless lord and sage Ramanuja. For this grace, I bow to you.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our lord Ramanjua, who exhorted all to worship the first-Lord alone, made a person out of me in this world. He destroyed by the root the darkness my age-old Karmas, and gave me his feet to wear on my head, I have nothing to fear. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If me of pervese hearts who do not consider Ramnauja their asset, heap slander, I take it as praise. Surely those who love his good qualities will not find fault with my poetry, by which I am only recalling his name. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sweet poets with love in their hearts lose themselves praising Raamanjua, blending proper words and meaning, Alas! endowed with a devotion sinful heart, I too am trying to speak of his glory,-it is sheer madness! &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After taking refuge in our Kurattalvar, -his glory is beyond our words, -who takes us out of the piffalls of deceptive knowledge, I sing the praise of Ramanuja who lifts me above sin. I have escaped from non-paths, now I have no regrets. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Paygao! Alvar blended together the substance of the Veda and the sweetness of Tamil Poetry to light a lamp and dispel the darkness of affliction, Ramanuja placed that lamp in his heart. He is our lord and our master.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Butattalvar lit a lamp of knowledge to dispel the darkness of seeker's hearts. Ramanuja placed the Alvar's feet in his heart and rejoiced. The good ones who preserve the Vedas will always sing his praise.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After the pail of darkness was dispelled that night in Tirukkovalur, Peyalvar saw the cowherd lord, the wonder lord with the lotus-dame Lakshmi, Ramanuja worshipped the Alvar's golden feet. Those who pour their lover over Ramanuja are fortune-favoured devotees of excellent merit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thiruvarangathu Amudhanar, by the way, was a disciple of Ramanujacharya's beloved disciple Kurathalwan.  I don't know any shrines for him outside of his namesake of Sri Rangam.  (Thiruvarangam is the Tamil name for Sri Rangam.). In any case, this is a completely different work from the Upadesa Ratnamala, which is a 74-verse poem by the later Sri Vaishnava Acharya Manavala Mamunigal in praise of the Alwars and Sri Vaishnava Acharyas in general.  But since you asked, &lt;a href=&quot;https://sreevaishnavam.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/urm-english.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; are the first ten verses of the Upadesa Ratnamala:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I offer the knowledge gained through the grace of my preceptor Thiruvaimozhippillai to those who follow me in the form of instructions tuned in a poetical construct called venpaa, such that they can learn them and put them to practice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those who are well-trained in the scriptures will acknowledge the greatness of these instructions. Those interested in acquiring true knowledge will gladly receive these instructions and put them to practice. If people, belonging to neither of these groups, were to demean the importance of these instructions, what harm will befall us? Isn’t it in the nature of such people to ridicule?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;May the divine azhwars live long!&#xA;  May their works, the divya prabandhams, live long!&#xA;  May the spotless poorvacharyas live long!&#xA;  May their accurate commentaries, which were generously codified so that people of the seven worlds can benefit from them; live long along with the sanskrit vedas!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this pasuram, Manavala Mamunigal explains the order of incarnation of the Azhwars on this earth. The first three azhwars to incarnate in this world were poigai AzhwAr, bhoodhathAzhwAr and pEyAzhwar. Then came the reputed Thirumazhisai AzhwAr, the illustrious grace of NammAzhwAr, Kulasekara AzhwAr, the spotless periyAzhwAr, thondaradippodi AzhwAr, the epitome of humility – thiruppAn AzhwAr and Thirumangai Azhwar.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In order that they get to know, I will be informing the people of this world about the birth months and stars of the AzhwArs – who incarnated on this earth to dispel the darkness of ignorance by offering the essence of the vedas in beautiful tamil language.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O’ the people of the world! The vibrant Poigai, Boodath and pEyAzhwArs, by virtue of their incarnations in the world, have brought incomparable and unparalled glory to their birth month and stars – Aippasi ONam, Avittam and Sadhayam.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;By incarnating on this earth before the remaining seven AzhwArs and by offering (to the people of the world) the means of salvation through the divya prabandhams of mudhal thiruvandhAdhi, irandAm thiruvandhAdhi and moondrAm thiruvandhAdhi, the first three AzhwArs earned the name “mudhalAzhwArs” – a reference that has come to stay since then.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oh foolish mind! Don’t you know the glory associated with this day? If you ask me what makes this day special, I will tell you. The illustrious Thirumangai Azhwar incarnated in this world in the Karthigai month under Karthigal star.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O’ my heart! Sing the glory of the lotus feet of those who celebrate this auspicious day associated with the birth of thirumangai AzhwAr (kArthigai month, kArthikai star) – the one who incarnated in this world to supplement the dravida vedAs of nammAzhwAr with his six auxiliary works – periya thirumozhi, thirukurunthAndakam, thirunedunthAndakam, thiruvEzhukooRRirukkai, siRiya thirumadal and periya thirumadal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O’ the people of the world! Today, in the month of Karthigai and under the star Rohini, the illustrious thiruppAn AzhwAr incarnated in this world. Today is the day on which the believers, who are well versed in the prabandham of amalanAdhipirAn, celebrate the occasion associated with thiruppAnAzhwArs birth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Manavala Mamunigal also composed a poem specifically about Ramanujacharya - the Arthi Prabandham, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://varavaramuni.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/arthi-prabandham-final.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  This is the poem that Manavala Mamunigal recited requesting Artha Prapatti, an extreme form of Sharanagati where someone who is really desperate to attain Vishnu's abode of Paramapadam requests immediate death.  Vishnu only grants this request in very rare cases for extraordinary devotees, but Manavala Mamunigal was successful.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manavala Mamunigal, by the way, is associated with the Thenkalai sub-sect of the Sri Vaishnava sect, which I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2835/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-08-29T07:30:02.827" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14664" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-29T09:05:59.497" Score="1" ViewCount="69" Body="&lt;p&gt;On ekadasi day Vaishnavites and saivites observe fasting. That too if it is vaikunta ekadasi vaishnanivites will be very strictly adhering. Is there any puranic evidence on fasting? Comparison of spiritual and scientific rationale needed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7154" LastEditDate="2016-09-01T09:52:59.253" LastActivityDate="2016-09-01T09:52:59.253" Title="Spiritual and Scientific rationale behind fasting" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="12" ClosedDate="2016-08-30T05:32:51.613" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14665" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-29T09:39:28.053" Score="1" ViewCount="140" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aalavandar (also known as Yamunacharya) is a great scholar and has written on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranganatha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Ranganatha&lt;/a&gt;. What are the significant contributions made by him during his period? Any specific shlokas he wrote on Lord?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-06T06:33:01.193" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T06:33:01.193" Title="Aalavandar's Contribution" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14666" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-29T10:41:44.907" Score="0" ViewCount="90" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gayatri Mantra is to be chanted by a brahmachari or grihastha who adorn yagnopaveedam. Women neither should hear the mantra nor recite. If they do so what re the consequences? Nowadays ringtone has gayatri mantra which is so ridiculous. Any quotes from puranas substantiating about gayatri mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-09-06T10:54:35.967" LastActivityDate="2016-09-06T10:54:35.967" Title="Non recital of Gayatri Mantra by Women and ringtones" Tags="|puranas|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2016-08-30T05:59:18.840" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14667" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8913" CreationDate="2016-08-29T11:56:31.600" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adi Sankaracharya in his &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/doc/207110303/Gita-Press-Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita-With-Shankara-Bhasya-Sanskrit-Hindi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita Bhashyam&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;रामः शस्त्रभृताम् अहं शस्त्राणां धारयितृृणां &lt;strong&gt;दाशरथी रामः&lt;/strong&gt; अहम् ।&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;rāmaḥ śastrabhṛtām ahaṃ śastrāṇāṃ dhārayitṛṛṇāṃ &lt;strong&gt;dāśarathī rāmaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; aham ।&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I am Rama among the armed men. I am &lt;strong&gt;Dasaratha Rama (viz the son of the King Dasaratha)&lt;/strong&gt; among the bearers of weapons.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Dayananda Saraswati &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Bhagavad-Gita-Course-Volumes-English/dp/9380049390&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains the Sankara's commentary&lt;/a&gt; to this sloka as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among those who wield weapons, I am Rama who is an avatara of Visnu&#xA;himself. The avatara in this human body of Rama had great prowess. Even with one&#xA;arrow he could dry up the ocean and perform incredible feats because his arrows had extraordinary powers. Since there are other powerful avataras also named Rama, like Parasurama and Balarama, Sankara says, &lt;em&gt;Dāśarathī Rāma&lt;/em&gt;, who was the son of Dasaratha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is Lord Rama, son of Dasaratha who is referred here to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="20968" LastEditDate="2022-12-19T06:49:56.970" LastActivityDate="2022-12-19T06:49:56.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14668" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-29T12:07:59.250" Score="3" ViewCount="166" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the main contributions of Aiyadigal Kadavarkon Nayanar to Shaivism and under which number he falls out of 63? What are the main hymns he composed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T14:21:23.130" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T15:47:03.257" Title="Questions regarding Aiyadigal Kadavarkon Nayanar" Tags="|shiva|nayanar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14669" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-29T14:00:24.353" Score="4" ViewCount="246" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sītā with the help of Hanumān killed a Rākṣasa called Śatānana (hundred headed). What is the story of it and which scripture includes it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-05-04T19:02:56.250" LastActivityDate="2023-05-04T19:02:56.250" Title="What is the story of Sītā (wife of Rāma) killing Śatānana Rākṣasa?" Tags="|rama|hanuman|reference-request|sita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14670" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-29T14:12:40.243" Score="6" ViewCount="2249" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every jiva has a Purva Janma (previous birth). How about Lava and Kusha's previous birth? Any source which talks about this? Is there any particular reason for their birth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1188" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-08-29T20:18:18.717" LastActivityDate="2022-01-22T07:03:45.360" Title="Previous births of Lava and Kush" Tags="|ramayana|rama|rebirth|sita|valmiki|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14671" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10463" CreationDate="2016-08-29T17:36:13.797" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Paramarthananda in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://arshaavinash.in/index.php/download/bhagavad-gita-swami-paramarthananda/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;lectures on Bhagawad Gita based on Sankaracharya Bhashya&lt;/a&gt; explains Marichi as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a set of dēvathās are called marut ganaḥ; 49 in number; sapta sapta;&#xA;seven groups of maruts; in each group seven members are there; and&#xA;they are supposed to preside over the vāyu tatvam. So there are&#xA;different types of vāyu dēvathās; presiding over the wind. So among&#xA;these 49 marut dēvathās; I am Marichihi; Marichi is the dēvathā; who&#xA;presides over that beautiful breeze which will make us feel very&#xA;pleasant; Marichi means that tender beautiful breeze; not the cyclonic&#xA;storm; that cool breeze which you get in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtallam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Courtalam&lt;/a&gt; and all that&#xA;places; that cool, gentle pleasant air-conditioning breeze is presided&#xA;over by marichi dēvathā; Therefore Krishna says I am the Marichihi;&#xA;among the marut ganāḥ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;sapta sapta&amp;quot; can also be validated from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adityahridayam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aditya Hridayam&lt;/a&gt; as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;haridaśvaḥ sahasrārciḥ &lt;strong&gt;saptasaptirmarīcimān&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;timironmathanaḥ śambhustvaṣṭā mārtāṇḍa aṃśumān&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is &lt;strong&gt;not Sage Marichi&lt;/strong&gt; that is referred here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-29T17:36:13.797" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14673" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-30T05:23:43.107" Score="1" ViewCount="191" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can Sudarsana homa be performed by women? What is the time to perform to perform Sudarsana homam? As we are performing homams I do know that it should start by 5 am and end by 9 am if there are 4 Brahmins. Nowadays due to shortage of homam performing and assisting Brahmins we start by 6 am  and end by 11/30 [poornahuti by 11/30]. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T05:23:43.107" Title="Sudarsana Homam" Tags="|homam|sudarsana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14674" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12046" CreationDate="2016-08-30T07:11:29.013" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all are pleasure seeking entities. We want happiness. Without following rules(Niyama) and Regulations(Nitya Karma) there cannot be any real happiness in life. This is confirmed in Bhagvad-Geeta(3.10). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth&#xA;  generations of men and demigods, along with sacriﬁces for Viṣṇu, and&#xA;  blessed them by saying, “Be thou happy by this yajña [sacriﬁce]&#xA;  because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for&#xA;  living happily and achieving liberation.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These rules and regulations are already described in different sections of Vedas. The importance of following dharma is stressed again in following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from&#xA;  rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajña [sacriﬁce], and&#xA;  yajña is born of prescribed duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear Arjuna, one who does not follow in human life the cycle of&#xA;  sacriﬁce thus established by the Vedas certainly leads a life full of&#xA;  sin. Living only for the satisfaction of the senses, such a person&#xA;  lives in vain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This second verse quoted above mentions the fate of those who don't follow these rules and regulations.&#xA;In general people are reluctant to follow these rules and regulations simply because they find them to be hindrance to their freedom. But Acharyas such as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._C._Bhaktivedanta_Swami_Prabhupada&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Srila Prabhupada&lt;/a&gt; calls these rules as &quot;&lt;strong&gt;rules and regulations of freedom&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To experience the higher degree of freedom we have to voluntarily give up some freedom; i.e. follow these codes of conduct mentioned in scriptures even though we might have aversions for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An Example may be taken of driving on road. Eventhough we are free to drive a car on road;we have to follow the rules of traffic; otherwise the freedom to drive(in case of accident or some legal action) will be totally taken away from a person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So those people who do not follow the cycle of sacrifice is put into helish condition of life; such as life of an animal,insect,tree etc. wherein the freedom is totally taken away and the living entity becomes a puppet in the hands of material nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hence in 2nd chapter of Geeta(2.40) while speaking about working without fruitive desire Krishna Says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little&#xA;  advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type&#xA;  of fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here &quot;most dangerous type of fear&quot; refers to a fear of being cast into hellish form of existence as I've mentined above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;regarding your 2nd Question:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Also practically how many of them can be followed individually for a samsari?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas in them self are huge and describe number of rules and regulations to be followed by person desiring to achieve a particular goal(including Liberation from material world). In addition there are books such as Manu-smriti which outline the codes of conduct for human society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It will totally vary from person to person as to how many of these rules he can follow.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2859" LastEditDate="2016-08-30T07:24:32.300" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T07:24:32.300" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14675" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14678" CreationDate="2016-08-30T08:16:56.223" Score="5" ViewCount="1186" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna was supporting the pandavas. Then why Lord Krishna not help Abhimanyu in Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T18:44:52.960" Title="Why did Lord Krishna not help Abhimanyu in Mahabharata?" Tags="|krishna|abhimanyu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-08-30T16:36:52.503" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14676" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14556" CreationDate="2016-08-30T08:18:45.677" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Srimad-Bhagavata and the Vishnu Purana are mentioned the nine forms of Bhakti, which are given as under :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) Sravana -hearing of God's Lilas and stories. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) Kirtana- singing of God’s glories. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(3) Smarana -remembrance of God’s name and presence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(4) Padasevana- service of God’s feet. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(5) Archana- worship of God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(6) Vandana- prostration to Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(7) Dasya -cultivating the Bhava of a servant with God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(8) Sakhya -cultivation of the friend-Bhava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(9) Atmanivedana-complete surrender of the self to God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dasya Bhakti is the love of God through servant-sentiments. To serve God and carry out his wishes, realizing his virtues, nature, mystery and glory, considering oneself as a servant of God, the Supreme Master, is Dasya Bhakti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hanuman’s&lt;/strong&gt; devotion to his master Lord Sri Rama{God Vishnu} , in the Ramayana , is the &lt;strong&gt;perfect&lt;/strong&gt; state of &lt;strong&gt;Dasya Bhakti&lt;/strong&gt;. Out of the nine forms of Bhakti, mentioned above, &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman&lt;/strong&gt; had achieved the level of &lt;strong&gt;perfection&lt;/strong&gt; in the &lt;strong&gt;Dasya Bhakti&lt;/strong&gt; form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A true devotee is the one who asks for &lt;strong&gt;nothing&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;serves&lt;/strong&gt; God out of intense &lt;strong&gt;love for God&lt;/strong&gt;, and that was &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As given in Srimad Bhagavatham 7.5.23/24 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Viṣṇu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord, &lt;strong&gt;becoming His servant&lt;/strong&gt;, considering the Lord one’s best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words) - these nine processes are accepted as &lt;strong&gt;pure devotional service&lt;/strong&gt;. One who has dedicated his life to the service of Kṛṣṇa through these nine methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has acquired complete knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;QNS-Which specific attributes of a great devotee are highlighted in this exemplary devotional state of Hanuman, mentioned above?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The answer&lt;/strong&gt; to this question, can be found in Hanuman's own words, which is described in a book named &lt;strong&gt;Hanumat Vibhuti&lt;/strong&gt;. &#xA;When Sri Rama asks Hanuman to describe their relationship, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman responds: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;deha bhudhaya dasoham, jiva bhudhaya tvamansha; atma bhudhaya tvamevaham, iti me nisicat mati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the standpoint of the physical body, I am Your servant. From the standpoint of Jeeva (soul), I am part of You. From the standpoint of Atman, You and I are one and the same. This is my confirmed opinion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, a &lt;strong&gt;true devotee&lt;/strong&gt; who strives harder, in the path of &lt;strong&gt;devotion&lt;/strong&gt; to God,attains a &lt;strong&gt;similar state&lt;/strong&gt;, as described in the foregoing paragraph.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A sanskrit sloka about Hanuman's bhakti,given at comments @ Parth Trivedi, is as under.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;माता रामो मत्पिता रामचन्द्रः । स्वामी रामो मत्सखा रामचन्द्रः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वस्वं मे रामचन्द्रो दयालु । नान्यं जाने नैव जाने न जाने ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: 1: Rama is my Mother and Rama (Ramachandra) is my Father, 2: Rama is my Lord and Rama (Ramachandra) is my Friend, 3: Rama is my All in All, O the Compassionate Rama (Ramachandra) is my All in All, 4: I do not know any other; I do not know any other; Indeed I do not know any other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many authentic texts on Bhakti Yoga. Link for text on Bhakti Yoga, is attached herewith. For an advanced text on Bhakti Yoga, Chapter 12: Bhakti Yoga or the Yoga of Devotion-of the Bhagavad Gita may be referred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्र: करुण एव च |&#xA;  निर्ममो निरहङ्कार: समदु:खसुख: क्षमी || 13||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सन्तुष्ट: सततं योगी यतात्मा दृढनिश्चय: |&#xA;  मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्यो मद्भक्त: स मे प्रिय: || 14||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 12.13–12.14:&#xA;  Those devotees are very dear to me who are free from malice toward all living beings, who are friendly, and compassionate. They are free from attachment to possessions and egotism, equipoised in happiness and distress, and ever-forgiving. They are ever-contented, steadily united with me in devotion, self-controlled, firm in conviction, and dedicated to me in mind and intellect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference links :- (1)&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/master_index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/master_index.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{2}&lt;a href=&quot;http://chinmayapublications.com/catalog.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://chinmayapublications.com/catalog.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(3) &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P9_6pWqW10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P9_6pWqW10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-19T14:40:47.553" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T14:40:47.553" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14677" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-30T09:37:34.280" Score="0" ViewCount="120" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Narasimha after killing Hiranya drank blood. He could not control. As usual all went to Siva and requested him to control Narasimha. Siva and Narasimha had gruelling fight and at last Narasimha fell on the ground with folded hands in front of siva. Any puranic reference for this. Shiva puranam  says about Shiva's bravery.Vishu puranam speaks about Vishnu's bravery. As Narsimha cannot be overthrown by anybody bcoz  he is the supreme God.  Narasimha  [Vishnu] is the creator,  preserver and destroyer. After Vishnu it is Brahma  and then only Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7154" LastEditDate="2016-08-30T09:54:56.277" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T09:54:56.277" Title="Lord Sarabeswara" Tags="|shiva|narasimha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="21" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-08-31T17:13:19.900" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14678" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14675" CreationDate="2016-08-30T09:39:43.427" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna was an avatar of God Vishnu.The establishment of Dharma{Right Order},was the main task of Lord Krishna,in the Mahabharata war.Being an avatar of God,he was fair to everyone and  partial to none,during the war.Lord Krishna was there to save &quot;Dharma&quot; and not any warrior. in particular.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was the agent or means of establishing Dharma,{ by way of appointing a just future king in Hastinapur} and so Lord Krishna became his charioteer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abhimanyu had to break  into the Chakravyuh,as ordered by Yudhishtra,as the only other Pandava who knew how to do it viz Arjuna{his father}, was far away fighting another battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other Pandavas could have attacked and countered the outer rings of the Chakravyuh, and helped Abhimanyu, but, they were prevented from doing that by Jayadratha {whom Arjuna killed in the subsequent battle}, using a boon given to him by God Shiva .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your question has more to do with, why did Abhimanyu have to die so young, then you can read a detailed answer at this link:- &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8684/abhimanyus-death-was-he-destined-to-die-at-a-young-age&quot;&gt;Abhimanyu&amp;#39;s death: Was he destined to die at a young age?&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;For the full story, about how Abhimanyu was killed,you may refer to this link:-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07032.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07032.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T18:44:52.960" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14679" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6664" CreationDate="2016-08-30T09:58:40.710" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't have prev to comment yet, this is in addition to Digityogi (love the name btw)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My name is Rajarshi and I have been curious about my name from a long time. I think I finally found the answer in Manu Sangeeta, though I am yet to complete it. Rajarshi is in a sense of the word a king maker. As you remember in the times of Veda, a King was not a tyrant but a benevolent father to his subject and his duty was the welfare of society. It was an extremely important role. To help a child into that role was the Rajarshi. A guru who had a very wide and in dept knowledge of all aspects of society, human psychology, foresight, etc. A Guru who could inculcate these values in a child and bring him up to be a just King.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm doing a horrible job explaining, please read Manu Sangeeta, it is so much better said in the book. Just remember it is a translation of n number of translations. Think what would a person pure of hearth would have said or thought and you will see what has been lost in translation and finds many answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A good example of a Rajarshi is Channakya, Guru to Chandragupt Mauyra. Aristotle, Guru to Alexandre The Great. Channakya is a better example as in Mauyra dynasty peak, society reached the Utopia that modern philosophers talk off. There were veterinary hospitals, free health care. Crime was almost non-existant. Housing for everyone. We know these from Chinese, Egyptian, Greek traveler's travelogues that still exist. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Man has reached and reached and destroyed Utopia Society many times. It will. The better I understand the Hindu philosophy the better I understand why. But the path to the universal truth are many, if we strive, we will get there. Each by a different path, hence it is pointless to talk about my path. When the student is ready, the universe sends a teacher. It has been so for me. It's just the teacher is not always a person. It can be anything. Nothing happens without a purpose. The Universe is perfect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7536" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T09:58:40.710" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14680" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-30T10:06:26.687" Score="2" ViewCount="74" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple there is a 1000 pillared mantap. It is said that a Chola king built this overnight as per the order of the God. In total how many pillars are there and any scripture reference supporting that it has been built overnight? Please cascade.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-29T03:28:17.097" LastActivityDate="2018-11-29T03:28:17.097" Title="Thousand Pillars Mantap in Ranganatha temple, Sri Rangam" Tags="|history|temple|ranganatha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14681" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14209" CreationDate="2016-08-30T10:37:12.127" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Currently we have number of commentaries on Bhagavad-Geeta available. Some of them even written by atheists may be. We might then wonder which commentary to read; as it may not be possible for everyone of us to understand the sublime message directly without commentary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Geeta this question is addressed by Krishna. krishna in 4th chapter says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic&#xA;  succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in&#xA;  course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as&#xA;  it is appears to be lost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Disciplic Succession&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; is a very important word here. The Acharya(Spiritual master) passes down the message of God without unnecessarily incorporating his own whims. So if we can trace the disciplic succession of the commentator back to Krishna then the commentary may be taken as authentic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically different Acharyas have written commentary from the viewpoint of their philosophy. Ex &lt;strong&gt;Adi Shankara&lt;/strong&gt;'s Commentary explains the message of Godhead from standpoint of &lt;strong&gt;Advaita(Non-duality)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly(Following are Vaishnava philosophies):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanujacharya:Vishishta-Advaita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nibarka-Acharya:Dvaitadvaita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vallabhacharya:Shuddha advaita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Madhvacharya:Dvaita(duality)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;ISKCON Commentary by Srila Prabhupada&lt;/a&gt; : Achintya-Beda-abheda(Inconcievable simultaneous oneness and duality).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above mentioned are the commentaries by Acharyas that are connected to Krishna through disciplic succession. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More about Vaishnava Sampradaya(disciplic successions) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampradaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T10:37:12.127" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14682" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-30T11:53:01.720" Score="3" ViewCount="174" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it called just &lt;em&gt;mālā&lt;/em&gt;, or does it have a special name? I'm not concerned about the material, rather about the fact that it's shorter and worn on a wrist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Rudraksha_beads.jpg/427px-Rudraksha_beads.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Rudraksha beads&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4LUaS.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4LUaS.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Wrist mala&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7539" LastEditorUserId="7539" LastEditDate="2016-08-31T09:03:12.897" LastActivityDate="2021-02-04T13:55:41.173" Title="Is there a name for a wrist mālā?" Tags="|shiva|rudraksha|japamala|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14683" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11250" CreationDate="2016-08-30T13:04:49.157" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know nowhere is mentioned something like VedVyasa modified/reformatted  the conversation in Anushtup meter. It is believed that Srimad Bhagavad Gita which we currently have is the original/exact as said by Krishna and that's why it is called &quot;The song of Lord&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya has written following in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_giitaa/gitaabhaashhya.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;bhashya&lt;/a&gt; on Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तं धर्मं भगवता यथोपदिष्टं वेदव्यासः सर्वज्ञः भगवान् गीताख्यै: सप्तभिः श्लोकशतैः उपनिबबन्ध ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindi Interpretation from Gitapress book:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उक्त दोनों प्रकारके धर्मोको भगवान् ने जैसे जैसे कहाथा ठिक वैसे ही सर्वज्ञ भगवान् वेदव्यासजीने गीता नामक सात सौ श्लोकोके रूपमे ग्रथित किया ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which means&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As God preached about the two 'Dharmas', knowledgeable &lt;strong&gt;Vedvyas exactly acquired it&lt;/strong&gt; in the form of 700 chants called 'Geeta'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1] English translation credit : &lt;a href=&quot;https://ell.stackexchange.com/users/3187/maulik-v&quot;&gt;Maulik V.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;UPDATE:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the section: &quot;Greatness of Gita&quot; of &lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapress.org/english/search_result.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gujarati version&lt;/a&gt; (Book code:1034) of Srimad Bhagavd Gita by &lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapress.org&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gitapress&lt;/a&gt; Gorakhpur (&lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapress.org/e-books.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ebook&lt;/a&gt; is not available):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YyeNhm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YyeNhm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;screen-shot&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English translation&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/34028273#34028273&quot;&gt;[2]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gita came directly from the divine mouth of Lord Krishna and then it was compiled by Veda Vyasa. Mostly in all part of Gita, Lord Krishna gave his teachings in poetical form which was kept by Veda Vyasa as it is. For few parts (told by Krishna) which were not in poetical form, Vyasa himself converted it into poetical form. Vyasa also converted the words of Arjuna, Sanjaya and Dhritarastra in poetical form.&#xA;  And he divided these 700 verses into 18 chapters and kept it inside Mahabharata which we see today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[2] Translation credit: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/5154/tezz&quot;&gt;Tezz&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:55:21.060" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T08:39:01.467" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14684" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14660" CreationDate="2016-08-30T17:30:08.907" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indian logicians laid down rules to regulate the method of &#xA;Conducting a debate and also the eligibility of a person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These rules follow closely the Nyaya system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person who doesn't accept the pramanas, prameyas and the distinction between one's own stand and that of the opponent is not eligible for debate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;na vAde sunya vAdinaha adhikAro anupAyatvAt&quot; (Vedartha sangraha of Sri Ramanujacharya. This mainly directed against Madhyamika Buddhists)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is futile to hold discussion on phisophic issues  with such a person because, in the absence of norms laid down and accepted for meaningful discussion, no truth can be delivery established.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a person is not eligible for a debate how can anyone enter into meaningful discussion with him? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whether one is eligible or not for a debate is decided by an impartial person who presides over the debate (Madhyastha)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the presiding person who presides over the debate is siding without being impartial, discussion should be terminated. In fact, one shouldn't enter into debate with an ineligible person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The point to be noted is that if a discussion is held with the other party , who is ineligible for the debate, then it amounts to the ineligible opponent being accepted for debate and as such the disputant gains eligibility for debate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That such a disputant ineligible for debate is to be communicated to him only through a disciple &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Swami Vedanta Desika in Satadhusani  khathanadhikara vada)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When two persons or parties having a difference of opinion on a phisophical topic agree to hold a discussion, it is called 'katha' or philosophical discussion.&#xA;( Swamy Vedanta Desika in Satadhusani Chapter 4  - &quot; paraspara viruddha vAdinor vyavahAraha katha&quot;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This 'katha' is of three types :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vada : It is a philosophical discussion whose sole objective is to ascertain the truth by adopting the mutually accepted canons of logic and pramanas. It is not for the selfish purpose of one's own victory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kalpa : This is a discussion directed towards establishment of one's own position by refuting the view of the opponent with purpose of achieving one's own victory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;VitandA : This argument is adopted solely to refute the opponent without establishing one's own position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;VitandA is again divided into two&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(a) vitarAga vitandA - This discussion is carried without passion for the purpose of right cause.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(b) vijigisu vitandA - This discussion is carried out to merely refute the views of the opponent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even those who resort to vitandA type of arguments are required to accept certain principles though the disputants are not concerned with the establishment of their own theories. Otherwise they become ineligible for discussion.&#xA; ( Swami Vedanta Desika in Tattva Mukta Kalapa Chapter 4 -63)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gautama , the exponent of Nyaya system , has outlined 21 kinds of fallacies called &quot; nigraha sthanas or points of opponents defeat&quot;. ( Nyaya Parishuddhi of Swami Vedanta Desika)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are aimed at exposing the lack of proper understanding of the topic under discussion. Of these, the most serious defect is not having the capacity to understand the fallacy, and, even if one had such a capacity, not being able to raise any criticism ( asiddhi). The former is known of &quot;jAti&quot; and the later as &quot;chala&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;JAti&quot; is making statement against one's own words (sva-vyAhatA vAk), self - contradictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again this of three types :&#xA;(a) yukta tyAgaha - self contradictory statements implying  rejection of what is essential.&#xA;(b) ayukta grahanam -  Acceptance of what is unimportant.&#xA;(c) Avisaye vrittih - Attempt to prove what is impossible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot; Chala&quot; means as an attempt to impute a different meaning to the words expressed other than the intended one and on that basis to criticise the argument.&#xA;e.g. ' nava kambola yam' actually means the person wearing a new blanket. The word 'nava' also means nine and by attaching that meaning, it is argued that there are no nine blankets but one blanket only. There are various types of 'chalas'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most important principle to be observed is that in conducting the discussion everyone should accept the pranamas. Else, it will neither help to prove one's own position nor refute that of the opponent. Whatever is said should be authoritative. These are pre requisites of a vada or discussion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some other principles are :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two disputants should be careful about the statements they make.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(A) If one makes a mistake by making a erroneous statement, the other party should bring  it quickly it his notice. If, on the contrary the other party is is silent, it will be treated as lapse on his part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(B) If both make mistakes, then they are allowed three chances each to correct themselves. This is called ' satpakshi' or six chances, three for each. Within the three chances whoever corrects himself earlier becomes victorious. If both don't correct themselves within the three chances , the presiding person will have to suspend the discussion.&#xA;( Swami  Vedanta Desika in Tattva Mukta Kalapa Chapter 4-66)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(The contents are from book called &quot; Fundamentals of Visistadvaita - Based on Tattva Mukta Kalapa of Swami Vedanta Desika&quot; by author S.M.Srinivasachari)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2016-08-30T18:56:27.570" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T18:56:27.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14685" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2092" CreationDate="2016-08-30T17:42:20.437" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;AUM, the Supreme name of God. A full explanation of this has been given in a related article.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BHUR BHUVAH SWAH. These three words collectively are known as the &quot;Mahavyahriti&quot;. They express the nature of God, and demonstrate his inherent qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TAT. Literally, this word means &quot;that&quot;, being used in Sanskrit to denote the third person. It is also mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita by Sri Krishna Himself, where He implies the selfless nature of the word. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SA-VI-TUR. Savita, from which Savitur is derived, is another name of God, this being the reason that the Gayatri Mantra is often known as the Savitri Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;VA-RE-NY-AM. Varenyam signifies our acceptance of God, and can be translated as meaning &quot;Who is worthy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BHAR-GO. Bhargo is taken to signify the Glorious Light that is God's love and power. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;DE-VAS-YA. The word Deva, from which this word is derived, has been translated by different people in many different ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;DHI-MA-HI. Meaning to meditate and focus our mind on God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;DHI-YO. Sanskrit for &quot;intellect&quot;, this is the essence of this part of the Gayatri Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;YO. Meaning &quot;Who&quot; or &quot;That&quot;, Yo signifies yet again that it is not to anyone else that we direct these prayers, but to God alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NAH. Nah means &quot;Ours&quot;, and signifies the selflessness of the request we make of God in this part of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://mantrasmeditation.com/sanskrit-mantra/maha-gayatri-mantra-meaning-om-bhur-bhuva-swaha/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gayatri Mantra&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PRA-CHO-DA-YAT. Prachodayat, the final word of the Gayatri Mantra, rounds off the whole mantra, and completes the request we make of God in this final part. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7543" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T17:42:20.437" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14686" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3841" CreationDate="2016-08-30T17:48:30.570" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://insightstate.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;mantra meaning&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;O thou existence Absolute, Creator of the three dimensions, we contemplate upon thy divine light. May He stimulate our intellect and bestow upon us true knowledge.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or simply,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;O Divine mother, our hearts are filled with darkness. Please make this darkness distant from us and promote illumination within us.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7543" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T17:48:30.570" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14687" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="746" CreationDate="2016-08-30T17:58:43.883" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many more &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.awakeningstate.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;mantras&lt;/a&gt;, which don't start with Om (or Aum). For example: Da Bei Zhou Mantra, Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Say So Hung Mantra, Ajai Alai Mantra, Soham Mantra or Hanuman Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7543" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T17:58:43.883" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14690" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-30T19:02:23.707" Score="4" ViewCount="341" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15060.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brihadarnaya Upanishad Chapter II 3rd Bramhana 6th verse&lt;/a&gt; describes one of the attributes of Purusha its color as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्य हैतस्य पुरुषस्य रुपम् यथा महारजनं वासो यथापाण्ड्वाविकम् यथेन्द्रगोपो &#xA;  यथाअग्न्यर्चिर्यथा पुण्ड्रिकम् यथा सक्रुद्विद्युतम् सक्रुद्विद्युत्तेव ह वा अस्य श्रिभवति &#xA;  य एवम् वेदाथात आदेशो नेति नेति न हेय्तस्मादिति नेत्नय्त्परमस्त्यथ नामधेयम् सत्यस्य &#xA;  सत्यमिति  प्राणा वै सत्यम्  तेषामेष सत्यम्॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And what is the appearance of that person? Like a &lt;strong&gt;saffron-coloured raiment&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;like white wool&lt;/strong&gt;,like cochineal, like the flame of fire, like the white lotus, like sudden lightning. He who knows this, his glory is like unto sudden lightning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clearly there is an ambiguity in this verse, how can Purusha or Atman have two colors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Saffron 2) While like wool&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do we resolve this ambiguity?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-08-30T19:39:14.703" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T20:21:16.280" Title="What is color of Purusha(jivatman) according to Brihadaranyaka Upanishad" Tags="|vedas|atma|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|purusha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14691" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14690" CreationDate="2016-08-30T20:21:16.280" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, it seems the translation is missing a crucial part of the verse. Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc117948.html#page-336&quot;&gt;translation of the same verse by Swāmī Mādhavānanda&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The form of that ‘being’ is as follows: Like a cloth dyed with turmeric, or like grey sheep’s wool, or like the (scarlet) insect called Indragopa, or like a tongue of fire, or like a white lotus, or like a flash of lightning. He who knows it as such attains splendour like a flash of lightning. Now therefore the description (of Brahman): ‘Not this, not this.’ Because there is no other and more appropriate description than this ‘Not this.’ Now Its name: ‘The Truth of truth.’ The vital force is truth, and It is the Truth of that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the commentary by Śaṅkara also informs us the passages are meant symbollicaly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Objection: Why should not these forms belong to the individual self, since it too has a place in the discussion, and the word ‘that’ refers to something that is under discussion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Reply: No, for the Śruti wants to teach the transcendent nature of the individual self. If the forms, ‘Like a cloth dyed with turmeric,’ etc. (II. iii. 6), really belong to the individual self, then it would not be described as indefinable in the terms, ‘Not this, not this.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think the purpose of this verse here is not to teach the color of the Ātman, but the nature of the individual self in relation to Brahman, which is: ‘Not his, not this’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastActivityDate="2016-08-30T20:21:16.280" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14692" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14704" CreationDate="2016-08-30T23:49:28.657" Score="4" ViewCount="2987" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Shri Krishna serial, Lord Krishna and Radha are in Go Lok, while Lord Krishna's avatar is on Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is translation of Go Lok? I know Trilok is &quot;three worlds&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clarify.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-08-31T09:04:43.240" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T18:18:16.027" Title="Trilok is &quot;three worlds&quot; but what is Go Lok" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14693" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14659" CreationDate="2016-08-31T00:22:20.567" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Devi Sita (सिता) is also known as Vaidehi, Janaki, Maithili (वैदेही , जानकी ,मैथिलि)  is the central female character of the Hindu epic Ramayana.She was the daughter of &quot;king Janaka&quot;. Devi Sita is described as the daughter of the earth goddess Bhumi and wife of &quot;Shree Rama&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes , Swami Vivekananda has talked about Sita in his lectures. These are few quotes I came across   from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_6/Notes_Of_Class_Talks_And_Lectures/Notes_Taken_Down_In_Madras,_1892-93&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;/Volume 6/Notes Of Class Talks And Lectures/Notes Taken Down In Madras, 1892-93, by Shree Swami Vivekananda On Devi Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sita—to say that she was pure is a blasphemy. She was purity itself embodied—the most beautiful character that ever lived on earth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A Bhakta should be like Sita before Rama. He might be thrown into all kinds of difficulties. Sita did not mind her sufferings; she&#xA;  centreed herself in Rama.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;What to speak of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=WI1RDwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT694&amp;amp;lpg=PT694&amp;amp;dq=What%20to%20speak%20of%20Sita?%20You%20may%20exhaust%20the%20literature%20of%20the%20world%20that%20is%20past,%20and%20I%20may%20assure%20that%20you%20will%20have%20to%20exhaust%20the%20literature%20of%20the%20world%20of%20the%20future,%20before%20finding%20another%20Sita.&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=D-yzNSBo4l&amp;amp;sig=ACfU3U1ZGQ-k_m8dqOOBH9513ZrvdJs6Zw&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=2ahUKEwi5lNLP2I3gAhUItI8KHaJ4CfwQ6AEwAHoECBQQAQ#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=What%20to%20speak%20of%20Sita%3F%20You%20may%20exhaust%20the%20literature%20of%20the%20world%20that%20is%20past%2C%20and%20I%20may%20assure%20that%20you%20will%20have%20to%20exhaust%20the%20literature%20of%20the%20world%20of%20the%20future%2C%20before%20finding%20another%20Sita.&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;? You may exhaust the literature of the&#xA;  world that is past, and I may assure that you will have to exhaust the&#xA;  literature of the world of the future, before finding another Sita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sita is the name  in India for everything that is good, pure, and holy; everything that in woman we call woman. &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=KjmXDgAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA9&amp;amp;lpg=PA9&amp;amp;dq=Sita%20is%20the%20name%20in%20India%20for%20everything%20that%20is%20good,%20pure,%20and%20holy;%20everything%20that%20in%20woman%20we%20call%20woman.%20Sita%E2%80%94%20the%20patient,%20all%20suffering,%20ever-faithful,%20ever-pure%20wife!%20Through%20all%20the%20suffering%20she%20had,%20there%20was%20not%20one%20harsh%20word%20against%20Rama.%20Sita%20never%20returned%20injury.%20Be%20Sita.%5C&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=PKhwcw4S8W&amp;amp;sig=ACfU3U3CYeq0xkomAFLCEvRT3cFEJ14kIA&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=2ahUKEwi9h8fX2o3gAhUVaI8KHR9kAjkQ6AEwAHoECBMQAQ#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=Sita%20is%20the%20name%20in%20India%20for%20everything%20that%20is%20good%2C%20pure%2C%20and%20holy%3B%20everything%20that%20in%20woman%20we%20call%20woman.%20Sita%E2%80%94%20the%20patient%2C%20all%20suffering%2C%20ever-faithful%2C%20ever-pure%20wife!%20Through%20all%20the%20suffering%20she%20had%2C%20there%20was%20not%20one%20harsh%20word%20against%20Rama.%20Sita%20never%20returned%20injury.%20Be%20Sita.%5C&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; — the&#xA;  patient, all suffering, ever-faithful, ever-pure wife! Through all the&#xA;  suffering she had, there was not one harsh word against Rama. Sita&#xA;  never returned injury. Be Sita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2019-01-27T10:15:25.487" LastActivityDate="2019-01-27T10:15:25.487" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14694" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14692" CreationDate="2016-08-31T09:14:24.323" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Besides three worlds (Swarga Loka, Bhuloka, Patal Loka), many other Loka exists where various gods and deities reside. Like, Brahmaloka (abode of Lord Brahma), Vaikuntha (abode of Lord Vishnu), Kailash (abode of Lord Shiva), Suryaloka (abode of Son god), Chandraloka (abode of Moon god) and many more. Similarily, &lt;strong&gt;Goloka is the abode where Lord Krishna live with Devi Radha and many celestial cows&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For explanation, you make take a look at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/27/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.27.1&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;govardhane dhṛte śaile&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;āsārād rakṣite vraje&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;go-lokād&lt;/strong&gt; āvrajat kṛṣṇaṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;surabhiḥ śakra eva ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Kṛṣṇa had lifted Govardhana Hill and thus protected the inhabitants of Vraja from the terrible rainfall, &lt;strong&gt;Surabhi, the mother of the cows, came from her planet&lt;/strong&gt; to see Kṛṣṇa. She was accompanied by Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-08-31T09:14:24.323" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14696" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14655" CreationDate="2016-08-31T09:46:33.020" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, to directly answer your question. No, the scriptures do not overtly say that every cell in your body has its own individual atman. Conversely they do not say that they carry only ‘your’ one atman. This is because the object of scriptures, the purpose of Vedanta, is to establish the reality of Brahman as the ultimate Reality; it is not the purpose of the scriptures to define or explain every aspect of Maya in minutiae. Sankaracharya says in his commentary on &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; (II. iii. 21), Swami Vireswarananda translator (available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it be said (that the soul is) not atomic, as the scriptures state it to otherwise (i.e. all pervading), (we say) not so, for (the one) other than the individual soul (i.e. Supreme Brahman) is the subject –matter (in those texts).&#xA;  Sruti texts like, “He is the one God…all pervading” (Svetasvatara U. 6.11), refer not to the individual soul, but to the Supreme Lord, who is other than the individual soul and forms the chief subject matter of all the Vedanta texts; for that is the one thing that is to be known, and is therefore propounded by all the Vedanta texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rishis and sages of the past were not concerned in knowing every form of clay, of Maya, there exists within the universe of Maya endless names and forms, they were concerned in knowing about the source of the clay, the source of these names and forms. Material knowledge gained through the material sciences over the last 200-300 hundred years, notably microbiology, has made us aware of the existence of life at a microscopic level. Scripture, however, has given us the means to understand. Scripture breaks the universe, Maya, into two components – sentient and insentient. To understand this difference, see my answer to this question - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14520/what-is-the-difference-between-living-beings-and-dead-matter-according-to-script/14548#14548&quot;&gt;What is the difference between living beings and dead matter according to scriptures?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also read in the &lt;em&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; II. vi. 1 (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…That (Brahman) having created (that), entered into that very thing. And having entered there, It became the formed and the formless, the defined and the undefined, the sustaining and non-sustaining, the sentient and the insentient, the true and the untrue…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sankara’s commentary on this verse says in part:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…&lt;em&gt;Vijnanam&lt;/em&gt; is sentient, and &lt;em&gt;avijnanam&lt;/em&gt; is devoid of sentience, insentient stone etc…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sri Vidyaranya Swami says in his &lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt; IV.10 (Swami Swahananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to these Srutis Brahman or Atman Himself, assuming manifold forms as the Jivas, entered into these bodies. A Jiva is so called because it upholds vitality (the Pranas) (in a body).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Swahananda commentary on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘Jiva’ literally means a living being, or the principle of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the &lt;em&gt;Brhadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; I. iv. (Swami Madhavananda translator) we read:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…this Self has entered into these bodies up to the tip of the nails—as a razor may be put into a case,…People do not see It, for (viewed in Its aspects) It is incomplete. When It does the function of the living, It is called the vital force…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question then becomes are individual cells sentient or insentient? Do they contain their own vital force, their own prana? We can separate individual cells from the body, and we (as a body) continue to live without those individual cells, and they can continue to sustain their own separate lives. They require their own food and oxygen to continue, and we can make them respond to outside stimuli – they ‘perceive’ – their own rudimentary consciousness - i.e. they have their own vitality, own vital force, the Pranas spoken of above; we can then conclude that they have their own individual sentence, that these individual cells are not devoid of sentence. They are not rocks, stones, etc., and therefore have their own individual atmans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V2, pp 208-209, available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Jnana Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;The Cosmos: The Macrocosm&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_2/vol_2_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_2/vol_2_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We see then, that nothing can be created out of nothing. Everything exists through eternity, and will exist through eternity. Only the movement is in succeeding waves and hollows, going back to fine forms, and coming out into gross manifestations. This involution and evolution is going on throughout the whole of nature. The whole series of evolution beginning with the lowest manifestation of life and reaching up to the highest, the most perfect man, must have been the involution of something else. The question is: The involution of what? What was involved? God. The evolutionist will tell you that your idea that it was God is wrong. Why? Because you see God is intelligent, but we find that intelligence develops much later on in the course of evolution. It is in man and the higher animals that we find intelligence, but millions of years have passed in this world before this intelligence came. This objection of the evolutionists does not hold water, as we shall see by applying our theory. The tree comes out of the seed, goes back to the seed; the beginning and the end are the same. The earth comes out of its cause and returns to it. We know that if we can find the beginning we can find the end. &lt;em&gt;E converso&lt;/em&gt;, if we find the end we can find the beginning. If that is so, take this whole evolutionary series, from the protoplasm at one end to the perfect man at the other, and this whole series is one life. In the end we find the perfect man, so in the beginning it must have been the same. Therefore, the protoplasm was the involution of the highest intelligence. You may not see it but that involved intelligence is what is uncoiling itself until it becomes manifested in the most perfect man. That can be mathematically demonstrated. If the law of conservation of energy is true, you cannot get anything out of a machine unless you put it in there first. The amount of work that you get out of an engine is exactly the same as you have put into it in the form of water and coal, neither more nor less. The work I am doing now is just what I put into me, in the shape of air, food, and other things. It is only a question of change and manifestation. There cannot be added in the economy of this universe one particle of matter or one foot-pound of force, nor can one particle of matter or one foot-pound of force be taken out. If that be the case, what is this intelligence? If it was not present in the protoplasm, it must have come all of a sudden, something coming out of nothing, which is absurd. It, therefore, follows absolutely that the perfect man, the free man, the God-man, who has gone beyond the laws of nature, and transcended everything, who has no more to go through this process of evolution, through birth and death, that man called the &quot;Christ-man&quot; by the Christians, and the &quot;Buddha-man&quot; by the Buddhists, and the &quot;Free&quot; by the Yogis — that perfect man who is at one end of the chain of evolution was involved in the cell of the protoplasm, which is at the other end of the same chain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Applying the same reason to the whole of the universe, we see that intelligence must be the Lord of creation, the cause. What is the most evolved notion that man has of this universe? It is intelligence, the adjustment of part to part, the display of intelligence, of which the ancient design theory was an attempt at expression. The beginning was, therefore, intelligence. At the beginning that intelligence becomes involved, and in the end that intelligence gets evolved. The sum total of the intelligence displayed in the universe must, therefore, be the involved universal intelligence unfolding itself. This universal intelligence is what we call God. Call it by any other name, it is absolutely certain that in the beginning there is that Infinite cosmic intelligence. This cosmic intelligence gets involved, and it manifests, evolves itself, until it becomes the perfect man, the &quot;Christ-man,&quot; the &quot;Buddha-man.&quot; Then it goes back to its own source. That is why all the scriptures say, &quot;In Him we live and move and have our being.&quot; That is why all the scriptures preach that we come from God and go back to God. Do not be frightened by theological terms; if terms frighten you, you are not fit to be philosophers.This cosmic intelligence is what the theologians call God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The evolution of beings was first presented to the world by Patanjali in his &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt; (IV. 2-3) (available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt;, sub-sub-heading &lt;em&gt;Independence&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;). It is all one Atman, It is the One apparently appearing as many, there is only an apparent evolution- an apparent involution and evolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-09-27T11:30:12.710" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14698" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8876" CreationDate="2016-08-31T10:12:18.443" Score="13" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q. In the annals of Sanaatana Dharma why isn't there One Absolute Reality? Every &quot;seer of truth&quot; saw/interpreted the way they saw it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Absolute Reality is only one but it is expressed differently&lt;/strong&gt; because it can not be the topic/subject of mind or intellect!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read the following Shruti quotes that say how it is beyond the of mind or intellect:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Kenopanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न तत्र चक्षुर्गच्छति न वाग्गच्छति नो मनः ।&#xA;  न विद्मो न विजानीमो यथैतदनुशिष्यात् ॥ ३॥&#xA;  अन्यदेव तद्विदितादथो अविदितादधि ।&#xA;  इति शुश्रुम पूर्वेषां ये नस्तद्व्याचचक्षिरे ॥ ४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The eye does not go thither, nor speech, nor the mind. We do not know It; &lt;strong&gt;we do not understand how anyone can teach It&lt;/strong&gt;. It is different from the known; It is above the unknown. Thus we have heard from the preceptors of old who taught It to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Taittariyopanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यतो वाचो निवर्तन्ते । अप्राप्य मनसा सह ।&#xA;  आनन्दं ब्रह्मणो विद्वान् ।&#xA;  न बिभेति कुतश्चनेति ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who knows the Bliss of Brahman, &lt;strong&gt;whence words together with the mind turn away, unable to reach It&lt;/strong&gt;—he is not afraid of anything whatsoever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also &lt;strong&gt;Neti Neti (नेति नेति)&lt;/strong&gt; clearly refers to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The difference in absolute reality you recognise is actually the difference in expression/description of it not the absolute reality itself! And as far as I can say the reason for why it is being expressed differently is due to the incapability of mind and intellect! The mind and intellect of everyone thinks, understand and interprets differently. Understanding own mind is also believed very hard. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me give an idea about such possible problem behind it: First of all absolute reality can not be exactly/absolutely described - 1&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; problem and if tried to describe into words, different people understand and interpret that described absolute reality differently - 2&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt; problem.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From above discussion, I hope you can understand why we recognise different absolute reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But don't get worried, the above problem is up-to mind and intellect and we're not limited to mind and intellect (मनोबुद्धयहंकार चित्तानि नाहं), when one &lt;strong&gt;realize&lt;/strong&gt; the absolute reality it is the only one, true, absolute and ultimate reality!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q. If there is One Absolute Reality and if there is one absolute path (Advaita/Visistadvaita, Davita, Achintya Bhedaabheda etc.), why is it that Vyasa Bhagavan did not state it conclusively in his Puranas?. Shaivaite scriptures portray Lord Shiva as Absolute, Vaishnava scriptures portray Lord Vishnu as Absolute and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes there is only one Absolute Reality but there are many &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2392/277&quot;&gt;paths&lt;/a&gt; (there is not a strict path need to be followed) though they are likely to be merge finally! and talking about &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14779/277&quot;&gt;different Vedanta philosophy&lt;/a&gt; (i.e Advaita, Vishishtadvaita etc.), they are attempt/effort to conclude the absolute reality rather than paths! The paths are various practices or methods to do उपासना or साधना for attaining the absolute reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read the following Smriti quotes that justify that the absolute reality is only one and different path unite to one destination!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Shiva Mahimna Stotra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रयी साङ्ख्यं योगः पशुपतिमतं वैष्णवमिति&#xA;  प्रभिन्ने प्रस्थाने परमिदमदः पथ्यमिति च ।&#xA;  रुचीनां वैचित्र्यादृजुकुटिल नानापथजुषां&#xA;  नृणामेको गम्यस्त्वमसि पयसामर्णव इव ॥ ७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The different practices based on the three Vedas, SaMkhya, Yoga, Pashupata-mata, VaishhNava-mata etc . are but different paths (to reach to the Greatest Truth) and people on account of their different aptitude choose from them whatever they think best and deserved to be accepted . But as the sea is the final resting place for all types of streams , You are &lt;strong&gt;the only reaching place&lt;/strong&gt; for all people whichever path,straight or zigzag, they may accept .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Sarva Vedanta Sidhaanta Saar Sangrah:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततस्तत्संबभूवासौ यद्गिरामप्यगोचरम् ।&#xA;  यच्छुन्यवादिनां शून्यं ब्रह्म ब्रह्मविदां च यत् ॥ ९८०॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विज्ञानं विज्ञानविदां मलानां च मलात्मकम् ।&#xA;  पुरुषः सांख्यदृष्टीनामीश्वरोयोगवादिनाम् ॥ ९८१॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिवः शिवगमस्थानां कालः कालैकवादिनाम् ।&#xA;  यत्सर्वशास्त्रसिद्धान्तं यत्सर्वहृदयानुगम् ।&#xA;  यत्सर्वं सर्वगं वस्तु तत्तत्त्वंतदसौ स्मितः ॥ ९८२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And thereby the Yogi gets which is (called by) Agochara of Vaani, which is Sunya of Sunyavadi and Brahman of Brahmavadi,Vijnana of Vijnanavadis, Mala swarupa of Malachittas, Purush of the Sankhya Sastra and Ishwara of the Yoga Sastra,  Shiva for followers of Shaiva Agama, Kaala for Kaalavadis, who is principle of every doctrine, who is situated in hearts of everyone, who is omnipresent, who is the true reality; that Yogi in the Videhamukta state establishes himself in the same state&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_major_works/prasthAnabheda.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prasthana Bheda&lt;/a&gt; of Madhusudan Sarasvati,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वेषां प्रस्थानकर्तॄणां मुनीनां&#xA;  विवर्तवादपर्यवसानेनाद्वितीये परमेश्वर एव प्रतिपाद्ये&#xA;  तात्पर्यम् । न हि ते मुनयो भ्रान्ताः सर्वज्ञत्वात्तेषां ।&#xA;  किं तु बहिर्विषयप्रवणानापाततः पुरुषार्थे प्रवेषो न&#xA;  संभवतीति नास्तिक्यवारणाय तैः प्रकारभेदाः प्रदर्शिताः ।&#xA;  तत्र तेषां तात्पर्यमबुद्ध्वा वेदविरुद्धेऽप्यर्थे&#xA;  तात्पर्यमुत्प्रेक्ष्यमाणास्तन्मतमेवोपादेयत्वेन गृह्णन्तो जना&#xA;  नानापथजुषो भवन्तीति सर्वमनवद्यम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The views of all the munis who are the exponents of the prasthAnas&#xA;  culminate in vivartavAda and their ultimate purport is in the non-dual&#xA;  supreme Being who is the subject-matter of all the prasthAnas. &lt;strong&gt;Those&#xA;  munis were not deluded; they were omniscient (and knew the ultimate&#xA;  truth).. But, since people whose minds are engrossed in worldly objects&#xA;  cannot be directly initiated into the supreme human goal, and in order to&#xA;  prevent their succumbing to crass materialism, the munis propounded&#xA;  different methods to suit the capacity and inclination of different classes of&#xA;  people.&lt;/strong&gt; Without knowing their real intention, those who assume that&#xA;  meanings which are contrary to the true import of the Vedas were what&#xA;  were intended by them, and take those alone to be what are meant to be&#xA;  accepted, follow various paths. Thus everything is clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion:&#xA;So, &lt;strong&gt;Absoulte Reality is only one, absolute and ultimate but it is expressed differently&lt;/strong&gt;. No matter the different ways (mentioned in question) you follow, (if) you'll attain (it will be) only one absolute and ultimate reality! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-11-04T13:08:04.783" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T13:08:04.783" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14699" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14682" CreationDate="2016-08-31T10:37:04.143" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Its called Rudraksha beads (Mala). Rudraksha is used for prayer in Hinduism. The name rudraksha stems from Hindu mythology and means “the eyes of Shiva.” Size of beads are from 3 mm to 40 mm. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/R1fAw.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/R1fAw.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-08-31T10:37:04.143" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14700" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3841" CreationDate="2016-08-31T10:40:52.787" Score="-1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word &quot;Gayatri&quot; itself explains the reason for the existence of&#xA;  this mantra. It has its origin in the Sanskrit phrase Gayantam Triyate&#xA;  iti, and refers to that mantra which rescues the chanter from all&#xA;  adverse situations that may lead to mortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Goddess Gayatri is also called &quot;Veda-Mata&quot; or the Mother of the Vedas&#xA;  - Rig, Yajur, Saam and Atharva - because it is the very basis of the Vedas. It is the basis, the reality behind the experienced and the&#xA;  cognized universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.about.com/od/prayersmantras/a/The-Gayatri-Mantra.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aum&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhuh Bhuvah Svah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tat Savitur Varenyam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhiyo Yo nah Prachodayat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RdqYj.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RdqYj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-08-31T10:40:52.787" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14701" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-08-31T12:07:30.173" Score="0" ViewCount="74" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama travelled in Pushpaka Vimana to crown Vibhishana dn returned to Ayodhya in the same vimana. Any detailed information about this and how it functioned? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-08-31T12:07:30.173" Title="Pushpaka Vimana" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-01-09T07:11:07.143" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14704" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14692" CreationDate="2016-08-31T16:28:05.370" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna's own abode in the eternal spiritual world above this material world is called &lt;em&gt;goloka&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;go&lt;/em&gt; -- cow; &lt;em&gt;loka&lt;/em&gt; -- world, planet), meaning literally &quot;cow-world&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many cows there and Lord Krishna enjoys his eternal pastimes there as a cowherd with gopas (cowherds) and gopis (cowherd girls), among which the most prominent gopi is Sri Radha, Lord Krishna's the most beloved.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The position of &lt;em&gt;goloka&lt;/em&gt; can be nicely seen from the Lord Brahma's prayers offered in glorification to Lord Krishna in the Brahma-samhita 5.43: &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bs/5/43&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bs/5/43&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Lowest of all is located Devī-dhāma [mundane world], next above it is&#xA;  Maheśa-dhāma [abode of Maheśa]; above Maheśa-dhāma is placed&#xA;  Hari-dhāma [abode of Hari] and above them all is located Kṛṣṇa's own&#xA;  realm named &lt;strong&gt;Goloka&lt;/strong&gt;. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, who has&#xA;  allotted their respective authorities to the rulers of those graded&#xA;  realms.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire spiritual world called Vaikuntha, which is above this material world called the Devī-dhāma &quot;mundane world&quot;, is eternal and it is made of spiritual nature, namely it is not material. The material world where we live will be destroyed because it's a temporary place of death and destruction. Goloka is the highest planet in the spiritual world, and is eternal place of liberation (moksha) and immortality, ie the state of existence without destruction, death and &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt; (repeated births and deaths).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Lord Krishna's own abode Goloka is not a material planet! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="2790" LastEditDate="2016-12-05T18:18:16.027" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T18:18:16.027" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14706" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14721" CreationDate="2016-08-31T18:16:19.653" Score="14" ViewCount="4087" Body="&lt;p&gt;What makes Mahabharata appealing is that it's a great timeless wisdom hidden in a compelling narrative.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a similar theological dimension to Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are some of the verses from Ramayana that one can refer to enrich life in general?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2019-05-28T15:45:26.403" LastActivityDate="2019-05-28T15:45:26.403" Title="Core Messages of Ramayana and verses from Ramayana that one can refer, to enrich life in general" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14708" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10499" CreationDate="2016-08-31T20:47:01.990" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Current Sringeri Peethadhipati Jagadguru Shankaracharya Sri Ananta Vibhushita Bharati Teertha Mahaswami says in his &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tsyqzMFsF8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anugraha Bhashanam&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Shastras prescribe two pakshas: Mukhya Paksham and Gouna Paksham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To do 1008 Gayatri Japam is Mukhya Paksham. People used to do this for&#xA;  3 kaalas in the olden days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If there is not sufficient time, then the Shastras prescribe Gouna&#xA;  Paksham of doing 108 Gayatri Japam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If there is further little time, then the Shastras prescribe doing at&#xA;  least 32 Gayatri Japam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But people usually ask for an alternative and a way to leave&#xA;  Sandhyavandanam. For that, there is no other alternative.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For a person who has had Upanayanam and Brahmopadesham (according to&#xA;  Shastras), he has to do Sandhyavandanam till the end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Usually people say 10 Gayatri minimum but that is not valid as stated by Sringeri Jagadguru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-08-31T20:47:01.990" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14709" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9200" CreationDate="2016-09-01T04:18:37.367" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the book, &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; explains why some of the Hindu samskāras are not prescribed for women and people belonging to the fourth varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What about Women?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I said that the twice-born must perform sandhyavandana with the&#xA;wellbeing of women and other jatis in mind. I also explained why all&#xA;samskaras are not prescribed for the fourth varna. Now we must&#xA;consider the question of women, why they do not have such rituals and&#xA;samskāras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though we perform the punyāha-vacana and nāmakaraņa of&#xA;newborn girls and celebrate their first birthday, we do not conduct&#xA;their caula and upanayana nor the other samskāras or vows laid down&#xA;for brahmacārins. Of course, they have the marriage samskāra. But in&#xA;other rites like sacrifices the main part is that of the husband,&#xA;though she (the wife) has to be by his side. In aupāsana alone does a&#xA;woman have a part in making oblations in the sacred fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why is it so?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rites performed before a child is born are intended for the birth&#xA;of a male child (niseka, pumsavana, simanta). Does it mean, as&#xA;present-day reformers and women's libbers say, that Hindu women were&#xA;downgraded and kept in darkness?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What reason did I mention for the&#xA;fourth varna not having to perform many of the samskaras? That these&#xA;were not necessary considering their vocations and the fact that they&#xA;can work for the welfare of the world without the physical and mental&#xA;benefits to be derived from the samskāras. If they also spend their&#xA;time in Vedic learning and in sacrifices, what will happen to their&#xA;duties? &lt;strong&gt;So most of the samskaras are not necessary for them. They&#xA;reach the desired goal without these rites by carrying out their&#xA;duties. &amp;quot;Svakarmana tam abhyarcya siddhim vindati mānavah&amp;quot;, so says&#xA;the Gita&lt;/strong&gt; [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/46&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;18.46&lt;/a&gt;]. I have spoken to you about this earlier.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as&#xA;society is divided according to occupations and the samskaras are&#xA;correspondingly different, so too there are differences between men&#xA;and women in domestic life. Running a household means different types&#xA;of work, keeping the house clean, bringing up the children, etc. By&#xA;nature women can these chores better than men. If they also take an&#xA;active part in rituals, what happen to such work? Each by serving her&#xA;husband and by looking after her household becomes inwardly pure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In&#xA;truth there is no disparity between men and women, nor are women&#xA;discriminated against as present-day reformers allege. Work is divided&#xA;for the proper maintenance not only of the home but the nation on the&#xA;whole; and care has been taken not to have any duplication. There is&#xA;no intention of lowering the status of any section in this division of&#xA;labour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The body, in the case of certain people, is meant to preserve&#xA;the mantras and there are samskāras which have the purpose of making&#xA;it worthy of the same. Why should the same rituals be prescribed for&#xA;those who do not have such tasks to carry out? Glassware to be sent by&#xA;railway parcel is specially taken care of since it is fragile. Even&#xA;greater care is taken in dispatching kerosene or petrol. If the same&#xA;precautions are not taken in transporting other goods, does it mean&#xA;that they are poorly thought of? Astronauts are kept in isolation&#xA;before being sent up in space and after their return. Mantras have&#xA;their own radiation that is even more powerful than what is found in&#xA;space. If you appreciate this fact, you will understand why Brahmins&#xA;are separated from the rest and special samskāras prescribed for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The body of a Brahmin (male) is involved in the nurturing of mantras.&#xA;So from the time of conception itself it is to be made pure through&#xA;samskāras like pumsavana, simanta, and so on. There are samskāras with&#xA;the same objective also after the boy child is born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vocations&#xA;have to be properly divided for the welfare of mankind. If everybody&#xA;paid attention to this fact, instead of talking of rights, it would be&#xA;realised that the sāstras have not discriminated against women or any&#xA;of the jātis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-01T04:27:12.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14711" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14706" CreationDate="2016-09-01T05:09:48.223" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think , Core message of Ramayana or verses may appeal from person to person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per his situation or events faced by him in the life.&#xA;It is having a vast scope.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For me message is :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Person tries to escape from past karma and prays to god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being a lord , he never tried to escaped from it. He accepted that with courageous heart. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But lord shrirama himself faced 14 years of Vanvas and struggle in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So according to me ,man has to take up every struggle , every&#xA;  difficulty in life with the remembrance of Almighty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastActivityDate="2016-09-01T05:09:48.223" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14712" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-01T05:25:58.063" Score="8" ViewCount="2492" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard three Sharira mentioned in some texts viz.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;स्थूल शरिर (Sthula Sharira)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;सूक्ष्म शरिर (Sukshma Sharira)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;कारन शरिर (Karan Sharira)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me ask some questions about them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are these three Sharira? and What are they made of? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the significance and the concept behind them?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the relation of them with five Kosha?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-09-01T08:09:38.093" LastActivityDate="2021-05-05T04:14:31.533" Title="What are three Sharira and their relation to five Kosha?" Tags="|vedanta|yoga|body|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14713" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-01T06:23:58.460" Score="9" ViewCount="2284" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Advaita, Para Brahman (परब्रह्म)  is Nirguna Brahman (निर्गुण ब्रह्म)&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Para_Brahman#Advaita_Vedanta_-_Nirguna_Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[1]&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11737/277&quot;&gt;[2]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; but I've found that Vishishtadvaitis don't believe in Nirguna Brahman. So, let me ask: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the views of Vishishtadvaita on Nirguna Brahman? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If Vishsitadvaita do not believe in Nirguna Brahman, then What is the explanation/arguments of Vishishtadvaita for demonstrating/claiming it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-19T02:35:11.463" LastActivityDate="2018-06-19T02:35:11.463" Title="What are the views of Vishishtadvaita on Nirguna Brahman?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahman|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14715" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10556" CreationDate="2016-09-01T07:57:30.607" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu's blue body is often depicted in blue. The color blue&#xA;  symbolizes the infinite. Vishnu wears yellow clothing. The yellow&#xA;  color is associated with the terrestrial life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://1stholistic.com/Prayer/Hindu/hol_Hindu-vishnu.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Color of lord Vishnu is yellow. That is why he is called as pitambar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="7385" LastEditDate="2016-09-01T11:31:26.537" LastActivityDate="2016-09-01T11:31:26.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14716" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="550" CreationDate="2016-09-01T09:08:19.290" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Abhimanyu’s untimely death is attributed to his enmity with Lord Krishna in his previous birth. Abhimanyu in his previous birth was known as Abhikasura a demon. He was a friend of King Kans who left no stone unturned to kill his nephew Krishna. After Krishna killed Kans, Abhikasura vowed to take revenge on the former. Krishna, sensing the moves of the demon, wove a magic around Abhikasura, transformed him into an insect and captured him in a box. When Krishna’s sister Subhadra, after her wedding with Arjuna, accidentally opened the box, the insect got into her womb. Abhikasura was then born as Abhimanyu.&#xA;Krishna knew this and he rather sadly, prepared the ground for the death of his nephew and finally got him entrapped in Padmavyuha. When Arjuna was mourning the death of his son and squarely blamed Krishna for it, it was then Krishna explained Abhikasura’s reincarnation as Abhimanyu and the necessity for him, as the Supreme Power, to incinerate the evil force.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7561" LastActivityDate="2016-09-01T09:08:19.290" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14717" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14720" CreationDate="2016-09-01T09:13:18.047" Score="15" ViewCount="9538" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Siya Ke Ram&lt;/strong&gt; is an Indian historical epic TV series on &lt;em&gt;Star Plus&lt;/em&gt; produced by Nikhil Sinha. I'm talking about the episode telecast on 30 Aug 2016, which you can watch &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hotstar.com/tv/siya-ke-ram/6363/sita-kills-sahastra-ravan/1000108461&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/SiyaKeRam_SP/status/770596560103206912?lang=en&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; you can see how Sita takes &lt;strong&gt;Bhadra Kali Avatar&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sahasra Mukha Raavana arrives to fight against Rama. Vibhishana says He(Raavana) is the eldest son of Kaikesi, she knew that he will be very dangerous and destructive, so she had immersed him at the time of his birth, his soul was protected. It seems she has revived him again by taking Pithashri's help. You have to kill him now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama says we all can kill Him together, and orders Sugreeva to attack him with entire Vanar sena from all four directions, Lakshmana attack from east, Angad from north side and Hanuman from sky route.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All they run to attack Raavana but Raavana will hit them and they fall around. Lakshmana get hits by fire balls and fall. Hanuman flies and irritates him. Rama shoots at him but nothing happens. Raavan throws thunder light towards Rama. To protect Rama, Hanuman comes in between and hit by thunder bolt. Hanuman saves Rama but he falls down. Once again Raavana throws thunder bolt, Rama gets hit by that and falls down.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this, Kaikesi informs Sita that how Raavana defeated Rama. Take a look how Rama and Vanar sena are laying unconscious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sita goes to battle ground and sees all were fallen on ground including Rama, Lakshmana, Hanumana. Sahasthra Raavana laughs and She gets angry. She shouts and take &lt;strong&gt;Bhadrakaali avatar&lt;/strong&gt; she comes infront of Raavan and gets ten hands and ten weapons. She starts attacking on him, and finally jumps on him and fire blast occurs. &lt;strong&gt;Sahasthra Raavana gets killed by Bhadrakaali&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sita gets calmed down seeing Rama and cries. She gets back to her original form i.e., from Bhadrakaali to Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, that was the story from TV series. I was wondering because I never heard this. However I think this episode has been banned because I couldn't find any video of that episode as I have mention.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In which scripture this story is described?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who is the author of that scripture?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If it is mentioned in any scripture, then what is the actual description of this scene?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-21T18:55:16.803" Title="Sahasra Mukhi (Thousand Faced) Raavana Killed by Sita" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|rama|sita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14719" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14713" CreationDate="2016-09-01T10:59:10.420" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahman is &lt;strong&gt;Nirguna&lt;/strong&gt; is a statement of Brahma Sutra. As long as I know all the Vaishnav Acharyas agree on this. However as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11737/what-arguments-adi-shankara-makes-to-claim-that-supreme-is-devoid-of-any-attribu&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question of mine; the interpretation of &lt;strong&gt;Nirguna&lt;/strong&gt; is different as per different Acharyas and their proposed philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;here is what Shripad Ramanuja interprets Nirguna as: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya interprets Nirguna as &quot;&lt;strong&gt;no negative&#xA;  qualities&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. According to Ramanujacharya  Brahman is characterized by&#xA;  the Kalyana Gunas ascribed to him by the Pancharatra texts - Jnana,&#xA;  Bala, Aishvarya, Virya, Shakti, and Tejas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The six Kalyan Gunas are described in Vishnu Purana( 6.5.74) By Sage Parashar &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ऐश्वर्यस्य समग्रस्य धर्मस्य यशसरिश्रयः। ज्ञानवैराग्ययोश्चैव षण्णां भग&#xA;  इतीरणा&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;meaning:Complete splendor, virtue, glory, opulence, knowledge,&#xA;  dispassion - these six are known as bhaga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RamanujaCharya's argument to refute Adi Shankara's concept of Nirguna Brahman is roughly like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If we see a rope and think it is a snake, that mistaken idea is due to&#xA;  the fact that there is something snake-like in the rope, namely the&#xA;  shape of the rope. Similarly, if we are really perceiving Brahman but&#xA;  we think we are seeing the world, then the attributes we are seeing in&#xA;  the world must be derived from the qualities we are seeing in Brahman&#xA;  So for instance, if we see a chair there must be something chair-like&#xA;  in Brahman, otherwise we wouldn't mistake it for a chair. And if we&#xA;  see an apple then Brahman must have some apple-like attribute, etc.&#xA;  But that cannot be if Brahman is attributeless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-11-04T12:52:39.730" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14720" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14717" CreationDate="2016-09-01T11:29:29.130" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;This story of Sita killing Sahasra Seersha ravana is not from the original Valmiki Ramayana, but a different version called Adbhuta Ramayana. Though Adbhuta Ramayana is attributed to Valmiki, it is not from original Valmiki but creation of someone else in the name of Valmiki (&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=CU92nFk5fU4C&amp;amp;pg=PA93&amp;amp;lpg=PA93&amp;amp;dq=adbhut%20ramayana%20writer&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=ZiVO9qINrp&amp;amp;sig=rJJa_MFE8kzYrFqK9exrHtYyHo4&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjju7PoptjOAhWJPY8KHa6hBgIQ6AEILjAD#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=adbhut%20ramayana%20writer&amp;amp;f=false&quot;&gt;Refer here&lt;/a&gt; page 92 and 93.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in Adbhuta Ramayana (Sanskrit Text with Hindi Translation is available &lt;a href=&quot;http://webstock.in/001-Epics-PDF/Adbhut-Ramayan-Hindi/002-Adbhut-Ramayan-Hindi.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://webstock.in/001-Epics-PDF/Adbhut-Ramayan-Hindi/001-Adbhut-Ramayan-Hindi.pdf&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. English Translation is available &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedicbooks.net/adbhuta-ramayana-sanskrit-text-with-transliteration-english-commentary-alongwith-explanatory-notes-relevant-appendices-p-15944.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.), Sarga 23 describes Sita killing Sahasra Mukha Ravana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The context goes roughly like this&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Sri Rama fell from Pushpak Vimana, all the creatures made&#xA;  Hahakaar, the earth together with mountains, oceans and everything&#xA;  started to tremble. Sages and Rishis shouted 'O Rama, O Rama'. Sahasra&#xA;  Mukha Ravana with his followers started to dance in battlefield.&#xA;  Comets and Asteroids fell from the sky and Everyone thought it is the&#xA;  end of the world. Then the sages like Vasishta and everyone pleaded to&#xA;  Sita what happened to Rama  and where are thother Vanaras and brothers&#xA;  and everyone. Looking at all this and the pleadings of Rishis Sita&#xA;  takes the form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The important slokas regarding her form and her killing Ravana are mentioned here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नर्दन्तं राक्षसं चापि महाबलपराक्रमम् । साट्टहासं विनाद्योच्चैः सीता&#xA;  जनकनंदिनी ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वरूपं प्रजहौ देवी महाविकटरूपिणी । क्षुत्क्षामा कोटराक्षी&#xA;  चक्रभ्रमितलोचना ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Looking at the shouting valorous and strong Rakshasha, Janaka's&#xA;  daughter Sita laughing out loudly leaving her svarup (present form of&#xA;  Sita), took a very fearful form with a body (as if effected by&#xA;  hunger), eyes like a tree's cavity, face revolving like a wheel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दीर्घजंघा महारावा मुंण्डमालाविभूषणा । अस्थिकिंकिणिका भीमा&#xA;  भीमवेगपराक्रमा ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;खरस्वरा महाघोरा विकृता विकृतानना । &lt;strong&gt;चतुर्भुजा&lt;/strong&gt; दीर्घतुंडा&#xA;  शिरोऽलंकरणोज्जवला ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ललज्जिह्वा जटाजूटैर्मण्डिता चण्डरोमिका । प्रलयांभोदकालाभा&#xA;  घंटापाशविधारिणी ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Her form is described as having large thighs, making a huge cry,&#xA;  wearing a garland and ornaments of skulls, wearing small bells made of&#xA;  bones, very strong, and with very great speed and valor, with very&#xA;  sharp and focused cries, very horrible, with deformed face, having&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;four shoulders&lt;/strong&gt;, with large mouth (or trunk), with a decorated head (meaning having a shining face), moving the tounge to and fro, with&#xA;  matted hair, with fierce and hot body hairs, with light as that of&#xA;  clouds at the time of Pralaya, wearing Ghanta and Paasha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अवस्कंद्य रथात्तूर्णं खड्गखर्परधारिणी । श्येनीव रावणरथे पपात&#xA;  निमिषान्तरे ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिरांसि रावणस्याशु निमेषान्तरमात्रतः । खड्गेन तस्य चिच्छेद सहस्राणीह&#xA;  लीलया ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Got down very fast from chariot with sword and a bowl of skull got&#xA;  upon Ravan's chariot in a minute like an eagle. Within a minute she&#xA;  cut all the thousand heads of Ravan with sword like a sport.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this, it is described how she destroyed other warriors also. Later 1000 matrikas arrive at the place and they all dance at her victory and she mentions some of the matrikas' names also. And the story continues.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also it is clear that as shown in TV Serial she is &lt;strong&gt;not ten handed&lt;/strong&gt; but with &lt;strong&gt;four shoulders only&lt;/strong&gt;. Also if you read the story in the book, it will be clear that the story is somewhat manipulated in the TV Serial.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: Thanks to &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/&quot;&gt;Sanksrit Dictionary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="6986" LastEditDate="2016-09-01T12:24:08.283" LastActivityDate="2016-09-01T12:24:08.283" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14721" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14706" CreationDate="2016-09-01T12:09:21.723" Score="15" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Qns-1- Is there a similar theological dimension to Ramayana?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is indeed a theological dimension to Ramayana.And there is also a similar timeless wisdom,like in the Mahabharata epic, in the timeless epic Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As said by Swami Vivekananda,the soul of every human being {the Jivatman}desires to be in affinity with the Paramatman{and attain Moksha}. But, the three Gunas viz Satva,Rajas and Tamas, which are present in the human body, always tries to prevent the human being from reaching the Paramatman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda has explained these views, taking the example of  Sita’s story from the Ramayana and how Sita reunites with Sri Rama, after the forced stay in Lanka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the said example, Sita’s journey, represents the journey of each human being’s soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Example given by Swami Vivekananda&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For Swami Vivekananda, Sita’s story is symbolic of the soul’s journey towards Moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Swami Vivekananda, Rama represents the Paramatman and Sita  the Jivatman,in each human being, and each   body is the Lanka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Jivatman which is enclosed in the body, or captured in the island of Lanka, always desires to be in affinity with the Paramatman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the Demons would not allow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Elaborating this Swami Vivekananda says that Vibhishana represents Satvaguna, Ravana represents Rajas and Kumbhakarna represents Tamas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These gunas will keep the Jivatman back, from joining  the Paramatman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sita sees Hanuman the Guru or divine teacher who shows her, her divine ring – that is Brahmajnana, the supreme wisdom, that destroys all illusions. Sita finds her way to Sri Rama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Adhyatama Ramayana may be referred to, for enhancing the spiritual dimensions of thought. It contains  the precepts related to devotion, knowledge, dispassion, adoration and good conduct etc. A copy of the Adhyatma Ramayana is available at the link attached.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Qns-2-What are some of the verses from Ramayana that one can refer to enrich life in general ?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reading the Ramayana{verses} and applying its teachings, in the journey of life, will indeed help in enriching life in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ramayana epic, is the story of  Sri Rama{avatar of God Vishnu} and  his consort, Sita{avatar of Goddess Lakshmi} and the greatness of their Godly personalities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ramayana is also the story of devotion and love of Sri Rama’s brother Lakshmana{Adishesha avatar of God Vishnu}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ramayana epic is also the story of Ravana’s downfall. And amply  highlights how arrogance and not adhering to the path of Dharma, becomes the cause of downfall of a being, despite having  high scholarly achievements and other prowess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story highlights how Ravana  was once a staunch devotee of God Shiva  and how this devotion subsequently &lt;strong&gt;got eroded&lt;/strong&gt; over a period of time and how that &lt;strong&gt;resulted&lt;/strong&gt; in the &lt;strong&gt;loss of all blessings,&lt;/strong&gt; which he had gained by worshipping &lt;strong&gt;God Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ramayana epic, is also the story of bravery of the Vanaras, who were basically, the divine creations of God Brahma, for aiding Sri Rama in annihilating Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this context, it is pertinent to mention that, the gods became progenitors of Vanara heroes at the dictate of Brahma to come to the aid of Rama in annihilating Ravana. The monkey-like Vanara race was procreated by numerous celestials endowing it with peculiar mighty physique and particular power to come to the help of Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Vishnu attained the sonship of the great-souled king Dasharatha, then Brahma the self-created addressed all of the gods this way.Ramayana [1-17-1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let mighty and guise changing helpmates be procreated to that truth abiding and valorous Vishnu who is the well-wisher of all of us.Ramayana [1-17-2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The earth is thus suffused with those mighty army generals of Vanara race whose physiques resembled the clusters of clouds and peaks of mountains, and who have emerged for the reason of helping Rama. Ramayana[1-17-37]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ramayana epic is also the story of many other important characters, who were associated with Sri Rama’s journey of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the foregoing, one can appreciate that, every human being can  benefit immensely, by reading the Ramayana epic{all its verses}, as it pictures the whole gamut of human life.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ramayana epic, throws light on the duties and responsibilities of humans, in various roles as father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter,etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition, it also throws light on the duties of individuals as master, subordinate, teacher, pupil and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many verses in the Ramayana with enriching teachings. These teachings can be applied practically, in  day–to-day lives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few of the verses that one can refer to, which will enrich life in general, are as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;VERSES&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.दुर्लभम् हि सदा सुखम् ||{from २-१८-१३} &#xA;  Durlabham hi sadaa sukham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To be happy always is something which is difficult to achieve.That is to say, happiness and sorrow alternate in one’s life and there cannot be uninterrupted happiness alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.सत्यम् एव ईश्वरो लोके सत्यम् पद्मा समाश्रिता |&#xA;  सत्य मूलानि सर्वाणि सत्यान् न अस्ति परम् पदम् || २-१०९-१३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satyameveshwaro loke satyam padma samashrita.&#xA;  Satya moolani sarvaani satyaan na asti paramapadam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Truth is God and all virtues follow truth. All are rooted in truth there is nothing higher than truth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.कुलीनम् अकुलीनम् वा वीरम् पुरुष मानिनम् |&#xA;  चारित्रम् एव व्याख्याति शुचिम् वा यदि वा अशुचिम् || २-१०९-४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kuleenam akuleenam vaa veeram purushamaaninam&#xA;  Charitrameva vyaakhyaati shuchim vaa yadi vaashuchim &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One's conduct  explains whether one belongs to a good family or a bad family, valiant or arrogant and chaste or unchaste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.न सुप्रतिकरम् तत् तु मात्रा पित्रा च यत् कृतम् ||{from २-१११-९} &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na supratikaram tat tu maatraa pitraa cha yatkrutam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is difficult for the children to repay the debt of what the mother and the father have done to bring them up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.उत्साहो बलवान् आर्य नास्ति उत्साहात् परम् बलम् |&#xA;  सः उत्साहस्य हि लोकेषु न किंचित् अपि दुर्लभम् || ४-१-१२१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Utsaaho balavaan  aarya  naasti utsaahaat param balam&#xA;   Sotsaahasya hi lokeshu na kinchid api durlabham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vehemence is might, oh, noble one, there is no superior might than vehemence and to him with vehemence there is no impossibility in the world, even the slightest. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.अनिर्वेदम् च दाक्ष्यम् च मनसः च अपराजयम् |&#xA;  कार्य सिद्धि कराणि आहुः तस्मात् एतत् ब्रवीमि अहम् || ४-४९-६ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anirvedam cha daakshyam cha manasashchaaparaajayam&#xA;  Karyasiddhikaraanyaahuh tasmaat ethat bravimi aham.                                         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Insistency, ingenuity and indomitability of heart are said to be the causes for achieving results, therefore I am speaking all this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.न विषादे मनः कार्यम् विषादो दोषवत्तरः |&#xA;  विषादो हन्ति पुरुषम् बालम् क्रुद्ध इव उरगः || ४-६४-९ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na vishaade manah kaaryam vishaado doshavattarah&#xA;  Vishaado hanti purusham baalam kruddhah ivoragah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Loosing heart to dismay is an unworkability, because dismaying itself is detrimental, and dismay alone ruins a person, as a vicious viper unworkably ruins an innocent child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.कल्याणी बत गथा इयम् लौकिकी प्रतिभाति मे |&#xA;  एहि जीवन्तम् आनदो नरम् वर्ष शतात् अपि || ५-३४-६ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kalyaanee bata gaathheyam laukikee prathibhaati me&#xA;  Ethi jeevantam aanando naram varsha shataadapi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Joy rushes to surviving man even though (it be) at the end of a hundred years- this popular adage appears true and  auspicious for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.कौसल्या सुप्रजा राम पूर्वा संध्या प्रवर्तते |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उत्तिष्ठ नर शार्दूल कर्तव्यम् दैवमाह्निकम् || १-२३-२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fortunate is Kausalya to beget you as her son Rama... get up oh, tigerly-man, eastern aurora is emerging, daytime tasks towards gods are to be performed. [1-23-2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The foregoing sloka, at Sl 9, is also the 1 st sloka of Sri Venkateshwara Suprabhatam, which is a prayer.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.यद् अत्रभवतः किंचित् शक्यम् कर्तुम् प्रियम् मया |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्राणान् अपि परित्यज्य सर्वथा क्ऱ्तम् एव तत् || २-१९-२१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If I have to do whatever action is dearer to my revered father, that action is just done in all respects even by renouncing life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.सा वीत शोका व्यपनीत तन्द्री |&#xA;  शान्त ज्वरा हर्ष विबुद्ध सत्त्वा |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अशोभत आर्या वदनेन शुक्ले |&#xA;  शीत अन्शुना रात्रिः इव उदितेन || ५-२९-८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Free from sorrow, her weariness removed, her mental affliction alleviated and her consciousness awakened with exaltation, that esteemed lady (Goddess Seetha) looked splendid with her countenance, as a night with the moon appears during the bright fortnight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.अशास्त्रविदुषाम् तेषाम् कार्यम् नाभिहितं वचः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्थशास्त्रानभिज्ञानाम् विपुलाम् श्रियमिच्छताम् || ६-६३-१५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The words spoken by those who did not know the scriptures, who do not recollect the books dealing with practical life and who covet for abundant wealth are not to be implemented.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13.तस्य भूयो विशेषेण मैथिली जनक आत्मजा |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देवताभिः समा रूपे सीता श्रीः इव रूपिणी || १-७७-२८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In her mien Seetha is identical with goddesses, and she is like personified Goddess Lakshmi, thus she is the reshaped Divine Prosperity, and as she hails from Holy Mithila she shall be held Holy, and since she is the daughter of Janaka, a loftiest sagacious and invincible king, she is sagely and stately, besides being shapely, and she with all these heaps of natural traits and characteristics, Seetha is rejoicing the heart of Rama. [1-77-28b, c]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14.वाच्यावाच्यम् प्रकुपितो न विजानाति कर्हिचित् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नाकार्यमस्ति क्रुद्धस्य नावाच्यम् विद्यते क्वचित् || ५-५५-५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An agitated person ever does not know which appropriate words are and which are forbidden words to be uttered. For enraged persons, there is neither an improper act nor ever an improper word to be spoken.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The study of the Ramayana is also  the study of &lt;strong&gt;“Eternal Truths in Action”&lt;/strong&gt;, as performed by Sri Rama, in the Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference links:- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) &lt;a href=&quot;http://sg.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/95117/9/09_chapter3.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://sg.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/95117/9/09_chapter3.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/vr_index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/vr_index.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(3) &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TheAdhyatmaRamayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://archive.org/details/TheAdhyatmaRamayana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(4) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga17/bala_17_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga17/bala_17_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-05-28T08:52:37.667" LastActivityDate="2019-05-28T08:52:37.667" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14722" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14724" CreationDate="2016-09-01T12:24:23.683" Score="8" ViewCount="1480" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am very excited because yesterday I was viewing a Geeta shloka from a Mahabharata video present on YouTube. In the shloka, Krishna says to Arjuna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Partha, every time, you and me are present on the earth. It has never happened that you and me were not present.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in this context, is Krishna present on the earth? If yes, where is he? Why he is not coming near people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2779" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-01T22:24:38.593" LastActivityDate="2016-09-03T09:59:24.247" Title="Is Vishnu present in the current time?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14723" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14722" CreationDate="2016-09-01T13:01:42.760" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Shloka that you are referring to is this one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/N1qKe.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/N1qKe.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Word for word: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na — never; tu — but; eva — certainly; aham — I; jātu — at any time;&#xA;  na — did not; āsam — exist; na — not; tvam — you; na — not; ime — all&#xA;  these; jana-adhipāḥ — kings; na — never; ca — also; eva — certainly;&#xA;  na — not; bhaviṣyāmaḥ — shall exist; sarve vayam — all of us; ataḥ&#xA;  param — hereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these&#xA;  kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What one needs to be careful is about that Krishna is not talking about the physical body but about the Spirit. Hence, he is always there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the second question, how do you know he is not coming near people? I know many who can vouch for that they have felt His presence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference used: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asitis.com/2/12.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.asitis.com/2/12.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="4157" LastEditDate="2016-09-01T22:48:01.653" LastActivityDate="2016-09-01T22:48:01.653" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14724" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14722" CreationDate="2016-09-01T13:31:09.507" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you are referring to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-2-12/&quot;&gt;verse 2.12&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न त्वेवाहं जातु नासं न त्वं नेमे जनाधिपा | &lt;br&gt;न चैव न भविष्याम: सर्वे&#xA;  वयमत: परम् || 12|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na tvevāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ &lt;br&gt; na chaiva na&#xA;  bhaviṣhyāmaḥ sarve vayamataḥ param &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these&#xA;  kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how Adi Shankaracharya explains this verse. (Bhagavad Gita with commentary of Adishankaracharya translated by A Mahadeva Sastri).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never did I cease to exist ; on the other hand, I always did exist ;&#xA;  that is, through the past bodily births and deaths, I always existed.&#xA;  So also, never did you cease to exist ; on the other hand, you always&#xA;  did exist. So, never did these rulers of men cease to exist ; on the&#xA;  other hand, they always did exist. So, neither shall we ever cease to&#xA;  exist ; on the other hand, we shall all certainly continue to exist&#xA;  even after the death of these bodies. As the Self, the Atman, we are&#xA;  eternal in all the three periods of time (past, present and future).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The meaning is that even in all the three times (past, present and&#xA;  future) we are eternal in our nature as the Self. The plural number&#xA;  (in we) is used following the diversity of the bodies, but not in the&#xA;  sense of the multiplicity of the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Advaita, Nirguna Brahman alone exits and rest all dualities are just MAYA. Nirguna Brahman when seen through Maya appears as various dualities (good&amp;amp;bad, heat&amp;amp;cold, etc) and &lt;strong&gt;in reality, Atman is Nirguna Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;. Lord Krishna/Brahman says that they both as self (Atman) exists eternally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If yes, where is He? Why he is not coming near people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is everywhere as He is the only eternal Truth. You must realize to know your true identity of Atman/Brahman. When required, He will indeed come to His true devotees in &lt;strong&gt;Physical form&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2016-09-01T13:31:09.507" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14725" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7642" CreationDate="2016-09-01T13:44:37.683" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As for as I know, the concept of exact seven re-incarnations are not described in any scripture (though I have not read all scriptures). But seven births is used as a standard notation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am giving below some examples from where seven births concept may be taken.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Santi Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kundrika and king Brahmadatta of great energy, 2 repeatedly thinking of the sorrow that attends birth and death, attained to that prosperity which is acquired by persons devoted to Yoga, in course of &lt;strong&gt;seven births&lt;/strong&gt;, in consequence of my favour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch24.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam, Ninth Book, Chapter XXIV&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So if one does not offer the Tulasî leaves in the conchshell, for &lt;strong&gt;seven births&lt;/strong&gt; he remains without his wife and he becomes diseased.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch34.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam, Ninth Book, Chapter XXXIV&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharma Râja Yama said :-- O Fair One! If, in this Bhârata, any murderer, merciless and fierce, kills any man, out of greed for money, he goes and miserably dwells in the Asipattra hell for fourteen Indra’s life periods. And if that murderer kills a Brâhmana, he lives in that hell for one hundred manvantaras. While in hell, his body becomes fiercely cut and wounded by the swords. There My messengers chastise him and beat him and he cries aloud and passes his time without any food. Then he becomes born for one hundred years as a Manthâna insect, for hundred births as a boar, for &lt;strong&gt;seven births as a cock; for seven births as a fox, for seven births as a tiger&lt;/strong&gt;; for three births, as a wolf; &lt;strong&gt;for seven births, as a frog&lt;/strong&gt;; then as a buffalo when he becomes freed of his sins of murders. If anybody sets fire to a city or a village, he will have to live in Ksuradhâra Kunda for three yugas with his body severed. Then he becomes a Preta (disembodied spirit) and travels over the whole earth, being burnt up with fire. &lt;strong&gt;For seven births he eats unclean and unholy food and spends his time as a pigeon. Then for seven births he becomes diseased with a severe colic pain, for seven births as a leper; when ultimately he gets a pure human body&lt;/strong&gt;. If anybody whispers in one’s ear another’s calumny and thus glorifies himself and abuses and vilifies the Devas and Brâhmanas, he goes and remains in Sûchî Kunda for three Yugas, and he is pierced there by needles. &lt;strong&gt;Then he becomes a scorpion for seven births, a serpent for seven births, and an insect (Bhasma Kîta) for seven births; then he gets a diseased human body when, at last, he becomes purified&lt;/strong&gt;. If anybody breaks into another’s house and steals away all the household articles, cows, goats or buffaloes, he goes to Gokâ Mukha Kunda where faeces are like cow’s hoofs, there, beaten by My servants, for three Yugas. (Gokâ is Goksura, hoof of a cow). Then, &lt;strong&gt;for seven births, he becomes a diseased cow&lt;/strong&gt;; for three births, a sheep; for three births, a goat; and finally he becomes a man. But in this man-birth he is born first as diseased, poor, deprived of wife and friends, and a repenting person; when ultimately he is freed of his sin. If anybody steals any ordinary thing, he goes to Nakra Mukha Kunda and lives there for three years, greatly tormented by My messengers. &lt;strong&gt;Next for seven births, he becomes a diseased ox&lt;/strong&gt;. Then he attains a very diseased man-birth, and ultimately he is freed of his sins. Such are the horrible results. If anybody kills a cow, elephant, horse, or cuts a tree, he goes to Gaja Dams’a Kunda for three yugas. There he is punished by My messengers freely by the teeth of elephants. Then he attains three elephants’ births, three horse-births; then he becomes born as a cow and ultimately he is born a Mlechcha when he becomes pure. If anybody obstructs any thirsty cow from drinking water, he goes to Krimi Kunda and Gomukha Kunda filled with hot water and lives there for one manvantara. Next when he attains a human birth he owns not any cattle nor any wealth; rather he is born as a man, very much &lt;strong&gt;diseased, in low castes, for seven births when he becomes freed&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it may be people have taken the concept of seven re-incarnations by mistake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-09-02T05:09:55.377" LastActivityDate="2016-09-02T05:09:55.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14728" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3235" CreationDate="2016-09-02T05:02:21.807" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every embodied being has 3 kind of bodies&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gross Body&lt;/strong&gt;(Physical body)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Subtle Body&lt;/strong&gt;(mind and intelligence)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Spiritual Body&lt;/strong&gt;(Spirit soul;the true self)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the time of death we change our gross body(physical body) only. However the Subtle body and spiritual body remains the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our likes and dislikes are stored in Subtle body.&#xA;So at the time of transmigrating from one body to other(material death); all these likes and dislikes are also carried to new body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Krishna says in Geeta(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/15/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BG 15.8&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The living entity in the material world carries his different&#xA;  conceptions of life from one body to another, as the air carries&#xA;  aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take&#xA;  another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person having certain attachments(likes) and dislikes(aversions) is also confirmed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3/34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;3rd chapter of Geeta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are principles to regulate attachment and aversion pertaining to&#xA;  the senses and their objects. One should not come under the control of&#xA;  such attachment and aversion, because they are stumbling blocks on the&#xA;  path of self-realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So to give you analogy:&lt;/strong&gt; consider browser cache. When you search something in google; google will give you suggestions based on your previous search history.&#xA;So this browser cache is like our likes and dislikes and mind stores all of it whatever has been accumulated till now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However in above quoted verse from chapter 3 of Geeta; Krishna urges us to not come under control of such attachment and aversions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So We are not completely a different person as far as our likes and dislikes are concerned. we do not start from zero after changing the body; but we are born with same or at least similar likes and dislikes as our previous birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2859" LastEditDate="2016-09-02T08:58:02.103" LastActivityDate="2016-09-02T08:58:02.103" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14729" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-02T05:46:59.530" Score="0" ViewCount="191" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there something like we get to marry the person that God has pre written for us in our fate? Because i have seen so many love stories which dating happens for years, they will be so in love but in the last minute even after the engagement the wedding is called off.They get married to someone else .So is it true that we get to marry the person written in our fate or anyone we like?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7566" LastActivityDate="2016-09-02T05:46:59.530" Title="Love, fate and marriages" Tags="|culture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-09-06T07:16:25.847" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14734" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15465" CreationDate="2016-09-02T15:33:51.067" Score="8" ViewCount="849" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu philosophy there are three main Pramanas or valid means of knowledge: Pratyaksha or sensory evidence, Anumana or reasoning, and Shabda or revelation/scripture.  But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12109/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Advaitins believe that these Pramanas are only valid in the perspective of someone still living under Maya.  Now in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38264.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; on Adhyaya 4 Pada 1 Sutra 3 of the Brahma Sutras, the Advaitin philosopher Adi Shankaracharya gives two scriptural quotes to try to support the Advaita belief that all Pramanas are ultimately invalid:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nor is it true that the doctrine of identity would imply that nobody is entitled to works, &amp;amp;c., and is contrary to perception and so on. For we admit that before true knowledge springs up, the soul is implicated in the transmigratory state, and that this state constitutes the sphere of the operation of perception and so on. On the other hand texts such as 'But when the Self only has become all this, how should he see another?' &amp;amp;c., teach that as soon as true knowledge springs up, perception, &amp;amp;c., are no longer valid.--Nor do we mind your objecting that if perception, &amp;amp;c., cease to be valid, scripture itself ceases to be so; for this conclusion is just what we assume. &lt;strong&gt;For on the ground of the text, 'Then a father is not a father' up to 'Then the Vedas are not Vedas' (Bri. Up. IV, 3, 22), we ourselves assume that when knowledge springs up scripture ceases to be valid.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I am a member) believes that all Pramanas including scripture are always valid means of knowledge.  So my question is, how do Sri Vaishnavas interpret the scriptural quote that Adi Shankaracharya interprets as saying that scripture is ultimately invalid?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The quote comes from verse 22 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15075.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyaya 4 Brahmana 3&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, where the sage Yagnavalkya describes to Janaka the state of the soul during deep sleep:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atra pitā'pitā bhavati mātā'mātā lokā alokā devā adevā &lt;strong&gt;vedā avedā&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  atra steno'steno bhavati bhrūṇahā'bhrūṇahā &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  cāṇḍālo'caṇḍālaḥ paulkaso'paulkaso śramaṇo'śramaṇa &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  stāpaso'tāpaso'nanvāgataṃ puṇyenānanvāgataṃ pāpena &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tīrṇo hi tadā sarvāñchokānhṛdayasya bhavati ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then a father is not a father, a mother not a mother, the worlds not worlds, the gods not gods, &lt;strong&gt;the Vedas not Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;. Then a thief is not a thief, a murderer not a murderer, a Kândâla not a Kândâla, a Paulkasa not a Paulkasa, a Sramana not a Sramana, a Tâpasa not a Tâpasa. He is not followed by good, not followed by evil, for he has then overcome all the sorrows of the heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14606/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, all the commentators on the Brahma Sutras agree that during deep sleep, the soul resides in Brahman.  So Adi Shankaracharya argues that the statement that &quot;the Vedas [are] not Vedas&quot; during deep sleep means that when a person has attained Brahman, the Vedas are no longer valid means of knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But how do Sri Vaishnaavas interpret the &quot;Vedas [are] not Vedas&quot; quote?  Now the famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya didn't write commentaries on the Upanishads, but another Sri Vaishnava Acharya named Ranga Ramanuja did write Upanishad commentaries.  So does anyone know what Ranga Ramanuja says about this verse in his commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I assume that the Sri Vaishnava interpretation of this verse is simply that during deep sleep, the soul lacks conscious awareness, so it is not aware of things like father,  mother, Vedas, etc.  But does anyone have a copy of Ranga Ramanuja's commentary so I can confirm that?  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wilbourhall.org/sansknet/upanishads/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This website&lt;/a&gt; has the first three Adhyayas of Ranga Ramanuja's commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, but I need the fourth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, in Adi Shankaracharya's &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600302.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/2/items/Brihadaranyaka.Upanishad.Shankara.Bhashya.by.Swami.Madhavananda/Brihadaranyaka.Upanishad.Shankara.Bhashya.by.Swami.Madhavananda_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Brihadaranyaka.Upanishad.Shankara.Bhashya.by.Swami.Madhavananda_jp2/Brihadaranyaka.Upanishad.Shankara.Bhashya.by.Swami.Madhavananda_0693.jp2&amp;amp;scale=2&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; on the Brihadaranyaka Aranyakas Upanishad, as opposed to his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, he interprets the verse in a way that's much closer to my preferred interpretation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[T]he worlds, which are either won or to be won through rites, are no worlds, owing to his disassociation from those rites.  Similarly the gods, who are parts of the rites, are no gods, because he transcends his relation to those rites.  The Vedas also, consisting of the Brahmanas, which describe the means, the goal and their relation, as well as the Mantras, and forming part of the rites, since they deal with them, whether already read or yet to be read, are connected with a man through those rites.  Since he transcends those rites, the Vedas too then are no Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Adi Shankaracharya does not make the same epistemological point about whether the Vedas are valid means of knowledge.  I think Sri Vaishnavas may well interpret the verse in a similar fashion to this quote.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T15:27:34.840" Title="How do Sri Vaishnavas interpret the &quot;Vedas are not Vedas&quot; quote in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|sri-vaishnava|adi-shankaracharya|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14735" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14713" CreationDate="2016-09-02T17:33:25.913" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two adhikaranas included in the third adhyaya of Brahma sutras by Badarayana related to the discussion of the nature of Brahman. ( There are adhikaranas in the first adhyaya which describe Brahman as Savisesa- full of attributes)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are titled as &lt;em&gt;Ubhayalingadhikarana&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Prakrtaitavattva&lt;/em&gt; adhikatanas as per Shankara bhasya to favour the theory of nirvisesa Brahman ( Brahman without attributes)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Ramanuja bhasya ( Sribhasya) they are named as &lt;em&gt;Ubhayalingadhikarana&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Ahikundaladhikarana&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The main sutra of the Ubhayalingadhikarana is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;na sthAnato'pi parasya ubhayalingam sarvatra hi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; ( &lt;strong&gt;Vedanta Sutras 3.2.11&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This sutra no doubt refers to the nature of Brahman as is evident from the word 'para', a term that distinguishes it from the individual self which is discussed in earlier sections.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &quot;sthanataha&quot; means , on account of its immanence in the souls and the other things in the universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ubhayalinga as commonly understood means two fold nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, according to Shankara it refers to two modes of description or two forms of Brahman, viz. Brahman devoid of all characteristics ( Nirvisesa Linga) and Brahman as qualified with characteristics ( Savisesa Linga)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, after some explanations and discussion, Shankara concludes Brahman as only nirvikalpa or completely devoid of all characteristics&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;samasrayanam visesha rahitam nirvikalapakameva Brahma pratipattavyam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; ( &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shankara bhasya 3.2.11&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja means by Ubhayalingadhikarana Linga the two fold characteristics of Brahman, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) Brahman as totally free from all defilements ( nirdosatva)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) Brahman as endowed with numerous auspicious qualities ( Kalyanaikatani - gunatmakatva)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja interpretation the Brahma sutra, by taking into consideration the context in which it appears. Regarding the context, it is said that the adhikaranas of the preceding pada present condition of Jivatma in the states of dream, deep sleep, and seeking for the purpose of developing non attachment ( vairagya) by the seeker of moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Badarayana Introduces this strain in order to propmote an ardent craving for the attainment of Brahman by emphasizing the fact that Brahman, unlike jiva, is free from all imperfections and also endowed with auspicious attributes so that it is worthy of aspiring the supreme goal of human endeavour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to prima facie, Brahman which abides in the jiva as antaryamin would also be affected with the defects found in the bodies of jiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Badarayana as interpreted by Ramanuja, rejects this prima facie view. Ramanuja points out that Brahman inspite of abiding  in jiva and other physical entities, is untouched by any defects &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;na prthivyadisthanato'pi parasya Brahman aha apurushartha gandhaha sambhavati&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; ( &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ramanuja Bhasya (3.2.11)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the implication of the word &quot;na sthAnato'pi&quot; in the sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why Brahman is not touched by defects?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The answer is given in next Brahma sutra, viz, ubhalingam sarvatra hi, which means that in all Sruti and smriti texts, Brahman is described as possessing two fold characteristics&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) &lt;em&gt;Free from all defilements ( nirasta - nikhila dosatva) and&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) &lt;em&gt;Endowed with auspicious attributes ( Kalyana guna - atmakatva)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad 8.1.5&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; says  :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman is free from evil (&lt;em&gt;apahatapapma&lt;/em&gt;), free from old age ( &lt;em&gt;vijara&lt;/em&gt;) , free from death (&lt;em&gt;vimrtyuh&lt;/em&gt;), free from grief (&lt;em&gt;visoka&lt;/em&gt;), ...whose needs are self fulfilled ( &lt;em&gt;satyakamaha&lt;/em&gt;) and whose desires are not obstructed ( &lt;em&gt;satyasankalpa&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above text the two fold characteristics of Brahman is explicitly mentioned. There are many other Upanishad texts referring to either of these aspects of Brahman and these are quoted by Ramanuja in his comment in support of his explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other important adhikarana Prakrtaitavattvadhikarana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main sutra reads as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Prakrttaitavattvam hi pratisedhati tato bravitica bhuyah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; ( &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vedanta sutras of Badarayana 3.2.22&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The general meaning is according to shAnkara, that the Upanishadic text &quot; neti neti&quot;  negates in respect of Brahman the prediction of the two forms mentioned in the earlier part of the passage and this supported by what is said later on about Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Ramanuja, the sutra means that the text denies only the limited aspects of Brahman describes in the passage because the text further declares the abundance of glory of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further Ramanuja raises the question, as prima facie view which reflects shAnkara's interpretation, whether it would be possible to maintain the ubhayalingatva of Brahman considering the fact that the words &quot; not this, not this&quot; of Upanishadic passage denies Brahman all the previously stated modes viz, murta and amurta (Br.Up 2.3.1) , so that it can only be regarded as sanmatra or pure consciousness only as stated in earlier sutra (3.2.16). The Reply given in the sutra in terms of negation as &quot;not this, not this&quot; does not deny in respect of Brahman the distinctive characteristics or the two modes declared previously. On the contrary it Only denies the Prakrtaitavattva or limited nature of Brahman as previously stated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In other words , it denies that Brahman possess only this much qualifications as described previously ( &lt;em&gt;Br. Up. 2.3.2 to 5&lt;/em&gt; ). The word 'iti' means  limited nature and ' na iti' ( not so) therefore means that Brahman is not distinguished by previous stated modes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramanuja further points out that subsequent to the neti neti significant positive statements are made about Brahman . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus states the Upanishad: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;na hy-etaamas iti', nety-anyat param- asti; athanadheyam, satyasya satyam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; ( &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Br.Up.2.3.6&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It means according to Ramanuja there ia nothing higher or greater than Brahman referred to earlier as implied by the two words anyat and para in the text. In other words , no other being which is more glorious both in respect of svarupa and guna ever exists. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is indicated by the designation ( &lt;em&gt;namadheya&lt;/em&gt;) of Brahman as satyasya satyam, which means reality of reals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Jiva is regarded real ( &lt;em&gt;Satya&lt;/em&gt;) because it's svarupa is unchanging, unlike the material objects which undergo total transformation.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Brahman is more real than jivas since the former is never subject to any change unlike the Jnana of Jiva, which during the state of bondage becomes subject to contraction and expansion according to its karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Brahman ever remains unchanged both in respect of svarupa and Jnana, as it is free from karma (&lt;em&gt;apahatapapma&lt;/em&gt; ). It is there fore the highest reality. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The positive statements made in this upanishad subsequent to negation as 'neti neti' emphasizes this glory of Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the Implication of the words '&lt;em&gt;bhuyah tato braviti&lt;/em&gt;' in the sutra means that the text further says more about brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus it follows that the sutra does not prove that Brahman is nirvisesa, but on the contrary it affirms that it Savisesa or endowed with ubhayalinga ( two fold characteristics) as stated by Badarayana i.e.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Brahman is free from all defilements&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Brahman is endowed with Infinote auspicious qualities.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;( The details are provided from the book called ' The philosophy of Vedanta sutra&quot; by S.M.Srinivasachari)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2016-09-05T10:51:30.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-05T10:51:30.163" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14736" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7735" CreationDate="2016-09-02T21:52:55.137" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krouncha Dweepe: In the island called Krouncha&#xA;Ramanaka Varshe: In the region called Ramanaka Varsha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not an expert but I think the above two doesn’t represent the continent and country instead they represent a region in universe and earth respectively. And only Bharat Khande represent India. In that case changing the first two doesn't make sense. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/04-13/editorials10050.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/04-13/editorials10050.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7575" LastActivityDate="2016-09-02T21:52:55.137" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14737" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14713" CreationDate="2016-09-03T05:12:13.703" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his translation of Sankara's commentary on the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, in his &lt;em&gt;Introduction&lt;/em&gt; (available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62756.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62756.html&lt;/a&gt;), Swami Vireswarananda says the following on why there are differences in the commentaries, what the commentators agree, and what the differences are between Sankara's and Ramanuja's views on Brahman, the soul, and the world:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A question may be raised how the same work could have given rise to so many conflicting schools of thought. The reasons are many. In the first place the brevity of the Sutras leaves much to be supplied by the commentators, and in the absence of an universally accepted unbroken tradition each is free to do this according to his own preconceived ideas. Sometimes even without supplying anything the same Sutra is capable of being interpreted differently and even conveying quite the opposite meaning (e.g. Sankara and Ramânuja on 3.2.11) by the mere shifting of the stops. Again, while there is a tradition which is accepted more or less by all as regards the arrangement into chapters and sections, there is no such accepted tradition as regards the division into Adhikaranas (topics), nor is there anything authoritative to guide us as to which Sutras form the Purvapaksha or the &lt;em&gt;prima facie&lt;/em&gt; view and which give the Siddhânta or the author’s view. So every one is free to divide the Sutras into topics according to his own choice and regard any Sutras as giving the author’s view. Then again, the Sutras do not give any reference as to which texts of the scriptures are being discussed and as a result the commentator is free to select any texts from that vast repertory, so much so that it often happens that different commentators see different topics discussed in the same set of Sutras. Added to all this is the difficulty that Bâdarâyana is often silent as regards his own decision and that on fundamental questions. He merely gives the views of different Vedântins and ends the topic (&lt;em&gt;vide&lt;/em&gt; 1.4.20-22).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The five great commentators more or less agree on certain points, especially where the author attacks the principles of the non-Vedântic schools. All of them agree that Brahman is the cause of this world and that knowledge of It leads to final emancipation which is the goal to be attained; also that Brahman can be known only through the scriptures and not through mere reasoning. But they differ amongst themselves as to the nature of this Brahman, Its causality with respect to this world, the relation of the individual soul to It and the condition of the soul in the state of release.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman according to Sankara is attributeless, immutable, Pure Intelligence. Iswara according to him is a product of Mâyâ—the highest reading of the Nirguna Brahman by the individualized soul. The world is a Vivarta or apparent transformation through Mâyâ of the Nirguna Brahman but not in reality. The Jiva in reality is all-pervading and identical with Brahman, though as individualized by its Upâdhi (adjunct), the internal organ, it regards itself as atomic, as an agent, and as a part of the Lord. The knowers of the Nirguna Brahman attain It directly and have not to go by “the path of the gods”. It is the knowers of the Saguna Brahman that go by that path to Brahmaloka from where they do not return but attain Brahman at the end of the cycle. Knowledge is the only means to Liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To Râmânuja and the other commentators Brahman is not attributeless but an essentially Personal God possessing infinite benign attributes. They hold that though personality as we experience it in man is limited, it need not be invariably connected with personality as Sankara thinks, so as to contradict infinity. They do not accept the Mâyâ doctrine, for to them the world is real, and so they accept that the world is produced from Brahman. Madhwa, however, accepts It only as the efficient cause and not as the material cause also. The Jiva according to them is really atomic, an agent, and a part of the Lord. The knower of Brahman goes by the path of the gods to Brahmaloka where he attains Brahman and does not return to this mortal world. They do not make any distinction of higher and lower knowledge like Sankara. According to them Bhakti is the chief means to Liberation, and not Jnâna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus to all of them Brahman, the world, and the souls are all realities. Râmânuja integrates the three into one organic whole and says that Brahman has for Its body the other two. Nimbârka integrates the three by his Bhedâbhedavâda, i.e. the relation of the sentient and insentient world with Brahman is one of difference and non-difference. Madhwa, a thoroughgoing dualist, regards these three as quite independent, eternal entities, though Brahman is the ruler of the other two. To Vallabha the world and the souls are Brahman Itself. They are real and their relation to Brahman is one of identity, as that of parts to a whole.(for details on this see the various Bhasyas on Sutras 1.1.2, 1.4.23-26, 2.1.26-28, 2.3.18-53, 3.2.11-30, 4.2.12-14, and 4.4.1-7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-09-03T05:12:13.703" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14738" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16934" CreationDate="2016-09-03T05:22:30.837" Score="15" ViewCount="1727" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/a&gt; is predicted in the Bhavisya Purana. What about the other Puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any other Puranas predict his birth and exploits or make mention of him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-12-14T17:03:19.343" LastActivityDate="2021-12-01T14:27:43.607" Title="Are there any other Puranas that predict Adi Shanakaracharya besides the Bhavishya Purana?" Tags="|puranas|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14739" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-03T07:30:30.993" Score="2" ViewCount="5982" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have come across the goddess Bala Tripurasundari.She is described as specifically being the daughters of Parvati(Tripura Sundari/Lalita,to be exact) .Bala Tripurasundari is mentioned in the Brahmāņḍa Purāņa in this excerpt of it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing that the sons of Daitya Bhaņḑa the chief of whom was Caturbāhu had come for the purpose of fighting, Bālā (the daughter of Lalitā) showed interest in it.She was the daughter of Lalitā Devi. &lt;strong&gt;She came from the golden kavasa of lalita&lt;/strong&gt;. She always stayed near the goddess. She was worthy of being worshiped by all Śaktis. She was adept in martial feats and exploits. Her form and features were like those of Lalitā. She was always like a nine-year-old girl, yet she was a great mine of all lores. Her body was like the rising sun. Her creeper-like slender body was [missing text] in complexion. She was perpetually present near the footrest of the great queen. She was as it were the vital breath of the goddess moving externally. She was her fourth eye. She became furious and thought thus  : &quot;I shall immediately kill those sons of Bhanda who have come here&quot;. After making up her mind thus, Bālāmbā submitted to the great queen.&quot;Mother, the sons of Bhaņḑa, the great Daitya, have come to fight. I wish to fight with them. I am interested in this because I am a young girl. My arms throb with an itching sensation for war. This is my playful activity. It should not be curbed by your orders for prohibition. Indeed I am a girl loving toys and playful pastimes. By this play of fighting for a moment, I shall become delighted mentally.&quot;Dear child, your limbs are very tender and soft. You are only nine years old. This is your first step and performance. Your training in warfare is fresh and recent. You are my only daughter. Without you, my breathing activity does not go on even for a moment. You are my very vital breath. Do not go in for the great war. We have Daņḑinī, Mantriņī, and crores of other great Śaktis for fighting. Dear child, why do you commit this blunder?&quot;&#xA;  Although prevented thus by Śri Lalitādevī, the girl was overcome by curiosity. She requested once again for permission to fight. On observing her steadfast decision, Srīlalitā, the mother, granted her permission after closely clasping her in her arms.She took off one of her armors and gave it to her. From her weapons, she gave her the requisite weapons and sent her off.Kūmārikā got into the covered palanquin that had been extracted by the great queen from the staff of her bow and to which hundreds of swans were yoked for drawing.She killed all 30 sons of the daemon Bhandasura which was extremely difficult to do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is,is Bala Tripurasundari really the daughter of Parvati.If so,why is she only mentioned as Parvati's daughter and not Shiva's(Although the link above states that she is the daughter of Lalita (Parvati) and Kameshwara (Shiva),the excerpt of the Purana claims that &quot;&lt;em&gt;She came from the golden kavasa of lalita&lt;/em&gt;&quot; and I am going to believe the Purana)?Also,as far as I have seen,Bala Tripurasundari is either an &lt;em&gt;avatar&lt;/em&gt; or epieth of Lalita(Parvati),rather than her daughter.Also,are there any scriptures that describe her as specifically being Lalita's daughter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorDisplayName="user4627" LastEditDate="2016-09-04T01:22:42.907" LastActivityDate="2018-01-17T14:51:08.537" Title="Is Bala Tripurasundari the daughter Parvati?" Tags="|gods|parvati|shakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14741" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14722" CreationDate="2016-09-03T09:59:24.247" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Again , best answer given by BrahmaKumaris ,&#xA;Yes , their souls were always present and are still  present now but not with the same bodies , after many births and rebirths they have become totally degraded now.&#xA;In the golden age they were the purest humans , worthy of worship deities , but presently in the iron age , they are as degraded and powerless as any one of us now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7577" LastActivityDate="2016-09-03T09:59:24.247" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14742" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14712" CreationDate="2016-09-03T10:11:11.587" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sthula Sarira&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sthula sarira or the gross body is the material physical mortal body&#xA;that eats, breathes and moves (acts). It is composed of many diverse&#xA;components, produced by one’s karmas (actions) in past life out of the&#xA;elements which have undergone panchikarana i.e. combining of the five&#xA;primordial subtle elements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Suksma Sarira&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suksma sarira or the subtle body is the body of the mind and the vital&#xA;energies, which keep the physical body alive. Together with the causal&#xA;body it is the transmigrating soul or jiva, separating from the gross&#xA;body upon death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Karana Sarira&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karana sarira or the causal body is merely the cause or seed of the&#xA;subtle body and the gross body. It has no other function than being&#xA;the seed of the subtle and the gross body. It is nirvikalpa rupam,&#xA;&amp;quot;undifferentiated form&amp;quot;. It originates with avidya, &amp;quot;ignorance&amp;quot; or&#xA;&amp;quot;nescience&amp;quot; of the real identity of the atman, instead giving birth to&#xA;the notion of jiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Bodies_Doctrine_(Vedanta)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कारण शरीर ”प्रकृति” का नाम है। सत्त्वगुण, रजोगुण और तमोगुण, इन तीनों&#xA;के समुदाय का नाम प्रकृति है। ये सूक्ष्मतम कण हैं। उसी का नाम&#xA;‘कारण-शरीर’ है। स अब उस प्रकृति रूपी कारण शरीर से दूसरा जो शरीर&#xA;उत्पन्न हुआ, उसका नाम ‘सूक्ष्म शरीर’ है। आपने शरीर पर सूती कुर्ता&#xA;(कपड़ा( पहन रखा है। इसका कारण है धागा। और धागे का कारण है- रूई। रूई,&#xA;धागा और कॉटन-कुर्ता ये तीन वस्तु हो गयीं। कुर्ता, धागा और रूई, तो ऐसे&#xA;तीन शरीर हैं- स्थूल शरीर, सूक्ष्म शरीर और कारण शरीर। स्थूल शरीर है&#xA;कुर्ता, सूक्ष्म शरीर है धागा, और कारण शरीर है- रूई। स जो संबंध कुर्ते,&#xA;धागे और रूई में है, वो ही संबंध इन तीनों शरीर में है। क्या रूई के बिना&#xA;धागा बन जायेगा, और क्या धागे के बिना कुर्ता बनेगा? कारण शरीर के बिना&#xA;सूक्ष्म शरीर नहीं बनेगा। सूक्ष्म शरीर के बिना स्थूल शरीर नहीं बनेगा।&#xA;कहा हैः- कारण शरीर प्रकृति सत्त्वरजसतमः। सत्त्व, रज और तम से अठारह&#xA;चीजें बनी। उसका नाम है- सूक्ष्म शरीर।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://aryamantavya.in/shanka/%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A3-%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%B0-%E0%A4%94%E0%A4%B0-%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE-%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%B0-10/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-03T10:11:11.587" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14744" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-03T15:26:38.903" Score="1" ViewCount="167" Body="&lt;p&gt;what are all the questions asked by Yaksha To Yudhisthira? when all pandavas where in jungle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7580" LastActivityDate="2016-09-03T15:58:12.677" Title="Question By Yaksha To Yudhisthira" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|yudhisthira|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-09-06T11:04:35.563" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14745" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11094" CreationDate="2016-09-03T15:28:57.830" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;These are from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neeti_Sastra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Neeti Saara or Neeti Shastra&lt;/a&gt; written by Baddena. it is one of the widely accepted Subhashitam text especially in South India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ślokas are as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बालार्कः प्रेतधूमश्च वृद्धस्त्री पल्वलोदकम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रात्रौ &lt;strong&gt;दध्यन्नभुक्तिश्च&lt;/strong&gt; आयुःक्षीणंदिनेदिने ( रोगवृद्धिर्दिनेदिने ) ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bālārkaḥ pretadhūmaśca vṛddhastrī palvalodakam ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rātrau &lt;strong&gt;dadhyannabhuktiśca&lt;/strong&gt; āyuḥkṣīṇaṃdinedine ( rogavṛddhirdinedine ) ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Morning Sun, smoke from funeral pyre, coitus with (meaning marrying a ) older &#xA;  woman , muddy water and &lt;strong&gt;eating curd-rice at night&lt;/strong&gt; decrease life&#xA;  (increase&#xA;  ill health) day by day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वृद्धार्को होमधूमश्च बालस्त्री निर्मलोदकम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रात्रौ &lt;strong&gt;क्षीरान्नभुक्तिश्च&lt;/strong&gt; आयुर्वृद्धिर्दिनेदिने ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vṛddhārko homadhūmaśca bālastrī nirmalodakam ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rātrau &lt;strong&gt;kṣīrānnabhuktiśca&lt;/strong&gt; āyurvṛddhirdinedine ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Setting Sun, smoke from Homa (sacrificial pyre),  coitus with (meaning &#xA;  marrying a ) young woman , pure water and &lt;strong&gt;eating milk rice at&#xA;  night&lt;/strong&gt; increase&#xA;  longevity day by day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is rice with curd that decreases life. But usual practice is taking butter milk or milk-rice at night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="6986" LastEditDate="2016-09-03T22:59:29.450" LastActivityDate="2016-09-03T22:59:29.450" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14747" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-03T17:40:55.027" Score="3" ViewCount="111" Body="&lt;p&gt;It seems like on 4th Sept., as per the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/dashavatara/varaha/varaha-jayanti-date-time.html?year=2016&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu Calendar&lt;/a&gt;, there is Varaha Jayanti. Usually Jayanti refer to the birth. As per this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/dashavatara/varaha/varaha-jayanti-date-time.html?year=2016&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; it is stated that this day is celebrated as the birth anniversary of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, Varaha (Sanskrit: वराह, &quot;boar&quot;) is the avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu in the form of a boar and as per Hinduism, &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC&amp;amp;pg=PA444&amp;amp;redir_esc=y&amp;amp;hl=en#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Varaha&lt;/a&gt; symbolizes the resurrection of the earth from a &lt;code&gt;pralaya&lt;/code&gt; dissolution of the universe and the establishment of a new &lt;code&gt;kalpa&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Question&lt;/strong&gt;: Is there a scriptural ref. which explicitly states Varaha birth/Jayanti with month/year information?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastActivityDate="2016-09-03T17:40:55.027" Title="Varaha Jayanti : Is there any scriptural reference?" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|varaha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14749" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20173" CreationDate="2016-09-04T02:22:59.417" Score="15" ViewCount="6322" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many different sects in Hinduism,like Vaishnavism,Shaivaism and Shaktism.Some sects,like Vaishnavism and Shaivaism,have different branches like Gaudiya Vaishnavism,which glorifies Krishna and not Vishnu as the supreme lord, and Pasupata Shaivaism,which is the oldest school of Shaivaism which is followed by ascetics.Are there any branches/schools of Shaktism as well?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-09-06T11:06:19.043" LastActivityDate="2022-11-22T09:40:05.013" Title="What are the different branches of Shaktism?" Tags="|worship|shakti|shaktism|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14750" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14749" CreationDate="2016-09-04T04:09:38.003" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaktism#Worship&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;, Shaktism or Shaktidharma (Sanskrit: Śāktaṃ, शाक्तं; lit., &quot;doctrine of power&quot; or &quot;doctrine of the Goddess&quot;) is a denomination of Hinduism that focuses worship upon Shakti or Devi – as the absolute, ultimate Godhead. Its &lt;strong&gt;two largest&lt;/strong&gt; and most visible schools are :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaktism#Srikula:_family_of_Sri&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srikula&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (family of Sri), strongest in South India, the Srikula's best-known school is &lt;strong&gt;Srividya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Srikula tradition (sampradaya) focuses worship on Devi in the form of the goddess &lt;strong&gt;Lalita-Tripura Sundari&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaktism#Kalikula:_family_of_Kali&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kalikula&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (family of Kali), which prevails in northern and eastern India. The main deities of Kalikula are &lt;strong&gt;Kali&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Chandi&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Durga&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The major &lt;strong&gt;difference&lt;/strong&gt; between these two is Srividya largely views the Goddess as &quot;benign [saumya] and beautiful [saundarya]&quot; While in Kalikula's focus on &quot;terrifying [ugra] and horrifying [ghora]&quot; goddess forms such as Kali or Durga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2016-09-05T03:57:24.160" LastActivityDate="2016-09-05T03:57:24.160" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14753" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-04T10:40:44.380" Score="2" ViewCount="268" Body="&lt;p&gt;On Ganesh Chaturdhi, Puja called Varasidhi Vinayaka Vrat is performed. In the Vrat, the following stories are told.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Story regarding birth of Vinayaka and his head being replaced with that of Elephant.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Story of Ganesha cursing Moon for laughing at him&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wives of Rishis facing Neelapaninda When Swaaha devi took the form of Rishi patnis to please Agni Deva&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Syamantaka Mani story of Krishna due to looking at moon on Ganesh Chaturdhi day&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the Puranic origins of these stories? Which Puranas (and which chapters) mention these stories. And Which purana contains the procedure and Tithi of Ganesh chaturdhi Puja ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, it is a practice that whoever saw moon on Ganesh Chaturdhi should recite the following sloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सिंहः प्रसेनमवधीत्सिंहो जाम्बवता हतः। &#xA;सुकुमारक मारोदीस्तव ह्येष स्यमन्तकः॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the origin of this belief and which Purana has this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kindly help please.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-09-04T10:40:44.380" Title="What Puranas cover the stories of Ganesh Chaturdhi Puja" Tags="|puranas|ganesha|festivals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14754" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14544" CreationDate="2016-09-04T11:08:36.670" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karna was the son of Surya, the sun God and Kunti {the mother of the Pandavas and sister of Vasudeva, Krishna’s father}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per a divine plan, Kunti gave birth to Karna but could not raise him. Karna was raised by his foster parents viz  by Adiratha {the chief charioteer of king Dhritarashtra} and Radha, his wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though born with  kshatriya blood {being the son of Kunti}, he was known in society as a charioteer’s son {Sutaputra Karna}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna had  to struggle a lot, against the social stigma attached with his birth and a few other caste based problems, which were prevalent in the Dwapara Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna had to struggle a lot, to obtain training in weapon science {from esteemed Preceptors} because of this caste factor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And he also got cursed by his preceptor, Parashurama, because of this factor {as  he had hidden the details of his birth from him and did not tell him that he was a Suta, being the foster son of charioteer Adhiratha}. This curse seriously effected his prospects of success, during the fierce battle with Arjuna, during the subsequent Mahabharata war and Karna finally lost his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since thou hast, from avarice of weapons, behaved here with falsehood, therefore, O wretch, this Brahma weapon shalt not dwell in thy remembrance 1. Since thou art not a Brahmana, truly this Brahma weapon shall not, up to the time of thy death, dwell in thee when thou shalt be engaged with a warrior equal to thyself! 2 Go hence, this is no place for a person of such false behaviour as thou! On earth, no Kshatriya will be thy equal in battle.' Thus addressed by Rama, Karna came away, having duty taken his leave.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And again, it was the caste factor, which was the principal objection, raised, during the Swayamvara of Draupadi, and Karna could not take full part in that event.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna that foremost of all wielders of the bow went to where the bow was, and quickly raising it strung it and placed the arrows on the string. And beholding the son of Surya--Karna of the Suta tribe--like unto fire, or Soma, or Surya himself, resolved to shoot the mark, those foremost of bowmen--the sons of Pandu--regarded the mark as already shot and brought down upon the ground.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But seeing Karna, Draupadi loudly said, 'I will not select a Suta for my lord.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna’s story is the story of a heroic struggle of an individual, who was as bright as the Sun{his father} but despite proving his superlative merits in front of society,could not succeed in  changing  the societal mindset and the general consensus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna, achieved great fame when he  successfully conducted the Digvijaya Yatra, conquering all kings in every direction of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna was crowned the king of Anga. And, in prince Duryodhana, he found his greatest support-to make an emphatic statement in society viz that though born a Suta, he was indeed a  Digvijaya king who had conquered all the kingdoms in the world, and he was  very much at par with all the esteemed Kshatriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Good acts of Karna&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Karna had taken an Oath of never refusing anybody, who came and asked for his help, immediately after  completion of his  worship/prayers. When Indra {the father of Arjuna} came in disguise and asked him for his armour {kavach, kundal}, knowing fully well that it was Indra asking for his life-protection,Karna readily gave it to him, without asking for anything in return.This was a good act of Karna and well aligned with the Dharmic path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When Kunti came asking for a promise, not to kill her son Arjuna, Karna accepted her request, though not making the exact statement {Karna promised Kunti that she would still have five son, after the end of the war}. Karna kept his promise and never tried to kill any Pandava princes {except Arjuna}. This is another good act of Karna and in line with Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The intelligent Karna, with joined hands, then replied unto his trembling mother, saying, 'If I get thy four other sons even under my power, I will not slay them. Without doubt, O goddess, thou shalt continue to have five sons. If Karna be slain, with Arjuna, thou shalt have five!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna did made a request to Kunti that she should not tell the Pandavas that he was their elder brother. And thus he did not try to weaken the Pandavas psychologically before the war. Karna has displayed his very good side in this act also.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These three acts of Karna are the prominent good acts of Karna. Karna performed these acts with great conviction,and all three acts were well aligned with the Dharmic path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Sri Krishna disclosed to Karna the  details of his birth and destiny. But, he could not make full sense of that. And he chose to remain on  Duryodhana’s side {the Adharmic side in the Mahabharata}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a theological dimension, Karna’s story, is indeed the struggle of the Jivatman {Karna} failing short of reaching the Parmatman {Lord Sri Krishna}, due to various factors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Friendship with Duryodhana is an example, of a false sense of bondage with the Rajas Guna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a larger perspective, the very purpose of Karna’s birth, was to become the agent, who would  provoke a general war, which would ensure that all the Kshatriyas, cleansed by weapons would attain to regions of bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was disclosed by Celestial Sage Narada to Yudhishtra, after the Mahabharata War had ended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The details of the conversation between Yudhishtra and Narada, are given herewith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why, indeed, did the earth swallow up the wheels of his car at the time of battle? Why was my brother cursed? It behoveth thee to recite all this to me. I desire to hear everything from thee, O holy one! Thou art acquainted with everything in this world and thou knowest both the past and the future!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That foremost of speakers, the sage Narada, thus questioned, narrated everything about the manner in which he who was believed to be a Suta's son had been cursed (in former days).'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is even so, O mighty armed one, as thou sayest, O Bharata! Nothing could resist Karna and Arjuna in battle. This, O sinless one, that I am about to tell thee is unknown to the very gods. Listen to me, O mighty-armed one, as it befell in former days. How all the Kshatriyas, cleansed by weapons should attain to regions of bliss, was the question. For this, a child was conceived by Kunti in her maidenhood, capable of provoking a general war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference-Mahabharata,Book-8, Karna Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference links:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{1} &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08008.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{2} &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a001.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{3} &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a002.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-05-12T17:35:37.410" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14755" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-04T11:42:59.373" Score="14" ViewCount="2208" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pramana is defined as that which is the means of valid knowledge ( Prama)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general three Pramanas are accepted by all vedantins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prtyaksha ( Perception)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anumana ( Inference )&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sabda ( Verbal testimony)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition some school of thoughts accept more than three Pramanas . e.g. Mimamsakas as well as some advaitins accept Upamana (comparison), arthapatti ( Presumption) and anupalabdhi (non-apprehension)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Vedas ( revealed scriptures) are verbal testimony and are considered apaurusheya (not authored by any human, divine revelation). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is what are arguments for the validity of Vedas and it's Authoritativeness?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please quote from scriptures  and commentaries of various acharyas to support the validity and authority of Vedas being apaurusheya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastActivityDate="2021-04-19T16:03:17.053" Title="What is the validity of Authoritativeness of vedas?" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14756" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14755" CreationDate="2016-09-04T12:53:46.863" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Veda is Apaurusheya. All other Pramanas (means of knowledge) with different Aastika schools of thought accept Veda as the authoritative text and with different means arrive at the meaning of Vedas. But as for the validity of Veda (as far as I know) they do not talk. Because if we raise the question on the authority of Veda itself, then we cannot take anything as Pramana. But since you asked, I will quote only one sloka I know which I hope should serve the purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita, the Lord says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Shruti:smriti: mamaiva AgyA-yastAm ullanghya vartatE  AgyAcchEdI mama&#xA;  drOhI mama bhaktOpi na Vaishnava:” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sruti and Smruti are my commands. He who violates them is a traitor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt; I searched for the source of the above sloka which is not Bhagavadgita. So I am editing the answer to explain that it is difficult to prove the authority of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas are Apaurusheya meaning they are not created by or verbal testimonies of human being or any other being, but they are revealed to Rishis and Gods who were in penance. The Lord himself says in Gita as  तस्माच्छास्त्रं प्रमाणं ते कार्याकार्यव्यवस्थितौ (BG-Ch16-Verse24) meaning śāstra (vedas) is the means of knowledge for you (Arjuna), in the determination of what is to be and not to be done. You can take this as &lt;strong&gt;one very valid argument&lt;/strong&gt; because &lt;strong&gt;the lord himself declared that they are the authority for everything&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Sringeri HH Sri Bharati Teertha Mahaswami explains in his &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO-D8rRFfYY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Anugraha Bhashanam&lt;/a&gt; explains as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When we mention the term “Shastras”, we only refer to the Vedas. The&#xA;  word “Shastram” is derived from the verse – “शास्ति इति शास्त्रम्”.&#xA;  Only the Vedas can assertively say what needs to be done. It is very&#xA;  difficult to question what is mentioned in the Vedas. The Dharma&#xA;  Shastras mention that Vedas are the supreme authority on Dharma in the&#xA;  verse – वेदोऽखिलो धर्ममूलम्. Dharma refers to something that brings us&#xA;  good and Vedas list down the things that bring us good and the things&#xA;  that we are not expected to do. We should adhere to what is mentioned&#xA;  in the Shastras. The philosophers of yore have all stated – यच्छब्द&#xA;  आह, तदस्माकं प्रमाणम् – &lt;strong&gt;“Shabda”&lt;/strong&gt; here refers to the Vedas. What the&#xA;  Vedas state is the authority for us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a story in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.beezone.com/Ramana/tripura%20rahasya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tripura Rahasyam&lt;/a&gt; regarding the faith in the Shastras which goes like this&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once there lived a saint, by name Kausika, on the Sahya Hill near the&#xA;  banks of the Godavari. He was serene, pure, pious, having knowledge of&#xA;  the Supreme Truth. Several disciples attended on him. Once when the&#xA;  master had gone out, the disciples started to discuss philosophy,&#xA;  according to their own lights. There appeared on the scene a Brahmin&#xA;  of great intellect and wide learning, Soonga by name, who successfully&#xA;  refuted all their arguments by his skill in logic. He was a man&#xA;  without faith and without conviction, but an able debater. When they&#xA;  said that the truth must be ascertained by reference to some standard,&#xA;  he argued on the basis of an unending series of standards and refuted&#xA;  them. He rounded off his speech with the following: Listen, you&#xA;  Brahmins, standards are not applicable for ascertaining merits or&#xA;  demerits and so arriving at the truth. For erroneous standards are no&#xA;  good as tests. To start with, their correctness must be established.&#xA;  Other standards are required to check them. Are they in their turn&#xA;  infallible? Proceeding in this way, no finality can be reached.&#xA;  Therefore no tests are possible. Ascertainment of Truth being&#xA;  impossible without being tested, nothing can therefore be Truth. This&#xA;  enunciation itself cannot be true, nor the enunciator either. What&#xA;  then is the decision arrived at? That all are nothing, void. This too&#xA;  cannot be supported by reliable facts; hence, the statement that all&#xA;  are void ends in void also. Hearing his discourse, some of them were&#xA;  impressed by the force of Soonga’s logic and became scholiasts of the&#xA;  void.  They got lost in the maze of their philosophy. The&#xA;  discriminating ones among the hearers placed Soonga’s arguments before&#xA;  their master and were enlightened by him. Thus they gained peace and&#xA;  happiness. Therefore, beware of arid polemics parading as logic. Use&#xA;  it in the manner in which the holy books have done. That way lies&#xA;  salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The person narrating this story is a jivanmukta in this whose story is narrated by &lt;strong&gt;Lord Dattatreya himself to Lord Parasurama&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pramanas which were accepted by schools like Nyaya, vaiseshika, Mimamsa, Sankhya etc., were called āstika schools because they accept veda as authority and have different views regarding the ultimate truth. Also the whole Smritis, Puranas, Dharma Shastras came inorder to explain the heart of veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kanchi Paramachaya HH Jagadguru Sri Chandrasekhara Saraswati explains as (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/newlayout/template/hindudharma.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma -  The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Puranas are the magnifying glass of the Vedas. The principles and&#xA;  rules of dharma that are briefly dealt with in the Vedas are enlarged&#xA;  or elaborated upon in them in the form of stories. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part14/chap1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Magnifying Glass&#xA;  of the Vedas&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas are the root of this dharma, its fountainhead. But the rites&#xA;  and duties are not given in an orderly form in the Vedas, nor is the&#xA;  procedure for works laid down in detail. Of the Vedas that are&#xA;  infinite we have obtained only a very small part. And we do not&#xA;  comprehend fully the meaning of many of the passages even of this&#xA;  small part. The Dharmasutras (by Apastamba, Gautama and others) are&#xA;  terse statements and are so according to the very definition of the&#xA;  term &quot;sutras&quot;. The dharmasastras (by Manu, Yagnavalkya, Parasara and&#xA;  others) are called Smrtis and are in verse and detail in treatment.&#xA;  Their basis, however, is constituted by the Vedas. The function of&#xA;  Dharmasastra is to analyse and explicate the sutras of Kalpa which&#xA;  have to some extent systematised the Vedic rules and injunctions. If&#xA;  Kalpa gives instructions about the constructions of the Vedic altar,&#xA;  of houses, etc, Dharmasastra provides a code of conduct embracing all&#xA;  human activities. &quot;Smrti&quot; is what is remembered. &quot;Vismrti&quot; is&#xA;  insanity. Manu observes :&quot;There is Smrti for the Vedas in the form of&#xA;  notes. The sages who had a profound understanding of the Vedas have&#xA;  brought together the duties and rites (dharma and karma) mentioned in&#xA;  them in the form of notes and they constitute the Smrtis. They are&#xA;  written in a language that we can easily understand. Read them. They&#xA;  tell you about your in detail, the do's and don'ts, and how the rites&#xA;  are to be performed. &quot; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part15/chap1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Realising the Ideals of the Puranas&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The best testimony to the claim that the Smrtis are founded on the&#xA;  Vedas is provided by the words of mahakavi(great poet). The greatest&#xA;  of the mahakavis, Kalidasa, makes a reference to the Smrtis in his&#xA;  Raghuvamsam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tasyah khuranyasapavitrapamsum&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Apamsulanam dhuri kirtaniya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Margam manusyesvaradharmapatni&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sruterivartham Smrtiranvagacchat&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;-Raghuvamsam, 2. 2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So Sudhaksina followed in the &quot;hoof steps&quot; of Nandini like the Smrtis&#xA;  following the meaning of the Vedas. Also, like the Smrtis not going in&#xA;  the entire way with the Vedas, she did not go all the distance with&#xA;  the cow. The idea is that the Smrtis do not repeat all that is said in&#xA;  the Vedas. They are &quot;notes from memory&quot;, but they truthfully follow&#xA;  the Vedas in their meaning. They do not, of course, represent all&#xA;  thousands of mantras of the scriptures but, all the same, they tell us&#xA;  how to make use of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Sudhaksina with her pure antah-karana followed her husband and,&#xA;  without deviating even a little, walked along the path of the dust&#xA;  raised by Nandini's hoofs&quot;. Having said so much, Kalidasa thought he&#xA;  must bring in a good simile for Sudhaksina following the cow dust and&#xA;  it occurred to him in a flash: &quot;Like the Smrtis following faithfully&#xA;  the meaning of the Vedas. &quot; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part15/chap7.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Source of Smritis is the Vedas&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_giitaa/RGall.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ribhu Gita&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Siva says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रुतिरियं कर्तृत्ववादं वदत् meaning śruti (vedas) alone are the&#xA;  authority and guidance for all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, It is very difficult to prove the authority of the vedas as stated by Sringeri Jagadguru. Also if the schools whose sole existence was possible just because they were āstika gave arguments for vedas' authority, then how valid are their arguments ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So always Vedas are the pramana whose authority cannot be questioned (though it might sound harsh) and is difficult to be proved based on means like Pratyaksha, Anumana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="6986" LastEditDate="2016-09-15T01:01:34.563" LastActivityDate="2016-09-15T01:01:34.563" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14757" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14758" CreationDate="2016-09-04T16:38:44.380" Score="6" ViewCount="3297" Body="&lt;p&gt;The 10th day of the Mahabharata war, was very crucial for the Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The war strategy made on completion of the 9th day of the war, was aimed at attacking Grandsire Bhishma, paving the way, for his permanent exit from the battlefield on day 10th of the war{without killing him, since he had the boon of dying as per his choice}.&#xA;Arjuna was about to face the most difficult and crucial battle against Grandsire Bhishma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Arjuna pray to any God in particular during this crucial phase of the war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T10:02:53.950" Title="Arjuna seeks blessings of Goddess Durga" Tags="|mahabharata|worship|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14758" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14757" CreationDate="2016-09-04T16:42:00.953" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna prayed to Goddess Durga on the advice of Lord Krishna, before commencement of the war on the tenth day. And Goddess Durga answered Arjuna’s prayers and blessed him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The event is described as under:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Understanding (the measure of) Partha's devotion, Durga who is always graciously inclined towards mankind, appeared in the firmament and in the presence of Govinda, said these words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Within a short time thou shalt conquer thy foes, O Pandava. O invincible one, thou hast Narayana (again) for aiding thee. Thou art incapable of being defeated by foes, even by the wielder of the thunderbolt himself.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  prayer is commonly known as  Arjuna Krutha Durga Sthuthi.  The Arjuna Krita Durga Stuti is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीअर्जुन उवाच - &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्ते सिद्ध-सेनानि, आर्ये मन्दर-वासिनी । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कुमारी कालि कापालि, कपिले कृष्ण-पिंगले ॥१॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Arjuna said: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to the commander of Sidhas, who is noble and lives in forest of Mandara, Who is  the virgin Kali who wears  the skulls , who is brown , black and tawny. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   भद्र-कालि! नमस्तुभ्यं, महाकालि नमोऽस्तुते। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चण्डि चण्डे नमस्तुभ्यं, तारिणि वर-वर्णिनि ॥२॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I salute the gracious Kali , I salute the great Kali,&#xA;  I salute  the killer of violent Chanda ,&#xA;  Who  has blessed colour and makes  you cross. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कात्यायनि महा-भागे, करालि विजये जये । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिखि पिच्छ-ध्वज-धरे, नानाभरण-भूषिते ॥3॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh greatly valorous daughter of Katyayana ,&#xA;  Oh terrible achiever  of victory  and  triumph,&#xA;   Oh Goddess    who has    the flag of peacock feathers,&#xA;  And who is  decorated with different type of ornaments. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अटूट-शूल-प्रहरणे, खड्ग-खेटक-धारिणे । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गोपेन्द्रस्यानुजे ज्येष्ठे, नन्द-गोप-कुलोद्भवे ॥४॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O you that wields an awful spear, the holder of sword and shield, O you that were born as the younger sister of the chief of cow-herds (Lord Krishna), O eldest sibling, born in the family of the cowherd Nanda! &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महिषासृक्-प्रिये नित्यं, कौशिकि पीत-वासिनि । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अट्टहासे कोक-मुखे, नमस्तेऽस्तु रण-प्रिये ॥५॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O you who are always fond of buffalo's blood, born of Kusika's clan,&#xA;  dressed in yellow robes, having assuming the face of a wolf you&#xA;  devoured the Asuras! I bow to you who are fond of battle! &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उमे शाकम्भरि श्वेते, कृष्णे कैटभ-नाशिनि । &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  हिरण्याक्षि विरूपाक्षि, सुधू्राप्ति नमोऽस्तु ते ॥६॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I salute Uma  ,  Shakambari, the white one  , the black one  , one who killed Kaitabha,&#xA;  One who has golden eyes, one who has slanted eyes and one has great eyes of smoke colour. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वेद-श्रुति-महा-पुण्ये, ब्रह्मण्ये जात-वेदसि । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जम्बू-कटक-चैत्येषु, नित्यं सन्निहितालये ॥७॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are Veda, you are sruthi, you do  greatly blessed deeds,&#xA;  You are the spirit of Brahma , you were born from Vedas,&#xA;  You are daily present in the temple with rose apple tree. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वं ब्रह्म-विद्यानां, महा-निद्रा च देहिनाम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्कन्ध-मातर्भगवति, दुर्गे कान्तार-वासिनि॥८॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are  the knowledge about Brahman among knowledges.&#xA;  You are the great sleep among the living beings,&#xA;  You are the Bhagwathi who is the mother of Skanda,&#xA;  And you  live on mountains which are inaccessible. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्वाहाकारः स्वधा चैव, कला काष्ठा सरस्वती । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सावित्री वेद-माता च, तथा वेदान्त उच्यते ॥९॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You the sound of Swaha, Swadha the food of manes,&#xA;  You are the superior time, You are Saraswati ,&#xA;  You are Savitri , the mother of Vedas ,&#xA;  And you are also  the inner soul of the Vedas. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्तुतासि त्वं महा-देवि विशुद्धेनान्तरात्मा । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जयो भवतु मे नित्यं, त्वत्-प्रसादाद् रणाजिरे ॥१०॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh Great  Goddess , I am praying with a pure and clean heart,&#xA;  Let victory be mine daily  by your blessing , Oh goddess of the battle field. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कान्तार-भय-दुर्गेषु, भक्तानां चालयेषु च । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नित्यं वससि पाताले, युद्धे जयसि दानवान् ॥११॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh Goddess    who leads your devotees through  thorny fearful mountains,&#xA;  Oh Goddess you win over the asuras who daily live   in the nether world. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वं जम्भिनी मोहिनी च, माया ह्रीः श्रीस्तथैव च । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सन्ध्या प्रभावती चैव, सावित्री जननी तथा ॥१२॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are the destroyer, the enchanter , the illusion  the chants Hree and Shree&#xA;  You are the dusk, you are bearer of luster , Savithri and also the mother. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तुष्टिः पुष्टिर्धृतिदीप्तिश्चन्द्रादित्य-विवर्धनी । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भूतिर्भूति-मतां संख्ये, वीक्ष्यसे सिद्ध-चारणैः ॥१३॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are contentment, health , speed  and luster, You increase the effectiveness  of Sun and Moon,&#xA;   You are  wealth of those who prosper  and numerous Sidhas and Charanas look forward to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference:-Mahabharata, Book-6, Bhishma Parva,Bhagvat Gita Parva:- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06023.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Link for the prayer:- &lt;a href=&quot;http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/g191.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/g191.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-10-01T10:02:53.950" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T10:02:53.950" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14759" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8671" CreationDate="2016-09-05T04:31:37.970" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesha&#xA;His 2 wives,  Riddhi, &amp;amp; Siddhi, &#xA;2 sons, Shubh &amp;amp; Laabh&#xA;1 Daughter Santoshi &#xA;Tushti ( Shubh's Wife )&#xA;Pushti ( Labh's Wife )&#xA;2 grandsons, Aamod and Pramod&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7589" LastActivityDate="2016-09-05T04:31:37.970" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14760" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14816" CreationDate="2016-09-05T05:41:21.927" Score="9" ViewCount="4120" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can Prarabdha be diluted with these two factors :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ram Nam Japam :-&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With Ram Nam Japam can bad consequences in the future be avoided ?&#xA;I have heared , If person is going to have bad accident and going to loose his hands as per prarabdha , then if he is continuously doing Ram Nam Japam , then that prarabdha gets diluted and just he will fall from Bed and his hand will get fracture instead of loosing the hand or If more diluted then he will just face that accident thing in dream while sleeping.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.Good Kriyaman Karma :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this case I want to ask :-&#xA;If a person does something wrong or bad (eg. Killing innocent animal) in this life. And if he realizes he has done something really very wrong. But with the law of karma definitely he has to face its consequences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then for repentance if he starts doing some really good kriyaman karmas like charity , then does his prarabdha gets diluted?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastActivityDate="2016-09-08T16:31:33.563" Title="Can prarabdha be diluted by 1. Ram Nam Japam 2. Good Kriyaman Karma?" Tags="|belief|gods|karma|japa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14762" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-05T14:48:56.880" Score="5" ViewCount="7361" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesha is always seen with a snake wrapped around his big fat belly.According to the Ganesha Purana,the serpent Vasuki is wrapped around his neck. Other depictions of snakes include use as a sacred thread.It looks that serpent is a common feature in Ganesha murthi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is story/connection between Lord Ganesha and snake?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-14T05:44:14.917" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T05:44:14.917" Title="Why is Lord Ganesha depicted with a snake around his belly?" Tags="|puranas|ganesha|naga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14763" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-05T15:36:58.867" Score="2" ViewCount="751" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Vidya is a Shakta sect which believes that the goddess Lalita Tripurasundari is supreme.  Now the Varivasya Rahasya is a work by the 18th-century Sri Vidya philosopher Bhaskararaya explaining the meaning of the Panchadasi mantra, the core mantra of the Sri Vidya sect described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://divinegracefoundation.blogspot.com/2015/04/srividya-mantra-king-among-mantras.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt;.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rwzZV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Varivasya Rahasya, Bhaskararaya explains the significance of certain sounds in the Panchadasi mantra by quoting the following verse from a Shakta Agama called the Yogini Hridaya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rudra, Ishvara, and Sadashiva are indicated by the three Bindus.  Shanti, Shakti and Shambhu are signified by the three Nadas.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9291/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, in the worldview of the Shaiva Agamas, the hierarchy of gods from lowest to highest is Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheshwara, and Sadashiva.  So I assume the &quot;Rudra, Ishvara, and Sadashiva&quot; part is a reference to the last three names on that list.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what form of Shiva is being referred to by the name &quot;Shambhu&quot;?  Does the worldview of the Shakta Agamas add an additional being named Shambhu to the five gods delineated in the Shaiva Agamas?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know if the Yogini Hridaya has more information on Shambhu?  I don't have an English translation of the Yogini Hridaya, but &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/YoginiHridaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is a Hindi translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2018-08-27T08:23:47.060" Title="What form of Shiva is Shambhu in the Shakta worldview?" Tags="|shiva|shaivism|agamas|shaktism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14764" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14755" CreationDate="2016-09-05T15:38:34.970" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;To be a follower of the Sanatana Dharma (Hindu) means that you accept the authority of the Vedas. If you do not accept the authority of the Vedas, then you are heterodox, not a follower of the Sanatana Dharma. The Vedas do not directly say that they are the authority; what they do say is that they are directly from God (Brahman) and that all knowledge comes through them. Past Vedantic commentators have made arguments in favor of Brahman against the other schools extensively, but on the Vedas themselves, the arguments are on their eternity and as coming from Brahman. As an example, see Chapter 2 of the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;  (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; where extensive arguments are made on the existence of Brahman against the other schools (Samkaya, Buddhist, Nyaya, etc.).    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But first let me address your beginning comments on pramanas. The list of pramanas is partially valid (no reference is offered as to why you state that the three mentioned are agreed upon by all Vedantists, nor a reference as to the others not agreed upon by all). In fact there are arguments made by Vedantists against including inference as a separate pramana (see &lt;em&gt;Vedanta Paribhasa&lt;/em&gt; pages 48-49, available &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Vedanta%20Paribhasa%20of%20Dharmaraja%20Adhvarindra%20-%20Swami%20Madhavananda%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In fact the paramanas included in the list are those of the Nyaya school (see &lt;em&gt;Bhasa Pariccheda&lt;/em&gt; by Visvanatha-Nyaya-Pancanana, verse 52. Commenting on this verse he quotes Gautama’s &lt;em&gt;Nyaya-Sutras&lt;/em&gt; I.i.3 – “Perception, inference, comparison, and verbal testimony are the means.”). Your list is thus of the Nyaya school (the fourth, comparison, Upamana, is not in your list), and not Vedantists - but it allows you to segue into what appears to be a valid question. Pramanas have no bearing on the question you have at hand. Pramanas are ways that the mind gains knowledge, lower knowledge – “knowledge that is limited by the mental states in the form of particular objects” (commentary of Swami Madhavananda in the &lt;em&gt;Vedanta Paribhasa&lt;/em&gt;). Your statement that the Vedas are 'verbal testimony' (&quot;Now, Vedas (revealed scriptures) are verbal testimony...&quot;) is incorrect, but your opening statements about pramanas makes it appear as a valid question. The juxtaposition of the word valid to knowledge and the word validity to Vedas is also misleading as it gives the reader the impression that there is a ‘valid knowledge’ that is applicable to the Vedas in the same sense as you use the term valid knowledge as a pramana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas are not verbal testimony. The Vedas are the revealed word of God. The Vedas are Verbal Authority. The &lt;em&gt;Mundaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (I. i. 1-6) says Brahma imparts to his lineage the higher knowledge (knowledge of Brahman) and lower knowledge (inclusive of the Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva Vedas - see verse 5). Higher knowledge refers to actual realization of Brahman and does not imply knowledge gained through our minds. Sankara says in his commentary on verse 5 that the Upanishads are not included in the lower knowledge as the knowledge imparted by the Upanishads is realization of Brahman. The &lt;em&gt;Katha Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (II.iii.15) says: “When all the knots of the heart are destroyed, even while a man is alive, then a mortal becomes immortal. This much alone is the instruction (of all the Upanishads).” Meaning that the sole intent of the Upanishads is to impart the higher knowledge of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 1.3.28-30 also addresses the eternity of the Vedas. In his commentary to verse 29, Sankara quotes &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt; 10.71.3 – “By means of their past good deeds (the priests) attained the capacity to understand the Vedas; (then) they found them dwelling in the Rishis.” And in verse 28, Sankara’s commentary quotes &lt;em&gt;Manu Smriti&lt;/em&gt; 1.21 – “The several names, actions, and conditions of all things He shaped in the beginning from the words of the Vedas.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 1.1.3-4 also addresses that Brahman can be known only through scripture and that the main purport of all Vedanta texts is Brahman. In his commentary on verse 3, Sankara says “…Brahman has no form etc. and so cannot be cognized by direct perception [&lt;em&gt;your first pramana&lt;/em&gt;]. Again, in the absence of inseparable characteristics, as smoke is of fire. It cannot be established by inference [&lt;em&gt;your second pramana&lt;/em&gt;] or analogy (Upamana) [&lt;em&gt;the fourth pramana of the Nyaya school&lt;/em&gt;]. Therefore It can be known only through the scriptures…”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2016-09-07T09:03:13.847" LastActivityDate="2016-09-07T09:03:13.847" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14765" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-05T20:58:37.350" Score="8" ViewCount="8293" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chitrahuti (चित्राहुति)&lt;/strong&gt; Or &quot;Chitravati&quot;, is a procedure of keeping small amount of food out side of the plate on the floor  , as offering to &quot;Chitra ,Chitragupta and Yama (चित्रा , चित्रगुप्त , यम)  and the gods who govern elements of nature , before starting of our meals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are -:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) In which  Scriptures of Hinduism this Chitrahuti  procedure is mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Are their  any puranic stories associated with this Chitrahuti procedure?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-04T08:17:55.660" LastActivityDate="2017-01-06T05:11:09.720" Title="Which Scriptures mention &quot;Chitrahuti&quot; (चित्राहुति) or &quot;Chitravati&quot; procedure which we carry out before starting of our meals?" Tags="|scripture|culture|tradition|food|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14768" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14706" CreationDate="2016-09-06T05:58:53.250" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Taking the liberty to answer without citation - as this is about essence/core message.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Almost) Every Hindu text is written in such a way that it can be applied to various situations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the essence of Ramayana can be told in a paragraph - I am sure, we wouldn't have so many versions of Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All those great poets re-wrote Ramayana, as how they interpret/understood Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, each one understands it differently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For e.g. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana is as much the story of Rama as much is it of Sita as much it is of Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Who is Raavana&lt;/em&gt; : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Raavana is not just emperor of Lanka, He is the greatest scholar with expertise in almost all the arts/sciences known to mankind - An extra extra ordinary Individual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is also the world's greatest warrior - who could go to pathala loka (again some people infer pathala loka as the kingdom underneath water/sea and some people infer it as other part of earth - which is America's today) and won the kingdom all by himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Who is Rama&lt;/em&gt; : &#xA;A Common Man (though born a Prince, was leading the life of commoner in a forest).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That way,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramayana is a perfect portrayal of how a scholar - master of all sciences can loose everything for not controlling senses (being a pervert here) , that too against a common man (Ram) - when his wife (Sita) 's modesty was under attack.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;if you look this part alone from a different view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Who helped Rama&lt;/em&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jatayu (Eagle),&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vanaras (Monkeys/Apes),&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Samudra (Sea/Ocean),&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vibheeshana (Brother of Raavana),&lt;br&gt;&#xA;....  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You remember the story about the little squirrel :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When you are on the side of Truth &amp;amp; if you want something badly - every thing in Nature will help you achieve/success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even a common man can go fight against mightiest emperor and win.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am sure, if you read it once - you will come up with thousand such messages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7017" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-09-06T07:34:12.450" LastActivityDate="2016-09-06T07:34:12.450" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14769" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-06T06:14:19.473" Score="5" ViewCount="257" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sloka is to be found &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/what-is-a-bijamantra.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मंत्राणां पल्‍लवो वासो । मंत्राणां प्रणव: शिर: । शिर: पल्‍लव संयुक्तो&#xA;  । कामधुक्‌ भवेत्‌ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The meaning: The letters or words in a mantra constitute its body and&#xA;  the Om at its beginning, is the head. If both the head and the body&#xA;  are present then with that mantra one’s aspirations are fulfilled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By origin i mean scriptural origin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, as one can see this info is related to my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10550/is-reciting-vedic-mantras-without-being-preceded-by-om-condemned-somewhere-in&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question .Because this sloka clearly states that a mantra if recited without OM at its start bears no fruit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-09-06T14:38:45.850" Title="What is the origin of the Sloka &quot;Mantraanaam Pallavo Vaaso...&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|mantras|shloka|om|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14773" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13904" CreationDate="2016-09-06T09:30:14.047" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyananda_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Swami Satyanada&lt;/a&gt; in his book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Surya-Namaskar-Swami-Satyananda-Saraswati/dp/8185787352&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Surya Namaskar - A technique of Solar Visualization&lt;/a&gt; says that Sun has different name in each Rashi and these names are chosen for Surya Namaskara Mantras. Sri Swami Satyanada  was disciple of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sivananda_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Sri Swami Satyanada says in Chapter 6 of this book. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Every year the sun passes through twelve different phases, known as&#xA;  the signs of the zodiac in Western astrology, and as the rashis in&#xA;  Hindu astrology. &lt;strong&gt;According to Hindu astrology each rashi has specific&#xA;  attributes or moods, and in each of these twelve moods the sun is&#xA;  given a different name. These twelve names comprise the twelve sun&#xA;  mantras, which are to be mentally repeated in their respective order&#xA;  in conjunction with the twelve movements of surya namaskara.&lt;/strong&gt; These sun&#xA;  mantras are not merely names of the sun, every sound syllable&#xA;  contained within them is the vehicle of a basic eternal energy&#xA;  (shakti) represented by the sun itself. By repetition and&#xA;  concentration on these mantras, the whole mental structure will be&#xA;  benefited and uplifted.  Although these mantras do not require&#xA;  intellectual understanding, a translation of their meaning is given&#xA;  below for those with an enquiring mind, as well as for the more&#xA;  spiritually inclined who wish to use the mantras as a form of &#xA;  attunement with the source of spiritual illumination symbolized by the&#xA;  sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2016-09-06T09:30:14.047" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14774" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-09-06T11:02:37.213" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-09-06T11:02:37.213" LastActivityDate="2016-09-06T11:02:37.213" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14775" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-09-06T11:02:37.213" Score="0" Body="Questions about Shaktism (Sanskrit: शाक्तं, literally doctrine of power) a domination that focus worship on Shakti (शक्ति) as the absolute " OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-09-06T11:25:15.667" LastActivityDate="2016-09-06T11:25:15.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14779" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4064" CreationDate="2016-09-06T13:50:52.023" Score="26" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q. I hear these terms Dvaita, Advaita, Vishistdvaita, Shuddhadvaita, and may be any other XYZdvaita, etc in most of the questions but I am not very sure what do they refer to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are six &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_philosophy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Darshan&lt;/a&gt; (षडदर्शन) i.e philosophy in Hinduism which are Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among these six schools, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;(वेदांत) is very popular and has it's root in Veda/Upanishad (Shruti). Following (the terms you've mentioned) are the &lt;strong&gt;sub-schools&lt;/strong&gt; of Vedanta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/69zOO.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/69zOO.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q. Are these some communities driven by a particular group of people just like we have Valmiki-samaj, etc or they are just thinkings/philosophies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The founder or chief exponent of these schools (i.e philosophies) are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&#xA;┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓&#xA;┃ Advaita         ┃ Adi Shankaracharya ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Vishishtadvaita ┃ Ramanujacharya     ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Dvaita          ┃ Madhvacharya       ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Shuddhadvaita   ┃ Vallabhacharya     ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Achintya        ┃ Chaitanya          ┃&#xA;┃ Bhedabheda      ┃ Mahaprabhu         ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Dvaitadvaita    ┃ Nimbarkacharya     ┃&#xA;┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛&#xA;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And followers of respected school or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acharya#In_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aacharyas&lt;/a&gt; propagate their philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q. What is the difference between them and whether people following them do/perform anything in different manners&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vedanta is a spiritual philosophy which think-over following three elements and relationship between them:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt; (ब्रह्म)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80tman_%28Hinduism%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atman&lt;/a&gt; (आत्मा)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;World/Universe (जगत)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Different Vedanta school/philosophy explains the relation among above three entities/elements differently as 1.Identical(अद्वैत) [non-duality] 2.Different(द्वैत) [duality]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually the answer to the question &lt;code&gt;Difference between them&lt;/code&gt; is &lt;code&gt;Too Broad&lt;/code&gt;; Though visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta#Schools_of_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Schools of Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; to get the overview of these different philosophies and respected article (on each school) to know the principle, thoughts and practices followed by respected schools.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Overview of different Vedanta philosophies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Advaita&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Advaita, there is only one absolute and ultimate truth - Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्म सत्यं जगत् मिथ्या&lt;/strong&gt; which means only Brahman is real and universe is unreal. Universe is appeared/realize due to ignorance (अज्ञान/अविद्या) only [Snake &amp;amp; Rope Analogy], it is unreal and just like dream. After attaining the jnana and satya universe/world doesn't exist.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;जीवो ब्रह्मैव नापरः&lt;/strong&gt; which means ultimately there is no difference between Jiva (Ataman) and Brahman. The individuality of soul is also due to ignorance and after attaining jnana the non-duality (&lt;strong&gt;अद्वैत&lt;/strong&gt;) of Ataman and Brahman is realized.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Advaita emphasise/insist on self-realization/jnana (&lt;strong&gt;आत्मज्ञान&lt;/strong&gt;)&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Vishishtadvaita&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Vishishtadvaita, Brahman (Paramatma/Sriman Narayana) is the supreme and inner soul of universe as well as jivatma. Universe and Jivatma have body-soul (Sharira-Shariri) relationship with Brahman. Jivatma and Universe is the body and essential part of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Universe is not unreal&lt;/strong&gt;, it is the transformation of Brahman and Brahman (in its pure form) dwells inside it. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jivatma (individual soul) and Brahman (supreme soul) are different&lt;/strong&gt; and Brahman dwells inside Jivatma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is known as qualified (&lt;strong&gt;विशिष्ट&lt;/strong&gt;) non-dualism (&lt;strong&gt;अद्वैत&lt;/strong&gt;) as it asserts the non-duality of Jivatma and Brahman in qualified way. (i.e Jivatma and Paramatma doesn't exist differently - Paramatama always dwells inside Jivatma - both can't exist separately. But Jivatma and Parmatma are (not same) different.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vishishtadvaita emphasise/insist on Complete surrender (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saranagati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sharanagati&lt;/a&gt; /&lt;strong&gt;शरणांगति&lt;/strong&gt;) to Vishnu.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Shuddhadvaita&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Suddhadvaita, Brahman without maya is the cause for Universe. Maya is not unreal but it is shakti (energy) of Brahman. Apparent manifestation or dvaita prapanch (द्वैत प्रपंच) is not due to maya or unreal but it is the wish of Brahman/Krishna instead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jagat (universe/world) and Samsara (metempsychosis) are different&lt;/strong&gt;. Jagat is manifestation (without relation with maya) of Brahman and is &lt;strong&gt;real&lt;/strong&gt;. Samsara is due to ignorance/nescience of real nature and is &lt;strong&gt;unreal&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;code&gt;samsar has Uttpatti origination and Lay destruction; whereas jagat has only Avirbhav manifestation and Tirobhav disappearance&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jiva is not different from Brahman as it is a &lt;strong&gt;portion/part of Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; (not reflation). &lt;strong&gt;The relation between Brahman and Jiva is like fire and spark&lt;/strong&gt;. Jiva and world emanate from Brahman and conceal/absorb in Brahman. Jiva is not Brahman as it is in later condition (separation from Brahman).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shuddhadvaita emphasis/insist on Bhakti and the path is called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushtimarg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pushtimarg&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;पुष्टिमार्ग&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://pushtishashthpeeth.org/?page_id=188&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Suddhadvaita Brahmavad&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pushtishashthpeeth.org/?page_id=198&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jagatswarup&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://pushtishashthpeeth.org/?page_id=198&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jivaswarup&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vallabhkankroli.org/pushtimarg_shuddha-advaita-brahmvaad.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Introduction to Suddhadvaita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Dvaita&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Dvaita, Universe and Jiva are separate from Brahman/Vishnu. All these three elements (Jiva, Universe and Brahman) are &lt;strong&gt;real&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;different (द्वैत)&lt;/strong&gt; from each other.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are &lt;strong&gt;five types of difference&lt;/strong&gt; described between 1.Jiva-Ishwar, 2.Jiva-Jiva(Individual souls), 3.Jiva-Jagat, 4.Ishwar-Jagat and 5.Jagat-Jagat(Matter-Matter)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brhaman/Saguna-Ishwar is creator-foster-destroyer (governor and controller) of Universe. Jiva/Atman and Brahman/Vishnu is &lt;strong&gt;completely different and eternal&lt;/strong&gt;. Madhvacharya classified Atman into three categories (Nitya, Mukta and Baddha) which is different from all other beliefs/philosophies. Devotion to Vishnu leads to Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dvaita also emphasis/insist on Bhakti (devotion and surrender) to Vishnu.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Dvaitadvaita&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Dvaitadvaita, Brahman is the highest reality and nothing is superior to Brahman.Brahman is material and efficient cause (creator-maintainer-destroyer) of universe. Jiva and Brahman can be considered different and non-different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is Dharmin-Dharma (धर्मी-धर्म) nature-relation between &lt;strong&gt;Jiva and jnana(ज्ञान)&lt;/strong&gt;. Just like sun is both light and source of light, Jiva is knower, can be knowledge and the processor of knowledge at the same time. Jiva is Knower(ज्ञाता), the doer(कर्ता) and the experiencer(भोक्ता). Ishwar is Controller(नियंता), filler(भर्ता) and witness(साक्षी).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jagat is of three different kinds&lt;/strong&gt; viz. prakrta(प्राकृत), aprakrta(अप्राकृत), and kala(काल). Prakrat forms Prakriti/Jagat, Aprakrut forms the body of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jiva and world are part of Brahman. Brahman transforms (as of just his nature) into chit (sentient) and achit (insentient) world and also remains in his true nature or nirvikar. Thus universe and Jiva are karya(work/effect) of Brahman. they are &lt;strong&gt;different(द्वैत) and also identical(अद्वैत)&lt;/strong&gt; to their karan(cause) Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dvaitadvaita emphasis/insist on Bhakti as well as Jnana.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Achintya Bhedabheda&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Achintya Bhedabheda refers to &lt;strong&gt;inconceivable&lt;/strong&gt;(अचिन्त्य) oneness(अभेद) and difference(भेद). (The nature of relationship between Jiva and Brahman is inconceivable to human mind). According to Achintya Bhedabheda, Brahman is &lt;strong&gt;simultaneously one with and different&lt;/strong&gt; from his creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahman/Krishna (in his pure form) is separate from his creation - simultaneously creation is never separated from Brahman. It is explained something like &quot;As the spider sends forth and draws in its thread, as plants grow on the earth, as hair grows on the head and the body of a living man—so does everything in the universe arise from the Imperishable&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sankaracharya.org/mundaka_upanishad.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mundaka Upanishad 1.1.7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The relationship between Brahman and Jivatman is like Sun and Sunshine&lt;/strong&gt;. Qualitatively the Sun and the Sunshine are not different, but as quantities they are very different. Similarly Jivatman and Brahman/Krishna is are of similar quality but there is a vast difference in quantity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu emphasis/insist on Bhakti (like of Radha) to Krishna and attaining the devotion of Krishna leads to Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14698/277&quot;&gt;Don't get confused!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ॐ शांतिः शांतिः शांतिः।&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q.&lt;/strong&gt; Do we also have some texts from Vedas or Puranas which divide them. If there is then please provide examples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no particular text that divide them, in-fact these schools divide based on the interpretation of Vedantic-texts. Let me tell you there are &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;three basic texts which are known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthanatrayi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prashthanatrayi&lt;/a&gt; of Vedanta which are:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukhya_Upanishads&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mukhya Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavad Gita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutra&lt;/a&gt; (ब्रह्म सूत्र)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Acharyas mentioned above wrote &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhashya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhashya&lt;/a&gt; on these Prashtanatrayi to explain, establish and promote respected philosophy&lt;/em&gt;. Here &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Sutra&lt;/strong&gt; is considered very important as it summarise and systematize the philosophical and spiritual ideas in the Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to wikipedia:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These sutras were meant to synthesize the diverse teachings of the Upanishads. However, &lt;strong&gt;the cryptic nature of aphorisms of the Brahma Sutras have resulted in the formation of numerous Vedanta schools, each interpreting the texts in its own way and producing its own commentary&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3EO9D.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3EO9D.png&quot; alt=&quot;screenshot&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%89%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B0_%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BE&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bharatdiscovery&lt;/a&gt;: (Translated into English)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Requirement of Bhashya&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is not so simple that one can understand the meaning and consistency as all texts are in the form of subtle and obscure Sutra. Guru used to explain idea of Upanishads with the help of these Sutras. Its complete knowledge was lost eventually and the necessity of writing Bhashya arose. The oldest Bhashya which is prevailing/popular and available is of Shankaracharya. After Shankara other Aacharyas have also written Bhashya on Brahma Sutra in accordance/favour and to support and prove their doctrine. The Bhashya of Ramanujacharya, Madvacharya, Nimbarkacharya and Vallabhacharya are popular. Notwithstanding the similarities to a certain degree among doctrines of Aacharyas, they are much different. It is very difficult to judge the own views of Badarayana and (to judge) which Aacharya's Bhashya supports and suitable to that becuase Sutras are very obscure and subtle. In addition to this problem, there is also one related problem that is: What are the philosophical views of those sayings/sentances of Upanishads which are coordinated in Brahma Sutra, What Badarayana has understood/explained and what Bhashyakara has understood for that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: similarity of used terms:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jiva = Individual Soul = Jivatma = Chitt(चित्त) = Sentient&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jagat = World/Universe = Achitt(चित्त) = Insentient&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T16:26:39.843" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T16:26:39.843" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14780" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14760" CreationDate="2016-09-06T21:23:59.257" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Question you raised falls back to fundamentals of Karma Siddantha. The Answer is Yes and No. prarabdha is the result of you past karma which is bound to give a result in certain way. I would like to start with second question,Every deed is independent and we cannot neutralize bad deeds with good deeds (basic of karma siddantha). Coming to Prarabdha, yes it can be altered. Prarabdha is result of your karma which is bound to act in certain way and the way may be altered but you need undergo full course of result.&#xA;Even Devi Sita, Lakshmana and devotees like Ramadasa have all suffered their past bad deeds despite being great Rama nama japa paranyas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prarabdha, may be altered i.e. instead of facing all the suffering at once you be getting them in courses, but it cant be removed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4859" LastActivityDate="2016-09-06T21:23:59.257" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14781" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-07T00:31:08.503" Score="7" ViewCount="878" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whether &amp;quot;Krishna stealing clothes of gopis&amp;quot; is mentioned in Vyasa's &amp;quot;Mahabharat&amp;quot;? in which chapter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If not, then which is the oldest Purana in which this event is mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7604" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2022-01-10T23:47:08.033" LastActivityDate="2022-01-10T23:47:08.033" Title="where is the first reference of Krishna stealing clothes of gopis - esp. in mahabharat?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14782" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8531" CreationDate="2016-09-07T03:14:09.703" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The good thing about Sikh religion is you can practice is without converting to Sikhism.Many of the slokas of famous hinuds and muslims religious leader has been included in guru granth sahib. During the time of guru Tegh bahadur, lot of his disciples were hindus who would listen to this teaching but were never asked to convert to Sikhs. Kashmiri hindus were being forced by the mughal emperor to convert to Islam. This really was bothering kashmiri hindus and they went to Guru Tegh Bahadur for help. Guru Tegh Bahadur agreed to help the hindus and said the solution to this problem is very easy. Upon his advice, group of hindus went to the emperor and said if he could convert one man to Islam, then all the Hindus would agree to accept Islam as their faith. The emperor got very happy with this and asked Guru Tegh bahadur to come to his court. Upon his arrival, emperor asked him to convert to Islam and he will be rewarded with money,palace and many wifes, but guru refused. This really angered emperor and he ordered to kill guru Tegh bahadur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7532" LastActivityDate="2016-09-07T03:14:09.703" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14783" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-07T04:09:28.287" Score="2" ViewCount="1326" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know Dhakshinamurthi is a form of Shiva. Jupiter is one of the nine planets(navagraha). But I often find in texts and in the internet these two names are used interchangeably like there is no difference between them. From my understanding Jupiter is Brahaspathi a sage who is a rival of Shukracharya. Is there any relationship between Shiva and the guru (Jupiter ) ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-07-16T04:56:17.950" LastActivityDate="2019-07-16T04:57:47.027" Title="Dhakshinamurthi and Jupiter" Tags="|shiva|brihaspati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14784" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14781" CreationDate="2016-09-07T05:52:08.317" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Lord Krishna stealing clothes of Gopis is not mentioned in Mahabharata. However, this event is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/22&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimada Bhagavatam, Canto 10&lt;/a&gt; in details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/22/7&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.22.7&lt;/a&gt; — One day they came to the riverbank and, putting aside their clothing as they had done before, happily played in the water while singing the glories of Kṛṣṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/22/8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.22.8&lt;/a&gt; — Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and master of all masters of mystic yoga, was aware of what the gopīs were doing, and thus He went there surrounded by His young companions to award the gopīs the perfection of their endeavor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/22/9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.22.9&lt;/a&gt; — Taking the girls’ garments, He quickly climbed to the top of a kadamba tree. Then, as He laughed loudly and His companions also laughed, He addressed the girls jokingly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-07T05:52:08.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14785" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14786" CreationDate="2016-09-07T07:26:27.703" Score="14" ViewCount="33419" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/others-tvameva_mata_ca_pita_tvameva.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;famous verse&lt;/a&gt; as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्वमेव माता च पिता त्वमेव ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्वमेव बन्धुश्च सखा त्वमेव ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्वमेव विद्या द्रविणम् त्वमेव ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्वमेव सर्वम् मम देव देव ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You Truly are my Mother And You Truly are my Father .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You Truly are my Relative And You Truly are my Friend.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You Truly are my Knowledge and You Truly are my Wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You Truly are my All, My God of Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know its origin and is there any specific deity addressed in it or it is a general Shloka that can be dedicated to any God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2023-11-03T15:52:08.747" Title="Details about the verse: &quot;Tvameva Mata Ca Pita Tvameva&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|mantras|shloka|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14786" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14785" CreationDate="2016-09-07T08:12:26.943" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sloka is from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Pandava_Gita&quot;&gt;Pandava Gita&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was said by Gandhari &amp;amp; addressed to Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gandhari Uvacha:- (Queen Gandhari said:- )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thwameva matha cha pitha thwameva, Thwameva bhandusha , sakha&#xA;  thwameva, Thwameva vidhya, dravinam thwameva, Thwameva sarvam mama&#xA;  deva deva. 27&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of my god of gods, you are my mother and father, You are my relations,&#xA;  you are my friend, You are my knowledge as well as wealth, And you are&#xA;  everything for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-09-07T08:12:26.943" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14787" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11173" CreationDate="2016-09-07T09:50:37.180" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp083.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana, Book 3, Chapter 9&lt;/a&gt; describes about the four orders of life: Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa. In Vanaprastha, one prepare himself for Sanyasa, so I am mentioning all the properties of these two Ashramas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Description of Vanaprastha Ashrama&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the householder, after performing the acts incumbent on his condition, arrives at the decline of life, let him consign his wife to the care of his sons, and go himself to the forests. Let him there subsist upon leaves, roots, and fruit; and suffer his hair and beard to grow, and braid the former upon his brows; and sleep upon the ground: his dress must be made of skin or of Káśa or Kuśa grasses; and he must bathe thrice a day; and he must offer oblations to the gods and to fire, and treat all that come to him with hospitality: he must beg alms, and present food to all creatures: he must anoint himself with such unguents as the woods afford; and in his devotional exercises he must be endurant of heat and cold. The sage who diligently follows these rules, and leads the life of the hermit (or Vánaprastha), consumes, like fire, all imperfections, and conquers for himself the mansions of eternity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Description of Sanyasa Ashrama&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let the unimpassioned man, relinquishing all affection for wife, children, and possessions, enter the fourth order. Let him forego the three objects of human existence (pleasure, wealth, and virtue), whether secular or religious, and, indifferent to friends, be the friend of all living beings. Let him, occupied with devotion, abstain from wrong, in act, word, or thought, to all creatures, human or brute; and equally avoid attachment to any. Let him reside but for one night in a village, and not more than five nights at a time in a city; and let him so abide, that good-will, and not animosity, may be engendered. Let him, for the support of existence, apply for alms at the houses of the three first castes, at the time when the fires have been extinguished, and people have eaten. Let the wandering mendicant call nothing his own, and suppress desire, anger, covetousness, pride, and folly. The sage who gives no cause for alarm to living beings need never apprehend any danger from them. Having deposited the sacrificial fire in his own person, the Brahman feeds the vital flame, with the butter that is collected as alms, through the altar of his mouth; and by means of his spiritual fire he proceeds to his own proper abode. But the twice-born man, who seeks for liberation, and is pure of heart, and whose mind is perfected by self-investigation, secures the sphere of Brahmá, which is tranquil, and is as a bright flame that emits not smoke.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimada Bhagavata&lt;/a&gt; also describes the characteristics of Sanyasi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 7.13.2 — A person in the renounced order of life may try to avoid even a dress to cover himself. If he wears anything at all, it should be only a loincloth, and when there is no necessity, a sannyāsī should not even accept a daṇḍa. A sannyāsī should avoid carrying anything but a daṇḍa and kamaṇḍalu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 7.13.3 — The sannyāsī, completely satisfied in the self, should live on alms begged from door to door. Not being dependent on any person or any place, he should always be a friendly well-wisher to all living beings and be a peaceful, unalloyed devotee of Nārāyaṇa. In this way he should move from one place to another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 7.13.4 — The sannyāsī should always try to see the Supreme pervading everything and see everything, including this universe, resting on the Supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 7.13.5 — During unconsciousness and consciousness, and between the two, he should try to understand the self and be fully situated in the self. In this way, he should realize that the conditional and liberated stages of life are only illusory and not actually factual. With such a higher understanding, he should see only the Absolute Truth pervading everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 7.13.6 — Since the material body is sure to be vanquished and the duration of one’s life is not fixed, neither death nor life is to be praised. Rather, one should observe the eternal time factor, in which the living entity manifests himself and disappears.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 7.13.7 — Literature that is a useless waste of time — in other words, literature without spiritual benefit — should be rejected. One should not become a professional teacher as a means of earning one’s livelihood, nor should one indulge in arguments and counterarguments. Nor should one take shelter of any cause or faction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 7.13.8 — A sannyāsī must not present allurements of material benefits to gather many disciples, nor should he unnecessarily read many books or give discourses as a means of livelihood. He must never attempt to increase material opulences unnecessarily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 7.13.9 — A peaceful, equipoised person who is factually advanced in spiritual consciousness does not need to accept the symbols of a sannyāsī, such as the tridaṇḍa and kamaṇḍalu. According to necessity, he may sometimes accept those symbols and sometimes reject them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 7.13.10 — Although a saintly person may not expose himself to the vision of human society, by his behavior his purpose is disclosed. To human society he should present himself like a restless child, and although he is the greatest thoughtful orator, he should present himself like a dumb man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-07T17:29:30.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14790" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-07T12:30:09.097" Score="3" ViewCount="311" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am desirous to undergo upanayana ceremony in one of the sanathana dharma sanstha.. So I don't know at all that any body underwent Upanayan in our caste.&#xA;Before I undergo such ceremony, do I need any regret god or prayaschitta? If not, will there be any harm to my family?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7609" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T15:00:11.703" LastActivityDate="2017-02-02T05:02:36.380" Title="Do i need to regret for my bad deeds or sins before undergoing Upanayana?" Tags="|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14792" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14796" CreationDate="2016-09-07T13:35:51.107" Score="3" ViewCount="7012" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are  the different types of lokas like the yamaloka,swargaloka, prithiviloka, pitrloka, bramhaloka , dhwarka dham etc ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On what basis a person is sent to one of these lokas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who sends him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7580" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-07T15:59:00.623" LastActivityDate="2016-09-07T18:39:32.053" Title="What are the different types of Lokas?" Tags="|puranas|bhagavad-gita|brahma|yamaloka|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-09-08T10:36:51.373" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14794" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14792" CreationDate="2016-09-07T18:21:43.723" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are the different types of lokas like the yamaloka,swargaloka, prithiviloka, pitrloka, bramhaloka , dhwarka dham etc ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear son Nārada, know from me that there are seven lower planetary&#xA;  systems out of the total  fourteen. The first planetary system, known&#xA;  as Atala, is situated on the waist; the second, Vitala, is situated on&#xA;  the thighs; the third, Sutala, on the knees; the fourth, Talātala, on&#xA;  the shanks; the fifth, Mahātala, on the ankles; the sixth, Rasātala,&#xA;  on the upper portion of the feet; and the seventh, Pātāla, on the&#xA;  soles of the feet. Thus the virāṭ form of the Lord is full of all&#xA;  planetary systems. (Srimad Bhagavatam 2:5:40-41)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To draw a parallel with modern science, Hindu cosmology has talked about alternate dimensions in terms of horizontal &amp;amp; vertical worlds. Horizontal dimension is a spread of cosmos on the side ways whereas vertical dimensions talk about 3 layers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Urdhva (Higher dominion)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhu-Loka (Middle dominion)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Adho (Lower dominion)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Higher &amp;amp; Lower dominion are further said to have seven sub-divisons (Vyahrtis) namely Bhu, Bhuvar, Svarga, Mahar, Jana, Tapa, and Satyaloka above and seven lower ones (Pātālas) like Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Rasaataala, Talatala, Mahaatala, Patala and Naraka below. Atharva Veda, Vishnu Purana, Srimad Bhagavatam, Padma Purana and Vayu Purana all testify to this cosmological model.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On what basis a person is sent to one of these lokas?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each loka is a separate realm of existence. In simple terms, it’s the enrichment of human consciousness that defines the metaphysical world it will live.  Srimad Bhagvatam links ‘Karma’ as the principal constitute for a soul to move between different lokas. Good Karma leads the soul to &lt;code&gt;‘urdhva-gati’&lt;/code&gt; literally meaning moving to higher dominion and bad karma leads the soul to &lt;code&gt;‘adho-gati’&lt;/code&gt; meaning decline to lower dominion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who sends him?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Himself. &#xA;However, this would be half-truth. It is the grand cosmic design by the unborn Supreme which guides journey of soul through this realms of existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sundaysatsang.blogspot.com/2010/12/hindu-cosmology-14-lokas-and-modern.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://sundaysatsang.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Consciousness_Studies&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.hindupedia.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedicworld.org/vedic-cosmology-the-planets-of-the-material-universe/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vedicworld.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastActivityDate="2016-09-07T18:21:43.723" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14796" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14792" CreationDate="2016-09-07T18:39:32.053" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Hindu Mythology, there are 14 worlds or LOKAS in existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7 of these worlds exist above the plane that humans exist on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The highest Loka is &lt;strong&gt;Satya Loka&lt;/strong&gt;. ​This is where Brahma or the supreme conciousness exists, free from the feathers of birth and death.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5byi3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5byi3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The dimension under that is know as &lt;strong&gt;Tap loka&lt;/strong&gt;. This world is inhabited by immortal beings, who are personification of knowldge. They are beings or great purity an access &lt;strong&gt;Brahma loka&lt;/strong&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;Satya loka&lt;/strong&gt;)   with great ease.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Under this level, is &lt;strong&gt;Jan loka&lt;/strong&gt;, where realised beings live. These are souls of complete and unhindered access to the material world, they can travel to any place at the speed of thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BondU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BondU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Then comes &lt;strong&gt;Mahar loka&lt;/strong&gt;, the abode of great sages and rishis, these are beings who through long periods of tapasya have become greater than the devas themselves.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ShXyU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ShXyU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Following this is the &lt;strong&gt;swarg loka&lt;/strong&gt;, a world often mistakenly assumed &lt;strong&gt;heaven&lt;/strong&gt;, this is where deities like Indra exist it is also home to various sages and gandharvas. Mythological accounts show it to be on top of &lt;strong&gt;Mount Meru&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jREqq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jREqq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Under the devas is the &lt;strong&gt;Bhuvar Loka&lt;/strong&gt;, this is the realm of the sun and the planets, it is also inhabited by semi divine beings who may occasionally take a part in human world as well.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ymOy8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ymOy8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Under all these dimensiosns the &lt;strong&gt;Bhulok&lt;/strong&gt;, the 7th plane of existence, this is where human beings reside with all other beings. It is believed, that there are more such world's in Bhulok.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pidTQ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pidTQ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to the 7 lokas that exist below Bhuloka. ​&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The 1st world under the human level is &lt;strong&gt;Atal&lt;/strong&gt;, is ruled by &lt;em&gt;Bala&lt;/em&gt;, son of &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt;, Atal is inhabited by beautiful seductresses and is a place of luxury.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c3aYl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c3aYl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;9&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Under that there is &lt;strong&gt;Vital&lt;/strong&gt;, this is where beings live their lives mining and collecting gold, as with &lt;strong&gt;Atal&lt;/strong&gt;, here too a lot of attention is payed to material possessions.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XgiHE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XgiHE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;10&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Next is &lt;strong&gt;Sutal loka&lt;/strong&gt;, is the world ruled by the &lt;em&gt;demon king Bali&lt;/em&gt;, who was once an earthly king who was defeated by &lt;em&gt;Vishnu’s vaman avatar&lt;/em&gt; and was allowed to rule this world.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1lFeI.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1lFeI.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;11&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The world under that is &lt;strong&gt;Talatal loka&lt;/strong&gt;, is the realm of architect &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt;, the demon who was father of &lt;em&gt;Mandodari&lt;/em&gt;, wife of King &lt;em&gt;Ravana&lt;/em&gt;, when Shiva destroyed three cities of &lt;em&gt;Tripura&lt;/em&gt; , he allowed Maya to rule third world.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/iQwbe.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/iQwbe.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;12&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Under  this level is &lt;strong&gt;Mahatal loka&lt;/strong&gt;, a world populated by Hooded &lt;em&gt;Nagas&lt;/em&gt; , who leave in peace happy in the thought that they are far from their one and only enemy, &lt;em&gt;Garuda&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OsOFd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OsOFd.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;13&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rasatal loka&lt;/strong&gt;, is where davanas and daityas live, these beings have long standing enmities with devas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JcNBn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JcNBn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;14&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lowest of all is &lt;strong&gt;Pataal loka&lt;/strong&gt;, it is where nagas with many hoods live, their hoods are adorned with gems which loght up the darkest of all the worlds. this world is ruled by the serpent king Vasuki.​&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/43ukZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/43ukZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7612" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-07T18:39:32.053" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14797" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10465" CreationDate="2016-09-07T21:16:52.600" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;‘Alternate Reality’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Planets, Stars, Constellations, Galaxies and other cosmic structures are ‘Matter &amp;amp; Energy’ form of the universe that we know. However current scientific community strongly align with the existence of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dark Matter&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dark Energy&lt;/a&gt; which is yet unproven.This builds a good premise to safely assume that there are gaps in our current scientific understanding of the cosmos.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scientifically speaking, are ‘lokas’, planets or galaxies? If it is like a planet or galaxy, why doesn't it have its own sun, moons (like in other planets of Solar System), stars and constellations?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To draw a parallel with modern science, Hindu cosmology talks about horizontal &amp;amp; vertical planes of existence in alternate dimensions. ‘Loka’ in particular relates to the vertical worlds. ‘Urdhva Lokas’ are meta-physical realms of existence in Higher Dimensions of reality. ‘Bhu-Loka’ is our 4 dimensional reality and ‘Adho-Lokas’ are worlds in Lower dimensions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What am I, a small creature measuring seven spans of my own hand? I am&#xA;  enclosed in a potlike universe composed of material nature, the total&#xA;  material energy, false ego, ether, air, water and earth. And what is&#xA;  Your glory? Unlimited universes pass through the pores of Your body&#xA;  just as particles of dust pass through the openings of a screened&#xA;  window (Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14.11)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer your question, each ‘loka’ is an alternate universe in higher or lower dimensions.  It can have physical reality like ours (planets, sun, moon, stars etc.) as mentioned in the above verse but it is at different levels of consciousness (astral planes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How does the scientific view of galaxies and planets allude to this?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Current scientific view of galaxies and planets has mostly focused on material universe. However, it is actually the study of galaxies and related weak gravitational force which has puzzled scientist to seriously consider alternate dimensions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://press.cern/backgrounders/extra-dimensions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://press.cern/backgrounders/extra-dimensions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, theoretical proof of famous &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;‘String Theory’&lt;/a&gt; requires 10 or more dimensions. A break through in any of these active researches will bring science a step closer to Hindu cosmology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In summary, the idea of ‘Loka’ might not be exactly how modern science would perceive it but the fundamental relation to scriptures is the existence of physical reality in alternate dimensions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastActivityDate="2016-09-07T21:16:52.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14799" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-08T05:11:25.577" Score="1" ViewCount="141" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some elders say that chandan should not be applied on God statues. If the statue is in stone form chandan is applied on the forehead,at the two end of the eyes, ears nowadays. Any scriptural evidence that chandan should not be applied in these cases?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-08T05:11:25.577" Title="Applying Chandan on God statues" Tags="|scripture|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14800" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11640" CreationDate="2016-09-08T05:12:02.873" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;ॐ (OM)(ओ३म्) can be &lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:O3M-brahmi.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;written in Brahmi&lt;/a&gt; script as: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/drsra.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/drsra.png&quot; alt=&quot;OM in Brahmi&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, there is book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mrane.com/images/bramhi.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmi-Rediscovering the lost script&lt;/a&gt; written by Ankita Roy. This book contains many information about Brahmi script (Lipi). Below is the image how ॐ described in the book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7rQ8I.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7rQ8I.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2017-08-03T06:55:40.360" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T06:55:40.360" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14802" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-08T07:40:34.970" Score="2" ViewCount="196" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have recently read that a court in India has been asked to ban &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-37294286&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pokémon Go&lt;/a&gt; for these reasons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The high court in Gujarat state was asked to ban the game because its images of eggs in places of worship were &amp;quot;blasphemous&amp;quot; to Hindus and Jains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've read that eggs are not considered for consumption:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2602&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2602&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moral Reason&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have been taught that one reason such eggs are not considered suitable for *&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedic Reason&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;... overly stimulating ... not to be &lt;strong&gt;consumed&lt;/strong&gt; as they lead to an unfit state of mind&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the above question only addresses egg &lt;em&gt;consumption&lt;/em&gt;; no eggs are consumed in the game.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are images of eggs offensive?  Especially so at temples? If so why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7617" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-08T17:00:15.257" Title="Is the image of eggs at temples offensive?" Tags="|temple|animals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="14" ClosedDate="2017-07-06T04:49:26.263" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14803" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14805" CreationDate="2016-09-08T08:52:34.113" Score="3" ViewCount="317" Body="&lt;p&gt;Princess Amba was abducted by Bhishma from her Swayamvara(self marriage ceremony at the kingdom of Kashi).Salva(king of Saubala) who was earlier in love with her, subsequently refused to accept her as his bride,because of this incident.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Princess Amba reflected on her condition rationally, and arrived at the conclusion that Bhishma was mainly responsible for her condition,and swore to  - destroy Bhishma by Austerities or Battle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The determined Princess, then undertook a lot of ascetic austerities that were very difficult to endure, and finally obtained a boon from Lord Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were the ascetic austerities undertaken by  Princess Amba to obtain a boon from Lord Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2019-08-16T03:25:06.800" LastActivityDate="2019-08-16T03:25:06.800" Title="What were the ascetic austerities undertaken by Princess Amba to obtain a boon from Lord Shiva?" Tags="|mahabharata|shiva|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14804" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-08T09:21:38.260" Score="13" ViewCount="43262" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please suggest anyone to do Mantra at home daily for Memory, Concentration and Brain-Power? Since last few months I couldn't remember such a small things in my daily life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7052" LastActivityDate="2023-11-22T12:17:00.407" Title="Mantra for better memory, concentration, brain-power" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14805" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14803" CreationDate="2016-09-08T09:26:50.563" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The austerities taken by Amba is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, SECTION CLXXXIX&lt;/a&gt; as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Without food, emaciated, dry, with matted-locks and begrimed with filth, for six months she lived on air only, and stood unmoved like a street-post. And that lady, possessed of wealth of asceticism, foregoing all food in consequence of the fast she kept, passed a whole year after this, standing in the waters of the Yamuna. Endued with great wrath, she passed the next whole year standing on her front toes and having eaten only one fallen leaf (of a tree). And thus for twelve years, she made the heavens hot by her austerities. And though dissuaded by her relatives, she could not by any means be weaned off (from that course of action). She then went unto Vatsabhumi resorted to by the Siddhas and Charanas, and which was the retreat of high-souled ascetics of pious deeds. Bathing frequently in the sacred waters of that retreat, the princess of Kasi roamed about according to her will. Proceeding next (one after another) to the asylum, O king, of Narada, and to the auspicious asylum of Uluka and to that of Chyavana, and to the spot sacred to Brahmana, and to Prayaga the sacrificial platform of the gods, and to that forest sacred to the gods, and to Bhogawati, and, O monarch, to the asylum of Kusika's son (Viswamitra), and to the asylum of Mandavya, and also to the asylum of Dwilipa, and to Ramhrada, and, O Kaurava, to the asylum of Garga, the princess of Kasi, O king, performed ablutions in the sacred waters of all these, observing all the while the most difficult of vows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this Lord Shiva appeared before her and gave the desired boon. It is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05190.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, SECTION CXC&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The god of gods, having the bull for his symbol, then said unto that maiden, 'The words I have uttered cannot be false. O blessed lady, true they will be. Thou shalt slay Bhishma, and even obtain manhood. Thou shalt also remember all the incidents (of this life) even when thou shalt obtain a new body. Born in the race of Drupada, thou shalt become a Maharatha. Quick in the use of weapons and a fierce warrior, thou shalt be well-skilled in battle. O blessed lady, all that I have said will be true. Thou shalt become a man at the expiration of sometime (from thy birth)!' Having said so, the god of gods, called also Kapardin, having the bull for his symbol, disappeared then and there, in the very sight of those Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2016-09-08T09:26:50.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14806" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-08T09:56:45.190" Score="1" ViewCount="39" Body="&lt;p&gt;How many verses he has composed on Lord Shiva and what are the famous ones from his composition? Which state he belonged to? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-16T08:52:39.923" LastActivityDate="2016-10-16T08:52:39.923" Title="Thiru-Idangkazhi Nayanar's Hymns" Tags="|shiva|nayanar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14807" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-08T10:23:23.803" Score="1" ViewCount="438" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is doing upanayana for the first time a curse? What if a Hindu person wants to undergo yagnopavitam ceremony for very first time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard many sansthans have started doing sarvajanik yagnopavitam ceremony so if persons who have not done it before want to do it for first time they can undergo the same. My concern is whether the upanayana ceremony causes any danger to the family or the person who undergoes it for the first time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7609" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T06:38:53.620" LastActivityDate="2018-09-19T06:11:08.390" Title="Is it bad to undergo Upanayana ceremony for the first time?" Tags="|vedic-rituals|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14808" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-08T10:26:01.670" Score="7" ViewCount="3413" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that Adi Shankaracharya has written three type of texts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhashya (भाष्य)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prakarana Grantha (प्रकरण ग्रंथ)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Stora (स्तोत्र)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find the full list &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara_bibliography&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_shankara/SCW.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But I've heard that not all texts are believed to be authentic work of Adi Shankaracharya. (Some works may be written by his shishya which have been also known as Shankaracharya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to discuss about Prakarana Grantha of Adi Shankaracharya. You can find them with list at here - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara_bibliography#Prakara.E1.B9.87a_grantha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduebooks.blogspot.in/2010/08/works-of-sri-sankaracharya-sanskrit-20.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://advaitaphilosophy.wordpress.com/category/complete-works-of-adi-shankaracharya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; and at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sringeri.net/history/sri-adi-shankaracharya/works-of-sri-adi-shankaracharya/prakarana-granthas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sringeri.net&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/578/277&quot;&gt;some&lt;/a&gt; Prakaran Grahtha but later on heard scholars don't believe Sarva Vedanta Sidhaanta Saar Sangrah as authentic work of Adi Shankaracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Let me ask a question: &lt;strong&gt;Which Prakaran Grantha are believed to be an authentic work of Adi Shankaracharya by scholars?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: I know that this question can be considered opinion based at some extent but I think it is important to find and know about the fact.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2019-02-15T19:50:01.870" Title="Which are authentic Prakarana grantha of Adi Shankaracharya?" Tags="|scripture|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14809" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14804" CreationDate="2016-09-08T10:27:40.610" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;srI: shrI hayagrIva stOtram&#xA;srImathE rAmAnujAya nama:&#xA;AzhhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE sharaNam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://acharya.org/sloka/vdesikan/HayagreevaStotram-eng.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://acharya.org/sloka/vdesikan/HayagreevaStotram-eng.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;|| shrI hayagrIva stOtram ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;shrImAn vEngkaTanAthArya: kavitArkika kEsarI |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;vEdAntAchAryavaryO mE sannidhattAm sadA hrudi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ज्ञानानन्दमयं देवं निर्मलस्फटिकाकृतिम् ।&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  आधारं सर्व विद्यानां हयग्रीवमुपास्महे ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.GYAnAnandamayam dEvam nirmalasphaTikAkrutim |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  AdhAram sarvavidyAnAm hayagrIvam upAsmahE|| 1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; : We meditate upon that Supreme One, who has the neck and face of a horse and who is the embodiment of JnAnA (divine Knowledge) and AnandhA (Bliss). He has a divine akaram (body) like a radiant, blemishless Spatikam (Crystal) and is the abode of all VidhyAs (branches of Learning).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This slOka set in the Vedic anushtup meter is the dhyAna slOkam for BhagavAn&#xA;HayagrIva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.Visshudha Vignana Ghana svaroopam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vignyana Visranana baddhadeeksham|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  DAyanidhim dehabrutham Sharanyam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Devam Hayageevamaham prapadhye || 5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; :  I seek refuge in Lord HayagrIvA, whose divyAtvam, Suddha Satthva SvarUpam is the embodiment of pure and unalloyed dhivya Jn~Anam. As the overflowing treasure house of DayA, He has taken the sankalpam to bless the chEthanams with His rejuvenating blessings of dhivya JnAnam that will liberate them from the cycles of births and deaths. To fulfill His vow to liberate them from the darkness of ajnAnam, He stands as their beacon light, their sole and&#xA;  final refuge to bless them with dhivya JnAnam. I am also desiring that divine and redeeming dhivya JnAnam and surrender at His lotus feet. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.Vilupta mUrdhanya lipi kramANAm&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  surEndra chUDApada lAlitAnAm |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tvadamghri rAjIva raja:kaNAnAm&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhUyAn prasAdO mayi nAtha bhUyAt || 20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; : Oh Lord HayagrIva! It is said that Brahma Deva encodes the lot in one’s life on the skull at the time of birth (Brahma Lipi). The chEthana’s life is laid out in those instructions. Those lipis (aksharams written on the skull) interfere with the pursuit of Moksha Sukham and the performance of Tapas that would qualify one to realize such a ParamAnugraham.The jeeva suffers from the cycles of births and deaths (SamsAram). MokshAnugraham recedes farther and farther. The incomparable power of the sacred dust from Your lotus feet changes however the fate of the Bhaddha jeeva. BrahmA and other DevAs adorn the sacred dust from Your holy feet to overcome their misfortunes. May the power&#xA;  of those dust from Your sacred feet (PaadhAngri rENu) settle permanently on my head, erase the Braham Lipis and bless me with Moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.Vakhya mudhram karasirasijaih pustakam Shanka chakre&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BibhradbinnaSpatikaruchirE pundareekAy nishannaha |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Amlanasreeamrutavishadhairamshubhim plAvayan mam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Avirbhuyadanagha mahimA mAnasay vAgadeesaha || 32&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; : In His beautiful, lotus soft four hands, Lord HayagrIva sports Sudarsanam, Paancha-janyam, JnAna Mudhra and a Book. He is seated on a freshly-blossomed White Lotus and reminds the UpasakAs of the whitest-white fragment of a freshly cleaved spatikam. His lustre never ever fades. There is no limit (boundary) to His blemishless glories. May This Lord of Vidhyais shower on me His nectarine, white and cool rays! May He reside and preside over my hrudhayAkAsam in this manner!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a more detailed explanation on entire hayagriva stotram with its inner meaning please check the following &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sadagopan.org/SundaraSimham/SS004%20-%20Hayagriva%20stotram.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-25T03:33:10.170" LastActivityDate="2017-05-25T03:33:10.170" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14811" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-08T10:54:19.777" Score="5" ViewCount="103" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to see an example from the scriptures  of how someone has suffered as a result of  making someone else suffer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Specially I would prefer something from Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3294" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-08T12:54:02.253" LastActivityDate="2016-09-08T12:54:02.253" Title="How we suffer by making others suffer?" Tags="|karma|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14813" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-08T11:34:10.890" Score="1" ViewCount="136" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are types of Bakthis. What is Sadhana Bakthi? Will this come under Bakthi Yoga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-09-12T05:04:31.183" LastActivityDate="2016-09-12T05:04:31.183" Title="Sadhana Bakthi and Bakthi Yoga" Tags="|yoga|bhakti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14814" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-08T11:48:35.807" Score="4" ViewCount="80" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Greek Mythology, Poseidon and Apollo were forced by Zeus to temporarily turn mortal for trying to overthrow him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there an analogous story in the Hindu myths? Note that I'm not talking about incarnations - I'm talking about situations where the gods were completely turned into mortal state such that their godly state no longer remained, at least temporarily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nor am I talking about stories like Sati committing suicide or Kamadeva being destroyed by Shiva -- the deity has to remain in mortal form for some time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7618" LastActivityDate="2016-09-08T11:48:35.807" Title="Is there any story of gods being forced to temporarily turn mortal?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14815" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14785" CreationDate="2016-09-08T16:27:36.540" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramanujacharya (11th century) has written 3 Gadyas (Saranagathi gadyam, Sriranga Gadyam and Vaikuntha gadyam)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Saranagathi Gadyam, Swami Ramanujacharya performs saranagathi to Sri Ranganatha and SriRanga nayaki (Lord Narayana and Goddess Lakshmi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Saranagathi Gadyam in 12th churnikka Sri Ramanujacharya uses verse quotes verses from PUranas and Bhagavad Gita. He quotes the following :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ananya SaraNa: tvat pAdAravinda yugaLam SaraNam aham prapadye | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pitaram mAtaram dArAn putrAn bandhUn sakhI gurUn |&#xA;  ratnAni dhanadhAnyAni kshetrANi ca grhANi ca || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning :  (I do prostrate before Thee) -- Renouncing my Father,&#xA;  Mother, Wife, Children, relatives, Friends, even my teacher, precious stones,&#xA;  wealth and goods, my field, my house, etc, all desires, and actions relating to&#xA;  them, as well as Kaivalya. I prostrate at Thine feet, which bestrode the Three&#xA;  worlds. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarvadharmASca samtyajya sarvakAmASca sAksharAn |&#xA;  lokavikrAntacaraNau SaraNam te-avrajam vibho! || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tvameva mAtA ca pitA tvameva tvameva bandhuSca gurustvameva | tvameva vidyA draviNam tvameva tvameva sarvam mama devadeva ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.2: tvameva mAtA -- Oh Lord! I surrender myself unto Thee. Thou alone art&#xA;  My Mother, My Father, Thou art My relations; even My Teacher Thou alone art;&#xA;  So also My learning, My wealth. Indeed Thou art My All. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramanuja goes on to give the full meaning of &quot;ananya SaraNa:&#xA;SaraNam aham prapadye&quot; by referring to quotations and passage from the&#xA;PurANaas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Calling himself as an ananya SaraNa (helpless person), RaamAnuja makes the&#xA;surrender. &quot;tvat pAadAravinda yugaLam&quot; points out that He is possessed of all&#xA;various virtues and qualities mentioned before and hence the person to be&#xA;approached.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;aravinda&quot; because such prayer at His feet is a pleasant performance. YugaLa&#xA;can be said to be explanatory of the dual (caraNau) mentioned in dvaya mantra.&#xA;&quot;aham&quot; denotes the thought: &quot;I&quot; who am a great sinner, who has accumulated an &#xA;ocean of sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;prapadye&quot; - I surrender. Up to this, the first portion of dvaya Mantra (pUrva&#xA;bhAgam) has been expounded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Sri Ramanuja goes on to give the full meaning of &quot;ananya SaraNa:&#xA;SaraNam aham prapadye&quot; by referring to quotations and passage from the&#xA;PurANaas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the slokAs quoted, all the things mentioned up to and including &quot;gurUn&quot; (i.e.,the first portion) denote upAyAs (means to attain the goal). In this case dArA (wife) is included in the first portion as she is the means as well as bhogya. The second half of the sloka mentions other things such as ratna etc., as they are considered valuable in this world. Then in the next sloka beginning with &quot; sarva dharmASca&quot;, is set out the upAyAs to be used in the Paraloka (the other world) and the gains to be obtained through them. The word &quot;akshara&quot; denotes Kaivalyam (enjoyment by the soul of itself only). By the word loka vikrAnta and vibho are denoted His qualities of easy accessibility and almightiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the word &quot;SaraNam&quot; is expounded in the next slokam (tvameva&#xA;  mAtA….) where the idea is conveyed that BhagavAn is the real Father and&#xA;  relation in the matter of protection etc., and to show that He does this&#xA;  function fully and better than the natural father and others. The words &quot;tvam&#xA;  eva&quot; is repeated at intervals. The idea that &quot;not only is He my Father but He is&#xA;  also the Father of the whole world&quot; is sought to be conveyed by sloka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, the verse &quot;tva meva mata pita tvameve...&quot; is from Upabrahmanas viz Smritis Ithihasas, Puranas etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2016-09-08T16:35:32.967" LastActivityDate="2016-09-08T16:35:32.967" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14816" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14760" CreationDate="2016-09-08T16:31:33.563" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer to this question lies more within the realm of the puranas and the words of saints rather than in sruti. The great saint Swami Ramdas (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Ramdas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Ramdas&lt;/a&gt;) was a great devotee of Sri Rama and chanting Ram Nam. Swami Ramdas said (&lt;em&gt;Thus Speaks Ramdas&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All names of God are great and powerful. But &lt;em&gt;Ram Nam&lt;/em&gt; has a value all its own. Rhythm is a most important factor in a Mantra. The soothing melody of the repeated word, or combination of words, has a marvelous effect on the distracted mind. No two letters linked together could, by their harmonious music, lull and bring peace to the mind more than Ram. It is said, rightly, that 'Ram' is equal in power to the sacred symbol 'OM'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Samarth Ramdas assures the aspirant that if he takes &quot;Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram&quot; 13 crores of times, he will have the vision of Sir Rama. The Mantra mentioned by Samarth Ramdas is without 'OM'. The Mantra Ramdas gives you is &quot;OM Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram&quot;. 'OM' has untold spiritual power. Hence Ramdas, from his own experience tells you that by repeating this Mantra six crores of times, you will attain salvation. Repeat the Mantra at all times, until the target is reached. You need not keep count of the Mantra. When it reached six crores you will automatically realize Ram--the Supreme Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in the &lt;em&gt;Srimad Devi Puranam&lt;/em&gt; (Chapter XXVI):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6-14. Nârâyana said :-- O Muni! The King As’vapati reigned in Bhadrades’a, rendering his enemies powerless and making his friends painless. He had a queen very religious; her name was Mâlatî; She was like a second Laksmî. She was barren; and desirous of an issue, She under the instruction of Vas’istha, duly worshipped Sâvitrî with devotion. But She did not receive any vision nor any command; therefore She returned home with a grievous heart. Seeing her sorry, the king consoled her with good words and himself accompanied her to&#xA;  Puskara with a view to perform Tapas to Sâvitrî with devotion and, being self-controlled, practised tapasyâ for one hundred years. Still he could not see Sâvitrî, but voice came to him. An incorporeal, celestial voice reached his ears :-- “Perform Japam (repeat) ten lakhs of Gâyatrî Mantram.” At this moment Parâsara came up there. The king bowed down to him. The Muni said :-- O King! One japa of Gâyatrî, destroys the days sins. Ten Japams of Gâyatrî destroy day and night’s sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15-40. One hundred Gâyatrî Japams destroy one month’s sins. One thousand Japams destroy one year’s sins. One lakh Gâyatrî Japams destroy the sins of the present birth and ten lakh Gâyatrî Japams destroy the sins of other births. One hundred lakhs of Japams destroy the sins of all the births. If ten times that (i.e., 1,000 lakhs) be done, then liberation is obtained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as stated in my comment above, Sarada Devi, the wife of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One has to suffer the consequences of one's deeds. But by repeating the name of God, you can lessen its intensity. If you were destined to have a wound as wide as a ploughshare, you will get a pinprick at least. The effect of karma can be counteracted to a great extent by Japa and austerities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The doing of charity, while it can create good karma, does not of itself dilute the effects of prarabdha karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankara addresses the effects of prarabdha karma in his &lt;em&gt;Aparoksanubhuti&lt;/em&gt; (Swami Vimuktananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;90&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The theory one hears from the scripture that Prarabdha does not hold upon one even after the origination of the knowledge of Atman, is now being refuted. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;translator's notes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;From the scripture&lt;/em&gt;--From such scriptural texts as: &quot;The delay in his case os only so long as he is not released (from the body), then he will attain Brahman&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Chhandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; 6.14.2).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Prarabdha does not lose its hold, etc.&lt;/em&gt;--The Shruti in many places has declared that even a Jnani is not free from the operation of Prarabdha. Shankara has dealt with this point at length in his commentaries on Chhandogya Upanishad (6.14.2), Vedanta Sutras (4.1.15), and Gita (4.37). In all those places he has supported the popular view that Prarabdha is binding on even on the Jnani. But here as well as in his Vivekachudamani (453-463) he has boldly asserted the true Vedantic view without any compromise. He has clearly shown that to a Jnani there is no such thing as a body, and it is meaningless to say that he is any longer under the influence of Prarabdha, which has no hold upon the bodiless Atman. The author brings his arguments in support if this view in stanzas 91 and 92.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;91&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After the origination of the knowledge of Reality Prarabdha verily ceases to exist, insomuch as the body and the like becomes non-existent; just as a dream does not exist on waking.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[translator's commentary] &lt;em&gt;Insomuch as the body etc.&lt;/em&gt;--The body, mind, intelligence and the like have their existence only in ignorance and therefore cannot exist when the latter is entirely destroyed by Knowledge. In the absence of the body, Prarabdha also necessarily ceases to exist, since there remains nothing on which it can act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; (3.2.38-41) says that it is from Isvara alone and not one's karma that the fruit of one's actions comes from. Sankara in his commentary to verse 41 quotes the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; (7.21-22):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whichever divine form a devotee wishes to worship...and obtains from it the results he desires, as ordained by Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma, including Prarabdha karma, is ordained by the Lord and can be lessened or completely negated by the Lord. It is not automatic. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-09-08T16:31:33.563" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14817" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14804" CreationDate="2016-09-08T17:00:27.753" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Among Vedic deities Goddess Saraswati is considered as the Goddess of knowledge,wisdom ,learning,eloquence,&lt;strong&gt;memory&lt;/strong&gt; and is associated with virtually &lt;strong&gt;any activities which are related to the brain&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Saraswati is depicted as the bestower of Jnana(wisdom),&lt;strong&gt;Smriti(memory),Vidya(knowledge)&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; Kavitwa Shakti(the power of poetry).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is also depicted as the &quot;Adhistatri of all Vidyas&quot; and as &quot;Akshara Swarupa&quot;(the Personification of alphabets).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is depicted as the embodiment of &lt;strong&gt;Smriti Shakti&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;strong&gt;Jnana Shakti,Buddhi Shakti and Kalpana Shakti and also as the ruler of tongue,mind,thought,speech and anything to do with brains.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following Kavacha is found in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana.Lord Brahma is the seer.&lt;strong&gt;The Phalasruti states reciting the kavacha yields memory power,mental sharpness and immense knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;(exactly the things you are looking for).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yG3Iz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yG3Iz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/D9kJr.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/D9kJr.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tNPPp.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tNPPp.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XB9XI.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XB9XI.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/iDath.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/iDath.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also refer to the Saraswati Stuti by Rishi Yajnavalkya given in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10684/why-sarasvati-is-considered-as-goddess-of-knowledge/11050#11050&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If reciting stotrams is too cumbersome for you then just recite her mantras.Refer to my comment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:-&lt;/strong&gt; I'm adding yet another stotram that increases wisdom, memory, brain power ,intellect etc.Its called the &quot;Pragnya Vivardana Karthika Stotram&quot;(The stotram that increases Pragnya or wisdom) dedicated to Lord Shanmuga(Karthikeya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can learn the stotram from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Pragya_Vivardhana_Karthikeya_Stotram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This paryer to Lord Subrahmanya helps one increase their intelligence&#xA;  and wisdom. It is said that even a mentally retarded child would&#xA;  become normal by reciting this prayer. The prayer is taught by Lord&#xA;  Subrahmanya himself and identifies 28 names of Lord Subrahmanya&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yG3Iz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Phalasruti(the result obtained on reading the stotra) states that :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maha manthra maya neethi mama namanu keerthanam, Maha&#xA;  pragnamavapnothinathra karya vicharana,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-These names composed by me, If sung, Would make one extremely&#xA;  intelligent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But having said that,Its Saraswati who is the embodiment of Smriti Shakti,Jnana Shakti etc.If you want to excel in studies or any other work that requires intellectual proficiency then its her to whom you need to pray to. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-09-09T05:57:29.837" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14819" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-09T07:41:43.047" Score="4" ViewCount="138" Body="&lt;p&gt;If the Married couples who doesn't have a child and they want to adopt a male or female baby and they need to do some yaaga in Hinduism for our ancestors blessings and the ancestors agreed that the child will be our Heir. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ஒரு மகனைத் தத்து எடுக்க விரும்புபவர்கள் அதற்க்கு முறைப்படியான ஹோமத்தீ வளர்த்து மந்திரங்கள் ஓதி அவனை மகனாக ஏற்றுக்கொள்ள வேண்டும். அப்படி செய்வதனால், தான், அவன் தத்து எடுதவருக்கோ அல்லது மூதாதையருக்கோ முறைப்படியாக தத்து எடுக்கபட்டவன் செய்கின்ற சிரார்த்தத்தால் மட்டுமே பித்ருக்கள் மகிழ்ச்சி அடைவார்கள் என்று சாத்திரத்தில் சொல்லப் படுகிறது.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation: Those who want to adopt a son must do a formal homage to recite the mantras and accept him as a son. By doing so, it is said that the Pithru is happy, only by the method that he is taken by the adoptive or ancestor of the ancestors&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please someone suggest and it would be appreciated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7052" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2017-11-13T10:52:20.590" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T10:52:20.590" Title="Married Couples who doesn't have a child and they want to adopt a male or female baby" Tags="|scripture|yajna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14820" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-09T08:43:28.197" Score="0" ViewCount="95" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that once a  person is dead the atma exits from the body. Will this atma be given to same person born in different form as per karma like animal or bird or it will be given to some other. May be that person will be a bad soul but this atma may be a punya one. Anything mentioned in scriptures in Hindu mythology? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-09T08:43:28.197" Title="Atma's state after death" Tags="|scripture|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-01-25T04:02:21.523" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14821" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14862" CreationDate="2016-09-09T09:10:40.377" Score="5" ViewCount="230" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the name of God many people nowadays portrait themselves as God-men. People without realizing the true nature are going and getting cheated . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any mythological evidence that God-men will be more in  commencement of Kaliyuga?. If I am correct, 5003 years are completed in  4,32,000 years of Kaliyuga period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-10T08:15:40.643" LastActivityDate="2020-03-10T08:15:40.643" Title="Are there any prophecies about self proclaimed God-men of Kali Yuga in scriptures?" Tags="|puranas|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14822" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23008" CreationDate="2016-09-09T10:14:44.757" Score="8" ViewCount="5975" Body="&lt;p&gt;The soul passes through a cycle of successive lives (samsara) and its next incarnation i.e., birth is always dependent on how the previous life was lived (karma). Finally, the soul travels back to Godhead. In this process, how many human births does the soul take? Is the number fixed or changes from person to person based on their karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/r4Q7u.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/r4Q7u.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-17T14:44:00.247" LastActivityDate="2017-12-29T11:25:49.907" Title="How many human births does the soul take before it merges with the Almighty?" Tags="|karma|moksha|atma|rebirth|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14823" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14825" CreationDate="2016-09-09T10:45:36.080" Score="10" ViewCount="4349" Body="&lt;p&gt;After the upanayana ritual, boys from the upper three varnas are able to receive knowledge from the Vedas. What about girls? Does this affect their karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7626" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-09-11T05:55:35.477" LastActivityDate="2020-09-17T08:13:00.753" Title="Are girls allowed to learn the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|karma|women|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14824" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14823" CreationDate="2016-09-09T10:54:48.433" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Women not barred from learning Vedas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Contrary to the popular belief that women are prohibited from learning&#xA;the Vedas, here are two scholars who are on a mission to encourage&#xA;women in mastering them. Speaking to The Hindu, Mysore-based Samveda&#xA;Mahamandala President K.R. Manjunatha Shrouthy said not a single word&#xA;was mentioned in the Vedas prohibiting woman from learning them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“It is a misconception that reciting mantras from Vedas would affect&#xA;child-bearing. In fact, there are some mantras like those found in&#xA;Tandya Brahmana which should be recited by only women,” he pointed&#xA;out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upapradhan Acharya of Acharyakulam (Haridwar) Krishna Bhatt taught the&#xA;Rig Veda to his wife after their marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“She did her Masters and M. Phil after marriage. She mastered the&#xA;Vedas as well. I can proudly say that we are the only ghanapati&#xA;[expert] couple in the entire country who recite Rig Veda,” he said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mr. Bhatt added that there were no restrictions on sudras acquiring&#xA;divine knowledge. “At Acharyakulam, we are imparting Vedic knowledge&#xA;to children of all prisms of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“All that they require is a qualification of Class V or VI in age&#xA;group of 10 to 11,” he said. Dwelling on the Vedas and science, Mr.&#xA;Shrouthy, a chartered accountant, said the Vedas referred to science&#xA;and cited examples of gravitation theory and planetary movement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“There are references to herbs for treatment of ailments in the&#xA;Atharavana Veda. To unearth the essential aspects the Vedas and&#xA;science, extensive research is the need of the hour, he added.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Vijayawada/women-not-barred-from-learning-vedas/article5877128.ece&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-09T10:54:48.433" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14825" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14823" CreationDate="2016-09-09T11:11:02.720" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, females are allowed to read the Vedas. I am posting a passage from a famous 14th century text(Jivanmuktiviveka of Vidyaranya) which shows the importance of women Rishis in the formulation of the present day Hinduism and the equal rights enjoyed by women in Hinduism..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Renunciation is mentioned in the Taittiriya and other Upanishads:&#xA;'Some have attained immortality, not by acts, nor by offspring, nor by&#xA;wealth, but by renunciation alone' (Kaivalya Upanishad., 3). Females&#xA;also are entitled to this kind of renunciation. The Caturdharike of&#xA;the Mokshadharma, by using the word bhikshuki (female mendicant) with&#xA;reference to the lady in question, when dealing with the controversy&#xA;between Sulabha and janaka, indicated that &lt;strong&gt;females may renounce before&#xA;marriage&lt;/strong&gt;, or after the death of their husband and may go about as&#xA;religious mendicants, &lt;strong&gt;may learn and hear the sastras dealing with&#xA;moksha (namely the Upanishad and cognate literature)&lt;/strong&gt;, may meditate&#xA;upon the atman in seclusion and assume the emblems of tri-danda, etc.&#xA;In the wake of the argument in the Devatadhikarana (the section about&#xA;devata) in the fourth chapter of the third book of the Sarirakabhasya,&#xA;wherein a discussion has been started relating to the rights of a&#xA;widower (to such renunciation), the name of the lady Vacaknavi has&#xA;also been mentioned. These references go to strengthen the right&#xA;claimed by Maitreyi, the wife of Yajnavalkya, of whom she inquires in&#xA;the words: 'Of what use would such (wealth) be to me, if the&#xA;possession of such would not render me immortal? Tell me whatever your&#xA;worship knows,as to what I should do, in order to be free from&#xA;mortality' (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.5.4).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jivanmuktiviveka of Vidyaranya&lt;/strong&gt; translated by S. Subrahmanya Sastri and T.R. Srinivasa Ayangar, Chapter 1, Vividisa-samnyasa: The Renunciation of the Seeker&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2020-09-11T06:17:56.453" LastActivityDate="2020-09-11T06:17:56.453" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14826" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7662" CreationDate="2016-09-09T11:24:10.740" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna has specifically told what exact food He accept.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पत्रम पुष्पम फलम तोयम यो मे भक्त्या प्रच्छति।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तदहम भक्तत्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मन:।। (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-9-26/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;9.26&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one offers Me with love and devotion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That means he must be a vegetarian.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2017-03-31T06:46:34.057" LastActivityDate="2017-03-31T06:46:34.057" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14827" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-09T15:03:35.663" Score="7" ViewCount="271" Body="&lt;p&gt;In case of Shri Rama I have heard about Vali and Ravana he killed both of them at the end of the battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Shri Krishna killed Narakarasura, Bakasura, Putana, etc. Is there any story/evidence where both of the Avatars of Shriman Narayana kept their adversaries alive after defeating them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2016-09-10T14:27:28.260" LastActivityDate="2016-09-10T14:27:28.260" Title="Did Shri Rama and Shri Krishna kill all the adversaries" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|ramayana|rama|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14828" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12258" CreationDate="2016-09-09T16:03:19.497" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Meaning of &lt;strong&gt;daan (दान)&lt;/strong&gt; - to bestow ,to dispose ,to donate ,to endow.&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.bab.la/dictionary/hindi-english/%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;See here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Daan(दान) should only be made with the money leftover after fullfilling the requirements of family. Daan should not result hardship to donars family or loss of livelyhood.In general only those who have surplus wealth are required to give.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scriptures lay down varying proportion of one's income (ranging from 10% to 40%) to give away in daan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Skanda Puran(स्कंद पुराण) -&lt;/strong&gt; According to Skanda puran one should 10% of one's justly earned income on good deeds or works of pubilc benifit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagwat puran(भागवत पुराण)&lt;/strong&gt; - At one stage, when &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Sukhracharya&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; advices king &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Bali&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; against giving all his wealth away. He quotes learned people to recommend dividing one's fund into five equal parts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) One part should be used for Dharma (daan).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Second for Yash (public works ,which brings fame to oneself).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Third should be re-invested for generating more wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4) Forth for &quot;Kaam&quot;(काम) or material enjoyment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5) Fifth for one's family and friends.&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=tazZHHgu4DAC&amp;amp;pg=PT46&amp;amp;lpg=PT46&amp;amp;dq=how%20much%20daan%20one%20should%20give&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=EIIgUCngaO&amp;amp;sig=4UKIGOqwLXY2iX75mSE6tiQ5Z5E&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwip6YCtqYLPAhUMq48KHXAtDqEQ6AEIMjAJ#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=how%20much%20daan%20one%20should%20give&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;See Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Importance of Charity (Danam)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आदानां दोषेण भवेद्दारिद्रम। दारिद्र्य दोषेण करोति पापं ।।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पापदावस्यां नरकं प्रयान्ति। पुनर दरिद्रो पुनरेव: पापी ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Adana Doshena Bhaveddaridram Daridraya Doshena Karothi papam&#xA;  Papadavasyam Narakam Prayathi Punar Dadidro Punareva Papi.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Great men think that poverty comes to man as a result of his&#xA;  miserly deeds of his past birth. A man should,as sastras say, donate&#xA;  some of his earning to the poor. He should cultivate the habit of&#xA;  doing charitable deeds. Otherwise in his next birth he will again be&#xA;  born as a poor man who will be forced to do sinful deeds and as a&#xA;  result of which he will be placed Narakam [Hell] and after receiving&#xA;  punishment in Hell, he will be born again as a poor man:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;दारिद्रय:कुतं दानं। शून्य: लिंगस्च पूजनं।। अन्धा प्रेत: संस्कारं।&#xA;  अश्वमेध: समं विदुहु।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Daridraya Krutam Danam Soonya Limgascha poojanam Anadha Pretha&#xA;  Samskaram Aswamedha samam viduhu.’’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Helping the poor with money, doing ‘Archana’/’pooja’&#xA;  [worship] to the Shiva Lingam of a dilapidated temple, doing funeral&#xA;  rites to the corpse of an orphan are equal to doing &lt;strong&gt;Aswamedha Yagam&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;url=http://www.anantaajournal.com/archives/2015/vol1issue4/PartA/Sanskrit-1-3-41.pdf&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjY-sm9yILPAhVBpo8KHYLRDdsQFggnMAQ&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNHqtFcPXl4VA4K3wVx3Ywd-pV1GXw&amp;amp;sig2=5lEdGCqxhI65c6D0KGTjWg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shloka source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-09-09T16:03:19.497" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14829" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14827" CreationDate="2016-09-09T16:10:23.853" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Sri Rama and Krishna spared the lives of their opponents on some occasions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First incident is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga30/bala_30_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana, Bala Kanda&lt;/a&gt; where Sri Rama spared the life of Mareecha in at sage Vishwamitra yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmana, I am reluctant to eliminate this kind of these ill-behaved and raw flesh eating demons, but no doubt, they will be puffed out with Manava missile like a gust puffing thick clouds, you may see.&amp;quot; Thus Rama said to Lakshmana. [1-30-15, 16a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cleanly hit with that great missile Maanava, demon Maareecha is pitched for a hundred yojana lengths in full, and flung down into an ocean rocking with tidewaters. [1-30-18]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On seeing him highly whirling, rendered insensate and thrown out when rammed away with the strength of that Cold arrow Rama said this to Lakshmana. [1-30-19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmana, see the Cold arrow belonging to Maanava missile expounded by Manu which is taking him away on baffling, but without taking away his life. [1-30-20]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though later Mareecha was killed by Sri Rama when he was in form of golden deer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/sundara/sarga38/sundara_38_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Rama has also spared the life of Jayanta&lt;/a&gt; (son of Indra) when he was trying to do harm to Devi Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That Rama, who affords protection, was compassionate and protected that crow, which fell on the ground (in salutation to Rama) and sought for protection, eventhough it was apt to be killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna has also spared the life of Banasura. This story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/63&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimada Bhagavatam, Canto 10&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.63.46 — The Supreme Lord said: My dear lord, for your pleasure We must certainly do what you have requested of Us. I fully agree with your conclusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.63.47 — I will not kill this demonic son of Vairocani, for I gave Prahlāda Mahārāja the benediction that I would not kill any of his descendants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.63.48 — It was to subdue Bāṇāsura’s false pride that I severed his arms. And I slew his mighty army because it had become a burden upon the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.63.49 — This demon, who still has four arms, will be immune to old age and death, and he will serve as one of your principal attendants. Thus he will have nothing to fear on any account.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-09T17:52:37.827" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14830" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14831" CreationDate="2016-09-09T18:30:49.397" Score="13" ViewCount="987" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that in Hinduism, we must beget offspring after marriage as part of Hindu belief (Pitru Runa).  In other words is there scripture about the importance of carrying on a blood line? Is it mandatory to follow it? If so, what scriptures describe this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7350" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-09T04:42:56.950" LastActivityDate="2018-04-09T04:42:56.950" Title="Can I please have a scriptural reference for Pitru Runa?" Tags="|scripture|belief|pitru|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14831" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14830" CreationDate="2016-09-09T19:04:17.983" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, if you marry you need to grow your lineage. According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1231.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapath Brahmana&lt;/a&gt;, there are four types of debt to everyone as: debt to Gods (Deva Rina), debt to Rishis (Rishi Rina), debt to Fathers (Pitri/Pitru Rina) and debt to Men (Manava/Manushya Rina).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To get free from Pitri Rina you should grow your lineage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And further, inasmuch as he is bound to wish for offspring, for that reason he is born as (owing) a debt to the fathers: hence when there is (provided by him) a continued, uninterrupted lineage, it is for them that he does this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar thing has been said in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajurveda, Taittiriya sanhita&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Brahman on birth is born with a threefold debt, of pupilship to the Rsis, of sacrifice to the gods, of offspring to the Pitrs. He is freed from his debt who has a son, is a sacrificer, and who has lived as a pupil&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-09-16T05:07:01.593" LastActivityDate="2016-09-16T05:07:01.593" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14833" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-10T03:56:37.807" Score="8" ViewCount="205" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do our scriptures declare that if God has to descend on earth then that place has to be somewhere in India?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any shlokas in scriptures that confirm that God's avatar(human birth) will only be in the Deva Bhumi Or Punya Bhumi Bharata or India?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I asked the same question to one of my forum friends(we are not in contact nowadays) and he answered in the affirmative. But he did not tell me the exact shlokas then.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our motive was to, in this way, dismiss the claims of any persons, who were not born in India, as avatars of Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-11T07:08:37.927" LastActivityDate="2017-04-11T07:08:37.927" Title="Do our scriptures declare that if God has to descend on earth then that place has to be somewhere in India?" Tags="|scripture|gods|avatars|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="12" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14835" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-10T11:29:23.887" Score="6" ViewCount="12853" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are Lord Shiva's Weaponry?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7608" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-09-18T12:58:39.163" LastActivityDate="2020-05-06T05:34:48.560" Title="What are Lord Shiva's Weaponry?" Tags="|shiva|weapon|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14836" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-10T12:06:16.303" Score="7" ViewCount="680" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ashwatthama was cursed by Lord Krishna after Ashwatthama killed all the sons of Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was cursed with immortality and eternal (till the end of this chaturyuga) suffering without love from anybody.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna Knows that soul never dies, then why did he curse Ashwatthama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="594" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-26T03:46:45.603" LastActivityDate="2022-03-05T16:30:02.830" Title="Why did Lord Krishna curse Ashwatthama?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|curse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14837" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12483" CreationDate="2016-09-10T17:27:24.187" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The famous Bhu suktham is part of Pancha suktham and appears in Taittriya Samhita and also Rigveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This BHU Suktha is part of&#xA;Taittiriya samhita , Khanda 1, Prapathaka -5, Anuvakaha - 3  &amp;amp;&#xA;Taittiriya Brahmana , Aatakam - 3, Prasna - 1, Anuvakaha - 2&#xA;( The above source details are given in a book called Svasvara VedA mantras Published by Ramakrishna mutt)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhUmirbhUmnA dyaur-variNA antariksham mahitvA |&#xA;  upasthe te devyadite agnim annAdam annAdyAyAdadhe&lt;/strong&gt; || 1 ||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;:   Oh BhUmi devi! You are called BhUmi because you are rich in all kinds of wealth. You are vast in Your breadth and length, lofty through Your vaibhavam and are resplendent and glorious in the milky way as well in all the space that is desired by all! Oh Devi, whose source (mother) is 'aditi' implying a good force as opposed to the evil force as You are ever ready to help us by being nearby, because of your unlimited compassion  and your ever-forgiving attitude . Oh Devi who cannot be split by anyone! In the middle of You between the sky and the earth, I invoke you through AdhAna agni, who can consume the offered havis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ayam gau: prSnirakramIdasanan mAtaram puna:|pitaram ca prayan suva:&lt;/strong&gt; || 2||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;  With His rays, the radiant Sun comes to our side like the food giving protective Mother and blesses us with the fields rich in crops and ascends to the sky and blesses us from there with the rain like the Father who nourishes us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;trigum SaddhAma virAjati vAk patangAya SiSriye | &#xA;  pratyasya vaha dyubhi:&lt;/strong&gt; || 3 ||&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;:  With the movement  of the sUryan, the world shines with light for 12 hours.  May my speech in the form of eulogy reach Him as He moves rapidly in the sky! Oh Lord Preceptor sUrya! May Thou chase away my aparAdhAs and blemishes with the lustre of Your rays! May You be cool to me and favour me with health for eloquence in speech and May Thou accept the havis offered by me through Your jvAlas!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;asya prANAt apAnatyanta: carati rocanA |&#xA;   vyakhyan mahisha: suva:&lt;/strong&gt; || 4 ||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: His (sUrya’s) lustre spreads from morning to evening, in between the earth and the sky and moves inside and out through the vital airs and invigorates as a lifegiver by ( Bhumi) Devi's grace. He reveals the great world of svarga for those dear to Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;yattvA kruddha: paro vapa manyunA yadavartyA |&#xA;  sukalpamagne tat tava punastvoddIpayAmasi&lt;/strong&gt; || 5 ||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; Oh sUrya! Out of the extreme anger (fury) born out of my enmity/poverty, I might have slipped in my prayers for You. Oh fire god! By your industriousness/entrepreneurship, You sow the seed and pour water for the Earth to grow! (agnerApa: adbhya: prthivI - taittirIyopanishad). From now, I vow to eulogize You in a way that will please You. Please accept our worship as well done, accept it and please be more effulgent again! (according to scriptures, the sun's brilliance is transferred to the fire from the evening twilight to the morning twilight-hence the sun is fire! Supporting kAlidAsa's words in the first verse of the fourth canto of raghuvamSa - dinAnte nihitam teja: savitrA hutASana:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;yat te manyuparoptasya prthivImanu dadhvase |&#xA;  AdityA viSve taddevA: vasavaSca samAbharan&lt;/strong&gt; || 6 ||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: Because of your anger from which emanated the earth and grew, May you sustain it! May the vasus, rudrAs, AdityAs and ViSvadevAs come together and take the collective responsibility to return to me my bhagavat bhakti that I threw away on ground because of my anger!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;medinI devI vasundharA syAd vasudhA devI vAsavI | &#xA;  brahmavarcasa: pitrNAm Srotram cakshurmana:&lt;/strong&gt; || 7 ||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: She might be addressed by Her many names: medinI, devI, VasundharA, VasudhA, VaasavI (as indrA as a representative, activates) but She is for sure with divine spiritual splendour and is the ear, eye and the mind of the pitrs (manes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;devI hiraNya-garbhiNI devI prasUvarI&lt;/strong&gt; | 8 |&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: The goddess of Earth (Mother Earth) is pregnant with the whole universal gold egg, as the best creator and the best sustainer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;rasane satyAyane sIda | &#xA;  samudravatI sAvitrI ha no devI mahyangI&lt;/strong&gt; | 9 |&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; May you reach and reside in my tongue to make it truthful! You (She as the Mother Earth) comprise of all the seas and hence You are called 'samudravatI', and You are named 'sAvitrI' since You are associated with the Sun by Your wonderful brightness. You are our presiding deity benevolent, self-luminous and a benign care-taker, day and night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;maho dharaNI mahodhyadhishThA: Srnge Srnge yaj~ne yaj~ne vibhIshiNI&lt;/strong&gt; l 10&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: You are the great Mother Earth (who bears everything without a grudge or murmur!) established on a firm-footing (on His side in standing posture  and on the horn of the great boar, varAha) on the top of every creation and fearlessly in every sacrifice (as also like yajno vai vishNu:) thus assuring the devotees complete protection from morbid and mundane fears and never threatening the devotees like a tIkshNa-daNDa-dhara: (a tyrant/ dictator)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;indrapatnI vyApinI surasaridiha vAyumatI jalaSayanI SriyandhA | &#xA;  rAjA satyandho parimedinI Svo paridhattam gAya&lt;/strong&gt; | 11&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: She is the consort of the Supreme lord, pervading everywhere (omnipresent) and the divine river (mandAkinI/gangA) here on the earth, thus purifying the errant/erring souls. She is full of movement like air, brisk and breath of everyone to be alive.  she reclines on the water (payodhi), holds the riches in abundance associated with the goddess of fortune. You are truly alive, on the top of the earth all around.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;vishNu patnIm mahIm devIm mAdhavIm mAdhavapriyAm |&#xA;  lakshmI priyasakhIm devIm namAmyacyuta-vallabhAm&lt;/strong&gt; l 12&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: We salute Goddess BhUmi (mahIm devIm), the consort of VishNu; we salute that mAdhavI, who is dear to Maadhava ( Lord Vishnu ) and who is the dearest friend of LakshmI devi. Our salutations are to BhUmi devi, who has vAllabhyam (vaSIkaraNa) over Her Lord, acyuta (Lord Vishnu)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;om dhanurdharAyai vidmahe sarvasiddhyai ca dhImahi |&#xA;  tanno dharA pracodayAt&lt;/strong&gt; || 13 ||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; We worship Her by knowing Her as One who (wields the bow and looks also like a bow, lean in the middle) is adorning the bow. For that purpose we meditate upon the One who blesses us with all success (sarva siddhi). May that dharaNi dharA/BhUmi devI, prompt us for that meditation! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;SrNvantI SroNAmamrtasya gopAm | &#xA;  puNyAmasyA upaSruNomi vAcam&lt;/strong&gt; | 14&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; As a Mother, she carefully listens to all our appeals for ever and she is the hidden and holy river of nectar; and as a bhaktA, i never miss hearing Her words of solace and being comforted by being near Her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;mahIm devIm vishNu-patnImajUryAm | &#xA;  pratIcImenAgum havisha yajAma: |&#xA;  tredhA vishNururugAyo vicakrame | &#xA;  mahIm divam prthivImantariksham&lt;/strong&gt; | 15&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: Let us all pray to this Goddess of Earth, the consort of Lord VishNu especially in sacrifices (yajna) by offering the oblations of food (havis) which will in turn, come back to us as Her grants. Lord VishNu with the gigantic stature (by incarnating as trivikrama) treaded the three steps (the great strides) and measured the fourteen worlds inclusive of the Earth (mahIm prthivIm) and the sky (divam and antariksham).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;tacchroNaiti Srava icchamAnA | &#xA;  puNyagum Slokam yajamAnAya krNvatI&lt;/strong&gt; || 16 ||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; The Goddess of Earth thus is paying utmost attention faithfully to the devotees' prayers with a great care and involved interest sans pains and transfers the holy eulogies to make the Lord, our Master hear and bless us &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more details and inner meanings and commentary please refer to the following &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sadagopan.org/SriHayagrivan/SH095%20-%20Bhu%20suktam.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;MahaNarayanopanishad&lt;/strong&gt;, also called &lt;strong&gt;Yajniki Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; ( tenth Prapathaka of &lt;strong&gt;Taittiriya Aranyaka&lt;/strong&gt;, which is part of &lt;strong&gt;Krishna Yajur Veda&lt;/strong&gt;) the following verses are used to describe the greatness of Bhumi devi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ashvakranthey Rathakranthey Vishnukranthey VasunDharA |SiraSA darithA devi RakshaSva mam Padhey Padhey&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; ||30&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning : O' Goddess VasunDharA, you bear the tramping of horses and chariots and the strides of Lord Vishnu. I bear you with reverence on my head; protect me always.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;UdhrutAsi varAhena krishnena shathabAhunam|&#xA;  Bhumirdhenurdharanee lokadArinee&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/em&gt; 31&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning : You are lifted up by Krishna in the form of VarAha. You are well known as Bhumi, Dhenu, Dharani, and the supporter of all worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mrutakay hana may Papam yenmaya dhushkrutham  krutham |Tvaya hatena papayna Jeevami sarada: satham |&#xA;  Mrutakay Dehi may prustim tvayi sarvam prathistitham&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/em&gt; 32&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning : O' Goddess Earth, destroy my sin: destroy whatever misdeed is done by me. My sins having been destroyed by you , may I live a hundred autumns. O' Earth, bestow on me nourishment - everything is established in you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Gandhadvaram durAdarsham nityapushtam kareeshineem | Isvareegam sarvabhutanam tamihopahvaye Sriyam&lt;/strong&gt;||&lt;/em&gt; 33&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning :I invoke the Goddess Earth  to bless us; O' Goddess who art the ruler of all entities, who art known by odour, who art invincible by sins, who art ever full and who art associated with cow dung and others&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user808" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2016-09-18T13:07:37.133" LastActivityDate="2016-09-18T13:07:37.133" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14838" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5383" CreationDate="2016-09-10T19:16:11.883" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my knowledge.. We have to sprinkle that water on door entrance instead of ourselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 'maybe' reason behind that -&#xA;According to Hindus, there is laxmi at door entrance, and as sneezing consist of germs, we sprinkle waters to fool. ( like.. Its just a water sprinkle n not sneeze)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just liks after taking prashad, if we want to go the toilet, we advised to have a sip water just to fool.. As we are peeing that water n not prashad. :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7633" LastActivityDate="2016-09-10T19:16:11.883" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14840" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-11T01:10:37.747" Score="2" ViewCount="366" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently, I came across the Devi Bhagavata Purana. In it were many interesting and informative topics. However, I am unable to understand the Ninth Canto of the Purana, owing to fact that I find the English used there too &quot;Shakespearean&quot; for me. I can only understand that there was Krishna at the beginning and he split into Mula Prakriti and himself. Other than that, I am unable to understand the rest of the text there. When I researched about the Ninth canto of this Purana, I only found that it was about Radha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone summarize the part on Radha, Krishna and the creation of the universe from the Ninth Canto?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-06-21T21:55:44.927" LastActivityDate="2019-06-21T21:55:44.927" Title="What is the summary of the Ninth Canto of Devi Bhagavata Purana?" Tags="|krishna|radha|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-11-09T06:34:16.383" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14841" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14835" CreationDate="2016-09-11T02:13:23.347" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The three akshaya - tuners/quivers of Lord Shiva The three quivers of Lord Shiva contain: 1. Unlimited Arrows 2. Unlimited Divya Astras(like the Maheswara Astra) 3. Unlimited weapons&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ekasha Gada: The mace of Lord Shiva. One blow is equal to a million elephants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jayantha Vel: A spear which contains the power of the third eye of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pinaka: The powerful bow of Lord Shiva which is able to destroy creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maheshwara Chakra: The Chakra of Lord Shiva (like the Sudarshana Chakra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva-Kavach: The armour of Lord Shiva which will make its wielder invincible&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Kaakam: A unconquerable weapon of Lord Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Vajra: 100 times the power of Indra's Vajra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandrahas: The personal weapon of Lord Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Girish: A special sword with unique characteristics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jaivardhan: A shield of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The arrow of Shiva: It can destroy creation. Goes Back to the quiver after being used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Trishul: The trident of Lord Shiva. Destroys everything in its way. Can only be stopped by Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tripurajit Viman: The golden chariot which Lord Shiva uses.It can go anywhere, anytime, anyhow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yogesha Nadam: The conch of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashu: The battle-axe of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Parham: A long noose which even Gods can't escape from.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Three swords of Lord Shiva: The different swords are equipped with the Shiva-Kavach of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three teen - Baan Three arrows. One arrow marks all that should be destroyed in battle.The other arrow marks all that should be protected in battle. The last arrow destroys all that is marked to be destroyed. All of them then go back to the quiver.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TROOPS OF LORD SHIVA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;GANAS: The head of Ganas is Lord Ganesh. Lord Shiva has 1000 akshauhinis of Ganas. One akahauhini has 21870 war elephants, 21870 chariots each containing 4 men, 65610 cavalry and 65610 footmen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;DEVAS: The Head of the Devas is Lord Muruga and Indra. It is estimated that there is about 3,000,000,000 Devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva's Mounts are: Nandikeshwarar - The bull of Lord Shiva; Snakes - Snakes are also considered as Lord Shiva's Mounts; Tigers - Tigers are one of the favourite animals of Lord Shiva; The four divine horses - There are 4 particular horses that Lord Shiva uses to move his Chariot. The can go anywhere at will and turn by just thinking.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are main leaders of Lord Shiva's troops: Lord Karthikeya, Lord Ganesh, Lord Virabha, Lord Veerabhathrar, Lord Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva cannot be equalled in warfare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is one of the most powerful illusionists and is able to trap enemies easily with Maya Vidhya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7608" LastEditorUserId="7608" LastEditDate="2016-09-13T11:21:22.033" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T11:21:22.033" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14842" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-11T03:59:21.407" Score="6" ViewCount="1024" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/4100/wives-of-lord-kartikeya/4144#4144&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;,we know that Kartikeya has two wives,Devasena and Valli.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,this question is mainly on Devaseena as well as another goddess, Shasti. She mentioned in the Devi Bhagvata Purana as so:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4-22. Nârâyana said :– O Child! The sixth part of Prakriti is named as Sasthî. The Devî Sasthî is the Presiding Deity of infants and children; She is the Mâyâ of Visnu and She bestows sons to all. She is one of the sixteen Mâtrikâs. &lt;strong&gt;She is known by the name of Devasenâ&lt;/strong&gt;. She performs Vratas (vows); &lt;strong&gt;She is the chaste and dearest wife of Skanda&lt;/strong&gt;. She decides on the longevity of children and is always engaged in their preservation. So much so, that this Siddha Yoginî always keeps the children on her side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03228.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 228&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata just says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Performer of a thousand sacrifices then thought of Devasena, whom he has rescued before. And considering that this being (Skanda) was undoubtedly destined to be the husband of this lady by Brahma himself, he had her brought there, dressed her with the best apparel. And the vanquisher of Vala then said to Skanda, 'O foremost of gods, this lady was, even before thy birth, destined to be thy bride by that Self-existent Being [Brahma]. Therefore do thou duly accept her lotus-like beautiful right hand with invocation of the (marital) hymns.' Thus told, he duly married her. And Vrihaspati learned in hymns performed the necessary prayers and oblations. &lt;strong&gt;She who is called Shashthi&lt;/strong&gt;, Lakshmi, Asa, Sukhaprada, Sinivali, Kuhu, Saivritti, and Aparajita, is known among men as Devasena, the wife of Skanda. When Skanda became united to Devasena in indissoluble bonds of matrimony, then the gods of prosperity in her own personal embodiment began to serve him with diligence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although these all point to Devasena being Shasti, I have a few points that contradict these texts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03223.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 223 of Vana Parva&lt;/a&gt;, Devasena told Indra that she wanted husband with the following qualities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O hero with long arms, &lt;strong&gt;I am Avala (weak)&lt;/strong&gt; but my husband must be powerful. And by the potency of my father's boon, he will be respected by gods and Asuras alike. That manly and famous and powerful being devoted to Brahma, who is able to conquer all the celestials, Asuras, Yakshas, Kinnaras, Uragas, Rakshasas, and the evil-minded Daityas and to subdue all the worlds with thee, shall be my husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the Devi Bhagavata Purana contradicts this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;23-24. O Nârada! In ancient times, when the Daityas dispossessed the Devas of their positions, &lt;strong&gt;this Lady was elected as a general and got victory for the Devas; hence She was named Devasenâ.&lt;/strong&gt; Hearing the words of the King Priyavrata, Devasenâ, who fought for the Devas and was all good to the whole world, said :–&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here,as per the Devi Bhagvata Purana, Shasti stronger (she led the Devas like Skanda) as compared to the &lt;em&gt;weak&lt;/em&gt; Devasena of the Mahabharata.Also, Shasti got the name Devasena after a particular incident, unlike the Devasena of the Mahabharata who is named so after her birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,who is Shasti/Devasena's real parents and how does the concept of Shasti being Devasena tie with Valli? As per Tamil folklore,Devasena is said to be the reincarnation of Amritavalli,who,along with Sundaravalli (the previous birth of Valli),was born of Trivikarma (Vishnu)'s tears when he saw Nataraja's dance. When Amritavalli reincarnated as Devasena, she was adopted by Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the Mahabharata, Devasena,as well as her sister Daityasena, was born to Brahma.In the Devi Bhagvata Purana too, Shasti is described as being the mind-born daughter of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to that, if Devasena is Shasti, why isn't she worshipped under the name of Devasena?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-07T17:17:03.503" LastActivityDate="2018-06-07T17:17:03.503" Title="Is Devasena Shasti?" Tags="|goddess|kartikeya|devi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14843" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-11T05:11:58.460" Score="5" ViewCount="1412" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who's sage Vashishta's Best Student (other than the sons of King Dasharatha)? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7608" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-19T07:35:17.683" LastActivityDate="2018-02-19T07:35:17.683" Title="Who was sage Vasishth's most accomplished student?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|rishi|guru|vashishta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-09-13T09:16:19.127" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14845" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14858" CreationDate="2016-09-11T06:10:45.367" Score="10" ViewCount="485" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is that sloka which says Tirthas reside in our right ear?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that when we excrete then our whole body becomes impure but even then our right ear remains pure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason for this is that all holy pilgrimages and rivers (like Ganga etc) reside there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is the reason we touch our right ear 3 times after doing pranayama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm looking for that sloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T05:34:56.527" Title="What is that sloka which says Tirthas reside in our right ear?" Tags="|scripture|shloka|rivers|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14846" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8671" CreationDate="2016-09-11T06:21:06.180" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Devi Bhagvata Purana,the goddess Pushti is mentioned:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Pustî” (nourishment) is the wife of Ganapatî. All in this world worship this Pustî Devî. Without this “Pusti”, women or men alike all become weaker and weaker.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tushti is also mentioned but she is described as the wife of Anata Deva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorDisplayName="user4627" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T08:29:53.403" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T08:29:53.403" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14847" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12313" CreationDate="2016-09-11T06:26:59.540" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Indra has many weapons rather than just a Vajra. Lord Indra also has:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra Kaakam - A sword which has a  crescent - shaped tip&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A quiver of  inexhaustible arrows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vijaya Dhanush&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Deva mace &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Deva Chakra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A personal spear&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Indra Axe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More than a 100000000 astras&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maya Illusions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Goad&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Special Trident&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A lotus&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A conch which is golden &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The deva noose&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:&#xA;Lord Indra has immortality, because of Amirta, A heavenly pot of nectar. Lord Indra's mount is a white elephant named Iravat. Lord Indra has a golden chariot that surpasses many people. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7608" LastActivityDate="2016-09-11T06:26:59.540" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14848" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6546" CreationDate="2016-09-11T06:35:49.727" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Eshan has given a good answer.I am just adding on to his one.Lord Ganesha has many other wives too wives.They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)&lt;strong&gt;Tushti, Pushti and Shri&lt;/strong&gt;. You can get some information on them &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8671/do-we-have-any-information-about-other-wives-except-riddhi-siddhi-and-grandson&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)&lt;strong&gt;Kshemadayini&lt;/strong&gt;.From the mantra used for tarpanam &quot;Kshemadayini sahitam Vighna rajam Tarpayami&quot; Kshemadayini is Vighnaraj's shakti or consort whatever you may like to say.&#xA;source:&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10718/who-are-the-consorts-of-vishnu-ganesha-and-saraswati&quot;&gt;Who are the consorts of Vishnu,Ganesha and Saraswati?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)&lt;strong&gt;Kola Bo&lt;/strong&gt;.In Bengal, Ganesha on Durga Puja is associated with a plantain (banana) tree, the &quot;Kola Bo&quot; (also spelled Kalobou or Kolabau), ritually transformed into a goddess during the festival.You can get more information on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consorts_of_Ganesha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-09-11T06:35:49.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14849" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15361" CreationDate="2016-09-11T06:47:21.127" Score="10" ViewCount="3137" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why don't we do complete &lt;code&gt;Pradaxina&lt;/code&gt; of lord Shiva - &lt;code&gt;Shivalingam&lt;/code&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a Shiva temple from a panditjee over there I've heard that we can't do complete &lt;code&gt;Pradaxina&lt;/code&gt; of &lt;code&gt;Shivalingam&lt;/code&gt; because he is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Ardhanaareshvar&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Later I came to know about the story of how lord Shiva known as &lt;code&gt;Ardhanaareshvar&lt;/code&gt;, but my question remains there only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've read many blogs but didn't get answer about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7639" LastEditorUserId="7639" LastEditDate="2016-09-22T15:45:35.667" LastActivityDate="2016-10-13T09:28:18.227" Title="Why don't we do complete 'Pradaxina' (Circumambulation) of Shivalingam?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14850" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7418" CreationDate="2016-09-11T07:13:44.650" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama used various astras against Ravana and he too bombared many in return. Some astras Lord Rama used are over here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vasavi Shakti Astra;&#xA;Brahma Astra;&#xA;Bramhashira Astra;&#xA;Varuna Astra;&#xA;Agneyastra;&#xA;Brahmanda Astra;&#xA;Surya Astra;&#xA;Jyothiksha Astra;&#xA;Maheshwara Astra;&#xA;Linga Astra;&#xA;Shiva Astra;&#xA;Sudharshana Astra;&#xA;Venkatesa Astra;&#xA;Narayanan Astra;&#xA;Karma Astra;&#xA;Bhumi Astra;&#xA;Vayva Astra;&#xA;Trimurti Astra;&#xA;Garuda Astra; &#xA;Bhakti Astra; &#xA;Siddhi Astra;&#xA;Kali Astra;&#xA;Durga Astra;&#xA;Yama Astra;&#xA;Indra Astra;&#xA;Chandra Astra; &#xA;Asvini Astra;&#xA;Rishi Astra;&#xA;Gandharva Astra;&#xA;Maya Astra;&#xA;Deva Astra;&#xA;Yaksha Astra; &#xA;Parvata Astra;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7608" LastActivityDate="2016-09-11T07:13:44.650" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14851" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13578" CreationDate="2016-09-11T07:34:25.560" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not able to tell all the astras used, but I shall tell  astras used by Arjuna only. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Deva Astra;&#xA;Nyana astra;&#xA;Asur Astra;&#xA;Shiva astra;&#xA;Sakthi Astra;&#xA;Parvata astra;&#xA;Gandharva Astra;&#xA;Manu astra;&#xA;Pashupat Astra;&#xA;Vaishnava astra;&#xA;Varuna Astra;&#xA;Narayana Astra;&#xA;Rudra Astra;&#xA;Bramha astra;&#xA;Bramashira Astra;&#xA;Bramhanda astra;&#xA;Agneyastra;&#xA;Indra Astra;&#xA;Naga Astra;&#xA;Naga Pasha;&#xA;Garuda Astra;&#xA;Mohini Astra;&#xA;Lord Shiv’s teen Baan;&#xA;Vasavi Shakti ;&#xA;Nalika Astra;&#xA;Varuna pasha;&#xA;Bhauma Astra;&#xA;Bhargava Astra;&#xA;Anjalika Astra ;&#xA;Vayva Astra;&#xA;Surya Astra;&#xA;Vajra;&#xA;Twashar Astra;&#xA;Sammohana/Pramohana Astra;&#xA;Maheshwara Astra;&#xA;Sabda deva Astra;&#xA;Linga Astra;&#xA;Vishnu Astra;&#xA;Yama Astra;&#xA;Krishna astra;&#xA;Maya Astra;&#xA;Rakshasa Astra;&#xA;Hari Astra ;&#xA;Hara Astra;&#xA;Sudharshana Astra;&#xA;Vinayaga Astra;&#xA;Tapasvee astra;&#xA;Yaksha Astra;&#xA;Harihara Astra;&#xA;Raghava astra;&#xA;Raghavendra Astra;&#xA;Sai Astra;&#xA;Maha Astra;&#xA;Karma astra;&#xA;Brihaspati Astra;&#xA;Matsya astra;&#xA;Kurma Astra ;&#xA;Varaha Astra;&#xA;Narasimha Astra;&#xA;Vamana Astra;&#xA;Parasurama Astra;&#xA;Rama Astra;&#xA;Buddha Astra;&#xA;Kalki Astra ;&#xA;Balarama Astra;&#xA;Kali Astra;&#xA;Saraswati Astra;&#xA;Lakshmi Astra;&#xA;Durga Astra;&#xA;Hanuman Astra;&#xA;Markandeya Astra;&#xA;Vyasa Astra;&#xA;Hayagreeva Astra;&#xA;Bhakti Astra;&#xA;Sindhi Astra;&#xA;Vega Astra;&#xA;Viveka Astra;&#xA;BhadhraKali Astra;&#xA;Durvasa Astra;&#xA;Veera Astra;&#xA;Vashishta Astra;&#xA;Uttama Astra;&#xA;Vishwamitra Astra;&#xA;Ashtalakshmi Astra; &#xA;Dharieeya Lakshmi Astra;&#xA;Vera Lakshmi Astra;&#xA;Bhairava Astra;&#xA;Veerabhatra Astra;&#xA;Kartikeya Astra;&#xA;Muruga Astra;&#xA;Kritheka Astra;&#xA;Aadhi Astra;&#xA;Parasakthi Astra;&#xA;Aathma Astra;&#xA;Aadhiparasakthi Astra;&#xA;Dharma Astra;&#xA;Shyam Astra; &#xA;Saharsa Astra;&#xA;Perusal Astra;&#xA;VishnuShiva Astra;&#xA;Pancha Astra;&#xA;Chandra Astra;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2 quiver of arrows – one with never ending arrows and the other with never – ending astras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gandiva Bow which can never be broken and never misses its target.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mace  of Lord Indra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Kaakam – The blade of lord shiv&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandrahas – indestructible sword of lord shiv&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Axe of Lord Varuna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu Kavach – a armour which protects from any weapon&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sword which was used by Lord Agni&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A chakra which Lord Indra gave to Arjun&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nalika Arrows – Arrows of which will give extra power rather than a normal arrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A powerful noose&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A scythe which Vishwakaram created for him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A long weapon which shoots out the power of nature&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A shield&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The golden chariot which can fly upto the sky and can move by just thinking.(contains 4 white horses that move as fast as the wind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7608" LastActivityDate="2016-09-11T07:34:25.560" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14852" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-11T07:51:49.170" Score="6" ViewCount="1004" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kodanda and Sharanga are bows of Lord Rama and Lord Vishnu respectively. Are both of them same or different? If different ,in what aspect they differ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-10-17T11:32:59.487" LastActivityDate="2018-10-17T11:32:59.487" Title="Difference between Lord Rama and Lord Vishnu bows" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14854" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9457" CreationDate="2016-09-11T08:43:36.240" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The size of the soul is mentioned in the Śvetaśvatara Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बालाग्रशतभागस्य शतधा कल्पितस्य च ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भागोजीवः स विज्ञेयः स चानन्त्याय क ॥ ५.९ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know the embodied soul to be a part of the hundredth part of the point&#xA;  of a hair divided a hundred times, and yet it is infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(English translation of Svetasvatara Upanishad by Swami Nikhilananda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Considering the thickness of the tip of the human hair approximately 1 millimeter. Calculating the size we can around 1 nanometer (i.e. 0.000000001 meter). Since the soul is so tiny, it is not possible to see the spirit soul with the naked eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2016-09-11T08:43:36.240" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14858" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14845" CreationDate="2016-09-11T09:09:36.403" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are some Shloka found in Parashar Smriti, 12th Chapter &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/ParasharaSmriti/SriParasharaSmrithiPdf#page/n113/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source1&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://krishnamuttkondapur.weebly.com/krishna-mutt-blog/achamana1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source2&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/ParasharaSmriti/SriParasharaSmrithiPdf_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source3&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/akhandjyoti/edition/1947/Dec/17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source4&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रभासादीनि तीर्थानि गंगाद्या सरितस्तथा।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विप्रस्य दक्षिणे कर्णे वसन्ति मनुरब्रवीत॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Manu Prabhas and other teerthas, Ganga and other rivers reside in Brahmana's right ear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अग्निरापश्च वेदाश्च सोमः सूर्योऽनिलस्तथा।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वे देवास्तु विप्रस्य कर्णे तिष्ठन्ति दक्षिणें॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fire, water, the gods, the moon, the sun, and the&#xA;wind, all dwell in the right ear of a Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There also another Shloka that ia said to be from Parashar Smriti &lt;a href=&quot;http://krishnamuttkondapur.weebly.com/krishna-mutt-blog/achamana1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source1&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/akhandjyoti/edition/1947/Dec/17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source2&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आदित्यावसवो रुद्रा वायुरग्निश्व धर्मराट्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विप्रस्य दक्षिणे कर्णे नित्यं निष्ठन्ति देवताः॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aditya, Vasu, Rudra, Vayu, Agni, Dharma gods reside in Brahmana's right ear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T05:34:56.527" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14859" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11093" CreationDate="2016-09-11T09:31:26.513" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parashar Smriti, Chapter 12 &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/ParasharaSmriti/SriParasharaSmrithiPdf#page/n115/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source 1&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/ParasharaSmriti/SriParasharaSmrithiPdf_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source 2&lt;/a&gt; says , during eclipse all waters become pure like Ganges.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वं गंगा समं तोयं राहुग्रस्ते दिवाकरे।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सोमग्रहे तथैवोक्तं स्नानदानादि कर्मसु।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the sun or the moon is seized by rahu, all water&#xA;becomes as pure as the water of the Ganga, so far as bathing and giving, and other religious rites are concerned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-11T09:31:26.513" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14860" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9102" CreationDate="2016-09-11T10:20:08.007" Score="40" Body="&lt;p&gt;Due to the &lt;em&gt;dominance&lt;/em&gt; of Vedanta school in present time, Sanatana Dharma &lt;strong&gt;(Hinduism)&lt;/strong&gt; is often seen only in the light of Vedanta. If we go with respect to doctrines, Vedanta is only a small part of philosophies of Sanatana Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanatana Dharma&lt;/strong&gt; is mainly represented by six philosophies like Vedanta, Mimamsa, Nyaya etc.. Among the six school of philosophy, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaisheshika&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaishesika&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is one of them. Vaisheshika philosophy was founded by Maharsi Kanada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as Vedanta is represented by Brahma Sutra in a concise manner, Vaishesika philosophy is concised by Vaishesika Sutra. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vai%C5%9Be%E1%B9%A3ika_S%C5%ABtra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaishesika Sutra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; are very old texts. Even the western indologists date it to &lt;strong&gt;older than 500 BCE.&lt;/strong&gt; And Vaisheshika Sutra clearly discuss about Gravity in the Sutras themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaishesika Sutra discuss about role of Gravity in mainly &lt;strong&gt;three events:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;1) Why does an object held fall when you let go?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To describe this first of all Sutra &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/152/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;5.1.6&lt;/a&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आत्मकर्म हस्तसंयोगाश्च । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Action of body and it's members is also from conjunction with the hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the above Sutra describes that it is due to conjunction with hand object remains. Then the next Sutra describes that in the absence of conjuction falling results due to Gravity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;संयोगभावे गुरुत्वात्पतनम (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/154/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;V.S. 5.1.7&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;In the absence of conjunction falling results from Gravity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus it clearly recognizes objects fall downward due to Gravity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;2) Why does an object thrown in air fall after sometime?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Vaishesika Sutra discuss role of Gravity in falling of moving objects. It gives through the analogy of arrow.&#xA;First it gives mechanism of arrow projection in Sutra &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/158/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;5.1.17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नोदनाद्यभिषोः कर्म तत्कर्मकारिताच्च संस्कारादुत्तरं तथोत्तरमुत्तरं च ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The first action of arrow is from impulse; the next is resultant energy produced by the first action, and similarly the next next.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then it explains why it falls in next Sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;संस्काराभावे गुरुत्वात्पतनम (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/160/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;V.S. 5.1.18&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;In the absence of resultant/propulsive energy generated by action, falling results from Gravity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;3) Why does water fall (and rise) ?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the Sutras discuss cause of falling of water from sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अपां संयोगाभावे गुरुत्वात्पतनम (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/162/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;V.S. 5.2.3&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The falling of water in absence of conjunction is due to Gravity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then it discusses flow of water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;द्रवथ्वास्यन्दनम् (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/162/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;V.S. 5.2.4&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Flowing results from fludity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then it discusses why water rises.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नाड्यो वायुसंयोगादारोहणम् ।(&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/162/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;V.S. 5.2.5&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Suns rays (cause) the ascent of water through conjunction with air.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from above Sutras, we can acknowledge that Vaisheshika Sutra clearly discuss Gravity. It uses the word &amp;quot;Gurutwa&amp;quot; which is also used in present time to represent Gravity. Gurutwa means force which arises due to mass.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;However Vedanta School in Vedanta Sutra/ Brahma Sutra doesn't discuss about Gravity. In my view it is because it doesn't think Gravity is a worthy thing to be discussed as Vedanta Sutra are related to realization of Brahman and topics like Gravity aren't worthy to be discussed in Brahma Sutras.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can read Vaisheshika Sutras with translation &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-12T15:45:41.190" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14861" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14408" CreationDate="2016-09-11T12:18:43.123" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Parasara Smriti(the Dharma Sastra to be followed in Kali Yuga) talks about the impurities caused by birth &amp;amp; death in its chapter 3.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this chapter there are few slokas that answer your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AW00P.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AW00P.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The following sloka says that the same higher heavens that Yogis &amp;amp; spiritual aspirants achieve after many sacrificial rites &amp;amp; and after performing many penances  are achieved immediately by brave soldiers who meet with their death on the battleground.&#xA;This sloka explains why the Kauravas, who all died in the battlefield, attained heaven inspite of doing many wrongs in their respective lifetimes.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yam Yagnasanghaistapasa Cha Vipraha Swargairshino Vatra Yatha Yanti Chanena Yaantayebahi Tatra Viraha Praanaan Suyuddhena Paritayajantaha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning-The regions which Brhaman aspirants after heavenly bliss reach by performing many sacrificial rites,and by austerities of&#xA;  various forms,the same seats of bliss are attained in an instant time&#xA;  by valorous men who meet their death while blamelessly fighting on a&#xA;  field of battle.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FgNE7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FgNE7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-08T05:24:40.323" LastActivityDate="2016-10-08T05:24:40.323" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14862" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14821" CreationDate="2016-09-11T12:46:58.180" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;A similar type of prediction is present in Srimad Bhagvatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One is for those type of so called scholars / God Head person who argue by juggling words or misinterpreting scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam 12.2.4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लिङ्गम् एवाश्रम-ख्याताव् अन्योन्यापत्ति-कारणम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अवृत्त्या न्याय-दौर्बल्यं पाण्डित्ये चापलं वचः।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  A person’s spiritual position will be ascertained merely according to external symbols, and on that same basis people will change from one spiritual order to the next. A person’s propriety will be seriously questioned if he dos not earn a good living. And one &lt;strong&gt;who is very clever at juggling words will be considered a learned scholar.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another is for those so called God-Head / Priest who run after food, wealth and lust:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam 12.3.32:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दस्यूत्कृष्टा जनपदा वेदाः पाषण्ड-दूषिताः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  राजानश् च प्रजा-भक्षा शिश्नोदर-परा द्विजाः।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Cities will be dominated by thieves, the Vedas will be contaminated by speculative interpretations of atheists, political leaders will virtually consume the citizens, and the &lt;strong&gt;so-called priests&lt;/strong&gt; and intellectuals &lt;strong&gt;will be devotees of their bellies and genitals.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-11T12:52:11.217" LastActivityDate="2016-09-11T12:52:11.217" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14863" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-11T13:32:49.677" Score="7" ViewCount="5353" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just wondering How do Hindus decide which gods or goddesses to worship?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7642" LastActivityDate="2018-01-31T03:26:34.067" Title="How do Hindus decide which gods or goddesses to worship?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14864" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8876" CreationDate="2016-09-11T14:52:46.590" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Absolute reality is one but as it beyond level of mind several philosophy try to discuss it in their own way so there arise many interpretations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually this question is addressed in Suta Samhita of Skandha Purana Yajna Vaibhava Khanda, Marga Pramanya Nirnaya Chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why there are Many Paths?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अधिकारिविभेदेन नैकस्यैव सदा द्विजा । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तर्कैरेते हि मार्गास्तु न हन्तव्या मनीषिभि ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथा तोयप्रवाहाणां समुद्र: परमावधि । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथैव सर्व मार्गाणां साक्षान्निष्ठा महेश्वरः ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The wise say that &lt;strong&gt;each of these sastras is intended for a particular class according to the individual qualification, not all for one.&lt;/strong&gt; These paths are not to be rudely handled by the learned subjecting them to rigorous unrelenting logic. &lt;strong&gt;As all streams ultimately empty themselves into the ocean, so all these paths ultimately lead to the Great Lord Himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, there are many paths because a single path is not suitable for everyone.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Supreme Lord helps from each path:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्तन्मार्गेनुगुण्येन साधकत्वं ह्युपैति सः ।&#xA;  तत्प्रसादात्क्रमान्मार्गान्विशिष्टानेति मानवः ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Worshipped in what form so ever by people as ordained in their respective scriptures. He assumes that form and takes the devotee on to the next higher step.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-11T14:52:46.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14865" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14871" CreationDate="2016-09-11T14:53:36.703" Score="15" ViewCount="4889" Body="&lt;p&gt;In India a lot of women(both married &amp;amp; unmarried) fast for religious purposes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many Vratas are there all throughout the year viz:- Varalakshmi Vrata,Mangala Gowri Vrata,Rishi Panchami Vrata(specifically done by ladies)etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I found the following surprising sloka from the Parasara Smriti which says that &lt;strong&gt;a married woman if fasts reduces the lifetime of her husband and eventually goes to hell.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 4,Sloka 17.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pathou Jivati Ya NaaryuPoshyavratamaachareth&lt;br&gt; Ayusham Harate bhartuhu Saa&#xA;  Naari Narakam Vrajeth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-If a woman,during her husband's life,observes areligious vow&#xA;  which involves a religious vow which involves a fast,that woman&#xA;  thereby shortens her husband's life ,and after death goes to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ANOxc.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ANOxc.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar slokas are there in other Smritis as well.For example the Vishnu Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;15&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;No sacrifice, no penance, and no fasting is allowed to women apart from their husbands; to pay obedience to her lord is the only means&#xA;  for a woman to obtain bliss in heaven.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;16. A woman who keeps a fast or performs a penance in the lifetime of her lord, deprives her husband of his life, and will go to&#xA;  hell.(Vishnu Smriti XXV )&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the counter quotes from other Sastras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-23T07:10:05.417" LastActivityDate="2020-05-11T08:44:37.413" Title="Are married women allowed to fast religiously(vrata)?" Tags="|scripture|women|fasting|smriti|parashara|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14866" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17223" CreationDate="2016-09-11T19:21:11.940" Score="2" ViewCount="536" Body="&lt;p&gt;A.C. BhaktiVedanta Prabhupada the Founder of ISKCON movement in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/2/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentry&lt;/a&gt; on Shrimad Bhagwad Mahapurana says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this &lt;strong&gt;nondual&lt;/strong&gt; substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān. SB 1.2.11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The exact word is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/synonyms-index?original=advayam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Advayam&lt;/a&gt;. Since Gaudiya Vishnavas align their philosophy with Standard Vaishnava philosophy &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishishtadvaita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishishtadvaita&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to interpret this Advayam word for Bramhan? What are Sri Vaishnava views/comments on this word?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-05-25T13:16:18.013" LastActivityDate="2018-05-25T13:16:18.013" Title="Why prabhupada refers Bramhan as non-dual(advaita) in his commentry on SB?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|vishishtadvaita|gaudiya-vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14867" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-11T23:41:25.100" Score="3" ViewCount="1202" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which scripture has the following shloka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;साधूनां दर्शनं पुण्यं स्पर्शनं पापनाशनम् ।&lt;br&gt; संभाषणं कोटितीर्थं वन्दनं मोक्षदायकम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sādhūnāṃ darśanaṃ puṇyaṃ sparśanaṃ pāpanāśanam ।&lt;br&gt; saṃbhāṣaṇaṃ koṭitīrthaṃ vandanaṃ mokṣadāyakam ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T11:09:57.727" Title="What is the origin of the shloka sādhūnāṃ darśanaṃ puṇyaṃ" Tags="|scripture|shloka|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14868" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10141" CreationDate="2016-09-12T05:20:16.383" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question arises when one assumes that Lord Shiva (actually Shankara) is married to Sati and Parvati only one time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually same &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva is married to many Sati and many Parvati just like in cycles.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. He has married with Sati multiple times. Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana in chapter 14 verse 9 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;केचद्वदन्ति तां ज्येष्ठां मध्यमां चापरे शिवाम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वानन्तरजां केचित्कल्पभेदात्त्रयं च सत् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Some say that Shivă (Sati) was eldest of them all, some say she was middle one and some wise treat her as youngest of all. All three opinions are correct, because of difference of Kalpa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus same Shiva is married to Sati multiple times. In the similar way he is married to Parvati multiple times. Actually the age of present Parvati is also only 6 months of Brahma. Prabhasa Khanda of Skandha Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27478/62f_chapter_19_2.pdf#toolbar=0&amp;amp;pagemode=none&amp;amp;view=FitBH&amp;amp;page=1%22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this Varaha Kalpa, O goddess, you became Parvati obtained by Himavan through his penance, when the Chakshusha Manvantara has passed off. O beautiful lady, due to the anger of Daksha you had to be separated from me for the duration of a day of Brahma. &lt;strong&gt;Your span of life is the period of his six months.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus after six months of Brahma, present Parvati also leaves her body and then after certain time she is again born and Lord Shiva marries her again and again and again. So the cycle continues.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually Devi Mahatmya describes Parvati before the destruction of Sumbha Nisumbha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऋषिरुवाच॥८३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;एवं स्तवादियुक्तानां &lt;strong&gt;देवानां तत्र पार्वती&lt;/strong&gt;।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्नातुमभ्याययौ तोये जाह्नव्या नृपनन्दन॥८४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;साब्रवीत्तान् सुरान् सुभ्रूर्भवद्भिः स्तूयतेऽत्र का।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;शरीरकोशतश्‍चास्याः समुद्भूताब्रवीच्छिवा॥८५॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Rishi said, when &lt;strong&gt;the deities applauded Parvati,&lt;/strong&gt; O prince! she went to perform ablution in the water of Janhavi. She asked them, &amp;quot;Whom did you greet there.&amp;quot; The resplendent Shiva emanated from her body, and spoke thus to her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However in the beginning of Devi Mahatmya Markandeya Purana states that it is the story of Sarvanika Manvantara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सावर्णिः&lt;/strong&gt; सूर्यतनयो यो मनुः कथ्यतेऽष्टमः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;निशामय तदुत्पत्तिं विस्तराद् गदतो मम॥२॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sarvani, the son of Surya (Sun-God) was known to be the eighth Manu. Hear about the details of his birth from me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And each chapter of Devi Mahatmya End stating:&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इति श्रीमार्कण्डेयपुराणे सावर्णिके मन्वन्तरे देवीमाहात्म्ये &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus ends the Devi Mahatmya of Markandeya Purana of Sarvanika Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But Sarvanika Manvantara is Yet to come in this kalpa.&lt;/strong&gt; The present Manvantara is Vaivasvata and the coming Manvantara of this Kalpa is Sarvanika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the Devi Mahatmya is describing Mahisasura Vadh, Sumbha Nisumbha Vadh etc.. in Sarvanika Manvantara. In the present Kalpa this Manvantara is yet to come. So it becomes clear that Devi Mahatmya is narrating events of Sarvanika Manvantara of some past Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus the Parvati who killed Sumbha Nisumbha in Devi Mahatmya is not the present Parvati who is born in this Kalpa and again married to Lord Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That Parvati who was present in Sumbha Nisumbha Vadh time became Sati-Parvati-Sati-Parvati... etc.. many times and  born as Sati in Pitri Kalpa (previous kalpa). She again born as Parvati in present SvetaVaraha Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually Parvati after Sumbha Nisumbha Vadh also predicts about her various incarnations of 28th Chaturyuga of Present or Vaivasvata Manvantara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देव्युवाच॥४०॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैवस्वतेऽन्तरे प्राप्ते अष्टाविंशतिमे युगे।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;शुम्भो निशुम्भश्‍चैवान्यावुत्पत्स्येते महासुरौ॥४१॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नन्दगोपगृहे जाता यशोदागर्भसम्भवा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ततस्तौ नाशयिष्यामि विन्ध्याचलनिवासिनी॥४२॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Devi said, &lt;strong&gt;on the twenty-eighth age of Vaivasvata,&lt;/strong&gt; Sumbha, and Nisumbha, shall be regenerated. I shall reside on the mountain of Vindhya, &lt;strong&gt;I shall be born in the race of cowherds in the womb of Yasoda,&lt;/strong&gt; and destroy them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She further states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रक्षांसि भक्षयिष्यामि मुनीनां त्राणकारणात्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तदा मां मुनयः सर्वे स्तोष्यन्त्यानम्रमूर्तयः॥५१॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भीमा देवीति विख्यातं तन्मे नाम भविष्यति।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यदारुणाख्यस्त्रैलोक्ये महाबाधां करिष्यति॥५२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तदाहं भ्रामरं रूपं कृत्वाऽसंख्येयषट्‌पदम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;त्रैलोक्यस्य हितार्थाय वधिष्यामि महासुरम्॥५३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भ्रामरीति च मां लोकास्तदा स्तोष्यन्ति सर्वतः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;इत्थं यदा यदा बाधा दानवोत्था भविष्यति॥५४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तदा तदावतीर्याहं करिष्याम्यरिसंक्षयम् ॥५५॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;I again shall assume a dreadful form on the mountain Himachala, and devour the giants to protect the sages: all the ascetics will bow and applaud me. I shall be called&#xA;Bhima-Devi, when Aruna shall disturb the three world; then I shall turn a roving beettle. I will destroy the great giant for the advantage of these three worlds: all will applaud me by the name of Bramhani in the world. Whenever disturbances shall arise from the demonic forces, then I shall incarnate and destroy the enemies.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the Yajurveda Maitrayani Samhita  9.4 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गिरिसुताय धीमहि तन्नो गौरी प्रचोदयात् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;May &lt;strong&gt;daughter of mountains&lt;/strong&gt; (Girisuta), &lt;strong&gt;Gauri&lt;/strong&gt; enlighten our intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As events described in Vedas are eternal, so her name also becomes Parvati which means who is daughter of Mountain/ who is pure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we are in 51st year of Brahma. More than 50×360 = 18000 Kalpas are already passed. As we know from above description Sati and Parvati have life of few kalpas only. So she reincarnate again and again to marry Shiva. Actually it's needed to sustain the creation because she herself is Adi Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who is this Shiva who marries again and again to Sati and Parvati multiple times?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma while praying to Sri Durga in Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;य पतिस्तव देवेशि ललाटान्मेऽभवत्पुरा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;शिवो रुद्राख्या योगी स वै कैलासमास्थित ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;O Goddess of the Devas, &lt;strong&gt;Your husband had been born out of my forehead and known as Rudra and is dwelling at Kailash as Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same Rudra Samhita, Lord Vishnu states to Lord Brahma as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;समयं प्राप्य सस्त्रीकावावां ब्रह्मशङ्करः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अवतीर्णः स्वयं रुद्रनाम कैलाससंश्रयः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;After sometime both of us had got the spouses, while &lt;strong&gt;Shiva had incarnated as Rudra at Kailash.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Shiva incarnated as Rudra through forehead of Brahma is the one living in Kailash and known as Shiva. He marries to Sati and Parvati multiple times like cycles of creation-destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as there were many Parvati and many Sati, their incarnation are also many. And as per Devi Mahatmya it is Ambika &lt;strong&gt;who came from Parvati&lt;/strong&gt; who killed Sumbha Nisumbha. Parvati was again born as Sati in Pitri kalpa. And her incarnations are established through reputed Shakti Peethas. Sati again born as Parvati in Shewta Varaha Kalpa (Present Kalpa) and she also had many partial incarnations like daughter of Yashoda, Bhramari Devi etc.. Thus each incarnation belong to both Sati and Parvati as they are same and they come as cycles of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T06:17:23.877" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14869" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14755" CreationDate="2016-09-12T06:42:21.030" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not (including/doing) arguments for that but let quote some Shruti and Smriti verses and quotes that say Vedas are Apaurusheya or the words of Parameshwara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to Manusmriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्रुतिस्तु वेदो विज्ञेय:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means Vedas are &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shruti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (that which is heard)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ऋषयो मन्त्रद्रष्टार:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sages are seer (not creator) of Vedic hymns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्मं जिज्ञासमानानां &lt;strong&gt;प्रमाणं परमं श्रुतिः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To those who seek the knowledge of the sacred law the &lt;strong&gt;supreme authority is the revelation (Sruti)&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/rigveda/sanskrit03/RV0310noaccent.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rigveda&lt;/a&gt;: (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.shastras.com/vedic-hymns/purusha-suktam/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purusha Sukta&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasmādyajñātsarvahuta ṛcaḥ sāmāni jajñire|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  chandāṃsi jajñire tasmādyajustasmādajāyata|| 10.090.09&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From this sacrifice called &quot;All embracing&quot;&#xA;  The chants of Rig Veda were born,&#xA;  The chants of Sama Veda were born,&#xA;  And from that the well-known meters were born,&#xA;  And from that Yajur Veda was born. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From verse 5.57.8:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सत्यश्रुतः कवयः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hearers of truth&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mundaka Upanishad: (1.2.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तदेतत् &lt;strong&gt;सत्यं मन्त्रेषु&lt;/strong&gt; कर्माणि कवयो यान्य&lt;strong&gt;पश्यंस्तानि&lt;/strong&gt; त्रेतायां बहुधा सन्ततानि । तान्याचरथ नियतं सत्यकामा एष वः पन्थाः सुकृतस्य लोके ॥ १॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That  truth  is  this,  that  what  observances  the  seers comprehended  from  the three  Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;  and  were  practised  intensely  during  theTreta  age,  you  should  also  practise with  devotion.  Oh!  Seekers  of  Truth!   That  is  your  path  which  will  lead  you  to  the world  of  those  of  meritorious  deeds.         (1).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also read verse 2.1.4 of Mundaka which mentons Vedas a speech of Paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to Brihadaranyak Upanishad: (2.4.10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स यथाऽऽर्द्रैधाग्नेरभ्याहितात्पृथग्धूमा&#xA;  विनिश्चरन्त्य्&#xA;  स यथा आर्द्रैधाग्नेस् अभ्याहितस्य अभ्याहिताद्&#xA;      पृथक् धूमास् विनिश्चरन्ति&#xA;  एवं वा अरेऽस्य महतो भूतस्य निःश्वसितमेतद्&#xA;  यदृग्वेदो यजुर्वेदः सामवेदोऽथर्वाङ्गिरस इतिहासः पुराणं&#xA;  विद्या उपनिषदः श्लोकाः सूत्राण्यनुव्याख्यानानि व्याख्यानान्य्&#xA;  एव वै अरे अस्य महतस् भूतस्य निश्वसितम्&#xA;      निःश्वसितम् एतद् यद् ऋग्वेदस् यजुर्वेदस्&#xA;  सामवेदस्&#xA;      अथर्वाङ्गिरसस् इतिहासस् पुराणम् विद्यास्&#xA;  उपनिषदस्&#xA;      श्लोकास् सूत्राणि अनुव्याख्यानानि व्याख्याननि&#xA;  अस्यैवैतानि निःश्वसितानि ॥ १० ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;As from a fire kindled with wet fuel various kinds of smoke  issue forth, even so, my dear, the Rig—Veda, the Yajur—Veda,  the Sama—Veda, the Atharvangirasa, history (itihasa),  mythology (purana), the arts (vidya), the Upanishads, verses  (slokas), aphorisms (sutras), elucidations (anuvyakhyanas) and  explanations (vyakhyanas) &lt;strong&gt;are like the breath of this infinite  Reality. From this Supreme Self are all these, indeed, breathed  forth.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From Mahabharata Shanti Parva (232):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the outset the Self-born caused those excellent Vedic sounds, that are embodiments of knowledge and that have neither beginning nor end to (spring up and) flow on (from preceptor to disciple). From those sounds have sprung all kinds of actions. The names of the Rishis, all things that have been created, the varieties of form seen in existent things, and the course of actions, have their origin in the Vedas. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b059.htm#fn_386&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; Indeed, the Supreme Master of all beings, in the beginning, created all things from the words of the Vedas. Truly, the names of the Rishis, and all else that has been created, occur in the Vedas. Upon the expiration of his night (i.e., at the dawn of his day), the uncreate Brahman creates, from prototypes that existed before, all things which are, of course, well-made by Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to Svetasvatara Upanishad (6.18):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो ब्रह्माणं विदधाति पूर्वं&#xA;             यो वै &lt;strong&gt;वेदांश्च प्रहिणोति&lt;/strong&gt; तस्मै ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तं ह देवं आत्मबुद्धिप्रकाशं&#xA;             मुमुक्षुर्वै शरणमहं प्रपद्ये ॥ १८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeking Liberation, I take refuge in the Lord, the revealer of Self—Knowledge, who in the beginning created Brahma and &lt;strong&gt;delivered the Vedas&lt;/strong&gt; to Him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Niruktakara Yaskacharya have written in his Veda-Bhashya that &quot;Vedas are eternal and Apaurusheya&quot;. &lt;sup&gt;(source - &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://bharatdiscovery.org&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आचार्य लौगाक्षि भास्कर ने दार्शनिक दृष्टि रखते हुए- अपौरुषेय वाक्य को वेद कहा है।&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A6_%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BE_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%AA#cite_note-4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[4]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अपौरुषेयं वाक्यं वेद:।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Aacharya Laugakshi has said Vedas are Apaurusheya words. &lt;sup&gt;(source - &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://bharatdiscovery.org&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A well known commentator on Vedas, Sayanacharya has mentioned following quote in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ASS042KrishnaYajurvediyaTaittiriyaSamhitaPart1KasinathSastriAgase1940/page/n3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;preface of his commentary on Taittariya Samhita&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रत्यक्षेणानुमेत्या वा यस्तूपायो न विद्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एनं विदन्ति वेदेन तस्माद् वेदस्य वेदता ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which means by That which can not be known either by direct perception or by inference, that Reality can be known only through the Vadas&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_2/Jnana-Yoga/Realisation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 2/Jnana-Yoga/Realisation&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All that is called knowledge is in the Vedas. Every word is sacred and eternal, eternal as the soul, without beginning and without end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_1/Addresses_at_The_Parliament_of_Religions/Paper_on_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Addresses at The Parliament of Religions/Paper on Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_6/Writings:_Prose_and_Poems%28Original_and_Translated%29/Hinduism_and_Shri_Ramakrishna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 6/Writings&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In matters of religious duty the Vedas are the only capable authority.....The whole body of supersensuous truths, having no beginning or end, and called by the name of the Vedas, is ever-existent.....The person in whom this supersensuous power is manifested is called a Rishi, and the supersensuous truths which he realises by this power are called the Vedas....The authority of the Vedas extends to all ages, climes and persons; that is to say, their application is not confined to any particular place, time, and persons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-11-05T06:42:16.720" LastActivityDate="2019-11-05T06:42:16.720" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14870" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-12T06:58:17.490" Score="3" ViewCount="471" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that Lord Vishnu will take birth as Kalki avatar when the adharma will be on the apex. So what is the apex of adharma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2779" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T05:27:22.347" LastActivityDate="2018-12-03T05:48:33.060" Title="What is the apex of adharma?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|kalki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14871" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14865" CreationDate="2016-09-12T06:58:58.490" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are countless verses in scriptures which counter this verse. Parashara Smriti is a Smriti text and Puranas are also Smriti text thus they have equal authority. &lt;strong&gt;Thus we can counter this verse by using Puranic verses as Authority.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Although there are countless counter verses in every Puranas. I have here used only &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Padma Purana Brahma Khanda chapter 5 states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यानारिस्वामिसहितांकुर्याच्चहरिवासरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुपुत्राभर्तृसुभगाभवेत्साप्रतिजन्मनि ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;That woman who along with her husband, would observe a fast on the day of (i.e. sacred to) Vishnu,&lt;/strong&gt; would have good sons and would be a favourite wife of her husband in every existence.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Padma Purana Shristi Khanda chapter 29 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवंसंवत्सरयावदुपोष्यविधिवन्नरः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्त्रीचनक्तंकुमारीचशिवमभ्यच्र्यभक्तितः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus, for one year, a man or &lt;strong&gt;a woman or a maiden,&lt;/strong&gt; having duly &lt;strong&gt;observed a fast at night&lt;/strong&gt; and having devoutly worshipped Shiva for a year, should give a fully furnished &#xA;  bed at the end of the vow. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Padma Purana Shristi Khanda chapter 22 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नरोवायदिवानारीसोपवासव्रतंचरेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गर्भिणीसूतिकानक्तंकुमारीवाथरोगिणी ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यदाऽशुद्धातदान्येनकारयेत्प्रयतास्वयम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इमामनंतफलदांयस्तृतीयांसमाचरेत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कल्पकोटिशतंसाग्रंशिवलोकेमहीयते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वित्तहीनोपिकुर्वीतयावद्वर्षमुपोषणम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  If a man or &lt;strong&gt;a woman&lt;/strong&gt; observes the &lt;strong&gt;vow of fast,&lt;/strong&gt; (if) a &lt;strong&gt;pregnant woman or if a woman recently delivered,&lt;/strong&gt; or a maiden or a sick woman observes fast at night (he or she would get unending fruit). When impure (i.e. during menstruation), she, being restrained, should get it done by someone else. &lt;strong&gt;He, who observes (the vow of) this Ananta-phalada (giving unending fruit) Trtijd, is honoured in Shiva&amp;apos;s world for a full crore of Kalpas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as that verse of Parashara Smriti contradicts with so many other verses of Puranas and nor it is supported by Vedic verses, So it can be rejected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-12T06:58:58.490" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14872" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14835" CreationDate="2016-09-12T08:01:08.913" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trishula&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Trishula, the trident of the Hindu deity Shiva, stylized by some as&#xA;  used as a missile weapon and often included a crossed stabilizer to&#xA;  facilitate flight when thrown. Considered to be the most powerful&#xA;  weapon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pashupata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pashupatastra (IAST: Pāśupatāstra, sanskrit: पाशुपतास्त्र), in&#xA;  Hindu History, is an irresistible and most destructive personal weapon&#xA;  of Shiva, Kali and Adi Para Sakthi discharged by the mind, the eyes,&#xA;  words, or a bow. Never to be used against lesser enemies or by lesser&#xA;  warriors, the Pashupatastra is capable of destroying creation and&#xA;  vanquishing all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashupatastra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parashu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The parashu (Sanskrit: paraṣu) is an Indian battle-axe. It is&#xA;  generally wielded with two hands but could also be used with only one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pinaka&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pinaka is the name of the divine bow (dhanush) wielded by Lord Shiv. 8&#xA;  meter in height. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Dhanush&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-12T08:01:08.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14873" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9633" CreationDate="2016-09-12T09:24:26.433" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;1) &lt;strong&gt;Why is the name Sitikantha used?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sitikantha is an eternal name of Lord Shiva because it is stated in Vedas. Vedas clearly call Lord Shiva as &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Sitikanthaya Cha&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;. And Vedas were before Samundra Manthan and also before fight of Shiva and Narayana (as told in Narayania). So, Sitikantha can mean whose throat is white due to using of ash in neck. And more importantly Sitikantha name is used in just beginning part of 5th Anuvaka of Sri Rudram (YajurVeda) where all specific names are used. The names from Bhava to Vyuptakesha are Specific names of Lord Shiva. They are used for other Gods only for the sake of completing Sahasranaamas. And Sitikantha name also exists between the specific name. So it is clear it is specific name.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमो भवाय च रुद्राय च। नमश्शर्वाय च पशुपतये च। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमो नीलग्रीवाय च &lt;strong&gt;शितिकण्ठाय च&lt;/strong&gt;। नमः कपर्दिने च व्युप्तकेशाय च। नमस्सहस्राक्षाय च शतधन्वने च। नमो गिरिशाय च शिपिविष्टाय च। (YajurVeda 4.5.1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to Him who is the source of all things (&lt;strong&gt;Bhava&lt;/strong&gt;). And to Him who is the remover of all cries (&lt;strong&gt;Rudra&lt;/strong&gt;). Salutations to the destroyer (&lt;strong&gt;Sarva&lt;/strong&gt;) and to the protector of all beings in bondage (&lt;strong&gt;Pasupati&lt;/strong&gt;). Salutations to Him whose throat is blue (&lt;strong&gt;Nilagriva&lt;/strong&gt;) and whose throat is also white (&lt;strong&gt;Sitikantha&lt;/strong&gt;). Salutations to Him of the matted locks (&lt;strong&gt;Kapardin&lt;/strong&gt;), and to Him who is clean-shaven (&lt;strong&gt;Vyuptakesha&lt;/strong&gt;). Salutations to Him who has a Thousand eyes and a hundred bows. Salutations to Him who dwells on the mount and who is in the form of Shipivista.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Sitikantha name can be used irrespective of any events.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2) Your other questions can be answered from the fact that Lord Shiva is married to Sati and Parvati multiple times as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10141/wouldnt-most-of-the-incarnations-of-devi-be-of-sati-not-parvati/14868#14868&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;answer here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;केचद्वदन्ति तां ज्येष्ठां मध्यमां चापरे शिवाम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वानन्तरजां केचित्कल्पभेदात्त्रयं च सत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Some say that Shivă (Sati) was eldest of them all, some say she was middle one and some wise trear her as youngest of all. All three opinions are correct, because of difference of Kalpa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And Parvati who was present during Sumbha Nisumbha Vadh is not same Parvati present today.&lt;/strong&gt; She became Sati in Pitri Kalpa (previous kalpa) and again Parvati in Present kalpa and again married to Lord Shiva. I have explained it in detail in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10141/wouldnt-most-of-the-incarnations-of-devi-be-of-sati-not-parvati/14868#14868&quot;&gt;same answer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there are many Parvati and many Sati. Bhagvatam may be narrating event of any time among those many. So we need not to be surprised seeing the word Satipriya, Dakshyaani etc..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Even if we consider Bhagvatam is describing churning of ocean of Present Chakshusa Manvantara when Sati had already died and still why Sati priya, Dakshyaani words are used? We can solve it in this way:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;When Devas go in refugee of Lord Shiva in S.B. 8.7.19 the words used are:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;arakṣyamāṇāḥ &lt;strong&gt;śaraṇaṁ sadāśivam&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Feeling unsheltered and very much afraid, they sought shelter of SadaShiva.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It uses the word &lt;strong&gt;Saranam SadaSivam&lt;/strong&gt; ie. Refugee of SadaShiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, Devas may actually have gone to that place where SadaShiva lives (not where Sri Parvati Pati lives).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Also the terms like &amp;quot;ParaBrahman&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Paramatma&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Bhutatma Bhuta Bhawana&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Ishworo Bandha Mokshoyo&amp;quot; etc.. are used which applies to SadaShiva rather than Sri Parvati Pati as he has birth through forehead of Brahma (although it may also be used for him).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And most importantly S.B. 8.7.29 states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;O lord, the five important Vedic mantras are &lt;strong&gt;represented by your five faces,&lt;/strong&gt; from which the thirty-eight most celebrated Vedic mantras have been generated. Your Lordship, being celebrated as Lord Śiva, is self-illuminated. You are directly situated as the supreme truth, known as Paramātmā.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Five face is the representation of SadaShiva. So it is likely that Devas are in front of SadaShiva. Sada Shiva is always with his consort Amba as represented collectively by the term Samba SadaShiva.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the term Sati Priya, Dakshyaani may be used just as epithets only just as names of Lord Krishna are also used to glorify Lord Vishnu, In the same way Sri Parvati Pati is direct incarnation of Sri SadaShiva. So he can be denoted by using epithets or names of Sri ParvatiPati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As there are many Parvati we can't answer when did Lord Shiva married Sri Parvati? However we can tell when did he married with Latest Parvati (who is incarnation of previous Parvati and Sati). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as answered already from the Prabhasa Khanda of the Skanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this Varaha Kalpa, O goddess, you became Parvati obtained by Himavan through his penance, &lt;strong&gt;when the Chakshusha Manvantara has passed off.&lt;/strong&gt; O beautiful lady, due to the anger of Daksha you had to be separated from me for the duration of a day of Brahma. Your span of life is the period of his six months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, she was either born close to the end of the Chakshusha Manvantara or the beginning of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However this doesn't make Sri Parvati youngest of the Gods we worship now. It is because there were many Parvati in past age before the birth of Present Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-09-12T09:45:39.053" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14874" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14880" CreationDate="2016-09-12T09:35:15.713" Score="5" ViewCount="477" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've read in one of the Upanishads that at the &quot;beginning&quot; of the universe sattva, rajas and tamas were in balance. But for some unknown reason the balance was disturbed and this is cause of the universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately I don't remember which one - &#xA;It must be described somewhere in  the Upanishads or Vedas how this sattva-rajas-tamas are interconvertible? And if so where?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4974" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-15T12:22:48.020" LastActivityDate="2016-09-15T12:22:48.020" Title="Conversion of Sattva, Rajas, Tamas" Tags="|upanishads|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14875" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-12T15:52:46.220" Score="5" ViewCount="177" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can you explain the concept of married couples performing penance for 1000 years?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In beginning of Shri Krishna, we are shown that Deviki and Vasudeva perform penance together for 1000 years, see Lord Krishna's form. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Deviki is given the boon of being Lord Krishna's mother in three births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, I am watching the story Yashoda and Nanda, how in previous life they were Dhara and Drona and performed penance for 1000 years to see Lord Krishna in child form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/VplmN2EIMHY?t=8m59s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Link to Video&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Husband and Wife do penance for 1000 years together in Ancient India? And is it really 1000 human years? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clarify.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-09-14T11:23:59.423" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T07:48:49.737" Title="Married Couples Performing Penance" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14877" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14874" CreationDate="2016-09-12T18:35:54.527" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There cannot be any other &lt;a href=&quot;http://simplyphilosophy.org/philosophy/classical-greek-philosophy/aristotle/the-four-causes/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Material and/or efficient&lt;/a&gt; cause for the universe other than Bramhan, so there is no question of Universe being created by Guna imbalance.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna on origin of Gunas &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/uploads/5/5/4/9/5549439/ramanuja_gita_bhashya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagwad Gita&lt;/a&gt; Chapter 7 verse 12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ये चैव सात्विका भावा रजस्तमष्च ये। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मत्त एवेति तान्विद्धि न त्वम् तेषु ते मयि॥७.१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ye chaiva saattvikaa bhaavaa raajasaastaamasaashcha ye;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Matta eveti taanviddhi na twaham teshu te mayi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know that all those states of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas have their origin in Me alone. But I am not in them; they are in Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Bramhan is Eternal so is Prakriti Pradhana as Prkriti and Jivas reside in Bramhan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spiritual-teaching.org/ewExternalFiles/Bhagavad%20Gita%20-%20comm%20Sankara,%20tr.%20Aiyar.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gita Bhasya by Adi Shankracharya&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Every Vedanta Acharya for E.g &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;sqi=2&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiSsY_ruYrPAhVEl5QKHVRnAfAQFggbMAA&amp;amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FAdi_Shankara&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNEpqX4SN6aoMZ9Nz-jNF5U_0uPI3w&amp;amp;sig2=Pk-tXaBY0FAjI7Z517uCiQ&amp;amp;bvm=bv.132479545,d.dGo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/a&gt;, Bhagwad &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjLwJbfuYrPAhUEn5QKHVvuDuAQFggbMAA&amp;amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRamanuja&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNGzXK297sCGSpsM75jNvpF5qq81aw&amp;amp;sig2=Tdag9zYXC4Oa40vyzkkk3g&amp;amp;bvm=bv.132479545,d.dGo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ramanujachrya&lt;/a&gt; agree on this point, that Bramhan is material as well as Efficient cause of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will from quote Adi Shankaracharya's commentary and then Bhagwad Ramanujacharya's commentary on &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwi_tYCauorPAhXElJQKHRWEDxEQFggkMAA&amp;amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBrahma_Sutras&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNFfYZ9JCpuBaJJtrGIbwXcU0xDqow&amp;amp;sig2=MV48vnIMAN2BWFHX04Yhgw&amp;amp;bvm=bv.132479545,d.dGo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;BramhSutra&lt;/a&gt; by Bhagwan VedVyasa to justify my point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) &lt;strong&gt;Adi Shankaracharya Bhasya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Brahman is that) from which the origin, &amp;amp;c. (i.e. the origin, subsistence, and dissolution) of this (world proceed).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The term, &amp;amp;c. implies subsistence and re-absorption. That the origin is mentioned first (of the three) depends on the declaration of Scripture as well as on the natural development of a substance. Scripture declares the order of succession of origin, subsistence, and dissolution in the passage, &lt;strong&gt;Taittiriya. Up. III, I&lt;/strong&gt;, 'From whence these beings are born,' &amp;amp;c. And with regard to the second reason stated, it is known that a substrate of qualities can subsist and be dissolved only after it has entered, through origination, on the state of existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read it &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) &lt;strong&gt;Bhagwad Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhasya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Brahman is that) from which the origin, &amp;amp;c., of this (world proceed).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The expression 'the origin', &amp;amp;c., means 'creation, subsistence, and re-absorption'. The 'this' (in 'of this') denotes this entire world with its manifold wonderful arrangements, not to be fathomed by thought, and comprising within itself the aggregate of living souls from Brahmâ down to blades of grass, all of which experience the fruits (of their former actions) in definite places and at definite times. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'That from which,' i.e. that highest Person who is the ruler of all; whose nature is antagonistic to all evil; whose purposes come true; who possesses infinite auspicious qualities, such as knowledge, blessedness, and so on; who is omniscient, omnipotent, supremely merciful; from whom the creation, subsistence, and reabsorption of this world proceed--he is Brahman: such is the meaning of the Sûtra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The definition here given of Brahman is founded on the text &lt;strong&gt;Taitt. Up. III, 1&lt;/strong&gt;, 'Bhrigu Vâruni went to his father Varuna, saying, Sir, teach me Brahman', &amp;amp;c., up to 'That from which these beings are born, that by which when born they live, that into which they enter at their death, try to know that: that is Brahman.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48035.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Bhasya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad III&lt;/a&gt;,1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That from whence these beings are born, that by which, when born, they live, that into which they enter at their death, try to know that. That is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-09-13T12:05:31.577" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T12:05:31.577" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14879" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14910" CreationDate="2016-09-12T21:29:12.387" Score="5" ViewCount="8510" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the origin of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduism.co.za/shanti.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sarveshaam Shanti Mantra&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The text form of the mantra is as under:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om sarveshaam swastir bhavatu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sarveshaam shantir bhavatu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sarveshaam poornam bhavatu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sarveshaam mangalam bhavatu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sarve bhavantu sukhinah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sarve santu niraamayaah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sarve bhadraani pashyantu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maakaschit duhkha bhaag bhavet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:-&#xA;Auspiciousness (swasti) be unto all; peace (shanti) be unto all;&#xA;fullness (poornam) be unto all; prosperity (mangalam) be unto all.&#xA;May all be happy! (sukhinah)&#xA;May all be free from disabilities! (niraamayaah)&#xA;May all look (pashyantu)to the good of others!&#xA;May none suffer from sorrow! (duhkha)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shanti Mantras&#xA;By Sri Swami Sivananda&#xA;The Divine Life Society, Rishikesh&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-09-12T09:14:42.660" LastActivityDate="2021-06-17T17:08:48.217" Title="Origin of Sarveshaam Shanti Mantra" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14880" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14874" CreationDate="2016-09-13T02:03:19.710" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you are talking about 4th Prapathaka of Maitrayanai Upanishad. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitrayaniya_Upanishad&quot;&gt;Maitrayania Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; is one of the important Upanishad.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Maitrayania Upanishad 4th Prapathaka states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It was all Tamas – then impelled by the Supreme, it became uneven&lt;/strong&gt; –Rajas compelled, becomes uneven. This all came out of Sattva, the conscious being, in every person, indicated by thought, determination &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and conceit. Prajapati spoke about it. The first bodies are Brahma etc. He is the aspects of Tamas, Rudra of Sattva. Vishnu became three-fold, eight-fold etc., unlimited and moves among creatures – the support of all creatures and their lord, inside and outside them.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One doesn&amp;apos;t need to get surprised by seeing that it is saying it was Tamasa in the beginning. In the present situation, when people see the word Tamasa it is associated in bad light. However this is not true. RigVeda 10.129 is Nasadiya Sukta, which is also called &amp;quot;Hymn of Creation&amp;quot;. In it&amp;apos;s third verse it states:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तम आसीत्तमसा&lt;/strong&gt; गूहळमग्रे प्रकेतं सलिलं सर्वाऽइदम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तुच्छ्येनाभ्वपिहितं यदासीत्तपसस्तन्महिनाजायतैकम् ॥३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tamas (Darkness) there was: at first concealed in tamas (darkness) this All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taittariya Aranyaka YajurVeda 10th Prapathaka and Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.5 state:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अजामेकां लोहितशुक्लकृष्णां बह्वीः प्रजाः सृजमानां सरूपाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अजो ह्येको जुषमाणोऽनुशेते जहात्येनां भुक्तभोगामजोऽन्यः ॥ ५॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There is one unborn prakriti−red, white and black−which gives birth to many creatures like itself. An unborn individual soul becomes attached to it and enjoys it, while another unborn individual soul leaves it after his enjoyment is completed.&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, the terms Red, White and Black are intrepreted as three qualities of Nature. Ie. Satva, Rajas and Tamasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as quoted in earlier &quot;It was all Tamas – &lt;strong&gt;then impelled by the Supreme, it became uneven...&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; So, it is not unknown cause. It is due to desire of Supreme Tatwa get interconverted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-13T02:22:24.717" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T02:22:24.717" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14881" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15103" CreationDate="2016-09-13T04:48:34.507" Score="-1" ViewCount="112" Body="&lt;p&gt;Any Hindu scriptures giving evidence of Vedarama? The qualities, the traits he perceived and what good qualities we should learn from Vedarama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-27T09:53:12.277" LastActivityDate="2016-10-27T09:55:51.093" Title="Vedarama's historical evidence in Hinduism" Tags="|scripture|puranas|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14882" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7246" CreationDate="2016-09-13T07:30:40.117" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mahavidya are Shakti of Dash Avatara of Shiva. Most people are only aware about Dashavatara of Lord Vishnu. However Shiva Purana Shat Rudra Samhita also gives &lt;strong&gt;Dashavatara of Lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; along with respective Shakti. And the respective Shaktis are called Mahavidyas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/24270/31F_Chapter_96.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Purana Shat Rudra Samhita chapter 17&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;Dashavatar of Shiva with Shakti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nandis’vara said, “Now you listen to the ten incarnations of Shiva including that of Mahakala, as found in the Upasana Kanda.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Mahakala happens to be one of them, who provides devotion as well as the salvation to the noble people. &lt;strong&gt;Mahakali&lt;/strong&gt; happens to be his Sakti, who fulfills the desires of the devotees.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The second incarnation is that of Tara having &lt;strong&gt;Tara&lt;/strong&gt; as his Sakti. Both of them bestow comfort to the devotees&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The third incarnation is that of Bhuvanesa and his Sakti is called as &lt;strong&gt;Bala.&lt;/strong&gt; Both of them bestow comforts to the noble people. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The fourth incarnation is that of Srividyesa and his Srlvidya is known as &lt;strong&gt;Sodas’i.&lt;/strong&gt; Both of them provide devotion and salvation to their devotees. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Bhairava happens to be the fifth incarnation of Siva and &lt;strong&gt;Bhairavi&lt;/strong&gt; in his Sakti. They fulfill the desires of their devotees. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The sixth incarnation is that of Chinnamastaka, and his Sakti is known as &lt;strong&gt;Chinnamasta.&lt;/strong&gt; Both of them fulfil the desire of his devotees. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The seventh incarnation is that of Dhumavan. &lt;strong&gt;Dhumavati&lt;/strong&gt; happens to be his Sakti. Both of them fulfil the desire of their devotees. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The eighth incarnation of Shiva, is that of&#xA;Bagalamukha. &lt;strong&gt;Bagalamukhi,&lt;/strong&gt; happens to be his Sakti. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The ninth incarnation is that of Matanga&#xA;and &lt;strong&gt;Matangi&lt;/strong&gt; is the wife of Shiva, who happens to be his Sakti. She fulfills all the desires. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Kamala happens to be the tenth incarnation of Shiva, which bestows the devotion as well as the salvation. &lt;strong&gt;Kamala&lt;/strong&gt; or Girija happens to be his Sakti. She protects her devotees. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;These ten incarnations of Shiva, provide&#xA;always the worldly pleasure and salvation to their devotees. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The one who adores the ten forms of Shiva with an umblemished and spotless mind, daily. he achieved several types of comforts. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the Tantra literature these ten incarnations of Shiva have been described. By adoring them, all the desires are fulfilled.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA; 0 Sage, the astonishing type of glory of these eternal Saktis, has been highlighted in the Tantra-literature, who fulfil all the desires. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the activities like the killing of the enemies, the aforesaid Saktis are taken to be the best. They punish the wicked people and increase the Brahmateja.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;O Brahman, Mahékala, and other Saktis of Shiva, have been described by me with his ten incarnations. During all the festivities relating to Siva, whosoever recites this episode, or listen to it, he becomes immensely dear to Siva.  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In case a Brahmana recites the same, he achieves the Brahmaleja, a Kshatriya becomes victorious, the Vaisya achieves the wealth, while the Sudra becomes comfortable. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The followers of Shiva, while listening to this episode, become more comfortable and get more devoted to Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The detailed information about these Shaktis with their stories are avaliable on Agama Shastras especially Shakta Aagamas. As they are associated with Tantric vidhi, mostly Tantric Upasakas only worship them. So, they become lesser known to common people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T08:30:28.240" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14883" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14884" CreationDate="2016-09-13T07:40:08.177" Score="1" ViewCount="1223" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm newest in Hinduism. I have a question about Hindus. Do Hindus believe in reincarnation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10049" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T07:54:50.133" Title="Do Hindus believe in reincarnation?" Tags="|belief|creation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-09-14T04:49:15.890" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14884" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14883" CreationDate="2016-09-13T07:54:50.133" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, each individual soul is considered immortal or eternal. Samsara is controlled by karma, which, in Hinduism, is the moral law of action and reaction. All Hindus believe that each individual accumulates karma during his lifetime and the present condition of the human body and soul is affected by past actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hindus believe in reincarnation, the process where the soul repeatedly&#xA;  takes on a physical body through being born on Earth. Ancient&#xA;  scriptures of Hinduism teach that the soul, or immortal “self”, takes&#xA;  birth time and time again. The soul survives and continues its long&#xA;  journey until it is one with God. Hindus believe that the soul never&#xA;  dies, but inhabits one body after another during its evolutionary&#xA;  journey guided by karma. Karma (literally: action) is the sum of one's&#xA;  actions, and the force that determines one's next reincarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The soul evolves from immaturity to spiritual illumination. Therefore,&#xA;  each reincarnating soul chooses a home and a family which can best&#xA;  fulfill its next step of learning and maturation. Each life on Earth&#xA;  is similar to a class in school. Maturation of the soul on Earth means&#xA;  fulfilling its worldly desires, which can only be experienced through&#xA;  a body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At death the soul leaves the physical body. But the soul does not die.&#xA;  It lives on in a subtle body called the astral body. The astral body&#xA;  exists in a nonphysical dimension called the astral plane. Here the&#xA;  soul continues to have experiences until it is born again in another&#xA;  physical body as a baby.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After many lifetimes of following dharma (right way of living), the&#xA;  soul is fully matured in love, wisdom and knowledge of God. There is&#xA;  no longer a need for physical birth, for all lessons have been&#xA;  learned, all karmas fulfilled. When all desire has vanished, the&#xA;  person will not be born again anymore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source &lt;a href=&quot;https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation#Reincarnation_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T07:54:50.133" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14885" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-13T08:33:15.107" Score="4" ViewCount="431" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm a liberal Vaishnava ... I was formerly practising Gaudiya Vaishnavism but recently got dissatisfied with it as their doctrines about Goloka and Krishna's supremacy based on Rasa concept wasn't working out well for me .. Now I'm fascinated about the traditional Sri Sampradaya ... Can any Sri Vaishnava help me out by introducing me to the Sampradaya ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7649" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T05:11:48.620" LastActivityDate="2017-03-16T05:11:48.620" Title="What is Sri Vaishnavism? What is the Vishishtadvaita?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|bhakti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14886" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-13T08:57:43.987" Score="6" ViewCount="1596" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the origin of Hinduism? Is Hinduism brought by Aryans or Dravidians? Besides this there is a saying that North Indians are Aryans and South Indians are Dravidians. As per Saivism, Dravidians are dark complexioned worshipped Lord Shiva and Aryans are white complexion well built and  worshipped nature. If it is so Lord Narayna has so many divyadesas in south compared to North. Any scriptures supporting this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-03-09T13:55:53.230" LastActivityDate="2019-03-09T13:55:53.230" Title="Is Hinduism brought by Aryans or Dravidians to India?" Tags="|scripture|history|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14887" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5376" CreationDate="2016-09-13T08:58:21.680" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Guru is the one who realized the self the secret of creation and also can predict the presence, future and the end. He is the truth, knowledge and eternal happiness. the holy word ohm itself is the culmination of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7650" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T08:58:21.680" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14888" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7591" CreationDate="2016-09-13T10:01:14.513" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There were many Parvati before present Parvati, which are same as present Parvati, and all were married to Lord Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the explicit mention of name Parvati also doesn't make a text late. As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10141/wouldnt-most-of-the-incarnations-of-devi-be-of-sati-not-parvati/14868#14868&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9633/when-did-parvati-devi-marry-shiva/14873#14873&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; , Same Lord Shiva is married with many Sati and many Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. Shiva Purana gives it's example in RudraSamhita chapter 14 verse 9 as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;केचद्वदन्ति तां ज्येष्ठां मध्यमां चापरे शिवाम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वानन्तरजां केचित्कल्पभेदात्त्रयं च सत् ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some say that Shivă (Sati) was eldest of them all, some say she was middle one and some wise treat her as youngest of all. All three opinions are correct, because of difference of Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar is the case with Parvati. &lt;strong&gt;Parvati who killed Sumbha Nisumbha is not the same Parvati who is in Present time.&lt;/strong&gt; I discuss this in the same answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10141/wouldnt-most-of-the-incarnations-of-devi-be-of-sati-not-parvati/14868#14868&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Sri Parvati is not one of the youngest Godesses. However present Parvati is one of the youngest Godesses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But Does the name &quot;Parvati&quot; explicitly exists in Vedas?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;No it is not. May be only in some few Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does this mean Parvati is not in Vedas?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;No, it doesn't mean that. Parvati is mentioned by the name Uma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. ValmikiRamayana Balakanda narrates about conjugal relation of Shiva and Parvati, Birth of Skandha, Curse given by Parvati to Gods, etc... But it doesn't mention the name &quot;Parvati&quot; even a single time. All story is by the name &lt;strong&gt;Uma.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्याम् गंग इयम् अभवत् ज्येष्ठा हिमवतः सुता |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;उमा नाम&lt;/strong&gt; द्वितीया अभूत् कन्या तस्य एव राघव || १-३५-१६&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;From Mena, this Ganga is emerged as an elder &lt;strong&gt;daughter to Himavanta,&lt;/strong&gt; and a second daughter, by her name &lt;strong&gt;she is Uma,&lt;/strong&gt; is also begotten by Himavanta, oh, Raghava... [1-35-16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उग्रेण तपसा युक्ताम् ददौ शैलवरः सुताम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रुद्राय अप्रतिरूपाय &lt;strong&gt;उमाम्&lt;/strong&gt; लोक नमस्कृताम् || १-३५-२१&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;And &lt;strong&gt;that Uma&lt;/strong&gt; who is unified with her rigorous sacrament thus became a reverential to all the worlds, and that best one among mountains, &lt;strong&gt;Himavanta, gave such a daughter to Rudra,&lt;/strong&gt; an unequalled one in His aspect... [1-35-21]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Lord Shiva is also called by the name &quot;Umapati&quot; and not Parvatipati. For eg:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ संवत्सरे पूर्णे सर्व लोक नमस्कृतः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;उमापतिः पशुपती&lt;/strong&gt; राजानम् इदम् अब्रवीत् || १-४३-२&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;On completion of one year, He who is venerated by all worlds and the &lt;strong&gt;consort of Uma&lt;/strong&gt; and the god of creatures God Shiva, revealed Himself to the king and] spoke this to the king. [1-43-2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Uma is name of Parvati. Actually Sati is called also by the name Uma. Hence the name Umapati means Consort of Parvati/Sati at the same time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we have seen above there are many Sati and many Parvati. So, Vedas use the term Uma to represent both. Hence, the name Parvati doesn't exist explicitly in Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg.. Lets see example of Kena Upanishad which is a principle Upanishad where Uma gives BrahmaVidya to Gods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स तस्मिन्नेवाकाशे स्त्रियमाजगाम बहुशोभमानाम् &lt;strong&gt;उमां हैमवतीं&lt;/strong&gt; ताँहोवाच किमेतद्यक्षमिति ॥ Kena Upanishad 3.12॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There appeared in the sky that pretty girl, the Goddess of Wisdom, snowy &lt;strong&gt;Himalaya&amp;apos;s daughter Uma.&lt;/strong&gt; Light went to her and asked who was that mysterious Person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The words used are &quot;Uma Haimavatim&quot; which means &quot;Uma, the daughter of Himalayas.&quot; which is an explicit refrence for Parvati. For eg. ValmikiRamayana uses the word &quot;Haimavati&quot; several times to denote daughter of Himalayas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इयम् &lt;strong&gt;हैमवती&lt;/strong&gt; ज्येष्ठा गंगा हिमवतः सुता |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ताम् वै धारयितुम् राजन् हरः तत्र नियुज्यताम् || &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  This is the snow-broth Ganga, the elder &lt;strong&gt;daughter of Himavanta, [the Himalaya,]&lt;/strong&gt; and oh, king Bhageeratha, to sustain her [force in the course of her alighting onto earth,] Lord Shiva is to be designated there [on earth to receive her...][1-42-23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another refrence we come in YajurVeda Maitrayaniya Samhita 9.4 which states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गिरिसुताय धीमहि तन्नो गौरी प्रचोदयात् । &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  May &lt;strong&gt;daughter of mountains&lt;/strong&gt; (Girisuta), &lt;strong&gt;Gauri&lt;/strong&gt; enlighten our intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as it calls Girisuta and Gauri, it is also explicit refrence to Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda, there is a hymn called Durga Sukta with Durga Gayatri which states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कात्यायनाय विद्महे कन्याकुमारि धीमहि । तन्नो दुर्गिः&#xA;  प्रचोदयात् ॥ [Yajurveda T.A. 10.1.7]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  May we know &lt;strong&gt;Katyayana.&lt;/strong&gt; For that, may we meditate upon &lt;strong&gt;Kanyakumari.&lt;/strong&gt; May &lt;strong&gt;Durga&lt;/strong&gt; impel us towards it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Katyayani, Kanyakumari and Durga all are different forms and incarnations of Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Rudra Sukta of Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda we find:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अम्बिकापतये उमापतये पशुपतये नमो नमः ॥ १॥ [YajurVeda T.A.  10.22.1]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations and Salutations to Ambikapati (Lord of Ambika), Umapati (Lord of Uma) and Pasupati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Uma can mean both Sati and Parvati and also eternal consort of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram of Yajurveda 8th Anuvaka starts with the verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमस्सोमाय च रुद्राय च । [YajurVeda T.S. 4.5.8]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to him who is with Uma and who removes cry of Samsara (Rudra)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Somaaya means who is with Uma. Sa + Uma = Soma. This is explained by Sayana, AbhinavaGupta and BhattaBhaskara in their Sri Rudram Bhasya. It means who is with Uma because it is used in the format of specific name in the Anuvaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the most Ancient Upanishad &lt;strong&gt;Kaivalya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;उमासहायं परमेश्वरं&lt;/strong&gt; प्रभुं त्रिलोचनं नीलकण्ठं प्रशान्तम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ध्यात्वा मुनिर्गच्छति भूतयोनिं समस्तसाक्षिं तमसः परस्तात् ॥ 1.7॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Meditating on the &lt;strong&gt;highest Lord, allied to Uma,&lt;/strong&gt; powerful, three-eyed, blue-necked, and tranquil, the holy man reaches Him who is the source of all, the witness of all and is &#xA;  beyond darkness (i.e. Avidya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, although the name &quot;Parvati&quot; doesn't appear explicitly in Vedas. But She is in Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding your other question whether the characters of Ramayana Mahabharata are mentioned in Vedas or not. Most of the Rishis of Ramayana and Mahabharata were seers of Veda Mantras. So they find mention as Rishi. For eg. Rishi Vasistha is the seer of Mahamrityunjaya Mantra of RigVeda, who is Guru of Rama in Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no question of Updating of Vedas. If Vedas mention a place or name of anything then they are understood as eternal. In the next Manvantara or Kalpa a person with the same name will come coincidentally and do what Vedas state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T14:46:15.837" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14889" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14890" CreationDate="2016-09-13T11:02:27.000" Score="10" ViewCount="2901" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read in different sources about different locations of the manipura chakra. Two finger-width under the navel, secondly the navel and thirdly the solar plexus with is two or three finger width above the navel. Do different traditions locate it differently or how does the term work?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7652" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-29T03:34:28.407" LastActivityDate="2018-11-29T03:34:28.407" Title="Where is the Manipura Chakra located?" Tags="|yoga|body|chakras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14890" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14889" CreationDate="2016-09-13T11:23:04.593" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manipura is present in Solar Region. It is also known as Nabhi Chakra. Nabhi in Sanskrit means Navel. But as the location of Chakra is in backbone region of subtle body, hence Manipura Chakra is present just at back side of Navel in the region of backbone (in the subtle body).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the entire Navel region is in the range of Manipura Chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam&lt;/strong&gt; also calls the Manipura Chakra by the name Navel Chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कृत्वा समानावनिलौ जितासना सोदानमुत्थात्य च &lt;strong&gt;नाभिचक्रतः&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then she carried the life air upwards and placed it in the position of equilibrium near the Nabhi Chakra/ Navel Chakra [Manipura Chakra.] (S.B. 4.4.25)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru Gorakhnath who is incarnation of Lord Shiva also calls Chakra present in Navel region is called Manipura in Goraksha Shataka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तं नाभिमण्डलं चक्र प्रोच्यते मणिपुरकम् ।&#xA;  Chakra present in Navel region is called Manipura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Bhagvtam&lt;/strong&gt; in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk07ch35.htm&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; talks about Nadi and Chakra in detail&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are the 350,000 nâdis in this body of man; of these, the principal are ten. Out of the ten again, the three are most prominent. The foremost and first of these three is Susumnâ, of the nature of the Moon, Sun, and Fire, situated in the centre of the spinal cord (it extends from the sacral plexus below to the Brahmaradhra in the head at the top where it looks like a blown Dhustûra flower). On the left of this Susumnâ is the Idâ Nâdî, white and looking like Moon; this Nâdî is of the nature of Force, nectar-like. On the right side of the Susumnâ is the Pingalâ Nâdî of the nature of a male; it represents the Sun. &lt;strong&gt;The Susumnâ comprises the nature of the all the Tejas (fires) and it represents Fire.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  31-41. &lt;strong&gt;The inmost of Susumnâ is Vichtrâ or Chitrinî Bhûlingam nâdî (of the form of a cobweb) in the middle of which resides the Ichchâ (will), Jñâna (knowledge) and Kriyâ (action) S'aktîs, and resplendent like the Millions of Suns.&lt;/strong&gt; Above Him is situated Hrîm, the Mâyâ Vîja Harâtmâ with &quot;Ha&quot; and Chandravindu repesenting the Sound (Nâda). Above this is the Flame, Kula Kundalinî (the Serpent Fire) of a red colour, and as it were, intoxicated. Outside Her is the Âdhâra Lotus of a yellow colour having a dimension of four digits and Comprising the four letters &quot;va&quot;, &quot;s'a&quot;, &quot;sa&quot;, and &quot;sa&quot;. The Yogis meditate on this. In its centre is the hexagonal space (Pîtham). This is called the Mûlâdhâra for it is the base and it supports all the six lotuses. Above it is the Svâdhisthâna Chakra, fiery and emitting lustre like diamond and with six petals representing the six letters &quot;ba&quot;, &quot;bha&quot;, &quot;ma&quot;, &quot;ya&quot;, &quot;ra&quot;, &quot;la&quot;. The word &quot;Sva&quot; means &quot;Param Lingam&quot; (superior Male Symbol). Therefore the sages call this &quot;Svâdhisthân Chakram. &lt;strong&gt;Above it is situated the &quot;Manipura Chakram&quot; of the colour of lightning in clouds and very fiery; it comprises the ten Petals, comprising the 10 letters da, dha, na, ta, tha, da, dha, na, pa, pha. The lotus resembles a full blown pearl; hence it is &quot;Manipadma.&quot; Visnu dwells here. Meditation here leads to the sight of Visnu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-13T11:37:53.370" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T11:37:53.370" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14892" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14889" CreationDate="2016-09-13T12:01:10.490" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manipura Chakra is exactly located at &lt;em&gt;Nabhi&lt;/em&gt; (Navel) but in Subtle body along the Spinal cord. All Chakras are located in Straight line (in Subtle body).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_Swami&quot;&gt;Om Swami&lt;/a&gt; describes method to identify seven Chakras in body in his book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Kundalini-untold-story-Om-Swami/dp/8184958625&quot;&gt;Kundalini: An untold story&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here is how to identify the location of chakras in your body. Use your&#xA;  right hand if you are right-handed and left hand if you are&#xA;  left-handed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Place the little finger of your hand on the navel. Your navel is the solar plexus or the manipura chakra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Stretch your hand fully upwards and see where the tip of the thumb touches. This is your heart plexus or the anahata chakra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Place your little finger exactly where your thumb touched on the heart plexus and stretch your hand fully once again to see where the&#xA;  thumb touches now. This is your throat plexus or the vishuddhi chakra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Once again, put your little finger exactly where your thumb was and move one full hand-measure up. Your thumb is now touching your&#xA;  brow plexus or the agya chakra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Place your little finger where you just found your brow chakra and stretch your hand fully again. Your thumb will be now touching your&#xA;  crown chakra or Sahasrara.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Go back to the navel. Put your thumb on your navel, stretch your hand and go one full hand measure down. Your little finger is now&#xA;  touching your sacral plexus or svadhishthana chakra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Place your thumb where your little finger just was and stretch your hand fully downwards one more time. Your little finger is now&#xA;  touching your root plexus or muladhara chakra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Make sure to take your hand measure from the tip of your little finger&#xA;  to the tip of your thumb. Just like if you stretch your arms, the&#xA;  distance from the tip of one middle finger to the other is same as the&#xA;  height of your body, the distance between one chakra and the other is&#xA;  exactly one hand. Only your hand can accurately pinpoint the location&#xA;  of your chakras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T12:01:10.490" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14894" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14376" CreationDate="2016-09-13T12:12:08.810" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;This Serial is mainly based on Sita book by Devdutt Patnayaik,but with few modifications, Now coming to your questions it can have 2 answers&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Taranisen - &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then a warrior entered the battlefield, the kind no monkey or Ram had&#xA;  seen before, He called himself Taranisen and every inch of his body&#xA;  was tattooed with the name of Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: This character is given only in &lt;strong&gt;Kritivasa's Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt; who is son of vibhison.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Virabahu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This character is also similar to above mentioned character , but he is son of Ravana instead and you can find this in &lt;strong&gt;Dandi ramayan&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : Sita an Illustrated Retelling (page number 308 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="3102" LastEditDate="2016-09-13T12:17:42.410" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T12:17:42.410" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14895" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14630" CreationDate="2016-09-13T12:16:29.970" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Concept of Kundalini is not actually alien to Vaishnavism. But as the Kundalini is associated with meeting of Shakti with Shiva, So, Vaishnava Puranas have only very few refrences regarding it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. Srimad Bhagvatam describes how Sati Leaves her body by raising pranic force (Kundalini) to headregion and leaves her body:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इत्यध्वरे दक्षमनूद्य शत्रुहन्क्षितावुदीचीं निषसाद शान्तवाक् । स्पृष्टा जलं पीतदुकूलसंवृतानिमील्य &lt;strong&gt;द्दग्योगपथं&lt;/strong&gt; समाविशत् ।। कृत्वा समानावनिलौ जितासना सोदानमुत्थात्य च &lt;strong&gt;नाभिचक्रतः&lt;/strong&gt; । शनैर्ह्र्दि स्थात्य धियोरसि स्थितं कण्ठाद्भ्रुवोर्मध्यमनिन्दितानयत् ।।&#xA;  एवं स्वदेह महतां महीयसा मुहुः समारोपितमंकमादरात् ।&#xA;  जिहासती दक्षरुषा मनस्विनी दधार गात्रेष्वनिलाग्निधारणाम् ।। ततः स्वभर्तश्चरणाम्बुजासवं जगद्गुरोश्र्चिन्तयति न चापरम् । ददर्श देहो हतकल्मषः सती सद्यः प्रजज्वाल समाधि जाग्निना ।। &lt;strong&gt;[S.B. 4.4.24-27]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O annihilator of enemies, while thus speaking to her father in the arena of sacrifice, Satī sat down on the ground and faced north. Dressed in saffron garments, she sanctified herself with water and closed her eyes to &lt;strong&gt;absorb herself in the process of mystic yoga.&lt;/strong&gt; First of all she sat in the required sitting posture, and then she carried the life air upwards and placed it in the position of equilibrium near the Nabhi Chakra [&lt;strong&gt;Manipura Chakra&lt;/strong&gt;]. Then she raised her life air, mixed with intelligence, to the heart [&lt;strong&gt;Anhata Chakra&lt;/strong&gt;] and then gradually towards the pulmonary passage, to the throat [&lt;strong&gt;Visuddha Chakra&lt;/strong&gt;] and from there to between her eyebrows [&lt;strong&gt;Ajna Chakra&lt;/strong&gt;]. Thus, in order to give up her body, which had been so respectfully and affectionately seated on the lap of Lord Śhiva, who is worshiped by great sages and saints, Satī, due to anger towards her father, began to meditate on the fiery air within the body. Satī concentrated all her meditation on the holy lotus feet of her husband, Lord Śhiva, who is the supreme spiritual master of all the world. Thus she became completely cleansed of all taints of sin &lt;strong&gt;and quit her body in a blazing fire by meditation on the fiery elements.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is surely a description of Kundalini Yoga because it gives the name of all places where Chakras are mentioned. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Particularly it also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कृत्वा समानावनिलौ जितासना सोदानमुत्थात्य च &lt;strong&gt;नाभिचक्रतः&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then she carried the life air upwards and placed it in the position of equilibrium near the Nabhi Chakra/ Navel Chakra [Manipura Chakra.] (S.B. 4.4.25)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As it directly uses the name Nabhi Chakra. It is a sure refrence for Kundalini rising.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover Prabhupada in Commentary of Srimad Bhagvatam 4.4.25 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/4/25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;states&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;yogic process&lt;/strong&gt; is to control the air passing within the body in different places called &lt;strong&gt;ṣaṭ-cakra,&lt;/strong&gt; the six circles of air circulation. The air is raised from the &lt;strong&gt;abdomen to the navel,&lt;/strong&gt; from the navel to the heart, from the heart to the throat, from the throat to between the eyebrows and from between the &lt;strong&gt;eyebrows to the top of the cerebrum.&lt;/strong&gt; That is the sum and substance of practicing yoga. Before practicing the real yoga system, one has to practice the sitting postures because this helps in the breathing exercises which control the airs going upwards and downwards. This is a great technique which one has to practice to attain the highest perfectional stage of yoga, but such practice is not meant for this age. No one in this age can attain the perfectional stage of such yoga, but people indulge in practicing sitting postures, which is more or less a gymnastic process. By such bodily gymnastics one may develop good circulation and may therefore keep one’s body fit, but if one simply restricts oneself to that gymnastic process one cannot attain the highest perfectional stage. The yoga process, as described in the Keśava-śruti, prescribes how one can control his living force according to his desire and transmigrate from one body to another or from one place to another. In other words, yoga practice is not meant to keep the body fit. Any transcendental process of spiritual realization automatically helps one to keep the body fit, for it is the spirit soul that keeps the body always fresh. As soon as the spirit soul is out of the body, the material body immediately begins to decompose. Any spiritual process keeps the body fit without separate endeavor, but if one takes it that the ultimate aim of yoga is to maintain the body, then he is mistaken. The real perfection of yoga is elevation of the soul to a higher position or the liberation of the soul from material entanglement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus above commentary by Vaishnava Acharya also shows, Kundalini is not alien to Vaishnavism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also found this verse on Shristi Khanda 34.249 of Padma Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ध्यात्वागुरुंसहस्रारेश्वेतगंधानुलेपनम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निर्गम्यचबहिर्नद्यांकुर्युर्नित्यमतन्द्रिदा ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then they should meditate on the image of preceptor on &lt;strong&gt;Sahasrara&lt;/strong&gt; with a white garment and a sacred thread and white flowers and cloths and with white sandal should go out of (village) to a river and perform daily routine carefully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; Bhumi Khanda chapter 53 also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It remains unsteady in the middle part of the palate. There remain (the two vessels of the body called) &lt;strong&gt;Ida and Pingala and the artery called Susumna.&lt;/strong&gt; Due to the great power of it only, there is indeed the itch for sex in the cage formed by the net of arteries, in the case of all beings. O messenger, the organs of generation of the male and also of the female throb.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a Side Note I want to mention that in some recensions of Mahabharata, Uttara Gita is found where Lord Krishna teaches some concepts of Kundalini to Arjuna. A commentary on &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/UttaraGitaWithCommentary&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttara Gita&lt;/a&gt; by Sri Gaudapada is also avaliable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-13T12:45:32.587" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T12:45:32.587" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14896" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12283" CreationDate="2016-09-13T12:24:26.260" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kindly recite Sudarsana Ashtakam daily  composed by Sarva tantra swatantra Acharya Nigamantha Maha Desikan. The link is given below--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/o14.htm&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sudarsana is chakra the mighty weapon. If you recite the sloka daily your negative thoughts and evil eyes will be warded off. Positive thoughts will culminate in your mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Perform one sudarsana homam. I did on Nov 1 2015 in my friends place in Hosur to eliminate the black magic. The evil [ghost] appeared in the homa kundam. All by the grace of Lord Sudarsana. Now he is a relieved person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the next sudarsana homa done on April 2 2016 in Chennai Lord sudarsana appeared [behind a chakra]  and right side 8 hands holding weapons in poornahuthi ash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the profile page for more details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jaya Jaya sri Sudarsana  Jaya Jaya sri Sudarsana  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2016-09-13T17:07:36.580" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T17:07:36.580" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14897" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-13T13:37:12.010" Score="2" ViewCount="87" Body="&lt;p&gt;We can view a gopuram in any Hindu temple consisting of small statues and kalasams above them. The kalasams will be in odd numbers and will be in gold or copper and placed on the top of the gopuram. It is said that the power to the deity will come from heaven thru this kalasams. An old age saying is gopura darisanam kodi punnyam  ; meaning If a person see the gopura alonngwith kalasams then it will be crores of punya to that person. Any scriptural evidence from Hinduism related ithihasas or puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T13:37:12.010" Title="Gopuram and Kalasams" Tags="|scripture|architecture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14900" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-13T14:40:55.243" Score="6" ViewCount="599" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srikurmam-temple.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Kurmam&lt;/a&gt; is supposed to be very ancient and divine Kshetra dedicated to Kurma avatara of Sri Maha Vishnu. It was visited by Madvacharya, Ramanujacharya and Adi Shankaracharya. It is surrounded by Pancha (5) Linga kshetras and Ashta Tirthas. It has also Sweta Pushkarini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which Puranas contain it's (the kshetra, its significance) story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The image of the deity is here&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/M7D2x.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/M7D2x.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-09-14T14:32:51.067" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T14:32:51.067" Title="Which Puranas contain the story of Sri Kurmam temple?" Tags="|puranas|temple|kurma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14902" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-13T15:56:29.420" Score="7" ViewCount="292" Body="&lt;p&gt;After asking a question about the Manipura Chakra Tezz explained to me that it's important to distiguish the concept of the chakra as a region from the Kundalini entering area.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given that the locations of the Chakra Jagarana correspond to locations on the spine, is there a list of which vertebrae are co-located with which Chakra at Susumna Nadi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7652" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-13T15:58:55.667" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T17:17:10.367" Title="Is there a list that describes which Chakras are located at which vertebrae?" Tags="|chakras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14904" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14902" CreationDate="2016-09-13T17:17:10.367" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is a discussion in the book 'The Serpent Power' by Sir John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is to be noted that, just as there are five centres (Cakras)&#xA;  hereinafter described, the vertebral column itself is divided into&#xA;  five regions, which commencing from the lowest, are the coccygeal,&#xA;  consisting of four imperfect vertebrae, often united together into one&#xA;  bone called the coccyx; the sacral region, consisting of five&#xA;  vertebrae united together to form a single bone, the sacrum; the&#xA;  lumbar region, or region of the loins, consisting of five vertebrae;&#xA;  the dorsal region, or region of the back, consisting of twelve&#xA;  vertebrae; and the cervical region, or the region of the neck,&#xA;  consisting of seven vertebrae. As exhibited by segments, the cord&#xA;  shows different characteristics in different regions. Roughly&#xA;  speaking, these correspond to the regions assigned to the governing&#xA;  control of the Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata and Visuddha&#xA;  centres or Cakras or Lotuses (Padma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Serpent Power by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) Chapter V, The Centres or Lotuses (Cakra, Padma)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-09-13T17:17:10.367" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14906" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13854" CreationDate="2016-09-14T04:21:29.263" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are many legends associated with this auspicious day. The&#xA;  well-known legend is that it was on Vaikunta Ekadasi that the amrit&#xA;  (nectar) of immortality appeared, while churning the ocean. It is a&#xA;  common belief that those who fast on Vaikunta Ekadasi, singing praises&#xA;  of Lord Vishnu, will definitely be freed from the continuous cycle of&#xA;  birth and death. According to belief, when a bead of sweat dropped&#xA;  from Lord Brahma’s forehead, it turned into a demon and asked the Lord&#xA;  where it could stay. Lord Brahma told the demon to live in rice, and&#xA;  to get converted into worms in the stomachs of people who ate rice&#xA;  during Vaikunta Ekadasi. Such is the holiness of this day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another legend that is associated with this day is that the great&#xA;  devotee Nammalwar, entered Lord Vishnu’s abode on this day and that&#xA;  the Lord Himself was waiting to greet His devotee. Hence, it is&#xA;  commonly believed that those who cross the Swargavasal (Gateway to&#xA;  heaven) will be directly greeted by the Lord Himself when they die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The third legend associated with this day talks about a demon Mura,&#xA;  who troubled the Gods, who went to Lord Vishnu for help. The Lord&#xA;  created Yoga Maya, to kill the demon and once the task was completed,&#xA;  the God renamed Yoga Maya as Ekadashi and granted a boon saying&#xA;  whoever fasted on that auspicious day would be freed of all sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/document/220719679/Why-Can-Eat-Rice-on-Vaikunta-Ekadasi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;scribd&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एकादशी को चावल नहीं खाना चाहिए। यह तथ्य कहां से अस्तित्व में आया, इसके&#xA;  पीछे कई भ्रांतियां हैं। ऐसे समय अक्सर एक सवाल जेहन में पैदा होता है कि&#xA;  चावल और अन्य अन्नों की खेती में क्या अंतर है?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यह सर्वविदित है कि चावल की खेती के लिए सर्वाधिक जल की आवश्यकता होती&#xA;  है। एकादशी का व्रत इंद्रियों सहित मन के निग्रह के लिए किया जाता है।&#xA;  ऐसे में यह आवश्यक है कि उस वस्तु का कम से कम या बिल्कुल उपभोग नहीं&#xA;  किया जाए जिसमें जलीय तत्व की मात्रा अधिक होती है।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जल का संबंध चंचलता से है।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इसका एक सटीक कारण यह है कि चंद्र का संबंध जल से है। वह जल को अपनी और&#xA;  आकर्षित करता है। यदि व्रत करने वाला चावल का भोजन करे तो चंद्र किरणें&#xA;  उसके शरीर के संपूर्ण जलीय अंश को तरंगित करेंगी। इसके परिणाम स्वरूप मन&#xA;  में विक्षेप और संशय का जागरण होगा।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इस कारण व्रत करने वाला अपने व्रत पर अडिग नहीं रह सकेगा। यही कारण है कि&#xA;  इंद्रियों को संयमित रखने व मानसिक दृढ़ता बनाए रखने के लिए एकादशी के&#xA;  दिन चावल नहीं खाए जाते।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jagran.com/spiritual/religion-why-should-not-eat-rice-ekadashi-day-11371886.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;jagran&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T04:21:29.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14907" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14912" CreationDate="2016-09-14T04:33:40.490" Score="7" ViewCount="713" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the mythological significance of ritually giving &lt;strong&gt;water to sun&lt;/strong&gt; after bathing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10049" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-09-14T11:19:57.983" LastActivityDate="2017-01-18T11:47:58.757" Title="What is the mythological significance of ritually giving water to sun after bathing?" Tags="|puja|surya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14908" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8958" CreationDate="2016-09-14T04:34:09.340" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sacrifice in yajña, recommended, that is not for killing the animal, but it is a testing, how the Vedic mantras are being properly chanted. Because an old animal put into the fire, by Vedic mantras he would come out again with young life. That is sacrifice of animals in the yajña. Therefore in this age there is no such expert brāhmaṇa who can chant the mantras properly or he can behave because the life is very abominable. Therefore, because there is no expert brāhmaṇa, so these sacrifices are forbidden in this age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/In_the_present_age,_Kali-yuga,_animal_sacrifices_are_forbidden_because_there_are_no_expert_brahmanas_who_can_properly_perform_the_yajna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/In_the_present_age,_Kali-yuga,_animal_sacrifices_are_forbidden_because_there_are_no_expert_brahmanas_who_can_properly_perform_the_yajna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7661" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T04:34:09.340" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14909" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12283" CreationDate="2016-09-14T04:49:13.693" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The slokams with meaning--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pratibhatasreni Bhishana,Varagunasthoma Bhushana&#xA;Janibhyasthana Taarana ,Jagadavasthaana Karana ,&#xA;Nikhiladushkarma Karsaana, Nigamasaddharma Darsana&#xA;Jaya Jaya Sri sudarsana ,Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana .               1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Who is fearsome to hoards of enemies of devotees&#xA;Who is ornament for all blessed actions,&#xA;Who helps one to cross sea of samsara,&#xA;Who stabilizes the entire universe,&#xA;Who cuts off accumulated sins of bad actions,&#xA;And who teaches righteous conduct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Subhajagadrupa Mandana, Suraganathrasa Khandana&#xA;Satamakabrahma vandita ,Satapatabrahma Nandita   ,&#xA;Pratitavidvat Sapakshita ,Bhajata Ahirbudhnya Lakshita&#xA;Jaya jaya Sri Sudarsana ,Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana  .                 2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Who is the ornament of him who is Lord of universe,&#xA;Who removes the fear of all asuras towards devas,&#xA;Who is worshipped by Lord Brahma and hosts of others,&#xA;Who is worshipped by Sat Pada Brahmana,&#xA;Who is on the part of devotees for overcoming contestants,&#xA;And who is worshipped by Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sphutata -Dijjaala Pinjara,Pruthutarajwaala Panjara&#xA;Parigata Pratnavigraha ,Padutaraprajna Durgraha  ,&#xA;Praharana Grama Manditha, Parijana Thraana Panditha&#xA;Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana  .                 3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Who is surrounded by resplendent light like a halo,&#xA;Who is surrounded by forms of Vishnu,&#xA;Who is difficult for even great scholars to grasp,&#xA;And who helps devotees to cross problems.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nijapatapreetha saddgana ,Nirupathispeetha Shad Guna&#xA; Nigama NirvyuDa Vaibhava ,Nijapara Vyuha Vaibhava  ,&#xA; Hari Haya Dweshi Daarana,Hara Pura Plosha Kaarana&#xA; Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana , Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana  .              4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Who is firmly attached to righteous people,&#xA;Who is the natural home for six good assets,&#xA;Who took the form with a horse’s neck,&#xA;And who was the reason for destruction of the cities by Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhanuja visthaara Kartana,Janitamisraa Vikartana &#xA;Dhanujavidya Nikartana, Bhajatavidya Nivatana ,&#xA;Amara drushtasva Vikrama,Samara Jushta Bramikrama&#xA;Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana  .                5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Who destroys the spread of asuras,&#xA;Who removes the sorrows of birth , aging and death,&#xA;Who wins over the art of war of asuras,&#xA;Who removes the false knowledge from his devotees,&#xA;Whose valour is praised by devas,&#xA;And who rotates in various ways in a war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prathimukhaaleeta Bandhura, Pruthumahaheti Danthura&#xA;Vikatamaaya Bahishkrutha ,Vividhamaalaa  Parishkrutha ,&#xA;Sthiramahaayantra Tantritha ,Dhruta Daya Tantra Yantrita&#xA;Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana , Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana  .               6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Who appeared with a fast forward gait,&#xA;And whose gait appeared very pretty,&#xA;Who is surrounded by several weapons,&#xA;And expels the illusions sent by  enemy in case of war,&#xA;Who decorates himself with several garlands,&#xA;Who wears mercy and blesses devotees,&#xA;Who worship him through tantra and yantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahita Sampath Sadhakshara ,Vihitasampath Shatakshara&#xA;Shatarachakra Pratisishtita ,Sakala Tattva Prathishtita ,&#xA;Vividha Sankalpaka Kalpaka,Vibhudhasankalpa Kalpaka&#xA;Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana  .            7 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Who gives wealth of salvation to those who,&#xA;Chant your six lettered mantra,&#xA;Who gives incomparable wealth to those who,&#xA;Chant your six lettered mantra,&#xA;Who is available in yantra of six corners,&#xA;Who is a form in which all knowledge  exists,&#xA;Who is able to complete all deeds that you take up,&#xA;And who is the kalpaka tree fulfilling all wishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhuvana Netra Trayeemaya , Savanatejastrayeemaya&#xA;Niravadhisvaadhu Chinmaya, Nikhila Sakthe Jaganmaya  ,&#xA;Amita Viswakriyaamaya,Samitavishvagbhayaamaya &#xA;Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana ,Jaya Jaya  Sri Sudarsana  .                8 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,&#xA;Who is the three Vedas which are the eye of the world,&#xA;Who is the form of the three fires of yagas,&#xA;Who is the eternal knowledge of true knowledge,&#xA;Who is a form of the power of universe,&#xA;Who is accomplisher of deeds that you take up,&#xA;And who destroys all fears occurring in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 9: Phala Sruthi &#xA;Dwichatushkamidam Prabhoothasaaram patathaam Venkatanayaka Praneetham ,&#xA;Vishamepi Manorata: Pradhaavan na Vihanyeta Rataangadhuryagupta :  .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This octet which fulfills all desires,&#xA;Which gives the inner meaning of Lord Sudarshana,&#xA;Composed by Venkata Natha, if read,&#xA;Would fulfill desires, remove obstacles,&#xA;Because of the glorious boon granting powers of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T04:49:13.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14910" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14879" CreationDate="2016-09-14T06:32:06.260" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a peace mantra and the &amp;quot;inspiration&amp;quot; comes from the Brahadaranyaka Upanishad{ Khila division},though the mantra is not there in this exact form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om asato maa satgamaya&lt;br&gt; Tamaso maa jyotir gamaya&lt;br&gt; Mrityor maa amritam&#xA;gamaya&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lead us from the unreal to the Real From darkness to Light&#xA;From death to Immortality&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om poornamadah poornamidam Poornaat poornamudachyate &lt;br&gt;Poornasya&#xA;poornamaadaya Poornamevaavashishyate&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That (pure consciousness) is full (perfect); this (the manifest universe of matter; of names and forms being maya) is full. This fullness has been projected from that fullness. When this fullness merges in that fullness, all that remains is fullness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference is &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800500.us.archive.org/28/items/BrahadaranyakaUpanishad-ShankaraBhashya-English-SwamiMadhavaananda/BrahadaranyakaUpanishad-Madhavaananda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Therefore, to conclude:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following Popular Peace-Shanti Mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः &lt;br&gt;सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः। &lt;br&gt;सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु&lt;br&gt; मा&#xA;कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत।&lt;br&gt; ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h5&gt;The origin source of the above mantra, is untraceable as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://sampadanandamishra.medium.com/the-source-of-%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%81-%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%96%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%83-sarve-bhavantu-sukhina%E1%B8%A5-9023e23773a0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://resanskrit.com/sarve-bhavantu-sukhinah-the-peace-mantra/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article by ReSanskrit&lt;/a&gt;. It is said to have been loosely inspired from Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣhad &amp;amp; other pauranika texts.&lt;/h5&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2021-06-17T17:08:48.217" LastActivityDate="2021-06-17T17:08:48.217" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14911" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11660" CreationDate="2016-09-14T07:24:44.493" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is a concept of first man and woman in Hinduism. This is mentioned in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc117939.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1.4&lt;/a&gt; which deals with the creation of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verse 1.4.3:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स व नैव रेमे, तस्मादेकाकी न रमते; स द्वितीयमैच्छत् । &lt;br&gt; स हैतावानास यथा स्त्रीपुमांसौ सम्परिष्वक्तौ; &lt;br&gt; स इममेवात्मानं द्वेधापातयत्, ततः पतिश्च पत्नी चाभवताम्; &lt;br&gt; तस्मातिदमर्धबृगलमिव स्वः इति ह स्माह याज्ञवल्क्यः; &lt;br&gt;तस्मादयमाकाशः स्त्रिया पूर्यत एव; &lt;br&gt;तां समभवत्, ततो मनुष्या अजायन्त ॥ ३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa va naiva reme, tasmādekākī na ramate; sa dvitīyamaicchat | sa haitāvānāsa yathā strīpumāṃsau sampariṣvaktau; sa imamevātmānaṃ dvedhāpātayat, tataḥ patiśca patnī cābhavatām; tasmātidamardhabṛgalamiva svaḥ iti ha smāha yājñavalkyaḥ; tasmādayamākāśaḥ striyā pūryata eva; tāṃ samabhavat, tato manuṣyā ajāyanta || 3 || &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3. &#xA;  He was not at all happy. Therefore people (still) are not happy when alone. He desired a mate. He became as big as man and wife embracing each other. He parted this very body into two. &lt;strong&gt;From that came husband and wife.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore, said Yājñavalkya, this (body) is one-half of oneself, like one of the two hálves of a split pea. Therefore this space is indeed filled by the wife. &lt;strong&gt;He was united with her. From that men were born.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śaṅkarācārya interprets the verse as (tr. by Swāmi Mādhavānanda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here is another reason why the state of Virāj is within the relative world, because he, Virāj, was not at all happy, i.e. was stricken with dissatisfaction, just like us. Because it was so, therefore, on account of loneliness etc., even to-day people are not happy, do not delight, when alone. Delight is a sport due to conjunction with a desired object. A person who is attached to it feels troubled in mind when he is separated from his desired object; this is called dissatisfaction. To remove. that dissatisfaction, he desired a mate, able to take away that dissatisfaction, i. e; a wife. And as he thus longed for a wife, he felt as if he was embraced by his wife. Being of an infallible will, through that idea he became as big—as what ?—as man and wife, in the world, embracing each other to remove their dissatisfaction. He became of that size. He parted this very body, of that size, into two. The emphatic word ‘very’ used after ‘this’ is for distinguishing between the new body and its cause, the original body of Virāj. Virāj did not become of this size by wiping out his former entity, as milk turns into curd by wholly changing its former substance. What then? fíe remained as he was, but being of an infallible resolve, he projected another body of the size of man and wife together. He remained the same Virāj, as we find from the sentence, ‘He became as big as,’ etc., where ‘he’ is co-ordinate with the complement. From that parting came husband (Pati) and wife (Patnī). This is the derivation of terms denoting an ordinary couple. And because the wife is but one-half of oneself separated, therefore this body is one-half, like one of the two halves of a split pea, before one marries a wife. Whose half? Of oneself. Thus said Yājñavalkya, the son of Yajñavalka, lit. the expounder of a sacrifice, i.e. the son of Devarāta. Or it may mean a descendant of Hiraṇyagarbha (who is the expounder).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since one-half of a man is void when he is without a wife representing the other half, therefore this space is indeed again filled by the wife when he marries, as one-half of a split pea gets its complement When again joined to the other half. &lt;strong&gt;He, the Virāj called Manu, was united with her, his daughter called Śatarūpā, whom he conceived of as his wife. From that union men were born.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu01.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu-smriti 1.32&lt;/a&gt; also states the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;32.&#xA;  Dividing his own body, the Lord became half male and half female; with that (female) he produced &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viraj&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Virag&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Brihadaranyaka.Upanishad.Shankara.Bhashya.by.Swami.Madhavananda#page/n129/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brh. Up 1.4.4&lt;/a&gt; further states that the same man and woman kept taking other lifeforms and created the rest of the animal world as we know it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verse 1.4.4:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She thought, 'How can he be united with me after producing me from himself? Well, let me hide myself.' She became a cow, the other became a bull and was united with her; from that cows were born. The one became a mare, the other a stallion; the one became a she-ass, the other became a he-ass and was united with her; from that one-hoofed animals were born. The one became a she-goat, the other a he-goat; the one became a ewe, the other became a ram and was united with her; from that goats and sheep were born. Thus did he project everything that exists in pairs, down to the ants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the book, &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; opines that the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mundaka_Upanishad#Reach_the_highest_Oneness_in_all_beings_-_Third_Mundakam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mundakopaniṣad story&lt;/a&gt; of the two birds perched on a tree branch has undergone many changes over the centuries to become the current Adam and Eve story of Abrahamic religions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You must be familiar with the story of Adam and Eve which belongs to the Hebrew tradition. It occurs in the Genesis of the Old Testament and speaks of the Tree of Knowledge and God's commandment that its fruit shall not be&#xA;  eaten. Adam at first did not eat it but Eve did. After that Adam too ate the forbidden fruit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here an Upaniṣadic concept has taken the form of a biblical story. But because of the change in time and place the original idea has become distorted or even obliterated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Upaniṣadic story &lt;sup&gt;(6)&lt;/sup&gt; speaks of two birds perched on the branch of a pippala &lt;sup&gt;(7)&lt;/sup&gt; tree. One eats the fruit of the tree while the other merely watches its companion without eating. The pippala tree stands for the body. The first bird represents a being that regards itself as the jīvātman or individual Self and the fruit it eats signifies sensual pleasure. In the same body (symbolised by the tree) the second bird is to be understood as Paramātman. It is the support of all beings but It does not know sensual pleasure. Since It does not eat the fruit It does not naturally have the same experience as the jīvātman (the first bird). The Upanishad speaks with poetic beauty of the two birds. The one who eats the fruit is the individual Self, jīva, and the one who does not eat is the Supreme Reality, the one who knows himself to be the Ātman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is this jīva that has come to be called &quot;Eve&quot; &lt;sup&gt;(8)&lt;/sup&gt; in the Hebrew religious tradition. &quot;Ji&quot; changes to &quot;i&quot; according to a rule of grammar and &quot;ja” to &quot;ya&quot;. We have the example of “Yamuna” becoming &quot;Jamuna” or of &quot;Yogindra” being changed to &quot;Joginder”. In the biblical story &quot;jīva” is &quot;Eve&quot; and &quot;Ātma&quot; (or &quot;Ātman&quot;) is &quot;Adam”. “Pippala” has in the same way changed to “apple”. The Tree of Knowledge is our “bodhi-vrkṣa”. “Bodha” means “knowledge”. It is well known that the Buddha attained enlightenment under the bodhi tree. But&#xA;  the pīpal (pippala) was known as the bodhi tree even before his time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Upaniṣadic ideas transplanted into a distant land underwent a change after the lapse of centuries. &lt;strong&gt;Thus we see in the biblical story that the Ātman (Adam) that can never be subject to sensual pleasure also eats the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. While our bodhi tree stands for enlightenment, the enlightenment that banishes all sensual pleasure, the biblical tree affords worldly pleasure.&lt;/strong&gt; These differences notwithstanding there is sufficient evidence here that once upon a time, the Vedic religion was prevalent in the land of the Hebrews.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sup&gt;(6)&lt;/sup&gt; The story is told in the Mundakopaniṣad. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sup&gt;(7)&lt;/sup&gt; &quot;Pippala&quot; is the &lt;em&gt;pīpal&lt;/em&gt; or Ficus religiosa. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sup&gt;(8)&lt;/sup&gt; The meaning of the original Hebrew word is indeed &quot;life&quot;. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T07:24:44.493" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14912" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14907" CreationDate="2016-09-14T09:06:05.957" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Giving water to Sun (Surya) after bathing is known as &lt;code&gt;Arghya&lt;/code&gt; and this ritual is known as &lt;code&gt;Sandhyâ Upâsânâ&lt;/code&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk11ch16.htm&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam, Eleventh Book, Chapter XVI&lt;/a&gt; gives the reason for Sandhyopasana as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thirty Koti Râksasas known as the Mandehas, always roam on the path of the Sun (the mental Sun also). They are great heroes, treacherous and ferocious. They always try to devour the Sun, while they assume terrible forms. For this reason the Devas and the Risis combined offer the water with their folded hands to the Sun, while they perform the great Sandhyâ Upâsanâ. The water thus offered, becomes transformed into the thunderbolt and burns the heads of the cruel demons (and throws them on the island Mandehâruna)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T09:06:05.957" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14913" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14914" CreationDate="2016-09-14T10:35:17.517" Score="14" ViewCount="1215" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a common belief in Hinduism that the nature of creation is cyclic. Continuous creation and destruction happens in certain intervals of time. Most of such ideas are found in Puranas and also in Bhagvad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But do the Vedas also state about Cyclical nature of Creation? I've heard there is a verse in RigVeda which states about Cyclic Nature of Creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where is that verse in Rig Veda and what it means?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-07T17:07:27.990" LastActivityDate="2017-01-07T17:07:27.990" Title="Where does Rig Veda states about Cyclical Nature of Creation?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|history|rig-veda|creation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14914" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14913" CreationDate="2016-09-14T10:37:37.170" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;10.190&lt;/strong&gt; is the Hymn to the creation in Rig Veda. In it&amp;apos;s third verse it states sun and moon were created like that of previous creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सूरय्याचन्द्रमसौ धाता यथा पूर्वमकल्पयत् I&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दिवं च पृथ्वीं&amp;nbsp; च अंतरिक्षमथो स्वः&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; II&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;RigVeda 10.190.3&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; II&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;The Ordainer &lt;strong&gt;created the sun and moon like those of previous cycles.&lt;/strong&gt; He formed in order Heaven and Earth, the regions of the air, and light.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Griffth translates it as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhātar, &lt;strong&gt;the great Creator, then formed in due order Sun and Moon.&lt;/strong&gt; He formed in order Heaven and Earth, the regions of the air, and light.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jamison and Brereton translate it as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Ordainer &lt;strong&gt;arranged, according to their proper order, sun and moon,&lt;/strong&gt; heaven and earth, midspace and sunlight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above verse the main emphasis is on:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यथा पुर्वमकल्पयत् ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yathã purvamakalpayat ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Like that in previous creation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-25T08:56:44.877" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T08:56:44.877" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14916" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14900" CreationDate="2016-09-14T10:51:23.797" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the Puranas the Sri Kurmanadha Temple existed few million&#xA;  years ago and the outer structures are constructed many a time after&#xA;  dilapidation and the present structure is 700 years old. The&#xA;  references to the temple are available in &lt;strong&gt;Kurma, Vishnu, Padma and&#xA;  Brahmanda puranas&lt;/strong&gt;. As per the scriptures Kurmaa avatar is considered&#xA;  as the second incarnation of the famous Dasha Avataaras of Lord Shri&#xA;  Maha Vishnu. The 8th Skanda of Bhagavatam refers to the classical&#xA;  legend of the Ksheera Sagara Madhanam where Lord Vishnu reincarnated&#xA;  himself into Kurmam (tortoise) to aid the Devatas and Rakshasas during&#xA;  the cosmic churning of the Ocean of milk to obtain nectar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kostalife.com/heritage/srikurmam-mighty-abode-of-lord-vishnu/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kostalife&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i3sa3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i3sa3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T10:51:23.797" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14917" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14900" CreationDate="2016-09-14T11:35:45.837" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu, in Kurm Avatar (tortoise incarnation), had first preached this Purana to Narad. In his turn, Narad narrated it to Sutji who later narrated this Purana to an assembly of the great sages. Initially, this Purana had four parts namely Bramhi Samhita, Bhagawati Samhita, Gauri Samhita and Vaishnavi Samhita. Presently, however, none of these Samhitas is available except Brahm Samhita. Present version too contains two parts-Purv and Uttar Parts. &#xA;Purv Part: Tale of Indradyumna. Description of Kurm Purana. Description of Varnashram. Description of the sequence of these ashramas. Origin of the geo-sphere. Description of various incarnations. Preaching of the gods. Description of the self-begotten Manu. Destruction of Daksh’s yagya. Killing of Hiranyakashipu. Vamana avatar (dwarf incarnation). Description of Ikshvaku clan. Description of Pururava clan. Description of Rama and Krishna incarnations. Description of Satya-, Treta-, Dwapar- and Kali yugas. Greatness of Varanasi. Greatness of Lingas. Greatness of Prayag and Yamuna etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uttar Part: Yoga of unexpressed knowledge. Appearance of Devadidev (Rudra) during Tandava. Description of metaphysical knowledge. Preaching of metaphysical knowledge by the God. Description of Ashtang Yoga. Duties of a celibate. Duties of a graduate. Description of edible and non-edible things. Rituals to be performed regularly. Rituals of dining. Description of the duties of a Vanaprasthi. Duties of an ascetic. Description of expiation. Expiation for drinking of wine. Greatness of different places of pilgrimage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Purana consists of 35 chapters:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12.1 Introduction&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(The samudra manthana story is given in great detail in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. As for Lakshmi, some of the Puranas state that she was born as the daughter of Khyati and the sage Bhrigu. She was then married to Vishnu. But the demons defeated the gods and Indra. The sage Durvasa therefore cursed Lakshmi that she would have to live in the ocean. And when the ocean was churned, Lakshmi emerged yet again.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra, the other gods, and the sages were charmed at Lakshmi’s beauty when she appeared. “Who is this wonderful goddess?” they asked Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“This is Lakshmi,” replied Vishnu. “She is also known as Shakti. It is with her help that I delude the universe and its inhabitants with my illusions (maya). It is Lakshmi who gives me all my powers, although she is no different from me in essence.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu then proceeded to tell the gods and the sages the story of Indradyumna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12.2 Indradyumna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many years ago, there was a king named Indradyumna. He ruled the world well and, when he died, was reborn as a brahmana, (The brahmanas constitute the first of the four classes, their primary duties are to study the Vedas and perform sacrifices.) &#xA;As a brahmana, Indradyumna observed religious rites and meditated. He also stared to pray to the goddess Lakshmi. When Lakshmi appeared, Indradyumna begged of her, “Please tell me about yourself. Please give me insight into what constitutes true knowledge.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Even the gods and the sages are unable to comprehend my true nature,” replied Lakshmi. “I an Vishnu’s illusions and there is no difference between him and me. As for knowledge, it is beyond my powers to grant you that. You will have to pray to the great Vishnu himself.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said this, Lakshmi disappeared, and Indradyumna started to pray to Vishnu. Several years passed, but Indradyumna continued to meditate. Finally, Vishnu appeared and instructed Indradyumna on the path to true knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“What did you tell Indradyumna?” asked the gods and the sages. “What was this wonderful knowledge?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“I will repeat it for your benefit,” replied Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Vishnu repeated his teachings while in the form of a turtle of Kurma, these sacred words are known as the Kurma Purana. There are many subjects that Vishnu’s instructions covered, but let us first start with the concept of varnashrama dharma, Dharma means righteousness and these precepts lay down the fundamental principles of righteous conduct. This is typified in the system of four varnas (classes) and four ashramas (stages of life).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12.3 Varnashrama Dharma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu said that before creation began, there was only water in the universe and Vishnu slept on these waters. When it was time for creation to begin, Brahma emerged from Vishnu’s body. And Shiva emerged from Vishnu’s anger. Lakshmi too was created from Vishnu’s body and took her place by Vishnu’s side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma told Vishnu, “Please use this goddess to delude the beings whom I will create. Tell her to sow the seeds of illusions in their minds. Please tell her to make the righteous prosper.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu complied. He requested Lakshmi, “Please delude and destroy gods, demons and humans who are about to be created. But please leave the righteous alone and make them prosper. I will tell you how to know the righteous. They are those that follow the precepts of varnashrama dharma.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The brahmanas constitute the first of the four classes. Brahma created nine sons from his mental powers. Their names were Marichi, Bhrigu, Angira, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Daksha, Atri and Vashishtha. These sons became sages and they were the first brahmanas. They were created from Brahma’s mouth There are six types of action that are recommended for brahmanas. These are yajana (performing sacrifices), yajana (acting as priests at sacrifices), dana (donation of alms), pratigraha (receiving gifts), adhyapana (teaching and adhyayana (studying). A brahmana who performs these tasks well, attains the wonderful place known as prajapatya. (This would seem to be synonymous with Brahma’s residence of Brahmaloka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The kshatriyas constitute the second of the four classes. They were created from Brahma’s arms. The duties of kshatriyas include dana (donation of alms), adhyayana (studying) and performing yajnas (sacrifices). But their primary duties are to take up arms and fight, It is their job to punish the evil and protect the good. A kshatriya who performs these tasks well, attains Indra’s residence of Indraloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vaishyas constitute the third of the four classes. They were created from Brahma’s thighs. Like the kshatriyas, the vaishyas can also donate alms, study and perform sacrifices, But their primary duty is agriculture, (In many other Puranas, trade and animal husbandry are mentioned in addition to agriculture). A vaishya who performs these tasks well, gets to live with Vayu, the god of the wind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The shudras constitute the last of the four classes. They were created from Brahma’s feet. Their primary duty is to serve the other three classes. In addition, a shudra can adopt artisanship as an occupation, A shudra who performs these tasks well, will live with the gandharvas (singers of heaven).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally speaking, all four classes have to observe the religion that is prescribed in the vedas. There are various other shastras (religious texts) that circulate on earth. But many of them are against the Vedas. The religion that is prescribed in such anti-Vedic texts must not be followed. Only sinners follow such religions, and they are doomed to eternal damnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are four ashramas (stages of life). The first one is brahmacharya (celibate studenthood). The primary duties of a person who is in this stage of life are studying the Vedas and serving one’s guru (teacher) well. He has to live on alms that are obtained through begging. When this stage of life if over, there are two options that are available to the individual. In rare instances, he may desire to devote the rest of his life to studying and meditation. Such a person is known as naishthika. More commonly, individuals wish to step into the next stage of life, An individual who does so is known as an upakurvana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second stage of life is garhasthya (householder stage). A householder’s primary duties are serving guests, performing sacrifices, donating alms, worshipping the gods and keeping the sacred fire burning in the house at all times. In cases where the householder is absent from the house, these functions are to be performed by his wife or sons, or even by his priest. A householder must not also forget to study a little bit of the Vedas every day. The householder stage is superior to the other three stages of life. The reason is that the alms provided by a householder are the means of sustenance for individuals who are in the other three stages of life. A householder may be one of two types. He may be a sadhaka, in which case his chief obsession is that of satisfying his friends and relatives. Alternatively, there may be a householder who is udasina. This means that he is not really interested in his wife, his sons or in the acquisition of material wealth. His chief obsession is that of being freed from the bonds of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The third stage of life is vanaprastha (forest dwelling stage). Such a person retires to the forest and lives on fruits and roots. He studies the Vedas, performs tapasya (meditation) and observes religious rites. One should never embark on a forest-dwelling stage unless one’s mind is ready for it. This also means that one must have had sons. Without sons to carry on the line, it is not recommended that a householder venture out on the forest-dwelling stage. There are two types of forest-dwellers. The first type consists of individuals who primarily devote themselves to worshipping the gods and performing religious ceremonies. Such an individual is known as a tapasya, because he does do some tapasya. But there are individuals who devote themselves entirely to meditation. Such a person is known as a sannyasika, since there is very little of difference between him and a sannyasi (hermit).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fourth and final stage of life is sannyasa (hermithood). Such individuals spend all their time in meditating. They beg food for a living. It is not proper to become a hermit unless one’s mind has achieved detachment from the world. There are two types of hermits. The first type consists of those who are trying to realise the true nature of the atman (human soul). Such a person treats all other individuals as he would treat himself and is known as a yogi, but there are also hermits who go through intense meditation so as to attain the supreme wisdom. Such a person is known as a parameshthika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are various other traits that are demanded by the righteous way of life. One must forgive and display pity, one must not be jealous and must be ready to sacrifice one’s own selfish interests. One must be truthful, practice non-violence and learn to control the senses. One must also visit tirthas (places of pilgrimage). It is also important to realise that one does not perform actions for the sake of the fruits of the actions. The fruits of all actions vest with the brahman (the divine essence). In fact, it is a gross misconception to think that la specific action is being performed by an individual. All actions are performed by the brahman, the ordinary human being is merely an instrument. As long as this realisation is missing, an individual is ignorant and is doomed to the shackles of worldly bonds&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source--www.astrojyoti.com/kurmapurana.htm&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T11:35:45.837" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14919" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-14T11:49:42.567" Score="3" ViewCount="694" Body="&lt;p&gt;The verse is as follows,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;etat ca anyat ca paruSam vaidehii raavaNa a.nka gaa |&#xA;bhaya shoka samaaviSTaa karuNam vilalaapa ha || 3-53-25&#xA;&#xA;एतत् च अन्यत् च परुषम् वैदेही रावण अंक गा ।&#xA;भय शोक समाविष्टा करुणम् विललाप ह ॥ ३-५३-२५&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The popular translation is as given &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/aranya/sarga53/aranya_53_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; as,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On saying this much and other exacting words, Vaidehi who has gone&#xA;onto the flank of Ravana, indeed lamented lamentably as her dismay is&#xA;coalesced with her distress. [3-53-25b, c]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But a person &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Has-the-millennia-old-Indian-culture-the-epics-such-as-the-Mahabharat-and-the-Ramayan-and-the-religious-texts-and-the-scriptures-been-instrumental-in-creating-a-patriarchal-and-a-women-oppressive-society-that-is-prevalent-in-India-today/answer/Milin-Patel-4/comment/24019065&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; translates it as,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On saying this much and other exacting words, Vaidehi, who is on the&#xA;lap of Ravana and is having sexual intercourse with him, indeed moaned&#xA;(in love) as her dismay is coalesced with her coitus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;raavaNa anka gaa= on Ravana's,lap, having sexual intercourse;&#xA;vaidehii= Vaidehi; bhaya shoka samaaviSTaa= dismay, coitus, coalesced&#xA;with; etat ca anyat ca paruSam= this much, also, other, also, sharp&#xA;[saying exacting words]; karuNam vilalaapa ha= [out of] love, moaned,&#xA;indeed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone shed some light on this alternate translation. Apparently, literally, either of them can be legitimate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T12:20:48.967" Title="Translation of Valmiki Ramayana 3-53-25" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|translation-request|sita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14920" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1962" CreationDate="2016-09-14T12:16:15.763" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Mountains had wings. When landing, mountains killed innocent beings and disturbed yajnas and without Yajnas Devas had no food. Indra cut their wings with his thunderbolt to solve that problem. This is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-viii/chapter-04/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 4 of Setu Mahatmya-Brahma Khanda of Skanda Purana &lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Süta said: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;53b-58. &lt;strong&gt;Formerly all the mountains had wings&lt;/strong&gt;. They had the&#xA;velocity of mind. They moved about here and there by the ethereal&#xA;path along with the other mountains nearby. They glided and flew along&#xA;and settled on cities and countries, villages and forests. Wherever&#xA;these mountains settled down like this, men, cows and other living&#xA;beings were crushed by them. They met with instantaneous death. When&#xA;Brähmanas and peoples of other castes too perished thereby, this&#xA;prevented the performance of Yajnas, etc. &lt;strong&gt;On account of the absence of&#xA;the Yajnas and other rites, Devas became distressed, Indra became&#xA;infuriated. Seizing the thunderbolt he cut off the wings of the&#xA;powerful mountains.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;59.When their wings were thus being cut off by Indra. all the  mountains had no other refuge. Out of fear they entered the sea. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T12:16:15.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14921" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14919" CreationDate="2016-09-14T12:20:48.967" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a website developed and maintained by IIT Kanpur. It is Valmiki Ramayana project by Rashtriya Sanskrita Vidya Peetham, Tirupati. I am providing the translation from the same &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=3&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=53&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एतच्चान्यच्च परुषं वैदेही रावणाङ्कगा।।3.53.25।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भयशोकसमाविष्टा करुणं विललाप ह।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रावणाङ्कगा a lady under Ravana's grip, वैदेही Vaidehi (Sita), भयशोकसमाविष्टा full of fear and sorrow, एतत् च these words, अन्यच्च and other words, परुषम् harsh, करुणम् piteously, विललाप ह wept.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sita, daughter of Videha, full of sorrow and fear under Ravana's grip uttered these partly harsh and partly piteous wordsweeping.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T12:20:48.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14922" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14923" CreationDate="2016-09-14T14:02:54.960" Score="7" ViewCount="2742" Body="&lt;p&gt;After Mahabharatha war, to avenge the death of his father Drona, Aswathama entered camp of Pandavas and killed Upapandavas and sleeping soldiers. According to Mahabhartha, Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10016.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;curses&lt;/a&gt; Aswathama to roam the earth with all diseases for 3000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As regards thyself, all wise men know thee for a coward and a sinful&#xA;wretch! Always engaged in sinful acts, thou art the slayer of&#xA;children. For this reason, thou must have to bear the fruit of these&#xA;thy sins. &lt;strong&gt;For 3,000 years thou shalt wander over this earth, without a&#xA;companion and without being able to talk with anyone.&lt;/strong&gt; Alone and&#xA;without anybody by thy side, thou shalt wander through diverse&#xA;countries, O wretch, thou shalt have no place in the midst of men. &lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;stench of pus and blood shall emanate from thee, and inaccessible&#xA;forests and dreary moors shall be thy abode! Thou shalt wander over&#xA;the Earth, O thou of sinful soul, with the weight of all diseases on&#xA;thee.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aswathama is destined to become &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin//vp/vp077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;next Vyasa&lt;/a&gt; (for 29th Mahayuga of this (Vaivaswara) Manvantara).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the next Dwápara, Drauńi (the son of Drońa) will be the Vyása,&#xA;when my son, the Muni Krishńa Dwaipáyana, who is the actual Vyása,&#xA;shall cease to be (in that character).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is also destined to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23205/25F_Chapter_9.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;become Saptarishi&lt;/a&gt; of Savarni Manvantara, which is upcoming Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Royal sage, I am now describing Sävarni Manvantara. In this&#xA;particular Manvantara, &lt;strong&gt;Asvatthämä&lt;/strong&gt;, garadvän, Kausika, Gälava,&#xA;Satänanda, Kasyapa and Räma (Parasuräma) are the seven Rsis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As above two events are predestined, Aswathama must be relieved from sin of killing Upapandavas and curse of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Aswatthama get rid of the sin of killing Upapandvas and curse of Krishna? If so. how did he do that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T14:03:21.920" Title="How did Aswathama get rid the sin of killing Upapandavas and curse of Lord Krishna?" Tags="|mahabharata|sin|ashwatthama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14923" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14922" CreationDate="2016-09-14T14:03:21.920" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnata_Bharata_Kathamanjari&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kannada version of Mahabaratha&lt;/a&gt; written by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumara_Vyasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kumara Vyasa&lt;/a&gt;, the author says that Ashwatthama got rid of curse by Shakti Worship. Some people claim that Kumara Vyasa wrote Mahabaratha by listening to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashwatthama#Alternate_theories_about_Ashwatthama.27s_fate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sage Aswatthama&lt;/a&gt; and  some other people claim that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumara_Vyasa#Works&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; Himself narrated the story to Kumara Vyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taking pity on him, Lord Parasurama agreed to help him. &lt;strong&gt;It was said&#xA;that Ashwatthama was only an instrument in Lord Shiva's plan to&#xA;exterminate all the evil people from earth. Hence, Ashwatthama was&#xA;absolved of all sins.&lt;/strong&gt; It was said that Pandavas met Ashwatthama once&#xA;again 36 years later when they were travelling to seek pardon from&#xA;Lord Shiva for their heinous crimes in war. The Pandavas found&#xA;Ashwatthama happy in the company of Lord Parasurama and Sage Durvasa&#xA;in an ashram on the banks of river Ganga. It was believed that Lord&#xA;Parasurama and Maharishi Durvasa initiated Ashwatthama into Sakthi&#xA;worship, which is considered to be the supreme of all modes of&#xA;worship. &lt;strong&gt;By worshipping Adi ParaSakthi, Ashwatthama bypassed the curse&#xA;of Lord Krishna.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/25989/51f_chapter_31_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 31 of Setu Mahatmya - Brahma Khanda of Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; says that Aswathama got rid the sin of killing Upapandavas by taking dip in Dhanushkoti and worshiping Ramalingeswara in Rameswaram. However, this version doesn't mention curse of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After knowing heinous crimes of Aswatthama, no Rishi helped Aswatthama to get rid of that sin. Aswatthama finally took refugee of Krishna Dwaipayana and pleaded him. Vyasa out of compassion suggested a procedure to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyäsa said: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No expiatory rite for the suppression of this&#xA;sin has been laid down in the Smrtis. Still I shall tell you the means&#xA;of subduing this sin of yours. In the southern sea, on the meritorious&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Setu of Räma&lt;/strong&gt;, that bestows salvation, there is a great Tirtha well known as &lt;strong&gt;Dhanushkoti&lt;/strong&gt;. It is highly meritorious, O son of Drona.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On being told thus by the great Sage Vyäsa, the son of Drona went to&#xA;Rämasetu and Dhanushkoti, the sanctifier. With the requisite rite of&#xA;Sankalpa he took his bath continuously for a month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He served (worshiped) Rämanätha (Lord Shiva) everyday during&#xA;the three junctions (morning, noon and dusk). On the thirtieth day&#xA;after taking the bath in the waters the son of Drona performed the&#xA;Japa of the five-syllabled Mantra (Siväya namah) at Dhanushkoti. On&#xA;that day the son of Drona observed fast too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the night he remained awake in the presence of Rämanätha.&#xA;On the next day, he took his holy bath in Dhanushkoti along with the&#xA;requisite Sankalpa rite. He served Rämanätha after eulogizing him with&#xA;great devotion. He danced in front of Sambhu with tears of joy&#xA;flooding (his eyes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Parameswara (Shiva) manifested before Aswatthama. Aswatthama eulogized Shiva with various names. After getting delighted, Shiva said that his sin was expiated after taking dip in Dhanishkoti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahädeva said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;123-125. O Asvatthämä. &lt;strong&gt;the sin of slaughtering&#xA;sleeping warriors committed by you has perished, because you have&#xA;taken the holy plunge in Dhanushkoti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The variations in stories could be due to Kalpa Bheda. Skanda Purana mainly narrates the events of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11077/3500&quot;&gt;Satpurusha Kalpa&lt;/a&gt; while Mahabharatha narrates the events of Swetha Varaha Kalpa (present Kalpa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T14:03:21.920" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14924" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-14T14:40:53.057" Score="3" ViewCount="49" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the images of chakras that can be found on the internet show the chakra located at a specific point in the middle of the body. When I asked a request &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14902/is-there-a-list-that-describes-which-chakras-are-located-at-which-vertebrae&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; I got the answer that a chakra takes up more spaces and that the Anahata chakra for example fills the whole thoracic region and is thus much bigger than just the heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where does the difference come from? Are there more specific names that point to the big region as opposed to the thing shown on popular images?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eastern-spirituality.com/glossary/spirituality-terms/c-definitions/chakra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;eastern-spirituality.com&lt;/a&gt; for example talks about chakra's as points and not regions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Sanātana/Hindu and tantric/yogic traditions and other belief systems, a chakra (IAST: cakra) is an energy point or node in the subtle body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7652" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T14:40:53.057" Title="Why are chakra's frequently displayed as small points on the body and other times described as regions?" Tags="|chakras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14925" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14926" CreationDate="2016-09-14T14:54:22.813" Score="5" ViewCount="72" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some sources seem to use the term Saharara padma instead of Sahasrara chakra? Why do say do so? Do different traditions see the concept differently?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7652" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T15:21:06.990" Title="Why do some sources speak of the Sahasrara chakra and others of Saharara padma?" Tags="|chakras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14926" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14925" CreationDate="2016-09-14T15:21:06.990" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sahasrara = 1000&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Padma = Lotus&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sahasrara Chakra = Chakra with 1000 (Petals)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sahasrara Padma = (Chakra) with 1000 Lotus Petals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are actually same thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T15:21:06.990" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14927" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14928" CreationDate="2016-09-14T15:41:37.693" Score="11" ViewCount="467" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindus follow principles of Vastu Sastra for construction purposes. Vastu Sastra can be &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vaastu-shastra.com/what-is-vastu.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;defined&lt;/a&gt; as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaastu is an ancient Indian science of architecture and buildings&#xA;which helps in making a congenial setting or a place to live and work&#xA;in a most scientific way taking advantage of the benefits bestowed by&#xA;nature, its elements and energy fields for enhanced wealth, health,&#xA;prosperity and happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the origin of Vastu Sastra? Do Puranas mention any legend behind this Vastu Sastra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2022-04-19T02:12:31.103" Title="What is the mythological origin of Vastu?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|vastu-shastra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14928" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14927" CreationDate="2016-09-14T15:42:16.430" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Legend behind Vastu is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-252/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 252 of Matsya Purana&lt;/a&gt;. Lord Matsya narrated the story to Vaivasvara Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Lord Shiva was fighting with &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14436/3500&quot;&gt;Andhakasura&lt;/a&gt;, sweat drop fell from Lord Shiva's forehead which gave rise to new creature which wanted to devour the three worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदिदानीं प्रवक्ष्यामि वास्तुशास्त्रमनुत्तमम्। पुरान्धकवधे घोरे&#xA;घोररूपस्य शूलिनः॥५॥ &lt;br&gt;  ललाटस्वेदसलिलमपतद्भुवि भीषणम्। करालवदनं&#xA;तस्माद्भूतमद्भूतमुल्बणम्॥ ६॥ &lt;br&gt; ग्रसमानमिवाकाशं सप्तद्वीपां&#xA;वसुन्धराम्। ततोन्धकानां रुधिरमपिबत्पतितं क्षितौ॥७॥ &lt;br&gt;  तेन तत्समरे&#xA;सर्व पतितं यन्महीतले। तथापि तृप्तिमगमन्न तद्भूतं यदा तदा॥८॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सदाशिवस्य पुरतस्तपश्चक्रे सुदारुणम्। क्षुधाविष्टं तु तद्भूतमाहर्तुं&#xA;जगतीत्रयम्॥९॥ &lt;br&gt; ततः कालेन सन्तुष्टो भैरवस्तस्य चाह वै। वरं वृणीष्व&#xA;भद्र ते यदभीष्ट तवानघ। १०॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In days gone by, &lt;strong&gt;perspiration (water) trickled from the forehead of&#xA;Siva&lt;/strong&gt; at the time of His fighting fiercely with the demon Andhaka in&#xA;course of which the latter was killed; and out of this sweat of the&#xA;fatigued Siva was born an attendant, grim in appearance, who looked as&#xA;if to swallow the whole universe with seven islands and the sky. He&#xA;then began to drink the blood of the Andhaka demons that lay scattered&#xA;on the ground; but he was not satisfied with it. &lt;strong&gt;Then that hungry&#xA;attendant began to practise tapasya with the object of devouring the&#xA;three regions, in honour of Siva.&lt;/strong&gt; The Lord Siva in due time was highly&#xA;pleased with the devotee and asked him to select a boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva granted the boon to devour the three worlds. The devotee soon conquered the three worlds and Devas, Brahma, Rakshasa and Shiva Ganas collectively captured him and made him motionless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तमुवाच ततो भूतं त्रैलोक्यग्रसनक्षमम्। भवामि देवदेवेश तथेत्युत्तं च&#xA;शूलिना॥११॥ &lt;br&gt; ततस्तत् त्रिदिवं सर्वं भूमण्डलमशेषतः।&#xA;स्वदेहेनान्तरिक्षं च रुन्धानं प्रपतद्भुवि॥ १२॥ &lt;br&gt; भीतभीतैस्ततो&#xA;देवैब्रह्मणा चाथ शूलिना। दानवासुररक्षोभिरवष्टब्धं समन्ततः॥ १३॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;येन यत्रैव चाक्रान्तं स तत्रैवावसत्पुनः। निवासात्सर्वदेवानां&#xA;वास्तुरित्यभिधीयते॥ १४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The devotee said- &amp;quot;O Lord! be pleased to permit me to eat of the three&#xA;realms' and the Lord said- &amp;quot;Be it so.' Then that devotee besieged and&#xA;brought all the three regions, under his clutches and then fell down&#xA;on this earth. &lt;strong&gt;The terrified Devas, Brahmā, Ŝiva, demons, Raksasas&#xA;got round and captured him from all sides; the being, thus imprisoned,&#xA;remained there and since then, owing to all the Devas remaining there&#xA;and living round him, he came to be recognised as Vastu Deva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vastu Deva then pleaded them to make him free. Devas said that he would enjoy sacrificial offerings of house dwellers and follow certain rules before constructing houses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अवष्टढधाश्च तेनापि विज्ञप्ताः सर्वदेवता। प्रसीदध्वं सुराः सर्वे&#xA;युष्माभिर्निश्चलीकृताः॥ १५॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;स्थास्याम्यहं किमाकारो हावष्टत्यो ह्यधोमुख:। ततो ब्रह्मादिभिः प्रोक्ततं वास्तुमध्ये तु यो बलिः॥ १६॥ &lt;br&gt; आहारो वैश्वदेवान्ते&#xA;नूनमस्मिन्भविष्यति। वास्तुपूजामकुर्वाणस्तवाहारो भविष्यति॥&lt;/strong&gt; १७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing the Devas thus predominant and finding himself thus beseiged&#xA;the being, that sprung from Siva's sweat, said- &amp;quot;O Devas' you have now&#xA;made me motionless; be pleased; how can I stay, thus imprisoned, with&#xA;my head downward?” &lt;strong&gt;The Devas replied- “You will enjoy the&#xA;sacrificial offerings of the Visvedeva sacrifice and the offerings&#xA;that will be given within any dwelling-house and one who will perform&#xA;sacrifices without the prescribed method will also be your food.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अज्ञानातु कृतो यज्ञस्तवाहारो भविष्यति। यज्ञोत्सवादौ च बलिस्तवाहारो&#xA;भविष्यति॥ १८॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;एवमुक्तस्ततो हृष्टः स वास्तुरभवत्तदा। वास्तुयज्ञः&#xA;स्मृतस्तस्मात्ततः प्रभृति शान्तये॥ १९॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will also enjoy the sacrificial offerings made in course of other&#xA;ordinary sacrifices. &lt;strong&gt;That Vastu Deva then became highly pleased to&#xA;hear those words and since then the Vastu worship became extant to&#xA;appease Vastu Deva.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From that time it became requisite to follow some rules laid by Vastu Sastra to please Vastu Deva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-14T15:42:16.430" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14932" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="697" CreationDate="2016-09-15T05:52:10.080" Score="33" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu Scriptures &lt;strong&gt;describe masturbation as a sin.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Parashara Smriti, Chapter 12 , Sloka 63 specifically deals with masturbation and provides an expiation(prayaschitta) for that sin too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RVbjd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RVbjd.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;63&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If a householder willingly causes the discharge of his virile seed otherwise than in sexual intercourse, he should recite the Gayathri&#xA;  verse one thousand times, and should perform three Pranayamas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,for a student (Brahmachari) masturbation is a more serious sin because it then involves breaking of the vow (of celibacy).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.180. Let him always sleep alone, &lt;strong&gt;let him never waste&#xA;  his manhood; for he who voluntarily wastes his manhood, breaks his&#xA;  vow.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So , masturbation is indeed a sin as per Hindu Sastras and the expiation is reciting the Gayatri Mantra 1000 times &amp;amp; doing 3 rounds of pranayama.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;For those who don't know what technically constitutes a Pranayama-As per Manu, reciting the Gayatri verse 3 times while holding one's breath inside makes one round of Pranayama&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;User Yogi wrote in a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/697/what-does-hinduism-say-about-masturbation/14932#comment43776_14932&quot;&gt;comment&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Not everyone can recite Gyatri, it needs initiation and only Bramhanas can recite it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who are not initiated into Gayatri can simply do Pranayama without any mantra.A Pranayama, even if it's done without any mantra, is an effective method of destroying sins. But Pranayama done with mantras is even more effective in doing so (Note that these expiation measures are all additional information that are not exactly related to the question). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-09-15T05:31:01.310" LastActivityDate="2018-09-15T05:31:01.310" CommentCount="29" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14933" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14755" CreationDate="2016-09-15T06:34:22.000" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;Purva Mimamsa School in it&amp;apos;s &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purva_Mimamsa_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purva Mimamsa Sutras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; gives very logical arguments to prove Eternity of Vedas. Actually these &lt;strong&gt;Arguments can also be used against Nastika school who hold Vedas are not eternal.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Quotes from Mahabharata, Ramayana, Puranas and other scripture to support Eternity of Vedas cannot be used as logic against Nastika school because they do not believe in these scripture too.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence we should go through Logical Analysis. Adhaya 1 Pada 1 of Mimamsa Sutras gives very logical reasons for eternity of Vedas. I have here prepared a concise summary with the Sutras itself. For those who are interested in reading detailed arguments one can &lt;a href=&quot;https://doc-10-bc-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/ha0ro937gcuc7l7deffksulhg5h7mbp1/3os1sl48mvck7gppm12edgc9u3dmvmn5/1473688800000/02058467015715614041/*/1FXabFLd7xuTqnmo4VMTV11lzH73QTL8SReD3WIelxLBTxZ3cWsznwBjha66MeMwKyJ3FkyBEgmTEFe29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;read here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;First we Prove that Words are Eternal.&lt;/strong&gt; For the logic that Words are eternal Purvapakshin (Objector) raises following objection&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Objection 1:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One set says that it is an action; by reason of seeing it there. (Adhikarana 6 Sutra 6)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The objector says that &lt;strong&gt;word is not eternal as said in Sutra ; because it is an act and we see that it is produced by an effort.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Objection 2:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By reason of no stability. (Sutra 7)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The second objector says that &lt;strong&gt;there is no stability of the word ; as soon as it is pronounced, it vanishes.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Objection 3:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By reason of the word make . (Sutra 8)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The third objector says that the word { make is used in relation to l word . &lt;strong&gt;It is said, make a sound&lt;/strong&gt; ; This fact also shows that sound is made and so it can not be eternal. &#xA;    in other beings ;by reason of its being simultaneous. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Objection 4:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By reason of its being heard simultaneously by other beings. (Sutra 9)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The fourth objection to the eternality of the sound is that &lt;strong&gt;it is heard simultaneously by all beings who stand at a distance from the source of the sound.&lt;/strong&gt; This fact also goes, to establish the transitory nature of the sound, voice or word- original form modified form.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Objection 5:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And on account of the original and modified forms. (Sutra 10)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The changes take place, for instance expressions as &amp;apos;Dadhyatri&amp;apos; we find original form we had &amp;apos;i&amp;apos;&amp;nbsp; becomes modified into &amp;apos;ya&amp;apos;. &lt;strong&gt;due to Grammar rules.&lt;/strong&gt; As a rule anything liable to modification is not eternal.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Objection 6:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Its increase by reason of many persons pronouncing it. (Sutra 11)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;There is another sixth argument against the eternality of the sound; &lt;strong&gt;when many persons together pronounce a word, it increases in sound.&lt;/strong&gt; What increases and decreases is not eternal. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we proceed to Reply above objections:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reply to Objection 1:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the other hand there is a reasoning of equal force. (Sutra 12)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The first objector said it was an act and an effort ; that is to say it was pronounced. The author says you are quite right that it is a product of an effort i. e., pronunciation, but &lt;strong&gt;if the word did not exist before, it could not be pronounced. The very fact that it was pronounced shows that it existed before the pronunciation.&lt;/strong&gt; It is by parity of reasoning that the contrary proposition is established.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reply to Objection 2:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Disappearance after once coming into existence is by reason of the object not coming into contact. (Sutra 13)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The reply to the second objection is that the sound is the quality of ether. The ether is eternal. &lt;strong&gt;The sound was brought into existence, because it existed there and disappeared because the object is not obtain able by the sense though existing of the application.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reply to Objection 3:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the application. (Sutra 14)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The author replies the third objection which is about the verb make . It is also applicable to an effort to bring- into manifestation. &lt;strong&gt;When a word is pronounced it is audible, the audibility of the word is after the pronunciation. The word existed and the pronunciation only made it audible.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reply to Objection 4:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The simultaeousness is like the sun. (Sutra 15)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The author replies the fourth objection. You say that sound is heard simultaneously by several persons standing there, so you say that there is not one sound. There you are wrong. &lt;strong&gt;There is one sun and spectators all see it; by the number of spectators the sun will not increase in number. So there is one sound and it is eternal.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reply to Objection 5:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The change of letters is not a modification. (Sutra 16)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The changes of letters are no modifications, the word still exists and &lt;strong&gt;it is not modification because it is different letter.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reply to Objection 6:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The increase is with reference to the increase of the tone. (Sutra 17)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The increase is of the tone or the noise; it is not the increase of the word.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Furthermore words are eternal&lt;/strong&gt; because:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reason 1:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the other hand, it is eternal by the reason of its manifestation being for the sake of others. (Sutra 18)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The word is eternal, the reason is that it is for the sake of imparting information to others that it is pronounced and that the words come and go but the effect that they leave behind is permanent. &lt;strong&gt;The word cow is pronounced, the word as pronounced has disappeared but the knowledge of the cow that it has left on the mind of the hearer is still there even though the sound is not heard. everywhere.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reason 2:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By reason of the simultaneity, it produces the same effect everywhere. (Sutra 19)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As soon as the word cow is pronounced, all the hearers understand that it means a particular animal of a particular shape.&lt;/strong&gt; There are three terms, the first is the form which you have before your minds eye. You know the figure cow and you go examining each animal and when you find a particular animal corresponding to the figure that you have before your mind s eye, you at once recognize the individual cow.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reason 3;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By reason of there being no number. (Sutra 20)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You pronounce the term cow ten times, it will convey the idea of one cow only.&lt;/strong&gt; The word cow though pronounced several times conveys the idea of one individual cow.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reason 4:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By reason of its being non-correlative. (Sutra 21)&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;There are correlative terms, such as husband and wife; father and son. You can not think one without the other. &lt;strong&gt;Sound may be produced or vanish but the word is absolute and not correlative; it exists independently and therefore eternal manifestation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reason 5:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And by reason of no manifestation of the collection of words. (Sutra 22)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The words are eternal, because the words in a collected form have no manifestation. &lt;strong&gt;The words collectively do not denote a class but only an individual word does so.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reason 6:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It has no meaning when manifested, because the meaning does not depend upon it. (Sutra 24)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The objector says that I accept your proposition that the word and its sense are connected eternally but a number of words there is not so connected, because the sentence does not depend upon the words for its meaning; &lt;strong&gt;the meaning of the sentence is conventional.&lt;/strong&gt; It of the constituent parts.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reason 7:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The pronunciation of the constituent parts (words) is with the object of an action, the sense being dependant upon them. (Sutra 25)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The objector in the preceding sutra said that the words conveyed the sense but the words put into a sentence had only a conventional sense but no meaning of their own. We&amp;nbsp; reply you are wrong there ; the words are used for action and the sentence, being composed of the words which you admit to have a meaning, has necessarily a meaning.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus we have proved through logical reasoning that Words are eternal. Objector further raises other objection against Vedas. Such as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Objection 1:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the one party hold that the Vedas are modern being called after human names. (Sutra 27)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The objecter says that I accept that a word is eternally related to its sense and further admit that when put into a sentence it conveys a sense ; &lt;strong&gt;but where is the authority of the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt; They are of human origin being called after human names. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Objection 2:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And by seeing transitory things (in them). (Sutra 28)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The objector further develops his argument and says that &lt;strong&gt;the names of the human beings are mentioned in the Vedas and so they are the works after the birth and death of those human beings.&lt;/strong&gt; So they are human products. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reply to Objection 1:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the other hand the priority of the word is already spoken of. (Sutra 29)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;We have already established the eternity of the word ; so every word whether human or divine is eternal. The objection is therefore groundless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reply to Objection 2:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The name is on account of the reason explaining them. (Sutra 30)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Your argument that the Vedas are of human origin because they are called after human beings is untenable ; they are called after human names, &lt;strong&gt;because those great sages were first to expound them&lt;/strong&gt; and so the different branches of the Vedas were called after those sages in their honour. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually Purva Mimamsa Sutra goes very long reasoning after these sutras to explain each and every objection raised against Vedas. However I think the above arguments are sufficient to establish eternity of Vedas:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus the process of establishing Eternity of Vedas goes by following process:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;1) First we establish eternity of Words.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2) We know that Vedas are words and sounds. So as we proved Eternity of words in point 1. Thus Vedas are eternal.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;3) We explain human names, transistory things which may seem to make Veda time subjective.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;4) Thus finally we establish Vedas are Eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-26T13:59:00.343" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T13:59:00.343" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14934" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14935" CreationDate="2016-09-15T06:52:52.587" Score="7" ViewCount="1495" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism Cows are considered holy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Afflicting them with pain is considered as one of the gravest possible offences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is stated in Scriptures that cows are the best among animals,swan the best among birds and sweet the best among tastes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchagavya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchagavya&lt;/a&gt; is the mixture of five things obtained from a cow viz:&#xA;1)Dung(gomaya).&#xA;2)Urine(gomutra)&#xA;3)Milk&#xA;4)Curd&#xA;&amp;amp; 5)Ghee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from having ayurvedic significance the mixture is considered holy in Sanatana Dharma and is used for Abhisekhams of God's idols including the Shiva Lingam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Five products derived from a Cow viz. Gomoothra (cow urine), Gomaya&#xA;  (cow-dung), Goksheera (cow milk), Godadhi (cow-curd), and Goghrutha&#xA;  (cow ghee). Mixture of these five ingredients is known as Panchagavya.&#xA;  Since time immemorial Panchagavya is used in all the traditional Hindu&#xA;  rituals; considered as highly sacred and believed to provide spiritual&#xA;  purification. It is also used in Hindu families for purification of&#xA;  self as well as sprinkled across the house after asoucha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhargavasarma.blogspot.in/2012/07/symbolism-significance-of-number-five.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question-Why &quot;Panchagavya&quot; is considered holy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-15T07:11:15.613" LastActivityDate="2023-12-09T12:25:16.927" Title="Why &quot;Panchagavya&quot; is considered holy in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|cows|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14935" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14934" CreationDate="2016-09-15T06:52:52.587" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason is given in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/13Parashara_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parashara Smriti&lt;/a&gt; Chapter 11,Sloka 38 :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmakurcho dahetsarvam Pradiptaagniribendhanam|| Pavitram Trishu Lokeshu Devata Bhiradhistitham||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;God Varuna is in the urine of the cow,Agni in cow dung,Vayu in curd,Moon God in curd and Sun God in the Ghee.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cy4RB.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cy4RB.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-15T13:04:26.027" LastActivityDate="2016-09-15T13:04:26.027" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14937" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9188" CreationDate="2016-09-15T09:24:09.203" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama did not know about his divinity. But this doesn't make him less divine. He is God in a human frame. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Some of instances&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When he meets bharadwaj muni during his vanvas - sage bharadwaj prays&#xA;to him saying he is master ans superior of all beings.Lord ram&#xA;replies with folded hands that o great sage i only know that i am son&#xA;of dasratha and am here to fulfill my duties.else i know nothing.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When lord viswamitra praises him for killing demoness tadka and&#xA;liberating ahilya quoting that no normal being could have&#xA;accomplished this feat - sri ram politely neglects this and says its&#xA;all ur blessing guru viswamitra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When garud dev emancipates sri ram and laxman from nagpaash of&#xA;meghnad he prays to lord ram that its his duty to serve him and there&#xA;relation of sevak swami has existed for countless yugas. Hearing this&#xA;sri ram asks ignorantly about what relation it is and i have never&#xA;seen you before.Hearing this sri garud dev as quotes in&#xA;ramcharitmanas replies &quot; jab nij dham laut prabhu aihon..sevak ko&#xA;prabhu parichay paihon...kaah puchat ho parichay swami...tum sab&#xA;janat antaryami&quot;. This explains that although lord ram was divine and&#xA;almighty but in his manujroop he appeared to be ignorant and acted in&#xA;humanly ways.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When after killing ravana all divas praise him he politely prays to all of them ignoring his superhuman status.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Last instance is when lord bramha sends yamraj to inform lord ram&#xA;that all deeds which he had to furnish on earth are done and its time&#xA;for his return...he agains partially acts in an ignorant manner.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence we can say that lord ram acted in human ways and never showed any of his almighty forms or divine acts like lord krishna during his lifetime.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="7385" LastEditDate="2016-09-16T04:10:45.277" LastActivityDate="2016-09-16T04:10:45.277" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14939" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14185" CreationDate="2016-09-15T09:43:19.293" Score="3" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Visit his temple on every Monday with a clean mind and body to pray.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Recite &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahamrityunjaya_Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Maha Mrutunjay manthr&lt;/a&gt; for as many times as possible. This is&#xA;the spell to overcome fatal diseases and untimely death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Apply a tilak of vibudhi or basm on the forehead during the temple&#xA;visit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Keep chanting lord as “Om Namah Shivaya” continuously in your route&#xA;to temple and back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Perform worship as abhisekam to shiva linga by bhasma, water&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Always worship lord Ganesha before praying to lord Shiva. He is&#xA;supposed to remove any obstacles in the course of prayer and&#xA;blessings thereon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It will be a good sign to light a deepa or jyoti as it is prayer to&#xA;lord shakti the other form of goddess parvathi the wife of lord&#xA;shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If possible offer jilledu flowers (Madar Tree,&#xA;Gigantic-Swallow-Wort, Mudar, Aak) for shiva puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If possible visit any one of the jyotirlingams near your place if in&#xA;India. Like Varanasi, srisailam, nashik, Ujjain etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the prayer is on Monday carry some prasad to temple. If possible distribute to the people there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maha Mrutunjay manthr&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Om Tryambakam yajamahe sugandhim pushhtivardhanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Urvarukamiva bandhanan mrityor mukshiya maamritath.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You can keep Shiva Linga at home but you must follow some rules to keep Shiva Linga in your house.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Get up early in the morning take bath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do a regular prayer to shiva lingam at home during the early morning and also evenings everyday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wash the shiv linga and apply vibhuti or bhasm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Light a deepa,  Incense sticks, also known as agarbathi can be light besides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Recite “namah shiva” few times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On Mondays especially offer milk or any sweet made with milk to the lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-15T09:43:19.293" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14940" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12392" CreationDate="2016-09-15T11:07:20.523" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The bridegroom/husband is parameshwar for the bride/wife. The husband is the supreme Lord for the wife. The Hindu traditional stri-dharma husband is GOD, as followed by Sita, Nalayini, Savitri,Anasuya, Ahalya ....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the Hindu marriage rituals is Kanyaa Daanam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Mahavishnu swarupasya varasya etham asanam&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Mahavishnu rupa vara swaghtam, ethamthey pathyam&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saiva Siddhanta postulates the existence of three ultimate entities of&#xA;  realities.  These are Pati or God; Pasu or Soul, Pasam or the bondage&#xA;  of souls.  These three are eternal and have neither beginning nor end.&#xA;  Pati or God is in its nature spiritual in form and is Almighty,&#xA;  All-merciful, Omnipresent, just and perfect and all love and ever&#xA;  blissful.  He is beyond the approach of Pasam and He is the&#xA;  fountainhead of eternal happiness when there is on return, when once&#xA;  reached.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.geocities.ws/shivaperuman/sadashivamudaliar.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-15T11:07:20.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14941" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14946" CreationDate="2016-09-15T14:09:40.767" Score="6" ViewCount="207" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which Puranas or scriptures contain the śloka &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुराणं सर्व शास्त्राणां प्रथमं ब्रह्मणा स्मृतम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अनन्तरं च वक्त्रेभ्यो वेदास्तस्य विनिर्गताः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;purāṇaṃ sarva śāstrāṇāṃ prathamaṃ brahmaṇā smṛtam ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;anantaraṃ ca vaktrebhyo vedāstasya vinirgatāḥ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning is &quot;Among all shastras Puranas are the first to be remembered by Brahmā. Later Vedas came out of his mouth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-09-15T18:47:05.010" Title="Which Puranas or scriptures contain the sloka purāṇaṃ sarva śāstrāṇāṃ" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14942" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-15T14:55:29.283" Score="2" ViewCount="308" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that Brahmasutras were given Vyasa Maharshi. But I also heard that Brahma Sutras were in the original only 8 given by Vishnu to Brahma and later were expanded to 1008. Also it is said that Brahma Sutras were secretly hidden in Bhagavatam also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the origin of this story. Which scripture or Purana contains it? What is the original number?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2018-04-28T16:38:55.027" Title="What is the origin of Brahma Sutras?" Tags="|puranas|bhagavata-purana|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14943" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14944" CreationDate="2016-09-15T15:49:30.387" Score="5" ViewCount="831" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Brahmastra and Brahmasira astra, were weapons, which existed during the ancient era{of Ramayana and Mahabharata}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ancient Sanskrit writings,it is mentioned that these weapons were created by God Brahma, the Creator.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that God Brahma created these weapons for the purpose of upholding Dharma{Morality} and Satya{Truth}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is known that, Arjuna, one of the greatest warriors of the Mahabharata epic, had the Brahmasira Astra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did Arjuna get the Brahmasira astra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastActivityDate="2016-11-02T20:02:26.423" Title="How did Arjuna get the Brahmasira astra?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14944" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14943" CreationDate="2016-09-15T15:52:17.033" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna got the Brahmasira weapon from his Preceptor, Dronacharya.The Brahmasira weapon, along with the methods of hurling and recalling it, was given by Dronacharya to Arjuna, after he had saved Dronacharya’s life from a strong alligator, which had seized Dronacharya's leg, when he was bathing in the sacred river Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The description is as under:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some time after, O bull of Bharata's race, Drona, accompanied by all of his pupils, went to the bank of the Ganga to bathe in that sacred stream. And when Drona had plunged into the stream, a strong alligator, sent as it were, by Death himself seized him by the thigh. And though himself quite capable, Drona in a seeming hurry asked his pupil to rescue him. And he said, 'O, kill this monster and rescue me.' Contemporaneously with this speech, Vibhatsu (Arjuna) struck the monster within the water with five sharp arrows irresistible in their course, while the other pupils stood confounded, each at his place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Bharadwaja then addressed the illustrious and mighty car-warrior Arjuna and said, 'Accept, O thou of mighty arms, this very superior and irresistible weapon called Brahmasira with the methods of hurling and recalling it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou must not, however, ever use it against any human foe, for if hurled at any foe endued with inferior energy, it might burn the whole universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is said, O child, that this weapon hath not a peer in the three worlds. Keep it, therefore, with great care, and listen to what I say. If ever, O hero, any foe, not human, contendeth against thee thou mayst then employ it against him for compassing his death in battle.' Pledging himself to do what he was bid, Vibhatsu then, with joined hands, received that great weapon&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference-Mahabharata Book 1:Adi Parva, Sambhava Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference link:- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01136.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01136.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-02T20:02:26.423" LastActivityDate="2016-11-02T20:02:26.423" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14945" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-15T16:08:05.080" Score="12" ViewCount="2352" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why are Apsaras frequently sent to distract a sage from his ascetic practices? This theme seems to appear over and over again in many Puranic stories. Is there any significance attached to this theme or is it just part of the stories?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-10-10T17:52:23.883" LastActivityDate="2018-10-10T19:09:55.470" Title="Why are Apsaras always sent to distract sages?" Tags="|indra|rishi|symbolism|apsaras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14946" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14941" CreationDate="2016-09-15T18:47:05.010" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-53/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matsya Purana Chapter 53&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मत्स्य उवाच -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पुराणं सर्व शास्त्राणां प्रथमं ब्रह्मणा स्मृतम् ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अनन्तरं च वक्त्रेभ्यो वेदास्तस्य विनिर्गताः ॥  (53.3)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Matsya said -&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmā remembered in the beginning first the Purāṇās among all&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;śāstras. Afterwards Brahmā uttered the four vedas out of his mouth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-03/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matsya Purana Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पुराणं सर्व शास्त्राणां प्रथमं ब्रह्मणा स्मृतम् ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नित्यं शब्दमयं पुण्यं शतकोटिप्रविस्तरम् ॥ (3.3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Before the creation of all the śāstras, Brahmā remembered the Purāṇās&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;which are ever lasting, full of śabda (meaning veda or essence of&#xA;vedas), auspicious comprised of hundred crores of ślokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अनन्तरं च वक्त्रेभ्यो वेदास्तस्य विनिःसृताः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मीमांसा न्यायविद्याश्च प्रमाणाष्टक संयुताः ॥ (3.4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thereafter vedas emerged out of Brahmā's mouth&lt;/strong&gt; along with their angās&#xA;mīmāṁsa and nyāya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/brahmanda-mahapuranam/vol-i/chapter-01/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmanda Purana Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वक्ष्यामि तान्पुरस्तात्तु विस्तरेण यथा क्रमम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रथमं सर्व शास्त्राणां पुराणं ब्रह्मणा स्मृतम् ॥ (1.40)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Suta says) I shall narrate them in detail later on and in the proper&#xA;order. &lt;strong&gt;At first among all śāstras the purāṇās were remembered or heard&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;by Brahmā.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अनन्तरं च वक्त्रेभ्यो वेदास्तस्य विनिःसृताः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अंगानि धर्मशास्त्रं च व्रतानि नियमास्तथा ॥  (1.41)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then the vedas came out of his mouth&lt;/strong&gt;. Similarly the vedāngās,&#xA;Dharmaśāstras, vratā and holy observances also followed them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-15T18:47:05.010" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14947" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1962" CreationDate="2016-09-15T19:34:56.233" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, all mountains did have wings in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krita Yuga&lt;/a&gt;. Hanumān, en route to Lanka over the seas in search of Sita, encounters the Maināka mountain in its human form standing on its own peak, and that is when Maināka introduces himself to Hanumān as the only mountain currently left with its wings still intact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vālmiki &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga1/sundarasans1.htm#Verse123&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;narrates&lt;/a&gt; the following in Sundara Kanda, Sarga 1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O son! Earlier in the Krita yuga, mountains had wings.&lt;/strong&gt; With speed equal to that of Garuda and Vayu, they went in all directions. [5-1-123]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After that when those mountains were thus flying freely, Devas and living creatures together with sages obtained fear in the doubt that those mountains might fall down. [5-1-124]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the angry Devendra who performed a hundred Asvamedha rituals, cut off the wings of thousands of mountains by his weapon vajra then and there. [5-1-125]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Devendra angrily reached me with raised vajra. Then I was thrown away immediately by the great Vayu. [5-1-126]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O best among vanaras! With saved full wings, being thrown down into this salt ocean, I have been protected by your father. [5-1-127]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O chief among vanaras! Vayu is thus indeed respectable to me. For that reason I am respecting you. My this relationship with you has great virtues. [5-1-128]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As to your suggestion that the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanka&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lanka&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in the Vālmiki Rāmāyaṇa is same as the present day &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Lanka&lt;/a&gt;, there's a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8991/2995&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; on that. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-09-15T19:34:56.233" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14948" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14942" CreationDate="2016-09-16T05:02:15.940" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his translation of the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Vireswarananda says in his &lt;em&gt;Introduction&lt;/em&gt; the following in regards to their origin (available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62756.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62756.html&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Brahma-Sutras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Upanishads do not contain any ready-made consistent system of thought. At first sight they seem to be full of contradictions. Hence arose the necessity of systematizing the thought of the Upanishads. Bâdârayana, to whom the authorship of the Brahma-Sutras or Vedânta-Sutras is ascribed, is not the only one who had tried to systematize the philosophy of the Upanishads. From the Brahma-Sutras itself we find that there were other schools of Vedânta which had their own following. We find the names of Audulomi, Kâsakristna, Bâdari, Jaimini, Kârshnâjini, Âsmarathya and others mentioned. All this shows that Bâdarâyana’s Sutras do not constitute the only systematic work in the Vedânta school, though probably the last and best. All the sects of India now hold this work to be the great authority and every new sect starts with a fresh commentary on it —without which no sect can be founded in this country.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Author and Date of the Sutras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;About Bâdârayana, the author of the Sutras, very little is known to-day. Tradition, however, identifies him with Vyâsa, the author of the Gita and the Mahâbhârata. Sankara, however, in his commentaries refers to Vyâsa as the author of the Mahâbhârata, and the author of the Sutras he refers to as Bâdarâyana. Perhaps to him these two personalities were different. His followers, Vâchaspati, Ânandagiri and others identify Vyâsa and Bâdarâyana, while Râmânuja and other commentators on the Sutras attribute it to Vyâsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Deussen infers from the cross references in the works of Jaimini and Bâdarâyana that they may have been combined by a later editor into one work, and provided with the cross references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This combined work, he says, was commented upon by Upavarsha op whose work the commentaries of Sahara on the Purva Mimâmsâ and Sankara on the Uttara Mimâmsâ rest. Sankara’s commentary on 3.3.53 gives support to this last view and it also explains the popular idea that the two Mimâmsâs form one Sâstra. This combined work might well have been arranged by Vyâsa, the author of the Mahâbhârata. Or it may be that he had written them himself according to the views that were traditionally handed down as Bâdarâyana’s. This latter view easily accounts for the reference to Bâdarâyana by name in the Sutras. That such a thing was not uncommon in ancient India is established by Cole-brook 011 the authority of Indian commentators of Manu and Yâjnavalkya.[2] Max Müller also says that Bâdarâyana and other similar names are simply eponymous heroes of different philosophies.[2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In support of the view that the two persons are one it can be pointed out that there existed in the time of Panini Sutras known as Bhikshu-Sutras which are identified by Vâchaspati with the Vedânta-Sutras. The subject-matter of the Vedânta-Sutras being Brahman, the knowledge of which is pre-eminently meant for Sannyâsins, it might well be called Bhikshu-Sutras. Pânini in his Sutras ascribes these Bhikshu-Sutras to Pârâsarya, the son of Parâsara, i.e. Veda-Vyâsa, who was also called Bâdarâyana as he had his Âshrama at Badari in the Himalayas. That the Vedânta-Sutras and Purva Mimâmsâ-Sutras must have existed before Pânini can also be inferred from the commentary on both of them by Upavarslia who is said to be the Guru of Pânini in the Kathâ-saïit-sâgar, though we must admit it cannot be conclusively proved that the two Upavarshas are one and the same person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The identity of the Vedânta-Sutras and the Bhikshu-Sutras would no doubt fix the date of the Sutras very early, before Buddha, and a question may arise how such an early work could have referred to various other schools of philosophy of a much later date and refuted them. In this connection we must not forget that the author of the Sutras does not refer to any founder of the different schools by name. He even does not use the technical terms of the different schools as they are known to us to-day. During that great philosophical ferment which followed at the close of the Upanishadic period various metaphysical views were held which later developed in definite channels. Therefore the fact that Bâdarâyana is acquainted with certain systems of thought which later came to be associated with certain names does not show that Bâdarâyana was later than these persons. These later names were by no means the original founders of these systems of thought, but only gave definite shape to some particular thought that was found in that mass of philosophical speculations which existed in that period. Bâdarâyana could anticipate even the Buddhistic and Jaina schools, for Buddha and Mahâvira also were not the founders of any altogether new schools of philosophy but imbibed much of the thought current in the country at the time. There was no revolutionary departure in their philosophy, but it was their great personality that shaped the history of India for centuries. As regards Jaina thought we know definitely that it existed from even before the tirre of Parswanâth (8th or 9th century B. C.). In fact all these systems must have belonged to the same period of philosophical ferment which preceded the rise of Buddhism. Thus a writer of the Vedânta-Sutras before Buddha may well be acquainted with the different schools of philosophy refuted in the Tarkapâda of that book, though they might not have existed in the form in which we know them to-day or in the form in which they have been refuted by Sankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Moreover, that the Vedânta-Sutras were known to exist before Buddha can also be made out from the Gitâ. The date of the Gitâ and the original Mahâbhârata, of which the Gitâ is a part, can be fixed before the time of Buddha. Both of them are pre-Buddhistic, for they contain no reference to Buddha and Buddhism. Quotations from both are found in Bodhayana who belongs to 400 B.C. The language of the Gitâ also seems to belong to a period before Pânini. He is also conversant with the epic characters. So we can well say that the Gitâ and the Mahâbhârata were known before Buddha. Now we find a clear reference to the Brahma-Sutras, in Gitâ 13.4), where the word ‘Brahma-Sutra-padaih’ occurs. This is a definite reference to the Vedanta-Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The full text runs as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“This has been sung by the Rishis in various ways and in different metres and definitely and logically by the words of the Brahma-Sutras.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tilak argues in his Gitâ-Rahasya that the first half refers to teachings which are disconnected and unsystematic and therefore refers to the Upanishads, while the later half to something definite and logical—a difference that is clearly brought out by this stanza and therefore refers to the systematized thought in the Vedânta-Sutras. Max Müller too is of opinion that the Vedânta-Sutras belong to an earlier period than the Gitâ[3] and in the text just quoted he finds a clear reference to the recognized title of the Vedânta or Brahma-Sutras.[4] Indian commentators on the Gitâ like Râmânuja, Madhwa and others identify the Vedânta-Sutras in this passage of the Gitâ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But if the Vedânta-Sutras be of an earlier date than the Gitâ, how could it contain references to the Gitâ? In Sutras 2. 3. 45 and 4. 2. 21 all the commentators quote the same text of the Gitâ, and there seems to be no doubt that they are right. These cross references show that the author of the Gitâ had a hand in the present recension of the Sutras. This is also made clear by the rejection of the fourfold Vyuha of the Bhâgavatas both by the Gitâ and the Sutras and the great predominance given to the Sânkhya school in both. The Gitâ accepts the Sânkhya view of creation but modifies it to some extent and makes the Pradhâna subservient to the Supreme Brahman which is non-dual. In the Vedânta-Sutras also the author refutes the dualism of the Sânkhyas. Otherwise he has no objection to accepting the Pradhâna or Prakriti as a principle dependant on the Supreme Lord (vide 1. 4. 2-3). Sankara in his Bhâshya on these Sutras makes this quite clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From what has been said above we find that there are strong grounds for believing that the Vedânta-Sutras must have existed before Buddha and that if Bâdarâyana and Veda-Vyâsa are not one and the same person as tradition holds, the latter must have had a hand in the present recension of the Sutras, though it is very difficult to say to what extent— whether it was by way of merely revising the original Sutras of Bâdarâyana or writing them down in toto after the teachings of Bâdarâyana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-04-28T16:38:55.027" LastActivityDate="2018-04-28T16:38:55.027" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14949" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15076" CreationDate="2016-09-16T07:00:21.260" Score="7" ViewCount="162" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wish to know about river worship in Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do Hindu scriptures really say about river worship?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10049" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-16T07:54:16.740" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T06:56:03.303" Title="What do Hindu scriptures say about river worship?" Tags="|scripture|belief|rivers|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14950" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-16T07:44:08.867" Score="3" ViewCount="751" Body="&lt;p&gt;If Rama was an avatar of Lord Vishnu, why did he need Lakshmana around him all the time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-16T15:35:45.973" LastActivityDate="2016-09-16T15:35:45.973" Title="Why did Lord Rama need Lakshmana around all the time?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|rama|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14951" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-16T08:09:13.103" Score="2" ViewCount="1326" Body="&lt;p&gt;It been mentioned panchangas that moola nakshatra effects fatehr in law, how true is this? can anyone who has knowledge on the topic guide me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7684" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-09-16T08:22:39.073" LastActivityDate="2023-02-22T16:55:02.790" Title="How true is the myth of Moola nakshtara effecting Father in law?" Tags="|astrology|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14952" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14950" CreationDate="2016-09-16T08:09:20.550" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu is often depicted as resting on Shesha. Shesha is also considered a servant as well as a manifestation of Vishnu. He is said to have descended to Earth in two human forms or avatars: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GFDLe.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GFDLe.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmana, brother of Rama;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Balarama, brother of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sesha is always with Lord Vishnu so When Vishnu took avtar in the form of Lord Rama Sesha took avtar in the form of Lakshman to protect and serve Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference Link &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.templepurohit.com/lakshman-balrama-avatars-of-sheshnag/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.templepurohit.com/lakshman-balrama-avatars-of-sheshnag/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10049" LastEditorUserId="10049" LastEditDate="2016-09-16T08:15:39.453" LastActivityDate="2016-09-16T08:15:39.453" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14953" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14954" CreationDate="2016-09-16T08:22:22.910" Score="18" ViewCount="4361" Body="&lt;p&gt;Our Puranas and other Mahagranthas like Ramayana &amp;amp; the Mahabharata contains numerous examples of curses(saap)(&amp;amp; boons ofcourse) and how their effectiveness shape future events.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata itself we find many instances viz;Karna being cursed by his Guru Parasurama,Sri Krishna cursing Aswatthama ,Sri Krishna in turn getting cursed by Gandhari.And, all those curses fructified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that was Dwapara.What about Kali Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are curses equally effective in this age as well?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-16T08:37:18.597" LastActivityDate="2019-08-12T10:53:42.723" Title="Are curses(saapa) effective in Kali Yuga?" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|smriti|parashara|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14954" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14953" CreationDate="2016-09-16T08:22:22.910" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/13Parashara_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parashara Smriti&lt;/a&gt;, curses(saapa) are effective in Kali Yuga as well very much like the previous 3 Yugas.Only difference being in the time after which the curses take effect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,In Krita curses effect immediately,in Treta after 10 days,in Dwapara after a month whereas in Kali it takes &lt;strong&gt;1 year&lt;/strong&gt; for the curse to  take effect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The exact Sloka which answers our query is Chapter 1,Sloka 27:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krite Tatkaalikah saapah Tretaayaam Dasamirdinaih|| Dwapare Chaikamasena Kallou Sambatsarenatu||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A curse in Krita takes effect immediately,in Treta it does so in 10 days time,in Dwapara after 1 month and in Kali it takes effect after 1&#xA;  year.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sJ04v.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sJ04v.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-09-16T08:22:22.910" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14955" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-16T09:03:07.840" Score="1" ViewCount="219" Body="&lt;p&gt;A person who attained pretha janma may come in dream and disturb. What is the Pariharam for that and in which purana it has been mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-14T18:08:00.223" LastActivityDate="2017-02-14T18:08:00.223" Title="Dosha Pariharam for pretha janma" Tags="|puranas|death|ghosts|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14956" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14967" CreationDate="2016-09-16T09:18:37.933" Score="8" ViewCount="1796" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 24 types of Salagramams available for Lord Vishnu. Shank, Chakra, Gadha and Lotus ---- in which order it should come for these 24 types of salagramams and in which purana it is mentioned? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-08-17T11:27:17.360" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T15:08:34.363" Title="What is the respective arrangement of Lord Vishnu's weapons in 24 Salagramas?" Tags="|vishnu|weapon|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14957" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-16T09:23:48.603" Score="1" ViewCount="51" Body="&lt;p&gt;When a person is alive what sort of dhana he has to give and to whom? What are the virushasana benefits he will attain? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-16T09:23:48.603" Title="Giving Dhana and virushasanna benefits" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14958" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15034" CreationDate="2016-09-16T09:30:08.323" Score="7" ViewCount="1723" Body="&lt;p&gt;How can a man completely get relieved of curses and sins he committed during his earthly life? Please quote from Hindu scriptures instead of vague answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-23T01:32:36.777" LastActivityDate="2022-04-04T02:27:04.757" Title="How can a man completely get relieved of curses and sins?" Tags="|scripture|sin|prayaschitta|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14959" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14964" CreationDate="2016-09-16T09:45:10.350" Score="4" ViewCount="2827" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the types of Dana one should give during his lifetime, to whom and at what circumstances?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-08-12T13:51:46.933" LastActivityDate="2019-08-12T13:51:46.933" Title="Types of Dana (दान) a person should give during his lifetime" Tags="|daana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14960" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-16T09:55:00.133" Score="1" ViewCount="81" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the consequences if a person kills a Brahmin? What sort of difficulties the killer will have and what will be the after effect of Brahmin atma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-09-16T12:56:35.740" LastActivityDate="2016-09-16T12:56:35.740" Title="What consequences will a person face if he kills a Brahmin?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|brahmins|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14961" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-16T10:03:23.243" Score="4" ViewCount="521" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the reasons for attaining for preta janma [various are there] and how to get relieved from that? viz  what are the prayaschittas to be done for that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-09-16T11:18:27.027" LastActivityDate="2017-08-22T11:22:51.820" Title="Reasons for attaining preta janma and how to get relieved" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14962" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-16T10:22:09.937" Score="1" ViewCount="743" Body="&lt;p&gt;What sort of form does a person attain when in pretha janma dosha? What sort of actions he will do to his family? How does he look like and will he cause difficulties to his family? On the contrary what sort of persons will not be disturbed by the pretha janma dosha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-19T11:02:32.090" LastActivityDate="2017-03-19T12:35:08.387" Title="Difficulties one undergo when he is in pretha janma dosha" Tags="|puranas|birth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14964" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14959" CreationDate="2016-09-16T10:53:57.820" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Danas are of four types:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Without expecting returns - Nithya Dana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;To get rid of evils -  Naimithika Dana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;To attain success, wealth and a son - Kamya Daana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;To satisfy God - Vimala dana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The recipients must be orthodox Brahmins for merit to be attained, because only they are ordained to receive donations (because they recite Vedas daily which has power to repel sins that are inevitably attached to any donation)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source--Garuda Purana  Chapter III.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T01:05:09.483" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T01:05:09.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14967" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14956" CreationDate="2016-09-16T12:30:53.463" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shaligrama Stones are used for iconic representation of Lord Vishnu. Shaligrama Stones are Swayambhu (they don't need &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prana_Pratishtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prana Prathista&lt;/a&gt;) just like how Banalingas are Swayambhu stones of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Shaligrama stones have marks of four weapons (Shankha, Chakra, Gada and Padma) of Lord Vishnu. As there are 4 weapons, 4! arrangements are possible and each arrangments has a specific name of Lord Vishnu. The 24 arrangements and respective name is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20541/4/Chapter%202_81-160p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 45 of Garuda Purana.&lt;/a&gt; (Pg No- 142)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaligram#Configurations&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;arrangements&lt;/a&gt; and respective name of Lord Vishnu are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shanka, chakra, gada and padma - Keshava&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Padma, gada, chakra, shanka - Narayana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Chakra, shanka, padma and gada - Madhava&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gada, padma, shanka and chakra - Govinda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Padma, shanka, chakra and gada – Vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shanka, padma, gada, chakra – Madusudhana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gada, chakra, shanka and padma – Trivikrama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Chakra, gada, padma, shanka - Vamana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Chakra, padma, shanka, gada - Shridhara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Padma, gada, shanka, charka - Hrishikesh&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Padma, chakra,gada, shanka - Padmanabha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shanka, chakra, gada, padma - Damodara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Chakra, shanka, gada, padma - Sankarshana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shanka, chakra, padma, gada - Pradyumna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gada, shanka, padma, charka - Aniruddha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Padma, shanka, gada, chakra - Purushottama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gadha, shanka, chakra, padma - Adokshaja&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Padma, gada, shanka, chakra - Narasimha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Padma, chakra, shanka, gada – Achyuta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shanka, chakra, padma, gada - Janardana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gada, padma, shanka, chakra - Upendra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Chakra, padma, gada and shanka – Hari&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gada, padma, chakra and shanka - Krishna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shanka, chakra, padma, gada – Vasudeva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-08-17T15:08:34.363" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T15:08:34.363" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14968" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14953" CreationDate="2016-09-16T14:54:54.177" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Logically curse works if the person receiving the curse is sensitive enough and has a fear factor in them. According to me a curse is to make the person who is receiving it realise their mistake, if they are insensitive like we are nowadays, it may have very less effect or no effect at all. &#xA;A question will arise on what will happen if someone curse non humans like earth or a place? That also I believe has some human factor in it to work. I could understand that the person giving curse if they are at a certain level of mind could make it work despite the fact that we who receive it could be insensitive, but it is a different level where I couldn't describe and is outside my comprehension for now. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7689" LastActivityDate="2016-09-16T14:54:54.177" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14969" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14970" CreationDate="2016-09-16T16:00:23.790" Score="5" ViewCount="2489" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kriya Yoga is ancient technique of Yoga revived in modern times by immortal yogi &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavatar_Babaji&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahatavar Babaji&lt;/a&gt;. Mahavatar Babaji imparted this knowledge to his disciple &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahiri_Mahasaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Lahari Mahasaya&lt;/a&gt; who in turn imparted this knowledge to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Sri_Yukteswar_Giri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Yukteswara Giri&lt;/a&gt;. Yukteswara Giri taught this Kriya Yoga knowledge to his disciple &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramahansa_Yogananda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Paramahamsa Yoganada&lt;/a&gt; who made it famous through his book &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Autobiography of a Yogi.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's how Paramahamsa Yogananda defines Kriya Yoga in  his Autobiography:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit root of Kriya is kri, to do, to act and react; the same&#xA;  root is found in the word karma, the natural principle of cause and&#xA;  effect. &lt;strong&gt;Kriya Yoga is thus &quot;union (yoga) with the Infinite through a&#xA;  certain action or rite.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; A yogi who faithfully follows its technique&#xA;  is gradually freed from karma or the universal chain of causation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Yoga techiques involves phyisical techniques such as Pranayama with Mudras. But Vaishnava traditions involve more &lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt; (sincere devotion) towards Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any method to practice Kriya Yoga from Vaishnava perspective?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-09-17T06:05:58.913" LastActivityDate="2022-12-13T09:41:29.963" Title="How to practice Kriya Yoga from Vaishnava perspective?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|vaishnavism|yoga|kriyayoga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14970" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14969" CreationDate="2016-09-16T17:05:04.303" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kriya Yoga is not alien to Vaishnavism. Jagatguru referred Kriya Yoga (Pranayama) when expounding Bhagavadgita to Arjuna. Bhagavadgita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-4-29/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse 4.29&lt;/a&gt; talks about Pranayama which is part of Kriya Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;apāne juhvati prāṇaḿ&lt;br&gt; prāṇe ’pānaḿ tathāpare&lt;br&gt;&#xA;prāṇāpāna-gatī ruddhvā&lt;br&gt; prāṇāyāma-parāyaṇāḥ&lt;br&gt; apare&#xA;niyatāhārāḥ&lt;br&gt; prāṇān prāṇeṣu juhvati&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Still others, who are inclined to the process of breath restraint to&#xA;remain in trance, practice by offering the movement of the outgoing&#xA;breath into the incoming, and the incoming breath into the outgoing,&#xA;and thus at last remain in trance, stopping all breathing. Others,&#xA;curtailing the eating process, offer the outgoing breath into itself&#xA;as a sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The procedure of Kriya Yoga is explained in detail in chapters 26 and 28, 29 of Vasudeva Mahatmya- Vaishnava Khanda of Skanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Narayana Rishi explains the Kriya Yoga to Narada as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Näräyana said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I. After sipping water and practising breath-control (with Oh bhür&#xA;etc.) and then with a composed mind, one should pay obeisance to one's&#xA;desired deities, and proclaim the time (tithi etc.) and place (of&#xA;worship).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2 After taking the solemn vow (the formal Sankalpa), &amp;quot;I shall  perform&#xA;the worship of Väsudeva for the accomplishment of Ekänta  Dharma,&amp;quot; one&#xA;should then perform the procedural Nyäsa (i.e. assignment of the&#xA;various parts of the body to deities accompanied with  prayers or&#xA;Mantras and corresponding gesticulations).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this, proper mantras should be recited based on Varna by imagining the resplendent Krishna and Radha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After sprinkling the articles of worship and one's own person  with the water from the (worshiped) pitcher and after worshiping the  conch&#xA;and the bell, one should perform the purification of the bhütas  (i.e.&#xA;elements constituting the body).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After burning the (internal) sinful body with internal fire and  wind, one remaining stable (in one's posture), should reflect upon the&#xA;identity of one's pure self with Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then performing breath-control, one should, with concentrated  mind, meditate upon Lord of the form of imperishable  Brahman in one's&#xA;heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The lotus (i.e. the Yogic plexus) at the navel is in a drooping  position like the flower of Kadali (plantain tree). Reflecting upon&#xA;the  vital wind called Apäna, one should bring about its union with&#xA;the vital  wind called Präna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After bringing it in the hollow stalk of the lotus (the internal&#xA;path through which life breath proceeds upwards, the path of&#xA;Kundalini),  one should pull in the upward direction that 'lotus'&#xA;along with that  (breath). Making a loud sound it goes to the 'heart'&#xA;(known as hrtkamala). It fully blossoms there shiningly expanding in&#xA;the cavity of the heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the mass of light (permeating that 'sky') one should meditate upon quiescent Sri Krishna, the Lord of Rädhikä who is the most&#xA;beautiful and outstanding, by his surpassing superior refulgence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-vii/chapter-62/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; describes in detail forms of Radha and Krishna on whom one should mediate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After worshiping mentally, now devotee should worship Idol of Vishnu with Bhakti. This is similar to normal pooja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After worshiping him mentally with various articles (and services) of worship, the devotee should invoke him and establish (infuse) him&#xA;in the idol of Vishnu by Sthäpana Mudrä (i.e. a certain position of&#xA;fingers practiced in worship to indicate that the deity invoked is&#xA;established in the idol).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then he should invoke the deities constituting him (i.e. his  subordinate deities) by their respective separate Mantras or by their&#xA;names (which itself is a) mantra, and then should establish them well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He should ring (or play upon) some musical instrument like  the bell and others and should make a clapping sound. Presuming that  the&#xA;deity has got up from sleep, he should brush (i.e. imagine to brush)&#xA;the teeth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He should give water mixed with Syämäka (a rice-like corn),  Visnukränta (a plant like Clitoria terntea), Dürvä grass and a lotus&#xA;as Pädya (water for washing the feet) to the Lord. Then in the water&#xA;meant for sipping as Arghya, he should put sandalpaste, rice-grains&#xA;with unbroken ends, flowers, ends of Darbha grass, gingelly seeds,&#xA;mustard seeds, barley seeds. Dürvä grass should be put after filling&#xA;the vessel for Arghya with water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that idol should be smeared with oil, offered Tulsi leaves and some Prasada, which is described in this chapter. After completing the above procedure one should mediate on Radha Krisha  by invoking them into his heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;31&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After meditating on the rest and after taking (permission) given by him reverently by head, one should establish as before the invoked&#xA;Rädhä and Krsna in the lotus of his heart and should send away all the&#xA;Anga-devas to their respective places.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-vii/chapter-61/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; further explains various Mantras of Vishnu on which a devotee should meditate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Narayana Rshi also explains Astanga Yoga, Pranayama and Kundalini Yoga (raising Kundalini through various Chakras by meditating of Keshava) in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-vii/chapter-62/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2019-03-03T19:38:15.470" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14971" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-16T18:55:05.947" Score="3" ViewCount="5788" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I know and I've heard from my Hindu friends that, someone put the fire on tail of Hanuman and he lit the whole island of Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, how did Hanuman's tail catch fire or to be more specific, who put the fire on his tail? And what was the purpose for lighting up the tail?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4061" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-16T19:46:58.283" LastActivityDate="2020-06-02T11:42:23.620" Title="How did Hanuman's tail catch fire?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|ravana|sita|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14972" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14971" CreationDate="2016-09-16T19:45:59.350" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The purpose behind Lord Hanumanas act of burning Lanka -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Hanuman thought that burning the Lanka will bring some small help to Lord Rama in his task of  freeing Devi Sita.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;दुर्गे विनाशिते कर्म भवेत् सुख परिश्रमम् | अल्प यत्नेन कार्ये अस्मिन् मम स्यात् सफलः श्रमः || ५-५४-४&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;durge = (While) the fort; vinaashite = is destroyed;karma = the task; bhavet = will become; sukhaprishramam = bereft of&#xA;  fatigue; alpayatnena = by a small effort; asmin kaarye = in this&#xA;  task; shramaH = the work; syaat = will become; saphalah = fruitful.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;When the fort gets destroyed, the task (of Rama's battle) will be&#xA;  devoid of fatigue. Even with a small effort in this task, the work&#xA;  will become fruitful.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यो हि अयम् मम लान्गूले दीप्यते हव्य वाहनः | अस्य सम्तर्पणम् न्याय्यम् कर्तुम् एभिः गृह उत्तमैः || ५-५४-५&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;nyaayam = It is justified; kartum = to do; samtarpaNam= the act of satiating; asya = to it; ayam = this;haryavaahanaH = fire; yaH&#xA;  diipyate = which is flaring up;mama laaNguule = on my tail; ebhiH =&#xA;  with these;gR^ihottamaH = excellent houses.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;It is justified to satisfy this blazing flame on my tail, by feeding&#xA;  it to the full, with these excellent houses (in the city of Lanka).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The purpose is given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga54/sundara_54_frame.htm&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sandipani.org/hanumanji-burns-lanka.aspx&quot;&gt;This blog&lt;/a&gt;. And what I have heard personally from elders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The story of his burning tail is as follows in brief -:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Hanuman is been captured after he killed some Rakshashas at Ashok&#xA;  Vatika. He then were brought before Ravanas court. There ravana asked&#xA;  some  questions to Lord Hanuman , which Lord Hanuman answers very&#xA;  wisely. After hearing the answers , ravana said &quot; He looks like a very&#xA;  wise and knowladgeble monkey&quot; So in order to punish Lord Hanuman ,&#xA;  ravana orders his rakashasas to put fire to Lord Hanumans tail , and&#xA;  to free him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-09-16T19:45:59.350" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14973" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12392" CreationDate="2016-09-16T21:15:52.930" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;At times scriptures talk in symbolism. However, on a closer look they mostly resolve to the truths of basic nature like being righteous (Dharma) and doing one’s duties whole heartedly (Karma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are two verses from Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhyakanda, Sarga 39. These are beautiful words of advice from grieving Kausalya, Sita’s mother in law to Sita, who has decided to give up life of a princess and go to forest with Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;साध्वीनां हि स्थितानां तु शीले सत्ये श्रुते शमे।&#xA;स्त्रीणां पवित्रं परमं पतिरेको विशिष्यते।।2.39.24।।&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But for those virtuous women whose minds are fixed in chastity, truth,&#xA;  scriptures and stability, the husband occupies a distinguished place&#xA;  and is considered supremely holy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;स त्वया नावमन्तव्यः पुत्रः प्रव्राजितो मम।&#xA;तव दैवतमस्त्वेष निर्धनः सधनोऽपि वा।।2.39.25।।&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You must not underestimate my son in his exile. You must treat him as&#xA;  your god whether he is wealthy or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does that mean for a wife?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a woman who has a virtuous husband, treating him like a god is her Dharma. Having fulfilled her duties towards her husband (and family) will entitle her to same reward as worshipping the Supreme Soul and thus she is worthy of attaining ‘Moksha’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastEditorUserId="7442" LastEditDate="2016-09-16T22:04:41.960" LastActivityDate="2016-09-16T22:04:41.960" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14975" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14971" CreationDate="2016-09-16T23:01:15.350" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is Rāvaṇa who orders his men to light up Hanumān's tail. From Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga53/sundarasans53.htm#Verse1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sundara Kāṇḍa, Sarga 53&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing those words, which were appropriate for that place and time, spoken by that high-souled Vibhishana, his brother, &lt;strong&gt;Ravana spoke the following words&lt;/strong&gt; in reply: &lt;sup&gt;[5-41-1]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;You have spoken well indeed that killing of an envoy is forbidden. Another punishment other than killing needs be certainly meted out to him.&quot; &lt;sup&gt;[5-41-2]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;It is said that a tail is possibly a beloved ornament for the monkeys. Let his tail be burn immediately. Let him go with a burnt tail.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; &lt;sup&gt;[5-41-3]&lt;/sup&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Hanumān successfully locates Sītā in Lanka's Aśoka garden, he tries to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga37/sundarasans37.htm#Verse19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;convince her&lt;/a&gt; to mount on his back so he can take her back to Rāma. But Sītā &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga37/sundarasans37.htm#Verse42&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;rejects&lt;/a&gt; his offer. So to make the best use of his remaining time in Lanka, he plans to have a war rehearsal with Rāvaṇa's army to assess their strength and also meet Rāvaṇa to try and convince him to release Sītā and avoid the imminent war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have seen this black-eyed Seetha. There is only a little that remains to be done by me. Abandoning the three strategies for success viz. sowing dissension, negotiation and bribery, &lt;strong&gt;I have to implement here the fourth strategy viz. open assault.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;sup&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga41/sundarasans41.htm#Verse2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;5-41-2&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then meeting Ravana with his troop of ministers, his army and his followers in battle as well as knowing his designs and strength, I will go back from here happily. &lt;sup&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga41/sundarasans41.htm#Verse9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;5-41-9&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;During his assault, Hanumān kills Rāvaṇa's son Aksha, several grandsons, 80,000 Kinkara-demons and others but finally &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga48/sundarasans48.htm#Verse41&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;succumbs&lt;/a&gt; to Indrajit's &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2942/2995&quot;&gt;Brahmastra&lt;/a&gt; and is captured. Ravana then has a dialogue with Hanuman in which &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga51/sundara_51_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;he introduces himself&lt;/a&gt; and explains the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga51/sundarasans51.htm#Verse39&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;strength of Rāma&lt;/a&gt; and urges him to avoid a full-blown war by immediately &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga51/sundarasans51.htm#Verse21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;releasing Sītā&lt;/a&gt;. Rāvaṇa of course doesn't take his words seriously and orders him killed (he doesn't know that Hanuman had received the boon of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga66/kishkindhasans66.htm#Verse27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chiranjīvi&lt;/a&gt; from Indra). Vibhishana, however, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga52/sundarasans52.htm#Verse5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;advises&lt;/a&gt; Rāvaṇa against it as killing an envoy is forbidden by scriptures. So that is when Rāvaṇa decides to burn Hanumān's tail instead.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Sītā learns of this incident she &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga53/sundarasans53.htm#Verse28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;prays&lt;/a&gt; to Agni-deva (fire god) to cool off Hanumān's burning tail:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If I have done any service to my husband, if I have performed a penance and if I am a faithful wife, please be cool to Hanuma.&quot; &lt;sup&gt;[5-53-28]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If the wise Rama has even a little of kindness to me and if I have still some good fortune remaining to my credit, please be cool to Hanuma.&quot; &lt;sup&gt;[5-53-29]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If that virtuous Rama recognises me as one, who is endowed with a good moral conduct and who is ardently desirous of meeting him, please be cool to Hanuma.&quot; &lt;sup&gt;[5-53-30]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Overcome by anger, Hanumān then sets off entire Lanka on fire with his tail. Reflecting up on his hasty decision he later regrets and even contemplates suicide:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The entire Lanka has been reduced to ashes. No place is seen unburnt in this city. Therefore, Seetha also must have been surely lost. &lt;sup&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga55/sundarasans55.htm#Verse11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;5-55-11&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If this task has been spoiled due to my perverted intelligence, it is appropriate even for me, here and now itself, to give up my life. &lt;sup&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga55/sundarasans55.htm#Verse12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;5-55-12&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Due to culpability of my anger, I have indeed shown this apishness that is famous for instability in the three worlds. &lt;sup&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga55/sundarasans55.htm#Verse15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;5-55-15&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before departing, Hanumān visits Aśoka garden once again to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga56/sundarasans56.htm#Verse1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;confirm&lt;/a&gt; Sītā is safe:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter, having offered his salutation to Seetha, who was present at the foot of Ashoka tree, Hanuma spoke: &quot;Thank heaven! I am seeing you uninjured here!&quot; &lt;sup&gt;[5-56-1]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-09-16T23:01:15.350" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14976" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-17T00:48:48.357" Score="13" ViewCount="4945" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which smṛti or smṛtis (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manu_Smriti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu&lt;/a&gt;, Parāśara, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C4%81j%C3%B1avalkya_Sm%E1%B9%9Bti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yājñavalkya&lt;/a&gt; etc.) are to be followed in Kali-yuga&lt;sup&gt;§&lt;/sup&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Parāśara smṛti supposedly mentions that it is meant for Kali-yuga. Do we have similar statements in other smṛtis about the yuga in which they are to be followed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can we follow multiple smṛtis at the same time, in other words, can we follow a smṛti even after the yuga it is meant for has completed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;§&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/yoga-meditation/science-of-yoga/kali-yuga-end-lies-ahead/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Some people&lt;/a&gt; contest that we are not in Kali-yuga but Dwapara-yuga but for the sake of this question, assume that we are in Kali-yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S: If you just want to state your opinion just leave a comment under the question. Please don't try to answer citing blogs. I'm mainly looking for answers &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/1/2995&quot;&gt;backed by scripture&lt;/a&gt;. Answers can also be opinions of an āchārya or a guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2023-06-04T09:09:01.650" Title="Which smṛtis (dharma śāstras) are to be followed in Kali-yuga?" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|manu-smriti|smriti|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14977" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14976" CreationDate="2016-09-17T05:52:58.677" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Dharma Shastra (the rule book of what to do and what not to do) to be followed in Kali Yuga is Parashara Smriti only &amp;amp; not those of Manu and others. &lt;strong&gt;This is as per the Parashara Smriti .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I don't know if there are any other Scriptures which contradicts with this or not.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/13Parashara_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parashara Smriti&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the nature of age the Laws to be applied (in that age) differ . What applies ,for example,in Krita does not apply in Treta , what applies in Dwapara does not apply in Kali and so on.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chapter 1, Verses 21,22 are given below:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;21&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot; The author of the Veda there is none ; (he) the fourfaced (God), at each succeeding revolution of a Kalpa, recalls to mind the Veda ;&#xA;  and so does Manu remember the law (at each succeeding revolution of a&#xA;  Kalpa).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot; In conformity to the character of the age, the rules of law (suitable) for men differ from age to age. The rules for the Krita&#xA;  differ from the Treta rules ; the Dvapara laws are not identical with&#xA;  the Kali rules.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sloka 24 (same chapter) makes it precise as to which rules to be applied in which age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krite tu Manava Dharmastretayam Gowtamah Smritaha||&lt;br&gt;  Dwapare Sankhalikhitah Kalou Parashara Smritaha||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For Krita Manu's laws apply, Gowtama's for Treta, in Dwapara those written by Sankha and Likhita apply and Prashara Smriti is the one&#xA;  that applies in Kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/phkx9.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/phkx9.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the Smritis are comprised of an &lt;em&gt;Achara&lt;/em&gt; section, which describes how to perform the religious rites, a &lt;em&gt;Vyavahara&lt;/em&gt; section, which describes the civil laws and the &lt;em&gt;Prayaschitta&lt;/em&gt; section, which contains various rules regarding atonement measures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main problem with Parashara Smriti being a standalone Smriti for Kali Yuga is that the text does not have a Vyavahara Kanda at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CBDLn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CBDLn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2019-01-16T07:12:23.660" LastActivityDate="2019-01-16T07:12:23.660" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14978" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14958" CreationDate="2016-09-17T06:18:41.787" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Simple answer is really long time (millions of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time#For_Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kalpas&lt;/a&gt;). Scriptural answer is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भुङ्के हि स्वकृतं कर्म सर्वत्रापि च भारते। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;शुभाशुभं च यत्किचित्स्वकर्मफलभुक्पुमान् ॥१६॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;नाभुक्तं क्षीयते कर्मकल्पकोटिशतैरपि। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;अवश्यमेव भोक्तव्यं कृतं कर्म शुभाशुभम् ॥१७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One gets the result of one's own deeds in the land of Bharata. Whatever good or bad deeds are performed by him, he surely has to face the result.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because &lt;strong&gt;the deeds never vanish even after the lapse of hundreds and crores of kalpas&lt;/strong&gt;, one has to reap the result of the good or bad deeds performed by him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जन्म भोगावशेषे च सर्वेषा कृतकर्मणाम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;अनुरूपं च तेषां वै भारतेऽन्यत्र चैव हि ॥१९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the results of some of the deeds are left out in one birth, he has to face them in the next birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30776/77f_chapter_67.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma-vaivarta-purāṇa, Prakṛti-kāṇḍa, Ch. 37&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also see: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2407/2995&quot;&gt;Is our destiny predetermined? If yes, then why do our actions affect our karma?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T06:18:41.787" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14980" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14988" CreationDate="2016-09-17T09:10:20.450" Score="12" ViewCount="2718" Body="&lt;p&gt;Agni is the vedic God of fire and sacrifice. Agni is prominent in the hymns of the Vedas and particularly the Brahmanas.In the Rig Veda there are over 200 hymns that praise Agni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni is identified with energy and action,and it  is the first emanation and the sacred spark hidden within all beings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The test by fire{Agni Pariksha}, has been mentioned in the Scriptures, which highlights the connection of Agni and sacredness, during  the Vedic period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is learnt that Agni has two important forms viz Jataveda and Kravyada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Briefly explain the Jataveda and Kravyada forms of Agni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2019-11-04T00:40:36.053" LastActivityDate="2019-11-04T00:40:36.053" Title="Jataveda and Kravyada forms of Agni, the vedic God of fire" Tags="|vedas|agni|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14981" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14971" CreationDate="2016-09-17T09:36:36.453" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana was furious that Hanuman had come to Lanka as Rama's messenger.&#xA;He ordered Vibhishana to set Hanuman's tail on fire and take him in a&#xA;procession through the streets of Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Accordingly, Hanuman's tail was tied with a rope and set on fire. As&#xA;Hanuman walked down the streets, people laughed at him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sita begged Agnideva not to hurt Hanuman. Agnideva cooled his flames&#xA;and though Hanuman's tail was still ablaze it did not hurt him.&#xA;Meanwhile, Hanuman decided to have some fun. Shrinking in size he&#xA;quickly shook off the rope. Then leaping from building to building, he&#xA;set them on fire. Soon the entire city of Lanka was burning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fearing that his prank might have hurt Sita, Hanuman rushed to see her&#xA;but was relieved to see her safe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then bidding her farewell, he jumped into the sea and across to Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fairytales/indian_mythology_stories/hanuman_sets_lanka_on_fire.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tasya tat vacanam shrutvaa dashagriivo mahaabalaH |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;desha kaala hitam vaakyam bhraatuH uttamam abraviit ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;samyag uktam hi bhavataa duuta vadhyaa vigarhitaa |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;avashyam tu vadhaat anyaH kriyataam asya nigrahaH ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kapiinaam kila laanguulam iShTam bhavati bhuuShaNam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tat asya diipyataam shiighram tena dagdhena gacchhatu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundara_Kanda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source Sundara Kanda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T09:36:36.453" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14983" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15007" CreationDate="2016-09-17T10:33:04.763" Score="6" ViewCount="27087" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was fasting since from 3 Years, But today one of my friend said that while taking dinner, I should start fast after the sunrise .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know at what time one should start a fast ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2961" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-06-08T06:01:18.663" LastActivityDate="2019-06-08T06:01:18.663" Title="When should I start a fast (upavas)?" Tags="|fasting|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14985" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-17T15:23:45.017" Score="10" ViewCount="2459" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know about the fact the famous sage Vasishta, guru of Rama, was one of the mind-born sons of Brahma.  But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7495/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Vasishta is no longer the son of Brahma.  Currently Vasishta and his brother Agastya are the sons of Mitra god of friendship and Varuna the ocean god, produced by those gods out of attraction to the Apsara Urvashi.  Here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/18/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agastya and Vasiṣṭha Ṛṣis were the common sons of Varuṇa and Mitra, the tenth son of Aditi. Upon seeing Urvaśī, the celestial society girl, both Mitra and Varuṇa discharged semen, which they preserved in an earthen pot. The two sons Agastya and Vasiṣṭha later appeared from that pot, and they are therefore the common sons of Mitra and Varuṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800306.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/24/items/brhaddevataattri031685mbp/brhaddevataattri031685mbp_tif.zip&amp;amp;file=brhaddevataattri031685mbp_tif/brhaddevataattri031685mbp_0226.tif&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Brihaddevata, an ancient work by the sage Shaunaka, provides an additional detail to the story:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of these two Adityas [Mitra and Varuna], when they saw the nymph Urvashi at a sacrificial session, the semen was effused.  It fell into a jar containing water that stood overnight.  Now at the same moment two vigorous ascetics, the seers Agastya and Vasishta, there came into being.  Now the semen having fallen in various ways - in a jar, in water, on the ground - the sage Vasishta, best of seers, was produced on the ground; while Agastya was produced in the jar, &lt;strong&gt;(and) Matsya, of great brilliance in the water.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of this figure Matsya who was born in the water?  Did he also become a sage like his brothers Vasishta and Agastya?  Is he mentioned in any other scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7979/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; I discuss how in the Aranya Kanda of the Ramayana, Rama, before visiting the Ashram of Agastya, first visits the Ashram of &quot;Agastya's brother.&quot;  Could this brother be the same as Matsya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2022-06-27T19:02:50.363" Title="What is the story of Vasishta and Agastya's brother Matsya?" Tags="|rishi|vashishta|agastya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14986" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15028" CreationDate="2016-09-17T15:44:05.117" Score="6" ViewCount="6473" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why are women not allowed at the shamshan ghat ? Can they perform the final rites of their parent if she is only child to their parents ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T13:03:29.970" Title="Why women are not allowed to attend Funerals" Tags="|rituals|death|women|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14987" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-17T16:10:17.387" Score="4" ViewCount="1030" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/deep-focus/Migration-new-mantra-for-Indian-priests/articleshow/45509380.cms&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; news article:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Pandit Venkatacharilu Samudrala first headed West 32 years ago, he wasn't steered by visions of the good life. In fact, Samudrala strongly resisted joining the newly built Pennsylvania Venkateswara (Balaji) Temple in Pittsburg.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;No one had gone abroad before me from Tirumala. Moreover, &lt;strong&gt;the agama sastra of Tirupati (temple law) prohibits any priest from re-entering the sanctum sanctorum if they cross the ocean&lt;/strong&gt;. They can only distribute prasadam, chant, and partake in processions,&quot; says Samudrala, who was 25 at the time. Persuaded by his father, a priest at Tirupati, and his elders, he finally made the crossing on March 17, 1982, on an H-1 visa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3065&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; article at hinduismtoday.com offers the following explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The prohibition is clearly stated in several scriptures. The Baudhayana Sutra, one of the Hindu Dharma Shastras, says that &lt;strong&gt;&quot;making voyages by sea&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (II.1.2.2) &lt;strong&gt;is an offense which will cause pataniya, loss of caste.&lt;/strong&gt; It offers a rather difficult penance: &quot;They shall eat every fourth mealtime a little food, bathe at the time of the three libations (morning, noon and evening), passing the day standing and the night sitting. After the lapse of three years, they throw off their guilt.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in knowing the exact wording of āgama śāstra of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara_Temple,_Tirumala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Venkateswara Temple, Tirupati&lt;/a&gt; that pertains to overseas travel restrictions and if any reasons are stated in there that explains this restriction or do they just follow the Baudhayana Sutra II.1.2.2 referenced above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-09-18T07:04:26.240" Title="Why are Tirupati temple priests restricted from traveling overseas?" Tags="|temple|venkateshwara|priests|tirupati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14988" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14980" CreationDate="2016-09-17T19:36:27.617" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two forms of Agni as Jataveda and Kravyada. Jataveda is invoked to burn and carry offerings except flesh to Gods and Kravyada is invoked to burn flesh. I am quoting definition from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/gods/devta/vedic-gods/agni-the-god-of-fire&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni is said to have two forms Jataveda and Kravyada. As Jataveda, Agni is identified with Brahman and infinite knowledge and is invoked to burn and carry the offerings (except flesh) to the respective Gods. He is the pure form, the sacrificial priest and divine messenger who intercedes between humans and Gods and thus pleasing Agni, in turn, is said to please the Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Kravyada, Agni is obtained from the rays of the sun and is invoked to burn flesh (animal parts and corpses) in the Pitru Yajna. It is the fire of the funeral pyre and hence as such is said to be the impure form which is much feared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10016.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig veda&lt;/a&gt; say the same thing as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;करव्यादमग्निं पर हिणोमि दूरं यमराज्ञो गछतुरिप्रवाहः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इहैवायमितरो जातवेदा देवेभ्यो हव्यंवहतु परजानन ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो अग्निः करव्यात परविवेश वो गर्हमिमं पश्यन्नितरंजातवेदसम |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तं हरामि पित्र्यज्ञाय देवं स घर्ममिन्वात परमे सधस्थे ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो अग्निः करव्यवाहनः पितॄन यक्षद रताव्र्धः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;परेदुहव्यानि वोचति देवेभ्यश्च पित्र्भ्य आ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9 send afar flesh eating Agni, bearing off stains may he depart to Yama's subjects.&#xA;But let this other Jātavedas carry oblation to the Gods, for he is skilful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10 I choose as God for Father-worship Agni, flesh-eater, who hath past within your dwelling,&#xA;While looking on this other Jātavedas. Let him light flames in the supreme assembly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11 With offerings meet let Agni bring the Fathers who support the Law.&#xA;Let him announce oblations paid to Fathers and to Deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T19:36:27.617" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="14989" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9858" CreationDate="2016-09-17T20:16:17.703" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa from &lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapressbookshop.in/catalogsearch/result/index/?limit=36&amp;amp;q=valmiki&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gorakhpur Gita Press&lt;/a&gt; doesn't contain this verse at all. At least not in the same place i.e., Yuddha-kāṇḍa Sarga 124.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gorakhpur VR contains the following (&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CqEIu.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;verses 11-17&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मारीचदर्शनं चैव सीतोन्मथनमेव च | कबन्धदर्शनं चैव पम्पाभिगमनं तथा ॥११॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुग्रीवेण च ते सख्यं यत्र वाली हतस्त्वया । मार्गणं चैव वैदेह्याः कर्म वातात्मजस्य च ॥१२॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विदिताया च वैदेह्यां नलसेतुर्यथा कृतः । यथा चादीपिता लङ्का प्रहृष्टैर्हरियूथपैः ॥ १३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सपुत्रबान्धवामात्यः सबलः सहवाहनः । यथा च निहतः संख्ये रावणो बलदर्पितः ॥ १४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथा च निहते तस्मिन् रावणे देवकण्टके । समागमश्च त्रिदशैर्यथा दत्तश्च ते वरः ॥ १५ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वं ममैतद् विदितं तपसा धर्मवत्सल ।। सम्पतन्ति चमे शिष्याः प्रवृत्त्याख्याः पुरीमितः॥ १६ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अहमप्यत्र ते दद्मि वरं शस्त्रभृतां वर । अर्घ्यं प्रतिगृहाणेदमयोध्यां श्वो गमिष्यसि ॥ १७॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Nay, even the appearance of Marica as well as the abduction of Sita (by Ravana) as also the sight of Kabandha and even so your arrival at the Pampa lake, again, your alliance with Sugriva in pursuance of which (his elder brother) Vali was killed by you, also the quest for Sita (a princess of the Videha territory) and the exploit (in the form of leaping across the sea) of Hanuman (son of the wind-god), again, how on the (said) princess of the Videha territory having been traced, a bridge was constructed (over the sea) by (the monkey chief) Nala, and how Lanka was set fire to by the commanders of monkey troops, who felt greatly rejoiced (over the fall of Indrajit) and how Ravana, who was elated with pride of his might, was killed in combat with his sons, kinsfolk and ministers as well as with his army and mounts, again your meeting with the gods on the aforesaid Ravana, who was a thorn in the side of gods, having been made short work of, and how boons were conferred On you (by them)—all this is known to me by Virtue of my asceticism. O lover of virtue. Nay, my disciples, who communicate to me tidings (relating to Ayodhya), repair in a body (now and then) from this place to the city. (11-16) &lt;strong&gt;I, too, hereby confer a boon (on you), O jewel among those who bear weapons (on their persons)! (Pray) accept this (offering of) Water to wash your hands with. You shall go to Ayodhya tomorrow.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (17)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that in verse 17 above Bharadwāja bestows a boon on Rāma and in later verses (&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hsTxZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;below&lt;/a&gt;), Rāma details on what he wants from the boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bowing to his aforesaid command with his head bent low, highly pleased (as he was), and saying &quot;Amen!&quot;, &lt;strong&gt;the glorious prince (Sri Rama) asked (of him) the (following) boon&lt;/strong&gt; :- (18) &quot;Let all the trees on the way (even) as I fly to Ayodhya bear fruits and flow with honey and let abundant fruits of various kinds and emitting the fragrance of nectar appear (on them), O venerable sir!&quot; Immediately after his consent, once it was given in the words &quot;Be it so&quot;, all the trees in that region grew to be closely similar to heavenly trees (in their virtues). For three Yojanas (twenty-four miles) on all sides, in the interest of those travelling to Ayodhya, trees that no longer bore fruit were laden with fruit; those which had (even) ceased to blossom looked charming with blossom (again). (19-21) Trees that had withered were fully clothed with foliage (once more) and further began to flow with honey on that occasion. (22) (Leaping down from the aerial car on reaching the outskirts of Ayodhya) highly rejoiced and full of joy even as those who had won their place in heaven, the aforesaid jewels among the monkeys in their thousands thereupon feasted at will on the numerous ethereal fruits (23)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus ends Canto One hundred and twenty-four in the Yuddhakāṇḍa of the glorious Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki, the work of a Ṛṣi and the oldest еріс.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clearly, the verse in the question seems out of place in the above conversation between Bharadwāja and Rāma so it's an interpolation in some versions of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T20:16:17.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14990" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="14991" CreationDate="2016-09-17T22:06:37.173" Score="2" ViewCount="575" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did the Bāhudā river near &lt;a href=&quot;https://goo.gl/maps/QWKCK2g46Uo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kanipakam, Andhra Pradesh, India&lt;/a&gt; get its name? Is there a story behind it? Is the river mentioned in any of the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xHD3U.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xHD3U.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T23:02:26.857" Title="What is the legend of the Bāhudā river?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|india|rivers|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14991" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14990" CreationDate="2016-09-17T22:46:13.093" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The legend of the Bāhudā river and the two Ṛṣi-brothers Sankha and Likhita finds mention in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahābhārata, Śānti-parva, Ch. 23&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story in short from the website &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kanipakam.com/maintemple.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;kanipakam.com&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The legend behind Bahuda River&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Long ago there lived two brothers Sankha and Likhita. They were on a pilgrimage to Kanipakam. As the journey was tiring, the younger brother Likhita felt hungry. Disregarding the advice of the elder brother he plucked a mango from the mango grove. Sankha felt bad and reported this to the ruler of that area and pleaded for punishment for the sin committed during the pilgrimage. Thus Likhita was punished severely being deprived of both arms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later they took bath in the river near Kanipakam temple. Lo Behold! The chopped arms were restored to Likhita as soon as he had a dip in the sacred waters of the river. &lt;strong&gt;These incidents lead the ruler to rename the river as 'Bahuda' (Bahu means human arm).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus the river beside Kanipakam temple is now known as 'Bahuda River'.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Longer version of the story from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mahābhārata, Śānti-parva, Ch. 23&lt;/a&gt; is below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira said, 'O holy one, by what acts did Sudyumna, that lord of the earth, obtain the highest success? I desire to hear the history of that king!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vyasa said, 'In this connection is cited this old history. There were two brothers, viz., &lt;strong&gt;Sankha&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Likhita&lt;/strong&gt;, of rigid vows. The two brothers had two separate dwellings both of which were beautiful. &lt;strong&gt;Situate by the bank of the stream called Vahuda&lt;/strong&gt; [Bāhudā], both of those residences were adorned with trees that were always burthened with flowers and fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once on a time Likhita came to the residence of his brother Sankha. At that time, however, Sankha had gone out of his asylum on no fixed purpose. Arrived at the asylum of his brother, Likhita plucked many ripe fruits. Obtaining them the regenerate Likhita began to eat them without any qualms of conscience. While still employed in the act of eating, Sankha came back to his retreat. Beholding him eating, Sankha addressed his brother, saying, 'Whence have these fruits been obtained and for what reason art thou eating them?' Approaching his elder brother and saluting him, Likhita smilingly replied, saying, 'I have taken them even from this retreat.' Filled with great rage, Sankha said unto him, 'Thou hast committed theft by thyself taking these fruits. Go and approaching the king confess to him what thou hast done. Tell him, O best of kings, I have committed the offence of approaching what was not given to me. Knowing me for a thief and observing the duty of thy order, do thou soon inflict upon me, O ruler of men, the punishment of a thief.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus addressed, the highly blessed Likhita of rigid vows, at the command of his brother, proceeded to king Sudyumna. Hearing from his gate-keepers that Likhita had come, king Sudyumna, with his counsellors, advanced (for receiving the sage). Meeting him, the king addressed that foremost of all persons conversant with duties, saying, 'Tell me, O revered one, the reason of thy coming. Regard it as already accomplished.' Thus questioned, that regenerate sage said unto Sudyumna, 'Do thou promise first that thou wilt achieve it. It will then behove thee, after hearing me, to accomplish that promise. O bull among men, I ate some fruits that had not been given me by my elder brother. Do thou, O monarch, punish me for it without delay.' Sudyumna answered, 'If the king be regarded as competent to wield the rod of chastisement, he should be regarded, O bull among Brahmanas, as equally competent to pardon. Purified in respect of thy act, O thou of high vows, consider thyself as pardoned. Tell me now what other wishes thou hast. I shall certainly accomplish those commands of thine!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vyasa continued, 'Thus honoured by the high-souled king, the regenerate sage Likhita, however, did not solicit him for any other favour. Then that ruler of the earth caused the two hands of the high-souled Likhita to be cut off, whereupon the latter, bearing the punishment, went away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Returning to his brother Sankha, Likhita, in great affection, said, 'It behoveth thee now to pardon this wretch that hath been duly punished (for what he did).'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sankha said, I am not angry with thee, nor hast thou injured me, O foremost of all persons conversant with duties. Thy virtue, however, had suffered a shock. I have rescued thee from that plight. Proceed without delay to the river Vahuda and gratify duly, with oblations of water, the gods, Rishis and the Pitris, and never again set thy heart on sin.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing these words of Sankha, &lt;strong&gt;Likhita performed his ablutions in the sacred stream and set about for commencing the water-rite. Upon this, two hands, resembling two lotuses, appeared at the extremities of his stumps.&lt;/strong&gt; Filled with wonder he came back to his brother and showed him the two hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sankha said unto him, 'All this has been accomplished by me through my penances. Do not be surprised at it. Providence hath been the instrument here.' Likhita answered, 'O thou of great splendour, why didst thou not purify me at first, when, O best of regenerate ones, such was the energy of thy penances?' Sankha, said, 'I should not have acted otherwise. I am not thy chastiser. The ruler (who has punished thee) has been himself purified, as also thyself, along with the Pitris!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Through this story Vyasa is reminding Yudhishtira the principal duties of Kshatriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vyasa continued, 'That king, O eldest son of Pandu, became eminent by this act and obtained the highest success like the lord Daksha himself! Even this is the duty of Kshatriyas, viz., the ruling of subjects. Any other, O monarch, would be regarded as a wrong path for them. Do not give way to grief. O best of all persons conversant with duty, listen to the beneficial words of this thy brother. &lt;strong&gt;Wielding the rod of chastisement, O king, is the duty of kings and not the shaving of the head.&lt;/strong&gt;'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-17T23:02:26.857" LastActivityDate="2016-09-17T23:02:26.857" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14993" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10036" CreationDate="2016-09-18T06:24:02.840" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;To be really honest, it is very broad and long to name all the weapons which Indrajit knows how to use, but I will try to mention some of his most potent skills and powers as mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana. In Yuddhakanda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga80/yuddha_80_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 80&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indrajit obtains a capacity of going out of sight while fighting, and&#xA;he did so during his battle with Rama and Lakshmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स तु वैहायसं प्राप्य सरथो रामलक्ष्मणौ |&lt;br&gt; अचक्षुर्विषये तिष्ठन्विव्याध&#xA;निशितैः शरैः [6-80-3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Indrajit with his chariot, reaching the sky and remaining &lt;strong&gt;invisible&lt;/strong&gt;, struck Rama and Lakshmana with his sharp &lt;strong&gt;arrows&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beside arrows as mentioned in above verse, Indrajit was capable of using missiles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रावणिस्तु दिशः सर्वा रथेनातिरथः पतन् |&lt;br&gt; विव्याध तौ दाशरथी लघ्वस्त्रो&#xA;निशितैः शरैः  [6-80-33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:Indrajit for his part, who was a superior chariot-warrior&#xA;and who was &lt;strong&gt;swift in discharging missiles&lt;/strong&gt;, rushed on towards all sides&#xA;and pierced Rama and Lakshmana with his sharp arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indrajit also know how to use sword. During his battle in war with Hanuman, he created an illusory image of Seetha, and killed her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तमेवमुक्त्वा रुदतीं सीतां मायामयीं ततः ||&lt;br&gt; शितधारेण खड्गेन&#xA;निजघानेन्द्रजित्स्वयम् | [6-81-29]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning :Having spoken thus to Hanuma, Indrajit&#xA;personally killed that illusory Seetha, who had been sobbing all the&#xA;while, with his &lt;strong&gt;sharp-edged sword&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T07:43:55.587" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14994" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14987" CreationDate="2016-09-18T07:04:26.240" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9039/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the Tirupati priests are members of the Vaikhanasa sect.  So they wouldn't follow the Baudhayana Dharma Sutras, but rather the Vaikhanasa Dharma Sutras, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/dQOe/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  I just looked through the entire Vaikhanasa Dharma Sutras (it's fairly short), and I didn't find any mention of sea voyages.  But I did find this statement in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lwJDZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Vaikhanasa Dharma Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;eko-adhvanāṃ na (gaccet)।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Alone he should not go on a voyage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that seems to be about traveling alone, not about the mode of transportation.  The only other tangentially related statement I could find is in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AKa0K.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt;, which discusses circumstances in which one should not study the Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vkṣaṃau। yāna। ayaneṣv ārūḍhaḥ prasārita। pādo mūtra। purīṣa। reto। visarge grāme-antaḥave satya।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He should not study on a tree, &lt;strong&gt;a ship&lt;/strong&gt;, a conveyance, a bed, nor with outstretched legs, nor while easing himself or emission of semen virile, nor when there is a corpse in a village[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Reminds you a bit of Dr. Seuss, doesn't it?)  So Dharma Shastras don't seem to be behind this for Vaikhanasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-18T07:04:26.240" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14995" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-09-18T07:19:31.460" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-09-18T07:19:31.460" LastActivityDate="2016-09-18T07:19:31.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14996" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-09-18T07:19:31.460" Score="0" Body="For the question that deals with creation or manifestation of Universe." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-09-18T08:39:59.687" LastActivityDate="2016-09-18T08:39:59.687" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14997" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-09-18T13:25:51.847" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-09-18T13:25:51.847" LastActivityDate="2016-09-18T13:25:51.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14998" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-09-18T13:25:51.847" Score="0" Body="For questions about Astra (Sanskrit: अस्त्र), a divine/supernatural weapon like Brahmaastra, Trishul, Sudarshana Chakra etc." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-09-18T13:52:03.910" LastActivityDate="2016-09-18T13:52:03.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="14999" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15000" CreationDate="2016-09-18T18:22:42.877" Score="6" ViewCount="6488" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Hiranyagarbha Suktam? What is the translation in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-08-26T06:07:23.317" LastActivityDate="2018-08-26T06:07:23.317" Title="Hiranyagarbha Suktam and translation in English" Tags="|scripture|vedas|translation-request|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15000" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14999" CreationDate="2016-09-18T18:27:12.890" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Hirayagarbha Sukta is a hymn from the Rig Veda{RV 10:121}. It praises the Creator, his Creations and his treasures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Sanskrit Verse&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;हिरण्यगर्भः समवर्तताग्रे भूतस्य जातः पतिरेकासीत । स दाधार पृथ्वीं ध्यामुतेमां कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hiraṇyagarbhaḥ samavartatāgre bhūtasya jātaḥ patirekāsīta |&#xA;sa dādhāra pṛthvīṃ dhyāmutemāṃ kasmai devāyahaviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;य आत्मदा बलदा यस्य विश्व उपासते प्रशिषं यस्यदेवाः । यस्य छायामृतं यस्य मर्त्युः कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ya ātmadā baladā yasya viśva upāsate praśiṣaṃ yasyadevāḥ |&#xA;yasya chāyāmṛtaṃ yasya martyuḥ kasmai devāyahaviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;यः प्राणतो निमिषतो महित्वैक इद्राजा जगतो बभूव । य ईशे अस्य द्विपदश्चतुष्पदः कस्मै देवाय हविषाविधेम ॥&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yaḥ prāṇato nimiṣato mahitvaika idrājā jagato babhūva |&#xA;ya īśe asya dvipadaścatuṣpadaḥ kasmai devāya haviṣāvidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;यस्येमे हिमवन्तो महित्वा यस्य समुद्रं रसया सहाहुः । यस्येमाः परदिशो यस्य बाहू कस्मै देवाय हविषाविधेम ॥&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yasyeme himavanto mahitvā yasya samudraṃ rasayā sahāhuḥ |&#xA;yasyemāḥ paradiśo yasya bāhū kasmai devāya haviṣāvidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;येन दयौरुग्रा पर्थिवी च दर्ळ्हा येन सव सतभितं येननाकः । यो अन्तरिक्षे रजसो विमानः कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yena dayaurugrā parthivī ca darḻhā yena sava satabhitaṃ yenanākaḥ |&#xA;yo antarikṣe rajaso vimānaḥ kasmai devāyahaviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;यं करन्दसी अवसा तस्तभाने अभ्यैक्षेतां मनसारेजमाने । यत्राधि सूर उदितो विभाति कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yaṃ karandasī avasā tastabhāne abhyaikṣetāṃ manasārejamāne |&#xA;yatrādhi sūra udito vibhāti kasmai devāyahaviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;आपो ह यद बर्हतीर्विश्वमायन गर्भं दधानाजनयन्तीरग्निम । ततो देवानां समवर्ततासुरेकःकस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;āpo ha yada barhatīrviśvamāyana garbhaṃ dadhānājanayantīragnima |&#xA;tato devānāṃ samavartatāsurekaḥkasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;यश्चिदापो महिना पर्यपश्यद दक्षं दधानाजनयन्तीर्यज्ञम । यो देवेष्वधि देव एक आसीत कस्मैदेवाय हविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yaścidāpo mahinā paryapaśyada dakṣaṃ dadhānājanayantīryajñama |&#xA;yo deveṣvadhi deva eka āsīta kasmaidevāya haviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;मा नो हिंसीज्जनिता यः पर्थिव्या यो वा दिवंसत्यधर्मा जजान । यश्चापश्चन्द्रा बर्हतीर्जजानकस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mā no hiṃsījjanitā yaḥ parthivyā yo vā divaṃsatyadharmā jajāna |&#xA;yaścāpaścandrā barhatīrjajānakasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;परजापते न तवदेतान्यन्यो विश्वा जातानि परि ताबभूव । यत्कामास्ते जुहुमस्तन नो अस्तु वयं सयाम पतयोरयीणाम ॥&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;parajāpate na tavadetānyanyo viśvā jātāni pari tābabhūva |&#xA;yatkāmāste juhumastana no astu vayaṃ sayāma patayorayīṇ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Translation of Hiranyagarbha Sukta in English&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{1}In the beginning was the Divinity in his splendour, manifested as the sole Lord of land, skies, water, space and that beneath and He upheld the earth and the heavens.&#xA;Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{2}It is He who bestows soul-force and vigor, whose guidance all men invoke, the Devas invoke-whose shadow is immortal life and death.&#xA;Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{3}It is He who by His greatness became the One King of the breathing and the seeing, who is the Lord of man and bird and beast.&#xA;Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{4}It is He through whose glory the snow-clad mountains rose, and the ocean spread with the river, they say. His arms are the quarters of the sky.&#xA;Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{5}It is He through whom the heaven is strong and the earth firm, who has steadied the light and the sky's vault, and measured out the sphere of clouds in the mid-region.&#xA;Who is the deity we shall worship with our offering?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{6}It is He to whom heaven and earth, placed in the light by his grace, look up, radiant with the mind while over them the sun, rising, brightly shines.&#xA;Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{7}When the mighty waters came, carrying the universal germ, producing the flame of life, then dwelt there in harmony the One Spirit of the Devas.&#xA;Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{8}It is He who in his might surveyed the waters, conferring skill and creating worship - He, the God of gods, the One and only One.&#xA;Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{9}Father of the world - may He not destroy us who with Truth as his Law made the heavens and produced waters, vast and beautiful.&#xA;Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{10}Lord of creation! No one other than thee pervades all these that have come into being.&#xA;May that be ours, for which our prayers rise, may we be masters of many treasures!--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;(RV 10:121) Ralph T. H. Griffith&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;HIRANYAGARBHA was present at the beginning ; when born, he was the sole lord of created beings; he upheld this earth and heaven,&#xA;-let us offer worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(To him) who is the giver of soul, the giver of strength, Whose commands all (beings), even the gods obey, Whose shadow is immortality, whose (shadow) is death,&#xA;-let us offer worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(To him) who, by his greatness, has verily become the sole king of the breathing and seeing world, who rules over this aggregate of two-footed and four-footed beings,-&#xA;let us offer Worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Through whose greatness these snow-clad (moun- tains exist), whose property men call the ocean with the rivers, whose are these quarters of space, whose are the two arms,&#xA;--let us offer worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;By whom the sky was made profound and the earth solid, by Whom heaven and the solar sphere were fixed, who was the measure of the water in the firmament,-&#xA;let us offer worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Whom heaven and earth established by his pro- tection, and, shining brightly, regarded with their mind, in whom the risen sun shines forth,&#xA;-let us offer worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the vast waters overspread the universe containing the germ and giving birth to AGNI, then was produced the one breath of the gods,&#xA;-let us offer worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He who by his might beheld the waters all around containing the creative power and giving birth to sacrifice, he who among the gods was the one supreme god,-&#xA;let us offer worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;May he do us no harm who is the parent of the-earth, or who the unerring support (of the world) begat the heaven, and who generated the vast and delightful waters,&#xA;-let us offer worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;No other than thou, PRAJAPATI, hast given existence to all these beings ; may that object of our desires for which we sacrifice to thee be ours, may we be the possessors of riches.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[H. H. Wilson]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10121.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda{RV 10:121}Hirayagarbha Sukta&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-08-25T17:25:09.827" LastActivityDate="2018-08-25T17:25:09.827" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15002" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-19T00:13:58.473" Score="1" ViewCount="209" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to understand more about ego and attachment from the perspective of Hindu Shastras and Vedas. Are these evil qualities?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, how to get rid of these things from my mind?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1131" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-19T19:29:37.487" LastActivityDate="2016-09-19T19:29:37.487" Title="Are ego and attachment evil qualities as per Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|indriyas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15003" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-19T03:39:40.187" Score="6" ViewCount="198" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/64/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important to the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu. Since the Pancharatra texts originated from Narayana himself, they are followed by pretty much all mainstream Vaishnava Sampradayas, whether Sri Vaishnavas, Madhvas, Gaudiya Vaishnavas, etc. But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3977/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, there's another group of Vishnu-worshippers who worship Vishnu according to an entirely different set of texts, the Vaikhanasas. The Vaikhanasas form a tiny minority, but they run a lot of famous Vishnu temples including the world-renowned Tirumala Venkateshwara temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7501/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Vaikhanasas trace their origins to the now-lost Vaikhanasa Shakha of the Krishna Yajur Veda.  But the Sutra texts of the Shakha still survive; you can read them &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/dQOe/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/pGh8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from  the Vaikhanasa Dharma Sutras, Yogis are classified into three categories: Saranga Yogis, Ekarshya Yogis, and Visaraga Yogis.  Visaraga Yogis are described in very harsh terms:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Visaraga-ascetics (are called thus) because of their manifold proceeding, their manifold teaching, their going on wrong paths. In former times Prajāpati, in order to conceal his instruction, created the doctrine of the Visaragas. Even the munis, on seeing it, became perplexed, how much more the (ordinary) men. For those beasts of Visaragas, who are full of self-consciousness, there is deliverance (only) in subsequent forms of existence, not in this (present) one. Therefore the doctrine of the Visaragas must not be followed. Some Visaragas, striving to unite the individual soul with the All-soul through mortificating the body, others through muttering mantras, others through any meditation whichever, others through any syllable whichever, others through suppression of the breath, fix (it is true) their thoughts on it, but they do not (earnestly) strive for the union with the All-soul. They say that he is in the heart itself; some of them seek for deliverance, considering that no meditation is required, others that the union must be brought about by performing the religious acts as they are described. For these beasts of Visaragas there is (only) deliverance in subsequent forms of existence, not in this present one. He who longs for deliverance in this (present) existence should not follow the doctrine of the Visaragas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who are these Visaraga Yogis that are criticized in the Vaikhanasa Dharma Sutras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the passage says that the the doctrine of the Visaraga Yogis was created by Prajapati in order to deceive people. I assume Prajapati is a reference to Brahma,  so my first thought was that this is a description of Patanjali Yoga, aka Ashtanga Yoga, since Patanjali's Yoga school was founded by Brahma.  It would be understandable for Vaikhanasss to criticize Patanjali's Yoga school, since like most Hindus Vaikhanasas belong to the Vedanta school. Now the Vaikhanasa Dharma Sutras do indeed speak negatively of Ashtanga Yoga, but Ashtanga Yoga is classified as a subcategory of the Saranga Yogis, not the Visaraga Yogis.  So &quot;Visaraga Yogis&quot; must be referred to something else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does anyone have any idea what sect or school of philosophy is being criticized here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T14:37:09.127" Title="Who are the Visaraga Yogis condemned by the Vaikhanasas?" Tags="|philosophy|vaishnavism|yoga|vaikhanasa|yogi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15004" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14999" CreationDate="2016-09-19T04:21:42.647" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit Verse&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;हिरण्यगर्भः समवर्तताग्रे भूतस्य जातः पतिरेकासीत ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स दाधार पृथ्वीं ध्यामुतेमां कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hiraṇyagarbhaḥ samavartatāgre bhūtasya jātaḥ patirekāsīta |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa dādhāra pṛthvīṃ dhyāmutemāṃ kasmai devāyahaviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;य आत्मदा बलदा यस्य विश्व उपासते प्रशिषं यस्यदेवाः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यस्य छायामृतं यस्य मर्त्युः कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ya ātmadā baladā yasya viśva upāsate praśiṣaṃ yasyadevāḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasya chāyāmṛtaṃ yasya martyuḥ kasmai devāyahaviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यः प्राणतो निमिषतो महित्वैक इद्राजा जगतो बभूव ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;य ईशे अस्य द्विपदश्चतुष्पदः कस्मै देवाय हविषाविधेम ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yaḥ prāṇato nimiṣato mahitvaika idrājā jagato babhūva |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ya īśe asya dvipadaścatuṣpadaḥ kasmai devāya haviṣāvidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यस्येमे हिमवन्तो महित्वा यस्य समुद्रं रसया सहाहुः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यस्येमाः परदिशो यस्य बाहू कस्मै देवाय हविषाविधेम ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasyeme himavanto mahitvā yasya samudraṃ rasayā sahāhuḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasyemāḥ paradiśo yasya bāhū kasmai devāya haviṣāvidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;येन दयौरुग्रा पर्थिवी च दर्ळ्हा येन सव सतभितं येननाकः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यो अन्तरिक्षे रजसो विमानः कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yena dayaurugrā parthivī ca darḻhā yena sava satabhitaṃ yenanākaḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yo antarikṣe rajaso vimānaḥ kasmai devāyahaviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यं करन्दसी अवसा तस्तभाने अभ्यैक्षेतां मनसारेजमाने ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यत्राधि सूर उदितो विभाति कस्मै देवायहविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yaṃ karandasī avasā tastabhāne abhyaikṣetāṃ manasārejamāne |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yatrādhi sūra udito vibhāti kasmai devāyahaviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आपो ह यद बर्हतीर्विश्वमायन गर्भं दधानाजनयन्तीरग्निम ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ततो देवानां समवर्ततासुरेकःकस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;āpo ha yada barhatīrviśvamāyana garbhaṃ dadhānājanayantīragnima |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tato devānāṃ samavartatāsurekaḥkasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यश्चिदापो महिना पर्यपश्यद दक्षं दधानाजनयन्तीर्यज्ञम ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यो देवेष्वधि देव एक आसीत कस्मैदेवाय हविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yaścidāpo mahinā paryapaśyada dakṣaṃ dadhānājanayantīryajñama |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yo deveṣvadhi deva eka āsīta kasmaidevāya haviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मा नो हिंसीज्जनिता यः पर्थिव्या यो वा दिवंसत्यधर्मा जजान ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यश्चापश्चन्द्रा बर्हतीर्जजानकस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mā no hiṃsījjanitā yaḥ parthivyā yo vā divaṃsatyadharmā jajāna |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yaścāpaścandrā barhatīrjajānakasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;परजापते न तवदेतान्यन्यो विश्वा जातानि परि ताबभूव ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यत्कामास्ते जुहुमस्तन नो अस्तु वयं सयाम पतयोरयीणाम ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;parajāpate na tavadetānyanyo viśvā jātāni pari tābabhūva |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yatkāmāste juhumastana no astu vayaṃ sayāma patayorayīṇāma ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation in English&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the beginning was the Divinity in his &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/splendour&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;splendour&lt;/a&gt;, manifested as&#xA;  the sole Lord of land, skies, water, space and that beneath and He&#xA;  upheld the earth and the heavens. Who is the deity we shall worship&#xA;  with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is that who bestows soul-force and vigor, whose guidance all men&#xA;  invoke, the Devas invoke whose shadow is immortal life and death. Who&#xA;  is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is that who by His greatness became the One King of the breathing&#xA;  and the seeing, who is the Lord of man and bird and beast. Who is the&#xA;  deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is that through whose glory the snow-clad mountains rose, and the&#xA;  ocean spread with the river, they say. His arms are the quarters of&#xA;  the sky. Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is that through whom the heaven is strong and the earth firm, who&#xA;  has steadied the light and the sky's vault, and measured out the&#xA;  sphere of clouds in the mid-region. Who is the deity we shall worship&#xA;  with our offering?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is that to whom heaven and earth, placed in the light by his grace,&#xA;  look up, radiant with the mind while over them the sun, rising,&#xA;  brightly shines. Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the mighty waters came, carrying the universal germ, producing&#xA;  the flame of life, then dwelt there in harmony the One Spirit of the&#xA;  Devas. Who is the deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is that who in its might surveyed the waters, conferring skill and&#xA;  creating worship - That, the God of gods, the One and only One. Who is&#xA;  the deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mother of the world - may that not destroy us who with Truth as his&#xA;  Law made the heavens and produced waters, vast and beautiful. Who is&#xA;  the deity we shall worship with our offerings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord of creation! No one other than thee pervades all these that have&#xA;  come into being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May that be ours, for which our prayers rise, may we be masters of&#xA;  many treasures!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;-- (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala_10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 10&lt;/a&gt;:121) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_T._H._Griffith&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ralph T. H. Griffith&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;HIRANYAGARBHA was present at the beginning ; when born, he was the sole lord of created beings; he upheld this earth and heaven, -let us&#xA;  offer worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(To him) who is the giver of soul, the giver of strength, Whose commands all (beings), even the gods obey, Whose shadow is&#xA;  immortality, whose (shadow) is death, -let us offer worship with an&#xA;  oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(To him) who, by his greatness, has verily become the sole king of the breathing and seeing world, who rules over this aggregate of&#xA;  two-footed and four-footed beings,- let us offer Worship with an&#xA;  oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Through whose greatness these snow-clad (moun- tains exist), whose property men call the ocean with the rivers, whose are these quarters&#xA;  of space, whose are the two arms, -let us offer worship with an&#xA;  oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;By whom the sky was made profound and the earth solid, by Whom heaven and the solar sphere were fixed, who was the measure of the&#xA;  water in the firmament,- let us offer worship with an oblation to the&#xA;  divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Whom heaven and earth established by his pro- tection, and, shining brightly, regarded with their mind, in whom the risen sun shines&#xA;  forth, -let us offer worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the vast waters overspread the universe containing the germ and giving birth to AGNI, then was produced the one breath of the&#xA;  gods, -let us offer worship with an oblation to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He who by his might beheld the waters all around containing the creative power and giving birth to sacrifice, he who among the gods&#xA;  was the one supreme god,-let us offer worship with an oblation to the&#xA;  divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;May he do us no harm who is the parent of the -earth, or who the unerring support (of the world) begat the heaven, and who generated&#xA;  the vast and delightful waters,- let us offer worship with an oblation&#xA;  to the divine KA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;No other than thou, PRAJAPATI, hast given existence to all these beings ; may that object of our desires for which we sacrifice to thee&#xA;  be ours, may we be the possessors of riches.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiranyagarbha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-19T04:21:42.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15005" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-19T04:28:18.707" Score="8" ViewCount="2923" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have this doubt from the time I started reading Hindu Purana. In Hindu Purana there are many stories about interaction between Asuras, Monks, Devas and common people. According to my knowledge Mahabali was a king of Asuras , who ruled the people. I want know that what happened to the Asuras? Do they still exist? If so, why don't they interact with people?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7707" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-09-11T16:05:30.627" LastActivityDate="2018-09-21T00:01:56.580" Title="What happened to the asuras?" Tags="|puranas|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15007" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14983" CreationDate="2016-09-19T06:05:10.523" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/vrats/hindu-vrat-list.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu fasting&lt;/a&gt; is from sunrise till  sunrise the next day on which the fast is supposed to be broken.That day is called the Parana day.Breaking a fast for a hindu is as important as doing the fast.(For example not breaking an &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/vrats/ekadashidates.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ekadashi&lt;/a&gt; fast within the prescribed parana time is considered an offence)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But fasting from dawn to dusk(sunset) is also prescribed in Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'll be quoting from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/naradapurana13.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Essence of Narada Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As regards Dashami Tithi, Chaitra Shukla is stated to be a day which&#xA;  Dharma Raja is fond of and after &lt;strong&gt;fasting till the evening&lt;/strong&gt;, worship of&#xA;  the Deity with flowers, fruits, ‘Gandha’ etc. should be observed and&#xA;  at the end of the Vrata, bhojan and dakshina is to be provided to&#xA;  fourteen Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhadrapada Shukla Dashami is to observe Dashavatara Vrata to worship&#xA;  the Ten Incarnations of Vishnu viz. Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Nrisimha,&#xA;  Trivikrama /Vamana, Parashu Rama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki by&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;day-long fasting&lt;/strong&gt; and Brahmana Bhojana etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ekadashi has a special significance among all the Tithis as the Shukla&#xA;  and Krishna Paksha Ekadashis are invariably observed with Upavaasa,&#xA;  Japa, Homa, Pradakshina, Stotra Paatha, Dandavat- Pranama and&#xA;  Ratri-Jaagaranas followed by Dwadashi’s Brahmana Bhojanas and&#xA;  dakshinas. Chaitra Shukla Ekadashi is called ‘Kamada’ or the&#xA;  Fullfiller of Purusharthas and Sin-destroyer. Vaishakha Shula Ekadashi&#xA;  is known as ‘Mohini’and Krishna Ekadashi is known as ‘Varuthini’ when&#xA;  Purushottama and Madhusudhana are worshipped. Jyeshtha Krishna&#xA;  Ekadashi is called ‘Apara’ to worship Trivikrama, whereas the Jyeshtha&#xA;  Shukla is ‘Nirjala’ which is observed with &lt;strong&gt;fasting without water from&#xA;  dawn to dusk,&lt;/strong&gt; and thereafter treat Brahmanas with Bhojan. Ashadha&#xA;  Krishna Ekadashi is called ‘Yogini’and is observed &lt;strong&gt;with day-night fast&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  / puja and bhojan to Brahmanas on the following Dwadashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,as one can see, fasting can be both from dawn to dusk and the whole day/night as well.But fasting should always begin with the Sunrise on that day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Allowed foods on fasting days are milk,fruits,water(in Nirjala upvasa, however, even water is not consumed).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prohibited foods are salt,pulses etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sleeping during day time,cutting nails,hair,having sexual intercourse are some  prohibited actions on a fasting day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-19T06:30:43.627" LastActivityDate="2016-09-19T06:30:43.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15008" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10898" CreationDate="2016-09-19T06:54:02.150" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Mahashivratri fasting begins on the morning of Shivratri and ends next day morning or the Amavasya morning. Since it is a long Upvaas or Vrat, many people consume a special meal known as ‘phalar.’ The fasting involves refraining from eating any food and not sleeping through out the night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is suggested to have only single meal a day before Maha Shivaratri fasting. It is one of the common practices during fasting&#xA;  to make sure any undigested food is not left in the digestion system&#xA;  on the fasting day.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the day of Shivaratri, one should get up early in the morning and take bath. It is suggested to add black sesame seeds into the&#xA;  water. It is believed that the holy bath on the day of Shivaratri&#xA;  purifies not only the body but also the soul. If possible bathing in&#xA;  Ganges is preferred.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After taking bath devotees should take Sankalp (संकल्प) to observe full day fast and to break the fast on the next day. During Sankalp&#xA;  devotees pledge for self-determination throughout the fasting period&#xA;  and seek blessing of Lord Shiva to finish the fast without any&#xA;  interference. Hindu fasts are strict and people pledge for&#xA;  self-determination and seek God blessing before starting them to&#xA;  finish them successfully.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Devotees should abstain from all type of food during the fasting. In the strict form of fasting even water is not allowed. However,&#xA;  consumption of fruits and milk is suggested during day time which&#xA;  should be followed by strict fasting during night. In other words&#xA;  during day time fruits and milk can be consumed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Devotees should take second bath in the evening before doing Shiva Puja or visiting temple. If one is not able to visit the temple then&#xA;  makeshift Shiva Ling can be made to perform Puja activities. One can&#xA;  even shape the mud in Linga form and apply Ghee to perform Abhishek&#xA;  Puja at home.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Puja should be done during night. Shivaratri Puja can be performed one time or four times during the night. The whole night&#xA;  duration can be divided into four to get four Prahar (प्रहर) to&#xA;  perform Shiva Puja four times. Devotees who want to perform single&#xA;  Puja should do it during midnight.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As per Puja Vidhi, Abhishek of Shiva Lingam should be performed with different materials. The milk, rose water, sandalwood paste,&#xA;  yogurt, honey, Ghee, sugar and the water are commonly used for&#xA;  Abhishek. Devotees, who perform four Prahar Puja, must perform water&#xA;  Abhishek during first Prahar, curd Abhishek during second Prahar, Ghee&#xA;  Abhishek during third Prahar and honey Abhishek during fourth Prahar&#xA;  apart from other materials.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After the Abhishek ritual, Shiva Linga is adorned with the garland made of Bilva leaves. It is believed that Bilva leaves cool down Lord&#xA;  Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After that Chandan or Kumkum is applied to the Shiva Linga which is followed by lighting lamp and Dhupa. The other items which are used to&#xA;  adorn Lord Shiva include flower of Madar (मदार) which is also known as&#xA;  Aak (आक), Vibhuti which is also known as Bhasm. Vibhuti is sacred ash&#xA;  which is made using dried cow dung.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The mantra to chant during Puja duration is ॐ नमः शिवाय (Om Namah Shivaya).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Devotees should break the fast next day after taking bath. Devotees should break the fast between sunrise and before the end of&#xA;  Chaturdashi Tithi to get maximum benefit of the Vrat.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/festivals/maha-shivaratri/maha-shivaratri-puja-vidhi.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;food we can eat while observing Shivaratri Fast&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Majority of Hindus who observe Shivratri fast opt for a fruit diet –&#xA;  they eat fruits and drink lots of water on the day. Some people also&#xA;  drink milk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some devotees consume a mid-day meal (noon) consisting of non-cereal&#xA;  food such as boiled potatoes which is made into a curry without onion,&#xA;  garlic, adarak (ginger) or haldi (turmeric).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In some regions people eat Sabudana (Tapioca) Khichdi or Upma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some Hindu communities eat a special meal known as ‘phalar’ at noon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another food eaten on the day is pakori or Kutt Singahri ki puri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No meal is eaten after sunset on Shivaratri day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Next meal is taken on the morning of Amavasya (next day morning) after&#xA;  doing puja and giving alms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindu-blog.com/2010/02/shivratri-food-what-food-we-can-eat.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-19T06:54:02.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15009" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17614" CreationDate="2016-09-19T08:05:17.287" Score="6" ViewCount="929" Body="&lt;p&gt;An &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Achamana&lt;/a&gt; is a purificatory ritual that consists of sipping small amount of water from right palm after sanctifying it(the water) with mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An Achamana precedes all Vedic ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are certain rules which are needed to be followed while doing it.A recommended posture for doing it is the squatting position(although i don't think that this is mandatory).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://vishuji.org/sandhya_vandanam.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Achamanam Sipping water sanctified by mantras&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sit in a squatting position&lt;/strong&gt;, facing east or north. The hands should be&#xA;  between the knees. Bend all the fingers other than the thumb and the&#xA;  small finger slightly so that a hollow is produced in the palm. Take a&#xA;  very small quantity of water in the palm and sip, uttering the&#xA;  following three mantras (one sip for each mantra):-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;   Achyutaya namah&#xA;   Anantaya namah&#xA;   Govindaya namah&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question-Why it is important to squat while performing an achamana?What are the advantages of squatting(in this regard) over any other postures like say Sukhasana or Padmasana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SNiqh.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SNiqh.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGYnWiNW2NA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;A video demonstrating Achamana being performed in a squatting posture.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-19T12:01:31.053" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T06:16:23.573" Title="Why it is important to squat while performing achamana?" Tags="|scripture|worship|vedic-rituals|asana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15010" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-19T08:31:31.467" Score="0" ViewCount="45" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a bit confusing. Sometimes public use &lt;strong&gt;dharma&lt;/strong&gt; in the same sense as the English word &lt;strong&gt;religion&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as per Wikipedia entry for &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Dharma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untranslatability&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;no single word translation&lt;/a&gt; for &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; in western languages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="216" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-20T21:17:26.033" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T21:17:26.033" Title="Is Dharma is equal to Religion?" Tags="|dharma|translation-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-09-19T12:37:41.493" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15011" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15013" CreationDate="2016-09-19T09:12:34.343" Score="9" ViewCount="1885" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is mentioned, in the Ramayana, that Maharishi Agastya  gave the &amp;quot;all powerful and eternal&amp;quot; Adithya Hridhyam Strotra to Sri Rama, immediately before his final encounter with Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;राम राम महाबाहो शृणु गुह्यं सनातनम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;येन सर्वानरीन्वत्स समरे विजयिष्यसे ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Rama, the mighty-armed one! Hear the following eternal secret, by which you can conquer all the enemies in battle, my child!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the Adithya Hridhyam Strotra ? During what times of the day, can it be chanted? What is the procedure, for chanting the Strotra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2023-11-22T15:46:55.273" Title="What is the Adithya Hridhyam Stotra?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15013" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15011" CreationDate="2016-09-19T09:51:30.243" Score="9" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama has chanted this continuously for 9 times before encountering Ravana and attained success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aditya = the Sun God; Hridayam = that which is especially nourishing and healing for the heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It should be chanted in the day time. Morning after sunrise by facing the sun God. Do not chant after 12/30 pm. On sundays after chanting this sloka offer curd as naivedya to  Sun God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankalpa should be done and start the Aditya Hrudya Stotra --   pronounce each akshara clearly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;www.harekrsna.de/aditya-hridayam.htm&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sage Agasthya Muni gave this powerful Mantra to Sri Rama when Rama was perplexed, while fighting with Ravana. After chanting this Hymn nine times Sri Rama defeated Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Aditya Hridayam, is a hymn in glorification of the Sun or Surya and was recited by the great sage Agastya to Lord Rama on the battlefield before fighting with Ravana. This historic hymn starts at the beginning of the Battle with Ravana, when Lord Rama is fatigued and getting ready to fight. The mystical hymn is directed to the Sun God, the illustrious lord of all victories. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Surya - the Sun God&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Trying to do justice to verses from the epic Ramayana – the first of all epics in the world – written over 5000 years ago, is impossible by anybody today. And for that matter, Sage Valmiki himself says that the prayer part is older than the epic itself. That must be obviously true, for, Sanskrit language existed in its poetic, prosaic and pristine form much before the penning of the epic. I have just attempted to give the limited version of my understanding of the Slokas (verses). Mistakes, if any, are all mine, and any praise for the work goes to blessings of Lord Ganesha, Lord Rama, the Sun God, and of course Sage Valmiki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Adityta-Hridyam Stotra is part of the Yuddha Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana (the chapter of war) and contains 31 slokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T08:40:24.933" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T08:40:24.933" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15014" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15015" CreationDate="2016-09-19T09:54:54.450" Score="8" ViewCount="2184" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vaishnav(ism) consider Vishnu as the supreme. I found that Vaishnav believes that Vishnu/Supreme has following six kalyana gunas (auspicious attributes):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[According to Vedanta Brahman has sat-chit-aanand nature but I think according to Vishishtadvaita Brahman possesses following six kalyana gunas]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jnana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bala&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aishvarya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shakti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Virya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tejas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know which scripture describes these six auspicious attributes of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-20T03:14:46.123" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T03:14:46.123" Title="Which scripture describes six kalyana gunas (auspicious attributes) of Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|vedanta|vishishtadvaita|gunas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15015" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15014" CreationDate="2016-09-19T10:23:28.903" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt; in 6.5.74 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;ऐश्वर्यस्य समग्रस्य धर्मस्य यशसरिश्रयः। &#xA;  ज्ञानवैराग्ययोश्चैव षण्णां भग इतीरणा ।।&quot; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Complete splendor, virtue, glory, opulence, knowledge, dispassion - these six are known as bhaga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who possess these Bhaga quality is known as Bhagavan. And the following verses after it identify &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavan&lt;/strong&gt; as &lt;strong&gt;Vãsudeva&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu.&lt;/strong&gt; Thus from this we can know Lord Vishnu Possesses six Auspicious qualities (Kalyana Guna). The same Paragraph continues stating:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The purport of the letter va is that elemental spirit in which all beings exist, and which exists in all beings. And thus this great word &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavan is the name of Vásudeva,&lt;/strong&gt; who is one with the supreme Brahma, and of no one else. This word therefore, which is the general denomination of an adorable object, is not used in reference to the supreme in a general, but a special signification. (Vishnu Purana 6.5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-19T13:41:15.830" LastActivityDate="2016-09-19T13:41:15.830" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15016" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9448" CreationDate="2016-09-19T10:37:27.773" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;These terms can be understood as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ignorance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Advaita Vedanta says that ignorance of Brahman has created this world.&#xA;  Ignorance, which is the opposite of knowledge (jnana-virodhi), is not&#xA;  something negative. It has a positive character (bhavarupa).It has two&#xA;  powers: (1) the veiling power (avarana-shakti) and (2) the power of&#xA;  projection (vikshepa-shakti). Ignorance has the power to cover or veil the &#xA;  Reality, which is Brahman, and also the power to project this world on&#xA;  the veiled or covered Reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Avidya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The world is the product of mula-avidya. The individual ego, which is&#xA;  part of this world, is also the product of mula-avidya. Consciousness&#xA;  associated with this ego is called the Atman or the Jivatman. Between&#xA;  the Jivatman and Brahman (Paramatman) there is a thin veil of&#xA;  ignorance. It is like a cloud that does not allow an individual to see&#xA;  the sun. In this analogy the Brahman is the sun and the patch of cloud&#xA;  is the ignorance of the individual. When this individual’s ignorance&#xA;  is dispelled by the knowledge of Brahman, he or she will have the&#xA;  experience of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the point of view of Advaita Vedanta, maya and avidya are the&#xA;  same. Just as avidya or ignorance has the powers, as it were, to hide&#xA;  Brahman and project something else, such as the world, on it, so also&#xA;  maya, as it were, can cover up Brahman and project the world onto it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maya cannot really cover the Reality that is Brahman. A patch of cloud&#xA;  can never cover the sun. It only covers the eyes of those who are&#xA;  looking at the sun. In the same way maya covers our knowing ability&#xA;  and thus obstructs our knowledge of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In any act of knowing, the ‘knower’ and the object known’ have to be&#xA;  separate from each other. They cannot be the same. In order for us to&#xA;  know maya, it has to be separate from us. Individuals like us are the&#xA;  products of maya and we are all posited within the domain of maya.&#xA;  Maya and we individuals are not separate from each other, just as&#xA;  chocolate and a bear-shaped chocolate candy are not different from&#xA;  each other. As we are identical with maya, we cannot know maya. For&#xA;  this reason, maya is not only unknowable; it is inexplicable as well&#xA;  (anirvachaniya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Journey from Many to One &lt;em&gt;essentials of Advaita Vedanta&lt;/em&gt; by Swami Bhaskarananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-09-19T10:37:27.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15017" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9184" CreationDate="2016-09-19T11:58:38.340" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimathey Ramanujaya Namaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I heard the following in an upanyasam (discourse):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Valmiki Bhagwan wanted to tell the beauty of Sri lanka, He should have named it as Lanka Kandam. Coz when things happened in ayodhya is called as Ayodhya kandam and Kiskintha is called as kiskintha kandam, y not lanka as lanka kandam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes the beauty of lanka is been said there, but hanuman set it on fire. then how come it will be still beautiful?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The characters are so beautiful in it as said by valmiki. Apart from that, when lava and kusa sang ramayana, after kiskintha kandam, they read the title as Hanumantha Kandam. when hanuman heard it, he stopped and objected for the title. He said rama katha should praise only sri rama and sita. when valmiki said without hanuman, rama couldnt have find sita. Hanuman said, without Rama, i couldnt have strength to move and their discussion moves on. Valmiki stopped and thought for a while. He named it as sundara kandam. He said Rama is beautiful, sita is beautiful and so on. Hanuman was so much happy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the songs are over, hanuman went to his home. seeing his son after very long time, anjana called him Sundaraaaaa, how r u?. Hanuman stunned for a while and asked his mom why she called so. Anjana said, before his birth, Lord shiva said that we will get a beautiful (sundara) baby. When the baby was born, ofcourse he was so beautiful. before they name him as maruti, they called him as sundara. Valmiki, knew abt this, named the kandam as Sundara Kandam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7711" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-19T20:18:35.247" LastActivityDate="2016-09-19T20:18:35.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15018" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15011" CreationDate="2016-09-19T12:13:38.737" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/yuddha/sarga105/yuddha_105_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aditya Hridayam&lt;/a&gt; (अदित्यहृदयं स्तोत्र) is part of shree Valmiki Ramayana ,Yuddha Kanda - Book Of War , Chapter [Sarga] 105 and contains 31 slokas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) What is the Adithya Hridhyam Strotra ?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Aditya Hridayam, is a hymn in glorification of the Sun or Surya .  Rushi Agastya advises Shree Rama to recites the 'Aditya Hridayam',  in praise of the sun-god, with a view to gaining victory in the battlefield before fighting with Ravana. This hymn starts at the beginning of the Battle with Ravana, when Lord Rama is fatigued and getting ready to fight. This hymn is dircted to the Sun God, the illustrious lord of all victories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) During what times of the day, can it be chanted? What is the procedure?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's a very old hymm , Sage Valmiki himself says that the prayer part is older than the epic. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/aditya-hridayam-with-translation-a-prayer-to-sun-god&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;See Here&lt;/a&gt; .&#xA;Sage Valmiki haven't described exact timing or the procedure in the Ramayana as this was recited to Shree Rama in the context of gaining victory. But &lt;strong&gt;from our common understanding&lt;/strong&gt; of about mantras , and the  day assigned to perticular deity ,We can say that&#xA;Sunday or (Ravivar ,रविवार) is a day of Aditya or Surya ,Sun. The procedure of worshiping of sun god and chanting of various mantras dedicated to him is called &lt;strong&gt;Suryopasana&lt;/strong&gt; .Generally we perform Suryopasana in early morning facing the sun.So  &lt;strong&gt;we can chant Adithya Hridhyam stotra as inclusion in suryopasana procedure&lt;/strong&gt;. Prefarably facing the sun god and also spicially on  Sundays as this is the day dedicated Sun god Or Lord Surya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Listen to Aditya Hridayam on &lt;a href=&quot;https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DIKjaNjN2rA&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;You Tube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-09-19T12:19:26.267" LastActivityDate="2016-09-19T12:19:26.267" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15019" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15024" CreationDate="2016-09-19T12:20:55.587" Score="11" ViewCount="22622" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pitrus are our ancestors who have deceased.And &quot;Tarpanam&quot; means &quot;to satiate&quot;. Pitru Tarpanam is done to please our deceased ancestors with offerings of black sesame seeds mixed with water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can be done yearly in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/vrats/shraddhadates.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pitru Paksha&lt;/a&gt;,monthly on each Amavasya Tithi(also known as the Pitru Tithi) or even daily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question-Usually done by sons of the family  can it also be done by women of the family?Can women perform Shraddha or Pitru Tarpanam?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14986/why-women-are-not-allowed-to-attend-funerals&quot;&gt;moonstar2001&lt;/a&gt; No, they can't .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No @Rickross, they are not(allowed to do tarpanam). The only place they are allowed to do so&#xA;  is matru gaya, according to scholars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.agasthiar.org/a/tharpanam.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agasthiar.org&lt;/a&gt; ,Yes they can.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Can women do tharpanam? The answer is YES. Sathguru Venkataraman gave&#xA;  us the revolutionary idea (in the 1980s) that women can do pitru&#xA;  tharpanam just as well as men. Think of this key point: If there are&#xA;  no sons in a family, does that mean the ancestors should be starved of&#xA;  tharpanam? The answer is NO. The daughters can certainly do tharpanam.&#xA;  For a man who had daughters but no sons, will anyone do tharpanam with&#xA;  more mental involvement and dedication than his own daughters? NO. So&#xA;  these daughters can certainly do tharpanam for this (departed) man.&#xA;  Note further that if others do tharpanam for this (departed) man, it&#xA;  will be karunya tharpanam and not pitru tharpanam. Whereas, if his&#xA;  daughters do it, it will be direct, full fledged pitru tharpanam.&lt;strong&gt;However there is a condition viz :Women should use white sesame seeds in their tharpanam.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanatan.org/en/a/86.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanatan.org&lt;/a&gt; Yes they can.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Son (including the one whose threading ceremony has not been done),&#xA;  daughter, grandson, great grandson, wife, daughter’s son (if he is one&#xA;  of the heirs), real brother, nephew, cousin’s son, father, mother,&#xA;  daughter-in-law, son of elder and younger sisters, maternal uncle,&#xA;  anyone in the seven generations and from the same lineage (sapinda),&#xA;  anyone after the seven generations and belonging to the same family&#xA;  domain (samanodak), disciple, priests (upadhyay), friend, son-in-law&#xA;  of the deceased person can perform Shraddha in that order.&lt;strong&gt;However,The woman performing shraddha should place a clean cotton cloth on her shoulder while performing ‘Savya-Apasavya’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per this &lt;a href=&quot;http://kashmiripandit.net/Download%20Files/Tarpan.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;PDF&lt;/a&gt; too,women are allowed to do Tarpanam.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Facing south,  Yagnopavit  in  Upsvena  position (&lt;strong&gt;women should keep&#xA;  hair lock on left shoulder&lt;/strong&gt;), left knee  touching ground, right knee&#xA;  up,  pavitri  removed from  anamika  finger, one should hold tight two&#xA;  pieces of  darbha,  bent in the middle, by thumb and side of palm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-07-23T08:13:33.047" Title="Can women do Pitru Tarpanam?" Tags="|scripture|women|sraddha|pitru|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15020" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-19T13:26:15.770" Score="23" ViewCount="1825" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures (Dharma Shastra-s) or Hindu saints who have talked about patriotism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Related&lt;/strong&gt;: This post discusses specific to &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt; class, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16106/1049&quot;&gt;Martyr concept in Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-08-17T05:13:49.240" LastActivityDate="2022-07-04T10:09:40.097" Title="How is &quot;Patriotism&quot; seen from the Hindu Dharma perspective?" Tags="|dharma|culture|dharma-shastras|india|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15021" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15020" CreationDate="2016-09-19T13:36:32.313" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are shlokas in Hindu scriptures which may be interpreted as patriotic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It seems that the gods sing songs to this purport. Those who live in&#xA;this part of the world called Bharata are in fact blessed. In order to&#xA;enjoy the fruits of heaven and salvation they are born as human&#xA;beings, casting off their deity-hood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Garuda Purana, Dharma Khanda, chapter I]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the sub-continent Bharatvarsha &lt;strong&gt;men are auspicious&lt;/strong&gt; and their&#xA;longevity depends on their Karmans. They are said to live for a&#xA;hundred years. They are of different colours and their bodies are&#xA;small.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Linga Purana I.52.25&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Said the God of fire: The country which lies to the north of the ocean&#xA;and on the south side of the mount Himalaya is called Bharatvarsa and&#xA;measure nine thousand yojanas in breadth. &lt;strong&gt;The country  named above is&#xA;the working place of those who ascend heaven or enjoy other celestial&#xA;comforts by dint of their own piety and through the merit of good&#xA;deeds done there in.&lt;/strong&gt; The seven principal mountain chains (Kulaparvata)&#xA;which traverse the continent of Bharatvarsa, are Mahendra, Malaya,&#xA;Sahya, Suktiman, Hemaparvata (the Golden mountain), the Vindhya and&#xA;the Pariyatra. The nine islands (territories in which the above said&#xA;country is divided), are, Indradvipa, Kaseru, Tamravani, Gabhastiman,&#xA;Nagadvipa, Saumya, Gandharva, Varuna and Ayam which are surrounded by&#xA;all sides by the sea. The country above described is eight thousand&#xA;miles in length from North to South and is divided into nine principal&#xA;divisions named after the people residing therein and which lie around&#xA;the central part of the country from the East.  They are the land of&#xA;the Kiratas, the land of the Yavanas, the land of the Brahmanas from&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;whose lips drop down the deep and profound truths inculcated in the&#xA;Vedas and Smritis.&lt;/strong&gt; In mount Pariyatra is the source, of several&#xA;rivers, while the Narmada and several other streams take rise from the&#xA;Vindhya. The Tapi and the Payosnika, the  Godavari, the Bhimarathi,&#xA;the Krsna, the Veni and several other rivers take rise from the Sahya&#xA;Mountain, while the Krtamala and the Trisama respectively flow from&#xA;the Malaya and the Mahendra Mountains. The rivers Kumara and others&#xA;have their source in the Suktiman Mountain, while the Candrabhaga&#xA;takes its rise from the Himalaya. The countries known as the&#xA;Kurupancala and the Madhya-desa are in the western part of the&#xA;continent of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agni Purana 119.1-8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2021-10-03T04:48:53.237" LastActivityDate="2021-10-03T04:48:53.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15022" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15020" CreationDate="2016-09-19T17:32:17.927" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, Earth and Bharatvarsh is considered as mother. And, in general, everyone love their mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp060.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उत्तरम् यत् समुद्रस्य हिमाद्रे: चैव दक्षिणम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वर्षम् तद् भारतम् नाम भारती यत्र संतति:||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;THE country that lies north of the ocean, and south of the snowy mountains, is called Bhárata, for there dwelt the descendants of Bharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earth is also known as consort of Lord Vishnu, so very respectable. There is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/bhumi_devi-samudra_vasane_devi.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;shloka&lt;/a&gt; regarding this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;समुद्रवसने देवि पर्वतस्तनमण्डले ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विष्णुपत्नि नमस्तुभ्यं पादस्पर्शं क्षमस्वमे ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samudra-Vasane Devi Parvata-Stana-Mannddale |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vissnnu-Patni Namas-Tubhyam Paada-Sparsham Kssamasva-Me ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1: (Oh Mother Earth) The Devi Who is having Ocean as Her Garments and Mountains as Her Bosom,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2: Who is the Consort of Sri Vishnu, I Bow to You; Please Forgive me for Touching You with my Feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp060.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt; also praise Bharatavarsh as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गायन्ति देवा: किल गीतिकानि, धन्यास्तु ते भारतभूमिभागे।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्वर्गापवर्गास्पद - मार्गभूते, भवन्ति भूय: पुरुषा: सुरत्वात्।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gods themselves exclaim, &amp;quot;Happy are those who are born, even from the condition of gods, as men in Bhárata-varsha, as that is the way to the pleasures of Paradise, or the greater blessing of final liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-19T17:32:17.927" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15024" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15019" CreationDate="2016-09-20T04:07:15.143" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, they are allowed to do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garuḍa Purāṇam, Preta Kalpa Chapter Eight says (&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_purana/garuDapurANa.pdf&quot;&gt;Source 1&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600207.us.archive.org/19/items/GarudaPuranaEnglishMotilal3VolumesIn1/Garuda%20Purana%20English%20-%20Motilal%20-%203%20Volumes%20in%201.pdf&quot;&gt;Source 2&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गरुड उवाच -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स्वामिन्कस्याधिकारोऽत्र सर्व एवौर्ध्वदेहिके&lt;/strong&gt; । क्रियाः कतिविधाः&#xA;  प्रोक्ता वदैतत्सर्वमेव मे ॥ १ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;garuḍa uvāca -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;svāminkasyādhikāro'tra sarva evaurdhvadehike&lt;/strong&gt; । kriyāḥ katividhāḥ&#xA;  proktā vadaitatsarvameva me ॥ 1 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Garuda said - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Lord, now tell me who are authorized to perform obsequies&lt;/strong&gt; and what&#xA;  are the methods of performance prescribed in the śāstras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीकृष्ण उवाच - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुत्रः पौत्रः प्रपौत्रो वा तद्भ्राता भ्रातृसन्ततिः ।&#xA;  सपिण्डसन्ततिर्वापि क्रियार्हाः खग ज्ञातय ॥ २ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śrīkṛṣṇa uvāca - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;putraḥ pautraḥ prapautro vā tadbhrātā bhrātṛsantatiḥ ।&#xA;  sapiṇḍasantatirvāpi kriyārhāḥ khaga jñātaya ॥ 2 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna (The Lord) said - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Son, Grandson, Great grandson, his brother and brother's progeny, so&#xA;  also sapiṇḍa progeny - all these are authorized to perform the&#xA;  obsequies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेषामभावे सर्वेषां समानोदकसन्ततिः । कुलद्वयेऽपि चोच्छिन्ने&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;स्त्रीभिः&lt;/strong&gt; कार्याः क्रियाः खग ॥ ३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;teṣāmabhāve sarveṣāṃ samānodakasantatiḥ । kuladvaye'pi cocchinne&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;strībhiḥ&lt;/strong&gt; kāryāḥ kriyāḥ khaga ॥ 3 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In their absence, samānodaka progeny can perform the rite. &lt;strong&gt;If both&#xA;  the families are maleless the women should perform the obsequies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इच्छयोच्छिन्नबन्धश्च कारयेदवनीपतिः । पूर्वाः क्रिया मध्यमाश्च तथा&#xA;  चैवोत्तराः क्रियाः ॥ ४ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;icchayocchinnabandhaśca kārayedavanīpatiḥ । pūrvāḥ kriyā madhyamāśca&#xA;  tathā caivottarāḥ kriyāḥ ॥ 4 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the absence any family or relative, the king may perform all the&#xA;  rites - the preliminary, the middling and the final.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/garuapurasroddh00subrgoog&quot;&gt;Garuḍa Purāṇam Sāroddhāra&lt;/a&gt; (Essence of Garuḍa Purāṇam, considered equivalent to Garuḍa Purāṇam and recited widely) in its Chapter 11 (śloka 18) says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स्त्री&lt;/strong&gt; वाऽथ पुरुषः कश्चिदिष्टस्य कुरुते क्रियाम् । अनाथप्रेतसंस्कारात्कोटियज्ञफमं लभेत् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;strī&lt;/strong&gt; vā'tha puruṣaḥ kaścidiṣṭasya kurute kriyām । &lt;strong&gt;anāthapretasaṃskārātkoṭiyajñaphalaṃ labhet&lt;/strong&gt; ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A &lt;strong&gt;woman&lt;/strong&gt; or man who performs the &lt;strong&gt;rites for anātha preta (unknown&#xA;  person or friend) obtains the fruit of performing a crore (or&#xA;  unlimited) sacrifices (yajña)&lt;/strong&gt;. This (Regarding Anātha Preta rites)&#xA;  is also said in Garuḍa Purāṇam, Preta Kalpa Chapter Thirty Eight&#xA;  (śloka 40) as &lt;strong&gt;अनाथप्रेतसंस्कारः कोटियज्ञफलप्रदः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T04:07:15.143" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15025" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9102" CreationDate="2016-09-20T04:39:44.860" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/prashna-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145314.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Praśnopaniṣad 3.8&lt;/a&gt; and Śaṅkarācārya's commentary make a reference to gravity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verse 3.8&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आदित्यो ह वै बाह्यः प्राण उदयत्येष ह्येनं चाक्शुषं प्राणमनुगृह्णानः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पृथिव्यां या देवता सैषा पुरुषस्यअपानमवष्टभ्यान्तरा यदाकाशः स समानो वायुर्व्यानः ॥ ८ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ādityo ha vai bāhyaḥ prāṇa udayatyeṣa hyenaṃ cākśuṣaṃ prāṇamanugṛhṇānaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pṛthivyāṃ yā devatā saiṣā puruṣasyaapānamavaṣṭabhyāntarā yadākāśaḥ sa samāno vāyurvyānaḥ || 8 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.&#xA;  The sun, indeed, is the external prâna. He rises favouring the prâna in the eye. &lt;strong&gt;So the goddess of the earth attracts the apâna downwards.&lt;/strong&gt; The âkâsa between is samâna. The wind is vyâna.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shankara’s Commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Com. — The sun is the well-known outward Prâna among the Dêvâs. He rises and by his light favours this prâna, lodged in the eye of the body, i.e., helps it with luminosity in the perception of forms. &lt;strong&gt;Similarly the well-known goddess presiding over earth, attracts or controls the activity of the apâna in the purusha and favours its action by pulling downwards; for, otherwise, this body, owing to its weight, may fall down, or being unimpeded, may fly up.&lt;/strong&gt; The air in the âkâsa, in the middle, i.e., between the earth and heaven (by the word âkâsa, the wind in it is denoted, as those in a cot are denoted by the word cot) is samâna, i.e., favours samâna, samâna resembling it, in the fact of being enclosed within the âkâsa in the middle. The external wind, vâyu, generally because it resembles vyâna in pervading, favours vyâna. This is the drift.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T04:39:44.860" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15026" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15037" CreationDate="2016-09-20T05:33:03.240" Score="3" ViewCount="29165" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagya is a Sanskrit word which  means Destiny or Fortune, usually Blessed Destiny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The origins of this Sanskrit word can be found in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhaga is referred to as a God who gifts Truth to a human being and guides the person towards Bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is understood that there is a Suktam by the name Bhagya Suktam in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is Bhagya Suktam? What are the verses in Sanskrit? What is the translation in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-21T17:28:21.303" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T13:07:24.290" Title="Bhagya Suktam and translation in English" Tags="|vedas|scripture|translation-request|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15027" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15036" CreationDate="2016-09-20T06:45:38.420" Score="12" ViewCount="96370" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।  मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥ २-४७&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana । Ma Karmaphalaheturbhurma&#xA;  Te Sangostvakarmani ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;- Your right is to perform your work, but never to the results. Never be motivated by the results of your actions, nor should&#xA;  you be attached to not performing your prescribed duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is famous shloka from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=2&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=47&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shreemad Bhagwat Gita &lt;/a&gt;&#xA;in which lord Shree Krishna is advising arjuna about how to perform karma ( own work) in a right way and about &quot;Nishkam Karma&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are the  other   Sanskrit scriptures , shlokas from Vedas and Upanishads ,that convey similar message of performing &quot;Nishkam karma&quot; to us?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2016-09-20T16:13:44.637" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T18:51:31.697" Title="&quot;Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana&quot; Similar shlokas from Vedas and Upanishadas?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|bhagavad-gita|karma|upanishads|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15028" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14986" CreationDate="2016-09-20T06:47:36.923" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prohibiting Women from entering Graveyards is &lt;strong&gt;ācāram more than a śāstra&lt;/strong&gt;. Usually women are sensitive and cannot withstand the death of husbands and sons and family members. If they are allowed there they might take their own life out of agony. One such examples are Mādri died by falling in the cremation fire of Pāndu in Mahābhārata. In the biography of Narasimha Saraswati in Guru Charitra - a story in which a mother getting her dead son back is narrated in which she refuses to give dead body and gets ready to die along with him. Another story also in which a wife is ready to do sati sahagamanam along with her husband's dead body is also narrated in Guru Charitra. So to avoid such wrong happenings out of agony and grief, it has been kept as an ācāra, but there is no such prohibition in dharma śāstras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as women performing  rites is considered, they are allowed to do as stated by Garuḍa Purāṇam, Preta Kalpa Chapter Eight (&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_purana/garuDapurANa.pdf&quot;&gt;Source 1&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600207.us.archive.org/19/items/GarudaPuranaEnglishMotilal3VolumesIn1/Garuda%20Purana%20English%20-%20Motilal%20-%203%20Volumes%20in%201.pdf&quot;&gt;Source 2&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गरुड उवाच -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स्वामिन्कस्याधिकारोऽत्र सर्व एवौर्ध्वदेहिके&lt;/strong&gt; । क्रियाः कतिविधाः&#xA;  प्रोक्ता वदैतत्सर्वमेव मे ॥ १ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;garuḍa uvāca -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;svāminkasyādhikāro'tra sarva evaurdhvadehike&lt;/strong&gt; । kriyāḥ katividhāḥ&#xA;  proktā vadaitatsarvameva me ॥ 1 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Garuda said - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Lord, now tell me who are authorized to perform obsequies&lt;/strong&gt; and what&#xA;  are the methods of performance prescribed in the śāstras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीकृष्ण उवाच - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुत्रः पौत्रः प्रपौत्रो वा तद्भ्राता भ्रातृसन्ततिः ।&#xA;  सपिण्डसन्ततिर्वापि क्रियार्हाः खग ज्ञातय ॥ २ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śrīkṛṣṇa uvāca - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;putraḥ pautraḥ prapautro vā tadbhrātā bhrātṛsantatiḥ ।&#xA;  sapiṇḍasantatirvāpi kriyārhāḥ khaga jñātaya ॥ 2 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna (The Lord) said - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Son, Grandson, Great grandson, his brother and brother's progeny, so&#xA;  also sapiṇḍa progeny - all these are authorized to perform the&#xA;  obsequies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेषामभावे सर्वेषां समानोदकसन्ततिः । कुलद्वयेऽपि चोच्छिन्ने&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;स्त्रीभिः&lt;/strong&gt; कार्याः क्रियाः खग ॥ ३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;teṣāmabhāve sarveṣāṃ samānodakasantatiḥ । kuladvaye'pi cocchinne&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;strībhiḥ&lt;/strong&gt; kāryāḥ kriyāḥ khaga ॥ 3 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In their absence, samānodaka progeny can perform the rite. &lt;strong&gt;If both&#xA;  the families are maleless the women should perform the obsequies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इच्छयोच्छिन्नबन्धश्च कारयेदवनीपतिः । पूर्वाः क्रिया मध्यमाश्च तथा&#xA;  चैवोत्तराः क्रियाः ॥ ४ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;icchayocchinnabandhaśca kārayedavanīpatiḥ । pūrvāḥ kriyā madhyamāśca&#xA;  tathā caivottarāḥ kriyāḥ ॥ 4 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the absence any family or relative, the king may perform all the&#xA;  rites - the preliminary, the middling and the final.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/garuapurasroddh00subrgoog&quot;&gt;Garuḍa Purāṇam Sāroddhāra&lt;/a&gt; (Essence of Garuḍa Purāṇam, considered equivalent to Garuḍa Purāṇam and recited widely) in its Chapter 11 (śloka 18) says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स्त्री&lt;/strong&gt; वाऽथ पुरुषः कश्चिदिष्टस्य कुरुते क्रियाम् । अनाथप्रेतसंस्कारात्कोटियज्ञफमं लभेत् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;strī&lt;/strong&gt; vā'tha puruṣaḥ kaścidiṣṭasya kurute kriyām । &lt;strong&gt;anāthapretasaṃskārātkoṭiyajñaphalaṃ labhet&lt;/strong&gt; ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A &lt;strong&gt;woman&lt;/strong&gt; or man who performs the &lt;strong&gt;rites for anātha preta (unknown&#xA;  person or friend) obtains the fruit of performing a crore (or&#xA;  unlimited) sacrifices (yajña)&lt;/strong&gt;. This (Regarding Anātha Preta rites)&#xA;  is also said in Garuḍa Purāṇam, Preta Kalpa Chapter Thirty Eight&#xA;  (śloka 40) as &lt;strong&gt;अनाथप्रेतसंस्कारः कोटियज्ञफलप्रदः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T06:47:36.923" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15029" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14986" CreationDate="2016-09-20T07:06:18.953" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When all male members of the family leave for shamshan ghat, someone has to be in the house to clean it and take care of it. And&#xA;  traditionally, this is the duty of the household women. Hence, women&#xA;  stay at home doesn't go to shamshan ghat.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some say that a funeral is hard to watch. According to Hindu mythology, before leaving the shamshan ghat the family members of the&#xA;  deceased must ensure that the dead body is fully burnt. Sometimes due&#xA;  to the heat, the body may cramp up, and it is not a pleasure to watch.&#xA;  Women in Hindu religion are considered to have a delicate heart and&#xA;  this can leave a disturbing image for a long time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A funeral is really horrid to watch. Sometime, the corpse jerks up and needs to be beaten back into the pyre using bamboo sticks. The&#xA;  smokes are foul and these are enough to make any normal human feel&#xA;  rather sick. Traditionally, it is believed that girls are weaker&#xA;  mentally and will not be able to handle such a scene.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some say that married women are allowed at the shamshan ghat and that because that they considered not pure whereas unmarried girls&#xA;  meaning the virgin ones are said to be pure and it is easy for ghosts,&#xA;  evil spirits and fierce deities to get their control through bad&#xA;  means.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Few people opined that because women can't shave their head, they are not allowed. This is because, as per Hindu theory of evils, if you&#xA;  go inside grave yard you may carry one of evil element with you and&#xA;  perception is hairs are the part of body through which evil element&#xA;  can enter ones body.  If you want to shave off your head alongwith men&#xA;  going inside graveyard you can go.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/why-women-are-not-allowed-at-shamshan-ghat-55126.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T07:06:18.953" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15031" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14962" CreationDate="2016-09-20T08:50:51.580" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Stealing other's wealth, cheating others and taking their belongings take the wind type predha roop and will roam with hungry and thirst. He will cause difficulty to his family members and relatives.He will not allow pithrus to enter the house on ceremony [pithru arrival days]. He will take the havis offered for them.He will cause difficulty to his son by preventing child to him.The persons in the family who is having bad habits will be put to lots of difficulties. Child will born and die likewise it continues, non coopearion in the family,  unable to save the cow, enmity with friends, cannot adhere upavas, preventing good deeds, causing fight all caused by this preda janma. This will surround the family because preda janma dosha is very difficult to rfemove due to stealing of wealth, jewellery and belongings of others.&#xA;Source---Garuda Puranam---Punishment 1 is Tamisram for this preda Janma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T08:50:51.580" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15032" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14961" CreationDate="2016-09-20T09:00:06.597" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Attaining the preda Janma--&#xA;  People who try to take the possession over others property (wealth, money, land, houses, jewellery) exercising unacceptable acts such as robbing, surcharging with interests etc., would be punished with this punishment by god of death Yamraj’s retainers and cast them into the Naraka (hell) known as Tamisram.&#xA;  To get relieved--&#xA;  Narayana started explain to Garuda how to get relieved of this preda janma .When a person is alive he has to do Viruksha sarkam---[விரு÷ஷாற் சர்க்கம்] by his own hands. No karma can prevent this. On the eleventh day of death if it was done he will go to his ancestors place and will attain mukthi.This karma to be done by son, wife, grand son and daughter.&#xA;  Source--Garuda puranam--PUNISHMENT 1: Tamisram (Heavy Flogging)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T09:00:06.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15033" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-20T09:26:21.090" Score="1" ViewCount="168" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning of Thanikachalan which the name of Lord Muruga? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7718" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-09-20T10:27:27.233" LastActivityDate="2017-12-07T08:49:39.057" Title="Why is Muruga also known as Thanikachalan?" Tags="|name|kartikeya|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15034" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14958" CreationDate="2016-09-20T09:30:17.213" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;A man can be relieved from curses and sins completely  he committed during his earthly life when he dies followed by his wife also dies in the same pyre and loses here life. This is the best parikara.&#xA;கணவன் செய்த எல்லா பாவங்களும், அவனுடைய மனைவி கணவனுடன் உடன்கட்டை ஏறுவதால் பரிகாரமாகி விடும். &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source Garuda puranam under prayaschitha chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T09:30:17.213" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15035" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-20T09:44:56.670" Score="5" ViewCount="1341" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_shiva/chandra8.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Chandrashekhara Ashtakam&lt;/a&gt; is believed to be created by Sage Marakandeya. It is believed that when Yama is trying to take life of Sage Marakandeya, then he had sung this Stotram and thus Lord Shiva has saved him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have read this story in &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedpuran.net/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Padma Purana, Uttara Khanda downloaded from vedpuran.net website&lt;/a&gt;. But this story is not found in any other version of Padma Purana. So, I think the Padma Purana which I have is interpolated. That's why &lt;strong&gt;I am looking for the source of Chandrashekhara Ashtakam&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-09-21T02:41:51.017" LastActivityDate="2016-09-21T02:41:51.017" Title="What is the origin of Chandrashekhara Ashtakam?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|scripture|puranas|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15036" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15027" CreationDate="2016-09-20T10:01:22.840" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mundaka Upanishad, Second Khanda &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/mundaka.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;English source&lt;/a&gt; contains some verses that leads to Nishkama Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अविद्यायं बहुधा वर्तमाना वयं कृतार्था इत्यभिमन्यन्ति बालाः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यत् कर्मिणो न प्रवेदयन्ति रागात्&#xA;  तेनातुराः क्षीणलोकाश्च्यवन्ते॥ ९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Children, when they have long lived in ignorance, consider themselves happy. Because those who depend on their good works are, owing to their passions, improvident, they fall and become miserable when their life (in the world which they had gained by their good works) is finished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इष्टापूर्तं मन्यमाना वरिष्ठं&#xA;  नान्यच्छ्रेयोवेदयन्तेप्रमूढाः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नाकस्य पृष्ठेतेसुकृतेऽनुभूत्वेमं&#xA;  लोकं हीनतरं वा विशन्ति&#xA;  ॥ १0&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Considering sacrifice and good works as the best, these fools know no higher good, and having enjoyed (their reward) on the height of heaven, gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 5&lt;/a&gt; also contains Shlokas leading to Nishkam Karma (desire-less deeds).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahmaṇy ādhāya karmāṇi&#xA;  saṅgaṁ tyaktvā karoti yaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;lipyate na sa pāpena&#xA;  padma-patram ivāmbhasā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 5.10- One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus leaf is untouched by water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kāyena manasā buddhyā&#xA;  kevalair indriyair api&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yoginaḥ karma kurvanti&#xA;  saṅgaṁ tyaktvātma-śuddhaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 5.11- The yogīs, abandoning attachment, act with body, mind, intelligence and even with the senses, only for the purpose of puriﬁcation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 12&lt;/a&gt; also talks about renunciation of fruits of action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śreyo hi jñānam abhyāsāj&#xA;  jñānād dhyānaṁ viśiṣyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dhyānāt karma-phala-tyāgas&#xA;  tyāgāc chāntir anantaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 12.12- If you cannot take to this practice, then engage yourself in the cultivation of knowledge. Better than knowledge, however, is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for by such renunciation one can attain peace of mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T10:01:22.840" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15037" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15026" CreationDate="2016-09-20T11:12:00.643" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ॐ&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;परातरग्निं परातरिन्द्रं हवामहे परातर्मित्रावरुणाप्रातरश्विना |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;परातर्भगं पूषणं बरह्मणस पतिं परातः सोममुत रुद्रं हुवेम ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aum&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;prātaraghniṃ prātarindraṃ havāmahe prātarmitrāvaruṇāprātaraśvinā |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;prātarbhaghaṃ pūṣaṇaṃ brahmaṇas patiṃ prātaḥ somamuta rudraṃ huvema ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MEANING In English:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AGNI at dawn, and Indra we invoke at dawn, and Varuṇa and Mitra, and&#xA;  the Aśvins twain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhaga at dawn, Pūṣan, and Brahmaṇaspati, Soma at dawn, Rudra we will&#xA;  invoke at dawn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्थ हिंदी में: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हम प्रात :  के समय पर अग्नि , वरुण ,इन्द्र  ,मित्र ,अश्विन कुमार ,भग ,&#xA;  पूष,ब्रह्मनास्पति ,सोम ,रूद्र का आवाहन करते हैं&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;परातर्जितं भगमुग्रं हुवेम वयं पुत्रमदितेर्यो विधर्ता |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आध्रश्चिद यं मन्यमानस्तुरश्चिद राजा चिद यं भगं भक्षीत्याह ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;prātarjitaṃ bhaghamughraṃ huvema vayaṃ putramaditeryo vidhartā |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ādhraścid yaṃ manyamānasturaścid rājā cid yaṃ bhaghaṃ bhakṣītyāha ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning in English :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We will invoke strong, early-conquering Bhaga, the Son of Aditi, the&#xA;  great supporter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thinking of whom, the poor, yea, even the mighty, even the King&#xA;  himself says, Give me Bhaga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्थ हिंदी में:   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हम शक्तिशाली , युद्ध में जीतने वाले भग का आवाहन करते हैं जिनके बारे&#xA;  में सोचकर राजा  भी कहते हैं की हमें भग दीजिये&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भग परणेतर्भग सत्यराधो भगेमां धियमुदवा ददन नः |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भग पर णो जनय गोभिरश्वैर्भग पर नर्भिर्न्र्वन्तः सयाम ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;bhagha praṇetarbhagha satyarādho bhaghemāṃ dhiyamudavā dadan naḥ |&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;bhagha pra ṇo janaya ghobhiraśvairbhagha pra nṛbhirnṛvantaḥ syāma ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning In English&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhaga our guide, Bhaga whose gifts are faithful, favour this song, and give us wealth, O Bhaga. Bhaga, augment our store of kine and&#xA;  horses, Bhaga, may we be rich in men and heroes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्थ हिंदी में: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हे भग हमारा मार्गदर्शन करें ,आपके उपहार अनुकूल हैं ,हमें ऐश्वर्य&#xA;  दीजिये हे भग ! हमें घोडे {सवारी } और योधा रिश्तेदार  दीजिये&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;उतेदानीं भगवन्तः सयामोत परपित्व उत मध्ये अह्नाम |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;उतोदिता मघवन सूर्यस्य वयं देवानां सुमतौ सयाम ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;utedānīṃ bhaghavantaḥ syāmota prapitva uta madhye ahnām |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;utoditā maghavan sūryasya vayaṃ devānāṃ sumatau syāma ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning In English&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So may felicity be ours at present, and when the day approaches, and&#xA;  at noontide;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And may we still, O Bounteous One, at sunset be happy in the Deities'&#xA;  loving-kindness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्थ हिंदी में: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कृपा कीजिये कि अब हमें  सुख-चैन मिले , और जैसे जैसे दिन बढ़ता जाये ,&#xA;  जैसे -जैसे दोपहर हो , शाम हो हम देव कृपा से प्रसन्न रहे &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भग एव भगवानस्तु देवास्तेन वयं भगवन्तः सयाम |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तं तवा भग सर्व इज्जोहवीति स नो भग पुरेता भवेह ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;bhagha eva bhaghavānastu devāstena vayaṃ bhaghavantaḥ syāma |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;taṃ tvā bhagha sarva ijjohavīti sa no bhagha puraetā bhaveha ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning In English :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May Bhaga verily be bliss-bestower, and through him, Gods! may&#xA;  happiness attend us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As such, O Bhaga, all with might invoke thee: as such be thou our&#xA;  Champion here, O Bhaga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्थ हिंदी में: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हे भग आप परमानंद प्रदान करें और आपके द्वारा देव हमें प्रसन्नता से&#xA;  स्वीकार करें हे भग हम आपका आवाहन करते हैं ,आप यहाँ हमारे साथ आयें&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;समध्वरायोषसो नमन्त दधिक्रावेव शुचये पदाय |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अर्वाचीनं वसुविदं भगं नो रथमिवाश्वा वाजिन आ वहन्तु ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;samadhvarāyoṣaso namanta dadhikrāveva śucaye padāya |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;arvācīnaṃ vasuvidaṃ bhaghaṃ no rathamivāśvā vājina ā vahantu ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning In English :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To this our worship may all Dawns incline them, and come to the pure&#xA;  place like Dadhikrāvan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As strong steeds draw a chariot may they bring us hitherward Bhaga who&#xA;  discovers treasure&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्थ हिंदी में: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इस प्रकार प्रतिदिन भग यहाँ आयें {पवित्र स्थान जैसे दधिक्रावन }जैसे&#xA;  शक्तिशाली घोड़े रथ को खींचते हैं वैसे ही भग का यहाँ आवाहन  किया जाये&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अश्वावतीर्गोमतीर्न उषासो वीरवतीः सदमुछन्तु भद्राः |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;घर्तं दुहाना विश्वतः परपीता यूयं पात ... ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;aśvāvatīrghomatīrna uṣāso vīravatīḥ sadamuchantu bhadrāḥ |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ghṛtaṃ duhānā viśvataḥ prapītā yūyaṃ pāta ... ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning In English&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May blessed Mornings dawn on us for ever, with wealth of kine, of&#xA;  horses, and of heroes,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Streaming with all abundance, pouring fatness. Preserve us evermore,&#xA;  ye Gods, with blessings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्थ हिंदी में:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इस प्रकार कृतार्थ सुबह हमें प्राप्त हो हमें  हमें घोडे और योधा&#xA;  रिश्तेदार  प्राप्त हो हे देव हमें अपने आशीर्वाद दीजिये&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicsuktams.blogspot.in/2011/03/bhagya-suktam-rigved-7-41.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T11:12:00.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15038" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-20T16:10:54.203" Score="8" ViewCount="345" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, in the beginning of Adhyaya 3 Pada 2 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa discusses the nature of different states of consciousness.  For instance, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14606/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, he shows that during deep sleep, the Jiva resides in Brahman. But my question is about another state of consciousness discussed by Vyasa, the state of fainting.  Here's what Vyasa says in Adhyaya 3 Pada 2 Sutra 10:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mugdhe'rthasampattirpariśeṣāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the case of one in swoon, there is only partial attainment (of the state of sleep), that being the last alternative.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most commentators interpret this as saying that fainting is a state half-way between deep sleep and death; for instance see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38113.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48354.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the Dvaita philosopher Madhvacharya interprets it differently, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GHTP7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When falling into a swoon, &lt;strong&gt;the soul has a half-entering to Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;.  The following is said in the Varaha Purana, &amp;quot;When the soul is at a distance from the Lord he will be in the state of wakefulness; when he is nearer to him he is in dreams.  When he has entered into the Lord he sleeps.  These three states being of such a description, the state of being in a swoon has this only explanation left, that is, it is half-entering into The Lord; for in this state there is the sensation of pain only continued (as observed on recovery).&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Baladeva Vidyabhushana, the Gaudiya Vaishnava commentator on the Brahma Sutras, says the same thing as Madhvacharya in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicilluminations.com/downloads/Vedic%20Texts/Vedanta-sutra/commentaries/Govinda%20bhasya/David%20Bruce%20Hughes%20(Bhaktisiddharta%20das)%20from%20Kusakratha/Vedanta-sutra%20Adhyaya%203%20Pada%202.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Govinda Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a man is in a swooning or stunned condition, &lt;strong&gt;he is in half combination with Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;, because of the rule of the remainder. In this condition the jīva soul does not reach Brahman fully as in deep sleep, because he is conscious of pain. Nor is there total lack of attaining Brahman, as in the waking state, because the soul is unconscious of external objects. Thus by the rule of the remainder, we conclude that there is half combination. We find this described in the Varāha Purāṇa: “When the soul is at a distance from the Supreme Lord in the heart—that is, when he is in the eyes—then he is in waking consciousness. When he is nearer to the Lord—that is, in the throat—then he is in the dream consciousness. But when he has entered into the Lord, then he is in deep sleep. Therefore these are the three states; but swoon is an intermediate state, in which there is half combination with Brahman, because on recovery, there is memory of the consciousness of pain.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what do Madhvacharya and Baladeva Vidyabhushana mean when they say that the Jiva &amp;quot;half-enters&amp;quot; into Brahman during fainting.  How can a Jiva half-enter into Brahman?  Does part of the Jiva's subtle body enter Brahman, or does part of the Jiva itself enter Brahman, or what?  I'm not sure how the latter would work as the Jiva is atomic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any subcommentaries on either of their works that address this?  Also, does anyone know where in the Varaha Purana the verse quoted by Madhvacharya and Baladeva Vidyabhushana is from?  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8680/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; Madhvacharya's scriptural quotes tend to be untraceable in available copies of scriptures, so it may be hard to find.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2023-07-10T11:48:08.310" Title="What does Madhvacharya mean by the Jiva &quot;half-entering&quot; Brahman during fainting?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahman|brahma-sutras|madhvacharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15039" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-20T16:30:08.033" Score="2" ViewCount="4217" Body="&lt;p&gt;I could not understand who are the RAKSHASAS and if they belong only to India, Lanka or anywhere else in the world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If they were in that period then why don't they exist in today's world? How did they get finished. When Ramayana refer to rakshasa what does it mean - human being or animals or some other species?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4061" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T06:18:44.340" LastActivityDate="2018-12-13T22:39:22.663" Title="What is Rakshasa, were they only in Ram period and not any more?" Tags="|ramayana|geography|rakshasa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15040" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14986" CreationDate="2016-09-20T17:25:46.240" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. To Take Care Of The House&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While the men of the house go to the cremation ground, the women&#xA;  being the caretakers of the house, are expected to clean the house and&#xA;  look after it. Traditionally, women were also expected to keep the&#xA;  food ready for the men returning from the cremation ground.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. It’s A Disturbed Sight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is believed that some women are weak hearted and therefore may not&#xA;  be able to bear the terrible sight of bodies being burned. As per&#xA;  Hindu mythology, before leaving the shamshan ghat the family members&#xA;  must ensure that the dead body is fully burnt and because of the heat,&#xA;  the body may cramp up, which isn’t easy to watch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Long Hair Can Attract Negative Energy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hair is considered as one of the evil element. Therefore, people&#xA;  still believe that long hair can attract negative energy and thus make&#xA;  it easy for evil spirits to possess women. Since women can’t shave&#xA;  their head, they are not allowed to enter the shamshan ghat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. Ghost Effect&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is said that unmarried women (specifically virgins) are pure and&#xA;  therefore easier to be possessed by the evil spirits. As against,&#xA;  married women can enter the cremation ground as they are difficult to&#xA;  be controlled through bad means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5. A Ritual Belief&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to some traditional beliefs in Hindu mythology, tears are&#xA;  considered as pollutants during the last rights of the deceased. Women&#xA;  being soft-hearted may shed tears or weep and thus it may not make the&#xA;  dead person feel at peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://beingindian.com/lifestyle/ever-wondered-women-not-allowed-attend-funerals-india/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7723" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T17:25:46.240" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15041" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15026" CreationDate="2016-09-20T17:28:53.273" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ऊँ प्रातरग्निं प्रातरिन्द्रं हवामहे प्रातर्मित्रा वरुणा प्रातरश्विना ।&#xA;  प्रातर्भगं पूषणं ब्रह्मणस्पतिं प्रातस्सोममुत रुद्रँ हुवेम ॥1॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aum praataragniṃ praatarindraṃ havaamahe praatarmitraa varuṇaa&#xA;  praatarashvinaa | praatarbhagaṃ pooṣhaṇaṃ brahmaṇaspatiṃ praatass&#xA;  somamuta rudraṃ huvem ||1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;At dawn, we invoke Agni (the fire deity), Indra (the rain deity), Mitrā (the Sun) and Varuṇa (the deity of the ocean); the Aśvins (the&#xA;  celestial physician twins), Bhaga (the deity of wealth), Puṣan (the&#xA;  Sun as the deity of nutrition), Bṛahmaṇaspati (the preceptor of the&#xA;  gods), Soma (the Moon), and Rudra (the god of dissolution)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;हम प्रात: के समय पर अग्नि , वरुण ,इन्द्र  ,मित्र ,अश्विन कुमार ,भग , पूष,ब्रह्मनास्पति ,सोम और रूद्र का आवाहन करते हैं&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रातर्जितं भगमुग्रँ हुवेम वयं पुत्रमदितेर्यो विधर्ता । आद्ध्रश्चिद्यं&#xA;  मन्यमानस्तुरश्चिद्राजा चिद्यंभगं भक्षीत्याह॥2॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Praatarjitaṃ bhagmugraṃ huvem vayaṃ putramaditeryo vidhartaa | &#xA;  aadhrash chidyaṃ manya maanastu rashchidraajaa chid yaṃ bhagaṃ&#xA;  bhakṣhityaaha ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;We invoke at dawn, the fierce Bhaga, the son (manifestation) of Aditi (the Cosmic Power), who is the very sustainer of the creation.&#xA;  Whether a pauper, a busy person, or a king; everyone worships and&#xA;  contemplates upon Bhaga saying, 'I would worship Bhaga.' &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;हम शक्तिशाली , युद्ध में जीतने वाले भग का आवाहन करते हैं जिनके बारे में सोचकर राजा  भी कहते हैं की हमें भग दीजिये&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भग प्रणेतर्भगसत्यराधो भगेमां धियमुदवददन्नः। भगप्रणो जनय&#xA;  गोभि-रश्वैर्भगप्रनृभि-र्नृवन्तस्स्याम ॥3॥ bhagha praṇetarbhaga&#xA;  satyaraadho bhaghemaaṃ dhiyamudava dadannaḥ |  bhaga praṇo janaya&#xA;  gobhirashvairbhaga pranṛibhirnṛivantassyaam ||3||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O Bhaga! The great leader, and truth is your wealth. Bestow it upon us, and elevate our intellect and protect it. Bless us with&#xA;  cattle-wealth, horses, and descendants and followers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;हे भग हमारा मार्गदर्शन करें ,आपके उपहार अनुकूल हैं ,हमें ऐश्वर्य दीजिये हे भग ! हमें घोडे {सवारी }, गाय और योद्धा वंशज दीजिये&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उतेदानीं भगवन्तस्यामोत प्रपित्व उत मध्ये अह्नाम्। उतोदिता मघवन्&#xA;  सूर्यस्य वयं देवानाँ सुमतौ स्याम ॥4॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;utedaaneeṃ bhagavantasyaamot prapitv ut madhye ahnaam | utoditaa&#xA;  maghavan sooryasya vayaṃ devaanaaṃ sumatau syaam ||4||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;May we be blessed by Bhaga now (during this fire-ritual), and when the light approaches, or at midday. O Lord Indra! At sunset also, may&#xA;  we still find favor of the Sun, and other gods.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;कृपा कीजिये कि अब हमें  सुख-चैन मिले , और जैसे जैसे दिन बढ़ता जाये , जैसे -जैसे दोपहर हो , शाम हो हम देव कृपा से प्रसन्न रहे &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भग एव भगवाँअस्तु देवास्तेन वयं भगवन्तस्स्याम। तं त्वा भग सर्व&#xA;  इज्जोहवीमि सनो भग पुर एता भवेह॥5॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhaga eva bhagavaanastu devaastena vayaṃ bhagvantasyaam | taṃ tvaa&#xA;  bhaga sarva ijjohaveemi sano bhaga pur etaa bhaveha ||5||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;May Bhaga, (and) the gods be the possessor of good fortune, and through Him, may we may be blessed with good fortune by that god.&#xA;  Everyone including myself invite you to bring in good fortune. O&#xA;  Bhaga! Kindly lead us being present in the ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;हे भग आप परमानंद प्रदान करें और आपके द्वारा देव हमें प्रसन्नता से स्वीकार करें हे भग हम आपका आवाहन करते हैं ,आप यहाँ हमारे साथ आयें&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समध्वरायोषसोऽनमन्त दधिक्रावेव शुचये पदाय। अर्वाचीनं वसुविदं भगन्नो&#xA;  रथमिवाश्वावाजिन आवहन्तु॥6॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;samadhvaraayoshaso namanta dadhikraaveva shuchaye padaaya |&#xA;  arvaacheenaṃ vasuvidaṃ bhaganno rathamivaaśhvaa vaajina aavahantu&#xA;  ||6||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;May the presiding deities of the early morning-hour arrive here, like the horse that puts its foot in the place of Vedic ritual for&#xA;  establishing the fire altar. May they bring Bhaga, the Lord of wealth,&#xA;  as speedily as swift horses pulling a chariot&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;इस प्रकार प्रतिदिन भग यहाँ आयें {पवित्र स्थान जैसे दधिक्रावन }जैसे शक्तिशाली घोड़े रथ को खींचते हैं वैसे ही भग का यहाँ आवाहन  किया जाये&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अश्वावतीर्गोमतीर्नउषासो वीरवतीस्सदमुच्छन्तु भद्राः। घृतं दुहाना&#xA;  विश्वतः प्रपीनायूयं पात स्वस्तिभिस्सदा नः॥7॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ashhvaavateergomateerna uṣhaaso veeravateess sadamuchchantu bhadraḥ |&#xA;  ghṛitaṃ duhanaa vishvataḥ prapeenaa yūyaṃ paata swastibhissadaa&#xA;  naha||7||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;May the presiding deities of the Dawn bless us with many horses and cattle, and plenty of milk and milk-products. May these auspicious&#xA;  gods bless us with good progeny, and nourish all life. May they&#xA;  proclaim auspiciousness in the place of worship. May they always&#xA;  ensure our good fortune&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;इस प्रकार कृतार्थ सुबह हमें प्राप्त हो हमें  हमें सुपुत्र, घोडे, पशु, दुग्ध और योधा रिश्तेदार  प्राप्त हो हे देव हमें अपने आशीर्वाद&#xA;  दीजिये&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theastrojunction.com/2015/07/bhagya-suktam-a-powerful-hymn-to-improve-luck.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7723" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T17:28:53.273" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15042" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15027" CreationDate="2016-09-20T18:51:31.697" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;कुर्वन्नेवेह कर्माणि जिजीविषेच्छत समाः ।&#xA;एवं त्वयि नान्यथेतोऽस्ति न कर्म लिप्यते नरे ॥२॥&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a man wishes to live a hundred years on this earth, he should live&#xA;  performing action. For you, who cherish such a desire and regard&#xA;  yourself as a man, there is no other way by which you can keep work&#xA;  from clinging to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Origin &amp;amp; Reference:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/iisha.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Isha Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastActivityDate="2016-09-20T18:51:31.697" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15043" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-21T01:13:34.523" Score="2" ViewCount="558" Body="&lt;p&gt;Time is a powerful thing and it appears to be the nature of time to change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there slokas that talk about the characteristics of good time and bad time in human life?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How is one expected to act when the time is in his/her favor and also when it is not?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastActivityDate="2016-11-20T19:42:18.273" Title="Characteristics of Good &amp; Bad Times" Tags="|vedas|scripture|bhagavad-gita|upanishads|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15044" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-21T05:33:43.383" Score="9" ViewCount="1224" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, in the beginning of Adhyaya 3 Pada 2 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa discusses the nature of different states of consciousness.   Here is what he says about Sushupti or deep sleep:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Topic-2: The Soul in Deep Sleep&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The absence of that dream (ie., dreamless sleep) takes place in the nerves and the Self, as it is known to be so from the Upanishads.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For the same reason, the soul’s waking up is from this supreme Self.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14606/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, all the commentators on the Brahma Sutras interpret these Sutras as saying that during deep sleep, the Jiva resides in Brahman.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38110.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya, for instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'The absence of that,' i.e. the absence of dreams--which absence constitutes the essence of deep sleep-takes place 'in the nâdîs and in the Self;' i.e. in deep sleep the soul goes into both together, not optionally into either.--How is this known?--'From scripture.'--Scripture says of all those things, the nâdîs, &amp;amp;c., that they are the place of deep sleep; and those statements we must combine into one, as the hypothesis of option would involve partial refutation.... That again the nâdîs and the pericardium have to be combined as places of deep sleep appears from their being mentioned together in one sentence ('Through them he moves forth and rests in the purîtat). That that which is (sat) and the intelligent Self (prâgña) are only names of Brahman is well known; hence scripture mentions only three places of deep sleep, viz. the nâdîs, the pericardium, and Brahman. Among these three again Brahman alone is the lasting place of deep sleep; the nâdîs and the pericardium are mere roads leading to it. Moreover (to explain further the difference of the manner in which the soul, in deep sleep, enters into the nâdîs, the pericardium and Brahman respectively), the nâdîs and the pericardium are (in deep sleep) merely the abode of the limiting adjuncts of the soul; in them the soul's organs abide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nor do we finally maintain that the nâdîs, the pericardium, and Brahman are to be added to each other as being equally places of deep sleep. For by the knowledge that the nâdîs and the pericardium are places of sleep, nothing is gained, as scripture teaches neither that some special fruit is connected with that knowledge nor that it is the subordinate member of some work, &amp;amp;c., connected with certain results. We, on the other hand, do want to prove that that Brahman is the lasting abode of the soul in the state of deep sleep; that is a knowledge which has its own uses, viz. the ascertainment of Brahman being the Self of the soul, and the ascertainment of the soul being essentially non-connected with the worlds that appear in the waking and in the dreaming state. Hence the Self alone is the place of deep sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48351.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Ramanujacharya says in his Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next the state of deep dreamless sleep is enquired into. Scripture says, 'When a man is asleep, reposing and at perfect rest, so that he sees no dream, then he lies asleep in those nâdîs' (Kh. Up. VIII, 6, 3); 'When he is in profound sleep and is conscious of nothing, there are seventy-two thousand veins called hita which from the heart spread through the pericardium. Through them he moves forth and rests in the pericardium' (Bri. Up. II, 1, 19). 'When a man sleeps here, he becomes united with the True' (Kh. Up. VI, 8, 1). These texts declare the veins, the pericardium, and Brahman to be the place of deep sleep; and hence there is a doubt whether each of them in turns, or all of them together, are that place. There is an option between them, since they are not in mutual dependence, and since the sleeping soul cannot at the same time be in several places!--To this the Sûtra replies--the absence of dreams, i.e. deep sleep takes place in the veins, in the pericardium, and in the highest Self together; since these three are declared by Scripture. When different alternatives may be combined, on the ground of there being different effects in each case, it is improper to assume an option which implies sublation of some of the alternatives. And in the present case such combination is possible, the veins and the pericardium holding the position of a mansion, as it were, and a couch within the mansion, while Brahman is the pillow, as it were. Thus Brahman alone is the immediate resting-place of the sleeping soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14606/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for quotes from other commentries saying the same thing.  But my question is, what is the purpose of the Jiva residing in Brahman during deep sleep?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I am not asking how we know that the Jiva resides in Brahman during deep sleep; that is thoroughly addressed in the various commentaries on the Brahma Sutras.  In some sense I'm interested in the purpose of the deep sleep state.  Not the scientific or health purpose of sleep, but rather, what is the benefit of the Jiva going into a state every night where it resides in Brahman?  What purpose does that serve?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures or works by Acharyas that address this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-10-08T20:09:13.887" Title="Why does the Jiva reside in Brahman during deep sleep?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahman|brahma-sutras|jiva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15045" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15039" CreationDate="2016-09-21T06:34:38.320" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Rakshasa (Sanskrit: rākṣasa) is a demonic being from Hindu&#xA;  mythology. As mythology made its way into other religions, the&#xA;  rakshasa was later incorporated into Buddhism. Rakshasas are also&#xA;  called maneaters (Nri-chakshas, Kravyads). A female rakshasa is known&#xA;  as a Rakshasi. A female Rakshasa in human form is a Manushya-Rakshasi.&#xA;  The terms Asura and Rakshasa are sometimes used interchangeably.&#xA;  It is said that Rakshasas were created from the breath of Brahma when&#xA;  he was asleep at the end of the Satya Yuga. As soon as they were&#xA;  created, they were so filled with bloodlust that they started eating&#xA;  Brahma himself. Brahma shouted &quot;Rakshama!&quot; (Sanskrit for &quot;protect&#xA;  me!&quot;) and Vishnu came to his aid, banishing to Earth all Rakshasas&#xA;  (thus named after Brahma's cry for help). Rakshasa were most often&#xA;  depicted as ugly, fierce-looking and enormous creatures and with two&#xA;  fangs protruding down from the top of the mouth as well as sharp,&#xA;  claw-like fingernails.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakshasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rakshasas were not only in Ram period, they were in the Mahabharata period  too. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the world of the Mahabharata, rakshasas are a frequently&#xA;  encountered as a populous race of supernatural humanoids who tend&#xA;  generally toward evil. Powerful warriors, they resort easily to the&#xA;  use of magic and illusion when unsuccessful with conventional weapons.&#xA;  As shape changers, they can assume various physical forms, and it is&#xA;  not always clear whether they have a true or natural form. As&#xA;  illusionists, they are capable of creating appearances which are real&#xA;  to those who believe in them or who fail to dispel them. Rakshasas are&#xA;  cannibals, and frequently make their gleeful appearance when the&#xA;  slaughter on the battlefield is at its worst. Occasionally they serve&#xA;  as rank-and-file soldiers in the service of various warlords.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hidimba was a cannibal Rakshasa who was slain by Bhima. The Mahabharata (Book I: Adi Parva, Section 154) describes him as a cruel&#xA;  cannibal with sharp, long teeth and prodigious strength. When Hidimba&#xA;  saw the Pandavas sleeping in his forest, he decided to eat them. He&#xA;  made the mistake of sending his sister Hidimbi to reconnoiter the&#xA;  situation, and the damsel fell in love with the handsome Bhima, whom&#xA;  she warned of the danger. Infuriated, Hidimba declared himself ready&#xA;  to kill not only the Pandavas but also his sister, but he was thwarted&#xA;  by the heroism of Bhima, who defeated and killed him in a duel.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kirmira, the brother of Bakasur, was a cannibal and master illusionist. He haunted the wood of Kamyaka, dining on human&#xA;  travellers. Like his brother before him, Kirmira also made the mistake&#xA;  of fighting the Pandav hero Bhima, who killed him with his bare hands&#xA;  (Book III: Varna Parva, Section 11).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jatasur was a cunning Rakshasa who, disguised as a Brahmin, attempted to steal the Pandavas' weapons and to ravish his wife&#xA;  Draupadi. Bhima arrived in time to intervene, and killed Jatasur in a&#xA;  duel. (Book III: Varna Parva, Section 156). Jatasur's son was&#xA;  Alamvush, who fought on the side of the Kauravas at Kurukshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Rakshasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakshasa#In_the_Mahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-21T06:34:38.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15047" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-21T07:44:59.560" Score="15" ViewCount="2846" Body="&lt;p&gt;From childhood till now we all hear about &lt;strong&gt;Rama Rajya.&lt;/strong&gt; But what exactly is Rama Rajya? What is its description? I have asked so many times to &lt;em&gt;sants&lt;/em&gt; but they are also not giving me a satisfied answer. If any one who knows it better please tell me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7727" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-11T11:24:22.580" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T11:24:22.580" Title="What is Rama Rajya?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15048" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15047" CreationDate="2016-09-21T08:34:13.170" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama Rajya is described in &lt;strong&gt;Yuddha Kanda&lt;/strong&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt; after Rajya-Abhishekam of Lord Rama. Here is how Rama Rajya is described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न पर्यदेवन्विधवा न च व्यालकृतं भयम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न व्याधिजं भयन् वापि रामे राज्यं प्रशासति || ६-१२८-९९ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;While Rama was ruling&lt;/strong&gt; the kingdom, there were &lt;strong&gt;no widows to lament, nor there was no danger from wild animals, nor any fear born of diseases.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निर्दस्युरभवल्लोको नानर्थः कन् चिदस्पृशत् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न च स्म वृद्धा बालानां प्रेतकार्याणि कुर्वते || ६-१२८-१०० &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The world was &lt;strong&gt;bereft of thieves and robberies.&lt;/strong&gt; No one felt worthless nor did old people perform obsequies concerning youngsters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वं मुदितमेवासीत्सर्वो धर्मपरोअभवत् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  राममेवानुपश्यन्तो नाभ्यहिन्सन्परस्परम् || ६-१२८-१०१ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Every creature felt pleased. Every one was intent on virtue. Turning their eyes towards Rama alone, creatures did not kill one another.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आसन्वर्षसहस्राणि तथा पुत्रसहस्रिणः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निरामया विशोकाश्च रामे राज्यं प्रशासति || ६-१२८-१०२ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;While Rama was ruling the kingdom, people survived for thousands of years, with thousands of their progeny, all free of illness and grief.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रामो रामो राम इति प्रजानामभवन् कथाः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रामभूतं जगाभूद्रामे राज्यं प्रशासति || ६-१२८-१०३ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  While Rama ruled the kingdom, the talks of the people centered round Rama, Rama and Rama. &lt;strong&gt;The world became Rama's world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नित्यपुष्पा नित्यफलास्तरवः स्कन्धविस्तृताः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कालवर्षी च पर्जन्यः सुखस्पर्शश्च मारुतः || ६-१२८-१०४ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The trees there were bearing flowers and fruits regularly, without any injury by pests and insects. The clouds were raining in time and the wind was delightful to the touch.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मणाः क्षत्रिया वैश्याः शूद्रा लोभविवर्जिताः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्वकर्मसु प्रवर्तन्ते तुष्ठाः स्वैरेव कर्मभिः || ६-१२८-१०५ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आसन् प्रजा धर्मपरा रामे शासति नानृताः | &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Brahmins (the priest-class), Kshatriyas (the warrior-class), Vaishyas (the class of merchants and agriculturists), Shudras (the servant-class) were performing their own duties, satisfied with their own work and bereft of any greed. While Rama was ruling, &lt;strong&gt;the people were intent on virtue and lived without telling lies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वे लक्षणसम्पन्नाः सर्वे धर्मपरायणाः || ६-१२८-१०६ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दशवर्षसहस्राणि रामो राज्यमकारयत् | &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;All the people were endowed with excellent characteristics. All were engaged in virtue.&lt;/strong&gt; Rama was engaged in the kingship thus for ten thousand years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-21T12:05:21.940" LastActivityDate="2016-09-21T12:05:21.940" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15050" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15312" CreationDate="2016-09-21T08:51:10.790" Score="9" ViewCount="4752" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pancha Mukha Anjaneya (five faced Hanuman) consisting faces of Hayagriva, Narasimha, Anjaneya, Garuda and Varaha is found in few south Indian temples. Is there any Puranic or scriptural evidence that Pancha Mukha Anjaneya existed during Ramayana period? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WLcIam.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WLcIam.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Hayagriva, Narasimha, Anjaneya, Garuda and Varaha (from L to R in the picture above)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-21T19:07:59.193" LastActivityDate="2016-10-08T18:35:52.483" Title="What scriptures describe the story of Pancha Mukha Anjaneya (five-faced Hanuman)?" Tags="|hanuman|narasimha|varaha|garuda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15051" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-21T09:21:33.573" Score="8" ViewCount="1166" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can any one please describe the resources for &lt;em&gt;Vashtu Shashtra&lt;/em&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7727" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-11T17:30:04.913" LastActivityDate="2019-02-17T02:51:50.870" Title="What are the best resources for Vastu Shastra?" Tags="|scripture|vastu-shastra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15052" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15047" CreationDate="2016-09-21T09:29:49.103" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from Valmiki Ramayana, Ram Rajya is described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ramcharitmanas.iitk.ac.in/ramcharitmanas?tid=7&amp;amp;tid_1=11&amp;amp;tid_2=8&quot;&gt;Ramcharitmanas, Uttar Kand&lt;/a&gt;. Very long description has been given from Doha number 20.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राम राज बैंठें त्रेलोका। हरषित भए गए सब सोका।। &#xA;  बयरु न कर काहू सन कोई। राम प्रताप बिषमता खोई।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Råma's installation to the throne brought joy to all the three spheres and ended all their sorrows. No one bore enmity to another; Sri Råma's glory had obliterated all disharmony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बरनाश्रम निज निज धरम बनिरत बेद पथ लोग। &#xA;  चलहिं सदा पावहिं सुखहि नहिं भय सोक न रोग।।20।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devoted to duty each according to his own caste and stage of life, the people trod the path of the Vedas and enjoyed happiness. They knew no fear, nor sorrow nor disease.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दैहिक दैविक भौतिक तापा। राम राज नहिं काहुहि ब्यापा।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सब नर करहिं परस्पर प्रीती। चलहिं स्वधर्म निरत श्रुति नीती।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चारिउ चरन धर्म जग माहीं। पूरि रहा सपनेहुँ अघ नाहीं।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राम भगति रत नर अरु नारी। सकल परम गति के अधिकारी।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अल्पमृत्यु नहिं कवनिउ पीरा। सब सुंदर सब बिरुज सरीरा।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नहिं दरिद्र कोउ दुखी न दीना। नहिं कोउ अबुध न लच्छन हीना।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सब निर्दंभ धर्मरत पुनी। नर अरु नारि चतुर सब गुनी।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सब गुनग्य पंडित सब ग्यानी। सब कृतग्य नहिं कपट सयानी।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Under the rule of Råma there was none who suffered from affliction of any&#xA;  kind whether of the body, or proceeding from divine or supernatural agencies or that caused by another living being. All men loved one another : each followed one's prescribed duty, conformably to the precepts of the Vedas. Dharma with its four pillars (viz., truth, purity of both external and internal, compassion and charity) reigned everywhere throughout the world; no one even dreamt of sin. Men and women alike were devoted to Sri Råma's worship and all were qualified for final beatitude. There was no&#xA;  premature death nor suffering of any kind; everyone was comely and sound of body. No one was destitute, afflicted or miserable; no one was stupid or devoid of auspicious marks. All were unaffectedly good, pious and virtuous; all were clever and accomplished of both men and women. Everyone recognized the merits of others and was learned and wise nay, everyone acknowledged the services and benefits received from others and there&#xA;  was no guileful prudence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राम राज नभगेस सुनु सचराचर जग माहिं।। &#xA;  काल कर्म सुभाव गुन कृत दुख काहुहि नाहिं।।21।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Listen, O king of the birds, (continues Kåkabhusundi) during Sri Råmaís reign there was not a creature in this world, animate or inanimate, that was liable to any of the sufferings attributable to time, past conduct, personal temperament and character.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दंड जतिन्ह कर भेद जहँ नर्तक नृत्य समाज। &#xA;  जीतहु मनहि सुनिअ अस रामचंद्र कें राज।।22।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Danda was never seen save in the hands of the recluse and Bheda too had&#xA;  ceased to exist except among the dancers in a dancing party. Even so the order Conquer was heard only with reference to the mind throughout the realm of Sri Råmacandra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-09-21T12:12:37.870" LastActivityDate="2016-09-21T12:12:37.870" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15053" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-21T10:02:08.960" Score="0" ViewCount="185" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people say that we should not keep individual Anjaneya photo in our house for worship. He should always be with Lord Rama, Sita and Lakshmana. Any evidence from age old puranas or scriptures supporting this sentence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-23T18:10:33.420" Title="Individual Anjaneya photo" Tags="|scripture|belief|puranas|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15054" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15097" CreationDate="2016-09-21T10:22:24.663" Score="4" ViewCount="471" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabaratha there was a circumstance where Hanuman met Bheema. Any evidence supporting this statement from Hinduism scriptures. Who was the cause for this meeting?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-12-11T07:08:27.913" LastActivityDate="2019-12-11T07:08:27.913" Title="Hanuman and Bheema" Tags="|scripture|hanuman|bhima|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15055" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15188" CreationDate="2016-09-21T10:35:54.963" Score="3" ViewCount="762" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did Lord Krishna teach a lesson to Satyabhāma to get rid of her ego? What was the plan he put into action?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="6986" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2016-09-26T11:02:38.213" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T11:02:38.213" Title="Lord Krishna and Satyabhama" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15056" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-21T10:39:38.133" Score="3" ViewCount="417" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did Lord Krishna teach Balarama [his own brother] to get rid of his Ego? What was the plan he made that Balarama turned good after that incident?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditorDisplayName="user808" LastEditDate="2016-11-20T05:26:28.293" LastActivityDate="2019-12-02T08:25:37.283" Title="Lord Krishna and Balarama" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15057" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15043" CreationDate="2016-09-21T11:24:01.317" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are some of the sanskrit &lt;strong&gt;Subhashitam&lt;/strong&gt; (सुभाषितं)  about good or bad time of human life and how one should act in those times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;उदये सविता रक्तो रक्तश्चस्तस्तमये तथा । सम्पतौ च विपत्तौ च&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;महतामेकरूपता।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;udayé savitā rakto raktashchāstamayé tathā | sampattau cha vipattau&#xA;  cha mahatāmékarūpatā ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Like the Sun is red in sunrise and sunset, similarly the&#xA;  Great Ones remain same (not disturbed) in good and bad&#xA;  times.&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.practicalsanskrit.com/2015/01/be-equanimous-in-good-and-bad-times.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्रमेण दुःखं यत्किंश्चिकार्यकालेनुभुयते । कालेन स्मर्यमाणं तत प्रमोद।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shramena dukham yakinschitkaryakalenubhuyate Kaalena smayaramanam tat&#xA;  pramoda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - While working hard we do feel a bit of sadness ,due to&#xA;  adverse condiation.But surely in future when we think of &quot;that&quot; work&#xA;  it gives us happiness and satisfaction.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/dokka/sanskrit-subhashitas-with-english-meaning.&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गते शोको न कर्तव्यो भविष्यं नैव चिंतयेत्। वर्तमानेन कालेन वर्तयंति&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;विचक्षणाः॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gate shoko na kartavya bhavishyam naiva chitntayet Vartamanen kalena&#xA;  vartayanti vichakshana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - One should not regret the past. One should not worry about&#xA;  the future.Wise men act by the present time.&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskrit-quote.blogspot.in&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;न कश्चिदपि जानाति  अतः श्वः करणीयानि किं कस्य श्वो भविष्यति&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;।कुर्यादद्धैव वुद्धिमान् ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na kashcidapi janati ath shwa karaniyani kim kasya shwo bhavishyati|&#xA;  Kuryadwaiva vudbhiman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; -  No one knows what will happen tomorrow. So, wise people do today what&#xA;  should be done tommorow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स्व्भावं न जहात्येव साधुरापद्गतोऽपि सन् । कर्पूरः पाव्कस्पृष्टः सौरभं&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;लभतेतराम् ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swabhavam na jhatyeva sadhurapadnopi san l Karpurah paakwasprustah&#xA;  saurrbhm labhteram ll&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - A good person never gives up his nature even when he is&#xA;  caught in calamity. Camphor caught with fire emits more&#xA;  frgrance.&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskrit.samskrutam.com/en.literature-shloka-subhaasitam.ashx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अस्थिरं जीवितं  लोके अस्थिरो धन यौवने . अस्थिराः पुत्रदाराश्च&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;धर्मकीर्तिर्द्वयं  स्थिरं .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asthiram jeewitam loke asthiro dhana youwane. asthiraah putradaraashch&#xA;  dharmakeertirdwayam sthiram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;-    In this world the period for which a person will be alive&#xA;  is uncertain and so also how long his wealth, youth, children and wife&#xA;  will remain with him is uncertain.  Only the righteous behaviour and&#xA;  the resultant  reputation (fame) of a person remains permanent (even&#xA;  after his death).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सर्वाभीष्ट प्रदो नित्यं सन्मार्गेणैव गच्छताम्&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;विचित्रमेतद्विद्वान्स्तु  जङ्गमः  कल्पपादपः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarvaabhishta prado nityam sanmaargenaiva gacchataam&#xA;  Vichitrametadvidwaanstu jangasmah kalpapaadapah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; -  One should always follow the path of righteousness which is&#xA;  unique and wonderful and fulfils all wishes of learned persons, who&#xA;  are like a &quot;Kalpataru&quot; in a forest of ordinary trees.&lt;a href=&quot;http://mcjoshi21.blogspot.in/2012_11_01_archive.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-09-21T19:11:02.647" LastActivityDate="2016-09-21T19:11:02.647" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15059" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-21T14:56:20.430" Score="6" ViewCount="4479" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Dattatreya is considered as the united form of trinity i.e. Brahma Vishu Mahesh.There is sect in India which worship him which is called Dattatreya.&#xA;Do anybody know good book on Lord Dattatreya in Hindi/English/Marathi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7731" LastActivityDate="2016-10-23T15:54:31.367" Title="Books on Datta Sampradaya" Tags="|dattatreya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15060" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15059" CreationDate="2016-09-21T15:32:07.123" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;Tripura Rahasya&quot; is an important work on Lord  Dattatreya.There is an Upanishad by name ‘Dattatreya Upanishad'.  When rishis approached God Vishnu for initiation,God Vishnu advised them to recite &quot;I am Datta&quot;.  There are several Dattatreya mantras also.The dialogue between Sage Bhargava and Lord Dattareya is known as ‘Tripura Rahasya', the glory of Goddess Tripura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is mentioned at this link:-&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11331/is-vishnus-incarnation-dattatreya-quoted-in-the-brahma-sutras?r&quot;&gt;Is Vishnu&amp;#39;s incarnation Dattatreya quoted in the Brahma Sutras?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A copy of Tripura Rahasya is available at this link:- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holybooks.com/tripura-rahasya-mystery-beyond-trinity/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.holybooks.com/tripura-rahasya-mystery-beyond-trinity/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A PDF copy of 'Shri Datta Mahatmya' by Shri Vasudevananda Saraswati Tembe Swami Maharaj is available at this link:-&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ShriDattaMahatmyaByShrimatPPSadguruShriTembeSwamiMaharaj&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://archive.org/details/ShriDattaMahatmyaByShrimatPPSadguruShriTembeSwamiMaharaj&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A copy of Avadhoota Gita, written  by Sage Dattareya, is also available at this link:-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holybooks.com/the-avadhoota-gita/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.holybooks.com/the-avadhoota-gita/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-10-23T15:54:31.367" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15062" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-21T19:51:34.667" Score="3" ViewCount="747" Body="&lt;p&gt;AupAsana and vaishvadeva are two nitya-karma-s which involve fire oblations according to various gRhyasUtra-s. How common is it for people to do it in a single sitting, without separate pUrvAnga-s  (ie - everything until AjyabhAga in the Apastamba tradition) and uttarAnga-s (ie - everything after prAjApatya and vyAhRti homa in the Apastamba tradition)? What are traditional arguments for and against doing so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3434" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-09-21T20:21:49.880" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T23:49:50.967" Title="How common is it to combine aupAsana and vaishvadeva oblations in a single homa sitting?" Tags="|practice|vedic-rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15063" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14976" CreationDate="2016-09-21T19:52:50.773" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the book, &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekharendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; hints that all smṛtis are relevant in every yuga and any differences between various smṛtis are reconciled in the Dharmaśāstra Nibandhanas adapted to the region where you live.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Smṛtis and Allied Works&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu, Parāśara, Yājñavalkya, Gautama, Hārīta, Yama, Vişņu, Śaňkha,&#xA;  Likhita, Brhaspati, Dakşa, Angiras, Pracetas, Sarihvarta, Acanas,&#xA;  Atri, Apastamba and Satatapa are the eighteen sages who mastered the&#xA;  Vedas with their superhuman power and derived the Smrtis from them.&#xA;  Their works are known after them like Manusmrti, Yajñavalkya-smrti,&#xA;  Parasara-smrti and so on, and they contain all that we need to know&#xA;  about all the dharmas to be adhered to and all the rituals to be&#xA;  performed during our entire life. Apart from these eighteen, there are&#xA;  eighteen subsidiary Smṛtis called Upasmṛtis&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(1)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;. It is customary to include the Bhagavadgīta among the Smṛtis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What we find in one Smṛti may not be found in another. There may also&#xA;  be differences between one Smṛti and another. These give rise to&#xA;  doubts which are sought to be cleared by works called &quot;Dharmaśāstra&#xA;  Nibandhanas&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are some Smrtis that do not contain instructions with regard to&#xA;  all observances. For instance, some do not mention sandhyavandanas.&#xA;  The reason must be it is such a common rite that everybody is expected&#xA;  to know it. Then some omit the Śrāddhas ceremony and some others are&#xA;  silent on various types of &quot;pollution&quot; (for instance, that due to the&#xA;  birth of a child in the family or the death of a relative). Certain&#xA;  matters are taken for granted. After all, we do not have to be told&#xA;  about how to breathe or eat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The nibandhanas do not leave out any rite or dharma. Differences&#xA;  between various Smṛtis are sought to be reconciled in them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Each region follows its own nibandhana.&lt;/strong&gt; In the North, it is the one&#xA;  authored by Kasinatha Upadhyaya. In Maharastra, it is the Mitaksara:&#xA;  it has the force of law and is accepted as such by the law courts.&#xA;  Niraayasindhu by Kamalakara Bhatta is also accepted as an authority&#xA;  there. In the South, the Vaidyanatha-Diksitiyan by Vaidyanatha Diksita&#xA;  is followed. These are the important authorities for householders.&#xA;  Sannyasins follow Visvesvara-samhita. In Tamil Nadu the Dharmasastra&#xA;  means the Vaidyanatha-Diksitiyam. This nibandhana has been translated&#xA;  into Tamil.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(1)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; The authors of these are : Jabali, Naciketas, Skanda, Laugăkşi,&#xA;  Kăéyapa, Vyăsa, Sanatkumāra, Śantanu, Janaka, Vyāghra, Kātyāyana,&#xA;  Jātukarnya, Kapiñjala, Baudhāyana, Kāņāda, Viśvāmiktra, Paițhinasa,&#xA;  Gobhila. - Rā. Ga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-09-21T19:52:50.773" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15064" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15066" CreationDate="2016-09-21T20:38:38.200" Score="7" ViewCount="17568" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pushhpadanta was a Gandharva singer, in the court of Indra{the Lord of Heaven}.It is said that Pushhpadanta composed a prayer praising the greatness of Lord Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This prayer later became well known as the Shiva Mahimna Strotram.Many scholars have expressed their adoration for Lord Shiva with poetic and devotional verses.But,among all the Strotras(hymns of praise), the one created and composed by Gandharva Pushhpadanta is believed to be  one of the most popular.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story behind the composition of this prayer by the Gandharva Pushhpadanta?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What  are the benefits of chanting the Shiva Mahimna Strotram?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2019-04-01T06:12:51.363" LastActivityDate="2019-04-01T06:12:51.363" Title="What are the benefits of chanting the Shiva Mahimna Strotram?" Tags="|shiva|prayer|stotra|shiva-mahimna-stotra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15065" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15059" CreationDate="2016-09-21T20:47:29.093" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shree Datta-Sampradai -:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dattatreya or Dattā (दत्त) is a Hindu deity considered to be an avatar (incarnation) of the three Hindu gods Brahma , Vishnu and Shiv collectively known as Trimurthy(त्रिमूर्ती)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Books of Shree Datta- Sampradai-:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shree &quot;GuruCharitra&quot; (श्री. गुरुचरित्र)&lt;/strong&gt;  a spiritual book giving a brief life story of Shri &#xA;Narasimha Saraswati Swami ,  &lt;strong&gt;an incarnation of Shri Dattatreya,&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;was written in the 15th Century by one of his closest disciples. This &#xA;book is a treasure house of spiritual events related to the life of Shri&#xA;Guru Narasimha Saraswati. &lt;strong&gt;It is read with great reverence by the &#xA;devotees of Lord Shri Dattatreya&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/GuruCharitraMarathi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shree Guru-Charitra गुरु-चरित्र &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another book on Shree Datta Sampraday is-:&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Avadhut Gita by Dattatreya&quot; (अवधूत गीता)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Avadhuta refers to a mystic who has done away with worldly concerns and standard social etiquette, at least in his or her heart. Avadhuts play a significant role in many Yoga, Vedanta and Bhakti traditions.&lt;a href=&quot;http://oaks.nvg.org/avadhut-gita.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Avadhoot Gita अवधूत गीता&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;These books are in Marathi language ,which is mostly spoken in &quot;Maharashtra&quot; state of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-09-23T14:58:06.360" LastActivityDate="2016-09-23T14:58:06.360" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15066" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15064" CreationDate="2016-09-21T21:17:24.970" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Mahimna Stotra ( शिवमहिम्न)&lt;/strong&gt; is very popular among the devotees of Lord Shiva and is considered one of the best among all Stotras in offered  Lord Shiva stotras .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The legend behind composition of this Stotra is as follows-:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once a&#xA;  king named Chitraratha (चित्ररथ) had made a nice garden with beautiful&#xA;  flowers in it. Those flowers were used every day by  Chitraratha &#xA;  in worshipping Lord Shiva.   One day a &lt;strong&gt;Gandharva&lt;/strong&gt; named &lt;strong&gt;Pushhpadanta&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  being attracted  by the beautiful flowers, started to steal them, due&#xA;  to this  Chitraratha could not offer flowers to Lord Shiva . He tried &#xA;  to capture the thief, but failed  because of the Gandharvas having &#xA;  power to stay invisible.   So Chitraratha spread the Shiva&#xA;  Nirmaalya (flowers left after puja, generally of last day) in his garden . Shiva Nirmaalya  consists of the Bilva&#xA;  leaves, flowers, et cetera which have been used in worshipping Lord&#xA;  Shiva .    The thief Pushhpadanta, not knowing this, walked on the&#xA;  Shiva Nirmaalya, and as this is holy ,  so that he incurred the wrath&#xA;  of Lord Shiva and lost the divine power of invisibility . He then&#xA;  designed a prayer to Lord Shiva for forgiveness. In this prayer he&#xA;  sung the greatness of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This very prayer became well known as the `Shiva Mahimna Stotra'. Lord Shiva became pleased by this StotraM, and returned Pushhpadanta's divine powers.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/shiva-mahimna-stotram-with-lyrics-and-meaning&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiv Mahimna stotra &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Download Shiv Mahimna stotra PDF - &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;url=http://www.harekrsna.de/shiva/Shiva-Mahimna-Stotra.pdf&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiOp9r9raHPAhVGsI8KHSfWAGYQFgg6MAg&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNGfs7_QU4un1rVndpmqFwGTXfuyew&amp;amp;sig2=AuCssHLcsR1Wc5F1CnGruw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Benifits of chanting Shiv-Mahimna stotra-:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्री पुष्पदन्त-मुख-पङ्कज-निर्गतेन&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्तोत्रेण किल्बिष-हरेण हर-प्रियेण।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कण्ठस्थितेन पठितेन समाहितेन&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुप्रीणितो भवति भूतपतिर्महेशः॥ ४३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This hymn which is dear to Shiva, has emerged out of the lotus-like&#xA;  mouth of Pushhpadanta and is &lt;strong&gt;capable of removing all sins&lt;/strong&gt; . May the&#xA;  lord of all beings become greatly pleased with anyone who has learnt&#xA;  this by heart and/or reads or recalls this with&#xA;  single-mindedness.            (43)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-11-03T06:38:22.850" LastActivityDate="2018-11-03T06:38:22.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15067" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15056" CreationDate="2016-09-22T02:27:49.460" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Balarama is Lord Vishnu just like Lord Krishna is Lord Vishnu also. They both are the Supreme Lord who appeared in two forms as two brothers, Krishna and Balarama.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And what they did is something called &quot;pastimes of the Lord&quot;, ie &lt;em&gt;lila&lt;/em&gt;. And we should understand that when the Lord performs his pastimes or &lt;em&gt;lilas&lt;/em&gt;, He is just like a player or like an actor playing in a theatrical drama. There are verses in the scriptures that say about the Lord like that, such as Bhagavatam 1.8.19, and such as this one from the Bhagavatam 1.3.37:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/37&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The foolish with a poor fund of knowledge cannot know the&#xA;  transcendental nature of the forms, names and &lt;strong&gt;activities of the Lord,&#xA;  who is playing like an actor in a drama&lt;/strong&gt;. Nor can they express such&#xA;  things, neither in their speculations nor in their words.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when the Lord behaves to appear like he has an ego, or something else that looks like he is an ordinary human, we should understand that this is just to appear to be as such, just like when an actor is playing in a theatrical drama. Even in such circumstances the Lord is situated in his transcendental position that is above ordinary mundane affairs. And in reality He is not influenced by the ego, deluded mind, improper behavior, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same point as with the Lord who is playing like an actor in a theatrical drama we can see in the application of the word &lt;em&gt;lila&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;līlayā&lt;/em&gt;) as referring to the pastimes of the Lord which he performs in his various incarnations (avataras) is explicitly mentioned in the Bhagavatam 1.1.17:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/1/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/1/17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasya karmāṇy udārāṇi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    parigītāni sūribhiḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brūhi naḥ śraddadhānānāṁ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;līlayā&lt;/strong&gt; dadhataḥ kalāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasya — His; karmāṇi — transcendental acts; udārāṇi — magnanimous;&#xA;  parigītāni — broadcast; sūribhiḥ — by the great souls; brūhi — please&#xA;  speak; naḥ — unto us; śraddadhānānām — ready to receive with respect;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;līlayā — pastimes&lt;/strong&gt;; dadhataḥ — advented; kalāḥ — incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;His transcendental acts are magnificent and gracious, and great&#xA;  learned sages like Nārada sing of them (parigītāni). Please, therefore, speak to&#xA;  us, who are eager to hear, about the adventures (or pastimes, ie&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;līlayā&lt;/em&gt;) He performs in His various incarnations.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word līlā is explained in the Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;līlā&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  play , sport , diversion , amusement , pastime , mere sport or play&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, pastime or a &lt;em&gt;lila&lt;/em&gt; is an activity that someone does regularly for his enjoyment or amusement, for his fun. Just like an actor who is playing in a theatrical drama for amusement, the same point is seen in the application of the word līlā (līlayā).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It would be wrong to assume that an actor who is playing on the stage in a theater for amusement is some poor or miserable soul under the negative influences that he has to play. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Balarama is certainly not an ordinary living being, ie a jiva soul (jivatma), but is the Supreme Lord or Supreme Soul (paramatma), and thus He is that what Upanishads call Brahman or the Absolute. Thus we should understand his position according to the teaching of Vedanta as an entity which is not under the influence of ignorance, improper behavior, deluded mind and other negative influences such as sins, injustice, etc. And if some story describes him as if he was under such negative influences we should understand that to be just a &lt;em&gt;lila&lt;/em&gt; (pastime) of the Lord.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;People who do not understand that are lacking in proper understanding of the philosophy of Vedanta. They are advised to learn Vedanta first, to be able to properly understand those things, and then they will be not confused to understand properly the position of Lord Vishnu, or in this particular case Lord Balarama. We can see that those people who do not know Vedanta properly are often confused and misunderstand stories that are told in the Puranas and Itihasas. My favorite system of Vedanta is that one of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="2790" LastEditDate="2016-11-20T01:50:19.140" LastActivityDate="2016-11-20T01:50:19.140" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15068" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-22T02:59:00.243" Score="5" ViewCount="121" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am interested in knowing the science behind the classification because Ayurveda is based upon this foundation.&#xA;Even Astrology is also based upon these doshas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7737" LastEditorUserId="21895" LastEditDate="2021-10-19T00:03:03.403" LastActivityDate="2021-10-19T05:09:31.880" Title="How our body parts are classified as Vata, Pitta and Kapha Dosha in Ayurveda?" Tags="|vedas|belief|ayurveda|body|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15069" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-22T04:14:53.600" Score="11" ViewCount="3849" Body="&lt;p&gt;After the death of a man (husband), the wife (widow) is not allowed to wear bangles, kumkum (sindhur) and is asked to wear white saree &amp;amp; shave her head. Is there any reference for such a practice in scriptures? And what is the purpose of such a custom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-28T08:45:18.827" LastActivityDate="2022-06-14T17:16:40.150" Title="Why do widows wear white sarees after their husband's death?" Tags="|practice|culture|marriage|customs|widow|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15071" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-22T04:49:26.707" Score="7" ViewCount="1127" Body="&lt;p&gt;People in Maharashtra and Andhra celebrate sathyanarayana puja on full moon day. Puja will be made  and a story will be told for 45 minutes. Even I did twice in Shirdi Sai Sathya Vratha. Is Lord satyanarayana avatar of Vishnu and mentioned in puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-07T12:01:30.773" LastActivityDate="2020-04-13T01:02:15.420" Title="Is Lord satyanarayana avatar of Vishnu and mentioned in puranas?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|satyanarayana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15072" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15073" CreationDate="2016-09-22T06:21:32.197" Score="13" ViewCount="1473" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Varanasi&lt;/strong&gt; which is also known by the name Kashi is one of the the most sacred place. It is also known as Avimukta which means which is never forsaken by Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अविमुक्तं स्वयं लिङ्गं स्थापितं परमात्मना। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न कदाचित्त्वया त्याज्यमिदं क्षेत्रं ममांशकम्॥ २१॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lord Shiva, the supreme soul, there, had been consecrated as a Shivalinga known by the name of &lt;strong&gt;Avimukta&lt;/strong&gt; and spoke, “You have been formed of my amsa as Jyotirlinga and therefore, you never leave this place.” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;apos;s holyness is described in many Puranas, Itihasas and even Vedas. For eg. Among 88000 verses of Skandha Purana, 15000 verses are part of only Kashi Mahatmya. Thus describing it&amp;apos;s glory.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;During the time of Pralaya also it doesn&amp;apos;t get destroyed as Lord Rudra establishes it in tip of his Trishula and protects it as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14367/what-is-the-story-of-kasi-vishwanatha-jyotirlinga/14371#14371&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मणश्च दिने सा हि न विनश्यति निश्चितम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदा शिवस्त्रिशूलेन दधाति मुनयश्च ताम्।। २३ ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Even after the completion of a divine day of Brahmā, the city of Kashi does not get destroyed. O Sages, at that point of time, Shiva holds it over the tip of his trident.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुनश्च ब्रह्मणा सृष्टौ कृतायां स्थाप्यते द्विजाः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कर्मणां कर्षणाचैव काशीति परिपठ्यते॥ २४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;O Brähmanas, then Brahmā again recreates the universe, then he again establishes Kashi. Because of the bondages of the karmas and their attraction thereto, it is called Kashi.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Puranas also state that those who reach Varanasi are liberated. Shiva Purana Kailash Samhita 3.2 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अतस्तदेव जानीयात्प्रणव सर्वकारणम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निर्विकारी मुमुक्षुर्मां निर्गुणं परमेश्वरम् ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एनमेव हि देवेशि सर्वमन्त्रशि रोमणिम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;काश्यामहं प्रदास्यामि जीवानां मुक्तिहतवे ।।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hence he who aspires for salvation and is free from aberration shall understand the Pranava as the cause of all, and Me as the Nirguna Parameshwara. I give this crest-jewel of mantras at Kashi for the liberation of all individual souls.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus many Puranas state that those who reach Varanasi (or Kashi) are liberated. Most of the times the statements of Purans also contain deep Yogic and metaphorical and allegorical meanings along with their literal meanings. Some ( like Mimamsak) also establish that they are only allegorical and metaphorical.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So in such case, &lt;strong&gt;What is the Yogic Meaning of getting liberation by reaching Varanasi ?&lt;/strong&gt; Puranas clearly state those who reach Varanasi shall surely get liberation. &lt;strong&gt;Do the Vedas also state that reaching Varanasi will grant liberation ?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is meant by reaching Varanasi ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-01-01T04:54:46.143" Title="What is the Yogic meaning of getting liberation by reaching Varanasi?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|vedas|puranas|symbolism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15073" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15072" CreationDate="2016-09-22T06:28:20.047" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Reaching the Varanasi&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; itself has a deep yogic significance. It is described in Vedas itself. Actually the term Varanasi means &amp;quot;beyond nose&amp;quot;. &lt;strong&gt;Naasi = Nose in Sanskrit and it is implying to reach the area which is beyond nose (ie. Middle of the eyebrow) ie. Ajna Chakra.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence Vedas State who reach Ajna Chakra (middle of eyebrow) their liberation is granted.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is explained very well in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabala_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jabala Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; which is a part of Shukla YajurVeda. Regarding Authenticity of Jabala Upanishad it is a pretty much authentic Upanishad. It is quoted several times in Brahma Sutra Bhasya by Adi Shankara. For eg in Brahma Sutra Bhasya 1.2.32, 2.1.3, 3.3.37-41, 3.4.17-18 and other places.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Particularly in commentary of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhasya 1.2.32,&lt;/a&gt; Adi Shankara quotes:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आत्मनन्ति चैनं परमेश्वरमस्मिन्मूर्धचुबुकान्तराले जाबाला - &amp;quot;&amp;nbsp; य एषोऽनन्तोऽव्यक्त आत्मा तं कथमहं विजानीयामिति ॥ स होवाच याज्ञवल्क्यः सोऽविमुक्त उपास्यो य एषोऽनन्तोऽव्यक्त आत्मा सोऽविमुक्ते प्रतिष्ठित इति ॥&amp;nbsp; का वै वरणा का च नाशीति सर्वानिन्द्रियकृतान्दोषान्वारयतीति तेन वरणा भवति ॥&#xA;  सर्वानिन्द्रियकृतान्पापान्नाशयतीति तेन नाशी भवतीति ॥&#xA;  इति वरणानासीति निरुच्य, पुनरप्यामनन्ति - &amp;quot;कतमं चास्य स्थानं भवतीति । भ्रुवोर्घ्राणस्य च यः सन्धिः स एष द्यौर्लोकस्य परस्य च सन्धिर्भवतीति&amp;quot;...... तस्मात्परमेश्वरो वैश्वानर इति सिद्धम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Moreover the Gâbâlas speak in their text of the highest Lord as being in the interstice between the top of the head and the chin. &amp;apos;The unevolved infinite Self abides in the avimukta (i.e. the non-released soul). &lt;strong&gt;Where does that Avimukta abide? It abides in the Varanâ and the Nâsî, in the middle. What is that Varanâ, what is that Nâsî?&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt; The text thereupon etymologises the term Varanâ as that which wards off (vârayati) all evil done by the senses, and the term Nâsî as that which destroys (nâsayati) all evil done by the senses; and then continues, &amp;apos;&lt;strong&gt;And what is its place?--The place where the eyebrows and the nose join.&lt;/strong&gt; That is the joining place of the heavenly world (represented by the upper part of the head) and of the other (i.e. the earthly world represented by the chin).&amp;apos; (Gâbâla Up. I.)--Thus it appears that the scriptural statement which ascribes to the highest Lord the measure of a span is appropriate ......... By all this it is proved that Vaisvânara is the highest Lord.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually the above statement quoted by Adi Shankara is from the Jabala Upanishad. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We now see from Jabala Upanishad, to know the actual Yogic meaning of &amp;quot;Reaching of Varanasi.&amp;quot; and how one gets liberation on reaching&amp;nbsp; Varanasi.&#xA;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sage Atri asks the questions to Yajnavalkya that how can one realize self. Yajnavalkya replies that it is by worshipping Avimukta (a form of Lord Shiva).&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ हैनमत्रिः पप्रच्छ याज्ञवल्क्यं य एषोऽनन्तोऽव्यक्त&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आत्मा तं कथमहं विजानीयामिति ॥ स होवाच याज्ञवल्क्यः सोऽविमुक्त उपास्यो य एषोऽनन्तोऽव्यक्त आत्मा सोऽविमुक्ते प्रतिष्ठित इति ॥ (Jabala Upanishad 2.1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thereafter the sage Atri asked of Yajnavalkya: &lt;strong&gt;‘How am I to realize the Self&lt;/strong&gt; which is infinite and unmanifest ?’ (To this) Yajnavalkya replied: &lt;strong&gt;That Avimukta is to be worshipped;&lt;/strong&gt; the Self which is infinite and unmanifest, is established in (i.e., is non-different from) the Avimukta.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then again question is asked &amp;quot;Where does that Avimukta resides?&amp;quot; Then it is told he resides in Varanasi. Then the yogic meaning of Varanasi is explained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सोऽविमुक्तः कस्मिन्प्रतिष्ठित इति । वरणायां नाश्यां च&#xA;  मध्ये प्रतिष्ठित इति&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ का वै वरणा का च नाशीति ।&#xA;  सर्वानिन्द्रियकृतान्दोषान्वारयतीति तेन वरणा भवति ॥&#xA;  सर्वानिन्द्रियकृतान्पापान्नाशयतीति तेन नाशी भवतीति ॥&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;कतमं चास्य स्थानं भवतीति । भ्रुवोर्घ्राणस्य च यः&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  सन्धिः स एष द्यौर्लोकस्य परस्य च सन्धिर्भवतीति । एतद्वै&#xA;  सन्धिं सन्ध्यां ब्रह्मविद उपासत इति । सोऽविमुक्त उपास्य इति। सोऽविमुक्तं ज्ञानमाचष्टे । यो वैतदेवं वेदेति ॥ Jabala Upanishad 2.2 ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   ‘Which is that (place) &lt;strong&gt;where Avimukta is established&lt;/strong&gt; ?’ ‘He is established &lt;strong&gt;in between Varana and Nasi’.&lt;/strong&gt; ‘What is (meant by) Varana and what (by) Nasi ?’ ‘The varana is so called as it wards off all the faults committed by the (ten) organs (of perception and action). The nasi is so named as it destroys all sins committed by the (ten) organs. (The place between the varana and the nasi is the meeting place of the upper part of the nose and the centre of the eye brows). &lt;strong&gt;‘Which is the seat of that (Avimukta) ?’ ‘That, which is the (well known) juncture of the eye brows and the nose,&lt;/strong&gt; is the juncture of heaven and this world. The knowers of the Veda worship indeed this juncture as Sandhya (in their daily worship). That Avimukta is to be worshipped. He who knows this thus (the true nature of the Avimukta), imparts the wisdom of the Avimukta.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Previously it is also told how one gets liberation on reaching there:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अत्र हि जन्तोः प्राणेषूत्क्रममाणेषु रुद्रस्तारकं ब्रह्म&#xA;  व्याचष्टे येनासावमृती भूत्वा मोक्षी भवति&#xA;  तस्मादविमुक्तमेव निषेवेत अविमुक्तं न&#xA;  विमुञ्चेदेवमेवैतद्याज्ञवल्क्यः ॥ १॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;This is the spot where, when the vital airs depart from the living person, Rudra imparts the Taraka Brahman to him by which, becoming immortal, he attains liberation&lt;/strong&gt; (final beatitude). Hence one shall resort to the Avimukta; shall not desert the Avimukta. (Brihaspati approved of the statement saying): ‘So it is, Yajnavalkya’, verily it is so, O, revered one ! ‘It is so Yajnavalkya’.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus reaching the Varanasi is not a easy task in yogic sense.&lt;/strong&gt; One has to realize the Ajna Chakra (region between eyebrow). Or one who raises Kundalini upto Ajna Chakra actually reaches there. And thus his liberation is also granted.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;However this Varanasi of body corresponds to the holy region of Varanasi of earth. Here also Shiva grants liberation to those who reaches here (middle of eyebrow). There also Shiva grants liberation to those who reaches there (devotionally). Here also Rudra gives Tarak Brahman, Omkara and there also the same. Here also Avimukta (a form of Lord Shiva) resides, there also Avimukta resides. Here also it is in form as supported by Trident (actually Only susmna reaches Sahasrara, Ida and Pingala join at Ajna Chakra and thus form a trident like area), there also it is situated in Trident held by Lord Shiva.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus the Varanasi of our body corresponds to that Varanasi of Macro World. Thus in Yogic sense &amp;quot;Reaching the Varanasi&amp;quot; means reaching the Ajna Chakra (area beyond nose and middle of eyebrow).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-22T13:38:01.517" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T13:38:01.517" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15074" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15069" CreationDate="2016-09-22T06:32:10.003" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I could not find the exact reference of not using saree of any other colors except white. &lt;strong&gt;EDIT-&lt;/strong&gt;On the contrary I found from &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=gORJJvPw6KcC&amp;amp;pg=PA28&amp;amp;lpg=PA28&amp;amp;dq=bhavisya%20purana%20widows%20yellow&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=ebYeBMbtVm&amp;amp;sig=Mlii6iQOPKiRclY_f5pLS7L1oHM&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiOtOq87aTPAhXHX5QKHSsJBU8Q6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=bhavisya%20purana%20widows%20yellow&amp;amp;f=true&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; that &lt;strong&gt;widow women should wear yellow&lt;/strong&gt; atleast while performing a specific Vrata. So, whether scriptures at all prescribe widows wearing white garments is debatable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is prescribed that ceratin Vratas are meant to be observed by women&#xA;only. For example women can get the punya obtained by men by observing&#xA;the Aswamedha Yagya if they dedicatedly observe the &amp;quot;Ananta Triteeya&#xA;Vrata&amp;quot; in winters..&lt;strong&gt;. The married women to wear red clothes while widows&#xA;yellow hued clothes. The unmarried women(girls) should wear only white&#xA;clothes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OtSBt.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OtSBt.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;strong&gt;shaving off heads&lt;/strong&gt; are mentioned(pg-20) in a book  called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt;: Dharma Bindu contains the essence of all Dharma Shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a husband passes away and the widow observes the regulations of&#xA;widowhood, the woman concerned shall most certainly enjoys a high&#xA;level of conjugal happiness in her ensuing life. Since a widow is&#xA;distinguished as being one, it is preferred &lt;strong&gt;that her head hair is&#xA;removed forever,&lt;/strong&gt; takes a single meal a day and refrain from a second&#xA;meal that day! &lt;strong&gt;She should not use fragrances and not utilise flowers&lt;/strong&gt;;&#xA;every day she should perform tarpana with ‘tilodakas’ or black Tilas&#xA;with water using ‘darbhas’. Those women who are widowed should&#xA;consider as the diseased(deceased) husband as Vishnu himself and then her&#xA;remaining life would be spent peacefully without problems and even&#xA;though as of a woman of auspiciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A5lo4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A5lo4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By &amp;quot;Maharshi&amp;quot; is meant Maharshi Vyasa. Apart from these I could not find anything else. And the exact Sanskrit verses in the image are probably from the Vyasa Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahanirvana Tantra also lays down few rules the widow has to follow. One such rule is she must avoid wearing colored clothes which implies that white clothes are recommended for her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The widow should not eat twice a day, nor should she eat food cooked&#xA;by one who is not her husband's Agnate;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;she should renounce&lt;/strong&gt; sexual enjoyment, animal food, jewels, sleeping on soft beds, and &lt;strong&gt;coloured clothes&lt;/strong&gt; (56).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The widow faithful to her Dharmma should not anoint herself with&#xA;fragrant ointments, she should avoid village gossip, and should spend&#xA;her time in the worship of the Deities and in the performance of&#xA;Vratas (57)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 10; verses-56,57&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-07-10T06:45:27.237" LastActivityDate="2020-07-10T06:45:27.237" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15075" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-22T06:42:54.973" Score="3" ViewCount="866" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jambavan has composed a slokam on Hanuman comprising 12 hymns. It starts with:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Melai virinjan veeya migai naalir  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any puranic reference for this???&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-25T12:25:47.437" LastActivityDate="2020-12-27T23:03:40.443" Title="Jambavan's composition of slokam on Hanuman" Tags="|puranas|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15076" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14949" CreationDate="2016-09-22T06:56:03.303" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana70.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/brahma%20vaivartha/bookview.php?chapnum=13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Vaivarta Purana&lt;/a&gt;  mention the process of worshiping Ganga.In the context of Bhagiratha's penance to bring the holy river on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was the Grandson of Asamanja and the son of Ansuman- the&#xA;illustrious Bhagiratha, who made persistent efforts to meditate Devi&#xA;Ganga, Vishnu and  Sankara and finally succeeded in bringing the Holy&#xA;River from Vishnu’s feet to Sankara’s head and down to Bhu Loka and&#xA;purified the ashes of the thousand Sagara ‘Putras’(Sons) and relieved&#xA;their tormented souls to Heavens.The Holy River flowing as a ‘Jeeva&#xA;Nadi’ till date across the entire ‘Aryavarta’ from Gangotri to the Bay&#xA;of Bengal, is a unique land mark of Bharata Varsha, blessing lakhs of&#xA;devotees for bathing and purifying their sins at several points&#xA;dotting from Haridvar, Varanasi, Prayaga and Patna. Even a mere&#xA;bathing in the River washes off several sins, and performing it with a&#xA;‘Sankalpa’or resolve especially on a day when Sun passes from one&#xA;Zodiac Sign to another bestows significance thrice over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maharshi Narayana explained to Narada the mehodology of Worship to&#xA;Ganga in brief:&lt;/strong&gt; one should have a hearty bath in Ganga, don clean&#xA;clothes, be seated on the banks of the River to perform the daily&#xA;Sandhyavandana first and invoke the blessings the Six Devatas&#xA;viz.Ganesha, Sun, Agni, Vishnu, Siva and Sivani. Do worship Ganesha to&#xA;remove the obstacles, Surya Deva for good health, Agni Deva for&#xA;purification, Vishnu for wealth and power, Siva for knowledge and&#xA;Sivani for salvation. Then, imagine a mental image of  Ganga Devi in&#xA;fulfledged form with ‘Ashta Hasta’ ( Eight hands) fully decorated with&#xA;a smiling face, ornaments, flower garlands, and armoury and above all&#xA;an ‘Abhaya Mudra’ or a protective posture of two hands- one to provide&#xA;security and another for giving away boons. The ‘Dhyanam’ or&#xA;meditation is to be highly concentrated and serious without mind&#xA;wavering on any other object or thought, excepting the Image of Ganga,&#xA;in physical form to facilitate ‘dhyana’ or meditation. Then perform&#xA;the Shodadasa Sevas viz. ‘Asana’, Padya’, ‘Arghya’, ‘Snana’,&#xA;‘Anulepaya ( Ointment), ‘Dhoopa’( Inscence), ‘Dipa’( Light)’,&#xA;‘Naivedya’ ( Offer of Food Items), ‘Tamboola’ ( betel leaves and&#xA;nuts), ‘Paniya’ (cool water), ‘Vastra’ ( clothing), ‘Abharana’(&#xA;Ornaments), ‘Pushpa’ (flowers), ‘Gandha’( Sandal Paste), ‘Achamaniya’&#xA;(water for sipping) and ‘Arati’ ( Camphor lighting). Thereafter, the&#xA;devotee should render  ‘Stotras’ ( Hymns) to say that in Vaikuntha the&#xA;River is six lakh yojanas wide and four times that in length; in&#xA;Brahma Loka, thirty lakh yojanas in width and five times that in&#xA;length; in Dhruva Loka it is one lakh yojanas in width and seven times&#xA;as long and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The quotes are taken from the 1st link given above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T06:56:03.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15077" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15086" CreationDate="2016-09-22T07:08:44.610" Score="7" ViewCount="11288" Body="&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) What is &quot;Trisuparna Suktam&quot; (त्रिसूपर्ण सूक्त) from Vedas?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) What are the benifits of chanting of this sukta?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3) Are there variants of this sukta according to different Shakhas (branches of Vedas)?.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-09-30T05:44:12.890" LastActivityDate="2022-02-03T02:16:01.103" Title="What is &quot;Trisuparna Suktam&quot; from Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15079" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15047" CreationDate="2016-09-22T09:27:30.047" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As supreme personality of godhead and the supreme controller of all&#xA;  the worlds, Shri Rama stills rules the earth indirectly, but it was&#xA;  the  auspicious effect of Rama's rule in personal that all the people&#xA;  became intent on virtue and completely satisfied. So only those people&#xA;  can get ultimate peace, pleasure, prosperity and bliss of Rama-RAjya&#xA;  who feel and see that Rama is the king of all the worlds and take&#xA;  refuge  in his lotus feet with all love and devotion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While in direct rule of Shri RAma as king of Ayodhya, everyone was&#xA;  blessed with all auspicious qualities, Dharma (righteousness), peace, &#xA;  prosperity, complete satisfaction, and bliss. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here Maharshi Valmiki describes the beauty of Rama-Rajya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न पर्यदेवन्विधवा न च व्यालकृतं भयम् | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न व्याधिजं भयन् वापि रामे राज्यं प्रशासति ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[श्रीमद् वाल्मीकि रामायण 6, 128|99]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While Shri Rama was ruling the kingdom, there were no widows to&#xA;  lament, nor there was no danger from wild animals, nor any fear born&#xA;  of diseases!  [Śrīmad Vālmiki Rāmāyaṇam 6-128-99]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निर्दस्युरभवल्लोको नानर्थः कन् चिदस्पृशत् | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न च स्म वृद्धा बालानां प्रेतकार्याणि कुर्वते ||    [श्रीमद् वाल्मीकि&#xA;  रामायण 6, 128|100]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The world was bereft of thieves and robberies. No one felt worthless&#xA;  nor did old people perform obsequies concerning youngsters.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;[Śrīmad Vālmiki Rāmāyaṇam 6-128-100]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वं मुदितमेवासीत्सर्वो धर्मपरोअभवत् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राममेवानुपश्यन्तो नाभ्यहिन्सन्परस्परम् || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[श्रीमद् वाल्मीकि रामायण 6, 128|101]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Every creature felt pleased! Every one was intent on virtue! Turning&#xA;  their eyes towards Shri Rama alone, creatures did not kill one&#xA;  another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Śrīmad Vālmiki Rāmāyaṇam 6-128-101]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Not just only Human being but every creature felt pleased in Shri&#xA;  RAma-RAjya. All were intent on virtue. Not just Human-Beings or&#xA;  deities or  demons, but even trees, beasts, birds, etc, all were&#xA;  engrossed in looking at Shri Rama alone! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आसन्वर्षसहस्राणि तथा पुत्रसहस्रिणः | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निरामया विशोकाश्च रामे राज्यं प्रशासति || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[श्रीमद् वाल्मीकि रामायण 6, 128|102]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While Shri Rama was ruling the kingdom, people survived for thousands&#xA;  of years, with thousands of their progeny, all free of illness and&#xA;  grief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Śrīmad Vālmiki Rāmāyaṇam 6-128-102]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;See the greatness of Rama's kingship that everyone survived for&#xA;  thousand (1000) Years without any illness and grief. None of the three&#xA;  fold agony  of this material would could touch anyone while Shri Rama&#xA;  was ruling this earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रामो रामो राम इति प्रजानामभवन् कथाः | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रामभूतं जगाभूद्रामे राज्यं प्रशासति ||  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[श्रीमद् वाल्मीकि रामायण 6, 128|103]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While Shri Rama ruled the kingdom, the talks of the people centered&#xA;  round Rama, Rama and Rama alone. The world became Rama's world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Śrīmad Vālmiki Rāmāyaṇam 6-128-103]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The world was transformed into Shri Rama's world. No one was&#xA;  interested in any other thing apart from their King Rama who was very&#xA;  embodiment of  righteousness (Dharma). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नित्यपुष्पा नित्यफलास्तरवः स्कन्धविस्तृताः | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कालवर्षी च पर्जन्यः सुखस्पर्शश्च मारुतः || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मणाः क्षत्रिया वैश्याः शूद्रा लोभविवर्जिताः | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वकर्मसु प्रवर्तन्ते तुष्ठाः स्वैरेव कर्मभिः || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आसन् प्रजा धर्मपरा रामे शासति नानृताः | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वे लक्षणसम्पन्नाः सर्वे धर्मपरायणाः || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[श्रीमद् वाल्मीकि रामायण 6, 128|104-106]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The trees there were bearing flowers and fruits regularly, without any&#xA;  injury by pests and insects. The clouds were raining in time and the &#xA;  wind was delightful to the touch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Śrīmad Vālmiki Rāmāyaṇam 6-128-104]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmins (the priest-class), Kshatriyas (the warrior-class), Vaishyas&#xA;  (the class of merchants and agriculturists), Shudras (the&#xA;  servant-class) were  performing their own duties, satisfied with their&#xA;  own work and bereft of any greed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Śrīmad Vālmiki Rāmāyaṇam 6-128-105]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While Rama was ruling, the people were intent on virtue and lived&#xA;  without telling lies. All the people were endowed with excellent&#xA;  characteristics.  All were engaged in virtue. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Śrīmad Vālmiki Rāmāyaṇam 6-128-106]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://lordrama.co.in/rama-rajya.html&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T09:27:30.047" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15081" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14986" CreationDate="2016-09-22T13:03:29.970" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women had to clean the house properly&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In earlier times, the women of the house were assigned the duty of&#xA;  cleaning the house after others left for the cremation ground with the&#xA;  dead body. While the men of the house were charged with taking care of&#xA;  everything relation to the cremation and funeral of the deceased, the&#xA;  women were charged with the duty of preparing food so that the men&#xA;  could eat when they returned home after performing the last rights.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women are supposed to avoid scary scenes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a dead body’s pyre is usually lit, the entire scene of a human&#xA;  body burning is considered to be quite nasty. It has often been seen&#xA;  in earlier times that while burning, the body would sit up straight&#xA;  due to muscle spasms and remaining electrons in the body, and the&#xA;  people there would hit the body with sticks and heavy stones. Such&#xA;  scary scenes can turn into a nightmare for the women in the family,&#xA;  because the burning body being hit is, or rather, was, someone close&#xA;  to them. That is the reason it is smart to avoid this debacle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women cannot handle such disturbed imagery&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People are often of the belief that women are born with fragile and&#xA;  weak hearts and so they cannot tolerate anything scary or disturbing.&#xA;  As per Hindu traditions, the deceased’s body needs to burnt properly&#xA;  and completely, so that nothing but ash is left. This entire process&#xA;  can take more than one day. Usually, women are charged with taking&#xA;  care of the house and feeding the kids and the elderly, and besides,&#xA;  the smell of burning flesh and the entire scene is extremely&#xA;  disturbing. Hence, women are not allowed to go to cremation grounds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women are supposed to be vulnerable to possession by spirits&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In earlier times, it was presumed that women were much more vulnerable&#xA;  in terms of possession by evil and wondering spirits than the men. If,&#xA;  in any case, they went to the cremation grounds for the deceased’s&#xA;  funeral, especially unmarried women, they were sure to get possessed.&#xA;  The married women were a lot less vulnerable in this case. But people&#xA;  seriously should not believe in such nonsensical myths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women shouldn’t have to shave their heads&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hair was assumed to be a magnet for all evil spirits. And with women&#xA;  having long hair and cremation grounds supposedly having several evil&#xA;  spirits, they would have to shave their heads, as is the custom for&#xA;  all those who go to the cremation grounds for the funeral. To make&#xA;  things easier for them and to not shave their beautiful hair off, the&#xA;  rule of not allowing them at a funeral pyre was invented.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://pujajagat.com/blog/why-women-are-not-allowed-at-funeral-shamshan-ghat-430/&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T13:03:29.970" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15082" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9247" CreationDate="2016-09-22T13:07:24.080" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, we can't be sure if the painter of the picture in question is well versed in Scriptures or that he has drawn the positions of various Gods exactly as depicted in our Shastaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,one can get a good summary of the positions of Gods,Rishis,Vedas etc in a Cow's body  in the &quot;Grihasta Ashrama&quot; chapter found in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana31.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the  Grihashtashram  (family life), Maharshi Veda Vyas extolled to&#xA;  Yudhishthar the virtues of human beings, especially Brahmanas, as they&#xA;  play a pivotal role in performing duties to Devas, Pitras, Co- human&#xA;  beings, Bhuta Pranis, Krumi-Keetas (insects), Pakshis (birds) and even&#xA;  Asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cows standing for virtues do fall in the care of Brahmanas as the&#xA;  former represent Vedas-Rig Ved being the back of Cows, Yajur Ved being&#xA;  their middle portion, and Sama Ved their ‘Kukshi’(stomach); ‘Ishta’or&#xA;  Yagnas and Yagas and ‘Apurti’ or Wells, Tatakas, Gardens etc are their&#xA;  horns; Veda Suktas are the body hairs; Shanti Karma and Pushti Karma&#xA;  are their dung and urine; ‘Aksharas’ are their feet; Cows live for&#xA;  their Pada-Krama-Jata-and Ghana Paatha viz. the various Mantras;&#xA;  Swahakar, Swadhakar, Vashatkar and Hanthakar are the four nipples of&#xA;  their breasts, each of the nipples representing Devatas; Pitras;&#xA;  Bhutas, Rishis, Munis and Sureswaraganas; and Human beings&#xA;  respectively. The last nipple yeilds maximum milk to human beings.Thus&#xA;  the responsibility of looking after cows is squarely on human beings&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-22T13:21:01.423" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T13:21:01.423" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15083" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15026" CreationDate="2016-09-22T13:07:24.290" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ऊँ प्रातरग्निं प्रातरिन्द्रं हवामहे प्रातर्मित्रा वरुणा प्रातरश्विना ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रातर्भगं पूषणं ब्रह्मणस्पतिं प्रातस्सोममुत रुद्रँ हुवेम ॥१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At dawn we invoke Fire God (Agni), Indra , Sun god(Mithra) ,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;God of rain(Varuna) and the two Aswini kumaras(Doctors)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At dawn we invoke Bhaga(God of fortune), poosha(God of way),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmanaspathi (Teacher of devas) , Soma( moon God) and Rudra(God of&#xA;  anger).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रातर्जितं भगमुग्रँ हुवेम वयं पुत्रमदितेर्यो विधर्ता ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आद्ध्रश्चिद्यं मन्यमानस्तुरश्चिद्राजा चिद्यंभगं भक्षीत्याह॥२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the morning we make as our own Bhaga, who is the son of Adhithi and&#xA;  a great  supporter,  And therefor even the gods who appear to be great&#xA;  are making Bhaga  their own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भग प्रणेतर्भगसत्यराधो भगेमां धियमुदवददन्नः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भगप्रणो जनय गोभि-रश्वैर्भगप्रनृभि-र्नृवन्तस्स्याम ॥३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Bhaga , cross our way, Oh Bhaga who gives true gifts, continue&#xA;  giving your  gifts,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Bhaga add cows and horses to our store, Oh Bhaga bestow on us men&#xA;  and kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उतेदानीं भगवन्तस्यामोत प्रपित्व उत मध्ये अह्नाम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उतोदिता मघवन् सूर्यस्य वयं देवानाँ सुमतौ स्याम ॥४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Make us one with wealth/luck and when light breaks and at noon,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And even at sunset , let us be under the good grace of the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भग एव भगवाँ अस्तु देवास्तेन वयं भगवन्तस्स्याम।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तं त्वा भग सर्व इज्जोहवीमि सनो भग पुर एता भवेह॥५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let Bhaga be the one who gives me wealth/luck , and Oh Gods, make us&#xA;  lucky,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Bhaga we pray you with all our mind, that you bhaga be our leader&#xA;  here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समध्वरायोषसोऽनमन्त दधिक्रावेव शुचये पदाय।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्वाचीनं वसुविदं भगन्नो रथमिवाश्वावाजिन आवहन्तु॥६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let due to our worship at dawn , make them come to a pure place like&#xA;  Dadikravan,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Similar to strong horses leading the chariot , let Bhaga turn towards&#xA;  us the  essence of riches&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अश्वावतीर्गोमतीर्नउषासो वीरवतीस्सदमुच्छन्तु भद्राः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;घृतं दुहाना विश्वतः प्रपीनायूयं पात स्वस्तिभिस्सदा नः॥७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let the dawns be with us ,always safely with horses, cattle and&#xA;  heroes,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Milking the world with plenty and look after us ,Oh God with&#xA;  blessings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो माऽग्नेभागिनँ सन्तमथाभागं चिकीर्षति।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अभागमग्ने तं कुरु मामग्ने भागिनं कुरु ॥८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Fire , the participating saints have offered the present offering&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh fire let that portion be made that of the participators.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://anandjivananand.blogspot.in/2014/07/bhagya-suktam.html&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T13:07:24.290" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15084" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15047" CreationDate="2016-09-22T13:11:53.370" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न पर्यदेवन्विधवा न च व्यालकृतं भयम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न व्याधिजं भयन् वापि रामे राज्यं प्रशासति || ६-१२८-९९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;99&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;raame = while Rama; prashaasati = was ruling; raajyam = the kingdom; na vidhavaaH paryadevan = there were no widows to lament; na&#xA;  bhayam aasiit = there was no danger; vyaalakR^itam = from wild&#xA;  animals; na bhayam = and no fear; vyaadhijam = born of diseases.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While Rama was ruling the kingdom, there were no widows to lament, nor&#xA;  there was no danger from wild animals, nor any fear born of diseases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निर्दस्युरभवल्लोको नानर्थः कन् चिदस्पृशत् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न च स्म वृद्धा बालानां प्रेतकार्याणि कुर्वते || ६-१२८-१००&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;100&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;lokaH = the world; abhavat = became; nirdasyuH = bereft of thieves and robbers; na kashchit = nor anyone; aspR^ishat = felt;&#xA;  anartham = worthless; na vR^iddhaaH cha = nor did old people; kurvate&#xA;  sma = perform; pretakaaryaaNi = obsequies; (concerned); baalaanaam =&#xA;  to youngsters.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The world was bereft of thieves and robberies. No one felt worthless&#xA;  nor did old people perform obsequies concerning youngsters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वं मुदितमेवासीत्सर्वो धर्मपरोअभवत् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राममेवानुपश्यन्तो नाभ्यहिन्सन्परस्परम् || ६-१२८-१०१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;101&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;sarvam = every creature; asiit = felt; muditameva = pleased; sarvaH = everyone; abhavat = became; dharmaparaH = intent on virtue;&#xA;  anupashyantaH = perceiving; raamameva = Rama alone; na abhyahimsan =&#xA;  no one was killing; parasparam = each other.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Every creature felt pleased. Every one was intent on virtue. Turning&#xA;  their eyes towards Rama alone, creatures did not kill one another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आसन्वर्षसहस्राणि तथा पुत्रसहस्रिणः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निरामया विशोकाश्च रामे राज्यं प्रशासति || ६-१२८-१०२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;102&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;raame = (While) Rama; prashaasati = was ruling; raajyam = the kingdom; aasan = (people) lived; varShasahasraaNi = for thousands of&#xA;  years; tathaa = and; putra sahasriNaH = with thousands of progeny;&#xA;  niraamayaaH = free of illness; vishokaashcha = and free of grief.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While Rama was ruling the kingdom, people survived for thousands of&#xA;  years, with thousands of their progeny, all free of illness and grief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रामो रामो राम इति प्रजानामभवन् कथाः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रामभूतं जगाभूद्रामे राज्यं प्रशासति || ६-१२८-१०३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;103&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;raame prashaasati = while Rama ruled; raajyam = the kingdom; kathaaH = the talks; prajaanaam = of the people; abhavan = centred&#xA;  round; raamaH raamaH raamaH iti = Rama; Rama and Rama; jagat = the&#xA;  world; abhuut = became; raama bhuutam = Rama's world.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While Rama ruled the kingdom, the talks of the people centered round&#xA;  Rama, Rama and Rama. The world became Rama's world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नित्यपुष्पा नित्यफलास्तरवः स्कन्धविस्तृताः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कालवर्षी च पर्जन्यः सुखस्पर्शश्च मारुतः || ६-१२८-१०४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;104&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;taravaH = the trees; tatra = there; nitya puShpaaH = were having regular flowers; nitya phalaaH = and regular fruits; nirvraNaaH =&#xA;  without injuries (by pests and insects); parjanyaH = the cloud;&#xA;  kaalavarShii = was raining in time; maarutaH = and wind; sukha&#xA;  sparshaH = was delightful to the touch.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The trees there were bearing flowers and fruits regularly, without any&#xA;  injury by pests and insects. The clouds were raining in time and the&#xA;  wind was delightful to the touch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मणाः क्षत्रिया वैश्याः शूद्रा लोभविवर्जिताः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वकर्मसु प्रवर्तन्ते तुष्ठाः स्वैरेव कर्मभिः || ६-१२८-१०५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आसन् प्रजा धर्मपरा रामे शासति नानृताः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;105&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;braahmaNaaH = Brahmins (the priest-class); kShatriyaaH = Kshatriyas (the warrior-class); vaishyaaH = Vaishyas (the merchants&#xA;  and agriculturists); shuudraaH = Shudras (the servent-class)&#xA;  pravartante = were performing; svakarmasu = their own duties; tuShTaaH&#xA;  = satisfied; svaiH karmabhireva = with their own works; lobhavivarjitaah = bereft of greed; raame = (while) Rama; shaasati =&#xA;  was ruling; prajaaH = the people; aasan = were; dharmaparaaH = intent&#xA;  on virtue; na anR^itaaH = (and lived) without untruth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmins (the priest-class), Kshatriyas (the warrior-class), Vaishyas&#xA;  (the class of merchants and agriculturists), Shudras (the&#xA;  servant-class) were performing their own duties, satisfied with their&#xA;  own work and bereft of any greed. While Rama was ruling, the people&#xA;  were intent on virtue and lived without telling lies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वे लक्षणसम्पन्नाः सर्वे धर्मपरायणाः || ६-१२८-१०६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दशवर्षसहस्राणि रामो राज्यमकारयत् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;106&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;sarve = all; lakShaNa sampannaaH = were endowed with good characteristics; sarve = all; dharmaparaayaNaaH = were engaged in&#xA;  virtue; raamaH = Rama; akaarayat = was engaged; raajyam = in kingship;&#xA;  varShasahasraaNi = for one thousand years.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the people were endowed with excellent characteristics. All were&#xA;  engaged in virtue. Rama was engaged in the kingship thus for one&#xA;  thousand years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga128/yuddha_128_frame.htm&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T13:11:53.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15085" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10898" CreationDate="2016-09-22T13:16:01.120" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Following Puja Vidhi during Maha Shivaratri has been collected from&#xA;  various religious texts. We have included all main rituals which are&#xA;  suggested during Maha Shivaratri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;It is suggested to have only single meal a day before Maha Shivaratri    fasting. It is one of the common practices during&#xA;  fasting to make    sure any undigested food is not left in the&#xA;  digestion system on the    fasting day.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On the day of Shivaratri, one should get up early in the morning and    take bath. It is suggested to add black sesame seeds into the&#xA;  water.    It is believed that the holy bath on the day of Shivaratri&#xA;  purifies    not only the body but also the soul. If possible bathing&#xA;  in Ganges is    preferred.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After taking bath devotees should take Sankalp (संकल्प) to observe    full day fast and to break the fast on the next day. During Sankalp&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  devotees pledge for self-determination throughout the fasting period&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and seek blessing of Lord Shiva to finish the fast without any&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  interference. Hindu fasts are strict and people pledge for&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  self-determination and seek God blessing before starting them to&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  finish them successfully.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Devotees should abstain from all type of food during the fasting. In    the strict form of fasting even water is not allowed. However,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  consumption of fruits and milk is suggested during day time which&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  should be followed by strict fasting during night. In other words&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  during day time fruits and milk can be consumed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Devotees should take second bath in the evening before doing Shiva    Puja or visiting temple. If one is not able to visit the temple then&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  makeshift Shiva Ling can be made to perform Puja activities. One can&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  even shape the mud in Linga form and apply Ghee to perform Abhishek&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Puja at home.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shiva Puja should be done during night. Shivaratri Puja can be    performed one time or four times during the night. The whole night&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  duration can be divided into four to get four Prahar (प्रहर) to&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  perform Shiva Puja four times. Devotees who want to perform single&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Puja should do it during midnight.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;As per Puja Vidhi, Abhishek of Shiva Lingam should be performed with    different materials. The milk, rose water, sandalwood paste,&#xA;  yogurt,    honey, Ghee, sugar and the water are commonly used for&#xA;  Abhishek.    Devotees, who perform four Prahar Puja, must perform&#xA;  water Abhishek    during first Prahar, curd Abhishek during second&#xA;  Prahar, Ghee    Abhishek during third Prahar and honey Abhishek during&#xA;  fourth Prahar    apart from other materials.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After the Abhishek ritual, Shiva Linga is adorned with the garland    made of Bilva leaves. It is believed that Bilva leaves cool down Lord &#xA;  Shiva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After that Chandan or Kumkum is applied to the Shiva Linga which is    followed by lighting lamp and Dhupa. The other items which are used&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  to adorn Lord Shiva include flower of Madar (मदार) which is also&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  known as Aak (आक), Vibhuti which is also known as Bhasm. Vibhuti is&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sacred ash which is made using dried cow dung.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The mantra to chant during Puja duration is ॐ नमः शिवाय (Om Namah    Shivaya).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Devotees should break the fast next day after taking bath. Devotees    should break the fast between sunrise and before the end of&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Chaturdashi Tithi to get maximum benefit of the Vrat.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/festivals/maha-shivaratri/maha-shivaratri-puja-vidhi.html&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T13:16:01.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15086" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15077" CreationDate="2016-09-22T14:41:37.760" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chapter 3 of the Manu Smriti says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu03.htm&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;184&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those men must be considered as the sanctifiers of a company who are most learned in all the Vedas and in all the Angas, and who are the descendants of Srotriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A Trinakiketa, one who keeps five sacred fires, &lt;strong&gt;a Trisuparna&lt;/strong&gt;, one who is versed in the six Angas, the son of a woman married according to the Brahma rite, one who sings the Gyeshthasaman,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One who knows the meaning of the Veda, and he who expounds it, a student, one who has given a thousand (cows), and a centenarian must be considered as Brahmanas who sanctify a company.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Trisuparna is one who knows the Trisuparna Sukta.  According to page 110 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=4DJHAQAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=trisuparna&amp;amp;pg=PA110#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=trisuparna&amp;amp;f=false&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;, some commentators on the Manu Smriti say that the Trisuparna Sukta refers to verses 3-5 of Rig Veda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10114.htm&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 114&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Youthful One, well-shaped, with four locks braided, brightened with oil, puts on the ordinances.&#xA;  Two Birds of mighty power are seated near her, there where the Deities receive their portion.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;One of these Birds hath passed into the sea of air: thence he looks round and views this universal world.&#xA;  With simple heart I have beheld him from anear: his Mother kisses him and he returns her kiss.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Him with fair wings though only One in nature, wise singers shape, with songs, in many figures.&#xA;  While they at sacrifices fix the metres, they measure out twelve chalices of Soma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other commentators say that the Trisuparna Sukta refers to sections 38-40 of Taittiriya Aranyaka chapter 10, i.e. of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/mahanarayana.htm&quot;&gt;Mahanarayana Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; of the Krishna Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;XXXVIII-1: May the Supreme reach me. May the Blissful reach me. May the Supreme alone that is blissful reach me. O Lord, being one among Thy creatures I am Thy child. Suppress the dreary dream of the empirical existence that I experience. For that I offer myself as an oblation into Thee. O Lord, and the vital and mental powers. Thou hast kept in me &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    XXXVIII-2: One may impart Trisuparna to a Brahmana unsolicited. Those brahmanas who recite Trisuparna indeed destroy even the sin of brahminicide. They attain to the fruit of the performance of Soma sacrifice. They purify all those who sit in a row of a thousand (while at dinner) and attain union with Pranava, i.e., the Deity of this mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;XXXIX-1: That Brahman is attained through the power of intelligence. That Bliss is attained through the power of intelligence. The Bliss which is indeed Brahman is attained through the power of intelligence. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    XXXIX-2: O God, O Thou Creator, vouchsafe to us today the prosperity consisting of progeny. Turn away from us this bad dream (of the world).&#xA;    XXXIX-3: O God, O Creator, turn away from me all the sins. Bring to me that which is beneficial. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    XXXIX-4: To me, who is the devotee of the Supreme Truth let the wind blow sweetly. Let the rivers run sweetly. Let the herbs be to us sweet and beneficial.&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    XXXIX-5: Let there be sweetness day and night. Let the particles of the earth be sweetness bearing. Let heaven, our father, be sweet to us. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    XXXIX-6: Let the fruit-bearing trees be sweet to us. Let the sun be sweet and beneficial to us. Let the cows be sweetness-bearing to us. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    XXXIX-7: One may impart Trisuparna to a Brahmana unsolicited. Those brahmanas who recite Trisuparna indeed destroy even the sin of feticide or hurting a Brahmana well versed in the Vedas and in their auxiliaries. They attain to the fruit of the performance of Soma sacrifice. They purify all those who sit in a row of a thousand (while at dinner) and attain union with Pranava, i.e., the Deity of this mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;XXXX-1: That Brahman is attained through the power of sacrifice. That Bliss is attained through the power of sacrifice. The Bliss which is indeed Brahman is attained through the power of sacrifice. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    XXXX-2: The Supreme having become the four-faced Brahma among gods, the master of right words among the composers, the seer among the intelligent people, the buffalo among animals, the kite among the birds, the cutting axe among the destructive tools and soma among the sacrificers, transcends all purifying agencies accompanied by the sound (of holy chant). &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    XXXX-3: That which is the sun who abides in the clear sky, is the Vasu (the air that moves) in the mid-region, is the fire that dwells in the sacrificial altar and in the domestic hearth as the guest, is the fire that shines in men and in the gods, as the Soul, is the fire that is consecrated in the sacrifice, is dwelling in the sky as air, is born in water as submarine heat, is born in the rays of the sun, is the fire that is directly seen as the luminary, and is born on the mountain as the rising sun – that is the Supreme Truth, the Reality underlying all. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    XXXX-4: I pile fuel in the consecrated fire with a view to acquire the Vedas necessary for Thy worship, meditating on Thee in the form of Rig-Veda. The unbroken currents of clarified butter offered into the kindled fire – rendered sacred by cordial and hearty thoughts – flow like rivers, the water of which is potable for Gods. By this I kindly the splendour of the holy fire.  &#xA;    XXXX-5: In that Ahavaniya Fire, amidst those currents of clarified butter offered as oblation, abides the profusely rich and splendid Supreme Being who is magnified in the Trisuparna, who dwells in the nest of the bodies of created beings, who confers bliss on creatures according to their merit, and who shares with gods sweet ambrosia in the form of oblations offered by worshippers in Fire. In His proximity are seated the seven sages who destroy sins by mere remembrance and who continuously pour oblations in the form of a current of nectar keeping in mind the various gods for whom they are meant. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    XL-6: This Trisuparna may be imparted to a Brahmana unsolicited. Those brahmanas who recite Trisuparna indeed destroy even the sin of slaying a worthy Brahmana or an anointed king. They attain to the fruit of the performance of Soma sacrifice. They purify all those who sit in a row of a thousand (while at dinner) and attain union with Pranava, i.e., the Deity of this mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some benefits are spelled out in that Manu Smriti quote: a Brahmana who knows the Trisuparna Sukta sanctifies a group of people if he is fed at Shraddha.  Other Dharma Shastras say the same thing; see e.g. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe02/sbe0252.htm&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Apastamba Dharma Sutras and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/sbe07085.htm&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Smriti.  Other benefits are spelled out in the Mahanarayana Upanishad, namely the cleansing of sins, and this is confirmed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe14/sbe1431.htm&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vasishta Dharma Sutras&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T14:41:37.760" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15087" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-22T15:48:16.387" Score="2" ViewCount="283" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is Keshava Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Keshava means His hair is curly and black.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard many times that Krishna (or Vishnu) is very merciful, however, as He holds different objects on His hands - Mace, Discus, lotus flower and Conch-shell, so His mercy can be given in different ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally the lotus flower and the conshell are for devotees, so to say - an example of lines I have heard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;the question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;where in the scriptures is this described?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in anyways, Keshava Vishnu, (or Krishna) is always beyond the reach of our material senses, and we can never understand the full picture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Mym9i.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Mym9i.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3294" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-09-23T12:09:49.420" LastActivityDate="2016-09-23T12:09:49.420" Title="Vishnu and His mercy in His hands" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|weapon|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15088" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15077" CreationDate="2016-09-22T16:14:01.597" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is my partial answer(regarding the the benefits of reciting these mantras &amp;amp; their sources) .I have taken the screenshots from a book called Sukta Sangraha.In this book these mantras are called Trisuparna Mantrani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As per this book the mantras are from Rig Veda 5:82, Rig Veda 1.90.6 &amp;amp;&#xA;  Taittiriya Samhita 4.2.9.7.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who recite these mantras get the fruits of soma&#xA;  sacrifice.Reciting the mantras will also destroy the sins of brahmicide&#xA;  ,foeticide &amp;amp; killing a protector(hero).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/u8ago.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/u8ago.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7JBSC.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7JBSC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ag2a6.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ag2a6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gimld.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gimld.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-24T15:18:35.700" LastActivityDate="2016-09-24T15:18:35.700" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15089" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16924" CreationDate="2016-09-22T17:02:50.510" Score="7" ViewCount="8852" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Hanuman did not become/considered a king even though his father was a king? Who ran the kingdom after Kesri (hanuman's dad) if hanuman did not take his place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7735" LastActivityDate="2022-06-01T21:47:12.857" Title="Why Hanuman not considered a king even though his father was a king?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15090" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15092" CreationDate="2016-09-22T17:48:43.850" Score="6" ViewCount="1927" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is bribery a sin according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/126/2995&quot;&gt;Hindu scripture&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, what is the punishment? For example, the Indian Government's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.persmin.gov.in/DOPT/EmployeesCorner/Acts_Rules/PCAct/pcact.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988&lt;/a&gt; has prescribed the following.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CHAPTER III: OFFENCES AND PENALTIES&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7. Public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an&#xA;  official act&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whoever, being, or expecting to be a public servant, accepts or obtains or agrees to accept or&#xA;  attempts to obtain from any person, for himself or for any other person, any gratification&#xA;  whatever, other than legal remuneration, as a motive or reward for doing or forbearing to do&#xA;  any official act or for showing or forbearing to show, in the exercise of his official functions,&#xA;  favour or disfavour to any person or for rendering or attempting to render any service or&#xA;  disservice to any person, with the Central Government or any State Government or&#xA;  Parliament or the Legislature of any State or with any local authority, corporation or&#xA;  Government company referred to in clause (c) of section 2, or with any public servant,&#xA;  whether named or otherwise, &lt;strong&gt;shall be punishable with imprisonment which shall be not less&#xA;  than six months but which may extend to five years and shall also be liable to fine.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any examples from Ramayana and Mahabharata that touch upon this issue and how the kings in those epics dealt with this malady?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;P.S: If you just want to state your opinion just leave a comment under the question. Please don't answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/94/2995&quot;&gt;citing blogs&lt;/a&gt; or Wikipedia. I'm mainly looking for answers backed by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/1/2995&quot;&gt;scripture&lt;/a&gt;. Answers can also be opinions of an āchārya or a guru.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T02:52:34.333" Title="Is bribery a sin according to Hindu scripture? If yes, what is the punishment?" Tags="|mahabharata|scripture|ramayana|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15091" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15039" CreationDate="2016-09-22T18:09:02.537" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rakshasa, Sanskrit (male) Rākṣasa, or (female) Rākṣasī, in Hindu&#xA;  mythology, a type of demon or goblin. Rakshasas have the power to&#xA;  change their shape at will and appear as animals, as monsters, or in&#xA;  the case of the female demons, as beautiful women. They are most&#xA;  powerful in the evening, particularly during the dark period of the&#xA;  new moon, but they are dispelled by the rising sun. They especially&#xA;  detest sacrifices and prayer. Most powerful among them is their king,&#xA;  the 10-headed Rāvaṇa. Pūtanā, a female demon, is well known for her&#xA;  attempt to kill the infant Krishna by offering him milk from her&#xA;  poisoned breast; she was, however, sucked to death by the god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Not all rakshasas are equally evil; some are more akin to yakshas, or&#xA;  yakṣas (nature spirits), while others are similar to asuras, the&#xA;  traditional opponents of the gods. The term rakshasa, however,&#xA;  generally applies to those demons who haunt cemeteries, eat the flesh&#xA;  of men, and drink the milk of cows dry as if by magic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They are vigorously depicted in Rajasthani paintings illustrating the&#xA;  Rāmāyaṇa (“Romance of Rāma”). The canons of sculpture instruct the&#xA;  artist to carve them with a terrifying appearance, complete with&#xA;  fearful side tusks, ugly eyes, curling awkward brows, and carrying a&#xA;  variety of horrible weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.britannica.com/topic/rakshasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rakshasas were in the Mahabharata period too&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hidimba was a cannibal Rakshasa who was slain by Bhima. The Mahabharata (Book I: Adi Parva, Section 154) describes him as a cruel&#xA;  cannibal with sharp, long teeth and prodigious strength. When Hidimba&#xA;  saw the Pandavas sleeping in his forest, he decided to eat them. He&#xA;  made the mistake of sending his sister Hidimbi to reconnoiter the&#xA;  situation, and the damsel fell in love with the handsome Bhima, whom&#xA;  she warned of the danger. Infuriated, Hidimba declared himself ready&#xA;  to kill not only the Pandavas but also his sister, but he was thwarted&#xA;  by the heroism of Bhima, who defeated and killed him in a duel.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kirmira, the brother of Bakasur, was a cannibal and master illusionist. He haunted the wood of Kamyaka, dining on human&#xA;  travellers. Like his brother before him, Kirmira also made the mistake&#xA;  of fighting the Pandav hero Bhima, who killed him with his bare hands&#xA;  (Book III: Varna Parva, Section 11).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jatasur was a cunning Rakshasa who, disguised as a Brahmin, attempted to steal the Pandavas' weapons and to ravish his wife&#xA;  Draupadi. Bhima arrived in time to intervene, and killed Jatasur in a&#xA;  duel. (Book III: Varna Parva, Section 156). Jatasur's son was&#xA;  Alamvush, who fought on the side of the Kauravas at Kurukshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakshasa#In_the_Mahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7742" LastActivityDate="2016-09-22T18:09:02.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15092" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15090" CreationDate="2016-09-22T19:18:03.913" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes bribery is considered as sin in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana, Book 2, Chapter 6&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who takes unlawful gifts goes to the Adhomukha (or head-inverted) hell&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Virata Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commissioned to a task, one should not touch bribes for by such appropriation one becometh liable to fetters or death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu09.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti, Chapter 9&lt;/a&gt;, a King should always be alert with those who take bribe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;258&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Those who take bribes, cheats and rogues, gamblers, those who live by teaching (the performance of) auspicious ceremonies, sanctimonious hypocrites, and fortune-tellers,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Padma Purana, Bhoomi Khanda, Chapter 67 also say the same thing as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That king whose subjects are harassed by officials receiving bribes, by thieves in his kingdom, is roasted in hells.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also from this verse from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vamana-purana/chapter-12/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaman Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  (Chapter 12 verse 37) ,we come to know that accepting bribe is a sin &amp;amp; those who accept the bribe are thrown to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पृष्ठमांसाशिनो मूढास्तथैवोत्तकीव जीवन:। &lt;br&gt;  क्षिप्यन्ते वृकभक्षे ते&#xA;नरके रजनीचर॥३७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PrusthaManSaShiNo MudhaStaThaiVoTtaKiva Jivanah Kshpyate VrukBhakshe&#xA;Te Narake RanajiChara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - O monster ! The sneaking and bribe accepting rudes are&#xA;thrown into the hell called &amp;quot;Vrakbhaksa&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T02:52:34.333" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15093" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15102" CreationDate="2016-09-23T05:00:54.200" Score="6" ViewCount="399" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedah Smritah Sadaachaarah Svasyacha priyamaatmanah, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Etad chaturvidham praahuh saakshaat Dharmasya lakshanam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The four corner-stones of Dharma are Veda, Smriti, Sadaachaara and above all,&#xA;  one's own Inner Conscience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above Sanskrit śloka can be found at the end of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; (Dharma Bindu - Essence of Dharma Shastra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the source of this śloka? Which scripture contains this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yaś &lt;strong&gt;caturguṇasaṃpannaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; dharmaṃ veda sa dharmavit&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  aher iva hi dharmasya padaṃ duḥkhaṃ gaveṣitum [&lt;a href=&quot;http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/2_epic/mbh/mbh_12_u.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;MB, Shanti Parva, 12-130.019a&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above, Bhishma seems to make an indirect reference to it in the Mahabharata and that reference has been used in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/832/2995&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2022-05-30T04:27:33.570" Title="What is the source of the Sanskrit śloka that lists the four corner-stones of dharma?" Tags="|mahabharata|scripture|dharma|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15094" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15126" CreationDate="2016-09-23T06:57:16.863" Score="11" ViewCount="1458" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri Rudram&lt;/strong&gt; is the 16th chapter of Vajasaneyi Samhita, and also 4.5.1 -4.5.11 of Taittariya Samhita. There are 11 Anuvaks in total in Krishna YajurVeda.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;5th Anuvaka&lt;/strong&gt; of Sri Rudram is of specific significance. In the first paragraph of 5th Anuvaka it states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमो भवाय च रुद्राय च। नमश्शर्वाय च पशुपतये च। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमो नीलग्रीवाय च शितिकण्ठाय च। नमः कपर्दिने च &lt;strong&gt;व्युप्तकेशाय च&lt;/strong&gt;। नमस्सहस्राक्षाय च शतधन्वने च। नमो गिरिशाय च शिपिविष्टाय च। (YajurVeda 4.5.1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to Him who is the source of all things (&lt;strong&gt;Bhava&lt;/strong&gt;). And to Him who is the remover of all cries (&lt;strong&gt;Rudra&lt;/strong&gt;). Salutations to the destroyer (&lt;strong&gt;Sarva&lt;/strong&gt;) and to the protector of all beings in bondage (&lt;strong&gt;Pasupati&lt;/strong&gt;). Salutations to Him who is blue necked (&lt;strong&gt;Nilagriva&lt;/strong&gt;) and whose throat is also white (&lt;strong&gt;Sitikantha&lt;/strong&gt;). Salutations to Him of the matted hair locks (&lt;strong&gt;Kapardin&lt;/strong&gt;), and to Him who is with shaved head (&lt;strong&gt;Vyuptakesha&lt;/strong&gt;). Salutations to Him who has a Thousand eyes and a hundred bows. Salutations to Him who dwells on the mount and who is in the form of Shipivista.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above Anuvaka the names from Bhava to Kapardin are Shiva specific names. Ie. These names represent Lord Shiva in General.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The 8 names are: Bhava, Rudra, Sarva, Pasupati, Nilagriva, Sitikantha, Kapardin, Vyuptakesha.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;One is familiar with all other names in the above list except the name &lt;strong&gt;Vyuptakesha.&lt;/strong&gt; But this name is combined with another specific name Kapardin. ie. It is in the format of &amp;quot;नमः कपर्दिने च व्युप्तकेशाय च।&amp;quot;. Kapardin means who has matted hair and Vyuptakesha means who has shaven head which have just opposite meanings.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Regarding the name Kapardin there are many stories like invoking Bhadrakali and VeeraBhadra by plucking locks of matted hair. In other cases also Lord Shiva is mostly with matted hair (&lt;strong&gt;Kapardin&lt;/strong&gt;) form.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But as the name &amp;apos;&lt;strong&gt;Vyuptakesha&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;apos; is used along with specific name. It is likely that this name also has some specific significance. &lt;strong&gt;Is there any form or incarnation or story of Lord Shiva where he is Vyuptakesha or with bald head?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-23T09:21:04.317" LastActivityDate="2016-09-24T11:01:35.463" Title="What is the story of Vyuptakesha incarnation of Lord Shiva?" Tags="|mahabharata|shiva|vedas|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15096" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15053" CreationDate="2016-09-23T09:26:56.137" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Its nothing like that, there is a belief in North India that if anyone worships Sri Hanuman than that person gets the blessings from Sri Ram too.It was one of the boon Sri Ram gave to Sri Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HmJCl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HmJCl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Ranjit Hanuman Mandir,Indore(M.P)&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This temple is very famous in Indore a city in Madhya Pradesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7731" LastEditorUserId="7731" LastEditDate="2016-09-23T18:10:33.420" LastActivityDate="2016-09-23T18:10:33.420" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15097" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15054" CreationDate="2016-09-23T09:37:29.553" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The cause for the meeting was Bheem. As we know that Lord Varun was godfather for both Lord Hanuman and Bheem. Bheem being one of the strongest at that time was very proud of his strength.To teach his brother a lesson Sri Hanuman took form of an old monkey and sat in his way. When Bheem asked Sri Hanuman to remove his tail from his way. Hanuman asked Bheem to do it by himself. Bheem tried to do that but failed in his effort.At that time Sri Hanuman revealed his identity and this way taught a lesson to Bheem.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7731" LastActivityDate="2016-09-23T09:37:29.553" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15099" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15101" CreationDate="2016-09-23T10:15:18.503" Score="7" ViewCount="1464" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यत्र योगेश्वर: कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धर: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिध्रुवा नीतिर्मतिर्मम || 78||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 18.78&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Translation&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wherever there is Shree Krishna, the Lord of all Yoga, and wherever there is Arjuna, the Supreme archer, there will also certainly be unending opulence, victory, prosperity, and righteousness. Of this, I am certain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The foregoing is the last sloka of the Bhagavad Gita and it conveyed-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There can be only &lt;strong&gt;One&lt;/strong&gt; verdict in this war—victory will always be on the side of God and his pure devotee, and so will goodness, supremacy, and abundance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the foregoing sloka God Vishnu{Sri Krishna} is referred in the Yogeshwara form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God Vishnu is also referred in the Yogeshwara form in the following Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 4.22.22:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Attachment for the Supreme can be increased by practicing devotional service, inquiring about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, applying bhakti-yoga in life, worshiping the Yogeśhwara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and by hearing and chanting about the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. These actions are pious in themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the Yogeshwara form of God Vishnu? Is there a story why God Vishnu is also referred as Yogeshwara? Explain in brief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-02-04T16:42:39.280" Title="What is the Yogeshwara form of God Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15100" PostTypeId="7" CreationDate="2016-09-23T11:00:31.427" Score="0" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;    &lt;li&gt;Anything not directly related to Hindu religion&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;    &lt;li&gt;Questions that are primarily opinion-based&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;    &lt;li&gt;Questions with too many possible answers or that would require an extremely long answer&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;    &lt;li&gt;Personal advice and Scientific speculation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-09-23T11:00:31.427" LastActivityDate="2016-09-23T11:00:31.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15101" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15099" CreationDate="2016-09-23T11:53:54.750" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yogeshwara translates to Lord/Master of Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna is known as Yogeshwara because, Shriman Narayana in the form/avatar of Shri Krishna revived ancient knowledge of Yoga viz Bhakti, Jnana, and Karma  which is part of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12321/489&quot;&gt;Pancharatra&lt;/a&gt; tradition (Bhagwad gita is gist of Pancharatara) on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following is Bhagwad Ramanujacharya's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-78/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; on BG 18.78&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wherever, Sri Krishna, &lt;strong&gt;the Lord of Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;, and Arjuna the archer are, there abide forever prosperity, victory, wealth and righteous statesmanship - this is my firm conviction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shri Krishna is Yogeshwara or Yogeshwara avatar of Shriman Narayana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna in BG 4.1-4.6 speaks about the ancient knowledge of Bhagwad Gita which was passed down from Vivasavan manu(Manu of current Manvantara). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-11-09T06:03:38.207" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15102" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15093" CreationDate="2016-09-23T14:35:01.567" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;This Shloka is available in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc145585.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti, Chapter 2, Verse 12&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वेदः स्मृतिः सदाचारः स्वस्य च प्रियमात्मनः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एतच्चतुर्विधं प्राहुः साक्षाद् धर्मस्य लक्षणम् ॥ १२ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vedaḥ smṛtiḥ sadācāraḥ svasya ca priyamātmanaḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etaccaturvidhaṃ prāhuḥ sākṣād dharmasya lakṣaṇam || 12 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Veda, the Smṛti, the Practice of cultured Men, and what is agreeable to oneself—these directly constitute the fourfold means of knowing Dharma.—(12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-13T12:37:56.073" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15103" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14881" CreationDate="2016-09-23T14:44:44.027" Score="-1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Paramathma is veda vethyan.In Ramavatar  Lord Rama followed vedas and showed the human dharma to the world amidst blessings. When all the devathas prayed thru veda manthiras, Paramathama told that I will take birth as son  to  King Dasaratha and rule the world as per directionsof Vedas. Hence he is called Veda Reman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt;: Veda Raman by Mukkur Lakshmi Narasimhachar of Vanathi Publications. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-27T09:55:51.093" LastActivityDate="2016-10-27T09:55:51.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15104" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15059" CreationDate="2016-09-23T14:50:45.990" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Today, I was having discussion with my family regarding this topic. Here is the answer what I was seeking it is Datta Mahatmya(दत्त महात्म्य) written by Sri Vasudevananda Saraswati Swami(Tembe Swami) it is translation(marathi) of Datta Puraan again written by Tembe Swami. Tembe Swami collected all the stories related to Lord Datta from different purans and other scriptures and complied it in Datta Puran.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/O0IyH.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/O0IyH.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Sri Vasudevananda Saraswati&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7731" LastActivityDate="2016-09-23T14:50:45.990" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15105" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-23T14:56:13.627" Score="3" ViewCount="734" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why did trimurti use Vasuki Naga instead of Ananta AdiShesha of Shriman Narayana, for &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_manthan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Samudra Manthan&lt;/a&gt;?.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-10-17T11:31:10.393" LastActivityDate="2018-10-17T11:31:10.393" Title="Why was vasuki used in Samudra Manthan great ocean Churning" Tags="|samudra-manthan|naga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2018-10-19T06:32:56.493" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15106" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15056" CreationDate="2016-09-23T15:40:18.473" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Balarama thought within himself that nobody can win him. Krishna sent Balarama to invite Hanuman. When Balarama said I am Balarama here  krishna sent me to invite you. Hanuman asked tell once more who are you--Balarama said Iam balarama. Hanuman slapped on his face and told are you powerful than my Rama? Bala is strength in Tamil. In a fury Balarama went and told Krishna and came with many soldiers. All the soldiers were killed by Hanuman. Again Balarama went to krishna and told the incidents. Krishna at pne saod hope by this time your ego was get rid off--hanuman is mightier then you.&#xA;Source  Kodayin paadhai  by Mukkur Lakshmi Narasimhachar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-23T15:40:18.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15107" PostTypeId="7" CreationDate="2016-09-23T16:08:07.750" Score="0" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;    &lt;li&gt;Academic questions about Hindu philosophical thought&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;    &lt;li&gt;Historical questions about the evolution of Hinduism&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;    &lt;li&gt;Different sects and beliefs of Hinduism&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-09-23T16:08:07.750" LastActivityDate="2016-09-23T16:08:07.750" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15108" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-23T16:54:44.087" Score="7" ViewCount="1951" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came here while reading Ramachandra Guha's India after Gandhi book. In this book I came across a claim that Adi Shankaracharya was defeated in debate by a Kashmiri panditani (priestess). How much of it is true? Is there any recorded history about this incident?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Page no 77,chapter:a valley bloody and beautiful,title: India after Gandhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the first anniversary of Indian independence Abdullah sent a message to the leading Madras&#xA;  weekly, Swatantra. The message sought to unite north and south, mountain and coast, and, above all,&#xA;  Kashmir and India. It deserves to be printed in full:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Through the pages of SWATANTRA I wish to send my message of fraternity to the people of the&#xA;  south. Farback in the annals of India the south and north met in the land of Kashmir. The great&#xA;  Shankaracharya came to Kashmir to spread his dynamic philosophy but here he was defeated in&#xA;  argument by a Panditani. This gave rise to the peculiar philosophy of Kashmir – Shaivism. A&#xA;  memorial to the great Shankaracharya in Kashmir stands prominent on the top of the&#xA;  Shankaracharya Hill in Srinagar. It is a temple containing the Murti of Shiva.&#xA;  More recently it was given to a southerner to take the case of Kashmir to the United Nations&#xA;  and, as the whole of India knows, with the doggedness and tenacity that is sousualto the&#xA;  southerner, he defended Kashmir.&#xA;  We in Kashmir expect that we shall continue to receive support and sympathy from the&#xA;  people of the south and that some day when we describe the extent of our country we shall use&#xA;  the phrase ‘from Kashmir to Cape Comorin’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7733" LastEditorUserId="290" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T03:19:50.703" LastActivityDate="2020-02-29T05:27:32.927" Title="Was Adi Shankaracharya defeated in debate by a Kashmiri panditani (scholar)?" Tags="|adi-shankaracharya|kashmiri-shaivism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15110" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15744" CreationDate="2016-09-23T17:45:39.017" Score="4" ViewCount="4202" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BwDWM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BwDWM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Nav-Nag Stotra&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This stotra gives 9 names of nagas worshiped in hindu dharma.&#xA;Can anybody give more details about them. I know about two of them one is Vasuki(वासुकी)- played a major role in churning of ocean and another one Kaliya(कालिय) who was taught a lesson in vrindavan by Lord Krishna.&#xA;But what about others ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also it skipped my mind, &#xA;The Shesh Nag incarnated as Lakshman in Ram avatar and Balraam in Krishna avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7731" LastEditorUserId="7731" LastEditDate="2016-09-23T18:14:52.893" LastActivityDate="2016-11-05T14:01:49.327" Title="Details about Nav Nag" Tags="|naga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15112" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10198" CreationDate="2016-09-23T18:30:56.867" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes It is Ranga Avadhoot Maharaj. His samadhi is at Nareshwar(near vadodara) in Gujrat. He was disciple of Swami Vasudevananda Saraswati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DtQ4e.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DtQ4e.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Rangavadhoot Maharaj with his guru Swami Vasudevananda&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;https://indiaspirituality.blogspot.in/2009/01/shri-rang-avadhootji-maharaj.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Blog on Rangavadhoot Maharaj&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7731" LastEditorUserId="7731" LastEditDate="2016-09-29T05:08:06.270" LastActivityDate="2016-09-29T05:08:06.270" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15114" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-09-24T05:21:57.747" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-09-24T05:21:57.747" LastActivityDate="2016-09-24T05:21:57.747" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15115" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-09-24T05:21:57.747" Score="0" Body="The Dattatreya Upanishad (Sanskrit: दत्तात्रेय उपनिषत्), also called the Dattatreyopanishad, is a Sanskrit text and one of the minor Upanishads of Hinduism. It is attached to the Atharvaveda, and classified as a text of the Vaishnava sect, which worships the god Vishnu.[1]" OwnerUserId="7731" LastEditorUserId="7731" LastEditDate="2016-09-24T07:28:34.007" LastActivityDate="2016-09-24T07:28:34.007" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15117" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-24T07:33:24.830" Score="3" ViewCount="486" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya faced hassles to hear Ramayana. From whom he faced the difficulty and of what type and what was the reason for it? Finally he heard the Ramayana from that person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-10-29T17:40:12.340" Title="Ramanujacharya and Ramayana" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15118" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-24T07:44:43.707" Score="4" ViewCount="1345" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pranavam  [OM] is having the the combinations of Aa, Uu and Ma. The Pranavam is entirely submerged in these 3 letters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aa, Uu and Ma is AUM [OM]. Everybody knows it. But how paramatma jeevatma and merging of jeevatma with paramatma is depicted in AUM?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does this Aa, Uu and Ma are correlated with respect to Paramatma and Jeevatma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="9125" LastEditDate="2018-11-25T01:36:50.043" LastActivityDate="2018-11-25T01:36:50.043" Title="Pranavam's combination is A U M. What is the significance of this and who are the main actors of Aa Uu and Mm?" Tags="|om|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-09-26T06:17:50.960" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15119" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8461" CreationDate="2016-09-24T07:54:56.940" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sani told Hanuman that I will catch you. Hanuman said I am in rama karya. You should come afterwards. But sani was adamant. He said I have to catch you. Hanuman thinked for a while and said ok. Sani sat on hanuman's shoulder. Hanuman flied in the sky with great speed and sani could not bear the speed. He pleaded to stop, or we will go down. Hanuman obliged. Sani was tired. He regained energy and said I will catch your legs. Hanuman said ok. Sani caught his leg and hanuman ran into the forest. Sani was wounded as he was thrashed by boulders and thorns. He pleaded to stop. Hanuman stopped. Sani with folded hands told Hanuman I will not catch you and whoever worships you, will not catch them also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kothayin paadhai&lt;/strong&gt;  by &lt;strong&gt;Mukkur Lakshmi narasimhachar  3rd volume.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A &lt;strong&gt;shloka&lt;/strong&gt; start with a line&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namah Krishnaya  neelaya sidhi kanda nibaya cha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="4539" LastEditDate="2016-09-28T14:05:55.633" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T14:05:55.633" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15120" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14340" CreationDate="2016-09-24T08:08:57.323" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;27 Nithyayogas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Vishkambha, 2) Preethi, 3) Ayushman, 4) Soubhagya, 5) Shobhana, 6) Athiganda, 7) Sukarma, 8) Dhrithi, 9) Soolam, 10) Ganda, 11) Vridhi, 12) Dhruva, 13) Vyaghatha, 14) Harshana, 15) Vajra, 16) Siddhi, 17) Vyathipatha, 18) Variyan, 19) Parigha, 20) Shiva, 21) Siddha, 22) Sadhya, 23) Subhra, 24) Braahma,  25) Mahendra, 26) Vaidhruthi, 27) Shubha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their length, as the length of the stars, is 13 degree 20 minutes. Nithyayoga is the sum of the longitudes of Sun and Moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karanam is half of Tithi. There are 28 Tithis from Shukla Pradhama Uttarashada to Krishna Chathurdasi Purvashada. So there are 56 Karanams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Charakaranas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Lion (Bava),   2) Tiger (Balava),  3)  Pig    (Koulava),   4)  Ass   (Taitila),  5)  Elephant (Gara),  6)  Cow  (Vanija),    7)  Vishti (Bhadra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These 7 Charakaranas are repeated 8 times. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The four Karanas including Shukla Pradhama's Purvashada, Krishna Chathurdasi's Uttarashada and the two parts of Amavasi are permanent karanas. These come only once. They are 1) Bird (Sakuna) 2) Four-legged animal (Chatushpada)  3) Snake (Naga)  4) Worm (Kimstugna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.epanchang.com/daily-panchangam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.epanchang.com/daily-panchangam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-24T08:08:57.323" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15121" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-24T08:40:42.543" Score="9" ViewCount="846" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focused on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in Adhyaya 1 Pada 3 of Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa school, Jaimini discusses how to determine the meaning of a word occurring in the Vedas.  He argues that by default one should rely on the meaning of the word in the language of the Aryas, i.e. Sanskrit.  But if a given word in the Vedas has no meaning in Sanskrit, then he says that one should rely on the meaning of the word in the languages of Mlecchas or foreigners.  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/xueX&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Shabara's commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It has been established that that meaning is to be regarded as more authoritative which is accepted by persons who take their stand upon the scriptures. Now in the Veda, we meet with certain words which are not used by the Aryas (who are the people that take their stand on the scriptures) in any sense at all, but are in use among Mlechchhas; such are the words &amp;quot;pika&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;nema&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;sata&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;tamarasa&amp;quot; and such others. In regard to these, there arises the question - Are we to deduce their meaning from their etymology, commentaries and roots with the help of lexicons and grammar? Or should we accept that as their meaning in which sense they are used by the Mlechchhas? ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning that is imparted to a word even by uncultured people, -even though not known to the cultured - would be comprehended, - and it would not be right to reject what has been comprehended and which is not incompatible with any authority.... From all this we conclude that (according to the usage of the Mlechchhas), the word &amp;quot;pika&amp;quot; should be taken in the sense of the cuckoo,- the word &amp;quot;nema&amp;quot; in the sense of half - the word &amp;quot;tamarasa&amp;quot; in the sense of lotus, - the word &amp;quot;sata&amp;quot; in the sense of “wooden vessel, round in shape and with hundred-holes”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I find it surprising that the Vedas would have any non-Sanskrit words.  So my question is, what Mleccha language or languages are used in the Vedas according to the Purva Mimamsa school?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, what languages are the four words mentioned in Shabara's commentary taken from?  &amp;quot;Tamarasam&amp;quot; means lotus flower in Dravidian languages like Tamil and Telugu.  Page 315 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=MjcVAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;dq=nema%20half%20veda&amp;amp;pg=PA315#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=nema%20half%20veda&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; suggests that &amp;quot;pika&amp;quot; comes from Latin and &amp;quot;nema&amp;quot; comes from Persian.  But in what language does &amp;quot;sata&amp;quot; denote a round wooden vessel?  And are there more languages besides the languages that these four words come from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, do other schools of philosophy disagree with the Purva Mimamsa school's view that some words in the Vedas are words from Mleccha languages?  I had always thought that the Vedas consisted entirely of Sanskrit words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T14:45:27.697" Title="What Mleccha languages are used in the Vedas according to Purva Mimamsa?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|sanskrit|language|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15122" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-24T08:54:51.967" Score="7" ViewCount="1502" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading about various Yagnas which were performed during vaidic times , I came across this &quot;Athirathram or Atiratra &quot; Yagna's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my questions are - :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) What is exactly these &quot;Athirathram or Atiratra&quot; Yagna?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) In  Which scripture these Yagna's and it's procedure is mentioned ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3) What is the purpose of some these Yagna?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-09-27T07:58:33.430" LastActivityDate="2016-09-27T08:18:24.643" Title="What is Atiratra or Athirathram Yagna's?" Tags="|vedas|scripture|rituals|yajna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15123" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9175" CreationDate="2016-09-24T08:55:10.597" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is foolish to assume that one can get away with killing an insect(for whatever reasons it might be) or it(the act) does not create sins of any significant amount.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/14Manu_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti&lt;/a&gt;(Chapter 3 slokas 68,69) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A householder has 5 slaughter houses viz the hearth,the grinding&#xA;  stone,the broom,the pestle ,mortar &amp;amp; the water vessel,by using which&#xA;  he is bound.And in order to expiate these sins the sages recommended&#xA;  the 5 sacrifices(Pancha yajnas) for the householders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rXYz2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rXYz2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/13Parashara_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parshara Smriti&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What a sin a fisherman incurs in the course of one year is incurred by&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;the ploughman with a iron plough within just one day&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/s8Yih.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/s8Yih.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Kaurava mother Gandhari had supposedly killed ,in her previous birth,&lt;a href=&quot;http://utkarshspeak.blogspot.in/2012/06/gandhari-and-her-karma.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;100 eggs of an insect&lt;/a&gt;.And that resulted in the death of her 100 sons in the Mahabharata battle.&lt;strong&gt;So,we can't assume that death of an insect to be an insignificant event in Almighty's eyes in any way.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But please note that i have generally tried to collect what scriptures say about the sins that we can incur by killing insects(even if you are performing swadharma) without touching another half in your question viz-killing insects that are &quot;harmful&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-24T15:20:28.390" LastActivityDate="2016-09-24T15:20:28.390" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15124" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15125" CreationDate="2016-09-24T09:24:01.693" Score="16" ViewCount="4249" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are four parts of Vedas; Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads. Among these Samhita are those parts which are directly revealed to the seers. ie. They are always eternal syllable by syllable.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, if a name or a deed is spoken in a Samhita part it is always same without even a change in syllable.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15094/what-is-the-story-of-vyuptakesha-incarnation-of-lord-shiva&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; YajurVeda 4.5.1 or 5th Anuvaka uses the names:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Bhava, Rudra, Sarva, Pasupati, Nilagriva, Sitikantha, Kapardin, Vyuptakesha&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ie. As these names are from Samhita portion these are always eternal syllable to syllable.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Also as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av15005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Atharvaveda, Nilalohita/Vratya is surrounded by other 7 forms in each direction:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Bhava&lt;/strong&gt; from eastern. &lt;strong&gt;Sarva&lt;/strong&gt; from southern. &lt;strong&gt;Pasupati&lt;/strong&gt; from western. &lt;strong&gt;Ugra&lt;/strong&gt; from Northern. &lt;strong&gt;Rudra&lt;/strong&gt; from Nadir. &lt;strong&gt;Mahadeva&lt;/strong&gt; from zenith. &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; from intermediate regions.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above names are also from Samhita portion. ie. They are eternal without change in syllable at all time.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But these same names are used by Brahma to name the Ashtamurti incarnation of Lord Shiva as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of YajurVeda Satapatha Brahmana. Brahma goes on naming the eight child as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;You are &lt;strong&gt;Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Sarva.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Pasupati.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Ugra.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Asani.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Bhava.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Mahadeva.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Ishana.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we see above names given by Brahma to the AshtaMurti form of Shiva, we find that Brahma is simply recting the 8 names which are always in Samhita. &lt;strong&gt;ie. Brahma is not giving a new name. Brahma is just as a medium to provide the Samhita names to AshtaMurti form.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But these 8 forms are always invisible and one can&amp;apos;t see them. They are just inside the creation and everything in Universe gets characteristic nature due to presence of them. YajurVeda Satapatha Brahmana in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;same chapter&lt;/a&gt; clarifies this as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That boy entered into the forms one after another; &lt;strong&gt;for one never sees him as a mere boy, but one sees those forms of his&lt;/strong&gt; , for he assumed those forms one after another.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it becomes clear, that chapter of Satapatha Brahmana is not describing manifestation of Lord Shankara who lives in Kailash mountain. Because he is not in formless existence at all time.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But Lord Shankara who is husband of Parvati and Sati is also manifested through Brahma. And this too is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av15001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Atharvaveda.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Through Prajapati he was born. He became Mahadeva. He became Ishana. He is NilaLohita.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana also says the same, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10141/wouldnt-most-of-the-incarnations-of-devi-be-of-sati-not-parvati/14868#14868&quot;&gt;this answer.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But he is called by only three names Mahadeva, Ishana and Nilalohita among the popular names in that chapter. But we also call him (Sri Parvatipati) using the names Shiva, Bhava, Rudra, Pasupati etc...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13649/what-names-of-lord-shiva-used-today-are-from-vedas/13650#13650&quot;&gt;answer here,&lt;/a&gt; the name Shiva is also from Samhita or revealed portion of Vedas. It is stated as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namaha Shivaya Cha Shivataraya Cha.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although it seems like name is used as adjective, but it can be called as Specific name as it is part of Namakam (ie. Salutating names of Lord Shiva). Also YajurVeda 3.60 states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Shivo Nãmãsi Swadhisthite...&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;You are Known by the name Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from above it becomes clear Shiva is also a revealed name. The name Shiva is also used in other ancient Upanishads like 1.8 of Kaivalya, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 of AtharvaSikha, 3.11, 4.14, 4.16, 4.18 of Svetasvatara and so on...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But just as we see from above AshtaMurti incarnation. There Eight incarnations get already revealed name from Brahma.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the similar way Sri ParvatiPati is also Rudravatar of Lord Shiva who is also known by the name Shiva. So it is likely that he also gets the originally revealed name Shiva by some medium like Brahma or Gods or any deities.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;So are there any instances in Vedas where Rudra is named or called by the name Shiva or the name Shiva is used due to certain events taking place?&lt;/strong&gt; (In such a way that the name &amp;quot;Shiva&amp;quot; denotes a specific event.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2021-11-12T20:51:37.220" Title="How Rudra became Shiva in Vedas?" Tags="|shiva|vedas|scripture|history|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15125" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15124" CreationDate="2016-09-24T09:26:07.173" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, one of such instance is found in 2.100 of &lt;strong&gt;Katha Aranyaka of Krishna YajurVeda.&lt;/strong&gt; There the Devas couldn&amp;apos;t recognize the Rudra wandering in lusture. There he displays his five attributes fierceness, rulership over existence, prowess, aupisicousness and compassion by the names of Rudra, Bhava, Sarva, Shiva and Mrida:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देवा वै रुद्रं स्वर्गं लोकं गतं न व्यजानन्न् आदित्यवर्णं चरन्तन् | ते अब्रुवन् को असीति ? अहं रुद्रो अहम् इन्द्रो अहम् आदित्यो अहं सर्वस्यावया हरसो दिव्यस्येति | ते अब्रुवन् निर्भजामैनम् इति | तान् रुवन्न् अभ्यवदत | तान् प्राध्रजत् | ते अब्रुवन् भवान् सर्वम् इति | यद् रुवन्न् अभ्यवदत् तद् रुद्रस्य रुद्रत्वम् | यद् भवान् इति तद् भवस्य भवत्वम् | यत् सर्वम् इति तच् छर्वस्य शर्वत्वम् | &lt;strong&gt;स शिवो अभवत् तच् छिवस्य शिवत्वम् |&lt;/strong&gt; तेभ्यो अमृडत तन् मृडस्य मृडत्वम्| तं देवा अब्रुवन् भवस्य भूतस्य भव्यस्याधिपत्यम् इति | सर्वस्याधिपत्यं यजमानं गमयति || Yajurveda Katha Aranyaka २.१००&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Indeed the deva-s did not recognize Rudra who had entered the heavenly world wandering in with a solar luster. They said: “Who are you?”.&lt;/strong&gt; [He replied]: “I am Rudra, I am Indra, I am the Āditya, I am the arrival of all the divine luster. They said: We shall not offer a share to this one [i.e. Rudra]. Roaring he [Rudra] yelled at them. He rushed at them. They [the other deva-s] said: “Sir, you are all of this”. Because roaring he yelled at them that is Rudra’s fierceness (rudratvam). Because they called him sir (bhavān) that is Bhava’s lordship over existence. Because they said you are all this that revealed Śarva’s [prowess] as an archer. &lt;strong&gt;Because he then became favorable that is Shiva’s benevolence.&lt;/strong&gt; Because he became kind to them that is Mṛḍa’s compassion. The deva-s said to him: “The overlordship of the present, the past and the future is yours. [If he knows this while performing the ritual, i.e. offering the portion for Rudra] it leads the ritualist to lordship over all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in the above story &lt;strong&gt;Rudra became Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; and it is related to his favourable benevolence towards the Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-25T08:56:22.630" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T08:56:22.630" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15126" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15094" CreationDate="2016-09-24T10:30:32.567" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata Mahadeva takes Vyuptakesha form as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07198.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Drona Parva where story of Tripura Dahana is told in short. Mahadeva takes bald headed form of a child to destroy ego of Indra:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When, however, the three cities came together in the firmament, the lord Mahadeva. pierced them with that terrible shaft of his, consisting of three knots. The Danavas were unable to gaze at that shafts inspired with Yuga-fire and composed of Vishnu and Soma. While the triple city commenced to burn, &lt;strong&gt;the goddess Parvati repaired thither to behold the sight. &lt;em&gt;She had then on her lap, a child having a bald head with five clumps of hair on it.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; The goddess asked the deities as to who that child was. &lt;strong&gt;Sakra, through ill-feeling endeavoured to strike that child with his thunderbolt. The divine lord Mahadeva, smiling, quickly paralysed the arm of the enraged Sakra.&lt;/strong&gt; Then god Sakra, with his arm paralysed accompanied by all the celestials, speedily repaired to the lord Brahma of unfading glory. Bowing unto him with their heads, they addressed Brahma with joined hands and said, &amp;apos;Some wonderful creature, O Brahma, lying on the lap of Parvati, in the form of a child, was behold by us but not saluted. We have all been vanquished by him. We, therefore, desire to ask thee as to who he may be. Indeed, that boy, without fighting, hath with the greatest ease vanquished us all with Purandara at our head.&amp;apos; Hearing these words of theirs, Brahma. that foremost of all persons, acquainted with Brahma, reflected for a moment and understood that boy of immeasurable energy to be none else than the divine Sambhu, Addressing then, those foremost of celestials with Sakra at their head, Brahma said, &amp;apos;That child is the divine Hara the Lord of the entire mobile and immobile universe. There is nothing superior to Maheswara. That Being of immeasurable splendour who was beheld by you all with Uma, that divine lord, had assumed the form of a child for Uma&amp;apos;s sake. Let us all go unto him. That divine and illustrious one is the Supreme Lord of the world. Ye gods, ye could not recognise that master of the universe.&amp;apos; &lt;strong&gt;Then all the gods with the Grandsire repaired to that child, endued with the effulgence of the morning sun.&lt;/strong&gt; Beholding Maheswara, and knowing that he was the Supreme Being, the Grandsire Brahma thus adored him: Thou art Sacrifice, O lord, thou art the stay and refuge of the universe. Thou art Bhava, thou art Mahadeva, thou art the abode (of all things), and thou art the highest refuge. This whole universe with its mobile and immobile creatures, is pervaded by thee. O holy one, O lord of the past and the future, O lord of the world, O protector of the universe, let Sakra, afflicted with thy wrath, have thy grace.&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;Vyasa continued, &amp;apos;Hearing these words of the lotus-born Brahma, &lt;strong&gt;Maheswara became gratified. Desirous of extending his grace, he laughed aloud. The celestials then gratified (with praise) both Uma and Rudra. The arm of the thunder-wielding Sakra re-got its natural state.&lt;/strong&gt; That foremost one of all the gods, that destroyer of Daksha&amp;apos;s sacrifice, that divine lord having the bull for his sign, became gratified with the gods. He is Rudra he is Siva, he is Agni, he is everything, and he hath knowledge of everything.....&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If we go by intrepretations of Acharya. Three Bhāṣyams on Śrī Rudram exists.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sāyana Bhāṣya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Abhinava Śaṅkara Bhāṣya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhaṭṭabhāskara Bhāṣya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among all The &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Shri-rudra-bhashyamOfShri-abhinava-shankara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Abhinava Śaṅkara Bhāṣya&lt;/a&gt; is considered to be the best. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sāyana Bhāṣya states that (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Anandashram_Samskrita_Granthavali_Anandashram_Sanskrit_Series&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Anandashram Samskrita Granthavali, ASS_002&lt;/a&gt; contains both Sāyana Bhāṣya and Bhaṭṭabhāskara Bhāṣya)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मुण्डितकेशो व्युप्तकेशः । &lt;strong&gt;यत्यादिवेषेण&lt;/strong&gt; मुण्डितकेशत्वम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abhinava Śaṅkara Bhāṣya states that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्युप्ताः मुण्डिताः केशाः यस्य सः व्युप्तकेशः &lt;strong&gt;परमहंसपरिव्राजकः&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both the Bhāṣyas say the same up to here. That is one with shaven head and he who is a &lt;strong&gt;yatī&lt;/strong&gt;. (Here  Namaskarams to Kapardi and Vyuptakesa in singular form).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abhinava Śaṅkara further explains as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'अथ परिव्राडेकशाटी शिष्यपरिवृतो मुण्डोदरपात्री' '&lt;strong&gt;ज्ञानशिखिनः&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ज्ञानयज्ञोपवीतिनः&lt;/strong&gt;' इत्यादिश्रुतेः ; तेन &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दत्तात्रेयदुर्वासः प्रभृतयः जाबालोपनिषदादिप्रसिद्धाः कलियुगे च '&lt;strong&gt;चतुर्भिः सहितः शिष्यैः&#xA;  शंकरोऽवतरिष्यति&lt;/strong&gt;' 'शंकरः &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सविताननः' इत्यादि पुराणप्रसिद्धपरमेश्वरावतारभावाः &lt;strong&gt;शंकराचार्यस्वामिनः&#xA;  तद्रूपायेत्यर्थः&lt;/strong&gt; । अनेन &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'ब्रह्माधिपतिर्ब्रह्मणोऽधिपतिः' इति श्रुतिप्रसिद्धं &lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्मविद्यासंप्रदायप्रवर्तकत्वमुक्तम्&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A translation in accordance with the above three commentaries (Sayana, Bhattabhaskara and Abhinava Sankara) from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/stotra/Sri%20Rudram%20Anuvakam5.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Kanchi Kamakoti Website&lt;/a&gt; gives the explanation as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘Kapardi’ means one who has adorable matted locks. This serves to&#xA;  remind of the greatness that a part of these matted locks became&#xA;  ‘Virabhadra’, who destroyed Dakska’s yagna. Sruti states the&#xA;  characteristics of Sanyasis, who are Paramahamsas: ‘They sport shaven&#xA;  heads; they wear saffron coloured clothes; their hair and yagnopavita&#xA;  is Atma gnana’. Dattatreya, Durvasa et al were such Gnanis in previous&#xA;  yugas. In this Kaliyuga, as per the statement, ‘चतुर्भिस्सहितः&#xA;  शिष्यैश्शङ्करोवतरिष्यति’ (Sri Parameswara is going to incarnate with&#xA;  four disciples), &lt;strong&gt;Sri Sankara Bhagavatpada Acharya Swamigal,&#xA;  incarnation of Sri Parameswara&lt;/strong&gt;, also had these characteristics. The&#xA;  term ‘Vyptakesaaya cha’ signifies that it is Sri Parameswara alone who&#xA;  shines in these forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Sruti passage, ‘ब्रह्माधिपतिर्ब्रह्मणोधिपतिः’, Sri Parameswara&#xA;  is described as the pioneer of the tradition of Brahmavidya (Knowledge&#xA;  of Brahman). It is clear that he took the forms of Sankaracharya et al&#xA;  and became pioneers of the tradition of Brahmavidya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is &lt;strong&gt;Śiva as Jagadguru Śrī Ādi Śaṅkarācārya&lt;/strong&gt; that is referred by &lt;strong&gt;व्युप्तकेशाय&lt;/strong&gt; here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-24T11:01:35.463" LastActivityDate="2016-09-24T11:01:35.463" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15128" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-24T10:56:23.230" Score="6" ViewCount="969" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skandagurunatha.org/works/stothras/sri-rudram.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;five methods&lt;/a&gt; of chanting the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11792/3500&quot;&gt;Rudram&lt;/a&gt; viz. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ordinary method&lt;/strong&gt; (aka 1 Rudram) = where first Namakam (all 11 anuväkas)  are read followed by the Chamakam. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rudra ekadasini&lt;/strong&gt;= where after chanting Rudram, the first anuväka of  Chamakam is chanted, again after chanting Rudram the second anuväka of &#xA;  Chamakam is chanted and so on till the eleventh chanting of Rudram &#xA;  followed by eleventh anuväka of Chamakam.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Eleven such Rudra ekadasinis makes one &lt;strong&gt;Laghu Rudram&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Eleven such Laghu Rudrams makes one &lt;strong&gt;Maha Rudram.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Eleven such Maha Rudrams make one &lt;strong&gt;Athi Rudram&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the significance of &lt;strong&gt;AthiRudra MahaYagnam&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;with respect to &lt;strong&gt;Physical, Spiritual and Scientific level&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;Any one who know please shed some light .&#xA;Thanks &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastEditorUserId="10088" LastEditDate="2024-02-03T17:15:25.833" LastActivityDate="2024-02-03T17:15:25.833" Title="What is significance of Athi Rudra Mahayagnam?" Tags="|vedas|shiva|yajna|rudram|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15129" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15118" CreationDate="2016-09-24T11:23:58.660" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Mandukya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;That same Self, from the point of view of the syllable, is Om, and viewed from the stand point of the letters, the quarters are the letters, and the letters are the quarters. The letters are a, u and m. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vaisvanara seated in the waking state is the first letter a, owing to its all-pervasiveness or being the first. He who knows thus verily accomplishes all longings and becomes the first. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Taijasa seated in the dream is u, the second letter (of Om), owing to the similarity of excellence or intermediate position. He who knows thus verily advances the bounds of his knowledge and becomes equal (to all) and none who is not a knower of Brahman is born in his family. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Prajna seated in the state of deep sleep is m, the third letter (of Om), because of his being the measure or the entity wherein all become absorbed. He who knows thus measures all this and absorbs all. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;That which is without letters (parts) is the Fourth, beyond apprehension through ordinary means, the cessation of the phenomenal world, the auspicious and the non-dual. Thus Om is certainly the Self. He who knows thus enters the Self by the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per AtharvaSikha Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sage Atharva replied to them,” Mainly meditation has to be done on the single letter Om. It itself is the mantra for meditation. The four legs of that mantra are the four devas and the four Vedas. The letter has to be recognized as the Para Brahman (Ultimate reality) and meditated upon. 1.2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first syllable Aa, indicates earth, the Rig Veda along with its holy chants, Brahma the creator, Ashta Vasus among devas, “Gayathry” among meters, and Garhapthya (the fire of the household) among fires. 1.3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The second syllable Uu denotes the ether, the Yajur Veda, Rudra who is the God of destruction, the eleven Rudras among devas, “Trishtup” among meters and dakshinagni (fire of the south - funeral pyre) among the fires. 1.4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The third syllable Ma indicates the heavens, Sama Veda with its musical sounds of Sama, Vishnu who looks after the worlds, the twelve Adithyas (suns) among devas, “jagathichanda” among meters and Ahavagni (the fire used in fire sacrifice) among the fires. 1.5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That half fourth syllable which is the hidden Ma, is the magical chants of Atharva Veda, Samvarthaka (the fire of exchange) fire among fires, marud Ganas among devas. It is the self glittering Brahman which shines alone and sees everything. 1.6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-24T11:23:58.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15130" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15118" CreationDate="2016-09-24T11:50:21.587" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;OM represents the Self which is the Supreme Nondual Reality. The Self is known in &lt;strong&gt;four states&lt;/strong&gt;, namely, &lt;strong&gt;the waking state&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;the dream state&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;the deep-sleep state&lt;/strong&gt;, and the fourth state called the &lt;strong&gt;turiya&lt;/strong&gt;. All these states are represented in the three sounds of OM (i.e., A, U, M), and the silence that follows and surrounds the syllable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sound &lt;strong&gt;A represents the waking state&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;he sound &lt;strong&gt;U represents the dream state&lt;/strong&gt;, and the sound &lt;strong&gt;M represents the deep sleep state&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The waking state is superimposed on the A sound because it is the first of the three states of consciousness, and so is the sound A the very first of the letters of the alphabet – in all languages. The dream is but a view within the mind of the impressions that had reflected on the surface of the mental lake during the waking state. Besides, the dream state occurs between the waking and the deep-sleep state, and comes second among the three states of consciousness. And so, U, being next to A in order of sounds, and also since it is between A and M, is treated as representing the dream state. On the M sound of OM is superimposed the deep-sleep state. The comparison between the last sound of the OM and sleep lies in that it is the closing sound of the syllable, just as deep sleep is the final stage of the mind in rest. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A short pregnant silence is inevitable between two successive OMs. On this silence is superimposed the idea of the fourth state, known as turiya. This is the state of &lt;strong&gt;Perfect Bliss when the individual Self recognises the identity with the Supreme&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastActivityDate="2016-09-24T11:50:21.587" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15132" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2117" CreationDate="2016-09-24T15:15:44.973" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;According Hindu scriptures,&lt;strong&gt;in general&lt;/strong&gt;,animals are meant to be sacrificed.Its their only means to attain higher abodes(heavens etc)(&lt;strong&gt;However,it is condemned in few scriptures as well  in which they  cite examples of how Maharishis like Yajnvalkya  have attained highest state of bliss without animal sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;).At the same time scriptures say that eating meat otherwise is considered a sin,as meat can not be obtained without injuring that animal.All Shastras agree on this point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following justifications are available in scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/14Manu_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti&lt;/a&gt;,Sloka 39,Chapter 5,says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Svayambhu (the Self-existent) himself created animals for the sake of&#xA;  sacrifices; sacrifices (have been instituted) for the good of this&#xA;  whole (world); hence the slaughtering (of beasts) for sacrifices is&#xA;  not slaughtering (in the ordinary sense of the word).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sloka 40 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Herbs, trees, cattle, birds, and (other) animals that have been&#xA;  destroyed for sacrifices, receive (being reborn) higher existences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sloka 42 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A twice-born man who, knowing the true meaning of the Veda, slays an&#xA;  animal for these purposes, causes both himself and the animal to enter&#xA;  a most blessed state&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CUJqk.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CUJqk.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sklX4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sklX4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatam13.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagawatam&lt;/a&gt; Sri Vyasa says the same to king Janamejaya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;32&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Those who eat meat, they can sacrifice animals in this worship of the Devî; and, for this purpose, goat and wild boars are the best.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&gt; 33-34. O sinless one! The goats, etc., offered as a sacrifice before&#xA;  the Devî attain to unending heavens. Therefore persons offering the&#xA;  sacrifices of goats do not incur any sin. O king! The goats, etc., and&#xA;  other beast offered as a sacrifice before the Devas undoubtedly go to&#xA;  the heavenly regions; therefore, in all the S’âstras, it has been&#xA;  decided that this killing of animals in a sacrifice is considered as&#xA;  non-killing.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So,it seems,that our scriptures are suggesting that for these animals the only means to achieve higher lokas(yonis) is only by being a sacrificial being in Yajnas!.Whereas, we humans have various other methods, like doing penance(tapas) or doing fire sacrifice, for attaining the same goals(higher abodes).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note that i have not touched the human sacrifice part.So,consider this as an partial answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit-&lt;/strong&gt; The following are a few prohibited(nishiddha) actions in Kali Yuga as per the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&quot;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kali Yuga Nishiddhas:&lt;/strong&gt; The following are the avoidable and unnecessary&#xA;  acts of Kali Yuga viz. Samudra Yatra, carrying of Kamandulu to&#xA;  misdirect the Public , remarriages, begetting children fro m husband’s&#xA;  brothers; Go Vadha; Mamsa Bhakshana at Shraddhas; performing vivaha to&#xA;  a physically imm ature girl; Chira kaala Brahmacharitwa; &lt;strong&gt;Naramedha&#xA;  Ashwamedha Gomedha Yagna;&lt;/strong&gt; Madya Paana, Abhakshya Bhakshana, Apeya&#xA;  paana, Agamyaagamana orcwandering aimlesly Rahasya Prayascittha,&#xA;  Devata Puja and &lt;strong&gt;Pashubali&lt;/strong&gt; for evil ends; Kula Bhrashtata; Extreme Pr&#xA;  ofiteering and narrow mindedness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;So,in my view ,people of Kali Yuga are better off not doing any animal sacrifices of any form.In any case, its not Yajna or worship but Dana(charity) &amp;amp; Nama Japa(chanting of Holy names) that are the effective remedies in Kali Yuga.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People who are in power should take measures in banning animal sacrifices of all kinds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-08T05:19:02.260" LastActivityDate="2016-10-08T05:19:02.260" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15133" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15279" CreationDate="2016-09-24T15:28:25.890" Score="6" ViewCount="1396" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a story, in which, Arjuna on forgetting the method of using Pashupatastra{divine weapon given by Lord Shiva}, went to Mount Kailash along with  Lord Sri Krishna(in the sukshma sharira or subtle body form),to learn the divine mantra again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva asked Arjuna to bring a weapon from a nearby divine lake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since it was difficult to access the weapon,Lord Sri Krishna and Arjuna chanted the  Sri Rudram and the weapon then came into their hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the details of the story? How did Arjuna succeed in learning the method of using the Pashupatastra again?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-07-02T11:08:03.593" LastActivityDate="2018-07-02T11:08:03.593" Title="How did Arjuna succeed in learning the method of using the Pashupatastra again?" Tags="|shiva|arjuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15134" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-24T16:24:45.470" Score="5" ViewCount="220" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've a doubt since long time, I thought this is the best place to ask.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How did Sanskrit has become main language in ancient times?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why did they choose Sanskrit as Veda language?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does those Veda hymns have any effect if they are uttered in other languages like English ( I mean when they are translated) because all mantras are vibration related and vibrations are caused due to proper pronunciation of mantras. Does this have any relation to Sanskrit language?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clear my doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7406" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-09-24T16:49:46.877" LastActivityDate="2017-03-14T17:34:05.680" Title="Why did they invent Sanskrit as Veda language not any other script?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15135" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15625" CreationDate="2016-09-24T19:16:23.493" Score="6" ViewCount="11054" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Swami Vivekananda eat fish and meat before he turned a sannyasi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did he continue eating fish and meat after?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were his views on consumption of vegetarian or non-vegetarian food?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;PS. Please don't answer citing &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/94/2995&quot;&gt;blogs or Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2021-02-12T16:07:12.133" Title="Did Swami Vivekananda eat fish and meat before he turned a sannyasi? Did he continue eating fish and meat after?" Tags="|dharma|food|non-vegetarian|gunas|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15136" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-24T19:31:23.873" Score="4" ViewCount="170" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swastika is Auspicious symbol for Hindus. I have only heard about the significance of Swastika no solid proof from Shastras. Where is swastika mentioned in Yagna Rituals specifically Yajurveda if it is/was ever used in Yagnas. If it has some puranic importance where is it mentioned in puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a saying that Swastika symbol is specifically used for worshiping Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/158/what-is-the-significance-of-the-swastika?s=1%7C1.3602&quot;&gt;Related&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-01-17T10:15:21.580" Title="Swastika in Scriptures" Tags="|scripture|puranas|yajur-veda|swastika|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15137" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2797" CreationDate="2016-09-24T21:10:21.133" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would have a look at who started using the word 'Mythology' to describe Hindu epics. Or more specifically, the question would become &quot;Who first described Hindu religion in English language?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the kind of cultural biases/nuances held by the people who described Hinduism to the European world? Were they affiliated to another religious system which treats 'non-believers' in a negative light? Does association with an Abrahamic religion influence your attitude towards people of non-Abrahamic religions? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the nature of interaction between English and India when Hinduism was explored by English? Was it an equal-to-equal relationship or a ruler-ruled one? What kind of views did other Abrahamic religionists have towards heathens? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do they call their own religious texts as Mythology? Would one hear a Christian or a Muslim referring his/her respective theology as 'Christian/ Islamic mythology'?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Would the guardians/speakers of the language be obligated to modify the terminology when there is no real opposition to it? Would the word 'negro' be outlawed if Blacks didn't fight for it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just thinking about these questions answers most of the original question. There is no reason to rubbish one particular religion's self-described timeline as mythology when the same is not applicable to one's own. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TLDR&lt;/strong&gt; =&gt; The basic reason behind calling Hindu epics as 'myths' is  the inherent bias of the translators.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7754" LastActivityDate="2016-09-24T21:10:21.133" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15138" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15336" CreationDate="2016-09-24T22:37:38.547" Score="32" ViewCount="53002" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Hinduism's view on porn?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please include verses to back it up.&#xA;If there are no verses than what are the opinions of general public or people known in the research area?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_on_pornography#Hinduism&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_on_pornography#Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7350" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-10-05T16:53:23.353" LastActivityDate="2024-02-02T18:02:26.973" Title="What is Hinduism's view on porn?" Tags="|scripture|belief|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15139" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-25T00:08:06.853" Score="4" ViewCount="213" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which Upanishad says that gods don't want men to discover their true nature because if they did, men would become the very self of the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone recognize this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7755" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-25T05:27:29.137" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T11:48:15.007" Title="Which Upanishad says that gods don't want humans to realise their true nature?" Tags="|scripture|upanishads|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15140" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-25T00:58:01.980" Score="4" ViewCount="14057" Body="&lt;p&gt;Suppose, i am going to Assam's kamakhya temple (shakti peeth with lot of killing of animals for offering to devi), then can i eat meat and wash hands properly and then without taking bath, can i enter temple/pray devi in valid sense of shakt scriptures.&#xA;In bengal and assam, i have seen people largely not following any such restrictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;whether that same i applicable in case of shaiva temple? hanuman temple(as he was reincarnation of shiva)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7756" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-26T12:27:50.273" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T05:46:12.330" Title="Can i offer worship/prayers in Shiva or Shakti temples after having meat and without bathing?" Tags="|non-vegetarian|shaktism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15141" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15139" CreationDate="2016-09-25T01:29:48.687" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is from i.iv.10 of BrihadAranyaka Upanishad which is a part of Satapatha Brahmana of Yajurveda. The same verse is also the origin of the popular Mahavakya &quot;Ahama Brahamasmi&quot; or &quot;I am Brahman&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्म वा इदमग्र आसीत्, तदात्मानमेवावेत् ‘अहं ब्रह्मास्मि’ इति । तस्मात् तत् सर्वमभवतद्यो यो देवानां प्रत्यबुध्यत स एव तदभवत्तथर्षीणां तथा मनुष्याणां तद्धेतत्पश्यन्नृषिर्वामदेवः प्रतिपेदेऽहं मनुरभवं सूर्यश्चेति । तदिदमप्येतर्हि य एवं वेदाहं ब्रह्मास्मीति स इदं सर्वं भवति तस्य ह न देवाश्चनाभूत्या ईशते । &lt;strong&gt;आत्मा ह्योषां स भवत्यथ योऽन्यां  देवतामुपास्तेऽन्योऽसावन्योऽहमस्मीति न स वेद तथा पशुरेवं स देवानाम् । यथा ह वै बहवः पशवो मनुष्यं भुञ्जयुरेवमेकैकः पुरुषो देवान्भुनक्त्येकस्मिन्नेव पशावादीयमानेऽप्रियं भवति किमु बहुषु तस्मादेषां तन्न प्रियं यदेतन्मनुष्या विद्युः ।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I-iv-10: This self was indeed Brahman in the beginning. It knew only Itself as, ‘I am Brahman’. Therefore It became all. And whoever among the gods knew It also became That; and the same with sages and men. The sage Vamadeva, while realising this (self) as That, knew, ‘I was Manu, and the sun’. And to this day whoever in like manner knows It as, ‘I am Brahman’, becomes all this (universe). &lt;strong&gt;Even the gods cannot prevail against him, for he becomes their self. While he who worships another god thinking, ‘He is one, and I am another’, does not know. He is like an animal to the gods. As many animals serve a man, so does each man serve the gods. Even if one animal is taken away, it causes anguish, what should one say of many animals ? Therefore it is not liked by them that men should know this.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, here Gods means Devatas and not the Supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-25T11:48:15.007" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T11:48:15.007" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15142" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15135" CreationDate="2016-09-25T04:32:52.060" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;About vegetarian diet I(Swami Vivekananda) have to say this - first, my Master(Sri Ramakrishna) was a&#xA;  vegetarian; but if he was given meat offered to the Goddess, he used&#xA;  to hold it up to his head. The taking of life is undoubtedly sinful;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;but so long as vegetable food is not made suitable to the human system&#xA;  through progress in chemistry, there is no other alternative but&#xA;  meat-eating. So long as man shall have to live a Rajasika (active)&#xA;  life under circumstances like the present, there is no other way&#xA;  except through meat-eating&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (Complete Works, 4.486-7).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vivekananda.net/ByTopic/MeatEating.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,as one can see Swamiji is atleast in support of meat eating.But this passage does not clear our doubts regarding whether he himself took meat or not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,consider this as a partial answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-25T04:38:09.280" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T04:38:09.280" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15143" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15145" CreationDate="2016-09-25T04:44:51.980" Score="7" ViewCount="15441" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who has written Madhurashtakam and what is its meaning? Which deity is addressed in this ashtakam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-28T07:22:39.623" LastActivityDate="2018-11-29T11:11:11.863" Title="Who has written Madhurashtakam and what is its meaning?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|stotra|vallabhacharya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15144" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-25T04:57:04.473" Score="27" ViewCount="3750" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2j5LN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2j5LN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The Pancha Mahadevatas are Ganapaty,Shiva,Vishnu,Devi(Ambika) &amp;amp; Surya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a Smarta tradition of worshiping them together in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchayatana_puja&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchayatana Puja.&lt;/a&gt;.In this Puja instead of idols or images of Gods are used 5 stones which are regarded as the &amp;quot;Swayambhu&amp;quot; (self manifested, where divine presence is already present without the help of pranapratishta rituals) rupas of the respective deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some use natural Stones instead of Murthis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Surya Crystal from Vallam Tamil Nadu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha  Red Sonebhadra from Sone, Bihar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu Saligrama from Gandaki, Nepal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva, Bana Linga from Narmada, M.P.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ambika Swarnamukhi from Swarna Mukhi from Andhra Pradesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/daily-worship-of-five-deities-panchayatana-puja/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;One of the purposes of this Panchayatana Puja with Swayambhu shilas is to make man realise that God is ultimately without shape(Nirakar).&#xA;For example, Ganapaty is represented by the Red Sonebhadra stone(found in the Sonebhadra river, Bihar), Shiva by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banalinga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Banalingas&lt;/a&gt; ( found in Narmada river, Madhya Pradesh), Vishnu by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaligram&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Salagrama&lt;/a&gt;(found in Gandaki river, Nepal), Devi represented by Swarnamukhi sila(found in Swarnamukhi river, Andhra Pradesh) &amp;amp; Surya represented by Sphatika (found in the Vallam river, Tamil Nadu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yfpmE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yfpmE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question-Besides these Pancha Devatas which other deities(like Shanmuga, Lakshmi, etc) have similar Swayambhu manifestations &amp;amp; in which parts of India are they found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-07-08T15:56:45.947" LastActivityDate="2023-09-09T03:43:37.967" Title="Do any Deities, other than the Pancha Mahadevatas, have Swayambhu representations?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|ganesha|surya|devi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="24" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15145" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15143" CreationDate="2016-09-25T04:59:32.733" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_krishna-madhurashtakam-adharam_madhuram.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Madhurashtakam&lt;/a&gt; was written by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallabha_Acharya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vallabha Acharya&lt;/a&gt;, the founder of the Pushti Marga and philosophy of Shuddhaadvaita. It is written in respect of Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अधरं मधुरं वदनं मधुरं नयनं मधुरं हसितं मधुरम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हृदयं मधुरं गमनं मधुरं मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adharam Madhuram Vadanam Madhuram Nayanam Madhuram Hasitam Madhuram |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hrdayam Madhuram Gamanam Madhuram Madhura-Adhipater-Akhilam Madhuram ||1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.1: (O Krishna) Your Lips are Sweet and Charming, Your Face is Sweet and Charming, Your Eyes are Sweet and Charming and Your Laughter is Sweet and Charming,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.2: (O Krishna) Your Heart is Sweet and Charming and Your Going is Sweet and Charming; Everything about You is Sweet and Charming, O Lord of Sweetness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वचनं मधुरं चरितं मधुरं वसनं मधुरं वलितं मधुरम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चलितं मधुरं भ्रमितं मधुरं मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vacanam Madhuram Caritam Madhuram Vasanam Madhuram Valitam Madhuram |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Calitam Madhuram Bhramitam Madhuram Madhura-Adhipater-Akhilam Madhuram ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.1: (O Krishna) Your Speech is Sweet and Charming, Your Nature is Sweet and Charming, Your Garments are Sweet and Charming and Your Bent Posture is Sweet and Charming,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.2: (O Krishna) Your Walking is Sweet and Charming and Your Creation of Confusion is Sweet and Charming; Everything about You is Sweet and Charming, O Lord of Sweetness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वेणुर्मधुरो रेणुर्मधुरः पाणिर्मधुरः पादौ मधुरौ ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नृत्यं मधुरं सख्यं मधुरं मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vennur-Madhuro Rennur-Madhurah Paannir-Madhurah Paadau Madhurau |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nrtyam Madhuram Sakhyam Madhuram Madhura-Adhipater-Akhilam Madhuram ||3||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.1: (O Krishna) Your Flute is Sweet and Charming, Your Flowers ( with Pollen ) are Sweet and Charming, Your Hands are Sweet and Charming and Your Feet are Sweet and Charming,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.2: (O Krishna) Your Dance is Sweet and Charming and Your Friendship is Sweet and Charming; Everything about You is Sweet and Charming, O Lord of Sweetness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गीतं मधुरं पीतं मधुरं भुक्तं मधुरं सुप्तं मधुरम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रूपं मधुरं तिलकं मधुरं मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Giitam Madhuram Piitam Madhuram Bhuktam Madhuram Suptam Madhuram |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ruupam Madhuram Tilakam Madhuram Madhura-Adhipater-Akhilam Madhuram ||4||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4.1: (O Krishna) Your Singing is Sweet and Charming, Your Drinking is Sweet and Charming, Your Eating is Sweet and Charming and Your Sleeping is Sweet and Charming,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4.2: (O Krishna) Your Form is Sweet and Charming and Your Mark on Forehead is Sweet and Charming; Everything about You is Sweet and Charming, O Lord of Sweetness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;करणं मधुरं तरणं मधुरं हरणं मधुरं रमणं मधुरम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वमितं मधुरं शमितं मधुरं मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karannam Madhuram Tarannam Madhuram Harannam Madhuram Ramannam Madhuram |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vamitam Madhuram Shamitam Madhuram Madhura-Adhipater-Akhilam Madhuram ||5||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5.1: (O Krishna) Your Acts are Sweet and Charming, Your Carrying Over is Sweet and Charming, Your Stealing is Sweet and Charming and Your Divine Love Play is Sweet and Charming,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5.2: (O Krishna) Your Exuberance is Sweet and Charming and Your Relaxation is Sweet and Charming; Everything about You is Sweet and Charming, O Lord of Sweetness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गुञ्जा मधुरा माला मधुरा यमुना मधुरा वीची मधुरा ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सलिलं मधुरं कमलं मधुरं मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gun.jaa Madhuraa Maalaa Madhuraa Yamunaa Madhuraa Viicii Madhuraa |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Salilam Madhuram Kamalam Madhuram Madhura-Adhipaterakhilam Madhuram ||6||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6.1: (O Krishna) Your Humming is Sweet and Charming, Your Garland is Sweet and Charming, Your Yamuna is Sweet and Charming and Your Waves (of Yamuna) is Sweet and Charming,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6.2: (O Krishna) Your Water (of Yamuna) is Sweet and Charming and Your Lotus is Sweet and Charming; Everything about You is Sweet and Charming, O Lord of Sweetness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गोपी मधुरा लीला मधुरा युक्तं मधुरं मुक्तं मधुरम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दृष्टं मधुरं शिष्टं मधुरं मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gopii Madhuraa Liilaa Madhuraa Yuktam Madhuram Muktam Madhuram |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Drssttam Madhuram Shissttam Madhuram Madhura-Adhipaterakhilam Madhuram ||7||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7.1: (O Krishna) Your Gopis (Cowherd Girls) are Sweet and Charming, Your Divine Play is Sweet and Charming, Your Togetherness is Sweet and Charming and Your Setting Free is Sweet and Charming,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7.2: (O Krishna) Your Glance is Sweet and Charming and Your Courtesy is Sweet and Charming; Everything about You is Sweet and Charming, O Lord of Sweetness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गोपा मधुरा गावो मधुरा यष्टिर्मधुरा सृष्टिर्मधुरा ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दलितं मधुरं फलितं मधुरं मधुराधिपतेरखिलं मधुरम् ॥८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gopaa Madhuraa Gaavo Madhuraa Yassttir-Madhuraa Srssttir-Madhuraa |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dalitam Madhuram Phalitam Madhuram Madhura-Adhipaterakhilam Madhuram ||8||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8.1: (O Krishna) Your Gopas (Cowherd Boys) are Sweet and Charming, Your Cows are Sweet and Charming, Your Staff is Sweet and Charming and Your Creation is Sweet and Charming,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8.2: (O Krishna) Your Breaking is Sweet and Charming and Your Making is Sweet and Charming; Everything about You is Sweet and Charming, O Lord of Sweetness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-27T12:24:28.527" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15146" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-25T06:24:50.250" Score="3" ViewCount="383" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahman the supreme soul is described to be limitless and not attributed to duality like hot or cold, good or bad, male or female. But if he is beyond good and bad then why does he take avatar to uphold dharma which is good and destroys evil. Isn't he supporting good in that case which makes him good and not bad. Which makes god good. But then he is also described  to be beyond good and bad. Its contradicting. Whats the actual explanation behind this? Can anyone kindly explain. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it is described that bhakti yoga is the way to reach god. Bhakti which is love for god is a good attribute. So it seems like following good path brings people closer to him. Is this the right teaching or is it just performing your actions without being attached to them (be it good or bad) which is I suppose practice of karma yoga instead of bhakti yoga can bring you closer to him. Bottom line is brahman good or bad? It seems like he is good since dharma is the most important thing to Brahman. I am willing to know can anyone please share their views. Thank you!!! :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7757" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T09:11:01.610" LastActivityDate="2018-10-16T11:58:10.817" Title="What does the statement 'Brahman is devoid of good and bad' mean?" Tags="|karma|brahman|bhakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15147" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14410" CreationDate="2016-09-25T06:43:17.323" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Visitors and worshipers to Hindu temples are required to remove shoes&#xA;  and other footwear before entering. Additionally, it may be customary,&#xA;  particularly at South Indian temples, for men to remove shirts and to&#xA;  cover pants and shorts with a traditional cloth known as a vasthiram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Most rituals in North Indian temples are very simple in stark contrast&#xA;  to South Indian temples, which have elaborate practices. For example,&#xA;  a strict dress code exists for people who wish to enter the Guruvayur&#xA;  Temple. Men are to wear around their waist, without any dress covering&#xA;  their chest. Girls and women are not allowed to wear any trouser-like&#xA;  dresses or short skirts. They are allowed to wear a sari, and girls&#xA;  are to wear long skirts and blouses. Presently the dress code for&#xA;  women has been relaxed, and salwar kameezes or churidar pyjamas are&#xA;  being allowed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;North Indian temples often tend to be less orthodox. Like all other&#xA;  temples in India, footwear is strictly prohibited. Unlike in northern&#xA;  India, in Kerala and other southern Indian states, Hindu women do not&#xA;  cover their heads in temples. In traditional north Indian homes, women&#xA;  still cover their head in front of in-laws and elders as a sign of&#xA;  appreciation and respect. Thus, covering the hair in temples is mostly&#xA;  a north Indian custom and is not mandatory. It is an outward sign of&#xA;  displaying feelings of deep respect, humility and gratitude towards&#xA;  the Divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/rituals_and_practices/why-women-cover-their-head-in-sacred-places/&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T06:43:17.323" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15149" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10532" CreationDate="2016-09-25T09:49:36.263" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The tradition of wearing of bangles in India began in ancient times.&#xA;  Even today, womenfolk love to enhance their feminine grace and beauty&#xA;  with the help of bangles that are available in variety of forms. The&#xA;  word bangle has been derived from the Hindi word bangri or bangali,&#xA;  which in Sanskrit means the ornament which adorns the arm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;History of Bangles in India&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is strong evidence which shows that women have been adorning&#xA;  their arms with bangles since ancient times in India. One of the&#xA;  oldest art objects in India, the bronze figurine of a dancing girl&#xA;  excavated at Mohanjodaro epitomizes the antiquity and the universality&#xA;  of wrist ornaments in India. The figurine stands in the nude with one&#xA;  arm at her hip, the other arm completely weighed down with a&#xA;  collection of bangles. Even the Yakshinis are depicted wearing&#xA;  bangles. Banabhatt&amp;#8217;s Kadambari has a reference to Goddess&#xA;  Saraswati &amp;#8211; Goddess of Learning, shown as wearing kangans.&#xA;  Ancient fragments testify that bangles were made from terracotta,&#xA;  stone, shell, copper, bronze, gold, silver, lac, glass and almost any&#xA;  material that lent itself to craftsmanship. From simple plain circlets&#xA;  of metal, to ones decorated with etched and exquisite designs of bird&#xA;  and animal-head terminals and studded with gems, bangles in various&#xA;  forms existed in ancient in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of Bangles for Married Women&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wearing of bangles is considered a must for a married woman in India&#xA;  and are considered to be an important part of Indian bride&amp;#8217;s&#xA;  jewellery. In certain communities, there is a custom which says that&#xA;  gold bangles should not be worn alone by married women and should be&#xA;  teamed with glass bangles, popularly known as 'kaanch ki choodiya', as&#xA;  it symbolizes well-being of husband and sons. In some communities&#xA;  women are so superstitious, that even when changing bangles, they&#xA;  never allow their arm to be completely bare. A simple string or even&#xA;  the end of her sari is wrapped around the arm, until the new set is&#xA;  worn. In certain communities, widows are not allowed to wear glass&#xA;  bangles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tradition of Bangles in West Bengal&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While most married women in India wear gold bangles, married women in&#xA;  the eastern state of Bengal wear a pair of white color shakha (shell)&#xA;  and paula (red coral) bangles as a symbol of marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tradition of Bangles in Punjab&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the state of Punjab, bride wears a set of ivory bangles called&#xA;  chooda on each hand for 21 days, or for a year after marriage,&#xA;  depending on family tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tradition of Bangles in Rajasthan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rajasthani woman wears ivory bangles from her wrist to her upper arm&#xA;  as jewellery of gold for the rest of her life or till her husband is&#xA;  alive. This tradition has become obsolete in present times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tradition of Bangles in Contemporary Times&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In present times, women, in spite of their marital status adorn their&#xA;  arms with bangles that are available in various types and styles as&#xA;  they believe that wearing of jewellery after marriage or before&#xA;  marriage has no relation to their husband's age. Hence, these days,&#xA;  bangle or bracelets are worn by fashion conscious girls with as much&#xA;  style as their mothers and grandmothers wore as part of tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bangles are vital not just during weddings, but also on the occasion&#xA;  of baby shower, which in the Indian context can be referred to as the&#xA;  bangle ceremony. It is believed to be an event held to ward off evil&#xA;  spirits that might be lurking around the mother-to-be or the baby in&#xA;  the womb. The mother-to-be, full of health and radiance, diverts the&#xA;  evil spiritsp' attention to her arms full of bangles (glass, silver,&#xA;  conch, or shell bangles, depending on the region and community),&#xA;  thereby deflecting danger to her or the baby. The only time that a&#xA;  married woman removes her bangles is either at labour while having a&#xA;  baby or when she is widowed. While the former is significant of an&#xA;  easy delivery, the latter has tragic connotations. That is why, when&#xA;  glass bangles break, it is thought to portend ill luck. Hyderabad and&#xA;  Firozabad are the favourite haunts for those looking for an amazing&#xA;  variety of strikingly beautiful bangles. If you happen to visit these&#xA;  places, you just might chance upon Kasars there, who specialize in the&#xA;  art of making bangles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/culture/why-do-women-wear-bangles/&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T09:49:36.263" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15150" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-25T10:04:00.670" Score="5" ViewCount="6613" Body="&lt;p&gt;All Hindus know about Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do the 10 heads of Ravana signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7760" LastEditorUserId="18974" LastEditDate="2020-04-18T05:46:56.547" LastActivityDate="2020-04-18T05:46:56.547" Title="What do the 10 heads of Ravana signify?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15151" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15150" CreationDate="2016-09-25T10:24:51.977" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://asura.co.in/category/menu/the-ten-headed/&quot;&gt;interesting answers&lt;/a&gt; could be found in the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Asura-Vanquished-Story-Ravana-People/dp/938157605X&quot;&gt;Asura: Tale of the Vanquished: The Story of Ravana and His People&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dasamukha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why is Ravana portrayed as ten-faced?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While the ten-headed, twenty-armed figure of Ravana as the supreme&#xA;  anti-hero, is familiar to every Indian and scholars of Indian&#xA;  mythology, few really know why he is portrayed in this manner.&#xA;  Traditonal Indian wisdom places importance on the control of one’s&#xA;  emotions and projectsthe intellect alone, as being supreme. The great&#xA;  King Mahabali, advises Ravana to shun the other nine base emotions of&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;anger, pride, jealousy, happiness, sadness, fear, selfishness, passion, and ambition. Intellect&lt;/strong&gt; alone is to be revered. Indian&#xA;  spiritual gurus have always stressed the need to overcome the Self and&#xA;  have considered these emotions detrimental to the elevation of the&#xA;  soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But, in his reponse to Mahabali, Ravana justifies and exults in the&#xA;  possession of all these ten facets, as they make him a complete man.&#xA;  Mythology thus portrays Ravana as Dasamukha, or the ten-faced one,&#xA;  while his twenty hands denote prowess and power. Ravana sees himself&#xA;  as the epitome of a complete human being, without any pretense to&#xA;  holiness or restricted by social and religious norms. He is as good or&#xA;  as bad as any human being, and as nature intended man to be. Society&#xA;  is unable to curb his other nine faces, as it does in the figure of&#xA;  Rama. So Rama may be seen as God, but Ravana is the more complete man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-26T02:00:29.720" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T02:00:29.720" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15152" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15044" CreationDate="2016-09-25T10:32:05.260" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is explained in the Chhandogya Upanishad - Aadhyaya-6, Khanda-8.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the Sushupti actually and why do we experience it?:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उद्दालको हारुणिः श्वेतकेतुं पुत्रमुवाच स्वप्नान्तं मे सोम्य&#xA;  विजानीहीति यत्रैतत्पुरुषः स्वपिति नाम सता सोम्य तदा&#xA;  सम्पन्नो भवति स्वमपीतो भवति तस्मादेनꣳ&#xA;  स्वपितीत्याचक्षते स्वꣳह्यपीतो भवति ॥ ६.८.१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Uddalaka the son of Aruna said to his son Svetaketu: &quot;Learn  from me, my dear, the true nature of sleep. When a person has  entered into deep sleep, as it is called, then, my dear, he  becomes united with Pure Being (Sat), he has gone to his own  Self. That is why they say he is in deep sleep (svapiti); it is  because he has gone (apita) to his own (svam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm here quoting that part of Adi Shankaracharya Bhashya which is related to question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....Question :-&quot;How is this merging into one's oWn known to ordinary men (v/ho are not expected to have the experience&quot;? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  They say that they infer it from the fact of Sleep being due to fatigue incurred during the waking state. &lt;strong&gt;What happens is that&lt;/strong&gt; during the waking state, man becomes fatigued through experiencing exertions involved in the &#xA;  pleasures and pains brought about by Merit and Demerit,- the organs also, becoming tired by numerous functioning, retire from further functioning; this is what has been thus declared in Vedic texts' Speech is tired, Eye is tired' etc., etc., (Brhada. Upa. 1. v. 21.) and again, 'Speech' is held up, Eye is held up, Mind is held up', (Brhada. Upa. II. i. 17.) which shows that the organs are all swallowed up by the Life-breath ;-it is Life-breath alone which is not tired and lies awake in the nest of the body: &lt;strong&gt;it is in this state that the 'Living Self', for the removal of fatigue, retired into its own self in the form of the Deity; inasmuch as no removal of fatigue &#xA;  would be possible apart from this resting within his own,- it is only right that people should entertain the idea that &amp;amp; he is gone to his own'.&lt;/strong&gt; In the ordinary world, it is seen that when people suffering from fever and other diseases are cured of them, they regain their own and rest; similar is the case here also; hence, what has been said is quite right; this has also been made clear by such texts as &amp;amp; just as, the Kite or the Heron having flown and becoming tired etc., etc.,' (Brhada. Upa. IV. iii. 19.).....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why does Jiva rest in Supreme? Explained with example:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स यथा शकुनिः सूत्रेण प्रबद्धो दिशं दिशं&#xA;  पतित्वान्यत्रायतनमलब्ध्वा बन्धनमेवोपश्रयत&#xA;  एवमेव खलु सोम्य तन्मनो दिशं दिशं&#xA;  पतित्वान्यत्रायतनमलब्ध्वा प्राणमेवोपश्रयते&#xA;  प्राणबन्धनꣳ हि सोम्य मन इति ॥ ६.८.२ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Just as a bird tied by a string to the hand of the bird—catcher  first flies in every direction and then finding no rest anywhere,  settles down at the place where it is bound, &lt;strong&gt;so also the mind  (i.e. the individual soul reflected in the mind), my dear, after  flying in every direction and finding no rest anywhere, settles  down in the Prana (i.e. Pure Being); for the mind (the  individual soul) is fastened to the Prana (Pure Being).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quotes from Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following example illustrates what has been said above. Just as, a bird, tied to a string-in the hands of the Bird-killer ,-having flown in several directions. with a view to extricate himself from the bondage, having &#xA;  f)ow.n in all directions,-and finding no resting place- support for rest-elsewhere-apart from the place to which it is fastened ,-settles down at the place to which it is fastened ;-&lt;strong&gt;in the same manner&lt;/strong&gt;, as has been Sl:en in this example cited, the Mind,-which has been the subject- matter of our conversation, which has been found to have sixteen parts developed by food; the tern1 ' Mind' stands for the ' Living Self' entering and residing in the Mind and chracterised by it,-just as, when it is said that 'the Raised platform shouts', the terrp , Raised platform' stands for the man on the platform ;-now, this ' Living Self' along with its limiting adjunct called' Mind' ,-&lt;strong&gt;having flown in several directions, in the shape of pleasure and pain and other experiences during the waking state and during dreams led &#xA;  thither by his ignorance, desires and Karmic Residua,- i. e. having experienced all these,-and not finding an resting place ,-shelter for resting-elsewhere-apart from his. own Self called 'Being ',-settles down at the Life- &#xA;  breath ;-the term' PriilJa &quot; , Life-breath', here stands for the Supreme Deity named 'Being'&lt;/strong&gt; as characterised (circumscribed) by the aggregate of all causes and effects,-as is indicated by such Vedic texts as-' the Life-breath of life- breath, (Brhada. U pa. IV. iv. 18.) 'Having Life-breath for his body, in the fornl of Light etc' Hence, it is this' Life-breath', the Deity named' Life-breath', at which he settles down.-' &lt;strong&gt;Because, my dear, Mind is fastened to the Life- breath ';-' Mind' here standing for that Mind in which the said Deity is resting,-that is, the 'Living Self' characterised by the said' Mind '&lt;/strong&gt;. --(2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why is only Supreme being (Satya/Brahman) shelter?:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्य क्व मूलꣳ स्यादन्यत्रान्नादेवमेव खलु सोम्यान्नेन&#xA;  शुङ्गेनापो मूलमन्विच्छाद्भिः सोम्य शुङ्गेन तेजो&#xA;  मूलमन्विच्छ तेजसा सोम्य शुङ्गेन सन्मूलमन्विच्छ&#xA;  सन्मूलाः सोम्येमाः सर्वाः प्रजाः सदायतनाः&#xA;  सत्प्रतिष्ठाः ॥ ६.८.४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;And where could its root be except in food (earth)? And in the  same way, my dear, as food too is an offshoot, seek for water as  its root. And as water too, my dear, is an offshoot, seek for fire  as its root. And as fire too, my dear, is an offshoot, seek for  Being (Sat) as its root. &lt;strong&gt;Yes, all these creatures, my dear, have  their root in Being, they dwell in Being, they finally rest in  Being.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quote from part of Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....hence, from fire as the sprout,-the product-my dear, infer its root in Being, which is one only, without a second, and really and absolutely Real; all the Universe is a mere modification of words, a mere name,-superimposed by Nescience, upon the said Being,-in the same manner as the Serpent and other imaginary things are superimposed upon the Rope; hence, &lt;strong&gt;this Being is the root of the Universe&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, my dear, all the creatures-in the shape of animate and inanimate things-have their root-cause -in Being. It is not only that they have their root in Being ,-even now, during the time of their existence, the reside in Being-subsisting in Being itself; as for example, without subsisting in clay, the jar has no existence or continuance; hence, &lt;strong&gt;as Being is the root of all creatures, -like the clay of jar etc.-These creatures reside in Being: and at the end they rest in Being,-that is, they have their rest,: they become merged,-and have their end, in the same said Being.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think above 5 verses from Chhandogya Upanishad are very helpful to understand why does Jiva reside in Brahman during sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to know more How Jiva reside in Brahman comparison of deep sleep and death and how weak up from sleep read Adi Shankaracharya Bhashya on 6 and 7 verse. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sushupti is also discussed in 4&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Prashna of Prashna Upanishad.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: Sanskrit verses are quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sanskritdocuments.org&lt;/a&gt;, English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://shankaracharya.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;shankaracharya.org&lt;/a&gt; and Adi Shankaracharya Bhashya from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;archive.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-09T11:47:44.590" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T11:47:44.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15154" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15118" CreationDate="2016-09-25T11:00:50.213" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from the explanations given in previous answers i would like to add the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The usual description of the A,the U and the M in AUM is the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Veda Vyasa further explained that the Word ‘A’ meant Formation,&#xA;  ‘U’meant Protection and ‘M’ meant Demolition, reflecting the Three&#xA;  Characteristics of Satvika Guna, Rajasika Guna and Tamasika Guna. Most&#xA;  importantly, Veda Vyasa stated that the emphatic stress while&#xA;  pronouncing the last word or the Half Word ‘M’ of ‘OM’ stood for Maha&#xA;  Maya Bhagavati Herself. The speciality of the terminating half letter&#xA;  ‘M’was that it was not pronounced as a distinct and separate word,&#xA;  signifying thereby that the Half Word was ‘Maya’ or ‘Maheswari’ which&#xA;  had no Entity yet the ‘Most Distinctive’! [ ‘Vyakta Avyakta Swarupini’&#xA;  or ‘Saguna-Nirguna Embodiment]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana36.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_shiva-shadakshara_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva shadakshara Stotram&lt;/a&gt; starts with the verse &quot;Omkaram bindu samyuktam nityam dhayanti yoginah..&quot;-Meaning-Shiva,Who is OM with the bindu &amp;amp; who is always meditated upon by Yogis..&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, its natural to ask for a description of AUM related only to Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Linga Purana&lt;/a&gt; infact gives exactly such an explanation which corelates the various alphabets(including those of AUM) to different body parts of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maharshi Lomarshana, the disciple of Veda Vyasa, while addressing the&#xA;  Sages at Naimisha Forest described that at the Maha Pralaya or the&#xA;  termination of the Universe after the Maha Yuga, the Supreme Bhagavan&#xA;  created Vishnu with the aid of Satwa Guna who was floating on Maha&#xA;  Jala or the Unending Water Sheet and from his navel appeared a lotus&#xA;  with Brahma as materialised with Rajo Guna seated thereon; the latter&#xA;  questioned Vishnu about his antecedents and consequent on mutual&#xA;  arguments about their Supremacy there was a fight; at that very time&#xA;  there appeared a Colossal Agni Linga emitting enormous radiance and&#xA;  heat..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....As neither the Hamasa Rupa Brahma who flew up and up for thousand&#xA;  years nor the Varaha Rupa Narayana who slided down as much time could&#xA;  discover the bottom or the top and returned to the starting point by&#xA;  another thousand years; both of them reached there totally fatigued.&#xA;  Then there was a reverberating Sound of AUM:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tadaa sama bhavattatra naadou vai Shabda lakshanah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Omomiti Surasreshtthaah Samyuktah plutalakshanah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kimidam twiti samchitya mayaa tishthanmahaaswanam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lingasya Dakshiney bhaagey tadaapashyat Sanaatanam/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adya varnamakaaram chouttareytath,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Makaaramadhya taschaiva naadaantam tasyachomiti/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suryamandalavadrustwaa varnamaadyam tu Dakshiney,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Uttarey Paavaka prakhya mukaaram Purusharshabhah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sheetaamshu Mandalaprakhyam Makaaram madhyamam tathaa,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tasyopari tadaapashyat- kshudra sphatikavat Prabhum/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tureeyaatimamrutam Nishkalam Nirupaplavam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nirdwandam Kevalam Shunyam Bhaahyaantara varjitam/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sa baahyaabhyantaram chaiva Sabaahya abhyantarasthitam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adi madhyantarahita maanandasyaapi kaaranam/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maatraastistwardha maatram naadaakhyam Brahmasangnitam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rukyajurssaama Vedaa vai  Maatraa rupena Maadhavah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedashabde -bhya yevesham Vishwaatmaanamachintayat,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tadaabhavadrushirveda Rusheh saaratam shubham/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Teynaiva Rishinaa Vishnurjnaatawaan Parameswaram/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;( As the sound of AUM emerged from the right side of the Maha Linga,&#xA;  there appeared Sanatana Bhagavan; from Him, the sound of ‘A kaara’&#xA;  came, followed by ‘U Kaara’ and ‘Ma kaara’ and the sound in between&#xA;  was the ‘Naada Swarupa’; the extraordinary radiance of Surya came from&#xA;  the Northern direction as the pious form of U kara or of Pavaka;&#xA;  Makara was of Chandra Mandala and above it was the Suddha Sphatika&#xA;  Rupa or Pure Crystal Form representing Maha Deva in Tureeya Awastha or&#xA;  the Prime and Pristine Form. This Form was Unique, devoid of Duality,&#xA;  of Sunya or Nothingness; of Purity and Immunity and of no&#xA;  beginning-middle- termiation. Indeed that was the Spring of Ananda or&#xA;  Sheer Joy as also the synthesis of Tri Vedas represented by Tri Murtis&#xA;  and the sure way leading to Maha Deva!) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&gt; Maharshis who  knew Vedas and the  Omkara Swarupa of Maha Deva&#xA;  analysed the Alphabets in Sanskrit and explained as follows: ‘A’&#xA;  kaara’ constituted His broad forehead; ‘E’ kaara was the left Eye;&#xA;  ‘U’kaara his Southern Ear; ‘Aa’ kaara his left ear; ‘Ru’ kara his&#xA;  right Kapola; ‘Ruukaara’ the left kapola; ‘lu lu’is the partition of&#xA;  his nasal divisions; ‘ea’- kaaras his big lips; ‘oau’ kaara his teeth;&#xA;  the consonants ‘Ka-kha-ga- gha-jnaa’ constituted  his five right hands&#xA;  while the consonants ‘cha-ccha- ja-jja-na’ were his left five hands;&#xA;  other two sets of consonants viz. ‘ta-tha-da-dha-na’ and&#xA;  ‘pa-pha-ba-bha-ma’ were his right and left five feet respectively;&#xA;  Shiva’s ‘udara’ or belly represented ‘paa’ kaara; ‘pha’ kara his right&#xA;  side of his body; ‘Va’ kara his left side; the letter ‘Vaa’ and ‘bha’&#xA;  kaaras represented his shoulders; the letter ‘Ma’  kaara his ‘Uridaya’&#xA;  or heart; ‘Ya- ra-la-va-sa-sha’ represented Shiva’s body-dhatus; ‘ha’&#xA;  kara represented His Atma and ‘Kha’ kaara denoted Shiva’s anger.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T11:00:50.213" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15157" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15143" CreationDate="2016-09-25T11:57:52.917" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Madhurastakam is a Sanskrit composition in devotion of Krishna,&#xA;  composed by the Hindu Bhakti philosopher-poet Sripad Vallabha Acharya.&#xA;  Mahaprabhu Srimad Vallabhacharya is one of the greatest&#xA;  sage-philosophers of India, who belonged to a Telugu family, was one&#xA;  of the foremost followers of Bhakthi Marga and established his&#xA;  philosophy of Pushti Marga in North India during the 16th century. His&#xA;  Bhakthi was much more than devotion. It was becoming mad in the&#xA;  thought of God. According to him the devotee does not see anything&#xA;  except his Lord everywhere. Madhurashtakam written by him sees&#xA;  sweetness in his lord inch by inch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhurastakam&quot;&gt;Source 1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Madhurashtakam&quot;&gt;Source 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adharam Madhuram, Vadanam Madhram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nayanam Madhuram, Hasitham Maduram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hrudhayam Madhuram, Gamanam Maduram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhuradhipather Akhilam Madhuram., 1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet are thine lips, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So are thine sweet cherubic face,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet are thine jet black eyes, Krishna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine soulful laugh, Sweet is thine loving heart, Krishna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine beautiful gait,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey king of all sweetness in this world,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everything about Thee is sweet. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vachanam Madhuram, Charitham Madhuram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasanam Madhuram, Valitham Madhuram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chalitham Madhuram, Bramitham Maduram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhurathipather Akhilam Madhuram., 2 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet are thine sweetest words, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine divine story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet is the place of your stay, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine greatness,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet are thine movements, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine confusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey king of all sweetness in this world,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everything about Thee is sweet. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Venur Madhura, Renur Madhura,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Panir Madhura, Padhou Madhura,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nrithyam Madhuram, Sakhyam MadhuraM,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madurathipather Akhilam Madura., 3 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet is thine flute, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine foot-dust,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet are thine hands Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So are thine feet. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet is thine dance Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine friendship. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey king of all sweetness in this world,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everything about Thee is sweet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Geetham Madhuram, Peetham Madhuram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhuktham Madhuram,Suptham Madhuram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Roopam Madhuram, Thilakam Madhuram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhurathipather akhilam Madhuram., 4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet is thine song, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is what you drink,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet is what you eat, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is your sleep,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet are thine looks, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine Thilaka, Hey king of all sweetness in this world,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everything about Thee is sweet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karanam Madhram, Tharanam Madhuram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Haranam Madhuram, Ramanam Madhuram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vamitham Madhuram, Samitham Maduram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhurathipather akhilam Madhuram., 5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet are thine deeds, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine path of salvation,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet is thine theft, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine play of love,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet are thine oblations, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine tranquility,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey king of all sweetness in this world,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everything about Thee is sweet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gunja Madhura, Mala Madhura,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yamuna Madhura, Veechi Madhura,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Salilam Madhuram, Kamalam Madhuram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhurathipather akhilam Madhuram., 6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet is thine necklace of berries, Krishnam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine garland,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet is thine river Yamuna, Krishna, So are the ripples in the river,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet is thine water, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is the lotus in the water,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey king of all sweetness in this world,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everything about Thee is sweet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gopi Madhura, Leela Madhura,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yuktham Madhuram, Muktham Madhuram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Drishtam Madhuram,Sishtam Madhram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhurathipather akhilam Madhuram., 7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet are thine Gopis, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine playful sport,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet are thine right thoughts,Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine salvation,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet is what you see, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is what is left out,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey king of all sweetness in this world,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everything about Thee is sweet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gopa Madhura, Gavo Madhura,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yashtir Madhura, Srushtir Madhra,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhalitham Madhram, Phalitham Madhuram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhurathipather akhilam Madhuram., 8&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet are thine Gopas, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So are thine cows, Sweet is thine staff, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So is thine creation,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sweet is what you trample, Krishna,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So are thine jokes,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey king of all sweetness in this world,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everything about Thee is sweet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Madhurashtakam&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T11:57:52.917" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15158" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2117" CreationDate="2016-09-25T13:21:53.763" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a partial answer. I would like to point out that animal sacrifice is both recommended and criticized in Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Animal sacrifice is allowed in Hindu scripture for people with clean minds. Otherwise vegetable sacrifice is to be done as can be seen by the following quote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who is of such a cleansed soul may slaughter a cow (as an offering&#xA;  in Sacrifice). They, therefore, that are not of that kind should&#xA;  perform Sacrifices with herbs and plants (and not animals).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXIII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Animal sacrifice has also been condemned in Hindu scripture:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How can one like me worship his maker in animal-sacrifices involving&#xA;  cruelty, or sacrifices of the body, such as Pisachas only can perform&#xA;  and such as produce fruits that are transitory?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CLXXV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Animal sacrifice permitted by Hindu scripture is not a license to indulgence.&#xA;The goal is to wean away man gradually from such sacrifice. The passage below is in my opinion the best justification for animal sacrifice allowed by Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is only a restrictive ruling of the scriptures that a king is fond&#xA;  of meat may hunt wild animals for use in important religious&#xA;  ceremonies like Sraddha. (The object is not to encourage but to&#xA;  restrict it and ultimately wean man away from it. ) A man who performs&#xA;  such work (involving sense indulgence) in this way, i.e., with the&#xA;  understanding that they are allowed not for the sake of indulgence in&#xA;  itself, but to restrain and wean him away from them ultimately, such a&#xA;  person never grows addicted to them because of the knowledge generated&#xA;  by such reflection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana IV.26.6–7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus there is no uniform position in Hindu scripture on animal sacrifice. Since Hindus have no organized Church to tell them what they should or should not do, some Hindus may do animal sacrifice and others may not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T13:21:53.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15159" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-25T14:34:55.557" Score="8" ViewCount="1922" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kumbhakarna rakshasa is the younger brother of Ravana in the famous Indian epic Ramayana. What does Kumbhakarna signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7723" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-25T17:17:35.100" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T16:40:51.040" Title="What does Kumbhakarna signify?" Tags="|ramayana|kumbhakarna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15160" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-25T14:38:05.640" Score="4" ViewCount="7315" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to you What is correct ॐ Gam Ganapataye Namaha or ॐ Gan Ganapataye Namaha ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7742" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-27T05:37:11.863" LastActivityDate="2016-09-27T05:37:11.863" Title="Is ॐ Gam Ganapataye Namaha correct, or ॐ Gan Ganapataye Namaha correct?" Tags="|mantras|ganesha|sanskrit|om|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15161" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15160" CreationDate="2016-09-25T14:48:01.990" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is “Gam Ganapatayae namaha.” It is ‘Ga’ with Anusvara. The source of this mantra is Ganapati Atharvasheersha. Ganapathi is eulogised in Ganapati Atharvasheersha as Absolute Reality, the creator, the sustainer, the destroyer, the omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient Parabrahma, the Absolute Self. ‘Gakaara’ is considered the unmanifest state, ‘Akaara’ is considered as the middle manifest state and the Anusvaara is considered as the final state of dissolution in other words Srusti, Stiti and Laya. The sound in general and the nasal sound represented by semi circle and a dot in particular, is the unifying factor. It is harmonious union in Peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T14:48:01.990" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15162" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15159" CreationDate="2016-09-25T14:53:58.253" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kumbakarna was powerful and strong. He was invincible. He was not evil, but his blind love for his brother, Ravana, could make him defeat anybody in battle single-handed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_010.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kumbakarna performs a severe penance&lt;/a&gt; to ask for a boon of complete invincibility. Fearing Kumbakarna's power, valor and invincibility, the Devas plead a Goddess to help them break Kumbakarna's penance. She manipulates him (his mind) and makes him ask for a boon of being able to sleep 6 months continuously!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming back to the significance. Kumbakarna's story, like many other stories in Hindu mythology seeks to tell us the importance of almighty. It tells us no matter how invincible someone might feel she or he is, one is powerless in front of forces of nature / calamities / The Energy above us / God (God since it is a mythological story).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Ramayana-Hindu-epic-What-does-Kumbakarna-signify/answer/Tejaswini-Nayak-2?srid=Rgkc&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;www.quora.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T16:40:51.040" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15166" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15159" CreationDate="2016-09-25T16:13:23.577" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana is full of symbolism and through the narrative of Lord Rama &amp;amp; his life, weaves higher concepts of idealism and consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Rama’s enemies are no ordinary people and they represent some of the deepest aspects of human nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The demon brothers of Lanka, represent the &lt;strong&gt;negative aspects of the three gunas&lt;/strong&gt; that keep the soul in bondage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vibhishana is &lt;code&gt;Sattva&lt;/code&gt;, Ravana is &lt;code&gt;Rajas&lt;/code&gt; &amp;amp; Kumbhakarna is the personification of &lt;code&gt;Tamas&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Wikipedia,&#xA;&lt;code&gt;Tamas&lt;/code&gt; is the quality of imbalance, disorder, chaos, anxiety, impure, destructive, delusion, negative, dull or inactive, apathy, inertia or lethargy, violent, vicious, ignorant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if you look closely at Kumbhakarna’s character,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Inactive or Lethargic&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the virtue of the curse from Brahma he would sleep for 6 months and wake up only for a day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रावस्य वचः श्रुत्वा स्वयम्भूरिदमब्रवीत् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शयिता ह्येष षण्मासानेकाहम् जागरिष्यति || ६-६१-२८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Hearing the words of Ravana, Brahma spoke as follows: He will indeed&#xA;  sleep for six months and wake-up for a day.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chaotic&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, when he would wake up, he would eat like a ravage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एकेनाह्ना त्वसौ वीरश्च रन् भूमिम् बुभुक्षितः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्यात्तास्यो भक्षयेल्लोकान् सम्वृद्ध इव पावकः || ६-६१-२९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;On that single day, this male demon, having starved for six months,&#xA;  will wander over the earth and eat the human race with his month wide&#xA;  open, like an augmented fire.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Destructive&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He had tremendous strength but he used it only to bring destruction on anything that came his way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पृथिव्याम् केतुभूतोऽसौ महानेकोऽत्र दृश्यते |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यम् दृष्ट्वा वानराः सर्वे विद्रवन्ति यतस्ततः || ६-६१-६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He alone with a huge body here on this earth, is appearing like a&#xA;  solitary meteror, by seeing whom all the monkeys are running away&#xA;  hither and thither.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Delusional&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was well versed and intelligent. Even in his drowsiness, he counseled Ravana that they should have listened to Vibhishana and it was Ravana’s actions out of arrogance that has brought destruction to their door step. However due to his love for his brother he joined the war on the side of Adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो हि शत्रुमवज्ञाय नात्मानमभिरक्षति |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अवाप्नोति हि सोऽनर्थान् स्थानाच्च व्यवरोप्यते || ६-६३-२० &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;A king who disregards an enemy and does not protect himself, indeed&#xA;  faces disappointing occurrences and would be removed from his&#xA;  position.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In summary, Kumbhakarna represents lethargy, imbalance, violence and delusion that can cloud the best and brightest of human qualities and lead the soul to darkness (Adharma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamas_(philosophy)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamas_(philosophy)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://skillsforawakening.com/teachings/hanuman-chalisa/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://skillsforawakening.com/teachings/hanuman-chalisa/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/valmikiramayan/yuddha/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/valmikiramayan/yuddha/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastEditorUserId="7442" LastEditDate="2016-09-26T01:53:08.970" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T01:53:08.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15167" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-25T17:20:26.180" Score="6" ViewCount="2474" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question concerns radha, the companion of Krishna. I have heard that Krishna and radha were companions since childhood. But I want to know what happened to her when she grew up. Thank you&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4825" LastActivityDate="2019-01-09T03:35:13.323" Title="What happened to radha when she grew up?" Tags="|krishna|radha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15170" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15159" CreationDate="2016-09-25T19:26:41.273" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;We don't hear much of Kumbhakarna in the Valmiki Ramayana until the Yuddha Kanda in which he plays an important role for Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But before agrees to fight for Ravana, he severely rebukes Ravana for bringing on the war with Rama. He &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga63/yuddha_63_frame.htm&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; to Ravana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The same bad consequence, which was imagined by us earlier while taking the final decision after our consultation, is faced by you now, due to your utter disregard of the words spoken by your well-wishers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How a doer of wicked deeds indeed falls into damnation, so also a punishment for your sinful act has indeed reached your fast.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O emperor! This course of action was not excepted by you at first. You did not conceive this consequence, only because of your sheer arrogance of power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He even &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga63/yuddhasans63.htm#Verse21&quot;&gt;supports&lt;/a&gt; Vibhishana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That advice which was tendered to you earlier by Vibhishana is beneficial to us. Do whatever you wish to do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even after this speech he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga63/yuddhasans63.htm#Verse34&quot;&gt;agrees&lt;/a&gt; to fight for Ravana out of brotherly loyalty:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O king! Until I live, this idea should not be formed in your mind. I shall destroy him [Rama], for whose account, you are feeling anguished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;See that which is to be done and this juncture, out of affection by a brother, viz. the destruction of adversaries in battle, will be done by me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, clearly, Kumbhakarna is a person who's torn between dharma and adharma. He knows the duties of a king, right from wrong etc. but unable to side with dharma like Vibhishana did when push comes to shove. This is the significance of Kumbhakarna's character in Ramayana. Ramayana reminds us that there is a bit of Kumbhakarna in everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find other such symbolism from Ramayana in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h38EHdIodA4&amp;amp;list=PLZ83joYJYmWSpFnlr5aa6rOOucwe9gb-m&amp;amp;index=1&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; YouTube playlist by Shatavadhani Dr. R Ganesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T19:26:41.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15171" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15167" CreationDate="2016-09-25T20:34:01.150" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are actually many speculations as to what happened to her, since she disappears quiet abruptly after lord Krishna's childhood saga, where she played a very pivotal role. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So she remains a mystery yet till now with nothing definite to settle for, so I will be giving you 2 accounts of what have I come across about her : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/What-happened-to-Radha-after-Krishna-moved-to-dwarka-What-were-highlights-of-her-later-life/answer/Priya-Ananthasankar?srid=wT9M&amp;amp;share=86dee1ba&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Theory 1&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;And &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/What-happened-to-Radha-after-Krishna-moved-to-dwarka-What-were-highlights-of-her-later-life/answer/Anup-Jalan?srid=wT9M&amp;amp;share=8d675c96&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Theory 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2974" LastActivityDate="2016-09-25T20:34:01.150" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15172" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14865" CreationDate="2016-09-25T20:38:19.863" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The heart of the śloka is not exactly that. It is reflected in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-x/chapter-04/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kāśī Khaṇḍa Chapter Four&lt;/a&gt;, Lōpāmudrā says the duties of a Pativratā as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;व्रतोपवासनियमं पतिमुल्लङ्घ्य या चरेत् ।&lt;/strong&gt; आयुष्यं हरते भर्त्तु र्मृता निरयमृच्छति ॥ ३५ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;35&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If a woman observes vratā, upvāsa etc., &lt;strong&gt;without the approval of&#xA;husband (disregarding the wish of husband)&lt;/strong&gt; reduces the life span of&#xA;husband and after death she goes to hell.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In answer to your doubt that &amp;quot;However,There is another sloka in it which is about women doing vratas or rituals without taking their husband's permission.It is said that such rituals have only approvals of Asuras.&amp;quot; The intention to that śloka is in the same chapter which says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भर्ता देवो गुरुर्भर्ता धर्मतीर्थव्रतानि च । तस्मात्सर्वं परित्यज्य&#xA;पतिमेकंसमर्चयेत् ॥ ४८ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Husband is God, Husband is Guru, Husband alone is the Dharma, Tīrtha,&#xA;vrata. So forsaking everything, a woman should worship her husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इदमेव व्रतं स्त्रीणामयमेव परो वृषः । इयमेका देवपूजाभर्त्तुर्वाक्यं न&#xA;लङ्घयेत् ॥ ३० ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the vrata, this alone is the greatest piety; this is the only&#xA;deva pūjā that she never transgresses the words of her&#xA;husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;क्लीबं वा दुरवस्थं वा व्याधितं वृद्धमेव वा । सुस्थितं दुःखितं वापि&#xA;पतिमेकं न लङ्घयेत् ॥ ३१ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She will never disregard her husband whether he be a eunuch, one in&#xA;miserable plight, sick, old and senile, affluent or poor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such is the place of husband. So anything done without the approval of husband is considered very bad for a wife which is equivalent to doing bad (approval of Asuras i.e., not divine or desirable).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So a wife first taking approval of her husband can observe fasts, vratās etc.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T06:05:20.943" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15173" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-26T04:29:55.460" Score="4" ViewCount="130" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivari_Brahmotsavam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahmotsavam&lt;/a&gt; is celebrated in Tirupati in Aswayuja or Asvin or Purattasi month? Why not in other 105 Divyadesams? Any puranic reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7154" LastEditDate="2016-09-27T04:20:51.497" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T07:24:35.600" Title="Brahmotsavam in Tirupati only and not in other divyadesams" Tags="|venkateshwara|tirupati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7892" CreationDate="2016-09-26T04:40:48.260" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does our scripture say about marriage?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/45ylt.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/45ylt.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per manusmriti, there are four purposes of Hindu marriage&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;To have progeny&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sexual pleasure&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Performance of religious rites&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And through the above three, experience Bliss or Happiness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why should we marry?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Param Pujya Morari Bapu mentioned is the simplified truth to drive home a point for a larger society of people coming from different walks of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how it is said in the Satapatha Brahmaṇa. V.2.1.10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Being about to ascend, he (the Sacrificer) addresses his wife, 'Come,&#xA;  wife, ascend we the sky!'--'Ascend we!' says the wife. Now as to why&#xA;  he addresses his wife: she, the wife, in sooth is one half of his own&#xA;  self; hence, as long as he does not obtain her, so long he is not&#xA;  regenerated, for so long he is incomplete. But as soon as he obtains&#xA;  her he is regenerated, for then he is complete. 'Complete I want to go&#xA;  to that supreme goal,' thus (he thinks) and therefore he addresses his&#xA;  wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Based on the translation by Julius Eggeling [1882]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A virtuous husband and wife need each other as they proceed through life to fulfill their dharma. Through marriage they unite and together they attain the divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4108.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/doc/7189037/Manu-Smriti-Sanskrit-Text-With-English-Translation&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.scribd.com/doc/7189037/Manu-Smriti-Sanskrit-Text-With-English-Translation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T04:40:48.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15175" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10532" CreationDate="2016-09-26T06:14:58.823" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indian women wear bangles as part of the bride's jewelry and also to enhance their beauty. Married women are not allowed to wear gold bangles alone, but add glass bangles to symbolize the well-being of a husband. This tradition began in the ancient times and Indian women are still practicing it today. Indian bangles are available in a wide range of colors and designs. Some communities do not allow widows to wear glass bangles. Women in certain communities have strong beliefs about bangles, and believe that they should always be worn. Married women in West Bengal wear paula, or red coral, and shakha, or shell, bangles to symbolize marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPexrLXpOcA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPexrLXpOcA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T06:14:58.823" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15177" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-26T06:31:16.980" Score="4" ViewCount="829" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mookambika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mookambika Temple&lt;/a&gt; at Kollur, Karnataka is a temple dedicated to Mookambika Devi. The story of it goes like Devi killed Mookasura, so it is called Mookambika Devi. It is believed that the story of Mookambika temple at Kollur (Maharanya Puram) is narrated by Lord Siva to Skanda in Skanda Mahapuranam. Also &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8AgxQ_74Vs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Mookambika Ashtakam&lt;/a&gt; is also believed to be from Skanda Purana. The deity looks as below&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HaUew.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HaUew.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is Which Khanda and Chapter of Skanda Puranam has this story and the Ashtakam? Please provide some slokas and meanings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-13T17:37:31.970" LastActivityDate="2018-09-13T17:37:31.970" Title="Story of Mookambika Temple from Puranas" Tags="|puranas|temple|devi|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15178" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15150" CreationDate="2016-09-26T06:31:40.767" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana, one of the most powerful beings ever to roam the earth is also&#xA;  known as the supreme anti-hero in Ramayana. He was the king of&#xA;  Rakshasas and is depicted with 10 heads and 20 arms, giving him the&#xA;  name of (10 faced) or (10 headed). He was born to Sage Vishravan and&#xA;  Asura mother Kaikashi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana's 10 heads symbolize the 6 Shastras and 4 Vedas, making him a&#xA;  great scholar and the most intelligent person of his time. He was a&#xA;  master of 64 types of knowledge and all arts of weaponry. A highly&#xA;  learned Brahmin, Ravana has to his credit over a dozen of texts of&#xA;  which Arkaprakasha, Kumaratantra, Indrajala, Prakrata Kamadhenu,&#xA;  Prakrata Lankeshvara, Ravana Samhita, Rigveda Bhashya, Ravanabheta,&#xA;  Krishna Yajur Veda etc. are some of the best known. He is known to&#xA;  have compiled Sama Veda with the relevant musical svaras (notes) and&#xA;  his Shiva Tandava Stotra is yet the most popular hymn ever sung in&#xA;  praise of Lord Shiva. His ten heads thus stood for this multiplicity&#xA;  of his genius.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Another negative interpretation of Ravana's 10 heads are the 10 emotions or senses in a human:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kaam (lust)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Krodha (anger)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Moha (delusion)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lobha (greed)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mada (pride)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maatsarya (envy)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Manas (the mind)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Buddhi (intellect)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chitta (will)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ahamkara (ego)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hindu traditions emphasize on the importance of controlling one's&#xA;  senses and projecting just the intellect alone, which is considered&#xA;  supreme over others. The use of other emotions are considered to be&#xA;  detrimental to the growth of a soul.  The great king Mahabali advised&#xA;  Ravana to shun these nine emotions and to keep only intellect to which&#xA;  Ravana justifies that the possession of all these facets are equally&#xA;  important and make him a complete man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The head controls our destiny and the ten 10 heads of Ravana&#xA;  controlled his actions which ultimately let to his destruction. The&#xA;  king of Lanka became a slave to his senses and since he could not&#xA;  control his desires, he not only destroyed himself and his clan but&#xA;  the whole Lanka was reduced to ashes as well. Having all this&#xA;  knowledge and not being unable to harness his powers was one of&#xA;  Ravana's biggest regrets as he lay dying on his deathbed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/indian-religions/hinduism/significance-ten-heads-ravana/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T06:31:40.767" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15179" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15160" CreationDate="2016-09-26T06:38:43.953" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;‘m’ or ‘n’ sound comes with Anusvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;like कं or कम् …. that is Anusvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whether it should sound like ‘m’ or ‘n’ depends on what comes after it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If anusvara is followed by guttural sounds i.e ka, kha, ga, gha or na, then the n sound comes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it should be pronounced as gun(g) like a bell sound…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kavi(m) (ka)vinam becomes kavi(n)kavinam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many such possibilities and so the sound changes accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anusvara sounds change to m or n or gm or gg also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These rules are given in sIksha texts… but there are many such texts based on the branch of Veda. There are more than 40 such texts… so it depends on which tradition you belong to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ofcourse in gam ganapataye , it is n …&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ways of pronunciation:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om gan ganapatye namah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om gam ganapatye naman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om gung ganapatye namah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="7385" LastEditDate="2016-09-26T06:44:53.810" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T06:44:53.810" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15180" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15183" CreationDate="2016-09-26T06:51:18.250" Score="7" ViewCount="1087" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Ramayana, Lakshmana cut off the nose of Shurpanakha. But how and where did Shurpanakha lose her nose?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-08T14:25:50.103" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T14:25:50.103" Title="Where is it mentioned in Ramayana that Shurpanakha lost her nose?" Tags="|ramayana|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15181" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15140" CreationDate="2016-09-26T07:03:28.610" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all,which meat are you talking about?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was it offered to you from the temple itself as prasadam?If so,then by consuming it you will become pure as opposed to impure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If not,then please read on the next few lines:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clearly stated in our Shastras that without proper Suchi(cleaniness), if a Punya Karma is done, then that karma bears no fruit.In your case the Punya karma is visting temples and offering prayers and worship .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6YMrF.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6YMrF.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Souche yatnah sadaa Karyah souchamulo Dwijah smritah|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Souchaacharavihinasya Samasta Nishphalah Kriyah||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-Every Dwija's(Brahmin,Kshatriya &amp;amp; Vaisya) base(mula) rests in&#xA;suchi(cleaniness).So ,they should always take care to maintain&#xA;it.Because, works/rituals(kriya) bear no&#xA;fruit(nisphala ) if done without suchi(Souchaacharvihinasya).-Daksha Smriti &amp;amp; others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A human being becomes impure in  each of the following cases:&#xA;1)On waking up from sleep.&#xA;2)On evacuating bowels.&#xA;3)On touching dead bodies,attending funerals etc.&#xA;4)On having sexual intercourse.&#xA;5)On shaving,cutting hair,nails.&#xA;6)After applying oils on body.&#xA;7)After eating meat,drinking alcohol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,it is &lt;strong&gt;mandatory&lt;/strong&gt;, that you bath. if after having done one of those above,you want to participate in a religious ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duswapnam yadi pashettu vaante vaa khurakarmani, Maithuney preta dhume&#xA;cha snaanameva vidheetate/ ( In the cases of viewing disturbing&#xA;dreams, after vomittings for whatever reasons, after shaving and&#xA;haircuts, after the act of feminine congress, and nearing and touching&#xA;a dead body, one ought to purify by Snaana(Parashara Smriti).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YOsDd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YOsDd.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Offences against the Deity (bhagavat aparādha)&lt;/strong&gt; These all relate&#xA;to misconduct in a temple or shrine or inattention during ceremonial&#xA;worship of an Icon. They are as follows;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Approaching the Deity without brushing the teeth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Entering the temple or shrine after touching a menstruating woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Approaching a sacred precinct after visiting the cemetery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Entering a temple or shrine wrapped in a blanket.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Weeping or lamenting in the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Combing the hair, or clipping nails or spitting in the vicinity of the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Carrying an umbrella while circumambulating the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sleeping or eating in the temple or shrine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Seeing a corpse and thereafter touching the Icon without having washed the hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Touching the Icon after having touched a corpse without having bathed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Touching a sacred icon after having sex (without bathing).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sitting upon an elevated seat in front of the Deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;13. Eating meat prior to worship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T05:46:12.330" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15183" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15180" CreationDate="2016-09-26T07:19:34.967" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga18/aranya_18_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramaya Aranya Khanda.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Rama, Sita and Lakshamana were staying in &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga15/aranya_15_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;parNa shaala&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, straw-cottage in &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashik#Panchavati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchavati&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, nearby river Godavari in &lt;em&gt;Dandakaranya&lt;/em&gt; (present day Nashik), Shuurpanakha approached Rama with lust. Rama averts her saying that his brother was young and unmarried and suggested to woo him (pun intended).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Shuurpanakha approached Lakshmana, he told her that he was just a servant to his brother Rama and suggested her to become the younger wife of Rama (Lakshmana was also punning). After listening to Lakshamana's words, which she thought to be true,she went to Rama who was sitting with Sita in the cottage and decided to eat Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अद्य इमाम् भक्षयिष्यामि पश्यतः तव मानुषीम् |&lt;br&gt; त्वया सह चरिष्यामि&#xA;  निःसपत्ना यथा सुखम् || ३-१८-१६&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Now I wish to eat up this human female right before your very eyes,&#xA;  and then I can blithely make merry along with you, without the&#xA;  botheration of a co-wife.&quot; Said Shuurpanakha to Rama. [3-18-16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ताम् मृत्यु पाश प्रतिमाम् आपतंतीम् महाबलः | &lt;br&gt; विगृह्य रामः कुपितः&#xA;  ततो लक्ष्मणम् अब्रवीत् || ३-१८-१८ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By that the great-energetic Rama took umbrage and checking her who is&#xA;  like the noose of death swooping down on Seetha said to Lakshmana.&#xA;  [3-18-18]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्रूरैः अनार्यैः सौमित्रे परिहासः कथंचन | &lt;br&gt; न कार्यः पश्य वैदेहीम्&#xA;  कथंचित् सौम्य जीवतीम् || ३-१८-१९ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Punning in any way with the base and brutish is inapposite, oh,&#xA;  gentle Saumitri, mark note of Vaidehi, somehow surviving [3-18-19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इमाम् विरूपाम् असतीम् अतिमत्ताम् महोदरीम् | &lt;br&gt; राक्षसीम्&#xA;  पुरुषव्याघ्र &lt;strong&gt;विरूपयितुम् अर्हसि&lt;/strong&gt; || ३-१८-२० &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;She is freakish, knavish and overtly ruttish, oh, tigerly man, &lt;strong&gt;it&#xA;  will be apt of you to deface this paunchy demoness &quot;&lt;/strong&gt; Thus Rama said&#xA;  to Lakshmana. [3-18-20]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;इति उक्तो लक्ष्मणः तस्याः क्रुद्धो रामस्य पश्यतः | &lt;br&gt; उद्धृत्य&#xA;  खड्गम् चिच्छ्हेद कर्ण नासम् महाबलः || ३-१८-२१ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus said to that mighty Lakshmana he infuriately drew sword and chopped off her ears and nose before the very eyes of Rama.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  [3-18-21]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निकृत्त कर्ण नासा तु विस्वरम् सा विनद्य च | &lt;br&gt; यथा आगतम् प्रदुद्राव&#xA;  घोरा शूर्पणखा वनम् || ३-१८-२२ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hewing off her ears and nose she that ghastly Shuurpanakha blared&#xA;  highly and discordantly, and very speedily fled into forest as she&#xA;  came. [3-18-22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-09-27T16:45:04.290" LastActivityDate="2016-09-27T16:45:04.290" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15184" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3453" CreationDate="2016-09-26T09:43:10.753" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The consort of Lord Vishnu, Lakshmi is the Goddess of wealth and&#xA;  prosperity. She bestows eight kinds of wealth. In Hindu households she&#xA;  is the most commonly worshipped Goddess. It is believed that there&#xA;  will not be prosperity if Goddess Lakshmi is not worshipped. Vidya&#xA;  lakshmi bestows knowledge, Vijaya Lakshmi is associated with success,&#xA;  Dhanya Lakshmi is for food and prosperity, Soubhagya Lakshmi for a&#xA;  happy marriage, Dhairya Lakshmi is for courage and Santana Lakshmi is&#xA;  worshipped for children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Goddess Lakshmi is believed to exist in various forms. The most&#xA;  important of them are Neeladevi, Bhoodevi and Sridevi. Sridevi&#xA;  represents movable assets and Bhoodevi is known for immoveable assets.&#xA;  When Lord Vishnu has taken avataras or different form to save the&#xA;  universe, Goddess Lakshmi also came in other forms to support him.&#xA;  During Ramavatara, Ram’s wife Sita is considered to be Goddess&#xA;  Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lakshmi is also known as Sri or Thirumagal as she is associated with&#xA;  six divine and auspicious qualities. Diwali and Kojagiri Purnima are&#xA;  celebrated in the honour of Gddess Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lakshmi’s other names&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Goddess Lakshmi is known with several names. Padma, Kamala,&#xA;  Padmapriya, Padmamaladhara devi, Padmamukhi, Padmakshi, Padmahasta,&#xA;  Padmasundari are some of them. She is worshipped with her special 1008&#xA;  names as mentioned in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In praise of Lakshmi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are several slokas which praise Mahalakshmi. Some of the most&#xA;  popular prayers are “Sri Mahalakshmi Ashtakam”, “Lakshmi Stuti”,&#xA;  “Kanakadhara stotram”, “Agastya Lakshmi Stotra” and “Sri Sukta”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Kalki Purana, when Vishnu will incarnate as Kalki,&#xA;  Lakshmi will appear in the form of Padma and two sons will be born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Business people worship Goddess Lakshmi every day before commencing&#xA;  the work. Thursdays and Fridays are considered auspicious for&#xA;  worshipping Goddess Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pandit.com/lakshmi-pooja/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T09:43:10.753" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15185" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="473" CreationDate="2016-09-26T09:57:53.543" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The River Ganges is Sacred for The Hindus so much so that one is expected to take a Holy Dip in the Ganges to rid of the Sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Important places of Pilgrimage Centers, from Haridwar, Rudra Prayag,Gaya ,Allahabad, Benares are located on the banks of the River Ganges or its tributaries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Siva has  Ganges on his Head and she is considered to be his wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reference to Ganges as Lord Siva is not as frequent as, say, Lord Vishnu with SriDevi and Bhoodevi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How come the Ganges  had landed on Lord Siva’s head?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagiratha a King in the Solar dynasty,ancestor of Lord Rama wanted to perform Srardha for his ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was advised that he could not perform this as his ancestors, sons of Sagara were cursed by Sage Kapila(Founder of Nyaya System of Indian Philosophy considered an Incarnation of Lord Vishnu) and were turned into ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They could be absolved of their sins and their State if Bhagiratha could somehow get the River Ganges  down to Earth from the Heavens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganges is believed to be at the feet of Lord Vishnu and the auspicious time if dribbles out of Vishnu’s feet is called Vishnupathi, equivalent to Pradosha of Lord Siva(read my post on Vishnupathi Punya Kaala).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the advice of his Preceptors, Bhagiratha, started a Penance for Lord Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His Penance was so powerful that Indra, fearing for his Kingdom disturbed it quite a few times,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more on this please refer Vishnu Purana,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At one such instances the Ganges came with such a Force down to the earth, that the whole world trembled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagiratha prayed Lord Siva to control her and when Lord Siva attempted to do so, Ganges became furious, for she was from the feet of Lord Vishnu, she came down more force with the intention of drowning Lord Siva and fell on His head in torrents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Siva, angry, just let the Ganges hit Him and simply locked His braided His Locks and Ganges was stuck in His head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how the Ganges  landed on Sina’s head, and been so ever since.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After a lot of attempts Bhagiratha got the Ganges down to earth, had Tharpana performed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I shall post on this later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How come Ganges is called Lord Siva’s wife, for Siva is considered to be an Ardhanari( He is  the personification of Parvati/Uma and Sivam and has shared His Sthula Body with Shakti)?&#xA;Ardhanarreswara&#xA;Ardhanarreswara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact we have a temple in Tamil nadu, Tiruchengodu where Lord Siva appears as Ardhanareeswara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sathi, another name for Goddess Parvathi,after her self-immolation at her father’s Home because he insulted Lord Siva, was requested by the Deavas ,Brahma and Vishnu to be reborn and be reunited with Lord Siva, for with out Her presence the Universe will not function.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is as close to Siva as word is to meaning,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Vagarthadaiva samprktau vagarthaa pratipattaye&#xA;Jagatah pitarau vande Parvati Parameshwehvaran&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;” In order to achieve the comprehension of word and meaning, I salute&#xA;the parents of the universe, Parvati AND Parameshwara, who are&#xA;inseperable like word and its meaning.” Kumara sambhava, Kalidasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/why-ganges-is-sacred-shiva-keeps-her-on-his-head/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T09:57:53.543" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15186" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14865" CreationDate="2016-09-26T10:10:14.903" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a sacred book in Datta Sampradaya called GuruCharitra which is based on life of Datta Avatar Swami Nrusimha Saraswati, in this book Swami Nrusimha Saraswati has preached women to do Vrata. There stories about Shani-Pradosh(शनि प्रदोष),Somvar Vrat,Ekadhashi vrat,Anant-Chaturdashi vrat in this book.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/GuruCharitraMarathi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Guru Charitra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7731" LastEditorUserId="7731" LastEditDate="2016-09-29T05:17:01.523" LastActivityDate="2016-09-29T05:17:01.523" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15188" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15055" CreationDate="2016-09-26T10:28:39.950" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuman came to see Lord Krishna. But he wanted to see as Lord Rama. Krishna thought that this is the time to teach satyabama a lesson to get rid of her ego. Satyabama thought she is handsome and intelligent. Krishna asked her to come like Sita devi. Immediately she wore jewels and silk saree and came. Krishna laughed and sent her back. Again he called. She came with uncombed hair without jewels and a crying face. Krishna laughed again and asked Rukmani to come like Sita. Rukmani came like the sita who was in the ashoka vanam [jungle];with a calm face clad in a ordinary saree with a thoughtful and polite smile on her face without jewels. Krishna immediately turned to Rama and asked Hanuman to have a darshan. Hanuman came and fell at Rama and Sita's feet [it was Krishna and Rukmani]. By seeing this satyabama's ego got rid off her.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Source  Kodayin Paadhai by Mukkur Lakhsmi narasimhachar a great Vedanta scholar and done many yagnas. A disciple of Lord Narasimha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T10:28:39.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15189" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15055" CreationDate="2016-09-26T10:42:01.220" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satyabhama is the only child of the Yadava chief Satrajit. Even though&#xA;  at the time it was more common to raise boys in martial arts and&#xA;  athletic pursuits the Bhagavatam Puranas teach an important lesson in&#xA;  equality with the introduction of Satyabhama in Krishna’s past times.&#xA;  Satyabhama was haughty and high-spirited and had very little interest&#xA;  in men until she met Krishna. Unlike his other wives who were&#xA;  satisfied to stay at home, Satyabhama demanded to accompany Krishna as&#xA;  a help mate in all fields, including warfare, for which her father had&#xA;  given her ample training. Krishna did not tell her “no” go  home and&#xA;  be a good little wife. This makes  a lot of sense to those who read&#xA;  the past times of Lord Krishna in their entirety instead of taking&#xA;  bits and pieces out of context to fit an agenda since he is constantly&#xA;  trying to get it through people’s heads  that all are equal in&#xA;  divinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduhumanrights.info/satyabhama-krishnas-warrior-wife/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Full Story Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T10:42:01.220" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15191" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15167" CreationDate="2016-09-26T11:01:33.240" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna and Radha are eternal consorts as per texts. They live&#xA;  eternally in their abode called Goloka Vrindavan and it is said the&#xA;  goal of a person's life is to be part of that planet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna and Radha represent 100% pure unconditional love and are&#xA;  famously referred to as the &quot;all attractive couple&quot;. Radha Rani is&#xA;  spoken very less in all scriptures and texts because she is the most&#xA;  precious person. Krishna chases her and she represents&#xA;  bhakti/devotion, so in other words it is implied that Krishna chases&#xA;  devotion. So she is a well kept secret of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When they descended to Earth they were born in the same village and&#xA;  played pastimes and loved each other 100%. The whole leela of Krishna&#xA;  going away to defeat Kamsa, is to show that aspect of love during&#xA;  separation, in this case, a very long separation. Radha Rani&#xA;  understands this and decides to experience the sweet nectar of longing&#xA;  for her love during separation. This is another aspect of the 100%&#xA;  love situation - something which will never happen in the material&#xA;  world. Radha Rani loves him despite whatever happens with him and&#xA;  Krishna loves her back equally. They both enjoy aching for each other&#xA;  under separation. They cry, they feel lost, they undergo all these&#xA;  arduous feelings just to test their love time and again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile Radharani marries a dumb Yadava called Abhimanyu and has&#xA;  quite some bad encounters with her in-laws. But being Radharani she&#xA;  takes it in her stride very well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jatila-devi is Radharani's mother-in-law and Abhimanyu is Radharani's&#xA;  so-called husband. Kutila-devi, who is always eager to find fault, is&#xA;  Radharani's sister-in-law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vrindavan.de/radha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abhimanyu does not realize the value of the diamond he has with him.&#xA;  Krishna anyway does not care, neither does Radha. They both only have&#xA;  eyes for each other. There is a pastime where Radharani is in her room&#xA;  and Krishna is being transported inside a basket full of flowers by&#xA;  her Gopi friends into her room and they spend the night in peace -&#xA;  this is after Radharani's marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no problem for Radharani to survive because she represents&#xA;  100% Hladini energy aka pleasure potency of Krishna. So she can be&#xA;  ever smiling and ever caring always in his remembrance. Krishna when&#xA;  he marries Rukmini, Satyabhama and other wives, he does it in the&#xA;  Visnu duty form. But the highest of all is Radharani in his heart.&#xA;  Others are all by association with Visnu duty form. There is also&#xA;  another story where Rukmini repeatedly questions Krishna as to why he&#xA;  keeps exclaiming Radhe Radhe in his dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Interesting stuff&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They also say the only way to get into Krishna's heart is to please&#xA;  Radha. That is why people say &quot;Radhe Krishna&quot; and also say that a&#xA;  Krishna idol without Radha is incomplete. In the Srimad Bhagavatam,&#xA;  Sukhdev Goswami who is Vyasa's son is actually the eternal pet parrot&#xA;  of Radharani who is watching the love between Krishna and Radha non&#xA;  stop. That love is 100% pure love and hence Sukhdev Goswami only&#xA;  mentions Radha in the Srimad Bhagavatam, but without taking her name.&#xA;  If he takes her name, he gets into the trance of transcendental&#xA;  ecstasy which he won't be able to come out of. She is referred to as&#xA;  the principal gopi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;anayaradhita nunam bhagavan hariir isvarah&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;yan no vihaya govindah prito yam anayad rahah&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://backtobhakti.com/sri-radha%E2%80%99s-name-in-srimad-bhagavatam/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They also say there is something much higher and more sweeter than the&#xA;  politics of Mahabharatha and that is Krishna's life with Radha in&#xA;  Vrndavan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T11:01:33.240" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15192" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16750" CreationDate="2016-09-26T11:02:23.723" Score="1" ViewCount="335" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some say Bharadvaj Rishi was a main contributor to the Saamveda. But the vedas that we know are composed by Rishi Ved Vyasa. So how Rishi Bharadvaj is related to Saamveda ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7731" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-15T13:50:45.407" LastActivityDate="2017-01-27T14:39:51.260" Title="Rishi Bharadvaj's association to Saamveda" Tags="|vedas|rishi|sama-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15194" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-26T11:43:22.250" Score="3" ViewCount="826" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Matsya and Kurma avatars are not worshiped like other avatars? Vamana as trivikrama, varaha has temples in south. Rama, Krishna, Balarama and  Narasimha avatars are worshiped and many temples are there across India. A separate question was asked about Balarama avatar. Kalki is yet to come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-09-26T12:52:30.880" LastActivityDate="2016-12-22T13:38:53.717" Title="Why Matsya and Kurma Avatars are not worshiped like other avatars?" Tags="|vishnu|worship|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15195" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15216" CreationDate="2016-09-26T11:45:17.450" Score="9" ViewCount="866" Body="&lt;p&gt;Samudrika Shastra is a part of the Vedic tradition.Many people in the vedic ages, utilized this knowledge for studying the human face, body features,body aura etc. This tradition assumes that every natural or acquired bodily mark, encodes its owner's psychology and destiny. Elevation, depression, elongation, diminution, and other marks become relevant. There are five main types of human elements in terms of the Samudrika: Agni(Fire), Vayu(Air), Jal(Water), Akash(Sky,Space) and Prithvi(Earth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which are the authentic texts, for understanding Samudrika Shastra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-11-05T09:01:33.687" LastActivityDate="2024-01-17T06:19:17.320" Title="Vedic tradition of Samudrika Shastra" Tags="|vedas|scripture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15196" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14130" CreationDate="2016-09-26T12:54:12.053" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-xvii/chapter-124/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana, Nagara Khanda, Volume 17, Chapter 124&lt;/a&gt;, Sage Valmiki is Brahmin by birth too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Formerly, there was a Brahmana named Lohajangha in Chamatkarpura. He hailed from the family of Mandavya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Initially, he was a good person devoted to his family but once, there was no rain for a long time in Chamatkarpuar. So, Chamatkarpur was affected by famine and to fulfill his family requirements, he became thief/robber.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then there is another excellent Tirtha named Mukhara where excellent Brahmana-sages had contact with a thief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That thief attained Siddhi, thanks to the power. Later he composed the epic Ramayana and became well-known as Valmiki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-05-08T12:07:42.960" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15200" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15207" CreationDate="2016-09-26T19:13:56.877" Score="14" ViewCount="5181" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8caUvm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8caUvm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the national newspaper the logo at top of newspaper &lt;strong&gt;a character is depicted at left&lt;/strong&gt;. It was believed by some to be &lt;strong&gt;Kamadhenu&lt;/strong&gt; from Hindu mythology. &lt;strong&gt;But why those wings?&lt;/strong&gt;... so much like the &lt;a href=&quot;https://thebawaguy.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_02661.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ahura Mazda&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;https://thebawaguy.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/14/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Zoroastrian faith from Persia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DoUCSm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DoUCSm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Known as Gayomard, the sculpture reveals the body of a bull, the face of a human being and the wings of a supernatural being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Can  someone enlighten who is that he or she supposed to actually represent in &lt;em&gt;The Hindu&lt;/em&gt; newspaper logo?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is undeniable that the cow is held in highest veneration among the Hindus, but that is not the point here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wiki &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/88274.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;reference&lt;/a&gt; unedited to an extent reinforces the above:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This vision of Kamadhenu, the wish-granting cow of ancient Hindu legend, combines a white zebu cow with the crowned, frontal female face, colorful “eagle” wings, and peacock tail of &lt;em&gt;Buraq&lt;/em&gt;, the animal &lt;em&gt;(horse)&lt;/em&gt;  that the prophet Muhammad rode to heaven on his night journey (Miraj). From at least the fifteenth century, &lt;em&gt;Persian paintings&lt;/em&gt; showed Buraq with a horse’s body, &lt;em&gt;wings,&lt;/em&gt; and a woman’s face; the peacock tail may have been an Indian addition. Popular portrayals of Kamadhenu in India today often show her &lt;em&gt;in this Indo-Persian composite form&lt;/em&gt;; this may be one of the earliest images to merge the visual characteristics of the Hindu Kamadhenu with the Islamic Buraq.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So although wingless form is in the scriptures, this winged Avatar is not indigenous to Hindu India but is adapted, as Hinduism sanctions proper assimilation.. or so it appears to me even now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The winged creature can be also found in ( &lt;strong&gt;Indonesian&lt;/strong&gt; Blog, page 3 Figure &lt;em&gt;1: 3 = Winged Winged Cow Man&lt;/em&gt; ):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vokapb.blogspot.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://vokapb.blogspot.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Penemuan Modern.  Pada tahun 1843, Botta, konsul Perancis di Mossoul, menemukan istana raja Assyria di bawah sebuah bukit dekat Tigris. Di sini untuk pertama kalinya orang bisa melihat produksi seni Assyria; sapi bersayap yang dipahat di batu, yang ditempatkan di gerbang istana ditemukan utuh, dan dipindahkan ke Museum Louvre di Paris. Penggalian Botta menarik perhatian Eropa, sehingga banyak ekspedisi dikirimkan. Place dan Layard berhasil menemukan reruntuhan istana lainnya. Reruntuhan ini terjaga dengan baik, terlindungi oleh kekeringan iklim dan oleh lapisan bumi. Mereka menemukan dinding yang dihiasi dengan relief dan lukisan; patung dan prasasti ditemukan dalam jumlah yang besar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Google Translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Modern Discovery. In 1843, Botta, the French consul in Mossoul, discovered the king's palace of Assyria under a hill near the Tigris. Here for the first time one can see the art production of Assyria; The winged cow carved in stone, placed at the palace gate found intact, and transferred to the Louvre Museum in Paris. The excavation of Botta drew European attention, so many expeditions were sent. Place and Layard managed to find other palace ruins. These ruins are well preserved, protected by climate drought and by layers of the earth. They find walls decorated with reliefs and paintings; Statues and inscriptions are found in large numbers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT3:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gayomard&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gayomard Iranian Link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;seems to have a mysterious Agni/ Sun ( word Marthanda) temple connection with ancient India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2021-09-06T22:31:23.223" LastActivityDate="2021-09-06T22:31:23.223" Title="Mythological character in the Hindu newspaper logo" Tags="|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15202" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15062" CreationDate="2016-09-26T23:49:50.967" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Talking to practitioners and examining &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/apastamba_pUrva_prayoga_srImaTham_2012/apastamba_pUrva_prayoga#page/n29/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; prayoga text, aupaasana and vaishvadeva are usually done with separate pUrvanga-s and uttarAnga-s. It appears that the these are significantly shortened (no idhmAdhAnam, possibly not even AjyabhAga, no jayAdi etc..).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suppose that the traditional argument in favor of doing so is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;sviShTakRt oblation is already included in the pradhAna-homa in both cases - so need for detailed uttarAnga is implicitly removed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the sUtra only &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/APASTHAMBAGRUHYASUTRAMSUDARSHANAHARADATHA/APASTHAMBA%20GRUHYASUTRAM%20%28SUDARSHANA%2CHARADATHA%29#page/n137/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;specifies&lt;/a&gt; pariShechana before and after for the aupaasana. The same may be assumed of vaishvadeva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3434" LastActivityDate="2016-09-26T23:49:50.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15204" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9430" CreationDate="2016-09-27T04:30:41.227" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;History Of Kali Puja&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The pujas in Hinduism are not based on the Vedas. They are based on&#xA;individual traditions. Bal Gangadhar Tilak started the Ganapati&#xA;festival in Maharashtra to foster nationalism and it has been a custom&#xA;ever since. In a similar way, Raja Krishnachandra who was the king of&#xA;Navadipa started this Bengali puja of Mahakali in the 18th century.&#xA;The tradition was carried forward by his descendants and the other&#xA;wealthy zamindar families in Bengal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As this puja was basically under the patronage of the rich and famous,&#xA;it survived on a grand scale. Today, Kali puja is second in grandeur&#xA;only to Durga puja in Bengal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Myth Of Mahakali&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is always mythical story to explain our rituals or pujas. So it&#xA;is for kali puja. Once upon a time, two asuras, Sumbho and Nishumbho&#xA;plagued the Earth and the Heaven. Thus the gods prayed to Goddess&#xA;Durga who is the eternal Shakti of the Universe. To answer their&#xA;prayers, Kali was born from the forehead of Durga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kali attached the errant asuras with a 'khara' which is kind of&#xA;twisted sword in her hand. Once she started slaying the asuras, her&#xA;thirst for blood was aroused. She made a garland of the heads of dead&#xA;asuras and wore around her neck. Then she started slaying anyone who&#xA;came in her way. To soothe her anger, Shiva (who is her husband) lay&#xA;in her path. When she stepped on her husband in her fury, she stuck&#xA;her tongue out in regret. Her fury ended at than moment and that is&#xA;why she is portrayed with her tongue stuck out and her foot on Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.boldsky.com/yoga-spirituality/faith-mysticism/2012/kali-puja-diwali-031457.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2022-07-08T04:50:02.773" LastActivityDate="2022-07-08T04:50:02.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15205" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15122" CreationDate="2016-09-27T07:56:42.613" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5Vc0I.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5Vc0I.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Athirathram or Atiratra&lt;/strong&gt; is one of the seven categories of Soma Yagnas.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.brahminvoice.org/2011/04/01/athirathram-athirathra-homam-2011/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Athirathram or Atiratra&lt;/a&gt; refers to “building up of the fireplace and performed overnight”. Seventeen priests are required for performing the ‘Agni’. The course of time is 12 days. the piling of the altar of Agni is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.religious-information.com/srauta-religion.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srauta&lt;/a&gt; ritual of Vedic religion.&#xA;It is also &lt;a href=&quot;http://athirathram-2012.blogspot.in/2012_04_01_archive.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the world’s oldest surviving ritual. &lt;/a&gt;&#xA;Its mantras and theological explanations in the Brahmana texts are &lt;strong&gt;mentioned  in the Yajurveda Samhitas (Taittiriya, Kathaka; Vajasaneya).&lt;/strong&gt; The practice of this ritual was generally discontinued from late vaidic period. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A brief Part of Procedure -:&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  The First day begins with the Yajamana and his priests entering the ritual enclosure carrying three sacred fires in pots. The main ritual vessel is prepared from clay. A symbolic animal sacrifice would be performed for Vayu. After selection of five chief priests fire is produced by friction. This is followed by tying a turban around the head of Yajamana. He is protected by a golden breast plate, is given a staff and closes his fists and deprived of speaking (except for recitations), from bathing etc. The Yajamana picks up the main ritual vessel filled with fire, and takes three steps with it. brief Part of Procedure -:  The First day begins with the Yajamana&#xA;  and his priests entering the ritual enclosure carrying three sacred&#xA;  fires in pots. The main ritual vessel is prepared from clay. A&#xA;  symbolic animal sacrifice would be performed for Vayu. After selection&#xA;  of five chief priests fire is produced by friction. This is followed&#xA;  by tying a turban around the head of Yajamana. He is protected by a&#xA;  golden breast plate, is given a staff and closes his fists and&#xA;  deprived of speaking (except for recitations), from bathing etc. The&#xA;  Yajamana picks up the main ritual vessel filled with fire, and takes&#xA;  three steps with it. brief Part of Procedure -:  The First day begins&#xA;  with the Yajamana and his priests entering the ritual enclosure&#xA;  carrying three sacred fires in pots. The main ritual vessel is&#xA;  prepared from clay. A symbolic animal sacrifice would be performed for&#xA;  Vayu. After selection of five chief priests fire is produced by&#xA;  friction. This is followed by tying a turban around the head of&#xA;  Yajamana. He is protected by a golden breast plate, is given a staff&#xA;  and closes his fists and deprived of speaking (except for&#xA;  recitations), from bathing etc. The Yajamana picks up the main ritual&#xA;  vessel filled with fire, and takes three steps with it. brief Part of&#xA;  Procedure -:  The First day begins with the Yajamana and his priests&#xA;  entering the ritual enclosure carrying three sacred fires in pots. The&#xA;  main ritual vessel is prepared from clay. A symbolic animal sacrifice&#xA;  would be performed for Vayu. After selection of five chief priests&#xA;  fire is produced by friction. This is followed by tying a turban&#xA;  around the head of Yajamana. He is protected by a golden breast plate,&#xA;  is given a staff and closes his fists and deprived of speaking (except&#xA;  for recitations), from bathing etc. The Yajamana picks up the main&#xA;  ritual vessel filled with fire, and takes three steps with it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purpose -:&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The ritual invokes Vedic mantras to usher Universal harmony, the welfare and well-being of all living beings on Earth and elsewhere in the Universe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Image taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.athirathram.org/rituals.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-09-27T08:18:24.643" LastActivityDate="2016-09-27T08:18:24.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15206" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="650" CreationDate="2016-09-27T12:21:40.777" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me tell you the &lt;strong&gt;real&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;significance of(or symbolism behind)&lt;/strong&gt; burning incense sticks during Puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During Puja we say &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Dhupam Aghrapayami&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; while waving Dhupa(incense) before God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its one of the 16 upacharas(&lt;strong&gt;Shodasha Upacharas&lt;/strong&gt;) as well as one among the 5 Upacharas(&lt;strong&gt;Pancha Upacharas&lt;/strong&gt;).So,an important Upachara, not to be missed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 5 Upacharas are 1)Gandham(sandal paste,scented oils etc)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)Pushpam(flowers)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)Dhupam(incense)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4)Deepam(lighted lamps)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5)Naivedyam(food offerings).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Each of these 5 upacharas are believed to satiate one of the 5 Tatvas  of God(Pancha Tatvas are Prithvi,Akash,Vayu,Agni &amp;amp; Jala).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, to satiate the Prithvi Tatva we offer Gandham,for Akash Tatva we offer pushpa,for &lt;strong&gt;Vayu Tatva Dhupam&lt;/strong&gt;,for Agni Tatva Deepam and for Jala Tatva we offer Naivedyam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not only during Puja,even in Japa after Kara-Anga Nysas we recite the Dhyana Sloka of the Deity &amp;amp; then we offer the &quot;Pancha Puja&quot;  using specific Mantras and Mudras(using hands and fingers).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/shodasimantra.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Mantras&lt;/a&gt; are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;laṁ – pṛthivyātmikāyai gandhaṁ samarpayāmi|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;haṁ – ākāśātmikāyai puṣpaiḥ pūjayāmi|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;yaṁ – vāyvātmikāyai dhūpamāghrāpayāmi|&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;raṁ – agnyātmikāyai dhīpaṁ darśayāmi |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaṁ amṛtātmikāyai amṛtaṁ mahānaivedyaṁ nivedayāmi |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लं – पृथिव्यात्मिकायैगन्धंसमर्पयामि।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हं – आकाशात्मिकायैपुष्पैःपूजयामि।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यं – वाय्वात्मिकायैधूपमाघ्रापयामि।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रं – अग्न्यात्मिकायैधीपंदर्शयामि।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वंअमृतात्मिकायैअमृतंमहानैवेद्यंनिवेदयामि।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-Lam in the form of Pruthvi  i offer Gandham,Ham  in the form of Akash i offer Pushpa(Puspaihi pujayami means worship with flowers),&lt;strong&gt;Yam in the form of Vayu i offer dhupam&lt;/strong&gt; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also, note that &quot;Lam&quot; is the beejam for both Prithvi &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muladhara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Muladhara chakra&lt;/a&gt;,&quot;Yam&quot; for both Vayu &amp;amp; the Anahata Chakra,&quot;Ram&quot; for both Agni and the Manipura Chakra,&quot;Vam&quot; for both Varuna &amp;amp; the Swadhisthana Chakra &amp;amp; so on.So,with these mantras the devotee also satiates the corresponding Chakras in Deity .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further significance of offering Dhupam is found in the Bhavanopanishad(a minor Upanishad allied to Atharva Veda)&amp;amp; is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhoopam – Offering perfumed Incense. Sutra 39. “Teshameva&#xA;  sarvadasweekaranam dhoopam” Dhoopam is perfumed incense smoke. &lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;  pleasures which our indriyas or senses give us are like its perfumed&#xA;  smoke which vanishes quickly. Offering Dhoopam is recognizing this and&#xA;  is an undertaking to control our sensory pleasures.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-28T05:41:09.720" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T05:41:09.720" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15207" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15200" CreationDate="2016-09-27T14:56:38.923" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kamadhenu is also represented with wings. From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamadhenu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another representation of Kamadhenu shows her with the body of a white Zebu cow, crowned woman's head, colourful eagle wings and a peacock's tail. According to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this form is influenced by the iconography of the Islamic &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buraq&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Buraq&lt;/a&gt;, who is portrayed with a horse's body, wings, and a woman's face. Contemporary poster art also portrays Kamadhenu in this form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Image from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/88274.html?mulR=7702&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Philadelphia Museum of Art&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2kbov.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2kbov.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Kamadhenu with a calf&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Wikipedia profile image for Kamadhenu has wings :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YmQdD.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YmQdD.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Kamadhenu sculpture at  the Batu Caves, Malaysia&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Sculpture of Kamadhenu at the Batu Caves, Malaysia&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It might not be the traditional way of representing Kamadhenu but it still belongs to her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15200/mythological-character-in-the-hindu-newspaper-logo#comment37354_15200&quot;&gt;The Destroyer's comment&lt;/a&gt; about full The Hindu logo meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lHYKT.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lHYKT.png&quot; alt=&quot;Hindu newspaper logo from the question&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-25T09:54:30.410" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T09:54:30.410" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15208" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="650" CreationDate="2016-09-27T16:27:53.210" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You might have observed that among the various things that you do during a religious function, you need to light incense sticks before the image of Gods and Goddesses. This is a major Hindu tradition that has been in existence through ages&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Spiritual Reasons&lt;/strong&gt; - There is a spiritual purpose for lighting incense sticks. It is believed to the point that the rings of smoke that ascend high into the air convey our prayers and requests to God as well as to the divine beings. The incense stick smolders itself totally and fills the air with a fine scent. This is one of the Hindu customs which symbolizes morality or excellence. It shows man the specialty of giving up oneself for the reason for others. This is the reason concerning why we light incense sticks in a puja or a religious service.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Psychological Reasons&lt;/strong&gt; - Incense sticks are additionally used to cure a few health issues such as mild headache, depression, gloominess, etc. The fragrance spreads all around after you light an incense stick and it leaves a huge calming and healing impact on the brain. This also offers you some assistance in improving your concentration power. When you offer a prayer to God with extraordinary dedication it acts like a reflective procedure that reduces anxiety and misery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Incense sticks are additionally used to cure a few health issues such as mild headache, depression, gloominess, etc. The fragrance spreads all around after you light an incense stick and it leaves a huge calming and healing impact on the brain. This also offers you some assistance in improving your concentration power. When you offer a prayer to God with extraordinary dedication it acts like a reflective procedure that reduces anxiety and misery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7790" LastActivityDate="2016-09-27T16:27:53.210" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15213" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15217" CreationDate="2016-09-27T17:27:36.367" Score="13" ViewCount="1698" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu mythology, how many times has Shiva opened his 3rd eye and why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-28T17:32:26.280" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T17:32:26.280" Title="How many times has Shiva opened his 3rd eye?" Tags="|shiva|mahabharata|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15216" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15195" CreationDate="2016-09-27T18:24:27.987" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Samudrika Shastra is described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/garudapuranam00duttgoog&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana, Chapter 58-66&lt;/a&gt; translated by Manmatha Nath Dutt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samudrika is also described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://m.exoticindia.com/m/book/details/book/bhavishya-purana-volume-i-IDJ643/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhavishya Purana, Vol 1, chapter 5&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-09-28T06:23:45.143" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T06:23:45.143" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15217" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15213" CreationDate="2016-09-27T19:04:17.823" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva opened His 3rd eye infinite number of times&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;if we consider cyclic nature of time,&lt;/strong&gt; as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14868/3500&quot;&gt;many events&lt;/a&gt; repeat in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3079/3500&quot;&gt;every Manvantara.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;strong&gt;we know four instances&lt;/strong&gt; where Mahadeva opened His 3rd eye, as per Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incident 1: Burning of Kama (Kama Dahana)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Shiva was doing Tapasya on Kaliasa, Parvathi was serving Mahadeva with permission of her father Himavat. As &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10354/3500&quot;&gt;Tarakasura&lt;/a&gt; was tormenting Devas, they couldn't tolerate him and Indra wanted to ignite desires in Shiva, so that Shiva would marry Parvathi and their son would kill demon Taraka. Indra commanded Kama (with Rati) to go to Kailasa and asked him to inginte desires in Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This incident is described in Rudra Samhita (Parvathi Khanda) chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-113/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;18&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-114/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;19&lt;/a&gt; of Shiva Maha Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तच्छिद्रं प्राप्य मदनः प्रथमं हर्षणेन तु। बाणेन हर्षयामास पार्श्वस्थं&#xA;चन्द्रशेखरम्॥२५ ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finding the weak point, Kamadeva who was present in the vicinity, shot&#xA;an arrow named Harsana which delighted Siva. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शृङ्गारैश्च तदा भावैः सहिता पार्वती हरम्। जगाम कामसाहाय्ये मुने!&#xA;सुरभिणा सह।२६।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At that point of time Parvati went to Siva with emotions of love&#xA;accompanied with spring. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this Mahayogi (as a part of His divine &lt;em&gt;Leela&lt;/em&gt;) praised beauty of Parvathi. He felt this as disgrace  and saw His surroundings and found Kamadeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वामभागे स्थितं कामं ददर्शाकृष्टबाणकम्। स्वशरं क्षेमुकामं हि गर्वित&#xA;मूढचेतसम्।।७।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then he spotted to his left the arrogant and foolish Kamadeva, who&#xA;placing the arrow over the bow was about to shoot the arrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तं दृष्ट्रा तादृशं कामं गिरिशस्य परात्मनः। सञ्जातः&#xA;क्रोधसम्मर्दस्तत्क्षणादपि नारद!।।८।।&lt;br&gt; Witnessing Kamadeva in that&#xA;condition, O Nārada, Šiva, at once was enraged.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कामः स्थितोऽन्तरिक्षे स धृत्वा तत्सशरं धनुः। चिक्षेपास्त्र&#xA;दुर्निवारममोघं शङ्करे मुने!।९। &lt;br&gt; O Narada, Kamadeva, while staying&#xA;in the sky, shot his infallible arrow over Siva. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;बभूवामोघमस्त्र तु मोर्घ तत्परमात्मनि।। समशाम्यक्ततस्तस्मिन्सङ्क्रुद्धं&#xA;परमेश्वरे।।१०।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The infallible arrow, shot at Siva, became futile, without displaying&#xA;its might. It calmed down. At this Siva was enraged. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मोघीभूते शिवे स्वेऽस्त्रे भयमापाशु मन्मथः। चकम्पे च पुरः स्थित्वा&#xA;दृष्ट्रा मृत्युञ्जयं प्रभुम्।।११।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finding the arrow shot by Kamadeva,getting infructuous, Kámadeva was&#xA;terrified and started shaking looking at Siva. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सस्मार त्रिदशान्सर्वाञ्छक्रादीन्भयविह्वलः। स स्मरो मुनिशार्दूल!&#xA;स्वप्रयासे निरर्थके।१२।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Getting frightened, and becoming unsuccessful in his efforts, he&#xA;started remembering Indra and other gods. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though other Devas were eulogizing Lord Shiva, he opened His 3rd eye and burned the Kama Deva to Ashes. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्तुर्तिं कुर्वत्सु देवेषु क्रुद्धस्याति हरस्य हि। तृतीयात्तस्य&#xA;नेत्राद्वै निःससार ततो महान्।।१४।। ललाटमध्यगात्तस्मात्स&#xA;वह्निर्दुतसम्भवः। जज्वालोध्र्वशिखो दीप्तः प्रलयाग्निसमप्रभः।।१५।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the gods were so eulogising, &lt;strong&gt;Siva opened his third eye, which&#xA;had been fixed in the middle of the forehead. At once the fire flame&#xA;emerged from the same, which started rising up words like the fire of&#xA;the time of dissolution.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भस्मसात्कृतवान्साधो ! मदनं तावदेव हि। यावच्च मरुतां वाचः क्षम्यतां&#xA;क्षम्यतामिति।।१७।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Before the gods could beg forgiveness from Siva, for Kama, the fire reduced Kamadeva to ashes. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zpo06.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zpo06.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Credits: &lt;a href=&quot;http://mrinal-rai.deviantart.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mrinal Rai on Deviant Art&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incident 2: Birth of Jalandhara&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Indra and Brihaspathi were going to Kalisa, Lord Shiva as a part of &lt;em&gt;leela&lt;/em&gt;, went to them naked with matted hair and confronted them. Indra, who was haughty, argued with naked man and threatened to kill Him with Vajra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva enraged by Indra's behavior opened his 3rd eye. Just before opening 3rd eye, Brihaspathi identified Him as Lord Shiva and eulogized Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This incident is described in Rudra Samhita (Yuddha Khanda) Chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-33/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;13&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-34/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;14&lt;/a&gt; of Shiva Maha Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दृष्ट्रा बृहस्पतिस्तूर्णं प्रज्वलन्तं स्वतेजसा। पुरुषं तं धिया&#xA;ज्ञात्वा प्रणनाम हरं प्रभुम्।। २० ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the naked ascetic who was none else than Siva himself, wearing&#xA;the matted locks of hair over the head and was illumining with his own&#xA;splendour, was recognised by Brihaspati who offered his Salutation to&#xA;him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कृताञ्जलिपुटो भूत्वा ततो गुरुरुदारधीः। नत्वा च दण्डवटूमौ प्रभु स्तोतुं&#xA;प्रचक्रमे। २१। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The extremely wise Brihaspati, offered his salutation to him while&#xA;prostrating before him. Then he started praying him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva then forgiving, directed fire towards ocean and Jalandara was born out it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथो शिवस्य तत्तेजो भारनेत्रसमुद्भवम्। क्षिसं च लवणाम्भोधी सद्यो&#xA;बालत्वमाप ह।४।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;The fire emerging from the third eye of Siva,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;when thrown in the oceanic water, took to the form of an infant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्र वै सिन्धुगङ्गायां सागरस्य च सङ्गमे। रुरोदोच्चैः स वै बालः&#xA;सर्वलोकभयङ्कर:॥५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the confluence of the Ganga and the ocean, the terrific child&#xA;started crying aloud. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incident 3 : Birth of Andhaka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Parvathi as a part of love sports, closed eyes of Great Lord from back and whole world became dark. Then lord Shiva opened His 3rd eye and fire emanated from it and blind creature (Andhaka) was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story is mentioned in Rudra Samhita (Yuddha Khanda) Chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-62/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;42&lt;/a&gt; of Shiva Maha Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स एकदा मन्दरनामधेयं गतो नगं तद्वरसुप्रभावात्। तत्रापि नानागणवीरमुख्यैः&#xA;शिवासमेतो विजहार भूरि।। १५ ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once he went to the Mandara mountain, to witness its excellent beauty,&#xA;where also he sported with Pārvatī and other ganas. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पूर्वे दिशो मन्दरशैलसंस्था कपर्द्दिनश्चण्डपराक्रमस्य। चक्रे ततो&#xA;नेत्रनिमीलनं तु सा पार्वती नर्मयुतं सलीलम्।। १६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the eastern region of the Mandaracala mountain, Parvati playfully,&#xA;closed both the eyes of Siva. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कराम्बुजाभ्यां निमिमील नेत्रे।  हरस्य नेत्रेषु निमीलितेषु क्षणेन जातः सुमहान्धकारः॥ १७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parvati closed the eyes of Siva, with her lotus like hands having&#xA;the lustre of coral and the golden lotus. At the closing of the eyes&#xA;of Siva, immense darkness spread everywhere.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तत्स्पर्शयोगाच महेश्वरस्य करौ च तस्याः स्खलितं मदाम्भः। शम्भोर्ललाटे क्षणवहितसो विनिर्गतो भूरि जलस्य बिन्दुः॥ १८॥ &lt;br&gt; With the touch of&#xA;the eyes of lord Siva with the hands of Parvati, the rapturous rutting&#xA;juice emerged from her hands which became hot with the fire of his&#xA;eyes on the forehead and flowed out in copious drops.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गर्भी बभूवाथ करालवक्त्रो भयङ्करः क्रोधपरः कृतघ्नः। अन्धो विरूपी जटिलश्व कृष्णो नरेतरो वैकृतिकः सुरोमा।। १९॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A child emerged out of it. With an awful face, filled with rage, ungrateful, blind, crooked, black in colour, having a form different&#xA;than a human, deformed and with many diseases.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fSHh4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fSHh4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Credits: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.templepurohit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/The-story-of-Andhaka-Third-Eye-of-Shiva-and-Parvati.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;templepurohit.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story might have happened in one of the previous Kalpas, probably during &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11077/3500&quot;&gt;Sveta kalpa&lt;/a&gt; as Shiva Purana mentions mainly stories of Sveta Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Andhaka was born from Diti in this Kalpa as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_086.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harivamsa Parva of Mahabhartha.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incident 4 : When Shiva sported with Parvathi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is similar story to above but Andhaka was not born and this might have happened in Sweta Varaha Kalpa (Present kalpa) as this is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b105.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabhartha&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The beautiful Uma, with smiling lips and desirous of playing a jest,&lt;strong&gt;covered from behind, with her two beautiful hands, the eyes of Mahadeva. As soon as Mahadeva's eyes were thus covered, all the&#xA;regions became dark&lt;/strong&gt; and life seemed to be extinct everywhere in the&#xA;universe. The Homa rites ceased. The universe became suddenly deprived&#xA;of the sacred Vashat also. All living creatures became cheerless and&#xA;filled with fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, when the eyes of the lord of all creatures&#xA;were thus closed, the universe seemed to become sunless. Soon,&#xA;however, that overspreading darkness disappeared. &lt;strong&gt;A mighty and&#xA;blazing flame of fire emanated from Mahadeva's forehead. A third eye,&#xA;resembling another sun, appeared (on it). That eye began to blaze&#xA;forth like the Yuga-fire and began to consume that mountain.&lt;/strong&gt; The&#xA;large-eyed daughter of Himavat, beholding what occurred, bowed her&#xA;head unto Mahadeva endued with that third eye which resembled a&#xA;blazing fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She stood there with gaze fixed on her lord. When the&#xA;mountain forests burned on every side, with their Was and other trees&#xA;of straight Trunks, and their delightful sandals and diverse excellent&#xA;medicinal herbs, herds of deer and other animals, filled with fright,&#xA;came with great speed to the place where Hara sat and sought his&#xA;protection. With those creatures almost filling it, the retreat of the&#xA;great deity blazed forth with a kind of peculiar beauty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile,&#xA;that fire, swelling wildly, soared up to the very heavens and endued&#xA;with the splendour and unsteadiness of lightning and looking like a&#xA;dozen suns in might and effulgence, covered every side like the&#xA;all-destroying Yuga-fire. In a moment, the Himavat mountains were&#xA;consumed, with their minerals and summits and blazing herbs. Beholding&#xA;Himavat crushed   and consumed, the daughter of that prince of&#xA;mountains sought the protection of the great deity and stood before&#xA;him her hands joined in reverence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's another legend involving  Shiva's 3rd eye, where Pippalada, partial avatar of Rudra, in order avenge his father Dadichi's death from Devas, did a tapasya for Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva pleased with his tapasya manifested and asked him whether he could see his 3rd eye. Pipalada said he couldn't see His (Shiva's) 3rd eye. Shiva told him to do a tapasya til he could see His 3rd eye. Finally, Pippalada was able to see Shiva's 3rd eye and the very moment when He saw the 3rd eye, Demon was born to take revenge on Devas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, this story doesn't involve opening of Shiva's 3rd eye. This is mentioned in detail in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20270/5/Chapter%2039-52_905-972p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 40 Gautami Mahatmya of Brahma Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Pg No -910).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T17:03:14.477" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15218" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-27T22:02:44.043" Score="4" ViewCount="773" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-rPCanzSCg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rasa Lila.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was under the impression where it is when Lord Krishna marries all the gopis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But according to scriptures, Radha marries someone else while Lord Krishna marries Rukhmini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And why are they performing Dandia dance of Gujurat? Is that what they really danced, or is this creative license?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clarify&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="3378" LastEditDate="2016-09-27T22:11:54.487" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T02:53:42.210" Title="What is Rasa Lila" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15219" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-28T00:45:02.350" Score="1" ViewCount="139" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know this is kind of an atheistic and weird question. But people have asked me this in discussions and I was never able to answer it. And it seems a plausible argument against the theory that there is such a thing as soul.&#xA;I believe that there is a soul - jivatma - because I have experienced it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when does it enter at birth? &#xA;Is it in the masculine part (semen) or in the feminine part (egg cell)?&#xA;Or is it in neither and enters exactly at the time of insemination?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this process described anywhere in our scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4974" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T00:45:02.350" Title="When does the soul enter the body at birth?" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-09-28T06:09:06.440" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15220" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15218" CreationDate="2016-09-28T03:11:21.530" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are about four chapters describing related to Rasa Lila in Srimad Bhagvatam. Canto ten chapter 29 about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Krishna and Gopi meeting for Rasa Dance.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, chapter 30 about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/30&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Gopi search for Krishna.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/a&gt;, chapter 31 about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/31&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Gopis song of seperation.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/a&gt; , chapter 32 about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/32&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;The Reunion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and chapter 33 &lt;strong&gt;The Rasa Dance.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; I'm here quoting from chapter 33 which is named as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/33&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;The Rasa Dance.&quot;:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sukadeva Gosvami said: When the cowherd girls heard the Supreme Personality of Godhead speak these most charming words, they forgot their distress caused by separation from Him. Touching His transcendental limbs, they felt all their desires fulfilled. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There on the Yamuna’s banks Lord Govinda then began the pastime of the rasa dance in the company of those jewels among women, the faithful gopis, who joyfully linked their arms together. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The festive rasa dance commenced, with the gopis arrayed in a circle. Lord Krsna expanded Himself and entered between each pair of gopis, and as that master of mystic power placed His arms around their necks, each girl thought He was standing next to her alone. The demigods and their wives were overwhelmed with eagerness to witness the rasa dance, and they soon crowded the sky with their hundreds of celestial airplanes. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kettledrums then resounded in the sky while flowers rained down and the chief Gandharvas and their wives sang Lord Krsna’s spotless glories. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A tumultuous sound arose from the armlets, ankle bells and waist bells of the gopis as they sported with their beloved Krsna in the circle of the rasa dance. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the midst of the dancing gopis, Lord Krsna appeared most brilliant, like an exquisite sapphire in the midst of golden ornaments. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;As the gopis sang in praise of Krsna, their feet danced, their hands gestured, and their eyebrows moved with playful smiles. With their braids and belts tied tight, their waists bending, their faces perspiring, the garments on their breasts moving this way and that, and their earrings swinging on their cheeks, Lord Krsna’s young consorts shone like streaks of lightning in a mass of clouds. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Eager to enjoy conjugal love, their throats colored with various pigments, the gopis sang loudly and danced. They were overjoyed by Krsna’s touch, and they sang songs that filled the entire universe. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;One gopi, joining Lord Mukunda in His singing, sang pure melodious tones that rose harmoniously above His. Krsna was pleased and showed great appreciation for her performance, saying “Excellent! Excellent!” Then another gopé repeated the same melody, but in a special metrical pattern, and Krsna praised her also. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When one gopi grew tired from the rasa dance, She turned to Krsna, standing at Her side holding a baton, and grasped His shoulder with Her arm. The dancing had loosened Her bracelets and the flowers in Her hair. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Upon the shoulder of one gopi Krsna placed His arm, whose natural blue-lotus fragrance was mixed with that of the sandalwood pulp anointing it. As the gopi relished that fragrance, her bodily hair stood on end in jubilation, and she kissed His arm. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Next to Krsna’s cheek one gopi put her own, beautified by the effulgence of her earrings, which glittered as she danced. Krsna then carefully gave her the betel nut He was chewing. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Another gopi became fatigued as she danced and sang, the bells on her ankles and waist tinkling. So she placed upon her breasts the comforting lotus hand of Lord Acyuta, who was standing by her side. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Having attained as their intimate lover Lord Acyuta, the exclusive consort of the goddess of fortune, the gopis enjoyed great pleasure. They sang His glories as He held their necks with His arms. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Enhancing the beauty of the gopis’ faces were the lotus flowers behind their ears, the locks of hair decorating their cheeks, and drops of perspiration. The reverberation of their armlets and ankle bells made a loud musical sound, and their chaplets scattered. Thus the gopis danced with the Supreme Lord in the arena of the räsa dance as swarms of bees sang in accompaniment. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In this way Lord Krsna, the original Lord Narayana, master of the goddess of fortune, took pleasure in the company of the young women of Vraja by embracing them, caressing them and glancing lovingly at them as He smiled His broad, playful smiles. It was just as if a child were playing with his own reflection. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Their senses overwhelmed by the joy of having His physical association, the gopis could not prevent their hair, their dresses and the cloths covering their breasts from becoming disheveled. Their garlands and ornaments scattered, O hero of the Kuru dynasty. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The wives of the demigods, observing Krsna’s playful activities from their airplanes, were entranced and became agitated with lust. Indeed, even the moon and his entourage, the stars, became astonished. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Expanding Himself us many times as there were cowherd women to associate with, the Supreme Lord, though self-satisfied, playfully enjoyed their company. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Seeing that the gopis were fatigued from conjugal enjoyment, my dear King, merciful Krsna lovingly wiped their faces with His comforting hand. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The gopis honored their hero with smiling glances sweetened by the beauty of their cheeks and the &#xA;  effulgence of their curly locks and glittering golden earrings. Overjoyed from the touch of His fingernails, &#xA;  they chanted the glories of His all-auspicious transcendental pastimes. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Lord Krsna’s garland had been crushed during His conjugal dalliance with the gopis and colored vermilion by the kunkuma powder on their breasts. To dispel the fatigue of the gopis, Krsna entered the water of the Yamuna, followed swiftly by bees who were singing like the best of the Gandharvas. He appeared like a lordly elephant entering the water to relax in the company of his consorts. Indeed, the Lord had transgressed all worldly and Vedic morality just as a powerful elephant might break the dikes &#xA;  in a paddy field. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;My dear King, in the water Krsna found Himself being splashed on all sides by the laughing gopis, who looked at Him with love. As the demigods worshiped Him by showering flowers from their airplanes, the self-satisfied Lord took pleasure in playing like the king of the elephants. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Then the Lord strolled through a small forest on the bank of the Yamuna. This forest was filled to its limits with breezes carrying the fragrances of all the flowers growing on the land and in the water. Followed by His entourage of bees and beautiful women, Lord Krsna appeared like an intoxicated elephant with his she-elephants. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Although the gopis were firmly attached to Lord Krsna, whose desires are always fulfilled, the Lord &#xA;  was not internally affected by any mundane sex desire. Still, to perform His pastimes the Lord took advantage of all those moonlit autumn nights, which inspire poetic descriptions of transcendental affairs. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pariksit Maharaja said: O brahmana, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Lord of the &#xA;  universe, has descended to this earth along with His plenary portion to destroy irreligion and reestablish &#xA;  religious principles. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Indeed, He is the original speaker, follower and guardian of moral laws. How, then,  could He have violated them by touching other men’s wives? &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O faithful upholder of vows, please destroy our doubt by explaining to us what purpose the self-&#xA;  satisfied Lord of the Yadus had in mind when He behaved so contemptibly. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sukadeva Gosvami said: The status of powerful controllers is not harmed by any apparently &#xA;  audacious transgression of morality we may see in them, for they are just like fire, which devours &#xA;  everything fed into it and remains unpolluted. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;One who is not a great controller should never imitate the behavior of ruling personalities, even &#xA;  mentally. If out of foolishness an ordinary person does imitate such behavior, he will simply destroy &#xA;  himself, just as a person who is not Rudra would destroy himself if he tried to drink an ocean of poison. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The statements of the Lord’s empowered servants are always true, and the acts they perform are exemplary when consistent with those statements. Therefore one who is intelligent should carry out  their instructions. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;My dear Prabhu, when these great persons who are free from false ego act piously in this world, &#xA;  they have no selfish motives to fulfill, and even when they act in apparent contradiction to the laws of &#xA;  piety, they are not subject to sinful reactions. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;How, then, could the Lord of all created beings—animals, men and demigods—have any &#xA;  connection with the piety and impiety that affect His subject creatures? &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Material activities never entangle the devotees of the Supreme Lord, who are fully satisfied by &#xA;  serving the dust of His lotus feet. Nor do material activities entangle those intelligent sages who have &#xA;  freed themselves from the bondage of all fruitive reactions by the power of yoga. So how could there be &#xA;  any question of bondage for the Lord Himself, who assumes His transcendental forms according to His &#xA;  own sweet will? &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who lives as the overseeing witness within the gopis and their husbands, and indeed within all &#xA;  embodied living beings, assumes forms in this world to enjoy transcendental pastimes. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When the Lord assumes a humanlike body to show mercy to His devotees, He engages in such &#xA;  pastimes as will attract those who hear about them to become dedicated to Him. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The cowherd men, bewildered by Krsna’s illusory potency, thought their wives had remained home &#xA;  at their sides. Thus they did not harbor any jealous feelings against Him. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After an entire night of Brahma had passed, Lord Krsna advised the gopis to return to their homes. &#xA;  Although they did not wish to do so, the Lord’s beloved consorts complied with His command. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Anyone who faithfully hears or describes the Lord’s playful affairs with the young gopis of &#xA;  Vrndavana will attain the Lord’s pure devotional service. Thus he will quickly become sober and &#xA;  conquer lust, the disease of the heart.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As one can see from above description, there is no mention of Radha as explicit refrence. Maybe she is among one of the Gopis described there. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-09-28T03:20:37.463" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T03:20:37.463" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15222" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15223" CreationDate="2016-09-28T06:52:03.630" Score="11" ViewCount="1936" Body="&lt;p&gt;This Wikipedia &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnihotra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Link&lt;/a&gt;  provides only one line  about Agnihotra.  Its said that Agnihotra is very simple and easy , We  can do Agnihotra at home on daily basis .So i would  like to know more about Agnihotra in short  like -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the procedure , what things we need to perform Agnihotra?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What's the timing and the mantra's associeated with Agnihotra?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-09-28T11:41:02.170" LastActivityDate="2020-03-24T05:36:56.217" Title="What is &quot;Agnihotra&quot;?" Tags="|mantras|homam|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15223" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15222" CreationDate="2016-09-28T07:08:27.613" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agnihotra is a process that uses healing fire to purify the&#xA;  surroundings. The fire is prepared through a specific process, which&#xA;  is performed twice a day – during the sunrise and the sunset. In other&#xA;  words, Agnihotra is a ‘vedic yagna’ or a ritual that is mentioned in&#xA;  the Vedas, which is followed by the class of “Nambudiri Brahmins” of&#xA;  Kerala in India. There has been a worldwide increase in awareness&#xA;  about the innumerable effects of Agnihotra homam in the recent past.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The procedure of Agnihotra incorporates preparation with Agnihotra kit&#xA;  a small fire using cakes of cow dung in a tiny copper pyramid of&#xA;  specific shape and size into which ghee and grains of rice are added&#xA;  during the sunrise and the sunset. The significant part of the whole&#xA;  process is the two mantras that are chanted while adding the ghee and&#xA;  rice grains to the special fire, which is what is supposed to enhance&#xA;  the power of the process. The entire process is said to release&#xA;  tremendous energy in the surroundings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Working of Agnihotra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The copper and its pyramid shape generate negative ions, which clear    the air of various hazardous particles.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Since cow dung is a natural and potential disinfectant, it reduces    bacteria in the air and surroundings.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pure ghee is a natural detox agent. Since ghee does not alter in    weight or properties when burnt under appropriate conditions, it&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dissolves the toxic contents in the air.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rice offers a balance of ying-yang effect and releases several    ethereal oils during combustion, thereby setting off chemical&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  reactions.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The chanting of the Agnihotra mantra in Sanskrit during the sunrise    and the sunset creates resonance in line with the biorhythm and&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  activates special vibrations. According to Vedas, mantras have&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  potential effect on every aspect of human life and surroundings.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There are specific mantras that can act upon specific aspects of&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  human life.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Finally, the smoke from the homa binds harmful radiations in the air    and neutralizes their radioactive effect.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PcurJ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PcurJ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agnihotra Process Step by Step&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Copper Pyramid – small size&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dried cow dung&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Clarified and unsalted pure ghee from cow’s butter&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Unpolished rice – 2 pinches&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Timetable with exact time of the sunrise the and sunset&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Process:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ignite the fire at the appropriate time (5 minutes before the sunrise/sunset).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Take a few grains of unpolished rice in your left hand and apply a few drops of pure ghee to the rice and mix well.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Divide the smeared rice into two portions.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Morning Agnihotra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the exact time of sunrise, chant the morning mantra as follows: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;       Sooryaya Swaaha Suryaya Idan Na mama |&#xA;&#xA;       Prajapataye Swaaha Prajapataye Idan Na mama |&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Immediately after you utter swaaha in the first mantra, take one&#xA;  portion of the rice (one pinch) and offer it to the fire. Similarly,&#xA;  after you utter swaaha in the second mantra, offer the remaining rice&#xA;  to the fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Evening Agnihotra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the exact time of sunset, chant the mantra as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;       Agnaye Swaaha Agnaye Idam Na mama|&#xA;&#xA;       Prajapataye Swaaha Prajapataye Na mama|&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Similar to the morning process, immediately on uttering swaaha both&#xA;  times, offer the two portions of rice mixture respectively to the&#xA;  fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://zigverve.com/lifestyle/living-spirituality/agnihotra-mantras-process-effects-of-performing-agnihotra-homam/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T07:08:27.613" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15224" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9089" CreationDate="2016-09-28T07:27:44.730" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Navaratri basically represents a celebration of the Goddess Durga,&#xA;  with nava meaning nine and ratri meaning nights Navratri is “Nine&#xA;  Nights festival”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The commencement of spring and autumn are considered to be an&#xA;  important junction of atmospheric and solar influences, and this is&#xA;  the reason why these two periods are taken as sacred prospects for the&#xA;  worship of the Divine Durga Maa. The dates of the festival are&#xA;  determined according to the astrophysical calendar. Goddess Durga has&#xA;  nine Avatars and all these nine avatars are worshiped in this nine&#xA;  days festival, called Navratri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Navratri is a very important and major festival in the western states&#xA;  like Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, during this festival the&#xA;  traditional dance of Gujarat called “Garba” is performed with full&#xA;  zeal and enjoyment. The festival has a great value in North India as&#xA;  well, including Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and the northern&#xA;  state of Punjab.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;food allowed for navratri vrat or fast&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Singhare ka atta (water chestnut flour)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kuttu ka atta (buckwheat flour) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rajgira ka atta (amaranth flour) and rajgira (amaranth) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sama ke chawal ka atta (barnyard millet flour)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vrat ke chawal (barnyard millet) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Arrowroot flour or paniphal flour &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Spices &amp;amp; herbs allowed for navratri fasting&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Cumin or cumin powder ( jeera or jeera powder )&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Black pepper powder and rock salt (sendha namak)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Green cardamom (chhoti illaichi), cloves (laung), black peppercorns (saboot kali mirch), cinnamon (dalchini) and nutmeg (jaiphal)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dry pomegranate seeds (anardana) – you can make chutney or raita or use it as a souring agent.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ginger – both fresh as well as dry, including dry ginger powder&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Green chilli or hari mirch and lemons.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ajwain or carom seeds&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Navratri 2016 Dates&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Day 1 - October 1, 2016 (Saturday) - Pratipada, Ghatsthapana,&#xA;  Shailputri Puja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Day 2 - October 2, 2016 (Sunday) - Pratipada, Chandra Darshan,&#xA;  Shailputri Puja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Day 3 (Dwitiya) - October 3, 2016 (Monday) - Brahmacharini Puja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Day 4 (Tritiya) - October 4, 2016 (Tuesday) - Chandraghanta Puja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Day 5 (Chaturthi) - October 5, 2016 (Wednesday) - Kushmanda puja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Day 6 (Panchami) - October 6, 2016 (Thursday) - Skandamata Puja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Day 7 (Shashthi) - October 7, 2016 (Friday) - Katyayani Puja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Day 8 (Saptami) - October 8, 2016 (Saturday) - Kalaratri Puja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Day 9 (Mahashtmi) - October 9, 2016 (Sunday) - Mahagauri Puja, Durga&#xA;  Maha Ashtami Puja, Saraswati Puja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Day 10 (Navami) - October 10, 2016 (Monday) - Siddhidatri Pooja, Maha&#xA;  Navami, Ayudha Puja, Navami Homa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Day 11 (Dashami or Dussehra) - October 11, 2016 (Tuesday) - Navratri&#xA;  Parana, Durga Visarjan, Vijyadashmi (Dussehra)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When navratri fast Ends or Completes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people do kanjak pooja on 8th day (ashtami) and some do it on 9th day (navami) and few people do it on dussehra (10th). mostly it is done on 8th or 9th day. The day kanjak pooja is done, on that day we do the immersion of khetri along with red cloth (chunri) in moving water or it can be kept under pippal tree in a temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Normally, Pooja is completed early morning itself. if you also want to do kanjak pooja on 9th then keep fast on 8th (ashtami) as many people keep fast on 1st and last day of navratri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zqTno.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zqTno.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pandit.com/recent-articles/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.pandit.com/recent-articles/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/navratri-fasting-rules-vrat-ka-khana/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="934" LastEditDate="2016-09-28T16:43:16.887" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T16:43:16.887" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15225" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15243" CreationDate="2016-09-28T08:51:30.820" Score="7" ViewCount="1034" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are simple slokas consisting 4 lines to be recited on these 9 days to the devis. First three days for durga, next three days for Lakshmi and last 3 days for saraswathi. Do anybody know these slokas? If so please post an answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T06:15:56.560" Title="Slokams for Navaratri first three days for durga, next three days for lakshmi and last 3 days for saraswathi" Tags="|lakshmi|durga|saraswati|navrathri|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15226" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-28T09:45:22.553" Score="2" ViewCount="1069" Body="&lt;p&gt;The nine days of Navaratri is auspicious for doing Devi worship. Legend says that Devis reside in each houses at this time. If we pray to Lord Vishnu or Lord Brahma or Lord Shiva will the prayer yield results? Puranic reference will be of much helpful to all rather than comments. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-04T14:14:12.040" LastActivityDate="2016-12-03T15:20:04.077" Title="During Navratri can Lord Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva be prayed?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahma|devi|navrathri|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15227" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-28T10:19:51.643" Score="2" ViewCount="74" Body="&lt;p&gt;A small town near Vijayawada named Mangalagiri. On the top of the hill Lord Narasimha in sitting posture blesses all. His mouth is wide open. Panakam(Panagam) is made of jaggery mixed with water with dried ginger, elaichi and will be in liquid form. If one jug full  of Panakam (Panagam) is given to the archaka and he pours in Narasimha's mouth exactly half of the Panakam (Panagam) will be consumed by Lion god and the rest he will give as Prasad to devotees. Not even a single drop will go more than that half jug. Any evidence from puranas for this miracle. I went once and experienced this amidst a good darshan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-09-28T11:06:30.420" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T11:06:30.420" Title="Mangalagiri Panakala (Panagam) Narasimha's miracle" Tags="|puranas|narasimha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15228" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15225" CreationDate="2016-09-28T10:41:37.040" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as i know,there are no specific Slokas as such.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any Slokas ,Stotras can be used to seek Goddesses' blessings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few such simple Slokas are the following;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Durga&lt;/strong&gt;--namaste sharaNye shive saanukampe |  namaste jagad vyaapike vishva roope ||  namaste jagad vandye paadaaravinde |  namaste jagat&#xA;  taariNe traahi durge ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lakshmi&lt;/strong&gt;--vanday lakshmeem para shivamayeem   shuddha jaamboonad&#xA;  aabhaam  tejoroopaam kanaka vasanaam   sarpa bhooshojjvalaangeem | &#xA;  beejaapooram kanaka kalasham   hema padmam dadhaanaam  aadyaam&#xA;  shakteem sakala jananeem   vishNu vaamaanka sansthaam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saraswati&lt;/strong&gt;--saraswatee divyam drushTaa veeNaa pustaka dhaariNee  |  hamsavaaha samaayuktaa vidyaa daanakaree mama ||  prathamam bhaaratee&#xA;  naama dviteeyancha saraswatee | truteeyam shaaradaa devee chaturtham&#xA;  hamsavaahinee  |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bharatiweb.com/?cat=11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source for all the  Slokas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Still better, if you have time, to recite &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vignanam.org/veda/durga-suktam-english.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Durga Suktam&lt;/a&gt; (on 1st three days),&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_lakshmi-sri_suktam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Suktam&lt;/a&gt;(on next 3 days for Lakshmi) &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.celextel.org/vedichymns/medhasuktam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Medha Suktam&lt;/a&gt;(for Saraswati on last 3 days).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Last year we had done the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-28T11:26:26.617" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T11:26:26.617" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15230" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="650" CreationDate="2016-09-28T12:24:59.810" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This questions will definitely have many answers and the below answer is my view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Foul smell around the environment usually brings out the negative energy and is irresistible. People usually close their nose off if they encounter some smell because it brings negative thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Try this thing, stand in a bad smelling room for about 5 mins and observe your thoughts, you will have negative thoughts flowing in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, good aromas bring in positive energy/ positive thoughts, so people offer the incense stick to the lord and light it up. Many people also make sure that the incense stick is taken to all the rooms in the house so that all the negative energy goes away and before spreading the aroma into the house they make sure that they offer it to the lord to bring in more positivity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is my view of the answer, might seem a bit illogical, but I find it true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7798" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T12:24:59.810" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15234" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-28T13:02:36.173" Score="5" ViewCount="1633" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna is one of the protagonists of the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. Why did Arjuna shoot so many arrows when Bheeshma had already surrendered due to the presence of Shikhandi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7745" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-09-28T17:37:00.357" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T06:21:43.830" Title="Why did Arjuna shoot so many arrows when Bheeshma had already surrendered due to the presence of Shikhandi?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|bhishma|shikhandi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15236" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="736" CreationDate="2016-09-28T16:51:22.620" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Lord Ram was constructing the bridge to Lanka to cross the ocean&#xA;  with his army, Lord Hanuman had the liability to look after the bridge&#xA;  in case the enemies damage it. One day, when Lord Hanuman was praying&#xA;  to Lord Ram sitting under a tree, Shani Dev arrived there and said&#xA;  that he is the most powerful God. He added that he had heard Lord&#xA;  Hanumaan to be very powerful, so he wanted to test his might with Lord&#xA;  Hanumaan. He asked Lord Hanumaan to open his eyes and fight with him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In reply, Lord Hanuman opened his eyes and warned Shani Dev not to&#xA;  disturb him when he is meditating on his Lord and leave him alone.&#xA;  But, Shani Dev was resolute to pick a fight. Hence, Lord Hanumaan&#xA;  extended his tail and bind it around Shani Dev. He tightened his tail&#xA;  and Shani Dev felt the stiff hold around him. Shani Dev tried get free&#xA;  from that tight hold, but he was not able to. Lord Hanumaan waved his&#xA;  tail up and down that was hitting Shani Dev on the stones. He started&#xA;  bleeding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the pain became intolerable, Shani Dev requested Lord Hanumaan to&#xA;  release him. He also added that he would never do a same mistake&#xA;  again. Hanuman asked Shani Dev to promise him that he shall never&#xA;  cause problems to Ram’s devotees. Shani Dev promised that he will do&#xA;  the same. He would never hinder in the destiny of Lord Ram’s and&#xA;  Hanumaan’s devotees. Hanuman then loosened his tail’s hold and freed&#xA;  Shani Dev.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Shani Dev became free, he requested Lord Hanuman to give him&#xA;  some oil to ease his miserable pain. Lord Hanuman offered him some&#xA;  mustard oil. After that oil massage on his body, the pain was calmed&#xA;  instantly. Since then, it is traditional to offer mustard oil to Shani&#xA;  Dev. It soothes his body pain. He feels pleased and this makes him&#xA;  kind towards the Lord Ram’s devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a spiritual analysis of the relation amid Lord Hanuman and&#xA;  Shani Dev. Lord Hanuman is a symbol of selflessness, whereas Shani Dev&#xA;  is a symbol of ego and pride. Hence, to contradict the Karm born out&#xA;  of selfishness, one must be kind and unselfish like Lord Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindutva.info/why-is-mustard-oil-offered-to-shani-dev-on-saturdays/&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-09-28T16:51:22.620" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15237" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11566" CreationDate="2016-09-28T18:32:13.140" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/aitareyabrahmana04hauguoft#page/320/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aitareya Brahmana (7.13-18)&lt;/a&gt; describe the incident of Sage Vishwamitra cursing his sons. The story goes as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once upon a time there was a Brahmana named Ajigarta who had given his son Sunahsepa for sacrifice to king Harishchandra. At the time of sacrifice Sunahsepa praised gods including Prajapati, Agni, Varuna, Visve Devas, Indra etc and thus the gods saved his life. Sage Vishwamitra was also present there and he has accepted Sunahsepa as his son. Sage Vishwamitra had also hundred sons out of which first fifty sons doesn't accept Sunahsepa and hence cursed while the later fifty sons accepted Sunahsepa as their brother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Risi Visvamitra had a hundred sons, fifty of them were older than Madhuchhandas, and fifty were younger than he. The older ones were not pleased with (the installation of Sunahsepa to the primogeniture). &lt;strong&gt;VisvAmitra then pronounced against them the curse, &quot; You shall have the lowest castes for your descendants.&quot; Therefore are many of the most degraded classes of men, the rabble for the most part, such as the Andhras, Pundras, Sabaras, Palindas, and Mutibas, descendants of Visvamitra&lt;/strong&gt;. But Madhuchhandas, with the fifty younger sons, said, &#xA;  &quot; What our father approves of, by that we abide ; we all accord to thee (Sunahsepa) the first rank, and we will come after thee ! &quot; Visvamitra, (leligated 'at this answer) then praised these sons with the following verses : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot; Ye my sons will have abundance of cattle and children, for you have made me rich in children by consenting to my wish.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimada Bhagavatam 9.16&lt;/a&gt; also narrates this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.16.29 — O King Parīkṣit, Viśvāmitra had 101 sons, of whom the middle one was known as Madhucchandā. In relation to him, all the other sons were celebrated as the Madhucchandās.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.16.30 — Viśvāmitra accepted the son of Ajīgarta known as Śunaḥśepha, who was born in the Bhṛgu dynasty and was also known as Devarāta, as one of his own sons. Viśvāmitra ordered his other sons to accept Śunaḥśepha as their eldest brother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.16.31 — Śunaḥśepha’s father sold Śunaḥśepha to be sacrificed as a man-animal in the yajña of King Hariścandra. When Śunaḥśepha was brought into the sacrificial arena, he prayed to the demigods for release and was released by their mercy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.16.32 — Although Śunaḥśepha was born in the Bhārgava dynasty, he was greatly advanced in spiritual life, and therefore the demigods involved in the sacrifice protected him. Consequently he was also celebrated as the descendant of Gādhi named Devarāta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.16.33 — &lt;strong&gt;When requested by their father to accept Śunaḥśepha as the eldest son, the elder fifty of the Madhucchandās, the sons of Viśvāmitra, did not agree. Therefore Viśvāmitra, being angry, cursed them. “May all of you bad sons become mlecchas,” he said, “being opposed to the principles of Vedic culture.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.16.34 — When the elder Madhucchandās were cursed, the younger fifty, along with Madhucchandā himself, approached their father and agreed to accept his proposal. “Dear father,” they said, “we shall abide by whatever arrangement you like.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.16.35 — Thus the younger Madhucchandās accepted Śunaḥśepha as their eldest brother and told him, “We shall follow your orders.” Viśvāmitra then said to his obedient sons, “Because you have accepted Śunaḥśepha as your eldest brother, I am very satisfied. By accepting my order, you have made me a father of worthy sons, and therefore I bless all of you to become the fathers of sons also.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-07-13T06:54:06.057" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T06:54:06.057" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15238" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-28T19:11:18.440" Score="4" ViewCount="1587" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that the narration of Mahabharata, Puranas has been done in Naimisharanya. My question's are   &lt;strong&gt;Which all Puranas describe the 1) origin and 2) Mahatmya of Naimisharanyam, 3)Gomati River and 4) different places 5) and teerthas in and around Naimisharanya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6) Please specify the Khandas, Chapters and 7) some important slokas of the respective Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-09-29T02:11:34.953" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T11:52:06.800" Title="Naimisharanya in Puranas" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15239" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-28T22:52:51.070" Score="13" ViewCount="944" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which Hindu scripture narrates the story of Vyāghrapāda (the name literally &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=tiger-footed&amp;amp;direction=ES&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;means&lt;/a&gt; tiger-footed)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyaghrapada&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyaghrapada was a rishi and he was entrusted with the task of picking up fresh flowers, untouched even by the honeybees, for offering to Shiva in his aspect as Nataraja in the temple complex of Chidambaram, located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. While plucking the flowers, Vyagrapada would get wounded on account of thorns and the rough surface. Shiva conferred on him feet of tigers and this ended the sage’s miseries. So armed with the tiger’s feet, the sage easily moved from place to place, including climbing rough trees to pluck fresh flowers untouched even by the honey bees. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?partid=1&amp;amp;assetid=418725001&amp;amp;objectid=3058360&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;pic.&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nataraja&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nataraja&lt;/a&gt; below he's the highlighted one on the left.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hc8pqm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hc8pqm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-09-29T05:19:05.250" LastActivityDate="2024-02-20T06:28:19.033" Title="What is the source of the legend of Vyāghrapāda?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15240" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15238" CreationDate="2016-09-28T23:37:38.573" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Naimisharanya (नैमिषारण्य)  is the Holy forest&lt;/strong&gt; where  Shree &lt;strong&gt;Veda Vyasa&lt;/strong&gt; taught the Vedas and all the Puranas to his disciples. Later it is in this very holy place&#xA;that Romaharshana or  Lomaharshana ,  Vedavyasa’s disciple, narrated the Puranas to several Rishis. It is also the blessed place where Ugrasrava (Suta Gosvami),the son of Romaharsana, narrated the story of Shreemad Bhagavatam to several Rishis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We find mentioning of Naimisharanya and it's Tirthas ( holy sites)   in several Puranas:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नैमिषे अनिमिष-क्षेत्रे ऋष्या शौनकादयः।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सत्रां स्वर्गाय: लोकय:सहस्र-समं अस्ता ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Naimishe animisha-kshetre Rishayah s’aunakâdayah&#xA;Satram svargâya lokâya Sahasra-samam âsata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;-:Naimishe–in the&#xA;forest known as Naimishâranya; animisha-kshetre–the spot which is&#xA;especially  a favorite of Vishnu (who does not close His eyelids);&#xA;rishayah–sages; s’aunaka-âdayah–headed by the sage S’aunaka;&#xA;satram–sacrifice; svargâya–the Lord who is glorified  in heaven;&#xA;lokâya–and for the devotees who are always  in touch with the Lord;&#xA;sahasra–one thousand;samam–years; âsata–performed.) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/1/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Srimad&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagavatam 1.1.4&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vrittrasur was a demon becoming a major hurdle in the way of Sages and demigods. Then a highly powerful sage named Maharshi Dadhichi gave his bones in order to create a weapon to kill the demon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The forest of Naimisharanya is considered to be the forest &lt;strong&gt;manifestation of Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; and therefore considered sacred. It is said that during the course of history 60000 sages have lived there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Varaha Purana&lt;/strong&gt; provides an alternative legend. It states that Vishnu once destroyed the entire army of Asuras in a second at this place with his Chakra. Nimish means an instant and Aranya means forest; together meaning the forest where the demons were destroyed in a second.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/01-10/features1603.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chakra Tirtha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; -: &lt;strong&gt;Devi Sita&lt;/strong&gt; requested her mother, &lt;strong&gt;the earth&lt;/strong&gt;, to open up and accept her in Naimisharanya.   &lt;strong&gt;Excerpt -:&lt;/strong&gt; Sita was deeply hurt by Sri Ram's unkind remarks. She said--'May mother earth swallow me if I have remained true to only my lord Sri Ram and not thought of any other man.' Hardly had Sita finished her lines than the earth cracked and Sita vanished into that crevice. A sacred pond known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/PadmaPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sita kunda Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Sita Kunda&lt;/strong&gt; now stands where Mother Earth has parted to receive her daughter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The vayu purana&lt;/strong&gt; describes how in the Satya Yuga, the sages wanted to perform a large yagna, and requested Lord Brahma to guide them&#xA;in identifying an appropriate location. Brahmadeva created a huge wheel, the &lt;strong&gt;Manomaya Chakra&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;मनोमय चक्र&lt;/strong&gt;, which he dedicated to Lord Shiva. Releasing the chakra, he told the sages to follow it, instructing them to hold their sacrifice at the place where the wheel broke. It landed in the forest at Naimisharanya and as predicted, it broke and and its circumference (Nemi) broke down as predicted by lord Brahma. This segment of land became famous as Naimisharanya. As soon as it got destroyed, from the spot a huge gush of water sprouted up in the form of a Shiva-linga. As the water was flooding the place, the Rishis prayed and Mother Shakti appeared and absorbed and stopped the flow of water.Hence Naimisharanya is also a Shakti Peetha and has a famous ancient Lalita (Devi) temple. She is also called &lt;strong&gt;Linga-Dharini Shakti&lt;/strong&gt;. In Sanskrit, naimi' refers to the circumference of the wheel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विबुधा ईजिरे तत्र सहस्त्र प्रतिवत्सरान॥७॥ भ्रमतो धर्मचक्रस्य यत्र &lt;br&gt;&#xA;नेमिरशीर्यत। कर्मणा तेन विख्यातं नैमिषं मुनिपूजितं॥८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - &lt;strong&gt;The sages performed the sacrifice for a thousand years where the rim of the revolving Dharma-Chakra , got shattered&lt;/strong&gt; .By that&#xA;act this place became well known as Naimisha , adored by sages.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vayu-mahapurana/text-with-translation/vol-i/chapter-02/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vayu Purana chapter 2 verse 8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See more on &amp;quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiadivine.org/the-sacred-place-of-naimisharanya-tirtha/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Naimisharanya&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T11:52:06.800" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15241" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10143" CreationDate="2016-09-29T05:32:14.917" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Makar Sankranti is among the most auspicious occasions for Hindus and is celebrated in almost all parts of India. Makar Sankranti is the only Indian festival celebrated on a fixed calendric day. All other Indian festivals are celebrated as per the lunar calendar, which make their days of celebration on the solar calendar vary every year. Makar Sankranti marks the change of the Sun into Makara Rashi on its celestial path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Story behind Makar Sankranti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As per Hindu mythology, on the auspicious day of Makar Sankranti, Lord&#xA;  ‘Surya Dev’ visits his son, Lord ‘Shani’, who is considered as the&#xA;  ruling god of Capricorn sun sign. It is a known fact that Lord ‘Shani’&#xA;  and ‘Surya’ had a conflicting relationship and despite of this on&#xA;  Makar Sankranti, past bitterness is forgotten and new beginnings are&#xA;  made. It is said that if any father visits his son this day, all&#xA;  conflicts are resolved and happiness and prosperity spreads. According&#xA;  to ‘Geeta Saar’, the six months of ‘Uttarayan’ day time of gods are&#xA;  considered holy and people who die during this time attain salvation&#xA;  and go to ‘Krishna Lok’. On the contrary, those who die during the&#xA;  months of ‘Dakshyinayana’ known as the night time of gods, have to be&#xA;  reborn. This day is so auspicious that the wounded ‘Bhishma Pitamah’&#xA;  left his mortal body and chose salvation or enlightenment. It is&#xA;  believed that those who die on this day will attain ‘Moksha’. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Items required to perform the Makar Sankranti Pooja&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A picture or idol of Lord ‘Surya’, Flowers, Coconut, Lamp or ‘diya’,&#xA;  holy Ganga water, Betel leaves, nuts, ‘Akshata’ (mixture of rice and&#xA;  turmeric powder), ‘Prasad’ (any kind of sweet), sugarcane,&#xA;  ‘Baayana’(items distributed to married females).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Steps one can follow while doing Makar Sankranti Pujan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On Makar Sankranti, Lord Surya (Sun) is revered and worshipped. The&#xA;  steps to worship Lord ‘Surya’ are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Clean the house completely, especially the praying area.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The person who will perform the ‘pooja’ should take oil bath early in the morning.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The person should apply ‘tilak’ of rice flour and ‘roli’ on his forehead.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Place the idol or Picture of Lord Shani on a platform in the praying room.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Place ‘thaali’, in front of the idol of lord, which consist of    ‘ghevar’, ‘til ladoos’ (both black and white, 4 each) and some money&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and offer the same to seek his blessings.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sprinkle rice and ‘roli’ on the ‘Baayna’ (things that one intends to donate).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Worship the deity ‘Surya Dev’ by lighting the lamp and chanting ‘Surya mantra’ 12 times. The Surya Mantra: “Om Hram Hreem Hroum Sah&#xA;  Suryaya Namah”.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After all the rituals are completed, one needs to distribute ‘Baayna’ to all the married ladies in the family and friends along&#xA;  with the priests.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/71W5f.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/71W5f.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pandit.com/what-are-the-rituals-to-be-followed-on-makar-sankranti/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.pandit.com/what-are-the-rituals-to-be-followed-on-makar-sankranti/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastEditorUserId="7385" LastEditDate="2016-09-29T07:06:12.607" LastActivityDate="2016-09-29T07:06:12.607" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15242" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15117" CreationDate="2016-09-29T05:59:10.720" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya wanted to hear Ramayana from his uncle Periya Thirumalai Nambi. Ramanujacharya was in kancheepuram and Periya Thirumai Nambi in Tirupathi. Those days transportation was not that much advanced. Ramanujacharya came by walk from Kancheepuram to Tirupati and requested to tell Ramayana to him. His uncle said &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;not now  come afterwards&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Like that 17 times he sent back Ramanujacharya. Eighteenth time Ramanujacharya came and asked. This time also he denied . When Ramanujacharya was about to leave Periya Nambi called him and said I will tell Ramayana to you. You have got so much patience to hear Ramayana from me. The vedas are in 18 forms in Ramayana and by seeing your patience I am delighted and will certainly tell. Ramanujacharya heard the Ramayana from his uncle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source  Veda Raman by Mukkur Lakshmi Narasimhacharyar and Sri Ramanujacharya&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-09-29T16:44:00.647" LastActivityDate="2016-09-29T16:44:00.647" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15243" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15225" CreationDate="2016-09-29T07:12:43.403" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Durga  [First 3 days]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दुर्गे स्मृता हरसि भीतिमशेषजन्तोः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्वस्थैः स्मृता मतिमतीवशुभां ददासि।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दारिद्र्यदुःखभयहारिणि का त्वदन्या&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वोपकारकरणाय सदार्द्रचित्ता ॥  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Durge Smrita Harasi Bhitim Ashesha-Jantoh&#xA;  Swasthaih Smrita Matim Ateeva-Shubhaam Dadasi&#xA;  Daridrya-Duhkha-Bhaya-harini Ka Twadanya&#xA;  Sarvopakara-karanaya Sadardra-chitta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Mother Durga! When Thou art merely remembered, Thou extirpatest all fears and afflictions of entire world.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And contemplated by the healthy people, Thou conferest them highly excellent and auspicious intellect.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;O Great Mother! O Dispeller of afflictions of sorrow, fear and poverty! No one else is there in the world other than Thee who is compassionate towards others to do their good. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lakshmi [Next 3 days]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लक्ष्मीं क्षीरसमुद्रराजतनयां श्रीरङ्गधामेश्वरीं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दासीभूतसमस्तदेववनितां लोकैकदीपाङ्कुराम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  श्रीमन्मन्दकटाक्षलब्धविभवद्ब्रह्मेन्द्रगङ्गाधरां&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वां त्रैलोक्यकुटुम्बिनीं सरसिजां वन्दे मुकुन्दप्रियाम्॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;lakShmeeM kSheerasamudraraaja tanayaaM SreeraMgadhaamESvareem |&#xA;  daaseebhoota samastadEva vanitaaM lOkaika deepaaMkuraam ||&#xA;  SreemanmaMda kaTaakSha labdha vibhavad-brahmEMdra gaMgaadharaam |&#xA;  tvaaM trailOkya kuTuMbineeM sarasijaaM vaMdE mukuMdapriyaam ||&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Great MahaLakshmi! I pay obeisances to thee. Thou art the daughter of Milk Ocean, the Lord of Oceans. Thou art the Lord of abode of Shree Ranga Narayana and all the Devas become like Thy subservient servants to serve Thee alone. Thou alone art the light guiding us in this world.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;By obtaining the side glances of eyes of Shree Vishnu, Thou hast created Brahma, Indra and Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutations to Thee, O Ocean-born! Thou art the beloved of Mukunda, and art the Mother of all the three worlds.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saraswathi [Last 3 days&lt;/strong&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;या कुन्देन्दुतुषारहारधवला या शुभ्रवस्त्रावृता&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  या वीणावरदण्डमण्डितकरा या श्वेतपद्मासना।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  या ब्रह्माच्युतशङ्करप्रभृतिभिर्देवैः सदा पूजिता&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सा मां पातु सरस्वती भगवती निःशेषजाड्यापहा॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;**Yaa Kundendu-Tussaara-Haara-Dhavalaa Yaa Shubhra-Vastraavrtaa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yaa Viinnaa-Vara-Danndda-Mannddita-Karaa Yaa Shveta-Padmaasanaa |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yaa Brahma-Acyuta-Shankara-Prabhrtibhir-Devaih Sadaa Puujitaa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Saa Maam Paatu Sarasvati Bhagavatii Nihshessa-Jaaddya-Apahaa **  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is Pure White like Jasmine, with the Coolness of Moon, Brightness of Snow and Shine like the Garland of Pearls; and Who is Covered with Pure White Garments,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Whose Hands are Adorned with Veena (a stringed musical instrument) and the Boon-Giving Staff; And Who is Seated on Pure White Lotus,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Who is Always Adored by Lord Brahma, Lord Acyuta (Lord Vishnu), Lord Shankara and Other Devas,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;O Goddess Saraswati, Protect me and Remove my Ignorance completely.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source--A special small book issued by Kanchi Kamakodi Mutt, Tamilnadu in the year 1975.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note--I request the members of this HSE to recite the slokas multiple times to get the blessings of three devis and maintain healthy life.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T06:15:56.560" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T06:15:56.560" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15245" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15234" CreationDate="2016-09-29T11:48:50.040" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06119.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva, SECTION CXIX&lt;/a&gt;, Bhishma has not surrendered instead he was only ignoring Shikhandi not all other warriors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Sikhandin, taking up a mighty weapon and protected by Kiritin, rushed impetuously towards Bhishma alone. The unvanquished Vibhatsu then, knowing what should be done after what, slew all those that followed Bhishma, and then himself rushed at him. And Satyaki, and Chekitana, and Dhristadyumna of Prishata's race, and Virata, and Drupada, and the twin sons of Madri by Pandu, all protected by that firm bowman (viz., Arjuna) rushed against Bhishma alone in that battle. And Abhimanyu, and the five sons of Draupadi also, with mighty weapons upraised, rushed against Bhishma in battle. All those firm bowmen, unretreating from battle, pierced Bhishma in diverse parts of his body with well-aimed shafts. Disregarding all those shafts, large in number, shot by those foremost of princes belonging to the Pandava host, Bhishma of undepressed soul penetrated into the Pandava ranks. And the grandsire baffled all those arrows, as if sporting the while. &lt;strong&gt;Frequently looking at Sikhandin the prince of the Panchalas with a laugh, he aimed not a single arrow at him, recollecting his femininity. On the other hand, he slew seven great car-warriors belonging to Drupada's division&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06120.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt; describes how Bhishma had fought till the last. He had not surrendered at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having listened to these words of the celestials, Santanu's son Bhishma of great ascetic merit rushed out at Vibhatsu, even though he was then being pierced with sharp arrows capable of penetrating through every armour. Then Sikhandin, O king, excited with rage, struck the grandsire of the Bharatas in the chest with nine sharp arrows. The Kuru grandsire Bhishma, however, though struck by him in battle, thus, trembled not, O monarch, but remained unmoved like a mountain during an earthquake. Then Vibhatsu, drawing his bow Gandiva with a laugh, pierced the son of Ganga with five and twenty arrows. And once more, Dhananjaya, with great speed and excited with wrath struck him in every vital part with hundreds of arrows. Thus pierced by others, also with thousands of arrows, the mighty car-warrior Bhishma pierced those others in return with great speed. And as regards the arrows shot by those warriors, Bhishma, possessed of prowess in battle that was incapable of being baffled, equally checked them all with his own straight arrows.Those arrows, however, endued with wings of gold and whetted on stone, which the mighty car-warrior Sikhandin shot in that battle, scarcely caused Bhishma any pain. Then the diadem-decked (Arjuna), excited with rage and placing Sikhandin to the fore, approached Bhishma (nearer) and once more cut off his bow. And then piercing Bhishma with ten arrows, he cut off the latter's standard with one. And striking Bhishma's chariot with ten arrows, Arjuna caused him to tremble. The son of Ganga then took up another bow that was stronger. Within, however, the twinkling of an eye, as soon, in fact, as it was taken up, Arjuna cut that bow also into three fragments with three broad-headed shafts. And thus the son of Pandu cut off in that battle even all the bows of Bhishma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saying these words, Bhishma, the valiant son of Santanu, as if for the object of consuming the Pandavas, hurled a dart at Partha. Partha, however, caused that dart to drop down, cutting it into three fragments with three shafts, in the very sight, O Bharata, of all the Kuru heroes of thy army. Desirous of obtaining either death or victory, the son of Ganga then took up a sword and a shield decked with gold. Before, however, he could come down from his car, Arjuna cut off by means of his arrows, that shield into a hundred fragments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the king Yudhishthira urged his own troops, saying, 'Rush ye at Ganga's son. Do not entertain the slightest fear'. Then, armed with bearded darts, and lances, and arrows, from all sides, with axes, and excellent scimitars, and long shafts of great sharpness, with calf-toothed arrows, and broad-headed shafts, they all rushed at that single warrior. Then arose from among the Pandava host a loud shout. Then thy sons also, O king,desirous of Bhishma's victory, surrounded him and uttered leonine shouts. Fierce was the battle fought there between thy troops and those of the enemy on that the tenth day, O king, when Bhishma and Arjuna met together. Like unto the vortex that occurs at the spot where the Ganga meets the Ocean, for a short while a vortex occurred there where the troops of both armies met and struck one another down. And the Earth, wet with gore, assumed a fierce form. And the even and the uneven spots on her surface could no longer be distinguished. Although Bhishma was pierced in all his vital limbs, yet on that the tenth day he stayed (calmly) in battle, having slain ten thousand warriors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T06:21:43.830" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15246" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19190" CreationDate="2016-09-29T15:08:09.343" Score="10" ViewCount="3981" Body="&lt;p&gt;Grandsire Bhishma was one of the greatest warriors who fought in the Mahabharata war.He had a boon by which he could not be killed by anybody. And his death had to be as per his own wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The details of the final battle between Bhishma and Arjuna are given in Mahabharata,Book:6, Bhishma Parva, Bhagavat-Gita Parva.&#xA;When Bhishma finally fell, there was not in Bhishma's body space of even two fingers' breadth that was not pierced with arrows. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the end of that battle{on day 10th of the war}, Grandsire Bhishma lived for   58 days on a Bed of Arrows, waiting for an auspicious day to die, as per his self-wish boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then those Rishis in the forms of swans inhabiting the Manasa lake, quickly rose up, and came together, for obtaining a sight of the Kuru grandsire Bhishma, to that spot where that foremost of men was lying on his bed of arrows. Then those Rishis in swanlike forms, coming to Bhishma, beheld that perpetuator of Kuru's race lying on his bed of arrows. Beholding that high-souled son of Ganga, that chief of the Bharatas, they walked round him, and the Sun being then in the southern solstice, they said, addressing one another, these words, 'Being a high-souled person, why should Bhishma pass out (of the world) during the southern declension?' Having said these words, those swans went away, proceeding towards the southern direction. Endued with great intelligence, Bhishma, O Bharata. beholding them, reflected for a moment. And the son of Santanu then said unto them. 'I will never pass out (of the world) as long as the Sun is in the southern solstice. Even this is my resolve. I will proceed to my own ancient abode when the Sun reacheth the northern solstice. Ye swans, I tell you this truly. Expectant of the northern declension I will hold my life. Since I have the fullest control over the yielding up of my life, I will, therefore, hold life, expectant of death during the northern declension. The boon that was granted to me by my illustrious sire, to the effect that my death would depend on my own wish O, let that boon become true. I will hold my life, since I have control in the matter of laying it down.' Having said these words to those swans, he continued to lie down on his bed of arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the Karmic reason why Bhishma had to spend the final days of his life on a Bed of Arrows? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-05-17T02:00:56.520" LastActivityDate="2023-08-29T07:19:26.127" Title="The Karmic reason why Grandsire Bhishma had to spend the final days of his life on a Bed of Arrows" Tags="|mahabharata|bhishma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15248" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="829" CreationDate="2016-09-29T21:23:11.847" Score="1" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Is a seer right in issuing a carpet ban on worship of a 'god' on this basis?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Absolutely not. Sri Krishna clearly says in the Bhagavad-gītā:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&amp;amp;&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=3&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;3.25&lt;/a&gt; O scion of the Bharata dynasty, as the unenlightened people act with attachment to work, so should the enlightened person act, without attachment, &lt;strong&gt;being desirous of the prevention of people from going astray&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&amp;amp;&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=3&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;3.26&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong&gt;The enlightened man should not create disturbance in the beliefs of the ignorant&lt;/strong&gt;, who are attached to work. Working, while himself remaining diligent, he should make them do all the duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Tr. by Swami Gambirananda]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now assuming the religious leader in the question is 'the enlightened man' and the followers of Sai Baba, 'the ignorant men,' then according to BG 3.26, the religious leader, despite his best intentions, should not create a ruckus by issuing a ban on the worship of Sai Baba.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-09-29T21:23:11.847" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15249" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24442" CreationDate="2016-09-29T22:12:58.720" Score="11" ViewCount="15569" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibek_Debroy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bibek Debroy&lt;/a&gt; in the article &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dailyo.in/arts/ten-sanskrit-texts-everyone-must-read/story/1/1067.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;10 Sanskrit texts everyone must read&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana - Valmiki was the first Sanskrit poet. He invented the shloka. &lt;strong&gt;In roughly 25,000 shlokas&lt;/strong&gt;, this is the first work of Sanskrit literature, though other Sanskrit texts pre-date Valmiki. This is beautiful poetry, especially in the first 6 kandas, and unlike classical Sanskrit literature, it is simple in structure, easily understood. Yes, the Ramayana is about Rama's journey and it has religious significance. But it is much more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the homepage of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ramayana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;valmikiramayan.net&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana contains &lt;strong&gt;24,000 verses&lt;/strong&gt; [sloka] arranged into numerous cantos [sarga] which are contained &lt;strong&gt;in 6 books&lt;/strong&gt; as mentioned earlier.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the correct number of shlokas in Valmiki Ramayana including the Uttara Kanda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When they say 24,000 or 25,000 verses, does it generally include the Uttara Kanda?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PS.&lt;/strong&gt; I'm looking for well-researched answers, not copy-paste answers from random blogs.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-10-24T02:00:26.167" LastActivityDate="2020-10-24T02:00:26.167" Title="How many shlokas are there in Valmiki Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|shloka|valmiki|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15250" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-29T23:42:59.480" Score="3" ViewCount="6428" Body="&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/UDAs074rSLI?t=19m33s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;scene from Shri Krishna&lt;/a&gt; shows the family eating food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It looks like today's Indian food, i.e. Rice, Roti, Sabzi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What food did they eat during Lord Krishna's time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OjkAP.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OjkAP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastActivityDate="2021-11-06T13:42:27.070" Title="Food Eaten in Ancient India" Tags="|krishna|food|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15251" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-30T03:21:34.143" Score="2" ViewCount="211" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bomma Golu(or Kolu) is a doll display festival celebrated during the festival of Navratri in Southern India. What is the history and significance of such a unique practice (that too only in south India)? Is there any reference to  this practice in our scriptures and Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1hzLe.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1hzLe.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2016-10-06T15:25:08.307" LastActivityDate="2016-10-06T15:25:08.307" Title="Significance of Bomma Golu" Tags="|rituals|practice|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15252" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15249" CreationDate="2016-09-30T03:48:36.887" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana consists of 24000 verses. It is verified in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga4/bala_4_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Balakanda 1.4.2&lt;/a&gt; itself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;चतुर् विंशत् सहस्राणि&lt;/strong&gt; श्लोकानाम् उक्तवान् ऋषिः |&#xA;  तथा सर्ग शतान् पंच षट् काण्डानि तथा उत्तरम् ||१-४-२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sage Valmiki said Ramayana &lt;strong&gt;in twenty four thousand verses,&lt;/strong&gt; in six hundred chapters, in six books, likewise an end-piece too. [1-4-2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Uttara Kanda comes in 24000 verses? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yes, it comes because the above verse itself speaks:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;षट् काण्डानि तथा उत्तरम्&lt;/strong&gt; || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Six Kandas and also the Uttara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And furthermore each 1000th letter of these 24000 verses forms Gayatri mantra which is of 24 letters which is also called Gayatri Ramayana. The last word in Gayatri mantra is प्रचोदयात् (Prachodayat).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्र is from Yuddha Kanda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रणम्य देवताभ्यश्च ब्राह्मणेभ्यश्च मैथिली । &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  बद्धांजलिपुटाचेदमुवाचाग्निसमीपतः ॥  (६.११९.२३) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Offering her salutations to the devas and the brahmanas  Sita, with folded hands went near Agni and spoke thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verse starts with प्र (pra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;च is from Uttara Kanda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चलनात्पर्वतेन्द्रस्य गणा देवाश्च कंपिताः।  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चचाल पार्वती चापि तदाश्लिष्टा महेश्वरम् ॥  (७.१६.२६) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  When the mountain was shaking, the ganas and devas were tossed about.  Parvati also felt the tremor and embraced her consort Maheshwara (Siva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;द is also from Uttara Kanda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दाराः पुत्राः पुरं राष्ट्रं भोगाच्छादनभोजनम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वमेवाविभक्तं नौ भविष्यति हरीश्वर ॥ (७.३४.४१) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Chief of Vanaras,  henceforth wives, sons, city, country, objects of enjoyment, clothes and food would be undivided between us, that is, we will partake of them as common assets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;य is also from Uttara Kanda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यामेव रात्रिं शत्रुघ्नः पर्णशालां समाविशत्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तामेव रात्रिं सीतापि प्रसूता दारकद्वयम् ॥(७.६६.१) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The night during which  satrughna entered the hermitage of Valmiki, the same night Sita was delivered of twin male children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as all these verses are 1000 verses apart. We can safely conclude that Uttara Kanda also counts in 24000 verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The list of Gayatri Ramayana is prepared by deleting some chapters for the standardization of Ramayana to make 24000 verses as per that statement of Bala Kanda. Regarding this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga4/bala_4_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ValmikiRamayana.net&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a controversy about the number of verses and cantos. If Uttara Ramayana, otherwise called abhudaya kaanDa , is ascribed to Valmiki, the cantos are seven and chapters are about 649 and verses are about 24,253. But some verses and chapters are deleted for standardization of Ramayana as per this verse and they contain 560 chapters and 24,000 verses only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus in avaliable manuscripts there are 649 chapters including Uttara Kanda which makes 24253 verses. But as per Bala Kanda  there are 24000 verses. Thus some chapters (which are likely to be interpolation) are deleted and chapter no. is made 560 and it contains 24000 verses and 24 letters of it also form Gayatri Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why some Scholars still debate in Authenticity of Uttara Kanda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the main reason is. ValmikiRamayana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga128/yuddha_128_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yuddha Kanda,&lt;/a&gt; ie. 6.128.106 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वे लक्षणसम्पन्नाः सर्वे धर्मपरायणाः || ६-१२८-१०६ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दशवर्षसहस्राणि रामो राज्यमकारयत् &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  All the people were endowed with excellent characteristics. All were engaged in virtue. Rama was engaged in the kingship thus for ten thousand years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this verse immediately starts the Phala Shruti. ie. Benefits of reading ValmikiRamayana. In every text PhalaShruti starts in the end of text. As it is in end of Yuddha Kanda, thus some scholars believe whole of the Uttara Kanda is an interpolation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Possible Solution:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the possible solution is Valmiki composed Ramayana of 24000 verses including Uttara Kanda. But as some parts of Uttara Kanda was yet to come, he taught only upto Yuddha Kanda to Lava and Kusha and thus kept Phalashruti at that place. Thus he only made Uttara Kanda avaliable only when all events described took place (like Sita going inside earth, Disowning of Lakshmana, Entering in Sarayu etc... ). So the Phala Shruti remained in the Yuddha Kanda itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-21T04:19:16.877" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T04:19:16.877" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15253" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-30T04:30:36.950" Score="6" ViewCount="329" Body="&lt;p&gt;From where ( which &lt;strong&gt;Hindu Scripture&lt;/strong&gt;) do Hindu priests get Mantras related to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Baba_of_Shirdi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sai Baba's&lt;/a&gt; worship?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like invocation(Avahana) &amp;amp; other Mantras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This question is relevant because Sai Baba is &lt;strong&gt;ritualistically&lt;/strong&gt; worshiped in many Hindu Temples of India and elsewhere very much like other Vedic Deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the first step in a Hindu Puja is &lt;strong&gt;Avahana&lt;/strong&gt; or invocation of the Deity .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, since Sai Baba is not mentioned in any Scriptures ,how are the priests getting Mantras needed for his worship in temples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are they &lt;strong&gt;manufacturing&lt;/strong&gt; Mantras ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note that i'm only talking about Mantras that are needed for &lt;strong&gt;ritualistic&lt;/strong&gt; Puja &amp;amp; not about prayers and other mental ways of worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,i don't see my question as duplicate of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/829/what-is-the-basis-for-worshipping-sai-baba-are-there-are-references-to-him-in-t&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question.Because i'm specifically asking about Hindu Scriptures that contain Mantras related to Sai's worship .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is not about whether he should be worshiped or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please also note  that this is not about &lt;strong&gt;demeaning&lt;/strong&gt; any religious figure nor about &lt;strong&gt;challenging&lt;/strong&gt; one's faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm just &lt;strong&gt;curious&lt;/strong&gt; to know how are the priests getting the needed Mantras,that's all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-09-30T09:16:26.640" Title="From where do priests get invocation(Avahana) and other Mantras related to Shirdi Sai Baba?" Tags="|scripture|worship|mantras|sai|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15254" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-30T04:34:46.497" Score="2" ViewCount="213" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do worshippers of Lord Vishnu also worship Lord Ganesh? I am learning about the Hindu religion is very interested in becoming a follower of the Hindu religion I am also looking for reading materials that anyone would suggest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7813" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T09:07:39.037" LastActivityDate="2018-10-23T08:21:43.090" Title="Worship of different gods by Hindus" Tags="|vishnu|worship|ganesha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15255" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17105" CreationDate="2016-09-30T04:57:07.067" Score="7" ViewCount="813" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that a Sadhu/Sanyasi can be of two kinds viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) &lt;strong&gt;Vakta&lt;/strong&gt; - One who communicates with the world through speech.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) &lt;strong&gt;Mauni&lt;/strong&gt; - One who does not speak and keeps silence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O dear Parvati, listen to me. There are two classes of knowers of&#xA;  Truth. They are (1) The Mauni and (2) The Vakta. No benefit accrues&#xA;  from the Mauni to any person. (Guru Gita)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Questions -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A) Why does a Sanyasi choose to become Mauni? What purpose is served? Does becoming Mauni help in his path of sadhana in any way? Or is it just a matter of personal choice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;B) At what stage of spiritual advancement a Sadhu usually turns Mauni?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-01T16:47:39.890" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T07:17:09.263" Title="Why and when does a Sadhu(Sanyasi) become Mauni(silent)?" Tags="|spiritual-level|sadhana|sanyasi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15256" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9149" CreationDate="2016-09-30T05:51:08.290" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/shodasaupacharas-2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhavanopanishat&lt;/a&gt; we find some beautiful philosophical symbolism explaining   the actual significances of worshiping Gods with the &lt;a href=&quot;https://premaarpan.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/shodasha-upachara-puja-worship-of-lord-ritualistically/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shodasa Upacharas&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The explanations are given in the context of Devi Puja but readily can be applied to other Deities as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Pushpam(flowers), which is one of the Pancha as well as Shodasa Upacharas,the following explanation is given:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;11&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pushpam – Offering flowers and doing pooja.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sutra 38. “Ahimsa prathama pushpam, pushpamindriyanigraha dayakshmagyanapushpam panchapushpam tatahpara”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ahimsa&lt;/strong&gt; or non violence, &lt;strong&gt;indriya nigraha&lt;/strong&gt; or control over the senses, &lt;strong&gt;daya&lt;/strong&gt; or kindness, &lt;strong&gt;kshama&lt;/strong&gt; or forgiveness and &lt;strong&gt;gyana&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  or knowledge are called the pancha pushpas or five flowers with which&#xA;  we can control our ahamkara or ego and surrender to God. Hence&#xA;  worshiping the Deity with flowers is symbolic of controlling these&#xA;  and surrendering to God&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So someone,who practices Ahimsa,Indriya nigraha,Daya,Kshama &amp;amp; Knowledge.is already worshiping God with 5 flowers even if he is not actually doing ritualistic worship.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, what Nithin said(in comment) is also technically correct :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Flowers denote Akasha Tattva in the Panchopachara offerings given to&#xA;  deities. – Nithin Sridhar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Offering flowers is said to satisfy the Akasha(Ether) Tatva(element) aspect of the Deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The correlations of the Pancha Upacharas with the Pancha Tatvas are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;oṁ laṁ pṛthivy-ātmane gandhaṁ parikalpayāmi |&#xA;  I offer   scent   in  the form    of  the element earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;oṁ haṁ ākāś-ātmane puṣpaṁ parikalpayāmi |&#xA;  I offer   flowers in  the form    of  the element ether&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;oṁ yaṁ vāyur-ātmane dhūpaṁ parikalpayāmi |&#xA;  I offer   incense in  the form    of  the element wind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;oṁ raṁ tejātmane dīpaṁ parikalpayāmi |&#xA;  I offer   light   in  the form    of  the element fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;oṁ vaṁ amṛtātmane neivedyaṁ parikalpayāmi |&#xA;  I offer   food        in  the form    of  the element water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;oṁ saṁ sarvātmane tāmbūlaṁ parikalpayāmi |&#xA;  I offer   betel   in  the form    of  the entire  Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/st6Lf.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/st6Lf.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kularnava Tantra gives yet another symbolic explanation of the term &quot;PUSPA&quot; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Puspa: Because it increases merit, &lt;em&gt;punya&lt;/em&gt;, removes&#xA;  the heap of sin, &lt;em&gt;papa&lt;/em&gt;, yield much wealth , &lt;em&gt;puskalartha&lt;/em&gt;,&#xA;  it is called puspa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xaMYz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xaMYz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As regards decorating temples with flowers ,i don't think there are any other significance of it besides decorating the temple &amp;amp; making it look good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as we decorate our own rooms and houses with flower to increase the aesthetic aspect.Similarly here,Also flowers emit fragrance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-06T05:46:04.763" LastActivityDate="2016-10-06T05:46:04.763" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15257" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12481" CreationDate="2016-09-30T06:23:58.980" Score="24" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whether Lord Shiva is greatest Vaishnava or greatest Shaivite or greatest Shakta or greatest any other, depends on scripture which you read.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;As per Shiva Purana:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Koti Rudra Samhita Shiva Purana chapter 42, Suta states: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वे रुद्रं भजन्त्येव रुद्रः कंचिद् भजेन्न हि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्वात्मना भक्तवात्सल्याद् भजत्येव कदाचन ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;All worship Rudra but Rudra worships none.&lt;/strong&gt; But for the sake of devotees sometimes &lt;strong&gt;he worships/meditates upon Himself.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as per this Lord Shiva is neither greatest Vaishnava nor Shakta nor Iskcon.. etc.. &lt;strong&gt;But he is Shaivite himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;As per Srimad Bhagvatam:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagvat Purana in 12.13.16 states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निम्न-गानां यथा गङ्गा देवानाम् अच्युतो यथा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;वैष्णवानां यथा शम्भुः&lt;/strong&gt; पुराणानाम् इदम् तथा ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Just as Ganga among rivers, Achyuta among gods, &lt;strong&gt;Shambu among Vaishnavas,&lt;/strong&gt; This (Bhagavatam) is the same among Puranas.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as per this &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva is greatest Vaishnava here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;As per Devi Bhagvatam:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Bhagvatam in 3.5.22-23 states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmâ said :-- When Shiva of wonderful fire and energy, said this, the Devî Ambikâ clearly uttered the nine lettered mantra. &lt;strong&gt;Mahâdeva accepted the mantra and became very glad. He fell down at the feet of the Devî, and then and there began to repeat the nine-lettered mantra together with Vîja&lt;/strong&gt; (seed) that yields desires and liberation and can be easily pronounced.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, here we see &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva is a greatest Shakta here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Other:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I haven&amp;apos;t read &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Vaivarta Purana&lt;/strong&gt; yet, but I&amp;apos;m sure there **Lord Shiva is a greatest Gaudiya. Similarly in Padma Purana Uttara Khanda (and also in Ramcharitmanas) Lord Shiva is greatest Ramanandi. Similarly in some chapters of Uttara khanda of Padma Purana, Lord Shiva is greatest deceiver also ... and so on.. the list continues.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Objector:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam is best among Puranas and summary of Vedas itself. What it says is always true and other are false.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;We Reply:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we see towards end part of each Purana we find every Purana say that Purana is best among the Purana. And every Purana repeat many many times they are expanding Shrutis.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Possible Solutions:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are possible solutions to solve this matter:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;1) As every Purana are sectarian in literature so each of them try to make deities devotee of their Supreme Lord.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2) Every God worship all Gods and oneself too. And thus every Purana only keep part of this truth in it. Eg. Lord Shiva is greatest Shaivite, Vaishnava, Shakta, Gaudiya etc.. and all. But Puranas only keep part of truth in needed segments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-23T11:02:53.633" LastActivityDate="2016-10-23T11:02:53.633" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15260" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-30T09:56:02.247" Score="4" ViewCount="359" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the purpose of showing camphor to deities after Archana and Naivedya? Nowadays many big or small temples stopped camphor showing instead they are showing the small lamps fixed in the plate itself. Any scriptural reason for this practice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-03-25T02:34:29.713" LastActivityDate="2019-03-25T02:34:29.713" Title="Why is camphor shown to deities after archana?" Tags="|practice|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15263" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-30T10:57:46.673" Score="2" ViewCount="86" Body="&lt;p&gt;Visiting temples on auspicious days, festivals and even on a daily basis is one of the habits that almost every Hindu has and for that case any human being (based on their religion), visits an appropriate devotional place! This is one such belief that is enforced by most of the Parents on their children saying that it helps you be connected with the God!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is why is it required to visit a temple to be connected with God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the benefits that one gets by visiting temples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can still be connected with God, even without visiting a temple. Please do not reply with answers saying that visiting a temple will imbibe positive energy or rejuvenates all your senses or helps you connect with God better than at home. The hypothetical theory that gives this explanation holds good to temples that were built earlier with all the Vaastu and accoustics in consideration. Now-a-days there is a temple or a devotional place on every street.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can still be connected with God staying anywhere, as the presence of God is said to be existent everywhere!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4956" LastActivityDate="2016-09-30T10:57:46.673" Title="Why is it required to visit a Temple?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-10-01T12:37:09.557" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15264" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15255" CreationDate="2016-09-30T10:59:34.023" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;What the &lt;em&gt;Guru Gita&lt;/em&gt; is saying should be taken more as a guideline for aspirants rather than as a test or a guideline to an aspirant's advancement. There is no stage at which an aspirant turns a Mauni. I have personally met a few sadhus who kept complete silence at all times. Have met several who have kept a vow of not speaking one day a week. Some have been very advanced sadhus, others were beginners.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purpose of silence is austerity, control of the mind by controlling the tongue. When one is silent, one tries to be the Witness to Maya rather being a player within Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; (17.15) (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Words that do not give offense and that are truthful, pleasant, and beneficial, and also the recitation of the Vedas--these are said to be the austerity of speech.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Krishna says further in &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; (18.52) (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who resorts to solitude, eats sparingly, has speech, body, and mind under control, to whom meditation and concentration are ever the highest (duty), and who is possessed of dispassion;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sankara says in his work &lt;em&gt;Aparoksanubhuti&lt;/em&gt; (108-109) (Swami Vimuktananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who can describe That (i.e. Brahman) whence words turn away? (So silence is inevitable while describing Brahman). Or if the phenomenal world were to be described, even that is beyond words. This, to give an alternative definition, may also be termed silence known among the sages as congenital (inseparable from Brahman). The observance of silence by restraining speech, on the other hand, is ordained by the teachers of Brahman for the ignorant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A good reference for the what the duties of an aspiring sannyasin are and what the characteristics of a knower of Brahman are is the &lt;em&gt;Paramahamsa Upanishad&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-01T09:27:29.093" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T09:27:29.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15265" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-30T15:32:13.643" Score="7" ViewCount="4018" Body="&lt;p&gt;Panchopachār pūjā is performed by using 5 different substances. What is the Method of performing Panchopachār Pūjā?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7817" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T16:56:03.067" Title="Method of performing Panchopachār Pūjā" Tags="|puja|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15266" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-30T15:37:05.543" Score="3" ViewCount="481" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Importance of patri in puja ritual and Why are tulsi leaves used while offering naivedya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7818" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-09-30T16:04:33.623" LastActivityDate="2017-04-06T03:53:52.083" Title="Why are tulsi leaves used while offering naivedya?" Tags="|tradition|tulasi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15267" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15268" CreationDate="2016-09-30T15:48:07.460" Score="11" ViewCount="2034" Body="&lt;p&gt;Samba was Lord Krishna and Jamabavati son. Samba was born from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-70/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Amsa of Lord Shiva.&lt;/a&gt; Lord Krishna wanted to end His Yadava clan (who were &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-47/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;attendants of Lord Vishnu in Vaikunta&lt;/a&gt;) as His innumerable invincible Sons could never be defeated by normal Human Kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna did &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9995/3500&quot;&gt;Pasupata vrata for 12 months&lt;/a&gt; to attain a Son like Rudra (the Lord of Destruction). Lord Shiva with Parvathi in Ardhanariswara form bestowed Krishna a son and they named him as &amp;quot;Samba&amp;quot;. Samba was &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_(Krishna%27s_son)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;indirectly responsible&lt;/a&gt; for end of Yadava Clan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11806/3500&quot;&gt;Junior wives of Krishna were attracted to Samba&lt;/a&gt; and due to this heinous act, Krishna cursed Samba to get affected by Leprosy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Samba get relieved from this Curse? If so, how did he do it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2022-06-25T06:32:35.040" Title="How did Samba, Krishna's son, get relieved from Curse of Krishna?" Tags="|krishna|sin|surya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15268" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15267" CreationDate="2016-09-30T16:04:05.620" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Samba got relieved from Curse of Krishna (disease of Leprosy) by praying to Lord Surya, as per suggestions of Narada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is mentioned in Bhavishya Purana, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/25249/43f_chapter_177.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha Purana&lt;/a&gt; and Samba Purana which are basis for Surya Worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On seeing the deplorable condition of Samba, Narada suggested Samba a method to get rid of sins and remedy of the curse of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada said:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The result that is obtained by worshipping the Sun-god at the eastern&#xA;mountain is obtained by worshipping him at Şaţsărya in Mathură.&#xA;Worshipping him there in the noon and evening confers even a kingdom.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Reciting the mantras of the Sun in the morning, noon and evening at Mathura, one gets all sins removed. By worshipping the Sun after&#xA;bathing in Krsnaganga, all sins disappear and so also all diseases&#xA;like leprosy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samba did exactly what Narada said and Lord Surya finally appeared before Samba.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;44&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He worshipped the rising sun at Satsurya according to the rules given by Narada.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Then, by yogic power, the Sun appeared before Samba and asked him to seek a boon for his good and for the establishment of the&#xA;Sūryavrata.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;“Recite before me the fifty Slokas strung with expressions from the Vedas with which I was propitiated by Narada. I am pleased by your&#xA;worshipping me'.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He was then touched by the Sun-god and soon he regained his wellshaped form and appeared like another Sun-god.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Sun then taught Samba the sacrifice of Yājñavalkya called 'Madhyandiniyaka to be performed at noon whence he is Madhyandina.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is the tirtha Madhyandiniyaka on the western side of Vaikuntha (tirtha). To bathe there and see Madhyandina is to get free&#xA;from all sins.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The all-pervading Sun remained with Samba in the morning and evening, and in the evening he stood on the southern side of&#xA;Krsnaganga.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;To see the Sun there in the morning and evening is to get removed of all sins and to attain Brahman.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus appearing before Samba by splitting himself by the power of yoga from the sky, the Sun removed leprosy which was afflicting him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samba also consecrated temple for Surya there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He then consecrated Surya in the rising form at Udayacala to the south&#xA;of Yamuna, in the fully brilliant form at noon at Kalapriya and in the&#xA;setting form at Astamanacala in Mulasthāna.  Thus he consecrated Sūrya&#xA;in his three forms pertaining to morning, noon and evening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-09-30T17:04:50.830" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15269" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15265" CreationDate="2016-09-30T16:17:30.677" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Pancha Upacharas are Gandha,Dhoopa,Deepa,Pushpa &amp;amp; Naivedya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gandham&lt;/strong&gt;-Sandal paste,Haridra Kumkumam,other scented objects come under this category.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dhoopam&lt;/strong&gt;-Lighted Incense Sticks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deepam&lt;/strong&gt;-Lighted Ghee/Oil Lamps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pushpam&lt;/strong&gt;-Flowers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Naivedyam&lt;/strong&gt;-Food offerings(like fruits,milk,sweets or cooked permissible foods).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These 5 Upacharas are offered to Gods along with chanting of few Mantras typically of the following form:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Bhur Bhuvah Swaha (salutations to God) Gandham dharaayami(or samarpayami),Dhoopam Aghrapayami(or samarpayami),Deepam Darsayami(or samarpayami) etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the screenshot(a typical form of the Mantra used) below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BGT68.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BGT68.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be specific,suppose ,you are doing a Ganapaty Puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the 5 corresponding Mantras for offering the Panchopacharas will be:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Bhur Bhuvah Swaha Sri Mahaganapataye Namaha Gandham Dharayami(I am&#xA;  offering You Gandham)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Bhur Bhuvah Swaha Sri Mahaganapataye Namaha Dhoopam Aghrapayami(I&#xA;  am offering lighted Incense )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Bhur Bhuvah Swaha Sri Mahaganapataye Namaha Deepam Darsayami(I am&#xA;  waving/showing/offering lighted lamps).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Bhur Bhuvah Swaha Sri Mahaganapataye Namaha Puspaihi Pujayami(or&#xA;  Pushpam samarpayami)(I am worshiping with flowers or offering flowers)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Bhur Bhuvah Swaha Sri Mahaganapataye Namaha Naivedyam Nivedayami(I&#xA;  am offering food items)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With these 5 simple Mantras one is supposed to offer the Pancha Upacharas to Deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,chant the Mantra given above for Gandham while offering Sandal Paste and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE 1-If you are doing a Shiva Puja then just replace the &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Sri Mahaganapataye Namaha&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; portion in above Mantras with &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Sambaparameswaraya Namaha&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.Similarly For Vishnu Puja use &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Mahavishnave Namaha&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; instead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE 2-Before offering Gods these 5 Upacharas, Dhyanam (meditating upon the Deity) &amp;amp; Avahanam(Invoking the Divine presence) are also to be done.There are specific Mantras for that purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/ganesha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source1&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/day_as_hindu/puja/shortpuja.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-09-30T16:55:41.477" LastActivityDate="2016-09-30T16:55:41.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15270" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-30T16:35:54.573" Score="1" ViewCount="91" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the right way to arrange the components of the ritualistic platter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7819" LastActivityDate="2017-04-05T19:41:44.993" Title="How to arrange the components of the ritualistic platter?" Tags="|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15271" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-30T16:40:21.463" Score="6" ViewCount="188" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which scriptures mention the significance of &lt;a href=&quot;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Sarvapitri-Amavasya-A-day-devoted-to-ancestors/articleshow/10134441.cms&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sarva-pitru Amavasya&lt;/a&gt; or Mahalaya Amavasya and the day (or amavasya) of the year this needs to be observed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm looking for verses from scriptures and their translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2023-09-12T05:04:24.733" Title="Which scriptures describe the importance of Sarva-pitru Amavasya or Mahalaya Amavasya?" Tags="|puranas|rituals|pitru|amavasya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15272" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-30T16:44:57.390" Score="0" ViewCount="3363" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen that mango leaves kept in the kalash during puja ritual. Why are mango leaves kept in the kalash during puja ritual?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7820" LastActivityDate="2017-04-06T05:02:48.653" Title="Why are mango leaves kept in the kalash during puja ritual?" Tags="|puja|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15273" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-30T17:17:24.837" Score="0" ViewCount="264" Body="&lt;p&gt;puja articles arranged in specific five layers. But why are puja articles arranged in specific five layers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7821" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T11:41:59.013" Title="Why are puja articles arranged in specific five layers?" Tags="|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-10-03T07:14:38.267" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15274" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-09-30T17:21:47.863" Score="0" ViewCount="2458" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the Importance of flowers in puja ritual and why is a specific flower offered to a deity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7822" LastActivityDate="2017-04-06T01:07:11.703" Title="Why is a specific flower offered to a deity?" Tags="|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15275" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15226" CreationDate="2016-09-30T17:35:18.257" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are Nithya Karmas and Naimittika Karmas. The Navaratri celebration falls under Naimittika Tithi or Karma. Whoever deity is your Kula Devata or Ishta Devata for them Nitya Puja is to be done even in Navaratri days also. Along with it, Devi worship is also done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicreserve.mum.edu/upapurana/devibhagavata_purana.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; says in its Third Skandham Chapter 26 as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जनमेजयः -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नवरात्रे तु संप्राप्ते किं कर्तव्यं द्विजोत्तम । विधानं विधिवद् ब्रूहि&#xA;  शरत्काले विशेषतः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janamejaya - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Navaratri approaches what is the duty, O Dvijottama. Tell me the&#xA;  procedure to be followed especially in Śaratkāla.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;किं फलं खलु कस्तत्र विधिः कार्यो महामते । एतद्विस्तरतो ब्रूहि कृपया&#xA;  द्विजसत्तम ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is result? What is to be done then? Please explain them&#xA;  elaborately, O dvijasattama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्यास उवाच - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रुणु राजन्प्रवक्ष्यामि नवरात्र व्रतं शुभम् । शरत्काले विशेषेण&#xA;  कर्तव्यं विधिपूर्वकम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa said - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Listen O Raja, about Navaratri Vrata to be done in Śaratkāla which is&#xA;  auspicious and the procedure to do it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वसंते च प्रकर्तव्यं तथेव प्रेमपूर्वकम् । द्वावृतू यमदंष्ट्राख्यौ नूनं&#xA;  सर्वजनेषु वै ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasanta and Śaratkala, both the seasons are like teeth of Yama&#xA;  (Yamadaṃṣṭrā) for all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शरद्वसंतनामानौ दुर्गमौ प्रणिनामिह । तस्माद्यत्नादिदं कार्यं सर्वत्र&#xA;  शुभमिच्छता ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;द्वावेव सुमहाघोरावृतू रोगकरौ नृणाम् । वसंतशरदावेव सर्वनाशकरावुभौ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarat and vasanta are very difficult to cross for beings. So everyone&#xA;  should do Puja for the good of everyone. These two seasons cause many&#xA;  diseases causing lot of destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मात्तत्र प्रकर्तव्यं चंडिकापूजनं बुधैः । चैत्राश्विने शुभे मासे&#xA;  भक्तिपूर्वं नराधिप ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So it is the duty of wise people to do Devi (or Chandi) Puja in the&#xA;  months of Chaitra and Āswayuja months with bhakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same chapter Vyāsa says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रातर्नित्यं पुरः कृत्वा&lt;/strong&gt; द्विजानां वरणं ततः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the early morning (प्रातः), Nitya Karmas (नित्यं) are done (कृत्वा)&#xA;  well in advance (पुरः).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Chapter 27 of the Third Skanda says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अशक्तो नियतां पूजां कर्तुं चेन्नवरात्रके । अष्टम्यां च विशेषेण&#xA;  कर्तव्यं पूजनं सदा ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whoever is unable to perform Puja following all the prescribed rules,&#xA;  should do Puja on Ashtami day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उपवासो ह्यशक्तानां नवरात्रव्रते पुनः । उपोषणत्रयं प्रोक्तं यथोक्तफलदं&#xA;  नृप ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who are unable to fast for Navaratri (all days) can do it for&#xA;  three days to get the same result.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सप्तम्यां च तथाऽष्टम्यां नवम्यां भक्तिभावतः । त्रिरात्रकरणात्सर्वं फलं&#xA;  भवति पूजनात् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one worships with Bhakti on Saptami, Ashtami and Navami, one&#xA;  obtains full benefit of vrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पूजाभिश्चैव होमैश्च कुमारीपूजनैस्तथा । संपूर्णं तद्व्रतं प्रोक्तं&#xA;  तद्विप्राणां चैव भोजनैः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pūja, Homa, Kumārī Pūja, Brāhmaṇa samārādhana  are the essentials for&#xA;  Navaratri Vrata to be complete.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one can worship other gods too. In addition to those, one should perform Navaratri Vrata also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-09-30T17:35:18.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15277" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15272" CreationDate="2016-09-30T17:55:00.003" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Kalash is used for creating seat for invoked deities during the&#xA;  puja ritual. First it is filled with water and then  leaves of mango&#xA;  tree or that of betel vine are kept in it. These leaves are known as&#xA;  leaves of deity’s seat. The deity principle gets maximally attracted&#xA;  to these leaves of seat. The water inside the Kalash keeps this seat&#xA;  pure till the ritual of Pranapratishta (invoking deity into an image,&#xA;  idol, coconut or betelnut). Thus the invoked deity principle stays for&#xA;  a long period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this Kalash betel nut or some coins are then put. Thereafter a&#xA;  coconut is set up on the mouth of the Kalash. The tuft of coconut&#xA;  attracts the deity principle from the atmosphere and it is then&#xA;  transmitted to the water in the Kalash through the body of coconut.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The water is pure and clean to the highest extent. That is the reason&#xA;  it is able to attract the sattvik particles of frequencies of deities.&#xA;  But it contains less quantity of raja particles and therefore has poor&#xA;  capacity to project the sattva particles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Putting a coin is symbol of sacrifice. Through this medium there is&#xA;  sacrifice of wealth and jiva (embodied soul)’s attachment is reduced.&#xA;  This qualifies the worshipper to benefit more from the sattvikta of&#xA;  puja ritual. A copper coin is put in the kalash. The copper has more&#xA;  capacity to project sattvik frequencies. It helps in emanation of&#xA;  sattvik frequencies present in the water into the atmosphere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Also a betel nut is kept in the kalash meant for puja ritual. Betelnut&#xA;  enhances sattva and raja components in the water of the kalash. This&#xA;  increases the capacity of the water to emit manifest principle of&#xA;  deity.The betel nut contains particles related to absolute earth&#xA;  element which are useful in binding of sattva particles related to&#xA;  sattva component.This then easily helps in retaining the sattvikta of&#xA;  water for along time. Five  precious stones like pearl, diamond,&#xA;  emerald, blue sapphire, ruby and gold are also added to the water of&#xA;  Kalash. The five precious stones and gold have capacity to attract and&#xA;  emit the principles of five superior deities. This  benefits the&#xA;  worshiper. But with changing times the use of five precious stones and&#xA;  copper is reduced and replaced by alloys which are spiritually of less&#xA;  benefit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now let us see as to why the water stored in the Kalash is either&#xA;  poured under the Tulsi plant or is sprinkled in the premises after the&#xA;  conclusion of puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-are-mango-leaves-kept-in-the-kalash-during-puja-ritual.html#41&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;For Detail you can check Why are mango leaves kept in the kalash during puja ritual?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="204" LastEditorUserId="204" LastEditDate="2016-09-30T18:14:55.547" LastActivityDate="2016-09-30T18:14:55.547" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15278" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15250" CreationDate="2016-09-30T18:13:08.810" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you know Lord Krishna already mentioned in Bhgwat Geeta about food &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saatvic Bhojan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Raajsic Bhojan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tamsic Bhojan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saatvic Bhojan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of&#xA;  life, purify one’s existence, and give strength, health, happiness,&#xA;  and satisfaction.” The Gita says that such foods are “wholesome and&#xA;  pleasing to the heart.” [Reference: Bhagavad Gita 17.8] What more&#xA;  could one ask?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Raajsic Bhojan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and&#xA;  burning are dear to those in the mode of passion. Such foods cause&#xA;  distress, misery and disease.” [Reference: Bhagavad Gita 17.9]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tamsic Bhojan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Food prepared more than three hours before being eaten, food that is&#xA;  tasteless, decomposed and putrid, and food consisting of remnants and&#xA;  untouchable things is dear to those in the mode of darkness.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here you can read &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because&#xA;  they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who&#xA;  prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.”&#xA;  (Bg.3.13)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [or outcaste].” (Bg.5.18) Thus, a wise person recognizes the value of life, the soul, within all species of living beings. Because he recognizes the soul in all bodies, he does not cause any cruelty to them. Cruelty or suffering inflicted on any living being will certainly cause harm to ourselves and regression in our own development, spiritual or otherwise. Compassion and kindness to all beings is how we make spiritual progress. Is there anything that is really more important that this? As Lord Krishna explains:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who is not envious but who is a kind friend to all living&#xA;  entities, who does not think himself a proprietor, who is free from&#xA;  false ego and equal both in happiness and distress, who is always&#xA;  satisfied and engaged in devotional service with determination and&#xA;  whose mind and intelligence are in agreement with Me—he is very dear&#xA;  to Me.” (Bg.12.13-14)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The inference that can be made is that whatever kind of food was mentioned in the Gita, is the type of food that was prevalent during Krishna's time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="204" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-25T13:53:34.043" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T13:53:34.043" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15279" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15133" CreationDate="2016-10-01T08:55:25.003" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The details of the story are explained in the succeeding paragraphs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna, after the death of his son , Abhimanyu, took a severe pledge that he would kill  Jayadratha before  the  end of the next day battle (day 14th of the Mahabharata war). As part of that pledge, Arjuna also vowed that if he failed in killing  Jayadratha, he would offer his self to the  fire God (Agni) and end his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And during the night, Arjuna offered his prayers to God, remembering the mantras given to him by Maharishi Vyasa and in that process fell asleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And during his sleep,Lord Sri Krishna, having Garuda on his banner, appeared in Arjuna’s dreams. Having worshipped Lord Sri Krishna, Arjuna discussed the plans for  killing Jayadratha in the battle, the next day.And he was advised  to recall the mantra for using  the Pashupatatra,as that would ensure victory against Jayadratha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Surrounded in battle as he will be by all of them and by all the great car-warriors, how shall he obtain a sight, O Krishna, of the wicked ruler of the Sindhus? My vow will not be accomplished, O Kesava! How can a person like me live, having failed to accomplish his vow? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The bird-bannered Krishna hearing this cause of Partha's grief, touched water and sat with face turned to the east. And then that hero, of eyes like lotus leaves, and possessed of great energy, said these words for the benefit of Pandu's son who had resolved upon the slaughter of the ruler of the Sindhus, 'O Partha, there is an indestructible, supreme weapon of the name of Pasupata. With it the god Maheswara slew in battle all the Daityas! If thou rememberest it now, thou shalt then be able to slay Jayadratha tomorrow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Arjuna had forgotten the mantra for invoking Pashupatastra, he started meditating on Lord Bhava (Lord Shiva) during the Brahma Muhurta, as per the advice of Lord Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it is unknown to thee (now), adore within thy heart the god having the bull for his mark. Thinking of that god in thy mind, remember him, O Dhananjaya! Thou art his devotee. Through his grace thou shalt obtain that rich possession.' Hearing these words of Krishna, Dhananjaya, having touched water, sat on the earth with concentrated mind and thought of the god Bhava. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Arjuna &lt;strong&gt;saw himself journeying through the sky&lt;/strong&gt; with Kesava (Lord Sri Krishna) and reached the mountain where Lord Shiva was.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After he had thus sat with rapt mind at that hour called Brahma of auspicious indications, Arjuna saw himself journeying through the sky with Kesava. And Partha, possessed of the speed of the mind, seemed to reach, with Kesava, the sacred foot of Himavat and the Manimat mountain abounding in many brilliant gems and frequented by Siddhas and Charanas. And the lord Kesava seemed to have caught hold of his left arm. And he seemed to see many wonderful sights as he reached (those place). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Sri Krishna and Arjuna then prayed to  Lord Shiva, for obtaining the Pasupatastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To thee that art called Brahmachakra, to thee that art called Sarva, Sankara, and Siva! We bow to thee that art the lord of all great beings! We bow to thee that hast a thousand heads, to thee that hast a thousand arms, to thee that art called Death! To thee that hast a thousand eyes, a thousand legs? To thee whose acts are innumerable! We bow to thee&#xA;  whose complexion is that of gold, to thee that art cased in golden mail, to thee that art ever compassionate to thy devotees! O lord, let our wish be accomplished.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva asked them to bring the celestial bow and arrow from a nearby celestial lake. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And as they approached the snakes, conversant as they were with the Vedas, they uttered the hundred stanzas of the Veda, to the praise of Rudra, bowing the while with their sincere souls unto Bhava of immeasurable power. Then those two terrible snakes, in consequence of the power of those adorations to Rudra, abandoned their snake-forms and assumed the forms of a foe-killing bow and arrow. Gratified (with what they saw), Krishna and Arjuna then seized that bow and arrow of great effulgence.And those&#xA;  high-souled heroes then brought them away and gave them unto the illustrious Mahadeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Lord  Shiva taught Arjuna the procedure for invoking the Pashupatastra again. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beholding the manner of his seizing the handle of the bow and drawing the string and placing of his feet, and hearing also the Mantras uttered by Bhava, the son of Pandu, of inconceivable prowess, learnt everything duly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference:-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Book:7, Drona Parva, Abhimanyu–Badha Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-07-02T11:03:36.697" LastActivityDate="2018-07-02T11:03:36.697" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15281" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15274" CreationDate="2016-10-01T11:37:18.690" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Flowers are intrinsic part of hindu worship and rituals. the fragrance of the flower pleases the deity. they create a pleasant and aesthetic value to the pooja ritual. they are symbol of happiness, prosperity and completion of purpose of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Normally we have a concept that a deity is to be offered only that&#xA;  flower which he/she likes. But is it really so? Let us see the actual&#xA;  reason according to science of spirituality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A flower has a particular colour and a special fragrance. On a subtle&#xA;  level the colour and fragrance particles present in the flower have a&#xA;  capacity to attract the principles of a specific deity which benefits&#xA;  the worshipper. That is the principle behind offering specific flowers&#xA;  to a deity and not because they like it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To cite some examples white flower like that of Dhatura is offered to&#xA;  Shiva, red coloured flower like Hibiscus for Shri Ganesh, and red&#xA;  coloured flowers for Shri Durgadevi also. If the worshipper has more&#xA;  spiritual emotion for these flowers then the frequencies of deities&#xA;  get more activated through the medium of these flowers and work for&#xA;  the worshipper directly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Offer only fresh flowers to the deity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to religious scriptures on the science of spirituality, only&#xA;  proper and best objects should be offered to a deity and the flowers&#xA;  are no exception. Therefore the use of dried out flowers or those&#xA;  infested with insects are prohibited in the ritualistic worship of a&#xA;  deity. There are two reasons for this according to spiritual science:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Whatever we offer to a deity is accepted by the deity on a subtle    level and then They get pleased and bless us. Therefore whatever we&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  offer to Them has to be best.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The capacity of a flower to absorb and emit the frequencies of deity    and sattvik frequencies gets reduced if it is dry or infested&#xA;  with    insects.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-is-a-specific-flower-offered-to-a-deity.html&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Flowers offered to hindu gods and goddess&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord ganesha&lt;/strong&gt; – any red color flower will do. however the red color    jaswanti flower (hibiscus) is favorite to ganesha. jaswanti&#xA;  flower    comes in many different colors. so choose the red color if&#xA;  possible.    you can also offer lotus, champa, rose, jasmine, yellow&#xA;  and orange    marigold flowers. apart from this you can offer dhurva&#xA;  grass blades    (1,3,5,7), bilva leaves and herbal leaves. usually 21&#xA;  different    varieties of flowers and leaves are used while performing&#xA;  ganesha    pooja.&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;lord shiva&lt;/strong&gt; – any white flower will do. you can offer maulshri, blue    lotus (if blue lotus is not there then you can offer pink&#xA;  lotus or    white lotus) and kaner. bel leaves (9 or 10), dhatura&#xA;  flowers,    naagkeshar, harsingar, and aak (aakamda) flowers are also&#xA;  favorite of    shiva. however bilvapatra is most important in shiva&#xA;  pooja.  in the    bilvapatra the chakra and the bajra should not be&#xA;  there. the chakra    is a white mark made by the insects on the&#xA;  bilvapatra, while the    bajra is the thick portion towards the stalk.&#xA;  this part should be    broken. the bilvapatra half eaten up by the&#xA;  insects is also not    considered good for worshipping shiva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess durga&lt;/strong&gt; – most red color flowers like hibiscus. you can also    offer lotus, mogra flower and bel leaves&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess parvati&lt;/strong&gt; – she is fond of all flowers offered to lord shiva.    apart from them you can offer bela, white lotus, palash,&#xA;  madar,    apamarg, champa and chameli.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; – he is very fond of lotus. you can offer pink lotus,    maulshri, juhi (jasmine), kadamb, kewra, chameli, champa,&#xA;  ashok,    malti and basanti. tulsi leaves are dear to vishnu. so you&#xA;  can offer&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess lakshmi&lt;/strong&gt; – she likes the lotus most. you can offer pink lotus,    yellow gaindha (marigold) and desi gulab/rose (not hybrid).&#xA;  in fruits    you can offer one shriphal (bel fruit)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord brahma&lt;/strong&gt; – tagar and white lotus&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess saraswati&lt;/strong&gt; – any white flower or white lotus or palash    Flowers. goddess mahakali – yellow kaner&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord saturn&lt;/strong&gt; – worship with blue color flowers. its done on saturday.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sun god (surya devata) – lotus flower&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Flowers are not offered to gods&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;lord shiva&lt;/strong&gt; – champa (champaka) and ketaki or kewda (fragrant screw    pine). because it was cursed by lord shiva along with lord&#xA;  brahma for    lying.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;lord ganesha&lt;/strong&gt;- ketaki flower and tulsi (holy basil). read why tulsi is    not offered to lord ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;goddess parvati&lt;/strong&gt; – arka (milkweeds) and amla (indian gooseberry)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;lord vishnu – ‘aksada’ is not used in pooja&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;lord rama&lt;/strong&gt; – arali (nerium oleander)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sun god&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;(surya devta)&lt;/strong&gt; – vilva (bilva or bael leaves)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;lord bairava&lt;/strong&gt; – nandyarvattam (east indian rosebay, crape jasmine)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thespiritualindian.com/flowers-offered-to-hindu-gods-and-goddess/&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T11:37:18.690" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15282" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15273" CreationDate="2016-10-01T11:41:59.013" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;First layer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First part of first layer is a vessel or plate meant for offering&#xA;  sacrament and the second part is plate for puja. This layer of puja&#xA;  articles is representative of combined earth and water element. To&#xA;  offer a sacrament is a sub-ritual of puja. The worshipper is totally&#xA;  surrendered at the feet of deity at this time. Therefore the vessel or&#xA;  plate of naivedya is given a place in downward direction. Offering&#xA;  sacrament to a deity pleases Superior deities, deity of premise and&#xA;  deity of a place faster. Whenever possible It is always beneficial to&#xA;  use banana leaf instead of metal vessel while offering naivedya to a&#xA;  deity because it is more sattvik ( spiritually pure).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Second layer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This layer is related to aaptattva or absolute water principle. The&#xA;  articles used in this layer are kalash, a small cylindrical pot for&#xA;  water and a spoon for performing aachman. The water is clean and pure&#xA;  and hence is able to receive maximum amount of frequencies of deities.&#xA;  Therefore the kalash, cylindrical pot and the spoon are kept in the&#xA;  center of temple room. The water kept in the kalash maintains the&#xA;  correct balance of the five great elements. Generally a copper plate&#xA;  is kept in the centre and kalash is placed to its right while the&#xA;  cylindrical pot and spoon are kept to the left.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Third layer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This layer contains the articles related to absolute fire element or&#xA;  tejtattva. Here the niranjan and incence sticks are kept to the right&#xA;  of worshipper and oil or ghee lamp and arti plate with camphor on to&#xA;  the left. The incense stick or Udbatti is kept to the right of&#xA;  worshipper. The deities consist of five elements. Out of these&#xA;  elements pruthvitattva or earth element emits fragrance. This&#xA;  fragrance being very subtle cannot be received by ordinary individual.&#xA;  The udbatti or incense stick has the capacity to absorb the subtle&#xA;  fragrance emitted by the deities. Thus when an udbatti is lighted the&#xA;  subtle fragrance of deities is emitted along with its own fragrance.&#xA;  For example when an udbatti having its own fragrance of sandalwood is&#xA;  burnt the subtle fragrance of sandalwood emitted from deities is also&#xA;  absorbed in it and the emitted in the surrounding atmosphere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fourth layer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This layer is related to absolute air principle or Vayutattva. The two&#xA;  articles here are Shankh (conch) and bell (ghanta). Shankh activates&#xA;  destroyer form of energy of a deity and it is kept to the right hand&#xA;  side of a deity or to the left of worshipper. The bell activates the&#xA;  saviour or tarak form of energy of a deity and is therefore kept to&#xA;  the right of worshipper that is to the left hand side of the deity.&#xA;  The left side is a seat of Moon channel or Chandra naadi. The&#xA;  activation of Chandra naadi imparts coolness. The bell is clapped&#xA;  during the time of arti for its pleasant sound. We have already learnt&#xA;  enough about bell in the previous satsang. Now let us see the last or&#xA;  the fifth layer of arrangement of puja articles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fifth layer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This layer is related to akshtattva or absolute ether principle. It&#xA;  includes two long lamps of equal height kept on both sides of temple&#xA;  room. When two long lamps of equal height are kept continuously lit&#xA;  with sesame oil on both sides of temple room, the energy of action of&#xA;  that particular deity is activated due to raja predominant sesame oil.&#xA;  These two lamps are representatives of Sun and Moon channels. Since&#xA;  the deities are more related to the tejtattva or absolute fire element&#xA;  the two lamps are also symbolic of that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus we have seen that the arrangement of the puja articles is&#xA;  symbolic of five cosmic absolute elements namely absolute earth,&#xA;  absolute water, absolute fire, absolute air and absolute ether. From&#xA;  akashtattva (absolute ether), vayutattva (absolute air) was formed.&#xA;  Vayutattva created tejtattva (absolute fire). tejtattva gave birth to&#xA;  aaptatva (absolute water) and aaptattva created pruthvitattva&#xA;  (absolute earth). In short all the last four elements are formed out&#xA;  of akash or absolute ether or space. Thus akashtattva is all&#xA;  encompassing and assimilates all the principles. The pointed upper&#xA;  portion of the temple room is related to akashtattva and the&#xA;  frequencies emitted from this part of temple room manifest with the&#xA;  help of five elements as per the need of individual and work for him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-are-puja-articles-arranged-in-specific-five-layers.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Benefits of arranging puja articles&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This type of arrangement leads to correct balance of all the five&#xA;cosmic elements which helps the worshipper in receiving the chaitanya&#xA;emitted from the deity to the maximum extent.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When the worshipper invokes the deities in the beginning of puja it&#xA;becomes easier for them to arrive at the place of puja in the form of&#xA;frequencies with the help of five cosmic elements.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;These divine frequencies then charge every ingredient used in puja&#xA;and the surrounding atmosphere also becomes purified.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The forth important benefit is such arrangement does have an positive&#xA;effect on the worshipper and increases his sattvikta.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Such an arrangement creates sattvikta in both the worshipper and the&#xA;articles of puja thereby spiritually benefitting the worshipper&#xA;through the puja ritual.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/emfxK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/emfxK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T11:41:59.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15283" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15272" CreationDate="2016-10-01T11:47:13.837" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kalasha is a brass, mud, or copper pot filled with water or rice.&#xA;  Mango leaves are kept on the pot and a coconut is placed over it. In&#xA;  some areas, a red cloth or green cloth is covered around the coconut.&#xA;  Some threads are also tied around the pot. Devotees decorate the pot&#xA;  with kumkum (vermillion), haldi, and some other decorative items. Such&#xA;  pot is referred to as Kalasha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kalasha Puja is the most popular and revered ritual during&#xA;  grihapravesh (house warming ceremony), vivah (marriage / wedding),&#xA;  Navratri Durga Puja, Diwali Lakshmi Puja, and in temple festivals like&#xA;  Kumbhabhishekam, Brahmotsavam, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why do we worship Kalasha? The water in the kalasha represents the&#xA;  primordial water from which the entire creation emerged. Water is the&#xA;  giver of life and the source of all forms and objects of the creation.&#xA;  The mango leaves symbolize the creation. The threads signify the love&#xA;  and peace that bins everything in creation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We worship Gods and Goddesses, and love our parents, brothers,&#xA;  sisters, wife, children, relatives, friends, and well wishers, but we&#xA;  would not worship the creation and the universe from which we are&#xA;  emerged and in which we are living. To accomplish the worship of&#xA;  everything in our universe, Kalasha Sthapana puja and Kalasha Puja is&#xA;  performed during any puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupad.com/kalasha-puja-purpose-why-do-we-worship-the-kalasha/&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kalasha Sthapana Vidhi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sve7ZOn7p68&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sve7ZOn7p68&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of using mango leaves in Pujas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Symbol of Mahalakshmi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prevents negative energy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sign of Auspiciousness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Helps against drushti dosham&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Full of Oxygen&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Promotes hygiene and health&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Symbol of fertility&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T11:47:13.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15284" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15270" CreationDate="2016-10-01T11:54:55.157" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arrangement based on cosmic elements&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Before commencing the actual ritualistic worship (pūjā), it is&#xA;  important to arrange the tools and other components used in the&#xA;  ritualistic worship in a spiritually beneficial manner. From the&#xA;  viewpoint of the science of spirituality it is appropriate to arrange&#xA;  them based on the level of the five cosmic elements. The cosmic&#xA;  elements are Absolute Earth (Pruthvi), Absolute Water (Āpa), Absolute&#xA;  Fire (Tēj), Absolute Wind (Vāyu) and Absolute Ether (Ākāsh). The&#xA;  reason for an arrangement based on the cosmic elements is that such an&#xA;  arrangement balances and coordinates the five cosmic elements that are&#xA;  active in the universe. This helps the embodied soul (worshipper) to&#xA;  derive maximum benefit from the manifest (saguṇ) and unmanifest&#xA;  (nirguṇ) frequencies emitted by the Deity being ritualistically&#xA;  worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arranging the components of the ritualistic worship platter&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The arrangement of the components of the ritualistic platter is as&#xA;  seen in the above image. It is explained in the two-dimensional&#xA;  context of the relative position of the Deity being ritualistically&#xA;  worshipped and the worshipper. Thus, ‘at the forefront’ refers to the&#xA;  part of the platter positioned close to the image or idol of the Deity&#xA;  being worshipped, and ‘lower end of the platter’ refers to the part of&#xA;  the platter positioned close to the worshipper.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.forumforhinduawakening.org/living/arranging-ritualistic-platter&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;‘In the ritualistic platter turmeric and vermilion is to be placed to&#xA;the right of the embodied soul and bukka, gulal and shendur to the&#xA;left.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The perfume bottle, fragrant paste (usually sandalwood paste),&#xA;flowers, durva and leaves (patri) are to be placed at the forefront&#xA;in the platter. The subtle frequencies of the deities are activated&#xA;by the fragrance particles in the perfume, sandalwood paste, flowers&#xA;and also by the colour particles in the durva and leaves.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The betel leaves, betel nut and the money to be offered in the ritual&#xA;of offering money (dakshina) are to be placed at the lower end of the&#xA;platter because they are an effective medium of transmission of&#xA;frequencies of the deities.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the center, the all encompassing unbroken rice grains are to be&#xA;placed. As the unbroken rice grains become the central portion of the&#xA;platter, the frequencies of the five superior deities namely, Shri&#xA;Shiva, Shri Durga, Shri Shriram, Shri Shrikrushna and Shri Ganapati&#xA;are attracted to them. They are then transmitted as per the&#xA;requirement to the other components, e.g. vermilion, turmeric, etc.&#xA;placed around them in a circular manner.’&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T11:54:55.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15285" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15266" CreationDate="2016-10-01T12:04:44.837" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;We often see that while offering naivedya (food offering) to a deity it is offered with the help of two leaves of tulsi. One of them is kept on the naivedya while other is offered to the deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulsi has the greater capacity to absorb and emit sattvik and Krushnatattva frquencies present in the universe. Therefore use of tulsi while offering naivedya imparts two benefits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The tulsi leaf used while offering naivedya absorbs the subtle frequencies emitted from the food. When this tulsi leaf is offered to the deity, the deity principle rapidly absorbs the frequencies present in the leaf.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why are women prohibited from gathering tulsi leaves?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As specified in Dharma texts, women have a high proportion of raja&#xA;  component when compared to men. There is generation of heat energy in&#xA;  the dormant and serene sattvik frequencies present in the tulsi plant&#xA;  by the touch of women which leads to decrease in its sattvikta (sattva&#xA;  quality). Hence they are prohibited from gathering or plucking the&#xA;  tulsi leaves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why are tulsi leaves used while offering naivedya to a deity?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus we have learnt about the gathering of tulsi leaves which imparts&#xA;  spiritual benefits. We often see that while offering naivedya (food&#xA;  offering) to a deity it is offered with the help of two leaves of&#xA;  tulsi. One of them is kept on the naivedya while other is offered to&#xA;  the deity. Let us now understand as to why tulsi leaves are used while&#xA;  offering naivedya to a deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tulsi has the greater capacity to absorb and emit sattvik and&#xA;  Krushnatattva frequencies present in the universe. Therefore use of&#xA;  tulsi while offering naivedya imparts two benefits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The tulsi leaf used while offering naivedya absorbs the subtle&#xA;  frequencies emitted from the food. When this tulsi leaf is offered to&#xA;  the deity, the deity principle rapidly absorbs the frequencies present&#xA;  in the leaf.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There is subtle covering of raja-tama present in the atmosphere around&#xA;  the food to be offered to the deity as naivedya. When a tulsi leaf is&#xA;  kept on the food, the sattvik frequencies emitted from the tulsi leaf&#xA;  reduces this covering. Besides the atmosphere around the plate or&#xA;  banana leaf meant for serving the naivedya gets purified. This retains&#xA;  the sattvikta of naivedya for a long period.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus the tulsi leaf is used for offering naivedya for receiving the&#xA;  grace of the deity by pleasing Him/Her. Therefore there is a rich&#xA;  tradition of offering prayerful obeisance to tulsi plant loved by Shri&#xA;  Vishnu every morning and evening as mark of gratitude because it is a&#xA;  destroyer of negative energies and a purifier of the atmosphere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/article/why-are-tulsi-leaves-used-while-offering-naivedya.html&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T12:04:44.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15287" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15265" CreationDate="2016-10-01T16:56:03.067" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Applying gandha (Sandalwood paste) &amp;amp; haldī (Turmeric) – kumkum (Vermillion) to the Deity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Apply gandha to the Deity with the ring finger of the right hand.&#xA;  Then, offer haldī-kumkum at the Deity’s feet by taking a pinch of each&#xA;  between the thumb and ring finger of the right hand. First offer haldī&#xA;  and then offer kumkum.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Offering patrī and flowers to the Deity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Do not offer artificial flowers (made out of paper or plastic or    decorative flowers) to a Deity. Fresh and sāttvik flowers should be&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  offered to Deities.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Do not smell the flowers and patrī that are to be offered to the    Deity.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Patrī should be offered before offering the flowers.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Offer leaves and flowers to a Deity that attracts the Principle of    the Deity to the maximum extent. For example, bēl (Leaves of Aegle&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  marmelos tree) to Deity Shiva and durvā and a red flower to Shrī&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ganapati. While offering durvā to the Idol of Shrī Ganapati, cover&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  the entire body with durvā except the face. Durvā offered to Shrī&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ganapati are changed thrice a day. For this reason, pūjā of Shrī&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ganapati is performed thrice a day.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Specific Deities must be offered a specific number of flowers and    that too arranged in a specific pattern. For example, Shrī Ganapati&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  should be offered 8 flowers in rhomboid shape, and Deity Hanumān&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  should be offered five flowers in elliptical shape. Ensure that these &#xA;  flowers are not placed in an uneven manner.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When offering flowers to the Deities placed in the temple at home,    recite the Name of the Upāsyadēvatā (Deity of worship) and then begin &#xA;  by offering small flowers of dark colour first, followed by&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  medium-size lighter colour flowers and last, offer big white flowers. &#xA;  In a conical arrangement of Deities, only upon offering flowers to&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shrī Ganapati placed at the apex of the cone, proceed to the next&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  stage; in the second stage, offer flowers to other superior Male&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Deities. Thereafter, offer flowers to the Female counterpart of the&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Male Deity followed by the Deity’s sub-forms.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Flowers should be offered at the Deity’s feet instead of on the head.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;While offering a flower, the stalk should be towards the Deity.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Waving lit dhoop or lit incense-stick in front of the Deity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do not disperse smoke emitting from dhoop with the hands.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After waving the dhoop, wave incense-sticks of a specific fragrance    in front of the Deity, which attracts the respective Deity’s&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Principle to a greater extent. For example, wave heena (A kind of&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  herb) incense-sticks to Deity Shiva and rose incense-sticks to Shrī&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lakshmī.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The number of incense-sticks required for waving in front of the    Deity: In general, a seeker in the initial stage of Shakti worship&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  should wave five incense-sticks, those who perform pūjā as part of&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  their duty should wave two incense-sticks and a seeker who performs&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  upāsanā with bhāv (Spiritual emotion) and devotion should wave one&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  incense-stick. The incense-sticks should be waved thrice in front of&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  the Deity.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;While waving dhoop or incense-sticks in front of the Deity, sound the    bell with the left hand.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Waving a lit lamp in front of the Deity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A lit lamp should be waved clockwise in front of the Deity thrice,    while simultaneously ringing the bell with the left hand.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Points to be remembered when lighting a lamp&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do not use a lit lamp to light another lamp.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;An oil lamp should not be used to light a ghee&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Change the wick of the lamp placed in the temple at home daily.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Offering Naivēdya to a Deity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;While preparing Naivēdya, less amount of red chilli powder, salt and oil should be used; sāttvik substances such as ghee (Clarified&#xA;  butter) should be used in ample quantity.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Banana leaf should be used for offering Naivēdya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Salt should not be served on the leaf prepared for Naivēdya to a Deity.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Keep the leaf (on which the Naivēdya has been served) covered.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When offering Naivēdya, first pray to the Ishtadēvatā and draw a mandal (Circle or protective sheath) on the floor in front of the&#xA;  Deity. Then place the banana leaf (or plate) containing Naivēdya on&#xA;  this mandal with the stalk of the leaf towards the Deity and the tip&#xA;  of the leaf towards yourself.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;While offering Naivēdya, water should be sprinkled clockwise around the banana leaf or the plate only once (this act is known as drawing a&#xA;  mandal). Water should not be sprinkled anticlockwise again.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The act of offering Naivēdya to a Deity&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Different acts to be performed after completion of the Pūjā&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Lighting a karpūr-deep (Camphor lamp): Although the upachār of lighting a karpūr-deep is not included in Panchopachār pūjā, yet due&#xA;  to the sāttviktā of camphor, this act imparts greater sāttviktā.&#xA;  Hence, after offering Naivēdya, karpūr-deep can be lit.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sound the conch and perform Āratī of the Deity with bhāv.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After imbibing the Āratī, apply Vibhūti (Holy ash) from the origin of the nose to the mid-brow region.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Drink Tīrtha (Sacred liquid) thrice. Take Tīrtha in the middle of the right palm and drink it. Then, after touching the middle of the&#xA;  palm with the tip of the middle finger and ring finger, touch the eyes&#xA;  with these fingers. Rub these fingers lightly from the forehead to the&#xA;  head in the upward direction.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the end, partake Prasād (Holy sacrament) and wash your hands.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/method-of-performing-panchopachar-puja&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7295" LastActivityDate="2016-10-01T16:56:03.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15289" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-01T23:51:31.267" Score="0" ViewCount="54" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Dharma according to the sruti literature? &#xA;How was Vedas composed? who is the first rishi? and how was it compiled? there seems to be 300 rishis who wrote mantras..how were they collected over time?&#xA;Please explain it only from authority of sruti, not smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5210" LastEditorUserId="5210" LastEditDate="2016-10-02T01:39:47.877" LastActivityDate="2016-10-02T01:39:47.877" Title="What is Vedic Dharma? and what is the origin of Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-10-02T01:04:09.000" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15291" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10884" CreationDate="2016-10-02T05:30:29.807" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/durga-saptashati-geetapress/page/n191/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prâdhânika Rahasya khanda&lt;/a&gt;, Devi Mahatmya (Durga-Saptashati) describes that Adi Shakti has three main murtis:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahalakshmi or Sattvic Shakti with 18 arms&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahasaraswati or Rajasic Shakti with 8 arms and&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahakali with 10 arms who represents Tamasic Shakti.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Mahalakshmi there came Brahma and Lakshmi both with golden complexion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Mahasaraswati there came Vishnu (dark complexioned) and  Gauri who was white in complexion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Mahakali came Shiva annd Sarasvati with fair complexion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Brahma and Lakshmi are siblings, Shiva and Saraswati are siblings so are Vishnu and Kali. Now these sibling pairs married in between like Brahma was paired with Saraswati, Vishnu was paired with Lakshmi and Kali was selected for Shankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following image from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/durga-saptashati-geetapress/page/n197/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita Press Gorakhpur's&lt;/a&gt; publication of the Durga Sapatashati, summarizes the above concept neatly -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hlMEd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hlMEd.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7831" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2022-05-19T09:53:47.137" LastActivityDate="2022-05-19T09:53:47.137" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15292" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-02T17:34:19.957" Score="1" ViewCount="380" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Goddess Padmavathi not stayed with Lord Venkateshwara swamy on Seven Hills in Tirumala instead stayed/settled at Tiruchanoor?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Goddess Sri Lakshmi met Padmavathi? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At which instance or what situation Lord Venkateshwara swamy has became Idol on Seven Hills Tirumala?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3747" LastActivityDate="2016-10-02T17:34:19.957" Title="Why Padmavathi not stayed with Lord Venkateshwara swamy on Seven Hills in Tirumala instead stayed at Tiruchanoor?" Tags="|lakshmi|venkateshwara|tirupati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15296" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3014" CreationDate="2016-10-03T14:09:06.340" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brihadaranyak Upanishad is actually the Brihad Aarnyaka itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know the Aarnyaka of Shukla Yajurveda (Shatapatha Brahmana) is called Brihad Aranyaka and is considered as Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me cite some quote from web to support this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%95#.E0.A4.AC.E0.A5.83.E0.A4.B9.E0.A4.A6.E0.A4.BE.E0.A4.B0.E0.A4.A3.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.AF.E0.A4.95&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;hi.wikipedia.org&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वस्तुत: शुक्ल युजर्वेद का एक आरण्यक ही है, परंतु आध्यात्मिक तथ्यों की प्रचुरता के कारण यह उपनिषदों में गिना जाता है।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English meaning: Actually it is one Aaranyaka of Shukla Yajurveda but &lt;strong&gt;considered in the category of Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; because of abundance/sufficiency of spiritual facts of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%83%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%A6_%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%95&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;bharatdiscovery.org&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इस शुक्लयजुर्वेदीय आरण्यक की विशेष प्रसिद्धि उपनिषद के रूप में है। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English meaning: The popularity/fame of this Aaranyaka of Shuklya Yajurveda is &lt;strong&gt;as the Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I think Brihad Aaranyak and Brihadaranyak Upanishad should be same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that two Shakha - Vajasneyi Madhyandina and Vajasneyi Kanva have their own Shatpatha Brahmana which are different and the difference may also be in the case of Brihadaranyaka but I've heard/read about two different version of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad; wikipedia also shows one/same Brihadaranyaka Upanishad for both Shakha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/d5Eo1.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/d5Eo1.png&quot; alt=&quot;screenshot&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2016-10-03T14:09:06.340" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15297" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15226" CreationDate="2016-10-04T05:10:57.123" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Navaratri means nine nights. Darkness is associated with night. What is this darkness in a human being? It is the darkness of ignorance. The purpose of the Navaratri celebrations is to enable you to get rid of darkness. When a reference is made to Devi, it signifies the unified form of Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi. These three Goddesses together represent energy or Shakti. Shakti is the energy that represents Nature (Prakruti). Nature is made up of the three qualities,Satwa, Rajas and Tamas. Saraswathi represents Satwa guna (purity). Lakshmi represents Rajo Guna (energy and activity) and Durga represents Thamo Guna (dullness or inertia). As Nature is made up of these three qualities (Rajas, Tamas and Satwa), to gain control over one’s inner Nature, people worship Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi as they represent these three qualities. To secure the grace of Goddess Shakthi, you must have triple purity - purity of the heart, purity in speech and purity in action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source---HH Chandrasekarendra saraswathi swamigal&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-10-04T05:10:57.123" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15299" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15322" CreationDate="2016-10-04T23:26:40.993" Score="7" ViewCount="301" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the relation between gods of vedas and brahman or tad ekam? How do they relate to each other? I have read Aurobindo's Secret of Vedas partly, but still not clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why are deities worshipped but not Brahman/Isvara? Why did Swami Vivekananda say Brahman cannot be worshipped?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5210" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-10-06T06:35:05.173" LastActivityDate="2016-10-06T15:01:26.013" Title="Brahman and gods" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|brahman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15300" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15317" CreationDate="2016-10-05T05:09:17.787" Score="8" ViewCount="4478" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading i came across name of a Devi-Stotra called   &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Siddha Kunjika Stotra&quot;(सिद्धकुन्जिका स्तोत्रं )&lt;/strong&gt; ,it's said that lord Shiva himself told this  stotra to godess parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So  i would like to know -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) What is this Siddha Kunjika  stotram , What's the central theme , in which scripture this stotra is mentioned.?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) What is the significance of the Siddha Kunjika Stotram?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2020-11-23T09:59:35.237" Title="What is Siddha Kunjika Stotra?" Tags="|scripture|parvati|goddess|devi|stotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15301" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15445" CreationDate="2016-10-05T05:10:09.620" Score="11" ViewCount="1217" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does samhitas have any variants ? How many old copies do we have and do they match exactly or if not how do they differ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5210" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-10-15T06:43:48.730" LastActivityDate="2016-10-15T06:43:48.730" Title="Are there any Variants in Samhita of Vedas?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15302" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15309" CreationDate="2016-10-05T05:18:25.613" Score="7" ViewCount="1399" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bharata told to Rama and Lakshmana that King Dasaratha died. Immediately, Rama tells Lakshmana that &lt;em&gt;your father&lt;/em&gt; is dead. But Rama is also a son of Dasaratha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind Rama telling Lakshmana that &lt;em&gt;your father&lt;/em&gt; is dead? Why didn't he say '&lt;em&gt;our father&lt;/em&gt; has died' or just '&lt;em&gt;father&lt;/em&gt; has died?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-10-05T19:31:13.653" LastActivityDate="2016-12-29T04:17:29.757" Title="Why did Rama tell Lakshmana that &quot;your father&quot; is dead and not &quot;our father&quot;?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15303" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15326" CreationDate="2016-10-05T05:20:21.130" Score="3" ViewCount="11091" Body="&lt;p&gt;For many years Lord Rama and Sita lived together in the forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Out of 14 years of exile, in which year was Sita captured by Ravana? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any reference in Valmiki Ramayana about the years?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT:&lt;/strong&gt; This question is a specific to year of Sita's abduction while the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6525/2995&quot;&gt;other question&lt;/a&gt; is about the ages of characters. What has &lt;strong&gt;timeline of events&lt;/strong&gt; got to do with &lt;strong&gt;ages&lt;/strong&gt; of Ramayana characters?!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="327" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2020-04-07T05:35:45.017" Title="In which year Sita was abducted by Ravana?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|sita|valmiki|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15304" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3389" CreationDate="2016-10-05T05:23:44.283" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two primary part of Sama Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Archik(आर्चिक)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Archik means group of Rik(ऋक्) which has two parts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Purvarchik(पूर्वार्चिक)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Uttararchik(उत्तरार्चिक)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gaan(गान).&lt;br&gt; Gaan mantra are composed on the basis of Samyoni mantra. There are 4 type of Gaan:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gram Greya Gaan (ग्राम ग्रेय गान) also called Prakriti(प्रकृति) Gaan or Vey(वेय)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aaranyak Gaan (आरण्यक गान)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Uh Gaan (उह गान)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Uhya Gaan (उह्य​ गान) or Rahashya Gaan.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The method of performing &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samagana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Samagana&lt;/a&gt; (सामगान) is very difficult. Very subtly study is expected for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There are five parts/vibhakti(विभक्ति) of Sam:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prastav (प्रस्ताव) : It is the initial part of mantra which starts from 'हुँ'. It is chanted/sung by Rutvij(ऋत्विज) named Prastota(प्रस्तोता).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Udgeeth (उद्गीथ) : It is chanted by Pradhan(प्रधान) Rutvij Udgaata of Sam. ॐ is added at the initial of it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pratihar (प्रतिहार) : It means joiner of two. It is chanted by Pratiharta(प्रतिहर्ता) Rutvij.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Upadrav (उपद्रव) : It is chanted by Udgaata.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nidhan (निधन) : In which two parts of Pdhya/Aum stays. It is chanted by three Rutvij, Prastota, Udgaata, Pratiharta together simultaneously.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example- First mantra of Samaveda: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अग्न आ याहि वीतये गृणानो हव्यदातये ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   नि होता सत्सि बर्हिषि ॥ १ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;agna A yAhi vItaye gR^iNAno havyadAtaye |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   ni hotA satsi barhiShi || 1 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Five parts of Saam of Sam Gaan on the above verse would be:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;हुँ ओग्नाइ (Prastav)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ओम् आ याहि वीतये गृणानो हव्यदातये (Udgeeth)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;नि होता सत्सि बर्हिषि ओम् (Pratihar)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Pratihar would have 2 difference that will be chanted in two following two types:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;नि होता सत्सि बर्हिषि (Upadrav)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;बर्हिषि ओम् (Nidhan)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Source: from scanned book of Samaveda Samhita (probably &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedpuran.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/samved.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, Udgeetha is one of the Five parts/divisions/Vibhakti of Saam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting the related part of Adi Shankaracharya Bhashya on the verse you've described in the question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is a well-known fact that this syllable is largely used in Japa, at rites and in the beginning and at the end of Vedic study; which clearly indicates its superiority.-It is for these reasons that one should meditate upon this syllable, in the verbal form. &lt;strong&gt;which is spoken of as 'Udgitha'&lt;/strong&gt;, on the ground of its forming a constituent part of this name (' U dgitha'); which means that one should firmly' cultivate concentrated attention upon the syllable 'Om' which represents the Supreme SELF and which is an essential part of all sacrificial acts. &lt;strong&gt;The Text itself provides the reason for the syllable 'Om' being spoken of as 'U dgitha' : because one sings (beginning) &#xA;  with ' Om '; inasmuch as one begins singing with 'Om'. this syllable is called' U dgitha'.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-10T06:24:54.253" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T06:24:54.253" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15307" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-05T08:40:07.583" Score="9" ViewCount="10689" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for word by word English translation of RigVeda. I have only found the translation by Griffith but it's not word by word translation. Does anyone know of if any such translation exists? It would be of great help to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7854" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-05T18:08:29.917" LastActivityDate="2018-08-30T13:28:20.693" Title="Word by word translation of Rig Veda" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15308" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14458" CreationDate="2016-10-05T10:24:14.153" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Amalanathipiran - Thaniyan&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ThiruppaaN Azhwaar composed ten paasurams among the divya prabandham revered as &quot;Amalanaadhipiraan&quot; Prabhandham. All 10 pasurams praise our Arangan. As ThiruppaaN Azhwaar has not sung on any other divya desa perumal, Arangan gets the distinction of being sung by 11 Aazhwars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Azhwaar's prabhandham is different from all the other aazhwaar's&#xA;  prabhandhams in that it does not contain any upadesams, critique of Veda-&#xA;  Baahya Mathams, messages sent to the Lord as His Naayaki et al.&#xA;  Thiruppaanar's prabhandham is an aanandha-lahari (limitless outpourings of the&#xA;  bliss of aanandham) at the anubhavam of the Lord's Sarvaanga Soundharyam&#xA;  and its redeeming effect. Azhwaar is totally lost in that blissful anubhavam&#xA;  and the ten paasurams arose from him as &quot;the revelational hymns&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let me contemplate on TiruppaanaAzhwar (Munivahana, the saint who was&#xA;  carried to the precincts of the shrine of Lord Ranganatha, by&#xA;  Lokasarangamamuni on his shoulders), whose inner soul (antaratma) became&#xA;  enraptured at the sight of the reclining Lord Hari (Ranganatha) betwixt (the&#xA;  two streams of) the river Kaveri, and who, having experienced (the vision of&#xA;  the Lord) from the feet to His head declared that his eyes would not see any&#xA;  other objects (except the Lord).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let us sing in praise of the holy feet of Sri ThiruppaanaAzhwar, who entered&#xA;  (the holy shrine of Lord Ranganatha) riding on the shoulders of the sage&#xA;  (Lokasaranga-Mahamuni) saw(the Lord in full) and sung (in praise) HIM limb by&#xA;  limb, as the Lord showed to him, i. e., the lotus feet, the silk garment, the&#xA;  navel, the waist band of rare excellence, the holy chest, the neck, the red&#xA;  mouth (with rosy lips), the eyes of unfading (red lotus charm) and the (whole&#xA;  divine) Archa form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ThiruppaaN Azhwaar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thirupanlawar has composed 10 verses on the lord of srirangam and thiruvengadam. if we take the first letter of the first verse &quot;Amalanadhi piran adiyar ..&quot;, first letter of the second verse &quot; uvanda ulaathinay ......&quot; and first letter of third verse &quot; Mandi Pai Vada ... &quot; , it means aum or pranvam. similarly if we were to take the first letter of fifth pasuram &quot;Paramaya Pazhavinay ...&quot; , first letter of sixth pasuram &quot;Thunda Ven Pirayaan .. &quot; and also the first letter of seventh pasuram &quot; Kaiyinar Suri Sanga ..... &quot; it means Padhuka .&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Source --- Nalayira divya Prabandham&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7154" LastEditDate="2016-10-08T17:30:22.610" LastActivityDate="2016-10-08T17:30:22.610" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15309" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15302" CreationDate="2016-10-05T11:07:18.187" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Valmiki Ramayana, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga103/ayodhyasans103.htm#Verse15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 103, Sloka 15&lt;/a&gt;, Rama says पित्रा हीनोऽसि लक्ष्मण meaning &quot;O Lakshmana, You became fatherless.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following explanation is based on Brahmasri Chaganti Koteswara Rao's &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/HH5PQS6ni88?t=7272&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;speech&lt;/a&gt; on Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If father dies, elder brother is considered to be equivalent to or&#xA;  taking the position of father. Since Dasaratha died Rama has to treat&#xA;  Lakshmana as a father. Though the exile is only for Rama, Lakshmana&#xA;  came along with him to forest (even though not necessary) and&#xA;  Lakshmana is doing service to Rama. So Rama is not able to be a good&#xA;  father-like in caring about Lakshmana. But instead Lakshmana is&#xA;  serving Rama and taking care of him like a father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama is seeing a father in Lakshmana even though Dasaratha died. So that is why Rama said to Lakshmana &quot;&lt;em&gt;you&lt;/em&gt; became fatherless.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-29T04:17:29.757" LastActivityDate="2016-12-29T04:17:29.757" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15312" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15050" CreationDate="2016-10-05T12:22:47.823" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Significance of Pancha Mukha Anjaneya is described in official website of &lt;a href=&quot;http://hanumagiri.com/significance-of-panchamukhi/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Panchamukhi Anjaneya Kshetram&lt;/a&gt; which is located in Karnataka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The origin of Sri Panchamukhs Hanuman can be traced to a story in&#xA;  Ramayana. During the war between Lord Rama and Ravana. Ravana took&#xA;  help of Mahiravanka who is the king of Pathala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Hanuman in order to protect Lord Ram and Lakshman formed a&#xA;  fortress with his tail. Mahiravana took the form of Vibeeshana and&#xA;  took Lord Ram and Lakshman to pathala loka. Hanuman entered pathala&#xA;  loka in search of Rama and Lakshmana, He found out that to kill&#xA;  Mahiravana he had to extinguish five lamps burning in five different&#xA;  directions at the same time, so he has taken the Panchamukhi form with&#xA;  Hanuman, Hayagriva, Narasimha, Garuda and Varaha faces and&#xA;  extinguished the lamps and killed Mahiravana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to Hanumath Prakaranam in Sri Vidyarnavatantram, Anjaneya has five faces (Pancha Mukha) and ten weapons. The five faces are that&#xA;  of Lord Hanuman, Lord Narasimha, Lord Adivaraha, Lord Hayagriva, and&#xA;  Lord Garuda. Hanuman is a great yogi (mystic) having transcended the&#xA;  five senses (Pancha Indriyas).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Kamba Ramayanam (in Tamil), the significance of number five is&#xA;  beautifully narrated as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The son of one of the five elements (son of wind – Pavana Thanaya)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;crossed one of the five elements (water – the ocean),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;through one of the five elements (sky),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;met daughter of one of the five elements (daughter of earth – Sita Devi)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;burnt down Lanka by one of the five elements (fire).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sundara Kandam, which highlights the heroic exploits of Lord Hanuman&#xA;  at Lanka is the fifth canto in the Ramayana. Therefore, it is&#xA;  considered auspicious to go around His idol 5 times, 14 times, 23&#xA;  times, 32 times or with such numbers the digits of which add to five.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Panchamukhi hanuman is rare idol of Hanuman. There are many&#xA;  legends and interpretations to same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The legend:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Hanuman is said to have appeared before Raghavendraswamy in a&#xA;  unique way amalgamating within him the avataras of “varaha, garuda,&#xA;  anjaneya, narasimha and hayagreeva”, thus five-headed. Panchamukhi,&#xA;  located on the south bank of river Tungabhadra near Manchala now known&#xA;  as Mantralayam is where Raghavendraswamy performed penance for 12 long&#xA;  years in a cave. In appreciation of his Yoga, Lord Panchamukhi&#xA;  Pranadevaru, Kollahpura Mahalakshmi, Lord Venkateshwara of Tirupati&#xA;  and Kurmavathara gave darshan to him. Then he left for Mantralaya&#xA;  where he entered into Samadhi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A temple has been constructed at the spot where he performed penance&#xA;  known as the Panchamukhi Anjaneyaswamy temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The description for 5 Faces of the Hanuman Idol ( Panchamukhi) is as&#xA;  follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;East facing Anjaneya to grant humanity Ishta Siddhi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;South facing Karala Ugraveera Narasimha to grant humanity Abhista Siddhi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;West facing Mahaveera Garuda to grant humanity Sakala Sowbhagya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;North facing Lakshmi Varaha to grant humanity Dhana Prapthi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Urdhva Mukha {atop} being Hayagriva to grant humanity Sarva Vidya Jaya Prapthi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-08T18:35:52.483" LastActivityDate="2016-10-08T18:35:52.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15314" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-05T15:31:56.583" Score="2" ViewCount="542" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama constructed the Setu from Indian mainland to then Srilanka with help of the vanara army. After the death Ravana, what happened to the stone bridge?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T15:06:19.793" LastActivityDate="2019-06-24T16:07:07.540" Title="What happened to the Rama Setu after Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|history|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15316" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-05T20:12:04.030" Score="2" ViewCount="617" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasadiya_Sukta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 10.129&lt;/a&gt; also known as Nasadiya Suktam is vedic hymn which explain's act of creation of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is Purva Mimansa Sutra commentary on this hymn specifically 10.129.7 which is used by Nastikas(Atheists) to point out that Shruti's reject omnipotence  of Bramhan because the verse 10.129.7 is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इयं विसृष्टिर्यत आबभूव यदि वा दधे यदि वा न |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो अस्याध्यक्षः परमे व्योमन्त्सो अङ्ग वेद यदि वा न वेद ॥७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whence all creation had its origin,&#xA;he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,&#xA;he, &lt;strong&gt;who surveys it all from highest heaven,&#xA;he knows - or maybe even he does not know&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rishi and Devta of this Hymn are Parameshti Prajapati and Bhavvruttam respectively, so most probably the context of this hymn is from the experience of Bramha or Prajpati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any Advaita/Vishitadvaita commentary(Vedanta Bramhasutra Bhasyakars preferably) or any Sri Vaishnava commentary on RV 10.129.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-12T17:59:40.480" Title="Purva Mimansa and Vedanta commentaries on RV 10.129" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|rig-veda|atheism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15317" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15300" CreationDate="2016-10-06T05:42:50.580" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/lyrics/durga-saptashati/siddhakunjika-stotram/durga-saptashati-siddhakunjika-stotram.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Siddha Kunjika Stotra&lt;/a&gt; is recited before Chandi Patha or before reciting the Devi Mahatyam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that just by reciting this stotram the fruits of reciting the Devi Mahatyam are obtained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,if the stotram is not recited before Chandi Patha then the later recitation bears no fruit or bears less fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siddha Kunjika Stotram is composed by Lord Shiva Himself and is found in the &lt;strong&gt;RudraYamala Tantra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिव उवाच शृणु देवि प्रवक्ष्यामि, कुञ्जिकास्तोत्रमुत्तमम्। येन&#xA;  मन्त्रप्रभावेण चण्डीजापः शुभो भवेत॥१॥ न कवचं नार्गलास्तोत्रं कीलकं न&#xA;  रहस्यकम्। न सूक्तं नापि ध्यानं च न न्यासो न च वार्चनम्॥२॥&#xA;  कुञ्जिकापाठमात्रेण दुर्गापाठफलं लभेत्। अति गुह्यतरं देवि देवानामपि&#xA;  दुर्लभम्॥३॥ गोपनीयं प्रयत्‍‌नेन स्वयोनिरिव पार्वति। मारणं मोहनं वश्यं&#xA;  स्तम्भनोच्चाटनादिकम्। पाठमात्रेण संसिद्ध्येत्&#xA;  कुञ्जिकास्तोत्रमुत्तमम्॥४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-Shiva said-&quot;O Parvati,hear the great prayer called Kunjika,by&#xA;  recitation of which the recitation of Chandi Patha(Devi Mahatyam)&#xA;  would become more powerful&amp;amp; auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no need to recite Kavacham ,Argalam ,Kilakam and the Rahasya&#xA;  Thrayam,Nor it is necessary to recite Suktam,Dhyanam,Nyasa neither is&#xA;  a need for worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Just by reciting this stotra we would get the benefit of reciting the&#xA;  Chandi Patha&lt;/strong&gt;.And,O Goddess,even the Gods don't know this secret&#xA;  prayer....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And  the Stotra ends with&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इति श्रीरुद्रयामले गौरीतन्त्रे शिवपार्वतीसंवादे कुञ्जिकास्तोत्रं&#xA;  सम्पूर्णम्। ॥ॐ तत्सत्॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning -Thus ends the Kunjika Stotra which is  found during a dialogue between Shiva &amp;amp; Parvati as found in &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Gowri Tantra in the Rudrayamala.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 4 of the stotra states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गोपनीयं प्रयत्‍‌नेन स्वयोनिरिव पार्वति। मारणं मोहनं वश्यं&#xA;  स्तम्भनोच्चाटनादिकम्। पाठमात्रेण संसिद्ध्येत्&#xA;  कुञ्जिकास्तोत्रमुत्तमम्॥४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-O Parvati you should make effort to keep it(this prayer)&#xA;  secret as just by reciting it one can easily achieve (bad practices like)&#xA;  murder(maarana),enchants(mohana), slavery(vasya),paralysing using repeated chants(stambhana) and sending away(ucchatana)&#xA;  .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the above verse gives an account of what can be achieved by reciting the stotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-06T09:40:59.890" LastActivityDate="2016-10-06T09:40:59.890" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15318" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15338" CreationDate="2016-10-06T09:45:10.053" Score="13" ViewCount="2505" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmavadini&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; provides the names of some of the &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmavadinis&quot; (ब्रह्मवादिनी)&lt;/strong&gt; or female scholars of ancient times, who studied topics related to &lt;strong&gt;brahman (ब्रह्म)&lt;/strong&gt; and took part in debates and discussions about brahman (ब्रह्म) similar to how men participated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lopamudra, Ghosha, Sulabha, Maitreyi, Gargi etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from the above names, are there any other female &quot;Bhramvadinies&quot;  mentioned in any of the Vedic or Upanishadic literature or scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would also like to know in brief about their works (literature) and any stories associated with these women, if any are available.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-04-23T06:12:48.957" LastActivityDate="2021-05-25T10:03:48.950" Title="Names of female scholars from Vaidic and Upanishadic times, or &quot;Brahmavadinis&quot;" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|women|rishi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15319" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15325" CreationDate="2016-10-06T10:58:48.750" Score="7" ViewCount="15435" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is learnt that there are ten types of Mantravada  doshas{ill effects of black magic } from ten directions, called Marana, Uchatana, Mohana, Vidhveshana, Manthra, Tanthra, Vishachoorna, Prayoga, Abhichara and Kruthrima.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sudarshana Homam is considered an ideal remedy for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is Sudarshana Homam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the various benefits of Sudarshana Homam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-06-16T04:44:24.160" LastActivityDate="2018-06-16T04:44:24.160" Title="Sudarshana Homam and its benefits" Tags="|vedas|mantras|homam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15321" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="46625" CreationDate="2016-10-06T13:31:35.443" Score="7" ViewCount="3595" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know a Japa(recitation of Mantras,names of Gods etc) can be of the following 3 types:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)&lt;strong&gt;Vachik&lt;/strong&gt;-A japa where recitation is loud enough so that both the performer &amp;amp; others(present around him) will be able to hear it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)&lt;strong&gt;Upanshu&lt;/strong&gt;-A japa where recitation is like whispering.No one(except the performer himself) will be able to hear the recitation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)&lt;strong&gt;Manasik&lt;/strong&gt;-In this case the japa is done silently, completely in mind.While chanting even the lips and tongue are not supposed to  touch each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have been repeatedly told by our Gurus that among all the above 3 types of japa its the &quot;Manasik Japa&quot; that's considered the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following sloka from Nrishinga Purana says the same.In fact it says  that Manasik japa is the best form of japa followed by Upanshu japa followed by Vachik japa.So,the most beneficial form of Japa is &quot;Manasik&quot; whereas the least beneficial is &quot;Vachik&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vachikshcha Upanshuscha Manasartrividhah Smritah Trayanaam Japa&#xA;  Yajnanaam Shreyaath Syaduttarottaram||-Meaning-Among the 3 forms of Japa (Vachik,Upanshu &amp;amp; Manasik)the 2nd one is better than the 1st one and the 3rd one is better than the 2nd.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nmcnX.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nmcnX.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,apparently and rationally, it should be the other way round,because Vachik japa requires the most purvanga(preparation) whereas Mansik japa can be done at any place at any conditions(of suchi etc).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question-Why &quot;Manasik Japa&quot; is considered the best form of Japa?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-06T14:51:08.793" LastActivityDate="2021-05-29T03:04:42.590" Title="Why &quot;Manasik Japa&quot; is considered the best form of Japa?" Tags="|scripture|mantras|japa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15322" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15299" CreationDate="2016-10-06T15:01:26.013" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahman according to the Upanishads is ekamevadvitiam, i.e., one without a second. There is no second person to worship Brahman. Moreover it is stated quite clearly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That which cannot be comprehended by the mind but by which the mind is&#xA;  cognized know that alone to be Brahman, &lt;strong&gt;and not this that people&#xA;  worship here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kena Upanishad I.6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman is nondual in nature and hence is not worshiped. The Deities and the Supreme Being, Isvara, is at the level of duality and can be worshiped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All the deities are channels to the Supreme.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Suka said, &quot;One who desires to have the lustre of Vedic learning&#xA;  should adore Brahma from whom the Vedas have come; those who seek&#xA;  power of the senses should worship Indra, and those who desire&#xA;  progeny, the Prajapatis. The seeker of wealth should worship Sri Devi;&#xA;  of brilliance, the deity Agni; of wealth, the Vasus; and of power, the&#xA;  Rudras. The seekers of food stuffs should worship Aditi; of heaven,&#xA;  the twelve Adityas; of kingdom, the Visve-devas; and of popularity,&#xA;  the Sadhyas. The seeker of longevity should worship the Asvinidevas;&#xA;  of strength of body, the Bhumi Devi; and of security, Dyo and Bhumi&#xA;  who are the parents of the worlds. The seekers of beauty should&#xA;  worship the Gandharvas; of women, the Apsara Urvasi; and of&#xA;  sovereignty over all, Brahma, the Lord of the worlds. The seeker of&#xA;  fame should worship Vishnu; of immense wealth, Varuna; of learning,&#xA;  Parameswara; and of happy conjugal life, Uma. The seeker of Dharma&#xA;  should worship Vishnu as Uttamasloka; and of increase in progeny, the&#xA;  Pitris; of security from possession by ghosts, Yakshas; and of&#xA;  strength, the Maruts. The seeker of kingdom should worship the Manus&#xA;  and the Devas; of the destruction of enemies by black magic, the&#xA;  Rakshasa Nirritti; and of sexual satisfaction, Soma. But those who&#xA;  have no desires worship the Supreme Being who transcends Nature. But&#xA;  the one Being to be adored with intense devotion by all - whether they&#xA;  be devoid of all desires, or whether they be desirous of all&#xA;  enjoyments, or whether they be seekers of Moksha - is that Supreme&#xA;  Person, the one God of all. (In other words all the Deities mentioned&#xA;  above are nothing but His manifestation, and all their powers stem&#xA;  from Him alone. So a man of intelligence worships the Supreme Being&#xA;  alone through all Deities.) The ultimate object of all worship is the&#xA;  generation of unswerving devotion to the Supreme Being. It leads to&#xA;  liberation, the highest destiny of man. By association with holy men&#xA;  devotion develops in an aspirant.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana II.3.2-11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-10-06T15:01:26.013" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15323" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-06T15:12:03.037" Score="4" ViewCount="3763" Body="&lt;p&gt;If one's father expires on the same day as Ganesh Chaturthi, I would like to know if there's a significance attached to one's death on an auspicious day like the Ganesh Chaturthi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, as both the father's shraddha and Ganesh vrat on chaturthi are equally important for the well being of a family, how can the family perform both the Ganesh vrat and father's shraddha in the later years?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do scriptures say about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7867" LastEditorUserId="7867" LastEditDate="2016-10-06T22:49:35.143" LastActivityDate="2016-10-06T22:49:35.143" Title="Significance of death on Ganesh Chathurthi" Tags="|scripture|ganesha|festivals|sraddha|pitru|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15324" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-06T17:09:37.867" Score="2" ViewCount="207" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I was a student (during 1978-79), I had a book on Ancient Indian History with chronological events (from Vedic times to Modern India), in which the author arrived at date of Ramayana some 7 lac years BC and Mahabharata about 4 lac years BC (I vaguely remember the dates) based on astrological calculations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The best part of the book was it had listed out the chronology of events running into several pages, from Vedic times to Birth of independent India, with names of Kings / dynasties/lineage etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another interesting part of the book is that it argued with proofs that the Indian King who fought Alexander the Great, was Chandra Gupta of the Gupta dynasty and not Chandra Gupta Maurya of the Mauryan dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I lost the book and am still searching for the book, but unable to find it online / in bookstalls. I don't remember the title of the book or author's name. &#xA;Can some body help me with the name of the book and where I can find one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7868" LastEditorUserId="7868" LastEditDate="2016-10-08T15:09:23.583" LastActivityDate="2016-10-08T19:01:05.197" Title="Looking for the book that says Ramayana and Mahabharata took place lacs of years Before Christ" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15325" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15319" CreationDate="2016-10-06T17:39:23.803" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sudarshana Homa&#xA;  Relief from unexplainable diseases and illnesses.&#xA;  In two instances this homam is performed--&#xA;  1.To take charge of your enemies and to relieve you from unexplainable sufferings and worries. &#xA;  2. To drive away evil spirits which was kept on individual or his family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This effective Homa helps you to take charge of your enemies and to relieve you from unexplainable sufferings and worries. Get yourself empowered with positive energy or vibration by performing this Homa. It also helps to foreseen dangers and perils in the pathway of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Sudarshana is the chief deity of this powerful Homa who uses his mighty weapon &quot;Chakra&quot; to grant immediate relief to the sufferings of his devotees. Also, the sins are rooted out by the intensity of His disc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &quot;Sudarshana Chakra&quot; contains healing characteristics. Therefore performing Sudarshana Homa relieves you from afflictions of fever and unknown health sufferings. This is the appropriate Homa which is conducted to vanquish your enemies and protects you from harmful things, fear of ire things, negative chants, evil eye etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A legend has it that once Sudarshana Ashtakam chanting had saved the people of a village who were struck by plague epidemic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is a Pancharatra Agama ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Recommended time&#xA;  Ekadashi, Dwadasi and Pournami Tithis that fall on Wednesdays and Saturdays, during the Budha Horas are considered favorable to perform Sudarshana Homa&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Source---www.priestservices.com/our-services/sudarshana-homa&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7154" LastEditDate="2016-10-08T17:26:03.953" LastActivityDate="2016-10-08T17:26:03.953" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15326" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15303" CreationDate="2016-10-06T17:57:05.237" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ravana abducted Sita towards the end of 13&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; or early part of 14&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; year of her, Rama and Lakshmana's exile from Ayodhya. There are several references in Valmiki Ramayana to support this fact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Aranya Kanda, Sarga 16, Valmiki &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/content?language=ro&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=3&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=16&amp;amp;field_sloka_value=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;mentions&lt;/a&gt; the ṛtu (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_calendar#Seasons&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;season&lt;/a&gt;) as Hemantha (late-autumn or pre-winter, Mārgaśīrṣa or Pauṣa &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_calendar#Month_names&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;month&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vasatastasya tu sukhaṅ rāghavasya mahātmanaḥ. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śaradvyapāyē hēmantaṛturiṣṭaḥ pravartata ৷৷3.16.1৷৷&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While the great self Rama lived happily there, autumn passed and dear &lt;strong&gt;winter set in&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And later in Aranya Kanda, Sarga 56, Ravana, soon after abducting Sita, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/content?language=ro&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=3&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=56&amp;amp;field_sloka_value=24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;warns her&lt;/a&gt; that she only has an year to change her mind and marry him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śṛṇu maithili madvākyaṅ &lt;strong&gt;māsāndvādaśa&lt;/strong&gt; bhāmini ৷৷3.56.24৷৷ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kālēnānēna nābhyēṣi yadi māṅ cāruhāsini. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tatastvāṅ prātarāśārthaṅ sūdāśchētsyanti lēśaśaḥ ৷৷3.56.25৷৷ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O comely princess from Mithila, O lady with a sweet smile! listen to my words. &lt;strong&gt;If you do not accept my hand in the course of twelve months&lt;/strong&gt;, the cooks will cut you off into small bits for (my) breakfast.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sundara Kanda, Sarga 58, Sita &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/content?language=ro&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=5&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=58&amp;amp;field_sloka_value=106&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;tells&lt;/a&gt; Hanuman that she's only 2 months left before Ravana would kill her:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yadyanyathā bhavēdētad&lt;strong&gt;dvau&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;māsau&lt;/strong&gt; jīvitaṅ mama. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  na māṅ drakṣyati kākutsthō mriyē sāhamanāthavat ৷৷5.58.106৷৷&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Otherwise with none to protect me, &lt;strong&gt;I will live only for two months&lt;/strong&gt;. I will die like an orphan and he [Rama] will not see me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then it took Rama and the vānarās a couple of months to build the Nala-setu, reach Lanka and finally defeat Ravana in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_calendar#Month_names&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Phālguna&lt;/a&gt; month, an year after Sita was kidnapped. Rama frees Sita immediately after Ravana is killed and then they all head back to Ayodhya after the 14-year exile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/ramayan/rama_vartak.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;One particular attempt&lt;/a&gt; at astronomically dating the Ramayana, provides the following timeline for some major events of Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Rama's Birth Date            4th  December 7323 B.C&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;Rama-Seeta Married           7th  April    7307 B.C&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;Rama Exiled                  29th November 7306 B.C.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;Hanuman enters Lanka         1st September 7292 B.C&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;Hanuman meets Seeta          2nd September 7292 B.C.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;Setu (Bridge) built          26-30th Oct.  7292 B.C &#xA;on the ocean&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;The War begins               3rd  November 7292 B.C&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;Kumbhakarna is killed        7th  November 7292 B.C.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;Ravana is killed by Rama     15th November 7292 B.C.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;Rama returns to Ayodhya       6th December 7292 B.C.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-10-06T17:57:05.237" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15328" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15330" CreationDate="2016-10-06T21:34:30.593" Score="13" ViewCount="1515" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna has been referred to, using various names in the Mahabharata epic. Sri Krishna often used the name Partha/Kaunteya, when referring to Arjuna,as it originated from  the name of Sri Krishna's aunt Pritha/Kunti, who was Arjuna’s mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And when Sri Krishna wanted to categorize between 3 Kaunteyas and Nakula /Sahadeva(Madreya or Queen Madri's sons) he used the word Kaunteya, for Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to the aforesaid two names,it can be seen in the various Chapters{Parvas} of the Mahabharata epic, that various names like Vibhatsu, Dhananjaya etc have also been used for Arjuna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is understood that all names had a distinct significance, with respect to the context, in which they were being  used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the various appellations of Arjuna? What is the significance of each appellation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2019-02-01T08:02:26.217" LastActivityDate="2019-02-01T08:02:26.217" Title="Various appellations of Arjuna and their significance" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15329" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-06T23:36:19.407" Score="5" ViewCount="858" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kapaleeswarar&lt;/strong&gt;: The Wikipedia &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapaleeshwarar_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; The temple's name is derived from the words kapAlam (head) and eeshwarar an alias of lord Shiva. According to the Puranas, during the meeting of Brahma and Shiva at top of Mount Kailash Brahma failed to show the due respect to Shiva. Due to this, Shiva plucked of one of Brahma's heads (kapalams). I&lt;strong&gt;n an act of penance, Brahma came down to the site of Mylapore and installed a Lingam to please Shiva. This place is known as Sukra Puri, Veda Puri,&lt;/strong&gt; among many other names including “Kailaye Mayilai and Mayilaye Kayilai “which means this place is equal to kailash. Goddess Karpagambal, a form of Shiva's consort &lt;strong&gt;Parvati, due to a curse became a pea-hen and did penance here to get back her original personality&lt;/strong&gt;. Shiva's son Murugan received the spear (Sakthi Vel) for the destruction of a demon from Parvati here. Brahma had worshipped here to get rid of his ego and get back his power to create. &lt;strong&gt;The four Vedas have worshipped here. Sukracharya worshipped the Lord here and got back his lost eye.&lt;/strong&gt; Rama has worshipped here and won the war against Ravana and brought back Sita from Lanka. The daughter of Sivanesa Chettiar Angam Poompavai got her lost life here by the powers of Thirugnana Sambandar. Vayilar Nayanar, a saiva saint, attained salvation here and Mylapore is also the birth place of Thiruvalluvar who wrote Thirukkural. In Thevaram special mention is made about the beautiful Madaveedhi as “Malgun Mathri Thavazhum Maada Veedhi Mylappil Ullar”. Thiruganana Sambandar, Arunagirinathar have sung the glory of Karpagambal, Singara Velar. The 10-day festival during March / April is a treat to watch and Arubathu Moovar festival is attended by lakhs of devotees every year. &lt;a href=&quot;http://archives.amritapuri.org/bharat/purana/chennai.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This page&lt;/a&gt; also confirms this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Audikesava (Ādikeśava):&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://sriaudikesavaperumalpeyalwartemple.org/glory.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The temple website&lt;/a&gt;  says Sri Audikesava appeared from the &lt;strong&gt;Sayana Yagam performed by Maharishi Brigu with Sangu Chakaran in his hands with long curly hair (kesam) hence called Kesavan&lt;/strong&gt;. The rishees workshipped the Lord as sayana Kesavan since apperared from Sayana Yagam. He has given peacock flag (Kodi) to Sooryakula king sumanagan and hence workshipped as mayura Kesavan. &lt;strong&gt;He was also workshipped as Audikesavan since resolved the sin of Adhithyan (Sun God)&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Lord Kesavan also cured the disease of Chandra (Moon) in this Kshthra&lt;/strong&gt;. Lord Kesavan instructed all Punniya Nadhees (Holy Rivers) Ganga, Kaveri, Godhavari etc to get mixed with this theertham where Chandra took a dip and cured his disease. Hence this pushkarani is called &lt;strong&gt;Sarvatheertham and also Chandra Pushkarani&lt;/strong&gt; presently known as Chitrakulam. Thirumazhisai Alwar sung this Kshethram. Sri Andal has sung Mylai Kesava Perumal in her Thiruppavai seventh pasuram. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/2001/05/28/stories/13280796.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;An article in The Hindu&lt;/a&gt; also confirms this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mylapore's ancient name in Puranas is &lt;strong&gt;Mayurapuri&lt;/strong&gt; (City of peacocks). This page &amp;quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://archives.amritapuri.org/bharat/purana/chennai.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;City of peacocks&lt;/a&gt;&amp;quot; says &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;In Brahmanda Purana, circa 3000 BC, Mylapore is mentioned as &amp;quot;Mayurapuri&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/2001/05/28/stories/13280796.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Hindu article&lt;/a&gt; also says &amp;quot; Legend has it that Lord Shiva in the guise of a 'Bhikshanar' came to &lt;strong&gt;Mayurapuri&lt;/strong&gt; and Lord Vishnu, on seeing him, rushed to give him alms. In his haste to oblige his 'bhakta' he came alone without informing his Consorts. &lt;strong&gt;The fourth chapter of the Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; narrates how &lt;strong&gt;Goddess Lakshmi took up residence in this hallowed place. She was known as Mayuravalli Thayar&lt;/strong&gt;. Maharishi Bhrigu, who had no progeny, was observing penance to appease Lord Mahavishnu. The Lord bade Mahalakshmi to appear as a child in the sage's heritage. Thus was ushered into this world a child of bewitching charm on the Uthiram asterism in the month of Phanguni. &lt;strong&gt;She chose a lily floating on the tank at Mayurapuri as her bed. Sage Bhrigu named the child Bhargavi.&lt;/strong&gt; She soon grew up to be a maiden of divine grace. When Lord Shiva plucked the fifth head of the contumacious Brahma, the severed head got stuck in his hands. He was known as Kapali (the possessor of Kapala or skull). &lt;strong&gt;When Bhargavi offered grains to Brahma Kapala, the head disappeared, thereby relieving Lord Shiva of his distress. He made Mayurapuri his abode and assumed the name Kapaleeswarar&lt;/strong&gt;. &amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sriaudikesavaperumalpeyalwartemple.org/glory.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The temple website&lt;/a&gt; of AdiKesava says &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;The Avatharam of Sri Audikesava is described in &amp;quot; Garuda Purana&amp;quot; in third chapter&lt;/strong&gt;. This book is maintained in Madras Oriental Govt. Library in D15299.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not able to find any of these stories or name as Mayurapuri in Brahmanda Purana( Source &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/BrahmandaPuranaG.V.TagarePart1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/BrahmandaPuranaG.V.TagarePart2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/BrahmandaPuranaG.V.TagarePart3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/BrahmandaPuranaG.V.TagarePart4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/BrahmandaPuranaG.V.TagarePart5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt;), &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600207.us.archive.org/19/items/GarudaPuranaEnglishMotilal3VolumesIn1/Garuda%20Purana%20English%20-%20Motilal%20-%203%20Volumes%20in%201.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/a&gt;. There is a Kapalesvara story in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-xiii/chapter-08/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Puaranam, Avantya Khandam, Chaturasiti Linga Mahatmya, Chapter 8&lt;/a&gt;. But this story is all about Avanti Kshetra (Ujjain) and the stories do not match.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does the currently available editions of Garuda Purana, Brahmanda Purana or any other Puranas  or scriptures contain these stories about these temples and about the place Mayurapuri? If they do exist, Please mention the particular chapters and Khandas of the corresponding Puranas and cite some slokas or their meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kapaleeswarar temple&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2Wg3X.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2Wg3X.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Kapaleeswarar Temple&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AdiKesava Temple (Utsava Vigrahas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xk8Ge.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xk8Ge.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;AdiKesava&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-12-01T23:43:13.130" Title="Kapaleeswara and Adikesava - Mylapore" Tags="|puranas|garuda-purana|brahmanda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-12-02T05:57:31.610" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15330" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15328" CreationDate="2016-10-07T02:26:05.680" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was chiefly referred to, using ten appellations, in the Mahabharata epic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These names along with their significance, was disclosed by Arjuna himself to Prince Uttara of the Matsya kingdom, before the war of Virata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ten appellations of Arjuna, along with the significance of each, are explained hereunder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna said, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'I will, O son of Virata, tell thee my ten names. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Listen thou and compare them with what thou hadst heard before. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Listen to them with close attention and concentrated mind. They are Arjuna, Falguna, Jishnu, Kiritin, Swetavahana, Vibhatsu, Vijaya, Krishna, Savyasachin and Dhananjaya.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uttara said, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tell me truly why art thou called Vijaya, and why Swetavahana. Why art thou named Krishna and why Arjuna and Falguna and Jishnu and Kiritin and Vibhatsu, and for what art thou Dhananjaya and Savyasachin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna said, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{1}They called me Dhananjaya because I lived in the midst of wealth, having subjugated all the countries and taking away their treasures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{2}They called me Vijaya because when I go out to battle with invincible kings, I never return (from the field) without vanquishing them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{3}I am called Swetavahana because when battling with the foe, white horses decked in golden armour are always yoked unto my car. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{4}They call me Falguna because I was born on the breast of the Himavat on a day when the constellation Uttara Falguna was on the ascendent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{5}I am named Kiritin from a diadem, resplendent like the sun, having been placed of old on my head by Indra during my encounter with the powerful Danavas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{6}I am known as Vibhatsu among gods and men, for my never having committed a detestable deed on the battle-field. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{7}And since both of my hands are capable of drawing the Gandiva, I am known as Savyasachin among gods and men. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{8}They call me Arjuna because my complexion is very rare within the four boundaries of the earth and because also my acts are always stainless. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{9}I am known among human beings and celestials by the name of Jishnu, because I am unapproachable&#xA;  and incapable of being kept down, and a tamer of adversaries and son of the slayer of Paka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{10}And Krishna, my tenth appellation, was given to me by my father out of affection towards his black-skinned boy of great purity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna also had a few other names, as mentioned below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{11} Gudakesha - someone who has control over sleep. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{12} Kapidhwaja - having flag of Kapi (monkey) in his chariot (Arjuna's flag displayed an image of Hanuman}. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{13} Parantapa - one who concentrates the most, destroyer of enemies from his concentration. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{14} Gandivadhanvan - one who possessed the mighty bow named 'Gandiva' which was created by Lord Brahma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{15} Gandivadhara - Gandiva holder &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{16} Madhyapandava - the third of Pandavas, younger to Yudhishtra and Bhima &#xA;  and elder to Nakula and Sahadeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to the above mentioned names, Lord Sri Krishna has addressed Arjuna with names &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;like-(i)Anagha-the sinless one(ii)Purushavyaghra-tiger amongst &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;men and (iii)Bharatasattama-best of the Bharatas, in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Book:4, Virata Parva, Go-Harana Parva&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjuna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-07-09T15:29:33.103" LastActivityDate="2018-07-09T15:29:33.103" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15331" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15319" CreationDate="2016-10-07T05:12:52.013" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Homa is a fire sacrifice. Sudarshana Homa is sacrifice to Sudarshana Chakra ,the weapon of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Sudarshana Homa and how to do it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;! Perform Viśvaksena Pūjā and other preliminaries. ! Invoke Sudarśana&#xA;  in the Kumbha as for Puṇyāha Vācanam and offer 16 upacāras. ! Perform&#xA;  all the rites of agni mukhaṁ up to āghāram and ājyabhāgam as per&#xA;  Vadika vidhi or Pañcarātrika Nitya Homa vidhi and &lt;strong&gt;then perform&#xA;  pradhāna homa with the following mantras adding svāhā to the end. One&#xA;  may use all the mantras according to time and place, or one may just&#xA;  use the mūla mantra and māla mantra.&lt;/strong&gt; Homa may also be performed with&#xA;  the Sudarśana Kavacam - adding svāhā to the end of each verse&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 9 mantras in all.I'm not giving all of them but only the Mula , Mala &amp;amp; Gayatri mantras with the warning &lt;strong&gt;that one should not learn rituals from internet&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. mūla mantra&lt;/strong&gt; oṁ sahasrāra huṁ phaṭ svāhā ||&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;2. māla mantra&lt;/strong&gt; oṁ kliṁ kṛṣṇāya govindāya gopijanavallabhāya parāya parama puruṣāya paramātmane, para-karma mantra yantra tantra&#xA;  auṣadhayaḥ astra śastrāṇi saṁhara saṁhara, mṛtyor mokṣaya mokṣaya, oṁ&#xA;  namo bhagavate mahā-sudarśanāya dīptre jvāla parītāya, sarva-dik&#xA;  kṣobhaṇa-karāya huṁ phaṭ brahmaṇe parama jyotiṣe svāhā ||&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;3. gāyatri&lt;/strong&gt; 1 oṁ sudarśanāya vidmahe | hetirājāya dhīmahi | tannas cakra pracodayāt ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The following screenshot and all informations given above are taken from a Panchratra Prayoga book.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/onyZ6.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/onyZ6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few benefits of doing the Homa-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Protects us from enemies and evil spells. Remedy (Parihara) for &#xA;  breaking the evil spells. Removes obstacles and makes your mission&#xA;  successful. Remedy from 10 different types of Mantravada  doshas from&#xA;  10 directions called Marana, Uchatana, Mohana, Vidhveshana, Manthra,&#xA;  Tanthra, Visha choorna, Prayoga, Abhichara and Kruthrima. Helps to&#xA;  improve our business. Removes your worries and grants happiness.&#xA;  Protects our property.  Improves our energy level. Grants the&#xA;  performer health, wealth and prosperity   Protects home and family&#xA;  from evil forces like Bhoota, Preta, Pishacha, Dakinee, Shakinee,&#xA;  Mohinee Brahmarakshasa, Betala. Eliminate undesirable elements. &#xA;  Relief from unexplainable diseases and illnesses    Rremedy (Parihara)&#xA;  for “Drishti doshas” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-10-07T05:12:52.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15332" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-07T05:46:39.043" Score="0" ViewCount="79" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mitra is supposed to have got transformed to Mithra. It also made into Zoroastrianism. Sun seems to widely popular deity in ancient cultures. Is there any good book that relates Hindu Culture and other ancient cultures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5210" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T14:00:32.470" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T16:24:19.460" Title="Hindu deities and nearby cultures" Tags="|history|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15334" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15260" CreationDate="2016-10-07T06:53:01.707" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having worshipped the Lord with love, lit by the lamp we see the beauty of the Lord in all his glory. The singing, clapping is associated with the joy that accompanies the vision of the Lord.Aarti being performed with Camphor has a spiritual significance. Camphor burns itself out completely without leaving a trace. Camphor represents our Vasanas, unmanifest desires. So also if we were to take refuge in the Lord, obtain knowledge, these desires will get burnt out. Al though the camphor burns itself out, it emits a nice perfume. On a human plane it means that we should sacrifice ourselves to serve society, in the process spread the perfume of love and happiness to all.&#xA;  We close our eyes while performing the Aarti as if to look within. The Self or Atman is within us. . Self realization can be achieved by knowing thyself, with the flame of knowledge. At the end of the aarti we place the hands over the flame and touch our eyes and top of the head. It means that may the light that illumined the Lord light up my vision, may my thoughts be pure and beautiful.&#xA;  With the Aarti comes the flame which signifies light. There can be light in our lives only if we have knowledge. In an era of darkness there would be ignorance, we would be perpetually running to fulfill our vasanas resulting in unhappiness and stress all around.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source---hindunet.org/faq/fom-serv/cache/22.html&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A philosophical moral of the burning incense stick is that, just as it burns away to ashes while simultaneously pervading the air with fragrance, an aspirant should sacrifice his life to serve others and mould it such that its fragrance inspires others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7154" LastEditDate="2016-10-07T10:44:32.690" LastActivityDate="2016-10-07T10:44:32.690" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15335" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15328" CreationDate="2016-10-07T07:07:17.037" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Following are the various names of Arjuna and what they stand for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhananjaya - because even after having conquered all the lands and amassed wealth he stands in the centre of righteousness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vijaya - because in fights with haughty opponents, he always succeeds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Śvetavāhana, Sitāsva, Sita-sapti, Anīlavājin - because white horses are harnessed to his chariot decked with golden ornaments.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Phālguna - because he was born in the month of Phālguna and under the star, Phālguna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kirīti - because during his fight with daityas he put on a head crown which was glowing as the Sun.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhībhatsu - because he never resorts to revolting-means during war.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Savyasācī - because both his hands are adept in using the bow, Gāṇḍīva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arjuna - because, people who possess fair colour as him are rare and moreover his acts are white (just and ethical).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jiṣṇu - he's unassailable and unconquerable, he subjugates and conquers, and also because he's the son of Indra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kṛṣṇa - the name his father gave him because he was very attractive.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;kapi-dwaja, kapi-ketana (with the ape-banner), lankesa-vanari-ketu (having the enemy of the grove of Ravana i.e., Hanuman for an ensign)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna-jit (conqueror of karna), Karnari (enemy of karna)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaunteya or Kunti-suta (son of Kunti)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;pārtha (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/1/25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 1.25&lt;/a&gt;) or pritā-suta or pritāja (son of Prita)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pāndava, Pāndaveya, Pändunandana (son of Pāndu)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Madhyama-pāndava (middlemost of the five Pāndavas)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaurava, Kuru-nandana (descendant of Kuru, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/41&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 2.41&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;kuru-śreṣṭha (best of the Kurus, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/19&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 10.19&lt;/a&gt;) or kuru-sattama (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/31&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 4.31&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna-paksha (one who stands on the side of Krishna)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna-sakha (friend or follower of Krishna)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna-sarathi (having Krishna for a charioteer)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gāndīvin (possessor of Gāṇḍīva)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gudā-kesa (whose hair forms tufts or matted locks)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Citra-yodhin (fighting in a wonderful manner or in various ways)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Citranga (due to his wife Citrangada?)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01174.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tāpatya&lt;/a&gt; (descendant of Tapati who's the daughter of Surya and Chāya. She married Samvarana and is the mother of Kuru)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rādhā-bhedin&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;according to some this name has reference to a particular attitude in shooting (standing with the feet a span apart)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;according to others it was given to Arjuna as having prevailed on Krishna to abandon Rādha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vrihan-nalā or Vrihan-nada - name assumed when living in the family of king Virata as a eunuch in female attire&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sabda-bhedin or Sabda-vedhin (sound-piercer)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Subhadresa (husband of Subhadra)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhārata (descendant of Bharata)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhimänuja (younger brother of Bhima):&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As son of Indra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aindri&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vāsavi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tridasavarātmaja&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vārtraghna (fr. vritra-ghna - son of the Vritra-slayer)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sakra-suta or Sakra-nandana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Surapati-tanaya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kausikatmaja&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Paka-sasani - fr. Paka-sasana (punisher of the daitya Paka or instructor of the ignorant)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Conversation between Uttara and Arjuna in Virata Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft#page/54/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puranic Encyclopedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://play.google.com/books/reader?printsec=frontcover&amp;amp;output=reader&amp;amp;id=_3NWAAAAcAAJ&amp;amp;pg=GBS.PR3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Monier Williams Sanskrit-English dictionary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=c1ROAQAAMAAJ&amp;amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;amp;output=reader&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;pg=GBS.PA86&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, Søren Sørensen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-10-07T07:07:17.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15336" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15138" CreationDate="2016-10-07T07:11:03.747" Score="45" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism we have the concept of &quot;Ashtavidha Mithuna&quot; .i.e 8 forms of copulation all of which are equivalent or equally important in a given context .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,from the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During the Upavaasa time(fasting time), one should not take water too&#xA;  many times, should not chew betel leaves/nuts, should not sleep, nor&#xA;  resort to &lt;strong&gt;Ashtavidha Mithuna&lt;/strong&gt; ie. &lt;strong&gt;think of sex, hear provocative&#xA;  songs, viewing objectionable material&lt;/strong&gt;, secret gossip, take vows and&#xA;  decisions and refrain from acts other than related to devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yoga-age.com/modern/brahma.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Daksha Smriti&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thinking of a woman or her picture, praising a woman or her picture,&#xA;  sporting with a woman or her picture, glancing at a woman or her&#xA;  picture, secretly talking to a woman, thinking of a sinful action&#xA;  towards a woman actuated by sensuality, determining upon the sinful&#xA;  action, and bodily action resulting in the discharge of semen are the&#xA;  eight characteristics of copulation; and Brahmacharya is quite&#xA;  contrary to all these eight indications.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,viewing/reading pornography comes under one or more types(of copulation) given above.&#xA;So,the point is, if one form of copulation is objectionable in a given context then any other 7 forms are equally objectionable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence, if doing actual copulation is offensive or objectionable in a context/situation then viewing porn is equally offensive or objectionable in that context/situation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For example,in Hinduism &quot;Parastreegamana&quot; (having sex with other's  wife ) is a sin.So ,whatever i have posted above would imply that, viewing pornography(which is  nothing but watching a parastree, or someone who's not one's wife, having sex) is also a similar kind of sin.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit-The following texts are taken from an abridged version Yajnavalkya Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;36&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A householder should preferably wear a white cloth. Hair, moustache and nails shall he kept always clean. He should not take&#xA;  food unless supervised by his wife.......&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He should never gaze at fire, sun, a nude woman, a woman engaged in a sexual act, wine, faeces, etc.&lt;/strong&gt; He should never sleep with his&#xA;  head to the west.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KtASG.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KtASG.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And more from the same Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13 — 20. There are many Upapātakas (minor sins and turpitude).......&#xA;  causing others to break their vow, selfish ventures, cohabitation with&#xA;  an alcoholic, forsaking of one's study of Vedas, sacred fires, child,&#xA;  and kinsmen, &lt;strong&gt;perusal of illegal and unholy literature,&lt;/strong&gt; selling of&#xA;  oneself or one's own wife, all these are Upapātakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above texts in bold have direct reference to pornography or sexually explicit materials i guess.And as per them,viewing pornography comes under &quot;minor sins&quot; or &lt;em&gt;Upapaatakas&lt;/em&gt;.(&lt;em&gt;Mahapaatakas&lt;/em&gt; are grave sins)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, maintaining Brahmacharya(celibacy) is of utmost significance for spiritual aspirants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-14T05:43:17.950" LastActivityDate="2016-10-14T05:43:17.950" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15337" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-07T09:19:28.117" Score="4" ViewCount="401" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism, a dead person's body is supposed to be cremated and no memorial should be erected over it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the contrary, the body of a dead saint is buried and a memorial (i.e., Brindavan) is constructed over it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why are saints buried? What is the need for such a practice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-07T20:01:16.577" LastActivityDate="2016-10-07T20:01:16.577" Title="After dying, why are Saints buried instead of burning?" Tags="|rituals|practice|death|samskara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2018-02-05T02:55:17.990" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15338" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15318" CreationDate="2016-10-07T10:19:46.297" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Brihad Devata, 2.82-84 &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/brhaddevataattri01saunuoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Source&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/brhaddevataattri01saunuoft/brhaddevataattri01saunuoft_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;English Transliteration Source&lt;/a&gt;, there are several Brahmavadinis as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ghosa Godha Visvavara Apalopanisan Nisat ;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmajaya Juhur nama, Agastyasya svasaditih. [82]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indrani cendramata ca Sarama Romasorvasi;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lopamudra ca Nadyas ca Yami nari ca Sasvati .[83]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srir Laksa Sarparajnl Vak Sraddha Medha ca Daksina;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ratrl Surya ca Savitrl brahmavadinya Iritah. [84]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ghosa: Name of the authoress of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-x/suktha-i-to-l/suktha-39&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 5.39&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-x/suktha-i-to-l/suktha-40&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 5.40&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Godha: Name of the authoress of a Sāman &lt;a href=&quot;http://kjc-sv013.kjc.uni-heidelberg.de/dcs/index.php?contents=lemma&amp;amp;IDWord=124815&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Visvavara: Name of the authoress of the hymn &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-v/topic-28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 5.28&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Apala: Name of the authoress of the hymn &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-viii/suktha-lxxxi-to-ciii/topic-91&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 8.91&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Upanisat&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nisat&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Juhu Brahmajaya: Name of the authoress of the hymn &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-x/suktha-ci-to-cxx/suktha-109&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 10.109&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Agastyasya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aditi: Name of the authoress of the hymn &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-iv/topic-18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 4.18&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indrani: Name of the authoress of the hymn &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-x/suktha-li-to-c/suktha-86&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 10.86&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indramata&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sarama: Name of the reputed authoress of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-x/suktha-ci-to-cxx/suktha-108&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 10.108&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Romasa: Name of the reputed authoress of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-i/topic-126&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 1.126,7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Oorvasi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lopamudra: Name of the authoress of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-i/topic-179&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 1.179&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nadya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yami&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sasvati: Name of the authoress of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-viii/suktha-i-to-xx/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 8.1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Lakshaa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sarparajni&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vak&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sraddha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Medha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Daksina: Name of the authoress of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-x/suktha-ci-to-cxx/suktha-107&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 10.107&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ratri&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Surya Savitri: Name of the authoress of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-x/suktha-li-to-c/suktha-85&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 10.85&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Except these, there are some others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vasukrapatni: Name of the authoress of the verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-x/suktha-i-to-l/suktha-28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 10.28.1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have also taken help from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Women_as_Rishikas_in_the_Vedas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindupedia.com&lt;/a&gt; website.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-10-07T11:38:11.117" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15339" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-07T18:58:29.533" Score="4" ViewCount="1354" Body="&lt;p&gt;When the Pandavas were in exile, at that time, Narada muni approached their hideout and had discussion with Yudhishtira about Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone briefly explain what that discussion was?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7580" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-07T19:48:16.183" LastActivityDate="2016-11-04T16:13:01.847" Title="What was the discussion between Narada muni and Yudhishtira about dharma?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|narada|yudhisthira|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15341" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-07T19:59:28.737" Score="6" ViewCount="4539" Body="&lt;p&gt;How we can do pooja on Amavsya to please our pitras &amp;amp; get favor to get down the affect of pitradosha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7877" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-13T03:20:56.440" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T12:14:51.217" Title="How we can do pooja on Amavsya to please our pitras?" Tags="|rituals|practice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15342" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15138" CreationDate="2016-10-08T00:54:07.283" Score="13" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Some background&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Hindus, religion is the means of realizing dharma (virtuous deeds), artha (wealth, career), kāma (desire or pleasure of senses) and mokṣa (self-realization). Together these four are called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puru%E1%B9%A3%C4%81rtha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puruṣārthas&lt;/a&gt; (objects of human pursuit).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kāma is ephemeral happiness we derive from worldly pleasures while mokṣa is everlasting happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma should be a life-long objective. The pursuit of artha (wealth, material needs) and kāma (desire, love) must be given up at a certain stage in a man's life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But why are artha and kāma needed in first place?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A man needs money and material goods to live in this world. As for kāma or carnal desire, it is needed so that children may be born according to their past karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Can't we just renounce everything and become a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sannyasa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sannyasi&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Until we have lived out our karma we too will have to be in this world. In this way if we want to give a &amp;quot;chance&amp;quot; to others, we have to earn money and experience kāma so that they these others may be born again. We need householders to feed sannyasins who have given up karma. It would not be practical for all people in this world to become ascetics. &lt;strong&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shastra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;śāstras&lt;/a&gt; extol householders as the backbone of society since they live, or are expected to live, according to the dictates of dharma and fulfill the requirements of student-bachelors and ascetics.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Now, to address your question and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/697/what-does-hinduism-say-about-masturbation&quot;&gt;the likes of it&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Can the Student or Ascetic do it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the gurukula, the celibate-student is brought under strict discipline. That saves him from being swept away by animal passion.&#xA;Though we talk of animal passion, we must note that animals mate only during a particular season. They have the sexual urge only when the female of the species is ready for pregnancy. Man is baser in such matters. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmacharya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmacarya&lt;/a&gt; helps to control the carnal urge as it first shows up. Then, in the householder's life, since kāma is made subservient to dharma, the passions are kept under check.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What about the Householder?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskara_(rite_of_passage)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saṃskāras&lt;/a&gt; such as marriage are akin to making chillis less hot by tempering them with &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghee&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ghee&lt;/a&gt;: they serve to tame the natural urges. We add ghee to the chilli so that it does not inflame the intestines. &lt;strong&gt;Carnal pleasure and worldly enjoyment are part of the life of a householder but they are kept within certain limits so that he is not overcome by them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After completing one's student-bachelorhood and acquiring learning and good qualities, one must marry so as to perform religious rites and live a life guided by dharma. Marriage is included among the forty samskaras, which fact shows that it is a sacred rite that sanctifies life. Just as upanayana is preliminary (ptirvanga) to the student-bachelor's stage of life, marriage is preliminary to that of the householder. &lt;strong&gt;Its purpose is disciplining the senses and the basis for the performance of various duties.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The householder's life is not to be taken to mean merely the enjoyment of sensual pleasure along with the carrying out of duties that mean good to the world. The fact is that the śāstras have formulated this stage of life in such a way as to make kāma itself instinct with dharma. &amp;quot;Dharma&amp;quot; means essentially bringing everything within certain limits, under a certain discipline and decorum. &lt;strong&gt;Kāma must be inspired by dharma, i.e., one must bridle one's passions in one's conjugal life, so that, step by step, the carnal urge will lose its keenness and eventually one will gain the mellowness to graduate to sannyāsa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That stage, though, comes later. But at first, even now, in the householder's stage of life, the passions have to be curbed, little by little, but not forcibly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-08T00:54:07.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15343" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-08T05:29:40.127" Score="3" ViewCount="252" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are the mantras, rituals etc. from Vedas available only for Brahmins? Does it mean that castes other than Brahmins do not have any prescribed rules of life and rituals?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7879" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-19T09:23:44.360" LastActivityDate="2018-02-19T09:23:44.360" Title="Do Vedas &amp; Grihya sutras prescribe rules only for a Brahmin?" Tags="|vedas|rituals|dharma-shastras|vedic-rituals|grihya-sutra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15344" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14365" CreationDate="2016-10-08T07:36:35.300" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Puranas don't contradict with it. One must also have &lt;strong&gt;internal Purity while taking dip in holy waters&lt;/strong&gt;. The significance of taking dip in Ganga is mentioned in many scriptures. Not only Ganga, taking dip in any holy-water body (be it Pushkaram or Kumbha Mela or some other occasion) with internal purity will wash our bad karma. Skanda Purana describes many such thirthas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Linga Purana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/linga-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-08/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 8&lt;/a&gt; emphasizes on importance of internal purity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;बाह्यशौचेन युक्त: संस्तथा चाभ्यंतरं चरेत्। आग्नेयं वारुणं ब्राह्यं&#xA;कर्तव्य शिवपूजकैः॥३२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स्नानं विधानत: सम्यक् पश्चादाभ्यंतरं&#xA;चरेत्। आदेहांतं मृदालिप्य तीर्थतोयेषु सर्वदा॥३३॥ &lt;br&gt;अवगाह्यापि मलिनो&#xA;ह्यतश्शौचविवर्जितः । शैवला झषका मत्स्याः सत्त्वा मत्स्योपजीविनः॥३४&#xA;&lt;br&gt; सदावगाह्य: सलिले विशुद्धा: कि द्विजोत्तमा:। तस्मादाभ्यंतरं शौचं&#xA;सदा कार्य विधानत:॥३५॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The persons, who are outwardly clean, should practice for internal&#xA;cleanliness as well. One should take the external bath appropriately,&#xA;which is of three types: of fire, of water and Brahma. &lt;strong&gt;After having&#xA;an external bath, one should have internal bath as well. In case, a&#xA;person is internally unclean and plasters mud over his body and takes&#xA;bath in the holy waters, he remains impure. O excellent Brahmanas,&#xA;moss, fishes, the sharks and the animals that prey upon fishes, always&#xA;remain in water. But are they pure? Therefore, one should practice&#xA;internal purity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आत्मज्ञानांभसि स्नात्वा सकृदालिप्य भावत&lt;/strong&gt;:। सुवैराग्यमृदा शुद्धः शौचमेवं प्रकीर्तितम्॥३६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Internal purity is believed to be of various types. One should apply&#xA;the holy ashes of detachment with a feeling of devotion. &lt;strong&gt;One should&#xA;take a holy dip into the water of knowledge of the Soul. This is how&#xA;one can attain self purification.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-10-08T07:36:35.300" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15347" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15353" CreationDate="2016-10-08T13:01:07.193" Score="7" ViewCount="8134" Body="&lt;p&gt;Navarathri is a very important festival of the Hindus. This is a festival during  which Devi ie Goddess Durga, is worshipped for nine nights.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess  Durga  is worshipped in various forms on each day, of the Navarathri festival. On day 1 is worshipped  Devi Shailaputri{variously known as Sati Bhavani, Parvati or Hemavati{also spelled as Hymavati- for daughter of Himavan}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And like that for the next eight days ,Goddess Durga is worshipped in other forms viz Devi Brahmacharini,Chandraghanta,Kushmanda{or Ashtabhuja Devi},Skandamata{also known as Devi Padmasana},Kathyayini,Kaalratri{also called Devi Shubhamkari},Mahagauri and Siddhidhatri. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Durga Saptashati Devi Apradha Kshamapana Strotram,is also recited&#xA; during Navarathri. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of Durga Saptashati Devi Apradha Kshamapana Stotram?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the benefits of reciting Durga Saptashati Devi Aparadha Kshamapana Stotram? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-10-17T06:08:22.550" LastActivityDate="2018-10-17T06:08:22.550" Title="What are the benefits of reciting Durga Saptashati Devi Aparadha Kshamapana Stotram?" Tags="|worship|durga|stotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15349" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11426" CreationDate="2016-10-08T13:45:47.550" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all one need to understand that Nama Japa is different from Mantra Japa.A Mantra is one which is always preceded by the Pranava Beeja OM.Otherwise the mantra is lifeless.(See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14769/what-is-the-origin-of-the-sloka-mantraanaam-pallavo-vaaso&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10550/is-reciting-vedic-mantras-without-being-preceded-by-om-condemned-somewhere-in&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question)Nothing of that sort applies to Nama Japa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,a Mantra is always associated with a corresponding &lt;em&gt;&quot;Viniyoga Mantra&quot;&lt;/em&gt; which is uttered to &quot;unlock&quot; the full potential of the actual Mantra by acknowledging the Risi,Devata and Chanda of the Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover,performing Kara ,Anga-adi Nyasas are often mandatory for attaining success in Mantra Japa.&lt;em&gt;No such restrictions apply to Nama Japa.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Puja &amp;amp; Yajna we use Mantra (Japa) &amp;amp; not Nama Japa.So,Mantra Japa is essentially (another form of)Worship or Yajna and is distinct from Nama Japa or Nama Samkeertana in the stricter sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt;(the essence of all Dharma Shastras):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu Purana: Sarve Brahma vadavyanti sampraptetun Kaloau yuge, Naanu&#xA;  tishthanti Maitreya shishnodara parayanaah/ Yada yadaasataam haanih&#xA;  Vedamargaanu saarinaam, Tadaa tadaa Kaler - vriddhih anumeyaa&#xA;  vichakshanaih// Veda Vyaasauvaacha: Yatkrute dashabhirvarshaih&#xA;  tretaayaam vaayanenatu Dvaapare tacchamaasena hyahoraatrena tatlalou/&#xA;  Dhyaayan Krite yajan yagjnaih Tretaayaam Dwapare archayan, Yadaapnoti&#xA;  tadaapnoti Kalou samkeerta Keshavam/ Naaradiye/ Hare Keshava Govinda&#xA;  Vaasudeva Janaarddana, Iteetayanti nityam sahitaan badhate Kalih//&#xA;  Shiva Shankara Rudreti Nilakantha Trilochana, Iteerayanti ye nityam&#xA;  sahitaan baadhate Kalih/ Shiva Shankara Rudreti Neelakantha&#xA;  Trilochana, Iteerayanti ye nityam sahitaan baadhate Kalih/ (Vishnu&#xA;  Purana details Yuga dharmas as follows: In Kali Yuga, every one&#xA;  discusses about Brahma Jnaana but none is really interested in it&#xA;  since they are overwhelmed of selfishness, centric pysche and sex but&#xA;  none really is serious in favour of Brahma Jnaana; as and when there&#xA;  occurs a danger to the Virtuous, there is the upgradation of evil&#xA;  forces and infringement of virtue, and the signs of Kali Yuga become&#xA;  prominent and clear. Vyasa states: What ever deeds of virtue are&#xA;  performed in ten years in Krita yuga are as dispensed with or equal to&#xA;  those peformed in one Ayana on Treta Yuga, one month in one Dvapara&#xA;  yuga and even in single day-night on Kali Yuga. &lt;strong&gt;1)The rewards of&#xA;  virtue by of Tapas during KritaYuga are as good as Yagjnas in Treta&#xA;  yuga, worships in DvaparaYuga and even ‘Samkeertanas’ rendering Sacred&#xA;  Songs in Kali yuga)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada Brahmarshi that states the soulful singing of Narayana as: Here&#xA;  Keshava Govinda Vaasudeva Janardana Iteerayanti nityam sahitaan&#xA;  baadhate Kalih/ Or alternatively as Shiva Shankara Rudreti Neelakantha&#xA;  Tricochana, Itirtayanti ye nityam sahitaan baadhate Kalih/ &lt;strong&gt;2)That is&#xA;  either render Hari Smarana or Hara smarana as above! Kali Yuga would&#xA;  never ever torment sincere prayers with the naamas as mentioned above.&#xA;  Such indeed are the Yuga Dharmas!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From highlighted portion &lt;strong&gt;1&lt;/strong&gt; we can conclude that what is worship( or Mantra Japa) in Dwapara , Yajna(or Mantra japa) in Treta  is Nama Samkeertana(or Nama Japa) in Kali .This   implicitly implies &lt;strong&gt;that Nama Japa is more effective than Mantra Japa in Kali yuga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Highlighted portion &lt;strong&gt;2&lt;/strong&gt; also declares the same thing viz-&lt;em&gt;Nama Japa is the best protection from all kinds of evil in Kali Yuga.&lt;/em&gt;.This also implies that Nama Japa has more effectiveness than Mantra Japa in Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the statement that &quot;Nama Japa is the only mode of salvation &lt;strong&gt;for everyone&lt;/strong&gt; in Kali&quot; seems to be an exaggerated one &amp;amp;  is possibly not true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &quot;Chaitanya Charitra Amrita&quot; however says : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Naam Bina Kali kaale naai aar dharmo,Sarva Mantra Saar Naam-Ei Sastro&#xA;  Mormo&quot;(Bengali)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-There is no Dharma in Kali other than Nama ,Nama is the essence of all Mantras &amp;amp; this is the essence of all Shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T11:20:13.617" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15350" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15356" CreationDate="2016-10-08T14:00:21.360" Score="8" ViewCount="1748" Body="&lt;p&gt;In our life we accumulate many things like memories, beliefs, knowledge, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But after death what do we actually carry from current life into afterlife, and what things will fill the next body after rebirth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user2578" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-08T19:18:09.193" LastActivityDate="2016-10-25T01:28:18.360" Title="According to Hinduism, what do we carry into afterlife and next birth?" Tags="|belief|atma|death|rebirth|life|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15352" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15360" CreationDate="2016-10-08T15:17:34.233" Score="5" ViewCount="3758" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think it is noticeable that before any aarti this shlok is recited before the start of aarti. my question is, is there any reason behind it and is it also happening from past.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karpuragauram_Karunavtaaram&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karpuragauram_Karunavtaaram&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7376" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-09T07:53:53.797" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T09:27:59.403" Title="Why the &quot;Karpuragauram karunavtaaram..&quot; shloka is recited before any aarti?" Tags="|shiva|shloka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15353" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15347" CreationDate="2016-10-08T16:09:18.787" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_durga-devi_aparadha_kshamapana_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Aparadha Kshamapana Stotram&lt;/a&gt; was composed by &lt;strong&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/strong&gt;.It is usually customary to recite the stotram after the completion of a Chandi Patha recital or after the completion of any Devi Puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is like asking for forgiveness from Mother Goddess for the various offences(like not uttering Mantras correctly,not showing Mudras properly or  even  general offences) one might have committed during the recital/puja(or otherwise).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The theme of this Storam is of total surrender to Mother Goddess and asking Her for forgiveness. Just like a mother never abandons her son ,no matter how many mistakes he might have committed,similarly this stotram asks Goddess to protect &amp;amp; forgive us like Her son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The benefits of reciting(honestly) the stotram is obviously getting forgiven by Mother Goddess of the offences and sins one has committed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Stotram has 12 verses in all ,few are given below(with meaning).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A similar  Aparadha Kshamapana Stotram dedicated to Lord Shiva is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Shivaparadha_kshamapana_stotram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न मत्रं नो यन्त्रं तदपि च न जाने स्तुतिमहो न चाह्वानं ध्यानं तदपि च न&#xA;  जाने स्तुतिकथाः । न जाने मुद्रास्ते तदपि च न जाने विलपनं परं जाने&#xA;  मातस्त्वदनुसरणं क्लेशहरणम् ॥१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(O mother neither i know your Mantra,our Yantra,your Stuti,your&#xA;  Dhyanam,or even your Mudras.Not even i know how to cry for&#xA;  you.However, one thing I know (for certain); By following You (somehow&#xA;  through rememberance however imperfectly) will take away all my&#xA;  Afflictions (from my Mind),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नाराधितासि विधिना विविधोपचारैः किं रुक्षचिन्तनपरैर्न कृतं वचोभिः ।&#xA;  श्यामे त्वमेव यदि किञ्चन मय्यनाथे धत्से कृपामुचितमम्ब परं तवैव ॥९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(O Mother) I have not worshipped You as prescribed by tradition with&#xA;  various rituals, (On the other hand) What rough thoughts did my mind&#xA;  not think and my speech utter?  O Shyama, inspite of this, if You&#xA;  indeed, to a little extent, to this orphan ...  ... have extended Your&#xA;  Grace, O Supreme Mother, It indeed only becomes You (i.e. is possible&#xA;  for You),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आपत्सु मग्नः स्मरणं त्वदीयं करोमि दुर्गे करुणार्णवेशि । नैतच्छठत्वं मम&#xA;  भावयेथाः क्षुधातृषार्ता जननीं स्मरन्ति ॥१०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(O Mother) I have sunk in Misfortunes and therefore remembering You&#xA;  now (which I never did before),  O Mother Durga, (You Who are) an&#xA;  Ocean of Compassion, ...  ... (Therefore) do not think of me as false&#xA;  (and my invocation as pretence),  (Because) When children are&#xA;  afflicted with Hunger and Thirst, they naturally remember their Mother&#xA;  (only),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मत्समः पातकी नास्ति पापघ्नी त्वत्समा न हि । एवं ज्ञात्वा महादेवि&#xA;  यथायोग्यं तथा कुरु ॥१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(O Mother) There is no one as Fallen like me, and there is no one as&#xA;  Uplifting ( by removing Sins ) like You,  Considering thus, O&#xA;  Mahadevi, Please do whatever is proper (to save me).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T05:55:46.553" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T05:55:46.553" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15354" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-08T16:11:07.667" Score="2" ViewCount="185" Body="&lt;p&gt;What does rig veda hymn no.121 verse 5 mean by &#xA; By him heavens are strong and earth is stedfast , by him lights realm and skys vault are supported.&#xA;Is this referring to the common myth that there  solid dome above earth as found in bible and quran or does it mean something else due to mistranslation in english.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5210" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T06:33:45.063" Title="A question on hiranyagarbha sukta" Tags="|vedas|scripture|science|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15356" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15350" CreationDate="2016-10-09T01:29:00.283" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The 5 senses along with mind as the 6th (head of other 5) are carried to the afterlife or next birth, when the physical body dies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 15.7 -- Among the living world, the living being (&lt;em&gt;bhuta&lt;/em&gt; = body) is my eternal fragment only; It (fragment or body) keeps attracting 5 senses &amp;amp; mind as the 6th towards the material nature.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 15.8 -- When the Body is received and also when given up, the &quot;Master&quot; (&lt;em&gt;ishvara&lt;/em&gt; = master, here) carries all these [6 senses]; Same as wind transporting smell.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 15.9 -- Residing over [senses of] 'hearing, eyes, touch, taste and smell and also the mind', &quot;That&quot; consumes/enjoys [various] subjects.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So you may ask, what is 'we' in your Q?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;... what do &quot;we&quot; carry into afterlife ...?&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It boils down to &quot;what do 'I' carry into afterlife&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now until this 'I' is individual, it's termed as &quot;&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;&quot; (consciousness), the enjoyer or consumer of various happiness &amp;amp; sorrow &amp;amp; emotions of life. There are numerous verses suggesting that this &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; is in turn the part of &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt;#&lt;/sup&gt; or the supreme true self only. However, the &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; interacts with the material nature (&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;), the &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; doesn't.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The double quotes mentioned in above verses as &quot;Master&quot; &amp;amp; &quot;That&quot; is &quot;&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;&quot; only. To answer your Q:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; carries 'mind + senses' to theafterlife or the next birth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Add-on queries:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: For what purpose &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;s (we) keep travelling from body to body?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A: To enjoy various aspects of material nature (&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: Why &quot;enjoy&quot; sorrow &amp;amp; pain?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A: Any emotion is enjoyable for &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;. Compare it with watching a film!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This &quot;enjoyer&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Ananda Sharira&lt;/em&gt;) term creates confusion for many. During Gita, Krishna has used other terms also to suit different people's tastes: &quot;Consumer&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Bhokta&lt;/em&gt;) &amp;amp; &quot;Witness&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Upadrushta&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: Until what time, this so called &quot;enjoyment&quot; continues?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A: Until the &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; is not completely &quot;bored&quot; of nature &amp;amp; it's purposes. Once it's convinced that in all facets of life from top to bottom, there is only reasons of misery (BG 8.15,16), it automatically starts giving up. It doesn't differentiate anymore between opposites. In other words, the &quot;dualities&quot; begin to perish. Neither good nor bad, neither right nor wrong, neither support nor oppose, ... neither this nor that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: And then ...?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A: Finally &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; disappears, hence nothing remains to reborn. This is also called merging with &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Moksha/NirvAna&lt;/em&gt; or liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: Does this &quot;non-differentiating&quot; attitude or path to liberation manifest in a person's actions?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A: No. Physical actions has nothing to do with the person's path of liberation. On face value a person may appear very sinful, but still he/she can be on way to liberation compared to a person appearing pious.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14457/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. Besides that, there are few verses which support it. Like &quot;knowers also act as per their material nature&quot; &amp;amp; &quot;an extremely sinful person should be considered as saint when his/her consciousness is fixed on Me/&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q: Any other aspect, which represents &quot;&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;&quot;?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A: According to &lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;/intellect is born out of the interaction between &lt;em&gt;Purusha + Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. So &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;, which resides between mind (&lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt;) &amp;amp; supreme self (&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;) is the closest objectification of &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 3.42 — &lt;em&gt;Indriya&lt;/em&gt;-s/senses are said to be beyond [physical body]; &lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt;/mind is beyond senses; &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;/intellect is even beyond Mind; &quot;That&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;) is even beyond intellect.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;#&lt;/sup&gt; - Some people differentiate between &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;ParamAtma&lt;/em&gt;, they might be right in certain context. But actually there is no difference between these terms. It's as good as &quot;Krishna&quot; vs &quot;Shri Krishna&quot; or &quot;Jesus&quot; vs &quot;Lord Jesus&quot;. &lt;em&gt;ParamAtma&lt;/em&gt; is typically useful, when &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; is used in context of &quot;false ego&quot;. But once the &quot;false&quot; is cleared, both &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;ParamAtma&lt;/em&gt; are same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T04:44:53.307" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15357" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15354" CreationDate="2016-10-09T06:33:45.063" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, it should be read as a metaphor, it simply refers to everything being dependent upon God's will. See Bhagavad Gita chapter 10, especially verses 32, 39, and 42. In verse 32 Krishna says (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of created things I am the beginning and the end and also the middle, O Arjuna...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And verse 39:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And that which is the seed of all beings--that I am, O Arjuna. There is no being, whether moving or unmoving, that can exist without Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and verse 42:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...With a single fragment of Myself I stand supporting the whole universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T06:33:45.063" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15358" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15359" CreationDate="2016-10-09T07:08:50.367" Score="8" ViewCount="1789" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagvad Gita is a 701 versed text which is inside Mahabharata. And similarly Durga Saptashati (&lt;strong&gt;Sapta =7 and Shat =100&lt;/strong&gt;) is also 7×100= 700 versed text which is inside Markandeya Purana which is also known as Devi Mahatmya.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;One of the most famous and important verse in Bhagvad Gita is  Bhagvad Gita Chapter 4 Verse 7, where Lord states to Arjuna as:&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ||&lt;/strong&gt; 7||&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Whenever and wherever there is a decline in righteousness and an increase in unrighteousness, O Arjuna, at that time I manifest myself.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Devi Mahatmya is also related to destruction of demonic forces by Devi, &lt;strong&gt;are there similar statements made by Devi in Durga Saptashati ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-10-09T11:39:05.347" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T11:39:05.347" Title="Reflection of &quot;Yada yada hi dharmasya...&quot; in Durga Saptashati?" Tags="|scripture|history|durga|goddess|devi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15359" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15358" CreationDate="2016-10-09T07:10:21.317" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, In &lt;strong&gt;chapter 91&lt;/strong&gt; of Markandeya Purana (or &lt;strong&gt;chapter 11 of Saptashati&lt;/strong&gt;), Devi speaks about her various coming incarnations in future to destroy demonic forces. In the last verse or verse 55, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10141/wouldnt-most-of-the-incarnations-of-devi-be-of-sati-not-parvati/14868#14868&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi states:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;इत्थं यदा यदा बाधा दानवोत्था भविष्यति ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदा तदावतीर्याहं करिष्याम्यरिसंक्षयम्&lt;/strong&gt; ॥५५॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Whenever and wherever there will be disturbances from the demonic forces, then I shall incarnate myself and destroy them all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T08:10:35.167" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15360" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15352" CreationDate="2016-10-09T07:52:07.933" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, as said by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/3500/the-destroyer&quot;&gt;The Destroyer&lt;/a&gt; and others it is not compulsory to recite this Sloka during Arati in &lt;strong&gt;all&lt;/strong&gt; Pujas.You might have seen it being done during a &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Puja&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; which is quite ok.&#xA;Because this Sloka is related to Shiva and not to &lt;strong&gt;Arati Mantras&lt;/strong&gt;(also called Nirajana Mantras) in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Karpura Gouram&lt;/strong&gt; term (as said by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/3500/the-destroyer&quot;&gt;the destroyer&lt;/a&gt;) refers to the camphor like white skin colour of Lord Shiva.Similar terms like &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Tushardri Sankasha Gauram&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;(white as mountain snow) are &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_shiva-rudrashtakam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;elsewhere&lt;/a&gt; used with the same purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedic Pujas ,it is customary to recite few  Mantras while offering the various Upcharas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For &lt;strong&gt;Karpura&lt;/strong&gt; (camphor)Arati(during all Pujas) we have the following general Mantra(to be uttered while offering Arati to any Deity).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Idam Havih Prajanam Me Astu DasaViram sarvaganam Swastaye||&#xA;  Atamasani Prajasani Pasusani Loka Sanya Bhayasani||Agnim Prajam&#xA;  Bahulam Me Karotvannam Payo Reto Asmasu Dhatta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kadali Garva Samvutam &lt;strong&gt;Karpuram&lt;/strong&gt; tu Pradipitam|| Aaraartikamaham Kurve&#xA;  Pasya Me Barado Bhavo||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GKvpM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GKvpM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The first Mantra is from Yajur Veda.Also note that these Mantras changes with Vidhanas(like Sri Sukta Vidhana,Purusha Sukta Vidhana etc)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Mantra that i have posted does not change with Deities(assuming the Vidhana is same) but some people do sing Stutis of Gods while doing Arati.These Stutis of course varies from Deity to Deity.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T09:27:59.403" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15361" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14849" CreationDate="2016-10-09T09:07:20.803" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Shastras prescribe  only a &lt;strong&gt;half pradkashina&lt;/strong&gt; for Shiva.That is why we do not complete the pradakshina.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15144/do-any-deities-other-than-the-pancha-mahadevatas-have-swayambhu-representation&quot;&gt;Pancha Devata Deities&lt;/a&gt; the rules(for pradakshina ) are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Eka Chandaya Raveh Sapta Tirstra Karya Vinayake||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hareschatarstrah Kartabyah &lt;strong&gt;Shivasya ardha Pradkshina&lt;/strong&gt;||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(For Durga(Chandi) (one should do) 1 pradkshina,for Surya(Ravi)&#xA;  7,for Ganesha(Vinayaka) 3,for Vishnu(Hari) 4 &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;for Shiva only 1/2&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nW1UR.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nW1UR.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KF27X.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KF27X.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer to image above.The pradakshina should not go beyond the &quot;Gomukhi&quot;.As the holy water constantly drips and gets collected there(this is the most rational reason i can think of).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By half pradakshina is meant a &quot;SomaSutra Pradakshina&quot; as stated in the next Sloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shivam PradaksiniKurvan &lt;strong&gt;Somasutram na Langhayeth&lt;/strong&gt;,Iti Vachanantaraat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(While doing Shiva Pradakshina the order(of Shastras) is that one&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;should not break the Somasutra&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Somasutra is meant the Half Moon like curve that is traced out in the process.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A4Kqf.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A4Kqf.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-10-13T09:28:18.227" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15362" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-09T10:09:12.920" Score="1" ViewCount="157" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can Sukthams be recited after 12 pm? I heard that during pradosha tome purusha suktham can be recited as the pradosha falls between 4:30 to 6 pm, which is an exception.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ashta sukthams are there. Other sukthams should not be recited after 12 pm. Any mythological evidence? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-08-23T10:52:50.957" LastActivityDate="2019-08-23T10:52:50.957" Title="Reciting of Sukthams" Tags="|vedas|vedic-chanting|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15363" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-09T10:15:22.823" Score="10" ViewCount="2130" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that there are Six Aastika Philosophy (Shad Darshana) : Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshiki,Mimamsa and Vedanta based on Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In many verses of Bhagavad Gita, the word Sankhya is found ; actually the name of 2&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt; chapter/aadhyaya is Sankhya Yoga (साङ्ख्य योग). For example let me quote a verse from 3&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लोकेऽस्मिन् द्विविधा निष्ठा पुरा प्रोक्ता मयानघ ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ज्ञानयोगेन &lt;strong&gt;साङ्ख्यानां&lt;/strong&gt; कर्मयोगेन योगिनाम् ॥ ३-३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;loke ’smin dvi-vidhā niṣṭhā purā proktā mayānagha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jñāna-yogena &lt;strong&gt;sāṅkhyānāṁ&lt;/strong&gt;  karma-yogena yoginām&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/shveta.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shvetashvataropanishad&lt;/a&gt; Adhyay-6:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नित्यो नित्यानां चेतनश्चेतनाना-&#xA;                 मेको बहूनां यो विदधाति कामान् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्कारणं &lt;strong&gt;सांख्य&lt;/strong&gt;योगाधिगम्यं&#xA;                 ज्ञात्वा देवं मुच्यते सर्वपाशैः ॥ १३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nityo nityAnA.n chetanashchetanAnA-&#xA;                 meko bahUnA.n yo vidadhAti kAmAn |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tatkAraNa.n &lt;strong&gt;sA.nkhya&lt;/strong&gt;yogAdhigamya.n&#xA;                 j~nAtvA devaM muchyate sarvapAshaiH || 13||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are Bhagavad Gita and Shvetashvatar Upanishad talking about (or referring to) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sankhya Darshan&lt;/a&gt; (founded by sage &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapila&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kapil&lt;/a&gt;) by means of word Sankhya?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If yes, then &#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is the Sankhya Darshana/Philosophy is prior to Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do Bhagavad Gita and Shvetashvatara Upanishad accept or reject the philosophy of Sankhya?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: I think other Mukhya Upanishds don't mention Shankhya except Shvetashvatar Upanishad.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-05-21T13:17:02.027" LastActivityDate="2019-05-21T13:17:02.027" Title="Is the Sankhya Darshana/Philosophy prior to Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads?" Tags="|philosophy|bhagavad-gita|upanishads|sankhya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15364" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15368" CreationDate="2016-10-09T11:22:36.720" Score="8" ViewCount="1294" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Pushkar Tirtha{pilgrimage place}, is a very holy place in India{located in the state of Rajasthan}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that taking a bath at Pushkar Tirtha,destroys the sins of  the devotees{including the sins that were caused in the previous birth}. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavata.org/canto12/chapter12.html#Text%2061&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad-Bhagavatam (12.12.61)&lt;/a&gt; that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When one self-controlled and fasting studies this collection of verses at [the holy places of] Pushkara, Mathurâ or Dvârakâ, one will be freed from the fear [of time, or of a material life, see also 1.13: 19].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many  well-known vedic Sages like  Agastya, Pulastya, Markandeya and Vishwamitra,etc, have performed penance at Pushkar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pushkar Tirtha, has many temples. The most important temple in Pushkar Tirtha is the Brahma temple.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is understood that many philosophers/theologians, from the present era, like Shri Adi Shankaracharya  visited Pushkar Tirtha and performed worship there. Shri Adi Shankaracharya also got the Brahma Temple at Pushkar Tirtha renovated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tens of thousands of people visit Pushkar Tirtha, during the Karthika period {Oct/Nov} each year, and a great festival is also conducted  there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of Pushkar Tirtha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the  benefits of undertaking a pilgrimage to Pushkar Tirtha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-06-08T14:46:42.017" LastActivityDate="2021-03-14T02:25:11.307" Title="What are the benefits of undertaking a pilgrimage to Pushkar Tirtha?" Tags="|temple|worship|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15365" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9924" CreationDate="2016-10-09T11:33:03.280" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The question is, what are the verses, which shed light on the position(&amp;amp; importance) of women&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I'm answering only the part highlighted  above hence consider this as a partial answer.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since, you quoted a verse from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindubooks.org/manusmriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti&lt;/a&gt; , which shows women in a slightly degraded position i find it apt to quote verses from the same Smriti itself to counter that wrong notion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following 6 verses, taken from Chapter 3 of Manu smriti, very well describe the position &amp;amp; importance of women in a Hindu (Vedic) society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3.55. Women must be honoured and adorned by their fathers, brothers, husbands, and brothers-in-law, who desire (their own) welfare.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3.56. Where women are honoured, there the gods are pleased; but where they are not honoured, no sacred rite yields rewards.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.57. Where the female relations live in grief, the family soon wholly perishes; but that family where they are not unhappy ever prospers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.58. The houses on which female relations, not being duly honoured, pronounce a curse, perish completely, as if destroyed by magic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.59. Hence men who seek (their own) welfare, should always honour women on holidays and festivals with (gifts of) ornaments, clothes,&#xA;  and (dainty) food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.60. In that family, where the husband is pleased with his wife and the wife with her husband, happiness will assuredly be lasting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-17T15:17:50.143" LastActivityDate="2017-04-17T15:17:50.143" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15366" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-09T13:42:29.723" Score="8" ViewCount="4679" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have notice and seen, and also everybody knows about 'shrimad' before the bhagvadgeeta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;shrimad title is also used before title of shrimad bhaagwat and rishi's like shrimad adi shankaracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to ask what is the meaning of title and how people use to call this title upon the name of people and scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And how many people and scriptures hold this title.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110928235250AAwULnI&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110928235250AAwULnI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7376" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-10T11:29:02.527" LastActivityDate="2021-09-17T18:04:49.600" Title="What is the meaning of shrimad?" Tags="|scripture|history|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15367" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15363" CreationDate="2016-10-09T15:36:30.187" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the term &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samkhya&lt;/a&gt; Darshana&lt;/strong&gt; , word Darshana stands for &lt;strong&gt;View&lt;/strong&gt;. It views the entire universe as a 'Leela(Divine Play)' of &lt;strong&gt;'Purusha(supreme conciousness)' and 'Prakriti'(matter)&lt;/strong&gt;. The 'Purusa' is 'Nirguna' that is, free from 'Trigunas' that are Sattva, Rajas and Tamas while 'Prakriti' posseses the 'Trigunas'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Samkhya Yoga'  emphasizes on union of 'Jeeva' with the 'Supreme Consciousness'.&#xA;All yogas mentioned in Bhagvad Geeta were also existed before it.&#xA;Lord Krishna collected them all together to clear Arjuna's vishad(confusion).&#xA;Thus Geeta starts with Arjun Vishad Yoga.&lt;br&gt;And yes Geeta supports Samkhya Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4103" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T05:59:15.677" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15368" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15364" CreationDate="2016-10-09T16:27:20.620" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Story of Puskara Tirtha is mentioned in detail in  &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11499/3500&quot;&gt;Shristi Khanda of Padma Purana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Savitri was late for Yajna, Brahma married a Gayatri at this Pushkara site. In anger, Savitri cursed all Gods and Goddesses. Savitri cursed the Brahma as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;145-148.&amp;quot;If I have practised penance, if I have pleased my preceptors&#xA;in the groups of brahmanas, and at various places, brahmanas will&#xA;never offer you worship, &lt;strong&gt;except your annual worship (that falls) in&#xA;the month of Kartika&lt;/strong&gt; which the brahmanas will (alone) offer, but not&#xA;other men at any other place on the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, people visit Pushkara during Kartika Masa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chapter 21, The Greatness of Puskara and Some Important Vows and subsequent chapters of Shristi Khanda&lt;/em&gt; describes greatness of Pushkara and Vows to be performed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Benefits of Visiting Brahma tirtha or Pushkara Tirtha is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-xv/chapter-129/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 129&lt;/a&gt; of Reva Khanda- Avantya Khanda of Skanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There at that Tirtha, Brahma, the most excellent one among Suras, the&#xA;grandfather of all the worlds, resorted to the banks of Narmada.&#xA;Merely by seeing him the Lord of Devas washes off the sins of the four&#xA;Varnas, committed earlier, including all mental and verbal ones and&#xA;those arising from activities of the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The eminent Brahmanas who take their holy bath and perform the&#xA;expiatory rites enjoined by Srutis and Smrtis have their residence in&#xA;heaven. Those who are oppressed by lust and greed and abandon the&#xA;scriptural texts and then prescribe expiatory rites (as they please)&#xA;fall into hell. A sinner should take his holy bath at the outset and&#xA;bow down to Brahma. Then he shall confess his sin. His sin perishes&#xA;quickly like darkness at sunrise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who takes his holy bath there in the Tirtha and adores Pitrs and&#xA;deities, derives the excellent benefit of Agnistoma Yajña. Whatever is&#xA;gifted away as Dana there at that Tirtha with Brahma in view, becomes&#xA;everlasting in its benefits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Japa is carried out merely of the Gayatri Mantra there, it shall&#xA;become as meritorious as one of the Rk, Yajus and Sama Vedas. There is&#xA;no doubt about it. If anyone were to cast off his body, usually very&#xA;difficult to be cast off, in the Tirtha there, his return from the&#xA;world of Brahma is undoubtedly impossible. He is honoured in Devaloka&#xA;for as many thousand years as there are bones of embodied beings in&#xA;the Brahma Tirtha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, he comes down into the world (here) and is reborn as one&#xA;knowing Brahman in a noble family. He shall be the most excellent one&#xA;among all the Varnas like the great deity among Devas. He will be&#xA;well-versed in all the lores and a master of the Vedas and their&#xA;Angas. He will be undoubtedly honoured in the world by kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He will be accompanied by sons and grandsons and will be free from all&#xA;ailments. By the power of Brahma Tirtha, he will live more than a&#xA;hundred years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The noble souls who visit this meritorious Tirtha, the most excellent&#xA;one for those endowed with knowledge, a Tirtha that destroys all sins,&#xA;attain immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T16:33:23.150" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15369" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14365" CreationDate="2016-10-09T21:27:42.797" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, the Purāṇas do contradict each other and they also contradict itihāsas like Rāmāyana and Mahābhāratha on this topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same Padma Purāṇa at a different place for example &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/PadmaPuranaMotilalVol.3Thru10/Padma%20Purana%20-%20Motilal%20-%20Vol.%203%20thru%2010#page/n491/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CHAPTER THIRTEEN - The Greatness of Narmadā&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; (Vol. III)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-3. O Nārada, I desire to hear again about the best, well known holy&#xA;  place called Narmadā, that rends the mountains of sins, which Vasistha&#xA;  described to Dilipa. (O Nārada,) describe it to me. O best brahmana,&#xA;  also (tell me about) the greatness of Narmadā as described by&#xA;  Vasistha. O Nārada, tell me how this very pious river, known as&#xA;  Narmadā, is famous everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nārada said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4-5. Narmadā is the best of rivers; she destroys all sins; she would&#xA;  liberate all beings-immobile and mobile. I have heard the greatness of&#xA;  Narmadā as told by Vasistha. O great king, know (i.e. listen to) it; I&#xA;  (shall) tell you the whole (of it).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6-14. Gangā is holy at Kanakhala; Sarasvatī at Kurukşetra; (but)&#xA;  Narmadā is holy everywhere-whether in a village or a forest. The water&#xA;  of Sarasvati purifies (a man) within three days; that of Yamuna within&#xA;  seven days; that of Ganga instantly; &lt;strong&gt;but that of Narmadā just by&#xA;  looking at it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if that's literally taken to be true, you needn't even take a dip in the waters! If everyone can afford it, perhaps a flyby over a river is a more convenient way to purify oneself?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Uttara Khanda of Vālmīki Rāmāyana, there is a story of &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_032.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rāvaṇa encountering Kartavirya Arjuna&lt;/a&gt; by the banks of Narmada. If the Padma Purana were true (i.e., taking a dip in or seeing river Narmada), Rāvaṇa must have washed away all his past sins and even purified his mind so much so that the thought of kidnapping Sītā would not even occur to him in the later life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the fact is, Rāvaṇa ends up kidnapping Sītā, and later, Hanumān, during his visit to Lanka in search of Sita, sits face-to-face with Rāvana and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga51/sundarasans51.htm#Verse28&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;warns&lt;/a&gt; him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न तु धर्म उपसम्हारम् अधर्म फल सम्हितम् || ५-५१-२८ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत् एव फलम् अन्वेति धर्मः च अधर्म नाशनः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fruit of righteousness does not exist together with the result of unrighteousness (even though he practices virtue). That consequence of unrighteousness alone follows him. Righteousness in abundance destroys unrighteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sribhashyam_Appalacharyulu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sribhashyam Appalacharyulu&lt;/a&gt;'s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/ecommentaries?field_commnetary_tid=12&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=5&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=51&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; (Tatva Deepika) on the above verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The idea is that both dharma and adharma get destroyed only by the experience of their fruits.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So your observation that &lt;em&gt;we find ourselves reaping the karmic action of our sinful act&lt;/em&gt; (even after dipping in river Ganga) is indeed true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-09T21:44:37.440" LastActivityDate="2016-10-09T21:44:37.440" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15370" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15350" CreationDate="2016-10-09T22:32:12.777" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;To our next life we do not carry memories and knowledge, but rather our affinities (a spontaneous or natural liking or sympathy for something) and desires, ie something that we like, and interest for something that we developed in this life. We also carry some knowledge to the next life, but it will stay to be deeply dormant in our consciousness and thus we can't remember it exactly in the next life but it can help us to easily learn new things that are of the same type of knowledge like we had in the previous life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus if you were interested in the pursuit of spiritual knowledge in this life, you can easily continue your interest for the same in the next life. We have a confirmation of that in the teachings of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad gita 6.43-45, see at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;On taking such a birth, he revives the divine consciousness of his previous life, and he again tries to make further progress ...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have explained that in the related question at &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3235/do-people-have-same-preferences-and-liking-towards-everything-in-this-world-or-a/7132#7132&quot;&gt;Do people have same preferences and liking towards everything in this world or are they wiped like a clean slate after reincarnation?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus we can say that we do carry our affinities, and in some sense even knowledge (in deeply dormant state) to our next life.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;All those things that we carry with us to our next life we have shaped with our deeds (karma) and our desires. Of course our karma that we have to enjoy and suffer we also take with us to the next life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly to the above quotation from the Bhagavad gita it is said in the Smriti scripture called the Suśruta-saṃhitā, an ancient Sanskrit text on Ayurveda medicine: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushruta_Samhita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushruta_Samhita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sushruta-samhita, book Sarira-sthana, chapter 2, verses 54-55, page 133: &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/englishtranslati00susruoft#page/132/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://archive.org/stream/englishtranslati00susruoft#page/132/mode/2up&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Acts similar to those, which a man performs in a prior existence,&#xA;  overtake him also in the next. Similarly the traits and the&#xA;  temperament which he had developed in a previous existence are&#xA;  likewise sure to be patent in the next.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the Sushruta-samhita says that a man will be interested to perform the acts of the same kind or in some sense similar to those acts that he performed in his past life, and even the traits of his personality and the temperament which he had developed in his past life will continue to be easily recognizable.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-10-25T01:28:18.360" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15372" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18343" CreationDate="2016-10-10T03:07:22.720" Score="0" ViewCount="1628" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaskar,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We see Ulu dhvani(sound) during puja. This is also called ululation in english. Why do we need to do that? I don't have any religious book where I can know this. So it will be great if I got answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can hear it in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfXauKtkiIM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; video.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hare krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4440" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-18T03:23:41.200" LastActivityDate="2017-05-18T03:23:41.200" Title="Why ulu dhvani(sound) is given?" Tags="|tradition|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15373" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14365" CreationDate="2016-10-10T05:38:45.197" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;A dip in Ganga river does remove all the sins when it is done with &lt;strong&gt;śraddhā and bhakti&lt;/strong&gt;. To do so, the words śraddhā and bhakti should be understood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhakti is well known to everyone. Narada Bhakti Sūtras talks about nine forms of Bhakti. Ādi Śaṅkarācārya says &lt;strong&gt;mokṣa sādhana sāmagryāṃ bhaktireva garīyasi&lt;/strong&gt; meaning Bhakti is the main tool among all in the practice of Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ādi Śaṅkarācārya defines śraddha as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;śāstrasya guruvākyasya satyabuddhyāvadhāraṇā । sā śraddhā kathitā&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;sadbhiḥ yayā vastūpalabhyate ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The firm belief that Śāstra and Guru vākya are true is called śraddhā&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;which is bestower of anything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śāstra is nothing but vedas, purāṇas, smritis etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Puranas do not contradict anyway. In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-x/chapter-06/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter Six&lt;/a&gt; called Tīrthādhyāya from Kashi Khanda Purvardha of Skanda Puranam, &lt;strong&gt;Agastya Mahāmuni says to Lopāmudra&lt;/strong&gt; as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रुणुतीर्थानिगदतोमानसानिममानघे । येषुसम्यङ्नरः&#xA;स्नात्वाप्रयातिपरमांगतिम् ॥ २९ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O sinless lady, listen even as I enumerate the mental holy spots. By&#xA;scrupulously taking the holy dips in them a man attains the greatest&#xA;goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सत्यं तीर्थं क्षमातीर्थं तीर्थमिन्द्रियनिग्रहः । सर्वभूतदयातीर्थं&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;तीर्थमार्जवमेवच ॥ ३० ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;दानंतीर्थं दमस्तीर्थं सन्तोषस्तीर्थमुच्यते । ब्रह्मचर्यं परंतीर्थं&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;तीर्थंचप्रियवादिता ॥ ३१ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ज्ञानंतीर्थंधृतिस्तीर्थं तपस्तीर्थमुदाहृतम् । तीर्थानामपि तत्तीर्थं&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;विशुद्धिर्मनसः परा ॥ ३२ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Truth, forbearance, control of organs of sense and action, compassion&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;for all beings, straightforwardness, dānam, self-restraint,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;contentedness, celibacy, speaking pleasant words, knowledge, courage,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;penance are all tīrthās. The absolute purity of mind is the holiest of&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;all holy tīrthās.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;न जलाप्लुतदेहस्यस्नानमित्यभिधीयते । सस्नातोयोदमस्नातःशुचिःशुद्धमनोमलम्&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;॥ ३३ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Holy ablution is not mere drenching of the body in water. He who has&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;the purificatory bath of mental control, is really the one who has had&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;his holy ablution; he is really clean; he has removed all the&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;impurities of the mind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यो लुब्धः पिशुनः क्रूरोदाम्भिकोविषयात्मकः । सर्वतीर्थेष्वपि स्नातः&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;पापो मलिन एवसः ॥ ३४ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who is covetous, slanderous, cruel, a hypocrite and sensualist is&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;sinful and dirty, even if he takes a plunge in all the sacred waters.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न शरीरमलत्यागान्नरो भवतिनिर्मलः । मानसे तु मले त्यक्तेभवत्यन्तः&#xA;सुनिर्मला ॥ ३५ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A man does not become free from impurities only by doing away with the&#xA;bodily dirt. If mental dirt is wiped away, one becomes internally&#xA;pure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जायन्ते च म्रियन्तेचजलेष्वेजलौकसः । न च गच्छन्तितेस्वर्गमविशुद्धमनोमला&#xA;॥ ३६ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aquatic beings are born and die in water. But they do not go to heaven&#xA;because their mental impurities have not been cleansed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चिगयेष्वतिसंरागो मानसोमल उच्यते । तेष्वेव हि विरागोस्यनैर्मल्यं&#xA;समुदाहृतम् ॥ ३७ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Too much of attachment to sensual objects is called mental impurity.&#xA;Non-attachment to them is cited as freedom from impurities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चित्तमन्तर्गतं दुष्टंतीर्थस्नानान्न शुद्ध्यति ।&#xA;शतशोथजलैर्धौतंसुराभाण्डमिवाशुचि ॥ ३८ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the mind within is defiled, it does not become purified by taking a&#xA;holy dip in sacred waters. It is impure like a pot of toddy washed&#xA;hundreds of times in water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;दानमिज्यातपः शौचंतीर्थसेवाश्रुतं तथा ।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;सर्वाण्येतानितीर्थानियदिभावोननिर्मला ॥ ३९ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If the mental predilection is not pure, all these, viz. liberal gifts,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;sacrifice, penance, cleanliness, piligrimage and learning, becomes&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;non-tīrthās.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;निगृहीतेन्द्रियग्रामोयत्रैवचवसेन्नरः । तत्रतस्य कुरुक्षेत्रं&#xA;नैमिषंपुष्कराणिच ॥ ४० ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wherever a man who has curbed all his organs of sense and action&#xA;lives, there he has his Kurukshetra, Naimisha, Pushkara etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ध्यानपूते ज्ञानजले रागद्वेषमलापहे । यः स्नाति मानसे तीर्थे स&#xA;यातिपरमांगतिम् ॥ ४१ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who takes his holy bath in the mental holy spot that is cleansed&#xA;with perfect knowledge, that has meditation for its waters and that&#xA;removes the dirt of attachment and hatred, attains the greatest goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एतत्ते कथितं देवि मानसंतीर्थलक्षणम् । भौमानामपि&#xA;तीर्थानांपुण्यत्वेकारणंश्रुणु ॥ ४२ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These characteristics of the mental tīrthās have been recounted to&#xA;you, O noble lady. Listen to the cause that brings about sanctity to&#xA;worldly holy spots.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यथा शरीरस्योद्देशाः केचिन्मेध्यतमाः स्मृताः । तथापृथिव्यामुद्देशाः&#xA;केचित्पुण्यतमाः स्मृताः ॥ ४३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as there are certain excellent parts of the body considered very&#xA;holy and pure, so also some regions of the earth are considered most&#xA;meritorious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रभावादद्भुताद्भमेः सलिलस्य च तेजसा ।&#xA;परिग्रहान्मुनीनाञ्चतीर्थानांपुण्यतास्मृता ॥ ४४ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meritoriousness of tīrthās is considered to be a result of the&#xA;mysterious influence of the ground, of the water and of the fire&#xA;thereof as well as of the backing and acceptance by sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तस्माद्भौमेषु तीर्थेषुमानसेषुचनित्यशः । उभयेष्वपियः स्नातिसयाति&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;परमांगतिम् ॥ ४५ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence he who takes his holy bath in both the holy spots i.e., the&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;worldly holy spots and the mental holy spots attains the greatest&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;goal.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Jagadguru Shankaracharya Abhinava Vidyateertha Mahaswami of Sringeri Sarada Peetham has often spoken of the efficacy of bathing in Gaṅgā as a means of purification (Source: Exalting Elucidations, Page 52 freely downloadable from &lt;a href=&quot;http://svfonline.net/publication.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;). He has said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Gaṅgā does purify people. When the faith of the person who resorts to&#xA;her is intense, he is greatly benefitted by her. This, however, does&#xA;not mean that one will be redeemed if one commits sins deliberately&#xA;and then bathes in the Gaṅgā.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In another conversation with Mahaswami he also told as (D: Devotee, A: Acharya)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;D: It is believed that the river Gaṅgā effaces one’s sins. Does it&#xA;actually do so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A: Yes. Why is there any doubt about it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;D: If Gaṅgā removes one’s sins, can one commit any sin and then get&#xA;rid of it by bathing in the Gaṅgā?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A: &lt;strong&gt;A dip in the Gaṅgā will remove those sins that are unknowingly done&#xA;or knowingly done once for which we are repentant. It is not fair to&#xA;expect Gaṅgā to free one from an intentional sin done with the&#xA;presumption, “I will bathe in the Gaṅgā and get rid of it.” However,&#xA;just because of the above statement, one need not have even an iota of&#xA;doubt regarding the greatness of Gaṅgā.&lt;/strong&gt; Crores of people travel long&#xA;distances with the firm faith that they will be purified by a bath in&#xA;the Gaṅgā. Īśvara does not let their faith go unrewarded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a story in this connection. Once, Pārvatī asked Śiva whether&#xA;Gaṅgā would remove the sins of all. As an answer, Śiva took on the&#xA;appearance of an old man and took Pārvatī, in the garb of His aged&#xA;wife, to the banks of Ganges. He told Her that He would pretend to be&#xA;drowning and that She should raise an alarm. Accordingly, She screamed&#xA;to attract the attention of the passers-by and sought the rescue of&#xA;Her husband. The people around rushed to His rescue. The disguised&#xA;Pārvatī, however, stopped them and, as earlier instructed by Śiva,&#xA;said, “Only that person who has not the slightest trace of sin can&#xA;touch My husband.” Only one among the throng dived in without the&#xA;least hesitation and rescued Him. Surprised, Pārvatī asked the rescuer&#xA;if he was free from all sins. The man replied, “Did I not have a dip&#xA;in the Gaṅgā before saving your husband? My sins vanished at that very&#xA;instant.” Śiva then told Pārvatī, “What doubt need be there that sins&#xA;are washed away if one has faith like this person?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So a dip in Ganges along with mental purity (faith and devotion) gives the real benefit of greater good.&#xA;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T09:42:59.077" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15374" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15363" CreationDate="2016-10-10T05:54:02.457" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Is Bhagavad Gita and Shvetashvatar Upanishad are talking about Sankhya Darshan (founded by sage Kapil) by means of word Sankhya?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;. Gita refers the same &lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt; philosophy which was founded by sage Kapila. Gita also recognises the sage as a &lt;em&gt;Siddha [purusha]&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 10.26 Among all trees [I am] the Asvatha (peepul), and NArada among the divine sages. Among the Gandharvas, [I am] Citraratha; &lt;strong&gt;among the perfected ones, [I am] the sage Kapila&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Consider, this answer only from Bhagavad Gita perspective. As I don't have knowledge in Upanishadas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Is the Sankhya Darshan/Philosophy is prior to Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;. This is already answered in your question!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;In many verses of Bhagavad Gita, the word Sankhya is found&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Do Bhagavad Gita and Shvetashvatar Upanishad accept or reject the philosophy of Sankhya?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ofcourse, &lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt; is accepted &amp;amp; recognised philosophy in Gita&lt;/strong&gt;. Many have often compared it with &lt;em&gt;GyAna Yoga&lt;/em&gt; as well.  Usually &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; refers to those philosophers, who try to find the truth by analysis.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Krishna said that the ultimate state received due to &lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;[Karma/GyAna/DhyAna] Yoga&lt;/em&gt; are exactly same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 5.5 — What state is achieved by &lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt;-s, that is attained by &lt;em&gt;Yogi&lt;/em&gt;-s also; Who sees &lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt; as one(same), sees [correctly].&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;... actually the name of 2nd chapter/aadhyaya is Sankhya Yoga (साङ्ख्य योग).&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the chapter 2 is considered usually as the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;summary&lt;/a&gt; of all the other chapters &amp;amp; not dedicated only to &quot;साङ्ख्य योग&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Also, most of the times &quot;SAmkhya&quot; &amp;amp; &quot;Yoga&quot; are presented separately in Gita. They are Not linking words like &quot;GyAna Yoga&quot; or &quot;Karma Yoga&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T05:54:02.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15376" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14633" CreationDate="2016-10-10T07:38:49.650" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Nayanars&lt;/em&gt; are group of 63 saints devoted to Lord Shiva. They composed many songs to Lord Shiva in Tamil Language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their life stories and works are described in detail in &lt;em&gt;Periya Puranam&lt;/em&gt; (great Purana), also called as &lt;em&gt;Tiruttontarpuranam&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Tiru-Thondar-Puranam&lt;/em&gt;, the Purana of the Holy Devotees).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Periya Puranam is available on shaivam.org in &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaivam.org/siddhanta/thiru12.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Tamil&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaivam.org/english/sen_th12.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;English&lt;/a&gt; (Translated by Sri. T N Ramachandran).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kungiliya Kalaya Nayanar is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/nayanar.htm#_VPID_14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;11th Nayanar&lt;/a&gt; among the 63 Nayanars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kungiliya Kalaya Nayanar was born in &lt;strong&gt;Tirukadavur in the Chola kingdom&lt;/strong&gt; in a Brahmin caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brief story of Kalaya Nayanar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the will of Lord Siva, Nayanar became poor suddenly. He sold all&#xA;  his property. His family was starving. Still, he continued to burn&#xA;  incense before the Lord. One day his dutiful wife thought: ‘Everything&#xA;  has been sold. Only this &lt;em&gt;Mangalyam&lt;/em&gt; (a sacred thread with a pendant,&#xA;  which every married woman must always have on her person, till the&#xA;  husband dies, when it is removed), is left. I will give it to my Lord:&#xA;  though it is inauspicious to do so. Let him sell it and obtain some&#xA;  rice, with which we could feed the children who may die of hunger&#xA;  otherwise.’ She removed the &lt;em&gt;Mangalyam&lt;/em&gt; and gave it to her husband, who&#xA;  gladly received it. As he was proceeding to the market to sell it,&#xA;  Lord Siva Himself appeared before him, in the guise of a hawker and&#xA;  said that he had very good &lt;strong&gt;incense&lt;/strong&gt;. The word &lt;strong&gt;incense&lt;/strong&gt; at once made&#xA;  Nayanar forget himself and the mission! &lt;strong&gt;He quickly bought incense for&#xA;  the price of the Mangalyam, and went to the temple to burn it before&#xA;  the Lord.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;His wife patiently waited for his return, and, not finding him even&#xA;  after nightfall, put the children to bed and remained praying. The&#xA;  Lord was immensely pleased with this noble couple. The faithful wife&#xA;  was prepared to part with even the most sacred ornament for the&#xA;  service of her lord, her husband. The Kural says: ‘Rain falls at the&#xA;  bidding of her who, on waking from sleep, worships no other God but&#xA;  her husband.’ That night Lord Siva appeared in her dream and blessed&#xA;  her with all wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read more about him from &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaivam.org/devotees/the-history-of-kungiliyak-kalaya-nayanar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read his works or songs  from &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaivam.org/thirumurai/twelveth-thirumurai/836/periya-puranam-ilai-malintha-charukkam-kunkuliyak-kalaya-nayanar-puranam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in Tamil and from &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaivam.org/devotees/the-puranam-of-kungkuliya-k-kalaya-nayanar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in English.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T07:38:49.650" CommentCount="2" CommunityOwnedDate="2016-10-12T06:06:27.483" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15377" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-10T08:03:23.987" Score="7" ViewCount="600" Body="&lt;p&gt;What does Shastras/ Vedas prescribe in the matter of son/daughter being present near father/mother at the time of their death? I read somewhere it is required that a son be present with parent at the time of their death, which is considered as a factor in them attaining moksha. Does it vary for father / mother? Is it required according to Shastras that son be present or daughters presence is also considered on par?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7892" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-05T08:03:59.807" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T08:11:35.663" Title="Presence of children at the time of death of parents?" Tags="|belief|moksha|death|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15378" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15363" CreationDate="2016-10-10T08:34:55.513" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There seems to be some confusion in your question and the first two answers as regards the term &lt;em&gt;Sankhya&lt;/em&gt; which does appear in the second chapter of the Gita. First, don't confuse the Sanskrit word &lt;em&gt;Sankhya&lt;/em&gt; with the philosophy &lt;em&gt;of&lt;/em&gt; Sankhya propounded by Kapila - they mean two different things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Lord Krishna refers to &lt;em&gt;Sankhya&lt;/em&gt; in chapter two He is referencing the meaning '&lt;em&gt;Knowledge&lt;/em&gt;' - in English with a capital K meaning Knowledge of the Self. He is not referring to the Sankhya philosophy of Kapila. Indeed most translators refer to the title of chapter 2 as the Yoga of Knowledge. Sankara writes in his commentary to chapter 2 verse 11 (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The nature of the Self, the supreme Reality, determined by the Lord in the text beginning with 'Those who are not to be grieved for' (11) and running to the end of the verse, 'Even considering your own duty' (31), is called Sankhya. Sankhya-&lt;em&gt;buddhi&lt;/em&gt; [translator's note - &lt;em&gt;Sankhya&lt;/em&gt; is that correct (&lt;em&gt;samyak&lt;/em&gt;) knowledge of the Vedas which reveals (&lt;em&gt;khyayate&lt;/em&gt;) the reality of the Self, the supreme Goal. The Reality under discussion, which is related to this &lt;em&gt;sankhya&lt;/em&gt; by way of having been revealed by it, is Sankhya.] &lt;em&gt;Sankara's commentary continues&lt;/em&gt; - (Conviction about the Reality) is the conviction with regard to That (supreme Reality) arising from the ascertainment of the meaning of the context--that the Self is not an agent because of the absence of in It of the six kinds of changes, viz birth etc. Sankhyas are those men of Knowledge to whom that (conviction) becomes natural. Prior to the rise of this Conviction (Sankhya-&lt;em&gt;buddhi&lt;/em&gt;), the ascertainment of the performance of disciplines leading to Liberation--which is based on a discrimination between virtue and vice, and which presupposes the Self's difference from the body etc. and Its agentship and enjoyership--is called Yoga. The conviction with regard to that (Yoga) is Yoga-&lt;em&gt;buddhi&lt;/em&gt;. The performer of rites and duties, for whom this (conviction) is appropriate, are called yogis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commentary on this verse is lengthy and this is only a portion of it. But as you can ascertain, there is no reference to Kapila's philosophy of Sankhya. Krishna is referring to Knowledge of the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many important differences between Kapila's Sankhya philosophy and the philosophy of Vedanta. I think these have been referenced in other questions so I will not include a discussion of those differences - the important note is that they are not the same and the Gita, a cornerstone of Vedanta, is not supporting the philosophy of Kapila.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, Kapila and his philosophy are older than the Gita and the Brahma Sutras. The Brahma Sutras make arguments against the Samkhya philosophy. How much older, we do not know. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his book, &lt;em&gt;The Spiritual Heritage of India&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Prabhavananda writes in his chapter on the Samkhya System:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sage Kapila, who is generally regarded as the founder of the Smakhya philosophy, is a historical figure, whough many myths have gathered about his personality. In the Gita, Sri Krsna mentions him thus: 'Of the great sages, I am Kapila.' The Bhagavata Purana describes him as a partial incarnation of Visnu, born with the knowledge of truth for the good of humanity. It is impossible to assign a definite date to Kapila; it can be safely affirmed, however, that he lived before the time of Buddha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Two books, Tattwa Samsa and Samkhya Pravacana Sutra, have been attributed to Kapila, though a difference of opinion exists among the scholars of India as to whether Kapila actually wrote them. Another book on Samkhya, very popular among students of philosophy, is the Samkhya Karika of Iswarakrsna, a work of the third century AD. Besides these there exist innumerable commentaries by the followers of this school of thought. Samkara, the great Vedantist, in the course of his refutation of some of the Samkhya tenets, quotes the Karika and ignores the Sutra. For this reason many hold that the Sutra was of later origin. However, Vijnanabhiksu, the well-known commentator on the Sutra, attributes its authorship to Kapila.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T08:34:55.513" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15379" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15366" CreationDate="2016-10-10T09:18:06.417" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimad is prefixed not only for auspicious and noble scriptures but also for eminent and noble scholars also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) श्रीमत्:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. of high rank or dignity&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. decorated with the insignia of royalty&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. venerable&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. fortunate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. glorious&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. pleasant&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. prosperous&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. illustrious&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. auspicious&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. possessed of fortune&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. lovely&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. beautiful&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. splendid&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. charming&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमत् zrImat adj. eminent&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Ramanuja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Azhagiya Singar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Andavan Swamigal&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Ramanuja Siddhanta Nirdhaarana Saarva bouma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bodhendra Desikendra namosthuthey&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) श्रीमद:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीमद zrImada m. intoxication produced by wealth or prosperity&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shrimad akalanka paripurna shashikoti (Nrisimha Ashtakam)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He (Lord Narasimha) is like billions of full moons without any stains&#xA;Source(s): &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.celextel.org/stotras/vishnu/n&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.celextel.org/stotras/vishnu/n&lt;/a&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prapatti.com/slokas/sanskrit/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.prapatti.com/slokas/sanskrit/&lt;/a&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%&lt;/a&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prapatti.com%2Fslokas%2Fsanskrit%2Fnrisimhaashtakam.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prapatti.com%2Fslokas%2Fsanskrit%2Fnrisimhaashtakam.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7003" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T09:18:06.417" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15380" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15381" CreationDate="2016-10-10T10:01:23.800" Score="6" ViewCount="1421" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prince Arjuna was one of the greatest Kshatriyas(warrior) of the Mahabharata epic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The prelude to the Mahabharata War, was a   a dynastic succession tangle, between two groups of cousins(the Kauravas and Pandavas), for the throne of Hastinapura. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, as all efforts at peace-negotiations failed, the  Pandavas and the Kauravas, fought one of the fiercest wars of their times, at Kurukshetra(viz the Mahabharata War).&#xA;The Mahabharata war also  involved a number of ancient kingdoms participating as allies of the rival groups.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was on the battlefield, ready to fight the greatest war of his lifetime, when he realized that he was facing  the greatest &quot;emotional&quot; challenge of his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was &quot;besieged&quot; by questions, for which he could not find satisfactory answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहो बत महत्पापं कर्तुं व्यवसिता वयम् |&#xA;  यद्राज्यसुखलोभेन हन्तुं स्वजनमुद्यता: || 44||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदि मामप्रतीकारमशस्त्रं शस्त्रपाणय: |&#xA;  धार्तराष्ट्रा रणे हन्युस्तन्मे क्षेमतरं भवेत् || 45||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-01-37.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 1.44–1.45:&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Alas! How strange it is that we have set our mind to perform this great sin. Driven by the desire for kingly pleasures, we are intent on killing our own kinsmen. It will be better if, with weapons in hand, the sons of Dhritarashtra kill me unarmed and unresisting on the battlefield. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna placed his celestial bow, Gandiva, down on earth and said that- he did not want to fight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सञ्जय उवाच |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवमुक्त्वार्जुन: सङ्ख्ये रथोपस्थ उपाविशत् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विसृज्य सशरं चापं शोकसंविग्नमानस: || 46||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 1.46:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanjay said: Speaking thus, Arjuna cast aside his bow and arrows, and sank into the seat of his chariot, his mind in distress and overwhelmed with grief. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Subsequently ,Arjuna found answers to all his questions, through the medium of Gita Upadesha(advice given in the Bhagavad Gita) by Lord Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were the sort of questions that perplexed Prince Arjuna, before the start of the Mahabharata war? Please explain in brief. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2020-05-23T04:09:56.103" LastActivityDate="2020-05-23T04:09:56.103" Title="What sort of questions perplexed Prince Arjuna before the start of the Mahabharata War" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15381" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15380" CreationDate="2016-10-10T10:21:34.700" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Since, it's a simple copy paste, this answer is &lt;strong&gt;opened to be edited by all.&lt;/strong&gt; Here is another reference from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/gita/bg01.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;scared-texts&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;What were the questions running through Arjuna’s mind that perplexed him, before the start of the Mahabharata war? Explain in brief.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sort of questions which perplexed Arjuna basically originated in issues related to destruction and  death during war, sin, preservance of eternal family traditions and  family welfare activities etc.These details are explained as under&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Majority of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita chapter - 1&lt;/a&gt; is dedicated to the exact question that has been asked. Important quotes are in bold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 1.28 — Arjuna said: My dear Kṛṣṇa, seeing my friends and relatives present before me in such a ﬁghting spirit, I feel the limbs of my body quivering and my mouth drying up.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.29 — My whole body is trembling, my hair is standing on end, &lt;strong&gt;my bow Gāṇḍīva is slipping from my hand&lt;/strong&gt;, and my skin is burning.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.30 — I am now unable to stand here any longer. I am forgetting myself, and my mind is reeling. &lt;strong&gt;I see only causes of misfortune&lt;/strong&gt;, O Kṛṣṇa, killer of the Keśī demon.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.31 — &lt;strong&gt;I do not see how any good can come from killing my own kinsmen in this battle&lt;/strong&gt;, nor can I, my dear Kṛṣṇa, desire any subsequent victory, kingdom or happiness.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.32-35 — O Govinda, of what avail to us are a kingdom, happiness or even life itself when all those for whom we may desire them are now arrayed on this battleﬁeld? O Madhusūdana, when teachers, fathers, sons, grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law and other relatives are ready to give up their lives and properties and are standing before me, &lt;strong&gt;why should I wish to kill them, even though they might otherwise kill me?&lt;/strong&gt; O maintainer of all living entities, I am not prepared to ﬁght with them even in exchange for the three worlds, let alone this earth. What pleasure will we derive from killing the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.36 — Sin will overcome us if we slay such aggressors. Therefore it is not proper for us to kill the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and our friends. What should we gain, O Kṛṣṇa, husband of the goddess of fortune, and &lt;strong&gt;how could we be happy by killing our own kinsmen?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.37-38 — O Janārdana, although these men, &lt;strong&gt;their hearts overtaken by greed&lt;/strong&gt;, see no fault in killing one’s family or quarreling with friends, &lt;strong&gt;why should we, who can see the crime in destroying a family&lt;/strong&gt;, engage in these acts of sin?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.39 — With the destruction of the dynasty, the eternal family tradition is vanquished, and thus the rest of the family becomes involved in irreligion.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.40 — When irreligion is prominent in the family, O Kṛṣṇa, the &lt;strong&gt;women of the family become polluted&lt;/strong&gt;, and from the degradation of womanhood, O descendant of Vṛṣṇi, comes unwanted progeny.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.41 — An increase of unwanted population certainly causes hellish life both for the family and for those who destroy the family tradition. &lt;strong&gt;The ancestors of such corrupt families fall down&lt;/strong&gt;, because the performances for offering them food and water are entirely stopped.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.42 — By the evil deeds of those who destroy the family tradition and thus give &lt;strong&gt;rise to unwanted children&lt;/strong&gt;, all kinds of community projects and family welfare activities are devastated.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.43 — O Kṛṣṇa, maintainer of the people, I have heard by disciplic succession that those whose family traditions are destroyed dwell always in hell.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.44 — Alas, how strange it is that we are preparing to commit greatly sinful acts. Driven by the desire to enjoy royal happiness, we are intent on killing our own kinsmen.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.45 — &lt;strong&gt;Better&lt;/strong&gt; for me if the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, weapons in hand, were to &lt;strong&gt;kill me unarmed&lt;/strong&gt; and unresisting on the battleﬁeld.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 1.46 — Sañjaya said: &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna, having thus spoken on the battleﬁeld, cast aside his bow and arrows and sat down&lt;/strong&gt; on the chariot, his mind overwhelmed with grief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-10T11:43:53.747" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T11:43:53.747" CommentCount="1" CommunityOwnedDate="2016-10-10T10:21:34.700" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15382" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2223" CreationDate="2016-10-10T10:58:56.053" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana77.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatha Purana&lt;/a&gt; describes the origin and importance of Rudrakshas as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The origin of Rudrakshas [dark beads of Tree, termed Elaeocorpus&#xA;  Ganitrus in Latin language] or Lord Siva’s tears, extensively used as&#xA;  Prayer Rosaries, goes back to Maha Deva’s killing Tripurasura, who&#xA;  sought to destroy  the Universe and whom all the Devas, Brahma and&#xA;  Vishnu failed to control. Maha Deva concentrated with His eyes wide&#xA;  open for several years together to create a very highly potent weapon&#xA;  by name ‘Aghora’ with which to annihilate the Demon &lt;strong&gt;and in the process&#xA;  trickled tears which produced a stream from where sprang a Rudraksha&#xA;  Tree.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Rudraksha Seeds are of thirty eight varieties.&lt;/strong&gt; From Lord Shiva’s&#xA;  right eye, signifying ‘Surya Netra’ (Sun God), emerged from the Trees&#xA;  that yielded twelve kinds of yellow colour seeds;from His left eye,&#xA;  signifying ‘Soma Netra’ (Moon) came sixteen varieties of white&#xA;  coloured beads, and from the Lord’s third eye on His forehead&#xA;  representing ‘Agni Netra’ ( Fire) came ten varieties of black colour.&#xA;  The white variety of the beads are meant for wearing by Brahmanas, the&#xA;  red colour by Kshatriyas and the black coloured beads by Vaisyas and&#xA;  others. ‘Eka Mukhi’ Rudrakshas represent Siva Himself the wearing of&#xA;  which washes off even the worst sin of a killing  a Brahmana’; two&#xA;  faced one represents Deva and Devi destroying two kinds of sins among&#xA;  ‘Pancha Paatakas’;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further important informations on Rudraksha from the linked page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1)Wearing one- faced, five- faced, eleven- faced or fourteen- faced&#xA;  Rudrakshas is highly recommended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2)Medical values of wearing Rudraksha malas (rosaries) are said to be&#xA;  immense in  warding off depression, stress, diabetes, cancer, heart&#xA;  and blood related diseases. Close contact of body parts like head,&#xA;  heart, neck, ear and hands assures protection from ill health.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3)All vedic acts are to be accompanied by wearing Rudraksha Malas like&#xA;  Sacrifices, Vraths, Pujas, holy baths, Shraddhas, Solar and Lunar&#xA;  Eclipses, Uttarayana and Dakshinayana ‘Samkramanas’(entry timings),&#xA;  and Full Moon and New Moon days or Pournami and Pradhama days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4)However one should not touch or consume wine, meat, tobacco, onion,&#xA;  garlic and such impurities as also during mating, since these&#xA;  constitute atrocious insults to Maha Deva&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5)However, Sage Narayana  quoted Maha Deva telling Kartikeya that any human being irrespective of caste or even animals or other species&#xA;  carrying Rudrakshas would be immune from sins as an ass carrying a&#xA;  load of the beads died on way but had salvation!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;6 He who holds thirty on neck, fourty on head, six each on ears,&#xA;  twelve each on hands, sixteen each on arms, one each on eyes, one on&#xA;  hair or crown, and hundred and eight on breast totalling two hundred&#xA;  and fifty one become Maha Deva Himself&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The importance of Rudraksha is well highlighted in the following Linga Purana verse which states &lt;strong&gt;that Shiva does not accept  Puja of those devotees who do not wear  1) The Tripundha(on forehead using Bhasma or otherwise) &amp;amp; 2)the Rudrakshas.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, for Shiva Devotees(or generally) the importance of Rudraksha is supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vina Bhasma Tripundrena &lt;strong&gt;Vina Rudrakshamaalayaa&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pujito 'Api Mahadevo Na Syaat Tasya PhalaPradah||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/g4tEK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/g4tEK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2020-05-20T13:57:43.667" LastActivityDate="2020-05-20T13:57:43.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15383" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15422" CreationDate="2016-10-10T11:29:32.163" Score="4" ViewCount="856" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that when a wife applies Turmeric to her feet then the husband is influenced to be on the rightful path (dharma maarg). Most of my elders, grand parents and ancestors have been talking about the same...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a Vedic proof or something?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it a customary thing that has been performed on each of the festivals and been followed to date just like that (with no scriptural recommendation)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4956" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-10T21:58:47.143" LastActivityDate="2016-10-13T10:01:07.223" Title="What's the importance of Turmeric in Indian Marriage and Husband in context?" Tags="|belief|rituals|tradition|marriage|superstitions|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15385" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15138" CreationDate="2016-10-10T12:44:38.287" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;pornography&quot; is relatively new for any religion. Some people relate it to vulgarity, some people treat it as a sin and some people are OK (on peace) with it. This is more of a local belief irrespective of any religion.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I presume that, you want to know the overall view of Hinduism on &quot;Pornography&quot;, rather than just the current populace thinking. Let's revisit the 2 definitions from Wikipedia which already has sources cited:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pornography&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purpose of sexual arousal. Pornography may be &lt;strong&gt;presented in a variety of media&lt;/strong&gt;, including books, magazines, postcards, photographs, &lt;strong&gt;sculpture&lt;/strong&gt;, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video, and video games.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is a religion, or a way of life. Hinduism has been called the &quot;oldest religion&quot; in the world, and some practitioners and scholars refer to it as Sanātana Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to &quot;porn&quot; being a modern word, ofcourse there cannot be &lt;em&gt;&quot;scriptures&quot;&lt;/em&gt; reference of it. Hence the liberals usually put forward the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khajuraho_Group_of_Monuments#Arts_and_sculpture&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Khajuraho&lt;/a&gt; &lt;em&gt;&quot;sculptures&quot;&lt;/em&gt;, which were created in a temple during 10th century in Madhya Pradesh, India. This is an open for public temple &amp;amp; recognized by the government.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Around 10% of such sculptures are erotic, which philosophically depicts that a small part of life is human's sexuality as well. Here is a nice &lt;a href=&quot;https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VcThFnztv4w&amp;amp;feature=youtu.be&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;video link (41:00)&lt;/a&gt; link from an old movie, which explains in brief about this carvings of Khajuraho temple. Incidentally the actor is late Vijay Anand, who went on to become the head of film censor board of India. He also had the liberalized views.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;##Spoiler##&lt;/strong&gt;: Sexually explicit images ahead, which may deviate &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15138/what-is-hinduisms-view-on-porn/15385?noredirect=1#comment37931_15385&quot;&gt;some people&lt;/a&gt; from the path of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;. Click on it with proper discretion.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote class=&quot;spoiler&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eFNjNs.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eFNjNs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YEBhns.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YEBhns.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above Khajuraho pictures depict an orgy of multiple sex partners &amp;amp; also homosexuality at certain extent. Now, such erotic arts &amp;amp; sculptures are not limited to only this temple.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiatimes.com/culture/who-we-are/14-temples-in-india-where-you-get-a-lot-more-than-just-the-traditional-prasad-231878.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;14 Temples In India Where You Get A Lot More Than Just The Traditional Prasad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you see, this carvings are present in the &quot;temples&quot;, which shows a very liberal view on &quot;depiction of sexuality&quot; in older era. In fact, &lt;strong&gt;those people didn't see sex or porn with a &quot;shock value&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. However, with foreign invasions starting from 13-14 century and admixing of other cultures, the sexuality created more of a negative sentiment among the general population. It was no more considered as &quot;way of life&quot;. May be for the good reasons (to avoid inter mixes of races, diseases, adultery, ...), various moral codes were imposed, like &quot;don't do this, don't look at that, ...&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If someone considers &quot;pornography&quot; as &quot;bad&quot;, then that &quot;bad&quot; is created due to making &quot;sex&quot; as taboo. Anything which is made taboo or unnaturally restricted, results in distortion. Flowing water remains fresh, while the blocked water becomes stale.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, going by the definition &lt;strong&gt;for &quot;pornography&quot;, &quot;Hinduism&quot; is/was an accepting culture&lt;/strong&gt;; though the current population may not be. I would also recommend to refer below answer which nicely discusses about Hindu texts by Vedic philosopher &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kama_Sutra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Muni VAtsyAyana&lt;/a&gt; on exploring sexuality:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/704/1049&quot;&gt;What does Hinduism say about masturbation?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2017-03-04T16:05:50.263" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15386" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3296" CreationDate="2016-10-10T13:01:25.067" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bilva gtree is the tree of Lakshmi. It is stated in Sri Sukta: &quot;Aditya varne tapasodi jaatho vanaspathihi &lt;strong&gt;tha vriksho the bilvaha&lt;/strong&gt;; Thasya phalani thapasanuthanthu mayaantha rayaantha bhagya lakshmihi&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is why it is so beloved to Shankara, because the bilva tree emenated from the tapas of Maha Lakshmi. It is indeed a very auspicious tree to have in the home and will banish all signs of poverty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7897" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T13:01:25.067" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15388" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15138" CreationDate="2016-10-10T15:02:49.017" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;The advice is not to watch it. Bhishma was asked by Yudhishthira the following question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'What is the appearance presented by those that are wicked, and what&#xA;are those acts which they that are called good are to do? Explain to&#xA;me this, o holy one! Indeed, tell me what the indications are of the&#xA;good and wicked?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma said, &amp;quot;They that are wicked are evil in their practices, ungovernable or incapable of being kept within the restraints of rules, and foul mouthed. They, on the other hand, they are good, are always good in their acts. .......&lt;strong&gt;One should  never cast one's eyes on a naked woman, nor&#xA;a naked man&lt;/strong&gt;. One should never indulge in sexual congress except in&#xA;privacy.................&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva, Section CLXII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-11T16:21:41.330" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15390" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-10T15:47:02.157" Score="9" ViewCount="1241" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu cosmology, the Earth is said to have seven Dvipas or islands.  Many people (myself included) believe that the seven Dvipas refer to the seven continents, which is why Hindu rituals in India refer to Jambu Dvipa, and Hindu rituals in America refer to Krauncha Dvipa.  But others believe that Jambu Dvipa or even just Bharata Varsha refers to the entire Earth, and that other Varshas or Dvipas are located on other planets.  But I just heard another theory in the 19:30 mark of &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/yKp4FaivtNM?t=1170&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this interview&lt;/a&gt; with Ramana Dikshitar, the chief priest of the Tirumala Venkateshwara temple.  Ramana Dikshitar says that Shwetadvipa, which is the abode of Vishnu's Vyuha Vasudeva form (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6923/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), is actually located underground.  Here is my translation of what he said in Tamil&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In our Puranas, Shwetadvipa is something that's spoken about often.  It is also said in those works that liberated souls who are in Shwetadvipa, that is Jnanis, Siddhas, they come daily and worship the Lord.  It is said say that here Siddha Purushas live, never having sadness, anger, hatred, and other qualities, always happy, always sweet, they live and enjoy.  It is said that they are a parallel civilization, that is, they follow our customs above ground, but it is said that underground they have huge, gigantic cities.  For these cities, there is said to be large land as well.  &lt;strong&gt;Certain facts are given, that for these people to come above ground, there are gates in various places, and that when they want to, they come, mingle with humans, and go.  It is said that there is a gate in Tibet, that there is one in South America, and that there is a gate in the Pacific Ocean.&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we come to the case of Tirupati, in the time of the Ramayana, it is said that Rama, while going to Lanka in search of Sita, along with Lakshmana and the Vanaras, came here and stayed on the seven hills for three days.  On that occasion it is said some Vanaras saw a secret cave in the forest with a gate, and that they went and saw what was inside.  It is said that there was great city, and that in the city everyone was, really tall, really happy, and that they were enjoying.  It is said that there were really big royal roads, chariots, horses, everything.  And it is said that in the middle of the city, in a beautiful palace a Mahapurusha was sitting, and when he saw the Vanaras he said &amp;quot;They are on a divine mission, so don't harm them.  Just give then fruits and send them on their way.&amp;quot;  In the Ramayana it is said that the Vanaras told Rama about all this.  That cave is called Vaikuntha Guha.  When you look at all this, you can see that Shwetadvipa is real.  To this day you can see the mouth of the cave in the forest.  I have seen it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the story of the Vanaras seeing Vaikuntha in a cave is described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MedlX.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Tirumala Sthala Purana, the temple scripture of the Tirupati temple which consists of quotes from various actual Puranas as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/753/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Does anyone know which Purana this particular story comes from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my main question is, what scriptures describe notion that Shwetadvipa is underground and that there are gates to Shwetadvipa on various places on the Earth?And where did Ramana Dikshitar get the information that there are gates in Tibet, South America, and the Pacific Ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Obviously those names wouldn't occur in Hindu scripture, but are there scriptures which mention ancient place names as locations of gates to Shwetadvipa, and did Ramana Dikshitar just give their modern equivalents?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-10T02:32:55.270" Title="What scriptures describe Shwetadvipa being underground with gates at Tirupati and other places?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|cosmology|tirupati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15391" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3719" CreationDate="2016-10-10T16:27:17.613" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why some people get success in meditation early than others ? &#xA;Here is my view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It definitely depends upon karmic laws.&#xA;  Vivekanandaji had said that if you see people getting success in something without much effort then it is certain that they had taken tremendous effort for it in their past lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The great devotee Dhruva&lt;/strong&gt;  tried for lord Vishnu's darshana and grace for 1000 consicutive lives. Thus God appeared before him after only six months meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahakavi Kalidasa&lt;/strong&gt; had sacrified his head for nine consecutive lives at the feet of maa Kali and she appeared before him without much efforts in his life as Kalidasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why go so far in history... Baba Muktananda(died in 1982) had once told that one of his devotee was Sanyasin for her past 13 consecutive lives and thus within 13 days she acheived a great progress in meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Rakshasas&lt;/strong&gt;: &#xA;  The Rakshasas used to do Sakam Sadhna.&#xA;  They used to meditate with some wish.&#xA;  Lord Shiva always knew that the Rakshasas who meditate on him are finally going to acheive Mukti by getting killed by Lord Vishnu;  so he used to appear with almost no time. Lolz! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Be it lord Shiva or Vishnu, all Gods are mad at their sincere n real devotees so they never discriminate between them like they are Rakshasas n they are bad n bla...bla...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4103" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T16:27:17.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15392" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8902" CreationDate="2016-10-10T17:00:52.020" Score="6" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Did Kauravas admit their adharma?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sabha Parva of Mahabharata, after the Pandavas had lost the dice-game the first time and were sent off, Gandhari &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02074.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;gives the following advice&lt;/a&gt; to Dhritarashtra. She's saying that Duryodhana by nature is evil, therefore most of his actions tend to be &lt;em&gt;adharmic&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Duryodhana was born, Vidura of great intelligence had said, 'It is well to send this disgrace of the race to the other world. He cried repeatedly and dissonantly like a jackal. It is certain he will prove the destruction of our race. Take this to heart, O king of the Kurus. O Bharata, sink not, for thy own fault, into an ocean of calamity. &lt;strong&gt;O lord, accord not thy approbation to the counsels of the wicked ones of immature years.&lt;/strong&gt; Be not thou the cause of the terrible destruction of this race. Who is there that will break an embankment which hath been completed, or re-kindle a conflagration which hath been extinguished? O bull of the Bharata race, who is there that will provoke the peaceful sons of Pritha? Thou rememberest, O Ajamida, everything, but still I will call thy attention to this. The scriptures can never control the wicked-minded for good or evil. And, O king, a person of immature understanding will never act as one of mature years. Let thy sons follow thee as their leader. Let them not be separated from thee for ever (by losing their lives). &lt;strong&gt;Therefore, at my word, O king, abandon this wretch of our race.&lt;/strong&gt; Thou couldst not, O king, from parental affection, do it before. Know that the time hath come for the destruction of race through him. Err not, O king. Let thy mind, guided by counsels of peace, virtue, and true policy, be what it naturally is. &lt;strong&gt;That prosperity which is acquired by the aid of wicked acts, is soon destroyed; while that which is won by mild means taketh root and descendeth from generation to generation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, Dhritarashtra is not impressed by her words and replies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the destruction of our race is come, let it take place freely. &lt;strong&gt;I am ill able to prevent it.&lt;/strong&gt; Let it be as they (these my sons) desire. Let the Pandavas return. And let my sons again gamble with the sons of Pandu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Karna's death, Dhritarashtra &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08093.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;admits&lt;/a&gt; how he had ignored the wise words of Vidura:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Bhishma and Drona had been slain, and the Suta's son also overthrown, whom did my warriors make their generalissimo? The Pandavas are slaying without any delay everyone whom my warriors are making their generalissimo in battle. Bhishma was slain at the van of battle by the diadem-decked Arjuna in the very sight of all of you. Even thus was Drona slain in the sight of all of you. Even thus was the Suta's son, that valiant Karna, slain by Arjuna in the sight of all the kings. &lt;strong&gt;Long before, the high-souled Vidura had told me that through the fault of Duryodhana the population of the Earth would be exterminated.&lt;/strong&gt; There are some fools that do not see things even though they cast their eyes on them. Those words of Vidura have been even so unto my foolish self. What Vidura of righteous soul, conversant with attributes of everything, then said, hath turned out exactly, for the words he uttered were nothing but the truth. Afflicted by fate, &lt;strong&gt;I did not then act according to those words. The fruits of that evil course have now manifested themselves.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What determines if something is adharma?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Gandhari says, &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; is what prevails (&lt;em&gt;naturally&lt;/em&gt;) and that which goes against peace, virtue, and true policy is &lt;em&gt;adharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes it is difficult to pinpoint the exact nature of dharma or adharma as Bhishma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;indicates&lt;/a&gt; in Shanti Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The question [&lt;em&gt;How should a person act who desires to adhere to virtue?&lt;/em&gt;] thou hast asked me is a difficult one, since &lt;strong&gt;it is difficult to say what righteousness is. It is not easy to indicate it. No one in discoursing upon righteousness, can indicate it accurately.&lt;/strong&gt; Righteousness was declared (by Brahman) for the advancement and growth of all creatures. Therefore, that which leads to advancement and growth is righteousness. Righteousness was declared for restraining creatures from injuring one another. Therefore, that is Righteousness which prevents injury to creatures. Righteousness (Dharma) is so called because it upholds all creatures. In fact, all creatures are upheld by righteousness. Therefore, that is righteousness which is capable of upholding all creatures. Some say that righteousness consists in what has been inculcated in the Srutis. Others do not agree to this. I would not censure them that say so. Everything, again, has not been laid down in the Srutis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu defines the ten essentials of dharma as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhriti Kshama Damosteyam Shaucham Indriyanigraha &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Dheervidya Satyamakrodho dashakam Dharma Lakshanam &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; [&lt;a href=&quot;http://recentvoice.wikidot.com/notes:dharma-lakshanam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manusmriti 6.92&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharma has ten characteristics, i.e., &#xA;  patience or perseverance (dhriti), forgiveness (kshama), self-restraint (dama), not to take possessions of others without permission (asteya), internal and external purification (shaucha), control of senses (indriya nigraha), intellect (dhi), acquisition of accurate knowledge (vidya), truth (satya), abstaining from anger (akrodha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you compare the characters of Yudhishtira (leader of Pandavas) and Duryodhana (acting leader of Kauravas), clearly, Yudhishtira has displayed more of those ten characteristics of dharma than Duryodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T17:00:52.020" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15393" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-10T22:15:51.697" Score="3" ViewCount="86" Body="&lt;p&gt;I often encounter the term, or reference to, a &quot;Veiled Durga&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anybody explain the circumstances under which we find that Durga is veiled, or any reason or story at all that will explain the &quot;Veiled Durga&quot; reference?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7901" LastActivityDate="2016-10-10T22:15:51.697" Title="Veiled Durga reference" Tags="|durga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-12-20T14:19:06.930" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15394" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11094" CreationDate="2016-10-11T06:39:29.290" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;A couple of the topics (viz-morning sun and smoke out of burning corpse) are mentioned in Manu Smriti itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Although ,not explicitly mentioned as things that reduce lifespan.But mentioned as to be &quot;avoided&quot; none the less&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti , Chapter 4, verse 69 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.69. &lt;strong&gt;The morning sun, the smoke rising from a (burning) corpse,&lt;/strong&gt; and a broken seat &lt;strong&gt;must be avoided&lt;/strong&gt;. Let him not clip his nails or hair, and&#xA;  not tear his nails with his teeth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have also now found the following verse which says that Alakshmi (the deity of misfortune) resides in curds during night. So, it is that's why not recommended to be consumed at night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ill luck (Alakshmi] resides in the shade of a Kapiththa tree during&#xA;  the day, in the mixture of milkcurd and barley powder during the&#xA;  night, and constantly in the kernels of Amalaka fruit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Likihta Smriti's last chapter&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-05T04:42:51.263" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T04:42:51.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15395" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3594" CreationDate="2016-10-11T08:08:33.387" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;Sati Pratha&amp;quot; has been praised in Hindu Shastras but it is &lt;strong&gt;voluntary, not mandatory&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,it is upto the wives to decide and can't be enforced upon them as a &amp;quot;Sastra Vachan&amp;quot;(a directive from Scriptures).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Parashara Smriti(in Chapter 4),for example says,that :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FeGts.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FeGts.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a woman follows her departed lord, by burning herself on the same&#xA;funeral pile, she will dwell in heaven for as many years as there are&#xA;hairs on the human frame, — which reach the number of three crores and&#xA;a half.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,(by doing so),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a snake-catcher seizes a venomous serpent by force, and from within&#xA;its hole lifts it up ; so does a wife deliver her lord from the&#xA;torments of hell, and then rejoices [in heaven] with him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,a previous Sloka found in the same chapter says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PFALv.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PFALv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a woman has led a continent life, after her lord departed this&#xA;life, she wins a region of bliss after her death, like to the&#xA;well-known male observers of a celibate life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The above verse proves that being a Sati is not &lt;em&gt;must&lt;/em&gt; for Hindu ladies but nevertheless an act of &lt;em&gt;great merit&lt;/em&gt;(Punya)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,Sloka 160,Chapter 5, Manu Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5.160. A virtuous wife who after the death of her husband constantly remains chaste, reaches heaven, though she have no son, just like&#xA;those chaste men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence,for a widow ,remaining chaste after the death of her husband,is enough for her to attain higher abodes of bliss (after her death). Being a &amp;quot;Sati&amp;quot; or not being one is completely a matter of personal choice.This is the true verdict from Hindu Shastras.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2023-01-16T23:04:48.170" LastActivityDate="2023-01-16T23:04:48.170" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15396" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15377" CreationDate="2016-10-11T10:42:35.817" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/a6DqQ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/a6DqQ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one sanskrit shloka  from &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Garuda Purana&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; pointing towards your question about Son/daughter  or children being present near parents during time of departure.&#xA;This shloka from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/garud-puran/garuda-vol-1/chapter-02/topic-33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (PDF Download Page) says -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रयाणकाले संस्मरेत्ताक्षयस्वाहम नारायणं निगृणं विश्वमूर्तिम।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पुत्रादिनाम चुंबने चैव काले सुवेंणहस्तु संस्मरेत्कृष्णमेव ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prayanakale SamsmrettakshayaSwaham Narayanam Nigrunam Vishmurtim&#xA;Putraadinam Chumbane Kaale Suvenhastu SansmretKrishnmeva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - When he (Someone)  is on &lt;strong&gt;verge of death&lt;/strong&gt; he should remember&#xA;the attributeless and the omnipresent Narayana and his vehicle&#xA;Garuda. &lt;strong&gt;When he kisses his son and other boys&lt;/strong&gt; he should remember&#xA;Krishna holding venu(flute) in his hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Description: From above shloka it shows that , it's important thing that  the children should be present near  to a person , as it says &amp;quot; when kissing children , one should remember lord  Krishna&amp;quot; Who grants Moksha&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T08:01:49.297" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15397" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15420" CreationDate="2016-10-11T12:02:26.977" Score="5" ViewCount="4812" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shree Narayana&lt;/strong&gt; is the Vedic Supreme God according to Vedas, Itihasas, Bhagavata Purana and Other Puranas (including his different avatars ) in Hinduism. He is also known as &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Hari&lt;/strong&gt; and is venerated as &lt;strong&gt;Purushottama&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;See More  &lt;/a&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While reading more about him , I came to know that Shree Narayana or Lord Vishnu is having &lt;strong&gt;32 auspicious traits ( lakshan लक्षण) ie. similarly like  Physical characteristics.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question -:&lt;/strong&gt; What are these 32 auspicious traits. In which scripture these are described?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-10-11T18:02:06.690" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T09:10:40.290" Title="What are the 32 auspicious traits of Narayana or Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|vishnu|gunas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15398" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-11T13:48:16.953" Score="4" ViewCount="60" Body="&lt;p&gt;For a woman with two married daughters (with no children) but no husband, who is in-charge of the cremation rite? &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramaswamysastry.blogspot.com/p/understand-death-to-understand-life_84.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;This site&lt;/a&gt; says the precedence goes to the eldest daughter, but it is highly unusual for women to do that I believe. Is the precedence list given in the site correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7903" LastActivityDate="2016-10-11T13:48:16.953" Title="Precedence in cremation rites" Tags="|death|cremation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15400" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-11T16:23:41.743" Score="2" ViewCount="1120" Body="&lt;p&gt;By means of a secret Mantra or formula a spiritual guru or God when pleased can donate or transfer spiritual energy to others... for example at the end of an arduous dedicated work or tapas to a devotee as a boon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT 1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is possible to believe in it without remaining skeptic. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa took upon himself (He received, not transmitted a malady, may be cancer, from a devotee that he suffered at his Samadhi time. So also Sai Baba of Shirdi showed his devotees and even disbelievers many instances of such miracles. He declared the Spiritual energy can be effectively transferred, responding where trust and belief are present even after SaiBaba ceased to mortally exist. In the Thyagaraja movie overflowing energy of the musician could effectively cure the sick by his prayer and sympathetic wishes. So did Jesus of Nazereth..it seems to be a phenomenon of pure spirit and associated with no faith in particular.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for power delivery through Astras a Mantra is invoked into an arrow before releasing the bow to shoot in war.. for spreading water or fire as a missile or for killing enemies in combat is well  known in mythology. Sitha matha threatened to slay Ravana if he violated while captive just using a blade of grass.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The energy can be directed to an Astra or another person. It is activated by the recipient when the Mantra is invoked. The Source/Giver repeatedly transfers or transmits spiritual energy for a good cause or destruction in war as may be intended or desired.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have such miraculous events been in evidence in recent times? Is it a form of telepathy? For example during Maha Kumbh Mela by some Yogis? Or is such power lost out in the Kali Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-09T06:27:21.010" LastActivityDate="2020-12-03T05:06:30.700" Title="Can mantras help transfer energy miraculously to a person or object?" Tags="|mantras|kali-yuga|guru|weapon|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15401" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15397" CreationDate="2016-10-11T17:35:00.110" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &quot;Vishnu Puran&quot; and &quot;Padma Puran&quot;, Lord Vishnu is said to possess not just 32 but infinite attributes, among which there are six principal attributes and other secondary attributes are infinite in number.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The principal attributes are as following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) Knowledge;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(2) Power;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(3) Strength;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(4) Lordship;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(5) Energy;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(6) Splendour;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the Secondary attributes are as following:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(1) Beautiful features of the entire body; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(2) Marked with all auspicious characteristics;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;(3) Extremely pleasing; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(4) Effulgent; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(5) Strong; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(6) Ever youthful; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(7) Wonderful linguist;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;(8) Truthful; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(9) Talks pleasingly; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(10) Fluent; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(11) Highly learned;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;(12) Highly intelligent;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;(13) A genius; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(14) Artistic; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(15) Extremely clever;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;(16) Expert; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(17) Grateful; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(18) Firmly determined;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;(19) An expert judge of time and circumstances; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(20) Sees and speaks on the authority of Vedas, or scriptures; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(21) Pure; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(22) Self-controlled;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;(23) Steadfast; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(24) Forbearing; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(25) Forgiving; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(26) Grave; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(27) Self-satisfied; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(28) Possessing equilibrium;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;(29) Magnanimous; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(30) Religious; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(31) Heroic; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(32) Compassionate;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;(33) Respectful; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(34) Gentle; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(35) Liberal; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(36) Shy; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(37) The protector of surrendered souls; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(38) Happy; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(39) The well-wisher of devotees; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(40) Controlled by love; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(41) All-auspicious; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(42) Most powerful; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(43) All-famous; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(44) Popular; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(45) Partial to devotees;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;(46) Very attractive to all women; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(47) All-worshipable; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(48) All-opulent; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(49) All-honorable; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(50) The supreme controller;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(51) Inconceivable potency;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(52) Uncountable universes generate from His body;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(53) Original source of all incarnations;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(54) Giver of salvation to the enemies whom He kills;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(55) Attractor of liberated souls;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7907" LastActivityDate="2016-10-11T17:35:00.110" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15402" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-11T23:36:07.967" Score="2" ViewCount="229" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Shambala&lt;/a&gt; village. Does this village has existed at any point of time in history or any yuga ? Or it is a mythical kingdom which is going to be show up in future? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We all have heard that, when evil takes over the world lord kalki comes from this village in order to protect good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone put light on this topic please.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is , Are there any mythological stories on this village? If so, Is this place real like ayodhya, dwaraka, or Lanka? If so, where exactly is this place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="915" LastActivityDate="2016-10-11T23:36:07.967" Title="Does shambala village exists?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|belief|history|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-02-26T11:12:34.683" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15404" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15410" CreationDate="2016-10-12T04:40:52.613" Score="8" ViewCount="460" Body="&lt;p&gt;Typically in Gujarat region of India, the devotees of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinathji&quot;&gt;Shrinathji&lt;/a&gt; follow &quot;Pushti mArga&quot;. I would like to know: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who founded it &amp;amp; when?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How is it different than conventional Vaishnavism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4930" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-04-29T16:06:56.977" LastActivityDate="2017-04-29T16:06:56.977" Title="Who founded &quot;Pushti mArga&quot; and how is it different than &quot;Vaishnavism&quot;?" Tags="|krishna|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|pushti-marga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15405" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10216" CreationDate="2016-10-12T05:11:09.957" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Which verse of the Bhagavad Gita says “If you don't fight for what you want, don't cry for what you lost?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;there is no such verse in Bhagavad Gita which meant to say such message.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita Krishna told Arjuna for fighting because Arjuna became overwhelmed, realize whether fighting is improper and lead to sin (1.36-46) confused about his duty:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कार्पण्यदोषोपहतस्वभावः&#xA;          पृच्छामि त्वां धर्मसम्मूढचेताः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यच्छ्रेयः स्यान्निश्चितं ब्रूहि तन्मे&#xA;          शिष्यस्तेऽहं शाधि मां त्वां प्रपन्नम् ॥ २-७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now I am &lt;strong&gt;confused about my duty&lt;/strong&gt; and have lost all composure because of miserly weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me &lt;strong&gt;for certain what is best for me&lt;/strong&gt;. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Krishna taught him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः ॥ २-११॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those &lt;strong&gt;who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He cleared Arjuna's confusion (verse started from 2.12):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देही नित्यमवध्योऽयं देहे सर्वस्य भारत ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मात्सर्वाणि भूतानि न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २-३०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— O descendant of Bharata, he who dwells in the body can never be slain. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore you need not grieve for any living being.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And preach properly about Kshatriya Dharma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वधर्ममपि चावेक्ष्य न विकम्पितुमर्हसि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धर्म्याद्धि युद्धाच्छ्रेयोऽन्यत्क्षत्रियस्य न विद्यते ॥ २-३१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Considering your speciﬁc duty as a kṣatriya, you should know that there is no better engagement for you than ﬁghting on religious principles; and so there is no need for hesitation.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And make aware him with the reverse/side effect of not performing religious duty of ﬁghting:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ चेत्त्वमिमं धर्म्यं सङ्ग्रामं न करिष्यसि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततः स्वधर्मं कीर्तिं च हित्वा पापमवाप्स्यसि ॥ २-३३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If, however, you do not perform &lt;strong&gt;your religious duty of ﬁghting&lt;/strong&gt;, then you will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties and thus lose your reputation as a ﬁghter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think above verse may be &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;interpreted wrongly&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;If you don't perform religious duty of fighting, you'll lose your reputation as fighter&quot; - &lt;em&gt;Proper&lt;/em&gt; interpretation &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;If you don't fight, you'll lose what you want&quot;! - &lt;em&gt;Improper&lt;/em&gt; interpretation&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[1]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; which may leads to “If you don't fight for what you want, don't cry for what you lost?” - &lt;em&gt;Wrong&lt;/em&gt; message&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this would clear the confusion and lead to original message of Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1] Because Krishna clearly said [Verse 2.47 &amp;amp; 2.48] for abandoning all attachment to fruit of duty (success or failure). So, in the message (mentioned in question) the meaning of &lt;em&gt;What you want!&lt;/em&gt; may violate the Krishna's teaching of Nishkama Karma and hence can be considered as improper interpretation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-12T09:54:59.283" LastActivityDate="2016-10-12T09:54:59.283" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15406" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-12T05:53:14.910" Score="1" ViewCount="72" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a known fact that dharba grass absorbs radiation. Dharba ring is wore in different counts in different occasions? Why is it so?&#xA;On auspicious occasion dharba ring made of 2 grass is wore. On inauspicious occasions dharba ring made of 3 grass is wore. On kubabishekam to temples dharba ring made of 4 grass is wore. Any scriptural reference for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-10-12T05:53:14.910" Title="Uniqueness of darbha grass" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15407" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10216" CreationDate="2016-10-12T06:02:27.437" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many such &amp;quot;Made in Home&amp;quot; &lt;em&gt;sloka&lt;/em&gt;s doing rounds of internet (WhatsApp, Facebook,...) which are conveyed to others by labelling as &amp;quot;Said in Gita&amp;quot;. Usually they retain some part from Gita to have relational authenticity, and remaining part is &amp;quot;creativity&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only the &lt;strong&gt;bold&lt;/strong&gt; part is true, &lt;em&gt;italic&lt;/em&gt; is altered and remaining is hand made:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“&lt;strong&gt;If you don't fight&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;for what you want&lt;/em&gt;, don't cry for what you lost?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the &amp;quot;inspiring&amp;quot; verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 2.33 -- अथ चैत्त्वमिमं धर्म्यं संग्रामं न करिष्यसि। ततः स्वधर्मं कीर्तिं च हित्वा पापमवाप्स्यसि।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, &lt;strong&gt;if you will not fight&lt;/strong&gt; this righteous battle, then &lt;em&gt;forsaking your own duty&lt;/em&gt; and fame, you will incur sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Above translation is from Swami Gambhirananda, which suits somewhat to the said verse in the question. Usually his translations are found to be the closest among other translators. However, if we go by word by word Sanskrit then:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 2.33 -- Therefore, if you don't perform in this &lt;em&gt;DhArmik&lt;/em&gt; (righteous, here) war, then by disregarding &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt; (own nature/duty, here) and fame, you will incur sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-12T06:38:02.223" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15408" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-12T06:53:35.683" Score="0" ViewCount="1801" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the significance between Ramayana and Gayathri Mantra? The essence of the epic is having a pivotal role with the gayatri mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-10-12T06:53:35.683" Title="Ramayana and Gayathri Mantra" Tags="|ramayana|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-02-03T07:39:53.403" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15410" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15404" CreationDate="2016-10-12T09:06:00.970" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Who founded it &amp;amp; when?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pushti mArga&lt;/em&gt; is the sub-sect of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rudra_Sampradaya&amp;amp;oldid=742268668&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rudra Sampradaya&lt;/a&gt;. It was founded by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pushtimarg&amp;amp;oldid=740952029&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vallabhacharya&lt;/a&gt; around 1500 AD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;How is it different than conventional Vaishnavism?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suppose by conventtional Vaishnavism you mean &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sri_Vaishnavism&amp;amp;oldid=743425391&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnavism&lt;/a&gt;. Main basic difference between Sri Vaishnavism and Pushti Marga is as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vaishnavism&amp;amp;oldid=741339961#Traditions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;follows&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Vishnu is supreme god in &lt;em&gt;Sri Vaishnava&lt;/em&gt; sect while Shri Krishna is supreme god in &lt;em&gt;Pushti mArga&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vishishtadvaita&amp;amp;oldid=739151733&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishishtadvaita&lt;/a&gt; is the philosophy of Sri Vaishnava sect while &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shuddhadvaita&amp;amp;oldid=732105191&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shuddhadvaita&lt;/a&gt; is the philosophy of &lt;em&gt;Pushti mArga&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read more about this at &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/Vaishnava&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;hindupedia.com&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/4064/dvaita-vs-advaita-vs-vishistadvaita-vs-shuddhadvaita-vs-any-other&quot;&gt;Dvaita vs Advaita vs Vishistadvaita vs Shuddhadvaita vs any other&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-10-13T06:22:09.630" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15411" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11208" CreationDate="2016-10-12T09:38:31.747" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;After the battle of Kurukshetra there was an explosion of Mleccha agriculture, population and culture originating in Mesopotamia and spreading westward across Asia Minor and the Greek peninsula. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before that time, these areas were likely sparsely populated with nomadic herders and subsistence farmers. They would have lived much like the Native American tribes before the introduction of Europeans. The Celtic and Germanic tribes of Northern Europe lived in a similar (albeit more technologically advanced) way until the invasions of Julius Caesar shortly before the time of Christ.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is these tribal peoples that would have joined in the Mahabharat war, along with similar tribes from Central Asia and the Fertile Crescent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Over thousands of years the descendants of these tribes mushroomed in population then mixed and migrated to create the various ethnic and national designations we have today. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Within the Vedic literature, the term Yavana applies to the entire swath of land from the Mediterranean, through the Near East and Central Asia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later these people would be called Greeks etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later texts indeed recognized them as such. That is why the term Yavana became especially connected to the Greeks, who after Alexanders invasion of Northern India, established the Indo-Greek dynasties. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The blog you mentioned is full of poor logical arguments. For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna moved the Yadu dynasty to the west to avoid Yavanas, so Yavanas must not come from the west.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna moved the Yadu dynasty to Dwaraka because as a fortress in the ocean, it would not be subjected to attacks by land. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna was not trying to avoid Yavanas. The Yadu dynasty was not under attack from Yavanas. They were under attack from Jarasandha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kaliyavana only took advantage of an attack by Jarasandha ONCE to attack Mathura, because he had heard Krishna was a worthy opponent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regardless, the position of Dwaraka and Mathura are irrelevant in the face of Yavana invasions from the Khyber pass. Dwaraka is in fact safer from these invasions and no nearer to their source. Mathura is right on the path of invasion and was in fact taken by the Greeks. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nor does The Yadu movement west indicate Yavanas are from the east and south as the blogger speculates. (Even leaving aside the fact that Krishna was not moving to avoid Yavanas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7915" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-12T11:01:27.410" LastActivityDate="2016-10-12T11:01:27.410" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15412" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-12T10:19:13.827" Score="3" ViewCount="91" Body="&lt;p&gt;Concept of charity does exist in Hinduism and is termed a Daana.&#xA;But does Hinduism support the concept of continued charity??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Continued charity :-&#xA;Effect of charity which remains till its demolition.&#xA;Eg. Suppose a person donates Rs.5000/- for school construction.&#xA;Then he will get its punnya according to his contribution not only once, but till the school building gets demolished. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note :- School is just a example of good work we can consider other examples like Water Pump in remote village, mandir construction etc. through which many people will continuously be benefited.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T09:03:06.303" LastActivityDate="2018-10-16T09:03:06.303" Title="Does Hinduism support the concept of &quot;continued charity&quot;?" Tags="|belief|karma|daana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15413" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13750" CreationDate="2016-10-12T11:57:09.210" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gq7Vx.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gq7Vx.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am here with providing partial answer of your question with &quot; &lt;strong&gt;Praising of Upanishads&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (upanishad Stuti , उपनिषद् स्तृती).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a chapter in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvad purana  called &quot;Veda Stuti&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;  or Praising of Vedas. &lt;strong&gt;See chapter 87 ,Verse 3 ,&lt;/strong&gt; (Gita press Gorakgpur version)  in which shree shuka deva is Praising Upanishadas. As -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सैषा हयुपनिषद ब्राह्मी पूर्वेषा पूर्वजै धृर्ता । श्रद्धया धारयेद&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;यस्तां क्षेमं गच्छेद किंश्चनः&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sesha Hyupanishad Brahmi Purvesham PurvajaiDhruta l  Shradhyaha&#xA;  Dharayed Shkemam GacheeddaKincshanaha ll&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Sanakadi Rishi ,who are ancestors of ancestors , accepted&#xA;  this hign knowladge of Upanishadas ,which tells us about bhraman. Who&#xA;  ever with devotion hear this ,gets freed from all the sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-10-12T11:57:09.210" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15414" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-12T12:58:01.863" Score="2" ViewCount="29630" Body="&lt;p&gt;What's the deal with no watering the plant on Sundays?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And why tulsi is sacred?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there other plants which are considered as sacred ones?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6891" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-10-12T13:06:25.947" LastActivityDate="2018-03-04T22:10:33.103" Title="Tulsi plant and watering it on sundays?" Tags="|belief|tulasi|plants|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15415" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15316" CreationDate="2016-10-12T16:55:55.827" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sayana has commented on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नासदासीन नो सदासीत तदानीं नासीद रजो नो वयोमापरो यत | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;किमावरीवः कुह कस्य शर्मन्नम्भः किमासीद गहनं गभीरम ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.129.01 The non-existent was not, the existent was not; then the world was &#xA;  not, not the firmament, nor thatwhich is above (the firmament). How could there &#xA;  by any investing envelope, and where? Of what (could there be)felicity? How &#xA;  (could there be) the deep unfathomable water? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[The non-existent: sat, asat: &#xA;  visible and invisibleexistence (asat s'as'avis.a_n.avatrirupa_khyam na_si_t: &#xA;  Taittiri_ya Sam.hita_ 7.1.5.1); matter and spirit, prakr.tiand purus.a; the &#xA;  First Cause or Brahma_ was in the beginning undeveloped in its effects, and &#xA;  existed beforeboth; investing envelope: each element as created or developed is &#xA;  invested by its rudiment; of what could therebe felicity: i.e., of whom or of &#xA;  what living being could enjoyment, or fruition, whether of pain or pleasure, &#xA;  bepredicated, there being no life?] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न मर्त्युरासीदम्र्तं न तर्हि न रात्र्या अह्न आसीत्प्रकेतः | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आनीदवातं सवधया तदेकं तस्माद्धान्यन न परः किं चनास ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.129.02 Death was not nor at that period immortality, there was no indication &#xA;  of day, of night; That Oneunbreathed upon breathed of his own strength, other &#xA;  than That there was nothing else whatever. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Breathed:svadha_ = ma_ya_, or &#xA;  prakr.ti (illusion or nature), the source of the world of phenomena; s'a = &#xA;  breathed alongwith ma_ya_]. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तम आसीत तमसा गूळमग्रे.अप्रकेतं सलिलं सर्वमािदम | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तुछ्येनाभ्वपिहितं यदासीत तपसस्तन्महिनाजायतैकम ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.129.03 There was darkness covered by darkness in the beginning, all this &#xA;  (world) was undistinguishablewater; that empty united (world) which was covered &#xA;  by a mere nothing, was produced through the power ofausterity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Austerity: tapas &#xA;  = not penance, but the contemplation of things which were to be created: &#xA;  yahsarvajn~ah sarvavit yasya jn~a_namayam tapah: Mund.a.ka Upanis.ad 1.1.9]. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कामस्तदग्रे समवर्तताधि मनसो रेतः परथमं यदासीत | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सतो बन्धुमसति निरविन्दन हर्दि परतीष्याकवयो मनीषा ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.129.04 In the beginning there was desire, which was the first seed of mind; &#xA;  sages having meditated in theirhearts have discovered by their wisdom the &#xA;  connexion of the existent with te non-existent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Desire: i.e., in themind of the &#xA;  Supreme Being]. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तिरश्चीनो विततो रश्मिरेषामधः सविदासी.अ.अ.अत | &#xA;  रेतोधाासन महिमान आसन सवधा अवस्तात परयतिः परस्तात || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.129.05 Their ray was stretched out, whether across, or below, or above; &#xA;  (some) were shedders of seed,(others) were mighty; food was inferior; the eater &#xA;  was superior. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Their ray was stretched out: a reference to thesuddenness of &#xA;  creation, which was developed in the twinkling of an eye, like the flash of the &#xA;  sun's ray. It was soquick that it was doubtful whether the things in the central &#xA;  space (across) were created first, or those above orthose below; i.e., creation &#xA;  took place simultaneously in all three portions of the universe. This was the &#xA;  order inwhich things were created, but the development of the world was like a &#xA;  flash of lightning, so that the series couldnot be distinguished (tatsr.s.t.va_ &#xA;  tadeva_nupra_vis.at: Taittiri_ya A_ran.yaka 8.6). Thus the notion of a &#xA;  series,viz., from a_tma_ came the a_ka_s'a, from the a_ka_s'a the wind, from the &#xA;  wind fire etc., is reconciled: a_tmanaa_ka_s'ah sambhu_ta &#xA;  a_ka_s'a_dva_yurva_yoragnih: Taittiri_ya A_ran.yaka 8.1; whether across, or &#xA;  below, orabove: tiras'cinah = across, tiryaksrotas, that in which the stream of &#xA;  life is horizontal, i.e., the animal world;among the created objects some were &#xA;  living creatures, others were great, as the sky etc., the former being &#xA;  theenjoyers (bhokta_rah), the latter the things to be enjoyed (bhojyah), so the &#xA;  creation was distinguished as thefood and the feeder]. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;को अद्धा वेद क इह पर वोचत कुत आजाता कुत इयंविस्र्ष्टिः | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्वाग देवा अस्य विसर्जनेनाथा को वेद यताबभूव || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.129.06 Who really knows? Who in this world may declare it! whence was this &#xA;  creation, whence was itengendered? The gods (were) subsequent to the (world's) &#xA;  creation; so who knows whence it arose? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Whencewas it engendered: i.e., from &#xA;  what material cause, and from what creative cause, did it arise?] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इयं विस्र्ष्टिर्यत आबभूव यदि वा दधे यदि वा न | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो अस्याध्यक्षः परमे वयोमन सो अङग वेद यदि वा नवेद ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.129.07 He from whom this creation arose, he may uphold it, or he may not (no &#xA;  one else can); he who is itssuperintendent in the highest heaven, he assuredly &#xA;  knows, or if he knows not (no one else does).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[sa bhagavahkasmin pratis.t.hita: &#xA;  Cha_ndogya Upanis.ad 7.24.1].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentary and translation is taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.geocities.ws/ravi_sans/rv10.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and Original Sanskrit from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv10129.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think it's not actual commentary but it is H. H. Wilson translation based on Sayana commentary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-10-12T17:59:40.480" LastActivityDate="2016-10-12T17:59:40.480" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15417" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20369" CreationDate="2016-10-13T02:48:40.760" Score="9" ViewCount="1126" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_shiva/shiva108Str.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Ashtottara Stotram&lt;/a&gt;  which starts as &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिवोमहेश्वरश्शम्भुः पिनाकी शशिशेखरः .....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;is said to be given by Vishnu to Parvati. Which Purana contains this 1) stotram 2) Dhyana sloka which starts os Dhavala Vapusham... and 3) what is story behind vishnu telling this to parvati? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please mention the Khanda and Chapter of the Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-08-20T05:52:40.430" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T19:49:55.670" Title="Which Purana has Shiva Ashtottara Stotram?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|stotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15418" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-13T06:15:43.967" Score="6" ViewCount="474" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why lord Shiva was unable to defeat Jalandhara?&#xA;And also is there any story that describes why did Vrinda marry a demon?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6891" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-07T02:29:18.250" LastActivityDate="2017-06-08T14:15:25.430" Title="Lord Shiva and demon-king Jalandhara?" Tags="|shiva|tulasi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15419" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-13T06:16:04.933" Score="1" ViewCount="3067" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across many websites and some myths saying that &lt;strong&gt;Number 13&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Number 8&lt;/strong&gt; are unlucky numbers for everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Numbers 13 and 8 are considered an unlucky in some countries. People try to avoid bad luck by keeping away from anything numbered or labelled thirteen such as buildings door number, buildings 13th floor, vehicles number, etc,.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Number 13 and Number 8 really unlucky according to hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7925" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-14T08:09:10.780" LastActivityDate="2016-10-14T08:09:10.780" Title="Number 13 and Number 8 really unlucky according to hinduism?" Tags="|belief|numbers|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15420" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15397" CreationDate="2016-10-13T06:57:35.220" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/okceP.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/okceP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mWE2q.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mWE2q.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Narayanas of Lord Vishnu's 32 auspicious traits are mentioned in&#xA;Brahma Moksha Kanda - (Chapter 22  , Verse 4 to 17) of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/garud-puran/garuda-vol-1/chapter-02/topic-21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्मादाहुर्लक्षणेत्येव् सर्वे तलक्क्षणं श्रुणु चादौ खगेन्द्र:। &lt;strong&gt;नारायणे&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;पूर्ण गुणे रमेशे &lt;strong&gt;द्वात्रिंश संख्याणी सुलक्षणानि&lt;/strong&gt; ।। 4।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana,the lord of laxami is possessed of &lt;strong&gt;Thirty Two&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;auspicious&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;traits&lt;/strong&gt;.O lord of birds,I tell them serially.The person who hears the&#xA;same obtain quick deliverance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These 32 auspicios traits are given below -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The lord has seven feet 2) &lt;strong&gt;Ninetysix fingers ( the author here actually is talking about about height of Lord Vishnu ,  his body is 96 fingers tall )&lt;/strong&gt; 3) Four Hands 4) Sharp&#xA;teeth  5) A loving round and blooming face 6) Un-elivated chin 7)&#xA;Sharp and small teeth 8) Red lips  9) Bright nails 10) Red cheeks 11)&#xA;Blood Red Hands 12) Marks of conch and disc  13) Thin but developed&#xA;belly 14) Marked with three wrinkles 15) The deep naval 16) The plump&#xA;pair of thighs  17) Long extensive waist 18) Well set scrotum 19)&#xA;Straight and elevated lower parts 20) Red soles  21) Depressed ankles&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lovely neck 23) Lotus eyes 24) Red arms and knees  25) Wide Breast&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lion like shoulders 27) Small mouth 28) Extended eyes  29) Small&#xA;and tender lower part 30) Even feet ,even waist ,even knee ,even&#xA;thighs 31) Even legs even hands 32) Even ears.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is  the translation of shlokas (5 To 17).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In these shlokas various physical marks , or traits (Laxana) are described.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note - The interpretation of word 96 is provided by Tezz and Keshav Shrinivasan.. So Thank to Both .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T09:10:40.290" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15422" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15383" CreationDate="2016-10-13T09:24:40.653" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following informations are obtained from the book called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt;(which is the essence or Sara of all Dharma Shastras) regarding the importance of Turmeric(Haridra/Haldi) in a married Hindu woman's life:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa Maharshi gave the instructions as follows: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Haridraam&lt;/strong&gt;kumkumamchaiva sindhuram kajjalam tathaa, Kurpaanakam cha taambolam mangalaabharanam shubham/ Kesha samskaara kabari kara&#xA;  karnaad bhushanam, Bhartur aayushyami -cchanti dooshayenna Pativrataa/&#xA;  Praatah kaaletu yaa naari dadyaadarghyam vivasvate, Sapta janmaani&#xA;  vaidhavyaam saa naari naiva pashyati&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Those women who are interested in the longevity of their husbands&#xA;  should not to ignore the high significance of turmeric powder&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  kumkuma, eyetex, vastra, jewellery like ear studs, bangles, necklaces&#xA;  etc. As at the early mornings, women offering Arghya or water for&#xA;  worshipping Surya Deva would aviod widow hood for seven births ahead!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3CYer.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3CYer.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the importance of Turmeric(in a married HIndu lady's life) is indeed mentioned in Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-13T10:01:07.223" LastActivityDate="2016-10-13T10:01:07.223" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15423" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3157" CreationDate="2016-10-13T09:45:53.320" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Brahmins can indeed raise war in times of emergencies or when their life is endangered or when the situation demands so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shastras clearly allow it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti ,Chapter 8,Sloka 348,says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.348. &lt;strong&gt;Twice-born men may take up arms&lt;/strong&gt; when (they are) hindered (in the fulfilment of their duties, when destruction (threatens) the&#xA;  twice-born castes (varna) in (evil) times,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/E6sJE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/E6sJE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yajnavalkya Smriti similarly says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;21 — 23. &lt;strong&gt;In cases of emergency a brahmin shall pursue a Kshatriya's&#xA;  duties (administration and security) or a Vaishya's mercantile&#xA;  activites.&lt;/strong&gt; But these articles he shall not sell:– fruits, soma, silk,&#xA;  medicinal creepers, curd, milk, ghee, water, sesame seeds, cooked&#xA;  rice, heavy metals, acids and alkalis, honey, lac, requisites of Homa,&#xA;  cloth, stone, utensils flowers, vegetables, clay, leather shoes,&#xA;  deer-skin, silk, salt, meat, oil cakes, roots and perfumes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KnlQM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KnlQM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Veda Vyasa also mentioned ‘Aapaddharmaas’ of Brahmanas rendering&#xA;  Kshatriya Dharmas, Kshatriyas assuming the duties of Vaishyas and so&#xA;  on.&lt;/strong&gt; [Maha Bhagavata Purana provided escape clauses in the context of&#xA;  Varnaashrama Dharma: Yasya yallakshanam drusyata tat teniva&#xA;  vinirdisat/ In other words: the aspects of aptitude and practice may&#xA;  be endorsed; as such the Principles are of general regulative nature&#xA;  while in practice, the updated considerations of ‘Desha-Kaala-Maana&#xA;  Paristhithis’ would indeed prevail]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&quot;Apaaddharmas&quot; mean duties during an emergency.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Parshara Smriti(Ch 7,Sloka 35) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;35&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;During a civil commotion, or in exile, or when ill, or in misfortune, &lt;strong&gt;the first consideration is to preserve one's life&lt;/strong&gt; ;&#xA;  practice of religion should at the time be postponed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verse also can be interpreted as Shastras allowing Brahmins to take up arms when the situation is demanding so or when their lives are in danger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-13T14:05:48.887" LastActivityDate="2016-10-13T14:05:48.887" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15424" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15425" CreationDate="2016-10-13T10:32:36.237" Score="47" ViewCount="8084" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are some good websites to find unabridged versions of Hindu Scriptures and to learn Hinduism (with proper interpretations)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, see:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10599/3500&quot;&gt;Where can I find/get basic information about Hinduism on the web?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9532/3500&quot;&gt;Where can I find the Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit with Hindi rendition/translation?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9078/3500&quot;&gt;Complete English translations of Puranas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9676/3500&quot;&gt;I want to learn Sanskrit. Can anybody guide me how to start?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2023-03-08T15:30:06.573" Title="What are some online sources to get unabridged Hindu Scriptures or to learn Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|resource|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15425" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15424" CreationDate="2016-10-13T10:32:36.237" Score="64" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are some sources.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indianscriptures.com&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu scriptures&lt;/a&gt; - Best site to get Hindu Scriptures in Sanskrit and English. This site has all main scriptures such as Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas and many other Ancient Scientific literature. (This site is getting revamped now with new design.  Click on &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduscriptures.in/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;hinduscriptures.in&lt;/a&gt; to read introduction to Hindu scriptures&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/index.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Internet Archive&lt;/a&gt; - This is another best site to get scriptures for free. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritebooks.org&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit ebooks&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduebooks.blogspot.in&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hinduism ebooks&lt;/a&gt; have index of useful books uploaded to Archive.org.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sacred Texts Hinduism&lt;/a&gt; - This site has good collection of scriptures such as four Vedas (separately in both Sanskrit and English), Mahabharata, some Puranas. Most of the works were translated by Foreign authors.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Documents&lt;/a&gt; - This site has an excellent collection of various scriptures (original Sanskrit verses) and many useful sites to get Hindu Scriptures, also Sanskrit Learning resources and processing tools. Some notable useful resources linked are:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;List of digital repository of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/scannedbooks/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Scanned Books&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sanskrit e-texts, literature, scriptures, and stotras &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/TextsElsewhere/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;available elsewhere&lt;/a&gt; and links to &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_links/links3_scriptures.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Scriptures and Stotras&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Related sites&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/books/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book Stores&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavadgita.us&lt;/a&gt; - This site has Bhagavad Gita with commentaries from eminent Acharyas such as Adishankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhva and Gaudiya Philosophers. (Only site of Bhagavadgita with multiple commentaries).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holybooks.com/category/hinduism/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Holybooks Hinduism&lt;/a&gt; - For all kind of Hindu Scriptures in short size including works of modern Yogis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sankaracharya.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sankaracharya.org&lt;/a&gt; - Best site for various topics such as Advaita Basics, Advaita Discussions, English translation of some works of Adi Shankaracharya, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Brahma Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Veda base&lt;/a&gt; - Best site for Srimad Bhagavatam and Gaudiya Vaishnava literature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta Shastras Library&lt;/a&gt; - Great site to learn Vedas, Upanishads, Brahmasutras. - For English translation of Vedanta Prashthanatrayi, Vedas, Epics, Purans, Literature of Adi Shankara, Ramkrishna and Krishnamurti and some stotras, mantras and rituals, stories etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ebooks.tirumala.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumala ebooks&lt;/a&gt; - For books on Tirumala Temple, Visistadvaita Philosophy, Regional books (especially Telugu, Tamil and Hindi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmikiramayana.net&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana from IITK&lt;/a&gt; - Former one has unabridged Ramayana without uttara Kahnda while latter one has Verses of Ramayana in major Indian Languages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharatha Resources&lt;/a&gt; - For complete Mahabhartha including Hari Vamsa Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://shaivam.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shaivam.org&lt;/a&gt; - For scriptures of Lord Shiva and Shaivism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.himalayanacademy.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Himalayanacademy.com&lt;/a&gt; - For Scriptures related to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.himalayanacademy.com/site/search/tags/Agama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agamas&lt;/a&gt;, Hindu Scriptures, Shiva-centric texts and other Spiritual books&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicreserve.mum.edu/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedic reserve of Maharshi University&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;GRETIL&lt;/a&gt; - Former one has all Hindu Scriptures in Sanskrit (Devanagari) while latter one has Scriptures in IAST (Unicode (UTF-8)).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wisdom Library Hinduism&lt;/a&gt; - For Patanjali Yogasutras, Manusmriti, Brahma Sutras and some Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;WestBengal Dspace&lt;/a&gt; - For Puranas in English language and Bengali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;advaita-vedanta.org&lt;/a&gt; - For books and information about Advaita Vedanta including complete works of Sri Adishankaracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Astrojyoti.com&lt;/a&gt; - For various Gitas, tantras, Jyotishya books and abridged versions of puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aghori.it/aghori_eng.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aghori.it&lt;/a&gt; - This site has information about Tantra, Sri Chakra, Chakras and other Gitas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://thevaaram.org/index.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;thevaaram.org&lt;/a&gt; - Complete &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumurai&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumurai&lt;/a&gt; of 12 Volumes with original verses and translation into various languages by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharmapuram_Adheenam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharmapuram Adheenam&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/complete_works.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Belur Math&lt;/a&gt; - Complete works of Sri Swami Vivekananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telugubhakti.com/telugupages/main.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Telugu Bhakthi&lt;/a&gt; - For scriptures in Telugu language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Books/BooksOnline.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hinduonline.co&lt;/a&gt; - For scriptures in Sanskrit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedarahasya.net/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedarahasya.net&lt;/a&gt; - This site contains a few articles of Sri Maha Perival, translations of prime vedic scriptures, some rare photographs and few interesting links to other sites in the Internet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kamakoti.org&lt;/a&gt; - This site has works of Sri Adishankaracharya, history of Kanchi Peetam, essence of Puranas and many other books on Sanatana Dharma. This site also provides Scriptures and other books in Telugu and Tamil.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/Adi%20Sankara%20Focus.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Works&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/puranashome.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Essence&lt;/a&gt; of Puaranas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/telugu/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Unabridged Puranas&lt;/a&gt; in Sanskrit and Telugu (Telugu Script).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dli.ernet.in/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Digital Library of India&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://kjc-sv013.kjc.uni-heidelberg.de/dcs/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Digital Corpus of Sanskrit&lt;/a&gt;: Only Sanskrit scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ancient Voice&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita press IITK&lt;/a&gt;: Various translations and commentaries on &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=1&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavad Gita&lt;/a&gt;. Other Gitas, Brahma Sutra, Yog Sutra, Valmiki Ramayana, Ramacharitmanas and Principle Upanishads available in Sanskrit and in some Indian languages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Puranas/Puranic_Encyclopedia.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puranic Encyclopedia&lt;/a&gt; (nitaaiveda.com) or &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puranic Encyclopedia&lt;/a&gt; (archive.org)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sanskritweb.net&lt;/a&gt; - For Vedas and few other scriptures in Devanagari (Text searchable formats).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://vedpuran.net/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedpuran.net&lt;/a&gt; - For scriptures in Hindi and other languages. It contains mainly abridged versions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;literature.awgp.org&lt;/a&gt; - (From Gayatri Parivar) For books, magazines and articles related to various Hinduism topics. Also various Shruti and Smriti treatise in Hindi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://acharya.org/bk/pb/index.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;acharya.org&lt;/a&gt; - Sri Vaishnava books.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/veliingles.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Holy Teachings of Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; - [pdf] Vedanta text e.g. Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, Brahma Sutras etc. all with various commentaries and English translation. Ramayana, Yoga Vashishtha, Srimad Bhagavatam and many more books.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://darshanapress.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Darshana Press&lt;/a&gt; - Word to word English translation of Shad Darshana (six school of Hindu philosophy) Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some more additional Sites (sites of &lt;em&gt;Yogis&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Acharyas&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?format=html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swamisivanda.org&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://dlshq.org/download/download.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;dlshq.org&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/index.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swamikrishnanada.org&lt;/a&gt; - Best sites of Divine life society to learn various Yoga techniques and to get books on Spirituality and Philosophy.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sriramanamaharshi.org&lt;/a&gt; - For books and teaching of Sri Ramana Maharshi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogananda.com.au/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Paramahamsa Yogananda&lt;/a&gt; - For Kriya Yoga and Philosophy.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/sriaurobindo/writings.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sriaurobindoashram.org&lt;/a&gt; - For writings of Sri Aurobindo&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Please update this answer if you know any online sources that are out of copyright. Don't add another answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to save this answer as PDF, visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/650/3500&quot;&gt;How do I get/print a particular Q/A in printer-friendly format?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2023-03-08T15:30:06.573" LastActivityDate="2023-03-08T15:30:06.573" CommentCount="2" CommunityOwnedDate="2016-10-13T10:32:36.237" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15426" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15419" CreationDate="2016-10-13T10:38:09.220" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not answering about 13 because i'm unsure about it either being holy or unholy.(So, treat this as a partial answer)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,I don't think that the number is 8(ashta) is inauspicious in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because,we have  many important(&amp;amp;auspicious) Hindu facts and facets related to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few are given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ashtanga.com/html/background.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ashtanaga Yoga&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The eight limbed path of Yoga viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yama,Niyama,Asana,Pranayama,Pratyahara,Dharana,Dhyana &amp;amp; Samadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)Ashta Bhairavas &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 8 manifestations of Maha Bhairava (a fierce form of Lord Shiva) viz &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaala Bhairava, Asitaanga Bhairava, Rudra Bhairava, Krodha Bhairava,&#xA;  Kapala Bhairava, Bhishana Bhairava, Unmatta Bhairava and Samhara&#xA;  Bhairava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashta_Lakshmi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ashta Lakshmi&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 8 Rupas of Sri Maha Lakshmi viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhanya Lakshmi, Dhairya Lakshmi, Santana Lakshmi, Vijaya Lakshmi,&#xA;  Vidya Lakshmi, Bhagya Lakshmi, Gaja Lakshmi, Vara Lakshmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4)&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_directions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Ashta Loka Palas&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 8 guardians of directions viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra,Agni,Yama,Nirrti,Varuna,Vayu,Kubera,Ishana(Rudra)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5)&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtabharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ashta Mahishis&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 8 principle queens of Lord Krishna viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati, Nagnajiti, Mitravinda, Lakshmana,&#xA;  Kalindi and Maadri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6)The Ashta Matrikas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmani, Vaishnavi, Maheshwari, Aindri, Vaarahi, Chamunda, Naarasimhi&#xA;  and Kaumari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7)&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Ashta Siddhis&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 8 types of Super Natural powers obtained by Yoga sadhana viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anima,Mahima,Laghima,Garima,Prapti,Prakamya,Vasithwa,Isithwa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8)&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Ashta Vasus&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are among the 33 types of Vedic Deities viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aapa, Dhruva, Soma, Dhara, Anila, Anala, Pratyusha and Prabhasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp; 9)The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtavinayaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Ashta Vinayakas&lt;/a&gt; or the 8 Ganeshas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only reason i can think of as to why  number 8 might be regarded as inauspicious is because of its association with the frightening &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shaliniaggarwal.in/power-of-numbers-number-eight.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sani Graha&lt;/a&gt;(Saturn) (According to  &quot;Numerology&quot; Saturn is related to number 8).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Edit: regarding the importance of 13:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I could not any reference ,whatsoever, related to the significance of the number 13 in Hinduism .There are a horde of numbers that are significant in one or many ways but nothing could be found on 13.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The number 12 is significant ,for example,in many ways(The Dwadasa Rasis etc).Similarly the 14(the 14 Manvantaras) but i'm unable to find anything regarding 13.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only reference  of course being the case of &lt;em&gt;Trayodashi Tithi&lt;/em&gt; which is ruled by Kamadeva .And the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/vrats/pradoshdates.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pradosham Vrata&lt;/a&gt; (dedicated to Lord Shiva) is performed on those days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-14T08:01:20.227" LastActivityDate="2016-10-14T08:01:20.227" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15427" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-13T13:18:47.730" Score="0" ViewCount="925" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/satyarthprakashl00dayauoft#page/n5/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Satyarth Prakash&lt;/a&gt; and my religious notions held for decades were shaken. I need to know answers to the following questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Vedas say God is unborn formless, how were Rama and Krishna born?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Sundara Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana also, God is said to be formless and infinite, how could Rama in earthly bodily form fulfill these conditions?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Gita, why importance is given to feeding priests for the dead person's soul, while Vedas are strictly against any such practice. Is Gita in conflict with the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why chanting name of God would bring relief to a person, when Vedas don't support such a practice?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why giving donation to temple is held as a good practice? Why does God want to be given alms when he alone is the giver of everything?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7926" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-05-22T23:38:13.547" LastActivityDate="2020-06-04T05:37:48.287" Title="Reconcilling Vedas with existence of Rama, Krishna and related questions" Tags="|vedas|gods|bhagavad-gita|avatars|dayananda-saraswati|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2020-06-11T07:26:35.943" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15428" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15427" CreationDate="2016-10-13T15:29:02.677" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not possible to reconcile the position of Swami Dayananda Saraswati with regular Hinduism. The reason can be understood from the passage below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maharshi Dayanand considers the Samhita (text) of Rig, Yajur, Sama and&#xA;  Atharva as the Vedas. Some scholars, however, believe the Shatpath,&#xA;  AItreya etc. Brahmanas and the Upanishads also as the Vedas. The&#xA;  Brahmana Granthas are commentaries on the Vedas, but do not form a&#xA;  part of the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In common parlance the Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda&#xA;  and Atharvaveda are spoken of as the Vedas. The Upanishads and the&#xA;  Brahmanas are separate books written by learned Rishis. They are not&#xA;  the word of God. ....................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The foregoing arguments and opinions of various Vedic scholars go a&#xA;  long way to establish &lt;strong&gt;the view of Maharishi Dayanand, that the Rig,&#xA;  Yajur, Sama, and Atharva Samhitas (texts) alone constitute the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Devi Chand in his Introduction to his English translation of Samaveda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Dayanand did not accept Sruti as divine and considered only the Vedic Samhitas as the Vedic revelation. He did not consider the Upanishads and the Puranas as authoritative. Hence in his view popular Hinduism with its belief in Rama, Krishna, 'idol worship' etc is entirely wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-10-13T15:29:02.677" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15429" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17153" CreationDate="2016-10-13T15:40:41.953" Score="10" ViewCount="3224" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/78&quot;&gt;SB 10.78&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Lord Baladeva heard that the Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas were about to&#xA;  go to war, in order to remain neutral He left Dvārakā on the pretext&#xA;  of going on pilgrimage. The Lord bathed in sacred places such as&#xA;  Prabhāsa, Tritakūpa and Viśāla, and eventually He came to the holy&#xA;  Naimiṣāraṇya forest, where great sages were performing an extended&#xA;  fire sacrifice. While being worshiped by the assembled sages and&#xA;  offered a seat of honor, the Lord noticed that Romaharṣaṇa Sūta,&#xA;  sitting on the speaker’s seat, &lt;strong&gt;had failed to stand&lt;/strong&gt; in deference to&#xA;  Him. &lt;strong&gt;Greatly angered by this offense, Lord Balarāma killed Romaharṣaṇa&#xA;  by touching him with the tip of a blade of kuśa grass.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The assembled sages were disturbed by what Lord Baladeva had done, and&#xA;  they said to Him, “You have unknowingly killed a brāhmaṇa. Therefore,&#xA;  even though You are above the Vedic injunctions, we request You to set&#xA;  a perfect example for the general populace by atoning for this sin.”&#xA;  Then Śrī Baladeva, following the Vedic maxim that “one’s son takes&#xA;  birth as one’s own self,” granted to Romaharṣaṇa’s son Ugraśravā the&#xA;  position of speaker of the Purāṇas, and in accordance with the sages’&#xA;  desires He promised Ugraśravā a long life with unfailing sensory&#xA;  capacity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wanting to do something more for the sages, Lord Baladeva promised to&#xA;  kill a demon named Balvala, who had been polluting their sacrificial&#xA;  arena. &lt;strong&gt;Finally, on the sages’ advice, He agreed to go on a year-long&#xA;  pilgrimage of all the holy places in India.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is this killing of Romaharshana (for simply not standing up) justified?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Balarama ever regret his action? If not, what is the point of going on a pilgrimage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2018-01-03T16:22:41.347" Title="Does Balarama ever regret killing Romaharshana?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|sin|balarama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15431" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15440" CreationDate="2016-10-14T00:40:19.600" Score="11" ViewCount="3612" Body="&lt;p&gt;Christians claim the resurrection story to be very unique. Is there any story in Puranas , where anyone died and resurrected after dying. And also is there is any parallel story of someone raising people from the dead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5210" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T09:53:15.770" LastActivityDate="2018-11-18T03:45:22.267" Title="Resurrection stories in Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15433" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14617" CreationDate="2016-10-14T09:33:40.620" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mahabharata-resources.org&lt;/a&gt; calls them benedictory verses and they are translated by Satya Chaitanya. These verses are not present in the critical edition of Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses in Sanskrit are taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/southern/benedict.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and the English translation is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/southern/MB_Benedictory_verses_translation.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; as below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;jayati parāśarasūnuḥ satyavatīhṛdayanandano vyāsaḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;yasyāsyakamalakośe vāṅmayam amṛtaṃ pibati lokaḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;1.&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  Victory to Vyasa, son of Parashara, delighter of the heart of&#xA;  Satyavati, from the flower-cup of whose lotus face the world&#xA;  drinks the nectar of words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dharmadr.d.habaddhamūlo vedaskandhah. purān.aśākhād.hyah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;kratukusumo moks.aphalo jayati kalpadrumo vis.n.uh&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;2.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Victory to Vishnu, the wish-fulfilling tree, with dharma for its&#xA;  strong, binding roots, the Vedas for its trunk, the puranas for its&#xA;  branches, the sacrifices for its flowers, and salvation as its fruit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;pitāmahādyaṃ pravadanti ṣaṣṭhaṃ; maharṣim akṣayyavibhūtiyuktam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;nārāyaṇasyāṃśajam ekaputraṃ; dvaipāyanaṃ vedanidhiṃ namāmi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;3.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  I salute Dwaipayana [Vyasa], the treasure house of the Vedas, who&#xA;  is said to be the sixth down from the Creator, the great sage&#xA;  endowed with undecaying glories, the one-son born of a part of&#xA;  Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;pārāśaryavacassarojam amalaṃ gītārthagandhotkaṭaṃ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;nānākhyānakakesaraṃ harikathāsaṃbodhanābodhitam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;loke sajjanaṣaṭpadair aharahaḥ pepīyamānaṃ mudā&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;bhūyād bhāratapaṅkajaṃ kalimalapradhvaṃsi naḥ śreyase&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;4.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  May the pure lotus of the Mahabharata, born in the lake of the&#xA;  words of Vyasa, intensely sweet with the fragrance of the meaning&#xA;  of the Gita, with the several stories as its stamens, which has been&#xA;  told to enlighten us about the story of the lord, the destroyer of the&#xA;  dirt of the Kali age, drunk joyously by the bees of good men in the&#xA;  world, bestow good on us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yaḥ śvetatvam upāgataḥ kṛtayuge tretāyuge raktatāṃ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;yugme yaḥ kapilaḥ kalau ca bhagavān kṛṣṇatvam āyāga&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    &lt;em&gt;. . . . . . . danti munayo yo yogibhir gīyate&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;sa brahmā yadi vā haro yadi śivo yaḥ ko 'pi tasmai namaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;5.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;[Incomplete verse. Not translated.]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I didn't find any translation of the above verse. But my understanding of Sanskrit says that this verse is talking about the color of Lord in all yugas and oneness of the Trinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vāgīśādyāḥ sumanasaḥ sarvārthānām upakrame&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;yam˙ natvā kṛtakṛtyāḥ syus taṃ namāmi gajānanam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;6.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to the elephant-faced god bowing down to whom&#xA;  cheerfully before all beginnings, the gods beginning Brahma, the&#xA;  lord of the word, consider themselves blessed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vyāsaṃ vasiṣṭhanaptāraṃ śakteḥ pautram akalmaṣam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;parāśarātmajaṃ vande śukatātaṃ taponidhim&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;7.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  I salute that treasure-house of austerities, Vyasa, the great&#xA;  grandson of Vasishtha, the sinless grandson of Shakti, the son of&#xA;  Parashara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;acaturvadano brahmā dvibāhur aparo harih&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;abhālalocanaḥ śambhur bhagavān bādarāyaṇaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;8.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Bhagavan Badarayana [Vyasa] is indeed Brahma minus his four&#xA;  faces a second Vishnu with only two arms, and Shiva minus his&#xA;  third eye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;śuklāmbaradharaṃ devaṃ śaśivarṇaṃ caturbhujam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;prasannavadanaṃ dhyāyet sarvavighnopaśāntaye&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;9.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Salute the Lord dressed in pure white clothes, the moon-hued one&#xA;  with four hands and the cheerful face, for the cessation of all&#xA;  obstacles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;jñānānandamayaṃ devaṃ nirmalaṃ sphaṭikākṛtim&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;ādhāraṃ sarvavidyānāṃ hayagrīvam upāsmahe&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;10.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  I worship Lord Hayagriva, whose nature is knowledge and bliss,&#xA;  who is faultless and in the form of a crystal, and who is the basis&#xA;  of all knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vyāsāya viṣṇurūpāya vyāsarūpāya viṣṇave&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;namo vai brahmanidhaye vāsiṣṭhāya namo namaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;11.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to Vyasa who is none other than Vishnu! Salutations to&#xA;  Vishnu in the form of Vyasa! Salutations to the treasure house of&#xA;  spiritual wisdom! Salutations again and again to the sage born in&#xA;  the line of Vasishtha!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;namo dharmāya mahate namaḥ kṛṣṇāya vedhase&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;brāhmaṇebhyo namaskṛtvā dharmān vakṣyāmi śāśvatān&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;12.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to the great Dharma! Salutations to the wise Krishna!&#xA;  Having saluted the brahmanas, I shall now speak of the eternal&#xA;  dharmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;abhraśyāmaḥ piṅgajaṭābaddhakalāpaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;prāṃśur daṇḍī kṛṣṇamṛgatvakparidhānaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;sākṣāl lokān pāvayamānaḥ kavimukhyaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;pārāśaryaḥ parvasu rūpaṃ vivṛṇotu&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;13.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Dark as the clouds, with terrible looking yellow hair and beard, of&#xA;  short height, with a stick in his hand and wearing the skin of a&#xA;  black antelope, the chief of poets who sanctifies all the worlds –&#xA;  may that son of Parashara reveal his form in all the parvas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;aśubhāni nirācaṣṭe tanoti śubhasaṃtatim&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;smṛtamātreṇa yaḥ puṃsāṃ brahma tan maṅgalaṃ viduḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;14.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  May that Brahman that destroys inauspiciousness and increases&#xA;  auspiciousness in men by its mere remembrance bring good to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dharmo vivardhati yudhiṣṭhirakīrtanena&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;pāpaṃ praṇaśyati vṛkodarakīrtanena&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;śatrur vinaśyati dhanaṃjayakīrtanena&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;mādrīsutau kathayatāṃ na bhavanti rogāḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;15.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Dharma multiplies by the ritual repetition of Yudhishthira’s name.&#xA;  Sin is destroyed by the repetition of Bheema’s name. And when&#xA;  Arjuna’s name is remembered, enemies are destroyed. And no&#xA;  disease will come to those who repeat the names of the sons of&#xA;  Madri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sarasvatīpadaṃ vande śriyaḥ patim umāpatim&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;tviṣāṃ patiṃ gaṇapatiṃ bṛhaspatimukhān ṛṣīn&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;16.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  I bow down before the feet of Saraswati, and before the husband&#xA;  of Shree and of Uma. I bow down before Ganapati, the lord of&#xA;  obstacles, and before all the sages beginning with Brihaspati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;nārāyaṇaṃ suraguruṃ jagadekanāthaṃ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;bhaktapriyaṃ sakalalokanamaskṛtaṃ ca&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;traiguṇyavarjitam ajaṃ vibhum ādyam īśaṃ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;vande bhavaghnam asurāsurasiddhavandyam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;17.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  I bow down to Narayana, the greatest of the gods, the one master&#xA;  of the universe, the lover of devotees, revered by the whole world;&#xA;  who is beyond the three gunas, the unborn, the most glorious one,&#xA;  the primal one, the lord of all. I bow down to the destroyer of&#xA;  samsara, the one who is saluted by the devas, the asuras, the&#xA;  siddhas, all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-25T04:40:24.557" LastActivityDate="2017-05-25T04:40:24.557" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15434" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15435" CreationDate="2016-10-14T10:09:13.757" Score="6" ViewCount="290" Body="&lt;p&gt;One can refer to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15144/do-any-deities-other-than-the-pancha-mahadevatas-have-swayambhu-representation&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; related question to know which are the 5 &quot;Swayambhu Silas&quot; or what is meant by a &quot;Swayambhu Sila&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus believe that Gods are present(naturally,without any human interventions) in certain  stones and fossils found in some sacred rivers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that Pujas done to such Holy objects produce merits which are equal to million times  the Punyas(merit) obtained by worshiping &quot;ordinary &quot;man made God's idols.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since,they are &quot;Swayambhu&quot;(self manifested)(it is believed) that the elaborate rituals of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prana_Pratishtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prana Prathistha&lt;/a&gt; involving the Avahana Mantras and Avahanadi Mudras are not required .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaligram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shalagramas&lt;/a&gt; are fossils found in the beds of Gandaki river ,Nepal and they  represent Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly ,&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banalinga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Banalingas&lt;/a&gt;,found in Narmada riverbeds(in Madhya Pradesh) are considered as the corresponding &quot;Swayambhu&quot; forms of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But are these mere Hindu beliefs or are there confirmations available of these beliefs from  Scriptures?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-10-15T05:40:02.470" Title="Do Scriptures confirm about the &quot;Swayambhu&quot; nature of Shalagramas and Banalingas?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|scripture|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15435" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15434" CreationDate="2016-10-14T10:09:13.757" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NO,not mere Hindu beliefs.That Shalagramas and Banalingas are really &quot;Swayambhu&quot; in nature are facts which are confirmed in Scriptures.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For,example,the following Sloka found in the Skanda Purana,confirms that Shalagramas are Swayambhu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shlalagramasilaayastu &lt;strong&gt;Prathistha Naiva Viddhate&lt;/strong&gt;(Skanda Purana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For Shalagrama Sila &lt;strong&gt;Pranaparthistha is not required.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3ompO.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3ompO.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,the following Sloka,from Bhavishya Purana,proves the same for Banalingas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Banalingani Rajendra Khyatani Bhuvanatraye ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Na Prathistha Na Sanskara Stesham Na Avahanam Tatha(Bhavishya Purana)&lt;/strong&gt;||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Banalingas are famous in the three worlds.&lt;strong&gt;They don't require&#xA;  Pranaprathistha,Sanskara  or Avahanam.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oAMcz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oAMcz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-14T16:12:47.020" LastActivityDate="2016-10-14T16:12:47.020" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15436" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-14T10:13:22.460" Score="0" ViewCount="226" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda Mahapravu both are same person or they are different avatar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6941" LastActivityDate="2016-10-14T12:02:42.207" Title="Is Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda Mahapravu both are same person?" Tags="|krishna|vishnu|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15437" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15414" CreationDate="2016-10-14T10:50:32.417" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;A partial answer is as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not sure about watering the plant but plucking Tulasi leaves is prohibited on several occasions,Tithis and days including &lt;strong&gt;on Sundays&lt;/strong&gt;.The following Sloka provides  details about  the times which are &quot;nishiddha&quot;(prohibited ) for plucking Tulasi leaves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/K8arA.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/K8arA.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During Vyaptipata nad Vydhriti yogas,on Tuesdays,Fridays and &lt;strong&gt;Sundays&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Bhaumabhargava&lt;strong&gt;bhanusu&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;) etc..plucking Tulasi leaves is an prohibited act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tulasi Mahima: As regards Tulasi, it is stated that during t he&#xA;  Vaidhruti and Vyatipata times, &lt;strong&gt;Sunday&lt;/strong&gt;-Tuesday-Fridays, Purnima and&#xA;  Amavasyas, Sankranti days, Dwadashi Tithis and during Ashuchi days,&#xA;  plucking Tulasi is as atrocious as cutting one’s own head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to the question&quot;Why Tulasi is sacred?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason is well explained in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana71.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi Tulasi was the daughter of Dharmadvaja and she too turned out to&#xA;  be a Tapasvini, performing extremely severe sacrifices like meditation&#xA;  with ‘Panchagni’ or Fires on five sides of her body - on four&#xA;  direcions and on top. Lord Brahma knew her desire of wedding Narayana&#xA;  Himself. He explained to her that she was fully aware that She was a&#xA;  ‘Jatismara’ ( person having  knowledge of previous birth), that she&#xA;  was Devi Tulsi Gopi in her previous birth as a maid of Radha desirous&#xA;  to have union with Krishna in a ‘Rasakreeda’( dance performance) which&#xA;  was not liked by Radha who cursed her to quit but Krishna advised her&#xA;  to take a fresh birth as the daughter of Dharmadhvaja as a Tapasvini.&#xA;  Brahma in turn explained to Tulsi that there was a Gopa ( Cow boy)&#xA;  named Sudama who was of Krishna’s ‘Amsa’ ( a part Extension) - also a&#xA;  ‘Jatismara’- as he too was cursed by Devi Radha to become a demon now&#xA;  called Sankhachooda. &lt;strong&gt;After marrying him, Brahma said that she would&#xA;  eventually attain union with Krishna as the latter would curse Tulsi&#xA;  to become a Sacred Tree to be prayed to all over the world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Are there other plants which are considered as sacred ones?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes of course there are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like &lt;strong&gt;Bilva&lt;/strong&gt; tree(which is dear to Goddess Lakshmi &amp;amp;whose leaves are very dear to Lord Shiva).&lt;strong&gt;Durva&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;strong&gt;Aswatha&lt;/strong&gt; being some other examples of sacred trees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sacred nature of Bilwa and Aswatha can be ascertained from the verses given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Aswatha_Vruksha_Stotram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aswatha Vruksha Stotram&lt;/a&gt;,for example,:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Moolatho Brahma roopaya, madhyatho Vishnu roopine, Agratha Shiva&#xA;  roopaya Vruksha rajaya they nama., 1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;My salutations to the king of trees. Whose root is the form of Brahma, Middle is the form of Lord Vishnu, And top is the form of Lord&#xA;  Shiva.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Bilwashtakam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bilwashtakam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Salagrama shilamekaam vipranam jatha cha arpayeth, Soma yagna maha&#xA;  punyam, Eka bilwam shivarpanam., 4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I offer one leaf of Bilwa to Lord Shiva, For it is equal to, offering a saligrama to a Brahmin, Or the great blessing got out of performing&#xA;  Soma Yaga,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-14T16:10:57.273" LastActivityDate="2016-10-14T16:10:57.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15440" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15431" CreationDate="2016-10-14T11:52:48.397" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is One intersting story in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga120/yuddha_120_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;   (Yuddha Kanda - Book Of War) about  &lt;strong&gt;Resurrection of the Monkeys&lt;/strong&gt; by Lord Indra , who were killed in the battle between Shree Rama and Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;समुत्तिष्ठन्तु ते सर्वे हता ये युधि राक्षसैः | ऋक्षाश्च सह&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;गोपुच्छैर्निकृत्ताननबाहवः&lt;/strong&gt; || ६-१२०-१३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;13&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;te sarve = (Let) all those monkeys; R^ikShaashcha = and bears; gopuchchhaiH = along with long-tailed monkeys;ye hataaH = who&#xA;  have been killed; yudhi = in battle;raakShasaiH = by the&#xA;  demons; nikR^ittanana baahavaH = and whose heads and arms have been&#xA;  severed;samuttiShThantu = be active again.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Let all those monkeys and bears along with long-tailed monkeys, &lt;strong&gt;who&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;have been killed in battle, by the demons and whose heads&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;and arms&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;have been severed, be alive and active again&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मत्प्रियेष्वभिरक्ताश्च न मृत्युं गणयन्ति ये | त्वत्प्रसादात्समेयुस्ते&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;वरमेतमहं वृणे&lt;/strong&gt; || ६-१२०-८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;te = those monkeys; ye = who; na gaNayanti = did not take into account; mR^ityum = their death; abhiraktaaH matpriyeShu = and who&#xA;  were fond of doing favour to me; te sameyuH = let them get reunited;&#xA;  (with their near and dear ones); tvatprasaadaat = by your&#xA;  grace; aham = I; vR^iNe = seek; etam = this varam = boon (of you).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Those mokeys - who coutned death as nothing and who were fond of&#xA;  doing favour to me - &lt;strong&gt;let them get re-united with their near and dear&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  ones by your grace. I seek this boon of you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story in brief is -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Indra the lord of celestials asks Rama for a boon, Rama requested&#xA;  Indra to bring back to life, all the monkeys who had lost their life&#xA;  in the battle. Indra grants the boon and all the dead monkeys are&#xA;  restored to life. The celestials disperse and the whole army of&#xA;  monkeys enjoy their well-earned rest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-10-14T12:12:08.663" LastActivityDate="2016-10-14T12:12:08.663" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15441" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15414" CreationDate="2016-10-14T11:58:42.580" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna told in Mahabaratha that if anybody offers a tulsi leaf and a small quantity of water he is most satisfied. That much sacred is Tulsi. In kodayin paadhai Volume 6 a tamil book by Lakshmi narasimhachariar quoted &lt;strong&gt;in vaikuntam a  tulsi plant is after every 9 small flowery plants. You can water everyday. Plucking of tulsi leaves should be done by chanting kesava nama. Tell tulsi leaves that I am plucking you for the puja of Narayana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Keep a tulsi plant in a small cemented maadam. Apply sandal and kumkum on 4 sides. In the evening light a small lamp and keep in the space provided in the maadam. Chant tulsi gayatri mantra---  &lt;strong&gt;Om tulsi Patraye vidmahe maha lakshmiyache deemehe  tanno tulasi prachodayath&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="7154" LastEditDate="2016-10-14T12:32:47.273" LastActivityDate="2016-10-14T12:32:47.273" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15442" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15436" CreationDate="2016-10-14T12:02:42.207" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is no, They are two different person with nityananda mahaprabhu being senior to chaitanya Mahaprabhu.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://Help%20Link&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://gaudiyahistory.iskcondesiretree.com/lord-nityananda-prabhu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7932" LastActivityDate="2016-10-14T12:02:42.207" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15443" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-14T12:03:59.617" Score="4" ViewCount="158" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many Palm leaf Astrology centers exist in south India. It is said that Agastya has written astrological predictions in palm leaf. If that is so only one set of palm leaf should exist. But so many are there at present. Is ther any evidence in Hindu scriptures or mythology about this palm leaf astrology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-10-14T12:03:59.617" Title="Agastya's Palm Leaf Astrology" Tags="|scripture|astrology|agastya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15445" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15301" CreationDate="2016-10-14T16:50:31.423" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Samhitas do have variants as per Shakha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Originally as per Mahabhasya of Patanjali there were 21 Shakhas of RigVeda, 101 Shakhas of Yajurveda, 1000 Shakhas of SamaVeda and 9 Shakhas of Atharvaveda. Thus total 1138 Shakhas of total Vedas. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Now, we have only about 12 Shakhas of Four Vedas Surviving.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Only one Shakha of RigVeda called &lt;strong&gt;Shakala Shakha&lt;/strong&gt; is alive. Another Shakha Baskala is uncertain.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Out of 1000 Shakhas of Samaveda only three Shakhas are surviving. &lt;strong&gt;Kauthuma Shakha, Jaiminiya Shakha and Rananiya Shakha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Out of 9 Shakhas of Atharvaveda, only two are surviving; &lt;strong&gt;Paipplada Shakha and Shaunikiya Shakha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Out of 101 Shakhas of Yajurveda only 6 are alive upto now. Shukla Yajurveda has two Surviving Shakhas called &lt;strong&gt;Kanva and Madhyandiya.&lt;/strong&gt; And Krishna Yajurveda has four surviving Shakhas called &lt;strong&gt;Taittariya, Maitrayani, Kathaka and Kapisthala.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Each Shakha of Veda has one Samhita of its own, at least one Brahmana and one Aranyaka of each. &lt;strong&gt;As each Shakha has their own Samhita so we have lost more than 1126 Samhitas itself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But Samhitas differ by little only. They are Very much similar. But still we have lost many parts of Samhitas itself.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Let&amp;apos;s take example of Hymn called &lt;strong&gt;Sri Rudram&lt;/strong&gt;, from Yajurveda. It is &lt;strong&gt;also called Sata Rudriya because it is found in all 101 Shakhas of YajurVeda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Let&amp;apos;s compare the verses of Sri Rudram from Taittariya Samhita, Vajasaneyi Samhita and Maitrayani Samhita:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;4.5.1 to 4.5.11 of Taittariya Samhita&lt;/strong&gt; is SataRudriya and it starts with:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमस्ते रुद्र मन्यव उतोत इषवे नम:।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्ते अस्तु धन्वने बाहुभ्यामुत ते नम:॥&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; १&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  namaste rudra manyava utota iṣave nama:।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  namaste astu dhanvane bāhubhyāmuta te nama:॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;16th chapter of Vajasaneyi Samhita&lt;/strong&gt; is SataRudriya and it starts with:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमस्ते रुद्र मन्यव उतोत इषवे नम:। बाहुभ्यामुत ते नम:॥&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; १&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  namaste rudra manyava utota iṣave nama:। bāhubhyāmuta te nama:॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2.9.2 of Maitrayani Samhita&lt;/strong&gt; is the Satarudriya and the corrresponding verse is :&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमस्ते रुद्र मन्यव उतोत इषवे नम:।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नमस्ते अस्तु धन्वने बाहुभ्यामुत ते नम:॥&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  namaste rudra manyava utota iṣave nama:।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  namaste astu dhanvane bāhubhyāmuta te nama:॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;17th chapter of Kathaka Samhita&lt;/strong&gt; is SataRudriya and it starts with:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमस्ते रुद्र मन्यव बाहुभ्यामुत ते नम:। उतोत इषवे नम:।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  namaste rudra manyava bāhubhyāmuta te nama:। utota iṣave nama:।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus we can see some minor variants above. There are also some major Variants like:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Taittariya Samhita verse 2 of Sri Rudram and Maitrayani Samhita also contains this verse:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यात इषुः शिवतमा शिवं बभूव ते धनुः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिवा शरव्या या तव तया नो रुद्र मृडय ॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yāta iṣuḥ śivatamā śivaṃ babhūva te dhanuḥ । śivā śaravyā yā tava tayā no rudra mṛḍaya ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;However we do not find this verse in Vajasaneyi Samhita.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Maitrayani Samhita verse 54 of Sri Rudram contains this verse:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अघोरेभ्यो अथ घोरेभ्यो घोरघोरतरेभ्य ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वत शर्वशर्वेभ्यो नमस्ते रुद्ररुपेभ्यो नमः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  aghorebhyo atha ghorebhyo ghoraghoratarebhya ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarvata śarvaśarvebhyo namaste rudrarupebhyo namaḥ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Actually this mantra is taken to the PanchaBrahmana mantras found in Taittariya Aranyaka and Mahanarayaniya with minor variations.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However we do not find this mantra in Vajasaneyi and Taittariya Samhita &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus from above we can guess that other PanchaBrahmana mantras like Sadyojata mantras, Tatpurusha , Ishana mantras were also from Samhita parts. But they are not avaliable now as we have lost thousands of Shakhas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Another example is 14.3 of Atharvaveda Paipplada Samhita is NilaRudra Upanishad or Nilarudriya. However we do not find NilaRudriya in Atharvaveda Shaunikiya Samhita.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Thus we have lost many texts of Samhitas itself.&lt;/strong&gt; However we can&amp;apos;t do anything for those lost texts. We can just wish and pray that some divine beings or Gods come to earth and revive the lost Shakha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is not such thing as Old Copies. Vedas came as Shruti or sounds (not written) from Guru to Shishya. Recitations or Sound based preservation was &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9517/procedures-used-for-preserving-the-integrity-of-the-vedas/13703#13703&quot;&gt;based on this method.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-10-14T17:17:15.463" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15446" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15448" CreationDate="2016-10-15T00:06:44.947" Score="10" ViewCount="6283" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Abrahamic religions, owning both ordinary and sex slaves was legal. What do Hindu scriptures say about owning people as slaves? Did Rama and Krishna free any slaves?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5210" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-12-12T01:29:12.550" LastActivityDate="2021-08-28T03:55:48.187" Title="Slavery in Hinduism" Tags="|scripture|vedas|puranas|dharma-shastras|smriti|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15447" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-15T05:34:30.170" Score="6" ViewCount="3275" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that any yajna if performing with this five wood pieces. &#xA;suchi (शुची ) , sarva (शर्वा) , pranita (प्रणीता ) , prokshani ( प्रोक्षणी ) , sfaya (सफ्या)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;can anyone tell me what is use of this wood pieces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DQuns.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DQuns.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4485" LastActivityDate="2024-01-25T16:20:23.440" Title="What is use of suchi (शुची ) , sarva (शर्वा) , pranita (प्रणीता ) , prokshani ( प्रोक्षणी ) , sfaya (सफ्या) wood pieces in yajna?" Tags="|yajna|homam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15448" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15446" CreationDate="2016-10-15T09:15:45.873" Score="14" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There were no slaves in the Hindu world like the &lt;strong&gt;equivalent&lt;/strong&gt; of it in&#xA;  the western world&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above statement is true.But we do have the concept of &quot;dasa/dasi&quot; or servants or (some translate it as) slaves.But they are not the same as say sex slaves or war slaves.&quot;Servant&quot; is the more proper word here not &quot;slave&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dasa or dasis are there to help the householder in his daily duties/chores.In return they get shelter,wages,fooding etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few references of slaves/servants/dasa/bhritya from Scriptures are given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.363. Yet he who secretly converses with such women, or with female &lt;strong&gt;slaves&lt;/strong&gt; kept by one (master), and with female ascetics, shall be&#xA;  compelled to pay a small fine.(Manu smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/T4O1Z.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/T4O1Z.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.180. With his father and his mother, with female relatives, with a brother, with his son and his wife, with his daughter and with his&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;slaves&lt;/strong&gt;, let him not have quarrels.(Manu smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Dg81t.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Dg81t.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following verse also shows that the dasas(servants/slaves) are to be treated with due respect:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.116. After the Brahmanas, the kinsmen, and the &lt;strong&gt;servants&lt;/strong&gt; have dined, the householder and his wife may afterwards eat what remains.(Manu Smriti).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PIdPL.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PIdPL.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have found further references in Parashara Smriti as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-15T15:13:44.620" LastActivityDate="2016-10-15T15:13:44.620" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15451" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="957" CreationDate="2016-10-15T12:54:36.743" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;vakya panchangam is used in all temples. Guru peyarchi and sani peyarchi are even today conducted based on vakya panchangam only in Thiruchendur/Alankudi and Yhirunallar. the main abodes of Guru and Saturn. Many leading astrolers are also following vakya only&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7935" LastActivityDate="2016-10-15T12:54:36.743" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15452" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15454" CreationDate="2016-10-15T13:06:27.963" Score="7" ViewCount="2961" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhishma was one of the greatest warriors (Kshatriyas),who fought in the Mahabharata war, at Kurukshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma took a decision, on the battlefield,on day 10th of the war, that he would fight his last battle in the Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was as per Bhishma’s boon of not getting killed by anybody and dying as per his own wish. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And accordingly, on the 10th day of the Mahabharata war, Bhishma’s body was pierced with many many arrows, and he finally fell on a bed of arrows, without his body touching the ground. Bhishma’s body was practically resting on a bed of arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having slain in that battle, O monarch, (his foes) by hundreds and thousands, there was not in Bhishma's body space of even two fingers' breadth that was not pierced with arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma’s body thereafter continued to rest on the bed of arrows, for approx two months, as he waited for the auspicious day and time, to make his journey to his final abode{in Swarga}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How were all the arrows removed from Bhishma’s body, before the last rites (Antima Sanskara) were performed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Explain in brief how the Sacred Ceremony of last rites was performed for Bhishma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-07-05T22:01:52.727" LastActivityDate="2020-08-06T10:51:51.873" Title="How were all the arrows removed from Bhishma’s body, before the last rites (Antima Sanskara) were performed?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhishma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15454" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15452" CreationDate="2016-10-15T22:54:14.767" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The illustrious Bhishma, who had mastery of Yoga, went into deep meditation, during his last moments.Bhishma did not feel any pain even though lying on a bed of arrows.As said by Bhishma:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कर्मणा मनसा वापि वाचा वापि परंतप&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यन मे कृतं बराह्मणेषु तेनाद्य न तपाम्य अहम&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karmana Manasa Vapi Vacha Vapi Parantap&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yen Mei Kratam Brahmaneshu Teinadhya Na Tapaamya Aham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In consequence of what I have done to the Brahmanas in thought, word, and deed, I do not feel any pain now (even though I am lying on a bed of arrows).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Book 13 Chapter 8 Shloka 16&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The details of the yogic manner of departure of Bhishma’s soul, and the last rites, are explained hereunder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1)&lt;strong&gt;The entire body of Bhishma became shaftless and soreless&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(i)Bhishma, the son of Santanu, remained silent for sometime, O chastiser of foes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(ii)He then held forth his life-breaths successively in those parts of his body which are indicated in Yoga. The life-breaths of that high-souled one, restrained duly, then rose up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(iii)Those parts of the body of Santanu's son, in consequence of the adoption, of Yoga, from which the life-breaths went up, became soreless one after another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(iv)Within a short time, the entire body of Bhishma became shaftless and soreless.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2)The illustrious Bhishma united himself with eternity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(i)The life-breaths, restrained and unable to escape through any of the outlets, at last pierced through the crown of the head and proceeded upwards to heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(ii)The life-breaths of Bhishma, piercing through the crown of his head, shot up through the welkin like a large meteor and soon became invisible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;iii)Even thus, O great king, did Santanu's son, that pillar of Bharata's race, united himself with eternity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(3)Funeral pyre was prepared by Vidura and the Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the high-souled Pandavas and Vidura, taking a large quantity of wood and diverse kinds of fragrant scents, made a funeral pyre.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(4)Cremation of the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(i)The Pitri sacrifice of the high-souled Bhishma was then duly performed. Many libations were poured upon the sacred fire. The singers of Samans sang many Samans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(ii)Then covering the body of Ganga's son with sandal wood and black aloe and the bark wood, other fragrant fuel, and setting fire to the same, the Kurus with Dhritarashtra and others, stood on the right sight of the funeral pyre.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(5)Sacred ceremony  and oblation of water, at the banks of river  Ganga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those foremost ones of Kuru's race, having thus cremated the body of the son of Ganga, proceeded to the sacred Bhagirathi, accompanied by the Rishis.&#xA;All of them, arrived at the sacred river, duly offered oblation of water unto the high-souled son of Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(6)Goddess Ganga makes her appearance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The goddess Bhagirathi, after those oblations of water had been offered by them unto her son, rose up from the stream weeping and distracted by sorrow, for her son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(7)Lord Sri Krishna consoled goddess Ganga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The puissant Krishna, hearing the goddess of the great river indulging in these lamentations consoled her with many soothing words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(8)Completion of last rites ceremony&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the kings there present, headed by Krishna, O monarch, having honoured that goddess duly, received her permission to depart from her banks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b133.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Book:13, Anusasana Parva,Anusasanika Parva.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-07-18T17:23:04.930" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15455" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-16T01:09:57.617" Score="1" ViewCount="2838" Body="&lt;p&gt;For the past few months I have stopped killing any type of insects as killing it will cause bad karma but during the course of time I have accidentally killed few insects when I had no intentions of harming them like &lt;br&gt;&#xA;1) While using touchscreen a tiny insect of few millimeters in length came between my screen &amp;amp; finger.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2) Accidental killing mosquito in sleep as they bite us.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;3) Ants come under my feet whenever I am busy going from A to B (Here I mean totally immersed in work mode where you don't have time to think of anything else.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is Karma different for such types of incidents because I never intent to harm such beings, forget about killing them or will I get the same punishment for intentional killing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4828" LastEditorUserId="4828" LastEditDate="2016-10-16T13:31:49.040" LastActivityDate="2016-10-16T13:31:49.040" Title="Is Karma different for accidental killing than intentional killing?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-10-17T05:20:44.430" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15457" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15455" CreationDate="2016-10-16T04:44:05.660" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, it is very satvik guna that you decided to stop killing insects, so keep it up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next, Dharma Shastras are aware of all possible sins (intentional or unintentional), and they prescribe prayaschittam (atonement) for both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In daily life, small insects &amp;amp; microbes are killed in five places - under knife (when cutting vegetables), in pestle (when grinding spices), in fire (when cooking), under broom (when sweeping), and in water pot (drowning).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To counter this daily sin, we are asked to do sandhya-vandanam (where previous day/night sins are absolved by chanting mantras), and ijya (offering food as neivedyam to lord to forgive transgressions). When Lord Krishna says in Gita :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यज्ञशिष्टाशिन: सन्तो मुच्यन्ते सर्वकिल्बिषै:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भुञ्जते ते त्वघं पापा ये पचन्त्यात्मकारणात्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Those who eat food without offering in sacrifice first eat only sin&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You might ask, what about non-brahmins who do not know about rituals/sacrifice etc. for them their duty is the sacrifice, as in, eating after earning. But everyone has to offer the food to God mentally.. simply saying 'Govinda' once before eating is good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are stages of ahimsa for everyone. The utmost ones - Aja-gara vriddhi sanyasis, do not even move from a place. Whatever food happens to fall in their mouth they eat. Us normal folks can try to minimize harm as best according to our line of work and conscience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2016-10-16T08:53:21.667" LastActivityDate="2016-10-16T08:53:21.667" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15458" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9188" CreationDate="2016-10-16T04:54:43.923" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;At the end of Ramayana war, when Brahma &amp;amp; Devas extol him as Supreme, Rama says '&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;abravittridashashreShThaan raamo dharmabhR^itaaM varaH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;AtmAnam mAnusham manye rAmam daSarathAtmajam&lt;/strong&gt; VR 6.117.11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama, the lord of creation, who was born in Raghu dynasty and the foremost one among protectors of righteousness, spoke to those god-chiefs as follows: &lt;strong&gt;I consider myself as a human, Rama, the son of Dasharatha&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will any human say that he considers himself human ? What other choice would he have ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama is one of the avatars of Vishnu. Avataranam means to descend. A person who is in a high throne descends to low places to help people. Rama and Vishnu are not two separate entities, they are just different names of same God. So there is no question of whether one is aware of other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Rama, in order to play the role of a man convincingly, tries his best not to display any God-like qualities, or take help from Devas/Brahma etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-08T03:03:34.990" LastActivityDate="2017-04-08T03:03:34.990" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15459" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3672" CreationDate="2016-10-16T04:59:32.940" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;From Rigveda: Mandal-10, Hynm-27, Verse-16:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दशानामेकं &lt;strong&gt;कपिलं&lt;/strong&gt; समानं तं हिन्वन्ति क्रतवे पार्याय।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गर्भं माता सुधितं वक्षणास्ववेनन्तं तुषयन्ती बिभर्ति॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dashAnAmekaM &lt;strong&gt;kapilaM&lt;/strong&gt; samAnaM taM hinvanti kratave pAryAya |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  garbhaM mAtA sudhitaM vakShaNAsvavenantaM tuShayantI bibharti ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One of the ten, the &lt;strong&gt;tawny&lt;/strong&gt;, shared in common, they send to execute their final purpose.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       The Mother carries on her breast the Infant of noble form and soothes it while it knows not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sayanacharya&lt;/a&gt; consider this refers to sage whereas Bhattacharya state this refers to tawny.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;Anyway,&#xA;this &lt;em&gt;can be considered&lt;/em&gt; as the &lt;em&gt;earliest&lt;/em&gt; reference to Kapila.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Shvetashvatar Upanishad: Aadhyaya-5, Verse-2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो योनिं योनिमधितिष्ठत्येको&#xA;           विश्वानि रूपाणि योनीश्च सर्वाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ऋषिं प्रसूतं &lt;strong&gt;कपिलं&lt;/strong&gt; यस्तमग्रे&#xA;           ज्ञानैर्बिभर्ति जायमानं च पश्येत् ॥ २॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yo yoni.n yonimadhitiShThatyeko&#xA;           vishvAni rUpANi yonIshcha sarvAH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  R^iShiM prasUta.n &lt;strong&gt;kapila.n&lt;/strong&gt; yastamagre&#xA;           j~nAnairbibharti jAyamAna.n cha pashyet || 2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He, the non—dual Brahman, who rules over every position; who controls all forms and all sources; who, in the beginning, filled with knowledge the omniscient &lt;strong&gt;Hiranyagarbha&lt;/strong&gt;, His own creation, whom He beheld when He (Hiranyagarbha) was produced—He is other than both knowledge and ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though Aacharyas e.g Adi Shankara interpret it as Hiranyagarbha, Note that &lt;strong&gt;Svetashvatar Upanishad mentions Kapila and Shankhya&lt;/strong&gt; (as I've discussed in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15363/is-the-sankhya-darshan-philosophy-prior-to-bhagavad-gita-and-upanishads&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question)&lt;br&gt;So, This can also be &lt;em&gt;considerd&lt;/em&gt; as reference to Kapila.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides this some Purans describes/mentions Kapila but according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hindu_texts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;timeline&lt;/a&gt; Purans are later texts/scriptures than Ramayana and you're looking for reference earlier to Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-10-16T04:59:32.940" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15460" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15467" CreationDate="2016-10-16T07:08:48.120" Score="11" ViewCount="9209" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am asking this question from a modern perspective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Hinduism consider the use of abusive words as &amp;quot;Vaani Hinsa&amp;quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any punishment for this and also does it affect our deeds (karma)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also can we use curse words for condemning bad or evil things?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7376" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-07-20T14:07:05.417" LastActivityDate="2023-07-20T14:07:05.417" Title="What do scriptures say about using swear or abusive words for cursing people?" Tags="|scripture|karma|dharma|sin|swearing|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15461" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15455" CreationDate="2016-10-16T08:04:13.410" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The act of determining the exact ratio viz: &quot;Bad Karma created by accidental killing&quot;:&quot;The same created by intentional killing&quot; will require me to thoroughly study all Scriptures ,which ,unfortunately,i have not done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,accidental/unintentional  killing is also a bad Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindubooks.org/manusmriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti&lt;/a&gt; chapter 3,sloka 68 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A householder has 5 slaughter houses viz the hearth,the grinding&#xA;  stone,the broom,the pestle ,mortar &amp;amp; the water vessel,by using which&#xA;  he is bound.And in order to expiate these sins the sages recommended&#xA;  the 5 sacrifices(Pancha yajnas) for the householders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In all these above mentioned 5 &quot;slaughter houses&quot; accidental or unintentional killing of several insects and microscopic beings are done on a regular basis&lt;/strong&gt;.As an expiation(prayaschitta) for those sins,the householders are thus required to perform the 5 sacrifices daily(the Pancha Yajnas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/13Parashara_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Parashara Smriti&lt;/a&gt;,Chapter 2,Sloka 8 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What a sin a fisherman incurs in the course of one year is incurred by&#xA;  the ploughman with a iron plough within just one day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the act of accidental killing is also bad Karma .&lt;strong&gt;In fact, if we go by the above Parashara Smriti verse, then the karma(of accidental killing)can  sometimes be much worse than intentional killing&lt;/strong&gt;(viz-fisherman killing fishes,which is intentional,but a plough man tilling soil and thereby killing several insects/microbes in it is unintentional or accidental).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dire consequence of unintentional killings(of as &quot;insignificant&quot; as &quot;mere&quot; eggs of insects!) is well reflected in the following story of Kaurava mother &lt;a href=&quot;http://utkarshspeak.blogspot.in/2012/06/gandhari-and-her-karma.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gandhari&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the end of the war of Kurukshetra, she is supposed to have asked&#xA;  Lord Krishna, whom she(Queen Gandhari) blamed for the war and the death of her hundred&#xA;  sons, especially Duryodhan, as to what had been the reason for such a&#xA;  tragic life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to Lord Krishna, long back, while cooking rice, she had&#xA;  poured hot water of the boiled rice on the ground outside her kitchen.&#xA;  This hot water killed all the hundred eggs laid by an insect. This act&#xA;  of hers had earned the wrath of the mother insect who is supposed to&#xA;  have cursed her that she too would have to endure the deaths of her&#xA;  sons, as she had.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Now,the act of killing of the eggs was completely accidental yet the consequences were severe as far as Gandhari was concerned.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,regarding intentional killing of harmful insects- What can be done?These are unavoidable acts.If a mosquito comes &amp;amp; sucks my blood can i sit back and enjoy?Of course not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the Scriptures declare that &lt;em&gt;Dharma Palana&lt;/em&gt; is to be postponed in situations  when one's life is endangered.So,i see the cases of (intentional)killing of  harmful insects as such unavoidable acts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-16T10:23:18.860" LastActivityDate="2016-10-16T10:23:18.860" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15464" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15455" CreationDate="2016-10-16T10:08:39.050" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karma only affects if you attach yourself to a particular action. If you attach yourself to a good action, you'll get good results and if you attach yourself to a bad action, you'll have to face bad results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have 2 choices - either you don't do any killing or you remain non-attached to everything, this is what Krishna preached in Gita and it is the true solution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_1/Karma-Yoga/Non-attachment_is_complete_self-abnegation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Karma Yoga/Non-Attachment&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is the theory of nonattachment,&#xA;  to be attached to nothing while doing our work of life. Know that&#xA;  you are separated entirely from the world, though you are in the world, and that&#xA;  whatever you may be doing in it, you are not doing that for your own sake. Any&#xA;  action that you do for yourself will bring its effect to bear upon you. If it is a good action, you will have to take the good effect, and if bad, you will have to take the bad effect; but any action that is not done for your own sake, whatever&#xA;  it be, will have no effect on you. There is to be found a very expressive&#xA;  sentence in our scriptures embodying this idea: &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Even if he kill the whole universe (or be himself killed), he is neither the killer nor the killed, when he knows that he is not acting for himself at all.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore Karma-Yoga teaches, &quot;Do not give up the world; live in the world, imbibe its influences as much as&#xA;  you can; but if it be for your own enjoyment's sake, work not at all.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2016-10-16T10:08:39.050" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15465" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14734" CreationDate="2016-10-16T12:32:15.743" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As expected, Sri Vaishnavas do not think that this verse makes the epistemological point suggested by Adi Shankaracharya in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya.  Instead they interpret it in a similar fashion to the way Adi Shankaracharya interprets it in his Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Bhashya, as I predicted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;N.S. Anantharangachar wrote a series of books summarizing Ranga Ramanuja's Sri Vaishnava commentaries on the Upanishads.  Here is what he says in his Brihadaranyaka Upanishad book about verse 4.3.22:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atra paramAthmani sushupthisthAnay leenasya Jeevasya pitrAdayo na santhi !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a person is in sushupti state he is without any relationship with any Karma that results with association with body and others. As he is at that time Ashariri, there will absence of father and others&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;LokA alokA : The worlds are no worlds as because the sushupta is not having any asraya in them. There are no gods.  Anugrahaka Sunyatvat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As in the sushupti state his nature is one which is not suborinated to any dictate of the shastras and hence Vedas are not vedas (VedA aVedA: )&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He is not a thief and others because in the nature of the pure atman there is no possibility of any relatiionship with theft and others. In that state he will not be having (samsparsha) of punya or papa that results in association with the body.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If it is asked how there can be the total absence of the association with karma in that state, as it happens only when he discards his physical body. It is answered that the person who is in sushupti has crossed over all sorrows of his heart and the karmas that exist are not tending to yield results in that state and so it may be said that he had crossed over all karmas in that state&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(sushupta: purusha: hi yesmAt Hridayasya sarvAn shokAn teernO bhavati, thatha: manastaparoopaphAlAbhAvAth vidyamAnAnAmapi karmanAm phalapradAnAbhimukhyanAmabAvAtkarmanAm asambhandhaprayatvat tatkruthasarirasambhandAbAvena tadanubandhimatApithrAdayOpi na sambandyantay ! )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in the Sri Vaishnava view, it is as if the Jiva is disassociated from its Karma due to its bliss in the deep sleep state.  There is no epistemological point being made about the the validity of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T15:27:34.840" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15467" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15460" CreationDate="2016-10-16T13:54:13.497" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vidura discusses the importance of controlling one's speech&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To control speech, O king, is said to be most difficult. It is not&#xA;  easy to hold a long conversation uttering words full of meaning and&#xA;  delightful to hearers. Well-spoken speech is productive of many&#xA;  beneficial results; and ill-spoken speech, O king, is the cause of&#xA;  evils. A forest pierced by arrows, or cut down by hatchets may again&#xA;  grow, but one’s heart wounded and censured by ill-spoken words never&#xA;  recovereth. Weapons, such as arrows, bullets, and bearded darts, can&#xA;  be easily extracted from the body, but a wordy dagger plunged deep&#xA;  into the heart is incapable of being taken out. Wordy arrows are shot&#xA;  from the mouth; smitten by them one grieveth day or night. A learned&#xA;  man should not discharge such arrows, for do they not touch the very&#xA;  vitals of others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, Section 34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-10-16T13:54:13.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15469" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15472" CreationDate="2016-10-16T15:59:12.153" Score="3" ViewCount="786" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saravali.de/articles/koota_gana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gana Kuta&lt;/a&gt; has three classifications: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;deva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;manushya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;rakshasa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which Hindu text says about it and what does it imply?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose a human belongs to deva gana, is he superior to the other two ganas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the gana of Gods like Rama and Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-14T21:28:08.453" LastActivityDate="2017-02-14T21:28:08.453" Title="Is Gana Kuta authentic as per texts?" Tags="|scripture|krishna|rama|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15470" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-16T16:48:13.157" Score="8" ViewCount="1018" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Sauram - the sect of Lord Surya being Supreme Being, still exists? One of my Bengali friends are Saurite. If they are still existing, when did the community got declined? What are their holy books?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7943" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-23T08:55:28.930" LastActivityDate="2018-03-23T08:55:28.930" Title="Does the sect Sauram still exist?" Tags="|scripture|sects|surya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15471" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11681" CreationDate="2016-10-16T16:58:30.183" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are some theories based on Ramayana. According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://allindiaroundup.com/india/lord-hanumans-role-in-creating-bermuda-triangle-will-shock-you/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;All India Roundup&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/did-hanuman-create-the-bermuda-triangle-these-facts-are-bound-to-shock-you&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;Speaking Tree&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt;, Ramayana by Valmiki has mention of such triangle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Theory 1:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana features the story of a Demoness Simhika (Chhayagrahi) who used to reside in the Indian ocean and was awarded the boon of grasping any object or being towards her, however, powerful it might be, by Lord Brahma. She was famously known Chhayagrahi because she had the mystical power of pulling any object/entity with a glance at the shadow of the object. She had a huge body and was capable of swallowing bigger objects that she can easily pull towards her. Due to this, no one dared to travel passing nearby her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, when Hanuman flew over the ocean in search of Sita Maa, he felt his speed slowing down, feeling powerless, under immense invisible pressure. Later on seeing here and there, up and down, Lord Hanuman sees floating demoness pulling his shadow towards her. She tried to eat Hanuman, however, Hanuman killed her by decreasing the size of his massive body and entering her mouth later destroying her internal organs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It has been said that fearing from the act of Lord Hanuman, daughter of demon Simhika ran away from the Hindu Maha Samudra (Indian Ocean) to some mysterious place, which apparently is the Bermuda Triangle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Theory 2:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to epic, King Ravana, with his dhyan, penance, austerity towards Lord Shiva, got several boons which added to his strength making him almost invincible. The secret to Ravan’s massive strength was due to his blessings of Lord Shiva. He was also gifted with a gem which helped in the regeneration of nectar at his navel, dictated that he could not be vanquished for as long as it lasted. This made him amar (immortal) and no one could kill him unless the gem be taken back from him so that nectar from the navel could be soaked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the war between Ram and Ravan, Lord Shiva, who knew that Mandodari (devout wife of Ravan and also a devotee of Lord Shiva) was aware of the place where Ravan had hidden that mani (gem), took the appearance of a Sage and asked for the ‘mani’ as Dakshina from Mandodari. No devotee of Lord Shiva could ever say no to the Sage for Dakshina. Mandodari knew that secret of mani is only known to Lord Shiva, Ravan and her. She understood that Sage is no one but Lord Shiva himself. She came to know that the Ramlila is about to end with the death of Ravan and gave the mani to Lord Shiva as Dakshina.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this incident, the demon king of Sri-Lanka, Ravan was killed by Bhagwan Shree Ram. Lord Rama killed Ravana by firing the ‘Arrow of Brahma’ at his navel (This arrow of Brahma was given to Rama by Sage Agastya). This made Ravan lifeless and he fell down to the ground, the nectar of immortality soaked from his navel and this led to his death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the death of Ravana, it became imperative that the gem be placed in a zone that absorbs its energy and uncontrollable power. The gem was so powerful that its presence could impact future generations too. Lord Hanuman was given the task of placing the mani to the depth (core) of the ocean bed, very deep so that its impact could be minimized and diluted. The mani was apparently placed in the deepest core of Ocean of that time which today is known as Bermuda Triangle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This makes us believe that the immense grabbing power of mani is the probably the main reason that pulls down the objects flowing or floating nearby or above Bermuda Triangle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="93" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-16T18:02:52.153" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15472" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15469" CreationDate="2016-10-16T17:23:54.103" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/lesson2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;basic things&lt;/a&gt; about Rasis and Nakshtras are to be understood first:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First the zodiac was divided into 12 main rasis, to study the effects&#xA;  of the planets placed there. Then the ancient seers added another sub&#xA;  divisional system of breaking down the zodiac into 27 Nakshatras or&#xA;  star constellations. Each nakshatra has a span of 13 degrees and 20&#xA;  minutes. After that each nakshatra was further subdivided into 4&#xA;  Padas, or quarters, of 3 degrees and 20 minutes. Hence the first&#xA;  zodiac sign Aries, which has 30 degrees, contains the entire 4 padas&#xA;  (13:20′) of the 1st star constellation Ashwini, the entire 4 padas&#xA;  (13:20′) of the 2nd star constellation Bharani and the 1st pada&#xA;  (3:20′) of the third star constellation Krittika. &lt;strong&gt;So each rasi&#xA;  contains total 9 padas&lt;/strong&gt;. These nakshatras belong to three main groups:&#xA;  Deva or divine, Manusha or human and Rakshasa or Demonic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And,yes Gana Koota is authentic&lt;/strong&gt; and The &lt;a href=&quot;http://shenjiva.com/Vedic/BrihatParasaraHora.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra&lt;/a&gt; text mentions about the 3 Ganasa viz:Deva ,Manushya and Rakshasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Chapter 6 (titled &quot;Sixteen divisions of Rasis&quot;)the concept is described as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Maharishi Parasar, I have known from you about the Grahas, Rashis&#xA;  and their descriptions. I desire to know the details of various&#xA;  divisions of a Rashi, will you please narrate. 2-4. Names of the 16&#xA;  Vargas. Lord Brahma has described 16 kinds of Vargas (Divisions) for&#xA;  each Rashi. Listen to those. The names are Rashi, Hora, Dreshkan,&#xA;  Chaturthans, Saptans, Navans, Dashans, Dvadashans, Shodashans,&#xA;  Vimshans, Chaturvimshans, Saptavimshans, Trimshans, Khavedans,&#xA;  Akshavedans and Shashtians.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Navans calculation are for a Movable Rashi from there itself, for&#xA;  a Fixed Rashi from the 9th thereof and for a Dual Rashi from the 5th&#xA;  thereof. &lt;strong&gt;They go by designations Deva (divine), Manushya (human) and&#xA;  Rakshasa (devilish) in a successive and repetitive order for a Movable&#xA;  Rashi. (Manushya, Rakshasa and Deva are the order for a Fixed Rashi,&#xA;  while Rakshasa, Manushya and Deva are a Dual Rashi’s order)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Calculating like the way mentioned above, we arrive at the following classification of 27 Nakshtras as per their Ganas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deva Gana Nakshatras&lt;/strong&gt;:Aswini, Mrigasira, Punarvasu, Pushya, Hasta, Swati, Anuradha, Shravana, Revati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manushya Gana Nakshtras&lt;/strong&gt;:Bharani, Rohini, Ardra, Purvaphalguni, Uttaraphalguni, Purvashada, Uttarashada, Purvabhadrapada, Uttarabhadrapada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rakshasa Gana Nakshatras&lt;/strong&gt;:Krittika, Aslesha, Magha, Chitra, Visakha, Jyesta, Moola, Dhanista, Satabhisha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama's nakshtra is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/punarvasu.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Punarvasu&lt;/a&gt; ,so Deva Gana &amp;amp; Lord Krishna's nakshatra is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/rohini.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Rohini&lt;/a&gt;,so Manushya Gana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Suppose a human belongs to deva gana, is he supreme than other two ganas and so on?&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally speaking,one  belonging to Deva Gana will be more of a Sattvik nature person,Manushya Gana of Rajasik  and Raksasha Gana of Tamasik nature.But in calculating the nature of person as a whole &quot;Nakshtra Gana&quot; is not the only deciding factor.The 5 limbs or &quot;Panchangas&quot; of a birth consist of Nakshatra,Tithi,Vara,Yoga &amp;amp;Karanam.And each of these 5 limbs has their equal contribution in shaping a personality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-17T05:21:36.573" LastActivityDate="2016-10-17T05:21:36.573" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15473" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10822" CreationDate="2016-10-17T04:52:42.197" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The mantras of Sāmaveda are chanted musically so they're are especially pleasing to the Gods more than the mantras of the other Vedas which is why Krishna compares himself to the Sāmaveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Sāma&quot; denotes that which brings equipoise or tranquility to the mind.&#xA;  There are four well-known ways of dealing with an opponent or rival:&#xA;  sāma, dāna, bheda and daṇḍa. The first method is that of conciliation,&#xA;  making an enemy a friend through affection. &lt;strong&gt;The Sāmaveda enables us to&#xA;  befriend the divine forces, even the Paramātman.&lt;/strong&gt; How do we make a&#xA;  person happy? By praising him. If the panegyric is set to music and&#xA;  sung he would be doubly pleased. Many of the mantras of the Rigveda&#xA;  are intoned with a cadence in the Sāmaveda; thus we have Sāmagāna.&#xA;  While the rks are chanted with the tonal differences of udātta,&#xA;  anudātta and Svarita, the sāmans are intoned musically according to&#xA;  certain rules. Our music, based on the seven notes (saptasvara), has&#xA;  its origin in Sāmaveda. All deities are pleased with Sāmagāna. We&#xA;  become recipients of their grace not only through the offerings made&#xA;  in the sacrificial fire but through the intoning of the samans by the&#xA;  udgātā. Sāmagāna is particularly important to Soma sacrifices in which&#xA;  the essence of the soma plant is offered as oblation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Though the sāmans are indeed Rgvedic mantras, they are specially&#xA;  capable of pleasing the deities and creating Atmic uplift because they&#xA;  are intoned musically. This is what gives distinction to the Sāmaveda.&#xA;  Sri Krsna Paramātman says in the Gita: &quot;Vedānām Sāmavedosmi&quot; (Of Vedas&#xA;  I am the Sāmaveda).&lt;/strong&gt; The Lord is everything, including good as well as&#xA;  bad. Even so, as he speaks to Arjuna about the things in which his&#xA;  divine quality specially shines forth, he mentions the Sāmaveda among&#xA;  them. In the Lalita-Sahasranana (The One Thousand Names of the Goddess&#xA;  Lalita), Ambā has the name of &quot;Sāmagāna-priya (one who delights in&#xA;  Sāmagāna); she is not called &quot;Rigvedapriya&quot; or &quot;Yajurveda-priya&quot;.&#xA;  Syāmasāstri refers to the goddess Minaksi as &quot;Sāmagāna-vinodinī&quot; in&#xA;  one of his compositions. In the Śiva-astottaram [&quot;Śiva&#xA;  astottara-satam&quot;, the 108 names of Śiva], Śiva is worshipped thus:&#xA;  &quot;Sāma priyaya namah.&quot; The Tevāram extols Śiva as one who keeps&#xA;  chanting the Chandoga-Sāman (Chandoga-Sāman odum vāyān). Appayya&#xA;  Diksita has sought to establish that Isvara or Śiva, Amba and Visnu&#xA;  are &quot;Ratna-trayi&quot; (the Three Gems) occupying the highest plane. &lt;strong&gt;And&#xA;  all three have a special relationship with the Sāmaveda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-10-17T04:52:42.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15475" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15470" CreationDate="2016-10-17T05:15:38.800" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me add a partial answer because the information i'll be providing is knowledge-worthy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be specific,i'm answering this question&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Which Hindu Texts describe Surya as the Supreme Being Or are there any such texts at all&lt;/strong&gt;?&quot;.This question is relevant here because such texts only will  form the basis of worshiping Surya as the Supreme Deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To my knowledge there are two such texts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Surya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;,a minor Upanishad allied to  Atharva Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;2)The Bhavisya Purana,one of the 18 major Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(In what follows,i'll be adding a few verses and an image from the Surya Upanishad,all of which are taken from a book called &quot;Sukta Sangraha&quot;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are few verses from the above mentioned Upanishad praising Surya as the Supreme Brahaman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;aum atha sūryātharvāṅgirasam vyā̎khyāsyā̱maḥ | brahmā ṟṣih | gāya̍trī&#xA;  chha̱ndaḥ | ādi̍tyo de̱vatā | haṁsa̍ḥ so̱’ham agni nārāyana yu̍ktam&#xA;  bī̱jam | hrille̍khā śa̱ktiḥ | viyadādi sarga saṁyu̍ktaṁ kī̱lakam |&#xA;  catur-vidha puruṣārtha siddhyarthe jape vi̍niyo̱gaḥ ||&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  Now   we  shall   expound mantras of  Atharva Veda    in  relation    to  the Sun:    The seer    of  this    Atharva Aṅgirasa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mantra    is  Brahma, metre   Gayatri,    Aditya  the deity,  ‘Hamsas so’ham  with    Agni    and Narayana    is  the seed,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  the   power   is  hrillekha   or  hrim,   the pin is  the power   in  the process of  unfolding   the sky etc.,   the application &#xA;  is    its use in  repetition  for winning the four    human   goals   (viz.   Dharma, Artha,  Kama    and Mokṣa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ṣat-svarārūḍhe̍na bīje̱na ṣaḍa̍ṅgam | ra̱ktāmbu̍ja-saṁsthi̱tam | saptāśva̍- rathi̱nam | hi̍ranya-va̱rṇam | ca̍tur-bhu̱jam |&#xA;  padma-dvayā’bhaya varada ha̱stam kāla-cakra̍ praṇetā̱ram | śrī sūrya&#xA;  nārāya̱ṇam | ya e̍vam ve̱da sa vai brā̎hma̱ṇaḥ ||&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  The   six limbs   consist of  the seed    with    six vowels  added.  He  indeed  is  a   Brahmana    who thus    knows   the &#xA;  golden    Surya   Narayana    seated  on  the chariot with    seven   horses, impeller    of  the time-wheel, having  four&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  arms  bearing&#xA;    two lotuses,    the others  bestowing   promise of  refuge  and boon,   set in  the red lotus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sūrya̍ ā̱tmā jaga̍tas-ta̱sthuṣa̍śca | sūryā̱d vai khalvi̱māni̱&#xA;  bhūtā̍ni̱ jāya̍nte | sūryā̍d ya̱jñah parjanyo̎ ‘nnam ā̱tmā |&#xA;  The   Sun is  the Self    of  the world,  moving  as  well    as  un-moving.  From    Surya   indeed  are these   creature&#xA;  born, so  also    the Yajna   (Sacrifice),    Parjanya    (Rains),    food    and spirit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;nama ̍ste āditya | tvam-e ̱va pra ̱tyak ṣa ̱m karma ̍ kart āsi | tvam-e ̱va pra ̱tyak ṣa ̱m brahm ā ̍si | tvam-e ̱va pra ̱tyak ṣa ̱m vi&#xA;  ṣnu ̍rasi | tvam-e ̱va pra ̱tyak ṣa ̱m rudro ̍’si | tvam-e ̱va pra&#xA;  ̱tyak ṣa ̱m riga ̍si | tvam-e ̱va pra ̱tyak ṣa ̱m yaju ̍rasi | tvam-e&#xA;  ̱va pra ̱tyak ṣa ̱m s ām ā ̍si | tvam-e ̱va pra ̱tyak ṣa ̱m atha ̍rv&#xA;  āsi | tvam-e ̱va sarva ̍m chhando ̱’si |&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  I bow to  you Aditya; you are the agent   himself of  work,   the manifest    Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra,&#xA;    Rig,    Yajur,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sama, Atharva Vedas,  as  well    as  all the chandas (Metres).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ā ̱di ̱ty ād v ā ̍yur j ā ̱yate | ā ̱di ̱ty ād bh ū ̍mir j ā ̱yate | ā ̱di ̱ty ād āpo ̍-j āya ̱nte | ā ̱di ̱ty āj jyoti ̍r j ā ̱yate | ā&#xA;  ̱di ̱ty ād vyoma di śo ̍ j āya ̱nte | ā ̱di ̱ty ād de ̍v ā j āya ̱nte&#xA;  | ā ̱di ̱ty ād ve ̍d ā j āya ̱nte | ā ̱di ̱tyo v ā e ̱ ṣa e ̱tan ma ̱ṇ&#xA;  ḍala ̱ ṁ tapa ̍ti | &lt;strong&gt;a ̱s āv ā ̍di ̱tyo bra ̱hm ā&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  From  Aditya  are born    air,    earth,  water,  fire,   sky,    directions, Devas,  Vedas;  indeed  the Sun gives   warmth  to&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  this  sphere  (Planet)    ;   &lt;strong&gt;that  Sun God is  Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/C7Ydn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/C7Ydn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And a few more like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All   creatures   are born    of  Surya   and are protected   by  him,    dissolve    in  him –   I   am  Surya   himself.    The divine&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Savitar   is  our eye and He  is  called  the Parvata because He  indicates   Sacred  timings through His Timeperiods and let Him protect our eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhavisya Purana the Sun God is given over whelming importance &amp;amp; methods of His worship are given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/bhavishya/bookview.php?chapnum=11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/bhavishya/bookview.php?chapnum=12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/bhavishya/bookview.php?chapnum=15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter&lt;/a&gt; the Trimurthis(Brahma,Vishnu &amp;amp; Mahesh) eulogises the Virata Rupa of Surya.And Surya's worship as &quot;Omkara&quot; is also described.Here Surya is being described as the Supreme &lt;strong&gt;Para Brahaman&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the beginning of Kalpa, Tri Murthis became ictims of �Ahamkaar�&#xA;  (Self-image) and when a gigantic form of luminosity appeared on the&#xA;  Sky, they were taken aback as to how this huge illumination emerged&#xA;  from! As the Great Light approached and dazzled their vision, the&#xA;  personification of Surya Deva in a �Virat Rupa� (Collosal Form) got&#xA;  materialised, the Tri Murthis and Devaganas greeted it again and again&#xA;  with veneration. Lord Brahma eulogized the Virat Swarupa of Surya Deva&#xA;  as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Namastey Deva Devesha Sahasra kiranojjvala, Loka Deepa Namastestu Namastey Konavallabha/ Bhaskaraaya Namo nityam Khakholkaya Namo Namah,&#xA;  Vishnavey Kaalachakraaya Somaayaamita tejasey/ Namastey Pancha&#xA;  Kaalaaya Indraaya Vasuretasey, Khagaaya Lokanathaaya Ekachakra&#xA;  rathaayacha/ Jadvitaya Devaaya Shivaayaamita tejasey, Tamoghnaaya&#xA;  Surupaaya tejasaam nidhaye namh/ Arthaya Kamarupaaya Dharmaayaamita&#xA;  tejasey, Mokshaaya Moksha rupaaya Suryaaya Namo Namah/ Krodhalobha&#xA;  viheenaaya lokaanaam sthith hetavey, Shubhaya Shubharupaaya&#xA;  Shubhadaaya Shubhhaatmaney/ Shantaaya Shantarupaaya Shanatayesmaasu&#xA;  vai namah, Namastey Brahmarupaaya Braahmanaaya namo namah/ Brahma&#xA;  DevaayaBrahmarupaya Brahmaney Paramaatmaney, Brahmanye cha prasaadam&#xA;  cha vai kuru Deva Jatpatey/&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Deva Devesha! Loka Deepa! Kona Vallabha! You are the source of&#xA;  phenominal illumination to the whole World; You are all the Deities&#xA;  like Bhaskara, Vishnu, Kaalachakra, Soma, Kaala, Indra, Vasu, Agni,&#xA;  Khaga, Lokanatha rolled in one as the Ekachakri, bestowing&#xA;  propitiousness and positiveness all over; You are the Embodiment of&#xA;  Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha; You are the Personification of&#xA;  Tranquility and Peace, devoid of anger, greed, jealousy and&#xA;  partiality; &lt;strong&gt;You are the Parabrahma Himself!&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Vishnu &amp;amp; Shiva also follow  praises Surya with  stutis .Trimurti's worship of Surya Deva also included in that chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-17T06:25:03.400" LastActivityDate="2016-10-17T06:25:03.400" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15476" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15477" CreationDate="2016-10-17T05:36:23.073" Score="6" ViewCount="782" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2011-September/029239.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tAvattapO vrataM tIrthaM japahOmArchanAdikaM &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vEdashAstrAgamakathA yAvattattvaM na vindati &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So long as one has not achieved atma jnana, one should &#xA;  perform nitya karmas and observe vratas, tirthATana, japa, homa&#xA;  and svadhyaya.  One should never throw these to winds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this shlokha really from the Garuda Purana? If so, which chapter is it taken from and what's the context?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T05:46:50.010" Title="Is this shlokha from the Garuda Purana? If so, which chapter?" Tags="|puranas|bhakti|garuda-purana|jnana|pilgrimage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15477" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15476" CreationDate="2016-10-17T05:54:57.807" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt; the sloka is from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/GarudaPuranaEnglishMotilal3VolumesIn1/Garuda%20Purana%20English%20-%20Motilal%20-%203%20Volumes%20in%201#page/n963/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Puranam&lt;/a&gt; (2.49.98).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following images(&amp;amp; texts) are from the book called &lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana Saaraam(The essence of Garuda Purana)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tŸvat tapo vrataÄ t rthaÄ japa homŸrcanŸdikam | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  veda ÀŸstrŸgama kathŸ yŸvat tattvaÄ na vindati || 2.49.98 ||&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Penances, vows, pilgrimage,&#xA;  prayers, sacrifice, worship, scriptural study and discussion on&#xA;  scriptural injunctions are only meaningful when one is mindful of the&#xA;  Ultimate Reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Qfyj2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Qfyj2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The context is of letting everyone know the importance of a Guru in one's life.Lord Vishnu is saying that it is only by a Guru's teaching &amp;amp; blessings one may attain the Highest Truth and  liberation(Moksha).It is also stated that by mere self study of Scriptures and Philosophies one achieve absolutely nothing, if done without Guru's guidance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;na vedŸdhyŸyanŸn-muktiÅ na ÀŸstra pa¢hanŸd-api | j†ŸnŸd-eva hi&#xA;  kaivalyaÄ nŸnyathŸ vinatŸtmaja || 2.49.87 ||&lt;/em&gt; One cannot obtain&#xA;  Liberation by simply chanting Vedas nor by self-study of the&#xA;  Scriptures. Liberation comes from the dawning of pure wisdom alone,&#xA;  not otherwise O Garuda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;praj†Ÿ-h nasya pa¢hanaÄ yathŸndhasya ca darpa®am | ataÅ praj†ŸvatŸÄ&#xA;  ÀŸstraÄ tattvaj†Ÿnasya lakŒa®am || 2.49.82 ||&lt;/em&gt; For the un-realized&#xA;  person the self-study of scriptures is useless — like a mirror to the&#xA;  blind. But for the Self-realized person the same is the means of true&#xA;  knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The essence of this whole discourse by Lord Vishnu is summed up very well in the following verse from the same chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tasmŸt j†ŸnenŸtma tattvaÄ vij†eyaÄ Àr guror-mukhŸt | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sukhena mucyate jantuÅ ghora saÄsŸra bandhanŸt || 2.49.101 ||&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Therefore one should&#xA;  obtain the True Knowledge of the Atman from a worthy preceptor. From&#xA;  following the teaching of a Guru, one may easily attain liberation&#xA;  from this awesome ocean of rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/koUGn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/koUGn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In short,the message is,unless one obtains a Guru Diksha ,(his)Japa,Tapa,Homa ,Puja or Tirtha are more or less futile.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-18T05:46:50.010" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T05:46:50.010" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15478" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15479" CreationDate="2016-10-17T09:00:13.863" Score="7" ViewCount="10221" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoophilia_and_the_law&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bestiality&lt;/a&gt; is possibly the most abnormal and perverted form of sexual intercourse where a human being unites (sexually) with an animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Presumably, some &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-Indian-erotic-temple-art-depict-bestiality&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu temples&lt;/a&gt; in India depict bestiality through sculptures found on their walls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, based on that some people may jump on to conclusion &lt;strong&gt;that &amp;quot;Hinduism&amp;quot; supports/promotes it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do the Hindu Scriptures say on bestiality. Since it's called  the &amp;quot;Sanatana Dharma&amp;quot; we can expect that it will not avoid it by saying too vulgar/taboo/offensive to discus and will have a definite say/stand on the issue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2021-07-27T18:56:42.420" LastActivityDate="2021-07-27T18:56:42.420" Title="What is Hinduism's stand on bestiality?" Tags="|scripture|sin|animals|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15479" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15478" CreationDate="2016-10-17T09:00:13.863" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm adding my own answer based on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/13Parashara_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parashara Smriti&lt;/a&gt;.Looking for more answers from other users with valid Scriptural quotes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chapter 10 of Parashara Smriti is titled &lt;em&gt;Agamyaagamanaprayaschittavarnanam&lt;/em&gt; or &quot;The description of expiations for prohibited sexual intercourses&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This chapter deals with bestiality too.Slokas 12 &amp;amp;13 are useful here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;12&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On carnal intercourse with a beast, or a prostitute and the like, or with a female buffalo, or with a female camel, or with a she&#xA;  monkey, or with a sow, or a female ass, one should perform the&#xA;  Prajapatya penance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zUReO.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zUReO.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;13&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On carnal intercourse with a cow, the sin is removed by three nights' fast; a cow should be presented to a Brahman as fee. On carnal&#xA;  connection with a female buffalo, a female camel or an ass, the sin is&#xA;  removed by one night's fast.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Bml5F.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Bml5F.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the Manu Smriti(Chapter 11 verse 173), states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.173. &lt;strong&gt;A man who has committed a bestial crime&lt;/strong&gt;, or an unnatural crime with a female, or has had intercourse in water, or with a menstruating&#xA;  woman, shall perform a Samtapana Krikkhra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rCBQq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rCBQq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,as per Hindu Shastras, bestiality is  a sin and the expiations are also precisely mentioned therein.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-19T08:08:14.577" LastActivityDate="2016-10-19T08:08:14.577" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15480" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-17T09:51:33.050" Score="7" ViewCount="2560" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can any one tell the significance, importance of &lt;strong&gt;Chandi Homa&lt;/strong&gt;  ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastActivityDate="2019-03-06T11:49:46.380" Title="Why is Chandi Homa performed?" Tags="|yajna|homam|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15482" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15480" CreationDate="2016-10-17T12:05:23.597" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The significance of Chandi Homa is that it can support you in removing complications and hurdles on your track to victory. Goddess Durga, the chief divinity of this Homa will gift you with the control to stable your desire and calmness, tolerance and rejection. With her blessing, you will be able to manifest your true divine Self that bonds self-centeredness and self-sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandi Homa is important because it is one of the most authoritative homa for an individual to achieve accomplishments in their lifespan and also it overcomes of all kinds of sins and blockades in one's whole life. This homa helps one to triumph over Adversaries. By performing the Maha Chandi Homa, one can become free from malicious eyes, difficulties, blockades and they are also bestowed with getting decent well-being, wealth, chastity and success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastActivityDate="2016-10-17T12:05:23.597" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15483" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15484" CreationDate="2016-10-17T12:09:38.300" Score="2" ViewCount="319" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am aware that Shakuni advised his nephew to get Lord Krishna's alliance at haste because although he did not like him; he understood that there is no one that holds more power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna too understood this and came to Dwarika(I think) to get the lord's support.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I remember correct Duryodhan arrives first but since the Lord was asleep he sits near his feet. Arjun however arrives after but stands next to the lord. Once the lord awakes he sees Arjun first so he decides to join him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Duryodhan arrived first so what was the reason behind the lord being biased towards Arjun? Was it simply because he saw him first or he knew that Pandavas resembled good and Kauravs did not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="7940" LastEditDate="2016-10-17T15:23:05.113" LastActivityDate="2016-10-17T15:23:05.113" Title="What is the reason behind Lord Krishna joining Pandavs instead of the Kauravs" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|pandavas|kauravas|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-10-19T08:11:03.883" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15484" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15483" CreationDate="2016-10-17T12:44:05.880" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This incident is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Udyoga Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;. First some clarification to your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You said:&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;If I remember correct Duryodhan arrives first but since the Lord was asleep he sits near his feet. Arjun however arrives after but stands next to the lord.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Duryodhana arrived first and sat near the head of Lord Krishna and Arjuna arrived second and stood at the back of bed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as Krishna was sleeping, Duryodhana entered the room, and sat down on a fine seat at the head of the bed. And after him entered that wearer of the diadem the magnanimous Arjuna. And stood at the back of the bed, bowing and joining his hands. And when the descendant of Vrishni, Krishna awoke, he first cast his eyes on Arjuna. And having asked them as to the safety of their journey, and having fitly bestowed his greetings upon them, the slayer of Madhu questioned them as to the occasion of their visit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But Duryodhan arrived first so what was the reason behind the lord being biased towards Arjun?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna was not biased in this situation. Since, he has seen Arjuna first and also Arjuna is junior to Duryodhana in age so, Arjuna got priority.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Duryodhana addressed Krishna, with a cheerful countenance, saying, It behoveth you to lend me your help in the impending war. Arjuna and myself are both equally your friends. And, O descendant of Madhu, you also bear the same relationship to both of us. And today, O slayer of Madhu, I have been the first to come to you. Right-minded persons take up the cause of him who comes first to them. This is how the ancients acted. And, O Krishna, you stand at the very top of all right-minded persons in the world, and are always respected. I ask you to follow the rule of conduct observed by rightminded men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;' Thereat Krishna replied, 'That you have come first, O king, I do not in the least doubt. But, O king, the son of Kunti, Dhananjaya, has been first beheld by me. On account of your first arrival, and on account of my having beheld Arjuna first, I shall, no doubt, lend my assistance, O Suyodhana, to both. But it is said that those who are junior in years should have the first choice. Therefore, Dhananjaya, the son of Kunti, is entitled to first choice. There is a large body of cowherds numbering ten crores, rivalling me in strength and known as the Narayanas, all of whom are able to fight in the thick of battle. These soldiers, irresistible in battle, shall be sent to one of you and I alone, resolved not to fight on the field, and laying down my arms, will go to the other. You may, O son of Kunti, first select whichever of these two commends itself to you. For, according to law, you have the right to the first choice.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Thus addressed by Krishna, Dhananjaya the son of Kunti selected Kesava who was not to fight on the battle-field, even Narayana himself, the slayer of foes, increate, born among men at his own will,--the foremost of all Kshatriyas and above all the gods and the Danavas. And Duryodhana selected for himself that entire army (composed of the Narayanas). And, O descendant of Bharata, having obtained those troops numbering thousands upon thousands, he was exceedingly delighted, although he knew that Krishna was not on his side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And at last Duryodhana was delighted and very happy that he has got the army of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-17T14:43:25.317" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15485" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15480" CreationDate="2016-10-17T13:29:34.970" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm adding a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedicastrologer.org/homam/chandi/chandi_homam_english.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;PDF&lt;/a&gt; that teaches you the  details of how to perform a Chandi Homam.This document also tells you about its importance which i have quoted below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm sure that you are just curious to know.If your intent is doing  the homam on your own by following this document then that is &lt;strong&gt;strongly not recommended&lt;/strong&gt;.Although this Acharya is genuinely learned in Scriptures.But still do not attempt.Even the document itself is having a word of caution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chandi is a very fierce and powerful deity – She is  the primordial&#xA;  energy that is responsible for  the creation, sustenance and&#xA;  destruction of this en tire universe. She is the sum total of the &#xA;  energies of all beings of this universe. &lt;strong&gt;Chandi homam is&#xA;  unquestionably a very powerful  sadhana.  This ritual  can  be used&#xA;  for getting wealth and health, for success  in various wordly matters&#xA;  and  for destroying enemies.&lt;/strong&gt; However, one performing Cha ndi homam for&#xA;  such a specific purpose  needs to meet some exacting demands, such as&#xA;  perfec t pronunciation, perfect procedure and  perfect materials for&#xA;  the purpose, and have some accumulated spiritual energy to pull off&#xA;  the  feat .  Neither is the author an expert in performing homam  with&#xA;  such an attitude nor does he teach that.  This document is strictly&#xA;  for one who performs Chandi homam for spiritual upliftment and looks &#xA;  at the Divine Mother as a mother and looks at onese lf as a helpless&#xA;  child who desperately wants  to improve. This document is strictly for&#xA;  one who i s willing to undergo whatever one’s mother  wants one to&#xA;  undergo, for the sake of spiritual upl iftment.  However, it is  not &#xA;  necessary that She should take away one’s material  success and&#xA;  prosperity in  order to give spiritual upliftment. In fact, many p&#xA;  eople who perform Chandi homam everyday or  every week using this&#xA;  document may experience continued or even increased material success &#xA;  (and yet be able to remain detached from it and pro gress&#xA;  spiritually). However, in  some  cases,  She  may  decide to give a&#xA;  shock or two in worldly matters if  something is badly blocking one’s &#xA;  spiritual progress and a setback is needed. The pat h towards&#xA;  self-realization is different for each  person. She knows the best for&#xA;  each person. Unless  one is willing to surrender to Her completely &#xA;  and accept whatever comes one’s way – good or bad –  as Her blessings&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;and unless one does not  expect  any specific material benefit from&#xA;  this homam, one  should  not  use this document to perform Chandi&#xA;  homam.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Off Topic&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANy3mVf2h00&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; you can see the same Acharya(who composed the PDF) performing a Mahaganapati Homam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-17T14:25:29.023" LastActivityDate="2016-10-17T14:25:29.023" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15486" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="938" CreationDate="2016-10-17T13:44:32.800" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Om Namah shivaya indicates positive energy. If any body chants the reverse that means &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Yavashih Mana Mo&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; its a negative energy. Generally used in voodoo or Black magic. For any query watch Vikramaditya YouTube channel on black magic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7948" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T04:15:14.200" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T04:15:14.200" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15488" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-17T16:35:29.853" Score="2" ViewCount="255" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which finger to use, when applying &lt;strong&gt;tilak&lt;/strong&gt; to coconut at an engagement ceremony?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7952" LastEditorUserId="7940" LastEditDate="2016-10-17T18:05:12.237" LastActivityDate="2016-10-19T05:30:47.863" Title="Can I apply tilak to coconut with first finger is that badluck?" Tags="|belief|rituals|worship|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15489" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-17T19:10:47.880" Score="9" ViewCount="327" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focused on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Manameyodaya is a Purva Mimamsa work by Narayana Bhattar, a mathematician, philosopher, and poet who is most famous for the Narayaneeyam, a poem summarizing the Srimad Bhagavatam.  In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Z0BZ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Manameyodaya, Narayana Bhattar discusses the question of whether Hindu stories, like the stories of Rama and Krishna, really happened or not.  Now most Mimamsakas believed that the stories given in Hindu scripture are mere Arthavada, statements designed to glorify actions, particularly the performance of Yagnas.  But given that Narayana Bhattar was a great devotee of Krishna, he argues that Hindu stories are true:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is called Tradition is said to be a statement depending on common talk; for example &quot;Vaishravana [Kubera] sits on every banyan tree&quot;.  This is recognized to be not a means of valid knowledge, since, as a general rule, it has no foundation.  Now if it be so, then, indeed, how do you take the story of Krishna, Rama etc.?  Not so, because like the Codes, they can have a foundation, being well-known to be the words of reliable persons; and because there is no opposition to other valid means of knowledge, such things are certainly Authority.  &lt;strong&gt;Further, the authenticity of the story of Krishna etc. has been firmly established by the author of the Nyayanirnaya in establishing the superiority of the Purusha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  The only work I know of called &quot;the Nyayanirnaya&quot; is Anandagiri's Nyaya Nirnaya, which is Anandagiri's subcommentary on Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya.  So my question is, where in that work does Anandagiri establish the authenticity of Hindu stories?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know Anandagiri's Nyaya Nirnaya has never been translated into English, but you can read it &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/The.Brahmasutra.Sankara.Bhasya.with.Ratna-Prabha.Bhamati.and.Nyaya-Nirnaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in Sanskrit. I can't read Devanagari script, but even if I could I'm not sure it would make much of a difference; Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya is already quite long, so Anandagiri's commentary is presumably be even long.  So it would be like finding a needle in a haystack, since Narayana Bhattar doesn't specify a chapter number, he just says that Anandagiri discusses it &quot;in establishing the superiority of the Purusha&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm not sure what part of Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya would be most relevant to &quot;the superiority of the Purusha.&quot;  In any case, has anyone read Anandagiri's commentary, and if so what is the argument he presents regarding the authenticity of Hindu stories?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T14:20:24.553" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T14:20:24.553" Title="Where does the Advaitin commentator Anandagiri discuss the authenticity of Hindu stories?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahma-sutras|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15490" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8994" CreationDate="2016-10-17T20:56:17.297" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama and Sita suffered separation due to curse of Sage Bhrigu on Lord Vishnu that he has to take reincarnation on Earth and will separate from his wife during one birth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7954" LastActivityDate="2016-10-17T20:56:17.297" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15491" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15488" CreationDate="2016-10-18T00:58:07.183" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;well you are &lt;strong&gt;supposed&lt;/strong&gt; to apply tilak with ring finger but well using other fingers according to me does not bring any bad luck. Refer to this article- &lt;br&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://daily.bhaskar.com/news/JM-why-is-tilak-applied-with-ring-finger-2168156.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://daily.bhaskar.com/news/JM-why-is-tilak-applied-with-ring-finger-2168156.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7955" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-10-18T05:36:00.630" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T05:36:00.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15492" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15501" CreationDate="2016-10-18T03:27:26.643" Score="8" ViewCount="4983" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone please explain to me the meaning of five elements -earth, water, air, fire, ether in context of hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ancient cultures like Greece had similar ideas about how everything is made up..but in hinduism does it have more mystical meaning?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5210" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-18T06:28:23.823" LastActivityDate="2017-11-01T00:44:48.643" Title="What is the meaning of five elements(Pancha Bhootas) in Hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|panchabhoota|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15493" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15497" CreationDate="2016-10-18T03:56:00.827" Score="5" ViewCount="7635" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since childhood I have been thinking that &lt;strong&gt;Ashwathama hataha, kunjaraha&lt;/strong&gt; is the &lt;em&gt;half truth&lt;/em&gt; that was said by Yudhishtira&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This trick was used as a ploy to kill Ashwathama's father, Dronacharya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthir is known to abide by dharma, and so Krishna convinces Yudhisthir to lie to Drona. So Yudhisthir says, &lt;strong&gt;Ashwathama hataha..kunjaraha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He speaks the word kunjaraha in a low voice which Drona doesn't hear. And since Ashwathama Hataha means Ashwathama is dead, assuming his son to be dead in the great war, Drona collapses and seeing this as a cue, Draupadi's brother Drushtadyumna beheads Drona.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But recently I have been hearing that the actual phrase that was said is &lt;strong&gt;Ashwathama hataha, narova kunjarova&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;em&gt;Vyasa Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt; which is the actual sentence that was said by Yudhishtira?&#xA;Could you clarify this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7277" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-11-03T15:37:18.157" LastActivityDate="2018-06-10T23:53:53.703" Title="The &quot;tricky truth&quot; that was said by Yudhishtira on 15th day of kurukshetra war" Tags="|mahabharata|yudhisthira|dronacharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15495" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-18T04:39:35.077" Score="5" ViewCount="2124" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is regarded as incarnation of Lord Krishna by Gaudiya Vaishnava sect. Lord Chaitanya was born in Navadvipa Mayapur in west Bengal state of India in 15th century.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He spread the Sankirtan movement;Congregational chanting of Holy Name of Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/Nityananda_Gauranga_Naam/Nityananda_Gauranga_in_Vedas/Vedic_Verses_about_NG.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; site mentions a lot of scriptural refernces confirming the divinity of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I'm interested in knowing the exact source(chapter and verse number with reference) of these following verses&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;aham purno bhavisyami&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yuga-sandhyau visesatah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mayapure navadvipe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhavisyami sachi sutah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will take birth as the son of Sachi [bhavisyami sachi sutah], in&#xA;Navadvip-Mayapur [mayapure navadvipe]. I will come in my complete&#xA;spiritual form in the first part of Kali-Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kaleh prathama sandhyayam lakshmi- kanto bhavisyati&#xA;daru-brahma-samipa-sthah sannyasi gaura-vigrahah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the first part of Kali-Yuga, the Supreme Personality of Godhead&#xA;will come in a gold-like form. First He will become the husband of&#xA;Lakshmi [Srimati Lakshmi Devi, Lord Chaitanya's first wife]. Then He&#xA;will become a sannyasi, near Lord Jagannatha who will appear in a&#xA;divine wooden form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which Section of Garuda Purana has these above verses? I could not find them in Garuda Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-07-02T12:02:58.107" Title="Is appearance and divinity of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu foretold in Garuda Purana?" Tags="|krishna|garuda-purana|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15496" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-18T04:54:59.690" Score="2" ViewCount="64" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where is the temple for Trimurthis   Brahma,  Vishnu and Siva with their consorts and what is the significance of the same? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T06:22:48.570" Title="Temple for Tri murthis and its significance" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15497" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15493" CreationDate="2016-10-18T05:19:50.613" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately the Mahabharata doesn't give an actual quote for Yudhisthira's statement, instead it just narrates in the third person that Yudhisthira said it.  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07187.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva of the Mahabharata says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tam atathya bhaye magno jaye sakto yudhiṣṭhiraḥ | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  avyaktam abravīd rājan &lt;strong&gt;hataḥ kuñjara&lt;/strong&gt; ity uta ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fearing to utter an untruth, but earnestly desirous of victory, Yudhishthira &lt;strong&gt;distinctly said that Aswatthaman was dead, adding indistinctly the word elephant&lt;/strong&gt; (after the name).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-10-25T14:00:57.200" LastActivityDate="2016-10-25T14:00:57.200" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15499" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15502" CreationDate="2016-10-18T05:49:22.467" Score="3" ViewCount="680" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pashupatvrat - Did all deities perform it? If I want to perform it how to perform it? Any Pros and Cons? Any procedure? Thank you in advance for legit scripture-based answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T09:11:05.147" Title="Pashupatvrat - Did all deities perform it? How to perform it? Any Pros and Cons?" Tags="|shiva|vrata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15500" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15496" CreationDate="2016-10-18T06:22:48.570" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a temple from where all the three Lords – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva grace the devotees. It is in &lt;strong&gt;Trichy,  Tamilnadu&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The place is known as Pichandarkovil as Lord Shiva was relieved of His doshas here.  As Lord Vishnu stood here as Kadhamba tree, it is also known as Kadhambanur-Karambanur.  Husband and wife should live in unity understanding each other, a life described Uthamba meaning best, hence, the place is also known as Uthamarkoil.  As all the three Lords grace here with their respective consorts, Tirumangai Azhwar had praised this temple in His Mangalasasanam as Uthamar koil.  It is believed that families will prosper with prayers in this temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Image: &lt;a href=&quot;http://img1.dinamalar.com/KovilImages/GalleryLarge/T_1024_169.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://img1.dinamalar.com/KovilImages/GalleryLarge/T_1024_169.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more information:*&#xA;Link: &lt;a href=&quot;http://temple.dinamalar.com/en/new_en.php?id=169&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://temple.dinamalar.com/en/new_en.php?id=169&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dinamalar is a Tamil newsdaily. Hence the article will be in Tamil. The answer is given in brief in the second para.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T06:22:48.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15501" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15492" CreationDate="2016-10-18T06:25:56.287" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The five elements you referred to are  together called the &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancha_Bhoota&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pancha Bhootas&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,The &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1165&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pancha Karmendriyas&lt;/a&gt;(Indriyas=Senses,Karma=Activity/Work,Jnana=Knowledge)are related to excretion,reproduction,&amp;amp; the acts of grasping,moving &amp;amp; speaking.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where as, the &quot;Pancha Jnanendriyas&quot; are related to the acts of smelling,tasting,seeing,touching &amp;amp; hearing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the context of &quot;Srishti Karma&quot;(the proccess of creation by the Almighty) the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Essence%20of%20Aiteraya%20Upanishad.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Aiteraya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; describes (as quoted below)how the Pancha Bhootas and Dasa indriyas are inter-connected and how they are created from Him :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I.i.4) Taam abhyatapat, Tasyaabhitaptasya mukham nirabhidyataptasya mukham nirabhidyayata yathaandam: mukhaad vaah, Vaachognir naashike&#xA;  nirabhidyetaam naasikaabhyaam praanah, pranaad vaayuh, akshini&#xA;  nirabhidyetaam, akshibhyaam chakshuhu, chakshusa aadityah, karnou&#xA;  nirabhidyetaam, karnaabhyaam shrotram, shrotaad dishaa, twan&#xA;  nirabhidyata, tvaacho lomaani lomaabhya oushadhivanaspatayah, hridayam&#xA;  nirabhidyata, hridayaan manah, manasa chandramaah, naabhir&#xA;  nirabhidyata, naabhyaa apaanah, apaanaan mrityuh, shishnaam&#xA;  nirabhidyata, shishnaad retah, retasaa aapah/&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;( T&lt;strong&gt;he Supreme Self designed the process of creation as follows: from&#xA;  his ‘Mukha’ (face), the mouth surfaced ‘vaak’ the vocal chord from&#xA;  which emerged sound and speech; from the faculty of speech&#xA;  materialised Fire; as the Supreme Self’s nostrils parted, the sense of&#xA;  smell and the resultant Vayu or Air got generated. Similarly His&#xA;  ‘Akshini’ or two eyes turned up vision and eye sight; from the latter&#xA;  emerged Surya or the Sun; from the ears generated sound and the&#xA;  faculty of hearing and the sense of Dishas or directions. From the&#xA;  skin came the sense of touch, herbs and trees. From the heart the mind&#xA;  and Chandra or the Moon. The navel of the Supreme’s physique the organ&#xA;  of outbreath and resultant death to the Beings; The Lord’s seat of&#xA;  generative organ came procreation and semen which materialised water).&#xA;  This was how the cycle of Panchendriyas of the Supreme Self caused&#xA;  Pancha Karmendriyas, Pancha Jnanendriyas and Pancha Bhutas viz. the&#xA;  Body Parts of Deed, Sense and Elements in their respective Places!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope these informations help your cause.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-18T13:38:22.567" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T13:38:22.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15502" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15499" CreationDate="2016-10-18T06:45:41.337" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Linga Purana has the details in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapters:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the second link:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanatkumara Muni described the details of Pashupaata Vrata to&#xA;  Maharshi Shailadi and Nandi Deva explained it briefly; Brahma and&#xA;  Vishnu accomplished the Vrata foremost and was followed by Indra and&#xA;  Devas and subsequently by Danava-Daitya-Siddha and others&lt;/strong&gt;. This Vrata&#xA;  was stated to have absorbed the essence of the six Vedangas for the&#xA;  worship of Dwadasha Lingaas as visualised for each month of the year&#xA;  viz. during Chaitra Month as made of Gold, Vaisakha of Vajra or&#xA;  Diamond, Jyeshtha of Marakata mani, Ashadha month made of Mukta /&#xA;  Pearl, Shravana made of Nila Mani, Bhadrapada made of Padmaraga;&#xA;  Ashviyuja made of Gomedha, Kartika made of Pravala, Margashira made of&#xA;  Vidurya, Pushya made of Pushyaraaga, Maagha the Lingas to be made of&#xA;  Suryakanta mani, and Phalguna the Shiva Linga to be made of Sphatika.&#xA;  In all the months, the puja must be performed by lotus either in the&#xA;  actual form preferably or by way of gold or silver or copper or any&#xA;  other forms. Puja by Bilva Patra (Shri Patra) again in actual form or&#xA;  of replikas would be a ‘must’. Devi Lakshmi is stated to reside in bel&#xA;  patras, while Neel Kamal is the resident of Ambika, Shanmukha stays in&#xA;  Utpala Pushpa and Maha Deva is fond of Padma. Dhupa or smoke made of&#xA;  ‘Guggula’ and Deepa are integral parts of the Puja as they are the&#xA;  demolishers of all kinds of sins. Chandana is again an essential&#xA;  component of the worship as it is a healer of Sarva Rogaas or&#xA;  diseases. The Pushpas for use in the Puja should also include Sweta&#xA;  Aaka Pushpa represented by Brahma, Kinnera Pushpa is a promoter of&#xA;  Medha or mental brilliance, Karaveera pushpa which Ganaadhyksha is&#xA;  fond of, Narayana resides in Vaka Pushpa and Devi Ganga is the&#xA;  adoration of Sarva Sugandhi Pushpaas. As for Naivedya, ‘Shuddhhaanna’&#xA;  would satisfy Maha Deva; in fact, ‘Anna Daana’ is one significant&#xA;  charity to the needy that Shiva is always desirous of on any day,&#xA;  especially on Puranamasi. Those who are observing the Pashu paasha&#xA;  vimochana Vrata must follow the features of Satya (Truthfulness),&#xA;  Ahimsa  (NonViolence), Shoucha (Cleanliness), Daya (Mercy), Shanti&#xA;  (Peacefulness), Santosha (Happiness / Contentment), and Daana&#xA;  (Charity). At the end of each year (since the duration of the Vrata is&#xA;  of twelve years plus), there must be a Godaana and Vrishabha Daana to&#xA;  Veda Pandita Brahmanas. &lt;strong&gt;The observance of this Vrata would indeed&#xA;  bestow Devatwa, Ganaadhya-kshata, and Shivatwa in stages. In the&#xA;  process, Vidyarthis would secure Vidya, Kamaarthis of fulfillment and&#xA;  Yashobhilashis of fame and immense renown.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second highlighted portion mention some of the benefits of performing the Vrata .I have not found any dis-advantages (or cons as said by you).&lt;strong&gt;And,the first highlighted portion apparently implies that all Deities did perform the Vrata.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the first link:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the wake of Tripuraasura Samhaara, Brahma exhorted Devas to&#xA;  emphasize the Mahima of Shiva Puja as the Asuras who were in the past&#xA;  were invincible as they were totally engaged in the Puja but&#xA;  eventually neglected it due to Maya and got degenerated gradually. He&#xA;  said that all the Beings in Srishti like Deva-Danava-&#xA;  Daitya-Rakshasa-Yaksha-&#xA;  Gandharva-Kinnara-Vidyaadhara-Piscacha-Siddhaas- Yogis and Maanavas&#xA;  should perform worship to Maha Deva with purity of body, mind and&#xA;  heart to reap multiple fruits from fulfilment in life to Shivaloka&#xA;  prapti. As all the Beings in Creation are called ‘Pashus’ or of animal&#xA;  instinct, Maha Deva is acclaimed as Pashupati and hence all&#xA;  Buddhimaans should discard the ‘Pashutwa’and practise Pashupata Yoga&#xA;  or Pashupata Vrata:&lt;/strong&gt; after securing ‘Baahyaantara Shuchi’, the Bhakta /&#xA;  Worshipper should perform Pranayama along with the recitals of &#xA;  Omkara; cease the deeds of physical limbs, control the activities of&#xA;  Karmendriyas, gain gradual ‘nyasa’or coordination of Jnaanendriyas,&#xA;  keep that state of body and mind for longer durations as signified by&#xA;  the word of ‘Dharana’, realise the action-reaction syndrome of&#xA;  ‘Tatwaas’  and seek the goal of Moksha; in this manner Pashupata yoga&#xA;  is accomplished; Brahma stated that by so performing the Shiva Linga&#xA;  Puja,  Agni Havans which convert desires into Ashes, and aligning the&#xA;  Self with the Supreme, he conquered the ‘Saamsaarika Duhkhaas’ and&#xA;  enjoy the Powers of Control and Fulfillment in the Three Lokaas. Those&#xA;  who regularly follow the ‘Linga Puja’on these lines are stated to have&#xA;  secured Paashupata Yoga as indeed they are blessed. The duration of&#xA;  Pashupati Vrata is stated to span twelve years, twelve months and&#xA;  twelve days when a person observing it would achieve ‘Pashu Bandha&#xA;  Vimochana’ or relief from Pashutwa or of animal intinct and attain&#xA;  Devatwa or of the features of Devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above portion states why it is necessary to do the Vrata and briefly describe the process too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next passage describes how the various Deities performed their respective Vratas.Different beings used Lingas made of different objects in their Vratas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As instructed by Brahma, Vishwakarma, the Builder of Devas&#xA;  materialised Naana Vidha Shiva Lingas : Vishnu worshipped a Linga made&#xA;  of Indra nila;  Indra worshipped a Padmaraaga- maya Linga; Vishrawa&#xA;  Putra worshipped a Golden Linga; Vishwa Devataas did puja to a Silver&#xA;  Linga; Ashtaavasusprayed to a Kantikamaya Ling; Vaya Deva to a brass&#xA;  Linga; Ahvini Kumaraas prayed to a Parthiva (Earthen) Linga; Varuna&#xA;  Deva worshipped a Sphatika Linga; Dwaadasha Adityaas prayed to a&#xA;  copper Linga; Soma  a Mouktika (Pearl) Linga; Ananta and other Nagaas&#xA;  worshipped a Prabalamaya or harsh wind Linga; Daityas made puja to an&#xA;  Iron Linga; Guhyakaas made puja to a Trilohika Linga; Chamunda prayed&#xA;  to a Baalumaya/ perfume Linga; Nirruti Deva worshipped a wooden Linga;&#xA;  Yama Deva used a Marakata (Emerald) Linga for his puja to Shiva;&#xA;  Ekaadasa Rudras prayed to Bhasma Linga; Devi Lakshmi worshipped a&#xA;  Bilwa Linga while Kartikeya implored a Gomaya Linga; Munis are in the&#xA;  habit of Kushaagra Lingas; the Chatur Vedas performed pujas to&#xA;  Dadhimaya (Curd made) Linga and Piscachaas are used to pray to Seesa&#xA;  (Lead made) Linga. &lt;strong&gt;In this way Shiva Lingas made of various materials&#xA;  are utilised by species of all in Creation&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it indeed appears that &lt;strong&gt;all&lt;/strong&gt; the Deities performed the Vrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further important informations which are relevant to this Vrata(quoted from the first link) are as given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Depending on the availability of Dravya (money), it is said that there&#xA;  were six varieties of Shiva Lingas in vogue in the past and these had&#xA;  forty four categories viz. Shailaja Lingas of four types, Ratnaja of&#xA;  seven kinds, Dhatuja Lingas were of eight variations, Daaruja Lingas&#xA;  of sixteen types; the seventh kind was of Mritthikamaya (Earthen) of&#xA;  two classification; and the eighth  variety is of  seven categories of&#xA;  Kshanika (temporary) nature. Among all these Ratnamaya Lingas are&#xA;  Lakshmiprada; Shailaja Lingas bestow Sarvasiddhis; Dhatuja Lingas are&#xA;  stated to provide Dhana; Daaruja Lingas yield Bhoga or material&#xA;  happiness and Mritthika Linga provide Sarva Siddhis. Among the above&#xA;  types, it is stated that Shailaja Lingaas are the best while Dhatuja&#xA;  Lingas are of medium kind; the recommendation however was that the&#xA;  Lingaas made of Shailaja, Ratnamaya, Dhatumaya, Mrunmaya and Kshanika&#xA;  Lingas are in the vogue normally. All the most significant Devotees&#xA;  like Brahma, Indra, Agni, Yama, Kubera, Varuna, Siddha, Vidyaadhara,&#xA;  Naaga, Yakshas normally invoke Mahadeva to attain&#xA;  Bhu-Bhuva-Swah-Jana-Tapa and Satya Lokas. But those who seek&#xA;  ‘Paramaartha’or Moksha among the Siddhas and Yogis believe that Shiva&#xA;  was of Pranava Swarupa, some other imagine Him as Vignaana Swarupa,&#xA;  others ponder him as Shabdaadi Vishaya  Tatwa Gyana Rupa and so on.&#xA;  However, another way of perceiving Shiva is that his Mastaka is of&#xA;  Swarga, his navel as Akaasha, Surya Chandra and Agnis as his&#xA;  Trinetras, Samudra as his Vastra, Pataala as his feet, Devataas as his&#xA;  hands, Nakshatras as his Bhushanaas, Linga as Purusha, Prakriti as his&#xA;  Devi, Vayu as his breathing, and Smriti-Shrutis are his thorough-fare&#xA;  and speed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can also study this &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakotimandali.com/misc/pashuapatavrata.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;page.&lt;/a&gt; for learning the process of performing the Vrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The vrata should be commenced on shukla chaturdashI of the desired&#xA;  month. The most desirable day would be a chaturdashI that falls on an&#xA;  ArdrA yukta somavAsara. One should perform bhUta shuddhi and&#xA;  contemplate on the laya of the elements in their reverse order of&#xA;  evolution. One should perform sankalpa for the vrata and establish&#xA;  agni according to svashAkhA. One should fast, adorn himself with white&#xA;  clothing, upavIta etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;upoShitaH shuchiH snAtaH shuklAmbaradharaH svayam |&#xA;  shuklayaj~nopavItashcha shuklamAlyAnulepanaH ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He should then perform homa (samidAjyacharUniti dravyatrayam) with the&#xA;  virajA mantras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prANApAnavyAnodAnasamAnA me shuddhyantAm jyotiraham virajA vipApmA&#xA;  bhUyAsaM svAhA || etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....One can use shaiva mantra, gAyatrI or shuddha praNava&#xA;  (yathAdhikAra) to wear the bhasma. According to sampradAya, sapraNava&#xA;  panchAkShara mantra, prAsAda dvitaya, laghu pAshupata and&#xA;  mahApAshupata are the mantras used to wear bhasma on the twelve body&#xA;  parts. One should then recite the mUla mantra (or gAyatrI) followed by&#xA;  shiva sahasranAma (padma purANa gives a version (vedasArAkhya) and it&#xA;  seems logical to assume that the instruction here refers to reciting&#xA;  that particular version). This is the bhasma snAna prescribed for a&#xA;  dvija and is capable of destroying all sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;agnivIryaM yato bhasma vIryavAn bhasmasaMyutaH | bhasmasnAnarato vipro&#xA;  bhasmashAyI jitendriyaH | sarvapApavinirmuktaH shivasAyujyamApnuyAt ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rudrAkSha dhAraNa, shivalingArchana etc. are other aspects of this&#xA;  vrata. &lt;strong&gt;However, pAshupata dIkSha, which is described variously, should&#xA;  be taken from a competent guru before undertaking the sacred vow.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aShTAdashabhujaM dhyAyenmahApAshupateshvaram ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read the bold portion above.You should not do the Vrata on your own unless guided/instructed by your Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-18T09:11:05.147" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T09:11:05.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15503" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-10-18T11:36:40.980" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-10-18T11:36:40.980" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T11:36:40.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15504" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-10-18T11:36:40.980" Score="0" Body="Questions that deals with Shankhya or Shamkhya (Sanskrit : सांख्य), one of the six darshan/philosophy founded by sage Kapila." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-18T11:49:15.697" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T11:49:15.697" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15505" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-10-18T11:44:40.023" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-10-18T11:44:40.023" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T11:44:40.023" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15506" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-10-18T11:44:40.023" Score="0" Body="Questions deals with Kena Upanishad (केन उपनिषद्) one of the principle/mukhya Upanishads, belongs to Talavakara Shakha of Samaveda." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-18T11:53:59.910" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T11:53:59.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15507" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15512" CreationDate="2016-10-18T13:35:57.880" Score="7" ViewCount="2456" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that Satyabhama is the second important wife of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found only &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicgoddess.weebly.com/joy-ma-blog/devi-sathyabama-2nd-of-krishnas-principle-wives-yogi-ananda-saraswathi-httpswwwfacebookcomyogianandasaraswathi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;, saying about the past life of her and only one paragraph says about her past life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where can I read more about the past life of Satyabhama from authentic texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T09:16:57.997" LastActivityDate="2023-06-14T10:35:27.203" Title="Past life of Satyabhama" Tags="|scripture|krishna|satyabhama|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15508" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15511" CreationDate="2016-10-18T13:43:35.287" Score="11" ViewCount="843" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I've discussed &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14428/277&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, we know that ancient Rishi heard Vedic hymns in the state of Tapasya (deep mediation) which are called Shruti/Vedas. Vedas are divided into two parts Samhita - the (mantra) part of Veda seen/heard by Rishi &amp;amp; Brahman-Grantha - interpretation &amp;amp; commentaries on Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now talking about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shakha&lt;/a&gt; (branch of Veda), generally each Shakha have it's own &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmana&lt;/a&gt; of which some are lost. Aaranyaka are extracted from Brahmana and Upanishads are extracted from Aaranyaka (except Isha Upanishad). So, each &amp;amp; every Brahman/Aaranyaka/Upanishad belongs to a particular Shakha of a particular Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example if we talk Rigveda, there are two &lt;em&gt;popular&lt;/em&gt; shakha - Shakala &amp;amp; Bashkala. Shakala has Aitareya Brahman &amp;amp; Upanishad and Bashkala has Kaushitaki Brahman &amp;amp; Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But several times (in books and on web) I found they mention different/various Samhita of a particular Veda. For example (Note that I know that Yajurveda has two forms Shukla &amp;amp; Krishna and hence separate Samhita - which is different topic): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Taittariya Samhita, Maitrayani Samhita, Charaka-Katha &amp;amp; Kapishthala Samhita of Krishna Yajurveda.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kauthuma, Ranayaniya and Jaimini Samhita of Samaveda.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar thing I found from the following image of veda-tree at &lt;a href=&quot;http://indiaculturetree.com/wp-content/uploads/new_ved_tree.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tMBnbl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tMBnbl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;veda-tree&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;As I've not &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/578/277&quot;&gt;read&lt;/a&gt; any Samhita yet and don't know deeply about Samhita.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does Veda has more than one Samhita regarding to Shakha?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In other words, does Shakha has it's Samhita like Brahmana? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Or &lt;em&gt;here&lt;/em&gt; different Samhita just/actually refers to Shakha of Veda?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think if there are more than one (version) of Samhita of a particular Veda, they might be similar with just minor (chant) difference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T15:41:09.753" Title="Does Veda has more than one Samhita regarding to Shakha?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|sruti|brahmanas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15509" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-10-18T13:46:39.743" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-10-18T13:46:39.743" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T13:46:39.743" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15510" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-10-18T13:46:39.743" Score="0" Body="For the questions about Brahmanas (Sanskrit ब्राह्मणम्) or Brahmana Grantha, commentaries on Vedic Samhita/hymns. Also known as Karmakanda (कर्मकांड​) part of Veda." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-14T03:34:28.400" LastActivityDate="2018-04-14T03:34:28.400" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15511" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15508" CreationDate="2016-10-18T14:10:41.397" Score="8" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Do Veda have more than one Samhita regarding to Shakha?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, each Shakha of Veda has it's own Samhita. There were 21 Shakhas of RigVeda, 1000 Shakhas of SamaVeda, 101 Shakhas of Yajurveda and 9 Shakhas of Atharvaveda as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15301/are-there-any-variants-in-samhita-of-vedas/15445#15445&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;answer here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Thus total about 1131 Samhitas. We have only about 12 Shakhas alive with 12 Samhitas.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;In other words, does Shakha has it's Samhita like Brahmana?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Shakha has it's own Samhita like Brahmana.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Or here different Samhita just/actually refers to Shakha of Veda?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;No, here Samhita refers also to actual Samhita.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;How do Samhitas of same Vedas differ?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss this in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15301/are-there-any-variants-in-samhita-of-vedas/15445#15445&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;answer here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T14:10:41.397" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15512" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15507" CreationDate="2016-10-18T14:12:29.930" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Previous life of Satyabhama is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-vi/chapter-21/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaartika Masa Mahatmya, Vaishanava Khanda of Skanda Mahapurana.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satyabhama herself asked Sri Krishna about her previous birth. Satyabhama was &lt;strong&gt;Gunavati&lt;/strong&gt;, daughter of &lt;strong&gt;Devasharma&lt;/strong&gt; a Brahmana who belonged to Aithreya Gotra. He gave (in marriage) his daughter  Gunavati to &lt;strong&gt;Candra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When her father and husband went to forest, they were killed by a Rakshasa. Then Gunavati did &lt;strong&gt;Ekadasi vrata and Kaartika Masa vrata&lt;/strong&gt; every year and finally she went to vaikunta. Thereafter, when Devas requested, Lord Vishnu (Sri Krishna) married her she when was born as Satyabhama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srikrsna replied:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O beloved, listen with concentration how you observed meritorious&#xA;holy rites in your previous birth. I shall narrate everything to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was an excellent Brahmana named &lt;em&gt;Devasarma&lt;/em&gt; in Mayapuri towards&#xA;the end of Kirtayuga. He belonged to the Atreya Gotra. He was master&#xA;of Vedas and Vedangas. When he had become pretty old, he begot a&#xA;daughter named &lt;em&gt;Gunavati&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He had no son. He gave his daughter (in marriage) to his disciple&#xA;named &lt;em&gt;Candra&lt;/em&gt;. He considered him his son and the disciple of perfect&#xA;self-control (honoured him) like his own father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once those two went to a forest in order to bring Kusa grass,&#xA;sacrificial twigs and fuel. They were killed by a Raksasa as hideous&#xA;in form as the god of Death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both of them went to the world of Visnu due to the power of their&#xA;respective merits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing that both of them had been killed by a Raksasa, Gunavati&#xA;became extremely distressed, having been separated from her husband as&#xA;well as her father. She lamented in a pitiable manner. She quickly&#xA;sold all the furniture, utensils etc. and performed according to her&#xA;capacity their obsequies and other holy rites for (their) happiness in&#xA;the other world. Living like a dead person, she continued to stay in&#xA;the same city.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Two Vratas were perfectly observed by her throughout her life till&#xA;death, viz. the Vrata of Ekadasi and the holy rite of &lt;em&gt;Karttika&lt;/em&gt;. Thus&#xA;Gunavati performed the Vratas every year. Once that slender-bodied one&#xA;became afflicted with fever. She was in great physical pain. O my&#xA;beloved, with great difficulty she went slowly to Ganga for taking her&#xA;bath. When she entered the water, she became distressed with&#xA;chillness. She shivered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By that time the lady in distress saw an aerial chariot that had come&#xA;from the sky. She got into that aerial chariot and went to the world&#xA;of Vaikuntha. Thanks to the merit of &lt;em&gt;Karttikavrata&lt;/em&gt;, she came to my&#xA;presence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I came to the earth at the request of the Devas headed by&#xA;Brahma, all those groups (of Devas) also came along with me. O&#xA;beautiful lady, all these Yadavas are my own attendants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your father Devasarma now has the name Satrajit. He who had been called by the name Candra is Akrura now and you are that splendid&#xA;Gunavati.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You gave me great delight, thanks to the merit of the Kārtikavrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read rest of the chapter to know story behind Kaartika Masa Mahatmya which corresponds to months of October and November.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-10-18T16:41:24.443" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15513" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-18T15:58:51.707" Score="12" ViewCount="2358" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/8/13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the verse of Bhagavata purana where Garga explains the colors of body of Vishnu in different incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your son Kṛṣṇa appears as an incarnation in every millennium. In the past, He assumed three different colors — white, red and yellow — and now He has appeared in a blackish color. SB.10.8.13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand that in Krishna-avatar He was blackish but I don't know which other avatars He was white, red and yellow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-02-07T07:03:10.937" LastActivityDate="2021-12-25T04:15:26.810" Title="Which incarnations of Vishnu has different skin colors?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15514" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15492" CreationDate="2016-10-18T20:43:36.997" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Samkhya Yoga , the Universe is made up of &lt;strong&gt;two basic elements--matter( solid,liquid and gaseous) and ether(space and an air-like substance that fills the Inter-Stellar space)*&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Life comes out of interaction between  Ether(spirit,dehi,atman,purusha) and Matter(body,deha,sharira,prakriti). Energy and Time (Maya ,Shakti) serve as  forces that bind body to the spirit&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;em&gt;Ref-Bhagabat Gita--ch2-(16 t0 25) &amp;amp;ch13-(13 to 18) and ch8(16 to 22)&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; Activities associated with &lt;em&gt;Life&lt;/em&gt;,  are &lt;em&gt;Time Bound&lt;/em&gt; activities ,with a &lt;em&gt;beginning and an end&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Transcending the Bondage of Time is Liberation (Mokshya,Mukti,Nirvana)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Advaita (One)&lt;/strong&gt; Philosophy assumes that  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;all these concepts,element or variables (Matter,Ether,Energy and Time) are in reality ONE (Brahman)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;em&gt;Rf--Complete works of Swami Vivekananda --1:14&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference link:-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vsc.iitm.ac.in/Vivekananda/Complete%20works/Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda_-_Vol_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.vsc.iitm.ac.in/Vivekananda/Complete%20works/Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda_-_Vol_1.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-19T07:38:54.150" LastActivityDate="2016-10-19T07:38:54.150" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15515" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-18T22:06:31.747" Score="0" ViewCount="115" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any rule of separation after marriage in Hinduism? Might be the case both (husband and wife) thinking is totally different, so they fight every day and they feel they cannot live together. Then what is the way to get rid  of this situation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any rule in any Hindu religious book?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4061" LastEditorUserId="4061" LastEditDate="2016-10-19T15:37:22.743" LastActivityDate="2016-10-19T15:37:22.743" Title="Marriage separation rule in Hinduism?" Tags="|marriage|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2016-10-20T06:59:37.087" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15517" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-19T03:42:01.363" Score="7" ViewCount="10665" Body="&lt;p&gt;I red in devi baghavatham that a rajaswala is not allowed to cook food and if does, treated as sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My doubt is whether is it allowed to celebrate festival during menstruation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, today is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karva_Chauth&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Karva Chaut&lt;/a&gt;, is it allowed for a rajaswala to do fast and watching moon through sieve for husband? Will it be a sin if rajaswala does it?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer authentic text if it denies/ allows a rajaswala celebrating festivals (doing fast, praying gods etc.,)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7966" LastEditorUserId="7966" LastEditDate="2016-10-19T04:15:59.737" LastActivityDate="2017-03-13T11:04:16.160" Title="Celebrating festival while menstruation" Tags="|scripture|rituals|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-12-08T12:22:27.920" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15518" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15488" CreationDate="2016-10-19T05:30:47.863" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apply tilak with ring finger at an engagement ceremony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Finger to be used for applying Tilak for different occasions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Applying Tilak with ring finger(Anamika) gives peace.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We all experience a soothing effect at the time of sunrise. Perfect&#xA;  peace can be experienced while sun rises. It is believed that at the&#xA;  base of the ring finger is Sun. Thus applying Tilak with ring finger&#xA;  provides peace. The ring finger should be used to apply Tilak to the&#xA;  photos of  Hindu gods and goddesses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Applying Tilak with middle finger(Madhyama) provides long life.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to hindu mythology, it is believed that saturn is at the&#xA;  base of the middle finger. Saturn is known as the protector of &#xA;  lifespan. Thus applying Tilak with middle finger provides long life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Applying Tilak with thumb (Angushtha) provides strength.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hindu mythology says that Venus is at the base of the thumb. Venus&#xA;  represents health. Thumb is used for applying Tilak to men as it&#xA;  symbolizes strength, health, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. Applying Tilak with INDEX finger(Tarjani) gives moksha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the base of the index finger is Jupiter. Tilak is applied with&#xA;  index finger to dead body as it provides Moksha. Jupiter represents&#xA;  immortality. Thus applying Tilak with index finger in other occasions&#xA;  is considered as inauspicious. The index finger of the right hand&#xA;  should be used for applying Tilak to the photos of  departed&#xA;  ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tilak is applied at the space between two eyebrows known as Ajna&#xA;  Chakra. Application of Chandan has very cooling effect and has&#xA;  medicinal value. During heat, if one concentrates on Ajna Chakra , it&#xA;  provides soothing and cooling effect. Tilak applied with ring finger&#xA;  and thumb is very beneficial. Women should use ring finger for&#xA;  applying Bindi. Women and men both should use unbroken rice mixed in&#xA;  Red Chandan for Tilak as it symbolises peace and firmness of the&#xA;  brain. There are 13 places on human body where Tilak can be placed but&#xA;  only forehead is considered as noble. According to astrology, house of&#xA;  Aries (Mesh Rashi)  is on forehead. Lord of  Mesh is Mars and its&#xA;  colour is Red. This is the reason behind putting Red Chandan and&#xA;  Sindoor as Tilak on the forehead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://admirableindia.wordpress.com/2015/08/02/do-you-know-which-finger-to-be-used-for-applying-tilak-for-different-occasions/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7385" LastActivityDate="2016-10-19T05:30:47.863" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15519" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15517" CreationDate="2016-10-19T06:25:15.843" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;During courses a woman is considered very &quot;impure&quot;(the degree of impurity is described in one of the verses given below).The Scriptures even say that touching their husbands during those days is an offence.Participating in religious activity of any kind is strictly prohibited,which should only resume once the courses are over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are some verses from Parashara Smriti(Chapter 7):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;15&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A woman in her monthly courses, is restored to purity after having washed herself, on the fourth day. When the courses actually cease,&#xA;  however, &lt;strong&gt;it is then that she should engage herself in the&#xA;  performance of the rites due to the manes and the gods.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As long as the menstrual fluid continues to flow, so long the acts and doings of the woman cannot be clean.&lt;/strong&gt; When the courses&#xA;  cease, the woman becomes fit to have intercourse with, and she may&#xA;  then employ herself in the household duties.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the first day that the blood begins to flow, the woman is comparable to a female Chandala ; on the second, she is like a&#xA;  Brahmanicide ; on the third, she may be likened to a washerwoman. On&#xA;  the fourth day, * however, she is entirely pure.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WtxTL.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WtxTL.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If some woman had done a sankalpa(taken a vow) for doing a prolonged Vrata which is extended over months(like say 16 monday fasts etc),then she can skip  fasts on the days which coincide with her courses without breaking the vow(but she should complete as many fasts as she promised during taking the vow).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update-&lt;/strong&gt; From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/vasisthadharmasutras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vasistha Dharma Sutras&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A woman in her courses is impure during three (days and) nights.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(During that period) she shall not apply collyr ium to her eyes, nor anoint (her body), &lt;strong&gt;nor bathe in water&lt;/strong&gt;; she shall sleep on the&#xA;  ground; she shall not sleep in the day-time, nor touch the fire, no r&#xA;  make a rope, &lt;strong&gt;nor clean her teeth&lt;/strong&gt;, nor eat meat, nor look at the&#xA;  planets, nor smile, nor busy herself with (house-hold affairs), nor&#xA;  run; she shall drink out of a large vessel, or out of her joined hands, or out of a copper vessel. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,as you should be knowing,before participating in a religious rite(including a fast )  purity of body is the first requirement.So,bathing is a must.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, as you can see both bathing as well as brushing of teeth are prohibited on those 3 days.Needless to say,that performance of vratas or engaging in any kind of religious activities will not thus be possible on those 3 days for any woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-13T11:04:16.160" LastActivityDate="2017-03-13T11:04:16.160" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15520" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8744" CreationDate="2016-10-19T08:04:08.430" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Homosexuality in men is clearly stated as a sin in the Manu Smriti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मैथुनं तु समासेव्य पुंसि योषिति वा द्विजः । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  गोयानेऽप्सु दिवा चैव सवासाः स्नानमाचरेत् ॥ १७४ ॥ &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;maithunaṃ tu samāsevya puṃsi yoṣiti vā dvijaḥ | &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  goyāne'psu divā caiva savāsāḥ snānamācaret || 174 || &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If &lt;strong&gt;a twice-born man commits an unnatural offence with a male&lt;/strong&gt;, or has intercourse with a female, in an ox-cart, or in water, or during the day, — he should take a bath along with his clothes. — (174)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc202068.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti, Chapter 11, Verse 174&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more shloka from Manu Smriti that condemns homosexuality in men is given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मणस्य रुजः कृत्वा घ्रातिरघ्रेयमद्ययोः । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  जैह्म्यं च मैथुनं पुंसि जातिभ्रंशकरं स्मृतम् ॥ ६७ ॥ &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brāhmaṇasya rujaḥ kṛtvā ghrātiraghreyamadyayoḥ | &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  jaihmyaṃ ca maithunaṃ puṃsi jātibhraṃśakaraṃ smṛtam || 67 || &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Causing pain to a Brāhmaṇa (by a blow), — smelling at things that should not be smelt, or at wine, — cheating — and &lt;strong&gt;sexual intercourse with a man&lt;/strong&gt;, — all this is declared to lead to loss of caste (Gatibhramsa). — (67) &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201944.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti, Chapter 11, Verse 67&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br/&gt; EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Atri Smriti also mentions homosexuality as a sin and prescribes an expiation measure for the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By discharging semen into inhuman females except a cow, into a woman&#xA;  in [her] menses, &lt;strong&gt;into others that have no female organs (i.e., a man or&#xA;  a eunuch),&lt;/strong&gt; or into water one should perform the penance of Santapanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MC-IK69vF84C&amp;amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;amp;output=reader&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;pg=GBS.PA318&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atri Smriti, Chapter 1, Verse 268&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Updating the answer:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adding some further relevant verses from the Dharmasutra of Apastambha (AD) and that of BaudhAyana (BD).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From BD:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who does not have sex with his wife during her season, and one who&#xA;  has sex with her outside her season, &lt;strong&gt;as also one who deposits his&#xA;  semen in a place other than the vagina ––they all incur the same&#xA;  guilt.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BD 3.7.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From AD:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A man who ejaculates his semen in any place other than the vagina&#xA;  becomes equal to a thief, equal to a murderer of a Brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AD 1.19.15&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In these verses the sanskrit original being used is Ayoni for non-vaginal. Also, these verses prohibit a whole lot of sexual activities besides prohibiting (male-male) homosexuality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-06T04:44:05.803" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T04:44:05.803" CommentCount="24" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15521" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-19T08:32:12.517" Score="2" ViewCount="129" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question for me is a confusion.&#xA;Why do we rely on god to get good grades, money or good life? &#xA;Logically if I have worked hard to earn, I will earn. The only reason that I would talk to god is because of mental satisfaction. I would talk to him not to ask but seek peace and clear my head of anything that disturbs me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My parents/relatives always say &quot;Pray to god and all will be good&quot; I ask myself why is this? is this misconception or reality?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I have an exam coming up and I decide &quot;OK, I will pray to god every day till the exam and I should be fine&quot; This surely will not work. So why is it that we have so much reliance on god? why cant we deal with things like an adult and not cry like babies to god and blame or question him on why this has happened?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please do not be offended. I am 16 and still in the loose end on my religion. I truly hope there is a god because it satisfies me thinking that there is one divine spirit with me at all times. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="7385" LastEditDate="2016-10-19T10:04:44.403" LastActivityDate="2016-10-19T10:04:44.403" Title="Why do we rely on god so much?" Tags="|gods|prayer|teaching|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-01-02T11:34:58.153" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15522" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-19T10:07:44.743" Score="2" ViewCount="55" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we observe in ancient temples there are lot of carvings and statues comprising animals, flowers, hanuman, vinayaga, brahmahathi etc in pillars. Further ancient man and woman in different poses can also be found in statue form. Any scriptural evidence from hindu mythology-- why these mixed carvings and statues are put on the pillars?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-10-19T10:07:44.743" Title="Small Carvings and statues in pillars in temples" Tags="|scripture|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15524" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7670" CreationDate="2016-10-19T11:36:44.987" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;This incident is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Udyoga Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;. The story goes like this: When it was confirmed that the war is certain, then both Duryodhana and Arjuna went to seek help of Lord Krishna. Duryodhana arrived first and sat near the head of Lord Krishna and Arjuna arrived second and stood at the back of bed. When Lord Krishna awake he saw Arjuna first so he asked the reason for coming to Arjuna but as Duryodhana had arrived first, so he (Duryodhana) wanted to be noticed first. But as Lord Krishna had seen Arjuna first and also Arjuna was junior to Duryodhana in age. So, Arjuna got the priority to choose between Lord Krishna (without weapons) and His Narayana army. Arjuna had selected Lord and at last Duryodhana was happy after getting Narayana army.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as Krishna was sleeping, Duryodhana entered the room, and sat down on a fine seat at the head of the bed. And after him entered that wearer of the diadem the magnanimous Arjuna. And stood at the back of the bed, bowing and joining his hands. And when the descendant of Vrishni, Krishna awoke, he first cast his eyes on Arjuna. And having asked them as to the safety of their journey, and having fitly bestowed his greetings upon them, the slayer of Madhu questioned them as to the occasion of their visit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Duryodhana addressed Krishna, with a cheerful countenance, saying, It behoveth you to lend me your help in the impending war. Arjuna and myself are both equally your friends. And, O descendant of Madhu, you also bear the same relationship to both of us. And today, O slayer of Madhu, I have been the first to come to you. Right-minded persons take up the cause of him who comes first to them. This is how the ancients acted. And, O Krishna, you stand at the very top of all right-minded persons in the world, and are always respected. I ask you to follow the rule of conduct observed by rightminded men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;' Thereat Krishna replied, &lt;strong&gt;'That you have come first, O king, I do not in the least doubt. But, O king, the son of Kunti, Dhananjaya, has been first beheld by me. On account of your first arrival, and on account of my having beheld Arjuna first, I shall, no doubt, lend my assistance, O Suyodhana, to both. But it is said that those who are junior in years should have the first choice. Therefore, Dhananjaya, the son of Kunti, is entitled to first choice.&lt;/strong&gt; There is a large body of cowherds numbering ten crores, rivalling me in strength and known as the Narayanas, all of whom are able to fight in the thick of battle. These soldiers, irresistible in battle, shall be sent to one of you and I alone, resolved not to fight on the field, and laying down my arms, will go to the other. You may, O son of Kunti, first select whichever of these two commends itself to you. For, according to law, you have the right to the first choice.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Thus addressed by Krishna, &lt;strong&gt;Dhananjaya the son of Kunti selected Kesava who was not to fight on the battle-field, even Narayana himself, the slayer of foes, increate, born among men at his own will,--the foremost of all Kshatriyas and above all the gods and the Danavas. And Duryodhana selected for himself that entire army (composed of the Narayanas)&lt;/strong&gt;. And, O descendant of Bharata, having obtained those troops numbering thousands upon thousands, he was exceedingly delighted, although he knew that Krishna was not on his side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T06:31:03.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15525" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12169" CreationDate="2016-10-19T12:42:27.430" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Is there any textual evidence(in Hindu scriptures) to bath with clothes only? Or it is the rule added according to time?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is textual evidence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti,Chapter 4 Verse 45:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.45. Let him not eat, dressed with one garment only; &lt;strong&gt;let him not bathe naked;&lt;/strong&gt; let him not void urine on a road, on ashes, or in a&#xA;  cow-pen,(&lt;strong&gt;Na Nagnah Snanam Aachareth&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[![enter image description here][1]][1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here &lt;strong&gt;him&lt;/strong&gt; refers to a Brahamana(or to a Snataka ),but in general it will be a improper conduct for other persons(householders for example) as well, because while God Varuna is making us pure,by his grace,  we are not showing him  due respect, in turn, if bathing naked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;-I have searched the Parashara Smriti.Unable to find any prohibitions regarding bathing naked in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus we have prohibitions in Manu Smriti but nothing in Parashara &amp;amp; among which the later is supposedly more precisely applicable in Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can interpret these findings in two ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)Since Parshara does not mention anything we need not worry about it because had it been important would have been contained in that Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OR  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)Manu Smriti condemns bathing naked and Parashara Smriti does not contradict it.So,we can assume that,in this particular case, the laws of Manu are valid in Kali as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;-&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Some articles says that, since there are no personal bathrooms in old times, people use to bath with clothes&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot;-- This is not true.I have found evidence that bathing nude is improper conduct even if one is bathing in a closed place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharishi Vyasa describes about &quot;saadaacharaa&quot;(right or proper conduct) in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/brahma/bookview.php?chapnum=22&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of the Brahma Purana .He says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Grihastena Sadaakaarya maachaara pari-rakshanam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nahyaachaara viheenasya bhadramatra paratravaa,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yagna daana tapaaseeha Purushasya na bhuyatey,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhavanti yah sadaachaaram samullanghya pravartatey/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Grihastaas or family-persons ought to observe and protect Sadaachaara&#xA;  Pravartana as those without it would neither have ‘Iham’ / the&#xA;  contentment of current life or ‘Param’of post-life; to those who&#xA;  neglect the principles of Sadaachaara are not eligible to  the fruits&#xA;  of Yagna- Daana-Tapas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then he gives a long list of such proper conducts or sadaachaaraa.And in that list we find:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Men and women of virtue should.......&lt;strong&gt;never bathe or sleep in nudity&#xA;  even in closed places......&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-15T15:03:30.603" LastActivityDate="2016-11-15T15:03:30.603" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15526" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-19T12:59:17.510" Score="2" ViewCount="457" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Kalisantaran Upanishad it is mentioned that we can attain moksha by chanting the &lt;strong&gt;Hare Krishna Mantra&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what I believe is Moksha means getting free from the shackles of Karma. &#xA;Once we have nullified our Karma there is no longer need to be born again &#xA;on mother earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7969" LastActivityDate="2016-10-19T12:59:17.510" Title="Does chanting name of Krishna in Kali yuga gives you moksha?" Tags="|krishna|upanishads|moksha|kali-yuga|mukti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15527" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14256" CreationDate="2016-10-19T15:21:37.120" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mopidevitemple.org/index.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mopidevi Subramanya Swami temple&lt;/a&gt; of Andhra Pradesh, the story of Kumara Swamy turning into snake is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahyadrikhanda&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sahyadri Khanda&lt;/a&gt; of Skanda MahaPurana. You can read Sthala Purana from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mopidevitemple.org/images/swamy-book.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (in telugu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sahyadri Khanda mentions legends of temples on the bank of River Krishna. You can read Sahyadri Khanda in Sanskrit from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Sahyadri-Khanda&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Temple &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mopidevitemple.org/aboutus.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt; describes the story in English as follows :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Four Deva Rishis viz., Sankara, Sanakasa, Sanatkumara, and Sanatsujata&#xA;  are known for their un-wavering devotion and saintly knowledge. They&#xA;  are immortal and always appear at the age of five years to others. They&#xA;  remained so detached from the awareness of worldly matters that they&#xA;  remain naked without covering their bodies. Once, they came to Kailas,&#xA;  the abode of Lord Shiva to worship Him. At the same time, Sachi Devi,&#xA;  Swaha Devi, Goddess Saraswathi and Goddess Lakshmi also arrived. Lord&#xA;  Subrahmanyeswara was sitting in the lap of his mother Goddess Parvathi&#xA;  by that time. Lord Subrahmanyeswara as a child was bewildered at the&#xA;  two contrasts of fully clad Gods and Goddesses on one hand and the&#xA;  nude Deva rishis on the other. He giggled innocently in a childish&#xA;  way. Goddess Parvathi chided Lord Subrahmanyeswara for his folly.&#xA;  Later, Lord Subrahmanyeswara realised his lapse and took permission to&#xA;  do penance to get rid of the blemish. &lt;strong&gt;Lord Subrahmanyeswara did the&#xA;  penance in disguise, in the form of a snake for many years and&#xA;  successfully cleansed Himself of his folly.&lt;/strong&gt; The place where Lord&#xA;  Subrahmanyeswara did penance later came to be known as ‘Mopidevi’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-19T16:06:57.450" LastActivityDate="2016-10-19T16:06:57.450" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15528" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15893" CreationDate="2016-10-19T20:22:05.653" Score="15" ViewCount="7136" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Bible talks about generational curses. Does Hinduism have generational curses? If so, please include some verses describing them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7350" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-10-20T04:52:52.207" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T04:41:12.423" Title="Do generational curses exist in Hinduism?" Tags="|belief|other-religions|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15531" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-20T06:40:14.483" Score="1" ViewCount="347" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Banlinga/Naramadeshwar proscribed to keep at home? Why? Any story behind them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-10-25T11:21:08.937" Title="Is Banlinga/Naramadeshwar Linga proscribed to keep at home? Why?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15539" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15542" CreationDate="2016-10-20T08:42:40.500" Score="8" ViewCount="724" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, i need to know which countries are referred to as &quot;Mleccha Deshas&quot; in Hindu Shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Purana supposedly prohibits performance of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitru_Paksha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Pitru Shraddhas&lt;/a&gt; in &quot;mleccha deshas&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na mleccha vishaya shraaddham kuryaat nagacchet mleccha vishayam/&#xA;  Kaaveri Tungabhadraa cha Krishna venicha Gautami, Bhaageerathi&#xA;  vikhyaatataah Pancha Gangaah prakeertitaah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Vishnu Purana suggested that Shraddha Karmas be avoided in Mleccha&#xA;  Deshas nor even visit those places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that was in the context of performing Pitru Shraddha.What about other religious activities?Are those also prohibited?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q-What do Scriptures say about doing Puja/Yajnas in &quot;Mleccha Deshas&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-21T05:27:51.330" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T09:29:49.330" Title="What do Scriptures say about doing Puja/Archanas in &quot;Mleccha Deshas&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|rituals|puja|vishnu-purana|sraddha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15542" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15539" CreationDate="2016-10-20T10:28:31.597" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In my opinion&lt;/strong&gt;, I don't think scriptures talks about the exact location of Mleccha Desha. Different people talks about it differently. Like in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga43/kishkindha_43_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kishkindha Kanda, Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्र म्लेच्छान् पुलिन्दान् च शूरसेनान् तथैव च |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रस्थालान् भरतान् चैव कुरूम् च सह मद्रकैः || || ४-४३-११&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कांबोज यवनान् चैव शकान् पत्तनानि च |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अन्वीक्ष्य दरदान् चैव हिमवन्तम् विचिन्वथ || ४-४३-१२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There in the north, the provinces of Mleccha-s, Pulinda-s, that way Shurashena - Prasthala - Bharata - Kuru - Madraka - Kaambhoja - Yavana shall be scrutinized along with the cities of Shaka and Darada, and then search in Himalayas. [4-43-11,12]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01086.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva, Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;, Mlechchas are the descendants of Yayati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The sons of Yadu are known by the name of the Yadavas: while those of Turvasu have come to be called the Yavanas. And the sons of Drahyu are the Bhojas, while those of Anu, the Mlechchhas. The progeny of Puru, however, are the Pauravas, amongst whom, O monarch, thou art born, in order to rule for a thousand years with thy passions under complete control.'&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc145599.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Medhatithi's Manubhashya&lt;/a&gt; (Commentary on Manusmriti), Mlechchas are people those do not belong to any of the four Varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mlecchas are the people who are known as lying beyond the pale of the four castes,—not included even among the Pratiloma castes; such as the Medas, the Andhras, the Śabaras and the Pulindas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, coming to the main question: &lt;strong&gt;What do Scriptures say about doing Puja/Yajnas in &amp;quot;Mleccha Deshas&amp;quot;?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc145599.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manusmriti 2.23&lt;/a&gt;, land of Mlechchas is not fit for sacrificial rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कृष्णसारस्तु चरति मृगो यत्र स्वभावतः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स ज्ञेयो यज्ञियो देशो म्लेच्छदेशस्त्वतः परः ॥ २३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kṛṣṇasārastu carati mṛgo yatra svabhāvataḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sa jñeyo yajñiyo deśo mlecchadeśastvataḥ paraḥ || 23 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the region where the spotted deer roams by nature is to be known as the ‘land fit for sacrificial acts’; beyond that is the ‘land of the Mlecchas.’ (23)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T09:29:49.330" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15544" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-20T17:33:59.920" Score="4" ViewCount="132" Body="&lt;p&gt;दर्शनादभ्रसादसि जननात्कमलालये ॥&#xA;काश्यन्तु मरणान्मुक्तिः स्मरणादरुणाचले ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means one can get moksha  by either of having darsan of Abhrasadasi (Chidambaram), dying at Kasi, birth at Kamalalaya and remembering Arunachala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which Khanda and Chapter of Skanda Purana has the above sloka? Does any other purana also contain this sloka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-10-20T17:33:59.920" Title="Origin of sloka दर्शनादभ्रसादसि" Tags="|puranas|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15546" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-21T05:38:23.927" Score="1" ViewCount="464" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question was asked by my 8 year old son-- Who are the parents of Mahavishnu? He further added to put this question in stack exchange. Although I told him that Lord Vishnu manisfests himself he is the creator  presever and destroyer  he said we are born to mother. Likewise Mahavishnu also will have partents like me. Explore and tell. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T06:17:04.963" Title="Parents of Maha Vishnu" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-10-22T04:43:38.423" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15547" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15546" CreationDate="2016-10-21T06:17:04.963" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's Brahman (Not the Brahma. Brahman/Brahmam is also known as the Parabrahma)  that only exists. Vishnu, Siva, Shakti, Brahma all are just different forms of Brahman. We cannot explain or define Brahman and if we can, then it's not Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So coming to your question, it depends on which branch you follow. The origin of Mahavishnu is different on different texts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you go by Shiva purana, Siva created Brahma and Vishnu. Siva was in the form of a pillar , when brahma and vishnu were fighting over who is more powerful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you go by shrimad bhagvata, Mahavishnu manifested himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is many other concepts in Hinduism like, Swayambhoo Manu, Prakruthi- Purush Samyog etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's up to you what you believe and what you have to follow. You can even think deeply (like a state of meditation) and can create your own concepts. The final truth is that only Parabrahma exists ( and only it's real) and whichever path we choose/take, it will lead us to him once we realize ourseleves. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="859" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T06:17:04.963" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15548" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14478" CreationDate="2016-10-21T06:18:20.453" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sloka is originally from the &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt;.However,the version given in that Purana differs slightly from those given in the question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Purana version states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yUnd6.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yUnd6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karaagre Vasate Lakshmih Karamadhye Saraswati ||Karamule Stitho&#xA;  Brahma Prabhate Karadarsanam||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the top of the palms resides Lakshmi,in the middle Saraswati and at&#xA;  the base of the palms resides Brahma.Hence,one should always see the&#xA;  palms at early morning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt;(the essence of all Dharma Shastras):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu Purana defined Brahma Muhurta: Raatrena paschima yaamaasya&#xA;  muhurto yastrutiyakah, sa Brahmaa iti vigneyo vihitah sa prabodhane/&#xA;  Pancha pancha Ushahkaalah saptapancha arunodayah, ashta pancha bhavet&#xA;  praatastah Suryodayah smritah/ (Considering that Brahama Muhurta is&#xA;  from 4.08 am to 4.56 am and Ushodaya or Sunrise is at 5.44 am. &lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;  first view that a person on opening eyes is the right palm saying:&#xA;  Karaagre vasate Lakshmi karamadhye Sarasvati, Karamule sthito Brahma&#xA;  prabaate karadarshanam/ ( Lakshmi on to of the palm fingers, Sarasvati&#xA;  in the middle of the palm and Brahma at the bottom of the palm&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c24vs.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c24vs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-21T07:59:56.653" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T07:59:56.653" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15549" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7670" CreationDate="2016-10-21T07:46:47.147" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story we all read &amp;amp; know. Krishna was in the side of pandava everybody knows. When question is coming as why then we have to analysis the story properly. Krishna is the God &amp;amp; hence supreme in all respect. Indirectly speaking there is no other authority who can make Krishna answerable to it. But it is the God's own choice to follow some good practice &amp;amp; support them. He is very often called as bhakti batsal. It is true. But who are the bhakta of the God. It is not simple to be his Bhakta. There are certain rule , regulation &amp;amp; discipline to follow. Once you are following all the guide line then everybody( all the good natured person) will love you. Normally Krishna like the talents with a good code of conduct which was with pandava. That is why god was in their side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7996" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T07:46:47.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15550" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3384" CreationDate="2016-10-21T07:50:51.383" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As pointed out by Keshav, you are misinterpreting the meaning. I'd like to add by putting these lines into context. These two lines are the 3rd and 4th lines of the Doha with which the [Hanuman Chalisa][1] begins. The full doha is - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1] Shri Guru Charan Saroja-Raj Nija Manu Mukuru Sudhaari&#xA;[2] Baranau Rahubhara Bimala Jasu Jo Dayaku Phala Chari&#xA;[3] &lt;em&gt;Budhee-Heen Tanu Jaanikay Sumirau Pavana Kumar&#xA;[4] Bala-Budhee Bidya Dehoo Mohee Harahu Kalesa Vikaar&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning of these four lines is as follows.&#xA;[1] Using the dust from the Lotus-like feet of the divine Guru, I clean my mirror-like mind,&#xA;[2] And describe the pure glory of Lord Rama of the Raghu dynasty – the allocator of the four types of outcomes – Dharma (Righteousness), Artha(Material wealth), Kama(Pleasure) and Moksha (Freedom from rebirth),&#xA;[3] Recognizing my ignorance, I remember you oh Lord Hanuman – the Son of Pavan (the God of Wind),&#xA;[4] Please bless me with strength, knowledge and wisdom and cure me of any diseases and scars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Tulsidas is doing here is saying that he is not knowledgeable enough to pray to Lord Rama who is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu the supreme deity. However, as described in other parts of the Chalisa, Lord Hanuman is most knowledgeable when it comes to serving and praying to Lord Rama. In addition, a prayer to Lord Hanuman is believed to please Lord Rama Himself. In this context, Tulsidas asks Lord Hanuman to bless him with knowledge so his prayers may also reach Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7997" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T07:50:51.383" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15552" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10150" CreationDate="2016-10-21T08:28:31.700" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna is above all. He has the capacity to do anything &amp;amp; everything. He can make &amp;amp; break anything. But my friend your knowledge is not complete about Krishna. He is not breaking anything for his sake. But he can do anything for  the sake of his Bhakta. He is paramanand , never cry for anything for his personal need, But crying madly for his bhakta. Really it is the fate of the bhakta to get such a loving God. When Rama deprived of the throne everybody was crying except Ram. But same Ram cried uncontrollably when Sita is lost &amp;amp; when Lakshman was killed in the war field showing the super excellent character of the God. When parikhit was dead it was the request of the pandava, his own bhakta,&amp;amp; other thing is that biologically pandavaa were not in a position to reproduce the child again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7996" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T08:28:31.700" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15553" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15554" CreationDate="2016-10-21T10:34:20.497" Score="11" ViewCount="2904" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the childhood I was knowing that Yudhishthira had lied just once at the time of Guru Drona Vadha and that was also the half truth half lie. But recently, I came to know that Yudhishthira had also lied at the time of &lt;code&gt;Ajñātavāsa&lt;/code&gt;. He had given the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wrong introduction to King Virata&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira, came before Virata and addressed him, saying, 'O great king, know me for a Brahmana who, having lost his all hath come to thee for the means of subsistence. I desire, O sinless one, to live here beside thee acting under thy commands, O lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira said, &amp;quot;My name is Kanka, and I am a Brahmana belonging to the family known by the name of Vaiyaghra. I am skilled in casting dice, and formerly I was a friend of Yudhishthira.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I understand from its literal meaning is that Yudhishthira had given wrong introduction of himself. So, my question is &lt;strong&gt;Did Yudhishthira lie more than once or is there any other hidden meaning of above sentence?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Please note that, I have a huge respect towards Yudhishthira when it comes to speaking truth. The question came in my mind when I have heard a discussion like this.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-06T13:00:37.893" Title="Did Yudhishthira lie more than once?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|yudhisthira|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15554" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15553" CreationDate="2016-10-21T11:26:23.900" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, Yudhishtira did not lie in this case.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And this fact is without any hidden or deep meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we relate &quot;truth&quot; or &lt;em&gt;Satya&lt;/em&gt; with just &quot;information&quot;, then we can often find contradictions in the behaviours of righteous people. &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; doesn't solely rely on correct/incorrect information. If that was the case, then all computers will become &lt;em&gt;DhArmik&lt;/em&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PAndava-s were specifically ordered or agreed to remain disguised for the last 1 year after being defeated in dice game. This is found in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02075.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;SabhA parva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Sakuni then said,--'The old king hath given ye back all your wealth. That is well. But, O bull of the Bharata race, listen to me, there is a stake of great value. Either defeated by ye at dice, dressed in deer skins we shall enter the great forest and live there for twelve years passing the whole of the thirteenth year in some inhabited region, unrecognised, and if recognised return to an exile of another twelve years; or vanquished by us, dressed in deer skins ye shall, with Krishna (Draupadi), live for twelve years in the woods &lt;strong&gt;passing the whole of the thirteenth year unrecognised&lt;/strong&gt;, in some inhabited region. &lt;strong&gt;If recognised, an exile of another twelve years&lt;/strong&gt; is to be the consequence. On the expiry of the thirteenth year, each is to have his kingdom surrendered by the other. O Yudhishthira, with this resolution, play with us, O Bharata, casting the dice.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishtira was a just king and his duty was towards the well being of the people of his kingdom. Hence for him, the &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; was to get his kingdom back after 13 years. The condition of remaining unrecognised, was set &amp;amp; agreed as a stipulation. So he Had to disguise himself as someone else. Hence this was neither a lie in technical way nor it was &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW on side note,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Did Yudhishthira lied more than once?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Probably you meant &quot;other&quot; as the &quot;supposed&quot; lie which Yudhishtira spoke for Ashwatthama to defeat Drona. According to Krishna, even that was also acceptable in that context. I have discussed that in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10951/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Behold, however, truth as practised is exceedingly difficult to be understood as regards its essential attributes.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Truth may be unutterable, and even falsehood may be utterable where falsehood would become truth and truth would become falsehood. ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  On an occasion of marriage, or of enjoying a woman, or when life is in danger, or &lt;strong&gt;when one's entire property is about to be taken away&lt;/strong&gt;, or for the sake of a BrAhmana, &lt;strong&gt;falsehood may be uttered&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So technically even though it was not a perfect truth, it was still &lt;em&gt;DhArmik&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;IMO, probably Yudhishtira &lt;em&gt;might&lt;/em&gt; have never moved on completely from that game changing half-truth which ultimately resulted in his preceptor's death. He always might have felt attached with it even though Krishna adviced that event to be righteous. That could be the reason, why he had to finally go through a small test in the heaven-hell.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T14:11:04.100" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15555" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11038" CreationDate="2016-10-21T11:26:26.997" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes Drops separated from ocean in view of size &amp;amp; location but not from the properties of water. The character of water in the ocean will continue in the character of water in the drop. It is called Ocean &amp;amp; drop because of their size only &amp;amp; in the similar manner it will be called as atma &amp;amp; paramatma. Just like you can not destroy water so you can not destroy the atma only changes taking place. The property &amp;amp; original quantity remain same which proved by the science that law of conservation of mass or in the spiritual knowledge we call our God as achyuta. This paramatma is a spirit just like the electric energy. Electricity work differently with different instruments. Similarly this parameshar in its energy form works differently with different entity. God in its energy form is shape less, infinite &amp;amp; nirguna, indicates that he does not have life but he has everything to support life, is eternal only. But same energy when manifested with body is short lived. All the incarnation come to an end means body is not eternal but spirit is ever lasting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7996" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T11:26:26.997" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15557" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3551" CreationDate="2016-10-21T12:22:15.770" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm adding the scriptural reference for &quot;Rangoli&quot; which is missing in the other answer.The answer is correct nonetheless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharshi Veda Vyasa instructed as follows-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krutvaa &lt;strong&gt;mandalakam&lt;/strong&gt; Braahme tooshneem evaakshataabhih pujayet satatam&#xA;  yaa tu tasyaastupyanti Devataah, Yadgriham raajate nityam&#xA;  mangalairanulepanaih, Tadgrihe vasate Lakshmeernityam&#xA;  purnakalaanvitaa// Pativrataa tu yaa naari bhartru shushrushanotsukaa,&#xA;  Natasya vidyate paapam ihaloke paratracha, Pativrataadharmarataa&#xA;  Rudraanyeva na samshayah, Tasyaah paraabhavam kartum shaknoti najanah kashchit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;strong&gt;Devatas would be delighted to visit the houses where the home&#xA;  fronts are decorated with ‘manadalaakaara’or auspicious designs of&#xA;  varied colours at the Braahmi Muhurta time of early mornings even&#xA;  without mantras!&lt;/strong&gt; Such home fronts appear that Devi Lakshmi along with&#xA;  her companions has arrived in the house for good enlivening with&#xA;  auspiciousness and brightness! A pativrata who sincerely serves her&#xA;  husband shall qualify with attainment of her current and ensuing lives&#xA;  and eventually attain the status of a Rudrani or Devi Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Are there any rituals to follow while designing the courtyard?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As said by Maharshi Vyasa, &lt;strong&gt;no Mantras or rituals are required&lt;/strong&gt;.Only thing important is the time viz-the &quot;Brahma Muhurta&quot;, when the Rangolis are to be drawn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4G8gd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4G8gd.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-22T05:37:41.787" LastActivityDate="2016-10-22T05:37:41.787" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15558" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8981" CreationDate="2016-10-21T13:26:11.947" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;One can argue against the feminist stand and claim that the scriptures have an anti-men bias by picking up isolated passages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On women&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Women can commit no fault. It is man who becomes stained with fault.&#xA;Indeed, in consequence of the natural weakness of the sex as displayed&#xA;in every act, and their liability to solicitation, women cannot be&#xA;regarded as offenders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXVI&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Men regarded as embodiments of hell&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pingala said, ‘…What women is there that regards that Supreme Soul as&#xA;her dear Lord, even when he comes near? I am now awake. I have been&#xA;roused from the sleep of ignorance. I am no longer influenced by&#xA;desire. Human lovers, who are really the embodied forms of hell, shall&#xA;no longer deceive me by approaching me lustfully. Evil produces good&#xA;through the destiny or the acts of a former life. Roused (from the&#xA;sleep of ignorance), I have cast off all desires for worldly objects.&#xA;I have acquired a complete mastery over my senses. One freed from&#xA;desire and hope sleeps in felicity. Freedom from every hope and desire&#xA;is felicity. Having driven off desire and hope, Pingala sleeps in&#xA;felicity.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CLXXIV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will find this passage here: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://archive.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b001.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should judge a scripture by what it says in essence and not by picking up stray passages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2024-03-06T04:16:57.987" LastActivityDate="2024-03-06T04:16:57.987" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15559" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15553" CreationDate="2016-10-21T14:46:42.647" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Yudhisthira did lie a second time. Nevertheless, here his lie was not opposed to the concept of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Bhishma told Yudhishthira on this difficult issue of when a lie would assume the aspect of truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma said, ‘&lt;strong&gt;To tell the truth is consistent with righteousness.&#xA;  There is nothing higher than truth. I shall, now, O Bharata, say unto&#xA;  thee that which is not generally known to men. There where falsehood&#xA;  would assume the aspect of truth, truth should not be told. Then,&#xA;  again, where truth would assume the aspect of falsehood, even&#xA;  falsehood should be said. That ignorant person incurs sin who says&#xA;  truth which is dissociated from righteousness. That person is said to&#xA;  be conversant with duties who can distinguish truth from falsehood&#xA;  [1].&lt;/strong&gt; Even a person that is disrespectable, that is of uncleansed soul,&#xA;  and that is very cruel, may succeed in earning great merit as the&#xA;  hunter Valaka by slaying the blind beast (that threatened to destroy&#xA;  all creatures) [2]. How extraordinary it is that a person of foolish&#xA;  understanding, though desirous of acquiring merit (by austere&#xA;  penances) still committed a sinful act [3]! An owl again, on the banks&#xA;  of the Ganges, (by doing an unrighteous deed) obtained great merit&#xA;  [4].The question thou hast asked me is a difficult one, since it is&#xA;  difficult to, say what righteousness is. It is not easy to indicate&#xA;  it. No one in discoursing upon righteousness, can indicate it&#xA;  accurately. Righteousness was declared (by Brahman) for the&#xA;  advancement and growth of all creatures. Therefore, that which leads&#xA;  to advancement and growth is righteousness. Righteousness was declared&#xA;  for restraining creatures from injuring one another. Therefore, that&#xA;  is Righteousness which prevents injury to creatures. Righteousness&#xA;  (Dharma) is so called because it upholds all creatures. In fact, all&#xA;  creatures are upheld by righteousness. Therefore, that is&#xA;  righteousness which is capable of upholding all creatures. Some say&#xA;  that righteousness consists in what has been held in the Srutis.&#xA;  Others do not agree to this. I would not censure them that say so.&#xA;  Everything, again, has not been laid down in the Srutis. Sometimes men&#xA;  (robbers), desirous of obtaining the wealth of some one, make&#xA;  inquiries (for facilitating the act of plunder). One should never&#xA;  answer such inquiries. That is a settled duty. If by maintaining&#xA;  silence, one succeeds in escaping, one should remain silent. If, on&#xA;  the other hand, one’s silence at a time when one must speak rouses&#xA;  suspicion, it would be better on such an occasion to say what is&#xA;  untrue than what is true. This is a settled conclusion. If one can&#xA;  escape from sinful men by even a (false) oath, one may take it without&#xA;  incurring sin. One should not, even if one be able, give away his&#xA;  wealth to sinful men. Wealth given to sinful men afflicts even the&#xA;  giver…… When life is at risk, or on occasion of marriage, one may say&#xA;  an untruth. One that seeks for virtue, does not commit a sin by saying&#xA;  an untruth, if that untruth be used to save the wealth and prosperity&#xA;  of others or for the religious purposes.Having promised to pay, one&#xA;  becomes bound to fulfil his promise. Upon failure, let the&#xA;  self-appropriator be forcible enslaved. If a person without fulfilling&#xA;  a righteous engagement acts with impropriety, he should certainly be&#xA;  afflicted with the rod of chastisement for having adopted such&#xA;  behavior. A deceitful person, falling away from all duties and&#xA;  abandoning those of his own order, always wishes to betake himself to&#xA;  the practices of Asuras for supporting life. Such a sinful wretch&#xA;  living by deceit should be slain by every means. Such sinful men think&#xA;  there is nothing in this word higher than wealth. Such men should&#xA;  never be tolerated. ….. One should, in any matter, behave towards&#xA;  another as that other behaves in that matter. He who practices deceit&#xA;  should be resisted with deceit while one that is honest should be&#xA;  treated with honesty.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section CIX&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri K. M. Ganguli’s footnotes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[1] i.e., who knows when truth becomes as harmful as untruth, and untruth becomes as righteous as truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[2] Vide ante, Karna Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[3] Alludes to ante, Karna Parva. The Rishi, by pointing out the place where certain innocent persons had concealed themselves while flying from a company of robbers, incurred the sin of murder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[4] The allusion is to the story of an owl going to heaven for having, with his beaks, broken a thousand eggs laid by a she-serpent of deadly poison.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T14:46:42.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15560" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="28422" CreationDate="2016-10-21T15:50:36.507" Score="8" ViewCount="2579" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After the death of Vali, his wife Tara becomes the wife of Vali's brother Sugriv&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After the death of Ravana, his wife Mandodari becomes the wife of Ravana's brother Vhivhisan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interesting both Tara and Mandodari are among the five panchakanyas of Hindu myhtology who are venerated as ideal women and chaste wives in one view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question 1&lt;/strong&gt;: Are there other such examples in Hindu mythology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question 2&lt;/strong&gt;: Was marrying brother's wife an accepted in the society of the Ramayana or pre-Ramayana era?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8001" LastEditorUserId="7385" LastEditDate="2016-10-22T04:47:31.580" LastActivityDate="2018-07-28T12:18:48.547" Title="Was marrying brother's wife an accepted in the society of the Ramayana or pre-Ramayana era?" Tags="|ramayana|marriage|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15561" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2673" CreationDate="2016-10-21T16:22:58.853" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Based on the available mathematical evidence and the level and depth of mathematics, we can say that only simple concepts of mathematics such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division was known in the Vedic ages. Using these four simple mathematical operation, basic geometry such as area of triangles and rectangles and approximate areas of circles were known. But anything more complicated than that was unknown in the Vedic ages. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The earliest available reference to something like Pythagoras theorem and Pi etc. in any Indian religious or mythological or astrological text or hymn dates back only to Budhiyana who lived around 5th century BC&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Similarly, the earliest available reference to the mathematical concept of zero as we know it today dates only to Aryabhatta who lived around the 6th century AD&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both these dates are much younger than the Vedic ages so unless you consider elementary things like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as good enough mathematical concepts, you cannot say with certainty that the Vedas contains anything more mathematically.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sources:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Baudhāyana Shrautasūtra - Sulba Sūtra no. 58&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aryabhatiya (Arya-shatas-aShTa) - Ganitapada&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8001" LastEditorUserId="8001" LastEditDate="2016-10-22T10:23:23.883" LastActivityDate="2016-10-22T10:23:23.883" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15562" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14306" CreationDate="2016-10-21T20:13:01.543" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a completely different point of view. Since there is no direct text in any scripture or common consensus explaining why 108 is important, so instead of making speculations we will have to make the most logical guess. Why? Well Hinduism is supposed to be the most scientific religion so if there is a genuine reason why 108 is important then the reason cannot be illogical. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First let me address my concerns with other others answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. There are 108 X in Y so 108 is important&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the other answers here have tried to justify the importance of 108 by arguments which can be summed up as - 108 is important There are 108 X in Y e.g there are 108 Pradakshinas. These arguments are incorrect they have reversed the cause and the effect of things. The fact that many things in Hinduism are related is the result of the fact that 108 was already considered auspicious. Therefore it is wrong to say that 108 is important because many things in Hinduism are related to 108.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. 108 is a multiple of 9 or 18 or 27 etc so it is important.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Firstly, yes the number 9 appears in things like the navgrahas and the navratri etc. But we also have other numbers more popular than 9 e.g. like 10 avatars of Vishnu or 10 hands of Durga or 10 heads of Ravan, like wise 3 eyes of Shiva and Durga, 4 heads of Bhramha, 4 arms of most of the prominent gods and goddesses, 7 horses of Surya etc. So there is no particular reason why 9 should be the preferred multiple. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, once again we are mixing cause and effect here. Fact that 108 is a multiple of 9 or 18 or 27 etc is a consequence of the fact that 108 was chosen as the auspicious number because once you have chosen 108, automatically it will be the multiple of all its divisors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thirdly, numbers like 1008, 10008, 100008 etc have no special significance in Hinduism so it would not be logical to make any argument using them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. 108 is special in astronomy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think again that this is the effect of having selected 108 as an important number first, and not the cause. Secondly, some say that 108 is important because the ratio of the distance between earth and the sun to the diameter is 108. Well this is close the ratio varies between 107 to 109. But most people don't know earth is very slightly drifting away form the sun. So billion of years back during Staya Yug, the ratio would have been much less than 108. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover we found the ratio of suns distance to earth's diameter to be close to 108 only in past few centuries. But if you look at all the ancient Hindu texts, no where is the number 108 mentioned as the ratio of these distances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How would god choose an auspicious number?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If god has to make one particular number as an auspicious number what criteria would god put in order to select that number. I am sure god would not have randomly selected any number that came to the mind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The number must be neither too small nor too large. Why? Think practically. You can't make a garland with only 10 flowers and you would have a tough time if you make a tried to make a garland with 1000 flowers. So a number in the range of 100 should be ideal and manageable&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The number must have a lot of divisors. Why? The more the number of divisors, the more number of ways it can be divided into groups of equal sizes which will help in stacking, arranging or dividing among people etc. For example if you have 97 or 107 gold coins you cannot divide it equally among 2, 3, 4 or any number of people because these are both indivisible numbers&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on these criteria, god must have immediately thought of the number 100. It look perfect size and you can divide it into six equal groups of size 2, 4, 5, 10, 20 and 50.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But after sometime god must have checked a few other number near 100 and realized the number 108 is even better it can be divided into ten equal groups of size 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 18, 27, 36, 54 so you have much more options.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How would have god chosen between 100 and 108?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In terms of equal division facility 108 has a clear advantage over 100 i.e. 10 possible groups with 108 to only 6 possible groups with 100&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;But the main significant advantage of 108 over 100 is that 3 is the smallest number missing from the list of divisors of 100 while 5 is the smallest number missing from the list of divisors of 108. Which one would people miss more form a utility point of view? Clearly more people are likely to have 3 children or 3 close friends as compared to 5 children or 5 close friends. So people are more likely divide things into three groups more often then divide things into five groups. So missing 3 is worse than missing 5. So it is advantage 108.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on these considerations, god would have selected 108 to be the auspicious number of Hindusim and once the selection was done, many things as describe in other other was connected to 108 and its popularity grew.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8001" LastEditorUserId="8001" LastEditDate="2016-10-21T20:35:20.450" LastActivityDate="2016-10-21T20:35:20.450" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15565" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15560" CreationDate="2016-10-22T05:34:47.493" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti ,at one place,  states that re-marriages of widows are never prescribed by laws.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.65. In the sacred texts which refer to marriage the appointment (of widows) is nowhere mentioned, &lt;strong&gt;nor is the re-marriage of widows&#xA;  prescribed in the rules concerning marriage&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WGCqy.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WGCqy.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,begetting sons through the methods of Niyoga are prescribed and allowed for a widow and her brother in law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For,example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.120. If a younger brother begets a son on the wife of the elder, the division must then be made equally; this the law is settled&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.190. (If the widow) of (a man) who died without leaving issue, raises up to him a son by a member of the family (Sagotra), she shall&#xA;  deliver to that (son) the whole property which belonged to the&#xA;  (deceased)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.59. On failure of issue (by her husband) a woman who has been authorised, may obtain, (in the) proper (manner prescribed), the&#xA;  desired offspring by (cohabitation with) a brother-in-law or (with&#xA;  some other) Sapinda (of the husband)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zsXIX.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zsXIX.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But,in these kinds of cohabitation,the objective is only Dharma,i.e begetting sons.Cohabitation on the basis of lust is condemned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.143. The son of a wife, not appointed (to have issue by another), and he whom (an appointed female, already) the mother of a son, bears&#xA;  to her brother-in-law, are both unworthy of a share, (one being) the&#xA;  son of an adulterer and (the other) produced through (mere) lust.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.147. If a woman (duly) appointed bears a son to her brother-in-law or to another (Sapinda), that (son, if he is) &lt;strong&gt;begotten through desire,&#xA;  they declare (to be) incapable of inheriting and to be produced in&#xA;  vain.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,regarding the marriage of a widow &amp;amp; her brother in law,we find the following verse,which apparently contradicts  the first verse given in my answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.69. If the (future) husband of a maiden dies after troth verbally plighted, her brother-in-law shall wed her according to the following&#xA;  rule.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tdSkN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tdSkN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp; one more,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.146. He who takes care of his deceased brother’s estate &lt;strong&gt;and of his widow, shall, after raising up a son for his brother, give that&#xA;  property even to that (son).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;em&gt;The events mentioned in the question all occurred during the Treta Yuga.Now, the laws of Manu, while it apply with full force in Satya Yuga, may (or may not ) apply with equal authority in Treta.In anycase,while  Manu do not  approve the remarriage of widows generally,  allows a widow marrying her brother in law under certain circumstances.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-22T12:47:24.487" LastActivityDate="2016-10-22T12:47:24.487" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15566" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15567" CreationDate="2016-10-22T08:22:49.683" Score="5" ViewCount="2484" Body="&lt;p&gt;For Hindus eating is a serious business because food is essentially God(Brahman) for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many rules related to the act of eating.For example,one should not eat with footwears on,while standing,while seating on bed,with one's head covered,or with the food plate kept on one's thighs &amp;amp; so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some other faiths talking while eating seems to be a prohibited act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also find our elders asking us to maintain silence while consuming food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question-Do we have Scriptural directives regarding the same and do they give the reasons(for keeping quiet while eating) as well?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-24T06:04:42.830" LastActivityDate="2018-04-09T09:12:22.550" Title="Does Hinduism prohibit talking while eating?" Tags="|scripture|belief|food|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15567" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15566" CreationDate="2016-10-22T08:22:49.683" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Hindu Shastras, &lt;strong&gt;one should not talk&lt;/strong&gt; while &lt;strong&gt;bathing&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;strong&gt;eating&lt;/strong&gt; and also not &lt;strong&gt;while one is performing a Homa&lt;/strong&gt;(Yajna/Fire Ritual/Agnihotra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharshi Veda Vyasa gives us the following reasons for the prohibitions :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharshi Veda Vyasa cautions: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Snaasyato Varunasshobhaam juhvatognih shriyam haret, Bhojane mrityumaapnoti tasmaanmounam trishu smritam/&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Conversation while bathing is disliked Varuna Deva and in the course&#xA;  of Homa prakriya the God of Agni detests it &lt;strong&gt;just as while taking food&#xA;  Mrityu Deva(Or Yama) is annoyed; hence during these three acts of&#xA;  snaana-homa-bhojana, silence needs to be observed strictly.)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9yxD7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9yxD7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have now found further verses in the Atri Smriti( one of the 18 main Smritis) which describe the merits of keeping quiet while eating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&lt;strong&gt;While&lt;/strong&gt; passing] excreta, [holding] sexual intercourse, [making] Homa,&#xA;  cleansing the teeth, bathing, &lt;strong&gt;taking meals&lt;/strong&gt;, and making adorations, &lt;strong&gt;one&#xA;  should always abstain from speaking at all.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;316) He, who, always abstaining from speech, takes his meals for full one year, lives gloriously in the celestial region for a thousand Koti Yugas.&lt;/strong&gt;(Atri Smriti,Chapter 1,Verses 315,316)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-20T05:55:37.203" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T05:55:37.203" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15568" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-22T08:57:44.887" Score="0" ViewCount="1280" Body="&lt;p&gt;I had read around 3 years ago somewhere (can't find that website now) that while Krishna called Balram &quot;Dau&quot; (Brother), Balram affectionately refered to Krishna as &quot;Munna&quot; (Little Boy).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone point me to &lt;em&gt;any&lt;/em&gt; source for the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8009" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T15:02:07.367" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T15:02:07.367" Title="Did Balram really call Krishna &quot;Munna&quot;?" Tags="|krishna|name|balarama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15569" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15566" CreationDate="2016-10-22T09:03:09.533" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think the better question would be &quot;Why is it not OK to talk during eating?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rickross has give two nice examples of gods being annoyed if we talk while eating or bathing. However I think the reason of their annoyance is missing? Why would Varundev be annoyed if we talk while bathing or why would Mrityu Deva be annoyed if we talk while eating. Surely there must be some vaild reason for them to be annoyed and they would definitely not be annoyed without a genuine reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is a highly scientific religion and the reason gods are annoyed in the above cases lie in the understanding of science in the vedic ages. If you talk while eating your throat is trying to do two things at the same time, swallowing food inwards while eating and sending sound/air outwards in the opposite direction while talking. Since you are trying to do two things which requires the throat to function in opposite direction, you are increasing the likelihood of choking which may even lead to death. As a matter of fact food choking is the fourth largest cause of unintentional deaths in the world today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same with talking while bathing. Water will try to flow down the throat of an open mouth while sound waves/air will try o travel outwards in the opposite direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our ancient sages/Gods were wise to realize this and hence they forbid talking while eating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8001" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-24T07:43:51.887" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T07:43:51.887" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15571" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2574" CreationDate="2016-10-22T10:58:44.147" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Forget about Baishnava or shaiva. Let us think from logical ground. First of all Lord Shiva &amp;amp; Lord Krishna are not our family friend both stay at equal distance from us. Just from the narration we have from various source we are discussing the matter here with a logical sense. It is true that God exist in two form one is universal (Neerakar)form which is in energy form &amp;amp; other one is embodied(sakar Form)form like the incarnation. It is also true that we agree Lord Shiva &amp;amp; Lord Krishna are in same level. May be Shiva No 1 &amp;amp; Kerishna No-02 or Vice versa. It indicates that Krishna is much more better than any ordinary mortal beings like sage, ruler &amp;amp; other visible animal. When the issue of incarnation comes then automatically it comes to mind that Vishnu takes incarnation repeatedly. Shiva does not take the incarnation. Incarnation is only the visible form of invisible supreme energy,the only convenient way of maintaining  a relationship with the supreme energy as we can see ,we can touch ,we can speak ,we can listen him. We can not do same thing with the God when he will be in in his neerakar form. Very often it is mentioned that neerakar form is basically Nirgun Form means, No reaction, no feeling, no sorry , no happy, no angry etc. It is the energy form who do the duty without any hesitation, without any partiality, without any nepotism. If we scold air it will not stop supplying oxygen to us. If we scold sun it will not stop its light to us. Similarly the God in this nirguna form is above all the reaction. If Shiva is the supreme &amp;amp; does not take incarnation and always in its infinite form &amp;amp; Nirakar &amp;amp; Nirgun. Then he should be above all the reaction. What he is doing in this form how other people are knowing with so accuracy. How other people are establishing relation with such a infinite God whom even God like Brahma &amp;amp; Vishu not able to know. Why we should believe the story narrated by some ordinary human beings if he is less than a God. Hence as Krishna established himself as God in his life time, so whatever he said we should, at-least, believe if we want to put our faith in God. Otherwise not. Choice is yours. If something happens to a family then normally father get tensed &amp;amp; do something to keep the family in track. Similarly the God who accepts pain of taking incarnation to set the things in right track is supreme obviously.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7996" LastActivityDate="2016-10-22T10:58:44.147" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15572" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10201" CreationDate="2016-10-22T11:49:07.500" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;God does not have any shape. He is infinite, nirakar. What we are seeing is symbolic only to exchange our view. When God take incarnation he can take any form not always human form . See matsya, Kachh, varah, nrusinham etc. God is for all the universe not only for earth. Earth may pass in the pore of the Infinite God means he is for entire universe. Kheersagar does not exist in the earth. It is somewhere else. We are talking about Gandharva &amp;amp; apsaras means they are from other world. Swarga &amp;amp; patal are the reference of other world. They are many world if they are connected with us then only we will talk about them otherwise not. Like the News channel of a country. we are getting the news only concern to us. There are almost two hundred country. we are not getting the news of all the country if it is not relevant to us. We are telling world cup with mere ten to twelve country in cricketing field where as in reality there are many country in the world. Similary in our vada the narration relevant to us only found. We talk about God ,relevant to us, who is the owner of n no of world but not talking about n no of world which is irrelevant to us .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7996" LastActivityDate="2016-10-22T11:49:07.500" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15573" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10584" CreationDate="2016-10-22T11:54:13.257" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, in each creation &lt;strong&gt;Lord Rudra&lt;/strong&gt; (who is one among Trinity) manifests himself through forehead of Brahma. He merges back to Shiva after finite time.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Rudra and Shiva aren&amp;apos;t exactly same. There is a subtle difference. Rudra is the Saguna manifestation of Nirguna Shiva. I also suggest to see my answer here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8210/is-shiva-or-rudra-born-and-is-he-still-alive-was-he-killed-or-merged-with-supre/14025#14025&quot;&gt;Is Shiva or Rudra born and is he still alive? Was he killed or merged with supreme brahman at any point of time?&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sri Rudram of YajurVeda which describes hundreds of types of Rudra also states &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;विरुपेभ्यो नमो विश्वरुपेभ्यश्चभो नमो नमो&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is formless&lt;/strong&gt; and who is in Universal form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9918/who-is-rudra-deva/11638#11638&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; there are various types of Rudra like who cry, who makes other cry and who removes cry of Samsara.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Generally Shiva refers to the formless aspect and Rudra denotes his formed Saguna aspect although both names are used synonymously.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here is description from Koti Rudra Samhita Shiva Purana Chapter 42: Suta states the below verses there:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What is Shiva ?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मादितृणपर्यन्तं यत्किञ्चिद्दृश्यते त्विह ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्सर्वं शिव एवास्ति मिथ्या नानात्व कल्पना ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Right from Brahma to the twig of leaf, ie . &lt;strong&gt;Everything in this Universe is Shiva himself. The concept of manifestation is not real.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स एव शड़्कर साक्षात्सर्वानुग्रहकारक ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कर्ता भर्ता च हर्ता च साक्षी &lt;strong&gt;निर्गुण&lt;/strong&gt; एव सः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He himself is the Shankara who graces all. He is the creator protector and destroyer. &lt;strong&gt;He is the cosmic witness and Nirguna.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Why did Formless and Nirguna Shiva assumed form?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उभयोर्वादशमने तद्रूपंदर्शितं बुधां ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महादेवेति विख्यातं निर्गुणेन शिवेन हि ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh Brahmanas in order to remove controversy between Brahma and Vishnu, the form in which Shiva appeared, came to be known as Mahadeva.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also at that time tells that he shall manifest through forehead of Lord Brahma:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेन प्रोक्तमहं शम्भुर्भविष्यामि कभालतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रुद्रो नाम स विख्यातो लोकानुग्रहकारक ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He said, “I shall appear from the forehead of Brahma in the form of Sambhu.&amp;apos; The same Sambhu, the bestower of welfare came to be known as Rudra in due course of time.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ध्यानर्थं चैव सर्वेषामरुपो रुपवानभूत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स एव च शिवः साक्षाद्भक्तवात्सल्यकारकः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Since that date for the meditation of the devotees of the lord, Shiva, took the Sakara (with form) for the benefit of his devotees. He therefore likes the devotees of Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These above two verses clearly show difference between Nirguna Shiva and Saguna Rudra.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What is the relation between Shiva and Rudra?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिवे त्रिगुणसम्भिन्ने रुद्रे तु गुणधामनि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वस्तुतो न हि भेदोऽस्ति स्वर्णे तद्भूषणो यथा ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;There is absolutely no difference between Shiva who is beyond the three gunas (satva, rajas and tamas) and Rudra, possessing all the gunas, in the same way as there is no difference between the gold and the gold ornaments.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समानरुपकर्माणौ समभक्तगतिप्रदौ ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  समानाखिलसंसेव्यौ नानालीलाविहारिणौ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Both of them perform their activities similarly, bestow salvation to their devotees similarly. Both of them are served by the people equally well and they roam about indulging in several types of divine sports. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Is Rudra who is born from forehead of Brahma eternal ?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, as he has birth/manifestation he must merge back to his original source.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्ये च ये समुत्पन्ना यथानुक्रमतो लयम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यान्ति नैव तथा रुद्रः शिवे रुद्र विलियते ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Others which have origin finally dissolve as per their process. However Rudra merges back to Shiva himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Who is married with Sati and Parvati ?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudra who came from forehead of Brahma and lives in Kailash married with Sati and Parvati. Actually he married Sati and Parvati many many times.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Brahma while Praying to Durga in Shiva Purana to ask her to incarnate as Sati (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10141/wouldnt-most-of-the-incarnations-of-devi-be-of-sati-not-parvati/14868#14868&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/a&gt; says this:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;य पतिस्तव देवेशि ललाटान्मेऽभवत्पुरा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिवो रुद्राख्या योगी स वै कैलासमास्थित ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Goddess of the Devas, &lt;strong&gt;Your husband had been born out of my forehead and known as Rudra and is dwelling at Kailash as Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is clear Rudra Avatar of Lord Shiva takes place as cyclic phenomena as described in Vedas. &lt;strong&gt;In each period of Brahma, Lord Shiva incarnates several times through his forehead.&lt;/strong&gt; Some of his incarnation like Rudra Manifestation, AshtaMurti manifestation, Ekadash Rudra manifestation etc..(which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15124/how-rudra-became-shiva-in-vedas&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; are described in Vedas itself.)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Other stories also repeat in similar ways. Coincidental circumstances are itself created to make story described in Vedas happen as Vedas are eternal truth themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-10-22T16:29:15.017" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15576" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15577" CreationDate="2016-10-22T15:01:13.437" Score="14" ViewCount="4001" Body="&lt;p&gt;In some text relating to advaita I've found two Vada(वाद) i.e doctrine/thesis:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vivartavada (विवर्तवाद)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ajatavada (अजातवाद)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also found some mention Advaita Vedanta as Vivartavada. So, I want to know what the Vivartavada and Ajatavada are in the spiritual philosophy of Advaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-10-23T04:08:03.863" LastActivityDate="2021-05-20T17:53:10.567" Title="What are Vivartavada and Ajatavada?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|advaita|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15577" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15576" CreationDate="2016-10-22T15:01:13.437" Score="11" Body="&lt;h3&gt;1. Vivartavada:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit word विवर्त means &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/vivarta/216140/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/a&gt; transformation, more precisely &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/vivarta/216141/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[2]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/a&gt; apparent form in Vedanta philosophy. &lt;em&gt;Vivartavada means the doctrine of apparent transformation&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Sankara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/a&gt; Jagat (word) is actually apparent transformation of Brahman under the effect of illusion. That means the transformation is only &lt;strong&gt;apparent&lt;/strong&gt; (illusory/virtual) i.e unreal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just like snake appeared in rope in dark is due to ajnana or avidya i.e ignorance/illusion, world appears in Brahman due to ignorance/illusion but as the real thing - rope doesn't change/transform into the snake, Brahman doesn't change. The similar example is of gold and ornaments&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Note that Vivarta is different from Vikara (&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/vik%C4%81ra/209523/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;विकार&lt;/a&gt;). Vikar stands for real transformation but Vivart stands for apparent transformation as explained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is the doctrine of Adi Shankaracharya for karya-karan (cause and effect) relation/law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Vivartavada is a doctrine of Vedanta which explains Jagat (world) as apparent transformation of Brahman (which doesn't change) because of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/aj%C3%B1%C4%81na/2665/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ajnana&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/avidy%C4%81/21959/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;avidya&lt;/a&gt; which has two Shakti 1.Aavaranshakti 2.Vikshepshakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Refer Adi Shankaracharya's prakaran-grantha like Vivekachudamani, Aparokshanubhuti etc. for clear understanding of his doctrine)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting some verses from Vivekachudamani that say Jagat is nothing but Brahman:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;227&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All this universe which through ignorance appears as of diverse forms, is nothing else but Brahman which is absolutely free from all&#xA;the limitations of human thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A jar, though a modification of clay, is not different from it; everywhere the jar is essentially the same as the clay. Why then call&#xA;it a jar ? It is fictitious, a fancied name merely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;None can demonstrate that the essence of a jar is something other than the clay (of which it is made). Hence the jar is merely imagined&#xA;(as separate) through delusion, and the component clay alone is the&#xA;abiding reality in respect of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the whole universe, being the effect of the real Brahman, is in reality nothing but Brahman. Its essence is That, and&#xA;it does not exist apart from It. He who says it does is still under&#xA;delusion – he babbles like one asleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This universe is verily Brahman – such is the august pronouncement of the Atharva Veda. Therefore this universe is nothing&#xA;but Brahman, for that which is superimposed (on something) has no&#xA;separate existence from its substratum.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the universe, as it is, be real, there would be no cessation of the dualistic element, the scriptures would be falsified, and the&#xA;Lord Himself would be guilty of an untruth. None of these three is&#xA;considered either desirable or wholesome by the noble-minded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Lord, who knows the secret of all things has supported this view in the words: &amp;quot;But I am not in them&amp;quot; … &amp;quot;nor are the beings in&#xA;Me&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the universe be true, let it then be perceived in the state of deep sleep also. As it is not at all perceived, it must be unreal and&#xA;false, like dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Therefore the universe does not exist apart from the Supreme Self; and the perception of its separateness is false like the&#xA;qualities (of blueness etc., in the sky). Has a superimposed attribute&#xA;any meaning apart from its substratum ? It is the substratum which&#xA;appears like that through delusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2. Ajatavada:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sanskrit word जात means originate or create/born and अजात means no-origination or no-creation/unborn. &lt;em&gt;Ajatavada means the doctrine of no-origination or non-creation&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudapada&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gaudapada&lt;/a&gt; there is no creation and dissolution. The supreme truth is not subject to creation, transformation and delusion.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This is also called paramarth satya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting some verse from Gaudapada Karika on Mandukya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2-32 &lt;strong&gt;There is neither dissolution nor creation, none in bondage and none practicing disciplines&lt;/strong&gt;. There is none seeking Liberation and none liberated. &lt;strong&gt;This is the absolute truth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3-2 Therefore I shall now describe Brahman, which is unborn, the same throughout and free from narrowness. From this one can understand that Brahman does not in reality pass into birth even in the slightest degree, though It appears to be manifest everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3-15 The scriptural statements regarding the creation, using the examples of earth, iron and sparks, are for the purpose of clarifying the mind. Multiplicity does &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;not really exist in any manner.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3-26 On account of the incomprehensible nature of Atman, the scriptural passage &amp;quot;Not this, not this&amp;quot; negates all dualistic ideas attributed to Atman. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore the birthless Atman alone exists.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3-36 Brahman is birthless, sleepless, dreamless, nameless and formless. It is ever effulgent and omniscient. No duty, in any sense, can ever be associated with It.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3-48 No jiva ever comes into existence. There exists no cause that can produce it. The supreme truth is that nothing ever is born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;4-13 There is no illustration to support the view that the effect is born from an unborn cause. Again, if it is said that the effect is produced from a cause which itself is born, then this leads to an infinite regress.&#xA;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;4-14 How can they who assert that the effect is the cause of the cause and the cause is the cause of the effect, maintain the beginninglessness of both cause and effect?&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;4-15 Those who say that the effect is the cause of the cause and that the cause is the cause of the effect maintain, actually, that the creation takes place after the manner of the birth of father from son.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;4-22 &lt;strong&gt;Nothing whatsoever is born, either of itself or of another entity. Nothing is ever produced, whether it be being or non—being or both being and non—being.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4-28 Therefore neither the mind nor the objects perceived by the mind are ever born. To see their &lt;strong&gt;birth is like seeing the footprints of birds in the sky.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;4-30-31 If, as the dualists contend, the world is beginningless, then it cannot be non—eternal. Moksha (Liberation) cannot have a beginning and be eternal. If a thing is non—existent in the beginning and in the end, it is necessarily non—existent in the present.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4-58 Birth is ascribed to the jivas; but such birth is not possible from the standpoint of Reality. Their birth is like that of an illusory object. &lt;strong&gt;That illusion, again, does not exist.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4-71 &lt;strong&gt;No jiva ever comes into existence. There exists no cause that can produce it. The supreme truth is that nothing ever is born.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Ajatavada rejects the blame of Avidya, Maya, Jagat, Jiva, Samsara etc. on Aatman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Vivartavada and Ajatavada are the doctrine/philosophy/trick{helpful analogy} for explaining the absolute truth according to the level of intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-05-20T17:53:10.567" LastActivityDate="2021-05-20T17:53:10.567" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15578" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15302" CreationDate="2016-10-22T16:05:43.260" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer given by @Student is correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;strong&gt;let me add in this answer, the Scriptural verses which says that an elder brother is equivalent to the father when the later dies&lt;/strong&gt;.It will also answer the following question raised by @SwiftPushkar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You have mentioned this &quot;If father dies, elder brother is considered&#xA;  to be equivalent to or taking the position of father.&quot; Which Hinduism&#xA;  scripture states this law?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt;-Manu Smriti, Chapter 9.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Context&lt;/strong&gt;-Deciding the shares of parental property after  death of the father .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.108. As a father (supports) his sons, so let the eldest support his younger brothers, and let them also in accordance with the law behave&#xA;  towards their eldest brother as sons (behave towards their father).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.110. &lt;strong&gt;If the eldest brother behaves as an eldest brother (ought to do), he (must be treated) like a mother and like a father&lt;/strong&gt;; but if he&#xA;  behaves in a manner unworthy of an eldest brother, he should yet be&#xA;  honoured like a kinsman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lwkYS.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lwkYS.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another verse(from Manu smriti) which says(indirectly) that an elder brother is like(equivalent to) a father to the younger brother is this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.57. The wife of an elder brother is for his younger (brother) the wife of a Guru; &lt;strong&gt;but the wife of the younger is declared (to be) the&#xA;  daughter-in-law of the elder&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dmgSF.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dmgSF.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-22T16:13:37.497" LastActivityDate="2016-10-22T16:13:37.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15580" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-23T00:26:34.203" Score="3" ViewCount="421" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found that most of the Hindu scriptures and epics describe places in and around India. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does any Hindu scripture mention about the Pyramids of Egypt or America or Africa? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5301" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-23T16:19:24.557" LastActivityDate="2016-10-23T16:19:24.557" Title="Are Hindu scriptures limited to India?" Tags="|scripture|india|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-11-02T06:12:02.980" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15581" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15580" CreationDate="2016-10-23T03:40:31.967" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The geography of events in all Hindu scriptures are confined only to the Indian sub-continent. If you look at the the various places where events of Hindu scriptures took place you get:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Northern most - the Himalayas eg. Hanuman brought sanjeevani leaves from the Himalayas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Southern most - Lanka &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Eastern most - Pragjotishpur which is the ancient name of Assam is mentioned several times. There is a holy placed called Vasistha near Guwahati which is believed to the ashram of Ram's guru Vasistha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Westernmost - Saraswati which is believed to be flow in modern day Pakistan to Allahabad where it met with the Gangan and Yamuna. Saraswati is mentioned six times in Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beyond these four extreme locations, events of the Ramayana do not take place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Events of the Mahabharata have take place in a much wider geographical area&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Northernmost - Himalayas e.g. where Pandavs go on their journey to&#xA;heaven&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Southern most - Lanka e.g. stories of Ram and Ravana were known in the Mahabharata era&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Eastern most - Manipur where Arjun's family Chitrangada and Babrubahana ruled. Pragjotishpur (Assam) is also mentioned e.g. Krishna and Satyabhama defeated Narakasur in Pragjotishpur. Ghatotkacha's mother Maurvi was the daughter of the senapati of Pragjyotishpur.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Western most - Kaal Yavan the king of Yaman, king who attacked Mathura was from Yavan desh (Yaman) which was considered to be a kingdom from the west along with Gandhar. Ghandar is believed to be the modern day Kandahar in Afganistan where Shakunis father Subal ruled.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Outisde these 4 extreme boundaries in the North, South, East and West, there is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;no known reference to the involvement of the people any other lands or anything in those lands&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; including pyramids of Egypt or America. It is natural to undestand that Mahabharata has a wider grography because it was written after the Ramayana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also interesting to note from geographical point of view the rivers that were prominient during various yugs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;During the Satya yug/Vedic ages, Saraswati was the most popular religious river and is mentioned much more than Ganga in the Rig Veda. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the Ramayana ages, Ram's ancestor Bhaghirath brought Ganga to earth to purify the souls of his ancestors. But the river Sarayu was already there on earth and so Sarayu it was much more popular in the Ramayana than the Ganga and several events of the Ramayana are connected to the river Sarayu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the Mahabharata, Ganga is clearly the most popular river&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt;: All these information is not present collectively in one single scripture so the best reference would be the Rig Veda, Ramayana and the Mahabharata directly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8001" LastEditorUserId="8001" LastEditDate="2016-10-23T14:36:37.040" LastActivityDate="2016-10-23T14:36:37.040" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15582" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17526" CreationDate="2016-10-23T04:54:38.930" Score="3" ViewCount="1414" Body="&lt;p&gt;From Mundaka Upanishad, Mundaka-3, Khanda-2 Verse-9:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स यो ह वै तत् परमं ब्रह्म वेद&#xA;  ब्रह्मैव भवति&lt;/strong&gt; नास्याब्रह्मवित्कुले भवति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तरति शोकं तरति पाप्मानं गुहाग्रन्थिभ्यो&#xA;  विमुक्तोऽमृतो भवति ॥ ९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who knows the Supreme Brahman verily becomes Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;. In his family no one is born ignorant of Brahman. He overcomes grief; he overcomes evil; free from the fetters of the heart, he becomes immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm talking about the bold part which sounding Advaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know how does Vishishtadvaita interpret this &lt;em&gt;Shruti&lt;/em&gt; verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-21T15:35:10.280" LastActivityDate="2017-11-21T15:35:10.280" Title="How does Vishishtadvaita interpret &quot;Brahma Ved Brahmaiva Bhavati&quot;?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|upanishads|advaita|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15583" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-23T06:13:56.593" Score="4" ViewCount="487" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34164.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; on Adhyaya 2 Pada 1 Sutra 25 of the Brahma Sutras, Adi Shankaracharya discusses the objection that Brahman cannot be the cause of the Universe because an intelligent being can't create anything without external help.  Adi Shankaracharya responds by giving various examples of intelligent beings creating things without external help:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As gods, fathers, rishis, and other beings of great power, who are all of intelligent nature, are seen to create many and various objects, such as palaces, chariots, &amp;amp;c., without availing themselves of any extraneous means, by their mere intention, which is effective in consequence of those beings' peculiar power--a fact vouchsafed by mantras, arthavâdas, itihâsas, and purânas;--and as the spider emits out of itself the threads of its web; and &lt;strong&gt;as the female crane conceives without a male&lt;/strong&gt;; and as the lotus wanders from one pond to another without any means of conveyance; so the intelligent Brahman also may be assumed to create the world by itself without extraneous means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe the notion that &quot;the female crane conceives without a male&quot;?  If it helps, Adi Shankaracharya gives a bit more detail later on as to how the female crane achieves this: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the material causes operative in the production of palaces and other material things are the bodies of the gods, and not their intelligent Selfs. And the web of the spider is produced from its saliva which, owing to the spider's devouring small insects, acquires a certain degree of consistency. &lt;strong&gt;And the female crane conceives from hearing the sound of thunder.&lt;/strong&gt; And the lotus flower indeed derives from its indwelling intelligent principle the impulse of movement, but is not able actually to move in so far as it is a merely intelligent being; it rather wanders from pond to pond by means of its non-intelligent body, just as the creeper climbs up the tree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This all seems rather bizarre to me, so does anyone know what Adi Shankaracharya is talking about? By the way, Adi Shankaracharya repeats his claim in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38095.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; on Adhyaya 3 Pada 1 Sutra 19, in discussing examples of unconventional births:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are, moreover, traditions, apart from the Veda, that certain persons like Drona, Dhrishtadyumna, Sîtâ, Draupadî, &amp;amp;c., were not born in the ordinary way from mothers. In the case of Drona and others there was absent the oblation which is made into the woman; while in the case of Dhrishtadyumna and others, even two of the oblations, viz. the one offered into woman and the one offered into man, were absent. Hence in other cases also birth may be supposed to take place independently of the number of oblations.--&lt;strong&gt;It is, moreover, commonly known that the female crane conceives without a male.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, it's not commonly known to me!  So I'd like to see if Hindu scripture records this common knowledge.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, if this is true, it would arguably refute the argument of Madhvacharya given in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9471/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: The Sanskrit word for crane that Adi Shankaracharya uses here is balaka, so I searched balaka and thunder, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=kKD-v7tPc8EC&amp;amp;pg=PA60&amp;amp;dq=balaka+pregnant&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiY6cagmfHPAhXJFT4KHXJZCQ0Q6AEINTAE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says Kalidasa alludes to idea of thunder making balaka birds pregnant in his poem Meghaduta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The egret balaka breeds in the rains, which establishes the season : as Kalidasa notes (MeghasandeSa 10), the female egrets become pregnant during the rains, there being a poetic fancy that the thunder made them so (see Vallabhadeva's commentary). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=D7bsCwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT258&amp;amp;dq=%22no+less+influential+a+systematizer%22&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwih6oeFzvPPAhWKGD4KHTrtAnMQ6AEIGzAA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says that the Buddhist philosopher Buddhaghosa also alluded to this idea:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No less influential a systematizer than Buddhaghosa can proclaim with a straight face that a woman can get pregnant by looking at a man; or by hearing, &lt;strong&gt;like the balaka bird who gets pregnant by hearing thunder&lt;/strong&gt;; or by smell, like the cow who gets pregnant by smelling the breath of a bull.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it seems like this was a common idea in ancient India, which is all the more reason to see if it's mentioned in scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-15T14:52:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-06-05T06:25:33.840" Title="What scriptures say cranes can become pregnant without the involvement of males?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|adi-shankaracharya|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15585" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-23T12:29:09.117" Score="3" ViewCount="2236" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard the word 'VIHITHA KARMA&quot; frequently. What is the real meaning of VIHITHA KARMA. and How does one defines it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1131" LastActivityDate="2018-07-04T04:46:32.207" Title="What is the meaning of &quot;Vihitha Karma&quot;?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15587" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-24T06:20:44.990" Score="0" ViewCount="135" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any scriptural evidence that Nitya Nanda Prabhu (Nitai of Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya) is an incarnation of Lord Balarama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They also claim that Advaita Acharya is an incarnation of Maha Vishnu. To me this is a bit far fetched. But want to know if there is any scriptural evidence or is it just a belief based on faith?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5243" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-24T10:39:36.750" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T10:39:36.750" Title="Is Nityananda Prabhu incarnation of Lord Balarama?" Tags="|gaudiya-vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-10-25T09:14:14.213" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15588" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-24T07:53:25.347" Score="6" ViewCount="3925" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Hanuman was sent to Lanka as a peace messenger to King Ravana, he was humiliated and his tail was set on fire. In turn, Hanuman burnt the entire city of Lanka to ashes. Was it right to punish the denizens of Lanka for Ravana's act? What does the action of Hanuman signify?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorDisplayName="user1081" LastEditDate="2016-10-24T11:07:36.663" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T19:27:50.087" Title="Why did Hanuman burn the city of Lanka?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15589" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15588" CreationDate="2016-10-24T08:35:20.433" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer of  your question is provided in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga54/sundara_54_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तथा चेन्द्रजितो वेश्म ददाह हरियूथपः | जम्बुमालेः सुमालेश्च ददाह भवनम्&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ततः || ५-५४-११ रश्मिकेतोश्च भवनम् सूर्यशत्रोस्तथैव च | ह्रस्वकर्णस्य&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;दंष्ट्रस्य रोमशस्य च रक्षसः || ५-५४-१२ युद्धोन्मत्तस्य मत्तस्य&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ध्वजग्रीवस्य रक्षसः | विद्युज्जिह्वस्य घोरस्य तथा हस्तिमुखस्य च ||&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;५-५४-१३ कराळस्य पिशाचस्य शोणिताक्षस्य चैव हि | कुम्भकर्णस्य भवनम्&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;मकराक्षस्य चैव हि || ५-५४-१४ यज्ञशत्रोश्च भवनम् ब्रह्मशत्रोस्तथैव च|&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;नरान्तकस्य कुम्भस्य निकुम्भस्य दुरात्मनः || ५-५४-१५ वर्जयित्वा महातेजा&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;विभीषणगृहम् प्रति | क्रममाणः क्रमेणैव ददाह हरिपुङ्गवः || ५-५४-१६&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11; 12; 13; 14;15; 16. varjayitvaa = leaving; vibhiiSaNa&#xA;  gR^ihamprati = the house of Vibhishana; haripuN^gava =&#xA;  Hanuma; mahaatejaaH = of great splendour; kramamaaNaH=&#xA;  went; krameNaiva = successively; bhavanam = to the&#xA;  house; rashmiketoshcha = of Rashmiketu; tathaiva cha =&#xA;  and;suuryashatroH = of surya shatru; hrasvakarNashcha = of&#xA;  Hrasvakarna; damSTrasya = of Damstra; rakSasaH romashasya = of Romasha&#xA;  the demon; yuddhonmattasya = of Yuddhaumatta; mattasya = of&#xA;  Matta; rakSasaH dhvajagriivasya = of Dhvajagriva; the demon; ghorasya&#xA;  vidyujjihvasya = of the terrific Vidyujjihva; tathaa =&#xA;  and;hastimukhasya cha = of Hastimukha; karaahasya = of&#xA;  Karala;pishaachasya = of Pishacha; shoNitaakSasya chaiva hi = of&#xA;  Shonitaaksha; bhavanam = the house; kumbhakarNasya = of&#xA;  Kumbhakarna; makaraakSasya chaivahi = of Makaraaksha;yajJNashatroshcha&#xA;  bhavanam = the house of Yajnashatru;tathaiva cha = and; brahmashatro =&#xA;  of Bhrahmashatru;naraantakasya = of Narantaka; kumbhasya = of&#xA;  Kumbha;duraatmanaH nikumbhasya = and the house of the evil minded&#xA;  Nikumbha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Leaving the house of Vibhishana, Hanuman of great splendour, went&#xA;  successively to the houses of Rashmiketu, Surya shatru, Hrasvakarna,&#xA;  Damshtra, Romasha the &lt;strong&gt;demon&lt;/strong&gt;, Yuddhonmatta, Matta, Dhvajagreeva the&#xA;  demon, the terrific Vidyujjihva, Hastimukha, Karala, Pishacha,&#xA;  Shonitaaksha, Kumbhakarna, Makaraksha, Yajnashatru, Brahmashatru,&#xA;  Narantaka, Kumbha as also the &lt;strong&gt;evil-minded&lt;/strong&gt; Nikumbha and burnt the&#xA;  houses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;न अग्निः तृप्यति काष्ठानाम् तृणानाम् च यथा तथा | हनूमान् राक्षस&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;इन्द्राणाम् वधे किंचिन् न तृप्यति || ५-५४-२८ न हनूमद्विशस्तानाम्&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;राक्षसानाम् वसुन्धरा |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;28&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;yathaa = how; agniH = the fire; natR^ipyati = is not satisfied; kaaSThaanaam = with firewood; tR^iNaanaam = and dry blades&#xA;  of grass; tathaa = so also; hanumaan = Hanuma; natR^ipyati = was not&#xA;  satisfied; kimchit = even a little; vadhe = in&#xA;  killing; raakSasendraaNaam = of demons;vasundharaa = the earth; na =&#xA;  is not wearied;raakSasaanaam = with the demons; hanumadvishastaanaam=&#xA;  killed by Hanuman (receiving in her lap)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the fire does not get satisfied with any amount of firewood and&#xA;  straw fed to it, Hanuma was not wearied in killing any number of&#xA;  demons. The earth was not then wearied in receiving the number of&#xA;  demons killed by Hanuma (in her lap).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These shlokas tell us the names of demons, whose houses were burnt by Lord Hanumana, during burning of Lanka. They also tell us that &lt;strong&gt;those people  were demons and were evil&lt;/strong&gt;. But there is no such mentioning of Lord Hanumana burning the houses of general people who were not evil or demons as such.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And clearly there is no report of any casualties&lt;/strong&gt;. So he didn't affected, harmed or killed general innocent population during this act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or Lanka, as we call it, might be a fort of Ravana, with houses of his ministers and chiefs etc who were helping Ravana. Also the second shloka tells us that &quot;&lt;strong&gt;earth was not tired of killing of  demons by Lord Hanumana&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; so even killing of those demons is justified by Lord Hanumana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see the purpose of Lord Hanumana's burning of Lanka &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14971/how-did-hanumans-tail-catch-fire&quot;&gt;here &lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user1081" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T11:01:50.650" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15590" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12374" CreationDate="2016-10-24T09:18:33.850" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have searched Parashara,Vashishta and Yajnavalkya Smritis for relevant verses.Unable to find any.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu smriti ,however,has a verse which says that the maker of bows and arrows are to be avoided(as sinners).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.160. A maker of bows and of arrows, he who lasciviously dallies with a brother’s widow, the betrayer of a friend, one who subsists by&#xA;  gambling, he who learns (the Veda) from his son,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lzgg4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lzgg4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;are to be carefully avoided&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.This chapter gives long lists of persons who are to be avoided and the makers of bows and arrows are one of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was looking for more verses that talk about the makers of weapons to be used in wars but unable to find any.In the case of a war ,i presume,it is a duty of the weapon maker to craft arms to be used by soldiers &amp;amp; hence it(the act of making weapons) might not incur any sin then.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-24T09:41:14.927" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T09:41:14.927" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15591" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-24T11:31:41.980" Score="7" ViewCount="334" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the minimum merit that needs to be acquired by a human being to ensure he gets a human birth in his next life ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any stories/incidents in Puranas etc..that point to this ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4350" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T16:21:59.637" Title="What ensures a human birth in the next life?" Tags="|birth|human|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15592" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15593" CreationDate="2016-10-24T12:03:42.287" Score="8" ViewCount="12422" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been told by my elders if a black cat crosses your path you should not move ahead&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can any one shed light on this? Is this a myth or are there any references in Puranas/Scripts or so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-06-09T07:26:15.997" LastActivityDate="2018-06-09T07:26:15.997" Title="Why it is said if a black cat crosses your path you should not move ahead?" Tags="|puranas|practice|superstitions|omens|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15593" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15592" CreationDate="2016-10-24T12:28:12.553" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/agni/bookview.php?chapnum=14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agni Purana&lt;/a&gt; chapter, a cat crossing one's path (from right to left) is in fact considered a good omen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Good Omens&lt;/strong&gt;: Good omens while leaving house are facing white flowers, full vessels, meat, distant sounds, goat, cow, horse,&#xA;  elephant, fire, gold, silver, sword, umbrella, fruits, butter or curd,&#xA;  sugarcane, sound of thunder, lightning, dead body without anybody&#xA;  crying, donkey’s braying; buffallo crossing from left to right;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;horse, cats, donkeys, from right to left&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand , following are few examples of bad omens:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bad omens are facing cotton, dry grass, cowdung, coal, leather, hair,&#xA;  a lunatic, chandala, widow, ashes, bones, sound of musical&#xA;  instruments, break down of vehicle, fall of umbrella on head, recall&#xA;  back before journey and so on.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-24T14:36:51.527" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T14:36:51.527" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15594" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12002" CreationDate="2016-10-24T14:06:10.010" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you're being confused.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Riding (or sitting on) a camel is not  considered  inauspicious. &lt;strong&gt;But having dreams about riding a camel is certainly considered inauspicious (for the person who is riding it in dreams)&lt;/strong&gt; (as it is considered to be a sign of approaching death).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Analysis of good/bad dreams and good/bad omens are given in detail in the Agni Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm quoting from the  the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A fairly detailed analysis of dreams and omens is given in Agni&#xA;  Purana. Dreams are good when they involve mountains, Palaces, snakes,&#xA;  riding horses or bulls, white flowers, trees , possession of arms and&#xA;  many heads, triumphs in battles,wearing garlands, witnessing Solar&#xA;  and Lunar Eclipses, Stars, Sun and Moon, eating rice pudding, drinking&#xA;  wine or blood, eating meat, milking cows and buffaloes, blessings from&#xA;  Devas and Brahmanas, Coronation, one’s own death or cutting off the&#xA;  head, one’s own house burning, playing musical instruments, climbing&#xA;  trees, clear skies,wet clothes and so on. Bad dreams are a shaven head&#xA;  of one’s own, wearing shabby clothes, drinking oil, angry Gods or&#xA;  Brahmanas, steep falls from heights, killing snakes o r animals,&#xA;  playing with monkeys,weddings and singing. &lt;strong&gt;Dreams portending death&#xA;  include&lt;/strong&gt; the sights of hair, fire, serpents,dried up rivers or water bodies crooked noses, long ears, weeping lefty eye, a metallic face,&#xA;  black tongue, &lt;strong&gt;riding camel or donkeys bound to Southern direction&lt;/strong&gt;, ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, from the above passage, having dreams about drinking wine, blood are considered good. But actually drinking those substances will be considered bad only. Similarly here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="9250" LastEditDate="2017-06-24T16:10:26.433" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T16:10:26.433" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15595" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-24T14:31:24.413" Score="1" ViewCount="116" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Kalki avatar is the last avatar of Lord Vishnu (or) final avatar of Dashavatara. Why did Lord Vishnu take up this form or avatar? Why is he riding a white horse and why he is carrying a sword in his hand?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8016" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-24T19:49:54.070" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T19:49:54.070" Title="A doubt on Kalki avatar" Tags="|vishnu|kalki|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-10-25T05:59:18.940" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15596" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-24T15:08:03.747" Score="2" ViewCount="188" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many Sufi kawwalis are devoted to a hindu saint Jhulelal. Also Sufism beleives in union of man and God which is somehow nearer to Adwait Siddhanta of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4103" LastEditorUserId="4103" LastEditDate="2016-10-24T15:14:07.773" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T15:14:07.773" Title="Is Sufism a fusion of Hinduism and Islam?" Tags="|philosophy|worship|vedanta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15597" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15493" CreationDate="2016-10-24T15:43:44.743" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question has already been answered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However a portion of the description, in the question, placed as under, needs to be put in the proper perspective, for that is not the way, how, Dronacharya put his weapons down{or collapsed on the warfield}.  Especially so,for those who may not be aware of the details of the event,as given in the Mahabharata epic. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“And since Ashwathama Hataha means Ashwathama is dead, assuming his son to be dead in the great war, Drona collapses and seeing this as a cue, Draupadi's brother Drushtadyumna beheads Drona”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{1}The illustrious Dronacharya, did not collapse,immediately on hearing about the death of his son Ashwatthaman. So, what did the illustrious Dronacharya do subsequently? This is explained as under&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Recollecting however, the prowess of his son, he soon came to regard that intelligence as false. Hearing, therefore, of his slaughter, Drona did not become unmanned. Indeed, soon recovering his senses, he became comforted, remembering that his son was incapable of being resisted by foes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{2}Dronacharya’s also subsequently invoked into existence, God Brahma’s weapon, {after hearing  Ashwatthaman was dead}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Filled with wrath and desirous of compassing the destruction of those brave Panchalas, that mighty car-warrior, that scorcher of foes, viz., Drona, dispelling all those shafts of the Panchalas, then invoked into existence the Brahma weapon&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In consequence of fallen elephants and steeds, O Bharata, the earth, miry with flesh and blood, became impassable. Having slain twenty thousand Panchala car-warriors, Drona, in that battle, shone resplendent like a smokeless, blazing fire. Once more filled with rage, the valiant son of Bharadwaja cut off, with a broad-headed arrow, the head of Vasudana from his trunk. Once more slaying five hundred Matsyas, and six thousand elephants, he slew ten thousand steeds. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{3}The Saptarishis and other distinguished Rishis, then addressed Dronacharya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beholding Drona stationed on the field for the extermination of the Kshatriya race, the Rishis Viswamitra, and Jamadagni, and Bharadwaja, and Gautama, and Vasishtha, and Kasyapa, and Atri, and the Srikatas, the Prisnis, Garga, the Valkhilyas, the Marichis, the descendants of Bhrigu and Angiras, and diverse other sages of subtle forms quickly came thither, with the Bearer of sacrificial libations at their head, and, desirous of taking Drona unto the region of Brahman, addressed Drona, that ornament of battle, and said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{4}What did the Saptarishis and others tell Dronacharya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou art fighting unrighteously. The hour of thy death is come. Laying aside thy weapons in battle, O Drona, behold us stationed here. After this, it behoveth thee not to perpetrate such exceedingly cruel deeds. Thou art versed in the Vedas and their branches. Thou art devoted to the duties enjoined by truth, especially, thou art a Brahmana. Such acts do not become thee. Lay aside thy weapons. Drive away the film of error that shrouds thee. Adhere now to the eternal path. The period for which thou art to dwell in the world of men is now full. Thou hast, with the Brahma weapon, burnt men on earth that are unacquainted with weapons. This act that thou hast perpetrated, O regenerate one, is not righteous. Lay aside thy weapons in battle without delay, O Drona, do not wait longer on earth. Do not, O regenerate one, perpetrate such a sinful act. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;{5}The words of Yudhishthira, did play a role in Dronacharya keeping his weapons down. But, that was not the “only reason” why Dronacharya, placed his weapons down. Dronacharya was filled with quilt, because he had invoked into existence the “weapon of God Brahma” and learned that he was a great offender against the high-souled Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The words of the Saptarishis,  induced this AWARENESS in Dronacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing those words from Yudhishthira, the mighty car-warrior Drona, afflicted with grief, for the (supposed) death of his son, yielded to the influence of despair. By the words, again, of the Rishis, he regarded himself a great offender against the high-souled Pandavas. Hearing now about the death of his son, he became perfectly cheerless and filled with anxiety; upon beholding Dhrishtadyumna, O king, that chastiser of foes, could not fight as before.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above said narration in the Mahabharata epic, also suggests, that the illustrious Dronacharya, being a very pious Brahmin, would have given  very high importance to the advice of the Saptarishis{as also weightage to the words of his pupil Yudhishthira}.And since the illustrious Dronacharya, was a man of great principles, he found it very difficult to continue fighting on Duryodhana's side{side of Adharma}, after the aforementioned events.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference:&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07187.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata Book:7, Drona Parva,Drona-Vadha Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference link:- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07187.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07187.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-06-10T23:53:53.703" LastActivityDate="2018-06-10T23:53:53.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15598" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15591" CreationDate="2016-10-24T16:01:26.700" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The only answer is good karma. Karmic law is mysterious. One cant say exactly about the karmas needed to be born as a human again.&#xA;Well one thing matters a lot is that what u think when you die.&#xA;If you die thinking about your dog. It is certain you will be born as a dog in next life. It seems foolish but is actually true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Proof:&#xA;  A historic person JadBharat,who  died thinking of his deer and was born as a deer in next life even his karma was good.&#xA;  If we die thinking our wife or children n all we will be born among them in next life.&#xA;  Also our 'wasanas'or desires are carried in our next life. One of my sailor friend who tried past life regression told me that in  his past life he died thinking of to see different parts of world and in his this life he is a sailor on a cargo ship that visits different nations.&#xA;  So good karma and thinking about god while dieing can be a key to be born as human again.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4103" LastEditorUserId="4103" LastEditDate="2016-10-24T16:21:59.637" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T16:21:59.637" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15599" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6745" CreationDate="2016-10-24T16:19:17.610" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a myth about Aghor sampradaya/sect.&#xA;Aghora was a great yogi and he never endorsed any of the Maran Vidya n all.&#xA;Kapalik is a sect which worships Tamas attributes of Shiva and they do not relate to Aghora sect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Maran Vidya was brought in to use by some sick people which has nothing to do with Vaidik Dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read in a book on Adi Shankaracharya that Maran vidya was used against him. &#xA;In Maran a goat is prepared for slaughtering its neck as a symbol of the person under target and some 'tamas mantras' are used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It comes in shivageeta that the one who performs Jaran, Maran or Vashikaran goes to hell for ages. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4103" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T16:19:17.610" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15588" CreationDate="2016-10-24T19:27:50.087" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Hanuman was sent to Lanka as a peace messenger to King Ravana...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First off, Hanuman was &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; sent as a messenger to Lanka. Instructions given to him were very clear. He was supposed to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga41/kishkindhasans41.htm#Verse47&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;locate Sita and report back&lt;/a&gt; to Sugriva and Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;he was humiliated ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Probably. But what prompted Hanuman to pick up a fight with Ravana's army? After Sita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga37/sundarasans37.htm#Verse42&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;refused to sit on his back&lt;/a&gt; (so he could carry her away), maybe he should have silently and inconspicuously left Lanka? If he was really noble in his thinking and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga51/sundara_51_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;intended to have a word with Ravana to avoid the war&lt;/a&gt;, maybe he should have had the dialogue first and not start a war by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga41/sundarasans41.htm#Verse14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;uprooting the trees&lt;/a&gt; in Lanka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;and his tail was set on fire&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this act by Ravana justified? Most certainly. According to Ravana, Hanuman was a spy not an emissary. What else should a king do with a spy? Thanks to Vibhishana's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga52/sundarasans52.htm#Verse5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;intervention&lt;/a&gt;, Hanuman's life is spared (it is different matter that he's a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga66/kishkindhasans66.htm#Verse27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;chiranjīvi&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Was it right to punish the denizens of Lanka for Ravana's act?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Absolutely not. Hanuman himself says the reason for starting a war with the Lanka generals and army was to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga41/sundarasans41.htm#Verse9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;assess the strength of Ravana's army&lt;/a&gt;. If he already engaged in a mini-fight with them before being captured, then what was the need to burn down Lanka?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;What does the action of Hanuman signify?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a popular adage in Telugu which goes like &lt;em&gt;చూసి రమ్మంటే కాల్చి వచ్చినట్టు&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;chuusi rammante kaalchi vachchinattu&lt;/em&gt; - when sent to merely find something, one comes back burning the whole thing down). So Hanuman's action is an apt reminder to people who are sent on specific missions &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;how not to&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; deviate from their assigned tasks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Compare to Krishna's actions from Mahabharata when he was sent as a peace emissary to Hastinapura by the Pandavas - he doesn't show his power and what he's capable of until he was provoked and the situation demanded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do consider Hanuman's role in Valmiki Ramayana an important one, however, the incident of burning down Lanka is unfortunately not the best of his acts as Hanuman himself says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Due to culpability of my anger, I have indeed shown this apishness that is famous for instability in the three worlds. [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga55/sundarasans55.htm#Verse15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;VR. 5-55-15&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T19:27:50.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15601" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-10-24T19:51:17.277" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-10-24T19:51:17.277" LastActivityDate="2016-10-24T19:51:17.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15602" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-10-24T19:51:17.277" Score="0" Body="Kalki (कल्कि lit. destroyer of filth) is the tenth avatar of the god Vishnu in the current Mahayuga, foretold to appear at the end of Kali Yuga, the current epoch. The Purana scriptures foretell that Kalki will be atop a white horse with a drawn blazing sword." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-25T05:21:00.370" LastActivityDate="2016-10-25T05:21:00.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15603" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-24T21:36:45.950" Score="12" ViewCount="11492" Body="&lt;p&gt;When was Adi-Sankarāchārya born? Specifically, why is there so much of a variation in the dates given by Kānci, Dwāraka, Joshī Mutts and Śringerī Mutts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8021" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2019-02-07T05:12:23.557" LastActivityDate="2021-05-31T04:36:36.403" Title="What is the Birth date of Adi-Sankarācharya?" Tags="|history|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15604" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-24T23:02:38.143" Score="11" ViewCount="473" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well-known that, in Kishkindha Kāṇḍa, before Hanumān begins his search for Sītā, Rāma gives his signet ring to Hanumān which he later hands over to Sītā &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga36/sundara_36_frame.htm&quot;&gt;saying&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O illustrious lady! I am a monkey and a messenger of the wise Rama. O princess! Look at this ring too, marked with Rama's name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I brought this ring given by the high souled Rama, for the purpose of gaining your confidence. Get consoled indeed. Happiness to you! You are now free from the object of your grief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Back in Ayodhya Kāṇḍa, Kaikeyi's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga11/ayodhyasans11.htm#Verse26&quot;&gt;second wish&lt;/a&gt; was:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama has to take refuge in the forest of Dandaka for fourteen years and &lt;strong&gt;let him become an ascetic wearing rags, deer skin and matted hair&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But unlike his other ornaments, why didn't Rāma leave his ring back in Ayodhyā before setting out to the forest? Why was he carrying his ring with him? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2018-06-11T01:43:14.440" Title="Why didn't Rāma leave his ring back in Ayodhya before setting out to the forest?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|sita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15606" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-25T05:29:50.817" Score="1" ViewCount="41" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is my understanding that we all have to either enjoy or suffer for our actions good or bad- in millions of life times if we continue to be in ignorance. That being the case, what is the need to punish people in hell again? I guess the same can be said of heaven also. Why do we have to enjoy in heaven and then also enjoy the results of good deeds on earth? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5243" LastActivityDate="2016-10-25T05:29:50.817" Title="What is the need for hell when we also have to suffer the reactions of karma" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-10-25T05:56:39.720" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15607" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-25T06:15:14.643" Score="17" ViewCount="1999" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe that there is a so-called Vrindavan Krishna and that the Krishna in Dwaraka is different from Vrindavan Krishna. Is there any scriptural evidence for that claim? They also say that Vrindavan Krishna was born to Yashoda and not to Devaki. They cite the words (yatra kva vā) in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/4/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt;- to mean that Krishna was actually born in Vrindavan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also heard some references being made to Hari Vamsa Purana by Jiva Goswami. I couldn't find the exact verse though.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there more credible evidence to this belief of Gaudiya Vaishnavas? Or does anyone know at least the specific reference that Jiva Goswami gives?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5243" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-07-01T15:25:53.790" LastActivityDate="2023-07-01T15:25:53.790" Title="Is Vrindavan Krishna different from Dvaraka Krishna?" Tags="|krishna|vrindavana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15609" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-25T07:19:13.820" Score="0" ViewCount="400" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nigamantha Maha Desikan was a great Vaishnava acharya. He has composed many slokas. What are the titles given to him by the Srirangam Divya dampathis Lord Ranganatha and Goddess Ranganayaki  for which slokas? If puranic reference is there it will be better.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-01-19T07:33:37.903" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T07:33:37.903" Title="Nigamantha Maha Desikan" Tags="|puranas|ranganatha|vedanta-desika|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15610" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15613" CreationDate="2016-10-25T07:31:49.447" Score="7" ViewCount="722" Body="&lt;p&gt;Worship of God has a great significance in Hindu religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a simple practice of expressing gratitude to God to a worship done for Atma Shuddhi{ or purification of the being}, there are many reasons for this sacred daily practice, of worshipping God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is often heard that all Pujas are to be done, strictly  keeping the Vidhi and Vidhan in mind.It can therefore be deduced that Vidhi and Vidhan, of worship, are complimentary to each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Explain in brief what is the meaning of strictly keeping the Vidhi and Vidhan, in mind during worship.Suitable examples, explaining the same may also  be given.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-25T11:15:32.910" LastActivityDate="2016-10-25T15:50:07.110" Title="Vidhi and Vidhan in Worship" Tags="|vedas|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15611" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15607" CreationDate="2016-10-25T07:39:45.657" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Vrindavana Krishna and Dwaraka Krishna are both one and the same. In Bhagavatam it is mentioned that Lord Krishna is the son of Devaki and Vasudeva. And Yoga Maya has taken birth as a daughter of Nanda Maharaja and Yashoda. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/3/47&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.3.47&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tataś ca śaurir bhagavat-pracoditaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sutaṁ samādāya sa sūtikā-gṛhāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yadā bahir gantum iyeṣa tarhy ajā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yā yoga-māyājani nanda-jāyayā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, exactly when Vasudeva, being inspired by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, was about to take the newborn child from the delivery room, Yoga-māyā, the Lord’s spiritual energy, took birth as the daughter of the wife of Mahārāja Nanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, Vasudeva went to Gokula and exchanged his son with Nanda Maharaja's daughter. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/3/51&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.3.51&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nanda-vrajaṁ śaurir upetya tatra tān&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;gopān prasuptān upalabhya nidrayā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sutaṁ yaśodā-śayane nidhāya tat-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sutām upādāya punar gṛhān agāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Vasudeva reached the house of Nanda Mahārāja, he saw that all the cowherd men were fast asleep. Thus he placed his own son on the bed of Yaśodā, picked up her daughter, an expansion of Yoga-māyā, and then returned to his residence, the prison house of Kaṁsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/4/12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.4.12&lt;/a&gt;, you are talking about is said by Yoga Maya to Kamsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kiṁ mayā hatayā manda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jātaḥ khalu tavānta-kṛt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yatra kva vā pūrva-śatrur&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mā hiṁsīḥ kṛpaṇān vṛthā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Kaṁsa, you fool, what will be the use of killing me? The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has been your enemy from the very beginning and who will certainly kill you, has already taken His birth somewhere else. Therefore, do not unnecessarily kill other children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yoga Maya is the Maya of Lord Vishnu. She had misled Kamsa so that he will not be able to find Lord Sri Krishna. This has been described in the purport of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/4/29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.4.29&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tasyāṁ rātryāṁ vyatītāyāṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kaṁsa āhūya mantriṇaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tebhya ācaṣṭa tat sarvaṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yad uktaṁ yoga-nidrayā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that night passed, Kaṁsa summoned his ministers and informed them of all that had been spoken by Yoga-māyā [who had revealed that He who was to slay Kaṁsa had already been born somewhere else].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purport: &lt;strong&gt;Yoga-māyā, the goddess Durgā, kept Kaṁsa in darkness about Kṛṣṇa’s birth and misled him to believe that his enemy Kṛṣṇa had been born elsewhere.&lt;/strong&gt; Kṛṣṇa was born the son of Devakī, but according to the Lord’s original plan, as prophesied to Brahmā, He went to Vṛndāvana to give pleasure to mother Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja and other intimate friends and devotees for eleven years. Then He would return to kill Kaṁsa. &lt;strong&gt;Because Kaṁsa did not know this, he believed Yoga-māyā’s statement that Kṛṣṇa was born elsewhere, not of Devakī.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_004.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harivamsa Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; also say the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;garbhakAle tvasaMpUrNe aShTame mAsi te striyau |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;devakI cha yashodA cha suShuvAte samaM tadA ||2-4-11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before the completion of the normal period of pregnancy, the women, devakI and yashodA delivered in the eighth month at the same time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yAmeva rajanIM kR^iShNo jaj~ne vR^iShNikulodvahaH |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tAmeva rajanIM kanyAM yashodApi vyajAyata ||2-4-12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A girl was born to yashodA at the same time of the same night when kR^iShNa, who elevates the (fame of) vR^iShNi race was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nandagopasya bhAryaikA vasudevasya chAparA |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tulyakAlaM cha garbhiNyau yashodA devakI tathA ||2-4-13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One (yashodA) was the wife of nandagopa and the other (devakI) was the wife of vasudeva. Both yashodA and devakI became pregnant almost at the same time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;devakyajanayadviShNuM yashodA tAM tu dArikAm |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;muhUrte.abhijiti prApte sArdharAtre vibhUShite || 2-4-14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the midnight, at the auspicious time of abhijit, devakI, gave birth to viShNu and yashodA gave birth to a girl.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vasudevastu saMgR^ihya dArakaM kShiprameva cha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yashodAyA gR^ihaM rAtrau vivesha sutavatsalaH ||2-4-25&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vasudeva, fond of his son, quickly carried the boy to the house of yashodA in the night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yashodAyAstvavij~nAtastatra nikShipya dArakam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pragR^ihya dArikAM chaiva devakIshayane.anyasat ||2-4-26&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unknown to yashodA, he kept the boy with her and carried the girl to devakI's bed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;parivarte kR^ite tAbhyAM garbhAbhyAM bhayaviklavaH |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vasudevaH kR^itArtho vai nirjagAma niveshanAt ||2-4-27&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the two new-born babies were exchanged. vasudeva was terrified but satisfied. He went out of the house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T15:35:25.080" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15612" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2413" CreationDate="2016-10-25T08:04:23.300" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The point is, just because two or more Hindus did sell their wives in past does not imply that their acts were in accordance with the doctrines of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, a couple of Hindu kings building up temples with erotic and bestial sculptures on their walls do not imply(in the same way) that that act was in accord with Hindu Shastras or that that was generally &quot;the Hindu way of life&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In fact,selling one's wife is condemned in Hindu Shastras &amp;amp; never justified.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti says,husband and wife are to be considered as one entity and the sale of wife is never desired.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3WEtP.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3WEtP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.46. Neither by sale nor by repudiation is a wife released from her husband; such we know the law to be, which the Lord of creatures&#xA;  (Pragapati) made of old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,the Yajnavalkya Smriti explicitly mentions selling of one's wife as a minor sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are many Upapātakas (minor sins and turpitude). ........&#xA;  learning from a servant, teaching a superior, adultery, usury, sale of&#xA;  salt, contemptuous livelihood, misappropriation of a deposit, breaking&#xA;  of a vow, sale of meat, sale of a cow, abandonment of father, mother&#xA;  or a friend, sale of tanks and parks, selling of daughter's ornaments,&#xA;  crookedness, causing others to break their vow, selfish ventures,&#xA;  cohabitation with an alcoholic, forsaking of one's study of Vedas,&#xA;  sacred fires, child, and kinsmen, perusal of illegal and unholy&#xA;  literature, &lt;strong&gt;selling of oneself or one's own wife, all these are&#xA;  Upapātakas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SSKJC.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SSKJC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-25T08:35:16.610" LastActivityDate="2016-10-25T08:35:16.610" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15613" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15610" CreationDate="2016-10-25T10:43:02.877" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the video &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta8ylRCSbVQ&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;How to perform Ganesha Puja&lt;/a&gt;,Sri Seetharama Shastry has shown  how to do a Shdosopachara Puja within just 6 minutes.The procedure is very simple but the puja is very effective.Anyone willing,can do it daily in their homes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Shodasopachara Puja consists of offering of the following 16&#xA;  different objects to God ;&#xA;  {1} Avahanam(invocation) {2} AAsanam (a seat)&#xA;  {3} Padyam(water for washing feet) {4}Arghyam(water for washing&#xA;  hands),{5}Achamaniyam(water of sipping),Madhuparkam(a sweet prepared by&#xA;  mixing honey,sugar)(this step can be optional,) {6} Snaanam(head bath )&#xA;  {7}Vastram(offering clothes) {8}Alankaram(ornaments) {9}Yajnopoveetam(offering&#xA;  of sacred thread) {10}Gandham(sandal paste,kumkumam).{11} Pushpam(offering of&#xA;  flowers).{12} Dhupam(offering of lighted incense sticks). Deepam(offering&#xA;  of lighted lamps) {13}Naivedyam(offering of food),{14}Tamboolam(offering of&#xA;  betel leaves &amp;amp; nuts),{15}Karpoora neerajanam(hoisting of lamps burning&#xA;  camphor), {16}Mantrapushpam(offering of flowers again),Pradakshina&#xA;  Namaskaram(circumambulation and prostrations)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Things that one needs:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)One Altar for God,an idol/image of Mahaganapaty,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)A metal plate(copper ,brass etc,not iron or steel) for keeping the idol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)A Panchapatra(a small cup with a spoon)filled with clean water,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4)Akshatas(whole rice mixed with a bit of turmeric(haldi)),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5)Sandal paste,kumkumam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6)Fruits or sweets for naivedya,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7)Incense sticks,a lamp, wicks , ghee or other oil ,a camphor stand and pieces of camphor.Also if one have, betel leaves and nuts(for the tamboolam part in the shodasa upachara).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A few important things:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)The person doing the Puja should face either north or east.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)The Deity can face any directions barring the south.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the best is you face east and the deity directly facing you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Steps of the Puja(refer to the video with my texts)&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 1-&lt;/strong&gt; A lamp is to be lighted first at the &lt;strong&gt;left&lt;/strong&gt; side of the deity.This lamp needs to burn as long as the Puja is being done.You can extinguish it after the completion of puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mantra&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;em&gt;Deepa Jyotir Parabrahma,deepa Jyoti Janradana,deepa Haratu me Deepam,Deepa Jyotir Namostute&lt;/em&gt;(The light in the lamp is Parabrahma,is Janardana,it removes all sins,prostrations to that light).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 2&lt;/strong&gt;-Self purification with sipping of water 3 times(called achamana) from right palm.As shown in the video,sip 3 times spoonfull of water with the mantras :&lt;em&gt;Achutaya namaha,Anantaya namaha,Govindaya namaha.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step3&lt;/strong&gt;-Recite the following 12 names of Sri Vishnu(this is called angasparsha or angavandanam) :&lt;em&gt;Keshava,Narayana,Madhava,Govinda,Vishnu,Madhusudana ,Trivikrama,Vamana,Sridhara,Hrishikesha,Padmanabha,Damodara&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 4&lt;/strong&gt; -Praying to Guru with the Sloka &lt;em&gt;Gurur Brahma,Gurur Vishnuh,gurur Devo Maheswarah,gurU Sakshat Para Brahma tasmai Sri Gurave Namaha&lt;/em&gt;(Guru is Trinity,Guru who is Parabrahma ,salutations).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 5&lt;/strong&gt; The so called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_vishnu-shuklambaradharam_vishnum.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vigneswara Dhyanam&lt;/a&gt;-&lt;em&gt;Suklambaradaram Vishnum Sasivarnam Chathurbhujam Prasannavadanam Dhyayet Sarva Vugnopashantayet&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 6-&lt;/strong&gt; Sankalpa-Stating the purpose of doing the Puja.Place the left palm on your right thigh,take few akshatas on your right palm ,and place closed right palm on your left palm and recite mantra-&lt;em&gt;Mamapatta samastha duritakshaya dwara Sri Parameswara Prithyartham sri Mahaganapaty Pujam Karishye&lt;/em&gt;(I'm doing this Mahaganapaty Puja in order to remove all my sins and in order to make Parameswara (Shiva) happy).This is a simple &quot;nishkama&quot; sankalpa mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 7&lt;/strong&gt; -Now the actual Puja starts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Invite Ganapaty into the idol with the mantras &quot;&lt;em&gt;Asmin Bimbe sumukham Mahaganapatim Dhyaami,Mahagaganaptim Avahayami&lt;/em&gt;(sprinkle akshatas on idol with dhyaami and also while saying avahayami).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahaganapty is now invoked &amp;amp; will be present in the idol till the Puja ends.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rest of the Upacharas are then offered one by one,as shown in the video,accompanied by the mantra &quot;&lt;em&gt;Mahaganapataye namaha&lt;/em&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For,example,&lt;em&gt;Mahaganapataye namaha Aasaanam samarpayami, Mahaganapataye namaha Padyam samarpayami etc.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After saying &lt;em&gt;Mahaganapataye namaha puspaihi Pujayami&lt;/em&gt; one is ought worship Him with flowers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantras for this step are as follows(with each namaha flowers/petals are offered):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Sumukhaya namah Om Ekadantaya namah Om Kapilaya namah Om&#xA;  Gajakarnikaya namah Om Lambodaraya namah Om Vikataya namah Om&#xA;  Vignarajaya namah Om Vinayakaya namah Om Dhumaketave namah Om&#xA;  Ganadhyakshaya namah Om Phalachandraya namah Om Gajananaya namah Om&#xA;  Vakratundaya namah Om Surpakarnaya namah Om Herambaya namah Om&#xA;  Skandapoorvajaya namah Om Mahaganapate namah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other relevant things:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)While offering naivedya sprinkle water on the food plate(as shown in the video).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)In case of the things(upacharas) that one does not actually have, akshatas can be offered instead.For example,if you do not have tamboolam offer akshatas saying &lt;em&gt;tamboolam arthe akshatam samarpayami&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)At the end of Puja offer &quot;Atma Pradkshina&quot; (going round oneself anti clockwise 3 times) and full prostrations.Then pray for forgiveness and tell your wishes to Mahaganapaty and you are done. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a simple  yet a &quot;Shastra Sammata Vidhi&quot; of doing a Mahaganapaty Puja.Similar methods can be employed for doing Pujas to other Deities of choice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-25T15:50:07.110" LastActivityDate="2016-10-25T15:50:07.110" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15615" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14582" CreationDate="2016-10-25T12:00:40.190" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.onlineprasad.com/parad-shiva-lingam-pooja-home/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://blog.onlineprasad.com/parad-shiva-lingam-pooja-home/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;visit this link to know what shiva lingam to worship at home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Parad shiva lingam doesn't need pran pratishta because it is believed that shiva is already present in mercury(shiv tatva). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4044" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-25T12:21:09.487" LastActivityDate="2016-10-25T12:21:09.487" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15616" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15637" CreationDate="2016-10-25T13:32:34.320" Score="3" ViewCount="1531" Body="&lt;p&gt;'Who is Ramanujacharya's brother? He adopted Saivism when he was around 20 years old. How did Ramanuja brought back him to vaishnavism?Any mythological references for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-02-25T18:43:42.590" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T04:12:26.597" Title="Ramanujacharya's Brother" Tags="|history|sri-vaishnava|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15617" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-25T13:49:41.007" Score="13" ViewCount="4780" Body="&lt;p&gt;For example:&#xA;Yog becomes Yog'a' or Krishn -&gt; Krishna;&#xA;same way Ram -&gt; Rama&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8030" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2019-08-22T17:14:22.933" LastActivityDate="2024-01-10T05:45:03.150" Title="Why we put 'a' after each Hindu name?" Tags="|sanskrit|name|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15619" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15621" CreationDate="2016-10-25T15:49:53.967" Score="16" ViewCount="3682" Body="&lt;p&gt;First line of the following verse is used in Ayurveda and Surya Namaskaras to substantiate significance of Lord Surya as bestower of good health.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arogyam bhaskarad ichcheth&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; Sriyam ichcheth uthasanath &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Iswarath jnana manvichcheth &lt;br&gt; Moksham ichcheth janardanath &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If you want just health, you have to worship the lord in the form of&#xA;  Sun.&lt;/strong&gt; And if you want just wealth, you need to worship the lord through&#xA;  the fire. But if you want just knowledge, you have to worship Lord&#xA;  Shiva. But if you want a release from all bondages, you need to&#xA;  worship the Lord in the form of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Google search of this verse gave link to Sri Venkateswara University &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/svuorientaljourn015491mbp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Oriental journal&lt;/a&gt;, where the journal says verse is present in Bagavata Purana 4.29 42. (Footnote of Page 15)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qqhQT.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qqhQT.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I searched Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/29/42-44&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;4.29 42&lt;/a&gt; from Vedabase but i couldn't find this verse. Does anyone know which scriptures contain this verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-25T15:55:35.247" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T19:05:36.277" Title="Which Scriptures contain the verse &quot;Arogyam bhaskarad ichcheth&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|shiva|surya|agni|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15620" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2553" CreationDate="2016-10-25T17:14:49.967" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Analysis of dreams(swapna) has been done in detail in the Agni Purana.I'll be quoting from the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&lt;/a&gt; that contains its summary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swapna Prakarana:&lt;/strong&gt; Swimming in a river or Sea, flying in the Sky, Graha-Nakshatra-Surya-Chandr a darshana, hiking a high building or a&#xA;  temple, drinking hard drinks, eating meat, spraying krimi-ke etaas on&#xA;  one’s body, viewing jewellery and golden articles, drowing in blood&#xA;  streams, eating curd rice, wearing white clothes and applying&#xA;  chandana and such other scented materials; &lt;strong&gt;viewing Brahmanas ,&#xA;  Devatas&lt;/strong&gt; and Kings, viewing women nicely decorated and dresses,&#xA;  encountering a Vrishabha, milk, trees full of atrractive fruits;&#xA;  scaling high mountains; obtaining mirrors, meat, flower garlands,&#xA;  white flowers and meeting persons dressed in white &lt;strong&gt;are all dreams of&#xA;  auspiciousness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, dream of Goddess Durga is certainly an auspicious one.What it indicates/signifies more specifically is given in the next passage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;More results of Desirable Dreams are the views of Kings, elephan ts,&#xA;  horses, Gold, Vrishabha, and scaling of trees would result in monetary&#xA;  gains and Kutumba Vriddhi round the corner. .........&lt;strong&gt;Dreams of cows,&#xA;  horses, elephants or of Devata Murtis would usher in tidings of&#xA;  propitiousness and Subha Karyas in the house&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,since these analyses are same for everyone,being a hindu or not being one  won't matter here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-26T06:29:49.210" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T06:29:49.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15621" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15619" CreationDate="2016-10-25T18:16:42.183" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is slightly different version is available in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-68&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matsya Purana, Chapter 68&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आरोग्यं भास्करादिच्छेद्धनमिच्छेद्धुताशनात्। &lt;br&gt; ईश्वराज्ज्ञानमन्विच्छेन्मोक्षमिच्छेज्जनार्दनात्॥  ४१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ārogyaṃ bhāskarādiccheddhanamiccheddhutāśanāt /&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;īśvarājjñānam anvicchenmokṣam icchejjanārdanāt // (41)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Health ought to be sought from the Sun, wealth from Agni, knowledge from Isvara, and emancipation from Janardana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-10-27T10:08:10.013" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15622" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15617" CreationDate="2016-10-25T19:45:58.203" Score="28" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt;: It's due to &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa#Hindi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;schwa deletion rule&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; of Hindi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First off, it is incorrect and incomplete to write the Sanskrit or Devanāgarī word राम (Rāma) as &quot;Rama&quot; as commonly written by English writers on this forum and elsewhere. The table below lists the accepted Romanised transliterations of राम. Same goes for कृष्ण - &quot;Krishna&quot; is not recommended, while Kṛṣṇa or kRSNa is more acceptable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Alphabet_of_Sanskrit_Transliteration&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;IAST&lt;/a&gt; makes no special use of capital letters so people often capitalize proper nouns, so both rāma and Rāma are valid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now for ease of use, people just write 'Rama' or 'Krishna' because it's difficult to type accented letters such as ś, ṛ and even long vowels such as ā (आ) using a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;QWERTY keyboard&lt;/a&gt;. Also, when you just write 'Rama' you are actually transcribing i.e., freely converting sound from one language to another - technically it's not correct as information is lost in the process. A native English speaker might interpret 'Rama' as रम instead of राम.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Now to your actual question: Why not write राम as Rām instead of Rām&lt;strong&gt;a&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; कृष्ण as Kṛṣṇ instead of Kṛṣṇ&lt;strong&gt;a&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's because, if transliterated as above it would lead to a different word altogether in Sanskrit. Rām would represent राम् and Kṛṣṇ or kRSN would mean कृष्ण्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if you are Hindi speaker, you probably pronounce राम as राम् and vice versa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in Sanskrit both are different, म् + अ (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;schwa&lt;/a&gt;) = म&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when you are transliterating (especially Sanskrit names and scripture) to Roman alphabet you need to be a little careful, use one of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Alphabet_of_Sanskrit_Transliteration&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;IAST&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITRANS&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ITRANS&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard-Kyoto&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harvard-Kyoto&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;+============+=============+================+================+===============+&#xA;| Devanāgarī |    IAST     |   ITRANS 5.1   |   ITRANS 5.3   | Harvard-Kyoto |&#xA;+============+=============+================+================+===============+&#xA;| राम        | Rāma        | raama          | raama          | rAma          |&#xA;+------------+-------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+&#xA;| कृष्ण       | Kṛṣṇa       | kR^iShNa       | kR^iShNa or    | kRSNa         |&#xA;+------------+-------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+&#xA;|            |             |                | kRRiShNa       |               |&#xA;+------------+-------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+&#xA;| योग        | Yoga        | yoga           | yoga           | yoga          |&#xA;+------------+-------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+&#xA;| शिव        | Śiva        | shiva          | shiva          | ziva          |&#xA;+------------+-------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+&#xA;| महाभारत    | Mahābhārata | mahAbhArata or | mahAbhArata or | mahAbhArata   |&#xA;+------------+-------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+&#xA;|            |             | mahaabhaarata  | mahaabhaarata  |               |&#xA;+------------+-------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+&#xA;| ज्ञान        | jñāna       | GYaana/GYAna   | GYaana/GYAna   | jJAna         |&#xA;+------------+-------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+&#xA;|            |             | j~naana/j~nAna | j~naana/j~nAna |               |&#xA;+------------+-------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+&#xA;|            |             | dnyaana/dnyAna | dnyaana/dnyAna |               |&#xA;+------------+-------------+----------------+----------------+---------------+&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com.ar/en/learning-sanskrit-transliterating-2-1/411&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Learning Sanskrit - Transliterating&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-26T17:21:12.767" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T17:21:12.767" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15623" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-25T21:55:48.877" Score="0" ViewCount="78" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the re-birth recurrence principle a belief or an assumption proved true by those more spiritually evolved in states of higher consciousness? Were there instances of verification or revelations in ancient or in recent times?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Punarapi jananam, punarapi maranam... is Adi Shankara's assertion. Attainment of Mokasha is getting out of  this round and round  unending continuous circle. Verification of experience in a repeating circle and verification of advanced experiences guiding a Mumukshu into a higher spiritual orbit is part of the same total phenomenon. Those ahead  and graduated only can guide those who are new entrants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2016-10-26T06:23:31.223" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T06:23:31.223" Title="Freedom from cycle of ( re-birth _ death_re-birth )" Tags="|consciousness|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-10-28T04:31:32.217" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15624" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-26T04:43:28.073" Score="2" ViewCount="513" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is Parangusa dasar and whose avatar he took? Any salient features about him in old puranas or scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-17T06:47:32.447" LastActivityDate="2017-01-17T06:47:32.447" Title="Who is Parangusa dasar and what are his salient features?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15625" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15135" CreationDate="2016-10-26T05:40:57.890" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before turning into a Sannyasin, there is a greater possibility that Swamiji might have taken the fish at least as it is a chief diet in Bengal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After becoming a Sannyasin; when Swamiji was in America, some orthodox Hindus accused him of taking forbidden diet. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vivekananda.net/PDFBooks/BiographybyNikhilananda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is an excerpt:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To the accusation from some orthodox Hindus that the Swami was eating forbidden food at the table of infidels, he retorted: Do you mean to say I am born to live and die as one of those caste-ridden, &#xA;  superstitious, merciless, hypocritical, atheistic cowards that you only find among the &#xA;  educated Hindus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On other similar accusation by Christian missionaries to bring infamy to him, he wrote this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am surprised that you take the missionaries' nonsense so seriously....&lt;strong&gt;If the people of &#xA;  India want me to keep strictly to my Hindu diet, please tell them to send me a cook and &#xA;  money enough to keep him&lt;/strong&gt;....On the other hand, if the missionaries tell you that I have &#xA;  ever broken the two great vows of the sannyasin — chastity and poverty — tell them &#xA;  that they are big liars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, it seems from this excerpt that Swamiji did take the non-veg diet when he was in the west. But, as Swamiji wrote, chastity and poverty are the ideals that a Sannyasin should never deviate from (and he upheld these ideals in their true sense), food habits are secondary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4066" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T05:40:57.890" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15626" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15624" CreationDate="2016-10-26T06:38:04.710" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;JyEshtE anUrAdhAsambhUtam vIranArAyanEpurE&#xA;  gajavaktrAmsam AchAryam Adhyam NadamunimbajE&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It so happened that a few Tirunagari SrI Vaishnavas came into town once and narrated the beautiful Thiru VAi Mozhi &quot;ArA amudhE adiyEn udalAm&quot;. The last lines were &quot;KurukUrch ChatagOpan kuzhalil maliyach chonna OrAyiraththil ippaththum mazhalai thIra vallAr kAmar maney NOkkiyarkE&quot; Through thos wonderful tiruvAi mozhi, NAdamunigal came to know that these were only 11 songs among 1000 supposedly sung in favor of Kannan by KuruKuch ChatagOpan&quot;. Excitedly, SrI NAdamunigal asked the devotees if they knew all the 1000, but they sadly did not.  They said that even though they were from Tirunagari, they had been touring all the divya dEsams and when they went to Tirukkudandhai and prayed to ArAvamudhan, they were graced with the 11 songs. They got the thIrtha prasAdam from NAdamunigal and departed from there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There began the quest for the remaining pAsurams. NAdamunigal went to Tirukkudandhai and asked around, but no one knew anything beyond the 11 pAsurams. The next stop was AzhvAr tirunagari where he met a divine man by the name of ParAngusa DAsar. From him, he learnt 11 more paasurams starting with &quot;Kanninun siruththAmbu&quot; composed by Madurakavi Azhvar in praise of KurukUrch Chatagopan who is none other than NammAzhvar. ParAngusa DAsar suggested that NAdamunigal sincerely recite this paasuram 12,000 times with utmost devotion to the Lord to get his Graces. NAdamunigal was very sincere in his attempt and followed the instructions most fruitfully: At the bequest of PerumAl and PirAtti, NammAzhvar appeared before NAdamunigal and asked him what he wanted. An elated NAdamuni revealed that he wanted to know all the TiruvAi mozhis. Much to his surprise, he came to know that there were not just a 1000, but 4000 of them. The 1000 were just the Tiruvai mozhis of NammAzhvar, but the remaining were the works of the other 11 AzhvArs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other BhAgavatAs who witnessed this wondrous sight, shared an interesting story at that point of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At Azhwar Thirunagari, Nathamuni met Sri Parangusadasar, a disciple from the clan of Madurakavi who is the grand disciple of NamAzhwar.&#xA;  He explained the Kumbakonam incident and enquired on the Thiruvaimozhi hymns. Sri Parangusa stated that he also knew that there were 1000 such hymns by NamAzhwar. But expressed his agony that as he didn’t learnt those, he would only be able to tell the 11 hymns named ‘Kanninunsiruthambu’, made by Madurakavi on praise of Namazhwar.&#xA;  Sri Parangusadasar also voiced that if Nadamuni continue to meditate chanting those 11 hymns for 12000 times, Namazhwar would appear before him.&#xA;  Nadamuni with full faith and determination chanted Kanninumsiruthambu for 1200 times and heard NamAzhwar speaking through the idol form itself.&#xA;  NamAzhwar blessed Nadamuni with Thiruvaimozhi as he wished. Also preached him Ashtanga Yoga, Dvaya Mantra, ThiruMantra, Charamasolka and Vyasasutras. He also helped him to get all the 4000 hymns of 10 Azhwars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://aachaaryavaibhavam.blogspot.com/2011/.../chapter-1-part-1-sriman-nadamunigal.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;aachaaryavaibhavam.blogspot.com/2011/.../chapter-1-part-1-sriman-nadamunigal.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-10-26T13:30:51.190" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T13:30:51.190" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15628" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="408" CreationDate="2016-10-26T07:22:23.767" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As wiki points out &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Deepawali&lt;/a&gt; is celebrated for different reasons in different parts of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Northern States, it is celebrated for the return of Lord Rama from vanvas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Southern States (AP, KA, TN, TS) it is celebrated for killing of Narakasura by Satyabhama, the consort of Lord Krishna (&amp;amp; mother of Narakasura)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Eastern States (WB, Assam, ..), it is celebrated on the name of Kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Infact, Not just &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Deepawali&lt;/a&gt;, it is same with many festivals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Diwali as word doesn't carry a positive meaning in Dravidian Languages - It is referred as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Deepawali&lt;/a&gt; - which incidentally is also the Sanskrit name{ for दीप dīpa &quot;light, lamp&quot; and आवलि āvali &quot;series, line, row&quot;}&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;FYI, Diwala means bankruptcy and Diwali is the one who got bankrupt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7017" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-26T08:16:53.690" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T08:16:53.690" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15629" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="52063" CreationDate="2016-10-26T08:06:40.013" Score="5" ViewCount="174" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm very fond of reading stotrams.So,what i do is download the stotram of my choice in devanagari sanskrit and then write it down in personal copybooks in transliterated english.This method suits me.In this way i have accumulated,over the years, many copybooks comprised of my handwritten stotrams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now , on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Devi_Mahatmyam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page ,we find many rules ,regarding what constitutes a proper recitation of Devi Mahatyam .Few are given below.One among them says that &lt;strong&gt;one is not supposed to read it from a text that is in his own hand writing.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Geethi, seegri, sirakhambhi, hyakurvano vinasyathi, Thatho jnathwaiva&#xA;  sampannamidham prabhyathe budhai,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Those who sing it, those who read it fast, those who read with shaking&#xA;  of their head, &lt;strong&gt;those who read from the text in their own handwriting&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  those who read without understanding the import and those who read in&#xA;  a very feeble tone, do not get the benefit of reading a work&lt;/em&gt;. It has&#xA;  also been told that any book, which has less than one thousand slokas&#xA;  should be recited from memory to get full benefit. Those who cannot&#xA;  should keep the book on a stand so that it does not rest on the&#xA;  ground.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can guess that the above sloka is from the Markandeya Purana itself &lt;strong&gt;but my question is whether the above prohibition regarding reading stotrams from hand written manuscripts is generally applicable or applicable only in the case of Chandi Patha?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-26T10:08:56.687" LastActivityDate="2022-07-03T11:57:46.207" Title="On reading stotrams from hand-written manuscripts" Tags="|scripture|devi|stotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15630" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13904" CreationDate="2016-10-26T08:59:40.643" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all,this is not the most precise or perfect answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But,the 12 Surya namsakara mantras seems to have been originated from the  &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/brahma/bookview.php?chapnum=11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Surya Mahatmya: Avatarana, Dwadasadityas, Konaarka and Worship&lt;/a&gt;&quot; chapter of the  &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Purana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A &quot;Surya Dwadasa Namavali&quot;(12 names of Surya) as well as a &quot;Surya Asthottara&quot;(108 names of Surya) are included in this chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dwadashiva pruthaktena taani vakshaamaseshatah, Adityah Savitaa Suryo&#xA;  Mihirorkah Prabhaakarah/ Maartando Bhaaskaro Bhanuschitra Bhaanu&#xA;  Divaakarah, Ravirdwaadashabhisteshaam Jneyah Saamaanya naamabhih/&#xA;  Visnurdhaataa Bhagah Pushaa Mitrendrou Varunyornamaa Vivaswaa&#xA;  namsumaam Twashtaa Parjanyo Dwaadashah smritaah/ Ityetey Dwadasha&#xA;  –adittaah pruthaktena Vyavastithaah, Uttishthanti Sadaahyetey&#xA;  maasthairvaa Dasabhih kramaat/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Normally Surya Deva’s names in vogue are &lt;strong&gt;Aditya&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Savitru&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Surya&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  Mihira, &lt;strong&gt;Arka&lt;/strong&gt;, Prabhakara, Martanada, &lt;strong&gt;Bhaskara&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Bhanu&lt;/strong&gt;,Chitrabhanu,&#xA;  Divakara, &lt;strong&gt;Ravi&lt;/strong&gt; and so on. But the additional names are Vishnu, Dhata,&#xA;  Bhaga, &lt;strong&gt;Pusha&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Mitra&lt;/strong&gt;, Indra, Varuna, Aryama, Vivasvata, Amsuvan,&#xA;  Twashta and Parjanya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A &quot;Surya Dwadasa nama stotram&quot;,different from the one given above, is also found in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sarvamantra.com/surya-davadash-nam-stotram/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Brahmanda Purana.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.de/surya/surya-names.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page seems to confirm the claim that Brahma Purana is the origin of the 12 names/mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-26T09:10:14.507" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T09:10:14.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15631" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9383" CreationDate="2016-10-26T10:13:17.610" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, according to Shiva Mahapurana, Satarudra Samhita Lord Hanumana and Sage Durvasa are the incarnation of Lord Shiva and they have taken birth from the womb of Anjana and Anusuya respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-99/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Hanumana&lt;/a&gt; birth is described as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तद्वीर्यं स्थापयामासुः पत्रे सप्तर्षयश्च ते।&#xA;प्रेरिता मनसा तेन रामकार्यार्थमादरात्॥ ५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तैर्गौतमसुतायां तद्वीर्यं शम्भोर्महर्षिभिः।&#xA;कर्णद्वारा तथाञ्जन्यां रामकार्यार्थमाहितम्॥ ६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like a person suffering from lust, Siva at&#xA;the instance, the saptarsis, (the Swan sages) carried the semen of Siva, for the purpose of Šrī Rāma, with respect, &lt;strong&gt;over the tree leaf and inserted the same in the ear of Anjani the daughter of Gautama, through ear to her Womb&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-98/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sage Durvasa&lt;/a&gt; birth is described as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथ ब्रह्मा हरिः शम्भुरवतेरुः स्त्रियां ततः। पुत्ररूपैः प्रसन्नास्ते नानालीलाप्रकाशकाः॥ २४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thereafter Brahma, Visnu and Siva, were born as sons from the womb of Anusuya&lt;/strong&gt;, who were delightful at heart and performed several Sports.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विधेरंशाद्विधुर्जज्ञेऽनसूयायां मुनीश्वरात्। आविर्बभूवोदधितः क्षिप्तो देवैः स एव हि।। २५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moon was born of the womb of Anusuya from the amsa of Brahma, but since the gods threw him in the ocean, he emerged out of the same (at the time of the churning of the ocean).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विष्णोरंशात्स्त्रियां तस्यामत्रेर्दत्तो व्यजायत। संन्यासपद्धतिर्येन वद्धिता परमा मुने!॥२६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the aniisa of Visnu, Datta was born&#xA;from the Womb of Anusuya. O Sage, he propagated the best method of Sannyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दुर्वासा मुनिशार्दूलः शिवांशान्मुनिसत्तमः। जज्ञे तस्यां स्त्रियामत्रेर्वरधर्मप्रवर्तकः॥ २७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Excellent sage, from the ansa of Šiva,&#xA;Durvasa, the propounder of dharma and the best of the sages was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-05-24T10:29:51.953" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15633" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-26T13:31:12.783" Score="4" ViewCount="1002" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can I do Sandhyavanadanam when Ladies in my home are under menstrual cycle ? Because of some unavoidable circumstances, Ladies can not sit separately during their period time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do 3 times Sandhyavandanam daily with lot of interest. But during Ladies period time, I am not doing that for 4 days thinking that it is not good to do Sandhyavandam during that time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone please advise on this? Is it correct that I am doing ? Somewhere I heard that we can do Sandhyavandanam during Asoucha perod also, but till Arghya Pradanam only, reciting silently. How far is it correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8038" LastActivityDate="2017-02-02T04:44:37.770" Title="Sandhyavandanam during Asoucha period" Tags="|sandhyavandanam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ClosedDate="2018-12-07T04:49:56.720" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15635" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15576" CreationDate="2016-10-26T16:49:38.403" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let us take an example to explain the two points of views:-&lt;br/&gt;Consider the Sun rising in the East ,travelling through the sky and setting in the West.It is followed by the &lt;em&gt;Night&lt;/em&gt; ,when the Sun is &lt;em&gt;Invisible&lt;/em&gt;.At the end of Night ,the Sun again re-appears in the East ,rises,travels through the sky and sets down in the West. &lt;em&gt;This pattern of activities, repeat again and again&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;We can explain these phenomena by &lt;em&gt;two ways&lt;/em&gt;  :-&lt;br/&gt; (1)The Sun is &lt;strong&gt;Born every morning ,at sun rise&lt;/strong&gt;, lives through the day and &lt;strong&gt;Dies at Sun set&lt;/strong&gt;. The &lt;em&gt;Night is the period ,when the Sun remains Dead&lt;/em&gt; .It is &lt;strong&gt;Reborn again the next Morning&lt;/strong&gt;. .&lt;em&gt;The process of Birth ,Death and Rebirth,repeats itself , in an unending sequence.&lt;/em&gt;--This will be &lt;strong&gt;Vivartanavada&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;br/&gt; (2) &lt;strong&gt;The Sun does not change, lives for Ever&lt;/strong&gt;.It moves in Circles in the Sky ,around the Earth. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;It appears to go through cycles of Birth ,Death and Rebirth ,because of  this motion&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.--This will be &lt;strong&gt;Ajatavada&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; Both these models are used in Science and Mathematics . One is called the &lt;strong&gt;Time-dependent model&lt;/strong&gt; ,the other called the &lt;strong&gt;Time-independent model&lt;/strong&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sun&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-26T18:06:37.473" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T18:06:37.473" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15636" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15604" CreationDate="2016-10-26T21:20:03.763" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;One explanation, as to why Rāma carried his ring to the forest, offered by the commentators at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga44/kishkindhasans44.htm#Verse17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;valmikiramayan.net&lt;/a&gt;, is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When Rama abdicated everything and no other jewellery is evident on his body, though his bow and arrows have golden finishing, then why this lone ring is still there with him - is the debatable question.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This indicates the custom of exchanging rings in marriage. This is the ring got prepared by Seetha in her kingdom Mithila and she herself put it on Rama's finger in their marriage as vara varaNa 'selecting the wooer...'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Hanuma gives this ring to Seetha in Sundara Kanda the reaction of Seetha is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;gR^ihiitvaa prekShamaaNaa saa bhartR^i kara vibhuuShaNam |&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  'on taking the adornment of her husband's hand she looked at it...' at 5-36-4.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This ring to men is almost like the mangala suutra 'the sacred marriage-time pendant of Hindu ladies. Thus, none can ask a man to remove his wedding ring as long as his wife is alive and attached.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-10-26T21:20:03.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15637" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15616" CreationDate="2016-10-27T02:30:35.653" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;emBAr is the cousin(Ramanuja mother’s younger sister’s son) of Sri Ramanuja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami EmBaar was born  in Madhuramangalam (then known as Mazhalai&#xA; mangalam) to pious couple Periya Pratti and Sri Kamalanayana Bhatta in&#xA; the year 1026 CE (Krodana samvatsaram) month of Makara ( Tamil Month&#xA; of Thai ) under the the constellation of Punarvasu.  It is said he was&#xA; the amsam of Vainatheyan . His maternal uncle Thirumalai nambhi named&#xA; him as Govinda Bhatta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later, while taking bath in Ganges with Yadavaprakasar and ashram&#xA;   mates, Sri Govinda Battar gets a lingam in his hand. Sri Govinda&#xA;   Bhattar shows the same to his guru. The advaitic scholar replied that&#xA;   it is the anugruham of Lord Siva and names him as  &lt;strong&gt;ULangai konNarnda&#xA;   NAyanAr.&lt;/strong&gt; From that day, Govinda Bhattar becomes a pure advaitin and&#xA;   starts practising the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Govinda returned back and did the Prathistai of the Lingam in&#xA;   Madhuramangalam ( even to this day you can see this Lingam) then he has seen a dream in which Lord of Kalahasthi beckoned him so he went to Kalahasthi and&#xA;   continued to worship. Years rolled on Ramanujar also grew up and he&#xA;   became the disciple of Thirukachi Nambhigal ,Periya&#xA;   Nambhi,Thirukoshtiyur nambhi etc and he had become an ascetic . Sri&#xA;   Ramanujar felt that he needed some trusted lieutenant to assist him ,&#xA;   he then remembered Govinda , whose timely advice saved his life. &#xA;   Then he requested his Maternal uncle Thirumalai Nambhi to bring back&#xA;   Govinda to Srivaishnava fold. Thirumalai Nambhi too had been thinking&#xA;   of correcting Govinda Bhattar and hence immedietely left to Kalahasti&#xA;   with few of his disciples and started giving discourses. He crossed&#xA;   ULangai konNarnda NAyanAr’s path and makes &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamunacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;AaLavandAr&lt;/a&gt;’s shlokam from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bvml.org/VS/Y_stotra-ratna.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Stotra ratna&lt;/a&gt; fall on his ears: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;svAbhAvikAnavadhikAtisayEsitritvam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nArayANa tvayi na mrishyati vaidhikAh kah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brahma sivah satamakhah parama-svarad ity&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ete 'pi yasya mahimArNava-viprushas te.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: O Lord Narayana, what learned Vedic scholar will not accept You as the all-powerful and unlimited Personality of Godhead? Brahma, Siva, Indra, and the liberated residents of Vaikuntha are but drops in the ocean of Your transcendental glory.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Something in NAyanAr’s mind gets stirred when he hears the words and becomes&#xA;   disturbed. On another occasion, Nambigal went and sits under the tree&#xA;   from which NAyanAr used to pluck flowers everyday and starts teaching&#xA;   the meaning of TiruvAimozhi to his disciples. NAyanar forgets his task&#xA;   of gathering the flowers and stands there mesmerized. When Nambigal&#xA;   was explaining the meaning of the pathu titled “Thinnan veedu” – there is a pasuram –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;dhevum epporulum padaikkap poovil naanmukhanaip&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    padiaatha – devan Emperumaanukkallal Poovum poosanaiyum thagume ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning: Would it even be appropriate to make flower offerings and other worship to any deity other than our NarAyaNan who created the four-faced BrahmA in His navel and entrusted him, under His direct control, with the&#xA;  function of creating all the other deities and the other different&#xA;  entities?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing those words, NAyanAr throws the basket and the flowers and&#xA;   cried by saying ‘thagathu ! thagathu !’ (It wouldn't, it wouldn't). Realising the folly he had been committing, he fell down at the feet of Thirumalai Nambi with tears rolling down his cheeks and cried for saving him and to change him to a Vaishnavate again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Govinda went along with his uncle to Thirumalai to learn&#xA; Divyaprabhandam etc. under him. He did kainkaryams to Sri Tirumalai&#xA; Nambigal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sources&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://anudinam.org/2013/01/26/thirunakshatram-of-swami-embar/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://anudinam.org/2013/01/26/thirunakshatram-of-swami-embar/&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/embar/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/embar/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="327" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-26T04:12:26.597" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T04:12:26.597" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15639" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15645" CreationDate="2016-10-27T06:43:50.830" Score="13" ViewCount="3089" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vOb7Lm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vOb7Lm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Kailash&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sacred &lt;strong&gt;Mount Kailash (कैलाश)&lt;/strong&gt; is the abode of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;. Shiva, who embodies the destroyer aspect of the trinity of God {Trimurti} is said to reside at Mt. Kailash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How is this Kailash mountain described in Hindu scriptures?&lt;/strong&gt; (its description, its surroundings, plant and animal life etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-10-27T16:29:58.257" LastActivityDate="2018-03-19T11:08:58.160" Title="How is Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva, described in Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|pilgrimage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15640" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15642" CreationDate="2016-10-27T07:25:32.397" Score="20" ViewCount="17831" Body="&lt;p&gt;I personally believe that a mother would never ask someone to kill her own children; moreover she would ask to kill the wrong and the negative things within each individual. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have been told in my community that &lt;strong&gt;if we do not follow our traditions of offering a Goat to Mother Kali, then our lineage would be cursed.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I had asked few &lt;strong&gt;Bhramins&lt;/strong&gt; and found out that we can use a &lt;strong&gt;pumpkin instead of any animal&lt;/strong&gt; and for the &lt;strong&gt;Red color kumkum dissolved in water&lt;/strong&gt; as red is &lt;em&gt;priya&lt;/em&gt; to Mother Kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guys, please help me to clear my doubt what exactly Mother Kali wants as an offering. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kindly suggest with references from puranas.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastEditorDisplayName="user1081" LastEditDate="2016-10-27T13:46:29.020" LastActivityDate="2023-11-22T16:15:22.927" Title="Is the ritual of killing an animal as offering to Maa Kali correct?" Tags="|tradition|devi|kali|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15640" CreationDate="2016-10-27T08:22:20.483" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's not mandatory to sacrifice animals in Devi or Kaali worship. But goat or animal sacrifice is considered as non-killing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The animals which are sacrificed to the Divine Mother will go to heaven. This is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/upa-purana/srimad-devibhagavatam/vol-i/chapter-58/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 26&lt;/a&gt;, 3rd book of Srimad Devi Bhagavatam. This chapter describes procedure to celebrate &lt;em&gt;Navaratri&lt;/em&gt; in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मांसाशनं ये कुर्वन्ति तैः कार्यं पशुहिंसनम् ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;महिषाजवराहाणां बलिदान विशिष्यते । 32 ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who eat meat, they can sacrifice animals in this Worship of the Devi, and, for this purpose, goat and wild boars are the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;देव्यग्रे निहता यान्ति पशवः स्वर्गमव्ययम् ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;न हिंसा पशुजा तत्र निघ्नतां तत्कृतेऽनघ&lt;/strong&gt; ।। 33 ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आहिंसा याशिकी प्रोक्ता सर्वशास्त्रविनिर्णचे ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;देवतार्थ विसृष्टानां पशूनां स्वर्गतिधुवा । 34 ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O sinless one. &lt;strong&gt;The goats offered as a Sacrifice before the Devi, attain to unending heavens. Therefore persons offering the Sacrifices of animals do not incur any sin&lt;/strong&gt;. O king. The goats etc., and other beasts offered as a sacrifice before the Devas undoubtedly go to the heavenly regions; therefore, in all the Sastras, &lt;strong&gt;it has been decided that this killing of animals in a sacrifice is considered as non-kiling.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user12826" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2019-10-04T04:43:44.367" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15642" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15640" CreationDate="2016-10-27T09:00:35.443" Score="27" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I personally believe that a mother would never ask someone to kill her&#xA;  own children moreover she would ask to kill the wrong and the negative&#xA;  things within each individual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What you feel is absolutely correct.Goddess Kali does not need the sacrifice, the necessity arises &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; from the side of those who eat meat.Because the Shastras unanimously agree that eating meat without sacrifice is a sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example: Manu Smriti 5.52. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no greater sinner than that (man) who, though not worshipping&#xA;  the gods or the manes, seeks to increase (the bulk of) his own flesh&#xA;  by the flesh of other (beings)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,in this case, i would love to feel that devotees who sacrifice animals for Goddess, are merely shooting guns from someone elses's shoulder and here &quot;someone else&quot; is none other than Goddess herself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatam13.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter XXVI Devi Bhagawatam&lt;/a&gt; details the method of how to perform  Navaratri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you see in the descriptions(given by Maharshi Vyasa) from verses 1-31 you will find that there is no reference of animal sacrifice in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then in verse 32 Vyasa says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;32&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Those who eat meat, they can sacrifice animals in this worship of the Devî;&lt;/strong&gt; and, for this purpose, goat and wild boars are the best.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;33-34. O sinless one! The goats, etc., offered as a sacrifice before&#xA;  the Devî attain to unending heavens. Therefore persons offering the&#xA;  sacrifices of goats do not incur any sin. O king! The goats, etc., and&#xA;  other beast offered as a sacrifice before the Devas undoubtedly go to&#xA;  the heavenly regions; therefore, in all the S’âstras, it has been&#xA;  decided that this killing of animals in a sacrifice is considered as&#xA;  non-killing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above passage also justifies sacrificial killing by saying that killing for sacrifice is not killing and hence that act does not incur sin.The sacrificial animal goes to heaven etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that is not my point,my  point is animal sacrifice is &lt;strong&gt;not compulsory&lt;/strong&gt; in the ritual.The need arises only &lt;strong&gt;if the performer/devotee desires to eat meat&lt;/strong&gt;.Vyasa never mentions it as &lt;strong&gt;compulsory&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the statement- &quot;&lt;strong&gt;if we do not follow our traditions of offering a Goat to mother KALI then our line age would be cursed&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. does not seem to be validated by Scriptures and to me it looks like more of a belief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Kali is described in Scriptures as &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Rudhira paana Priyaa&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; or &quot;&lt;strong&gt;One who is fond of drinking blood&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.But whose blood?Of some innocent animal which is nothing but Her own child?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course &lt;strong&gt;NOT&lt;/strong&gt; ,she loves drinking blood of those demonic forces of nature(called the Asuras) who are the main obstacles in the path of Dharma or righteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_kali-kalika_ashtakam.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kalika Ashtakam&lt;/a&gt; ,refer to the first verse which is Her Dhyanam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Galad-Rakta-Munnddaavalii-Kannttha-Maalaa Maho-Ghora-Raavaa&#xA;  Su-Damssttraa Karaalaa | Vivastraa Shmashaana-[A]alayaa Mukta-Keshii&#xA;  Mahaakaala-Kaama-[A]akulaa Kaalikeyam ||1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.1: (Salutations to Devi Kalika) &lt;strong&gt;From Her Neck is hanging a Garland of (severed) Heads from which Blood is dripping down,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  1.2: She is making a very Terrific Sound revealing Her large Teeth, and Her appearance is extremely Dreadful to look at,&#xA;  1.3: She is without any Clothes and Residing in the Cremation ground; Her Hair is let loose and Free (as is Her entire appearance),&#xA;  1.4: Her entire being is manifesting the great Yearning to merge with Mahakala (to take the devotees beyond Samsara); She is Kalika, the&#xA;  Great Dark Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess Kali is fond of drinking that blood only which is dripping from the heads of those demons whom she had slain&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; not  of some innocent animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But having said that,In &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamachara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tantrik rituals&lt;/a&gt; we do have the concept of&#xA; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchamakara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pancha Ma Karas&lt;/a&gt;&quot; which involves of&#xA; 1)eating meat(Mamasa) 2)drinking wine(MAdya) 3)eating&#xA;fish(Matsya),4)eating cereals(Mudra) and 5) having sexual&#xA; intercourse(Maithuna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But,the real significances of these rituals,as given in the following excerpt from the Kularnava Tantra, have long been forgotten :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot; A s soma has been ordained a Brahmana should d r i n k ; &quot; which&#xA;  other Tantras are said to deny. If this however be done in the&#xA;  ordinary animal w a y even a Vira will go to Hell (v. 93). Nectar&#xA;  drinking is the union of Kundali Shakti with the Moonchit&#xA;  (Chichchandra). Others are but wine drinkers (vv. 107-108). &lt;strong&gt;The true&#xA;  meat eater is he who has merged his Chitta in the Supreme (v. 109). He&#xA;  who controls his senses and unites them with Atma is a fish-eater. The&#xA;  rest do but kill animals (v. 110).&lt;/strong&gt; True sexual union is the union of&#xA;  Para Shakti that is Kundali with A t m a ; others do but have carnal&#xA;  connection with women (vv 111, 112)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zeQ44.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zeQ44.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My personal opinion is that once you kill another animal its determined that you will also be killed in a similar fashion in some other life in some other worlds.So,its wise not to induldge in practices such as animal sacrifices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that same view is highlighted in the following Manu Smriti verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Me he (mam sah)’will devour in the next (world), whose flesh I eat in&#xA;  this (life); the wise declare this (to be) the real meaning of the&#xA;  word ’flesh’(mamsah)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;-Regarding whether using a pumpkin as the sacrifice(bali) is in accordance with Shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;@Mano please read the following passage taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookview.php?chapnum=8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the essence of dharma sindhu&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As regards Bali Vidhana ( sacrifice)  in the Nava Raatraas, ‘Maasha&#xA;  Sahitaanna’ or ‘Kushmaanda’or Pumpkin are the appropriate items as far&#xA;  as Brahmanas are concerned;&lt;/strong&gt; as already mentioned above in the Preface&#xA;  of Navaratri Vrataas, Brahmanena Pashu maamsa Madyaadi Bali daaney,&#xA;  Brahmantwa bhrashtata! ( If Bali is given by Brahmanas in terms of&#xA;  Madya Maamsaas, Brahmantwa is lost forever!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the above quote proves that  using a pumpkin as the bali is in accordance with Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-02T05:33:47.853" LastActivityDate="2016-11-02T05:33:47.853" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15645" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15639" CreationDate="2016-10-27T13:51:38.973" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two Kailasas. One in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-48/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Cosmic Plane&lt;/a&gt; and other Kailasa on Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्य पूर्णावतारो हि रुद्रः साक्षाच्छिवः स्मृतः। कैलासे भवनं रम्यं&#xA;पञ्चवक्त्रश्चकार ह। ब्रह्माण्डस्य तथा नाशे तस्य नाशोऽस्ति वै नहि॥ ५०&#xA;।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudra happens to be his complete and perfect incarnation. Five faced&#xA;Siva (Sada Shiva), has built a blissful abode at Kailāśa, which is beyond&#xA;destruction even after the destruction of the universe. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just after creation, Kubera prayed to Lord Shiva at Kasi, where Shiva is always present in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14371/3500&quot;&gt;Saguna form as &lt;em&gt;Vishweswara&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. After granting boons to Kubera, Shiva &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-52/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;thought&lt;/a&gt; to stay close to His devotee Kubera.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रुद्रो हृदयजो मे हि पूर्णाशो ब्रह्म एकलः। हरिब्रह्मादिभिः सेव्यो&#xA;मदभिन्नो निरञ्जनः॥ ४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudra born out of my heart is the only and complete Brahman, who is&#xA;served by Brahma, Visnu and other gods. He is inseparable from me&#xA;being invisible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्स्वरूपेण तत्रैव सुहन्दूत्वा विलास्यहम्।। कुबेरस्य च वत्स्यामि&#xA;करिष्यामि तपो महत्॥५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, I, in that form, becoming his friend, shall live at Kailasa&#xA;close to Kubera and performs severe tapas.” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Shiva in human form as Rudra moved to Kailasa mountain, which is curently situated in Tibet. However, this story happened in &lt;em&gt;Meghavana Kalpa&lt;/em&gt;, which came after &lt;em&gt;Padma kalpa&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kailasa is described in very detail in  &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavata.org/canto4/chapter6.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 6 of 4th Canto of Srimad Bagavatam.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After thus having instructed the godly ones Lord Brahmâ went away with&#xA;in his wake the forefathers and the leaders of the people whom he took&#xA;from his own place to the abode of Lord S'iva, Kailâsa, the best of&#xA;all mountains that is so dear to the master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The place] enjoyed by&#xA;Kinnaras, Gandharvas, and Apsaras [the residents and singers of heaven&#xA;and their wives] is populated by the perfected ones [or Siddhas] who&#xA;differ from other people [or are gifted] by birth, by austerity, by&#xA;their use of herbs or by practicing mantras in yoga.  The mountain&#xA;range home to a diversity of deer is replete with all kinds of&#xA;precious stones and is grown by trees, creepers and a diversity of&#xA;other plants.  The mountain peaks with their crystal clear waterfalls&#xA;have various caves that accommodate the mystics who sport there with&#xA;their loving wives.  Resounding with the cries of peacocks and the&#xA;humming of bees blind of intoxication, there is the continuous song of&#xA;cuckoos and chirping of other birds.  With the elephants moving the&#xA;mountain itself seems to be moving, with the sounds of the waterfalls&#xA;the mountain itself seems to resound and with the trees that yield to&#xA;all desires the mountain itself seems to be stretching its arms&#xA;calling for the birds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(The mountain is further beautified by mandâra,&#xA;pârijâta, sarala (pine) and tamâla trees, s'âla and tâla, kovidâra,&#xA;âsana and arjuna trees, cûtas (mango), kadambas, dhûli-kadambas and&#xA;nâgas, punnâgas and campakas and one also sees there trees like&#xA;pâthalas, as'okas, bakulas, kundas and kurabakas.  And it is also&#xA;adorned with golden colored lotuses, the cinnamon tree and the mâlatî,&#xA;kubja, mallikâ and mâdhavî.  With kata, jackfruit, julara and banyan&#xA;trees, plakshas, nyagrodhas and trees producing asafoetida, there are&#xA;also betelnut trees, pûgas, râjapûgas and jambus [black berries and&#xA;greenery alike]. Offering a variety of trees like kharjûras,&#xA;âmrâtakas, âmras and such and others like priyâlas, madhukas and&#xA;ingudas, it is as well rich with venu-kîcakaih and kîcaka [different&#xA;sorts of bamboo].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kumuda, utpala, kahlâra and s'atapatra lotuses&#xA;cover the lakes of the forests which, filled with the sweet whispers&#xA;of flocks of birds, harbor deer, monkeys, boars, cats, bears,&#xA;s'alyakas, forest cows and asses, tigers, smaller deer and buffaloes&#xA;and such.  It is enjoyed by different types of deer like the&#xA;karnântras, ekapadas, as'vâsyas, vrikas and kastûrîs and has groups of&#xA;banana trees near the sandy banks of the beautiful hillside lakes&#xA;filled with lotuses.  The devoted ones saw the waters of lake&#xA;Alakanandâ carrying the flavor of Satî who bathed there and they were&#xA;struck with wonder about that mountain of the Lord of Ghosts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There&#xA;at Alakâ ['uncommonly beautiful'] they saw the region with the forest&#xA;named Saugandhika ['full of fragrance'], which carried that name&#xA;because of the species of lotus flowers one finds there.  And the two&#xA;rivers the Nandâ and Alakanandâ flowing close to the abode of the feet&#xA;of the master were even holier because of the dust of the lotus feet.&#xA;Dear ruler, in both the rivers the celestial damsels descended coming&#xA;from their dwellings after their lovemaking in order to play there&#xA;with their husbands and splatter each other with the water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two&#xA;streams having turned yellow because of the kunkum powder [that washed&#xA;from their breasts] make the elephants and their females who take a&#xA;bath there drink from the water, even though they aren't thirsty.  The&#xA;heavenly homes enjoyed by the wives of the virtuous  ones were&#xA;bedecked with countless valuable jewels, pearls and gold which made&#xA;them look like clouds in the sky brightened by the flashes of&#xA;lightening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Passing through the Saugandhika forest that was so attractive with its&#xA;variety of trees yielding to all desires with its flowers, fruits and&#xA;leaves, they reached the abode of the Lord of the Yakshas.  There they&#xA;saw the beauty of many birds with red necks whose sounds mixed with&#xA;the humming of bees as also lakes with groups of swans and most&#xA;precious lotus flowers. The breeze of the sandalwood trees made the&#xA;wild elephants flock together and stimulated the minds of the wives of&#xA;the virtuous ones over and over.  The staircases leading to the&#xA;bathing places full of lotuses, used by the ones faithful to the&#xA;divine personality [the Kimpurushas], were made of vaidûrya stone and&#xA;as soon as they saw them they spotted a banyan tree nearby.  At a&#xA;height of thousands of feet it spread out its branches over a quarter&#xA;of the foot of the mountain, casting a fine cooling shadow. It had no&#xA;birds nesting in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Underneath the tree the godly ones saw Lord S'iva, the shelter of many&#xA;a great sage desiring liberation, sitting there as grave as eternal&#xA;time in having given up his wrath.  Saintly liberated souls like the&#xA;Kumâras headed by Sanandana and Kuvera, the master of the Guhyakas and&#xA;Râkshasas, sat there in praise around the solemn and serene Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beauty of Kailasa is also described in &lt;em&gt;Chapter 11, Uttara Khanda of Padma Purana&lt;/em&gt;. The Demon king Jalandhara, who was born out of Amsa of Shiva, saw Kailasa as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada said: 29-40. Then the very mighty son of the Ocean (Jalandhara) proceeded to&#xA;Kailasa. He was surrounded by sixty thousand mahapadma soldiers. In&#xA;the meanwhile, Siva, leaving Kailasa, went, along with his attendants,&#xA;his sons and his dear wife, to (that part of) Kailasa to the north of&#xA;the Manasa (lake). Then on the first day Jalandhara reached Kailasa.&#xA;Setting his army there, he was eager to see Kailasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There the breezes to which the masses of the divine filaments and&#xA;the pollen of mandara (flowers) had resorted, and which were broken by&#xA;the showers of the sprays of cold drops, blew. Charming breezes, high&#xA;like the stout breasts of the siddha women, and rich with the honey of&#xA;mandara, blew there. Seeing there the planting of their feet by ladies&#xA;bright and glossy like the asoka(-flowers), the lord of the demons&#xA;became full of the sexual desire. The gods there delighted at seeing&#xA;their own reflections were pleased. There, the mandara (trees) with&#xA;their sprouts withered, shone everywhere, after having manifested the&#xA;coitus of the kinnara lovers. There the groves of many trees were&#xA;occupied by the attendants of Sambhu. They appeared to be as it were&#xA;well sustained by king Cupid. There the swarms of bees intoxicated by&#xA;the fragrance of sandal and musk appeared like the charcoals of the&#xA;burnt Cupid, that were put out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There, I think, having seen the entire&#xA;beauty of the charming ladies, the friend of (i.e. resembling)&#xA;excellent beauty, musk gave up the amusement of its mind, and plunged&#xA;into blackness. At places there were lotuses shining like excellent&#xA;red chalk. At places there were buds moving from their stems&#xA;resembling the cloveshoot. At places there were bracelets shining like&#xA;rafts on the mountain-streams. At places there were bees bowing&#xA;through the humility of the nicula (a kind of reed) blossoms. At&#xA;places there were fresh mango blossoms, burst and affected by cuckoos.&#xA;At places there were the strong roots of the sali rice, resorted to by&#xA;herds of deer. At places there were groves sanctified by the extremely&#xA;beautiful young married divine ladies, which caused a change even in&#xA;the minds of sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2018-03-19T11:08:58.160" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15646" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-27T13:58:08.627" Score="13" ViewCount="423" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, the names of the days e.g., Sunday, Monday, etc. are not found in scriptures like Srimad Bhagavatam. Say you want to find the day of week of Krishna's birth, it is not available.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do the Vedas mention days such as ravivAra (Sunday), somavAra (Monday) etc?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8028" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-12T01:11:17.573" LastActivityDate="2017-01-12T03:07:39.730" Title="Absence of names of days in scriptures. Why?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|puranas|calendar|panchang|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15648" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-28T06:07:18.510" Score="7" ViewCount="1757" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramavatar, Adisesha took the avatar of Lakshmana. In Krishnavatar, he incarnated as Balarama. After that, Adisesha took the avatar of Ramanujacharya to spread the Vaishnavism. It is also believed that Raghavendra is Adisesha's avatar. Likewise, is there any puranic reference for Adishesha's avatar at end of Kaliyuga to accompany Narayana as Kalki who will come on a white horse with sword?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-10-28T06:40:37.007" LastActivityDate="2017-06-03T14:40:59.440" Title="What is Adi Shesha's role during Kalki avatar?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|adisesha|kalki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15649" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-28T06:19:06.150" Score="0" ViewCount="327" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard from one Madva Achar that Madhvacharya [Acharya for Raghavendra disciples] and Nigamanda Mahadesikan [Acharya for Vadakalai sect Vaishnavites] met and discussed various topics related to Vaisnavism and Madhvism during their period. Any scriptural evidence for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-06-17T08:32:22.363" LastActivityDate="2019-06-17T08:32:22.363" Title="Madhvacharya and Nigamanda Mahadesikan" Tags="|scripture|madhvacharya|vedanta-desika|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15652" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3925" CreationDate="2016-10-28T13:53:12.137" Score="0" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Soul(atma) is placed in the heart as reflection of the super soul(Paramatma) and the presence of soul in the body gives raise to creation of Jeeva which is a super imposed self. All the souls have come come from the same source and shall go back to the same source. This Jeeva is having freedom and is guided by mind, controlled by buddhi. Due to the free will, this jeeva takes to mundane forces and starts acting and reacting thereby creating a dome of Karma. For example, when we see a rose grown in a pot not belonged to us, the reaction of each person to this rose differs. Some look at it, enjoys it, some try to pluck it, some may eat also. The Atma is neutral and always trying to get back the source but gets entrapped in Jeeva. Like someone wants to reach a place and sits in an auto. Body is auto and the driver is Jeeva or self. Our endeavour is to drive self with the suitable vehicle and select the suitable path. Now the soul over lives, tries to reduce the effect of Jeeva and assumes control of Jeeva and Body. To do this, the soul has to keep on changing the body as body is having lot of limitations and with with each change effect is Jeeva is getting reduced and suitable new body is is being provided.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every day, mother nature provides an opportunity to redeem ourselves and move towards the correct path. Each individual has to select his/her own path. Realised gurus, scriptures do help these seeking individual to some extent in any religion. Chances of getting misguided are there. Also mother nature has provided all that is needed to realise and uplift oneself from within. When the vision is turned towards inside, the real action starts like it will remove all external attachments in the form of material things, relationships, identification etc. There is an inner development starts and the individual starts experiencing tremendous internal energy and the body cannot sustain. Sometimes, this energy is used for external gains and the individual gets into a bigger trouble. But normally, individual will be facilitated to reach the higher spiritual levels by providing a new body in form of death and next birth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This depends upon the level of intensity with which the individual has taken up spiritual ascent. More intense, more detachment to material things and outwardly that person appears to be very ordinary with no extra qualities or powers. His/her internal development would not be made known to others and attimes to repective individual. With spiritual ascent gradually progressing, with each death, the soul is getting more and more liberated, will be allowed to choose the birth pattern, family, area, life and would take birth. So there is no set pattern for the timeline to take rebirth which depends on many factors. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such of those who are in karmic cycle, let us say I have borrowed money from somebody and intentionally did not repay in which case, I will have to keep coming until the other person takes birth, and provides a chance to repay the debt with interest. In the meantime, during my births, I might have created some more Karma and it is difficult to get rid of this without enlightenment. Conversely if somebody borrowed money from me, until they return it, they have to take births. This is secret of getting aid from somebody when least expected. Also it may be noted here that mother nature does not keep anything with her. She would provided a temporary vault for recoding and keeping one's karmas under lock and the key is left with that individual. Only respective individual shall have to clear the vault be it good or bad karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8052" LastActivityDate="2016-10-28T13:53:12.137" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15658" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15659" CreationDate="2016-10-29T07:31:25.460" Score="1" ViewCount="646" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know few methods to clean our Aura are :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Keep the body clean(Abhyanga snana).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Wind bath.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mud bath.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Fire bath.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Eat Veggies.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thought , Word and Deed have to be in harmony channelised towards Dharma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oon-2iB8e8k&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Aura cleansing by Sadhguru Jaggu Vasudev&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other methods which are having reference in our scripts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If above given methods are not correct then do explain with references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastEditorUserId="7753" LastEditDate="2016-10-29T07:39:49.733" LastActivityDate="2016-10-29T11:43:06.123" Title="What are the different methods of Aura cleaning?" Tags="|meditation|chakras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15659" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15658" CreationDate="2016-10-29T08:05:36.093" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you are asking about the different types of baths then Shastras do mention about the &lt;strong&gt;5&lt;/strong&gt; kinds of them viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)Agneya(fiery) 2)Varuna(water bath) 3)Braahma (bathing using Vedic mantras) 4)Vaayavya(windy) &amp;amp; 5)Divya (Celestial holy bath).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.&lt;em&gt;Snaanaani Panchapunyaani Kirtitaani Manishibhihi,Agneyam Varunam Braahmam Vyavyam Divyameva cha&lt;/em&gt;- The learned have declared five kinds of bathing to purificatory : the Agneya or fiery bathing, the Varuna or the watery bathing, the&#xA;  Brahma or Vedic bathing, the VAyavya or windy bathing, and the Divya&#xA;  or the celestial bathing.(Parashara Smriti Chapter 12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1gUhq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1gUhq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agneya&lt;/strong&gt; is smearing the body with holy ash(Vasma or Vibhuti).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Varuna&lt;/strong&gt; is bathing with water,plunging into water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Braahma&lt;/strong&gt; is bathing with marjana mantras like &quot;Om apohistha Mayo bHuba..&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaayavya&lt;/strong&gt; is bathing  with the dust raised by the hoofs of the cows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Divya&lt;/strong&gt; is bathing in rain water when there are rains and sunlight simultaneously.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10 — 11. The Agneya bathing consists in bathing with ashes ; the&#xA;  Varuna is plunging into the water ; the Brahma consists in reciting&#xA;  the verse ' apohishta, &amp;amp;c. ;' the Vayavya is bathing with the dust&#xA;  raised by the hoof of a cow ; but the celestial bathing takes place&#xA;  when one is drenched with, rain-water, the rain coming down while the&#xA;  sun is shining. This kind of bathing is of equal efficacy with the&#xA;  bathing in the river Ganga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,if you are talking about Chakra cleansing, then that is accomplished by meditation(coupled with  repetitions of appropriate beejams like Lam,Ram,Vam,Yam etc) as taught by the teacher.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general,chittasuddhi is obtained by constantly repeating the Ishta mantra (the one received from the Guru) &amp;amp; nadishuddi by the practice of pranayama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-29T11:43:06.123" LastActivityDate="2016-10-29T11:43:06.123" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15662" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-29T17:21:55.713" Score="6" ViewCount="573" Body="&lt;p&gt;When thought of Deepavali the question struck my mind---&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Krishna killed Narakasura and we celebrate Deepavali. Rama killed Ravana mightier than Narakasura. During vijayadasami, Ramlila is the one we celebrate for that. Deepavali is celebrated across India but Ram lila is celebrated mostly in North India only. Why is it so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-02T03:59:50.450" LastActivityDate="2022-06-18T15:41:26.067" Title="Why is Ram lila popular in North India than South India?" Tags="|krishna|rama|culture|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15664" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15666" CreationDate="2016-10-30T03:52:41.590" Score="5" ViewCount="384" Body="&lt;p&gt;If there is any Vasthu dosha then the learned people tell to get the things proper by renovating or rectifying on contructional level.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to rectify Vasthu dosha , can Yagnas, Veda chanting would help ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastActivityDate="2016-10-30T07:00:25.207" Title="Different ways to rectify Vasthu dosha?" Tags="|vastu-shastra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15665" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18792" CreationDate="2016-10-30T04:26:11.953" Score="3" ViewCount="1549" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently found out that lord Hanuman has a son through the question asked on this site called &quot;Did lord Hanuman have a son&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that, a comment I saw said that he had to fight his son to enter a place. Why did he have to fight him even after he had found his son?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-10-30T06:30:48.390" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T12:40:32.493" Title="Why did Hanuman fight his son?" Tags="|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15666" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15664" CreationDate="2016-10-30T05:35:20.173" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So to rectify Vasthu dosha , can Yagnas, Veda chanting would help ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes,One can recite the following Suktam from Rig Veda to pacify Vastu Purusha and lessen the effects of Vastu Dosha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasthoshpathe is the God who protects residencial buildings. As soon&#xA;  as a building is built he occupies it. So immediately after a house is&#xA;  built, the guardian of the house should be made happy, this prayer in&#xA;  the Rig Veda is addressed to this guardian&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few verses from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bharatiweb.com/wp-content/uploads/Vastu-Sooktam-Eng-v11.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Vastu Suktam&lt;/a&gt; are given below: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vasthoshpathe prathi jaanhihyasman, Thsvaveso aanamivo bhavaa na, Yath thwameha prathi thanno jushaswa, Sham no bhava dwipade sham&#xA;  chathushpade.,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh protector of the dwelling, please know us, Make this home good for&#xA;  us and free from ills, Please grant us what we seek from you, Make us&#xA;  who are two legged and four legged&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Yantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; happy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ameevahaa Vasthishpathe, Vishwa roopani avishaan, Sakhaa Suseva yedi&#xA;  na.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh guardian of the house, remove all ills from here, By taking al&#xA;  forms of the universe, And be my friend and provide us good service.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read and understand the full Suktam from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Vaasthu_Manthras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Lord Shiva is the Vastu Pati.So if you make him happy the Vastu problems will automatically get nullified gradually.That is why it is recommended that one acquires a Swaymabhu manifestation of Shiva called the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banalinga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Banalinga&lt;/a&gt; or Narmadeswara linga and place it the north east corner of the house(also known as the Ishana direction).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vaastoshpatey&lt;/strong&gt; Pinaakaaya Muktaye Kevalaayacha, Mrigavyaadhaaya Dakshaaya Sthaanavey Bhishanaayacha/&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;The Principal Founder of&#xA;  Vaastu Shastra&lt;/strong&gt;; The distinguished Wearer of Pinaka Dhanush; The&#xA;  Bestower of Salvation; The Singular and Unique Purusha...)(from Shiva&#xA;  Astottara found in Linga Purana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,since by worshiping a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Yantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sri Yantra&lt;/a&gt; all Gods are getting worshiped one can also acquire a properly energised Sri Yantra and worship it daily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,in case when reconstruction is not possible,the methods given above can be employed to reduce the effects of Vastu Dosha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-30T07:00:25.207" LastActivityDate="2016-10-30T07:00:25.207" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15667" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9656" CreationDate="2016-10-30T07:14:42.110" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karthika month is one of the best among all hindu months for doing all kinds of religious activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana26.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Karthika Masa Mahatmya&lt;/a&gt; chapter in the Skanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As regards Kartika Month, Bhagavan Vishnu always accorded high esteem&#xA;  and whatever good deeds were performed in the ‘Masa’ were fully&#xA;  accepted by all the Devas since they were readily available there&#xA;  through out the month&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The acts and endeavours of the devotees like ‘Snaan’, ‘Daan’,&#xA;  ‘Bhojan’, ‘Vrath’, ‘Til’(Sesame Seeds), Dhenu (Cows), ‘Suvarna’&#xA;  (Gold), ‘Rajat’ (Silver), ‘Bhumi’ (Land), ‘Vastra’(Clothing), Tapasya,&#xA;  Japa, Homa, Yagna, Annadaan, Puja with Tulasi leaves, Abhishek of&#xA;  Vishnu’s Idol with Ganges and other holy river waters as also&#xA;  ‘Panchamrit’ comprising milk, ghee, curd, honey and sugar;&#xA;  ‘Shodasopacharas’ to Deities, Veda- parayana, Purana Shravan, Bhajans,&#xA;  Deva Stutis, Visits to Temples, fasting, abstinence, ‘Jaagarans’&#xA;  (Keeping awake in the night singing hymns), Guru Seva etc. would&#xA;  indeed secure manifold returns in the consecrated month of Kartik.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its not only the women who should actually observe the fasts and other austerities but men should also do the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What to do during Karthika masa:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At every time during the day and night, ‘kirtans’(Stanzas) on one’s&#xA;  own lips must be uttered like ‘Govinda Govinda Hare Murari, Govinda&#xA;  Govinda Mukunda Krishna, Govinda Govinda Rathangapane, Govinda&#xA;  Damodara Maadhaveti’. Specific time on each day must also be&#xA;  apportioned for ‘Bhagavat Geeta Paath’ or reading as many Chapters as&#xA;  possible.Also, a devotee must observe sleeping on the floor and if&#xA;  possible perform Kanya Daan and Vidya Daan in the month. Practice of&#xA;  the month long austerity and good conduct even in one Kartika month in&#xA;  a year ought to result in tangible benefits for sure!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What not to do during this month:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One has to observe certain dont’s during Kartika Month such as&#xA;  avoiding use of oil on the body and food (except on Naraka&#xA;  Chaturdasi), food from others, fruits with many seeds, rice, left over&#xA;  or spoilt food, heavy food and twice a day, drinking intoxicants, use&#xA;  of glass items, eating group food or Grama Purohit, Shraddhas and from&#xA;  women during menses period; eating in lotus leaves, consuming&#xA;  brinjals, carrots, ‘Loki, onions and masoor dal; eating on Ekadashi&#xA;  days; turning off guests at eating time;  conversing with chandal,&#xA;  Mlechha, Patita (women with bad character), Vratahin ( those not&#xA;  observing the rules of Kartika month), hater of Brahmanas, those who&#xA;  talk ill of others, non believers of God/ Godmen and immoral beings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bathing(Snana) in particular, in Karthika month, seems to be of considerable significance :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During the month of Kartika, Snanaas (bathings) acquire considerable&#xA;  importance. Those who are devoted to Surya Deva, Ganesha, Shakti, Siva&#xA;  and Vishnu are all required to formally observe Kartika Snanas. Snanas&#xA;  in favour of Surya need to be followed as long as Surya is in ‘Tula’&#xA;  Rasi. Snanas in favour of Shankara be performed from Asvayuja Pournami&#xA;  to Kartika Pournami. Bathings in favour of Devis be observed from&#xA;  Aswayuja Shukla Pradhana day till Karthika Krishna Chaturdasi while&#xA;  for Ganesha Snanas are to be performed From Ashvin Krishna Chaturdasi&#xA;  till Kartika Krishna Chaturdasi. Bhagavan Janardana would be pleased&#xA;  with formal Snaanas from Aswin Shukla Ekadashi till Kartika Shukla&#xA;  Ekadashi.Those who observe the Snana Procedure during the month of&#xA;  Kartika would be free from the tributations of Yama Dharma Raja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To sum up:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If during the entire Kartik Month-or atleast ‘Pancha Rathras’ (five&#xA;  nights), a devotee recites ‘Om Namo Narayanaya’ as well as reads /&#xA;  hears ‘Vishnu Sahasranam’ and ‘Gajendra Moksha Paatha’, he secures&#xA;  freedom from want, disease, adversity and discontent. Most certainly,&#xA;  the austerities observed on Kartika Ekadashi day alone would ensure&#xA;  contentment in ‘Iham’ (Current Life) and bliss in ‘Param’ (Post Life).&#xA;  Each act of virtue on the most auspicious day of Kartika Ekadashi is&#xA;  bound to obtain a multiplier effect endlessly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-10-30T07:14:42.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15668" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-30T07:44:30.930" Score="2" ViewCount="720" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm a Theoretical physicist rather than that I am a Hindu.These days, I'm on my research on Quantum Entanglement.&#xA;This simply says that &quot;An event at one place can instantaneously event at another place arbitrarily far away faster than light&quot;&#xA;On my quest on my research I saw this verse in Vishnu Sahasthranama sthrothram&#xA;&quot;Manojavasthīrthãkarō vãsurethah vãsuprãdhã|&#xA;Vãsuprãdho va:sudhevo vasurvasumana: havihi ||&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The term Manojavah is explained as siddhi with which we can travel or teleport faster than light.&#xA;Please anyone list out verses in Vedas that allows entanglement and teleportation and how Vedas explain these processes in cosmos.&#xA;I'll be thankful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6905" LastActivityDate="2016-11-01T16:08:40.940" Title="Is there any verse in Vedas explaining Instantaneous Action at a distance" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|science|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15672" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3650" CreationDate="2016-10-30T09:38:02.260" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although the question is already having a selected answer there is no harm in providing another one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt; Hindu Shastras praise the act of constructing temples as an extremely virtuous one.Few such Puranic references are already mentioned in the selected answer.Here are few more from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/agni/bookview.php?chapnum=9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agni Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even a thought of constructing a Temple or a Water Body is adequate to&#xA;  demolish sins of long standing nature and to actually accomplishing&#xA;  the task is like establishing a right to reach Vaikuntha.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;The devotee&#xA;  who completes the temple construction also redeems the sins of his&#xA;  previous generations; indeed, his ‘pitaras’ would secure instant&#xA;  relief from the torments of hells and qualify for substantial&#xA;  dispensations.The person(s) responsible for this deed of extraordinary&#xA;  merit is eligible for ‘Yagna Phal’, ‘Samasta Tirthta Snaana Phal’, and&#xA;  ‘veera phal’or death on battle fields&lt;/strong&gt;. If a miser takes up the deed of&#xA;  Temple renovation, let alone construction, would in his own life time&#xA;  qualify the fulfillment of his dream-like aspirations of muliplying&#xA;  his assets. The construction of even an ‘Ekayatan’ or single one room&#xA;  temple would attain Swargaloka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;more,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even when children for fun or playfulness build temples with sand&#xA;  would also qualify for salvation. Persons who undertake repairs, let&#xA;  alone construct temples new, are also eligible for attaining Mukti.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Those who are responsible for constructing temples of Vishnu, Shiva,&#xA;  Surya or Devi become residents of those very Lokas and more&#xA;  significantly their family members too share the same benefit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp; more,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Yama Dharmara Raja addressed the ‘Yamadootas’ and said: ‘Never&#xA;  bring human beings to ‘Narakas’ who constructed temples, or set up&#xA;  Idols of Devas, or were engaged in regular Pujas there................&lt;strong&gt;Never even look at those who built ‘Mandirs’ of Bhagavan of any name like Vishnu/ Shiva/ Shakti and other Forms or even the progeny or relatives of those illustrious devotees as there is no question of bringing those to Narakas at all&lt;/strong&gt;. Dharmaraja said: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ishtakachaya vinyaaso yaavantyaabdaani tishthati, taadvarsha sahasraani tatkarturdivi samsthitih / Pratimaakrud Vishnu lokam&#xA;  sthaapako leeyatey Harou, Devasadyaprati kruti pratishthaakruttu&#xA;  gocharey&lt;/em&gt;--(&lt;strong&gt;The person who constructed the Temple should reside in Swarga for so many years as the totality of bricks used in it&lt;/strong&gt;. He who made the Pratima would attain ‘Vishnuloka’and he who made the temple and established the Pratima would live in that loka forever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,the Skanda Purana says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like wise anybody establishes a Siva Linga and a Temple Complex would&#xA;  surely reserve a place in Siva Loka . Those who clean up any Siva&#xA;  Temple with a broom would be free from ailments and illness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2&amp;amp;4)Hindu Shastras will never force someone into doing something but the Scriptures do mention the need of visiting Temples on certain occasions.Even the oldest Dharma Shastra ,the Manu Smriti,says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.153. &lt;strong&gt;But on the Parva-days let him go to visit the (images of the) gods&lt;/strong&gt;, and virtuous Brahmanas, and the ruler (of the country), for the&#xA;  sake of protection, as well as his Gurus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UJlSw.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UJlSw.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)The rules are many regarding Temple worship.You can find few glimpses of them in the Agni Purana page itself.Rules of worshiping in homes are also many and are contained in the Smritis &amp;amp; other Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5)The Puranas mention about temples on &lt;strong&gt;numerous&lt;/strong&gt; occasions.So,without doubt temples originated from Shastras and not from human mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following references of temples are from Manu Smriti itself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.248. Tanks, wells, cisterns, and fountains should be built where boundaries meet, as well as &lt;strong&gt;temples&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.46.(let him not evacuate bowels) Nor on ploughed land, in water, on an altar of bricks, on a mountain, on the &lt;strong&gt;ruins of a temple&lt;/strong&gt;, nor ever&#xA;  on an ant-hill,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.280. Those who break into a (royal) storehouse, an armoury, or &lt;strong&gt;a temple&lt;/strong&gt;, and those who steal elephants, horses, or chariots, he shall&#xA;  slay without hesitation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.180 (Food) given to a seller of Soma becomes ordure, (that given) to a physician pus and blood, but (that presented) to a &lt;strong&gt;temple-priest&lt;/strong&gt; is&#xA;  lost, and (that given) to a usurer finds no place (in the world of the&#xA;  gods)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-30T09:43:07.273" LastActivityDate="2016-10-30T09:43:07.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15673" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9126" CreationDate="2016-10-30T14:49:30.157" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just think of Parliament of Religion , Chicago. What have we heard. It was a divine voice that proclaimed a profound philosophy , that came out of Swamiji. Who else other than Lord Shiva , could have delivered such a profound philosophy.  Lord did it through his human form  Just like Sri Shanakaracharya ( definitely a Shiva Avatar )  did it several hundreds years ago . He was the symbol of eternal India . People are now gradually realising it &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om Namaha Shivaya ,&#xA;Om Namaha Sri Shankaraya .&#xA;Om Namah Mahacharya Vivekanandaya . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8059" LastActivityDate="2016-10-30T14:49:30.157" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15675" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15609" CreationDate="2016-10-31T03:28:39.763" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nigamantha Maha Desikan(1268-1370 CE) was a Srivaishnava Guru lived post Sri Ramanuja Period. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Two titles were given by both Lord Ranganatha and his consort. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Sarvathanthra swathanthrar&lt;/code&gt; - which means that he is master of all&#xA;arts, crafts. This title conferred upon him by Sri Ranganayaki&#xA;Thayar.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Vedanthacharya&lt;/code&gt; -  title conferred upon him by Sri Ranganathan&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sources&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/oppiliappan/archives/oct03/msg00128.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/oppiliappan/archives/oct03/msg00128.html&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://srivedantadesikan.blogspot.in/2007/02/swami-at-srirangam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://srivedantadesikan.blogspot.in/2007/02/swami-at-srirangam.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="327" LastActivityDate="2016-10-31T03:28:39.763" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15676" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15685" CreationDate="2016-10-31T04:55:45.137" Score="13" ViewCount="7812" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've came across this question in &lt;a href=&quot;http://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-in-india/diwali-celebration-origin-ram-returned-to-ayodhya-from-lanka-in-20-day-how-netizens-find-out-3729715/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Quora&lt;/a&gt; which got so many answers according to their view. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think some answers are utterly incorrect. Moreover one answer says it took 1 yr 18 days to return to &lt;em&gt;Ayodhya&lt;/em&gt;. I think it contradicts and deviates from the actual information in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But was it really mentioned in &lt;em&gt;valmiki ramayana&lt;/em&gt; that they took 20 days to reach &lt;em&gt;Ayodhya&lt;/em&gt; from &lt;em&gt;Sri Lanka&lt;/em&gt;? What is the actual time he took to return to &lt;em&gt;Ayodhya&lt;/em&gt; and how did he returned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7277" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T06:42:48.173" LastActivityDate="2022-01-17T08:35:12.523" Title="Did Lord Rama reach Ayodhya after 20 days from Dusherra?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|history|rama|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15678" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-10-31T07:18:12.647" Score="0" ViewCount="2932" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Bheeshma was glorifying Krishna with Sahasranamam everyone was looking at him including Krishna and Vyasa. The first to react was Yudhistirar. He said, ‘Pithamaha has chanted 1000 glorious names of Vasudeva. All of us listened but none of us have noted it down. The sequence is lost’. Then all turned to Krishna and asked for His help. As usual He said, ‘I also was listening like the rest of you. What can we do?’&#xA;Who recorded the Vishnu sahasranama and thru which mode?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-10-31T13:07:50.520" Title="Recording of Vishnu Sahasranamam" Tags="|krishna|bhishma|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15680" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14336" CreationDate="2016-10-31T09:45:31.063" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;What you read/heard is only the partial truth.There are two more nakshtras which are considered equally inauspicious as per the &quot;Gandamoola&quot; concept viz-Aswini and Revati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 27 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nakshatras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;nakshtras&lt;/a&gt; in all in Jyotish.Of them  6 nakshtras, 3 ruled by Ketu(viz-&lt;strong&gt;Aswini,Magha &amp;amp; Mula&lt;/strong&gt;) &amp;amp; 3 ruled by Budha(viz-&lt;strong&gt;Revati,Ashlesa &amp;amp;Jyestha&lt;/strong&gt;) are called &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.komilla.com/lib-gandanta.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gandamoola nakshtras&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.Birth in them are considered inauspicious.Infact,not only Moon,other Grahas are also supposed to give malefic results if placed in the &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.komilla.com/lib-gandanta.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Gandantas&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gandanta is the junction points in the zodiac that a particularly&#xA;  connected with times of soul growth. This is the position of the&#xA;  zodiac where the where the solar and lunar Zodiac meet. These points&#xA;  are at the junctions of Pisces (Revati)- Aries (Ashwini), Cancer&#xA;  (Ashesha)- Leo (Magha), Scorpio (Jyeshta)- Sagittarius (Mula). They&#xA;  are especially powerful in giving Karmic effects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.premastrologer.com/gandmoolfaqs.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;What is a Gandamool Nakshatra?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are 27 Nakshatras in Vedic Astrology; in the modern era most of&#xA;  the astrologers count 28 Nakshatras including Abhijit Nakshatra. Those&#xA;  Nakshatras which are ruled by Ketu and Mercury are known as Gandmool&#xA;  Nakshatra. These are basically 6 nakshatras namely Ashwini, Ashlesha,&#xA;  Magha, Jyestha, Moola and Revati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the authentic Jyotisha text, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/bphspage1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra&lt;/a&gt; ,mentions that birth in these nakshtras are considered inauspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-4. The Venerable Sage said. &lt;strong&gt;O Maitreya! Now I will describe to you&#xA;  the circumstances, in which the births are inauspicious in spite of&#xA;  Lagn and the Grahas being well disposed.&lt;/strong&gt; Although Lagn may be well&#xA;  disposed, births will be inauspicious, if they take place on Amavasya&#xA;  (last day of the Krishna Paksha), on Chaturdasi (14th Tithi), in&#xA;  Krishna Paksha (dark half of the month), in Bhadra Karan, in the&#xA;  Nakshatr of the brother, in the Nakshatras of father and mother, at&#xA;  the time of entry of Surya in a Rashi, the time of Pata, at the time&#xA;  of solar and lunar eclipses, at the time of Vyati Pata, &lt;strong&gt;in Gandantas&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  of all the three kinds, in Yamaghant, Tithikshaya, in Dagdha Yog etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remedies include chanting the Janma Nakshatra mantras etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-10-31T14:59:06.930" LastActivityDate="2016-10-31T14:59:06.930" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15681" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="31782" CreationDate="2016-10-31T11:10:12.417" Score="4" ViewCount="334" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that Azhvaars are Sriman Narayana Bhakthas.They sung in praise of him.They are not Vishishtadvaitins. Later Srivaishnava Acharyas(Ramanuja and his disciples) wrote commentaries to Azhvaar works to suit Srivaishnavam and the same Acharyas included Nammazhvaar as an Acharya of Srivaishnava and Vishishtadvaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source of the claim is a tamil video available in youtube&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Part one - &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/9khzrGxuRnY?t=722&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://youtu.be/9khzrGxuRnY?t=722&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Part two - &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGTU0cadupY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGTU0cadupY&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few Questions I have based on the video&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is this a valid claim that Azhwars are only Bhagavathas whose Ishta&#xA;devatha is Vishnu or can Azhwars called as Vishishtadvaitins?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As per the speaker of the video, only who undergone Panchasamskara under Ramanuja or his disciples are called Srivaishnavas. If this is true, can panchasamskara be equated to baptism in Christianity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="327" LastEditorUserId="10413" LastEditDate="2021-02-24T07:49:19.470" LastActivityDate="2021-02-24T07:49:19.470" Title="How Are Azhwaars Vishishtadvaitins?" Tags="|vishnu|vedanta|sri-vaishnava|ramanujacharya|alwar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15682" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15678" CreationDate="2016-10-31T13:07:50.520" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only HE can give this kind of explanation. Read the power of Sapdika…….&#xA;  Once  way back in 1940s or 50s someone was interviewing Maha Periyavaar. That gentleman recorded the interview using a tape recorder. Periyavaa then posed a question.&#xA;  “Does anyone know which is the oldest known tape recorder?”&#xA;  Nobody was able to answer. Then Maha Periyavaa asked another question.&#xA;  “How did Vishnu Sahasranamam comes to us?”&#xA;  Someone said Bheeshma gave it to us.&#xA;  All agreed. Then Maha Periyavaa posed another query .&#xA;  “When all were listening to Bheeshma on the battlefield, who took notes at Kurukshetra?”&#xA;  Again silence.&#xA;  Maha Periyavaar explained…&#xA;  When Bheeshma was glorifying Krishna with Sahasranamam Everyone was looking at him including Krishna and Vyasa. After he finished the 1000 Namas all opened their eyes. The first to react was Yudhistirar. He said, ‘Pithamaha has chanted 1000 glorious names of Vasudeva. All of us listened but none of us have noted it down. The sequence is lost’. Then all turned to Krishna and asked for His help. As usual He said, ‘I also was listening like the rest of you. What can we do?’&#xA;  Then all beseeched Krishna to help them recover the precious rendition. Then Krishna said, ‘It can only be done by Sahadeva and Vyasa will write it down.’&#xA;  Everyone wanted to know how Sahadeva could do it. Krishna replied, ‘Sahadeva is the only one amongst us wearing SUTHA SPATIKAM. If he prays to Shiva and does dhyanam he can convert the SPATIKA into waves of sound and Vyasa can write it down. Then, both Sahadeva and Vyasa, sat in the same place, under Bheeshma, where he had recited the Sahasranamam. Sahadeva started the dhyanam to recover the sound waves from the Spatika.&#xA;  The nature of Spatika is that it will capture sounds in a calm environment which can be got back with proper dhyanam of Maheswara who is Swethambara and SPATIKA. So, the world’s earliest tape recorder is this SPATIKA which gave us the wonderful Vishnu Sahasranama.  when Maha Periyavaar explained this all were stunned… From the Spatika recording, the grantha came to us thru Vyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source---My friend who is an ardent devotee of Maha Periava sent the above thru mail&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-10-31T13:07:50.520" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15684" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16174" CreationDate="2016-10-31T15:28:21.027" Score="7" ViewCount="1653" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As to why I was curious upon a question like this :&lt;/strong&gt; given that ancient Hinduism has given world the popular literature work of &lt;em&gt;kama sutra&lt;/em&gt;, so surely there must be some reference as to a thing like this in our religion, moreover this occupation/practice is as old as any other ancient puja or culture, so surely there must be a piece of script regarding this topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;what I exactly seek to know :&lt;/strong&gt; Are there any specific piece of literature discussing about this very topic ? Was this taboo practice considered a sin and why so ? Were there any instances where gods were directly involved in any such thing ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;N.B. :&lt;/strong&gt; I don't wish to offend anyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2974" LastEditorUserId="2974" LastEditDate="2016-10-31T17:34:21.867" LastActivityDate="2024-02-13T04:11:11.043" Title="What place does a thing like prostitution occupy in the Hindu context?" Tags="|sin|sex|scripture|kama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15685" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15676" CreationDate="2016-10-31T17:06:22.173" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do not know how the story of Rama killing Ravana on Vijaya Dashami and returning on Deepawali became famous. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If we go through Valmiki Ramayana. It doesn&amp;apos;t give precise information on  time span between killing of Ravana and returning of Rama to Ayodhya. Furthermore, it is not possible that Rama killed Ravana on Vijaya Dashami and awaited 20 days there and returned to Ayodhya on Deepawali, as they returned through Pushpak Vimana.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana Patala Khanda chapter 36&lt;/strong&gt; gives each and every Tithi of Rama's life in detail. The relevant verses from that Chapter are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;संस्कारो रावणादीनाममावस्यादिनेऽभवत् ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वैशाखादितिथौ राम उवास रणभूमिषु ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अभिषिक्तो द्वितीयायां लङ्काराज्ये विभीषणः ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सीताशुद्धिस्तृतीयायां देवेभ्यो वरलम्भनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हत्वा चिरेण लङ्केशं लक्ष्मणाग्रज एव सः ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गृहीत्वा जानकीं पुण्यां दुःखितां राक्षसेन तु ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आदाय परया प्रीत्या जानकीं स न्यवर्तत ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वैशाखस्य चतुर्थ्यां तु रामः पुष्पकमाश्रितः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विहायसा निवृत्तस्तु भूयोऽयोध्यां पुरीं प्रति ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पूर्णे चतुर्दशे वर्षे पञ्चम्यां माधवस्यतु ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भरद्वाजाश्रमे रामः सगणः समुपाविशत् ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नन्दिग्रामे तु षष्ठ्यां स भरतेन समागतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सप्तम्यामाभिषिक्तोऽसावयोध्यायां रघुद्वहः ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दशैकाधिकमासांस्तु चतुर्दशाहानि मैथिली ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उवास रामरहिता रावणस्य निवेशने ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  द्विचत्वारिंशक वर्षे रामो राज्यमकारयत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सीतायाश्च त्रयस्त्रिंशद्वत्सराश्च तदाऽभवन् ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स चतुर्दशवर्षान्ते प्रविश्य च पुरीं प्रभुः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अयोध्यां मुदितो रामो हत्वा रावणमाहवे॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भ्रातृभिः सहितस्तत्र रामो राज्यमथाकरोत्।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The obsequial ceremonies of Ravana and others took place on the new-moon day. Rama stayed on the battlefield on the first day of Vaisakha. &lt;strong&gt;On the second day of Vaisakha Vibhisana was consecrated on the kingdom&lt;/strong&gt; (i.e. as the king) of Lanka. &lt;strong&gt;On the third day took place the purification of Sita and obtaining boons from gods.&lt;/strong&gt; Having, after a long time, killed the lord of Lanka, he, the elder brother of Laksmana, accepted the auspicious Janaki, afflicted by the demon (viz. Ravana) and taking her (with him) with great love, he returned. &lt;strong&gt;On the fourth day of Vaisakha Rama got into the Puspaka&lt;/strong&gt; and through the sky again came back to Ayodhya. When the fourteenth year was complete &lt;strong&gt;Rama along with his group stayed in Bharadvaja&amp;apos;s &#xA;  hermitage on the fifth day of Vaisakha. On the sixth day he met Bharata at Nandigrama. On the seventh the descendant of Raghu (i.e. Rama) was consecrated (as the king) in Ayodhya.&lt;/strong&gt; MaithilI (i.e. SIta) lived without Rama in the house of Ravana for eleven months and fourteen days. Rama ruled (i.e. was consecrated as the king) when he was forty-two years old. At that time SIta had completed thirty-three years. That lord Rama being delighted entered the city Ayodhya at the end of the fourteenth year and with his brothers ruled there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus Rama got into Pushpaka on 4th of Vaisakha. He lived in Bhardwaja Ashrama on 5th day of Vaisakha. He met Bharata at Nandigrama on 6th day of Vaisakha. Rama was Consecrated as king on 7th day of Vaisakha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Deepawali and VinayaDashami falls on Ashwin Kartik and considering 20 days gap between them, it is not possible that Rama killed Ravana on Dashami and returned on Deepawali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T09:18:00.563" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T09:18:00.563" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15686" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15668" CreationDate="2016-10-31T18:18:57.290" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Finding a direct mention of a modern day scientific theory in texts that are over 5000 years old, would be an exercise in futility.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the implied evidence hidden in deep symbolism that can let us assume that the ancient sages new a lot about the creation &amp;amp; working of the universe to a fairly accurate degree.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Wikipedia,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Quantum Entanglement&lt;/a&gt; is a physical phenomenon that occurs when&#xA;  pairs or groups of particles are generated or interact in ways such&#xA;  that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described&#xA;  independently of the others...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or to put in the simple terms.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even the farthest points in the cosmos are related and respond to each&#xA;  other through ‘something’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here's what Manu Smriti has to say.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rYMzs.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rYMzs.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.27 But with the minute perishable particles of the five (elements) which have been mentioned, this whole(world) is framed in due order.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;This sloka in it’s core talks about the same fundamental sub-atomic elements &#xA;being the building blocks of everything in the known universe.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eQvpN.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eQvpN.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.20 Among them each succeeding (element) acquires the quality of the preceding one, and whatever place (in the sequence) each of them occupies, even so many qualities it is declared to possess.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;This sloka mentions that since everything is made from the same basic elements, &#xA;they also have the qualities of each other.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Rkq4q.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Rkq4q.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.26. Moreover, in order to distinguish actions, he separated merit from demerit, and he caused the creatures to be affected by the pairs (of opposites), such as pain and pleasure.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;And here is the symbolism for inherent duality in nature that quantum mechanics advocates.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Coming to the relation part...&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/raTkm.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/raTkm.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.50. The (various) conditions in this always terrible and constantly changing circle of births and deaths to which created beings are subject, are stated to begin with (that of) Brahman, and to end with (that of) these (just mentioned immovable creatures).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Einstein called it Ether, Particle Physics calls it Higgs Field  &#xA;And Quantum Mechanics calls it Entanglement &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Hinduism it is ‘Brahman’ or ‘Consciousness’&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘Brahman’ is the force behind creation and reason behind entanglement of everything in the universe.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/doc/7189037/Manu-Smriti-Sanskrit-Text-With-English-Translation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastEditorUserId="7442" LastEditDate="2016-11-01T03:09:23.543" LastActivityDate="2016-11-01T03:09:23.543" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15689" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10618" CreationDate="2016-11-01T09:50:32.873" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Magha sukla Paksha saptami&lt;/strong&gt; is known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/festivals/ratha-saptami/ratha-saptami-date-time.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ratha Saptami&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; is considered as the most auspicous day to worship Lord Surya.It is also believed that Surya Deva started illuminating the whole world on the Saptami Tithi and hence it is also known as &quot;Surya Jayanti&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bathing in Arunodaya time, &quot;Arghya Pradana&quot;(offering water) are considered two highly auspicious and rewarding acts on this day&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Arunoday &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookview.php?chapnum=12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Snaana Mantra&lt;/a&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yada Janma krutam paapam mayaa janmasu Janmasu, Tanmey Rogam cha&#xA;  shokam cha Maakarihantu Saptami/ Yetatjjanmakrutam paapam yaccha&#xA;  janmaantaraarjitam, Manovaakkaayajam yaccha jnaataajnaatey cha ye&#xA;  punah/Iti Sapta vidham paapam  Snaanmey Sapta Saptikey, Sapta Vyaadhi&#xA;  samaayuktam hara Maakari Saptami /&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (May the entirety of my sins&#xA;  accumulated in my present and previous births on account of conscious&#xA;  and unconscious acts or those perpetrated by my vocal or mental roots&#xA;  be dissolved on this Makara Saptami and may this Sacred Snaana with my&#xA;  earnest and heartfelt supplications and obeisances to you Surya Deva,&#xA;  in the form of Seven kinds of  Sins and Seven types of Diseases be&#xA;  destroyed for ever!).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,the &quot;Arghya Pradana&quot; mantra states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sapta Saptivaha preeta Saptaloka pradeepana, Saptami sahito Deva gruhanaarghya Divaakara&lt;/em&gt;/&lt;/strong&gt;  (Divaakara! You are affectionate of riding&#xA;  on the chariot drwan by Seven Horses with Seven Names and bestow&#xA;  splendour to Seven Lokaas obviously fond of the numeral of Seven;&#xA;  Bhagavan! may I have the privilege of offering ‘Arghya’ on this&#xA;  Saptami Tithi to mark my reverence!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The significance of Ratha Saptami is given in more than one Puranas including the &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Purana&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;strong&gt;Varaha Purana&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; the &lt;strong&gt;Suryopakhana chapter&lt;/strong&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/bhavishya/bookview.php?chapnum=10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhavisya Purana&lt;/a&gt;.The following quote is taken from the Bhavisya Purana page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It was on �Saptami�Tithi that Bhagavan Surya made his initial&#xA;  manifestation to the Universe. His original Appearance inside a Holy&#xA;  Egg continued and from there itself, he grew and hence was called&#xA;  �Martaanda�. He was wedded to the daughter of Daksha Prajapati, called&#xA;  Sanjna, and begot Dharma Raja, Vaivasvata and Yamuna Devi. But since&#xA;  Sanjna was unable to bear the heat and dazzle of Surya Deva, created&#xA;  from her shadow a similar substitute, called Chhaya Devi to proxy her&#xA;  and left for Uttarakuru Desha to perform Tapasya in the form of as a&#xA;  horse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, Chhaya Devi gave birth to Shaneswara and Devi Tapati, but&#xA;  aftersome time, Chhaya Devi�s partial attitude to her own children and&#xA;  those of Sanjna came to be noticed; Yama Dharma pointed out to Chhaya&#xA;  Devi about the differential treatment and in course of the argument,&#xA;  Yama raised his right leg�s ankle which was objected to by Chhaya and&#xA;  she gave a curse to Yama that if his feet ankles were placed on Earth&#xA;  they would be eaten by worms! As Dharma Raja complained to Surya Deva,&#xA;  the father assuaged the feelings of his son, who was in fact a&#xA;  specimen of virtue, saying that the �shaap�of Sandhya Devi was not to&#xA;  be too harmful since, after all, worms might take away the flesh and&#xA;  blood of his ankle to Bhuloka but feet would be in tact any way.&#xA;  Sandhya was frightened and blurted the truth to Surya Deva that Sanjna&#xA;  materialised her to deputise her and the latter left to her father�s&#xA;  place; Daksha told Surya Deva that Sanjna could not withstand his heat&#xA;  and had been performing Tapasya in the form of a horse at Uttarakuru.&#xA;  Surya requested Vishwakarma to reduce his heat and radiance and after&#xA;  assuming the forms of a horse approached Sanjna and by the mutual&#xA;  contact of the noses of Surya and Sanjana in horse forms were born&#xA;  Ashvini Kumars and Raivata. &lt;strong&gt;Since the Episode of Sanjna and Surya&#xA;  occurred on Sapta Tithi of Magha Shukla Paksha as above, the day is&#xA;  considered as most auspicious to signify the union the Couple.&lt;/strong&gt; Those&#xA;  who perform the Saptami Vrata of Bhagavan Surya by keeping fast on&#xA;  Shashthi, the previous day as well as on that day till the dusk time,&#xA;  perform formal Puja on Saptami, give away a good food with penty of&#xA;  Vegetables to Brahmanas along with Vastras, dakshina and gifts, and&#xA;  break the fast with the food observing silence during the night would&#xA;  be eligible to the fulfillment of desires, victory, and even Kingship.&#xA;  King Kuru observed this Vrata for several years at Kurukshetra on&#xA;  Magha Saptami and attained fulfillment of all desires&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the importance of worshiping Surya with Arka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every Deities have certain favorite flowers and certain prohibited flowers not to be used in their pujas.Arka is probably a favorite flower of Surya but i have not found anything proving that fact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, Lord Shiva is said to be very fond of this Arka  flower :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chaturnaam Pushpa Jaateenaam G andhamaaghraati Shankarah, Arkasya&#xA;  Karaveerasya Bi lvasya Vakulasya cha&lt;/em&gt;/ ( &lt;strong&gt;Shankara Maha Deva is fond of&#xA;  the Sugandha of Arka,&lt;/strong&gt; Karaveera, Bilwa and Vakula&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-01T16:22:53.030" LastActivityDate="2016-11-01T16:22:53.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15690" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-01T11:11:20.260" Score="2" ViewCount="197" Body="&lt;p&gt;Datta (Dattatreya) Jayanti falls on Decmber 13th this year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can you tell me how should this day be observed? What rituals or prayers should be done on this day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="904" LastActivityDate="2016-11-01T11:11:20.260" Title="What should be done on Datta Jayanti?" Tags="|dattatreya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15693" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-01T18:28:01.013" Score="28" ViewCount="16747" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ok, I understand there are lot of Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to read them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wish to read them for.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;meditation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;to gain wisdom/knowledge&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;raise positive vibrational energy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;but most importantly break out of bad karma do (I believe in reincarnation)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can I read it continuously till I finish, and then start again?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or are some parts read during some times of the day.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And which texts do you recommend for beginners? Would Bhagavad Gita, Rig Vedas be a good start?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="20968" LastEditDate="2023-03-08T12:32:48.477" LastActivityDate="2023-04-13T14:28:44.140" Title="How to read Hindu Scriptures.?" Tags="|scripture|practice|prayer|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15694" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-01T21:09:38.073" Score="14" ViewCount="4957" Body="&lt;p&gt;After Lord Krishna kills evil king Kansa and frees his parents from prison, he studies at an Ashram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The teacher says he is pleased with Lord Krishna's progress because he learned 64 Arts and 14 Sciences in 64 days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are these 64 Arts and 14 Sciences. Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/qX3vZXgBG4Q?t=9m1s&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;video clip&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oZKC4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oZKC4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-04-25T14:31:46.697" LastActivityDate="2019-04-06T15:55:40.943" Title="Scriptures: 64 Arts and 14 Sciences" Tags="|krishna|art|ashram|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15697" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-02T12:38:00.450" Score="1" ViewCount="142" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please, reveal to me the scriptures that can teach me to live in the way most holy, no matter where we live on earth. What practises shall I undertake. I love life and God, but I know my actions are not as pure as I need them to be. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can I learn to become the best form of human I can be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8078" LastActivityDate="2016-11-02T18:06:06.997" Title="I live in North America - how can I live a pious life?" Tags="|practice|bhakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-11-03T08:04:10.747" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15698" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15699" CreationDate="2016-11-02T12:54:10.520" Score="3" ViewCount="1548" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a Hindu who is a devotee Sain Sacho Satram Das (my Satguru) whose faith is fairly strong but has a fair amount of questions about Hinduism. I believe that I will get answers to all of them on this site. This is my first question here at Hinduism Stack Exchange and I hope that I will get knowledge that will satisfy my unresting thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was searching this morning about blood sacrifices in Hinduism and I got a somewhat satisfying answer from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2117/how-is-animal-or-human-sacrifice-justified&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; post on Hinduism Stack Exchange which has a tick mark on the answer. But then another related question rolled in my mind. The person who answered the question says that blood sacrifices for Goddess Kali are done in Hinduism for those who really can not abondon meat eating because consumption of meat is prohibited in Hinduism by a lot of saints and also in a lot of the scriptures. Blood Sacrifices are also done in Hinduism because it is good for both the animal being sacrificed as he gets immediate allowance to be born as a human in the next life because the souls have to be born as a lot of different animals before they are born as a human, and it is good for the human who is sacrificing the animal as he gets to eat meat which is sacrificed for Goddess Kali and not any other unclean meat which is sold in slaughterhouses. In brief, it is for those who can not leave meat eating. If you want to eat meat, be a devotee of Goddess Kali. But then there are thousands of Hindus who are devotees of, for example Lord Shiva, Guru Nanak, Sai Baba who eat meat. Why is this? If it is said that if a Hindu wants to eat meat, he should be a follwer of Goddess Kali and if he is a follower of any other deity, he is not allowed, then why do other Hindus eat meat? And do sacrificial acts not tackle the law of Ahimsa (the rule which states that we should not violate any living being) in Hinduism as a whole?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this brothers. I hope to get a fully satisfying answer. :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8076" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-11-03T17:28:36.923" Title="A question about blood sacrificial acts in Hinduism" Tags="|goddess|kali|ahimsa|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15699" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15698" CreationDate="2016-11-02T14:20:41.460" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You have many questions and let me answer each question. Actually, most of your questons are answered already on this site. As it is difficult to mark this question as exact duplicate, i am providing an answer for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is Non Veg allowed in Hinduism?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes. &lt;strong&gt;It is allowed but not recommended&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can eat meat when your life is in danger i.e, when doctor prescribes you to eat. For example, your body may badly require some protiens and you can eat meat in those cases as Human birth is aquired after lots of good virtues or &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;. It is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14018/3500&quot;&gt;not wise to torment your own Human body&lt;/a&gt; by not eating &lt;em&gt;mamsa&lt;/em&gt; in those cases. Also, you can eat meat if you do lots of Physical work. Rama, Krishna and Pandavas as Kshatriyas &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2002/3500&quot;&gt;ate &lt;em&gt;Mamsa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. They need to participate in wars as part of their Kshatriya Dharma and they need muscular body to do that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/127/3500&quot;&gt;This answer&lt;/a&gt; explains beautifully, why it is &lt;strong&gt;not recommended&lt;/strong&gt; (not mandatory) to eat &quot;living animals&quot; but not &quot;living plants&quot;. I provide some verses from that answer to justify eating meat when our life is in danger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One can eat meat when his life is in danger. (i.e. if the condition is&#xA;  such that if you don't eat meat you will die.) [Manu. Smrt. - 5.27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the sustenance of life Prajapati created everything. So both&#xA;  movable and immovable are the food of prana (life force) [Manu. Smrt.&#xA;  - 5.28]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually, we should offer whatever we eat first to God or our Ista Deva. This is what Krishna Paramatma says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-13/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavadgita 3.13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo &lt;br&gt; mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhuñjate te tv aghaḿ pāpā &lt;br&gt; ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because&#xA;  they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who&#xA;  prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear that we can offer food to Devas or Lord first in those cases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there are three types of foods. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2660/3500&quot;&gt;Satvic, rajasic and Tamasic.&lt;/a&gt; Our &lt;em&gt;Gunas&lt;/em&gt; or traits depend on what we eat. Generally, it is &lt;em&gt;not recommended&lt;/em&gt; to eat Tamasic foods as we acquire &lt;em&gt;Tamas guna&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer following questions to get more clarity. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15640/is-the-ritual-of-killing-an-animal-as-offering-to-maa-kali-correct&quot;&gt;Is the ritual of killing an animal as offering to Maa Kali correct?&lt;/a&gt;  and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8206/should-a-brahmin-be-vegetarian&quot;&gt;Should a Brahmin be vegetarian?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Should i become &lt;em&gt;Kaali Maa Bhakta&lt;/em&gt; to eat meat?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As said above, we can eat meat if our life is in danger or during festivals when animals are sacrificed to Kaali Mata or any form of her form (especially &lt;em&gt;Grama Devata&lt;/em&gt; in South India).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As stated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15642/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, sacrificing animals for Kali Mata or any Grama Devata will take those sacrificed animals to heaven, as mentioned in Srimad Devi Bhagavatam. But this doesn't mean you should be Kali Bhakta to eat meat. You can offer it to Devas (or your Ista Deva) and eat it (mostly recommended this only when your life is in danger).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manumsriti says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Irrespective of whether one has bought the meat, killed the animal&#xA;  himself or has received from another person, there is no fault in&#xA;  eating meat when it has been offered to the gods and the manes. [Manu&#xA;  - 5.32]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can worship any form of Brahman (Shiva, Vishnu or Durga) or any Deva and eat meat by offering to your Ista Deva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please refer the question, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3241/should-we-chant-mantras-before-eating-food/3275&quot;&gt;Should we chant mantras before eating food?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And do sacrificial acts not tackle the law of Ahimsa (the rule which&#xA;states that we should not violate any living being) in Hinduism as a&#xA; whole?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ahimsa is good but not mandatory. One should decide to choose Himsa or Ahimsa based on their Profession or &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt;. A soldier can't follow Ahimsa and defend the country. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All those warriors who die in battle field by following Himsa reach heaven, as they strictly followed their (Kshatriya) &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; or duty. This is the reason, all those warriors who died in Mahabharata War reached &lt;em&gt;swarga&lt;/em&gt; including Kaurava Army. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Lord Krishna says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-35/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavadgita 3.35&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śreyān sva-dharmo viguṇaḥ &lt;br&gt; para-dharmāt sv-anuṣṭhitāt &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sva-dharme nidhanaḿ śreyaḥ &lt;br&gt; para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though&#xA;  faultily, than another’s duties perfectly. Destruction in the course&#xA;  of performing one’s own duty is better than engaging in another’s&#xA;  duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna Himself supported Arjuna to participate in war as it was proper to Arjuna as Kshatriya. So, choosing Himsa or Ahimsa depends on &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; or your profession.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-11-02T15:47:40.593" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15700" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15697" CreationDate="2016-11-02T17:54:10.290" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It pleases me knowing that you want your life to be taken to the right track. In Hinduism, it can be a bit confusing to choose a deity who you want to fully follow but start by learning about Hinduism by reading the Bhagavad Gita which is the main Holy scripture in Hinduism by Shri Krishna. This first step is sure to guide your life in the right direction. Do meditation while chanting the name of your preferred deity (as all are same, just different incarnations) in your mind and thinking about nothing else except Him. When you develop a love for your Guru as we like to call our Ista Deva, you start to fear Him... not in the sense that he will punish you but in the sense that he will be disappointed in you. Just like when you have a crush on someone, you never want them to be angry or disappointed in you. So I would say when you choose your deity (you can choose the one which you feel most resembles to you), read more about Him and his teachings. Read His famous stories as this are the best way to develop love for Him. Try to act upon his teachings. Make a schedule for everyday which includes meditation in the name of your Ista Deva and puja or the chanting of religious hymns. Also do bhakti which means singing prayers and hymns in the name of God. Divine bhakti is divine Shakti (sacred and divine power). Bhakti is also a very enjoyable act. Find the nearest temple of your Ista Deva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope I helped you to get some idea on what to do. And remember, when I say there are different deities I DO NOT mean that there are &quot;Gods&quot; in Hinduism. There is only one God, the Creator of everything, the All powerful, the Universal truth which is &quot;Paramatma&quot;. But us humans are not able to worship him directly which is why we need a human form of his to worship. And that human form is none other that Almighty God himself on this mother Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8076" LastEditorUserId="8076" LastEditDate="2016-11-02T18:06:06.997" LastActivityDate="2016-11-02T18:06:06.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15702" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15857" CreationDate="2016-11-02T20:20:43.180" Score="10" ViewCount="483" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/dantealigh109737.html&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; quote today and am wondering what the Hindu scriptures have to say about this. Does one gain pāpa or puṇya by remaining neutral during a moral crisis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;- Dante Alighieri&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2020-02-11T07:47:24.403" Title="Does one gain pāpa or puṇya by remaining neutral in a moral crisis?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|sin|smriti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15703" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3108" CreationDate="2016-11-03T05:40:07.167" Score="14" Body="&lt;h3&gt;How do Hindus celebrate birthdays generally?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think this is an opinion-based question. Most Hindu families living in urban areas these days have lost track of their roots and tradition on how to celebrate birthdays. They now simply resort to imitating the West by lighting candles on a birthday cake and blowing out candles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The more pertinent question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;How &lt;em&gt;should&lt;/em&gt; a Hindu celebrate the birthday?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;First off, it is very important to celebrate ones birthday - should not neglect it. One should celebrate the birthday on the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tithi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tithi&lt;/a&gt; they were born rather than a specific date from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;English calendar&lt;/a&gt;. (You can calculate your Janmatithi from &lt;a href=&quot;http://janmatithi.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wake up very early in the morning and start your day with &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/why-is-ubtana-applied-to-the-body-before-abhyangasnana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;abhyanga-snana&lt;/a&gt; i.e. take bath after applying oil, head to toe.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before you take the bath, have your parents and elders also apply some oil to your head and back (spine). Take their blessings. It's most important to take blessings of your parents and guru on your birthday. The elders in return usually bless by uttering:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shathamanam bhavathi &lt;br&gt;&#xA;shatayuH puruShaH shatendriyaH &lt;br&gt;&#xA;aayuShyevendriye pratitiShThati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(a blessing to live for hundred years)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After taking bath, pray to your kula-devata or ishta-devata.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then take a concoction of cow milk, jaggery and black sesame seeds. Turn to east and swallow the mixture 3 times (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achamana#Smriti_and_Smarta_achamana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;achamanam&lt;/a&gt;). This should prevent any obstacles you might face now until your next birthday.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Next, remember the names of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2034/who-are-the-seven-immortals-chiranjeevi&quot;&gt;7 chiranjivi's&lt;/a&gt; (by birth):&#xA;Ashwathama, Mahabali, Vyasa, Hanuman, Vibhishana, Kripacharya and Parashurama. Or simply say out loud:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अश्वत्थामाबलिर्व्यासोहनुमांश्च विभीषण: &lt;br&gt; कृपश्चपरशुरामश्च सप्तैतेचिरंजीविन:।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashwathaama Balirvyaaso Hanumanshcha &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vibhishanah Krupascha Parashuramashcha &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Saptaitey Chiranjivinah&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpvKrmYtYCY&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ayushya Suktam&lt;/a&gt; from the Yajur Veda can be recited for a long and healthy life. Optionally, Ayushya Homam may also be performed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Visit the nearest temple&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One can eat the most delicious food they like but should maintain brahmacharya the entire day.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you can afford, donate food and clothes to the needy. If you cannot, feed green grass to a cow and circumambulate (pradakshina) the cow 3 times.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even by mistake, don't blow out candles or deepa (diya) as &quot;candle-blower&quot; (or it's equivalent in Sanskrit) is a derogatory term used for thieves - the idea is that before robbing a house a thief blows out the light source!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;How to celebrate our birthday&lt;/em&gt; by Chaganti Koteswara Rao (&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/u8M28wan7Ek&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;YouTube video&lt;/a&gt; in Telugu)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;How to Celebrate Birthday&lt;/em&gt; on Bhakthi TV's &lt;em&gt;Dharma Sandehalu&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/fYgVACnmZwk&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;YouTube video&lt;/a&gt; in Telugu)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2020-01-17T14:33:59.517" LastActivityDate="2020-01-17T14:33:59.517" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15704" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15706" CreationDate="2016-11-03T05:53:31.400" Score="7" ViewCount="1228" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that four varnas — Brahmana, Vysya, Kshatriya and Sudra — were created by God, and each varna’s people would mutually help each other, through the jobs assigned to them. But as of now in Kaliyuga, it seems that these varnas are mutilated. Are there any specifics for these mutilations of varnas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-03T11:32:37.927" LastActivityDate="2016-12-03T11:32:37.927" Title="What is the current status of the four varnas created by God?" Tags="|scripture|belief|caste-system|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15705" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11529" CreationDate="2016-11-03T06:09:18.893" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas state &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Sarvakhalvidam Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; which means &amp;quot;Everything is Brahman.&amp;quot; So, everything is Brahman in the absolute level. Chandogya Upanishad states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सर्वं खल्विदं ब्रह्म&lt;/strong&gt; तज्जलानिति शान्त उपासीत अथ खलु क्रतुमयः पुरुषो यथाक्रतुरस्मिल्लोके पुरुषो भवति तथेतः प्रेत्य भवति स क्रतुं कुर्वीतः । [Chandogya Upanishad.]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;III-xiv-1: Verily, &lt;strong&gt;all this universe is Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; From Him do all things originate, into Him do they dissolve and by Him are they sustained. On Him should one meditate in tranquillity. For as is one’s faith, such&#xA;indeed one is; and as is one’s faith in this world, such one becomes on departing hence. Let one, therefore, cultivate faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Explanation:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The explanation why is it so is given in &lt;strong&gt;Aitreya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; [2.6.1] which states :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He (the Self) wished, “&lt;strong&gt;Let me be many&lt;/strong&gt;, let me be born. He undertook a deliberation. Having deliberated, &lt;strong&gt;he created all this that exists.&lt;/strong&gt; That (Brahman), having created (that), &lt;strong&gt;entered into that very thing.&lt;/strong&gt; And &lt;br&gt;&#xA;having entered there, It became the formed and the formless, the defined and the undefined, the sustaining and the non-sustaining, the sentient and the insentient, the true and the untrue. Truth became all&#xA;this that there is. They call that Brahman Truth. Pertaining to this, there occurs this verse. In the beginning all this was but the Unmanifested (Brahman). From that emerged the manifested. That Brahman created Itself by Itself. Therefore It is called the self-creator.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the statements from Veda Samhitas itself, the best place would be look at the &lt;strong&gt;Sri Rudram hymn of YajurVeda&lt;/strong&gt; which establishes omnipresence of Brahman by so many verses. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/wyvbk16.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;16th chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shukla YajurVeda or 4.5.1 -4.5.11 of Krishna YajurVeda is the Sri Rudram hymn. &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri Rudram calls Brahman by the name of Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; The relevant verses from that hymn are:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;7th Anuvaka:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नमः काट्याय च नीप्याय च । नमस्सूद्याय च सरस्याय च ।&#xA;नमो नाद्याय च वैशन्ताय च । नमः कूप्याय चावट्याय च ।&#xA;नमो वर्ष्याय चावर्ष्याय च । नमो मेघ्याय च विद्युत्याय च ।&#xA;नम ईध्रियाय चातप्याय च । [YajurVeda 4.5.7]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutations to him [Rudra] &lt;strong&gt;who is in canal water&lt;/strong&gt; to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in streams.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in water of a pool&lt;/strong&gt; and to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in the water of a lake.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in the water of river&lt;/strong&gt; and to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in the water of the pond.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in the water of well&lt;/strong&gt; and to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in the water of spring.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in the clouds&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;who is also in lightning.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;9th Anuvaka:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नमो गोष्ठ्याय च गृह्याय च । नमस्तल्प्याय च गेह्याय च ।&#xA;नमः काट्याय च गह्वरेष्ठाय च । नमो हृदय्याय च निवेष्प्याय च । नमः पाँसव्याय च रजस्याय च । नमः शुष्क्याय च हरित्याय च । नमो लोप्याय चोलप्याय च ।&#xA;नम ऊर्व्याय च सूर्म्याय च । नमः पर्ण्याय च पर्णशद्याय च । [Yajurveda 4.5.9]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutations to him [Rudra] who is of the form of one &lt;strong&gt;who lives in stable&lt;/strong&gt; and to him &lt;strong&gt;who lives&#xA;in homes.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who sits on the cot&lt;/strong&gt; and to him &lt;strong&gt;who lives in ornamental houses.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who lives in thorny bushes&lt;/strong&gt; and who lives in caves. Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in deep still waters&lt;/strong&gt; and to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in snow drops.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in speck of dust&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;who is in the dust from mud.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in dried piece of wood&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;who is in wet stem.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him who is in firm floor and who is on turf. Salutations to him who is on flat land and to him &lt;strong&gt;who is on tides in the river.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in green leaves&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;who is in dried leaves.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the 3rd Anuvaka states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नमः ककुभाय निषङ्गिणे स्तेनानां पतये नमः । नमो निषङ्गिण इषुधिमते तस्कराणां पतये नमः । नमो वञ्चते परिवञ्चते स्तायूनां पतये नमः । नमो निचेरवे परिचरायरण्यानां पतये नमः । नमः सृकाविभ्यो जिघांसद्भ्यो मुष्णतां पतये नमः । नमोसिमद्भ्यो नक्तंचरद्भ्यः प्रकृन्तानां पतये नमः । नम उष्णीषिणे गिरिचराय कुलुञ्चानां पतये नमः ।  [YajurVeda 4.5.3]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutations and salutations, To him [Rudra] who is the best, To him who holds the sword, And to him &lt;strong&gt;who is the leader of the thieves.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations and salutations, To him who holds bows ready to shoot, To him who has the quiver, And to him &lt;strong&gt;who is the leader of the dacoits.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations and salutations, To &lt;strong&gt;him who cheats,&lt;/strong&gt; To him who is the greatest cheat, And to him who is leader of those who steal by cheating. Salutations and salutations, To him &lt;strong&gt;who goes inside to steal, To him who goes outside &lt;br&gt;&#xA;to steal,&lt;/strong&gt; And to him who is the leader of thieves who steal in the forest. Salutations and salutations, To him who defends themselves with arms. To him who&#xA;troubles others, And to him who is the leader of peasants who steal from their master. Salutations and salutations, To him who holds the sword, To him who prowls in the night to steal, And to him &lt;strong&gt;who is the leader of those who murder and steal.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations and salutations, To him who wears the turban, To him who lives in the&#xA;forests, And to him &lt;strong&gt;who is the leader of those who steal in houses and fields.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, from the above statements it is clear that &lt;strong&gt;everything that exists is God/Brahman himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We can find further statements like in &lt;strong&gt;Narayana Sukta&lt;/strong&gt; of Taittaria Aranyaka YajurVeda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यच्च किञ्चिज्जगत्यस्मिन् दृश्यते श्रूयतेऽपि वा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अन्तर्बहिश्च तत्सर्वं व्याप्य नारायणः स्थितः ॥ ५॥ [Taittariya Aranyaka 10.13]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Whatsoever there is in this world known through perception or known through report, all that is pervaded by Narayana within and without.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in &lt;strong&gt;Rudra Sukta&lt;/strong&gt; of Taittariya Aranyaka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वो वै रुद्रस्तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु । पुरुषो वै रुद्रः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सन्महो नमो नमः । विश्वं भूतं भुवनं चित्रं बहुधा जातं जायमानं च यत् । सर्वो ह्येष रुद्रस्तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु ।। [Taittariya Aranyaka 10.24]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;All this verily is Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; To Rudra who is such we offer our salutation. We salute again and again that Being, Rudra, who alone is the light and the Soul of creatures. &lt;strong&gt;The material universe the created beings and whatever there is manifoldly and profusely created in the past and in the present in the form of the world, all that is indeed this Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations be to Rudra who is such&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also the Rudra Suktam states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रुद्राय नमः कालाय नमः । [Taittariya Aranyaka 10.18]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutation to Rudra who is in the &lt;strong&gt;form of Time.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly &lt;strong&gt;Purush Sukta&lt;/strong&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुरुष एवेदं सर्वं यद्भूतं यच्च भव्यम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उतामृतत्वस्येशानो यदन्नेनातिरोहति ॥२॥ [RigVeda 10.90.2] &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;This Puruṣa is all that yet hath been and all that is to be;&lt;/strong&gt; The Lord of Immortality which waxes greater still by food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly &lt;strong&gt;YajurVeda 5.5.9&lt;/strong&gt; states in a single sentence as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो रुद्रो अग्नौ यो अप्सु य ओषधिषु ।  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;यो रुद्रो विश्वा भुवना विवेश तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;“The Rudra &lt;strong&gt;in the fire, in the waters, in the plants,&lt;/strong&gt; the Rudra &lt;strong&gt;that hath entered the whole world,&lt;/strong&gt; to that Rudra be homage”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly &lt;strong&gt;Shwetashwatara Upanishad [3.11]&lt;/strong&gt; States:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वाननशिरोग्रीव सर्वभूतगुहाशयः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वव्यापि स भगवान् तस्मात सर्वगत शिव।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;All faces&lt;/strong&gt; are &lt;strong&gt;His faces; all heads, His heads; all necks, His necks.&lt;/strong&gt; He dwells in the hearts of all beings. He is the &lt;strong&gt;all−pervading Bhagavan.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore He is the omnipresent Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from the above Veda statements, it is clear that everything that exists is Brahman (including Time Matter Beings, etc..).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In a nutshell the Hymn of YajurVeda Sri Rudram itself summarizes it as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नमो रथेभ्यो रथपतिभ्यश्च वो नमः नमः सुतायहन्ताय, रथकारेम्यो नमो नमःअश्वेभ्यो अश्वपतिभ्यश्चभो नमो नमः।। [YajurVeda 4.5.2,3]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Salutation to him who is chariot, who is rider of chariot, who is charioteer and who is maker of Chariot, who is the horses and lord of the horses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Brahman himself is maker of chariot, he himself is that chariot itself, he himself is the Rider of Chariot and he himself is the Charioteer and he himself is the horses of that chariot. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;In other words He is both the actors, stage, performer and observer, and everything that exists.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-03T14:19:38.160" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15706" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15704" CreationDate="2016-11-03T06:41:57.607" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;But as of now in Kaliyuga these varnas are mutilated it seems.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt;-s are Not mutilated.&lt;/strong&gt; They can't. Because the &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; or &quot;divisions&quot; (not castes) are just descriptions of natural attributes. From Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;1. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahmana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Or &lt;strong&gt;Intellectuals&lt;/strong&gt;: Steadiness, control, austerity, cleanliness, tolerance, sincerity, knowledge, science and faith are certainly Brahma(na)'s natural Karma (BG 18.42)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;2. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Or &lt;strong&gt;Patriots&lt;/strong&gt;: Heroism, brightness, courage, fitness, also not running away from war, generosity and kingship are Kshatr(iya)'s natural Karma (BG 18.43)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;3. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Or &lt;strong&gt;Businessmen&lt;/strong&gt;: Farming, cow protection (production), business are Vaishya's natural Karma (BG 18.44)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;4. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Or &lt;strong&gt;Servicemen&lt;/strong&gt;: Services (in all fields) constitute natural Karma for Shudra (BG 18.44)&lt;/sub&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Scientist&quot; or &quot;Musician&quot; or &quot;Actor&quot; or &quot;Businessman&quot; cannot be mutilated. Because they are just &quot;adjectives&quot;. What can be mutilated is the &quot;entity&quot; which assumes those &quot;adjectives&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For example, &quot;Newton family&quot; or &quot;Burman family&quot; or &quot;Kapoor family&quot; or &quot;Tata family&quot; can deviate from their respective adjectives. If someone from famous &quot;Kapoor family&quot; chooses to go in business then the term &quot;Actor&quot; is not mutilated but the caste &quot;Kapoor&quot; is deviated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Any specifics for these mutilation in varnas.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For many generations, various castes &amp;amp; ethnicities have assumed 4 &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt;-s. &lt;strong&gt;So the mutilation we see, are in the castes.&lt;/strong&gt; Due to this mutilation, you may see different kind of behaviours. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g. For many generations, the castes which earlier belonged to ... (in ranking order):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;Brahman&quot;, are active in business &amp;amp; earning money&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;Kshatriya&quot;, are more into (wrongful) politics &amp;amp; hooliganism&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;Vaishya&quot;, are now active in (odd) jobs &amp;amp; research&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;Shudra&quot;, are similarly spread across other places where they shouldn't&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This doesn't mean that everyone has lost the actual &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt;. However, today one cannot decide one's &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; based on their surname or family name.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The good side is that, today's society is more open to allow a person to assume &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; based on natural attributes, rather than legacy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why such mutilation happens?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Usually due to too many wars &amp;amp; adultery, the &lt;strong&gt;faulty hybridisation among races or castes&lt;/strong&gt; happens. Ideally the hybridisation is allowed among higher rank of male &amp;amp; lower rank of female. Any other intermixing is unwanted.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here are some verses from Gita from Arjuna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 1.38 - 1.44 O Janardana, although these people, whose hearts have become perverted by greed, do not see the evil arising from destroying the family and sin in hostility towards, friends, yet how can we who clearly see the evil arising from destroying the family remain unaware of (the need of) abstaining from this sin? From the ruin of the family are totally destroyed the traditional rites and duties of the family. When rites and duties are destroyed, vice overpowers the entire family also. Krsna, when vice predominates, the women of the family become corrupt. O descendent of the Vrsnis, &lt;strong&gt;when women become corrupted, it results in the intermingling of divisions&lt;/strong&gt;. And the intermingling in the family leads the ruiners of the family verily into hell. The forefathers of these fall down (into hell) because of being deprived of the offerings of rice-balls and water. Due to these misdeeds of the ruiners of the family, which cause intermingling of divisions, the traditional rites and duties of the castes and families become destroyed. O Janardana, we have heard that living in hell becomes inevitable for those persons whose family duties get destroyed. -- GambhirAnanda &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To read more in detail, refer:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9202/1049&quot;&gt;K.S. Bhagavan's critique of Adi Shankara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-11-03T07:02:31.297" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15708" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="577" CreationDate="2016-11-03T07:10:44.843" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/25069/42f_chapter_24.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha Purana&lt;/a&gt; suggests to &lt;strong&gt;bathe the images of Naga in milk&lt;/strong&gt; on Naga Panchami and it doesn't mention anything about feeding milk to snakes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;33&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If one remains austere on that day, give us all that is sour in food and &lt;strong&gt;bathes the images of Nagas in milk,&lt;/strong&gt; they become friendly&#xA;towards him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nagas were sent to Patala on &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10489/3500&quot;&gt;Panchama tithi&lt;/a&gt; and people celebrate that tithi as Naga Panchami.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Snakes which are present now on Earth do not drink milk but i'm not sure about divine snakes such as Adisesha (serpent on which Lord Vishnu sleeps) and  Vasuki (Lord Shiva's snake).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-11-03T07:10:44.843" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15710" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-03T09:20:17.173" Score="1" ViewCount="125" Body="&lt;p&gt;Almanacs are a mathematical tool for calculating thithis, stars, yogams and karnams. Apart from these a one year prediction is also given for example - this year there will be more rain eg. In the south west of Vindhyas there will be a severe cyclonic storm in the karthika month and 75% of the rains will be in sea, 15% in mountains and remaining in the vilages and cities adjacent to them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On what basis is this prediction being done? There are Vakiya panchangam, Thiru Ganitha Panchangam, Pambu panchangam etc.Again I think this may vary from region to region. Any scriptural evidence as to how they calculate and predict the natural calamities?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-09T06:23:33.587" LastActivityDate="2020-03-13T11:30:24.523" Title="How do almanacs predict future natural calamities?" Tags="|scripture|astrology|panchang|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15711" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-03T10:23:44.797" Score="2" ViewCount="619" Body="&lt;p&gt;While doing the Festival Pooja in home, I am always Chanting the mantra Vishnu Sahasranamam while doing Arathi for all festivals. Hence Could someone please help me to learn mantras for different types of festivals like, Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali Festival, Pongal Festival (Surya God's), Pradosham and Skandha shasti etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7052" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-09T04:42:23.893" LastActivityDate="2018-04-09T04:44:44.203" Title="Chanting Mantra for variety of Pooja's on different gods" Tags="|mantras|puja|stotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15714" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13783" CreationDate="2016-11-03T15:29:12.197" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nama Sivaya&#xA;Simple fact is the Divinity of Lord Siva's Destruction of Kamadeva, the Fury of the 3rd Eye's Rays from MahaDeva was unstoppable but the impact of Kamadeva [as per Nature Law by Lord Siva self] resulted in the formation of Divine Semen of Lord Siva discharged with the Fury of 3rd Eye of Lord Siva, which needed Agni to hold, until the Saravanna Pogai which had the Blessings to hold the Divine Semen, and had the Six Flowers [some yugas back Divine Ladies were Blessed to bear the Divine Semen, and are waiting], got the Semen as Six Droplets on them, who resumed as Virgin Mothers of Lord Aarumuka and stated to nurture the Lord Himself, further the Six Faced Lord Subramanya [after slaying the mighty demons at Sea, Land and Air]have to stay in this present Kaliyuga with the Sixth Face of Lord Siva [which is called the Progressive Face to the next &quot;Satya Yuga&quot;] with great Penance towards Human and All Beings to take it to the Satya Yuga, and this Sixth Face is All Mercy which holds His Namam only to Protect Life on Universe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Above Divine Extract is from Lord Siva self, hence Saying Lord Siva's Namam or Lord Muruga's Namam will yield Divinity and Free from Sins witheffect&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Sivaya Nama  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8086" LastActivityDate="2016-11-03T15:29:12.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15715" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-03T20:01:02.157" Score="1" ViewCount="37" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do the Vedas describe a mechanism by which gravity is produced? Like LeSage Gravity? I am trying to come up with a new model for gravity and I would like to base it on Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4974" LastActivityDate="2016-11-03T20:01:02.157" Title="Mechanism for Gravity according to Vedas" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-11-04T01:05:48.237" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15717" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16238" CreationDate="2016-11-04T05:48:06.493" Score="15" ViewCount="1118" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6906/is-there-any-scripture-that-tells-story-about-lord-vishnu-and-mahavishnu&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;'s &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6923/2995&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;, the hierarchies of Lord Vishnu's incarnations are listed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a similar hierarchy for Devi's incarnations? If yes, what is that hierarchy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2020-10-18T02:38:01.393" Title="Is there any hierarchy for Devi's incarnations?" Tags="|scripture|history|avatars|devi|shakti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15718" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-04T05:58:17.233" Score="2" ViewCount="1284" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ayyanar is a popular Hindu village god of Tamil Nadu. However, while I was &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shasta_(deity)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;reading up on him&lt;/a&gt; , I found out there he was actually Ayyappa, who is said to be the &lt;strong&gt;son&lt;/strong&gt; of Shiva. However, he is generally believed to be a &lt;strong&gt;avatar&lt;/strong&gt; of Shiva. How is Ayyannar related to Shiva? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastActivityDate="2016-11-04T05:58:17.233" Title="How is Ayyannar related to Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|avatars|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15719" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6559" CreationDate="2016-11-04T06:02:55.207" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.17 - The one without the feeling of &quot;I am doer&quot;, whose intellect is not tainted, despite killing [others] in this world, neither kills nor is bound&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Is killing justified in the Bhagwad Gita?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagawad Gita has no firm stand or message on any particular subject. It's more of a description about removing dualities from one's consciousness and fixing it unto the supreme self, which it refers as &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;ParamAtma&lt;/em&gt;. According to Gita, &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; or &quot;self&quot;, which is unborn &amp;amp; omnipresent, neither gets killed nor kills. Whatever is happening around the universe is merely interactions of 3 modes (&lt;em&gt;guna-s: sattva, rajas, tamas&lt;/em&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.21 - Which is said to be indestructible, eternal; One who is unborn, indivisible; O PArtha, how that consciousness &lt;sup&gt;(&lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt; = consciousness = &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;, here)&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;strong&gt;be killed by someone or kill someone?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After all the peace treaties failed between PAndava-s and Kaurava-s, the war was inevitable. Arjuna got confused just during the wartime, which is not a &lt;em&gt;Swadharma&lt;/em&gt; or a natural trait for a &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt; (Patriot or Warrior). Even if Arjuna had ducked that war, he would have eventually been dragged into it due to his nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.59 - If sheltered by ego, should you think as &quot;Won't fight&quot;; that will be a worthless determination. [Because] Your nature engages you [in fight].&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 18.60 - O son of Kunti, bound by activities born out of your own nature, you [will] do, which you don't desire [to do] due to illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there is a difference between &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10905/1049&quot;&gt;Killing &amp;amp; Violence&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Isn't killing (be it human or animal) against the basic tenets of Hinduism?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Never&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Withing the scope of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, rightful killing is always recommended. Wrongful killing is equally sinful. There are many examples from MahAbhArata. One of them is from Bhishma in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RajadharmAnusasana(ShAnti) Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even a person that is disrespectable, that is of uncleansed soul, and that is very cruel, may succeed in earning great merit as the hunter Valaka by &lt;strong&gt;slaying the blind beast&lt;/strong&gt; (that threatened to destroy all creatures). ......... A deceitful person, falling away from all duties and abandoning those of his own order, always wishes to betake himself to the practices of Asuras for supporting life. &lt;strong&gt;Such a sinful wretch living by deceit should be slain by every means&lt;/strong&gt;. Such sinful men think that there is nothing in this world higher than wealth. Such men should never be tolerated. No one should eat with them. They should be regarded to have fallen down in consequence of their sins. Indeed, fallen away from the condition of humanity and shut out from the grace of the gods, they are even like evil genii. Without sacrifices and without penances as they are, forbear from their companionship. If their wealth be lost, they commit even suicide which is exceedingly pitiable. Among those sinful men there is no one to whom thou canst say, 'This is thy duty. Let thy heart turn to it.' Their settled convictions are that there is nothing in this world that is equal to wealth. &lt;strong&gt;The person that would slay such a creature would incur no sin. He who kills him kills one that has been already killed by his own acts. If slain, it is the dead that is slain.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-22T05:50:50.760" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T05:50:50.760" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15721" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15711" CreationDate="2016-11-04T07:19:49.483" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu sahasranama you chant without arthi. Aftedr finishing sahasranam While showing arthi recite three slokas from rama mangalam.  Mangalam kosalendraya  ---      For ganesh chaturthi   vinayaka ashthotra namavali     for    Deepavali    Lakshmi Ashtagam and Ashthothiram      for Pongal   festival  Aaditya Hudyam  for   Pradosham   Sivan stotrams or Lakshmi narasimha ashtagam  /runa  vomohana narasimha stotram / mattapalli mangalashtagam /mantra raja pada stotram   and for kantha sashti      kantha sashti kavacham, sathru sangara vel pathigam/aru padai veedugal stotrams&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-09T04:44:44.203" LastActivityDate="2018-04-09T04:44:44.203" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15722" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4088" CreationDate="2016-11-04T07:58:10.253" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rigveda is one of the 4 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedas&lt;/a&gt;. Read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14428/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; to know about Veda or Shruti texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas are the most basic and primary scriptures of Hinduism and Rigveda is the &lt;strong&gt;most ancient&lt;/strong&gt; among all four Vedas. So, we can say that Rigveda is the very first text of Hinduism. &lt;em&gt;Rigveda is very profound and important according to the subject of it. Rigveda is the biggest/largest in all Vedas.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rigveda book simply refers to Rigveda Samhita. Traditionally Rigveda Samhita is divided in two ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ashtak Method - In which Rigveda is divided into 8 parts and each part contains 8 Adhyaya (chapter) and hence called Ashtak.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mandal Method - According to which Rigveda consists of 10 Mandala. This method is very popular as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rigveda has 10 Mandala (part). Each Mandala has many Anuvak and Anuvak has many &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/s%C5%ABkta/269526/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sukta&lt;/a&gt; (hymns - group of verses) in which have been praise of deities. There are total of 1028 Sukta. Each Sukta are associated with a particular Deity, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rishi&lt;/a&gt; (Sage - seer of hymns) and Chhanda (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_meter&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;meter&lt;/a&gt;). Rigveda contain a total of 10,552 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mantra&lt;/a&gt;. The mantras are called Richa/Rucha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Overview of content:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&#xA;┏━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━┓&#xA;┃ Mandala  ┃  Drashta-Rishi  ┃ No.of  ┃ No.of  ┃ No.of  ┃ &#xA;┃          ┃                 ┃ Anuvak ┃ Sukta  ┃ Mantra ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Fisrt    ┃    15 Rishi     ┃   24   ┃  191   ┃  2006  ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Second   ┃   Grutsamada    ┃   4    ┃  43    ┃  429   ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Third    ┃   Vishvamitr    ┃   5    ┃  62    ┃  617   ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Fourth   ┃   Vamadeva      ┃   5    ┃  58    ┃  589   ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Fifth    ┃     Atri        ┃   6    ┃  87    ┃  727   ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Sixth    ┃    Bhardwaj     ┃   6    ┃  75    ┃  765   ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Seventh  ┃   Vashishtha    ┃   6    ┃  104   ┃  841   ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Eighth   ┃  Kanva / Angira ┃   10   ┃  103   ┃  1716  ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Nineth   ┃   Many Rishis   ┃   7    ┃  114   ┃  1108  ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Tenth    ┃   Many Rishis   ┃   12   ┃  191   ┃  1754  ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃         Total              ┃   85   ┃  1028  ┃  10552 ┃&#xA;┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━┛&#xA;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mantras dedicated to deities:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&#xA;┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓&#xA;┃    Deity        ┃  No. of Mantra  ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃   Agni          ┃       2013      ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃   Indra         ┃       2862      ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃   Soma          ┃       1775      ┃&#xA;┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫&#xA;┃ Remaining around 4000 mantras are ┃&#xA;┃ dedicated to Maruta, Vishvadeva,  ┃&#xA;┃ Aditi, Aaditya, Bhaga,  Pusha,    ┃&#xA;┃ Mitra, Varuna, etc.               ┃&#xA;┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛&#xA;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rigveda primarily has stuti mantras (prayers) of deities. Rigveda has profound philosophical, spiritual and scientific thoughts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was a great significance of worshipping of deities in the life in vedic/ancient times. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some chief/popular/important &lt;strong&gt;Sukta&lt;/strong&gt; form Rigveda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purusha_Sukta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purush Sukta&lt;/a&gt; (Mandala-10, Sukta-90)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasadiya_Sukta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nasadiya Sukta&lt;/a&gt; (Mandal-10, Sukta-129)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiranyagarbha#Hira.E1.B9.87yagarbha_S.C5.ABkta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hiranyagarbha Sukta&lt;/a&gt; (Mandal-10, Sukta-121)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/Saraswathi_Suktham&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saraswathi Sukta&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/Vak_Suktham&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vak Sukta&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi_sukta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Sukta&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/Bhoo_Suktham&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhoo Sukta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Ar%C4%AB_S%C5%ABkta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shree Sukta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;See the list of Sukta and Stuti from Rigveda - &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/suktalst.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suktas_and_stutis&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%8B%E0%A4%97%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A6_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE#.E0.A4.8B.E0.A4.97.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.B5.E0.A5.87.E0.A4.A6_.E0.A4.B8.E0.A4.82.E0.A4.B9.E0.A4.BF.E0.A4.A4.E0.A4.BE_.E0.A4.95.E0.A5.87_.E0.A4.95.E0.A5.81.E0.A4.9B_.E0.A4.AA.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.B0.E0.A4.AE.E0.A5.81.E0.A4.96_.E0.A4.B8.E0.A5.82.E0.A4.95.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.A4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most popular &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gayatri Mantra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is from Mandala-3. Mandala 9 is dedicated to Pavamana-&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma_%28drink%29#Vedic_Soma&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Soma&lt;/a&gt; which contains the story of &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4_%28%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Trit Devata&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting the following topics related to knowing about Rigveda from &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#Philosophy_of_the_.E1.B9.9Agveda&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindupedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Philosophy of the Ṛgveda&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The greatness of religion lies in the fact that its value system at the core has remained intact in spite of centuries of vicissitudes wrought about by external aggression or internal upheavals. If Vedānta is the pinnacle of all the philosophical systems, the Ṛgveda is it's mother-root. Almost all the ideas found later in the Upaniṣads and allied scriptures are already there in the Ṛgveda in a seed form, though not in one place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ṛgveda praises several gods like Agni, Indra, Maruts and others.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-36&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[36]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; However, they are not, like the Greek gods, separate and independent individuals in conflict with one another. They are all different aspects or facets of one and the same Supreme Being which has been declared in several places&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-37&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[37]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a clear reference to God the Supreme in several places even though different appellations have been used. They are, for instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ātmā - Self&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-38&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[38]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Chāyā - light&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-39&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[39]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Deva - Being of light&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-40&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[40]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Hiraṇyagarbha - Golden Egg&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-41&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[41]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ka - Prajāpati&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-42&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[42]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pitā - Father&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-43&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[43]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Puruṣa - Being&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-44&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[44]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Savitā - Sun, Creator&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-45&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[45]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Tvaṣtā - one who shapes&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-46&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[46]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vena&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-47&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[47]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vidhātā - Giver&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-48&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[48]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Viśvakarmā - Creator of the world&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-49&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[49]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra, Agni and Varuṇa have often been praised as the Supreme Lord. God alone existed before creation and he is the creator, protector and ruler of this world is clearly mentioned in several mantras.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-50&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[50]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&#xA;   Regarding the mode of creation, what is described in the three famous suktas is almost the same as the one found in the Upanisads. These Suktas are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Hiranyagarbha-sukta&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-51&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[51]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Purusa-sukta&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-52&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[52]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Nāsadiya-sukta&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-53&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[53]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;God is the creator, sustainer and destroyer of the world. He does it as per his own free will. He is both the upādāna or the material cause and the nimitta or the efficient cause. He is not only immanent in the world because he has created it out of himself, but also transcendent. Hence, he himself is everything he has created.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-54&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[54]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Qualities of God as per Ṛgveda&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Ṛgveda also describes the several infinitely good and great qualities of God like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;God possess many attributes including:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Omnipotence.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-55&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[55]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rulership.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-56&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[56]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Omniscience,.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-57&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[57]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Transcendence.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-58&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[58]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Extraordinary brilliance.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-59&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[59]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Having a cosmic form.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-60&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[60]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Being the inner controller.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-61&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[61]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Incomparability.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-62&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[62]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is the greatest friend and protector of his devotees..&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-63&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[63]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He is very generous and fulfills all their desires..&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-64&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[64]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He is supremely adorable..&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-65&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[65]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Identity of Jiva as per Ṛgveda&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The desire to attain the world of the immortal gods show that the sages believed in an eternal soul and an eternal world.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-66&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[66]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-67&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[67]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&#xA;   The aim of life is to attain God.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-68&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[68]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; What keeps the human beings away from him is pāpa or sin, evil ways of living. Hence one should pray to him for forgiveness,&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-69&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[69]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; for being freed from sins and be guided on the path of righteousness.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-70&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[70]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; The spiritual disciplines that lead the aspirants to him are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Faith in him as the only support of life&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-65&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[71]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prayer to him for being guided in the path of truth&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-72&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[72]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prayer for spiritual wisdom before old-age comes&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-73&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[73]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prayer for serving the Lord always&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-74&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[74]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Appeal for eternal protection&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-75&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[75]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Devotion as the best means&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-76&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[76]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Intense longing to see him&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-77&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[77]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Concept of Moksa as per Ṛgveda&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The concept of moksa or liberation as described in the Upaniṣads is not found here in that form. Breaking up of the physical body, after death and it's being merged in the five elements&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-78&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[78]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; thereby freeing the jīva.&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-79&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[79]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; It has been mentioned. The deity Agni leads the jīva by the path of the gods to the world of pitṛs&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/%E1%B9%9Agveda#cite_note-80&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[80]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; ruled by Yama, wherein he lives happily. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shakha&lt;/a&gt; of Rigveda:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though Rigveda is said to have had 21 Shakhas, only five have survived. which are: Shakala, Bashkala, Aashvalayana, Shankhayana and Mandukayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From which two shakha currently popular/surviving are : Shakala and Bashkala. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmana&lt;/a&gt; Grantha, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aranyaka&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aaranyaka&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; associated with them are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shakala - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitareya_Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aitareya Brahmana&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitareya_Aranyaka&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aitareya Aaranyaka&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitareya_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aitareya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; which contains &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11897/277&quot;&gt;Mahavakya&lt;/a&gt; - &lt;em&gt;Prajananam Brahma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bashkala - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaushitaki_Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaushitaki Brahmana&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aranyaka#Shankhayana_Aranyaka&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaushitaki Aaranyaka&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaushitaki_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaushitaki Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-07-24T12:17:40.777" LastActivityDate="2017-07-24T12:17:40.777" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15725" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-04T10:50:51.087" Score="1" ViewCount="2693" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lakshmana is Sheshang... the supreme snake or the king of every snake. Even Ram was also hit by Naag Pash &amp;amp; was very near to death? Ram is swayam Shree Hari Vishnu so why could he get hit &amp;amp; injured by Naag Pash? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8097" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T20:24:33.983" Title="In Ramayana, why did Lakshman &amp; Ram got hit with Naag Pash?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15727" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-04T13:48:41.127" Score="1" ViewCount="500" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Lord Krishna did not play flute after he had left Gokul. But most of the pictures of Lord Krishna ( adult) is shown with the flute. Did he play flute in later period?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8028" LastActivityDate="2016-11-10T03:42:45.210" Title="Did Krishna play flute ever post Gokul days?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|bhagavata-purana|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15728" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15418" CreationDate="2016-11-04T14:23:36.200" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Story of Jalandhara is described in &lt;em&gt;Rudra Samhita (Yuddha Khanda) (chapter 13 - Chapter 25) of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Uttarakhada (Chapter 3 - Chapter 18) of Padma Purana&lt;/em&gt;. Story of Jalandhara is same in both Puranas with slight variations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why lord Shiva was unable to defeat Jalandhara?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jalandhara was born from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15217/3500&quot;&gt;third eye of Shiva&lt;/a&gt; when Indra confronted Shiva with arrogance and baby born out of Shiva's third eye was given to Ocean God. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-34/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma predicted&lt;/a&gt; that Jalandhara could only be killed by Shiva as he had amsa of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्मोवाच&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; श्रृणु सागर ! वक्ष्यामि तवास्य तनयस्य हि।&lt;br&gt; जातकोतफल सर्व&#xA;समाधानरत: खलु। २३। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said, &amp;quot;O Ocean, I shall narrate the future as revealed by his&#xA;horoscope completely. Listen to me attentively. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नेत्राभ्यां विघृतं यस्मादनेनैव जल मम।&lt;br&gt; तस्माञ्जलन्धरेतीह ख्यातो नाम्ना&#xA;भवत्वसौ।। २४ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अधुनैवैष तरुणः सर्वशास्त्रार्थपारग:।&lt;br&gt; महापराक्रमो धीरो&#xA;योद्धा च रणदुर्मदः।। २५ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भविष्यति च गम्भीरस्त्वं यथा समरे गुहः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वजेता च सङ्ग्रामे सर्वसम्पद्विराजितः॥२६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दैत्यानामधियो बालः सर्वेषा च भविष्यति। &lt;br&gt;विष्णोरपि भवेञ्जेता न कुतश्चित्पराभवः॥२७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since he made the tears to flow from my eyes, he will be known by the&#xA;name of Jalandhara. He would become youthful just now and attain mastery over all the lores. He would be extremely valorous, courageous, heroic, invincible and majestic like you. He would win all the battles like Kartikeya and he would shine with all sorts of prosperity. He would become the emperor of the demons and will conquer even Vishnu. No one would be able to defeat him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अवध्यः सर्वभूतानां विना रुद्रं भविष्यति।&lt;br&gt; यत एष समुद्भूतस्तत्रेदानीं गमिष्यति॥ २८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He can be slain by none else except Siva himself&lt;/strong&gt;. He will return to the place from which he sprang up. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear that Jalandhara could be defeated by Shiva. But chastity of his wife &lt;em&gt;Vrinda&lt;/em&gt; made Jalandhara stronger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Parvathi &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-42/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;asked Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; only to destroy chastity of Jalandhara after he came to Parvati in disguise as Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यावद्ददर्श चार्वङ्गीं पार्वतीं दनुजेश्वरः।&lt;br&gt; तावत्स वीर्यं मुमुचे जडाङ्गश्चाभवत्तदा॥४१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On looking at the beautiful Parvati, by the lord of Daityas, his semen&#xA;fell on the ground and all his limbs became benumbed &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथ ज्ञात्वा तदा गौरी दानव भयविह्वला। &lt;br&gt;जगामान्तहिंता वेगात्सा तदोत्तरमानसम्॥४२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, when Gauri came to realise, the truth that he was a Daitya&#xA;and not Siva, she disappeared from the site and went to northern shore&#xA;of the lake Manasa. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पार्वत्यपि महाविष्णु सस्मार मनसा तदा।&lt;br&gt; तावद्ददर्श तं देवं सोपविष्टं समीपगम्॥ ४४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Parvati remembered lord Vishnu mentally and she found at once that the lord was seated before her. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parvathi then told her brother Vishnu to destroy Jalandhara wife's chastity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सनत्कुमार उवाच &lt;br&gt; तच्छुत्वा विष्णुवचनं पुनरप्याह पार्वती।&lt;br&gt; हृषीकेशं&#xA;जगन्माता धर्मनीर्तिं सुशिक्षयन्॥४९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; पार्वत्युवाच &lt;br&gt; तेनैव&#xA;दर्शितः पन्था बुध्यस्व त्वं तथैव हि।&lt;br&gt; तत्स्त्रीपातिव्रतं धर्मं भ्रष्टं&#xA;कुरु मदाज्ञया॥ ५० ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatkumara said, “On hearing the words of Vishnu, Parvati, the mother&#xA;of the universe, then desired to teach the policy based on dharma.'&#xA;Parvati said, “He himself has shown the path, now that has to be the&#xA;way and he should be paid in the same manner. At my command, destroy&#xA;the chastity of his wife. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नान्यथा स महादैत्यो भवेद्वध्यो रमेश्वर ! पातिव्रतसमो नान्यो धर्मोऽस्ति&#xA;पृथिवीतले॥ ५१॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Vishnu, &amp;quot;the Daitya cannot be killed otherwise. There is no other&#xA;virtue comparable to chastity in the world.”&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, chastity of Vrinda made him stronger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And also is there any story that describe why did Vrinda marry a demon?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's no particular story why Vrnda married Jalandhara. Vranda was Asura Kalamaneni's daughter. Ocean God &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-34/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;married Jalandhara to Vrnda.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Padma Purana mentions turning of vrnda to Tulasi after giving up her body but Shiva Purana doesn't mention it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;42b-46. God Vishnu looked upon the pleasure due to the fascination of&#xA;Vrnda as superior to (that derived from) salvation, and as giving&#xA;greater delight than derived from Lakshmi. Then Madhava, Krishna who was&#xA;the royal swan in the well charming and shining due to her sports,&#xA;lost (all) his longing for Lakshmi due to the beauty of Vrnda. &lt;strong&gt;In that&#xA;forest, Vrnda turned into the form of Tulasi.&lt;/strong&gt; That (Tulasi) that was&#xA;highly purifying arose from the sweat of Vrnda. Having, for some days,&#xA;enjoyed the pleasure due to the contact with Vrnda's body, (Vishnu) the&#xA;lord of the world, thought about the mission of Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Previous birth of Vrinda is not mentioned in Shiva Purana and Padma Purana. But, &lt;em&gt;Prakriti Khanda (Chapter 15-21) of Brahma Vaivartara Purana&lt;/em&gt; and Shankachuda episode of Shiva Purana mentions different story of Tulasi. This difference could be due to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11077/3500&quot;&gt;Kalpa Bheda&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Padma Purana mentions mainly events of &lt;strong&gt;Padma Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;. So, in Padma Kalpa Vrnda turned into Tulasi. Shiva Purana mentions mainly events of &lt;strong&gt;Sevta Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt; and Brahma Vaivarta Purana mentions mainly events of &lt;strong&gt;Rathnantara Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;. So, in Sveta and Rathnanatara Kalpa Tulasi was born due to curse of Radharani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  previous birth of Tulasi  is mentioned in   &lt;em&gt;Prakriti Khanda (Chapter 15-21) of Brahma Vaivartara Purana&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Chapter 27 and 28 of Rudra Samhita (Yuddha Khanda) Shiva Maha Purana&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulasi was cowherdess in &lt;em&gt;Goloka&lt;/em&gt;, the region of Lord Krishna. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/brahmavaivarta-purana/vol-i/chapter-45/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tulasi was cursed by Radhika&lt;/a&gt;, consort of Lord Krishna, to get born on Earth. Sudama, who had amsa of Krishna, was also born on Earth as Samkhachuda. Tulasi married Shamkachuda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अहं च तुलसी गोपी गोलोकेऽहं स्थिता पुरा।&lt;br&gt; कृष्णप्रियाकिकरी च तदंशा&#xA;तत्सखी प्रिया। २४।।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the earlier times I was a cowherdesses named Tulasi and was the&#xA;beloved of lord Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;. I was his beloved as well as his servant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गोविन्देन सहाऽऽसक्तामतृप्तां मां च मुच्छिताम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;रासेश्वरी समागत्य चापश्यद्रासमण्डले।२५।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गोविन्दं भत्सयामास मां शशाप रुषाऽन्विता। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;याहि त्वं मानवीं योनिमित्येव च पितामह।&lt;/strong&gt; २६।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once when I was dancing with lord Govinda, I became passionate and&#xA;before getting satisfaction I fainted. At that point of time Radha the&#xA;great goddess arrived there and she saw everything. Getting annoyed&#xA;she denounced the lord Govinda and pronounced a curse on me to be born&#xA;in a human family.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मामुवाच स गोविन्दो मदंशं त्वं चतुर्भुजम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;लभिष्यसि तपस्तप्त्वा भारते ब्रह्मणो वरात्।। २७।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O grandfather, at that point of time lord Govinda told me that by performing tapas in Bharata I would achieve a boon from Brahma in order to seek four-armed Vishnu as my husband. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्येवमुक्त्वा देवेशेऽप्यन्तर्धानमवाप सः।&lt;br&gt; देव्या भिया तनु त्यक्त्वा लढ्धं जन्म मया भुवि॥२८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus speaking, the lord disappeared and terrified from of goddess&#xA;Radhika my life came to an end. I have been reborn on the earth. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहं नारायणं कान्तं शान्तं सुन्दरविग्रहम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;सांप्रतं लब्धुमिच्छमि वरमेवं च दहि मे। २९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am desirous of getting lord Narayana as my husband who is peaceful&#xA;and has a beautiful body. You kindly grant me this boon.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मोवाच &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सुदामा नाम गोपश्च श्रीकृष्णाङ्गसमुद्भवः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तदंशश्चातितेजस्वी चालभज्जन्म भारते॥&lt;/strong&gt; ३० ।। &lt;br&gt; Brahmā said-&lt;strong&gt;A cowherd&#xA;named Sudāmā who was born of the ray of lord Krishna has been born on&#xA;earth. He happens to be quite illustrious.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;साम्प्रतं राधिकाशापाद्दनुवंशसमुद्भवः। &lt;br&gt;शङ्खचूड इति ख्यातस्त्रैलोक्ये न&#xA;च तत्समम्॥ ३१॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now, by the curse of Radhika, he is born in the race of demons by the&#xA;name of Sahkhachuda,&lt;/strong&gt; No one can equal him in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गोलोके त्वां पुरा दृष्ट्रा कामोन्मथितमानसः।&lt;br&gt; विलम्बितुं मा शशाक&#xA;राधिकायाः प्रभावतः।। ३२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He became passionate in the Goloka while looking at you but he could&#xA;not transgress the rules because of the influence of Radhika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स च जातिस्मरस्तप्त्वा त्वां ललाभ वरेण च। &lt;br&gt;जातिस्मरा तु त्वमपि सर्व&#xA;जानासि सुन्दरि।। ३३।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O beautiful one, he is well aware of the happenings of the earlier&#xA;birth. Therefore by performing tapas he has already got you as a boon.&#xA;Because of your belonging to the same base you also know him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-47/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;27&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-48/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;28&lt;/a&gt; of Rudra Samhita (Yuddha Khanda) Shiva Maha Purana&lt;/em&gt; also narrates the same story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-06-08T14:15:25.430" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15732" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15339" CreationDate="2016-11-04T16:13:01.847" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The discussion between Narada and Yudhistira occurs in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03081.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirtha-Yatra Parva&lt;/a&gt; a section of Vana Parva in Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhistira asks about the merit attached to sacred pilgrimage and Narada recounts a conversation between Bhishma and Sage Pulastya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Bhishma said, '[...] But, O thou foremost of virtuous persons, if I have deserved thy favour, I will tell thee my doubts and it behoveth thee to dispel them, O holy one, I have some religious doubts in respect of tirthas. Speak of those to me in detail, I desire to hear thee. [...]&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Pulastya said, 'O son, listen with attention. I will tell thee of the merit which attacheth to tirthas and which constituth the refuge of the Rishis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What follows is a detailed account of all the sacred pilgrimage spots in Bharata Varsha. Bhishma visits these on Sage Pulastya's order and acquires merit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Narada continued, 'Having cheerfully spoken thus, the illustrious Rishi Pulastya, well-pleased, bidding Bhishma farewell, disappeared there and then. And Bhishma also, O tiger among men, well understanding the true import of the Shastras, wandered over the world at the command of Pulastya. Thus, O thou blessed one, did Bhishma end at Prayaga his highly meritorious journey to the tirthas capable of destroying all sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The narration concludes with Narada telling Yudhistira to meet Sage Lomasa and perform tirtha yatra with other ascetics to acquire the same merit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thou wilt, O son of Pritha, obtain merit consisting of the eight attributes, even like that which Bhishma, the foremost of the Kurus, had obtained of yore. And as thou wilt lead these ascetics to those tirthas, thy merit will be much greater.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With these, O mighty king, do thou meet by visiting these tirthas. And, O illustrious monarch, a great Rishi of immeasurable energy, Lomasa by name, will come to thee. Do thou follow him, and me, and by turns visit these tirthas, O thou virtuous one! By this, thou wilt acquire great fame.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana continued, &amp;quot;O great king, having comforted the monarch thus, the illustrious Rishi Narada, bidding farewell to the king, disappeared there and then. And the virtuous Yudhishthira, reflecting upon the subject, began to recite unto the ascetics the merit attaching to tirthas!&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-04T16:13:01.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15734" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15460" CreationDate="2016-11-04T16:46:01.960" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although you have already selected an answer i am adding another one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reasons are two:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All your questions are answered in Manu Smriti itself and &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The punishment for verbal abuse is also explicitly given in it which is missing from the selected answer. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu Shastras describe 3 kinds of sins: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;those done by mind(thought)   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;those done by speech and    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;those done by action.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana16.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 16&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana%20home.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Essence of Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adharmas or Acts of Sin are mainly of three categories: ‘Sthuula’ (in Gross Form), ‘Sukshma’ (Small in content) and ‘Athyantha Sukshma’ (Minute). These sins are performed by Mind (Manas), Tongue (Vani) or Karma (Action). The Manasik type is four-fold: Thinking of other’s women, wealth, material loss and difficulties. ‘Vachik Paap karma’ (Sinful Utterances) like lies, unpalatable sayings, blaming others and using provocative language&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti also talks about these 3 kinds of sins.The verbal sins are described as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.6. &lt;strong&gt;Abusing&lt;/strong&gt; (others, speaking) untruth, detracting from the merits of all men, and talking idly, shall be the four kinds of (evil) verbal&#xA;   action&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the following shloka ,found in the same chapter, gives the punishment as well for verbally committed sins:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.9. In consequence of (many) sinful acts committed with his body, a man becomes (in the next birth) something inanimate, &lt;strong&gt;in consequence (of sins) committed by speech, a bird, or a beast&lt;/strong&gt;, and in consequence of mental (sins he is re-born in) a low caste&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bRm4g.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bRm4g.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;screenshot of Manusmriti 12.9&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And also can we use cursing for condemning bad/evil things?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, (as per the Manu Smriti) one should always speak the truth and condemn the bad evil things however harsh it might sound.The following is a relevant verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.138. Let him say what is true, let him say what is pleasing, let him utter no disagreeable truth, &lt;strong&gt;and let him utter no agreeable falsehood&lt;/strong&gt;; that is the eternal law. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-15T12:28:41.993" LastActivityDate="2018-06-15T12:28:41.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15735" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15737" CreationDate="2016-11-05T06:40:04.517" Score="13" ViewCount="1105" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jatayu has a very significant place in the Ramayana epic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Jatayu saw the mighty Ravana abducting Sita {Goddess Lakshmi} he put up a courageous fight to free Sita {Goddess Lakshmi}, from the all powerful Ravana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jatayu had become very old, by that time, had lost his strength,and knew very well that he was incapable of defeating Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, despite being aware of  all the dangers to his own life, &lt;strong&gt;Jatayu&lt;/strong&gt; took a &lt;strong&gt;selfless&lt;/strong&gt; stand, to  fight the  &lt;strong&gt;unrighteousness&lt;/strong&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Ravana&lt;/strong&gt;, with all his might.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jatayu fought Ravana, to the best of his abilities, knowing very well, that he would lose his life in the end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the end, Jatayu failed in rescuing Sita {Goddess Lakshmi} and died fighting Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the reward given by Sri Rama {God Vishnu} to Jatayu for fighting Ravana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-07-04T12:48:37.527" LastActivityDate="2020-07-04T12:48:37.527" Title="What was the reward given by Sri Rama to Jatayu for fighting Ravana?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ravana|jatayu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15736" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3064" CreationDate="2016-11-05T07:04:53.073" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kamadeva is alive now with body but he lived without body till his birth as Krishna's son Pradyumna. He regained his body after taking birth as Pradyumna during 28th Dwapara Yuga of this Manvantara. Kamadeva as Pradyumna married Rati&#xA;after killing Shambasura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-114/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentioned&lt;/a&gt; by Lord Shiva Himself in Chapter 19 Rudra Samhita (Parvati Khanda) of Shiva Mahapurana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिव उवाच &lt;br&gt; देवाश्च ऋषयः सर्वे मद्वचः शृणुतादरात्। मत्कोपेन च&#xA;यञ्जातं तत्तथा नान्यथा भवेत्॥३७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siva said, “O Gods and Rsis, you listen to my words carefully with&#xA;respect. Whatever has happened out of my fury cannot be altered. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अनङ्गस्तावदेव स्यात्कामो रतिपतिः प्रभुः। यावच्चावतरेत्कृष्णो धरण्यां रुक्मिणीपतिः।।३८।।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The lord Kamadeva shall remain, without a body till lord Krsna- the husband of Rukmini, incarnates on earth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;द्वारकायां यदा स्थित्वा पुत्रानुत्पादयिष्यति। तदा कृष्णस्तु&#xA;रुक्मिण्यां काममुत्पादयिष्यति॥३९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Living in Dvaraka, when Krsna, shall produce the sons, then Rukmini&#xA;would give birth to Kama. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रद्युम्नं नाम तस्यैव भविष्यति न संशयः। जातमात्रं तु तं पुत्रं शम्बरः&#xA;स हरिष्यति॥४० ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He would surely be known by the name of Pradyumna. Soon after his&#xA;birth that son would be kidnapped by Sambhasura, &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हृत्वा प्रास्य समुद्रे तं शम्बरो दानवोत्तमः। मृतं ज्ञात्वा वृथा मूढो&#xA;नगरं स्वं गमिष्यति।।४१।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Šarinbhāra, the best of Danavas, after kidnapping Krsna's son and&#xA;foolishly taking him to be dead, would throw him in the ocean and then&#xA;return to his city. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तावच्च नगरं तस्य रते! स्थेयं यथासुखम्। तत्रैव स्वपतेः प्राप्तिः&#xA;प्रद्युम्नस्य भविष्यति।।४२।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Rati, you shall stay in the city till then, where you will get back&#xA;your husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तत्र कामो मिलित्वा तं हत्वा शम्बरमाहवे। भविष्यति सुखी देवाः प्रद्युम्नाख्यः स्वकामिनीम्।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Kámadeva, killing Sambhasura in the battle, shall achieve his wife Rati and get delighted. The gods too will rejoice.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदीयं चैव यद्द्रव्यं नीत्वा स नगरं पुनः। गमिष्यति तया सार्द्धं देवाः&#xA;सत्यं वचो मम।।४४।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Gods, carrying the riches of Sambhasura and his wife, Pradyumna&#xA;shall return to his abode, My words are true.” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-11-05T07:16:09.853" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15737" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15735" CreationDate="2016-11-05T07:22:15.043" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama had performed the final rites of Jatayu and wished him to go to the worlds that can be attained only by righteous people, highly souled people. This incident is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga68/aranya_68_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kanda, Sarga 68&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या गतिः यज्ञ शीलानाम् आहित अग्नेः च या गतिः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अ पर आवर्तिनाम् या च या च भूमि प्रदायिनाम् || ३-६८-२९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मया त्वम् समनुज्ञातो गच्छ लोकान् अनुत्तमान् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गृध्र राज महा सत्त्व संस्कृतः च मया व्रज || ३-६८-३०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Oh, greatly mighty king of eagles, by me cremated ritually and by me aptly consented to, you depart to the unexcelled heavenly worlds... you depart to those worlds that are destined for the virtuosos of Vedic-rituals, and to those worlds that are destined for the practisers of ascesis amid Five-Ritual-fires, and to those that are destined for un-retreating combatants, and to those worlds that destined for the donors of lands...&quot; So said Rama to the departed Jataayu. [3-68-29, 30]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may infer from above Shloka that Jatayu got Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स गृध्र राजः कृतवान् यशस्करम्&#xA;  सु दुष्करम् कर्म रणे निपातितः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महर्षि कल्पेन च संस्कृतः तदा&#xA;  जगाम पुण्याम् गतिम् आत्मनः शुभाम् || ३-६८-३७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That king of eagle Jataayu, who has performed a creditworthy deed of stalling and combating Ravana, but who is felled by that Ravana, went away to the merited and auspicious heavenly realms of his own, as and when consecrated by sublime sage like Rama. [3-68-37]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-11-05T07:56:22.490" LastActivityDate="2016-11-05T07:56:22.490" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15738" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15740" CreationDate="2016-11-05T07:54:40.000" Score="4" ViewCount="670" Body="&lt;p&gt;Skanda Shasti is a famous festival in Tamilnadu. I want to know&#xA;what is Skanda Shasti and Skanda Shasti Fasting? How to observe this fasting and pooja? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8103" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-05T11:56:34.137" LastActivityDate="2016-11-05T17:03:57.983" Title="About Skanda Shasti Fasting" Tags="|puranas|kartikeya|fasting|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15739" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8975" CreationDate="2016-11-05T08:52:03.260" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Mahadeva does really exist. He stays on Mount Kailash, which is currently present in Tibet. But for a normal human eye, Mount Kailash looks like just normal mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The people well versed in &lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt; can see divine Mount Kailash with Lord Mahadeva at that place. Just like how Parameswara always stays at Kasi, He &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15645/3500&quot;&gt;also stays&lt;/a&gt; in human form as Rudra or Shankara on his abode at Mount Kailasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Skanda says one can see Divine abode (of Kaasi) with help of Yoga or meditation in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-182/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 182&lt;/a&gt; of Matsya Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भूलोक नैव संयुक्तमन्तरिक्षे शिवालयम्। अयुक्तास्तु न पश्यन्ति युक्ताः&#xA;पश्यन्ति चेतसा।।७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There the abode of Šiva (Šivālaya) is situated in the space. It is not&#xA;connected with the earth. Unworthy people, void of Yoga are not able&#xA;to see that abode; but the Yogins can realize it by their knowledge.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like Kasi, one can see Mount Kailash and Lord Shiva with help of Yoga. Not only Kasi and Kailasa, people well versed in Yogic techniques can see other subtle worlds or dimensions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Madhukarnath&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri M&lt;/a&gt;, a modern Yogi from Madanapalle, saw Lord Shiva at Mount Kailasa when sitting in meditation during Kailasa Manasa Sarovar Yatra. He mentioned his experience in his book &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.amazon.in/Apprenticed-Himalayan-Master-Yogis-Autobiography-ebook/dp/B007F2I3F0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the second day of the &lt;em&gt;parikrama&lt;/em&gt;, having traversed the Dolmo La&#xA;pass, which is 18,500 feet above sea level, we reached the camping&#xA;site at around 8 pm. We were tired and exhausted, for, the oxygen&#xA;levels were very low, and we had walked twenty-two kilometres that day&#xA;over a really difficult tract.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After settling down in my tent, I instructed our friends not to&#xA;disturb me after dinner. Many of us suffered from nasal bleeding. I&#xA;wiped my nose clean, emptied my bladder near the rocks, and zipping&#xA;close the flap of the tent, sat in padmasana, my attention fixed on&#xA;the &lt;em&gt;Ajna chakra&lt;/em&gt;. Blood rushed to my head and a streak of lightning&#xA;shot up my spine, and within seconds, I was out of my body clothed in&#xA;a blissful silvery sheath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This new luminous I, passed swiftly through several planes where glorious beings dwelt, and reached the wondrous realm that glowed with&#xA;a silvery blue soothing light. Two large blue cobras guarded the patio&#xA;of a white crystal palace.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;They swung their hoods nodding to me to&#xA;enter.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;In the central hall, on a raised crimson couch was Mahadev,&#xA;the Great Being, manifested as the Luminous Void, changing every now&#xA;and then into the resplendent form of Shiv Bholenath with the crescent&#xA;moon on his head and a black cobra around his neck, his body snow&#xA;white, and his third eye looking like a blue pearl.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Lord Mahadeva really exists at Mount Kailsh and we just can't simply see Him with normal eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-11-05T08:59:25.567" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15740" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15738" CreationDate="2016-11-05T08:54:08.720" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Skanda is Lord Shiva &amp;amp; Goddess Parvati's son,younger brother of Ganapaty, also known by names such as Karthikeya,Shanmuga etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Puranas say that Karthikeya was born on &lt;strong&gt;Sukla Shashti tithi in the MArgasirsha&lt;/strong&gt; month.Hence the name &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/vrats/skanda-sashti-dates.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Shasti&lt;/a&gt;,which is the day/vrata dedicated to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartikeya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Karthikeya&lt;/a&gt;.Just like the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/vrats/ekadashidates.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ekadashi Tithis&lt;/a&gt; are dedicated to Vratas related to Lord Vishnu ,Chaturthi Tithis to Lord Ganapaty similarly the Sukla Paksha Shasti Tithi is dedicated to Lord Karthikeya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sashti Tithi is dedicated to Lord Skanda. Devotees keep fast during&#xA;  Shukla Paksha Sashti day. For Skanda Sashti Vratam the day when Sashti&#xA;  Tithi is combined with Panchami Tithi is preferred. Hence Skanda&#xA;  Sashti Vratam might be observed on Panchami Tithi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Skanda Sashti is also known as Kanda Shashti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha Purana&lt;/a&gt; describes the origin &amp;amp; importance of Skanda Shasti as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;T&lt;strong&gt;he birth of Kartikeya at the Krittika Star on the Sixth day of the&#xA;  bright fortnight of Margasira month (Krittika Nakshatra of Shashthi&#xA;  Tithi of Suddha Paksha of Margasirsha Month)&lt;/strong&gt; brought relief to the&#xA;  Universe, immense joy to the Siva Couple, sense of liberation to all&#xA;  Devas who were indeed the direct beneficiaries since Brahma�s boon was&#xA;  that only Siva�s son could terminate the Demon Tarakasura and finally&#xA;  great fear and apprehension to Tarakasura and followers! &lt;strong&gt;Brahma had formally declared Shashthi of every month would be a day of austerity and fast only with �Phalaahar� or fruits as food. Those who are deviod of sons, prosperity and status ought to observe the fast and recite the above Karikeya Stuti for instant results.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Karthikeya Stuti referred to in the passage above is this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;�Bhavasva Deva Senani Maheswarastuta Prabho Shanmukha Kanda Visvesha kukkutadwaja Paavake- Kampitare Kumaresha Skanda Balagrahnuga Jitaare&#xA;  Krounchavidhvamsa Krittikasuta Matruja- Bhutagrahapati sreshtha&#xA;  Paavaki Priya Darshana, Maha Bhutapateh Putra Trilochana Namostutey-&#xA;  Yvam Stutastada Devaihi vavardha Bhavanandanah, Dwadasaadithya samkaso&#xA;  vabhuvaadhuta Darshanah Trilokyamapi tattejasthaapayamaasa Parthiva!�&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who knows tamil can also recite the famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://murugan.org/texts/ksk_tamil&amp;amp;english.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kanda Shasti Kavacham&lt;/a&gt;  on the Vrata days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-05T17:03:57.983" LastActivityDate="2016-11-05T17:03:57.983" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15741" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15460" CreationDate="2016-11-05T12:08:46.013" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Almost all cultures &amp;amp; civilizations have warned against harsh speeches. Even the sarcasm or the criticism also mustn't be cruel in nature. Better to withdraw them. During &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02065.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SabhA Parva&lt;/a&gt;, when Draupadi was won, following conversation takes place:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Duryodhana said,--'Come, Kshatta, bring hither Draupadi the dear and loved wife of the Pandavas. Let her sweep the chambers, force her thereto, and let the unfortunate one stay where our serving-women are.'&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura said,--'Dost thou not know, O wretch, that by uttering such harsh words thou art tying thyself with cords&lt;/strong&gt;? Dost thou not understand that thou art hanging on the edge of a precipice? Dost thou not know that being a deer thou provokest so many tigers to rage? Snakes of deadly venom, provoked to ire, are on thy head! Wretch, do not further provoke them lest thou goest to the region of Yama. In my judgement, slavery does not attach to Krishna, in as much as she was staked by the King after he had lost himself and ceased to be his own master. Like the bamboo that beareth fruit only when it is about to die, the son of Dhritarashtra winneth this treasure at play. Intoxicated, he perceiveth nor in these his last moments that dice bring about enmity and frightful terrors. &lt;strong&gt;No man should utter harsh speeches and pierce the hearts of the others.&lt;/strong&gt; No man should subjugate his enemies by dice and such other foul means. &lt;strong&gt;No one should utter such words as are disapproved by the Vedas and lead to hell and annoy others. Some one uttereth from his lips words that are harsh. Stung by them another burneth day and night. These words pierce the very heart of another. The learned, therefore, should never utter them,&lt;/strong&gt; pointing them at others. A goat had once swallowed a hook, and when it was pierced with it, the hunter placing the head of the animal on the ground tore its throat frightfully in drawing it out. Therefore, O Duryodhana, swallow not the wealth of the Pandavas. Make them not thy enemies. The sons of Pritha never use words such as these. &lt;strong&gt;It is only low men that are like dogs who use harsh words towards all classes of people,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2016-11-05T12:08:46.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15742" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-05T12:26:32.183" Score="1" ViewCount="1131" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why can't a Boy born on Poonam or Purnima marry girl born on the day of Amavasya? What are the problems in Hindu religion for such a case?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T09:07:32.250" LastActivityDate="2018-09-05T09:07:32.250" Title="Why can't a boy born on Poonam/Purnima marry a girl born on the day of Amavasya?" Tags="|marriage|kundali|panchang|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15743" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10994" CreationDate="2016-11-05T13:55:37.970" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu has taken Varaha Avatar infinite times, if we consider &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3079/3500&quot;&gt;cyclic nature of time&lt;/a&gt;, as many events repeat at regular intervals (may vary slightly sometimes). So, both stories are correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu took &lt;em&gt;Sweta Varaha&lt;/em&gt; (White Boar) incarnation at beginning of this Kalpa (hence the name Sweta Varaha Kalpa) to recover earth hidden in water and also to kill Hiranyâksha. This is how &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/7/1/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; describes this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dvitiyam tu bhavayasya &lt;br&gt; rasatala-gatam mahim &lt;br&gt; uddharisyann&#xA;upadatta &lt;br&gt; yajnesah saukaram vapuh &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Creator said: 'When the Lord as the Unlimited One within the&#xA;universe for His pastimes assumed the form of the sum total of all&#xA;sacrifices [as the boar avatâra Varâha], He was determined to lift the&#xA;earth out of the great [Garbhodaka] ocean. In the ocean the first&#xA;demon [called Hiranyâksha, the 'demon of the gold'] appeared who by&#xA;Him was defeated with His tusk, like a thunderbolt piercing a pack of&#xA;clouds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-47/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 15&lt;/a&gt; &lt;em&gt;Rudra Samhita (Sristi Khanda) of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/em&gt;, Brahma explains the reason why Vishnu took Boar Avatar to find bottom of infinite &lt;em&gt;Linga&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गमनेऽधो वराहस्य गतिर्भवति निश्चला।। धृतं वाराष्हरूपं हि विष्णुना&#xA;वनचारिणा॥१४॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A boar can steadily go down deep below, therefore lord Visnu took to&#xA;the form of a wild boar.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथवा भवकल्पार्थ तदूपं हि प्रकल्पितम्। विष्णुना च वराहस्य&#xA;भुवनावनकारिणा॥ १५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or in other words Visnu took to the form of a white boar in order to&#xA;start sveta-Varahakalpa. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यद्दिनं हि समारभ्य तद्रूपं धृतवान्हरिः। तद्दिनं प्रति कल्पोऽसौ कल्पो&#xA;वाराहसंज्ञकः॥ १६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The date from which Hari took to this form, Varaha-kalpa started from&#xA;that time. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदिच्छा वा यदा जाता तस्य रूपस्य धारणे। तद्दिनं प्रति कल्पोऽसौ कल्पो&#xA;वाराहसञ्ज्ञकः॥ १७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When he first desired to take to that Varaha form, since that time in&#xA;every (Maha)kalpa, the Varaha-kalpa was repeated. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana doesn't mention exactly when Lingodbhava occured. It might have happened in Sveta Kalpa as Shiva Purana mentions mainly &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11077/3500&quot;&gt;events of Sveta kalpa&lt;/a&gt;. Lingodhbhava could have also happened during &lt;em&gt;Agneya kalpa&lt;/em&gt;, as Linga Purana mentions mainly events of Agneya Kalpa, in addition to many other times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, both stories are true and these are just two Varaha Avatars among Vishnu's infinite Varaha Avatars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-11-05T13:55:37.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15744" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15110" CreationDate="2016-11-05T14:01:49.327" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ananta&lt;/strong&gt; is another name of &lt;strong&gt;Sesha&lt;/strong&gt;. Vishnu Purana confirms it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp063.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Below the seven Pátálas is the form of Vishńu, proceeding from the quality of darkness, &lt;strong&gt;which is called Śesha&lt;/strong&gt;, the excellencies of which neither Daityas nor Dánavas can fully enumerate. &lt;strong&gt;This being is called Ananta by the spirits of heaven&lt;/strong&gt;, and is worshipped by sages and by gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The names of most snakes are mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Astika Parva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata. All the nagas are brothers of Sesha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sauti said, O thou whose wealth is asceticism, from fear of being lengthy, I shall not mention the names of all the snakes. But I will recite the names of the chief ones. Listen to me!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Sesha was born first, and then Vasuki&lt;/strong&gt;. (Then were born) Airavata, &lt;strong&gt;Takshaka&lt;/strong&gt;, Karkotaka, Dhananjaya, Kalakeya, [...] &lt;strong&gt;Samkha&lt;/strong&gt;, Valisikha, Nisthanaka [...] &lt;strong&gt;Padma&lt;/strong&gt;, Mahapadma, Sankhamukha, Kushmandaka, Kshemaka, [...] Kauravya, &lt;strong&gt;Dhritarashtra&lt;/strong&gt;, Sankhapinda, Virajas, Suvahu, Salipinda, Prabhakara, Hastipinda [...]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Still, for the sake of being specific, I shall attempt to give info about all the nine snakes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Padmanabha&lt;/strong&gt; is a righteous snake king; his story is in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c054.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Santi Parva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In that forest which is known by the name of Naimisha, and which is situated on the banks of the Gomati, there is a city called after the Nagas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A mighty Naga, of righteous soul, dwells in the city that stands in that region. &lt;strong&gt;That great Naga is known by the name of Padmanabha or Padma.&lt;/strong&gt; Walking in the triple path (of acts, knowledge, and adoration) he gratifies all creatures in thought, word, and deed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He's also said to have pulled &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c056.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the chariot of Sun God&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The wife of the Naga said, 'Reverend sir, &lt;strong&gt;my husband has gone to drag the car of Surya for a month.&lt;/strong&gt; O learned Brahmana, he will be back in fifteen days, and will, without doubt show himself unto thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kambala&lt;/strong&gt; is referenced in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_026.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harivamsa&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He (akrUra) saw, the king of serpents (sheSha), the lord of ekArNava (ocean at the time of deluge), being worshipped by great serpents (having split tongues) such as vAsuki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Serpents named Kambala and Ashvataru were fanning the king of serpents, the lord, seated on the righteous seat.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He's also said to have attended &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varuna's Sabha in Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; along with other Nagas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Vasuki and Takshaka, and the Naga called Airavana; Krishna and Lohita; Padma and Chitra endued with great energy; &lt;strong&gt;the Nagas called Kamvala&lt;/strong&gt; and Aswatara; and Dhritarashtra [...]--all having auspicious marks and mandalas and extended hoods;--these and many other snakes. O Yudhishthira, without anxiety of any kind, wait upon and worship the illustrious Varuna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Takshaka&lt;/strong&gt; is referenced numerous times in the Mahabharata. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;He stole amrita earrings from Uttanka the disciple of Dhaumya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;On the road Utanka perceived coming towards him a naked idle beggar sometimes coming in view and sometimes disappearing. And Utanka put the ear-rings on the ground and went for water. In the meantime the beggar came quickly to the spot and taking up the ear-rings ran away. And Utanka [...] pursued the thief with the utmost speed. And having with great difficulty overtaken him, he seized him by force. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But at that instant the person seized, &lt;strong&gt;quitting the form of a beggar and assuming his real form, viz., that of Takshaka, speedily entered a large hole open in the ground.&lt;/strong&gt; And having got in, Takshaka proceeded to his own abode, the region of the serpents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And was responsible for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the death of King Parikshit&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And as the king was smiling, Takshaka, who had (in the form of that insect) come out of the fruit that had been offered to the king, coiled himself round the neck of the monarch. &lt;strong&gt;And quickly coiling round the king's neck and uttering a tremendous roar, Takshaka, that lord of snakes, bit that protector of the earth.'&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the mansion in which the king was living blazed up with Takshaka's poison. And the king's councillors, on beholding it, fled away in all directions. And the king himself fell down, as if struck by lightning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2016-11-05T14:01:49.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15745" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2326" CreationDate="2016-11-05T14:06:26.370" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well,they probably &lt;strong&gt;can&lt;/strong&gt; get Moksha too.Its all upto Parameswara to decide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti says that even insects &amp;amp; plants can attain higher worlds(i.e heavens) by austerities!.So,if they can attain higher worlds they can probably attain moksha too.Because,even attaining heavens is an equally impossible task(seemingly of course) for all those beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.240. Insects, snakes, moths, bees, birds and beings,&#xA;  bereft of motion, reach heaven by the power of austerities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana77.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;significance of Rudrakshas and Bhasmas&lt;/a&gt; chapter of the Devi Bhagawata Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;However, Sage Narayana  quoted Maha Deva telling Kartikeya that any&#xA;  human being irrespective of caste or even animals or other species&#xA;  carrying Rudrakshas would be immune from sins &lt;strong&gt;as an ass carrying a&#xA;  load of the beads died on way but had salvation!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So,yes animals possibly can get moksha too.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our Guruji's dog always refuses to eat on ekadsahi tithis!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,what can be the rational reason for this?How does it know which day is ekadashi ?&amp;amp; how does it know that one is not supposed to eat on that day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May be this is how the dog is doing it's share of austerities and making itself fit for salvation.So,you never know actually. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-05T16:08:08.300" LastActivityDate="2016-11-05T16:08:08.300" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15748" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-06T00:32:30.547" Score="1" ViewCount="176" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm looking for a english translation of Kavyalankara Sangraha by Udbhata Bhatta. From what I've heard it is a stellar book on Indian system of Logic. If no translations are available a detail summary of the contents, key concepts and review would do. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2016-11-06T00:32:30.547" Title="English translations of Kavyalankara Sangraha by Udbhata Bhatta" Tags="|translation-request|nyaya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15749" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-06T00:41:30.060" Score="3" ViewCount="636" Body="&lt;p&gt;I keep hearing the claim that the Yavanas mentioned in Mahabharatha and Puranas are actually the Greeks. Is there any good reason to believe this? Does the scriptures give a description of the geography, culture, etc of the Yavanas that match with those of the Greeks? Is there any historical accounts of Alexander's invasion of India where the invading greeks are called Yavanas?       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastActivityDate="2018-06-17T11:46:57.680" Title="Why are the Yavanas associated with the Greeks?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15750" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15751" CreationDate="2016-11-06T05:05:04.400" Score="1" ViewCount="152" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently read this journal article (doubt its reliability) that claimed that the kauravs got to live in heaven. I find it hard to accept this after all that they have done. I am still not sure whether this is true or not. If it is, then how is it fair?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastActivityDate="2016-11-06T05:17:29.660" Title="Is it true that kauravs got a place in heaven?" Tags="|mahabharata|kauravas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-11-06T06:08:18.983" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15751" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15750" CreationDate="2016-11-06T05:17:29.660" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Duryodhana and the Kauravas did go to Devaloka when they died.&lt;/strong&gt;. This is because they died on the battlefield, which is the greatest death for a Kshatriya can have.  Here is what Narada tells Yudhisthira in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Swargarohanika Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here is king Duryodhana. He is worshipped with the gods by those righteous men and those foremost of kings who are now denizens of Heaven. By causing his body to be poured as a libation on the fire of battle, he has obtained the end that consists in attainment of the region for heroes. You and your brothers, who were veritable gods on Earth, were always persecuted by this one. Yet through his observance of Kshatriya practices he has attained to this region. This lord of Earth was not terrified in a situation fraught with terror.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Swargarohanika Parva says the same thing about the rest of the Kauravas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sons of Dhritarashtra were all Rakshasas of fierce might. Sanctified by death caused by weapons, those high-souled beings of prosperity all succeeded in attaining to Heaven. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2016-11-06T05:17:29.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15754" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15774" CreationDate="2016-11-06T07:06:08.257" Score="5" ViewCount="370" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharatha&lt;/a&gt;, which is one of the two &quot;Itihasa&quot; texts among Hindu Scriptures,is a work by Sri Vyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also contains the &quot;Bhagawat Gita&quot;(BG), the discourse given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna during the onset of the battle of Kurukshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagawat Gita is quite popular among the users on this site and many answers cite its verses.Even the users,who say that &quot;the Puranas are work of men&quot;,do not hesitate quoting from the BG,despite the fact ,that all major Puranas and the BG are works of the same Sri Vyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following is one such &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-35/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;famous&lt;/a&gt; verse which says:&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;1)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śreyān sva-dharmo viguṇaḥ para-dharmāt sv-anuṣṭhitāt sva-dharme&#xA;  nidhanaḿ śreyaḥ para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though&#xA;  faultily, than another’s duties perfectly. Destruction in the course&#xA;  of performing one’s own duty is better than engaging in another’s&#xA;  duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the core message or one of Gita's essence is the doctrine of &quot;Nishkama Karma&quot;.That is doing karma without having attachments to the fruits(Karmaphala).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This kind of karma is considered the best among all kinds and is said to grant liberation(moksha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question-Are there  verses in other major Hindu texts(like Srutis,Puranas,Smritis etc)  similar in purport with the verses&amp;amp; messages given above?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-06T11:21:43.983" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T08:59:17.487" Title="On verses, from major Hindu texts, similar in purport to those found in the Bhagawat Gita" Tags="|scripture|krishna|bhagavad-gita|vyasa|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15755" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15754" CreationDate="2016-11-06T07:06:08.257" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am answering my own question based on the Manu Smriti ,the first of its kind among Hindu texts. Note that while the Mahabhratha depicts the events of the Dwapara Yuga, the Manu Smriti existed since Krita, the first among Yugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following verse,is  saying exactly the same thing as  verse &lt;strong&gt;1&lt;/strong&gt; given in the question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.97.&lt;em&gt;Varam swadharmo Viguno Na Paarakya Swanustitha|Paradharmena Jeevan hi Saddyah Patati Jaatitaha&lt;/em&gt;- It is better (to discharge) one’s own (appointed) duty incompletely than to perform completely that of another; for he who&#xA;  lives according to the law of another (caste) is instantly excluded&#xA;  from his own.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/p2fMC.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/p2fMC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The context above is of how the various duties are to be performed by the four varnas in times of distress(i.e when they are not being able to perform their respective prescribed duties properly).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,the concept of &quot;Nishkama Karma&quot; is described in the next verses.The Manu Smriti talks about two kinds of karmas viz:&lt;strong&gt;Pravritta&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; 2)&lt;strong&gt;Nivritta&lt;/strong&gt;(which is Nishkama Karma in BG).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.88. The acts prescribed by the Veda are of two kinds, such as procure an increase of happiness and cause a continuation (of mundane&#xA;  existence, pravritta), &lt;strong&gt;and such as ensure supreme bliss and cause a&#xA;  cessation (of mundane existence, nivritta&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.89. Acts which secure (the fulfilment of) wishes in this world or in the next are called pravritta (such as cause a continuation of&#xA;  mundane existence); &lt;strong&gt;but acts performed without any desire (for a&#xA;  reward), preceded by (the acquisition) of (true) knowledge, are&#xA;  declared to be nivritta (such as cause the cessation of mundane&#xA;  existence).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7Wadg.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7Wadg.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,exactly the same message as given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Expecting more answers from other users based on other texts like the Puranas etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-06T13:41:09.387" LastActivityDate="2016-11-06T13:41:09.387" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15756" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15757" CreationDate="2016-11-06T08:45:09.917" Score="4" ViewCount="1697" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm just wondering what Hindus think of apostasy. Do we discourage it? think low of it? is it a crime according to Vedas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="7947" LastEditDate="2016-11-06T08:53:45.870" LastActivityDate="2016-11-06T13:44:15.463" Title="What does the Hindu religion think of apostasy?" Tags="|scripture|atheism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15757" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15756" CreationDate="2016-11-06T09:15:43.920" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism the Vedas are the supreme authority.All the other texts, like Smritis etc, must derive their validity from Vedas only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;,apostasy means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..&lt;strong&gt;abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person&lt;/strong&gt;. It can also&#xA;  be defined within the broader context of &lt;strong&gt;embracing an opinion contrary&#xA;  to one's previous beliefs&lt;/strong&gt;... to mean &lt;strong&gt;renunciation and criticism of, or&#xA;  opposition to, a person's former religion,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,to commit apostasy &lt;strong&gt;a Hindu will have to 1)criticize/oppose Vedas &amp;amp; 2) will have to embrace an opinion contrary to Vedas(his previous beliefs)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But both of those acts are condemned in the Hindu shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example speaking ill of ,criticizing the Vedas is equivalent to committing one of the 5 grave sins(mahapatkas),as seen from the verse below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.56. Forgetting the Veda, &lt;strong&gt;reviling the Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;, giving false evidence, slaying a friend, eating forbidden food, or (swallowing substances)&#xA;  unfit for food, are six (offences) equal to drinking Sura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note here that drinking of Sura is considered as one of the 5 major sins in Hinduism).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, Hindu scriptures also declare that those &lt;strong&gt;beliefs,opinions,traditions&lt;/strong&gt; ,that are not based on the Vedas are false and useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 12.95. All those traditions (smriti) and those despicable systems of philosophy, which are not based on the Veda, produce no reward after&#xA;  death; for they are declared to be founded on Darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.96. &lt;strong&gt;All those (doctrines), differing from the (Veda), which spring up and (soon) perish, are worthless and false, because they are of&#xA;  modern date.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Jmwut.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Jmwut.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,conclusion-&lt;strong&gt;Hindu scriptures clearly condemn apostasy as a sin as it involves 1)criticism of Vedas(former religion) and 2) belief in other traditions/faiths that are not based on Vedas .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-06T13:44:15.463" LastActivityDate="2016-11-06T13:44:15.463" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15759" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15756" CreationDate="2016-11-06T10:57:23.673" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scriptures frown on abandonment of Hinduism and adopting another creed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa says, '..The rejection of one's own creed, the practice of other&#xA;  people's creed, ......- these all have been pronounced by persons&#xA;  conversant with duties to be acts that no one should do.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section XXXIV-XXXV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-11-06T10:57:23.673" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15760" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1968" CreationDate="2016-11-06T11:05:11.127" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am posting below the methods for removing one's sins. One of the methods is to publish one's sins to the whole world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, 'By penances, religious rites, and gifts, O Bharata, a man&#xA;  may wash off his sins if he does not commit them again. By subsisting&#xA;  upon only one meal a day, that procured by mendicancy, by doing all&#xA;  his acts himself (without relying on the aid of a servant)....by&#xA;  becoming a brahmacharin and always ready for exertion, by casting off&#xA;  all malice, by sleeping on bare ground, &lt;strong&gt;by publishing his offence to&#xA;  the world,&lt;/strong&gt; by doing all this for full 12 years, a person can cleanse&#xA;  himself from the sin of having slain a Brahmana. .....By living upon&#xA;  the scantiest meal every day for a space of six years, a person may be&#xA;  cleansed of that sin [2]. By observing a harder vow with regard to&#xA;  food one may be cleansed in three years [3]. By living upon one meal a&#xA;  month, one may be cleansed in course of only a year. By observing&#xA;  again an absolute fast, one may be cleansed within a very short time.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva, Section 36&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;REF: Ganguli's translation of Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section 36&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[2] Ganguli remarks in a foot note that the rule laid down is that he should eat in the morning for the first three days, in the evening for the second three days, eat nothing but what is got without soliciting for the next three days and fast altogether for the three days that follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[3] The harder rule referred to is eating in the morning for seven days; in the evening for the next seven days; eating what is got without soliciting for the next seven days; and fasting altogether for the next seven days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-11-06T11:05:11.127" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15761" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15754" CreationDate="2016-11-06T13:56:03.553" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Uddhava asked Shree Krishna about characteristics of men who are bounded ,free and who are devotees.Lord krishna given uddhava similar answers  as given to arjuna in Bhagvat Gita. We can find that conversation in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;इन्द्रियैरिनिन्द्रियार्थेषु गुणैरपि गुणेषु च । गृह्यमाणेष्व हं कुर्यान्न विद्वान यस्त्वविक्रिय:।।9।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Indriyas are like diseases of &quot;Gunas&quot; and material desires are also same. So with &lt;strong&gt;Nirvikar or Nishkama&lt;/strong&gt; , a learned&#xA;  men should understood that ,material desires is interaction between&#xA;  various Indriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/11/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shrimad Bhagvat Skanda / Adahya  11 , shloka 9&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यादनीशो धरायितुं मनो ब्रह्मणि निश्र्चलम । मयि सर्वाणि कर्माणि निरपेक्ष: समाचर।।22।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;-  If you are unable to concentrate your mind on me  , then do all your work as &quot;Nirapeksha (निरपेक्ष) for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/11/22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Shrimad Bhagvat Skanda / Adahya  11 , shloka 22&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;निवृतं कर्म सेवेत प्रवृत्तं मत्परस्यजेत । जिज्ञासायाम  संप्रवृत्तो&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;नाद्रियेत कर्मचोदनाम।।4।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;-  A man who is devotee of Ishwara , should follow his daily duties.&lt;strong&gt;Never to do &quot;Sakam Karma&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; ( or work with&#xA;  expectations) . When  he will try to aquire &quot;Atmagyan&quot; (आत्मज्ञान or &#xA;  knowladge of self), then even he shouldn't care much about daily&#xA;  duties also.This verse tells us about &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Pravrutta and Nivrutta karma&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/10/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Shrimad Bhagvat Skanda 11 / Adahya  10  , shloka 4&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-06T16:10:42.870" LastActivityDate="2016-11-06T16:10:42.870" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15762" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-06T14:17:25.653" Score="2" ViewCount="1648" Body="&lt;p&gt;What rituals have to be done and what activities/celebrations/rituals should NOT be done and who has to do what on Ratha sapthami day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can we perform &quot;Tila tarpana&quot;  on Ratha sapthami day for fathers or fore-fathers who have passed away long back?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can any celebratory ceremonies like House Warming be performed on Ratha sapthami day? Are there any exclusions for the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3747" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-01-26T11:00:39.813" LastActivityDate="2018-01-26T11:00:39.813" Title="Can rituals like 'Tila tarpana' be performed on &quot;Ratha sapthami&quot; day?" Tags="|rituals|surya|vedic-rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15763" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9256" CreationDate="2016-11-06T15:51:26.547" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/dli.bengal.10689.12976#page/n109/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narada Purana (Part IV)&lt;/a&gt; has an entire section dedicated to performance on vratas on different tithis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the section of different vratas to be performed on the Chathurti Tithis, there is a rite known as Karaka Vrata observed on the 4th in the dark half of Karttika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;43b-44 The holy rite called &lt;strong&gt;Karaka vrata&lt;/strong&gt; is to be performed on &lt;strong&gt;the Caturthi day in the dark half of the month of Karttika.&lt;/strong&gt; Only women are authorised to perform this Vrata. The rules of the procedure on it are being mentioned. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;44b-45 The woman should take her bath and bedeck herself. She should then worship god Ganesa. &lt;strong&gt;In front of the deity ten bowls filled with cooked rice shall be kept&lt;/strong&gt; and be dedicated to the Lord of the Devas with devotion and purity of the mind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;46-47 She should utter (pray) :--&quot;May the deity be gracious unto me.&quot; Saying this she should dedicate them to God Ganesa.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Presents shall be given respectfully to Suvasinis (married women) and the Brahmanas according to desire. Then at night, when the moon rises, she should duly offer Arghya (water oblation) and partake of sweet-meats and cooked rice for the fulfilment of the Vrata.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;50-51a Or the holy rite shall be observed by the woman throughout her life with a desire for conjugal blessedness. &lt;strong&gt;There is no other Vrata like this that yields conjugal blessedness to women.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence it should be continuously performed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to what I read on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karwachauth.com/karwa-chauth-puja.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this website&lt;/a&gt; on Karwa Chauth, it is indeed that the same festival is described in the Purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit verses have been taken &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicreserve.mum.edu/puranas/narada_purana_purva.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;from here (page 849)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hIcLd.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hIcLd.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helped. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="7075" LastEditDate="2019-10-18T16:58:00.733" LastActivityDate="2019-10-18T16:58:00.733" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15765" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-06T17:24:30.900" Score="6" ViewCount="221" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedic scriptures were originally in oral form only. In which period were the scriptures put in written form?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8028" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-17T10:16:26.663" LastActivityDate="2020-04-14T21:02:25.323" Title="What was the period when vedic scriptures were put in written form?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|history|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15766" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15767" CreationDate="2016-11-06T19:37:59.173" Score="5" ViewCount="4393" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the translation of the following Sanskrit Shloka ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shloka- Ardhena Pravakshyämi Yad-uktam Granthakotibhih |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Satyam Jagan-mithyä Jivo Brahmaiva Näparah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of the above shloka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-07-05T09:32:40.590" Title="Translation and significance of sanskrit shloka---Shloka-Ardhena Pravakshyämi Yad-uktam Granthakotibhih" Tags="|translation-request|advaita|shloka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15767" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15766" CreationDate="2016-11-06T19:41:05.850" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The shloka under reference is translated as under.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shloka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shloka-ärdhena Pravakshyämi Yad-uktam Granthakotibhih |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma Satyam Jagan-Mithyä Jivo Brahmaiva Näparah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In half of a shloka I state what has been stated by millions of texts; that is- Brahman alone is real and this Jagat is Mithyä, and the Jiva is non-different from Brahman.’ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above mentioned shloka is generally used in reference to Sri Adi Shankaracharya’s work Vivekachudamani(The Crest-Jewel of Wisdom, also,The Crest-Jewel of Discrimination).And it highlights the fact that, the central tenet of this work,is summed up in half of a shloka, as :– &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma Satyam Jagan-mithyä Jivo Brahmaiva Näparah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman is real, the universe is mithya (it cannot be categorized as either real or unreal). The jiva is Brahman itself and not different..’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above mentioned “half-shloka” has been composed by Sri Adi Shankaracharya himself, in another work namely, Brahmajnanavali Mala { ब्रह्मज्ञानावलीमाला}, {but the  composer of the previous half shloka,i.e. slok- ärdhena pravakshyämi yad-uktam granthakotibhih- is not known}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sloka 20 of  Brahmajnanavali Mala { ब्रह्मज्ञानावलीमाला}&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या जीवो ब्रह्मैव नापरः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनेन वेद्यं सच्छास्त्रमिति वेदान्तडिण्डिमः ॥ २०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma Satyam JaganmithyA JIvo Brahmaiva Naparah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anena Vedyam SacchAstram Iti VedAntaDiNDimah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman is real, the universe is mithya (it cannot be categorized as either real or unreal). The jiva is Brahman itself and not different. This should be understood as the correct SAstra. This is proclaimed by Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Adi Shankaracharya sums up the entire message of the Vedanta in three crisp aphorism like sentences. They are :-&#xA;(a) Brahma Satyam, (b) Jagat Mithya, and (c) Jivo Brahmaiva naparah.&lt;a href=&quot;http://vedantamission.tripod.com/gurus/adisank3.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Details can be accessed here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above shloka, composed by Shri Adi Shankaracharya is in line with shloka given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-04-24.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4, Sloka 24&lt;/a&gt;{when understood as per the Advaita school of thought},placed as under.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मार्पणं ब्रह्म हविर्ब्रह्माग्नौ ब्रह्मणा हुतम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मैव तेन गन्तव्यं ब्रह्मकर्मसमाधिना || 24||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmārpaṇaṁ Brahma Havir Brahmāgnau Brahmaṇā Hutam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmaiva Tena Gantavyaṁ Brahma-karma-samādhinā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For those who are completely absorbed in God-consciousness, the &lt;strong&gt;oblation&lt;/strong&gt; is Brahman, the &lt;strong&gt;ladle&lt;/strong&gt; with which it is offered is Brahman, &lt;strong&gt;the act of offering&lt;/strong&gt; is Brahman, and the &lt;strong&gt;sacrificial fire&lt;/strong&gt; is also &lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;. Such persons, who view everything as God, easily attain him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference-&lt;a href=&quot;https://realization.org/down/sankara.vivekachudamani.chaitanya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.omjai.org/Sankaracharya%20-%20Brahma%20Jnana%20Vali%20Mala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmajnanavali Mala&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-07-05T09:32:40.590" LastActivityDate="2018-07-05T09:32:40.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15768" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15770" CreationDate="2016-11-06T20:23:22.010" Score="5" ViewCount="13298" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why does &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinna_Jeeyar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chinna Jeeyar Swami&lt;/a&gt; carry a bunch of sticks and a white cloth or flag attached to them? What is the significance of these sticks? Why isn't it just a single stick; why should it be a cluster of sticks? Why are these sticks sometimes covered in cloth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/crr0x.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/crr0x.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0Ia1e.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0Ia1e.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-08T21:19:30.563" LastActivityDate="2018-09-13T17:57:15.207" Title="Why does Chinna Jeeyar Swami carry a bunch of sticks and a flag attached to them?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|vishishtadvaita|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15769" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15779" CreationDate="2016-11-06T23:28:56.507" Score="2" ViewCount="653" Body="&lt;p&gt;Following is the chronological order of these three avatars:&#xA;Narasimha avathar (4th of vishnu )&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vamana avathar(5th of vishnu)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Parasuram avathar(6th of vishnu)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Accordingly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In Vamana avathar king Mahabali defeated by vishnu's 5th avathar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In Narasimha avathar Hiranyakasipu was defeated by 4th avathar of Vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the family tree of kashyapa was:: &#xA;Kashyapa--&gt; Hiranyakasipu--&gt; Prahalada--&gt; Vairochana--&gt; Mahabali&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashuram avathar had gifted the land to kashyapa after defeating kshyatrias as a honor of conducting ashwamedhas. Here the Parashuram avathar was the 6th of Lord Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can this be possible in terms of chronology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Check details in these links in order:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parashurama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parashurama&lt;/a&gt; //this shows about Parashuram donating land to Kashyapa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabali&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabali&lt;/a&gt; //this shows the tree structure of Kashyapa's family &amp;amp;&amp;amp;&quot;Compare the links of kashyapa in LINK &quot;1 and 2 refers to same&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8121" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-08T06:43:35.867" LastActivityDate="2018-01-08T06:43:35.867" Title="How can Narasimha &amp; Vamana Avatars happen before Parashuram?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|parashurama|vamana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15770" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15768" CreationDate="2016-11-07T01:04:06.837" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not just Chinna Jeeyar Swami, but all Sri Vaishnava Acharyas carry these three sticks.  They are called the Tridanda, and they are carried by those who have taken up Tridandi Sanyasa, which is the type of Sanyasa that Sri Vaishnavas follow.  The appearance of Sanyasis in general is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His hair, nails, and beard being clipped, carrying an alms-bowl, a staff, and a water-pot, let him continually wander about, controlling himself and not hurting any creature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the number of sticks that the staff is made of varies based on the type of Sanyasa.  Advaitins follow Ekadanda Sanyasa, where they carry only one stick to symbolize their belief that only Brahman exists.  Sri Vaishnavas, on the other hand, follow Tridandi Sanyasa, where the three sticks symbolize the three entities which exist according to Vishishtadvaita: Chit or souls, Achit or inanimate matter, and Ishwara, the supreme lord.  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mudaliandan.com/dasarathi.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Sri Vaishnava website&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In our Srivaishanava Sampradayam, Pontiffs carry triple staff (tridandam) made out of three small wooden sticks. This is to signify the three components of our philosophy - chit, achit and easwara. It is mandatory for our Pontiffs to carry tridanda always with them. It is also said that &amp;quot;Vishnuroopam Tridandagyam&amp;quot; i.e., Tridandam is Vishnu's roopam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Sri Vaishnavas aren't the only Tridandi Sanyasis; &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=jI2PUAa8B8oC&amp;amp;lpg=PR15&amp;amp;dq=bhaskara%20tridanda&amp;amp;pg=PR15#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says that the Vedantic philosopher Bhaskara, who believed in the philosophy of Aupadhika Bhedabheda as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9566/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, was a Tridandi Sanyasi.  And Gaudiya Vaishnavas also believe in Tridanda Sanyasa, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vanisource.org/wiki/Letter_to_Rupanuga_--_Montreal_30_August,_1968?terms=ekadandi+tridandi+tridandi&amp;amp;first=Regarding%20your%20question:%20%22about%20the%20six-armed%20Lord%20Caitanya%20you%20gave&amp;amp;last=from%20the%20mayavadis%20who%20use%20the%20three%20parallel%20lines,%20tripundra.&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this letter&lt;/a&gt; by Srila Prabhupada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mayavadi sannyasis, they carry ekadanda, one stick. As we Vaisnava sannyasis carry 3 danda, or three sticks, combined together. The one stick is the symbol of understanding oneness. The monists only accept chin matra, there is only one spirit soul; they do not understand the varieties of the spiritual world. And so far our three sticks are concerned, we take it for granted that we have dedicated our life, for Krishna's service in 3 ways, namely, in our body, in our mind, and in our words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The connection between the Tridanda and the three ways come from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu12.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That man is called a (true) tridandin in whose mind these three, the control over his speech (vagdanda), the control over his thoughts (manodanda), and the control over his body (kayadanda), are firmly fixed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: The white flag-looking thing is called the Jala Pavitram, and as its name suggests it's used to purify water by filtering. It's mentioned in this verse of the Parashara Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tatra kutichaka nama putradibhih kutim karayitva kama-krodha-lobha-moha-mada-matsaryadin-parityaja vidhivat-sannyasam kritva tridanda &lt;strong&gt;jala-pavitra&lt;/strong&gt; kashaya-vastra-dharanih&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those sannyasis known as kuticaka are those who request their sons to build them a cottage; they give up lust, anger greed, illusion, madness and envy etc. They renounce the world thus and carry a tridanda, &lt;strong&gt;a water-strainer&lt;/strong&gt; and wear cloth dyed the colour of kashaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe14/sbe1465.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Baudhayana Dharma Sutras says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the three means of punishment, (viz.) words, thoughts, and acts, he shall not injure created beings. He shall carry a cloth for straining water for the sake of purification.  He shall perform the necessary purifications with water which has been taken out (of a well or tank) and has been strained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Jala Pavitram is also used for purifying air during Pranayamam as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/mar2000/0213.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-08T21:11:02.337" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15771" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15762" CreationDate="2016-11-07T05:02:37.187" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all &lt;strong&gt;What is Ratha Saptami?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  &lt;strong&gt;Sukla Paksha Sapatami Tithi&lt;/strong&gt; day in the &lt;strong&gt;Magha&lt;/strong&gt; month is known as the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/festivals/ratha-saptami/ratha-saptami-date-time.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ratha Saptami&lt;/a&gt;.It is dedicated to the worship of Surya Deva.As per Puranas Surya started illuminating the whole world on this day and hence the day is also called &quot;Surya Jayanti&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general taking bath during Arunodaya muhurtha(sunrise time) is&#xA; highly auspicious in the entire &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookview.php?chapnum=12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Magha&lt;/a&gt; month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Snaana Kaala should be at Arunodaya to Praatah kaala; it is&#xA;  emphasised that bathing in the waters at the time of Suryodaya would&#xA;  purify even those who are the sinners of Brahma hatya or Suraa paana;&#xA;  any human being irrespective of caste, age or sex could take Maagha&#xA;  Snaanaas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What rituals has to do and what activities/ celebrations/ rituals?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As said before the day is dedicated to Surya Deva.So the activities are related to him only.Following are the 2 highly rewarding &amp;amp; recommended activities for that day:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1)Arunodaya Snaana&lt;/strong&gt;(Bathing during sunrise)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Snaana Mantra-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Snaana Mantra-ada Janma krutam paapam mayaa janmasu Janmasu, Tanmey Rogam cha shokam cha Maakarihantu Saptami/ Yetatjjanmakrutam&#xA;  paapam yaccha janmaantaraarjitam, Manovaakkaayajam yaccha&#xA;  jnaataajnaatey cha ye punah/Iti Sapta vidham paapam  Snaanmey Sapta&#xA;  Saptikey, Sapta Vyaadhi samaayuktam hara Maakari Saptami /&lt;/em&gt; (May the&#xA;  entirety of my sins accumulated in my present and previous births on&#xA;  account of conscious and unconscious acts or those perpetrated by my&#xA;  vocal or mental roots be dissolved on this Makara Saptami and may this&#xA;  Sacred Snaana with my earnest and heartfelt supplications and&#xA;  obeisances to you Surya Deva, in the form of Seven kinds of  Sins and&#xA;  Seven types of Diseases be destroyed for ever!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2)Argya Pradana&lt;/strong&gt;(water offerings to Sun god accompanied by Mantras):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arghya Pradana Mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sapta Saptivaha preeta Saptaloka pradeepana, Saptami sahito Deva&#xA;  gruhanaarghya Divaakara/&lt;/em&gt;  (Divaakara! You are affectionate of riding&#xA;  on the chariot drwan by Seven Horses with Seven Names and bestow&#xA;  splendour to Seven Lokaas obviously fond of the numeral of Seven;&#xA;  Bhagavan! may I have the privilege of offering ‘Arghya’ on this&#xA;  Saptami Tithi to mark my reverence&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is  Tila Tarpana(Pitru Tarpana) a recommended act on Ratha Sapatmai?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the second link:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maagha Shukla Bhishmaashtami is obeserved with Bhimoddishya Shraaddha&#xA;  Tarpanaas only by those Grhastis who have children alive; but&#xA;  otherwise considered as compulsory.&lt;/strong&gt; But Maagha Shukla Dwadashi is to&#xA;  be noted as significant for Tila Snaana,  Tila Puja to Vishnu, Tila&#xA;  Naivedya,  Tila Taila Deepa Daana, Tila Homa, Tila Daana, and Tila&#xA;  Bhakshana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So ,as you can see the &lt;strong&gt;Magha Sukla Bhishma Ashtami&lt;/strong&gt; is recommended for Pitru Tarpanams.And of course the Magha Amavasya Tarapanams are also considered highly auspicious.But, since nothing is mentioned specifically about doing Tarpanams on Ratha Saptami &lt;strong&gt;it can be assumed that it is not recommended&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, about the house warming thing,i can't answer.I can't answer regarding things that are not be done on this day either.So consider this as a partial answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-07T11:31:41.097" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T11:31:41.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15772" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15693" CreationDate="2016-11-07T05:12:27.560" Score="37" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;The following sentence from question motivated/inspired me to introduce following two steps:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Ok, I understand there are lot of Hindu scriptures.&lt;/sup&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Step-1 Know about Hindu scriptures.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all you should get the &lt;em&gt;basic knowledge&lt;/em&gt; about Hindu scriptures, you can read following articles:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_texts&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu texts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupedia.com/en/Overview_Of_Scriptures&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Overview Of Scriptures&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/hinduscriptures.asp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Scriptures of Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following posts can also help you regarding it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/54/277&quot;&gt;What are the Hindu scriptures which every Hindu should abide by?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14428/277&quot;&gt;Brief about Shruti and Smriti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;The following part from question is also included in the this step:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;I wish to read them for - meditation - to gain wisdom/knowledge&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;And which texts do you recommend for beginners? Would Bhagavad Gita, Rig Vedas be good start?&lt;/sup&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Step-2 Select the scripture for reading.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is an important topic to consider. After getting basic knowledge about Hindu scriptures, you can &lt;em&gt;decide&lt;/em&gt; which scripture to select reading. In this step you are supposed to choose the scriptures according to &lt;em&gt;your interest and intellect&lt;/em&gt;. This also includes &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2392/277&quot;&gt;How can one know which path among karma, bhakti and jnana is suitable for him?&lt;/a&gt;. In other words, according to the intellect and spiritual-level specific path among Jnana, Bhakti, Karma and Raja Yoga may be suitable. Following are some recommendation:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavad Gita - This is recommended considering the following factors:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It's explanation is simple and easy to understand as compared to Upanishads.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It's believed to be an extract of Upanishads. In other words it covers the major thoughts of Upanishads.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It constitutes all the Yoga i.e Jnana, Bhakti, Raja and Karma as well.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is very suitable for almost all in today world.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;as the beginner point of view, Bhagavad Gita is very suitable.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; - These are important epics and Itihasa. These are suitable for those who are interested in learning the values and simple philosophy of Hinduism in story/epic nature. They provide the teaching of life-style i.e &lt;em&gt;How to live with performing your duties ethically&lt;/em&gt;. This is recommended for &lt;em&gt;kids&lt;/em&gt; and beginners as well.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puranas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puranas&lt;/a&gt; - Puranas are important text of Sampradayas. Puranas covers stories of God's incarnations, creation of universe, stories of fight between Devas ans Ashuras, stories of various kingdoms and historical places, temples etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Puranas are actually &lt;em&gt;expansion of Vedas&lt;/em&gt; which nature/language is complex and monotonous for general people into &lt;em&gt;simple&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;interesting&lt;/em&gt; nature/language with composing the topics/philosophy/content of Vedas by Veda-vyasa.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The most popular is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavat Maha Purana&lt;/a&gt; which promotes &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhakti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhakti&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There are total 18 major Puranas.  Vishnu Purana, Shiva Purana, Skada Purana, Padma Purana, Devi Bhagavat etc. have profound significance in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishnavism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaishnavism&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaivism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shaivism&lt;/a&gt;,  and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaktism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shaktism&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;The well known Durga Saptashati is a part of Markandeya Purana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedas&lt;/a&gt;: Literally means &lt;strong&gt;knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;. These are the most important &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Aruti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shruti&lt;/a&gt; texts which are considered &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apauru%E1%B9%A3ey%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apaurusheya&lt;/a&gt; and has &lt;em&gt;profound significance&lt;/em&gt; in Hinduism. Also visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/277&quot;&gt;How did the Vedas in Hinduism come into existence?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Actually there are &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/vedapathashala.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Veda Pathshala&lt;/a&gt;, also known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurukula&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gurukula&lt;/a&gt; or Vidyapitha which are Vedic schools where Vedas are &lt;em&gt;taught&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is recommended to learn Veda from / with the help of / &lt;strong&gt;under the guidance of Guru&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If you're &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmin&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmin&lt;/a&gt;, then you're recommended to &lt;em&gt;learn&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/277&quot;&gt;your&lt;/a&gt; Vedas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upanishads&lt;/a&gt; - Also known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; which are &lt;strong&gt;extract of Vedas&lt;/strong&gt; and full of spiritual philosophy. If you're interested in &lt;em&gt;spiritual philosophy&lt;/em&gt; or kindly speaking curious to know the absolute/ultimate truth/reality, then it is recommended to select &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukhya_Upanishads&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mukhya Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanga&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;limbs&lt;/strong&gt; of Vedas. These texts, namely Siksha, Vyakarana, Chhanda, Nirukta, Kalpa and Jyotisha are said to be essential as supportive/auxiliary texts for complete understanding and interpretation of Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Siksha and Vyakarana are useful to learn Sanskrit, Nirukta is useful for interpretation and Chhanda for chanting. Kalpa Sutras gives various customs and Jyotisha is well known. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/27950/277&quot;&gt;this post&lt;/a&gt; for more information. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_philosophy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Darshan Shashtras&lt;/a&gt; - These are the the six Hindu schools of philosophy namely &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samkhya&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_(philosophy)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yoga&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyaya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nyaya&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaisheshika&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaisheshika&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%ABm%C4%81%E1%B9%83s%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mimamsa&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If you're interested in Hindu Philosophy, then Samkhya provides the &lt;em&gt;basic terminology and knowledge&lt;/em&gt;. Relevant scriptures are &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhyakarika&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samkhya Karika&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya_Pravachana_Sutra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samkhya Sutra&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yoga provides the way/practice/path to attain and realize everything by means of Dhyana (meditation). If you're interested in &lt;strong&gt;meditation&lt;/strong&gt;, then &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yoga Sutras of Patanjali&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C4%81ja_yoga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Raj Yoga&lt;/a&gt; are good choice.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaisheshiki is the philosophy of understanding universe by material and it's attributes/properties and Nayaya is the philosophy of judging &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pramana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;pramana&lt;/a&gt; i.e epistemology by logical arguments. Vaisheshiki Sutra and Nyaya Sutra are the scriptures of these philosophies respectively.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimamsa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mimansa&lt;/a&gt; is an analysis on Brahmanas of Vedas. It provides philosophical justification and rules on rites, rituals and sacrifices that are discussed in Brahmanas. It establish the authority of Vedas to be authoress and has profound significance on interpretation of Vedas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vedanta is the most popular philosophy which is based on three primary texts known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthanatrayi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prasthanatrayi&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutra&lt;/a&gt; is very important text which summarise and systematize the philosophical and spiritual ideas in the Upanishads and leads to various &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14779/277&quot;&gt;doctrines&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;em&gt;If you want to be Vedanti, then this is what you're looking for!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Considering the title of question&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Step-3 How to read scriptures.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Vedas &amp;amp; Upanishads, it is better to &lt;em&gt;learn&lt;/em&gt; Vedas under the guidance of Guru instead of just &lt;em&gt;reading&lt;/em&gt;. Visit already asked related questions :  &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6726/277&quot;&gt;Start reading Hindu Vedas&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3771/277&quot;&gt;What order should I read the Vedas and Upanishads in?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Bhagavad Gita, we've already a post &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5404/277&quot;&gt;How to start reading Bhagavad Gita?&lt;/a&gt; which may help you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some general guidance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As per my observation and experience, for many scriptures (talking about purchased hard copies), when you start reading you'll find the instruction given for the method of reading. Some &lt;em&gt;prescript&lt;/em&gt; and guidance should be given on Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas etc. scriptures. You can follow it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;The following topics from question can be solved by considering following things&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt; -raise positive vibrational energy - but most importantly break out of bad karma do (I believe in reincarnation)&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Common things to consider are:&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Open mind: It is very important to grasp/absorb the knowledge.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Positive thinking : It is also important for ensuring that the true goal is not getting diverted/distorted as well as for establishing supportive/favorable nature of mind/intellect for &lt;em&gt;interpreting&lt;/em&gt; texts.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shradhha&lt;/strong&gt; (faithfulness/trustfulness/reverence) in Bhagavan/Ishwar as well as in scriptures you're reading. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maintaining &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sattva&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%E1%B9%87a&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Guna&lt;/a&gt; over &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rajas&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamas_(philosophy)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tamas&lt;/a&gt;. You can read some qualities of Satva from Bhagavad Gita Adhyaya 18 verses- 9, 10, 20, 23, 26, 30, 33, 51-53 etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamas_(philosophy)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nishkama Karma&lt;/a&gt; helps in &lt;em&gt;Chitta Suddhi&lt;/em&gt; (purification of mind) which is necessary in spirituality.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Considering following topic from the question&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Can I read it continuously till I finish, and then start again?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Or are some parts read during some times of the day.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no strict rules to be followed but as earlier discussed, it depends upon your &lt;em&gt;interest, intellect and the level of spirituality&lt;/em&gt; or as guided by Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The general tip/guidance would be&lt;/strong&gt;: Generally the scripture is divided into some parts called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF#Sanskrit&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adhyaya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/adhy%C4%81ya/5378/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;अध्याय&lt;/a&gt;). You can allocate certain time for one Adhyaya daily according to the length of Adhyaya and the time you're going to provide everyday or alternatively as per your convenience but once you've decided and started to reading, then it is expected to follow it regularly with concentration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additional Notes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Learning Sanskrit is a good idea and is also important/recommended as the original/primary language of scripture is Sanskrit. Visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2268/277&quot;&gt;How important is Sanskrit?&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9676/277&quot;&gt;I want to learn Sanskrit. Can anybody guide me how to start?&lt;/a&gt;. It also helps in the appropriate &lt;em&gt;interpretation&lt;/em&gt; of Shashtras.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15425/277&quot;&gt;What are some online sources to get unabridged Hindu Scriptures or to learn Hinduism?&lt;/a&gt; may be very useful.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Following part is suitable for spiritual readings like Upanishads/Vedanta:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that just reading scripture only is not enough/effective. Learning of scripture includes three steps/aspects: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shravana_%28hearing%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shravana&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manana_%28reflection%29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manana&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nididhy%C4%81sana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nididhyasana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shravana means listening the thoughts or gist/significance of Shruti from Guru. Here you can roughly compare it with reading scriptures.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manana means deep thinking/reflection or consideration/contemplation on what is listened (here you can roughly compare it with what read) in first step.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nididhyasana means repeated meditation (&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/dhy%C4%81na/111686/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dhyana&lt;/a&gt;) on the true sense of scripture (more precisely absolute truth of Upanishad) till it gets realized!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above aspects are explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchadasi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchadasi&lt;/a&gt; and Sarva Vedanta Siddhanta Saar Sangrah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting some related verses on it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From Vivekachudamani:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रुतेः शतगुणं विद्यान्मननं मननादपि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निदिध्यासं लक्षगुणमनन्तं निर्विकल्पकम् ॥ ३६४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;364. Reflection should be considered a hundred times superior to hearing, and meditation a hundred thousand times superior even to reflection, but the Nirvikalpa Samadhi is infinite in its results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.4.5:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आत्मा वा अरे द्रष्टव्यः श्रोतव्यो मन्तव्यो निदिध्यासितव्यो मैत्रेयि, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आत्मनो व अरे दर्शनेन श्रवणेन मत्या विज्ञानेनेदं सर्वं विदितम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Self, my dear Maitreyi, should be realized – should be heard of, reflected on and meditated upon; by the realization of the Self, my dear, through hearing, reflection and meditation, all this is known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At last let me quote one interesting verse from Mundaka Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्रापरा ऋग्वेदो यजुर्वेदः सामवेदोऽथर्ववेदः&#xA;  शिक्षा कल्पो व्याकरणं निरुक्तं छन्दो ज्योतिषमिति ।&#xA;  अथ परा यया तदक्षरमधिगम्यते ॥ ५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5 Of these two, the lower knowledge is the Rig—Veda, the Yajur—Veda, the Sama—Veda, the Atharva—Veda, siksha (phonetics), kalpa (rituals), vyakaranam (grammar), nirukta (etymology), chhandas (metre) and jyotisha (astronomy); and the Higher Knowledge is that by which the Imperishable Brahman is attained. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this would help you in 1.Knowing about Hindu scriptures 2.Selecting scripture for reading 3.How to read scripture &lt;strong&gt;and&lt;/strong&gt; some general guidance for proper/effective reading and getting the true knowledge from Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-10-15T17:13:42.790" LastActivityDate="2019-10-15T17:13:42.790" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15773" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15780" CreationDate="2016-11-07T07:26:13.167" Score="13" ViewCount="5346" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many Sannyasis (especially &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swaminarayan_Sampraday#Ascetics&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swaminarayan&lt;/a&gt;) that don't look at women unless it's by accident. What is the cause behind this aversive behavior?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="7947" LastEditDate="2017-08-05T13:42:58.607" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T13:42:58.607" Title="Why do Sannyasis avoid looking at women?" Tags="|women|sanyasi|yogi|indriyas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15774" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15754" CreationDate="2016-11-07T07:49:20.053" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavata Purana talks about following one's own Dharma in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/28/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 3.28.2&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sva-dharmācaraṇaṁ śaktyā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vidharmāc ca nivartanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;daivāl labdhena santoṣa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ātmavic-caraṇārcanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should execute his prescribed duties to the best of his ability and avoid performing duties not allotted to him. One should be satisfied with as much gain as he achieves by the grace of the Lord, and one should worship the lotus feet of a spiritual master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Nishkama Karma is described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/3/46&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 11.3.46&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vedoktam eva kurvāṇo&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;niḥsaṅgo ’rpitam īśvare&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;naiṣkarmyaṁ labhate siddhiṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;rocanārthā phala-śrutiḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By executing without attachment the regulated activities prescribed in the Vedas, offering the results of such work to the Supreme Lord, one attains the perfection of freedom from the bondage of material work. The material fruitive results offered in the revealed scriptures are not the actual goal of Vedic knowledge, but are meant for stimulating the interest of the performer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch29.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavata Purana, Ninth Book, Chapter XXIX&lt;/a&gt; talks about both, following Sva-Dharma and Nishkama Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ये विप्रा अन्यदेवेज्याः स्वधर्मनिरताः सति । ते यांति सर्पलोकं च पुनरायांति भारते । 36 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हरिभक्ताश्च निष्कामाः स्वधर्मनिरता द्विजाः । ते यांति च हरेलॉक क्रमाद्रतिबलादही । 37 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्वधर्मरहिता विप्रा देवान्यसेवनाः सदा । भ्रष्टाचाराश्व कामाश्च ते यांति नरकं ध्रुवम्। 38 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्वधर्मनिरता एव वर्णाश्चत्वार एव च । भवंत्येव शुभस्यैव कर्मणः फलभोगिनः ॥ 39 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्वकर्मरहिता ये च नरकं यांति ते ध्रुवम्। भारते न भवंत्येव कर्मणाः फलभोगिनः ॥ 4o ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those Brâhmanas that worship the other Devas and attached to their own Dharmas go to those regions of theirs respectively and again come to Bhârata. Attached to their own Dharmas, the Niskâmî Bhaktas of Hari go by their Bhakti step by step to the region of S’rî Hari. Those that are not attached to their own Dharmas and do not worship the Devas and always bent on doing things as they like without any regard to their Âchâras go certainly to hells. No doubt in this. The Brâhmanas and the other three Varnas, attached to their own Dharmas all enjoy the fruits of their good works. But those who do not do their Svadharma, go verily down into hells. They do not came to Bhârata for their rebirth, they enjoy their fruits of Karmas in hells!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T08:59:17.487" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15775" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15773" CreationDate="2016-11-07T08:49:19.070" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason is actually very simple.For a Sanyasi or a Yogi maintaining celibacy(Brahmacharya) is one among the most important tasks.Its part of their sanyasa related vows as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, they avoid all kinds of &quot;Naari Sansargas&quot;(associations with women) including even talking or looking at them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because,even glancing at a women can be considered as contrary to celibacy,as the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yoga-age.com/modern/brahma.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Daksha Smriti&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thinking of a woman or her picture, praising a woman or her picture,&#xA;  sporting with a woman or her picture, &lt;strong&gt;glancing at a woman or her&#xA;  picture,&lt;/strong&gt; secretly talking to a woman, thinking of a sinful action&#xA;  towards a woman actuated by sensuality, determining upon the sinful&#xA;  action, and bodily action resulting in the discharge of semen are the&#xA;  eight characteristics of copulation; &lt;strong&gt;and Brahmacharya is quite&#xA;  contrary to all these eight indications&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, a sanyasi or even only a brahmachari(like students) carefully avoid women as much as possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti even says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.215. One should not sit in a lonely place with one’s mother, sister, or daughter; for the senses are powerful, and master even a learned&#xA;  man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from the &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashtanga Yoga-the Significant Means of Shiva Tatwa&lt;/a&gt;&quot; chapter of the Linga Purana :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To control the activities or goings on in the mind is Yoga. The &#xA;  Ashtanga or Eight-Limbed Yoga comprises of Yama- Niyama- Aasana-&#xA;  Pranaayama- Pratyahara-Dharana-Dhyana-Samadhi. Yama is denoted by good&#xA;  behaviour comprising Ahimsa (Non-Violence), Satya         (Truth),&#xA;  Asteya (stealing), &lt;strong&gt;Brahmacharya (avoidance of sex)&lt;/strong&gt; and Aparigraha&#xA;  or  Excessive acquisition. Basic Niyamas is in fact an extension of&#xA;  Yama:  To refrain from hurting or torturing co-Beings physically or&#xA;  mentally is Ahimsa; to convey whatever is seen, heard, and believed is&#xA;  Satya  unless it does not hurt any body is known as Satya; to desist&#xA;  stealing of other’s property by deed, thought or otherwise is called&#xA;  Asteya;  to&lt;strong&gt;negate from relationship with another female or in&#xA;  respect of a female  wih another  male, excepting the wedded woman or&#xA;  man as the case may  be and this should be observed by &lt;em&gt;vision&lt;/em&gt;,&#xA;  thought or deed is called  Brahmacharya or celibacy;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, a Yogi or Sanyasi ,who follows the eight-fold path of Yoga ,avoids all forms of women associations as a part of his spiritual development and also to avoid chances of breaking his sanyasa or brahmacharya vows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-07T09:18:52.683" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T09:18:52.683" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15776" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2907" CreationDate="2016-11-07T09:23:43.373" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nanda Vrata (or Nandyāvrata) was once observed by Devi Sati for good husband (Lord Shiva). This fast continues through one full year. It is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-67/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Mahapurana, Rudra Samhita (Sati Khanda), Chapter 15&lt;/a&gt; as below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथ सापि स्वयं भर्ग प्राप्तमैच्छतदान्वहम्।&lt;br&gt; पितुर्मनोगर्ति ज्ञात्वा मातुर्निकटमागता।११।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sati on the other hand also got anxious to achieve Siva. Realising the mental condition of her father, she went to her mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पप्रच्छाज्ञां तपोहेतोः शङ्करस्य विशालधीः।&lt;br&gt; मातुः शिवाय वीरिण्याः सा सती परमेश्वरी॥१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She said to her mother, &amp;quot;I intend to perform tapas in order to achieve Siva as my husband, I seek your permission.” These were the words spoken by Sati Paramesvari to her mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत: सती महेशानं पर्ति प्राप्मुं दृढ़व्रता।&lt;br&gt; सा तमाराधयामास गृहे मातुरनुज्ञया।।॥१३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then getting consent of her mother, Sati, with a firm mind, started adoring Siva in her home in order to receive him as her husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अाश्विने मासि नन्दायां तिथावानर्च भक्तितः।&lt;br&gt; गुडौदनैः सलवणैर्हरं नत्वा निनाय तम्।। १४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the month of Asvin, (September-October), on the Nanda-tithi (i.e. first, sixth and the eleventh day of the lunar) fortnight,&lt;/strong&gt; she adored Siva with great devotion offering&#xA;the cooked rice with jaggery, and salt, for a month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कार्तिकस्य चतुर्दश्यामपूपैः पायसैरपि।&lt;br&gt; समाकीर्णैः समाराध्य सस्मार परमेश्वरम्।।१५।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the fourteenth day of the month of Kārtika, she adored and meditated upon Siva offering the Sweet pies and pudding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मार्गशीर्षेऽसिताष्टम्यां सतिलैः सयवौदनैः॥&lt;br&gt; पूजयित्वा हरं काली निनाय दिवसान् सती।।१६।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the eighth day of Marga-Sirsa (November-December) Satī adored Siva with cooked barley and sesamum seeds, spending the days in his devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पौषे तु शुक्लसतम्यां कृत्वा जागरण निशि।&lt;br&gt; अपूजयच्छिवं प्रातः कृशरान्नेन सा सती॥१७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the seventh day of the bright half of the month of Pausa (December-January) Sati remained awake during the night and adored&#xA;Siva in the morning with cooked rice and Krisara (khicadi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;माघे तु पौर्णमास्यां सा कृत्वा जागरणं निशि।&lt;br&gt; आर्द्रवस्त्रा नदीतीरेऽकरोच्छङ्करपूजनम्॥१८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the full-moon night of Magha, (January-February) she remained awake during the night, and adored Siva on the banks of the river wearing wet clothes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तपस्यासितभूतायां कृत्वा जागरणं निशि।&lt;br&gt; विशेषतः समानर्च शैलूषैः सर्वयामसु।।१९।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She, on the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month of Phalguna (February-March) remained awake during the night and performed special worship of Siva, with wood&#xA;apple fruits and leaves in a span of every three hours.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चैत्रे शुक्लचतुर्दश्यां पलाशैर्दमनैः शिवम्।&lt;br&gt; अपूजयद्दिवारात्रौ संस्मरन् सा निनाय तम्॥२०।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the fourteenth day of the bright half of the month of Caitra (March-April), Siva was worshipped by her with palasa (Butea frondosa) and damana flowers offered during&#xA;the day and the night. She spent the rest of the month reciting his name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;माघशुक्लतृतीयायां तिलाहारयवौदनै:।&lt;br&gt; पूजयित्वा सती रुद्रं गव्यैर्मासं निनाय तम्॥२१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After adoring him with cooked rice and sesamum seeds, on the third day of the bright half of the month of Magha (January February) she consumed throughout the rest of the month the products of the cow's milk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ज्येष्ठस्य पूर्णिमायां वै रात्रौ सम्पूज्य शङ्करम्।&lt;br&gt; वसनैर्वृहतीपुष्पैर्निराहारा निनाय तम्।।२२।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then she adored the lord Siva with the offering of cloths and Brhati flowers on the full moon night of the month of Jyestha (May-June) she observed the fast throughout the month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आषाढस्य चतुर्दश्यां शुक्लायां कृष्णवाससा।&lt;br&gt; बृहतीकुसुमैः पूजा रुद्रस्याकारि वै तथा।२३।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the fourteenth day of the bright fortnight of the month of Asadha (June-July), she clad herself in a black cloth, and adored Rudra, offering Brhati flowers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रावणस्य सिताष्टम्यां चतुर्दश्यां च सा शिवम्।&lt;br&gt; यज्ञोपवीतैर्वासोभिः पवित्रैरप्यपूजयत्॥।२४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the eighth and the fourteenth days of the month of (July-August) Sravana, she&#xA;worshipped Siva, offering the yajnopavits and the clothes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भाद्रे कृष्णत्रयोदश्यां पुष्पैर्नानाविधै: फलै:।&lt;br&gt; सम्पूज्य च चतुर्दश्यां चकार जलभोजनम्।।२५।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the thirteenth day of the dark half of Bhādrapada, (August-September) she&#xA;worshipped Siva, offering various fruits and flowers She took water on the fourteenth day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नानाविधैः फलैः पुष्पैः सस्यैस्तत्कालसम्भवैः।&lt;br&gt; चक्रे सुनियताहारा जपन्मासे शिवार्चनम्।।२६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She kept strict control over her food and reciting various mantras she worshipped Siva, offering different fruits, flowers and leaves which were quite fresh and readily available.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वमासे सर्वदिने शिवार्चनरता सती।&lt;br&gt; दृढव्रताऽभवद्देवी स्वेच्छाधृतनराकृतिः॥२७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The goddess took to the human form at will and was always engaged in the worship of Siva for days and months remaining firm in her resolve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्थ नन्दाव्रतं कृत्स्त्र समाप्य सुसमाहिता।&lt;br&gt; दध्यौ शिवं सती प्रेम्णा निश्चलाऽभूदनन्यधीः।।२८।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus she completed the fast of Nandāvrata concentrating her mind to Siva,&#xA;she was quite firm in her resolve and did not think of any one else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Please note that, In my opinion it should be &lt;code&gt;वैशाखशुक्लतृतीयायां&lt;/code&gt; instead of &lt;code&gt;माघशुक्लतृतीयायां&lt;/code&gt; in 21st verse.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-08-14T19:41:49.553" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15777" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-11-07T10:28:51.260" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-11-07T10:28:51.260" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T10:28:51.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15778" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-11-07T10:28:51.260" Score="0" Body="Vrata is a Sanskrit word that means &quot;vow, resolve, devotion&quot;, and refers to pious observances such as fasting and pilgrimage (Tirtha) found in Indian religions." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-11-07T10:28:51.260" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T10:28:51.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15779" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15769" CreationDate="2016-11-07T15:12:58.827" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The resolution is simple: Kashyapa is a Chiranjeevi, so he was alive before the time of Narasimha, and he continued to be alive in the time of Parashurama.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=M_lKAQAAMAAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA869&amp;amp;ots=LRNyrvIW7h&amp;amp;dq=%22eternal%20kashyapa%22&amp;amp;pg=PA869#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Harivamsa says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the course of time &lt;strong&gt;the eternal Kashyapa&lt;/strong&gt; begat all created beings on Daksha's daughters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b119.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata shows that Kashyapa has lived for at least 30,000 celestial years:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once on a time, O king, a ruler of the name of Anga desired to give away the whole earth as sacrificial present unto the Brahmanas. At this, the earth became filled with anxiety. 'I am the daughter of Brahman. I hold all creatures. Having obtained me, alas, why does this foremost of kings wish to give me away unto the Brahmanas? Abandoning my character as the soil, I shall now repair to the presence of my sire. Let this king with all his kingdom meet with destruction? Arrived at this conclusion, she departed for the region of Brahman The Rishi Kasyapa, beholding goddess Earth on the point of departing, himself immediately entered the visible embodiment of the goddess, casting off his own body, by the aid of Yoga. The earth thus penetrated by the spirit of Kasyapa, grew in prosperity and became full of all kinds of vegetable produce. Indeed, O king for the time that Kasyapa pervaded the earth, Righteousness became foremost everywhere and all fears ceased. In this way, O king, the earth remained penetrated by the spirit of Kasyapa for thirty thousand celestial years, fully alive to all those functions which it used to discharge while it was penetrated by the spirit of Brahman's daughter. Upon the expiry of this period, the goddess returned from the region of Brahman and arrived here bowed unto Kasyapa and from that time became the daughter of that Rishi, Kasyapa is a Brahmana. Even this was the feat, O king, that a Brahmana did. Tell me the name of the Kshatriya who can be held to be superior to Kasyapa!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5253/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, one celestial year is 360 human years, so at the very least Kashyapa has lived for 10.8 million years!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And by the way, it's not like Kashyapa was involved with Varaha and Narasimha, was absent during the Vamana Avatara, and then suddenly reappeared during the time of Parashurama.  On the contrary, Vamana himself was the son of Kashyapa and Aditi as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Kashyapa was even involved in the Mahabharata! He's mentioned as one the sages that Yudishthira will meet in his Tirtha Yatra in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03085.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those foremost of Rishis, Valmiki, and Kasyapa, and Atreya, and Kundajathara, and Viswamitra, and Gautama, and Asita, and Devala, and Markandeya, and Galava, and Bharadwaja, and Vasishtha, and the Muni Uddalaka, and Saunaka with his son, and Vyasa, that best of ascetics, and Durvasas, that foremost of Munis, and Javali of great austerities--all these illustrious Rishis endued with wealth of asceticism, are staying in expectation of thee. With these, O mighty king, do thou meet by visiting these tirthas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This makes clear the longevity of Kashyapa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T15:12:58.827" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15780" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15773" CreationDate="2016-11-07T16:53:29.593" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;For sannyāsis, not looking at women is only the starting point, it is not the destination. They are actually trying to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8828/2995&quot;&gt;slay their indriyas&lt;/a&gt; to the point that they are unaffected by the opposite sex.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śaṅkarācārya says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.realization.org/down/sankara.vivekachudamani.chaitanya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vivekachūdāmani&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The deer, the elephant, the moth, the fish and the honey-bee---these five meet death because of their bondage to one of the five senses. &lt;strong&gt;What then is the condition of a person who is attached to &lt;em&gt;all five&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sense-objects are even more virulent in their tragic effects than a king cobra. Poison is fatal to one who swallows it, but the sense-objects kill him who merely looks at them. with his eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who is liberated from the terrible bonds of desires for sense-objects, so very difficult to renounce, is alone fit for liberation and none else, even if well-versed in all the six schools of philosophy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga63/bala_63_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;legend of Viśvāmitra&lt;/a&gt; from Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, we see how Viśvāmitra is temporarily distracted by the apsara Menaka and loses track of his &lt;em&gt;tapasya&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03205.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;story of Dharma-vyādha&lt;/a&gt; we see that the sage, Kauśika, has probably mastered his senses over the opposite sex (as he has a lengthy conversation with the lady of the house) but he has not slayed his ego (&lt;em&gt;ahankāra&lt;/em&gt;) and anger yet as he considers himself superior to a householder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the following &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kindspring.org/story/view.php?sid=63753&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;story of two monks&lt;/a&gt; (probably of Buddhist origin), we see how the younger one holds on to the thought of a woman even after the senior monk has long forgotten about the incident.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point,&#xA;they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were&#xA;preparing to cross the river, they saw a very young and beautiful&#xA;woman also attempting to cross. The young woman asked if they could&#xA;help her cross to the other side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two monks glanced at one another because they had taken vows not&#xA;to touch a woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, without a word, the older monk picked up the woman, carried her&#xA;across the river, placed her gently on the other side, and carried on&#xA;his journey.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The younger monk couldn’t believe what had just happened. After&#xA;rejoining his companion, he was speechless, and an hour passed without&#xA;a word between them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Two more hours passed, then three, finally the younger monk could&#xA;contain himself any longer, and blurted out “As monks, we are not&#xA;permitted a woman, how could you then carry that woman on your&#xA;shoulders?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The older monk looked at him and replied, “&lt;strong&gt;Brother, I set her down on&#xA;the other side of the river, why are you still carrying her?&lt;/strong&gt;”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So for a sannyāsi, it is not just about 'not seeing' or 'not touching' a person of opposite sex, the ultimate goal is to reach the state where you remain unaffected even when facing the opposite sex.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T16:59:14.977" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15783" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-07T18:08:09.100" Score="3" ViewCount="174" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the  Kurukshetra war, sun appears to set so that Jayadratha comes out of his hiding place; Sun appears again and Arjuna is able to kill Jayadratha before sunset as per his vow. Is there any astronomical explanation for the same?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8028" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T18:08:09.100" Title="Astronomical explanation of twice setting of sun in Jayadratha episode" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|kurukshetra|sudarsana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-11-07T18:15:32.320" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15784" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-07T18:37:42.077" Score="3" ViewCount="1140" Body="&lt;p&gt;What does dharma shastras say about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_black_money&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Black Money&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_India&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Corruption&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In India giving Bribery is a common act one has to go through it one day or the other. If one has given Bribe is he doing Adharma, if yes then how can we repent for the sins accumulated by Bribery and Black money generated in The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dnaindia.com%2Fmoney%2Freport-bogus-economics-black-money-and-tax-havens-2188919&amp;amp;sa=D&amp;amp;sntz=1&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNEkEkkho6z4VvEA_EjbRNxOZSHkXg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;parallel Economy&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does paying of Interest account for Bribery, is it Adharma to pay Interest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-11-09T18:13:30.433" LastActivityDate="2020-01-17T11:16:51.290" Title="Dharma Shastras on Black Money, Corruption and paying Interest" Tags="|dharma|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15785" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15725" CreationDate="2016-11-07T19:13:49.250" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana is about Sri Hari taking birth as a human. Ravana's boon from Sri Brahma means he cannot be killed but by a human. While being humans, Sri Rama and Sri Lakshmana were as vulnerable to poison as any other human. Albeit, because of the two vidya's their Guru Viswamitra teaches them, Bala and AtiBala, they are able to survive it longer and were rescued by Garuda who simply answers that they have a deep friendship when Sri Rama thanks him and asks him who he is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference- Book I : Bala Kanda - The Youthful Majesties&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chapter [Sarga] 22 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8131" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-07T20:24:33.983" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T20:24:33.983" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15788" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14415" CreationDate="2016-11-07T21:04:10.487" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in Sri Devi Bhagwat, Sri Lakshmi gives Sri Vishnu the energy (power of sustenance) through feet. Its all the play of Mahamaya, Sri Adhyashakti who nurtures all the devas through her energy/love and is also nurturing us.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8133" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T21:04:10.487" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15789" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10498" CreationDate="2016-11-07T21:13:26.910" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;How can the mother who feeds you, takes care of you (power of sustenance) be different when the same mother teaches you values of life etc (power of creation/knowledge) or when she is angry with you (power of destruction) only to teach you and gets angry on all others who try to harm you...the same mother takes different forms to nurture us in different ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They all are same and an aspect of Shri Adhya Shakti  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8133" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T21:13:26.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15790" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11031" CreationDate="2016-11-07T21:18:12.963" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are no different sects for different forms of the mother. All shaktis (Lakshmi, Kali and Saraswati) are nothing but just one energy and the believers of this Shakti(s) are called Shaktas. The ways and forms of worship can be different for different mothers but in essence all are the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8133" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T21:18:12.963" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15791" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10183" CreationDate="2016-11-07T21:20:27.007" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;They are neither daughters nor sisters. They are three different forms of the same mother (very well described in Sri Durga Saptashati/ Srimad Devi Bhagwatam)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8133" LastActivityDate="2016-11-07T21:20:27.007" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15795" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-08T05:19:36.720" Score="2" ViewCount="290" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we note carefully in the first five avatars Maha Vishnu will not have any weapon. Parasurama avatar has axe as weapon, Rama avatar has bow and arrow, Balarama avatar has plough, Krishna avatar nothing [although he used chakra to control bheeshma] and ain kalki avatar sword is the weapon mentioned int he pictures. Default weapons are shanka and chakra of Mahavishnu. Any scriputural or puranical reference how the weapon selection was made by God Vishnu during each of his avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-03T11:34:59.293" LastActivityDate="2016-12-03T11:34:59.293" Title="Weapons selection by God Vishnu in his Dasavatara" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|weapon|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15796" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15784" CreationDate="2016-11-08T05:22:24.793" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Regarding taking bribes the Manu Smriti says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.256. Let the king who sees (everything) through his spies, discover the two sorts of thieves who deprive others of their property, both&#xA;  those who (show themselves) openly and those who (lie) concealed...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.258. &lt;strong&gt;Those who take bribes,&lt;/strong&gt; cheats and rogues, gamblers, those who live by teaching (the performance of) auspicious ceremonies,&#xA;  sanctimonious hypocrites, and fortune-tellers,....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EFC9a.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EFC9a.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The King should reveal those who take bribes by employing methods such as spies and then have to punish them accordingly :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.262. Then having caused the crimes, which they committed by their several actions, to be proclaimed in accordance with the facts, &lt;strong&gt;the&#xA;  king shall duly punish them according to their strength and their&#xA;  crimes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have not found any penances prescribed for such offenders yet.If found will update the answer with them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways,taking bribes is illegal as per Dharma Shastras  and the king should act and punish the offenders accordingly.This is the directive of the Shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update regarding penances:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are &lt;strong&gt;no&lt;/strong&gt; penances prescribed specifically for bribery in  Manu and the Parashara Smritis.There is nothing in the Yajnavalkya Smriti either(however i only have an abridged version of it).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti however itself says that there can be many offences for which no penances have been prescribed in it.And,in those particular cases the offender can decide(the mode of atonement) on his own :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.209. For the expiation of offences for which no atonement has been prescribed, let him fix a penance after considering (the offender’s)&#xA;  strength and the (nature of the) offence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general,the Manu Smriti prescribes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.227. By confession, by repentance, by austerity, and by reciting (the Veda) a sinner is freed from guilt, and in case no other course&#xA;  is possible, by liberality&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,charity can be a good enough atonement in my opinion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update #2 regarding paying interest:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paying interest, lending money on interest are &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt;  sins.But ,usury, the act of lending money with unreasonably high interest rates &lt;strong&gt;is a minor sin&lt;/strong&gt;(an upapataka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 8.140. A money-lender may stipulate as an increase of his capital, for the interest, allowed by Vasishtha, and take monthly the eightieth&#xA;  part of a hundred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 8.142. Just two in the hundred, three, four, and five (and&#xA;  not more), &lt;strong&gt;he may take as monthly interest according to the order of&#xA;  the castes (varna)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.61. Manu Smriti:Defiling a damsel, usury, breaking a vow, selling a tank, a garden, one’s wife, or child, are(minor) sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,from the Yajnavalkya Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are many Upapātakas (minor sins and turpitude). They are:—&#xA;   stealing a brahmin's personal effects, non&#xA;  payment of debts.....learning from a servant, teaching a superior,&#xA;  adultery, &lt;strong&gt;usury&lt;/strong&gt;, sale of salt, contemptuous livelihood,&#xA;  misappropriation of a deposit,.....all these are Upapātakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-09T05:01:14.283" LastActivityDate="2016-11-09T05:01:14.283" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15797" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15809" CreationDate="2016-11-08T05:57:37.027" Score="8" ViewCount="2777" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the name suggests,the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Eka_Sloki_Ramayan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Eka Sloki Ramayana&lt;/a&gt; is the whole story of Ramayana told in just one sloka/verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aadau raama tapovanaadi gamanam hatvaa mrugam kaanchanam&lt;br&gt;  vaidehee&#xA;  haraNam jaTaayu maraNam sugreeva sambhaash aNam |&lt;br&gt;  baalee nigrahaNam&#xA;  samudra taraNam lankaapuree daahanam&lt;br&gt;  pashchaat raavaNa kumbhakarNa&#xA;  hananametaddhi raamaa yaNam &lt;br&gt;  ekashlokee raamaayaNam sampoorNam&#xA;  ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once Rama went to forest, He chased the deer, Sitha was kidnapped,&#xA;  Jatayu was killed, There were talks with Sugreeva, Bali was killed,&#xA;  The sea was crossed, Lanka was burnt, And later Ravana and Kumbha&#xA;  karna, Were also killed. This in short is the story of Ramayanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly we have the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Eka_Sloki_Bhagawatham&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Eka Sloki Bhagwatam&lt;/a&gt; which narrates the entire Bhagwata Purana in just one sloka/verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aadhou devaki devi garbha jananam, Gopi gruhe palanam, Mayaa poothana&#xA;  jeevithaa apaharanam, govardhanodharanam, Kamsa chedana, kouravadi&#xA;  hananam, kunthi sutha palanam, Ethad bhagawatham purana kaditham sri&#xA;  Krishna leelamrutham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Born to queen Devaki, Brought up by Gopis, Took out the life of Ogress&#xA;  Poothana, Lifted the Govardhana mountain, Beheaded his uncle Kamsa,&#xA;  Helped in killing the Kouravas, And looked after the children of&#xA;  Kunthi. This is in short the ancient story of Bhagawatha, Which&#xA;  describes the nectar like play of Lord Krishna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also have a &quot;Sapta Sloki Gita&quot; and a &quot;Chatusloki Bhagawtam&quot; ,the later is given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NourM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NourM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q1) Who are the authors of the &quot;Eka Sloki Ramayana&quot; and the &quot;Eka Sloki Bhagawtam&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q2) What are their significance? Does it mean that reading those short verses are equivalent (in merit) to reading the respective entire texts or something of that sort?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T05:43:38.823" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T05:43:38.823" Title="Who are the authors of and what are the significances of &quot;Eka Sloki Ramayana&quot; , &quot;Eka Sloki Bhagawatam&quot; and the like?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|bhagavata-purana|shloka|saint|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15798" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-08T06:58:05.397" Score="9" ViewCount="195" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any planetary arrangement described for the end of the world in Hindu scriptures? If yes then please describe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-11-15T10:02:49.300" LastActivityDate="2024-02-24T10:06:44.363" Title="Is there any planetary arrangement described for end of the world in Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15799" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14415" CreationDate="2016-11-08T07:02:03.067" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not correct to regard Hari and Lakshmi to be separate entities. That is not a correct view. The iconography of Lakshmi serving Vishnu's feet should not be taken literally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord both male and female&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The people in general regard him [Lord Vasudeva] as twofold: of the&#xA;  form of male and of the form of female. &lt;strong&gt;The two should not be&#xA;  considered to be separate entities, O lord of birds. If the lord were&#xA;  separate from the female form, o lord of birds, how could the woman be&#xA;  his reflection? Hence the female is inseparable from the male form.&#xA;  The two forms constitute the very nature of the lord. This should not&#xA;  be taken otherwise.&lt;/strong&gt; The neutral form is alien to his nature. It is&#xA;  the effect and not his real nature. It is not present in Hari, O lord&#xA;  of birds. &lt;strong&gt;Know that in the form of Hari there is reflected the form of&#xA;  Lakshmi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Garuda Purana, Moksha Khanda, chapter III]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-11-08T07:02:03.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15800" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-08T07:17:40.113" Score="11" ViewCount="1029" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, one of the early movements that was important to the development of Vaishnavism was the ancient Pancharatra movement, whose sacred texts consisted of detailed procedures to worship the sage Narayana, an ancient incarnation of Vishnu. Since the Pancharatra texts originated from Narayana himself, they're followed by pretty much all Vaishnavas today. But there was a time when some people, especially those belonging to the Purva Mimamsa school, questioned the validity of the Pancharatra texts because they believed the Vedas were the only legitimate Hindu scriptures. So as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6912/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the early Sri Vaishnava Acharya Yamunacharya, who was Ramanujacharya's guru's guru, composed a work called the Agama Pramanya to defend the scriptural authority of the Pancharatra texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now part of Yamunacharya's argument involves demonstrating that the Pancharatra Agamas don't contradict the Vedas.  After he demonstrates this, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/eREc&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;refutes a potential objection&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore, even if there were a conflict between the Bhagavan's doctrine and the Veda, there still would be option between them; but we have already expounded that there is no conflict between them at all.  Objection: However, how can the venerable author of the Bhashya state that those parts which are in conflict are invalid: &quot;If there be conflict, it is carefully eliminated.&quot;  Refutation: This statement means that those of frail minds, who are not strong enough to plunge into the deep ocean of rules of interpretation, must not be disrespectful to the Vedas.  This is comparable to the venerable Jaimini's exposition that the fruits of acts serve to increase people's faith in the acts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it seems that there was some Bhashyakara or commentator who said concerning the Pancharatra Agamas that &quot;If there be conflict, it is carefully eliminated.&quot;  Yamunacharya explains that this Bhashyakara is just pretending to criticize the Pancharatra Agamas, because he doesn't want people who mistakenly think that the Pancharatra Agamas contradict the Vedas to reject the Vedas because of that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who is the Bhashyakara being referred to here?  The translator says that it is Shabara Swami, the traditional commentator on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras.  But does that quote occur in Shabara's commentary? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jstor.org/stable/41691692&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This journal paper&lt;/a&gt; by Gerhard Oberhammer suggests that he was a pre-Shankara commentator on the Brahma Sutras.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10624/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Adi Shankaracharya thought that the Brahma Sutras criticized the Pancharatra Agamas.  Oberhammer argues that the first two of the four sections of Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya which discuss this issue are actually written from the point of view of the mysterious Bhashyakara, and the second two sections are designed to refute the Bhashyakara.  And he further claims that the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Sudarshana Suri quotes and refutes this same Bhashyakara.  In any case, Oberhammer's fundamental contention is that this Bhashyakara was a proponent of a modification of the Vyuha theory (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6923/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) which is consistent with the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any Sri Vaishnava commentaries on Yamunacharya's Agama Pramanya which shed light on the identity of this Bhashyakara?  By the way, Oberhammer theorizes that this Bhashyakara may have been Dramidacharya, an ancient Vedantic philosopher who wrote a commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13585/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  (See my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16535/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2022-01-02T09:06:20.577" Title="Who is the Bhashyakara who pretended to criticize Pancharatra?" Tags="|vedanta|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|brahma-sutras|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15801" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15773" CreationDate="2016-11-08T07:24:10.597" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not just male Sannyasis not looking at women. Women Sannyasis must also avoid men. The reason for avoidance is given in the passage posted below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Man dangerous to woman in the spiritual path&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as a woman is a danger to a man desiring progress on the&#xA;  spiritual path, so is a man to woman. It is the man who is uxorious,&#xA;  and engrossed too much with women, that gets a woman’s body in the&#xA;  next birth. Having become a woman, and being unaware that it is My&#xA;  binding power of Maya, as dictated by her Karma, that approached her&#xA;  as husband offering her wealth, children and home, &lt;strong&gt;she succumbs to&#xA;  these attractions to Maya without knowing that they mark her spiritual&#xA;  doom, even as a male deer meets with its death at the hands of a&#xA;  hunter who attracts it by his musical call imitating the mating cry of&#xA;  the female.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana III.31.41-42&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-11-08T07:24:10.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15805" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12297" CreationDate="2016-11-08T10:19:54.973" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As it is believed that enough warning is given and further action is awaited so no further indication is being given.Only time is awaited.In malika a lot of indication is given and according to malika things are progressing you can see Anantagopal temple at Chhatia in Orissa's Jajpur district has been waiting for&#xA;over five centuries for the arrival of Lord Jagannath, elder brother Balabhadra&#xA;and their sister Subhadra from their abode at Puri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The priests of the temple, faithfuls and locals believe that the trinity will one day come to Chhatia abandoning their home in Puri also known as Srikhetra.&#xA;According to a prediction, Puri will be submerged due to global warming and&#xA;subsequent rise of water level in the Bay of Bengal.&#xA;Achyutananda Das, a 15th century saint of Orissa, had written about the arrival of the Lord in his famous book known as &quot;Achutananda Malika&quot;.&#xA;He had predicted the arrival of the trinity to Chhaita after the sea engulfed the holy town and its nearby areas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of Das' predictions in his Malika including drought, cyclone, same sex&#xA;marriage, public character and heat wave for the last couple of years in the countryhave come to pass, said researcher Bibhutibhusan Pal.&#xA;The Saint in his famous book 'Udhhab Bhakti Pradayani' had written, ''Jagannatha&#xA;palaibe chaka chadhi kari, Jaina rahibe Prabhu Basu je nagari (One day Lord&#xA;Jagannath will depart leaving behind his sanctum sanctorum in Puri and live in&#xA;Chhatia town),'' said Pal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Anantagopal temple is regarded as the second abode of Lord Jagannath after Puri. The faithfuls claim that Lord Jagannath will some day relocate to Chhatia along with his brother and sister. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; The great saint Yasobanta Das :1482 D.O.B quotes  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;ଜାଜନଗ୍ରେ ପ୍ରଭୁ ଜନମ ହେବେ | ଜନମ ହୋଇବେ ବ୍ରାହ୍ମଣ ଭାବେ&lt;br&gt;ଶୁଣ ହୋ ବାରଂଗ କହିବା ସେ ରଂଗ ପ୍ରଭୁ ଅବତାର ଗୁଣ&lt;br&gt;ଶ୍ରୀ ବିରୋଜା ଖେତ୍ରେ ଜନମ ଲଭିବେ ଅନନ୍ତ ମିଶ୍ର ଗୃହେଣ&lt;br&gt;ୟେଥୁ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ଯେ ଗୁପୁତ ସ୍ଥାନ | ଲାଭି ମଣ୍ଡଳ ବୋଲି ଯାର ନାମ&lt;br&gt;ଦେହବନ୍ତ ହୋଇ ଖେଳିବେ ତହିଁ | ଗୋପୀ ଗୋପାଳ ଭକତକୁଂ ନେଇ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English :His almigthy will be born in Jajanagara.&lt;br&gt;Will be born as a brahmin&lt;br&gt;Now Iam describing his incarnation traits&lt;br&gt;In Biraja Khetra(Region)he will be born in Ananta Mishra family&lt;br&gt;Here in a secret place &lt;br&gt;Labhi Mandal is place name&lt;br&gt;Where he will start his work&lt;br&gt;with his deciples and bhakats &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; The great saint Bhima Bhoi :1850D.O.B quotes  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;ଆମ୍ଭ ଜନମ ଅଣତିରିଶରେ | ଜନମ ହୋଇବୁ ବିରଜା ନଗ୍ରରେ&lt;br&gt;ପଦ୍ମାବତୀ ଗର୍ଭେ ଜନ୍ମ ହୋଇବୁ | ଖଣ୍ଡଗିରି ରେ ଧ୍ୟାନରେ ବସିବୁ&lt;br&gt;ଯେତେ ବେଳେ ନୀଳାଚଳ ଛାଡିକରି ଯିବୁ | ଯାଜପୁର ବିପ୍ରଘରେ ଯାଇ ଜନମିବୁ&lt;br&gt;ବେଲ ବୋଉଳ ବରକୋଳି ତହିଁ ନିକଟେ ଅଛି | ହୁଙ୍କା ସୁରୁପେ ନୃସିଂହ ତହିଁ ଜଗି ବସିଛି&lt;br&gt;ବାର ହାତ ତେର ଅଙ୍ଗୁଳି ହୁଙ୍କା ହୋଇବ ଉଚ୍ଚ | ତେବେ ଯାଣିବୁ ରାମଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ସତ୍ୟ ହେଲା ପ୍ରକାଶ&#xA;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; The great saint 'Mahapurusha' Hadi Das :1772 D.O.B quotes  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ଜାଯନଗ୍ରରେ ଜାତ ହେବ | କଲ୍କି ବିଷ୍ଣୁ ବୁଝ ଧ୍ରୁବ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ନୃସିଂହ ନାମ ଅଟେ ତାର | ସେ ପୁଣି ଆସି ମୋ ଛାମୁର&#xA;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will further clarify as my research is continuing .............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8136" LastActivityDate="2016-11-08T10:19:54.973" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15806" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12518" CreationDate="2016-11-08T10:37:42.587" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The calculation of time with respect to atom is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/11/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;third canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; in great detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Time is the energy of Lord Hari.(SB 3.11.3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Time is the potency of the almighty Personality of Godhead, Hari, who&#xA;  controls all physical movement although He is not visible in the&#xA;  physical world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atomic time as well as gross time(as we know it) is described in subsequent verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atomic time is measured according to its covering a particular atomic&#xA;  space. That time which covers the unmanifest aggregate of atoms is&#xA;  called the great time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Division of Gross Time:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;two atoms make one double atom, and three double atoms make one&#xA;  hexatom. This hexatom is visible in the sunshine which enters through&#xA;  the holes of a window screen. One can clearly see that the hexatom&#xA;  goes up towards the sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The time duration needed for the integration of three trasareṇus is&#xA;  called a truṭi, and one hundred truṭis make one vedha. Three vedhas&#xA;  make one lava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The duration of time of three lavas is equal to one nimeṣa, the&#xA;  combination of three nimeṣas makes one kṣaṇa, five kṣaṇas combined&#xA;  together make one kāṣṭhā, and fifteen kāṣṭhās make one laghu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fifteen laghus make one nāḍikā, which is also called a daṇḍa. Two&#xA;  daṇḍas make one muhūrta, and six or seven daṇḍas make one fourth of a&#xA;  day or night, according to human calculation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is calculated that there are four praharas, which are also called&#xA;  yāmas, in the day and four in the night of the human being. Similarly,&#xA;  fifteen days and nights are a fortnight, and there are two fortnights,&#xA;  white and black, in a month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then 12 months constitute a year. That around 43 Lakh years make one Chatur-Yuga(Divya-Yuga) etc has been described in detail in Shree Krishna's answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2016-11-08T10:37:42.587" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15807" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11529" CreationDate="2016-11-08T13:49:13.203" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are two passages that describe the relation between the universe and Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This entire universe is a manifestation of God.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is only the Bhagavan, the Pure Consciousness, who is variously&#xA;  called Parabrahman, Paramatma, Parameswara, and Purusha, &lt;strong&gt;who has&#xA;  manifested Himself as the world of objects, the individual seers in it&#xA;  and the instruments through which they see.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana, III.32.26&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This universe is an expression of the Supreme Spirit, apart from whom&#xA;  it has no separate existence. It is sometimes manifest, and sometimes&#xA;  not. Just like the rays of the sun, &lt;strong&gt;this universe shines forth from&#xA;  Him without being different.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana IV.31.16&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman is both the stage and the actor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-11-08T13:49:13.203" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15808" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-08T14:46:10.710" Score="2" ViewCount="575" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some temples shiva is worshipped in the form of &quot;khandakarnam&quot;.Even shivaling is worshipped in the same temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8140" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-08T14:58:33.523" LastActivityDate="2016-11-08T14:58:33.523" Title="Why is shiva called khandakarnan?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|worship|tradition|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15809" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15797" CreationDate="2016-11-08T14:51:46.287" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अहमेवासमेवाग्रे नान्यद् यत सद्सत परम । पाश्र्चादहं यदेतच्च योsवशिष्येत&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;सोS स्मयहम ।।32।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ऋतेSर्थं यत प्रतीयेत न प्रतीयेत चात्मनि । तद्वीद्यादात्मनो  मायां&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;यथाSS भासो यथा तमः ।।33।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यथा महान्ति भूतानि भुतेषूच्चावचेष्वनु । प्रविष्टन्यप्राविष्टयानि तथा&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;तेषु न तेष्वहम ।।34।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एतावदेव जिज्ञास्यम तत्वजिज्ञासुनाSSत्मनः । भवान कल्पविकल्पेषु न&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;विमुह्यति कहिर्चित ।।35।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Only I was present before this universe. Without me there were no  &quot;Sthula , Sukashma or reason for both ie.&quot;Adanyana&quot; (&#xA;  स्थूल ,सूक्ष्म &amp;amp; अज्ञान) .What ever is everything , is me itself.Also&#xA;  what will remain after &quot;Pralaya (प्रलय) is  only me.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As there is only one moon only , but due to error in our eye it looks&#xA;  as two moons , although even  there is nothing , but it feels in&#xA;  &quot;Paramatma&quot; (supreme soul) , as residing among &quot;Nakshtras&quot; (नक्षत्र) &#xA;  , but won't get seen. The atma (आत्मा) is like that ,this is my &quot;Maya&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the big &amp;amp; small bodies of living beings who are controlled by&#xA;  &quot;Panchamahabutas&quot; (पंचमहाभूत) , it  appeares as I have entered into&#xA;  them in the form of &quot;Atma&quot;(soul).But if you look from &quot; Atmadrushti&#xA;  (आत्मदृष्टि), as there is nothing but myself, I do not enter into&#xA;  those bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A wise person should know this - &quot;that which is ever present&#xA;  everywhere&quot;   is the &quot;Atmatatva&quot;(आत्मतत्व) , by the  way of&#xA;  &quot;Ananvayavyatirek (अन्वयव्यतिरेक)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am giving the explanation about &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Chatuhshloki Bhagvat&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;  as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/9/33&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  . We find  chtuhshloki bhagvat in  ( 2 skanda chapter 9  shlokas 32-35)   Bhagvat purana where &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Bhagvan&quot; (supreme lord) Shree Vishnu or  Shree Krishna describing this  shlokas to &quot;Brahamdeva&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;So &quot;Chatuhshloki bhagvat &quot; is &lt;strong&gt;narrated by supreme Bhagvan&lt;/strong&gt; himself. So these are called as so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding your question about the significance of this &quot;Chatuhshloki Bhagvat&quot;  this is given in same chapter in the next shloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ऐतमन्त समतिष्ठ परमेंण समाधिना । भवान&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;कल्पविकल्पेशु न विमुह्यति&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;कहिर्चित ।। 36।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - O brahmadeva , you by steadyness (Samadhi ) believe&#xA;  completly to this &quot;Siddhanta&quot;(सिध्दांत) और law , there by you will not&#xA;  get involved in any &quot;Moha&quot; (मोह) in any of the &quot;kalpas&quot; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As we can see , this is the pure essence or ultimate teaching of shreemad bhagvat purana.We can say that this method of describing events in large texts into very few shlokas is useful in presenting the ultimate message or core message of that perticular book or text.It also enables the reader with that.Also by this method a story or message can be presented without the need of any interpreter or reading the whole text&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-08T15:57:59.637" LastActivityDate="2016-11-08T15:57:59.637" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15811" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10317" CreationDate="2016-11-08T21:26:53.190" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sage Valmiki has written 'Adhbut Ramayana' and the Goddess Sita taking the form of Goddess Kali is mentioned there. When Sri Rama killed Ravana, and the news was sent to Sri Sita, she laughed and said it took so many years for Sri Rama to kill ten headed Ravana. How many years will he take to kill his brother Sahastra Ravana (the thousand headed Ravana who was brother of ten headed Ravana). Sahastra Ravana was much more powerful than his ten headed brother Ravana. Thereafter Sri Sita took form of Mahakali and killed Sahastra Ravana. Sri Sita was incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi and she taking form of Kali clearly tells that all mothers are form of the same Adhya Shakti. The mother has three forms : the creator (Saraswati), the preserver (Lakshmi) and the destroyer (Kali). When she nurtures she is compassionate and when she kills she is wrathful. She is gunateeta (beyond gunas) that is beyond all three gunas (satva guna, raja guna and tamo guna) and at the same time takes form related to one guna when needed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8133" LastActivityDate="2016-11-08T21:26:53.190" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15812" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-09T05:25:13.003" Score="3" ViewCount="255" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every time before creating universe, why Lord Vishnu creates water by penance devoted to Lord Shiva and sleep before beginning world drama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it like he see everything in advance and make it static or planned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the universe had a beginning, why did it wait an infinite time before it began?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-11-09T06:08:52.903" LastActivityDate="2016-11-09T06:08:52.903" Title="Why does Lord Vishnu create water by penance, and then retire to sleep before beginning world drama every time before the creation of universe," Tags="|vishnu|shiva|time|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15813" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15817" CreationDate="2016-11-09T07:33:13.593" Score="6" ViewCount="332" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is becoming a brahmin best for us? if yes then why? are we discouraged if we choose a different path?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2016-11-10T08:14:59.330" LastActivityDate="2016-11-13T06:48:45.817" Title="Are we encouraged to become a brahmin?" Tags="|culture|caste-system|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15815" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15813" CreationDate="2016-11-09T08:32:08.317" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am assuming that you are talking about the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmin&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmin Varna.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;,neither it is possible nor desired for everyone to become a Brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The four varnas(castes) viz the Brahmana,Kshatriya,Vaisya and the Sudras are created by the Almighty and to each of them he assigned separate duties.Everyone is supposed to follow his own courses and not those of the others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,for the Kshatriyas ,protecting his subjects &amp;amp; allied jobs are the highest duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 7.144. The highest duty of a Kshatriya is to protect his subjects, for the king who enjoys the rewards, just mentioned, is bound to&#xA;  (discharge that) duty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,it is not needed for a Kshatriya to become or act like a Brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly for the Sudras,the highest duty is simply service to the higher varnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.334. But to serve Brahmanas (who are) learned in the Vedas, householders, and famous (for virtue) is the highest duty of a Sudra,&#xA;  which leads to beatitude.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can get an idea about what are the prescribed duties for each of the 4 castes from following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.235. (The pursuit of sacred) knowledge is the austerity&#xA;  of a Brahmana, protecting (the people) is the austerity of a&#xA;  Kshatriya, (the pursuit of) his daily business is the austerity of a&#xA;  Vaisya, and service the austerity of a Sudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also an offence for anyone belonging to any of the 4 castes to omit a prescribed duty.For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.44. &lt;strong&gt;A man who omits a prescribed act,&lt;/strong&gt; or performs a&#xA;  blamable act, or cleaves to sensual enjoyments, &lt;strong&gt;must perform a&#xA;  penance.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,it is also recommended that one does his own duties as determined by his varna rather than trying to fulfill duties which are prescribed for some other varnas to fulfill:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.97. It is better (to discharge) one’s own (appointed) duty incompletely than to perform completely that of another; for he who&#xA;  lives according to the law of another (caste) is instantly excluded&#xA;  from his own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,a simple NO is the answer to your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-11-09T08:32:08.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15817" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15813" CreationDate="2016-11-09T12:47:27.973" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Based on the nature a person has acquired from material modes; he can be classified to be belonging to one of the varnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 4 varnas Viz. Brahmin,Kshatriya,Vaishya and Shudra.&#xA;The predominating modes that drive these four classes are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmin&lt;/strong&gt;-Mode of Goodness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/strong&gt;-Mode of passion&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaishya&lt;/strong&gt; -mix of passion and Ignorance&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shudra&lt;/strong&gt;-mode of Ignorance&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;18th&lt;/a&gt; Chapter of Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty,&#xA;knowledge, wisdom and religiousness – these are the natural qualities&#xA;by which the brāhmaṇas work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras are distinguished by the&#xA;qualities born of their own natures in accordance with the material&#xA;modes, O chastiser of the enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;3rd&lt;/a&gt; Chapter Krishna says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone&#xA;follows the nature he has acquired from the three modes. What can&#xA;repression accomplish?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though&#xA;faultily, than another’s duties perfectly. Destruction in the course&#xA;of performing one’s own duty is better than engaging in another’s&#xA;duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So here Krishna is urging Arjuna to execute his duty of Kshatriya. Because its nature of Kashtriya to fight for right cause.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna does not ask Arjuna to change his position of being a Kshatriya. So God Himself is not supporting &lt;strong&gt;'Becoming someone that you are not'&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If someone has acquired Brahminical qualities he has to develop and enhance such qualities and engage them in service of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is not encouraged&lt;/strong&gt; to become a Brahmin if someone is not. Same thing goes for all other Varnas(Classes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-09T12:47:27.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15819" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15704" CreationDate="2016-11-09T13:59:21.320" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In addition to the &lt;em&gt;Four Castes&lt;/em&gt; ,there is a &lt;em&gt;Fifth Caste&lt;/em&gt;.These are the &lt;em&gt;Kayasths&lt;/em&gt; .&lt;strong&gt;After Shankaracharya Integrated Buddhism to Hinduism in the 9th Century AD ,the Buddhists formed the Fifth - Kayasth Caste&lt;/strong&gt; .As Buddhism did not accept the Caste system ,the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kayasths&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; were permitted to retain there beliefs , and &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;pursue any profession they liked and intermarry between Castes&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Swami Vivekananda&lt;/strong&gt; beloged to the &lt;strong&gt;Kayasth&lt;/strong&gt; Caste . &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;According to him . modern Caste System should be Flexible , like that of Kayasths&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2016-11-09T13:59:21.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15820" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15693" CreationDate="2016-11-09T15:31:52.950" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;You should read a low level introductory book that nevertheless gives a decent overview of Hinduism. Otherwise you will have difficulty in understanding Hindu scriptures. Books like 'The Hindu mind' by Bansi Pandit and 'The complete Idiot's guide to Hinduism' by Linda Johnsen would help. Another introductory text is 'A primer of Hinduism' by D. S. Sharma. A good text is 'Essentials of Hinduism' by Swami Bhaskarananda. A good survey of Hindu scriptures is 'Windows into the Infinite A guide to the Hindu scriptures' by Barbara Powell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can then read some of the seminal texts of Hinduism like the Gita, the Upanishads and if you are really interested in the Brahma Sutra. You can read the Gita translated by Swami Tapasyananda. You can also read ‘Universal Message of the Bhagavad Gita: An Exposition of the Gita in the light of Modern thought and Modern Needs’ by Swami Ranganathananda. If you want to go really deep into it then commentaries of Sankara on the Gita, the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutra are a must. You can read Srimad Bhagavad Gita Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya translated by Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier. You can also read Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya translated by Swami Gambhirananda. Reading the translations of Upanishads by Swami Nikhilananda and Swami Gambhirananda will also be helpful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can then read the 9 volume Vivekananda's complete works if you have the time for it. If not, then I recommend 'What religion is in the words of Swami Vivekananda' edited by Swami Vidyatmananda. You can also read Patanjali's Yoga Sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you have the time for it then you can go through the entire Mahabharata which is full of gems. You can try reading K. M. Ganguli's translation of the Mahabharata. You can also read the translation of Srimad Bhagavataam by Swami Tapasyananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Till now you have gained theoretical knowledge. If you have the time then you can go through the Ramakrishna Kathamrita (translated as the 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna) to read about an exemplar of the Hindu tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can go to any Ramakrishna Vedanta Center to learn about Hindu scripture. You can find out about the Centers at the following web site: www.vedanta.org. You will get most of these books from www.vedanta.com or from Amazon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have not followed any rule for reading Hindu scriptures. However, shraddha or respect for the subject matter would be helpful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-11-09T15:31:52.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15821" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9924" CreationDate="2016-11-09T15:39:37.167" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the time frame of Vedic India? This is important because women's position in Hindu society has changed with time according to Hindu scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... women formerly were not immured within houses and dependent on&#xA;  husbands and other relatives. They used to go about freely enjoying&#xA;  themselves as best as they liked. O thou of excellent qualities, they&#xA;  did not then adhere to their husbands faithfully, and yet, O handsome&#xA;  one, they were not regarded sinful, for that was the sanctioned usage&#xA;  of the times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Mahabharata, Adi Parva CXXII)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-11-09T15:39:37.167" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15823" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-09T18:19:08.017" Score="2" ViewCount="350" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a runny nose do I have to perform Pranayama and if yes then how. If I should wash my hands again and again or should I just recite the mantra? and what about people with Asthma and similar breathing problems how should they perform Pranayama? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-11-10T06:01:35.327" LastActivityDate="2017-05-28T04:10:53.627" Title="Is pranayam compulsory in Sandhyavandanam under any situation?" Tags="|vedic-rituals|sandhyavandanam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15824" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15826" CreationDate="2016-11-10T05:37:55.057" Score="6" ViewCount="727" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a question regarding shloka &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;4.14&lt;/a&gt; from the Bhagavad Geeta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no work that affects Me&lt;/strong&gt;; nor do I aspire for the fruits of action. One who understands this truth about Me also does not become entangled in fruitive reactions of work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Somehow I have a feeling that this shloka has a much more profound meaning than is exposed in Praphupada's interpretation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since I am a physicist I try to think of Krishna as a transcendental being.&#xA;For example in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/30&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;6.30&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For one who sees me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can understand this shloka in the sense that when one has achieved a certain degree of consciousness one has a feeling that one is surrounded by god all the time and he manifests as different people, events, etc as if by intended chance. I have that feeling many times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I can't quite make sense of 4.14: &quot;There is no work that affects Me; nor do I aspire for the fruits of action. One who understands this truth about Me also does not become entangled in fruitive reactions of work.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can no work affect Krishna if everything is in Him and He is in everything?&#xA;I think this is related to the first shloka in Purusha Suktam: &quot;Athyathisthaddusangulam&quot;.&#xA;But somehow I feel it has a more profound meaning...&#xA;Does it mean that Krishna is an end in itself (Himself)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4974" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-10T18:16:42.707" LastActivityDate="2016-11-10T18:16:42.707" Title="Bhagavad Geeta 4.14 - How can no work affect Krishna if everything is in Him and He is in everything?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|karma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15825" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15824" CreationDate="2016-11-10T06:59:28.597" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita is a moksha sastra and is in 4.14 talking of Karma Yoga when it talks of nishkama or unattached Karma. A person practices Karma Yoga when his work benefits other people and the work is done without caring about the fruits or name, fame, promotion, wealth etc. This type of work is called nishkama karma. The idea behind such nishkama karma is that God dwelling in the other person is giving us a chance to serve God and thus help ourselves. Whether the other person is helped will depend on God. It is hubris to think that one human can help another human. An example of nishkama karma is the Sun. I am posting a poem by Hafiz, the 13th century Persian poet, that captures the essence of Karma Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All this time&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sun never says to the earth,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;You owe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Me&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Look&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;what happens With a love like that,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It lights the&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whole Sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gift, Poems of Hafiz, The Great Sufi Master, translated by Daniel Ladinsky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sun does not care what man does with the energy of the sun that makes life possible on earth. The sun just keeps on pouring energy. That is how God works. It doesn't matter what field you are in. If you can help even one person without caring about the result of your help then you are doing Karma Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not possible to do karma Yoga in a job setting. You will most likely get fired if you are unattached to the result of your work. Karma Yoga is after all a Yoga and unattached work can only be done as part of divine work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A householder will find it difficult to do nishkama karma. He will hanker after the fruits of his work. He will certainly lose motivation if he doesn't have the expectation of good things of life. It takes a great deal of effort to do work with passion and yet remain detached from all expectations. Most persons only do karma. Only spiritual seekers try to do karma Yoga. There is no doubt that Karma Yoga is very hard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-11-10T06:59:28.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15826" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15824" CreationDate="2016-11-10T08:12:52.467" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;A similar idea is conveyed by Sri Krishna in Chapter 9. In Chapter 9, Sri Krishna says (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;By Me in My unmanifested form, are all things in this universe pervaded. All beings exist in Me, but I do not exist in them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And yet the beings do not dwell in Me--behold, that is My divine mystery. My Spirit, which is the support of all beings and the source of all things, does not dwell in them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Verse 4.14 in Swami Gambhirananda's translation says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Actions do not taint Me; for Me there is no hankering for the results of actions. One who knows Me thus, does no become bound by actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sankara's commentary on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because of the absence of egoism, those &lt;em&gt;karmani&lt;/em&gt;, actions; &lt;em&gt;na limpanti&lt;/em&gt;, do not taint; &lt;em&gt;mam&lt;/em&gt;, Me; by becoming the originators of body, etc. And &lt;em&gt;me&lt;/em&gt;, for Me; &lt;em&gt;na sprha&lt;/em&gt;, there is no hankering for the results of those actions. But in the case of transmigration beings, who have self-identification in the form, 'I am the agent', and thirst for actions as also for their results, it is reasonable that actions should taint them. Owing to the absence of these, actions do not taint Me. Anyone else, too, &lt;em&gt;yah&lt;/em&gt;, who; &lt;em&gt;abhijanati&lt;/em&gt;, knows; &lt;em&gt;mam&lt;/em&gt;, Me; &lt;em&gt;iti&lt;/em&gt;, thus; as his own Self, and (knows), 'I am not the agent; I have no hankering for the results of actions'; &lt;em&gt;sah&lt;/em&gt;, he; &lt;em&gt;na badhyate&lt;/em&gt;, does not become bound; &lt;em&gt;karmaabhih&lt;/em&gt;, by actions. In his case also actions cease to be the originators of body etc. This is the import. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna in the Gita when referring to Himself, is - according to Advaitists - referring to the Unmanifested Supreme Brahman. As you can see from the verses from Chapter 9, He pervades all and exists in all, but all do not exist in Him. Like the air carries a scent but is unaffected by the scent, He pervades all, but is unaffected by those actions. The verse you quote is an introduction to one of the very profound verses in the Gita, verse 18 Chapter 4.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-11-10T08:12:52.467" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15827" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9782" CreationDate="2016-11-10T10:41:47.950" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is also mentioning in Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&quot; about Lord Shiva lives or resides in Cremation ground or &quot;Smashana&quot; in the &lt;strong&gt;(4th skanda Adhaya 4  Shloka 16)&lt;/strong&gt; . This chapter is about Devi Saties  entering into fire.&amp;amp;  devi Sati's conversation with  her father Daksha about lord Shiva.Here Sati devi is actually glorifying lord shiva, by explaning the actual nature of lord Shiva , unlike what  (Daksha) thinks of.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This shloka tells us about Lord Shiva sitting or residing or wondering in cremation grounds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;किं वा शिवाख्यमशिवं न विदुरस्त्वदन्ये ब्रह्मादयस्तमवकिर्य जटा: श्मशाने&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;  तंमाल्यभस्मनृकपाल्यवसपिशाच र्ये  मुर्धभिर्दधति तच्चरणासृष्टम्&#xA;  ।।16।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kim Va ShivakhyamShivam Vidurstvdanye BrahmadyasamstamVkirya Jatahha&#xA;  Shamashane l tmmalyabhasmaNrukapalyaVasaPishachhya yer&#xA;  Mudharbhidrdhati Tachhrana Shrustam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning -&lt;/strong&gt;  Its only you who thinks that he is &quot;Ashiva&quot; (No pure) and nobody else , if it is true then why otherwise lord shiva ,who&#xA;  resides in Cremation ground (Smashana) with Bhoot-Pishachhya , Is&#xA;  praised by lord Brahma &amp;amp; other devatas(Gods) and why would  Brahma and&#xA;  othet God's would have kept the flowers fallen from his feet (&#xA;  Nirmalya) on their heads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/4/16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat  4th skanda Adhaya 4 Shloka 16&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why does he sit in Smashan?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न यस्य लोके SS स्त्यतिशायनः प्रिय-स्तथाप्रियो देहभृतां प्रियात्मना:&#xA;  ।&lt;br&gt;  तस्मिन् समस्तात्मनि मुक्तवैरके ऋते भवन्तः कतमः प्रतीपयेत ।।11।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;NaYasya Lokestatishayanah PriyaStathapriyo Priyatmanah  Tasmin&#xA;  Samsstatmani MuktaVairake Rute Bhavantah PratiPayet &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - I this world there is nobody Great as Lord Shankara.He is the dear soul of all the beings with body. &quot;Nobody is dear to him&#xA;  or nor he dislikes anybody&quot;  so he dont have any prejudice with any&#xA;  being. Its you only who is opposing him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/4/11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat.4th skanda Adhaya 4  Shloka 11&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I am trying to give the answer or explanation of this question from above shloka also from &quot;Shreemad Bhagvatam&quot; . Here sati says Lord Shiva is soul inside everybeings who are with body (Ganas गण) .That mean he is inside  everytype of creature as soul.Thus he never differentiates between anybody.Nobody is dear to him or nor he dislikes anybody&quot;  so he dont have any prejudice with any being or any type of creatures (Bhoot etc.).  So i think this is also one of the reason why he resides in &#xA; cremation grounds.As he (Lord Shiva)himself is the Purestst ,that he do not differentiates between cremation ground (Smashan) and any other place or company of any type of creatures. So as Lord Shiva sits and wonders with his family similarly he lives and wonders with his &quot;Ganas&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-11T05:06:20.817" LastActivityDate="2016-11-11T05:06:20.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15828" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-10T11:07:58.053" Score="5" ViewCount="10813" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am seeing differing versions of a eulogy to Bhishma cited from the Mahabharata literature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One version is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kshatriya satyawadi cha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tapasvi neeyata vrata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ripushmati dayavanastha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tsamat bhism prishaspithah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other version is the following,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kshatriya satyavaadi cha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tapasvi neeyata vrata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ripushmati dayavanascha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tasmat bheeshmo Vrishah Smritah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is not much difference between the first three lines of the two differing versions, but the last lines seems to convey (from my limited knowledge of Sanskrit) markedly different meanings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure which portion of Mahabharata the passage is from, but if it is from the earlier chapters where Bhishma is introduced as a young Kuru prince, then the use of 'pithah' doesn't make sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'd appreciate it if someone can quote the exact verse from an authentic source of Mahabharata and also explain the entire meaning of the passage. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-26T03:34:14.883" LastActivityDate="2021-02-03T07:04:10.470" Title="Exact lyrics and meaning of the eulogy to Bhishma in Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|identification-request|shloka|bhishma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15832" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-10T18:01:47.967" Score="1" ViewCount="877" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard a story that in the period before war, when Krishna projects that even though he wishes peace, others like Bhima are going for war. Sakadevan points that by binding Krishna, one can stop war. Later he binds him by his devotional mind to prove his point. Krishna requests him to release him.&#xA;Which version of Mahabharata has this story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8028" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-11-11T16:28:07.360" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T07:00:06.867" Title="Sakadevan binds Lord Krishna" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|pandavas|bhakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15833" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16445" CreationDate="2016-11-10T18:47:22.117" Score="5" ViewCount="2430" Body="&lt;p&gt;Per Wikipedia:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krittivasi Ramayan&lt;/strong&gt; or Krittibasi Ramayan or Sri Ram Panchali, composed by 15th century Bengali poet &lt;strong&gt;Krittibas Ojha&lt;/strong&gt;, is a translation of the Ramayana into Bengali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Written in the traditional Ramayan Panchali form of Middle Bengali literature, the Krittivasi Ramayana is not just a rewording of the original Indian epic, but a vivid depiction of the society and culture of Bengal in the Middle Ages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is an English (or at least a Hindi) translation of the same available for free or for purchase?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T17:57:51.590" Title="English translation of Krittivasi Ramayana" Tags="|ramayana|translation-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15834" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12029" CreationDate="2016-11-10T19:36:05.920" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The confrontation between Duryodhana and Krishna happens in the &lt;strong&gt;Bhagwata Yana Parva of the Udyoga Parva&lt;/strong&gt; of Mahabharata. The links to the entire incident are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna decides &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05072.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;to solicit for peace as an emissary of the Pandavas&lt;/a&gt; in the Kuru court. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus addressed, Janardana replied unto Yudhishthira the just, saying, '&lt;strong&gt;I will go to the court of the Kurus for the sake of both of You.&lt;/strong&gt; If without sacrificing your interests I can obtain peace, O king, an act of great religious merit will be mine, productive of great fruits. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I shall then also save from the meshes of death the Kurus and the Srinjayas inflamed with wrath, the Pandavas and the Dhritarashtras, and, in fact, this entire earth.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once there &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05124.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;he attempts to convince Duryodhana to give back the kingdom to Pandavas.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Look at thy sons, thy brothers, kinsmen, and other relatives. Let not these chiefs of Bharata's race all perish on thy account. &lt;strong&gt;Let not the race of Kauravas be exterminated or reduced.&lt;/strong&gt; O king, let not people say that thou art the exterminator of thy race and the destroyer of its achievements. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Those mighty car-warriors, the Pandavas (if peace be made) will install thee as the Yuvaraja, and thy father Dhritarashtra, that lord of men, as the sovereign of this extensive empire.&lt;/strong&gt; Do not, O sire, disregard the prosperity that is awaiting thee and is sure to come. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Giving to the sons of Pritha half the kingdom, win thou great prosperity.&lt;/strong&gt; Making peace with the Pandavas and acting according to the counsels of thy friends, and rejoicing with them, thou art sure to obtain what is for thy good for ever and ever.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But despite all efforts, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05127.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Duryodhana does not agree&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That share in the kingdom which was formerly given them by my father shall never again, O Kesava, be obtainable by them as long as I live.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As long, O Janardana, as king Dhritarashtra liveth, both ourselves and they, sheathing our weapons, O Madhava, should live in dependence on him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Given away formerly from ignorance or fear, when I was a child and dependent on others, the kingdom, O Janardana, incapable of being given away again, shall not, O delighter of Vrishni's race, be obtainable by the Pandavas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;At present, O Kesava of mighty arms, as long as I live, even that much of our land which may be covered by the point of a sharp needle shall not, O Madhava, be given by us unto the Pandavas.'&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Frustrated Krishna suggests &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05128.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dhritrashtra tie Duryodhana and his cronies up&lt;/a&gt; and hand them over to the Pandavas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing these words of Bhishma, the lotus-eyed hero of Dasarha's race, possessed of great powers, addressing all those (that were still there) headed by Bhishma and Drona, said, &lt;strong&gt;'Even this is great transgression, of which all the elders of the Kuru race are becoming guilty, for they do not forcibly seize and bind this wicked king in the enjoyment of sovereignty.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Binding in the same way Duryodhana and Karna and Sakuni, the son of Suvala, and Dussasana, make them over to the Pandavas. &lt;strong&gt;For the sake of a family, an individual may be sacrificed. [...] O monarch, binding Duryodhana fast, make peace with the Pandavas.&lt;/strong&gt; O bull among Kshatriyas, let not the whole Kshatriya race be slaughtered on thy account.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thoroughly annoyed Duryodhana attempts &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;to imprison Krishna to demoralize the Pandavas&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'This Janardana, quick in action, seeketh, with the king Dhritarashtra and Santanu's son, to seize us first. &lt;strong&gt;We, however, shall forcibly seize this tiger among men, Hrishikesa, first&lt;/strong&gt;, like Indra forcibly seizing Virochana's son (Bali). &lt;strong&gt;Hearing that this one of Vrishni's race hath been seized, the Pandavas will lose their heart&lt;/strong&gt; and become incapable of exertion, like snakes whose fangs have been broken. This mighty-armed one is, indeed, the refuge and protection of them all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, his plan fails as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05131.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna unveils his Virat Roop.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kesava, that slayer of hostile divisions, endued with great energy, addressed Dhritarashtra's son, Duryodhana, and said, '&lt;strong&gt;From delusion, O Suyodhana, thou regardest me to be alone&lt;/strong&gt;, and it is for this, O thou of little understanding, that thou seekest to make me a captive after vanquishing me by violence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here, however, are all the Pandavas and all the Vrishnis and Andhakas. Here are all the Adityas, the Rudras, and the Vasus, with all the great Rishis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saying this Kesava, that slayer of hostile heroes burst out into a loud laughter. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And as the high-souled Sauri laughed, from his body, that resembled a blazing fire, issued myriads of gods, each of lightning effulgence, and not bigger than the thumb.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And &lt;strong&gt;on his forehead appeared Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;on his breast Rudra&lt;/strong&gt;. And on &lt;strong&gt;his arms appeared the regents of the world&lt;/strong&gt;, and from &lt;strong&gt;his mouth issued Agni, the Adityas, the Sadhyas, the Vasus, the Aswins, the Marutas, with Indra, and the Viswedevas.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And myriads of Yakshas, and the Gandharvas, and Rakshasas also, of the same measure and form, issued thence.&lt;/strong&gt; And from his &lt;strong&gt;two arms issued Sankarshana and Dhananjaya.&lt;/strong&gt; And &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna stood on his right, bow in hand&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;(Bala)Rama stood on his left, armed with the plough&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And behind &lt;strong&gt;him stood Bhima, and Yudhishthira, and the two sons of Madri,&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;before him were all the Andhakas and the Vrishnis with Pradyumna and other chiefs bearing mighty weapons upraised.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And on his diverse arms were seen the conch, the discus, the mace, the bow called Saranga, the plough, the javelin, the Nandaka, and every other weapon, all shining with effulgence, and upraised for striking.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And from his eyes and nose and ears and &lt;strong&gt;every part of his body, issued fierce sparks of fire mixed with smoke.&lt;/strong&gt; And from the pores of his body &lt;strong&gt;issued sparks of fire like unto the rays of the sun.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And beholding that awful form of the high-souled Kesava, all the kings closed their eyes with affrighted hearts&lt;/strong&gt;, except &lt;strong&gt;Drona&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;Bhishma&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;Vidura&lt;/strong&gt;, endued with great intelligence, greatly blessed &lt;strong&gt;Sanjaya&lt;/strong&gt;, and the &lt;strong&gt;Rishis&lt;/strong&gt;, possessed of wealth of asceticism, for the divine Janardana gave unto them this divine sight on the occasion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And beholding in the (Kuru) court that highly wonderful sight, celestial drums beat (in the sky) and a floral shower fell (upon him). And the whole Earth trembled (at the time) and the oceans were agitated.&lt;/strong&gt; And, O bull of the Bharata's race, all the denizens of the earth were filled with great wonder. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After it, Krishna leaves the assembly with Satyaki and others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then that tiger among men, that chastiser of foes, withdrew that divine and highly wonderful, and extremely varied and auspicious form.&lt;/strong&gt; And arm-in-arm with Satyaki on one side and Hridika's son (Kritavarman) on the other, and obtaining the permission of the Rishis, the slayer of Madhu went out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2016-11-10T19:36:05.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15836" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15832" CreationDate="2016-11-11T04:19:31.733" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Sahadeva binding Krishna comes from the Villi Bharatam, a Tamil version of the Mahabharata composed by the 15th century poet Villiputturar.  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=d8k98lBxwM4C&amp;amp;lpg=PA50&amp;amp;dq=sahadeva%20binds%20krishna&amp;amp;pg=PA50#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=sahadeva%20binds%20krishna&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus Sahadeva binds Krishna with mental ropes in Villiputturar's Tamil Mahabarata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=kAjvBBzI_2sC&amp;amp;lpg=PA313&amp;amp;dq=%22long%20rope%20of%20his%20mind%22&amp;amp;pg=PA313#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%22long%20rope%20of%20his%20mind%22&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says that the story given by Villiputturar comes from an earlier Tamil poet named Perundevanar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The upshot of all this is a vivid bhakti tableau, traceable from Peruntevanar through Villiputtur to our drama, in which Krsna asks how Sahadeva could possibly bind him, and Sahadeva replies, in the words of the play, that he can do so through the &quot;rope of knowledge&quot; (nanakkayiru), or the &quot;long rope of his mind [or heart]&quot; (netumanak kayiru)[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book also suggests that the story may have been inspired by the story of Krishna showing his Vishwarupa to the Kauravas, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7661/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, if anyone's interested &lt;a href=&quot;http://ritsin.com/unknown-facts-from-mahabharata-indian-mythology.html/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt; gives the details of the story:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sahadeva, the youngest of Pandavas was a very wise person. He was a great astrologer who could predict things in advance.  Once Shri Krishna asked him that what should be done to prevent Mahabharata war. Sahadeva replied that Krishna himself must be tied down and imprisoned. He said that all Pandavas along with Duryodhana must be sent to forest and Karna must be made the king. In response, Krishna challenged him to tie him down, Sahadeva started meditating and envisioned Krishna as a small baby and tied him down.&#xA;  Since Krishna could not move out of the bondage created by Sahadeva in his meditative trance, he blessed him with divine vision and then only Sahadeva released Krishna from the bondage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also seems to me to have some similarity to the story of Dadhipanda, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/13744/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T07:00:06.867" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15837" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15859" CreationDate="2016-11-11T06:23:22.710" Score="4" ViewCount="1081" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who makes Hindu calendar? Is that authentic calendar or illusory calendar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes it has two dates together in one day, is it authentic? I think there is some ambiguity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every year they also make changes. Is there any mathematics behind it or superstitious principles?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why different calendars different Ekadashis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-11-15T09:40:44.300" LastActivityDate="2016-11-15T09:40:44.300" Title="Who makes Hindu calendar? Is that authentic calendar or illusory calendar?" Tags="|tradition|astrology|calendar|panchang|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15838" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-11T06:33:47.700" Score="1" ViewCount="2830" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are certain instances that amavasya starts from 7 am and ends the next day by 6/15 am. In this case on which day to do the amavasya tharpanam? The previous day it starts from 7  am that is one hour [assume the sun rise at 6 am] after sunrise. The next day it ends by 6/15 am where the thithi is there during sunrise. Normally tharpanam to be performed by 11 am but now due to office workings it is done by 8 am. In the above case on which day the tharpanam for pithrus to be done? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="15425" LastEditDate="2018-11-12T07:02:43.380" LastActivityDate="2018-11-12T07:02:43.380" Title="Appropriate time to do amavasya tharpanam in the below instance" Tags="|astrology|calendar|panchang|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15839" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15864" CreationDate="2016-11-11T07:10:55.440" Score="6" ViewCount="469" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why some spiritual people become cynical? Even though they know soul is ansha of GOD, they don't meet people, act as selfish person and meet in specific time. Why? When one really need guidance their doors are closed at the peak time. Then how can one get help?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are they considering the seeker a part of Maya or they are diffident in helping him? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-11T08:33:46.160" LastActivityDate="2017-01-08T11:36:21.643" Title="Why some spiritual people become cynical?" Tags="|spirituality|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15840" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15841" CreationDate="2016-11-11T09:05:05.783" Score="13" ViewCount="847" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most important verse of Bhagvad Gita is the 66th verse of 18th Chapter where Lord states as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुच: || 66||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śharaṇaṁ vraja&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣhayiṣhyāmi mā śhuchaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abandon all varieties of dharmas and simply surrender unto me alone. I shall liberate you from all sinful reactions; do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_giitaa/shivagiitaa.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva Gita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is a part of Padma Purana (Uttara Khanda). &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Just as Arjuna is distressed in Bhagvad Gita and Krishna instructs Arjuna. In the similar way Rama is distressed due to loss of his wife Sita in the Dandakaranya Vana. Maharshi Agastya comes there and instructs Rama to do Pashupata Vratam. Then Rama performs it as per instructions by Agastya and then Lord Shiva manifests there and teaches him Gita. This forms the origin of Shiva Gita.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Since we do not find this story in Valmiki Ramayana it is likely that this occurred in Ramayana of previous Kalpas. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;So, are there any verses in Shiva Gita which is same as Bhagvad Gita 18.66 or verses which gives the same message...?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-11-11T09:08:15.517" Title="&quot;Sarva Dharman Parityejya Mamekam Sharanam Vraja...&quot; in Shiva Gita?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|history|rama|gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15841" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15840" CreationDate="2016-11-11T09:08:15.517" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, in the 14th chapter of Shiva Gita, the Gita message goes as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीराम उवाच ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भगवञ्छ्रवणे नैव प्रवर्तन्ते जनाः कथम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वेदशास्त्रार्थसम्पन्ना यज्वानः सत्यवादिनः ॥ ३५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शृण्वन्तोऽपि तथात्मानं जानते नैव केचन ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ज्ञात्वापि मन्वते मिथ्या किमेतत्तव मायया ॥ ३६॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Sri Rama spoke:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh Lord when one can realise Atma swarupa from methods like Shravana then why do not persons expert in Vedas and Shastras get Pravritta in this path? And some can&amp;apos;t even know Atman after hearing too and some while knowing also call it false. Why is it so? Is it your Maya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीभगवानुवाच ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एवमेव महाबाहो नात्र कार्या विचारणा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दैवी ह्येषा गुणमयी मम माया दुरत्यया ॥ ३७॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मामेव ये प्रपद्यन्ते मायामेतां तरन्ति ते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अभक्ता ये महाबाहो मम श्रद्धा विवर्जिताः ॥ ३८॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  फलं कामयमानास्ते चैहिकामुष्मिकादिकम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  क्षयिष्ण्वल्पं सातिशयं यतः कर्मफलं मतम् ॥ ३९॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदविज्ञाय कर्माणि ये कुर्वन्ति नराधमाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मातुः पतन्ति ते गर्भे मृत्योर्वक्त्रे पुनः पुनः ॥ ४०॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lord Spoke:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh Mahabaho it is as you spoke, there is no doubt in it. My maya is very hard to overcome. Only those who come to my refugee can get rid of this maya. Those who are not devoted to me and do not have faith in me they get fruits as per their karma. Without knowing me when the fruits of their Karma gets finished they again get birth in womb of mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नानायोनिषु जातस्य देहिनो यस्यकस्यचित् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कोटिजन्मार्जितैः पुण्यैर्मयि भक्तिः प्रजायते ॥ ४१॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स एव लभते ज्ञानं मद्भक्तः श्रद्धयान्वितः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नान्यकर्माणि कुर्वाणो जन्मकोटिशतैरपि ॥ ४२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततः सर्वं परित्यज्य मद्भक्तिं समुदाहर ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ॥ ४३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत् ॥ ४४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यत्तपस्यसि राम त्वं तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततः परतरा नास्ति भक्तिर्मयि रघूत्तम ॥ ४५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  A rare person accumulating virtue from millions of births only gets devoted to me. Only those having Shraddha on me get my knowledge, other doing Karmas for millions of births also can&amp;apos;t know me. Therefore abandon everything and be devoted to me. &lt;strong&gt;Abandon all varieties of dharmas and simply surrender unto me alone. I shall liberate you from all sinful reactions; do not fear.&lt;/strong&gt; Whatever karma you do, whatever food you eat and whatever oblations you give, whatever austerity you perform offer everything to me. O Rama there is nothing Superior to my devotion.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-11-11T09:08:15.517" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15842" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-11T11:03:43.920" Score="4" ViewCount="615" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Surya Sidhdhant? How Bhaskaracharya was the first to discover gravity, 500 years before Sir Isaac Newton?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that many years ago Bhaskaracharya discovered gravity using Surya Sidhdhant. What is that? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-24T08:57:09.813" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T12:16:20.393" Title="What is Surya Sidhdhant? How Bhaskaracharya was the first to discover gravity, 500 years before Sir Isaac Newton?" Tags="|history|astrology|research|astronomy|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15844" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17395" CreationDate="2016-11-11T14:47:53.647" Score="3" ViewCount="2116" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kalidasa &lt;a href=&quot;https://navankura.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/good-people-and-bad-people/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;supposedly wrote&lt;/a&gt; this verse in the poem Megadootam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मनस्येकं वचस्येकं कर्मण्येकं दुरात्मनाम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनस्येकं वचस्येकं कर्मण्येकं महात्मनाम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;manasyEkam vachasyEkam karmaNyEkam dhurAthmanAm | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  manasyEkam vachasyEkam karmaNyEkam mahAthmanAm ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is just one difference between people who are good and those who are not.  The thoughts, words and deeds of the bad do not match one another. The thoughts, words and deeds of the good people are all identical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, is Kalidasa the real author of this verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, what's the context in which this verse was written? Because one can easily apply the verse to Ravana and Duryodhana and argue that their thoughts, words and actions are all evil, match one another, that they are predictable, therefore they are &quot;good&quot; people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T10:49:38.233" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T10:49:38.233" Title="Kalidasa on good and bad people" Tags="|dharma|ravana|duryodhana|kalidasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15845" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-11T17:35:25.133" Score="6" ViewCount="146" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question is inspired from the current demonetization that is happening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I remember that Patanjali Yoga Sutras talk about &lt;em&gt;Aparigraha&lt;/em&gt; which means non-accumulation. This refers to non-accumulation of thoughts and emotions i.e. not holding onto things and letting go. Also, in the physical realm, it refers to non-accumulation of unnecessary resources including wealth. The benefit of &lt;em&gt;Aparigraha&lt;/em&gt; is said to be that the knowledge of other people and past lives come to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which other scriptures talk about hoarding of wealth and resources?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2022-04-22T14:55:34.017" Title="Hoarding wealth and resources" Tags="|yoga-sutras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15846" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="33753" CreationDate="2016-11-11T18:10:41.500" Score="6" ViewCount="363" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Agama Pramanya is a work composed by the early Sri Vaishnava Acharya Yamunacharya to demonstrate the scriptural authority of the Pancharatra Agamas (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/eREc&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Agama Pramanya, Yamunacharya discusses an unnamed Bhashyakara or commentator who pretended to criticize the Pancharatra Agamas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore, even if there were a conflict between the Bhagavan's doctrine and the Veda, there still would be option between them; but we have already expounded that there is no conflict between them at all. Objection: However, how can the venerable author of the Bhashya state that those parts which are in conflict are invalid: &quot;If there be conflict, it is carefully eliminated.&quot; Refutation: This statement means that those of frail minds, who are to strong enough to plunge into the deep ocean of rules of interpretation, must not be disrespectful to the Vedas. &lt;strong&gt;This is comparable to the venerable Jaimini's exposition that the fruits of acts serve to increase people's faith in the acts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss the identity of the Bhashyakara in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15800/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But now I'm interested in the statement at the end of the quote.  My question is, what is Yamunacharya referring to when he talks about &quot;Jaimini's exposition that the fruits of acts serve to increase people's faith in the acts&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Jaimini is the author of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa school.  So what statement or statements in the Purva Mimamsa Sutras is Yamunacharya referring to?  And what does &quot;the fruits of acts serve to increase people's faith in the acts&quot;?  Does it mean that the reason that actions like Yagnas bear fruit is to increase people's faith in doing Yagnas?  Or does it mean that the Vedas describe the fruit of Yagnas to increase the people's faith in Yagnas, or something else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And what does Yamunacharya mean by saying that the Bhashyakra's statement is &quot;comparable&quot; to Jaimini's statement?  Does he mean that just as the Bhashyakara was only pretending to criticize the Pancharatra Agamas, Jaimini also pretended about something?  And if so what did Jaimini pretend about?  This may be related to my speculation in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14035/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; that Jaimini didn't sincerely believe in the Purva Mimamsa school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-09T04:36:22.393" LastActivityDate="2019-03-13T04:38:20.147" Title="Does Purva Mimamsa believe that the law of Karma is intended to increase faith?" Tags="|karma|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|purva-mimamsa|jaimini|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15847" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15380" CreationDate="2016-11-11T21:13:26.883" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;To add to the other answer, before the imminent war, Yudhiṣṭhira also expressed some doubts on whether war is really worth it. He &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05072.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;asks&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Krishna. We have numerous kinsmen, and numerous also are the revered seniors that have taken this or that other side. The slaughter of these would be highly sinful. &lt;strong&gt;What good, therefore, can there be in battle?&lt;/strong&gt; Alas, such sinful practices are the duties of the Kshatriya order! Ourselves have taken our births in that wretched order! ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Under all circumstances, however, war is a sin&lt;/strong&gt; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The learned have noticed all this in a canine contest. First, there comes the wagging of tails, then the bark, then the bark in reply, then the circumambulation, then the showing of teeth, then repeated roars, and then at last the fight. &lt;strong&gt;In such a contest, O Krishna, the dog that is stronger, vanquishing his antagonist, taketh the latter's meat. The same is exactly the case with men. There is no difference whatever.&lt;/strong&gt; They that are powerful should be indifferent to avoid disputes with the weak who always bow down.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The father, the king, and he that is venerable in year, always deserve regard. Dhritarashtra, therefore, O Janardana, is worthy of our respect and worship. But, O Madhava, Dhritarashtra's affection for his son is great. Obedient to his son, he will reject our submission. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What dost thou, O Krishna, think best at this juncture? &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How may we, O Madhava, preserve both our interest and virtue?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhīma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05074.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All of us, O Krishna, would rather in humiliation follow Duryodhana submissively, but, oh, let not the Bharatas be annihilated. O Vasudeva, act in such a way that &lt;strong&gt;we may rather live as strangers to the Kurus than incurring the sin of bringing about the destruction of the whole race&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nakula also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05080.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentions&lt;/a&gt; that during their exile they did not desire kingdom:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While we were living in the woods, our hearts were inclined towards a particular course of action. While we were passing the period of concealment, our wishes were of one kind, and now, at the present time, O Krishna, when concealment is no longer necessary, our wishes have become different. O thou of the Vrishni race, &lt;strong&gt;while we wandered in the woods, attachment for the kingdom was not so great as now.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-11-11T21:13:26.883" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15848" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15851" CreationDate="2016-11-12T09:29:26.337" Score="3" ViewCount="7356" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Indian marriages, especially the South Indian Weddings, I have noticed the ritual of Kashi Yatra. This ritual involves  persuading the groom to accept the girl for marriage and enter Grihastasramam. What is the true significance of this ritual ? In Present day, There is no groom going to Kashi,then why this procedure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-03-19T06:36:58.647" LastActivityDate="2020-03-19T06:36:58.647" Title="Reason behind Kashi Yatra in Indian Wedding" Tags="|rituals|marriage|culture|customs|kashi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15849" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-12T09:50:30.940" Score="3" ViewCount="202" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard &lt;strong&gt;Ati Rudra Maha Yajna&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Ekadash Rudram&lt;/strong&gt; yield similar benefits for the world i.e &lt;strong&gt;samatha lokah sukino bhavanthu&lt;/strong&gt; is this correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clarify.&#xA;Thanks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-11-13T06:39:48.043" LastActivityDate="2016-11-13T06:39:48.043" Title="Does Ati Rudra Maha Yajna and Ekadash Rudram yield similar benefits?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15850" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-12T11:49:33.350" Score="1" ViewCount="156" Body="&lt;p&gt;can any one suggest the books to be read for Spiritual and Physical pleasure?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have been in a dilema thought of reading &lt;strong&gt;Kamasutra&lt;/strong&gt; but then a thought comes it is sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We all know gathering knowlede is good however it should not be put to wrong use.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastEditorUserId="7753" LastEditDate="2016-11-15T10:23:22.237" LastActivityDate="2016-11-15T10:23:22.237" Title="Which are the books to be read for Spiritual and Physical pleasure?" Tags="|scripture|book-recommendation|kama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="17" ClosedDate="2016-11-12T13:16:27.030" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15851" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15848" CreationDate="2016-11-12T12:51:16.617" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;When the boy comes of age for Marriage,after the &lt;strong&gt;Vratham, Kankana Dharanam and Nandi&lt;/strong&gt;, the Boy goes to &lt;a href=&quot;https://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2013/06/08/hindu-wedding-rituals-vratham-kankana-nandi-kasi-yatra-detail/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kasi&lt;/a&gt;(Benares, Varanasi ,the Holy City of The Hindus, to meditate on the Brahman, The Reality.(Symbolically)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bride’s father intervenes and requests the Bridegroom not to undertake the trip,become a Grihastha as Grihathaasrama is the fundamental Stage of Dharma or the Path of Righteousness, and offers his daughter in Marriage , promising that she will be his soul mate in performing the Vediac rituals that would guarantee spiritual enlightenment.&#xA;As there are few places(Manu smriti and Mahabaratha) where it is said you can attain the divine&#xA;by becoming a Grihastha no need to leave everyone and do penance. &#xA;Staying in Grihathaasrama you can follow the Dharma and please God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope this would help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tNy4A.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tNy4A.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edited: Translation of the content in attached image to English.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before the time of Adishankaracharya and after him many people have left Samsara or Grihathaasrama in search of true Knowledge realizing that the Samsara is fundamental cause of Miseries. Sanyasa is not the mainstream part of Indian Culture. For developement of Vedic Character/Culture(my interpretation of word Charitra in this context)in Indian community Ramayana and Mahabharta played vital role. In these epics no character is Sanyasi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharishi Veda Vyasa in Mahabharata told his son Shukadeva 'Grihasthatvesha dharmanaam sarvesham mulamucyate', i.e. &quot;This Grihastasharmaa is the root(most important/prominent again no better interpretation of word Mula) of all Dharama&quot; MB ShantiParva 234.6. Manusmriti(6.89) says 'Grihastha Uchyate Shreshtaha&quot;, Grihasthashrama is best amongst all ashrama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastEditorUserId="7753" LastEditDate="2016-11-15T08:03:26.960" LastActivityDate="2016-11-15T08:03:26.960" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15852" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8282" CreationDate="2016-11-12T13:36:23.110" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;there are 112 forms of ganapati...each with different attribute....shakti ganapati is one of the 32 forms of ganesha....here shakti is shakti of ganesha which is maya shakti ( hreem) represented as beejakshara in shakti ganesha mantra....she is not parvathi....in laksmi ganapati form the lakshmi is not mahalakshmi.., instead she is siddha laksmi( another name vallabha ), siddha lakshmi is mayashakti of mahaganapati( vallabha ganapati)....the term shakti refers to any goddess according to mantra shastra...shakti can be lakshmi, or bhuvaneswari or saraswathi or any goddess....in temples idols are installed with elaborative rituals based on agama sastras...even small mistake will not occur...there are hundreds of books there which speak volumes about these rituals and upasana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8162" LastActivityDate="2016-11-12T13:36:23.110" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15853" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6682" CreationDate="2016-11-12T20:36:27.607" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra is just an office, not a personal name. During any age, any individual with enough merit can aspire to attain the office of Indra. The office of Indra is eternal so long as the universe exist. Indra is not God, though, although there are instances where God Himself will assume the office of Indra or Brahma, both of whom are generally created beings with high merit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to answer your question, we don't know who those Indras are. Since Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are generally considered to be supreme and powerful deities, with the middle one (Vishnu) considered to be God Himself, it would make sense that Shiva's lifespan and power would outlast the lifespan of the office of Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For whatever reason, Shiva likely played dice for a long enough time until he accumulated enough Indras to make the Mahabharata happen. The names you list above are likely just personal names of those Indras. It's similar to how the office of PoTUS is never fulfilled by the same individual but always someone who aspires to that office.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-12T20:36:27.607" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15854" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3664" CreationDate="2016-11-12T20:48:10.287" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;He was a Prajapati, or a descendant of Brahma. In general, all the progenitors of mankind (the Prajapatis), the Manus (i.e. the patriarchs; in Jainism they say &quot;Kulakara&quot;), the rishis (Kashyapa et al.), and Brahma himself are all held to be in some sense a portion of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-12T20:48:10.287" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15855" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14706" CreationDate="2016-11-12T22:48:00.340" Score="8" Body="&lt;h3&gt;What are some verses from Rāmāyaṇa that one can refer to enrich life in general?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some verses and short stories from Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;'An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.' You can infer the same from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga33/bala_33_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the story of Kuśanābha and his 100 daughters&lt;/a&gt;. Kuśanābha praises his daughters for showing restraint and not cursing Vāyu back:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्षमा दानम् क्षमा सत्यम् क्षमा यज्ञः च पुत्रिकाः || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  क्षमा यशः क्षमा धर्मः क्षमायाम् विष्ठितम् जगत् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Grace is altruism, grace is ritualism, oh, my daughters, grace is glory, grace is virtue, and this universe is verily abiding in graciousness alone for grace itself is the truth, isn't it!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From the same story, on respecting parents and on arranged marriages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पिता हि प्रभुर् अस्माकम् दैवतम् परमम् च सः | यस्य नो दास्यति पिता स नो भर्ता भविष्यति || १-३२-२२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Our father is indeed our lord and for us he is the ultimate god too. To whomever we are offered by our father in marriage he alone becomes our husband.' So said the hundred girls to Air-god [Vāyu].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But it's ok to correct ones' elders when they are wrong. Rāma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga24/ayodhyasans24.htm#Verse12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;corrects&lt;/a&gt; his mother Kauśalya when she wants to leave Ayodhyā and accompany him to the forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भर्तुः किल परित्यागो नृशंसः केवलम् स्त्रियाः |&#xA;  स भवत्या न कर्तव्यो मनसा अपि विगर्हितः || २-२४-१२ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यावज् जीवति काकुत्स्थः पिता मे जगती पतिः |&#xA;  शुश्रूषा क्रियताम् तावत् स हि धर्मः सनातनः || २-२४-१३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To a woman, abandonment of husband is entirely a cruel act. That bad act is not to be perceived even by mind. Till Dasaratha, my father and the great king is alive, you should serve him well. It is eternal justice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It's alright to lie sometimes to fulfill a bigger, &lt;em&gt;dhārmic&lt;/em&gt; objective. Rāma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga40/ayodhyasans40.htm#Verse46&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells&lt;/a&gt; Daśaratha's minister Sumantra to lie should the king question him later why he'd ignored his order to stop the chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dasaratha exclaimed saying &quot;Stop!&quot; while Rama called out &quot;Go on, proceed!&quot; (in that way) Sumantra's mind became confused, as in between two (opposing) whirl pools.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama said to him: &quot;You can say to the king that you did not hear (his call), even when scolded (later). Seeing their grief for a long time is quite unbearable.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lakṣmaṇa suspecting Bharata and his army marching aggressively towards them to kill, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga96/ayodhyasans96.htm#Verse23&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O, Rama! I see no sin in slaying Bharata. None is charged with unlawfulness, if one strikes down an aggressor. Bharata is the assailant and his death is legitimate. He being dead, you will rule the entire earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga97/ayodhyasans97.htm#Verse5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;responds&lt;/a&gt; with:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्ममर्थं च कामं च पृथिवीं चापि लक्षण | इच्छामि भवतामर्थे एतत् प्रतिशृणोमि ते || २-९७-५ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भ्रातृइणां संग्रहार्थं च सुखार्थं चापि लक्ष्मण | राज्यमप्यहमिच्छामि सत्येनायुधमालभे || २-९७-६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O, Lakshmana! It is for your sake I desire virtue, legitimately acquired wealth and pleasure or even the earth itself. I promise this to you. I desire the throne only for the protection and happiness of my brothers. I touch my weapon and swear this fact. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When there's dissent among everyone whether to offer refuge to Vibhīṣaṇa or not, Rāma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga18/yuddhasans18.htm#Verse24&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;narrates&lt;/a&gt; a story of how a bird offers itself as food to a hungry fowler by jumping into fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is narrated how by a dove, its enemy (a fowler) when it came for a refuge, was received according to rules of hospitality and was invited for a feast with its own flesh. O, the excellent of monkeys! The aforesaid dove indeed accepted as a guest, the fowler as he came, although he killed its wife. How much more a man like me has to do? Hear the verses inculcating virtue so long ago, by Kandu, the son of a sage called Kanva, a great sage and a speaker of truth. O, Sugreeva, even an enemy, who formed a cup with his hollowed hands, a miserable person, a person who is begging and who is seeking a refuge should not be killed with the aim of not being cruel. An enemy who comes for protection against others, even if the aforesaid enemy is oppressed or arrogant, is to be protected by one who has a disciplined mind, even by abandoning one's life. If he does not protect rightly through his strength, by fear or by ignorance or by desire, it is a sin to be reproached by the world. If having not been protected, a refugee dies before the eyes of a man who is able to protect him, the former takes along all his moral merit and goes. In not protecting thus the persons who take refuge, there is a great blemish involved in it. It does not bestow heaven. It destroys reputation. It devastates strength and valor. I will follow the excellent words of Kandu. It becomes a very righteous thing, gives reputation, leads to heaven and the rewards appear consequently. He who seeks refuge in me just once, telling me that 'I am yours', I shall give him assurance of safety against all types of beings. This is my solemn pledge. O, Sugreeva, the chief of monkeys! Let him either be Vibhishana or even Ravana himself; I have given an assurance of safety to him. Bring him here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When Rāma finds Lakṣmaṇa lay unconscious in the battlefield, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga101/yuddhasans101.htm#Verse15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देशे देशे कलत्राणि देशे देशे च बान्धवाः | तं तु देशं न पश्यामि यत्र भ्राता सहोदरः || ६-१०१-१५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wives may be obtained everywhere. Relatives can be had everywhere. However, I do not find a brother, born of the same womb, at such a place whatsoever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the war, when Hanumān visits Sītā to relay the news of Rāma's victory, she &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga113/yuddhasans113.htm#Verse43&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells&lt;/a&gt; him to spare the lives of Rākṣasi's who'd troubled her earlier, by citing the story of a tiger chasing a hunter and how a bear offers him shelter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Hanuma! There is an old maxim possessed of merit, actually uttered by a bear in the presence of a tiger. Hear it from me. 'A superior person does not take into account the sin of those who have committed an offence (against him). The vow of not returning evil for evil must be carried out at all costs; (for) the virtuous persons account good conduct as an ornament.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Formerly a tiger ran in pursuit of a hunter. The latter climbed up a tree. There was bear already preached on a bough of the tree. Making to the foot of the tree, the tiger addressed the following words to the bear: &quot;Look here, both of us are denizens of the forest. The hunter is our common enemy. Therefore, knock him down from the tree.&quot; The bear, however, replied: &quot;Having reached my abode, the hunter has in a way sought asylum with me. I am therefore not going to hurl him down; I would be deviating from my duty if I do so.&quot; Saying so, the bear laid himself down to sleep. The tiger now turned to the hunter and said, &quot;Push the bear down. I shall afford protection to you.&quot; The hunter thereupon pushed the sleeping bear. The bear, however, clutched at another bough and thus escaped from falling down. The tiger now addressed the following appeal to the bear: &quot;The hunter sought to hurl you down and has thus wronged you. Therefore push him down.&quot; Though pressed by the tiger again and again, the bear refused to hurl him down and repeated the above quoted verse in support of his attitude.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;PS. This answer is a work in progress.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-11-12T22:48:00.340" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15856" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8191" CreationDate="2016-11-12T23:09:38.337" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two other stories from Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa that illustrate forgiveness. One is narrated by Rāma to Sugrīva and the other by Sītā to Hanumān.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When there's dissent among everyone whether to offer refuge to Vibhīṣaṇa or not, Rāma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga18/yuddhasans18.htm#Verse24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;narrates&lt;/a&gt; a story of how a bird offers itself as food to a hungry fowler by jumping into fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is narrated how by a dove, its enemy (a fowler) when it came for a refuge, was received according to rules of hospitality and was invited for a feast with its own flesh. O, the excellent of monkeys! The aforesaid dove indeed accepted as a guest, the fowler as he came, although he killed its wife. How much more a man like me has to do? Hear the verses inculcating virtue so long ago, by Kandu, the son of a sage called Kanva, a great sage and a speaker of truth. O, Sugreeva, even an enemy, who formed a cup with his hollowed hands, a miserable person, a person who is begging and who is seeking a refuge should not be killed with the aim of not being cruel. &lt;strong&gt;An enemy who comes for protection against others, even if the aforesaid enemy is oppressed or arrogant, is to be protected by one who has a disciplined mind, even by abandoning one's life.&lt;/strong&gt; If he does not protect rightly through his strength, by fear or by ignorance or by desire, it is a sin to be reproached by the world. If having not been protected, a refugee dies before the eyes of a man who is able to protect him, the former takes along all his moral merit and goes. In not protecting thus the persons who take refuge, there is a great blemish involved in it. It does not bestow heaven. It destroys reputation. It devastates strength and valor. I will follow the excellent words of Kandu. It becomes a very righteous thing, gives reputation, leads to heaven and the rewards appear consequently. He who seeks refuge in me just once, telling me that 'I am yours', I shall give him assurance of safety against all types of beings. This is my solemn pledge. O, Sugreeva, the chief of monkeys! Let him either be Vibhishana or even Ravana himself; I have given an assurance of safety to him. Bring him here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the war, when Hanumān visits Sītā to relay the news of Rāma's victory, she &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga113/yuddhasans113.htm#Verse43&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells&lt;/a&gt; him to spare the lives of Rākṣasi's who'd troubled her earlier, by citing the story of a tiger chasing a hunter and how a bear offers him shelter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Hanuma! There is an old maxim possessed of merit, actually uttered by a bear in the presence of a tiger. Hear it from me. 'A superior person does not take into account the sin of those who have committed an offence (against him). The vow of not returning evil for evil must be carried out at all costs; (for) the virtuous persons account good conduct as an ornament.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Formerly a tiger ran in pursuit of a hunter. The latter climbed up a tree. There was bear already preached on a bough of the tree. Making to the foot of the tree, the tiger addressed the following words to the bear: &quot;Look here, both of us are denizens of the forest. The hunter is our common enemy. Therefore, knock him down from the tree.&quot; The bear, however, replied: &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Having reached my abode, the hunter has in a way sought asylum with me. I am therefore not going to hurl him down; I would be deviating from my duty if I do so.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; Saying so, the bear laid himself down to sleep. The tiger now turned to the hunter and said, &quot;Push the bear down. I shall afford protection to you.&quot; The hunter thereupon pushed the sleeping bear. The bear, however, clutched at another bough and thus escaped from falling down. The tiger now addressed the following appeal to the bear: &quot;The hunter sought to hurl you down and has thus wronged you. Therefore push him down.&quot; Though pressed by the tiger again and again, the bear refused to hurl him down and repeated the above quoted verse in support of his attitude.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-11-12T23:09:38.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15857" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15702" CreationDate="2016-11-12T23:26:11.720" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Rāma, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga18/yuddhasans18.htm#Verse29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;in the words of Vālmīki&lt;/a&gt;, if a person is capable of helping a person in danger and yet does not do his or her part will lose all the accumulated puṇya to the helpless person and will also amass enormous amount of pāpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स चेद् भयाद् वा मोहाद् वा कामाद् वा अपि न रक्षति || ६-१८-२९ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्वया शक्त्या यथा तत्त्वम् तत् पापम् लोक गर्हितम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he does not protect rightly through his strength, by fear or by ignorance or by desire, it is a sin to be reproached by the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नष्टः पश्यतस् तस्य रक्षिणः शरण आगतः || ६-१८-३० &lt;br&gt;&#xA;आदाय सुकृतम् तस्य सर्वम् गच्चेद् अरक्षितः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If having not been protected, a refugee dies before the eyes of a man who is able to protect him, the former takes along all his moral merit and goes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एवम् दोषो महान् अत्र प्रपन्नानाम् अरक्षणे ||६-१८-३१ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;अस्वर्ग्यम् च अयशस्यम् च बल वीर्य विनाशनम्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In not protecting thus, the persons who take refuge, there is a great blemish involved in it. It does not bestow heaven. It destroys reputation. It devastates strength and valor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On this topic, this is what Vidura &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; during Draupadī's disrobing episode:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ye kings, Vikarna hath answered the question, according to his own knowledge and judgment. Ye should also answer it as ye think proper. Knowing the rules of morality, and having attended an assembly, he that doth not answer a query that is put, &lt;strong&gt;incurreth half the demerit that attacheth to a lie&lt;/strong&gt;. He, on the other hand, who, knowing the rules of morality and having joined an assembly answereth falsely, assuredly incurreth the sin of a lie.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vidura then goes on to cite a conversation between Prahlāda and Kaśyapa according to which, one 1/2 of the pāpa of the actual act goes to the account of the head of the assembly, 1/4&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; into the perpetrator's and the remaining 1/4&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; into that of the rest who are a silent witness to the whole thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kasyapa thus asked answered.--'He that knoweth, but answereth not a question from temptation, anger or fear, casteth upon himself a thousand nooses of Varuna. And the person who, cited as a witness with respect to any matter of ocular or auricular knowledge, speaketh carelessly, casteth a thousand nooses of Varuna upon his own person. On the completion of one full year, one such noose is loosened. Therefore, he that knoweth, should speak the truth without concealment. If virtue, pierced by sin, repaireth to an assembly (for aid), it is the duty of every body in the assembly to take off the dart, otherwise they themselves would be pierced with it. &lt;strong&gt;In an assembly where a truly censurable act is not rebuked&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;half the demerit of that act attacheth to the head of that assembly&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;a fourth to the person acting censurably&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;a fourth unto those others that are there&lt;/strong&gt;. In that assembly, on the other hand, when he that deserveth censure is rebuked, the head of the assembly becometh freed from all sins, and the other members also incur none. It is only the perpetrator himself of the act that becometh responsible for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT 2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200906.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manusmṛti 8.13&lt;/a&gt; also supports the idea that an influential person who chooses to remain silent amidst injustice accumulates sin. Medhātithi, however, adds that a weak person whose opinion is of not much value and fears retaliation by his superiors can simply walk away from the scene or remain silent (without incurring any sin).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should either not enter the Court at all, or he should speak out what is equitable; one who either speaks nothing, or speaks falsely, becomes tainted with sin. — (8.13)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Medhātithi's commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Speaks nothing'; – i.e., &lt;strong&gt;he who remains silent when another person is committing an injustice&lt;/strong&gt;, ... – '&lt;strong&gt;becomes tainted with sin&lt;/strong&gt;' – i.e., comes to partake of the sin. Hence the man should not entertain the hope that – 'it is another judge who is judging wrongly, and he may incur sin, I am only sitting silent and indifferent, why should I be affected by the sin?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This has been taken to imply that when even an unauthorized person happens to be present, if he finds that the judges are acting wrongly, he should not remain silent. To this end who have the assertion – 'Authorized or unauthorized, the man who knows what is just should always speak out' (Nārada 2.2). &lt;strong&gt;If he fears molestation at the hands of the king's officers&lt;/strong&gt; as to why he should speak, when he is not authorized to do so, – then &lt;strong&gt;he should go away from that place&lt;/strong&gt;. In support of this we have the following assertion – 'When a wrong is being inflicted upon a weak person, if one does not save him from it, he incurs sin, only if he has the power to save him' (Gautama, 21.19). – (13)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-09-19T01:12:32.660" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15858" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15839" CreationDate="2016-11-13T05:24:38.463" Score="5" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Why do some spiritual people appear cynical? Why don't they meet people and socialize? Why don't they act &quot;normal?&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One possible reason is, they are trying to curtail their senses by avoiding contact with other people. By trying to socialize and help others achieve their spiritual goals there is a chance they themselves are dragged back into the materialistic world and easily lose all the spiritual progress they made so far with a single misstep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.&#xA;  Even advanced aspirants who have made great progress in Yoga should be very careful. They should not mix freely with ladies. They should not foolishly imagine that they have become great adepts in Yoga. &lt;strong&gt;A great saint of repute had a downfall.&lt;/strong&gt; He freely mixed with ladies made lady disciples and allowed them to shampoo his legs. As the sex-energy was not completely sublimated and turned into Ojas, as lust was lurking in a subtle form in his mind, he became a victim. He lost his reputation. The sexual desire was only suppressed in him and when a suitable opportunity came, it again assumed grave form. &lt;strong&gt;He had no strength or will-power to resist the temptation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.&#xA;  Another great soul who was regarded by his disciples as an Avatara became a Yoga-bhrashta. He also freely mixed with ladies and committed serious crimes. He became a prey to lust. What a sad misfortune! &lt;strong&gt;Aspirants climb with great difficulty by the ladder of Yoga and they are irrecoverably lost for ever on account of their carelessness and spiritual pride.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/easysteps.htm#_VPID_21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Easy Steps to Yoga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; by Swami Sivananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-11-13T05:24:38.463" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15859" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15837" CreationDate="2016-11-13T05:26:34.513" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are actually two schools or groups which make the Hindu Panchangams or almanacs .They are called the Panchangam Kartaa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One among them use the old school method depending on the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya_Siddhanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Surya Siddhanta&lt;/a&gt;(or Vakya Siddhanta) and another one depends on the Drik Ganita ,which uses modern methods to calculate the positions of the stars.Their calculations match with those of say the &lt;a href=&quot;http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nasa Ephemeris&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Panchangam or calender,called the &quot;Rashtriya Panchanga&quot;, which is published by the Indian Government also supports the Drik Ganita method and not that based on the Surya Siddhanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The difference that you see between the two calendars is due to the fact that both uses different algorithms to calculate the star positions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Needless to say,the Surya Siddhanta method gives erroneous results where as the Drik Ganita method gives precise and correct results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One group of Panchangam makers uses old methods which were quite handy&#xA;  to give correct positions of stars without doing lengthy calculations.&#xA;  Old calculations were written in form of statements or Vakya for easy&#xA;  memorization and understanding. Those shortcuts used to get updated&#xA;  time to time to remove any inaccuracies which creeps in such methods&#xA;  with time. The calculated positions of stars by Vakyam and Surya&#xA;  Siddhantic methods were exact enough to match with observatory&#xA;  positions of the stars without much effort.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;These old methods have not been updated since centuries and star&#xA;  positions calculated by these methods are erroneous.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;The difference&#xA;  between calculated and observatory positions might vary up to 12&#xA;  hours. Hence the positions of star calculated by old algorithms like&#xA;  Vakya Siddhanta or Surya Siddhanta are not precise.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Followers of these&#xA;  old schools are well aware of these discrepancies but still use&#xA;  erroneous methods.&lt;/strong&gt; However they don't mind stealing eclipse&#xA;  information from Drik Panchangam or Thiru-Ganita Panchangam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/tamil/info/thiruganita-versus-vakyam-panchangam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many Tamil and Bengali Panchangams still use the Surya Siddhanta.whereas both the Raman Ephemeris and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Drikpanchang&lt;/a&gt;  use the Drika Ganita.Its better to rely on them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I personally always use the Drikpanchang.com website.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-13T09:38:19.443" LastActivityDate="2016-11-13T09:38:19.443" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15860" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15839" CreationDate="2016-11-13T06:23:55.657" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because, &lt;strong&gt;spirituality &amp;amp; cynicism are Not related&lt;/strong&gt;. Like how every sane human is not enlightened, similarly every enlightened human &lt;em&gt;needs&lt;/em&gt; not be sane. Additionally, there is also no relation between sinful behavior and enlightenment/liberation. Numerous verses in Gita suggests the same. But for your answer, following are of interest (Gambhirananda's translations):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 3.5 - Because, no one ever remains even for a moment without doing work. For all are made to work under compulsion by the gunas born of Nature.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 3.33 - &lt;strong&gt;Even a man of wisdom behaves according to [his] own nature&lt;/strong&gt;. Being follow [their] nature. What can restraint do?&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should avoid judging others by their mere behavior. That's the root of gossips, a major deviation. Rather it's always desirable to have a charitable view for everyone.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;That helps one focus better towards almighty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't defend those people who act in cynical or weird manner. Rather my point is not to relate those 2.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;In any case rudeness, stubbornness, prideful-ness can't be signs of enlightened people. Because such qualities are binding qualities. Weirdness is just a trait.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14457/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Pancadasi, Vidyaranya Swami says (VI. 287-288):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Enlightened men may differ in their behavior because of the nature of their fructifying Karma. This should not make the learned think otherwise ... Let the enlightened people behave in any way according to their fructifying Karma, but their knowledge is the same ... There is no uniform rule about how a knower will behave. A well-known verse says: 'Krishna lived a life of enjoyment, Suka renounced even before Vedic initiation, vast empires were ruled by Rama and Janaka ...&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-13T09:23:26.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15861" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15813" CreationDate="2016-11-13T06:48:45.817" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, becoming a brāhmaṇa is the best thing and everyone should strive for it. After all, brāhmaṇa-like qualities are not easy to master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Yudhiṣṭhira &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03179.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;declares&lt;/a&gt; in Nahuṣa-praśna from Vana-parva of Mahābhārata there are 7 qualities that are the hallmarks of a true brāhmaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The serpent said, 'O Yudhishthira, say -- Who is a Brahmana and what should be known? By thy speech I infer thee to be highly intelligent.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Yudhishthira said, 'O foremost of serpents, he, it is asserted by the wise, in whom are seen &lt;strong&gt;truth&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;charity&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;forgiveness&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;good conduct&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;benevolence&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;observance of the rites of his order&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;mercy&lt;/strong&gt; is a Brahmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhiṣṭhira further explains how a brāhmaṇa by birth who lacks those 7 virtues is no superior than a śūdra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The serpent said, 'O Yudhishthira, truth, charity, forgiveness, benevolence, benignity, kindness and the Veda which worketh the benefit of the four orders, which is the authority in matters of religion and which is true, are seen even in the Sudra. As regards the object to be known and which thou allegest is without both happiness and misery, I do not see any such that is devoid of these.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira said, Those characteristics that are present in a Sudra, do not exist in a Brahmana; nor do those that are in a Brahmana exist in a Sudra. &lt;strong&gt;And a Sudra is not a Sudra by birth alone -- nor a Brahmana is Brahmana by birth alone.&lt;/strong&gt; He, it is said by the wise, in whom are seen those virtues is a Brahmana. And people term him a Sudra in whom those qualities do not exist, even though he be a Brahmana by birth. And again, as for thy assertion that the object to be known (as asserted by me) doth not exist, because nothing exists that is devoid of both (happiness and misery), such indeed is the opinion, O serpent, that nothing exists that is without (them) both. But as in cold, heat doth not exist, nor in heat, cold, so there cannot exist an object in which both (happiness and misery) cannot exist?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-11-13T06:48:45.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15862" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14415" CreationDate="2016-11-13T08:44:58.673" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The very essence of existence is love, and there is no love if there is only one being. Love is something that you exchange with others. So in order to dispense and to receive love, Lord separated from himself his shakti, his eternal closest devotees and the jivas, in a inconceivable for the human way.&#xA;They serve him and love him according to their spiritual elevation.&#xA;Shakti serves in the best possible way to the Lord, trying to create comfort for him with everything she has.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8165" LastActivityDate="2016-11-13T08:44:58.673" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15863" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-13T12:28:47.373" Score="2" ViewCount="624" Body="&lt;p&gt;I regularly attend a religious &lt;em&gt;sabha&lt;/em&gt; in which men sit on the right and women on the left (sometimes its men in-front and women at the back). Why are we suggested to sit seperate?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it because we have to act as brahmacharis and carefully avoid women as much as possible as said by a fellow user Rickross in this post &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15773/why-do-sannyasis-avoid-looking-at-women&quot;&gt;Why do Sannyasis avoid looking at women?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-11-13T12:28:47.373" Title="Why are women and men asked to sit separate in religious gatherings?" Tags="|women|indriyas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-01-06T13:30:45.057" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15864" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15839" CreationDate="2016-11-13T12:56:42.040" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is provided in Shreemad Bhagvat purana by Lord Shree Krishna.&#xA;He explains about &quot;Vanaprastha&quot; (वानप्रस्थ) and &quot;Sanyasi Dharma.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In  these shlokas Lord Shree Krishna explains How a spiritual oriented person and Sadhus and Sanyasi's should behave who are  his pure devotee's.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रसंग्ड:मजरं पाशमात्मणन: कवयो विदु:|&lt;br&gt; स एव साधुषु कृतो&#xA;  मोक्षद्वारमपावृतम||२०||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prasaṅgam ajaraṁ pāśam ātmanaḥ kavayo viduḥ sa eva sādhuṣu kṛto&#xA;  mokṣa-dvāram apāvṛtam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Every learned man knows very well that attachment for the material is the greatest entanglement of the spirit soul. &lt;strong&gt;But&#xA;  that same attachment, when applied to the self-realized devotees,&#xA;  opens the door of liberation.&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/25/20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB3.25.20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Here in this shloka it's told that the &lt;strong&gt;selfishness or Asakti&lt;/strong&gt; which is unimpaired bondage of general people, the same Selfishness when  develops to Mahapurusha or Realised souls , it is indication of opened door to moksha for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;बुधो बालकवत क्रिडेत कुशलो जड़चचरेत्।29।। &lt;br/&gt; वदेदुम्नत्तवद विद्वान् गोचर्या नैगमश्चरेत।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Budho Balakvat kridet kushlo jadchhret  Vadedumnattavad vidwaan&#xA;  gocharya naigamashret.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Even wise he should act like a child , even clever he should live like fool  , &lt;strong&gt;even knower of vedas he should live like&#xA;  animal.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ज्ञाननिष्ठो विरक्तो वा मद्भक्तो वानपेक्षक:।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;सलिङ्गनाश्रमांस्तयक्वता चरेविधिगोचर:।।28।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;GynaaNistho virakto va madbhakto vaanpekashkaha &#xA;  Salindgnashrmamstayakvata charevidhigochara   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - A learned transcendentalist dedicated to the cultivation of knowledge and thus detached from external objects, or My devotee&#xA;  who is detached even from desire for liberation — both neglect those&#xA;  duties based on external rituals or paraphernalia. &lt;strong&gt;Thus their&#xA;  conduct is beyond the&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;range of rules and regulations.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/18/29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Skanda 11, Chapter 18  Shloka 28-29&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here shree krishna is telling us that a sadhu or spiritual person should not believe in this world , nor should he assume it's true.He should not engage his mind in any material thing , and even do not wish to do anything in any loka. And so i think that's  why some sadhus or Sanyasi's deliberately act like a Cynical , realising all this is maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-01-08T11:36:21.643" LastActivityDate="2017-01-08T11:36:21.643" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15865" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-13T14:06:43.050" Score="6" ViewCount="1142" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do Hindu scriptures say about breaking out of Pitru Dosha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the practical ways to get rid of Pitru Dosha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can chanting Gayatri Mantra 108 times per day or Vippassana meditation remove the dosha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-17T05:28:54.137" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T05:28:54.137" Title="How to get rid of Pitru Dosha?" Tags="|belief|rituals|pitru|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15866" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-13T16:26:32.000" Score="5" ViewCount="160" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Purva Mimamsa school was agnostic on whether there was an actual world called Swarga which souls can go to when they die.  But they did believe that when the Vedas say that performing a certain Yagna leads to Swarga, that's a promise of happiness for the soul in the afterlife, whether that happiness involves going to an actual world or not.  But in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Bnvz&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Shabara's commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa school, Shabara discusses the question of whether Yagnas that promise a result other than Swarga, like obtaining a son or acquiring cattle, also bear fruit in the afterlife, or whether they can bear fruit in this life itself.   A hypothetical opponent argues that all Yagnas only bear fruit in the afterlife, not in this life:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[W]hen we are told that a certain sacrifice brings cattle to the performer, it should be understood to mean that as a result of the performance of that sacrifice, the performer obtains (in his next life) such a special kind of Body and Sense-organs and the rest as enables him to acquire cattle.  That this is so is clearly indicated in the following passage - &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Kaikaya, being desirous of performing a sacrifice, said to Dalbhya: - 'Please help me perform this sacrifice, which is calculated to bring me a kingdom.':- Dalbhya replied:- 'Do not, my boy, think that the sacrifice brings kingdom in this life.  In fact, sacrifices are performed for results to come in one's next life.'&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; Here it is clearly shown that the results of sacrifices appear in another life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shabara responds to this by arguing that Dalbhya is merely telling Kaikeya that the specific Yagna he'll perform for Kaikeya will yield results in the afterlife rather than in this life, not that it's impossible to perform a Yagna that will yield results in this life.  For the record, Shabara's interpretation of the passage seems a bit tenuous to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, where is the scriptural passage about Kaikaya and Dalbhya from?  Based on the subject matter I assume it's from one of the Brahmanas of the Vedas, although it could be from the Aranyakas or Upanishads.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Google searching the names Kaikaya and Dabhya doesn't seem to turn up anything other than references to Shabara's commentary, so perhaps this is from a lost Shakha of the Vedas.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information on Vedic Shakhas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-04T01:56:29.610" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T01:56:29.610" Title="Where do the Vedas discuss Yagnas only bearing fruit in the afterlife?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|yajna|purva-mimamsa|afterlife|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15868" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15768" CreationDate="2016-11-13T19:28:07.423" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a recent &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/jxXdE65Wzf4?t=4180&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;interview&lt;/a&gt; to a Telugu news channel, Chinna Jeeyar Swami clarifies why he carries those sticks and the white cloth. Although he's a tridaṇḍi, he carries 4 sticks. Each stick represents a tattva (principle):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;prakṛti - nature, material world, is a reality&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;jīva - the life in each living being is a reality&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;brahma - the invisible force running both prakṛti and jīva is also a reality&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ācārya - everything in the universe is a combination of the above three and one who can reveal this knowledge is an ācārya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The white cloth is called a jala-pavitram used to filter and purify water before drinking. They also have a restriction to drink only water that flows so they don't take bottled water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He doesn't explain why the sticks are sometimes covered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-11-13T19:28:07.423" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15869" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-13T22:00:00.667" Score="2" ViewCount="169" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/The-Supreme-Yoga-Swami-Venkatesananda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yoga Vashishtha&lt;/a&gt; is a text in which Maharishi Vashishtha gives knowledge to Shri Rama. It is in the form of conversation between the two of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is the relationship between cause and effect explained in this text?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those interested, the aforementioned relation is also discussed in these questions: in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12064/what-is-the-relationship-between-cause-and-effect-as-enunciated-by-maharishi-kan&quot;&gt;Vaisheshika Sutras&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12245/what-is-the-relationship-between-cause-and-effect-according-to-nyaya-sutras&quot;&gt;Nyaya Sutras&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12109/what-is-the-advaita-argument-for-why-causes-cant-have-real-existence&quot;&gt;Advaita&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2018-02-01T13:05:12.603" Title="What is the relationship between cause and effect as enunciated in the Yoga Vasistha?" Tags="|rama|vashishta|yoga-vashishtha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15870" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15869" CreationDate="2016-11-13T22:00:00.667" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shri Rama goes on a pilgrimage and when he returns, there is a profound change in him. He keeps to his own company. His father, king Dasharatha asks him about it but Rama replies that nothing is wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dasharatha then turns to sage Vashishtha to figure out what is going on. Maharishi Valmiki narrates the conversation thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Inevitably Dasharatha turned to sage Vashishtha for the answers. The&#xA;  sage enigmatically answered: &quot;Surely, there is some reason why Rama&#xA;  behaves in this manner. &lt;strong&gt;Even as in this world no great changes take&#xA;  place before the coming into being of their cause, viz., the cosmic&#xA;  elements; changes like anger, despondency and joy do not manifest in&#xA;  the behaviour of noble ones without proper cause.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; Dasharatha did not&#xA;  wish to probe further..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/The-Supreme-Yoga-Swami-Venkatesananda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://estudantedavedanta.net/The-Supreme-Yoga-Swami-Venkatesananda.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-11-13T22:00:00.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15871" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="450" CreationDate="2016-11-14T05:17:58.047" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;in progressive kriya meditation there comes a stage when the heart chakra lays itself bare, reverbrating in all its fullness of energy of divine love. the highly spiritualized awareness of the advanced practitioner/hanuman at this stage, experiences his own devotion for God/Ram fully radiant with the light of wisdom/sita and understanding, here in the heart center. thus the symbology of Hanuman (advanced practitioner) ripping open his own heart is an actual living experience of an advanced spiritual state of consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference link:-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogananda-srf.org/kriya_yoga_path_of_meditation.aspx#.WCl7RMmOzqk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.yogananda-srf.org/kriya_yoga_path_of_meditation.aspx#.WCl7RMmOzqk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8164" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-14T08:53:54.367" LastActivityDate="2016-11-14T08:53:54.367" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15872" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15873" CreationDate="2016-11-14T06:23:17.987" Score="9" ViewCount="1448" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any thing said in our(Hindu) scriptures (vedas or upanishads or any other puranas etc.,) which says about results (Or pala) of doing  pooja/Yajna (etc.) with out keeping mind on them (I mean thinking of other things while pooja etc.,) vs the results(or Pala) obtained  keeping mind while doing pooja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also I have seen some answers which says doing Manasika Pooja (i.e without using any physical things to do pooja and just doing that in mind) will give similar results to the equivalent pooja, and I am NOT asking whether Manasika poja has any result difference with its counter part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7287" LastActivityDate="2022-08-19T17:26:34.813" Title="Results of doing pooja with vs without mana (interest/Mind)" Tags="|puja|mind|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15873" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15872" CreationDate="2016-11-14T07:51:19.793" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In general,the Scriptures say that  Puja/worship/Japa &lt;strong&gt;done without mindfulness are  not at all fruitful.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,the Kularnava Tantra says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Success in japa lies in his hands who is decked with fragrant flowers,&#xA;  ornaments and clothes. Devoted to the Mantra, with life dedicated to&#xA;  it, &lt;strong&gt;with mind centred upon it&lt;/strong&gt;, wholly given to it, following its&#xA;  meaning and meditating upon it, do Japa of the Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It further says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhakta: Because by his adoration, bhajanat, &lt;strong&gt;with supreme devotion,&#xA;  with his mind&lt;/strong&gt;, speech, body and action, kayakarmabhih, he crosses,&#xA;  tarati, all miseries, he is called bhakta..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So.a Bhakta or a true worshiper should have his mind fixed on the Deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact,in a ritualistic Puja the first Upachara(step) is called the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://premaarpan.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/shodasha-upachara-puja-worship-of-lord-ritualistically/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Dhyanam&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; or &quot;meditating upon the Deity&quot;.This only indicates that,in a Puja, &lt;strong&gt;the first requirement is  to fix one's mind on the Deity who is worshiped.One's mind should  focus only on the Deity and nothing else during the whole course of the Puja&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the mind is unsteady,thinking of something else,little benefits does one accrue by performing rituals or by resorting to external modes of worship.This is reflected in the following verse from the Garuda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;yŸvan-no manasaÅ sthairyaÄ na yŸvac-chŸstra cintanam | yŸvan-na guru&#xA;  kŸru®yaÄ tŸvat tattva kathŸ kutaÅ&lt;/em&gt; || 2.49.97 || &lt;strong&gt;As long as the mind is&#xA;  unsteady,&lt;/strong&gt; as long as one does not meditate upon the import of the&#xA;  Scripture, as long as one is devoid of the blessing of the Guru, &lt;strong&gt;there&#xA;  is little interest in talk of Ultimate Reality&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Whxvr.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Whxvr.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kularnava Tantra further states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Should you be absent-minded, call one Deity and worship another, you&#xA;  shall receive the curses of both. Each Deity is to be received with&#xA;  the honour that belongs&quot; to it, with the Mantra that is proper to its&#xA;  order.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ptdXn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ptdXn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,being absent minded or thinking of something else during Puja &lt;strong&gt;is an offence in itself without doubt because by being absent minded or by thinking about something else during Puja one is not showing the respect that the Deity deserves .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further quotes from Kularnava Tantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Much more than the material side of the worship, &lt;strong&gt;the upasaka has to be&#xA;  careful of his psychological state of mind and soul&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/v1Jle.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/v1Jle.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If the mind be in one place&lt;/strong&gt;, Shiva (passive consciousness) in another,&#xA;  Shakti (active consciousness) in another, and life-breath in still&#xA;  another place, &lt;strong&gt;even a crore of japa is useless&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/I0yAW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/I0yAW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,doing a Puja with full one-pointed concentration is required in order to reap the full merits of the Puja.&lt;strong&gt;And ,understandably,concentrating the mind is easily  the toughest job in the whole process.That's possibly why it is the first step(viz;Dhyanam) in a Puja.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-14T10:19:36.230" LastActivityDate="2016-11-14T10:19:36.230" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15874" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-14T09:45:54.263" Score="2" ViewCount="3609" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can we plant &lt;code&gt;Peepal Tree&lt;/code&gt; at home as a Bonsai, as every one know that Peepal Tree gives oxygen 24 hrs, So is it good to plant it at home or balcony. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If no, then why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastActivityDate="2016-11-14T10:56:01.623" Title="Can we plant Peepal tree at home as a bonsai" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-11-15T10:24:10.393" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15875" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15874" CreationDate="2016-11-14T10:11:15.753" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Peepal(Aswatha) and Banyan  are the most sacred trees among Hindus.As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/vastutreesnplants.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; website:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Banyan and Pipal (Aswatha) are sacred trees; they should usually only&#xA;  be planted near a temple or at a sacred place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,planting it in one's home or balcony &lt;strong&gt;is usually not recommended&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,planting of Tulasi and Bilwa are allowed in home and recommended.And both are considered holy among Hindus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NoTe:I will try to search if i can find more specific instructions from Scriptures ,but you can certainly rely on that site as its easily one among the best &quot;Hinduism&quot; websites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-14T10:56:01.623" LastActivityDate="2016-11-14T10:56:01.623" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15876" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-14T12:50:33.067" Score="3" ViewCount="231" Body="&lt;p&gt;The other names of Tripurāri  Pournami are  &lt;strong&gt;Tripurī  pūrṇima, Karthika Pūrṇima, Deva Deepāwali or Deva Diwāli, or Tripurāri pūrṇima.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are: - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why do we celebrate Karthika or Tripurāri paurṇima  Festival?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the stories associated with it? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In what different ways it is celebrated across India ? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-26T09:35:43.977" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T09:35:43.977" Title="Tripurāri pūrṇima festival story and its significance?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|tradition|festivals|celebrations|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15877" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11356" CreationDate="2016-11-14T14:42:08.197" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;An interesting statement against slavery is found in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/v94t&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Shabara's commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa school of philosophy.  The context in discussing the Vishwajit Yagna, a Yagna where you're supposed to give away all your possessions to other people, and the question arises whether that means that you should give away your Shudra servants to other people.  Shabara says no:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In regard to the same Vishvajit sacrifice, there arises the question - should the Shudra servant be given away or not? The Purvapaksha view is that, &quot;inasmuch the entire property has been laid down to be given, the Shudra servant should also be given away&quot;.  In answer to this, we have the following Siddhanta - The Shudra also 'should not be given away'[.]... - Why so? - because he is there for being instructed in his duties; that is, he has come to serve the man for the purpose of being taught his duties; says the text 'The Shudra presents himself before a man of one of the three higher castes with the view that by serving him he would acquire (knowledge of) Dharma.' - If such a Shudra were given away to another person, it is possible that he may not be willing to leave (the man whom he has been serving); and if he went unwillingly, he would not acquire the knowledge of Dharma that he seeks.  &lt;strong&gt;No Shudra should be acquired as property against his will; if one did acquire a Shudra illegally, he might give him away; but one who has come only for learning Dharma cannot be given away.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shabara characterizes acquiring a Shudra servant as property against his will as both immoral and illegal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: To be clear, the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, which Shabara is just elucidating in the quote above, were composed by the sage Jaimini.  And Jaimini lived in the time of the Mahabharata; he was a shishya of Vyasa and was present on the battlefield of Kurukahetra once the Mahabharata war was over, as described in this chapter of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-01-09T06:01:24.733" LastActivityDate="2017-01-09T06:01:24.733" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15878" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15879" CreationDate="2016-11-14T15:45:21.480" Score="10" ViewCount="294" Body="&lt;p&gt;On the 15th day of the Mahabharata war, the illustrious Dronacharya laid aside his bow and other weapons, after Bhima had spoken the following words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He for whom thou hast taken up weapons, and for whom thou livest, he{Ashwatthama}, deprived of life, lieth today on the field of battle, unknown to thee and behind thy back. King Yudhishthira the just hath told thee this. It behoveth thee not to doubt this fact.' Thus addressed by Bhima, Drona laid aside his bow{and other weapons}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And after Dronacharya had laid aside his weapons, Dhrishtadyumna slayed the unarmed Dronacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Disregarding, however, the cries of Arjuna, as also these of all the kings, Dhrishtadyumna slew Dronacharya, that bull among men, on the terrace of his car.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also pertinent to mention here, that Dhrishtadyumna had been obtained by king Drupada{Dhrishtadyumna’s father}, at a great sacrifice, from the Bearer of sacrificial libations, for the destruction of Drona.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The invincible Dronacharya, then attained to the Supreme region of Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were the actions of the illustrious Dronacharya, immediately  before quitting his material body? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-05-16T05:07:45.807" LastActivityDate="2018-08-31T01:01:11.413" Title="What were the actions of the illustrious Dronacharya, immediately before quitting his material body?" Tags="|mahabharata|dronacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15879" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15878" CreationDate="2016-11-14T15:50:32.220" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The  details of the actions performed by the illustrious Dronacharya, immediately before quitting his “material” body, are explained as under.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The illustrious Dronacharya,  devoted himself to “Yoga”, after keeping aside his weapons. Dronacharya then meditated on the supreme God Vishnu. And thinking on the monosyllable Om, representing Brahma, and remembering the puissant, Supreme, and indestructible God of gods, the radiant Dronacharya of high ascetic merit, the preceptor (of the Kurus and the Pandavas) repaired to heaven. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Drona himself abandoning his weapons, he was then in a supremely tranquil state. Having said those words{advised Karna and others to fight well}, he had devoted himself to “Yoga”. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Endued with great effulgence and possessed of high ascetic merit, he had fixed his heart on that Supreme and Ancient Being, viz, Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bending his face slightly down, and heaving his breast forward, and closing his eyes and resting it on the quality of goodness, and disposing his heart to contemplation, and thinking on the monosyllable Om, representing Brahma, and remembering the puissant, supreme, and indestructible God of gods, the radiant Drona of high ascetic merit, the preceptor (of the Kurus and the Pandavas) repaired to heaven that is so difficult of being attained even by the pious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In fact, all human beings were unconscious of the fact that the preceptor attained to the supreme region of Brahman, a region mysterious to the very gods, and one that is the highest of all. Indeed, none of them could see the preceptor, that chastiser of foes, proceed to the region of Brahman, devoted to Yoga in the company of the foremost of Rishis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only we five amongst men beheld the high-souled Drona rapt in Yoga proceed to the highest region of blessedness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These five were myself{Sanjaya}, Dhananjaya, the son of Pritha, and Drona's son, Aswatthaman, and Vasudeva of Vrishni's race, and king Yudhishthira the just, the son of Pandu. Nobody else, O king, could see that glory of the wise Drona, devoted to Yoga, while passing out of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These actions of Dronacharya, which were centred in Yoga, before attaining to the Supreme region of Brahman, were as per the &quot;sacred truths&quot; given in &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/9/23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 1.9.23.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 1.9.23 — The Personality of Godhead, who appears in the mind of the devotee by attentive devotion and meditation and by chanting of the holy name, releases the devotee from the bondage of fruitive activities at the time of his quitting the material body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpt of the Purport&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoga means concentration of the mind detached from all other subject matter. And actually such concentration is Samādhi, or cent-percent engagement in the service of the Lord. The Lord calls such a rare devotee the best amongst all the yogīs. Such a perfect Yogī is enabled by the divine grace of the Lord to concentrate his mind upon the Lord with a perfect sense of consciousness, and thus by chanting His holy name before quitting the body the Yogī is at once transferred by the internal energy of the Lord to one of the eternal planets where there is no question of material life and its concomitant factors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The complete details of the event, are given in the Mahabharata Book:7,Drona Parva, &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Drona-Vadha Parva.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7234" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-08-31T01:01:11.413" LastActivityDate="2018-08-31T01:01:11.413" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15880" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-14T16:50:59.863" Score="6" ViewCount="712" Body="&lt;p&gt;Deeparadhana (worshiping God by lighting a lamp) is an ancient practice in our country. We start any pooja by lighting a lamp. It is said that a lamp lit using cow ghee is the best. Sesam oil is used for daily deeparadhana in houses. But recently many astrologers have been advising people to light diyas using different oils like castor oil, Mahua flower oil, mustard oil, coconut oil etc., They are advising to use different number of wicks and different types of wicks too. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My questions&lt;/strong&gt; - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is using different oils and different wicks for lighting lamps justified in any of our scriptures? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If yes, What are the benefits of using particular oils in deeparadhana? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2016-11-14T16:50:59.863" Title="Benefits of lighting a lamp using different oils" Tags="|belief|rituals|worship|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15881" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-14T17:09:36.483" Score="6" ViewCount="346" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was going through this video &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hotstar.com/tv/mahabharat/on-choosing-between-character-and-a-future/1000047914&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;sup&gt;$&lt;/sup&gt; where god Krishna explains why one should focus on building his character rather than future. Is this mentioned anywhere in the Bhagavad Geeta?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;$&lt;/sup&gt; For those who can't watch the video, here's what Krishna says in the video:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All parents wish to fulfill every wish of their children and keep them happy - this is the first duty of every parent. And which parent doesn't want to plan and secure their kids' future? But isn't kids' future (happiness or safety) already decided based on their past actions? So isn't what's taught (good or bad) to kids by their parents go on to determine most of their future actions (karma)? So shouldn't parents worry more about building the character of children than planning their future? But aren't most people lost in planning in their future than their character which ultimately determines their future? Think about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7580" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-20T22:25:15.340" LastActivityDate="2016-11-20T22:41:03.557" Title="Krishna on choosing between character and a secure future?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15882" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-14T17:12:06.223" Score="4" ViewCount="620" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the definition of dharma as per Karna? I read somewhere that actions that weakens the soul is not dharma. Can anyone cite some reference on the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7580" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-11-15T05:56:29.850" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T19:18:39.827" Title="What is dharma as per Karna?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15890" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-15T02:38:56.770" Score="1" ViewCount="41" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why the events mentioned in  Ramayana and Mahabharata only occurred in sub-continent? &#xA;If there were any other civilization present during those period, Why they are not mentioned in the holy scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="840" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-11-15T03:21:23.157" LastActivityDate="2016-11-15T03:21:23.157" Title="Why the events mentioned in Ramayana and Mahabaratha only occured in sub continent?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|ramayana|puranas|science|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-11-15T03:21:31.590" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15892" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15932" CreationDate="2016-11-15T04:59:06.787" Score="7" ViewCount="4615" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yesterday being Poornima [full moon] Anna [rice] abhishekam was done to Lord Siva in many Siva temples in South India. In Thanjavur 1000 kgs of rice was done as annabhishekam to Lord Brahadeeswarar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question  - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If this anna abhishekam is done every poornima [full moon] or on selected months poornima only? If so which months? and is there any scriptural  reference for this.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does this not apply to Vishnu or Brahma? Reasons why it is not applicable.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-11-15T05:38:02.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T08:28:32.530" Title="Anna Abhishekam to Lord Shiva on Full moon (Poornima thithi)" Tags="|shiva|puranas|rituals|poornima|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15893" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15528" CreationDate="2016-11-15T05:45:39.637" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;, generational curse do exists. They are of 2 types:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;1. External&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such kind of curse may come from a strong and austere personality like a &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; or a saintly person. There are couple of references in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;AnushAsanika Parva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; as footnotes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The thin bamboo rod in the hand of the Brahmana is mightier than the thunderbolt of Indra. The thunder scorches all existing objects upon which it falls. The Brahmana's rod which symbolizes the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmana's might in the form of his curse blasts even unborn generations&lt;/strong&gt;. The might of the rod is derived from Mahadeva.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a small instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once Brahma asked Surabhi to bear evidence before Vishnu to the statement that Brahma has seen the foremost part of Siva. Surabhi having given false evidence out of fear for Brahma was cursed by Siva that her offspring will eat unholy substances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9066/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, a very [in]famous curse was given by &lt;em&gt;GAndhAri&lt;/em&gt; to &lt;em&gt;lord Krishna&lt;/em&gt;, which was so sharp that, the whole &lt;em&gt;Yadu&lt;/em&gt; race met with rather a too quick annihilation to be able to witness further generational curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;2. Ancestral&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That comes from the ancestors of the same family itself, also known as &lt;em&gt;Pitru runa&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Pitru dosha&lt;/em&gt;. Usually, our ancestors live in subtle forms with their mental desires still unfulfilled. If such desires are not fulfilled by subsequent generations, then these desires are gradually transformed into curse and create various obstacles for ongoing generations. One reason for such &lt;em&gt;Pitru dosha&lt;/em&gt; is shortly discussed in Gita: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 1.42 And the hybridisation in the family leads the ruiners of the family into hell only. The forefathers of these fall down (into hell) because of being deprived of the offerings of food and water.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Personally I know a very close friend, whose family was diagnosed with a curse, where no male child was getting born. Even if born, then it won't survive. They visited PrAchi, Gujarat, India for an intense ritual to lower down its effect.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We may wonder, why some misdeed of our forefathers have to be paid by us? That's because, a major [material] part of our father gets born as our own self. There are numerous references in ancient scriptures, which suggest that the father is born as a son/daughter. Hence, in a way we can assume that our great-great forefather's [material] part has born our own selves.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b010.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is one such reference by Bhishma while discussing fair property distribution among son &amp;amp; daughter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Bhishma said, '&lt;strong&gt;The son is even as one's own self&lt;/strong&gt;, and the daughter is like unto the son. How, therefore, can another take the wealth when one lives in one's own self in the form of one's daughter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Traditionally in earlier times, the daughters would change the family after marriage. Hence, any forefather effect could be subsidising in their case. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Common people giving curse should be ignored &amp;amp; the receiver of the curse should grant them a pardon. Usually such curses will go in below category:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15460/1049&quot;&gt;What do scriptures say about using swear or abusive words for cursing people?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T04:41:12.423" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15894" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15528" CreationDate="2016-11-15T06:31:34.953" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, generational curses do exist in Hinduism. There is a famous story described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/aitareyabrahmana04hauguoft#page/320/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aitareya Brahmana (7.13-18)&lt;/a&gt; where Sage Vishvamitra cursed his own sons that their descendants will be born into the lowest castes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Risi Visvamitra had a hundred sons, fifty of them were older than Madhuchhandas, and fifty were younger than he. The older ones were not pleased with (the installation of Sunahsepa to the primogeniture). &lt;strong&gt;VisvAmitra then pronounced against them the curse, &amp;quot; You shall have the lowest castes for your descendants.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore are many of the most degraded classes of men, the rabble for the most part, such as the Andhras, Pundras, Sabaras, Palindas, and Mutibas, descendants of Visvamitra. But Madhuchhandas, with the fifty younger sons, said, &amp;quot; What our father approves of, by that we abide ; we all accord to thee (Sunahsepa) the first rank, and we will come after thee ! &amp;quot; Visvamitra, (leligated 'at this answer) then praised these sons with the following verses :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot; Ye my sons will have abundance of cattle and children, for you have made me rich in children by consenting to my wish.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T16:47:50.367" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15895" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-15T07:04:20.983" Score="1" ViewCount="2455" Body="&lt;p&gt;Surya had three wives, Samjna, Rajni and Prabha. Surya and Samjna had two sons and a daughter. The eldest son was Vaivasvata Manu. And the remaining two offspring were twins named Yama and Yamuna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, Samjna delivers another son – Shani. As the children grow older, Samjna does everything in her power to distance him from Surya. Devoid of motherly love and fatherly attention, Shani is distraught, depressed, lazy and utterly directionless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the reason that Shani's mother kept him away from his father? Was it because he did not accept him as his son like many say?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastActivityDate="2016-11-15T07:04:20.983" Title="Why did surya not accept shani as his son?" Tags="|surya|shani|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15896" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15876" CreationDate="2016-11-15T08:50:10.420" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Full moon day (Purnima) in the month of Kartik in a traditional Hindu calendar is called Kartik pournima , also known as Tripurari pournima ,Dev Diwali. Dev Deepavali is the Diwali of the Devas or Gods held on the Kartik pournima as It is believed that &lt;strong&gt;on the day of Dev Deepavali, the&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Gods descend on Earth&lt;/strong&gt;. Tulsi Vivah is also carried out this day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An important ritual on the day is the &lt;strong&gt;lighting of Diyas&lt;/strong&gt; (lamps) after the sighting of the moon. In some parts &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Tripurasur Dahan&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (Burning) is also carried out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kartik Snan (Holy bathing)  and Deepdaan are main rituals performed during Dev Diwali. At the time of sunrise devotees do &lt;strong&gt;Kartik Snan&lt;/strong&gt; and in the evenings they perform &lt;strong&gt;Deepotsav&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During this  Dev Diwali, a also a cultural festival called ‘&lt;strong&gt;Ganga Mahotsav&lt;/strong&gt; is celebrated in &lt;strong&gt;Varanasi&lt;/strong&gt;. Prabodhini Ekadashi is the important day in these celebrations. Thousands  of people visit Dasaswamedh Ghat to see liting of thousands of Diyas (earthen lamps) this is a tribute to river Ganga by people of Varanasi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stories associeated with Tripurari Pournima or Kartik pournima -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's said that &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu returned to Vaikunta&lt;/strong&gt;, his abode, on this day after the &lt;strong&gt;Vamana incarnation&lt;/strong&gt; and visiting King Bali. Kartik Poornima is closely associated with &lt;strong&gt;Prabodhini ekadashi&lt;/strong&gt; ,  which marks the end of Chaturmas , a four-month period when Vishnu is believed to sleep. &lt;strong&gt;Prabodhini Ekadashi signifies the awakening of the god.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kartik Purnima is also celebrated as the birth of Lord &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu's first incarnation, the Matsya (fish) avatar&lt;/strong&gt;. It is also the birthday of Vrinda (Tulsi plant) and of Lord &lt;strong&gt;Kartikeya, the son of Lord  Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another story is that &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; killed three demons, who spreading Adharma and killing innocent people, and destroyed the three cities built by the demons on Dev Diwali day. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore the day is also known as Tripurari Purnima.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We find this story in ShreemadBhagvatam  - (7 skanda chapter -10 shloka 53-70)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अथानुगृह्य भगवन्म भैशेष्ट इति सूरान्विभु: ।&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;br&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;शरं धनुषि सन्धाय पुरेष्वस्त्रं व्यमुश्र्चत ।।57।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - On hearing their request , &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shankara&lt;/strong&gt; told the Gods &amp;quot;Do not fear&amp;quot; .Then he shot arow towards &lt;strong&gt;these 3 cities.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/10/57&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 7.10.57&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एवं दध्वा पुरस्तिस्त्रो भगवान्पुरहा नृप ।&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;br&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्मादिभि: स्तुयमान: स्वधाम प्रत्यपद्यत ।।70।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - O Yudhishthira , thus by burning those 3 cities , &lt;strong&gt;Bhagvan shankar became &amp;quot;Tripurari&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; went to his abode with hearing&#xA;the praising by Brahmadeva etc.&#xA;.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/10/69&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 7.10.69&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-15T08:50:10.420" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15898" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-15T11:55:26.553" Score="1" ViewCount="749" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have come across the following information online on lingam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;lingam is often represented alongside the yoni&lt;/strong&gt; (Sanskrit word, literally &quot;origin&quot; or &quot;source&quot; or &quot;womb&quot;), a symbol of the goddess or of Shakti, female creative energy.The union of lingam and yoni represents the &quot;indivisible two-in-oneness of male and female, the passive space and active time from which all life originates&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please shed some light on this with references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastActivityDate="2016-11-15T11:55:26.553" Title="Why is Lingam said to be the symbol of phallus(Penis)resting in the middle of a rimmed, disc-shaped yoni(Vagina)?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-11-16T22:47:06.433" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15899" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-15T12:21:19.733" Score="3" ViewCount="218" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any proofs in our present time that attest to the incidents narrated in The Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To add to that any proof to say Lord Krishna existed and how strong he was?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8203" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-16T02:38:28.000" LastActivityDate="2017-01-01T14:45:18.313" Title="Any historical proof for places mentioned and incidents narrated in The Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15900" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15902" CreationDate="2016-11-15T13:02:55.733" Score="13" ViewCount="13360" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/strong&gt; traveled all around India engaging scholars in religious debate. During one such debate, Bharati, wife of scholar&#xA;  Madana Mishra, attempted to defeat Adi Shankara in the topic of&#xA;  Kamashastra – sex. To win this debate Adi Shankaracharya’s performed&#xA;  parakaya pravesha – enter the body of another person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the debate between Madana Mishra and Adi Shankara, Bharati was&#xA;  appointed the judge as she was a scholar by herself. Madana Mishra was&#xA;  easily defeated in the debate by Adi Shankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bharati contented that Adi Shankara had only defeated one half of&#xA;  Madana Mishra. To completely defeat him, Adi Shankara had to defeat&#xA;  his wife too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bharati soon realized that she could not defeat Adi Shankara in&#xA;  philosophy, so turned the debate towards Kamashastra. As Adi Shankara&#xA;  was a Brahmachari he had no knowledge of sex.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara asked Bharati to give him a month’s time to debate this&#xA;  topic with her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya then used his yogic powers to enter the body of&#xA;  Raja Amaruka who had just died. Before entering the body of the king,&#xA;  he hid his physical body in a cave and asked his disciples go guard&#xA;  it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For next one month, in the body of the king, Adi Shankara indulged in&#xA;  sexual activities and learned Kama Shastra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A month later he returned and defeated Bharati in the debate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindu-blog.com/2012/07/adi-shankaracharyas-parakaya-pravesha.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hindu-blog.com/2012/07/adi-shankaracharyas-parakaya-pravesha.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Some people say reading Kamashastra is adharmic then what about the above incident?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is reading kamasutra a sin?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do have great respect towards Adi Shankaracharya and in no way I am challenging the divine master. However, I am trying to make myself and others clear about Dharma and Adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-11-17T06:34:10.333" LastActivityDate="2021-02-07T11:55:58.480" Title="Was Adi Shankaracharya’s Parakaya Pravesha to learn Kamashastra Dharmic?" Tags="|history|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15901" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15900" CreationDate="2016-11-15T16:00:33.140" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shree Adi-Shankarachrya entered into the dead body of king Amaruka through his mastery of Yogic powers. &lt;strong&gt;Only to study the effects of action of love or Kama&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;as a Observer&lt;/strong&gt;. After his decision he discussed this with his disciples.One of them named &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Padmapada&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;  on the account of yogi &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Matsyendra&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; cautioned him about possible effects of his action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shree Adi-Shankaracharya explained him about this in his own excellent way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the case of one who has realised even here that the self is without&#xA;  all contacts, and is the relationless eternally pure spirit, the&#xA;  commandments and prohibitions of the Sastras have no application. All&#xA;  fruits are non-existent for one who has realised the world as a mere&#xA;  appearance. A true knower is free from any sense of good and evil. So&#xA;  even if I indulge in the enjoyment of sex love, no evil will result&#xA;  from it. However in order that the world may not be misled by the&#xA;  action of a Sanyasin like me, I will gain the experience of sex life&#xA;  through the body temporarily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So by this we can definitely say that this action of &quot;Shree Adi-Shankarachrya&quot; was a Dharmic one as he has done this only to aquire the knowledge for the matter of debate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your question -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Some people say Reading Kamashastra is ADHARMIC then what about this incident?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My explanation-:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Shree Adi-Shankarachrya was not doing this for his own pleasure but&#xA;  for only to gain true knowladge about lovemaking.His action is totally&#xA;  justified and was accordance with his duty. ie to spread and to&#xA;  rejuvenate Dharma to gain knowladge , to seek the truth , and to&#xA;  debate over religious matters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sringeri.net/history/sri-adi-shankaracharya/biography/abridged-madhaviya-shankara-digvijayam/part-3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-11-15T16:00:33.140" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15902" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15900" CreationDate="2016-11-15T16:00:42.840" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Renowned Advaitin Sri Vidyarana Swami had written a biography of Sri Adi Shankara. And this instance is also recorded in it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Canto 9 of Madhaviya Shankara Digvijaya records this incident. Shankara decides to enter the body of King as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sankara said to his disciple Padmapada &amp;quot;Here lies dead the renowned. king Amaruka, having more than a hundred wives of exquisite beauty. &lt;strong&gt;I am thinking why I should not enter into the body of this king and revive it by Yogic power, and thus live in his palace amidst these women through his body in order to gain knowledge of sex-love and achieve the status of an all-knowing person. I shall thus have an opportunity to make a direct study, as .a witness, of the manifestation of love in women and their behaviour under its influence.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PadmaPada (who was disciple of Shankara) asks whether it is right to do such or not ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In reply to this proposal of the great Sannyasin, Padmapada gave his cautious reply as follows: &amp;quot;There is nothing unknown to an omniscient personage like you. Yet, I shall speak a few words out of my love for, and devotion to, you. It seems, in days of yore, a great Yogi named Matsyendra, entrusting his own body to his disciple Goraksha, entered into the body of a dead king and thereby got access into his palace. While the Yogi thus reigned as the king, ptosperity attended that kingdom. Timely rain brought bounteous harvests. Observing all this, it occurred to his ministers that some great soul must have entered into the dead body of the king. So they advised his consorts to use all their amorous skill to keep the king completely absorbed in love sports, so that he might not leave the body. The king got so immersed in the emotional display of these women, their amorous advances, soft laughter, sweet songs and lovely dances-that he forgot everything about Samadhi and spiritual matters, and behaved exactly like a sensuous man. Coming to know of the change that had come over his teacher, the disciple Goraksha, after duly preserving his teacher&amp;apos;s body in a secure place, came disguised as a dance instructor and got access to the inner apartment as a dancing instructor for women. He attracted the king&amp;apos;s attention, and by instructing him about spiritual truth, he destroyed the king&amp;apos;s thirst for sense enjoyments. By regaining his power of Yoga, Matsyendra was able to leave the king&amp;apos;s body and re-enter his own. From this it is seen how strong and irre-sistible sense attraction is. Besides, &lt;strong&gt;to abandon the vow of Brahmacharya is sinful, too.&lt;/strong&gt; All these of course are matters too well-known to you. How great and how unparalleled in excellence are our holy vows, and how ignoble and wretched is sexuality? &lt;strong&gt;If a personage of your type goes after the latter, the whole world will get degraded by following your example. The Dharma of Sannyasins is already at a low ebb, and it has been your life-work to re-interpret and restore it to its pristine purity. All these are matters very well known to you. It is only love of you that prompts me to speak in this vein.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Shankara replies to PadmaPada and justifies his action as Dharmic as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Padmapada finished, Sankara who excelled Brihaspati himself in learning, spoke thus: &amp;quot;What you have said is only a partial appraisal of the situation. Now, hear the whole truth about it. In one who is absolutely non-attached, desire for sense enjoyment will not arise, This was the case with Sri Krishna when he lived with the Gopis. The continence of one who knows the Yogic practice of Vajroli will remain unbroken. Sankalpa, the brooding imaginative association, is the cause of desires. I am without that failing, even like Maha-Vishnu. &lt;strong&gt;One who is without any Sankalpa may live in Samsara without being affected by it;&lt;/strong&gt; for the real root of Samsara has already been destroyed.&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;The commandments and prohibitions of scriptures are applicable to men in ignorance who live with the deep-rooted conviction that their body is their self. In the case of one who has realised even here that the Self, which is called &amp;apos;he&amp;apos;, is without all contacts and is the relationless and eternally pure spirit-of one who is established in this supreme teaching of the Vedanta-the commandments and prohibitions of Sastras&amp;apos; have no application.&lt;/strong&gt; There is only clay in all pots that are made of clay. Similar is the case with all objects born of Paramatman. He and the world supposed to be born of Him are not different, the world having no existence apart from Him. How can one who realises the whole world as a mere appearance, be affected by anything? If a person performs Yagas and Yajnas in dream, will he derive any benefit from it? &lt;strong&gt;All fruits are non-existent for one who has realised the world as a mere appearance. Let a hundred Yagas be performed, or let hundreds of men be killed. Neither the good nor the bad effects of such actions will affect a knowing one in the least, as he has no sense of agency with regard to all actions flowing through his instrumentality.&lt;/strong&gt; The Upanishads say that not a hair of Indra was affected, though he killed Trisiras, the son of Twashta, and offered the bodies of ascetics as food for wolves. The Vedas also say that though king Janaka performed many Yajnas and charities, he did not get further embodiment to enjoy the fruits of these ; for, by virtue of his knowledge he was absorbed in the Bliss of Paramatman for ever. A true knower will thus be free from all sinful effects, like Indra, and from enjoyable fruits like Janaka. For, he is free from any sense of good and evil. &lt;strong&gt;So, even if I indulge in the enjoyment of sex-love with this body, no evil will result from it. However, in order that the world may not be misled in respect of virtuous conduct by observing my example of a Sannyasin indulging in the practice of sex-love, my proposal is to gain the experiences of sex-life through the body of another person whose dead body I am going to enliven by temporarily identifying myself with that body.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-11-15T16:19:04.863" LastActivityDate="2016-11-15T16:19:04.863" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15903" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5240" CreationDate="2016-11-15T16:07:47.047" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a story that I read in &quot;Journey Through the Twelve Forests&quot; by David L. Haberman. Markandeya occasion reminds me of Jed McKenna (the pseudonymous spiritual author) because their stories are so similar. McKenna occasionally quotes Indian spiritual works in his books, but not in a dogmatic fashion. The story which I'm about to relate is found both in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;D.L. Haberman version: Markandeya successfully enters the body of Vishnu and sees that the entire world is encapsulated inside it. &quot;Everything is inside Vishnu.&quot; This is probably why the Vishvarupa of Vishnu is often described as being a macrocosm of everything. Traditional depictions of Vishnu show Him floating on an endless and featureless ocean, floating on His assistant, Shesha, accompanied by His consort, Lakshmi. Vishnu dreams the universe into existence. Alexandra David-Neel quotes a similar story where it is said that &quot;the universe is but the dream of Brahman.&quot; Vishnu is often equated with Brahman, so, same difference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At a certain point, Markandeya manages to escape from the mouth of Vishnu and finds himself outside of the universe, treading water on the featureless ocean (AKA, nowhere). He screams when he notices the utter nothingness around him. Vishnu wakes up and promptly plops him back in his mouth, thereby restoring his sanity. If you read McKenna's books closely you'll see that this is virtually, exactly what he experienced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata version: I read this one in the play adaptation by Jean Claude-Carrier, which is also quoted in McKenna's &quot;Theory of Everything.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Much of the world has ended and become a wasted desert. Markandeya wanders around the wasteland for a several years until he sees a small blue child sitting underneath a tree (Vishnu). The child says: &quot;you look tired, why don't you come into my mouth and rest?&quot; Markandeya suddenly experiences a &quot;strong disdain for life,&quot; and is swept up by an unimaginable current into the child's mouth. Wandering around inside the body of the child he sees everything on the Earth in its exact form. After an unknown amount of time he's suddenly drawn up back outside the child. The child says to him: &quot;did you have a good rest?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavata Purana version (book 12, chapter 9): Mr. Markandeya worships Vishnu until Vishnu is pleased with him. Vishnu asks Markandeya what he wants and Markandeya says he wants to see the power of the Lord's illusory potency. The Lord grants his wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Markandeya is walking around one day until the entire world undergoes dissolution, Mr. Markandeya is now floating on the causal waters all alone. Floating on some wreckage, he manages to make his way over to a child sitting underneath a tree, who once again inhales him into his body. He sees the entire universe inside for a moment and is exhaled back out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finding himself alone on the water, he realizes that the child is Vishnu and attempts to embrace him but at that moment the child disappears and he's left alone on the ocean. Suddenly the ocean disappears and Markandeya is once again back in his home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-15T16:07:47.047" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15904" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-15T19:28:10.050" Score="19" ViewCount="6844" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do Hindu scriptures says about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abortion&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;abortion&lt;/a&gt; (&quot;a deliberate termination of pregnancy&quot;)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was it a sin at some point in the past? If so, why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have any modern Hindu gurus, like Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Prabhupada, etc., commented on it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-12-25T15:00:43.357" LastActivityDate="2017-12-26T02:51:53.273" Title="What is Hinduism's view on abortion?" Tags="|scripture|practice|sin|smriti|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15905" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-15T19:34:35.203" Score="7" ViewCount="480" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14022/why-did-vedvyasa-mention-his-shishya-jaminis-opinion-saying-in-brahma-sutra/14035#14035&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;, where the author of the answer Keshav Srinivasan speculated that Rishi Jaimini was totally in agreement with Vedanta School, but was pretending to have views like that of Purva Mimansa School. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If that is true then as we know from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a047.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; that Rishi Jaimini was present during the time of Mahabharata war on the battlefield of Kurukshetra surrounding Shri Bhishma on the bed of arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana said, 'Listen, O king, with pure heart and concentrated attention, as to how, O tiger among the Kurus, the high-souled Bhishma cast off his body. As soon as the Sun, passing the solstitial point, entered in his northerly course, Bhishma, with concentrated attention, caused his soul (as connected with and independent of the body) to enter his soul (in its independent and absolute state). Surrounded by many foremost of Brahmanas, that hero, his body pierced with innumerable arrows, blazed forth in great beauty like Surya himself with his innumerable rays. Surrounded by Vyasa conversant with the Vedas by the celestial Rishi Narada, by Devasthana, by Asmaka Sumantu, &lt;strong&gt;by Jaimini&lt;/strong&gt;, by the high-souled Paila, by Sandilya, by Devarata, by Maitreya of great intelligence, by Asita and Vasishtha and the high-souled Kausika, by Harita and Lomasa and Atri's son of great intelligence, by Vrihaspati and Sukra and the great sage Chyavana, by Sanatkumara and Kapila and Valmiki and Tumvuru and Kuru, by Maudgalya and Rama of Bhrigu's race, and the great sage Trinavindu, by Pippalada and Vayu and Samvarta and Pulaha and Katha, by Kasyapa and Pulastya and Kratu and Daksha and Parasara, by Marichi and Angiras and Kasmya and Gautama and the sage Galava, by Dhaumya and Vibhanda and Mandavya and Dhaumra and Krishnanubhautika, by Uluka, that foremost of Brahmanas and the great sage Markandeya, by Bhaskari and Purana and Krishna and Suta,--that foremost of virtuous persons, surrounded by these and many other highly-blessed sages of great souls and possessed of faith and self-restraint and tranquillity of mind, the Kuru hero looked like the Moon in the midst of the planets and the stars. Stretched on his bed of arrows, that tiger among men, Bhishma, with pure heart and joined palms, thought of Krishna in mind, word, and act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then it is obvious that he knew about Krishna and he had seen Krishna, so what were his views on Krishna? Did Rishi Jaimini had knowledge that Krishna is an incarnation of Shriman Narayana and that he is Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A point to be noted, according to Rishi Jaimini and Purva Mimansa thinks Brahman is not the material, substantial cause of Universe rather Brahman is a powerful eternal being. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After reading &lt;a href=&quot;http://%5Chttps://doc-0s-bc-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/ha0ro937gcuc7l7deffksulhg5h7mbp1/tmum2cv8glv4g5nsml0r53khvhd08sgq/1479232800000/02058467015715614041/*/1P8PBgagKhv0R7qq4VidvEYhqKnoHEO7iQStXIyF6IW3ItJNjJvWfsPCqsDH9Xjf043F0XPqOit9_vOxt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; from Skanda Purana it appears that according to Rishi Jaimini Shriman Narayana is all powerful and omnipotent aka Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-01-23T19:06:45.010" LastActivityDate="2018-01-23T19:06:45.010" Title="Jaimini's view on Krishna" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|jaimini|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15906" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15904" CreationDate="2016-11-16T04:06:21.637" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abortion did exist in the ancient days.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At least people living at the time of Ramayana had knowledge about it. Abortion here means not killing an embryo with life but removing a lifeless fetus from mother's womb. The below are the verses from &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga28/sundara_28_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana Sundara Kanda Chapter 28&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नूनं ममाङ्गान्यचिरादनार्यः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शस्त्रैः शितै श्छेत्स्यति राक्षसेन्द्रः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मिन्ननागच्छति लोकनाथे | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गर्भस्थजन्तोरिव शल्यकृन्तः || ५-२८-६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If Rama the Ruler of the world does not come here, the evil Ravana, the king of Demons will cut off my limbs with his sharpened weapons, &lt;strong&gt;even as a surgeon would cut the limbs of a lifeless foetus.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is exactly the same process of surgical abortion of these modern days. By this shloka, we know that people had knowledge about advanced medical techniques like surgical abortion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Sita says about a surgeon removing a lifeless foetus but not an embryo with life. If the child is dead or unhealthy it is suggested to take him out by surgery. AFAIK, killing a healthy child inside a mother's womb is not supported in our religion. Besides there are some samskaras like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hknet.org.nz/seX-files-PUMSAVANA.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;pumsavana&lt;/a&gt;, seemaantham, jatakarma to be performed to the mother for the good health of the mother and the baby.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-11-17T02:01:13.563" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T02:01:13.563" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15907" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15904" CreationDate="2016-11-16T04:08:06.207" Score="25" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abortion is strictly forbidden.&lt;/strong&gt;  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe02/sbe0285.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Gautama Dharma Sutras says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A woman becomes an outcast &lt;strong&gt;by procuring abortion&lt;/strong&gt;, by connection with a (man of) lower (caste) and (the like heinous crimes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Libations of water shall not be offered to those who (neglect the prescribed rites and may be said to) have been born in vain, to those born in consequence of an illegal mixture of the castes, to those who are ascetics (of heretical sects), and to those who have committed suicide,  To women who have joined a heretical sect, who through lust live (with many men), &lt;strong&gt;who have caused an abortion&lt;/strong&gt;, have killed their husbands, or drink spirituous liquor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also punishment for men who cause abortion, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who causes abortion, plunders a town, kills a cow, or strangles a man, goes to the Rodha hell[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe02/sbe0224.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Apastamba Dharma Sutras says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now (follows the enumeration of) the actions which cause loss of caste (Patanîya). (These are) stealing (gold), crimes whereby one becomes an Abhisasta, homicide, neglect of the Vedas, &lt;strong&gt;causing abortion&lt;/strong&gt;, incestuous connection with relations born from the same womb as one's mother or father, and with the offspring of such persons, drinking spirituous liquor, and intercourse with persons the intercourse with whom is forbidden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And for good measure here is what Vidura says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05035.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One that setteth fire to a dwelling house, an administerer of poison, a pander, a vendor of the Soma-juice, a maker of arrows, an astrologer, one that injureth friends, an adulterer, &lt;strong&gt;one that causeth abortion&lt;/strong&gt;, a violater of his preceptor's bed, a Brahmana addicted to drink, one that is sharp-speeched, a raker of old sores, an atheist, a reviler of the Vedas, and taker of bribes, one whose investiture with the sacred thread has been delayed beyond the prescribed age, one that secretly slayeth cattle, and one that slayeth him who prayeth for protection,--these all are reckoned as &lt;strong&gt;equal in moral turpitude as the slayers of Brahmanas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And to show how serious killing a foetus is, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a164.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Bhishma describes as the repentance for it in this chapter of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One guilty of foeticide becomes cleansed if he dies of wounds received in battle fought for the sake of kine and Brahmanas. He may also be cleansed by casting his person on a blazing fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk11ch19.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; Devi Bhagavatam prescribes an easier expiation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this way if the Gâyatrî be repeated one thousand times, the sins arising from killing a cow, father, mother, from causing abortions, going to the wife of one’s Guru, stealing a Brâhmana’s property, a Brâhman’s field, drinking wine, etc., all are destroyed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if that's the case it just goes to show the extreme power of the Gayatri mantra, not the lack of severity of the sin.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, you asked about what modern-day figures have said.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://hansadutta.com/EXPLOSION/hkex3.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada says about abortion:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They are killing the baby in the womb. How cruel! In this age of unwanted population, man is losing his compassion. When you kill a living entity, even an ant, you are interfering with its spiritual evolution, its progress. That living entity must again take on that same life form to complete its designated life term in that body. And the killer must return to pay for damages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, Osho Rajneesh says abortion is a virtue in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.osho.com/iosho/library/read-book/online-library-abortions-mother-teresa-pill-bd1b0219-79a&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of one of his books:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abortion is not a sin - in this overpopulated world, abortion is a virtue. And if abortion is a sin then the Polack Pope and Mother Teresa and company are responsible for it, because they are against contraceptives, they are against birth control methods, they are against the pill. These are the people who are the cause of all the abortions, they are responsible. To me they are great criminals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Osho Rajneesh is known for his unorthodox views.  Finally, &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=mSzK8PxgQVcC&amp;amp;lpg=PA1&amp;amp;dq=sathya%20sai%20baba%20abortion&amp;amp;pg=PA1#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Sathya Sai Baba said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When asked the question, “When does the soul enter the body?”, Swami replied, “The soul enters the body on or after the fifth month.” When asked about abortion after the fifth month, He answered: “No abortion!”. When asked about abortion before the fifth month, Swami said, “No! No! Even before - abortion is bad... Mind control... Use mind control.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think that means restrain your mind and practice abstinence, but perhaps he's talking about psychic abortion!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T04:08:06.207" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15908" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15904" CreationDate="2016-11-16T05:23:40.783" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is my partial answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abortion is a grave sin&lt;/strong&gt;.The Parashara Smriti says that the sin is even greater than in the case of killing a Brahmin.And killing a Brahmin is considered as one of the 5 mortal sins in Sanatana Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti also declares it as a sin.It says no libations of water for those women  who committed abortions during their lifetimes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.89. &lt;strong&gt;Libations of water shall not be offered to those&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;who..... To women who have joined a heretical sect, who through lust&#xA;live (with many men), &lt;strong&gt;who have caused an abortion&lt;/strong&gt;, have killed their&#xA;husbands, or drink spirituous liquor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the husband meets not his wife on the day that her monthly courses&#xA;cease, and she be near at hand, he incurs &lt;strong&gt;the awful sin of having&#xA;killed a foetus.&lt;/strong&gt; There is not the slightest doubt herein.(Parashara Smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Parashara Smriti even says that &lt;strong&gt;the sin is so grave that there is no atonement for it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yatpapam Brahmahatyayam Dwigunam Garvapatane&lt;/strong&gt;|| Prayaschittam Na Tasyah&#xA;Swatta Swastyaago Vidhiyate||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What sin is incurred in killing a Brahman, abortion causes a sin twice&#xA;as great ; there is no atonement for that sin.&lt;/strong&gt; The abandonment of such&#xA;a woman has been ordained by law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Jnfqb.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Jnfqb.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Views of Yajnavalkya Smriti,which are given below, are also identical:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;48&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wilful abortion and hatred of the husband are great sins in women without any expiation&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, she shall be shunned from a&#xA;distance(Yajnavalkya)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a woman subjects herself to abortion, except in the case of adultery and for purposes of expiation, she becomes guilty of two&#xA;great sins the murder of the foetus and the murder of her husband(Yajnavalkya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cKSkr.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cKSkr.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T05:51:27.387" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15909" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-16T06:20:20.373" Score="1" ViewCount="151" Body="&lt;p&gt;Auspicious things like marriage, upanayanam, grihapravesh etc are not performed in the months of Aadi &amp;amp; Margashirsha. Both the months are prescribed for bhajans and visiting temples as per Hindu belief. Any supports from bhagavathams or scriptures why is it so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-16T08:08:20.980" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T08:08:20.980" Title="Why auspicious things not performed in Aadi and Margashirsha?" Tags="|scripture|belief|bhagavata-purana|bhavishya-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15910" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-16T07:22:56.773" Score="3" ViewCount="99" Body="&lt;p&gt;i would likely to know is there any reference in any of  Purana about OBE or Astral projection&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8148" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T07:22:56.773" Title="Is OBE or Astral projection real ? is there any reference to it in any?" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-11-16T11:13:47.847" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15911" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15912" CreationDate="2016-11-16T08:55:56.433" Score="7" ViewCount="519" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vibhuti means through which potency of Lord is expressed. Bhagvad Gita 10th chapter is itself named as Vibhuti Yoga and we find several descriptions about Vibhuti of Lord there like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आदित्यानामहं विष्णुर्ज्योतिषां रविरंशुमान् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मरीचिर्मरुतामस्मि नक्षत्राणामहं शशी ॥१०- २१॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Of the Adityas I am Vishnu, of lights I am the radiant sun, of the Maruts I am Marici, and among the stars I am the moon.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वेदानां सामवेदोऽस्मि देवानामस्मि वासवः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इन्द्रियाणां मनश्चास्मि भूतानामस्मि चेतना ॥१०- २२॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Of the Vedas I am Samaveda, of devas I am Vaasava, of the Indriyas I am Mana, of the beings I am their consciousness.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रुद्राणां शंकरश्चास्मि वित्तेशो यक्षरक्षसाम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वसूनां पावकश्चास्मि मेरुः शिखरिणामहम् ॥१०- २३॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Of Rudras I&amp;apos;m Shankara, of Yaksha I&amp;apos;m Vittesha , of Vasus I&amp;apos;m Pavaka and of mountains I&amp;apos;m Meru.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And so on. As I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11529/i-want-scripture-based-explanation-for-god-is-everywhere/15705#15705&quot;&gt;here,&lt;/a&gt; Brahman is equated to be everything of this universe. Like SataRudriya states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Salutations to him who is chariot itself, maker of chariot, rider of chariot, charioteer, horses and lord of horses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10584/how-does-the-names-and-events-reoccur-in-different-manvantara-or-kalpa-or-differ/15573#15573&quot;&gt;here,&lt;/a&gt; Shiva Purana states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मादितृणपर्यन्तं यत्किञ्चिद्दृश्यते त्विह ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्सर्वं शिव एवास्ति मिथ्या नानात्व कल्पना ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Right from Brahma to the twig of leaf, ie . Everything in this Universe is Shiva himself. The concept of manifestation is not real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Brahman is equated with everything of this Universe. But still for describing Brahman he can be described through his various Vibhutis which are present in this world. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Various Vibhutis of Lord Shiva are stated itself in Yajurveda Sata Rudriya Hymn. But, &lt;strong&gt;are there any instances in Mahabharata where Vibhutis of Lord Shiva is spoken?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T02:33:29.510" Title="What are the Vibhutis of Lord Shiva as told in Mahabharata?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|shiva|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15912" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15911" CreationDate="2016-11-16T08:58:57.097" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 14&lt;/a&gt; of Anushashana Parva of Mahabharata various Vibhutis of Lord Shiva are told. Lord Krishna is narrating these verses to Yudhisthira (and others) which were previously told by Upamanyu while praising Mahadeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्वं नो गतिश्च श्रेष्ठस्च त्वमेव हृदयं तथा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वं ब्रह्मा सर्वदेवानां रुद्राणां निललोहित ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are the most superior path among Paths. You are heart of all. You are &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; among all &lt;strong&gt;Devas&lt;/strong&gt; and You are &lt;strong&gt;Nilalohita&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आत्मा च सर्वभूतानां सांख्ये पुरुष उच्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ऋषभस्त्वं पवित्राणां योगिनां निष्कल शिव।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are all Pervading Atman. You are &lt;strong&gt;Purush&lt;/strong&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Sankhya.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Rishabha&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;sacred things&lt;/strong&gt; and you are that whom yogis call Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गृहस्थत्वत्वमाश्रमीणामीश्वराणां महेश्वर ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कुबेरः सर्वयक्षाणां क्रतूनां विष्णुरुच्यते ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are &lt;strong&gt;Grihastha ashrama&lt;/strong&gt; among the &lt;strong&gt;ashramas.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Maheswara&lt;/strong&gt; in the &lt;strong&gt;Ishwara.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Kubera&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;Yakshas&lt;/strong&gt; and You are &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; in the &lt;strong&gt;Yajnas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पर्वतानां भवान् मेरुर्नक्षत्राणां च चन्द्रमा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वसिष्ठस्त्त्वमृषिणां च ग्रहाणां सूर्य उच्यते ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are &lt;strong&gt;Meru&lt;/strong&gt; among the &lt;strong&gt;mountains.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Chandrama&lt;/strong&gt; among the &lt;strong&gt;Nakshtras.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Vasistha&lt;/strong&gt; among the &lt;strong&gt;Rishis&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Surya&lt;/strong&gt; among the &lt;strong&gt;planets.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आरण्यानां पशूनां च सिंहस्त्त्वं परमेश्वर ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ग्राम्याणां गोवृषश्वासि भवाॅल्लोकप्रपूजित।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Parameshwara! You are &lt;strong&gt;Lion&lt;/strong&gt; among the &lt;strong&gt;animals which live in forest&lt;/strong&gt; and You are &lt;strong&gt;Ox&lt;/strong&gt; among the &lt;strong&gt;domestic animals&lt;/strong&gt; which is worshipped by the whole world.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आदित्यानां भवान् विष्णुर्वसुनां चैव पावक ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पक्षिणां चैनतेयस्त्वमनन्तो भुजगेषु च ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; among the &lt;strong&gt;Adityas.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Pavaka&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;Vasus.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Garuda&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;birds&lt;/strong&gt; and You are &lt;strong&gt;Ananta&lt;/strong&gt; among the &lt;strong&gt;snakes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सामवेदश्च वेदानां यजुषां शतरुद्रियम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सनत्कुमारो योगीनां सांख्यानां कपिलो ह्यसी ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are &lt;strong&gt;Samaveda&lt;/strong&gt; among the &lt;strong&gt;Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;SataRudriya&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; inside &lt;strong&gt;Yajurveda.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Sanatkumara&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;Yogis&lt;/strong&gt; and You are &lt;strong&gt;Kapila&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;Sankhyas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शक्रोऽसि मरुतां देव पितृणां ह्व्यवाडसि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्रह्मलोकश्च लोकानां गतीनां मोक्ष उच्यसे ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are &lt;strong&gt;Marut&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;Shakra.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Devarata&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;Pitris.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Loka&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;Lokas&lt;/strong&gt; and You are &lt;strong&gt;Moksha&lt;/strong&gt; among the &lt;strong&gt;attainments.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  क्षीरोदः सागराणां च शैलानां हिमवान् गिरिः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वर्णनां ब्रह्माणाश्चासि विप्राणां दीक्षितो द्विज ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are &lt;strong&gt;Kshira Sagara&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;oceans.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Himavan&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;ShailaGiri.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;Varnas&lt;/strong&gt; and You are &lt;strong&gt;initiated Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt; among &lt;strong&gt;Brahmanas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आदिस्त्वमसि लोकानां संहर्ता काल एव च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यच्चान्यदपि लोके वै सर्वतेजोऽधिकंस्मृतम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are &lt;strong&gt;origin&lt;/strong&gt; of this world and you are destroyer and &lt;strong&gt;Kaala&lt;/strong&gt; of this world. &lt;strong&gt;Whatever there is in this world with brilliancy, you are remembered by that.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-11-17T02:33:29.510" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T02:33:29.510" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15913" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-16T09:39:01.640" Score="7" ViewCount="1274" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is usually believed that tapping &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_(anatomy)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;temples on forehead&lt;/a&gt; five times with closed fists, accompanied with the recitation of the &quot;Suklambaradharam...&quot; sloka is a shortcut method of worshiping Lord Mahaganapaty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Mahaganapaty is to be worshiped first, many rituals, including Sandhyavandanam, employ this shortcut.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://vishuji.org/sandhya_vandanam.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vighnesvara Dhyanam Meditation on Lord Vighnesvara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While reciting the following mantra, gently tap the two sides of the&#xA;  forehead with the fists five times with the thought that thereby the&#xA;  nectar (amruta) in the head flows down through all the nerves and&#xA;  invigorates them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    Shuklambaradharam Vishnum&#xA;    Sasivarnam Chaturbhujam,&#xA;    Prasannavadanam dhyayeh,&#xA;    Sarva-vighnopasantaye&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ls71V.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ls71V.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that the Soma ,as a result of the tapping, flows down from the Sahasrara chakra  to bath Ganapaty who is seated below in the Muladhara Chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU2RWGmzhv0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a video demonstrating the the process (move to 2.37 mins).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question-Which scriptures mention about this process?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note-I am &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; asking  about the &lt;strong&gt;process&lt;/strong&gt; here &amp;amp; not about the sloka &quot;Suklaambaradharam...&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T05:49:12.183" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T05:49:12.183" Title="Tapping temples (on forehead) and worship of Mahaganapaty" Tags="|scripture|rituals|ganesha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15914" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-16T09:41:19.700" Score="3" ViewCount="112" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Lord Vishnu entered universe to make it stable. Why Universe was unstable when Lord Brahma created it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-16T09:58:08.790" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T09:58:08.790" Title="Why Universe was unstable when Lord Brahma created it?" Tags="|history|creation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15915" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-16T11:00:13.620" Score="5" ViewCount="649" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that Vishnu Sahasranamam comprises of 1000 names of Maha Vishnu. Out of these 1000 names, Parasara bhattar had picked 171 namavalis which is very useful, for example - 'Om Bhuve Namaha' can help to get wealth and 'Om Sarvapraharanayudhaya Namaha' can help get rid of difficulties of all sorts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone have the 171 namavalis? If they put the namavali with meaning it will be useful for the members in this community to chant daily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T06:33:31.890" LastActivityDate="2020-11-08T10:06:10.570" Title="Can we get Parasara Bhattar's 171 Namavalis extracted from Vishnu sahasranamam?" Tags="|mantras|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15916" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-16T11:41:35.100" Score="6" ViewCount="1757" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who are these people in this picture? I bought it in India but I can only remember that the blue guy is Shiva. I have no idea who the others are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/k1C0R.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/k1C0R.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8211" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-11-16T17:35:15.017" LastActivityDate="2016-12-06T15:06:17.283" Title="Who are the other people in this Shiva picture?" Tags="|gods|identification-request|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15917" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15929" CreationDate="2016-11-16T11:44:27.820" Score="17" ViewCount="19769" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many of our sisters and mothers wear the &lt;strong&gt;Mangala Sutra&lt;/strong&gt;. The question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/119/2995&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why do brides wear a mangal sutra?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; answers why they wear it in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But my question is:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nowadays we see many working women who don't prefer to wear the Mangala Sutra to work, they just keep it in a cupboard before going to work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is a married woman allowed to take out her Mangala Sutra and keep it anywhere for the sake of convenience?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do the shastras say in this regard?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2019-11-24T18:40:52.920" Title="Can a married woman take out her Mangala Sutra and keep it anywhere?" Tags="|culture|dharma|tradition|scripture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15918" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15916" CreationDate="2016-11-16T11:52:38.997" Score="7" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The bull in figure is the mount of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shiva&amp;amp;oldid=749801916&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/a&gt; (who is in blue color in picture) is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nandi_(bull)&amp;amp;oldid=747065295&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nandi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The lady in figure is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Parvati&amp;amp;oldid=744614928&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Goddess Parvati&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The boy having elephant face is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ganesha&amp;amp;oldid=747311779&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Ganesha&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The other boy in picture is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kartikeya&amp;amp;oldid=748260212&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Kartikeya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T11:52:38.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15919" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15916" CreationDate="2016-11-16T11:54:57.700" Score="6" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Elephant headed god who is sitting on the lap of &quot;Shiva&quot; is Lord&#xA;Ganesha.    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;To the left of &quot;Shiva&quot; is goddess Parvathi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;To the    Left of Parvathi is Karthikeya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Bull which you can see rightmost corner of Shiva is known as Nandi which serves as the mount&#xA;(Sanskrit: Vahana) of the god Shiva and as the gatekeeper of Shiva&#xA;and Parvati.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-16T12:02:16.733" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T12:02:16.733" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15920" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15904" CreationDate="2016-11-16T12:26:19.743" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sage Vyasa gives the following reasons for having written the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;As the full-moon by its mild light expandeth the buds of the water-lily, so this Purana, by exposing the light of the Sruti hath&#xA;  expanded the human intellect.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Mahabharata Adi Parva I)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In former days, having placed the four Vedas on one side and the Bharata on the other, these were weighed in the balance by the&#xA;  celestials assembled for the purpose. And as the later weighed heavier than the four Vedas with their mysteries, from that period it hath been called in the world Mahabharata. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Mahabharata Adi Parva I)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This Bharata consists of a hundred thousand sacred slokas composed by the son of Satyavati, of immeasurable mental power. He that reads&#xA;  it to others, and they that hear it read, attain the world of Brahman&#xA;  and become equal to the very gods. This Bharata is equal unto the&#xA;  Vedas, is holy and excellent; is the worthiest of all to be listened&#xA;  to, and is a Purana worshipped by the Rishis. It contains much useful&#xA;  instruction on Artha and Kama. This sacred history maketh the heart&#xA;  desire for salvation. Learned persons by reciting this Veda of&#xA;  Krishna-Dwaipayana to those that are liberal, truthful, and believing,&#xA;  earn much wealth. &lt;strong&gt;Sins such as killing the embryo in the womb&lt;/strong&gt;, are&#xA;  destroyed assuredly by this.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Mahabharata Adi Parva LXII)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Killing the embryo in the womb is specifically mentioned as a sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T12:26:19.743" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15921" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15916" CreationDate="2016-11-16T12:31:48.007" Score="1" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Siva's family comprising Lord shiva himself as u mentioned and  his&#xA;  wife Parvathi [Lord Vishnu's sister]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The elephant trunk boy is Lord Ganesha [remover of obstacles] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the left side of Parvati is Lord Subramanya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The bull is Nandikeswara the gate keeper of Lord Siva. At Pradosha time first abhishekam will be done to Nandikeswara and then only to Lord Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T12:31:48.007" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15922" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2983" CreationDate="2016-11-16T14:21:58.523" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The goal is eternal happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Eternal Happiness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira said,’… Even thus, endued with actions, creatures come&#xA;  into this wheel of life that is continually turning like the wheel of&#xA;  a car, and even thus, coming thither, they meet with their&#xA;  fellow-creatures. &lt;strong&gt;He, however, who abandons the worldly course of&#xA;  life,&lt;/strong&gt; which is really a fleeting illusion although it looks eternal,&#xA;  and which is afflicted by birth, death, decrepitude, disease, and&#xA;  pain, &lt;strong&gt;is sure to obtain happiness&lt;/strong&gt;. When again, the very gods fall&#xA;  down from heaven and great Rishis from their respective positions of&#xA;  eminence who, that is acquainted with truths of causes (and effects)&#xA;  would wish to have even heavenly prosperity? ..... Reflecting on these&#xA;  circumstances, this nectar of wisdom hath come to me. Having attained&#xA;  it, I desire to get a permanent, eternal, and unchangeable place (for&#xA;  myself). Always (conducting myself) with such wisdom and acting in&#xA;  this way, I shall, by betaking myself to that fearless path of life,&#xA;  terminate this physical frame that is subject to birth, death,&#xA;  decrepitude, disease, and pain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section IX&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T14:21:58.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15923" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13744" CreationDate="2016-11-16T17:54:24.200" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was unable to find a solid reference, but this book claims that it's narrated within the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=DOAoAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA214&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://books.google.com/books?id=DOAoAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA214&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See note 52.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Yahoo Answers thread seems to link it to the Vishnu Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110302093727AAai56U&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110302093727AAai56U&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good luck!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T17:54:24.200" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15924" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15925" CreationDate="2016-11-16T19:15:28.833" Score="12" ViewCount="728" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was raised at LDS (Mormon) in the United States of America. My only real experience with Hinduism is my readings of the Bhagavad Gita this summer (Isherwood translation with introduction by Aldous Huxley).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How central is the Bhagavad Gita to the Hindu religion? How well does it represent Hinduism, standing alone? Is it considered outdated in parts (as the Old Testament is, in Christianity)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8216" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-11-19T11:21:55.207" LastActivityDate="2016-12-13T11:42:30.047" Title="How important is the Bhagavad Gita when compared to other Hindu texts?" Tags="|scripture|bhagavad-gita|other-religions|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15925" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15924" CreationDate="2016-11-16T20:14:10.217" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://web.archive.org/web/20160711001730/http://www.arshavidya.org/Swami-Tattvavidananda.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Tattvavidananda Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsha_Vidya_Gurukulam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arsha Vidya Gurukulam&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.avgsatsang.org/hhstvs/pdf/Essentials_of_Hindu_Dharma_Part_One.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;writes&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swamiji, is there some basic text, for example, the Bible in Christianity, that defines the Hindu religion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Answer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, we have a galaxy of saints, prophets and incarnations of God. We have also inherited a large collection of books. And thus if I have to name a book which represents the essence of Hinduism, it becomes a daunting task. Despite this difficulty, &lt;strong&gt;if I am pressed to point out one and only one book, then I would have to say that the book of the Bhagavad Gita represents the essence of Hinduism.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-11-16T20:14:10.217" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15926" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15934" CreationDate="2016-11-16T20:26:33.310" Score="6" ViewCount="443" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Kama Sutra seems to state that early in life, it is best to focus on artha and kama, and that only later in life should we truly seek dharma. Is this interpretation correct? Is it useless to seek dharma early in life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so, when do we know that it is time to release artha and kama and seek dharma? Is it a certain age? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8216" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T07:56:43.120" Title="When should one shift focus from artha and kama to dharma?" Tags="|dharma|kama|artha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15927" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15924" CreationDate="2016-11-16T23:46:46.717" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata is said to contain all information available anywhere about the four aims of life: wealth (achievement), pleasure (enjoyment), Dharma (righteousness), and salvation (Moksha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavad Gita is said to be the culmination of the Mahabharata, and I believe Book 2, Verse 3 is said to be the essence of the Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्लैब्यं मा स्म गम: पार्थ नैतत्तवय्युपपद्यते |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्षुद्रं हृदयदौर्बल्यं त्यक्त्वोत्तिष्ठ परन्तप || 3||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Parth, it does not befit you to yield to this unmanliness. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O vanquisher of enemies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8163" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-19T12:04:16.300" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T12:04:16.300" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15929" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15917" CreationDate="2016-11-17T02:27:13.307" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No. A married woman is not allowed to remove mangal sutra for the sake of convenience.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you have said in the question, we see many people who do not wear mangal sutra to offices and to some social gatherings. But it is not allowed to remove it by her own will. This also applies to men who are not wearing Yagnopaveetha(sacred thread). It is not an ordinary jewel or a necklace to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are very few exceptions to remove it from her neck when her husband is alive. They are-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When her husband asks her to remove it to wear any other jewel and ties it again without any delay .&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When mangal sutra is not in a good condition. i.e when it has become very thin due to wearing for a long time. A root of turmeric attached to a yellow thread should be worn before removing the damaged mangal sutra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It can also be removed by a sadguru in an emergency i.e when it is damaged.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A mangal sutra should not be removed from a woman's neck just as a yagnopaveetha from a man's body. These are sacred and should not be removed at any time especially for the sake of convenience. If a woman does so, it is said that it gives some dosha and effects the health of her husband.  Suvarna danam(donation of gold) should be performed to remove that dosha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEs-LO6mifc&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; YouTube video (Telugu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-11-21T10:48:02.983" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T10:48:02.983" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15930" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15931" CreationDate="2016-11-17T05:30:03.920" Score="12" ViewCount="6523" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are offerings to &lt;code&gt;shivalinga&lt;/code&gt; and what are fruits of it? It is said that if we offer water of river &lt;strong&gt;Ganga&lt;/strong&gt;, we attain &lt;code&gt;Moksha&lt;/code&gt; after death, similarly milk is offered for long life. But this information is not authentic as I read on websites. Also I could not find similar questions on stack exchange site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please provide authentic information of what fruit is obtained by specific offering. I would love to hear the related source or scripture too, for instance Shiva or Linga Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-11-17T11:09:46.117" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T10:43:14.363" Title="What are offerings to shivalinga and what are fruits of it?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15931" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15930" CreationDate="2016-11-17T06:02:59.153" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The details of how to perform Shiva Linga Archana(including the details of mantras to be used etc) are briefed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lingaarchana&lt;/a&gt; chapter of LingaPurana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Rishis asked Lomaharshana Maharshi as to the Procedure of&#xA;  Lingaarchana or Worship the Shiva Linga, the Maharshi stated that once&#xA;  Devi Parvati also inquired of  the same and Shiva Himself revealed the&#xA;  Procedure:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, we gather the following information regarding what are the objects/items that should be offered to a Shiva Linga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maharshi Lomavarshana now described the actual Procedure of&#xA;  Rudraabhisheka as follows......Then Shiva is seated at the Center&#xA;  firmly; He  would be seated as Sadyojata Shiva with the Mantra of&#xA;  Vaamaa Deva; Rudra Gayatri is seated with Aghora Mantra; and Ishana is&#xA;  seated by reciting&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ishaanassarva Vidyaanaam Ishwarassarva Bhutaanaam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmaadipatih Brahmanoddhi Patih Brahma Shivomey astu Sadaa Shivom/ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the devotee should worship Shiva Linga with&#xA;  Paadya-Arghya-Achamanaas; perform Snaana with &lt;strong&gt;Gandha-Chandana&lt;/strong&gt;;&#xA;  implement formal Snaana with &lt;strong&gt;Pancha-Gavya&lt;/strong&gt; or of Cow’s Five Bye&#xA;  Products; carry out Abhishka with &lt;strong&gt;Ghee, Honey, Sugar, Pavitra Jala&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  along Pranava Naada. There after, clean up the residues of the&#xA;  Abhisheka material on the Linga with a clean cloth and decorate the&#xA;  Linga with flower garlands comprising fresh flowers like &lt;strong&gt;Jaati,&#xA;  Champaka, Kapura, Kannera, Chameli, and Kadamba&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,for abhisekha apart from &lt;strong&gt;water&lt;/strong&gt;(including water from holy rivers like Ganges), the &lt;strong&gt;Pancha Gavyas&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; the &lt;strong&gt;Panchamritas&lt;/strong&gt; are required alongwith &lt;strong&gt;sandal paste&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further info gathered from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of the same Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In all the months, the puja must be performed by &lt;strong&gt;lotus either in the&#xA;  actual form preferably or by way of gold or silver or copper or any&#xA;  other forms.&lt;/strong&gt; Puja by &lt;strong&gt;Bilva Patra (Shri Patra)&lt;/strong&gt; again &lt;strong&gt;in actual form or&#xA;  of replicas would be a ‘must’&lt;/strong&gt;. Devi Lakshmi is stated to reside in bel&#xA;  patras, while Neel Kamal is the resident of Ambika, Shanmukha stays in&#xA;  Utpala Pushpa and &lt;strong&gt;Maha Deva is fond of Padma&lt;/strong&gt;. Dhupa or smoke made of&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;‘Guggula’ and Deepa are integral parts of the Puja as they are the&#xA;  demolishers of all kinds of sins.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For naivedya Lord Shiva likes &lt;strong&gt;Anna(rice)&lt;/strong&gt; as stated below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As for Naivedya, ‘Shuddhhaanna’ would satisfy Maha Deva;&lt;/strong&gt; in fact,&#xA;  ‘Anna Daana’ is one significant charity to the needy that Shiva is&#xA;  always desirous of on any day, especially on Puranamasi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ingredients for Shiva Abhisheka on special months are also given in the same chapter like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kartika Month: The entire month is of significance and daily&#xA;  Shivaarchana-Abhisheka with Sacred water, Milk, Coconut water, Curd,&#xA;  Ghee, Chandana, and Bhasma with Maha Nyasa Purvaka, Maha Rudra Purvaka&#xA;  Snaanaas to Shiva Linga,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Relative importance of offering/bathing Lingam with water,milk,ghee etc , taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of the Linga Purana, are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mere ‘darshana’ of such Sacred Tirthas is of considerable value, but&#xA;  ‘sparshana’ or touch and fondling of a Shiva Linga is hundred times&#xA;  better;  &lt;strong&gt;Abhisheka of Shiva Lingas with water is hundred times better;&#xA;  Abhisheka with milk is thousand times better; far better is the&#xA;  Abhisheka with curds; with Madhu or honey it is regarded as better&#xA;  still and  even better would be the Abhisheka by ghee.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am unable to find,though, the exact rewards for offering each of the above items to Shiva Lingam.Although I think that they are present in some Scriptures(telling you that from my memory). Will be on look out for those.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;-In general by the worship of Shiva Linga one gets everything starting from worldly benefits to Moksha,but I'm yet found the exact fruits of offering specific objects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the  &lt;a href=&quot;http://%20Shiva%20Linga%20Pratishta%20Vidhi%20and%20Mahatmya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Linga Pratishta Vidhi and Mahatmya&lt;/a&gt; chapter of Linga Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Linga Devi Uma Devi Lingam Saakshaanmaheswarah /&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tayoh sapujanaa Deva Devascha Pujitou,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pratishthayaa cha Devesho Devyaa saardham prtishthitah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Muley Brahmaa vasati Bhagavan Madhya bhaagey cha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnuh Sarveshaanah Pashupati rajo Rudramurthirvarenyah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tasmaalingam Gurutatataram Pujatsthaapayedhaa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasmaad pujyo Ganapatirasau Deva Mukhyaih samastaih/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gandhaih snugdhupa deepaih snapanahuta balistotrra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mantropahaaraih nityam  yebhyarchayaanti tridasha vastunam Linga&#xA;  murtey Mahesham/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tasmaat Bhaktopchaarena Staapayet Parameshwaram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pujayeccha visheshena Lingam Sarvaartha siddhayai/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedi of the Shiva Linga is Uma Devi herself and the Linga is&#xA;  Maheswara himself; thus the Linga ought to be installed along with the&#xA;  Vedi. The Shiva Linga’s bottom is signified as Brahma and the middle&#xA;  part is signified as Vishnu and the top portion is Maheswara himself.&#xA;  This is why the high significance of the Rudra Swarupa Pashupati. By&#xA;  installing the Linga thus, regular pujas should be performed most&#xA;  sincerely along with Gandha, Dhupa, Deepa, Snaana, Havana, Bali,&#xA;  Stotra, Mantra and Upahaara. &lt;strong&gt;Nitya Puja is a must and this would&#xA;  ensure freedom from ‘Punarjanma’ or rebirth, Shiva Loka Prapti and&#xA;  worship-worthiness of Deva-Gandharva-Siddha and Shiva ganaas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-11-21T10:43:14.363" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T10:43:14.363" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15932" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15892" CreationDate="2016-11-17T06:09:24.660" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In general Lord Shiva loves Anna(rice) for Naivedya and also anna daanas(charity).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; chapter of Linga Purana states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As for Naivedya, ‘Shuddhhaanna’ would satisfy Maha Deva; in fact,&#xA;  ‘Anna Daana’ is one significant charity to the needy that Shiva is&#xA;  always desirous of on any day, &lt;strong&gt;especially on Pouranamasi&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If this anna abhishekam is done every poornima [full moon] or on selected months poornima only? If so which months?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  above passage shows that Lord Shiva loves anna charity specially on Purnimas.The following passage from the same Purana shows that it is of special significance in the Karthika month:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kartika Month: &lt;strong&gt;The entire month is of signifinance and daily&#xA;  Shivaarchana-Abhisheka with Sacred water, Milk, Coconut water, Curd,&#xA;  Ghee, Chandana, and Bhasma&lt;/strong&gt; with Maha Nyasa Purvaka, Maha Rudra Purvaka&#xA;  Snaanaas to Shiva Linga, Day long fasting and Alpaahara in the nights,&#xA;  complete abstinence, Bhu Shayana and various sacrifices should be in&#xA;  place; all kinds of Daanaas on anyday or as many days  are encouraged&#xA;  in the Month and similarly Pandita Seva of any kind would be fruitful&#xA;  in the Month. &lt;strong&gt;Emphasis is stressed on Anna Daanaas during the month.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Pujas ,Rudraabhisekhams are of special significance on Purnima Tithis in general &amp;amp; not just on the Karthika Purnima.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rewards of performing Shiva Puja,Abhisekhams ,Vratas etc on  Purnimas of various months,given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; Linga Purana chapter, are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva Vratas were also prescribed by Nandi Deva to Skanda as follows: &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Pushya Purnami&lt;/strong&gt;: Shiva Pujaabhisheka with Ghrita, Ksheera, Dadhi etc  followed by Brahmana bhojana and Godaana , Ratri bhojana;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Phala: Brahmaloka Prapti&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chaitra Purnima&lt;/strong&gt;: Shiva Pujaabhisheka, Raatri bhojana of rice and ghee, Brahmana Bhojana and daana of two white cows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaishakha Purnami&lt;/strong&gt;: Shiva Pujaabhisheka with Panchagavyas, Ratri bhojana, Brahmana Bhojana and Go-Daana; &lt;strong&gt;Phala: Ashwamedha Yagna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jeyshtha Purnima&lt;/strong&gt;: Shiva Pujaabhisheka, Ratri Bhojana, Brahmana Seva and Dhumravarna Godaana; &lt;strong&gt;Phala: Vaayu loka prapti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ashadha Purnima&lt;/strong&gt;: Shiva Pujabhisheka, Ratri bhojana, Brahmana Seva, Gaura varna Godaana; &lt;strong&gt;Phala: Varuna Loka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shravana Purnima&lt;/strong&gt;: Shiva Pujaabhisheka, Ratri Bhojana, Vrushabha daana; &lt;strong&gt;Phala:Vayu loka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhadrapada Purnima:&lt;/strong&gt; Havana, Abhishka and Puja; Veda Parayana, Brahmana puja, Vrishabha dwaya daana &lt;strong&gt;Phala: Yaksha loka Rajastwa&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ashviyuja Purnima&lt;/strong&gt;: Shiva Pujaabhisheka, day long fast, Brahmana&#xA;  Bhojana and Nila Varna Vishabha daana. &lt;strong&gt;Phala: Ishana loka prapti&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kartika Month&lt;/strong&gt;: The entire month is of signifinance and daily Shivaarchana-Abhisheka with Sacred water, Milk, Coconut water, Curd,&#xA;  Ghee, Chandana, and Bhasma with Maha Nyasa Purvaka, Maha Rudra Purvaka&#xA;  Snaanaas to Shiva Linga, Day long fasting and Alpaahara in the nights,&#xA;  complete abstinence, Bhu Shayana and various sacrifices should be in&#xA;  place; all kinds of Daanaas on anyday or as many days  are encouraged&#xA;  in the Month and similarly Pandita Seva of any kind would be fruitful&#xA;  in the Month. Emphasis is stressed on Anna Daanaas during the month.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Phala: Surya Loka Prapti.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Margasirsha&lt;/strong&gt; Month is considered an an extension of the previous month when again austerities would spill over from the previous month;&#xA;  Upavaasaas, Shiva worship by way of Abhishekas, Brahmana Sevas,  Anna&#xA;  and other kinds of daanaas especially to Daridras, would be of&#xA;  significance and the Phala would be of &lt;strong&gt;Chandra loka prapti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-17T08:28:32.530" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T08:28:32.530" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15933" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-17T07:35:12.950" Score="6" ViewCount="2071" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Prajapati Daksha's daughter, Sati, married Lord Shiva is well known. And also that, Daksha organized a great yajna, in which Sati jumped into the sacrificial fire and committed suicide. Sati died, but her corpse did not burn. Virabhadra was sent by Lord Shiva to decapitate Daksha for being responsible for Sati's death and Shiva forgave by resurrecting him. The wild, grief-stricken Shiva wandered the universe with Sati's corpse. Finally, the lord Vishnu dismembered the body of Sati into 52 parts, each of which became Shakti Peetha, temple to a form of the Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the well know story of Sati and origins of the Shakti Peethas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the source of this popular story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-17T15:49:02.877" LastActivityDate="2017-01-09T18:40:24.717" Title="Which Purana mentions about Sati's death?" Tags="|vishnu|scripture|shiva|puranas|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15934" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15926" CreationDate="2016-11-17T07:56:43.120" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you meant &lt;strong&gt;in what stage of life should one shift focus to Moksha from Artha,Kama etc?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that is possibly what was  meant in the book you are referring to.My answer is based on this assumption.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/brahma/bookview.php?chapnum=22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sadaachaaraa Varnana&lt;/a&gt;(Descriptions of righteous living) chapter of the Brahma Purana,Maharshi Veda Vyasa precisely answers the question you raised:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Munis requested the Maharshi(Vyasa) to outline the rudiments of&#xA;  ‘Sadaachaara’ or the fundamentals of Ideal Values of Virtuous Life&#xA;  viz. or the Worthy Principles of Moral  Conduct / Good Behavior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Grihastena Sadaakaarya maachaara pari-rakshanam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nahyaachaara viheenasya bhadramatra paratravaa,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yagna daana tapaaseeha Purushasya na bhuyatey,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhavanti yah sadaachaaram samullanghya pravartatey/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Grihastaas or family-persons ought to observe and protect Sadaachaara&#xA;  Pravartana as those without it would neither have ‘Iham’ / the&#xA;  contentment of current life or ‘Param’of post-life; to those who&#xA;  neglect the principles of Sadaachaara are not eligible to  the fruits&#xA;  of Yagna- Daana-Tapa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He continues:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Grihastaas are expected to follow the basic principles of Dharma-Artha&#xA;  and Kaama during the first three quarters of one’s life &lt;strong&gt;and in the&#xA;  last quarter of life to activities pertaining to Moksha.&lt;/strong&gt; Also, half of&#xA;  one’s expected span of life is to be spent with the deeds oriented to&#xA;  Nitya-Naimittika Karmas or daily and occasional tasks of virtue; the&#xA;  persons concerned might perform such deeds as  to involve&#xA;  Bharana-Poshana or sustenance and ful-fillment of family needs. &lt;strong&gt;But&#xA;  the last quarter of life should be exclusively spent on activitees&#xA;  aiming at the collection of ‘Mula Dhana’ of fruits meant for the&#xA;  aftermath of life .&lt;/strong&gt; In other words, &lt;strong&gt;‘Dharmaacharana’or practice of&#xA;  Virtue has to be an under-current in the Samsaara Sagara in all the&#xA;  phases of life, especially in the last quarter of life.&lt;/strong&gt; Care must be&#xA;  taken that each of the ‘Purusharthas’should not be contradictory to&#xA;  each other. &lt;strong&gt;In other words, Dharma should propel such Artha that&#xA;  should not inhibit Dharma; Kaama should not defeat the aspect of&#xA;  Dharma and Artha and likewise Moksha has to be a logical conclusion of&#xA;  the preceding Purusharthas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, assuming one lives for 100 years,&lt;strong&gt;he/she should exclusively yearn for Moksha and act towards achieving it from the 75th year onward.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please also go through all the other important aspects which are  highlighted in the passage above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T07:56:43.120" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15936" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15953" CreationDate="2016-11-17T11:07:02.040" Score="13" ViewCount="36653" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the caste that Lord Sri Krishna was born into? Was it Kshatriya (warrior) or Yadava (shepherd)? People from the Yadava community claim that Sri Krishna is a Yadava and was born into their caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Lord Krishna a Kshatriya or a Yadava or is he born into a Kshatriya dynasty named Yadavas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-10-02T19:04:34.893" LastActivityDate="2023-10-02T19:04:34.893" Title="Which caste was Lord Krishna born into?" Tags="|krishna|caste-system|kshatriya|chandravansh|yadavas|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15937" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15933" CreationDate="2016-11-17T12:30:08.373" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu cutting off Sati's body in pieces and the subsequent creation of the Shakti Pithas is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatam37-5.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;book 7,chapter XXX of the Devi Bhagavatam.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He, the Ocean of Mercy, destroyed the sacrifice of Daksa, cut off his&#xA;  head and instead placed the head of a goat, brought him back to life&#xA;  and thus made the Gods free from all fears. He, the Deva of the Devas,&#xA;  then became very much distressed and going to the place of sacrifice,&#xA;  began to weep in great sorrow. He saw that the body of the Intelligent&#xA;  Satî was being burnt in the fire of the Chitâ. He cried aloud :– Oh my&#xA;  Satî! Oh My Satî! And taking Her body on His neck, began to roam in&#xA;  different countries, like a mad man. Seeing that, Brahmâ and the other&#xA;  Devas became very anxious &lt;strong&gt;and Bhagavân Visnu cut off the body to&#xA;  pieces by His arrows. Wherever the parts fell, S’ankara remained there&#xA;  in so many different forms.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Janamejaya enquired:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;51-52. Janamejaya said :– Where, in what places the several parts of&#xA;  the Satî fell? What are the names of those Siddhapîthas? And what is&#xA;  their number? Kindly describe these in detail, O Great Muni&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;53-102. Vyâsa said :– O King! I will now describe those Pîthas (Sacred&#xA;  places), the mere hearing of which destroys all the sins of men. Hear.&#xA;  I describe duly those places where the persons desiring to get lordly&#xA;  powers and to attain success ought to worship and meditate on the&#xA;  Devî. O Mahârâja! The face of Gaurî fell in Kâs’î; She is well known&#xA;  there by the name Vis’âlâksî; that which fell in Naimisâranya became&#xA;  known by the name of Linga Dhârinî. This Mahâ Mâyâ is known in Prayâg&#xA;  (Allahabad) by the name of Lalitâ Devî; in Gandha Mâdan, by the name&#xA;  of Kâmukî; in the southern Mânasa, by Kumudâ; in the northern Mânasa,&#xA;  by Visvakâmâ, the Yielder of all desires; in Gomanta, by Gomatî and in&#xA;  the mountain of Mandara, She became known by the name of Kâmachârinî.&#xA;  The Devî is known in Chaitraratha, by the name of of Madotkatâ; in&#xA;  Hastinâpura, by Jayantî; in Kânyakubja by the name of Gaurî; in the&#xA;  Malaya Mountain, by Rambhâ; in the Ekâmrapîtha, by Kîrtimatî, in&#xA;  Vis’ve, by the name of Vis’ves’varî; in Puskara, by the name of&#xA;  Puruhûtâ. She is known as Sanmârga Dâyinî in the Kedâra Pîtha; as&#xA;  Mandâ, in the top of the Himâlayâs; and as Bhadrakarnikâ in Gokarna.&#xA;  She is known as Bhavânî in Sthanes’vara, as Vilvapatrikâ in Vilvake;&#xA;  as Mâdhavi in S’rîs’aila; as Bhadrâ in Bhadres’vara. She is known as&#xA;  Jarâ in Varâha S’aila; as Kamalâ in Kamalâlaya; as Rudranî in Rudra&#xA;  Kotî; as Kâlî in Kâlanjara; She is known as Mahâ Devî in S’âlagrâma,&#xA;  as Jalapriyâ in S’ivalingam; as Kapilâ in Mahâlingam, as Mukutes’varî&#xA;  in Mâkota. As Kumarî in Mâyâpurî, as Lalitâmbikâ in Santânâ; as&#xA;  Mangalâ in Gayâ Ksetra, as Vimalâ in Purusottama. As Utpalâksî in&#xA;  Sahasrâksa; as Mahotpalâ in Hiranyâksa; as Amoghâksî in the Vipâsâ&#xA;  river; as Pâtalâ in Pundra Vardhana. As Nârâyanî in Supârs’va, as&#xA;  Rudra Sundarî in Trikûta; as Vipulâ Devî in Vipulâ; as Kalyânî in&#xA;  Malayâchala. As Ekavîrâ, in Sahyâdri; as Chandrikâ in Haris’chandra;&#xA;  as Ramanâ in Râma Tîrtha; as Mrigâvatî in the Yamunâ. As Kotivî in&#xA;  Kotatîrtha; as Sugandhâ in Mâdhavavana; as Trisandhyâ in the Godâvarî;&#xA;  as Ratipriyâ in Gangâdvâra. As S’ubhânandâ in S’iva Kundam, as Nandinî&#xA;  in Devîkâtata; as Rukminî in Dvâravatî; as Râdhâ in Brindâvana. As&#xA;  Devakî in Mathurâ; as Parames’varî in Pâtâla; as Sîtâ in Chitrakuta;&#xA;  as Vindhyâdhivâsinî in the Vindhyâ range. O King! As Mahâlaksmî in the&#xA;  sacred place of Karavîra, as Umâ Devî in Vinâyaka; as Ârogyâ in&#xA;  Vaidyânâtha; as Mahes’varî in Mahâkâla, as Abhayâ in all the Usna&#xA;  tîrthas, as Nitambâ in the Vindhyâ mountain; as Mândavî in Mândavya;&#xA;  as Svâhâ in Mâhes’varîpûra. As Prachandâ in Chhagalanda, as Chandikâ&#xA;  in Amarakantaka; as Varârohâ in Somes’vara; as Puskarâvatî in&#xA;  Prabhâsa. As Devamâtâ in Sarasvatî; as Parâvârâ in Samudrtata; as&#xA;  Mahâbhâgâ in Mahâlayâ, as Pingales’varî in Payosnî. As Simhikâ in&#xA;  Kritas’aucha; as Atis’ânkârî in Kârtika; as Lolâ in Utpalâvartaka; as&#xA;  Subhadrâ in S’ona Sangam. As the Mother Laksmî in Siddhavana; as&#xA;  Anangâ in Bhâratâs’rama; as Vis’vamukhî in Jâlandhara; as Târâ in the&#xA;  Kiskindhya mountain. As Pustî in Devadâru Vana; as Medhâ in&#xA;  Kâs’mîramandalam......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not quoted all the Pithas but there are 108 of them in all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Janamejaya! Thus I have mentioned to you the &lt;strong&gt;one hundred and eight&#xA;  pîthas (sacred places or seats of the Deity) and as many Devîs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-27T14:59:22.077" LastActivityDate="2016-12-27T14:59:22.077" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15938" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15972" CreationDate="2016-11-17T13:02:56.480" Score="12" ViewCount="1765" Body="&lt;p&gt;Women are generally loving and we worship women in the form of Lakshmi, Saraswati, Parvati, Durga and others. Our scriptures also tell us to respect women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/3hVLgigkFXs&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; YouTube video says that some women possess negative characteristics as explained by Ravana to his wife Mandodari. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any of it mentioned in any Ramayana or other texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the source of the video's claims?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do our scriptures say anything about the negative traits of women or which women to avoid in general?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4974" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-19T06:16:32.123" LastActivityDate="2022-01-29T06:51:25.730" Title="Negative Characterisitcs of Women - Ravana" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|ravana|women|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15941" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12502" CreationDate="2016-11-17T16:14:18.570" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 2 reasons I think why krishna considered Arjuna need to stay away from Karna with Sakthi dart:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is not the power of Vasavi Sakthi that made Krishna keep Arjuna away from Karna. It is the valor of Karna combined with Vasavi Sakthi that Krishna feared. Karna is an accomplished warrior who has a weapon that cannot be stopped by normal means. So it is a risk to let Arjuna fight Karna. Why take a big risk with the warrior(Arjuna) who holds the key for the victory?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pasupathasthra, as described by Shiva, is an offensive weapon and cannot be used as a defensive weapon like Brahmashirashtra. Once invoked, it will destroy anything in the path as well as the intended target. However, Karna is just a mere mortal, albeit a great warrior. So there is a risk that Arjuna might destroy the universe along with karna, if invoked. Read this from the sacred-texts:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhava replied, 'O powerful one. I will give to thee that favourite weapon of mine called the Pasuputa. O son of Pandu, thou art capable of holding, hurling, and withdrawing it. Neither the chief himself of the gods, nor Yama, nor the king of the Yakshas, nor Varuna, nor Vayu, knoweth it. How could men know anything of it? But, O son of Pritha, this weapon should not be hurled without adequate cause; for if hurled at any foe of little might it may destroy the whole universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Original Link: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03040.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03040.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, no where Lord Shiva mentioned that Pasupathasthra can be used to just counter other astras. He pointed out that it will destroy the foe and the universe if the foe is weak. Which means, Arjuna might successfully counter Vasavi Sakthi but might end up destroying the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8225" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T16:14:18.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15942" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="213" CreationDate="2016-11-17T16:27:46.307" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;None of the answers are upto the mark.None  actually has answered the question precisely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,here is mine:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganapaty has been given the status of &lt;strong&gt;Prathama Pujaya&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;first to be worshiped&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; by &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; as per one account and &lt;strong&gt;Lord Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; as per another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both stories are from the Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first story is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of Linga Purana and is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the time when Shiva and Parvati's marriage was taking place,Brahma accompanied by Indra &amp;amp; other Gods approached Mahadeva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That was the opportune time when Indra and Devas accompanied by Brahma&#xA;  approached Maha Deva when Dharma and Nyaaya ( Virtue and Justice) were&#xA;  at the lowest ebb and the evils perpetrated by Daitya-Danava-Rakshasas&#xA;  were abysmal. There were no barriers (Vighnas) to immorality and&#xA;  wickedness and the malevolent forces on Earth had a free play enabled&#xA;  by extremities of Tamasika and Rajasika Gunas. Rishis felt that&#xA;  besides obstructing such rampant free play of Evil, there should also&#xA;  indeed be a Facilitator of Good Deeds viz. Avighna as opposed to&#xA;  Vighna. For instance the well-meaning persons should not face&#xA;  obstacles in their Yagnas, Daanas, Vratas, Kshetra Darshanas and such&#xA;  virtuous deeds and ‘Mangala Karyas’ or of Auspicious Tasks:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;*Avighnam Yagna daanaadyaih samabhyarchya Maheswaram,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmaanam cha Harim Vipraa labheypsitavaraa yatah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tatosmaakam Surah sreshthaa sadaa vijaya sambhavah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Teshaam tatastu Vighnaarthamavighnaaya Divoukasaam/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Putraartham chaiva Naareenaam Naraanaam karma Siddhaye,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vighnesham Shankaram srashtam Ganapam stotumararhata/*&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus Devas requested that a Personification viz. Vighnesha be created &#xA;  who would give impediments to the Evil-doers and Facilities to Seekers&#xA;  of Good Deeds like women folk to grant good sons, humans to be blessed&#xA;  with Karya Siddhi or Fulfilment of Good Deeds&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the Devas offered a prayer or Stuti addressed to Lord Shiva.Lord Shiva obliged:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Devas made the above Stuti, Pinakapaani was extremely delighted and&#xA;  assured that he would neither allow any obstruction to Deva Karyas to&#xA;  be caused by any Daitya-Danava and such other mischievous forces nor&#xA;  encourage the success of any evil against virtue. Then Shiva Himself&#xA;  assumed the Golrious Form of Ganeshwara Swarupa of an Elephant Head &#xA;  or Gajaanana and of a Trishula Dhari and there were  reverberations of&#xA;  Victory sounds and rains of scented flowers from the Skies and all&#xA;  Lokas above and from all over the Yogis, Siddhaas and Sages welcoming&#xA;  the Lord of Vighnas and Avighnas as per his descretions and the&#xA;  strength of one’s own deeds. As the Bala Ganapati prostrated before&#xA;  his parents Shiva and Parvati, the latter posted kisses on the son’s&#xA;  head ......&lt;strong&gt;Shiva emphasised to Ganesha that any Puja to him, Vishnu&#xA;  or Brahma or other Devatas or Devis must be preceded by worhip to&#xA;  Ganesha first not only to assure success of the main Puja but also&#xA;  supplement the fulfillment of the desires for which the main puja was&#xA;  performed. The Prathama Puja to Ganesha should be also done with&#xA;  Dhyana-Avahana-Pushpa-Gandha-Dhupa-Deepa-Naivedyas just as the Main&#xA;  Devata of the Puja was to be performed.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;This is relevant to all&#xA;  Varnas of Brahmana-Kshatriya-Vaishya and others too&lt;/strong&gt;. Thus any&#xA;  worship, or Vrata, or Sacred and Religious Deed like Yagnas, Daanaas,&#xA;  Vivaahas, Upanayanas, Vidyaarambhas, house constructions, or for that&#xA;  matter any and every task seeking propitiousness shoud start with&#xA;  Ganesha Puja in Hindu Dharma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another account is from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Birth of Gajanana, Priority Invocation and adoration on Chaturthi&lt;/a&gt; chapter of the Varaha Purana and which is as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Devas faced a strange problem of recurring failures as and when&#xA;  they take up a fresh assignment whereas Demons seemed to be going&#xA;  ahead with novel operations, they approached Lord Siva and Devi&#xA;  Parvati to provide a solution. In reply Bhagavan Siva started thinking&#xA;  that among the Panchabhutas (Five Elements), there was an identifiable&#xA;  personification of a Deity among Prithvi (Earth), Varun (Water), Tejas&#xA;  (Fire) and Vayu (Wind God), but how was it that �Akash� (Sky) did not&#xA;  have? By so thinking Lord Siva laughed loudly and Devi Parvati could&#xA;  guess by her Jnana Shakti (Power of Knowledge) what Bhagavan was&#xA;  laughing boisterously about. From that energetic hilarity with an open&#xA;  mouth emerged a replica of Siva who was strong, handsome and powerful&#xA;  whom Devi Parvati kept gazing and got mesmerised. Lord Siva got&#xA;  annoyed by the instant reaction of Devi Parvati, became jealous of the&#xA;  Super Boy and infact got angry and cursed him saying that he would&#xA;  possess an elephant face, disproportionate belly&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Needless to say that boy is Gajanana or Lord Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then an Akashvani happened which said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...and Lord Brahma flew over the Sky and as �Akashvani�( a loud&#xA;  announcement from the Sky) declared that Devas should be grateful to&#xA;  Lord Siva to have provided the solution to the problem posed by them&#xA;  and that the various forms of Vinayak which got materialised would&#xA;  indeed ensure &lt;strong&gt;that as and when Devas ( and human beings) initiated a&#xA;  task they should invoke the blessings of Vinayak foremost&lt;/strong&gt;. As the&#xA;  announcement from Brahma was heard, Siva was by then cooled down and&#xA;  addressed Vinayaka endearingly as &lt;em&gt;Vinayako Vighnakaro Gajasyo Ganesha naamaacha Bhavasya Putrah, Yethecha Sarvam thava yanthu Bhruthya Vinayakayaah Kruura drishtah Prachandah-Vucchushma daanaadi vuvruddhva dehaha Karyeshu siddhim prati paadayanthah, Bhavaamsva Deveshu thadha makeshu kaaryashu chanteshu Mahanubhavat-Agreshu Pujam Labhatenyatha cha Vinashayishyastatha kaarya siddhim&lt;/em&gt;� ( Hey Putra! Vinayaka, Vighnakara, Gajavadana, Ganesha, Shankara Putra; all these cruel-eyed, harsh and angry Vinayaks will be your servants; those who are desirous of giving well earned materials as �daanas� or alms be provided with Siddhis or boons. At Yajnas or various Propitious Tasks, all the devotees shall be provided the highest veneration, &lt;strong&gt;lest their tasks or worships be discounted&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence, its a directive from scriptures only that Ganesha has to be always worshiped first.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-18T05:54:46.130" LastActivityDate="2016-11-18T05:54:46.130" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15943" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7127" CreationDate="2016-11-17T20:02:42.030" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;999 lost Sukta’s of Rigveda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shaunak Rishi in his Brahddevata, Katyayana’s in his Sarvanukramani,Sayan Acharya and Skand Swami in their Introduction of commentary of Rig Veda Mandal 1 Sukta 99 state that Kashyap rishi is the seer of 1000 suktas, in these suktas the number of mantras(richas/Verses) increase by one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Katyayana’s Sarvanukramani :&#xA;Katyayana writes on sukt 99&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जातवेदस एका । जातवेदस्यम् एतदादीन्येकभूयांसिसूक्तसहस्त्रमेतत्तु कश्यपार्षम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rishi Kashyap is the seer of 1000 Jatvedas suktas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shaunak Rishi’s Brahddevata :&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kashyap rishi is the seer of 1000 sukt addressed to Jatvedas which appear before the sukt addressed to Indra (Rigved Mandal 1 sukt 100). The first sukt of  these is “For Jatvedas…(जातवेदसे सुनवाम ……..Rigved Mandal 1 Sukt 99). According to Shakupanithe number of mantras increase by one(in the number of stanzas). (Brahddevata 3 -130 –B)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shadgurushishya’s Vedarth Dipika :&#xA;According to Shadgurushishya’s writings these Richa’s( verses )were 5,00,499 in number.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऋचस्तु पंचलक्षा स्युः सैकोनशतपंचकम्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In light of the above stated facts we can draw the following conclusions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kashyap rishi is the seer of Rigved Mandal 1 sukt 99, Jatvedas sukt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kashyap rishi is the seer of a total of 1000 Jatvedas sukt, including Rigved Mandal 1 sukt 99,.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rigved Mandal 1 sukt 99 is the first sukt of these 1000 sukt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;These 1000 verses, of which Kashyap rishi is seer, appear before Rigved Mandal 1 sukt 100.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In these sukt the number of mantras increase by one, from which we conclude these 1000 suktas contain a total of 500,500 richa (verses).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the extant Rigveda Samhitas we get only one of these 1000 verses, this leads us to the conclusion that 999 sukt are lost from the Rigveda. Alternatively it can be said that 5,00,499 richa (verses )are lost.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The evidences presented above convincingly prove that in the extant Rigveda Samhitas a large number of suktas are missing. In the present article we concentrated only the Rigveda. In future articles along with Rigveda we will be presenting before the readers the changes in the texts of Yajurveda, Samveda and Atharvaveda as well. We would like to conclude this article with a request, for the readers and scholars who would comment on it, to keep the following statement in mind&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रमाणसिद्धांतविरुद्धमत्र यत्किंचिदुक्तं मतिमान्धदोषात्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मात्सर्यमुत्सार्य तदार्यचित्ताः प्रसादमाधाय विशोधयंतु&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I have said anything contrary to proofs and principles because of my less knowledge, then instead of getting angry please do rectify my errors like a true scholar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://truthabouthinduism.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/999-suktas-loststill-no-textual-corruption-in-vedas/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://truthabouthinduism.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/999-suktas-loststill-no-textual-corruption-in-vedas/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8227" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T20:02:42.030" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15944" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15936" CreationDate="2016-11-17T21:46:38.580" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna was born a Kshatriya. The Yadavas are a sub clan of Sona vamsa, which is a Kshatriya sub clan.I think Nanda Baba and Yashoda are of the same yadava clan, as stated in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=wT-BAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;focus=searchwithinvolume&amp;amp;q=vasudeva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ethnographic Profile&lt;/a&gt; taken from wikipedia. You can also read this &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Is-Lord-Krishna-Yadava-or-Kshatriya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Quora&lt;/a&gt; article.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8021" LastEditorUserId="8021" LastEditDate="2016-11-17T21:57:36.093" LastActivityDate="2016-11-17T21:57:36.093" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15945" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-18T02:54:08.343" Score="7" ViewCount="4453" Body="&lt;p&gt;How was Kuntī able to hide her very first pregnancy? Did Kuntī deliver Karṇa through her womb or a healthy baby just appeared out of nowhere?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How about the Pāṇḍavas (both Kaunteyas and Mādreyas)? Did they take birth the &lt;em&gt;normal&lt;/em&gt; way? Didn't Mādrī just kill herself by jumping into fire immediately following Pāṇḍu's death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-11-18T04:02:21.227" Title="Did Kuntī deliver Karṇa through her womb?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15946" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15945" CreationDate="2016-11-18T04:02:21.227" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Concerning Karna, her conception did not occur the normal way, rather it was done magically by Surya, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03305.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And that ranger of the skies, that enemy of Swarbhanu, with soul absorbed in Yoga, entered into Kunti, and touched her on the navel. At this, that damsel, on account of Surya's energy, became stupefied. And that reverend lady then fell down on her bed, deprived of her senses. Surya then addressed her, saying, 'I will now depart, O thou of graceful hips! Thou shalt bring forth a son who will become the foremost of all wielders of weapons. At the same time thou shalt remain a virgin.'  ... Then, O foremost of kings, as the highly effulgent Surya was about to depart, that girl bashfully said unto him, 'So be it!' And it was thus that the daughter of king Kuntibhoja, importuned by Surya, had after soliciting a son from him, fallen down stupefied on that excellent bed, like a broken creeper. And it was thus that deity of fierce rays, stupefying her, entered into her by virtue of Yoga power, and placed his own self within her womb. The deity, however, did not sully her by deflowering her in the flesh. And after Surya had gone away, that girl regained her consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But her pregnancy and delivery were normal as described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03306.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It was, O lord of earth, on the first day of the lighted fortnight during the tenth month of the year that Pritha conceived a son like the lord himself of the stars in the firmament. &lt;strong&gt;And that damsel of excellent hips from fear of her friends, concealed her conception, so that no one knew her condition. And as the damsel lived entirely in the apartments assigned to the maidens and carefully concealed her condition, no one except her nurse knew the truth.&lt;/strong&gt; And in due time that beauteous maiden, by the grace of deity, brought forth a son resembling a very god. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Concerning the Pandavas, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01125.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata says that their births were separated by one year from one another:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O king, after all the children were born the Rishis dwelling on the mountain of a hundred peaks uttering blessings on them and affectionately performing the first rites of birth, bestowed appellations on them. The eldest of Kunti's children was called Yudhishthira, the second Bhimasena, and the third Arjuna, and of Madri's sons, the first-born of the twins was called Nakula and the next Sahadeva. And those foremost sons &lt;strong&gt;born at an interval of one year after one another&lt;/strong&gt;, looked like an embodied period of five years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And since &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01124.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the previous chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva describes Kunti using the mantra to summon the next god as soon as the current child is born, I think it's pretty clear that the pregnancies took the normal length of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as the death of Pandu and Madri, it happened a significant time after all five Pandavas had been born, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01126.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;another chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beholding his five handsome sons growing up before him in that great forest on the charming mountain slope, Pandu felt the last might of his arms revive once more. One day in the season of spring which maddens every creature the king accompanied by his wife (Madri), began to rove in the woods where every tree had put forth new blossoms.... And, O thou of Kuru's race unrestrained by the fear of (the Rishi's) curse and impelled by fate, the monarch, overpowered by passion, forcibly sought the embraces of Madri, as if he wished to put an end to his own life. His reason, thus beguiled by the great Destroyer himself by intoxicating his senses, was itself lost with his life. And the Kuru king Pandu, of virtuous soul, thus succumbed to the inevitable influence of Time, while united in intercourse with his wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Pandavas were old enough to carry out funeral proceedings for Pandu, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01128.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus weeping, Bhishma, Vidura, Dhritarashtra, the Pandavas and the Kuru ladies, all performed the watery ceremony of the king. And when all this was over, the people, themselves filled with sorrow, began to console the bereaved sons of Pandu. And the Pandavas with their friends began to sleep on the ground. Seeing this the Brahmanas and the other citizens also renounced their beds. Young and old, all the citizens grieved on account of the sons of king Pandu, and passed twelve days in mourning with the weeping Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2016-11-18T04:02:21.227" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15947" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-18T05:29:10.530" Score="6" ViewCount="1298" Body="&lt;p&gt;In ancient Gurukula System after the education, the students are required to give Guru Dakshina to their respective Guru. Why is this practice when we have stayed with the master and served him all through the childhood? And why does the Guru demands for a particular thing as Dakshina ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2016-11-18T20:27:08.583" Title="Why Dakshina is given to Guru?" Tags="|scripture|practice|culture|customs|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15948" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-18T05:30:03.263" Score="4" ViewCount="778" Body="&lt;p&gt;This month being Karthika 2 earthen lamps will be lit and kept in the Pirai Maadam [in old types houses there will be a construction like this for keeping lit earthern lamps] during sunset. Nowadays the lamps are kept in the entrance of the front door. Similarly in Margasisha month 2 earthen lamps will be lit and kept in the pirai Maadam  by 5 AM.  Any significance for this thru puranas or scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-12T03:43:16.697" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T03:43:16.697" Title="Lighting of earthen lamps in evenings in Karthika month and in mornings in Margasisha month" Tags="|practice|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15949" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15904" CreationDate="2016-11-18T05:53:33.130" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ofYcp.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ofYcp.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This can be a context driven Qn. In past people used to do &quot;voluntary miscarriage&quot; which is equivalent to &quot;surgical abortion&quot; of today. If we consider &quot;sinful&quot; as &quot;faulty/defective act&quot; then, &lt;strong&gt;Abortion or No abortion, both can be sins&lt;/strong&gt; from certain POV.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - By killing feutus, one is taking away the life. Hence it's a sin.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - By giving birth to unwanted child, one is creating lifelong misery for child &amp;amp; society. May be a bigger sin!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not only abortion, but all initiations are faulty:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 18.48 — O son of Kunti, trivial(natural) Karma should never be given up, even though [it is] faulty; &lt;strong&gt;All initiations [of Karma] are faulty&lt;/strong&gt;, like how smoke covers the fire.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All our life, we just make choices among 'sins'.&lt;/strong&gt; That's why Gita predominantly talks about overcoming 'sins' by emphasising on &lt;em&gt;Swadharma&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 18.47 — &lt;strong&gt;Faulty Swa-Dharma (self tendency) is better than well performed Para-Dharma (other's tendency)&lt;/strong&gt;; Naturally prescribed performance of Karma never achieves sinful reactions.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In today's time the &quot;law of land&quot; or the &quot;country's constitution&quot; is the ShAstra. According to that if abortion is prohibited then it's not do-able without a doubt. If it's a choice then one should decide from own nature as explained above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-12-26T02:51:53.273" LastActivityDate="2017-12-26T02:51:53.273" CommentCount="9" CommunityOwnedDate="2017-12-26T02:40:11.257" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15952" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2902" CreationDate="2016-11-18T07:12:49.320" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Samadhi is the place where a yogi had attained liberation. After the soul had left the body, the body of the yogi will NOT rot, as in usual case. That is a indication that, that soul is a yogi,and gone into samadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8231" LastActivityDate="2016-11-18T07:12:49.320" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15953" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15936" CreationDate="2016-11-18T08:10:32.173" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are verses in &quot;Shreemad Bhagvatam&quot; that points towards  &quot;Lord Shree Krishna's&quot; relation with Pandavas. Although he has been raised in Gokula, Kunti mother of Pandavas was sister of Vasudeva (Father of shree Krishna&quot;). &lt;strong&gt;So we can say that Shree krishna was a kshatriya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तं &lt;strong&gt;मातुलेयं&lt;/strong&gt; परिरभ्य निवृतो भीम: स्ययन प्रेमजवाकुलेइंद्रिय:। &lt;br/&gt; &#xA;  यमौ किरीटी च सुह्यत्तमं मुदा प्रवृद्धबाष्पा: परिरेभिरेsच्युतम।।27।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tam &lt;strong&gt;Matuleyam&lt;/strong&gt; Paribhya Nivritto Bhimah Sasyan Pramjava kule&#xA;  indriya  Yamo kiriti Ch Suhruttmam Muda  Pravrubgdbashpah&#xA;  Paribhirechhutam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Then Bheema smiled and hugged  his  &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Maternal&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Cousin&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Shree krishna&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; Nakula ,Sahadeva and Arjuna also hugged Shree Krishna and their eyes filled with tears from the great love&#xA;  towards Shree Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/71/27&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.71.27&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In that chapter there is also a Verse of  &lt;strong&gt;conversation between &quot;Uddhava&quot; and Shree Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;.Where Uddhava is telling Shree krishna to help His &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Paternal Cousins&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदुक्तमृषिणा देव साचिव्यं यक्ष्यतस्यत्वया । &lt;br/&gt; कार्यम &lt;strong&gt;पैतृषयव&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  सेयस्य रक्षा च शरणैषिणाम् ।।2।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yadukatamrushina Dev Sachivyam Yakshyatastvaya Karyam&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Paitushvaseyasya&lt;/strong&gt; Raksha ch Sahranaishinaam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Bhagvan , as told by &quot;Devarshi Narada&quot; you should help your &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Paternal Cousins&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; in their Yagna. Also its a duty of you to&#xA;  help those who surrender to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/71/2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.71.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-02T13:29:26.757" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T13:29:26.757" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15954" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15948" CreationDate="2016-11-18T08:26:37.833" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Importance of Karthika Deepa Dana(Importance of lighting lamps in Karthika month):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karthika Dana Mahima(Importance of Charity during Karthika month):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kartika Dana Mahima: In observing a Vrata in the Month of not eating&#xA;  in a Kamsya or bronze vessel, the person following th e Vrata should&#xA;  give a daana of five broze vessels full of ghee at the end of the&#xA;  Vrata; if honey i s left out then ghee, sugar and kseeraana should b e&#xA;  given away;in Tila ‘thyaga’ tila daana; in mou&#xA;  na bhojana vrata or eating in silence then ghanta (Bell) daana; in&#xA;  case of Phala varjana then Phala rasa daana; for dhanya varjana go&#xA;  daana and so on&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in that month, among all Danas, &lt;strong&gt;Deepa Dana is considered the best.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But nothing like Deepa daana : &lt;em&gt;Ekatassarvva daan aani deepa daanam&#xA;  tathai kathah, Kartika deepa daa nasya kalaam naarhanti shodashim&lt;/em&gt;/ (&#xA;  All types of Daanaas would equate one ‘Deepa Daana’; in Kartik a Month&#xA;  deepa daanaa might not be like sixteenth o f any daana&lt;/strong&gt;!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookview.php?chapnum=9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&lt;/a&gt;(The essence of the ocean of Dharma)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,in particular, Deepa Dana from Karthika Krishna Trayodashi at the &lt;strong&gt;Pradosha time (evening)&lt;/strong&gt; till the end of the month are meant for Yama,the God of Death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana26.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Karthika Mahatmya&lt;/a&gt; Chapter of the Skanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Brahma affirmed that the fortnight from Kartika Krishna Trayodasi&#xA;  to the end of the month ie from Deepavali on the Amavasya of Aswayuja&#xA;  should be observed as Festival Days.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;The ‘Pradosha’ time of that&#xA;  Trayodasi  is the most significant time when Lord Yama is worshipped&#xA;  with ‘Deepas’ at the main door of the residence and Naivedya to ensure&#xA;  that there would never be an ‘Apamrutyu’ or Akaala Mrithyu (premature&#xA;  and sudden death) in the family.&lt;/strong&gt; Yama Raja would be pleased with the&#xA;  recitation of the Mantra after the worship: Mrityuna pasha&#xA;  dandaabhyaam Kaalena cha maya saha, Trayodashyam Deepa daanaath&#xA;  Suryajah Preeyathamit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of lighting lamps at early morning in the Margasirsha month:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not 100% sure&lt;/strong&gt;,but these lamps are &lt;strong&gt;possibly dedicated to Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; as we can guess from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana27.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of Skanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While addressing a group of Munis, Sage Sutha narrated that Lord&#xA;  Brahma asked Bhagavan Narayana about  the &lt;strong&gt;significance of Margasirsha&#xA;  Month&lt;/strong&gt; and the reply was that in His earlier incarnation as Krishna, He&#xA;  advised thousands of Gopikas and Gopas to observe austerities during&#xA;  that month by performing ‘Snaans’, ‘Pujas’, fastings and total&#xA;  dedication to Him to attain Salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus Gopikas and Gopas adopted a daily routine of waking up early&lt;/strong&gt;;&#xA;  taking bath with Tulasi roots of earth on head by reciting the Mula&#xA;  Mantra....&#xA;  After the former bath and wearing clean clothes, the routine continues&#xA;  with applying ‘Vibhudi’ (ash of homa or of cow dung), perform ‘Sandhya&#xA;  Vandan’/ Gayatri Japa followed by Vishnu Puja with ‘Ghantanaad’&#xA;  (ringing bell), Chandana, Pushpa, Tulasidal, dhoop, deepa and other&#xA;  ‘Shodasopacharas’, ‘Stutipaath’ (Extolling hymns) of Vishnu&#xA;  Sahasranaam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,you can consider this as a partial answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-18T08:32:15.630" LastActivityDate="2016-11-18T08:32:15.630" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15955" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15947" CreationDate="2016-11-18T08:59:17.143" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti declares:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 12.83. Studying the Veda, (practising) austerities, (the acquisition of true) knowledge, the subjugation of the organs, abstention from&#xA;  doing injury, &lt;strong&gt;and serving the Guru&lt;/strong&gt; are the &lt;strong&gt;best means for attaining&#xA;  supreme bliss.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,this service to Guru is &lt;strong&gt;four-fold&lt;/strong&gt; as told in the Kularnava Tantra(KT):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Service to the Guru is fourfold: &lt;strong&gt;service by self, service by means&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  service by honouring, service by happy feeling(KT)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism the Guru is equated with the supreme Para Brahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verily, the Guru is none else but Sadashiva; that is the truth, there is no doubt about it&lt;/strong&gt;.Shiva himself is the Guru; otherwise who&#xA;  is it that gives fulfilment and liberation?(KT)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The symbolic meaning of a &lt;strong&gt;Sisya&lt;/strong&gt;(disciple)is also given in the Kularnava Tantra as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sisya: He who dedicates &lt;strong&gt;his body, wealth&lt;/strong&gt;, the pranas to the holy Gurus&#xA;  and learns, Siksate, yoga from the Gurus, is called sisya(KT).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, a Sisya can repay his debts to his Guru by &lt;strong&gt;his body and wealth&lt;/strong&gt; but what is this debt all about?How big that debt actually is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shastras say that the ultimate goal of each being is the the state of Moksha or liberation and also that it can &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; be achieved by the grace of a Guru :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Neither asramas (prescribed stages in life) nor philosophies nor&#xA;  sciences can give the deliverance; only Jnana can give it. &lt;strong&gt;And this&#xA;  Jnana is received through the Word of the Guru.&lt;/strong&gt; All other ways are&#xA;  deceptive, oppressive; the Truth-Knowledge alone is life-giving(KT).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sruti declares that for those who seek for fulfilment and&#xA;  liberation, who aspire to attain to Brahma, Vishnu and Isha, &lt;strong&gt;devotion&#xA;  to the Guru is the Path and no other&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no truth higher than the Guru&lt;/strong&gt;, no Godhead greater than Shiva,&#xA;  no Science greater than the Veda, no Philosophy equal to the Kaula, no&#xA;  Knowledge greater than the Kula, no happiness greater than Jnana, no&#xA;  worship greater than the Puja of eight limbs, &lt;strong&gt;no fruit greater than&#xA;  Mukti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And a Guru can only grant Mukti.So,the debt that a Sisya owes to his Guru is indeed very great.&lt;strong&gt;That is why he needs to repay the debt by paying Guru Dakshina.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But even ,here,devotion is what actually that matters:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even if you give the whole of your wealth to the Guru&#xA;  but without devotion, then the fruit will not accrue to you.&lt;/strong&gt; For&#xA;  indeed devotion is the only cause.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,btw, a &quot;Dakshina&quot; is also offered to a Deity while offering Puja by saying &quot;Dakshinam samarpayami&quot; because,in general,the Shastras say that Gods,Gurus are never to be visited  empty handed:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do not approach royalty, the Deity and the Guru empty-handed. Offer in&#xA;  the measure of your capacity, fruit, flower, cloth and the like(KT)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,these are,in short,the reasons why we offer a Guru Dakshina.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-18T11:25:10.517" LastActivityDate="2016-11-18T11:25:10.517" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15960" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15917" CreationDate="2016-11-18T15:48:28.143" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is to supplement Sree Charan's correct answer with quotes from Shastras.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti says that there is no Vedic sacrament for women.But what is Vedic sacrament for men the nuptial (wedding) ceremony is that for the women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, removing the mangal sutra (which is considered as a proof or symbol of the marriage) by women, is considered as offensive as Dwija men removing their Yajnopavitas (the sacred threads).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu smriti 2.67.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vaivahiko Vidih Streenam Sanskaroh Smritah&lt;/strong&gt;|Patiseva Gurou Vaso Grihartho Agni Parikriya||&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;The nuptial ceremony is stated to be the Vedic&#xA;  sacrament for women&lt;/strong&gt; (and to be equal to the initiation), serving the&#xA;  husband (equivalent to) the residence in (the house of the) teacher,&#xA;  and the household duties (the same) as the (daily) worship of the&#xA;  sacred fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4cgkW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4cgkW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update regarding the importance of wearing Mangala Sutra:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fifth step in a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanuja.org/sri/Web/VedicWeddingCeremony&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedic marriage&lt;/a&gt; is &lt;strong&gt;Maangalaya Dhaaranam&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no Veda Mantram for tying the mangala sutram (auspicious&#xA;  thread) around the neck of the bride by the groom. The latter takes&#xA;  the mangala sutram in his hands and recites the following verse:&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;mângalyaṁ tantunânena mama jîvanahetunâ | kaṇṭheḥ badhnami subhage!&#xA;  sañjîva śaradaḥ śatam ||&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;This is a sacred thread. This is essential&#xA;  for my long life. I tie this around your neck, O maiden having many&#xA;  auspicious attributes! May you live happily for a hundred years (with&#xA;  me).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T07:41:59.410" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T07:41:59.410" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15961" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="213" CreationDate="2016-11-18T16:50:53.007" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva  Mahapurana, Rudra Samhita (Kumara Khanda), Chapter 18&lt;/a&gt;. When Lord Ganesha brought back to life after his head was chopped off by Lord Shiva, then Goddess Parvati adored him and declared that he will be worshipped first.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पूजयित्वा सुतं देवी मुखमाचुम्ब्य शाङ्करी।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वरान्ददौ तदा प्रीत्या जातस्त्वं दु:खितोऽधुना॥७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then adoring her son, the goddess Girija, kissed his face, bestowing him with several&#xA;boons. Then she said, “You had to suffer much,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;धन्योऽसि कृतकृत्योऽसि पूर्वपूज्यो भवाधुना।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वेषाममराणां वै सर्वदा दुःखवर्जितः॥८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are quite graceful. You are successful in all your missions. &lt;strong&gt;You would be adored&#xA;first of all the gods and those who would do so would always remain comfortable&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma also declared the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहं च शङ्करश्चैव विष्णुश्चैते त्रयः सुराः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रत्यूचुर्गुगपतप्रीत्या ददतौ वरमुक्तमम्॥२०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then I myself, besides Siva and Visnu, bestowed on him the best of boons, and Said to him collectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्रयो वयं सुरवरा यथा पूज्या जगत्रये।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तथाऽयं गणनाथश्च सकलैः प्रतिपूज्यताम्॥ २१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AS we three are considered to be the best and most adorable among the gods, similarly,&#xA;the leader of the ganas i.e. Gaņeśa would be adored in future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वयंच प्राकृताश्चायं प्राकृतः पूज्य एव च।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गणेशो विध्नहर्ता हि सर्वकामफलप्रद:। २२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesa is the remover of the obstructions and bestows rewards of all the desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एतत्पूजां पुरा कृत्वा पश्चात्पूज्या वयं नरैः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वयं च पूजिताः सर्वे नायं च पूजितो यदा॥ २३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अस्मिन्नपूजिते देवा परपूजा कृता यदि।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदा तत्फलहानिः स्यान्नात्र कार्या विचारणा॥ २४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्युक्त्वा स गणेशानो नानावस्तुभिरादरात्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिवेन पूजितः पूर्वं विष्णुनाऽनुप्रपूजितः॥ २५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He would be adored first and then the people would adore us. In case the people adoring us and would not adore Ganesa, their adoration would be infructuous. There is no doubt about it. Brahma said, “Thus speaking, initially, Siva adored Ganesa, offering many things. Thereafter Visnu adored him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मणा च मया तत्र पार्वत्या च प्रपूजितः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वैर्देवगणैश्चैव पूजितः परया मुदा।। २६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then I (Brahma) together with Parvati and other gods, adored him with utmost devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T07:30:10.987" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15962" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15947" CreationDate="2016-11-18T20:27:08.583" Score="1" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Why is dakṣiṇā given to a Guru?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because it's usually a brāhmaṇa who can become a guru and he has no other source of income, he has to subsist on dakṣiṇā to lead a healthy lifestyle and to continue imparting knowledge to future disciples who may not afford to pay him a dakṣiṇā after graduating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Why practice this when we've stayed with the master and served him all through our childhood?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Serve him how? Fetch him water? Wash his clothes? What about food? Maybe he has some cows and agricultural land, so you serve him by milking the cow and tilling his land. But what if one of his cows dies, doesn't he need more cows to sustain? There can be no rain and the land becomes barren. Think on those lines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;And why does the Guru &lt;em&gt;demand&lt;/em&gt; a particular thing as dakṣiṇā?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He shouldn't. A guru who &lt;em&gt;demands&lt;/em&gt; dakṣiṇā is not a proper guru. &quot;He is permitted to receive a dakṣiṇā to maintain himself&quot;, says, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; in the book &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt; § &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmin must be conversant with the fourteen branches of the Vedic lore. He must be proficient even in Gandharva-veda or music and must be acquainted with agricultural science, construction of houses, etc. At the same time he must give instructions in these subjects to pupils from the appropriate castes. His own vocation is the study of the Vedas and &lt;strong&gt;he must have no other source of income.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Visvamitra was the master of Dhanurveda (military science). When he performed sacrifices, the demons Subahu and Marica tried to play havoc with them. &lt;strong&gt;Though a great warrior himself he did not try to drive away the demons himself. Instead, he brought Rama and Laksmana for the purpose.&lt;/strong&gt; Visvamitra thereafter gave the instruction to the two in the use of astras and sastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the Brahmin is asked, &quot;Do you know to wield a knife? &quot; he must be able to answer, &quot;Yes, I know&quot;. If he is asked, &quot;Do you know to draw and paint&quot; again he must say, &quot;Yes&quot;. But he cannot wield a knife or become an artist to earn his livelihood. All he can do is to learn these arts and teach others the same according to their caste. He is permitted to receive a daksina to maintain himself and &lt;strong&gt;he must be contented with it however small the sum may be&lt;/strong&gt;. The Brahmin's speciality, his true vocation, is Vedic learning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[ Hindu Dharma » Varna Dharma For Universal Well-Being » Brahmins are not a Privileged Caste ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt; § &lt;/sup&gt; &lt;sub&gt;An older and copyright-free version of this book is available for free &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/newlayout/template/hindudharma.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-11-18T20:27:08.583" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15963" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6913" CreationDate="2016-11-18T22:01:45.167" Score="3" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Why didn't Vishwamitra kill those mighty demons himself?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The simple answer is: He's now a brāhmaṇa, no longer a kṣatriya, so cannot wield weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; in the book &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt; § &lt;/sup&gt; explains as below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmin must be conversant with the fourteen branches of the Vedic lore. He must be proficient even in Gandharva-veda or music and must be acquainted with agricultural science, construction of houses, etc. At the same time he must give instructions in these subjects to pupils from the appropriate castes. His own vocation is the study of the Vedas and he must have no other source of income.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Visvamitra was the master of Dhanurveda (military science). When he performed sacrifices, the demons Subahu and Marica tried to play havoc with them. &lt;strong&gt;Though a great warrior himself, he did not try to drive away the demons himself. Instead, he brought Rama and Laksmana for the purpose.&lt;/strong&gt; Visvamitra thereafter gave the instruction to the two in the use of astras and sastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the Brahmin is asked, &quot;Do you know to wield a knife? &quot; he must be able to answer, &quot;Yes, I know&quot;. If he is asked, &quot;Do you know to draw and paint&quot; again he must say, &quot;Yes&quot;. &lt;strong&gt;But he cannot wield a knife&lt;/strong&gt; or become an artist to earn his livelihood. &lt;strong&gt;All he can do is to learn these arts and teach others the same according to their caste.&lt;/strong&gt; He is permitted to receive a daksina to maintain himself and he must be contented with it however small the sum may be. &lt;strong&gt;The Brahmin's speciality, his true vocation, is Vedic learning.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Hindu Dharma » Varna Dharma For Universal Well-Being » Brahmins are not a Privileged Caste]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt; § &lt;/sup&gt; &lt;sub&gt;An older and copyright-free version of this book is available for free &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/newlayout/template/hindudharma.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-18T22:07:18.367" LastActivityDate="2016-11-18T22:07:18.367" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15964" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-19T00:54:30.047" Score="4" ViewCount="268" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which Chapter and Khanda of Siva Purana has the story of Kalavati, the daughter of King of Kasi gets the panchakshari mantra from Sage Durvasa ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2022-03-03T12:05:11.027" Title="Siva Purana - Kalavati, the daughter of King of Kasi" Tags="|puranas|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15965" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15971" CreationDate="2016-11-19T02:28:01.980" Score="6" ViewCount="6589" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism, will saying done thing in anger come true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, a father says to his son in a fit of rage, &quot;You will kill me!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Hunduism believe these words will come true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so, how to break out of this curse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-19T06:43:50.220" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T20:46:37.193" Title="Will saying something in anger come true?" Tags="|gunas|curse|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15971" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15965" CreationDate="2016-11-19T05:21:16.713" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will say No, Everyone's Curse or Blessings is not going to be true. People who have achieved the power to curse &amp;amp; give blessings, their sayings will only be true. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every Mother wants her son to be a good human or a rich man.  She always give her blessings to her son, but for everyone it doesn't become true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every Father blesses her daughter to lead a happy life but those blessings does not become true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like that only, Every enemy may curse a person to die in hell, but it is not going to be true because that person has not achieved the power to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Anger, Normal People speaks what their inner conscience wants them to tell. So Sometimes the things come true because of coincidence &amp;amp; most of the times, it is expected outcome of a human being, because of series of past events.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7282" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T05:21:16.713" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15972" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15938" CreationDate="2016-11-19T06:30:45.163" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do our scriptures say anything about the negative traits of women or which women to avoid in general?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According Manu Smriti, there are &lt;strong&gt;six negative traits or characteristics&lt;/strong&gt; of women that bring about her downfall or ruin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.13. Drinking (spirituous liquor), associating with wicked people, separation from the husband, rambling abroad, sleeping (at&#xA;  unseasonable hours), and dwelling in other men’s houses, are the six&#xA;  causes of the ruin of women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,those women who indulge in the above six acts are to be avoided as bad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FL4Jd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FL4Jd.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also ,it is implied in the same text that women can not keep secrets to themselves ,&amp;amp; hence the king should never tell them his plans.So,the women do not make good spies etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.149. At the time of consultation let him cause to be removed idiots, the dumb, the blind, and the deaf, animals, very aged men, &lt;strong&gt;women&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  barbarians, the sick, and those deficient in limbs&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.150. (Such) despicable (persons), likewise animals, &lt;strong&gt;and particularly women betray secret council;&lt;/strong&gt; for that reason &lt;strong&gt;he must be careful with&#xA;  respect to them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Parashara Smriti says the woman who causes abortion are to be abandoned completely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What sin is incurred in killing a Brahman, abortion causes a sin twice&#xA;  as great ; there is no atonement for that sin. &lt;strong&gt;The abandonment of such&#xA;  a woman has been ordained by law.&lt;/strong&gt;(Parshara Smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti further states that no libations of water for the following women:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.90. To women who have joined a heretical sect, who through lust live (with many men), who have caused an abortion, have killed their&#xA;  husbands, or drink spirituous liquor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,these are also the women to be avoided as sinners.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-19T06:47:48.593" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T06:47:48.593" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15973" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-19T06:58:02.200" Score="3" ViewCount="177" Body="&lt;p&gt;What sin is committed in pastlife or this life so that one has to undergo KemeDrum Yog? It is said that past life deeds cause such yog. So I want to understand why this yog is given in kundali? Any remedy to solve it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that this yog is inauspicious and the person can either become too opulent by corruption or too poor by being impecunious. moreover, the planet moon has no other planet in order in horoscope which forms this yog. This yog is inauspicious. So we can understand some bad deeds must be there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;KemDrum Yog is formed in person's life is Moon in horoscope has no other auspicious planets but rahu or ketu in sequence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-11-25T06:11:36.770" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T06:11:36.770" Title="What sin is committed in pastlife or this life so that one has to undergo KemeDrum Yog? Any remedy?" Tags="|astrology|kundali|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15975" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15981" CreationDate="2016-11-19T07:30:52.393" Score="7" ViewCount="593" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ashtanga yoga  means &quot;eight-limbed yoga,&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; as described by the Maharshi Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;consists of the following eight spiritual practices:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Yama 2) Niyama 3) Asana 4) Pranayama 5) Pratyahara 6) Dharana 7)&#xA;  Dhyana 8) Samadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is - &lt;strong&gt;In which puranas we find the description and procedure of &quot;&#xA;Ashtanga Yoga&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-12-08T08:38:59.553" Title="Which Puranic Scriptures describes procedure of &quot;Ashtanga Yoga&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|yoga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15976" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-19T07:36:21.630" Score="7" ViewCount="553" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am deeply interested in receiving any printed Rig-Vedic hymns with khila vaakyams (supplement verses) arranged with swaras (tone for recitation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are &quot;khila vaakyams&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;FYI:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have the verses in Rig Veda divided into various sookthams to some of which later supplemented with more verses by section of its authors. These are khila vaakhyams. E.g. In RV Sooktham No. 191 of 10&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Mandala, we find the verses beginning with the wordings such as 'samgyana mushanavadad samgyanam varoonovadat...'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8248" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T05:09:13.713" LastActivityDate="2020-07-18T18:05:00.470" Title="Sukthams with khilams from Rigveda?" Tags="|vedas|translation-request|rig-veda|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15977" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15938" CreationDate="2016-11-19T07:45:02.660" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The scriptures may not refer negative traits about women. If such a negative trait is present in all the women, then it's considered a part of them. Scriptures do talk about certain limitations. Biggest limitation is that, &quot;Women can't be happy independently&quot;, they should be bound with either father, brother, husband, son or grandson. As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8989/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is the well-known declaration of the scriptures that women are incompetent to enjoy freedom at any period of their life.&lt;/strong&gt; If this were not the path trodden by the righteous, how could this scriptural declaration exist? ... In childhood, the sire protects her. The husband protects her in youth. When she becomes old, her sons, protect her. At no period of her life does woman deserve to be free.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now this also cautions about the fact, that if women find a wrong man then due to improper progeny the whole family values can get corrupt. This establishes the importance of securing women due to their sensitivity towards vices:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 1.41 O Krsna, when vice predominates, the women of the family become corrupt. O descendent of the Vrsnis, when women become corrupted, it results in the intermingling of castes.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But we should also understand that the above verses were said in different era with different social structure. Today's era is predominant with certain feminism &amp;amp; many women manage to live happily independent. Does that mean the scriptures are wrong?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ancient scriptures are right in their own context. However in today's time, the anatomy of &quot;Man vs Woman&quot; is no more exclusive with &quot;Male vs Female&quot;. In earlier times, Males were spiritually Men and Females were spiritually Women. Each side is trying to become other side by compromising &lt;em&gt;SwaDharma&lt;/em&gt; or re-establishing a new &lt;em&gt;SwaDharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.osho.com/highlights-of-oshos-world/osho-on-women-quotes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;noted by Osho&lt;/a&gt;, that in today's world the difference between Man &amp;amp; Woman is diminishing which is Not desirable for a healthy society. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am all in favour of women’s liberation – but not the way the women’s liberation movement is going. It is taking a reactionary attitude, it is not a real revolution. It is &lt;strong&gt;trying to imitate man&lt;/strong&gt;. And remember, imitation never makes you equal; imitation at the most will make you a carbon copy – but the original is original.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But whatever is the state today, is bound to happen, as everything happens with God's will.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;IMO, may be DhritarAshtra's saarathy &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09058.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanjaya foresaw&lt;/a&gt; such diminishing line between men &amp;amp; women upon the fall of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Duryodhana, who was an embodiment of Kali demon&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The evil-minded and wicked king Duryodhana, the destroyer of the fair fame of the Kurus, was born of a portion of Kali on earth.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lakes and wells, O best of kings, vomited forth blood. Rivers of rapid currents flowed in opposite directions. &lt;strong&gt;Women seemed to look like men, and men to look like women at that hour&lt;/strong&gt;, O king, when thy son Duryodhana fell! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T07:50:10.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15978" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-11-19T07:48:17.250" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-11-19T07:48:17.250" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T07:48:17.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15979" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-11-19T07:48:17.250" Score="0" Body="Gods in Vedic mythology, Hinduism." OwnerUserId="7376" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-11-19T08:53:52.540" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T08:53:52.540" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15980" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15975" CreationDate="2016-11-19T08:30:50.487" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;AFAIK,more than one Puranas describe about the Ashtanga Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Linga Puarana&lt;/strong&gt; in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashtanga Yoga-the Significant Means of Shiva Tatwa&lt;/a&gt; chapter contains the details:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To control the activities or goings on in the mind is Yoga. &lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;  Ashtanga or Eight-Limbed Yoga comprises of Yama- Niyama- Aasana-&#xA;  Pranaayama- Pratyahara-Dharana-Dhyana-Samadhi.&lt;/strong&gt; Yama is denoted by good&#xA;  behaviour comprising Ahimsa (Non-Violence), Satya         (Truth),&#xA;  Asteya (stealing), Brahmacharya (avoidance of sex) and Aparigraha or&#xA;  Excessive acquisition. Basic Niyamas is in fact an extension of Yama:&#xA;  To refrain from hurting or torturing co-Beings physically or mentally&#xA;  is Ahimsa; to convey whatever is seen, heard, and believed is Satya&#xA;  unless it does not hurt any body is known as Satya; to desist stealing&#xA;  of other’s property by deed, thought or otherwise is called Asteya; to&#xA;  negate from relationship with another female or in respect of a female&#xA;  wih another  male, excepting the wedded woman or man as the case may&#xA;  be and this should be observed by vision, thought or deed is called&#xA;  Brahmacharya or celibacy; and to abstain from excessive acquisition of&#xA;  materials far and above one’s needs in the short run of time is stated&#xA;  to be Aparigraha. Besides the above General Principles, Niyamas also&#xA;  involve the specific deeds viz. Shoucha or Physical&#xA;  Cleanliness,Yagna-Tapa or meditation, Daana or charity, Swadhyaya or&#xA;  Memorising or Reciting the Scriptures, Indriya Nigraha or Control of&#xA;  Physical Limbs, Vratas like Chandrayana as also or to perform formal&#xA;  worship directed to specific Devatas and purposes,, Upavaasa or&#xA;  Fasting, Snaana or Formal Bathing besides Tirtha Seva and ‘Aniccha’or&#xA;  General Disinterestedness and abstinence; these are the Ten Niyamas.&#xA;  The next component of the Ashtanga Yoga denotes as Aasana which not&#xA;  only includes the right posture of formal seating like of Padmasana&#xA;  followed by ‘Bahyatantara Shuchi’ or external and internal&#xA;  cleanliness, Shiva Puja starting from Brahmanas, Agni, Varuna with&#xA;  other Devas climaxing with Parama Shiva. Included in the Aaasana are&#xA;  Japa, Swadhyaya, and Tapas etc; Japa should be of Panchakshari viz. Om&#xA;  Namassivaya Mantra and Swadhyaya is of Omkara and of Vedas and other&#xA;  Scriptures. Japa and Swadhyaaya are of three kinds: Vaachaka,&#xA;  Maanasika and Upaamsaka (Oral, mind-borne and Upaamshak or as guided&#xA;  by Guru). The next step is Pranayama or to practise interruptions of &#xA;  Prana or life-air or merely stated as  the breathing processes of&#xA;  ‘Manda’ or mild, ‘Madhyama’ or medium and ‘Uttamaa’ or the best of&#xA;  variations; these interruptions  comprise twelve units each of&#xA;  ‘Uchhvaasa’ or inhaling and ‘Nishvasa’ or exaling in the mild&#xA;  category, while these two holdings of breath would be for twenty four&#xA;  units in either case in respect of medium category and thirty units in&#xA;  either case in the best category. ‘Yogaabhyaas’ or the practice of&#xA;  Yoga besides providing happiness and peace of mind would cure several&#xA;  physical weaknesses to rectify respiratory and digestive imbalances,&#xA;  bring about shine of body and mind, cleanse up blood and its&#xA;  circulation and sharpness of thinking. Yoga unifies and balances of&#xA;  the ten kinds of ‘Vaayus’ or Airs in the human system viz.&#xA;  Praana-Apaana-Samaana- Udaana-Vyaana-Naaga-Kurma-Kukara-Devadutta and&#xA;  Dhananjaya. The air that enables vital functions of the human body,&#xA;  respiration and general activity is Praana; the air that is generated&#xA;  by the food intake down in the digestive process is Apana; the air&#xA;  that controls the involuntary movements of the body, circulation of&#xA;  blood,and flow of sweat from glands to skin and creating diseases is&#xA;  Vyaana; the air that controls the  bubbling in the ‘marmaavaya’or the&#xA;  secret part is Udaana; the Equalising air balancing the body parts and&#xA;  stimulating digestive fluid is called Samaana; Udgaar (dakaar) is the&#xA;  wind called Naga; the wind enabling ‘Unmeelana’ or of the opening of&#xA;  eyes is Kurma; Kakara Vayu creates hunger, Devadatta created yawning&#xA;  and Dhananjaya Vayu creates high-pitch sounds and also remains with&#xA;  the body for a while even after death. Thus four kinds of Siddhis viz.&#xA;  Shanti, Prashanti, Deepti and Prasada are achieved by the Yoga.&#xA;  Pranaayama also achieves the generation of Tatwas viz. Vivaswara,&#xA;  Mahaan, Mana, Brahma, Smriti, Khyati, Ishwar, Mati and Buddhi.&#xA;  Pratyahara demolishes sins; Dharana facilitates the holding up of the&#xA;  crucial state of balance;  Dhyana or meditation of Ishwara bestows the&#xA;  devastation of poisons like Vishayas or worldly matters; Samadhi &#xA;  leads to Prajna or Self-Consciousness. Thus Yoga aided by ‘Asana’&#xA;  leads to the dynamic circle of Praanayama-Pratyahara-Dharana-Dhyana&#xA;  culminating in  Samadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Agni Purana&lt;/strong&gt;  contains the details in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/agni/bookview.php?chapnum=18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Devi Bhagawata Purana&lt;/strong&gt; also describes the methods in its &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana57.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashtanga� ( Eight Limbed) Yoga� Practice � Rules and Regulations&lt;/a&gt; chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......Himavantha emboldened himself as to how he could recall Her&#xA;  Physical Form from time to time. &lt;strong&gt;Maha Devi suggested that the only&#xA;  plausible way to retain Her image would be through Yoga Practice.&lt;/strong&gt; The&#xA;  basic step in Yoga is to integrate the Jeevatma with Paramathma�&#xA;  and win over the �Arishat Varga� or the Six enemies of lust, anger,&#xA;  greediness, infatuation, ego and envy. Then one follows ‘Yama’ ( the&#xA;  tenfold practice of ‘Ahimsa’or nonviolence, ‘Satyam’ or truthfulness,&#xA;  ‘asteyam’ or non-pilfering of mind and deed; ‘Brahmacharya’ or&#xA;  celibacy, ‘Mita Ahara’ or frugal eating, ‘Bahya anthara Suchi’ or&#xA;  external and internal cleanliness, ‘Naithikitha’ or morality, ‘Daya’&#xA;  or mercy, ‘Kshamata’ or pardon and ‘Sthirata’ or stability), ‘Niyama’&#xA;  ( the ten fold practice of ‘Tapasya’ or atonement, ‘Astikyatha’ or&#xA;  unflinching faith in God, Vedas, Devas and Virtue; ‘Santhushti’ or&#xA;  contentment, ‘Danaseelatha’ or charity for good causes,‘ Puja’ or&#xA;  worship of Almighty, ‘Siddhanta Acharana’ or practice of established&#xA;  precepts, ‘Hri’or refrain from evil acts, ‘Sraddha’ or fortitude in&#xA;  performing acts of faith, ‘Japam’ or repetitive and silent utterances&#xA;  of Manthras, Gayatri, and prayers; and ‘ Homams’ or daily oblations to&#xA;  Sacred Fire) and five ‘Asanas’ or  postures viz. 1)‘Padmasana’&#xA;  comprising of crossing the legs and drawing the feet of legs on the&#xA;  opposite thighs and simultaneously cathcing the toes of the right leg&#xA;  with the right hand right round the back and vice versa and sitting&#xA;  upright with ease ( Note: As this posture is practised only by expert&#xA;  Yogis, it would be sufficient to cross the hands on opposite thighs&#xA;  without streching the hands from the back); 2) ‘Swastikasan’ or place&#xA;  the soles of the feet completely under the thighs and sit erect;&#xA;  3)‘Bhadrasan’ or placing the two heels on the two sides of the two&#xA;  nerves of the testicles near the anus and catching the two heels by&#xA;  the two hands at the lower parts of the testicles and sitting at ease.&#xA;  ........&#xA;  The Nirvikalpik Samadhi sounds like Aham Brahma Asmi, or God is me! &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Maha Bhagavati thus described in brief the pracitice of  Ashtanga Yoga&#xA;  or the Eight Limbed Yoga practice viz. Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama,&#xA;  Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T08:30:50.487" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15981" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15975" CreationDate="2016-11-19T08:38:50.260" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ashtanga Yoga is described by Devi (the mother) to Himalaya in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/upa-purana/srimad-devibhagavatam/vol-ii/chapter-35/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam, Seventh Book, Chapter XXXV&lt;/a&gt; in details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हिमालय उवाच&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;योगं वद महेशानि सांगं संवित्प्रदायकम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कृतेन येन योग्योऽहं भवेयं तत्त्वदर्शने ॥ 1 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himalaya said: &amp;quot;O Maheswari Now tell me the Yoga with all its Angas (limbs) giving the knowledge of the Supreme Consciousness so that, I may realise my Self, when I practise according to those instructions.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीदेव्युवाच&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न योगो नभस: पृछे न भूमी न रसातले ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऐक्यं जीवात्मनोराहुर्योगं योगविशारदा: ।।2।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्प्रत्यूहा: षडाख्याता योगविध्न करानघ ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कामक्रोधौ लोभमोहौ मदमात्सर्यसंज्ञकौ ॥ 3 ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Devi said: &amp;quot;The Yoga does not exist in the Heavens; nor does it exist on earth or in the nether regions (Patala). Those who are skilled in the Yogas say that the realisation of the identtily between the Jivatma and the Paramatma is 'Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;योगागैरेव भित्त्वा तान्योगिनो योगमाप्नुयु ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यमं नियममासनप्राणायामौ ततः परम् ।। 4 ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रत्याहारं धारणाख्यं ध्यानं साध समाधिना ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अष्टांगान्याहुरेतानि योगिनां योगसाधने ॥ 5 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहिंसा सत्यमस्तेयं ब्रह्मचर्यं दयाऽऽर्जवम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;क्षमा धृतिर्मिताहार: शौचं चेति यमा दश । 6 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तपः संन्तोष आस्तिक्यं दानं देवस्य पूजनम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सिद्धांत श्रवणं चैव ह्रीर्मतिश्च जपो हुतम् ॥ 7 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Sinless One. The enemies to this Yoga are six; and they are lust, anger, greed ignorance, Vanity and jealousy. The Yogis attain the Yoga when they become able to destroy these six enemies by practising the accompaniments to Yoga. &lt;strong&gt;Yama, Niyama, Asana, Prāņāyāma, Pratyāhāra, Dhāraņā, Dhyana, and Samadhi, these are the eight limbs of Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;. Yama includes Ahirinsa (non-injuring; nonkilling); truthfulness; Asteyam (non-stealing by&#xA;mind or deed); Brahmacarya (continence); Daya (mercy to all beings); Uprightness; forgiveness, steadiness; eating frugally, restrictedly and cleanliness (external and internal).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दशैते नियमाः प्रोक्तकां मया पर्वतनायक ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पदासन स्वस्तिक च भद्र वज्रासन तथा । 8 ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वीरासनमिति प्रोक्तं क्रमादासनपञ्चकम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऊर्वोरुपरि विन्यस्य सम्यक्पादतले शुभे । 9 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अंगुष्ठैौ च निबध्नीयाद्धस्ताभ्यां व्युत्क्रमात्ततः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पद्मासनमिति प्रोक्तं योगिनां हृदयङ्गमम् ॥ 10 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are ten in number. Niyama includes also ten qualities: (1) Tapasya (austerities and penances); (2) Contentment; (3) Āstikya (faith in the God and the Vedas, Devas, Dharma and Adharma); (4) Charity (in good causes); Worship of God; hearing the Siddhantas (established saying) of the Vedas; Hri or modesty (not to do any irreligious or blameable acts); Sraddha (faith to go do good works that are sanctioned); (9) Japam (uttering silently the mantrams, Gayatris or saying of Puranas) and (10) Homam (offering oblations daily to the Sacred Fire. There are five kinds of Asanas (Postures) that are commendable: Padmasana, Svastikāsana, Bhadrāsana. Vajrāsana and Vīrāsana. Padmāsana consists in crossing the legs and placing the feet on the opposite thighs (the right foot on the left thigh and the left foot on the right thigh) and catching by the right hand brought round the back, the toes of the right foot and catching by the left hand brought round the back the toes of the left foot; sitting then straight and with ease. This is recommended by the Yogis (and by this one can raise oneself in the air).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जानूर्वोरन्तरे सम्यक्कृत्वा पादतले शुभे ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऋतुकायो विशेद्योगी स्वस्तिकं तत्प्रचक्षते। 11 ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सीवन्याः पार्श्वयोन्यस्य गुल्फयुग्मं सुनिश्चितम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वृषणाधः पादपाष्णीं पार्षिणभ्यां परिबन्धयेत् ॥ 12 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भद्रासनमिति प्रोक्तं योगिभिः परिपूजितम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऊर्वोः पादौ क्रमान्यस्य जान्वोः प्रत्यङ्मुखांगुली ॥ 13 ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Place the soles of the feet completely under the thighs, keep the body straight, and sit at ease. This is called the Svastikasana. Bhadrasana consists in placing well the two heels on the two sides of the two nerves of the testicles near the anus an catching by the two hands the two heels at her lower part of the testicles then sitting at ease. This is very much liked by the Yogis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;करौ विदध्यादाख्यातं वज्रासनमनुत्तमम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एक पादमधः कृत्वा विन्यस्योरु तथोत्तरे। 14 ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऋजुकायो विशेद्योगी वीरासनमितीरितम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vajrasana (diamond seat) consists in placing the feet on the two thighs respectively and placing the fingers below the thighs with the hands also there, and then sitting at ease. Virasana consists in Sitting cross on the hams in placing the right foot under the right thigh and the left foot under the left thigh and sitting at ease with body Straight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इडयाऽऽकर्षयेद्वायुं ब्राह्यं षोडशमात्रया ।। 1 5 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;धारयेत्पूरितं योगी चतु:षष्ठया तु मात्रया ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सुषुम्नामध्यगं सम्यग्द्वात्रिंशन्मात्रया शनैः ॥ 16 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नाङया पिङ्गलया चैव रेचयेद्योगवित्तमः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taking in the breath by the Ida (the left nostril) so long as we count Om' sixteen, retaining it in the Suşumnā so long as we count “Om” sixty-four times and then exhaling it slowly by the Pinglala nādī (the right nostril) as long as we count “Om” thirty-two times. (The first process is called Piiraka, the second is called Kumbhaka, and the third is called Reacaka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्राणायाममिमं प्राहुर्योगशास्त्रविशारदाः । 17 ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भूयो भूयः क्रमात्तस्य ब्राह्यमेवं समाचरेत् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मात्रावृद्धिक्रमेणौव सम्यग्द्वादश षोडश । 18 ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is called one Pranayama by those versed&#xA;in the Yogas. Thus one should go on again with his Pranayama. At the very beginning, try with the number twelve, i.e., as we count “Om’ twelve times and then increase the number gradually, to sixteen and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जपध्यानादिभिः सार्धं सगर्भं तं विदुर्बुधाः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदपेतं विगर्भ च प्राणायामं परे विदुः । 19 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pranayama is of two kinds: Sagarbha and Vigarbha. It is called Sagarbha when Pranayama is performed with repeating the Ista Mantra and Japam and meditation. It is called Vigarbha Pranayama when 'Om is simply counted and no other Mantram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;क्रमादभ्यस्यतः पुंसो देहे स्वेदोद्भमोऽधमः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मध्यमः कंपसंयुक्तो भूमित्यागः परो मतः ॥ 20 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उत्तमस्य गुणावाप्तिर्यावच्छीलनमिष्यते ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When this Pranayama is practised repeatedly, perspiration comes first when it is called of the lowest order, when the body begins to tremble, it is called middling, and when one rises up in the air, leaving the ground, it is called the best Pranayama. (Therefore one who practises Pranayama Ought to continue it till he becomes able to rise in the air).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इन्द्रियाणां विचरतां विषयेषु निरर्गलम् ॥ 21 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;बलादाहरणां तेभ्यः प्रत्याहारोऽभिधीयते ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now comes Pratyahara. The senses travel Spontaneously towards their objects, as if they are Without anyone tos check. To curb them perforce and to make them turn backwards from those objects is called Pratyahara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अङ्गुष्ठगुल्फजानूरुमूलाधारलिंगनाभिषु ॥ 22 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हृद्ग्रीवाकण्ठदेशेषु लम्बिकायां ततो नसि ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भूमध्ये मस्तके मूर्टिन द्वादशान्ते यथाविधि। 23 ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;धारणां प्राणामरुतो धारणेति निद्यते ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To hold the Prana Vayu on toes, heels, knees, thighs, Secrum, genital organs, navel, heart, neck, throat, the Soft palate, nose, between the eyebrows, and on the top of the head, at these twelve places respectively is called the Dharana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;समाहितेन मनसा चैतन्यांतरवर्तिना । 24 ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आत्मन्यभीष्टदेवानां ध्यानं ध्यानमिहोच्यते ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;समत्वभावना नित्यं जीवात्मपरमात्मनोः ॥ 25 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;समाधिमाहुर्मुनयः प्रोक्तमष्टागलक्षणम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इदानीं कथये तेऽहं मन्त्रयोगमनुत्तमम् । 26 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विश्वं शरीरमित्युक्तं पञ्चभूतात्मकं नग ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चन्द्रसूर्याग्नितेजोभिजवब्रहौक्यरूपकम् ॥ 27 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Concentrate the mind on the consciousness inside and then meditate the Ista Devata Within the Jĩvãtmã. This is the Dhyãna. Samãdhi is identifying always the Jīvātmā and Paramātmā. Thus the Sages say. (Samadhi is of two kinds (I) Samprajnata, or Savikalpak and (2) Nirvikalpak. When the ideas the Knower, Knowledge and the Thing Known, remain separate in the consciousness and yet the mind feels the one Akhanda Saccidananda Brahma and his heart remains, there, that is called Samprajnata Samadhi; and when those three vanish away and the one Brahma remains, it is called Asamprajñata Samadhi). Thus I have described to you the Yoga with its eight limbs. O, Mountain. This body composed of the five elements, and with Jiva endowed with the essence of the Sun the Moon, and the Fire and Brahmain it as one and the same, is denominated by the term “Višva.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/tmu/tmu24.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ŚĀṆDILYA-UPANISHAḌ OF AṬHARVAṆAVEḌA, Chapter I&lt;/a&gt; also deals with Ashtanga Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T08:38:50.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="15982" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15983" CreationDate="2016-11-19T09:51:40.090" Score="8" ViewCount="1260" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva provides Pashupatastra to Arjuna as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03040.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahabharata. While giving Pasupatastra Lord Shiva states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न त्वेतत् सहसा पार्थ मोक्तव्य पुरुषे कचित् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जगद विनाशयत् सर्वमल्पतेजसी पातितम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अवध्यो नाम नास्तयत्र त्रैलक्ये स चराचरे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनसा चक्षुषा वाचा धनुषा च निपातयत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O son of Pritha, this weapon should not be hurled without adequate cause; for if hurled at any foe of little might it may destroy the whole universe. In the three worlds with all their mobile and immobile creatures, there is none who is incapable of being slain by this weapon. And it may be hurled by the mind, by the eye, by words, and by the bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna must have Prayed Lord Shiva with some prayers before obtaining such a powerful Astra. So, &lt;strong&gt;By what prayer Arjuna prayed while receiving Pashupatastra?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T09:53:28.653" Title="By what prayer Arjuna prayed Lord Shiva while obtaining Pashupatastra?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|shiva|history|prayer|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15983" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15982" CreationDate="2016-11-19T09:53:28.653" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Arjuna recognized that the Kirata is none other than Mahadeva. Then he prayed Mahadeva with this Prayer as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03039.htm&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कपर्दिन् सर्वदेवेश भगनेत्रनिपातन ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवदेव महादेव नीलग्रीव जटाधर ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Kapardin, O chief of all gods, O destroyer of the eyes of Bhaga, O god of gods, O Mahadeva, O you of blue throat, O you of matted locks,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कारणानां च परमं जाने त्वां त्र्यम्बकं विभुम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवानां च गतिं देव त्वत्प्रसूतमिदं जगत् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I know you as the Cause of all causes. O you of three eyes, O lord of all! You are the refuge of all the gods! This universe has sprung from you. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अजेयस्त्वं त्रिभिर्लोकै सदेवासुरमानुषै ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिवाय विष्णुरुपाय विष्णवे शिवरुपिणे ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are incapable of being vanquished by the three worlds of the celestials, the Asuras, and men. You are Shiva in the form of Vishnu, and Vishnu in the form of Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दक्षयज्ञविनाशाय हरिरुद्राय वै नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ललाटाक्षाय शर्वाय मीढुषे शूलपाणये ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You destroyed the great sacrifice of Daksha.&amp;nbsp; I bow to your HariRudra form. You hast an eye on your forehead. O Sarva, O you that rainest objects of desire, O bearer of the trident, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पिनाकगोप्त्रे सूर्याय मंगलाय च वेधसे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रसादये त्वां भगवान् सर्वभूतमहेश्वर ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O wielder of the Pinaka, O Surya, O you of pure body, O Creator of all, I bow to you. O lord of all created things, I worship thee to obtain thy grace.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गणेशं जगतः शम्भु लोककारणकारणम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रधानपुरुषातीतं परं सुक्ष्मतरं हरं ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are the lord of the Ganas, the source of universal blessing, the Cause of the causes of the universe. You art beyond the Pradhana and Purusha, you are the highest, you are the subtlest, O Hara&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  व्यतिक्रमं मे भगवन् क्षन्तुमर्हसि शंकर ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भगवन् दर्शनाकांक्षी प्राप्तोऽस्मीमं महागिरिम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O illustrious Shankara, it behoveth thee to pardon my fault. It was even to obtain a sight of thyself.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दयितं तव देवेश तापसालयमुत्तमम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रसादये त्वां भगवन् सर्वलोकनमस्कृतम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I came to this great mountain, which is dear to thee and which is the excellent abode of ascetics. Thou art worshipped of all worlds. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न मे स्यादपराधोऽयं महादेवेतिसाहसात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कृतो मयामज्ञानाद् विभर्दो यस्त्वया सह ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शरणं प्रतिपन्नाय तत् क्षमस्वाद्य शंकर ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;Let not this rashness of mine be regarded as a fault--this combat in which I was engaged with thee from ignorance. O Sankara, I seek thy protection. Pardon &#xA;  me all I have done.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Arjuna asked forgiveness from Lord Shiva as he unknowingly fought with him, Mahadeva smilingly forgives him&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वैशम्पायन उवाच&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तमुवाच महातेजा: प्रहस्य वृषभध्वज ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रगृह रुचिरं वाहुं क्षान्तमित्येव फाल्गुनम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vaisampayana continued, &amp;quot;Endued with great might, the god whose sign was the bull, taking into his the handsome hands of Arjuna, smilingly replied unto him, saying, &amp;apos;I have pardoned thee. And the illustrious &#xA;  Hara, cheerfully clasping Arjuna with his arms, once more consoling Arjuna said as follows.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T09:53:28.653" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15984" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="15990" CreationDate="2016-11-19T10:34:49.453" Score="2" ViewCount="870" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question is not what is pitra dosha? That I already know. My question is pitra dosh is person specific or affected to whole lineage of person? Is it genetic decease which a person inherit from ancestors or is it kundali specific caused by sin in pastlife?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2017-03-16T18:23:02.173" Title="Is Pitra Dosh in Kundali specific or densty specific?" Tags="|astrology|kundali|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15985" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6764" CreationDate="2016-11-19T17:30:44.893" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kriya Yoga is basically extension of Hathayoga, to get into altered state of consciousness.Other than meditative postures prescibed by Hathayoga, it adds Muthra and Bandha along with Breathing methods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is suppose to bring you the benefits in shorter period than Hathayoga.Lets say 5 years of benefits in Hathayoga in 3 years of Kriya yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ennio Nimis is a Kriya yogi, you can read his personal experiences he share with us thru this website. and his books are free to download.&#xA;Kriya Yoga - Synthesis of a Personal Experience; by: Ennio Nimis. Find it at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kriyayogainfo.net/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.kriyayogainfo.net/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anicent scripture references won't tell you methods. They will glorify them, and what those scriptures say is understood in those ancient period only. Now, in moderen age, you need to go for who practice Kriya yoga and learn from them. &#xA;Fortunately, Ennio nimis kind of people dont have any problem in sharing there knowledge.&#xA;Bihar shool of yoga at India also released a book on Muthras and Bandhas, but how to use them in order is only taught by gurus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some more books you can refer shown below, but have not read them.&#xA;Kriya-yoga: The Science of Life-force; by: Swami Nityananda Giri. Published in 2013.&#xA;Kriya Secrets Revealed: Complete Lessons and Techniques; by: J C Stevens. Published in Jan 2013.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cautions:&#xA;Unless you are able to dedicate for 3 years practice, don´t go for it.&#xA;Stick to Hatha yoga, Hatha yoga breathing exercises and mindfullness stuff. That is enough.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You need to have a support group called sathsang, where your peers share their practices and difficulties. Usually this should be lead by a guru who should be able to guide you one to one if needed. Some of the side effects like increasing body heat, or shivering should be shared by you to the sathsang and practices to control or to move to the next level of practices will by taught by guru. Not everybody will have the same effect or progress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are living in a polluted area (air, water) then don't practice it there, as it causes unknown side effects.&#xA;To learn a some lessons you may need to for camping where guru teach you next level practices and watch you for few days.&#xA;AYP Forum is like online sathsang, where you may get some advices. practice some techniques for 6 months you will see some changes.If you like it continue. &#xA;Good luck.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8252" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T17:30:44.893" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15986" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15975" CreationDate="2016-11-19T17:44:59.693" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to provide this answer as a supplementary to above two answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&lt;/strong&gt; also talks about the Procedure of &quot;Astanga Yoga&quot;   Both  yogic as well as spiritual  procedures are described in &lt;strong&gt;(3rd Skanda chapter 28) Chapter 28 is fully dedicated to &quot;Astanga Yoga&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are some of the shlokas describing it-:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शुचै देशे प्रतिष्ठाप्य विजितासन आसनं । &lt;br/&gt;  तस्मिन स्वस्ति समासीन&#xA;  ऋतुकाय: समभ्यसेत ।।8।।&lt;br&gt;  प्राणस्य शोधयेन्मार्ग &lt;strong&gt;पूरकुंम्भक रेचकै&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  ।&lt;br&gt;  प्रतिकूलेंन वा चित्तम यथा स्थिरमचंचलमं ।।9।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;-  Initially do the &quot;Asanajaya&quot; , then prepare the seat (Asana) at the place where to study the &quot;Pranayaama&quot; by keeping body&#xA;  straight and steady. First perform &quot;Puraka&quot;  by left nostril  followed&#xA;  by &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Kumbhaka&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; and &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Rechaka&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; by right nostril.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्राणायामैर्दहेदोषानन्धरणभिश्र्च किल्बिषान् ।&lt;br&gt;  प्रत्याहारेण&#xA;  संसर्गान्ध्यानेनानीश्वरान् गुणान् ।।11।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - A yogi should remove &quot;Vaata &amp;amp; Pitta&quot; by &quot;Pranayama&quot; , sin by &quot;Dharana&quot; , material desire by &quot;Pratyahara&quot;  and anger-jealousy&#xA;  etc by &quot;Dhyana&quot; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; यदा: मन: स्वम वीरजं योगेन सुसमाहितंम् ।&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  काष्ठां भागवतो ध्याये त्स्वनासाग्रावलोकन:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - While  practicing yoga when our heart (Chitta चित्त) will be pure &amp;amp; concentrated ,then by stedying on tip of the Nose&#xA;  perform &quot;Dhyanam&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/28/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB Skanda 3 Chapter28&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The detail description of Astanga Yoga is also found in &lt;strong&gt;Shiva-Maha&#xA;  Purana ( Vayaviya Samhita ,Uttara Bhaga ,Chapter 37)&lt;/strong&gt; Name of the&#xA;  chapter is The Yogic practices and their usages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अष्टांङ्गो&lt;/strong&gt; वा षडङ्गो वा सर्वयोग: समासत: । &lt;strong&gt;यमश्र्च नियमश्चैव&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  स्वस्तिकाद्यम तथाssसनम ॥14॥ &lt;strong&gt;प्राणायाम:प्रत्याहारो धारणा ध्यानमेव च&lt;/strong&gt; ।&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;समाधिरिती&lt;/strong&gt; योगाङ्गोन्यष्टावुक्तानि सुराभि: ॥15॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Irrespective of it's the &quot;Sadanga&quot; or &quot;Astangayoga&quot;. All the Yogas  are &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Yama ,Niyama ,Asana&lt;/strong&gt; ,Pratyahara&#xA;  ,&lt;strong&gt;Pranayama,Dharna,Dhyana&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;,as have brought out by people of learning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-08T08:38:59.553" LastActivityDate="2016-12-08T08:38:59.553" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15987" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15965" CreationDate="2016-11-19T20:37:27.280" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;A curse or a blessing is a 'sankalp' of the person by whom it has been given. Know one thing for fact that 'sankalps' of people afflicted with impure thoughts never come true. Only 'sankalps' of people whose minds have been purified by dharma, tapasya or knowledge of brahma (or ishwar) come true. There is no other way of making a curse or blessing productive except purity of mind (or heart) and that comes from dharma, tapasya or knowledge of brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8253" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T20:37:27.280" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15988" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15965" CreationDate="2016-11-19T20:46:37.193" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If the person cursing you is a bad person, then don't worry about it. It is never going to come true. But if he is a pious person, then he himself is the remedy.Such people curse only when very angry. Once they are pacified, approach them with humility and seek forgiveness. They will definitely tell the way to break the curse. No doubt about that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8253" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T20:46:37.193" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15989" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15528" CreationDate="2016-11-19T21:39:32.817" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is yes. But one thing you need to understand : curses are our own doing (actions of past lives or present one) . They only manifest when their time comes like fruits on a tree. When the sins are eradicated by suffering or by pious actions, the effects of curses vanish. As for generational curses, if one is born in a cursed lineage, it is because one's sins are synonymous to the curse. Even if he was not born in an cursed family, he still will have to suffer the sins like a curse , but the curse or suffering will be his own and not directly of the family.&#xA;It is a case of काहु न कोउ सुख दुख कर दाता। निज कृत करम भोग सबु भ्राता॥-&lt;em&gt;Ramcharitmanas&lt;/em&gt;.If people of similar crimes gather in one place like a family , then it appears as a generational curse like the case of Sage Vishwamitra's sons. In simple way, one can understand by comparing the analogy with suffering of prisoners in a prison for crimes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8253" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T21:39:32.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15990" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15984" CreationDate="2016-11-19T22:02:58.583" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No dosha is permanent , be it in any lineage. But, if a person is born is a lineage with dosha and inherits the dosha, then understand it as manifestation of his own sins done in previous lives. It is like sending a criminal to a prison where already guilty persons are present having done similar crimes. Please do not think that an innocent person will inherit a dosha only because he is born somewhere. SrimadBhagwadGita- jiva apne hi karmon se bandha hai. It is not kundali which is cause of one's good or bad, it is karma of previous lives and present. The kundli mere reflects it so that remedial actions can be taken.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8253" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T22:02:58.583" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15991" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15924" CreationDate="2016-11-19T22:39:42.210" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;since you are not experienced with Hindu scriptures, I advice this:-  SrimadBhagwadGita embodies complete truth but it can not be understood by reading only it. The teachings of puranas and scriptures culminate in SrimadBhagwadGita .Chapter 7.2 :- SriKrishna says :- I shall now explain to you fully this phenomenal knowledge along with its full realization: which by knowing nothing further remains to be known in this world. If you are genuinely interested in SrimadBhagwadGita, then you are worthy of our respect because it is said that one becomes interested in reading and understanding it only when one's pious actions of many lives materialize.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8253" LastActivityDate="2016-11-19T22:39:42.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15993" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-20T02:10:07.430" Score="5" ViewCount="211" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gods and Demons United to churn the ocean of many gems.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the end, Gods and Demons fought over who would have nectar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu disguises himself as Mohini and serves nectar to the Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But didn't Demons help to churn nectar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Under what circumstances would Lord Vishnu give them their 50% the nectar they helped churn?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastActivityDate="2016-11-20T02:10:07.430" Title="Under What Circumstances Would Demon Be Given Nectar Churned from Ocean" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2016-11-20T16:21:52.647" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15994" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24541" CreationDate="2016-11-20T05:29:53.440" Score="7" ViewCount="1808" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know about Chanakya's Artha Shastra, a work about Hindu statecraft.  What is not as well-known is that it's based on an older work on statecraft called the Brihaspati Sutras, composed by Brihaspati, the Guru of the gods.  In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fYkBX.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Brihaspati Sutras describes what god lives in each of the mountain ranges of India:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;128&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On the Vindhya dwells perpetually Durga, and Bhadrakali; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On Kumara Kumara dwells perpetually; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On Sahya Ganapati; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On Raivataka the Teacher; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On Mahendra Garuda;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On Pariyatra Kshetrapala&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &quot;On the Vindhya dwells perpetually Durga&quot; is a clear reference to Yashoda's daughter Vindhyavasini, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7002/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And &quot;On Sahya Ganapati&quot; is probably a reference to the story of Ganesha and the Kaveri river.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm interested in the line &quot;On Pariyatra Kshetrapala&quot;.  The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pariyatra_Mountains&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pariyatra mountains&lt;/a&gt; are the northwestern portion of the Vindhya mountain range.  But my question is, who is the god &quot;Kshetrapala&quot; who lives there?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Kshetrapala means &quot;guardian of the place&quot;.  But what place is that?  Is it saying that the guardian of the Pariyatra mountains lives in the Pariyatra mountains?  Or perhaps the guardian of some larger area, like India as a whole?  Does anyone know any scriptures which describe a god living in the Pariyatra mountains?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2018-02-22T09:57:56.973" Title="Who is the Kshetrapala god who lives on the Pariyatra mountains?" Tags="|gods|temple|india|brihaspati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15996" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10688" CreationDate="2016-11-20T07:54:30.827" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The years 4800, 3600 etc are heavenly years i.e. years of heavenly demigods. 1 heavenly year = 360 years on the earth. That makes Satya yuga = 1728000 earthly years and so on. So, 1 chaturyugi (a cycle of 4 yugas) = 4320000 earthly years. The western calculation of time of yugas is mere speculation and not authentic.&#xA;Kali yuga began around 5000 years ago i.e. around 3000 B.C.. There is still 427000 years time left before it ends and next Satya yuga begins. In terms of heavenly years, nearly 14 years have passed and out of 1200 years(as you have mentioned ) , &#xA;nearly 1186 heavenly years remain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8253" LastActivityDate="2016-11-20T07:54:30.827" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15997" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10688" CreationDate="2016-11-20T08:11:16.763" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is detailed explanation of time of yugas and more from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;Timings of the Four Yugas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Stephen Knapp&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When describing the length of the yugas or ages, and which yuga we are in and how far along we are in it, there is sometimes confusion about how to calculate them. A number of theories have cropped over the years regarding how the yugas transpire. The problem is when they are figured only according to years of earth’s time, they will never be accurate. They are described in the Vedic literature according to the celestial years, or years of the Devas. Nonetheless, there are specific references in the Vedic texts which make it clear how to calculate them. For starters, the Mahabharata (Shanti Parva, 231.12-20) explains it in detail:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The rishis, measuring time, have given particular names to particular portions [of time]. Five and ten winks of the eye make what is called a Kastha. Thirty Kasthas make what is called a Kala. Thirty Kalas, with the tenth part of a Kala, make a Muhurta. Thirty Muhurtas make one day and night. Thirty days and nights form a month, and twelve months form a year. Persons well-read in mathematical science say that a year is made up of two solar motions, meaning the northern and southern. The sun makes the day and night for men. The night is for the sleep of all living creatures, and the day is for work. A month of human beings is equal to a day and night of the departed manes [ancestors who have gone on to the subtle worlds]. That division consists in this: the light half of the month is their day which is for work; and the dark fortnight is their night for sleep. A year (of men) is equal to a day and night to the gods [Devas or celestials]. This division consists in this: the half year for which the sun travels from the vernal to the autumnal equinox is the day of the gods, and the half year for which the sun moves from the latter to the former is their night. [Thus, an earth year is but a day for the Devas.] Calculating by the days and nights of human beings about which I have told you, I shall speak of the day and night of Brahma and his years also. I shall, in their order, tell you the number of years, that are for different purposes calculated differently, in the Krita, the Treta, the Dvapara, and the Kali yugas. Four thousand celestial years is the duration of the first or Krita age. The morning of that cycle consists of four hundred years and its evening is of four hundred years. [Note: This says celestial years, or years of the demigods on the higher planets. Such years are much longer than those of planet earth. So 4000 celestial years, with the morning or Sandhya of 400 celestial years and the evening or Sandhyansa, or intermediate period, of another 400 years equals 4800 celestial years or 1,728,000 human years.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Regarding the other cycles [or yugas], the duration of each gradually decreases by a quarter in respect of both the principal period with the minor portion and the conjoining portion itself. These periods always keep up the never-ending and eternal worlds. They who know Brahma, O child, regard this as Immutable Brahma.&quot; (Mb, Shanti Parva, 231.21-22)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means that as each age or yuga appears, from the Krita, Treta, Dvapara, to Kali, each yuga decreases by a quarter of the previous yuga, in addition to the conjoining Sandhya and Sandhyansa periods with each yuga. In this way, it is roughly calculated that a whole cycle of the four yugas, namely Krita, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali-yuga together, total about 12,000 celestial years in length.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata (Shanti Parva, 231.29-32) continues: &quot;The learned say that these 12,000 celestial years form what is called a cycle. A thousand such cycles form a single day of Brahma. The same is the duration of Brahma’s night. With the beginning of Brahma’s day the universal entities come into being. During the period of universal dissolution the Creator [Brahma] sleeps in Yoga-meditation. When the period of sleep expires, He awakes. What is Brahma’s day covers a thousand such cycles. His night also covers a thousand similar cycles. They who know this are said to know the day and the night. On the expiry of His night, Brahma, waking up, modifies the indestructible intelligence by causing it to be overlaid with ignorance. He then causes Consciousness to spring up, whence it originates Mind which is at one with the Manifest.&quot; [This creative process is described in detail in my book How the Universe was Created and Our Purpose In It.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In calculating the duration of the different yugas, there are a few differences between the Puranas, otherwise their descriptions are all the same. The Brahmanda Purana (1.2.29.31-34) specifically states that Krita or Satya-yuga is 1,440,000 human years in length, Treta-yuga is 1,080,000 years, Dvapara-yuga is 720,000 years, and Kali-yuga is 360,000 years in length. The Linga Purana (4.24-35) also agrees with this except for Treta-yuga, which it says is 1,800,000 years in length. These figures are correct when we leave out the conjoining Sandhya [at the beginning of each yuga] and the Sandhyansa [ending of each yuga] periods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When explaining the various measurements of time, the Vishnu Purana (Book One, Chapter Three) and the Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.11.19), along with the Bhagavad-gita (8.17), the Vayu Purana (Chapter 57), and Bhavishya Purana (Brahma Parva, 2.86-107), and others, such as the Mahabharata as quoted above, also all agree on the measurements of the durations of the yugas. This shows that these time measurements are corroborated throughout the Vedic texts, and if anyone has a different theory about the Vedic time frame, then they are going outside the Vedic descriptions. We will describe this in more simplified terms as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the explanations of the measurements of time found therein, one cycle of the four yugas together is 12,000 years of the demigods, called divine years. Each of these years is composed of 360 days, and each of their days is equal to one human year. So Krita-yuga is 4000 divine years in length, Treta-yuga is 3000 divine years in length, Dvapara-yuga is 2000 divine years in length, and Kali-yuga is 1000 divine years long, each one a quarter less than Krita or Satya-yuga, with the addition of the conjoining portions of the Sandhya and Sandhyansa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way, each yuga is preceded by a period called a Sandhya, which is as many hundred years in length as there are thousands of years in that particular yuga. Each yuga is also followed by a period of time known as a Sandhyansa, which is also as many hundreds of years in length as there are thousands of years in the yuga. In between these periods of time is the actual yuga. Therefore, we have:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krita-yuga = 4000 divine years, Sandhya = 400 divine years, Sandhyansa = 400 divine years. Total = 4800 divine years x 360 days = 1,728,000 human years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Treta-yuga = 3000 divine years, Sandhya = 300 divine years, Sandhyansa = 300 divine years. Total = 3600 divine years x 360 days = 1,296,000 human years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dvapara-yuga = 2000 divine years, Sandhya = 200 divine years, Sandhyansa = 200 divine years. Total = 2400 divine years x 360 days = 864,000 human years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kali-yuga = 1000 divine years, Sandhya = 100 divine years, Sandhyansa = 100 divine years. Total = 1200 divine years x 360 days = 432,000 human years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This equals 4,320,000 human years, or 12,000 divine years, in one cycle of the four yugas together, and 1000 cycles of these yugas equals a Chaturyuga at 12,000,000 divine years and 4,320,000,000 human years in one day of Brahma. It is also explained that Kali-yuga began with the disappearance of Lord Krishna from the planet. This has been calculated to be 3102 BCE. Since Kali-yuga is described as being 432,000 earth years in length, with 5,000 years and more already passed, then the age of Kali-yuga has approximately 326,000 more years to go.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be more clear about this, these calculations are further confirmed in the Brahma-Vaivarta Purana which relates the same figures in the following way:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Now I will tell you about the counting of time. As the days rise and end, similarly all the four yugas also come and end. A single divine day and night of Manu compares with the completed year of the humans. Those well-versed in the signs of time, ordain that after the passing of the three hundred and sixty yugas of the humans, a divine yuga of the gods is made. Seventy-one divine years [of the gods] comprise a manvantara. An age of Indra is equivalent to one manvantara. Thus, after the existence of twenty-eight Indras, there is one day and night of Brahma. Thus, after the lapse of one hundred and eight years, the life of Brahma comes to an end.&quot; (Brahma-Vaivarta Purana, Prakriti Khanda, 7.72-75)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same time frame is calculated with a different description in the Kalki Purana (19.12-14) as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Twelve thousand years of the demigods is the duration of the four yugas on earth. The duration of Satya-yuga is four thousand celestial years, Treta-yuga is three thousand celestial years, Dvapara-yuga is two thousand celestial years, and Kali-yuga is one thousand celestial years. The transitional periods of the four yugas are four hundred, three hundred, two hundred, and one hundred celestial years respectively. In this way, the total comes to twelve thousand celestial years. The duration of the reign of each Manu is seventy-one cycles of the four yugas. Fourteen Manus reign during one day of Brahma. This is also the duration of Brahma’s night [which is as long as his day].&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand this in greater detail and to also show the consistency of these calculations throughout the Vedic literature, we can use the additional example. Here Suta Gosvami explains to the sages during the huge gathering at the forest of Naimisaranya 5000 years ago, all of the divisions of time and how the lengths of the yugas are formulated, as related in the Vayu Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;In the context of the description of the earth, etc., I have already said about the four yugas. Now I shall recount them in detail. (Listen and) understand them. Calculating everything and mentioning in detail, I shall narrate in full the six aspects of yugas, namely yugabheda (difference in yugas), yugadharma (the particular characteristics of each yuga), yugasandhi (the junction of yugas), yugamsha (the parts of yugas), and yugasandhana (the joints of the yugas). The human year can be understood (calculated) by means of valid working knowledge. Calculating on the basis of that year [in the human time frame], I shall explain the four yugas. The time taken to utter a short syllable is equal to a Nimesha. Nimesha, Kashtha, Kala, and Muhurta are the units of time. Fifteen Nimeshas constitute a Kashtha, thirty Kashthas make one Kala, and thirty Kalas make one Muhurta. Thirty Muhurtas make one full day and night. The sun demarcates the human as well as the divine days and nights. The day is intended for activity and the night is meant for sleep. A (human) month constitutes the day and night of the Pitris [the departed ancestors, now included as part of the celestials]. Its division is thus: The dark half is the day for them and the bright half is their night for sleep [as calculated by the waning and waxing of the moon].&quot; (Vayu Purana 57.2-9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Therefore, thirty human months make one month of the Pitris [the celestial ancestors]. On the basis of the human calculation, three hundred and sixty months constitute a year of the Pitris. A hundred human years constitute three years and four months of the Pitris. A human year in accordance with the human calculation is one day and one night of the Devas [the higher demigods]. This is the conclusion in this scripture.&quot; (Vayu Purana 57.10-12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;So, the divine day and night together [of the Devas] make a human year. A further classification is that the Uttarayana period (northern transit of the sun) is the day and the Dakshinayana period (southern transit of the sun) is the night (of the Devas). Thirty of the days and nights of the gods, or thirty human years make one divine month (of the gods). One hundred human years make three divine months and three divine days. Thus is the divine reckoning for divisions of time.&quot; (Vayu Purana 57.13-15)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Three hundred and sixty years according to human calculation constitute one divine year. Three thousand and thirty years according to human calculation constitute one year of the Seven Sages (Saptarishis) or the (astrological constellation of) the Great Bear. Nine thousand and ninety human years make one Kraunchan year. Thirty-six thousand human years should be known as one hundred divine years. Thus is the calculation of the divine unit of time. Persons well versed in calculation say that three hundred and sixty thousand (360,000) years reckoned on the basis of human time units constitute a thousand divine years [of the Devas]. It is thus that the sages sang about the divine calculation. They have formulated the reckoning of the yugas and their duration on the basis of this divine calculation.&quot; (Vayu Purana 57.16-21)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now with all of this calculating we reach the point where it is used to establish the durations of the four yugas as followed:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Wise people know that there are four yugas in Bharata Varsha [the area of India and sometimes considered planet earth in general]. The first one is Krita, followed by Treta, Dvapara, and Kali-yuga. One should reckon these yugas in this order. They say that the Krita-yuga consists of four thousand years. The Sandhya (transition period) consists of as many hundreds of years (400 divine years). The Sandhyamsha (part of the junction with the next yuga) is equal to the Sandhya period. In the Sandhyas and Sandhyamshas of the other yugas there is a gradual reduction of a thousand [years of the yuga] and hundred years [in the Sandhya and Sandhyamsha transitions]. [This means that] Treta-yuga contains three thousand years, and its Sandhya and Sandhyamsha [junctions with the preceding and following yugas] consist of three hundred years each. The wise say that Dvapara-yuga contains two thousand [celestial] years, and the Sandhya consists of two hundred years and the Sandhyamsha is equal to the Sandhya [two hundred years]. The learned say that Kali-yuga consists of a thousand years, and its Sandhya is of a hundred years and the Sandhyamsha is the same. This period of twelve thousand (divine) years is known as a Maha-yuga. The four yugas together are Krita, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali.&quot; (Vayu Purana 57.22-28)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;In this world the calculation of years is based on the human level. Now I shall mention the duration of Krita-yuga in accordance with that type of [human] calculation. The duration [of Krita-yuga] is one million, four hundred and forty thousand [human] years. As for Kali-yuga, it is one fourth of that. Thus the specific duration of time of the four yugas excluding the Sandhyas and Sandhyamshas is declared. Including the Sandhyas and Sandhyamshas the duration of the four yugas put together is four million three hundred and twenty thousand [4,320,000] human years.&quot; (Vayu Purana 57.29-32)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, we have provided the different ways of explaining the units of time to calculate the length of the yugas according to the references in the Vedic texts. I hope this has provided enough information and evidence to clarify and conclude what is sometimes a confusing issue, and that the same figures and conclusions are arrived at in various texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;THE MANU AVATARAS&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To more clearly understand the division of time known as a manvantara, or the life span of one Manu, the full explanation is provided herein. First of all, the Manus appear for certain durations within a day of Brahma. Brahma’s day is calculated as 4,300,000 years (the time of one cycle of the four yugas) times 1,000, or about 4,320,000,000 human years. Within one day of Brahma there are 14 Manus. The list of the 14 Manus in this universe is as follows: Yajna is Svayambhuva Manu, Vibhu is Svarocisha Manu, Satyasena is Uttama Manu, Hari is Tamasa Manu, Vaikuntha is Raivata Manu, Ajita is Ckakshusha Manu, Vamana is Vaivasvata Manu (the Manu of the present age), Sarvabhauma is Savarni Manu, Rishabha is Daksha-savarni Manu, Vishvaksena is Brahma-savarni Manu, Dharmasetu is Dharma-savarni Manu, Sudhama is Rudra-savarni Manu, Yogesvara is Deva-savarni Manu, and Brihadbhanu is Indra-savarni Manu. These fourteen Manus cover the 4,320,000,000 solar years of one day of Brahma. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.5 purport &amp;amp; Chaitanya-caritamrita, Madhya-lila 20, 319-328)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand more completely how long these Manus reign we can consider the following information. For example, there are four ages, namely Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapara-yuga, and Kali-yuga, which together comprise a divya-yuga, which is one set of the four yugas, also called a chatur-yuga. Let us remember that Satya-yuga lasts 1,728,000 years, Treta-yuga 1,296,000 years, Dvapara-yuga 864,000 years, and Kali-yuga 432,000 years. That is a total of 4,320,000 years. A day of Brahma, called a kalpa, lasts for 1,000 of these cycles, and is thus 4,320,000,000 solar years. There are 14 Manus in each day of Brahma. Each Manu is said to exist for one manvantara, which is a period of time lasting 71 divya-yugas. Therefore, each Manu exists for roughly 306,720,000 years. Additionally, Brahma lives for 100 years, composed of 365 of such days in a year. (Bhagavad-gita 8.17 &amp;amp; Srimad-Bhagavatam.3.11.20 &amp;amp; Vishnu Purana, Book One, Chapter Three, p.35)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From further analysis we can also discover the age of the earth from these Vedic calculations. The present Manu is the seventh in line, called Vaivasvata Manu, the son of Vivasvan. Twenty-seven divya-yugas, or cycles of the four yugas, of his age have now passed. So 27 divya-yugas means 116,640,000 years. It is scheduled that at the end of the Dvapara-yuga of the twenty-eighth divya-yuga of the seventh Manu, Lord Krishna appears on earth with the full paraphernalia of His eternal spiritual abode, named Vrajadhama or Goloka Vrindavana. Brahma’s day consists of 4,320,000,000 years. In this way, six of these Manus appear and disappear before Lord Krishna takes birth. This means that 1,975,320,000 years of the day of Brahma have gone by before the appearance of Lord Krishna. (Chaitanya-caritamrita, Adi-lila 3, 7-10 &amp;amp; Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.30.49 purport)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, this is also the age of the earth in this particular day of Brahma by these Vedic calculations. Science is sometimes surprised that such lengths of time were part of the ancient Vedic conception of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[This article and more information at  www.stephen-knapp.com]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8253" LastActivityDate="2016-11-20T08:11:16.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="15998" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16000" CreationDate="2016-11-20T08:29:13.057" Score="4" ViewCount="530" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please explain in detail what Sri Krishna wants to say in the verse &lt;code&gt;18.66&lt;/code&gt; of &lt;em&gt;Srimad Bhagwad Gita&lt;/em&gt; : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;१८-६६|| सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज | अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो&#xA;  मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8253" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-11-21T18:54:21.960" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T09:13:40.143" Title="Explanation of SrimadBhagwadGita verse 18.66" Tags="|scripture|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16000" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15998" CreationDate="2016-11-20T12:31:15.340" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please refer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/66&lt;/a&gt; for full explanation by Srila Prabhupada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8259" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-21T18:25:11.180" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T18:25:11.180" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16002" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16015" CreationDate="2016-11-20T16:42:34.080" Score="10" ViewCount="2070" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any references to the word 'purushartha' in vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7654" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T08:59:16.767" Title="References to &quot;purushartha&quot; in vedas?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16005" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15998" CreationDate="2016-11-20T19:10:22.010" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This verse should better be interpreted with context of other verses. The independent analysis/translation may lead to entirely different interpretation, as it was done in Indian movie &lt;em&gt;&quot;Dharam Sankat Mein&quot;&lt;/em&gt;. Let's see in bits &amp;amp; pieces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Translation&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 18.66 - Abandon all &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;-s [and] take surrender [only] under &quot;Me&quot;. &quot;I&quot; will liberate you from all sins. Don't repent.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Who liberates?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, &quot;I&quot; &amp;amp; &quot;Me&quot; should be interpreted as the ultimate One, rather than Krishna's personal form as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13950/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Krishna is a rare philosopher, who had represented the ultimate identity with &quot;I&quot;. This &quot;I&quot; is the liberator or the liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;If all &quot;sins&quot; are forgiven, then What about good/bad &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; theory?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if we surrender to &quot;I&quot;, then it simply liberates us from whatever sin we have incurred! That actually contradicts with other Vedic literature, which stresses on Karma &amp;amp; bearing its good/bad fruits. Doesn't it challenge common sense?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yes, it does. But it's still true. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Assume 2 planes: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;First is material world, where we are present now. This world&#xA;contains all existent &amp;amp; non-existent things; In short all&#xA;expressible matters.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The other plane is &quot;I&quot;. That's beyond existent (&lt;em&gt;sat&lt;/em&gt;) &amp;amp;&#xA;non-existent (&lt;em&gt;asat&lt;/em&gt;) &amp;amp; can't be expressed. If expressed, then it's&#xA;no more &quot;I&quot;. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neti_neti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Neti&#xA;neti&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In plane-1, we have a perception of good Karma &amp;amp; bad Karma, which affects us. However in plane-2, these sins (bad deeds) &amp;amp; virtues (good deeds) are not accepted, rather they are treated as illusions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 5.15 - The &lt;strong&gt;Omnipresent neither accepts anybody's sin nor even virtue&lt;/strong&gt;. Knowledge remains covered by ignorance. Thus the creatures become deluded.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Why not to repent?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna asks &quot;not to repent/grieve&quot;, in the end of the verse.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We may think, provided that we are still in the material world, aren't we still under the spell of Karma? Won't good/bad Karma affect our past/present/future lives? If we have committed a sin then, shouldn't we worry about its repentance or &lt;em&gt;prAyaschita&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such repentance depends on the ignorance. Suppose, if I believe that, I have committed a sin, then I may want to do repentance. According to Gita, that's ignorance. In reality, no Karma happens by oneself. Only 3 modes of material nature (&lt;em&gt;Sattva, Rajas, Tamas&lt;/em&gt;), makes all the Karma possible. Why should one repent (do &lt;em&gt;prAyaschita&lt;/em&gt;), when the consciousness of oneself just resides as a witness or a consumer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 3.27 - &lt;strong&gt;Actions are performed by [three] modes of [material] nature.&lt;/strong&gt; [Purusha] Deluded by egoism believes as, &quot;I am the do-er&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Relation of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; 3 modes&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most tricky part. First of all, we should understand that &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/336/1049&quot;&gt;Dharma is Not religion&lt;/a&gt;. A person can have no religion, but every entity has its own &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; in material world. The &quot;I&quot; also has its own &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, which is supreme.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The closest single word meaning of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;strong&gt;Tendency&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As a citizen of society, a person tends to do something, that's &lt;em&gt;SAmAjik Dharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As a husband, person tends to do something, that's &lt;em&gt;Pati Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As a ruler/king, person tends to do something, that's &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;All these combinations defines one's own natural tendency, which is &lt;em&gt;Swadharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 3 modes of material nature as discussed above, are related to &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10799/1049&quot;&gt;BG 18.30-18.32&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sattva&lt;/strong&gt; (Goodness): Follows &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; hence in proper alignment with all&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rajas&lt;/strong&gt; (Passion): Doesn't know about &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; hence are misplaced&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tamas&lt;/strong&gt; (Ignorance): Interprets &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt; as &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; hence are opposite&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone has these 3 modes present within them except the &quot;I&quot;. &quot;I&quot; is beyond these 3 modes. So, &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; is a strong &amp;amp; easy tool for &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; people towards liberation. But there is no specific requirement that &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; people will get quicker liberation/&lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; compared to &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;TAmasika&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For example, ShishupAla who had spent his life in ravaging innocent people got liberation as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SabhA parva&lt;/a&gt;. Similarly Kansa, who killed innocent infants by throwing them to a wall, also got Moksha. Both of them showed &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; qualities. There might be back-story explanations of these 2 (e.g. Jaya-Vijaya), but this is a neutral point of view. Similar can be said about RAvana as well, who was &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt; (a &lt;em&gt;Rakshasa&lt;/em&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Why to abandon All &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;-s&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was born with &lt;em&gt;Daivi Sampada&lt;/em&gt; (Divine Quality) as he was predominantly &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt;. As noted in Shankara's commentary, the Gita was said with respect to Arjuna representing the humanity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna is not alified for steadfastness in Knowledge through monasticism in the primary sense. Still, the Gita being meant for mankind as a whole, monasticism is spoken of here by accepting Arjuna as a representative man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; or &quot;following of Dharma&quot; also refrains a person from liberation. It holds a &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; within material nature by knowledge &amp;amp; happiness!&lt;/strong&gt; This is a rare caveat found in Gita and this is the primary reason for abandoning all &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; to be able to merge with the supreme/&quot;I&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 14.5,6,7,9 — O might armed, the modes of Sattva, Rajas &amp;amp; Tamas generated from Prakruti, binds the embodied Indivisible (Atman) into (subtle) body. — &lt;strong&gt;O sinless, Due to purity, the Sattva is illuminating &amp;amp; distortionless. It binds with happiness &amp;amp; with knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt; — O son of Kunti, know that Rajas is generated from self-desire &amp;amp; thirst (to achieve). That binds the embodied (jeeva) with Karma. — O Bharata, know Tamas to be born from ignorance. It binds all bewildered embodied (jeeva) with enjoyment, laziness, sleep.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though Krishna followed &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; all his life, he never refrained from breaking stereotype whenever needed. As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11114/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, he didn't allow &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; to overcome him. Rather he remained beyond 3 modes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Still, &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; is foundation for any good society and many people follow it for smooth liberation. Treat &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; as a boat in the river like life. Once you reach the other side of the river, where the &quot;I&quot; abodes, leave the boat!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-11-20T19:10:22.010" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16006" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16022" CreationDate="2016-11-20T19:38:09.747" Score="6" ViewCount="2775" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/prayers-offered-for-rains/article6138348.ece&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; news article:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Prayers offered for rains&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hundreds of people thronged Indrakeeladri on the bank of the river Krishna to witness 'Varuna yagam' and 'sahasraghatabhishekam' performed for copious rain. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This apart, &lt;strong&gt;Virataparva parayanam&lt;/strong&gt; also began on the temple premises, he said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What has Virāṭa Parva pārāyaṇa got to do with rains?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-11-29T15:34:45.203" LastActivityDate="2016-11-29T15:34:45.203" Title="What has Virāṭa Parva pārāyaṇa got to do with rains?" Tags="|mahabharata|customs|superstitions|varuna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16007" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16006" CreationDate="2016-11-20T20:21:43.220" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.columbuslost.com/Temples/Chants-or-Spells-or-Prayers-for-bringing-rain-and-relief-from-drought/info&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This web page&lt;/a&gt; says that the chanting of the Virata Parva of the Mahabharata was once done by Chandrashekhara Bharati II, a former Sharankaracharya of Sringeri Mutt, in order to produce rain.  And his explanation was that Vyasa had embedded a mantra to Varuna within the Virata Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book &amp;quot;Guru Krupa Vilasam&amp;quot; mentions an interesting incident in 1925 at Devakottai (near Madurai) by Gurupada Shekaran on the Vana Parva chanting and its effect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Gurupada Shekaran is present during an discussion between Swamiji and the mutt manager.The manager says &amp;quot;It is better if we move our camp to Madurai. Its more than 5-6 years since it rained here. All the wells are empty. We are bringing water travelling a long distance with the help of elephants. There are a lot of people who have food in our camp. It is difficult to manage without water&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swamiji says &amp;quot;If I was informed earlier we might have avoided coming here. But having come it is not fair to leave this place disappointing the people. Ask the priest to come with Mahabharata book along with puja items&amp;quot;. After the priest came, Swamiji asks him to chant Virata Parva and the priests starts off in a traditional way. Swamiji also starts chanting mantras. Gurupada Sekaran witnesses all what was happening. It was around 1 PM in the noon and the sun was at its peak. At 2 PM, clouds from nowhere hid the sun. Cool breeze starts and its starts raining heavily. So heavy was the rain, except the sound of rain nothing could be heard. It continues to pour and at around 4:30 PM, the manager comes to Swamiji with a sign of relief. Swamiji asks &amp;quot;Is the rain sufficient?&amp;quot; and then asks the priest to light the camphor as a sign of completion. At 5 PM, the priest lights the camphor and almost spontaneously the rain stops.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next day, he humbly enquires about what happened yesterday. Swamiji says &amp;quot;We did Varuna Japa. The rains came. Sage Vyasa has embedded the varuna mantra into the Virata Parva. The effect the of the mantra creates a subtle effect in the environment&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the text of the Virata Parva of the Mahabharata, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, contains no overt references to prayers to Varuna or obtaining rain.  But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/home/dharma_and_philosophy/panchajanya/SecretsInMahabharat.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt; says that Chandrasekhara Bharati said &amp;quot;that the sage Veda Vyas had hidden the  Bijaaksharas of Varuna mantra in the virata Parva section of the  Mahabharata&amp;quot;.  So it could be that there are certain seemingly innocuous syllables in the Virata Parva are actually Bijas or seed syllables of some mantra to Varuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T22:34:14.880" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16008" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15881" CreationDate="2016-11-20T22:41:03.557" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Krishna doesn't give any parenting advice in the Bhagavad Gita, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  The Starplus Mahabharat TV serial just has various segments where Krishna addresses the audience and gives practical advice.  They aren't meant to be quotes from scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(This isn't really a proper answer, but as discussed &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/612/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; there isn't really scope for such a comprehensive answer when the answer is no.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2016-11-20T22:41:03.557" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16009" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-21T04:45:51.733" Score="3" ViewCount="296" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The turtle can draw in its legs. The seer can draw in his senses.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Bhagavad Gita)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When meditating, most people find it difficult to withdraw from noises around us. Noises prevent us from concentrating on the Atman. Most of us have found it difficult to detach from sense of hearing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How should one approach this? Does this indicate that it's unproductive to meditate in an environment where conversations are within earshot?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8216" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2016-11-21T06:48:36.543" LastActivityDate="2019-11-07T21:57:47.457" Title="Auditory sense detachment" Tags="|meditation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16010" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16009" CreationDate="2016-11-21T05:33:28.520" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One should meditate in a secluded location.&lt;/strong&gt;  Here is what Krishna says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 6&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To practice yoga, one should go to a secluded place and should lay kuśa grass on the ground and then cover it with a deerskin and a soft cloth. The seat should be neither too high nor too low and should be situated in a sacred place. The yogī should then sit on it very ﬁrmly and practice yoga to purify the heart by controlling his mind, senses and activities and ﬁxing the mind on one point.  One should hold one’s body, neck and head erect in a straight line and stare steadily at the tip of the nose. Thus, with an unagitated, subdued mind, devoid of fear, completely free from sex life, one should meditate upon Me within the heart and make Me the ultimate goal of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's only when one is free from distractions that meditation can be successfully undertaken.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T05:33:28.520" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16011" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="42492" CreationDate="2016-11-21T05:36:38.523" Score="10" ViewCount="4809" Body="&lt;p&gt;What does Bhagavad Gita make of persons who just go about doing their swadharma, fulfilling their duties (being a good child to parents, is a good spouse, a good parent, citizen etc.) but don't believe in a higher power or God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2021-08-29T03:49:25.447" Title="Does Bhagavad Gita detest atheists?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|atheism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16013" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16009" CreationDate="2016-11-21T06:26:57.393" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Keep on practicing and eventually no noise will disturb you. As Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;karmaṇy akarma yaḥ paśyed&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  akarmaṇi ca karma yaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sa buddhimān manuṣyeṣu&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sa yuktaḥ kṛtsna-karma-kṛt [Bhagavad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;4.18&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;:- He who finds rest in midst of activity, and activity in rest, he is the wise amidst men, he is the Yogi, he is the doer of all work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you read Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, you will find that he has talked a lot about meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You must keep the mind fixed on one object, like an unbroken stream of oil. &lt;strong&gt;The ordinary man's mind is scattered on different objcts, and at the time of meditation, too, the mind is at first apt to wander. But let any desire whatever arise in the mind, you must sit calmly and watch what sort of ideas are coming. By continuing to watch in that way, the mind becomes calm, and there are no thought waves in it.&lt;/strong&gt; These waves represent the thought-activity of the mind. Those things that you have thought too deeply, have transformed themselves into a subconscious current, and therefore these come up in the mind in meditation. The rise of these waves, or thoughts, during meditation is an evidence that your mind is tending towards concentration. Sometimes the mind is concentrated on a set of ideas -- this is called meditation with Vikalpa or oscillation. But when the mind becomes almost free from all activities, it melts in the inner Self, which is the essence of infinite Knowledge, One and Itself Its own support.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Swami Vivekananda said, at first mind will wander here and there but don't let it become distraction, sit there and eventually you will have perfect concentration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="3872" LastEditDate="2016-11-21T07:59:22.683" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T07:59:22.683" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16014" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16006" CreationDate="2016-11-21T06:37:37.553" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The preface of the book &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/ESSENCE%20OF%20VIRAT%20PARVA%20OF%20MAHA%20BHARATA.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ESSENCE OF VIRAT PARVA OF MAHA BHARATA&lt;/a&gt;&quot; states that it is believed that recitation of the Durga Stuti done by Yudhishthira just before entering the Virata Kingdom is capable of bringing even unseasonal rains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a strong belief that reading of Virat Parva of Maha Bharata&#xA;  would not only entail enrichment of one’s thought and action but&#xA;  toughen one’s psyche to face life in the framework of fortitude and&#xA;  challenge without slipping into demerit and immorality. &lt;strong&gt;An allied&#xA;  faith is that daily recitation of ‘Durga Stuti’ -vide the sixth&#xA;  chapter of this Booklet- before Pandavas entered the Virat Kingdom-&#xA;  would usher in supreme faith and courage of conviction. In fact at the&#xA;  daily congregations of the five week long stay at the premises of Shri&#xA;  Lakshmi Kamakshi Nilaya mentioned above, HH Vijayendra Saraswati&#xA;  encouraged the open recitals of the Durga Stuti. Recital of this Stuti&#xA;  along with Rishyashringa Shlokas had indeed made it possible the&#xA;  typically Chennai weather of scortching heat to yield relieving but&#xA;  highly unseasonal rain pours as though Lord Indra Deva was happy at&#xA;  these daily recitals!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Stuti,which is included in the above PDF and  found from page 12 onwards,goes like this(for the full Stotram refer to the PDF or to the page linked below):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaishampaayana narrated to King Janamejaya as follows: Virata nagaram&#xA;  ramyam gacchamaano Yudhishtharah, Astuvanmanasaa Deveem Durgaa&#xA;  tribhuvaneshwareem/ Yashodaa garbha sambhutaa Naraayana&#xA;  varapriyaamanda gopaala kuley jaataam mangalyaam kulavardhineem/&#xA;  Kamsavidraavana kareemasuraganaam kshayamkareem, shilaatata&#xA;  vinikshitaamaakaasham pratigaamineem/ Vaasudeva - sya bhagineem divya&#xA;  maalya vibhushitaam, Divyaambaradharaam Devim khadagakhetadhaarineem/&#xA;  (King Yudhishthar at the time of Pandavas entering ‘Virat Sabha’ had&#xA;  within his own heart prayed to Tribhuvaneshwari Durga Devi and further&#xA;  to Vaasudeva Shri Krishna the Avataara Purusha or the Singular Deity&#xA;  of Dwapara Yuga! Durga Devi’s ‘amsha’was also born to Nanda gopaala&#xA;  even as the babies were interchanged as Maya flew away to high skies&#xA;  warning Kamsa for having imprisoned his own sister and brother in law&#xA;  viz. Vasudeva and Devaki and that Lord Krishna would eventually&#xA;  terminate the devilish Kamsa) Dharma Raja further prayed to Durga&#xA;  Devi: Bhaaraava tarane punye ye smaranti Sadaashivam, Taan vai&#xA;  taarayase paapaat panke kaamiva durbalam/...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is important to note,that neither the Phalasruti of this Stuti nor Durga Devi Herself specifically promised that recitation of the same will bring rains or that it has anything to do with rains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can read the Stuti on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Durga_Sthuthi_by_Yudhishtra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As one can see, the last verse of the Phalasruti simply states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is nothing in this world that they cannot be got, By reading or&#xA;  hearing this great prayer with devotion, Due to my grace all the&#xA;  people of the city of Virata Would meet success in all their&#xA;  endeavors, Oh son of Pandu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-21T07:06:43.297" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T07:06:43.297" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16015" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16002" CreationDate="2016-11-21T07:24:52.203" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Suryopanishad&lt;/a&gt; is a minor Upanishad allied to the &lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda&lt;/strong&gt;.It has the word &lt;strong&gt;Purushartha&lt;/strong&gt; in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;aum atha sūryātharvāṅgirasam vyā̎khyāsyā̱maḥ | brahmā ṟṣih | gāya̍trī&#xA;  chha̱ndaḥ | ādi̍tyo de̱vatā | haṁsa̍ḥ so̱’ham agni nārāyana yu̍ktam&#xA;  bī̱jam | hrille̍khā śa̱ktiḥ | viyadādi sarga saṁyu̍ktaṁ kī̱lakam |&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;catur-vidha puruṣārtha&lt;/strong&gt; siddhyarthe jape vi̍niyo̱gaḥ ||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now   we  shall   expound mantras of  Atharva Veda    in  relation    to  the Sun:    The seer    of  this    Atharva Aṅgirasa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mantra    is  Brahma, metre   Gayatri,    Aditya  the deity,  ‘Hamsas so’ham  with    Agni    and Narayana    is  the seed,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  the   power   is  hrillekha   or  hrim,   the pin is  the power   in  the process of  unfolding   the sky etc.,   the application &#xA;  is    its use in  repetition  for winning the four    human   goals   (viz.   Dharma, Artha,  Kama    and Mokṣa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/S5fGN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/S5fGN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also read the Suryopanishad from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shrisuryanarayanmandir.org/documents/SURYOPANISHAT.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note for Suresh&lt;/strong&gt;-I have assumed that you wanted the references from any &lt;strong&gt;Sruti texts&lt;/strong&gt;(Vedas,Upanishads ).But,if you want specifically from the &lt;strong&gt;Vedas only&lt;/strong&gt; then i need to delete my answer.Hence,waiting for your response.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;An update&lt;/strong&gt;-We also find mention of the &lt;strong&gt;Chaturvida Purusharthas&lt;/strong&gt; (viz Dharma,artha,kama &amp;amp; moksha) in another minor Upanishad text called the  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_ganesha-ganapati_atharvashirsha.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganapty Atharvashrisha Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सायमधीयानो दिवसकृतं पापं नाशयति । प्रातरधीयानो रात्रिकृतं पापं नाशयति&#xA;  । सायं प्रातः प्रयुञ्जानो पापोऽपापो भवति । सर्वत्राधीयानोऽपविघ्नो भवति&#xA;  । &lt;strong&gt;धर्मार्थकाममोक्षं&lt;/strong&gt; च विन्दति ॥१३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is verse no. 13 with meanings as given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13.5: Studying this in the Evening will destroy the Sins committed during the Day (including the tendency to commit Sins),&#xA;  13.6: Studying this in the Morning will destroy the Sins committed during the Night (including the tendency to commit Sins),&#xA;  13.7: Joining (the Study and Deep Contemplation) both in the Evening and Morning, will make a Sinful person Sinless (by gradually revealing&#xA;  the deeper consciousness and thereby removing the tendencies to commit&#xA;  Sins),&#xA;  13.8: Studying everywhere (i.e. in all situations) will remove the Obstacles, ...&#xA;  13.9: ... (And) &lt;strong&gt;the Devotee will obtain Dharma, Artha (Prosperity), Kama (Right Desires fulfilled) and (finally) Moksha (Liberation by&#xA;  discovering the deeper consciousness)&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-25T08:59:16.767" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T08:59:16.767" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16016" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-21T07:39:47.977" Score="14" ViewCount="946" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2Y6AK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2Y6AK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We all know &amp;quot;Ardhanarishvara&amp;quot;  form of Shiva &amp;amp; Shakti . Similarly.&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaikuntha_Kamalaja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Vaikuntha-Kamalaja&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;&#xA;is depicted as   &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu-Lakshmi&lt;/strong&gt; ,half male and half female, split down the middle. The right half is the male Vishnu, illustrating his traditional attributes. The icon symbolises the oneness or non-duality of male and female principles of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) In which texts , we find mentioning of this composite form of Shri Vishnu and Shree Lakshmi.&lt;/strong&gt; , (Preferably mentioning of one or two verses or passages related to this) from original scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Image taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.baijnathtemple.com/sculpture1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2020-11-21T12:10:54.037" LastActivityDate="2023-10-11T13:50:31.777" Title="What scriptures mention the &quot;Vaikuntha-Kamalaja&quot; form which is Half Vishnu &amp; Half Lakshmi?" Tags="|scripture|vishnu|gods|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16017" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16011" CreationDate="2016-11-21T07:45:13.747" Score="3" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Short answer&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, Gita doesn't detest Atheists.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt; philosophy is considered &quot;atheism&quot; by most of the philosophers. Now, according to Gita, the result of &lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt; (knowledge of &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;) &amp;amp; the devotional Yoga, both leads to Moskha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 5.4 - &lt;strong&gt;The fools, not the learned ones, speak of Sankhya (the path of Knowledge) and (Karma-) yoga as different. Any one who properly resorts to even one (of them) gets the result of both.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, atheism has different interpretations by different people. Some people interpret in good way &quot;no personal form of god, but higher self&quot; and some people interpret in bad way &quot;no concern about god related questions.&quot; See last section for the bad interpretation of &quot;atheism&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Long Answer&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;&quot;... but don't [believe] in a higher power or God?&quot;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that, I am referring &quot;Theist&quot; as &lt;em&gt;Astika&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &quot;Atheist&quot; as &lt;em&gt;NAstika&lt;/em&gt;, as they are interpreted in popular culture. They need not have 1:1 relation. I will cover other perspective as well.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;From dictionary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Theist (may be, &lt;em&gt;Astika&lt;/em&gt;): Believes in the existence of God&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atheist (may be, &lt;em&gt;NAstika&lt;/em&gt;): Disbelieves in the existence of God&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 13.13 - I shall speak of that which is knowable (should be known). Knowing which, one attains immortality. The supreme Brahman (god) dwelling under Me, is beginningless. &lt;strong&gt;&quot;That&quot; is said to be neither existent nor non-existent.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (existent = being)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, in context of Gita, both have tendency towards god. Just that former tends by &quot;belief&quot; and later tends by &quot;disbelief&quot;. This is kind of love-hate relationship, where the emotion doesn't matter (love or hate), but tendency matters (relationship).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;theist&quot; believes in god's personal form (&lt;em&gt;SAkAra&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;atheist&quot; disbelieves in personal form; in other words: believes in&#xA;formless (&lt;em&gt;nirAkAra&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both schools of thoughts exist: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80stika_and_n%C4%81stika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Astika &amp;amp; NAstika&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaishnava, DevimA, Rudra, Christianity &amp;amp; many more try to understand god through personal form.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, ChArvAka, Ajivika, Scientology &amp;amp; certain other schools reject any personal form of God.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IMO, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neti_neti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Neti Neti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; strikes the best balance among these 2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main Qn:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;What does Bhagavad Gita make of persons who just go about doing their swadharma, fulfilling their duties ... but don't believe in a higher power ...?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quite similar Q&amp;amp;A happened between Arjuna &amp;amp; Krishna at the beginning of chapter-12.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 12.1 - Arjuna said: [Among] the devotees, thus continuously engaged in your devotion and those again [engaged] in your indestructible, unmanifested [form]; Who experiences the union better?&lt;/sub&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna opines that the devotees with &lt;em&gt;Astika&lt;/em&gt; nature are the best in this comparison. However, &lt;em&gt;NAstika&lt;/em&gt; also attains the supreme ultimately, but the way is difficult &amp;amp; painful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 12.4, 12.5 - Fully controlling all the senses and always being even-minded, they, &lt;strong&gt;engaged in the welfare of all beings, attain Me only.&lt;/strong&gt; For them who have mind attached to the Unmanifested the struggle is greater; For embodied [beings], the destination to unmanifested is painful.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Another interpretation of &quot;Atheism&quot;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In above answer, we have taken the literal meaning of &quot;believe&quot;. But did you mean &quot;care&quot;? i.e.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;&quot;... but don't [[care]] about higher power or God?&quot;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This changes the question entirely. Such people, may or may not be praying to god or supreme on face value. You may find them in temples as well.  Inside their hearts, these people actually are not concerned about any topic related to &quot;higher power&quot; at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In such case, we are talking about &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Daivi sampadA&lt;/em&gt; (divine quality) vs &lt;em&gt;Asuri sampada&lt;/em&gt; (demonic quality)&lt;/strong&gt;. Gita's whole chapter 16 is dedicated to it, hence not quoting it except:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 16.20 - Being born in &lt;strong&gt;demoniacal&lt;/strong&gt; species in births after births, [those] fools, without certainly &lt;strong&gt;not achieving Me&lt;/strong&gt;, O son of Kunti, attain condemned destination.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: This is slightly amusing to me. The true form of god is &quot;Unmanifested&quot;. Any personal forms are just means/tools to attain this unmanifested. Interestingly, the people who are plugged into the true form i.e. &quot;Unmanifested&quot; actually have to go through hardships. While the people who believe in personal forms which are incomplete, find the way to supreme easily!&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T05:20:16.757" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T05:20:16.757" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16019" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2365" CreationDate="2016-11-21T13:56:30.970" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is going to be a three part answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First part. It was Arjuna who was speaking with Subadhra regarding Chakravyuha. There is no part for Krishna there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abhimanyu said, 'Desiring victory to my sires, soon shall I in battle penetrate into that firm, fierce and foremost of arrays formed by Drona. I have been taught by my father the method of (penetrating and) smiting this kind of array. I shall not be able, however, to come out if any kind of danger overtakes me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Link: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sacred Texts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bonus News: A child inside a mother can listen only when the mother is sleeping and not when mother is awake. It was like Arjuna was explaining things and when he came to chakravyuha, Subadra might have fallen asleep paving Abimanyu to listen to entering the vyuha. Noticing Subadra fallen asleep, Arjuna might have stopped going further and hence Abimanyu never get to know how to come out of the formation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second part. No. Kamsa never cursed krishna. If he has cursed, Krishna would indeed be dead by his nephew as curses does come into effect on those days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Third part. Arjuna was not in the field and that is the only reason Abimanyu was asked to spear head the attack even though he had only little knowledge. So it is not krishna who just drove away just so Abimanyu can have a warrior's death but they were already not available in the field to break into the vyuha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8225" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T13:56:30.970" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16021" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13784" CreationDate="2016-11-21T17:54:26.427" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure what story you are referring about Brahma. Rudra cut Brahma's head when Brahma attempted incest with his daughter Saraswati as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1233.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pragâpati [Brahma] conceived a passion for his own daughter... 'May I&#xA;pair with her!' thus (thinking) he united with her. This, assuredly,&#xA;was a sin in the eyes of the gods. 'He who acts thus towards his own&#xA;daughter, our sister, [commits a sin],' they thought. The gods then&#xA;said to this god who rules over the beasts (Rudra), 'This one, surely,&#xA;commits a sin who acts thus towards his own daughter, our sister.&#xA;Pierce him!' Rudra [i.e. Shiva], taking aim, pierced him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9363/3500&quot;&gt;Jnanasamhita&lt;/a&gt; of Shiva Purana narrates a similar story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma desired Sarasvati and went to her, asking her to stay with him.&#xA;She, being his daughter, was furious at this and said, 'Your mouth&#xA;speaks inauspiciously and so you will always speak in a contrary way.'&#xA;From that day, Brahma's fifth head always spoke evilly and coarsely.&#xA;Therefore one day when Siva was wandering about with Parvati and came&#xA;to see Brahma, Brahma's four heads praised Siva but the fifth made an&#xA;evil sound. Siva, displeased with the fifth head, cut it off.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23198/25F_Chapter_4_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matysa Purana&lt;/a&gt; doesn't consider this as incest. But we should consider Vedas or Sruti as infallible truths over other scriptures. (I will update this answer for Brahma once OP provides details about Brahma story).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;strong&gt;both Vishnu and Shiva were cursed in those cases though they had fair reasons for their actions&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Story of Vishnu and Vrinda&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu was cursed by Tulasi to get seperated from His wife and demons would kidnap His wife (alluding to Rama Avatar). But Parvathi &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-42/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;asked&lt;/a&gt; Her brother Vishnu to defile Vrnda only when Jalandhara went to Parvati in disguise as Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यावद्ददर्श चार्वङ्गीं पार्वतीं दनुजेश्वरः। &lt;strong&gt;तावत्स वीर्यं मुमुचे&#xA;जडाङ्गश्चाभवत्तदा&lt;/strong&gt;॥४१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On looking at the beautiful Parvati, by the lord of Daityas, &lt;strong&gt;his semen&#xA;fell on the ground and all his limbs became benumbed&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथ ज्ञात्वा तदा गौरी दानव भयविह्वला। जगामान्तहिंता वेगात्सा&#xA;तदोत्तरमानसम्॥४२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, when Gauri came to realise, the truth that he was a Daitya&#xA;and not Siva, she disappeared from the site and went to northern shore&#xA;of the lake Manasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पार्वत्यपि महाविष्णु सस्मार मनसा तदा।&lt;/strong&gt; तावद्ददर्श तं देवं सोपविष्टं&#xA;समीपगम्॥ ४४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Parvati remembered lord Visnu mentally&lt;/strong&gt; and she found atonce that&#xA;the lord was seated before her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Jalandhara just &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-35/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wanted to take revenge&lt;/a&gt; on Devas since Devas acquired gems and pearls during churning of ocean. But Indra had his reason for  stealing gems since Ocean God hid mountains in him when &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14920/3500&quot;&gt;Indra was cutting their wings&lt;/a&gt;. This is because mountains were disturbing yagnas and killing people when landing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what vrinda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-43/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;cursed Lord Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; for defiling her chastity as a part of Shiva's mission.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सनत्कुमार उवाच &lt;br&gt; इत्युक्त्वा क्रोधमापन्ना दर्शयन्ती स्वतेजसम्। शशाप&#xA;केशवं व्यास! पातिव्रत्यरता च सा।।४२।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatkumara said, &amp;quot;Thus speaking, and getting enraged, she displayed&#xA;her excessive brilliance as a chaste lady, she pronounced a curse on&#xA;Kesava. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रे महाधम! दैत्यारे! परधर्मविदूषक!। गृहीष्व शठ! मद्दत्तं शायं&#xA;सर्वविषोल्वणम्।।४३।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“O Immensely degraded enemy of the demons, you shatter the dharma of&#xA;others. O Wicked one, you listen to my curse, which is greater than&#xA;all poisons, and you should receive it.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यौ त्वया मायया ख्याती स्वकीयौ दर्शितौ मम। तावैव राक्षसौ भूत्वा भार्या&#xA;तव हरिष्यतः॥ ४४॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By displaying the two Raksasas to me with your illusion, they would be&#xA;turned as the demons in reality and shal kidnap your wife. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;त्वं चापि भार्यादुःखातों वने कपिसहायवान्। भ्रम सर्वेश्वरेणायं यस्ते&#xA;शिष्यत्वमागतः॥ ४५ ।।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You, yourself, suffering from the separation of your wife, with the&#xA;lord of serpents who is acting as your disciple, will wander in the&#xA;forest with him&lt;/strong&gt;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Story of Shiva and Darukavana Sages&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva wanted to test devotion of sages who were doing Yagna for Shiva Himself. But He wanted to test their devotion in different way. He took form naked ascetic who was in black complexion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wives of sages were attracted to Him and sages cursed Him. This is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/linga-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-29/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 29&lt;/a&gt; of Linga Purana describes this incident.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रवृत्तिलक्षणं ज्ञानं ज्ञातुं दारुवनौकसाम्। परीक्षार्थ जगन्नाथ&#xA;श्रद्धया क्रीडया च सः ॥७॥ निवृत्तिलक्षणज्ञानप्रतिष्ठार्थं च शङ्करः।&#xA;देवदारुवनस्थानां प्रवृत्तिज्ञानचेतसाम्॥८॥ &lt;strong&gt;विकृतं रूपमास्थाय दिग्वासा&#xA;विषमेक्षणः । मुग्धो द्विहस्तः कृष्णाङ्गो दिव्यं दारुवनं ययौ ॥९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Rudra, the master of the universe, then thought of testing the&#xA;intentions of the ascetics, who had performed the Vaitia. Then, he&#xA;thought of diverting the minds of the sages from the performing of the&#xA;yajia. In this way, in order to test the extent of their devotion&#xA;towards himself, he thought of diverting their minds in a different&#xA;way. Therefore, &lt;strong&gt;in order to test their devotion towards himself, he&#xA;playfully appeared in a deformed manner, but still he was&#xA;quitecharming to look at. He had there eyes and two arms. He was of&#xA;black complexion and unrobed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages spoke harsh words to Rudra and cursed Him. Later Shiva Himself explained the Darukavana sages subtle and esoteric significance behind His &lt;em&gt;Digambara&lt;/em&gt; appearance in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/linga-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-34/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 34&lt;/a&gt; of Linga Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नग्ना एव हि जायंते देवता मुनयस्तथा। ये चान्ये मानवा लोके सवें&#xA;जायंत्यवासस: ॥१३॥ इंद्रियैरजितैर्नग्नो दुकूलेनापि संवृतः । तैरेव&#xA;संवृतैर्गुप्सो न वस्त्रं कारणं स्मृतम्॥१४॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A person who is clad in costumes, but if the sense organs remain&#xA;uncontrolled, then the person is as good as naked. But in case, the&#xA;sense organs of a person are well controlled then, he inspite of his&#xA;being naked, would be like a well clad person. Under such&#xA;circumstances, the costumes are of no importance.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;क्षमा धृतिरहिंसा च वैराग्यं चैव सर्वशः। तुल्यौ मानावमानौ च&#xA;तदावरणमुत्तमम्॥१५॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To practice forgiveness, patience, nonviolence and Vairāgya&#xA;(renunciation) and to treat honour and dishonour equally, serve as the&#xA;best costumes for the body&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This chapter also explains significance of Ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, even though Vishnu and Shiva did Dharmic acts, they were cursed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T18:00:16.663" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16022" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16006" CreationDate="2016-11-21T18:05:17.163" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garikapati_Narasimha_Rao&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dr. Garikipati Narasimha Rao&lt;/a&gt; in his discourse on Mahābhārata in &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/DVHLJRpyc7o?t=1160&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; YouTube video (Telugu) says that the custom of reciting Virāṭa Parva for rains has originated because Bhīṣma describes the 18 signs of Yudhiṣṭhira's presence, in Virāṭa Parva and one of them is: &quot;where king Yudhiṣṭhira resides...&lt;em&gt;the clouds, without doubt, pour abundant rain&lt;/em&gt;.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Go-harana Parva of Virāṭa Parva, this is what Bhīṣma exactly &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04028.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ruler, O child, of the city or the province where king Yudhishthira resides cannot have any misfortune. Charitable and liberal and humble and modest must the people be of the country where king Yudhishthira resides. Agreeable in speech, with passions under control, observant of truth, cheerful, healthy, pure in conduct, and skilful in work must the people be of the country where king Yudhishthira resides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The people of the place, where Yudhishthira is, cannot be envious or malicious, or vain, or proud, but must all adhere to their respective duties. Indeed, in the place where Yudhishthira resides, Vedic hymns will be chanted all around, sacrifices will be performed, the last full libations will always be poured, and gifts to Brahmanas will always be in profusion. &lt;strong&gt;There the clouds, without doubt, pour abundant rain, and furnished with good harvest the country will ever be without fear&lt;/strong&gt;. There the paddy will not be without grain, fruits will not be bereft of juice, floral garlands will not be without fragrance, and the conversation of men will always be full of agreeable words. There where king Yudhishthira resides, the breezes will be delicious, the meetings of men will always be friendly, and cause of fear there will be none. There kine will be plentiful, without any of them being lean-fleshed or weak, and milk and curds and butter will all be savoury and nutritious. There where king Yudhishthira resides, every kind of corn will be full of nutrition and every edible full of flavour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There where king Yudhishthira resides, the objects of all the senses, viz.,--taste, touch, smell, and hearing, will be endued with excellent attributes. There where king Yudhishthira resides, the sights and scenes will be gladdening. And the regenerate ones of that place will be virtuous and steady in observing their respective duties. Indeed, in the country where the sons of Pandu may have taken up their abode during this thirteenth year of their exile, the people will be contented and cheerful, pure in conduct and without misery of any kind. Devoted to gods and guests and the worship of these with their whole soul, they will be fond of giving away, and filled with great energy, they will all be observant of eternal virtue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There where king Yudhishthira resides, the people, eschewing all that is evil, will be desirous of achieving only what is good. Always observant of sacrifices and pure vows, and hating untruth in speech, the people of the place where king Yudhishthira may reside will always be desirous of obtaining what is good, auspicious and beneficial. There where Yudhishthira resides, the people will certainly be desirous of achieving what is good, and their hearts will always incline towards virtue, and their vows being agreeable they themselves are ever-engaged in the acquisition of religious merit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the book, &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt; §&lt;/sup&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; cautions these mantras and pārāyaṇa don't work always:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even today we see how mantras are efficacious though what we see is more often their power to do evil rather than good. The very word &quot;mantrikam&quot; inspires dread in us. If mantras have the power to do evil, they must also have the power to do good. We do hear reports of how mantras are beneficent, for instance how the mantras invoking the god Varuna produce rains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It may be that sometimes the Varuna japa does not succeed in bringing rains.&lt;/strong&gt; But this is no reason why all mantras should be rejected outright as of no value. Sick people die even after the regular administration of medicine. For this reason do we condemn medical science as worthless? We have an explanation for the patient's failure to recover: his illness and reached such an advanced stage that no medicine could be of any avail. &lt;strong&gt;Similarly, no mantra is of any help when it has to contend against the working of powerful karma.&lt;/strong&gt; There is also another reason. If you are not strict about your diet, the medicine taken may not work. Similarly, if we are lax in the observance of certain rules, the mantras will not produce the desired result.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Hindu Dharma » The Vedic Religion And Varna Dharma » Preserving the Vedas: Why it is a Lifetime Mission]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt; § &lt;/sup&gt; &lt;sub&gt;An older and copyright-free version of this book is available for free &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part3/chap8.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-11-21T18:05:17.163" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16023" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-22T02:05:26.123" Score="5" ViewCount="1042" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any available manuscripts of Manasa, Sahyadri, Himavat, Patala, Ayodhya, Bhima, Mathura Khandas of Skanda Purana either in Sanskrit or any language?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-12-31T13:05:29.287" Title="Manas Khanda, Sahyadri Khanda of Skanda Purana" Tags="|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16024" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-11-22T06:03:49.790" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T06:03:49.790" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T06:03:49.790" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16025" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-11-22T06:03:49.790" Score="0" Body="An image or representation of a god used as an object of worship." OwnerUserId="7376" LastEditorUserId="7376" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T06:39:40.663" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T06:39:40.663" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16028" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16029" CreationDate="2016-11-22T08:51:25.957" Score="14" ViewCount="2744" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanatan.org/en/a/270.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagawat Gita&lt;/a&gt; Sri Krishna says that one who remembers the Supreme Lord and Pranava(OM) while dying reaches the higher states of bliss or the Supreme Lord Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ओमित्येकाक्षरं ब्रह्म व्याहरन्मामनुस्मरन् । यः प्रयाति त्यजन्देहं स&#xA;  याति परमां गतिम् ।। – Shrimadbhagwadgita, Adhyaya 8, Shloka 13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-Meaning : (Shrikrushna says) The one who dies while chanting&#xA;  ‘Om’ and remembering me is elevated to a very high level after death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्तकाले च मामेव स्मरन्मुक्त्वा कलेवरम् । यः प्रयाति स मद्भावं याति&#xA;  नास्त्यत्र संशयः ।। – Shrimadbhagwadgita, Adhyaya 8, Shloka 5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning : (Shrikrushna says) There is no doubt that the one who&#xA;  remembers me while dying reaches me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question-Are there any other Scriptures that say by chanting Lord's name while dying one can attain moksha(liberation)?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T14:57:48.087" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T12:11:58.927" Title="Which Scriptures say that by chanting Lord's name during the time of one's death one can attain &quot;Moksha&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|puranas|bhagavad-gita|moksha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16029" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16028" CreationDate="2016-11-22T08:58:56.493" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/brahma%20vaivartha/bookview.php?chapnum=2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; Brahma Vaivarta Purana chapter states that, one, who chants the name &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Shiva&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, during his/her dying moments, &lt;strong&gt;is sure to attain moksha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna then revealed the excellent value of Shiva Linga&#xA;  Sthapana or establishing a Shiva Linga; he said: &lt;em&gt;Maha Deva Maha Deva&#xA;  Maha Deveti vaadinah, Paschaadyaami Mahaastrasto naama shravana&#xA;  lobhatah, &lt;strong&gt;Shiveti mantramucchharya praanamstyajati yo narah/ Koti&#xA;  janmaarjitaat Paapaanmukto muktim prayaati sah, Shivam kalyaana&#xA;  vachanam kalyaanam kalyaanam Muktivaachikam&lt;/strong&gt;/ Yaatsattha Prabhavettena&#xA;  sa Shivah parikeertitah/&lt;/em&gt; (If some body recites Maha Deva, Maha Deva&#xA;  and Maha Deva, I am tempted to be behind him and follow him; &lt;strong&gt;if&#xA;  somebody takes Shiva's name at the time of his death, that person&#xA;  would be freed from the sins committed by his/her previous crores of&#xA;  lives and most certainly secure Moksha. The word Shiva stands for&#xA;  Kalyana or Propitiousness and the word Kalyana denotes Mukti. Also&#xA;  the letter Shi stood for Paapa naashan and Va for Moksha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-25T07:44:50.540" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T07:44:50.540" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16031" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-22T12:15:08.410" Score="7" ViewCount="3146" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is &lt;code&gt;Tvashtar deva&lt;/code&gt;? Is he Lord Ganesha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is from reference to Rigveda where they wrote :Sukta 13, verse 132&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Eha &lt;strong&gt;tvashtar&lt;/strong&gt;magriyam Vishwaroopamupaya Hraye | &#xA;  Asmakmastu kevalah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: (Self made)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The one who is having various forms and First in worship, Oh Tvashatadeva,you are welcomed in Yagya, Please be only ours.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-24T10:44:23.227" LastActivityDate="2018-01-24T10:45:45.217" Title="Who is the god Tvashtar?" Tags="|gods|rig-veda|vedic-gods|tvashtar|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16032" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-22T15:39:14.820" Score="3" ViewCount="170" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What kind of questions can an astrologer answer (or predict the results) correctly?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What are the different types of astrology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do all of them give accurate results?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which among them is mostly used today and why?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8276" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T18:05:23.177" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T18:05:23.177" Title="What is Astrology and what are its benefits?" Tags="|astrology|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-01-19T05:46:45.760" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16033" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15553" CreationDate="2016-11-22T15:51:20.580" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;No. It is not a lie. It is the choice of words and how Yudhisthira projected him here, made the difference here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First let's get to the analysis about Yudhisthira:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is said as lotus eyed&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was borm on Jayeshta, second month of the year&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was an expert in religion, science and administration&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;His flag(yes Yudhisthira does have a flag on his chariot) is moon at the center and other planets around it&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One of the best master with Chariot and spear&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Owned a personal chariot with 1000 beautifully wrought tiger skins&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now look at the name he has given: &lt;strong&gt;Kanka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the characteristics of the name Kanka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Direct meaning - Scent of Lotus&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Astrologically, Kanka derives to number 2, with Moon as the ruling planet&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let's compare notes. Yudhisthra has given him a pen name, Kanka because of his physical attributes(his eyes are like Lotus; but has to be hidden for an year. Only attribute of Lotus flower that is hidden from eyes is it's scent and it's long root. Yudhisthra took the scent for his name, which would still be hidden even if we search up to the roots) and his flag(He will rule under his flag and thus chosen Kanka as it is astrologically under the rule of moon. A name that can very well connect to his true identity, that is based on his physical attributes. A very well, strategically thought name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now one down, 2 more to go. Second part is his family name given &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=vaiyAghra&amp;amp;script=&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;link=yes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaiyaghra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He never informed the king that &quot;My name is Kanka of Vaiyaghra family&quot;. Instead he informed the king &quot;I am kanka, O king, I &lt;strong&gt;belong to&lt;/strong&gt; the Vaiyaghra family.&quot; Now the meaning of &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=vaiyAghra&amp;amp;script=&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;link=yes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaiyaghra&lt;/a&gt;? &quot;car covered with a tiger's skin&quot;. So the indirect translation will be &quot;&lt;strong&gt;kanka who belonged to tiger's skin covered car&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. That is something unique, at least in Mahabharatha, and is owned only by Yudhisthira. This you can read when Yudhisthira bets his car against Sakuni while dicing. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02060.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira said,--'This &lt;strong&gt;my&lt;/strong&gt; sacred and victorious and &lt;strong&gt;royal car&lt;/strong&gt; which&#xA;  gladdeneth the heart and hath carried us hither, which is equal unto a&#xA;  thousand cars, which is of symmetrical proportions and &lt;strong&gt;covered with&#xA;  tiger-skin&lt;/strong&gt;, and furnished with excellent wheels and flag-staffs which&#xA;  is handsome, and decked with strings of little bells,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, truth that was just hidden enough.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So somehow, two down. Only one to go. That is, he calling himself a Brahmana when he was a Kshatriya. The explanation for this one is a little stretch. One, is that Yudhisthira was not some one who upheld caste based on birth. He was arguing for Hidimbi to marry Bhima. An asura. And Pandavas were already living as Brahmanas for 12 full years. So Yudhisthira, until the return to rule, considering themself as Brahmana should be fine. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do not have a link but in Nala-Damayandhi and Satyavan-Savithri stories, it was mentioned like &lt;strong&gt;if you live seven and a half years as friend or foe, or of a different caste, you become one of them&lt;/strong&gt;. If this is from Vedas, Yudhisthira indeed knows them and might as well &lt;strong&gt;consider himself Brahmana at the exile&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As requested, I've added below how the other brothers and Draupadi named themselves to King Virata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhima&lt;/strong&gt; as &lt;em&gt;Ballava&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ballava, directly means &quot;A cow herd&quot;. Now get to Bhima's attributes: Super strong, one of the best in Mace/Wrestling and even a bigger eater. His guru, Balarama is the only one better than him at that point in terms of Strength and Power fighting. However, Bhima has no equal in terms of eating. It was highlighted in many places, even in Vana parva after Draupadi has Akshaya Patra. So he took his eating skill for disguise. &lt;strong&gt;Bhoja&lt;/strong&gt; is the colloquial term that is used for eating and also synonymous with &quot;Cow herd&quot;. To serve full to his appetite, as well as to prevent question about his caste(no one would question his caste, if he has a caste name as his name), he chose &lt;strong&gt;Ballava&lt;/strong&gt;. The best is also to note that he never introduced his caste to King and due to the name, King also never questioned his caste. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the high-souled son of Pandu, approaching Virata, addressed him&#xA;  in words that were not unsuited to his object, saying, 'O foremost of&#xA;  kings, I am a cook, Vallava by name. I am skilled in dressing dishes.&#xA;  Do thou employ me in the kitchen!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Draupadi&lt;/strong&gt; as &lt;strong&gt;Sairindhri&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, a technique that is similar to Bhima yet went a little long further. Add a caste name as your name to avoid people asking your caste. And introduce your work as your name as well. She claims that &lt;strong&gt;I am a maid-servant of the Sairindhri class&lt;/strong&gt; rather than saying &quot;I &lt;strong&gt;belong to&lt;/strong&gt; Sairindhri class/caste&quot;. We have to consider the meaning of &quot;I am an independent artisan(hair dresser) who work as a maid-servant in other's house. She indeed told truth that she has five husbands(not a common thing even when polygamy is common) and also said &quot;Draupadi would call her as malini&quot;, to give a name to the Queen Sudeshna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If she is just lying, she indeed need not give true details(especially one where she says that she has 5 husbands)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sahadeva&lt;/strong&gt; as &lt;strong&gt;Vaisya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, this took me some time to understand why it is not a lie. Because Sahadeva introduce himself as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sahadeva answered in accents deep as the roar of the cloud, 'I am a&#xA;  Vaisya, Arishtanemi by name. I was employed as a cowherd in the&#xA;  service of those bulls of the Kuru race, the sons of Pandu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Instead of seeing Vaisya as a caste, we should see it as a continuous sentence with the meaning &quot;some one trying to settle down&quot;. Like &quot;I am a settler, Arishtanemi by name&quot;. Here Arishtanemi shows his role with Pandavas, the rim that holds the Pandavas with his knowledge. He also gives out his true talents and thus the point that he is lying is moot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arjuna&lt;/strong&gt; as &lt;strong&gt;Vrihannala&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No need to explain his name as he explains it with his introduction itself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know me, O king of men, to be Vrihannala, a son or daughter without&#xA;  father or mother.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a curse from Urvashi, it is right to call than Vrihannala(Not Arjuna, who has both father and mother) has only &quot;mother&quot;(cause of the curse) and thus took name as such.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nakula&lt;/strong&gt; as &lt;strong&gt;Granthika&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both the Ashvineyas(Nakul and Sahadeva) are extremely good at Astrology, fencing and ayurveda. And Nakul is more known for being extrememly handsome. Granthika, has 2 meanings, one of astrologist and other of &quot;long pepper root&quot;. So Nakula just announced his mastery and chose the most beautiful Ayurvedic medicinal to match what is he famous for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically, they all nearly announced their mastery or what they are known for, with their names. Best, we can call them as pen names instead of lies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8225" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T18:06:05.267" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T18:06:05.267" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16034" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16028" CreationDate="2016-11-22T16:26:11.100" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajamila&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ajamila&lt;/a&gt; in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagawata Purana&lt;/a&gt; is an example of the power of chanting the Lord's Name in the last moments of life, even if accidentally.  Although the reference is not directly to Moksha, the Vishnudutas avert the immediate mortality of Ajamila, because he chanted the Lord's Name in the last moment. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, the inner significance is that, to be able to chant the Lord's Name at the time of death, one needs to train the mind throughout the life. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Ramakrishna mentions a story&lt;/a&gt; to illustrate this point about training the mind to chant the Lord's name. A businessman named all his four sons after the names of Lord Narayana, in the hope that, like Ajamila, he will call out one of those names in his last moments, and thereby attain liberation. In the last moment, he called out the names of all the four sons. While they reached his bedside, he exclaimed, &lt;em&gt;'You fellows! If all of you come here to my bedside, who will take care of the business ?&lt;/em&gt;' . And he breathed his last!. He finally thought of his money, instead of chanting the Lord's Name. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-11-22T17:48:12.803" LastActivityDate="2016-11-22T17:48:12.803" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16035" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16041" CreationDate="2016-11-22T17:05:40.297" Score="6" ViewCount="1391" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know very little about the navagrahas we see in our temples. To my understanding sukra is sukracharya and guru is Brahaspathi. Does other grahas have respective gods or rishis associated with them as well ?? Can someone provide a source or a link may be to know our navagrahas ???&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3536" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-03-02T12:41:14.733" LastActivityDate="2017-03-02T12:41:14.733" Title="How did the Navagrahas come into existence?" Tags="|puranas|temple|worship|teaching|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16036" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16145" CreationDate="2016-11-22T17:09:49.407" Score="6" ViewCount="1046" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does the Sanskrit word Indrajāla (Indra's net) have any connection to Indra or Arjuna? Has this word been used in any Hindu scripture? If so in what context?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?beginning=0%20&amp;amp;tinput=%20indrajAla&amp;amp;trans=Translate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; Sanskrit dictionary suggests the following meanings for the word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;magic&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;art of magic&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;illusion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hallucination&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;delusion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;net of indra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sorcery&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;weapon employed by arjuna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;juggle&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;PS. Please don't answer citing &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/94/2995&quot;&gt;blogs or Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2016-12-01T06:04:21.533" Title="Does the word &quot;Indrajāla&quot; (Indra's net) have any connection to the god Indra?" Tags="|scripture|arjuna|indra|symbolism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16037" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16045" CreationDate="2016-11-22T17:56:39.050" Score="6" ViewCount="592" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Purva Mimamsa school was often borderline agnostic/atheist.  But some Purva Mimamsakas, particularly the Purva Mimamsa Acharya Kumarila Bhatta and his followers, believed in the existence of Ishwara or a supreme being, although they did not believe that the Ishwara was responsible for creating the Universe.  (They thought the Universe was uncreated and eternal.)  But it seems that at least some followers of Kumarila Bhatta believed that Ishwara had a role to play in the attainment of Moksha.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two elementary textbooks on Purva Mimamsa which are very similar to each other, Laugakshi Bhaskara's Arthasangraha and Apadeva's Mimamsa Nyaya Prakasha. People have different opinions about which work was written first, but everyone agrees that one of the works was based on the other one.  In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/iEmB&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how Laugakshi Bhaskara ends his Artha Sangraha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus we have established that the entire veda which consists of sentences like &quot;he whe is desirous of paradise is to sacrifice etc.&quot; immediately or mediately effects duty (dharma) consisting in sacrifices etc. Such (acts of) duty if done with a view to that (result) with a view to which they are enjoined are the cause of that particular result; if done with the intention of making of them an offer ing to God (ishvara) they aro the cause of the highest beatitude.  Nor can it be said that there is no authority for performing such acts with the intention of making of them an offering to God; for the following passage of the Bhagavadgita furnishes the required authority &quot;whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you sacrifice, whatever you give, whatever you do in way of penance, Kaunntaya, do it all as an offering to me.&quot; And the authoritativeness of Smriti is established in the pada treating of Smriti (I. 3.) by the argument of its boing based on Shruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/pg8a&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how Apadeva ends his Mimamsa Nyaya Prakasha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And this duty, when it is performed with a view to that with a view to which it is enjoined, produces that (promist fruit). But performed with the intention to offer it to the Exalted Govinda, it produces supreme beatitude. And there is no lack of authority for performing it with the intention of offering it to Him. Because there is the traditional statement: &quot;Whatever tho doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest as oblation or givest in gifts, whatever penance thou doest, Son of Kuntï, that do as an offering to Me.&quot; And because this (statement) is valid authority, like the smriti-prescription of the Eighth-lunar-day-rite etc. This is set forth in full elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now both Laugakshi Bhaskara and Apadeva were both followers of Kumarila Bhatta.  So it seems that at least some followers of Kumarila Bhatta believed that Moksha can be obtained through Nishkama Karma, aka Karma Yoga, where one performs Dharmic actions like Yagnas not for the sake of a material fruit but for the sake of Ishwara.  But my question is, did Kumarila Bhatta himself believe that Nishkama Karma is a valid path to Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Kumarila Bhatta wrote three commentaries on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras: the Shloka Vartika, the Tantra Vartika, and the Tuptika.  So far I've only found one statement by Kumarila Bhatta concerning methods of getting Moksha, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/XByD&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Tantra Vartika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As for the knowledge of Self; both by Conjunction and Disjunction it is found to help the sacrifice ns wel as the Person; because utiliess are knows his self (to be sonnething other than the body that perishes) he would never underfake the sacrifices whose results are said to accrue to the man in another birth. And then again, such passages as-' the Self free from all evil...is to be song.ht after, &amp;amp;c.,” “one should worship the Self&quot; -lay down the knowledge of Self as accomplished by a process accornpanied by due reflection, &amp;amp;c.; and then from such knowledge, we find that there accrues to the agents both kinds of result-Happiness as well as final Deliverance, as is shown by the following passages:-&quot;He obtains all worlds and all desires, passes beyond all sorrow, &amp;amp;c, &amp;amp;c.,&quot;-which speaks of all the eight perfections of Yoga accruing to the person knowing the self; and the passage-“passing his life thus he, after death, reaches the regions of Braima, and from there he never returns'--which points to the attainment of the Supreme Self (Final Deliverance) also as following from a due knowledge of the Seif. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So apparently Kumarila Bhatta believed that Jnana Yoga, i.e. pursuing knowledge of the Atma, is a valid means to Moksha.  But does anyone know how he felt about Karma Yoga as a means to Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2023-08-13T12:42:55.150" Title="Did Kumarila Bhatta believe in Nishkama Karma as a valid means to Moksha?" Tags="|philosophy|karma|moksha|brahman|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16038" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16037" CreationDate="2016-11-23T04:58:59.617" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mostly Yes&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This can be validated with 2 proofs, already present in your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[1]&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;code&gt;Some followers of Kumarila Bhatta believed that Moksha can be obtained through Nishkama Karma&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a Guru believes in certain philosophy, it's passed on to his students. If Kumarila believed in &lt;em&gt;NiskAma Karma&lt;/em&gt;, then it's likely that his students will also believe in the same. Moreover, from his &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kum%C4%81rila_Bha%E1%B9%AD%E1%B9%ADa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt;, it seems that he was well-aware of the concept of the renunciation of fruits:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sankara challenged Bhaṭṭa to a debate on his deathbed. Kumārila Bhaṭṭa could not debate Sankara and instead directed him to argue with his student Mandana Misra in Mahiṣmati. He said:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &quot;You will find a home at whose gates there are a number of caged parrots discussing abstract topics like — 'Do the Vedas have self-validity or do they depend on some external authority for their validity? &lt;strong&gt;Are karmas capable of yielding their fruits directly, or do they require the intervention of God to do so?&lt;/strong&gt; Is the world eternal, or is it a mere appearance?' Where you find the caged parrots discussing such abstruse philosophical problems, you will know that you have reached Maṇḍana's place.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[2]&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;code&gt;Kumarila Bhatta believed that Jnana Yoga, i.e. pursuing knowledge of the Atma, is a valid means to Moksha&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like how every mathematician equivocally agrees on rules of maths, all physicians on rules of science, similarly all the sensible philosophers will be agreeing to the fact, that the path of knowledge &amp;amp; the path of renouncing the reactions(fruits of action), would lead to the same destination, i.e. Moksha.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt; philosophy is strongly related to perceiving the knowledge of &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt;. Now resultwise, this philosophy is considered similar to [Karma] Yoga. Hence if Kumarila believed in anyone of them, then the question of believing in other becomes moot.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Gambhirananda's trasnlation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 5.4 - The fools, not the learned ones, speak of Sankhya (the path of Knowledge) and (Karma-) yoga as different. Any one who properly resorts to even one (of them) gets the result of both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T04:58:59.617" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16039" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3298" CreationDate="2016-11-23T05:39:24.377" Score="1" Body="&lt;h3&gt;But how can one fight a deadly war at this age with such perfection?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;80-year-olds fighting fierce battles is simply not possible especially when they are nearing the end of their 100-year lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the answers to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5170/2995&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;What was the age of all Pandavas during the Mahabharata war?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; also talk about Bhishma being 140 years old when he died which cannot be true either.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yajur Veda at &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/yajurveda029670mbp#page/n217/mode/2up/search/hundred+years&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;several places&lt;/a&gt;&lt;sup&gt; §&lt;/sup&gt; clearly suggests the normal human life is less than 100 years. As you can see below some of the hymns are prayers to Gods to grant men and women 100 years. Only yogis are capable of living for full 100-year lengths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;XIX. 37.&#xA;  May fathers, full of glory and mental peace, &lt;strong&gt;purify me with a&#xA;  pure life of a hundred years.&lt;/strong&gt; May grandfathers, purify me with a pure&#xA;  life of a hundred years. May great grandfathers purify me with a pure&#xA;  life of a hundred years. May learned and calm grandfathers purify me&#xA;  with a happy, pure life of a hundred years. May sedate great-grandfathers&#xA;  purify me with a pure life of a hundred years. &lt;strong&gt;May I obtain full length&#xA;  of life.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;XIX. 46. My folk yet living among those who live, are of one mind and&#xA;  similar attributes. On me be set their wealth through a hundred years&#xA;  in this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;XIX. 93. Just as a woman devoted to yoga, engrossed in deep meditation,&#xA;  practising the limbs of yoga puts her soul in contemplation, so should&#xA;  husband and wife free from disease like a good physician, practise the parts&#xA;  of yoga and attain to the beauty of supremacy. &lt;strong&gt;As men practising yoga&#xA;  live for a hundred years&lt;/strong&gt;, so should we, full of happiness, realise the immortal&#xA;  nature of the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;XXV. 22. &lt;strong&gt;O learned persons, may we live in your company for a hundred&#xA;  years.&lt;/strong&gt; Let not our bodies decay before that period, in which old age our&#xA;  sons become fathers in turn. Break ye not in the midst our course of&#xA;  fleeting life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sītā in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga34/sundarasans34.htm#Verse6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; verse from Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa hints that a man normally survives only for a hundred years:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कल्याणी बत गथा इयम् लौकिकी प्रतिभाति मे |&#xA;  एहि जीवन्तम् आनदो नरम् &lt;strong&gt;वर्ष शतात् अपि&lt;/strong&gt; || ५-३४-६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.&#xA;  aanandaH = joy; eti = rushes; jiivantam- to surviving; naram = man; varSashataadapi = even though (it be) at the end of a hundred years; iyam = this; laukikiir = wordly; gaathaa = adage; pratibhaati = appears; kalyaaNi = auspicious; maa = to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Joy rushes to &lt;strong&gt;surviving man&lt;/strong&gt; even though (it be) &lt;strong&gt;as the end of a hundred years&lt;/strong&gt;' - this popular adage appears true and and auspicious for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/ishavasya-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc143812.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Īśāvāsyopaniṣad, verse 2&lt;/a&gt; also states the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कुर्वन्न् एवेह कर्माणि जिजीविषेच्छतं समाः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एवं त्वयि नान्यथेतोऽस्ति न कर्म लिप्यते नरे ॥ २ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kurvann eveha karmāṇi jijīviṣecchataṃ samāḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  evaṃ tvayi nānyatheto'sti na karma lipyate nare || 2 || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2. Always performing karma here, &lt;strong&gt;one should desire to live, for a hundred years&lt;/strong&gt;. So long as thou (seekest to live) a mere man, no other (path) exists (where) activity does not taint thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Śaṅkara's Commentary&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kurvanneva = always performing. iha = (here) karmāni = rites such as agnihotra. jijīviṣet = one should desire to live. &lt;strong&gt;śatam&lt;/strong&gt; = &lt;strong&gt;one hundred in number&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;samāḥ&lt;/strong&gt; = &lt;strong&gt;years&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;For thus much is known to be the maximum age of man&lt;/strong&gt;. Since (this is) a (mere) iteration (of an empirically known fact) what should be taken as enjoined (here) is that, if one should desire to live a hundred years, he should live only performing karma. evam= in this manner. in regard to you), nare i.e. when you live content to be a mere man. itaḥ i.e., from this present course of performing karma like agnihotra. different course, na asti =does not exist; in which course evil action does not stain; i.e., you do not get tainted by sin. Wherefore if one should desire for life Tone should live) throughout performing karma such as agnihotra prescribed by the śāstra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda offers his opinion on this topic in his lecture &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://belurmath.org/complete_works_of_swami_vivekananda/volume_3/lectures_from_colombo_to_almora/the_religion_we_are_born_in.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Religion We Are Born In&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Puranas we find many things which do not agree with the Vedas. As for instance, it is written in the Puranas that someone lived ten thousand years, another twenty thousand years, but in the Vedas we find :— &quot;Man lives indeed a hundred years.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Which are we to accept in this case? Certainly the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt; §&lt;/sup&gt; The only exception is hymn &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/yajurveda029670mbp#page/n54/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;III.62&lt;/a&gt; which suggests some sages can lives 3 times as long as normal humans:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;III. 62. May we be endowed with triple life, as a truth-seer sage, or the&#xA;  custodian of knowledge through the grace of God, is endowed with, or as&#xA;  the learned persons enjoy triple life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One user below commented:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But how does this answer the question? You are (only) supporting that Man cannot live beyond 100 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm answering by way of negating the premise of the question that several prominent characters (the Pandavas, Bhishma etc.) involved in the Mahābhārata war were in their 80's or 90's and yet they are hale and hearty to engage in a full-blown war. All my citations above attest to the fact from the Vedas that most people simply don't live beyond 100 years. And by common sense, any person or living being which is nearing the end of its life simply cannot have the stamina to engage in several battles during the course of an 18-day war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-08-22T18:45:17.133" LastActivityDate="2018-08-22T18:45:17.133" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16040" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5170" CreationDate="2016-11-23T05:56:52.790" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we consider &quot;sacred-texts&quot; as the most reliable source for Mahabharata, then the only ages I could find are those of &lt;strong&gt;Guru Drona, who was 85 years old&lt;/strong&gt;, and Abhimanyu, 16.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having slain &lt;strong&gt;Bharadwaja's son (Drona)&lt;/strong&gt;. Dhrishtadyumna was filled with great joy, and uttered leonine shouts, whirling his sword. Of a dark complexion, with white locks hanging down to his ears, &lt;strong&gt;that old man of five and eighty years of age&lt;/strong&gt;, used, for thy sake only, to career on the field of battle with the activity of a youth of sixteen. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Drona Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A few points to be noted for the &lt;em&gt;pitamaha&lt;/em&gt; Bhishma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was a young prince, when his half brothers, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya (younger) were born. He was mature enough to take an oath for a lifelong celibacy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's say he was at least 10 years during the oath. At the earliest, Vichitravirya would have been married at the age of 15-18. So Bhishma would be at least 30 years when Dhritarashtra, Pandu, Vidura were born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is likely that in earlier times women were getting pregnant at somewhat early ages. They may not have waited to reach the age of 18 years as in the modern era (e.g. Mahatma Gandhi's wife Kasturba got married at 13, but became pregnant only at the age of 17-18).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on the above points, we can infer the ages of other characters during the great war: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhishma Pitamaha should be of at least 90 years (assuming elder to Guru Drona)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Muni VedavyAsa should be also at least 90 years, if not more&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Guru KripachArya was brother-in-law of Guru Drona; so should be around 85 +/- years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhritarashtra should be maximum 60 years (Bhishma - 30), while Gandhari &amp;amp; Kunti were also of similar ages&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhishma should be elder to Yudhistira by at least 50 years; Hence Yudhishtira &amp;amp; Yuyutsu should be around 40 years&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula-Sahadeva would follow with -1, -2, -3 years of consecutive difference respectively from the age of Yudhishtira; hence late 30s&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shri Krishna was of the equal age as Arjuna; viz 36-38&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Duryodhana &amp;amp; his siblings were of similar age as Bhima&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna &amp;amp; Ashwathama would have been of similar ages, yet elder to Yudhishtira; May be mid or early 40-s age&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20197/1049&quot;&gt;Abhimanyu was of age 16&lt;/a&gt; -- This tele-s with Arjuna's age of early 40s&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The curse of Gandhari had wiped out the whole Yadu clan, 36 years after the war. In such sense, Shri Krishna wouldn't have lived beyond 75 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Human anatomy hasn't changed much in several thousand years; hence if we hear about over-the-top heights, ages and strengths, then they ought to be ignored either as interpolation or translation errors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="9250" LastEditDate="2019-05-24T04:06:14.340" LastActivityDate="2019-05-24T04:06:14.340" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16041" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16035" CreationDate="2016-11-23T07:05:46.270" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Focusing on the following question here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To my understanding sukra is sukracharya and guru is Brahaspathi. Does other grahas have respective gods or rishis associated with them as well ?? Can someone provide a source or a link may be to know our navagrahas ???&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes,you are right about Sukra and Brihaspati.Now please refer to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/matsya/bookview.php?chapnum=12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Features of Nava Grahas and Procedure of Navagraha Shanti&quot;&lt;/a&gt; Chapter of the Matsya Purana,to know about the features,descriptions of the Navagrahas and also their respective  Adhi(Ruling/Presiding Deity) and Pratyadhi Devatas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, the following verse describes which are the 9 planetary deities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adithyaya Somaaya Mangalaaya Budhaayacha Guru Shukra Sanirbhyascha&#xA;  Rahavey Ketavey Namah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,Surya, Chandra, Mangala, Budha, Brihaspati, Shukra, Shani, Rahu and Ketu are the Navagrahas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,their descriptions and features are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1 Surya-Padmaasanah Padmakarah Padmagarbha samuddhitah, Saptaashvah Saptarujjuscha Dwibhujah syaat sadaa Ravih/&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Surya Deva has two hands wearing two lotuses, seated on a lotus&#xA;  flower; his luster is abundant like that of the outside part of a&#xA;  lotus; Surya Deva is comfortably seated on a magnificent chariot&#xA;  driven by Seven Horses).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2 Chandra-Swetah Swetaambaradharah Swetaashvah Swetavaahanah Gadaapaanirdwibaahus cha Kartavyo varadah Shashee&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Chandra Deva is of white colour, wears white clothes, has white&#xA;  horses, white chariot, with �gada�/ mace and �Varada Mudra� or sign of&#xA;  Protection).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3 Mangala(or Kuja)-Raktamaalyaambara dharah Shakti Shula Gadadharah, Chaturbhujah Raktaromaa varadah syad Dharaasutah/&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Dhrarani nandana or the son of Earth, Mangala is adorned with Shakti,&#xA;  Trishula, Gada and Vara Mudra on his four hands; his body colour is&#xA;  blood red, wears red clothes and red flower garland)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4 Budha-Peetamaalyaambara dharah Karnikaa �rasamadyutih, Khadgacharma gadaa paanih Simhastho varado Budhah/&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Budha Deva wears yellow flower garland and yellow clothes with body&#xA;  colour too yellowish; he sports a sword, shield, mace and �Vara mudra�&#xA;  by his four hands and is seated on a lion);&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5 &amp;amp; 6-Brihaspati and Sukra-Deva daitya Guru Taddhat peetaswaitow chaturbhujaow, Dandinow Varadow Kaaryao Saakshasutra Kamandalu/&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(The �Pratimas� or Idols of Deva Guru Brihaspati and of Danava Guru&#xA;  Shukraachaarya should respectively be of yellow and white colours;&#xA;  their hands are ornamented with Danda, Rudrakshamaala, Kamandalu and&#xA;  Varada Mudra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7-Shani-Indra neela dutih Shuli varado Grudhra vaahanah Baana baanaasanadharah kartavy -orka suthastathaa/&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Shanaischara�s body colour is of �Indraneelamani� / blue diamond; he&#xA;  rides a �Grudhra� / Vulture and carries bow and arrows, Trishula and&#xA;  Varada Mudra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8 Rahu-Karaala vadanah Khadgacharma Shuli Varapradah, Neela simhaasanascha Rahuratra Prashasyatey/&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;( Rahu Deva is fierce looking, carries sword, skin sheath, Shula and&#xA;  Vara Prada by his four hands and is seated on a blue throne).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9 Ketu-Dhumraa Dwibaahavah Sarvey Gadino vikrutaananah, Grudhraasana gataa nithyam Ketavah Syurvara pradaah/&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Ketu Deva is of grey colour and of fierce Rupa with two hands showing&#xA;  gadaa and varada mudra seated always on a vulture)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does other grahas have respective gods or rishis associated with them as well ??&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;, they have ruling and over-ruling Deities associated with each of them.They are called the &lt;strong&gt;Adhi&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Pratyadhi&lt;/strong&gt; Devatas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bharatiweb.com/English/Navagraha%20Sooktam%20Eng%20v1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Navagraha Suktam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; each of the Grahas are saluted along with their ruling/presiding Deities typically as &lt;em&gt;&quot;om  adhi devataa pratyadhi devataa sahitaaya aadity&#xA;aaya  nama:&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,the Adhi and Pratyadhi Devatas for each of the Navagraha Deities are as follows(taken from the same Matsya Purana page linked above):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Adhi Devatas to each of the Planets are as follows: &lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; for&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Surya&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Parvati&lt;/strong&gt; for &lt;strong&gt;Chandra&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Skanda&lt;/strong&gt; for &lt;strong&gt;Mangal&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; for &lt;strong&gt;Budha&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; for &lt;strong&gt;Brihaspati&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt; for &lt;strong&gt;Shukra&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Yama&lt;/strong&gt; for &lt;strong&gt;Shanaischara&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Kaala&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Devata for&lt;strong&gt;Rahu&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Chitragupta&lt;/strong&gt; for &lt;strong&gt;Ketu&lt;/strong&gt;. The Pratyabhidevatas&#xA;  respectively are Agni, Varuna, Prithvi, Vishnu, Indra, Aindri,&#xA;  Prajapati, Sarpa and Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further descriptions and significance of Navagrahas are found in Jyotisha texts like the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/bphspage1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihat Parashara Hora&lt;/a&gt;.Few of them are given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;10. Names of Grahas&lt;/strong&gt;. The names of the nine Grahas, respectively, are Surya, Candr, Mangal, Budh, Guru, Sukr, Sani, Rahu and Ketu. 11.&#xA;  Benefics and Malefics. Among these, Surya, Sani, Mangal, decreasing&#xA;  Candr, Rahu and Ketu (the ascending and the descending nodes of Candr)&#xA;  are malefics, while the rest are benefics. Budh, however, is a&#xA;  malefic, if he joins a malefic. Addition from Santhanam till Sloka&#xA;  12-13. When Candr is ahead of Surya, but within 120, she has medium&#xA;  strength....&lt;strong&gt;Surya is the soul of all. Candr is the mind. Mangal is&#xA;  one’s strength. Budh is speech-giver, while Guru confers Knowledge and&#xA;  happiness. Sukr governs semen (potency), while Sani denotes grief&lt;/strong&gt;. 14-&#xA;  15. Grah cabinet. &lt;strong&gt;Of royal status are Surya and Candr, while Mangal is the Army chief. Prince-apparent is Budh. The ministerial Grahas are&#xA;  Guru and Sukr. Sani is a servant. Rahu and Ketu form the Grah Army.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  16-17. &lt;strong&gt;Complexions of Grahas&lt;/strong&gt;. Surya is blood-red. Candr is tawny.&#xA;  Mangal, who is not very tall is blood-red, while Budh’s hue is akin to&#xA;  that of green grass. Tawny, variegated and dark are Guru, Sukr and&#xA;  Sani in their order. &lt;strong&gt;18. Deities of Grahas.&lt;/strong&gt; Fire (Agni) (?), Water&#xA;  (Varuna), Subrahmanya (Lord Shiva’s son, following Ganesh), Maha&#xA;  Vishnu, Indra, Shachi Devi (the consort of Lord Indra) and Brahma (?)&#xA;  are the presiding deities of the 7 Grahas in their order. &lt;strong&gt;19. Gender&#xA;  of the Grahas.&lt;/strong&gt; Budh and Sani are neuters. Candr and Sukr are females,&#xA;  while Surya, Mangal and Guru are males. 20. Primordial compounds. The&#xA;  Panchabhutas, space, air, fire, water and earth, are, respectively,&#xA;  governed by Guru, Sani, Mangal, Sukr and Budh. &lt;strong&gt;21. Castes of Grahas.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Guru and Sukr are Brahmins. Surya is a royal Grah, while Candr and&#xA;  Budh belong to commercial community. Sani rules the Sudras (4th&#xA;  caste). &lt;strong&gt;22. Sattvic Grahas are the luminaries and Guru, Sukr and Budh&#xA;  are Rajasik, while Mangal and Sani are Tamasic&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note-I have not dealt with the question in the title.Origin of each of the Navagrahas are given in several Puranas.So,if i were to include all of those datas will make this answer rather long.Anyways, i have answered the questions that are in the question's body,waiting to hear from you whether you are satisfied with the answer or not.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T08:37:53.923" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T08:37:53.923" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16042" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-11-23T07:42:42.310" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;strong&gt;gunas&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;guna&lt;/strong&gt; appears in many ancient and medieval era Indian texts.  The term gunas can be taken differently according to various Hinduism philosophies  like   Nyaya , Vaisheshika ,Bhagavad Gita ,cosmology etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Samkhya philosophy, a guṇa is one of three &quot;tendencies, qualities&quot;: &lt;strong&gt;Sattva , Rajas and  Tamas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guna is one of the four important elements in the framework of ethical theories in Indian philosophy.Guna theory is the ancient Indian philosophy on individual attributes, while the theories of Dharma and Ashram as address the personal and social environment, as well as part of its institutional framework.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T16:49:18.427" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T16:49:18.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16043" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-11-23T07:42:42.310" Score="0" Body="Guna appears in many ancient and medieval era Indian texts. Depending on the context and according to various Hinduism philosophies  like   Nyaya , Vaisheshika ,Bhagavad Gita ,cosmology etc." OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T16:49:24.167" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T16:49:24.167" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16044" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16036" CreationDate="2016-11-23T07:42:59.980" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Has this word been used in any Hindu scripture? If so in what context?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There were seven techniques that kings were suppsed to use in ruling&#xA;  their kingdoms.&lt;/strong&gt; These were known as sama, dana, danda, bedha, maya,&#xA;  upeksha and &lt;strong&gt;indrajala.&lt;/strong&gt; Of these, the first four are the most famous.&#xA;  Sama means the art of gentle persuasion. Dana means the usage of&#xA;  donations or money to achieve one’s purpose. Danda is punishment. And&#xA;  bheda is the art of aggravating dissension amongst parties opposed to&#xA;  each other. Maya means to use illusions or deceit and upeksha is to&#xA;  deliberately ignore people so as to achieve one’s purpose. &lt;strong&gt;Indrajala&#xA;  literally means jugglery. In this context, it would mean to perform a&#xA;  balancing act amongst opposing pulls and opposing parties.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/agnipurana-8.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; chapter of an abridged Agni Purana .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, as per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/bijamantras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page the beeja &lt;strong&gt;Prim&lt;/strong&gt; is used in Tantrik rituals for Indrajala(magic).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The mantra Prim is the crow bija, used in works of Indrajala (magic).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T07:48:34.180" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T07:48:34.180" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16045" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16037" CreationDate="2016-11-23T08:24:37.647" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kumarila Bhatta believes that Karma Yoga is the only path to Moksha.&lt;/strong&gt;   Contrary to what I thought, Kumarila Bhatta did not believe that Atmajnana directly granted Moksha.  Unlike Adi Shankaracharya, who believed that you can destroy your stock of Sanchita Karma through the fire of Jnana, or Ramanujacharya, who believed that you could destroy your Sanchita Karma through Sharanagati, Kumarila Bhatta believed that you can only get rid of your Karmas by experiencing all of them.  He thought the only way that Atmajnana can help a person attain Moksha is by leading them to pursue Karma Yoga, which stops you from accumulating new Karmas and thus allows you to experience all your existing Karma.  Here is what Kumarila Bhatta says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/gCZR&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Shloka Vartika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fact (as to the manner of Deliverance) is that for those that have come to know of the real character of Self,—all their past actions having been exhausted by fruition, and there being no subsequent residue (of actions),—the body is never again produced (and this is what is meant by Deliverance).  It is only for the purpose of enjoying the results of our past actions that our body is produced; consequently, when there are no actions (left to bring about their results), there is no cause left for such productions (of the body).  &lt;strong&gt;One desiring Deliverance, therefore, would not engage in (i.e., perform) such actions as are either prohibited or are enjoined with a view to the attainment of certain (material) results.&lt;/strong&gt; But he would continue to perform those that are enjoined as necessary (and to be performed daily), and those that are enjoined as to be performed on certain specific occasions (such as eclipses and the like),—in order to avoid the sin (accruing from | the non-performance of such actions). &lt;strong&gt;The effects (of the necessary sacrifices f.i.) are known to result only when they are desired by the agent ; and as such they could not accrue to one who does not desire them. And as this (aversion to results) exists in one who knows one's real self, it is in this that such knowledge comes to be of indirect use (to the attainment of Deliverance).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my earlier statement about Kumarila Bhatta believing in Jnana Yoga is not quite accurate.  In any case, interestingly while Kumarila Bhatta speaks of Nishkama Karma, he does not speak of doing actions for the sake of Ishwara.  So it's still unclear how he felt about that, even though Laugakshi Bhaskara and Apadeva both endorsed it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T09:26:04.050" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T09:26:04.050" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16047" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-23T08:59:47.757" Score="1" ViewCount="50404" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally when we are in house thinking some good things or bad things, if a lizard makes noise, there is a saying that whatever we thought at that time will happen. Good things or bad things may happen. It is also said we have to listen  how many times the lizard made noise? If it made 3 times there will be a result  for that. If it is 4 the result will vary. Similarly increase the counts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it a myth or true? Anywhere in Hindu scriptures this has been mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-11-24T16:25:38.413" LastActivityDate="2018-10-21T19:48:16.633" Title="When a lizard makes noise whatever we think may happen --Is it a myth or true?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|belief|superstitions|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16048" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16050" CreationDate="2016-11-23T09:11:44.640" Score="9" ViewCount="4196" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know there is a gap between Ramayana and Mahabharata, but if so why did Lord Rama's dynasty not participate in Mahabharata? Where were they? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Mahabharata happened after Ramayana where were the descendants of Rama during Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-22T09:23:51.317" LastActivityDate="2017-12-22T09:23:51.317" Title="If Mahabharata happened after Ramayana where were the descendants of Rama during Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|suryavansh|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16049" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16048" CreationDate="2016-11-23T09:45:05.287" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;During the great war, the [then] descendent of RAma, sided with Kaurava-s&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosala_Kingdom&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kosala Kingdom&lt;/a&gt; is believed to be Lord RAma's kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kosala Proper or Uttara Kosala is the kingdom of the celebrated personality of Treta Yuga, Raghava Rama&lt;/strong&gt;. ... Rama's brother Bharata, colonized the Gandhara kingdom and founded the city of Takshasila there. Gandhara lies close to Kekeya Kingdom, the native kingdom of Bharata's mother, Kaikeyi. Rama's second brother Lakshmana founded the city of Lakshmanapura near river Ganges which is now known as Lucknow. He colonized the Vanga kingdom and founded the city of Chandrakanta there. Rama's youngest brother Satrughna destroyed the forest called Madhu and founded the city of Mathura which later became the capital of the Surasena Kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Particular to your question, the king of Kosala should be considered as the descendent of &lt;em&gt;Raghu Vamsha&lt;/em&gt; (i.e. RAma). During the great war, Brihadbala was 1 of  king &amp;amp; he sided with Kaurava. He was killed by Abhimanyu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nishadha king Nala's friend Rituparna was a ruler of Kosala. Brihadbala another ruler of Kosala during Dwapara Yuga, took part in Mahabharata war and was killed by Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the proper reference from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11024.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Stri VilApa Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There, again, those other ladies, surrounding their lord, &lt;strong&gt;the ruler of the Kosalas, prince Brihadbala,&lt;/strong&gt; are indulging in loud wails. Engaged in plucking from his body the shafts with which it was pierced by Abhimanyu with the full might of his arms, those ladies are repeatedly losing their senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is another &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/descendants-of-lord-rama-in-the-war-of-mahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;fancy article&lt;/a&gt;, but I am not sure if it can be cited here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T09:53:12.457" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T09:53:12.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16050" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16048" CreationDate="2016-11-23T10:17:41.443" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The descendant of Rama at the time of the Mahabharata was Brihadbala, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/12/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Rāmacandra was Kuśa, the son of Kuśa was Atithi, the son of Atithi was Niṣadha, and the son of Niṣadha was Nabha. The son of Nabha was Puṇḍarīka, and from Puṇḍarīka came a son named Kṣemadhanvā.  The son of Kṣemadhanvā was Devānīka, Devānīka’s son was Anīha, Anīha’s son was Pāriyātra, and Pāriyātra’s son was Balasthala. The son of Balasthala was Vajranābha, who was said to have been born from the effulgence of the sun-god.  The son of Vajranābha was Sagaṇa, and his son was Vidhṛti. The son of Vidhṛti was Hiraṇyanābha, who became a disciple of Jaimini and became a great ācārya of mystic yoga. It is from Hiraṇyanābha that the great saint Yājñavalkya learned the highly elevated system of mystic yoga known as ādhyātma-yoga, which can loosen the knots of material attachment in the heart.  The son of Hiraṇyanābha was Puṣpa, and the son of Puṣpa was Dhruvasandhi. The son of Dhruvasandhi was Sudarśana, whose son was Agnivarṇa. The son of Agnivarṇa was named Śīghra, and his son was Maru. Having achieved perfection in the power of mystic yoga, Maru still lives in a place known as Kalāpa-grāma. At the end of Kali-yuga, he will revive the lost Sūrya dynasty by begetting a son. From Maru was born a son named Prasuśruta, from Prasuśruta came Sandhi, from Sandhi came Amarṣaṇa, and from Amarṣaṇa a son named Mahasvān. From Mahasvān, Viśvabāhu took his birth. From Viśvabāhu came a son named Prasenajit, from Prasenajit came Takṣaka, and from Takṣaka came &lt;strong&gt;Bṛhadbala, who was killed in a fight by your father.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Shuka says &quot;your father&quot;, he's addressing Parikshit, so he's referring to Abhimanyu.  And indeed, Abhimanyu killed Brihadbala in the Chakravyuha right before he, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07070.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parvati of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Drona, Kripa and Karna and Drona's son, and &lt;strong&gt;the king of the Kosalas&lt;/strong&gt;, and Kritavarman, these six car-warriors surrounded the son of Subhadra. Having surrounded that child all those great car-warriors--too many for him although he was contending to the utmost of his power, deprived him of his car. After he had been deprived of his car, Dussasana's son, though he himself had a hair-breadth escape, succeeded, as chance would have it, in making Abhimanyu, meet with his end. As regards Abhimanyu, he, having slain many thousands of men and steeds and elephants, and eight thousand cars, and once more nine hundred elephants, two thousand princes, and a large number of heroic warriors unknown to fame, and &lt;strong&gt;dispatching in that battle king Vrihadvala also to heaven&lt;/strong&gt;, at last, through ill luck, met with his own death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T10:17:41.443" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16052" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17686" CreationDate="2016-11-23T11:08:14.090" Score="1" ViewCount="473" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is difference between Yantrik, Shastrokata(Vaidik\Puranik) and Tantrik vidhi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are advantages and disadvantages of each of them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does any scripture provides any illustration of them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="577" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T11:41:14.957" LastActivityDate="2017-03-23T09:37:51.023" Title="What is the difference between Yantrik, Shastrokata(Vaidik\Puranik) and Tantrik ritual(vidhi)?" Tags="|rituals|scripture|tantra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16053" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-23T11:30:59.307" Score="9" ViewCount="4337" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the similarities and differences in Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana Vedas? To my knowledge maximum come from Yajur Veda. Next comes Rig. Third place for Sama and the last for Atharvana. Do the four vedas teach the same thing? If so for example why there is difference in ceremony procedure  among vaishnavite, Saivite and Rayars [disciples of Raghavendra swamy] although they come from yajur? Any Vedic reference for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-02T10:00:18.973" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T12:43:17.713" Title="Similarities and differences in the four vedas" Tags="|scripture|vedas|philosophy|rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16054" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16056" CreationDate="2016-11-23T12:11:38.353" Score="5" ViewCount="215" Body="&lt;p&gt;In any scripture, are there any records of climate change? Example with Solutions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Energy always transforms from one to another. I am looking for such examples where energy has been transformed or stored. Looking for current situations where can we store energy except Rudraksha and idols? I am looking for new form of energy such as birth of Mars and saturn, whose birth not only restored positivity but also gave a new types of planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T14:29:12.673" LastActivityDate="2016-11-24T05:57:13.003" Title="In any scripture, are there any records of climate change? Example with Solutions?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-11-27T13:30:59.327" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16056" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16054" CreationDate="2016-11-23T13:21:33.177" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There are  records of events happening (similar to events happen in  climate change situation ) stated  in Shreemad Bhagvatam.&lt;/strong&gt; After Shree Krishna's departure to Dwaraka and Arjuna going to Dwaraka to meet Shri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कालस्य च गतिं रौद्राम विपर्यस्ततृधार्मिण:&lt;br&gt; ददर्श घोररूपाणि&#xA;निमित्तानि कुरुद्वह:।।3।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kaalasya Cha Gatim Raudram ViparyastaturDhamirna  Paapiyasi&#xA;Ghorarupani Nimittani Kurudwaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning - They (Yudhisthira) saw , &lt;strong&gt;the time changing very&#xA;dramatically &amp;amp; getting being fierce. Seasons changed  and sesons&#xA;outcome (heat , cold)  also got reverse&lt;/strong&gt;.People became greedy ,&#xA;high-tempered , and untruthful.People living by adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/14/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB Canto 1 Adhaya 14 shloka 3&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Sreemad Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt;,there are also elaborate descriptions &amp;amp; predictions of climate changes that are going to happen in the &amp;quot;Kaliyuga&amp;quot; . Like &lt;strong&gt;uncertainty of rains , extreme weather conditions , cyclones , effect on grain size  , thunder stricking and above all Global warming.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अनावृष्टया विंगड़गक्षंति &lt;strong&gt;दुर्भिक्ष&lt;/strong&gt;करपीड़िता: &lt;br&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;शीतवातातप्रपावृंगड़हिमैरन्योन्यत&lt;/strong&gt;: प्रजा ।।10।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;- Sometimes there will be heavy droughts and sometimes  heavy rain.Sometimes heavy snowfall and cold will be&#xA;there.Cyclones will appear , heat will rise  ,there will be&#xA;floods , people will vanish from wars afterwards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB  Canto 12 Adhaya 2 Verse 10&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अणुपरायास्वयोषधीषु शमीप्रयेषु स्थास्नुषु ।  &lt;br&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;विद्युत्प्रायेषु&lt;/strong&gt; मेघेषु शुन्यप्रायेषु सद्मसु ॥15॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - The grain and grain crops will become shorter.The big and&#xA;tall  trees will became short in length &amp;amp; width.There will only be&#xA;be thunder in clouds and less rain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/12-16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB Canto 12 Adhaya 2 Verse 15&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नित्यमुद्वीग्नमनसो दुर्भिक्षकरकर्शीता:।  &lt;br&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;निरन्ने&lt;/strong&gt; भूतले राजन्ननावृष्टिभयातुरा: ।। 39।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; -  O Rajan due to the taxes &amp;amp; drought people will suffer much.People will be in the state of depression due to fear of&#xA;drought and uncertainty of rains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/39-40&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB  Canto 12 Adahya 3 Verse 39&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These shlokas give us clear evidence about prediction and &lt;strong&gt;Record&lt;/strong&gt; of  &amp;quot;Climate change&amp;quot; &amp;amp;&amp;quot;Global warmimg&amp;quot; and their effects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-24T05:57:13.003" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16057" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-23T14:25:41.043" Score="4" ViewCount="305" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tulasi is the most sacred plant in Hinduism, from worship to death bed Tulasi is required. In other words, Tulasi is an integral part of Hindu rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Tulasi - a single jeevatman or a set of jeevatmans?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The possibility of single jeevatman in multiple sharira or mixed avatar of single Tulasi is rejected because only brahman can do that, and clearly Tulasi is not brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-06T21:04:03.700" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T11:20:43.653" Title="Is Tulasi a single jeeva or a class of jeevas or something else?" Tags="|philosophy|vaishnavism|jiva|tulasi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16058" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15924" CreationDate="2016-11-23T15:34:45.157" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Bhagavad Gita is the summary of Hinduism ,written in a Dialectical style, popularised by Socrates&lt;/strong&gt;. It contains all the Philosophies developed in India during the last 5000 years and discusses the problems in implementing these ideas in practice , using the Mahabharat War as an Example .&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How would one , use these apparently self contradictory  ideas , in solving another &lt;em&gt;REALISTIC PROBLEM, in another situation and at a different time&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; ? Different philosophers and leaders in different professions ,at different times , have discussed the issue and given their own &lt;em&gt;Answers&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Not all Answers are IDENTICAL&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;The reader will have to use his own judgment in analysing these Answers or DISCOURSES . A cut and paste method will have to be used to find a satisfactory answer or interpretation&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hinduism ,therefore ,permits every Individual to have his/her own philosophy  of life&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;Swami Vivekananda,Mahatma Gandhi ,Swami Chinmayananda and Dr.S. Radhakrishnan ,have given their own interpretation of Bhagavad Gita , which are relevant to the Modern World.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T16:21:38.240" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T16:21:38.240" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16059" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16061" CreationDate="2016-11-23T15:35:18.373" Score="13" ViewCount="8147" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad Gita 7.11&lt;/a&gt; Krsna says according the translation of His Divine Grace Swami Prabhupada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... I am sex life which is not contrary to religious principles ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think many people misinterpret this shloka as meaning that sex life is not contrary to religious principles. But I think what he is trying to say is that there exist regulative rules for sex life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The full shlokha, translation and purport from here (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/11&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;balaṁ balavatāṁ cāhaṁ &lt;br&gt; kāma-rāga-vivarjitam &lt;br&gt; dharmāviruddho&#xA;  bhūteṣu &lt;br&gt; kāmo ’smi bharatarṣabha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; I am the strength of the strong, devoid of passion and&#xA;  desire. &lt;strong&gt;I am sex life which is not contrary to religious principles&lt;/strong&gt;, O&#xA;  lord of the Bhāratas [Arjuna].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purport: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The strong man’s strength should be applied to protect the&#xA;  weak, not for personal aggression. &lt;strong&gt;Similarly, sex life, according to&#xA;  religious principles (dharma), should be for the propagation of&#xA;  children, not otherwise.&lt;/strong&gt; The responsibility of parents is then to make&#xA;  their offspring Kṛṣṇa conscious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I would like to know what these &quot;rules&quot; or &quot;principles&quot; are exactly and where these are stated in our scriptures.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to his Divine Grace Swami Prabhupada intercourse is only for procreation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4974" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T18:30:59.297" LastActivityDate="2023-05-22T15:21:17.083" Title="Regulative principles for sex life" Tags="|scripture|bhagavad-gita|marriage|kama|prabhupada|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16060" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-23T15:45:56.057" Score="3" ViewCount="890" Body="&lt;p&gt;Upon death of a person, who among the relatives are required to observe sutak?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Except immediate family members, how many generations do observe Sutaka? How Generation is determined?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8285" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-23T16:14:02.767" LastActivityDate="2016-11-23T16:14:02.767" Title="Rules regarding Sutaka?" Tags="|rituals|death|garuda-purana|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16061" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16059" CreationDate="2016-11-23T16:45:45.887" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, let me explicitly state that I assumed that you are asking about the rules &amp;amp; regulations that a  husband and his wife should abide by.Because ,sexual activities, of any other forms are clearly stated ,in Shastras, as Adharmic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well,except for few prohibited days ,like the days of period,and few others,sexual activities are perfectly legal between a husband and a wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some relevant rules from the Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu 3.45. Let (the husband) approach his wife in due season, being&#xA;  constantly satisfied with her (alone); he may also, being intent on&#xA;  pleasing her, approach her with a desire for conjugal union (on any&#xA;  day) excepting the Parvans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, here are the restricted days:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.46. Sixteen (days and) nights (in each month), including four days which differ from the rest and are censured by the virtuous, (are&#xA;  called) the natural season of women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu 3.47. But among these the &lt;strong&gt;first four&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;the eleventh and the thirteenth&lt;/strong&gt; are (declared to be) &lt;strong&gt;forbidden&lt;/strong&gt;; the remaining nights are recommended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A husband who avoids his wife on these 6 forbidden nights is as good as a celibate(a brahmachari).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu 3.50. He who avoids women on the six forbidden nights and on eight others, is (equal in chastity to) a student, in whichever order he may&#xA;  live.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3iHvt.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3iHvt.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Parashara Smriti says that a husband should always approach his wife on the day her courses cease,otherwise he commits an offence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the husband meets not his wife on the day that her monthly courses&#xA;  cease, and she be near at hand, he incurs the awful sin of having&#xA;  killed a foetus. There is not the slightest doubt herein.(Parashara&#xA;  Smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp; similarly ,for the wife,it says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a woman meets not her lord, on the day that her monthly courses&#xA;  stop, — she after death goes to hell, — and becomes a widow in&#xA;  repeated births(Parashara Smriti).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, I don't think there are any more rules other than those mentioned above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT-Also one more thing I forgot to add is that sexual activity is &lt;strong&gt;usually prohibited during daytime&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a reference from the &lt;strong&gt;Apastamba Dharma Sutras&lt;/strong&gt; book.which refers to Manu,but i'm yet to find where in Manu it is so stated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case,i think,that sexual activities should only be performed in night is mentioned in some more scriptures.Just need to find those references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/baRT8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/baRT8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-24T06:47:03.133" LastActivityDate="2016-11-24T06:47:03.133" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16063" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-23T22:35:53.557" Score="9" ViewCount="1004" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the very beginning of Rāmāyaṇa, Vālmīki &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga2/balasans2.htm#Verse15&quot;&gt;curses&lt;/a&gt; a hunter for &lt;a href=&quot;http://sites.maxwell.syr.edu/ramayana/images/003b.gif&quot;&gt;shooting down&lt;/a&gt; a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoiselle_crane&quot;&gt;krauncha bird&lt;/a&gt; because it upset him very much. But isn't it the sva-dharma of a hunter to kill deer or bird for food?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RcjgYm.gif&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RcjgYm.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is. However, as Vālmīki &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga2/balasans2.htm#Verse15&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;, a hunter can kill a bird, no doubt; but only when it's alone. And not when it's with its mate both enjoying their time together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततः करुण वेदित्वात् अधर्मो अयम् इति द्विजः | निशांय रुदतीम् क्रौन्चीम् इदम् वचनम् अब्रैइत् || १-२-१४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then on seeing the wailing female krounchi bird, compassion haunting him and apperceiving the killing of male bird as &lt;strong&gt;unjust&lt;/strong&gt;, the sage uttered this sentence... [1-2-14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मा निषाद प्रतिष्ठाम्त्व | मगमः शाश्वतीः समाः | यत् क्रौङ्च मिथुनात् एक | मवधीः काम मोहितम् || १-२-१५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh! Ill-fated Hunter, by which reason &lt;strong&gt;you have killed one male bird of the couple, when it is in its lustful passion&lt;/strong&gt;, thereby you will get an ever-lasting reputation for ages to come... [1-2-15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That makes sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now fast forward to Mahābhārata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ATnqPm.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ATnqPm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zE0NEm.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zE0NEm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Pāṇḍu is in the exact &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01119.htm&quot;&gt;same situation&lt;/a&gt; as the hunter from Rāmāyaṇa. Only difference is, there, it was a pair of birds and here, it's a couple of deer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana said, 'O king, one day &lt;strong&gt;Pandu&lt;/strong&gt;, while roaming about in the woods (on the southern slopes of the Himavat) that teemed with deer and wild animals of fierce disposition, saw a large deer, that seemed to be the leader of a herd, serving his mate. Beholding the animals, the monarch &lt;strong&gt;pierced them both with five of his sharp and swift arrows&lt;/strong&gt; winged with golden feathers. O monarch, that was no deer that Pandu struck at, but a Rishi's son of great ascetic merit &lt;strong&gt;who was enjoying his mate in the form of a deer&lt;/strong&gt;. Pierced by Pandu, while engaged in the act of intercourse, he fell down to the ground, uttering cries that were of a man and began to weep bitterly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I can understand that the hunter from Rāmāyaṇa was ignorant and illiterate, therefore, Vālmīki educated him by delivering a curse. But it's rather strange that a well-educated and skilled king like Pāṇḍu wasn't aware of the rules of hunting. Had he not read Rāmāyaṇa ever? How can one explain Pāṇḍu's actions? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pāṇḍu even defends his action &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01119.htm&quot;&gt;saying&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is well-known that men slay deer by various effective means without regarding whether the animals are careful or &lt;strong&gt;careless&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does it mean you can't kill a bird when it's romancing with its mate, but with deer it's not a problem? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What was Pāṇḍu really doing in the forest in the first place? A couple of chapters earlier, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01115.htm&quot;&gt;it's said&lt;/a&gt; that he retired into the woods. Now why would a healthy king suddenly retire into the woods to only chase deer? Was he always fond of hunting or chasing deer?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A little while after, O bull of Bharata's race, Pandu who had achieved a victory over sloth and lethargy, accompanied by his two wives, Kunti and Madri, &lt;strong&gt;retired into the woods&lt;/strong&gt;. Leaving his excellent palace with its luxurious beds, he became a permanent inhabitant of the woods, &lt;strong&gt;devoting the whole of his time to the chase of the deer&lt;/strong&gt;. And fixing his abode in a delightful and hilly region overgrown with huge sala trees, on the southern slope of the Himavat mountains, he roamed about in perfect freedom. The handsome Pandu with his two wives wandered in those woods like Airavata accompanied by two she-elephants. And the dwellers in those woods, beholding the heroic Bharata prince in the company of his wives, &lt;strong&gt;armed with sword, arrows, and bow, clad with his beautiful armour, and skilled in all excellent weapons&lt;/strong&gt;, regarded him as the very god wandering amongst them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And at the command of Dhritarashtra, people were busy in supplying Pandu in his retirement with every object of pleasure and enjoyment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-05-23T00:48:48.553" LastActivityDate="2018-07-11T16:11:29.683" Title="Since Mahābhārata happened after Rāmāyaṇa, why did Pāṇḍu kill a deer that was mating?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|valmiki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16064" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3298" CreationDate="2016-11-24T01:20:57.813" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The premises of this question assumes that most of the main warriors were 80+ years. However in reality, most of them were in their 40s (or early 50s at the max).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Except Drona, Bhishma, Drupada hardly there can be any warrior, who were in their 80s. Drona's age (85 yr) &amp;amp; based on it others' age is discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16040/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However it does say that Drona had shown swiftness like a 16 years old during his last day. So that also means that 80+ years, was still a good age to fight. Now that could be possible mostly due to food habits &amp;amp; abstaining from sex &amp;amp; other sense fulfillment. From Gita, Satvik way of life is suggested to be giving longitivity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-11-24T01:26:51.140" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16066" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-24T06:50:41.147" Score="2" ViewCount="1425" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mattapalli is a place in Vijayawada in Andhra. There is a Lakshmi Narasimha temple in which the God is with his consort Rajyalakshmi. The krishnaveni river is so sacred. Gods Krishna, Shiva and King of birds Garuda visited this shrine and stood in a line to worship Lakshmi Narasimha. In Narasimha purana or any other puranas the greatness of the God is described? There is a ashtagam composed by Mukkur Lakshmi Narasimhachariyar known as mattapalli mangalashtagam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-03T10:34:12.697" LastActivityDate="2016-12-03T10:34:12.697" Title="Mattapalli Lakshmi Narasimha" Tags="|puranas|narasimha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16067" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-24T06:54:28.890" Score="14" ViewCount="463" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a belief that if anybody chants the Runa Vimochana Narasimha Stotram he can be relieved from his debts. Is that belief mentioned in any scriptures? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Here is the Stotram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;॥ श्रीनरसिंहऋणमोचनस्तोत्र ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीगणेशाय नमः । &lt;br&gt; ॐ देवानां कार्यसिध्यर्थं सभास्तम्भसमुद्भवम्&#xA;  ।&lt;br&gt; श्रीनृसिंहं महावीरं नमामि ऋणमुक्तये ॥ १॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लक्ष्म्यालिङ्गितवामाङ्गं भक्तानामभयप्रदम् ।&lt;br&gt; श्रीनृसिंहं महावीरं&#xA;  नमामि ऋणमुक्तये ॥ २॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रह्लादवरदं श्रीशं दैतेश्वरविदारणम् ।&lt;br&gt; श्रीनृसिंहं महावीरं नमामि&#xA;  ऋणमुक्तये ॥ ३॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्मरणात्सर्वपापघ्नं कद्रुजं विषनाशनम् ।&lt;br&gt; श्रीनृसिंहं महावीरं नमामि&#xA;  ऋणमुक्तये ॥ ४॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्त्रमालाधरं शङ्खचक्राब्जायुधधारिणम् । &lt;br&gt; श्रीनृसिंहं महावीरं नमामि&#xA;  ऋणमुक्तये ॥ ५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सिंहनादेन महता दिग्दन्तिभयदायकम् ।&lt;br&gt; श्रीनृसिंहं महावीरं नमामि&#xA;  ऋणमुक्तये ॥ ६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कोटिसूर्यप्रतीकाशमभिचारिकनाशनम् । &lt;br&gt; श्रीनृसिंहं महावीरं नमामि&#xA;  ऋणमुक्तये ॥ ७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वेदान्तवेद्यं यज्ञेशं ब्रह्मरुद्रादिसंस्तुतम् । &lt;br&gt; श्रीनृसिंहं&#xA;  महावीरं नमामि ऋणमुक्तये ॐ ॥ ८॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इदं यो पठते नित्यं ऋणमोचकसंज्ञकम् ।&lt;br&gt; अनृणीजायते सद्यो धनं&#xA;  शीघ्रमवाप्नुयात् ॥ ९॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;॥ इति श्रीनृसिंहपुराणे ऋणमोचनस्तोत्रं सम्पूर्णम् ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_vishhnu/narasinhaRiNamochanastotra.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskritdocuments.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Youtube you can hear from the below link--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTymjIp4Qoo&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTymjIp4Qoo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T05:30:51.933" LastActivityDate="2022-10-28T02:54:58.250" Title="What scriptures mention chanting Runa Vimochana Narasimha Stotram relieves debts?" Tags="|narasimha|identification-request|stotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16069" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16066" CreationDate="2016-11-24T07:06:52.703" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mattapalli Mangalashtakam in English:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mattapallinivasaya madhuranandarupine &#xA;  mahayajnasvarupaya srinirusimhaya mangalam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Glories to the sweet, blissful Lord of Mattapalli, Sri Lakshmi Narasimha, who is described in the Vedic Yagnas as the One who is attainable by the Madhu Vidya form of Bhakti Yoga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;krisnavenitatathaya sarvabhistapradayine&#xA;  prahladapriyarupaya srinisimhaya mangalam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Glories to the Lord, who resides on the bank of the river Krishna, the bestower of all auspiciousness, One who is dear to those who are as devoted as prahlada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;garrtasthitayadhiraya gambhiraya mahatmane&#xA;  sarvarista vinasaya srinrsimhaya mangalam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Glories to the brave majestic Lord, the dispeller of all obstacles, who resides in a mountain cave.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rigyajussamarupaya mantrarudhayahimate&#xA;  sritanam kalpavkrsaya srinrsimhaya mangalam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Glories to the Lord who is seen in the four Vedas, who is seen in the mantras, &#xA;who showers the desired to those who surrender to Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;guhasaraya guhyaya guhyavidyasvarupine&#xA;  kuharante viharaya srinrsimhaya mangalam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Glories to the Lord, who can be experienced through esoteric Guhya Vidhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sripalayadrimadhasthaya nidhaya madhuraya ca&#xA;  sukrapradaya devaya srinrsimhaya mangalam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Glories to Him, who confers happiness, who is the beautiful treasure of Mattapalli in between the two kshetras of Vadapalli and Vadadri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tapaniyaaarahasaya tapaaatraya vinasine&#xA;  natanam parijataya srinrsimhaya mangalam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Glories to the secret described by the Tapaniya Upanishad;&#xA;the Lord destroys the Tapa Trayas(3 form of troubles) of his devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rajyalakshsmya sametaya ragadvesa vinasine&#xA;  mattapalli nivasaya srinrsimhaya mangalam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Glories to the Lion of Mattapalli who is ever with Raajyalakshmi &#xA;and removes the feelings of greed and hatred from his devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mukkur nrsimhadasena proktam mangalashtakam&#xA;  yah pathet sraddaya bhaktya sarvapapaih pramucayate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who recites with sincere devotion, the sacred Mangalam verses,&#xA;composed by the Lord and recited through Mukku Narasimha Dasan gets all his ins destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mattapalli Mangalashtakam MP3&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prapatti.com/slokas/mp3/mattapallimangalaashtakam.mp3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.prapatti.com/slokas/mp3/mattapallimangalaashtakam.mp3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You tube links--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UwcPj1FzEo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UwcPj1FzEo&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;2.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtyTKHS5jdg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtyTKHS5jdg&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;3.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHw01yEn92I&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHw01yEn92I&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2016-11-24T07:06:52.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16071" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14179" CreationDate="2016-11-24T07:32:56.160" Score="2" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Opinion #1 (Sri Rama Ramanuja Achari)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From The Hindu Sacrament Of Marriage (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/our-publications.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;srimatham.com&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CONJUGAL RIGHTS&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Hindu Law only women have conjugal rights known as the&#xA;  Ritu. The Ritu which means “season” are the 12 nights after the&#xA;  commencement of the menstrual cycle, excluding the first 3 or 4.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is laid down in many sacred texts that it is the duty of the&#xA;  husband to have sex with his wife during this period. This is known as&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Ritu-gamana&lt;/strong&gt;. After the menstrual blood has ceased to flow, the woman is advised to purify herself by bathing and wearing clean&#xA;  clothes she should approach her husband and say:— ṛtum dehi — give me&#xA;  my conjugal rights — &lt;strong&gt;the husband has no right to refuse such a&#xA;  request.&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;Mbh 13:162.41&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In fact a refusal to oblige is considered a heinous sin leading to&#xA;  hell! (&lt;strong&gt;Parasara 4:12&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In fact it is taught that having sex in the Ritu is one of the virtues that lead to heaven. &lt;br&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;Mbh. 8:144.13-14&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sacred Law goes even further and declares that the married couple&#xA;  who only have sex during the Ritu are to be considered as celibate.&#xA;  (&lt;strong&gt;Mbh. 12:221.11&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is an interesting law for those who insist on sex only for procreation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Immediately after menstruation it is almost impossible to fall&#xA;  pregnant, the all knowing sages and law-givers must have known this&#xA;  before they formulated such a law and &lt;strong&gt;this would support the argument&#xA;  that the Dharma Shastra does sanction having sex for pleasure alone.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above, I infer that using contraceptives like condoms and birth control pills are also sanctioned. Even vasectomy is allowed, not a sin. Remember that previously none of the birth control techniques were available hence the above laws existed to prevent unexpected pregnancies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Opinion #2 (Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3316&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;hinduismtoday.com&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What Is the Hindu View of Sexuality?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The purpose of sexual union is to express and foster love's beautiful&#xA;  intimacy and to draw husband and wife together for procreation.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;While offering community guidance, Hinduism does not legislate sexual matters.&lt;/strong&gt; Aum.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sexual intercourse is a natural reproductive function, a part of the&#xA;  instinctive nature, and its pleasures draw man and woman together that&#xA;  a child may be conceived. It also serves through its intimacy to&#xA;  express and nurture love. It is love which endows sexual intercourse&#xA;  with its higher qualities, transforming it from an animal function to&#xA;  a human fulfillment. &lt;strong&gt;Intensely personal matters of sex as they affect&#xA;  the family or individual are not legislated, but left to the judgment&#xA;  of those involved, subject to community laws and customs.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hinduism neither condones nor condemns &lt;strong&gt;birth control&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;sterilization&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;masturbation&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;homosexuality&lt;/strong&gt;, petting, polygamy or &lt;strong&gt;pornography&lt;/strong&gt;. It does&#xA;  not exclude or draw harsh conclusions against any part of human&#xA;  nature, though scripture prohibits adultery and forbids abortion&#xA;  except to save a mother's life. &lt;strong&gt;Advice in such matters should be&#xA;  sought from parents, elders and spiritual leaders.&lt;/strong&gt; The only rigid rule&#xA;  is wisdom, guided by tradition and virtue. The Vedas beseech, &quot;May all&#xA;  the divine powers together with the waters join our two hearts in one!&#xA;  May the Messenger, the Creator and holy Obedience unite us.&quot; Aum Namah&#xA;  Sivaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Opinion #3 (Swami Chandrasekharendra Saraswati)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the book, &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part18/chap1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kamakoti.org&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The householder's life is not to be taken to mean merely the enjoyment&#xA;  of sensual pleasure along with the carrying out of duties that mean&#xA;  good to the world. The fact is that the sastras have formulated this&#xA;  stage of life in such a way as to make kama itself instinct with&#xA;  dharma. &quot;Dharma&quot; means essentially bringing everything within certain&#xA;  limits, under a certain discipline and decorum. Kama must be inspired&#xA;  by dharma, that is one must bridle one's passions in one's conjugal&#xA;  life, so that, step by step, the carnal urge will lose its keenness&#xA;  and eventually one will gain mellowness to graduate to sannyasa. That&#xA;  stage, though, comes later. &lt;strong&gt;But at first, even now, in the&#xA;  householder's stage of life, the passions have to be curbed, little by&#xA;  little, but not forcibly.&lt;/strong&gt; In the gurukula the celibate-student is&#xA;  brought under strict discipline. That saves him from being swept away&#xA;  by animal passion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though we talk of animal passion, we must note that animals mate only&#xA;  during a particular season. They have the sexual urge only when the&#xA;  female of the species is ready for pregnancy. Man is baser in such&#xA;  matters. Brahmacarya helps to control the carnal urge as it first&#xA;  shows up. Then, in the householder's life, since kama is made&#xA;  subservient to dharma, the passions are kept under check.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the sastric method to control the carnal urge?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  From the day of&#xA;  a women's period there should be no intercourse for four days. Then it&#xA;  is permitted for twelve days. Again there should be no intercourse&#xA;  until the women has her next period. Even during the twelve days&#xA;  mentioned above the couple should not meet during the new moon, on&#xA;  days conjoined by certain asterisms, etc., If such rules are followed&#xA;  the couple will remain healthy mentally as well as physically.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I take it from above, all contraceptive methods including vasectomy are allowed, as long as you follow the above rules. Just remember that ultimately you have to give up your sex life and graduate to sannyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Opinion #4 (Swami Satchidananda)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=390&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;hinduismtoday.com&lt;/a&gt;, although it's a comment on abortion:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q: How do you perceive the abortion issue and what practical advice do&#xA;  you give to those seeking your help on this mater?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A: This often comes up. Under most circumstances the abortion should&#xA;  not be done. Only when the mother's life is in danger - not for any&#xA;  other reason. Not for any social reason such as, &quot;How can we take care&#xA;  of this boy?&quot; All those reasons are not good. But there is an old&#xA;  Tamil saying: &quot;Even the cow, if it comes to kill you, must be killed.&quot;&#xA;  But that is the only time. Some say, &quot;Oh, after six months the life is&#xA;  there, after six weeks the life is there.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;No, even the sperm has&#xA;  life. So, at no point is it not living matter.&lt;/strong&gt; You are not destroying&#xA;  the soul but you are destroying the body of the soul. So we don't want&#xA;  to do that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I infer from above that, you are not allowed to waste or kill your sperm by any means. Sperm has life. Period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In one of the comments above, you said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Well again I would say dharma shastras are far more superior than our thinking. They are commandments of Supreme Bramhan Shriman Narayana. &lt;strong&gt;So if they say 'it is a sin'&lt;/strong&gt; no matter what me, tezz, destroyer, or any xyz person thinks, there would be a sin related to this act. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  – Yogi Jul 21 at 12:31&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is &lt;strong&gt;they&lt;/strong&gt;? &quot;They&quot; means a lot of smritis as I explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15063/2995&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. How do you know which one was authorized by Shriman Narayana in which part of the country or world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ultimately, it comes down to &lt;strong&gt;1)&lt;/strong&gt; where you physically live (local laws) &lt;strong&gt;2)&lt;/strong&gt; whom you consider your guru and &lt;strong&gt;3)&lt;/strong&gt; who's opinion you value the most. I think we should just blindly follow one rulebook (e.g., one you've inherited from your parents) and stop constantly questioning whether your guru or parents are teaching you the most accurate and most shastric way of living.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No offense to anyone nor to undermine our shastras, but there's an old Telugu saying that a couple who followed every rule in the shastras finally gave birth to a dog!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In another comment you said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaishnavism or Sri Vaishnavism and Pancharatra Agamas say it is sin to do the act for purpose of enjoyment. Well technically the egg should be released before the expiration so just the act does not result in child birth. Pancharatra Agamas say that careful analysis of astrology and time constraints should be done before doing the act. &lt;strong&gt;it makes clear statement that the act if done without such speculation and aim then it is a sin resulting in anartha.&lt;/strong&gt; – Yogi Jul 21 at 13:53&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ok, well, if you are follower of Pancharatra Agamas, then, those rules only apply to you. Not for everyone. If you already know the answer to your question, maybe you should post one instead of waiting for one that 'fits' with your thinking.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-11-24T07:32:56.160" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16072" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16059" CreationDate="2016-11-24T10:39:32.530" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question is on the premises of below verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 7.11 -&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;... dharmāviruddho bhūteṣu kāmo ’smi bharatarṣabha ...&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;... I am sex life which is not contrary to religious principles ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the translation is wrong. Evidently the most of the translators, interpret following:&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;kAma = desire&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;sub&gt; (source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=7&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=11&amp;amp;htrskd=1&amp;amp;httyn=1&amp;amp;etsiva=1&amp;amp;etpurohit=1&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;etssa=1&amp;amp;etadi=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;gitasupersite&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can be desire for anything, such as desire to see beautiful scenery, to eat delicious food, to hear nice music, to smell refreshing scents, to feel pleasant weather, to think something fulfilling.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;It's believed that, sex is a rare activity which involves all the 6 senses together. Hence indulgence in sex is indulgence of all the senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita has no mention of &amp;quot;sex&amp;quot;. It either narrates about senses or desires. There is 1 mention of &amp;quot;Kandarpa&amp;quot; (KAmadev), but that has more to do with &amp;quot;procreation&amp;quot;. The term &amp;quot;sex life&amp;quot; may or may not involve &amp;quot;procreation&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding &amp;quot;Rules&amp;quot; &amp;amp; &amp;quot;Principles&amp;quot;, the scriptures are either divided by opinions or neutral. Different era-s have different level of sexuality. But there are always some general guidelines which are 'good to go' in all the era-s:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;ati sarvatra varjayet&lt;/em&gt; -- &amp;quot;Anything in excess should be refrained&amp;quot; (a &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritcentral.com/aggregator/sources/34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;subhashita&lt;/a&gt; related to RAmAyana)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Foods high in taste quotient, invokes mode of passion (&lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;) and the desires are born out of this passion and this may ignite anger (BG 17.9 &amp;amp; BG 3.37)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Women should not be mate during menstruation (a general medical guideline)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Here are some other principles from Bhishma in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;AnushAsana Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They that are of improper behaviour, they that transgress all restraints, they that are &lt;strong&gt;unscrupulous in respect of sexual congress, become shortlived&lt;/strong&gt; here and have to go to Hell hereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Persons of every order should &lt;strong&gt;never have sexual congress with other people's wives&lt;/strong&gt;. There is nothing that shortens life so effectually as sexual congress with other people's wives. For as many thousand years shall the adulterer have to live in Hell as the number of pores on the bodies of the women with whom he may commit the offence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should &lt;strong&gt;never have sexual congress with a woman that is unknown&lt;/strong&gt; or with one that is quick with child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should always &lt;strong&gt;abstain from sexual congress on days of the full moon and the new moon&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should &lt;strong&gt;never indulge in sexual congress at day-time&lt;/strong&gt;. Nor should one have congress with a maiden, nor with a harlot nor with a barren woman. One should &lt;strong&gt;never have congress with a woman that has not bathed&lt;/strong&gt; after the expiry of her functional period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;one should &lt;strong&gt;never have sexual congress with a forbidden woman&lt;/strong&gt;. Nor should one ever have such congress with the spouse of a king or with women that are the friends of queens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One possessed of wisdom should &lt;strong&gt;never have sexual congress with a woman that is old&lt;/strong&gt;, or one that has abandoned the domestic mode of life for entering the forest mode, or one that is true to her lord, or one whose organs of generation are &lt;strong&gt;not healthy&lt;/strong&gt; or well-formed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-24T10:39:32.530" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16073" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-24T12:08:48.363" Score="3" ViewCount="214" Body="&lt;p&gt;I need to know that, why lord Siva has not taken any avatar like lord Vishnu?&#xA;as I am a devotee of both supreme lords (lord Siva and lord Maha Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If anybody knows the answer , please help me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8290" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-11-26T10:40:20.333" LastActivityDate="2016-11-26T15:12:15.790" Title="Why didn't Shiva take avatars like Maha Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|avatars|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-01-19T05:45:35.540" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16077" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16078" CreationDate="2016-11-24T18:04:42.663" Score="2" ViewCount="28013" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do we know approximately or absolutely how many people participated in the Mahabharata war from Pandava &amp;amp; Kaurava sides respectively?&#xA;Do we know approximately or absolutely how many people died in the Mahabharata war from Pandava &amp;amp; Kaurava sides respectively?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8282" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T20:21:30.463" Title="How many people participated and how many died In the Mahabharata War?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|pandavas|kauravas|war|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16078" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16077" CreationDate="2016-11-24T18:18:15.477" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is dependent on the Definition of Akshauhini, which is a unit invented for ease of calculation/command in battles in old days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Participants in the war&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An Akshauhini is defined as a battle formation consisting of 21,870 chariots (Sanskrit ratha); 21,870 elephants; 65,610 cavalry and 109,350 infantry as per the Mahabharata (Adi Parva 2.15-23).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rishis said, 'We have a desire to know, O son of Suta, what is implied by the term Akshauhini that hath been used by thee. Tell us in full what is the number of horse and foot, chariots and elephants, which compose an Akshauhini for thou art fully informed.'&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sauti said, 'One chariot, one elephant, five foot-soldiers, and three horses form one Patti; three pattis make one Sena-mukha; three sena-mukhas are called a Gulma; three gulmas, a Gana; three ganas, a Vahini; three vahinis together are called a Pritana; three pritanas form a Chamu; three chamus, one Anikini; and an anikini taken ten times forms, as it is styled by those who know, an Akshauhini. O ye best of Brahmanas, arithmeticians have calculated that the number of chariots in an Akshauhini is twenty-one thousand eight hundred and seventy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Calculations&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 chariot, 1 elephant, five foot-soldiers, and three horses = 1 patti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3 Pattis = 1 Sena-Mukha (3 chariots, 3 elephants, 15 infantry, 9 horses)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3 Sena-Mukhas = 1 Gulma (9 chariots, 9 elephants, 45 infantry, 27 horses)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3 Gulmas = 1 Gana (27 chariots, 27 elephants, 135 infantry, 81 horses)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3 Ganas = 1 Vahini (81 chariots, 81 elephants, 405 infantry, 243 horses)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3 Vahinis = 1 Pritana (243 chariots, 243 elephants, 1215 infantry, 729 horses)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3 Pritanas = 1 Chamu (729 chariots, 729 elephants, 3645 infantry, 2187 horses)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3 Chamus = 1 Anikini (2187 chariots, 2187 elephants, 10935 infantry, 6561 horses)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10 Anikini = 1 Akshauhini (21,870 chariots, 21,870 elephants, 109,350 infantry, 65,610 horses)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva (MBH 2.15-23)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Military details&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Pandava Side : 7 Aksauhini    &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05151.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Details of Pandava Army Udyoga Parva(MBh 5.151)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Kaurava Side : 11 Aksauhini   &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06019.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Details of Kaurava Army Bhishma Parva (MBH 6.19)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Total 18 Akshauhini which consists of&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;109,350 * 18 = 1,968,300 Infantry Soldiers&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;65,610 * 18 =  1,180,980 Cavalry Soldiers&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;21,870 * 2 * 18 = 787,320 Chariots (one driver one warrior)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;21,870 * 2 * 18 = 787,320 Elephants (one driver one warrior)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Total = 4,723,920&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Loss of Life in the Battle&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaishampayana said, &amp;quot;Hearing these words of Vasudeva that were disagreeable to her, Gandhari, with heart exceedingly agitated by grief, remained silent. The royal sage Dhritarashtra, however, restraining the grief that arises from folly, enquired of Yudhishthira the just, saying, ‘If, O son of Pandu, thou knowest it, tell me the number of those that have fallen in this battle, as also of those that have escaped with life!’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Yudhishthira answered, ‘&lt;strong&gt;One billion 660 million and 20,000 men have fallen in this battle. Of the heroes that have escaped, the number is 240,165.&lt;/strong&gt;’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yudhishtira's figure&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;1,660,020,000 Martyrs&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;240,165 Alive&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Total = 1,660,260,165 participation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Stri-parva (MBH 11.26)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T20:21:30.463" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16079" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16059" CreationDate="2016-11-25T00:58:53.350" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I agree with @iammilind that the translation of BG 7.11 you cite in your question is a bit misleading and changes the whole meaning or intent of your question. This by no means undermines Prabhupada's translation or purport.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Personally, I liked Shankaracharya's interpretation of the verse from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-7-11/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; the most:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Commentary by Sri Adi Shankaracharya of Advaita Sampradaya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.11 I am the balam, strength, ability, virility; balavatam, of the strong. That strength, again, is kama-raga-vivarjitam, devoid of passion and attachment. Kamah is passion, hankering for things not at hand. Ragah is attachment, fondness for things acquired. I am the strength that is devoid of them and is necessary merely for the maintenance of the body etc., but not that strength of the worldly which causes hankering and attachment. Further, bhutesu, among creatures; I am that &lt;strong&gt;kamah, desire&lt;/strong&gt; -- such desires as for eating, drinking, etc. -- &lt;strong&gt;which are for the mere maintenance of the body and so on&lt;/strong&gt;; which is dharma-aviruddhah, &lt;strong&gt;not contrary to righteousness&lt;/strong&gt;, not opposed to scriptural injunctions; bharatarsabha, O scion of the Bharata dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But I think what he is trying to say is that there exist regulative rules for sex life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You're absolutely right! The verse is not giving anyone license to have unlimited sex with whoever one wants whether one is single or married. But Prabhupada is only partly right to equate &quot;kamah dharma-aviruddhah&quot; to mean chastity alone when it should apply to controlling all forms of desire - eating, advancing your career, increasing your bank balance, sex drive etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to his Divine Grace Swami Prabhupada intercourse is only for procreation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Shankaracharya agrees as well. He used the term &quot;for the mere maintenance of the body&quot; above. So by common sense, masturbation, reading or watching pornography, extra-marital affairs etc. these all excite the senses in wrong ways and are not really required for 'maintenance of the body'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhvacharya also agrees. Commenting on the same verse, he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is primarily the unchecked desires for sensual enjoyments that causes the diminution of piety and morality; &lt;strong&gt;but these desires are not detrimental if they are attuned to sanatana dharma&lt;/strong&gt; or eternal righteousness. The Supreme Lord resides in all desires that are not contrary to sanatana dharma; but &lt;strong&gt;he never resides in any action that is contrary to righteousness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the above interpretation, your title question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Regulative principles for sex life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...now becomes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Regulative principles for life in accordance with sanātana dharma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, questions like this are &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15063/2995&quot;&gt;very tricky to answer&lt;/a&gt; unless you specify the Hindu sect you belong to because different sects of Hindus follow different rules. E.g., eating fish in Bengal is a common practice (see quote below) and if you read Hindu epics like Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata you will find some kings (kṣatriyas) having more than one wife which is no longer an accepted custom now and even the local law doesn't allow it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E.g., according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.brahminpedia.com/2010/03/on-food-habits-of-bengali-brahmins.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; blog:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like I have mentioned earlier most Bengali Brahmins especially those residing in West Bengal are non-vegetarians and fish is a staple diet. In fact, traditionally fish is not considered non-vegetarian by us. After fish, mutton has been the most popular dish - however owing to it's high price, its consumption is low. After mutton, it was duck's egg which used to be a popular egg item.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Assuming you are interested in knowing the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_for_Krishna_Consciousness#Four_regulative_principles&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ISKCON&lt;/a&gt; way of dhārmic life&lt;sup&gt; §&lt;/sup&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://iskconbirmingham.org/how-to-practise-krishna-consciousness-at-home&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here's what&lt;/a&gt; they recommend:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to Practise Krishna Consciousness at Home &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;  » &amp;nbsp; Everyday Life: The Four Regulative Principles&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anyone serious about progressing in Krishna consciousness must try to&#xA;  avoid the following four sinful activities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Eating meat, fish, or eggs. These foods are saturated with the modes of passion and ignorance and therefore cannot be offered to the&#xA;  Lord. &lt;strong&gt;A person who eats these foods participates in a conspiracy of&#xA;  violence against helpless animals&lt;/strong&gt; and thus stops his spiritual&#xA;  progress dead in its tracks.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gambling. Gambling invariably puts one into anxiety and fuels greed, envy, and anger.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The use of intoxicants. Drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, as well as any drinks or foods containing caffeine, cloud the mind, overstimulate the&#xA;  senses, and make it impossible to understand or follow the principles&#xA;  of bhakti-yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Illicit sex. This is sex outside of marriage or sex in marriage for any purpose other than procreation. Sex for pleasure compels one to&#xA;  identify with the body and takes one far from Krishna consciousness.&#xA;  The scriptures teach that sex is the most powerful force binding us to&#xA;  the material world. &lt;strong&gt;Anyone serious about advancing in Krishna&#xA;  consciousness should minimize sex or eliminate it entirely.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are interested in what Hindu gurus of other sects say about what sex means or should mean for a married or unmarried person, read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16071/2995&quot;&gt;my answer&lt;/a&gt; to another question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt; § &lt;/sup&gt; &lt;sub&gt;I don't subscribe to ISCKON, but for completeness I quoted their basic rules. If you don't subscribe to them either, do let me know and I'll update my answer with more &quot;generic&quot; rules.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T01:15:55.700" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16080" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-25T02:56:29.807" Score="4" ViewCount="97" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do manuscripts of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata have footnotes in them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in Rāmāyaṇa at the end of the war, when Hanumān visits Sītā to relay the news of Rāma's victory, she &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga113/yuddhasans113.htm#Verse45&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells&lt;/a&gt; him to spare the lives of Rākṣasi's who'd troubled her earlier, by citing the following story:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अयं व्याघ्रसमीपे तु पुराणो धर्मसंहितः || ६-११३-४४ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ऋक्षेण गीतः श्लोको मे तं निबोध प्लवङ्गम |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Hanuma! There is an old axim possessed of merit, actually &lt;strong&gt;uttered by a bear in the presence of a tiger&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;sup&gt;++&lt;/sup&gt;. Hear it from me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न परः पापमादत्ते परेषां पापकर्मणाम् || ६-११३-४५ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  समयो रक्षितव्यस्तु सन्तश्चारित्रभूषणाः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A superior person does not take into account the sin of those who have committed an offence evil for evil must be carried out at all costs virtuous persons account good conduct as an ornament.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;++&lt;/sup&gt; Formerly a tiger ran in pursuit of a hunter. The latter climbed up a tree. There was bear already preached on a bough of the tree. Making to the foot of the tree, the tiger addressed the following words to the bear: &quot;Look here, both of us are denizens of the forest. The hunter is our common enemy. Therefore, knock him down from the tree.&quot; The bear, however, replied: &quot;Having reached my abode, the hunter has in a way sought asylum with me. I am therefore not going to hurl him down; I would be deviating from my duty if I do so.&quot; Saying so, the bear laid himself down to sleep. The tiger now turned to the hunter and said, &quot;Push the bear down. I shall afford protection to you.&quot; The hunter thereupon pushed the sleeping bear. The bear, however, clutched at another bough and thus escaped from falling down. The tiger now addressed the following appeal to the bear: &quot;The hunter sought to hurl you down and has thus wronged you. Therefore push him down.&quot; Though pressed by the tiger again and again, the bear refused to hurl him down and repeated the above quoted verse in support of his attitude.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that story is not actually part of Rāmāyaṇa. There are no verses. My guess is Sītā just mentally recollects it but only conveys the summary or final message to Hanumān.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So how did the story survive so many centuries without being written down somewhere?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Or is that story also part of some other scripture and that is how it survived the ages?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's how Gorakhpur edition of Rāmāyaṇa also shows the story in footnotes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AvbE8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AvbE8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-11-29T08:20:09.763" LastActivityDate="2016-11-29T08:20:09.763" Title="Do manuscripts of Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata have footnotes in them?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|ramayana|manuscripts|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16081" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20155" CreationDate="2016-11-25T06:14:06.130" Score="10" ViewCount="1898" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whose marriage happened first, Lord Shiva's or Lord Vishnu's? I heard that one of them supported the concept of marriage first. Who?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-08T06:19:49.730" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T11:24:43.157" Title="Whose marriage happened first, Lord Shiva's or Lord Vishnu's?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|marriage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16082" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-25T06:16:40.187" Score="2" ViewCount="42" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavat Gita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14.10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sometimes the mode of passion becomes prominent, defeating the mode of&#xA;  goodness, O son of Bharata. And sometimes the mode of goodness defeats&#xA;  passion, and at other times the mode of ignorance defeats goodness and&#xA;  passion. In this way there is always competition for supremacy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there an exact law according to which these modes of material nature change?&#xA;If so where are they stated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4974" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T06:16:40.187" Title="Law determining changing of modes of material nature" Tags="|gunas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-11-27T11:22:15.453" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16083" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16091" CreationDate="2016-11-25T06:36:19.287" Score="6" ViewCount="1563" Body="&lt;p&gt;How does or How should a Jogi lead his or her live? Bhogi is voracious, rogi lives in travail and yogi is ascetic. Are both 'yogi' and 'jogi' the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-25T16:35:53.620" LastActivityDate="2016-11-26T00:10:52.163" Title="How does a Jogi lead his life? Are &quot;Yogi&quot; and &quot;Jogi&quot; the same?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|bhagavad-gita|yoga|sanyasi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16084" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-25T06:39:16.640" Score="0" ViewCount="51" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does vedas mention the ways for Liberation ? And I mean specifically Vedas but not others as some Puranas, and  texts like Gita (Bhagavadgita) mentioned ways of liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7287" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T06:39:16.640" Title="Mention of Liberation in Vedas" Tags="|vedas|moksha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-11-25T07:11:53.583" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16085" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2220" CreationDate="2016-11-25T07:33:04.120" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would agree with those answers, which suggest following durations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krita Yuga    4800 years&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Treta Yuga    3600 years&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dwapara Yuga  2400 years&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kali Yuga     1200 years&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the scriptural proof from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/itihaas/mahabharat/text-with-translation/vol-viii/chapter-231/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Moksha Dharma Parva&lt;/a&gt; (assuming that it's not interpolated):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I shall, in their order, tell thee the number of years, that are (thus) for different purposes computed differently in respect of the Krita, the Treta, the Dwapara, and the Kali yugas. &lt;strong&gt;Four thousand years&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strike&gt;(of the deities)&lt;/strike&gt; is the duration of the first or Krita age. The morning of that epoch consists of &lt;strong&gt;four hundred years&lt;/strong&gt; and its evening is of &lt;strong&gt;four hundred years&lt;/strong&gt;. As regards the &lt;strong&gt;other yugas&lt;/strong&gt;, the duration of each gradually &lt;strong&gt;decreases by a quarter&lt;/strong&gt; in respect of both the substantive period with the conjoining portion and the conjoining portion itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Krita yuga&lt;/em&gt; is 4000 + 400 + 400 = 4800 years. Other subsequent Yuga-s reduce by quarter, i.e. 1200 (1000 + 100 + 100) years. I have found some issues with Sanskrit translation, but have accepted above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some interesting counter questions to be discussed in this regard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Q-1: &amp;quot;Are these human years or some divine years?&amp;quot;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चत्वार्याहुः सहस्राणि वर्षाणां तत्कृतं युगम्। &lt;br&gt; तस्य तावच्छती संध्या संध्यांशश्च तथाविधः ।।२०।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Four thousand &lt;strike&gt;celestial&lt;/strike&gt; years is the duration of the first or Krita age. The morning of that cycle consists of four hundred years and its evening is of four hundred years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are indeed &lt;strong&gt;human years&lt;/strong&gt;. The above verse (Verse-20 from MahAbhArata book &amp;gt; Volume-8 &amp;gt; Chapter-231 &amp;gt; Page-178), does not show anything related to deity or celestial, even though it's translated such by few people.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Moreover, if we start multiplying according to &amp;quot;deity&amp;quot; years, then it will come up with very unrealistic figures, which are simply unbelievable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Q-2: &amp;quot;Then what's the relation between human year &amp;amp; deity year?&amp;quot;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same source, we can find relation of human years with &lt;em&gt;pitri&lt;/em&gt;-s &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;divine&lt;/em&gt;-s:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sun makes the day and the night for the world of man. The night is for the sleep of all living creatures, and the day is for the doing of action. A month of human beings is equal to a day and night of the Pitris. That division (as regards the Pitris) consists in this: the lighted fortnight (of men) is their day which is for the doing of acts; and the dark fortnight is their night for sleep. &lt;strong&gt;A year (of human beings) is equal to a day and night of the gods&lt;/strong&gt;. The division (as regards the gods) consists in this: the half year for which the sun travels from the vernal to the autumnal equinox is the day of the deities, and the half year for which the sun travels from the latter to the former is their night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the only relation I could find between humans &amp;amp; deities/gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Q-3 &amp;quot;How the Brahman's time is related to humans?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the same source, 12000 years make a Yuga ( = Krita + Treta + DwApara + Kali). Thousand such Yuga-s duration make Brahman's day (i.e. morning, to be specific) and Thousand such Yuga-s duration makes Brahman's night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The learned say that these twelve thousand years constitute what is called a yuga. A thousand such yugas compose a single day of Brahman. The same is the duration of Brahman's night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That means &lt;strong&gt;Brahman's full cycle constitutes 24 million years&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Q-4: &amp;quot;What happens during Brahma's day &amp;amp; night?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The manifestation occurs only during the 1st half of 12 million years. Remaining part is completely void or Moskha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the commencement of Brahman's day the universe begins to start into life. During the period of universal dissolution the Creator sleeps, having recourse to yoga-meditation. When the period of slumber expires, He awakes. That then which is Brahman's day extends for a thousand such yugas. His nights also extends for a thousand similar yugas. They who know this are said to know the day and the night. On the expiry of His night, Brahman, waking up, modifies the indestructible chit by causing it to be overlaid with Avidya. He then causes Consciousness to spring up, whence proceeds Mind which is identical with the Manifest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This has a striking similarity with what Krishna said in Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 8.17, 8.18, 8.19 - Knowing that thousand eras constitute a day of Brahman, [and] thousand eras complete a night, are the people who know day, [and] night. On arrival of day, all manifestations originate from &amp;quot;Unmanifest&amp;quot;; On arrival of night they annihilate into [what is] known as &amp;quot;Unmanifest&amp;quot; only. &lt;strong&gt;This [same] elementary world only happens again &amp;amp; again&lt;/strong&gt;; Annihilates upon arrival of night, [and] originates upon arrival of day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Q-5: &amp;quot;If manifestation happens within 12 million years, then what about dinosaurs?&amp;quot;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dinosaurs happened supposedly before 65 million years before. Even so called &amp;quot;big bang&amp;quot; happened 4.5 billion years ago. And it's difficult to fit them in the 12 million box. This could be the inspiration for those, who come up with superlative figures of each yuga (e.g. 432000 years for Kali).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, this can be explained in following ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dinosaurs &amp;amp; Big bang were dated X million/billion years ago using certain technique. As certain principles change over time, this may also change. May be we don't have full knowledge of dating back.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Assume that the dating is 100% accurate. In such case, we may think of video game analogy. Super Mario is the most famous game in the world. It has multiple stages (i.e. 30+ depending on version). Each stage has its own imagination for animals &amp;amp; plants. However, Mario can be limited within this 30+ stages. If someone digs into the evolution of those animals &amp;amp; plants, then they may really find the duration beyond those 30+ rounds. But in reality, they never evolved like that. Mario, plants, animals, queen &amp;amp; dragon just existed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T23:03:42.353" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16086" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16088" CreationDate="2016-11-25T07:43:51.267" Score="7" ViewCount="466" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any hymn or verse for not having any kind of good/bad dreams? How can one skip dreams or illusion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vishnu sahasra namavali I found one&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om dusvapnanashanay namah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it is not working as expected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-27T04:08:58.153" LastActivityDate="2017-06-27T04:08:58.153" Title="Is there any hymn or verse for not having any kind of good/bad dreams? How can one skip dreams or illusion?" Tags="|shloka|dream|stotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16087" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16089" CreationDate="2016-11-25T07:49:10.637" Score="6" ViewCount="1678" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is sarpa worship and Naga worship different? What are the fruits of Snake worship?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hindu culture it is believed that snake is Pitru. So we should worship it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T04:52:01.753" LastActivityDate="2020-03-09T04:52:01.753" Title="Is sarpa worship and Naga worship different? What are the fruits of Snake worship?" Tags="|worship|naga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16088" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16086" CreationDate="2016-11-25T07:53:33.717" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are few short slokas which supposedly will prevent &lt;strong&gt;bad&lt;/strong&gt; dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Slokas_for_solving_various_problems&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To get rid of bad dreams&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To get the effect of reading Shiva Sahasranama &lt;strong&gt;Sloka 1&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;em&gt;Shivo,&#xA;  Maheswaraschaiva, Rudhro, Vishnu, pithamaha, SAmsara Vaidhya ,&#xA;  Sarvesa, Paramathma SAdashiva.&lt;/em&gt;(to be read 3 times).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is stated that by reciting the above sloka 3 times one can get rid of bad dreams and also that it is equivalent to reading the Shiva Sahasranama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To avoid bad dreams (Chant 3 times before retiring to bed)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka 2&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;em&gt;Achyutham, Kesavam, Vishnum, Harim, SAthyam, Janardhanam,&#xA;  Hamsam Narayanam Krishnam japeth Duswapna SAnthaye.&lt;/em&gt;-He who chants “Achyutha, Kesava, Vishnu, Hari, Sathya and Janardhana,&#xA;  Hamsa, Narayana and Krishna, would make his bad dreams peaceful. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can try  and see if they  work.Also note that these slokas are only for getting rid of bad dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;An update&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recitation of &lt;strong&gt;Durga Saptasati&lt;/strong&gt; is also regarded as capable of removing/preventing bad dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another very simple remedy is that by simply remembering about a &lt;strong&gt;Brahmin named Kukkuta&lt;/strong&gt; who is/was supposed to live in the southern part of Varanasi city, bad dreams will be converted into auspicious ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dusswapna Nashaka is also the recital of Chandi / Durga Sapta Shati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Further it is stated&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;: Vaaranasyaam Dakshiney bhaagey Kukkuto naama bra hmanah, &lt;strong&gt;Tasya Smarana maatreyna Dussapnah Sukhadob havet&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a Brahmana by name Kukkuta in the southern part of&#xA;  Varanaasi whose mere recall of his memory would surely convert all&#xA;  prospective b ad dreams would get converted as propitious dreams!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-02T08:49:35.067" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T08:49:35.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16089" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16087" CreationDate="2016-11-25T09:42:57.557" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Hindu culture it is believed that snake is Pitru&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think that this is true.Kashyapa and his wife Kadru created all the Nagas or Sarpas. And these Nagas are not the same as the Pitrus (Manes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Usually the Panchami Tithis of a month are attributed to the Nagas or serpents. It is on this day the prayers done to them are believed to be the most effective. Hence we have the festival of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Panchami&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Naga Panchami&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whereas, the Amavasyas (no moon days) are dedicated to the Pitrus.On this day we do  Pitru Tarpanams. For example see the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Reverence to Pitrus on Amavasyas and benefits&quot;&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Adulation of Nag Devatas on every Panchami Day&quot;&lt;/a&gt; chapters of the &lt;strong&gt;Varaha Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is sarpa worship and Naga worship different? What are the fruits of Snake worship?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Sarpa_Badha_Nivruthi_Stotram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sarpa Baadha Nivruti Stotram&lt;/a&gt;. Reading which is supposed to make one free from fear or troubles of snakes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.Anantho, vasuki sesha padmanabhascha kambala, Drutharashtra, sankha pala, thakshaka Kaliya sthadha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ananth, Vasuki, Adhi Sesha, Padmanabha, Kambala, Drutharashra,&#xA;  Sankhapala, Thakshaka and Kaliya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.Yethani &lt;strong&gt;nava naamaani nagaanaan&lt;/strong&gt; cha mahathmaanaam, Sayam kale paden nithya, pratha kale viseshatha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These names of nine snakes who are great, should be read daily in the&#xA;  evening and specially in the mornings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As one can  see, in the Stotra &quot;Sarpa&quot; and &quot;Naga&quot; are used synonymously. So, I don't think that &quot;worship of nagas&quot; and &quot;worship of sarpas&quot; are two different things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few more verses from the stotra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Narmadhayai nama, pratha Narmadhatai Namo nis, Namosthu Narmadhe thubhyam thrahi maam visha sarpatha.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Salutations to Narmadha, Salutations to Narmadha in the morning and&#xA;  at night, I salute you Narmadha and pray, &lt;strong&gt;please save me from&#xA;  poisonous serpents.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.Asitham chaarthimandham cha suneedhim chapi ya smareth, Diva vaa yadhi vaa rathrou naasya sarpa bhayam bhaveth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Remembering about Asitha, Arthimandha and Suneethi, In the day time&#xA;  or also night, &lt;strong&gt;there would not be any fear against snakes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus,generally, to remove all kinds of fears and dangers from snakes are the main objectives of a Sarpa Puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further fruits are found in the chapter of the Varaha Purana mentioned above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma advised the serpents as a race to refrain from the areas where&#xA;  herbs, medicinal plants and Kites fly on the Sky which have a powerful&#xA;  eyesight from far off distances. Unfortunately, even the well meaning&#xA;  serpents of non-poisonous type are hunted out and killed by human&#xA;  beings. But those remaining type are venerated &lt;strong&gt;especially girls&#xA;  desirous of marrying good husbands and women craving for children&lt;/strong&gt; by&#xA;  providing milk and eats. Come Naga Panchami, especially in the week&#xA;  following Deepavali celebrations, &lt;strong&gt;women observe fast and refrain from&#xA;  eating sour and milk preparations of food in several parts of Bharat&#xA;  till date.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,marriage for unmarried girls and children for those ladies who don't have one are  also the fruits of a Sarpa Puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T09:46:17.147" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T09:46:17.147" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16090" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-25T10:42:38.750" Score="7" ViewCount="299" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know more about the Kurma avatar of Vishnu. I know that Vishnu took the form of a tortoise to facilitate Samudra Manthana. Although, no other details are known. The Wikipedia &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; is not of much help. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Astrologically, Kurma avatar is associated with Shani Graha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures which go into more details about this Avatar of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those interested, here is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2080/are-there-any-temples-for-matsya-kurma-and-varaha-avatars&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; which talks about the temples of Kurma avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2018-05-28T17:16:44.050" Title="Which scriptures talk about the Kurma avatar of Vishnu?" Tags="|scripture|vishnu|avatars|samudra-manthan|kurma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16091" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16083" CreationDate="2016-11-25T11:29:55.323" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Jogi&lt;/code&gt; is an अपभ्रंश (&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apabhramsha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;apabhramsha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;) of &lt;code&gt;Yogi&lt;/code&gt;. Like, how it's &quot;Jamuna&quot; for &quot;Yamuna&quot;, &quot;Jam&quot; for &quot;Yam&quot;, &quot;Jashoda&quot; for &quot;Yashoda&quot; &amp;amp; &quot;JAdava&quot; for &quot;YAdava&quot;. So both are same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yogi means a person, who is in Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;. Early reference to Yoga in Gita is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.53 -&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  श्रुतिविप्रतिपन्ना ते यदा स्थास्यति निश्चला।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;समाधावचला&lt;/strong&gt; बुद्धिस्तदा &lt;strong&gt;योगमवाप्स्यसि&lt;/strong&gt;।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are diverted (bewildered/mistaken) with &lt;em&gt;Sruti&lt;/em&gt;-s (&lt;em&gt;Veda&lt;/em&gt;-s). Remaining unshakable, when &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;(consciousness) becomes immutable into &lt;em&gt;SamAdhi&lt;/em&gt;(intenseness or union), then you will attain &lt;strong&gt;yoga&lt;/strong&gt; (union).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that, &lt;em&gt;SamAdhi&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt; are kind of synonymous in most of the translations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this, Arjuna asks same question as yours, i.e. &quot;How does Jogi live?&quot;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;(All are from Gambhirananda's translation from below)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.54 -&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्थितप्रज्ञस्य का भाषा &lt;strong&gt;समाधिस्थस्य&lt;/strong&gt; केशव।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्थितधीः किं प्रभाषेत किमासीत व्रजेत किम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Arjuna said O kesava, &lt;strong&gt;what is the description&lt;/strong&gt; of a man of steady wisdom who is Self-absorbed? How does the man of steady wisdom speak? How does he sit? How does he move about?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here goes your answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.55, 2.56, 2.57, 2.58 - The Blessed said O Partha, when one fully &lt;strong&gt;renounces all the desires&lt;/strong&gt; that have entered the mind, and remains &lt;strong&gt;satisfied in the Self&lt;/strong&gt; alone by the Self, then he is called a man of steady wisdom. That monk is called a man of steady wisdom when his &lt;strong&gt;mind is unperturbed in sorrow, he is free from longing for delights&lt;/strong&gt;, and has gone beyond attachment, fear and anger. The wisdom of that person remains established who has &lt;strong&gt;no attachments&lt;/strong&gt; for anything anywhere, who &lt;strong&gt;neither welcomes nor rejects anything whatever good or bad&lt;/strong&gt; when he comes across it.And when this one fully withdraws the senses from the objects of the senses, as a tortoise wholly (withdraws) the limbs, then his wisdom remains established. ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-25T16:36:44.043" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T16:36:44.043" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16092" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9827" CreationDate="2016-11-25T17:04:08.170" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I've heard that the Vedas only talk about three of the four Purusharthas, viz. Dharmam, Arth, and Kam. The fourth Purushartha, Moksha, is said to be added or is made popular or is accepted after the rise of Buddhism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is not true.The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purusha_Sukta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purusha Suktam&lt;/a&gt;(Rig Veda)itself talks about moksha(liberation).Refer to verse no 20 which is given below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vedā̱ham e̱taṁ puru̍ṣaṁ ma̱hāntam̎ | ā̱di̱tya va̍rṇa̱ṁ tama̍sa̱ḥ&#xA;  para̍stāt |&#xA;  I know    this    mighty      Supreme Being   whose   splendour   is  like    the sun,    beyond  the reach   of  darkness.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;tam e̱vaṁ vi̱dvān a̱mṛta̍ i̱ha bha̍vati | nānyaḥ panthā̍&#xA;  vidya̱te’ya̍nāya ||&lt;/strong&gt; He  alone&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;who knows   Him becomes immortal    here,   there   is  no  other   path    to  liberation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Relux.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Relux.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purport of this verse is that without knowing the Supreme Purusha mukti or liberation is not possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-25T17:58:25.830" LastActivityDate="2016-11-25T17:58:25.830" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16094" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16100" CreationDate="2016-11-25T19:01:12.077" Score="10" ViewCount="4330" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most translations I find online, that are comprehensive, for the Bhagavata Purana, are related to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Are there any non-ISKCON related translations?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Theologically, I find this bothersome, because ISKCON presents Krishna as being the Supreme Godhead from whom all the Vedic deities flow (including Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From what I understand, though, the Purana, read in isolation, doesn't present Krishna as being &quot;the God Himself.&quot; Rather it purports that God (Vishnu) has many Avatars, and that in order to spawn these Avatars, God takes form of the Original Person, and that from this Original Person come the 22 named-Avatars (Vyasa, Dattatreya, Krishna et al.). The Purana makes the unique claim that Krishna is &quot;the God Himself.&quot; Meaning that Krishna is Vishnu's full manifestation. The Purana does not claim that Krishna exists in isolation from Vishnu, or that Vishnu comes from Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The relationship is still one-way, from Vishnu comes all the Avatars, and the complete Avatar is Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ISKCON's translation is biased, however, and will therefore consistently translate any texts they find in order to retroactively fit these biases, they will claim that the fourth Yuga-Avatar is in fact &quot;light&quot; or &quot;bright&quot; complexioned (i.e. &quot;golden&quot; complexioned), yet a strict translation of the Purana does not say this. ISKCON's translation: &quot;in the fourth Yuga (Kali Yuga), although the Lord Himself is not black... (akrsnam).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet the actual translation reads:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In his discussion of the yuga-avatara for Kali Yuga, Krsnadasa&#xA;  diverges from Rupa's description of his color as black (krsna), which&#xA;  accords with the description of this avatar in Bhagavata 11.5.32 as&#xA;  &quot;black in color (krsna-varna) though not black (akrsna) by virtue of&#xA;  his luster.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anyway, I still haven't found any comprehensive translations of the Purana not tainted by ISKCON's (seemingly Gaudiya-related) biases.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some translations I have found on the Amazon Kindle store but they are not comprehensive, nor are they word-for-word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taken from here: (&lt;a href=&quot;http://krishnamurti.abundanthope.org/index_htm_files/The-Bhagavata-Purana.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://krishnamurti.abundanthope.org/index_htm_files/The-Bhagavata-Purana.pdf&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8163" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-01-05T08:36:51.570" LastActivityDate="2023-03-23T21:18:16.760" Title="Are there non-ISKCONic translations of the Bhagavata Purana?" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavata-purana|translation-request|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16095" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16094" CreationDate="2016-11-25T20:11:53.343" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shrimad Bhagwad Mahapurana is interpreted by many according to their inherent beliefs and Philosophy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindudharmaforums.com/archive/index.php/t-11639.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Discussion(on Bhagwata purana other than ISKCON version) &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AC Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada is the only English commentator on Bhagwatam, that is why his commentary is all over the Internet and most widely studied English commentary on Shrimad Bhagwatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Neutral Translation/Transliteration&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A beautifully compiled book by Gita Press Gorakhpur publication house in Hindi language, you have to buy &lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapressbookshop.in/books-by-author/maharshi-vedvyas/1-shrimadbhagvat-mahapuran-volume-1-with-hindi-translation.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vol1&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapressbookshop.in/2-shrimadbhagvat-mahapuran-volume-2-with-hindi-translation.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vol2&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Acceptable Transliteration&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavata.org/contents.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; is unbaised with transliteration, but when you will go deeper into the Vedabase AC Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada's translation links you will find out the same ISKCON stuff.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gita-society.com/section3/BhPuran.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Intl' Gita Society &lt;/a&gt; Transliteration (prone to errors because the authors are not professional students) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavatam.in/story/prayers-to-the-different-avataras.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Good one&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit Commentaries&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.chakra.org/announcements_2012/LinksAug16_12.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Compilation&lt;/a&gt; of all possible Vaishnava commentaries(note that Advaita with ishta devta Shriman Narayana(Vishnu) is considered as vaishnava sampradaya)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a Sanskrit commentary on Shrimad Bhagwatam known as Bhagwat-Chandrika by Veraraghavacharya which is based on Vishitadvaita philosophy and is found in the aforementioned Sanskrit compilation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2019-01-05T12:06:50.733" LastActivityDate="2019-01-05T12:06:50.733" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16096" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16083" CreationDate="2016-11-26T00:10:52.163" Score="1" Body="&lt;h3&gt;How should a Yogi (a.k.a Jogi, Yati) lead his live?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TLDR&lt;/strong&gt; (from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;MB 12.240&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Objective&lt;/strong&gt;: Unite intellect, mind, the senses, and the all-pervading soul to obtain the knowledge of foremost kind&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who can take up yoga&lt;/strong&gt;: man or woman belonging to any varṇa (caste) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Residence&lt;/strong&gt;: caves, temples, empty houses or apartments but don't stay too long at any one place; imitate the wind: asangah - unattached to all things&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Disposition to things and other beings&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Show uniform behaviour toward all beings - a Brahmin (learned one), a cow (sacred), a dog (detestable) or an outcaste (who eats dog-meat). [&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=5&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=18&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 5.18&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;React in the same manner if one praises or criticizes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;View with an equal eye: a piece of stone or a lump of gold. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What to do and How to practice&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Restraining all the senses within the heart, one should concentrate on the Eternal and the Indestructible like a man of the world thinks of wealth and other valuable possessions.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One should practise Yoga after dusk, before dawn, and at dawn of day, seated on a mountain summit, or at the foot of a large tree.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Abandon the 5 impediments of Yoga viz., desire (by giving up all purposes), wrath (by tranquillity of disposition), cupidity, fear, and sleep.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What does the word &lt;em&gt;Yogi&lt;/em&gt; mean anyway?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit root word for Yoga or Yogi is Yuj (युज्). Here are some &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/AP90Scan/2014/web/webtc/servepdf.php?page=0894&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;meanings&lt;/a&gt; of Yuj (युज्):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;To join, unite, attach, connect, add; तमर्थमिव भारत्या सुतया &lt;strong&gt;योक्तुमर्हसि&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/KumarasambhavaCantosI-vii-SanskritCommentaryEnglishTranslationNotes/KumarasambhavaCantosI-vii-SanskritCommentaryEnglishTranslationNotes-MrKale1917#page/n248/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ku. 6.79&lt;/a&gt;); रविपीत जला तपात्यये पुनरोघेन हि &lt;strong&gt;युज्यते&lt;/strong&gt; नदी (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/KumarasambhavaCantosI-vii-SanskritCommentaryEnglishTranslationNotes/KumarasambhavaCantosI-vii-SanskritCommentaryEnglishTranslationNotes-MrKale1917#page/n228/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ku 4.44&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;To turn or direct towards; पापान्निवारयति &lt;strong&gt;योजयते&lt;/strong&gt; हिताय (&lt;a href=&quot;http://stotram.lalitaalaalitah.com/2011/11/neeti-shatakam-of-bharthruhari.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bh. 2.72&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;To concentrate one's attention upon; मनः संयम्य मच्चित्तो &lt;strong&gt;युक्त&lt;/strong&gt; आसीत मत्परः (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/13-14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 6.14&lt;/a&gt;); &lt;strong&gt;युञ्जन्नेवं&lt;/strong&gt; सदात्मानं (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=6&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 6.15&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;To be intent on, be absorbed in, be directed towards; दैवकर्मणि &lt;strong&gt;युक्तो&lt;/strong&gt; हि बिभर्तीदं चराचरम् (Manu &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/ManuSmriti_201601/Manu-Smriti#page/n45/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3.75&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And of word &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/AP90Scan/2014/web/webtc/servepdf.php?page=0896&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yoga&lt;/a&gt; (योगः):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Deep and abstract meditation, concentration of the mind, contemplation of &#xA;  the Supreme Spirit, which in Yoga phil. is defined as चित्तवृत्तिनिरोध; सती सती योगविसृष्टदेहा (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/KumarasambhavaCantosI-vii-SanskritCommentaryEnglishTranslationNotes/KumarasambhavaCantosI-vii-SanskritCommentaryEnglishTranslationNotes-MrKale1917#page/n204/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ku. 1.21&lt;/a&gt;); योगेनांते तनुत्यजां (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/raghuvamsaofkali00kliduoft#page/n298/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;R. 1.8&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Vyāsa Explains a Yogi's Objectives and Lifestyle&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Śānti-parva of Mahābhārata, Śuka &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b066.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;asks&lt;/a&gt; his father, Vyāsa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tell me by what means is Brahma to be apprehended?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is it by penance, by Brahmacharya, by renunciation of everything, by intelligence, by the aid of the Sankhya philosophy, or by &lt;strong&gt;Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By what means may what kind of singleness of purpose be attained by men, with respect to both, viz., the mind and the senses?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Vyāsa &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains&lt;/a&gt; the following.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Listen now to me as I expound to thee all that should be done (for the same end) according to the Yoga doctrine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The uniting together of Intellect and Mind, and all the Senses, and the all-pervading Soul is said to be Knowledge of the foremost kind. That Knowledge should be acquired (through the preceptor's aid) by one that is of a tranquil disposition, that has mastered his senses, that is capable (by meditation) of turning his gaze on the Soul, that takes a pleasure in (such) meditation, that is endued with intelligence and pure in acts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should seek to acquire this Knowledge by abandoning those five&#xA;  impediments of Yoga which are known to the wise, viz., desire, wrath,&#xA;  cupidity, fear, and sleep. Wrath is conquered by tranquillity of&#xA;  disposition. Desire is conquered by giving up all purposes. By&#xA;  reflecting with the aid of the understanding upon topics worthy of&#xA;  reflection, one endued with patience succeeds in abandoning sleep. By&#xA;  steady endurance one should restrain one's organs of generation and&#xA;  the stomach (from unworthy or sinful indulgence). One should protect&#xA;  one's hands and feet by (using) one's eyes. One should protect one's&#xA;  eyes and ears by the aid of one's mind, one's mind and speech by one's&#xA;  acts. One should avoid fear by heedfulness, and pride by waiting upon&#xA;  the wise. Subduing procrastination, one should, by these means, subdue&#xA;  these impediments of Yoga. One should pay one's adorations to fire and&#xA;  the Brahmanas, and one should bow one's head to the deities. One&#xA;  should avoid all kinds of inauspicious discourse, and speech that is&#xA;  fraught with malice, and words that are painful to other minds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma is the effulgent seed (of everything). It is, again, the&#xA;  essence of that seed whence is all this. Brahma became the eye, in the&#xA;  form of this mobile and immobile universe, of all entities that took&#xA;  birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meditation, study, gift, truth, modesty, simplicity, forgiveness,&#xA;  purity of body, purity of conduct, subjugation of the senses, these&#xA;  enhance one's energy, which (when enhanced) destroys one's sins.&lt;/strong&gt; By&#xA;  behaving equally towards all creatures and by living in contentment&#xA;  upon what is acquired easily and without effort, one attains to the&#xA;  fruition of all one's objects and succeeds in obtaining knowledge.&#xA;  Cleansed of all sins, endued with energy, abstemious in diet, with&#xA;  senses under complete control, one should, after having subdued both&#xA;  desire and wrath, seek to attain to Brahma, Firmly uniting the senses&#xA;  and the mind (having drawn them away from all external objects) with&#xA;  gaze fixed inwards, one should, in the still hours of evening or in&#xA;  those before dawn, place one's mind upon the knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If even one of the five senses of a human being be kept unrestrained,&#xA;  all his wisdom may be seen to escape through it like water through an&#xA;  unstopped hole at the bottom of a leathern bag. The mind in the first&#xA;  instance should be sought to be restrained by the Yogin after the&#xA;  manner of a fisherman seeking at the outset to render that one among&#xA;  the fish powerless from which there is the greatest danger to his&#xA;  nets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having first subdued the mind, the Yogin should then proceed to subdue&#xA;  his ears, then his eyes, then his tongue, and then his nose. Having&#xA;  restrained these, he should fix them on the mind. &lt;strong&gt;Then withdrawing the&#xA;  mind from all purposes, he should fix it on the knowledge. Indeed,&#xA;  having restrained the five senses, the Yati should fix them on the&#xA;  mind. When these the mind for their sixth become concentrated in the&#xA;  knowledge, and thus concentrated remain steady and untroubled, then&#xA;  Brahma becomes perceptible like a smokeless fire of blazing flames or&#xA;  the Sun of effulgent radiance.&lt;/strong&gt; Indeed, one then beholds in oneself&#xA;  one's soul like lightning fire in the skies. Everything then appears&#xA;  in it and it appears in everything in consequence of its infinitude.&#xA;  Those high-souled Brahmanas that are possessed of wisdom, that are&#xA;  endued with fortitude, that are possessed of high knowledge, and that&#xA;  are engaged in the good of all creatures, succeed in beholding it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Engaged in the observance of austere vows, the Yogin who conducts&#xA;  himself thus for six months, seated by himself on an isolated spot,&#xA;  succeeds in attaining to an equality with the Indestructible.&#xA;  Annihilation, extension, power to present varied aspects in the same&#xA;  person or body, celestial scents, and sounds, and sights, the most&#xA;  agreeable sensations of taste and touch, pleasurable sensations of&#xA;  coolness and warmth, equality with the wind, capability of&#xA;  understanding (by inward light) the meaning of scriptures and every&#xA;  work of genius, companionship of celestial damsels,--acquiring all&#xA;  these by Yoga the Yogin should disregard them and merge them all in&#xA;  the knowledge. Restraining speech and the senses one should practise&#xA;  Yoga during the hours after dusk, the hours before dawn, and at dawn&#xA;  of day, seated on a mountain summit, or at the foot of a goodly tree,&#xA;  or with a tree before him. Restraining all the senses within the&#xA;  heart, one should, with faculties concentrated, think on the Eternal&#xA;  and Indestructible like a man of the world thinking of wealth and&#xA;  other valuable possessions. One should never, while practising Yoga,&#xA;  withdraw one's mind from it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should with devotion betake oneself to those means by which one&#xA;  may succeed in restraining the mind that is very restless. One should&#xA;  never permit oneself to fall away from it. With the senses and the&#xA;  mind withdrawn from everything else, the Yogin (for practice) should&#xA;  betake himself to empty caves of mountains, to temples consecrated to&#xA;  the deities, and to empty houses or apartments, for living there. One&#xA;  should not associate with another in either speech, act, or thought.&#xA;  Disregarding all things, and eating very abstemiously, the Yogin&#xA;  should look with an equal eye upon objects acquired or lost. &lt;strong&gt;He should&#xA;  behave after the same manner towards one that praises and one that&#xA;  censures him. He should not seek the good or the evil of one or the&#xA;  other. He should not rejoice at an acquisition or suffer anxiety when&#xA;  he meets with failure or loss. Of uniform behaviour towards all&#xA;  beings, he should imitate the wind.&lt;/strong&gt; Unto one whose mind is thus turned&#xA;  to itself, who leads a life of purity, and who casts an equal eye upon&#xA;  all things,--indeed, unto one who is ever engaged in Yoga thus for&#xA;  even six months,--Brahma as represented by sound appears very vividly.&#xA;  Beholding all men afflicted with anxiety (on account of earning wealth&#xA;  and comfort), the Yogin should view a clod of earth, a piece of stone,&#xA;  and a lump of gold with an equal eye. Indeed, he should withdraw&#xA;  himself from this path (of earning wealth), cherishing an aversion for&#xA;  it, and never suffer himself to be stupefied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even if a person happens to belong to the inferior order, even if one&#xA;  happens to be a woman, both of them, by following in the track&#xA;  indicated above, will surely attain to the highest end.&lt;/strong&gt; He that has&#xA;  subdued his mind beholds in his own self, by the aid of his own&#xA;  knowledge the Uncreate, Ancient, Undeteriorating, and Eternal&#xA;  Brahma,--That, viz., which can not be attained to except by fixed&#xA;  senses,--That which is subtiler than the most subtile, and grosser&#xA;  than the most gross, and which is Emancipation's self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-11-26T00:10:52.163" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16098" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-26T02:56:49.193" Score="9" ViewCount="893" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10031/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, every Brahmana is a descendant of sages, which is why every Gotra or clan of Brahmins has an associated list of Pravaras, a list of the sages they're descended from. For instance, I am a Brahmin belonging to Vadhula Gotra, and my Pravaras are &quot;Bhargava, Vaitahavya, Savedasa&quot;, which means that I am descended from the sage Savedasa, who is a descendant of the sage Vitahavya (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7122/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), who is a descendant of the sage Bhrigu.  But Brahmanas are not the only ones with Gotra Pravaras; &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=QZhtAAAAQBAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA197&amp;amp;dq=%22I%20SHALL%20now%20tell%20how%20those%20Brahmans%20who%20are%20ignorant%20of%20their%20own%20gotra%20and%20pravara%20are%20to%20take%20the%20pravara%20and%20marriage%20restrictions%20of%20their%20own%20teacher%20(since%20they%20stand%20as%20sons%20to%20their%20teacher).%20As%20there%20is%20doubt%20on%20this%20point%2C%20the%20all-wise%20Apastamba%20and%20the%20rest%20resolve%20the%20doubt%20by%20saying%3A%22&amp;amp;pg=PA195#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Baudhayana Shrauta Sutras say about the Pravaras for Kshatriyas and Vaishyas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kshatriyas have a three-rishi (pravara) &quot;Manava, Aida, Paururavasa&quot; for the Hotri, &quot;like Pururavas, Ida, Manu&quot;, for the Adhvaryu.  &lt;strong&gt;Vaishyas have a three-rishi (pravara) &quot;Bhalandana, Vatsapra, Mankila&quot; for the Hotri, &quot;like Mankila, Vatsapri, Bhalandana&quot; for the Adhvaryus.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Pravaras for Kshatriyas make some measure of sense; you have Vaivasvata Manu, then Vaivasvata Manu's son/daughter Ila, and then Ila's son Pururavas who is the ancestor of lunar dynasty kings.  (Although there is still the issue of how these Pravaras would apply to solar dynasty kings.). But I'm interested in the Pravaras for Vaishyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think Bhalandana and Vatsapri refer to the figures mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/2/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, who were descendants of Vaivasvata Manu's son Dishta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Diṣṭa had a son by the name Nābhāga. &lt;strong&gt;This Nābhāga, who was different from the Nābhāga described later, became a vaiśya by occupational duty. The son of Nābhāga was known as Bhalandana, the son of Bhalandana was Vatsaprīti&lt;/strong&gt;, and his son was Prāṁśu. Prāṁśu’s son was Pramati, Pramati’s son was Khanitra, Khanitra’s son was Cākṣuṣa, and his son was Viviṁśati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, who is the third figure Mankila mentioned in the Gotra  Pravaras for Vaishyas?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it helps, the name Mankila is sometimes spelled as Manktila.  Does anyone know any scriptures that mention a Vaishya named Mankila or Manktila?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: It looks like this Vaishya Rishi may be named Sankila, not Mankila; here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/iWt3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Matsya Purana says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhalandaka, Vashashva, &lt;strong&gt;Sankila&lt;/strong&gt; are the chiefs of the Vaishya clan and are the great Mantrakrits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801406.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/22/items/BrahmandaPurana/BrahmandaPuI_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=BrahmandaPuI_jp2/BrahmandaPuI_0401.jp2&amp;amp;scale=2&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Anusanga Pada of the Brahmanda Purana says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhalandana, Vatsa and &lt;strong&gt;Samkila&lt;/strong&gt; - these three are composers of Mantras and are remembered as the most excellent ones among Vaishyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, using the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I found out that three hymns of the Rig Veda were heard by Vatsapri son of Bhalandana: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv09068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 9 Hymn 68&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10045.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 45&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10046.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 46&lt;/a&gt;.  I haven't found any hymns heard by Bhalandana or Mankila/Sankila though. Finally, I found the stories of Nabhaga, Bhalandana, and Vatsapri in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/RlTm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Markandeya Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2018-04-23T17:20:07.717" Title="Who is the Vaishya Rishi Sankila?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|caste-system|brahmins|ancestry|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16100" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16094" CreationDate="2016-11-26T06:57:05.863" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Check the following translation by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mlbd.com/SearchBook.aspx?search_text=bhagavata%20purana&amp;amp;btnSearch=Go&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Motilal Banarsidass Publishers&lt;/a&gt;. But it doesn't appear to be a word-for-word translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/BhagavataPuranaMotilalEnglish&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://archive.org/details/BhagavataPuranaMotilalEnglish&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you see below the translation of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/BhagavataPuranaMotilalEnglish/Bhagavata%20Purana%20-%20Motilal%20-%20English%20-%20Parts%201%20-%205#page/n5/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;very first verse&lt;/a&gt;, the footnotes list some 7 different commentaries on the verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same tr. is also available for download in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9095/2995&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer (at the end) and also on &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/browse?type=title&amp;amp;sort_by=1&amp;amp;order=ASC&amp;amp;rpp=20&amp;amp;etal=-1&amp;amp;starts_with=bhagavata%20purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;West Bengal Public Library Network&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-11-26T06:57:05.863" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16101" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-26T07:07:36.123" Score="4" ViewCount="506" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhārata Bhāgya Vidhātā (Bangali : Dispenser of the destiny of India) is a five-stanza Bramho hymn in Bengali language &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharot_Bhagyo_Bidhata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong&gt;dedicated to Supreme divine God or Parabrahma who is the dispenser of the destiny of India.&lt;/strong&gt; Also this is the original hymn composed by Rabindranath Tagore for the &lt;strong&gt;national anthem of India,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jana_Gana_Mana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Jana Gana Mana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;This National anthem of India convey us the message of Unity in diversity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the text of National Anthem of India -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जन गण मन अधिनायक जय हे, &lt;strong&gt;भारत भाग्य विधाता।&lt;/strong&gt;  पंजाब सिन्ध गुजरात&#xA;मराठा, द्राविड़ उत्कल बंग  विंध्य हिमाचल यमुना गंगा, उच्छल जलधि तरंग।.&#xA;तव शुभ नामे जागे, तव शुभ आशीष मागे। गाहे तव जयगाथा  जन गण मंगलदायक जय&#xA;हे, भारत भाग्य विधाता। जय हे, जय हे, जय हे, जय जय जय जय हे॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jana gaṅa mana-adhināẏyaka jaya hē &lt;strong&gt;Bhāratabhāgyavidhātā&lt;/strong&gt;! Pañjāba&#xA;Sindhu Gujarāta Marāthā Drāvida Utkala Baṅga Vindhya Himācala Yamunā&#xA;Gaṅgā ucchalajaladhitaraṅga Taba śubha nāmē jāgē, taba śubha āśiṣa&#xA;māgē, Gāhē taba jayaẏagāthā. Jana gaṅaṇamaṅgaladāẏaka jaya hē&#xA;Bhāratabhāgyavidhātā! Jaya hē, jaya hē, jaya hē, jaya jaya jaya jaya&#xA;hē..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is - &lt;strong&gt;Are there any similar Verses ,text, quotes written in ancient Hinduism literature like Vedas , Upanishads ,Puranas ,Stotras etc. Which mentions about unity in diversity of Bharat Varsha of that time  and about  divine God Dispenser of the destiny of India.&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-12-28T05:20:04.823" Title="Unity in Diversity concept in ancient Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|upanishads|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16102" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-26T07:32:42.580" Score="6" ViewCount="13437" Body="&lt;p&gt;Black cloth is usual considered inauspicious and not used especially when visiting a temple. But devotee of Ayyappa  wears black clothes when they visit Sabarimala. Is there any reason for this practice. Does this have any related to Shanni ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastActivityDate="2018-11-08T05:23:23.217" Title="Why do Sabarimala devotees wear Black clothes ?" Tags="|belief|culture|customs|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16103" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16126" CreationDate="2016-11-26T11:18:36.993" Score="6" ViewCount="6768" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/916/does-hinduism-forbid-sexual-intercourse-before-marriage/14388#143880&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, does it mean that premarital sex was non-existent?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is prostitution related to premarital sex? If not then any scriptural references on the same topic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7350" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T22:38:17.750" Title="What's the view of Hinduism on prostitution and premarital sex?" Tags="|scripture|marriage|sex|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2016-11-28T09:23:23.950" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16104" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-26T12:28:40.203" Score="6" ViewCount="1019" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Varahaapuran (adhay 140:)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oLR2J.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oLR2J.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uBie8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uBie8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QaEqu.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QaEqu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;Bhagwan Varaha says - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I live in kokaamukh in the base of the mountain at the intersection of &quot;kokaa river&quot; and &quot;kausiki river&quot; and will be known as Badri&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This intersection is currently locted at Nepal in a place &quot;Varahaachetra.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For Badrikashram:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3dPpN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3dPpN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PVcNu.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PVcNu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/b7MYj.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/b7MYj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Varahapuran adhay 141.1:&lt;/strong&gt; (In hindi) &quot;Usi himalaya parvat par, ek atyant goohaya staan hey, jo devatao ke liye bhi durlabh he. Ise Badarikashrama kahete he&quot; Translation: In the same mountain (upper part of mountain where badri is) lies Badrikashrama. If Badrikasharama lies in the same mountain as Badri then they must both be near each other meaning they are both in Nepal. .What else can be said?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So then, how is it possible that Badrinath is located in india and not in Nepal, when clearly the two rivers mentioned in the shastra/Purana are located in Nepal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note: I do not wish to offend anyone regarding my question. Our current thirthas are as holy regardless of their authenticity and I respect their location. Being a Hindu, I would never disrespect any thirth just because they do not match with shastras. Many thirthas have changed locations and this is why I try to find their original location. Sorry if I have offended anybody.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8302" LastEditorUserId="8302" LastEditDate="2016-12-28T02:29:14.493" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T02:29:14.493" Title="Is Badrinath actually in India?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|temple|varaha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="18" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16106" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16214" CreationDate="2016-11-27T01:17:06.527" Score="9" ViewCount="3046" Body="&lt;p&gt;Islam has the concept of martyrism. Do any Hindu scriptures have a similar concept?&#xA;If not is there anything close?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7350" LastEditorUserId="7350" LastEditDate="2016-12-04T22:22:11.643" LastActivityDate="2023-01-03T14:57:16.587" Title="Martyr concept in Hinduism" Tags="|other-religions|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16107" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-27T03:58:05.697" Score="7" ViewCount="465" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a lot of material on the Internet with vastly varying degree of authenticity and differences of opinions on this topic. Are there any authors, publications that are most reliable/scientific/trustworthy about history after the Mahabharat war up to the part of Indian history that is well researched/generally accepted in more recent centuries after that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chapters within Mahabharat describe some of the post war events, but I am looking for authentic research done on major history/chronology of events that connect the dots between end of Mahabharat war up until the point of already well known/researched/accepted eras of Indian history.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8310" LastEditorUserId="8310" LastEditDate="2016-11-28T21:30:26.010" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T08:48:33.420" Title="Authentic sources of history after the Mahabharat war" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ClosedDate="2016-12-02T07:24:33.003" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16108" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12296" CreationDate="2016-11-27T04:07:11.710" Score="12" Body="&lt;h3&gt;1) Kedarnath:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As discussed in answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14414/what-is-the-story-of-kedarnath-jyotirlinga/14418#14418&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Kedara is name of mountain and when Lord Shiva got established there he came to be known as Kedarnath:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नरनारायणावूचतुः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यदि प्रसन्नेो देवेश ! यदि देयो वरस्त्वया।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्थीयतां स्वेन रूपेण पूजार्थं शङ्कर! स्वयम्।। ६ ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Nara-Nārāyana said, “O Lord of gods, in case you are pleased with us and intend to bestow a boon, then you stay here forever for our adoration.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सूत उवाच&lt;br&gt;&#xA;इत्युक्तस्तु तदा ताभ्यां &lt;strong&gt;केदारे हिमसंश्रये&lt;/strong&gt;।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्वयं च शङ्करस्तस्थौ ज्योतीरूपो महेश्वरः।।७।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sūta said, “When both of them thus spoke, &lt;strong&gt;Shiva got himself established over the snow clad Kedara mountain,&lt;/strong&gt; in Jyotirlinga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence Lord Shiva is called Kedarnath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Omkara:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SataRudriya in 8th Anuvaka states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नमस्ताराय च । [YajurVeda 16.40]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutation to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in the form of Pranava.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Atharvasiras states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथ कस्मादुच्यत ओङ्कारो यस्मादुच्चार्यमाण एव&lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्राणानूर्ध्वमुत्क्रामयति तस्मादुच्यते ओङ्कारः । &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Why  he (Rudra) is called Omkara? Because he sends the souls upward, at the time of dissolution.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Taittariya Aranyaka Yajurveda states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रह्माधिपतिर्ब्रह्मणोऽधिपतिर्ब्रह्मा शिवो मे अस्तु सदाशिवोम् [T.A 10.21]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;the preserver of the Vedas and the one overlord of Hiranyagarbha, be benign to me. I am the &lt;strong&gt;Sadasiva described thus and denoted by Pranava.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also as discussed in answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14264/what-is-the-story-of-omkareshwar-jyotirlinga/14272#14272&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; there is a Jyotirlinga named Omkareshwara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Situated in the banks of River Narmada on the Mandhata (Shivapuri) Island formed in the shape of OM in Sanskrit, Omkareswar is one of the Jyotirlingas besides another Amareswar Linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Lord Shiva is called Omkara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Bhootnath:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhootnath has two meanings one is Lord of all beings and another is Lord of Ghosts.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;SataRudriya hymn of Yajurveda states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो भूतानामधिपतयो [YajurVeda 16.59]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;he who is Adhipati (Lord) of all beings.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9782/what-scriptures-say-that-lord-shiva-sits-in-smashan-cremation-grounds/13890#13890&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Lord Shiva likes Ghosts and is Lord of Ghosts hence called Bhootanath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I do not like, O goddess, to reside anywhere without those ghostly creatures being by my side.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence, the crematorium is a sacred abode to me. Indeed, O auspicious lady, it seems to me to be the very heaven. Highly sacred and possessed of great merit, the crematorium is much applauded by persons desirous of having holy abodes.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Lord Shiva is called Bhootnath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4) Amarnath:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that Lord Shiva told secrets of immortality to Sri Parvati in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarnath_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Amarnath&lt;/a&gt; cave.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Quoting from legends of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarnath_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Amarnath&lt;/a&gt; from Wikipedia:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to a Hindu legend, this is the cave where Shiva explained the secret of life and eternity to his divine consort, Parvati. Two other ice formations represent Parvati and Shiva's son, Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another meaning of Amarnath can be Lord of Immortality. As I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12019/where-does-rig-veda-say-that-shiva-is-the-god-who-grants-moksha/12020#12020&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3563/who-gives-moksha/14374#14374&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Lord Shiva bestows Immortality/Moksha to the devotees and hence can be called Amarnath:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;We worship the Three-eyed Lord who is fragrant and who nourishes and nurtures all beings. As is the ripened cucumber freed from its bondage (to the creeper), may He &lt;strong&gt;liberate us from death for the sake of immortality.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सद्योजातं प्रपद्यामि सद्योजाताय वै नमो नमः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भवे भवे नाति भवे भवस्व मां भवोद्भवाय नमः॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I take refuge in Sadyojata. Verily I salute Sadyojata again and again. O Sadyojata, &lt;strong&gt;do not consign me to repeated birth; lead me beyond birth, into the state of bliss and liberation.&lt;/strong&gt; I bow down to Him who is the source of transmigratory existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence Lord Shiva is called Amarnath.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;5) Bholenath:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bholenath means Lord of the Innocents or The Innocent Lord or Lord who is easily pleased. We can find this attribute of Lord Shiva in various stories:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For eg. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Also as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/88&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Srimad Bhagvatam Lord Shiva gives boon to Vrikasura:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vṛka decided to commit suicide by cutting off his head. Just at the critical moment, Lord Shiva appeared from the sacrificial fire and stopped him, offering the demon whatever boon he chose. &lt;strong&gt;Vṛka said, “May death come to whomever I touch upon the head with my hand.” Lord Shiva was obliged to fulfill this request,&lt;/strong&gt; and at once the wicked Vṛka tried to test the benediction by putting his hand on the lord’s head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As discussed in question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10998/is-it-really-king-chitrabhanu-of-ikshvaku-race-thats-mentioned-in-the-legend-of&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Lord Shiva granted fruit of his worship to a hunter although he was not aware that he was worshipping Maheswara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To pass the time, he engaged himself in plucking the Bael leaves and dropping them down onto the ground.&lt;/strong&gt; The next day he returned home and bought some food for himself and his family. The moment he was about to break his fast a stranger came to him, begging for food. He served the food first to stranger and only ate afterward. At the time of his death, he saw two messengers of Lord Shiva, sent to conduct his soul to the abode of Shiva. &lt;strong&gt;He learnt then for the first time of the great merit he had earned by unconscious worship of Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; during the night of Maha Shivaratri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly as discussed in question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12235/which-scripture-talks-about-the-story-of-kubera-robbing-a-temple-of-shiva&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; there is also this story of Kubera:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another rather more romantic version is that one day &lt;strong&gt;Kubera had gone to rob a temple of Shiva, who is the king of robbers.&lt;/strong&gt; During the robbery Kubera's taper had somehow been blown out. No matter how hard the dwarf tried he could not relight the taper. &lt;strong&gt;Nevertheless, he persisted with his efforts no matter how nefarious they were and, on the tenth attempt, he succeeded. Shiva is a benign god who is often pleased by the most illogical of efforts.&lt;/strong&gt; This perseverance of Kubera's in his attempt to rob the god's temple won him much admiration from Shiva who subsequently granted the dwarf access to the Hindu pantheon of gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence Lord Shiva is called Bholenath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-27T07:34:12.340" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16109" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-27T04:36:58.103" Score="7" ViewCount="1674" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why didn't Kṛṣṇa really prevent the Mahābhārata war from taking place? Was the war really worth it? &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16078/2995&quot;&gt;This answer&lt;/a&gt; says the war resulted in the death of more than a billion soldiers, horses and elephants on both sides. The numbers maybe inflated but what a great calamity! Isn't it the biggest war ever to take place on the face of earth? Why show viśva-rūpa to Arjuna and convince him to raise his Gāṇḍīva against his own cousins but why not show the same viśva-rūpa to everyone in the battlefield and stop the war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oft-cited explanations are: It's all Kṛṣṇa's līlā. Kṛṣṇa wanted to &amp;quot;wipe out the bad kṣatriyas&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;reduce the burden on Earth.&amp;quot; Really? I don't buy it. It's like saying: let's kill all the old people on earth ('burden'), let's kill all the diseased ('burden'), let's bomb the whole building because there's a terrorist hiding in the basement ('lose some to gain some')!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think Gāndhārī asked Kṛṣṇa the same question (in the title); what was his response to her? Was she fully convinced with the answer he gave?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What exactly is Kṛṣṇa's view of hiṁsā or ahiṁsā? When to use hiṁsā and when to use ahiṁsā? Does Kṛṣṇa represent hiṁsā or ahiṁsā? Did Kṛṣṇa classify the Kurukṣetra war as hiṁsā or ahiṁsā?&lt;sup&gt; &lt;strong&gt;§&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;§&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;sub&gt; These days some people call the killing of bin Laden as ahiṁsā (to prevent him from killing from more people)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2021-05-17T17:04:12.720" Title="Why didn't Kṛṣṇa really prevent the Mahābhārata war? Did Kṛṣṇa classify the Kurukṣetra war as hiṁsā or ahiṁsā?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16110" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-27T05:41:36.150" Score="4" ViewCount="2657" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that, after the Mahābhārata war, Yudhiṣṭhira went into depression for having killed so many people. He did not like how the war ended. Then Bhīṣma advised him to conduct a Rājasūya yāga so he could meet new kings, forget the bad memories from the war and start a new life. Some people say that this is the origin of the 10&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; day or 11&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; day ceremony we Hindus perform after the death of a close relative.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-27T07:16:35.550" LastActivityDate="2016-11-29T11:30:41.833" Title="Did the 10th day or 11th day ceremony after the death of a close relative originate due to the Mahābhārata war?" Tags="|mahabharata|death|bhishma|yudhisthira|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16111" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16118" CreationDate="2016-11-27T05:46:32.107" Score="6" ViewCount="267" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who among the Pāṇḍavas were for the main Kurukṣetra war and who were against it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were their reasons for supporting or not-supporting?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about Draupadī? Did she support the war? What were her reasons?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-27T06:58:05.003" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T04:48:29.587" Title="Who among the Pāṇḍavas supported the main Kurukṣetra war and who didn't? What were their reasons?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|draupadi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16112" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-27T06:38:20.163" Score="9" ViewCount="479" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga97/ayodhyasans97.htm#Verse5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt; Rāma's attitude towards his own brothers (or should I call them cousins because technically they were not born to the same mother):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्ममर्थं च कामं च पृथिवीं चापि लक्षण | इच्छामि भवतामर्थे एतत् प्रतिशृणोमि ते || २-९७-५ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भ्रातृइणां संग्रहार्थं च सुखार्थं चापि लक्ष्मण | राज्यमप्यहमिच्छामि सत्येनायुधमालभे || २-९७-६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O, Lakṣmaṇa! It is for your sake I desire virtue, legitimately acquired wealth and pleasure or even the earth itself. I promise this to you. &lt;strong&gt;I desire the throne only for the protection and happiness of my brothers. I touch my weapon and swear this fact.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rāma's above statement stands in direct contradiction of events of Mahābhārata. If Rāma could live without a kingdom, why not the Pāṇḍavas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before entering Ayodhyā after his exile, Rāma sends Hanumān to relay the news of his arrival and also find out if Bharata is willing to let him (Rāma) rule Ayodhyā. Rāma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga125/yuddhasans125.htm#Verse15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;suspects&lt;/a&gt; Bharata might have developed a taste for power and kingdom in which case Rāma thinks of staying back in the forest. That means Rāma really meant his earlier statement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the occurrences there are to be known. All the gestures of Bharata are to be ascertained through the colour of his face, glances and the speech.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whose mind does not turn round, with a kingdom abundantly rich in all coveted enjoyments, teeming with elephants horses and chariots and which is inherited from one's father?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Having been associated with the kingdom for long, if the illustrious Bharata is longing for it himself, let Bharata rule the entire kingdom in one piece.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some really great thoughts by Rāma there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why didn't Yudhiṣṭhira and the other Pāṇḍavas follow in the footsteps of Rāma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why didn't Yudhiṣṭhira, the embodiment of dharma, give up his right to rule the kingdom, to Duryodhana? Yudhiṣṭhira did consider Dhṛtarāṣṭra as his own father. That makes Duryodhana his brother, not cousin. It's not like Duryodhana was looting women or others' kingdoms like Rāvaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to make sense of Yudhiṣṭhira from Mahābhārata for someone who has also read Rāmayana? Should you or should you not fight with your brother over property?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-27T06:54:00.810" LastActivityDate="2017-08-29T11:16:44.650" Title="If Rāma could sacrifice his kingdom to Bharata, why couldn't Yudhiṣṭhira do it for Duryodhana?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|rama|yudhisthira|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16114" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16109" CreationDate="2016-11-27T11:59:52.080" Score="9" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;1a. Why didn't Kṛṣṇa really prevent the Mahābhārata war from taking place?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The perception is wrong. Krishna &amp;amp; PAndava tried their best to prevent the war to happen.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10767/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the premises of Mahabharata was completely one sided, i.e in favour of PAndava-s. The bottom line is that irrespective of Draupadi's insult &amp;amp; other treacheries, Kaurava agreed to return the kingdom after 12 + 1 years of exile. This is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15554/1049&quot;&gt;SabhA parva&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Sakuni then said,--'The old king hath given ye back all your wealth. That is well. ... &lt;strong&gt;On the expiry of the thirteenth year, each is to have his kingdom surrendered by the other.&lt;/strong&gt; O Yudhishthira, with this resolution, play with us&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a clear breach of treaty &amp;amp; trust.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If an employer doesn't pay 1 month salary, then workers go mad. Then just imagine about absolute humiliation in an assembly, worst insult of wife, followed by 13 years of brutal exile. Everyone has a threshold of &quot;How much is too much&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;1b. Was the war really worth it?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Despite all above, PAndava-s were still resilient. After the 13 years of exile, mostly they were so humbled, that &lt;strong&gt;PAndava-s had hardly any interest in attaining the kingdom as before they did.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishtira originally made the offer of just 5 villages (that's too for their own livelihood). I have covered PAndava-s view on war in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16118/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In those times, people were not &quot;jack of all trades&quot; like today. PAndava-s were good with rulership as being brought up in such family and that's what they could do to sustain. Some more quotes from Yudhishtira on his distress, if not given 5 villages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;...Kinsmen and friends and Brahmanas shun a poor man as birds avoid, O Krishna, a tree that beareth neither Rower nor fruits. Even this, O sire, is death to me that kinsmen shun me, as if I were a fallen one like the breath of life quitting 'a dead body. Samvara said that no condition of life could be more distressful than that in which one is always racked by the anxiety caused by the thought--I have no meat for today, what will become of me tomorrow? ... It is said that wealth is the highest virtue, and everything depends on wealth....&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The number of deaths in the war seems inflated. World war 2 is the greatest war with highest calamities. Even if it's otherwise, then also PAndava-s gave way more leniency to Duryodhana compared to Allied countries ignoring treaties broken by Hitler's Germany.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;1c. why not show the same viśva-rūpa to everyone in the battlefield and stop the war?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last nail to coffin from Duryodhana was, attempting to capture Krishna who was a peace-ambassador. Jengiz Khan had ruined a country in middle east when his peace ambassadors were killed.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna did show his universal form in the assembly&lt;/strong&gt; as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05131.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Udyoga Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Krishna said: From delusion, O Suyodhana, thou regardest me to be alone, and it is for this, O thou of little understanding, that thou seekest to make me a captive after vanquishing me by violence. Here, however, are all the Pandavas and all the Vrishnis and Andhakas. Here are all the Adityas, the Rudras, and the Vasus, with all the great Rishis. Saying this Kesava, that slayer of hostile heroes burst out into a loud laughter. And as the high-souled Sauri laughed, &lt;strong&gt;from his body, that resembled a blazing fire, issued myriads of gods, each of lightning effulgence, and not bigger than the thumb. And on his forehead appeared Brahman, and on his breast Rudra. And on his arms appeared the regents of the world, and from his mouth issued Agni, the Adityas, the Sadhyas, the Vasus, the Aswins, the Marutas, with Indra, and the Viswedevas. And myriads of Yakshas, and the Gandharvas, and Rakshasas also,&lt;/strong&gt; of the same measure and form, issued thence. And from his two arms issued Sankarshana and Dhananjaya. And Arjuna stood on his right, bow in hand, and Rama stood on his left, armed with the plough. And behind him stood Bhima, and Yudhishthira, and the two sons of Madri, and before him were all the Andhakas and the Vrishnis with Pradyumna and other chiefs bearing mighty weapons upraised. And on his diverse arms were seen the conch, the discus, the mace, the bow called Saranga, the plough, the javelin, the Nandaka, and every other weapon, all shining with effulgence, and upraised for striking. And from his eyes and nose and ears and every part of his body, issued fierce sparks of fire mixed with smoke. And from the pores of his body issued sparks of fire like unto the rays of the sun. And beholding that awful form of the high-souled Kesava, all the kings closed their eyes with affrighted hearts, except Drona, and Bhishma, and Vidura, endued with great intelligence, greatly blessed Sanjaya, and the Rishis, possessed of wealth of asceticism, for the divine Janardana gave unto them this divine sight on the occasion.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;2. Gāndhārī asked Kṛṣṇa the same question (in the title); what was his response to her?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The curse of GAndhAri &amp;amp; Krishna's initial response is discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9066/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. Besides that,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;The holy one said, ‘Arise, arise, O Gandhari, do not set thy heart on grief! Through thy fault, this vast carnage has taken place! Thy son &lt;strong&gt;Duryodhana was wicked-souled, envious, and exceedingly arrogant. Applauding his wicked acts, thou regardest them to be good.&lt;/strong&gt; Exceedingly cruel, he was the embodiment of hostilities, and disobedient to the injunctions of the old. &lt;strong&gt;Why dost thou wish to ascribe thy own faults to me?&lt;/strong&gt; Dead or lost, the person that grieves for what has already occurred, obtaineth more grief. By indulging in grief, one increases it two-fold.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;3. What exactly is Kṛṣṇa's view of hiṁsā or ahiṁsā? When to use hiṁsā and when to use ahiṁsā? Does Kṛṣṇa represent hiṁsā or ahiṁsā? Did Kṛṣṇa classify the Kurukṣetra war as hiṁsā or ahiṁsā?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10905/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, &quot;Violence&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Himsa&lt;/em&gt;) &amp;amp; &quot;killing&quot; are not 1:1 related. &quot;Violence&quot; is a kind of &quot;violation&quot; of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, while &quot;killing&quot; is merely an act. A criminal being killed by police may not be a violence, however peaceful protesters being shot by police can be termed as violence. With that, the question of MahAbhArata being &lt;em&gt;Himsa&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Ahimsa&lt;/em&gt; becomes moot.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Krishna &amp;amp; many others consider it as a &lt;em&gt;Dharma Yudh&lt;/em&gt;. If we consider Draupadi's understanding of Dharma as correct then, not killing a &quot;killable&quot;, is also a sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Janardana, that sin is incurred in slaying one that deserveth not to be slain. So there is equal sin in not slaying one that deserveth to be slain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Violence is not related only to killing. As we seen above, killing can or cannot be violence. At the same time abusive language is considered as a violence, as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15741/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. The same was believed by Mahatma Gandhi as well, that violence can be done with action, speech and thoughts. In fact, due to twisted meaning of &quot;non-violence&quot;, he also told &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mkgandhi.org/nonviolence/phil8.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;following&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence... I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonor.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna considers &quot;Non-violence&quot; as part of knowledge (&lt;em&gt;gyAna&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 13.8 - Humility, un-pretentiousness, &lt;strong&gt;non-violence&lt;/strong&gt;, for-bearance, sincerity, service of the teacher, cleanliness, steadiness, control of body and organs; ... is spoken of &lt;strong&gt;as knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-11-27T16:09:54.810" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16116" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16103" CreationDate="2016-11-27T14:20:06.280" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism considers prostitutes to be women who are ignorant about dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pingala said, ‘…What women is there that regards that Supreme Soul&#xA;  as her dear Lord, even when he comes near? I am now awake. &lt;strong&gt;I have been&#xA;  roused from the sleep of ignorance.&lt;/strong&gt; I am no longer influenced by&#xA;  desire. Human lovers, who are really the embodied forms of hell, shall&#xA;  no longer deceive me by approaching me lustfully. Evil produces good&#xA;  through the destiny or the acts of a former life. Roused (from the&#xA;  sleep of ignorance), I have cast off all desires for worldly objects.&#xA;  I have acquired a complete mastery over my senses. One freed from&#xA;  desire and hope sleeps in felicity.Freedom from every hope and desire&#xA;  is felicity. Having driven off desire and hope, Pingala sleeps in&#xA;  felicity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CLXXV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism does not support premarital sex.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharma, understood as the Supreme Good of man, can never have wealth&#xA;  as its reward. Nor has wealth, understood as an aid to the achievement&#xA;  of Dharma, been conceived as an aid for the attainment of kama (sexual&#xA;  desire). &lt;strong&gt;Kama in its turn is not a call to indulgence in sexual&#xA;  pleasures, but a mere inducement implanted by the Creator to make life&#xA;  unbroken.&lt;/strong&gt; And as for life, it has the quest of the Supreme Truth as&#xA;  its end – not certainly Karma (i.e. performance of rituals and social&#xA;  duties) for the attainment of wealth (prosperity here and heaven&#xA;  hereafter).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana I.2.9-10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2016-11-27T14:26:25.813" LastActivityDate="2016-11-27T14:26:25.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16117" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8790" CreationDate="2016-11-27T14:28:55.017" Score="5" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;**Are there any other references which indicate Bhagavata Purana is the foremost?**&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is  given in ShreemadBhagvatam itself in it's Glory (Mahatmya Part) &#xA;The story is of Bhakti Devi and Gyan-Vairagya both became unconscious due to kaliyuga.And Narada finding solution to awake them.Then sanakadik muni told Narada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वेदोपनिषदां साराज्जाता&lt;/strong&gt; भागवती कथा । &lt;br&gt;    अत्युत्तमो ततो भाति पृथ्गभूता फलाकृति:।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VedoPnishadaam SarraJaata Bhagvati Katha  Attyuttamo Tatou Bhati&#xA;  PrugBhuta PhalaKruti &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - Bhagvat Katha arose from &lt;strong&gt;essence of &quot;Vedas &amp;amp; Upanishadas&quot;&#xA;  ,&lt;/strong&gt; but it gives it's separate returns.So it became &lt;strong&gt;more fine&lt;/strong&gt; than&#xA;  these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इदं भागवतं नाम पुराणं &lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्मसम्मितम&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;br&gt;  भक्तिज्ञानविरागाणं&#xA;  स्थापनाय प्रकाशितम।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Idam Bhagvatam Puranam BrahmaSammitam BhaktiGyanViragaaNam&#xA;  Sthaapanaaya Prakaashitam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - &lt;strong&gt;This Bhagvat purana is compatible wirh Vedas&lt;/strong&gt; Shree Vyasa&#xA;  Maharshi published this for  establishment of &quot;Bhakti , Gyan &amp;amp;&#xA;  &quot;Vairagaya&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Its said that supreme lord (Bhagvanta) established himself in ShreeMadBhagvatam.As to minimize the ill effects of Kaliyuga.So according to some beliefs Supreme Lord Resides in this purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वकीयं यद्भवेत्तेजस्तच्च भगवतेs दधात । &lt;br&gt;  तिरोधाय&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;प्राविष्ठोsयं&lt;/strong&gt; श्रीमदभगवद्भातार्णवम ।।61।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swakiyam YadbhakVettejaStachha Bhagvate Dhadhaat  TiroDhaaya&#xA;  Pravishoyam ShreeMadBhagvtaRnavam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - And then Bhagavanta poured his Power**(Teja)** in Shreemad&#xA;  Bhagvatam &amp;amp; he disappeared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also its said that Thousand's of Ashwamedha &amp;amp; Hundreds of Vajapeys yagna even  can't compit ShreemadBhagvat Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अश्वमेधसहस्राणि वाजपेयशतानि च । &lt;br&gt;  शुकशास्त्र कथायाश्र्च कलां&#xA;  नार्हंति षोडशीम् ।।30।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AshwamedhaSahasraani VajapeyaShataani cha  Shukashastra&#xA;  kathaaYaashrchaKalaam Narhati ShodaShim&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - &lt;strong&gt;Thousands of Ashwamedha Yagna and Hundred's of Vajapeya&#xA;  yagna's&lt;/strong&gt; cant even compit with 16 th part of this purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shree Shuka said - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्रीमद्भागवतं पुरांतिलकं - ShreeMad Bhagvat is formost of all Puranas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्षेत्राणां चैव सर्वेषां यथा काशी ह्यानुत्तमा .। &lt;br&gt;  तथा&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;पुराणव्रातानां श्रीमद्भागवतं द्विजा:&lt;/strong&gt; ।।17।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - As &lt;strong&gt;Ganga&lt;/strong&gt; is formost in the Rivers , Kashi (Prayaga) among Tirthas &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; is&#xA;  formost  in Devatas , And &lt;strong&gt;Shree Shankar Mahadeva&lt;/strong&gt; is formost in&#xA;  Vaishnavas , is this purana &lt;strong&gt;among all the puranas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So from above shlokas we can see why  its considered as formost of puranas.And as said by Sai its one of the Sattivik puranas also.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-27T17:03:15.097" LastActivityDate="2016-11-27T17:03:15.097" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16118" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16111" CreationDate="2016-11-27T16:00:14.763" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;When DhritarAshtra denied the kingdom to PAndava due to insistence of Duryodhana, majorly they still remained hopeful for peace negotiation. They did lower down their requirements, from full Indraprastha to just 5 villages/towns. Here is the summary from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05072.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Udyoga Parva&lt;/a&gt; of their views, before Krishna went for peace talks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Yudhishtira -- Peace&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Yudhishthira said, &amp;quot;... moved by avarice and a sinful heart, Dhritarashtra seeketh to make peace with us without giving us back our kingdom. Indeed, at Dhritarashtra's command we spent twelve years in the woods and one additional year in concealment, well-believing, O lord, that Dhritarashtra would abide firmly by that pledge of ours. That we did not deviate from our promise is well-known to the Brahmanas who were with us. The covetous king Dhritarashtra, is now unwilling to observe Kshatriya virtues. What can be more sorrowful, O Janardana, than this, that I am unable to maintain my mother and my friends? ... &lt;strong&gt;we said, five villages or towns, O sire, where we five may dwell in union, for we do not desire the destruction of the Bharatas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Bhima -- Peace&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Bhima, who was an arch nemesis of Duryodhana, also got polite; very unusual to his personality. Later Krishna laughs off, seeing him in such state &amp;amp; awakens his real self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Bhima said, 'Speak thou, O slayer of Madhu, in such a strain that there may be peace with the Kurus. &lt;strong&gt;Do not threaten them with war.&lt;/strong&gt; Resenting everything, his wrath always excited, hostile to his own good and arrogant, &lt;strong&gt;Duryodhana should not be roughly addressed. Do thou behave towards him with mildness&lt;/strong&gt;... O Krishna, let the aged Grandsire and the other counsellors of the Kurus be asked to &lt;strong&gt;bring about brotherly feelings&lt;/strong&gt; between brothers and to pacify the son of Dhritarashtra. Even this is what I say. King Yudhishthira also approveth of this, and &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna too is averse to war,&lt;/strong&gt; for there is great compassion in him.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Arjuna -- Peace&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna also sensed that Krishna is unable to foresee any peace with Kuru-s. Hence Arjuna's tone was more explanatory from Krishna's POV. His primary opinion was peace, but he was also OK, if Krishna wanted war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Arjuna said, 'O Janardana, Yudhishthira hath already said what should be said. But, O chastiser of foes, hearing what thou hast said, it seemeth to me that thou, O lord, does not think peace to be easily obtainable either in consequence of Dhritarashtra's covetousness or from our present weakness. Thou thinkest also that human prowess alone is fruitless, and also that without putting forth one's prowess one's purposes cannot be achieved. &lt;strong&gt;What thou hast said may be true, but at the same time it may not always be true.&lt;/strong&gt; Nothing, however, should be regarded as impracticable. It is true, peace seemeth to thee to be impossible in consequence of our distressful condition, yet they are still acting against us without reaping the fruits of their acts. &lt;strong&gt;Peace, therefore, if properly proposed, O lord, may be concluded. O Krishna, strive thou, therefore, to bring about peace with the foe... Whether it be peace or war with the foe that thou wishest&lt;/strong&gt;, any wish, O Krishna, that thon mayest entertain, will certainly be honoured by us.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact, Arjuna remained double minded, until the first day of the actual war itself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 1.36-1.39, 1.45, 2.6 - O Janardana, what happiness shall we derive by killing the sons of Dhrtarastra? Sin alone will accrue to us by killing these felons. Therefore, it is not proper for us to kill the sons of Dhrtarastra who are our own relatives. For, O Madhava, how can we be happy by killing our kinsmen? O Janardana, although these people, whose hearts have become perverted by greed, do not see the evil arising from destroying the family and sin in hostility towards, friends, yet how can we who clearly see the evil arising from destroying the family remain unaware of (the need of) abstaining from this sin? Better for me if the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, weapons in hand, were to kill me unarmed and unresisting on the battleﬁeld. We do not know this as well as to which is the better for us, (and) whether we shall win, or whether they shall conquer us. Those very sons of Dhrtarastra, by killing whom we do not wish to live, stand in confrontation.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4 Nakula -- Neutral&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He rather left the ball in Krishna's court. Either war or peace, he was ok with both the scenario practically.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Nakula said, .. As regards my own opinion, O hero, thou hast repeatedly expressed it, Hearing first what the wishes of the enemy are and disregarding all, &lt;strong&gt;do what thou regardest to be proper for the occasion.&lt;/strong&gt; ... Persons, therefore, in this world, O foremost of men, cannot stick to the same opinion throughout. While we were living in the woods, our hearts were inclined towards a particular course of action. While we were passing the period of concealment, our wishes were of one kind, ... &lt;strong&gt;while we wandered in the woods, attachment for the kingdom was not so great as now.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5. Sahadeva -- War&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to him, Krishna should stick to his original plan of &amp;quot;provocation&amp;quot; disguised as &amp;quot;peace maker&amp;quot;. The war must happen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Sahadeva said, 'What hath been said by the king is, indeed, eternal virtue, but thou, O chastiser of foes, &lt;strong&gt;shouldst act, in such a way that war may certainly happen. Even if the Kauravas express their desire for peace with the Pandavas, still, O thou of Dasarha's race, provoke thou a war with them.&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6. Draupadi -- War&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Draupadi seconded with Sahadeva &amp;amp; wanted the revenge for her personal insult.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Drupada's daughter Krishna, of long black tresses, afflicted with great grief, &lt;strong&gt;applauding Sahadeva&lt;/strong&gt; ... When they are no longer amenable to this arts of conciliation, it is not proper, O slayer of Madhu, that &lt;strong&gt;thou shouldst show them mercy&lt;/strong&gt; ... O Janardana, that sin is incurred in slaying one that deserveth not to be slain. So &lt;strong&gt;there is equal sin in not slaying one that deserveth to be slain&lt;/strong&gt;. ... if thou hast any compassion for me, &lt;strong&gt;let thy wrath, O Krishna, be directed towards the sons of Dhritarashtra.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7. Krishna -- War&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna's peace treaties were actually covering an intent of provocation to Duryodhana and making the other kings aware about the injustice happening. This was also noted in BR Chopara episode. The main objective of being &amp;quot;peace ambassador&amp;quot; was to show the world, that 'we are not the one who are asking for the war.'&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;According to Krishna, Duryodhana must be isolated by everyone, after seeing all his wrongdoings. Those supporting him, also deserve deaths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Krishna to Yudhisthira -- ... upon being censured by all the kings of the earth, he felt no shame! He whose character is so abominable may easily be destroyed even like a rootless tree standing erect on a single weak root. The sinful and evil-minded &lt;strong&gt;Duryodhana deserveth death at the hands of every one,&lt;/strong&gt; even like a serpent. ... And hearing me speak beneficial words, pregnant with virtue and profit, the &lt;strong&gt;rulers of various realms will regard thee as possessed of a virtuous soul&lt;/strong&gt;, and as a speaker of truth, while at the same time, they will understand how Duryodhana is actuated by avarice. &lt;strong&gt;I will also tell the vice of Duryodhana,&lt;/strong&gt;  ... And as thou askest for peace no one will charge thee sinful, while all the chiefs of the earth will censure the Kurus and Dhritarashtra; and when Duryodhana will be dead in consequence of his being forsaken by all men, there will be nothing left to do. Do then what should now be done. Going unto the Kurus, &lt;strong&gt;I shall strive to make peace without sacrificing thy interests, and marking their inclination for war and all their proceedings, I will soon come back,&lt;/strong&gt; O Bharata, for thy victory. I think &lt;strong&gt;war with the enemy to be certain.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Krishna to Draupadi -- Soon wilt thou, O Krishna, behold &lt;strong&gt;the ladies of Bharata's race weep as thou dost&lt;/strong&gt;. Even they, O timid one, will weep like thee, their kinsmen and friends being slain. They with whom, O lady, thou art angry, have their kinsmen and warriors already slain. With Bhima and Arjuna and the twins, at Yudhishthira's command, and agreeably to fate, and what hath been ordained by the Ordainer, I will accomplish all this. &lt;strong&gt;Their hour having arrived&lt;/strong&gt;, the sons of Dhritarashtra, if they do not listen to my words, will surely lie down on the earth turned as morsels of dogs and jackals.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8. Karna -- War&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For completeness, Karna was also [morally] a PAndava, though [biologically] he was a &lt;em&gt;Kaunteya&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;After showing the universal form in assembly of Kaurava, Krishna chose to meet Karna &amp;amp; convince him to fight in side of PAndava-s for the sake of his blood relationship with them.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Even though, Karna may not be pro-war, he was obliged to fight for Duryodhana, as discussed in below post:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14173/1049&quot;&gt;Why did Karna choose not to fight on the side of the Dharma?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T04:48:29.587" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16119" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-27T16:08:11.240" Score="2" ViewCount="452" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is what shastras/Purana's say about the Jamuna river-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shrimad Bhagwat Mahapuran&lt;/strong&gt;, Pancham Skandha , Chapter 16, shlok 16-21:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sPK7B.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sPK7B.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;In Mandarachal, A mango fell from a mango tree into a river changing the river's colour to yellow. Because of this, the river was called &quot;Arun&quot;. On the downside of the river there was a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygium_cumini&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Syzygium cumini&lt;/a&gt; tree where one syzygium cumini fell and changed the colour of the river to black, again changing the name of the river to Jambu river (Also known as Jamuna)&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also written in Garga Samhita, Visvajita khanda, Chapter 43, Shlok 4-5:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JoVgq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JoVgq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Because a Syzygium cumini fell on Jambunada, it was known as Aruna.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This proves that Jambunada and Aruna river are the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &quot;Padmapurana&quot;, Swargakhanda, Chapter 38, Shlok 65:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GnuqU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GnuqU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;The above picture translates to&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Kausiki (Koshi) river intersects with Aruna&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This intersection is in Nepal close to &quot;Varahachetra&quot; (eastern Nepal) where Jamuna river intersects with Kausiki. If this is the case, then how is it possible that Jamuna is in india? &lt;strong&gt;Which one is the real Jamuna?&lt;/strong&gt; the one that the shastras/Puranas say or the one that is in Northern India?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note: I do not wish to offend anyone regarding my question. Our current thirthas are as holy regardless of their authenticity and I respect their location. Being a Hindu, I would never disrespect any thirth just because they do not match with shastras. Many thirthas have changed locations and this is why I try to find their original location. Sorry if I have offended anybody.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8302" LastEditorUserId="8302" LastEditDate="2016-12-08T12:42:41.727" LastActivityDate="2016-12-08T12:42:41.727" Title="How can Jamuna river be in India when shastras say otherwise?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|rivers|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16120" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-27T17:15:30.377" Score="1" ViewCount="84" Body="&lt;p&gt;Relationship between husband &amp;amp; wife relies on trust.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Does Hinduism permit anyone of them (husband or wife), &lt;strong&gt;to hide things&lt;/strong&gt; in any situation? (e.g. if speaking &quot;truth&quot; is detrimental/damaging)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4930" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2016-11-28T08:26:50.043" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T08:26:50.043" Title="What is the view of Hinduism on &quot;speaking lie&quot; or &quot;hiding things&quot; among spouses?" Tags="|belief|dharma|marriage|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-11-28T10:22:46.400" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16121" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16053" CreationDate="2016-11-27T18:09:47.957" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;In order to understand similarities and difference in four Vedas, I think it is necessary/recommended to know why and how Veda is divided into four Vedas. Following answer will help you to know &amp;amp; understand it according to the relation of Veda and Yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Teaching and studying Vedas are not simple task even during the end of Dwapara Yuga. Considering the &lt;em&gt;incapability&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;short life-period&lt;/em&gt; of man, Sri Krishna Dvaipayana Vedavyasa divided Veda into 4 parts &lt;strong&gt;according to the usage of Veda in Yajna(यज्ञ)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;§&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; which are known as Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharva Veda today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The prime goal of Veda is to give spiritual knowledge so-that one can understand the cause for bondage of Samsara and can attain liberation from it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is both topics/subjects i.e., &lt;strong&gt;Karmakanda(कर्मकाण्ड)&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Jnanakanda(ज्ञानकाण्ड)&lt;/strong&gt; represented comprehensively/overall in Veda. Karmakanda is the preliminary part of Veda which is bigger/more comparatively to Jnanakanda. There is an comprehensive interpretation/discussion of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/vidhi%E1%B8%A5/28779/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vidhi&lt;/a&gt;-&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/ni%E1%B9%A3edha%E1%B8%A5/18767/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nishedh&lt;/a&gt; etc. in karmakanda part. There is prime use of this Karmakanda part in Yajnanushthan (Yajna-ritual/rite/ceremony). One who has rights of doing Yajna from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/yajam%C4%81na/26032/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajmana&lt;/a&gt; is called Ritvij(ऋत्विज ) or Ritvik(ऋत्विक) i.e sacrificer. There are four class/groups/types of Ritvij which are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/hot%E1%B9%9B/283661/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hotru&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/adhvaryu/5701/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhvaryu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/udg%C4%81t%E1%B9%9B/37617/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Udgatru&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/brahman/159521/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above mentioned 4 types/class of Rutvij accomplish whole Yajna doing their tasks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the collection/compilation as per the use of mantra for above mentioned four group/class, Veda become four as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rigveda - Collection of mantras useful for Hotru. There are majority &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%8B%E0%A4%9A%E0%A5%8D#Sanskrit&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rik&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/padya/126311/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padya&lt;/a&gt; types of mantras. Many of its verses are found in other Veda. Sama Veda has majority of its mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yajurveda - Collection of mantras useful for Adhvaryu. There are majority &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/gadya/69850/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gadya&lt;/a&gt; types of mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sama Veda - Collection of mantras useful for Udgatru. There is only specific mantras of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/g%C4%81yana/71630/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gaayan&lt;/a&gt; type. Majority of these mantras are available from Rig Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda - Collection of mantras useful for Brahman. The job/task of Brahman class is to observe and supervise work of Yajna, to give instructions/indications periodically, to atonement in case any mistake done by Rutvij or Yajman and to overcome/remove any fault in Yajna. The naming of Atharva is according to predicable theme of it and also according to Atharva Rishi as this Veda is mostly disseminated by him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the mantras are found in two or three Vedas uniformly. The reason for this is that the division of Veda is done according to usefulness of mantra for Rutvij for Yajnanushthan. Thus the presence of same mantra in other Veda in different occasion for the different class of Rutvij is natural, even though the same mantra is found in other Veda in another occasion for another Rutvij.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference/Source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95_%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%99%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%AF_%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BE_%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%AF_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%AA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;वैदिक वाङ्मय का शास्त्रीय स्वरूप&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;§ According to Madhusudan Sarasvati - &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_major_works/prasthAnabheda.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prasthana Bheda&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सः च प्रयोगत्रयेण यज्ञनिर्वाहार्थमृग्यजुःसामभेदेन&#xA;  भिन्नः । तत्र होत्रप्रयोग ऋग्वेदेन, आध्वर्यवप्रयोगो&#xA;  यजुर्वेदेन, औद्गात्रप्रयोगः सामवेदेन, ब्राह्मयाजमानप्रयोगौ&#xA;  त्वत्रैवान्तर्भूतौ । अथर्ववेदस्तु यज्ञानुपयुक्तः&#xA;  शान्तिपौष्टिकाभिचारादिकर्मप्रतिपादकत्वेनात्यन्तविलक्षण एव । एवं&#xA;  प्रवचनभेदात्प्रतिवेदं भिन्ना भूयस्यः शाखाः । एवं च कर्मकाण्डे&#xA;  व्यापारभेदेऽपि सर्वासां वेदशाखानामेकरूपत्वमेव ब्रह्मकाण्डे ।&#xA;  इति चतुर्णां वेदानां प्रयोजनभेदेन भेद उक्तः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Vedas are different for three kinds of application as Rg, yajus and&#xA;  sAma, for the purpose of performance of sacrifices.&lt;/strong&gt; The hota uses Rgveda,&#xA;  the adhvaryu yajurveda and the udgAta sAmaveda. The brahmA and the&#xA;  yajamAna also use the same Vedas. The atharvaveda is not used in&#xA;  yajnas. It is quite different, since it deals with the performance of shanti, pouShTika, abhicAra and other such karma. Each veda has many different&#xA;  branches with differences in the texts. Thus, though in karmakANDa, there&#xA;  are different applications, in brahmakANDa all the branches of the Vedas&#xA;  are of the same nature. &lt;strong&gt;Thus the differences among the four Vedas due to&#xA;  different purposes have been stated.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-11-04T12:43:17.713" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T12:43:17.713" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16122" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-27T22:46:54.263" Score="8" ViewCount="357" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Jyotisha-Shastra  have elaborate methods to predict death? If so, what is the method? I read in &quot;Jaimini sutra&quot; pertaining to astrology that there is a predictive method for death, but the method is unclear. Also, I do not understand whether it is credible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8021" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-28T01:13:19.060" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T01:13:19.060" Title="Jyotisha-Shastra and prediction about death?" Tags="|astrology|death|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16123" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-27T23:50:05.990" Score="9" ViewCount="1084" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which verses of the Sama Veda are unique to itself and are NOT taken from the Rig Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Different websites say different amounts of verses are exclusive, but they all say less than 100.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8316" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-11-29T08:13:51.997" LastActivityDate="2022-04-25T23:01:24.047" Title="Which verses of the Sama Veda are not taken from the Rig Veda?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|rig-veda|sama-veda|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16124" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3848" CreationDate="2016-11-28T04:36:35.457" Score="7" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Is lying adharma? What do Kṛṣṇa and others say about it?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lying by itself is not adharma. The intent behind the lie is important in determining whether it's dharma or adharma. In a life-threatening situation to protect oneself, one can lie or just remain silent (i.e., not speak the truth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Karṇa Parva of the Mahābhārata, Kṛṣṇa, speaking on truth, dharma, keeping one's vows etc., &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;narrates&lt;/a&gt; the following story to Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There lived an ascetic by the name Kauśika who's taken a vow to always speak the truth (no matter what). He quickly became famous due to that fact. One day, a group of people, being chased by robbers, ran from the front of his house into the woods. When robbers inquired the whereabouts of those people, Kauśika being very truthful, points them exactly which way the people went. The robbers then proceed in that direction, search out all those people and end up robbing and killing them. Since Kauśika was partly responsible for the death of the innocent people at the hands of cruel robbers, he goes to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In consequence of that great sin consisting in the words spoken, Kauśika, ignorant of the subtilities of morality, fell into a grievous hell, &lt;strong&gt;even as a foolish man, of little knowledge, and unacquainted with the distinctions of morality, falleth into painful hell by not having asked persons of age for the solution of his doubts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other examples like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15493/2995&quot;&gt;Yudhiṣṭhira lying&lt;/a&gt; in the battlefield to deceive Droṇa who seemed invincible when he was launching an array of weapons on the Pāṇḍava army.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in Śānti-parva, responding to Yudhiṣṭhira's query: &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;How should a person, who wishes to follow virtue, act?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;, Bhīṣma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/itihaas/mahabharat/text-with-translation/vol-vii/chapter-109/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यस्मिन्यथा वर्तते यो मनुष्य: स्तस्मिंस्तथा वर्तितव्यं स धर्मः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;मायाचारो मायया वर्तितव्य; साध्वाचार साधुना प्रत्युदय ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yasmin yathā vartate yo manuṣyas; tasmiṃs tathā vartitavyaṃ sa dharmaḥ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;māyācāro māyayā vartitavyaḥ; sādhvācāraḥ sādhunā pratyudeyaḥ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should treat another as the latter does to him. &lt;strong&gt;A deceitful person should be thwarted with deceit, while an honest man should be treated with honesty.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Rāmāyaṇa too there's an instance where Rāma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga40/ayodhyasans40.htm#Verse46&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;tells&lt;/a&gt; Daśaratha's minister Sumantra to lie should the king question him later why he'd ignored his order to stop the chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daśaratha exclaimed saying &amp;quot;Stop!&amp;quot; while Rāma called out &amp;quot;Go on, proceed!&amp;quot; (in that way) Sumantra's mind became confused, as in between two (opposing) whirl pools.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rāma said to him: &amp;quot;You can say to the king that you did not hear (his call), even when scolded (later). Seeing their grief for a long time is quite unbearable.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the above examples suggest that it's alright to lie &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sometimes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; to fulfill a bigger, &lt;em&gt;dhārmic&lt;/em&gt; objective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the majority of time, one should follow dharma and satya. Manu defines the ten characteristics of dharma as follows. Truth (satya) is also one of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;धृतिः क्षमा दमोऽस्तेयं शौचमिन्द्रियनिग्रहः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;धीर्विद्या &lt;strong&gt;सत्यम&lt;/strong&gt;क्रोधो दशकं धर्मलक्षणम् ॥ ९२ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;dhṛtiḥ kṣamā damo'steyaṃ śaucamindriyanigrahaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;dhīrvidyā &lt;strong&gt;satya&lt;/strong&gt;makrodho daśakaṃ dharmalakṣaṇam || 92 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) Steadiness (2) Forgiveness, (3) Self-control, (4) Abstention from unrighteous appropriation, (5) Purity, (6) Control of the Sense-organs, (7) Discrimination, (8) Knowledge, (9) &lt;strong&gt;Truthfulness&lt;/strong&gt;, and (10) Absence of anger,—these are the ten-fold forms of duty. — [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200653.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu-smṛti 6.92&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taittirīya Upaniṣad (1.11) also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79789.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सत्यं वद । धर्मं चर ॥ २ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;satyaṃ vada | dharmaṃ cara || 2 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.&#xA;Speak the true. Follow Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T04:00:26.763" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16126" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16103" CreationDate="2016-11-28T06:27:07.587" Score="8" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;... does it mean that premarital sex was non-existent?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a boy &amp;amp; girl adore each other and consummate the relationship, then such act was called &lt;em&gt;GAndharva marriage&lt;/em&gt;. In such case, girl's wish was considered foremost. So in the context of your question, &lt;strong&gt;&quot;pre-marital sex&quot; would become marriage itself&lt;/strong&gt;. Here is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;AnushAsana Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Bhishma said, ... When the father of the girl', disregarding his own wishes, &lt;strong&gt;bestows his daughter upon a person whom the daughter likes and who reciprocates the girl's sentiments&lt;/strong&gt;, the form of marriage, O Yudhishthira, is called Gandharva by those that are conversant with the Vedas. ... The Brahma, Kshatra, and &lt;strong&gt;Gandharva&lt;/strong&gt; forms are righteous. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now probably your question is more about, &quot;What about premarital sex, which is done without commitment of marriage?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Premarital sex&quot; as such, is seen with negative views. In earlier times, it was bit 1 sided. For men, it was sometimes OK &amp;amp; for women it was forbidden. In the same quotes, Bhishma continues:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Some say that persons belonging to the three higher orders may&#xA;  take, only for purposes of enjoyment (and not for those of virtue), wives from the lowest or the Sudra order. Others, however, forbid the practice.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, even though 2 major women of Mahabharata had premarital sex, without entering into the marriage, they are always regarded as Pious. Those women were &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyavati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Satyavati&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; her daughter in law &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kunti&lt;/a&gt;. Not only premarital sex, but they also begotten children from this act. Those were VyAsa (considered as an incarnation of god) and Karna (considered a very brave warrior &amp;amp; eldest among PAndava-s).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prostitution&lt;/strong&gt; is different aspect and not related to above. Prostitution is not seen with favourable eyes either. Even eating food &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;cooked by prostitute&lt;/a&gt; is not recommended:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;... The &lt;strong&gt;food provided&lt;/strong&gt; by a usurer is equivalent to dirt, while that provided &lt;strong&gt;by a woman living by prostitution is equivalent to semen&lt;/strong&gt;. The food also provided by persons that tolerate the unchastity of their wives, and by persons that are ruled by their spouses, is forbidden....&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said all these, I do believe that few of the things may not be applicable in today's intermingled world. Hence people should keep morality &amp;amp; ethics as personal things and refrain judging others. In some of the &quot;not so old&quot; Indian cultures, prostitutes were also respected &amp;amp; were called &quot;Nagar Vadhu&quot; (City's wife). There was story of a prostitute, who got liberation. While a learned Brahmana still returned to earth.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Some statures in the life are respectable, and some are not so good. However, a person always has a chance to act in his/her own duty &amp;amp; leave all the reaction to the supreme. This is what matters for liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T06:27:07.587" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16127" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13951" CreationDate="2016-11-28T09:05:30.467" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is very detail description and explanation of Various Siddhis a yogi can achieve &amp;amp; ways in the Purana called &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Puran&quot; (Canto 11 Chapter 15 ) This whole chapter of 36 verses is about  Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The names of various Siddhis descibed are-:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Anima (अणिमा) , 2) Mahima (महिमा) 3) Laghima (लघिमा) 4) Prapti (&#xA;  प्राप्ति) 5) Prakamya (प्राकाम्य) 6) Vashita (वशिता) 7) Ishita (इशिता)&#xA;  8) Kaamvasyita (कामवसयिता) 9) Doorshrvan (दूरश्रवण) 10) Doordarshan&#xA;  (दूरदर्शन) 11) Manojava (मनोजव)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some  the Verses of Siddhies  and description of them -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महत्यातन्मयि परे यथासंस्थम मनो दधत ।  &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;महिमा&lt;/strong&gt; नवाप्नोति भूतानां च पृथक पृथक ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MahatyaNmayi Pare YathaSanSthama Mano Dadhat MahimaNavapnoti Bhutanam&#xA;  cha Pruthak Pruthak &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - One who absorbs his mind in the particular form of the mahat-tattva and thus meditates upon Me as the Supreme Soul of the&#xA;  total material existence achieves the mystic perfection called&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;mahimā&lt;/strong&gt;. By further absorbing the mind in the situation of each individual element such as the sky, air, fire, and so on, one&#xA;  progressively acquires the greatness of each material element. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/15/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 11.15.11&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परमाणुमये चित्तं भूतानां मयि रञ्जयन ।  &lt;br&gt;  कालसूक्ष्मार्थतां योगी&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;लघिमानवाप्नुयात&lt;/strong&gt; ॥12॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ParamanuMaye Chittam  Bhutanam Mayi Rajrayan KaalSukshmaRthaTaam Yogi&#xA;  LaghimanVapnuyat &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - I exist within everything, and I am therefore the essence of the atomic constituents of material elements. By attaching&#xA;  his mind to Me in this form, the yogī may achieve the perfection&#xA;  called &lt;strong&gt;laghimā&lt;/strong&gt;, by which he realizes the subtle atomic substance&#xA;  of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/15/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 11.15.12&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धारयन मैय्यहंतत्वे मनो वैकरिकेs खिलम ।  &lt;br&gt;  सर्वेंद्रियाणामात्मत्वम&#xA;  प्राप्तिमं प्राप्नोति मन्मना: ॥13॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharayan MaiyaaHamTatve Mano Vaikarike Khilam ServendriyanaMaaMatvham&#xA;  Praptim Prapnoti Manmana &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Fixing his mind completely in Me within the element of false ego generated from the mode of goodness, the yogī obtains the&#xA;  power of mystic acquisition, by which he becomes the proprietor of the&#xA;  senses of all living entities. He obtains such perfection because his&#xA;  mind is absorbed in Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/15/13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 11.15.13&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महत्यात्मनि य: सुत्रे धारयेन्मयी मानसं ।  &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;प्राकाम्यम&lt;/strong&gt; पारमेष्ठयम में विन्दतेs व्यक्तजन्मन: ॥14॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahattyatmni ya Sutre Dharayenmayi Maanasam Prakamyam Paarmeshtam Me&#xA;  Vindate VyaktaJanmanah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - One who concentrates all mental activities in Me as the&#xA;  Supersoul of that phase of the mahat-tattva which manifests the chain&#xA;  of fruitive activities obtains from Me, whose appearance is beyond&#xA;  material perception, the most excellent mystic perfection called&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;prākāmya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/15/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 11.15.14&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;  &lt;hr&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मैय्याकाशात्मनि&lt;/strong&gt; प्राणे मनसा घोषमुद्वहन ।  &lt;br&gt;  तत्रोपलब्धा भुतानां हंसो वाच: शृणोत्यसौ ॥19॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MaiyaKashaTamni&lt;/strong&gt; Prano Manasa GhoshmudvaHan Tatropalabdha Bhutaanam Hanso Vachah ShrunoTyasau &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - That purified living entity who fixes his mind on the extraordinary sound vibrations occurring within Me as the personified&#xA;  sky and total life air is then able to perceive within the sky the&#xA;  speaking of all living entities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/15/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 11.15.19&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मनो मयि सुसंयोज्य देहं तदनु वायुना ।  &lt;br&gt;  मद्धरणानुभावेन तत्रात्मा&#xA;  यत्र वै मनः ॥21॥  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mano Mayi SusamYojya Deham Tadanu Vayuna &#xA;  MatDhaaranaBhavena Tatratma Yatra Vai Manh&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - The yogī who completely absorbs his mind in Me, and who then&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;makes use of the wind&lt;/strong&gt; that follows the mind to absorb the material body in Me, obtains through the potency of meditation on Me the mystic&#xA;  perfection by which his body immediately follows his mind wherever it&#xA;  goes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/15/21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB11.15.21&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can browse through all the contains of the chapter called &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Description of Mystic Yoga Perfections&quot; (SB 11.15)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-28T16:26:21.113" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T16:26:21.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16128" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3836" CreationDate="2016-11-28T09:32:33.497" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karna praised by Lord Hanuman&#xA;During final encounter,&#xA;Karna fired many divyastra and Arjuna failed to counter&#xA;most of them. As per result, all divyastra fell upon chariot of&#xA;Arjuna. Hanuman held upper portion and Krishna held lower&#xA;portion of chariot using illusion powers.&#xA;After Kurushetra war,&#xA;Krishna - Arjuna! Take your Gandiva and quiver and get&#xA;down the chariot. Then I will get down.&#xA;Accordingly Arjuna got down the chariot. Krishna kept the&#xA;reigns on the chariot and got down. Anjaneya (Hanuman)&#xA;along with his band of demons, had flown away from the&#xA;top of the chariot.&#xA;Immediately, that chariot was reduced to ashes. Arjuna was&#xA;astonished. Hanuman appeared before Arjuna&#xA;Arjuna - Hanuman ji, what is this! “Krishna! what is this! Fie&#xA;fie this is untruth ! Why my chariot is burnt? Kindly tell me”&#xA;asked Arjuna.&#xA;Krishna - “Arjuna! you have so far been thinking that you&#xA;won the battle out of your own prowess, vigour and valour.&#xA;It is not correct. Your chariot had already been burnt away&#xA;with the power of all divyastra launched by Karna. As I am&#xA;driving your chaiot and Hanumana was viewing the battle&#xA;from the top of the chariot, your chariot is in tact.&#xA;Otherwise, it would have been burnt away long back.”&#xA;Hanuman - Sorry Krishna ! my lord ! I have managed to&#xA;protect this chariot of lord bramha from the divyastra of all&#xA;warriors but divyastras of karna were so powerful even I&#xA;couldn't protect chariot. However I have obtained boon of&#xA;Bramha so that divyastras of karna couldnt harm me but&#xA;Chariot was burnt into ash. Really, o lord ! I have never seen&#xA;superior warrior like Karna in my life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8320" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T09:32:33.497" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16130" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-28T17:32:53.527" Score="4" ViewCount="198" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard this version in an old telugu film which praises Karna. I thought that was just a created &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SZ5vN.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;story&lt;/a&gt; for the sake of film. I didn't believe that version. But these days, a dialogue is made popular who are relating draupadi to raped victims whose translation is like this &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;We accept Draupadi who has five husbands as a virtuous wife. Why not accept raped victims?&lt;/code&gt;.  and many similar dialogues&lt;br&gt;This version is supported by a story which is a part of a book named &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/books/jaya-3.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jaya: An illustrated retelling of Mahabharata &lt;/a&gt; written by a famous writer &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devdutt_Pattanaik&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devdutt Pattanaik&lt;/a&gt;. That story is below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SZ5vN.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SZ5vN.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My question&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did Draupadi want karna as her sixth husband?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Was Draupadi unhappy about her husbands anytime?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please quote sanskrit verses too if possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-28T17:47:30.103" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T17:47:30.103" Title="Did Draupadi want Karna as her sixth husband?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|karna|draupadi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-11-29T13:16:47.033" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16131" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-28T17:35:29.947" Score="6" ViewCount="850" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just like the titles Paramahamsa and Siddha, Arihant also denotes spiritual progress. But why is someone called Arihant and at what stage of spritiual progress?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The earliest reference to Arihant is found in Rig Veda X.12.166 :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;0 Rudra-like Divinity ! do thou produce amongst us, of high descent, a Great God, like Rishabha Deva, &lt;strong&gt;by becoming Arhan&lt;/strong&gt;, which is the epithet of the first World Teacher; let Him become the destroyer of the enemies !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arihant is very common in Jainism, in fact all their tirthankaras were arihant(Rishabha was 1st tirthankara). Similarly Buddhism defines Arihant as one who is a perfected being. But anyone who gets realization can be called a perfected being, in Advaitic terms, such a soul is called Jivanmukta and Paramahamsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So who exactly can be called Arihant? I think a Jivanmukta who decides to teach the world is called Arihant and once he leaves his body, he becomes Siddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-11-29T08:13:06.860" LastActivityDate="2017-03-09T19:45:29.403" Title="Who is called Arihant?" Tags="|sanskrit|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16132" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-28T17:41:43.593" Score="5" ViewCount="1617" Body="&lt;p&gt;Often you hear Hindus saying or asking:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;You are only 10. You don't have the adhikāra to speak on this topic.&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;You don't have the adhikāra to participate in this debate.&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;Who gave you the adhikāra to chant this mantra?&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;Who gave you the adhikāra to become a sannyāsi?&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;You cannot cut down this tree. Who gave you the adhikāra to cut it down?&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what does adhikāra mean in the above contexts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Hindu scripture formally define this adhikāra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm assuming this formal definition of 'adhikāra' in scriptures is supposed to tell who is allowed to do what.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is the meaning very arbitrary i.e., not written down in scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/vedanta%202.11.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;example&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vQUnV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vQUnV.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-29T07:19:56.800" LastActivityDate="2016-12-25T20:07:25.110" Title="What is the meaning of 'adhikāra' in Hinduism? And who decides if someone has the 'adhikāra' to do or not to do something?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16133" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3137" CreationDate="2016-11-28T21:08:23.420" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a verse in Dharma Sindhu and also possibly in some other Puranas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tIrthopavAsa kartavya sirasomundanAnicha sirogatAni pApAni yAntimandanatho yatah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What it means is whenever one goes on a pilgrimage, be it to a temple, a river or any other sacred place, they should clean-shave their heads because for everyone their 'pāpa' is attached to the hair. Symbolically, by getting rid of your hair, you are getting rid of your pāpa or sins and become eligible to visit that pilgrimage site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also the reason why a son should clean-shave his head, get rid of his sins, and is then qualified to perform the funeral rights or Śrāddha on the death of a parent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the above is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/4F4vUW1o2SE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this YouTube video&lt;/a&gt; (Telugu) of the program 'Dharma Sandehalu' which aired on Bhakthi TV channel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's possible that over the years, people forgot the original underlying reason behind this tradition and now do it for other reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-28T21:14:25.627" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T21:14:25.627" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16134" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16107" CreationDate="2016-11-28T21:30:55.833" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are some good academic sources I have found:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/politicalhistory00raycuoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Political history of ancient India, from the accession of Parikshit to the extinction of the Gupta dynasty&#xA;by Raychaudhuri, HemChanndra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ancientindia00dutt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ancient India, 2000 B.C.-800 A.D. by Dutt, Romesh Chunder, 1848-1909&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8310" LastEditorUserId="8310" LastEditDate="2016-11-30T08:48:33.420" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T08:48:33.420" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16135" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2351" CreationDate="2016-11-28T23:01:06.217" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In addition to the above answer, there are also a few scriptural injunctions that the Goswamis quote to support that Lord Nityananda is Balaram Himself&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vayu Purana states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;balaramo mamaivamsah, so 'pi mat-prstham esyati;&#xA;  nityananda iti khyato nyasi-cudamanih ksitau&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In the Vayu Purana, the Lord tells Brahma: &quot;Lord Balarama, who is My first expansion and non-different from Me will also appear by My side as Lord Shri Nityananda. He will become the crest jewel of all renunciants on the earth.&quot;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;krtvavadhuta-vesam sa, dharman bhagavatan bahun;&#xA;  grahayitva janan ittham grhinam asramam tatah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Assuming the dress of an avadhuta, He will freely distribute bhagavata dharma i.e. love of God. He will distribute this pure love through various means and deliver all the living entities. He will do so first as a brahmacari and later as a householder.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ananta Samhita states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nityanando maha-kayo, bhutva mat-kirtane ratah;&#xA;  vimudhan bhakti-rahitan, mama bhaktan karisyasi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;When I appear in Navadvipa in Kali-yuga, You will become Nityananda. You will have a very tall, beautiful and large body, and You will be constantly absorbed in chanting My name and glories. In this way, by Your causeless mercy You will convert many bewildered fools who are devoid of devotion into My pure unalloyed devotees.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note however, this verses are generally not accepted by any school other then Gaudiyas. If you believe that Lord Nityanada is Balaram Himself, then you are in essence a Gaudiya also. Jaya Nitai!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4381" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T23:01:06.217" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16136" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8790" CreationDate="2016-11-28T23:19:12.517" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several reasons why Srimad Bhagavatam is considered the foremost of all Puranas. Firstly what must be understand is the that Puranas mirror Sruti. They are called Puranas because they complete the Vedas (Puran means to complete). And just like the Vedas contain different categories of knowledge in accordance with the eligibility of different Jivas, so do the Puranas. Of all the Puranas, the Sattvic Puranas are considered greatest because pure knowledge arises from Sattva Guna. Of the Sattvic Puranas, Srimad Bhagavatam is considered topmost for several reasons. Jiva Goswami gives the summary of all these reasons in His Tattva Sandarbha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yat khalu sarva puran-a jatam avirbhavya brahma sutram -ca praniyapy aparitustena&#xA;  avirbhavitam yasminn eva sarva sastra -saman-vayo drsyate sarva vedarth-a sutratena&#xA;  bhagavata nij a sutran-am akrtrima bhasya -bhutam -samadhi labdha-m&#xA;  laksanam gayatrim adhikrtya pravartitatvat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Jiva Goswami writes): After bringing all the Puranas to light and compiling the&#xA;  Vedanta sutra, the powerful sage Vyasa was still not satisfied. Therefore he then&#xA;  manifested as a product of mature meditation this Bhagavatam, the natural&#xA;  commentary on his own sutras The coherent overview of all scriptures is found in&#xA;  this work, inasmuch as it begins under the auspices of the Gayatri mantra, which is&#xA;  distinguished as the foundation text for the purport of all the Veda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reasons can be broken down as below&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;artho ’yam brahma-sutranam bharatartha-vinirnayah&#xA;  gayatri-bhasya-rupo ’sah vedartha-paribrmhitah&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  grantho ’stadasa-sahasrah srimad-bhagavatabhidhah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;The Bhagavata is the authorized explanation of Brahma-sutras, and it is a further explanation of Mahabharata. It is the expansion of the gayatri-mantra and the essence of all Vedic knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt; This Bhagavata, containing eighteen thousand verses, is known as the explanation of all Vedic literature.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Three features are brought up here. First Srimad Bhagavatam is the commentary of the Vedanta Sutras (which are the summary of Vedanta, which in turn is the essence of the Vedas), is is also an explanation of Gayatri (which is also the essence of the Vedas) and the meaning of Mahabharata (which is also considered to be the 5th Veda). This is confirmed in Bhagavatam itself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sarva-vedanta-saram hi&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  sri-bhagavatam isyate&#xA;  tad-rasamrta-trptasya&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;nanyatra syad ratih kvacit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Srimad-Bhagavatam is &lt;strong&gt;declared to be the essence of all Vedanta philosophy&lt;/strong&gt;. One who has felt satisfaction from its nectarean mellow will &lt;strong&gt;never be attracted to any other literature&lt;/strong&gt;.(Bhag. 12.13.15)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Padma Purana (Uttara-khanda 193.3) states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;puranesu tu sarvesu srimad bhagavatam param&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  yatra prati-padam krsno giyate bahudharsibhih&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Of all the puranas, the Bhagavata is the greatest&lt;/strong&gt;. In every line the sages glorify Sri Krsna in various ways.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also confirmed in Bhagavatam itself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;srimad-bhagavatam puranam&#xA;  amalam&lt;/strong&gt; yad vaisnavanam priyam&#xA;  yasmin paramahamsyam ekam&#xA;  amalam jnana param giyate&#xA;  tatra jnana-viraga-bhakti-sahitam&#xA;  naiskarmyam aviskrtam&#xA;  tac chrnvan su-pathan vicarana-paro&#xA;  bhaktya vimueyen narah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam is the spotless Purana.&lt;/strong&gt; It is most dear to the vaisnava because it describes the pure and supreme knowledge of the paramahamsas. This Bhagavatam reveals the means for becoming free from all material work, together with the processes of transcendental knowledge, renunciation and devotion. Anyone who seriously tries to understand Srimad Bhagvatam, who properly hears and chants it with devotion, becomes completely liberated. (Bhag 12.13.18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are similiar verses found in Bhagavatam itelf&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dharmah projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo&#xA;  nirmatsaranam satam&#xA;  vedyam vastavam atra vastu&#xA;  sivadmn tapa-trayonmulanam&#xA;  srimad-bhagavate maha-muni-krte&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;kim va parair&lt;/strong&gt; isvarah&#xA;  sadyo hrdy avarudhyate 'tra&#xA;  kytibhih susrusubhis tat-ksanat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhagavata Purana propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhagavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyasadeva [in his maturity]' is sufficient in itself for God realization. &lt;strong&gt;What is the need of any other scripture?&lt;/strong&gt; As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhagavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart. (Bhag 1.1.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;nigama-kalpa-taror galitam phalam&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  suka-mukhad amrta-drava-samyutam&#xA;  pibata bhagavatam rasam alayam&#xA;  muhuraho rasika bhuvi bhavukah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O expert and thoughtful men, relish Srimad Bhagvatam, the &lt;strong&gt;mature fruit of the desire tree of vedic literatures.&lt;/strong&gt; It emanated from the lips of Sri Sukadeva Goswami. Therefore this fruit has become even more tasteful, although its nectarean juice was already relishable for all, including liberated souls. ( Bhag1.1.3) Jaya Nitaai!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4381" LastActivityDate="2016-11-28T23:19:12.517" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16137" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16132" CreationDate="2016-11-29T04:33:26.843" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;What is the meaning of 'adhikāra' in Hinduism?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Often people, translate &lt;em&gt;AdhikAra(अधिकार)&lt;/em&gt; as &quot;right&quot;. But IMO, that's not the perfect translation. The closest meaning (also found in &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;online dictionary&lt;/a&gt;) is &lt;strong&gt;&quot;authorisation&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (or &quot;approval&quot; &amp;amp; in some sense &quot;privilege&quot;).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Incidentally, if we break the words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;अ + धिकार = अ + धिक्कार = not + disapproval = approval&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;who decides if someone has the 'adhikāra' to do or not to do something?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not aware if any scripture would be formally defining &lt;em&gt;AdhikAra&lt;/em&gt; in such a great detail. Because for everything do-able thing, there has to be an &quot;approval&quot;. Scriptures define &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; one can derive &lt;em&gt;AdhikAra&lt;/em&gt; out of it. &lt;strong&gt;One has an &lt;em&gt;AdhikAra&lt;/em&gt; to act in &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So decision should be left to the social structure. In ancient times we had scriptural guidelines &amp;amp; in today's time we have family/national constitution.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in ancient times it was believed that, Shudra-s should not listen to Veda, as they don't have &lt;em&gt;AdhikAra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;. For Shudra-s it's not &lt;em&gt;DhArmik&lt;/em&gt; to gain knowledge which they can't absorb. However in current times which is believed to be an era of knowledge, it may not be applicable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When you hear commoners using this term, you may safely translate it to &quot;right&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[1]&lt;/a&gt; - Krishna spoke &quot;... Desirous of speedy death, this fool had desired Rukmini. But the fool obtained her not, like a Sudra failing to obtain the audition of the Vedas.&quot;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2016-11-29T04:33:26.843" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16139" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-29T05:08:03.383" Score="6" ViewCount="15758" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the best time to perform Amavasya Tharpanam?&#xA;Is there any specific reason why it should be done at that time ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8326" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-11-29T06:57:01.973" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T06:53:16.010" Title="What is the ideal time to perform tharpanam?" Tags="|rituals|practice|amavasya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16140" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16102" CreationDate="2016-11-29T05:39:39.720" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since &lt;em&gt;AyyappA&lt;/em&gt; is not a &lt;em&gt;puranic&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;deva&lt;/em&gt;, the fables and legends around him are not found in &lt;em&gt;purana&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;upanishads&lt;/em&gt;, rather exclusively in &lt;em&gt;kshetra-puranas&lt;/em&gt; or local temple histories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AyyappA is said to have a conversation with Shani about him (Shani) causing trouble to people, on which Shani replied that it's his &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; to do so. On this, AyyappA asked for Shani to leave his devotees out of his misery for which he laid out certain rules,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is believed that one would get relief from &lt;em&gt;Shani&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;dosha&lt;/em&gt; by taking the &lt;em&gt;Ayyappa&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Deeksha&lt;/em&gt;. This is because Lord &lt;em&gt;AyyappA&lt;/em&gt; commanded Shani not to trouble his devotees. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shani affects a person for seven years, but Lord &lt;em&gt;AyyappA&lt;/em&gt; said to Shani that his devotees would take the &lt;em&gt;deeksha&lt;/em&gt; for 41 days and experience the same difficulties that Shani would have given in a span of seven years by not caring for their appearances (not grooming facial hair etc), eating only once a day, bathing in cold water (generally in &lt;em&gt;sharada RRitu&lt;/em&gt;) and sleeping on a floor and practicing &lt;em&gt;brahmAcharya&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In return, &lt;em&gt;AyyappA&lt;/em&gt; assured Shani that his &lt;strong&gt;devotees would wear black/blue dress&lt;/strong&gt; which is the colour associated with &lt;em&gt;Shani&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the reason why lord Ayyappa devotees wear black dress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further reading&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hindupad.com/lord-ayyappa-and-shani/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindupad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="70" LastEditDate="2018-11-08T05:23:23.217" LastActivityDate="2018-11-08T05:23:23.217" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16141" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11780" CreationDate="2016-11-29T07:06:39.343" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Laddu prasadam at tirumala temple is very famous. In fact there is a geographical patent taken by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tirumala.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam(TTD)&lt;/a&gt;. There is no reference of laddu offering to the lord in puranas. But it is said that specific timings and recipes to cook prasadams are there in vaikhanasa agama which is followed at Tirumala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Venkateshwara is known as naivedya priya meaning who is fond of offerings. Actually, Laddu is not the only prasadam at Tirumala. Besides this many prasadam like different types of rice offerings like pulihora, curd rice, different types of pongali, ravva kesari, butter, curd etc., are offered. In addition to these prasadams, kadambam, dosa made with black gram, ksheerannam, vada, rice made with pepper etc are offered to the lord at different timings starting from suprabhata seva performed early in the morning. Offering prasadams to lord started many centuries ago. In the olden days, there were not many facilities on tirumala and there was no food facilities to the devotees who visit tirumala. Then the rulers who were devoted for the service of the lord made huge amount of donations only for prasadams. As there was no food facility for the pilgrims, these were distributed among them in large scale. This prasadam was called &lt;strong&gt;Tiruppongam&lt;/strong&gt;. Later many prasadams were introduced at lord's temple like appam, manoharapadi, atirasam, sukheeyam etc., But only vada was fit for preserving for a long time. Later in early 19th century, the government started distributed boondi as sweet prasadam to devotees. This was older form present laddu. This prasadam was perfect for distributing and remains fresh for a longer time when compared to other offerings. Later due to increase of facilities at tirumala and devotees visiting tirumala also increased. That boondi changed to &lt;strong&gt;laddupadi&lt;/strong&gt; prasadam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these prasadams will be prepared at a place called &lt;em&gt;potu&lt;/em&gt; constructed according to vastu which is near &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vakula_Devi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vakula devi&lt;/a&gt;'s shrine who is the foster mother of Lord Venkateshwara. It is believed that Vakula devi inspects whether all prasadams are prepared properly through a window. These offerings are prepared by specially appointed brahmins not wearing a shirt while preparing. There are 3 types of laddu prepared at temple. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;aasthanam laddu&lt;/em&gt; given only to VIP's and VVIP's[made only at special occasions]. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;kalyanothsavam laddu&lt;/em&gt; given to devotees performing kalyanotsava seva to the lord.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;prokkam laddu&lt;/em&gt; given to all devotees. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some prasadams are cooked on fire place according to Vaikhanasa agama. Other prasadams which are offered to the lord are not available to sale. They are distributed to the devotees after having the darshanam of the Lord. Some other are given to devotees performing some special sevas and to VIP's. This may be a reason of fame for Laddu prasadam.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: This &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbb5Vi_7y7Y&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;video&lt;/a&gt; in Telugu. Similar information was said by TTD chief priest Ramana Dikshitulu in other video but was not available on the internet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-01-31T06:41:11.560" LastActivityDate="2018-01-31T06:41:11.560" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16142" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8505" CreationDate="2016-11-29T10:22:13.587" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;He is &lt;strong&gt;Kakbhushuda&lt;/strong&gt;(काक​ &lt;strong&gt;भुशुण्ड&lt;/strong&gt;). There is a story of Kakbhushunda in Yogvashishtha, Nirvan Prakaran Purvardh, Sarga 14-25.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoted text is from Yogvashishtha English translation &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mediafire.com/file/vdj88xosjcptdpg/Yoga_Vasishtha_Translation_by_Mitra_Vol_4_digitized.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;part-3&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vashishtha discussed about Bhushunda to Rama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Among them there was a crow's nest, belonging to one old raven by name of Bhusunda, who lived quite happy with himself; as the god Brahmá dwells ontent in his lotus-bed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There is no one in the womb of this world so long lived as he, nor even the gods in heaven, can boast a greater longevity than he among the feathered tribe; and it is doubtful whether there may be another as old as he in times to come. (Old as Adam and as old as Methuselah).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This crony crow was beauteous even in old age, and had become passionless and great-minded by his long experience. He remained quiet with the tranquility of his mind, and was as graceful as he was full of knowledge of all times. (Acromatic[**Achromatic?] as old Nestor of the present, past and future-trikálajna).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If any one may have the long life of this crow, his life becomes meritorious, and his old age is crowned with sapience. (The vigour of life is productive of meritorious works, and its decay is fraught with wisdom).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;30&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He witnessed the course of ages and periods, and marked&#xA;  their advent and exodus in repeated succession; and was&#xA;  thereby known as the time worn Bhusunda in this world, and a&#xA;  being of stout and unflinching mind.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He was weary with counting the revolutions of the Kalpa cycles, and with recounting the returns of the preserving divinities of the world; such as the Sivas, Indras, the gods of the winds and other......&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(When Vashishtha visited toKakbhushundi)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following part is from conversation between Vashishtha and Kakbhushunda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wwhen Vashishta asked him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;27&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sir, you have seen the many changes of the world, and have been experienced in all things in the repeated course of creations; must be best able to tell me the wonders that you have witnessed during the revolution of ages.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kakbhushundi discussed what he have been seeing for many kalps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting the part that related to the title of question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;17&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I bear in my remembrance the overthrow of tripura thrice ten times by Siva, and the discomfiture of Dakhas' ceremony for more than once by the irritated Hara; and I recall to my mind the downfall of ten Indras by the offending God, who bears the crescent moon on his forehead, (and the confinement of their thunder-bolts within the caverns of volcanoes glass).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I recollect the battle that has been fought eight times between Hari and Hara, and the first appearance of Vishnu and Siva, jvaras or the cold typhoid fevers in these] conflicts. (This means the rising of the malarious fevers of Dinajpur, whichraged among the belligerent forces on both sides). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I remember, O silent Sage! the difference in the intellects of men at every succeeding age, and the various readings of vedas at the ceremonial observances of mankind. (This means the varieties of reading of the vedas as pointed in the prati sákha, and the difference of phonetic intonation as shown in the sikshas, have greatly tended to the depravity of vedic recitation, and consequently to their inefficacy in producing their desired&#xA;  consequence also).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O sinless saint! The purans also though they agree in the main substance, are so full of interpolations, that they have been greatly multiplied in successive ages. (It is quite true of works in manuscript and without their gloss).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I remember also many historical works, which have been composed by authors learned in the vedas in the succeeding ages. (These works are called Itihásas or legendary accounts, as the epics of Rámáyana and mahábhárata[**Mahábhárata] by Valmíki and Vyása respectively).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I have the recollection of the other wondrous composition of legendary accounts, under the title of the Mahárámáyana a work comprising one hundred thousand slokas or tetra stichs, and replete with sound wisdom. (This was revealed by Brahmá to Vasishtha and Viswamitra).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This work presents the conduct of Ráma for the imitation of the men, and sets the misbehaviour of Rávana to the opprobrium of mankind. This precept contains the essence of all wisdom, and serves as the luscious fruit of the tree of knowledge, placed in the palm of all people. (The substance of these instances is, that virtue is true happiness below and vice is baneof life).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This work is composed by Valmíki, who will compose some others also in time; and these you will come to know, when they will be presented to world in time: (as I have known them before hand by my foreknowledge of things.[** ,?] gloss) (This work is called Vasishtha Ráma samváda in the form of a dialogue as those of Socrates and Plato).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This work whether] it is a composition of Valmíki, or the composition of some other person, is published for the twelve times, and is now going to be allmost[**almost] forgotten by men. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The other work of like importance, is known under the name of Bhárata; I remember it to have been written by Vyása at first, but is becoming obsolete at present.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Whether it is the composition of person known by the name of Vyása, or a compilation of some other person, it has upto[**2 words] this time undergone its seventh edition, and is now going fastly to be forgotten.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I remember] also, O chief of Sages! many tales and novels&#xA;  and other sástras, composed in every age and Yuga; which have been written in a variety of styles and diction.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O good sage! I remember to have seen also many new productions and inventions, following one another in succeeding age; and it is impossible to innumerate enumerate this innumerable series of things.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I remember the Lord Vishnu descending many times on earth, for the destruction of ferocious Ráksasas], and is now to appear here the eleventh time under the appellation of Ráma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I know the lord Hari to have thrice comedown[**2 words] in his form of Nrisinha or leonine man, and thrashed the demon Hiranya Kasipu  as many times, as a lion kills a gigantic elephant. (i. e. Although the gods are of smaller forms and figures, yet they got the better of the giants, by means of their better arms and knowledge of warfare).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vishnu is yet to be born in his sixteenth incarnation at Vasudeva's bode, for the purpose of rescuing the earth from the burthen of the oppression of its tyrannic lords and despots.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, He is kakbhushunda. If you want to know more about Kakbhushunda, read the whole story of Kakbhushunda from Yogvashishtha Maharamayana. Kakbhushundi is also mentioned in Ramcharitmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-11-29T13:05:23.663" LastActivityDate="2016-11-29T13:05:23.663" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16143" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16110" CreationDate="2016-11-29T11:30:41.833" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti itself,which existed since Krita, mentions those rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,it can not be that Sutaka rules emerged only after the Mahabharatha war which happened in Dwapara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following are few relevant verses from Manu Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.83. A Brahmana shall be pure after ten days, a Kshatriya after twelve, a Vaisya after fifteen, and a Sudra is purified after a month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu 5.75. He who may hear that (a relative) residing in a distant country has died, before ten (days after his death have elapsed), shall be&#xA;  impure for the remainder of the period of ten (days and) nights only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.79. If within the ten days (of impurity) another birth or death happens, a Brahmana shall remain impure only until the (first) period&#xA;  of ten days has expired.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Foods given by certain persons are not to be accepted.Few among them are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 4.217. Nor (the food given) by those who knowingly bear with paramours (of their wives), and by those who in all matters are ruled by women,&#xA;  nor food (given by men) &lt;strong&gt;whose ten days of impurity on account of a&#xA;  death have not passed,&lt;/strong&gt; nor that which is unpalatable&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-11-29T11:30:41.833" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16145" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16036" CreationDate="2016-11-29T12:09:00.623" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indrajala has been used in various scriptures. It has various meanings as given by OP in question. It is also a name of weapon used by Arjuna as given in Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03243.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Book 3, SECTION CCXLIII&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sthūṇākarṇ&lt;strong&gt;endrajālaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; ca sauraṃ cāpi tathārjunaḥ / (17.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;āgneyaṃ cāpi saumyaṃ ca sasarja kurunandanaḥ // (17.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Arjuna of the Kuru race shot his well-known weapons called Sthunakarna, &lt;strong&gt;Indrajala&lt;/strong&gt;, Saura, Agneya and Saumya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, it is also used in the sense of magic as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05161.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Book 5, SECTION CLXI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;na māyā &lt;strong&gt;hīndrajālaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; vā kuhakā vā vibhīṣaṇī / (35.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;āttaśastrasya me yuddhe vahanti pratigarjanāḥ // (35.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neither deception, nor &lt;strong&gt;conjuror's&lt;/strong&gt; tricks, nor jugglery, can terrify the armed man addressed for fight. On the other hand, these provoke only his wrath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-150/topic-3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matsya Purana, Chapter 150&lt;/a&gt; also mention Indrajala weapon for magic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;द्वितीय&lt;strong&gt;मिन्द्रजालेन&lt;/strong&gt; योजितं प्रमुमोच ह। सच्चारास्त्रेण रूपाणां क्षणाच्चके विपर्ययम्। १५६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;second &lt;strong&gt;Indrajala-astra&lt;/strong&gt; having the properties of magic. By the influence of the sancara-astra the faces of the demons and the Devas were changed into those of the Devas and Danavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/ATHARVAVEDAVOL1OF2/ATHARVA-VEDA-VOL-1-OF-2#page/n637/mode/2up/search/net&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharva Veda&lt;/a&gt; also mention the word Indrajala as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UoSUr.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UoSUr.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av08008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Another translation&lt;/a&gt; of the above Atharva Veda verse is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This world so mighty was the net of Sakra, of the Mighty One:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With this, the &lt;strong&gt;net of Indra&lt;/strong&gt;, I envelop all those men with gloom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Please note that Atharva Veda verses should be recited only by the proper guidance of Guru&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T19:50:24.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16146" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8499" CreationDate="2016-11-29T17:31:09.923" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shikha bandhan is carried out during Puja it is also called Shikha Vandanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/akhandjyoti/1968/April/v2.14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Akhandjyoti&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शिखा-बंधन&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ॐ चिद्रूपिणि महामाये दिव्यतेजः समन्विते। तिष्ठ देवि शिखा मध्ये तेजोवृद्धि कुरुष्व मे॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindi.awgp.org/gayatri/sanskritik_dharohar/yagya_gyan_vigyan/yagyiya_karmakand/yagya_sanchalan/panchopchar_poojan/shikhavandanm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gayatri Parivar&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: Translated into English&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शिखावन्दनम्&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed to be &lt;strong&gt;symbol of Gayatri&lt;/strong&gt;. Head is center of good thoughts into which only divine enter. &lt;strong&gt;Determine that intenseness and vigorousness is growing&lt;/strong&gt;. Touch (with wetting two fingers) the location  of Shikha and after chanting following mantra apply the knot. Those who doesn't have Shikha, touch that location with such spirit/sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ॐ चिद्रूपिणि महामाये, दिव्यतेजः समन्विते ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तिष्ठ देवि शिखामध्ये, तेजोवृद्धिं कुरुष्व मे॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.diya.net.in/spiritual_wisdom/gayatri/gayatri_mantra_sadhan/simple_and_safe_daily_gayatri_upasan/panch_sandhy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panch Sandhya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sikha Vandana&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tie the sikha or touch this central spot (above the suture) on the skull. Close the eyes and chant the following mantra &lt;strong&gt;with a determination that the divine radi­ance of Gayatri attracted thereby is being absorbed in the brain and is inspiring righteous thinking and illumination of  mind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mantra:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Om Cidrupini Mahamaye, Divya Tejah Samanvite| Tistha Devi sikha Madhye, Tejo Vraddhim Kurusva Me ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/2459053/1803522464/name/Dainik+Sadhana-English.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gurupuja&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shikha Bandhan:&lt;/strong&gt; (Tie your &amp;quot;Shikha&amp;quot; or put your right hand on your scalp)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, put your right hand on your head &lt;strong&gt;so that “Super Natural Power” which exists in the universe can be connected with you, so that you can gain necessary energy to do the “Sadhana”&lt;/strong&gt;. And chant this mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chidrupini mahaamaye divya tej: samanvite |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Tishth devi! Shikhaamadhye tejo vrudhim kurushva me ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, The answer of this question is in the following verse which is chanted during Shikha Bandhan during Puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ॐ चिद्रूपिणि महामाये दिव्यतेजः समन्विते। तिष्ठ देवि शिखा मध्ये तेजोवृद्धि कुरुष्व मे॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which means &lt;sup&gt;I don't know Sanskrit much but I've tried to translate Sanskrit mantra in English (Need to improve)&lt;/sup&gt;: Om, consciousness-form, having divine glory/energy | Be situated at the center of Shikha and increase glory/vigorousness ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also find it at &lt;a href=&quot;https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%97%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%80#.E0.A4.97.E0.A4.BE.E0.A4.AF.E0.A4.A4.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.B0.E0.A5.80_.E0.A4.89.E0.A4.AA.E0.A4.BE.E0.A4.B8.E0.A4.A8.E0.A4.BE_.E0.A4.95.E0.A4.BE_.E0.A4.B5.E0.A4.BF.E0.A4.A7.E0.A4.BF-.E0.A4.B5.E0.A4.BF.E0.A4.A7.E0.A4.BE.E0.A4.A8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gayatri Upasana Vidhi-Vidhan&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For detailed explanation &amp;amp; significance on Shikha visit &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiadivine.org/why-do-hindus-wear-the-tuft-of-hair-called-shikha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also read &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindi.awgp.org/gayatri/AWGP_Offers/Literature_Life_Transforming/Books_Articles/gayatrimantra/lifemantra.1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; (if you know Hindi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-29T19:13:34.183" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16147" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-29T19:26:04.237" Score="2" ViewCount="8037" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why and how do (some) Hindus celebrate Christmas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What have any modern Hindu Gurus commented on this practice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;I don't think this is an opinion-based question. From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;What types of questions should I avoid asking?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; I think this fits into constructive subjective questions: &quot;inspire answers that explain &lt;strong&gt;why&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;how&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2019-08-05T00:59:40.800" Title="Why and how do Hindus celebrate Christmas?" Tags="|culture|tradition|other-religions|christianity|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16148" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="865" CreationDate="2016-11-30T02:57:44.840" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story you mentioned has no basis in scripture, at least not in Vyāsa Mahābhārata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, according to Vyāsa Mahābhārata, the svayaṁvara was rigged. King Drupada &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01188.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;was very keen&lt;/a&gt;  on giving Draupadi away to only Arjuna and nobody else, even before the svayaṁvara began.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yajnasena [Drupada] always cherished the &lt;strong&gt;desire of bestowing his daughter on Kiriti (Arjuna)&lt;/strong&gt;, the son of Pandu. But he never spoke of it to anybody. And, O Janamejaya, the king of Panchala thinking of Arjuna caused a &lt;strong&gt;very stiff bow&lt;/strong&gt; to be made that was &lt;strong&gt;incapable of being bent by any except Arjuna&lt;/strong&gt;. Causing some machinery to be erected in the sky, the king set up a mark attached to that machinery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Drupada said, 'He that will string this bow and with these well-adorned arrows shoot the mark above the machine shall obtain my daughter.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as Karṇa's participation in the svayaṁvara goes, there are two different official stories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Official Story 1&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Draupadi &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01190.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;announces&lt;/a&gt; that she cannot marry a sūta (charioteer) so Karṇa drops his bow and withdraws from the contest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;01,178.017d*1827_07   &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; dhanurdharā rāgakṛtapratijñam &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,178.017d*1827_08   &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; atyagnisomārkam athārkaputram &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;01,178.017d*1827_09   &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  dṛṣṭvā tu taṃ &lt;strong&gt;draupadī&lt;/strong&gt; vākyam uccair&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,178.017d*1827_10   &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; jagāda &lt;strong&gt;nāhaṃ varayāmi sūtam&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;01,178.017d*1827_11   &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; sāmarṣahāsaṃ prasamīkṣya sūryaṃ &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,178.017d*1827_12   &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; tatyāja &lt;strong&gt;karṇaḥ sphuritaṃ dhanus tat&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And beholding the plight of those monarchs, Karna that foremost of all wielders of the bow went to where the bow was, and &lt;strong&gt;quickly raising it, strung it&lt;/strong&gt; and placed the arrows on the string. And beholding the son of Surya--Karna of the Suta tribe--like unto fire, or Soma, or Surya himself, resolved to shoot the mark, those foremost of bowmen--the sons of Pandu--regarded the mark as already shot and brought down upon the ground. But seeing Karna, Draupadi loudly said, '&lt;strong&gt;I will not select a Suta for my lord&lt;/strong&gt;.' &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Karna, laughing in vexation and casting glance at the Sun, threw aside the bow already drawn to a circle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Official Story 2&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The later verses however indicate that Karṇa attempted to string the bow but failed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And that bow which Rukma, Sunitha, Vakra, &lt;strong&gt;Radha's son&lt;/strong&gt;, Duryodhana, Salya, and many other kings accomplished in the science and practice of arms, &lt;strong&gt;could not&lt;/strong&gt; even with great exertion, &lt;strong&gt;string&lt;/strong&gt;, Arjuna, the son of Indra, that foremost of all persons endued with energy and like unto the younger brother of Indra (Vishnu) in might, strung in the twinkling of an eye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhiṣṭhira later &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01196.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; caste was no bar for participating in the svayaṁvara so neither Drupada nor Draupadi had any right to reject anyone merely on the basis of their caste or profession.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;01,185.023a   &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; pradiṣṭaśulkā drupadena rājñā; sānena vīreṇa&#xA;  tathānuvṛttā &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  01,185.023c   &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;na tatra varṇeṣu&lt;/strong&gt; kṛtā vivakṣā; na&#xA;  jīvaśilpe &lt;strong&gt;na kule na gotre&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Yudhishthira addressed him and said, 'The king of the Panchalas hath, by fixing a special kind of dower, given away his daughter according to the practice of his order and not freely. This hero hath, by satisfying that demand, won the princess. &lt;strong&gt;King Drupada, therefore, hath nothing now to say in regard to the race, tribe, family and disposition of him who hath performed that feat.&lt;/strong&gt; Indeed, all his queries have been answered by the stringing of the bow and the shooting down of the mark. It is by doing what he had directed that this illustrious hero hath brought away Krishna from among the assembled monarchs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given two different accounts of the same story, one of them has to be an interpolation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his report titled &lt;em&gt;Interpolations In The Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;, M. A. Mehendale of BORI &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/InterpolationsInTheMahabharata/INTERPOLATIONS%20In%20The%20Mahabharata#page/n3/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This stanza &lt;strong&gt;[&lt;/strong&gt;drstvā tam draupadi vākyam uccair jagāda &lt;strong&gt;nāham&#xA;  varayāmi sūtam]&lt;/strong&gt; does not occur at all in the entire Southern recension, and&#xA;  among the versions of the Northern recension, it does not occur in the&#xA;  Kashmiri, Maithili and Bengali versions. It is found only in four&#xA;  Devanagari mss. (out of a total fourteen used for the critical edition), and one&#xA;  (out of three) Nepali ms. &lt;strong&gt;It is therefore clearly a very late addition to the&#xA;  text.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If &lt;em&gt;Official Story 1&lt;/em&gt; did not take place in reality, the question of Draupadi regretting for not allowing Karṇa to participate in her svayaṁvara does not arise because Karṇa simply failed at the archery test.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T02:57:44.840" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16149" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16147" CreationDate="2016-11-30T04:41:32.293" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Ramakrishna Mission celebrates Christmas with a puja. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda looked upon Jesus Christ as one of the incarnations of God. Most of the centers have some type of puja or recognition of Christmas as the celebration of Jesus's birth. See - &lt;a href=&quot;http://media.belurmath.org/festival-calendar-of-belur-math-for-2016-17-634&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://media.belurmath.org/festival-calendar-of-belur-math-for-2016-17-634&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T04:41:32.293" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16150" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16147" CreationDate="2016-11-30T05:12:53.513" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Actually, it's opinion based question. Because you won't be able to accept any answer as correct. However, the answers can be interesting. Hence leaving upto community, if it should be closed or not.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am from a very specialized section of Hinduism:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hindu &gt; Vaishnava &gt; Krishna &gt; Pre-tennage version (Bal swaroop) &gt;&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinathji&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ThAkorji / ShrinAthji&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though the family is very conservative, when it comes to Christmas, they are liberal. It's celebrated something like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lDSe9m.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lDSe9m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why&lt;/strong&gt;. No single reason. Generally in India, I think English schooling has more to do with why people celebrate Christmas. Moreover, culturally we were influenced by the British. Many people believe Jesus as an incarnation of Vishnu as well &amp;amp; many don't. Source:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2237/1049&quot;&gt;Is Jesus an avatar of Lord Vishnu?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="8277" LastEditDate="2019-08-05T00:59:40.800" LastActivityDate="2019-08-05T00:59:40.800" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16151" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17217" CreationDate="2016-11-30T05:47:38.360" Score="3" ViewCount="429" Body="&lt;p&gt;As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13950/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna is a rare philosopher, who related &quot;I / Me&quot; with the ultimate supremacy during the discourse of Gita. That implies that the &quot;I / Me&quot; resides in every being &amp;amp; non-being &amp;amp; is also beyond them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I read below verses again &amp;amp; again, it makes me feel like the &quot;I / Me&quot; are beyond the &quot;Brahman&quot; as well, and are not same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 8.16 - All planes along with &lt;strong&gt;BrahM-plane are repetitive&lt;/strong&gt;, O Arjuna. &lt;strong&gt;But reaching &quot;Me&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, O son of Kunti, the rebirth doesn't happen.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 8.17 - Knowing that &lt;strong&gt;thousand eras constitute a day of Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;, [and] thousand eras complete a night, are the people who know day, [and] night.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 13.13 - I shall speak of that which is knowable (should be known). Knowing which, one attains immortality. &lt;strong&gt;The supreme Brahman dwelling under Me&lt;/strong&gt;, is beginningless. &quot;That&quot; is said to be neither existent nor non-existent.&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 13.14 - That (Knowable), which has &lt;strong&gt;hands and feet everywhere, which has eyes, heads and mouths everywhere,&lt;/strong&gt; which has ears everywhere, exists in creatures by pervading them all.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 14.27 - For &lt;strong&gt;'I' am the Abode of Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;-the indestructible and immutable, the eternal, the Dharma and absolute Bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;BG 8.16, 8.17 suggests that, if one reaches BrahM (or Brahman), then still that one has to repeat. Because, even &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; also has day &amp;amp; night, which is ~24 million years, as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16085/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. However, &quot;I / Me&quot; is timeless, hence no return.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;BG 13.13 GambhirAnanda's also translates: &lt;strong&gt;Supreme Brahman dwelling under 'Me'&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;BG 13.14 Read &quot;clarification&quot; section.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;BG 14.27 also suggests as &quot;Brahman&quot; is in 'My' abode.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Often in this site, we all interpret &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; as supreme. But at least the translations of above verses are differing in nature. My guess is that, the &quot;I / Me&quot; represents, what we call &lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Is there any other scriptural or philosophical reference, which shows relation between &quot;I / Me&quot; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Clarification&lt;/strong&gt;: There is always a confusion between, &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (supreme one) and &lt;em&gt;BrahmA&lt;/em&gt; (4 headed deity). Now, in Gita there is no mention of such formful deity. I am not sure, even in MahAbhArata, such mention will be there. This seems more of a pictorial representation by devotees, which is coming since centuries.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My theory: According to BG 13.14 verse, &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; is having &quot;heads everywhere&quot;. Not only heads, but eyes, hands, feet everything, everywhere. In old times, people wanted to represent this &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, hence they painted with &quot;4 heads &amp;amp; several hands&quot;. May be with time &amp;amp; interpolations, this &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; became &lt;em&gt;BrahmA&lt;/em&gt; and further became an [inferior] part of trinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below should be the right interpretation of &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (image only for representation):&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ncevXs.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ncevXs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; ====&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7KvG6m.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7KvG6m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is similar to how pictorial representation of Vishnu is done, by 'pervading throughout the universe':&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.4 - &lt;strong&gt;This whole world is pervaded by Me&lt;/strong&gt; in My unmanifest form. All beings exist in Me, but I am not contained in them!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/I9sL5m.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/I9sL5m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, it's safe to assume: &lt;em&gt;Brahman = BrahmA = BrahM&lt;/em&gt;, in context of this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2018-12-02T14:23:37.480" Title="Is the &quot;I / Me&quot; beyond &quot;Brahman&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|krishna|bhagavad-gita|brahman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16153" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16155" CreationDate="2016-11-30T06:05:07.740" Score="10" ViewCount="1487" Body="&lt;p&gt;Something that puzzles me is that many stories about the gods show that the gods exhibited immoral behavior sometimes. For example, Indra had sex with wives of Rishis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;So, what exactly do the gods mean? Enlightened sages don't behave like this. But gods do.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How to explain to children about Rama and Krishna, when complete celibacy is demanded of Hindu sannyasins?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And since Knowledge of Brahman is the goal, what is the role of gods in that?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5210" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-30T19:57:44.010" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T00:47:43.690" Title="Immorality of the gods" Tags="|scripture|puranas|gods|dharma|sin|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16154" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16147" CreationDate="2016-11-30T06:22:30.750" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think that &lt;strong&gt;orthodox&lt;/strong&gt; Hindus do not celebrate Christmas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;... And that would mean that those Hindus who do celebrate Christmas are not orthodox Hindus. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;orthodox -- conforming to what is generally or traditionally accepted as right or true; established and approved; strictly keeping to traditional doctrine and ritual &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T06:22:30.750" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16155" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16153" CreationDate="2016-11-30T07:00:57.530" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Devas(Gods) are considered the positive , life sustaining forces of nature(like Sun,Moon,Vayu or Wind,Agni or Fire ,Varuna or Water etc) and it is usually the Dharmic behavior(lawful.legitimate as defined in Hindu Shastras) that is expected of them .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, that is not always the case,as we have seen many a times,including in the Indra-Ahalya episode which you have mentioned in the question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being Devas, they are more prone to Dharmic behavior but deviations from that  &lt;strong&gt;can not be entirely ruled out.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Simply put,Devas are &lt;strong&gt;never defined&lt;/strong&gt; strictly as ones who &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; follows Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Apastamba Sutras says,for example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Nadharmaadharmou charatah aavaasyah iti na devaah, na gandharvaah, sa pitarah ityaachakshate ayam dharmo amayadharma iti,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aapastamba states that those high practioners of Dharma have no&#xA;  special considerations as being ‘mine’ or ‘thine’, be they Devas,&#xA;  Gandharvas, Pitru Devas and so on&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because, they are fully within the bounds of Maya(illusion) where as enlightened saints are beyond that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like the Veda versed Brahmins ,&amp;amp; those who know the difference between Dharma -Adharma can even commit misdeeds at times,so can the Devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Parashara Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Veda vedaanga vidushaam Dharma shastram vijaana - taam,Svakarfma rata&#xA;  Vipraanaam svakam paapam nivedayet, Yatpaapam kartru vyatiriktena kena&#xA;  chidapinajnaatam,Tadrahasyam tasya praayaschittamapirahasya kartavyam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Veda vedaanga vidas and experts in Dharma Shastras too are at some&#xA;  points of time &lt;strong&gt;might perform misdeeds surreptitiously&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to explain the children of Rama, Krishna. while completely celibacy is demanded of hindu sannyasins?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna and Rama were both Kshatriya kings.They were not Sannyasis,so maintaining celibacy is never a must for them(except of course during the time when they were students).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maintaining celibacy is a must for only students(brahmacharis) and for those who have taken Sannyasa vows,i.e  the Sannyasis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;and since Knowledge of Brahman is the goal, what is the role of gods in that?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Obtaining the knowledge of the Brahman ,which is pervaded by Maya(illusion), is the goal for all beings as per Hindu philosophies.It is said that only Brahaman exists whereas we perceive it differently or in many varied forms only because of that Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-11-30T09:02:41.083" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T09:02:41.083" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16157" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-30T07:38:34.443" Score="8" ViewCount="336" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2756/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I am a member) places great importance on the Divya Desams, the 108 sacred places of Vishnu which are mentioned in the poems of the Alwars. Now two of the Divya Desams are not even on Earth! As I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9917/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, there is Thiruparkadal, Vishnu's ocean of milk, and then there is Paramapadam, the abode of Para Vasudeva or the supreme Vishnu as well as the destination of those who have attained Moksha. (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6923/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information on Para Vasudeva.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tzDek.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/D4hs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Yatindra Mata Dipika, a work by the 17th century Sri Vaishnava Acharya Srinivasa Dasa, describes Para Vasudeva's appearance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now It (Soul) approaches nearer the (Divine) Seat, where it finds the throne thereon, Dharma (etc.) made, the Lotus over it, and Ananta over again.  On the sides stand Vimala, etc., with fans (waving) in their hands, serving God (Bhagavan); Who is installed there with His (Queens) Shri, Bhu and Nila; Wo Is bedecked with the Divine Weapons: Conch, Discus etc.; Who is blazing with the countless Divine Ornaments: the Crown, the Diadem; and, for the head, ears, neck, breast, arms, wrists, waist and ankles, such (jewels) as Cudavatarhsa, Makara-kundala, Graiveyaka-hara, Keyura, Kataka, Shri-vatsa, Kaustubha, &lt;strong&gt;Mukta-damodara-bandhana&lt;/strong&gt;, Pitambara, Kanchiguna, Nupura etc.; and Who is the boundless Ocean of Graces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now some of these attributes are recognizable: the Makara Kundalas are Vishnu's shark-shaped earrings, the Shrivatsa is the tuft of hair on Vishnu's chest where Lakshmi resides, and the Kaustubha is the gem Vishnu wears around his neck.  But my question is, what is the Mukta-damodara-bandhana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Mukta means liberated soul, i.e. a soul which has attained Moksha.  Damodara means one who has a rope tied around his waist.  And Bandhana means refers to tying something or someone up with a rope.  So is the the Mukta-damodara-bandana a rope used to keep liberated souls attached to Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now of course, Vishnu doesn't actually keep liberated souls attached to him by lassoing them with a rope.  Rather, they automatically remain attached to him; they perform devotional service to Vishnu out of a sheer outpouring of joy.  But does anyone know any scriptures which mention Vishnu carrying a Mukta-damodara-bandana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T09:20:15.720" Title="What scriptures describe Vishnu's Mukta-damodara-bandana?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|vaikuntha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16158" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8501" CreationDate="2016-11-30T08:28:50.213" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The basic six daily duties of a Brahmin are described in many Shastras and i quote from the &lt;strong&gt;Parashara Smriti&lt;/strong&gt; here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sandhyam Snanam Japo Homo &lt;strong&gt;Devata&lt;/strong&gt; Atithi &lt;strong&gt;Pujanam&lt;/strong&gt; Atithyam VaiswaDevam Cha Shat Karmani Dine Dine&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;. Ablution and prayer, inaudible recitation (of sacred words), burnt-&#xA;  offerings, &lt;strong&gt;the worship of gods&lt;/strong&gt;, hospitality to guests unexpectedly&#xA;  come, and offerings made in the name of the Visvadevam, — these are&#xA;  the six duties to be performed every day,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/z3Ic8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/z3Ic8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,Devata Puja is &lt;strong&gt;one of the 6 mandatory duties.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, what constitutes a Deva Puja is recorded in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The procedure of Deva Puja: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Madhyaane tarpanaanantaram gandha kusumaakshatai Harihara, Hiranya garbha prabhritinaam anyatamayamyathaavaasanam, Rigyajyurssaama&#xA;  mantraih svanaama bhirvaa tatprakaaraihi, Chaturdhanyair namaskaara&#xA;  yuktairaadhayet/Aarogyam Bhasaraadicchet shriyamicchet moksha&#xA;  micchejjanardanaat&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(After performing mid-day tarpanas, &lt;strong&gt;a Brahmana should invoke&#xA;  Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwaraadi Devas&lt;/strong&gt; with gandha-pushpa-akshatas reciting&#xA;  Rik-Yajur-Saama Veda mantras or so endi ng with chaturthi vibhakti&#xA;  naamaas like Haraye namah om, Vishnave namah om or Brahmane namah om&#xA;  etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,it &lt;strong&gt;can not be&lt;/strong&gt; that &lt;strong&gt;any Brahmin can be hostile to any of the Trinities&lt;/strong&gt;(Brahma,Vishnu and Mahesh) irrespective of which Veda Shaka he belongs to.That is just out question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada further states that &lt;strong&gt;devotion to both Hari and Hara&lt;/strong&gt; are a &lt;strong&gt;must for all Dwijas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vedovaa Hari bhaktirvaa bhaktirvaapi Maheshware, Svaachaaraatpatitam mudham na punaati dvijottamam/ Punya khsetraabhigamanam punya tirtha&#xA;  nishevanam, Yagjnovaa vividho Brahman tyaktaachaaram na&#xA;  rakshati/Aachaaraat praapyate swargah aachaaraat praapyate sukham,&#xA;  Aachaaraatpraapyate mokshah, Aacharaat kim na siddhati/&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maharshi Narada emphasises that those ‘dvijas’- or twice born are who&#xA;  undergo the Sacred Thread Ceremony and obeserve the concomitant&#xA;  principles there of- &lt;strong&gt;and those who are devoid of&lt;/strong&gt; Vedaadhyana or&#xA;  recitation of Vedas, &lt;strong&gt;devotion to Hari, devotion of Shiva,&lt;/strong&gt; visits of&#xA;  ‘Punya Kshetras’ and ‘Tirthas’and execution of sacrifices like yagjnas&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;are disqualified to be dvijas&lt;/strong&gt; and as such deserve to be declared&#xA;  against!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,coming to your questions about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanuja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramanuja&lt;/a&gt;.He was a devotee of Vishnu(a Vaishnava) and a Brahmin.So,he can not be hostile to Shiva and for that matter to any other Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why did he refuse to hail Shiva? After all he is also a god.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know what actually happened then.If the question was that by only hailing Shiva once the King would let him go,then he probably &lt;strong&gt;should have hailed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because essentially &lt;strong&gt;Shiva &amp;amp; Vishnu are one entity&lt;/strong&gt;.And by virtue of being a Hindu acharya and philosopher &lt;strong&gt;he must be knowing that too.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,from the &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While describing the worship of Siva Linga, Sage Lomesha emphasised&#xA;  that there was no difference of Bhagavan Siva and Lord Vishnu: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yo Vishnuh sah Sivo Jneyo yah Sivo Vishnureva sah, Peethika Vishnu Rup amsyallinga ruupee Maheswarah / Thasmallinga- arch anam sreshtham&#xA;  Sarveyshaamapi vai Dwijah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;He who i s Vishnu is Siva and Siva be known as Vishnu Himself&lt;/strong&gt;; the&#xA;  base is Vishnu and the ‘Linga’ is Maheswar a and thus worship of Siva&#xA;  Linga is idyllic)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;or, from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Surely Narayana bhaktaas should be able to attain excellent Places of&#xA;  Mukti, &lt;strong&gt;but who ever think of Maheshwara with dislike would never ever&#xA;  reach any where!&lt;/strong&gt; Those who keep hatred against and find fault with&#xA;  Shiva would be instantly be negated of their endeavours for Vishnu and&#xA;  their dhyaana, homa, Tapas and Yagnaadi Karyaas would be wasted in&#xA;  futility. What is worse, &lt;strong&gt;those who possess negative feelings for&#xA;  Mahadeva should be punished for thousand years of Naraka experiences&lt;/strong&gt;(These are Sri Krishna's words)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ayam Narayano yohameeshwaro naatra samshayah, Naantaram ye&#xA;  prapashyanti teshaam Devamidam param/ Mamaushaa Paramaa&#xA;  Murtirnaaraayana samaahvayaa, Sarva Bhutaatmabhutasthaa Shantaa&#xA;  chaakshara sangjnitaa/&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That Narayana is Ishwara that is me undoubtedly. There is indeed no&#xA;  difference between us and he too is to be worshipped&lt;/strong&gt;. Narayana is&#xA;  ‘Shaanti-Akshara’ imprinted in every body’s heart. &lt;strong&gt;Some imagine&#xA;  otherwise that we are figured other wise and they continue to get into&#xA;  the cycle of birth and death and could never ever attain Mukti.&lt;/strong&gt; Those&#xA;  who visualise me and Narayana as just the same would have no rebirth(these are Parama Shiva's words)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,i can assume that &lt;strong&gt;Ramanuja also knew that(the oneness of Hari and Hara).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But ,i think the king might have &lt;strong&gt;tried to convert him to Shaivism&lt;/strong&gt;(whatever that means,because i find such conversion-ideas out of the realms of Hinduism only).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In that case,Ramanuja &lt;strong&gt;had every right to protest because it was the question of changing one's Ishta Devata forcefully&lt;/strong&gt; which is never acceptable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the need here for Ramanuja to prove that Vishnu is the one true God?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think that Ramanuja was even trying to prove that.Because those who are well versed in the Vedas &lt;strong&gt;know that the number of  Gods or true Gods are more than one.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He simply asserted to the king that he has every right to choose his own Ishata himself.It is none of the businesses of the Chola King to interfere and dictate terms to him on such issues.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,what Ramanuja did was right &lt;strong&gt;in that sense.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But having said that,he himself might have committed the same offence of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15616/ramanujacharyas-brother/15637#15637&quot;&gt;forcing&lt;/a&gt; a deity upon his brother when the later converted to Shaivaism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T10:09:01.607" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T10:09:01.607" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16159" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="248" CreationDate="2016-11-30T09:09:31.427" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Tantras, we find the mention of Navakanyas or Kulanganas, who are generally nine women who come from different backgrounds and represent the total feminine spectrum of the society. This reflects the core essence of a particular verse from Devi Mahatmya, according to which all women are but parts of Parama Prakriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Devī! The eighteen doctrines including Vedas arth thine parts. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;All women, endowed with thine sixty-four Kalās arth thine forms&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Thou alone pervadest the universe from inside and outside as the birth-giver. The literal and esoteric description of the praiseworthy is called eulogy. When thou arth the form of all descriptions, then who arth competent of singing thy eulogy? (Devi Mahatmyah 11:6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unlike masculine sects like Vaishnavism, where authority is in the hands of puritanical clerics, Tantra is all inclusive and acknowledges the sensual, emotional and mercurial sides of human consciousness. Here, a woman can be Striguru, and if she is one among the Kulanganas, the Sadhaka under her tutelage is considered the most fortunate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following verse from Guptasadhana Tantra gives the list of Kulanganas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Națī (dancer/actress), Kapālikā (skull-bearing Tantric), &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Veśyā (prostitute)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, Rajakī (washer woman), Nāpita (barber), Brahmāņī (Brahmin), Śudra, Gopāla (milkmaid) and Mālākāra (gardener); women of these kinds are known as Navakańyās. (Guptasadhana Tantra 1:12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Puja Paddhatis, the idol of Devi Durga must be made from the clay taken from the courtyard of these women, soil taken from seven holy rivers, soil taken from elephant's tusk, soil taken from wild boar's tusk, soil taken from tiger's claw, soil taken from cow's horns &amp;amp; hooves, and soil taken from 51 Shaktipithas. In those places where stone, metal, wood idols or Yantra are worshiped, the soil collected from these places is scattered under the altar on which Devi Ghot and Navapatrika are placed. Other than that, when Kumari Puja is performed on Maha Ashthami, the Kumari should be the daughter of either of these nine Kulanganas and should be between the age groups of 1-16. A Sadhaka can worship one to nine or sixteen Kumaris at a time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now according to the question, why soil from a prostitute's courtyard is taken. The answer to this question would also answer why a prostitute can become a Tantric Guru and why her pubescent daughter is worth of being worshiped as Kumari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we know, a prostitute is visited by many men. She has the autonomy to go with any man she desires. She doesn't see if the man visiting her is a Hindu or a Muslim, a teenager or an octogenarian, a saint or a criminal. She is indifferent to the masculine gaze of our male-dominated puritanical society, that shames away from everything sensual and out of anxiety rather blames woman to be the root cause of desire than admitting its own follies and weakness. All that matters to her are money and pleasure. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So a prostitute verily embodies Kali, the primordial form of Adyashakti, who is indifferent to the masculine gaze of puritanical clerics. She drinks wine mixed with blood, dwells in cremation grounds, sits on a throne made of corpses, roams naked, has disheveled hair and copulates with Bhairava in public. She is that Divine light that challenges the dualities that contaminate human consciousness, and enlightens Her worshipers with the fact that his perception of a rope as a snake due to the influence of darkness, is false. Similarly a prostitute enlightens men with the fact that they are humans irrespective of their caste, creed and religion (read perceived identity) and hence is worth of worship and honour. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PZyN3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PZyN3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Kali coupulating with Mahakala Bhairava upon Shiva&amp;#39;s corpse&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope the question has been duly answered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8335" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T09:09:31.427" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16160" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12404" CreationDate="2016-11-30T10:09:36.947" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranganathaswamy_Temple,_Srirangam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Ranganatha temple&lt;/a&gt; located at &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srirangam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Rangam&lt;/a&gt; in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu is the largest Hindu temple in the world. The largest temple used to be &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Angkorwat&lt;/a&gt;. But the deity there is no longer worshiped. So the Ranganatha temple becomes the largest functioning temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are interested in the temple, read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tirthayatra.org/srirangam-temple/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article. I'm posting below a couple of pics. of the temple and its plan from the website &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tirthayatra.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;tirthayatra.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ALnDH.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ALnDH.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3J0Af.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3J0Af.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-11-30T17:27:09.087" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T17:27:09.087" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16161" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-30T10:13:49.767" Score="3" ViewCount="211" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lothiang was the ‘ansh’ of lord shiva and was born from the ‘Shwet bund’ perspiration and sweat of Lord Shiva when he was performing tandav. What is his story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T10:13:49.767" Title="Who is Lohitang? What is his story?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-11-30T17:46:23.320" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16162" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-11-30T10:17:43.000" Score="4" ViewCount="220" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why it is believed that it will give positive effects only if it is Lord Shiva's own wish to perform Tandava and not of others?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed if someone else ask GOD to do Tandava it gives negative results. Examples : Lohitang's birth when Natyacharya asked GOD Shiva to do Tandava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2017-05-13T03:51:02.607" Title="Why it is believed that it will give positive effects only if it is Lord Shiva's own wish to perform Tandava and not of others?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16163" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12404" CreationDate="2016-11-30T11:06:25.927" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Angkor Wat is largest Temple in world&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we talk in terms of Area, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Angkor Wat&lt;/a&gt; is the largest temple in the world, but there is no religious activity/worship going on in that temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to legend, the construction of Angkor Wat was ordered by Indra to act as a palace for his son Precha Ket Mealea.According to the 13th century Chinese traveler Daguan Zhou, it was believed by some that the temple was constructed in a single night by a divine architect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The temple was gradually captured by Buddhists so it was converted to Buddhist place of worship by the end of 17th Century and now even the Buddhists have abandoned the place and Angkor wat is now just a huge monument of Hindu Glory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The initial design and construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II (ruled 1113 – c. 1150) of Pallava kingdom from Tamil Nadu in South India. Dedicated to Vishnu, it was built as the king's state temple and capital city. As neither the foundation stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it may have been known as &amp;quot;Varah Vishnu-lok&amp;quot; after the presiding deity. Work seems to have ended shortly after the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished.In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer. Thereafter the empire was restored by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (Angkor Thom and the Bayon respectively) a few kilometers to the north.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Toward the end of the 12th century, Angkor Wat gradually transformed from a Hindu center of worship to Buddhism, which continues to the present day. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SriRanganthswamy temple is the largest functioning temple in the world&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The temple is named after its presiding deity Sri Ranganatha Swamy, it is one of the 108 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_Desam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Divya Deshams&lt;/a&gt;. Sri Ranganatha Swamy is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indianetzone.com/48/vyuha_avatara.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Archa&lt;/a&gt; Avatar of Shriman Narayana resting on Adi Shesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Statue of Sri Ranganatha swamy is believed to be the oldest statue of Shriman Narayana, which was given to Lord Brahma for worshipping Shriman Naryana. The staute was then given to Vaivasvat manu and he passed on to his sons of the Solar Dynasty Kshatriya clan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranganathaswamy_Temple,_Srirangam#Legend&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;legend&lt;/a&gt; has it, the Solar Dynasty kings worshipped this statue including Emperor Raghu, Emperor Dasharatha and Maryada Purushottama Rama himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranganathaswamy_Temple,_Srirangam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;More on Ranganathaswamy temple&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_large_Hindu_temples&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;List&lt;/a&gt; of the largest Hindu temples in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T20:16:05.290" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16166" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16147" CreationDate="2016-11-30T18:17:18.380" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Sri Sathya Sai Ashram celebrates Christmas every year in a grand manner. The previous evening usually comprises a program by an International Music Orchestra, that plays Christmas Carols. On Christmas Morning, (proper) Christians and other Hindu devotees from all over the world and India, go in a candle procession around the Ashram. Christmas evening sometimes has a play or cultural program on the life and message of Jesus Christ, or a music program by an international artist. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ashram is decorated colorfully with stars, lights etc. In the last few years, every year, a different country is given charge of the grand decoration activity. Devotees from that country decorate the ashram with volunteers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Sri Sathya Sai Baba was alive, he gave a discourse on Christmas every year, mentioning the good qualities to be learnt from Christ's life and his relationship with God. The celebrations every year, make hardly any distinction between Hindus residing Abroad/India and overseas citizens/born christians, in terms of participation. The activities often begin with a chant of Omkar and end with a chant of Samastha Loka Sukino Bhavanthu and Om Shanthi as on the other Hindu festival days. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srisathyasai.org.in/pages/ashraminfo/Christmas.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.srisathyasai.org.in/pages/ashraminfo/Christmas.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://media.radiosai.org/journals/vol_13/01DEC15/Christmas-Celebrations-at-Prasanthi-Nilayam-2015.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://media.radiosai.org/journals/vol_13/01DEC15/Christmas-Celebrations-at-Prasanthi-Nilayam-2015.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastEditorUserId="4070" LastEditDate="2016-11-30T18:39:11.627" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T18:39:11.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16167" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11217" CreationDate="2016-11-30T19:00:47.260" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Or do these image creators not pay much attention to how Rāma really looked and missed this important characteristic of his?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, you are right. Moreover, we don't know if Vālmīki is using superlative terms in his poetry and did not mean his readers to take all those physical descriptions literally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In many other instances, he uses words such as dīrghabāhu and mahābāhu for Hanumān, Daśaratha, Lakṣmaṇa, Rāvaṇa, Indrajit and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Long-armed Daśaratha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्राकरोन्महायुद्धं राजा दशरथ स्तदा |&#xA;  असुरैश्च &lt;strong&gt;महाबाहुः&lt;/strong&gt; शस्त्रैश्च शकलीकृतः || ९-२-१५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15.&#xA;  tadaa = then; dasharathaH raajaa = king Dasaratha; akarot = created; mahaayuddham = great battle; tatra = there; mahaabaahuH = the long-armed Dasaratha; shakaliiR^itaH cha = was made into pieces; shastraiaH = with weapons; asuraiH cha = by demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, king Dasaratha fought a great battle there. With their weapons, demons made into pieces the &lt;strong&gt;long-armed Dasaratha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Long-armed Hanumān:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स तम् गृह्य &lt;strong&gt;महाबाहुः&lt;/strong&gt; काल आयस परिष्कृतम् || ५-५३-४३&#xA;  रक्षिणः तान् पुनः सर्वान् सूदयामास मारुतिः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;43.&#xA;  saH mahaabaahuH = that long-armed; maarutiH = Hanuma; punaH = again; gR^ihya = taking; tam = that rod; kaalaaasapariSkR^itam = made of iron; suudayaamaasa = killed; sarvaan = all; taan rakSiNaH = tose guards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That &lt;strong&gt;long-armed Hanuma&lt;/strong&gt;, again taking that rod made of iron, killed all those guards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa are long-armed:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;दीर्घ बाहू&lt;/strong&gt; विशालाक्षौ शर चाप असि धारिणौ |&#xA;  कस्य न स्यात् भयम् दृष्ट्वा हि एतौ सुर सुत उपमौ || ४-२-२०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;20.&#xA;  diirgha baahuu vishaala akshau = lengthy arms, broad eyed ones; shara chaapa asi dhaariNau = arrow, bow, sword, wielders of; kasya na syaat bhayam = to whom, will not, be there, scare; dR^iSTvaa etau = on seeing, these two; sura suta upamau = Divinity's, sons, in simile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Lengthy are their arms&lt;/strong&gt;, broad are their eyes and they are the wielders of arrows, bows and swords... and on seeing them, to whom there will be no scare? These two are like the sons of some divinity...&quot; Sugreeva thus spoke to Hanuma. [4-2-20]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Long-armed Lakṣmaṇa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हन्तुकामस्य मे बाष्पं चक्षुश् चैव निरुध्यते |&#xA;  तदेवैष &lt;strong&gt;महाबाहुर्लक्ष्मणः&lt;/strong&gt; शमयिष्यति || ८९-६-१८&#xA;  वानरा घ्नन्तुं सम्भूय भृत्यानस्य समीपगान् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18.&#xA;  me = my; chakShuH = yes; nirudhyati = are clouded; baaShpam = with tears; hantukaamasya = even when I wish to kill him; eShaH = this; mahaabaahuH = long-armed; lakShmaNaH eva = Lakshmana alone; shamayiShyati = will finish; tam = him; vaanaraaH = O monkeys!; sambhuuya = all of you together; ghnata destroy; bhR^ityaan = his servents; samiipagaan = standing beside; asya = of him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My eyes are getting clouded with tear, even when I think of killing him. This &lt;strong&gt;long-armed Lakshmana&lt;/strong&gt; alone will finish him. O Monkeys! All of you, together, kill his servants standing beside him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Long-armed Rāvaṇa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तम् उद्वीक्ष्य &lt;strong&gt;महाबाहुः&lt;/strong&gt; पिन्ग अक्षम् पुरतः स्थितम् |&#xA;  रोषेण महता आविष्टो रावणो लोक रावणः || ५-५०-१&#xA;  स राजा रोष ताम्र अक्षः प्रहस्तम् मन्त्रि सत्तमम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.&#xA;  saH raavaNaH = That Ravana; mahaabaahuH = the long armed; lokaraavaNaH = who causes the people to cry; udviikSya = looking up; tam piN^gaakSam = at that mokey; sthitam = standing; purataH = in front of him; mahataa kopena aaviSTah = affected with violent anger; shaN^kaahR^itmaa = with his mind seized with suspicion; dadhyau = speenlated; kapiindram = about Hanuma the formost of monkeys; aavR^itam = who was invested; tejasaa = with splendour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That &lt;strong&gt;Ravana, the long-armed&lt;/strong&gt;, who caused people to cry, looking up at that monkey standing in front of him, was affected with violent anger, having his mind seized with suspicion, speculated (as follows) about Hanuma, the jewel among the monkeys, who was invested with splendour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from few physical characteristics, Vālmīki also attributes &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8915/2995&quot;&gt;16 nonphysical qualities&lt;/a&gt; to Rāma. Imagine an artist trying to incorporate all these in his painting; I'm not sure if we will like the final image.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-11-30T19:00:47.260" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16169" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16057" CreationDate="2016-12-01T05:11:24.977" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jaya Nitaai!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Gaudiya Vaishnav philosophy, Tulsi Maharani is not a Jivatma at all. She is a manifestation of Krsna's Swarupa Shakti (because she is an amsa of Radharani). This is because, Tulsi is an expansion of Vrndadevi who is one of the gopis of Vrndavana. Being a manifestation of Swarupa Shakti, She therefore possesses the powers of Parabrahman Sri Krsna (such as the ability to manifest into multiple bodies but retain Her identity).Tulsi specifically is described as the eyes and ears of Vrndadevi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Brahma vaivarta Purana it is described that when Lord Narayana descended into the form of the Shaligram Shila, Vrnda devi also descended in the form of the plant Tulsi to serve Him. She is not Jiva Tattva, but Shakti Tattva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the commentary to Srimad Bhagavatam, verse 10.39.53-55 (where Lord Krsna's potentiates are mentioned), Srila Vishwanatha Cakravarti gives the following commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri is the potency of wealth; Pushti that of strength; Gir, knowledge; Kanti, beauty; Kirti, fame; and Tushti, renunciation. These are the Lord's six opulences. Ila is His bhu-sakti, also known as sandhini, the internal potency of whom the element earth is an expansion. &lt;strong&gt;Urja is His internal potency for performing pastimes; she expands as the tulasi plant in this world.&lt;/strong&gt; Vidya and Avidya [knowledge and ignorance] are external potencies who cause the living entities' liberation and bondage, respectively. Sakti is His internal pleasure potency, hladini, and Maya is an internal potency who is the basis of Vidya and Avidya. The word ca implies the presence of the Lord's marginal energy, the jiva-sakti, who is subordinate to Maya. Lord Vishnu was being served by all these personified potencies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the 7th verse of His Vrndashtakam, Vishwanatha Cakravarti Thakur also says a similar thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tvam kirttyase satvata-tantra-vidbhir&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;lilabhidhana kila krsna-saktih&#xA;  tavaiva murtis tulasi nr-loke&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  vrnde! numaste caranaravindam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Vrinda! Highly qualified sages, who are well-versed in the Tantras of the mode of pure Goodness (the scriptures written by the Lord's pure devotees), have praised you as being the &lt;strong&gt;personified energy of Lord Krishna known as lila-sakti (the energy that helps perform His pastimes). You are also very famous in this world for your appearance here in the form of the tree known as Srimati Tulasi Devi.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore we offer our most respectful obeisances unto your beautiful lotus feet.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in conclusion, Tulsi Maharani is not Jiva Tattva, but Shakti Tattva. Shakti Tattva, can manifest in multiple bodies with one identity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4381" LastActivityDate="2016-12-01T05:11:24.977" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16171" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-01T05:35:27.170" Score="6" ViewCount="403" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen till date that in Hindu wedding ceremony five brothers are asked or invited to do some ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They just drop some piece of tree in their sister's jholi one by one and some hymns or mantras are sung by officiating priest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the law of karma, If you give something along with mantra, there must be some reason behind good wish for sister.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I want to know what is that ritual and what are the results of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why five brothers of bride are invited in &quot;chori/mandap&quot; while marriage and what ritual is performed and for what results?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/p2uJq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/p2uJq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-01T10:18:44.833" LastActivityDate="2017-03-01T10:18:44.833" Title="Why five brothers of bride are invited in &quot;chori/mandap&quot; while marriage is going on and what ritual is performed for what results?" Tags="|rituals|marriage|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16172" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16036" CreationDate="2016-12-01T06:04:21.533" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word indrajAla philosophically mean the cosmic interconnection between every other entity. First mention of which is found in &lt;em&gt;Atharva&lt;/em&gt;. Physically it may also mean other things like &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;magic&lt;/em&gt; and deceptive weapon(s).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva veda&lt;/strong&gt;'s verse has been quoted by an earlier answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-7-7/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata Gita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (7.7),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mattaḥ parataraḿ nānyat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kiñcid asti dhanañ-jaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;mayi sarvam idaḿ protaḿ&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankara's commentary of the above verse states,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;... I [Krishna] Myself am the source of the world. Since this is so, therefore, all; this, all things, the Universe; is strung, woven, connected on Me; like cloth in the warp, and like peals on a string.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Panchadasi.by.Vidyaranya.Swami.Hindi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidyaranya's Panchadasi&lt;/strong&gt; (7:174)&lt;/a&gt; (An advaitin uses the words in lieu of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;indra-jAlam&lt;/strong&gt; idaM dvaitam achintya-rachanAtvataH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ityavismarato hAniH kA vA prArabdha-bhogataH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Never forgetting that the world is unreal and its cause unascertainable, the wise man stands secure from harm in the midst of the enjoyment of his fructifying karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This meaning of &lt;em&gt;indrajAlam&lt;/em&gt; is repeated in &lt;strong&gt;Agyana Bodhini&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Avadhuta Gita&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yoga Vashishta&lt;/strong&gt; (104.1), Vashista tells RAma,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;atra te shR^iNu vakShyAmi vR^ittAntaM imam uttamaM |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jAgatI &lt;strong&gt;hendrajAla&lt;/strong&gt; shrIsh chittAyattA yathA sthitA || 104.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now you hear me narrate this excellent story which shows the world to be like an indrajAla, i.e, illusory wonder resting on the consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/49808/14/14_chapter%207.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kautilya's Arthasashtra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;... King should always endeavour to  achieve  success through all possible means, i.e., &lt;em&gt;sama&lt;/em&gt; (the use of friendly measures), &lt;em&gt;danam&lt;/em&gt; (the payment of money), &lt;em&gt;bheda&lt;/em&gt; (creating dissensions among the alles of an adversary), &lt;em&gt;danda&lt;/em&gt; (war), &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; (stratagem or treachery), &lt;em&gt;upeksha&lt;/em&gt; (indifference) and &lt;em&gt;indrajalam&lt;/em&gt;  (deceit).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-01T06:04:21.533" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16173" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="916" CreationDate="2016-12-01T08:23:47.573" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from the verse found in Triyugi Narayan Mani's answer above there is another verse in the Manu Smriti that clearly condemns pre-marital sex.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that only virgins are fit for marriages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.226. &lt;strong&gt;The nuptial texts are applied solely to virgins&lt;/strong&gt;, (and) nowhere among men to females &lt;strong&gt;who have lost their virginity, for such (females)&#xA;  are excluded from religious ceremonies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NrwZI.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NrwZI.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Parashara Smriti declares that unmarried maidens(Kumari) becoming mothers are traits of Kali Yuga ,when Adharma(irreligion) will overthrow Dharma(religion).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;30 &amp;amp; 31. &quot;Religion has been overthrown by irreligion ; and truth&#xA;  indeed by that which is false ; kings have been overpowered by thieves&#xA;  ; males have been subdued by females ; the worship of fire is dying&#xA;  out ; respect to superiors is ceasing to be seen ; &lt;strong&gt;and maidens are&#xA;  becoming mothers : this is what invariably happens in the age of Kali&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5ZmRg.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5ZmRg.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-12-01T08:23:47.573" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15684" CreationDate="2016-12-01T08:41:44.793" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prostitution is &lt;strong&gt;always&lt;/strong&gt; condemned in Hindu Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are few verses from Parashara and the Manu Smritis:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;66.By selling Wine and meat,by consuming prohibited foods,&lt;strong&gt;cohabiting with prostitutes a shoodra falls from his caste&lt;/strong&gt;.(Parashara Smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9TeJj.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9TeJj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;12&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On carnal intercourse with&lt;/strong&gt; a beast, or &lt;strong&gt;a prostitute and the like&lt;/strong&gt;, or with a female buffalo, or with a female camel, or with a she&#xA;  monkey, or with a sow, or a female ass, &lt;strong&gt;one should perform the&#xA;  Prajapatya penance.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dcd5Z.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dcd5Z.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the Manu Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.84. &lt;strong&gt;Let him not accept presents from&lt;/strong&gt; a king who is not descended from the Kshatriya race, nor from butchers, oil-manufacturers, and&#xA;  publicans, nor &lt;strong&gt;from those who subsist by the gain of prostitutes&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.85. One oil-press is as (bad) as ten slaughter-houses, one tavern as (bad as) ten oil-presses, &lt;strong&gt;one brothel as (bad as) ten taverns&lt;/strong&gt;, one&#xA;  king as (bad as) ten brothels&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UnVs8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UnVs8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Were there any instances where gods were directly involved in any such thing ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know of any such instances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-12-01T08:41:44.793" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16175" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-01T10:05:31.060" Score="5" ViewCount="330" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shrimad Bhagwat Mahapuran&lt;/strong&gt;, Pancham Skandha , Chapter 16&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While describing the character of Mahārāja Priyavrata and his descendants, Śukadeva Gosvāmī also described Meru Mountain and the planetary system known as Bhū-maṇḍala. Bhū-maṇḍala is like a lotus flower, and its seven islands are compared to the whorl of the lotus. The place known as Jambūdvīpa is in the middle of that whorl. In Jambūdvīpa there is a mountain known as Sumeru, which is made of solid gold. The southern side of the land is known as Ilāvṛta-varṣa. To the south of Sumeru are the mountains &lt;strong&gt;Kailāsa&lt;/strong&gt; and Karavīra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same chapter it also says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When all those solid fruits fall from such a height, they break, and the sweet, fragrant juice within them flows out and becomes increasingly more fragrant as it mixes with other scents. That juice cascades from the mountain in waterfalls and &lt;strong&gt;becomes a river called Aruṇodā, which flows pleasantly through the eastern side of Ilāvṛta&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kailāsa is to the south of Sumeru parvat, Aruṇodā is in the eastern side and In my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16119/how-can-jamuna-river-be-in-india-when-shastras-say-otherwise&quot;&gt;How can Jamuna river be in India when shastras say otherwise?&lt;/a&gt;, I have shown that Aruṇodā (also known as Arun river) is in Nepal. If this is the case, &lt;strong&gt;Which one is the real Kailāsa?&lt;/strong&gt; The one in Tibet or the one that touches Aruṇ river in eastern Nepal? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/16&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note: I do not wish to offend anyone regarding my question. Our current thirthas are as holy regardless of their authenticity and I respect their location. Being a Hindu, I would never disrespect any thirth just because they do not match with shastras. Many thirthas have changed locations and this is why I try to find their original location. Sorry if I have offended anybody.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8302" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-18T02:31:50.967" LastActivityDate="2018-11-18T02:31:50.967" Title="Is Kailāsa mansarovar actually in Tibet, China?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|bhagavata-purana|rivers|geography|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16176" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-01T11:56:23.990" Score="8" ViewCount="1891" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read the Bhagavad-Gita: As It Is once before, and I would like to continue reading it. However, I find it very distracting to read it with the multi-page Purport sections between each verse. I love the Purport sections, but I wish I could read the Gita straight through without turning so many pages! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a copy of the Gita: As It Is that has no Purport interruptions? Or is this the correct / only way - to have detailed explanations between each verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If not, can someone recommend a version that is just as strong a translation but without the Purport?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8078" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-01T18:56:06.800" LastActivityDate="2016-12-01T19:01:29.620" Title="Bhagavad-Gita: As It Is - version without interruptions?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16177" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16176" CreationDate="2016-12-01T12:39:26.157" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Issue with many such Gita-s is the translation problem. These translations were done with scarce resources &amp;amp; less availability of Sanskrit experts. In the current age of internet, this issue is resolved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are few strategies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Use &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita supersite&lt;/a&gt; and choose the translations &amp;amp; purports you want. Only issue is, one need to go 1 by 1. IMO, translations by Gambhirananda is the closest among others &amp;amp; are neutral.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Use &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedabase&lt;/a&gt;. Ignore translations &amp;amp; purports, but just look at breaking of each Sanskrit word &amp;amp; translate it yourself with &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://spokensanskrit.de&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purports are typically the interpretation of the author. You should read those, only if your mentality matches with the author. Otherwise interpret yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;IMPO, whichever way Gita is interpreted, is worth. The inclination is important. Interestingly&#xA;  - Some Nazi-s had their own interpretation of Gita, while committing crimes.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - Some Muslim clerics have used Krishna's &quot;do war&quot; as a defence for some controversial  war related quotes of Quran. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2016-12-01T12:39:26.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16178" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15429" CreationDate="2016-12-01T13:32:16.153" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It looks like Balarama was aware of His divinity. Balarama is avatar of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2820/3500&quot;&gt;Adishesha who is Lord Vishnu Himself&lt;/a&gt;. So, it's like Lord Vishnu killing Romaharshana. Even it is virtuous or a boon to get killed by Lord. So, Romaharshana (Suta) was blessed for getting killed by Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways, Balarama mentions the reason in detail in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-viii/chapter-19/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 19 Setu Mahatmya Brahma Khanda of Skanda Purana.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;19-26. He saw Suta, the disciple of Vyasa, seated on a lofty seat.&amp;quot; He&#xA;did not bow down to him. He did not get up. He did not join the palms&#xA;in reverence. He continued to be seated. But on seeing him the&#xA;Brahmanas had bowed down their heads. Observing this, the son of&#xA;Rohini, became furious with Suta, the most excellent one conversant&#xA;with the Puranas. (Then he said thus:) “Why does this Anuloma born&#xA;(i.e. born of a woman inferior in caste to the father) censurable Suta&#xA;occupy a lofty seat in the middle of the sages. &lt;strong&gt;This is not at all&#xA;proper. We are the protectors of Dharma. But he has insulted us very&#xA;much. He does not get up. He dares to be seated continuously. He does&#xA;not pay respect to us. He has read the Puranas under the supervision&#xA;of Dvaipayana. He has learned many scriptures on Dharmasastra along&#xA;with the legendary narratives. Still he does not make obeisance to me&#xA;even after seeing me, nor does he leave his seat&lt;/strong&gt;. Dwaipayana has many&#xA;great disciples, the Brahmanas Paila and others. They will not commit&#xA;such an offence as this fellow does. Hence I shall kill this wicked&#xA;and senseless fellow. &lt;strong&gt;Indeed it is to restrain wicked ones that I&#xA;have come down to the terrestrial world. Undoubtedly this vicious one&#xA;will attain purity on being killed by me.&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Balarama purified Suta by killing him. Not only He purified, He also gave the boon. So, there's no need to regret. However, due to rules of world and physical body he donned, He incurred the sin of Brahmana slaughter. He expiated the Brahmana sin by taking dip in Lakshmana tirtha in Rameswaram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;70-73. On being told thus, Rama went to the Gandhamadana mountain, O&#xA;eminent sages, and reached Laksmanatirtha. The lord with ploughshare&#xA;for his weapon took his holy bath in that Tirtha along with the&#xA;requisite Sanhkalpa rites. Then he gave away monetary gifts,&#xA;foodgrains, cows and plots of land.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;At that time an unembodied speech said to Rama: &amp;quot;Now, your sin of Brahmana's slaughter has been eradicated completely, O Rama. You need&#xA;not have any doubt about this. Go happily to your city.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; On hearing&#xA;it, Balabhadra praised that Tirtha. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;74-76. Thereafter Madhava (i.e. Bala) took his bath in all the local&#xA;Tirthas. He then bathed in Dhanuskoti and worshipped Ramanatha (Lord&#xA;Shiva). Having got rid of all his sins, he went to his city Dvaraka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actions done by Lord are called &lt;em&gt;leela&lt;/em&gt; which can't be understood easily with our limited intelligence sometimes. We need to expand our consciousness (transcendental consciousness) to understand them better.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-01T17:21:21.227" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16179" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16180" CreationDate="2016-12-01T16:20:23.433" Score="10" ViewCount="6222" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are all the curses given by sage Durvasa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If possible list all such curses and also the persons to whom the curses were given. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7580" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-02T07:35:26.810" LastActivityDate="2017-05-13T20:46:20.810" Title="What are all the curses given by sage Durvasa?" Tags="|puranas|rishi|curse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16180" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16179" CreationDate="2016-12-01T18:20:09.720" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know of four stories in Hindu scripture involving Durvasa cursing or threatening to curse someone:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana describes how Durvasa gave Indra a garland, and Indra's elephant Airavatam threw it on the ground.  So Durvasa cursed Indra and the gods to lose their powers, which is what necessitated the famous Churning of the Ocean to obtain Amrita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Durvásas, a portion of Śankara (Śiva), was wandering over the earth; when be beheld, in the hands of a nymph of air, a garland of flowers culled from the trees of heaven, the fragrant odour of which spread throughout the forest, and enraptured all who dwelt beneath its shade. The sage, who was then possessed by religious phrensy, when he beheld that garland, demanded it of the graceful and full-eyed nymph, who, bowing to him reverentially, immediately presented it to him. He, as one frantic, placed the chaplet upon his brow, and thus decorated resumed his path; when he beheld (Indra) the husband of Śachí, the ruler of the three worlds, approach, seated on his infuriated elephant Airávata, and attended by the gods. The phrensied sage, taking from his head the garland of flowers, amidst which the bees collected ambrosia, threw it to the king of the gods, who caught it, and suspended it on the brow of Airávata, where it shone like the river Jáhnaví, glittering on the dark summit of the mountain Kailása. The elephant, whose eyes were dim with inebriety, and attracted by the smell, took hold of the garland with his trunk, and cast it on the earth. That chief of sages, Durvásas, was highly incensed at this disrespectful treatment of his gift, and thus angrily addressed the sovereign of the immortals: &quot;Inflated with the intoxication of power, Vásava, vile of spirit, thou art an idiot not to respect the garland I presented to thee, which was the dwelling of Fortune (Śrí). Thou hast not acknowledged it as a largess; thou hast not bowed thyself before me; thou hast not placed the wreath upon thy head, with thy countenance expanding with delight. Now, fool, for that thou hast not infinitely prized the garland that I gave thee, thy sovereignty over the three worlds shall be subverted. Thou confoundest me, Śakra, with other Brahmans, and hence I have suffered disrespect from thy arrogance: but in like manner as thou hast cast the garland I gave thee down on the ground, so shall thy dominion over the universe be whelmed in ruin. Thou hast offended one whose wrath is dreaded by all created things, king of the gods, even me, by thine excessive pride.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Descending hastily from his elephant, Mahendra endeavoured to appease the sinless Durvásas: but to the excuses and prostrations of the thousand-eyed, the Muni answered, &quot;I am not of a compassionate heart, nor is forgiveness congenial to my nature. Other Munis may relent; but know me, Śakra, to be Durvásas. Thou hast in vain been rendered insolent by Gautama and others; for know me, Indra, to be Durvásas, whose nature is a stranger to remorse. Thou hast been flattered by Vaśisht́ha and other tender-hearted saints, whose loud praises (lave made thee so arrogant, that thou hast insulted me. But who is there in the universe that can behold my countenance, dark with frowns, and surrounded by my blazing hair, and not tremble? What need of words? I will not forgive, whatever semblance of humility thou mayest assume.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam describes how Ambarisha was engaging in an Ekadasi fast in honor of Vishnu here, and Durvasa came to him, asking for food. Then Durvasa went to take a bath, and Ambarisha had some water before Durvasa came back because it was important to break the fast at the right time. Durvasa was furious, and created a demon to kill Ambarisha, but then Vishnu destroyed the demon with his Sudarshana Chakra, which began to chase Durvasa until he fell at Ambarisha's feet:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After giving these cows, the King first sumptuously fed all the brāhmaṇas, and when they were fully satisfied, he was about to observe the end of Ekādaśī, with their permission, by breaking the fast. Exactly at that time, however, Durvāsā Muni, the great and powerful mystic, appeared on the scene as an uninvited guest. After standing up to receive Durvāsā Muni, King Ambarīṣa offered him a seat and paraphernalia of worship. Then, sitting at his feet, the King requested the great sage to eat. Durvāsā Muni gladly accepted the request of Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, but to perform the regulative ritualistic ceremonies he went to the river Yamunā. There he dipped into the water of the auspicious Yamunā and meditated upon the impersonal Brahman. In the meantime, only a muhūrta of the Dvādaśī day was left on which to break the fast. Consequently, it was imperative that the fast be broken immediately. In this dangerous situation, the King consulted learned brāhmaṇas. The King said: “To transgress the laws of respectful behavior toward the brāhmaṇas is certainly a great offense. On the other hand, if one does not observe the breaking of the fast within the time of Dvādaśī, there is a flaw in one’s observance of the vow. Therefore, O brāhmaṇas, if you think that it will be auspicious and not irreligious, I shall break the fast by drinking water.” In this way, after consulting with the brāhmaṇas, the King reached this decision, for according to brahminical opinion, drinking water may be accepted as eating and also as not eating. O best of the Kuru dynasty, after he drank some water, King Ambarīṣa, meditating upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead within his heart, waited for the return of the great mystic Durvāsā Muni. After executing the ritualistic ceremonies to be performed at noon, Durvāsā returned from the bank of the Yamunā. The King received him well, offering all respects, but Durvāsā Muni, by his mystic power, could understand that King Ambarīṣa had drunk water without his permission. Still hungry, Durvāsā Muni, his body trembling, his face curved and his eyebrows crooked in a frown, angrily spoke as follows to King Ambarīṣa, who stood before him with folded hands. &quot;Alas, just see the behavior of this cruel man! He is not a devotee of Lord Viṣṇu. Being proud of his material opulence and his position, he considers himself God. Just see how he has transgressed the laws of religion. Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, you have invited me to eat as a guest, but instead of feeding me, you yourself have eaten first. Because of your misbehavior, I shall show you something to punish you.&quot; As Durvāsā Muni said this, his face became red with anger. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Uprooting a bunch of hair from his head, he created a demon resembling the blazing fire of devastation to punish Mahārāja Ambarīṣa. Taking a trident in his hand and making the surface of the earth tremble with his footsteps, that blazing creature came before Mahārāja Ambarīṣa. But the King, upon seeing him, was not at all disturbed and did not move even slightly from his position. As fire in the forest immediately burns to ashes an angry snake, so, by the previous order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, His disc, the Sudarśana cakra, immediately burnt to ashes the created demon to protect the Lord’s devotee. Upon seeing that his own attempt had failed and that the Sudarśana cakra was moving toward him, Durvāsā Muni became very frightened and began to run in all directions to save his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-118&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana describes how when Rama was meeting with Yama and Lakshmana was standing guard, Durvasa threatened to curse all of Ayodhya unless Lakshmana let him see Rama immediately.  To avoid the curse Lakshmana interrupted Rama's meeting, which ultimately led to Rama being forced to disown Lakshmana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While Rama and Kala were thus conversing with one another, the great ascetic Durvasa arrived at the gate for seeing Rama and approaching Lakshmana said: O Saumitri, do thou soon take me to Rama; my time goes away, so do thou take me first.&quot; Hearing the words of the ascetic, Lakshmana, the slayer of enemies worshipping the feet of that high souled one, said &quot;O illustrious Sir, kindly mention thy business. What is thy object ?Order me what I am to do. Rama is engaged in some business so kindly wait here for some time.&quot; Hearing those words that foremost of Rishis, Durvasa, impatient with rage, said with blood red eyes: O Saumitri, if dost thou not go even this very moment and communicate unto Rama my arrival, I shall impricate thee, Rama, Bharata, Satrughna, your sons and grand sons. I shall curse also thy kingdom and cities. I cannot any longer restrain my growing fire.&quot; Hearing those dreadful and resolute words of the Rishi, Lakshmana thought within himself: My own destruction is far more desirable than that of all.&quot; Having thus resolved Lakshmana approached Rama and communicated unto him the intelligence. Heaing the words of Lakshmana and having bade adieu, unto Kala, Rama soon came out and saw Atri s son. And having saluted that great and powerful ascetic he with folded hands, said &quot;What is thine business.&quot; Hearing the words of Rama, the highly powerful Durvasa, the foremost of Munis, said. &quot;Hear, O Rama fond of virtue. For a thousand years I have carried on the vow of fasting. It has terminated to day, so do thou give me food as much as possible.&quot; Hearing those words Rama was greatly delighted and gave proper food unto that ascetic. And feasting on that nectar like sweet food, Durvasa, the foremost of Rishis, thanked Rama and repaired to his own hermitage. Thereupon remembering the words of Kala, Rama was greatly sorry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/GPWA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Vasudeva Mahatmya describes an incarnation of Vishnu who will be born in the Kali Yuga accompanied by sages who will be born as ordinary humans due to &quot;the curse of Munis&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the Asuras killed by me as Krishna and by Arjuna in the battles, will promote and establish Adharma (unrighteous practices) on the earth, I, sage Narayana, shall be born on the earth from my devotee Dharmadeva in the land of Koshala, as a Brahmana singer of Saman hymns. O Aja (Brahma), establishing the boly Dharma I shall be the protector of sages who will be born as men by the curse of Munis (other sages) as well as Uddhava, O child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6623/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, followers of Swaminarayan believe that this prophecy is about him, and they also believe that the Munis mentioned include Durvasa.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now there are some additional stories of Durvasa cursing people which do not have a basis in Hindu scripture.  There's the famous story of Dushyanta losing his memories of Shakuntala due to a curse of Durvasa, for instance.  Also, the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata describes how Duryodhana brought Durvasa to the Pandavas in an attempt to get Durvasa to get angry and curse the Pandavas, but Durvasa was never angered in the first place due to Krishna's intervention.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-12-01T18:20:09.720" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16181" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16176" CreationDate="2016-12-01T18:55:51.310" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Is there a copy of the Gīta that has no purport interruptions?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Try &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7T0zBCVuV7cUDRJNTJIX01obG8/view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; translation of Bhagavad-gītā by Gorakhpur Gita Press on Google Drive:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7T0zBCVuV7cUDRJNTJIX01obG8/view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7T0zBCVuV7cUDRJNTJIX01obG8/view&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You cannot download or print it but you can &lt;strong&gt;read it for free&lt;/strong&gt; at that link.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's a sample from the free e-book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/owC52.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/owC52.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Why have detailed explanations between each verse?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isn't the objective of any sacred text that you pick up to read or any other book for that matter to grasp complete and total knowledge from it? In the case of Gīta, what if you do not understand a verse (example: see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8735/2995&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11527/2995&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11520/2995&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;)? Would you google for an in-depth explanation of the verse or rather have it all explained in the same book you were originally reading? The purport or commentary on the verses you find in books are meant for more advanced readers of the Gīta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more explanations, see answers under &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5404/2995&quot;&gt;How to start reading the Bhagavad-gītā?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;You can find other free e-books from Gorakhpur Gita Press in English and other languages at the link below.&lt;/sub&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapress.org/e-books.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://gitapress.org/e-books.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;DISCLAIMER: I'm not related to Gorakhpur Gita Press in anyway nor is this answer an advertisement.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-12-01T19:01:29.620" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16182" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16188" CreationDate="2016-12-01T21:06:04.217" Score="18" ViewCount="3863" Body="&lt;p&gt;When people cannot logically explain certain actions of Gods, their incarnations, Saints, Ṛṣis etc., they often use the term &lt;code&gt;leela&lt;/code&gt; which is sometimes spelled as &lt;code&gt;līlā&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;lIlA&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think the word &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?beginning=0%20&amp;amp;tinput=%20leela&amp;amp;trans=Translate&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;translates to&lt;/a&gt; play, sport or pastimes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there a scriptural definition of this word līlā?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are there any examples from scriptures where certain actions are classified as līlās?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If an individual performs a certain action which some people view as dharma and others view the same action as adharma, do scriptures allow the person to call his action &lt;em&gt;leela&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-01T23:28:40.587" LastActivityDate="2017-10-14T02:26:06.980" Title="What exactly is a leela (लीला)? Is there a scriptural definition of leela (लीला)?" Tags="|scripture|gods|dharma|saint|leela|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16183" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-12-01T21:42:41.507" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The objective of many of their miracles was or is to convey the teaching in a language that their disciple could best understand. However, due to the fact that people differ in their capacity and ability to learn and interpret the happenings around them, the same leela will often have different imports to different disciples and observers. Each disciple draws his own conclusion and learns a lesson for himself from one common context or word of the sadguru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Leela&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Leela&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-01T21:42:41.507" LastActivityDate="2016-12-01T21:42:41.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16184" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-12-01T21:42:41.507" Score="0" Body="Leela means an act or play. Leela were actions of Bhagawan, Saints, Sants, and great masters that were used to teach their disciples different principles and subjects." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-01T21:42:41.507" LastActivityDate="2016-12-01T21:42:41.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16185" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16260" CreationDate="2016-12-01T23:06:59.907" Score="13" ViewCount="990" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is (or what are) the core message(s) of the Bhagavad-gītā?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are some verses from Bhagavad-gītā, that one can refer to, to enrich life in general?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;This question is inspired by &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14706/2995&quot;&gt;Core messages of Ramayana and verses from Ramayana that one can refer to, to enrich life in general&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T02:24:27.783" Title="What is the core message of the Bhagavad-gītā? What are some verses from Bhagavad-gītā that one can refer to, to enrich life in general?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|life|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16186" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-01T23:49:23.073" Score="4" ViewCount="120" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10016.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sauptika Parva section 16&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaishampayana said, &amp;quot;Understanding that that weapon was thrown (into the wombs of the Pandava women) by Drona's son of sinful deeds, Hrishikesha, with a cheerful heart, said these words unto him: ‘&lt;strong&gt;A certain brahmana of pious vows&lt;/strong&gt;, beholding Virata's daughter who is now daughter-in-law to Arjuna, while she was at Upaplavya, &lt;strong&gt;said&lt;/strong&gt;, &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;While the Kuru line will become extinct, a son will be born to thee.&lt;/strong&gt; This thy son for that reason, will be called by the name of Parikshit.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The words of &lt;strong&gt;that pious man&lt;/strong&gt; shall become true: the Pandavas shall have a son called Parikshit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unto Govinda, that foremost one of the Satvata race, while he was saying these words, Drona's son, filled with wrath, replied, saying, ‘This, O Keshava, that thou sayest from thy partiality for the Pandavas, shall not happen. O thou of eyes like lotus-petals, my words cannot but be fulfilled. Uplifted by me, this weapon of mine shall fall on the foetus that is in the womb of Virata's daughter, upon that foetus which thou, O Krishna, art desirous of protecting.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;certain brāhmaṇa of pious vows&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;that pious man&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; in the above conversation between Kṛṣṇa and Aśvatthāmā? Does this brāhmaṇa have a name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-11-01T09:14:13.140" Title="Who is the 'certain brāhmaṇa of pious vows' in this conversation between Kṛṣṇa and Aśvatthāmā?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|ashwatthama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16187" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16153" CreationDate="2016-12-02T00:40:42.960" Score="4" Body="&lt;h3&gt;How to explain to children about Rama and Krishna, when complete celibacy is demanded of Hindu sannyāsins?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For proper functioning of society, procreation is necessary and everyone cannot and should not renounce the worldly life to become a sannyāsi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;em&gt;An Essay on Hindu Ethics&lt;/em&gt; by Swami Nikhilananda (Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, NY):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The debt to the Rishis, from whom we inherit our spiritual culture, is paid through regular study of the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The debt to the ancestors, from whom we have received our physical bodies, is paid through the procreation of children, ensuring the preservation of the line.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part18/chap1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A man needs money and material goods to live in this world. As for kāma or carnal desire, it is needed so that children may be born according to their past karma. Until we have lived out our karma we too will have to be in this world. In this way if we want to &lt;strong&gt;give a chance to others&lt;/strong&gt;, we have to earn money and experience kāma so that they these &lt;strong&gt;others may be born again&lt;/strong&gt;. We need householders to feed sannyasins who have given up karma. It would not be practical for all people in this world to become ascetics. &lt;strong&gt;The śāstras extol householders as the backbone of society since they live, or are expected to live, according to the dictates of dharma and fulfill the requirements of student-bachelors and ascetics.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Bhīṣma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b048.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains&lt;/a&gt; in Śānti-parva of Mahābhārata, how a married person can remain a brahmacārī by following certain rules:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yudhishthira said&lt;/strong&gt;, 'How can one practising such penance come to be regarded as one that is always fasting or &lt;strong&gt;as one that is ever devoted to the vow of Brahmacharya&lt;/strong&gt;, or as one that is always subsisting upon sacrificial remnants or as one that is ever regardful of guests?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhishma said&lt;/strong&gt;, 'He will be regarded as one that is always fasting if he eats once during the day and once during the night at the fixed hours without eating anything during the interval.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Such a Brahmana, by &lt;strong&gt;always speaking the truth&lt;/strong&gt; and by &lt;strong&gt;adhering always to wisdom&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;by going to his wife only in her season and never at other times, becomes a Brahmacharin (celibate).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By never eating meat of animals not killed for sacrifice, he will become a strict vegetarian.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By always becoming charitable he will become ever pure, and by abstaining from sleep during the day he will become one that is always wakeful. Know, O Yudhishthira, that that man who eats only after having fed his servants and guests becomes an eater always of ambrosia. That Brahmana who never eats till gods and guests are fed, wins, by such abstention, heaven itself. He is said to subsist upon sacrificial remnants, who eats only what remains after feeding the gods, the Pitris, servants, and guests.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Such men win numberless regions of felicity in next life. To their homes come, with Brahman himself, the gods and the Apsaras. They who share their food with the deities and the Pitris pass their days in constant happiness with their sons and grandsons and at last, leaving off this body, attain to a very high end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-02T00:47:43.690" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T00:47:43.690" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16188" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16182" CreationDate="2016-12-02T01:51:27.647" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, a question arises:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;How or why is the name or concept of Leela relevant in Hinduism?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's because Brahman is defined as fully omniscient and omnipotent by many Vedic verses. Brahman is defined as being beyond mind and hence to be understood by Neti Neti or Not-this Not-this. So for this powerful and omniscient Brahman there cannot be any purpose to create this world (as Brahman is all powerful at the first place). So, the creation of this world by Brahman is defined as just being playful sport or Leela of Brahman. Just as we playfully play with children without any purpose similar is the case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Is there a scriptural definition of this word līlā?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Leela is explained itself in the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc63661.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutra 2.1.33&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; which states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;लोकवत्तु लीलाकैवल्यम्&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Lokavattu &lt;strong&gt;lilakaivalyam&lt;/strong&gt; II.1.33 &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;But (Brahman's creative activity) is mere sport, such as is seen in the world (or ordinary life).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lokavat: as in the world, as in ordinary life;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Tu: but;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Lilakaivalyam: mere pastime. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(Lila: sport, play; Kaivalyam: merely; Lilakaivalyam: mere pastime.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34172.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is &lt;strong&gt;Sri Adi Shankara commentary&lt;/strong&gt; on this Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word 'but' discards the objection raised.--We see in every-day life that certain doings of princes or other men of high position who have no unfulfilled desires left have no&#xA;reference to any extraneous purpose; but proceed from mere sportfulness, as, for instance, their recreations in places of amusement. We further see that the process of inhalation and exhalation is going on without reference to any extraneous purpose, merely following the law of its own nature. &lt;strong&gt;Analogously, the activity of the Lord also may be supposed to be mere sport, proceeding from his own nature 1, without reference to any purpose. For on the ground neither of reason nor of Scripture can we construe any other purpose of the Lord. Nor can his nature be questioned 2--Although the creation of this world appears to us a weighty and difficult undertaking, it is mere play to the Lord, whose power is unlimited.&lt;/strong&gt; And if in ordinary life we might possibly, by close scrutiny, detect some subtle motive, even for sportful action, we cannot do so with regard to the actions of the Lord, all whose wishes are fulfilled, as Scripture says.--Nor can it be said that he either does not act or acts like a senseless person; for Scripture affirms the fact of the creation on the one hand, and the Lord's omniscience on the other hand. &lt;strong&gt;And, finally, we must remember that the scriptural doctrine of creation does not refer to the highest reality; it refers to the apparent world only, which is characterised by name and form,&lt;/strong&gt; the figments of Nescience, and it, moreover, aims at intimating that Brahman is the Self of everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48202.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is &lt;strong&gt;Sri Ramanujacharya commentary&lt;/strong&gt; on the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The motive which prompts Brahman--all whose wishes are fulfilled and who is perfect in himself--to the creation of a world comprising all kinds of sentient and non-sentient beings dependent on his volition, is nothing else but sport, play.&lt;/strong&gt; We see in ordinary life how some great king, ruling this earth with its seven dvîpas, and possessing perfect strength, valour, and so on, has a game at balls, or the like, from no other motive than to amuse himself; hence there is no objection to the view that sport only is the motive prompting Brahman to the creation, sustentation, and destruction of this world which is easily fashioned by his mere will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swami Sivananda commentary&lt;/strong&gt; on the Sutra as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The objection raised in Sutra 32 is replied to. The word ‘tu’ (but) removes the above obejction. &lt;strong&gt;Brahman has created the world not out of any desire or motive. It is simply His pastime, proceeding from His own nature, which is inherent in and inseparable from Him, as it is seen also in the world that some times a rich man or a prince, does some action with out any motive or pur pose, simply out of a sportive impulse. Just as children play out of mere fun, or just as men breathe without any motive or purpose, because it is their very nature, just as a man full of cheerfulness when awakening from sound sleep, begins to dance about with out any objective, but from mere exuberance of spirit, so also Brahman engages Himself in creating this world not out of any purpose or motive, but out of sporting or Lila or play proceeding from His own nature.&lt;/strong&gt; Although the creation of this universe appears to us a weighty and difficult undertaking, it is mere play to the Lord, whose power is infinite or limitless. If in ordinary life we may possibly by close scrutiny detect some subtle motive even for sportful action (playing at a game of balls is not altogether motive less, be cause the prince gets some pleasure by the play), we can not do so with regard to the ac tions of the Lord. The scripture declares that all wishes are ful filled in the Lord and that He is all-full, self-contained and self-sufficient. It should not be forgotten how ever that there is no creation from the standpoint of the Absolute, because name and form are due to Avidya or ignorance and because Brahman and Atman are really one. The opponent again raises an objection. The theory that Brahman is the creator is open to the objection that He is either partial or cruel, because some men enjoy happiness and others suffer misery. Hence this theory is not a congruous one. This objection is removed by the following Sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the act of Brahman is defined as his mere play or sport.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Are there any examples from scriptures where certain actions are classified as līlās?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As seen above from Vedanta Sutra we know that activities of Brahman are termed as Leela. Now, scriptures such as Vishnu Purana, Bhagvata Purana etc., identify Brahman as Vishnu. So they explain activity of Vishnu as his mere leela.&#xA;Similarly, scriptures such as Shiva Purana, Linga Purana etc., identify Brahman as Shiva. So, they explain activity of Shiva as his mere leela. Similarly, Devi Bhagvatam and Saptasati identify Brahman as Devi. So, they explain activity of Devi as mere leela.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance, here I'm giving an example from Srimad Bhagvatam. In the beginning part of Srimad Bhagvatam, Sage Suta Goswami is asked to describe leela of Lord:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथाख्याहि हरेर् धीमन्न् अवतार-कथाः शुभाः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;लीला&lt;/strong&gt; विदधतः स्वैरम् ईश्वरस्यात्म-मायया।। (S.B. 1.1.18)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;O wise Sūta, please narrate to us the transcendental pastimes of the Supreme Godhead’s multi-incarnations.&lt;/strong&gt; Such auspicious adventures and pastimes of the Lord, the supreme controller, are performed by His internal powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagvatam 1.2.32 it is stated taking incarnation by Lord are just his Leela:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भावयत्य् एष सत्त्वेन लोकान् वै लोक-भावनः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;लीलावतारानुरतो&lt;/strong&gt; देव-तिर्यङ्-नरादिषु।। (S.B. 1.2.32)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus the Lord of the universes maintains all planets inhabited by demigods, men and lower animals. &lt;strong&gt;Assuming the roles of incarnations, He performs pastimes&lt;/strong&gt; to reclaim those in the mode of pure goodness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, in the ending part of Srimad Bhagvatam it is stated every action by Lord Vishnu described in this Purana are his Leelas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आदि-मध्यावसानेषु वैराग्याख्यान-संयुतम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;हरि-लीला-&lt;/strong&gt; कथा-व्राता-मृतानन्दित-सत्-सुरम् ।। (S.B. 12.13.11)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;From beginning to end, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam&lt;/strong&gt; is full of narrations that encourage renunciation of material life, as well as &lt;strong&gt;nectarean accounts of Lord Hari’s transcendental pastimes,&lt;/strong&gt; which give ecstasy to the saintly devotees and devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;If an individual performs a certain action which some people view as dharma and others view the same action as adharma, do scriptures allow the person to call his action leela?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As already clear from above commentaries and Sutra itself, the action of people differs from action of Brahman i.e., Action of Brahman is purposeless or without any motive, however, a person has some motive or purpose. Even if a person does Niskama Karma he may have motive or he may be motivated to do Niskama Karma. But Advaitically speaking if a person does some activity after fully identifying himself as Brahman (I am Brahman), then his activity would be also like that of play or sport as he wouldn't have any purpose to do anything. In such case we can say that person's activity as Leela.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-03T22:08:58.190" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16190" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11527" CreationDate="2016-12-02T07:10:32.313" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many of the Gita verses are strongly or weakly inter-linked to each other. This verse is 1 among them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 4.17 - One who sees inaction (&lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;) in action (&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;) and action (&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;) in inaction (&lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;), is wise among men. [S]He is united (in yoga), [despite] doing all actions (&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;-s).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The root of many Gita verses (including this &amp;amp; famous &quot;&lt;em&gt;karmanye vAdhika..&lt;/em&gt;&quot;) resides in below verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.27 — All actions (&lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;-s) are enacted in Prakruti by [3] modes (&lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt;-s). &lt;strong&gt;Bewildered&lt;/strong&gt; with ego (false identity), [true] self (Atma) &lt;strong&gt;believes &quot;I am the doer&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That means, when the consciousness is bound by 3 modes, it acts in following way (BG 14.5 to 14.9):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;SAtvik&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, it performs &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;NishkAma Karma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sat-Karma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;; Here it doesn't worry about any reactions (fruits of action); This gives bliss &amp;amp; knowledge; Leads to higher planes&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, it performs &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;SakAma Karma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;; Here it performs action with desire for fruits (or reactions); It can be positive, negative or mixed; This keeps oneself within humanly worlds&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;TAmaskia&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, it performs &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vikarma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;; Such actions are performed under ignorance and often leads to hellish regions&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now all the above 3 modes, &lt;strong&gt;binds the consciousness&lt;/strong&gt; into material nature.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What doesn't bind is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (or &lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt;), it performs &lt;strong&gt;Akarma&lt;/strong&gt; or attains &lt;strong&gt;NishkarmatA&lt;/strong&gt;; Here the consciousness surrenders the sense of &quot;doership&quot; itself&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that, &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Yogic&lt;/em&gt; situations seems very similar. But in reality, there is a &lt;strong&gt;thin difference between &lt;em&gt;&quot;NishkAma Karma&quot;&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;&quot;NishkharmatA (Akarma)&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. That is &quot;doership without reactions&quot; and &quot;no doership at all&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So naturally one thinks, &quot;if &lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt; is about 'no doership', then let me not do anything. By this I will achieve &lt;em&gt;NishkarmatA&lt;/em&gt;.&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;That's a right argument which leads to &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; (retirement from actions). But, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; reduces the number of choices of actions, Not the number of actions itself.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; helps some people by creating less confusion by less choices (entropy). But one doesn't necessarily attain &lt;em&gt;NishkarmatA&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; by opting for &lt;em&gt;sannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.4, 3.5 — By not starting Karma, [the state of] 'not doing (&lt;em&gt;NishkarmatA&lt;/em&gt;)' is Not achieved by consciousness (&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;); and Retirement (&lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;) really doesn't result in way to liberation(&lt;em&gt;samAdhi&lt;/em&gt;). Anyone for a moment doesn't sustain by generating only &quot;inaction&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;); All have to act(&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;) under control of [3] modes born out of nature (&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For &quot;why-s&quot; on this topic, refer: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11178/1049&quot;&gt;How do the scriptures describe an ideal Sanyasi?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we have a good platform to understand the actual verse in question.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wise sees action(&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;) in inaction(&lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If someone opts for &quot;not doing something&quot;, then actually one is doing something already, by &quot;opting&quot; for it! The body acts in its own tendencies all the times, by breathing, seeing, walking, talking etc.. Mere &quot;thinking&quot; is also a Karma. As soon as I &quot;think&quot;: 'I won't do anything', I failed by doing the action of &quot;thinking&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wise sees inaction(&lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;) in action(&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;An intelligent person knows that, all actions are performed by 3 modes material nature (BG 3.27). Whatever I did, doing &amp;amp; will do, is predetermined. Hence, such yogi is completely uninterested in worldly matters, while still being aware &amp;amp; doing all activities, seemingly interested. That's how the consciousness is fixed into the supreme. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Summary&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When &quot;I&quot; perform an action either without caring of reactions (&lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt;) or desiring reactions (&lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;) or ignorantly (&lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt;), &quot;I&quot; am still attached to either consciousness or mind or body. Because, I am showing &quot;concern&quot; to the choices.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If none of them, then &quot;I&quot; disappears or in other words, &quot;I&quot; merges with supreme &quot;I&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weak analogy&lt;/strong&gt;: If I play &quot;Super Mario&quot; video game, then after a while, will start thinking that &quot;I am Mario&quot; and would relate with his all right, wrong, random acts, his distress &amp;amp; his winning. If that Mario goes in Yoga, then he will know that whatever is happening with me is preordained. Not only that, &quot;I&quot; am not the one which &quot;I&quot; am thinking so far. &quot;I am a different 'I'&quot;!&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T07:10:32.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16191" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16139" CreationDate="2016-12-02T08:19:52.557" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.agasthiar.org/a/tharpanam.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agastiar.org&lt;/a&gt; website &lt;strong&gt;sunrise&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;noon&lt;/strong&gt; are the  recommended times of the day to perform Pitru Tarpana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When to do Tharpanam?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sathguru Venkataraman said that &lt;strong&gt;according to Maha Guru Agasthiar,&#xA;  tharpanam should be done at sunrise.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;   There is a tradition that says that tharpanam should be done at noon.&#xA;  If this is your tradition, please do follow that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any specific reason why it should be done at that time ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see no such reasons are specified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the Katyayana Smriti noon is the best time.Evening is not recommended at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Sraddha in which Pindas are to be offered for the gratification for&#xA;  a month, is to be preferably performed on the wane of the Moon&#xA;  (Amavasya-day) ; &lt;strong&gt;it should be performed in the third part of the day,&#xA;  but never towards the evening,&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Katyayana Smriti,Chapter 16&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-11T16:30:03.350" LastActivityDate="2017-03-11T16:30:03.350" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16192" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2223" CreationDate="2016-12-02T12:30:15.373" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The importance  , Significance of Rudrakasha  and it's Glory are described in &lt;strong&gt;Vidyesvara Samhita , Shiva Purana , Chapter 25 &quot;Glory of Rudrakasha&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;दर्शनात्स्पर्शनाज्जप्यात्सर्वपापहर: स्मृतः ॥2॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Rudraksha is an extremely auspicious bead and is extremely dear&#xA;  to Lord Shiva. By it's mere sight or by preforming japam with the same&#xA;  ,or using it as rosary , &lt;strong&gt;all the sins get destroyed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;रुद्राक्षधारणं प्रोक्त पापनाशनहेतवे&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;तस्माश्च धारणीयो वै सर्वार्थसाधनो ध्रुवं&lt;/strong&gt; ॥19॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rudraksha has been prescribed for the removal of the sins.Therefor one&#xA;  should wear this Rudraksha which &lt;strong&gt;fulfils all the desire.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this shloka from  Shiv-Purana , Rudraksha is like a &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Yajnopavita&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रिभि: शतै: षष्टियुक्ततैस्त्रिरावृत्या तथा पुनः&#xA;  ।&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;रुद्राक्षैरूपवीतं&lt;/strong&gt; च निर्मियाद्भक्तितत्पर:॥27॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A devotee should wear three strings of three hundred and sixty&#xA;  Rudraksha beads like a &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Yajnopavita&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रुद्राक्षेण जपन्मत्रं पुण्यं कोटिगुणं भवेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;दशकोटिगुणं&lt;/strong&gt; पुण्यं&#xA;  धारणाल्लभते नर:॥58॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The performing of &quot;Japam&quot; by the rosary of Rudrakasha beads&#xA;  ,&lt;strong&gt;multiplies the reward crores of times&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from above shlokas we can see that why Rudrakasha is very Important in Saivism and its Significance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-02T17:22:57.243" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T17:22:57.243" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16193" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8341" CreationDate="2016-12-02T12:54:39.137" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Vali was not stronger than Lord Rama. Same question has been asked by Sugriva in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=4&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kishkindha Kanda, Sarga 11&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इमे च विपुलास्सालास्सप्त शाखावलम्बिनः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यत्रैकं घटते वाली निष्पत्रयितुमोजसा4.11.67।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Look at these seven sturdy Sala trees with branches of one overlapping the other. Vali was able to remove all the leaves of one Sala tree with just one arrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एतदस्यासमं वीर्यं मया राम प्रकीर्तितम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कथं तं वालिनं हन्तुं समरे शक्ष्यसे नृप4.11.68।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'O Rama Vali's strength and fame related by me is unequalled. &lt;strong&gt;O king how is it possible for you to kill him in a combat?&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord Lakshamana had asked Sugriva that what should be done by Sri Rama to prove his strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तथा ब्रुवाणं सुग्रीवं प्रहसन् लक्ष्मणोऽब्रवीत्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कस्मिन्कर्मणि निर्वृत्ते श्रद्दध्या वालिनो वधम्4.11.69।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Smiling, Lakshmana asked Sugriva, 'By what action will you trust?. By the fulfilment of which task (by Rama) will you have faith?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Sugriva had given two tasks to Sri Rama (politely) as: To split through sala tree and moving the skeleton of the demon Dundubhi at the distance of 200 bows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तमुवाचाथ सुग्रीवस्सप्त सालानिमान्पुरा।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एवमेकैकशो वाली विव्याथाथ स चासकृत्। 4.11.70।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Sugriva told Lakshmana that earlier Vali had split through these seven Sala trees one after the other, several times&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रामोऽपिदारयेदेषां बाणेनैकेन च द्रुमम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वालिनं निहतं मन्ये दृष्ट्वा रामस्य विक्रमम्4.11.71।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'If I see Rama splitting these trees with one arrow, I will believe he can kill Vali with his prowess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हतस्य महिषस्यास्थि पादेनैकेन लक्ष्मण।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उद्यम्याथ प्रक्षिपेच्चेत्तरसा द्वे धनुश्शते4.11.72।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'&lt;strong&gt;O Lakshmana and if Rama can also lift the dead buffalo's (Dundubhi's) skeleton and hurl it to a distance of two hundred bows with one of his feet&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Sri Rama has completed these tasks without any difficulty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्य तद्वचनं श्रुत्वा सुग्रीवस्य महात्मनः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्मितपूर्वमथो रामः प्रत्युवाच हरिं प्रभुः4.11.82।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having heard the great Sugriva, Rama replied with a gentle smile:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यदि न प्रत्ययोऽस्मासु विक्रमे तव वानर।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रत्ययं समरे श्लाघ्यमहमुत्पादयामि ते4.11.83।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'If you have no confidence in my strength in fight, O monkey, I will create it in you so much so that you will admire it.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एवमुक्त्वा तु सुग्रीवं सान्त्वं लक्ष्मणपूर्वजः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;राघवो दुन्दुभेः कायं पादाङ्गुष्ठेन लीलया4.11.84।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तोलयित्वा महाबाहुश्चिक्षेप दशयोजनम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;असुरस्य तनुं शुष्कं पादाङ्गुष्ठेन वीर्यवान्4.11.85।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama,the mighty elder brother of Lakshmana, having said so to Sugriva in a pleasing manner, lifted the dried body of Dundubhi easily with his toe, shook it and flung it with ease to a distance of ten yojanas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama's piercing Sala tress is described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=4&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sarga 12&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स गृहीत्वा धनुर्घोरं शरमेकं च मानदः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सालमुद्दिश्य चिक्षेप ज्यास्वनैः पूरयन्दिशः। 4.12.2।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama, subduer of the enemy's pride, strung his terrific bow, produced the twang that filled all directions, and discharged a single arrow aimed at the sala tree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स विसृष्टो बलवता बाणस्स्वर्णपरिष्कृतः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भित्त्वा सालान् गिरिप्रस्थं सप्त भूमिं विवेश ह4.12.3।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Released with great force, Rama's arrow embellished with gold pierced through the seven sala trees and splitting the mountain terrain entered the earth&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रविष्टश्च मुहूर्तेन धरां भित्त्वा महाजवः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;निष्पत्य च पुनस्तूर्णं स्वतूणीं प्रविवेश ह4.12.4।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a moment the arrow emerged from the earth which it pierced and reentered the quiver with great speed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Sugriva was struck by wonder and accepted the strength of Sri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तान्दृष्ट्वा सप्त निर्भिन्नान्सालान्वानरपुङ्गवः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रामस्य शरवेगेन विस्मयं परमं गतः4.12.5।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The chief of the monkeys was struck with wonder seeing Rama's arrow piercing through the seven sala trees so swiftly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स मूर्ध्ना न्यपतदभ्मौ प्रलम्बीकृतभूषणः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सुग्रीवः परमप्रीतो राघवाय कृताञ्जलिः4.12.6।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sugriva was immensely happy and offered obeisance to Rama with folded hands and bowed down and prostrated while his ornaments touched the ground.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इदं चोवाच धर्मज्ञं कर्मणा तेन हर्षितः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रामं सर्वास्त्रविदुषां श्रेष्ठं शूरमवस्थितम्4.12.7।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sugriva who stood by, elated to watch the deed of Rama, best among the valiant, proficient in the use of arms of all kinds and knower of dharma, said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सेन्द्रानपि सुरान्सर्वांस्त्वं बाणैः पुरुषर्षभ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;समर्थस्समरे हन्तुं किं पुन र्वालिनं प्रभो 4.12.8।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'&lt;strong&gt;O bull among men, O lord, you are capable of killing with your arrows even the gods including Indra in the battle, what to speak of Vali&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;येन सप्तमहासाला गिरिर्भूमिश्च दारिताः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;बाणेनैकेन काकुत्स्थ स्थाता ते को रणाग्रतः4.12.9।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'O Rama who can in a battle confront you, capable of splitting seven huge sala trees, the mountain and the earth with a single arrow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अद्य मे विगतश्शोकः प्रीतिरद्य परा मम।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सुहृदं त्वां समासाद्य महेन्द्रवरुणोपमम्4.12.10।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Having found a friend in you comparable to Indra and Varuna, my grief is gone and I am so happy now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तमद्यैव प्रियार्थं मे वैरिणं भ्रातृरूपिणम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वालिनं जहि काकुत्स्थ मया बद्धोऽयमञ्जलिः4.12.11।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'O Rama, for my pleasure kill Vali who is, to me, an enemy in the guise of a brother. I fold my hands to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T13:07:43.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16194" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16195" CreationDate="2016-12-02T17:13:28.527" Score="6" ViewCount="179" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the end of the holy war when Ravana was just going to die,  Lord Rama asked his brother Lakshman to go and gain knowledge from Ravana?  Why did he do so and what exactly was the knowledge lord rama was talking about? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8362" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-02T17:24:49.180" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T17:50:36.363" Title="Ramayana - ravana and lakshman" Tags="|ramayana|rama|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-12-02T17:54:14.607" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16195" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16194" CreationDate="2016-12-02T17:40:06.180" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story you are referring to is not present in the authentic version of Ramayana i.e., Valmiki Ramayana. &lt;strong&gt;Lakshmana did not have any conversation with Ravana on the deathbed&lt;/strong&gt;. The episode of Lord Rama killing Ravana is explained by sage Valmiki in the &lt;em&gt;Yudddha Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/em&gt; as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That arrow, released with great speed and which was capable of destroying the body, tore off the heart of that evil-minded Ravana. Smeared with blood on having killed Ravana and thereby accomplishing its mission, that arrow re-entered its own quiver (of Rama) silently. From the hands of the slain Ravana, who was being separated from his life, fell his bow with its arrows (fitted to it), at the same time coinciding indeed with his life-breath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The teachings of Ravana to Lakshmana you are asking might be present in other Ramayanas by other poets written later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IMO, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://motivateme.in/lessons-to-laxman-by-ravana/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;teachings&lt;/a&gt; which are being circulated on the internet, are made up stories. Because many of those were not followed by Ravana when he was alive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T17:50:36.363" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16196" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3342" CreationDate="2016-12-02T17:47:57.633" Score="3" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Rāvaṇa and Lakṣmaṇa had some conversation. What was it all about?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story appears to be from a folk version of Rāmāyaṇa, it's not part of the original Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devdutt Pattanaik writes about this in his article &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/ramayana/this-was-ravan-too.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This was Ravan too&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, but he uses a variety of sources for his article.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Pattanaik's &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/ramayana/this-was-ravan-too.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt;, here's the conversation that took place between Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa and Rāvaṇa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The story goes that after firing the fatal arrow on the battlefield of Lanka, Rama told his brother, Lakshmana, &quot;Go to Ravana quickly before he dies and request him to share whatever knowledge he can. &lt;strong&gt;A brute he may be, but he is also a great scholar.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The obedient Lakshmana rushed across the battlefield to Ravana's side and whispered in his ears, &quot;Demon-king, do not let your knowledge die with you. Share it with us and wash away your sins.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ravana responded by simply turning away. An angry Lakshmana went back to Rama, &quot;He is as arrogant as he always was, too proud to share anything.&quot; Rama comforted his brother and asked him softly, &quot;Where did you stand while asking Ravana for knowledge?&quot;...&quot;Next to his head so that I hear what he had to say clearly.&quot; Rama smiled, placed his bow on the ground and walked to where Ravana lay. Lakshmana watched in astonishment as his divine brother knelt at Ravana's feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With palms joined, with extreme humility, Rama said, &quot;Lord of Lanka, you abducted my wife, a terrible crime for which I have been forced to punish you. Now, you are no more my enemy. I bow to you and request you to share your wisdom with me. Please do that for if you die without doing so, all your wisdom will be lost forever to the world.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To Lakshmana's surprise, Ravana opened his eyes and raised his arms to salute Rama, &quot;If only I had more time as your teacher than as your enemy. Standing at my feet as a student should, unlike your rude younger brother, you are a worthy recipient of my knowledge. I have very little time so I cannot share much but let me tell you one important lesson I have learnt in my life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Things that are bad for you seduce you easily; you run towards them impatiently.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But things that are actually good for you, fail to attract you; you shun them creatively, finding powerful excuses to justify your procrastination.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That is why I was impatient to abduct Sita but avoided meeting you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is the wisdom of my life, Rama. My last words. I give it to you.&quot; With these words, Ravana died.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's Vālmīki's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddhasans108.htm#Verse18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;account&lt;/a&gt; of how Rāvaṇa immediately died and fell to the ground after Rāma shot him with his brahmāstra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स विसृष्तो महावेगह् शरीरान्तकरः शरः | &lt;strong&gt;च्छेद हृदयं&lt;/strong&gt; तस्य रावणस्य&#xA;  दुरात्मनः || ६-१०८-१८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;That arrow&lt;/strong&gt;, released with great speed and which was capable of destroying the body, &lt;strong&gt;tore off the heart of that evil-minded Ravana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रुधिराक्तह् स वेगेन शरीरान्तकरः शरः | रावणस्य &lt;strong&gt;हरन् प्राणान्&lt;/strong&gt; विवेश&#xA;  धरणीतलम् || ६-१०८-१९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;19.&#xA;  That arrow, which was capable of &lt;strong&gt;causing death to the body&lt;/strong&gt;, after &lt;strong&gt;taking away the life of Ravana&lt;/strong&gt; and having been anointed with blood,&#xA;  penetrated the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स शरो &lt;strong&gt;रावणं हत्वा&lt;/strong&gt; रुधिरार्रीकृतच्छविः | कृतकर्मा निभृतवत्स्वतूणीं&#xA;  पुनराविशत् || ६-१०८-२०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;20.&#xA;  Smeared with blood on &lt;strong&gt;having killed Ravana&lt;/strong&gt; and thereby accomplishing its mission, that arrow re-entered its own quiver (of&#xA;  Rama) silently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गतासुर्भीमवेगस्तु नैरृतेन्द्रो महाद्युतिः | पपात स्यन्दनाद्भूमौ वृत्रो&#xA;  वज्रहतो यथा || ६-१०८-२२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;22.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Having lost his life&lt;/strong&gt;, that &lt;strong&gt;king of demons&lt;/strong&gt; for his part, who was endowed with terrible swiftness and invested with great splendour,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;fell down from the chariot to the ground&lt;/strong&gt;, like Vritra the demon when&#xA;  the latter was struck down by the thunderbolt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-02T18:30:07.347" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T18:30:07.347" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16197" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-02T19:11:30.673" Score="8" ViewCount="374" Body="&lt;p&gt;The leader of Asuras, also known as Asurapati. The only one alive is Raja Bali who is now under protection of Shriman Narayana in the form of Vamana avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he is in some other place and not ruling asuras, then who is the &#xA;current Asurapati?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-08T05:58:15.563" LastActivityDate="2018-12-25T12:49:03.517" Title="Who is the current leader of Asuras?" Tags="|asuras|rakshasa|vamana|bali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16198" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8341" CreationDate="2016-12-02T21:49:41.010" Score="1" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Is it true that Sugrīva's elder brother Vāli was stronger than Lord Rāma himself?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Possibly true. No one can give a definite answer to this question because Rāma never engaged himself in a one-on-one fight with Vāli to solve this mystery once and for all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's an &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/content?language=dv&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=4&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=11&amp;amp;field_sloka_value=44&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;interesting verse&lt;/a&gt;, however, from Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa when Sugrīva is narrating the Dundubhi-Vāli fight to Rāma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परस्परं घ्नतो स्तत्र वानरासुरयोस्तदा। आसीदसुरो युद्धे शक्रसूनुर्व्यवर्धत 4.11.44 ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तदा then, तत्र there, वानरासुरयोः of monkey and demon, परस्परम् one to one, घ्नतोः pouncing on the other, युद्धे in fight, असुरः demon, हीनः reduced, आसीद become, शक्रसूनुः son of Indra, &lt;strong&gt;व्यवर्धत grew (in strength and spirit)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then as the monkey and demon fought pouncing on each other, &lt;strong&gt;the prowess of Dundubhi got diminished&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;that of Vali, the son of Indra, increased&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if Sugrīva's account is true, a person who engages in a direct battle with Vāli will slowly lose their strength and Vāli becomes more and more devastating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For comparison, in a typical heavy weight boxing match, at the end of 12 rounds, you will find &lt;em&gt;both&lt;/em&gt; boxers heavily sweating and totally drained off of their energies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Vāli is unusual. His strength grew as the fight with Dundubhi progressed. So either he had remarkable stamina or he's got some super-powers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Uttara-kāṇḍa of Rāmāyaṇa, we &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_034.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;see&lt;/a&gt; just how powerful Vāli really is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After catching the ruler of the rakshasas who had wanted to catch him, Vali squeezed him in his armpit, and as he was hanging there, Vali jumped quickly into the sky. Although Ravana repeatedly pinched and gashed Vali with his nails, Vali carried him away, as the wind does a cloud. While Ravana was being carried away, his ministers howled and rushed upon Vali to free Ravana. While being chased by them across the sky, Vali looked like the sun being followed by masses of clouds. Unable to approach Vali, those stalwart rakshasas were exhausted by the speed of Vali arms and legs. Even great mountains retreated from Vali's pathway as he proceeded, what to speak of creatures of flesh and blood who desire to live.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The writers at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;valmikiramayan.net&lt;/a&gt; offer the following &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga11/kishkindhasans11.htm#Verse44&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;explanation&lt;/a&gt; for the above verse narrated by Sugrīva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vāli is wearing the golden chest-pendent given by his father Indra, wearing which depletes half of the opponent's strength. Hence, the strength of Dundubhi is depleted now. Vāli does not wear the same chest pendent when fighting with Sugreeva when killed by Rama. For this it is said, Vāli wanted to punish Sugreeva that which is befitting to an errant younger brother, but Vāli never considered Sugreeva as a real threat or an enemy to the core.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, instead of engaging in a face-to-face combat, Rāma shoots and kills Vāli from behind a tree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I find it highly unusual, the way Rāma defends his actions by calling Vāli an animal, that he was actually hunting him and there was no need for a fair fight:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रधावितान्वा वित्रस्तान्विस्रब्धांश्चापि निष्ठितान् 4.18.39 ।। प्रमत्तानप्रमत्तान्वा नरा मांसार्थिनो भृशम्। विध्यन्ति विमुखांश्चापि न च दोषोऽत्र विद्यते 4.18.40 ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मांसार्थिनः seeking flesh for food&lt;/strong&gt;, नराः men, प्रधावितान् वा or running ones, वित्रस्तान् alarmed ones, विस्रब्धान् unalarmed, निष्ठितान् stable ones, प्रमत्तान् those that are not alert, अप्रमत्तान्वा even alert ones also, विमुखांश्च those which turn away, विध्यन्ति kill, अत्र here, दोषः blemish, न विद्यते not known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People seeking animal flesh for food kill animals alarmed or unalarmed, animals that run away or animals that stand still. &lt;strong&gt;They kill animals whether they are alert or not and no blemish is attached.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well if Sugrīva and Vāli are both &quot;animals&quot;, why should Rāma kill one arrogant animal and install another mentally sound animal in its place on the throne? Do we have any references from scripture, where, for example, a 'bad' lion is killed by humans to install a 'good' lion as the king of the jungle? I doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, why should Hanumān draft a friendship contract between Rāma and Sugrīva if both Sugrīva and Hanumān are &quot;animals&quot; according to Rāma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commentators &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;valmikiramayan.net&lt;/a&gt; also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga18/kishkindhasans18.htm#Verse40&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; Rāma's reply:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Whether you face this way or that, you are an animal, as you alone said, besides being an enemy of my friend...' For this Griffith says - I cannot understand how Vālmīki could put such an excuse as this into Rāma's mouth. Rāma with all solemn ceremony, has made a league of alliance with Vāli's younger brother whom he regards as a dear friend and almost as an equal, and now he winds up his reasons for killing Vāli by coolly saying: &lt;strong&gt;'Besides you are only a monkey, you know, after all, and as such I have every right to kill you how, when, and where I like.'&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clearly, the above inconsistencies can only point to some interpolations in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, if Rāma was simply punishing Vāli for being an adhārmic king, there is absolutely no reason to hide the fact that Vāli was more powerful than Rāma, by way of any interpolations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vāli simply needed to be eliminated one way or the other - either in a straight fight or by ambush.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-12-02T21:49:41.010" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16199" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7560" CreationDate="2016-12-03T04:01:27.307" Score="6" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Himself being a Brāhmaṇa, was it not wrong on Droṇa's part to learn warrior skills and impart them to Kṣatriyas?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. It's not wrong on Droṇa's part. It is actually recommended that a brāhmaṇa learn several skills, not just warrior skills and teach them to others depending on their varṇa (caste). But he should never put those skills to use and earn income off of them. I suspect it's due to this reason, Droṇa asked the young graduates (Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas) to attack and capture Drupada when he could do it all by himself. Though he was quite capable of accomplishing the task himself, he didn't, because he shouldn't.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; in the book &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; explains as below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmin must be conversant with the fourteen branches of the Vedic lore. He must be proficient even in Gandharva-veda or music and must be acquainted with agricultural science, construction of houses, etc. &lt;strong&gt;At the same time he must give instructions in these subjects to pupils from the appropriate castes.&lt;/strong&gt; His own vocation is the study of the Vedas and he must have no other source of income.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Viśvāmitra&lt;/strong&gt; was the master of Dhanurveda (military science). When he performed sacrifices, the demons Subahu and Marica tried to play havoc with them. &lt;strong&gt;Though a great warrior himself, he did not try to drive away the demons himself. Instead, he brought Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa for the purpose.&lt;/strong&gt; Viśvāmitra thereafter gave the instruction to the two in the use of astras and sastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the Brahmin is asked, &quot;Do you know to wield a knife? &quot; he must be able to answer, &quot;Yes, I know&quot;. If he is asked, &quot;Do you know to draw and paint&quot; again he must say, &quot;Yes&quot;. &lt;strong&gt;But he cannot wield a knife&lt;/strong&gt; or become an artist to earn his livelihood. All he can do is to learn these arts and teach others the same according to their caste. He is permitted to receive a dakṣiṇā to maintain himself and he must be contented with it however small the sum may be. &lt;strong&gt;The Brahmin's speciality, his true vocation, is Vedic learning.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Hindu Dharma » Varna Dharma For Universal Well-Being » Brahmins are not a Privileged Caste]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Wasn't he breaking the rules of dharma when he actively participated in the Kurukṣetra war?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes and No.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes. Broke the rules. Because, as explained above, he cannot use the Dhanur-veda he learned in a real battle. He is only allowed to &lt;em&gt;teach&lt;/em&gt; those skills.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;No, didn't break any rules because he's obligated to fight for his hosts (Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Duryodhana, Bhīṣma etc.) for having given him a place to stay and lead a comfortable life. Even if it meant going against his sva-dharma to raise weapons against people.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, if Droṇa made a case to Bhīṣma or Dhṛtarāṣṭra to relieve him from the war (Virāṭa or Kurukṣetra), my guess is they would be obliged to honor his request.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But with Droṇa not participating, I doubt if the Kurukṣetra war itself would have taken place!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-12-03T04:01:27.307" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16200" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8501" CreationDate="2016-12-03T08:02:46.930" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanujacharya was not being asked to worship Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;  Now if he had been asked to do that, he might well have refused; as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7394/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; Sri Vaishnavas who have performed Sharanagati often do not worship other gods.  That's not out of hatred towards other gods, but because after performing Sharanagati you're basically &quot;married&quot; to Sriman Narayana, and so worshiping other gods would be like cheating on your spouse.  (This doesn't apply to Sandhyavandhanam and the like.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Ramanujacharya was not asked to say a prayer to Shiva.  Instead what the Shaivite Chola king wanted him to do was to become a Shaivite, i.e. to declare that no one is superior to Shiva.  Here is Alkandavilli Govindacharya, a descendant of one of Ramanujacharya's disciples, says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/rq9G&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his book &quot;The Life of Ramanujacharya&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Chola-king, for the time being, happened to be a most bigoted Saiva. He was bent upon destroying Vishnu temples, and otherwise prosecuting Vaishnavas, though his son (Vikrama Chola. 1113—1128A.C), wisely hinted that he bad set to him self an impossible task, inasmuch as he could never destroy the two strong props of the Vaishnavas, the Tiruvdymozhi of St. Nammazhvar and Ramayana of Valmiki. The Saiva system is anti-Vedic, and Vaishnavas condemn it as un-Aryan and erroneous. The king, then resident at Chidambaram (or Gangaikonda Cholapuram) was so bigotted an adherent of this system that he adopted coercive measures to bring men of all other faiths into its fold. &lt;strong&gt;For this purpose, he had a proclamation issued in which was written: &quot;There is no (God) greater than Siva;&quot; and every one, especially every learned man, was commanded to affix his signature to the document in proof of his assent to this proposition.&lt;/strong&gt; Many obeyed either for fear of being punished, in case of refusal ; or on grounds of conscience, or enticed by hopes of rewards of land and money from the king ; and others deserted the country and hid themselves. Naluran, a disciple of Kuresa, happened to be the king's minister. &quot; What is the use, your Majesty !&quot; said he &quot;of your obtain ing signatures from all men indiscriminately. No good purpose is served thereby. &lt;strong&gt;If you can obtain the signature of the two veterans of the Vaishnava faith, Kuresa and Ramanuja, living in Srirangam, that will be a capital stroke of policy, and your declaration about Siva's pre-eminency will only then have&#xA;  received irrefutable testimony.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; Chola immediately directed messengers to go to Srirangam and bring Ramanuja. They arrived and standing before the gate of the monastery, declared their errand, and said that Ramanuja must go with them to the King's Court forthwith. The door-keepers rushed inside and whispered the news softly to Kuresa, 1 who was then engaged in serving bath-water to Ramanuja. Kuresa foresaw the dangers of persecution that threatened; and without tell ing Ramanuja what he meant doing, he donned the colored robes of Ramanuja, and taking up his tridanda, emerged from the monastery; and saying: &quot;I am Ramanuja, proceed,&quot; to the King's men, stepped on. Mahapurna, observing this, followed Kuresa on this ominous expedition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But to declare that there is no one superior to Shiva would violate Ramanujacharya's most fundamental beliefs.  For the Pancharatra Agamas state that there is someone superior to Shiva; Shiva is a Jiva who is the son of Brahma, and the being who dwells in Shiva's heart is Vishnu's Vyuha form Sankarshana, who emerges from Vyuha Vasudeva who lies down in the ocean of milk, who emerges from Para Vasudeva, the supreme Vishnu.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6923/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Ramanujacharya's guru's guru Yamunacharya gave a detailed scripture-based argument on the subject of Vishnu's supremacy and Shiva being a Jiva in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Elqw&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/10K3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Agama Pramanya.  Also, here is what Ramanujacharya says about the practices of Shaivism in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48239.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So far it has been shown that the doctrines of Kapila, Kanâda, Sugata, and the Arhat must be disregarded by men desirous of final beatitude; for those doctrines are all alike untenable and foreign to the Veda. The Sûtras now declare that, for the same reasons, the doctrine of Pasupati also has to be disregarded. The adherents of this view belong to four different classes--Kâpâlas, Kâlâmukhas, Pâsupatas, and Saivas....  With regard to these views the Sûtra says 'of pati, on account of inappropriateness.' A 'not' has here to be supplied from Sûtra 32. The system of Pasupati has to be disregarded because it is inappropriate, i.e. because the different views and practices referred to are opposed to one another and in conflict with the Veda. The different practices enumerated above, the wearing of the six mudrâs and so on, are opposed to each other; and moreover the theoretical assumptions of those people, their forms of devotion and their practices, are in conflict with the Veda. For the Veda declares that Nârâyana who is the highest Brahman is alone the operative and the substantial cause of the world, 'Nârâyana is the highest Brahman, Nârâyana is the highest Reality, Nârâyana is the highest light, Nârâyana is the highest Self'; 'That thought, may I be many, may I grow forth' (Kh. Up. VI, 2, 3); 'He desired, may I be many, may I grow forth' (Taitt. Up. II, 6, 1), and so on. In the same way the texts declare meditation on the Supreme Person, who is the highest Brahman, to be the only meditation which effects final release; cp. 'I know that great Person of sunlike lustre beyond the darkness. A man who knows him passes over death; there is no other path to go' (Svet. Up. III, 8). And in the same way all texts agree in declaring that the works subserving the knowledge of Brahman are only those sacrificial and other works which the Veda enjoins on men in the different castes and stages of life: 'Him Brâhmanas seek to know by the study of the Veda, by sacrifice, by gifts, by penance, by fasting. Wishing for that world only, mendicants wander forth from their homes' (Bri. Up. XI, 4, 22). In some texts enjoining devout meditation, and so on, we indeed meet with terms such as Pragâpati, Siva, Indra, Âkâsa, Prâna, &amp;amp;c., but that these all refer to the supreme Reality established by the texts concerning Nârâyana--the aim of which texts it is to set forth the highest Reality in its purity--, we have already proved under I, 1, 30. In the same way we have proved under Sû. I, 1, 2 that in texts treating of the creation of the world, such as 'Being only this was in the beginning,' and the like, the words Being, Brahman, and so on, denote nobody else but Nârâyana, who is set forth as the universal creator in the account of creation given in the text, 'Alone indeed there was Nârâyana, not Brahmâ, not Isâna--he being alone did not rejoice' (Mahopanishad I).--As the Pasupati theory thus teaches principles, meditations and acts conflicting with the Veda, it must be disregarded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And indeed, when Ramanujacharya's shishya Kurathalwan and his guru Periya Nambi (Kuresha and Mahapurna in Sanskrit), they also gave detailed scripture-based arguments for why they could not possibly accept the proposition that there is nothing higher than Shiva.  This got them their eyes plucked out, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/lFUt&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;another excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Alkandavilli Govindacharya's &quot;Life of Ramanujacharya&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[T]he two good men, as you are aware, were taken to Chola's presence, and Chola commanded them to set their signatures to the written declaration .- &quot;No higher being than Siva exists.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;But Kuresa poured out before him voluminous authorities from the Vedas, Upanishads, Smritis and Puranas, proving that Narayana was the Highest God, being the Cause of the cosmos, as also its Author for creation, sustention, and dissolution, and therefore the only Object of worship and contemplation ; and that Chaturmukha Brahma and Rudra were respectively His son and grandson ; and cited other verses to demonstrate his position.&lt;/strong&gt; But Chola after all said in angry tones :—&quot;Look here, thou art indeed a very clever person, and therefore capable of interpreting authoritative texts to suit thy own preconceived prejudices. I will not hear all this. Here is my circular containing the statement : &quot;There is no higher than Siva.&quot; I command thee to sign it without another word of protest&quot;. Kuresa took the paper, but before attaching his signature thereto, wrote :—&#xA;  ' Dronam asti tatahparam' and then signed his name under it. The meaning of this passage is : &quot; But drona is higher than that.&quot; This, and &quot; Sivat parataram, nasti,&quot; meaning : 'there is no higher than Siva,' together make a couplet in Sanskrit verse. Taken together, they read :—&quot; There is no higher than Siva; but Drona is higher than that (Siva).&quot; By this Kuresa implicated a pun on the terms Siva and Drona ; Siva meaning a small measure, and Drona, a greater measure. This play on words was taken as a slight and affront which necessarily threw the king into a rage, who exclaimed : &quot;Pull out the eyes of this daring jester.&quot; &quot;But&quot; exclaimed Kuresa in return,  thou needest not take that trouble, tyrant ; I will do that act with my own hands, for my eyes ought not to remain after seeing a sinner like thyself.&quot; A martyr to the cause of Vaishnavism, Kuresa, so saying, gouged out his eyes, striking terror into all who witnessed this blood-curdling scene. The cruel king now turned to the venerable old acharya Mahapurna, and cried :—&quot; Now, Sir, will you sign this circular or no?&quot; &lt;strong&gt;Purna said he could not, supporting his refusal by citations from various scriptures.&lt;/strong&gt; On this, the king commanded his myrmidons to catch the dissenter and pluck out his eyes. This cruelty having been inflicted the king drove the two martyrs out of his palace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, unlike the Chola king Ramanujacharya never forced anyone to become a Sri Vaishnava.  Ramanujacharya's cousin Govinda Bhatta was voluntarily persuaded, not forced, to rejoin the Sri Vaishnava Sampradayam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-07-17T18:36:09.723" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T18:36:09.723" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16201" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-03T11:51:39.230" Score="6" ViewCount="479" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usually people who have read Gita, would say that &lt;em&gt;NishKAma Karma&lt;/em&gt; is the way of &quot;Karma yoga&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Numerous verses suggest that, &lt;em&gt;NishkAma Karma&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; way of life. &lt;em&gt;SakAma karma&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt; way &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Vikarma&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;TAmasika&lt;/em&gt; way. Even attempting to perform &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; is also sometimes considered &lt;em&gt;TAmasika&lt;/em&gt; way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now everyone is aware that, The supreme &lt;em&gt;Purusha / Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (the ultimate &quot;I/Me&quot;) is beyond 3 modes of nature: &lt;em&gt;Sattva, Rajas, Tamas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;A person with any predominant quality should have the same right on Moksha&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16190/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, there is a difference between &lt;em&gt;NishkAma Karma&lt;/em&gt; (&quot;Karma Yoga&quot;) and &lt;em&gt;NishkarmatA&lt;/em&gt; (&quot;Moksha or Jeevan Mukta&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why can't a person with RAjasika nature do &quot;Karma yoga&quot; with &lt;em&gt;SakAma Karma&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; attain &lt;em&gt;NishkarmatA&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, why can't a &lt;em&gt;TAmasika&lt;/em&gt; person do &quot;Karma yoga&quot; with &lt;em&gt;Vikarma&lt;/em&gt; and attain Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;IMO People like ShishupAla, Hiranyakashipu, RAvana, Kamsa, who probably attained Moksha, were not doing &lt;em&gt;NishkAma Karma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2018-12-02T13:02:00.327" Title="What is the reason behind Gita favoring the SAtvika way over others?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|karma|yoga|moksha|spiritual-level|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16202" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16203" CreationDate="2016-12-03T15:43:13.747" Score="6" ViewCount="783" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gita 5.4 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/5/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sāṅkhya-yogau pṛthag bālāḥ&lt;br&gt; pravadanti na paṇḍitāḥ &lt;br&gt; ekam apy&#xA;  āsthitaḥ samyag &lt;br&gt; ubhayor vindate phalam &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only the ignorant speak of devotional service as being different from the    analytical study of the material world. Those who are&#xA;  actually learned say that he who applies himself well to one of these&#xA;  paths achieves the results of both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this mean that by analytical study of the material world (i.e. Science) one can attain samadhi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4974" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-12-04T08:35:25.850" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T08:35:25.850" Title="Bhagavad Geeta 5.4 - Can one attain samādhi by practicing science?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|samadhi|sankhya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16203" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16202" CreationDate="2016-12-03T16:44:50.987" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The problem is with translation of the word Samkhya it is used as a synonym of Jnana Yoga(The path of Liberation through Knowledge).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya, Bhagwad Ramanujacharya and different Other Acharyas have enlightened us on this through their commentaries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya's Comments:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This defect does not arise. Although the question was put by Arjuna merely with regard to renunciation and Karma-yoga, yet the Lord, without actually avoiding them, and by adding something special which was intended by Him, gave the answer by expressing them through other words, ‘Sankhya’ and ‘(Karma-) yoga’. Those very ‘renunciation and ‘Karma-yoga’, when they are (respectively) associated with Knowledge and such of Its means as equanimity etc., are meant by the words ‘Sankhya’ and ‘yoga’. This is the Lord’s veiw. Therefore there is no discussion out of the context.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samkhya is not for what we today study as science, but it is JnanYoga path or path of Knowledge, it does not involve science as scriptures directly give that knowledge. The Science Just cannot find the root of the Material world because Bramhan is all pervading and doesn't need anything to prove his existence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jnana means Knowledge of Self and Bramhan or Atmajnana and Bramhajnana, Since science till the day is unable to understand nature and existence of Atman and Bramhan. I don't think modern day Science can be helpful in attaining Samadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Bhagwad Ramanujacharya's Commentary &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who say that Karma Yoga and Jnana Yoga are distinct because of the difference in results, are children, i.e., are persons with incomplete knowledge; they do not know the entire truth. The meaning is that they do not possess true knowledge, who say that Karma Yoga results in Jnana Yoga only and that &lt;strong&gt;Jnana Yoga alone results in the vision of the self&lt;/strong&gt; and that the two are thus distinct because of the difference in their fruits. But on the contrary as both have only the vision of the self as the fruit, a person who is firmly set in one of them, wins that one fruit common to both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note AtmaJnana is not just realizing that you are atman the true self but to apply it in real life,i.e by doing nishkama karma and giving all fruits of actions to Krishna (Krishnarpanamastu) or as Seva or Kainkarya to Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you act as an atman and see others as Jeevatman rather than bodies you will slowly realize that the worldly perspective of Bodies and materials is not the ultimate true nature. Rather only Jeevatman and Bramhan exist and goal of jeevatman is to attain Bramhan or Shriman Narayana (This is Vishitadvaita Perspective of Bhagwad Ramanujacharya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Advaita Perspective (propounded by Adi Shankaracharya) if you realize that you are Atman or Nirguna Brahman is your true nature, then there is nothing more left to realize and you can attain Kaivalya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a relevant verse in Shrimad Bhagwatam with this chapter of BG i.e  Karma Vairagya Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even while engaging his senses in contact with their objects, one who sees this whole world as the energy of Lord Viṣhṇu is neither repelled nor elated. He is indeed the greatest among devotees. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/2/48&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 11.2.48&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the commentaries &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-5-4/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and/or &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=5&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=4&amp;amp;scsh=1&amp;amp;scram=1&amp;amp;scvv=1&amp;amp;etradi=1&amp;amp;etadi=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-05-04.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaishnava commentaries only&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-12-04T08:32:08.567" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T08:32:08.567" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16204" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-12-03T17:41:13.847" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The meaning of the word Itihasa is &lt;strong&gt;It happened thus&lt;/strong&gt;. This word is made of three dhatus iti-ha-aasa. By saying so,it is declared that the stories told in Ramayana(to be specific Valmiki Ramayana) and Mahabharata are real stories which took place once upon a time and are not any made up stories. Mahabharata which is one of the itihasas is regarded as &lt;strong&gt;fifth veda&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-04T04:54:36.820" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T04:54:36.820" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16205" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-12-03T17:41:13.847" Score="0" Body="This tag can be used for questions regarding the stories of itihasas i.e.,Ramayana and Mahabharata. These two are classified as Itihasas. " OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-04T04:54:47.630" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T04:54:47.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16206" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16202" CreationDate="2016-12-03T19:21:30.653" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Does this mean that by analytical study of the material world (i.e. Science) one can attain samadhi?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;SamAdhi&lt;/em&gt; (liberation) can also be attained by analytical study or path of knowledge (&lt;em&gt;GyAna yoga&lt;/em&gt;), which is known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. However, that analysis includes &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; (material world) and &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; (consciousness) both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 5.4 - The fools, not the learned ones, speak of SAmkhya (the path of Knowledge) and [Karma] yoga as different. Any one who properly resorts to even one [of them], gets the result of both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When one attains liberation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Until the consciousness (&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;) is influenced by 3 modes of material nature (&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;), one remains in higher, middle or lower planes of the material world. When it stops getting influenced by theese 3 modes: &lt;em&gt;Sattva, Rajas, Tamas&lt;/em&gt;, then it is said to be in the state of &lt;em&gt;SamAdhi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.27 — All actions (karma-s) are enacted in Prakruti by [3] modes (guna-s). &lt;strong&gt;Bewildered&lt;/strong&gt; with ego (false identity), [true] self (Atma) &lt;strong&gt;believes &quot;I am the doer&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 14.19 — When the witness (&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;) looks upon none other than the [3] modes [of material nature] as the doers and knows superior upon the modes, [s]he attains 'My' nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;SamAdhi is a state of realising the &quot;non-doership&quot; (akartA).&lt;/em&gt; Whatever actions are performed by person, are actually performed by the modes of the nature. Let it be any action: good, bad or ugly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How &quot;[Karma] Yogi&quot; gives up the doership (i.e. attains &lt;em&gt;SamAdhi&lt;/em&gt;)?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 5.7 — Contained with &lt;strong&gt;Yoga&lt;/strong&gt; (i.e. Yogi), purified self, winner of self, winner of senses, the material self among all material selves - doesn't get tainted even performing actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How &quot;SAmkhya&quot; gives up doership (i.e. attains &lt;em&gt;SamAdhi&lt;/em&gt;)?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 5.8, 5.9 — &quot;I certainly don't do anything&quot; is believed by knower containing fundamentals - even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, dreaming, breathing, talking, discarding, accepting, opening, closing; &quot;Senses only are acting in the subjects of senses&quot; - is understood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer to BG 5.4 is contained within the subsequent verses BG 5.7 - 5.9.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The &lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt; who has the knowledge of fundamentals (&lt;em&gt;tattva&lt;/em&gt;), gives up the &quot;doership&quot; by understanding the fact that, everything happening around, is happening due to 3 modes only. If the person relates self with these 3 modes, then he/she may believe &quot;I am the doer&quot;. But this [smart] analytic knows that &quot;I am not the doer&quot;. When one doesn't associate self with the 3 modes, one is automatically associated beyond them. That's where the supreme or &lt;em&gt;SamAdhi&lt;/em&gt; resides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;IMPO, &lt;em&gt;SAmkhya&lt;/em&gt; should have very close relation with those who practice &lt;em&gt;Advaita&lt;/em&gt; philosophy.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2016-12-03T19:21:30.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16207" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-04T00:17:27.877" Score="3" ViewCount="121" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga18/kishkindhasans18.htm#Verse31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Rāma, in his lecture to Vāli, defending his actions, mentions the following two verses from Manu-smṛti. Which exact verses (ch. and verse no.) from Manu is Rāma referring to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'When kings impose proper punishment on the humans who have sinned, they become sinless and enter heaven as with the pious souls with good deeds.' So says one verse of Manu. [4-18-31]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Either by punishment or by clemency a thief will be absolved from sin, but the king who does not impose proper punishment will derive the blot of that sin.' So says the other verse of Manu. [4-18-32]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T00:55:37.270" Title="In his lecture to Vāli, which Manu-smṛti verses is Rāma talking about?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|vali|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16208" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16207" CreationDate="2016-12-04T00:42:50.050" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rāma is referring to these two verses from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/ManuSmriti_201601/Manu-Smriti#page/n175/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu-smṛti&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राजभिः कृतदण्डास् तु कृत्वा पापानि मानवाः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नि-र्मलाः स्वर्गम् आयान्ति सन्तः सुकृतिनो यथा ॥ ८-३१८ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8.318.&lt;/strong&gt; But men who have committed crimes and have been punished by the king, go to heaven, being pure like those who performed meritorious deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शासनाद् वा विमोक्षाद् वा स्तेनः स्तेयाद् विमुच्यते । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अशासित्वा तु तं राजा स्तेनस्य-अन्पोति किल्बिषम् ।। ८-३१६ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8.316&lt;/strong&gt;. Whether he be punished or pardoned, the thief is freed from the (guilt of) theft; but the king, if he punishes not, takes upon himself the guilt of the thief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-04T00:55:37.270" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T00:55:37.270" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16209" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16202" CreationDate="2016-12-04T01:17:17.660" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Excellent answers above; though I agree with both answers, I would also like to step away from the systematic confirmation approaches used above and take the passage on its' own...to be more direct in addressing your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To give a straight answer to your question is quite possible I believe:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Does this mean that by analytical study of the material world (i.e. Science) one can attain samadhi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes. It does. But the key part of getting there is how you treat analysis. The analysis leading to samadhi, to me, is to analyze the material world in a way that guides you to true belief in it all being maya and an illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Analytical study of the material world, via the empiric evidence building involved in most modern sciences, is not the path being discussed here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Namaste. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8379" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-04T03:53:31.097" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T03:53:31.097" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16210" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-04T04:27:59.003" Score="3" ViewCount="202" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shree Ramanuja authorised worships of his forms in three murthies.&#xA;When he leaves Melakotai in Karnataka,a vighra is made and Ramanujar embraces it and gives it back. This is called &quot;Thamar Ukantha Thirumeni&quot; in Tamil.&#xA;In SriPerumPuthuthur (his birth place), his disciples make a vighra and he authorises it by giving his Sakti. This is called as &quot;ThAnukantha Thirumeni&quot;.&#xA;The third is His own body worshipped in Srirangam. This is called as &quot;ThAneyAna Thirumeni&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was he worshipped before he left for Parampadam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8028" LastEditorUserId="8028" LastEditDate="2016-12-04T09:50:08.407" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T09:50:08.407" Title="Worship of Shree Ramanuja while he was in his body?" Tags="|vishnu|rituals|worship|sri-vaishnava|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16211" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16106" CreationDate="2016-12-04T05:40:11.123" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Martyr is (as a noun)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a person who is killed because of their religious or other beliefs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;or (as a verb)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kill (someone) because of their beliefs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is not exactly something like that in our Shastras but to your question &lt;strong&gt;is there anything close?&lt;/strong&gt; i have an answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism both Brahmins and cows have exalted positions.They are both considered Holy and the holiest among their kinds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Killing a Brahmin or a cow are both grave sins with the former being listed among the 5 gravest sins(5 Mahapatakas) in all Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 12.55. The slayer of a Brahmana enters the womb of a dog,&#xA;  a pig, an ass, a camel, a cow, a goat, a sheep, a deer, a bird, a&#xA;  Kandala, and a Pukkasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.235. The slayer of a Brahmana, (A twice-born man) who&#xA;  drinks (the spirituous liquor called) Sura, he who steals (the gold of&#xA;  a Brahmana), and he who violates a Guru’s bed, must each and all be&#xA;  considered as men who committed mortal sins (mahapataka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the same Shastras say that if someone sacrifices one's life while saving a Brahmin or cow commits a great punya(an act of great merit).Similar is the case when that person does not die but saves the cow or the Brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.79. &lt;strong&gt;He who unhesitatingly abandons life for the sake of&#xA;  Brahmanas or of cows&lt;/strong&gt;, is freed from (the guilt of) the murder of a&#xA;  Brahmana, &lt;strong&gt;and (so is he) who saves (the life of) a cow, or of a&#xA;  Brahmana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vO89b.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vO89b.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The exact verse is found in the Parashara Smriti as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rFTWZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rFTWZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know if i have answered your question or not but these are the closest examples i found from Hindu Shastras that talk about &quot;sacrificing life for saving religion,or for the sake of religious beliefs&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-04T05:59:18.320" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T05:59:18.320" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16212" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14692" CreationDate="2016-12-04T05:44:40.247" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Word 'Go' has multiple meanings. Here is a couplet: &#xA;गो गोविन्द दिक्पाल दिक्, स्वर्ग वज्र खग छंद &#xA;गो धर गो तरु गो किरण गो गोपाल गोविन्द&#xA;Which means, 'Go' means Krishna, Dikpala (Protectors of Directions), Directions, Heaven, Vajra (Mythological weapon of Indra made out of bones donated by Dadhichi), Bird, Meter, Earth, Tree, and Sunray&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8381" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T05:44:40.247" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16213" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16011" CreationDate="2016-12-04T08:27:22.657" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;As already discussed in comments, an Atheist in Hinduism is:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;One who doesn't believe in the infallible authority of the Vedas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But your question asks: &quot;&lt;strong&gt;who do not believe in higher power or God&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. So your question is asking, to those, who view the world as fully material only.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;[As an example Buddhism doesn't believe in infallible authority of the Vedas, but Buddhism does talk of higher beings like Devas and Shakra and MahaBrahma. So although they are atheist in Vedic point of view they are not Atheist from &quot;who do not believe in higher power&quot;]&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, I'm taking &quot;Atheist&quot; here to mean &quot;who do not believe in higher power&quot; i.e., They do not believe in things like re-incarnation and afterlife, law of Karma, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More precisely they believe that Consciousness in our body is only due to congregation of atoms and product of mass of atoms.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now a question may arise &lt;em&gt;Is there any Indian Philosophy which considers consciousness is merely a product of the conglomeration of its constituents?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is a philosophy called &lt;strong&gt;Chārvāka Vāda&lt;/strong&gt; which holds consciousness is only product of body and the self which we see in our body comes with the birth of our body and dies with death of our body. They do not believe in any higher power. They believe only in Pratakshya Pramāna (direct testimony).&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;does Bhagavad Gita gives us freedom to say that self comes as product of body and goes when body dies?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, while teaching about eternity of soul in Chapter 2 Lord states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ चैनं नित्यजातं नित्यं वा मन्यसे मृतम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथापि त्वं महाबाहो नैनं शोचितुमर्हसि ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 2.26: &lt;strong&gt;If, however, you think that the self is subject to constant birth and death,&lt;/strong&gt; O mighty-armed Arjuna, even then you should not grieve like this.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Lord is stating that, even if you believe that self dies when body dies, then, you shouldn't grieve like it. But this doesn't mean that Lord is endorsing this statement. This only means Lord is giving freedom to Arjuna to believe in this type of philosophy also. &lt;strong&gt;This means Bhagavad Gita doesn't detest atheists.&lt;/strong&gt; Here, Lord is using the words &quot;Atha Cha&quot; which means &quot;Even if&quot;; this clearly shows Lord is giving freedom to Arjuna to have this view also.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In Vedanta, Brahman is the source of everything including higher powers as I discussed in answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13830/who-is-the-creator-of-all-energy-and-sources-in-the-universe/13832#13832&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and from 1.2 of Mandukya Upanishad &quot;Aayam Atman Brahman&quot; or &quot;This Atman is the Brahman.&quot; So, disbelief in Eternal Atman means disbelief in Brahman and Brahman is the source of higher power also. So, disbelief in Atman clearly gives view of discarding higher powers (in Vedanta) as Brahman is the source here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as we already know from Verses of Upanishads and Vedas that non-atman view is not correct. Then a question may arise &lt;strong&gt;Why is Lord giving freedom to have this view also?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's because it is not so easy to understand about Atman. Some people by their Prakriti Swabhāva (innate nature) become atheists. They can't change their view at all. So, Lord is giving them freedom. A similar conversation also occurs in Shiva Gita as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15840/sarva-dharman-parityejya-mamekam-sharanam-vraja-in-shiva-gita/15841#15841&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. Here Lord Rama asks:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शृण्वन्तोऽपि तथात्मानं जानते नैव केचन ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ज्ञात्वापि मन्वते मिथ्या किमेतत्तव मायया ॥ ३६॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And &lt;strong&gt;some can't even know Atman after hearing too and some while knowing also call it false.&lt;/strong&gt; Why is it so? Is it your Maya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Lord replies as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवमेव महाबाहो नात्र कार्या विचारणा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दैवी ह्येषा गुणमयी मम माया दुरत्यया ॥ ३७॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh Mahabaho it is as you spoke, there is no doubt in it. My maya is very hard to overcome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, due to Maya of Lord and due to factors like past life Karmas some can't even know Atman after reading scriptures. But for those also, in Gita, Lord states to do their duty. Hence that verse came.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OP also asks &quot;persons who just go about doing their swadharma, fulfilling their duties.&quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can term such person as unsuccessful yogi i.e., He doesn't have complete knowledge but doing meritorious activities. Such persons enjoy the portion of merit and get good or virtuous birth in next life by the virtue of their meritorious Karma and can have right or Dharmic view. In the chapter 6 Lord states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्राप्य पुण्यकृतां लोकानुषित्वा शाश्वती: समा: |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शुचीनां श्रीमतां गेहे योगभ्रष्टोऽभिजायते || 41||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अथवा योगिनामेव कुले भवति धीमताम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एतद्धि दुर्लभतरं लोके जन्म यदीदृशम् || 42||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 6.41 The unsuccessful yogis, upon death, go to the abodes of the virtuous. After dwelling there for many ages, they are &lt;strong&gt;again reborn in the earth plane, into a family of pious and prosperous people.&lt;/strong&gt; Else, if they had developed dispassion due to long practice of Yoga, &lt;strong&gt;they are born into a family endowed with divine wisdom.&lt;/strong&gt; Such a birth is very difficult to attain in this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another question may arise: &lt;em&gt;In many places, is Lord condemning certain views and states &quot;those having such views are unintelligent&quot;, etc.?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We shouldn't take those condemnations in absolute sense. Lord is only condemning out of compassion of Jeevas, so that Jeevas may be able to get liberation as soon as possible. Gita already states everything as manifestation of Brahman, so there can't be anything that is not Brahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मार्पणं ब्रह्म हविर्ब्रह्माग्नौ ब्रह्मणा हुतम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्रह्मैव तेन गन्तव्यं ब्रह्मकर्मसमाधिना || 24||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 4.24: For those who are completely absorbed in God-consciousness, &lt;strong&gt;the oblation is Brahman, the ladle with which it is offered is Brahman, the act of offering is Brahman, and the sacrificial fire is also Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; Such persons, &lt;strong&gt;who view everything as God,&lt;/strong&gt; easily attain him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas also declare the same as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11529/i-want-scripture-based-explanation-for-god-is-everywhere/15705#15705&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the above verse clearly holds everything is Brahman in absolute sense, so condemnation of any view in other parts of Gita can't be taken in absolute sense. They are only to be taken relatively as everything is Brahman in absolute sense.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, it is also difficult to see Lord in everything:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बहूनां जन्मनामन्ते ज्ञानवान्मा प्रपद्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वासुदेवः सर्वमिति स महात्मा सुदुर्लभ ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 7.19: &lt;strong&gt;After many births of spiritual practice,&lt;/strong&gt; one who is endowed with knowledge surrenders unto me, &lt;strong&gt;knowing me to be all that is. Such a great soul is indeed very rare.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i.e., only after spiritual practice from many births a rare person can see that Lord resides everywhere (i.e., Vãsudeva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the BrihadAranyaka Upanishad states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;III-ix-3: ‘Which are the Vasus /’ ‘Fire, the earth, air, the sky, the sun, heaven, the moon and the stars – these are the Vasus, &lt;strong&gt;for in these all this is placed;&lt;/strong&gt; therefore they are called Vasus.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As clear from above &quot;all this is (whole Universe)&quot; placed in Vasus and Lord residing on these Vasus is Vãsudeva. So, only a rare person can actually see that Lord is present everywhere and it is difficult too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And furthermore, teachings of Bhagavad Gita are words of Supreme Brahman. In the Aswamedha Parva before Anu Gita, regarding Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna states: &quot;परं हि ब्रह्म कथितं योगयुक्तेन तन्मय&quot;...&quot;Param Brahman had told (Bhagavad Gita) while I was concentrated in higher Yoga.&quot; So, it can't be that Brahman hates someone. If we see some condemnation in Bhagavad Gita it is not that Brahman hates such people, it's just due to compassion of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in conclusion we can say: &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita neither detests Atheists nor endorses Atheism.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T20:51:12.083" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16214" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16106" CreationDate="2016-12-04T08:39:44.107" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt; , there is a concept of Martyrism in Hinduism scriptures.This concept is described in a  story in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&lt;/strong&gt; - This story is of a demon &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Vruttasura&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; Rushi (sage) Dadhichi, Indra &amp;amp; Demigods.In this story demon &amp;quot;Vruttasura&amp;quot;&#xA;hide all the weapons &amp;amp; powers of demigods.Then Indra (King of&#xA;demigods) and all gods seek refuge of the Supreme Lord. He instruct's&#xA;them to build a weapon from bones of Sage Dadhichi.In this war when&#xA;Vruttasura see that all his demon solder's are leaving the warzone he&#xA;says to them that &amp;quot; It's better to die in warground (battlefield) , in&#xA;that case one gets the Swarga (Heaven) by fighting bravely in&#xA;battfield and dies there fighting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the sanskrit verses from Bhagvat Puran -:&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दवौ संमतविह मृत्यु दुरापौ यद् ब्रह्मसंधारणाया जितासु:।&lt;br&gt;  कलेवरं&#xA;योगरतो विजह्याद्य यदग्रणी र्वीरशयेs निवृत: ॥33॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dvau sammatāv iha mṛtyū durāpau  yad brahma-sandhāraṇayā jitāsuḥ&#xA;kalevaraṁ yoga-rato vijahyād  yad agraṇīr vīra-śaye ’nivṛttaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - There are two ways to meet a glorious death, and both are very rare. One is to die after performing mystic yoga, especially&#xA;bhakti-yoga, by which one can control the mind and living force and&#xA;die absorbed in thought of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. &lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;second is to die on the battlefield, leading the army and never&#xA;showing one’s back. These two kinds of death are recommended in the&#xA;śāstra as glorious.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/10/33&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 6.10.33&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जातस्य मृत्युर्ध्रुव एष सर्वतः प्रतिक्रिया यस्य न चेह क्लुप्ता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;लोको यशश्चाथ  ततो यादिं ह्यमुं को नाम मृत्युं न वृणीत युक्तम् ॥ 32॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jātasya mṛtyur dhruva eva sarvataḥ  pratikriyā yasya na ceha kḷptā&#xA;loko yaśaś cātha tato yadi hy amuṁ  ko nāma mṛtyuṁ na vṛṇīta yuktam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Vṛtrāsura said: All living entities who have taken birth in this material world must die. Surely, no one in this world has&#xA;found any means to be saved from death. Even providence has not&#xA;provided a means to escape it. Under the circumstances, death being&#xA;inevitable, if one can gain promotion to the &lt;strong&gt;higher planetary&#xA;systems&lt;/strong&gt; and be always celebrated here by dying a suitable death,&#xA;what man will not accept such a glorious death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/10/32&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 6.10.32&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And this  martyrism concept  is also clearly stated  in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-iii/chapter-21/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Uman samhita chapter 21 - shloka 25 – Page 83&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यस्तु शस्त्रमनुत्सुज्य म्रियते वाहिनीमुखे |&lt;br&gt; संमुखो वर्तते शूर: स&#xA;स्वर्गान्न निवर्तते ||२४||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who dies in battleground , holding a weapon , such a warrior never&#xA;returns from the heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T11:33:24.153" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16215" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16185" CreationDate="2016-12-04T09:31:44.193" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavad Gita begins with the following sloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;धर्म&lt;/strong&gt;क्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे समवेता युयुत्सवः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मामकाः पाण्डवाश्चैव किमकुर्वत सञ्जय ||1.1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and ends with:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यत्र योगेश्वरः कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धरः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मति&lt;strong&gt;र्मम&lt;/strong&gt; ।।18.78।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The text begins with the word &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; and ends with the word &lt;em&gt;Mama&lt;/em&gt; (means 'my'). The word Dharma should not be taken loosely as a duty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  term  'dharma ' is  derived  from  the  root '&lt;strong&gt;dhar'&lt;/strong&gt;(  &lt;em&gt;dhri&lt;/em&gt; ), to  uphold, sustain, support. Thus the word indicates &amp;quot;that which holds together  the different aspects and qualities of an object into a whole&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, the nature of Fire is heat and quality of the sandal is chillness. When both fire and sandal fails to exhibit their nature, they fail in their Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the &lt;strong&gt;Mama Dharma&lt;/strong&gt; refer to  the  duty  of  every individual  towards  himself (Svadharma)  and  others  in the society. The  highest  duty  of  every  individual  is  to  surrender  to  God   and  attain  the  highest  Truth and  the Dharma to the society should be associated with the innate nature of a person&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 18 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita can be divided into 3 parts (i.e., 6 chapters each) based on the types of Yoga - Karma, Bhakti, and Jnana Yoga.&#xA;One should start with Karma Yoga, add Bhakti and then end up with Jnana or Wisdom and become united with God, which is what the word Yoga means – union with God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire book of Bhagavad Gita is to enrich one's life and attain the Paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can find the slokas from the 2&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt; chapter more use and give the real taste of Gita. I have just listed two slokas which enrich my life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सङ्गात् संजायते कामः कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते ।।&lt;strong&gt;2.62&lt;/strong&gt;।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the case of a person who dwells on objects, there arises attachment for them. From attachment grows hankering, from hankering springs anger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;क्रोधाद्भवति संमोहः संमोहात्स्मृतिविभ्रमः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्मृतिभ्रंशाद् बुद्धिनाशो बुद्धिनाशात्प्रणश्यति ।।&lt;strong&gt;2.63&lt;/strong&gt;।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From anger follows delusion; from delusion, failure of memory; from failure of memory, the loss of understanding; from the loss of understanding, he perishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[English Translation By Swami Gambirananda]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following link gives an exhaustive list of the Gita slokas which can be handy for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://prabhupadagita.wordpress.com/category/108-important-bhagavad-gita-slokas/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;108 Important Slokas of Bhagavad Gita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-06T00:23:23.927" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16216" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-04T13:22:25.477" Score="13" ViewCount="5308" Body="&lt;p&gt;If I do a bad karma without knowing or realizing properly will I receive fruits for that or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about children? Do they accumulate karma too? Don't they make lot of mistakes unknowingly?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At what age are you responsible for your own karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8385" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-12-21T15:46:24.683" LastActivityDate="2022-03-10T10:58:13.000" Title="Do children accumulate karma? At what age are you responsible for your karma?" Tags="|karma|rebirth|sin|children|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16217" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-04T22:21:44.780" Score="8" ViewCount="544" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Rig-parisishta a real supplement to Rig Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Origin of doubt&lt;/em&gt;: Rig-parisishta (the supplement to the Rig Veda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;radhaya madhavo devo madhavenaiva radhika/ vibhrajante janeshu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: Among all persons, it is Sri Radha in whose company Lord Madhava is especially glorious, as She is especially glorious in His.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I doubt Radharani were any where mentioned in Rig Veda (Not that I am aware of!) or is it endorsement by ISKCON?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3692" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-10-12T17:15:19.520" Title="Is Rig-parisishta a real supplement rig veda?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16218" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16185" CreationDate="2016-12-04T23:53:44.777" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;By far the most important verse of the Bhagavad Gita is the Charama Shloka, which is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse 18.66&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6504/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, part of the Charama Shloka is written on the hand of the famous Upilliappan statue.  And the Charama Shloka is one of the Rahasya Traya or three secrets of Sri Vaishnavism, because it explains the path to Moksha known as Sharanagati or Prapatti, which involves surrendering to the lotus feet of Vishnu.  (The other two secrets are the Ashtakshari mantra and the Dvaya mantra, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7971/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his Rahasyatraya Sara, the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan devotes an entire &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/TU8F&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;100-page chapter&lt;/a&gt; to explaining the meaning of every single word of the Charama Shloka and its significance.  But I'll just quote a few short passages.  First of all, here is what he says about the importance of the Charama Shloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In order to dispel [Arjuna's] grief, the Lord explained to him the eternal and essential nature of the soul or self (atman) which is different from the body and the like (the senses etc.)  and likewise karma yoga and jnana yoga, which are, to a man who understands this essential nature, the mediate means for attaining the supreme goal and also bhakti yoga which has been enjoined as the primary and means of attaining it, as also all its accessories.  Though Arjuna was eager to attain the supreme end quickly, he thought it too hard to perform it (bhakti-yoga) with all its accessories and though he had the knowledge and ability needed for its adoption, he realized the nature of this upaya was such that it would secure the end in view could not be attained quickly.  So Arjuna became overwhelmed with despair.  &lt;strong&gt;Under the guise of teaching Arjuna, the Acharya of the Gitopanishad is graciously pleased, out of His infinite compassion, to teach this most secret upaya (viz. prapatti) on the Charama shloka which is the conclusion of the teaching and leaves nothing unsaid.&lt;/strong&gt; ... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are some (acharyas) who have understood the noble and charming shloka &lt;strong&gt;which is like the gem koustubha taken out of the ocean of Vyasa's Veda (Mahabharata)&lt;/strong&gt;.  Its meaning finds confirmation in the ways of the words (or the smritis) and in the paths of the Vedas.  On hearing the words of these (acharyas) which are like steps in the staircase that leads to the mansion of mukti, greats souls like Vaishampayana and Shaunaka nod their heads (in approval and admiration).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is his summary of the meaning of the Charama Shloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your knowledge is limited; your ability is insignificant; your life is short and you are also impatient of delay.  Therefore do not go about seeking other upayas which you cannot (fully) understand, which you cannot easily adopt and which can bear fruit only after much delay.  Realize that I who am of easy access to all, who am the Saviour of all the worlds, and who am endowed with all the attributes essential for a Saviour, am the only upaya and perform the surrender of the responsibility of protecting your self to me along with the five angas.  When you have adopted this upaya and done what you ought to do, you will become my ward and do what is extremely dear to me.  Supremely compassionate and gracious, independent and omnipotent, I will, myself, by my mere will and without any aid, and for the fulfillment of my own purposes, free you from the manifold, endless, and insurmountable groups of obstacles without leaving any trace of them.  I will enable you to have enjoyments similar to mine own, since you will enjoy myself and all the belongs to me.  I will find delight in making you render all forms of service in all places, at all times and in all circumstances - service which will be of the nature of the overflow of the full and perfect enjoyment (of myself).  You have absolutely no cause for grief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the meaning of dharma in the Charama Shloka is an area where the Thenkalais and Vadakalai sub-sects of Sri Vaishnavism disagree, as discussed in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2835/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Vadakalais believe that it means &quot;Abandon the 32 principles of Bhakti Yoga and surrender to me&quot;, the 32 principles being the Brahmavidyas listed &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/sri/Web/BrahmaVidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Thenkalais, on the other hand, believe that it means &quot;Abandon all duties and surrender to me.&quot; (But Thenkalais still perform their Vedic Dharmas after Sharanagati to set an example for others.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-12-04T23:53:44.777" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16219" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16220" CreationDate="2016-12-05T02:23:19.600" Score="5" ViewCount="7920" Body="&lt;p&gt;I keep seeing &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/u/0/asset/vishnu-appears-to-king-muchukunda-in-a-cave-in-the-himalayas/8gG2Jc1cAQe7pQ&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this picture&lt;/a&gt; of a painting on my TV via Google Chromecast. The caption below the pic. reads:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu Appears to King Muchukunda in a Cave in the Himalayas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the backstory of this painting? What are they doing in a cave?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And why does Vishnu look so small compared to Muchukunda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jUqvJ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jUqvJ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there is an additional picture that goes along with the painting probably explaining what the painting is all about. Can anyone translate what it's saying?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BdY7r.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BdY7r.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find pictures of both the painting and it's caption here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/edan/object.php?q=fsg_F1999.13&amp;amp;bcrumb=true&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/edan/object.php?q=fsg_F1999.13&amp;amp;bcrumb=true&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-03T02:33:39.803" Title="What is the story behind this Vishnu - Muchukunda painting?" Tags="|vishnu|art|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16220" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16219" CreationDate="2016-12-05T03:34:11.627" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;This painting is painted in mughal style. This depicts the story of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muchukunda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Muchukunda&lt;/a&gt; meeting Lord Vishnu who was in the form of Lord Krishna. Muchukunda does not recognize Krishna but he realises that the one standing before him is Lord Narayana Himself. There is a mention of him in Bhagavata Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Muchukunda is the son of Ikshvaku king &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandhatri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mandhata&lt;/a&gt; and brother of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambarisha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ambarisha&lt;/a&gt;. He is the one who killed a warrior king named Kalayavan who wanted to kill Lord Krishna.  Muchukunda was a great warrior and an able commander. He helped the devatas in the war with the asuras. This war was fought for a very long time. Devatas won the war. Quoted from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/51&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After placing His family members safely within the Dvārakā fortress, Śrī Kṛṣṇa went out of Mathurā. He appeared like the rising moon. Kālayavana saw that Kṛṣṇa’s brilliantly effulgent body matched Nārada’s description of the Lord, and thus the Yavana knew He was the Personality of Godhead. Seeing that the Lord carried no weapons, Kālayavana put his own weapons aside and ran toward Him from behind, wanting to fight with Him. Śrī Kṛṣṇa ran from the Yavana, staying just barely beyond Kālayavana’s grasp at every step and eventually leading him a long distance toward a mountain cave. As Kālayavana ran, he hurled insults at the Lord, but he could not grasp Him, since his stock of impious karma was not yet depleted. Śrī Kṛṣṇa entered the cave, whereupon Kālayavana followed after Him and saw a man lying on the ground. Taking him for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Kālayavana kicked him. The man had been sleeping for a very long time, and now, having been violently awakened, he looked around angrily in all directions and saw Kālayavana. The man stared harshly at him, igniting a fire in Kālayavana’s body and in a moment burning him to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This extraordinary person was a son of Mandhātā’s named Mucukunda. He was devoted to brahminical culture and always true to his vow. Previously, he had spent many long years helping to protect the demigods from the demons. When the demigods had eventually obtained Kārttikeya as their protector, they allowed Mucukunda to retire, offering him any boon other than liberation, which only Lord Viṣṇu can bestow. Mucukunda had chosen from the demigods the benediction of being covered by sleep, and thus since then he had been lying asleep within the cave.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upon Kālayavana’s immolation, Śrī Kṛṣṇa showed Himself to Mucukunda, who was struck with wonder at seeing Kṛṣṇa’s incomparable beauty. Mucukunda asked Lord Kṛṣṇa who He was and also explained to the Lord his own identity. Mucukunda said, “After growing weary from remaining awake for a long time, I was enjoying my sleep here in this cave when some stranger disturbed me and, suffering the reaction of his sins, was burnt to ashes. O Lord, O vanquisher of all enemies, it is my great fortune that I now have the vision of Your beautiful form.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa then told Mucukunda who He was and offered him a boon. The wise Mucukunda, understanding the futility of material life, asked only that he might be allowed to take shelter of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pleased at this request, the Lord said to Mucukunda, “My devotees are never enticed by material benedictions offered to them; only nondevotees, namely yogīs and speculative philosophers, are interested in material benedictions, having mundane desires in their hearts. My dear Mucukunda, you will have perpetual devotion for Me. Now, always remaining surrendered to Me, go perform penances to eradicate the sinful reactions incurred from the killing you had to do in your role as a warrior. In your next life you will become a first-class brāhmaṇa and attain Me.” Thus the Lord offered Mucukunda His blessings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The shlokas in the second picture start with the second half of:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/51/22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.51.22&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yavane bhasma-sān nīte &lt;br&gt;&#xA;bhagavān sātvatarṣabhaḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;ātmānaṁ darśayām āsa&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA; &lt;strong&gt;mucukundāya dhīmate&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the Yavana was burnt to ashes, &lt;strong&gt;the Supreme Lord&lt;/strong&gt;, chief of the Sātvatas, &lt;strong&gt;revealed Himself to the wise Mucukunda&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...and end with:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/51/63&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.51.63&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;janmany anantare rājan &lt;br&gt; sarva-bhūta-suhṛttamaḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;bhūtvā dvija-varas tvaṁ vai &lt;br&gt; mām upaiṣyasi kevalam&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O King, in your very next life you will become an excellent brāhmaṇa, the greatest well-wisher of all creatures, and certainly come to Me alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did Muchukunda get so much power to kill a man just by his glance?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nidrām eva tato vavre &lt;br&gt;&#xA;sa rājā śrama-karṣitaḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;yaḥ kaścin mama nidrāyā &lt;br&gt;&#xA;bhaṅgaṁ kuryād surottamāḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;sa hi bhasmī-bhaved āśu &lt;br&gt;&#xA;tathoktaś ca surais tadā &lt;br&gt;&#xA;svāpaṁ yātaṁ yo madhye tu &lt;br&gt;&#xA;bodhayet tvām acetanaḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;sa tvayā dṛṣṭa-mātras tu &lt;br&gt;&#xA;bhasmī-bhavatu tat-kṣaṇāt &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“The King, exhausted by his labor, then chose sleep as his benediction. He further stated, ‘O best of the demigods, may whoever disturbs my sleep be immediately burned to ashes.’ The demigods replied, ‘So be it,’ and told him, ‘That insensitive person who wakes you in the middle of your sleep will immediately turn to ashes simply by your seeing him.’”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the verses to be added between the two lines of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/51/21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.51.21&lt;/a&gt;. These are alternate verses given by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura for better understanding of the chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no mention in the Mahabhagavata that Lord Krishna was shorter than Muchukunda&lt;/strong&gt;. The mughal style of painting does not literally depict the conditions at that time. E.g: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabali&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The picture&lt;/a&gt; shown at Mahabali wikipedia page. Everyone knows Vamana did not wear a shiny dress like people at Mughal times.  I think it is an artistic interpolation just like chaturmukha Brahma shown old, the difference between the heights may be due to two reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;King Muchukunda belonged to satya yuga. Krishna is from Dwapara yuga. I think that is the way to show the age difference between them.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Scientific reason [Don't know whether I could quote or not]: King Muchukunda was sleeping for a very long time. It is proven scientifically that sleeping increases the height of persons.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T05:00:32.703" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16221" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-05T06:13:55.230" Score="6" ViewCount="176" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6896/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Pancharatra Agamas are the foundational texts of Vaishnavism. Similarly, the foundational texts of Shaivism are known as the Shaiva Agamas, aka the Shaiva Tantras.  One of the oldest Shaiva Agamas is the Nishvasatattva Samhita, which is only preserved in a single manuscript from Nepal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wK7CJ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Nishvasatattva Samhita, various sacred places of Vishnu are described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hari always resides in Shalagrama, Mallakupa, Saukarava, in Sannidhana, Mathura, as well as Shvetadvipa; having seen Vishnu ... one will be freed from all sins; people deceased in these places will go to that highest abode (paramam padam) of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most of these places are recognizable; Shalagrama is where the Muktinath Vishnu temple is located, Saukarava is where the Soron Varaha temple is located, Mathura is the birthplace of Krishna, and Shwetadvipa is the abode of Vishnu's Vyuha Vasudeva form, who lies down on the serpent Adiseshan.  But my question is, what is this Mallakupa place which is sacred to Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translator just says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As far as we can see, this place sacred to Vishnu is attested only in our text and in the Shivadharmasangraha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does anyone know the location of this place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-03-23T06:01:12.047" Title="What is the location of Vishnu's sacred place of Mallakupa?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|shaivism|agamas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16222" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11520" CreationDate="2016-12-05T07:05:07.017" Score="1" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Analogies&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two students, 'A' &amp;amp; 'B' are studying under a very genuine Guru 'G'. Due to their upbringing, 'A' trusts the things easily, while 'B' demands lot of time &amp;amp; questions to trust something. One day 'G' imparts an important lesson. Due to inherent faith in 'G', 'A' starts believing straight away, while 'B' does counter questions, does his own research and goes till the root of that teaching.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Husband-Wife, 'H' &amp;amp; 'W' were very loving. Due to some misunderstanding, they got separated and are staying in different cities. After a while, 'H' sees no point in separation and decides to reconcile by  offering apology over the phone. 'W' insists that the forgiveness will be granted only if 'H' asks for it in person by meeting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As seen in the 1st analogy, due to faith, for 'A' the words of 'G' are enough. 'A' implements the lesson quickly. While 'B' has his own set of questions &amp;amp; analysis on the way. Until those things are answered, 'B' cannot genuinely follow the teachings. After all the verification, 'B' accepts the lesson from 'G'. Both 'A' and 'B' are right in their own ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In 2nd analogy, 'W' could have accepted efforts of 'H' just by hearing his voice. Things would have mended easily &amp;amp; bring the life on track. Right decision by 'W'. However, she demands 'H' to visit personally to her. She is still right. Because she doesn't want any stone to be unturned &amp;amp; make sure that the reunion is really sincere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above analogies explain the similar situation of why &amp;quot;formful&amp;quot; has upper hand over &amp;quot;formless&amp;quot;. Both, &amp;quot;believers&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;disbelievers&amp;quot; are right. &amp;quot;Believers of form&amp;quot; attain the supreme quickly due to easy surrender and &amp;quot;Non believers of form&amp;quot; naturally take time to surrender to supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Answer&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna refers 'I/Me' as the supreme nature [of Brahman]. &lt;strong&gt;The true nature of &amp;quot;I/Me&amp;quot; is &amp;quot;unmanifested / formless&amp;quot;. But it's not any ordinary &amp;quot;unmanifested&amp;quot;. It can neither be thought (&lt;em&gt;chintan&lt;/em&gt;) nor be described (&lt;em&gt;being&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/strong&gt; In a way, this &amp;quot;formless&amp;quot; is beyond whatever &amp;quot;formeless&amp;quot; one can imagine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 2.25 - &lt;strong&gt;'That' is said to be unmanifest, unthinkable, non-distortable&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence knowing 'that' thus, you shouldn't grieve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 8.20 - But &lt;strong&gt;beyond that &amp;quot;unmanifested&amp;quot;, there is another eternal &amp;quot;unmanifested&amp;quot; nature&lt;/strong&gt;; That which doesn't get destroyed, when all beings are destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 13.13 - I shall speak of that which is knowable. Knowing which, one attains immortality. The supreme Brahman (god) dwelling under Me, is beginningless. &lt;strong&gt;'That' is said to be neither existent nor non-existent.&lt;/strong&gt; (existent = being)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, relate the believers of &amp;quot;formless&amp;quot; with above analogies. These &amp;quot;formless believers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Either like 'B' with full of doubts, they go into the minutest detail&#xA;to understand &amp;quot;formless 'Me'&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Or like stringent 'W', they want to realize &amp;quot;formless 'Me'&amp;quot; by personal visit!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, &lt;strong&gt;Don't question 'My' identity too much. Attain 'Me' by trusting my representatives (&amp;quot;forms&amp;quot;).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Where are those representatives?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;I&amp;quot; is purely &amp;quot;Nothing&amp;quot;-ness.&lt;/strong&gt; But to conceive it, Gita chapter 10 is dedicated to I's representative forms. However if still none of them impresses, then whatever impresses, is 'My' form only. Because 'I' is everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 10.41 — Whichever influential excellence(Sattva) [entity] certainly has prosperity(Shrimad) or energy(Urjita); those you know to be possible as part of 'My' aura only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If &amp;quot;Nothing&amp;quot; impresses, that means only &amp;quot;I&amp;quot; impresses (&amp;quot;I&amp;quot; = &amp;quot;Nothing&amp;quot;-ness). :-) That's still fine, but that path is painful &amp;amp; time consuming. We ourselves are &amp;quot;forms&amp;quot; (i.e. embodied) of 3 modes and with our forms, we can understand other &amp;quot;forms [of god]&amp;quot; better than complete &amp;quot;formless&amp;quot; which is even beyond thinkable &amp;quot;formless&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Exact answer to your question is replied by Krishna as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 12.4 - For them who have mind attached to the Unmanifested the struggle is greater; For embodied [beings], the destination to unmanifested is painful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T07:16:37.833" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16223" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7670" CreationDate="2016-12-05T07:20:36.493" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna felt that the Yadav's were not so famous and needed to achieve prominence among the kings of that time.&#xA;He found the Pandavas to be brave, honest and after all strong warriors proved in Draupadi Swayamvara sabha. He joined them to achieve his goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8388" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-05T08:13:39.277" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T08:13:39.277" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16224" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15377" CreationDate="2016-12-05T07:32:33.453" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;If while dying a person is some how able to recite God's names that is sure to give him mukti(or moksha or salvation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16028/which-scriptures-say-that-by-chanting-lords-name-during-the-time-of-ones-death&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question for example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it is very rare that a person  will be able do so.Mostly he/she would be in a state of unconsciousness or otherwise that won't enable him (or her) to chant anything for that matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharshi Parashara mentions this among &quot;Mumurshu Prayaschitta&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Paraashara Muni explains the Mumursha prayaschitta vidhi as follows:.........&lt;em&gt;Shiva Shiva Shiva cheti vyaaharanvai trivaaram tyajati nija tanuh, yasvaayushonantyakshane- smin bhavati bhava bhayaanaa, Chhedakah purva&#xA;  shabdo na bhavata itaroudvou kalpitaatyopakarou/&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some how if the dying person is enabled to sing in praise of Govinda&#xA;  or atleast hear the hymn would most positively purify his heart and&#xA;  soul. Pronounciaton of Shiva-Shiva- Shiva shabdas thrice over should&#xA;  destroy the fears of death and serve as the pointer to Moksha!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharshi Vishnu(the author of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/05Vishnu_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Smriti&lt;/a&gt;,one of the main Dharma Shastras) desires that :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;the sons and relatives ought to whisper into the person’s right ear of Punya Suktas and Mantraksharaas as they realise  of risk of life.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,in case the dying person is himself not able to chant the Govinda or the Shiva names during death, someone else can whisper the same names in his ears.It will have the same effect.And who better to do that than the person's own sons or daughters or the near and dear ones?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharshi Vashista(the author of Vashishta Dharma Sutras) advises on the same lines as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pitrurmarana kaaletu runamochanaat, Mastakastu samaadaaya dakshinasyatu jaanuni/ Shraavayetpunya sultaani punya&#xA;  mantraaksharaani, tatastu nirgate vaayou kushaagreshu vinikshipet/&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To secure ‘Pitru runamochana’ the sons should keep the father’s head&#xA;  on their right thighs and enable him to hear punyasuktas&lt;/strong&gt; and after the&#xA;  praana vayu and breathing stops ticking then rest the body on darbhas!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9KdhK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9KdhK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,that is why i think the presence of sons /daughters is desired during the time of their parents' death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see,in this way the parents can secure moksha &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;a son can get rid of his Pitru Rina.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T08:11:35.663" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16225" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16106" CreationDate="2016-12-05T08:25:26.500" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Martyr -- A person die fighting in battle against enemies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;I am putting this definition, because if a policeman dies in street fights, then they are usually not termed as martyrs. The &amp;quot;enemy&amp;quot; part is essential.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are numerous references of &amp;quot;martyrdom&amp;quot; and how a &amp;quot;Kshatriya&amp;quot; (armyman in this context), dying on battlefield attain heaven. Very famous reference is there in Bhagavad Gita itself. (GambhirAnanda's translation):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 2.32 - O son of Partha, happy are the Ksatriyas who come across this kind of a &lt;strong&gt;battle&lt;/strong&gt;, which presents itself unsought for and which is an &lt;strong&gt;open gate to heaven&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 2.37 - &lt;strong&gt;Either by being killed you will attain heaven&lt;/strong&gt;, or by winning you will enjoy the earth. Therefore, O Arjuna, rise up with determination for fighting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there is a small caveat here. Not everyone dying on battlefield may attain heaven. For example, if a running away soldier is chased to death, then it's a cowardly death.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Hence, the qualities of &lt;strong&gt;good Kshatriya&lt;/strong&gt; are described here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 18.43 - The natural duties of the Ksatriyas are &lt;strong&gt;heroism, boldness&lt;/strong&gt;, fortitude, capability, and also &lt;strong&gt;not retreating from battle&lt;/strong&gt;, generosity and lordliness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the side note, despite knowing all these, the great warrior Arjuna was still not convinced to fight. Because, heaven or material pleasures were no longer attractive to him. Hence, even though Krishna first tries to convince him with such 'benefits', Gita doesn't stop at heaven/earth/hell etc..&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The supreme abode is beyond all the planes of material world. However, that's out of context for this Qn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T08:25:26.500" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16226" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7890" CreationDate="2016-12-05T11:43:05.003" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Prasthanabheda.by.Madhusudana.Sarasvati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prsthanabheda&lt;/a&gt; (प्रस्थानभेदः�) of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhus%C5%ABdana_Sarasvat%C4%AB&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Madhusudan Sarasvari&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/snsastri/PrasthAnabheda-Engl.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Documents&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ सर्वेषां शास्त्राणां भगवत्येव तात्पर्यं साक्षात्परम्परया वेति समासेन तेषां प्रस्थानभेदोऽत्रोद्दिश्यते । तथा हि-ऋग्वेदो यजुर्वेदः सामवेदोऽथर्ववेद इति वेदाश्चत्वारः । शिक्षा कल्पो व्याकरणं निरुक्तं छन्दो ज्योतिषमिति वेदाङ्गानि षट् । पुराणन्यायमीमांसा धर्मशास्त्राणि चेति चत्वार्युपाङ्गानि । अत्रोपपुराणानामपि पुराणेऽन्तर्भावः । वैशेषिकशास्त्रस्य न्याये, वेदान्तशास्त्रस्य मीमांसायां, महाभारतरामायणयोः सांख्यपातञ्जलपाशुपतवैष्णवादीनां धर्मशास्त्रे, मिलित्वा चतुर्दश विद्याः । तथाचोक्तं याज्ञवल्क्येन (१।३)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुराणन्यायमीमांसाधर्मशास्त्राङ्गमिश्रिताः । वेदाः स्थानानि विद्यानां धर्मस्य च चतुर्दश ॥ इति । &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एता एव चतुर्भिरुपवेदैः सहिता &lt;strong&gt;अष्टादश विद्या भवन्ति&lt;/strong&gt; । आयुर्वेदो धनुर्वेदो गन्धर्ववेदोऽर्थशास्त्रं चेति चत्वार उपवेदाः । सर्वेषां चाऽऽस्तिकानामेतावन्त्येव शास्त्रप्रस्थानानि । अन्येषामप्येकदेशिनामेतेष्वेवान्तर्भावात् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the scriptures have the supreme Lord as their purport. Here the different &#xA;  prasthAnas are dealt with in brief. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas are four in number—Rgveda, yajurveda, sAmaveda and &#xA;  atharvaveda. The vedAngas are six—shikShA (science of pronunciation), &#xA;  yyAkaraNam (grammar), niruktam (etymology), Chandas (metre), jyoutiSham (astronomy and astrology), and kalpa. The upAngas are four—&#xA;  purANa, nyAya, mImAmsA and dharmashAstras. The upapurANas are included in the purANas, vaisheShika is included in nyAya, vedAnta in &#xA;  mImAmsA, and mahAbhArata, rAmAyaNa, sAnkhya, yoga, pAshupata, vaiShNava, ertc., are included in dharmashAstra. Thus altogether there are� fourteen vidyAs. So has it been said by sage YAjnavalkya—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The purANas, &#xA;  nyAya, mImAmsA, dharmashastra and the Vedas (including vedAngas) together constitute the fourteen vidyAs”. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These, along with the four &#xA;  upavedas &lt;strong&gt;are the eighteen vidyAs&lt;/strong&gt;. The four upavedas are—Ayurveda, dhanurveda (archery), gAndharvaveda (music) and arthashAstra (political science). These only are the prasthAnas for all Astikas. The prasthAnas of other ekadeshIs (those who hold different views in some matters) are included in these.�&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, 18 Shashtras also called 18 Vidyas (&lt;strong&gt;अष्टादश विद्या&lt;/strong&gt;) are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XwqTo.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XwqTo.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-11-23T13:00:35.590" LastActivityDate="2018-11-23T13:00:35.590" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16227" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16106" CreationDate="2016-12-05T12:36:14.780" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the answers have taken an inward focus without taking into consideration OP and his specific tag &lt;code&gt;other-religion&lt;/code&gt;. Let me elaborate this aspect a bit more...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, being a religion which faced religious onslaught for several centuries, Hindus have internalized martyrdom and incentivised dying for the righteous (&lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;), country (&lt;em&gt;desha&lt;/em&gt;). Previous answers have elaborated sufficiently on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the differences,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rajiv Malhotra &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwisdom.info/quotes341_360.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;writes&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, there is no concept similar to Christian martyrdom or Islamic jihad. The most important and revered historical figures of Hinduism were not martyrs. Spirituality is not about fighting someone or some religion. There is no discussion of other religions in Hindu scriptures, no campaigns against &quot;false gods.&quot; Comparative religion is not of much interest to Hindus, as they do not see religion through competitive or predatory eyes. Comparative religion is not of much interest to Hindus, as they do not see religion through competitive or predatory eyes. Christians, on the other hand, go out of their way to control positions in academics, to research and to teach about Hinduism, as a sort of competitor intelligence gathering which seeks hegemony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, when faced with aggression, Kshatriya is supposed to do his duty to protect &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; (righteous), &lt;em&gt;praja&lt;/em&gt; (people) and &lt;em&gt;desha&lt;/em&gt; (country).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the contrary, in the book, &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/90866.God_Against_the_Gods&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;God against the Gods&lt;/a&gt;&quot;, by Jonathan Kirsch, he gives the history of early Christianity's focus on encouraging martyrdom for gaining religious merit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These zealous Christians were encouraged to provoke fights in order to become martyrs. This kind of behavior was broadcasted in order to encourage more persons. Such martyrs were celebrated, honored, and many of the thousand of saints were recognized primarily for their martyrdom. To fight infidels became seen as the highest sacrifice for God. In-fact, Jesus is considered the first martyr.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.voiceofdharma.org/books/tcqp/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Calcutta Quran Petition&lt;/a&gt; by Sita Ram Goel describes how the very fact that a &lt;em&gt;shahid&lt;/em&gt; (martyr) has the highest place reserved in the Islamic heaven. Higher even that a &lt;em&gt;Ghazi&lt;/em&gt; (Islamic warrior) shows the relevance and importance of martyrdom in Islamic tradition. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/22/46&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;anecdotal 72 virgins as a reward&lt;/a&gt; for martydom is specified in Hadith. It says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That the Messenger of Allah said: &quot;There are six things with Allah for the martyr. He is ... married to seventy two wives along Al-Huril-'Ayn of Paradise, and he may intercede for seventy of his close relatives.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, all in all Hindus do respect the martyr, but there's no great place reserved for him in the path to &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;. He may enjoy the fruits of his self-less duty by spending some time in &lt;em&gt;svarga&lt;/em&gt; (heaven) but will soon return to the Earth as reincarnated soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2016-12-05T12:36:14.780" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16228" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-05T14:45:18.627" Score="5" ViewCount="3141" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu tradition, should you consider your elder brother's wife who's younger to you as your sister or as your mother?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E.g., can you prostate before her (i.e., do sāśtāṅga namaskāra) as you would to your parents or elder brother? Does your sister-in-law's age play any role in this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do the śāstras say?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any examples from scriptures in this regard?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-05T17:27:36.217" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T06:37:52.220" Title="Should you consider your elder brother's wife who's younger to you as your sister or your mother?" Tags="|tradition|marriage|women|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16229" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16228" CreationDate="2016-12-05T15:19:02.333" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I  only have a &lt;strong&gt;partial&lt;/strong&gt; answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Hindu tradition, should you consider your elder brother's wife who's younger to you as your sister or as your mother?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu says the wife of one's elder brother is to him like &lt;strong&gt;the wife of his Guru&lt;/strong&gt; neither like his mother nor his sister.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nothing is mentioned if she is to be treated differently depending on her age.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.57. &lt;strong&gt;The wife of an elder brother is for his younger&#xA;  (brother) the wife of a Guru;&lt;/strong&gt; but the wife of the younger is declared&#xA;  (to be) the daughter-in-law of the elder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fktcz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fktcz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Can you prostate to her (i.e., do sashtanga namaskara) as you would to your parents or elder brother? Does your sister-in-law's age play any role in this?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu  says that the feet of a  brother's wife &lt;strong&gt;should be clasped daily&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;if she is of the same caste&lt;/strong&gt;.Here again,there is no mention of age.Also,i think this applies only to  the  elder and not to the younger brother.Because a younger brother's wife will be like his daughter-in-law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.132. &lt;strong&gt;(The feet of the) wife of one’s brother, if she be of the same caste (varna), must be clasped every day;&lt;/strong&gt; but (the feet of) wives of&#xA;  (other) paternal and maternal relatives need only be embraced on one’s&#xA;  return from a journey.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DU9IC.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DU9IC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update-&lt;/strong&gt; The Usana Smriti(the Smriti composed by Daitya Guru Shukra) says that the wife of one's elder brother is to be treated like one's mother although the mother is the more venerable among the two.And that her feet should be touched/clasped while saluting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The wife of an elder brother&lt;/strong&gt;, those of kinsman and relatives, mother's&#xA;  sisters and father's sisters, and elder sisters, &lt;strong&gt;should be saluted by&#xA;  touching the feet. (32) One should treat them all like his mother,&lt;/strong&gt; but&#xA;  the latter is superior to' them all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IYRhp.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IYRhp.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,this verse should not be seen as contradicting the verse of Manu given above.Because the same Usana Smriti also says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The mother's sister, maternal uncle's wife, motheiv in-law, father's&#xA;  sister, &lt;strong&gt;and the wives of all the elders, should be adored like unto&#xA;  the preceptor's wife&lt;/strong&gt;. (31&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-23T06:37:52.220" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T06:37:52.220" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16230" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16635" CreationDate="2016-12-06T05:08:36.053" Score="5" ViewCount="641" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nara and Narayan were the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Who later incarnated in last Dwapara as Arjuna and Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nara-Narayan incarnation has been discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3936/what-is-the-story-of-nara-and-narayanas-brothers-hari-and-krishna&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/3/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;In 9th Canto Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt; of Bhagavata purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what lord Brahma tells Kakudmi when he arrives in Brahma Loka with his daughter Revati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Twenty-seven catur-yugas have already passed. Those upon whom you may&#xA;have decided are now gone, and so are their sons, grandsons and other&#xA;descendants. You cannot even hear about their names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O King, leave here and offer your daughter to Lord Baladeva, who is&#xA;still present. He is most powerful. Indeed, He is the Supreme&#xA;Personality of Godhead, whose plenary portion is Lord Viṣṇu. Your&#xA;daughter is fit to be given to Him in charity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I assume here Baladeva refers to Lord Balaram; Brother of Lord Krishna. So we know that this story is from last Dwapara yuga if I'm not mistaken.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then Kakudmi after marrying his daughter to Lord Balaram goes to Badarikashram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, the King gave his most beautiful daughter in charity to&#xA;the supremely powerful Baladeva and then retired from worldly life and&#xA;went to Badarikāśrama to please Nara-Nārāyaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is: &lt;strong&gt;were sages Nara-Nārāyaṇa still present at that time in BadarikaShram?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Or is it that Kakudmi went to Badarika to please them by worshipping them(not personally in case they had already departed for their abode)?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T06:52:07.777" Title="Did sage Nara and Narayan still live even in 28th Dwapar Yuga?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|bhagavata-purana|yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16232" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16233" CreationDate="2016-12-06T05:56:33.607" Score="12" ViewCount="1302" Body="&lt;p&gt;The importance of the Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana can be ascertained from the following two passages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Srimad Devi Bhagavatam, also known as Devi Purana, was composed&#xA;  into 12 chapters, containing 18000 verses by the great Veda Vyasa.&#xA;  Though classified as an upa-purana &lt;strong&gt;it is the only purana Vedavyasa&#xA;  called “Maha Purana” meaning the great purana.&lt;/strong&gt; At the end of each&#xA;  chapter of the 18 main puranas or the upa puranas is the verse “This&#xA;  is the end of the fifth section of the Vishnu Purana”, or “Thus ends&#xA;  the first chapter of Ganesha Purana Upasanakhanda called “The&#xA;  Description of Somakanta”. Where as in the Devi Bhagavatam it is&#xA;  clearly – “Thus ends the eighth chapter of the first Skandha in the&#xA;  Mahapurâna Srimad Devî Bhâgavatam of 18,000 verses by Maharsi&#xA;  Vedavyâsa”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatamindex.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Astrojyoti.com(Translation of Devi Purana by Swami Vijyananda)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The unfolding  of  the subject matter was  that of Devi Bhagavata&#xA;  Purana, &lt;strong&gt;originally recited by Krishna Dvaipayana Maharshi Veda Vyasa,&#xA;  who described it as Maha Purana, elevating its status above the&#xA;  Eighteen Main Puranas,&lt;/strong&gt; viz. Agni Purana, Bhagavata Purana, Bhavishya&#xA;  Purana, Brahma Purana, Brahmanda Purana, Brahma  Vivarta Purana,&#xA;  Garuda Purana, Kurma Purana, Linga Purana, Matysa Purana, Markandeya&#xA;  Purana, Narada Purana, Padma Purana, Skanda Purana, Siva Purana,&#xA;  Vamana Purana, Varaha Purana, and Vishnu Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana1.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The preface of the book &quot;Essence of the Devi Bhagvatam&quot; hosted by Kamakoti.org.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Question&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;strong&gt;Is it explicitly stated in Devi Bhagvata Mahapurna itself that it is the best among the 18 main Puranas?If so where?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-06T06:28:03.273" LastActivityDate="2016-12-08T06:07:08.307" Title="Where does the Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana state that it is the best among the 18 main Puranas?" Tags="|puranas|vyasa|devi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16233" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16232" CreationDate="2016-12-06T05:56:33.607" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes,the Devi Bhagavata itself states that it is the best among the 18 main Puranas.It is so stated in the first chapter of the Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following is a screenshot of the page that contains the relevant verses.And here the relevant verses are the &lt;strong&gt;17th,18th&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;23rd&lt;/strong&gt; ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Bbdf9.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Bbdf9.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Transliterations and translations of the 3 verses are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ashtaadasha puraanaani sa kritavaa Bhagavaan Munih maamevaadhyaapayaamaasu bhaarataakhyaana evacha(17)|| &lt;strong&gt;Devibhagavatam&#xA;  tatra puraanam bhogamokshadam, swayam tu shraavayaamaat Janamejaya&#xA;  bhushitam(18)&lt;/strong&gt;||-----&lt;strong&gt;Ashaadasha puraanaam madhye sarvottamam param,&#xA;  Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt; naama dharmaartha kaamaartha mokshadam (23)||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maharshi Vyasa scripted the Eighteen Puranas about the Oriental&#xA;  Bhaarata Desha yet Devi Bhagavata Purana aims at achievement of Moksha&#xA;  as strongly opined by Emperor Janamejaya.(17 &amp;amp; 18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Among the eighteen puranas, Devi Bhagavata is the best(sarvottamam&#xA;  param)&amp;amp; it stands out shining as the accomplisher of  Four&#xA;  Purushardhas of Dharma-Artha-Kaama-Mokshas&lt;/strong&gt;(23)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-08T06:07:08.307" LastActivityDate="2016-12-08T06:07:08.307" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16234" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-06T07:57:46.583" Score="12" ViewCount="1005" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is believed that certain Hindu Scriptures (specially portions of some of the Puranas) were interpolated on a date much after its original creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such interpolated texts are often used by small groups of sectarians for spreading disharmony, differences &amp;amp; hatred among the Hindus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are there some foolproof methods of differentiating the originals from the interpolated texts in such cases? If yes, what are those?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are those methods mentioned in Hindu Scriptures themselves?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-06T17:03:52.883" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T13:57:45.223" Title="What are the valid and foolproof methods of determining whether a certain scripture is interpolated or not?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|interpolation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16235" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16239" CreationDate="2016-12-06T08:54:21.987" Score="6" ViewCount="2832" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimad bhagvat mahapuran (5.17.3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After purifying the seven planets near Dhruvaloka [the polestar], the Ganges water is carried through the spaceways of the demigods in billions of celestial airplanes. Then it inundates the moon [Candraloka] and finally reaches Lord Brahmā’s abode atop Mount Meru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad bhagvat mahapuran (5.17.5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On top of Mount Meru, the Ganges divides into four branches, each of which gushes in a different direction [east, west, north and south]. These branches, known by the names Sītā, Alakanandā, Cakṣu and Bhadrā, flow down to the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here it says that Ganga flows from meru parvat however, the parvat does not exist where Ganga currently is. So what I want to know exactly is, where is mount meru?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note: I do not wish to offend anyone regarding my question. Our current thirthas are as holy regardless of their authenticity and I respect their location. Being a Hindu, I would never disrespect any thirth just because they do not match with shastras. Many thirthas have changed locations and this is why I try to find their original location. Sorry if I have offended anybody.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8302" LastEditorUserId="8302" LastEditDate="2016-12-08T12:43:11.843" LastActivityDate="2022-11-10T03:20:23.887" Title="Ganga flows from Meru parvat but, where is Meru?" Tags="|puranas|history|research|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16236" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16234" CreationDate="2016-12-06T09:14:52.877" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;One method had been used by Aacharyas is to prepare and check &lt;strong&gt;Anukramani&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For protecting the Vedas, and keeping the tradition of mantras well-organized, ancient Rishis has made sorted indices or index according to the topic/subject.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In these index Suktas, Padas, Seear of each and every mantra, Chhand (meter) of richa (hymns) and Devatas of Samhitas are orderly well indexed and made catalogue. There are different markings regarding to the subject of compilation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For e.g Anuvakanukramani has compilation of each and every Anuvak in sorted form, Arshanukramani has compilation of Rishi and it's tradition, Chhandonukramani has compilation of Chhanda, Mantranukramani etc. and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These type of making index and catalogues not only helps in searching topics/subject but also serve the purpose: &lt;strong&gt;Protecting the original form of Mantra and saving the chants of Mantra from being corrupted or fallen.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anukramani which includes all type of description in one place (for every topics Sukta, Chhanda,.. as mentioned above) is called &lt;strong&gt;Sarvanukramani&lt;/strong&gt; .Maharshi Katyayana and Shaunaka are well known for making Sarvanukramani for popular Shakhas of Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, by indexing or making catalogue of description to no. of contents in the scripture e.g. no. of mantras, suktas according to Aadhyaya etc., The originality of scripture can be saved. The current version can be cross-checked or compared with the help of such Anukramani of/to the authentic and original.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more information on Anukramani, visit &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatkhoj.org/india/%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%80&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;अनुक्रमणी&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%80&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;सर्वानुक्रमणी&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anukrama%E1%B9%87%C4%AB&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anukramaṇī&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Anukrama%E1%B9%87i&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anukramaṇi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-12T13:57:45.223" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T13:57:45.223" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16237" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8991" CreationDate="2016-12-06T10:48:48.830" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lanka in Ramayana is pronounced &quot;Langka&quot; which is an aspect of universal spiritual dimensions applicable to all of creation. Present day Sri Lanka only is a geographical land mass which has been changing its shape and boundaries over the miliions and millions of years. The meaning of Maha Bharatha also has a similiar hidden cosmic spiritual meaning and an absolute truth. The nme India came recently, and earlier itws the Indus valey which consisted of many present day countries. Its not Bharath. Those who attain the higher mental state of analisyis (Dhyana) will know it. Those who have attained the state of understanding nama-shakthi in root sound syllables (gana) will know it.  This is the grandest mystery to be uncovered by the sages of all times, and its not for the ordinary humans (Sattvas) since the manifestation of satthvas is part of and by iteself inherant in the universal intellegence of what we worship by the nama, Brhama, &quot;Vishnu&quot; or Shiva. The manifested universe is the maya or Para-shakthi (Rupa) (Saraswathi,Lakshmi,Parwathi) of which we are part of as experiencing entities of samskaras. Then some one willask as to how these names and places are being established on earth with such names as Seetha eliya, yakgala etc in present day Sri Lanka. This is the most difficult part of explanation since we have totally forgotton that universe is a process uninteruptedly and ever evolving from a micro-system to a macro-system. Thats why the quantum energy forms the atoms and sequentially forms the planetary systems to  milkeyways to quarsars which again becomes the (time differentiated) pulse of the universe - the nuro signal of inelligence. Hence the details of the Macro-system is recorded in the micro system and vice versa. Hence w have records of these on earth which is the life (Intel) centre of our region. Blessings to all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8395" LastEditorUserId="8395" LastEditDate="2016-12-06T11:07:54.260" LastActivityDate="2016-12-06T11:07:54.260" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16238" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15717" CreationDate="2016-12-06T10:59:29.877" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before knowing about hierarchy of incarnation of Devi, &lt;em&gt;it is necessary to know about hierachy of Devi herself&lt;/em&gt; (with respect to other Gods). So, to explain this I have divided the answer to this question to several parts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;1) Explanation from Absolute Level:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is the explanation from the absolute level point of view or Paramartha Satyam;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;● Devi as only one that exists:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is Devi only that exists in the entire universe. No second other than Devi exists. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the SaptaShati (Markandeya Purana) before killing Sumbha Devi states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एकैवाहं जगत्यत्र द्वितीया का ममापरा।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पश्यैता दुष्ट मय्येव विशन्त्यो मद्विभूतयः॥५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;I only exist in this entire Universe. There is no one besides me. Oh wicked one it is myself who is created in many forms.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This clearly shows there is no second than Devi. Similarly in Shiva Purana chapter Manifestation of Uma, Devi states:&amp;lt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देव्युवाच: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Devi Spoke:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परं ब्रह्म परं ज्योति प्रणवद्वन्द्वरुपिणी । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहमेवास्मि सकलं मदन्यो नास्ति कश्चन ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I am the Supreme Brahman the great lusture in two Pranavas. &lt;strong&gt;I am everything that exist, nothing exists besides me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथा दारुमयीं योषां नर्त यत्यैन्द्रजालिकः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथैव सर्वभूतानि नर्तयाम्यहमीश्वरी ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Just as a magician makes a wodden puppet to dance, in the same way I make dance the entire beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the above verses clearly show that there is no second besides Devi that exists. ie. Everything is Shakti herself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;● Devi as Purusha:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most people only think Devi as Pradhana and thus conclude Devi can&amp;apos;t be Brahman as Brahma Sutra reject the eternity of Pradhana. While the truth is Devi is Purusha herself too! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Purush Sukta of Rig Veda 10.90 states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुरुष एवेदं सर्वं यद भूतं यच्च भव्यम |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  This Puruṣa is all that yet hath been and all that is to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ie. The necessary attribute of Purusha is it is all that was that is and that will be. The same RigVeda in 10.89.10 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अदितिर्द्यौरदितिरन्तरिक्षमदितिर्माता स पिता स पुत्रः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विश्वे देवा अदितिः पञ्च जना अदितिर्जातमदितिर्जनित्वम || (RigVeda 10.89.10)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Aditi is the heaven, Aditi is mid-air, Aditi is the Mother and the Sire and Son.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Aditi is all Gods,&lt;/strong&gt; Aditi five-classed men, &lt;strong&gt;Aditi is all that hath been born and shall be born.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this clearly shows that Aditi/Devi herself is the Purusha.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Similarly the first verse of Purush Suktam of Rig Veda states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सहस्रशीर्षा पुरुषः सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  A THOUSAND heads hath Puruṣa, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Lalita Sahasranaama which was told by Lord Hayagriva to Maharshi Agastya in Brahmanda Purana (starting from the 282th name states):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सहस्रशीर्षावदनासहस्राक्षसहस्रपात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Having thousand headed body, thousand eyes and thousand legs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus it is clear Devi is not only Pradhana but also Purusha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;●) Devi as Brahman and Brahma-Vidya:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi is both Brahman and Brahma Vidya. In the Kena Upanishad Devi is in form of Brahma Vidya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;III-12. In that space itself (where the Yaksha had disappeared) Indra approached an exceedingly charming woman. &lt;strong&gt;To that Uma, the daughter of the Himalayas, he said: “Who is this Yaksha?”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  IV-1. &lt;strong&gt;She said: “It was Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; In the victory that was Brahman’s you were revelling in joy”. Then alone did Indra know for certain that It was Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Devi gave knowledge of Brahman to the Gods above, so Devi here is in the form of Brahma Vidya.&#xA;In the Katha Upanishad we have:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2-I-7. (He who perceives) &lt;strong&gt;this Aditi&lt;/strong&gt; that comes into being as the Prana, &lt;strong&gt;comprising all the gods,&lt;/strong&gt; that is manifested along with the elements, and that, &lt;strong&gt;entering into the cavity of the heart, is seated there, he perceives that very Brahman. This verily is that&lt;/strong&gt; (thou seekest).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Aditi/Devi is herself Brahman.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So as a conclusion from explanation from Absolute level; Devi is herself Purusha, Devi herself is all that exists; Devi herself is Brahman and Brahma Vidya. So as everything is Devi from absolute point of view &lt;strong&gt;there is nothing such as Hierachy of Incarnation of Devi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;2) Explanation from Relative (Vyavaharika level):&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The world which we perceive now is full of duality (due to our ignorance), so the explanations from relative level is also needed so that it helps to understand absolute level.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;● Devi as the innate power of all Gods:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To such Rudra who is glorified as Brahman in the Shewatashwatara and Atharvasiras Upanishad, actually the innate power of Rudra is Devi herself. In the Devi Suktam of RigVeda Devi states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहं रुद्राय धनुरा तनोमि ब्रह्मद्विषे शरवे हन्तवा उ। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहं जनाय समदं कृणोम्यहंद्यावापृथिवीआविवेश॥६॥ (RigVeda 10.125)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;I bend the bow of the Rudra to kill all those enemies&lt;/strong&gt; who detest all good things. I fight these bad elements / enemies only for the people. I enter, pervade and persist throughout the earth and the sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;So, it clearly shows that Devi is the innate power and actually it is her who bends bow of Rudra.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Similarly it is Vaishnavi Shakti who remains as innate Shakti of Vishnu and performs all tasks (which people say performed by Vishnu). In the SaptaShati during Narayani stuti it is stated:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शङ्‌खचक्रगदाशाङ्‌र्गगृहीतपरमायुधे।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रसीद वैष्णवीरूपे नारायणि नमोऽस्तु ते॥१६॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I salute Narayani, &lt;strong&gt;the possessor of the &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sanka, Chakra, Gada, and Sargna; who favors all in the form of Vaishnavi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly it is Maheswari Shakti which makes all work to perform for Maheswara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रिशूलचन्द्राहिधरे महावृषभवाहिनि।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  माहेश्‍वरीस्वरूपेण नारायणि नमोऽस्तु ते॥१४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;I salute Narayani, &lt;strong&gt;holder of the Trishula, Chandra, who rides on the ample ox in the form of Maheswari.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually it is Aindri Shakti which is innate power inside Indra who killed Vrittasura (and people due to ignorance assume it is Indra who killed Vritta):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;किरीटिनि महावज्रे सहस्रनयनोज्ज्वले।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वृत्रप्राणहरे चैन्द्रि नारायणि नमोऽस्तु ते॥१९॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I salute Narayani, who is crowned, the holder of the Vajra, &lt;strong&gt;who glowes with one thousand eyes, the drawer of the soul of Vritra in the form of Aindri.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is actually innate power inside gods which perform every task. Eg. Maheswara didn&amp;apos;t destroyed Tripura, it is Maheswari Shakti which is inside Maheswara who did that task. It is not Varaha who lifted the earth, it is Varahi Shakti inside Varaha who did that. The first verse of RigVeda Devi Suktam itself states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहं रुद्रेभिर्वसुभिश्चराम्यहमादित्यैरुतविश्वदेवैः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहं मित्रावरुणोभा बिभर्म्यहमिन्द्राग्नीहमश्विनोभा ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;I TRAVEL with the Rudras and the Vasus, with the Ādityas and All-Gods&lt;/strong&gt; I wander.&#xA;  I hold aloft both Varuṇa and Mitra, Indra and Agni, and the Pair of Aśvins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is Devi herself who is innate power of all Gods and travel with all Gods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;●) Devi incomprehensible even to Hari and Hara:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the SaptaShati Devas pray to Devi as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मा हरश्‍च न हि वक्तुमलं बलं च।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सा चण्डिकाखिलजगत्परिपालनाय&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नाशाय चाशुभभयस्य मतिं करोतु॥४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thy miracles are unparalleled, &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavan, Ananta, Brahma, and Hara are unable to express it.&lt;/strong&gt; Mayest thou, O Chandika! endeavour to preserve the world, and dispel the fears of the giants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Shiva Purana chapter manifestation of Devi, Devi herself state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न ब्रह्मा न मुरारातिर्न पुरारातिरीश्वरः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मदग्रे गर्वितुं किंचित्का कथान्यसुपर्ववाम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Neither Brahma Nor Vishnu nor Shiva can boast before me,&lt;/strong&gt; what to speak of other Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;●) Devi herself as the performer of creation, protection and destruction:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the last verse of RigVeda Devi Suktam, Devi states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहमेव वात इव प्रवाम्यारभमाणा भुवनानि विश्वा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परो दिवा पर एना पृथिव्यैतावती महिना संबभूव॥८॥ (RigVeda 10.125)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I breathe a strong breath like the wind and tempest, the while &lt;strong&gt;I hold together all existence.&lt;/strong&gt; Beyond this wide earth and beyond the heavens I have become so mighty in my grandeur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Devi herself is the support of all this existence. In the Narayani Stuti in Saptashati Gods pray Devi as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सृष्टिस्थितिविनाशानां शक्तिभूते सनातनि।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गुणाश्रये गुणमये नारायणि नमोऽस्तु ते॥११॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I salute Narayani &lt;strong&gt;who is the eternal power for creation, preservation and destruction.&lt;/strong&gt; Who is without attribute and full of attribute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Devi is the eternal power of Sristi, Sthiti and Vinasha. It is supported by Vedas also as already discussed. In the SaptaShati Brahma prays to Devi as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्वयैतद्धार्यते विश्वं त्वयैतत्सृज्यते जगत्॥७५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वयैतत्पाल्यते देवि त्वमत्स्यन्‍ते च सर्वदा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विसृष्टौ सृष्टिरूपा त्वं स्थितिरूपा च पालने॥७६॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथा संहृतिरूपान्‍ते जगतोऽस्य जगन्मये।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Thou art the sustainer of all things, thou hast created all things, thou governest all things, thou existest to the end constantly. Thou art the principle of creation, thou art plastic, thou art the preserver, thou art &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  the destroyer in the end, thou pervadest through the universe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other many verses which state it, in the SaptaShati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;●) Devi herself in the form of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From above we know that it is Devi who is cause behind the creation, protection and destruction. Not only this Devi herself is in the form of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra also who perform this task. As already stated in RigVeda &amp;quot;Aditi is all Gods.&amp;quot; Similar things come here:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the chapter Manifestation of Uma from Shiva Purana Devi herself states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विरञ्चि सृष्टिकर्ताऽहं जगत्पाताऽहमच्युत । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रुद्रः संहारकर्ताऽहं सर्वाविश्वविमोहिनी ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;I am the creator Brahma, protector Achyuta and destroyer Rudra&lt;/strong&gt; and also enchater of the whole world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And similarly the 264th name of Devi in Lalita Sahasranaama is given as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सृष्टीकर्ता ब्रह्मारुपा ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who takes the form of Brahma for creation.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly 265th name is:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गोप्त्री गोविन्दरुपिणी ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who protects in the form of Govinda (Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly 266th name is:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;संहारीणि रुद्ररुपा ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who destroys in the form of Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, it is Devi Herself who is in the form of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus in the Relative level also everything is seen as just forms of Devi which was already established in Absolute level. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;3) Establishing Hierachy in Relative level:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although everything is seen as forms of Devi in Relative (Vyavaharika) level also. Still we can establish Hierarchy in forms as Relative level is subject to Naama-Rupa (Name- Form) and other things like Time, Maya, Law of Karma etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;● Supreme form of Devi:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Tripura Rahasya chapter 20 &amp;quot;Vidya Gita&amp;quot; Devi herself states as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My concrete form is the eternal couple — the Supreme Lord and Energy — always in undivided union and abiding as the eternal consciousness pervading the three phenomenal states of waking, dream and sleep, &lt;strong&gt;and reclining on the cot, whose four legs are Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Protector), Shiva (the Destroyer) and Ishwara (Disappearance) and whose surface is Sadasiva (grace),&lt;/strong&gt; which is contained in the mansion known as the ‘fulfilment of purpose’, enclosed by the garden of ‘kadamba’ trees, in the jewel island situated in the wide ocean of nectar surrounding the cosmos and extending beyond.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the Supreme form of Devi (Sri Lalita TripuraSundari) is residing in cot whose four legs are Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra and Maheswara. And Surface is SadaShiva. ie. She is residing above SadaShiva also.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Though Sri Lalita is chaste wife of SadaShiva. LalitaSahasranama states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सदाशिव पतिव्रता ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who is chaste wife of SadaShiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheswara and SadaShiva are known as PanchaBrahmanas&amp;nbsp; and detailed explanation of it is avaliable in Linga Purana and Shiva Purana. Sri Lalita is higher even than these PanchaBrahmanas:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;58th name of Lalita Sahasranaama states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पञ्चब्रह्मासनास्थीता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who is seated in Five Brahamanas (Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheswara, SadaShiva)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;249th name of Lalita Sahasranaama states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पञ्चप्रेतशनाशीना ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who is seated in five corpse.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here these Five are actually PanchaBrahmanas and they are compared to corpse because PanchaBrahmana (Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheswara and SadaShiva) are like corpse without power of Devi.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;250th name states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पञ्चब्रह्मस्वरुपिणी ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who is in the form of PanchaBrahmanas.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Devi herself is in the form of PanchaBrahmanas also.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;One of the name state:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महेश्वरमहाकल्पमहाताण्डवसाक्षिणी ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who is the witness of MahaTandava performed by Maheswara at the end of MahaKalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus her form only remain at the end of 100 yrs. of Brahma (Mahakalpa); so she is the witness of MahaTandava performed by Maheswara at the end of MahaKalpa.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Similarly, 281th name states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उन्मेशनिमिषोत्तपन्नविपन्नाभुवनावली ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who creates and destroys world with the blinking of her eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And similarly there are other verses also. The name Lalita itself means &amp;quot;who does Lila&amp;quot; or who plays. Thus she is verily Brahman herself and she is highest in the Hierachy of Devi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;●) Forms of Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally there is a misconception that Mahakali, MahaLakshmi and Mahasaraswati denote to consort of Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma respectively.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However, the term MahaKali, MahaLakshmi and Mahasaraswati denote the Amsas of Supreme Devi presiding over Tamasic, Rajasic and Satvik mode respectively.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;For instance MahaKali kills Madhu Kaitabha and MahaLakshmi is invoked to kill Mahisasura. However this MahaLakshmi is not wife of Lord Vishnu. Similarly Sumbha Nisumbha is killed by MahaSaraswati but she is not wife of Brahma.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For clearing confusion the chapter 48 of Uma Samhita Shiva Purana discuss about manifestation of Mahakali as:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मणा प्रार्थिता सेयं मधुकैटभनाशने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महाविद्या जगद्धात्री सर्वविद्याधिदेवता ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  द्वादश्यां फाल्गुनस्थैव शुक्लायां समभून्नृप ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महाकालीति विख्यितां शक्तिस्त्रैलोक्यमोहिनी ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  On the prayer of Brahma, for the destruction of Madhu Kaitabha; Mahavidya, Jagaddhatri, the great Godesses of all the Gods, on the 12th day of the bright fortnight of the month of Falguna, possessing the power to delude all the Lokas, known as &lt;strong&gt;Mahakali emerged who became well known in the world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly chapter 46 talk about invocation of MahaLakshmi while killing Mahisasura:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततोऽम्बिकां परां शक्तिं महालक्ष्मीस्वरुपिणीम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तुष्टुवुस्ते सुराः सर्वे भक्तिगद्गदया गिरा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Gods then prayed to the Supreme Godesses Ambika in the form of MahaLakshmi&lt;/strong&gt; with choked voice in devotion.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एवं ते कथितो राजन्महालक्ष्म्याः समुद्भवः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सरस्वत्यास्त्तथोत्त्पत्तिं श्रृणु सुस्थेन चेतसा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O King in this way the &lt;strong&gt;origin of MahaLakshmi&lt;/strong&gt; has been spoken to you. Now with a cool mind listen to origin of (Maha)Saraswati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly chapter 48 discuss about &amp;quot;Manifestation of MahaSaraswati&amp;quot; while killing Sumbha Nisumbha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवं देवी समुत्पन्ना शुम्भासुरनिवर्हिणी ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रोक्ता सरस्वती साक्षीदुमांशाविर्भवानृप ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  This is how the Godesses &lt;strong&gt;who destroyed Sumbhasura was born. She was born out of the amsa of Devi and is called (Maha)Saraswati.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Mahakali, MahaSaraswati and MahaLakshmi doesn&amp;apos;t denote to wife of Rudra, Brahma and Vishnu here. They are the presiding powers over mode of nature as Tamasic, Satvik and Rajasik respectively. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;●) Forms of Kali, Lakshmi and Saraswati:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By using the term, &amp;apos;Kali, Lakshmi and Saraswati&amp;apos; I&amp;apos;m referring to wife of Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma respectively.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As already discussed every forms are form of Devi and so is the form of Parvati, Lakshmi and Sarawati also.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the Chapter 49 Uma Samhita of Shiva Purana, Devi states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कालिकाकमलावाणीमुखाः सर्वा हि शक्तयः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मंदशदिव संजातास्तथेमा: सकला: कला ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Shaktis like Kalika, Lakshmi Saraswati and all the other Shaktis also emerge out of my body.&lt;/strong&gt; All the arts also orginate from me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly while praying to Durga, Brahma in Rudra Samhita Shiva Purana ( chapter 11) states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथा धृतशरीरा त्वं लक्ष्मीरुपेण केशवम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आमोदयसि विश्वस्य हितायैतं तथा कुरु ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Just as you assuming the form of Lakshmi, pleased Vishnu,&lt;/strong&gt; similarly for the benefit of the Universe, you also do this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is Devi herself who incarnates as Lakshmi and Parvati and Saraswati.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;However SadShiva being consort of Supreme Devi and Rudra being direct incarnation of SadaShiva, so Supreme Devi also directly incarnates as Sati and Parvati and become spouse of Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;So, by the term Devi we generally understand incarnations of Sati and Parvati. This is the reason why Parvati is more emphasized in Saptashati and this is the reason why Rudra Parvati relationship is explained with concepts of Shiva Shakti&lt;/em&gt;. So, in the hierachy level we can keep Parvati/Sati before Lakshmi and Saraswati as she is direct incarnation (from Shakti point of view).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;All other Shaktis of other Gods also come in similar way. In this way same Devi incarnates in various forms and become Shakti of all! In any case all these incarnation, hiearchy thing are only applicable in Vyavaharika level that too due to ignorance of Naama-Rupa (Name Form).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Conclusion:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as a conclusion from above we can say:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Everything that exists is Devi from absolute point of view.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2) Everything are forms of Devi from relative point of view also.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3) Under the Naama-Rupa describing Supreme form of Devi in Relative level she is Sri Lalita TripuraSundari.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  4) MahaSaraswati, MahaLakshmi and Mahakali are Amshas of Supreme Devi and they preside over Satva, Rajasa and Tamasa attribute.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  5) Parvati, Lakshmi, Saraswati and all other Shaktis are incarnation of Supreme Devi.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  6) &lt;strong&gt;All these Hierarchies are seen due to ignorance under Nãma-Rupa (Name-Form).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-12-06T14:48:51.900" LastActivityDate="2016-12-06T14:48:51.900" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16239" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16235" CreationDate="2016-12-06T11:01:51.023" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;where is mount meru?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer itself is given in Shreemad Bhagvatam Skanda 5 Chapter 16 Shlokas 5 to 7. ( A Description of Jambūdvīpa).    Its told in bhagvatam that Among Bhumandala there are  seven dweepas.The innermost Kosha is &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Jambudweepa&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; .At the &lt;strong&gt;center of &quot;Ilavruta&quot; varsha&lt;/strong&gt; this &quot;Meru Mountain is situated&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो वायं द्वीप: कुवलयकमलकोशाभ्यन्तर-कोशो  &lt;br&gt;  नियुतयोजनविशाल:&#xA;  समवर्तुलो यथा पुष्करपत्रम् 5॥॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yo vāyaṁ dvīpaḥ kuvalaya-kamala-kośābhyantara-kośo&#xA;  niyuta-yojana-viśālaḥ samavartulo yathā puṣkara-patram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - The planetary system known as Bhū-maṇḍala resembles a lotus flower, and its seven islands resemble the whorl of that flower.&#xA;  The length and breadth of the island known as Jambūdvīpa, which is&#xA;  situated in the middle of the whorl, are one million yojanas [eight&#xA;  million miles]. Jambūdvīpa is round like the leaf of a lotus flower.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/16/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 5.16.5&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt; यास्मिन्नव वर्षाणि&#xA;  नवयोजनसहस्त्रायामान्यष्टभि  &lt;br&gt;     र्मर्यादागिरिभि: सुविभक्तानि&#xA;  भवन्ति ॥6॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasmin nava varṣāṇi nava-yojana-sahasrāyāmāny aṣṭabhir&#xA;  maryādā-giribhiḥ suvibhaktāni bhavanti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; -In Jambūdvīpa there are nine divisions of land, each with a length of 9,000 yojanas [72,000 miles]. There are eight mountains&#xA;  that mark the boundaries of these divisions and separate them nicely.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/16/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 5.16.6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt; ऐषां मध्ये इलावृतं नामाभ्यन्तरवर्षं&#xA;  यस्य &lt;br&gt;  नाभ्यामवस्थित: सर्वतः सौवर्ण: कुलगिरिराजो &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;मेरुर्द्विपायामसमुन्नाह&lt;/strong&gt;: कर्णिकाभूतः कुवलय  &lt;br&gt;  कमलस्य मूर्धनि द्वात्रिंशत सहस्त्रयोजनविततो मूले  &lt;br&gt;  षोडशसहस्त्रं&#xA;  तावतान्तर्भुम्यां प्राविष्ठ:॥7॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;eṣāṁ madhye ilāvṛtaṁ nāmābhyantara-varṣaṁ yasya nābhyām avasthitaḥ&#xA;  sarvataḥ sauvarṇaḥ kula-giri-rājo &lt;strong&gt;merur&lt;/strong&gt; dvīpāyāma-samunnāhaḥ&#xA;  karṇikā-bhūtaḥ kuvalaya-kamalasya mūrdhani dvā-triṁśat&#xA;  sahasra-yojana-vitato mūle ṣoḍaśa-sahasraṁ tāvat āntar-bhūmyāṁ&#xA;  praviṣṭaḥ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;- Amidst these divisions, or varṣas, is the varṣa named Ilāvṛta, which is situated in the middle of the whorl of the lotus.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Within Ilāvṛta-varṣa is Sumeru Mountain, which is made of gold.&lt;/strong&gt; Sumeru Mountain is like the pericarp of the lotuslike Bhū-maṇḍala&#xA;  planetary system. The mountain’s height is the same as the width of&#xA;  Jambūdvīpa — or, in other words, 100,000 yojanas [800,000 miles]. Of&#xA;  that, 16,000 yojanas [128,000 miles] are within the earth, and&#xA;  therefore the mountain’s height above the earth is 84,000 yojanas&#xA;  [672,000 miles]. The mountain’s width is 32,000 yojanas [256,000&#xA;  miles] at its summit and 16,000 yojanas at its base.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/16/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 5.16.7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-12-06T11:01:51.023" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16240" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15916" CreationDate="2016-12-06T15:06:17.283" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bad English and answer from athiest&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Two son's Ganapathi(elder)(Sitting on Shiva) and Karthikeya(Kid beside Parvathi[The of Shiva]).The Right Side guy is Another form of Ganapathi.The Middle person in the photo is Shiva again.Shiva is not Blue in color(Only his neck is bue color).People just got used to depicting him in blue color.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other Invisible people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Cow called Nandhi(Semi cow-semi human),The vehicle of Blue Guy(Shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do you see the fountain falling from the head of shiva?Yup that's his first wife Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The snake in the neck is actually the king of Naglok(Snake kingdom)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mouse below right near the legs of Ganapathi was also a human but after some story he turned into a mouse and is used as a vehicle for Ganapathi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was supposed to be a peacock the vehicle of The second son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And another cow on right below is,Sorry I don't know him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Forgot:For people who might ask how can a mouse be vechile?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A:The mouse can grow in size and can fly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8398" LastActivityDate="2016-12-06T15:06:17.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16242" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16243" CreationDate="2016-12-06T15:47:21.897" Score="10" ViewCount="1629" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do know that parents are like gods to their children. I have seen families where some worship God first then parents but also vice versa. Which one is the correct way?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="17669" LastEditDate="2019-02-27T19:06:54.520" LastActivityDate="2019-02-27T19:06:54.520" Title="Should parents be worshipped before the gods?" Tags="|gods|rituals|worship|parents|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16243" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16242" CreationDate="2016-12-06T16:32:19.753" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Scriptures,&lt;strong&gt;i believe&lt;/strong&gt;, are indicating that &lt;strong&gt;parents should be worshiped before the Gods.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To prove this we can resort to the Pancha Maha Yajnas which are among the compulsory duties of every householder(Grihasta).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every Scriptures,including the Manu Smriti, mention about  these 5 great sacrifices :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The pañca-mahā yajñas are the daily duties to be performed by the&#xA;  householder for the rest of his life. They are the requiting of the&#xA;  spiritual debts (ṛṇas) occurred through taking birth on this planet:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Pitṛ ṛṇa — pitṛ yajña =&lt;/strong&gt; debt to the parents and ancestors, requited through honouring parents and performing their cremation and the&#xA;  memorial rites for them and the ancestors after death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Deva-ṛṇa — deva-yajña =&lt;/strong&gt; debt to the gods requited by performing the homa and other periodic ceremonies in their honour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Ṛṣī-ṛṇa — brahma-yajña =&lt;/strong&gt; debt to the sages requited through study and teaching.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. Manuṣya-ṛṇa — manuṣya-yajña =&lt;/strong&gt; debt to society requited through feeding of strangers and caring for their needs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5. Bhūta-ṛṇa — bhūta-yajña =&lt;/strong&gt; debt to the environment and other creatures by ensuring their food supply.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,from the order of the sacrifices one can see &lt;strong&gt;that the ancestors including the parents are to be satisfied first&lt;/strong&gt;,then comes the Devas,Rishis and the rest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although this applies to the deceased parents but still &lt;strong&gt;it indicates that parents should come before the Devas or Gods when that order matters.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The importance of Pita(father) ,Mata(mother) and the Guru(tecaher,preceptor) are immense in the Sanatana Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,the Manu Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.227. That trouble (and pain) which the parents undergo on &#xA;  the birth of (their) children, cannot be compensated even in a hundred&#xA;  years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.228. Let him always do what is agreeable to those (two) &#xA;  and always (what may please) his teacher; when those three are&#xA;  pleased, he obtains all (those rewards&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  which) austerities (yield).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.229. Obedience towards those three is declared to be the &#xA;  best (form of) austerity; let him not perform other meritorious acts&#xA;  without their permission.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.230. For they are declared to be the three worlds, they the three (principal) orders, they the three Vedas, and they the three sacred&#xA;  fires&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.231. The father, forsooth, is stated to be the Garhapatya fire, the mother the Dakshinagni, but the teacher the Ahavaniya fire; this triad&#xA;  of fires is most venerable&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2.234. All duties have been fulfilled by him who honours those three; but to him who honours them not, all rites remain fruitless.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.237. By (honouring) these three all that ought to be done &#xA;  by man, is accomplished; &lt;strong&gt;that is clearly the highest duty, every other&#xA;  (act) is a subordinate duty.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vPIAS.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vPIAS.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hM5Iv.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hM5Iv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The highlighted portion in the very last verse(2.237) clearly indicates &lt;strong&gt;that the worship of parents should precede that of Gods.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact,not only the parents,in all Hindu traditions, the Guru is also worshiped first before the Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-06T17:05:54.730" LastActivityDate="2016-12-06T17:05:54.730" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16244" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-06T17:32:04.590" Score="6" ViewCount="862" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, just like in the Shanti Parva, Bhishma gives advice to Yudishthira and concerning how to be a good king and how to be good person, while he is lying on a bed of arrows after the end of the Kurukshetra war.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a006.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;, Bhishma tells Yudhisthira about an ancient dialogue between Brahma and the sage Vasishta on the subject of what determines one's future, one's actions in the present birth or the destiny created by one's actions in past births.  Brahma gives some examples to illustrate that it's a combination of both current actions and destiny:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In olden times, Yayati, falling from his high estate in heaven descended on the Earth but was again restored to the celestial regions by the good deeds of his virtuous grandsons. The royal sage Pururavas, celebrated as the descendant of Ila, attained to heaven through the intercession of the Brahmanas. Saudasa, the king of Kosala, though dignified by the performance of Aswamedha and other sacrifices, obtained the status of a man-eating Rakshasa, through the curse of a great Rishi. Aswatthaman and Rama, though both warriors and sons of Munis, failed to attain to heaven by reason of their own actions in this world. Vasu, though he performed a hundred sacrifices like a second Vasava, was sent to the nethermost regions, for making a single false statement. Vali, the son of Virochana, righteously bound by his promise, was consigned to the regions under the Earth, by the prowess of Vishnu. &lt;strong&gt;Was not Janamejaya, who followed the foot-prints of Sakra, checked and put down by the gods for killing a Brahmana woman?&lt;/strong&gt; Was not the regenerate Rishi Vaisampayana too, who slew a Brahmana in ignorance, and was polluted by the slaughter of a child, put down by the gods? In olden times the royal sage Nriga became transmuted into a lizard. He had made gifts of kine unto the Brahmanas at his great sacrifice, but this availed him not. The royal sage Dhundhumara was overwhelmed with decrepitude even while engaged in performing his sacrifices, and foregoing all the merits thereof, he fell asleep at Girivraja. The Pandavas too regained their lost kingdom, of which they had been deprived by the powerful sons of Dhritarashtra, not through the intercession of the fates, but by recourse to their own valour. Do the Munis of rigid vows, and devoted to the practice of austere penances, denounce their curses with the aid of any supernatural power or by the exercise of their own puissance attained by individual acts? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now many of these stories are recognizable: the story of Yayati falling from and going back to Devaloka described in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, the story of Pururavas and Urvashi, the story of Saudasa turning into the demon Kalmashapada, the story of Parashurama, the story of Vamana defeating Mahabali, the story of Vaishampayana incurring the sin of Brahmahatya discussed in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14237/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and the story of Nriga turning into a lizard discussed in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7381/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And there's the story of the Pandavas defeating the Kauravas, which is interesting because it suggests that the Mahabharata war happened before in an earlier age and Bhishma knew the outcome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what is Brahma referring to when he says &quot;Was not Janamejaya, who followed the foot-prints of Sakra, checked and put down by the gods for killing a Brahmana woman?&quot;  Who is this king Janamejaya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suppose it could be Arjuna's great-grandson Janamejaya; if Brahma is describing a previous iteration of the Mahabharata then he could be referring to the Janamejaya of that iteration.  Or it could be one of the other kings with the name Janamejaya who are mentioned in the Puranas and the like.  Does anyone know if any scriptures mention a king named Janamejaya killing a Brahmana woman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-12-14T14:13:23.730" Title="Which king Janamejaya killed a Brahmin woman?" Tags="|mahabharata|karma|janamejaya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16245" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16234" CreationDate="2016-12-06T19:47:18.510" Score="7" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Are there some foolproof methods of differentiating the originals from the interpolated texts in such cases? If yes, what are those?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some accepted methods explained further below but they are not perfect. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Are those methods mentioned in Hindu scriptures themselves?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For how the integrity of the Vedas is preserved, see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13703/2995&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer. I'm not aware of any such technique to preserve Purāṇas, Itihāsas and other Smṛtis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you read the report titled &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/InterpolationsInTheMahabharata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interpolations In The Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; by Prof. M. A. Mehendale of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bori.ac.in/mahabharata_project.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BORI&lt;/a&gt; you will get an idea, how scholars, in general, identity and remove spurious material from Purāṇas and Itihāsas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although the report is more focused on The Mahābhārata, which is an itihāsa, I'll quote below some lines from the report which are applicable to Purāṇas as well. Mehendale is saying that, no matter how hard you try, you cannot get the scripture to its original form. So even if see read the words &quot;critical edition&quot; in the title of a book, read it with a grain of salt!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The critical edition of the text now lays bare all spurious matter which could be easily set aside on the objective evidence of the manuscripts. &lt;strong&gt;The guiding principle that was adopted for this initial task of sifting was not to admit any passage, short or long, in the constituted text if that was not uniformly documented in all the versions of the Northern and the Southern recension.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The task of removing &lt;strong&gt;the spurious matter that still remains in the critically constituted text&lt;/strong&gt; and bringing it as close as possible to the oldest version of the Mbh. has been left by them to future students of the text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For, arriving at the truly &quot;original&quot; text of Vyasa is well nigh impossible.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below, he &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/InterpolationsInTheMahabharata/INTERPOLATIONS%20In%20The%20Mahabharata#page/n3/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;lists&lt;/a&gt; the 3 different types of interpolations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What I propose to do this evening is to give some examples of different kinds of interpolations in the Mahābhārata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Those revealed by &lt;strong&gt;manuscript evidence&lt;/strong&gt; and set aside by the editors,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;those that are not revealed by manuscript evidence and hence form part of the constituted text but are quite obvious due to &lt;strong&gt;contradictions in consecutive stanzas&lt;/strong&gt;, and&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;those revealed either by &lt;strong&gt;contradictions&lt;/strong&gt; that are not so obvious because they are not found in consecutive passages but are &lt;strong&gt;found in the text as a whole&lt;/strong&gt;, or by the criterion of intrinsic probability.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following all the above three methods, one would assume the critical edition minus all the interpolations will give us the perfect text everyone can read. But unfortunately there maybe some cases where certain text is purposely omitted or deleted from the manuscripts and in those cases it's difficult to reconstruct the true account of a story from bits and pieces of information from other parts of the manuscript.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Examples of Interpolations&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/InterpolationsInTheMahabharata/INTERPOLATIONS%20In%20The%20Mahabharata#page/n3/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Mahābhārata&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One such example is related to the svayaṁvara of Draupadi. It is&#xA;  popularly believed that when Karṇa lifted the bow and was about to shoot the&#xA;  arrow to hit the target. Draupadi loudly declared that she would not choose&#xA;  a sūta for her husband: drstvā tam draupadi vākyam uccair jagāda &lt;strong&gt;nāham&#xA;  varayāmi sūtam&lt;/strong&gt; (1.1827, p.725). On hearing it, Karṇa threw down the bow and, downcast, retired from the contest. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  This stanza does not occur at all in the entire Southern recension, and&#xA;  among the versions of the Northern recension, it does not occur in the&#xA;  Kashmiri, Maithili and Bengali versions. It is found only in four&#xA;  Devanagari mss. (out of a total fourteen used for the critical edition), and one&#xA;  (out of three) Nepali ms. &lt;strong&gt;It is therefore clearly a very late addition to the&#xA;  text.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss the above interpolation in my answer to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/865/2995&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Do scriptures indicate that Draupadi regretted not allowing Karna to participate in her svayaṁvara?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's one from Uttarakāṇḍa of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZD6Ry.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZD6Ry.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-12-06T20:53:59.833" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16246" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6777" CreationDate="2016-12-06T20:10:22.423" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Certainly yes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people in this trail are saying that it is not vedic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But let me tell you that the shloka was written in Dwapara yuga. That is very old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, according to standard Katpayadi series, it gives value of Pi in reverse order, so it is definitely an encrypted message by rishi Veda Vyasa which is something very deep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katapayadi_system#Usage&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also I feel very bad that Indians are only saying that it is not Vedic or Medieval. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One thing we must think that if in Rig-veda, our Rishis mentioned speed of light very accurately, then is it possible to think that they don't know value of pi about 31 places.!! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can check &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13715/measurement-of-speed-of-light-in-rigveda&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; post regarding speed of light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8399" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-26T04:17:25.770" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T04:17:25.770" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16248" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-12-07T04:53:29.483" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Jarasandha (Sanskrit: जरासन्ध) was the king of Magadha. He was a descendant of the king Brihadratha, the founder of the Barhadratha dynasty of Magadha. He was also a great devotee of the Hindu god Shiva. He was a great senapati and a Maharathi, but he is generally held in negative light owing to his enmity with the Yadava clan in the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-07T04:53:29.483" LastActivityDate="2016-12-07T04:53:29.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16249" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-12-07T04:53:29.483" Score="0" Body="In Hindu epic Mahabharata, Jarasandha (जरासन्ध) was the king of Magadha." OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-07T04:53:29.483" LastActivityDate="2016-12-07T04:53:29.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16250" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9262" CreationDate="2016-12-07T05:57:45.067" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;...&lt;strong&gt;from fear of Jarāsandha&lt;/strong&gt;, at one time, &lt;strong&gt;we had to leave Mathurā&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; Kṛṣṇa in Sabhā Parva of the Mahābhārata. I don't think it signifies anything else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kṛṣṇa &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains&lt;/a&gt; to Yudhiṣṭhira as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, O great king, remembering the conclusion to which we had come of old we became exceedingly cheerless and fled from Mathura. Dividing our large wealth into small portions so as to make each portion easily portable, &lt;strong&gt;we fled from fear of Jarasandha&lt;/strong&gt;, with our cousins and relatives. Reflecting upon everything, we fled towards the west. There is a delightful town towards the west called Kusasthali, adorned by the mountains of Raivata. In that city, O monarch, we took up our abode. We rebuilt its fort and made it so strong that it has become impregnable even to the Gods. And from within it even the women might fight the foe, what to speak of the Yadava heroes without fear of any kind? O slayer of all foes, we are now living in that city. And, O tiger of the Kuru race, considering the inaccessibility of that first of mountains and regarding themselves as having already crossed the fear of Jarasandha, the descendants of Madhu have become exceedingly glad. Thus, O king, though possessed of strength and energy, &lt;strong&gt;yet from the oppressions of Jarasandha we have been obliged to repair to the mountains of Gomanta&lt;/strong&gt;, measuring three Yojanas in length. Within each yojana have been established one and twenty posts of armed men. And at intervals of each yojana are hundred gates with arches which are defended by valourous heroes engaged in guarding them. And innumerable Kshatriyas invincible in war, belonging to the eighteen younger branches of the Yadavas, are employed in defending these works. In our race, O king, there are full eighteen thousand brothers and cousins.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ...&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  By defeating the kings with their troops and bringing all of them as captives into this city, he had swelled its crowds enormously. &lt;strong&gt;We also, O king, from fear of Jarāsandha, at one time had to leave Mathurā and fly to the city of Dwaravati.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same is also explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/L7LXgrLOt2w&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; YouTube video from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharat_(1988_TV_series)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1988 Mahabharat TV series&lt;/a&gt; by B. R. Chopra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-12-07T05:57:45.067" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16251" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16252" CreationDate="2016-12-07T07:10:06.557" Score="3" ViewCount="284" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any scripture mentioning Lord Rama creating fire or inventing it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-07T08:12:05.783" LastActivityDate="2018-05-09T12:57:44.227" Title="Did Lord Rama create or invent fire?" Tags="|rama|agni|ramcharitmanas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16252" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16251" CreationDate="2016-12-07T07:13:30.987" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Lord Rama created fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindi.webdunia.com/religion/religion/hindu/ramcharitmanas/SunderKand/10.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramcharitmanas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ताकर दूत अनल जेहिं सिरिजा। जरा न सो तेहि कारन गिरिजा॥&#xA;  उलटि पलटि लंका सब जारी। कूदि परा पुनि सिंधु मझारी॥4॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भावार्थ:-(शिवजी कहते हैं-) हे पार्वती! &lt;strong&gt;जिन्होंने अग्नि को बनाया, हनुमान्‌जी उन्हीं के दूत हैं।&lt;/strong&gt; इसी कारण &gt;वे अग्नि से नहीं जले। हनुमान्‌जी ने उलट-पलटकर (एक ओर से दूसरी ओर तक) सारी लंका जला दी। &gt;फिर वे समुद्र में कूद पड़े॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva says : O Parvati! Hanuman is the &lt;strong&gt;messenger of the one&#xA;  who created fire&lt;/strong&gt;. Therefore he could not be burnt by fire. Hanuman&#xA;  jumped and spread conflagration to whole Lanka then he jumped in&#xA;  ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clear that Lord Rama created fire as mentioned in Ramcharitmanas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-12-07T08:28:49.540" LastActivityDate="2016-12-07T08:28:49.540" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16256" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16294" CreationDate="2016-12-07T10:09:26.443" Score="8" ViewCount="2866" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do children need parents' permission to live away from them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What if parents are just &lt;a href=&quot;http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/a+bad+apple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;bad apples&lt;/a&gt;, should children continue to serve their needs?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do the shastras say?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After marriage, did Ganesha live with his parents or away from them? What about Kartikeya and Hanuman, did they &quot;abandon&quot; their parents?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I have seen some parents who take help of tantrik or yantrik vidya so that during their old days they have support from their children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do scriptures say about parents doing such negative acts?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-09T19:29:56.240" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T06:28:10.460" Title="Are Hindu children meant to serve their parents forever whether they like them or not?" Tags="|dharma|scripture|parents|children|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16257" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-07T12:44:34.867" Score="4" ViewCount="297" Body="&lt;p&gt;I need to know what are the situations that one should be cremated or buried in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is with reference to married or unmarried persons cremation process. If there is different rituals in sects we being Hindu should know it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="216" LastEditorUserId="216" LastEditDate="2016-12-12T07:29:06.333" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T07:29:06.333" Title="Is it true, only married people are cremated, non-married people are buried?" Tags="|rituals|death|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16258" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15717" CreationDate="2016-12-07T13:43:26.763" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Such a hierarchy is detailed in the Devi Bhagavata Purana. The five major forms of devi are :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Savitri(aka Gayatri) and Radha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The ‘Mula Prakriti’ which emerged thus manifested into five major&#xA;  Forms, viz. Durga, Radha, Laxmi, Sarasvati and Savitri.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana65.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana65.html&lt;/a&gt; for a summarised note on the hierarchical manifestations of Devi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2016-12-11T16:50:13.993" LastActivityDate="2016-12-11T16:50:13.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16259" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16264" CreationDate="2016-12-07T14:55:02.580" Score="11" ViewCount="91730" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, I am a Hindu myself and I am saying this with no intentions of converting to any other religion but there some misconceptions that really boggle my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The biggest of them is that in the Vedas, the Upanishads and even in the Bhagavad Gita it is prevented to worship idols and it is said that God is formless and He has no picture. The following verses are some examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“They enter darkness those who worship natural things.They sink deeper&#xA;  in darkness those who worship sambhuti (created things)&quot; (Yajurved&#xA;  40:9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;God Supreme or Supreme Spirit has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material&#xA;  shape&quot; (Yajurved chapter 32 verse 3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires they&#xA;  worship demigods i.e. idols.&quot; (Bhagavad Gita 7:20)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the most opposing being:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The ignorant believe that un-manifest Para Brahma (One God)&#xA;  incarnates or takes manifestations, because they do not completely&#xA;  understand My highest, immutable, incomparable, and transcendental&#xA;  existence.&quot; (Bhagavad Gita 7:24)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I feel like this clearly says that God does not incarnate into avatars but we believe in Lord Rama, Lord Krishna... etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus worship idols, make pictures of God, the concept of avatars of God is supported in Hinduism. And also... in the Shrimad Bhagavata Purana it is mentioned in the following verse the acceptable materials to make an idol:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śailī dāru-mayī lauhī lepyā lekhyā ca saikatī mano-mayī maṇi-mayī&#xA;  pratimāṣṭa-vidhā smṛtā [SB - 11.27.12]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: The Deity form of the Lord is said to appear in eight&#xA;  varieties — stone, wood, metal, earth, paint, sand, the mind or&#xA;  jewels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is, doesn't it feel like the Vedas and the Bhagavata Purana are opposing each other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we look at Islam, the concept of God in it is completely clear and free of doubt that that there is no God but Allah and Muslims should not worship anything other than Allah. Nowhere in Islam two things are pointing against each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, I have absolutely no intentions of converting to Islam or any other religion. And also, in no way am I saying that Hinduism is a false religion because if it was false... it wouldn't have been alive right now. It would've been long gone in the time of Emperor Aurangzeb when he cut the head of the great &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Tegh_Bahadur&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Guru Teghbahadur&lt;/a&gt; of Sikhism. It is a miracle that Hinduism is being sustained without any terrific or convulsive movements where people are forced to accept Hinduism despite being one of the oldest religions and having suffered so many attacks, but still alive haven't executed any violent attacks forcing any one into the religion as done before in Islam and Christianity. Though, it should be noted that these kind of movements are prohibited in Islam and Christianity. I personally have also experienced small miracles and have been told of unbelievable miracles witnessed by my parents that have no doubt in my mind that Hinduism is not a false religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, these  are still some of the facts about Hinduism that boggle me and I would like to know if any of you have a true answer to this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Briefly, I would like to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1: Doesn't it look like the Vedas and the Bhagavata Purana are opposing each other? Why do different Hindu scriptures look like they're opposing each other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2: Will we never know the true meaning of &quot;God is formless, as well as with form&quot; written in the Vedas in this life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3: In Bhagavad Gita 7:24 it states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The ignorant believe that un-manifest Para Brahma (One God)&#xA;  incarnates or takes manifestations, because they do not completely&#xA;  understand My highest, immutable, incomparable, and transcendental&#xA;  existence.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Doesn't this clearly state that God has no avatars? But we still believe in divine incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8076" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-05T16:43:51.573" LastActivityDate="2020-08-13T12:15:34.290" Title="Do Yajurveda 40.9, Yajurveda 32.3 and Bhagavadgita 7.20 reject idol worship?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|mantras|bhagavata-purana|yajur-veda|idols|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16260" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16185" CreationDate="2016-12-07T15:14:00.470" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer to this question would depend on whether the reader of the Gita is a householder or a sannyasi or monk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The best teaching for a householder is the stirring call of the Gita to fight the problems of life:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gita 2.3:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्लैब्यं मा स्म गमः पार्थ नैतत्त्वय्युपपद्यते । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  क्षुद्रं हृदयदौर्बल्यं त्यक्त्वोत्तिष्ठ परन्तप ।। 2.3 ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Partha! Yield not to unmanliness! It befits thee not. Abandoning&#xA;  this base faint-heartedness, rise up, O dreaded hero.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The best teaching for a sannyasi is the advice of the Gita to relinquish all desire-prompted actions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gita 18.2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;काम्यानां कर्मणां न्यासं संन्यासं कवयो विदुः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वकर्मफलत्यागं प्राहुस्त्यागं विचक्षणाः ।।18.2।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandonment of all desire-prompted actions is Samnyasa (renunciation)&#xA;  according to the wise. Men of discernment speak of the abandonment of&#xA;  the fruits of all actions as Tyaga (relinquishment).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gita 18.6:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एतान्यपि तु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा फलानि च । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कर्तव्यानीति मे पार्थ निश्िचतं मतमुत्तमम् ।।18.6।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Son of Prtha! Even these works are to be performed without&#xA;  attachment and desire for their fruits. This is My settled and&#xA;  decisive view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-07T18:11:54.053" LastActivityDate="2016-12-07T18:11:54.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16262" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16259" CreationDate="2016-12-07T15:37:50.533" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question shows your confusion and not that Hinduism is a confused and corrupt religion. While I did not like the tone of your question (fake Hinduism),&#xA;I decided to answer to clear your confusion. I am posting couple of&#xA;passages about the nature of God as explained by Sri Ramakrishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No one can say with finality that God is only 'this' and nothing else.&#xA;He is formless and again He has forms. For the bhakta He assumes&#xA;forms. But He is formless for the jnani, that is, for him who looks on&#xA;the world as a mere dream. The bhakta feels that he is one entity and&#xA;the world as another. Therefore God reveals Himself to him as a&#xA;Person. But the jnani – the Vedantist, for instance - always reasons,&#xA;applying the process of 'Not this, not this'. Through this&#xA;discrimination he realizes, by his inner perception, that the ego and&#xA;the universe are both illusory, like a dream. Then the jnani realizes&#xA;Brahman in his own consciousness. He can not describe what Brahman is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do you know what I mean? Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss&#xA;Absolute, as a shoreless ocean. Through the cooling influence as it&#xA;were, of the bhakta's love, the water has frozen at places into blocks&#xA;of ice. In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His&#xA;lovers and reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of&#xA;the sun of knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn't feel&#xA;any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God's forms. What He&#xA;is can not be described. Who will describe Him? He who would do so&#xA;disappears. He cannot find his 'I' anymore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you read through the passages you will see that God has both the formless aspect of ordinary water and the form aspect of water frozen into ice. The formless aspect can not be worshipped because the human mind is like a little bottle that can not contain the whole of the infinite sea of Brahman. The form aspects of Brahman can be worshipped because the little human mind is capable of thinking about a form. There is no confusion here. If you want to attain the formless then you have to use methods like 'Neti Neti' or try to answer questions like 'Who am I?' since it is not possible to worship It. If your interest is in God with form then you can worship the form. Worship of a form is the easier method.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Additional Material&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am adding this section in response to the references given in the question.&#xA;Let us look at the very first one which says:&#xA;“They enter darkness those who worship natural things.They sink deeper in darkness those who worship sambhuti (created things)&amp;quot; (Yajurved 40:9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above translation should be read with extreme caution. For example,the Arya Samaj translation of Sri Devi Chand translates the shloka differently:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abandoning God, deep into the shade of the blinding gloom fall the&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;worshippers of eternal unborn Matter&lt;/strong&gt;. They sink to darkness deeper yet&#xA;who are engaged in the &lt;strong&gt;material pleasures of the world&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;Yajur Veda&lt;/strong&gt; translated by Sri Devi Chand Chapter 40 shloka 9).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This particular shloka is a criticism of materialists and hedonists and not as critics say of idol worship. One should be extremely careful in reading the internet. I would also like to point out that interpreting the Vedas and the Gita in such a manner as to show that they say opposite things can be done only by ignoring centuries old traditional commentaries which have harmonized the Gita and the Vedas. There is no reason to believe these modern interpreters and throw away the centuries old interpretations without some important reason to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translation given of Gita 7.24 seems to be not correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without any insight into My transcendental nature, unique and&#xA;immutable, men of little understanding look upon Me as a mere human&#xA;individual, having come into manifestation from an unmanifested state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gita 7.24&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ordinary men, especially most of His contemporaries, take the Lord&#xA;Incarnate only as an ordinary man, may be with great powers....  . It&#xA;will be seen that this was true of Rama of whom even many of the Rsis&#xA;of Dandakaranya declared that they knew him to be the 'son of&#xA;Dasaratha' and not as the Divinity Incarnate. Even Krishna was not&#xA;recognised by many of his contemporaries as anything more than a great&#xA;Yadava, though according to the Bhagavata account many great men and&#xA;those who came into intimate contact with him recognised his divinity.&#xA;Hence in the verse under comment, it is said that this is the case&#xA;with the average men who are characterised as ignorant. ... The&#xA;recognition and worship of the Incarnation stands on a different&#xA;footing from that of the deities. The Lord Incarnate is hypostatic&#xA;with the Supreme Being, and His worship is the worship of the Supreme&#xA;Being Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Commentary of Gita 7.24&lt;/strong&gt; by Swami Tapasyananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse actually supports the concept of Avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am adding this Gita shloka which clearly can not be understood without murthi worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whoever makes an offering to Me with devotion, be it of leaf,&#xA;flower,fruit or water - that devout offering made by a pure-hearted&#xA;man, I accept with joy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gita 9.26&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where would you put these offerings if there is no murthi or image?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2020-07-26T12:17:16.403" LastActivityDate="2020-07-26T12:17:16.403" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16264" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16259" CreationDate="2016-12-07T17:22:50.613" Score="32" Body="&lt;p&gt;Don't believe blindly what you see on internet. Hinduism or सनातन धर्म (&lt;em&gt;Sanātana Dharma&lt;/em&gt;) can't be false as name itself says it is eternal and has &quot;Dharma&quot; in it. Hinduism is confusing for some people because they don't read scriptures in Sanskrit or in other language with proper interpretations of Guru or Acharyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand Hinduism properly, first you should have some knowledge about Sanskrit Language or Veda Bhasha. Sanskrit is language of Attributes. It doesn't have proper nouns.  Krishna is named for person who is &quot;black&quot;. Shiva is named for a person who is &quot;auspicious&quot;. But a person has many attributes. You can call a person by any of his attributes. But Lord or Parabrahma has infinite attributes. So, Parabrahma has infinte names. Unlike other languages, a Sanskrit name  gives some info or qualities a person possess. So, if you come across a name &quot;Shiva&quot; in scripture, you should understand that person has an attribute &quot;auspiciousness&quot; besides other additional attributes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit has fixed &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.yoga-vidya.de/Sanskrit_Verbal_Roots_List_with_English_Translation&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dhatus&lt;/a&gt; (Verb roots), by which you can analyze the meaning of word by yourself without help of any dictionary. You can even guess Sanskrit word for modern English words. For example, we can derive Sanskrit words for upload and download. Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hitxp.com/articles/sanskrit-lessons/sanskrit-lesson-1-secret-science-sacred-sanskrit/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;blog by Gurudev&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Edit: Since many readers asked about giving a practical example of&#xA;  creating new words in Sanskrit by giving one for Download, have&#xA;  updated the article with one for download and upload. T&lt;strong&gt;he attribute of&#xA;  descending or fetching is Avataara in Sanskrit, so one word for&#xA;  Download in Sanskrit could be Avataarayati or the act of fetching.&#xA;  Avaroha represents the attribute of going down, so Download can also&#xA;  be Avarohayati&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Similarly for Upload we can call it Urdhvayati where Urdhva is an&#xA;  attribute representing upwards in Sanskrit. Aaroha also represents the&#xA;  attribute of ascent or going up and hence Upload can also be called&#xA;  Aarohayati&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Not only these, you can create any number of words for upload and&#xA;  download in Sanskrit using the attributes representing upward or&#xA;  ascent, and downward, fetching or descent. For instance consider the&#xA;  terms Unnati and Avanati, which represent progress and downfall&#xA;  respectively. Take the Sanskrit attribute which can represent File,&#xA;  Patrika. So File uploading and File downloading could be Patrikonnati&#xA;  and Patrikavanati respectively! &lt;strong&gt;The options are limitless!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My intention is not to boast Sanskrit language, but to affirm that Sanskrit language is eternal and so the language of Vedas (Veda Bhasha). Sanskrit has no need to evolve in vocabulary like other languages, though there may be changes in grammar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many people have common attributes. An attribute can refer to multiple persons. Meaning of words in a Sanskrit sentence depends on context. Some foreign authors who translated our scriptures failed to derive meaning based on context and rather they translated literal meaning. Quoting from the same blog:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Take for instance the translations making round about people eating&#xA;  beef or killing the cow during the vedic period. The whole basis of&#xA;  this myth is translations of Sanskrit verses like the one which&#xA;  actually means “control your sense organs” which was translated as&#xA;  “kill the cow“, all just because the word used was &lt;strong&gt;go/gau can refer&#xA;  not only to cow, but also to sense organs in Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt;. So when taken&#xA;  out of context and translated using its most popular object, you end&#xA;  up with misinterpretations like these. &lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit translation can never&#xA;  be done by going word by word, the entire context should be used as&#xA;  the basis to understand the meaning.&lt;/strong&gt; And there are multiple rules and&#xA;  hints to understand the context of words which we shall learn in the&#xA;  future lessons of this series&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hitxp.com/articles/sanskrit-lessons/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;introduction lessons to Sanskrit by Gurudev&lt;/a&gt;, where author explains beautifully about Sanskrit language. Nothing can replace reading our Hindu Scriptures in Sanskrit. Root problem for misinterpretations is lack of Sanskrit Knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also believed Vedas are source of all languages. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15121/what-mleccha-languages-are-used-in-the-vedas-according-to-purva-mimamsa&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; to know more details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas are eternal scriptures and they are valid for all times. It doesn't matter which yuga you live or which epoch (Kalpa) you live or in which Loka you dwell. Vedas are infallible truths where each and everything can be verifiable. This is what Sri Swami Prabhavanada says in the book &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/spiritualheritag1963prab&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Spiritual heritage of India&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The authority of the Vedas does not depend upon anything external&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  They themselves are authority, being the knowledge of God. And, as we&#xA;  shall see later, &lt;strong&gt;their truth is verifiable by any spiritual aspirant&#xA;  in transcendental consciousness&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rishis who have gone into deep Tapsya heard them (in transcendental consciousness) . We may not understand them properly and verify all their contents by our limited consciousness. Thus, we need to study them under a knowledgeable Guru (preceptor).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to your question, you main question is about idol worship. No scripture explicitly rejects idol worship, including Vedas. Indeed, they are not just idols. They have &lt;em&gt;prana&lt;/em&gt; in them. We invite Lord or Consciousness into them with Mantras. This process is called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prana_Pratishtha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prana Pratishta&lt;/a&gt;. Those who condemn idol worship are just half baked Jivas. However, we don't need to invite Lord into Swayambhu (self manifested) murtis, such as Tirupati Venkateswara and Jyotirlingas of Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do Vedas and Gita reject idol worship?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This question is already answered &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2140/3500&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/253/3500&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; . Quoting some verses from the above mentioned answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dve vāva brahmaṇo rūpe, mūrtaṃ caivāmūrtaṃ ca [Brh. Up - 2.3.1] &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - God (Brahman) has two modes, formless (nirakara, asambhuta) as well as form (sakar, sambhuta).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Lord is both Sakara (with form) and Nirakara (without form). You can worship Lord in Sakara or mediatate on Him in Nirakara. Indeed, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15705/3500&quot;&gt;Lord is everything&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;He is also Saguna (with attributes) and Nirguna (without attributes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajurveda Sloka 40.9 you mentioned in the question refers to verse 9 of chapter 40 in &lt;em&gt;Vajasaneyi Samhita&lt;/em&gt; of &lt;em&gt;Shukla Yajurveda.&lt;/em&gt;  Vajasaneyi Samhita is available now only in two recensions, &quot;Kanva&quot; and &quot;Madhyandina&quot;, since many recensions are lost due to various historical reasons. This chapter 40 of Vajasaneyi Samhita is also called as Isha Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above Sanskrit verse 40.9 is from Madhandiya recension.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति ये ऽसम्भूतिम् उपासते &lt;br&gt; ततो भूय इव ते तमो य उ&#xA;  सम्भूत्याम् रताः &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti ye 'sambhūtim upāsate &lt;br&gt; tato bhūya iva te&#xA;  tamo ya u sambhūtyām ratāḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kanva recension of same 40.9 is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति ये ऽविद्याम् उपासते &lt;br&gt; ततो भूय इव ते तमो य उ&#xA;  विद्यायाम् रताः &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti ye 'vidyām upāsate &lt;br&gt; tato bhūya iva te tamo&#xA;  ya u vidyāyām ratāḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same verse with &quot;Sambhutim&quot; is present in 40.12 of Kanva and same verse with &quot;Vidyam&quot; is present in 40.12 of Madhandiya. Only order of verses are changed in different recensions. Let us analyze these two verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse with &quot;Vidya&quot; is easy to understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti ye 'vidyām upāsate &lt;br&gt; tato bhūya iva te tamo&#xA;  ya u vidyāyām ratāḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They who worship Avidya alone fall into blind darkness ; and they who&#xA;  worship Vidya alone fall into even greater darkness. (or)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Into blinding darkness pass they who adhere to karma and into still&#xA;  greater darkness, as it were, they who delight in meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/ishavasya-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc143816.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankara&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now follows a statement of the distinction between the respective&#xA;  fruits of meditation and karma, as an argument for their simultaneous&#xA;  practice. Otherwise, if of the two thus proximately stated, one only&#xA;  is known to bear fruit and not the other, the relation between them&#xA;  would be (according to rules of interpretation, not one of&#xA;  co-ordination but) only that of subordination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer introduction section of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/ishavasya-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc143816.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; to know summary of first 8 verses. This verse says both Meditation and karma are important. Indeed, verses 9 to 18 give emphasis for both Karma and Upāsanā. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, verse 12 says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;andhaṃ tamaḥ praviśanti ye'sambhūtim upāsate |  &lt;br&gt;tato bhūya iva te tamo&#xA;  ya u sambhūtyāṃ ratāḥ || 12 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Into blinding darkness pass they who are devoted to the unmanifest, and into still greater darkness, as it were, they who&#xA;  delight in the manifest&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we know the context of verses, we can properly understand verses. Adishankara says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saṃbhavanam means birth. That which is born and is an effect is&#xA;  sambhūti. asambhūti is [Page 23] what is other than sambhūti i.e.,&#xA;  prakṛti, the undifferentiated cause whose essence is nescience and&#xA;  which is the source of all activity and desire. They who devote&#xA;  themselves to such Cause enter (as may be expected) darkness which is&#xA;  correspondingly blind in its nature. Sambhūtyām i.e., in the&#xA;  phenomenal Brahman known as Hiraṇyagarbha. They who delight only in&#xA;  Him enter darkness which is, as it were, more blinding still.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/wyvbk40.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Griffith&lt;/a&gt; also uses the words &quot;Sambhuti&quot; and &quot;Asambhuti&quot; in his translation. So, Sambhuti and Asambhuti are manifested and unmanifested and this verse says one must worship both states of Supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also see Vaishnava interpretation of above verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/jan98/0166.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translation in your question says it is bad to &quot;worship natural things&quot;. But on the other hand, we see divinity in everything. This divinity can be explained with simple logic as said by Swami Krishnananda in his book &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/upanishad/upan_01.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;lessons on upanishads&quot;&lt;/a&gt;. I don't quote it here as this will make answer very lengthy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 32.3 from Vajasaneyi Samhita  of Shukla Yajurveda with translation of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/wyvbk32.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Griffith&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ná tásya pratimā́ asti yásya nā́ma mahád yáśaḥ \ &lt;br&gt; hiraṇyagarbʰá&#xA;  íty eṣáḥ \ &lt;br&gt;   mā́ mā him̐sīd íty eṣā́ \ &lt;br&gt;   yásmān ná jātá íty&#xA;  eṣá \ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.There is no counterpart of him whose glory verily is great. In the&#xA;   beginning rose Hiranyagarbha, etc. Let not him harm me, etc. Than whom&#xA;   there is no other born, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse describes  formless and unmanifested aspect. As we know, Brahman is manifested and unmanifested and at the same time He has form and He is formless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people just misinterpret or give too much emphasis for certain words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna Paramatma never explicitly rejected idol worship in Bhagavad Gita. I think translations you come across were given by some Hindu haters or by haters of idol worship (to uphold their own Religion). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord says the following in Bhagavdgita 7.20 (translated by A Mahadeva Sastri),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bahūnāḿ janmanām ante &lt;br&gt; jñānavān māḿ prapadyate &lt;br&gt; vāsudevaḥ&#xA;  sarvam iti &lt;br&gt; sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;20.Those whose wisdom has been led away by this or that desire resort to other Gods (Devatas), engaged in this or that rite, constrained by&#xA;  their own nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adishankara commentary says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Their desires for progeny, cattle, svarga and the like deprive them of&#xA;  their power of discrimination, and they resort to &lt;strong&gt;other Gods&#xA;  (Devatas), other than Vasudeva, the Self&lt;/strong&gt;. They engage in rites&#xA;  peculiar to the worship of these Gods ; they being constrained to do&#xA;  so by their own nature (prakriti), by that peculiar tendency&#xA;  (samskara) which they acquired in the previous births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Doesn't it look like the Vedas and the Bhagavata Purana are opposing each other? Why do different Hindu scriptures look like they're opposing each other?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. Vedas never explicitly support or reject idol worship but on the other hand Puranas extol idol worship. Indeed, we are worshipping Lord inside the idol not idol itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Will we never know the true meaning of &quot;God is formless, as well as with form&quot; written in the Vedas in this life?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.3.1 (translated by Swami Madhavananda) says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ढे वाघ ब्रह्मणो रूपे-मूर्त चैवामूर्त च, मत्र्य चामृत च, स्थितं च यच्च,&#xA;  सच्च त्यश्च ॥ १ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman has but two forms-gross and subtle, mortal and immortal,&#xA;  limited and unlimited, defined and undefined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adishankara says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman or the Supreme Self has but two forms, through the&#xA;  superimposition of which by ignorance the formless Supreme Brahman is&#xA;  defined or made conceivable. The word &quot;Vava' (indeed) is emphatic.&#xA;  Which are those two forms? The gross and subtle. The other phases of&#xA;  the gross and subtle are included in them; so they are counted as two&#xA;  only. What are those phases of the gross and subtle? These are being&#xA;  mentioned: Mortal, subject to destruction, and inmortal, its opposite.&#xA;  Limited, which goes a little distance and stops, and unlimited, which&#xA;  goes on, is pervasive, the opposite of &quot;limited.' Defined, having&#xA;  particular characteristics that distinguish it from others, and&#xA;  undefined, the opposite of that, which can only be distantly referred&#xA;  to, as something we know not what.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Water exists as liquid at room temperature but changes its state to ice at 0 °C. Water exists as liquid, solid and Vapour (Gas). It depends on certain physical conditions. Similarly, Supreme Brahman, who is beyond dualities, is perceived differently by different people. He is the one with form and without form. He is both unmanifested and manifested.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. BG 7.24 clearly state that God has no avatars? But we still believe in divine incarnations.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Lord says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-7-24/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;7.24&lt;/a&gt; (translated by A Mahadeva Sastry),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;avyaktaḿ vyaktim āpannaḿ &lt;br&gt; manyante mām abuddhayaḥ &lt;br&gt; paraḿ&#xA;  bhāvam ajānanto &lt;br&gt; mamāvyayam anuttamam &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Unintelligent men, who do not know Me perfectly, think that I, the&#xA;  Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, was impersonal before and&#xA;  have now assumed this personality. Due to their small knowledge, they&#xA;  do not know My higher nature, which is imperishable and supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Adishankaracharya explains this verses as follows &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The foolish regard Me as the unmanifested coming into manifestation, knowing not My higher, immutable, unsurpassed nature.&#xA;  Not knowing my higher nature as the Supreme Self, theignorant think&#xA;  that I have just now come into manifestation, having been unmanifested&#xA;  hitherto, though I am the ever luminous Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Krishna never condemns any worship of Saguna form or idol worship. He just says that fools and ignorant people do not know his higher nature which is immutable and unsurpassed. Here Krishna says about His highest nature but this doesn't mean that Lord won't descend by donning Physical body. Lord has both manifested and unmanifested form. He says only few persons know His true form by going into transcendental consciousness. Lord says His true nature at highest level was unborn and imperishable. This is what Adishankaracharya says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am not manifest to all, veiled (as I am) by Yoga-Maya. &lt;strong&gt;This&#xA;  deluded world knows not Me, unborn and imperishable&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am not manifest to all people ; that is to say, I am manifest only&#xA;  to a few who are my devotees. I am veiled by Yoga Maya. Yoga Maya is&#xA;  the Maya which is none other than the Yoga or union of the three&#xA;  gunas. Or, Yoga is the firm will of the Lord or Isvara. The Illusion&#xA;  or veil thereby spread is called Yoga Maya. Wherefore people are&#xA;  deluded and know Me not as unborn and imperishable. That Yoga Maya by&#xA;  which I am veiled and on account of which people do not recognise Me,&#xA;  is Mine, i. e, subject to My control, and, as such, it cannot obstruct&#xA;  My knowledge— the knowledge of the Isvara, of the possessor (or&#xA;  wielder) of the Maya, just as the glamour (maya) caused bya juggler&#xA;  (mayavin) does not obstruct his own knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though Sun is present all the times, we can only see it with normal eyes during day time. Even Lord can only be seen by few of His sincere devotees. Maya stops us from seeing Him and only true knowledge can break that Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This doesn't talk anything about Avatara.  Lord says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-4-7/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;4.7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yadā yadā hi dharmasya &lt;br&gt; glānir bhavati bhārata &lt;br&gt; abhyutthānam&#xA;  adharmasya &lt;br&gt; tadātmānaḿ sṛjāmy aham &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whenever and wherever there is a decline in Dharma (righteousness), O&#xA;  descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of Adharma —at that time&#xA;  I descend Myself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, finally to know proper meaning of Hindu Scriptures either read them in Sanskrit (Veda Bhasha) or in any language with commentaries of knowledgable Acharya or learn them under a knowledgable Guru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13703/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; to know how Vedas are preserved. However, some portions of Smriti got interpolated over the vast period of time. But you get essence of Hinduism by reading translations of commentaries of knowledgeable Acharyas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-02-05T16:58:42.777" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16265" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="36031" CreationDate="2016-12-07T18:30:16.497" Score="8" ViewCount="2149" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story of Savitṛ deity? I am really confused between him and Surya, are they related? As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savitr&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Savitr disappeared as an independent deity from the Hindu pantheon after the end of the Vedic period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But most of that wikipedia page made me more confused. So what does scripture say about Savitṛ? Is he and Surya same or different?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-08T00:42:12.920" LastActivityDate="2022-07-15T11:01:33.620" Title="What is the story of Savitṛ deity?" Tags="|scripture|surya|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16266" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16650" CreationDate="2016-12-08T11:03:38.927" Score="3" ViewCount="1024" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Lord Chaitanya mahaprabhu is called &quot;noder nimai&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6941" LastActivityDate="2017-01-05T11:31:21.280" Title="Why Lord Chaitanya is called &quot;noder nimai&quot;?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|puranas|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16268" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-08T14:11:25.547" Score="3" ViewCount="109" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every time I see a person from my Father's family, my parents ask me to bow down to their feet. However, when I see someone like my 'mama' (mother's brother) or an unrelated elder person I have to bow to their hand only. I don't understand why this is so. Why bow differently to certain people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="7947" LastEditDate="2016-12-08T17:18:52.993" LastActivityDate="2016-12-08T17:18:52.993" Title="Who do I bow down to the feet and who to the hand?" Tags="|rituals|dharma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16269" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16185" CreationDate="2016-12-08T15:12:13.867" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You asked for enrichment in general life and for general i assume day to day life of a common man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IMO These are the verses i think that may help balance our thoughts and deeds in day to day life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उद्धरेदात्मनाऽत्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत्‌ ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मनः ॥ &lt;strong&gt;6.5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A man must elevate himself by his own mind, not degrade himself. The&#xA;  mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपि चेत्सुदुराचारो भजते मामनन्यभाक्‌ ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  साधुरेव स मन्तव्यः सम्यग्व्यवसितो हि सः ॥ &lt;strong&gt;9.30&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even if one commits the most abominable actions, if he is engaged in&#xA;  devotional service, he is to be considered saintly because he is&#xA;  properly situated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भुर्मा ते संगोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥ &lt;strong&gt;2.47&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You have a right to perform your&#xA;  prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your&#xA;  actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of&#xA;  your activities, nor be attached to inaction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although Geeta is yet to be fully understand and practiced in day to day life but we can practice some of the verses as much as we can in our life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7376" LastActivityDate="2016-12-08T15:12:13.867" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16270" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16273" CreationDate="2016-12-08T16:11:22.023" Score="6" ViewCount="2754" Body="&lt;p&gt;In some scriptures &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma&lt;/a&gt; is referred as Viranchi (विरञ्चि):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whenever I see sun raising in early morning, following mantra automatically pops out from my mind/month:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नमः सवित्रे जगदेकचक्षुषे । जगत्प्रसूती स्थिति नाश हेतवे &lt;br&gt; त्रयीमयाय त्रिगुणात्म धारिणे । &lt;strong&gt;विरञ्चि&lt;/strong&gt; नारायण शङ्करात्मने॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Salutations to the Sun God, the Eye of the Universe, the Cause of Creation, Maintenance and Destruction of the Universe, the three Gunas, taking form as &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;, Vishnu and Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above mantra is from Surya Mandalashtaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another example from memorized Narmadashtakam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;विरिञ्चि&lt;/strong&gt; विष्णुशंकरस्वकीयधामवर्मदे त्वदीयपादपङ्कजं नमामि देवि नर्मदे ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The presence of &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;, Vishnu and Shankara in Your Holy Dhama (i.e. River body) provides a Protective Shield (of Blessings to the Devotees), O Devi Narmada, I Bow down to Your Lotus Feet, Please give me Your Refuge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you've seen in above examples, Brahma is referred &lt;strong&gt;Viranchi (विरञ्चि)&lt;/strong&gt;. So, I want to know why is Brahma referred as Viranchi in Scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-09T20:51:17.993" Title="Why is Brahma referred as Viranchi in Scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|brahma|sanskrit|terminology|etymology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16271" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16270" CreationDate="2016-12-08T16:29:02.253" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/vira%C3%B1ci/214873/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Dictionary&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;virañci विरञ्चि&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Definition: m. idem or m.  idem or 'm. (perhaps fr. &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/?q=rac&amp;amp;iencoding=&amp;amp;lang=&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;rac&lt;/a&gt;-). Name of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/?q=brahm%C4%81&amp;amp;iencoding=&amp;amp;lang=&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;brahmā&lt;/a&gt;-   ' '&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, विरञ्चि (Viranchi) &lt;em&gt;perhaps&lt;/em&gt; comes from Sanskrit word &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/rac/187903/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;रच्&lt;/a&gt; (rach) which means to generate/make/produce/create.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, as Brahma is the creator of world/universe, Viranchi refers to Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Note: This is not exact or final answer I think as it is based on &amp;quot;विरञ्चि (Viranchi) &lt;em&gt;perhaps&lt;/em&gt; comes from Sanskrit word रच् (rach) . Answer with better/scriptural reference/source will be appreciated.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-08T16:47:58.360" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16273" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16270" CreationDate="2016-12-09T03:26:44.123" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Virañci means &quot;he who creates.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are the various names of Brahmā from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft#page/155/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puranic Encyclopedia&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Amarakośa, the following names are given to Brahmā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmātmabhūḥ surajyeṣṭhaḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Parameṣṭhi pitāmahaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hiraṇyagarbho lokeśāḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Svayaṁbhūścaturānanaḥ || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhātābjayonir druhiṇo &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Virañciḥ&lt;/strong&gt; kamalāsanaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sraṣṭā prajāpatir vedhā &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vidhata viśvasrṭvidhiḥ || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nābhijanmāṇḍajaḥ pūrvo &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nidhanaḥ kamalodbhavaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sadānando rajomūrtiḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sattyako haṁsavāhanaḥ ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahmā — he who increases.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ātmabhū — born of his own accord or born of the Supreme Spirit.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Surajyeṣṭha — he who came into being before all the suras (gods).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Parameṣṭhin — he who dwells in the world of truth or Parama.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pitāmaha — grandfather of the manes such as Aryamā and others.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Hiraṇyagarbha — having the golden egg (mundane egg) in womb.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Lokeśa — the god of the worlds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Svayaṁbhū — who is born of himself.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Caturānana — who has four faces.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dhātā — who holds or bears everything.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Abjayoni — born of lotus, (abja)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Druhiṇa — who hurts asuras.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Virañci&lt;/strong&gt; — &lt;strong&gt;he who creates&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kamalāsana — who sits on lotus.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sṛṣṭa — he who creates.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prajāpati — Pati of prajas (Lord of progeny).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vedhā — he who creates.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vidhātā — he who does.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Viśvasṛt — who creates the world.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vidhi — he who does or decides or judges.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nābhijanmā — born from the nave of Visnu.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Aṇḍaja — born from the egg.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Haṁsavāhanaḥ — who has swan as his conveyance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Monier-Williams dictionary just &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/1872sanskriten00moniuoft#page/934/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; it's another name of Brahmā:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JbrjT.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JbrjT.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-09T20:51:17.993" LastActivityDate="2016-12-09T20:51:17.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16274" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16279" CreationDate="2016-12-09T03:53:59.560" Score="4" ViewCount="379" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that a similar topic has been discussed in the link below, but my position is different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/4101/is-it-necessary-for-one-to-have-children?s=3|0.1756&quot;&gt;Is it necessary for one to have children?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that this can be a very subjective topic, and therefore I want to make this as specific as possible. Consider the position of a householder who has willingly married, who is working for a decent company making good money and has a good wife. In other words a fairly normal family. Now can he and his wife together decide not to even try for having a child ? Does Dharma allow such a position as lawful ? Is it not considered escapism from responsibility ? It is important to note here that they are by no means in the vAnaprastha state of mind (giving up all pleasures and comforts etc…) Does Dharma allow one to consider having a child to be a karmic bandhana and therefore avoid it despite not being in vAnaprastha ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4350" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-12-09T08:55:04.850" Title="Is it not obligatory for a householder to try begetting children?" Tags="|dharma|children|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2016-12-09T18:05:06.740" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16275" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-09T04:12:42.467" Score="5" ViewCount="1231" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of traditional brahmins have a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shikha&lt;/a&gt; (long tuft in english) at back of their head.  Shikha is believed to posses great power and so it is touched to establish a power source inside it during &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyasa_%28ritual%29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;nyasa&lt;/a&gt; process. But a child is initiated into the stage of Brahmachari, a ceremony called Upanayanam(sacred thread ceremony) is held. During this ceremony, the child is left with five shikhas in five directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of these five shikhas. Is this tradition limited to some states and some sects of brahmins or is it same for every sect?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-02-01T05:12:39.640" Title="Significance of five shikhas (tuft) during upanayanam" Tags="|rituals|shikha|upanayanam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16276" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="29091" CreationDate="2016-12-09T06:30:44.817" Score="0" ViewCount="1757" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did Swaminarayan Bhagwan die? Did he take samadhi like Shri Ram or someone killed him like Shri Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-09-09T03:29:27.807" LastActivityDate="2018-09-16T17:48:05.510" Title="How did Swaminarayan bhagwan die?" Tags="|history|swaminarayan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16278" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16281" CreationDate="2016-12-09T08:15:00.773" Score="14" ViewCount="7043" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, is regularly depositing some money in a PPF account with the intention of getting handsome interest when we retire, a sin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I came across &lt;a href=&quot;https://sites.google.com/site/livingwithoutmoney/Home/what-the-world-s-religions-philosophers-say-about-the-crime-called-banking&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; blog post that says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Brâhmana and a Kshatriya shall not lend anything at interest&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'He who acquiring property cheap, gives it for a high price, is called a usurer and blamed among those who recite the Veda.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'God weighed in the scales the crime of killing a learned Brâhmana against &lt;strong&gt;the crime of charging interest&lt;/strong&gt;; the slayer of the Brâhmana remained at the top, &lt;strong&gt;the charger of interest sank downwards&lt;/strong&gt;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;Vasishtha&lt;/strong&gt;, The Sacred Laws of the Aryas, Part II, Chptr 2, vs 40-42)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A person of yoga obtains everlasting peace &#xA;  by abandoning the rewards of action.&#xA;  The person ignorant of yoga,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;selfishly attached to reward&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  remains bound.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita 5:12&lt;/strong&gt;.  This verse, in fact, is representative of the very theme of the Bhagavad Gita)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clear my doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-09T14:23:58.663" LastActivityDate="2016-12-15T14:02:54.943" Title="Is taking interest from bank a sin?" Tags="|belief|bhagavad-gita|karma|sin|scripture|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16279" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16274" CreationDate="2016-12-09T08:37:21.857" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;A definition of Putra(a son) from Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.138. &lt;strong&gt;Because a son delivers (trayate) his father from the hell called Put,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;he was therefore called put-tra&lt;/strong&gt; (a deliverer from Put) by&#xA;  the Self-existent (Svayambhu) himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7F4HU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7F4HU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact,one of of the main reasons why a couple begets children is to have someone to provide them libations of water after they are no more.Now knowing this which parents will purposefully decide against having children? It is for their own good after all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,of course then comes the Pitru Runa(the debt that one has to the  ancestors).For that too begetting sons are necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further relevant verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.106. &lt;strong&gt;Immediately on the birth of his first-born a man is&#xA;  (called) the father of a son and is freed from the debt to the manes&lt;/strong&gt;;&#xA;  that (son), therefore, is worthy (to receive) the whole estate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.107. &lt;strong&gt;That son alone on whom he throws his debt and&#xA;  through whom he obtains immortality&lt;/strong&gt;, is begotten for (the fulfilment&#xA;  of) the law; all the rest they consider the offspring of desire&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.137. &lt;strong&gt;Through a son he conquers the worlds, through a son’s son he obtains immortality,&lt;/strong&gt; but through his son’s grandson he gains the world&#xA;  of the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does Dharma allow one to consider having a child to be a karmic bandhana and therefore avoid it despite not being in vAnaprastha ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know of any Scriptures that preach that logic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now can he and his wife together decide not to even try for having a child ?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As told above, it is in their benefit only to have one.But as per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; Kurma Purana chapter a Grihasta(householder) can be of two kinds: 1)Udaseenas &amp;amp; 2)Sadhakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Again Grihastis are of two kinds viz. Udaaseenas and Saadhakaas;&lt;/strong&gt; the&#xA;  former Grihastis lead a virtuous life and simultaneously take up &#xA;  family responsibilities too are Sadhakas; &lt;strong&gt;while those who leave away&#xA;  the Pitruruna, Devaruna, Rishiruna besides leave family, money and&#xA;  social obligations and remain targetted only at Moksha  are Udaseenas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,Udaseena is the type of householder who will not want begetting children but i'm not sure how can they compensate for not having paid the 3 debts or what the consequences of following such a path are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover,the &quot;Udaseena&quot; is more concerned about moksha than anything else.So he is behaving like a Vanaprashti here.But the couple you mentioned in your question are not inclined towards moksha yet.So ,this path is not for them in any case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,a verse from Manu Smriti,discourages that &quot;Udaseena&quot; path by saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.35. When he has paid the three debts, let him apply his mind to (the attainment of) final liberation; &lt;strong&gt;he who seeks it without having paid&#xA;  (his debts) sinks downwards.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However ,this verse applies to a Brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-09T08:55:04.850" LastActivityDate="2016-12-09T08:55:04.850" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16281" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16278" CreationDate="2016-12-09T09:09:58.583" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lending at interest is not a sin at all. Its perfectly legitimate. But usury (lending money at unreasonably high rates) is a minor sin(an Upapataka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.115. &lt;strong&gt;There are seven lawful modes of acquiring&#xA;  property,&lt;/strong&gt; (viz.) inheritance, finding or friendly donation, purchase,&#xA;  conquest, &lt;strong&gt;lending at interest&lt;/strong&gt;, the performance of work, and the&#xA;  acceptance of gifts from virtuous men&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4jQ2k.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4jQ2k.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.61. Defiling a damsel, &lt;strong&gt;usury&lt;/strong&gt;, breaking a vow, selling a&#xA;  tank, a garden, one’s wife, or child,.....&lt;strong&gt;(are all) minor offences,&#xA;  causing loss of caste (Upapataka)&lt;/strong&gt;(11.66)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yajnavalkya Smriti also lists usury among minor sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13 — 20. &lt;strong&gt;There are many Upapātakas&lt;/strong&gt; (minor sins and&#xA;  turpitude)....learning from a servant, teaching a superior, adultery,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;usury&lt;/strong&gt;, sale of salt, contemptuous livelihood, misappropriation of a&#xA;  deposit, breaking of a vow, sale of meat, sale of a cow, abandonment&#xA;  of father, mother or a friend, sale of tanks and parks, selling of&#xA;  daughter's ornaments, crookedness, causing others to break their vow...(Yajnavalkya Smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 1&lt;/strong&gt;-More relevant verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu 8.140. A money-lender may stipulate as an increase of his&#xA;  capital, for the interest, allowed by Vasishtha, and take monthly the&#xA;  eightieth part of a hundred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu 8.155. If he cannot pay the money (due as interest), he may&#xA;  insert it in the renewed (agreement); he must pay as much interest as&#xA;  may be due.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Parashara Smriti says;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;63&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To invest money on interest&lt;/strong&gt;, to be a jeweller, to tend cattle, tillage and trade, — &lt;strong&gt;these are declared as occupations for the Vaisya&#xA;  caste,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4IReV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4IReV.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse(partly mentioned in the question) which is attributed to Vashishta is also present in the Manu Smriti. One should always read the full verse,the full scripture. Otherwise it can be misleading.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.117. Neither a Brahmana, nor a Kshatriya must lend&#xA;  (money at) interest; &lt;strong&gt;but at his pleasure (either of them) may, in&#xA;  times of distress when he requires money) for sacred purposes, lend to&#xA;  a very sinful man at a small interest.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2-&lt;/strong&gt; I also have the Vashista Dharma Sutras downloaded from  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/vasisthadharmasutras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Astrojyoti.com&lt;/a&gt;. Now here's how they have translated the verse mentioned in the question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;41&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Now they quote also (the following verses): ‘&lt;strong&gt;He who acquiring property cheap, gives it for a high price, is called a usurer&lt;/strong&gt; and&#xA;  blamed among those who recite the Veda.’&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;‘(Brahman) weighed in the scales the crime of killing a learned Brâhmana &lt;strong&gt;against (the crime of) usury;&lt;/strong&gt; the slayer of the Brâhmana&#xA;  remained at the top, &lt;strong&gt;the usurer sank downwards.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As one can see it only talks about usury which is already discussed in this answer and which the Scriptures declare as a (minor) sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,see what is being told in the next verse from the same Dharma Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;43. Or, at pleasure, they may lend to a person&lt;/strong&gt; who entirely neglects his sacred duties, and is exceedingly wicked, 43&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,basically these verses say the same thing which Manu 10.117(given above) says.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,the verse from Parashara Smriti ,about lending money at interest, given above, is also repeated in the Vashista Dharma Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;18&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(The lawful occupations) of a Vaisya are&lt;/strong&gt; the same (as those mentioned above, Sûtra 16),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Besides, agriculture, trading, tending cattle, &lt;strong&gt;and lending money at interest,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,again the same thing,one should not come to a conclusion after only reading parts of a Scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2016-12-12T14:06:38.507" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T14:06:38.507" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16282" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16185" CreationDate="2016-12-09T12:40:21.747" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gita has many contradictions and dualities, if we perceive it with our senses. Once these senses disappear, these dualities will also go away.   There are multiple core messages in Gita, which are repeated again and again throughout.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;==&gt; &quot;I / Me&quot; is the supreme&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can call the supreme one with: 'names' such as &quot;god&quot;, &quot;Brahman&quot;, &quot;Sustainer&quot;, &quot;Destroyer&quot;; Or 'descriptions' such as &quot;That&quot;, &quot;Shunya&quot;, &quot;Atma&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both are correct &amp;amp; Krishna used them as well. Even one can become silent like Buddha, to describe the supreme. However these way are not complete, because in former way, we are trying to name something which is unnamed and in later way we are describing something which is beyond description.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Krishna predominantly used &quot;I / Me&quot; and IMO that resolves all the limitations to name or describe the supreme. &lt;strong&gt;&quot;I / Me&quot; is beyond the material world created by 3 modes: &lt;em&gt;Sattva, Rajas, Tamas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; [7.13, 14.20, ...].&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Be careful that, if Krishna says &quot;I am supreme&quot;, he means &quot;'I' is supreme&quot;. This is the state of &lt;em&gt;Advaita&lt;/em&gt; (non duality), which some people try to practice as a philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This abode of 'Me', attaining which one doesn't return for rebirth can be called with multiple terms: We may also call this &quot;I / Me&quot; as: &lt;em&gt;Yoga&lt;/em&gt; [6.23], &lt;em&gt;NirvAna&lt;/em&gt; [2.72, 5.24], &lt;em&gt;SamAdhi&lt;/em&gt; [3.4], &lt;em&gt;Moksha&lt;/em&gt; [4.32, 5.28], &lt;em&gt;Param Purusha&lt;/em&gt; [8.22, 15.18, 15.19], Ultimate &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; [14.27], &lt;em&gt;VedAnta&lt;/em&gt; [15.15]...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 10.20 - O Gudakesa, 'I' am the Self residing in the hearts of all beings, and I am the beginning and the middle as also the end of [all] beings.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;==&gt; &quot;I / Me&quot; is &quot;unmanifested&quot; but beyond any &quot;unmanifested&quot;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is always a debate, if the supreme is &quot;existent&quot; or &quot;non-existent&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Devotees of &quot;existent&quot; can be happy, that the supreme is attained easily by seeing it through a form [10.41, 12.2, 12.5]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 12.2 - The Blessed Lord said those who meditate on 'Me' by fixing their minds on 'Me' with steadfast devotion (and) being endowed with supreme faith-they are considered to be the most perfect yogis according to 'Me'.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Supporters of &quot;non-existent&quot; can be happy, that the truest form of the supreme is surely not &quot;existent&quot; due to being &quot;unthinkable&quot; [2.25, 8.20, 8.21]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 8.20 - But different from that &quot;unmanifested&quot;, is the another eternal &quot;unmanifest&quot; reality, which is not destroyed when all beings are destroyed.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Both can be happy, because it's &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neti_neti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;neither of them&lt;/a&gt; :-) [2.16, 12.3, 13.13]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 13.13 - I shall speak of that which is knowable. Knowing which, one attains immortality. The supreme Brahman devoted to 'Me', is beginning-less. 'That' is said to be neither existent nor non-existent. (existent = being)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;==&gt; Bhakti is way (&lt;em&gt;mArga&lt;/em&gt;) to supreme; also includes unions (&lt;em&gt;yoga&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My earlier perception of &lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt; (devotion) as one of the several ways or &lt;em&gt;yoga&lt;/em&gt;s, disappeared after reading Gita. Comparing &lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt; with those &lt;em&gt;yoga&lt;/em&gt;s is like comparing &quot;vehicle&quot; with car, bike, train.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt; is the key differentiation between &lt;em&gt;Daivi sampadA&lt;/em&gt; (divine qualities) [9.13-15, 16.1-3] and &lt;em&gt;Asuri sampadA&lt;/em&gt; (demonic qualities) [9.12, 16.7...]. Even lately &lt;em&gt;Asuri SampadA&lt;/em&gt; people also devote to the &quot;I / Me&quot; only. Whichever way one devotes, the &quot;I / Me&quot; counters in the similar way (action = reaction) [4.11, 7.21-22].&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ultimately everything attains the nature of &quot;I / Me&quot; [9.7], which is called liberation [14.2].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This devotion can be pointed to anything where we see the reflection of the supreme (Chapter 10 describes limited set of such representatives).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence, &lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt;, the [single pointed] devotion, can be defined as the 'way to attain supreme' [6.25, 8.14, 8.22, 9.31, 9.34, 12.13-20 (various types), 14.26(only reference to &lt;em&gt;Bhakti-Yoga&lt;/em&gt;)].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 8.22 - O son of Prutha, that &lt;strong&gt;supreme&lt;/strong&gt; consciousness which includes all beings and by whom all this is pervaded, &lt;strong&gt;is attainable Only by one-pointed devotion&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 12.20 - But those who fully worship with this immortal virtues as stated [before], such faithful devotees are even extremely dearest to 'Me'.&lt;/sub&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;==&gt; &quot;Karma Yoga&quot; is the best&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yogi&lt;/em&gt;-s are the best among &lt;em&gt;Bhakta&lt;/em&gt;-s / seekers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 6.46 - Yogi is higher than &quot;Austerers&quot;; Also is opinionated higher than &quot;Knowers&quot;. Yogi is also higher than &quot;Doers&quot;. Therefore, O Arjuna, become a Yogi.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, among &lt;em&gt;Yogi&lt;/em&gt;-s, the &lt;em&gt;Karma Yogi&lt;/em&gt;-s, who follow &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; way of life [18.9], are the best. Even the supreme knowledge is attainable by them [4.38].&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Karma Yoga -- &lt;em&gt;Karma-fala tyAga&lt;/em&gt; -- &lt;em&gt;NishkAma Karma&lt;/em&gt; -- Renouncing the reactions (result of action)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&quot;Renouncing/Offering the reactions to 'Me'&quot;, has been asserted throughout the Gita, hence not listing so many verses. But let's see why is it the best:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Best among yoga-s&lt;/strong&gt;[12.8-12]: In ascending order: &lt;em&gt;AbhyAsa&lt;/em&gt; (practice), &lt;em&gt;GyAna&lt;/em&gt; (knowledge), &lt;em&gt;DhyAna&lt;/em&gt; (meditation) &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; (renouncing reactions)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 12.12 - &quot;Knowledge&quot; is surely superior to &quot;Practice&quot;; &quot;Meditation&quot; surpasses &quot;Knowledge&quot;. &quot;Renouncing reaction&quot; [excels] to &quot;Meditation&quot;. From renunciation, Peace follows immediately.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Best among renunciations&lt;/strong&gt;: Genuine seekers opt for &lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; not because they associate with less Karma, but they have to make less choices among Karma-s. But &quot;Karma Yoga&quot; is more aligned with society, where instead of forfeiting the actions, one forfeits its reactions.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 5.2 — Sri BhagavAna told, &quot;SannyAsa&quot; (renouncing actions) and &quot;Karma Yoga&quot; (renouncing reactions), both lead to supreme; But between them, &quot;Karma Yoga&quot; is better than &quot;Karma SannyAsa&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;==&gt; Don't be obsessed about &quot;sin&quot;-s&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Veda/Sruti&lt;/em&gt;s discusses &quot;Karma theory&quot;, which differentiates &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; with &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt;, &amp;amp; hence is limited to material nature [2.42-46, 2.53]. By suggesting &lt;em&gt;&quot;Karmanye vAdhikhAraste...&quot;&lt;/em&gt; [2.47], Krishna urges to think beyond Veda-s, i.e. &lt;em&gt;VedAnta&lt;/em&gt; [15.15]. &lt;strong&gt;Don't let your action be influenced by what is &quot;sin&quot; &amp;amp; what is not.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;[Note: This doesn't mean to break the constitutional rules (&lt;em&gt;ShAstra&lt;/em&gt;-s), just for the sake of it.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From someone's point of view, whatever you do, is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15949/1049&quot;&gt;going to be &quot;sin&quot;&lt;/a&gt;, because every initiation of Karma is faulty [18.48]. At the same time, one can't sustain without doing Karma [3.5].&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Krishna gives 2 solutions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Act in SwaDharma&lt;/strong&gt; [2.31, 3.8, 3.33-35, 3.22, 18.47]: Know your nature well, align with your tendencies. Natural acts are &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; and doesn't bind with reactions [18.30].  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 18.47 — Defective (faulty) &lt;em&gt;SwaDharma&lt;/em&gt; is better than well performed &lt;em&gt;ParaDharma&lt;/em&gt;; Naturally prescribed performance of Karma never achieves sinful reactions.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Surrender-ship&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;SharanAgati&lt;/em&gt;) [7.14, 9.32, 12.55, 18.66] is another name of &lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt;. If you still can't act in &lt;em&gt;SwaDharma&lt;/em&gt;, then surrender all your acts to the supreme   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 18.66 — Leaving away all the Dharma (tendencies), surrender unto 'Me'. I will liberate you from all the sins. Do not repent.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The knowledge arrived from devotion to supreme immediately wipes out the worst of the sins [4.33, 4.36-37, 9.30]. God neither accepts pious deeds nor sins, because such good/bad deeds are generated according to &quot;Karma theory&quot;, however the &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Karma&quot;-s are not do-able&lt;/strong&gt;, they are rather illusion created by the interaction of 3 modes. To liberate, discard the flawed notion of good/bad deeds [2.50]:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 5.14 - Neither &quot;Doership&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Kartutva&lt;/em&gt;) nor &quot;Actions&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;) nor &quot;Reactions&quot; (result of actions) of the people are created by the Omnipotent; But only their nature [3 modes] pervades.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 5.15 - The Omnipresent neither accepts anybody's sin nor even virtue. Knowledge remains covered by ignorance. Thus the creatures become deluded.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, if am I insisted to choose only single aspect of Gita as its core essence. Then I will choose the below all-inclusive message ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;==&gt; &lt;em&gt;NishKarmatA&lt;/em&gt; -- Being &lt;em&gt;Akarta&lt;/em&gt; -- Non Doership&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[3.27, 4.13, 4.18, 4.20, 5.8-9, 13.30, 14.19, 14.23, 18.17].  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu philosophy recognises the ancient philosophy of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return#Indian_religions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Eternal Return&lt;/a&gt;, which implies that &quot;everything repeats&quot;. That means, &quot;no event can be changed&quot;. &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; resonates in constant frequency - where the same cycle repeats again and again. If we assume this cycle of 24 million years, then 24 million years after this moment, you will be again reading this post!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Isn't it revokes our rights to do something different!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence, one should act as a silent witness to all the events happening around by this 3 modes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paradoxically, one cannot become an &lt;em&gt;AkartA&lt;/em&gt; by opting for &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt;(inaction). Performing &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; is impossible. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16190/1049&quot;&gt;One has to find 'action' in 'inaction' and 'inaction' in 'action'&lt;/a&gt; [4.18].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Be Balanced&lt;/strong&gt; [2.56 2.61, 3.18, 5.18, 5.23, 12.17-18,13.28, 14.24, 14.25]: A true &lt;em&gt;Akarta&lt;/em&gt; will have &quot;Balance&quot; in all the situations. Different people sustain the balance by different ways based on their nature. e.g. In a very sad situation, a strong person may sustain by faint smile &amp;amp; weak person may sustain by profusely crying. Both are right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Throughout the society or even in this site, we may find so many topics on what to do and what not to do; what is sin and what is not sin, what is right and what is wrong, control our senses, &amp;amp; what not.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But all these (&quot;Karma theories&quot;) will become moot, once we know that, our consciousness is not the doer! &lt;strong&gt;The realisation of &quot;I / Me&quot; is surrendering the &quot;doership&quot;, which anyway doesn't belong to self.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BG 3.27 — All actions (karma-s) are enacted in Prakruti by [3] modes. Bewildered with ego, Self (Atma) believes &quot;I am the doer&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;BG 5.8, 5.9 — &quot;I certainly don't do anything&quot; is believed by knower containing fundamentals - even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, dreaming, breathing, talking, discarding, accepting, opening, closing; &quot;Senses only are acting in the subjects of senses&quot; - is understood.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-12-09T12:40:21.747" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16283" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16278" CreationDate="2016-12-09T15:18:05.730" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The interest which we get in PPF or other banking sector is a way for RBI/Govt. to ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Check inflation&lt;/strong&gt;: If too much of money is floated in economy, then prices of goods will increase, which will increase inflation; By promoting better interest rates in savings, people will be inspired to reduce spending&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Promoting white money&lt;/strong&gt;: All money is accounted when deposited to bank; This avoids any parallel economy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Funding for infrastructure&lt;/strong&gt;: When banks have so much of fund, it can be lent to govt. for improvement on infrastructure &amp;amp; other schemes&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, the interest rates which we get is actually the healthy &amp;amp; ethical return for 'investing' our money. In fact, Einstein called the &quot;Compound interest as the 8th wonder of the world&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Until this there is nothing to do with Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, giving away loans on interest is considered unethical at least by Islamic banking (&amp;amp; may be Christians as well). Such kind of loans have shattered many lives during modern era of India prior to independence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One small reference is found in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ShAnti Parva&lt;/a&gt;, which disapproves this practice &lt;strong&gt;if done unreasonably&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The food provided by a usurer (who lends money at unreasonably high rates of interest) is equivalent to dirt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However in modern era, most of thelegal banking sectors &amp;amp; their customers are protected by respective governments. Hence not to worry!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your analysis on Gita verse 5.12, may be true in some context, but that verse is too generalised for your specific question. Here is the better translation (from Gambhirananda):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 5.12 - Giving up the result of work by becoming resolute in faith, one attains Peace arising from steadfastness. One who is lacking in resolute faith, being attached to the result under the impulsion of desire, becomes bound.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2016-12-09T15:18:05.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16284" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-09T16:48:19.810" Score="1" ViewCount="472" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently I came across a name Savitar (God of speed). And as a Hindu I never heard this name.So in which scripture we find the description of this deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8115" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-09T17:01:40.627" LastActivityDate="2016-12-09T17:01:40.627" Title="In which hindu scripture, savitar(god of speed) is mentioned?" Tags="|vedas|vedic-gods|vayupurana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-12-09T17:35:02.650" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16286" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-09T18:17:02.613" Score="3" ViewCount="151" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Kurukṣetra war, we often hear of great one-on-one battles between Arjuna &amp;amp; Bhīṣma, Arjuna &amp;amp; Droṇa, Bhīma &amp;amp; Karṇa, Arjuna &amp;amp; Karṇa, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Kṛṣṇa was performing the role of charioteer for Arjuna, did anyone attempt to kill Kṛṣṇa and end the war instantly?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Were most of the Kauravas, Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Karṇa etc. aiming their astras and śastras only at Arjuna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Or was Kṛṣṇa ever the direct target of their weapons? If not, why?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm assuming killing the charioteer and those who protect the chariot (foot soldiers) was all fair game in the Kurukṣetra war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-12-09T18:17:02.613" Title="In the Kurukṣetra war, did anyone attempt to kill Kṛṣṇa and end the war instantly?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|war|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16288" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-10T03:27:18.427" Score="4" ViewCount="95" Body="&lt;p&gt;If souls are situated in material bodies(Bhramana,Kstriya,Vasiya,Sudra,Animals,Rakshas,Asuras,etc) ,then in the beginning of the universe the souls will have their first birth and will have no karma effects and in that situation on which basis four castes and souls on animal beings will put by god.As Veda's describes that these four castes were the initial stage of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone please clarify my doubts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-10T04:24:13.227" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T04:24:13.227" Title="Status of world during first time lord came to create souls?" Tags="|atma|caste-system|creation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-12-10T10:34:48.123" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16290" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4101" CreationDate="2016-12-10T04:35:54.863" Score="5" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Is it necessary for one to have children?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you choose to get married, yes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On duties never to be neglected, Taittirīya Upaniṣad (1.11) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79789.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वाध्यायान्मा प्रमदः । आचार्याय प्रियं धनमाहृत्य &lt;strong&gt;प्रजातन्तुं मा व्यवच्छेत्सीः&lt;/strong&gt; । सत्यान्न प्रमदितव्यम् । धर्मान्न प्रमदितव्यम् । कुशलान्न प्रमदितव्यम् । भूत्यै न प्रमदितव्यम् । स्वाध्यायप्रवचनाभ्यां न प्रमदितव्यम् । देवपितृकार्याभ्यां न प्रमदितव्यम् ॥ ३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;svādhyāyānmā pramadaḥ | ācāryāya priyaṃ dhanamāhṛtya &lt;strong&gt;prajātantuṃ mā vyavacchetsīḥ&lt;/strong&gt; | satyānna pramaditavyam | dharmānna pramaditavyam | kuśalānna pramaditavyam | bhūtyai na pramaditavyam | svādhyāyapravacanābhyāṃ na pramaditavyam | devapitṛkāryābhyāṃ na pramaditavyam || 3 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.&#xA;  From study swerve thou not. Having offered dear wealth to the teacher, &lt;strong&gt;cut thou not the progeny’s line&lt;/strong&gt;. From the true it will not do to swerve, nor from Dharma, nor from welfare. Neither will it do to swerve from well-being, nor from study and teaching, nor from duties to Devas and Pitṛs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śaṅkarāchārya's commentary on the above:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, with the permission of the teacher, secure a suitable wife and &lt;strong&gt;prevent break in the line of descent&lt;/strong&gt;. It will not do to bring about a break in the line of descent. That is to say, &lt;strong&gt;if a son is not born, attempts should de made to get a son by means of sacrificial rites such as the Putrakamya-iṣṭi, a rite performed with a view to get sons.&lt;/strong&gt; This appears to be the meaning of the śruti because of the mention of three duties, “offspring, begetting, and propagation.”[12] Otherwise, the śruti would have mentioned only one,—that of begetting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rkmdelhi.org/about-us/swami-sarvananda/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Sarvananda&lt;/a&gt; of Ramakrishna Math on the same &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Taittiriya%20Upanishad%20-%20Swami%20Sarvanand%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Then should...progeny&lt;/em&gt; - i.e., after returning from the guru's house, or in other words, after the performance of the ceremony known as Samavartanam, &lt;strong&gt;one should take to a suitable bride for the procreation of children and thereby pay the debt of the fathers.&lt;/strong&gt; This is an injunction of the Sruti not to remain outside any Ashrama. As soon as the student life is finished, one should enter into the householder's life or become a Sannyasin, but never remain in a state which is neither the one nor the other, that is called Antarashrama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a further hint in this passage to the attitude one should have towards, the married life. One should look upon marriage not as an opportunity given for sexual enjoyment, but as a sacred duty towards the forefathers and the society inasmuch as by procreation of children the perpetuity of the family line is kept up and the departed forefathers get their offering from the family without a break, and also the social strength is maintained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above commentaries, it appears that the purpose of marriage is procreation. So if one doesn't intend to have children, then they should become a Sannyāsi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T04:35:54.863" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16292" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-12-10T07:12:39.970" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Questions regarding the regulations, ethics, rituals imposed on sexual activity, sexual conscience in hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7632" LastEditorUserId="7632" LastEditDate="2016-12-10T07:52:35.160" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T07:52:35.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16293" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-12-10T07:12:39.970" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-12-10T07:12:39.970" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T07:12:39.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16294" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16256" CreationDate="2016-12-10T07:18:43.133" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are Hindu children meant to serve their parents forever whether they like them or not?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seemingly &lt;strong&gt;Yes.&lt;/strong&gt;(See verse 2.235 given below for example)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Importance of Parents and Guru from Shastras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu smriti 2.227. That trouble (and pain) which the parents undergo&#xA;  on the birth of (their) children, cannot be compensated even in a&#xA;  hundred years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.228. Let him always do what is agreeable to those (two) and always (what may please) his teacher; when those three are pleased, he&#xA;  obtains all (those rewards which) austerities (yield).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.230. For they are declared to be the three worlds, they the three (principal) orders, they the three Vedas, and they the three sacred&#xA;  fires&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.232. He who neglects not those three, (even after he has become) a householder, will conquer the three worlds and, radiant in body like a&#xA;  god, he will enjoy bliss in heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.235. &lt;strong&gt;As long as those three live&lt;/strong&gt;, so long &lt;strong&gt;let him not (independently) perform any other (meritorious acts);let him always&#xA;  serve them,&lt;/strong&gt; rejoicing (to do what is) agreeable and beneficial (to&#xA;  them).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do children need parents' permission to live away from them?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;,once again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu smriti 2.229. Obedience towards those three is declared to be the&#xA;  best (form of) austerity; &lt;strong&gt;let him not perform other meritorious acts&#xA;  without their permission.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.236. &lt;strong&gt;He shall inform them of everything that with their consent he may perform&lt;/strong&gt; in thought, word, or deed for the sake of the next&#xA;  world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/78feq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/78feq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do scriptures say about parents doing such negative acts?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu smriti 9.290. For all incantations intended to destroy life, &lt;strong&gt;for magic rites with roots (practised by persons)&lt;/strong&gt; not related (to him against whom&#xA;  they are directed), and &lt;strong&gt;for various kinds of sorcery, a fine of two&#xA;  hundred (panas) shall be inflicted.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,apparently such acts of using black magic for harming others come under punishable offence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What if parents are just bad apples, should children continue to serve their needs?&#xA;What do the shastras say?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abandoning parents,Guru or even a son,without sufficient reasons,is condemned in Shastras.Here the key is &lt;strong&gt;without sufficient reasons.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.157. &lt;strong&gt;He who forsakes his mother, his father, or a&#xA;  teacher without a (sufficient) reason&lt;/strong&gt;, he who has contracted an&#xA;  alliance with outcasts either through the Veda or through a marriage..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;commits a minor offence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the purport probably is,if there are enough reasons,one can abandon such bad parents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Take a look at what the Usana Smriti has to say in this regard:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no Deity equal to mother ; there is no Guru (elder) equal to&#xA;  father ; there exists no return of their good offices. (35) One should&#xA;  by deeds, thoughts and words do unto them what they like. &lt;strong&gt;Without&#xA;  being commanded by them, one should not perform any religious rite,&#xA;  excluding those which yield emancipation and the daily and obligatory&#xA;  rites. [To serve the parents] is laid down as the cream of religion,&#xA;  yielding delightful fruits in the next world.&lt;/strong&gt; (36 37)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/T5nTu.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/T5nTu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-23T06:28:10.460" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T06:28:10.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16295" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-10T07:34:13.853" Score="3" ViewCount="698" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do our scriptures say about a person who gets married to a person of another religion?&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; Is it considered a sin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; If yes, what is the punishment?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7632" LastActivityDate="2016-12-11T08:39:20.723" Title="Is it a sin, if any hindu gets married with a person of other religion?" Tags="|marriage|other-religions|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2016-12-11T16:00:22.777" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16296" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-10T09:07:04.587" Score="5" ViewCount="545" Body="&lt;p&gt;Widows are not allowed to wear colour sarees and are not allowed to participate in functions, they are also prohibited from touching certain plants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the exact reason behind this and can anyone point the exact scripture that explains these rules?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-01-29T20:04:27.980" LastActivityDate="2019-01-29T20:48:20.263" Title="Which scriptures deal with rules for widows?" Tags="|dharma|women|dharma-shastras|widow|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16298" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-10T11:46:49.013" Score="3" ViewCount="265" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have hindu friend who eats non vegetarian but also a good follower of Lord Krishna. By the term good follower, I mean to say he prays to krishna and sometime goes to temple to attend prayers and kirtan of lord krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it ok for him to eat non veg and still pray to god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8429" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T11:46:49.013" Title="Is it sin to eat non veg in hindu religion.?" Tags="|prayer|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2016-12-11T16:15:10.007" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16299" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-10T11:54:30.297" Score="5" ViewCount="1008" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why  North Indians don't worship &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartikeya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Murugan&lt;/a&gt;(Karthikeya) as much as they worship Lord Ganesha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this doesn't happen in South India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7962" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-10T12:15:32.640" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T12:15:32.640" Title="Why Lord Muruga is not worshiped in north india as much as he is in south india?" Tags="|worship|ganesha|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-12-20T12:12:23.983" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16300" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11193" CreationDate="2016-12-10T13:56:43.117" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;what was the average age of those 31 Ikshavaku Kings? Can we form a dynastical age map from Ramayana &lt;strong&gt;to Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt; using age of those kings using data from various scriptures? Do we at least know age of few of those among 31 Kings? &quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8663/1049&quot;&gt;archaeological survey&lt;/a&gt;, RAmAyana is believed to have happened around 7000 years back and from various stars' positions, it's widely believed that MahAbharata happened 5000 years back.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Irrespective of whichever Yuga these epics happened, the age of those kings should be 100 +/- years. The only sensible age I could find is of Drona = 85 years, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16040/1049&quot;&gt;seen here&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having slain Bharadwaja's son (Drona). Dhrishtadyumna was filled with great joy, and uttered leonine shouts, whirling his sword. Of a dark complexion, with white locks hanging down to his ears, &lt;strong&gt;that old man of five and eighty years of age&lt;/strong&gt;, used, for thy sake only, to career on the field of battle with the activity of a youth of sixteen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Human anatomy hasn't changed much for many thousands of years. Hence, over the top ages are simply not possible. Not at least in 1000s of years for so many kings/people in form of their mortal bodies.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16039/1049&quot;&gt;another post&lt;/a&gt;, which suggests that men [mostly] live for 100 years [even] while practising Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;How to solve this PARADOX? How can some kings live for 1000's of years and yet some live for only 100 years? What's really going on? What is the truth?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is an misinformation in assuming that people really lived 1000s of years. Here are the reasons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rational&lt;/strong&gt;: It's a well known fact that, RAma had to live 14 years in exile, &amp;amp; repenting this situation DasarathA died. Now let's assume that the ages of Dasaratha &amp;amp; RAma were 10000 years (&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6527/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;). Do you think, that 14 years will be a great deal for Dasaratha to repent &amp;amp; RAma to pass through, when they are going to live for 10k years?! Ofcourse not.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scripture&lt;/strong&gt;: One [mostly] authentic source of the duration of various Yuga-s is found in &quot;Moksha Dharma Parva&quot; as in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16085/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. Here is that Verse-20 from MahAbhArata book &gt; Volume-8 &gt; Chapter-231 &gt; Page-178:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चत्वार्याहुः सहस्राणि वर्षाणां तत्कृतं युगम्। &#xA;  तस्य तावच्छती संध्या संध्यांशश्च तथाविधः ।।२०।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Four thousand &lt;strike&gt;celestial&lt;/strike&gt; years is the duration of the first or &lt;em&gt;Krita&lt;/em&gt; age. The morning of that cycle consists of four hundred years and its evening is of four hundred years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Sanskrit to English translation, &lt;strong&gt;nowhere it can be found that the years mentioned in Yuga are &lt;em&gt;Deva&lt;/em&gt; (celestial) years&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, those years are human years only.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: In the abive linked answer, it's also calculated that a &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; cycle (day + night) constitutes 24 million years. Out of which the existence happen only for 12 million years, i.e. 120 lacs years. If someone lives 6 lacs years, then it is as good as 5% of that duration, which is way too high.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2016-12-10T15:56:42.933" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16301" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16185" CreationDate="2016-12-10T16:59:45.030" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Today is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gita_Jayanti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita Jayanti&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokshada_Ekadashi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mokshada Ekadashi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Let me cover the core messages of eighteen chapter Srimad Bhagavad Gita in 8 part in useful way.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Note that you may find the answer long or lengthy &lt;em&gt;as core messages needs well understanding and explanation!&lt;/em&gt;, I've tried to maintain gradual level for understanding.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit Verses are quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_giitaa/bhagvadnew.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Documents&lt;/a&gt; and English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7T0zBCVuV7cUDRJNTJIX01obG8/view?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita Press&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;PART-1 Starting&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Life can be enriched by&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Eliminating Tamas Guna, minimizing Rajas Guna and insisting on Satva Guna. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Following Dharma and performing duties&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, talking about today's life, generally ordinary people don't focus on ethics, morality, spirituality and their deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all I recommend to read Adhyaya 16 which is called &quot;Dev Ashura sampadvibhaga Yoga&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In which Krishna comprehensively explained divine and demoniac natures. (Verse 1-3 for divine nature and further of for demoniac nature).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;द्वौ भूतसर्गौ लोकेऽस्मिन्दैव आसुर एव च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दैवो विस्तरशः प्रोक्त आसुरं पार्थ मे शृणु ॥ १६-६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are only two types of men in this world, Arjuna, the one possessing a divine nature and the other possessing a demoniac disposition. Of these, the type possessing divine nature has been dealt with at length; now hear in detail from Me about the type possessing demoniac disposition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we should first understand the difference between divine and demoniac nature and try to eliminate/minimize our demoniac nature and insist on divine nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, &lt;strong&gt;three Gunas of Praktiti&lt;/strong&gt; is comprehensively explained in Adhyaya-14 called &quot;Guna traya vibhaga Yoga&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसम्भवाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम् ॥ १४-५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sattva, Rajas and Tamas these three Gunas born of Nature tie down the imperishable soul to the body, Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reading further verses helps in understanding the characteristics of these three Gunas. So, we can get what to avoid and what to do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These will ultimately leads one to Satvic Guna and creates characteristics like Dharmikta, Satvikta, ethics, morality etc. &lt;em&gt;which helps in development of mind and increasing spiritual-level!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Talking about &lt;strong&gt;performing duties&lt;/strong&gt;, which is explained according to &lt;strong&gt;Varna&lt;/strong&gt; in Adhyaya-18:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियविशां शूद्राणां च परन्तप ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कर्माणि प्रविभक्तानि स्वभावप्रभवैर्गुणैः ॥ १८-४१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The duties of the Brahmans, the Kshatriyas and the Vaishyas, as well as of the Shudras have been assigned according to their innate modes of Prakrti (Gunas), Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reading further verses narrates duties to be performed according to Varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;PART-2 [Basic Jnana]&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, this is time to go on primary subject of Srimad Bhagavad Gita: &lt;strong&gt;Samkhya and Karma Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People have usually following types of question in mind:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What the universe is and where it comes from, how all these is working and which law governs it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why bondage and How to get rid of Samsara.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which path/marga to follow and how to follow.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the ultimate/absolute truth/reality.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the ultimate purpose of life. etc...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These types of questions should be solved to &lt;em&gt;avoid confusions&lt;/em&gt; and knowing the Goal!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some primary Jnana is essential for the development of mind favourable to Jnana or Bhakti Yoga. This primary Jnana can be understand with the help of Samkhya teachings of Prakriti and Purush.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adhyaya 7 which is called &quot;Jnana-Vijnana Yoga&quot; in which Krishna declares:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ज्ञानं तेऽहं सविज्ञानमिदं वक्ष्याम्यशेषतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यज्ज्ञात्वा नेह भूयोऽन्यज्ज्ञातव्यमवशिष्यते ॥ ७-२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I shall unfold to you in its entirety this wisdom (Knowledge of God in His absolute formless aspect) along with the Knowledge of the qualified aspect of God (both with form and without form), &lt;strong&gt;having known which nothing else remains yet to be known in this world&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Continue reading verses further hopefully helps in true knowledge. Also read Verse &lt;strong&gt;9.4 to 9.10&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it clears that God is the cause of whole the creation! Now, it is the time to know the relation between God and us! which I think very very necessary for the goal as we know some people &lt;em&gt;don't have true knowledge of God and wander to and fro for attaining him&lt;/em&gt; because they actually don't know who is God and &lt;em&gt;where to find!?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;PART-3 [Relation between Prakriti, Jiva and God]&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adhyaya-13 which is called &quot;Kshetra-Khshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga&quot; explains the &lt;strong&gt;relation between Prakriti, Jiva and Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ज्योतिषामपि तज्ज्योतिस्तमसः परमुच्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं ज्ञानगम्यं हृदि सर्वस्य विष्ठितम् ॥ १३-१८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That supreme Brahma is said to be the light of all lights and entirely beyond Maya. That godhead is knowledge itself, worth knowing, and worth attaining through real wisdom, and is particularly &lt;strong&gt;abiding in the hearts of all&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उपद्रष्टानुमन्ता च भर्ता भोक्ता महेश्वरः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परमात्मेति चाप्युक्तो देहेऽस्मिन्पुरुषः परः ॥ १३-२३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Spirit dwelling in this body, is really the same as the Supreme. He has been spoken of as the Witness, the true Guide, the Sustainer of all, the Experiencer (as the embodied soul), the Overlord and the Absolute as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also read the verse 15.7:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ममैवांशो जीवलोके जीवभूतः सनातनः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनःषष्ठानीन्द्रियाणि प्रकृतिस्थानि कर्षति ॥ १५-७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The eternal Jivatma in this body is a fragment of My own Self; and it is that alone which draws around itself the mind and the five senses, which abide in Prakrti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the solution of all theses things, God himself! dwells in our heart! &lt;em&gt;Do we need anything-else!?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, knowing these leads one to know about Atman of which the true nature is narrated in &lt;strong&gt;Verse 2.17 to 2.25&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अविनाशि तु तद्विद्धि येन सर्वमिदं ततम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विनाशमव्ययस्यास्य न कश्चित्कर्तुमर्हति ॥ २-१७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know that alone to be imperishable which pervades this universe; for no one has power to destroy this indestructible substance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think the this true concept of Atman and Brahman is major essence of &lt;strong&gt;Santana Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;PART-4 [Karma Yoga]&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it is time to know that in order to attain the ultimate/absolute truth/reality or Moksha, one should follow certain &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2392/277&quot;&gt;paths&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This leads people to know and follow Karma Yoga which is explained verily in Bhagavad Gita! which starts from popular verse of Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥ २-४७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your right is to work only and never to the fruit thereof. Do not Consider yourself to be the cause of the fruit of action; nor let your attachment be to inaction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् ॥ ९-२७ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna, whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer as oblation to the sacred fire, whatever you bestow as a gift, whatever you do by way of penance, offer all that to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;योगस्थः कुरु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा धनञ्जय ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते ॥ २-४८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna, perform your duties established in Yoga, renouncing attachment, and be even-minded in success and failure; evenness of mind is called Yogi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This leads Yogi to the state of Sthitprajna which is explained from Verse 2.55 to the end of Adhyaya-2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The important thing in journey of KarmaYoga is to understand :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रकृतेः क्रियमाणानि गुणैः कर्माणि सर्वशः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहङ्कारविमूढात्मा कर्ताहमिति मन्यते ॥ ३-२७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In fact all actions are being performed by the modes of Prakrti (Primordial Nature). &lt;strong&gt;The fool, whose mind is deluded by egoism, thinks: &quot;I am the doer&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reading further verses of Adhyaya-3 helps in the relation between Prakriti, Karma and Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;mind and intellect are key to Yoga!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; The necessity of controlling senses is explained from Verse 3.40:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इन्द्रियाणि पराण्याहुरिन्द्रियेभ्यः परं मनः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनसस्तु परा बुद्धिर्यो बुद्धेः परतस्तु सः ॥ ३-४२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The senses are said to be greater than the body; but greater than the senses is the mind. Greater than the mind is the intellect; and what is greater than the intellect is He, the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मनः ॥ ६-५॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should lift oneself by one's own efforts and should not degrade oneself; for one's own self is one's friend, and one's own self is one's enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बन्धुरात्मात्मनस्तस्य येनात्मैवात्मना जितः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अनात्मनस्तु शत्रुत्वे वर्तेतात्मैव शत्रुवत् ॥ ६-६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One's own Self is the friend of the soul by whom the lower self (consisting of the mind, senses and body) has been conquered; even so, the very Self of him, who has not conquered his lower self, behaves antagonistically like an enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Karma Yoga, it is important to have a clear understanding of following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is Karma, What is Akarma?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is Nishkama Karma and how to perform it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which Karmas should be performed which is not and why?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is explained from Verse 4.16:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;किं कर्म किमकर्मेति कवयोऽप्यत्र मोहिताः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्ते कर्म प्रवक्ष्यामि यज्ज्ञात्वा मोक्ष्यसेऽशुभात् ॥ ४-१६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is action and what is inaction? Even men of intelligence are puzzled over this question. Therefore, I shall expound to you the truth about action, knowing which you will be freed from its evil effects i.e., the shackles of karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reading further verses gives the true knowledge about Karma, Akarma and how to understand it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Karma Sanyasa&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Karma Tyaga&lt;/strong&gt; is exclusively explained in Adhyaya-18 &lt;strong&gt;Verse 1 to 11&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एतान्यपि तु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा फलानि च ।&#xA;  कर्तव्यानीति मे पार्थ निश्चितं मतमुत्तमम् ॥ १८-६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hence these acts of sacrifice, charity and penance, and all other acts of duty too, must be performed without attachment and expectation of reward : this is My well-considered and supreme verdict, Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;PART-6 [Jnana Yoga]&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The importance of &lt;strong&gt;Jnana Yoga&lt;/strong&gt; is narrated from Verse 4.33:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Defining from Verse 13.12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अध्यात्मज्ञाननित्यत्वं तत्त्वज्ञानार्थदर्शनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एतज्ज्ञानमिति प्रोक्तमज्ञानं यदतोऽन्यथा ॥ १३-१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Constancy in self-knowledge and seeing God as the object of true knowledge-all this is declared-as knowledge, and what is contrary to this is called ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रेयान्द्रव्यमयाद्यज्ञाज्ज्ञानयज्ञः परन्तप ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वं कर्माखिलं पार्थ ज्ञाने परिसमाप्यते ॥ ४-३३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna, sacrifice through Knowledge, is superior to sacrifice performed with material things. For all actions without exception culminate in Knowledge, O son of Kunti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपि चेदसि पापेभ्यः सर्वेभ्यः पापकृत्तमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वं ज्ञानप्लवेनैव वृजिनं सन्तरिष्यसि ॥ ४-३६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even if you were the most sinful of all sinners, this Knowledge alone would carry you, like a raft, across all your sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथैधांसि समिद्धोऽग्निर्भस्मसात्कुरुतेऽर्जुन ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ज्ञानाग्निः सर्वकर्माणि भस्मसात्कुरुते तथा ॥ ४-३७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For, as the blazing fire reduces the fuel to ashes, Arjuna, even so the fire of Knowledge turns all actions to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न हि ज्ञानेन सदृशं पवित्रमिह विद्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्स्वयं योगसंसिद्धः कालेनात्मनि विन्दति ॥ ४-३८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this world there is no purifier as great as Knowledge; he who has attained purity of heart through prolonged practice of Karmayoga, automatically sees the light of Truth in the self in course of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उदाराः सर्व एवैते ज्ञानी त्वात्मैव मे मतम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आस्थितः स हि युक्तात्मा मामेवानुत्तमां गतिम् ॥ ७-१८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indeed, all these are noble, but the man of wisdom is My very self; such is My view. For such a devotee, who has his mind and intellect merged in Me, is firmly established in Me alone as the highest goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People may get &lt;em&gt;confuse&lt;/em&gt; between Jnana and Karma Yoga, Krishna resolved it by:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;साङ्ख्ययोगौ पृथग्बालाः प्रवदन्ति न पण्डिताः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एकमप्यास्थितः सम्यगुभयोर्विन्दते फलम् ॥ ५-४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is the ignorant, not the wise, who say that Samkhyayoga and Karmayoga lead to divergent results. For, one who is firmly established in either, gets the fruit of both which is the same, viz., God-realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;True Yogi attain the absolute supreme goal:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वद्वाराणि संयम्य मनो हृदि निरुध्य च ।&#xA;  मूर्ध्न्याधायात्मनः प्राणमास्थितो योगधारणाम् ॥ ८-१२॥&#xA;  ओमित्येकाक्षरं ब्रह्म व्याहरन्मामनुस्मरन् ।&#xA;  यः प्रयाति त्यजन्देहं स याति परमां गतिम् ॥ ८-१३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having controlled all the senses, and firmly holding the mind in the heart, and then drawing the life-breath to the head, and thus remaining steadfast in Yogic concentration on God, he who leaves the body and departs uttering the one Indestructible Brahma, OM, and dwelling on Me in My absolute aspect, reaches the supreme goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;PART-7 [Preaching]&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, It is time to go on &lt;strong&gt;very useful preaching&lt;/strong&gt; by Krishna to Arjuna which is given in Adhyaya-12 called &lt;strong&gt;Bhakti Yoga&lt;/strong&gt; Verse 12.8 to 12.12:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मय्येव मन आधत्स्व मयि बुद्धिं निवेशय ।&#xA;  निवसिष्यसि मय्येव अत ऊर्ध्वं न संशयः ॥ १२-८॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अथ चित्तं समाधातुं न शक्नोषि मयि स्थिरम् ।&#xA;  अभ्यासयोगेन ततो मामिच्छाप्तुं धनञ्जय ॥ १२-९॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अभ्यासेऽप्यसमर्थोऽसि मत्कर्मपरमो भव ।&#xA;  मदर्थमपि कर्माणि कुर्वन्सिद्धिमवाप्स्यसि ॥ १२-१०॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अथैतदप्यशक्तोऽसि कर्तुं मद्योगमाश्रितः ।&#xA;  सर्वकर्मफलत्यागं ततः कुरु यतात्मवान् ॥ १२-११॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  श्रेयो हि ज्ञानमभ्यासाज्ज्ञानाद्ध्यानं विशिष्यते ।&#xA;  ध्यानात्कर्मफलत्यागस्त्यागाच्छान्तिरनन्तरम् ॥ १२-१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Therefore, fix your mind on Me, and establish your intellect in Me alone; thereafter you will abide solely in Me. There is no doubt about it. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If you cannot steadily fix the mind on Me,Arjuna, then seek to attain Me through the Yoga of practice. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If you are unequal even to the pursuit of such practice, be intent to work for Me; you shall attain perfection (in the form of My realization) even by performing actions for My sake.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If, taking recourse to the Yoga of My realization, you are unable even to do this, then, subduing your mind and intellect etc., relinquish the fruit of all actions.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Knowledge is better than practice without discernment, meditation on God is superior to knowledge, and renunciation of the fruit of actions is even superior to meditation; for, peace immediately follows renunciation.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;PART-8 [Sharanangati]&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last thing to include is the &lt;strong&gt;very secret teaching&lt;/strong&gt; by Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वगुह्यतमं भूयः शृणु मे परमं वचः ।&#xA;  इष्टोऽसि मे दृढमिति ततो वक्ष्यामि ते हितम् ॥ १८-६४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hear, again, My supremely profound words, the most esoteric of all truths; as you are extremely dear to Me, therefore, I shall give you this salutary&#xA;  advice for your own good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मन्मना भव मद्भक्तो मद्याजी मां नमस्कुरु ।&#xA;  मामेवैष्यसि सत्यं ते प्रतिजाने प्रियोऽसि मे ॥ १८-६५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Give your mind to Me, be devoted to Me, worship Me and bow to Me. Doing so, you will come to Me alone, I truly promise you; for, you are exceptionally dear to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ।&#xA;  अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥ १८-६६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Resigning all your duties to Me, the all-powerful and all supporting Lord, take refuge in Me alone; I shall absolve you of all sins, worry not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar &lt;strong&gt;assurance&lt;/strong&gt; By God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत ।&#xA;  अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥ ४-७॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् ।&#xA;  धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे ॥ ४-८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna, whenever righteousness is on the decline, unrighteousness is in the ascendant, then I body Myself forth. For the protection of the virtuous, for the extirpation of evil-doers, and for establishing Dharma (righteousness) on a firm footing, I manifest Myself from age to age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्तकाले च मामेव स्मरन्मुक्त्वा कलेवरम् ।&#xA;  यः प्रयाति स मद्भावं याति नास्त्यत्र संशयः ॥ ८-५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who departs from the body, thinking of Me alone even at the time of death, attains My state; there is no doubt about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पार्थ नैवेह नामुत्र विनाशस्तस्य विद्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न हि कल्याणकृत्कश्चिद् दुर्गतिं तात गच्छति ॥ ६-४०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Bhagavan said : Arjuna, there is no fall for him either here or hereafter. For, O My beloved, none who strives for self-redemption (i.e., God-&#xA;  realization) ever meets with evil destiny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आब्रह्मभुवनाल्लोकाः पुनरावर्तिनोऽर्जुन ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मामुपेत्य तु कौन्तेय पुनर्जन्म न विद्यते ॥ ८-१६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna, all the worlds from Brahmaloka (the heavenly realm of the Creator, BrahmA) downwards are liable to birth and rebirth. But, O son of Kunti, on attaining Me there is no rebirth (For, while I am beyond Time, regions like Brahmaloka, being conditioned by time, are transitory).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upanishads are believed to be an extract of Vedas and Srimad Bhagavad Gita is believed to be an extract of Upanishads!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shrimad Bhagavad Gita is a Smriti Prashthan for Prashthantrayi of Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T02:24:27.783" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16302" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-10T19:14:44.717" Score="2" ViewCount="130" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read some part of ' Kabir Sagar'. It is a book on Saint Kabir which concerns with philosophical knowledge (or so I think). But I don't understand what it talks about to begin with. &#xA;Will anyone shed some light on what the book is about ? It is really confusing. It is difficult to understand what it talks about.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8253" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-05-03T03:56:44.357" LastActivityDate="2018-05-03T03:56:44.357" Title="What is 'Kabir Sagar'?" Tags="|philosophy|saint|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16303" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23060" CreationDate="2016-12-11T02:45:16.760" Score="15" ViewCount="24092" Body="&lt;p&gt;I saw several videos on YouTube saying that Radha and Rukmini were the same person, but from what I have read, I wasn't able to find any references about the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Links to YouTube videos:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9yT6PCICMo&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;क्या राधा और रुक्मिणी एक थी?&lt;/a&gt; (Were Radha and Rukmini  the same person?)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMz5B0PmF8c&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;कृष्ण ने राधा से क्यूं नहीं किया था...विवाह?&lt;/a&gt; (Why didn't Krishna marry Radha?)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on the scriptures can someone help me clear the doubts regarding them being the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8239" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-15T06:07:29.653" LastActivityDate="2022-10-26T13:00:07.727" Title="Were Radha and Rukmini the same person?" Tags="|scripture|krishna|lakshmi|radha|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16304" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16295" CreationDate="2016-12-11T08:28:54.373" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;A person who does not believe in the authority of the Vedas is called a &lt;strong&gt;Nastika&lt;/strong&gt; in Hinduism.(as opposed to Astika ,which is the opposite of Nastika)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,none of the other religions regard Vedas as their authority.So,from a Hindu's pov,  &lt;strong&gt;followers of other religions are simply Nastikas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,it is sufficient to know how do Hindu Shastras(the Scriptures) treat the &lt;strong&gt;Nastikas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.66.Dhanya Kupya Pasusteyam Madyapa stree Nishevanam Stree Sudra Visa Kshatra Vadho &lt;strong&gt;Nastikyam&lt;/strong&gt; Cha Upapatkam-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Stealing grain, base metals, or cattle, intercourse&#xA;  with women who drink spirituous liquor, slaying women, Sudras,&#xA;  Vaisyas, or Kshatriyas, and &lt;strong&gt;atheism&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;(are all) minor offences, causing&#xA;  loss of caste (Upapataka).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.33.Lobha swapno adhritihi Krourya &lt;strong&gt;Nastikyam&lt;/strong&gt; Mrittavrittita Yachisnuta Pramadas Cha Tamasm Guna lakshanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Covetousness, sleepiness, pusillanimity, cruelty, &lt;strong&gt;atheism&lt;/strong&gt;, leading&#xA;  an evil life, a habit of soliciting favours, and&#xA;  inattentiveness, are the marks of the quality of Darkness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qEng2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qEng2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7rwAE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7rwAE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also note that, although &lt;strong&gt;Nastika&lt;/strong&gt; is loosely translated as an &lt;strong&gt;Atheist&lt;/strong&gt; by the translator above, but the correct meaning of Nastika in Hinduism is as given at the beginning only.That's why i also gave the transliterated Sanskrit verses  so as to avoid any confusions of that nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,as one can see, being a Nastika is condemned in Scriptures as being a minor sin.So,marrying a nastika will be condemnable act for any Hindu without doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,in any case,the Scriptures also clearly say that,any doctrines,philosophies (or even religions) that are not based on the Vedas are false .So,obviously followers of such religions are to be avoided.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu 12.95. All those traditions (smriti) and those despicable systems&#xA;  of philosophy, which are not based on the Veda, produce no reward&#xA;  after death; for they are declared to be founded on Darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.96. All those (doctrines), differing from the (Veda), which spring up and (soon) perish, are worthless and false, because they are of&#xA;  modern date.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Lf5zM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Lf5zM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My conclusion-Although we can not find any &lt;strong&gt;direct references&lt;/strong&gt; of other religions in Hindu Shastras as such,but still that &lt;strong&gt;a Hindu marrying a non-hindu is condemnable act&lt;/strong&gt; is made quite clear from the passages above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-11T08:39:20.723" LastActivityDate="2016-12-11T08:39:20.723" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16305" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-11T10:51:55.050" Score="3" ViewCount="1206" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is duration of tithi according to Hindu panchang?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8028" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-04T03:11:53.403" LastActivityDate="2018-09-27T08:02:02.650" Title="What is duration of tithi according to Hindu panchang?" Tags="|astrology|calendar|panchang|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16306" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17286" CreationDate="2016-12-11T11:09:05.743" Score="16" ViewCount="11758" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_016.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_016.html&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“After being spoken to in this way by Lord Shiva, Ravana, the lord of Lanka replied: ‘O Lord Shiva, if you are pleased with me, grant me a boon which I am eager for. I am already unkillable by gods, gandharvas, danavas, rakshasas, guhyakas, nagas and others who are greater than these. O lord, I do not count human beings because I think that they are insignificant. O destroyer of the Tripura demon, I have received a boon of long life from Lord Brahma. &lt;strong&gt;Please grant me&lt;/strong&gt; the rest of my life which I desire, as well as &lt;strong&gt;a weapon&lt;/strong&gt;.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“When requested in this way by Ravana, &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva presented him&lt;/strong&gt; with a shining &lt;strong&gt;sword known as Candrahasa&lt;/strong&gt;. Shiva, the lord of ghosts, also granted him at that time the remainder of his life. Lord Shiva said: ‘&lt;strong&gt;You should not disregard this sword&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;If you do, it will undoubtedly return to me.&lt;/strong&gt;’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why didn't Ravana use the Chandrahasa sword against Lord Rama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he lost it before the war, then, how exactly did he lose it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I searched many times for an answer but I couldn't find the exact reason why it was not used against lord ram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2019-05-01T02:58:23.030" LastActivityDate="2023-06-08T01:46:47.763" Title="Why didn't Ravana use the Chandrahasa sword against Lord Rama?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ravana|weapon|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16309" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14245" CreationDate="2016-12-11T17:33:30.393" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moha arose in Arjuna because in the war of Kurukshetra, the opponents are his &lt;strong&gt;kinsfolk and kindred&lt;/strong&gt;, plus, war is about to &lt;strong&gt;kill&lt;/strong&gt; them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read following verses of Bhagavad Gita to understand why Arjuna didn't want to fight:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.28 O Krsna, seeing these relatives and friends who have assembled here with the intention of fighting, my limbs become languid and my mouth becomes completely dry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.32-34 O Govinda! What need do we have of a kingdom, or what (need) of enjoyments and livelihood? Those for whom kingdom, enjoyments and pleasures ae desired by us, viz &lt;strong&gt;teachers&lt;/strong&gt;, uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law as also relatives-those very ones stand arrayed for battle risking their lives and wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.37 Therefore, it is not proper for us to kill the sons of Dhrtarastra who are our own relatives. For, O Madhava, &lt;strong&gt;how can we be happy by killing our kinsmen?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[ Quoted from English translation by Swami Gambhirananda ]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in the Kurukshetra war, Arjuna feels that it is improper to kill his venerable relatives for the sake of kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-11T22:55:22.407" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16310" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9553" CreationDate="2016-12-12T00:16:34.883" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rāvaṇa was born to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/1/36&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Viśravā&lt;/a&gt; (father) and Kaikasī (mother, a.k.a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/1/37&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Keśinī&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_009.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Uttarakāṇḍa of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa narrates the birth of Rāvaṇa, his two brothers Kumbhakarṇa &amp;amp; Vibhīṣaṇa, and his sister Śūrpaṇakhā. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://sladeviper777.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/lord-ravanas-family-tree/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; blog, here's Rāvaṇa's family tree:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EQlht.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EQlht.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find his other family members' details in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft#page/644/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puranic Encyclopedia&lt;/a&gt; under the name Rāvaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Who is the real king of Laṅkā? Rāvaṇa or Vibhīṣaṇa?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before Rāvaṇa, his stepbrother Kubera &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_011.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ruled&lt;/a&gt; Laṅkā. After Rāvaṇa was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddhasans108.htm#Verse18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;killed&lt;/a&gt; in the war, Rāma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga112/yuddhasans112.htm#Verse9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;instructs&lt;/a&gt; Lakṣmaṇa to install Vibhīṣaṇa as the new king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-12T00:46:49.000" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T00:46:49.000" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16311" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-12T02:24:55.300" Score="1" ViewCount="256" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the difference between danam and dharma I cannot find out the difference in any of the scriptures as Karna is called the dana warrior and Yudhishthira is called of dharma&#xA;Can anyone help me....?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-12T05:37:13.267" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T05:37:13.267" Title="Difference between Danam and Dharma?" Tags="|dharma|terminology|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16313" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15150" CreationDate="2016-12-12T04:41:53.587" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually, if anyone deeply analyses the end of Lanka Kand of the original Sanskrit scripture of Ramayana (not any translations, even old ones), there's logical proof that &lt;strong&gt;Uttar Kand&lt;/strong&gt; itself is an &lt;em&gt;interpolated&lt;/em&gt; chapter of this great epic. But, I'm NOT saying that the relevant chapter is invalid, its just scripted/added later. Interpolation does not necessarily means its void or useless. 90% of the Purans more-or-less have interpolations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, there's ample logical proof in the Sanskrit scriptures of &lt;strong&gt;Sundar Kand&lt;/strong&gt; (10th Canto) and even in &lt;strong&gt;Arayanna Kand&lt;/strong&gt; (49th Canto) itself, that Ravana did NOT had 10 heads and more than 2 arms!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those are all imaginations of the later poets/pundits/translators! ;-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Everybody asks for sources/references and ultimately lands up in some translated editions/versions. My question is, how much expert are you in Sanskrit, leave aside any other ancient languages like Prakrit? Having Sanskrit as a third language in schools doesn't make someone an expert. Even so-called Sanskrit Pundits of today make lots of mistakes, both accidentally &amp;amp; purposely).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7762" LastEditorUserId="7762" LastEditDate="2016-12-12T05:11:18.233" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T05:11:18.233" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16314" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7397" CreationDate="2016-12-12T05:54:55.090" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Do any scriptures say that the hunter Jara was a rebirth of Vali? Are there any scriptures that describe the previous birth of Jara?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The simple answer is, &lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;sub&gt;[As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/612/1049&quot;&gt;this meta post&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/sub&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;No authentic scripture discuss the previous birth[s] of Jara. There are only folklores around VAli &amp;amp; Jara. Some even believe &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2395/1049&quot;&gt;VAli got rebirth as Arjuna&lt;/a&gt;, by retaining the lineage of Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our creative imagination relate 2 personalities. It may be right, may be wrong. Example, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaya-Vijaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jaya Vijaya&lt;/a&gt; legend,&#xA;which relates 3 pairs of antagonists of various eras under same&#xA;umbrella.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Another famous comparison is between &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%E2%80%93Kennedy_coincidences_urban_legend&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Abraham Lincoln &amp;amp;&#xA;John F. Kennedy&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though, Jara was a too insignificant character compared to extremely courageous VAli, the main source of this legend has to do with: VAli avenging his death from RAma, by getting reborn as Jara and killing RAma's own rebirth Krishna.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;But what if, &quot;Krishna&quot; was not the rebirth of &quot;RAma&quot;?&lt;/strong&gt; In such case, the whole theory of VAli-Jara will collapse on its own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Previous births of Krishna&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In sacred-texts, below previous births of Krishna are described, which are [mostly] prior to RAmAyana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As a portion of Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;: From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt;,  &#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And he, called Vasudeva, endued with great valour, was among men a portion of him called Narayana (translate Vishnu) --the god of gods--eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As a son of Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;: From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7376/1049&quot;&gt;Drona Parva&lt;/a&gt; (also the source of point-3),  &#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He that is called Narayana is older than the oldest ones. For accomplishing some purpose, that creator of the universe took his birth as the son of Dharma. On the mountain of Himavat he underwent the severest ascetic austerities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As a Rishi NArAyana&lt;/strong&gt;: From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08087.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Karna Parva&lt;/a&gt;,  &#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the two Krishnas (Arjuna &amp;amp; VAsudeva) are excited with wrath, they show regard for nothing. These two bulls among beings are the Creators of all real and unreal things. These two are Nara and Narayana, the two ancient and best of Rishis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RAma is nowhere mentioned as Krishna's previous birth.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Not to be confused with Gita 10.31, &quot;Among wielders of weapons, I am RAma&quot;. Because these [chapter-10] forms are from the supreme Brahman perspective and not Krishna's personal form perspective. Moreover, it can mean Shri RAma, Parashu RAma &amp;amp; even BalarAma as well.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Supportive reference&lt;/strong&gt;: Like how RAma &amp;amp; Krishna are not related, similarly RAvana &amp;amp; ShishupAla also are not related [as per Jaya-Vijaya theory]. :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;that son of Diti, who was known as Hiranyakasipu, was known in this world among men as the powerful Sisupala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SabhA Parva&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma said,--The will under which the ruler of Chedi (Sisupala) summoneth thee to fight though thou art of strength that knoweth no deterioration, is scarcely his own intention. Assuredly, this is the purpose of Krishna himself, the lord of the universe. ...  This mighty-armed one is, without doubt, a portion of Hari's energy. And surely, the Lord desireth to take back unto himself that energy of his own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;RAma himself might not had rebirth&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we name the supreme Brahman as &quot;Vishnu&quot;, then RAma &amp;amp; Krishna can as well be different portions of &quot;Vishnu&quot;, like ParashuRAma. They need not belong to same lineage of births.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;RAma is believed to have taken &lt;em&gt;SamAdhi&lt;/em&gt; in &lt;em&gt;Sarayu&lt;/em&gt; river. This &lt;em&gt;SamAdhi&lt;/em&gt; itself would have resulted in the state of no return for RAma's own consciousness [Gita 3.4].&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;[Similarly VAli also could have got Moksha, after being killed from the hands of RAma.]&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Summary: &lt;strong&gt;Since RAma &amp;amp; Krishna may not be related by rebirth, there are no sufficient proofs to link VAli &amp;amp; Jara by rebirth.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence, VAli &amp;amp; Jara were different consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T08:31:53.163" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16316" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-12T08:45:02.147" Score="4" ViewCount="2175" Body="&lt;p&gt;Each planet in Jyotisha is associated with an avatar of Shri hari Vishnu in &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%83%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D/%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%83_%E0%A5%A8_(%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%A5%E0%A4%BE)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra&lt;/a&gt;. Why is Shukra Graha or Venus associated with the avatar of Shri hari Vishnu Parashurama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रामोऽवतारः सूर्यस्य चन्द्रस्य यदुनायकः। नृसिंहो भूमिपुत्रस्य बुद्धः&#xA;  सोमसुतस्य च॥ ५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वामनो विबुधेज्यस्य भार्गवो भार्गवस्य च। कूर्मो भास्करपुत्रस्य&#xA;  सैंहिकेयस्य सूकरः॥ ६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;केतोर्मीनावतारश्च ये चान्ये तेऽपि खेटजाः ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.libraryofyoga.com/handle/123456789/1058&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Translation&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5-7. From Surya the incarnation of Rama, from Chandra that of Krishna,&#xA;  from Mangala that of Narasimha, from Budha that of Buddha, from Guru&#xA;  that of Vamana, from Shukra that of Parashurama, from Shani that of&#xA;  Kurma (Tortoise), from Rahu that of Varaha (Pig) and from Ketu that of&#xA;  Meena (Fish) occurred. All other incarnations than these also are&#xA;  through the Grahas. The beings with more &lt;em&gt;Paramatmamsa&lt;/em&gt; are called&#xA;  divine beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2016-12-12T08:46:29.977" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T08:46:29.977" Title="Why is Shukra related to the Parashurama avatar of Vishnu in Jyotisha?" Tags="|avatars|astrology|parashurama|shukra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16317" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16316" CreationDate="2016-12-12T08:45:02.147" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shukra Graha or Venus is associated with spiritual ecstasy. This quality is very close to the character of Parashurama as explained by Shri PVR Rao in his video lectures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parashurama was born to the sage Jamadagni. Jamadagni had a divine cow&#xA;  called KamaDhenu. The  king KartaVirya wanted the wanted the cow for&#xA;  himself and took it by force. Parashurama, enraged by this, killed the&#xA;  king using his axe and killed all the warrior clan that belonged to&#xA;  the king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In another incident, Jamadagni asks Parashurama to kill his mother.&#xA;  His mother, Renuka was a devoted wife and used to go everyday to get&#xA;  water from the river. One day, a few Gandharvas were visiting the river&#xA;  and some temptation arose in her. The sage Jamadagni found this out&#xA;  due to his yogic powers and asked Parashurama to kill her.&#xA;  Parashurama, being very obedient to his father, went ahead and killed&#xA;  his mother, without any delay. Being very pleased with this, his&#xA;  father asked him what he wanted. Parashurama asked for a boon to bring&#xA;  her mother back to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the symbolic meaning explained in the lecture:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jamadagni represents the burning fire of Sadhana. When the spiritual&#xA;  fire becomes strong, it gives rise to spiritual ecstasy (Parashurama).&#xA;  Spiritual ecstasy (Parashurama) can only rise in one, when the&#xA;  arrogance has been killed and purified. Here, the king KritaViraya,&#xA;  represents the arrogance born out of brave deeds. When such ecstasy&#xA;  rises, it kills and purifies and relative temptations arising due to&#xA;  Maya (which is represented by Parashurama's mother). Also, such&#xA;  ecstasy, kills and purifies all the &lt;em&gt;kshatriya&lt;/em&gt; qualities in one like&#xA;  revenge, anger etc. (represented by killing the warrior clan of the&#xA;  king KritaVirya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the merciless nature of Parashurama, represents the Rajasic nature of Shukra Graha in its dealings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: The above is not a word-to-word translation of the excerpt. For original lecture, see this: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1McGPZvC2Uo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1McGPZvC2Uo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T08:45:02.147" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16318" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11960" CreationDate="2016-12-12T14:44:08.873" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parvati Devi Herself describes the meaning of Kamakshi in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-iii/chapter-04/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 4&lt;/a&gt; Purvaardha - Arunachala Mahatmya of Skanda Mahapurana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Parvati once playfully closed eyes of Lord Shiva and entire world went dark creating chaos everywhere. Parvati Devi felt bad for Her immature act and went to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanchipuram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kanchi&lt;/a&gt; and did tapasya by establishing &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekambareswarar_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ekambareswarara Linga&lt;/a&gt; (under a mango tree and hence the name Ekambara). She Herself manifested as Kamakshi which means who fulfills all their desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;52&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I am called &lt;strong&gt;Kåmäkshi on account of my bestowing every thing desired&lt;/strong&gt;. Let my devotees here obtain the desired boon after bowing&#xA;down to me under thc name Kämäkshi as they please.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Word &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spokensanskrit.de/index.php?beginning=0%20&amp;amp;tinput=%20kaama&amp;amp;trans=Translate&amp;amp;direction=SE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kama&lt;/a&gt; (काम) denotes wish or desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T14:44:08.873" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16319" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-12T15:09:01.460" Score="2" ViewCount="96" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe in God. I fully support scriptures &amp;amp; their ideals. I came across many hindus (including educated persons) &amp;amp; saw that most of hindus believe in Ramayana. Please know the views of some qualified experts &lt;a href=&quot;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Was-saner-advice-on-Setu-affidavit-ignored/articleshow/2367069.cms&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, some or a few of them say that it is just an entertainment or fiction written by sage/poet Valmiki who exaggerated &amp;amp; inflated many things to make it interesting such as Lord Rama was God, he had supernatural power to do many abnormal things which a human can't. Can someone provide me some proof or any line in Ramayana that says that it a real history not a fiction?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One thing I want to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any descriptions or a single line in Valmiki's Ramayana which ensures that Ramayana was a history not an entertainment. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jai Sri Ram!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8439" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-12T16:00:18.043" LastActivityDate="2016-12-12T16:00:18.043" Title="Is ramayana a history or an entertainment?" Tags="|ramayana|valmiki|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-12-13T05:26:38.380" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16320" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16324" CreationDate="2016-12-12T18:47:02.683" Score="5" ViewCount="2187" Body="&lt;p&gt;This morning I was simultaneously reading and listening to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=1&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=5&amp;amp;enable_autoplay=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this śloka&lt;/a&gt; from Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa and this question occurred to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;येषां स सगरो नाम सागरो येन खानित: ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;षष्टि: पुत्रसहस्राणि यं यान्तं पर्यवारयन् ।।1.5.2।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;येन by whom, &lt;strong&gt;सागर: ocean&lt;/strong&gt;, खानित: was made to be dug, यान्तम् while he was marching (to the battle), यम् whom, षष्टि: पुत्रसहस्राणि sixty thousand sons, पर्यवारयन् surrounded by, स: that, &lt;strong&gt;सगरो नाम king named Sagara&lt;/strong&gt;, येषाम् amongst those. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among them a &lt;strong&gt;king named Sagara got the ocean dug&lt;/strong&gt; and his sixty thousand sons surrounded him whenever he went (to battle).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From above, it appears that King Sagara acquired the name because he (or his sons) dug up earth to create the ocean (sāgara). Is it not? If yes, what is King Sagara's real name i.e., birth name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is it a pure coincidence that Sagara and the word &lt;em&gt;sāgara&lt;/em&gt; are related?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;PS. Does anyone know the female singer reciting the ślokas? &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in//sites/default/files/audio/1-5.mp3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Her voice&lt;/a&gt; is very melodious; almost divine!&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T07:30:46.020" Title="Is the ocean (sāgara) named after King Sagara or is it the other way round?" Tags="|ramayana|name|shloka|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16321" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-12T21:52:58.610" Score="2" ViewCount="148" Body="&lt;p&gt;From my childhood I have offered flower, milk etc to Shiva.  But, I have been offering my own creation to Shiva for the last several years. This is very painful is there a known technique to stop such offering?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8442" LastActivityDate="2016-12-13T05:40:53.923" Title="How to stop giving own creation to Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-12-13T05:56:43.613" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16323" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16320" CreationDate="2016-12-13T02:27:37.173" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sagara is the name of the king and he was responsible for bringing the ocean so the name was brought as sagar or sagaram, it this was the reason that lord ram meditate and asked for help without evaporating the sagar ocean with bhramasthra in the first place&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2016-12-13T02:27:37.173" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16324" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16320" CreationDate="2016-12-13T03:35:09.470" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes. The ocean (सागरः or Sāgara) is named after Sagara (सगर), a king of Ikshvaku dynasty.&lt;/strong&gt; He is the son of king Asita. Ocean on the earth is formed by one of his deeds i.e., he dug the bed of ocean. Sagara's stepmother gives poison to Sagara's mother Kalindi out of jealousy. She was also pregnant. They both go to a sage Chyavana. As he was born from toxicity, he is named as Sagara (सगर).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from Valmiki Ramayana (&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga70/balasans70.htm#Verse37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Balakanda, Ch. 70&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सपत्न्या तु &lt;strong&gt;गरः&lt;/strong&gt; तस्यैः दत्तो गर्भ जिघांसया |&#xA;  सह तेन &lt;strong&gt;गरेण&lt;/strong&gt; एव संजातः &lt;strong&gt;सगरोइ&lt;/strong&gt; अभवत् || १-७०-३७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;37.&#xA;  sapatnyaa = by co-wife; tasyaiH = to her; garbha jighaamsayaa = for womb, ruination [for abortion]; &lt;strong&gt;garaH&lt;/strong&gt; dattaH = &lt;strong&gt;poison&lt;/strong&gt;, given; tena &lt;strong&gt;gareNa&lt;/strong&gt; saha samjaataH = with that, &lt;strong&gt;poison&lt;/strong&gt;, along with, who took birth; hence he; &lt;strong&gt;sagaraH&lt;/strong&gt; abhavat = &lt;strong&gt;Sagara&lt;/strong&gt;, became.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Because &lt;strong&gt;he took birth along with the poison administered to his mother&lt;/strong&gt; by her co-wife, &lt;strong&gt;he became Sagara&lt;/strong&gt;, the emperor...&quot; [1-70-37]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga70/bala_70_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the parable of Sagara's life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are a series of verses in the Sundara Kanda where the ocean god thinks that he should help the messenger of Rama, who is a descendent of Ikshvaku dynasty. It is because he was formed by a deed of King Sagara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga1/sundara_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Sundarakanda, Ch. 1&lt;/a&gt;, sāgara, the ocean says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While that best among vanaras, Hanuma, was flying, the god of ocean thought thus for the respect of Ikshvaaku dynasty: &quot;If I do not help this best among vanaras Hanuma, I shall become prone to all kinds of ill-talk by those who want to speak against me. &lt;strong&gt;I was developed by Sagara of Ikshvaaku dynasty&lt;/strong&gt;. This Hanuma who is helping a descendant of that dynasty should not become tired. I have to behave in such a way that Hanuma would take rest. After resting in me for a while, He can cross the remaining distance with comfort&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In chapter 31, Yuddhakanda of Valmiki Ramayana, Vibhishana suggests the same. The Vanaras ask Vibhishana a strategy to cross the mighty ocean. Then:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing their words, the right minded Vibhishana replied as follows:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &quot;It is apt if prince Rama seeks ocean as his refuge. &lt;strong&gt;This immeasurable great ocean was excavated by Sagara&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, this great ocean will be inclined to do the act for Rama, his kinsman&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is mentioned in Goswami Tulasidas' Ramcharitamanas too. See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.upsbdb.org/pdf/Souvenir2012/ch-21.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further reference is found in the Brahma Purana chapter 8 about Sāgara named after the king Sagara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रादाच्च तस्मै भगवन्हरिर्नारयणो वरम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    त्प्रक्षयं वंशमिक्ष्वाकोः कीर्तिं चाप्यनिवर्तिनीम् || ५८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पुत्रं समुद्रं च विभुः&lt;/strong&gt; स्वर्गे वासं तथाक्षयं |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    समुद्राश्चार्घमादाय ववन्दे तं महीपतिम् || ५९ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Hari, Narayana granted him(Sagara) the boon that Ikshvāku's race will be everlasting and they would have unreceding fame. &lt;strong&gt;The lord said that the ocean will be known as his son&lt;/strong&gt; and his residence in the heavenly world would be everlasting. Taking Arghya unto him ocean saluted the monarch. [58-59]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is the ocean (sāgara) named after King Sagara or is it the other way round?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above references prove that the ocean (Sāgara) is named after the Ikshvāku king Sagara and not the other way round.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T07:30:46.020" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T07:30:46.020" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16325" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-13T04:24:38.353" Score="4" ViewCount="283" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was the most favorite student of Dronacharya. Did Ashwatthama had the same type of relationship with Arjuna or was favorable to Kauravas and Duryodhana? I heard both versions. What does the Vyasa Mahabharata say about this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Feel free to quote translations of MB in regional texts but not interpolations and baseless folklores.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-01-04T09:36:55.750" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T09:36:55.750" Title="How was the relationship between Ashwatthama and Arjuna?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|ashwatthama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16326" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16332" CreationDate="2016-12-13T05:22:08.457" Score="10" ViewCount="2138" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna told us to surrender to him and do our duties for him and not for dharma and adharma and if we do it (for dharma or adharma) we will take rebirth to take the effects of good deed or bad deed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My question&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a man&lt;sup&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; provides food to another who's starving, only to help that person, then, will it be considered dharma? And because it's dharma will he take rebirth just because of that (good) action?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Assume the man is not aware of any scriptures and is uneducated and does not know about moksha or anything but he shows affection towards others and helps them without knowing about punya or papa, then will he ever attain moksha?&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-13T17:03:07.283" LastActivityDate="2016-12-29T18:20:53.607" Title="Do we take rebirth if we help others?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|dharma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16327" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20612" CreationDate="2016-12-13T05:36:25.480" Score="7" ViewCount="6553" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question 1&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Did Lord Rama really use the Brahmastra on Ravana to kill him?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If he did use it, then, Ravana's entire body should have turned to ashes. It would have even created a major natural disaster in the sky and on land as Brahmastra's power is just too great. But Ravana's body was still there. Lakshmana and the entire army was safe too and Lord Rama's chariot was not scratched a tiny bit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question 2&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If Lord Rama used the Brahmastra then Ravana would have been fully aware of it then why didn't Ravana launch his own Brahmastra to counter it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-14T03:41:41.610" LastActivityDate="2018-05-02T04:17:15.503" Title="If Rama used Brahmastra on Ravana, why didn't Ravana turn to ashes?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ravana|weapon|brahmastra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16329" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16321" CreationDate="2016-12-13T05:40:53.923" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; &quot;I have been offering my own creation to Shiva for the last several years.&quot; &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are not offering your own creation. The whole creation which we see and perceive is just apparent modification of Brahman and is characterized by name and form (Nãma Rupa). I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11529/i-want-scripture-based-explanation-for-god-is-everywhere/15705#15705&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;answer here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; that everything is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the offerings also Bhagvad Gita states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मार्पणं ब्रह्म हविर्ब्रह्माग्नौ ब्रह्मणा हुतम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्रह्मैव तेन गन्तव्यं ब्रह्मकर्मसमाधिना || 24|| &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 4.24: For those who are completely absorbed in God-consciousness, &lt;strong&gt;the oblation is Brahman, the ladle with which it is offered is Brahman, the act of offering is Brahman, and the sacrificial fire is also Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; Such persons, who view everything as God, easily attain him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, you are not giving your own creation to Shiva. You are just offering Brahman to Brahman and that act of offering is also Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-12-13T05:40:53.923" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16330" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9110" CreationDate="2016-12-13T06:02:58.867" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Asura birth and their characters are only due to previous bad karma and if one asura or rakshasa can be in a good way their birth decides their situation not their actions, their actions are of free will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EXAMPLE : As Ravana was a brahmin he was in a pious situation by birth but he decided with his actions to be not in a righteous path. &#xA;Hiranyakasupu was a king of asura with bad control over other life forms and his son Prahalada a born asura  was a righteous one. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-13T08:30:43.967" LastActivityDate="2016-12-13T08:30:43.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16331" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16244" CreationDate="2016-12-13T06:21:41.873" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma is describing about the King Janamejaya who was the son of Parikshit. It looks like Lord Brahma is describing incidents of some previous iteration of Mahabharata. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a149.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section CL&lt;/a&gt;, Bhishma has described an incident where Janamejaya was found guilty of killing a Brahmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[भ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अत्र ते वर्णयिष्ये ऽहम इतिहासं पुरातनम|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इन्द्रॊतः शौनकॊ विप्रॊ यद आह जनमेजयम||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आसीद राजा महावीर्यः पारिक्षिज जनमेजयः|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अबुद्धि पूर्वं बरह्महत्या तम आगच्छन महीपतिम||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Bhishma said, 'I shall in this connection recite to thee the old narrative, applauded by the Rishis, of what the regenerate Indrota, the son of Sunaka, said unto Janamejaya. There was in days of yore, a king possessed of great energy, called &lt;strong&gt;Janamejaya, who was the son of Parikshit. That lord of earth on one occasion, from want of judgment became guilty of killing a Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Though it is not explicitly mentioned that, Janamejaya had killed brahmana woman.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2016-12-14T14:13:23.730" LastActivityDate="2016-12-14T14:13:23.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16332" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16326" CreationDate="2016-12-13T06:49:47.300" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let's apply superposition theory. Imagine that in your life only this Karma will decide, whether you will take rebirth or not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Karma&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If someone is starving for the food and then,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You offer food thinking that &quot;I did good job of fulfilling hunger.&quot;, then you may take rebirth to 'enjoy' the result of such good deed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You don't offer food &amp;amp; are aware that &quot;I didn't help him, even if I could.&quot;, then you may take rebirth to 'enjoy' the result of that bad deed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's assume that, above are the only 2 possibilities. Apparently the 1st seems Dharma and 2nd one seems Adharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;BTW, we cannot say if it's &lt;em&gt;Dharma/Adharma&lt;/em&gt;, just based on this much information. For example, what if you know that the starving person is a terrorist, or the person is starving with his/her own whims, or the person may throw the food due to mental instability.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to avoid rebirth?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By observing &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16190/1049&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; in &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Suppose, as a witness you are aware that,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;'[Your] body with senses, helped or didn't help another [poor's] body with senses.'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In such case, you haven't related yourself with your own mind + senses. But gone beyond mind + senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In such case you may not have rebirth. As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15356/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, a new body attracts, mind + senses to return. But you are neither of them, hence no return!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also called &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;NishkarmatA&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.27 — All actions (karma-s) are enacted in Prakruti by [3] modes. Bewildered with ego, Self (Atma) believes &quot;I am the doer&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 5.8, 5.9 — &quot;I certainly don't do anything&quot; is believed by knower of fundamentals; Even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, dreaming, breathing, talking, discarding, accepting, opening, closing -- &quot;Senses only are acting in the subjects of senses&quot; - is understood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But aren't there so many previous (&lt;em&gt;sanchita&lt;/em&gt;) Karma-s, which we have to pass through?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;No, that is the &lt;strong&gt;power of knowledge or realisation&lt;/strong&gt;. The moment one fully realises: &quot;I am not the actor&quot;, it becomes free from the bondage, whether it's living (&lt;em&gt;jeevan mukta&lt;/em&gt;) or dead (&lt;em&gt;nirvAna&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 4.36-37 — Even if you be the worst sinner among all sinners, still &lt;strong&gt;you will cross over all the wickedness with the raft of Knowledge alone&lt;/strong&gt;. O Arjuna, as a blazing fire reduces pieces of wood to ashes, similarly the fire of Knowledge reduces all Karma-s (actions) to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-12-13T11:53:54.823" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16333" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16326" CreationDate="2016-12-13T08:37:19.223" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My question is: if we help a one who is starving for food, only to help then it will be a dharma? If we do it will we take rebirth?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It depends on your intention actually.Whether you are doing the Punya karma(of feeding the starved and needy) to reap the benefits of it.Or if you are doing it without any desire for the fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what the Manu Smriti says in this regard:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.88. The acts prescribed by the Veda are of two kinds, such as procure an increase of happiness and cause a continuation (of mundane&#xA;  existence, pravritta), &lt;strong&gt;and such as ensure supreme bliss and cause a&#xA;  cessation (of mundane existence, nivritta)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.89. Acts which secure (the fulfilment of) wishes in this world or in the next are called pravritta (such as cause a continuation of&#xA;  mundane existence); &lt;strong&gt;but acts performed without any desire (for a&#xA;  reward),&lt;/strong&gt; preceded by (the acquisition) of (true) knowledge, &lt;strong&gt;are&#xA;  declared to be nivritta (such as cause the cessation of mundane&#xA;  existence).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PSc91.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PSc91.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.90. He who sedulously performs acts leading to future births (pravritta) becomes equal to the gods; &lt;strong&gt;but he who is intent on the&#xA;  performance of those causing the cessation (of existence, nivritta)&#xA;  indeed, passes beyond (the reach of) the five elements.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,if your act of feeding the poor is without any such longings for the fruits of it &lt;strong&gt;then that act will not be responsible for any future births.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As,you can see,from the verse above,such acts cause the cessation mundane existence ,&lt;strong&gt;that is no rebirths result due to the performance of such acts.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand,if the act was done keeping in view the fruits in mind,then you will surely need more births to reap those benefits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-13T15:15:17.133" LastActivityDate="2016-12-13T15:15:17.133" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16334" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8997" CreationDate="2016-12-13T10:04:05.093" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Very interesting conversation. My humble view added on couple of points in the above conversation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Destroying Jayadratha didn't necessarily call for special powers. In fact Jayadratha himself didn't believe he seriously stood a chance against Arjuna. The moment Arjuna's vow came to his knowledge, he decided to flee and go into hiding. Duryodhana saw an opportunity to trap Arjuna, since Arjuna was bound to kill himself if he didn't succeed in killing Jayadratha by evening, so he persuaded Jayadratha to stay back and assured him of utmost protection. The battle on that evening became tough because Jayadratha was hidden behind ranks and ranks of army that made it almost unassailable to get closer to him. It wasn't because of his invincibility or anything of that sort. It's precisely to bring him out out of cover and expose himself that Krishna deployed his will to temporarily conceal sunlight on that evening. Technically, there was no compelling need to use special weapons especially ones like Pasupathastra on Jayadratha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is possible to argue that it could have been reserved for Karna, who was the ultimate challenge for Arjuna. Again, Krishna Bhagawan knew that there were several factors working against Karna and those would eventually conspire against him, which was not a common knowledge for others. Krishna was only worried about Sakthi Ayudha, which by circumstances were used against Ghatotkacha. According to Mahabharat, when Ghatotkacha was hit by Karna's special weapon (which he was allowed to use only once), Krishna apparently smiled and gave a happy reaction which annoyed Bhima. Of course, nobody at that time would have understood what caused a relief that made Krishna to smile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8446" LastActivityDate="2016-12-13T10:04:05.093" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16335" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16320" CreationDate="2016-12-13T11:07:42.560" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;King sagara's sons dug up the earth to create oceans. For the search operation of the Horse in his &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Ashvamedh Yagna&lt;/strong&gt;.This is also described in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagavat Purana. (Skandha 9 Chapter 8 Gita press version) Sagar Charitra&lt;/strong&gt; .King Sagar was said to be son of &quot;Bahuka&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सगरश्चक्रवर्त्यासीत सागरो यत्सुतै: कृतः&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt; यस्तालजंङ्गन यवनाञ्चकान हैहयबर्बरान॥5॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sagaraś cakravarty āsīt sāgaro yat-sutaiḥ kṛtaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; yas tālajaṅghān yavanāñ chakān haihaya-barbarān&lt;br&gt;  &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; -King Sagar was Chakrawarti King.His sons dug up the earth to creat ocean.He obeyed his gurudeva's (auvra) order of not to kill&#xA;  people from &quot;Yawan ,Shaka ,Haihaya &amp;amp; Barbar&quot; race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वृद्वम तं पश्चतां प्राप्तं महिष्यनु मारिष्यति ।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;और्वेण जानताss&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;त्मानं प्रजावन्तम निवारिता॥3॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vṛddhaṁ taṁ pañcatāṁ prāptaṁ mahiṣy anumariṣyatī  aurveṇa&#xA;  jānatātmānaṁ prajāvantaṁ nivāritā&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; -After retiring to forest Bahuka died of old age.When his&#xA;  wife was about     to  enter into fire (sati) , knowing she is&#xA;  pregnant Maharshi Aurva stoped     her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अज्ञायास्यै सपत्नीभिर्गरो दत्तोsन्धसा सह।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;सह तेनैव संजात: सगराख्यो&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;महायशा:॥4॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ājñāyāsyai sapatnībhir garo datto ’ndhasā saha saha tenaiva sañjātaḥ&#xA;  sagarākhyo mahā-yaśāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;- When Bhauka's other wives came to know about this ,they gave poison to her from food.But the &lt;strong&gt;child was born with the poison.So&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;by born with poison (gar गर in sanskrit) , his name became &quot;Sagar&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;(sa=with , gar=poison)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;अंशुमांरश्चोदितो राज्ञा तुरङ्गन्वेषणे ययौ ।&lt;br&gt; पितृव्यखातानुपथं भस्मन्ति ददृशे हयम ॥20॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;- Then by order of King Sagar  &lt;strong&gt;Anshuman set out to search for the Horse He searched the oceans dug up by his uncles&lt;/strong&gt;.Then he&#xA;  saw the horse near the pile of ash of his ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This passage from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp095.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; gives us the same story here is the excerpt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This prince was vanquished by the tribes of Haihayas and&#xA;  Tálajanghas anti his country was overrun by them; in consequence of&#xA;  which he fled into the forests with his wives. One of these was&#xA;  pregnant, and being an &lt;strong&gt;object of jealousy to a rival queen, the&#xA;  latter gave her poison to prevent her delivery.&lt;/strong&gt; The poison had the&#xA;  effect of confining the child in the womb for seven years. &lt;strong&gt;Báhu&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  having waxed old, died in the neighbourhood of the residence of the&#xA;  Muni Aurva. His queen having constructed his pile, ascended it with&#xA;  the determination of accompanying him in death; but the &lt;strong&gt;sage&#xA;  Aurva&lt;/strong&gt;, who knew all things, past, present, and to come, issued forth&#xA;  from his hermitage, and forbade her, saying, &quot;Hold! hold! this is&#xA;  unrighteous; a valiant prince, the monarch of many realms, the The&#xA;  sage then conducted, her to his abode, and after some time a very&#xA;  splendid boy was there born. Along with him the poison that had been&#xA;  given to his mother was expelled; and Aurva, after performing the&#xA;  ceremonies required at birth, &lt;strong&gt;gave him on that account the name of&#xA;  Sagara (from Sa, 'with,' and Gara, 'poison')&lt;/strong&gt;. The same holy sage&#xA;  celebrated his investure with the cord of his class, instructed him&#xA;  fully in the Vedas, and taught him the use of arms, especially those&#xA;  of fire, called after Bhárgava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Yes , the ocean's ( Sagar सागर ) is named after the king Sagar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt; - On  Vedbase site it's not mentioned of King sagar was Chakravarti &amp;amp; his sons dug up the earth. So quoting from Gita Press version.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-14T04:09:38.527" LastActivityDate="2016-12-14T04:09:38.527" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16336" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16326" CreationDate="2016-12-13T11:26:35.670" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q.&lt;/strong&gt; If a man provides food to another who's starving, only to help that person, then, will it be considered dharma? And because it's dharma will he take rebirth just because of that (good) action?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes it will be Dharma and rebirth does't depends only on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to know different paths to Moksha, then visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2179/277&quot;&gt;How many distinct independent paths are there to achieve Moksha?&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;br&gt;Also &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2392/277&quot;&gt;How can one know which path among karma, bhakti and jnana is suitable for him?&lt;/a&gt; can be useful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one do such Karma thinking that it will give him higher benefit, it will not lead to Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Mundaka Upanishad (1.2):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इष्टापूर्तं मन्यमाना वरिष्ठं नान्यच्छ्रेयो वेदयन्ते प्रमूढाः । &lt;br&gt;नाकस्य पृष्ठे ते सुकृतेऽनुभूत्वेमं लोकं हीनतरं वा विशन्ति ॥ १०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ignorant fools, &lt;strong&gt;regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as the highest&lt;/strong&gt;, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, &lt;strong&gt;they enter again this world or a lower one&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Chhandogya Upanishd (5.10):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथ य इमे ग्राम &lt;strong&gt;इष्टापूर्ते दत्तमित्युपासते&lt;/strong&gt; ते धूममभिसंभवन्ति धूमाद्रात्रिꣳ रात्रेरपरपक्षमपरपक्षाद्यान्षड्दक्षिणैति मासाꣳस्ता&lt;strong&gt;न्नैते संवत्सरमभिप्राप्नुवन्ति&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ ५.१०.३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;But &lt;strong&gt;those who, living in the village, perform sacrifices,  undertake works of public utility and give alms&lt;/strong&gt; go to smoke,  from smoke to night, from night to the dark half of the moon,  from the dark half of the moon to the six months during which  the sun goes to the south. &lt;strong&gt;But they do not reach the year&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, helping others is considered as Datta Karma or fall under the category of Ishta, Purta and Datta Karma. Now those who do these type of Karma reaches to higher lokas but didn't attain Moksha or liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the higher Lokas except Brahma Loka, are subjected to circumgyration/reparation (birth-rebirth)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: Read Khanda 3 of Aadhyaya 6 of Chhandogya Upanishd to know and understand various paths followed by death.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, performing &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; Ishta, Purta and Datta Karma is not &lt;strong&gt;enough&lt;/strong&gt; and will &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; lead you to &lt;strong&gt;Moksha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But&lt;/strong&gt; if one doesn't expect the fruit of his Karma - In other words, If one do this as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishkam_Karma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nishkama Karma&lt;/a&gt;, then such &lt;strong&gt;Nishkam Karma&lt;/strong&gt; will &lt;strong&gt;not bind&lt;/strong&gt; him. And if one do &lt;em&gt;all&lt;/em&gt; Karma  Nishkama, it will &lt;strong&gt;lead to Moksha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why it is suggested to do such karma without attachment by Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एतान्यपि तु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा फलानि च । कर्तव्यानीति मे पार्थ निश्चितं मतमुत्तमम् ॥ १८-६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence these acts of sacrifice, charity and penance, and all other acts of duty too, &lt;strong&gt;must be performed without attachment and expectation of reward&lt;/strong&gt; : this is My well-considered and supreme verdict, Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-13T18:18:32.460" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16337" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15924" CreationDate="2016-12-13T11:42:30.047" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita was rendered by none other than Bhagavan himself. In Hindu culture, thousands of years ago, we already had the concept of working like Wikipedia. The ultimate knowledge is known only to people who were self-realized, who used to be known as Rishis. The seers, who experienced ultimate knowledge and decided to share it in some form left behind the scriptures and works for the larger benefit of humanity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Viewed in that sense, Hindus are not guided by any one scripture and the treasure of knowledge is mind-blowing to say the least. The unique distinction of Bhagavad Gita is that it was rendered by none other than an avatar of Narayana himself and as Swami Vivekananda himself explains, ordinary humans in today's age cannot fathom how someone like Krishna lived and walked on earth. He was a super human personality that inspires awe to this age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna paramatma spelt out Gita in a battle context and therefore it took a certain form and shape. The principles enunciated by Gita re-inforce the messages earlier laid out in Vedas and Upanishads and helps understand them deeper. However, it's not possible to understand the true meaning and depth in one reading and perhaps through one translation. It takes dedication and humbleness to understand the nuances of what Krishna says.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8446" LastActivityDate="2016-12-13T11:42:30.047" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16338" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16354" CreationDate="2016-12-13T13:03:13.307" Score="6" ViewCount="4567" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard many people saying Nagamani is obtained from  a naga type of snake and my questions are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)  What are the rules for a snake to give nagamani? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) What happens when the snake spits the nagamani out of its hood?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Is there a original nagamani in the world ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.occulttreasures.com/cobra_pearl.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Most People believe Naga Mani Generally forms in the hood of a cobra&#xA;  or king cobra. Actually it is not formed in the poison gland., but the&#xA;  higher cobra spirit of Naga Loka, chooses one highly special,&#xA;  spiritual and magical stone for itself. One is very lucky to get such&#xA;  a unusual gem of Naga Loka. Naga Mutya or Naga Manikya stone is&#xA;  blessing of Naga gods&lt;/strong&gt;. It blesses one with the magical fortune and&#xA;  good luck. &lt;strong&gt;The snake god which hold this pearl belong to Vasuki race&#xA;  according to Bruhat Samhita of the great Varaha Mihira&lt;/strong&gt;. This mani&#xA;  creates magic in your life. This rare magical item is only the wealth&#xA;  of Naga Loka. Naga Land, India, is the only place on earth which has&#xA;  relation with Naga Loka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A state of India known as Nagaland is famous for this Mani. Sometimes&#xA;  we come across normal stones in forest which is a Naga Mani. &lt;strong&gt;An expert&#xA;  shaman only acquire it by spiritual vision. No body can get it by&#xA;  killing a cobra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maha Naga Mani: Anyone possessing such a Naga Mani or cobra stone&#xA;  attains piety, rare good fortune, and eventually becomes illustrious&#xA;  as a leader of men, complete with a great collection of all precious&#xA;  gems. King Vikramaditya, Raja Bhoj, King Solomon and many other Indian&#xA;  kings, possessed such a precious treasure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question 4-In which Hindu Scripture do we find more details regarding these Nagamanis or Cobra Pearl?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-02-16T11:30:16.377" LastActivityDate="2020-09-29T04:56:35.387" Title="Which Hindu Scriptures provides knowledge about Nagamani(Cobra Pearl)?" Tags="|naga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16339" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16326" CreationDate="2016-12-13T13:41:38.020" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is hubris to think that one can help another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Only Ishvara can help&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore, O dear one! Give up your infatuation born of ignorance,&#xA;  which makes you feel worried, thinking – how will these helpless people&#xA;  get without me? To think that one can save or protect another while&#xA;  one’s own body, subject to the power of time, karma and guna, is&#xA;  decaying, is like a person in the grip of a python thinking of saving&#xA;  another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana I.13.44-45&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One is allowed to serve (not help) others in the spirit of nishkama karma. So the question is how one can avoid rebirth. One has to attain moksha to avoid rebirth. What is the requirement for moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As for the Yogi striving diligently, &lt;strong&gt;he is cleansed of all sins and&#xA;  gains spiritual perfection&lt;/strong&gt; after passing trough several embodiments.&#xA;  Finally he reaches the highest state (which consists in release from&#xA;  the bondage of the body.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 6.45&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita lays down the need to attain spiritual or moral perfection to attain the highest state or moksha. Those who try to attain spiritual perfection by doing nishkama karma are called karma yogi. Just serving others will lead to heaven. You can avoid rebirth only if your service leads you to moral and spiritual perfection. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-12-13T13:41:38.020" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16340" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7130" CreationDate="2016-12-13T17:20:57.367" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashrama_(stage)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashrama&lt;/a&gt; system, there are four Ashrama which are Brahmacharya, Grihashta, Vanaprashtha and Sanyasa. The Karma Kanda part of Veda i.e Brahmanas are meant for Grihashta whereas Jnana Kanda part of Veda i.e Upanishads are meant for Sanyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The primary topic of Brahmanas (Karma Kanda) are - Yajna and rituals. And the primary topic of Upanishads (Jnana Kanda) are: Spirituality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, &lt;strong&gt;Aaranyaka is considered as bridge from Brahmanas to Upanishads.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Brahmanas, the concentration is on Yajna. &lt;strong&gt;Aaranyaka introduces subtle thinking in (inner) Yajna-Anushthan and leads towards spiritual angle rather than that of  Sakama Karma in (outer) Yajna-Anushthan. This helps in Vanaprashtha Ashram to lift from bondage of Samsara and provides spiritual preaches.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The spiritual philosophy we found in Upanishads are actually started/initialized in Aarnyakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prana Vidya and Pratik Upasana are prime theme of Aaranyaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, according to the topic/theme of Aaranyaka (bridge between Brahmanas and Upanishads), &lt;strong&gt;it is meant for Vanaprashtha Ashram&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When one comes out from social responsibilities, he is introduced the true sense of (inner or subtle) Yajna and preached the various Upasanas so as to lead to Upanishads. Also note that Brahmacharya is also expected for reading Aaranyaka which differs from Grihashta Ashrama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Outer Yajna means Dravya Yajna performed by things or objects to fullfil physical desires whereas Inner Yajna means Subtle Yajna performed by mind and intellect to improve spiritual level.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-13T17:37:29.480" LastActivityDate="2016-12-13T17:37:29.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16341" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16342" CreationDate="2016-12-13T18:34:37.580" Score="3" ViewCount="514" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Valmiki Ramayana mentions about SKandha, when Viswamitra narrates about it to Rama and Lakshmana.&#xA;By chance do Kamban Ramayana make similiar mention either in the same context  or in another context.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8028" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-13T19:23:22.103" LastActivityDate="2018-11-13T00:29:11.040" Title="Does Kamban's Ramayana make mention of Skandha Purana?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16342" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16341" CreationDate="2016-12-14T01:24:07.560" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you are referring to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga37/balasans37.htm#Verse27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;these two verses&lt;/a&gt; from Bāla-kāṇḍa of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa where Viśvāmitra is narrating the descent of Gaṅgā to Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although I'm not sure what you mean by &quot;mention of Skanda Purāṇa&quot;. Why will Rāmāyaṇa mention or reference a Purāṇa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स्कंद&lt;/strong&gt; इति अब्रुवन् देवाः स्कन्नम् गर्भ परिस्रवात् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;कार्तिकेयम्&lt;/strong&gt; महाबाहुम् काकुत्स्थ ज्वलन उपमम् || १-३७-२७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;27.&#xA;  kaakutstha = oh, Rama of Kakutstha; jvalana upamam = flare of fire, similar to - glow; mahaa baahum = ambidextrous; garbha parisravaat skannam = from womb's, secretions, who slid down; such a; kaartikeyam = &lt;strong&gt;Kaartikeya&lt;/strong&gt; - is called; devaaH = gods; skanda iti abruvan = &lt;strong&gt;Skanda&lt;/strong&gt;, thus, they called him - in its lexical meaning - &lt;strong&gt;to slid&lt;/strong&gt;, who glissaded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And gods called that boy, oh, Rama of Kakutstha, whose glow is like that of flaring fire and who is ambidextrous as '&lt;strong&gt;Skanda&lt;/strong&gt;' for he slid down from the secretions of a womb. [1-37-27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रादुर्भूतम् ततः क्षीरम् कृत्तिकानाम् अनुत्तमम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  षण्णाम् षड् आननो भूत्वा जग्राह स्तनजम् पयः || १-३७-२८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then an unexcelled milk instantly came forth from the breasts of the six Krittika-stars, and becoming a six-faced one that boy too sucked that milk from the six Krittika-stars at the same time. [1-37-28]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the English translation of Kamba Rāmāyaṇa (by P.R. Ramachander) &lt;a href=&quot;http://englishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. I &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/search?q=skanda%20OR%20skandha%20OR%20karthikeya%20site%3Aenglishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com&amp;amp;oq=skanda%20OR%20skandha%20OR%20karthikeya%20site%3Aenglishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com&amp;amp;aqs=chrome..69i57.296j0j1&amp;amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;amp;ie=UTF-8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;did not find&lt;/a&gt; a single reference to 'Skanda' on that &lt;a href=&quot;http://englishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt;. Although there are couple of references to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/search?q=skanda%20OR%20skandha%20OR%20karthikeya%20site%3Aenglishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com&amp;amp;oq=skanda%20OR%20skandha%20OR%20karthikeya%20site%3Aenglishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com&amp;amp;aqs=chrome..69i57.296j0j1&amp;amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;amp;ie=UTF-8#q=Subramanya%20OR%20Subrahmanya%20site:englishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Subramanya&lt;/a&gt;. One such &lt;a href=&quot;http://englishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com/2014/08/kamba-ramayanam-kishkinda-kandam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mention&lt;/a&gt; is in the conversation between Hanumān (disguised as a brāhmaṇa) and Rāma from Kiṣkindhā-kāṇḍa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Hanumān says to Rāma]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3774.&#xA;  Since you are the Lord who has the power of creation, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Of the devas who do not blink their eyes to beings, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Which are fixed as well as moving &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;And have the capacity of protecting &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;The three types of seven worlds, it is easy to tell for us that you would protect,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Only us  as  we who seek protection from you who are like &lt;strong&gt;Lord Subramanya&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;And is there any other better benefit that would come to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;The translator is equally amazed at why Kamban has left out the birth story of Kārtikeya from his work. He &lt;a href=&quot;http://englishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com/2014/04/kamba-ramayanam-bala-kandam-padalam-8-10.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;writes&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kamba Ramayanam – Bala Kandam – Padalam 8-10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.&#xA;  Velvi Padalam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The chapter on fire sacrifice&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(&lt;/strong&gt;This chapter tells how  sage Viswamithra gave divine arrows to Rama. Viswamithra tells the store of his forefathers and also  about his father Gadhi, his sister Kaushiki, the story of Mahabali and Vamana and tells him about Sidhasrama where Lord Vishnu did penance. Then Viswamithra starts the Yaga, after the sixth day the asuras come. Rama kills Subahu and throws out Mareecha in the sea and also kills lot of asuras. The Yaga is satisfactorily completed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Apart from these aspects the Valmiki Ramyana in detail tells the story of Ganga as well as the birth of Karthikeya. &lt;strong&gt;I am not able to tell why Kambar chose to leave out the story of Karthikeya, in spite of Karthikeya (Subrahmanya) being the main God of Tamil Nadu&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;strong&gt;)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;The translator also notes in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://englishkambaramayanam.blogspot.com/2014/04/kamba-ramayanam-introduction.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;introduction&lt;/a&gt; that Kamban condensed Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa to about 12,000 verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Without any doubt whatsoever, the story of Rama was popularized by the Ramayana written by Valmiki. This has been translated in to almost all the main languages in India. Kamban (who is supposed to have lived between 1180-1250 AD)  one of the greatest poets of Tamil Nadu translated it in to Tamil. He preferred to call it Ramavatharam (the incarnation of Rama). In this great job, he received the support of Thiruvennai nallur Chadayappa vallal, a great philanthropist who lived in Tamil Nadu at that time. Kamban who admired this Vallal mentions his name once in 1000 verses in his book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kamban did not do a literal translation of Valmiki Ramayana.  He condensed it a lot&lt;/strong&gt;, while adding  some portions of his own. While Valmiki's great epic consists of 24000  verses, &lt;strong&gt;Kamaban's translation only contains 12000 verses.&lt;/strong&gt; Though he adopted the six book (Kandam) concept of Valmiki, he has not adopted the sargam concept of  Valmiki. He has divided the Kandas in to Padalams and his Padalams are  not  direct translation of the Sargams of Valmiki. His book has only 123 Padalams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kamban also did not adopt the story of Valmiki verbatim and made changes to the story.&lt;/strong&gt; There is a folk story that the entire Kamba Ramayanam was written by Lord Ganesa as per his dictation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2016-12-14T08:13:49.770" LastActivityDate="2016-12-14T08:13:49.770" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16343" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16344" CreationDate="2016-12-14T04:44:44.303" Score="15" ViewCount="3424" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lakshmi is also called &lt;strong&gt;Sri&lt;/strong&gt;. Lakshmi personifies wealth, riches, beauty, happiness,&#xA;grace, charm and splendour. She was born from the churning of the primordial ocean &#xA;(Samudra manthan) and she chose Vishnu as her eternal consort and is the divine strength of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is - &lt;strong&gt;Why did Goddess Lakshmi choose Lord Vishnu as her consort ? Is there any specific reason for that &amp;amp; What was her criteria for the same?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-15T14:48:00.523" LastActivityDate="2017-04-15T14:48:00.523" Title="Why did Goddess Lakshmi choose Lord Vishnu as her consort?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16344" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16343" CreationDate="2016-12-14T05:52:57.857" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;After she emerges from the Churning of the Ocean, Lakshmi examines the Devas, Gandharvas, Asuras, etc., to find a suitable husband.  But she finds that they're all lacking in one or more good qualities, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/8/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Someone who has undergone &lt;strong&gt;great austerity&lt;/strong&gt; has not yet &lt;strong&gt;conquered anger&lt;/strong&gt;. Someone possesses &lt;strong&gt;knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;, but he has not &lt;strong&gt;conquered material desires&lt;/strong&gt;. Someone is a &lt;strong&gt;very great personality&lt;/strong&gt;, but he cannot &lt;strong&gt;conquer lusty desires&lt;/strong&gt;. Even a great personality depends on something else. How, then, can he be the &lt;strong&gt;supreme controller&lt;/strong&gt;?  Someone may possess &lt;strong&gt;full knowledge of religion&lt;/strong&gt; but still not be &lt;strong&gt;kind to all living entities&lt;/strong&gt;. In someone, whether human or demigod, there may be &lt;strong&gt;renunciation&lt;/strong&gt;, but that is not the cause of liberation. Someone may possess &lt;strong&gt;great power&lt;/strong&gt; and yet be unable to &lt;strong&gt;check the power of eternal time&lt;/strong&gt;. Someone else may have &lt;strong&gt;renounced attachment to the material world&lt;/strong&gt;, yet he cannot compare to the &lt;strong&gt;Supreme Personality of Godhead&lt;/strong&gt;. Therefore, no one is &lt;strong&gt;completely freed from the influence of the material modes of nature&lt;/strong&gt;.  Someone may have &lt;strong&gt;longevity&lt;/strong&gt; but not have &lt;strong&gt;auspiciousness&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;good behavior&lt;/strong&gt;. Someone may have both auspiciousness and good behavior, but the duration of his life is not fixed. Although such demigods as Lord Śiva have &lt;strong&gt;eternal life&lt;/strong&gt;, they have inauspicious habits like living in crematoriums. And even if others are well qualified in all respects, they are not devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So rejecting everyone else, she chooses Vishnu, since he's the only one in possession of all auspicious qualities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this way, after full deliberation, the goddess of fortune accepted Mukunda as her husband because although He is independent and not in want of her, He possesses &lt;strong&gt;all transcendental qualities and mystic powers and is therefore the most desirable&lt;/strong&gt;.Approaching the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the goddess of fortune placed upon His shoulders the garland of newly grown lotus flowers, which was surrounded by humming bumblebees searching for honey. Then, expecting to get a place on the bosom of the Lord, she remained standing by His side, her face smiling in shyness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, note that this is only the story of how Vyuha Vasudeva, the form of Vishnu who lies down in the ocean of milk, married the goddess Lakshmi who was born from the Churning of Vishnu.  But Para Vasudeva, the eternal Vishnu who dwells in Paramapadam, is married to an eternal Lakshmi.  (See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6923/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more information on these forms of Vishnu.  Para Vasudeva has two other wives, Bhu Devi and Nila Devi whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10773/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2016-12-14T05:52:57.857" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16346" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16348" CreationDate="2016-12-14T11:59:18.747" Score="6" ViewCount="365" Body="&lt;p&gt;If I worship or chant a mantra, is it considered contrition i.e., repentance for my sins or is contrition done differently?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do scriptures say about contrition? The right way to do it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard that in Shiva Purana, Narada abuses Lord Vishnu, so Vishnu tells him that incantation of Shiva's mantra can give him contrition (i.e., Shiva can pardon him for his sins).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if we perform incantation in mind or chant a mantra out loud, is it considered contrition the right way? If not, as per Hinduism, how should contrition be performed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fasting on an ekādaśī is different, here, I am only talking about incantation (chanting a mantra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-11T03:44:40.437" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T03:44:40.437" Title="How should contrition (repentance for sins) be performed?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|worship|shiva-purana|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16347" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9110" CreationDate="2016-12-14T12:28:31.957" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;While a layman uses the words &lt;strong&gt;Asura,Daitya ,Rakshasa&lt;/strong&gt; synonymously but there are differences between them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atleast ,as far as a Daitya and a Rakshasa are concerned there is quite a good amount of differences between the two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti, the oldest Dharma Shastra, describe everything in creation as manifestations of the 3 gunas(Triguna) viz-&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sattva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sattva&lt;/a&gt;,Rajas and Tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each of these 3 groups are further divided into three more sub-groups viz-Sattva1,Sattva2 and Sattva3 where Sattva3 is the lowest form of Sattva and Sattva1 the highest.Similarly,there are 3 sub-groups each for the groups Rajas and Tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,Manu describes the &lt;strong&gt;Rakshasas&lt;/strong&gt; as the belonging to &lt;strong&gt;Tamas1&lt;/strong&gt;.that is,the highest group among the Tamas category,where as a &lt;strong&gt;Daitya&lt;/strong&gt; is said to be belonging to the group &lt;strong&gt;Sattva3&lt;/strong&gt;,that is,the lowest sub-group belonging to Sattva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.41. But know this threefold course of transmigrations that depends on the (three) qualities (to be again) threefold, low, middling, and&#xA;  high, according to the particular nature of the acts and of the&#xA;  knowledge (of each man).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.42. Immovable (beings), insects, both small and great, fishes, snakes, and tortoises, cattle and wild animals, are the lowest&#xA;  conditions to which (the quality of) Darkness leads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.43. Elephants, horses, Sudras, and despicable barbarians, lions, tigers, and boars (are) the middling states, caused by (the quality&#xA;  of) Darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.44. Karanas, Suparnas and hypocrites, &lt;strong&gt;Rakshasas and Pisakas (belong to) the highest (rank of) conditions among those produced by Darkness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, darkness refers to tamas,goodness to sattva and activity to rajas.And highest rank of darkness refers to the group which i mentioned as Tamas1 and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.46. Kings and Kshatriyas, the domestic priests of kings, and those who delight in the warfare of disputations (constitute) the middling&#xA;  (rank of the) states caused by Activity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.47. The Gandharvas, the Guhyakas, and the servants of the gods, likewise the Apsarases, (belong all to) the highest (rank of)&#xA;  conditions produced by Activity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.48. Hermits, ascetics, Brahmanas, the crowds of the Vaimanika deities, the lunar mansions, &lt;strong&gt;and the Daityas (form) the first (and&#xA;  lowest rank of the) existences caused by Goodness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,Rakshasa bound by his nature will act in the mode of darkness whereas a Daitya is quite similar to the Brahmins,the Ascetics etc in terms of inherent qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,needless to say,&lt;strong&gt;Daityas can be very righteous and religious but not  the Rakshasas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When the Devas and Rakshasas have a common hereditary lineage does behavioral leaning really set them apart?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Manu's list the &lt;strong&gt;Devas&lt;/strong&gt; are put in the &lt;strong&gt;Sattva2&lt;/strong&gt; sub-group,that is,just one group above the group the Daityas belong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,there are as much differences between a Deva and a Daitya as are implied by such a positioning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.49. Sacrificers, the sages, &lt;strong&gt;the gods,&lt;/strong&gt; the Vedas, the heavenly lights, the years, the manes, and the Sadhyas &lt;strong&gt;(constitute) the second&#xA;  order of existences, caused by Goodness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kzhOf.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kzhOf.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion-&lt;/strong&gt; A Rakshasa live in the mode of darkness(tamas) and their acts are often Adharmic.But a Daitya and Deva are almost on the same level as far as inherent qualities(Gunas) are concerned.&lt;strong&gt;In short,unrighteousness may be inherent by default in the Rakshasas but not so in the Daityas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-14T12:40:38.547" LastActivityDate="2016-12-14T12:40:38.547" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16348" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16346" CreationDate="2016-12-14T12:56:43.907" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira says,’…a perpetrated sin is expiated by auspicious acts,&#xA;  by publishing it wildly, by repentance, by alms-giving, by penances,&#xA;  by trips to tirthas after renunciation of everything, &lt;strong&gt;by constant&#xA;  meditation&lt;/strong&gt; on the scriptures. Of all these, he that has practiced&#xA;  renunciation is believed to be incapable of committing sins anew. ‘&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section VII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worship, mantra japa and meditation done sincerely will be considered as contrition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-12-14T12:56:43.907" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16349" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-14T13:17:32.260" Score="4" ViewCount="531" Body="&lt;p&gt;A common problem faced in modern society is the question of buying a house vs. renting a house.  My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do Hindu scriptures recommend one to buy and live in their own house instead of renting one, or vice versa?  If so, what reasons do they give?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does Hindu scripture discuss whether the house one buys should be a new one or an old construction?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;See related &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/705&quot;&gt;meta&lt;/a&gt; question.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2017-04-23T11:23:43.087" Title="According to Hindu scriptures, should one buy a house or rent it?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16350" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-14T15:07:17.007" Score="2" ViewCount="208" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Balakanda, ChaturVimsha sarga, verses  8-9:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mansarovar is on Mt.Kailasa, and from Manasa sarovar flows a river close to Ayodhyapuri. Because this has originated from a lake, saraH, this is known as Sarayu.  And because it flows from Brahma's Lake it is a merited river.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The current Sarayu river looks like it comes from Rakshastal and not from manasa sarovar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also according to &lt;strong&gt;Matsyapurana, adhay 121, shlok 14-17:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Sarayu river flows west from Mansarovar&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the current sarayu river flows south from Rakshastal. So if this is the case, how can we say that the current Ayodhya is real? and where is Ayodhya? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note: I do not wish to offend anyone regarding my question. Our current thirthas are as holy regardless of their authenticity and I respect their location. Being a Hindu, I would never disrespect any thirth just because they do not match with shastras. Many thirthas have changed locations and this is why I try to find their original location. Sorry if I have offended anybody.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8302" LastEditorUserId="8302" LastEditDate="2016-12-15T08:07:15.150" LastActivityDate="2016-12-15T08:07:15.150" Title="Is Ayodhya's location true?" Tags="|ramayana|puranas|history|valmiki|rivers|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16351" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16352" CreationDate="2016-12-14T15:08:58.983" Score="6" ViewCount="2989" Body="&lt;p&gt;In mahabharatha Karna's &lt;em&gt;Kavacha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Kundalas&lt;/em&gt; made him invincible in   battle. &lt;br/&gt;&#xA; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kavacha &lt;em&gt;armour&lt;/em&gt; protecting his chest. &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In which way &lt;em&gt;kundalas&lt;/em&gt; protect him which are in his &lt;strong&gt;ears&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-12-27T09:11:52.230" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T00:19:57.093" Title="How can Kundala of Karna protect him in battle?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|history|karna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16352" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16351" CreationDate="2016-12-14T15:30:55.073" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's because Kavacha and Kundala of Karna contained Amrita in them as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03305.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Vana Parva of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereupon Kunti said, 'If, O dispeller of darkness, I obtain a son from thee, may he be furnished with a coat of mail and ear-rings, and may he be mighty-armed and endued with great strength!' Hearing these words of hers, Surya answered, 'O gentle maiden, thy son shall be mighty-armed and decked with ear-rings and a celestial coat of mail. &lt;strong&gt;And both his ear-rings and coat of mail will be made of Amrita,&lt;/strong&gt; and his coat will also be invulnerable.' Kunti then said, 'If the excellent mail and ear-rings of the son thou wilt beget on me, be, indeed, made of Amrita, then, O god, O worshipful deity, let thy purpose be fulfilled! May he be powerful, strong, energetic, and handsome, even like thee, and may he also be endued with virtue!' Surya then said, 'O princess, O excellent damsel, these ear-rings had been given to me by Aditi. O timid lady, I will bestow them, as also this excellent mail, on thy son!' Kunti then said, 'Very well, O worshipful one! If my son, O lord of light, become so, I will, as thou sayest, gratify thee!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As it was made up of Amrita, it would make Karnas body immortal until Kavacha/Kundala were attached to his body due to effect of Amrita. In this way Kundala also protected him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2016-12-14T17:04:14.873" LastActivityDate="2016-12-14T17:04:14.873" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16354" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16338" CreationDate="2016-12-14T17:59:38.880" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am providing the partial answer to your question no.4 - &amp;quot;In which Hindu Scripture we find more details regarding these Nagamanis or Cobra Pearl?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer to this question is found in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana.(Skanda 5 Chapter 24) SB 5.24: The Subterranean Heavenly Planets.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/24&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here &lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उपर्णितं भूमेर्यथासंनिवेशावस्थानमवनेरप्यधस्तात &lt;br&gt; सप्त भुविवरा&#xA;एकैकशो योजनायुता॥7॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beneath this earth are &lt;strong&gt;seven other planets, known as Atala, Vitala,&#xA;Sutala, Talātala, Mahātala, Rasātala and Pātāla.&lt;/strong&gt; I have already&#xA;explained the situation of the planetary systems of earth. The width&#xA;and length of the seven lower planetary systems are calculated to be&#xA;exactly the same as those of earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/24/7&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 5.24.7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यत्र ह वाव न भयमहोरात्रदिभि: कालविभागैरूपलक्ष्यते॥11॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Since there is no sunshine&lt;/strong&gt; in those subterranean planets, time is not divided into days and nights, and consequently fear produced by&#xA;time does not exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/24/11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 5.24.11&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;यत्र हि महाहिप्रवरशिरोणय: सर्वं तम: प्रबाधन्ते ॥12॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Many great serpents reside there with gems on their hoods, and the effulgence of these gems dissipates the darkness in all directions.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/24/12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 5.24.12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततोsधस्ता तत्पाताले नागलोकपतयो वासुकिप्रमुखा: शकन&#xA;शङ्खकुलिकमहाशंडख़श्वेतधञ्जय धृतराष्ट्रशंडख़चूडकम्बलाश्वतरदेवदत्तादयो&#xA;महाभोगिनो महमर्षा निवासन्ति येषामु ह वै पंश्चसप्तदशशतसहस्राशीर्षाणाम&#xA;फणासु  विरचिता &lt;strong&gt;महामणयो&lt;/strong&gt; रोचीष्णव पातालविवरतिमिरनिकरं स्वरोचिषा&#xA;विधमन्ति ॥31॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beneath Rasātala is another planetary system, known as Pātāla or&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Nāgaloka&lt;/strong&gt;, where there are many demoniac serpents, the masters of Nāgaloka, such as Śaṅkha, Kulika, Mahāśaṅkha, Śveta, Dhanañjaya,&#xA;Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Śaṅkhacūḍa, Kambala, Aśvatara and Devadatta. The chief&#xA;among them is &lt;strong&gt;Vāsuki&lt;/strong&gt;. They are all extremely angry, and &lt;strong&gt;they&#xA;have many, many hoods — some snakes five hoods, some seven, some ten,&#xA;others a hundred and others a thousand. These hoods are bedecked with&#xA;valuable gems, and the light emanating from the gems illuminates the&#xA;entire planetary system of bila-svarga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/24/31&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 5.24.31&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from above shlokas we come to know that those Nagas or great serpent's live under the earth's surface in different lokas .They possess the hoods upon which these gem's are found.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt; - I will also try to find answer's of other questions as well as description (if found)from scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-14T17:59:38.880" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16355" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-14T18:30:56.363" Score="7" ViewCount="372" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you can see below, Prabhupāda, in his purport to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 14.8&lt;/a&gt;, explains the &quot;mode of ignorance&quot; by citing a śloka from some scripture. Which scripture or 'literature' is he talking about?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 14.8&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tamas tv ajñāna-jaṁ viddhi &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mohanaṁ sarva-dehinām &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pramādālasya-nidrābhis &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tan nibadhnāti bhārata &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Synonyms: &#xA;  tamaḥ — the mode of ignorance; tu — but; ajñāna-jam — produced of ignorance; viddhi — know; mohanam — the delusion; sarva-dehinām — of all embodied beings; pramāda — with madness; ālasya — indolence; nidrābhiḥ — and sleep; tat — that; nibadhnāti — binds; bhārata — O son of Bharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: &#xA;  O son of Bharata, know that the mode of darkness, born of ignorance, is the delusion of all embodied living entities. The results of this mode are madness, indolence and sleep, which bind the conditioned soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purport: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this verse the speciﬁc application of the word tu is very signiﬁcant. This means that the mode of ignorance is a very peculiar qualiﬁcation of the embodied soul. The mode of ignorance is just the opposite of the mode of goodness. In the mode of goodness, by development of knowledge, one can understand what is what, but the mode of ignorance is just the opposite. Everyone under the spell of the mode of ignorance becomes mad, and a madman cannot understand what is what. Instead of making advancement, one becomes degraded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;deﬁnition of the mode of ignorance&lt;/strong&gt; is stated in the Vedic literature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vastu-yāthātmya-jñānāvarakaṁ viparyaya-jñāna-janakaṁ tamaḥ&lt;/strong&gt;: under the spell of ignorance, one cannot understand a thing as it is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For example, everyone can see that his grandfather has died and therefore he will also die; man is mortal. The children that he conceives will also die. So death is sure. Still, people are madly accumulating money and working very hard all day and night, not caring for the eternal spirit. This is madness. In their madness, they are very reluctant to make advancement in spiritual understanding. Such people are very lazy. When they are invited to associate for spiritual understanding, they are not much interested. They are not even active like the man who is controlled by the mode of passion. Thus another symptom of one embedded in the mode of ignorance is that he sleeps more than is required. Six hours of sleep is sufﬁcient, but a man in the mode of ignorance sleeps at least ten or twelve hours a day. Such a man appears to be always dejected and is addicted to intoxicants and sleeping. These are the symptoms of a person conditioned by the mode of ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-12-18T10:54:17.860" Title="BG 14.8 - What is the source of the scriptural definition of &quot;mode of ignorance&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|krishna|bhagavad-gita|upanishads|prabhupada|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16356" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-14T23:35:25.473" Score="6" ViewCount="792" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not sure if this is a relevant question for this site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is Tejasvi, a masculine or feminine term or name in Sanskrit?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any references from Hindu scripture or Sanskrit literature on how this word is used?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some websites say that Tejasvi is neutral, while, Tejasvee or Tejasvī (with a long I) is masculine and Tejasvini is feminine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any Sanskrit experts here who can answer the above question?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8464" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-15T00:13:50.313" LastActivityDate="2017-01-17T22:31:55.813" Title="Correct gender version of Sanskrit name तेजस्वी or tejasvī" Tags="|scripture|sanskrit|name|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16358" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16374" CreationDate="2016-12-15T03:08:50.823" Score="8" ViewCount="8445" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana, it is told that, Ravana, after performing many great penances, received powerful boons from Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva. It is also said that he was protected by Goddess Durga's blessings with which he defeated Sugriva, Lakshmana and even Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following question already asks what boons he received from Shiva:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14312/2995&quot;&gt;Boons given to Ravana by God Shiva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What boons did Ravana receive from Brahma?&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which boon gave him mystical powers and strength ?&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did he receive any boons from Goddess Durga too?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T10:12:31.903" Title="What boons did Ravana receive from Lord Brahma?" Tags="|ramayana|brahma|ravana|durga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16359" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16349" CreationDate="2016-12-15T04:47:56.460" Score="-3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Do Hindu scriptures recommend one to buy and live in their own house instead of renting one, or vice versa? If so, what reasons do they give? Does Hindu scripture discuss whether the house one buys should be a new one or an old construction?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anything of them&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If one's orientation is towards liberation from the material world, then whatever comes on the way, should be accepted by an illuminated person. Because ultimately whatever is done in the material world (all &lt;em&gt;loka&lt;/em&gt;-s / planes) doesn't matter.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not limited to home, but the one who doesn't show concern about any such matter -- is considered &lt;strong&gt;knowledgeable&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 13.8-12 - Humility, unpretentiousness, non-injury, for-bearance, sincerity, service of the teacher, cleanliness, steadiness, control of body and organs; Non-attachment with regard to objects of the senses, and also absence of egotism; seeing the evil in birth, death, old age, diseases and miseries; &lt;strong&gt;Non-attachment and absence of fondness with regard to children, wives, homes, etc.&lt;/strong&gt;, and constant equanimity of the mind with regard to the attainment of the desirable and the undesirable; And unwavering devotion to 'Me' with single minded concentration; inclination to repair into a clean place; lack of delight in a crowd of people; Steadfastness in the knowledge of the Self, contemplation on the Goal of the knowledge of Reality --- these are spoken of as Knowledge. Ignorance is that which is other than this.  &lt;sub&gt;(GambhirAnanda)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above doesn't mean that we should choose neither rented nor buying &amp;amp; stay in forest. It simply means that don't let such things dwell your consciousness into them for too long. Pay minimal attention they deserve and keep your mind free of thoughts. When one's mind is free of thoughts, that automatically means, one is engaged into devotion of supreme &lt;sub&gt;(Read Ramana Maharshi about 'thoughtlessness')&lt;/sub&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If complete free of mind is not possible then allow only those thoughts, where you see supreme. Such as one's job, parents, teacher or &quot;anything&quot;. It can even include children, wife, house etc. :-) But one should be seeing supreme in those.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When one acts in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Swadharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; [BG 18.47], the attachments don't bind easily. Below are few examples of how people decide their &lt;em&gt;Swadharma&lt;/em&gt; based on affordability:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Having own house &amp;amp; car might be part of American Dream. But predominantly in other developed nations such as Germany &amp;amp; Netherlands, people rent homes &amp;amp; rent cars, respectively.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Decide based on your workplace to avoid waste of time &amp;amp; resources.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A long term planner should buy a house for good of his/her own children &amp;amp; further generations&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A short term planner should rent a house to avoid big liabilities of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16283/1049&quot;&gt;loans&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; keep oneself free&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Note: According to me in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/706/1049&quot;&gt;same meta post&lt;/a&gt;, this Qn can be closed as either opinion based or off-topic. Hence to make my answer appear valid, I have taken liberty to edit the title of the Qn.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-04-22T15:14:08.723" LastActivityDate="2017-04-22T15:14:08.723" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16360" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-15T06:25:08.917" Score="12" ViewCount="8022" Body="&lt;p&gt;Great knowledgeable persons like Bhishma, Drona, Karna and others from Satya, Treta and Dwapara yugas &lt;strong&gt;didn't attain moksha&lt;/strong&gt;; they went only to heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since vedic knowledge and righteousness was widely spread in the previous yugas, people would have been fully aware of the path to liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How come knowledgeable persons like Bhishma, Drona and Karna lived a life knowing that the liberation is the life's goal and they didn't live according to it?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or is that they just didn't know that liberation is the goal of one's life?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-16T21:35:56.710" LastActivityDate="2020-11-04T11:54:37.603" Title="Why didn't Bhishma, Drona and Karna attain moksha? Why didn't they live with liberation as life's goal?" Tags="|mahabharata|moksha|karna|bhishma|dronacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16361" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16360" CreationDate="2016-12-15T07:13:15.697" Score="8" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;How come knowledged persons like bhisma,drona and karna lived a life knowing that the liberation is the life's goal and didn't live according to it&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among these, 2 were liberated (attained Moksha) according to scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Drona's liberation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:  Before being beheaded by Dhrishtadyumna, Drona engaged himself in &lt;em&gt;Kriya yoga&lt;/em&gt;, described in Gita (BG &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/4/29/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;4.29&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/5/27-28/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;5.27-28&lt;/a&gt;), and left his mortal body to attain the supreme. Here is another related post - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15878/1049&quot;&gt;What were the actions of the illustrious Dronacharya, immediately before quitting his material body?&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;As regards Drona himself, abandoning his weapons, he was then in a supremely tranquil state. Having said those words he had devoted himself to Yoga. Endued with great effulgence and possessed of high ascetic merit, &lt;strong&gt;he had fixed his heart on that Supreme and Ancient Being&lt;/strong&gt;, viz., Vishnu. Bending his face slightly down, and heaving his breast forward, and closing his eyes, and resting on the quality of goodness, and disposing his heart to contemplation, and thinking on the monosyllable Om, representing. Brahma, and remembering the puissant, supreme, and indestructible God of gods, the radiant Drona or high ascetic merit, the preceptor (of the Kurus and the Pandavas) repaired to heaven that is so difficult of being attained even by the pious. ... Only we five ... could see that glory of the wise Drona, devoted to Yoga, while passing out of the world. In fact, all human beings were unconscious of the fact that &lt;strong&gt;the preceptor attained to the supreme region of Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;, a region mysterious to the very gods, and one that is the highest of all.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhishma's liberation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:  Before leaving his own wounded body with arrows, Bhishma praised Krishna with full devotion. Constantly engaged &amp;amp; concentrated in Krishna's consciousness, Bhishma left his mortal body. According to Gita, BG 8.5 - &amp;quot;those who die thinking of only 'Me', attain 'My' nature&amp;quot;. Hence Bhishma also attained Moksha with the path of &lt;em&gt;DhyAna&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Having uttered these words, &lt;strong&gt;Bhishma, with mind concentrated upon Krishna, said, 'Salutations to Krishna!'&lt;/strong&gt; and bowed unto him. Learning by his Yoga prowess of the devotion of Bhishma, Madhava, otherwise called Hari, [entering his body] bestowed upon him heavenly knowledge compassing the Past, the Present, and the Future, and went away. When Bhishma became silent, those utterers of Brahma (that sat around him), with voices choked in tears, adored that high-souled chief of the Kurus in excellent words.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6988/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, which explains on how Bhishma waited till the right fortnight to attain Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Karna's death&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;: Karna was part of Sun in form of mortal body. When he died, he again merged back to the consciousness of sun &amp;amp; didn't return to earth. Hence when the Sun (or &lt;em&gt;Surya deva&lt;/em&gt;) gets Moksha, Karna will also get Moksha. There are multiple examples of amalgamation and redistribution of consciousness from 1 to many bodies and many bodies to 1, which I tried to discuss in this post - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11000/1049&quot;&gt;Is there a possibility of GRADUAL conversion of &amp;quot;Purusha&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;Jeeva-s&amp;quot; and similar gradual return?&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Thus cut off with that Anjalika, the trunk of Karna fell down on the earth. The head also of that commander of the (Kaurava) army, endued with splendour equal to that of the risen sun and resembling the meridian sun of autumn, fell down on the earth like the sun of bloody disc dropped down from the Asta hills. Indeed, that head abandoned with great unwillingness the body, exceedingly beautiful and always nursed in luxury, of Karna of noble deeds, like an owner abandoning with great unwillingness his commodious mansion filled with great wealth. Cut off with Arjuna's arrow, and deprived of life, the tall trunk of Karna endued with great splendour, with blood issuing from every wound, fell down like the thunder-riven summit of a mountain of red chalk with crimson streams running down its sides after a shower. &lt;strong&gt;Then from that body of the fallen Karna a light passing through the welkin penetrated the sun.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Or didn't they know that liberation is the goal of life&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This cannot be answered definitively. IMO, people during MahAbhArata times were well aware of ultimate liberation. The awareness about liberation is quite ancient, which is re-described in Gita and other scriptures. We can very well expect that the awareness of liberation will retain itself in future as well.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;In Gita, certain &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19385/1049&quot;&gt;phsyical signs of Moksha&lt;/a&gt; are mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Very few among humans attempt to attain the supreme in its actual form [BG 7.3]. But with amalgamation of consciousnesses, everything ultimately gets liberated [BG 9.7]. For example, people with &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt;, choose various celestial forms (&lt;em&gt;Deva&lt;/em&gt;), people with &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; choose various attached forms (&lt;em&gt;Humans, Raksha, Yaksha&lt;/em&gt;), people with &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; choose various lower forms (&lt;em&gt;Bhuta-Preta, Animals&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="3294" LastEditDate="2020-11-04T11:54:37.603" LastActivityDate="2020-11-04T11:54:37.603" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16362" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16364" CreationDate="2016-12-15T10:17:32.977" Score="10" ViewCount="1282" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of the origination of Gautami Ganga is written in &lt;strong&gt;Varaha Purana, adhaya 71&lt;/strong&gt; as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gautama muni asked Lord Shiva for Ganga. Once he received Ganga, Gautama muni poured ganga jal on top of a dead cow and the cow arose. The place where this event took place is called Gautami Ganga or Godavari Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Matsya Purana, adhaya 22, shloka 58-59:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YW79d.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YW79d.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Godavari river, our ancestors are known as Apsaroyuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Apsaroyuga is known as Apsaro, which flows from Kal (Shiva) Pokhari towards Gautamitat (intersection of Barun and Arun river). There is no river that flows towards Gautamitat coming from current Godavari.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma Purana, adhaya 78, shloka 77:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GkGef.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GkGef.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Godavari and Bhagirathi originate south and north respectively in Bindagiri from the same mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The current Bhagirathi originates in Himalayan range and Godavari is in Maharashtra. They both do not form from the same mountain.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma Purana, adhaya 89, shloka 38-45:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1GGM4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1GGM4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Px9lZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Px9lZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ReZnS.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ReZnS.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arun river (known as Tapi in the shloka) and Yamuna (Barun river) intersect at a place called Gautami Ganga (Gautamitat).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Our current Godavari river is in Maharashtra. But this doesn't match with what the shastras tell us. So where is Godavari?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Note: I do not wish to offend anyone regarding my question. Our current thirthas are as holy regardless of their authenticity and I respect their location. Being a Hindu, I would never disrespect any thirtha just because they do not match with shastras. Many thirthas have changed locations and this is why I try to find their original location. Sorry if I have offended anybody.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8302" LastEditorUserId="8302" LastEditDate="2016-12-19T03:46:17.093" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T03:46:17.093" Title="Why doesn't the description of Godavari river match with what the shastras tell us?" Tags="|puranas|history|rivers|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16363" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12396" CreationDate="2016-12-15T10:42:03.167" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is respectful. Name Urdhwareta is used to describe ParaBrahman itself by the Vedas. In the &lt;strong&gt;Yajurveda Taittariya Aranyaka 10.23.1&lt;/strong&gt; (and also in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/mahanarayana.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahanarayana Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; 10.23) which is in the middle of Rudra Suktas it is stated:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ऋतं सत्यं परं ब्रह्म पुरुषं कृष्णपिङ्गलम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ऊर्ध्वरेतं&lt;/strong&gt; विरूपाक्षं विश्वरूपाय वै नमो नमः ॥ १॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Absolute reality and the Supreme Brahman. He is the Purush who is dark blue and reddish brown (KrishnaPingala). &lt;strong&gt;He is Urdhwareta.&lt;/strong&gt; He possesses uncommon eyes (Virupakshya). His form is the whole world. Salutation and Salutation to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As, the &lt;strong&gt;Urdhwareta&lt;/strong&gt; name is given itself by the Eternal Vedas while describing Para Brahman, so there is no question of disrespect at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-12-15T10:42:03.167" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16364" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16362" CreationDate="2016-12-15T12:23:38.617" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The origin of &lt;strong&gt;Godawari&lt;/strong&gt; river is given in &lt;strong&gt;Vaman Purana (Chapter 13 ,  Shloka 30 - Description of Bhuvan Kosha)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the Sanskrit Shlokas-:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिवा पायोषनि निर्विन्ध्या तापी सनिषधावति॥28॥&lt;br&gt; वेणा वैतरणी चैव&#xA;सिनिबाहु: कुमुद्वती ।&lt;br&gt; तोया रेव महागौरी दुर्गन्धा वाशिला तथा&#xA;॥29॥&lt;br&gt; विन्ध्यपादप्रसूताश्च नद्य:  पुण्यजला: शुभा: ।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Payoshani Nirvindhya Tapi SanishaDhavati  Vena Vaitarani Chaiva&#xA;Sinibahu Kumudwati Toya Raiva MahaGauri Durgndhaa Vashila Tatha&#xA;VindhyaPadaPrasutasya Nadya PunyaJala Shubha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - The rivers having pure water and emanating from Vindhya Mountain are Shiva ,Payosni ,Nirvindhya ,Tapi ,Nisadhavati ,Vena&#xA;,Vaitarani ,Sinbahu ,Kumudwati ,Toya , Reva ,Mahagauri ,Durgandha and&#xA;Vasila. &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;गोदावरी&lt;/strong&gt; भीमरथी कृष्णा वेण्या सरिद्वती ॥30॥&lt;br&gt; विशमद्रि सुप्रयोगा वाह्या कावेररिरेव च।&lt;br&gt; दुग्धोदा नलिनी चैव वारिसेना कलस्वना ॥31॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;एताश्चपि महानद्य: &lt;strong&gt;सह्यपादविनिर्गता&lt;/strong&gt;:।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Godavari&lt;/strong&gt; Bhimarathi Krushna Venya Saridwati  Vishmadri Suprayoga Vahyaa KaveriReva Cha Dugdhoda Nalini Chaiva Varisena Kalswana&#xA;Etarschpi Mahandyah &lt;strong&gt;Sahyapadvinirgata&lt;/strong&gt;  mahanandis&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - The flowing down from the root of Sahya parvatamala are - &lt;strong&gt;Godawari&lt;/strong&gt; ,&#xA;Bhimarthi ,Krishna ,Vena ,Sarasvati , ,Tungabhdra ,Sprayoga ,Vahya ,&#xA;Kaveri ,Dugdhoda ,Nalini ,Reva ,Varisena and Kalasvana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from the above shlokas it's clear that River Godavari flows from &lt;strong&gt;Sahya Parvat today's Sahyadri (सह्याद्रि)&lt;/strong&gt;. And according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godavari_River&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; It originates in the Western Ghats of central India Near &lt;strong&gt;Nashik ,Maharashtra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rSH6R.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rSH6R.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-15T12:23:38.617" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16365" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-15T12:56:12.593" Score="5" ViewCount="325" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I saw in a Karna movie and also read a Mahabharata book, where, towards the end, Karna was injured in his chest by Arjuna's arrow and the last arrow to kill him actually turned in to a flower so it doesn't injure Karna.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Krishna explains the above as: Karna did &lt;em&gt;dāna&lt;/em&gt; all his life so the fruits of that dāna is now saving him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;So Lord Krishna turned himself into a brahmin and asked Karna to give him [Krishna] fruits of all his [Karna's] &lt;em&gt;dāna&lt;/em&gt; and only after that does Karna actually die.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt;:&#xA;Is the above life-saving story of Karna, due to his dāna, really true or is it just shown like that to praise Karna's benevolent nature?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-15T21:23:35.977" LastActivityDate="2016-12-15T21:23:35.977" Title="Did Karna's dāna really save his life?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16366" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16278" CreationDate="2016-12-15T14:02:54.943" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scripture condemns charging of exorbitant rates of interest and not reasonable rates of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma said, '..They who betakes themselves to improper conduct, &lt;strong&gt;they&#xA;  who take exorbitant rates of interest,&lt;/strong&gt; and they who make unduly large&#xA;  profits on sales, &lt;strong&gt;have to sink in hell&lt;/strong&gt;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Anusasana Parva Section XXIII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-12-15T14:02:54.943" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16367" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16365" CreationDate="2016-12-15T15:17:19.147" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;No the story about Karna's death (last arrow turning into flower not injuring him) is not true. Karna was shattered psychologically at the time of his death. &#xA;The story about Brahmana is partially true. The Brahmana took the kavacha and Kundala from Karna because without them Karna was vulnerable in war. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'At that time, when hour of Karna's death had come, Kala, approaching&#xA;  invisibly, and alluding to the Brahmana's curse, and desirous of&#xA;  informing Karna that his death was near, told him, &quot;The Earth is&#xA;  devouring thy wheel'. Indeed, O foremost of men, when the hour of&#xA;  Karna's death came, the high Brahma weapon that the illustrious&#xA;  Bhargava had imparted unto him, escaped from his memory. And the earth also began to devour the left wheel of his car. Then in consequence of that foremost of Brahmanas, Karna's car began to reel, having sunk deep into the earth and having been transfixed at that spot like a sacred tree with its load of flowers standing upon its elevated platform. When his&#xA;  car began to reel from the curse of the Brahmana and when the high&#xA;  weapon he had obtained from Rama no longer shone in him through inward&#xA;  light, and when his terrible snake-mouthed shaft also had been cut off&#xA;  by Partha, &lt;strong&gt;Karna became filled with melancholy&lt;/strong&gt;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Karna Parva Section XC&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2016-12-15T15:27:07.423" LastActivityDate="2016-12-15T15:27:07.423" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16368" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16370" CreationDate="2016-12-16T01:05:30.773" Score="8" ViewCount="2655" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad-gītā 4.40 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=4&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=40&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अज्ञश्चाश्रद्दधानश्च &lt;strong&gt;संशयात्मा&lt;/strong&gt; विनश्यति। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नायं लोकोऽस्ति न परो न सुखं संशयात्मनः।।4.40।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ajñaścāśraddadhānaśca &lt;strong&gt;saṅśayātmā&lt;/strong&gt; vinaśyati. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nāyaṅ lōkō.sti na parō na sukhaṅ saṅśayātmanaḥ ৷৷ 4.40 ৷৷&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who is ignorant and faithless, and has a &lt;strong&gt;doubting mind&lt;/strong&gt; perishes. Neither this world nor the next nor happiness exists for one who has a doubting mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if one asks a lot of questions on Hinduism.SE, does that make them a saṁśayātmā  (doubting mind) according to BG? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And we should be asking less and less questions? How will we learn if we don't ask questions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-16T08:13:53.863" LastActivityDate="2016-12-17T20:28:50.540" Title="BG 4.40 - What does Kṛṣṇa mean by saṁśayātmā (doubting mind)?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16369" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16368" CreationDate="2016-12-16T03:29:02.537" Score="9" Body="&lt;h3&gt;What does Shree Krishna mean by Samshayatma (doubting mind)?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Shree Krishna is actually telling Arjuna that, a person who does not believe in &lt;strong&gt;shastras&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;authoritative spiritual science books&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; who doesn't have faith in &quot;shastras&quot; perishes. Such a person doesn't get satisfaction or experience pleasure in this world or in this life, nor in other worlds, i.e., &quot;Paramarth&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we look at the previous shloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्रद्धावाँल्लभते&lt;/strong&gt; ज्ञानं तत्परः संयतेन्द्रियः।&lt;br&gt; ज्ञानं लब्ध्वा परां शान्तिमचिरेणाधिगच्छति।।4.39।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śraddhāvāḻ labhate jñānaṁ tat-paraḥ saṁyatendriyaḥ jñānaṁ labdhvā&#xA;  parāṁ śāntim acireṇādhigacchati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A faithful man who is dedicated to transcendental knowledge and who&#xA;  subdues his senses is eligible to achieve such knowledge, and having&#xA;  achieved it he quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/39&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 4.39&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can see that here Shree Krishna is talking about &lt;strong&gt;transcendental knowledge&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;divine knowledge&lt;/strong&gt; and divine peace, not actually the materialistic pleasures or materialistic knowledge. In that context, if we interpret verse 4.40, we can say that, a doubtful person never progresses materialistically nor spiritually in this or other worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here the message for us is to keep the faith on &quot;shastras&quot; &amp;amp; to accept their authority.&lt;/strong&gt; So asking valid questions with proper faith is suggested. But asking questions without proper faith is not recommended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And we should be asking less and less questions? How will we learn if we don't ask questions?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. IMO, asking lots of questions is &lt;strong&gt;actually a good thing&lt;/strong&gt;, but with proper faith. Even Arjuna was in doubt about war, its outcome, his duty etc., but Shree Krishna cleared those doubts from Arjuna's mind. He too asked lots of questions &amp;amp; then got satisfied about his duty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, in conclusion, asking lots of questions with proper faith on shastras for clearing any doubts is the right thing.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-16T05:02:28.677" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T05:02:28.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16370" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16368" CreationDate="2016-12-16T06:33:25.737" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;strong&gt;संशयात्मा&lt;/strong&gt; does not literally mean doubting mind. But it has an inner meaning. Samshayatma means &lt;strong&gt;a cynic&lt;/strong&gt; who does not agree with the scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we consider only shloka you are quoting, there may be some misinterpretations and doubts. Therefore, we should also consider the shlokas which precede the 40th shloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śraddhāvāllabhate jñānaṃ tatparaḥ saṃyatendriyaḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jñānaṃ labdhvā parāṃ śāntim acireṇādhigacchati || 39 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who has faith, who is dedicated to it, and who has controlled the senses, attains&#xA;  enlightenment. Having attained enlightenment, one obtains Supreme Peace. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to the shloka you have quoted, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ajñāś-cāśraddhānaśca saṃśayātmā vinaśyati |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nāyaṃ loko’sti na paro na sukhaṃ saṃśayātmanaḥ|| 40 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ignorant, the faithless and the cynic perish; for the cynic there is neither this world, nor that beyond, nor happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This shloka is explained by Shri Ramanujacharya as follows&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'The ignorant' is one that has not received knowledge through instruction, 'the faithless' is one who does not develop any faith in this teaching i.e., who does not strive for immediate improvement, and &lt;strong&gt;the cynic is one who is full of skepticism in regard to the teaching&lt;/strong&gt; — such persons perish, they are lost. When this teaching about the real nature of the Self is treated with skepticism, then one fails in this material world as also the spiritual world. The meaning is that the goals of human endeavor, such as&#xA;  Dharma (right living), Artha (prosperity) and Kāma (pleasure) which constitute the material goals or aims of life [in this world], are not fully achieved &lt;strong&gt;by such a cynic&lt;/strong&gt;. How then can the Supreme Goal — Moksha (liberation) be achieved by him? For all the goals of life can be achieved by doing the works which are prescribed by the Shastras, but their correct performance requires the firm conviction that the Self is different from the body. Therefore, even a little happiness cannot be achieved &lt;strong&gt;by one who has doubts concerning the true nature of the Self&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We should be asking less and less questions? How will we learn if we don't ask questions?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No asking questions does not make you samshayatma and ignorant. It is the way of learning what you don't know. Krishna classifies devotees into four classes in Bhagavat Gita 7.16. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;catur-vidhā bhajante māṃ janāḥ sukṛtino’rjuna |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ārto &lt;strong&gt;jijñāsur&lt;/strong&gt; arthārthī jñānī ca bharatarṣabha || 16 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Four types of benefactors worship Me, O Arjuna (Bull of the Bharatas). These are the distressed, the &lt;strong&gt;seekers after knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;, the ambitious, and the wise. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arta (the distressed) Example: Gajendra, draupadi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Artharti (Devotees with certain wishes or ambitious) Example: Dhruva &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jigyasu (Knowledge Seeker) Example: Arjuna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;jñānī (self realised)  Example : Hanuman.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Knowledge seeking is not as same as cynical or doubt minded. Having faith on the knowledge and not questioning the authority of the scriptures is what Shri Krishna is saying. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also seeking knowledge in a prescribed manner (from authorized sources) is also important&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-16T06:56:11.660" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T06:56:11.660" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16371" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-12-16T06:51:49.107" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;A manuscript is  any document written by hand from ancient times.Not just religious works, but a variety of texts including  astronomy ,cosmogony , medicine , Vaidic verses , stories , painting etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-16T07:21:41.750" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T07:21:41.750" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16372" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-12-16T06:51:49.107" Score="0" Body=" document written by hand from past" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-16T07:21:30.407" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T07:21:30.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16374" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16358" CreationDate="2016-12-16T07:18:00.437" Score="6" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;What boons did Ravana receive from Brahma?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana was advised by his mother Kaikasi to do penance to become equal in to his brother Kubera. Then thee brothers Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana started doing penance. After some time lord Brahma appeared before them. Ravana received the boon that he will not be killed by Deva, Gandharva, Naga, Yaksha, Danavas. This has been described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttara Kanda of Ramayana, Sarga 10&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus addressed by the creator, Brahma, the Ten necked one, O Rama, standing before him with joined hands, said, O lord of creatures, I would, O eternal one, be incapable of being slain by Suparnas and Nagas, Yakshas, Daityas, Danavas and Rakshasas, and the Devas ;for, O thou that art worshipped by the immortals, anxiety I have none from any other beings. Indeed, I deem as straw creatures such as men etc Thus accosted by the Raksha the Ten necked one that righteous souled one, the Great father, along with the Devas, said, O foremost of Rakshasas, what thou sayest shall come to pass.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having, O Rama, said this unto the Ten necked one, the Great father (again spoke), Hear !I, having been gratified, will confer on thee a fresh boon. O Rakshasa, O sinless one, those heads of thine which have been offered as sacrifices and which have sunk into the fire, shall again be thine..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, O placid one, I shall also confer on thee another boon difficult of being obtained, The form that thou shalt wish to wear, shall instantly be thine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same thing has been discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga15/bala_15_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana, Bala Kanda, Sarga 15&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तेन गन्धर्व यक्षाणाम् देवतानाम् च रक्षसाम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अवध्योऽस्मि इति वागुक्ता तथेति उक्तम् च तन् मया || १-१५-१३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Ravana said while seeking boon that, 'I shall not be killed by gandharva-s, yaksha-s, or by gods, or by other demons...' and I also said 'so be it...&amp;quot; [1-15-13]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Which boon gave him mystical powers and strength ? &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana has his mystical and physical strength from birth because he had born from the womb of a Rakshasi (Kaikasi). This is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana, Uttara Kanda, Sarga 9&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the meanwhile.O Rama,that twice born one Pulastya s son was performing the Agnihotra, like the fourth Fire itself. And without minding that terrific time, Kaikasi(), having regard to the dignity of her sire, coming up before him, stood (there) hanging her head down towards his feet and throwing up the earth with her great foe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And seeing that one of shapely hips, having a face fair as the full Moon, (that exceedingly high minded ascetic) flaming in energy accosted her thus, O gentle on, whose daughter art thou ?And whence dost thou come hither ?And what is thy errand ?And for whom(dost thou come) ?O beauteous(damsel), truly tell me this. Thus addressed, the girl,with joined hands, said, O ascetic, thou art competent to get at my intent by virtue of thy own power. Yet, O Brahmarshi, know me as having come here at the mandate of my sire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My name is Kaikasi. The rest do thou read thyself. And thereupon, the ascetic, entering into contemplation, said these words, O gentle lady, I have learnt the purpose that is in thy heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O thou having the gait of a mad elephant, there reigns a powerful desire in thee for having ofspring. Inasmuch as thou hast come to me at this fierce hour, hearken, thou amiable one, as to the kind of ofspring that thou shalt bring forth. Thou shalt, O thou of graceful hips, bring forth terrible and grim visaged Rakshasas delighting in frightful friends, and of cruel deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing his speech, she, bowing down, said, O reverend (ascetic), such sons of terrific ways seek I not from thee that followest the Veda. Therefore it behoveth thee to favor me. On being thus besought by the girl, Visrava, best of ascetics, again addressed Kaikasi, like the full Moon addressing Rohini, O fair faced one, the son that thou bringest forth last, shall be like unto my line, he shall, without doubt be righteous souled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having been thus accosted, the girl, O Rama, after a length of time brought forth a very terrible and hideous ofspring having the form of a Raksha, having ten necks, furnished with large teeth, and resembling a heap of collyrium, with coppery lips, twenty arms, huge faces, and flaming hair. On his having been born, jackals with flaming mouths and other ferocious beasts began to gyrate on the left. And that god showered down blood ;and the clouds uttered forth harsh sounds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Sun was deprived of his splendour ;and meteors began to dart to the earth. And the earth shook ;and the wind swept away violently. And that lord of streams the ocean, which was calm before, became agitated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And his sire resembling his grand father named him,(saying), As this one hath been born with ten necks,he shall be called Ten necked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Did he receive any boons from Goddess Durga too?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no mention of Goddess Durga giving boon to Ravana in Valmiki Ramayana. May be some Puranas talk about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T10:12:31.903" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16375" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16376" CreationDate="2016-12-16T09:48:54.203" Score="10" ViewCount="2734" Body="&lt;p&gt;NilaLohita which means the &lt;strong&gt;Lord who is both Blue and Red.&lt;/strong&gt; Nila means blue and Lohita means Red.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;NilaLohita is one of the popular name of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva is called by the name NilaLohita itself in the Sata Rudriya (10th Anuvaka) as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;द्रापे अन्धसस्पते दरिद्रन्नीललोहित (YajurVeda 16.47)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh you who punishes as per sin of people. Oh! Lord of Food. Oh! &lt;strong&gt;NilaLohita.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the Vedas themselves call the Lord NilaLohita which means &lt;em&gt;who is blue and red&lt;/em&gt;, there most be something deep meaning inside it. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, Why is Lord Shiva called NilaLohita? What do the blue and red signify here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T09:52:26.303" Title="Why is Lord Shiva called NilaLohita?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|vedas|puranas|symbolism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16376" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16375" CreationDate="2016-12-16T09:52:26.303" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The blue (Nila) and red (Lohita) colour represent Purusha and Prakriti. Since both Prakriti and Purusha merge in him, he is called NilaLohita. Linga Purana 2.18 states it as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नीलश्च लोहितश्चैव प्रधानपुरुषान्वयात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्कंदस्ते यतः शुक्ल तथा शुक्लमपैति च ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He is of both Blue and Red colour since both Pradhana and Purusha merge in him.&lt;/strong&gt; Since the semen flows from him, he is known as Shukla.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In one of the incarnation (among many) through Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva comes in NilaLohita form. This is recorded even in Vedas. Atharvaveda describes it as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्रात्य आसीदीयमान एव स प्रजापतिं समैरयत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स प्रजापति: सुवर्णमात्मन्नपश्यत्तत्प्राजनयत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदेकमभवत्तल्ललाममभवत्तन्महदभवत्तज्जेष्ठमभवत्तद्ब्रह्माभवत्तत्तपोऽभवत्तत्सत्यमभवत्तेन प्राजायत ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोऽवर्धत स महानभवत्स महादेवोऽभवत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स देवानामीशां पर्यैत्स ईशानोऽभवत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स एकव्रात्योऽभवत्स धनुरादत्त तदेवेन्द्रधनुः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;नीलमस्योदरं लोहितं पृष्ठम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नीलेनैवाप्रियं भ्रातृव्यं प्रोर्णोति लोहितेन द्विषन्तं विध्यतीति&amp;nbsp; ब्रह्मवादिनो वदन्ति ।।&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp; [Atharva Veda 15:1]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There was Vratya . He roused Prajapati to action. Prajapati beheld gold in himself and engendered it. That became unique, that became distinguished, that became great, that became excellent, that became Brahman, that became Tapas, that became Truth: through that he (Vratya) was born. He grew, he became great, he became Mahadeva. He gained the lordship of the Gods. He became Ishana. He became Eka Vratya. He held a bow, even that Bow of Indra. &lt;strong&gt;His front is dark-blue, his back is red (Nila Lohita). With dark-blue he envelops a detested rival, with red he pierces the man who hates him: so the knowers of Brahman say.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same is described in 1.41 of Linga Purana as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ललाटमस्य निर्भिद्य प्रादुरासीत्पितामहात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लोहितोऽभूत्स्वयं नीलः शिवस्य हृदयोद्भव ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वह्रश्चैव तु संयोगात्प्रकृत्या पुरुषः प्रभुः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नीलश्च लोहितश्चैव यतः कालाकृतिः पुमान् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नीललोहित ईत्युक्तस्तेन देवेन वै प्रभुः ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  All pervading lord born of body of Bhava, came out of Brahma by piercing his forehead. The lord who born of the heart of Shiva was originally blue but became red coming in contact with fire. &lt;strong&gt;It represents the form of combination of Prakriti and Purusha of the Lord. Because of the form with both blue and red colour resembling Kãla, Lord came to be known by the name NilaLohita.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, the half blue half red form of Lord Shiva is known as NilaLohita. NilaLohita form of Lord Shiva actually denotes the combination of Purusha and Prakriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T09:52:26.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16377" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10630" CreationDate="2016-12-16T11:59:08.310" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;how do they get tiger carpets?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From what I remember, the way for sadhaks to get tiger skin for their Sadhana is mentioned in Guru charitra(based on the life of Narasimha Saraswati). One of the main conditions mentioned is that one should not kill a tiger to get the tiger skin. In addition to this condition, there are many other conditions like the direction in which a Sadhak has to proceed in search of the tiger skin etc.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8479" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T11:59:08.310" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16378" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16368" CreationDate="2016-12-16T12:55:26.120" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;So if one asks a lot of questions on Hinduism.SE, does that make them a saṁśayātmā (doubting mind) according to BG?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;And we should be asking less and less questions? How will we learn if we don't ask questions?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me first clarify Gita's position on questions being asked. Gita respects human beings too much to forbid asking questions. This is clear from this shloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus have I imparted to you wisdom which is more secret (profound)&#xA;  than all that is secret (profound). &lt;strong&gt;Reflecting over this whole&#xA;  teaching, do as you think fit.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 18.63&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita in fact as is clear from the above shloka encourages the reader to ask as many questions as he wants. If a reader of the Gita does not ask questions then he is clearly not reflecting on the entire teaching.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let us look at the shloka mentioned in the question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An ignorant man without any positive faith, &lt;strong&gt;who knows only to&#xA;  doubt&lt;/strong&gt;, goes to ruin. To such a doubting soul there is neither this&#xA;  world nor the world beyond. There is no happiness for him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 4.40&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The key to understanding this shloka is the phrase 'who knows only to doubt'. What Gita means here is that a person fails to reap the benefits of the Gita if he doubts so much that he does not even try to do the recommended spiritual practices like Yoga to test the claims made by the Gita. The reason for this Gita position is made clear from this shloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore &lt;strong&gt;cutting asunder the skeptical tendency of the heart by the&#xA;  sword of divine knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;, betake yourself to Yoga (communion through&#xA;  sacrificial action) and arise, O scion of the Bharata race!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 4.42&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita acknowledges that skepticism is a very natural thing. The only way to cut this skeptical tendency is however through anubhava or experience of the divine. Those who are ultra-skeptical, &lt;strong&gt;who know only to doubt,&lt;/strong&gt; will obviously not even try the recommended spiritual practices and will thus never have the necessary anubhava and will thus remain trapped in their skepticism. Such a state will lead to non-attainment of moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T12:55:26.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16379" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16381" CreationDate="2016-12-16T12:58:06.700" Score="4" ViewCount="3016" Body="&lt;p&gt;What will be the next Yuga after Kali Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6941" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-12-16T14:54:43.427" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T14:54:43.427" Title="What will be the next Yuga after Kali Yuga?" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2016-12-20T12:13:57.063" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16381" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16379" CreationDate="2016-12-16T13:48:40.683" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Traditional answer is Satya Yuga. Many Puranas say Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali Yuga occur in cyclic order with no beginning and ending. (Time is cyclic according to Hinduism. Puranas and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14913/3500&quot;&gt;Vedas&lt;/a&gt; assert cyclic nature of time).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0ByTrbPQHgxJdZ3FCeVA0Tl9kTm8&amp;amp;export=download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; Chapter 29 to 31 ANUSANGA in Brahmanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; (Pg- 287-313), &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/kurma-mahapurana/chapter-05/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 5 of Kurma Purana&lt;/a&gt; and many Puranas describe this cyclic order of four Yugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chapter 31 Anusanga of Brahmanda Purana&lt;/em&gt; asserts that Satya Yuga comes after Kali Yuga, by describing change in traits of people from tamas to Satva at end of Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;100&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They were oppressed with old age, sickness and hunger. Owing to misery they reached a stage of abject dejection. From this dejected&#xA;state they reached the state of pondering.Pondering took them&#xA;to the state of equanimity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Through the state of Equanimity, they had the realization of Atman.Through this knowledge they acquired piety and devotion. Thus&#xA;those survived the last stage of Kali Yuga acquired tranquility and&#xA;control of sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the close of the Yuga was undergoing transformation,they became quiescent as though they were asleep or inebriated day and&#xA;night after making mind enchanted (and insensible).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Owing to the power of inevitable future, the Krita Yuga set&#xA;in.When the holy Krita Yuga began to function, the subjects pertaining&#xA;to Krita Yuga were born of those who survived from the kali Yuga. Those&#xA;Siddhas who remained then, began to move about invisibly. They&#xA;established themselves there along with seven sages. The Brahmana, the&#xA;kshatriyas,the Vaishyas, and the Sudras were those who were remembered&#xA;as seeds. (They were intended to be the nucleus for the succeeding&#xA;generations). At that they became identical with those who were born&#xA;in the closing stages of Kali.They were devoid of any difference.The&#xA;seven Sages recounted Dharma to them as well as others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, Sri Yukteswara Giri in his book &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/HolyScience/45849064-Sri-Yukteswar-Giri-The-Holy-Science#page/n13/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Holy Science&lt;/a&gt; expounds reverse cyclic order of Yugas as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9965/3500&quot;&gt;this answer.&lt;/a&gt;. But, if we go by Puranas, Satya/Krita Yuga comes after Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T13:48:40.683" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16382" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14431" CreationDate="2016-12-16T15:22:32.660" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Story of Kubera becoming Lord of wealth is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_003.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 3 of uttara Khanda of Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaiśravaṇa (son of viśrava, epithet of Kubera) did Tapasya (penance) for Brahma to become fourth Lokapala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“The splendorous Vaishravana then went to a forest suitable for the&#xA;practice of austerities and grew up there like a fire fed oblations of&#xA;clarified butter. While living in that hermitage, it occurred to the&#xA;great soul to practice the highest activity of righteousness, for&#xA;righteousness is the highest goal. While practicing austerities for&#xA;thousands of years in that great forest, he subdued his senses by&#xA;severe means and performed the mightiest penances. After the&#xA;completion of one thousand years, he followed all the appropriate&#xA;rules, living first on just water, then air, then without anything at&#xA;all. In that way one thousand years passed as if they were one year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Then, accompanied by Lord Indra and hosts of other gods, the highly&#xA;glorious Lord Brahma came to Vaishravana’s hermitage and spoke the&#xA;following words: ‘O sage of noble vows, I am very pleased with your&#xA;actions. O intelligent one, bless you! You deserve a boon. Choose&#xA;one.’ Vaishravana said to Lord Brahma: ‘O venerable one, I would like&#xA;to be a loka-pala­, a guardian of the world and its protector.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“With an overjoyed mind, Lord Brahma, in the company of the hosts of&#xA;gods, said: ‘&lt;strong&gt;Yes, I was just about to create the fourth of the&#xA;loka-palas. Therefore, O knower of right action, go and take the&#xA;position of lord of wealth in conjunction with Indra, Varuna and Yama.&#xA;After Indra, Varuna and Yama, you will be the fourth lokapala&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story might have happened in Vaivasvara Manvantara of Sweta Varaha Kalpa (current Kalpa) as Ramayana happpened in 24th Treta Yuga as per &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=nckrAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;pg=PA138#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matsya Purana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, a different story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-51/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 19&lt;/a&gt; &lt;em&gt;Rudra Samhita (Sristi Khanda) of Shiva Purana&lt;/em&gt; which happened in &lt;em&gt;Meghavahana Kalpa&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gunanidhi, the son of Yajñadatta, performed severe tapas in the city of Kasi. (He performed Tapas just after creation and Shiva didn't move to Kailasa at that time).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva satisfied with his Tapa, manifested before Gunananidhi and conferred him title Lord of wealth by bestowing him treasures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वरान्ददामि ते वत्स ! तपसाऽनेन तोषितः। &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;निधीनामथ नाथस्त्वं&#xA;गुह्यकानां भवेश्वरः॥&lt;/strong&gt; २४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;O Son, getting pleased with your tapas, I want to give you a boon.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;You would be the lord of treasures and the Guhyakas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यक्षाणां किन्नराणां च राज्ञां राजा च सुव्रतः। &lt;br&gt;पतिः पुण्यजनानां च&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;सर्वेषां धनदो भव॥&lt;/strong&gt; २५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You would be the king of the kings of Yaksas and Kinnaras. You will be&#xA;the lord of auspicious people and &lt;strong&gt;will bestow riches on all the&#xA;people.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मया सख्यं च ते नित्यं वत्स्यामि च तवान्तिके। &lt;br&gt;अलकां निकषा मित्र! तव&#xA;प्रीतिविवृद्धये॥ २६ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will always remain friendly with me. I shall always reside close&#xA;to your city of Alaka, and shall keep on increasing your love for me.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, Gunananidhi felt jealous on seeing beautiful Goddess Uma and his left eye got burst. He is known by Kubera due to the deformed face.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वत्स ! ते निर्मला भक्तिर्भवे भवतु सर्वदा। &lt;br&gt; भवैकपिङ्गो नेत्रेण&#xA;वामेन स्फुटितेन ह।। ३०॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The goddess said, &amp;quot;O Son, let your spotless devotion in Siva continue&#xA;forever. You will be deprived of your left eye.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवेन दत्ता ये तुभ्यं वराः सन्तु तथैव ते। &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कुबेरो भव नाम्ना त्वं मम&#xA;रूपेष्र्यया सुत!।॥&lt;/strong&gt; ३१॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The boons granted to you by Siva shall always be fructuous. You had&#xA;become jealous of me because of my beauty and &lt;strong&gt;because of that you&#xA;would be called Kubera.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva in human form as Shankara, to stay close to Kubera, thereafter moved to Kailasa mountain which is situated very near to city of Kubera.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-16T15:22:32.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16383" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16403" CreationDate="2016-12-16T15:40:41.060" Score="2" ViewCount="7329" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a way to know the start date in Gregorian calendar of current Kali yuga? If yes,  What is the date?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8031" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-16T19:09:52.097" LastActivityDate="2016-12-18T07:07:59.813" Title="When did this Kali yuga start?" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|calendar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16384" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-16T19:16:53.937" Score="11" ViewCount="1056" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was wondering whether the scriptures mention any special classification for female warriors. The general classification of rathi, maharathi, etc... are applied generally to warriors as seen in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharathi_(warrior)#Levels_of_warrior_excellence)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this wiki article&lt;/a&gt;. But the absence of any women in the list and the presence of women warriors in the two epics (Ramayana and Mahabharata) raises the question whether they were given a special classification or the same applied to them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, are there any special titles which had been awarded to any of the female warriors?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2897" LastEditorUserId="12071" LastEditDate="2018-01-16T09:49:34.103" LastActivityDate="2018-01-16T09:49:34.103" Title="Female warriors in the Epics?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|women|war|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16386" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-16T22:36:37.740" Score="4" ViewCount="1649" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are non-Hindus allowed inside &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara_Temple,_Tirumala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumala Veṅkaṭēśwara Temple&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I heard that for a non-Hindu to enter the temple, they need to sign a waiver. Is this true? Also, is it a recent development or restriction?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If so, what exactly does this waiver say or look like?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Note:&lt;/sub&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;1. This is related to but not a duplicate of: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7121&quot;&gt;Why are non-Hindus not allowed inside temples?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;2. I'm looking for credible sources of information, so, no Wikipedia, Quora.com or random blogs in answers please.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;3. News articles are ok to cite in your answers provided they actually interviewed &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_Tirupati_Devasthanams&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;TTD&lt;/a&gt; management on this.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-10-28T19:06:50.303" Title="Are non-Hindus allowed inside Tirumala Veṅkaṭēśwara Temple? Do they need to sign a waiver?" Tags="|temple|vaishnavism|other-religions|venkateshwara|tirupati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16387" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16368" CreationDate="2016-12-16T23:36:09.900" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;I posted the same question on a different website and this is the answer I received there. Since it's a totally copy-paste answer, I'm making it a wiki for people to vote if they like it.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ajñaścāśraddadhānaśca saṅśayātmā = ajñaḥ ca śradda adhānaḥ ca saṅśaya+ātmā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Note the sequence: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ajñaḥ - not knowing, lack of knowledge&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  aśradda - lack or without faith&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dhānaḥ - receptacle, seat&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  saṅśaya+ātmā = saṁśaya + ātmā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;saṁśaya&lt;/strong&gt; = uncertainty, irresolution, hesitation, doubt&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ātmā = ātman = the individual, the person&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(fyi) ca = and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This says, &#xA;  not knowing &lt;strong&gt;+&lt;/strong&gt; the lack of faith becomes the receptacle or seat for uncertainty and doubt for the individual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The lack of knowledge is the basis for the lack of faith which will gain or make a seat for doubt and uncertainty.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You see why the sequence is of key import? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now to answer your question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;      &lt;p&gt;So if one asks a lot of questions on a website like this, does that make them a saṁśayātmā (doubting mind) according to Gita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Finding out, knowing, asking questions is an approach to eradicating (or at least mitigating) ajñaḥ. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since we're in chapter 4.40 of the śrīmad bhāgavad gītā, we need to back-up two śloka-s to 4.38: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न हि ज्ञानेन सदृशं पवित्रमिह विद्यते। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  na hi jñānēna sadṛśaṅ pavitramiha vidyatē.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;truly there is nothing in the world so purifying as knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one looks to the top of this forum's page, this śloka is called out and a main principle of this site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One also needs to be mindful of different degrees of knowledge... there is pure knowledge (Self), that of undifferentiated Being,&#xA;  and there is relative knowledge. Our upaniṣad-s have much to say about this, but that will take us off this beacon path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But that said, full or whole knowledge is knowledge &lt;strong&gt;+&lt;/strong&gt; experience (experience of pure awareness which is perfect knowledge).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-17T20:28:50.540" LastActivityDate="2016-12-17T20:28:50.540" CommentCount="0" CommunityOwnedDate="2016-12-16T23:36:09.900" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16388" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-17T03:30:23.493" Score="3" ViewCount="181" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard about ayurvedic treatments for complete cure of cancer but can't validate it. So, I want to know does ayurveda or siddha has this medicine ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where can I find/get original Ayurveda and complete medicinal notes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-21T04:12:45.690" LastActivityDate="2016-12-21T04:12:45.690" Title="Does ayurveda has medicine for cancer?" Tags="|scripture|translation-request|ayurveda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2016-12-20T11:10:04.900" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16389" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-17T03:46:40.583" Score="11" ViewCount="543" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Many warriors like Bhishma, Indrajit, etc., had &lt;strong&gt;boons&lt;/strong&gt; which made them &lt;strong&gt;invincible in a battle&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Even Karna had &lt;strong&gt;Kavacha&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Kundalas&lt;/strong&gt; which made him invincible (or almost immortal) in any battle.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If one battles with invincibility then there is &lt;strong&gt;no chance&lt;/strong&gt; for him to be &lt;strong&gt;defeated&lt;/strong&gt; by others and to defeat him, others are forced to take the path of adharma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Examples:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sugriva defeated Vali with the &lt;strong&gt;help of Lord Rama&lt;/strong&gt; by striking him from behind.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmana defeated Indrajit by stopping his yagna with the &lt;strong&gt;help of Vanaras&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna defeated Bhishma with the &lt;strong&gt;help of Shikandi&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;So if having these kinds of boons is &lt;strong&gt;dharma&lt;/strong&gt; (i.e., allowed) then why should such warriors be defeated using adharma?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If possessing boons that makes one invincible in a battle, &lt;strong&gt;adharma&lt;/strong&gt;, please explain why it is adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-21T03:26:27.860" LastActivityDate="2018-04-14T01:22:54.080" Title="Is invincibility in a battle dharma or adharma?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|dharma|bhishma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16390" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16396" CreationDate="2016-12-17T04:03:00.113" Score="10" ViewCount="3477" Body="&lt;p&gt;In most temples and homes, especially in villages, low-caste people are not allowed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These regulations are being followed for thousands of years now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason behind such practice? What do scriptures say about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-17T04:31:41.137" LastActivityDate="2022-09-19T08:04:19.190" Title="Why low-caste people are not allowed inside some temples and homes?" Tags="|temple|practice|culture|caste-system|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16391" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-17T04:26:47.557" Score="4" ViewCount="62" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do the four elements (fire, water, earth and air) shown in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Avatar (The Last Airbender)&lt;/a&gt; series have any basis in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this just a fun way to represent in Hinduism or are there verses in Hindu scriptures to back it up?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MxWCIm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MxWCIm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7350" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-17T04:57:25.363" LastActivityDate="2016-12-17T04:57:25.363" Title="Do the Four Elements shown in Avatar Airbender series have any basis in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|gods|agni|panchabhoota|vayu|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2016-12-17T16:41:08.033" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16392" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16390" CreationDate="2016-12-17T05:48:51.217" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scriptures say that all people should be treated equally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Enlightened men are those &lt;strong&gt;who see the same&lt;/strong&gt; in a Brahmana with learning&#xA;  and humility, in a cow, in an elephant, and even in a dog or in an&#xA;  eater of dog-meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 5.18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then there is this passage which explains how a person who sees the same in everything behaves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma continued [Suka said],’..By knowledge, one attains to that&#xA;  whither there is no occasion for grief; whither one becomes freed from&#xA;  birth and death; whither one is not subject to decrepitude; whither&#xA;  one transcends the state of conscious existence; whither is Brahma&#xA;  which is Supreme, Unmanifest, immutable, ever-existent, imperceptible,&#xA;  above the reach of pain, immortal, and transcending destruction;&#xA;  whither all become freed from the influence of all pairs of opposites&#xA;  (like pleasure and pain, etc), as also wish or purpose. &lt;strong&gt;Reaching that&#xA;  stage, they cast equal eyes on everything, becoming universal friends&#xA;  and devoted to the good of all the creatures.’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCXLI&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita and Mahabharata say that one should treat all people equally by becoming universal friends of all, doing good to all, whether in a temple or outside. It is not possible to be universal friends of all if you prevent fellow Hindus from entering a temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some Smritis that say otherwise but they clearly are in conflict with the Gita. One Smriti asks molten lead to be poured in the ears of a Sudra if he dares to listen to the Vedas. Some temples do not allow lower caste people to enter temples inspired by such appalling and vicious statements. It is of course now illegal to stop any Hindu from entering a Hindu temple. Unfortunately the enforcement of the law is lax in some village areas. People who stop fellow Hindus from entering temples should be punished in exemplary fashion to stop this pernicious practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2016-12-23T07:18:28.750" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T07:18:28.750" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16393" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8753" CreationDate="2016-12-17T06:18:24.167" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think Prabhupada is stating diameter of Universe from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/20/38&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; of Srimad Bhagvatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एतावाळ् लोक-विन्यासो मान-लक्षण-संस्थाभिर् विचिन्तितः कविभिः स तु ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;पञ्चाशत्-कोटि-गणितस्य भू-गोलस्य&lt;/strong&gt; तुरीय-भागो ’यं लोकालोकाचलः ।। (SB 5.20.38)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Learned scholars have thus described the planetary systems and their particular symptoms, measurements and locations. By mathematical calculation it comes that Lokaloka is situated at one fourth (Turiya Bhaga) of &lt;strong&gt;this Physical Universe (Bhumandala) which has diameter of 50 crore yojana (PanchaShat Koti).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That verse states: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पञ्चाशत्-कोटि-गणितस्य भू-गोलस्य।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Bhu Gola (Mandala) is mathematically calculated as 50 crore (Yojanas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a side note it is not necessary that 50 crore Yojanas is equal to 4 billion miles. Value of Yojana is a debated value. Also it may be cosmic Yojana. Also it maybe diameter of BhuMandala during Saraswata Kalpa as Bhagvatam narrates the Story of Saraswata Kalpa. Also the term Koti usually means millions but it isn&amp;apos;t necessary that it always means millions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-12-17T06:18:24.167" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16395" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-17T07:33:41.950" Score="16" ViewCount="9815" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga112/yuddha_112_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, after Ravana's death his brother Vibhishana is coronated as the king of Lanka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing the words of the great soled Rama, Lakshmana replied, 'so it be' and rejoicingly procured a golden pot. That mighty Lakshmana, then placing that pot in the hands of the monkey-chiefs, instructed them, who were as swift as thought, to bring sea-water. Thereupon, those excellent monkeys, with the swiftness of thought, moving very quickly from that place, returned, having obtained the water from the sea. Thereupon, Lakshmana together with his friends, taking one pot and making Vibhishana sit on the throne, sprinkled him with sea-water from that pot in accordance with the rule prescribed in Vedic scriptures, while the demons were witnessing the ceremony, to make him the king for Lanka, as directed by Rama. Then, all the demons, as well as the monkeys, consecrated Vibhishana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-121&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana describes how Rama blessed Vibhishana with immortality right before Rama departed the Earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He then said to Vibhishana the king of Rakshasas: As long as people shall breathe, O Vibhishana, O highly powerful lord of Rakshasas, thou shalt preserve thy body in Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, when and how did Vibhishana step down as king of Lanka?  Vibhishana is obviously not ruling Sri Lanka today, so what caused him to stop ruling it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/KbJR&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Nagara Kanda of the Skanda Puranas describes how when Rama's son Kusha was ruling Ayodhya, he sent a message to Vibhishana to keep the Rakshasas from coming into India and creating havoc.  So Vibhishana was still ruling Lanka during Kusha's reign. And going to even more recent times, Vibhishana was still ruling Lanka during the time of Yudhishthira's Rajasuya Yagna, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02030.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And, O king of kings, that slayer of all foes, the virtuous and intelligent son of Madri having arrived at the sea-shore, then despatched with great assurance messengers unto the illustrious Vibhishana, the grandson of Pulastya. And the monarch willingly accepted the sway of the son of Pandu, for that intelligent and exalted king regarded it all as the act of Time. And he sent unto the son of Pandu diverse kinds of jewels and gems, and sandal and also wood, and many celestial ornaments, and much costly apparel, and many valuable pearls. And the intelligent Sahadeva, accepting them all, returned to his own kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So even during the Mahabharata period, Vibhishana was still ruling Lanka.  So what changed between then and now?Do any scriptures describe Vibhishana handing the throne to one of his sons?Do any ancient Indian writers living in the Kali Yuga (like Adi Shankaracharya, for instance) state that Vibhishana was still ruling Lanka in their time? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now there is a small number of people, like the author of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8991/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, who argue that Ravana's Lanka is not the same as the modern-day island of Sri Lanka.  If that's the case then Vibhishana could still be ruling Ravana's Lanka to this day.  But I find such theories rather far-fetched.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: The &lt;a href=&quot;http://lakdiva.org/mahavamsa/chap001.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;first chapter&lt;/a&gt; of an ancient Buddhist text called the Mahavamsa claims that Buddha went to Lanka and drove away all the Yakshas, which may be a metonymy for Rakshasas, and sent them to a place called Giridipa.  And it seems that there was a legendary Buddhist prince named &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Vijaya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vijaya&lt;/a&gt; who is said to have fought Yakshas in Lanka.  But I want to know what Hinduism has to say.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="13148" LastEditDate="2018-04-04T19:30:18.067" LastActivityDate="2020-04-19T19:38:55.433" Title="When did Vibhishana stop being king of Lanka?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|asuras|vibhishana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16396" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16390" CreationDate="2016-12-17T09:51:47.567" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well,the Hindu Shastras ,mostly consider the lowest caste,the Sudra,as being impure and also consider that &lt;strong&gt;they can transmit this impurity to other objects or living beings by touch or association etc.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar are the rules,for the fallen caste or the outcaste or the chandala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm adding here a few verses from the Parashara Smriti,which is widely regarded as the Dharma Shastra to be followed in the current Yuga i.e the Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;21. If himself unwashed, he is touched by a Shoodra, who, however, is not unwashed, — the purification is to wash himself&lt;/strong&gt;. If an&#xA;  unwashed Shoodra touches an unwashed regenerate man, the latter must&#xA;  perform the prajapatya penance&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;23&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bronze vessels smelt by a cow, or polluted by a dog or a crow, &lt;strong&gt;or if a Shoodra has made them unclean by eating off them,&lt;/strong&gt; are rendered pure, when they have been ten times rubbed with ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;While a Brahman has not washed himself after taking his meals, &lt;strong&gt;if he chances to be touched&lt;/strong&gt; by another yet unwashed after a meal, or by a dog, &lt;strong&gt;or by a Shoodra&lt;/strong&gt;, he &lt;strong&gt;should fast for a single night,&#xA;  and then swallow the five articles derived from a cow, whereby purity&#xA;  is restored to- him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verses make it clear that the Sudras have the ability to make things/beings impure by his touch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some more verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;34&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To eat a Shoodra's food, to associate with him, to sit in the same place with, him, and receive knowledge by his instruction, would cause&#xA;  degradation even to one who resembles the kindled fire&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Salt, honey and oil, curded milk, whey, and milk all these are not polluted by the touch of persons of the Shoodra caste&lt;/strong&gt;.Shoodra may sell&#xA;  these to all the castes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PesmU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PesmU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/s2dvI.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/s2dvI.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 35 clearly states that a Sudra can make many things impure simply by his touch .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti states that Sudras are created out of Tamas(the mode of darkness,ignorance etc)(one of the 3 Gunas,the other two being Sattva and Rajas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 12.43. Elephants, horses, &lt;strong&gt;Sudras&lt;/strong&gt;, and despicable&#xA;  barbarians, lions, tigers, and boars (are) the middling states, &lt;strong&gt;caused&#xA;  by (the quality of) Darkness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the temple priests,who are all Brahmins,might be apprehensive of the fact that ,if the Sudras by accident touch them or any other objects in Temples,might render them impure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To make them and themselves pure again(which is of course the first necessity in rituals) would be a cumbersome job.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is &lt;strong&gt;probably&lt;/strong&gt; the reason why such prohibitions are there regarding the Sudras and the outcastes entering Temple premises. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although, i don't really know which Temples actually have such restrictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, take a look at the following verse which says that it is not all about caste by birth only:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;24&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Brahman, ignorant of the Gayatri hymn, is more unclean than even a Shoodra&lt;/strong&gt; ; the Brahmans who know the nature and the sanctity&#xA;  of the Gayatri hymn, are honored and revered by all persons(Parashara&#xA;  Smriti)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,even an ignorant Brahmin should be stopped from entering Temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But preventing Sudras from entering houses of the Higher castes &lt;strong&gt;is of course not supported by Scriptures&lt;/strong&gt;.Because, to serve the higher castes is considered to be the only job of a Sudra.&lt;strong&gt;And to serve anyone a Sudra should first be allowed entry to his house.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PPxUz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PPxUz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas state that the Sudras are created from the feet of the Supreme Being.So,like everyone else,they are also a part of the Almighty,and they too reserve the right to worship the Almighty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brāhmao’sya mukham ās īt | bāhūrājanyakta  | ūrū tada sya yad vaiśya &#xA;  | &lt;strong&gt;padbhy āgśūdro aj āyata&lt;/strong&gt; || 13 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The   brahmin was his mouth,  of  both    His arms    was the Raja    made.&#xA;  His   thighs  became  the Vaishya,    &lt;strong&gt;from  His feet    was the Shudra  produced.&#xA;  13(Purusha Suktam verse 13)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,i am not quite in favor of stopping them from entering Temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,its not practically possible to check either, if someone entering a Temple is a Sudra(by birth) or an ignorant Brahmin like the one described above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-18T05:17:52.090" LastActivityDate="2016-12-18T05:17:52.090" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16397" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3713" CreationDate="2016-12-17T11:08:10.070" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15676/how-is-it-possible-for-rama-to-reach-ayodhya-in-20-days-from-dusherra/15685#15685&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;answer here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;em&gt;Padma Purana, Patala Khanda chapter 36&lt;/em&gt; gives each and every Tithi of Ramas life in detail. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दशैकाधिकमासांस्तुचतुर्दशाहानिमैथिली । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उवासरामरहितारावणस्यानिवेशने ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  द्विचत्वारिंशकवर्षेरामोराज्यमकारयत । &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Maithill (i.e. Sita) lived without Rama in the house of Ravana for eleven months and fourteen days&lt;/strong&gt;. Rama ruled (i.e. was consecrated as the king) when he was forty-two years old. At that time SIta had completed thirty-three years. That lord Rama being delighted entered the city Ayodhya at the end of the fourteenth year and with his brothers ruled there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Sita lived without Rama in the house of Ravana for &lt;strong&gt;11 months and 14 days.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-12-17T11:08:10.070" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16398" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-12-17T14:59:48.770" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Aranyaka (आरण्यक) is the &lt;strong&gt;Philosophy behind ritual sacrifice part of the ancient Indian texts, the Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;. Aranyakas describe and discuss rituals from various perspectives.&lt;strong&gt;Aranyaka  literally means &quot;produced, born, relating to a forest&lt;/strong&gt;.Some of the names include &quot; Aitareya Aranyaka&quot; ,&quot;Taittiriya Aranyaka&quot; ,&quot;Brihad-Aranyaka&quot;.&#xA;They typically represent the earlier sections of Vedas, and are one of many layers of the Vedic texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-18T03:39:08.717" LastActivityDate="2016-12-18T03:39:08.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16399" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-12-17T14:59:48.770" Score="0" Body="The Aranyaka (आरण्यक) is the Philosophy behind ritual sacrifice part of the ancient Indian texts, the Vedas. " OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-17T16:41:37.477" LastActivityDate="2016-12-17T16:41:37.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16401" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16402" CreationDate="2016-12-18T06:00:55.247" Score="20" ViewCount="1956" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva destroys the entire Universe when the Mahakalpa ends. Brahma too attains Moksha in that pralaya. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vedas in their personal form are also present in Brahmaloka along with Brahma. For eg. Hayagriva Asura stole the Vedas from Brahmaloka and took them to Patala and thus Lord Vishnu took Hayagriva incarnation and again restored them.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But as the &lt;strong&gt;BrahmaLoka itself gets destroyed during the Mahakalpa, how do the Vedas survive then?&lt;/strong&gt; As Vedas are eternal how do they manage to survive? (for instance we say new Brahma comes after Mahakalpa but we do not say new Vedas come after Mahakalpa ie. The Vedas are eternal). &lt;em&gt;How do they survive the Mahapralya performed by Lord Shiva at the end of Mahakalpa?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-02-17T11:46:05.147" Title="How do the Vedas survive during the dissolution of the Universe?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|puranas|history|yuga|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16402" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16401" CreationDate="2016-12-18T06:03:23.110" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;During the time of dissolution Lord Shiva doesn&amp;apos;t destroys the Vedas because they enter the Panchakshari Mantra (Nama Shivaya) and thus Lord Shiva graces on them.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the &lt;em&gt;Linga Purana Chapter 85 &amp;quot;Glory of Panchakshara Mantra&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; Lord Shiva states to Godesses Parvati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रलये समनुप्राप्ते नष्टे स्थावरजंगमे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नष्टे देवासुरे चैव नष्टे चोरगराक्षसे ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वं प्रकृतिमापन्नं त्वया प्रलयमेष्यति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एकोहं संस्थितो देवी न द्वितियोस्ति कुत्रचित् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;During the time of dissolution,&lt;/strong&gt; when all the mobile and immobile beings, the Gods and Asuras, Nagas and Rakshasas get destroyed and O godesses, all the things including you yourself get absorbed in the Prakriti then only I remain in the Universe. None else remain on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, Lord Shiva states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तस्मिन्वेदाश्च शास्त्राणि मंत्रे पञ्चाक्षरे स्थिताः&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ते नाशं नैव संप्राप्ता मच्छक्त्या ह्यनुपालिताः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;At that point of time, the Vedas enter into the Panchakshari Mantra and they do not get destroyed because of my grace.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Vedas survive themselves by entering in the Panchakshari Mantra and thus Lord Shiva graces on them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2016-12-18T06:03:23.110" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16403" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16383" CreationDate="2016-12-18T07:07:59.813" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Starting with the age of &lt;code&gt;Kali Yuga&lt;/code&gt;, is 4,32,000 years. Till now 5115 years have passed. The Wiki article says : According to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya_Siddhanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Surya Siddhanta&lt;/a&gt;, Kali Yuga began at midnight (00:00) on 18 February 3102 BCE. This is also considered the date on which Lord Krishna left the earth to return to his heavenly abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the astronomer and mathematician Aryabhatta the Kali Yuga started in 3102 BCE. He finished his book &lt;code&gt;Aryabhattiya&lt;/code&gt; in 499 CE, in which he gives the exact year of the beginning of Kali Yuga. He writes that he wrote the book in the &lt;code&gt;year 3600 of the Kali Age&lt;/code&gt; at the age of 23.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this is the partly story of the day:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On 18 February 3102 BCE Lord Krishn went to a forest near Prabhasa theertham (the junction point where Gomathi river joins the sea), in Gujarat to meditate, in his chariot driven by Dharuka. Once reached there, he told Dharuka: &lt;strong&gt;Go back. Inform all those left in Dwaraka, that it would be shortly submerged by ocean as Dwapara Yug was ending and that all should move to other places for safety…&lt;/strong&gt;. After Dharuka left, In the forest, Sri Krishn witnessed his brother Sri Balram attain &lt;code&gt;videha mukti&lt;/code&gt; (consciously and intentionally leaving one’s body). After this he wandered about immersed in deep thought and finally began to accept his destiny. Then Krishna sat down to meditate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Jara, mistook Krishna for a deer and shot an arrow into his foot, came and saw Krishna he was shocked and asked for forgiveness. Krishna  smiled at him and said &lt;strong&gt;You need not repent, because you were Bali in your previous birth and I as Rama had killed you in Tretayuga. Now, I have to leave this body and was waiting for an opportunity to end my life. I was waiting for you so that the karmic debt between you and me is finished. Since all acts in this world are done as desired by me, you need not worry for this&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Still, on realizing his grave error he was filled with remorse and grief. But Krishna consoled him and said - &lt;strong&gt;Don't be scared or sorry as these were the ways of destiny&lt;/strong&gt;. Those were the great Lord’s last words on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The time stood still on February 18, 3102 BC Friday at 02 hours, 27 minutes and 30 seconds in the afternoon. His death marked the end of Dwapar yuga. The period after his disappearance marks the first day of Kali Yug.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.encyclopediaofauthentichinduism.org/articles/51_the_bhartiya_chronology.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The beginning of Kaliyug&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8476" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-18T07:07:59.813" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16404" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3805" CreationDate="2016-12-18T10:30:53.983" Score="3" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Why the population is so high in Kali-Yuga ?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  answer  to this question is given indirectly in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&lt;/strong&gt; at various places.I will explain the cause through those Shlokas (verses).Before giving that let me give a brief backgroud about Kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a story of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/17/38&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;King Parikshita &amp;amp; Kaliyuga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.In which king&#xA;  parikshita gave four places for kaliyuga to live  they are &lt;strong&gt;1) Gambling&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;2) Wine or Alcohol 3) violence 4) Sexual cheating or (Vyabhichara ,&#xA;  व्याभिचार)).&lt;/strong&gt; These are the sanskrit verses from Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&#xA;  telling us the characteristics of kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So What exactly is Kaliyuga&lt;/strong&gt;-: According to Bhagvatam Kaliyuga means. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदा मायानृतं तन्द्रायदा मायानृतं तन्द्रा निद्रा हिंसा विषादनम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शोको मोहो भयं दैन्यं स &lt;strong&gt;कालिस्तामस:&lt;/strong&gt; स्मृत ॥30॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yadā māyānṛtaṁ tandrā nidrā hiṁsā viṣādanam&lt;br&gt; śoka-mohau bhayaṁ&#xA;  dainyam sa &lt;strong&gt;kalis&lt;/strong&gt; tāmasaḥ smṛtaḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - When there is a predominance of cheating, lying, sloth, sleepiness, violence, depression, lamentation, bewilderment, fear and&#xA;  poverty, that age is &lt;strong&gt;Kali, the age of the mode of ignorance&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/30&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 12.3.30&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;characteristics of this Kaliyuga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दस्यूत्कृष्टा जनपदा वेदा: पाखण्डदूषिता:।&lt;br&gt; राजनश्च प्रजाभक्षा:&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;शिश्नोदपरा&lt;/strong&gt; द्विजा:॥32॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dasyūtkṛṣṭā janapadā vedāḥ pāṣaṇḍa-dūṣitāḥ&lt;br&gt; rājānaś ca&#xA;  prajā-bhakṣāḥ &lt;strong&gt;śiśnodara-parā&lt;/strong&gt; dvijāḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Cities will be dominated by thieves, the Vedas will be&#xA;  contaminated by speculative interpretations of atheists, political&#xA;  leaders will virtually consume the citizens, and the so-called priests&#xA;  and &lt;strong&gt;intellectuals will be devotees of their bellies and genitals.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/32&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 12.3.32&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पितृभ्रातृसुहॄज्ज्ञातीन हित्वा सौरतसौह्यदा:।&lt;br&gt; ननान्द्रुश्यालसंवादा&#xA;  दीना: स्त्रैणा: कलौ नरा:॥37॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pitṛ-bhrātṛ-suhṛj-jñātīn hitvā saurata-sauhṛdāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nanāndṛ-śyāla-saṁvādā dīnāḥ straiṇāḥ kalau narāḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;- In Kali-yuga men will be wretched and controlled by women. They will reject their fathers, brothers, other relatives and&#xA;  friends and will instead associate with the sisters and brothers of&#xA;  their wives. &lt;strong&gt;Thus their conception of friendship will be based&#xA;  exclusively on sexual ties.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 12.3.37&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न रक्षिष्यन्ति मनुजा: स्थविरौ पितरावपि ।&lt;br&gt; पुत्रान सर्वार्थकुशलान&#xA;  क्षुद्रा:शिश्नोदरम्भरा॥42॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na rakṣiṣyanti manujāḥ sthavirau pitarāv api&lt;br&gt; putrān bhāryāṁ ca&#xA;  kula-jām kṣudrāḥ śiśnodaraṁ-bharāḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Men will no longer protect their elderly parents, their children or their respectable wives. Thoroughly degraded, &lt;strong&gt;they will&#xA;  care only to satisfy their own bellies and genitals.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/42&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 12.3.42&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So from above shlokas(verses) we come to know that in Kaliyuga People's mind are corrupted due to excessive materialistic desires.They are   more sexual pleasure oriented. They are only thinking of satisfying there sense's or sexual desires.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And I think that is one of the &lt;strong&gt;reason&lt;/strong&gt; of high &lt;strong&gt;population&lt;/strong&gt; in Kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-12-18T10:30:53.983" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16405" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16355" CreationDate="2016-12-18T10:54:17.860" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, in his translation, Prabhupāda is trying to reach a broad foreign audience not familiar with Vedantic terms. Rather than translate ‘&lt;em&gt;tamah&lt;/em&gt;’ as ‘mode of ignorance’ it is better to just use the word &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;tamah&lt;/em&gt; – one of the three &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; - qualities. Oversimplification has its merits – and demerits. His translation is a little confusing as he translates ‘&lt;em&gt;tamah&lt;/em&gt;’ as ‘ignorance’ and ‘&lt;em&gt;ajñāna-ja&lt;/em&gt;m’ as ‘produced of ignorance’. Two different Sanskrit words with different purports but ONLY &lt;em&gt;apparently&lt;/em&gt; almost the same meaning in English. &lt;em&gt;Tamah&lt;/em&gt; is the &lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt; known as &lt;em&gt;tamah&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;. ‘&lt;em&gt;ajñāna-jam&lt;/em&gt;’, however, means ‘produced/born of ignorance’ – but all the &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;sattwa&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;) are ‘&lt;em&gt;ajñāna-jam&lt;/em&gt;’ – not only &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;. Several translators have used similar translations of ‘&lt;em&gt;ajñāna-jam&lt;/em&gt;’ - I do not mean to single out Prabhupāda - BUT it should not be equated to mean ONLY that out of which &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; is produced. Remember that a more literal translation of ‘&lt;em&gt;jnana&lt;/em&gt;’ is ‘knowledge’ and ‘&lt;em&gt;ajnana&lt;/em&gt;’ - ‘not’ knowledge. The juxtaposition of the English word ignorance in the same sentence inclines the mind to see the same meaning to the word. A more literal translation would be – ‘the &lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt; known as &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; produced out of that which is not knowledge’. Which leads to what is meant by knowledge and not-knowledge?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The qualities/definitions of the three &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; are clearly stated in Chapter 14. Where the &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; are derived from is stated in &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; 13.19 (“…all forms and gunas are born of Prakriti”).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A clearer understanding of all of this can be had from Sadananda’s &lt;em&gt;Vedantasara&lt;/em&gt; verse 34 (original Sanskrit/English text with commentary downloadable here - &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/doc/79765830/Vedantasara-of-Sadananda-translated-with-commentary-of-Swami-Nikhilananda-of-Ramakrishna-Order-1931&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.scribd.com/doc/79765830/Vedantasara-of-Sadananda-translated-with-commentary-of-Swami-Nikhilananda-of-Ramakrishna-Order-1931&lt;/a&gt;) It says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But ignorance [meaning not Knowledge] is described as something positive though intangible, which cannot be described either as being or non-being, which is made of three qualities [&lt;em&gt;Gunas&lt;/em&gt;] and is antagonistic to Knowledge. Its existence is established from such experiences as “I am ignorant”, and from such Sruti passages as, “The power belonging to God Himself, in hidden its own qualities” (Svet. Up. I. 3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his footnotes to the above, Swami Nikhilananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;But&lt;/em&gt; – The text offers a special theory on the subject.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Something&lt;/em&gt; – This word has a special significance. It is not used to denote its indescribable nature, nor its antagonism to Knowledge and Truth as these ideas have been well expressed by separate phrases. Its special significance is to posit ignorance as the source or cause of illusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Positive&lt;/em&gt; – This is a difficult word and requires some explanation. This part of the definition is given in order to refute the contention that ignorance is mere negation, as it is antagonistic to Knowledge. The Nyaya school says that the absence of Knowledge is ignorance and so it is a negation. But the Vedantist says it is not a negation. He asks, what is Knowledge whose negation is contended to be ignorance? We can understand Knowledge from three aspects. Firstly, Knowledge is used as synonymous with ‘the Witness, the Perceiver,” (Svet. Up. 6. 11). Its absence cannot be called ignorance as it is eternal and therefore can never be associated with a state of negation. Secondly, a particular function of mind is termed knowledge, as in the passage, “Through understanding one understands the Rig-Veda” (Chh. Up. 7. 7. 1). But here ‘knowledge’ is used in only in an indirect sense. No mental function can illumine an object unless it has the Self at its back. The eyes, ears, etc., seem to perform their functions consciously because they draw their consciousness from the Self. Comp. – “All this is guided by Consciousness and is based on Consciousness; this universe has Consciousness for its guide, Consciousness for its base; Consciousness is Brahman.” (Ait. Up. 5. 3). Hence, under no circumstances can this Knowledge exist in a negative state. Thirdly, ignorance cannot be said to consist of the negation of knowledge, particular or general. Because when a man makes a statement as, “I am ignorant, I do not know anything,” even then he does not lose all sense of perception. Though he may not perceive a particular object, he perceives another. Again, there cannot be any negation of general knowledge as without it knowledge of a particular object becomes impossible. Therefore it stands to reason that Knowledge which is eternal, ever-existent and positive can never be connected or associated with negation. But when ignorance is said to be (positive), it does not denote an absolute substance which only Brahman is. Were it so, there would not be any liberation. Therefore this term is used to differentiate it from negation. Ignorance is different from reality and unreality, as neuter is different from male and female. Really this ignorance can never be properly explained. It has found a place in Vedanta philosophy in order to explain the otherwise inexplicable production of the phenomenal world. It is absurd to seek for its proof. It cannot be roved by our reasoning because human reasoning can never be free from (ignorance). To prove it by reasoning is like seeing darkness with the help of darkness. Nor can it be proved by Knowledge, as at the awakening of Knowledge there cannot remain any trace of ignorance. To prove ignorance by Knowledge is like seeing darkness by a blazing light. Comp. – “The characteristic of ignorance is its very unintelligibleness. It cannot bear any proof, or it will be a real thing” (Brihadaranyakavartika verse 181). – “This illusion is without support and contradictory to all reasoning. It cannot bear any reasoning just as darkness cannot stand the sun.” Therefore like the fanciful imagination of the sun by one who is blind by day, the sages called ignorance indescribable, as it is neither real nor unreal, nor real-unreal, neither with parts nor without parts, and neither separable from Knowledge nor inseparable from It.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Which etc.&lt;/em&gt; – It is not existent because it disappears at the awakening of Knowledge. It is not non-existent like a child of a barren woman otherwise there would not be any dealing with the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Three qualities&lt;/em&gt; – These are &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; (serenity), &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; (activity) and &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; (inertia). These qualities have been mentioned in the following scriptural passages, though the Sankhya philosophy may justly claim to have fully developed the theory of the three &lt;em&gt;Gunas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“There is one unborn (feminine) being, red, white, and black, producing manifold offspring of the same nature as itself” (Svet. Up. 4. 5). This refers to (Nature) which is composed of the three qualities mentioned above. These three qualities are found to exist in all the products of &lt;em&gt;Prakriti&lt;/em&gt;. Comp. – “The red colour that we notice in fire is its own colour, the white colour the colour of water, and the black colour is the colour of earth” (Chh. Up. 6. 4. 1). Like its effects, the cause, which is ignorance, is also made of the three qualities, though in the latter case they remain in an unmanifested state. Though the three qualities are attributes of (ignorance), yet they are its essential parts, as substance is inseparable from its attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Antagonistic etc.&lt;/em&gt; – This definition is given in order to refute the contention that there would never be any cessation of phenomena, as the eternal ignorance manifested in the form of sky etc., appears to be real. Ignorance with all its modifications vanishes away at the dawn of Knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I am etc.&lt;/em&gt; – This experience illustrates the positiveness of ignorance.&#xA;  Such Sruti etc. – Comp. – “Knowledge is enveloped by ignorance, hence the creatures are deluded” (Gita 5. 15). – “Veiled by this illusion owing to the association of Gunas, I am not manifest to all” (Gita 7. 25).    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also see by the above quote, the answer to your question – What vedic scripture is Prabhupāda referring to? As stated above, although the &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; were fully developed in the Samkhya philosophy, there are references to the three &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; in the Chandogya and Svetasvatara Upanishads. But, in the Upanishads they are not referred to as the ‘gunas’, but as colors. The term &lt;em&gt;gunas&lt;/em&gt; came after the Upanishads. You can also see from the above quote a discussion of the term ignorance meaning ‘not-knowledge’ which lends itself to a better understanding of &lt;em&gt;ajñāna-jam&lt;/em&gt; in the Gita text 14.8.        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-12-18T10:54:17.860" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16406" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16401" CreationDate="2016-12-18T13:27:44.657" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;By the Vedas are meant the eternal truths. It does not mean that the 'exact' words or text, what it means is the ideas conveyed by them. In any given cycle, the words may be different but the eternal truths revealed by them are the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first mundaka verses 1-6 of the &lt;em&gt;Mundaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (I. i. 1-6) tells of the vedas coming from Brahman, their teaching by Brahma, and their division into two kinds of knowledge; the higher knowledge which teaches the Knowledge of Brahman (Upanishads), and the lower knowledge which teaches the rituals, mantras, etc. (Rig, Yajur, Sama, Atharva) and various other sciences. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-12-18T13:27:44.657" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16407" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22215" CreationDate="2016-12-18T15:27:29.877" Score="9" ViewCount="421" Body="&lt;p&gt;Revealing her second boon to Daśaratha, Kaikeyī &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga11/ayodhyasans11.htm#Verse26&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;नव पञ्च च वर्षाणि&amp;quot; (nine and five years) instead of चतुर्दश वर्षाणि (fourteen years). Is this just Vālmīki's play of words or is there a deeper significance to it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नव पञ्च च वर्षाणि&lt;/strong&gt; दण्डकारण्यमाश्रितः || २-११-२६ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;चीराजिनजटाधारी रामो भवतु तापसः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;26.&#xA;raamaH = Rama; aashritaH = has to take refuge; daNdakaaranyam = in the forest of Dandaka; &lt;strong&gt;nava paJNcha cha varshhaNi&lt;/strong&gt; = for fourteen years; bhavatu taapasaH = let him become ascetic; chiiraajiina jataadhaarii = wearing rags; deer skin and matted hair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Rama has to take refuge in the forest of Dandaka &lt;strong&gt;for fourteen years&lt;/strong&gt; and let him become an ascetic wearing rags, deer skin and matted hair&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-19T16:53:44.490" Title="In her second boon, why does Kaikeyi say नव पञ्च च वर्षाणि (nine and five years) instead of चतुर्दश वर्षाणि (fourteen years)?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|valmiki|kaikeyi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16408" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16401" CreationDate="2016-12-18T17:06:42.840" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas are not a bunch of hymns or mantras. They are the subtle disturbances in the infinite void that give rise to the (macro- and micro-) universe of dualities. Really and truly, they are nothing but the law of karma (or the samskaras and impressions accumulated over the course of existence, if you will) realized as such, from a place (actually a non-place) where karma does not apply. You can even think of as it as occupying a body that is free of any of the &quot;marks&quot; left on the &quot;outer&quot; bodies which interact with the phenomenal universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At that point of time, the Vedas enter into the Panchakshari Mantra&#xA;  and they do not get destroyed because of my grace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is meant here is simply that by meditation on the panchakshari mantra (which exercise culminates in fusion with said mantra) one transcends the world of dualities (mantra and meditator).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this sense, the meditator can be said to fuse with the infinite void and there is no difference between the two. That is what it means to attain the Vedas, and why the Vedas must be eternal. The very existence of (the concept of) existence presupposes the Vedas, for without any eddies in the infinite void, without any subtle disturbances in Mind, the phenomenal universe would not obtain. This is sometimes expressed in the hierarchical relationship between manas, chitta, buddhi, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8498" LastEditorUserId="8498" LastEditDate="2016-12-18T19:32:52.270" LastActivityDate="2016-12-18T19:32:52.270" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16409" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-18T19:30:20.083" Score="14" ViewCount="1166" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Valmiki Ramayana Sundarakanda, Ravana's son Indrajeet captures Hanuman using  Brahmastra. Then he was summoned in Ravana's court.  Ravana who was greatly angered due to the destruction of his favorite garden and death of his men was struck with following suspicion in his mind after looking at Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga50/sundara_50_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sundara Kanda chapter 50 verse 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;किमेष भगवान्नन्दी भवेत्साक्षादिहागतः ||&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  येन शप्तोऽस्मि कैलासे मया संचालिते पुरा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोऽयम् वानरमूर्तिः स्यात्किंस्विद्&lt;strong&gt;बाणो महासुरः&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Mount Kailasa was moved by me, is it the same Nandi the divine bull (attendant of Siva) which cursed me long ago and came here now in this form or whether he is &lt;strong&gt;Bana the great demon (son of Bali)&lt;/strong&gt; came here in the form of a monkey.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know the story of Ravana moving Kailasa and getting cursed by Divine bull of Shiva The Nandi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;what was the story of Ravana meeting Bali's(Son of Virochana) son Bana?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which scriptures mention this story? Which kind of relation did they have? Friendship or rivalry?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-24T04:12:34.223" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T12:11:53.690" Title="What was the memory/rivalry of Ravana with Bali's son Bana?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|ravana|bali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16412" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-19T03:35:02.647" Score="8" ViewCount="237" Body="&lt;p&gt;For many Hindus, The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa has become a way of life. But for Rāma himself it is the Śruti and Smṛti that have guided every step and every move of his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One instance where the Smṛtis and dharma śāstras are consulted for a fact-check is when Bharata decides to fast unto death unless his demand that, Rāma return to and rule Ayodhyā, is met.&lt;sup&gt;§&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga111/ayodhyasans111.htm#Verse14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनाहारो निरालोको धन हीनो यथा द्विजः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शेष्ये पुरस्तात् शालाया यावन् न प्रतियास्यति || २-१११-१४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I shall remain lying down in front of Rama's hut without food or drink and depriving myself of light until he returns to Ayodhya, like a Brahmin who is a destitute (lies down at the door of his creditor).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rāma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga111/ayodhyasans111.htm#Verse17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;replies&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मणो ह्य् एक पार्श्वेन नरान् रोद्धुम् इह अर्हति | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न तु मूर्धा अवसिक्तानाम् विधिः प्रत्युपवेशने || २-१११-१७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A brahmana may lie down on one side in order to obstruct a willful debtor in this world. But, it is not befitting for a warrior-class.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rāma goes on to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga111/ayodhyasans111.htm#Verse23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;say&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एतच् च एव उभयम् श्रुत्वा सम्यक् सम्पश्य राघव | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उत्तिष्ठ त्वम् महा बाहो माम् च स्पृश तथा उदकम् || २-१११-२३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O the mighty armed Bharata! Having listened to their testimony and mine, reflect on the matter carefully. &lt;strong&gt;Rise&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;touch me&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;drink water&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which Smṛtis or dharma śāstras, that give a brāhmaṇa the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16132&quot;&gt;adhikāra&lt;/a&gt; to fast unto death to collect his debt, is Rāma referring to above?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why does Rāma ask Bharata to touch him? Does any Smṛti say that a person who just committed a sin or has initiated an adhārmic action can undo the effects of the act by simply touching a dhārmic person?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;§&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;sub&gt;I suspect it is this incident that has inspired Mahatma Gandhi and continues to inspire today's politicians to go on a fast to force the ruling party to give in to their demands.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T06:46:59.203" Title="Which Smṛtis or dharma śāstras give a brāhmaṇa the adhikāra to fast unto death to collect his debt?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|dharma|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16413" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-12-19T04:33:13.393" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Asura Mahabali&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Bali&lt;/em&gt; was great great grand son of Sage Kashyapa, great grand son of demon Hiranya Kashyapu, grandson of Prahlada who was famous for his devotion towards the Lord Hari and son of Virochana. Bali is also a devotee of Lord Hari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bali was famous for his donation of three foot land to Vamana who is the manifestation of Lord Narayana himself. He was sent to netherworld for some period. He was given the boon of becoming Indra in the next manvantara i.e., Sa:varni. Bali is also among the chiranjivis(those with longer life spans) of Hindu mythology. There are stories that Mahabali returns to earth on the day of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Onam&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-19T05:12:30.507" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T05:12:30.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16414" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-12-19T04:33:13.393" Score="0" Body="Use for questions involving Mahābalī (महाबली), a benevolent Asura king also known as Bali. Do not confuse him with Vāli, the monkey king and brother of Sugrīva from Rāmāyaṇa." OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-19T04:49:50.623" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T04:49:50.623" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16415" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16412" CreationDate="2016-12-19T06:00:27.687" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a partial answer addressing only the following question-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 Why does Rāma ask Bharata to touch him? Does any Smṛti say that a&#xA;  person who just committed a sin or has initiated an adhārmic action&#xA;  can undo the effects of the act by simply touching a dhārmic person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that &lt;strong&gt;sins can be transmitted by touch in Treta&lt;/strong&gt;, when Rama and Bharatha lived.So,it seems,by touch, Rama can take some of Bharatha's sins if not all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,how much amount of sin can be taken in that way ,i can't answer for sure.Probably he can take a whole lot of sins because he is God himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;26&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&quot; In the Krita sin is incurred by one who converses (with a sinner) ; &lt;strong&gt;in the Treta by one who touches (the sinful man) ;&lt;/strong&gt; in&#xA;  the Dvapara by taking the sinner's food ; in the Kali by a (sinful)&#xA;  act (alone).(Parashara Smriti,Chapter 1,Stanza 26).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/C70go.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/C70go.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-19T06:46:59.203" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T06:46:59.203" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16416" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11125" CreationDate="2016-12-19T07:30:09.710" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti says in its chapter 6 that a Brahmin,residing in forest and living the life of an ascetic ,may end his life by fasting till death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.29. These and other observances must a Brahmana who dwells in the forest diligently practise, and in order to attain complete (union&#xA;  with) the (supreme) Soul, (he must study) the various sacred texts&#xA;  contained in the Upanishads,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.30. (As well as those rites and texts) which have been practised and studied by the sages (Rishis), and by Brahmana householders, in order&#xA;  to increase their knowledge (of Brahman), and their austerity, and in&#xA;  order to sanctify their bodies;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.31. Or let him walk, fully determined and going straight on, in a north-easterly direction, &lt;strong&gt;subsisting on water and air, until his body&#xA;  sinks to rest.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the practice of getting rid of body in that manner is extolled in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.32. A Brahmana, having got rid of his body by one of those modes practised by the great sages, is exalted in the world of Brahman, free&#xA;  from sorrow and fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UCTA4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UCTA4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-19T07:39:45.547" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T07:39:45.547" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16417" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16418" CreationDate="2016-12-19T08:30:26.427" Score="25" ViewCount="12598" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scriptures have remedy for everything. Various mantras various austerities can give us miraculous position. For eg. It is possible to become Indra (who is King of Heaven) by performing 100 Ashwamedha Yajnas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Similarly mantras can also have wonderful powers. Eg. As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11267/how-does-the-soul-returns-in-the-dead-body-when-a-dead-person-is-revived-using-a&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; Mritasanjeevani Vidya can even make a dead person alive. Although it seems like rising from dead is impossible but power of mantras can make it possible.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We see that we can achieve unbelievable things through the power of Mantras. Although the Vedas do not speak of birth based caste system, but as discussed here Brahma Sutra seem to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8682/do-characters-in-the-same-brahmavidya-always-have-the-same-caste&quot;&gt;suggest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;caste system is birth based and all &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10888/are-the-nishada-and-rathakara-castes-eligible-for-the-vedas-and-jnana&quot;&gt;ancient commentators&lt;/a&gt; of Brahma Sutra think caste system is birth based.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Although I personally believe in Guna Based Varna system. We can find several examples in Smriti/ Itihasa (which may be latter addition) that the caste system is birth based. In such situation Sudras aren&amp;apos;t considered &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10888/are-the-nishada-and-rathakara-castes-eligible-for-the-vedas-and-jnana&quot;&gt;eligible&lt;/a&gt; for Jnana or to learn Vedas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now, if a Sudra has curiosity to learn Vedas or has curiosity to achieve Jnana then how can he remove his Sudrahood in his very birth and thus learns Vedas? &lt;strong&gt;Can a Shudra convert himself to Brahmana in this very birth?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;Are there any mantras, any austerities any methods which a Shudra can do to make himself a Brahmana in this very birth?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2022-09-03T06:11:48.777" Title="Can a Sudra become a Brahmin in 'this' birth?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|puranas|history|caste-system|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16418" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16417" CreationDate="2016-12-19T08:35:20.803" Score="26" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, it is possible through the power of Panchakshari Mantra.&lt;/strong&gt; As already discussed in question Mantras can have wonderful powers. Similarly through the power of Panchakshara Mantra even a Shudra can become a Brahmana in this very birth.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Panchakshara Mantra is &amp;quot;Namaha Shivaya&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Om Namaha Shivaya&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Shivaya Namaha.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the chapter &lt;em&gt;Glory of Pranava Panchakshara Mantra&lt;/em&gt; [&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 17 Videsvara Samhita Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt;] various powers of Panchakshara Mantra are told. There Sage Suta also tells that Panchakshara Mantra even can convert Sudra into a Brahmana. As stated in chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;क्षत्रियः पञ्चलक्षण क्षत्रत्वमपनेष्यति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पुनश्च पञ्चलक्षण क्षत्रियो ब्राह्मणो भवेत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मन्त्रसिद्धिर्जपाद्यैव क्रमान्मुक्तो भवेन्नर ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वैश्यस्तु पञ्चलक्षण वैश्यत्वमपनेष्यति ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पुनश्च पञ्चलक्षण मन्त्रक्षत्रिय उच्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पुनश्च पञ्चलक्षण क्षत्रत्वमपनेष्यति ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पुनश्च पञ्चलक्षण मन्त्रब्राह्मण उच्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;शूद्रश्चैव नमोऽन्तेन पञ्चविंशतिलक्षत ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मन्त्रविप्रत्वमापद्य पश्चाच्छुद्रो भवेद्द्विज।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नारीवाथ नरो वाथ ब्राह्मणो वान्य एव वा ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;A Kshatriya should recite this mantra five lacs of times, then he is freed from duties of a Kshatriya. &lt;strong&gt;By again reciting the mantra by five lakhs (five hundred thousand) of times more, he becomes a Brahmana.&lt;/strong&gt; By again reciting the same number of the mantra, one achieves the siddhi in the mantra and one gets free from reciting the japam. By performing the japam of the mantra five lacs of times, a Vaisya is freed from Vaisyatwa or remaining as Vaisya. By reciting the mantra for five lacs of times, it is called as mantra Kshatriya. By reciting further by five lacs of times his Ksatriyahood is removed. By further reciting the mantra by five lacks times more, he is called the mantra Brahmana. &lt;strong&gt;In case a Sudra adding Namah at the end of the mantra, recites the mantra by twenty five lacs of times, then he achieves the position of a mantra Brahmana. After reciting the japam by twenty five lacs of times again, a Sudra is turned into a pure Brahmana.&lt;/strong&gt; Irrespective of the one, being a woman, man. a Brahmana or anyone else, all are purified with the reciting of this mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus it is clear from the above passage that it is possible for a Sudra to remove his Sudrahood and become a Brahmana through the power of Panchakshara mantra.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;From the above passage:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;For a Kshatriya:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;● If a Kshatriya wants to remove his Kshatroto so that he wants to be free from duties of Kshatriya then he should do japam of Panchakshari Mantra (Om Namaha Shivaya) 5 Lakhs times.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;● If he now wants to become Brahmana he should do japam of same Panchakshari Mantra 5 Lakh times. Then he gets the position of Brahmanhood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;For a Vaishya:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;● If a Vaishya wants to remove his Vaishatwo (being free from duties of Vaishya) he should do japam of Panchakshari Mantra &amp;quot;Om Namaha Shivaya&amp;quot; for 5 Lakh times. Then his Vaishyahood is removed.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;● By doing Japam of Panchakshari further 5 Lakh times he gets to the position of Mantra Kshtraiya.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;● By further chanting 5 Lakh more times he can remove his Kshatriyahood.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;● By further doing japam 5 Lakh times he reaches to the position of Mantra Brahmana.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;● After attaining position of Mantra Brahmana if he does japam for further 25 Lakh times he gets the position of pure Brahmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;For a Sudra:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;● &lt;strong&gt;For a Shudra the rule is a little bit different&lt;/strong&gt; as the passage states &amp;quot; शूद्रश्चैव नमोऽन्तेन&amp;quot; ie. &amp;quot;Shudras should chant with Namaha at the end.&amp;quot; ie. Instead of chanting &amp;quot;Om Namaha Shivaya&amp;quot; , one should chant &amp;quot;Shivaya Namaha&amp;quot; (ie. Having Namaha at the end).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;● On doing japam of &amp;quot;Shivaya Namaha&amp;quot; mantra 25 Lakh times, a Shudra gets the position of Mantra Brahmana.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;● &lt;strong&gt;Now after getting position of Mantra Brahmana if he does japam of &amp;quot;Om Namaha Shivaya&amp;quot; 25 Lakhs time he gets the position of Pure Brahamana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus it is possible for a Shudra to become a Brahmana through the power of Panchakshari Mantra. &lt;em&gt;For the information about general method of japam of Panchakshari mantra, one can refer to the beginning of the same chapter of Shiva Purana ie. Vidyesvara Samhita chapter 17 &amp;quot;Glory of Pranava Panchakshara Mantra.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As a Side Note I want to give some features of Panchakshari Mantra here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;▪ It is called Panchakshari Mantra because of five (Pancha) syllables in it &amp;quot;Na&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Ma&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Shi&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Va&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Ya&amp;quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;▪ Vedas during the time of dissolution enter inside Panchkashari Mantra and thus remain protected as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16401/how-do-the-vedas-survive-during-the-dissolution-of-the-universe/16402#16402&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;▪ To the newly formed five headed Brahma Lord Shiva provides Panchakshari through his five heads and thus this mantra is revealed to Brahma at that time. [Linga Purana Part 2 chapter 85].&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;▪ Panchakshari Mantra is also revealed in Veda Samhita of Yajurveda in the SataRudriya section. Like 16th chapter of Shukla YajurVeda, 4.5.8 of Krishna Yajurveda, 17th Chapter of Kathaka Samhita, 2.9.2 of Maitrayani Samhita and so on..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; [Note that for those verses it doesn't matter whether one believes in birth based caste system or Guna based Varna system.] &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T09:14:59.623" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16419" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-12-19T08:53:23.490" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kālidāsa (Sanskrit: कालिदासः) was a Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Indian Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kālidāsa wrote three plays.&lt;/strong&gt; -  Abhijñānaśākuntalam ,Mālavikāgnimitram &amp;amp; Vikramōrvaśīyam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kālidāsa is the author of two epic poems&lt;/strong&gt;, - Raghuvaṃśa (&quot;Dynasty of Raghu&quot;) and Kumārasambhava (Birth of 'Kumara' or Subrahmanya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kālidāsa also wrote two khandakavyas (minor poems):&lt;/strong&gt; - Ṛtusaṃhāra &amp;amp;  Meghadūta or Meghasāndesa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-19T09:16:32.707" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T09:16:32.707" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16420" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-12-19T08:53:23.490" Score="0" Body="classical Sanskrit Writers ,  sanskrit literature , sanskrit poem's " OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-19T09:16:25.543" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T09:16:25.543" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16421" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-19T10:07:09.747" Score="13" ViewCount="1023" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do know that according to Upanishads, All the higher Lokas &lt;strong&gt;except Brahma Loka&lt;/strong&gt;, are subjected to circumgyration/reparation (birth-rebirth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From Chhandogya Upanishad 4.15.5:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ यदु चैवास्मिञ्छव्यं कुर्वन्ति यदि च&#xA;  नार्चिषमेवाभिसंभवन्त्यर्चिषोऽहरह्न&#xA;  आपूर्यमाणपक्षमापूर्यमाणपक्षाद्यान्षडुदङ्ङेति&#xA;  मासाꣳस्तान्मासेभ्यः संवत्सरꣳ&#xA;  संवत्सरादादित्यमादित्याच्चन्द्रमसं चन्द्रमसो विद्युतं&#xA;  तत् पुरुषोऽमानवः स एनान्ब्रह्म गमयत्येष देवपथो&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्मपथ एतेन प्रतिपद्यमाना इमं मानवमावर्तं नावर्तन्ते&#xA;  नावर्तन्ते&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ ४.१५.५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Now, as for such persons, whether the cremation rites are performed or not, they go to light; from light to the day; from the day to the bright fortnight; from the bright fortnight to those six months during which (the sun) rises towards the north; from the months to the year; from the year to the sun; from the sun to the moon; from the moon to the lightning. (From the region of Brahman) a person, who is other than human, (comes and) causes them existing there, to realize Brahman. &lt;strong&gt;This is the path of the gods and the path to Brahman. Those who go by this path do not return to this human whirlpool - yes, they do not return.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From Prashna Upanishad 5.5:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यः पुनरेतं त्रिमात्रेणोमित्येतेनैवाक्षरेण परं पुरुषमभि- ध्यायीत स तेजसि सूर्ये सम्पन्नः । यथा पादोदरस्त्वचा विनिर्भुच्यत एवं ह वै स पाप्मना विनिर्भुक्तः &lt;strong&gt;स सामभिरुन्नीयते ब्रह्मलोकं स एतस्माज्जीवघनात् परात्परं पुरुशयं पुरुषमीक्षते&lt;/strong&gt; । तदेतौ श्लोकौ भवतः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Again, any one who meditates on the supreme Purusha with the help of this very syllable Om, as possessed of three letters, becomes unified in the Sun, consisting of light. As a snake becomes freed from its Slough, exactly in a similar way, he becomes freed from sin, and &lt;strong&gt;he is lifted up to the world of Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; (Hiranyagarbha) by the Sama mantras. From this total mass of creatures (that Hiranyagarbha is) &lt;strong&gt;he sees the supreme Purusha that penetrates every being and is higher than the higher One&lt;/strong&gt; (viz. Hiranyagarbha). Bearing on this, there occur two verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From Mundaka Upanishad 2.3.6:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वेदान्तविज्ञानसुनिश्चितार्थाः&#xA;  संन्यासयोगाद् यतयः शुद्धसत्त्वाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ते ब्रह्मलोकेषु परान्तकाले&#xA;  परामृताः परिमुच्यन्ति सर्वे&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ ६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those to whom the entity presented by the Vedantic knowledge has become fully ascertained, who are assiduous and have become pure in mind through the Yoga of monasticism - all of them, &lt;strong&gt;at the supreme moment of final departure, become identified with the supreme Immortality in the worlds that are Brahman, and they become freed on every side&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;strong&gt;B͟r͟a͟h͟m͟a͟ ͟S͟u͟t͟r͟a͟&lt;/strong&gt; verses 3.3.26 to 3.3.32 supports that those who goes through &lt;strong&gt;Archi&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;Devayana&lt;/strong&gt; marga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Either first attain Brahmaloka and then attain Brahman&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Or directly attain Brahman&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More precisely, Brahma Sutra verses starting from 4.3.5, gradually ends with conclusion:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनावृत्तिः शब्दादनावृत्तिः शब्दात् ।।4.4.22।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no return for the released souls on the strength of the Upanishadic declaration; there is no return for the released souls on the strength of the Upanishadic declaration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya commentary on this verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Brahma%20Sutras%20-%20According%20to%20Sri%20Sankara%20by%20Swami%20Vireswarananda%20%5BSanskrit-English%5D.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;quoted from&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the powers of the released souls are limited, then like all limited things they too will come to the end, and consequently the released souls will have to come back from Brahmaloka to this mortal world --says the opponent. The Sutra refutes such a contingency on scriptural authority. &lt;strong&gt;Those who go to Brahmaloka by the path of the gods do not return from there.&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;Going up by that way, one reaches immortality&quot; (Chh. 8.6.6); &quot;They no more return into this world&quot; (Brih. 6.2.15).The repetition of the words &quot;No return&quot; etc. is to show that the book is finished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The conclusion is that who attains the Brahma Loka &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;attains Brahman sooner or later but doesn't fall back in to Samsara or birth-rebirth cycle&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BUT according to Srimad Bhagavad Gita, verse 8.16:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आब्रह्मभुवनाल्लोकाः पुनरावर्तिनोऽर्जुन&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मामुपेत्य तु कौन्तेय पुनर्जन्म न विद्यते ॥ ८-१६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Arjuna, all the worlds &lt;strong&gt;together with the world of Brahma are subject to return&lt;/strong&gt;. But, O son of Kunti, there is no return after reaching Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which creates conflicts with Upanishads and Brahma Sutra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;How do I interpret this verse?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purpot from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8/16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedabase&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As persons on earth are elevated to higher planets, people on higher planets such as Brahmaloka, Candraloka and Indraloka fall down to earth. The practice of sacriﬁce called pañcāgni-vidyā, recommended in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, enables one to achieve Brahmaloka, &lt;strong&gt;but if, on Brahmaloka, one does not cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he must return to earth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar interpretation found from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=8&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=16&amp;amp;ecsiva=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;English commentary by Swami Shivananda&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those devotees who practise Daharopasana (a kind of meditation on the mystic space in the heart) and other devotees who reach Brahmaloka through the path of the gods (Devayana) and attain gradual liberation (KramaMukti) will not return again to this world. &lt;strong&gt;But those who reach Brahmaloka through the practice of the Panchagni Vidya (a ritual) will enjoy life in Brahmaloka and come back to this world.&lt;/strong&gt; All the worlds are subjected to return because they are limited or conditioned by time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But As I mentioned (Chandogya Upanishad 4.15.5) first, Who goes through Archi/devayana marga, will never return, &lt;em&gt;How did they interpret&lt;/em&gt; such that those who reaches to Brahma loka with the help of Panchagni Vidya, doesn't attain Brahman and falls/returns back to Samsara (birth-rebirth cycle)? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Sanskrit verses are quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sanskrit/by-category/doc_upanishhat.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Documents&lt;/a&gt; and English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/upanishads/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta Spiritual Library&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Also take a look at &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12400/277&quot;&gt;Want to know about Brahmaloka&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-10-08T08:44:04.057" LastActivityDate="2022-09-14T12:20:41.743" Title="Interpreting Bhagavad Gita verse 8.16" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|upanishads|brahma-sutras|lokas|chandogya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16422" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11125" CreationDate="2016-12-19T12:31:28.647" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a similar reference in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200589.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manusmriti, verse 6.31&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपराजितां वाऽस्थाय व्रजेद् दिशमजिह्मगः ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;  आ निपातात्शरीरस्य युक्तो वार्यनिलाशनः ॥ ३१ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aparājitāṃ vā'sthāya vrajed diśamajihmagaḥ |&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;  ā nipātātśarīrasya yukto vāryanilāśanaḥ || 31 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Or, having fixed upon the North-Easterly direction, he shall go forward, moving straight on, intent and living upon water and air,—till the falling off of his body.—(31).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of which the commentary by Medhatithi says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘&lt;em&gt;Intent, living upon water and air, till the falling off of the body&lt;/em&gt;.’—That is, until the body falls off, he shall live upon air and on water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘&lt;em&gt;Intent&lt;/em&gt;’,—having concentrated himself by the rules of Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This refers to the ‘Grand Journey’ (towards certain death).—(31).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not in possession of the Sanskrit text, so I do not know what word or term has been used to represent &quot;Grand Journey&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another work, called the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/%C5%9Br%C4%AB-sanatkumara-sa%E1%B9%83hita/d/doc81831.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanatkumara-samhita&lt;/a&gt;, which refers to a similar practice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bahu-varṣa-sahasreṣu śāka-mūla-phalāśinā | &lt;br /&gt;&#xA;  śuṣka-parṇāmbu-vāyv-ādi- bhoginā ca nirāśinā || 4 ||&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;  strīṇāṃ sandarśanālāpa- varjinā bhūmi-śāyinā | &lt;br /&gt;&#xA;  kāmādi-sad-guṇān jitvā bahyendriyān niyamya ca || 5 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At first I ate only wild vegetables, roots, and fruits, then I ate only dry leaves, then I only drank water, then I only breathed air, and finally I neither ate, drank, nor breathed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I neither saw nor spoke to women. I slept on the ground. I conquered the six vices, beginning with lust, and I controlled the external senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sanatkumara-samhita forms part of the Shiva-samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T12:31:28.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16423" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16421" CreationDate="2016-12-19T14:52:49.417" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;A literal interpretation of the Gita 8.16 would be disastrous since it would contradict Sruti. We know from Manu Smriti that when there is any difference between Sruti and Smriti then Sruti will override any Smriti. It is thus necessary to harmonize Gita 8.16 with the Sruti texts. One way to harmonize it would be to say that Gita shloka is merely asking the spiritual aspirant not to stop at Brahmaloka and continue to do spiritual practice till he reaches Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;On the final dissolution of the world of the conditioned Brahman, they attain, along with the lord of the world, what is higher than&#xA;this conditioned Brahman, as is known on the strength of the&#xA;Upanishadic declaration.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea conveyed is that when the time for the final dissolution of&#xA;the world of the inferior Brahman is imminent, &lt;strong&gt;the aspirants who have&#xA;acquired full realization there itself attain thereafter, along with&#xA;Hiranygarbha, the ruler of that world, the supreme state of Vishnu&#xA;which is absolutely pure.&lt;/strong&gt; This kind of liberation by stages has to be&#xA;admitted on the strength of the Upanshadic texts speaking of&#xA;non-return etc, For we established earlier that it is incomprehensible that the supreme Brahman&#xA;should be reached by any process of moving forward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhasya IV.iii.10 of Sri Sankaracharya translated by Swami Gambhirananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The aspirants who attain final realisation in Brahma Loka would attain the Supreme state  of Vishnu. So there seems to me that there is a theoretical possibility of not attaining final realisation although that possibility is surely very small. Also one would have to do spiritual practices to attain final realisation in Brahma Loka. At least that is what I understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The difference between the Gita verse and the Upanishadic statement of non-return is the difference between theoretical possibility and actual practice. There is a theoretical possibility of return from Brahma Loka. In practice that possibility is close to zero.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who do not meditate on God in Brahmaloka and instead do other practices come back from Brahmaloka at the end of the cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word 'this' indicates that they will not return in this cycle; but&#xA;may come in another cycle. It is to be noted that though the result of&#xA;meditation of those who go to the Brahmaloka gets exhausted, they&#xA;become liberated through His grace and never come back. But those who,&#xA;instead of meditation on God, perform the spiritual disciplines like&#xA;the knowledge of the five fires, Asvamedha sacrifice, or strict&#xA;Brahmacarya, to to the Brahmaloka, but come back at the end of the&#xA;cycle (Brahma Sutra 4.3.10; 4.4.22)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Commentary on Chandogya Upanishad 4.4.15 by Swami Swahananda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2022-09-14T12:20:41.743" LastActivityDate="2022-09-14T12:20:41.743" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16424" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-19T18:04:35.247" Score="12" ViewCount="15107" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several stories of Hanuman being married or a bachelor. A &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/411/why-did-lord-hanuman-decide-to-spend-his-life-as-a-bachelor&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; was already asked before on this site. Some say that Hanuman promised Sun that he will marry his daughter Suvarchala when he becomes Brahma. Some say that Hanuman was married to Suvarchala the daughter of Sun God in order to teach him nava vyakaranas. Even though He is married, Hanuman continued to be a celibate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is she the daughter of Surya or wife? In Valmiki Ramayana Sundara Kanda Chapter 24 &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga24/sundara_24_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse 9 to 12&lt;/a&gt;, Sita cites the examples of great wives to the ogres who threatens Sita with their harsh words and compares herself with those great wives as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although wretched or without kingdom, whoever is my husband, He alone is my master. Like &lt;strong&gt;Suvarchala with the Sun God, I am fond of Him always.&lt;/strong&gt; Like the highly fortunate Sachi who waits upon Indra, like Arundhati on Vasishta, like Rohini on the Moon God, like Lopamudra on Agastya, like Sukanya on Chyavana, like Savitri on Satyavanta, like Srimati on Kapila, like Madayanti on Saudasa, like Kesini on Sagara, like Damayanti the daughter of Bhima, devoted to husband Nala, in the same way I am devoted to my husband Rama, the best in Ikshvaku dynasty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here this is what I don't understand. All the examples Maa Sita took are of great husband and wives. If we consider like that, Suvarchala should be considered as wife of Surya. But in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/541/what-is-the-story-of-suryas-wives/545#545&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, it is said that Surya has only two wives and there was no mention of Suvarchala. Is Suvarchala consort of Sun God? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is Suvarchala daughter or wife of Surya?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is Suvarchala a part of power of Sun god?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If she is married to Hanuman, How did Hanuman react when Sita said &quot;Suvarchala is wife of Surya&quot; who was right at the top of the Shimshupa tree? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2020-09-25T13:42:55.547" Title="Who is Suvarchala? Is she wife or daughter of Sun God?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|sita|surya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16425" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16424" CreationDate="2016-12-19T20:58:59.010" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Desiraju Hanumanta Rao translates the name Suvarchala (or, सुवर्चला, ‘Suvarcalā’) as “wife of the sun” in verse 2.30.30 of the Ramayana. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga30/ayodhya_30_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Translation link here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्मः तु गज नास ऊरु सद्भिर् आचरितः पुरा |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  तम् च अहम् अनुवर्ते अद्य &lt;strong&gt;यथा सूर्यम् सुवर्चला&lt;/strong&gt; || २-३०-३०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Seetha, with thighs like the posteriors of an elephant! Earlier, righeousness (like fulfilling the father's command) was practised by good men. Now, I shall follow that righteousness, like &lt;strong&gt;Suvarchala(wife of the sun) following the Sun&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-23T06:15:00.777" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T06:15:00.777" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16426" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16428" CreationDate="2016-12-19T21:21:29.183" Score="7" ViewCount="750" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did any major events happen once the Kali yuga started?&#xA;Like an earth quake or major disaster?&#xA;Or was it more of the same day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8031" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-01-06T20:19:12.800" LastActivityDate="2017-01-06T20:19:12.800" Title="Do Vedas say about transition to Kali yuga?" Tags="|yuga|time|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16427" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16424" CreationDate="2016-12-19T23:07:57.400" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Viṣṇu Purāṇa (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/visnu-purana/chapter-08/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1.8&lt;/a&gt;) also says Suvarcalā (सुवर्चला) is the wife of Sūrya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एवमुक्तः पुनः सोऽथ सप्तकृत्वो रुरोद वै। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;ततोऽन्यानि ददौ तस्मै सप्त नामानि वै प्रभुः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्थानानि चैषामष्टानां पत्नीः पुत्रांश्च वै प्रभुः।। ५ ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;भवं सर्व महेशानं तथा पशुपति द्विज। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;भीममुग्रं महादेवं उवाच स पितामहः।। ६ ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;चक्रे नामान्यथैतानि स्थानान्येषां चकार सः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;सूर्यों जल मही वहिर्वायुराकाशमेव च। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;दीक्षितो ब्राह्मणः सोम इत्येतास्तनवः क्रमात्॥७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, thus addressed, the boy [Rudra] still wept seven-times, and Brahma therefore gave to him seven other denominations; and &lt;strong&gt;to these eight persons, regions and wives&lt;/strong&gt; and posterity belong. The eight manifestations, then, are&#xA;named Rudra, Bhava, Sarva, Isana, Pasupati, Bhima, Ugra and Mahādeva, which were given to them by their great progenitor. He also assigned to them their respective stations, &lt;strong&gt;the Sun&lt;/strong&gt;, water, ether, air, fire, earth, the ministrant Brahman, and the moon; for these are their several forms.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सुवर्चला&lt;/strong&gt; तथैवोमा सुकेशी चापरा शिवा। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्वाहा दिशस्तथा दीक्षा रोहणी च यथाक्रमम् ॥८॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;सूर्यादीनां नरश्रेष्ठ रुद्राधैर्नामभिः सह। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;पत्न्यः स्मृता महाभाग तदपत्यानि मे शृणु। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;येषां सूतिप्रसूतैर्वा इदमापूरितं जगत् ॥ ९ ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;शनैश्चरस्तथा शुक्रो लोहिताङ्गो मनोजवः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्कन्दः खर्गोऽथ सन्तानो बुधश्चानुक्रमात् सुताः॥ १०॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The wives of the Sun&lt;/strong&gt; and the other manifestations, termed Rudra and the rest were respectively, &lt;strong&gt;Suvercalā&lt;/strong&gt;, Uma, Vikesi, Sivā, Svāhā, Dišā, Diksā and Rohiņī. Now hear an account of their progeny, by whose successive generations this world has been peopled. Their sons, then, were severally, Sanaiśocara (Saturn), Sukra (Venus), the fiery bodied Mars, Manojava (Hanumān), Skanda, Swarga, Santana, and Budha (Mercury).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T23:07:57.400" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16428" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16426" CreationDate="2016-12-19T23:23:51.347" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Kali Yuga began when Krishna departed the Earth.  Here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Mausala Parva of the Mahabharata describes the omens that were seen at that time:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the thirty-sixth year (after the battle) was reached, the delighter of the Kurus, Yudhishthira, beheld many unusual portents. Winds, dry and strong, and showering gravels, blew from every side. Birds began to wheel, making circles from right to left. The great rivers ran in opposite directions. The horizon on every side seemed to be always covered with fog. Meteors, showering (blazing) coals, fell on the Earth from the sky. The Sun’s disc, O king, seemed to be always covered with dust. At its rise, the great luminary of day was shorn of splendour and seemed to be crossed by headless trunks (of human beings). Fierce circles of light were seen every day around both the Sun and the Moon. These circles showed three hues. Their edges seemed to be black and rough and ashy-red in colour. These and many other omens, foreshadowing fear and danger, were seen, O king, and filled the hearts of men with anxiety. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is how Yudhishthira describes the omens in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just see, O man with a tiger’s strength, how many miseries due to celestial influences, earthly reactions and bodily pains — all very dangerous in themselves — are foreboding danger in the near future by deluding our intelligence.  The left side of my body — my thighs, arms and eyes — are all quivering again and again. I am having heart palpitations due to fear. All this indicates undesirable happenings. Just see, O Bhīma, how the she-jackal cries at the rising sun and vomits fire, and how the dog barks at me fearlessly.  O Bhīmasena, tiger amongst men, now useful animals like cows are passing me on my left side, and lower animals like the asses are circumambulating me. My horses appear to weep upon seeing me.  Just see! This pigeon is like a messenger of death. The shrieks of the owls and their rival crows make my heart tremble. It appears that they want to make a void of the whole universe.  Just see how the smoke encircles the sky. It appears that the earth and mountains are throbbing. Just hear the cloudless thunder and see the bolts from the blue. The wind blows violently, blasting dust everywhere and creating darkness. Clouds are raining everywhere with bloody disasters.  The rays of the sun are declining, and the stars appear to be fighting amongst themselves. Confused living entities appear to be ablaze and weeping. Rivers, tributaries, ponds, reservoirs and the mind are all perturbed. Butter no longer ignites fire. What is this extraordinary time? What is going to happen?  The calves do not suck the teats of the cows, nor do the cows give milk. They are standing, crying, tears in their eyes, and the bulls take no pleasure in the pasturing grounds.  The Deities seem to be crying in the temple, lamenting and perspiring. They seem about to leave. All the cities, villages, towns, gardens, mines and hermitages are now devoid of beauty and bereft of all happiness. I do not know what sort of calamities are now awaiting us. I think that all these earthly disturbances indicate some greater loss to the good fortune of the world. The world was fortunate to have been marked with the footprints of the lotus feet of the Lord. These signs indicate that this will no longer be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2016-12-19T23:23:51.347" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16429" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-12-20T04:21:45.183" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-12-20T04:21:45.183" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T04:21:45.183" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16430" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-12-20T04:21:45.183" Score="0" Body="Adishesha (Ādi Śeṣa) is a massive snake with 1000 heads. He is usually depicted as a bed for Lord Shrimannarayana. He is also called as Sesha, Ananta, etc., He is said as the first servant of the Lord Vishnu." OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-20T05:35:38.113" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T05:35:38.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16431" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-20T04:24:47.547" Score="2" ViewCount="141" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are some well-written and accurate Ramayana books that I can use?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By accurate I mean those that stay true to Valmiki's original Sansrkit work. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8509" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-21T04:16:26.390" LastActivityDate="2016-12-21T05:14:21.600" Title="What are some well-written and accurate Ramayana books based on Valmiki's original work?" Tags="|ramayana|translation-request|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16432" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-20T04:28:32.597" Score="10" ViewCount="691" Body="&lt;p&gt;By &lt;em&gt;Ramayana ended&lt;/em&gt;, I mean to denote the period of time after Valmiki completed writing Ramayana. What happened to sage Valmiki? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8510" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-20T05:35:35.587" LastActivityDate="2018-11-18T16:06:49.853" Title="What happened to Valmiki, after the Ramayana ended?" Tags="|ramayana|valmiki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16434" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-20T05:18:47.247" Score="6" ViewCount="14411" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know of &lt;em&gt;Marathas&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Rajputs&lt;/em&gt; using &lt;em&gt;bhagwa&lt;/em&gt; flags as their official hoists, but is there some older (Puranic) legend in associating the &lt;em&gt;bhagwa&lt;/em&gt; flag with Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm very specific about the origin of the flag; I already know the symbolism behind the &lt;em&gt;bhagwa&lt;/em&gt; color.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/18gWnm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/18gWnm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagwa_Jhanda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Bhagwa Jhanda (Hindi: भगवा ध्वज, &quot;saffron flag&quot;, or Bhagwá Dhwaja) is a saffron color flag that has been used by a number of Hindu-oriented political entities in the history of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The flag historically served as the flag of the Marathas, &quot;it is swallow-tailed and of a deep orange colour emblematic of the followers of Mahadeo.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-21T23:54:57.523" LastActivityDate="2020-01-28T07:50:03.583" Title="Historicity of the Bhagwa flag" Tags="|puranas|history|rituals|symbolism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16435" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-20T06:08:14.753" Score="1" ViewCount="394" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have few confusions about Swami Ayyappa story - In movies it is shown that when Ayyappa goes to forest to bring Tiger milk that is the time he kills Mahishi. But King of Pandalam is of this yuga (may be few centuries back) so does it mean Mahishi was also of this yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was Mahishi alive till few centuries back or can anyone tell the time period according to real story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8512" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T11:17:24.210" LastActivityDate="2018-10-16T11:17:24.210" Title="Question about Swami Ayyappa and Mahishi's time period" Tags="|asuras|ayyappa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16436" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16424" CreationDate="2016-12-20T07:10:37.590" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;That Suvarchala is the wife of Surya is mentioned in many Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/markandeyapurana25.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma gave him the name of Rudra and asked the child not to cry&#xA;  further; but the boy cried seven times more and hence Brahma gave him&#xA;  further seven names viz. along with the names of his wives and places&#xA;  of stay as follows:Bhava, Sharva, Ishaana, Pashupati, Bhima, Ugra and&#xA;  Maha Deva. &lt;strong&gt;The names of Rudra’s wives are Suvarchala&lt;/strong&gt;, Uma, Vikeshi,&#xA;  Swadha, Swaha, Dik, Diksha, and Rohini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The ‘sthaanas’ or Places of Stay of Rudra are Surya&lt;/strong&gt;, Jal, Prithvi,&#xA;  Agni, Vayu, Akash, Dikshit, Brahmana and Soma. Besides, &lt;strong&gt;Rudra’s&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;another name sake Surya&lt;/strong&gt; has eight sons viz.Shaneswar, Shukra,&#xA;  Lohitanga, Manojava, Shanda, Sarga, Santan and Bhudha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,basically this account says Surya is one of the forms of Rudra and his wife is Suvarchala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=23&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;  Linga Purana(Ashta Rupas of Lord Shiva)&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ashta Rupas of Shiva:&lt;/strong&gt; Nandi Deva continued to describe the Eight Forms&#xA;  of Maha Deva to Sanat Kumara: Sharva is one Form of Shiva spread all&#xA;  over the Universe whose wife is stated as Vikeshi and their son is&#xA;  Mangala. Veda Vaadis or Experts in Vedas named him as Bhava, with Uma&#xA;  as his wife and Shukra as their son. Agni Swarupa Shiva is called&#xA;  Pashupati, whose wife is known as Swaha and their son is Shanmukha.&#xA;  Pavana (Vayu) Swarupa Mahadeva is called Ishana whose wife is known as&#xA;  Shiva and their son is Manojava or Hanuman. &lt;strong&gt;Rudra is the name of Shiva&#xA;  whose Swarupa is of Surya Deva and Suvarchala is the name of his wife&#xA;  and Shanaischara is their son.&lt;/strong&gt; Soma Swarupa Bhagavan is called Maha&#xA;  Deva, with Rohini as his wife and Budha as their son. Yajamana Swarupa&#xA;  of Shiva is Ugra Deva and his wife is called Diksha and their son is&#xA;  Santana. Bhagavan Shiva’s eighth Form is known as Parthiva, signifying&#xA;  the hardened and cruel feature of Shiva as his wife is Prithvi and&#xA;  their progeny is of humanity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However ,there is a stotram called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Hanumath_Mangalashtakam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Hanumath Mangalashtakam&quot;&lt;/a&gt; which mentions &lt;strong&gt;Suvarchala as Surya Deva's daughter and Hanuman's wife.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following is verse 3 from the stotram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Suvarchala Kalathraya&lt;/strong&gt;,  Chathurbhuja dharaya cha, Ushtra roodaya&#xA;  veeraya,  Mangalam Sri Hanumathe., &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mangalam to Sri Hanuman, &lt;strong&gt;Who is the consort of Suvarchala&lt;/strong&gt;, Who had&#xA;  four arms, And who is the hero who rides, On a beam of light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The footnote provides the following explanation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Suvarchala is the daughter of Surya Dev...and Surya Dev asked Hanuman&#xA;  to marry her as his Guru Dakshina.&lt;/strong&gt; However, he gave Hanuman a boon&#xA;  that he would continue to be a bachelor and maintain his celebacy&#xA;  after this marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However ,i can't say for sure if this stotram is contained in some Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-20T12:01:47.290" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T12:01:47.290" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16437" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12173" CreationDate="2016-12-20T07:22:10.740" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna Stayed in Vrindavan for &lt;strong&gt;eleven years.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uddhava while answering the questions asked by Vidura says &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/2/26&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; verse in 3rd canto of Shrimad-Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tato nanda-vrajam itaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pitrā kaṁsād vibibhyatā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekādaśa samās tatra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gūḍhārciḥ sa-balo ’vasat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter, His father, being afraid of Kaṁsa, brought Him to the cow&#xA;  pastures of Mahārāja Nanda, and there He lived for eleven years like a&#xA;  covered flame with His elder brother, Baladeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T07:22:10.740" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16438" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16434" CreationDate="2016-12-20T08:47:17.543" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I'm very specific about flag. I know about the symbolism of bhagwa&#xA;  color.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are only looking for the importance of flag in hinduism then yes they are important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many Gods are often associated with particular flags.They are described as having certain flags with specific symbols on them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are few such examples.I have here used the gayatri mantras for several Deities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Chamunda is depicted as having a flag with the symbol of &quot;Pisacha&quot; on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om &lt;strong&gt;Pisacha Dhwajayai Vidmahe&lt;/strong&gt; soola hastaya Dhimahi Tanno Kali&#xA;  Prachodayath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zTjvP.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zTjvP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Goddess Brahmi is described as having a flag with a swan(hamsa) symbol on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om Hamsa Dhwajayai Vidmahe&lt;/strong&gt; Kurcha Hastayai Dhimahi Tanno Brahmi Prachodayath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NKPAo.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NKPAo.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Indrani is having an elephant(gaja) on her flag:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om Gaja Dhwajayai Vidmahe&lt;/strong&gt; Hastayai Dhimahi Tanno Indrani Prachodayath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ud4bm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ud4bm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maheswari-Having a flag with bull on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om Vrisha Dhwajayai&lt;/strong&gt; Vidmahe Marug Hastaya Dhimahi Tanno Roudri Prachodayath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Goddess Varahi is having a Mahisha(buffalo) on her flag etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Gayatri_mantras_of_Several_Gods&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Navagrahas&lt;/a&gt; is also having a particular flag with certain special symbols on them :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sun&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Aswadwajaya Vidhmahe Pasa Hasthaya Dheemahe Thanno Surya&#xA;  Prachodayath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, Let me meditate on the god &lt;strong&gt;who has a horse flag&lt;/strong&gt;, Oh, God who holds&#xA;  the rope, give me higher intellect, And let Sun God illuminate my&#xA;  mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moon&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Padmadwajaya Vidhmahe Hema roopaya Dheemahe Thanno Chandra&#xA;  Prachodayath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, Let me meditate on God who &lt;strong&gt;has lotus in his flag,&lt;/strong&gt; Oh, God of&#xA;  golden colour, give me higher intellect, And let moon God illuminate&#xA;  my mind&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mars&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om veeradhwajaaya vidmahae  vighna hastaaya dheemahi  tanno bhouma&#xA;  prachodayaat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, Let me meditate on him &lt;strong&gt;who has hero in his flag&lt;/strong&gt;, Oh, He who has&#xA;  power to solve problems, give me higher intellect, And let the son of&#xA;  earth God illuminate my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Budha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om gajadhwajaaya vidmahae  sukha hastaaya dheemahi  tanno budha:&#xA;  prachodayaat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, Let me meditate on him &lt;strong&gt;who has elephant in his flag&lt;/strong&gt;, Oh, He who&#xA;  has power to grant pleasure, give me higher intellect, And let Budha&#xA;  illuminate my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guru(Jupiter)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om vrishabadhwajaaya vidmahae  kruni hastaaya dheemahi  tanno guru:&#xA;  prachodayaat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, Let me meditate on him &lt;strong&gt;who has bull in his flag&lt;/strong&gt;, Oh, He who has&#xA;  power to get things done, give me higher intellect, And let Guru&#xA;  illuminate my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shukra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om aswadhwajaaya vidmahae  dhanur hastaaya dheemahi  tanno shukra:&#xA;  prachodayaat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, Let me meditate on him &lt;strong&gt;who has horse in his flag&lt;/strong&gt;, Oh, He who&#xA;  has a bow in his hand, give me higher intellect, And let Shukra&#xA;  illuminate my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shani&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om kaakadhwajaaya vidmahae  khadga hastaaya dheemahi  tanno mandah:&#xA;  prachodayaat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, Let me meditate on him &lt;strong&gt;who has crow in his flag&lt;/strong&gt;, Oh, He who has a&#xA;  sword in his hand, give me higher intellect, And let Saneeswara&#xA;  illuminate my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rahu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om naakadhwajaaya vidmahae  padma hastaaya dheemahi  tanno raahu:&#xA;  prachodayaat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, Let me meditate on him &lt;strong&gt;who has snake in his flag&lt;/strong&gt;, Oh, He who has a&#xA;  lotus in his hand, give me higher intellect, And let Rahu illuminate&#xA;  my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kethu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om aswadhwajaaya vidmahae  soola hastaaya dheemahi  tanno ketu:&#xA;  prachodayaat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, Let me meditate on him &lt;strong&gt;who has horse in his flag,&lt;/strong&gt; Oh, He who has a&#xA;  trident in his hand, give me higher intellect, And let Kethu&#xA;  illuminate my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T08:47:17.543" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16440" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16417" CreationDate="2016-12-20T08:53:42.867" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there are a number of instances in the Hindu scriptures that talk about falling down from a varna or the other way around. By not following one's svadharma (own dharma), one loses his varna. In Srimad Bhagavatham, Ajamila who was initially a Brahmin is described to have fallen from the varna because of his ill conduct and neglect of svadharma. Scriptures quote that a Brahmin who does not perform regular sandhyavandana is no more a Brahmin. He is simply called a brahmana-bandhu (a friend of Brahmin). If three generations of a family do not perform sandhyavandana and Gayatri, they are not considered as Brahmins according to the scriptures. Likewise, there are other instances in the scriptures where sages like Vishwamitra and Harithas (the progenitor of Harithasa gothra) who were originally Kshatriyas changed to the brahmin varna by virtue of their sadhana and penance. Change of varna is possible by rigorous practice of mantra that is obtained from an accomplished Guru. But one has to bear in mind that the svadharma still has to be followed, while chanting the mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8516" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T08:53:42.867" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16441" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16326" CreationDate="2016-12-20T09:22:14.920" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Such an act of kindness is never against dharma. Krishna does not insist one to shun the action itself. He insists upon giving up the idea of doership if one aspires moksha. If one thinks &quot;I am doing a good deed&quot;, one implicitly assumes one's own self as the cause of a good action. Since every action has a reaction according to karma siddhanta, the ego that assumed the doership of the action reaps the rewards of the good deed as happiness and bliss in another state of mind (reborn in some other plane of existence). When one gives up the sense of doership and the results of an action to a higher Self (God), the ego does not have to reincarnate. This is the reason why Hindus say Krishnarpanam after doing daana (charity). This means the one who is doing the charity and the one who reaps its result is God himself and not the individual self, which is merely an instrument. This is also reason why elders in the traditional families quote that a good deed done by the right hand should not even be disclosed to the left hand lest the individual ego takes over the ownership of the good deed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8516" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T09:22:14.920" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16442" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6969" CreationDate="2016-12-20T12:07:49.127" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First have a look at &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.nl/books?id=0Blqc86tVFYC&amp;amp;pg=PA159&amp;amp;lpg=PA159&amp;amp;dq=brahma+night+universe+water&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=e_XMuCly7W&amp;amp;sig=56P_QCmF24yb_AJj-IZ0K4YL6uk&amp;amp;hl=nl&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjGn5a43ILRAhXDtRQKHRvmDkMQ6AEITjAM#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=brahma%20night%20universe%20water&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;When Brahma goes to sleep in the (Brahma's) night, all planetary systems below his abode, Brahmaloka, are inundated with water. He dreams about Maha Vishnu who gives him instructions to rejuvenate the universe again.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then look at the concise summary of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsya#Legends&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;story of the seven sages&lt;/a&gt;, sailing through the flood:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Matsya-Vishnu declared that a great flood would come seven days from then and engulf the universe. He ordered Satyavrata to assemble the seven great sages and with their counsel, gather all kinds of seeds, herbs and various beings to load them on a boat, that would be sent by Vishnu on the fateful day. He instructed that the serpent Vasuki should be used as a rope to tie the boat to his fish-horn. &lt;strong&gt;Promising that he would sail the boat through the waters throughout the night of Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;, Matsya disappeared after his revelation and reappeared as a horned fish on the day of the Deluge, when torrential rains drenched the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is possible the whole legend relating the deluge/flood should be taken symbolically. And the answer as to why  the flood happens, is because Brahma goes to sleep? Note: One night of Brahma is commonly seen as consisting of 1 kalpa (8.64 billion human years), a period that happens after the day of brahma, also consisting as one kalpa (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time#For_Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="5384" LastEditDate="2016-12-20T15:01:08.567" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T15:01:08.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16443" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-20T19:42:03.937" Score="5" ViewCount="312" Body="&lt;p&gt;The other day I was listening to a discourse on Rāmāyaṇa &lt;sup&gt; ‡&lt;/sup&gt; where the speaker points out that although it is very simple for anyone to say &lt;code&gt;सत्यं वद । धर्मं चर ॥&lt;/code&gt; &lt;sup&gt;§&lt;/sup&gt; (Speak truth, follow dharma.), but when you are walking on the street one day and suddenly face a difficult situation, you will not be carrying with you the various smṛtis and dharma śāstras to immediately refer to and take the most dhārmic decision and, even if you did carry them, you will not have the time to quickly go through them to determine the correct way of doing something. So our great Ṛṣis have condensed the entire dharma for everyone to follow into three simple formulas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Train your mind to look at or treat every woman that you encounter in your life who's not your wife as your own mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;E.g., if you happen to notice a pretty lady (or person of opposite sex) in your circle of friends or relatives, at work etc. you will treat the person as your mother, father or your iṣṭa-devatā – this should cut down any temptation you may yield to.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Any wealth or property that is not yours, treat it like dirt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;E.g., if you were to find a gold chain on the street you'd simply ignore it's  even there. If you did pick it up, you'll try to locate the owner of the jewelry but not keep it for yourself. If you follow this rule, you'll also not accumulate black money, default on a loan etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Show sympathy and compassion to every living being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;E.g., if you feel like hitting a street dog with a stone, imagine someone throwing the same stone at you.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I thought the speaker was actually referring to the Vedas, Upaniṣads or Itihāsas but was disappointed to learn he was simply quoting the following Subhāṣita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://athma-spiritualbliss.blogspot.com/2012/09/subhashitas-and-0ther-quotes.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मातृवत् परदारांश्च परद्रव्याणि लोष्टवत् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आत्मवत् सर्वभूतानि यः पश्यति स पश्यति ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;- समयोचितपद्यमालिका&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mAtRuvat paradArAmshcha paradravyANi loShTavat । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Atmavat sarvabhUtAni yaH pashyati sa pashyati ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;- samayochitapadyamAlikA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The right way to look at other people's wives is as if she is your mother, other people's wealth as if it is lump of mud, all other beings as if they were you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;- Samayochitapadyamalika&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A slightly different one from &lt;a href=&quot;https://subhashitani.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%B6-%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%BF-%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B8/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मातृवत्परदारेषु परद्रव्येषु लोष्ठवत् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आत्मवत्सर्वभूतेषु यः पश्यति स पण्डितः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;– हितोपदेश, सन्धि&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A wise man will treat other people's wives as his own mother. He treats other people’s wealth as a lump of mud (stone). He will treat every being in this world with compassion as he would treat himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;– Hitopadesha, Sandhi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Question:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any of our scriptures convey the same message as the Subhāṣita above? If so, can you cite the relevant verses and their translation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;‡ &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/Z49gO0TsFmY?t=1790&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Link to&lt;/a&gt; YouTube video (Telugu) by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaganti_Koteswara_Rao&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Chaganti Koteswara Rao&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;§ &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Taittirīya Upaniṣad &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79789.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1.11&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2022-03-19T12:03:56.950" Title="Scriptural source for the Subhāṣita that says 'treat others' wives as your mother'" Tags="|scripture|upanishads|dharma|dharma-shastras|smriti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16444" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="153" CreationDate="2016-12-20T20:54:11.820" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Linga Purana explains some sort of evolution on a macroscopic scale:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अतीतानि च कल्पानि सोदर्काणि सहान्वयैः ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;  अनागतेषु तद्वच्च तर्कः कार्यो विजानता ॥ १४ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atītāni ca kalpāni sodarkāṇi sahānvayaiḥ |&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;  anāgateṣu tadvacca tarkaḥ kāryo vijānatā || 114 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The past kalpas are such that they leave their consequences on the future ones along with (or including) the dynasties of Kings etc. and the same reasoning should be applied to future kalpas by the knowing man (i.e., the past has left its marks on the present and in the same way the future will carry the marks of the present).” &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/LingaPuranaJ.L.ShastriPart1/Linga%20Purana%20-%20J.L.Shastri%20-%20Part%201#page/n321/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse 1.70.114&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_(aeon)#Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kalpa&lt;/a&gt; represents a day (or night) of Brahma and amounts to 4.32 billion human years. Then 30 * 12 * 100 of these kalpas represent the life cycle of the universe so that leaves plenty of time for evolution to occur between those transitions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="5384" LastEditDate="2016-12-20T20:59:16.190" LastActivityDate="2016-12-20T20:59:16.190" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16445" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15833" CreationDate="2016-12-20T21:19:25.440" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There's a 2-volume English translation of Kṛttivāsa Rāmāyaṇa for sale on Eastern Book Linkers' &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eblindology.com/book_detail.php?bookid=103&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kṛttivāsa Rāmāyaṇa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Composed by the sage Kṛttivāsa, the sacred son of the soil.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Author:   Dr. Shanti Lal Nagar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ISBN: 81-86133-64-7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Edition:  1998&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Language: English&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Front &amp;amp; Back Cover:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PUV04.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PUV04m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;front&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/y7UIM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/y7UIMm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;back&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-19T17:57:51.590" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T17:57:51.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16446" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16449" CreationDate="2016-12-20T21:33:28.817" Score="6" ViewCount="741" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahābhārata, in which parva and chapter, does the Vidura-gītā begin and end?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are its first and last verses along with their English translation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are some popular and useful verses from it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think Vidura-gītā is also known as Vidura-nīti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-12T01:00:07.390" Title="In the Mahābhārata, where does Vidura-gītā begin and end? What are its first and last verses?" Tags="|mahabharata|vidura|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16447" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-12-21T04:52:59.370" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, there is a mention of dream. &lt;em&gt;Mandukya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt;, one of the oldest upanishads, states dream as one of the stages of life. &lt;em&gt;Chandogya upanishad&lt;/em&gt; discusses four consciousnesses, among which dream-filled sleep is also one. There are many stories involving God appearing in devotees dream. This led to the discovery of the idols of the God and construction of many Hindu temples.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This tag is &lt;em&gt;only&lt;/em&gt; for general questions about dreams. This should not be used for specific dream analysis. It is off-topic. See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/260/5212&quot;&gt;Are dream related questions on-topic?&lt;/a&gt; from our Meta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-30T10:54:06.663" LastActivityDate="2018-10-30T10:54:06.663" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16448" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-12-21T04:52:59.370" Score="0" Body="This tag can be used for general questions about dreams. A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occurs involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of  sleep. Note that analysis of a specific dream is off-topic." OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-22T03:50:05.063" LastActivityDate="2017-11-22T03:50:05.063" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16449" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16446" CreationDate="2016-12-21T06:25:52.857" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Udyoga Parva is the 5th chapter of the Mahabharatha. The Vidura Neeti is contained in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can download and read the entire discourse given by Mahatma Vidura from &lt;a href=&quot;http://upload.vedpuran.net/Uploads/28215Vidur-Niti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This PDF contains the Sanskrit verses and also their English translations provided by Kisari Mohan Ganguli. The dialogues are between Dhritarashtra and Vidura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be precise the Vidura Neeti is &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharatha, Udyoga Parva, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 33&lt;/a&gt; to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05041.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 41&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm unable to copy-paste from this PDF. Otherwise I would have given the first and the last verses in Devanagari. Hence, I'm giving only their English translations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This in short a Dharma Shastra in itself. It talks about almost every aspects that are covered in our Smritis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First verse (words of Vidura):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;05,033.013  &lt;strong&gt;vidura uvāca&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;05,033.013a abhiyuktaṃ balavatā durbalaṃ hīnasādhanam &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;05,033.013c hṛtasvaṃ kāminaṃ coram āviśanti prajāgarāḥ &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;05,033.014a kaccid etair mahādoṣair na spṛṣṭo 'si narādhipa &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;05,033.014c kaccin na paravitteṣu gṛdhyan viparitapyase &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vidura said, 'Sleeplessness overtaketh thief, a lustful person, him that hath lost all his wealth, him that hath failed to achieve success, and him also that is weak and hath been attacked by a strong person. I hope, O king, that none of these grave calamities have overtaken thee. I hope, thou dost not grieve, coveting the wealth of others.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last verse which was spoken by Vidura is this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;05,041.005 &lt;strong&gt;vidura uvāca&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;05,041.005a śūdrayonāv ahaṃ jāto nāto 'nyad vaktum utsahe &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;05,041.005c kumārasya tu yā buddhir veda tāṃ śāśvatīm aham &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;05,041.006a brāhmīṃ hi yonim āpannaḥ suguhyam api yo vadet &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;05,041.006c na tena garhyo devānāṃ tasmād etad bravīmi te &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vidura said, 'I am born in the Sudra order and, therefore, do not venture to say more than what I have already said. The understanding, however, of that Rishi leading a life of celibacy, is regarded by me to be infinite. He that is a Brahmana by birth, by discoursing on even the profoundest mysteries, never incureth the censure of the gods. It is for this alone that I do not discourse to thee, upon the subject.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many great advices which are contained in this discourse but as per me the following three stand out among them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O Dhritarashtra, forsake desire. There is none who cannot manage to live by some means or other. Thy paddy, wheat, gold, animals, and women that are on earth all cannot satiate even one person .. Reflecting on this, they that are wise never grieve for want of universal dominion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He that is without deceitfulness, he that is active, grateful, intelligent, and guileless, even if his treasury be empty, obtaineth friends, counsellors, and servants. Intelligence, tranquillity of mind, self-control, purity, absence of harsh speech and unwillingness to do anything disagreeable to friends,--&lt;strong&gt;these seven are regarded as the fuel of prosperity's flame&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Highest of all teachings) - O sire, I would impart to thee another sacred lesson productive of great fruits, and which is the highest of all teachings, viz., virtue should never be forsaken from desire, fear, or temptation, nay, nor for the sake of life itself. Virtue is everlasting; pleasure and pain are transitory; life is, indeed, everlasting but its particular phases are transitory. Forsaking those which are transitory, betake thyself to that which is everlasting, and let contentment be thine, for &lt;strong&gt;contentment is the highest of all acquisitions&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-12T01:00:07.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16450" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16443" CreationDate="2016-12-21T06:58:36.260" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Another man's wife is ideally to be treated as one's sister.This is what the following verse suggests:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.129. &lt;strong&gt;But to a female who is the wife of another man&lt;/strong&gt;, and&#xA;  not a blood-relation, &lt;strong&gt;he must say, ’Lady’(bhavati) or ’Beloved sister&lt;/strong&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OHWdu.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OHWdu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the Scriptures also say that an &lt;strong&gt;elder sister&lt;/strong&gt; is to be treated like one's mother,although the mother is more venerable among the two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.133. Towards a sister of one’s father and of one’s&#xA;  mother, and &lt;strong&gt;towards one’s own elder sister, one must behave as towards&#xA;  one’s mother;&lt;/strong&gt; (but) the mother is more venerable than they.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RLQxd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RLQxd.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,treating another man's wife as one's own sister or even as one's own mother both are correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update-&lt;/strong&gt; This &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/brahma/bookview.php?chapnum=22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Purana&lt;/a&gt; chapter describes Sadachara(Right conduct) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Sri Vyasa quotes Parama Shiva on how to differentiate between Dharma and Adharma as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dharmaadharma Nirupana(Determination of Dharma &amp;amp; Adharma)&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parama Shiva further delineated to Devi Parvati about those who had&#xA;  Trikarana Shuddhi, Indriya Nigraha, and Ahimsaacharana (Clealiness of&#xA;  Body-Mind-Heart; Control of Senses and Non-Violence).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They are eligible to Swarga if they had no desire for other’s money&#xA;  except for one’s own well earned; if they did not react to other women&#xA;  except one’s own lawful wife while treating truly and heartily the&#xA;  others as his mothers, sisters and daughters; if they serve all the&#xA;  Beings with fellow- feelings of warmth and consideration;&lt;/strong&gt; if they&#xA;  would hurt none directly or indirectly by way of speech, thought or&#xA;  action;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;@SV the  highlighted quotes above are the closest i could find from either Smritis or Puranas that match with the import of the Subhasitas given in your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-25T07:17:51.813" LastActivityDate="2016-12-25T07:17:51.813" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16451" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16443" CreationDate="2016-12-21T08:46:09.317" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc199595.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manusmriti verse 2.129&lt;/a&gt; has a similair verse venerating other man's wifes: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परपत्नी तु या स्त्री स्यादसम्बन्धा च योनितः ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;  तां ब्रूयाद् भवतीत्येवं सुभगे भगिनीति च ॥ १२९ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;parapatnī tu yā strī syādasambandhā ca yonitaḥ |&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;  tāṃ brūyād bhavatītyevaṃ subhage bhaginīti ca || 129 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A female who is the wife of another person, and is not related to one by birth, should be addressed as “Lady,” and also “blessed,” or “sister.”—(129)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Commentary by Medhātithi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the lady happens to he an elderly one, she should he addressed as ‘mother,’ ‘glorious one’ and so forth; and if she is younger in age, she is to be addressed as ‘daughter,’ ‘long-lived one,’ and so forth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And another (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc199615.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse 2.145&lt;/a&gt;) venerating the mother:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उपाध्यायान् दशाचार्य आचार्याणां शतं पिता ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;  सहस्रं तु पितॄन् माता गौरवेणातिरिच्यते ॥ १४५ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;upādhyāyān daśācārya ācāryāṇāṃ śataṃ pitā |&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;  sahasraṃ tu pitṝn mātā gauraveṇātiricyate || 145 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In veneration, the Preceptor excels ten Sub-teachers; the Father a hundred preceptors, and the Mother a thousand Fathers.—(145)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/sbe07034.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Smriti verse 32.7&lt;/a&gt; has another similair verse as well:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;To the wife of another, even though he does not know her, he must either say 'sister' (if she is of equal age with himself), or 'daughter' (if she is younger than himself), or 'mother' (if she is older than himself).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastActivityDate="2016-12-21T08:46:09.317" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16452" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-21T08:51:37.277" Score="8" ViewCount="364" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79789.html#page-159&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11&lt;/a&gt; (Siksha Valli) declares that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मातृदेवो भव । पितृदेवो भव । आचार्यदेवो भव । &lt;strong&gt;अतिथिदेवो भव&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ ४ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mātṛdevo bhava | pitṛdevo bhava | ācāryadevo bhava | &lt;strong&gt;atithidevo bhava&lt;/strong&gt; || 4 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4. Treat thy mother as a God; as a God treat thou thy father; as a God shalt thou treat thy teacher; &lt;strong&gt;thy guests as Gods shalt thou treat&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is understandable that one should treat one's mother, father and guru as God itself. But what's the need to treat one's guest too as God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-15T20:59:28.617" LastActivityDate="2017-03-15T20:59:28.617" Title="Why treat Guest as God (अतिथिदेवो भव)?" Tags="|scripture|gods|upanishads|taittirya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16453" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16389" CreationDate="2016-12-21T09:58:49.963" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;People like Bhishma, Karna and many others though being great warriors and kings(ruling officials or stuff) did not respect the basic dharma that you can't disrespect a Woman. When draupadi was being humiliated before everyone.. Only Ashwadhama opposed it. He was spared because of that. Other than that everyone were punished. Except DharmaRaja, no one followed Dharma in Kurukshetra. Since bheeshma himself is not righteous then you cant expect others to follow dharma. Coming to your question having invincibility is not adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7796" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-21T10:54:57.197" LastActivityDate="2016-12-21T10:54:57.197" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16454" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16446" CreationDate="2016-12-21T10:27:30.640" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vidura Neethi is present in the &lt;em&gt;Udyoga Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;. Vidura Neeti is the conversation between Dhritharashtra and his minister Vidura. The conversation between Vidura and Dhritharashtra starts in the &lt;em&gt;33&lt;sup&gt;  rd&lt;/sup&gt; chapter&lt;/em&gt; and ends in the &lt;em&gt;41&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; chapter&lt;/em&gt; of Udyogaparva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The chapter starts by Dhritharashtra calling for Vidura. Dhritarashtra was very anxious about the message which was about to come from Yudishtira. To lament him, Dhritarashtra seeks Vidura for wise talk about religion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first verse of the Vidura Neeti is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; दवाःस्थं पराह महाप्राज्ञॊ धृतराष्ट्रॊ महीपतिः|&#xA;  विदुरं दरष्टुम इच्छामि तम इहानय माचिरम||&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dvāḥsthaṃ prāha mahāprājño dhṛtarāṣṭro mahīpatiḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;        viduraṃ draṣṭum icchāmi tam ihānaya māciram ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English translation :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vaisampayana said, 'King Dhritarashtra endued with great wisdom (then) said to the orderly-in-waiting, 'I desire to see Vidura. Bring him here without delay.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last verse is as follows and quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs05033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शूद्रयॊनाव अहं जातॊ नातॊ ऽनयद वक्तुम उत्सहे |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;        कुमारस्य तु या बुद्धिर वेद तां शाश्वतीम अहम ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śūdrayonāv ahaṃ jāto nāto 'nyad vaktum utsahe |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;        kumārasya tu yā buddhir veda tāṃ śāśvatīm aham || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English translation :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vidura said, 'I am born in the Sudra order and, therefore, do not venture to say more than what I have already said. The understanding, however, of that Rishi leading a life of celibacy, is regarded by me to be infinite. He that is a Brahmana by birth, by discoursing on even the profoundest mysteries, never incureth the censure of the gods. It is for this alone that I do not discourse to thee, upon the subject.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt; The answer is a partial answer. This answer may be considered as a supplement of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/4732/rickross&quot;&gt;Rickross&lt;/a&gt;'s answer. As he said that he could not post sanskrit verses from the Mahabharata. It is up to the OP whether or not to accept the answer. &lt;/sup&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2016-12-21T10:27:30.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16455" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16452" CreationDate="2016-12-21T12:02:34.290" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a guest all Gods are united. This is what the Shastras declare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;48. &amp;nbsp; (A guest) should not be asked his family or his clan ; [Lit., his gotra] he should not be questioned as to learning or knowledge. [But&#xA;  the host] &lt;strong&gt;should take him to be a god himself; for, in him are united&#xA;  all the gods.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Parashara Smriti, Chapter 1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further verses depicting the importance of guests (from Parashara):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;45. &amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;Where a guest goes back&lt;/strong&gt; from a person's house, ' – &lt;strong&gt;his hope of a welcome unfulfilled, – the forefathers of the householder do not eat,&#xA;  during the period of ten years and five.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;46. &amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;Where a guest is disappointed in his hopes – useless are the burnt-offerings made by the host,&lt;/strong&gt; although he may burn a thousand&#xA;  loads of wood and a hundred jars of ghee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;58. &amp;nbsp; Those who do not perform the rite for the Visvadevam, or the rite of hospitably receiving guests, – they all are destined to go to hell,&#xA;  and in the next existence are born as crows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;62. &amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;Whether it be a robber, or a Chandala (the lowest of all the castes), or an enemy, or a parricide&lt;/strong&gt;, – any one arrived at the time of&#xA;  the rite for the Visvadevam, &lt;strong&gt;is to be welcomed as a guest&lt;/strong&gt;, who &lt;strong&gt;is like&#xA;  a bridge for crossing over to the seats of bliss.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the Manu Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.72. &lt;strong&gt;But he who does not feed&lt;/strong&gt; these five, the gods, &lt;strong&gt;his&#xA;  guests,&lt;/strong&gt; those whom he is bound to maintain, the manes, and himself,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;lives not, though he breathes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An interesting story, told in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Linga Purana&lt;/a&gt;, which emphasizes the fact that guests are always to be treated as God, is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the secluded and thick Forests of Daruvana, select Munis including&#xA;  Sapta Rishis and Maha Yogis were engaged in deep Tapasya along with&#xA;  their wives and children. As the Munis were busy with their meditation&#xA;  and Yagna Karmas, the wives who were all Maha Pativratas were serving&#xA;  them in their spiritual activities and family chores. Maha Deva&#xA;  appeared in Daruvana to test the depth of the Rishis and their&#xA;  Tapasya. He assumed the form of a semi-lunatic but of an astonishingly&#xA;  handsome and shapely physique; as a ‘Digambara’ or naked, he was&#xA;  laughing loudly some times and behaving erratically always. Soon he&#xA;  became the talk of Daruvana especially the feminine gender. Even the&#xA;  renowned Pativratas of leading Maharshis, let alone the unmarried&#xA;  Kanyas and elderly women, spontaneously professed attraction and&#xA;  infatuation for the Stranger. Parama Shiva in disguise  who terminated&#xA;  Kama Devata into ashes with his anger by his third eye had kindled&#xA;  passion among the Rishi Patnis including of the Sapta Rishis! Some of&#xA;  the enterprising women entered his ‘Parnashala’, declared love for him&#xA;  and enquired of his antecedents. He smiled but would not reply.The&#xA;  Maharshis reacted sharply against the Stranger as he was ruining their&#xA;  family lives; they all confronted him one day and gave him a&#xA;  ‘Shaap’that since he provoked his wives with his nudity, his Linga&#xA;  should be dropped down to the ground. Parma Shiva retaliated that&#xA;  since no fault of his the Maharshis gave the ‘shaap’, he would not&#xA;  give a return curse but his Linga would get fixed there as also&#xA;  multiply into innumerable forms to burn off the areas of their&#xA;  presence; further they (Sapta Rishis) would be hanging on the Sky&#xA;  along with Nakshatras for ever! Having heard this the Sapta Rishis&#xA;  were shaken up as the forest was gradually getting burnt off  and the&#xA;  fire was spreading far and wide. &lt;strong&gt;They approached Brahma at once and&#xA;  the latter confirmed to  the Rishis that the ‘Atithi’ or the Guest was&#xA;  none other than Maha Deva Himself and that they were most unfortunate&#xA;  in not realising the actuality. In fact Brahma reprimanded the Rishis&#xA;  as they did not observe one of the fundamental Precepts of Dharma viz.&#xA;  that a Grihasti or a Family Man ought to treat Guests as Devatas (Athithi Devo Bhava)!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-30T18:50:43.223" LastActivityDate="2017-01-30T18:50:43.223" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16456" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16457" CreationDate="2016-12-21T13:51:44.103" Score="10" ViewCount="1558" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Ashrama System, there are four stages of life:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmacharya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Grihashtha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vanaprashtha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sannyasa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Can one only take Sannyasa after Vanaprashtha or even before Vanaprastha? More precisely I want to know when can one take Sannyasa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scriptural guidance about when to take Sannyasa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-05-16T15:58:28.127" LastActivityDate="2018-09-26T01:55:11.840" Title="When can one take Sannyasa?" Tags="|scripture|spiritual-level|ashram|sannyasa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16457" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16456" CreationDate="2016-12-21T13:51:44.103" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Ashrama system is designed according to the stages of life viz. student, householder, retired and renounced life according to age and are related to the proper combination of four Purushartha viz. Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though there is no strict rule that one can take Sannyasa only after Vanaprasthashrama. One can take Sannyasa from any Ashrama and at  the instantaneous moment which distaste for it dawns on him according to spiritual level.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Jabala Shruti/Upanishad (verse 4):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Sanskrit verse quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/jabala.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Documents&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ हैनं जनको वैदेहो याज्ञवल्क्यमुपसमेत्योवाच&#xA;  भगवन्संन्यासं ब्रूहीति । स होवाच याज्ञवल्क्यः ।&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्मचर्यं परिसमाप्य गृही भवेत् । गृही भूत्वा वनी&#xA;  भवेत् । वनी भूत्वा प्रव्रजेत् । यदि वेतरथा&#xA;  ब्रह्मचर्यादेव प्रव्रजेद्गृहाद्वा वनाद्वा ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ पुनरव्रती वा व्रती वा स्नातको वाऽस्नातको&#xA;  वोत्सन्नग्निको वा यदहरेव विरजेत्तदहरेव प्रव्रजेत् ।&#xA;  तद्धैके प्राजापत्यामेवेष्टि,न् कुर्वन्ति । तदु तथा न&#xA;  कुर्यादाग्नेयीमेव कुर्यात् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;English translation quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/upanishads-shukla-yajur-veda/jabala-upanishad/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta Spiritual Library&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Janaka, the king of the Videhas (respectfully) approached Yajnavalkya and requested him: 'Revered Sir, expound (to me) the (tenets of) renunciation (Sannyasa)'. He (Yajnavalkya) then replied: 'After completing the period of disciplined studentship (brahmacharya) one may become a householder. After being a householder he may become a forest-dweller (i.e., become a Vanaprastha). Having become a Vanaprastha he may renounce the world (and thus become a mendicant monk). &lt;strong&gt;Or, alternately, he may embrace renunciation from brahmacharya itself, or from the (stage of a) householder, or from the forest(-life of a Vanaprastha). (It can also be that) a person may renounce worldly life that very day on which distaste for it dawns on him&lt;/strong&gt;, whether he is one not observing the vows (before the stage of renunciation) or observe them, whether he has undergone the prescribed ablution on completing the disciplined studentship or not, whether he is one who has discontinued maintaining the sacred fire at the death of his wife (utsannagni) or is one who does not maintain (for other causes) the sacred fire (anagnika).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, when one take Sannyasa from Brahmacharya, Grihashtha or Vanaprashtha. More precisely, &lt;strong&gt;one can take Sannyasa on very that day/moment when absolute Vairagya is obtained!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also supported in Adhyaya-3, Pada-4 of Brahma Sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note: There are also other Upanishads with similar names like Jabali Upanishad or Bhasma Jabal Upanishad. This is Jabal Upanishad &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/jabala.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;quoted&lt;/a&gt; as mentioned and used by Acharyas in their Bhashya of Prashthanatrayi.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-09-26T01:55:11.840" LastActivityDate="2018-09-26T01:55:11.840" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16458" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2016-12-21T14:09:20.533" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2016-12-21T14:09:20.533" LastActivityDate="2016-12-21T14:09:20.533" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16459" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2016-12-21T14:09:20.533" Score="0" Body="Questions about Sannyasa (renunciation) the stage of Ashrama when one renounces the world and detaches from his social and family relations." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-21T15:00:27.157" LastActivityDate="2016-12-21T15:00:27.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16460" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16456" CreationDate="2016-12-21T14:41:49.267" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;When one can take Sanyasa? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is also provided in Shreemad Bhagvat Purana by &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shree Krishna himself&lt;/strong&gt; (Skanda 11 Chapter 18 verse 12)  The name of the chapter is&quot; &lt;strong&gt;Dharma of Vaanprastha &amp;amp; Sansyasis&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the sanskrit shloka-: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदा कर्मविपाकेषु लोकेषु निरयात्मसु।&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;विरागो&lt;/strong&gt; जायते सम्यङ्ग न्यस्तग्नि: प्रव्रजेत्तत:॥12॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yadā karma-vipākeṣu lokeṣu nirayātmasu virāgo jāyate samyaṅ nyastāgniḥ&#xA;  pravrajet tataḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning  of Vedbase site&lt;/strong&gt; - If the vānaprastha, understanding that even promotion to Brahmaloka is a miserable situation, develops&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;complete detachment&lt;/strong&gt; from all possible results of fruitive activities, &lt;strong&gt;then he may take the sannyāsa order of life.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/18/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.18.12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning in  Gita Press Gorakhapur version&lt;/strong&gt; -: When Vaanprastha feels that the  lokas which one acquire by fruits of Karma are&#xA;  miserable as Hell . And when realizing this when he develops complete&#xA;  detachment from life .He may take the sanyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2016-12-21T14:41:49.267" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16462" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7038" CreationDate="2016-12-21T18:05:05.123" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Story of Alakshmi is described in detail in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/linga-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-06&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 6&lt;/a&gt; Uttarabhaga of Linga Mahapurana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu created Alakshmi as a part of His divine sports. Since she was created before Goddess lakshmi, she is called Jyestha. But she came into world during churning of ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूत उवाच &lt;br&gt; अनादिनिधनः श्रीमान्धाता नारायणः प्रभुः॥२॥ जगद्द्वैधमिदं&#xA;चक्रे मोहनाय जगत्पति:। विष्णुर्वे ब्राह्मणान्वेदान्वेदधमनि सनातनान्&#xA;॥३॥ श्रियं पद्मां तथा श्रेष्ठां भागमेकमकारयत्। ज्येष्ठामलक्ष्मीमशुभां&#xA;वेदबाह्यान्नराधमान्॥४॥ अधर्म च महातेजा भागमेकमकल्पयत्।&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;अलक्ष्मीमग्रतः सृष्ट्वा पश्चात्पद्मां जनार्दनः॥५॥ ज्येष्ठा तेन समाख्याता अलक्ष्मीद्वैिजसत्तमाः ।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;अमृतोद्रववेलायां&#xA;विषानंतरमुल्बणात्॥६॥ अशुभा सा तथोत्पन्ना ज्येष्ठा इति च वै श्रुतम्।&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;ततः श्रीश्च समुत्पन्ना पद्मा विष्णुपरिग्रहः ॥७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suta said, &lt;br&gt; In order to delude the universe, the glorious lord&#xA;Visnu, who is without beginning or the end and is the lord of the&#xA;universe, created the two-fold aspects of the universe. Visnu created&#xA;one set consisting of the Brahmanas, Vedas, Vedic virtues, Padma and&#xA;Šrī Laksmī. &lt;strong&gt;The god of the great refulgence made another set&#xA;comprising of Jyesha, Alaksmi, the base of me, excluded from the Vedic&#xA;sphere as well as the sin. It was after creating Alaksmi at the outset&#xA;that Visnu created Padma. Therefore, Alaksml is Jyestha (the elder)&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;O excellent Brahmanas, at the outcome of nectar soon after the&#xA;terribly potent poison, the inauspicious Jyestha was born.&lt;/strong&gt; It is so&#xA;heard. Thereof, Sri Padma was born, who subsequently became the wife&#xA;of lord Visnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Alakshmi was later married to Sage Duhsaha. But She couldn't stay with him wherever there was chants of Vedas, chants of names of Hari and Hara and other auspicious things. Duhusha got confused asked sage Markendeya for the reason. Markandeya then described places liked and disliked by her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This chapter describes in detail all auspicious places, where she can't stay such as places where Vedas and names of Lord are chanted and inauspicious places, where she likes to live like warring families and Adharmic places. (Read that chapter to know them in detail).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally Duhusa left her at a tank and went to Patalaloka through an anthill.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दुःसहस्तामुवाचेदं तडागाश्रममंतरे । आस्व त्वमत्र चाहं वै प्रवेक्ष्यामि&#xA;रसातलम्॥७७॥ आवयोः स्थानमालोक्य निवासार्थं ततः पुनः । आगमिष्यामि ते&#xA;पार्श्वमित्युक्ता तमुवाच सा॥७८॥ किमश्नामि महाभाग को मे दास्यति वै&#xA;बलिम्। इत्युक्तस्तां मुनिः प्राह याः स्त्रियस्त्वां यजंति वै॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Duhsaha said to her- “You live at the bank of this tank in the&#xA;cottage, because I shall enter Patalaloka. I shall reach for a&#xA;suitable place for dwelling of both of us and shall return to you.” At&#xA;this, Jyesha said“What shall I do here? Who will feed me here?” At the&#xA;words thus spoken by Jyesha, the sage replied to her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;बलिभिः पुष्पधूपैच न तासां च गृह विश। इत्युक्त्वा त्वाविशत्तत्र पातालं&#xA;बिलयोगतः॥८०॥ अद्यापि च विनिर्मग्नो मुनिः स जलसंस्तरे।&#xA;ग्रामपर्वतबाह्येषु नित्यमास्तेऽशुभा पुनः॥८१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“You never enter the houses of the ladies who will adore you offering&#xA;incense, flowers and fragrance.” Thus speaking, the sage entered&#xA;Patala through an anthill, where the sage lives even today at the&#xA;water level. The inauspicious goddess Jyestha always wanders over the&#xA;mountains, outside the villages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu when spotted Alakshmi alone at tank, He told her to go inauspicious places for food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीविष्णुरुवाच &lt;br&gt; ये रुद्रमनघं शर्व शडूरं नीललोहितम्। अंबां हैमवतीं&#xA;वापि जनित्रीं जगतामपि॥८५॥ मद्भक्तान्नेिदयंत्यत्र तेषां वित्तं तवैव हि।&#xA;येपि चैव महादेवं विर्निद्यैव यजंति माम्॥८६॥ मूढा ह्यभाग्या मन्द्रता&#xA;अपि तेषां धनं तव। यस्याज्ञया ह्यहं ब्रह्मा प्रसादाद्वर्तते सदा॥८७॥ ये&#xA;यजंति विर्निद्यैव मम विद्वेषकारकाः। मद्भक्ता नैव ते भक्ता इव वर्तीति&#xA;दुर्मदाः॥८८॥ तेषां गृहं धनं क्षेत्रमिष्टापूर्तं तवैव हि॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Visnu said &lt;br&gt; &amp;quot;Such of the people who do not adore the sinless&#xA;Rudra, Sarva, Nīlalohita, Siva and Haimavati - the mother of the&#xA;universe, besides my devotees, those who denounce Mahadeva and adore&#xA;me, all their riches belong to you. Lord Siva, by adoring Whom, both&#xA;myself and Brahma exist, the riches of my foolish devotees belong to&#xA;you. Such of the people who are envious of me, denounce me, are not my&#xA;devotees and do not Worship me like my devotees, belong to you. Their&#xA;riches, the fields, crops and all the noble deeds done by me, belong&#xA;to you. The digging of the tanks and Wells also belong to you.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-21T18:18:07.553" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16464" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16216" CreationDate="2016-12-22T00:53:12.233" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you travel faster than speed limit of road in a new area, will police punish you or not ?&#xA;99% of time, ignorance of law is not an excuse, so you will have to bear consequences.. but in rare cases, it might be pardoned&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;children do not get karma until age 14  - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/the-story-of-mandavya-rishi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/the-story-of-mandavya-rishi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mandavya rishi tortured an ant when he was a kid. In later life, while he was meditating, a king impaled him on a stick. Mandavya rishi then enquired Yama dharma raja what was the reason for his punishment. Yama said it was due to that crime you committed when you were a child. Mandavya then cursed Yama to be born on earth since children do not know right vs wrong, and also 'rewrote' age of sin to begin from 14 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Until then, whatever good/bad they commit, the karma belong to parents. That's why it is very important for us to teach children morals.. not just math &amp;amp; science.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2016-12-22T00:53:12.233" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16465" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16466" CreationDate="2016-12-22T06:50:28.550" Score="7" ViewCount="2456" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is achamana?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Achamanam (achamana, achmana) is one of the most important rituals in&#xA;  the Hindu tradition. It is a male purification ritual that is believed&#xA;  to cure all physical and mental illnesses.&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; As such, it is performed&#xA;  prior to almost all other Brahmin rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Achamana is basically sipping small drops of water from right palm.It is purificatory ritual.The word &quot;achamana&quot; literally means &quot;sipping&quot;.It is thus &lt;strong&gt;the very first act&lt;/strong&gt; that is performed prior to any Vedic or Hindu Ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prohibitions on Sudras and women regarding participating in religious rites:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is well known that Hindu Shastras impose a lot of restrictions on women and sudras when it comes to performance of religious activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Specially,the Smritis,also known as the Dharma Shastras ,impose these restrictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For,example,Manu Smriti,the first of its kind,declares that there is no Vedic initiation for neither the sudras nor the women folk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the sudras and women are not allowed to study the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,i have read the Brihat Tantra Saara book which says that  women and sudras are not allowed to chant the Pranava(OM),the Shri Beejam(Shrim),the Savitri(Gayatri mantra),Swaha etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But ,the Sudras and women can still worship.It is stated in Puranas that everyone reserves the right to worship the Almighty be it a Sudra or a woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatam1-2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana&lt;/a&gt; states that the composition of the Puranas are done in each Dwapara keeping specially in mind the benefits of women &amp;amp; the Sudras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18-24. At every Manvantara, in each Dvâpara Yuga, Veda Vyâsa expounds&#xA;  the Purânas duly to preserve the religion. Veda Vyâsa is no other&#xA;  person than Visnu Himself; He, in the form of Veda Vyâsa, divides the&#xA;  (one) Veda into four parts, in every Dvâpara Yuga, for the good of the&#xA;  world. &lt;strong&gt;The Brahmânas of the Kali age are shortlived and their&#xA;  intellect (Buddhi) is not sharp; they cannot realise the meaning after&#xA;  studying the Vedas; knowing this in every Dvâpara Yuga Bhagavân&#xA;  expounds the holy Purâna Samhitas. The more so because women, S’udras,&#xA;  and the lower Dvijas are not entitled to hear the Vedas; for their&#xA;  good, the Purânas have been composed&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to my question.If women and Sudras are allowed to worship ritually ,&lt;strong&gt;they should first have rights to perform Achamana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question-Do the Scriptures allow women and Sudras to perform Achamana?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-22T07:45:07.397" LastActivityDate="2017-01-06T05:54:00.377" Title="Rules of achamana to be followed by the Sudras and the Strees(women)" Tags="|scripture|rituals|worship|caste-system|women|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16466" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16465" CreationDate="2016-12-22T06:50:28.550" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes ,both women and the Sudras are allowed to perform Achamana&lt;/strong&gt;.The Shastras allow it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.60. Let him first sip water thrice; next twice wipe his&#xA;  mouth; and, lastly, touch with water the cavities (of the head), (the&#xA;  seat of) the soul and the head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.61. He who knows the sacred law and seeks purity shall always perform the rite of sipping with water neither hot nor frothy, with&#xA;  the (prescribed) tirtha, in a lonely place, and turning to the east or&#xA;  to the north&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.62. A Brahmana is purified by water that reaches his&#xA;  heart, a Kshatriya by water reaching his throat, a Vaisya by water&#xA;  taken into his mouth, (and) &lt;strong&gt;a Sudra by water touched with the&#xA;  extremity (of his lips).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yqr7F.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yqr7F.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  5.139. Let him who desires bodily purity first sip water three times, and then twice wipe his mouth; &lt;strong&gt;but a woman and a Sudra (shall&#xA;  perform each act) once (only).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/06Yagyavalkya_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajnavalkya Smriti&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A6HY3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A6HY3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hrit Kantha Taalu Gaavistu Yatha Samrayam Dwijatwyah||&lt;strong&gt;Sudhyer Stree&#xA;  Cha Sudrascha Sakrit Sprishta Bhirantataha ||(Yajnvalkya&#xA;  Smriti,2,21)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;XXI.—The twice-born become pure by waters reaching the heart, the&#xA;  throat and the palate, respectively. &lt;strong&gt;Women and Sudras become pure&#xA;  directly the waters once reach the palate.—21&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,everyone including Sudra or a woman should perform achamana before embarking on a religious duty.But the important thing here is to note the difference in the rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While a Dvija sips thrice and after that wipes(his lips) twice, &lt;strong&gt;a Sudra &amp;amp; a woman should only  sip once and then wipe lips also only once.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-06T05:54:00.377" LastActivityDate="2017-01-06T05:54:00.377" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16467" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-22T08:25:59.587" Score="1" ViewCount="116" Body="&lt;p&gt;My question is,&#xA;When can a Kshatriya girl marry after performing last rites/head torch/Karmakand to her father? As she is the only daughter. she has to marry after 1 year or Can she marry after 6 months?&#xA;If married Can she do one year death anniversary rituals(pinda pradhan on 1 year death anniversary)to her father?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8528" LastActivityDate="2016-12-22T08:25:59.587" Title="When can a girl marry after performing Head torch/Last rites" Tags="|rituals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2016-12-22T17:21:04.843" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16469" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16216" CreationDate="2016-12-22T11:53:00.473" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Children become responsible for their karma after four years of age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Boys of less than four years in age can never be guilty or sinful.&#xA;  Even the king cannot punish them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Garuda Purana, Dharma Khanda, chapter XLIII]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-12-22T11:53:00.473" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16470" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11125" CreationDate="2016-12-22T11:56:21.943" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes there is smilar concept as &quot;Santhara(Sallekhanā or Sanyasana-marana)&quot; in Hinduism.It's called &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Anashan&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; &lt;strong&gt;(अनशन) Vrata&lt;/strong&gt; .The meaning of word Anashan is discard or  to stop intake of any food.&lt;a href=&quot;http://shabdkosh.raftaar.in/Meaning-of-FAST-in-Hindi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;See Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is described as a &lt;strong&gt;vrata to take in the time of very old age or Vanaprastha person (retiring into a forest&quot;).&lt;/strong&gt; This is described in details in Shreemad Bhagvat Purana &lt;strong&gt;(Skanda 7 Chapter 12 Shlokas 23 to 31)&lt;/strong&gt; The chapter name is &quot;Rules of Brahmacharya &amp;amp; Vaanprastha Ashrama&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also mentioning of Story of &lt;strong&gt;King Parikshita took this vrata &amp;amp; took fast (till death)&lt;/strong&gt; after he realised that he is going to die by snake bite after 7 days.&#xA;These rules are told by &lt;strong&gt;Sage Narada&lt;/strong&gt; ,  also there is a reason provided about who should take this Vrata. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदाकल्प: स्वक्रियायां व्याधिभिर्जरयाथवा ।&lt;br&gt;  &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अन्विक्षिकयां&lt;/strong&gt; वा विद्यायां कुर्यादनशनादिकम ॥23॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;  yadākalpaḥ sva-kriyāyāṁ vyādhibhir jarayāthavā &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ānvīkṣikyāṁ&lt;/strong&gt; vā vidyāyāṁ kuryād &lt;strong&gt;anaśanādikam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;   &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; -When because of &lt;strong&gt;disease or old age one is unable to perform his prescribed duties&lt;/strong&gt; for advancement in spiritual&#xA;  consciousness or study of the Vedas, he should &lt;strong&gt;practice fasting, not&#xA;  taking any food.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/12/23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 7.12.23&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (anaśana-ādikam = not take sufficient food.)&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kLlWe.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kLlWe.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-22T14:06:53.800" LastActivityDate="2016-12-22T14:06:53.800" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16472" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15194" CreationDate="2016-12-22T13:38:53.717" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Matsya avatar incarnation was for fetching the stolen Vedas basically and to patent-save the prototype of Srushti-materials by that period Manu, as the Kala (time) was nearing Pralaya by deluge. The Koorma avatar was for providing the Devas their lost glory. As is evident from these fundamental causes, both avatars were not for humans but for celestials ! Hence why should humans worship those forms? Also Varaha avatar is concerned directly with Earth, our dwelling place and evolutionally fits in chronologically too as a starting point until today..! The Lord Varaha has also given instructions through his words called 'Charamasloka' as to how a man can stake his claim for attaining Salvation or Moksha..! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8532" LastActivityDate="2016-12-22T13:38:53.717" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16473" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-22T17:48:01.563" Score="6" ViewCount="1846" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to have a basic understanding of the contents and focus of Rig Veda 10&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Mandala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the brief thematic outline of Rig Veda 10&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Mandala?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8028" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-23T18:05:52.003" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T05:46:32.897" Title="In brief, what is the thematic outline of Rig Veda 10th Mandala?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16474" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-22T18:37:46.100" Score="7" ViewCount="777" Body="&lt;p&gt;All plants are harmless and they won't be doing any sin during their plant birth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then what determines which birth they are going to take up in their next janma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8533" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-23T06:51:33.897" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T16:35:38.083" Title="After a plant dies, will its atma get a human birth directly?" Tags="|atma|rebirth|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-01-03T07:22:51.940" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16475" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-22T18:41:41.287" Score="9" ViewCount="254" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've seen this practice where the archaka or priest asks the person doing certain rituals like the Śrāddha to temporarily wear a yajñopavītam or something similar (quickly made out of a towel), I suppose, to make the kartā eligible for performing the rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a scriptural guidance for such practice i.e., temporarily wearing a yajñopavītam and then removing it after you are done?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;PS. This is not a duplicate of the more generic questions:&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;1. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2892&quot;&gt;Is Janeva (Yaj&amp;#241;opavītam or sacred thread) limited to Brahmins only?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;2. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14284&quot;&gt;Why don&amp;#39;t Sudras wear a sacred thread?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T08:01:31.917" Title="Why are men who don't wear yajñopavītam asked to wear one during certain rituals?" Tags="|scripture|rituals|caste-system|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16477" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8358" CreationDate="2016-12-22T23:35:11.777" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chitrasen war was an unfair war. If the unfair part is not written in any scriptures, there is something called common sense. Arjun was Indra's son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sammohana weapon was given to Arjun by Indra. He used it in Virata war. We can't declare Arjun win the war because Bhishma was conscious but he preferred not to fight his beloved Arjun. Though we can declare Karna lost this one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kurukshetra war was unfair to Pandavas as they had fewer soldiers. But as fact goes, Bhima never defeated Karna in Kurukshetra. In fact, it was otherwise. If you read deeply, Karna defeated each of the 5 Pandavas once during the war. Arjun defeated only Karna once and which had resulted in his death. And we all know what worked in Arjun's favor in this war and against Karna. 7 of them are mentioned below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Krishna as charioteer and guide&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman's presence in his chariot&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Durga presence in his chariot&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Karna's promise to Kunti of not killing other sons, except Arjun&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Indra's disguised and took his Kavach and Kundal&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Curse on Karna of chariot getting stuck and resulting to his death&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Curse on Karna by Parshuram of forgetting the knowledge of using celestial weapons&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All in all, Karan and Arjun never had a fair fight to decide who was a better at archery. And all the war Karna lost, there is one thing is common Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8535" LastActivityDate="2016-12-22T23:35:11.777" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16478" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15064" CreationDate="2016-12-23T03:04:39.860" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although 1 of the post already answer this Question I am appending few more benefits mentioned in the Shiva Mahimna Strotram itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एककालं द्विकालं वा त्रिकालं यः पठेन्नरः। सर्वपाप-विनिर्मुक्तः शिव लोके&#xA;  महीयते॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here &lt;strong&gt;2 benefits&lt;/strong&gt; are mentioned-: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;1. Whoever reads Shiva Mahimna Strotram once, twice or thrice (in a day) revels in the domain of Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2. Whoever reads Shiva Mahimna Strotram once, twice or thrice (in a day) will be bereft of all his/her sins&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another place where similar benefit mentioned is below&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुरगुरुमभिपूज्य स्वर्ग-मोक्षैक-हेतुं पठति यदि मनुष्यः&#xA;  प्राञ्जलिर्नान्य-चेताः। व्रजति शिव-समीपं किन्नरैः स्तूयमानः&#xA;  स्तवनमिदममोघं पुष्पदन्तप्रणीतम्‌॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning : If an aspirant for heaven and liberation, worships Shiva,the teacher of gods, at first a&lt;strong&gt;nd then reads this unfailing hymn, composed by Pushhpadanta, with folded hands and single-mindedness, he attains Shiva's abode&lt;/strong&gt;, being praised by `kinnaras&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T03:04:39.860" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16479" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8876" CreationDate="2016-12-23T06:08:33.820" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Explanation of different interpretations of Bhagavan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as one object with various attributes is seen differently through&#xA;  the different senses (say, a flower fragrant to the nose, soft to the&#xA;  touch, and beautiful to the eye), - &lt;strong&gt;even so that one Bhagavan is&#xA;  viewed and interpreted differently by different philosophies and&#xA;  scriptural writings in the light of their particular traditions. (He&#xA;  is one and the same, but each religion or philosophy seeks to&#xA;  interpret Him in consonance with its own tradition and concepts.&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SrimadBhagavataPurana, translated by Swami Tapasyananda, III.32.33&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T06:08:33.820" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16480" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-23T06:28:03.280" Score="5" ViewCount="112" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that we can not earn any merit or demerit in any birth other than the human birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, do our sins (demerits) burn away in animal or tree birth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E.g., a dog born in dirty mud has to face many difficulties to survive but a dog born in a bungalow may have all the comforts and facilities to lead a happy life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given that, do our merits and demerits really wipe off in an animal birth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-23T06:52:25.340" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T06:52:25.340" Title="Do our sins really burn away if we're reborn as animals or trees (i.e., other than human)?" Tags="|karma|rebirth|sin|animals|birth|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16481" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-23T07:24:00.980" Score="8" ViewCount="3064" Body="&lt;p&gt;What happens to the human in afterlife if he does not believe in any God or any theory related to god?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any Vedas mention anything regarding this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-23T15:24:41.557" LastActivityDate="2021-01-24T03:07:38.657" Title="What happens to one in afterlife who doesn't believe in God?" Tags="|belief|rebirth|atheism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16482" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16481" CreationDate="2016-12-23T09:10:04.803" Score="10" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What happens if anyone is not believing in God? &#xA;  What happens to the human in afterlife if he does not believe in any God and any theory related to god?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answers of these questions are provided in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Bhagvat Gita by Shree Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;. Here Shree Krishna is exactly telling Arjuna about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अश्रद्दधानाः&lt;/strong&gt; पुरुषा धर्मस्यास्य परन्तप।&lt;br&gt;  अप्राप्य मां निवर्तन्ते&#xA;  मृत्युसंसारवर्त्मनि।।9.3।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;aśraddadhānāḥ&lt;/strong&gt; puruṣā dharmasyāsya paran-tapa aprāpya māṁ nivartante&#xA;  mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Those who are not faithful in this devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of enemies. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore they return to&#xA;  the path of birth and death in this material world.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG&#xA;  9.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;  &lt;hr&gt;  अज्ञश्चाश्रद्दधानश्च संशयात्मा विनश्यति। &lt;br&gt;  नायं लोकोऽस्ति न परो न सुखं संशयात्मनः।।4.40।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ajñaścāśraddadhānaśca saṅśayātmā vinaśyati.  nāyaṅ lōkō.sti na parō na&#xA;  sukhaṅ saṅśayātmanaḥ ৷৷ 4.40 ৷৷&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;- One who is ignorant and faithless, and has a doubting mind perishes. &lt;strong&gt;Neither this world nor the next nor happiness exists&#xA;  for one who has a doubting mind.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/40&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;BG 4.40&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;  &lt;hr&gt; &#xA;  श्रद्धावाँल्लभते ज्ञानं तत्परः संयतेन्द्रियः।&lt;br&gt;    ज्ञानं लब्ध्वा परां&#xA;  शान्तिमचिरेणाधिगच्छति।।4.39।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śraddhāvāḻ labhate jñānaṁ tat-paraḥ saṁyatendriyaḥ jñānaṁ labdhvā&#xA;  parāṁ śāntim acireṇādhigacchati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; -A faithful man who is dedicated to transcendental knowledge&#xA;  and who subdues his senses is eligible to achieve such knowledge, and&#xA;  having achieved it he quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/39&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 4.39&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;   &lt;hr&gt; &#xA;  तद्बुद्धयस्तदात्मानस्तन्निष्ठास्तत्परायणाः।&lt;br&gt;  गच्छन्त्यपुनरावृत्तिं&#xA;  ज्ञाननिर्धूतकल्मषाः।।5.17।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tad-buddhayas tad-ātmānas tan-niṣṭhās tat-parāyaṇāḥ gacchanty&#xA;  apunar-āvṛttiṁ jñāna-nirdhūta-kalmaṣāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - When one’s intelligence, mind, faith and refuge are all ﬁxed in the Supreme, then one becomes fully cleansed of misgivings&#xA;  through complete knowledge and thus proceeds straight on the path of&#xA;  liberation. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/5/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 5.17&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from this conversation we come to know that people who are &lt;strong&gt;non believes or Atheist&lt;/strong&gt; or who do not believe in God or any theories related ( Shastra) , &lt;strong&gt;do not get Supreme&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;knowledge , Eternal peace in this as well as other worlds.They  again get rebirth&lt;/strong&gt; here on earth.So they &lt;strong&gt;do  not attain Moksha or liberation&lt;/strong&gt;, as told in various texts as final goal of Human being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T10:26:58.887" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T10:26:58.887" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16483" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16474" CreationDate="2016-12-23T09:27:52.967" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not necessarily&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Probably the next birth will be as another plant or as an insect or as an animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Smriti(Chapter XLIV) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Now after having suffered the torments inflicted in the hells, the evil-doers pass into animal bodies.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Criminals in the highest degree enter the bodies of all plants successively.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mortal sinners enter the bodies of worms or insects.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Minor offenders enter the bodies of birds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Criminals in the fourth degree enter the bodies of aquatic animals&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,since the gravest sinners are getting born as plants,&lt;strong&gt;it is highly unlikely that they will be humans in the next birth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Because even those with relatively less sins are getting animal births&lt;/strong&gt;,it is natural to expect,that they(gravest sinners) will have to endure possibly a lot of more suffering before being born again as a human being .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I think,they have to  pass through all the intermediate species of life, like other plants,insects and animals ,of various kinds, before attaining human birth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-23T16:35:38.083" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T16:35:38.083" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16484" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16481" CreationDate="2016-12-23T09:51:18.980" Score="8" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What happens to the human in afterlife if he does not believe in any&#xA;  God and any theory related to god? Does anything regarding this has&#xA;  mentioned in any Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well,not sure about the Srutis(Vedas), but Smritis do talk a lot about the consequences of non-believers of Gods or Shastras(Srutis and Smritis) or the Atheists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atheism is condemned all through out Hindu Shastras.Some mention it as minor sin while others mention it as a grave one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti mentions it as a minor offence and also says that it leads to loss of caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 4.163. &lt;strong&gt;Let him avoid atheism, cavilling at the Vedas,&#xA;  contempt of the gods,&lt;/strong&gt; hatred, want of modesty, pride, anger, and&#xA;  harshness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu 11.66. Stealing grain, base metals, or cattle, intercourse with&#xA;  women who drink spirituous liquor, slaying women, Sudras, Vaisyas, or&#xA;  Kshatriyas, &lt;strong&gt;and atheism&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;(are all) minor offences, causing loss&#xA;  of caste (Upapataka).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,even your question about what one becomes in afterlife as a consequence is answered in Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who have committed &lt;strong&gt;a crime effecting loss of caste&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;enter the&#xA;  bodies of amphibious animal&lt;/strong&gt;(Vishnu smriti ,XLIV,6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,atheism,contempt of God,reviling the Vedas all leads to loss of caste and loss of caste to rebirth as an amphibian.(HAHA)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In anycase,even if you believe in these &quot;amphibian&quot; things or not, like said in the answer above by SwiftPushkar,non-believers(of Gods and Shastras) will have to take birth after birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,not recommended at all.Have faith and make your life blissful.:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T09:51:18.980" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16486" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-23T11:07:36.210" Score="8" ViewCount="10889" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartikeya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kartikeya&lt;/a&gt; (also called Muruga, Skanda, Subrahmanya) is the son of Lord Shiva and Parvati. He is mostly worshiped in the southern part of India. He is also the commander-in-chief of the army of the devatas.He is also the God of war.  He is mentioned in various puranas and known for defeating the demon Taraka. His mount is said to be a peacock. Generally deities have image of their mount(vaahan) on their flags. For example - Lord Vishnu is called as Garudadhwaja because he has Garuda on his flag. But Lord Kartikeya has a rooster on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XcCSB.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XcCSB.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Kartikeya with rooster flag and vel in his hands&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My questions :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the story of emergence of Peacock and cock?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why does Skanda have a  rooster on the flag instead of a peacock?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance and symbolism of these birds and the rooster flag? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T14:58:06.593" Title="What is the reason behind Lord Kartikeya holding a rooster flag?" Tags="|symbolism|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16488" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16492" CreationDate="2016-12-23T11:43:03.300" Score="6" ViewCount="5551" Body="&lt;p&gt;Almost all Sadhus and Sannyasis that we see wear malas made of rudrakshas.I think for them the reasons are spiritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But even a common man can wear a rudraksha.For them the reasons can be spiritual or astrological or both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rudrakshas can be of various kinds and specific rudrakshas are often worn as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/mantras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;remedies&lt;/a&gt; for specific malefic planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg-for malefic Sun,1 mukhi or 12 mukhi are recommended,for malefic Moon 2 mukhi ,for malefic Mars 3 mukhi and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/devibhagvatpurana54.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; Devi Bhagavatam chapter contains a lot about rudrakshas and the benefits of wearing them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The origin of Rudrakshas [dark beads of Tree, termed Elaeocorpus&#xA;  Ganitrus in Latin language] or Lord Siva’s tears, extensively used as&#xA;  Prayer Rosaries, goes back to Maha Deva’s killing Tripurasura......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some restrictions are there .Few are given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All vedic acts are to be accompanied by wearing Rudraksha Malas like&#xA;  Sacrifices, Vraths, Pujas, holy baths, Shraddhas, Solar and Lunar&#xA;  Eclipses, Uttarayana and Dakshinayana ‘Samkramanas’(entry timings),&#xA;  and Full Moon and New Moon days or Pournami and Pradhama days.&lt;strong&gt;However&#xA;  one should not touch or consume wine, meat, tobacco, onion, garlic and&#xA;  such impurities as also during mating, since these constitute&#xA;  atrocious insults to Maha Deva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who can wear them?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The white variety of the beads are meant for wearing by Brahmanas, the&#xA;  red colour by Kshatriyas and the black coloured beads by Vaisyas &lt;strong&gt;and&#xA;  others&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it is not clear to me whether this &lt;strong&gt;others&lt;/strong&gt; include women or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question-Are women allowed to wear rudrakshas?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T10:52:26.920" Title="Are women allowed to wear rudrakshas?" Tags="|scripture|women|rudraksha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16491" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5376" CreationDate="2016-12-23T12:10:31.427" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Guru is the supreme brahman made manifest before these fleshly eyes and so he is compared to the three Gods as Creator, preserver and destroyer to represent his power over Maya and the three gunas. It is because he is beyond qualities and mind that he is absolute, the essence of pure knowledge and the embodiment of God upon the earth.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8542" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T12:10:31.427" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16492" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16488" CreationDate="2016-12-23T13:16:18.030" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Women are allowed to wear Rudraksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from Devi Bhagavatam, Glory of Rudraksha and prescribed rules are also described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaivam.org/scripture/English-Translation/1314/rudrakshajabala-upanishat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rudrakshajabala Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; of Samaveda, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-32/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 25&lt;/a&gt; Vidyesvara Samhita of Shiva Mahapurana besides many other puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vidyeswara Samhita of Shiva Purana says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वाश्रमाणां वर्णानां &lt;strong&gt;स्त्री&lt;/strong&gt; शूद्राणां शिवाज्ञया। &lt;br&gt; धार्याः सदैव&#xA;रुद्राक्षा यतीनां प्रणवेन हि॥ ४७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People of all the varnas, Asramas, Sudras and the &lt;strong&gt;women&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;should wear Rudraksa at the command of Siva. The ascetics should wear&#xA;it reciting the Omkara mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parvati Devi Herself wore Rudraksha beads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Goddess Gauri closed eyes of Mahadeva playfully and entire world became dark creating chaos everywhere. Parvati Devi felt bad for Her immature act (as a part of their divine leela) and went to Kanchi and did Tapasya there wearing Rudraksha beads. This is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-iii/chapter-04/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 4&lt;/a&gt; Purvaardha - Arunachala Mahatmya of Skanda Mahapurana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;10&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Setting aside her ornaments of various kinds, she  adorned herself with clusters (i.e. rosaries) of &lt;strong&gt;Rudräksa beads&lt;/strong&gt;. Laying aside the&#xA;divine garments, she wore two auspicious bark garments.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, women can wear Rudraksha beads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T10:52:26.920" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16493" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-23T14:00:44.030" Score="4" ViewCount="276" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu purana, chaturtha anksha, verse 91&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qQPnE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qQPnE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma says, &quot;The place of kushasthali will be known as Dwarakapuri&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma purana, adhaya 7, verses 29-32&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bHyHg.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bHyHg.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Raja Raiwat, after returning from brahmalok, staying there for only one 'muhurtha'; noticed that many decades had passed in Earth. He also saw that the Yadavas had taken over his kingdom &quot;kushshalipuri&quot; and renamed it to &quot;Dwaravati&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Skanda purana, Avanti khanda, avanta kshetra mahatmya, adhaya 47, verses 5-7&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ppPOY.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ppPOY.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ujjaynipuri will be known as Swarnasringa in the first kalpa. In the second kalpa, it will be known as Kushsthali. In the third kalpa, it will be known as Avanti. In the fourth kalpa, it will be known as Amaravati. In the fifth kalpa, it will be known as Churdamani. In the sixth kalpa, it will be known as Padmavati and in the seventh kalpa, it will be known as Ujjayni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Here we see that the name of the place changes in kalpas but the location is still the same. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Skanda purana, Avanti khanda, avanta kshetra mahatmya, adhaya 51, verses 3-6&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3cJy0.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3cJy0.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Veda Vyasa asked sanatkumar, &quot;why was Ujjayinipuri known as Kanakasringa and then  Kushthali then Avanti then Padmavati and finally Ujjayini?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Currently Ujjayinipuri is in another location to Kushsthali (Dwaraka)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name of Dwaraka has been changed few times according to puranas, first from kushasthali to dwarakapuri then finally to Dwaravati. Also Ujjayinipuri and dwarika are at two different locations when shastras say they are the same. So is the current Dwaraka the same as how the puranas are describing it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Note: I do not wish to offend anyone regarding my question. Our current thirthas are as holy regardless of their authenticity and I respect their location. Being a Hindu, I would never disrespect any thirtha just because they do not match with shastras. Many thirthas have changed locations and this is why I try to find their original location. Sorry if I have offended anybody.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva Puran, Koti Rudra Shamhita, Tryambkeshworjyotirlingamahma adhyaya 27  Verse 17 to 20&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EUL3P.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EUL3P.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vayu Puran adhyaya 88 Verse 196 to 200&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/50x8E.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/50x8E.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma Puran, adhaya 78, shloka 77:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GkGef.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GkGef.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above Vindhya Parvat lies Kushsthali Puri according to Vayu Puran. Kushwarta is below the Gangadwar according to Shiva Puran. According to bramhapuran, Vagirathai &amp;amp; Gautami Ganga originates from Vindhya Parvat. Due to this reason, Kussthali &amp;amp; Kushwarta lies in the Vindhya Parvat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8302" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-23T08:00:45.470" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T08:00:45.470" Title="Why is the description of Dwaraka not how shastras tell us?" Tags="|puranas|history|rivers|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16494" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16486" CreationDate="2016-12-23T14:58:06.593" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Story of Skanda acquiring peacock and cock and flag with rooster is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/the-brahmanda-purana/vol-ii/chapter-10/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 10&lt;/a&gt; Section 3 Upoghaatapaada of Brahmanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu gave Skanda Peacock and cock to play (as a part of daily sports) and Vayudeva gave Him a flag with emblem of cock.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;44&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Since that ancient lord, the slayer of the Asuras, was (breast-fed and) nurtured by Krttikäs he became well known  as Kärttikeya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When that enemy of the Daityas yawned, his (weapon) Sakti (Spear) (named) Aparäjitä (unvanquished) came out of his mouth emitting&#xA;brilliant flames of fire. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;46-47. &lt;strong&gt;Two very gentle birds, a peacock and&#xA;a cock were handed over through Garuda, for Skanda to play, by Vishnu&#xA;the powerful one; a banner (with cock as the emblem) was given by Väyu&#xA;(wind-god)&lt;/strong&gt; and a great Vinä of loud sound  was presented by Sarasvati. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;48-50. A goat was given by the self-born lord ( Brahmä)  and a sheep&#xA;was given by Sambhu. O Brähmana, the mountain  Krauncha sporting about&#xA;by means of illusive power was felled  by him. Täraka the excellent&#xA;Asura was pierced through and thrown down by him. So the lordly son of&#xA;the fire-god, the  valorous enemy of the Daityas, was crowned as&#xA;commander in-chief by the Devas along with Indra and Upendra (i.e.&#xA;Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;I don't know any scriptures mentioning symbolism or significance and will update when i find them.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-23T14:58:06.593" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16495" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-23T16:36:43.163" Score="5" ViewCount="474" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishkam_Karma#Nishkam_Karma_in_Bhagavad_Gita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nishkama karma&lt;/a&gt; means desireless action, whereas, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puru%E1%B9%A3%C4%81rtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;purushartha&lt;/a&gt; is all about desires and goals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aren't these two opposed to each other? Which one should we follow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7654" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-23T17:54:50.230" LastActivityDate="2016-12-24T06:50:14.187" Title="Are Nishkama karma and Purusharthas opposed to each other?" Tags="|philosophy|karma|dharma|kama|purushartha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16498" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-23T18:33:00.280" Score="7" ViewCount="869" Body="&lt;p&gt;We see many Hindu couples who don't have a single male child also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now assume one such couple have a single girl child and they find a suitable groom for her, get her married and send her off to the in-laws place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to smṛtis and dharma śāstras, who's responsible for taking care of the girl's parents in their old age? Is it their daughter, son-in-law, the society or all of them?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;PS. Related questions but not duplicate:&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;1. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16256&quot;&gt;Are Hindu children meant to serve their parents forever whether they like them or not?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;2. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2912/2995&quot;&gt;Poem on taking care of parents at their old age&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2016-12-25T15:06:32.437" Title="In their old age, who should take care of Hindu parents who don't have any sons?" Tags="|marriage|women|scripture|smriti|parents|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16499" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-23T19:03:54.997" Score="4" ViewCount="352" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the legend about Venkateswara, he marries Padmavati. There is mention about Vedavati. What is the relationship between Vedavati and Padmavati?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8028" LastActivityDate="2016-12-24T06:50:24.767" Title="In the legend about Venkateswara,what is the relationship between Vedavati and Padmavati?" Tags="|venkateshwara|brahmanda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16500" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19845" CreationDate="2016-12-23T19:17:33.327" Score="7" ViewCount="665" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the object of Putrakāmeṣṭi only a son or a child of any gender?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, if a couple already have a girl child, can they still perform putrakāmeṣṭi desiring a son?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any examples from our scriptures where a couple performed putrakāmeṣṭi seeking a son but instead a baby girl was born?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the object of putrakāmeṣṭi is to just have a child (of any gender), is it a mere coincidence that Daśaratha in Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa had all male children and no girls?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2023-01-30T11:24:58.297" Title="Is the object of Putrakāmeṣṭi only a son or a child of either gender?" Tags="|scripture|women|dasharatha|gender|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16502" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-24T06:21:02.497" Score="3" ViewCount="1332" Body="&lt;p&gt;how can I use kamajayi mudra to become a means of aid in my celibacy?can i use it in the course of simple breathing meditation..or do i have to do a separate kind of affirmation meditation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user5777" LastActivityDate="2016-12-24T06:21:02.497" Title="kamajayi mudra and it's implications on celibacy" Tags="|scripture|upanishads|vedanta|yoga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16504" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16499" CreationDate="2016-12-24T06:40:14.513" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana22.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Varaha Deva described to Bhu Devi that Emperor Akash decided to&#xA;  perform a Grand Yagna on the banks of Arani and while tilling, he&#xA;  found a girl child and as he was issueless, brought her up as their&#xA;  own, named as Padmavati......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Varaha Deva narrated the background of Padmavati’s earlier birth as&#xA;  Vedavati to Bhu Devi&lt;/strong&gt;. Vedavati was a companion of Devi Lakshmi and&#xA;  when the latter became Rama’s spouse as Sita, she left for forests to&#xA;  perform Tapasya, but demon Ravana misbehaved with her and she ended&#xA;  her life by jumping into fire and cursed Ravana that his entire clan&#xA;  would be wiped out because of a woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,Padmavati was Vedavati in her earlier birth(as correctly said in another answer) &amp;amp; which was when Rama lived,i.e in the Treta Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-24T06:50:24.767" LastActivityDate="2016-12-24T06:50:24.767" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16505" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12024" CreationDate="2016-12-24T06:48:31.313" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha Purana&lt;/a&gt; chapter which describes how the Ashta Matrikas  manifested during the extermination of the demon Andhaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The entire Universe was upset by the wickedness and glaring&#xA;  transgression of morals by the uninterrupted evils displayed by Demon&#xA;  Andhakasura [Siva Purana states that Devi Parvati was playful with&#xA;  Maha Deva by closing His eyes tightly and from the Lord's perspiration&#xA;  on His forehead a boy of muscular strength was created.]Eventually&#xA;  Andhakasura became the Unconquered King of the Lower Regions like&#xA;  Patala and tormented the entire Universe. After a series of battles&#xA;  were won with Devas who were driven away from the Heaven, Indra&#xA;  approached Brahma and Vishnu who too were ineffective to conquer the&#xA;  Demon as he was fortified with the boons of Brahma. They had finally&#xA;  approached Maha Deva and to His utter surprise He too could not&#xA;  conquer him as each time Maha Deva applied His trident against the&#xA;  Demon, blood streams of the Demons body created endless number of&#xA;  Andhakasuras with each drop of his blood. Lord Rudra became so&#xA;  infuriated that from His face produced a mighty conflagration or an&#xA;  inferno-like flame viz. the Yogishwari Shakti. Vishnu too created a&#xA;  highly powerful Shakti named Devi Vaishnavi and other Deities followed&#xA;  suit by creating their Shakti counter-parts viz. Brahmi from Brahma,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Kaumari from Kartikeya,&lt;/strong&gt; Mahendri from Indra, Yami or Poushunyam from&#xA;  Yama, Varahi from Varaha Deva and Maheswari from Narayana. &lt;strong&gt;The Eight&#xA;  Matrikas represented the Eight Mind born Enemies viz. Kama or Desire&#xA;  from Yogeswari, Krodha or fury from Maheswari, lobha or avarice from&#xA;  Vaishnavi, Mada or Ego from Brahmani, Moha or infatuation from&#xA;  Kaumari, Poushunya or wickedness from Yamadharani, Matsarya from&#xA;  Indrani and Jealousy from Varahi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,the Ashtami tithis of the month are dedicated to the Ashta Matrikas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2016-12-24T06:48:31.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16506" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16495" CreationDate="2016-12-24T06:50:14.187" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It depends on what you want to attain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 3 types of action - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iskcondesiretree.com/group/krishnaconsciousness/forum/topics/karma-vikarma-akarma-ugra-karma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;karma, vikarma, akarma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;karma - doing an action ordained by shastras (dharma) with desire to attain its fruits - this is what you and I do 99% of time&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vikarma - doing an action NOT ordained by shastras (adharma) with desire to attain its fruits - what 'bad' people do.. and they won't even get its results, or the results won't last long.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;akarma (it means non-action, but real meaning is different) - doing an action ordained by shastras (dharma) WITHOUT desire to attain its fruits&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Akarma and Nishkama karma are synonyms.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g. going to work and earning money, but only for the sake of taking care of parents, wife &amp;amp; children, poor &amp;amp; disabled charity etc.. and not having any personal interest in using the money to buy cars, houses, computers etc. even though they are used in part of daily duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;how does akarma/nishkama karma help you ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;when you do anything with desire to attain fruits, you have to wait until the result bears fruit. so that waiting period is spent in worry.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;if you do not obtain the desired result (it's because you didn't do the work properly, or it was done against shastras), then you get angry. again, this causes pain.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;if you obtain the desired result, you enjoy it.. great. but it creates 'vasana' or impressions in mind, that drive you to work and obtain the result again and enjoy it again (like a fire that does not subside when you feed it ghee, but only increases in strength). Now, you are back to square 1, because when you try to do that work again, same 3 options above can happen.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whereas when you do nishkama karma, your only goal is to do the job, not wait for its results, so there is no waiting period, no worry about not getting the result, and no vasanas to further force you into more work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so why would anybody do nishkama karma at all ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Think of your life on earth as a debt to be repaid. Once you repay it (by nishkama karma), you're free (moksha). But during the process of repaying, if you take more loans or credit (by creating more desires and vasanas), you have to be born again to repay the debt. And it's a never ending cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purusharthas - dharma, artha, kama - if they are done as karma, it can bind you to samsara. The same purusharthas, if they are done as akarma/nishkama karma, as a duty to parents, rishis, devas, gurus, family - it frees you from samsara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2016-12-24T06:50:14.187" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16507" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16389" CreationDate="2016-12-24T07:18:35.977" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;No.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Invincibility alone does not dictate dharma or adharma, but rather which side you're fighting on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Bhishma &amp;amp; Krishna are invincible. But one did dharma and other did adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is like asking -&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&quot;Is it adharma to be a very fast runner ? Because if you steal something, and you run away fast, nobody can catch you, so the police have to resort to chasing you in a car which causes air pollution&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not adharma to be a fast runner. But it is adharma to steal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is adharma to pollute. But it is not adharma to pollute when catching a thief. In fact, it is adharma if you do not try to catch the thief just to avoid pollution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are varying degrees of dharma and adharma. Depending on how small or big they are, dharma in one situation becomes adharma in another, and vice-versa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is not adharma to be invincible. But it is adharma to not give pandavas their share of land.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is adharma to hit from behind a woman, or from hiding, or when sleeping. But it is not adharma to do these things when fighting a worse enemy and eventually establish dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2016-12-24T07:18:35.977" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16509" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16510" CreationDate="2016-12-24T09:08:34.883" Score="13" ViewCount="1267" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu Dharma the Vedas,Upanishads,6 Vedangas,Smritis(or the Dharma Shastras),Puranas and the Itihasas(Ramayana and Mahabhartha) are usually together called the Shastras or Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among them, the Vedas(Srutis) ,of course,are considered as having the supreme authority.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=572&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smritis&lt;/a&gt; or the Dharma Shastras teach us what is right(Dharma) or wrong(Adharma) in a given context.They contain the rules of  righteous living.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There are eighteen main Smritis or Dharma Sastras. The most important&#xA;  are those of Manu, Yajnavalkya and Parasara.&lt;/strong&gt; The other fifteen are&#xA;  those of Vishnu, Daksha, Samvarta, Vyasa, Harita, Satatapa, Vasishtha,&#xA;  Yama, Apastamba, Gautama, Devala, Sankha-Likhita, Usana, Atri and&#xA;  Saunaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The laws of Manu are intended for the Satya Yuga, those of Yajnavalkya&#xA;  are for the Treta Yuga; those of Sankha and Likhita are for the&#xA;  Dvapara Yuga; and those of Parasara are for the Kali Yuga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise,the principle &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/puranasindex.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puranas&lt;/a&gt; are also 18 in number.They contain &quot;old&quot; stories that happened in earlier Kalpas and Yugas.They also contain principles of right conduct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,it is a well known principle that whenever there occur a conflict/disagreement  on a topic between the Vedas and Smritis then the views of Vedas are to be accepted &amp;amp; those of the Smritis are to be rejected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what about similar situations when disagreement appear between the Smritis and the Puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which view is to be accepted in those cases and which one should be rejected?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words,&lt;strong&gt;Among the Smritis and the Puranas which one is more authoritative?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-25T15:09:51.220" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T22:07:57.110" Title="Which Shastras are more authoritative,the Smritis(Dharma Shastras) or the Puranas?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|smriti|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16510" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16509" CreationDate="2016-12-24T09:08:34.883" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is my answer which is based on the Devi Bhagavatam &amp;amp; the Vyasa Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devi Bhagavatam states that in such situations the views of the Puranas are to be rejected .&lt;strong&gt;In other words,the Smritis are more authoritative.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/puranasindex.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 11,Chapter 1,Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nârada said :– “O Muni! The S’âstras are not one, they are many and&#xA;they lay down different rules and contradictory opinions, How then&#xA;Dharma is to be followed? And according what Dharma S’âstra?” Nârâyana&#xA;said :– S’ruti and Smriti are the two eyes of God; the Purânam is His&#xA;Heart. Whatever is stated in S’ruti, the Smriti and the Purânams is&#xA;Dharma; whatever else is written in other S’âstras is not Dharma.&#xA;Where you will find differences between S’ruti, Smriti and Purânas,&#xA;accept the words of the S’rutis as final proofs. &lt;strong&gt;Wherever Smriti&#xA;disagrees with the Purânas, know the Smritis more authoritative&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And where differences will crop up in the S’rutis themselves, know&#xA;that Dharma, too, is of two kinds.&#xA;And where the differences will crop up in the Smritis themselves,&#xA;consider, then, that different things are aimed at&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that, here Narayana refers to Rishi Narayana and not Lord Vishnu.Narada ,of course, is Deva Rishi Narada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;-In his speech &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part15/chap8.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (which is a part of the book named &amp;quot;Hindu Dharma&amp;quot;)  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji&lt;/a&gt; also hints that as far as authority is concerned &lt;strong&gt;Sruti-Smriti-Purana&lt;/strong&gt; is the usual order.&lt;strong&gt;So,Smritis are indeed  considered as more authoritative than the Puranas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But of course what he is actually trying to  convey is that all the three has to be treated with equal importance as having same authority.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who composed the Smritis and laid down the performance of such&#xA;rites must have been fully aware of the spirit of the Vedas. It is not&#xA;proper to think that the &lt;strong&gt;Smritis are inferior to the Vedas or that the&#xA;Puranas are inferior to the Smritis.&lt;/strong&gt; We must learn to take an&#xA;integrated view of all of them&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/02Vyasa_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vyasa Smriti&lt;/a&gt; also repeats the same thing which is said in the Devi Bhagavatam :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3SG2B.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3SG2B.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In matters of discrepancy between the S'rutis, Smrit'is, and Puranas,&#xA;the former should be held as decisive, &lt;strong&gt;whereas the Smritis should&#xA;have preference in all topics where there would be a difference of&#xA;opinion between them and the Puranas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vyasa Smriti,Chapter 1,Verse 4.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the Smritis are indeed  more authoritative than the Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T17:20:36.013" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T17:20:36.013" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16512" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-24T22:55:43.643" Score="8" ViewCount="172" Body="&lt;p&gt;Modern medicine determines death by neurological criteria, but various religious groups may have reservations. For example, orthodox Jews require all vital functions to fail and do not consider a patient breathing on a respirator as dead. What is the Hindu physiological criterion of death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8552" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-25T03:13:05.807" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T17:12:32.947" Title="What is the physiological criterion for death?" Tags="|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16513" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-24T23:19:22.937" Score="2" ViewCount="2924" Body="&lt;p&gt;What does the concept of Arudha Pada mean in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotisha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jyotisha&lt;/a&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is it calculated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are its practical applications?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-12-24T23:19:22.937" Title="What is the concept of Arudha Pada in Jyotisha?" Tags="|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16514" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16513" CreationDate="2016-12-24T23:19:22.937" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word आरूढ (Arudha) in Sanskrit means something that has &lt;em&gt;risen&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is derived from the root &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ldpd_7285627_000&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;आरूह्&lt;/a&gt; which means &lt;em&gt;ascending&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The concept of Arudha Pada in Jyotisha refers to the physical&#xA;  manifestation of a house i.e. the Arudha of a house represents the&#xA;  tangible manifestation of that house in the world of Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Example&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhavas (houses) are considered inanimate in themselves e.g. the&#xA;  panchama bhava is associated with the abilities of a person. The&#xA;  Arudha of the 5th house, called A5 in short, refers to the tangible&#xA;  things used to judge one's ability.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Calculation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Steps to find the Arudha of a house:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Find the sign of the house&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Find where the Lord of that house is placed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Count the distance of the Lord from its house.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the distance is n, then the nth house from the Lord is the Arudha of the house.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us take an example. Say, we need to find &lt;strong&gt;A3&lt;/strong&gt; or Arudha of the third house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lets say that A3 has Libra sign&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Say, the lord Venus is sitting in Capricorn&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hence, the lord is in the 4th house from its sign.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hence, the 4th from the lord i.e the house containing Aries will be the Arudha of the third house. In this case, this is the &lt;strong&gt;9th house.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Exceptions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the Arudha turns out be the same house (for which Arudha was to be&#xA;  calculated) or 7th from it, that is considered invalid. In such a&#xA;  case, take the KarmaSthana (10th house) from the result calculated in&#xA;  Step 4.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Controversial Views&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For Aquarius and Scorpio, Rahu and Ketu are also taken as lords.&#xA;  Hence, if they are stronger, one view is to take them as the Lord to&#xA;  find Arudha. Although, there are disagreements to this view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Application&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D-24 or ChaturVimsaAmsa is considered the Varga (division) associated&#xA;  with learning. Hence, 5th house in D24 would represent to ability to&#xA;  learn. A5 would refer to the tangible results of one's learning. This&#xA;  could be trophies, scholarships etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri PVR Rao says that some astrologers consider this as a part of&#xA;  Jaimini school of astrology. Although, he mentions that Maharishi&#xA;  Parashara talks about Arudha Pada in detail in &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%83%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D/%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%83_%E0%A5%A8_(%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%A5%E0%A4%BE)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihat Parashara Hora&#xA;  Shastra&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpts from a video lecture by Shri PVR Rao: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwoKpZj938s&amp;amp;index=8&amp;amp;list=PL8yOO2xYRcZt_P1ah4p2DJEOyEOVFJ3Bg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwoKpZj938s&amp;amp;index=8&amp;amp;list=PL8yOO2xYRcZt_P1ah4p2DJEOyEOVFJ3Bg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2016-12-24T23:19:22.937" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16515" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-25T02:54:02.600" Score="13" ViewCount="5706" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many sites claim that there were &lt;strong&gt;Two buddhas&lt;/strong&gt; and both were different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is said that &lt;strong&gt;Adi buddha&lt;/strong&gt; was the real avatar of lord vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gautama buddha&lt;/strong&gt; was only a enlightened one but &lt;strong&gt;not an avatar of lord vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Puri Shankaracharya’s view&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Puri’s Shankaracharya too sheds some light in this regard as he goes on &lt;a href=&quot;https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dhOdo6wgR20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;to say&lt;/a&gt; that though both’s gotra was the same i.e. Gautama Gotra, there were the below mentioned differentiating factors, indicating two Buddhas. These factors are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Buddhavatara was born as a Brahmin whereas Gautama Buddha was born in the Kshatriya lineage.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/1/3/24/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ŚB 1.3.24&lt;/a&gt;, the Buddhavatara would be born in Kikata (Magadha South Bihar) whereas Gautama Buddha was born in Nepal.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to him, the reasons for the confusion between both the Buddhas are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The iconography of Buddha and that has been given in the Agni Purana, Chapter 49, was confused with that of the Buddhists. (When as per another site Buddhists were Shunyavadis and never believed in idol worship)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_major_works/amarfin1.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Amarakosha&lt;/a&gt; written by Amar Singh, a Buddhist mentions the names of the two Buddhas in close proximity to each other which leads to the merger of the two. (Refer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bvmlu.org/SBBTM/mbavabad.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt; for which names indicate which Buddha)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Puri’s Shankaracharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=unHZeSQ0Lqg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;gives&lt;/a&gt; another very interesting point that while taking sankalpa, the words that are spoken include a term ‘Bauddhāvatāre’ meaning in the era of Bhagwan Shri Vishnu’s avatara named Buddha (जम्बूद्वीपे भारतवर्षे भरतखण्डे ... बौद्धावतारे...).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also as per another account (can’t find it), one purpose of this avatara born in the Brahmin lineage, was to give the devatas their rightful share and conceal those mantras by which asuras could be invoked and mantras misused.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is this concept of two Buddhas real ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which Buddha is the real incarnation of Lord Vishnu and what is his entire story and purpose of the avatara, comprising all his leelas (have any incidents in Buddhavatara’s life been merged with that of Gautama Buddha) ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt; Note: as for the story, some Puranas try to confuse the two and try to show the two as same, I.e. Lord Vishnu deluding some people from the path of the Vedas, which as per Puri Shankaracharya isn’t true. He says it was for proper Yajnas etc too. &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-04-18T11:58:25.733" LastActivityDate="2023-08-24T03:36:00.667" Title="Adi Buddha and Gautama buddha, Which one is the real avatar of Lord vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|history|avatars|buddhism|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16516" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16509" CreationDate="2016-12-25T05:31:56.013" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am writing this answer to clarify my position. I have already stated that I find it strange that the author of Devi Bhagavatam would have given precedence to Smritis over the Puranas. I also have deeper reasons to reject what Devi Bhagavatam is stating. Among the Smritis and the Puranas which one is more authoritative? -- It depends and can only be judged case by case. Scripture itself says that 'scripture is no scripture if it cannot stand the test of reason'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Even the words heard from an ignorant person, if in themselves they&#xA;  be fraught with sense, come to be regarded as pious and wise. In days&#xA;  of old, Usanas said unto the Daityas this truth, which should remove&#xA;  all doubts, that &lt;strong&gt;scriptures are no scriptures if they cannot stand the&#xA;  test of reason.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CXLII&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me use a simple example to make my point. Let us assume that a Purana states that Sun is a hot object while a Smriti says that Sun is a cold object. How do decide which statement is correct? The first step will be to check if there is any Sruiti statement that would resolve this discrepancy. If there is one than obviously we choose that statement that is in agreement with Sruti. What happens if there is no Sruti statement on this issue? Then we need to use reason and our experience to resolve the discrepancy. Blindly applying the Devi Bhagavatam or any other scriptural statement would lead to disastrous consequences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One objection to the position sketched above would be to argue that one has to accept whatever is stated in a Purana or Smriti simply because they are sacred scriptures. Such a position, blind acceptance of scripture, is not recommended by Hindu scriptures itself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Reflecting on this entire teaching, &lt;strong&gt;do as you think fit&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 18.63&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;However, &lt;strong&gt;discard&lt;/strong&gt; the desire (kama) and material wealth (artha) if&#xA;  contrary to Dharma; &lt;strong&gt;as also, any usage or custom or &lt;em&gt;rules&lt;/em&gt; regarded&#xA;  as source of Dharma if at any time they were to lead to unhappiness or&#xA;  arouse people's indignation&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Manu Smriti 4.176)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is not a vanilla belief system in the Abrahamic sense. A Hindu is asked to search for truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is the spirit of Hinduism? What are the essential principles? The&#xA;  spirit of science is not dogmatic certainty but the disinterested&#xA;  pursuit of truth, and Hinduism is infused by the same spirit. Fixed&#xA;  intellectual beliefs mark off one religion from another, but &lt;strong&gt;Hinduism&#xA;  sets itself no such limits. It is comprehensive and synthetic, seeking&#xA;  unity not in a common creed but in a common quest for truth.&lt;/strong&gt; Hinduism&#xA;  is more a way of life than a form of thought. &lt;strong&gt;It insists not on&#xA;  religious conformity but on a spiritual and ethical outlook in life.&#xA;  It is fellowship of all who accept the law of right and earnestly seek&#xA;  for the truth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;History of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa under British rule by L.S.S. O’Malley quoted in British Paramountcy and Indian Renaissance Part II edited by R. C. Majumdar&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us not devalue this splendid bequest from the ancients by turning Hinduism into a blind belief system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2020-02-27T03:27:35.490" LastActivityDate="2020-02-27T03:27:35.490" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16517" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16512" CreationDate="2016-12-25T08:37:38.120" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Physiological criterion of death is provided in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana (Canto 3 Chapter 31 Verse 44 &amp;amp; 45)&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;The answer is given by &lt;strong&gt;&quot;sage Kapila&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; , Who is proponent of &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Sankhya Philosophy&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. The topic of this chapter in which it's describe is - SB 3.31: Lord Kapila’s Instructions on the Movements of the Living Entities.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;See Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जीवो ह्यस्यानुगो देहो भुतेन्द्रिय मनोमय:।&lt;br&gt; तन्निरोधोsस्य&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;मरण&lt;/strong&gt;माविर्भावस्तु सम्भव॥44॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jīvo hy asyānugo deho bhūtendriya-mano-mayaḥ tan-nirodho ’sya &lt;strong&gt;maraṇam&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  āvirbhāvas tu sambhavaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - In this way the living entity gets a suitable body with a&#xA;  material mind and senses, according to his fruitive activities. &lt;strong&gt;When&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  the &lt;strong&gt;reaction of his particular activity comes to an end, that end is&#xA;  called death,&lt;/strong&gt; and when a particular type of reaction begins, that&#xA;  beginning is called birth. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31/44&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 3.31.44&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt; &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;And the exact and Precise criterion of death is given in next verse&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;द्रव्योपलब्धिस्थानस्य द्रव्येक्षायोग्यता यदा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्पश्चत्वमहंमानादुतत्पत्ति र्द्रव्यदर्शनम॥४५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dravyopalabdhi-sthānasya dravyekṣāyogyatā yadā&lt;br&gt; tat pañcatvam&#xA;  ahaṁ-mānād utpattir dravya-darśanam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - &lt;strong&gt;When the eyes lose their power to see color or form due to&#xA;  morbid affliction of the optic nerve, the sense of sight becomes&#xA;  deadened. The living entity, who is the seer of both the eyes and the&#xA;  sight, loses his power of vision. In the same way, when the physical&#xA;  body, the place where perception of objects occurs, is rendered&#xA;  incapable of perceiving, that is known as death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31/45-46&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 3.31.45&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here what Sage Kaplia telling us is , &quot;The &lt;strong&gt;subtle body&lt;/strong&gt; ,mind and various body parts (Indtiya, इंद्रिय) remains attached  until a jiva attain moksha or liberation.This  &lt;strong&gt;gross body&lt;/strong&gt; is a place where jiva(soul) experiences material pleasures.Both this Gross &amp;amp; subtle bodies when gets united its called Birth and &lt;strong&gt;When these gross and subtle bodies stops working in unity then its called death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-28T17:12:32.947" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T17:12:32.947" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16518" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16498" CreationDate="2016-12-25T09:13:35.237" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is an answer which is only indicative but not the most definite one &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to me,the parents who don't have a son, but have a daughter, have the following two options:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1)Adopt a son.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.141. Of the man who has an adopted (Datrima) son&#xA;  possessing all good qualities, that same (son) shall take the&#xA;  inheritance, though brought from another family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since,the adopted son is inheriting its his duty to look after the parents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2)Make the daughter an &quot;appointed daughter&quot;:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.127. He who has no son may &lt;strong&gt;make his daughter in the&#xA;  following manner an appointed daughter (putrika, saying to her&#xA;  husband), ’The (male) child, born of her, shall perform my funeral&#xA;  rites.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,an appointed daughter's son is as good as a son's son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu 9.133. &lt;strong&gt;Between a son’s son and the son of an (appointed) daughter&#xA;  there is no difference, neither with respect to worldly matters nor to&#xA;  sacred duties;&lt;/strong&gt; for their father and mother both sprang from the body&#xA;  of the same (man)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,i guess its the duty of the the appointed daughter to look after her parents like a son and thereafter the responsibility shifts on her son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,in case, she(the appointed daughter) dies without a male issue ,then the duty shifts on her husband.The following verse indicate only that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu 9.135. But if an appointed daughter by accident dies without&#xA;  (leaving) a son, the husband of the appointed daughter may, without&#xA;  hesitation, take that estate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,in the case,when the old parents don't have anyone , neither a daughter nor an adopted son ,then the duty(of looking after them) rests on their relatives etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The father, the mother, the preceptor, the wife, the children, the&#xA;  poor people, the dependants, the incomers and the guests, are spoken&#xA;  of as the Poshyas (i.e., those who should be supported . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;(29)&lt;strong&gt;Kinsmen,relatives, those suffering from diseases, who have none to look after them, those who seek refuge, and others having no means, are also&#xA;    spoken of  as the Poshyas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(30) To support the Poshyas, is the most&#xA;   excellent expedient for attaining to the celestial region(Daksha Smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-25T15:06:32.437" LastActivityDate="2016-12-25T15:06:32.437" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16521" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20523" CreationDate="2016-12-25T15:45:39.727" Score="9" ViewCount="814" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mayureshwara is an incarnation of Lord Ganesha in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treta_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Treta Yuga&lt;/a&gt;. Mayureshwara's vehicle is a peacock (and hence the name, Mayura which means &quot;peacock&quot; in Sanskrit), unlike Ganesha's usual vehicle, the rat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The temple of Mayureshwara is present in Moregaon in the state of Maharashtra in India. The locals there mention that the temple is the starting point of the Ashtavinayaka circuit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the book, &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=aoqB4n95pSoC&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganapati: Song of the Self, By John A Grimes (P#37)&lt;/a&gt;, he clearly mentions that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Morgaon is regarded as the most important of the asta vinayaka temples for four reasons: it is the adhya pitha of the Ganapatya sampradaya...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question is, what exactly is the legend of Mayureshwara and in which religious text is it mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4459" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2016-12-27T16:33:00.673" LastActivityDate="2018-03-28T17:49:54.803" Title="What is the legend behind Mayureshwara?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|ganesha|ashtavinayak|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16522" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="180" CreationDate="2016-12-25T17:04:37.520" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think Buddha [Gautama] is an avatara of Vishnu. This is because Swami Vivekananda expresses this fact in his lectures at the parliament of religions at chicago. See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_1/addresses_at_the_parliament/v1_c1_buddhism.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Again, Jayadeva has also mentioned Buddha as an avatara in his works, particularly, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_of_Jayadeva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita Govinda&lt;/a&gt;. See also &lt;a href=&quot;https://stotracollection.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/dasavatara-stotra/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; The formation of a separate sect because of unorthodoxy i.e. nāstika  seems not a great problem, as maybe it was best to adopt such a position at that time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8021" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-27T05:15:53.777" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16523" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16515" CreationDate="2016-12-25T17:06:45.700" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;For the most part, I think it is Gautama Buddha who is the incarnation. This is because of the fact that Swami Vivekananda mentioning it in his famed lectures at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_1/addresses_at_the_parliament/v1_c1_buddhism.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parliament of religions&lt;/a&gt; at chicago. Again, Jayadeva mentions it in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ocasopress.com/pdf/jayadeva_gita_govinda_translation.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita-Govinda&lt;/a&gt;. You can also see the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha_in_Hinduism#As_an_avatar_of_Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; post for pictures of Lord Buddha as an avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8021" LastEditorUserId="8021" LastEditDate="2021-06-12T14:18:14.377" LastActivityDate="2021-06-12T14:18:14.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16524" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16515" CreationDate="2016-12-25T17:33:12.923" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think Buddha is mentioned in many Puranas like Agni,Padma,Vayu,Vishnu and few others.In all of them simply Buddha is mentioned or the term &quot;Bauddha&quot; is used.Although not sure if by &quot;Bauddha&quot; is meant the followers of Tathagata Buddha or simply those sects who don't follow Sruti and Smriti texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/agni/bookview.php?chapnum=2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agni Purana&lt;/a&gt; ,however,mentions Buddha as one of the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Buddha Avatar&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As there was an ongoing battle of Devas and Asuras for long time,&#xA;  Devas approached Lord Vishnu to revive ‘Dharma’ and ‘Nyaya’ and&#xA;  beseeched Him to take human form once again. &lt;strong&gt;The Lord said that&#xA;  ‘Mayamoha’ would soon take birth as Buddha to one Sudhodana&lt;/strong&gt;. But the&#xA;  illusions that would be created in the name of Buddha would be such&#xA;  that many evil persons would call themselves as Buddhists and undo all&#xA;  the Golden Traditions established in Vedas and other Scriptures. The&#xA;  misleading ways would advocate materialism in detestable manner and&#xA;  finally end up in the last phase of ‘Kali Yuga’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/bhavishya/bookview.php?chapnum=20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/a&gt;,Goutama Buddha is mentioned but not as an incarnation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the initial years of Kali Yuga, the survivor Mlecchas gradually&#xA;  adopted responses to the new environs, new ways of life and even new&#xA;  language styles.For instance, earlier languages got corrupted and new&#xA;  expressions emerged; Vraja Bhasha, Prakruti, Sanskrit etc. got adapted&#xA;  from Gurundika (English) which was also different from Mleccha Bhasha/&#xA;  Yavani and new corruptions of various languages both in spoken and&#xA;  written scripts got adapted..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Magadha Kingdom was segregated from Arya desha and was surrounded by&#xA;  Kalinga (Orissa) in Agneya or South East, Avanti in South, Aanart&#xA;  (Gujarat) in Nirruti or South West, Sindhu to the West, Kaikadesha in&#xA;  Vayavya or North West, Madra Desha in North and Kulinda in Ishaanya or&#xA;  North East. In the lineage of King Magadha was the famed Ajata Shatru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The contemporary times of the Magadha Kings witnessed the emergence of Buddha Dharma set up by Goutama Buddha at Kapilavastu&lt;/strong&gt;.The&#xA;  emphasis of Buddhism was on Truth, Virtue and Non-Violence which are&#xA;  already part of the traditional Vedic Dharma but were against the&#xA;  consequential Rituals. Goutama's philosophy created high waves and&#xA;  eventually secured wide spread acceptance especiallly supported by&#xA;  Kings and large sections of common persons. It was in this lineage of&#xA;  Kings were Sakya Muni-Shuddhodana-Sakyha Singha-Buddhi Simha-Chandra&#xA;  Gupta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, there some people who consider that Bhavisya Purana has been interpolated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-25T18:05:58.780" LastActivityDate="2016-12-25T18:05:58.780" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16525" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16132" CreationDate="2016-12-25T20:07:25.110" Score="2" Body="&lt;h3&gt;What is the meaning of 'adhikāra' in Hinduism?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit word अधिकारः (adhikārḥ) has a &lt;a href=&quot;http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:1033.apte&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;lot of meanings&lt;/a&gt;, but within the context of your question, it simply means one's right, privilege or qualification to perform a certain action. There is a reference to the word in the &lt;em&gt;karmaṇyēvādhikārastē&lt;/em&gt; śloka of Bhagavad-gītā (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=ro&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=2&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=47&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2.47&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swāmī Gambhīrānanda's tr.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ৷৷ 2.47 ৷৷&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;karmaṇyēv&lt;strong&gt;ādhikāra&lt;/strong&gt;stē mā phalēṣu kadācana. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mā karmaphalahēturbhūrmā tē saṅgō.stvakarmaṇi ৷৷ 2.47 ৷৷&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your &lt;strong&gt;right&lt;/strong&gt; is for action alone, never for the results. Do not become the agent of the results of action. May you not have any inclination for inaction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śaṅkarācārya's commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Te&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;your&lt;/strong&gt;; &lt;strong&gt;adhikarah&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;right&lt;/strong&gt;; is karmani eva, for action alone, not for steadfastness in Knowledge. Even there, when you are engaged in action, you have ma kadacana, never, i.e. under no condition whatever; a right phalesu, for the results of action may you not have a hankering for the results of action. Whenever you have a hankering for the fruits of action, you will become the agent of acquiring the results of action. Ma, do not; thus bhuh, become; karma-phalahetuh, the agent of acquiring the results of action. For when one engages in action by being impelled by thirst for the results of action, then he does become the cause for the production of the results of action. Ma, may you not; astu, have; sangah, an inclination; akarmani, for inaction, thinking, 'If the results of work be not desired, what is the need of work which involves pain?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Who decides if someone has the 'adhikāra' to do or not to do something?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures. In BG &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&amp;amp;&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=4&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;4.17&lt;/a&gt;, Kṛṣṇa mentions karma (action), akarma (inaction) and vikarma (prohibited action):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कर्मणो ह्यपि बोद्धव्यं बोद्धव्यं च विकर्मणः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अकर्मणश्च बोद्धव्यं गहना कर्मणो गतिः ৷৷ 4.17 ৷৷&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;karmaṇō hyapi bōddhavyaṅ bōddhavyaṅ ca vikarmaṇaḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  akarmaṇaśca bōddhavyaṅ gahanā karmaṇō gatiḥ ৷৷ 4.17 ৷৷&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For there is something to be known even about &lt;strong&gt;action&lt;/strong&gt;, and something to be known about &lt;strong&gt;prohibited action&lt;/strong&gt;; and something has to be known about inaction. The true nature of action is inscrutable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śaṅkarācārya explains the above as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hi, for; there is something boddhavyam, to be known; api, even; &lt;strong&gt;karmanah&lt;/strong&gt;, about &lt;strong&gt;action enjoined by the scriptures&lt;/strong&gt;; and there is certainly something to be known &lt;strong&gt;vikarmanah&lt;/strong&gt;, about &lt;strong&gt;prohibited action&lt;/strong&gt;; so, also, there is something to be known akarmanah, about inaction, about sitting quietly.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Manusmṛti &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc145480.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1.58&lt;/a&gt; states the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;इदं शास्त्रं&lt;/strong&gt; तु कृत्वाऽसौ मामेव स्वयमादितः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विधिवद् ग्राहयामास मरीच्यादींस्त्वहं मुनीन् ॥ ५८ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;idaṃ śāstraṃ&lt;/strong&gt; tu kṛtvā'sau māmeva svayamāditaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vidhivad grāhayāmāsa marīcyādīṃstvahaṃ munīn || 58 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having propounded &lt;strong&gt;this Law&lt;/strong&gt;, he himself, first of all, taught it to me with due care; I then taught it to Marīci and other Sages. — (58)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Medhātithi's commentary (manubhāṣya) on the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the present context the term '&lt;strong&gt;Law&lt;/strong&gt;' stands for &lt;strong&gt;the whole collection of Injunctions and Prohibitions contained in the Smṛtis&lt;/strong&gt;, and not for any particular treatise; as this latter was composed by Manu; that is why the Treatise is called ‘Mānava’ (of Manu); otherwise [ i.e., if the Treatise were the ‘Law’ propounded by the Imperishable One], it would have been ‘Hairaṇyagarbha,’ ‘of Hiraṇyagarbha.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Or is the meaning very arbitrary i.e., not written down in scriptures?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most actions (rights &amp;amp; duties) are discussed in various smṛtis and dharma śāstras, but not every rule is written down in scriptures as Kṛṣṇa &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;states&lt;/a&gt; in the Mahābhārata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Many persons say, on the one hand, that the scriptures indicate morality. I do not contradict this. The scriptures, however, do not provide for every case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, apparently, everything can be &lt;em&gt;deduced&lt;/em&gt; from scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What should be done and what should not cannot be ascertained easily. Everything can be ascertained by the aid of the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when in doubt, it's best to approach one's Guru or elders to determine the proper course of action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2016-12-25T20:07:25.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16526" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16389" CreationDate="2016-12-26T02:08:48.213" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt;: Invincibility by itself is neither dharma nor adharma. But what you do with it will decide if you are following dharma or adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;First off, what is dharma?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Karṇa-parva of the Mahābhārata, Kṛṣṇa &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains&lt;/a&gt; dharma to Arjuna as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dhāraṇād dharmam ity āhur dharmo dhārayati prajāḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;yaḥ syād dhāraṇa saṃyuktaḥ sa dharma iti niścayaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dharma protects and preserves the people.&lt;/strong&gt; So it is the conclusion of the pandits that what maintains is Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Śānti-parva, Bhīṣma responding to Yudhiṣṭhira's query '&lt;em&gt;How should a person act who desires to adhere to virtue?&lt;/em&gt;' &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tādṛśo 'yam anupraśno yatra dharmaḥ sudurvacaḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;duṣkaraḥ pratisaṃkhyātuṃ tarkeṇātra vyavasyati&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question you have asked me is a difficult one, since it is difficult to say what righteousness is. It is not easy to indicate it. &lt;strong&gt;No one in discoursing upon righteousness, can indicate it accurately&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;prabhāvārthāya bhūtānāṃ dharmapravacanaṃ kṛtam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;yat syād ahiṃsāsaṃyuktaṃ sa dharma iti niścayaḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dhāraṇād dharma ity āhur dharmeṇa vidhṛtāḥ prajāḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;yat syād dhāraṇa saṃyuktaṃ sa dharma iti niścayaḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Righteousness was declared (by Brahman) for the advancement and growth of all creatures. Therefore, &lt;strong&gt;that which leads to advancement and growth is Righteousness&lt;/strong&gt;. Righteousness was declared for &lt;strong&gt;restraining creatures from injuring one another.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore, that is righteousness which prevents injury to creatures. Righteousness (dharma) is so called because it upholds all creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanada_(philosopher)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaṇāda&lt;/a&gt; in his &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vai%C5%9Be%E1%B9%A3ika_S%C5%ABtra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaiśeṣika Sūtras&lt;/a&gt; defines dharma &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/4/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;as&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यतोऽभ्युदयनिःश्रेयससिद्धिः स धर्मः ॥ १ । १ । २ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma (is) that from which (results) the accomplishment of Exaltation and of the Supreme Good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That which leads to the attainment of Abhyudaya (prosperity in this world) and Nihsreyasa (total cessation of pain and attainment of eternal bliss hereafter) is Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Is invincibility dharma or adharma?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Invincibility by itself is neither dharma nor adharma. But &lt;strong&gt;what you do with it&lt;/strong&gt; will decide if you are following dharma or adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Example 1&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;strong&gt;Knife&lt;/strong&gt; (doctor, thief and housewife)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A doctor&lt;/strong&gt; with his &lt;strong&gt;knife&lt;/strong&gt; and scissors can cut open the wounds of a patient to remove an infectious growth and then stitch up the patient. Now assume a similar knife is in possession of &lt;strong&gt;a thief&lt;/strong&gt; who uses it to threaten people and steal their wallets; once in a while he may even kill someone trying to get away after a robbery. Further, &lt;strong&gt;a housewife&lt;/strong&gt; could use her kitchen knife to attack an intruder who was trying to kidnap her baby. The object, knife, is the same in all three cases. However, the doctor has used his knife merely as tool for very good cause (to save a patient's life). Whereas the thief totally misused it, inflicting pain on others, for his own personal gain. While the housewife faced a totally unexpected situation and used the knife to scare away the kidnapper.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Example 2&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;strong&gt;Gun&lt;/strong&gt; (soldier, terrorist and civilian)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Soldiers in the military are usually equipped with guns. They get trained to use guns to use in warfare someday. It is the duty of &lt;strong&gt;a soldier&lt;/strong&gt; to use &lt;strong&gt;gun&lt;/strong&gt; in battle; he may also end up killing soldiers of the opposite side. The same gun could end up in the hands of &lt;strong&gt;a terrorist&lt;/strong&gt; and he might use it to kill innocent civilians. Now some countries like the US allow civilians to own guns, so, assume &lt;strong&gt;a man&lt;/strong&gt; buys and keeps a gun at home for safety reasons (e.g., to protect his family from grizzly bears or burglars). But one day he gets really upset with his nagging wife and shoots her to death with the same gun he bought to keep his family safe. Like the above example, here too, the object, gun, is the same in all three cases. Yet, it was used by different people for different reasons.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above two examples, the problem is not with the knife or gun itself but who used it and for what purpose. Let's see which of the above can be classified as dharma and which as adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Clear Case of Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The doctor was authorized to use the knife to save the patient's life - he did his duty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The soldier was expected to use his gun in armed conflict to kill enemy soldiers - he too did his duty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Clear Case of Adharma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The thief was in the wrong profession to begin with and carrying a knife only made matters worse for him and the people he came in contact with.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Terrorist was not authorized to possess a gun nor shoot unarmed civilians. He violated many established norms and rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dharma-sūkṣma&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;subtle dharma&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The housewife only tried to protect her baby from the kidnapper. She never imagined herself in this situation, so, she did what she had to, to protect the baby. Even if it meant taking a stab or two at the intruder with her kitchen knife. It's her dharma to protect the baby and herself at any cost. So after some analysis, we conclude that she was right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The man (or householder) was authorized to keep a gun at home. If he had shot a burglar who tried to steal from the house or hurt his wife or kids, he would be justified doing so. But since he misused the weapon to shoot his unarmed wife, he committed an act of adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Invincibility is also like the knife and gun in the above examples. If used for all the wrong reasons that would be adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Is invincibility &lt;em&gt;in battle&lt;/em&gt; adharma?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As explained above, invincibility by itself is not adharma. In a battle, to one who has it, invincibility will be like a special weapon which can be put to good use.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Take the case of Hanumān from Rāmāyaṇa. He had &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga66/kishkindhasans66.htm#Verse26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;boons&lt;/a&gt; of chiranjīvi (by Indra) and that no weapon can kill him (from Brahma):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Oh, chivalric warrior at war, while the Air-god is being supplicated, oh, dear boy, Brahma gave you a boon decreeing your '&lt;strong&gt;indestructibility by any missile&lt;/strong&gt;...' [4-66-27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On scrutinizing that you are unhurt even after hit by Thunderbolt, oh, ablest Hanuma, the Thousand-eyed Indra kind-heartedly gave you a choicest boon saying that your &lt;strong&gt;death occurs only by your own volition&lt;/strong&gt;... [4-66-28, 29a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanumān took full advantage of his powers. As &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga48/sundarasans48.htm#Verse35&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentioned&lt;/a&gt; in Sundara Kāṇḍa, he  was once attacked by a Brahmāstra launched by Indrajit but the weapon couldn't do much damage; it only made him &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga48/sundarasans48.htm#Verse45&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;immobile&lt;/a&gt;. He recovered from it and carried the message of Sita's location to Sugrīva and Rāma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga59/yuddha_59_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;almost killed&lt;/a&gt; by Rāvaṇa in the main war, but due to his chiranjīvity he once again recovered from Rāvaṇa's blow. He later went on to bring the mṛta-sañjīvanī herbs to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga74/yuddha_74_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;save&lt;/a&gt; the lives of Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa and the vānaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;If having these kinds of boons is dharma (i.e., allowed) then why should such warriors be defeated using adharma?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The simple reason why adharma (backed by someone's invincibility) has to quashed by any means is to uphold dharma by all means. Although on the surface, Rāma's killing of Vāli, Lakṣmaṇa disrupting Indrajit's yajña, Arjuna defeating Bhīṣma with help of Śikhaṇḍī, etc., may all seem like adharma, they can be classified as sūkṣma-dharma (subtle dharma) as I explained above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13971/2995&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, as Bhīṣma again &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/itihaas/mahabharat/text-with-translation/vol-vii/chapter-109/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यस्मिन्यथा वर्तते यो मनुष्य: स्तस्मिंस्तथा वर्तितव्यं स धर्मः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;मायाचारो मायया वर्तितव्य; साध्वाचार साधुना प्रत्युदय ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yasmin yathā vartate yo manuṣyas; tasmiṃs tathā vartitavyaṃ sa dharmaḥ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;māyācāro māyayā vartitavyaḥ; sādhvācāraḥ sādhunā pratyudeyaḥ ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should treat another as the latter does to him. &lt;strong&gt;A deceitful person should be thwarted with deceit&lt;/strong&gt;, while an honest man should be treated with honesty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2016-12-26T02:24:26.270" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16527" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-26T04:14:05.697" Score="9" ViewCount="4300" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the source of the concept of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadripu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shadripu&lt;/a&gt; (six enemies) in Hindu philosophy, i.e., which Hindu religious text first described the Shadripu (षड्रिपु)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadripu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shadripu (Sanskrit: षड्रिपु meaning the six enemies)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The shadripus have been listed as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Lust (Kama)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Anger (Krodha)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Greed (Lobha)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Arrogance (Mada)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Attachment (Moha)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jealousy (Matsarya)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8556" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-26T16:39:23.740" LastActivityDate="2022-02-02T12:25:33.827" Title="Shadripu in Hindu texts" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|indriyas|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16528" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-26T04:17:27.540" Score="4" ViewCount="90" Body="&lt;p&gt;The legend of Sri Vaishno Devi temple says, Matha Vaishno Devi stayed in Ardhkuwari, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katra,_Jammu_and_Kashmir&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Katra,Jammu&lt;/a&gt; and Kashmir  for 9 months in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.maavaishnodevi.net.in/ardhkuwari-temple.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; cave, so was it without taking any food? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-29T05:18:10.517" LastActivityDate="2016-12-29T05:18:10.517" Title="Did Goddess Vaisno Devi live without food during her 9 months stay in the cave in Ardhakuwari?" Tags="|goddess|devi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16529" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16527" CreationDate="2016-12-26T06:00:25.730" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is difficult to say which Hindu text mention them for the first time.But they do mention about the Shada Ripus or the six enemies of mankind.They are better(or also) known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arishadvargas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ari Shad Vargas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.(Ari=Enemy,Shad=Six)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arishad vargas: or Shat Gunas: &lt;strong&gt;Kaama&lt;/strong&gt; or Desire, &lt;strong&gt;Krodha&lt;/strong&gt; or Anger,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Lobha&lt;/strong&gt; or Avarice, &lt;strong&gt;Moha&lt;/strong&gt; or Infatuation, &lt;strong&gt;Mada&lt;/strong&gt; or Ego, &lt;strong&gt;Matsarya&lt;/strong&gt; or&#xA;  Jealousy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the time being i am only able to quote from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/bhavishya/bookview.php?chapnum=4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhavisya Purana&lt;/a&gt; which mention them in the context of Brahmachari duties(duties of a celibate life ,life of a student):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Needless to emphasise that a Brahmachari should get rid of meat, madya&#xA;  (intoxicants), gandha or scented bases, flower garlands, violence,&#xA;  body-decoratives and scents, footwear, umbrellas, dance and music&#xA;  other than for religious purposes. The other taboos include&#xA;  Asatya(utterances of lies), Asteya (stealing), Para Ninda(criticism of&#xA;  others), company of women and &lt;strong&gt;involvement of Arishad -vargas or the&#xA;  Six Enemies of human beings like desire, anger, greed, attachment, ego&#xA;  and envy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But,i am quite sure that,besides Bhavisya Purana, they find mention in many other Hindu Shastras as well.I'll try to search for the same and update my answer if and when i find them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update-&lt;/strong&gt; Here is a not-so-direct reference to Arishadavargas from &quot;Apara Stuti of Shiva by Maha Rishis at Darukavana&quot; found in the Linga Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarvathaa vartamaanopi yoyo Bhaavo Bhavishyati, Twaameva thatr&#xA;  prashamo Brahmanaa tathitam tathaa/&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Kaamah krodhasccha lobhascha vishaado Mada yeva cha,&lt;/strong&gt; yatadicchaamahe bodhum praseeda Parameswara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Our venerations to you Mahadeva! &lt;strong&gt;As you are devoid of the&#xA;  ‘Shatvargas’or the Six Enemies of humanity&lt;/strong&gt; viz. Kama-Krodha-&#xA;  Lobha-Moha-Mada and Matsaraas or Lust-Anger-Greed-Attachment-Pride and&#xA;  Envy, besides Vishada or Grief. Parama Shiva!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Ari%E1%B9%A3a%E1%B8%8Dvarga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindupedia.com&lt;/a&gt; we find the following additional information:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ariṣaḍvarga literally means ‘group of six enemies&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Religion has always considered mokṣa or liberation from transmigratory&#xA;  existence, as the real and the ultimate goal of life. Since this is&#xA;  got by realising the ātman - one’s true Self already present in&#xA;  everyone but covered over by various impurities of the mind, it is&#xA;  first necessary to efface them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These impurities of mind, which act as ‘ari’ or an enemy in the path&#xA;  of spiritual evolution, are generally classed into six varieties and&#xA;  are called ‘ariṣaḍvarga’, the group of six enemies. They are :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Kāma - Lust&#xA;Krodha - Anger&#xA;Lobha - Avarice&#xA;Moha - Delusion&#xA;Mada - Arrogance&#xA;Mātsarya - Jealousy&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Some of the treatises of Vedānta like the Jivanmuktiviveka of&#xA;  Vidyāraṇya (14th century A. D.) deal with the methods of eradicating&#xA;  them. According to the teachers of bhakti or devotion, these six&#xA;  passions can be eliminated by nāmajapa (repetition of the divine name)&#xA;  and upāsanā (meditation on God)&lt;/strong&gt; or sublimated by directing them&#xA;  towards God Himself!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-26T08:36:14.010" LastActivityDate="2016-12-26T08:36:14.010" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16530" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14578" CreationDate="2016-12-26T08:11:31.133" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes most certainly possible.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are numerous examples in Scriptures which even specifically say by doing what bad karma one gets birth in which animal (or insect or plants) yoni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following are only a few among such verses. From Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.62. For stealing grain (a man) becomes a rat, for&#xA;  stealing yellow metal a Hamsa, for stealing water a Plava, for&#xA;  stealing honey a stinging insect, for stealing milk a crow, for&#xA;  stealing condiments a dog, for stealing clarified butter an ichneumon (mongoose);&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.63. For stealing meat a vulture, for stealing fat a cormorant, for stealing oil a winged animal (of the kind called) Tailapaka, for&#xA;  stealing salt a cricket, for stealing sour milk a bird (of the kind&#xA;  called) Balaka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.64. For stealing silk a partridge, for stealing linen a frog, for stealing cotton-cloth a crane, for stealing a cow an iguana, for&#xA;  stealing molasses a flying-fox;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.68. &lt;strong&gt;That man who has forcibly taken away any kind of property belonging to another, or who has eaten sacrificial food (of) which (no&#xA;  portion) had been offered, inevitably becomes an animal.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, from Vishnu Smriti Chapter XLIV:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Now after having suffered the torments inflicted in the hells, the evil-doers pass into animal bodies.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Criminals in the highest degree enter the bodies of all plants successively.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mortal sinners enter the bodies of worms or insects.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Minor offenders enter the bodies of birds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Criminals in the fourth degree enter the bodies of aquatic animals&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, from Parashara Smriti we get the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;16. If a woman despises her husband, because he being either poor, or&#xA;  diseased, or a dunce, — &lt;strong&gt;she, after death, is born a bitch&lt;/strong&gt;, or a sow,&#xA;  again and again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;36. If a Brahman fattens himself with the food of a Shoodra polluted by the impurity of birth or death, I do not know what (vile) animals&#xA;  he will be born (in subsequent lives)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;37. &lt;strong&gt;Twelve times he will be born as a vulture ; ten times as a hog ; seven times as a dog&lt;/strong&gt; ; this is what Manu has said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;56. The regenerate men who eat their meals, not having performed the rite for the Visvadevam, &lt;strong&gt;are born as crows&lt;/strong&gt;; their food by no means&#xA;  should be partaken.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;55. When his hands exist, if a Brahman, wanting in knowledge, drinks water with his mouth plunged into it [like a beast], he surely shall&#xA;  be born as a dog (in his next birth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-31T04:27:02.620" LastActivityDate="2016-12-31T04:27:02.620" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16531" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16536" CreationDate="2016-12-26T09:48:20.770" Score="4" ViewCount="3678" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is Chamunda and Chandika? Are they separate entities? I recently read Durga prayers, so I guess Chandika is incarnation of durgamata. and Ravana asked boon from arvatimata to protect lanka as chamunda as per serial of sankat mochan mahabali hanuman. No guarantee for veracity. Are they different?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-12T18:05:46.180" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T18:05:46.180" Title="Who are chamunda and chandika?" Tags="|parvati|shakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16532" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15238" CreationDate="2016-12-26T11:55:05.017" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;1) The origin of Naimiṣāraṇya: There seem to be two different origin stories revolving around the Naimiṣa forest. One etymology explains it as the ‘twinkling of the eye’, as Lord Viṣṇu destroyed the Asura army there, within the twinkling of the eye (&lt;em&gt;nimiṣa&lt;/em&gt;). While the oher version explains the origin of the forest as the place where the wheel of righteousness (&lt;em&gt;dharma-cakra&lt;/em&gt;) was shattered. It is told in the Vāyu-purāṇa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.1.165. “This wheel has a fine nave, its form and name are divine; it has truth for its spokes; its revolution is auspicious, and it is incomparable. You follow it alertly but with self-restraint as it proceeds ahead. You will then attain what is wholesome for you.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.2.7 The sages performed the sacrifice for a thousand years in the place where the rim of the revolving Dharma-cakra (the wheel of righteousness) was shattered. Thanks to that event, that place, sanctified by the sages, became famous as &lt;strong&gt;Naimiṣa&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devī-bhāgava-purāṇa gives an interesting variation of this story, adding the note that Kali has no influence in this place. (This means the influences of the Kali age)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.2.26-32. ...When we were afraid of the Kali age, Brahmā gave us a Manomaya Chakra (wheel) and I said to all of us :-- Follow this wheel, go after it and the spot where the felly of the wheel will become thin (so as to break) and will not roll further, that country is the holy place; Kali will never be able to enter there; you all better remain there until the Satya age comes back. Thus, acording to the saying of Brahmā, we have got orders to stay here. On hearing the words of Brahmā, wo went out quickly keeping the wheel go on, our object being to determine which place is best and holiest. When we came here, the felly of the wheel become thin and shorn before my eyes; hence this Kṣettra is called &lt;strong&gt;Naimisa&lt;/strong&gt;; it is the most sanctifying place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kali cannot enter here; hence the Mahatmas, Munis and Siddhas, terrified by the Kali age, have followed me and resorted to this place....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Māhātmya of Naimiṣāraṇya: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp008.htm#page_xxiv&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;According to Horace Hayman Wilson&lt;/a&gt; there should be a copy of the Naimiṣāraṇya-māhātmya in the original manuscript of the Vāyu-purāṇa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It appears, however, that we have not yet a copy of the entire Vāyu Purāṇa. The extent of it, as mentioned above, should be twenty-four thousand verses. The Guicowar MS. has but twelve thousand, and is denominated the Pūrvārddha, or first portion. My copy is of the like extent. The index also spews that several subjects remain untold; as, subsequently to the description of the sphere of Śiva, and the periodical dissolution of the world, the work is said to contain an account of a succeeding creation, and of various events that occurred in it, as the birth of several celebrated Ṛṣis, including that of Vyāsa, and a description of his distribution of the Vedas; an account of the enmity between Vaśiṣṭha and Visvāmitra; and a &lt;strong&gt;Naimiṣāraṇya Māhātmya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/IndiaOffice_CatalogueOfSanskritBooks/Nath%20and%20Chaudhuri_Catalogue%20India%20Office%20Sanskrit%20Books%20K-R_1953#page/n319/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Catalogue of the India Office Library, vol. 2, part i, p. 1688&lt;/a&gt;, it is contained in the Skanda-purāṇa. I have not been able to found it, however, the Skanda-purāṇa is the largest of all purāṇas so you might not want to rule its presence out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not exactly a Māhātmya, but a very short eulogy in praise of the Naimiṣāraṇya is found in the Brahma Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.1.4-12. In the very holy, charming and extremely sacred &lt;strong&gt;Naimiṣa forest&lt;/strong&gt;, a great sacrifice lasting for twelve years was performed by the sages. The forest abounded in flowers of diverse kinds and trees such as Sāla, Karṇikāra, Panasa, Dhava, Khadira, Āmra, Jambū, Kapittha, Nyagrodha, Devadāru, Aśvattha, Pārijāta, Candana, Arjuna, Campaka and others. Many kinds of birds and beasts lived there. It abounded in Aguru, Pāṭala, Bakula, Sapta-Parṇa, Punnāga, Nāgakesara, Sāla, Tamāla, Nārikela and Arjuna. It was beautified by many trees, Campaka and others embellished by variety of water-reservoirds such as pools and holy lakes. It abounded in people of various castes—Brahmins, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, Śūdras, people of all stages of life, students, householders, forest-dwellers and ascetics. It was richly endowed with birds of various sorts, cows and cattle wealth and storage of barley wheat, chick peas, pulses, beans, sesamum and sugarcan e and other plants. It was adorned by stocks of paddy and other fresh vegetables, There in that forest the bright sacred fire was kindled and the sages performed a sacrifice extending for twelve years. Thus the sages and other brahmins congregated there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Gomatī River: There is an origin story of the Gomatī-kuṇḍa in the Skanda-purāṇa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.1.62.1-3. O holy Sir, earlier the eternal Gomatī Kuṇḍa was mentioned by you. At what time was it created? Kindly de­scribe it in detail to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O highly intelligent one, listen to the story of the origin of Gomatīkuṇḍa. It is highly destructive of sins. It is a mer­itorious story formerly narrated by Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Naimiṣa forest&lt;/strong&gt;, Śaunaka and other sages gathered together and held meritorious discussion regarding the splen­did origin of all Tīrthas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.1.62.28-32. O holy Sir, Gomatī, the most excellent one among rivers, has come here itself. Perform here itself all your rites of Snāna, Dana etc. Gomatī has merged into the Yajña Kuṇḍa here. So did Sarasvatī.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ever since then it is called Gomatī Kuṇḍa in the world. The path for all the worlds is here itself. Hence, O Vyāsa, this is highly meritorious and excellent Tīrtha on the earth. Thus Gomatī Kuṇḍa has been described. It is destructive of all sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the eighth day in the dark half of the Bhādra month, Kṛṣṇa’s birth day (is celebrated). Devotees shall take holy dip there on that day and keep awake at night. After due observance of fast, O Vyāsa, they shall duly worship Vyāsa with his disciples(?)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4-5) Different places and tīrthas in and around Naimiṣāraṇya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have found an interesting story on the Siddhāśrama located with Naimiṣāraṇya, occuring in the Narada Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.1.24-27. Thereafter, those sages went to the holy &lt;strong&gt;Siddhāśrama&lt;/strong&gt; in the forest. It abounded in groups of deer. It was graced with the  residence of sages (living therein).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It was beautified with charming trees and creepers (full of abundant) flowers and fruits, and was spotted with lakes of crystalline water and was inhabited by persons warmly hospitable to guests (and strangers arriving there).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They (the sages of the &lt;strong&gt;Naimiṣa forest&lt;/strong&gt;) saw the son of Romaharṣaṇa worshipping the infinite unvanquished Lord Nārāyaṇa, by means of the Agniṣṭoma sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suitably honoured by Sūta, those sages of well-known powers, remained there in the hall of sacrifice, awaiting the concluding rites of ablution (Avabhṛtha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="5384" LastEditDate="2016-12-27T02:57:01.613" LastActivityDate="2016-12-27T02:57:01.613" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16535" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16560" CreationDate="2016-12-26T16:16:48.617" Score="7" ViewCount="506" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their devotional poetry in praise of Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it's the beliefs and principles embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the Alwars was known as Thirumazhisai Alwar. He was the son of the sage Bhargava, but he was raised by tribal people and became a famous Shaivite poet, before ultimately converting to Vaishnavism. And as I discuss in this question, he is said to have been born in the Dwapara Yuga, almost a thousand years before the birth of Krishna!  In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/fr/2003/05/09/stories/2003050900920400.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; from the Hindu makes an interesting claim about Thirumazhisai Alwar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Azhwar is, perhaps, the most controversial in the hierarchy as he is supposed to have lived in the Dvapara Yuga.  Tamil scholars have, however, placed him in the sixth or seventh century A.D. as the Azhwar was a contemporary of a Pallava ruler of Kanchipuram. After critically studying all systems of philosophy like Jainism, Buddhism, Mayavada and Saivism, he became a staunch follower of Vaishnavism. &lt;strong&gt;A renowned Sanskrit scholar has identified this Azhwar as Dramidacharya referred to by Ramanuja and has furnished convincing evidence for his conclusion.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question, who is this &quot;renowned Sanskrit scholar&quot; who said that Dramidacharya is the same as Thirumazhisai Alwar?   For those who don't know, Dramidacharya, aka Dravidacharya, was a famous pre-Shankara Vedantic philosopher whose works are now lost, but quotes from his works survive in other people's works.  In Ramanujacharya's works he is reverentially spoken of as the Bhashyakara.  He wrote a commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad, and probably a commentary on the Brahma Sutras as well.  He may be the Bhashyakara spoken of in this quote from Yamunacharya's Atma Siddhi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the sake of this objective, the Sutras were written by Bhagavat Badarayana; &lt;strong&gt;they were then explained by the author of the bhashya, which expressed tersely their profound meaning&lt;/strong&gt;; this was explained in detail by Bhagavat Srivatsankamishra who declared the truth profound as an ocean. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And he may be the same as the Bhashyakara referenced in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15800/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And here is what Ramanujacharya says about him in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3nakH.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Vedartha Sangraha: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The philosophical approach herein is one that has been presented by the Vedas, whose import has been clearly revealed by the ancient commentaries on the Vedas and Vedanta and has been unanimously adopted by the great ones like Bhagavan Bodhayana, Tanka, &lt;strong&gt;Dramida&lt;/strong&gt;, Guhadeva, Kapardin and Bharuchi.  By this, the extra-Vedic schools of thought like those of Charvaka, Shakya, Aulukya, Akshapada, Kshapanaka, Kapila and Patanjali along with the schools of some followers of the Vedas whose vision is been perverted, are refuted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dramidacharya is also quoted by Adi Shankaracharya in his commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad, and may be quoted in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya as well (as discussed in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15800/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, who is the Sanskrit scholar who identified Dramidacharya with Thirumazhisai Alwar, and what is the &quot;convincing evidence&quot; that he provided for it?  One thing is that the name Dramida or Dravida meana &quot;South Indian&quot;, so it would be a fitting name for a Tamil poet like Thirumazhisai Alwar.  Another thing is that Dramidacharya discusses the steps of Bhakti Yoga, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13585/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  So that would be consistent with Thirumazhisai Alwar's Bhakti towards Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would try asking the author of the article, but he passed away ten years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-02T15:24:06.653" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T15:24:06.653" Title="Is Dramidacharya the same as Thirumazhisai Alwar?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16536" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16531" CreationDate="2016-12-26T16:23:15.393" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chandika is Ambika ,Devi or the supreme mother goddess who killed asuras like Shumbha ,Nisumbha,Raktabeeja and Mahishasura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chamunda is goddess Kali.She obtained this name after she killed the two demons named Chanda and Munda.Chandika herself gave Kali that name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Markendaya Purana(Chapter 87)&lt;/strong&gt; has all the details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the mighty demon Dhumralochana was slain demons Chanda and Munda were sent to the battlefield to fight with Devi Chandika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sumbha, king of the Daityas, with agitated lips thus commanded the&#xA;  great Asuras Chanda and Munda. 'O Chanda and Munda proceed attended by&#xA;  a large body of forces, go and swiftly bring her here. Either lay hold&#xA;  on her hair, or hand, if you suspect the issue of the battle, with the&#xA;  various arms and the giants. Kill the wicked lion quickly, seize&#xA;  Amvika, bind and bring her to me.' Thus far is related in the sixth&#xA;  Chapter, mentioning the death of Dhumralochana, general of Sumbha and&#xA;  Nisumbha......The demons beheld her&#xA;  and highly exerted themselves to accomplish their designs, and the&#xA;  holder of the sword, and bow drew near to her. Amvika then became&#xA;  terribly angry at her enemies; rage changed her face into a hideous&#xA;  black. Her contracting brows overshadowed her forehead, the terrific&#xA;  faced Kali slung her Paca. She wore a wonderful Khutwanga, adorned by&#xA;  a string of human skulls, she wore a tiger's hide........The&#xA;  magnanimous goddess devoured or crushed all the forces of the valiant&#xA;  Asuras. She killed some with the sword, and struck some with the&#xA;  Khutwanga weapon; the giants died with the pressure of her teeth. In a&#xA;  moment all the forces of the Asuras fell; Chanda beheld it and ran to&#xA;  the frightful Kali. The mighty Asura, with a shower of numerous and&#xA;  tremendous arrows, and thousands of Chakras speedily enveloped the&#xA;  dreadful eyed goddess. Abundance of the discuses she swallowed, her&#xA;  face became as the orbit of the sun enveloped by the clouds. Then&#xA;  Kali, angrily shouted: her voice was horrible, her mouth became&#xA;  distended and frightful, and she gnashed her tremendous teeth. The&#xA;  goddess made her lion to rise, ran at Chanda, and laying hold on him&#xA;  by his hair, she cut off his head with her sword. After this Munda&#xA;  seeing the fall of Chanda, marched against her, she made him to fall&#xA;  on the earth and instantaneously killed him with her sword. The&#xA;  surviving forces perceived the fall of Chanda, and the valiant Munda,&#xA;  and through fear retreated in all directions. &lt;strong&gt;Kali took the heads of&#xA;  Chanda, likewise of Munda, and shoutingly exclaimed to Chandika&lt;/strong&gt;. I&#xA;  have killed the great beasts Chanda and Munda, you will slay Sumbha&#xA;  and Nisumbha, in the sacrifice of battle. The Rishi said, &lt;strong&gt;she(Chandika) gently&#xA;  replied to the prosperous Kali, &quot;as thou hast brought the heads of the&#xA;  great demons Chanda and Munda, you shall be renowned in the world by&#xA;  the name of Chamunda.&quot; Thus far is related in the seventh Chapter,&#xA;  comprising the death of Chanda and Munda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,Chandika is Ambika or Durga or the supreme Goddess where as Kali is a fierce form of Ambika .And Chamunda is one name of Kali.So,needless to say,Chandika and Chamunda are not the same deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To further illustrate that Chandika is different from Chamunda i quote the following passage from Chapter 88.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chandika looked at the discomfited Suras, and speedily said, to Kali,&#xA;  &quot;O Chamunda open your mouth widely&lt;/strong&gt;. Great Asuras are produced by the&#xA;  drops of the blood of Rackta-Bija, you must instantaneously lick up&#xA;  the blood before it falls to the ground.......&lt;strong&gt;Chandika licked it up;&#xA;  Chamunda drank his blood.&lt;/strong&gt; Devi by her trident, arrows, sword, and&#xA;  fists killed Rackta-Bija, and drank his blood....(Markandeya Purana Chapter 88)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-26T17:10:25.040" LastActivityDate="2016-12-26T17:10:25.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16537" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16554" CreationDate="2016-12-26T16:54:24.650" Score="5" ViewCount="962" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently, a cousin of mine lost his father. Before conducting a ritual for the well being of his father's soul, he had to shave all his hair except for a bit at the back (&lt;em&gt;choti&lt;/em&gt;). Why did he have to do this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-26T17:41:43.360" LastActivityDate="2016-12-27T21:54:56.507" Title="Why shave hair after parents die?" Tags="|belief|rituals|dharma|death|parents|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16538" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14578" CreationDate="2016-12-26T18:05:01.657" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it is definitely possible. Kathopanishad (2.2.7) clearly says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;येनिमन्ये प्रपद्यन्ते शरीरत्वाय देहिनः । स्थाणुमन्येऽनुसंयन्ति यथाकर्मयथाश्रुतम् ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some jīvas enter the womb for acquiring bodies (and) others assume&#xA;  plant-form according to (their) karma and according to (their)&#xA;  upāsanā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As an explanation to this verse, Swami Paramarthananda &lt;a href=&quot;http://arshaavinash.in/index.php/download/kathopanishad-by-swami-paramarthananda/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Yama explains what happens to the jīvātmā of the ajñānī after&#xA;  death. This śloka is an important source of knowledge (pramāṇa) for&#xA;  rebirth (punarjanma). The śāstras are the primary evidence for&#xA;  rebirth. There is no scientific evidence for rebirth; we only have&#xA;  supporting evidence. Rebirth is beyond the the other instruments of&#xA;  knowledge available to the humans (apauruṣeya viṣayaḥ). The supporting&#xA;  evidence is the nature of a person in this birth. For example, if a&#xA;  person is a genius in music versus another who has no musical sense,&#xA;  we conclude that for the latter, the training continues from the&#xA;  previous birth. There can be no other explanation for this. This&#xA;  supporting evidence is called sambhāvanā yuktiḥ [the proving evidence&#xA;  = niścāya yuktiḥ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When an ignorant person dies, what happens to the four factors: the three bodies and Ātmā?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The physical body (sthūla śarīram) dies and mingles with the five&#xA;  elements (pañca-bhūtas). This is obvious through direct observation&#xA;  (pratyakṣa pramāṇa). Ātmā of the ajñānī also is all-pervading and&#xA;  therefore, it cannot travel. The subtle and causal bodies (sūkṣma and&#xA;  kāraṇa śarīrams) are not perceptible by any instrument of knowledge.&#xA;  We can only know their fate from the śāstras. These bodies survive the&#xA;  death of the physical body. Sūkṣma śarīram (kāraṇa śarīram included)&#xA;  and cidābhāsa together is called ahaṁkāra and that travels. The&#xA;  ajñānī’sahaṁkāra travels and occupies another physical body of a deva,&#xA;  human being or other living beings including the plants. God does not&#xA;  determine the type of the new body directly. Lord Yama says that the&#xA;  fruits of our actions (puṇya-pāpa-karmaphalam) determine it.&#xA;  Karmaphalam can only be exhausted only through experience&#xA;  (sukha-duḥkha-anubhava-dvāra-eva-karmaphalam-kṣīyate). Experience&#xA;  (anubhava) is possible only through the physical body. The jīva&#xA;  acquires another physical body appropriate to the world (loka) he is&#xA;  going to. Even in dream, one needs the appropriate physical body to&#xA;  exhaust the dream experience. The physical bodies of heavenly (svarga)&#xA;  and and the dream (svapna) worlds are not visible to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How long will it take?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It cannot be known because:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One does not know when the next set of karmaphalams will fructify&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;More importantly, when this body drops, the time concept will change – it is not possible to measure the time of another birth in terms of&#xA;  this physical body. The parallel drawn is: the dream time is totally&#xA;  different from the waker’s time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The new body will be taken when it is ready.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Yama says that every event is governed by law. The type of birth&#xA;  with favorable or unfavorable body and circumstances is dictated by&#xA;  karma of that person. We are fortunate that we do not remember the&#xA;  karma of our previous births; the regrets of the past in this birth&#xA;  itself is burdensome. Lord Yama says that our birth also depends upon&#xA;  what we dwell upon constantly (upāsanā). Whatever one thinks intensely&#xA;  is what he becomes: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thoughts---&gt; words---&gt; action---&gt; habit---&gt; character---&gt; destiny &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ultimately our destiny begins with thought. Krishna confirms this in&#xA;  verse 8.6 of the Bhagavad Gītā. If one constantly dwells upon God, he&#xA;  becomes one with Him (Īśvara cintayā Īśvaraaikyam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2016-12-26T18:05:01.657" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16540" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16527" CreationDate="2016-12-26T19:48:32.950" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/maitreyaupanishad-2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mention of&lt;/a&gt; ari-ṣaḍ-varga (a.k.a ṣaḍ-ripu) in the third chapter of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitreya_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Maitreya Upaniṣad&lt;/a&gt; of Sāma-veda which is a dialogue between Lord Śiva and Sage Maitreya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Śiva says]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;षड्विकारविहीनोऽस्मि षट्कोषरहितोऽस्म्यहम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;अरिषड्वर्ग&lt;/strong&gt;मुक्तोऽस्मि अन्तरादन्तरोऽस्म्यहम् ॥ १८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;III-18. I am devoid of the six changes (of birth, etc), I am without the six sheaths (the gross material body, etc); I am free from the group of &lt;strong&gt;six&lt;/strong&gt; (internal) &lt;strong&gt;enemies&lt;/strong&gt; (passions, etc) and I am the witness, being the supreme God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devī Bhāgavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk07ch35.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;lists&lt;/a&gt; the 6 inner enemies that a yogi needs to conquer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हिमालय उवाच &lt;br&gt;&#xA;योग वद महेशानि सांग संवित्प्रदायकम्। कृतेन येन योग्योऽहं भवेयं तत्वदर्शने ॥१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीदेव्युवाच &lt;br&gt;&#xA;न योगो नभस: पृछे न भूमी न रसातले । ऐक्यं जीवात्मनोराहुर्योग योगविशारदाः ॥२॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;तत्प्रत्यूहाः&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;षडाख्याता&lt;/strong&gt; योगविघ्नकरानघ । &lt;strong&gt;कामक्रोधौ लोभमोहौ मदमात्सर्यसंज्ञकौ&lt;/strong&gt; ॥३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.&#xA;Himâlayâ said :-- &amp;quot;O Mahesvarî! Now tell me the Yoga with all its Amgas (limbs) giving the knowledge of the Supreme Consciousness so that, I may realise my Self, when I practise according to those instructions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2-10. Srî Devî said :-- &amp;quot;The Yoga does not exist in the Heavens; nor does it exist on earth or in the nether regions (Pâtâla). Those who are skilled in the Yogas say that the realization of the identity between the Jivâtma and the Paramâtmâ is &amp;quot;Yoga.&amp;quot; O Sinless One! &lt;strong&gt;The enemies to this Yoga are six&lt;/strong&gt;; and they are &lt;strong&gt;lust&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;anger&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;greed&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;ignorance&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;vanity&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;jealousy&lt;/strong&gt;. The Yogis attain the Yoga when they become able to destroy these six enemies by practicing the accompaniments to Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-26T19:48:32.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16541" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12282" CreationDate="2016-12-27T05:46:45.397" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, as far as I know, in Tantra tradition, &lt;strong&gt;Agama&lt;/strong&gt; texts are those in which Devi questions and Shiva answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Examples of such texts are numerous like the Mahanirvana Tantra, Kularnava Tantra, Vijyana Bhairava Tantra etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;strong&gt;Nigama&lt;/strong&gt; are those where Shiva questions and Devi answers. Texts of this nature are not many in number .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One example is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/kulachudananitantra.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kulachudamani Tantra&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kulachudamani Tantra is a nigama, meaning that instead of Devi asking&#xA;  questions answered by Lord Shiva (agama)&lt;/strong&gt;, he asks questions answered&#xA;  by Devi, the goddess. In this tantra the cult goddess is&#xA;  Mahishamardini, a Devi with some similarities to Durga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another example is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shivashakti.com/rudrayam.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rudrayamala&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The text takes the form of Shiva asking questions and Shakti&#xA;  answering, making this nigama rather than agama form.&lt;/strong&gt; Another example&#xA;  of this style is found in the undoubtedly old Kulachudamani Tantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/scripturesdetaildintroduction.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Astrojyoti.com&lt;/a&gt; (Vedic Scriptures of India):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedic literature is also called by several other names –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nigama: Traditional wisdom transmitted from generation to generation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Amnaaya: The root texts or primordial texts of (Hindu) tradition&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Trayi: The Vedic texts comprising of Versified mantras, prose mantras,&#xA;  and melodies.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Swami Sivananda's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/vedic-scriptures-of-india-6.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;writings&lt;/a&gt; on Hindu scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;V. Agamas (“Manuals of Divine Worship”)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Agamas do not derive their authority from the Vedas, but are not&#xA;  antagonistic to them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They follow a four-fold method of worship: 1) jñana (“knowledge”); 2)&#xA;  yoga (“concentration”); 3) kriya (“esoteric ritual”); 4) charya&#xA;  (“exoteric worship”).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The most important books on the Agamas are: Ishvara-Samhita&#xA;  Ahirbudhnya-Samhita Sanatkumara-Samhita Narada-Pancharatra&#xA;  Spanda-Pradipika&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Agamas are divided into three categories:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Vaishnava Agamas or Pancharatra Agamas (worship of Vishnu);&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Shaiva Agamas (worship of Shiva);&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Shakta Agamas or Tantras (worship of the Divine Mother or Shakti).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A. The Vaishnava Agamas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are 215 Vaishnava Agamas, the most important ones being:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Isvara Samhita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ahirbudhnya Samhita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Paushkara Samhita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Parama Samhita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sattvata Samhita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brihad-Brahma Samhita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jñanamritasara Samhita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vaishnava Agamas are divided into four classes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;a.&lt;/strong&gt; Pancharatra, considered as the most authoritative. They consist of seven groups:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shaiva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kaumara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vasishtha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kapila&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gautamiya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Naradiya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;b.&lt;/strong&gt; Vaikhanasa &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;c.&lt;/strong&gt; Pratishthasara &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;d.&lt;/strong&gt; Vijñana-lalita &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;B. The Shaiva Agamas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are 28 Shaiva Agamas, of which the chief is the Kamika Agama.&#xA;  There are two principal divisions in Shaivism, both based on these 28&#xA;  Agamas as well as the Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kashmir Shaivism, a.k.a. the pratyabhijna system, a non-dualistic philosophy; and&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Southern Shaivism, a.k.a. shaiva siddhanta, a dualistic philosophy.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Each Agama has upa-agamas (“Subsidiary Agamas”). Of these, only fragmentary texts of twenty are extant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;C. The Shakta Agamas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are 27 Shakti Agamas, usually in the form of dialogues between&#xA;  Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati. The most important ones are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mahanirvana Tantra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kularnava Tantra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kulasara Tantra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prapanchasara Tantra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Tantraraja Rudra-Yamala Tantra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahma-Yamala Tantra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vishnu-Yamala Tantra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Todala Tantra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Agama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindupedia.com&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agamas and Tantras are a vast collection of knowledge and form a&#xA;  major  portion of spiritual literature and practices&lt;/strong&gt;. Like the Veda,&#xA;  they  have come down through Guru-Sishya parampara, in oral&#xA;  traditions.  Agamas form the base for many of the popular as well as&#xA;  specialist  aspects of Hinduism.    &lt;strong&gt;The word Agama means 'that which&#xA;  has come to (us)'. Tantra means 'that  which protects with detail'.&#xA;  Sruti, the eternal word, is said to be of  two forms – Nigama (Veda)&#xA;  and Agama. Two kinds of texts, Agama and  Tantra are in general&#xA;  grouped under the same class of literature.&lt;/strong&gt;    There are three main&#xA;  classes of Agamic/Tantric texts Vaishnava Agamas,  Saiva Agamas and&#xA;  Sakta Tantras, though not limited to these. The  Vaishnava and Saiva&#xA;  texts are generally called Agamas, while the word  Tantra in general&#xA;  applies to Sakta texts. &lt;strong&gt;However, technically Tantra  is a part of&#xA;  Agama and owing to the centrality of Tantra the two words are used&#xA;  often interchangeably.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, in Mahanirvana Tantra (Chapter 9) Sadashiva says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All Mantras in the Nigamas, Agamas, Tantras, Sanghitas and Vedas, have&#xA;  been spoken by Me. Their employment, however, varies according to the&#xA;  Ages (11).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, since Agama, Nigama, Vedas etc. are mentioned separately, they must be different from each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the first chapter of the Mahanirvana Tantra, Devi Adya (Mother Goddess) makes it clear to us, that according to the nature of Yugas, Sadashiva propounds and creates a variety of scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Kali Yuga these scriptures are the Tantras or the Agamas &amp;amp; the Nigamas.&lt;/strong&gt; They are the &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; mode of liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, as I have said earlier, Agamas are different from the Vedas. But it is different from Smritis and Puranas as well.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Adya said:&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;O Bhagavan! Lord of all, Greatest among those who are versed in Dharmma, Thou in former ages in Thy mercy didst through Brahma reveal&#xA;  the four Vedas&lt;/strong&gt; which are the propagators of all dharmma and which&#xA;  ordain the rules of life for all the varying castes of men and for the&#xA;  different stages of their lives (18-19). In the First Age, men by the&#xA;  practice of yaga and yajna prescribed by Thee were virtuous and&#xA;  pleasing to Devas .....By the study of the Vedas, dhyana and tapas,&#xA;  and the conquest of the senses, by acts of mercy and charity men were&#xA;  of exceeding power and courage, strength and vigour, adherents of the&#xA;  true Dharmma, wise and truthful.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After the Krita Age had passed away&lt;/strong&gt; Thou didst in the Treta Age&#xA;  perceive Dharmma to be in disorder, &lt;strong&gt;and that men were no longer able&#xA;  by Vedic rites to accomplish their desires. .&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;strong&gt;Having observed&#xA;  this, Thou didst make known on earth the Scripture in the form of&#xA;  Smriti,&lt;/strong&gt; which explains the meaning of the Vedas, and thus delivered&#xA;  from sin, which is cause of all pain, sorrow, and sickness,....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then, in the Dvapara Age when men abandoned the good works prescribed in the Smritis,&lt;/strong&gt; and were deprived of one half of Dharmma&#xA;  and were afflicted by ills of mind and body, &lt;strong&gt;they were yet again&#xA;  saved by Thee, through the instructions of the Sanghita and other&#xA;  religious lore ...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now the sinful Kali Age is upon them, when Dharmma is destroyed, an&#xA;  Age full of evil customs and deceit. Men pursue evil ways. &lt;strong&gt;The Vedas&#xA;  have lost their power, the Smritis are forgotten, and many of the&#xA;  Puranas, which contain stories of the past, and show the many ways&#xA;  (which lead to liberation)&lt;/strong&gt;....&lt;strong&gt;By Thee also have been composed for&#xA;  the good and liberation of men the Tantras, a mass of Agamas and&#xA;  Nigamas,&lt;/strong&gt; which bestow both enjoyment and liberation, containing&#xA;  Mantras and Yantras and rules as to the sadhana of both Devis and&#xA;  Devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above passage makes it clear that in Krita Yuga, Vedas are the predominant Hindu shastra, in Treta, the Smritis, in Dwapara, it is the Samhitas and religious lore (I think Puranas are meant by this although I'm not quite sure) but in Kali Yuga all the above shastras have lost their powers. Hence Shiva created the Tantras or the mass of Agamas and Nigamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;Agama is a distinct category of Hindu shastra, different from any other like the Vedas, Smritis and the Puranas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is repeatedly stated in the Tantra texts that, in this Yuga, the Veda mantras and other powerful mantras are powerless. They are often compared to snakes without any poison.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that spiritual and material progress and liberation are only achieved by practicing the mantras given in the Tantra texts that is those given in the Agamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Kularnava Tantra we find some definitions of Agama Texts.Which explains the term Agama and also why these texts are so called. Few among them are given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AchAra KathanAddwivya Gati PrApti NidAnataha | MahArtha Tattva KathAnAdAgamah Kathitha Priyeh||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because it narrates the course of conduct, &lt;strong&gt;A&lt;/strong&gt;chara, with a view to&#xA;  arrive at the godly goal, divya&lt;strong&gt;GA&lt;/strong&gt;ti, because it speaks of the great truth(&lt;strong&gt;Ma&lt;/strong&gt;hartha Tattva)&#xA;  , it is called &lt;strong&gt;Agama.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;PAsupata Sutra&lt;/strong&gt; Agama is defined as-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Shastra that came(Agata) from the mouth of Maheswara(Shiva) through Guru Parampara is&#xA;  Agama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet another definition of Agama texts is -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Shastra which have the seven signs viz :&#xA;  Srishti(creation),Pralaya(destruction),Devata Puja&#xA;  rules(vidhis),Mantra Sadhana of all kinds,Purashacharana,Shatkarma&#xA;  ,the four-fold Dhyana Yoga is called Agama by the wise.(This is as per&#xA;  Viswa SAra Tantra)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-15T09:32:34.790" LastActivityDate="2017-01-15T09:32:34.790" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16544" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16547" CreationDate="2016-12-27T09:18:02.637" Score="10" ViewCount="3725" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who are the parents of Narada?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know the name of Narada muni's father and mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6941" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-16T19:37:59.750" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T10:10:30.933" Title="Parents of Narada muni?" Tags="|narada|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16545" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19922" CreationDate="2016-12-27T10:06:21.583" Score="8" ViewCount="2873" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the details story of ritual place Haridwar and &quot;Har ki pauri&quot;.&#xA;There are many famous places in Haridwar.So I would like to know the story behind Haridwar pilgrimage place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6941" LastEditorUserId="6941" LastEditDate="2016-12-28T03:46:01.067" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T07:25:30.350" Title="What is the story of Haridwar?" Tags="|shiva|krishna|temple|pilgrimage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16546" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-27T10:32:56.277" Score="2" ViewCount="85" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a shiv-Linga at home, which I think is made of ceramic material. I perform the puja by pouring simple tap water, then sandalwood tilak, then flowers and then dhoop/incense sticks.  I don't know whether the procedure is correct or not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My 2nd question is - sometimes, due to my busy schedule, I forget to do abhishek of the lingam with water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it good to keep the Lingam at home?  what does the Vedas quote about the practice of keeping shiv lingam at home?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8571" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2016-12-27T10:46:11.037" LastActivityDate="2016-12-27T10:46:11.037" Title="Question Regarding Shiva Linga?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|puja|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2016-12-28T02:06:59.457" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16547" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16544" CreationDate="2016-12-27T11:13:03.250" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devarshi Narada was created by Lord Brahma alone. So,he is only Lord Brahma's progeny.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am using the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/ESSENCE-OF-NARADA-CHARITRA.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Essence of Narada Charitra&quot;&lt;/a&gt; as my reference here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Creation of Brahma:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later on Brahma continued his Srishti from his ‘Prishta’ (rear side)  Adharma and Alakshmi; from his ‘nabhi’ (navel) Vishwakarma the Shilpa Guru, from his ‘Balaparakrama’or prowess Eight Vaus; Manasa Putras (mind-born sons) Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana, Sanatkumaras; Swayambhu Manu and his wife Shatarupa the Administrator of the Universe.......from Brahma’s shadow came out kardama, Panchashikha from his navel, from chest came out  Odhu, &lt;strong&gt;from Brahma’s throat came Narada&lt;/strong&gt;, shoulder Marichi, from neck  Apaantaratama, from tongue Vasishtha, from lips Pracheta, from left belly came out Hamsa (Swan) and Yati from the right belly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T10:10:30.933" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T10:10:30.933" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16549" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3223" CreationDate="2016-12-27T13:08:05.093" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On who is the consort of Lalita:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lalita's consort is Sadashiva or Chinmaya Shiva or Kameswara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Lalitopakhyana is a part of Brahmanda Purana. It details the&#xA;  Avatara and Lila of Parashakti Lalita Mahatripurasundari. The Parayana&#xA;  of this sacred text is considered to be more fruitful than even&#xA;  Saptashati. A single Parayana of this great text confers a merit,&#xA;  equal to thousand (Sahasra) repetitions of Chandi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the 8th chapter of Lalitopakhyana there is a stotram called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Lalitha_Sthava_Raja&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lalita Stava Raja(the king of all prayers to Lalita)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 11th verse of that stotram is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.kriiDaa te lokaracanaa &lt;strong&gt;sakhaa te cinmayaH shivaH&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  aahaaraste sadaanando vaasaste hR^idayaM sataam ..11..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your sport is the creation of the world , &lt;strong&gt;your friend is the pure Lord&#xA;  Shiva,&lt;/strong&gt; You take the everlasting happiness as food and live forever in&#xA;  the heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/ls3-3.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lalita Sahasranama&lt;/a&gt; describes Lalita as &lt;strong&gt;Sadashiva Pativrata&lt;/strong&gt; (the devoted wife of Sadashiva) and also as &lt;strong&gt;Gurupriya&lt;/strong&gt; or the consort of Shiva,the great Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,the same stotram also says &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Kaameshabaddha Mangalya sutra shobhita kantharaa&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; Or &quot;&lt;strong&gt;the Mangala Sutra tied by Kameswara is around her neck&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On the significance of the Pancha Deity seat:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatam37-4.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam Book 7,Chapter XXIX&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So with all the care possible, the Lady of the Universe is to be&#xA;  worshipped and served. Men should avoid worshipping any other gods, as&#xA;  people avoid the husk to get the grain inside. O King! By churning the&#xA;  ocean of the Vedas, I have got the jewel as the lotus-feet of the Parâ&#xA;  S’akti; and I think that I have discharged all my duties and think&#xA;  myself satisfied and successful. &lt;strong&gt;Brahmâ, Visnu Rudra, and Is’vara are&#xA;  the four feet and Sadâ S’iva is the plank overhead; thus these five&#xA;  form the seat on which the Devî is seated. There is no other deity&#xA;  superior to Her. To show this (to the ordinary ignorant people) the&#xA;  Mahâ Devî has taken this seat composed of the five Brahmâ, Visnu,&#xA;  Rudra, Is’vara and Sadâ S’iva.&lt;/strong&gt; Superior to these five, what is stated&#xA;  in the Vedas as Vyaktam and in which all this Universe is sewn, as it&#xA;  were, crosswise and lengthwise, lying in and through, that is&#xA;  Bhuvanes’varî, the Goddess of the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So,Sri Lalita's 5-Deity seat demonstrates and emphasizes the fact that there is no Deity who is superior to Lalita. Lalita's supremacy is unquestionable.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On sv's additional questions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of Lalita's sugarcane bow&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the Lalita Sahasranama stotram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manorupekshu Kodanda Pancha Tanmatra Saayakaa,&lt;/strong&gt;  Nijaaruna&#xA;  Prabhaapura majjadbrahmaanda mandalaa/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;She who carries a sugar-cane bow with the determination of &#xA;  materialising the universe with Her lower left hand,&lt;/strong&gt; while actually&#xA;  taking up the deed of creation with the aid of Five Tanmatras or &#xA;  elements by another hand of herself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the &lt;strong&gt;sugarcane bow symbolizes the mind&lt;/strong&gt; from which arises the &lt;strong&gt;desire&lt;/strong&gt; to create the entire creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lalita holds five flowery arrows, noose, goad and bow. The noose is&#xA;  attachment (moon). The goad is repulsion (sun). &lt;strong&gt;The sugarcane bow is&#xA;  the mind.&lt;/strong&gt; The flowery arrows are the five sense impressions. When&#xA;  consciousness perceives these, the outward directed arrows stop being&#xA;  dry sticks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On why Sadashiva is lying down and not sitting up&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SadaShiva here denotes the supreme consciousness that pervades everything, but he is the &lt;strong&gt;passive consciousness&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why he is being shown as lying down .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Sadashiva is just witnessing Lalita's sport (of creation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shakti is triple as wake-dream-deep sleep. &lt;strong&gt;What is called the Fourth&#xA;  is the witness, Shiva, who is said to pervade the whole cosmos just as&#xA;  heat pervades a red hot iron.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lalita, as primordial devi, rays out her attendants and shaktis as&#xA;  modifications of moon, sun and fire. &lt;strong&gt;In this Shiva has no place, no&#xA;  qualities, is without the ability to act. Only when united with devi&#xA;  may 'he' act.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is based on the subtle and practical idea of Shiva as pure&#xA;  consciousness, witness of the triple manifestation of his Shakti&lt;/strong&gt;. This&#xA;  Shakti, the very essence of the three gunas of Sattvas, Rajas, and&#xA;  Tamas, is the cause of all manifestation in the universe and as a&#xA;  human being. The three shaktis, by blending and reblending, create all&#xA;  things&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-10T06:43:27.043" LastActivityDate="2017-04-10T06:43:27.043" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16550" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17632" CreationDate="2016-12-27T15:19:05.990" Score="13" ViewCount="2179" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are a few instances in Ramayana about Lord Rama firing Brahmastra weapons but couldn't withdraw it saying that &lt;code&gt;a Brahmastra weapon never goes waste&lt;/code&gt;, but we see in Mahabharata that Arjuna while fighting with Ashwathama withdraws his Brahmastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2945/7961&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt; describes the above instances of Brahmastra being used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why couldn't or why didn't Lord Rama withdraw his Brahmastra when Arjuna could?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/sundara/sarga67/sundaraitrans67.htm#Verse16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mogham astram na shakyam tu kartum iti eva raaghava || 5-67-16 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhavaamstasyakSi kaakasya hinasti sma sa dakSiNam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;16.&#xA;  raaghava= O Rama!; ityeva= because; na shakyam= it is not possible; kartum= to make; astram= the missile; mogham= a waste; bhavaan= you; hinanti sma= destroyed; dakSinam akSi= the right eye; kaakasya= of the cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Rama! Since &lt;strong&gt;it is not possible to make the missile a waste&lt;/strong&gt;, you destroyed the right eye of the crow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a Brahmastra can never really be withdrawn, how is that Arjuna was able do it but Rama couldn't? How to make sense of all this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7961" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2018-04-16T01:11:49.070" Title="Why couldn't or why didn't Lord Rama withdraw his Brahmastra when Arjuna could?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|rama|arjuna|brahmastra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16552" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-27T16:03:54.927" Score="15" ViewCount="788" Body="&lt;p&gt;Once every 12 years, the Maha Kumbh is celebrated at &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haridwar_Kumbh_Mela&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Haridwar&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allahabad_Kumbh_Mela&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prayag&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashik-Trimbakeshwar_Simhastha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nasik&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ujjain_Simhastha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ujjain&lt;/a&gt;. It is generally believed that the reason for celebrating Maha Kumbh at those 4 places is because the Amrita (Nectar) at the time of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_manthan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samudra Manthan&lt;/a&gt; has fallen on those places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela#Mythological_origin&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to medieval Hindu mythology, the origin of the festival can be found in the ancient legend of samudra manthan. The legend tells of a battle between the Devas and Asuras for amrita, the drink of immortality. During samudra manthan, or churning of the ocean, amrita was produced and placed in a kumbha (pot). To prevent the asuras (malevolent beings) from seizing the amrita, a divine carrier flew away with the pot. In one version of the legend, the carrier of the kumbha is the divine physician Dhanavantari, who stops at four places where the Kumbh Mela is celebrated. In other re-tellings, the carrier is Garuda, Indra or Mohini, who spills the amrita at four places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know if there's a proper scriptural version of the origin of the Kumbha Mela.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-28T01:43:37.613" LastActivityDate="2024-03-09T14:45:16.293" Title="What is the origin of Kumbha Mela?" Tags="|scripture|festivals|kumbh-mela|pilgrimage|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16553" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16557" CreationDate="2016-12-27T17:55:38.300" Score="22" ViewCount="5613" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lalita Sahasranama&lt;/em&gt;(the thousand names of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripura_Sundari&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lalitha tripura Sundari&lt;/a&gt;) is a hymn found in the Uttara Khanda of Brahmanda Purana. In the Lalitha sahasranama, one of the names is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pañcabrahmāsanasthitā&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above name translates to the &lt;strong&gt;one who sits on the seat of five brahmas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who are the five brahmas Lalita Devi sits on and why are they called so? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tWmUVl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tWmUVl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt; Note: The above question is not a duplicate of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3223/why-does-lalitha-devi-sit-on-shiva&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question although it is related.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-04T14:31:09.630" LastActivityDate="2023-08-13T13:17:48.097" Title="Who are Pancha brahmas' Lalita Devi sits on and Why are they called so?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|shakti|brahmanda-purana|lalita|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16554" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16537" CreationDate="2016-12-27T21:54:56.507" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's because the funeral rites mentioned in Garuda Purāṇa say so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/GarudaPuranaEnglishMotilal3VolumesIn1/Garuda%20Purana%20English%20-%20Motilal%20-%203%20Volumes%20in%201#page/n751/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 4&lt;/a&gt;, Preta Kāṇḍa (Dharma Kāṇḍa) of Garuda Purāṇa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Kṛṣṇa said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कि दानमिति प्रश्नस्योत्तरमीरितम्॥ दाहमृत्योरन्तरे किमिप्रश्नोत्तरं शृणु ॥४०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;40. I have given the answer to your queries about&#xA;  gifts. &lt;strong&gt;Now, I shall tell you about the obsequies and the funeral&#xA;  rites of the deceased&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रेतपिण्ड प्रदद्याच्च दाहातिशमनं खग॥ ततः प्रदक्षिणां कृक्त्वा चिताप्रस्थानवीक्षकाः॥ ६९॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कनिष्ठपूर्व्वाः स्नानार्थं गच्छेयुः सूक्तजापकाः॥ ततो जलसमीपे तु गत्वा प्रक्षाल्य चांशुकम्॥७०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;69-70. O bird, Preta-pinda is given in order to comfort&#xA;  the deceased. Then having circumambulated the pyre and&#xA;  casting a mournful look at it, &lt;strong&gt;the mourners&lt;/strong&gt; should go for bath&#xA;  muttering the hymn, with the youth marching ahead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;71.&#xA;  Then having reached water and washed cloth, they&#xA;  should wear the same saying for the deceased — we are taking bath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कुरुध्वमित्येव विदेच्छतवर्षावरे पुत्राद्या वृद्धपूर्वास्ते एकवस्त्राः &lt;strong&gt;शिखांविना&lt;/strong&gt;॥७२॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्राचीनावीतिनः सव्र्वे विशेयुर्मौनिनो जलम्॥ अपनःशोशुचदघमनेन पितृदिङमुखाः॥७३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;72-73. Then they all, each wearing one cloth only, &lt;strong&gt;with&#xA;  shaven heads&lt;/strong&gt;, wearing the sacred thread over the right shoulder&#xA;  should enter water silently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जलावघट्टनं चैव न कुय्र्युः स्नानकारकाः॥ ततस्तटे समागत्या शिखां बद्धा ऋजून् कुशान्॥७४॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दक्षिणाग्रहस्तयोस्तु कृत्वाथ सतिलं जलम्॥ आदायाद्भलिना याम्यां दुःखी पैतृकतीर्थतः॥७५॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एकवारं त्रिवार वा दशवारमथापि वा। भूमावश्मनि वा सव्र्वे क्षिपेयुर्वाग्यताः खग।॥७६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;74-76. The bathers should not agitate water. Then&#xA;  coming out of the water to the bank, tying their Sikha (knot&#xA;  of hair in the center of the head) they should take in their&#xA;  right hand kusas and water with the gingelly seeds (sesame) and offer&#xA;  the same in the southern direction, pouring it from the paitrka-tirtha&#xA;  over the earth silently once, thrice or ten times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/GarudaPuranaEnglishMotilal3VolumesIn1/Garuda%20Purana%20English%20-%20Motilal%20-%203%20Volumes%20in%201#page/n761/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 5&lt;/a&gt;, The Annual Rite:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवं जलस्याञ्जलयो विभाज्याः पक्षयोर्द्वयोः॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सव्र्वेषु पितृकाय्येषु पुत्रो मुख्योऽधिकारवान्॥ २६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;26. O bird, thus the water-offering is divided. &lt;strong&gt;For&#xA;  performing the rites of the manes, the son is the proper person&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पिण्डप्रसेकस्तूष्णीञ्च पुष्पधूपादिकं तथा॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दशमेऽहनि सम्प्राप्ते स्नानं ग्रामाद्वहिश्चरेत्॥२७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;27. Pinda-praseka shall be done in silence and with&#xA;  flowers, incense, etc. On the tenth day, bath should be taken&#xA;  outside the village.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्र त्याज्यानि वासांसि केशमश्रुनखानि च॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विप्रः शुध्यत्पः स्पृष्ट्वा क्षत्त्रियो वाहनं तथा॥ २८॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वैश्यः प्रतोदं रश्मीन्वा शूद्रो यष्टिं कृत क्रियः॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मृतादल्पवयोभिश्च सपिण्डैः परिवापनम्॥ २९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;28-29. &lt;strong&gt;Then they should leave their old clothes, hair,&#xA;  beard and nails.&lt;/strong&gt; Brahmana is purified by touching water,&#xA;  Ksatriya by touching vehicle, Vaisya by touching a goad (or a&#xA;  whip) or reins, and Sudra by touching stick after performing&#xA;  the rites. &lt;strong&gt;The relatives, younger in age, should undergo shave.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In doing all of the above, the objective is to purify oneself after a death in the family which is considered a period of aśauca (अशौच).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/GarudaPuranaEnglishMotilal3VolumesIn1/Garuda%20Purana%20English%20-%20Motilal%20-%203%20Volumes%20in%201#page/n760/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mentioned&lt;/a&gt; earlier in the same chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपनोद्यन्त्विदं कालादिभिराशु निषेधकृत्॥ निण्डाध्ययनदानादेः पुंगतोऽतिशयो हि तत् ॥९॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दशाह शावमाशौच सपिण्डेषु विधीयते॥ जननेऽप्येवमेव स्यान्निपुणां शुद्धिमिच्छताम् ॥१०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9-10. The ten-day-period of aśauca is prescribed for the relatives of the deceased on the father's side. This commences from the hour of birth, also with a view to obtain purity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16133/2995&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Sindhu&lt;/a&gt; is supposed to contain the following verse which suggests that, for everyone, their pāpa is attached to the hair; so by getting rid of your head hair, symbolically, you are getting rid of your pāpa or sins and then qualify for visiting a sacred pilgrimage site. The same reasoning can be applied to removal of one's hair during funeral rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tIrthopavAsa kartavya sirasomundanAnicha sirogatAni pApAni yAntimandanatho yatah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2016-12-27T21:54:56.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16556" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-28T03:47:46.687" Score="5" ViewCount="1338" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said during universal dissolution the universe gets merged into Supreme Brahman. Do Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara also die at that time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please try to answer with Vedas as proof if possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-28T07:26:39.517" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T07:26:39.517" Title="Do Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara die?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahma|vedic-gods|trinity|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16557" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16553" CreationDate="2016-12-28T05:24:02.647" Score="29" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pancha-Brahmans are the five fold manifestation of Lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; and are named as Sadyojata, Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vamadeva and Ishana. Each five manifestations further manifest as five deities which are as Brahma from Sadyojata, Vishnu from Vamadeva, Rudra from Aghora, Maheswara from Tatpurusha and SadaShiva from Ishana.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus the primary Pancha Brahmas are:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;➡➡Sadyojata, Vamadeva, Aghora, Tatpurusha, Ishana.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The secondary Pancha Brahmas which manifest from above primary Pancha Brahmas are:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;➡➡ Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheswara, SadaShiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the Vyavaiya Samhita Chapter 3 of Shiva Purana, Upamanyu states to Lord Krishna as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उपमन्युरुवाच:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;श्रृणु कृष्ण महेशस्य शिवस्य परमात्मन ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मूर्त्याभिस्ततं कृत्स्न्नं जगदेतच्चराचरम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स शिवः सर्वमेवेदं स्वकीयभिश्च मूर्तिभिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अधितिष्ठत्यमेयात्मा ह्योतत्सर्वमनुस्मृतम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ब्रह्मा विष्णुस्तथा रुद्रो महेशानः सदाशिव ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मूर्त्तस्तस्य विज्ञेया याभिर्विश्वमिदं ततम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अथाऽन्याश्चापि तनवः पञ्च ब्रह्मसमाहृया ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तनूभिस्ताभिरव्याप्तमिह किञ्चिन्न विद्यते ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ईशानः पुरुषोऽघोरो वामः सद्यस्तथैव च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ब्राहाण्येतानि देवस्य मूर्तय पञ्च विश्रुता ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Upamanyu said, “0 Sri Krishna, Lord Shiva who is Paramatman pervades in the entire universe comprising of mobiles and immobiles in the form of Murtis. Shiva presides over all these by means of his own Murtis. His Atman is incomprehensible as said by the sages. &lt;strong&gt;His forms comprise of Brahma, Visnu, Rudra, Mahesa and SadaShiva which pervade in the universe.&lt;/strong&gt; There are other images of Siva known as Pancabrahman, which also pervade the universe. There is nothing in the world in which he is not found present. The well known images of Shiva comprise of &lt;strong&gt;Ishana, (Tat)Purusa, Aghora, Vamadeva and Sadyojata.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Significance of Pancha Brahmans:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;i) Significance in Cosmic Level:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Linga Purana Uttara Bhaga chapter 14 Nandi tells the significance of Pancha Brahmans to SanatKumara as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वलोकैकसंहर्ता सर्वलोकैकरक्षिता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वलोकैकनिर्माता पञ्चब्रह्मात्मकः शिव ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वेषामेव लोकानां यदुपादानकारणम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;निमित्तकारणं चाहुस्स शिवः पञ्चधा स्मृतः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मूर्तयः पञ्च विख्याताः पञ्च ब्रह्माह्वाः पराः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वलोकशरण्यस्य शिवस्य परमात्मनः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;क्षेत्रज्ञः प्रथमा मूर्तिः शिवस्य परमेष्ठिनः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भोक्ता प्रकृतिवर्गस्य भोग्यस्येशानसंज्ञित ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्थाणोस्तत्पुरुषाख्या च द्वितीया मूर्तिरुच्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्रकृतिः सा हि विज्ञेया परमात्मगुह्यात्मिका ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अघोराख्या तृतीया च शंभोमूर्तिरीयसी ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;बुद्धेः सा मूर्तिरित्युक्ता धर्माद्यष्टांगसंयुता ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;चतुर्थी वामदेवाख्या मूर्तिः शंभोर्गरीयसी ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अहंकारात्मकत्वेन व्याप्य सर्वं व्यवस्थिता ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सद्योजातह्वया शंभोः पञ्चमी मूर्तिरुच्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मनस्तत्त्वात्मकत्वेन व्याप्य सर्वं व्यवस्थिता ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the form of Pancha Brahman, Shiva is the creator of the Universe besides being it's destroyer and protector. The learned people say that Shiva is both material and intellectual cause of the world. The learned people say that Shiva is the material as well as the factual cause of the three worlds, who has five forms. The great forms of Shiva — the supreme soul, who is worthy of the refuge of all the worlds, are five in number and are known as Pancha Brahmanas.  &lt;strong&gt;lshana&lt;/strong&gt; happens to be the first form of Shiva Paramesthi also known as Ksehtrajna. In this form, he is the knower of the field and &lt;strong&gt;enjoyer of Prakrti&lt;/strong&gt; which is fit to be enjoyed. The second physical form of the lord is known as &lt;strong&gt;Tatpurusha,&lt;/strong&gt; which again is equal to &lt;strong&gt;Prakriti as the abode&lt;/strong&gt; of the supreme soul. The third physical form of the lord is known as &lt;strong&gt;Aghora,&lt;/strong&gt; which form pertains to the &lt;strong&gt;cosmic intellect.&lt;/strong&gt; It has eight related parts starting with Dharma. &lt;strong&gt;Vamadeva&lt;/strong&gt; is the fourth physical form of lord Siva which pervades in all the living beings in the &lt;strong&gt;form of ego.&lt;/strong&gt; What is called &lt;strong&gt;Sadyojata&lt;/strong&gt; is the fifth physical form of the lord and is stationed in all the embodied beings in the &lt;strong&gt;form of mind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the PanchaBrahmanas presides over as:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ishana➡ Kshetrajna and enjoyer of Prakirti&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Tatpurusha➡Gunas of Prakirti&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Aghora➡ Cosmic Intellect (Buddhi)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vamadeva➡Ego (Ahamkara)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sadyojata ➡ Mind (Mana)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;ii) Significance in Bodily and Elementary Level:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Vyayaviya Samhita Shiva Purana chapter 3, Upamanyu states to Lord Krishna as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रोत्रस्य वाचः शब्दस्य विभोर्व्योम्नस्तथैव च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ईश्वरीमीश्वरस्येमामीशाख्यां हि विदुर्बुधा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;त्वक्पाणिस्पर्शवियूनामीश्वरीं मूर्तिमैश्वरीम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पुरुषाख्यं विदुः सर्वे पुराणार्थ विशारदाः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;चक्षुषश्चरणस्यापि रुपस्याग्नेस्तथैव च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अघोराख्यमधिष्ठात्री मूर्तिमाहुर्मनीषिणा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;रसनायश्च पायोश्च रसस्यापां तथैव च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ईश्वरी वामदेवाख्यां मूर्तिं तन्निरतां विदुः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;घ्राणस्य चैवपस्थस्य गन्धस्य च भुवस्तथा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सद्योजातह्वयां मूर्तिमीश्वरीं सम्प्रचक्षते ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The people of wisdom, consider &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; as the presiding deity of the ear, speech, sound and all pervasive ethers. The persons Well versed in the Puranas find &lt;strong&gt;Tatpurusa&lt;/strong&gt; as the presiding deity of the skin hands, touch and Vayu. The wise people know that &lt;strong&gt;Aghora&lt;/strong&gt; is the presiding deity of the eyes, legs, colour and the fire. The devotees should understand that &lt;strong&gt;Vamadeva&lt;/strong&gt; happens to be the presiding deity of tongue, anus, taste and waters. According to their &lt;strong&gt;Sadyojata&lt;/strong&gt; is the presiding deity of nose, sex organs, smell and the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the PanchaBrahmans preside over elementary and bodily level as:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ishana➡ Ether, Sound, Ear, Mouth&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Tatpurusha➡ Air, Touch, Skin, Hands&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Aghora➡ Fire, Colour, Eyes, Legs&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vamadeva➡ Water, Taste, Tongue, Anus&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sadyojata➡ Earth, Smell, Nose, Sex Organs.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;iii) Significance in Panchakshara Mantra:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pancha Brahman Upanishad states as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्येतद्ब्रह्म जानीयाद्यः स मुक्तो न संशयः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पञ्चाक्षरमयं शम्भुं परब्रह्मस्वरूपिणम् ॥ २४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नकारादियकारान्तं ज्ञात्वा पञ्चाक्षरं जपेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वं पञ्चात्मकं विद्यात्पञ्चब्रह्मात्मतत्त्वतः ॥ २५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पञ्चब्रह्मात्मिकीं विद्यां योऽधीते भक्तिभावितः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स पञ्चात्मकतामेत्य भासते पञ्चधा स्वयम् ॥ २६&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;There is no doubt that the one who&#xA;understands this Brahman becomes freed (emancipated). One should chant the Panchakshara Mantra which is from Na to Ya (Namasivaya) and which is of the shape of five letters and is Lord Shiva’s body. After understanding the philosophy of the soul of Pancha Brahma, One should understand that every form is the form of those five. One who studies this knowledge of the soul of the Pancha Brahma would shine himself as Pancha Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the Panchakshara Mantra represent Pancha Brahman as:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sadyojata➡ Na kaara&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vamadeva➡ Ma kaara&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Aghora➡ Shi kaara&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Tatpurush➡ Va kaara&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ishana➡ Ya kaara&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;PanchaBrahman Mantra:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pancha Brahman mantra are itself from Vedas. Vedas recognizes various fold manifestation of Lord Shiva. For eg. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Yajurveda Shatapatha Brahmana Eight Fold manifestation of Lord Shiva are described also known as AshtaMurti. In this form Lord Shiva after being born through Brahma enters Eight places: Fire, Water, Plant, Air, Lightening, Raingod, Moon Sun as Rudra, Sarva, Pashupati, Ugra, Asani, Bhava, Mahadeva, Ishana.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Similarly in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (which is itself part of Shatapatha Brahmana) 11 fold manifestation of Lord Shiva which are known as Ekadash Rudra are described as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कतमे रुद्रा इतिः दशेमे पुरुषे प्राणाः आत्मैकादशः ते यदास्माच्छरीरान्मर्त्यादुत्क्रामन्त्यथ रोदयन्ति, तद्यद्रोदयन्ति तस्माद्रुद्रा इति ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;‘Which are the Rudras ?’ &lt;strong&gt;‘The ten pranas in the human body, with the Atman as the eleventh.&lt;/strong&gt; When they depart from this mortal body, they make one’s relatives weep. Because they then make them weep, therefore they are called Rudras.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly the Five fold Manifestation of Lord Shiva or Pancha Brahman are also saluted in the &lt;strong&gt;YajurVeda Taittariya Arnayaka.&lt;/strong&gt; And the five mantras present there describing Pancha Brahman are popularly known as Pancha Brahman Mantras. The Pancha Brahman Mantras are as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सद्योजातं&lt;/strong&gt; प्रपद्यामि सद्योजाताय वै नमो नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भवे भवे नातिभवे भवस्व माम् । भवोद्भवाय नमः ॥  (YajurVeda Taittariya Aranyaka 10.17.1)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;I take refuge in &lt;strong&gt;Sadyojata.&lt;/strong&gt; Verily I salute Sadyojata again and again. O Sadyojata, do not consign me to repeated birth; lead me&#xA;beyond birth, into the state of bliss and liberation. I bow down to Him who is the source of transmigratory existence.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;वामदेवाय&lt;/strong&gt; नमो ज्येष्ठाय नमः  श्रेष्ठाय नमो रुद्राय&#xA;नमः कालाय नमः कलविकरणाय नमो बलविकरणाय नमो बलाय नमो बलप्रमथाय नमः सर्वभूतदमनाय नमो&#xA;मनोन्मनाय नमः ॥ (Taittariya Aranyaka 10.18.1)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutation to &lt;strong&gt;Vamadeva&lt;/strong&gt; [the beautiful and shining One or the generous God]. Salutation to Jyestha [the Eldest, existing before creation]. Salutation to Srestha [the most worthy and excellent]. Salutation to Rudra [He who causes creatures to weep at the time of dissolution]. Salutation to Kala [He who is the Power of time responsible for the evolution of Nature]. Salutation to Kalavikarana [He who causes changes in the evolution of the universe beginning with Prakriti]. Salutation to Balavikarana [He who is the producer of varieties and degrees of strength]. Salutation to Bala [He who is the source of all strength]. Salutation to Balapramathana [He who suppresses all power at the time of retraction]. Salutation to Sarvabhutadamana [the Ruler of all the created beings]. Salutation to Manonmana [He who is the kindler of the light of the soul].&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;अघोरेभ्योऽथ&lt;/strong&gt; घोरेभ्यो घोरघोरतरेभ्यः । सर्वतः शर्व&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वेभ्यो नमस्ते अस्तु रुद्ररूपेभ्यः ॥ (Taittariya Aranyaka 10.19.1)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Aghora&lt;/strong&gt; form which is both Ghora (terrific) and aghora (non terrific). Salutation to Sarva (destructive) form of Rudra which is all.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;तत्पुरुषाय&lt;/strong&gt; विद्महे महादेवाय धीमहि । तन्नो रुद्रः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्रचोदयात् ॥ (Taittariya Aranyaka 10.20.1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;May we know or realize the &lt;strong&gt;TatPurusha.&lt;/strong&gt; For that, may we meditate upon Mahadeva and to that meditation may Rudra impel us.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;ईशानः&lt;/strong&gt; सर्वविद्यानामीश्वरः सर्वभूतानां&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ब्रह्माधिपतिर्ब्रह्मणोऽधिपतिर्ब्रह्मा शिवो मे अस्तु सदाशिवोम् ।। (Taittariya Aranyaka 10.21.1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;May the &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; who is the ruler of all knowledge, controller of all created beings, the preserver of the Vedas and the one overlord of Hiranyagarbha, be benign to me. I am the Sadasiva described thus and denoted by Pranava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the name &amp;quot;PanchaBrahmanSanasthita&amp;quot; occuring in Lalita Sahasranaama, it denotes the form of Sri Lalita Devi where she sits over the PanchaBrahmans. Here sitting over PanchaBrahmans does not mean sitting over Sadyojata, Vamadeva, Tatpurusha, Aghora and Ishana. But it means sitting over Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheswara and Ishana which are also PanchaBrahmans (but they are manifestation of PanchaBrahmanas like Sadyojata... Ishana)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, &amp;quot;PanchaBrahmanSanasathita&amp;quot; in Lalita Sahasranaama means who seats in the Aasana made up of Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheswara and SadaShiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15717/is-there-any-hierarchy-for-devis-incarnations/16238#16238&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;answer here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Devi speaks in Devi Gita of Tripura Rahasya as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My concrete form is the eternal couple — the Supreme Lord and Energy — always in undivided union and abiding as the eternal consciousness pervading the three phenomenal states of waking, dream and sleep, and &lt;strong&gt;reclining on the cot, whose four legs are Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Protector), Shiva (the Destroyer) and Ishwara (Disappearance) and whose surface is Sadasiva (grace),&lt;/strong&gt; which is contained in the mansion known as the ‘fulfilment of purpose’, enclosed by the garden of ‘kadamba’ trees, in the jewel island situated in the wide ocean of nectar surrounding the cosmos and extending beyond.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T12:47:02.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16558" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16556" CreationDate="2016-12-28T06:16:35.460" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said during universal dissolution the universe gets merged into Supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if Supreme Brahman = Shiva; the sentence can be said as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said during universal dissolution the universe gets merged into Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;if Supreme Brahman =Vishnu;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said during universal dissolution the universe gets merged into Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;similarly if Supreme Brahman = Brahma, Devi, xyz... etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said during universal dissolution the universe gets merged into Brahma/ Devi/ xyz etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Please try to answer with Vedas as proof.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss in my answer here how can Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva be intrepreted as Supreme Brahman through Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/237/how-were-the-trimurthi-born/13639#13639&quot;&gt;How were the Trimurthi born?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss in my answer here how Devi can be Supreme Brahman through Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15717/is-there-any-hierarchy-for-devis-incarnations/16238#16238&quot;&gt;Is there any hierarchy for Devi&amp;#39;s incarnations?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it depends on to whom you call Supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From, Advaita Perspective Nirguna Brahman is the Ultimate reality and the universe which is characterized by name and form which we see is just an illusion. Chandogya Upanishad states that infinite alone is Immortal and anything which is finite is not Eternal:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;VII-xxiv-1: ‘In which one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else, that is infinite. But that in which one sees something else, hears something else, understands something else, is the finite. &lt;strong&gt;That which is infinite, is alone immortal,&lt;/strong&gt; and that which is finite, is mortal’. ‘Revered sir, in what is that infinite established ?’ ‘On&#xA;its own greatness or not even on its own greatness’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T06:16:35.460" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16560" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16535" CreationDate="2016-12-28T09:17:32.183" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &quot;renowned Sanskrit scholar&quot; alluded to in the article is Mahamahopadyaya Professor S. Kuppuswami Sastri.  In his 1924 paper &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/6QHs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Bodhayana and Dramidacharya&quot;&lt;/a&gt;, Kuppuswami Sastri presents three kinds of evidence to show that Dramidacharya is the same as Thirumazhisai Alwar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Biographical evidence: Many Vedantic philosophers illustraye the plight of the Jiva in Samsara using a story of a prince who is raised by hunters, but then realizes his true heritage.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc117945.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Adi Shankaracharya describes it in his commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, for instance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Regarding this teachers of Vedānta  narrate the following parable: A certain prince was discarded by his parents as soon as he was born, and brought up in a fowler’s home. Not knowing his princely descent, he thought himself to be a fowler and pursued the fowler’s duties, not those of a king, as he would if he knew himself to be such. When, however, a very compassionate man, who knew the prince’s fitness for attaining a kingdom, told him who he was—that he was not a fowler, but the son of such and such a king, and had by some chance come to live in a fowler’s home—he, thus informed, gave up the notion and the duties of a fowler and, knowing that he was a king, took to the ways of his ancestors. Similarly this individual self, which is of the same category as the Supreme Self, being separated from It like a spark of fire and so on, has penetrated this wilderness of the body, organs, etc., and, although really transcendent, takes on the attributes of the latter, which are relative, and thinks that it is this aggregate of the body and organs, that it is lean or stout, happy or miserable— for it does not know that it is the Supreme Self. But when the teacher enlightens it that it is not the body etc., but the transcendent Supreme Brahman, then it gives up the pursuit of the three kinds of desire and is convinced that it is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's also described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/YYEA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Vedanta Desikan's Rahasyatraya Sara and numerous other works.  But all these works ultimately borrow this story from the works of Dramidacharya.  Now Kuppuswami Sastri notes that this story is strikingly similar to the life story of Thirumazhisai Alwar, who was originally the son of a Rishi but was raised by tribal people until eventually becoming a Sri Vaishnava.  So Kuppuswami Sastri argues that the prince story is autobiographical.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Textual Evidence: In this section of the Sri Bhashya, Ramanujacharya quotes Dramidacharya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is the Veda which gives information as to good and evil deeds, the essence of which consists in their pleasing or displeasing the Supreme Person, and as to their results, viz. pleasure and pain, which depend on the grace or wrath of the Lord. &lt;strong&gt;In agreement herewith the Dramidâkârya says, 'From the wish of giving rise to fruits they seek to please the Self with works; he being pleased is able to bestow fruits, this is the purport of the Sâstra.'&lt;/strong&gt; Thus Sruti also says, 'Sacrifices and pious works which are performed in many forms, all that he bears (i.e. he takes to himself); be the navel of the Universe' (Mahânâr. Up. I, 6). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kuppuswami Sastri argues that this conveys the same message as &lt;a href=&quot;http://dravidaveda.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=3154&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; by Thirumazhisai Alwar: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;illaram illEl turavaram illennum &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sollaram allanavum sollalla nallaram | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Avanavum nAlvEda mAttavamum nAraNanE &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Avadu eedu anru enbAr Ar || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To say that pursuing the various Asramas, -householder, student, renunciate or forest-dweller, -alone is sufficient to give the fruits of life is not correct. Even the paths of right conduct and renunciation taught in the Vedas do but lead to Narayana as the supreme goal, who can deny this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Phonetic evidence: Kuppuswami Sastri argues that their names have a phonetic similarity, and they are both dated by Western Indologists as living in the same time period.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2016-12-28T17:58:37.973" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T17:58:37.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16561" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-28T10:48:01.457" Score="4" ViewCount="413" Body="&lt;p&gt;It would be great to also have some reference to translations (if any) in english or hindi of the scriptures which deal with the science of mudras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also would like to know what different purpose the mudras serve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank You&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7961" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2016-12-28T11:47:11.393" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T11:47:11.393" Title="Which scriptures define the science of Mudras? And what are they used for?" Tags="|scripture|yoga|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16562" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="158" CreationDate="2016-12-28T14:58:43.160" Score="10" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Meaning of Swastika&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swastika (स्वस्तिक​) = Su (सु) + Asti (अस्ति) + Ka(क​)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Su(सु) means Shubh(शुभ) i.e auspicious or welfare&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Asti(अस्ति) means be/happen or exist. It stand for power or existence.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ka(क​) stands for doer or performer i.e Karta(कर्ता)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Swasti means &lt;strong&gt;Be Auspicious&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;Be Welfare&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;and Swastika means &lt;strong&gt;Auspicious/Welfare Doer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swastika is believed to be a symbol of good, auspicious and welfare from ancient times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swastika also means for eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Structure and Significance&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two types of Swastika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Right (卐)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Left (卍)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swastika is made of two lines, both lines are drawn and divided at right angles (90&lt;sup&gt;0&lt;/sup&gt;) and the heads/terminals of them are stretched in left to right direction in such a way that they don't touch/meet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Symbolism:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Right Swastika is a symbol of Nar &amp;amp; Left Swastika is a symbol of Nari.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;horizontal&lt;/strong&gt; lines of Swastika is a symbol of &lt;strong&gt;Creation of Universe&lt;/strong&gt; or Jyotirlinga &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;vertical&lt;/strong&gt; lines is a symbol of &lt;strong&gt;Expansion of Universe&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The center point of Swastika is believed to be &lt;strong&gt;Nabhi Kamal&lt;/strong&gt; (नाभि कमल​) i.e Navel Lotus of Vishnu from where the Universe is originated.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: only right Swastika is&#xA;almost used and reverse (left) Swastika is believed inauspicious sometimes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism Swastika are drawn or made before starting of any work with believing that work will be good, auspicious and welfare and complete with success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Four lines&lt;/strong&gt; are symbol of as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Four head of Brahma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Four Vedas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Four infinite directions&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Four types of welfare/auspicious&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Four Ashram, Varna and Purushartha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ancient times, at the beginning of any good work, there is an tradition of writing Mangalacharana (Invocation) but it is not easy for everyone to write Mangalacharana. So, Rishis provided the concept/hypothesis of Swastika symbol so-that every works be prosperous with bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swastika is believed to be a symbol of (according to different scripture and scholars):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu (as a Sudarshana Chakra of Vishnu)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Surya (In Rigvedic Richa)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Creation Cycle&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Entire Brahmanda (Universe)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ganesha (Worshipped before/at beginning any good work)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahman&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bijakshara and swarup of mantra of Ganpati appears like Swastika symbol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides, Swastika has also very significance in Jyotisha and Vastu Shashtra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Swastika &amp;amp; Om&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ॐ can be taken in the form of 卐. According to some scholars, in the beginning of knowledge of Lipi/script, it is created in liner form instead of circular form. In the transformation/conversion of ॐ in to script 卐 is naturally formed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar to Om which is believed to be full with divine guna, auspicious and elimination of disturbance (Vighnaharta) as having the power of Utpatti(creation), Sthiti(state) and Laya(Dissolution), Swastika is also believed having the habitat of Paramatma with power of creation, state and dissolution but with secondary/lower art comparatively to AUM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some scholars believes Swastika as distorted form of AUM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Acharya Abhinava Gupta, Swastika is indicative of Naad Brahma (नाद ब्रह्म) or Akshar Brahma (अक्षर ब्रह्म).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some Dharmic Beliefs of Swastika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swastika eliminates or removes negative energy from near environment where it is made or drawn.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swastika is marked in many worshipping, festivals with Kumkum (sacred red powder)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swastika is believed to be an essential in some rituals.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swastika is used in most of worshipping materials&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swastika is situated in some sacred or holy places.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swastika is believed to be a symbol of Laxmi and useful for praising the deities of directions and for getting bless from Saptarshi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The use of Swastika at impure places should be avoided.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swastika eliminates enemies and saves in mishap or danger conditions&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swastika enhance positive energy and good qualities like auspicious, bliss etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source/Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bharat Discovery articles of Swastika&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Swasktika Mantra:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ॐ स्वस्ति न इन्द्रो वृद्धश्रवाः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्वस्ति नः पूषा विश्ववेदाः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्वस्ति नस्तार्क्ष्यो अरिष्टनेमिः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्वस्ति नो ब्रिहस्पतिर्दधातु ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T16:24:29.583" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16563" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-28T15:11:19.517" Score="3" ViewCount="375" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Yogi is completely detached from all life attachments and material world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And my questions is&lt;/strong&gt;- up-to my knowledge there is a bachelor (unmarried) person can't be fulfilled as yogi. In Hinduism I came to know the same rule for all yogi's. Is this true or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7052" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2016-12-29T05:03:21.890" LastActivityDate="2016-12-29T05:03:21.890" Title="Who is YOGI (Sanyasi) in hinduism?" Tags="|sanyasi|yogi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-01-01T20:33:33.723" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16564" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-28T16:16:46.637" Score="3" ViewCount="215" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have googled this but in vain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Trying to find a visual that explains how Om or AUM represents creation, maintenance, and destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Would like to draw parallel between OM and systems engineering cycle (create, maintain and decommission, or destroy)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I only found below so far. Please advise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xympR.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xympR.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T16:16:46.637" Title="Map Om to Create, Maintain, Destroy" Tags="|creation|om|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2018-08-06T16:10:57.863" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16566" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16563" CreationDate="2016-12-28T17:37:42.317" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is some discussion about sannyasi and Yogi in Hindu scriptures..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suka said, 'While living in the due observance of the duties of the&#xA;  foremost of life, how should one, who seeks to attain to That which is&#xA;  the highest object of knowledge, set one's soul on Yoga according to&#xA;  the best of one's power?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, &quot;Having acquired (purity of conduct and body) by the&#xA;  practice of the first two modes of life, viz., Brahmacharya and&#xA;  domesticity, one should after  that, set one's soul on Yoga in the&#xA;  third mode of life. Listen now with concentrated attention to what&#xA;  should be done for attaining to the highest object of acquisition!&#xA;  Having subdued all faults of the mind and of heart by easy means in&#xA;  the practice of the first three modes of life (viz., pupilage,&#xA;  domesticity, and seclusion) one should pass into the most excellent&#xA;  and the most eminent of all the modes, viz., Sannyasa or Renunciation.&#xA;  Do thou thus pass thy days, having acquired that purity. Listen also&#xA;  to me. One should, alone, and without anybody to assist him or bear&#xA;  him company, practise Yoga for attaining to success (in respect of&#xA;  one's highest object of acquisition). One who practises Yoga without&#xA;  companionship, who beholds everything as a repetition of his own self,&#xA;  and who never discards anything (in consequence of all things being&#xA;  pervaded by the Universal Soul), never falls away from Emancipation.&#xA;  Without keeping the sacrificial fires and without a fixed habitation,&#xA;  such a person should enter a village for only begging his food. He&#xA;  should betake himself to penances, with heart fixed on the Supreme.&#xA;  Eating little and then even under proper regulations, he not eat more&#xA;  than once a day. The other indications of a (religious) mendicant are&#xA;  the human skull, shelter under trees, rags for wearing, solitude&#xA;  unbroken by the companionship of any one, and indifference to all&#xA;  creatures. That person into whom words enter like affrighted elephants&#xA;  in a well, and from whom they never come back to the speaker, is fit&#xA;  to lead this mode of life which has Emancipation for its object. The&#xA;  mendicant (or Renouncer) should never take note of the evil acts of&#xA;  any person. He should never hear what is said in dispraise of others.&#xA;  .....'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCXLV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2016-12-28T17:37:42.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16567" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-28T18:11:26.423" Score="5" ViewCount="126" Body="&lt;p&gt;Often times, we end up in &quot;to be or not to be&quot; situations where the heart (manas) tells us one thing to do, but our mind (buddhi) says something else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The speaker in &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/z3VijTNWlAU?t=110&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; YouTube video (Telugu) therefore cites the following śloka from Agni Purāṇa as a remedy and says that chanting it during times of indecision will give you enough clarity to choose the right path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rāvaṇādapi marttavyaṃ marttavyaṃ rāghavādapi // &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/~tjun/data/gicas/ap1_tr_frame.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;14cd&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  avaśyaṃ yadi marttavyaṃ varaṃ rāmo na rāvaṇaḥ / 15ab &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Either I have to die at the hands of Rāvaṇa or at the hands of Rāghava (Rāma). If I have to die, it's better (to die at the hands of) Rāma than Rāvaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason he says the śloka is particularly helpful is because the rākṣasa, Mārīca, had faced a similar situation in Rāmāyaṇa. He had two equally bad options in front of him;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Face instant death at the hands of Rāvaṇa if he ignores Rāvaṇa's request (which later becomes a threat) that he turn into a golden deer to help kidnap Sītā. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or die becoming a target of Rāma's arrows should he execute Rāvaṇa's plan.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, in Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Mārīca went with Option 2, the lesser of both evils (at least in his opinion), because he probably felt dying at Rāma's hands would bring him salvation when he can't avoid a certain death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I think Mārīca had a 3&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; option; better than the above two, which is to surrender to Rāma (i.e., śaraṇāgati) like Vibhīṣaṇa did after escaping from Rāvaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why didn't Mārīca go for śaraṇāgati?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It appears that before turning into a golden deer, Mārīca did penance, transformed himself into a sage-like person, spoke highly of Rāma ('rāmo vigrahavān dharmaḥ') etc. So how did he miss this 3&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; option?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Instead of becoming a deer he could have turned himself into a brāhmaṇa and sought refuge in Rāma.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, before he died, he could have avoided shouting 'hā Sītā, hā Lakṣmaṇa' but he still kept his word. &lt;strong&gt;For what reason did he follow through on his promise to an evil king like Rāvaṇa?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-29T16:10:00.353" LastActivityDate="2016-12-29T16:10:00.353" Title="Why didn't Mārīca seek refuge in Rāma like Vibhīṣaṇa did?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ravana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16568" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="25027" CreationDate="2016-12-28T22:21:24.193" Score="7" ViewCount="2195" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Sītā and Draupadi wear maṅgalasūtra (मङ्गलसूत्र) and toe rings (पादाङ्गुलीयक)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's the origin of the practice of a married woman wearing a maṅgalasūtra around her neck?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what about wearing toe rings during marriage? How did this originate?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which scriptures talk about wearing these? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KJGKSm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KJGKSm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2xVG9m.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2xVG9m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;PS. I'm &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; looking for significance or &quot;scientific explanation&quot; for wearing these; just want to know the origin of these traditions. Related but not duplicate:&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA; &lt;sub&gt; – &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/119&quot;&gt;Why do brides wear a mangal sutra?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA; &lt;sub&gt; – &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/125&quot;&gt;Why don&amp;#39;t men wear the likes of Mangal-Sutra to signify they are married?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-20T04:09:09.640" LastActivityDate="2018-03-15T19:12:34.873" Title="Did Sītā and Draupadi wear maṅgalasūtra (मङ्गलसूत्र)? What's the origin of wearing maṅgalasūtra and toe rings?" Tags="|rituals|marriage|tradition|women|mangalasutra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16569" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-28T22:23:45.140" Score="7" ViewCount="489" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well-known that Adi Shankaracharya wrote commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishada, the Brahma Sutras, and the Vishnu Sahasranamam.  But there's one commentary that's not as well known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Apastamba Dharma Sutras primarily discuss the rules of right and wrong, like any Dharma Shastra.  But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe02/sbe0225.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Patala 8&lt;/a&gt; of the Apastamba Dharma Sutras, known as the Adhyatma Patala, discusses an entirely different subject, namely the nature of the Atma within:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kanda 1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He shall employ the means which tend to the acquisition of (the knowledge of) the Âtman, which are attended by the consequent (destruction of the passions, and) which prevent the wandering (of the mind from its object, and fix it on the contemplation of the Âtman).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is no higher (object) than the attainment of (the knowledge of the) Âtman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;We shall quote the verses (from the Veda) which refer to the attainment of (the knowledge of) the Âtman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All living creatures are the dwelling of him who lies enveloped in matter, who is immortal and who is spotless. Those become immortal who worship him who is immovable and lives in a movable dwelling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despising all that which in this world is called an object (of the senses) a wise man shall strive after the (knowledge of the) Âtman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O pupil, I, who had not recognised in my own self the great self-luminous, universal, (absolutely) free Âtman, which must be obtained without the mediation of anything else, desired (to find) it in others (the senses). (But now as I have obtained the pure knowledge, I do so no more.) Therefore follow thou also this good road that leads to welfare (salvation), and not the one that leads into misfortune (new births).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is he who is the eternal part in all creatures, whose essence is wisdom, who is immortal, unchangeable, destitute of limbs, of voice, of the (subtle) body, (even) of touch, exceedingly pure; he is the universe, he is the highest goal; (he dwells in the middle of the body as) the Vishuvat day is (the middle of a Sattra-sacrifice); he, indeed, is (accessible to all) like a town intersected by many streets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He who meditates on him, and everywhere and always lives according to his (commandments), and who, full of devotion, sees him who is difficult to be seen and subtle, will rejoice in (his) heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kanda 2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;That Brâhmana, who is wise and recognises all creatures to be in the Âtman, who pondering (thereon) does not become bewildered, and who recognises the Âtman in every (created) thing, shines, indeed, in heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He, who is intelligence itself and subtler than the thread of the lotus-fibre, pervades the universe, and who, unchangeable and larger than the earth, contains the universe; he, who is different from the knowledge of this world, obtained by the senses and identical with its objects, possesses the highest (form consisting of absolute knowledge). From him, who divides himself, spring all (created) bodies. He is the primary cause, he is eternal, he is unchangeable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the eradication of the faults is brought about in this life by the means (called Yoga). A wise man who has eradicated the (faults) which destroy the creatures, obtains salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now we will enumerate the faults which tend to destroy the creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(These are) anger, exultation, grumbling, covetousness, perplexity, doing injury, hypocrisy, lying, gluttony, calumny, envy, lust, secret hatred, neglect to keep the senses in subjection, neglect to concentrate the mind. The eradication of these (faults) takes place through the means of (salvation called) Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Freedom from anger, from exultation, from grumbling, from covetousness, from perplexity, from hypocrisy (and) hurtfulness; truthfulness, moderation in eating, silencing a slander, freedom from envy, self-denying liberality, avoiding to accept gifts, uprightness, affability, extinction of the passions, subjection of the senses, peace with all created beings, concentration (of the mind on the contemplation of the Âtman), regulation of one's conduct according to that of the Âryas, peacefulness and contentedness;--these (good qualities) have been settled by the agreement (of the wise) for all (the four) orders; he who, according to the precepts of the sacred law, practises these, enters the universal soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya saw the philosophical teachings mentioned in this chapter as important enough that he references it in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya, and he wrote a commentary on it, the Adhyatma Patala Bhashya.  My question is, is the Adhyatma Patala Bhashya available online in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So far I've come across two English translations of the Adhyatma Patala Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;R.S Narasimhan's &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books/about/Yoga_of_Right_Living_for_Self_realisatio.html?id=FVKsGAAACAAJ&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;book&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;Yoga of right living for self-realisation : a free rendering of Adhyatma patala of Apastamba dharma sutra with commentary of Adi Sankara&amp;quot;, which seems to be out of print.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Trevor Legget's &lt;a href=&quot;https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/0710087020&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;book&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;Chapter of the Self&amp;quot;, which also seems to be out of print but is available used from various third-party sellers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any online translations?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2016-12-29T01:53:54.983" Title="Is Adi Shankaracharya's commentary on the Adhyatma Patala available online in English?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|translation-request|adi-shankaracharya|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16570" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="35875" CreationDate="2016-12-29T02:30:55.133" Score="11" ViewCount="53008" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many South Indian marriages while the groom is tying the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16568&quot;&gt;maṅgalasūtra&lt;/a&gt; to the bride, the priest usually chants the following verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mangalyam tantunanena mama jeevana hetuna: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kanthe badhnami subhage twam jeeva sarada satam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's meaning from &lt;a href=&quot;https://vagjags.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/the-true-meaning-of-sanskrit-mantara-mangalyam-tantunanena-mama-jeevana-hetuna-kanthe-badhnami-subhage-twam-jeeva-sarada-satam/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; blog:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is a sacred thread. This is essential for my long life. I tie this around your neck, O maiden having many auspicious attributes may you live happily for a hundred years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Word-for-word meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mangalyam thanthuna anena – This mangal sutra (This sacred thread) (thantu – thread)  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  hetuna – is essential (hetu – reason, purpose)  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mama – my &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jeevana – life (long life) (for my long life)  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kante – around your neck (in, on etc. prepositions are signified by the 'e' ending) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  badhnami – I am tying &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Subhage – oh, maiden of many auspicious attributes &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  twam – you (may you) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jeeva – live &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarada – years (from Sarad ritu) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  satam – hundred&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's the origin of the verse? Which scripture contains this śloka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2020-08-28T03:21:34.513" Title="What's the origin of the verse &quot;Mangalyam tantunanena mama jeevana hetuna...?&quot;" Tags="|scripture|rituals|marriage|dharma-shastras|mangalasutra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16571" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16937" CreationDate="2016-12-29T04:20:35.180" Score="3" ViewCount="425" Body="&lt;p&gt;From my understanding there are multiple universes which are created and destroyed continuously. Every universe arises from within the Supreme Brahman. Within each of these universes we have Gods like Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara. Please correct me if I am wrong here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Assuming the above, now when does the (current) universe merge back into the Supreme Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-29T05:41:51.037" LastActivityDate="2017-01-30T17:57:10.960" Title="When does universe merge back into the Supreme Brahman?" Tags="|brahman|creation|pralaya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16573" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7736" CreationDate="2016-12-29T12:16:22.647" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This link will be helpful as this shows the &lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/ancient-city-found-in-india-irradiated-from-atomic-blast/%22Nuclear%20Bomb%20in%20Ancient%20India%22maha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nuclear Bomb usage in Ancient India&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As this indicades that the mahabharatha and ramyana are not fiction&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2016-12-29T12:16:22.647" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16574" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-29T16:52:54.560" Score="3" ViewCount="114" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have noticed for some time that certain themes occur in different forms in the itihasas and puranas. The characters and the settings may change in the stories or depictions, but there is an essential analogy between various instances of the same theme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One instance that I was reminded of recently while looking at the famous family photo of Rama with Lakshmana, Sita and Hanuman are the analogies between the stories or Rama and Krishna. The parallels are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rama = Krishna (the Lord)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sita = Radha/Rukmini (incarnations of Lakshmi)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hanuman = Garuda (both are epitomes of bhakti and also serve as vahanas)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lakshmana = Balarama (brothers of Rama/Krishna, but also incarnations Adi Shesha)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ravana = Kamsa (the evil &quot;boss&quot; in Ramayana/Bhagavata. I am aware of the Jaya-Vijaya angle where Ravana is more analogous to Hiranyakashipu etc.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another case is that of the ornamentation of Hindu deities. Quite a number of them seem to have a consort, a weapon, a Vahana, often a musical instrument, and so on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My current conjecture as to why this happens is that there might be a fundamental theology/theory underlying these similarities in the mythology. The mythology might be a way to make common people aware of the theology or theory. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this true? If it is, is there any text that systematically deals with the theology/theory? How else might one go about deciphering the symbology of epics and puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can probably surmise, my knowledge of these things is very minimal, so if I have made any mistakes, I would welcome corrections as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8590" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-29T17:07:33.553" LastActivityDate="2016-12-29T17:07:33.553" Title="Is there a systematic theory to the symbolism in Hindu itihasas and puranas?" Tags="|puranas|gods|symbolism|itihasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16575" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16326" CreationDate="2016-12-29T18:20:53.607" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It all has to do with karma. It is on what our entire life rests upon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Giving food to the poor while 'expecting' something in return will inturn make it go in vain. Many people offer a lot of things to the Lord in form of prasad but does he really need it? Why do they do that? They want something in return, it is their ego which makes them ask for things, and not true love to the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Always think of this, you came here for some specific reason and you'll go once your duty is over. Just enjoy your present. You'll get what you deserve, either way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are as a result of your past actions and you will become something&#xA;  depending on what you'll do in this life, your future life or body&#xA;  depends on what you do in this life, so always do good deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no point in asking for something to God and neither will he give it you. So always do your duty (dharma) with determination and sincerity while enjoying it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We should &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; think of anything in return, we should let go of expectation and think of it as God who is using us to feed the poor person. He is using you to help that poor person and as you're doing this good deed it will come to you in return, as it is a universal law of karma—what goes around comes around.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While doing any duties, first let go of &lt;em&gt;passion&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;desire&lt;/em&gt; and think of it as a sacrifice to God. This will destroy your ego and you'll obtain bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Attaining moksha is not easy and requires a lot of sadhana. Offering food to the poor is one of that sadhana but it is not the only thing which is required. Attaining moksha requires a person to go through some series of steps of which samadhi—taking sanyas—being the final one. Sadhana can also reduce the effects of bad karma of your past life if done wholeheartedly and without attachment and without expectations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to attain moksha there are plenty of ways but it requires a lot of hard work and sadhana, and being in the state of God himself i.e. &lt;em&gt;Sat Chit Anand&lt;/em&gt;, one who has no feelings, who treats everyone equally. One who is not affected by happiness and sadness. Those are the qualities of Brahman. I would suggest asking your Guru as he can only tell you the correct path, depending on your capabilities, Karma Yoga, Dnyan Yoga, Bhakti Yoga or Raja Yoga. I hope you found this useful. Jai Shree Ram!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8588" LastActivityDate="2016-12-29T18:20:53.607" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16577" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16589" CreationDate="2016-12-29T20:16:58.260" Score="6" ViewCount="2033" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any references to untouchability or the presence of untouchables during the time of Ramayana or Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or did the practice start afterwards?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8031" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-30T05:43:35.777" LastActivityDate="2016-12-31T05:23:29.217" Title="Untouchability during Ramayana or Mahabharata period" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|untouchability|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16578" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-30T00:14:48.967" Score="5" ViewCount="274" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/books-2015/nag680b.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sample page&lt;/a&gt; of this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/critical-study-of-mahabhagavadpuranam-NAG680/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;book&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/O4CnS.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/O4CnS.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which all Purāṇas define the word 'purāṇa' within their text?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can you cite the exact verses (and their translation) from each of the Purāṇas that give such a definition?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-30T07:16:24.457" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T12:42:58.623" Title="Which Purāṇas define the word &quot;purāṇa&quot; within their text?" Tags="|puranas|name|padma-purana|vayupurana|etymology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16579" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16610" CreationDate="2016-12-30T04:47:31.133" Score="6" ViewCount="8789" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know Hanuman is covered with Saffron paste. But why is Ganesha covered with saffron paste. It is not seen in temples in southern part of India but most of the Ganesha's idols in northern part of India and all idols in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://ashtavinayaktemples.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashta Vinayaka temples&lt;/a&gt; are covered with saffron paste. Why is it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Fu5RZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Fu5RZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Ganesh in someshwar wadi temple&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2018-09-11T07:01:57.130" Title="Why Ganesha is covered with saffron(sindoor)?" Tags="|temple|ganesha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16580" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12282" CreationDate="2016-12-30T05:24:34.243" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his book &lt;em&gt;The Spiritual Heritage of India&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Prabhavananda says (pp 143-145, section heading: &lt;em&gt;The Tantras&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Tantras are the scriptures by means of which knowledge is spread in order to save humanity from ignorance. They are also known as Agamas--revelations, in conformity, that is, with the revelations of the Vedas. Their authorship is unknown though there is a tradition that Siva uttered them to his divine consort Sakti (the Divine Mother), and that through her they reached mankind. Their date is uncertain, but since Buddha was familiar with them they are obviously pre-Buddhistic. Buddhistic Tantras exist, however, belonging to the Tibetian school of Buddhism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The original Tantras are divided into three main groups according as the deity chosen to worship is Vishnu, Siva, or Sakti. Thus there are Vaisnava Agamas (or Pancaratra), the Saiva Agamas, and the Sakta Agamas, besides the later Buddhistic Agamas composed in Tibet. The Sakta group is the most popular, so much so that the word Tantra has come to mean, generally though mistakenly, only the Sakta Agamas. It is those that we shall give our attention.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Tantras are broadly divided into three parts; sadhana, which include spiritual practices and disciplines and ritualistic forms of worship; siddhi, or attainments from such practices; and philosophy. Let us examine the last of these first.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The philosophy of the Tantras is based upon the Upanishads. It is nondualistic, upholding the identity of the individual soul with Siva-Sakti--that is, in the language of the Upanishads and of Samkara [Adi Sankara], the identity of the individual self with Brahman, or the Universal Self. Samkara calls the creative power of the universe maya, or illusion, the universe for him possessing in itself no absolute reality, whereas the Tantras call the creative Sakti, or God the Mother, and regard the universe as her play when she has become mind and matter. Here, in their interpretation of reality, the Tantras apparently approach the philosophy of Ramanuja, who looked upon the universe of mind and matter as a transformation of Brahman--as, in effect, the body of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Sakti, or God the Mother, is not distinct from Siva, or Brahman, the Absolute of the Upanishads, but is the power of the Absolute. In the transcendental plane, which is static, where there is but one undivided, absolute existence, and where there is no universe, the truth is known as Siva, or the Absolute Existence-Knowledge-Bliss; but in the active, immanent plane, that is, the plane in which the universe is known, there is experienced by the seer the play of Sakti, of God the Mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...The teachings of the Tantras are never at variance with those of the Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his footnote to the first sentence above, Swami Prabhavananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of all Indian scriptures, the Tantras are most often misunderstood by Western scholars, and even native scholars are not altogether free from error in dealing with them. But I must declare in this connection that in recent years one Western student of Eastern philosophy, Sir John Woodruffe, an Englishman and at one time Chief Justice of the High Court of Calcutta, has through a lifetime devoted to the study of Tantric literature, done yeoman service in the cause of a proper understanding of these difficult scriptures, both through translations of original manuscripts and through correct interpretations of their spirit. 'Tantra Shastra [scriptures]', he says, '--(is) generally spoken of as a jumble of &quot;black magic&quot;, and &quot;erotic mysticism&quot;, cemented together by a ritual which is &quot;meaningless mummery&quot;. A large number of persons who talk in this strain have never had a Tantra in their hands, and such Orientals as have read some portions of these scriptures have not generally understood them, otherwise they would not have found them so &quot;meaningless&quot;. They may be bad or they may be good, but they have a meaning. Men are not such fools as to believe in what is meaningless.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since they are not part of the Vedas themselves, they should be classified as Smriti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a final note, most people do not realize it, but the mantras and ceremonies of pujas - with only minor differences, of all sects, that are celebrated by everyone are based on the Tantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2016-12-30T05:24:34.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16581" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16578" CreationDate="2016-12-30T06:40:35.203" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not exactly an answer because you asked references and definition specifically from the Puranas only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways,why the Puranas are so-called is stated symbolically in the KulArnava TantrA as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Punya PApAdi KathanaAd RAkshashA DinibAranAt| NavabhaktyAdi JananAt&#xA;PurAn Iti Kathyate|(KulArnava TantrA ,17.39)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because it tells of merit and demerit, Punyapapa, because it dispels&#xA;evil beings like Raksasas, and because it generates ninefold devotion,&#xA;Navabhakti, and the like, it is called Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T12:42:58.623" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16582" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7736" CreationDate="2016-12-30T06:53:01.617" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not as knowledgeable as others who are commenting, my answer is purely opinion based.&#xA;Ramayana relies heavily on analogies and imagery to depict daily life, Asuras, Vanaras and normal humans were just ways of depicting lifestyles. Vanaras are the people who are guided by a great leader, or people around us who can be taken help of in the search of our own destiny; similarly Asuras are people who aren't although directly evil, but rather have deviated from their own path of destiny or might be hampering in your path of destiny. Life is a battle of Lord Ram (our inner goodness), taking help from the vanaras and defeating the asuras.&#xA;I like to believe that history has been narrated by the epics, as there have been repeated mention of technologies which were discovered much later; such as the chariot that Raavan rode (which could fly), nuclear weapons; the descriptions were eerily accurate. Maybe vanaras, were an analogy for humans considered a little lesser at those time, such as wild tribals, or it was simply used as an analogy for people who assisted lord Ram in achieving his destiny or maybe, just maybe we had the technology to talk and work in tandem with monkeys (which we are developing in recent times).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8594" LastActivityDate="2016-12-30T06:53:01.617" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16583" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-30T07:13:14.133" Score="2" ViewCount="59" Body="&lt;p&gt;Various philosophies or world views base on vedas are sankya, vaisheshika, purva mimansa, vedantha. What world views were in existence during other yugas? Say like during mahabharata and ramayana &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7654" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2016-12-30T14:41:30.010" LastActivityDate="2016-12-30T14:41:30.010" Title="Which world view prevailed during other yugas" Tags="|history|philosophy|yuga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16584" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16579" CreationDate="2016-12-30T07:31:03.600" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesha loves red.Red is the  color associated with him.His body is reddish.He loves wearing red colored clothes.He loves being worshiped with red flowers and also being smeared with red fragrant paste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference is verse no 11 in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_ganesha-ganapati_atharvashirsha.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganapaty Atharva Seersha Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रक्तं लम्बोदरं शूर्पकर्णकं &lt;strong&gt;रक्तवाससम् । रक्तगन्धानुलिप्ताङ्गं&#xA;  रक्तपुष्पैस्सुपूजितम् ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.3: His Form is having a Beautiful Reddish Glow (Raktam), with a Large Belly (Lambodara) and with Large Ears like Fans (Shurpa Karna);&#xA;  He is wearing Red Garments (Rakta Vasam),&#xA;  11.4: &lt;strong&gt;His Form is annointed with Red Fragrant Paste (Rakta Gandha)&lt;/strong&gt;, and He is worshiped with Red Flowers (Rakta Pushpa),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,i think Ganapaty would love his body being smeared with Rakta Chandana(Red Sandal Paste) or even with Saffron(which is reddish in color)paste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-30T07:46:51.940" LastActivityDate="2016-12-30T07:46:51.940" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16585" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16601" CreationDate="2016-12-30T08:24:49.107" Score="7" ViewCount="6523" Body="&lt;p&gt;In all the Hindu rituals that I have attended, I have seen that there is always a fire burning. Why is fire so important? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="7947" LastEditDate="2016-12-30T08:31:33.160" LastActivityDate="2017-05-21T07:29:17.657" Title="What is the significance of fire in rituals?" Tags="|rituals|agni|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-01-02T11:36:49.010" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16586" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16585" CreationDate="2016-12-30T09:48:19.493" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Fire is the Vedic Deity &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agni&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agni&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fire rituals(Yajnas), he(Agni) acts as the &lt;strong&gt;messenger&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; hence &lt;strong&gt;indispensable&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He carries the Havi(the oblations like Ghee,etc) to the receiver of the Yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That is,Agni forms the bridge between the performer of the Yajna and the receiver of the oblations or the Gods.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,understandably without Agni no Yajna is possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following are a few Vedic verses that mention Agni as the messenger in fire sacrifices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1)&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Agnim dutam&lt;/strong&gt; Vrnimahe Hotaram Viswavedasam Yasya Yajnasya Sukratum&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We choose Agni as our messenger&lt;/strong&gt;,the herald,master of all wealth,&lt;strong&gt;well&#xA;  skilled in our sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;(Rig Veda 1.12.1,Taittirya Samhita 3.4.11.2a)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2)&lt;em&gt;Pravas Sukraya Bhanave Bharadhvam ,Havyam Matim Cagneye suputam|&#xA;  Yo daivyani Manusa Janugmsi ,Antar Viswani Vidma na Jigati||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bring forth   your    offerings   to  his refulgent   splendour;  your    hymn    as  purest  offering    to  Agni the    mystic  fire of wisdom  &lt;strong&gt;who   goes as messenger&lt;/strong&gt; conveying   all songs   of  men to  the gods    in  heaven. (Rig    Veda    7.4.1.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3)For Yama extract the    somajuice,  to  Yama offer the  oblation into&#xA;  the   sacred  fire;   to  Yama goes this sacrifice well-prepared  &lt;strong&gt;with&#xA;  Agni  as  it's messenger.&lt;/strong&gt;(Yama Suktam)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2016-12-31T05:53:41.577" LastActivityDate="2016-12-31T05:53:41.577" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16588" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2016-12-30T17:54:08.587" Score="6" ViewCount="2736" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you ever attended a Hindu funeral or cremation, you will notice that it is customary to wait until the kapāla (skull) of the deceased cracks. I think this is taken as a sign of the deceased person's soul leaving the body through the skull and thereby attaining mokṣa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which Hindu scriptures talk about a person's soul attaining mokṣa when the soul leaves the body through an opening in the skull (kapāla)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it also possible for a living sādhu, ṛṣi, yogi etc., in samādhi, to attain kapāla mokṣa?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T04:52:17.027" Title="Which Hindu scriptures discuss Kapāla Mokṣa?" Tags="|yoga|moksha|death|symbolism|chakras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16589" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16577" CreationDate="2016-12-30T18:26:30.733" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b024.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;a dialogue&lt;/a&gt; between Bhīṣma and Yudhiṣṭhira from Anuśāsana-parva of Mahābhārata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Bhīṣma says]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I shall in this connection, tell thee what the eternal usage is. &lt;strong&gt;In days of yore&lt;/strong&gt;. O king, the Kshatriyas used to serve the Brahmanas. The Vaisya in a similar manner used in those days to worship the royal order, and the Sudra to worship the Vaisya. Even this is what is heard. The Brahmana was like a blazing fire. &lt;strong&gt;Without being able to touch him&lt;/strong&gt; or approach his presence, &lt;strong&gt;the Sudra used to serve the Brahmana from a distance&lt;/strong&gt;. It was only the Kshatriya and the Vaisya, who could serve the Brahmana by touching his person or approaching his presence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It looks like untouchability was prevalent &lt;em&gt;before&lt;/em&gt; the Mahābhārata time; I'm not sure if it was &lt;em&gt;during&lt;/em&gt; the time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two references to the word &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandala&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;caṇḍāla&lt;/a&gt; in Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vasiṣṭha's sons &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/content?language=dv&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=1&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=58&amp;amp;field_sloka_value=8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;curse&lt;/a&gt; Triśaṅku to be reborn as a caṇḍāla because they were upset that he asked them the impossible – he wanted to reach the devaloka (heaven) with his physical body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ऋषिपुत्रास्तु तच्छ्रुत्वा वाक्यं घोराभिसंहितम् ।।1.58.8।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शेपु: परमसङ्कृद्धाश्चण्डालत्वं गमिष्यसि । &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having seen his fierce intent, the saint's sons were infuriated. They cursed him saying, &quot;Be a &lt;strong&gt;Chandala&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sītā &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/content?language=dv&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=3&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=56&amp;amp;field_sloka_value=18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chastises&lt;/a&gt; Rāvaṇa saying he cannot touch her the same way a caṇḍāla cannot roam about the sanctum surroundings of a yajña.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न शक्या यज्ञमध्यस्था वेदी सृग्भाण्डमण्डिता । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  द्विजातिमन्त्रपूता च चण्डालेनावमर्दितुम् ।।3.56.18।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sacrificial altar adorned with ladles and vessels and sanctified by the sacred mantras recited by brahmins cannot be defiled by a &lt;strong&gt;chandala&lt;/strong&gt; (man of lowest caste).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/apastamba-dharma-sutra/d/doc116266.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Āpastamba Dharmasūtra&lt;/a&gt; suggests it's a sin to touch a caṇḍāla:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus after having undergone a long punishment in the next world, a person who has stolen (the gold of a Brāhmaṇa) or killed a (Brāhmaṇa)&#xA;  is born again, in case he was a Brāhmaṇa as a Cāṇḍāla, in case he was&#xA;  a Kṣatriya as a Paulkasa, in case he was a Vaiśya as a Vaiṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the same manner other (sinners) who have become outcasts in consequence of their sinful actions are born again, on account of&#xA;  (these) sins, losing their caste, in the wombs (of various&#xA;  animals).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As it is sinful to touch a Cāṇḍāla&lt;/strong&gt;, (so it is also sinful) to speak to him or to look at him. The penance for these (offences will be&#xA;  declared).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(The penance) for touching him is to bathe, submerging the whole body; for speaking to him to speak to a Brāhmaṇa; for looking at him&#xA;  to look at the lights (of heaven).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it's possible that untouchability was prevalent during Rāmāyaṇa time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2016-12-31T05:23:29.217" LastActivityDate="2016-12-31T05:23:29.217" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16594" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16596" CreationDate="2017-01-01T04:42:21.723" Score="23" ViewCount="3419" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pashu means those whose which are tied and thus Pashupati literally means Lord of those which are tied. Pashu also means Cattles/Animals, and Pashupati also means Lord of Animals&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The name PashuPati is given 3 times itself in the Veda Samhita in the Sri Rudram. The 2nd Anuvaka states &amp;quot;Pashunam Pataye Namaha&amp;quot;, 8th Anuvaka states &amp;quot;Nama Sangaye Cha Pasupataye Cha&amp;quot; and particularly 5th Anuvaka states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमो भवाय च रुद्राय च। नमश्शर्वाय च पशुपतये च। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to him who is Bhava, who is Rudra, who is Sharva and &lt;strong&gt;who is PashuPati.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the name PashuPati is of significant importance. What exactly is meant by the name PashuPati? &lt;strong&gt;Who actually are the Pashus?&lt;/strong&gt; By what rope does the PashuPati binds the Pashu? &lt;strong&gt;What is the Concept of PashuPati?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-09T10:16:09.913" LastActivityDate="2021-06-24T03:26:26.703" Title="Why is Lord Shiva called Pashupati? Who are the Pashus?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|shiva|puranas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16595" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15072" CreationDate="2017-01-01T04:54:46.143" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Yogic meaning of reaching Varanasi has already been well explained. I am supplementing that answer by this passage that describes Sri Ramakrishna's experience in Benares.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The party entered holy Benares by boat along the Ganges. When Sri&#xA;  Ramakrishna's eyes fell on this city of Siva, where had accumulated&#xA;  for ages the devotion and piety of countless worshippers, he saw it to&#xA;  be made of gold, as the scriptures declare. He was visibly moved.&#xA;  During his stay in the city he treated every particle of its earth&#xA;  with utmost respect. &lt;strong&gt;At the Manikarnika Ghat, the great cremation&#xA;  ground of the city, he actually saw Siva, with ash covered body, and&#xA;  tawny matted hair, serenely approaching each funeral pyre and breathing&#xA;  into the ears of the corpses the mantra of liberation; and then the&#xA;  Divine Mother removing from the dead their bonds.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;Then he realized the&#xA;  significance of the scriptural statement that anyone dying in Benares&#xA;  attains salvation through the grace of Siva.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna translated by Swami Nikhilananda, Introduction&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-01-01T04:54:46.143" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16596" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16594" CreationDate="2017-01-01T05:06:16.187" Score="30" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Meaning of Pashupati:&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pashupati means Lord of all Pashus. &lt;strong&gt;Here Pashu means every creatures&lt;/strong&gt; and not just animals. It is clarified itself in the YajurVeda. Yajurveda states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;येषामीशे पशुपतिः पशूनां चतुष्पदामुत च द्विपदम् ।। [YajurVeda 3.1.4]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Which Pashus do the &lt;strong&gt;Pashupati&lt;/strong&gt; rules? He &lt;strong&gt;rules both the two footed and four footed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Vedas say ruler of two footed and four footed (dwipada , chatuspada) then it has special significance because it is the attribute of Brahman described in the Upanishads. Like the Shwetashwatara Upanishad 4.13 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो देवानामधिपो यस्मिन्ल्लोका अधिश्रिताः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;य ईशे अस्य द्विपदश्चतुष्पदः कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;He who is &lt;strong&gt;the sovereign of the gods,&lt;/strong&gt; in whom the worlds find their support, &lt;strong&gt;who rules over all two−footed and four−footed beings−&lt;/strong&gt; let us serve that God, radiant and blissful, with an oblation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva as Lord of all two footed and four footed is also stated in 4.28 of AtharvaVeda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भवाशर्वौ मन्वे वां तस्य वित्तं ययोर्वामिदं प्रदिशि यद्विरोचते।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यावस्येशाथे द्विपदो यौ चतुष्पदस्तौ नो मुञ्चतमंहस ।। (AtharvaVeda 4.28)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Everything that shines is under your control Oh Bhava and Sarva. &lt;strong&gt;Oh Isha you are the lord of all two footed and four footed,&lt;/strong&gt; Deliver us from grief and trouble.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, it is itself clear from the Vedas that Pashu means Jeeva.&lt;/strong&gt; And Pashupati is the Lord of all two footed and four footed. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shiva Purana also states the same. Upamanyu in Vyayavviya Samhita chapter 1 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रह्माद्याः स्थावरान्तश्च देवदेवस्य शूलिनः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पशवः परिकीर्त्यन्ते संसारवशवर्तिन ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तेषां पतित्वाद्देवेशः शिवः पशुपतिः स्मृतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;All those from Brahma to all immobiles who are subservient to Shiva are called Pasus. Being their lord, Shiva is called Pashupati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;How Rudra became Pashupati?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is Pashupati at all times by his own nature as described in Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.13. Rudra is the avatar of Lord Shiva through Brahma. There are various story on how Lord Rudra became Pasupati. Some of them are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;i) Narration in the YajurVeda:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;YajurVeda describes how Rudra became Pashupati during Tripura Dahana. Yajurveda 6.2.3 states it as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तेषामसुराणां तिस्त्रः पुर आसन्नयस्मय्यवमाथ रजताथ हरिणी ता देवा जेतुं नाशक्नुवन्ता उपसदैवाजिगीषन्तस्मादाहुर्यश्चैव वेद यश्च नोपसदा वै महापुरं जयन्तीति त इषु समस्कुर्वताग्निमनीकं सोमं शल्यं विष्णुं तेजनं तेऽब्रुवन्क इमामसिष्यतीति रुद्र इत्यब्रुवन्रुद्रो वै क्रुरः सोऽस्यत्विति सोऽब्रवीद्वरंवृणा अहमेव पशूनामधिपतिरसानीति तस्माद्रुद्र पशूनामधिपतिस्ता रुद्रोऽवासृजत्स तिस्त्रः पुरो भित्वैभ्यो..... [YajurVeda 6.2.3 ]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The Asuras had Tripuras;&lt;/strong&gt; the lowest was of iron, then there was one of silver, then one of gold. The gods could not conquer them; they sought to conquer them by siege; therefore they say--both those who know thus and those who do not--'By siege they conquer great citadels.' They made ready an arrow, Agni as the point, Soma as the socket, Visnu as the shaft. They said, &lt;strong&gt;'Who shall shoot it?' 'Rudra',&lt;/strong&gt; they said, 'Rudra is fierce, let him shoot it.' He said, &lt;strong&gt;'Let me choose a boon; let me be overlord of Pashus.' Therefore is Rudra overlord of Pashus.&lt;/strong&gt; Rudra let it go; it cleft the Tripuras and drove the Asuras away from these worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;ii) Narration in the Shiva Purana and Linga Purana:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva Purana and Linga Purana both narrate the same above story YajurVeda.&lt;/strong&gt; ie. Rudra being Pashupati during Tripura Samhara. Shiva Purana in Rudra Samhita Yuddha Khanda Chapter 9 and Linga Purana in chapter 72 describes it as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततोश्चाश्चोदयामास मनोमारुतरंहसः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पुराण्युद्दिश्य खस्थानि दानवानां तरस्विनाम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अथाह भगवान् रुद्रो देवानालोक्य शकंर ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पशुनामाधिपत्यं मे दत्तं हन्मि ततोऽसुरान् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पृथक्पशुत्वं देवानां तथान्येषा सुरोत्तमाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कल्पयित्यैव वध्यास्थे नान्यथा नैव सत्तमा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;इति श्रुत्वा वचः सर्व देवदेवस्य धीमतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;विषादगमनम् सर्वे पशुत्वं प्रति शंकिता ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Then the horses which moved with the speed of wind and the mind, were driven in the sky &lt;strong&gt;towards the Tripura. Then glancing at the gods, lord Rudra said— “Bestow the lordship of the Pashus on me, after which I shall be able to destroy the Asuras.&lt;/strong&gt; 0 excellent gods, after giving over the souls of the gods as well as the animals to me, it would be possible to kill the Daityas and not otherwise.” &lt;strong&gt;Listening to the words of the learned Shiva, the gods developed a doubt.&lt;/strong&gt; They were upset with this change and felt disgusted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord Shiva tells that their Pasuwato can be removed by performing Pashupata Vrata then all Gods agree:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तथेति चाब्रुवन्देवाः शिवे लोकनमस्कृते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्माद्वै पशवः सर्वे देवासुरनराः प्रभो ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;रुद्रः पशुपतिश्चैव पशुपाशविमोचकः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यः पशुस्तत्पशुत्त्वं च व्रतेनानेन संत्यजेत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The Devas then said to Siva who is adored the world over— “It will be done,&amp;quot;. That is why the devas, asuras and human beings are called Pasus. Rudra is the lord of Pasus and the liberator of the Pasus for the bondages.&lt;/strong&gt; He who is Pasu shall discard that state through this holy rite. The scriptures declare that even after committing the sins, he does not become a sinner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually Tripura Dahana has great Tatwic significance. The Tri Pura represent 3 types of Sharira and the destruction means destruction of illusion and ignorance. So it is necessary to submit the soul to Lord while destroying the ignorance for liberation. So, the concept of Pashupati comes here itself from the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;iii) Narration in the Varaha Purana:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Varaha Purana narrates a slightly different story on How Rudra became Pashupati. It narrates it in the event of destruction of Daksha Yajna. Varaha Purana in chapter 21 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रुद्र उवाचः &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भगस्य नेत्र भवतु पूष्णो दन्तास्तथा मुखे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;दक्षस्याच्छिद्रतां यातु यज्ञश्चाप्यदितेः सुताः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पशुभावं तथा चापि अपनेष्यामि वः सुराः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मद्दर्शनेन यो जातः पशुभावो दिवौकताम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स मायापहृतः सद्य पतित्त्वं वो भविष्यति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अहं च सर्वविद्यानां पतिराद्य सनातन ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अहं वै पतिभावेन पशु मध्ये व्यवस्थित ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अतः पशुपतिर्नाम मम लोके भविष्यति ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ये मां यजन्ति तेषा स्याद्दिक्षा पाशुपती भवेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;एवमुक्ते तु रुद्रेण ब्रह्मा लोक पितामह ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Rudra spoke:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Let Bhaga get back his eye and Pusa his teeth. Let the sacrifice of Daksa also attain completion. &lt;strong&gt;At my sight, O! Deva you have all become Pashus to me and I take you all to me. I thus become your master. I am also the embodiment of all knowledge and also your eternal master. Being thus the master of all you Pashus, I will attain the name Pashupati in the world.&lt;/strong&gt; Those who sacrifice for me will have the observance called Pashupati. When Rudra spoke thus. Brahma told him affectionately with a smile. Certainly you will be hailed as Pashupati in the world, and the world will gain renown by your name. The entire world will surely worship you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Varaha Purana in Chapter 33 states that &lt;strong&gt;Rudra became Pashupati to grant Moksha to the Gods:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवा उचु:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वेदशास्त्राणी विज्ञानं देहि नो भव मा चिरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यज्ञश्च सरहस्यो भो यदि तुष्टोऽसि नः प्रभो ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Devas said: &amp;quot;Give us, 0 god, the knowledge of the Vedas and Shastras and also the sacrifice and its secret, if you are pleased with us. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;महादेव उवाचः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भवन्त पशव सर्वे भवन्तु सहिता इति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अहं पतिश्च भवतां ततो मोक्षमवाप्स्यथ ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तथेति देवास्तं प्राहुस्ततः पशुपतिर्भवान् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ब्रह्मा पशुपति प्राह प्रसन्नेनान्तरात्मना ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;चतुर्दशी ते देवेश तिथिरस्तु न संशय ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्या तिथो भवन्तं ये यजन्ति श्रद्धयान्विता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उपोष्य भोजनीयास्तु गोधूमान्नेन वै द्विजा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तेषां त्वं तुष्टीमापन्नो देही साथानमनुत्तमम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;एवमुक्तस्तथा रुद्रो ब्रह्ण्यव्यक्त जन्मना ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Mahadeva Said:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;May you all be Pashus and I shall be the Lord of Pashus. Then-by you will attain moksha. The gods agreed and Rudra became Pasupati.&lt;/strong&gt; Brahma then spoke to Pashupati with great pleasure. “O Rudra, let Caturdashi be the tithi for you. On that day those who worship you fasting, and later take in only wheat food, will get your pleasure and this will lead to their liberation. When thus said by Brahma, Rudra restored to Bhaga, Pushan and Kratu the teeth, eye: and testicles respectively. He gave to Devas all knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way Lord Rudra became Pashupati. The slight variation in story of YajurVeda and Varaha Purana could be due to Kalpa Bheda. ie. Gods change in each Manvantaras and Varaha Purana may have narrated story of specific Kalpa/Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Concept of PashuPati:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When we have Pashus (ie. Jeevas) and PashuPati (Lord) then there certainly exists a bond in the Jeevas and that bondage is called Pãsha.&lt;/strong&gt; When we have animals we bind that animal with a Pãsha (rope) and similarly we (Pashus/Jeevas) are also bind with the Pãsha of Pashupati. So there are three things Pashu (which is Jeeva), Pãsha (which binds) and PashuPati (who is Lord and who can put/remove pãsha). &lt;strong&gt;Thus the triad Pati Pashu and Pãsha forms the concept of Pashupati.&lt;/strong&gt; It is explained in various scriptures, some of them are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;i) As told by Lord himself in Ishwara Gita:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kurma Purana in Part 2 starts with Ishwara Gita and in the seventh chapter Lord himself states as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आत्मानः पशव प्रोक्ताः सर्वे संसारवर्तिनः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तेषां पतिरहं देवः स्मृतः पशुपतिर्बुधैः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मायापाशेन बहनामि पशूनेतान् स्वलीलया ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मामेव मोचकं प्राहुः पशुनां वेदवादिन ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मायापाशेन बद्धानां मोचकोऽन्यो न विद्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मामृते परमात्मानं भूताधिपतिमव्ययम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;चतुर्विंशतितत्त्वानि माया कर्म गुणा इति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;एते पाशाः पशुपते क्लेशाश्च पशुबन्धना ।। (Kurma Purana Ishwara Gita Chapter 7)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;All the souls in the world have been equated with Pashus. I happen to be the lord of all of them. Because of this I have been known as Pashupati&lt;/strong&gt; among the people of learning. I bind the animals with my illusory noose. The people well versed in the Vedas, conceive me as the one who releases them from the bondages. There is none else who could get the persons in bondage released except me, the great soul and the unchanging overlord of the bhutas. &lt;strong&gt;The twenty four principles, the Maya, Karma (deeds) and the three gunas, are the nooses of Pashupati, and distresses are the bondages of individual souls.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the Maya, Karma and TriGunas are the Pãshas of Pashupati through which a Jeeva gets binded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;ii) As told by Upamanyu in Shiva Purana:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Upamanyu in the 1st Chapter of Vyayaviya Samhita of Shiva Purana explains this concept as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीकृष्ण उवाचः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कथं पशुपतिर्देवः पशवः के प्रकीर्तिताः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कैः पाशैस्ते निबध्यन्ते विमुच्यन्ते च ते कथम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;इति सञ्चोदितः श्रीमानुपमन्युर्महात्मना ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्रणम्य देवं देवीं च प्राह पृष्टो यथा तथा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What type of a god is Pasupati? Who is termed as Pasu. Which are the nooses with which they are bound, and how are they freed.” At these words of Krsna, the sage &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Upamanyu felt inspired. He also started giving a reply as he had been asked for. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उपमन्युरुवाच:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ब्रह्माद्याः स्थावरान्तश्च देवदेवस्य शूलिनः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पशवः परिकीर्त्यन्ते संसारवशवर्तिन ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तेषां पतित्वाद्देवेशः शिवः पशुपतिः स्मृतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मलमायादिभिः पाशैः स बध्नाति पशून्पति ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स एव मोचकस्तेषां भक्त्या सम्यगुपासितः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;चतुर्विंशतितत्त्वानि मायाकर्मगुणा अभी ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;विषया इति कथ्यन्ते पाशा जीवनिबन्धनाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ब्रह्मादिस्तम्बपर्यन्तान् पशून्बध्वा माहेश्वरः ।। (Shiva Purana Vyavayaiya Samhita Chapter 1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Upamanyu said, “All those from Brahma &lt;br&gt;&#xA;to all immobiles who are subservient to Shiva are called Pasus. Being their lord, Siva is called Pashupati. All of them are bound by Shiva by means of dirt or Maya. By adoring the lord with devotion, it is Shiva who gets them freed. &lt;strong&gt;The twenty four tatvas are the karmas and the gunas of Maya. They are called Visayas. The Jiva is bound by them. Lord Mahesvara captivates them all, right from Brahma to a pillar.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;iii) As told by Shailadi to SanatKumara in Linga Purana:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तैः पाशैर्मोचयत्येकः शिवो जीवैरुपासितः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;निबध्नाति पशूनेकश्चतुर्विंशतिपाशकैः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स एव भगवान् रुद्रो मोचयत्यपि सेवितः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;दशेंद्रियमयैः पाशैरंतः करणसंभवै ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भूततन्मात्रपाशैश्च पशून्मोचयति प्रभुः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;आशु भक्ता भवंत्येव परमेश्वरसेवया ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भज इत्येष धातुर्वै सेवायां परिकीर्तितः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्मात्सेवा बुधैः प्रोक्ता भक्तिशब्देन भूयसी ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ब्रह्मादिस्तम्बपर्यंत पशून्बध्वा महेश्वर ।। (Linga Purana Uttara Bhaga Chapter 9) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;There are twenty four principles which serve as the bonds of Paramesthin. Shiva alone, binds Pashus by means of these bonds. On being worshipped by the Jivas or the individual souls, Shiva alone releases them from the bonds.&lt;/strong&gt; The same lord on being adored, releases them from the bondages comprising of the ten sense organs, which originate from the inner mind. The lord release the souls from the bonds of tanmatras. The lord binds those who are influenced by the worlds pleasures by means of bonds constituted by the objects of senses. By serving Paramesvara, the souls become devotees, immediately. The root “bhaj’ means service. Thus, the idea of the great service has been brought out by the word Bhakti or devotion. &lt;strong&gt;After binding the individual souls from Brahma to the pillat, by means of threefold bonds of the form of gunas, Maheswara himself causes the effect.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the individual Jeeva under ignorance is bound in Pãshas of his one Karmas, Maya of Ishwara, Triguna of Prakirti etc.. Actually Pãshas are of many/ Universal form. The &lt;strong&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad in 1.4 states  &amp;quot;र्विश्वरूपैकपाशं (VishwaikaRupaPãsham)&amp;quot; ie. His Pãsha are of many form.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Removing of Pãsha:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pãsha means bonds through which Jeevas are bind. &lt;strong&gt;When the Jeevas remove the fetter/ Pãsha from them then the soul is Liberated.&lt;/strong&gt; Thus the rebirth stops when the Jeeva removes the Pãsha. There are various methods through which Jeeva can remove the Pãsha and thus become liberated like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;i) Through the Knowledge of Lord:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the knowledge of Lord/Brahman all the Pãshas are broken itself and thus the Jeeva is liberated. Shwetashwatara Upanishad 1.8 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अनीशश्चात्मा बध्यते भोक्तृ- भावाज् ज्ञात्वा देवं मुच्यते सर्वपाशैः ॥ ८॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The Jiva again realizes the Supreme Self and is freed from all Pãshas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shwetashwatara Upanishad in 1.11 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ज्ञात्वा देवं सर्वपाशापहानिः &lt;br&gt;&#xA;क्षीणैः वलेशेर्जन्ममृत्युप्रहाणिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;When the Lord is known all Pãshas fall off;&lt;/strong&gt; with the cessation of miseries, birth and death come to an end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shwetashwatara Upanishad in 4.15 states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यस्मिन् युक्ता ब्रह्मर्षयो देवताश्च&lt;br&gt;&#xA;           तमेवं ज्ञात्वा मृत्युपाशांश्छिनत्ति ॥ १५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In whom the sages and the deities are united. Verily, &lt;strong&gt;by knowing Him one cuts asunder the Pãshas of death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shwetashwatara Upanishad in 6.13 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्कारणं सांख्ययोगाधिगम्यं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;               ज्ञात्वा देवं मुच्यते सर्वपाशैः ॥ १३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;He who has known Him,&lt;/strong&gt; the luminous Lord, the Great Cause, to be realised by Knowledge (Samkhya) and yoga, &lt;strong&gt;is freed from all Pãshas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shwetashwatara Upanishad in 4.16 states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;घृतात् परं मण्डमिवातिसूक्ष्मं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;           ज्ञात्वा शिवं सर्वभूतेषु गूढम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;विश्वस्यैकं परिवेष्टितारं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;           ज्ञात्वा देवं मुच्यते सर्वपाशैः ॥ १६॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;He who knows Brahman, who is Shiva,&lt;/strong&gt; extremely subtle, like the film that rises to the surface of clarified butter and is hidden in all beings−he who knows the radiant Deity, the sole Pervader of the universe, &lt;strong&gt;is released from all his Pãshas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the Vedas itself repeat again and again that knowing the Lord one is freed from all Pãshas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;ii) Through the worship of Lord:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas also recommend to worship the three eyed lord (Trayambaka) so that Bandhan (which are actually Pãshas) are removed and one gets Immortality/Liberation. RigVeda 7.59.12, Taittariya Samhita of YajurVeda in 1.8.6.i, Vajasena Samhita of YajurVeda in 3.60 state the same thing as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We worship the Three-eyed Lord who is fragrant and who nourishes and nurtures all beings. As is the ripened cucumber &lt;strong&gt;freed from its bondage&lt;/strong&gt; (to the creeper), may He liberate us from death for the sake of immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here it is stating &amp;quot;Trayambakam Yajamahe&amp;quot; which means &amp;quot;We worship Trayambaka&amp;quot;, &lt;strong&gt;and it is stating to remove bondage &amp;quot;Bandhanan&amp;quot; which is actually Paasha and it is for Immortality/Moksha.&lt;/strong&gt; Svetasvatara Upanishad in 6.5 states;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आदिः स संयोगनिमित्तहेतुः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;             परस्त्रिकालादकलोऽपि दृष्टः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तं विश्वरूपं भवभूतमीड्यं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;             देवं स्वचित्तस्थमुपास्य पूर्वम् ॥ ५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Great Lord is the beginning, the cause which unites the soul with the body; He is above the three kinds of time and is seen to be without parts. &lt;strong&gt;After having worshipped that adorable God dwelling in the heart, who is of many forms and is the true source of all things, man attains final Liberation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Lord Shiva graces on all those who worship him and as he is PashuPati he removes the Pãshas of Jeevas. Similar there are also some special places when Lord is worshipped or realized in certain places like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15072/what-is-the-yogic-meaning-of-getting-liberation-by-reaching-varanasi/15073#15073&quot;&gt;Varanasi&lt;/a&gt; one is liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;iii) Through the refugee on Lord:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas also recommend to take refugee on Lord Rudra so that the Pãshas of Jeeva are broken and Jeeva attains liberation. Actually  Shwetashwatara Upanishad states there are very rare souls which take refugee in the Lord:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अजात इत्येवं कश्चिद्भीरुः प्रपद्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;रुद्र यत्ते दक्षिणं मुखं तेन मां पाहि नित्यम् ॥ २१॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is because Thou, O Lord, art birthless, that &lt;strong&gt;some rare souls, frightened by birth and death, take refuge in Thee.&lt;/strong&gt; O Rudra, may Thy south facing face protect me for ever!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly there are Veda mantras which invoke Lord Shiva as refugee so that they can pass cycles of birth and death. For eg. In YajurVeda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सद्योजातं प्रपद्यामि सद्योजाताय वै नमो नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भवे भवे नातिभवे भवस्व माम् । भवोद्भवाय नमः ॥  (YajurVeda Taittariya Aranyaka 10.17.1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;I take refuge in Sadyojata.&lt;/strong&gt; Verily I salute Sadyojata again and again. O Sadyojata, &lt;strong&gt;do not consign me to repeated birth; lead me beyond birth,&lt;/strong&gt; into the state of bliss and liberation. I bow down to Him who is the source of transmigratory existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15840/sarva-dharman-parityejya-mamekam-sharanam-vraja-in-shiva-gita/15841#15841&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; Lord Shiva himself also suggests to abandon all Dharmas and take refugee on him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ॥ ४३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Abandon all varieties of dharmas and simply surrender unto me alone. I shall liberate you from all sinful reactions; do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;iv) Through the special rite of Pashupata Vrata:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas also again hint of a special rite of Pashupat Vratam which is capable of removing Pãshas of Pashu. The Atharvasiras states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अग्निरिति भस्म वायुरिति भस्म जलमिति भस्म स्थलमिति भस्म व्योमेति भस्म सर्वंह वा इदं भस्म मन एतानि&lt;br&gt;&#xA;चक्षूंषि यस्माद्व्रतमिदं पाशुपतं यद्भस्म नाङ्गानि&lt;br&gt;&#xA;संस्पृशेत्तस्माद्ब्रह्म तदेतत्पाशुपतं पशुपाश&lt;br&gt;&#xA;विमोक्षणाय ॥ ५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;He converts fire, air, water, earth, ether and everything that eexists here in to ash. He who sees this and mentally realizes it and &lt;strong&gt;observes the “penance to Pashupati ”&lt;/strong&gt; and who coats ash all over his body with this ash attains the state of Brahman. &lt;strong&gt;By worshipping “Pasupathi” like this, the ties of bondage of all beings get cut and they attain salvation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, the penance to Pashupati means a special rite called Pashupata Vratam which is capable of removing the Pãsha of the Jeeva. Actually this method ie. Performing Pashupat Vrata is very highly emphasized in Linga Purana and Shiva Purana. For eg. In the Tripura Dahana event also Shiva tells that they can remove their Pashutwo (Pãsha) by performing Pashupat Vratam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तेषां भावं ततो ज्ञात्वा देवस्तानिदमब्रवीत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मा वोस्तु पशुभावेस्मिन् भयं विबुधसत्तमा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;श्रूयतां पशुभावस्य विमोक्षः क्रियतां च सः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यो वै पाशुपतं दिव्यं चरिष्यति स मोक्षतिः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पशुत्वादिति सत्यं च प्रतिज्ञातं समाहिता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ये चाप्यन्ते चरिष्यंति व्रतं पाशुपतं मम ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मोक्ष्यंति ते न संदेहः पशुत्वात्सुरसत्तमा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नैष्ठिकं द्वादशाब्दं वा तदर्धं वर्षकत्रयम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;शुश्रूषां कारयेद्यस्तु स पशुत्वाद्विमुच्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्मात्परामिदं दिव्यं चरिष्यथ सुरोत्तमा ।। [Linga Purana chapter 72]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Realising about the state of their minds, Shiva spoke— &lt;strong&gt;“O excellent gods, you should not be afraid of becoming Pashu. You listen to the redemption of the Pashubhava and act accordingly. A person who will perform the Pashupatvrata, he would be relieved of the position of Pasu, He would achieve the greatest goal. O pure ones, I solemnly promise this to  you. O excellent Devas, there is no doubt in this and those others too who perform the Pasupata rite will be liberated from the state of being a Pasu.&lt;/strong&gt; He who renders service steadily for twelve years or even half of the period or even for three years, can be liberated from that state. Hence, 0 excellent Devas, perform this great and divine Vrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in the Linga Purana chapter 108 &amp;quot;Glory of the Pasupat Vrata&amp;quot; ; it is stated;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अध्रुवेण शरिरेण ध्रुवं साध्यं प्रयत्नतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भव्यं पाशुपतं नित्यं संसारार्णवतारकम्  ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;One should make all the earnest efforts to achieve the fixed goal through his physical body that is uncertain and unfixed. &lt;strong&gt;The excellent, eternal Pashupat Vrata is the cause of redemption from the worldly existence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the auspicious Pashupatvrata is capable of removing the Pãsha of Pashu and thus enabling liberation. For methods how to perform Pashupatvrat one can refer to Linga Purana Uttara Bhaga Chapter 18 &amp;quot;The Auspicious Pasupat Vrata&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Origin of Pashu:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, here comes an interesting concept, who actually are the Pashus? Actually &lt;strong&gt;PashuPati himself is in the form of Pashu.&lt;/strong&gt; Shwetashwatara Upanishad in 1.8 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;संयुक्तमेतत् क्षरमक्षरं च&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      व्यक्ताव्यक्तं भरते विश्वमीशः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अनीशश्चात्मा बध्यते भोक्तृ-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      भावाज् ज्ञात्वा देवं मुच्यते सर्वपाशैः ॥ ८॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Lord, Isa, supports all this which has been joined together−the perishable and the imperishable, the manifest, the effect and the unmanifest, the cause. &lt;strong&gt;The same Lord, the Supreme Self, devoid of Lordship, becomes bound because of assuming the attitude of the enjoyer. The Jiva again realizes the Supreme Self and is freed from all Pashas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the Supreme Lord binds himself (in the Pãshas) and becomes Pashu/Jeeva because of assuming the attitude of enjoyer. That Jeeva/Pashu again is freed from Pashas on realizing the Supreme Self. It is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16182/what-exactly-is-a-leela-%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%b2%e0%a4%be-is-there-a-scriptural-definition-of-leela-%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%b2%e0%a4%be/16188#16188&quot;&gt;Leela of the Lord.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-01T11:58:09.857" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16598" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16594" CreationDate="2017-01-01T06:17:01.653" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tezz's answer already explains a lot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But still, here is what i want to add.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kularnava Tantra says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The body itself is the temple. The jiva itself is God Sadashiva  Do&#xA;  away with the faded petals of Ignorance and worship with the&#xA;  Consciousness of 'He am I ' . Jiva is Shiva; Shiva is jiva; the jiva&#xA;  pure is Shiva. &lt;strong&gt;When in bonds it is jiva; freed from bonds it is&#xA;  Sadashiva. Enclosed in husk it is paddy; freed from husk it is rice.&#xA;  Enclosed in karma it is jiva; freed from karma it is Sadashiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the import of the above passage is that, all bonded Jivas are Pashus but  when they are free from the bondage(Pasha), then they are none other than the supreme Sadashiva himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On what is a Pashu ,which are the Pashas and who removes the Pasha from the Pashu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Mahanirvana Tantra &amp;amp; other Tantra texts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The term pashu comes from the root pash, &quot;to bind.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;The pashu is, in&#xA;  fact, the man who is bound by the bonds (pasha),&lt;/strong&gt; of which the&#xA;  Kularnava Tantra enurnerates eight – namely, &lt;strong&gt;pity&lt;/strong&gt; (daya), &lt;strong&gt;ignorance&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  and &lt;strong&gt;delusion&lt;/strong&gt; (moha), &lt;strong&gt;fear&lt;/strong&gt; (bhaya), &lt;strong&gt;shame&lt;/strong&gt; (lajja), &lt;strong&gt;disgust&lt;/strong&gt; (ghrina),&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;family&lt;/strong&gt; (kula), &lt;strong&gt;custom&lt;/strong&gt; (shila), and &lt;strong&gt;caste&lt;/strong&gt; (varna)....&#xA;  The pashu is also the worldly man, in ignorance and bondage, as&#xA;  opposed to the yogi and the tattva-jnani. Three divisions of pashsu&#xA;  are also spoken of – namely, sakala, who are bound by the three pasha,&#xA;  called anu (want of knowledge or erroneous knowledge of the self),&#xA;  bheda (the division also induced by maya of the one self into many),&#xA;  and karmma (action and its product. These are the three impurities&#xA;  (mala) called anava-mala, maya-mala, and Karmma-mala. Pratayakala are&#xA;  those bound by the first and last, and Vijnana-kevala are those bound&#xA;  by anava-mala only. &lt;strong&gt;He who frees himself of the remaining impurity&#xA;  of anu becomes Shiva Himself. The Devi bears the pasha, and is the&#xA;  cause of them, but She, too, is pashupashavimochini, Liberatrix of the&#xA;  pashu from his bondage.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-01T08:22:10.993" LastActivityDate="2017-01-01T08:22:10.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16599" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2776" CreationDate="2017-01-01T06:32:28.553" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before knowig about coconut breaking, you should know what a temple is and why we go to temple..Without knowing this you will not be able to grasp the whole mechanish.its liks an ice berge.. a lot of things beneath.. But I will try to explain as simple as I can.&#xA;A hindu temple represents a human body or vice versa.. etham sareeran kauntheya kshetramityabhideeyathae...(Bhagavath Geetha..)..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have 6 aadhara chakras..Mooladhara, swadhisthana, Manipuraka, Anahatha, Vishudha, Aajna and all above the Sahasraara...&#xA;The serpent power - Kundalini is in a dormant stage in the mooladhara. If his power is awakened we will be in another state of super consciousness. The idea of all worships are to attain this state.Sath..Chit..Ananadam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these chakras are associated to the temple vighraha or Daiety..To awaken the sleeping setpent power..kundilini.we break the coconut at the root chakra..mooldhara. The explosion of breaking coconut gives a jerk to start the serpent power. The God for mooladhara is  Ganesh and so mostly this is done in Ganesh temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then there are others perceptions for coconut...It resembles our body. Which has the 3 states- Sthola...Sookshma.. and Kaarana... sareera.( Physical body....Energy body ..and the soul or knowledge body ). The outer shell represents the Physical body...inner kernel the Energy body and the sweet water and space in the innermost is the soul body.&#xA;Once the outer body breaks the Ego is gone and pure energy and Bliss ( Knowledge) prevails.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8610" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T07:20:19.227" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T07:20:19.227" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5376" CreationDate="2017-01-01T08:49:00.777" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.146. Of him who gives natural birth and him who gives (the knowledge of) the Veda, &lt;strong&gt;the giver of the Veda is the more venerable father&lt;/strong&gt;; for&#xA;  the birth for the sake of the Veda (ensures) eternal (rewards) both in&#xA;  this (life) and after death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why “GURU” is equal to “supreme GODS”?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because GUru is indeed the supreme God.That's why.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Tantra texts like the Mahanirvana Tantra &amp;amp; others:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Guru is the religious teacher and spiritual guide to whose&#xA;  direction orthodox Hindus of all divisions of worshippers submit&#xA;  themselves. &lt;strong&gt;There is in reality but one Guru. The ordinary human Guru&#xA;  is but the manifestation on the phenomenal plane of the Adi-natha&#xA;  Maha-kala, the Supreme Guru abiding in Kailasa. He it is who enters&#xA;  into and speaks with the voice of the earthly Guru at the time of&#xA;  giving mantra.&lt;/strong&gt; Guru is the root (mala) of diksha (imitation). Diksha&#xA;  is the root of mantra. Mantra is the root of Devata; and Devata is the&#xA;  root of siddhi. The Munda-mala Tantra says that mantra is born of Guru&#xA;  and Devata of mantra, so that the Guru occupies the position of a&#xA;  grandfather to the Ishtadevata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Initiation is the giving of mantra by the guru. &lt;strong&gt;At the time of&#xA;  initiation the guru must first establish the life of the guru in his&#xA;  own body; that is the vital force (prana-shakti) of the Supreme Guru&#xA;  whose abode is in the thousand-petalled lotus.&lt;/strong&gt; As an image is the&#xA;  instrument (yantra) in which divinity (devatva) inheres, so also is&#xA;  the body of guru. The day prior thereto the guru should, according to&#xA;  Tantra, seat the intending candidate on a mat of kusha grass. He then&#xA;  makes japa of a &quot;sleep mantra&quot; (supta-mantra) in his ear,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above two passages make it clear that although ,apparently, the mortal Guru is speaking the mantras in our ears its actually not so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its the supreme Guru or Sada Shiva  who comes in every mortal Guru during each initiation and speaks the mantra on his behalf.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the Guru(whether its yours or mine) is indeed Sada Shiva.One who thinks otherwise can't get liberaton.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the Kularnava Tantra :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1)To perdition he goes who regards the Guru as human, the Mantra as&#xA;  mere letters and the Images as stone. &lt;strong&gt;Never look upon the Guru as a&#xA;  mortal.&lt;/strong&gt; Should you do so then neither Mantra nor worship can give you&#xA;  success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2)There is no mantra higher than that of the paduka, &lt;strong&gt;no god higher&#xA;  than the Guru,&lt;/strong&gt; no initiation than that of the Sakta and no merit&#xA;  higher than the Kula worship. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3)&lt;strong&gt;The Guru is not to be thought of as a mere man. There is no&#xA;  difference between Guru, mantra, and Deva. Guru is father, mother, and&#xA;  Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-01-01T08:49:00.777" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16601" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16585" CreationDate="2017-01-01T13:12:43.810" Score="7" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Significance of fire in Rituals -&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni is an ancient Hindu deity. Agni is one of the important Vedic Deity. Agni is the god of fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agni as High-priest, messenger of gods&lt;/strong&gt; -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni  accepts sacrifices made to him from men who are &#xA;devoted to supreme Lord. Agni is the supreme director of religious ceremonies and duties, &lt;strong&gt;serving as a high-priest, the messenger of gods, carries oblations directly to the &#xA;gods&lt;/strong&gt; from human beings. So we cannot reach any of the gods without Agni or fire as the medium. It is believed that Agni consumes ritualstic  offerings, and  transfer them to the respected&#xA;gods through smoke.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अग्निमीळे पुरोहितं यज्ञस्य देवं रत्वीजम | होतारं रत्नधातमम || &lt;br&gt;  &#xA;  अग्निः पूर्वेभिर्र्षिभिरीड्यो नूतनैरुत | स देवानेह वक्षति ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I Laud Agni, the chosen Priest, God, &lt;strong&gt;minister of sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;, the&#xA;  Hotar, lavishest of wealth. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv01001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig-Veda Book 1 Hymn1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो मर्त्येष्व अम्र्त रतावा देवो देवेष्व अरतिर निधायि | &lt;br&gt; होता&#xA;  यजिष्ठो मह्ना शुचध्यै हव्यैर अग्निर मनुष ईरयध्यै ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The, Faithful One, Immortal among mortals, a God among the Gods,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;appointed envoy&lt;/strong&gt;, Priest, best at worship, must shine forth in glory.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Agni shall be raised high with man's oblations&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Rig-Veda Book-4&#xA;  Hymn 1&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt; &#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agni as witness&lt;/strong&gt; -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni is the only element of the five elements (Prithvi, Akash, Jal, Vayu  and Agni) &lt;strong&gt;which cannot get altered or get polluted by the thing it purifies&lt;/strong&gt; i.e., we can pollute any of the other five elements by the act of purifying with them but fire is not subject to this same constraint(for example, Water gets polluted once it is used to cleanse one's hands). Since it is the only element which does not get polluted, &lt;strong&gt;in any Hindu Marriage ceremony, Young couples are required to take a vow in front of Agni as witness since a Hindu Wedding is considered fully consecrated only when witnessed by fire (Agnisakshi ,अग्निसाक्षी)&lt;/strong&gt;(for reasons described above). In this vow, Saptapadi or Saat Phere - which involves taking seven steps walking around the fire for completion of marriage, is done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga118/yuddha_118_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; describes how Lord Rama asked his wife Sita to affirm her chastity in the presence of fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अब्रवीत्तु तदा रामं साक्षी लोकस्य पावकः |&lt;br&gt; एषा ते राम वैदेही&#xA;  पापमस्यां न विद्यते || ६-११८-५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, the &lt;strong&gt;fire-god, the witness of the whole world&lt;/strong&gt;, spoke to Rama&#xA;  as follows &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Here is your Seetha. No sin exists in her.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agni as a purifier&lt;/strong&gt; -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The worship of &lt;strong&gt;Agni enables us to burn up our impurities, during performing ritual or in our day-to-day lives&lt;/strong&gt;. When such work is done&#xA;regularly with the flame of ritual Fire, many benefits are bestowed on us, to progress on the Path, e.g. Agnihotra. In Hinduism **preparing our daily food is also considered as a ritual or Yagna. **So Agni plays very vital role in cooking and also in purifying our food. So here, Agni shines as the most important element.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विश्वा अग्ने.अप दहारातीर्येभिस्तपोभिरदहो जरूथम |  पर निस्वरं&#xA;  चातयस्वामीवाम || ७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Burn up all malice with those flames, O Agni, wherewith of old thou&#xA;  burntest up Jarutha, And drive away in silence pain and&#xA;  sickness. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv07001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig-Veda Book 7 Hymn 7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (Rig-Veda&#xA;  Book7 Hymn 7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ अग्नॆ नय सुपथा रायॆ अस्मान् विश्वानि दॆव वयुनानि विद्वान् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  युयॊध्यस्मज्जुहुराणमॆनो भूयिष्ठं तॆ नम उक्तिं विधॆम ॥ १८ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AGNE NAYA SUPADHÂRÂYE ASMÂN VISWÂNI DEVA VAYUNÂNI VIDWÂN YUYODHYA&#xA;  ASMAD JUHURÂNÂM ENO BHÛISTÂN TE NAMA UKTIM VIDHEMA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, Lord Agni, the foremost one,the knower of the intricate Paths of&#xA;  creation! Lead us by the simple righteous Path to felicity. Destroy&#xA;  our past Karma, eliminate from us the attraction to dubious and&#xA;  ignorant paths. We offer our worship to you. &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaivam.org/daily-prayers-hindu-prayer-hub/oh-lord-lead-into-virtuous-path-from-ishavasya-upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Ishavasya upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agni as a destroyer&lt;/strong&gt; -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hindu tradition, bodies of dead persons are cremated, that is, burned through Agni - this is called Antyesti.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Antyesti literally means &quot;last sacrifice&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, and refers to the funeral rites for the dead in Hinduism. This rite of passage is one of traditional Saṃskāras in the life of a Hindu. It is also referred to as Antima Sanskar, Antya-kriya, Anvarohanyya, or as Vahni Sanskara**. So from this, we can see that Agni is very important even in last rites ritual done in Hinduism. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antyesti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-05-21T07:29:17.657" LastActivityDate="2017-05-21T07:29:17.657" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16602" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-01-01T14:11:03.320" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ashtavinayak refers to the 8 different Ganeshas situated in a circuit in the Maharashtra state. From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtavinayaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashtavinayaka (Marathi: अष्टविनायक) &lt;strong&gt;literally means &quot;eight Ganeshas&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; in Sanskrit. &lt;strong&gt;Ganesh is the Hinduism/Hindu deity of unity, prosperity &amp;amp; learning and removes obstacles.&lt;/strong&gt; The term refers to eight Ganeshas. Ashtavinayaka yatra trip refers to a pilgrimage to the eight Hindu temples in Maharashtra state of India that house eight distinct idols of Ganesha, in a pre-ascertained sequence. The Ashtavinayaka yatra or pilgrimage covers the eight ancient holy temples of Ganesha which are situated around Pune. Each of these temples has its own individual legend and history, as distinct from each other as the murtis in each temple. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The eight Vinayaka temples in this pilgrimage are as follows: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mayureshwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Siddhivinayak&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ballaleshwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Varadavinayak&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chintamani&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Girijatmaj&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vighneshwar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mahaganapati&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-26T09:40:56.250" LastActivityDate="2017-12-26T09:40:56.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16603" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-01-01T14:11:03.320" Score="0" Body="Ashtavinayak is a reference to 8 different Ganesha temples located in Western Maharashtra. It is famous as a pilgrimage destination. Use this tag when you want to ask a question about any of these temples in particular. " OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T17:54:07.030" LastActivityDate="2018-01-03T17:54:07.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16604" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-01-01T14:14:42.477" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Puruṣārtha (pronunciation: , Sanskrit पुरुषार्थ) literally means an &quot;&lt;strong&gt;object of human pursuit&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. It is a key concept in Hinduism, and refers to the &lt;strong&gt;four proper goals or aims of a human life.&lt;/strong&gt; The four puruṣārthas are &lt;strong&gt;Dharma&lt;/strong&gt; (righteousness, moral values), &lt;strong&gt;Artha&lt;/strong&gt; (prosperity, economic values), &lt;strong&gt;Kāma&lt;/strong&gt; (pleasure, love, psychological values) and &lt;strong&gt;Mokṣa&lt;/strong&gt; (liberation, spiritual values).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All four Purusarthas are important, but in cases of conflict, Dharma is considered more important than Artha or Kama in Hindu philosophy. &lt;strong&gt;Moksha is considered the ultimate ideal of human life&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-01-02T03:14:25.777" LastActivityDate="2017-01-02T03:14:25.777" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16605" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-01-01T14:14:42.477" Score="0" Body="In Hinduism four proper goals or aims of a human life.i.e.  Dharma ,Artha, Kāma,Mokṣha." OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-01T14:38:01.640" LastActivityDate="2017-01-01T14:38:01.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16606" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15899" CreationDate="2017-01-01T14:45:18.313" Score="3" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dwaraka was found by archeoligists in gujarat and they estimate it to be &lt;strong&gt;3600&lt;/strong&gt; years old (approximately) you can see in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dv%C4%81rak%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; and  another &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.atlantisevidence.com/evidence2.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hastinapur palace with lord shiva temple old as &lt;strong&gt;7000&lt;/strong&gt; years old  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In Harappa Rajasthan they found ruins which had radioactivty and are estimated to &lt;strong&gt;8000 to 12000&lt;/strong&gt; years old and it was destroyed a half-million people in this &lt;a href=&quot;http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2010/10/ancient-city-in-india-irradiated-by-atomic-blast-debunked-201540.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; and this &lt;a href=&quot;http://philipcoppens.com/bestevidence.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2017-01-01T14:45:18.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16607" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-01T19:52:08.170" Score="2" ViewCount="86" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any information about the atomic energy in ancient Hinduism scriptures . I am not able to find any information.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8613" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-01-01T20:14:12.353" LastActivityDate="2017-01-01T20:14:12.353" Title="Did the ancient Hindu people knew the atom energy?" Tags="|scripture|vaisheshika-sutra|kanada|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-01-02T00:21:05.203" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16608" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7376" CreationDate="2017-01-02T04:51:06.817" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's because Narayana is the soul of Rudra or one may also call Rudra is the soul of Narayana. Both are true. It is explained by Krishna himself in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c041.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shanti Parva (in the Nãrãyaniya section):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is the destroyer of Daksha&amp;apos;s sacrifice and the tearer of Bhaga&amp;apos;s eyes. O son of Pandu, &lt;strong&gt;Rudra should be known to have always Narayana for his Soul.&lt;/strong&gt; If that deity of deities, viz., Maheswara, be worshipped, then O Partha, is the puissant Narayana also worshipped. I am the Soul, O son of Pandu, of all the worlds, of all the universe. &lt;strong&gt;Rudra, again, is my Soul.&lt;/strong&gt; It is for this that I always adore him. &lt;strong&gt;If I do not adore the auspicious and boon-giving Ishana (Shiva) nobody would then adore my own self.&lt;/strong&gt; The ordinances I set are followed by all the worlds. Those ordinances should always be adored, and it is, therefore, that I adore them. He who knows Rudra knows myself, and he who knows myself knows Rudra. He who follows Rudra follows me, Rudra is Narayana. Both are one; and one is displayed in two different forms. Rudra and Narayana, forming one person, pervade all displayed things and cause them to act. &lt;strong&gt;No one else than Rudra is competent to grant me a boon. O son of Pandu.&lt;/strong&gt; Having settled this in my mind, I adored in days of yore the ancient and puissant Rudra, for obtaining the boon of a son. In adoring Rudra thus I adored my own self. &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu never bows his head unto any deity except his own self. It is for this reason that I adore Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think the above passage told by Krishna clears all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-01-02T04:51:06.817" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16609" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11749" CreationDate="2017-01-02T08:24:47.457" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Badarayana and Veda Vyasa are one and the same.The reason why Vyasa came to be known by the Badarayana name is explained in the following passage:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Brahmasutra, on which there are commentaries according to the&#xA;  various philosophical schools, Vyasa presents in an extremely terse&#xA;  form the substance of the ten (principal) Upanisads. &lt;strong&gt;Since he dwelt&#xA;  under the badari tree (jujube) he came to be called &quot;Badarayana&quot; and&#xA;  his work became well-known as &quot;Badarayana-sutra&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part5/chap31.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The BrahmaSutra on Kamakoti.org(part of Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi's speeches)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-01-02T08:24:47.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16610" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16579" CreationDate="2017-01-02T08:24:54.550" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2024/why-are-many-south-indian-temples-walls-painted-in-white-and-red-stripes/11225#11225&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, the white colour denotes satvva guna, the red colour denotes the rajo guna.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha is worshiped in southern parts of India but Sindoor (saffron paste) is not applied. But in North India, many temples are seen with Ganesha idols  applied saffron. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://ashtavinayaktemples.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashta Vinayak temples&lt;/a&gt;, all the Ganesha temples are applied Sindoor. Also there is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qab3g9EYqA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;song&lt;/a&gt; praising Vinayak who applies sindoor(&lt;em&gt;shendoor&lt;/em&gt;) in Marathi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason behind this is that, all the idols in Ashta Vinayaka temples are self incarnated idols. Ganesha incarnated at those places to slay the asuras. Here Ganesha is worshiped by devotees for attaining bravery because he was furious while slaying different demons. When he kills Ugrekṣaṇa AKA Sindhu AKA Viprasādana in Mayureshwara avatar, the blood is spilled on him. That makes him happy. Here Ganesha shows Rajo guna. Hence Sindoor which signifies the rajo guna is applied to Ganesha idols. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may notice that Sindoor is applied to Hanuman. It is only when He is worshiped in Veeranjaneya form but not when he is stood before Lord Rama or when worshiped in Prasannanjaneya(happiness) form. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the reason that Veerabhadra and Kalbhairava who are very well known members of Shiva gana are depicted saffron or red. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/63apV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/63apV.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Veerabhadra&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BgiNZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BgiNZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Kalbhairava in Ujjain temple&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt; 1.This is a custom to show the guna of the deity.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;2.Sindoor applied to Hanuman has a story but lacks scriptural references. So this version is acceptable &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-11T07:01:57.130" LastActivityDate="2018-09-11T07:01:57.130" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16611" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16612" CreationDate="2017-01-02T09:06:24.707" Score="5" ViewCount="246" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana30.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt;,Brahma Khanda,describes the greatness of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rameswaram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rama Setu&lt;/a&gt; as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Brahma Khanda of Skanda Purana, Suta Maha Muni addressed a&#xA;  Conclave of Rishis and narrated the significance of Setu Bandhan/&#xA;  Tirtha as also of Rameswara Kshetra which were visualised and built by&#xA;  Sri Rama;  &lt;strong&gt;even visioning these Places would bestow Mukti from&#xA;  Samsara.&lt;/strong&gt;  Emphasising the Unity of Vishnu and Siva, the Three Sacred&#xA;  Places viz. Setu (bridge), Rameswara Linga and Gandhamadan Mountain&#xA;  constitute the composite identity. .....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If one lies down on Setu’s banks and sticks the sand on the body, the&#xA;  number of as many sand particles would absolve as many Brahmahatya&#xA;  sins!&lt;/strong&gt; The touch of the wind on one’s body from the mid-banks of Setu&#xA;  would pardon ten thousand ‘Surapanaas’ (drinking intoxicants). If one&#xA;  does ‘Snaan’ at the Tirtha and seeks relief on somebody else’s favour,&#xA;  then too the sins of the proxy beneficiaries are washed off. &lt;strong&gt;The Five&#xA;  Brahmahatya sinners, who spoil the roads, prepare food for them only,&#xA;  abuse Brahmanas and Sanyasis, accept the food of a Chandala and sell&#xA;  Vedas are also excused by the holy bath at Setu Tirtha&lt;/strong&gt;...There are&#xA;  several Tirthas on either side of the Setu, but most significant are&#xA;  twenty four. The most important ones are Chakra Tirtha, Betala varada&#xA;  Tirtha, and Paapavinashana Tirtha which were famous. Then there are&#xA;  Sitasarovar Tirtha, Mangala Tirtha and Amritavaapika. Again, there are&#xA;  Brahmakund, Hanumakund, Agasthya Tirtha, Rama Tirtha, Lakshmana&#xA;  Tirtha, Jaya Tirtha, Lakshmi Tirtha, Agni Tirtha, Chakra Tirtha, Siva&#xA;  Tirtha, Shankha Tirtha, Yamuna Tirtha, Ganga Tirtha, Gaya Tirtha, Koti&#xA;  Tirtha, Saadhyamrita Tirtha, Maanasa Tirtha and Dhanushkodi Tirtha.&#xA;  These are only illustrative Tirthas which are all Sin demolishers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,without doubt, Rama Setu (the Rameswaram Kshetra) is indeed a a very holy pilgrimage kshetra that is capable of demolishing all kinds of sins and giving the pilgrims even mukti from Samsara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But will its effectiveness be the same for all people irrespective of their dwelling places?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, suppose a visitor is from Gujarat and another one from Tamil Nadu.Will the visits of both of them to the Rama Setu bear the same fruit assuming all other relevant factors remain the same ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-02T09:18:41.377" LastActivityDate="2017-01-02T14:43:29.157" Title="Is the Rama Setu pilgrimage &quot;equally effective&quot; for all pilgrims irrespective of their dwelling places?" Tags="|shiva|belief|rama|india|pilgrimage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16612" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16611" CreationDate="2017-01-02T09:06:24.707" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apparently &lt;strong&gt;NO.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Parashara Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;73&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The visit to the Setubandha has been declared to be the form of expiation proper for a person whose residence is to the north of the&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindhya_Range&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vindhya hill&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; This is the opinion of Parasara.(Parashara&#xA;  Smriti,Chapter 12,sloka 73)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, this verse implies, that for a person whose residence is in Tamil Nadu(which is to the south of Vindhya), a visit to Rama Setu pilgrimage bears no or little fruits !!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well,this came  to me as a big surprise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why i posted this question so that i may get the other perspectives as well from  other Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-02T14:43:29.157" LastActivityDate="2017-01-02T14:43:29.157" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16613" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-02T11:23:32.450" Score="1" ViewCount="69" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read many scriptures but not sure about how sheshnaag became a bed for God Vishnu. Prabhu sheshnaag is son of kadru and he was granted a responsibility by Brahma to hold earth on his head. Any other information regarding this is helpful, and please correct me if I am missing anything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8618" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-02T17:48:15.993" LastActivityDate="2017-01-02T17:48:15.993" Title="From where Sheshnaag came?" Tags="|vishnu|adisesha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-01-03T05:17:16.807" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16615" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-02T16:01:05.513" Score="11" ViewCount="2817" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am going to be completely open here in hopes to get the right answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am always kind of... full of dread when I hear about such big saints and sages like Lord Buddha did not believe in God and did not believe in the Vedas. I sincerely love Lord Buddha being a Hindu because he helped so many people attain salvation from the cycle of birth and death and helped them do this comparatively quicker than if they would have tried to do that without His help. And to know that someone you look up to and adhere to disagrees with the main scripture and aspect of your religion fills my heart with sadness. Or am I mistaken here? Why do so many personalities like Lord Buddha and those of other religions disagree with each other when our duty is the same? The main goal for a Buddhist is to attain &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;nirvana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, which means freedom from the cycle of birth and death which is basically the same as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; in Hinduism. Both religions differ in many aspects but the ultimate goal and lesson taught is the same. Which is love, brotherhood, morality, sympathy. And also, both religions strive on meditating. The only difference being is that when Hindus meditate, they keep God in mind and chant sacred mantras of God while Buddhists meditate on other things. But both attain salvation with either methods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Basically, what I wanna know is&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Did Lord Buddha really not believe in God and the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Did Lord Buddha have any oppositions with the Vedas, Brahman and Vedic rituals, cultures and deities?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This question is not a duplicate of &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/4020/why-there-is-a-separate-religion-for-buddha-if-buddha-is-hindu-god&quot;&gt;Why there is a separate religion for Buddha if Buddha is a Hindu god?&lt;/a&gt;&quot; as the two questions I have asked above are very different from the other one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8076" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2020-06-02T11:58:21.693" Title="Did Lord Buddha really not believe in God and the Vedas? If so, why?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|avatars|other-religions|buddhism|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16618" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16619" CreationDate="2017-01-03T04:20:02.177" Score="8" ViewCount="875" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across two answers &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8794&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bhagavata-Purana Considered as best&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16233&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Devi Bhagavata Purana Considered as best&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the same lines, are there any claims about other puranas claiming themselves or others as the best, foremost etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7287" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2023-11-05T12:51:39.670" Title="Puranas besides Bhagavata &amp; Devi-Bhagavata stating themselves as the foremost or best" Tags="|puranas|shiva-purana|padma-purana|linga-purana|matsya-purana|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16619" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16618" CreationDate="2017-01-03T06:01:09.550" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like Bhagavatams, Shiva Purana also says itself as best among all the Puranas and best remedy in age of Kali.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-01/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt; Glory of Shiva Purana says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कालव्यालमहात्रासविध्वंसकरमुत्तमम्। &lt;strong&gt;शैवं पुराणं परमं&lt;/strong&gt; शिवेनोक्तं&#xA;पुरा मुने॥८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Purana is the best remedy for the biggest danger like the death,&#xA;which bites like the snake and is the biggest danger. &lt;strong&gt;The Šiva&#xA;Purana is the best of all the Puranas.&lt;/strong&gt; O Great ascetic, initially it&#xA;was spoken by Lord Siva himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एतस्मादपरं किञ्चित्पुराणाच्छैवतो मुने! विद्यते न मनःशुद्धयै कलिजानां विशेषतः॥&lt;/strong&gt; १०॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Except the Siva Purana, there is no other remedy in the age of Kali, to purify the minds of the people.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जन्मान्तरे भवेत्पुण्यं महद्यस्य सुधीमतः। तस्य प्रीतिर्भवेत्तत्र&#xA;महाभाग्यवतो मुने!।॥ ११॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Best of the sages, only such of the intelligent person gets an&#xA;opportunity to listen or read it, who has to his credit the noble&#xA;deeds of the earlier births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एतच्छिवपुराणं हि परमं शास्त्रमुत्तमम्।&lt;/strong&gt; शिवरूपं क्षितौ ज्ञेयं सेवनीयं च सर्वथा॥ १२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Siva Purana is admittedly the best of the Sastras&lt;/strong&gt; and is also the true form of Siva on earth, therefore, it should be read,&#xA;narrated, listened studied and well thought over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-01-03T06:01:09.550" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16620" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16618" CreationDate="2017-01-03T06:15:57.137" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes , in &lt;strong&gt;Shiva-Mahapurana&lt;/strong&gt; we also find the similar description in Mahatmyam or Glory part. C&lt;strong&gt;hapter 1&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shloka 12&lt;/strong&gt;  - The glory of the purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एतच्छीपुराणं हि &lt;strong&gt;परमं शास्त्रमुत्तमम्&lt;/strong&gt;।&lt;br&gt; शिवरुपं क्षितौ ज्ञेयं&#xA;  सेवनीयं च सर्वथा॥१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Shiva-Purana is admittedly the &lt;strong&gt;best of the Shastras&lt;/strong&gt; and is also&#xA;  true form of Shiva on earth.Therefor it should be read narrated ,&#xA;  listened , studies ans well thought over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, Vishnu Purana also states Matsya Purana as the greatest:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मुख्यं पुराणेषु&lt;/strong&gt; यथैव &lt;strong&gt;मात्स्यं&lt;/strong&gt; स्वायंभुवोक्तिव्स्तपी संहितासु। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनु:स्मृतिनां प्रवरो यथैव तिथीषु दर्शो विबुधेषु वासव:।।  (Vishnu Purana Chapter 13 verse 48) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;As Matsya purana among puranas,&lt;/strong&gt; Code laid down by Swayambhu among the codes, Manu Smriti among Smritis, Amavasya among Tithis and Donation made on Visuvas (rotation of Aries and Libra) among other donations is &lt;strong&gt;greatest&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Rhumo.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Rhumo.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above shloka &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu purana is declearing Matsya purana is greatest among puranas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-01-10T04:38:11.777" LastActivityDate="2017-01-10T04:38:11.777" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16621" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-03T07:09:07.247" Score="8" ViewCount="524" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Shaivite&quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, Iyer Brahmins are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to philosophical Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is related to a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I am a member) is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the 12 Alwars, Shaiva Siddhanta is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the 63 Nayanars.  In any case, one of the defining works of the Shaiva Siddhanta sect is Meykandar's Shivajnana Bodham, a commentary on twelve important verses of a Shaiva Agama called the Raurava Agamas.  Now Meykandar's shishya Arrulnandi Shivacharya wrote a commentary on the Shivajnana Bodham called the Shivajnana Siddhiyar.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BINZ6.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the invocatory verse to Ganesha that the Shivajnana Soddhiyar starts with:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O God Ganesha, with the elephant head, single-tusked, double-eared, triple-juiced, with the hanging lip, and &lt;strong&gt;five hands&lt;/strong&gt;, begotten by the Lord with the braided hair, adorned with the Ganges, the crescent moon and the cassia flowers, Thy feet will remove without fail the evil in our hearts flowing with love, humility, and knowledge, night and day.  Thy feet will lift such far above the delights of Brahma and Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most of these attributes of Ganesha are recognizable: having an elephant head, having one tusk (as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/773/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), being the son of Shiva, being the remover of obstacles, etc.  But my question is, what scriptures describe Ganesha having five hands?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translator claims that these represent the five functions that Shaivites believe Sadashiva performs: creation, preservation, destruction, obscuraton, and liberation.  But I'm generally skeptical of such symbolic explanations.  In any case, where exactly is Ganesha's fifth hand?  Is his trunk being counted as an extra hand?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-01-03T07:09:07.247" Title="What scriptures describe Ganesha having five hands?" Tags="|ganesha|shaivism|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16622" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16588" CreationDate="2017-01-03T09:06:52.483" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following verse from &lt;strong&gt;Katha Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; seems indicative of &quot;Kapala Moksha&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;II.iii.14-16) Yadaa sarve pramuchyante kaamaa yesya hridi shritaah,&#xA;  atha martyormrito bhavatyatra Brahma samaashnute// Yadaa sarve&#xA;  pratibhidyante hridayasyeha granthayah, atha martyomruto bhavati&#xA;  etaavad anushaashanam// &lt;strong&gt;Shatamchaikaa cha hridayasya naadyastaasaam&#xA;  murdhaanih srutgaikaa, tayordhvam aayannamritatvam eti vishvannaanya&#xA;  utkramane bhavanti//&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When all the knots of the heart are demolished- indeed even if the&#xA;  Being were still alive, then the status of ‘mrityomrita’ or&#xA;  ‘Jeevanmukti’is attained! &lt;strong&gt;When all the hundred and one nerves of the&#xA;  heart pass through the ‘sushumna nadi’or the crown of the head takes&#xA;  to the Uttara Marg or the Solar Path or the Path of Sun then the&#xA;  actual transformation from mortality to Immortality is stated to have&#xA;  taken place&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The import of this verse is that when Prana Vayu, after being made to travel through the Sushumna Nadi(the middle of the 3 principle Nadis),leaves the body through the Brahmarandhra(crown of the head),then it signifies that soul has attained moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As regards your second question,yes, Yogis, who have mastered the movement of Prana, can make it leave their bodies through any orifice at their will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But i have no verses right now. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-04T04:52:17.027" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T04:52:17.027" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16624" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9415" CreationDate="2017-01-03T11:58:15.420" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shukracharya is a maharshi. There were two kinds of people at that time. Devas and Asuras. According to devas, asura means demon/evil. According to asura, they call 'devas' as 'daevas' which means demon/evil. These devas used to live in today's Northern Pakistan. Pariha is the place from where lord Rudra came. According to them, these Asuras are evil. Asuras used to live in Today's India. Devas thought these Asuras are evil and started destroying them and finally when they have reached Kasi(Varanasi), Lord Rudra realized that they are not evil but different. So, he decided to make Kasi as the holiest place and built many temples and declared that No war should ever happen in this place. All those remaining Asuras were taken to pariha and he gave a new life for them in pariha. Then, the devas came into Today's India and settled here itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These devas treated shukracharya as demon god because he used to stand on their side. Before shukracharya guided them, the asuras didn't know much about anything. No rules, No civilization etc. He came and made them follow rules set by him in the name of god. All the asuras started following him and so a strong religion has been built by using faith. As days passed the asuras started destroying temples and idols of other religions' gods stating there is only one god and you should follow only him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Hindus treated shukracharya as evil, they destroyed almost all the details about him.Lord Ram likes Shukracharya and does the same but this time he sets only laws to be followed and doesn't do that in the name of god as laws can be updated, unlike faith. In Ramayana, you can find a little part about Shukracharya. In Shiva purana and Shiva Trilogy by Amish tripathi, you can get all the points I have mentioned here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8629" LastEditorUserId="8629" LastEditDate="2017-01-04T03:54:50.207" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T03:54:50.207" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16625" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16627" CreationDate="2017-01-03T13:13:23.273" Score="8" ViewCount="3556" Body="&lt;p&gt;O  Adi shankaracharya and Acharya Ramanuja commenting on Brahmasutras said &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sudras are not allowed to study or hear any Vedas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If a sudra studies or hears Vedas he should be punished.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Reading or Hearing about Vedic knowledge will destroy ignorance.&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are Sudras allowed to read scriptures other than Vedas ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why they are not allowed to study them ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-01-03T16:41:47.387" LastActivityDate="2019-07-09T10:04:57.237" Title="Are Sudras not allowed to study any scriptures of Hindusim?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|tradition|caste-system|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16626" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9415" CreationDate="2017-01-03T14:04:08.457" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me make it simple for you. Completely forget that Allah is an Islamic origin name. Think of your &lt;em&gt;Ishta&lt;/em&gt; or your favourite deity and imagine you are calling him Allah out of love. I would suggest to everyone who have submitted their own answers here to not think of Islam when explaining yourself and not to take this question very literal. Very big saints and Sufis like Bhagat Kabir, Sacho Sain Satram Das, Bhagat Kanwar Ram, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai (A Muslim who is dearly loved by everyone including Hindus) have called Brahman by countless names. For example, &lt;em&gt;Meharbaan&lt;/em&gt; which means the merciful, &lt;em&gt;Sajrahn&lt;/em&gt; which is used to call Him in love, &lt;em&gt;Saiban&lt;/em&gt; and so on. And all of the Hindu saints that I mentioned above have used the name Allah when mentioning Paramatma in bhajans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I'm trying to say is Allah is not limited to Islam. Allah is a beautiful name for Almighty Brahman. Allah is a name for Paramatma. To understand this, you do not need to look at a specific scripture because a scripture would never prevent someone from expressing his love to God in the form of different names. You can call Him &quot;father&quot; if you like or even &quot;&lt;em&gt;Ahura Mazda&lt;/em&gt;&quot; Which is the name used for God in the Zoroastrianism religion that means &quot;The Wise One&quot;. Always remember what matters more while praying to Him and calling Him with different names is your intentions. You can think of Lord Krishna or Lord Rama while saying Allah and He will lovingly listen to you. They both are One with Paramatma which is the reason I used &quot;He&quot; and not &quot;They&quot; in the previous sentence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bottom line is do not think of Allah as a God only limited to Islam. This is completely wrong as Paramatma is not limited to any religion. Think of Allah as a nickname for Paramatma which you call out of love. Just like you would call a loved one &quot;Bablu&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8076" LastEditorUserId="8076" LastEditDate="2017-01-03T15:40:38.087" LastActivityDate="2017-01-03T15:40:38.087" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16627" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16625" CreationDate="2017-01-03T14:25:24.250" Score="15" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Are sudras allowed to read scriptures other than Vedas ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes they are allowed to read and hear some Scriptures like the Puranas,Itihasas etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatam1-2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18-24. At every Manvantara, in each Dvâpara Yuga, Veda Vyâsa expounds&#xA;  the Purânas duly to preserve the religion. Veda Vyâsa is no other&#xA;  person than Visnu Himself; He, in the form of Veda Vyâsa, divides the&#xA;  (one) Veda into four parts, in every Dvâpara Yuga, for the good of the&#xA;  world. The Brahmânas of the Kali age are shortlived and their&#xA;  intellect (Buddhi) is not sharp; they cannot realise the meaning after&#xA;  studying the Vedas; knowing this in every Dvâpara Yuga Bhagavân&#xA;  expounds the holy Purâna Samhitas. &lt;strong&gt;The more so because women, S’udras,&#xA;  and the lower Dvijas are not entitled to hear the Vedas; for their&#xA;  good, the Purânas have been composed&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the reason why they are not allowed to read or hear the Vedas is because they don't wear the Sacred thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sacred thread ceremony&lt;/a&gt; is done only for the men belonging to the first 3 castes but neither for the Sudras nor for the women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before reading the Vedas an &quot;initiation&quot; is needed which the Sudras are not entitled to have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.126. A Sudra cannot commit an offence, causing loss of caste (pataka), &lt;strong&gt;and he is not worthy to receive the sacraments&lt;/strong&gt;; he has&#xA;  no right to (fulfil) the sacred law (of the Aryans, yet) there is no&#xA;  prohibition against (his fulfilling certain portions of) the law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.127. (Sudras) who are desirous to gain merit, and know (their) duty, commit no sin, but gain praise, if they imitate the practice of&#xA;  virtuous men &lt;strong&gt;without reciting sacred texts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,having posted all this,let me clarify that i'm not quite in support of determining caste by birth or by samskara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because,in Brahma Purana even Parama Shiva says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Na yonirnaapi samskaaro na Shrutirnacha santatih, Kaaranaani&#xA;  Dwijasttvasya vrutthamevatu vidheeyatey&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is not by birth, samskara, knowledge of Vedas and by the Offspring&#xA;  that a person possesses, but Brahmanatwa is a decisive factor merely&#xA;  on one’s own behavior, conduct and actions!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But determining caste by Gunas only is also no doubt a complicated and somewhat impractical process.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-04T04:49:11.567" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T04:49:11.567" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16630" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16631" CreationDate="2017-01-03T17:39:39.113" Score="6" ViewCount="443" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3848&quot;&gt;This question&lt;/a&gt; mentions the following story of a sage, a hunter and a wild animal being hunted. This story appears to convey the same message as the Valāka story Kṛṣṇa &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;narrates to&lt;/a&gt; Arjuna in Karṇa-parva of the Mahābhārata according to which Valāka goes to hell for speaking truth but failing to uphold dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For example, there is a story that I have heard in which a hunter hunting an animal comes to a Sage and asks whether he has seen it or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sage says, &quot;what the eyes can see, the mouth can't speak and what the mouth can speak, the eyes can't see&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He didn't utter a lie because he was intelligent and he escaped from the situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What exact story is the above referring to? And which scripture is the story taken from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the Sanskrit verse for the line that means '&lt;em&gt;what the eyes can see, the mouth can't speak and what the mouth can speak, the eyes can't see&lt;/em&gt;'?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T15:40:53.547" Title="Scriptural reference for the story of a sage, hunter and a wild animal?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16631" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16630" CreationDate="2017-01-03T21:00:14.140" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sage goes by various names: Satyatapas, Satyavrata, Utathya etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The full story is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk03ch11.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;narrated&lt;/a&gt; in the Devī Bhāgavata, Skandha 3, Ch. XI.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;23. Once on a time, a hunter named Nisâda, exceedingly clever in hunting, came accidentally with bows and arms in his hands, while&#xA;  hunting a deer in that wide forest. He looked like a second God of&#xA;  Death (Yama) and seemed to be very cruel. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  24. That savage mountaineer, drawing his bow so as to touch the ear, pierced a boar with his sharp arrows. The boar, being very much&#xA;  terrified, fled with enormous rapidity to the &lt;strong&gt;Muni Satyavrata&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;...&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;37. O Jamadagni! Thus placed between the horns of &lt;strong&gt;a religious dilemma&lt;/strong&gt; what shall I do now so as to meet both the ends -- to &lt;strong&gt;save the life of&#xA;  the boar&lt;/strong&gt;, to do the welfare, &lt;strong&gt;as well as not to speak untruth&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  38. When Satyavrata saw the boar wounded by the arrow of the hunter, he, moved with pity, uttered the seed mantra of the Goddess of&#xA;  Learning; and now that most auspicious Goddess, on account of his&#xA;  uttering Her seed mantram, was very pleased and gave him the&#xA;  knowledge, difficult to be attained otherwise.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  39. The door of all his knowledge opened out at once, and he became at once instantly the seer, the poet like the ancient Muni Vâlmikî.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  40. Then that religiously disposed, merciful Brâhman, aiming at Truth, addressed that hunter before him with bows in his arms, thus :--&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  41. &lt;strong&gt;That force which sees (as witness) never speaks; and that force which speaks, never sees.&lt;/strong&gt; O hunter! Why are you asking me repeatedly,&#xA;  impelled by your own selfish desire?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  42. The hunter, the killer of the animals, on hearing this was disappointed in the matter of finding out the boar and went back to&#xA;  his home.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  43. That Brâhmin turned out a poet like Varuna and he became celebrated as Satyavrata, the speaker of truth, in all the worlds.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  44. He began to recite the Satyavrata mantram duly, and, by its influence, became a Pundit, rivalled by none in this world.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse uttered by Satyatapas to confuse the hunter is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या पश्यति न सा ब्रूते या ब्रूते सा न पश्यति । &lt;br&gt;अहो व्याध स्वकार्याथिन्कि पृच्छसि पुनः पुनः ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;yā paśyati na sā brūte yā brūte sā na paśyati&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;br&gt;aho vyādha svakāryāthinki pṛcchasi punaḥ punaḥ ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who sees does not speak. He who speaks, does not see.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Selfish hunter, whom do you ask again and again?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft#page/708/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puranic Encyclopedia&lt;/a&gt;, you can read the brief history of how the brāhmaṇa boy named Utathya was cursed and how he transformed himself into Satyatapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-03T21:00:14.140" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16632" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16615" CreationDate="2017-01-04T01:44:01.210" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a lot of misunderstanding not only among Hindus, but also among many Buddhists. Buddha was not opposed to the Upanishads - he was opposed to the Karma Kanda, the ritualistic portion of the Vedas. Remember that Krishna opposed the Karma Kanda also (see &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; 2.42-44). In his book &lt;em&gt;The Advaita Tradition in Indian Philosophy: A Study in Advaita in Buddhism, Vedanta and Kashmira Shaivism&lt;/em&gt;, the author, (Dr. Professor) Chandradhar Sharma, goes through a detailed comparison of the teachings of Buddha and compares these to the Advaita Vedanta in twenty-one pages. It is too long to quote in its entirety. Here are a few quotes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(page 25) It is said that there are two traditions in Indian philosophy--one is the &lt;em&gt;atmavada&lt;/em&gt; tradition of the Upanishads accepted by the orthodox systems and the other is the &lt;em&gt;anatmavada&lt;/em&gt; tradition initiated and established by Buddha and accepted by all schools of Buddhism...Most of the philosophical quarrels are usually based on misunderstanding of the meaning of the terms employed, The fight between &lt;em&gt;atmavada&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;anatmavada&lt;/em&gt; in Indian philosophy is a classical example of such misunderstanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(page 28-9) He calls the Absolute as Nirvana. He does not expressly identify the Absolute as the Self, but the implication is clearly there, for, if the &lt;em&gt;anatma&lt;/em&gt; or the not-Self is perishable and miserable, that which is eternal (&lt;em&gt;nitya&lt;/em&gt;) and blissful (&lt;em&gt;sukha&lt;/em&gt;) must be the true Self (&lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt;). &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt;, like the Upanishadic &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;, is repeated described by Buddha as...As the Upanishadic '&lt;em&gt;neti, neti&lt;/em&gt;' negates all descriptions of &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;, not the &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; itself, so the negative method of Buddha denies the descriptions and characteristics of &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt; as being final, but do not deny &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt; itself. Silence is the highest philosophy for both. The Bliss of &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt; is beyond the empirical pleasure and pain. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(page 29) Buddha was emphatic in denying that &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt; is annihilation or momentary. True to his negative dialectic, Buddha uses negative terms for &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt;, but due to the nature of thought and language, positive terms also are sometimes used. As the Upanishadic ‘&lt;em&gt;neti, neti&lt;/em&gt;’ negates all descriptions of &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;, not the &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; itself, so the negative of Buddha denies the descriptions and characteristics of Nirvana as being final, but do not deny &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt; itself. Silence is the highest philosophy for both. The Bliss of &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt; is beyond empirical pleasure and pain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(page 31) Thus we find that it is incorrect to hold that Buddha starts with a spirit of opposition to the Upanishads and initiates a new tradition of &lt;em&gt;anatmavada&lt;/em&gt; against the Upanishadic tradition of &lt;em&gt;atmavada&lt;/em&gt;...The Upanishadic seers and Buddha both are opposed to the view of realistic pluralism that the self is an ultimate individual substance and that there is a plurality of such eternal selves. Buddha carries on the tradition of absolutism so clearly set forth in the Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(page 32) Both use the negative dialectic, the '&lt;em&gt;neti, neti&lt;/em&gt;' (not this, not this) for indirectly pointing to the nature of the Inexpressible. All the epithets which the Upanishadic seers use for &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Brahma[n]&lt;/em&gt; (or their synonyms) Buddha used for &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt;...Buddha's omission to identify the Absolute with the Pure Self, though the implication is clearly there. He identifies the Absolute with &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt;. Buddha's omission to identify the Absolute with the transcendent Self has led to the misunderstanding of his &lt;em&gt;anatmavada&lt;/em&gt;. But though Buddha does not expressly identify the Absolute with the Pure Self, nowhere has he expressly denied it. His descriptions of &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt; are similar to the descriptions of the Upansihadic &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; and leave no doubt that he is carrying on the tradition of the Upanishadic absolutism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(page 33) It is significant to note, as Dr. E.J. Thomas points out, that among the views mentioned and rejected in the &lt;em&gt;Brahmajala Sutta&lt;/em&gt; (Digha Nikaya, 1), the Upanishadic view of the &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; is not included.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(page 34) Many Vedic schools of Indian philosophy have noticed the similarities between Mahayana Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta. Eminent Advaitans like Gaudapada, Shriharsa, and Chitsukha have pointed out the similarities between Mahayana and Vedanta. Gaudapada approves of the doctrine of &lt;em&gt;ajativada&lt;/em&gt; and the critique of causation in Shunyavada and the arguments of Vijnanaavada against realism. Shrisharsa says the onslaught of the dialectic of Shunyavada and Advaita Vedanta is valid against all views and cannot be set aside. Chitsuka admits the similarity of the Madhyamika distinction between &lt;em&gt;samvrti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;paramartha&lt;/em&gt; with the Vedantic distinction between &lt;em&gt;vyavahara&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;paramartha&lt;/em&gt; and defends the former against the attacks of Kumarila Bhatta. Even Kumarila, who is an arch-opponent of Buddhism, admits that &lt;em&gt;anatmavada&lt;/em&gt; is helpful for purification of mind and detachment. The theistic Vedantins, Bhaskara, Ramanuja, Madhva, etc., are unanimous in condemning the Advaitan as crypto-Buddhist (&lt;em&gt;prachchhanna-Bauddha&lt;/em&gt;) which shows that they admit the similarities between Mahayana and Advaita Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fact that Buddha carried on, according to his own realization, the Upanishadic tradition of Absolutism and that Mahayana Buddhists developed it in the light of the teaching of their Founder, is undeniable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally in my own talks with a senior Tibetan Buddhist monk, he said that there was no difference between Buddhism and the Advaita Vedanta - which was Swami Vivekananda's conclusions also. To directly answer your questions at the end, Buddha realized, he had no need for belief, in the absolute Brahman. He also taught that working towards your own moksha was more important than any beliefs, rituals, or opinion in any religious matters, which is why He was silent on many of these.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2017-01-06T05:53:12.600" LastActivityDate="2017-01-06T05:53:12.600" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16633" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16615" CreationDate="2017-01-04T04:19:33.327" Score="11" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Did Lord Buddha really not believe in God?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all among the Six Schools of Hinduism the schools like Vaisheshika founded by Maharshi Kanada, Samkhya founded by Maharshi Kapila etc.. do not believe in God. They are non-theistic schools which do not believe in God, but believe that Vedas are authority. So, there are itself schools in Hinduism which do not believe in God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Buddha it depends on what one mean by God? If you call God as eternal, omnipotent everwitness entity then Buddhism certainly doesn't speculate on these things. If you call God as higher being, living in heavens, having supernatural powers etc.. then Gautama Buddha certainly talked of these type of Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For eg. In the Brahmajala Sutra of Pali canon (note that Pali canons are considered the most authentic part of Buddhist scriptures; actually Theravada schools holds only Pali canon as authentic) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.01.0.bodh.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Buddha states:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There comes a time, bhikkhus, when after the lapse of a long period this world contracts (disintegrates). &lt;strong&gt;While the world is contracting, beings for the most part are reborn in the Ābhassara Brahma-world.&lt;/strong&gt; There they dwell, mind-made, feeding on rapture, self-luminous, moving through the air, abiding in glory. And they continue thus for a long, long period of time.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  40. &amp;quot;But sooner or later, bhikkhus, after the lapse of a long period, there comes a time when this world begins to expand once again. &lt;strong&gt;While the world is expanding, an empty palace of Brahmā appears. Then a certain being, due to the exhaustion of his life-span or the exhaustion of his merit, passes away from the Ābhassara plane and re-arises in the empty palace of Brahmā.&lt;/strong&gt; There he dwells, mind made, feeding on rapture, self-luminous, moving through the air, abiding in glory. And he continues thus for a long, long period of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Buddha goes on stating:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Thereupon the being who re-arose there first thinks to himself: &amp;apos;I am Brahmā, the Great Brahmā, the Vanquisher,&lt;/strong&gt; the Unvanquished, the Universal Seer, the Wielder of Power, the Lord, the Maker and Creator, the Supreme Being, the Ordainer, the Almighty, the Father of all that are and are to be. And these beings have been created by me. What is the reason? Because first I made the wish: &amp;quot;Oh, that other beings might come to this place!&amp;quot; And after I made this resolution, now these beings have come.&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;And the beings who re-arose there after him also think: &amp;apos;This must be Brahmā, the Great Brahmā, the Vanquisher, the Unvanquished,&lt;/strong&gt; the Universal Seer, the Wielder of Power, the Lord, the Maker and Creator, the Supreme Being, the Ordainer, the Almighty, the Father of all that are and are to be. And we have been created by him. What is the reason? Because we see that he was here first, and we appeared here after him.&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  43. &amp;quot;Herein, bhikkhus, the being who re-arose there first possesses longer life, greater beauty, and greater authority than the beings who re-arose there after him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it's clear from the above passage that Buddha talked of powerful deities like Brahma. But he is not eternal God. He is just like Devata of Hinduism (ie. Devas having lifespan).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does Buddha speak of all Eternal and omnipotent God?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually speculating these type of questions are not considered useful in Buddhism. And the Buddhist text hold that one that is ultimately responsible for his Nirvana is himself (and not any other Gods). For instance if someone asks this question to Buddha, he would have replied as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Person: Does the Eternal, Omnipotent God exist? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Buddha:Is knowing whether the Eternal God exists or not useful for the cessation of sufferings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar question were asked to Buddha by Malyunkaputta in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.063.than.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Malunkaputta Sutta&lt;/a&gt; like whether cosmos is finite or infinite, whether body and soul are same or body and soul are different etc.. and Buddha replies as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;It's not the case that when there is the view, 'After death a Tathagata exists,' there is the living of the holy life. And it's not the case that when there is the view, 'After death a Tathagata does not exist,' there is the living of the holy life. And it's not the case that when there is the view, 'After death a Tathagata both exists &amp;amp; does not exist,' there is the living of the holy life. And it's not the case that when there is the view, 'After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist' there is the living of the holy life. When there is the view, 'After death a Tathagata exists'... 'After death a Tathagata does not exist'... 'After death a Tathagata both exists &amp;amp; does not exist'... 'After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist,' &lt;strong&gt;there is still the birth, there is the aging, there is the death, there is the sorrow, lamentation, pain, despair, &amp;amp; distress whose destruction I make known right in the here &amp;amp; now.&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, whether you know or do not know these things there is still ageing, still death still suffering etc.. So, Buddha focuses in removal of suffering and declared such things as Undeclared:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;So, Malunkyaputta, &lt;strong&gt;remember what is undeclared by me as undeclared,&lt;/strong&gt; and what is declared by me as declared. And what is undeclared by me? 'The cosmos is eternal,' is undeclared by me. 'The cosmos is not eternal,' is undeclared by me. 'The cosmos is finite'... 'The cosmos is infinite'... &lt;strong&gt;'The soul &amp;amp; the body are the same is undeclared by me'... 'The soul is one thing and the body another is undeclared by me'...&lt;/strong&gt; 'After death a Tathagata exists'... 'After death a Tathagata does not exist'... 'After death a Tathagata both exists &amp;amp; does not exist'... 'After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist,' is undeclared by me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Buddha also makes clear why he undeclared such things:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;And why are they undeclared by me?&lt;/strong&gt; Because they are not connected with the goal, are not fundamental to the holy life. &lt;strong&gt;They do not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding. That's why they are undeclared by me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;And what is declared by me? 'This is stress,' is declared by me. 'This is the origination of stress,' is declared by me. 'This is the cessation of stress,' is declared by me. 'This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress,' is declared by me. And why are they declared by me? Because they are connected with the goal, are fundamental to the holy life. They lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding. That's why they are declared by me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Buddha also gives the parable of poisoned arrow to those who try to speculate such things:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;It's just as if a man were wounded with an arrow thickly smeared with poison. His friends &amp;amp; companions, kinsmen &amp;amp; relatives would provide him with a surgeon, and the man would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know whether the man who wounded me was a noble warrior, a brahman, a merchant, or a worker.'&lt;/strong&gt; He would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know the given name &amp;amp; clan name of the man who wounded me... until I know whether he was tall, medium, or short... until I know whether he was dark, ruddy-brown, or golden-colored... until I know his home village, town, or city... until I know whether the bow with which I was wounded was a long bow or a crossbow... ..... ..... ...... ...... ....... ....... ........ ........ ...... &lt;strong&gt;He would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was that of a common arrow, a curved arrow, a barbed, a calf-toothed, or an oleander arrow.' The man would die and those things would still remain unknown to him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, such Metaphysical speculation isn't considered useful in Buddhism, they are only seen by direct experience. So, these type of topics are like Mute subjects in Buddhism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Did Lord Buddha have any oppositions with the Vedas?&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Buddha gives a long discussion and reasoning to explain how knowledge of only 3 Vedas is not sufficient. It comes in &amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/dob/dob-13tx.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tevigga Sutta&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;with the Brahmins?&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Buddha says that Brahmanas of previous times were following a good religion. In the &quot;Brahmana Dhammika Sutta&quot; (II,7) of the Suttanipata Buddha speaks:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The elderly Brahmins asked him, &amp;quot;Do the present Brahmans follow the same rules, practice the same rites, as those in the more ancient times?&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Buddha replied, &amp;quot;No.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The elderly Brahmins asked the Buddha that if it were not inconvenient for him, that he would tell them of the Brahmana Dharma of the previous generation.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Buddha replied: &amp;quot;There were formerly rishis, men who had subdued all passion by the keeping of the sila precepts and the leading of a pure life...Their riches and possessions consisted in the study of the Veda and their treasure was a life free from all evil...The Brahmans, for a time, continued to do right and received in alms rice, seats, clothes, and oil, though they did not ask for them. The animals that were given they did not kill; but they procured useful medicaments from the cows, regarding them as friends and relatives, whose products give strength, beauty and health.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Vedic rituals, cultures?&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Buddha certainly opposed Vedic rituals such as Animal sacrifice and focusing only on Karma kandas, etc.. However Buddha does pays respect to Vedas. As I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13623/where-is-buddhism-also-considered-a-valid-path-in-hindu-scriptures&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Buddhist Vinaya Pitaka of the Mahavagga (I.245) section the Buddha names these rishis. The names of the Vedic rishis were &quot;Atthako, Vâmako, Vâmadevo, Vessâmitto, Yamataggi, Angiraso, Bhâradvâjo, Vâsettho, Kassapo, and Bhagu&quot; but that it was altered by a few Brahmins who introduced animal sacrifices. The Vinaya Pitaka's section Anguttara Nikaya: Panchaka Nipata says that &lt;strong&gt;it was on this alteration of the true Veda that the Buddha refused to pay respect to the Vedas of his time.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Buddha refused to pay respect to Vedas of his time because he considered they were altered. Also in Sutta Nipata 192 Buddha states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vidwa Cha Vedehi Samechcha Dhammam Na Uchchavacham Gachhati Bhooripanjo.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People allow sense-organs to dominate and keep shuffling between high and low positions. &lt;strong&gt;But the scholar who understands Vedas understands Dharma and does not waver.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However here Veda can also mean knowledge. In the Sutta Nipata 846 Buddha states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na Vedagu Diththia Na Mutiya Sa Manameti Nahi Tanmayoso….&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who knows Vedas does not acquire false ego.&lt;/strong&gt; He is not affected by hearsay and delusions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a Sidenote I want to add here two things: &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Sidenote 1:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &#xA;Although there are procedures for animal sacrifice in Vedas but still ancient Rishis were also confused/speculated whether Vedas actually mean animal sacrifice or not. For eg in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shanti Parva of Mahabharata in the Narayaniya section, Rishis say:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Rishis said, &lt;strong&gt;The Vedic Sruti declares that in sacrifices the offerings should consist of (vegetable) seeds. Seeds are called Ajas. It behoveth you not to slay goats. Ye deities, that cannot be the religion of good and righteous people in which slaughter of animals is laid down. This, again, is the Krita age. How can animals be slaughtered in this epoch of righteousness?'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Bhishma continued, While this discourse was going between the Rishis and the deities, that foremost of kings, viz., Vasu, was seen to come that way. Endued with great prosperity, the king was coming through the welkin, accompanied by his troops and vehicles and animals. Beholding king Vasu coming to that spot through the skies, the Brahmanas addressing the deities, said,--This one will remove our doubts. He performs sacrifices. He is liberal in making gifts. He always seeks the good of all creatures. How, indeed, will the great Vasu, speak otherwise,--Having thus spoken unto each other, the deities and the Rishis quickly approached king Vasu and questioned him, saying,--O king, with what should one perform sacrifices? Should one sacrifice with the goat or with herbs and plants? Do thou dispel this doubt of ours. We constitute thee our judge in this matter.--Thus addressed by them, Vasu joined his hands in humility and said unto them.--Tell me truly, ye foremost of Brahmanas, what opinion is entertained by you in this matter?&#xA;  &quot;'The Rishis said, The opinion entertained by us, O king, is that sacrifices should be performed with grain. The deities, however, maintain that sacrifices should be performed with animals. Do thou judge between us and tell us which of these opinions is correct.'&#xA;  &quot;Bhishma continued, 'Learning what the opinion was that was entertained by the deities, &lt;strong&gt;Vasu, moved by partiality for them, said that sacrifices should be performed with animals.&lt;/strong&gt; At this answer, all the Rishis, endued with the splendour of the Sun, became very angry. &lt;strong&gt;Addressing Vasu who was seated on his car and who had (wrongly) taken up the side of the deities, they said unto him,--Since thou hast (wrongly) taken up the side of the deities, do thou fall down from heaven.&lt;/strong&gt; From this day, O monarch, thou shalt lose the power of journeying through the sky. Through our course, thou shalt sink deep below the surface of the Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sidenote 2:&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Buddha being incarnation of Lord Vishnu is not present in any Vedas, neither it is in ValmikiRamayana, nor it is in the Vyasas Mahabharata. It is only present in some Puranas. Actually Harivamsha Purana; which is an appendix to Mahabharata doesn't lists Buddha as incarnation while it lists all major incarnations in Vishnu Parva. So, the thing that (Gautama) Buddha is an incarnation of Vishnu can also be only latter additions in some Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T04:31:33.537" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16634" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10750" CreationDate="2017-01-04T04:41:21.417" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is an interesting story behind the  how Lord Venkateshwara got that name. This is not because of the confusion of who the deity in Tirumala is. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once upon a time, there was a controversy between various sects of our religion on who is the presiding deity of Tirumala. There were different theories that the deity in Tirumala is Shiva, Shakthi, Kartikeya, Srimannarayana. Many debates were held among those sectarians regarding this issue. But no one could prove their theory as correct. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Bhagavad Ramanujacharya, founder of Visishtadvaita philosophy visited Tirumala and took part in the debate with other sectarians. He proved that the presiding deity is none other than Srimannarayana through debate and also an experiment called locked doors(see the comments thread). By that experiment, all were convinced that Venkateshwara is none other than Srimannarayana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In His lifetime, Bhagavad Ramanujacharya visited Tirumala 3 times and organised the &lt;em&gt;puja vidhanam&lt;/em&gt; to the Lord and made rules on how the Lord should be worshiped. He also appointed his disciples to carry on the tradition of worship to the lord.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did Lord Venkateshwara get the name Balaji?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Ramanuja made the rules on how Venkateshwara should be worshiped and different sevas performed to the Lord like &lt;em&gt;Abhishekam&lt;/em&gt; etc.,. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a Friday(Ramanuja was the one who made the rule that &lt;em&gt;abhishekam&lt;/em&gt; should be performed and it is followed till date) while &lt;em&gt;Abhishekam&lt;/em&gt;(holy bath) was being performed to the lord with the Akasa Ganga waters,The white part of the tirunamam of Lord Venkateshwara got melted and only red part and white part under the eye brows of Venkateshwara was visible(Like the women of Sri Vaishnava tradition wear the namam). Looking at that scene, Sri Ramanujacharya got mesmerized by that beauty of the Lord and thought in his mind as follows: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Lord! How beautiful you are, How beautiful your face is. I am mesmerized by your beauty.  Once you took the incarnation of Mohini and mesmerized the worlds with your beauty. May be you are desiring to look like that again and make the people happy.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this thought, the Lord conquered one of priests who were abhishekam said in a loudly voice as an approval. &lt;strong&gt;Yes Ramanuja! I am desiring to look like that&lt;/strong&gt;. People who were sitting along with Ramanujacharya and watching the &lt;em&gt;abhishekam&lt;/em&gt; were astonished by those words and didn't know the meaning of that. Later Sri Ramanujacharya explained. Thus Sri Ramanujacharya made a rule that the Lord should be decorated as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohini&quot;&gt;Mohini avatar&lt;/a&gt; wearing a saree on Monday, tuesday, wednesday. On Thursday, Lord should be decorated with different flowers and a namam made of jewels should be put. On Friday, saturday and sunday, He should be decorated with different jewels. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This rule was well performed till the early 18&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century. In the 18 century, the Mahanths reigned over the temple administration of Tirumala. By that time, the facilities on the Seven hills were improved. The number of devotees visiting Tirumala from northern states of India has increased. People who have seen Lord Venkateshwara in saree were pleased and called Him &lt;strong&gt;Balaji&lt;/strong&gt;. Bala means a beautiful woman in Hindi. Ji means the respect people give to the deities for example : Ganeshji, Shivji etc.,  . Thus the name of Balaji got popularised in the north India even though He has other names. This is the real reason behind the history of the name Balaji. But this tradition of decorating the Lord with saree is forgotten by present TTD board who are the administrators of the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story was &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdYZga2sZzI&amp;amp;list=PLF5292A308C50954F&quot;&gt;explained&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;em&gt;HH Sri Sri Sri Tridandi Chinna Srimannarayana Ramanuja Jeeyar swami&lt;/em&gt; as a part of explaining the history and importance of Tirumala.         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T04:41:21.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16635" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16230" CreationDate="2017-01-04T06:52:07.777" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Sage Nara and Narayan still lived at least uptill the beginning of 28th Kali Yuga in BadrikAshram.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3rd canto of Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; when Vidura was having a dialog with Uddhav. Uddhava being deeply saddened by separation from Lord Krishna(after Lord's disappearance); This is what Uddhav says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear Vidura, now I am mad for want of the pleasure of seeing Him,&#xA;  and just to mitigate this I am now proceeding to Badarikāśrama in the&#xA;  Himālayas for association, as I have been instructed by Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There in Badarikāśrama the Personality of Godhead, in His incarnation&#xA;  as the sages Nara and Nārāyaṇa, has been undergoing great penance&#xA;  since time immemorial for the welfare of all amiable living entities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Nara and Narayan sages still lived in Badrikashram even in the beginning of Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T06:52:07.777" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16638" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8003" CreationDate="2017-01-04T09:32:53.403" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ANIMALS :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;BR/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ANCIENT SUPER HAWK :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupadabooks.com/sb/5/23/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; it is said that there were gaint hawks named &lt;strong&gt;syena&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;zyena&lt;/strong&gt; that were able to &lt;strong&gt;Catch and eat Elephants&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DINOSAURS :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The cowherd boys says a &lt;strong&gt;Giant Lizard&lt;/strong&gt; resembling a &lt;strong&gt;hill&lt;/strong&gt; and was lifted by lord krishna by his hand as in this &lt;a href=&quot;http://vanisource.org/wiki/SB_10.64.3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are stones with &lt;strong&gt;Dinosaurs and Humans Co-existence&lt;/strong&gt; in this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mallstuffs.com/Blogs/BlogDetails.aspx?BlogId=321&amp;amp;BlogType=Spiritual&amp;amp;Topic=Dinosaurs%20in%20ancient%20hinduism%20scriptures&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ANCIENT SEA MONSTER :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is an ancient sea monster known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makara_(Hindu_mythology)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Makara&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and  which is able to kill other larger whales and is vahana of goddess ganga and this Makara is called by Modern Scientists as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plesiosauria&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Plesiosauria&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; they found that these kinds of reptiles existed before millions of years.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;HISTORY EVIDENCE :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;BR/&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;MAHABHARATHA&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In rajasthan there is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2010/10/ancient-city-in-india-irradiated-by-atomic-blast-debunked-201540.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;place&lt;/a&gt; with hindu stone carvings which is &lt;strong&gt;12000&lt;/strong&gt; years old and is radioactive because it is destroyed by a energy equal to our modern atom bomb.&lt;BR/&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RAMAYANA :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord rams bridge was found in between rameshwaram (TAMILNADU DISTRICT) and sri lanka it was confirmed by &lt;strong&gt;NASA&lt;/strong&gt; that it is 1.7 Million years old in this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rense.com/general30/nasa.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt; and this &lt;a href=&quot;http://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/the+new+indian+express-epaper-newexpress/the+ghost+town-newsid-57510894&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T05:30:13.413" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16639" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16625" CreationDate="2017-01-04T12:21:11.687" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am supplementing the answer given by defining the term Sudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These teachings are not to be imparted to persons who are wicked,&#xA;  haughty, barbarous, foul in conduct, hypocritical, given to sensuous&#xA;  indulgences, interested exclusively in their worldly concerns, who are&#xA;  without devotion to Me or who persecute My devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purnana III.32.39-40&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam emphasizes conduct as the reason for not teaching the Vedas to a person and not last name based Sudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is curious is that Vedas themselves deny such a thing (i.e. Vedas are not for Sudras)!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I do hereby address this salutary speech for the benefit of humanity,&#xA;  for the Brahmanas, the Kshatriyas, the &lt;strong&gt;Sudras&lt;/strong&gt;, the Vaishas, the&#xA;  kinfolk and the men of the lowest position in society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda 26.2 translated by Devi Chand&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-05-23T10:47:43.303" LastActivityDate="2017-05-23T10:47:43.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16615" CreationDate="2017-01-04T14:34:01.360" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no definitive answer to this question. Buddhists claim that Buddha's teaching is different from the  teaching of Advaita Vedanta. There are, however, passages in Buddhist  scripture which seem to suggest that Buddha's teaching agrees with  Impersonalistc Vedanta. Buddha clearly acknowledges the existence of an  Ultimate Reality, characterizes It as Consciousness and even talks of  unity with Brahman. I have given below some of those passages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;QUOTES FROM BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES ABOUT AN ULTIMATE REALITY&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Buddha  himself said,&quot;There is an unborn, an unoriginated, an unmade,&#xA;  an  uncompounded; were there not, O mendicants, there would be no&#xA;  escape from  the  world of the born, the unoriginated, the made and&#xA;  the compounded&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Udana 8.3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kevaddha Sutta: About Kevaddha &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Buddha:  'So that monk, as swiftly as a strong man might flex or&#xA;  unflex his arm,  vanished from the Brahma world and appeared in my&#xA;  presence. He  prostrated himself before me, then sat down to one side,&#xA;  and said:&quot;Lord,  where do the   four great elements - the earth&#xA;  element, the water element, the fire element and the air element -&#xA;  cease without reminder?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Buddha replied:&quot;....Monk, you should not ask this question this way&#xA;  .... Instead, this is how the question should have been put:    'Where&#xA;  do earth, water, fire and air not find footing? Where are long and &#xA;  short, small and great, fair and foul - where are &quot;name and form&quot;&#xA;  wholly  destroyed?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the answer is: 'Where consciousness is  signless, boundless,&#xA;  all-luminous, that's where earth, water, fire and  air find no&#xA;  footing, here both long and short, small and great, fair and  foul -&#xA;  here &quot;name-and-form&quot; are wholly destroyed.&quot;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Digha Nikaya 11.85/i.223)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Buddha says,&quot;Consciousness non-manifesting, boundless, luminous&#xA;  all-round&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahjima Nikaya Brahmanimantanika Sutta 49.25/i.330&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  translator (Bodhi) acknowledges that these lines in Digha Nikaya and  Mahjima Nikaya (where Buddha talks of Ultimate Reality as Consciousness  which is identical to the teaching of Advaita Vedanta) have been a  perennial challenge to Buddhist scholarship and  even Acharya  Buddhaghosha seems to founder over them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tevijja Sutta&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;On Knowledge Of The Vedas&lt;/em&gt;[4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;39&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When he had thus spoken, VaseÂÂha, the young Brahmana, said to the Blessed One:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Just  so has it been told me, Gotama, even that the Gotama knows the&#xA;  way to a  STATE OF UNION WITH BRAHMAN. It is well! Let the venerable&#xA;  Gotama be  pleased  to show us the way to a STATE OF UNION WITH&#xA;  BRAHMAN, let the  venerable Gotama save the Brahmana race'[26]!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Listen then, VaseÂÂha, and give ear attentively, and I will speak!'&#xA;  'So be it, Lord!' said the young Brahmana VaseÂÂha, in assent, to the&#xA;  Blessed  One.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;40&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Then the Blessed One spake, and said:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know,  VaseÂÂha, that (from time to time) a Tathagata is born into the&#xA;  world,  an Arahat, a fully awakened one, abounding, in wisdom and&#xA;  goodness,  happy, with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide&#xA;  to mortals  willing to be led, a teacher of gods and men, a Blessed&#xA;  One, a Buddha.  He, by himself, thoroughly understands, and sees, as&#xA;  it were, face to  face this universe -- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;including the worlds above with the gods,  the Maras, and the Brahmas;&#xA;  and the world below with its Samatas and   Brahmanas, its princes and&#xA;  peoples; -- and he then makes his knowledge  known to others. The&#xA;  truth doth he proclaim both in the letter and in  the spirit, lovely&#xA;  in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its  consummation:&#xA;  the higher life doth he make known, in all its purity and  in all its&#xA;  perfectness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;76.[28]'And he lets his mind pervade one  quarter of the world with thoughts of Love, and so the second, and so  the third, and so the&#xA;  fourth. And thus the whole wide world, above,  below, around, and&#xA;  everywhere, does he continue to pervade with heart of  Love,&#xA;  far-reaching, grown great, and beyond measure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;77&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'Just,  VaseÂÂha, as a mighty trumpeter makes himself heard-and that without  difficulty-in all the four directions; even so of all&#xA;  things that have  shape or life, there is not one that he passes by or&#xA;  leaves aside, but  regards them all with mind set free, and deep-felt&#xA;  love.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Verily this, VaseÂÂha, is the way to a STATE OF UNION WITH BRAHMAN.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;78&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;'And he lets his mind pervade one quarter of the world with thoughts of  pity[29], ... sympathy[30], equanimity[31 ], and so the&#xA;  second, and so  the third, and so the fourth. And thus the whole wide&#xA;  world, above,  below, around, and everywhere, does he continue to&#xA;  pervade with heart of  pity. . . . sympathy , . . . equanimity,&#xA;  far-reaching, grown great, and  beyond measure.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;'Just, VaseÂÂha, as a mighty trumpeter makes  himself heard -- and that without difficulty -- in all the four  directions ; even so of&#xA;  all things that have shape or life, there is not  one that he passes&#xA;  by or leaves aside, but regards them all with mind  set free, and&#xA;  deep-felt pity, ... sympathy, ... equanimity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Verily this, V¤seÂÂha, is the way to a STATE OF UNION WITH BRAHMAN.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;80&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'Now what think you, VaseÂÂha, will the Bhikkhu who lives thus be in possession of women and of wealth, or will he not?'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'He will not, Gotama!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Will he be full of anger, or free from anger?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'He will be free from anger, Gotama!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Will his mind be full of malice, or free from malice?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Free from malice, Gotama!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Will his mind be tarnished, or pure?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'It will be pure, Gotama!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Will he have self-mastery, or will he not?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Surely he will, Gotama!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;81  'Then you say, VaseÂÂha, that the Bhikkhu is free from household&#xA;  and  worldly cares, and that Brahman is free from household and&#xA;  worldly  cares. Is there then agreement and likeness between the&#xA;  Bhikkhu and  Brahman?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'There is, Gotama!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Very good, VaseÂÂha. Then in  sooth, VaseÂÂha, that the Bhikkhu who is&#xA;  free from household cares  should after death, when the body is&#xA;  dissolved, become UNITED WITH  BRAHMAN, who is the same -- such a&#xA;  condition of things is every way possible!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'And  so you say, VaseÂÂha, that the Bhikkhu is free from anger, and&#xA;  free  from malice, pure in mind, and master of himself; and that&#xA;  Brahman is  free from anger, and free from malice, pure in mind, and&#xA;  master of  himself. Then in sooth, VaseÂÂha, that the Bhikkhu who is&#xA;  free from  anger, free from malice, pure in mind, and master of&#xA;  himself should  after death, when the body is dissolved, become UNITED&#xA;  WITH BRAHMAN, who  is the same-such a condition of things is every way&#xA;  possible!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Digha Nikaya Translated from the Pali by T.W. Rhys Davids&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am adding another oddity. Buddha did not quite care about gods and the Vedas.  However, Buddha deeply appreciated the Gayatri mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereupon the Blessed One gave him his blessing with these stanzas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Burnt offerings are the glory of fires,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Savitri the glory of Vedic hymns&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Glory of a human beings, a king,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Glory of flowing rivers, the sea;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The moon is the glory of the stars,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sun is the glory of all that shine;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Merit is the glory of all who aspire;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sangha, glory of those who give.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Majjhima Nikaya, Sela Sutta, 92.26&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2020-06-02T11:58:21.693" LastActivityDate="2020-06-02T11:58:21.693" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16643" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16644" CreationDate="2017-01-04T17:33:05.057" Score="10" ViewCount="2318" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that there are 3 supreme lords i.e. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. But from all 3 why only 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu and not others?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8031" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2019-03-13T07:55:09.727" LastActivityDate="2021-05-19T13:15:23.960" Title="Why only Lord Vishnu incarnates on earth?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|avatars|brahma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16644" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16643" CreationDate="2017-01-04T18:13:01.620" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;No. Shiva and Brahma also incarnated on earth. It is indeed Shiva who takes &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13561/3500&quot;&gt;Yogavatar&lt;/a&gt; at end of every Dwapara Yuga and beginning of Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most famous Avatar of Brahma is Chandra or Moon God which is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6707/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. As explained in same answer, Sri Vaishnavas believe Vikhanasa as avatar of Brahma as described in Pancharatra Agamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva's incarnations are described in detail in &lt;em&gt;42 chapters of Satarudra Samhita of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/em&gt;. Some of His famous incarnations are Kala Bhairava, Veerabhadra, Rshba, Nandi (partial Avatar), Hanuman, Sage Pippalada, Drona's son Aswatthama. You can read their legends in detail from &lt;em&gt;Satarudra Samhita&lt;/em&gt; which is available &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/handle/10689/12959&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (Chapter1, Chapter2 and Chapter3) and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-80&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (Chapter 80- Chapter 121).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from Trimurties, Devas do take Avatars. As mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7044/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, many characters in Mahabharata and Ramayana are avatars of Devas like Arjuna being &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8707/3500&quot;&gt;Nara and Indra&lt;/a&gt;, Krishna being sage Narayana (who is inturn Lord Vishnu), Karna being Surya, Bhisma being Vasu, Yudistara being Yama, Bheema being Vayudeva and so on.  Number of Avatars of Devas with Avatars of Trimurties are infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, not only Lord Vishnu, other Devas too incarnated on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-01-04T18:47:31.537" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16645" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-04T18:51:16.597" Score="8" ViewCount="615" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where else other than Jagannath Puri, is the worship of combined deities of &quot;Krishna, Balarama, and Subhadra&quot; done? i.e., any other temples such as the Puri Jagannath temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jagannath.nic.in/?q=node/158&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;official website&lt;/a&gt; of Shree Jagannath Temple:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jagannatha is not the only deity worshipped in the temple, though it is known as the 'Jagannatha Temple'. &lt;strong&gt;But along with Jagannatha, two others namely, Balabhadra, and Subhadra are also worshipped here.&lt;/strong&gt; These three, constitute the basic and fundamental Trinity and are considered to be the forms and manifestations of the omni-present, omni-scient and omni-potent supreme power. Sudarsan who is supposed to be the fourth important divine manifestation is also worshipped with the celebrated trio and these four are known as the Caturdha murti or the four-fold divine images. Besides, Madhava, a replica of Jagannatha, Sridevi and Bhudevi are also installed in the sanctum sanctorum and worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8028" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-17T08:30:40.547" LastActivityDate="2022-07-19T18:03:23.303" Title="Worship of combined deities of &quot;Krishna, Balarama, and Subhadra&quot; as in Jagannath Puri?" Tags="|krishna|temple|worship|balarama|subhadra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16646" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16707" CreationDate="2017-01-05T04:20:55.213" Score="11" ViewCount="19223" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, what all horoscope poruthams (matching factors) are required for a couple to get married? Please let me know the minimum criteria ?&#xA;If the horoscopes don't match properly, are there any remedies for such situations i.e., some special poojas that may help in overcoming the doshas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8148" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2022-11-05T02:37:34.607" LastActivityDate="2022-11-05T02:37:34.607" Title="The factors that should match for a couple to live a happy life?" Tags="|marriage|astrology|horoscopes|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16647" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-05T06:08:30.703" Score="13" ViewCount="789" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mylavarapu.net/about/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mylavarapu Srinivasa Rao&lt;/a&gt; is a well-known scholar of Hinduism and its philosphy in Telugu states.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He talks about Greatness of Indra in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_UK661jEqE#t=041&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; (in Telugu). He says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra is king of all Devas who did 100 yajnas (referring to Aswamedha&#xA;  Yajnas). &lt;strong&gt;He will test the sages who do tapasya with Kama (lust),&#xA;  Krodha (wrath), Lobha (greed), Moha (delusion or infatuation), Mada&#xA;  (pride) and Matsyarya (envy).&lt;/strong&gt; People generally think Indra sends&#xA;  Apsaras to sages or Rishis who are engrossed in Tapasya to deviate&#xA;  them and protect his position of Indra, but this is not correct. If this&#xA;  behavior of Indra was true, Devas indeed wouldn't allow him to be&#xA;  their leader. A person performing Tapasya should undergo six kinds of&#xA;  test. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishwamitra failed in test of Kama when Indra sent Menaka. &lt;strong&gt;Indra got&#xA;  no Dosha here but it's the mistake of Vishwamitra who failed in test.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  If an examiner sets tough paper and student fails, it's the mistake of&#xA;  student who failed in examination rather than examiner. Vishwamitra&#xA;  didn't even have altercation with Indra as Indra had every right to&#xA;  test him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a person wins in Kama, he tests the person in Krodha. He tested&#xA;  Gautama muni in Krodha. &lt;strong&gt;Indra didn't do any sin in case of Ahalya.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Those who have read Valmiki Ramayana verses properly can't deny this&#xA;  fact. Ahalya too didn't commit any sin and this is the reason Sri&#xA;  Rama, embodiment of Dharma, did &lt;em&gt;Padabhi Vandana&lt;/em&gt; for Ahalya. Here Dosha&#xA;  is for Gautama Muni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says it's duty or right of Indra to test a person or Rishi undergoing tapasya. &lt;strong&gt;What scriptures mention that Indra has right to test with Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada and Matsyarya?&lt;/strong&gt; If scriptural evidence for this is found, these actions of Indra can be justified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-04-08T07:12:40.143" LastActivityDate="2020-09-07T07:04:59.370" Title="What scriptures say Indra has right/authority to test sages with Kama, Krodha, lobha, Moha, Madha and Matsarya?" Tags="|scripture|indra|rishi|kama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16649" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-05T08:29:42.407" Score="5" ViewCount="2632" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indrajit was capable of using Brahmastra as he did against Lord Hanuman in Ashoka Vana (this incident is narrated in Sundara Kanda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why didn't Indrajit use the Brahmastra against Lord Rama or Lakshmana or the vanara army in the main war (Yuddha Kanda) just as the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2348&quot;&gt;Nagastras&lt;/a&gt; he used?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-01-05T19:38:51.360" Title="Why didn't Indrajit use Brahmastra against Rama and Lakshmana in the main war?" Tags="|ramayana|weapon|brahmastra|indrajit|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16650" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16266" CreationDate="2017-01-05T11:31:21.280" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;As long as I know Noder Nimai was a Bengali movie based on life of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's original name was Vishvambhar and was also called Nimai, since he was born under a Neem tree. The offshoot of this tree is still present in Mayapur and this place is called Yog-Pith; the birth place of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among Sanskrit and Vedic scholars also He began to be known as Nimai Pandit.&#xA;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born in Mayapur in Nadia district of West Bengal, Hence the name 'Noder Nimai'; meaning 'Nimai of Nadia'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2017-01-05T11:31:21.280" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16653" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-05T17:37:56.283" Score="25" ViewCount="5110" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know, There are four yugas (Satya, Treta, Dwapara, Kali). Every yuga consists of four parts (known as pādā  in sanskrit). Many are aware that in the daily rituals we perform, we say &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kali yuge prathama pāde&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; as a part of Sankalpa of that pooja. It is quite common in almost every pooja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If this sankalpa continues for generation after generation, how will it change even if we enter the second pāda of kali yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How will we know that the first part of the yuga is completed? Will there be any indication?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is time period of kaliyuga equally divided among four parts?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does the adharma get more prevalent in the next parts of this yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;The above question is not a duplicate of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2875/what-exactly-happens-at-end-of-kali-yuga-how-will-the-world-be-destroyed&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question. &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-07T06:15:03.133" LastActivityDate="2021-12-17T09:15:38.553" Title="How will we know the end of first part of the Kali yuga?" Tags="|rituals|yuga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16654" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-05T18:01:32.463" Score="6" ViewCount="242" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Shaivite&quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, Iyer Brahmins are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to philosophical Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is related to a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta, which is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the Nayanars just as the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the Alwars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, one of the defining works of the Shaiva Siddhanta sect is Meykandar's Shiva Jnana Bodham, a commentary on twelve important verses from a Shaiva Agama called the Raurava Agamas.  Now Meykandar's shishya Arulnandi Shivacharya wrote a work called the Shivajnana Siddhiyar, which is a commentary on Meykandar's work but also tries to refute rival schools of philosophy.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KxNh7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shiva Jnana Siddhiyar, Arulnandi Sivacharya refutes Buddhist philosophy by showing that all Buddhist theories of how physical bodies originate are incorrect:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you say bodies are formed from the mixture of four elements, then these cannot unite as their natures are opposed to each other.  &lt;strong&gt;If you say they are formed by the union of blood and semen, then account for toads being found in the heart of rocks, and worms in the heart of trees.&lt;/strong&gt;  If you say the real cause is good and bad Karma, then these, being opposed, cannot join and form bodies.  If food is the cause, then the food which in youth develops the body is not capable of preventing decay in old age.  If intelligence is the cause, then that which is formless Chaitanya cannot assume Achaitanya (non-intelligent) form.  If you assert that bodies are formed from nothing, then we could cull flowers from the sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  Arulnandi Shivacharya is saying that intercourse cannot be the ultimate cause of the creation of bodies, because there are toads that are found in the center of solid rocks, and those toads couldn't have been produced through intercourse since there would be no way for the parents to get inside the rocks in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He states this fact as if it's common knowledge, but it's not common knowledge to me!  So my question is, are there any scriptures which describe toads being found in the heart of rocks?  And how exactly are toads found in the heart of rocks born if it not by intercourse?  Are they magically created somehow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, I found a &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=WlFIAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA145&amp;amp;dq=%22heart+of+rocks%22+toads&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiA_fKa9qfRAhUK6yYKHXh5CXQQ6AEIJTAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%22heart%20of%20rocks%22%20toads&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;journal paper&lt;/a&gt; written in 1834 about claims of toads being found in solid rocks. Still, along with Adi Shankaracharya's claim described in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15583/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Arulnandi Shivacharya's claim suggests to me that the experiences of ancient Indians were very different from our own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2019-01-05T16:02:00.457" Title="What scriptures describe toads being found in the heart of solid rocks?" Tags="|philosophy|shaivism|animals|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16655" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16649" CreationDate="2017-01-05T19:38:51.360" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;On the contrary, Indrajit actually fired the Brahmāstra on Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa in the main war of Rāmāyaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When both Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa are lying unconscious in the battlefield, this is what Vibhīṣaṇa &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga74/yuddhasans74.htm#Verse3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मै तु दत्तं &lt;strong&gt;परमास्त्रमेतत्&lt;/strong&gt; | त्स्वयम्भुवा &lt;strong&gt;ब्राह्मममोघवेगम्&lt;/strong&gt; | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तन्मानयन्तौ यदि राजपुत्रौ | निपातितौ को अत्र विषादकालः || ६-७४-४ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4. etat = this; &lt;strong&gt;braahmam paramaastram&lt;/strong&gt; = excellent missile presided over by Brahma the creator amoghaviiryam = with never-failing&#xA;  strength; dattam = was given; svayambhuvaa = by Brahma; tasmai = to&#xA;  Indrajit; maanayantau = honouring; tat = it; rajaputrau = the two&#xA;  princes; nipaatitau = were made to fall down; yudhi = in battle; kaH =&#xA;  what is the use of; viShaada kaalaH = a time for despondency; atra =&#xA;  here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This excellent missile, presided over by Brahma the creator&lt;/strong&gt;, with&#xA;  never-failing strength, was given to Indrajit by Brahma. &lt;strong&gt;Honouring it,&#xA;  Rama and Lakshmana the princes fell down in battle.&lt;/strong&gt; This not a time&#xA;  for despondency here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before Indrajit makes his first appearance in the main war, this is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga73/yuddhasans73.htm#Verse27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;he does&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सोऽस्त्रमाहारयामास &lt;strong&gt;ब्राह्ममस्त्र&lt;/strong&gt;विदां वरः || ६-७३-२७ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धनुश्चात्मरथं चैव सर्वं तत्राभ्यमन्त्रयत् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indrajit, who was skilled in the use of mystic missiles, &lt;strong&gt;invoked the missile presided over by Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;charged it on his bow&lt;/strong&gt;, chariot and all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before falling to the ground, Rāma suspects Indrajit has somehow employed the brahmāstra and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga73/yuddhasans73.htm#Verse70&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; the following to Lakṣmaṇa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मन्ये स्वयम्भूर्भगवानचिन्त्यो | &#xA;  यस्यैतदस्त्रं प्रभवश् च योऽस्य| &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बाणावपातांस्त्वमिहाद्य धीमन् &#xA;  मया सहाव्यग्रमनाः सहस्व || ६-७३-७० &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I think the self-born Brahma who is the source of the universe is inconceivable and this missile is presided over by him. O wise one! Remaining undistracted in mind, you bear along with me today the hail of arrows here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-05T19:38:51.360" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16657" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14765" CreationDate="2017-01-06T05:11:09.720" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The detail procedure of Chitrahuti is described in book named&#xA;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Shukla Yajuhu Shkhieya Nitya BrahmaKarmaSamucchaya.&quot;&#xA;(शुक्लयजु:शाखीय नित्यब्रह्मकर्म समुच्चय:) in Bhojan Prayoga.(भोजन प्रयोग)&lt;/strong&gt; .This procedure is also described in the  same book for followers of Rig-veda.i.e.&lt;strong&gt;Rig veda Nitya&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;BrahmaKarmaSamucchaya&lt;/strong&gt;.So the exact mantra's depends on the Veda and shakha (branch of respective veda) that one is following.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire procedure involves reciting of various mantras and suktas like &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Trisuparna Sukta&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; from Rig-Veda.Its bit lengthy so i am giving only the Chitrahuti part and mantras from the book in answer,which is for Shulka Yajur Veda followers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अग्रिममंत्रत्रयेण भोजनपात्राद् घृताक्तमोदनं गृहीत्वा&#xA;  पात्राद्दक्षिणभागे भूमौ प्राक् संस्था उदक् संस्था वा&#xA;  बदरीफलप्रमाणास्तिस्त्र आहुतयो देया:॥  ॐ भूपतये स्वाहा नमः ।ॐ भुवनपतये&#xA;  स्वाहा नमः । ॐ भूतानां पतये स्वाहा नमः &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AgniMantraTrayena BhojanPatrad GhrutaktaModanam Gruhitva&#xA;  PatraddDakshinBhage Bhumao Prak Sanstha Udak Sanstha Va&#xA;  BadariPhalaPramana stistra Ahutayo Deya. Om Bhupataye Swaha Namaha &lt;em&gt;Om&#xA;  Bhuvanpataye Swaha Namaha&lt;/em&gt; Om Bhutanam Pataye Swaha Namaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - In the plate by mixing Rice with Ghee of size of indian plum , give three Ahuties (offerings) by above mantras to LeftEast or&#xA;  North side of the plate.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9yUE4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9yUE4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-01-06T05:11:09.720" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16659" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16647" CreationDate="2017-01-06T06:32:30.423" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa itself mentions the objective of Indra's visit to Gautama's āśrama which was to simply take away the ascetic powers of Gautama. So, contrary to what the speaker in the video says, in this instance, it was not a test.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Gautama delivers his curse on Indra, Indra returns to his loka and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=1&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=49&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कुर्वता तपसो विघ्नं गौतमस्य महात्मन: । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  क्रोधमुत्पाद्य हि मया सुरकार्यमिदं कृतम् ।।1.49.2।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'I have accomplished &lt;strong&gt;the objective of the devatas by creating obstacles to Gautama's austerities&lt;/strong&gt;, evoking in consequence the wrath of the magnanimous sage'.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अफलोऽस्मि कृतस्तेन क्रोधात्सा च निराकृता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शापमोक्षेण महता तपोऽस्यापहृतं मया ।।1.49.3।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'By his (Gautama's) wrath I have been deprived of my testicles. She (Ahalya) has been deserted by him. &lt;strong&gt;He has lost his ascetic energy through the pronouncement of this great curse&lt;/strong&gt;'.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मात्सुरवरास्सर्वे सर्षिस्सङ्घास्सचारणा: ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुरसाह्यकरं सर्वे सफलं कर्तुमर्हथ ।।1.49.4।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'For that reason, O rishis, charanas and great devatas &lt;strong&gt;it is your duty&lt;/strong&gt; to restore my testicles &lt;strong&gt;for the benefit I have given you&lt;/strong&gt;'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it is the duty of other devatas to make Indra virile again, it must be the duty of Indra to go disturb the tapasyā of sages. In this instance, however, had Gautama not punished Indra for his despicable act, Indra would have failed his task.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rāmāyaṇa from &lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapressbookshop.in/catalogsearch/result/index/?limit=36&amp;amp;q=valmiki&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gorakhpur Gita Press&lt;/a&gt; also suggests that Indra was just trying to protect his throne:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Deprived of his testicles, Indra with timid eyes then (sought the presence of and spot to the gods headed by Agni (the god of fire), as well as to the Siddhas, Gandharvas and Caranas (as follows):- (1) &quot;Hampering as I did the austerities of the high-souled Gautama by exciting his wrath (&lt;strong&gt;and thereby foiling his attempt to claim my throne&lt;/strong&gt;), I have only just served the cause of gods. (2) In a fit of anger I have (accordingly) been deprived of my virility and Ahalya (too) has been disowned by him. He has (thus) been robbed by me of his spiritual energy by being incited to pronounce a great curse (on me as well as on his wife). (3) Therefore, with (the co-operation of) the host of seers and the celestial bards, O jewels among gods, you should all see me restored to my manhood, since I have served the cause of gods. (4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;The case of Rambhā&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before Rambhā appears on the scene, this is what Vālmīki &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/content?language=dv&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=1&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=63&amp;amp;field_sloka_value=25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मिन् सन्तप्यमाने तु विश्वामित्रे महामुनौ ।।1.63.25।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सम्भ्रमस्सुमहानासीत्सुराणां वासवस्य च ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महामुनौ when the mighty ascetic, तस्मिन् विश्वामित्रे that Viśvāmitra, सन्तप्यमाने while performing penance, सुराणाम् for devatas, वासवस्य च for Indra also, सुमहान् greatly, संभ्रम: आसीत् perturbance over took.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the mighty ascetic Viśvāmitra was performing penance, the gods as well as &lt;strong&gt;Indra got deeply perturbed&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, if Indra's duty is to merely test if a saint has mastered his senses, why should he be a &quot;deeply perturbed&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in conclusion, from the sages' point of view, such acts of Indra are for their own good, but from Indra's point, he's just trying to protect his padavī.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OP also mentions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indra didn't do any sin&lt;/strong&gt; in case of Ahalya. Those who have read Valmiki Ramayana verses properly can't deny this fact. &lt;strong&gt;Ahalya too didn't commit any sin&lt;/strong&gt; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/ecommentaries?field_commnetary_tid=13&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=1&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=48&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tilaka commentary&lt;/a&gt; says Indra committed a sin:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why did Indra, the upholder of dharma, engage himself in this sinful act?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He did this mission of the gods, otherwise Gautama would have taken away all the places of gods by means of his severe penance. Gautama rejected Ahalya. This was also the purpose of the gods. When Gautama curses her, his power of penance would be taken away. Had he not cursed, there would have been no loss of penance. In fact, Indra's mission was to arouse anger in Gautama, which would destroy his penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;PS. One has to simply wonder why Indra and other gods are always trying to protect their posts and also why didn't they make such appearances to disrupt &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramayana.tigercoder.com/07uttara/uttara_010.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the tapasyā of Rāvaṇa and Kumbhakarṇa&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-08T03:07:09.650" LastActivityDate="2017-01-08T03:07:09.650" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16660" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18801" CreationDate="2017-01-06T06:42:26.200" Score="8" ViewCount="3692" Body="&lt;p&gt;As every TV show and common man say Lord Hanuman went to Himalayas to bring Herbs and brought &lt;strong&gt;One Mountain&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;BR/&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;SCRIPTURE&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;BR/&gt;&#xA;As stated in Valmiki Ramayan : Yuddha Kanda(Chapter Sarga 74)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After having been struck by Brahma's missile released by Indrajit, Rama and Lakshmana became unconscious. Sixty-seven crores of monkeys fainted. Hanuma and Vibhishana, however in consciousness, roared about in the battle-front with torches in their hands, making a search of Jambavan. They find Jambavan. Jambavan requests Hanuma to proceed to Himalayas, by crossing over the ocean and to bring four important herbs, viz. Mrita Sanjivani, Vishalya karani, Suvarna karani and Sandhani; so as to bring succour to the fainted army of monkeys. Hanuma begins his journey to Himalayas and reaches Mount Rishabha, where the wonderful herbs exist. Hanuma searches for the four wonderful herbs. But the herbs appear invisible for him. &lt;strong&gt;Hanuma uproots the mountain clothed with the four celestial herbs and carries it along with him.&lt;/strong&gt;  Inhaling the odour of those herbs, Rama, Lakshmana and all the monkeys regain their normal health.&lt;BR/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As stated in Valmiki Ramayan : Yuddha Kanda(Chapter Sarga 101)&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama laments over the uncertain condition of Lakshmana. He calls Sushena, the monkey-physician. Sushena tests Lakshmana and says he is still alive. &lt;strong&gt;Sushena then requests Hanuma to go all the way to Himalayas and bring the required herbs to treat Lakshmana. Hanuma proceeds to Mount Mahodara and failing to identify the herbs there, carries the mountain-peak itself&lt;/strong&gt; and brings it to Sushena. Lakshmana regains consciousness, after getting treated with that herb by Sushena.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why did Lord Hanuman bring two mountains or mountain peaks as the first mountain he brought could be used to cure them ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there any other scriptures referring the reason for bringing two mountains ? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-18T04:10:30.250" LastActivityDate="2022-03-19T09:57:20.350" Title="Why did Lord Hanuman bring two mountains from Himalayas?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16661" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9415" CreationDate="2017-01-06T09:35:43.353" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Allah is arebic word meaning &amp;quot;Parabramha&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Allah = Means &amp;quot;The Only One to be Worshipped&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagvad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/9/verse/23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;9.23&lt;/a&gt; Lord Shrikrishna says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;येऽप्यन्यदेवता भक्ता यजन्ते श्रद्धयान्विता: |&lt;br&gt; तेऽपि मामेव कौन्तेय&#xA;यजन्त्यविधिपूर्वकम् || 23||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ye ’pyanya-devatā-bhaktā yajante śhraddhayānvitāḥ te ’pi mām eva&#xA;kaunteya yajantyavidhi-pūrvakam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - O son of Kunti, even those devotees who faithfully worship&#xA;other gods also worship me. But they do so by the wrong method.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Receiver of all prayers is Lord Shri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So you can say , Allah i.e. Parabrahma is Lord Shri Krishna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-06T11:55:06.187" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16663" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16813" CreationDate="2017-01-06T13:02:44.320" Score="6" ViewCount="7489" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Both Karna and Drona were capable of &lt;strong&gt;using Brahmastra&lt;/strong&gt; while battling Ghatotkacha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Drona didn't use brahmastra and in the end Karna &lt;strong&gt;used the Divine Weapon&lt;/strong&gt; that can be used only &lt;strong&gt;One Time&lt;/strong&gt; against Ghatotkacha which was given by Lord Indra.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why Both Drona and Karna didn't kill Ghatotkacha by using Brahmastra ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T07:41:47.167" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T07:41:47.167" Title="Why Karna and Drona didn't use Brahmastra against Ghatotkacha?" Tags="|mahabharata|karna|brahmastra|dronacharya|ghatotkacha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16664" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16680" CreationDate="2017-01-06T15:36:59.980" Score="4" ViewCount="1850" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Universe has No end can be understood but &lt;strong&gt;No beginning&lt;/strong&gt; cannot be understood&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There should be a definite point that the &lt;strong&gt;Lord Started&lt;/strong&gt; this process and it should work forever.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Anything cannot start itself and run forever and the universe must be started or created only by god. &#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In normal time souls are born in animals  for Bad Deeds but in the beginning on waht basis were souls in animals were put ? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What basis were the souls were put on the  Manu,Raksahas,Gandharvas,Human Beings,and animal on the &lt;strong&gt;Beginning of the universe&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;BR/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T03:36:06.677" LastActivityDate="2020-05-19T11:34:09.807" Title="How Universe has No beginning?" Tags="|vedas|gods|atma|time|cosmology|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16665" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-06T17:54:47.010" Score="3" ViewCount="127" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dharma shastras restrict Bramhacharis from applying perfumes and oils. Is it possible that Moisturiser is also restricted, and if yes, then is there any shastra advice for sweaty and dry skin bramhacharis what should they do if they have to avoid the sin of applying cosmetics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-01-06T19:26:36.657" LastActivityDate="2021-09-08T00:39:37.297" Title="Bramhacharya and restriction on cosmetics" Tags="|dharma|life|dharma-shastras|bramhacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16667" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16653" CreationDate="2017-01-07T05:51:26.180" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nothing very definitive but some indications are given in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/bhavishya/bookview.php?chapnum=31&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhavisya Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Bali and Kalki Devi approached Narayana in the form of Vamana who&#xA;  in turn enabled a Brahmana called Kama Sharma and his wife Devahuti on&#xA;  the banks of Yamuna River; he blessed that this couple would give&#xA;  birth to Bhoga Simha and Keli Simha. These two sons would stay in a&#xA;  Kreedavati Nagar and would carry out the wishes of Kali Yuga Devi,&#xA;  especially in the task of wide-spread Varna-sankara or destroying the&#xA;  Rules of Varnashrama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Over two thousand years, the established Regulations made by Lord&#xA;  Brahma and &lt;strong&gt;the successive Manus would get thinner and thinner and by&#xA;  the Second Paada of Kali Yuga, Kali Devata would be happy to witness&#xA;  that the old Vedic values would be obliterated, that the Daityamaya&#xA;  human beings (fully soaked in Daitya activities) would be of&#xA;  two-and-half feet height, that their life span would be forty years&#xA;  maximum (as against hundred years now) and that they would be free&#xA;  like birds without any Karmic regulations!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What happens even after that ? i.e in the last remaining quarters of Kali Yuga are also given in the same chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;At the end of the Kali's second half&lt;/strong&gt; there would &lt;strong&gt;neither by the&#xA;  institutions of marriages, nor Kingships, nor any social reformer and&#xA;  not even a Karma Karta! The World would be full of the progeny of&#xA;  Bhogi Simha and Keli Simha&lt;/strong&gt; and this kind of a situation devoid of&#xA;  customs and social norms woud prevail for one and quarter lakh years!!&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;In the Third Quarter of Kali Yuga, the average age of human beings&#xA;  would be twenty six years maximum;They would be too lustful and&#xA;  produce too many children and resort to affairs with co-males and&#xA;  animals!.......&lt;/strong&gt; In the &lt;strong&gt;fourth phase of Kali Yuga the maximum age of&#xA;  humans would not exceed tewnty years and live like water-beasts and&#xA;  animals;&lt;/strong&gt; hells like Tamistra and worse kinds of frightening Places of&#xA;  Retribution would be over-populated&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So.basically, when we find human beings  are having &lt;strong&gt;heights of around two and a half feet&lt;/strong&gt; and when their &lt;strong&gt;life span on average is not more than 40 years&lt;/strong&gt; we can assume that the first pada of Kali is over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-01-07T05:51:26.180" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16668" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-07T06:58:31.053" Score="4" ViewCount="225" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m14085.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aśvamedha-parva of Mahābhārata, Ch. LXXXV&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the mighty-armed Bhimasena, at the command of the king, sent out messengers to the great kings of the Earth. Those best of kings, came to the Horse-sacrifice of the Kuru monarch for doing what was agreeable to him. And they brought many gems with them and &lt;strong&gt;many female slaves&lt;/strong&gt; and horses and weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And later from the same chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Many sacrificial stakes also were set up&lt;/strong&gt;, made, according to the directions of the scriptures of wood, and adorned with gold. Endued with great effulgence, these were duly planted and dedicated (with scriptural Mantras). The king saw all animals, again, which belong to land and all those which belong to water, collected there on the occasion. And they also beheld many kine and many buffaloes and &lt;strong&gt;many old women&lt;/strong&gt;, and many aquatic animals, many beasts of prey and many species of birds, and many specimens of viviparous and oviparous creatures, and many that are filth-born, and many belonging to the vegetable kingdom, and many animals and plants that live or grow on mountains. &lt;strong&gt;Beholding the sacrificial compound thus adorned&lt;/strong&gt; with animals and kine and corn, the invited kings became filled with wonder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Large heaps of costly sweet-meats were kept ready for both the Brahmanas and the Vaisyas. And when the feeding was over of a hundred thousand Brahmanas, drums and cymbals were beat. And so large was the number fed that the sounds of drums and cymbals were repeatedly heard, indeed, from day to day those sounds continued. Thus was performed that sacrifice of king Yudhishthira of great intelligence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Were those women really sacrificed during Yudhiṣṭhira's aśvamedha-yajña or were they just witness to it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-07T06:58:31.053" Title="Did Yudhiṣṭhira sacrifice old women (female slaves) as part of his aśvamedha-yajña?" Tags="|mahabharata|women|yajna|yudhisthira|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16670" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16571" CreationDate="2017-01-07T07:36:36.443" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;All Hindu mythology is in POETIC IMAGERY. Poetic Imagery is always coined to depict and express abstract things.  To consider and equate them to human form, like Gods, Brahma ,Vishnu, Maheshwara, will miss the real content and purpose of Mythgology. CHANGE is the very nature of the Universe.  This is depicted asCreation, Maintenance and distruction . To represent that Prakruti, in three stages is the real purpose of Trimurti. WE should not mistake them as three  distinct GODS. SANSKRIT language is a Science of Sound. Every word has a Dhatu from which it springs, and has a definite meaning.&#xA;BRAHMA springs from Dhatu VRIH, meaning HUGE and ever Growing.&#xA;VISHNU springs from the dhatu VISH, meaning HUGE and Limitless.&#xA;SHIVA springs from the dhatu, SH, meaning Auspicious.&#xA;We should  then imagine PARABRAHMA as that which  HUGE, EVERGROWING, LIMITLESS&#xA;and also AUSPICIOUS.&#xA;To consider our mythology as stories similar to human stories will mislead us&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8644" LastActivityDate="2017-01-07T07:36:36.443" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16672" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-07T07:47:18.883" Score="10" ViewCount="4001" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b015.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, is this Mahābhārata śloka and its translation really talking about (physical) complexion of people belonging to the four varṇas or just their outward behavior? If it's the latter, what does 'red' or 'yellow' mean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12,181.005a   &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  brāhmaṇānāṃ sito varṇaḥ kṣatriyāṇāṃ tu lohitaḥ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  12,181.005c   &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; vaiśyānāṃ pītako varṇaḥ śūdrāṇām asitas tathā&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The complexion the Brahmanas obtained was &lt;strong&gt;white&lt;/strong&gt;; that which the Kshatriyas obtained was &lt;strong&gt;red&lt;/strong&gt;; that which the Vaisyas got was &lt;strong&gt;yellow&lt;/strong&gt;; and that which was given to the Sudras was &lt;strong&gt;black&lt;/strong&gt;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-07T07:52:25.910" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T17:01:48.210" Title="Colors of different varṇas: Is it their physical complexion or their qualities?" Tags="|mahabharata|caste-system|brahmins|kshatriya|color|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16673" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-07T08:15:53.267" Score="9" ViewCount="2040" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many mantras dedicated to Hanuman. Some popular choki mantras are &quot;Ekamukhi&quot;, &quot;Panchmukhi&quot;, &quot;Ekadhashamukhi&quot; etc. Recently I've heard/remembered about Shabar mantras (शाबर मंत्र) which in Hindi. They're believed very powerful with instant effect. So, I want to know about:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are Shabar mantra?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why are they called &quot;Shabar&quot;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who has written them? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are Shabar Mantras written/dedicated to Hanuman only or there are Shabar mantras for other deities also?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-07T10:56:56.263" LastActivityDate="2017-01-07T12:34:17.017" Title="What are the Shabar mantras?" Tags="|mantras|hanuman|etymology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16675" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16672" CreationDate="2017-01-07T09:07:03.147" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;These &quot;colors&quot; are to be understood metaphorically or allegorically as Gunas (qualities). As mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11225/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, white represents Satva, Red represents Rajas and Black represents Tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, Bibek Debroy who translated the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/unic/mbh12_sa.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BORI critical edition of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; says the same in his translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मणानां &lt;strong&gt;सितो&lt;/strong&gt; वर्णः क्षत्रियाणां तु &lt;strong&gt;लोहितः&lt;/strong&gt; | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वैश्यानां &lt;strong&gt;पीतको&lt;/strong&gt; वर्णः शूद्राणा &lt;strong&gt;मसितस्तथा&lt;/strong&gt; ||५|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The complexion of brahmanas was &lt;strong&gt;white&lt;/strong&gt;, while that of kshatriyas was&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;red&lt;/strong&gt;. The complexion of vaishyas was &lt;strong&gt;yellow&lt;/strong&gt;, while that of shudras was&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;black&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Footnotes, he says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is possible that this is meant to be taken figuratively and not&#xA;  literally. Brahmanas possessed the sattva quality, kshatriyas&#xA;  possessed the rajas quality, vaishyas possessed a combination of&#xA;  sattva and rajas and shudras possessed the tamas quality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In succeding lines Bharadvaja Muni asks, how Varna (complexion) alone decides distinction?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भरद्वाज उवाच|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चातुर्वर्ण्यस्य वर्णेन यदि &lt;strong&gt;वर्णो&lt;/strong&gt; विभज्यते | सर्वेषां खलु वर्णानां&#xA;  दृश्यते वर्णसङ्करः ||६|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Bharadvaja said, ‘If the distinction between the four varnas is only&#xA;  on the basis of &lt;strong&gt;complexion&lt;/strong&gt; and that is how the varnas are to be&#xA;  differentiated, then it is evident and can be seen that among the&#xA;  varnas, there has been a mixture of varnas. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कामः क्रोधो भयं लोभः शोकश्चिन्ता क्षुधा श्रमः | सर्वेषां नः प्रभवति&#xA;  कस्माद्वर्णो विभज्यते ||७|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Desire, anger, fear, avarice, sorrow, anxiety, hunger and exhaustion&#xA;  influence everyone. How can varnas be differentiated on the basis of&#xA;  this? &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To this, Brigu Muni explains how Dvaijas (Dvi =  two ; Ja = related to birth : Twice born, translated as Brahmanas) changed their Varnas by changing their Gunas (turned to other Varnas by their Karma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भृगुरुवाच|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न विशेषोऽस्ति वर्णानां सर्वं ब्राह्ममिदं जगत् | &lt;br&gt; ब्रह्मणा&#xA;  पूर्वसृष्टं हि &lt;strong&gt;कर्मभिर्वर्णतां गतम्&lt;/strong&gt; ||१०|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhrigu replied, ‘There is no special difference between the varnas.&#xA;  Everything in this universe first consisted of brahmanas. Brahma&#xA;  created all of them earlier and &lt;strong&gt;they attained varnas because of&#xA;  their deeds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कामभोगप्रियास्तीक्ष्णाः क्रोधनाः&lt;/strong&gt; प्रियसाहसाः | &lt;br&gt; त्यक्तस्वधर्मा&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;रक्ताङ्गास्ते&lt;/strong&gt; द्विजाः क्षत्रतां गताः ||११|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There were Dvijas (brahmanas) who loved &lt;strong&gt;desire and objects of pleasure&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  They were fierce and angry and loved courage. They abandoned their own&#xA;  dharma and having turned &lt;strong&gt;red&lt;/strong&gt; in their limbs, became kshatriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गोषु वृत्तिं समाधाय पीताः कृष्युपजीविनः | &lt;br&gt; स्वधर्मं नानुतिष्ठन्ति&#xA;  ते द्विजा वैश्यतां गताः ||१२|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There were Dvijas (brahmanas) who earned a living from animal husbandry and&#xA;  subsisted on agriculture. They did not follow their own dharma, turned&#xA;  yellow and became vaishyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;हिंसानृतप्रिया लुब्धाः&lt;/strong&gt; सर्वकर्मोपजीविनः | &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;कृष्णाः&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  शौचपरिभ्रष्टास्ते द्विजाः शूद्रतां गताः ||१३|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There were Dvijas (brahmanas) &lt;strong&gt;who loved violence and falsehood.&lt;/strong&gt; They were&#xA;  avaricious and turned to all kinds of deeds to earn a living. They&#xA;  were dislodged from purity, turned &lt;strong&gt;black&lt;/strong&gt; and became shudras. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this way, depending on their deeds, &lt;strong&gt;brahmanas became other&#xA;  varnas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More importantly, Shvetashvatara Upanishad of Krishna Yajurveda defines Prakriti as Red-white-Black which are interpreted as Rajas-Satva-Tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अजामेकां &lt;strong&gt;लोहितशुक्लकृष्णां&lt;/strong&gt; बह्वीः प्रजाः सृजमानां सरूपाः &lt;br&gt;।  अजो&#xA;  ह्येको जुषमाणोऽनुशेते जहात्येनां भुक्तभोगामजोऽन्यः ॥ ५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is one unborn prakriti−&lt;strong&gt;red, white and black&lt;/strong&gt;−which gives&#xA;  birth to many creatures like  itself. An unborn individual soul&#xA;  becomes attached to it and enjoys it, while another unborn individual&#xA;  soul leaves it after his enjoyment is completed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adishankara says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prakriti (nature) creates many creatures like itself which are&#xA;  governed by three Gunas - sattva, rajas and tamas - called red, white&#xA;  and black in this Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore while explaining Brahmasutras, Adi Shankara &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34119.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For, he says, we have the following mantra (Sve. Up. IV, 5), 'There is&#xA;  one agâ 1, red, white, and black, producing manifold offspring of the&#xA;  same nature. There is one agâ who loves her and lies by her; there is&#xA;  another who leaves her after having enjoyed her.'--In this mantra the&#xA;  words 'red,' 'white,' and 'black' denote the three constituent&#xA;  elements of the pradhâna. &lt;strong&gt;Passion is called red on account of its&#xA;  colouring, i.e. influencing property; Goodness is called white,&#xA;  because it is of the nature of Light; Darkness is called black on&#xA;  account of its covering and obscuring property&lt;/strong&gt;. The state of equipoise&#xA;  of the three constituent elements, i.e. the pradhâna, is denoted by&#xA;  the attributes of its parts, and is therefore called red-white-black.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.australiancouncilofhinduclergy.com/uploads/5/5/4/9/5549439/vajra_suchika_upanishad.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vajrasuchika Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; of Sama Veda says Brahmana is the one who has attained self realization and it also says Varna doesn't depend on color, birth or body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tarhi deho brāhmaṇa iti cet tan na | ācaṇḍālādi padantānām manuṣyāṇām&#xA;  pañcabhautikatvena dehasaikarūpatvāt |&#xA;  jarā-maraṇa-dharmādharmādi-samya darśanāt &lt;strong&gt;|brāhmaṇas śveta-varṇaḥ |&#xA;  kṣatriyo rakta-varṇaḥ | vaiśya pīta-varṇaḥ | śūdraḥ kṛṣṇa varṇa iti&#xA;  niyamābhāvāt&lt;/strong&gt; | pitrādi dahane putrādīnām brahma hatyādi&#xA;  doṣasambhavācca | tasmān na deho brāhmaṇa iti || 5 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then is the body the Brahmin? No, it is not so, because the body which&#xA;  is composed of the five elements, is the same in all classes of human&#xA;  beings down to the chandalas (outcastes), etc. And it is also observed&#xA;  that old age and death, virtue [dharma] and vice [adharma] are found&#xA;  to be common to all human beings. &lt;strong&gt;There is also no absolute&#xA;  distinction (in the complexion of the four classes) that the Brahmin&#xA;  is of the white complexion, that the Kshatriya is of the red&#xA;  complexion, that the Vaishya is of the tawny complexion, that the&#xA;  Sudra is of the dark complexion.&lt;/strong&gt; [If the body is the brahmin] the&#xA;  sons and other kinsmen would becoming guilty of the murder of a&#xA;  Brahmin and other (sins) on cremating the bodies of their fathers and&#xA;  other kinsmen. Therefore the body is not the Brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, these colors represent Gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T17:01:48.210" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16676" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16673" CreationDate="2017-01-07T09:34:48.183" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you may have noticed that these mantras are quite different from Vedic mantras or those contained in other Hindu Shastras although they are also (mostly)related to Vedic Deities only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They use mostly spoken languages as opposed to sanskrit and also at times the words used in them are such that the mantras look completely meaningless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, given below is one such mantra dedicated to Goddess Saraswati(which is supposedly for removal of negative energy,but don't just chant this of course):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarasvatī gāḍī sunna kā dīyā rupē kī bātī guṇa bātī bātī. Aṅkīnī,&#xA;  ḍaṅkīnī, śaṅkhinī, jādū ṭōnā mērī bhavānī isī ghaḍī yahām̐ sē nikala&#xA;  jāya, mērī a̔āna mērē gurū kī a̔āna īśvara gaurā pārvatī mahādēva kī&#xA;  duhā'ī.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But they do make good use of the Pranava(Om) .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,the following is a mantra for the Natha sampradaya Guru Gorakshnath:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satya Naam AAdesh Guru Ka Om Guru Gorokhnathaya Namaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,following is a shabar mantra for Goddess Durga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Ath Bhuji Ambika Ek Naam Omkar Khat Darshan Tribhuvan Mein Panch&#xA;  Pandava Saat Deep Chaar Khoont Nau Khand Mein Chnada Suraj Do Praman&#xA;  Haath Jodh Binti Karoon Mam Karoo Kalyan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are related to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorakshanath&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Natha Sampradaya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The propounder of such mantras are  the Natha Sampradaya Gurus like Gorakshnath,&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsyendranath&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matsyendranath&lt;/a&gt; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All of them are descendants of the first Guru or Adi Natha or Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The famous Yoga treatise &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatha_Yoga_Pradipika&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hatha Yoga Pradipika&lt;/a&gt;&quot; lists few Siddha Gurus of this Parampara among whom one is called Shabar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I assume that the mantras are named after him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KIjMu.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KIjMu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  Śrīādināthamatsyendra&lt;strong&gt;śāvar&lt;/strong&gt;ānandabhairavāh&#xA;  chaurangghīmīnaghorakshavirūpākshabileśayāh&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Âdinâtha (Śiva), matsyendra, Nâtha, &lt;strong&gt;Sâbar&lt;/strong&gt;, Anand, Bhairava,&#xA;  Chaurangi, mîna nâtha, Goraksanâtha, Virupâksa, Bileśaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to some web pages these mantras are auto-energized or siddha but some others claim that a regular diksha(initiation) is needed from a proper Guru before chanting them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also believed that these mantras are more effective in Kali Yuga than any other mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-07T12:34:17.017" LastActivityDate="2017-01-07T12:34:17.017" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16678" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11744" CreationDate="2017-01-07T13:40:27.413" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is partial answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First mantra is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv02012.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rigveda 2.12.2&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यः पर्थिवीं वयथमानामद्रंहद यः पर्वतान परकुपितानरम्णात | &lt;br&gt; यो&#xA;अन्तरिक्षं विममे वरीयो यो दयामस्तभ्नात स जनास इन्द्रः || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yaḥ pṛthivīṃ vyathamānāmadṛṃhad yaḥ parvatān prakupitānaramṇāt |  yo&#xA;antarikṣaṃ vimame varīyo yo dyāmastabhnāt sa janāsa indraḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv02012.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Griffith's&lt;/a&gt; translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who fixed fast and firm the earth that staggered, and set at rest the agitated mountains, Who measured out the air's wide middle region&#xA;and gave the heaven support, He, men, is Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-ii/topic-12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indiascriptures&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He, who fixed firm the moving earth; who tranquillized the incensed mountains; who spread the spacious firmament; who consolidated the&#xA;heaven; he, men, is Indra. Who Tranquillized the Incensed Mountains-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yah parvatan prakupitan aramnat; the Scholiast says he quieted the&#xA;mountains, going hither and thither, as long as they had wings: Indra&#xA;cut them off.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding second mantra, all blogs and books (from google) say &amp;quot;Sarva Dishanaam, Suryaha, Suryaha, Suryaha&amp;quot; is source of Mantra which i couldn't find in Rigveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-01-07T14:05:10.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16680" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16664" CreationDate="2017-01-07T16:47:38.760" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas say time is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14914/3500&quot;&gt;cyclic&lt;/a&gt;. So, there is no first creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even we can comprehend it logically. If we assume there was first creation of Universe and other living beings (jivas), why some Atmans aquired status of Devas and why some Atmans took birth as humans and Rakshasas during very first birth? Even in Humans, why some Atmans were born as Brahmanas and why some Atmans were Sudras for the first time? This selection can't be random as it violates &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2492/3500&quot;&gt;Law of Karma&lt;/a&gt; of Vedas. So, there must be no first birth or first creation to apply law of Karma properly. Our Atman and Supreme Brahman are eternal and Universe is undergoing creation, preservation and destruction since eternity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the book &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/spiritualheritag1963prab&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Spiritual heritage of India&lt;/a&gt;, Swami Prabhavananda says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To the Hindu, creation is beginningless and endless. That it is&#xA;  beginningless he proves by a simple process of logic. If creation had&#xA;  a beginning, then must the creator also have had a beginning, since&#xA;  until there is a creation there can be no creator; but to admit that&#xA;  the creator had a beginning would be to admit that God had a&#xA;  beginning, since God is not God until he creates—and to think of God&#xA;  as having had a beginning would, to the Hindu, be a manifest&#xA;  absurdity. God, who contains within himself the seed, the material&#xA;  cause, of the universe, first brings forth the universe out of his own&#xA;  being, and then in due time takes it back again to himself. This&#xA;  process of creation and dissolution goes on for ever and ever, for it&#xA;  is as endless as it is beginningless. Eternity is witness, not of one&#xA;  universe only—that, for example, of which we are now a part—but of an&#xA;  infinite succession of universes. The birth, life, and destruction of&#xA;  a universe constitutes a cycle. To say that &lt;strong&gt;there was never a first&#xA;  cycle, and will never be a last, is only a way of affirming that the&#xA;  creative function of God is, like himself, eternal&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_1/addresses_at_the_parliament/v1_c1_paper_on_hinduism.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Vivekananda&lt;/a&gt; says the following in his complete works.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas.&#xA;  They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. It may&#xA;  sound ludicrous to this audience, how a book can be without beginning&#xA;  or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant. They mean the accumulated&#xA;  treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons in&#xA;  different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed before its&#xA;  discovery, and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with&#xA;  the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical, and&#xA;  spiritual relations between soul and soul and between individual&#xA;  spirits and the Father of all spirits, were there before their&#xA;  discovery, and would remain even if we forgot them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The discoverers of these laws are called Rishis, and we honour them as&#xA;  perfected beings. I am glad to tell thisaudience that some of the very&#xA;  greatest of them were women. Here it may be said that these laws as&#xA;  laws may be without end, but they must have had a beginning. The Vedas&#xA;  teach us that creation is without beginning or end. Science is said to&#xA;  have proved that the sum total of cosmic energy is always the same.&#xA;  Then, if there was a time when nothing existed, where was all this&#xA;  manifested energy? Some say it was in a potential form in God. In that&#xA;  case God is sometimes potential and sometimes kinetic, which would&#xA;  make Him mutable. Everything mutable is a compound, and everything&#xA;  compound must undergo that change which is called destruction. So God&#xA;  would die, which is absurd. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore there never was a time when&#xA;  there was no creation&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Lord is eternal and as Supreme God is eternal, the process of creation, preservation and destruction is happening since eternity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara says that process of Creation, Preservation and destruction is just an apparent manifestation, as discussed by Swami Vishwananda in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13990/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In normal time souls are born in animals for Bad Deeds but in the beginning on what basis were souls in animals were put ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atmans aquire bodies in this cycle of creation based on their respective karma of previous cycles. Since there is no first cycle of creation, you can apply this logic to all cycles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, those who perform &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/626/3500&quot;&gt;100 Aswamedha Yajnas&lt;/a&gt; become Indra. So, a king or Kshatriya of previous cycle who performed 100 Aswamedha Yajnas in last Manvantara becomes Indra for first Manvantara of first kalpa in the present cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-01-16T13:22:51.690" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16681" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16682" CreationDate="2017-01-07T20:45:39.087" Score="4" ViewCount="1048" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ved Vyasa is a title which is given to new Vyasa in every Chaturyuga, in this Chaturyuga it is Given to the great Krishna Dwaipayana son of Bramharishi Parashara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Vyasa is a related to Geometry, Vyasa is also a Sanskrit word for Diameter of a Circle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning of Vyasa when used as 'Veda Vyasa', is it Geometrical or something else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;My Interpretation with the Meaning 'Diameter of Circle':&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we compare the analogy we get the literal meaning as follows &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vedavyasa = Veda + Vyasa&#xA;  Veda has two meanings Knowledge/ The 4 Vedas&#xA;  Vyasa is Diameter &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we consider circle to be Veda (Circle of Knowledge or Vedas) then according to the definition of Diameter&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A line segment connecting two extreme points of the Circle(Knowledge) is known as Diameter of circle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if we compare the analogy we can derive following meaning &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Veda Vyasa means the entitled person for a Chaturyuga who has All the knowledge(of the vedas) from its two Extremes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: The possible reason for Analogy of circle to the Vedas/Knowledge is because Circle is a complete figure and Vedas are complete set knowledge. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas don't have a starting point(apaurusheya)from this we can conclude that they don't have ending, similarly circle has no starting point which means no end point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-08T02:56:48.250" LastActivityDate="2017-01-08T02:56:48.250" Title="Meaning of the word 'Vyasa'" Tags="|dharma|sanskrit|vyasa|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16682" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16681" CreationDate="2017-01-07T20:45:39.087" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, the Geometrical Meaning of the word Vyasa is misfit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning of Veda Vyasa is &lt;strong&gt;'The Compiler of Vedas'&lt;/strong&gt; here, but in my opinion geometrical meaning can be applied here if properly interpreted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are 9 Meanings of the word Vyasa &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Distribution, separation into parts.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dissolution or analysis of a compound. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Severalty, distinction. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Diffusion, extension; तस्यैव व्यासमिच्छामि ज्ञातुं ते भगवन् यथा Bhāg.6.4.2. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Width, breadth. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The diameter of a circle. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A fault in pronunciation.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Arrangement, compliation. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;An Arranger, a compiler.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/?q=%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B8&amp;amp;lang=sans&amp;amp;iencoding=iast&amp;amp;action=Search#a3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Dictonary&lt;/a&gt;(refer to V.S. Apte)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Most Relevant Meaning 'Compiler, Arranger'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna Dwaipayana Veda Vyasa compiled the Vedas in order to simplify their study, this is the best fit, and the meaning of the word Vyasa here is Arranger or compiler.&#xA;So Veda Vyasa Translates to 'The Compiler of Vedas' .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning No. 1 &quot;Distinguisher&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The one who distinguished the Vedas into three parts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning No. 3 Distinction&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Veda Vyasa who makes Distinctions in Vedas based on the purpose of Knowledge he divided Vedas into three parts and further made Distinction of each part into Samhita, Bramhana, Aranyaka, and Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Veda Vyasa translates to 'The one who Distinguised Vedas(Vast Knowledge)'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-01-07T21:53:18.900" LastActivityDate="2017-01-07T21:53:18.900" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16683" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-07T21:25:38.950" Score="4" ViewCount="1252" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the teaching of Vedanta a jiva soul or the living being (jivatma) has never been created, and that is because a jiva exists eternally throughout all the phases of time, namely past, present and future. That means that there were no creation of a jiva soul (jivatma) anytime in the past. And that practically means that a jiva existed since infinite time in the past.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now, some Hindus believe that the jivas living in this material world has been living here since infinite time in the past, thus being repeatedly born lifetime after lifetime infinite number of times so far, or to say that in other words they believe in infinite number of rebirths for jivas who live in this material world in the beginningless &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;. Thus they believe that &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt; (repeated births and deaths) for the jivas has no beginning, ie it is beginningless, and thus they believe that there is no the first birth of a jiva in the material world.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However, there are Hindus who believe that there really is the first birth of a jiva in this material world, and thus they do not believe in infinite number of rebirths since infinite past, and thus they do not believe in beginningless &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does Hindu scripture have to say about this subject? Please provide specific scriptural statements to support your answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-08T05:39:08.713" LastActivityDate="2017-01-09T04:56:42.107" Title="Is there the first birth of a jiva soul in the material world or not?" Tags="|karma|vedanta|samsara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16684" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="237" CreationDate="2017-01-08T03:46:09.303" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I see most Hindus focus on Puranas, which are really trying to describe an abstract thru poetic imagery. they confuse these imageries as personae and start fighting as to who came first and who is supreme. Puranas came later to convey the abstract to the laity, and failed convey the exact concepts as they themselves got entrapped into human forms and conflicts.&#xA;We as Hindus should focus on Upanishats, which are veritable treasures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I see in the above discussions, Chaturmukha Brahma is confused with the concept of PARABRAHMA. para brahma is Nirguna and has no forms but all pervading and is the sole energy. laity fight over Brahma, Vishnu and Mahaeshwara as if they are individual personae. This is the tragedy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;energy can neither be created nor destroyed. So, a discussion on who was born first is inane, in spite of what various Puranas proclaim. Today, various sects have written various Puranas, in order to proclaim their&#xA;Concepts of GOD as being more strong. This reminds me of the fight between current political parties. Therefore to reduce the concept of ParaBrahma to human level will miss the core of Hinduism&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8644" LastActivityDate="2017-01-08T03:46:09.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16685" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16683" CreationDate="2017-01-08T06:40:32.017" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First you make the statement that - &quot;However, there are Hindus who believe that there really is the first birth of a jiva in this material world, and thus they do not believe in infinite number of rebirths since infinite past, and thus they do not believe in beginningless samsara.&quot; - I am not aware of any scripture that supports this statement of yours. Any Hindu that has this 'belief' is not orthodox as it is not supported by scripture. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; (II.12) Swami Nikhilananda translator:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor these kings of men. Never will there be a time hereafter when any of us shall cease to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 2.1.35 (Swami Vireswarananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it be said (that is) not (possible) for want of any distinction in work (before creation), (we say) no, because of (the world) being without a beginning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and Sankara's commentary on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since before the first creation the individual soul [jiva] cannot possibly have had a previous existence, whence comes the difference in the condition of beings in that first creation, unless the Lord has caused it out of His partiality? the objection is answered by the Sutra, which says that creation is without a beginning and the question of first creation cannot arise. It is like a seed and its sprout. So the individual soul, should have always had a previous existence and done good or bad deeds in accordance with which their lot in a subsequent creation is ordained by the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Ramauja's commentary on this verse from his &lt;em&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/em&gt; (Swami Vireswarananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Before creation there was Brahman alone and noting else existed; there were no individual souls and so there was no Karma to justify the inequality in creation. That there were no souls before creation is declared by the scriptures: 'In the beginning, dear boy, there was this Being alone, one only' etc. (&lt;em&gt;Cha&lt;/em&gt;. VI. ii. 1). The &lt;em&gt;Sutra&lt;/em&gt; refutes this and says 'No'; for the souls and their Karma form an eternal stream which is beginningless. Individual souls are not created but existed even before creation in a very subtle condition almost non-distinguishable from Brahman, and hence the scriptural texts which declare the non-existence of everything but Brahman before creation. What the texts deny is the existence of beings in a gross state with name and form. But the souls did exist in a subtle condition before creation. This is reasonable also for otherwise souls would be punished for acts they did not commit and go without punishment for wrong acts committed by them. That the souls are eternal is also declared by the scriptures: 'All this was then unmanifest. It became manifest only as name and form' (&lt;em&gt;Br&lt;/em&gt;. I. iv. 7). As the text talks of mere manifestation in gross form, the souls are eternal and existed before creation also. 'He is the eternal among the eternal' (&lt;em&gt;Sve&lt;/em&gt;. VI. 13); 'This unborn, eternal, everlasting ancient One' etc. (Ka. I. ii. 18); 'The conscious sybject and the unconscious object, the master and the dependent are both unborn' (&lt;em&gt;Sve&lt;/em&gt;. I. 9). Smriti also declares the same: 'Know that Prakrti and Purusa are both beginningless' (&lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; XIII. 19). Moreover, creation also is beginningless, and when the scriptures talk of the beginning of creation they mean only the beginning of a new cycle. This is borne out by texts like, 'The Lord devised the sun and the moon as before' (&lt;em&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/em&gt; X. cxc. 3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So partiality and cruelty cannot be attributed to the Lord.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are an infinite number of jivas and there is an infinite past and an infinite future. Infinite means infinite, without number. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-01-09T04:56:42.107" LastActivityDate="2017-01-09T04:56:42.107" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16687" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7954" CreationDate="2017-01-08T08:06:06.797" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all there is not anything like 44 Avatars of Shiva. There are many (actually infinite) Avatars of Lord Shiva. Also as you have asked &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;What is the need of his avatar if his function is to just destroy the Universe?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot; So, I&amp;apos;m here describing Avatars along with significance of them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Incarnations from Vedas:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas talk of many incarnations of Lord Shiva. Within the avaliable Shakhas of Vedas today we can get more than 25 incarnations of Lord Shiva itself in the Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;i) AshtaMurti Incarnations:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eightfold manifestation of Lord Shiva through Brahma (Prajapati) are known as AshtaMurti avatar. It is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of YajurVeda Shatapatha Brahmana. As we see in that chapter Brahma calls the incarnations as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are &lt;strong&gt;Rudra&lt;/strong&gt;. You are &lt;strong&gt;Sarva&lt;/strong&gt;. You are &lt;strong&gt;Pasupati&lt;/strong&gt;. You are &lt;strong&gt;Ugra&lt;/strong&gt;. You are &lt;strong&gt;Asani&lt;/strong&gt;. You are &lt;strong&gt;Bhava&lt;/strong&gt;. You are &lt;strong&gt;Mahadeva&lt;/strong&gt;. You are &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He entered the Eight things and Brahma calls it as;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rudra is fire. Sarva is water. Pasupati is plants. Ugra is air. Asani is Vajra. Bhava is Indra. Mahadeva is moon. Ishana is sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus these all things are just forms of Lord Shiva/ (AshtaMurti incarnation of Shiva). &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of AshtaMurti Avatar:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;There is great significance of AshtaMurti Avatar and it is described by Brahma himself in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;same chapter&lt;/a&gt; of YajurVeda. Those 8 incarnations made the whole world function as we see it today. As stated there Prajapati there states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fire became &lt;strong&gt;suchlike.&lt;/strong&gt; Water became suchlike. Plants became suchlike. Air became suchlike. Vajra became suchlike. Indra became suchlike. Moon became suchlike. Sun became &lt;strong&gt;suchlike.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;the significance is these Avatars made all these things such like.&lt;/strong&gt; ie. AshtaMurti are the innate power of all these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;ii) Ekadash Rudra incarnations:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas also define the 11 Rudras which are known as Ekadash Rudras. BrihadAranyaka Upanishad which is itself a part of Shatapatha Brahmana of YajurVeda. It&amp;apos;s defined in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 9.4. The names aren&amp;apos;t given there, but from Mahabharata we know their names as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They were &lt;strong&gt;Mrigavayadha, Sarpa, Niriti&lt;/strong&gt; of great fame: &lt;strong&gt;Ajaikapat, Ahivradhna,&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Pinaki,&lt;/strong&gt; the oppressor of foes; &lt;strong&gt;Dahana and Iswara,&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Kapali&lt;/strong&gt; of great splendour; and &lt;strong&gt;Sthanu,&lt;/strong&gt; and the illustrious &lt;strong&gt;Bharga.&lt;/strong&gt; These are called the eleven Rudras. [Sambhava Parva chapter 66]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of Ekadash Rudra Avatar:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Just as AshtaMurti avatar has their form as Agni, Vayu, Surya, Chandra etc.. similarly Ekadash Rudra also have great significance and they rule over Pranas and Atman. BrihadAranyaka Upanishad 9.4 explains it as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Which are the Rudras?&amp;quot; asked Sakalya. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;The ten Pranas in the body, with the Atman&amp;nbsp; as the eleventh.&lt;/strong&gt; When they depart from this mortal body, they make one&amp;apos;s relatives weep. Because they make them weep (rud), therefore they are called Rudras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as clear from above Ekadash Rudras rule over Pranas and Atman in the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;iii) PanchaBrahman incarnations:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16553/who-are-pancha-brahmas-and-why-are-they-called-so/16557#16557&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; Vedas also talk of 5 fold manifestation of Lord Shiva which are called PanchaBrahmans. It is in Yajurveda Taittariya Aranyaka 10.17.1 to 10.21.1. Names of PanchaBrahmans are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sadyojata, Vamadeva, Aghora, Tatpurusha, Ishana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of PanchaBrahman avatar:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;As I discuss in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16553/who-are-pancha-brahmas-and-why-are-they-called-so/16557#16557&quot;&gt;same answer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Significance in Cosmic level:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ishana➡ Kshetrajna and enjoyer of Prakirti&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tatpurusha➡Gunas of Prakirti&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Aghora➡ Cosmic Intellect (Buddhi)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vamadeva➡Ego (Ahamkara)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sadyojata ➡ Mind (Mana)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Significance in bodily and elementary level:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ishana➡ Ether, Sound, Ear, Mouth&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tatpurusha➡ Air, Touch, Skin, Hands&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Aghora➡ Fire, Colour, Eyes, Legs&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vamadeva➡ Water, Taste, Tongue, Anus&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sadyojata➡ Earth, Smell, Nose, Sex Organs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;iv) Rudra Avatar:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Incarnation of Rudra/Mahadeva is one of the most famous incarnation of Lord Shiva. His primary function is to be the destroyer and to destroy arrogance of Devatas. This incarnation also takes place through Brahma and is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av15001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Atharvaveda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्रात्य आसीदीयमान एव स प्रजापतिं समैरयत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स प्रजापति: सुवर्णमात्मन्नपश्यत्तत्प्राजनयत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदेकमभवत्तल्ललाममभवत्तन्महदभवत्तज्जेष्ठमभवत्तद्ब्रह्माभवत्तत्तपोऽभवत्तत्सत्यमभवत्तेन प्राजायत ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोऽवर्धत स महानभवत्स महादेवोऽभवत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स देवानामीशां पर्यैत्स ईशानोऽभवत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स एकव्रात्योऽभवत्स धनुरादत्त तदेवेन्द्रधनुः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नीलमस्योदरं लोहितं पृष्ठम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नीलेनैवाप्रियं भ्रातृव्यं प्रोर्णोति लोहितेन द्विषन्तं विध्यतीति&amp;nbsp; ब्रह्मवादिनो वदन्ति ।।&amp;nbsp; [Atharva Veda 15:1]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There was Vratya . He roused Prajapati to action. &lt;strong&gt;Prajapati&lt;/strong&gt; beheld gold in himself and &lt;strong&gt;engendered it.&lt;/strong&gt; That became unique, that became distinguished, that became great, that became excellent, that became Brahman, that became Tapas, that became Truth: &lt;strong&gt;through that he was born.&lt;/strong&gt; He grew, he became great, &lt;strong&gt;he became Mahadeva.&lt;/strong&gt; He gained the lordship of the Gods. &lt;strong&gt;He became Ishana.&lt;/strong&gt; He became Eka Vratya. He held a bow, even that Bow of Indra. His belly is dark-blue, his back is red (Nila Lohita). With dark-blue he envelops a detested rival, with red he pierces the man who hates him: so the knowers of Brahman say.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His AshtaMurti are his Adhisthata in various direction as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av15005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Atharvaveda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhava from eastern. Sarva from southern. Pasupati from western. Ugra from Northern. Rudra from Nadir. Mahadeva from zenith. Ishana from intermediate regions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of Rudra Avatar:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Rudra Avatar is also of great significance. Several deeds of Rudra Avatar are described in Vedas like:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;➡ Punishing the arrogant Devas: &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this kanda&lt;/a&gt; of Taittariya Samhita of YajurVeda Devas are punished when they exclude Rudra from sacrifice;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The gods excluded Rudra from the sacrifice; he pierced the sacrifice, the gods gathered round it (saying), &amp;apos;May it be right for us.&amp;apos; They said, &amp;apos;Well offered will this be for us, if we propitiate him.&amp;apos; That is why Agni is called the &amp;apos;well offerer&amp;apos; (svistakrt). When it was pierced (by him) 3 they cut off (a piece) of the size of a barleycorn; therefore one should cut off (a piece) the size of a barleycorn. If one were to cut off more, he would confuse that part of the sacrifice. If he were to make a layer and then to sprinkle, lie would make it swell on both sides. He cuts it off and sprinkles it; there are two operations; the sacrificer has two feet, for support. If he were to transfer it (to the Brahman) crosswise, he would pierce the unwounded part of the sacrifice; lie transfers it in front; verily he transfers it in the proper way. They transferred it for Pusan. Pusan having eaten it lost his teeth; therefore Pusan has pounded food for his share, for he has no teeth. The gods said of him, &amp;apos;He has lost (his teeth), he is not fit for the offering.&amp;apos; They transferred it to Brhaspati. Brhaspati was afraid, &amp;apos;Thus indeed will this one fall on misfortune.&amp;apos; He saw this Mantra; &amp;apos;With the eye of the sun I gaze on thee&amp;apos;, he said, for the eye of the sun harms no one. He was afraid, &amp;apos;It will harm me as I take it.&amp;apos; &amp;apos;On the impulse of the god Savitr, with the arms of the Açvins, with the hands of Pusan I take thee&amp;apos;, he says; verily, impelled by Savitr, he took it with the holy power (Brahman) and with the gods. He was afraid, &amp;apos;It will harm me as I eat.&amp;apos; &amp;apos;Thee with the mouth of Agni I eat&amp;apos;, he said, for nothing harms the mouth of Agni. He was afraid, &amp;apos;It will harm me when I have eaten.&amp;apos; &amp;apos;With the belly of the Brahman&amp;apos;, he said, for nothing harms the belly of the Brahman. &amp;apos;With the holy power (Brahman) of Brhaspati&amp;apos;, (he said), for he is fullest of the holy power (Brahman).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;➡ Punishing Brahma:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1233.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; pf Shatapatha Brahmana of YajurVeda Rudra punishes Brahma as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pragâpati (Brahma) conceived a passion for his own daughter... &amp;apos;May I pair with her!&amp;apos; thus (thinking) he united with her. This, assuredly, was a sin in the eyes of the gods. &amp;apos;He who acts thus towards his own daughter, our sister, [commits a sin],&amp;apos; they thought. The gods then said to this god who rules over the beasts (Rudra), &amp;apos;This one, surely, commits a sin who acts thus towards his own daughter, our sister. Pierce him!&amp;apos; Rudra, taking aim, pierced him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;➡ Becoming Lord of Pashus:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16594/why-is-lord-shiva-called-pashupati-who-are-the-pashus/16596#16596&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; YajurVeda describes how Rudra became PashuPati during Tripura Samhara;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They made ready an arrow, Agni as the point, Soma as the socket, Visnu as the shaft. They said, &amp;apos;Who shall shoot it?&amp;apos; &amp;apos;Rudra&amp;apos;, they said, &amp;apos;Rudra is fierce, let him shoot it.&amp;apos; He said, &amp;apos;Let me choose a boon; let me be overlord of Pashus.&amp;apos; Therefore is Rudra overlord of Pashus. Rudra let it go; it cleft the Tripuras and drove the Asuras away from these worlds. [YajurVeda 6.2.3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there are other many significances of Rudra avatar besides these. Like destroying the Universe during Pralaya and so on as described in Smritis.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus 25 Avatars of Lord Shiva are described in Vedas and they are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8 AshtaMurti Avatars + 11 Ekadash Rudra Avatars + 5 PanchaBrahman Avatars + 1 Rudra Avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually there are other types of Rudras also described in SataRudriya section of YajurVeda, but trying to describe all of them will make answer extremely long.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Incarnations in Smriti:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Smritis (Puranas, Itihasas) also talk of many incarnations of Lord Shiva. Some, of them are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;i) 28 Yogesvara Avatar in this Manvantara:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12337/as-per-shiva-purana-what-are-the-28-avatars-shiva-said-to-brahma/13561#13561&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; there are 28 Yogesvara incarnation of Lord Shiva and they take place in every Dwapar and are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sveta muni, Sutaara, Damana, Suhotra,&#xA;  Kanka, Lokaaksi, Jaigeesaavya&#xA;  Dashivaahana, Rsabha, Brgu, Kaali, Puru,&#xA;  Bali, Gautama, Vedavarsin, Gokarna Grhasvami, Sikhandi, Jaatimali, Attahas&#xA;  Daaruka, LaanguliBheema, Sveta, Sooli,&#xA;  Dandi, Sahinsu, Somasarma, Yogatma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance of Yogesvara Avatar:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;These Avatars come with purpose that they teach Yoga to some rare souls and thus they can reach Rudra Loka from where there is no return. It is described in the same chapter of Shiva Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;ii) Other specific incarnations:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many other specific incarnation of Lord Shiva for specific purpose. They are described from chapter 6 to chapter 37 if SatRudraSamhita of Shiva Purana. They are:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;1) Incarnation of Ardhanarishwara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 3&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Incarnation of Lord with half female.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡For the starting of copulatory reproduction.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Incarnation of Nandi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 6 and 7.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡As boon to Silada, Lord Shiva borns as his son.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Incarnation of Bhairava:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 8 and 9&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡To detach 5th head of Brahma and latter to remain as protector in Kashi and to devour sins of those people who reach Kashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4) Incarnation of Sarabha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 11 and 12.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡ To control Ugra Narasimha from destroying the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5) Incarnation of Grihapati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 13, 14 and 15.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Lord Shiva incarnates to become son of Visvãnara as Grihapati due to boon given to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6) Incarnation of Yaksheswara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 16.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Gods become arrogant after getting Amrita in Samudra Manthan. Lord Shiva to subdue their arrogance assumes form pf Yaksha and gives a piece of straw to Gods. The fire God can&amp;apos;t born it, wind God can&amp;apos;t move it, Indra can&amp;apos;t destroy it and so on. It is also described in Kena Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7) Incarnation of Durvasa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita chapter 19.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡ Various roles like Triggering of event of Samundra Mantha, separating Rama and Lakshmana, making Krishna invulnerable from Astras, giving boons to Kunti, cursing and blessing of many sages, Kings etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8) Incarnation of Hanuman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 20.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡To help Lord Rama in Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9) Incarnation of Mahesha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 21.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Urged by the friendship with Bhairava Lord Shiva incarnates as Mahesa to play with him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10) Incarnation of Bull:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡ Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 22 and chapter 23.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡To bring back Lord Vishnu from Patala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11) Incarnation of Pipplada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 24 and 25.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡To subdue the pride of Saturn and thus helping people to overcome affliction of Saturn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12) Incarnation of Vaisyanatha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 26&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡To redeem a prostitute named Mahananda who was devotee of Shiva, Lord Shiva goes to her house taking form of Vaishya and finally takes her to Shiva Loka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;13) Incarnation of Dvijaswara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 27.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Test of king Bhãdryu by taking form of a Brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;14) Incarnation of YatinathaHamsa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡ Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 28.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Test of a Bhilla (tribe race) by taking form of Yatinatha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;15) Incarnation of KrishnaDarshana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 29.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Lord Shiva taking the form of Krishna Darshana shows that the part left after the Yajna also belongs to him, also Instructs Nabhaga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;16) Incarnation of Avadhutesvara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 30.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Taking the form of Avadhuta Lord Shiva subdues arrogance of Indra and the birth of Jalandhara is triggered from this event.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;17) Incarnation of Bhikshuvarya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 31.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Dispells the suspicion of Brahmin women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;18) Incarnation of Sureshwara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita chapter 32 and also in Anushashana Parva of Mahabharata before Shiva Sahasranaama.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Taking the form of Indra Lord Shiva tested devotion of Upamanyu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;19) Incarnation of Jatila:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡ Described in SatRudra Samhita Chapter 33.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Tests the Penance of Parvati by taking the form of Jatila.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;20) Incarnation of Sunartakanata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita chapter 34.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Taking the form of Sunartakanata Lord Shiva goes to Himalayas house to ask hand of Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;21) Incarnation of Sadhu Dvija:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita chapter 35.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Gods being afraid that Himalaya will attain instant salvation due to giving of Parvati to Shiva request to Shiva to delay salvation of Himalaya. So, Lord Shiva taking the form of Sadhu Dvija goes in front of Himavat and start to insult Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;22) Incarnation of Ashwatthama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita chapter 36 and also in Mahabharata.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Destruction in the 18th night of Mahabharata war is carried out by Ashwatthama and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;23) Incarnation of Kirata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Described in SatRudra Samhita chapter 37 and also in Vana Parva of Mahabharata.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Lord Shiva taking the form of Kirata tests the war skill and devotion of Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;iii) 12 Jyotirlinga Incarnations:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the SatRudra Samgita chapter 42, 12 Jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva are spoken of. The incarnations in 12 Jyotirlinga are:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;1) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14213/what-is-the-story-of-somanath-jyotirlinga/14292#14292&quot;&gt;Somanath&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14223/what-is-the-story-of-mallikarjuna-jyotirlinga/14226#14226&quot;&gt;Mallikarjuna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;3) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14264/what-is-the-story-of-omkareshwar-jyotirlinga/14272#14272&quot;&gt;Omkareshwara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;4) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14243/what-is-the-story-of-mahakaleshwar-jyotirlinga/14252#14252&quot;&gt;Mahakaleshwara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;5) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14349/what-is-the-story-of-rameshwaram-jyotirlinga/14350#14350&quot;&gt;Rameshwara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;6) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14367/what-is-the-story-of-kasi-vishwanatha-jyotirlinga/14371#14371&quot;&gt;Vishwanatha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;7) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14414/what-is-the-story-of-kedarnath-jyotirlinga/14418#14418&quot;&gt;Kedarnath&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;8) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14404/what-is-the-story-of-trayambakeshwara-jyotirlinga/14411#14411&quot;&gt;Trayambakeshwara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;9) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14337/what-is-the-story-of-bheemshankar-jyotirlinga/14342#14342&quot;&gt;BheemaShankara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;10) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14425/what-is-the-story-of-ghushmeshwara-jyotirlinga/14472#14472&quot;&gt;Ghusmeshwara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;11) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14359/what-is-the-story-of-nageshwar-jyotirlinga/14368#14368&quot;&gt;Nageshwara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;12) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14287/what-is-the-story-of-vaidyanath-jyotirlinga/14293#14293&quot;&gt;Vaidyanath&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The significance of the above Jyotirlingas are described in the links above.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus there are many incarnations of Lord Shiva. In this answer only I have named &lt;strong&gt;Eighty Eight Incarnations&lt;/strong&gt; of Lord Shiva (25, 28, 23, 12). Coincidently it has become double of 44 incarnations which the question was asking. And there are many other incarnation of Lord too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-01-10T10:48:21.730" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16688" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-08T10:30:07.447" Score="6" ViewCount="364" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16653/how-will-we-know-the-end-of-first-part-of-the-kali-yuga&quot;&gt;recent question&lt;/a&gt;, I asked about the pādas of the yuga. This time my question is about  śakas (era). Many of you are aware that we live in the śālivāhana śaka era. Even though the current year according to Gregorian calendar is 2017, the present year in śālivāhana śaka is 1939.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who are the śaka puruṣā for the current yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On what basis is a śaka started?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How are these persons identified? Should they have performed great deeds to qualify?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-09T02:10:35.633" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T09:57:09.000" Title="Who are the śaka purushas?" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|calendar|panchang|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16689" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16688" CreationDate="2017-01-08T12:31:57.397" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is the answer of your first question only&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According To &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.datepanchang.com/Free_Services/Panchang.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Date Panchanga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (Hard Copy) which is in Marathi language.&#xA;There are &lt;strong&gt;six Shaka-Kartas  in Kaliyuga&lt;/strong&gt;-:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) &lt;strong&gt;Yudhishthira (Dharmaraja)&lt;/strong&gt; - Indraprastha -His Saka (Time) was of&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;3044&lt;/strong&gt;  years.&lt;br&gt; 2) &lt;strong&gt;King  Vikaram&lt;/strong&gt; - Ujjain (&#xA;  Madhya Pradesh) - His saka (Time) was of &lt;strong&gt;135&lt;/strong&gt; years.&lt;br&gt; 3) &lt;strong&gt;King&#xA;  Shalivahan&lt;/strong&gt; - Paithan (Maharashtra)- His saka (Time) was of &lt;strong&gt;18,000&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Future sakas&lt;/strong&gt; -:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;4) &#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;King VijayaBhinandan&lt;/strong&gt; - Near banks of Vaitarni River -His saka will be of &lt;strong&gt;10,000&lt;/strong&gt; years.&lt;br&gt;5) &lt;strong&gt;Nagarjuna&lt;/strong&gt; - In Gauda desha ( Gauda&#xA;    country) His saka(Time) will be of &lt;strong&gt;400,000&lt;/strong&gt; (Four Hundred&#xA;    Thousand) years.&lt;br&gt;6)&lt;strong&gt;Lord kalki&lt;/strong&gt; - In Kolhapur region -His saka&#xA;    (time) will be of &lt;strong&gt;821&lt;/strong&gt; years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-01-08T12:53:52.457" LastActivityDate="2017-01-08T12:53:52.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16690" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16664" CreationDate="2017-01-08T15:13:38.447" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two verses about the universe in the Gita which state the manifestation and de-manifestation of it and the Jivas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the dawn of the day of Brahma this whole universe comes into manifestation from the Unmanifest (Prakrti). When the night begins, it dissolves in that Unmanifest itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 8.18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Prtha! This vast collectivity of beings comes inexorably into manifestation again and again, dissolving at the commencement of night, and again coming forth at the dawn of day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 8.19&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Tapasyananda explains the importance of denying the possibility of first creation as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The principal feature of Vedantism and its first tenet is the &lt;strong&gt;cyclic&#xA;  view of time&lt;/strong&gt; and mans's involvement in it. .... This state is called Samsara, the repititive process of life and death. There is no beginning for it, as its framework of Time is cyclic in movement. Matter (Prakriti) and souls (Jiva) are not created at any moment of Time, but are eternally present as dependent existences or as the body of the Supreme Being. ... They come into manifestation at the beginning of a cycle of Time, and at the end dissolve in Him, remaining in their causal conditions, only to come into manifestations again when the new cycle of Time starts after the earlier dissolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Jiva undergoes countless embodiments until he evolves his inherent&#xA;  perfection as the Spirit. In Samsara, owing to the encrustation of&#xA;  Karma or tendencies accrued in earlier lives through one's own&#xA;  actions, that inherent divinity is shrunk and hidden, but never&#xA;  effaced or destroyed. The purpose of the creative cycle is to elicit&#xA;  this divine potentiality of the Spirit and bring it into higher and higher states of perfection. These repeated embodimenrs are the result of Karma or action in the earlier phases of the Jiva's involvement in Samsara. All actions done leave some tendencies on the mind, and also entitlement for enjoyments or suffering according to the nature of these actions. The accumulation of these effects acquired in births past is the Karma potential regulating the embodiments and experiences of the Jivas. &lt;strong&gt;This theory is essential for a conception of a just and righteous God. For, any theory accepting a first creation will have to attribute the responsibility for all suffering and evil to God. In the cyclic theory of creation, there is no first creation and hence no beginning for the Jiva. Therefore it has to be accepted that an original quantum of Karma goes with the very conception of Jiva, and to ask for a beginning for it is only to beg the question.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Tapasyananda in his Introduction to 'A Primer of Hinduism' by D. S. Sarma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-01-08T15:13:38.447" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16691" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16131" CreationDate="2017-01-08T19:15:24.363" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm finding another reference to Ṛṣabhanātha in the Ṛg Veda by a Jain mendicant who cites (sū.a.3), but its written in Hindi: &quot;He Ṛṣabhnāth! Saṃsār meṃ jagatrakṣak...&quot; etc. But I've been unable to find this in the actual Ṛg Veda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8665" LastActivityDate="2017-01-08T19:15:24.363" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16692" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-09T02:33:06.483" Score="5" ViewCount="1165" Body="&lt;p&gt;Of course when one finds it necessary to know about one religion, the first books or valid references they would be offered, are each religion's number one book! (Quran, Bible, etc), but what about Hinduism, what is its number one book? Where to start?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8667" LastActivityDate="2018-10-21T10:59:20.017" Title="A Comprehensive book on Hinduism" Tags="|culture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-01-14T11:09:25.187" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16693" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="34978" CreationDate="2017-01-09T04:12:00.243" Score="18" ViewCount="10580" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please mention the shloka that explicitly states that there are 33 crores of Hindu Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please do not quote Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, because I think it just states that there are 33 gods. Not 33 koti (33 crores)!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just the shloka please.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purpose of the question is to find out if such a thing is even mentioned anywhere in Hindu scriptures. If not, we can say the general thinking is incorrect and we all can move on. There is no need to defend, refute and explain it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question really is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it accurate to state that, &quot;&lt;strong&gt;No, Hindu scriptures do not mention anywhere that there are 33 कोटि (crores) देवी देवता (devi-devata)&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8668" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-10-15T22:50:15.863" LastActivityDate="2024-02-21T17:17:28.453" Title="Which shloka or scripture states that there are 33 crores of Hindu gods?" Tags="|puranas|gods|identification-request|shloka|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16694" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16692" CreationDate="2017-01-09T04:26:32.833" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no one comprehensive book in Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You should read a low level introductory book that nevertheless gives a decent overview of Hinduism. Otherwise you will have difficulty in understanding Hindu scriptures. Books like 'The Hindu mind' by Bansi Pandit and 'The complete Idiot's guide to Hinduism' by Linda Johnsen would help. Another introductory text is 'A primer of Hinduism' by D. S. Sharma. A good text is 'Essentials of Hinduism' by Swami Bhaskarananda. A good survey of Hindu scriptures is 'Windows into the Infinite A guide to the Hindu scriptures' by Barbara Powell. An advanced level beginner text is 'The Spiritual Heritage of India' by Swami Prabhavananda. You can also read 'Hindu Gods and Goddesses' by Swami Harshananda to learn about the many Hindu Gods and Goddesses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can then read some of the seminal texts of Hinduism like the Gita, the Upanishads and if you are really interested in the Brahma Sutra. You can read the Gita translated by Swami Tapasyananda. You can also read ‘Universal Message of the Bhagavad Gita: An Exposition of the Gita in the light of Modern thought and Modern Needs’ by Swami Ranganathananda. If you want to go really deep into it then commentaries of Sankara on the Gita, the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutra are a must. You can read Srimad Bhagavad Gita Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya translated by Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier. You can also read Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya translated by Swami Gambhirananda. Reading the translations of Upanishads by Swami Nikhilananda and Swami Gambhirananda will also be helpful.You will find many Hindu seminal texts on online sites. There is a list in one of the questions here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can then read the 9 volume Vivekananda's complete works if you have the time for it. If not, then I recommend 'What religion is in the words of Swami Vivekananda' edited by Swami Vidyatmananda. You can also read Patanjali's Yoga Sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you have the time for it then you can go through the entire Mahabharata which is full of gems. You can try reading K. M. Ganguli's translation of the Mahabharata. You can also read the translation of Srimad Bhagavataam by Swami Tapasyananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Till now you have gained theoretical knowledge. If you have the time then you can go through the Ramakrishna Kathamrita (translated as the 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna) to read about an exemplar of the Hindu tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can go to any Ramakrishna Vedanta Center to learn about Hindu scripture. You can find out about the Centers at the following web site: www.vedanta.org. You will get most of these books from www.vedanta.com or from Amazon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have given the list that I found useful. It is definitely inclined towards Advaita. You will need to read commentaries of Hindu seminal texts by other Acharyas if you are interested in other Vedantic traditions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2018-10-21T10:59:20.017" LastActivityDate="2018-10-21T10:59:20.017" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16695" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16693" CreationDate="2017-01-09T05:35:40.523" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III.ix explains this. The first verses are (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then Vidagdha, the son of Sakala, asked him. 'How many gods are there, Yājñavalkya?' Yājñavalkya  decided it through this (group of Mantras known as) Nivid [a group of verses from the Rig Veda] (saying), 'As many as are indicated in the Nivid of the Visvadevas--three hundred and three, and three thousand and three.' 'Very well' said Sakalya, 'how many gods exactly are there, Yājñavalkya?' 'Thirty-three.' 'Very well', said the other, 'how many gods exactly are there, Yājñavalkya?' 'Six.' 'Very well' said Saklya, ' how many gods exactly are there, Yājñavalkya?' 'Three.' 'Very well', said the other, 'how many gods exactly are there, Yājñavalkya?' 'Two.' 'Very well', said the other, 'how many gods exactly are there, Yājñavalkya?' 'One and a half.' 'Very well', said the other, 'how many gods exactly are there, Yājñavalkya?' 'One.' 'Very well', said Sakalya, 'which are those three hundred and three and three thousand and three?'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yājñavalkya said, 'These are but the manifestations of them, but there only thirty-three gods.' 'Which are those thirty-three?' 'The eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, and the twelve Adityas--these are thirty-one, and Indra and Prajapati make up the thirty-three.'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;'Which are the Vasus?' 'Fire, the earth, air, the sky, the sun, heaven, the moon and the stars--these are the Vasus, for in these all this is placed; therefore they are called Vasus.'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rest of the verses in this section then explain what the Vashus are (Fire, the earth, the air, the sky, the sun, heaven, the moon and the stars)is meant by the rudras (the ten organs of the human body and the mind), what the Adityas are (The twelve months of a year) , what Indra and Prajapati are, and narrowing it all down to Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc118360.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; on the first verse, Śaṅkarācārya merely quotes the Nivid from the Rig Veda - &quot;Three hundred and three gods, and again three thousand and three gods. So many gods are there.&quot; The verse is not meant to convey an exact number but rather just meant to convey that there are many gods beyond your or my comprehension. But read the second verse. Yājñavalkya says that &lt;strong&gt;these are only manifestations&lt;/strong&gt; of the 33 gods. key word - &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the actual shlokha's from Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc118360.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-03-05T05:38:10.413" LastActivityDate="2019-03-05T05:38:10.413" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16696" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16693" CreationDate="2017-01-09T08:51:13.313" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think the Vedas simply mention that the principle (or types of) Deities are 33 in number and not 33 crores.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The confusion I think arises while translating the word &amp;quot;koti&amp;quot; which can mean crore or even eminent, excellent, prime, class (type) etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have selected few verses from various Vedas here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cattle clothed itself in sevenfold strength, those among them&#xA;that are sleek and those that are poor. &lt;strong&gt;The thirty-three gods&lt;/strong&gt; attend&#xA;them mayest thou, (O cattle), guide us to the heavenly world! (Atharva&#xA;Veda, Book 9 Part 1,Xii 3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Three and thirty he puts down; &lt;strong&gt;the gods are three and thirty&lt;/strong&gt;; verily&#xA;he wins the gods; verily also he piles up the fire with itself and&#xA;with a body; he becomes with his body in yonder world, who knows&#xA;thus.(Yajur Veda, Book 5.Part 4,v 4.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv01045.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;I.45.2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शरुष्टीवानो हि दाशुषे देवा अग्ने विचेतसः |&#xA;तान रोहिदश्व गिर्वणस्त्रयस्त्रिंशतमा वह ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni, the Gods who understand give ear unto the worshipper: Lord of&#xA;Red Steeds, who lovest song, bring thou those &lt;strong&gt;Three-and-Thirty&#xA;Gods.&lt;/strong&gt;(Rig Veda Book 1 part 02Hymn XLV)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv08028.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;VIII.28.1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ये तरिंशति तरयस परो देवासो बर्हिरासदन |&#xA;विदन्नहद्वितासनन ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THE Thirty Gods and Three besides&lt;/strong&gt;, whose seat hath been the sacred&#xA;grass, From time of old have found and gained. (Rig Veda Book 8,part&#xA;4.hymn XXVIII)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus be ye lauded, ye destroyers of the foe, ye &lt;strong&gt;Three-and-Thirty&#xA;Deities,&lt;/strong&gt; The Gods of man, the Holy Ones.(Rig Veda Book 8)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who out of many, tell me, is that Skambha He in whose body are&#xA;contained all &lt;strong&gt;three-and-thirty Deities&lt;/strong&gt;? (Atharva Veda, Book 10, Hymn&#xA;7,verse 13)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-12-19T15:23:22.003" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16697" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16703" CreationDate="2017-01-09T10:55:01.410" Score="6" ViewCount="288" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzP4HQpzLYM&amp;amp;feature=youtu.be#t=52m39s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramanujan Video RajyaSabha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above  link (in epilogue, time 52 min 39secs has at the very end)  while concluding it mentions a stage of &quot;&lt;em&gt;Rithambara Pragna&lt;/em&gt;&quot;, an attainment of a direct cognitive power of Cosmic Order.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone throw  light on how this happens and evidences from the past for some realized souls?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-05-11T18:24:16.013" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T18:24:16.013" Title="Rithambara Pragnya experienced by mathematician Ramanujan" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16698" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-09T12:22:40.440" Score="1" ViewCount="48" Body="&lt;p&gt;From somewhere I came to know 'Hindu' is a geographical word, it is not a religious one. Original word is 'Sanatana'. Is it true? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8672" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-09T13:11:45.580" LastActivityDate="2017-01-09T13:11:45.580" Title="Sanatana dharma or Hindu" Tags="|history|name|terminology|etymology|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-01-09T15:25:15.917" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16699" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16697" CreationDate="2017-01-09T16:59:59.593" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The words rta, rtambhara and prajna are defined as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rta ————————- Unalloyed truth;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rtambhara ————- Full of rta;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prajna——————- Deep Understanding. Insight derived from meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yoga Philosophyof Patanjali by Swami Hariharananda translated by P. N. Mukherji&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The term rtambhara prajna represents the deep understanding and insight that is derived by an Yogi through the power of his meditation from unalloyed truth or divine source. I will now post a passage that will better explain Rtambhara Prajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the instruments of cognition are purified, the knowledge that&#xA;  appears in the engrossed mind is called Rtambhara (lit. full of&#xA;  unalloyed truth) justifying the name given to it. &lt;strong&gt;It retains and&#xA;  sustains truth alone with no trace of misconception.&lt;/strong&gt; It has been said&#xA;  in this connection:&quot;By study of religious books, by inference and by&#xA;  attachment to the practice of mdeitation, developing intense insight&#xA;  in these three ways, perfect Yoga (or seedless, i.e., objectless&#xA;  concentration) is acquired (1).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(1) *The Sruti, i.e. the Upanishads also say that realisation comes&#xA;  through listening, contemplating and concentrating. If one learns by&#xA;  listening only that Atman (the Self) is different from Buddhi (pure&#xA;  I-sense), or that principles are such and such or that this sort of&#xA;  state is Moksa (cessation of sorrow), he really does not get to know&#xA;  much. Similarly, if by inference only one comes to know about Purusa&#xA;  and other principles, there is thereby no chance of bringing about&#xA;  cessation of sorrow. But when one constantly thinks of, or meditates&#xA;  on such matters as 'I am not the body,' 'External things are sorrowful&#xA;  and therefore should be forsaken,' 'I shall not resolve on worldly&#xA;  affairs,' etc., and fully realises their essence, then one is on the&#xA;  right roda to liberation. If, however, one comes to learn by reasoning&#xA;  only that he is not the body and yet is affected by its distress or&#xA;  pleasure, there is hardly any difference between him and an ignorant&#xA;  man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There cannot be any better knowledge of an object than what can be&#xA;  acquired by Nirvichara Samadhi. That is why it is complete truth.*&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yoga Philosophyof Patanjali by Swami Hariharananda translated by P. N. Mukherji&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is difficult to give any evidence if such a state was reached by an enlightened soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-01-11T06:16:32.900" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T06:16:32.900" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16701" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16704" CreationDate="2017-01-10T02:25:26.740" Score="5" ViewCount="272" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As in Mahabharata Lord krishna asked Yudishtra to Lie as his guru's son Aswathama was dead although it was a elephant it was a Lie,and it was for dharma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yudishtra was not so willing to lie as it is adharma but as the lord alknowing said in that situation lie is good as for dharma&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Krishna was a god and so he was confident in that situation but as a conditioned soul how can we choose the path of telling and hiding a truth.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXAMPLE :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A women who has a daughter to be married has wrong affair with other man should be revealed or not ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If not revealed she would not be punished and she will continue to do adharma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If we reveal it then the family name will be completely destroyed and her daughter's marriage will not occur as everyone thinks as a mother same as the daughter.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or it should be revealed after her marriage and if later revealed it will be also like hiding?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There many situations that arise while telling a truth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any definite scriptural way to tell and hide the truth in the world?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T05:08:42.327" Title="Which Truth should be revealed and which should be hidden?" Tags="|dharma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-01-10T06:25:47.013" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16702" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-10T02:27:51.353" Score="7" ViewCount="882" Body="&lt;p&gt;It must be a very odd feeling for the senior wives of Hindu kings when one fine day the king suddenly comes home with a new wife, who's mostly younger to his existing wives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard that Draupadī cried when Arjuna was introducing Subhadrā to her. Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did Kauśalyā and Sumitra react when Daśaratha brought home Kaikeyī?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata times did current wives of kings have any say on the king's future wives?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-10T17:17:40.383" Title="Did Draupadī cry when Arjuna brought Subhadrā home? What about Kauśalyā and Sumitra in Daśaratha's case?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|marriage|women|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16703" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16697" CreationDate="2017-01-10T05:43:43.580" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mSMUe.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mSMUe.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rtanbhara tatr prajna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The knowledge in that is called “filled with Truth&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is verse no 48(Chapter 1) in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras translated by Swami Vivekananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next verse explains that such a state(when the knowledge is filled with truth) can only be achieved through Samadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7PTVD.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7PTVD.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;shrutanumanaprajnabhyam anyavishayaa vishesharthatvat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The knowledge that is gained from testimony and inference is about&#xA;  common objects. &lt;strong&gt;That from the Samadhi just mentioned is of a much&#xA;  higher order, being able to penetrate where inference and testimony&#xA;  cannot go.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is how Swami Vivekananda explains the purport of the verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The idea is that we have to get our knowledge of ordinary objects by&#xA;  direct perception, and by inference therefrom, and from testimony of&#xA;  people who are competent. By “people who are competent,” the Yogis&#xA;  always mean the Rishis, or the Seers of the thoughts recorded in the&#xA;  Scriptures—the Vedas. According to them, the only proof of the&#xA;  Scriptures is that they were the testimony of competent persons, yet&#xA;  they say the Scriptures cannot take us to realisation. We can read all&#xA;  the Vedas, and yet will not realise anything, but when we practise&#xA;  their teachings, then we attain to that state which realises what the&#xA;  Scriptures say, &lt;strong&gt;which penetrates where reason cannot go, and where the&#xA;  testimony of others cannot avail.&lt;/strong&gt; This is what is meant by this&#xA;  aphorism, that realisation is real religion, and all the rest is only&#xA;  preparation—hearing lectures, or reading books, or reasoning, is&#xA;  merely preparing the ground; it is not religion. Intellectual assent,&#xA;  and intellectual dissent are not religion. &lt;strong&gt;The central idea of the&#xA;  Yogis is that just as we come in direct contact with the objects of&#xA;  the senses, so religion can be directly perceived in a far more&#xA;  intense sense.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,in short,&quot;Rtambhara Prajnya&quot; is such a state where the Yogi is absorbed  with knowledge that is filled with truth &amp;amp; which is not achievable by any other lesser sensory methods and can only be achieved through the process of Yoga and only in the state of Samadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-01-10T05:43:43.580" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16704" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16701" CreationDate="2017-01-10T06:06:14.380" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A women who has a daughter to be married has wrong affair with other&#xA;  man should be revealed or not ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this case, the &lt;strong&gt;father should reveal it&lt;/strong&gt;. Not doing so is actually a punishable deed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 8.205. He who gives (a damsel in marriage), &lt;strong&gt;having first&#xA;  openly declared&lt;/strong&gt; her blemishes, whether she be insane, or afflicted&#xA;  with leprosy, or &lt;strong&gt;have lost her virginity, is not liable to punishment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is there any definite scriptural way to tell and hide the truth in the&#xA;  world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes there are. Although speaking only truth and shunning falsehood is recommended for all people at all the times, but in some situations speaking falsehood is also allowed as per scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are a couple of relevant verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.103. In (some) cases a man who, though knowing (the facts to be) different, &lt;strong&gt;gives such (false evidence) from a pious motive, does not&#xA;  lose heaven; such (evidence) they call the speech of the gods&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.104. Whenever the death of a Sudra, of a Vaisya, of a Kshatriya, or of a Brahmana would be (caused) by a declaration of the truth, &lt;strong&gt;a&#xA;  falsehood may be spoken; for such (falsehood) is preferable to the&#xA;  truth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manu Smriti verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But even for these people (who spoke falsely) some sort of penances are prescribed (in the subsequent Manu Smriti verses) in order to clear the guilt. So, even though speaking falsely is allowed under certain circumstances, some amount of guilt is still attached to the act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-02T05:08:42.327" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T05:08:42.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16705" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-10T08:59:30.770" Score="8" ViewCount="333" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many are aware about the saṃkalpaṃ which is recited during rituals like saṃdhyā vandanam, vratas etc., But there is another mantra called &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mahasankalpa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;(pronounced Mahā saṃkalpaṃ in IAST). Sankalpa tells the place, time and purpose of doing that ritual. But Mahā saṃkalpaṃ consists of not only place but many more things like  number of lokas, aṣṭa diggaj(eight elephants which carry the earth), sapta samudras present on the earth and many more in a detailed way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Mahā saṃkalpaṃ is usually recited in the kaḻyāṇaṃ(marriage) of devi devatas, before doing an auspicious deed like a bath in a river during auspicious occasions like pushkaras',during great yajñas' and homas etc.,  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a brief description of universe in this mantra. Entire  mahā saṃkalpaṃ remains same but in the ending, names of the region and the purpose of the deed you are doing. But the content remains the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the source of this mantra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;You can listen to the mantra &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3eqpTrTTUE&amp;amp;t&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;The mahā saṃkalpaṃ recited in the video is for holy bath in the river&lt;/sup&gt;     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-17T11:47:13.857" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T11:47:13.857" Title="What is the source of a mantra called Mahā saṃkalpaṃ?" Tags="|rituals|mantras|yajna|identification-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16706" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16702" CreationDate="2017-01-10T14:16:43.917" Score="8" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Partha worshipped the brahmanas and went to Droupadi. Then, out of love, Droupadi told Kuru’s descendant, “O Kunti’s son! Go to the daughter of the Satvatas. A second load always loosens the first tie, however strong.” &lt;strong&gt;Krishna thus lamented in many ways. Dhananjaya pacified her a lot and asked for forgiveness&lt;/strong&gt;. He quickly went to Subhadra, who was dressed in red silk. Partha sent her away to dress in garments worn by a cowherd lady. But the illustrious one looked beautiful even in that attire. Arriving in the best of houses, the famous and beautiful Bhadra, wife of a warrior, with copper-red eyes, paid homage to Pritha. Then, with a face as radiant as the full moon, Bhadra quickly went and paid homage to Droupadi, saying, “I am your maid.” Then Krishna arose and embraced Madhava’s sister and lovingly said, “Let your husband not have a rival.” With a happy heart, Bhadra replied, “May it be that way.” O Janamejaya! The maharatha Pandavas were then happy in their hearts. Kunti was also extremely delighted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt;: Bibek Debroy's English &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=Tz2FHQcx_M8C&amp;amp;lpg=PT56&amp;amp;dq=Krishna%20thus%20lamented%20in%20many%20ways.%20Dhananjaya%20pacified%20her%20a%20lot%20and%20asked%20for%20forgiveness&amp;amp;pg=PT56#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=Krishna%20thus%20lamented%20in%20many%20ways.%20Dhananjaya%20pacified%20her%20a%20lot%20and%20asked%20for%20forgiveness&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;translation&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahabharata Critical Edition (BORI).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is the entire passage as is. It is clear that Draupadi was upset. She had her heart set on Arjuna but was let down. She realized that it wasn't like Arjuna could un-do his marriage with Subhadra (nor did he have any desire to do). It was what it was and she had to live with it. Secondly, she was married to five men, so marriage was a nightmare for her. Furthermore, all of her husbands took up wives, and therefore, she had numerous co-wives. It was an everyday reality for her. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It would seem that, during the time of antiquity, life was quite painful for women everywhere. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In so far as your final question is concerned: the first wife, also known as the head wife was the Head Wife. During the Ancient times, the status of Queen was given to the Head Wife (usually the first and eldest amongst her co-wives) in order to clarify lines of succession. Could she present orders to her King? Absolutely not. Did she have a limited degree of power to exact over her co-wives? Absolutely. Keep in mind that a co-wife could always register a complaint with the King, which is what Kaikeyi did. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope that my post shined some light on the topic. Longtime lurker here :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8677" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-10T17:17:40.383" LastActivityDate="2017-01-10T17:17:40.383" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16707" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16646" CreationDate="2017-01-10T15:42:08.290" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;For beginners it is recommended to use an online &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedastro.org/match&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Match Calculator&lt;/a&gt;,&#xA;that use Ashta-Kuta system and takes into account the exceptions.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Matchmaking is the process of matching two  persons together, usually for the purpose of marriage &lt;strong&gt;Based on Gunas or Marks&lt;/strong&gt; , Which is done with the help of  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.datepanchang.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Panchanga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; along with  Match &lt;strong&gt;Making Charts&lt;/strong&gt; . Kundali matchmaking of a prospective bride and groom is the only option to ensure their compatibility. In &lt;strong&gt;Ashta-Kuta system&lt;/strong&gt; of match making, the maximum number of Gunas are 36.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Eight main factors&lt;/strong&gt; Commonly seen in matchmaking are -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varna (वर्ण)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vashya (वश्य)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tara (तारा)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yoni (योनी)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Grah Maitri (ग्रह मैत्री)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gana Rashikuta Or GanaGunaChakra गण राशि कूट , गण गुण चक्र&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Naadi OR Nadi Guna (नाडी ,नाडी गुण)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;SadSatKuta (सदसत कूट)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each factor is assigned basic points, which are as follows -&lt;br&gt; (Varna is 1 point), (Vashya is 2 points), (Tara  is 3 points), (Yoni is 4 points), (Graha Maitri is 5 points), (Gana  Rashikuta is 6 points) Sadsat kuta 7 points and (Naadi  maximum  8 points.) The summation of all these points is 36.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On these parameters, the Kundali of the two interested person's are matched and the result of that calculations is called Guna Matching (गुण मिलन) (Match Making)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Out of total 36 points,18 points  is 50%, are considered average, and&#xA;28 is considered to be satisfactory. Minimum 18 points are needed for&#xA;matching the Kundli's.18 to 24    AVERAGE SCORE.      Wedding match is acceptable.&#xA;25 to 32    VERY GOOD MATCH. Marriage will be a success.&#xA;33 to 36    EXCELLENT MATCH. Marriage will  be a complete  success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the  bride and the groom have the same Naadi, (Madhya , Antya ,Aadya मध्य ,अन्त्य ,आद्य) it is called as Naadi Dosha. For eg, when &lt;strong&gt;both&lt;/strong&gt; of them have Madhya Naadi, the Naadi Dosha will create  some problems. This has a direct connection with blood groups of the couple involved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are eight types of Doshas -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nrudrur Dosha न्रुदुर दोष&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Janma nakshtra Dosha जन्म नक्षत्र दोष&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ek charan Dosha एक चरण दोष&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yoni maitri Dosha योनी मैत्री&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Graha Maitri Dosha ग्रह मैत्री दोष&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manushya Rakashasa Dosha मनुष्य राक्षस दोष&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kuta Dosha कूट दोष&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ek Nadi Dosha एक नाडी दोष&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All over India, for Kundali matchmaking &lt;strong&gt;Mangal Dosha&lt;/strong&gt; is seriously taken into account. While Shani Dosha is not seriously considered by all astrologers. Rashi(Moon signs).&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If horoscopes don't match properly are there any remedies for such situations ie, some special poojas that may help in overcoming the doshas?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some remedies for above situation's which includes performing various Shanti's in consultation with a  expert  Astrologer ,as it depends upon case to case.So it's always safe to consult a priest or acharya before  doing such poojas even told by astrologer.&lt;br&gt; This answer is based on &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SFAGu.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Date&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;panchanga Hard-Copy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;IMP&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt; - This is general Match Making or Guna Milan. The comprehensive Match Making is complex &amp;amp; is a detail procedure.**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr/&gt; &#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;These are Match Making Charts or Tables&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SFAGu.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SFAGu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/y3DOU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/y3DOU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="28272" LastEditDate="2022-11-05T02:28:11.077" LastActivityDate="2022-11-05T02:28:11.077" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16708" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16709" CreationDate="2017-01-10T18:27:04.160" Score="7" ViewCount="387" Body="&lt;p&gt;Each time Lord take avatar it is in different form.&#xA;Why not take avatar of same animal or same human each time? Is there any significance of incarnating as different form?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8031" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T18:52:56.247" Title="Why take different avatar each time?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16709" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16708" CreationDate="2017-01-11T05:45:24.393" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is given in Shreemad Bhagvat Purana in Skanda 1&#xA;Chapter 3 , (The description of Avataras) this  chapter is about twenty two avataras of Lord Vishnu. This chapter tells us why lord has took many forms in different avatara with explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Form the description given in this chapter we come to conclusion that , lord took many &lt;strong&gt;forms like (Animal ,Siddha ,Yagna ,king , medicine god ,female ,amimal plus human etc.)&lt;/strong&gt;  in different avataras according to &lt;strong&gt;situation , need and purpose.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in each  avatara lord performed various different tasks that were suitable to that form he took.eg. it was necessary to take Narashimha avatara in half human half lion form , because of boon Hiranyakashipu received or it was necessary to take human form as Veda Vyasa to compile vedas , which &lt;strong&gt;simply were not suitable&lt;/strong&gt; to perform other than human forms.Like Wise It was  suitable to take tortoise form to to support Mandarachal mountain ,during churning of ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following shlokas mentions some of the forms and the purpose of lord to take that form -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत: सप्तम आकुत्यां &lt;strong&gt;रुचेर्यज्ञोsभ्य&lt;/strong&gt; जायत।&lt;br&gt; स यामाद्ये:&#xA;  सुरगणैरपात्स्वायम्भुवान्तरम्॥१२॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tataḥ saptama ākūtyāṁ rucer yajño ’bhyajāyata sa yāmādyaiḥ sura-gaṇair&#xA;  apāt svāyambhuvāntaram &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-: The seventh &lt;strong&gt;incarnation was Yajña&lt;/strong&gt;, the son of Prajāpati&#xA;  Ruci and his wife Ākūti. He controlled the period during the change of&#xA;  the Svāyambhuva Manu and was assisted by demigods such as His son&#xA;  Yāma.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 1.3.12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt; ऋषिभिर्याचितो भेजे नवमं &lt;strong&gt;पार्थिवं&#xA;  वपु:&lt;/strong&gt;।&lt;br&gt; दुग्धेमामोषधीर्विप्रास्तेनायं स उशत्तम: ॥१४॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ṛṣibhir yācito bheje navamaṁ pārthivaṁ vapuḥ&lt;br&gt; dugdhemām oṣadhīr&#xA;  viprās tenāyaṁ sa uśattamaḥ  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; -: O brāhmaṇas, in the ninth incarnation, the Lord, prayed for by sages, accepted the body of a &lt;strong&gt;king&lt;/strong&gt; [Pṛthu] who&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;cultivated&lt;/strong&gt; the land to yield various produce, and for that reason the earth was beautiful and attractive.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;1.3.14&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  सुरासुराणामुदधिं मन्थतां मंदराचलं।&lt;br&gt; दध्रे &lt;strong&gt;कमठरूपेण&lt;/strong&gt; पृष्ठ एकादशे&#xA;  विभु:॥१६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;surāsurāṇām udadhiṁ mathnatāṁ mandarācalam&lt;br&gt; dadhre kamaṭha-rūpeṇa&#xA;  pṛṣṭha ekādaśe vibhuḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - The eleventh incarnation of the Lord took the form of a &lt;strong&gt;tortoise&lt;/strong&gt; whose shell served as a &lt;strong&gt;pivot&lt;/strong&gt; for the &lt;strong&gt;Mandarācala&lt;/strong&gt; Hill, which was being used as a churning rod by the theists and&#xA;  atheists of the universe.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 1.3.16&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt;तत: सप्तदशे जात:&#xA;  सत्यवत्यां पराशरात।&lt;br&gt; चक्रे वेदतरो: शाखा दृष्ट्वा&#xA;  पुंसोsल्पमेधस:॥२१॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tataḥ saptadaśe jātaḥ satyavatyāṁ parāśarāt&lt;br&gt; cakre veda-taroḥ śākhā&#xA;  dṛṣṭvā puṁso ’lpa-medhasaḥp&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Thereafter, in the seventeenth incarnation of Godhead, &lt;strong&gt;Śrī Vyāsadeva&lt;/strong&gt; appeared in the womb of Satyavatī through Parāśara Muni, and he divided the one Veda into several branches and&#xA;  subbranches, seeing that the people in general were less intelligent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/21&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 1.3.21&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read whole chapter &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-01-11T09:46:46.943" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T09:46:46.943" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16710" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16578" CreationDate="2017-01-11T07:49:05.797" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Etymology of the word &quot;purāṇa&quot; is mentioned &lt;em&gt;Part 1 Prakriya Pada Chapter 1 of Vayu Purana&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्मात्पुरा ह्यनतीदं&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; पुराणं तेन तत्स्मृतम्। &lt;br&gt; निरुक्तमस्य यो वेद&#xA;  सर्वपापैः प्रमुच्यते।।२०३।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is called Purana because it breathes (exists) from earliest&#xA;  times. The etymology of this one (i.e. Purána) who knows, he gets rid&#xA;  of all the sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Foootnotes say&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ह्यनती = हि + अनति - from root अन to breathe, Vedic variant of अनिति  clasical. A practical Vedic dictionary by Dr. Surya Kanta, p. 27. Oxford University Press, Delhi 1981.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;This answer will be updated with other references shortly&lt;/sub&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T07:49:05.797" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16711" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="893" CreationDate="2017-01-11T08:05:38.677" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman is called pavana putra meaning son of wind because he was born with the blessing of the wind, he had the courage, strength and passion of the raging wind, yet the sensitivity and awareness of the breeze. Hence he is known as Vayuputra, the son of the Air.&#xA;read &lt;a href=&quot;http://allgodmantra.com/hanuman-chalisa-in-english/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;hanuman chalisa in english&lt;/a&gt; to get power from Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8680" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-11T08:21:48.053" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T08:21:48.053" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16712" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-11T10:45:50.833" Score="12" ViewCount="5034" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambalappuzha_Sri_Krishna_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna Temple&lt;/a&gt; located in Kerala, India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.singularitysymposium.com/exponential-growth.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;story&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The King of Ambalappuzha was a big chess enthusiast. One day a sage challenged him (the king) to play the chess. To motivate this Sage, the King  offered any reward that the sage could name. The sage modestly asked just for a few grains of rice in the following manner: &lt;strong&gt;the king has to put a single grain of rice on the first chess square and &lt;em&gt;double it&lt;/em&gt; on every consequent one.&lt;/strong&gt; So King accepts this and the game was started.&#xA;  Having lost the game and being a man of his word the king ordered a bag of rice to be brought to the chess board. He started placing the grains according the reward asked by the sage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following picture describes growth of number of grains:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/X2JCV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/X2JCV.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above image, at 64th square King has to place the total number of grains are &lt;strong&gt;about 9 million trillion tons&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upon seeing the dilemma, &lt;strong&gt;the sage appeared to the king in his true-form, that of Lord Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;. He told the King that he did not have to pay the debt immediately but could pay him over time. The king would serve paal-payasam (made of rice) in the temple freely to the pilgrims every day until the debt was paid off.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is one more image from Google images (In any case, if the above link is not accessible) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/C44n6.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/C44n6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who was that King?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As these links (or any other) do not mention any references to Scriptures or Purans. I'm curious to know &lt;strong&gt;the actual story&lt;/strong&gt; according to Hindu Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also Why Krishna played this Leela?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-11T10:53:39.560" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T06:15:49.917" Title="The Legend of Chessboard (Pala payasam story) of Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna Temple" Tags="|krishna|temple|leela|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16713" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15051" CreationDate="2017-01-11T13:10:54.413" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sthapatya Veda is an upaveda of Atharvaveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishwakarma is believed to be an expounder of Vashtu Shashtra also known as (or includes) Shilp Shashtra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are the list of Sanskrit literature (treatise) on Vastu Shashatra from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vastu_shastra#Vastu_Shastras_.E2.80.94_Sanskrit_treatises_on_architecture&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Manasara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brhat samhita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mayamata&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Anka sastra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Aparajita Vastu Sastra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Maha-agamas (28 books, each with 12 to 75 chapters)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ayadi Lakshana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Aramadi Pratishtha Paddhati (includes garden design)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kasyapiya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kupadi Jala Sthana Lakshana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kshetra Nirmana Vidhi (preparation of land and foundation of buildings including temples)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gargya samhita (pillars, doors, windows, wall design and architecture)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Griha Pithika (types of houses and their construction)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ghattotsarga Suchanika (riverfront and steps architecture)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Chakra sastra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jnana ratna kosha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu sarani (measurement, ratio and design layouts of objects, particularly buildings)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Devalaya Lakshana (treatise on construction of temples)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dhruvadi shodasa gehani (guidelines for arrangement of buildings with respect to each other for harmony)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nava sastra (36 books, most lost)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Agni Purana (Chapters 42 through 55, and 106 - Nagaradi Vastu)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Matsya Purana (Chapters 252 through 270)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Maya samgraha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prasada kirtana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prasada Lakshana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Tachchu sastra (primarily home design for families)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Manushyalaya Lakshana (primarily human dwelings)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;[[Manushyalaya Chandrika]]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mantra dipika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mana kathana (measurement principles)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Manava vastu lakshana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Manasollasa (chapters on house layout, mostly ancient cooking recipes)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Raja griha nirmana (architecture and construction principles for royal palaces)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rupa mandana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu chakra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu tattva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu nirnaya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu purusha lakshana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu prakasa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu pradipa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu manjari&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu mandana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu lakshana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu vichara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu vidya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu vidhi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu samgraha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vastu sarvasva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vimana lakshana (tower design)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Visvakarma prakasa (home, roads, water tanks and public works architecture)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vaikhanasa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sastra jaladhi ratna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sipla prakasa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Silpakala Dipika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Silpartha sastra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sanatkumara vastu sastra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find list in Devanagari also - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0#.E0.A4.AA.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.B0.E0.A4.AE.E0.A5.81.E0.A4.96_.E0.A4.B5.E0.A4.BE.E0.A4.B8.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.A4.E0.A5.81.E0.A4.B6.E0.A4.BE.E0.A4.B8.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.A4.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.B0.E0.A5.80.E0.A4.AF_.E0.A4.97.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.B0.E0.A4.A8.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.A5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;प्रमुख वास्तुशास्त्रीय ग्रन्थ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find some of available work on Vastu Shashtra at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.peterffreund.com/Vedic_Literature/Vedic%20Literature%20Unicode/Upaveda/Sthapatya%20Veda/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sthapatya Veda&lt;/a&gt; which are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kamikagama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;kashyapa shilpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;kiranagama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;manasara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;manushyalaya chandrika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;samaranganasutradhara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;vastusutra upanishad&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;vishvakarma vastu shastra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;yogajagama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are popular or best sources for Vastu Shashtra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mansaar Shilp Shashtra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brihat Smhita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishwakarma Vastu Shashtra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishwakarma Shilp&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vastu Sutra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishwakarma Prakash&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vastu Mandala Purush from Hindupedia:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MyEmf.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MyEmf.gif&quot; alt=&quot;Vastu Mandala Purush&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;(source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/eng/images/c/c5/Vastu-purusha-mandala-image.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;hindupedia.com&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/sub&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2019-02-17T02:51:50.870" LastActivityDate="2019-02-17T02:51:50.870" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16714" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14355" CreationDate="2017-01-11T14:51:38.383" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Kulachudamani Tantra and Vāmakeśvara Taṃtra with commentary of Jayaratha was translated into English by Louise M Finn. Unfortunately, this book is not available online or offline.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/P5UKw.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/P5UKw.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have got scanned copy of this book and i didn't post this book to archive.org or other site as i'm not sure of copyright status of this book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2017-01-11T14:51:38.383" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16716" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15646" CreationDate="2017-01-12T02:33:28.863" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Puranas do mention the names of days of week. For eg. Srimad Bhagvatam in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/12/49-50&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;4.12.49&lt;/a&gt; talks about Sunday:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पौर्णमास्यां सिनीवाल्यां द्वादश्यां श्रवणेथवा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दिन-क्षये व्यतीपाते सङ्क्र&lt;strong&gt;मेर्कदिने&lt;/strong&gt; पि वा।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  श्रावयेच् छ्रद्दधानानां तीर्थ-पाद-पदाश्रयः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नेच्छंस् तत्रात्मनात्मानं सन्तुष्ट इति सिध्यति।। ( S.B. 4.12.49,50)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Persons who have completely taken shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord should recite this narration of Dhruva Maharaja without taking remuneration. Specifically, recitation is recommended on the full moon or dark moon day, on the day after Ekadasi, on the appearance of the Sravana star, at the end of a particular tithi, or the occasion of Vyatipata, at the end of the month, or on &lt;strong&gt;(Arka dine) Sunday.&lt;/strong&gt; Such recitation should of course be performed before a favorable audience. When recitation is performed this way, without professional motive, the reciter and audience become perfect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some more refrences from Shristi khanda of Padma Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदाहस्तेनसप्त&lt;strong&gt;म्यादित्यस्यदिनं&lt;/strong&gt; भवेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सूर्यस्यचापिसंक्रांतिस्तिथिस्सासार्वकामिकी ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  4. That seventh day of the month which falls &lt;strong&gt;on (Adityasya dinam) Sunday&lt;/strong&gt; with Hasta (rising on that day), and on which there is also the transition of the Sun, is the one which satisfies all desires. (Padma Purana chapter 25 &amp;quot;The vow of Adityasayana&amp;quot; )&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यदा&lt;strong&gt;सोमदिने&lt;/strong&gt; शुक्लाभवेत्पंचदशीक्वचित् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अथवाब्रह्मनक्षत्रंपौर्णमास्यांप्रजायते ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदास्रानंनरः कुर्यात्पंचगव्येनसर्षपैः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आप्यायस्वेतिचजपेद्विद्वानष्टशतंपुन ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  4-5 When the fifteenth day of the bright fortnight (i.e. the full-moon day) falls &lt;strong&gt;on (Soma dine) Monday&lt;/strong&gt; or the Brahmanaksatra appears on the full-moon day, a man should bathe with the mixture of the five products of the cow and with mustard; the wise one should again mutter the text &amp;apos; (Please) grow&amp;apos; for one hundred and eight times. (Padma Purana chapter 26 &amp;quot;The vow of Rohini Candraiyana)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शु&lt;strong&gt;क्लांगारक&lt;/strong&gt; संयुक्ताचतुर्थीजायतेयदा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  श्रद्धयाश्राद्धकृत्तस्यांनप्रेतोजायतेनरः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  43. One who, with faith, offers a sraddha on the fourth day of a month which falls &lt;strong&gt;on a Tuesday&lt;/strong&gt; in the bright half of a month, does not become an evil spirit. (Padma Purana chapter 32 &amp;quot;Descent of Holy place&amp;quot;)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यदा&lt;strong&gt;चार्केगुरौसोमेवारे&lt;/strong&gt; ष्वेतेषुवैत्रिषु ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्रीण्येतानिचऋक्षाणिस्वयंप्रोक्तानिब्रह्मपा ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  72. Brahma himself has declared these three lunar mansions (to be auspicious) when they fall on &lt;strong&gt;Sundays or Thursdays or Mondays.&lt;/strong&gt; (Padma Purana chapter 32 &amp;quot;Descent of Holy place&amp;quot;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata mentions about measurement of Time in terms of week also. Like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Bhishma, what is there remarkable in this one&amp;apos;s having &lt;strong&gt;supported for a week&lt;/strong&gt; the Govardhan mount which is like an anthill? &amp;apos;While sporting on the top of a&#xA;  mountain this one ate a large quantity of food,&amp;apos;--hearing these words of thine many have wondered exceedingly. (Sabha Parva: Sisupala-badha Parva: Section XL)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One, who sees the lunar disc to have many holes like a spider&amp;apos;s web, or one, who sees the solar disc to have similar holes has but &lt;strong&gt;one week more to live.&lt;/strong&gt; One, who, when smelling fragrant scents in place of worship, perceives them to be as offensive as the scent of corpses, has but &lt;strong&gt;one week more to live.&lt;/strong&gt; The depression of the nose or of the ears, the discolour of the teeth or of the eye, the loss of all consciousness, and the loss also of all animal heat, are symptoms indicating death that very day. (Santi Parva: Section CCCXVIII)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-12T03:07:39.730" LastActivityDate="2017-01-12T03:07:39.730" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16717" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16725" CreationDate="2017-01-12T09:39:20.440" Score="7" ViewCount="1237" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Lord Krishna says he is Bhrigu in sages whereas Bhrigu rishi put leg on the Lord Vishnu's chest? Is there any reason behind calling himself as Sage bhrigu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;reference &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-10-23.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;geeta ch-10 verse 25&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7hQhj.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7hQhj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T02:34:36.883" LastActivityDate="2017-01-13T02:34:36.883" Title="Why Lord Krishna says he is Bhrigu in sages?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16719" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-12T16:22:53.227" Score="6" ViewCount="871" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to have the exact reference to a quote attributed to Lord Ganesha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The day I was born I made my first mistake ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;William Buck  also uses this quote in his book &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.litkicks.com/WilliamBuck&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Mystique of William Buck&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Listen --&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For three years Vyasa composed the Mahabharata in his mind, and when it was finished, he summoned Ganesha to be his scribe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva's son came and asked, &quot;Why call me?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa replied, &quot;Do you not remove all obstacles and barriers? You are the god of thieves and writers. Write down my book as I tell it to you.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ganesha swished his trunk around. &quot;OM! But there are books and books. Is yours a very good one?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Yes.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ganesha laughed, and his huge belly shook. &quot;Well just let me get rid of all these things ...&quot; He set down the conch shell and the lotus, the discus and axe that he held in his four hands. &quot;... and I shall write for you; but if once you stop the story, I will leave and never return.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, &quot;On this condition: if you don't understand what I mean, you must write no more until you do.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Done! &lt;strong&gt;The very day I was born I made my first mistake&lt;/strong&gt;, and by that path I have sought wisdom ever since.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Caitlin Matthews in her book &lt;em&gt;Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom, Bride of God&lt;/em&gt; also quotes it on &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=51ZbBgAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA376&amp;amp;lpg=PA376&amp;amp;dq=%22The+Day+I+was+Born+I+Made+My+First+Mistake%22&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=iUxWCEjv-m&amp;amp;sig=0oyIEyyoSvPQ2BvXl21OvFn8rBs&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwisqZSn9bzRAhXGwlQKHXKDB2AQ6AEIDzAC#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%22The%20Day%20I%20was%20Born%20I%20Made%20My%20First%20Mistake%22&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;page 376&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As it states in the Indian epic, The Mahabharata, &quot;The day I was born I made my first mistake and by that path have I sought wisdom ever since.&quot; &lt;sup&gt;54&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8692" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-12T17:26:22.270" LastActivityDate="2017-01-12T19:07:33.703" Title="Reference to Ganesha's statement from Mahabharata (&quot;The day I was born I made my first mistake&quot;)" Tags="|mahabharata|ganesha|vyasa|shloka|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16720" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16719" CreationDate="2017-01-12T18:19:20.357" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The quote does not occur in the Mahabharata.&lt;/strong&gt; Here is the only conversation between Ganesha and Vyasa described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot;&gt;first chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Vyasa began to call to mind Ganesa. And Ganesa, obviator of obstacles, ready to fulfil the desires of his votaries, was no sooner thought of, than he repaired to the place where Vyasa was seated. And when he had been saluted, and was seated, Vyasa addressed him thus, &quot;O guide of the Ganas! be thou the writer of the Bharata which I have formed in my imagination, and which I am about to repeat.&quot; Ganesa, upon hearing this address, thus answered, 'I will become the writer of thy work, provided my pen do not for a moment cease writing.&quot; And Vyasa said unto that divinity, &quot;Wherever there be anything thou dost not comprehend, cease to continue writing.&quot; Ganesa having signified his assent, by repeating the word Om! proceeded to write; and Vyasa began; and by way of diversion, he knit the knots of composition exceeding close; by doing which, he dictated this work according to his engagement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as you can see there is absolutely no mention of Ganesha making a mistake.  Now as to whether Ganesha actually made a mistake on the first day of his life, you could call fighting with Shiva and losing his head mistakes if you want, but they were all part of the divine plan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-01-12T18:19:20.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16722" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16719" CreationDate="2017-01-12T19:07:33.703" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt;: No such words were spoken by Gaṇeśa in the Mahābhārata i.e., you cannot find a reference to the original Sanskrit verse for the quote you mention in the question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire conversation between Vyāsa and Gaṇeśa from the very &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/20361/13F_Chapter_1_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;first chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahābhārata is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;काव्यस्य लेखानार्थाय गणेश: स्मर्यतां मुने। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;सौतिरुवाच एवमाभाष्य तं ब्रह्मा जगाम स्वं निवेशनम्॥७४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let Ganesha be remembered, O Rishi, to write this poem. Sauti said:&#xA;Having thus spoken to Vyasa, Brahma went away to his own place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततः सस्मार हेरम्बं व्यासः सत्यवतीसुतः। स्मृतमात्रो गणेशानो भक्तचिन्तितपूरकः ॥७५॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;तत्राजगाम विघ्नेशो वेदव्यासो यतः स्थितः। पूजितश्चोपविष्टश्च व्यासेनोक्तस्तदाऽनघ ॥७६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Vyasa remembered Ganesha in his mind. As soon as he was thought of the expeller of obstacles, Ganesha, who is always ready to fulfill the desire of his worshipers, came at once to the place where Vyasa was seated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लेखको भारतस्यास्य भव त्वं गणनायक। मयैव प्रोच्यमानस्य मनसा कल्पितस्य च ॥७७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When he was saluted and when he took his seat, Vyasa thus addressed him, &amp;quot;O guide of the Ganas, kindly become the writer of the Bharata, which I have composed in my mind, but which I shall now repeat.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रुत्वैतत्प्राह विघ्नेशो यदि मे लेखनी क्षणम्। लिखितो नावतिष्ठेत तदा स्यां लेखको ह्यहम् ॥७८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing this Ganesha thus replied; I shall become the writer of your work, provided my pen is not made to stop even for a moment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;व्यासोऽप्युवाच तं देवमबुद्ध्वा मा लिख क्वचित्। ओमित्युक्त्वा गणेशोऽपि बभूव किल लेखकः ॥७९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa also told him, &amp;quot;without understanding it, please do not write anything.&#xA;Ganesha assented by saying “Om.” He proceeded to Write and Vyasa began to dictate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ग्रन्थग्रन्थि तदा चक्रे मुनिगूढं कुतूहलात्। यस्मिन्प्रतिज्ञया प्राह मुनिद्वैपायनस्त्विदम् ॥८०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To take time to rest, Vyasa Sometimes knit the knots of composition very close. Thus he went on dictating his work as he made engagement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it's possible that William Buck has picked up a version of the Mahābhārata, which is very different from what most Hindus or Indians know, as reference for his retelling of the Mahābhārata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's how he &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=bgnHHqPg6R8C&amp;amp;lpg=PP1&amp;amp;dq=Mahabharata%20William%20Buck&amp;amp;pg=PA5#v=twopage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;narrates&lt;/a&gt;, in its entirety, the Vyāsa-Gaṇeśa talk:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva's son came and asked, &amp;quot;Why call me?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa replied, &amp;quot;Do you not remove all obstacles and barriers? You are the god of thieves and writers. Write down my book as I tell it to you.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha swished his trunk around. &amp;quot;OM! But there are books and books. Is yours a very good one?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Yes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha laughed, and his huge belly shook. &amp;quot;Well just let me get rid of all these things...&amp;quot; He set down the conch&#xA;shell and lotus, the discus and axe that he held in his four hands. &amp;quot; ... and I shall write for you; but if once you stop the story, I will leave and never return.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, &amp;quot;On this condition: if you don't understand what I mean, you must write no more until you do.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Done! &lt;strong&gt;The very day I was born I made my first mistake, and by that path have I sought wisdom ever since&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Listen -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was born fullgrown from the dew of my mother's body. We were alone, and Devi told me, &amp;quot;Guard the door. Let no one enter, because I'm going to take a bath.&amp;quot; Then Shiva, whom I had never seen, came home. I would not let him into his own house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Who are you to stop me?&amp;quot; he raged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And I told him, &amp;quot;No beggars here, so go away!&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I may be half naked,&amp;quot; he answered, &amp;quot;but all the world is mine, though I care not for it.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Then go drag about your world, but not Parvati's mountain homel I am Shiva's son and guard this door for her with my life!&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Well,&amp;quot; he said, &amp;quot;you are a great liar. Do you think I don't know my own sons?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Foolishness!&amp;quot; I said. &amp;quot;I was only born today, but I know a rag picker when I see one. Now get on your way.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He fixed his eyes on me and very calmly asked, &amp;quot;Will you let me in?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Ask no more!&amp;quot; I said. &amp;quot;Then I shall not,&amp;quot; he replied, and with a sharp glance he cut off my head and threw it far away, beyond the Himalayas. Devi ran out, crying, &amp;quot;You'll never amount to anything You've killed our son!&amp;quot; She bent over my body and wept.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What good are you for a husband? You wander away and leave me home to do all the work. Because you wander around dreaming all the time, we have to live in poverty with hardly enough to eat.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Lord of All the Worlds pacified her; looking around, the first head he saw happened to be an elephant's, and he set it on my shoulders and restored me to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Parvati was happy again, and that is how I first met my father&lt;/strong&gt;,&amp;quot; said Ganesha, &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;long, long ago&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Alright,&amp;quot; said Vyasa, &amp;quot;now I will begin.&amp;quot; And he began to tell his story to Ganesha, who wrote it on leaves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;And many times Vyasa would compose lines that would make Ganesha pause, so he could use the time to think out the next part,&amp;quot; said Sauti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, interestingly, from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.amazon.com/review/R39EH53XQZ5H69/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;ASIN=0520227042&amp;amp;channel=detail-glance&amp;amp;nodeID=283155&amp;amp;store=books&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; Amazon.com review, it appears that William Buck's retelling of Mahābhārata is very different from the traditional account of the story:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many readers, including me, appreciate the artistry and skill of Buck's writing. I am puzzled, however, by the changes that he made in the story. For example, &lt;strong&gt;Buck has Krishna kill Dushsasana prior to the battle&lt;/strong&gt; (in Vyasa, Dushsasana is killed by Bhima at Kurukshetra). For another example, &lt;strong&gt;in Buck's version, it is Virata's son Uttara who breaks into the Kuru's Lotus formation&lt;/strong&gt; [&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmavyuha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;padma-vyūha&lt;/a&gt;] during the battle (and is subsequently killed). In Vyasa, the protagonist is Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna. For a third example, Buck has Draupadi volunteer, after having been won by Arjuna, to become the wife of the other four Pandava brothers as well; in Vyasa she has no choice, since her mother-in-law, Kunti, commanded Arjuna to share &amp;quot;whatever he had brought&amp;quot; with his brothers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By Michael Gunther on July 3, 2003&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-01-12T19:07:33.703" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16723" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16966" CreationDate="2017-01-12T23:28:20.263" Score="8" ViewCount="390" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &amp;quot;Shaivite&amp;quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, Iyer Brahmins are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to philosophical Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is related to a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta, which is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the Nayanars just as the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the Alwars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, one of the defining works of the Shaiva Siddhanta sect is Meykandar's Shiva Jnana Bodham, a commentary on twelve important verses from a Shaiva Agama called the Raurava Agamas. Now Meykandar's shishya Arulnandi Shivacharya wrote a work called the Shivajnana Siddhiyar, which is a commentary on Meykandar's work but also tries to refute rival schools of philosophy. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/cFdH&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shiva Jnana Siddhiyar, Arulnandi Shivacharya refutes the Purva Mimamsa philosopher Kumarila Bhatta's belief that souls are always reborn into the same species:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You say that of living beings, both moveable, and immovable, each of them will only change its body at its rebirth, according to its respective karma, but not its form.  But answer me first, whether when humans enter Svarga and partake of the bliss therein, whether they do so there as human beings or as celestials?  If they enjoy heaven as mere human beings, then this heaven ceases to be such.  If as celestials they enjoy, your theory that they do not change their forms falls to the ground.  After enjoying as celestials, when they are reborn on earth, they will only be reborn as human beings and not as celestials.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some worms become beetles and some worms become wasps.  Similarly beings change their forms according to their Karma.  Most of the schools are also agreed on this point, and why should you alone have doubts about it?  The accounts of Agalya becoming a stone, of Mahavishnu incarnating in several forms, of a spider being born in the Solar Race of far famed kings, and a rat having become Mahabali, also demonstrate our point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most of these stories are recognizable: Gautama cursing his wife Ahalya to turn to stone, Vishnu's incarnations, and the story of a rat being reborn as Mahabali which is attested at least in folk tales?  But my question is, what is the story of &amp;quot;a spider being born in the Solar Race of far famed kings&amp;quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this a case of a solar dynasty king being cursed to turn into a spider, or a solar dynasty king having a spider as a son, or what?  Are there any scriptures which mention this story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-01-17T05:08:23.357" Title="Who was the solar dynasty king who was turned into a spider?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|shaivism|suryavansh|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16725" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16717" CreationDate="2017-01-13T01:55:56.313" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prabhupāda &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;notes&lt;/a&gt; that Bhṛgu is the most powerful among all of Brahmā's sons, so that's why Kṛṣṇa says he's Bhṛgu among the ṛṣi's in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 10.25&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmā, the ﬁrst living creature within the universe, created several sons for the propagation of various kinds of species. Among these sons, Bhṛgu is the most powerful sage ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01006.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;according to&lt;/a&gt; the Mahābhārata, Bhṛgu was also reborn out of fire:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great and blessed saint Bhrigu, we are informed, was produced by the self-existing Brahma &lt;strong&gt;from the fire&lt;/strong&gt; at the sacrifice of Varuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And a couple of verses earlier (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 10.23&lt;/a&gt;), we see that Kṛṣṇa is comparing himself with fire (Agni).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of all the Rudras I am Lord Śiva, of the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas I am the Lord of wealth [Kuvera], &lt;strong&gt;of the Vasus I am ﬁre&lt;/strong&gt; [&lt;strong&gt;Agni&lt;/strong&gt;], and of mountains I am Meru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-13T01:55:56.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16726" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7452" CreationDate="2017-01-13T05:19:07.657" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, the Karma of parents does affect their children.&lt;/strong&gt;. Here is what Brihaspati's brother Uchathya tells Vishnu's incarnation Mandhata (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7221/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The tears shed by weeping men afflicted with falsehood slay the children and animals of those that have uttered those falsehoods. Like a cow a sinful act perpetrated does not produce immediate fruits.  If the fruit is not seen in the perpetrator himself, it is seen in his son or in his son's son, or daughter's son. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But to that I would put one qualification: the family that you are born into is ultimately determined by your actions in past births, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2049/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So even if you are punished for your parents' sin, the punishment you experience may also be due to the actions you did in past births that made you be born into that family in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-22T19:50:27.703" LastActivityDate="2017-11-22T19:50:27.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16727" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11424" CreationDate="2017-01-13T09:10:06.733" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;What you say is not true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fasting is definitely a part of Krishna Janmashtami celebrations just like it is a part of the Rama Navami celebrations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some devotees fast the entire day &amp;amp; night whereas some fast only upto midnight which is the time to perform the Puja to Bala Krishna(Baby Krishna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some devotees break their fast by consuming the Prasadam of the above-mentioned Puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My reference here is the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookview.php?chapnum=4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&quot; hosted by Kamakoti.org&lt;/a&gt; which in turn cites the Narada Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Narada Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, Maharshi Sanatana enumerated various&#xA;  Vratas(religious rites) to invoke specific Deities on particular days&#xA;  in each month through out the year for special purposes. On the&#xA;  Pratipada day of Chaitra month Shukla Paksha, Shouri Vrata and Vidya&#xA;  Vrata are scheduled............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna Janmashtami in Shravana Krishna Paksha is a very essential day&#xA;  for Krishna Puja when day long fasting is observed&lt;/strong&gt; and the ten Tulasi&#xA;  leaf- worship is performed by reciting Krishnaya Namah, Vishnavey&#xA;  Namah, Anantaaya namah, Govindaya Namah Garudadhwajaaya Namah,&#xA;  Daamodaraaya namah, Hrishi keshaya namah, Pama naabhaya namah, Haraye&#xA;  Namah, and Prahavey Namah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as you can see, the Scriptures actually recommend a day long fast on Janmashtami contrary to what you are saying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T15:43:01.913" LastActivityDate="2017-01-13T15:43:01.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16728" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-13T10:13:46.687" Score="5" ViewCount="1255" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any Shloka for number's  from 0-9? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wanted to know if there is any specific shloka to represent/say these numbers apart from ekam/eka, dwi...etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Explanation - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I need a verse or a rhyme or a shok from scriptures or puranas in Sanskrit which specifically speaks about any one number between 0 to 9. I am trying to find if there is any language which has a longer description of a number and I think Sanskrit may have it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, it could be something like a verse stating a significance of number 1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3912" LastEditorUserId="3912" LastEditDate="2017-01-14T07:51:03.353" LastActivityDate="2017-01-14T07:51:03.353" Title="Representation of number 0-9 in Sanskrit shloka" Tags="|scripture|puranas|sanskrit|shloka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16729" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16728" CreationDate="2017-01-13T10:49:03.190" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many hymns attributed to Lord Ganesha. One of them is &lt;em&gt;Sankatamochana Ganesha Stotram&lt;/em&gt; sung by Sage Nārada. The following is an excerpt from the Nārada Purāṇa .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the hymn, twelve names of Ganesha are said. They are: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रथमं&lt;/strong&gt; वक्रतुन्डम् च एकदन्तं &lt;strong&gt;द्वितीयकं&lt;/strong&gt; | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;तृतीयं&lt;/strong&gt; कृष्णपिङ्गाक्षं गजवक्त्रं &lt;strong&gt;चतुर्थकम्&lt;/strong&gt;||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Firstly, as the one with the twisted trunk. Secondly, as the one with the single tusk. Thirdly, as the one with the fawn colored eyes. Fourthly, as the one with the elephants mouth,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लंबोदरं &lt;strong&gt;पञ्चमं&lt;/strong&gt; च &lt;strong&gt;षष्ठं&lt;/strong&gt; विकटमेव च |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;सप्तमं&lt;/strong&gt; विघ्नराजं च धूम्रवर्णं तथा &lt;strong&gt;अष्टमम्&lt;/strong&gt;|| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fifthly, as the pot-bellied one, Sixthly, as the monstrous one, Seventhly, as the king of obstacles, Eighthly, as the smoke colored one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नवमं&lt;/strong&gt; भालचन्द्रं च &lt;strong&gt;दशमं&lt;/strong&gt; तु विनायकं |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;एकादशं&lt;/strong&gt; गणपतिं &lt;strong&gt;द्वादशम्&lt;/strong&gt; तु गजाननं || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ninethly, as the moon crested one, Tenthly, as the remover of hindrances, Eleventhly, as the Lord of the hordes, Twelfthly, as the one with the elephants face.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above said are the twelve names of Lord Ganesha as said by sage Nārada in Nārada purāṇa . Also there is a representation of numbers from 1 to 12.  The number zero (0) is called shoonya(nothing) in sanskrit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T11:59:49.070" LastActivityDate="2017-01-13T11:59:49.070" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16730" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-13T14:29:22.560" Score="3" ViewCount="4635" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to ask about procedure and  the rules to be followed while listening or narrating the puranas and Who can read the Puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8700" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-27T03:55:06.007" LastActivityDate="2017-06-27T03:55:06.007" Title="Procedure &amp; rules to be followed while listening or narrating puranas?" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16732" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16730" CreationDate="2017-01-13T18:13:43.117" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The general rules the listener and narrator should have to follow , while listening or  narrating the  puranas are given &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Maha Purana&lt;/strong&gt;  and in &lt;strong&gt;Shiva-MahaPurana (Chapter 7 –Description of worship of the book and the orator) .&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before starting reading or narrating puranas one should do a &lt;strong&gt;Sankalpa&lt;/strong&gt; , Its highlighted that one should listen or narrate the puranas with pure and deep devotion .Only with  &lt;strong&gt;pure devotion and pure love towards god&lt;/strong&gt; gives respective outcome of listening or narrating of puranas.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the  shlokas describing procedure and the rules to be followed while listening or narrating from &lt;strong&gt;Shiva-Maha purana chapter 7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आसमाप्तपुराणं हि समुपोष्य सुशक्तिमान &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    श्रुणुयाद्भक्तित: शुद्ध:पुराणं शैवमुत्तमं॥६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Or a listener &lt;strong&gt;who is quite healthy ,should keep fast till the end of&#xA;  the Katha&lt;/strong&gt; ,getting purified. He should listened to the story of&#xA;  Shiva-Purana with devotion.One should listen to the katha with comfort&#xA;  consuming Ghee or Milk&lt;br&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  घृतपानं पय: पानं कृत्वा वा श्रुणुयात्सुखं &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    फ़लाहारेण वा श्राव्यमेकभुक्तं न वा हि तत्॥७॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The orator or speaker should consume &lt;strong&gt;fruit or take food  once in a&#xA;  day&lt;/strong&gt; and recite the Shiva-Purana.&lt;br&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  पलाण्डु लशुनं हिङ्गु गृञ्जनं मादकं हि तत्:&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    वस्तुन्यामिषसंज्ञानि वर्जयेदय: कथाव्रती॥१२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Onion ,Garlic ,asafetida ,carrots&lt;/strong&gt; and other &lt;strong&gt;intoxicating Drinks&lt;/strong&gt; should &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; be consumed by the person listening to the&#xA;  katha daily.&lt;br&gt;&lt;hr&gt;गृहस्थच्श्रेद्भ् वेच्छोता कर्तव्यस्तेन&#xA;  धीमता&lt;br&gt; होम: शुद्धेन हविषाकर्मणस्तस्य शान्तये॥३६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In case the listener is a House-Holder , then the wise people should  &lt;strong&gt;perform homa&lt;/strong&gt; with pure ghee of cow &lt;strong&gt;for Shanti of Katha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  Some of the  shlokas describing ,Procedure and the rules to be followed while listening or narrating Shreemad Bhagvat Purana , which are given in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat purana (Mahatmya or glory part) which is originally from Skanda purana vaishnava kanada , bhagvat mahatmya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एषोsप्यत्युत्तम: पक्ष: सप्ताहो बहुसंमत:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Experts say that its best to &lt;strong&gt;read Shreemad Bhagvat purana in 7 days.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुस्तकं च गुरुंचैव पुजयित्वोपचारत:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  One should &lt;strong&gt;pray&lt;/strong&gt; and honour &lt;strong&gt;Purana&lt;/strong&gt; book and &lt;strong&gt;Guru Ved-Vyasa&lt;/strong&gt; everyday before reading or listening.&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  पयसा वा हविष्येण मौनं भोजनमाचरेत&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    ब्रह्मचर्यमध: सुप्तिं क्रोधलोभदिवर्जनं  ॥४४॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    One should only &lt;strong&gt;consume milk&lt;/strong&gt; during those days and &lt;strong&gt;maintain celibacy&lt;/strong&gt; , one should sleep on floor without bed ,and must &lt;strong&gt;keep one-self away from anger and lust.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  कथान्ते कीर्तनं नित्यं समप्तौ जागरं चरेत &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    ब्रह्मणान् भोजयित्वा तु दक्षिणाभि: प्रतोषयेत ॥४५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  After compilation of story , each day &lt;strong&gt;kirtan&lt;/strong&gt; should be performed and at the end of reading or listening of purana. &lt;strong&gt;Jagaran&lt;/strong&gt; (not sleeping whole night while singing songs of god) has to be observed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-01-14T05:06:21.340" LastActivityDate="2017-01-14T05:06:21.340" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16733" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-13T19:31:40.263" Score="3" ViewCount="255" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a discourse on Mahābhārata today, I heard that, in the entire Mahābhārata, Vyāsa doesn't say one way or the other if Bhīṣma ever married or remained single. The speaker, Sāmavedam Ṣaṇmukha Śarma, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/zkx86xZ5Zng?t=1075&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the video&lt;/a&gt; (Telugu) says Vyāsa has remained silent on the topic so it's possible that Bhīṣma married but chose not to have kids to keep up his promise made to Satyavati's adopted father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, this is Bhīṣma's actual promise:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Chief of fishermen, thou best of men, listen to what I say in the presence of these assembled kings. Ye kings, I have already relinquished my right to the throne, I shall now settle the matter of my children. O fisherman, from this day I adopt the vow of Brahmacharya (study and meditation in celibacy). If I die sonless, I shall yet attain to regions of perennial bliss in heaven!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above, Bhīṣma doesn't say if he's already married or not. He just says he won't have children hinting that he's currently married.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So according to Mahābhārata, did Bhīṣma ever marry or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he didn't, are there any ślokas (or theirs translations) that conclusively say Bhīṣma did not marry?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;PS. Please don't answer citing Harivaṃśa, Bhāgavata and other Purāṇas.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-13T19:55:38.983" LastActivityDate="2017-01-14T02:14:16.303" Title="According to Mahābhārata, did Bhīṣma ever marry or not?" Tags="|mahabharata|marriage|bhishma|sannyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16734" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16733" CreationDate="2017-01-14T01:38:07.767" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Okay let's walk through this in chronological order. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source:&lt;/strong&gt; BOOK 1 of the BORI Critical Edition of the Mahabharata as translated by Bibek Debroy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The vasus replied, “O revered one who dwells in the three worlds! You must hurl your sons into the water as soon as they are born, so that we are quickly freed and don’t suffer for a long time.” Ganga said, “I will do what you wish. But so that my union with him is not completely fruitless, let one son remain with him.” The vasus replied, “Each one of us will offer one-eighth of our respective energies. &lt;strong&gt;From that, a son will be born to you and will live according to your desires. But he will have no children on earth. Therefore, this valorous son of yours will remain without a son.&lt;/strong&gt;”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Okay this is is the part where the vasus ask Ganga to have the kids. It is clearly stated that Bhishm is not allowed to have a son. Daughters aren't mentioned because they had no value during this time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's skip right to Bhishma's vow:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The son who will be born from her will be the king.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Bhishma states to Satyavati's father, unequivocally, that Satyavati's son with Shantanu will be the King.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fisherman replies that his oath isn't good enough. He's worried because Bhishma is...well Bhishma. He is renowned within Hastinapur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;But I do have great doubts about the sons who will be born to you.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here we come to the VOW. Bhishma replied:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O fisherman! From today, &lt;strong&gt;I take the vow of brahmacharya&lt;/strong&gt;. Even if I die without a son, I will attain the eternal world of heaven.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope that helps. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8704" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-14T02:14:16.303" LastActivityDate="2017-01-14T02:14:16.303" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16735" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14163" CreationDate="2017-01-14T03:26:36.863" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe there are many festivals and prayers after which Prasad is offered. It is done to thank Nature Land, Sun, Water, Air etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Example the festival of Pongal, Makar Sakranti, lohri etc ...&#xA;Pongal in Tamil Nadu is celebrated to mark the withdrawal of the southeast monsoons as well as the reaping of the harvest. Pongal is strictly a rural festival. The Sun is worshiped for its rays are responsible for life on earth. It is the biggest harvest festival, spread over four days. The name of the festival is derived from Pongal, a rice pudding made from freshly harvested rice, milk and jaggery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first day, Bhogi Pongal, is a day for the family. Surya Pongal, the second day, is dedicated to the worship of Surya, the Sun God. The third day, Mattupongal is for worship of the cattle. In Chennai (Madras), a rath yatra procession is taken out from the Kandaswamy Temple. In Madurai, Tanjore and Tiruchirrapalli, where Pongal is known as Jellikattu, bundles of money are tied to the horns of bulls and villagers try and wrest the bundles from them. Community meals are made from the freshly gathered harvest and enjoyed by the entire village.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In preparation for &lt;a href=&quot;http://bolguru.com/pongal-hindu-festival-about-history-pictures-information-images-recipe/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pongal&lt;/a&gt;, houses and courtyards are cleaned and a new string of fresh mango leaves is hung at the front door of the house. The making of sweet rice is the most important preparation done. This is a dish prepared with rice, dal, jaggery, dry fruits, sugar and milk. All these ingredients are cooked in a new clay pot in the open and allowed to boil over, signifying plenty and prosperity for the year ahead. This is offered to the Sun God and partaken as prasad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, its quite logical that here we are thanking God to provide the living.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8705" LastActivityDate="2017-01-14T03:26:36.863" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16736" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19265" CreationDate="2017-01-14T06:18:11.467" Score="5" ViewCount="411" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &amp;quot;Shaivite&amp;quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, Iyer Brahmins are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to philosophical Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is related to a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta, which is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the Nayanars just as the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the Alwars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, one of the defining works of the Shaiva Siddhanta sect is Meykandar's Shiva Jnana Bodham, a commentary on twelve important verses from a Shaiva Agama called the Raurava Agamas. Now Meykandar's shishya Arulnandi Shivacharya wrote a work called the Shivajnana Siddhiyar, which is a commentary on Meykandar's work but also tries to refute rival schools of philosophy. In this excerpt from the Shiva Jnana Siddhiyar, Arulnandi Shivacharya refutes the view that souls are always reborn into the same species:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You say that of living beings, both moveable, and immovable, each of them will only change its body at its rebirth, according to its respective karma, but not its form. But answer me first, whether when humans enter Svarga and partake of the bliss therein, whether they do so there as human beings or as celestials? If they enjoy heaven as mere human beings, then this heaven ceases to be such. If as celestials they enjoy, your theory that they do not change their forms falls to the ground. After enjoying as celestials, when they are reborn on earth, they will only be reborn as human beings and not as celestials.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some worms become beetles and some worms become wasps. Similarly beings change their forms according to their Karma. Most of the schools are also agreed on this point, and why should you alone have doubts about it? The accounts of Agalya becoming a stone, of Mahavishnu incarnating in several forms, of a spider being born in the Solar Race of far famed kings, and a rat having become Mahabali, also demonstrate our point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss the spider part in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16723/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But now I'm interested in who Arulnandi Shivacharya.  is refuting.  The translator says it's the Purva Mimamsa philosopher Kumarila Bhatta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhattacharya's theory is that grass, herb or bird or animal or man will be reborn as grass, herb, etc., respectively and not one into the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, where in his works does Kumarila Bhatta say that souls are always reborn into the same species?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Kumarila Bhatta wrote three commentaries on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras: the Shloka Vartika, the Tantra Vartika, and the Tuptika.  You can read the Sloka Vartika &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/slokavartika015341mbp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and the Tantra Vartika &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/download/Bibliotheca_Indica_Series/TantraVartikaTranslationVolume1-GanganathaJha1910.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/download/Bibliotheca_Indica_Series/TantraVartikaTranslationVolume2-GanganathaJha1924.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  The Tuptika has never been translated into English, but &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/tuptikak00kuma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; it is in Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know whether in any of these works Kumarila Bhatta addresses the forms that souls are reborn into?  Also, is this a view unique to Kumarila Bhatta and his followers or is it shared by all members of the Purva Mimamsa school?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T15:45:56.443" Title="Does Kumarila Bhatta say you're always reborn as the same species?" Tags="|philosophy|rebirth|shaivism|purva-mimamsa|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16737" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12164" CreationDate="2017-01-14T07:33:24.997" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The first meeting of Rama and lakshmana with Hanuman is described in the &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga3/kishkindha_3_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana Kishkindha kanda sarga 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. Hanuman speaks very politely. From those verses, we can learn how we should speak to strangers who are superior to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuma completes series of his questions and introduces himself as a minister of Sugriva to Rama and Lakshmana. Then Rama was very well pleased by the words of Hanuma and turns to Lakshmana and speaks with him. Here Rama did not speak to Hanuma directly because He is following imperial protocol. An emperor does not indulge into a conversation with an inferior but uses his messengers or envoys to do such. We can also notice this type of conduct from Ravana in sundara kanda where he uses his minister Prahasta to talk with Hanuma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Following are the verses used by Rama to praise Hanuma&lt;/strong&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सचिवो अयम् कपीन्द्रस्य सुग्रीवस्य महात्मनः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तम् एव काङ्क्षमाणस्य मम अन्तिकम् इह आगतः || 4.3. 26  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तम् अभ्यभाष सौमित्रे सुग्रीव सचिवम् कपिम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वाक्यज्ञम् मधुरैः वाक्यैः स्नेह युक्तम् अरिन्दम || 27&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न अन् ऋग्वेद विनीतस्य न अ--यजुर्वेद धारिणः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न अ--साम वेद विदुषः शक्यम् एवम् विभाषितुम् || 28&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नूनम् व्यकरणम् कृत्स्नम् अनेन बहुधा श्रुतम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बहु व्याहरता अनेन न किंचित् अप शब्दितम् || 29&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न मुखे नेत्रयोः च अपि ललाटे च भ्रुवोः तथा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अन्येषु अपि च सर्वेषु दोषः संविदितः क्वचित् || 30&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अविस्तरम् असंदिग्धम् अविलम्बितम् अव्यथम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उरःस्थम् कण्ठगम् वाक्यम् वर्तते मध्यमे स्वरम् || 31&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;संस्कार क्रम संपन्नाम् अद्भुताम् अविलम्बिताम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उच्चारयति कल्याणीम् वाचम् हृदय हर्षिणीम् || 32&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनया चित्रया वाचा त्रिस्थान व्यंजनस्थयाः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कस्य न आराध्यते चित्तम् उद्यत् असे अरेः अपि || 33&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवम् विधो यस्य दूतो न भवेत् पार्थिवस्य तु |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सिद्ध्यन्ति हि कथम् तस्य कार्याणाम् गतयोऽनघ || 34&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवम् गुण गणैर् युक्ता यस्य स्युः कार्य साधकाः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्य सिद्ध्यन्ति सर्वेऽर्था दूत वाक्य प्रचोदिताः || 4.3.35&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The following is the translation of the series of the above verses&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is the minister of that noteworthy soul and king of monkeys, Sugreeva... whom alone I cherish, but he himself has drew nigh of me, on his own. Soumitri, with this minister of Sugreeva, the knower of sententiousness and a pleasant worded one, and one with friendliness you exchange pleasantries with that enemy destroyer Hanuma.Nay...the non-knower of Rig Veda, or the non-rememberer of Yajur Veda, or the non-scholar of Saama Veda can possibly, or truly speak this way.&quot;Definitely grammar is severally and comprehensively learnt by him and though much is said by him not a single word has gone amiss of verbiage... &lt;strong&gt;On his face or eyes, or on forehead or brows, or on other faculties of expression no fault is found...even at the least&lt;/strong&gt;. &quot;Unexpanded, un-doubtful, un-delaying and non-dissonant is the tenor of his speech, and it comports in his chest or throat in a medium tone...&quot;He has orderly refinement in speech that is remarkable and un-delaying, and he speaks propitious words that are heart-pleasing. &lt;strong&gt;His speech is generated in three places is enthralling and whose heart is it that is disenchanted, even that of an enemy after raising his sword at him, on hearing his speech&lt;/strong&gt;. Oh, faultless Lakshmana, if this sort of envoy is not there to a king, really how can that king accomplishes his ways and means... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later Hanuman who is a wordsmith is praised by another wordsmith Lakshmana. Then Hanuman escorts the brothers to Sugreeva and other monkeys. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-03T06:40:05.040" LastActivityDate="2017-05-03T06:40:05.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16738" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-14T10:24:07.930" Score="27" ViewCount="16752" Body="&lt;p&gt;Marriage in Sanātana Dharma was or is never a personal matter instead it is a social matter and responsibility. We all know that, there is no concept of &quot;divorce&quot; in Hinduism. But somehow, our law today is as such. People have divorce for different reasons. If a person gets a divorce by getting accused of something he or she has not done. I believe most laws today are in favor of women. On the other hand, there also many cases of women who were harassed by their in-laws and husbands. I've personally have seen such cases both in case of men and women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Case-1&lt;/strong&gt;: If a girl elopes after marriage or takes a divorce by false accusation on the husband and his parents just to remarry or be with another male who is dear to her. Is that allowed? &lt;strike&gt;Is that justified in anyway? What would happen to her and her family? What happens to her divorced husband and his family?&lt;/strike&gt; Is he allowed to remarry or has to stay a lifelong bachelor without marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Case-2&lt;/strong&gt;: Same questions as above with the man-woman roles reversed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because people who take divorce willingly upon agreement, that is their problem. But the cases in which either wife or husband is of bad character and gets a divorce by force (i.e., by blackmailing that he or she will do suicide or kill) or by strategy, the innocents are getting punished whose life  and family is getting ruined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More Questions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is remarriage for the innocents (man or woman) allowed as per Hindu scriptures? Are there any prayaschitha karmas (compensatory or purification rites)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a divorced male or female does any puja or holy bath or japa or any punya karma, will he or she get punya? Are they even allowed to do any punya karma at all?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE: Please support your answers using scriptures or words of acharyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8706" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-16T21:33:44.853" LastActivityDate="2020-05-07T04:32:13.573" Title="Remarriage in Sanātana Dharma" Tags="|puranas|marriage|dharma-shastras|smriti|divorce|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16739" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1962" CreationDate="2017-01-14T10:58:03.567" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes , its true that  formerly  mountains had wings&lt;/strong&gt;. This is described in one of the shloka in Shreemad Bhagvat Purana.in the  skanda 8 - &lt;strong&gt;SB 8.11&lt;/strong&gt;: King Indra Annihilates the Demons Verse 34.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;While fighting with demons at one point  Indra throws his Vajra (weapon) on daemon named Namuchi , But the Vajra fails to do any harm to that demon. At that time Indra gets frightened  and thinks  himself  that – previously &lt;strong&gt;when mountains used to have wings and they used to fly all over the earth&lt;/strong&gt; ,and due to their flying ,they used to fall on earth causing destruction on earth , I  using this Vajra itself ,broke those wings of mountains.&#xA;So from here we come to know that &lt;strong&gt;they used to fall on earth while flying with wings due to weight ,so in order to stop  havoc caused by mountains ,Indra cut those wings but all these are metaphorical as mentioned in Nighantu-Nirukta where flying of mountains are compared to flying of clouds and indra cutting down it's wing represents Indra showers the rain&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;येन मे पूर्वमद्रिणान पक्षस्च्छेद: प्रजात्यये ।&lt;br&gt; कृतोनिविशतां भारै:&#xA;पतर्त्रे: पततां भुवि ॥34॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; yena me pūrvam adrīṇāṁ pakṣa-cchedaḥ&#xA;prajātyaye &lt;br&gt; kṛto niviśatāṁ bhāraiḥ patattraiḥ patatāṁ bhuvi&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; Meaning -: Indra thought: Formerly, &lt;strong&gt;when many mountains&#xA;flying in the sky with wings&lt;/strong&gt; would fall to the ground and &lt;strong&gt;kill&#xA;people,&lt;/strong&gt; I &lt;strong&gt;cut&lt;/strong&gt; their &lt;strong&gt;wings&lt;/strong&gt; with this same&#xA;thunderbolt.&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/11/34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.11.34&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2024-03-20T09:03:32.583" LastActivityDate="2024-03-20T09:03:32.583" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16740" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-14T13:23:22.090" Score="7" ViewCount="3925" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was Hanuman ever shot in the leg by an arrow while he was flying with the mountain containing the Sanjivani herb, for Lakshmana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've heard that he was, which was a reminder for him to be humble and not proud because he was thinking how much Lord Rama needed him!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oYG6n.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/oYG6n.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7635" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-15T05:52:40.343" LastActivityDate="2017-01-16T21:03:55.927" Title="Was Hanuman ever shot in the leg by an arrow?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|hanuman|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16741" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-01-14T17:06:12.803" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-01-14T17:06:12.803" LastActivityDate="2017-01-14T17:06:12.803" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16742" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-01-14T17:06:12.803" Score="0" Body="Use about questions regarding Lord Varaha(pronounced Varāha IAST)  the boar incarnation of Lord Vishnu. It is the third avatar among ten principle incarnations(daśāvatār) of Lord Vishnu. " OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-15T01:34:04.303" LastActivityDate="2017-01-15T01:34:04.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16744" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10143" CreationDate="2017-01-14T21:41:18.233" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This was the day Maa Ganaga merged into Sea.King Bhagirath finally did tarpan with the Ganges water for his unfortunate ancestors and thereby liberated them from the curse on Makar Sankranti. After visiting the Patala for the redemption of the curse of Bhagirath’s ancestors Gangaji finally merged in the Sagar. Even today a very big Ganga Sagar Mela is organized every year on this day at the confluence of River Ganges and the Bay of Bengal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dibhu.com/index.php/2017/01/13/makar-sankranti/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference-Dibhu&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8709" LastEditorUserId="8709" LastEditDate="2018-01-15T08:10:52.590" LastActivityDate="2018-01-15T08:10:52.590" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16745" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6900" CreationDate="2017-01-15T03:25:26.787" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Lord Parashuramas axe is not Pashupatastra. As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Anushashana Parva, Upamanyu describes Pashupatastra and axe separately which were present in the hands of Mahadeva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That bow is celebrated under the name of the Pinaka and is in reality a mighty snake. Indeed, that snake of seven heads and vast body, of sharp fangs and virulent &#xA;  poison, of large neck and the masculine sex, was twined round with the cord that served as its bowstring. &lt;strong&gt;And there was a shaft&lt;/strong&gt; whose splendour looked like that of the sun or of the fire that appears at the end of the Yuga. Verily, &lt;strong&gt;that shaft was the excellent Pasupata&lt;/strong&gt;' that mighty and terrible weapon, which is without a second, indescribable for its power, and capable of striking every creature with fear. Of vast proportions, it seemed to constantly vomit sparks of fire. Possessed of one foot, of large teeth, and a &#xA;  thousand heads and thousand Stomachs, it has a thousand arms, a thousand tongues, and a thousand eyes. Indeed, it seemed to continually vomit fire. O thou of mighty arms, that weapon is superior to the Brahma, the Narayana, the Aindra, the Agneya, and the Varuna weapons. Verily, it is capable of neutralising every other weapon in the universe. It was with that weapon that the illustrious Mahadeva &#xA;  had in days of yore, burnt and consumed in a moment the triple city of the Asuras. With the greatest ease, O Govinda, Mahadeva, using that single arrow, achieved that feat. That weapon, shot by Mahadeva's arms, can, without doubt consume in half the time taken up by a twinkling of the eyes the entire universe with all its mobile and immobile creatures. In the universe there is no being including &#xA;  even Brahma and Vishnu and the deities, that are incapable of being slain by that weapon. O sire, I saw that excellent, wonderful and incomparable weapon in the hand of Mahadeva. There is another mysterious and very powerful weapon which is equal or perhaps, superior to the Pasupata weapon. I beheld that also. It is celebrated in all the worlds as the Sum of the Sula-armed Mahadeva. Hurled by the &#xA;  illustrious deity, that weapon is competent to rive the entire Earth or dry up the waters of the ocean or annihilate the entire universe. In days of yore, Yuvanaswa's son, king Mandhatri, that conqueror of the three worlds, possessed of imperial sway and endued with abundant energy, was, with all his troops, destroyed by means of that weapon. Endued with great might and great energy and resembling Sakra himself in prowess, the king, O Govinda, was slain by the Rakshasa Lavana with the aid of this Sula which he had got from Siva. The Sula has a very keen point. Exceedingly terrible, it is capable of causing everybody's hair stand on its end. I saw it in the hand of Mahadeva, as if roaring with rage, having contracted its forehead into three wrinkles. It resembled, O Krishna, a smokeless fire or the sun that rises at the end of the Yuga. The handle of that Sula, was made of a mighty snake. It is really indescribable. It looked like the universal Destroyer himself armed with his noose. I saw this weapon, O Govinda, in the hand of Mahadeva. &lt;strong&gt;I beheld also another weapon, viz., that sharp-edged battle-axe which, in days of yore, was given unto Rama by the gratified Mahadeva for enabling him to exterminate the Kshatriyas. It was with this weapon that Rama (of Bhrigu's race) slew in dreadful battle the great Karttaviryya who was the ruler of all the world. It was with that weapon that Jamadagni's son, O Govinda, was able to exterminate the Kshatriyas for one and twenty times.&lt;/strong&gt; Of blazing edge and exceedingly terrible, that axe was hanging on the shoulder, adorned with a snake, of Mahadeva. Indeed, it shone on Mahadeva's person like the flame of a blazing fire. I beheld &#xA;  innumerable other celestial weapons with Mahadeva of great intelligence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear from the above passage that Lord Parashurams axe is different from Pashupatastra. I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14040/what-is-the-story-of-lord-parashurama-getting-his-axe-from-lord-shiva/14041#14041&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; how Lord Parashurama received axe from Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-01-15T03:25:26.787" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16747" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16031" CreationDate="2017-01-15T10:12:59.890" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tvashta Deva is mentioned many times in Rigveda. Tvashta is a creator of universe emerged from or related to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishvakarman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishvakarma&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/puruSukta.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purusha Sukta&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;॥ उत्तरनारायणम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अद्भ्यः संभूतः पृथिव्यै रसाच्च । &lt;strong&gt;विश्वकर्मणः&lt;/strong&gt; समवर्तताधि । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्य &lt;strong&gt;त्वष्टा&lt;/strong&gt; विदधद्रूपमेति । तत्पुरुषस्य विश्वमाजानमग्रे । १&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanuja.org/purusha/sukta-6.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; site:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;adbhyassambhoota: prthivyai rasAcca | vishvakarmaNassamavartatAdhi |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  tasya tvaSHTA vidadhadroopameti | tatpuruSHasya vishvamAjAnamagre || 1 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(adbhya:) From the waters and from the (rasAt) elemental essence of (prthivyai) earth (sambhoota:) was the bramhAnda, the Universe, born. (vishvakarmaNa:) As vishvakarma, the divine architect, did puruSHa, who is (adhi) more than that Universe, appear (samavartata). (tvashTA) As tvashTA, the divine smith he (vidadhat) establishes (tasya roopam) his form, that includes all the worlds (eti) and manifests it everywhere. (agre) In the beginning was (tat puruSHasya) that puruSHa's (vishvam) all, his vishva roopa, (Ajanam) formed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The waters of destruction are again the waters of creation, and from them does the earth reveal itself after praLaya. From these elemental materials is the universe formed, and into these it dissolves. Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. &lt;strong&gt;tvashTA was the smith who forges Indra's vajra, thunderbolt, from the bones of the RSHi dadeechi&lt;/strong&gt;. Vishvakarma is the divine architect who planned and built, among other cities, Kubera's Alakaapuri and also Lanka, and Indra's city.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some Puranas Tvashta is sometimes identified as Vishvakarma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Purush Sukta is found in Rigveda as well as Yajurveda. The above mentioned verse can be found from &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D%28%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%B0%29/%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A0%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%83_%E0%A5%A9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Taitariya Aranyaka&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T13:43:58.897" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T13:43:58.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16749" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16769" CreationDate="2017-01-15T12:48:06.450" Score="17" ViewCount="10876" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आकाशात् पतितं तोयं यथा गच्छति सागरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वदेवनमस्कारं केशवं प्रतिगच्छति ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ākāśāt patitaṃ toyaṃ yathā gacchati sāgaram ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarvadevanamaskāraṃ keśavaṃ pratigacchati ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the water that falls down in rain from anywhere in the sky finally reaches the Ocean, the worship of any divine aspect ultimately reaches the Supreme Being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verse is quite famous. This shloka is used by many to prove the oneness of the God.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From which scripture is the above verse taken?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If the verse is not one from any veda or upanishad, then who is the author of it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/aakashath-pathitham-thoyam-yatha-gachathi-sagaram-sarvadeva&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; blog&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-17T11:49:12.763" LastActivityDate="2024-04-06T05:02:55.597" Title="What is the source of this famous verse?" Tags="|shloka|identification-request|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16750" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15192" CreationDate="2017-01-15T13:20:36.060" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: This is the partial answer which explains it's association with Rigveda and &lt;em&gt;possibly&lt;/em&gt; with Samaveda.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/774/277&quot;&gt;How did the Vedas in Hinduism come into existence?&lt;/a&gt; and some &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15722/277&quot;&gt;information&lt;/a&gt; on Rigveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bharadwaja is the Drashta (seer) of 6&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Mandala of Rigveda.&lt;/strong&gt; There are 765 mantras of Bhardvaja. Bhardvaja's sons are also seers of some vedic hyms. Also note that most of the Samaveda verses are primarily derived from Rigveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अविन्दन्ते अतिहितं यदासीद्यज्ञस्य धाम परमं गुहा यत्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धातुर्द्युतानात्सवितुश्च विष्णोर्भरद्वाजो बृहदा चक्रे अग्नेः॥ १०.१८१.०२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These sages found what lay remote and hidden, the sacrifice's loftiest secret essence.&#xA;  From radiant Dhātar, Savitar, and Viṣṇu, from Agni, &lt;strong&gt;Bharadvāja brought the Brhat&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bharadvaja has assimilated Brihat-Sama &amp;amp; he was Sama-Gayaka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a description of Bharadvaja found from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratishakhyas#Sama_Veda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rik Tantra of Samaveda&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitareya_Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aitareya Brahmana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/aitareyabrahmana04hauguoft/aitareyabrahmana04hauguoft_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aitareya Brahmana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;21.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(He now repeats) a hymn, addressed to Brahmanaspati. * Qandndm &#xA;  tvd ganapatim havdmahe (2, 23) Brahma is Brihaspati ; by means of &#xA;  Brahma he thus cures him (the sacrificial man, who had been torn to &#xA;  pieces). The verses beginning with prathascha L461 yasya saprathascha &#xA;  ndma (10, 181, 1-3) are the three Gharmatanu^ mantras ; by repeating &#xA;  them the Hotar provides the Pravargya man with a body, and a form. &#xA;  (For in the fourth pada of the first of these verses), there is said : &quot; Vasia- &#xA;  tha brought the Rathantara Sama,&quot; and (in the last half verse of the &#xA;  second Gharmatanu mantra is said), &lt;strong&gt;&quot; Bharadvaja made the Brihat &#xA;  Sama out of Agni.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; ^ By repeating these mantras, the Hotar provides * &#xA;  the Pravargya man with the Rathantara and Brihat-Samans (required &#xA;  for its prosperity). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brihat Sama is considered supreme among Saman hymns (BG 10.35).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gautama, Vamadeva, Bharadvaja and Kashyapa are considered four primary Saama Gayaka (singer).&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;Note: Brief information on &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15304/277&quot;&gt;Saama Gana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharadvaja has also given &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_%28Vedanga%29#.C5.9Arauta_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srauta Sutra&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_%28Vedanga%29#Smarta_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Grihya Sutra&lt;/a&gt; to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajurveda#Srautasutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajurveda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-01-27T14:39:51.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16751" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8975" CreationDate="2017-01-16T03:49:13.300" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It needs extreme ascetic power to behold Mahadeva sitting in Kailash by directly going there. Even the diverse class of Munis, Gods, and Siddhas can't do that then what to say of present day Humans. The Mahabharata tells that only the most exalted of the beings &lt;strong&gt;Nara-Narayana&lt;/strong&gt; can behold him sitting there. Here is how Garuda describes Kailash in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05111.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Udyoga Parva of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Garuda said, 'O Brahmanas, since this quarter saveth from sin, and since one attaineth to salvation here, it is for this saying (Uttarana) power that it is called the north (uttara). And, O Galava, because the abode of all the treasures of the north stretches in a line towards the east and the west, therefore is the north sometimes called the central region (madhyama). And, O bull among the twice-born, in this region that is superior to all, none can live that is unamiable, or of unbridled passions, or unrighteous. Hither, in the asylum, known by the name of Vadari, eternally dwell Krishna who is Narayana's self, and Jishnu that most exalted, of all male beings, and Brahman (the Creator). Hither, &lt;strong&gt;on the breast of Himavat always &#xA;  dwelleth Maheswara&lt;/strong&gt; endued with the effulgence of the fire that blazeth up at the end of the Yuga. As Purusha, he sporteth here with Prakriti (the universal mother). &lt;strong&gt;Except by Nara and Narayana, he is incapable of being seen by the diverse classes of Munis, the gods with Vasava at their head, the Gandharvas, the Yakshas, and the Siddhas.&lt;/strong&gt; Though invested with Maya, him the eternal Vishnu alone, &#xA;  of a thousand heads and thousand legs, can behold. It was in this region that Chandramas (the moon) was installed into the sovereignty of the entire regenerate order. It was in this region, O thou foremost of all acquainted with Brahma, that Mahadeva first receiving her on his head, afterwards let (the sacred stream) Ganga fall from the heavens to the world of men. It was here that the Goddess (Uma) underwent her ascetic austerities from her desire of obtaining Maheswara (as her Lord). It was in this region that Kama, the wrath (of Siva), Himavat, and Uma, all together shone brilliantly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is not possible that one would simply go to Kailash and behold Mahadeva there. However Lord Shiva may himself show him if one goes devotionally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-01-16T03:49:13.300" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16752" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10323" CreationDate="2017-01-16T04:43:03.553" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The one difference between Maha-Puranas (Puranas) and Upa-Puranas can be found in &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/12/7/9-10/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shreemad Bhaagvata Puraana, (Skandha 12, Chapter 7, Shloka 9-10)&lt;/a&gt;. This whole chapter is about characteristics of Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this chapter the main difference between Puranas and Upa-Puranas is, &lt;strong&gt;Maha Puranas have Ten characteristics where as Upa-Puranas only have Five characteristics.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are the characteristics of Puranas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;sargaḥ&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;visargaḥ&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;vṛtti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;rakṣā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;antarāṇi (manvantara)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;vaṁśaḥ&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;vaṁśa-anucaritam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;saṁsthā (pralaya)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;hetuḥ (Uti)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;apāśrayaḥ&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्गोऽस्याथ विसर्गश्च वृत्तिरक्षान्तराणि च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वंशो वंशानुचरितं संस्था हेतुरपाश्रय: ॥ ९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दशभिर्लक्षणैर्युक्तं पुराणं तद्विदो विदु: ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;केचित् पञ्चविधं ब्रह्मन् महदल्पव्यवस्थया ॥ १० ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sargo ’syātha visargaś ca vṛtti-rakṣāntarāṇi ca&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;vaṁśo vaṁśānucaritaṁ saṁsthā hetur apāśrayaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;daśabhir lakṣaṇair yuktaṁ purāṇaṁ tad-vido viduḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;kecit pañca-vidhaṁ brahman mahad-alpa-vyavasthayā&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O brāhmaṇa, authorities on the matter understand a Purāṇa to contain ten characteristic topics: the creation of this universe, the subsequent creation of worlds and beings, the maintenance of all living beings, their sustenance, the rule of various Manus, the dynasties of great kings, the activities of such kings, annihilation, motivation and the supreme shelter. Other scholars state that &lt;strong&gt;the great Purāṇas deal with these ten topics, while lesser Purāṇas may deal with five.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-08-30T15:41:57.440" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16753" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-16T04:57:04.477" Score="3" ViewCount="258" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that environment has considerably changed comparatively to 20th century and is changing todays. We sometimes hear the discussion of our elders about systematic environments/seasons of 50-100 years before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I just thought whether the description of seasons (viz. winter, summer &amp;amp; monsoon) had nicely described in any ancient scriptures? so-that we can get the imagination of seasons in ancient times!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've found one related question: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/13962/277&quot;&gt;How Monsoon Season or Rainy Season (वर्षा ऋतू) has been described in Ancient scriptures of Hinduism?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, How the seasons are described in Hindu scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-01-16T11:11:18.220" Title="Description of seasons in Hindu Scriptures" Tags="|scripture|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16755" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3298" CreationDate="2017-01-16T10:01:49.647" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;As already discussed in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3298/how-could-octogenarian-heroes-fight-in-mahabharata/16039#16039&quot;&gt;answer here,&lt;/a&gt; Vedas clearly declare 100 yrs. Of age to Humans. But this is for normal Human Body. Vedas also declare that it is possible to live long age by making the body purified by the fire of Yoga. Eg. Svetasvatara Upanishad in 2.12 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पृथिव्यप्तेजोऽनिलखे समुत्थिते&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; पञ्चात्मके योगगुणे प्रवृत्ते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न तस्य रोगो न जरा न मृत्युः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; प्राप्तस्य योगाग्निमयं शरीरम् ॥ १२॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  When the fivefold perception of Yoga, arising from (concentrating the mind on) earth, water, light, air and ether, have appeared to the Yogin, then he has become &lt;strong&gt;possessed of a body purified by the fire of &#xA;  Yoga, and he will not be touched by disease, old age or death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, as suggested by the above verse one can attain body purified by fire of Yoga (&lt;strong&gt;Prãptasya Yogãgnimayam Shariram&lt;/strong&gt;). And when the body is purified by fire of Yoga it is free from illness, oldage and death (&lt;strong&gt;Na Tasya Rogo Na Jarã Na Mrityu&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;During the Mahabharata period there were many mystic and yogic sages like Vyasa, Parashara, etc.. and the warriors who fought Mahabharata war had also powerful Yogic persons as their Guru. So, they certainly purified their body by the fire of Yoga to some level. So, they were able to fight Mahabharata war easily being octogenarian also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali Yoga Sutra in 3.47 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;roopalavanyabalavajrasanhananatvani kayasanpat&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The glorifications of the body are beauty, complexion, strength, adamantine hardness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the commentary of this Sutra &lt;strong&gt;Swami Vivekananda&lt;/strong&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The body becomes indestructible; fire cannot injure it. &#xA;  Nothing can injure it. Nothing can destroy it until the Yogi &#xA;  wishes. &lt;strong&gt;“Breaking the rod of time he lives in this universe &#xA;  with his body.” In the Vedas it is written that for that man &#xA;  there is no more disease, death or pain.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T16:37:44.120" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16756" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16740" CreationDate="2017-01-16T10:02:32.300" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Lanka Kanda of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramcharitmanas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramcharitmanas&lt;/a&gt;, Bharata hits Hanuman with an arrow thinking he's a demon:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दो० - देखा भरत बिसाल अति निसिचर मन अनुमानि। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बिनु फर सायक मारेउ चाप श्रवन लगि तानि। ५८ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DO.: dekha bharata bisala ati nisicara mana anumani, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  binu phara sāyaka māreu cāpa śravana lagi tāni.58. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bharata&lt;/strong&gt; (who kept vigil at night ever since his return from Citrakuta) espied a colossal figure coursing through the air and &lt;strong&gt;thinking it to be some demon&lt;/strong&gt; drew his bow to the ear and &lt;strong&gt;struck him with a headless shaft&lt;/strong&gt;. (58)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharata regrets his decision for shooting down Hanuman and prays that he recover quickly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चौ० - परेउ मुरुछि महि लागत सायक। सुमिरत राम राम रघुनायक। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुनि प्रिय बचन भरत तब धाए। कपि समीप अति आतुर आए। १ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बिकल बिलोकि कीस उर लावा । जागत नहिं बहु भाँति जगावा। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मुख मलीन मन भए दुखारी। कहत बचन भरि लोचन बारी ॥ २॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जेहिं बिधि राम बिमुख मोहि कीन्हा। तेहिं पुनि यह दारुन दुख दीन्हा। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जों मोरें मन बच अरु काया । प्रीति राम पद कमल अमाया। ३ ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ती कपि होउ बिगत श्रम सूला। जों मो पर रघुपति अनुकूला। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुनत बचन उठि बैठ कपीसा। कहि जय जयति कोसलाधीसा ॥ ४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Cau.: pareu muruchi mahi lāgata sāyaka, sumirata rāma rāma raghunāyaka. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  suni priya bacana bharata taba dhāe, kapi samīpa ati ātura āe.1. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bikala biloki kisa ura lāvā, jāgata nahř bahu bhãti jagāvā. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mukha malina mana bhae dukhari, kahata bacana bhari locana bãrI.2. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jehŤ bidhi rāma bimukha mohi kīnhā, tehi puni yaha daruna dukha dinha. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jaui moré mana baca aru kaya, priti rama pada kamala amaya.3. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tau kapi hou bigata śrama sūlā, jaŭ mo para raghupati anukūlā. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sunata bacana uthi baitha kaplīsā, kahi jaya jayati kosaladhisa.4.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Struck by the dart, Hanuman dropped unconscious to the ground, crying &quot;Rama, Rama, O Lord of the Raghus!&quot; The moment Bharata heard these pleasing words he rushed and came post-haste by the side of the monkey. Seeing the monkey in swoon, the prince clasped him to his bosom and tried every means to bring him back to consciousness but in Vain. With a sad look in his face and much distressed at heart and his eyes full of tears, he spoke the following Words; &quot;The selfsame Providence who alienated me from Sri Rama has also inflicted this terrible suffering on me. If in thought, word and deed cherish sincere devotion to Sri Rama's lotus feet, and &lt;strong&gt;if the Lord of the Raghus is kindly disposed towards me, may this monkey be relieved of all exhaustion and pain&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot; As soon as these words entered his ears the monkey chief arose and sat up, crying &quot;Glory, all glory to the Lord of Kosala!&quot; (1-4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia also &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramcharitmanas#La.E1.B9.85k.C4.81_K.C4.81.E1.B9.87.E1.B8.8D&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuman makes good speed towards Lanka when suddenly he is shot by an&#xA;  arrow as he approaches Nandigram. Hanuman is mistaken to be a demon by&#xA;  Bharat. Hanuman falls to the ground together with the great hill.&#xA;  Hanuman regains consciousness and recognizes that Bharata is Rama's&#xA;  brother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no scriptural mention of any reminder to Hanuman that he is feeling proud of his strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Hanuman did feel proud when Bharata told him that he can take his arrow to go fast to Lanka where his brother Lakshmana needs him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चौ०-ताप्त कुसल कहु सुखनिधान की। सहित अनुज अरु मातु जानकी ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कपि सब चरित समास बखाने। भए दुखी मन महुँ पछिताने ॥ १ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहह दैव मैं कत जग जायऊँ । प्रभु के एकह काज न आयऊँ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जानि कुअवसरु मन धरि धीरा। पुनि कपि सन बोले बलबीरा। ॥ २॥  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तात गहरु होइहि तोहि जाता। काजु नसाइहि होत प्रभाता ॥  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चढ़ मम सायक सैल समेता। पठवीं तोहि जहँ कृपानिकेता ॥ ३ ॥  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;सुनि कपि मन उपजा अभिमाना। मोरें भार चलिहि किमि बाना ॥&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  राम प्रभाव बिचारि बहोरी । बंदि चरन कह कपि कर जोरी ॥ ४ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Cau.: tāta kusala kahu sukhanidhāna kī, sahita anuja aru mātu jānakī. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kapi saba carita samasa bakhane, bhae dukhi mana mahu pachitane.1.  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ahaha daiva mai kata jaga jayau, prabhu ke ekahu kaja na ayau.  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jani kuavasaru mana dhari dhira, puni kapi sana bole balabira.2.  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tāta gaharu hoihi tohi jātā, kāju nasāihi hota prabhātā.  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  caRhu mama sāyaka saila sametā, pațhavaŭ tohi jahă krpāniketā.3.  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;suni kapi mana upajā abhimānā, morē bhāra calihi kimi bānā.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rāma prabhāva bicāri bahorī, barindi carana kaha kapi kara jorī.4. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Tell me, dear friend, if all is well with Sri Rama, the Fountain of Joy, as well as With His younger brother (Laksmana) and mother Janaki (Janaka's Daughter).&quot; The monkey chief told him in brief all that had happened and Bharata felt much distressed to hear it and his heart was filled with remorse. &quot;Ah me, good heavens, why should I have been born into this World at all, if I could not be of any service to the Lord?&quot; But realizing the adverse circumstances, the gallant and mighty prince recollected himself and addressed Hanuman again, &quot;You will be delayed in your journey and nothing will avail after daybreak. Therefore, ascend my arrow, mountain and all, and I will send you straight into the presence of the All-merciful.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman's pride was tickled&lt;/strong&gt; when he heard these words. &quot;&lt;strong&gt;How will the arrow fly with my weight?&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; he thought. Then, recalling Sri Rama's glory, he bowed at Bharata's feet and spoke with joined palms:- (1-4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above quote it is written that, there was vanity (negative pride) feeling in Hanuman's mind that how can an arrow carry his weight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Google Drive link to free copy of Gita Press' Ramcharitamanas (English):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7T0zBCVuV7cR055dEFfNFRNQ28/view?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7T0zBCVuV7cR055dEFfNFRNQ28/view?usp=sharing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-16T21:03:55.927" LastActivityDate="2017-01-16T21:03:55.927" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16757" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16432" CreationDate="2017-01-16T10:08:44.483" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki is still living.&lt;/strong&gt; He was also present during the conversation between Yudhisthira and Bhishma which is recorded in Anushashana Parva of Mahabharata. For eg. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Anushashana Parva, after Lord Krishna finishes reciting Mahadeva Sahasranaama to Yudhisthira and others, among with other sages, Valmiki also comments there as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then the illustrious Valmiki, addressing Yudhishthira, said,&lt;/strong&gt; --Once upon a time, in course of a dialectical disputation, certain ascetics that were possessors of the homa fire denounced me as one guilty of Brahmanicide. As soon as they had denounced me as such, the sin of &#xA;  Brahmanicide, O Bharata, possessed me. I then, for cleansing myself, sought the protection of the sinless Ishana who is irresistible in energy. I become cleansed of all my sins. That dispeller of all sorrows, viz., the destroyer of the triple city of the Asuras, said unto me,-Thy fame shall be great in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-11-18T16:06:49.853" LastActivityDate="2018-11-18T16:06:49.853" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16759" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16753" CreationDate="2017-01-16T11:11:18.220" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;We find very detail and beautiful description of seasons in our &lt;strong&gt;Puranic literature&lt;/strong&gt;. Shree &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvatam&lt;/strong&gt; both dedicated several chapter’s about &lt;strong&gt;beauty of various seasons&lt;/strong&gt; like Varsha Rutu (monsoon season) , Sharad Rutu etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We find &lt;strong&gt;interesting&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;very fine details&lt;/strong&gt; about seasons in these Purnas .Like they are describing how &lt;strong&gt;Sun ,Moon ,Clouds , Winds , Farmers ,Insects , Grass ,flowers&lt;/strong&gt;   were in those seasons , and how Shree Krishna himself enjoyed those seasons with his friends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are some of the verses from Shreemad Bhagvatam about Rainy Season and Autumn  seasons. The name of the chapter itself is “Description of Varsha and Sharad Rutu” &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/20&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Skanda 10, Chapter 20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong&gt;The Rainy Season and Autumn in Vṛndāvana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत: प्रावर्तत प्रावृट सार्वसत्वसमूद्भव ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विद्योतमानपरिधिर्विस्त्फुर्जितनभस्तला ॥3॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tataḥ prāvartata prāvṛṭ sarva-sattva-samudbhavā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vidyotamāna-paridhir visphūrjita-nabhas-talā&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the &lt;strong&gt;rainy season&lt;/strong&gt; began, giving life and sustenance to all&#xA;  living beings. The sky began to rumble with &lt;strong&gt;thunder, and lightning&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  flashed on the horizon.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/20/3&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.20.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  सान्द्रनीलाम्बुदैर्व्योम सविद्युत्स्तनयित्नुभि:। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अस्पष्टज्योतिराछ्चन्नं ब्रह्मेव सगुणं बभौ ॥4॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sāndra-nīlāmbudair vyoma sa-vidyut-stanayitnubhiḥ  &lt;br&gt; aspaṣṭa-jyotir&#xA;  ācchannaṁ brahmeva sa-guṇaṁ babhau&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;sky&lt;/strong&gt; was then covered by dense &lt;strong&gt;blue&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;clouds&lt;/strong&gt; accompanied&#xA;  by lightning and thunder. Thus the sky and its &lt;strong&gt;natural illumination&#xA;  were covered&lt;/strong&gt; in the same way that the spirit soul is covered by the&#xA;  three modes of material nature.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/20/4&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.20.4&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt; हरिता हरभि:&#xA;  शष्पैरिन्द्रगोपेच्श्र लोहिता ।&lt;br&gt; उछ्हिलीन्ध्रकृतच्छया नृणा श्रीरिव&#xA;  भूरभूत ॥11॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;haritā haribhiḥ śaṣpair indragopaiś ca lohitā &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ucchilīndhra-kṛta-cchāyā nṛṇāṁ śrīr iva bhūr abhūt&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;newly grown grass&lt;/strong&gt; made the earth emerald &lt;strong&gt;green&lt;/strong&gt;, the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;indragopa&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;insects&lt;/strong&gt; added a reddish hue, and white &lt;strong&gt;mushrooms&lt;/strong&gt; added further color and circles of shade. Thus the earth appeared like&#xA;  a person who has suddenly become rich.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/20/11&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.20.11&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt; खमशोभत&#xA;  निर्मेघं शरद्वीम्लतारकं ।&lt;br&gt; सत्वयुक्तं यथा चित्तं&#xA;  शब्दब्रम्हार्थदर्शनं ॥43॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kham aśobhata nirmeghaṁ śarad-vimala-tārakam&lt;br&gt; sattva-yuktaṁ yathā&#xA;  cittaṁ śabda-brahmārtha-darśanam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Free of clouds and filled with &lt;strong&gt;clearly visible stars&lt;/strong&gt;, the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;autumn&lt;/strong&gt; sky shone brilliantly, just like the spiritual consciousness of one who has directly experienced the purport of the&#xA;  Vedic scriptures.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/20/43&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.20.43&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt; आश्लिष्य समषितोष्ण&#xA;  प्रसुनवनमारुतं। &lt;br&gt; जनस्तापं जहुर्गोप्ये नकृष्णहृतचेतस:॥45॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;āśliṣya sama-śītoṣṇaṁ prasūna-vana-mārutam&lt;br&gt; janās tāpaṁ jahur gopyo&#xA;  na kṛṣṇa-hṛta-cetasaḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Except for the gopīs, whose hearts had been stolen by Kṛṣṇa, the&#xA;  people could forget their suffering by &lt;strong&gt;embracing the wind&lt;/strong&gt; coming&#xA;  from the &lt;strong&gt;flower-filled forest&lt;/strong&gt;. This wind was &lt;strong&gt;neither hot nor&#xA;  cold&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/20/45&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.20.45&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt; गावो मृगा: खगा नार्य: पुष्पिण्यः शारदा&#xA;  भवन ।&lt;br&gt; अन्वियमाना: स्वव्रुषै: फ़लैरिषकिया इव ॥46॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gāvo mṛgāḥ khagā nāryaḥ puṣpiṇyaḥ śaradābhavan&lt;br&gt; anvīyamānāḥ&#xA;  sva-vṛṣaiḥ phalair īśa-kriyā iva&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the influence of the &lt;strong&gt;autumn season&lt;/strong&gt;, all the cows, doe, women&#xA;  and &lt;strong&gt;female birds&lt;/strong&gt; became fertile and were followed by their&#xA;  respective mates in search of sexual enjoyment, just as activities&#xA;  performed for the service of the Supreme Lord are automatically&#xA;  followed by all beneficial results. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/20/46&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.20.46&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;we also find similar description in &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 10 Vishnu purana&lt;/strong&gt; –( Sharad Varnanam and Govardhan puja शरद वर्णन ,गोवर्धन पूजा)&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TGyAP.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TGyAP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-01-16T11:11:18.220" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16760" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9465" CreationDate="2017-01-16T12:27:40.547" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedic hymns are represented in various &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_meter&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chhanda&lt;/a&gt; (छंद). Which is sung in which way is determined by &lt;strong&gt;Vedic Swara&lt;/strong&gt; (स्वर) (Vedic accent). In chanting of Vedic hymns, there are following main swara/accent used:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Uddata (उदात्त)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anuddata (अनुदात्त)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Swarit (स्वरित)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dheergha Swarita (दीर्घ स्वरित​)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prachaya: (प्रचय​)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Uddata&lt;/strong&gt; swara is sung or rendered with medium/normal pitch i.e without any raise or lowering of pitch. Uddata latters are left unmarked. It is rendered/printed usually without any mark/sign.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anuddata&lt;/strong&gt; swara is sung/rendered with lower pitch/note than Uddata. Anuddata latters are marked with horizontal bar (&lt;code&gt;_&lt;/code&gt;) below the latter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swaita&lt;/strong&gt; is sung/rendered with upper pitch/note compared to Uddata. Swarita latters are marked with vertical bar (&lt;sup&gt;&lt;code&gt;|&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;) above the latter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deergha Swarita&lt;/strong&gt; is the extension (elongation of time) of Swarita and is sung/rendered with upper pitch/note twice (in time scale) compared to Uddata. Deergha Swarita latters are marked with double vertical bar (&lt;sup&gt;&lt;code&gt;||&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;) above the latter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In specific instances the swara of the previous letter is carried till the next occurring AnudAtta or till the end of that pada or mantra, that is &lt;strong&gt;Prachaya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some rules of following Swaras during chanting of Vedic mantras. Vedic Swaras is defined and described in Sanskrit Vyakarana (Panini's Ashtadhyayi) and also explained in Samaveda and in Patanjali's Mahabhashya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find the Vedas with accent on &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sanskrit/by-category/doc_veda.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Documents&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Web&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example screen shot of Rigveda 1.1.1 with Vedic accent in Devanagari:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UbQwzm.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UbQwzm.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is highly recommended to learn and study vedas under the guidance of guru. Visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6726/277&quot;&gt;Start reading Hindu Vedas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Referance: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%98%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedic accent&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedavms.in/docs/articles/01VMSBasics%20of%20Veda%20Swaras.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Basic of Swaras&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-01-17T06:01:44.550" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16762" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16764" CreationDate="2017-01-16T13:38:58.427" Score="8" ViewCount="3808" Body="&lt;p&gt;I had a big doubt from many years, but didn't get a chance to get it clarified. As we all know &lt;code&gt;punarapi jananam; punarapi maranam&lt;/code&gt; from Adi Shankaracharya's &lt;a href=&quot;http://srikrishnaradha.com/bhaja-govindam/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhaja Govindam&lt;/a&gt; which means until all of our karma is destroyed, our soul will continue in samsara (birth, death and rebirth cycle).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, we know that whenever we die our soul goes through various lokas (like pitru loka) and the son of the departed jiva should perform shraddha ceremony and do pinda pradanam for deceased soul, so that the deceased soul gets some kind of peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my query is after death soul will get re-birth based on it's papa and punya? If soul gets rebirth into another body how does pinda pradanam and shraddha rituals reach that soul?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our shastras say son should do shraddha ceremony till end of his life for his father and forefathers, so if father's soul has already taken rebirth how does these shraddha cermony and pinda pradanam reaches to that soul? Do our shastras or Garuda Purana mention anything about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone kindly clarify on this? Please let me know if my question is not clear, I will update it accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4941" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-01-31T05:12:53.857" LastActivityDate="2017-01-31T05:12:53.857" Title="If soul gets rebirth into another body, will pinda pradanam and shraddha rituals reach that soul?" Tags="|scripture|atma|death|rebirth|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16763" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9763" CreationDate="2017-01-16T14:49:43.180" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas are eternal and apauruSheya (अपौरुषेय) which means &quot;not produced by man&quot;. Veda Samhitas (core portions of Vedas) are heard by sages in deep tapasya. Veda Samhitas talk about eternal truths which are constant always. Truth is always same and it doesn't change with time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas also say, time is cyclic and the process of creation, preservation and destruction is happening since eternity. Supreme Brahman delivers Vedas to creator Brahma at beginning of every cycle of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/Svetasvatara-Upanishad-~-Chap-6-The-One-God-and-the-Cosmic-Process-1.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;6.18&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yo brahmāṇaṃ vidadhāti pūrvaṃ yo &lt;strong&gt;vai vedāṃś ca prahiṇoti tasmai&lt;/strong&gt; / &lt;br&gt; taṃ&#xA;  ha devam ātmabuddhiprakāśaṃ mumukṣur vai śaraṇam ahaṃ prapadye // 6.18&#xA;  //  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeking Liberation, I take refuge in the Lord, the revealer of&#xA;  Self-Knowledge, who in the beginning created Brahma and &lt;strong&gt;delivered the&#xA;  Vedas to Him&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Puranas do mention the same but replace the supreme Brahman with Shiva or Vishnu or Devi depending on the category of Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Brahma utters Vedas only after acquiring from Supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How Vedas can be constant at all times?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas or to be precise Veda Samhitas talk about Supreme truths which&#xA; are same at all times. Swami Krishnananda says the following in his&#xA; book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/upanishad/upan_01.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lessons on Upanishads&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We begin to feel there must be something above this world. This was&#xA;  what the great poets and the sages of the Vedas felt. Everything seems&#xA;  to be transitory, moving, and in a state of flux. There is change in&#xA;  nature, change in human history, change in our own mental and&#xA;  biological constitution, change in even the solar system, the&#xA;  astronomical setup of things. Everything is changing. The perception&#xA;  of change is something very important for us to consider. How do we&#xA;  know that things are changing, that things are moving or are&#xA;  transitory? There is a logical peculiarity, a significance and a&#xA;  subtlety at the back of this ability on our part to perceive change&#xA;  and transition in things. &lt;strong&gt;A thing that changes cannot perceive&#xA;  change by itself. Change cannot know change. Only that which does not&#xA;  change can know that there is change.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is a very important point at the rock bottom of our thinking that&#xA;  we have to recognise. If everything is changing, who is it that is&#xA;  telling us that everything is changing? Are we also changing with the&#xA;  things that change? If that is the case, how do we come to know that&#xA;  all things are changing? &lt;strong&gt;Logical analysis of this peculiar&#xA;  analytical circumstance tells us that there is something in us which&#xA;  does not change; otherwise, we would not know that things are&#xA;  changing&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have something in me which does not change, and you also have&#xA;  something in you that does not change. If this is the case, it seems&#xA;  to be everywhere. It does not mean that this unchanging so-called&#xA;  thing is only in one person, as all persons have an equal prerogative&#xA;  to conclude that something unchanging seems to be there. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Veda Samhitas to which I have made reference –which are the outpourings of spiritual seekers, sages and masters of advanced&#xA;  religious thought and spiritual perfection – felt the presence&#xA;  everywhere of something that does not change.&lt;/strong&gt; All things seem to be&#xA;  embedded with something that cannot change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The whole universe of perception, the entire creation, may be said to be involved basically, at the root, in something which cannot be&#xA;  said to change.&lt;/strong&gt; This is an adorable and most praiseworthy&#xA;  conclusion, and anything that is adorable is a worshipful something.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;These masters of the Vedas Samhitas, therefore, recognised a divinity in all things. There is a god behind every phenomenon, which&#xA;  is another way of saying there is an imperishable background behind&#xA;  every perishable phenomenon.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Veda Samhitas describe that &quot;&lt;strong&gt;unchanging thing or God&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; which is same at all times. So, Vedas don't change with time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next possible question which may arise is, &lt;strong&gt;how it is possible to describe &quot;unchanging thing&quot; through something changing?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is possible because of divine language संस्कृतम् (Sanskrit). &lt;strong&gt;Like Vedas, Sanskrit also do not change with time&lt;/strong&gt;. Sanskrit doesn't evolve with time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit has fixed number of Dhātus (Verbal roots) by which we can guess meaning of words without help of dictionaries. Also, Sanskrit doesn't have proper nouns. Sanskrit describes objects with attributes or qualities they possess. All Sanskrit names are derived from their attributes. An attribute can refer to multiple objects. &lt;strong&gt;So, meaning of words in a Sanskrit sentence depends on context.&lt;/strong&gt; Sometimes, literal interpretation of Vedic verses could be disastrous. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have explained more about uniqueness of Sanskrit language in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16264/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; and also refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hitxp.com/articles/sanskrit-lessons/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this blog by Gurudev&lt;/a&gt; where author of the blog describes the uniqueness and eternity of Sanskrit language in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to Puranas, many events are repeated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3078/time-and-yugas-in-hinduism/3079#3079&quot;&gt;every Manvantara&lt;/a&gt;. The stories mentioned in Vedas occur in every Manvantara. Different Puranas mention same stories with slight variations as every Purana narrates mainly stories of a particular Kalpa as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11077/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. However, only some stories repeat not all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there's no rule that Puranas should be same at all times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-01-16T15:30:10.023" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16764" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16762" CreationDate="2017-01-16T15:00:23.490" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The same question was asked to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sivananda_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;. He answers this question in his book &amp;quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/may_ianswer.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;May I Answer That&lt;/a&gt;?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;267. When the Jiva undergoes transmigration and takes another birth after leaving this physical body, is it necessary that we should perform the Shraddha ceremony for him? He is no more in the heavens. To whom will the ablations go?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pitris remain in heaven, Pitri Loka or Chandra Loka, for a very&#xA;long period. The enjoyments in heaven and the peace of the departed&#xA;soul are enhanced by the performance of the Shraddha ceremony.&#xA;Likewise the sufferings of the departed soul in worlds other than&#xA;heaven are mitigated by the performance of the Shraddha ceremony by&#xA;his sons. Thus, in both cases, the performance of Shraddha is a great&#xA;help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And even if the individual takes another birth immediately after his&#xA;death, as happens in rare cases, the performance of Shraddha adds to&#xA;his happiness in his new birth. So, it is the imperative duty of&#xA;everybody to perform the Shraddha ceremony for his parents and&#xA;forefathers. The Shraddha ceremony should be performed with great&#xA;Shraddha or faith as long as you live. Faith is the main support for&#xA;religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The various religious observances imposed upon mankind by the Shastras&#xA;tend to purify the ignorant man. The Shraddha ceremony, being one of&#xA;the obligatory duties as per the injunctions of the scriptures, also&#xA;tends to purify the mind. Besides this, the forefathers are also&#xA;pleased and their good wishes and blessings tend to our material and&#xA;spiritual growth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-16T17:33:13.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16765" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-16T15:33:52.173" Score="4" ViewCount="303" Body="&lt;p&gt;Atma does no karmas. Jeev (Body, mind) does Karma.&#xA;Now these Karmas done by the jeev, decide (or have impact) on next life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the only connection between the body of current life and the body of next life is Atma.&#xA;So, does the Atma carries the first life's karma with it to the next body? Or is it that &quot;someone&quot; is maintaining a separate record of all karmas done by everyone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8721" LastActivityDate="2020-05-08T06:03:15.290" Title="A soul never does any karma, still carries Karma in afterlife?" Tags="|karma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16766" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12018" CreationDate="2017-01-16T15:54:25.813" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/chhaandogya.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chhandogya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अस्य लोकस्य का गतिरित्याकाश इति होवाच&#xA;  सर्वाणि ह वा इमानि भूतान्याकाशादेव समुत्पद्यन्त&#xA;  आकाशं प्रत्यस्तं यन्त्याकाशो ह्येवैभ्यो ज्यायानकाशः&#xA;  परायणम् ॥ १.९.१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/upanishads-sama-veda/chandogya-upanishad/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;English translation&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I-ix-1: (Salavatya) 'What is the essence of this world?' 'Akasa' said (Pravahana); 'All these beings arise from Akasa alone and are finally dissolved into Akasa; because Akasa alone is greater than all these and Akasa is the support at all times.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhashya&lt;/a&gt; on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BHAYA- &quot; What is the essence of this Region?&quot;- &quot; Akasha' '-said Pravlihana. &quot; Akasha&quot; here stands for the Supreme Self; as the Vedic Text says-' Akasha by name': as the producing of all things is the function of that Self, all &#xA;  things becorne dissolved into that Self. The Text itself is going to declare later on that &quot;I  created Light. The Light becomes dissolved into the Supreme Deity. --&lt;strong&gt;ALL these things in this world,-animate as well as inanimate, mobile and immobile-are produced out of Akasha,-in a regulated order of Light, Food and so forth, in accordance with the capacity  of things ;-they become dissoloed into Akasha, at the time of Universal Dissolution,-in the reverse order:-because Akasha indeed is greater than these-superior, larger, than all things&lt;/strong&gt;; and for that reason, it is the' param '-'ultimate'-'ayanam. -' substratum', basis, support, at all three points of time.-1) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Akasha is the greater/superior and supporter of all other elements and hence it is considered a basic element.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also note that Akasha doesn't only refer to/as-an element, it is the narrator/signifier of Brahman according to Brahma Sutra 1.1.22:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आकाशस्तल्लिङ्गात्&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ १.१.२२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  22. Space (Akasa) is Brahman, for Brahman's indicatory mark is in evidence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-09-21T11:56:55.417" LastActivityDate="2018-09-21T11:56:55.417" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16767" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7354" CreationDate="2017-01-16T19:37:47.120" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;The depiction of Gods is not accurate these days.  See my question about Brahma depicted as old &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11259/why-is-brahma-depicted-as-old-in-pictures&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;What was the actual colour of Rama and Krishna?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sundara Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana Sita asks Hanuman to prove himself that he knew Rama and Lakshmana. Then Hanuman starts describing various characteristics Of Rama. As a part of the description, Hanuman says as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दुन्दुभि स्वन निर्घोषः स्निग्ध वर्णः प्रतापवान् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  समः सम विभक्त अन्गो वर्णम् &lt;strong&gt;श्यामम्&lt;/strong&gt; समाश्रितः || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He has a voice like the sound of a kettle-drum. He has a shining skin. He is full of splendour. He is square-built. His limbs are built symmetrically. He is endowed with a dark-brown&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; complexion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Sita enters the fire by herself, All the Gods reach Lanka and approach Rama. Brahma &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga117/yuddha_117_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; who Rama in reality is and proclaims his(Rama's) divinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सीता लक्ष्मीर्भवान् विष्णुर्देवः &lt;strong&gt;कृष्णः&lt;/strong&gt; प्रजापतिः || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वधार्थं रावणस्येह प्रविष्टो मानुषीं तनुम् | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sītā lakṣmīrbhavān viṣṇurdevaḥ &lt;strong&gt;kṛṣṇaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; prajāpatiḥ || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vadhārthaṃ rāvaṇasyeha praviṣṭo mānuṣīṃ tanum |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seetha is no other than Goddess Lakshmi (the divine consort of Lord Vishnu), while you are Lord Vishnu. &lt;strong&gt;You are having a shining dark-blue hue&lt;/strong&gt;. You are the Lord of created beings. For the destruction of Ravana, you entered a human body here, on this earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_raama/rraksha.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramaraksha stotram&lt;/a&gt; written by Budha Kaushika muni is a popular hymn. In that stotra, Budha Kaushika rushi praises Lord Rama as below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ध्यात्वा &lt;strong&gt;नीलोत्पलश्यामं&lt;/strong&gt; रामं राजीवलोचनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जानकीलक्ष्मणोपेतं जटामुकुटमंडितम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dhyātvā &lt;strong&gt;nīlotpalaśyāmaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; rāmaṃ rājīvalocanam ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  jānakīlakṣmaṇopetaṃ jaṭāmukuṭamaṃḍitam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meditating on Rama &lt;strong&gt;who is black like the blue lotus flower&lt;/strong&gt;, Who has lotus like eyes, who is our Lord, Who is accompanied by Sita and Lakshmana,&#xA;  Whose head is surrounded by the tufted hair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राजेंद्रं सत्यसंधं दशरथतनयं &lt;strong&gt;श्यामलं&lt;/strong&gt; शांतमूर्तिम् ।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rājeṃdraṃ satyasaṃdhaṃ daśarathatanayaṃ &lt;strong&gt;śyāmalaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; śāṃtamurtiṃ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who is the best among kings, Who is truthful, who is son of Dasaratha, &lt;strong&gt;Who is black&lt;/strong&gt; and Who is the personification of peace and patience.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the pictures you have seen Rama in gowra(pale red,white, yellow) varna are artistic imaginations. Actually He was in the colour of a lotus. He is also called Nīlimeghaśyāma meaning &lt;code&gt;the one who is in the complexion of a blue cloud&lt;/code&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4umjv.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4umjv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Lord Rama&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When it comes to Sri Krishna, He is not black. His complexion is &lt;strong&gt;like complexion of a dark blue cloud&lt;/strong&gt;. The aura behind Rama or Krishna or any other God represents the divinity in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama and Lord Krishna were not red or not completely black. They were in a complexion of a blue lotus just like the Lord Srimannarayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dhyaanam of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shivkumar.org/music/vishnu-sahasranamam-meanings.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vishnu sahasranamam&lt;/a&gt; describes Sri MahaVishnu as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शान्ताकारं भुजगशयनं पद्मनाभं सुरेशम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    विश्वाधारम् गगन सदृशं &lt;strong&gt;मेघवर्णं&lt;/strong&gt; शुभाङ्गम् |&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ṣānthakaram Bhujaga ṣayanam Padmānabham ṣuresam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Visvādhāram gagana sadrusam &lt;strong&gt;ṃegha Varnam&lt;/strong&gt; ṣubāngam|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We meditate upon Vishnu, who is ever peaceful, who lies on the great serpent-bed  from whose navel springs the lotus of the creative power, who is the controller of the gods, whose form is the entire universe , and who is the foundation for the universe, who is all pervading as the sky, &lt;strong&gt;of the hue of the cloud&lt;/strong&gt;,  of fascinating beauty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मेघश्यामं&lt;/strong&gt; पीतकौशेयवासं श्रीवत्साङ्कं कौस्तुभोद्भासिताङ्गम्  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;meghaśyāmaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; pītakauśeyavāsaṃ śrīvatsāṅkaṃ kaustubhodbhāsitāṅgam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Whose body is of the dark like the clouds&lt;/strong&gt;. He lives in the pure ocean of milk. He has Lakshmi  in his chest. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above verses, it is clear that the complexion of Rama and Krishna is just as the complexion of Lord Srimannarayana. It is because, they were the incarnations of the Lord Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1.Here the word shyama has &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=zyAma&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;choice=yes&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;many meanings&lt;/a&gt; like black,brown,blue, dark green etc., Among those words, the translator of the verse chose dark- brown.But from below instances we shall know the complexion of bluish-black. &lt;/sup&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-17T09:24:23.840" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T09:24:23.840" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16768" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-16T19:57:35.340" Score="4" ViewCount="158" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16757/2995&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; answer claims that, Vālmīki, the author of Rāmāyaṇa, is still alive:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki is still living.&lt;/strong&gt; He was also present during the conversation between Yudhishthira and Bhishma which is recorded in Anushasana Parva of Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Vālmīki's alive, I wish to know where is he right now. I mean where is he physically present?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he wasn't alive at the time of Mahābhārata, is it possible that the Mahābhārata is talking about a different Vālmīki or are &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;those lines&lt;/a&gt; from Anuṣāsana-parva of Mahābhārata a later interpolation (i.e., not part of the original text)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-01-16T19:57:35.340" Title="Where is Vālmīki right now?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|history|valmiki|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16769" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16749" CreationDate="2017-01-17T00:17:39.573" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;The śloka appears to be from the end of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu_sahasranama&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Viṣṇusahasranāma&lt;/a&gt; belonging to a &lt;a href=&quot;http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/2_epic/mbh/mbh_13_u.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;recension&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahābhārata that did not make it to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/txt/mbh13.itx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BORI critical edition&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13,135.142d*0637_06 &amp;nbsp; rudra uvāca &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13,135.142d*0637_07 &amp;nbsp; rāma rāmeti rāmeti rame rāme manorame &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  13,135.142d*0637_08 &amp;nbsp; śrīsahasranāmatattulyaṃ rāmanāma varānane &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13,135.142d*0638_01 &amp;nbsp; iti stutvā hṛṣīkeśaṃ pārthas tūṣṇīṃ sthitas tataḥ &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  13,135.142d*0639_01 &amp;nbsp; namo brahmaṇyadevāya gobrāhmaṇahitāya ca &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  13,135.142d*0639_02 &amp;nbsp; jagaddhitāya kṛṣṇāya govindāya namo namaḥ &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13,135.142d*0639_03 &amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;ākāśāt patitaṃ toyaṃ yathā gacchati sāgaram&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  13,135.142d*0639_04 &amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;sarvadevanamaskāraḥ keśavaṃ prati gacchati&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13,135.142d*0639_05 &amp;nbsp; sarvavedeṣu yat puṇyaṃ sarvavedeṣu yat phalam &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  13,135.142d*0639_06 &amp;nbsp; tat phalaṃ puruṣa āpnoti stutvā devaṃ janārdanam &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13,135.142d*0640_01 &amp;nbsp; jitaṃ te puṇḍarīkākṣa namas te viśvabhāvana &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  13,135.142d*0640_02 &amp;nbsp; namas te 'stu hṛṣīkeśa mahāpuruṣapūrvaja &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/820/2995&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; question states that a slightly different version of Viṣṇusahasranāma is also part of Padma and Skanda Purāṇas but I didn't find the śloka in those.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-01-17T05:57:55.687" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16770" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8946" CreationDate="2017-01-17T05:59:01.983" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, &lt;strong&gt;Lord Rudra is the destroyer of Manmatha.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is told by Sita herself in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga56/aranyaitrans56.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aranya Kanda:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदि पश्येत् स रामः त्वाम् रोष दीप्तेन चक्षुषा ।&#xA;  रक्षः त्वम् अद्य निर्दग्धो यथा रुद्रेण मन्मधः ॥ ३-५६-१० &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  If he that Rama glances you with his rancour-torched eyes, you demon, you will be completely burnt down now itself, &lt;strong&gt;as with Manmatha burnt down by Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verses of ValmikiRamayana of Balakanda also make it clear:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;1) The verse states:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तपस्यंतम् इह स्थाणुम् नियमेन समाहितम् || &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Sthanu&lt;/strong&gt; was practicing ascesis at this place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sthanu is the name of Lord Shiva/Rudra. It clearly proves that other verses are also talking of Lord Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; In the Mahabharata in Drona Parva chapter 202 Vyasa also explains why Lord Shiva is called Sthanu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दहत्यूर्ध्वं स्थितो यच्म प्राणेत्पतिस्थितश्चयत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्थितलिङ्गस्य पन्नित्यं तस्मात्स्थाणुरिति स्मृतः ।। (Drona Parva chapter 202)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Since he is great and ancient and is the source of the life and it&amp;apos;s continuence and since his Linga form is everlasting, &lt;strong&gt;he is for that reason called Sthanu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) The verse also states:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अवध्यतः च रुद्रेण चक्षुषा रघु नन्दन | &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Raghunandana &lt;strong&gt;he was destroyed by the eye of Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also a clear reference that Manmatha was destroyed by third eye of Lord Rudra. Lord Rudra having 3 eyes is clearly stated in Vedas like in RigVeda 7.59.12, YajurVeda 3.60 call &amp;quot;Trayambakam Yajãmahe... &amp;quot; / &amp;quot;We worship the three eyed one.&amp;quot; Opening of third eye is a common event for Lord Shiva, see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15213/how-many-times-has-shiva-opened-his-3rd-eye/15217#15217&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt;. If it was Indra who had destroyed Manmatha he would have used his Vajra, not his eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3) Association of Maruts with Rudra:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Maruts are the son of Rudra. So it is not wondering if they are with their father also:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;RigVeda 2.33:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;FATHER of Maruts,&lt;/strong&gt; let thy bliss approach us: exclude us not from looking on the sunlight. Gracious to our fleet courser be the Hero may we transplant us, &lt;strong&gt;Rudra,&lt;/strong&gt; in our children.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RigVeda 1.85:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;THEY who are glancing forth, like women, on their way, doers of mighty deeds, swift racers, &lt;strong&gt;Rudra&amp;apos;s Sons, The Maruts&lt;/strong&gt; have made heaven and earth increase and grow: in sacrifices they delight, the strong and wild.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RigVeda 1.38:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 Truly, they the fierce and &lt;strong&gt;mighty Sons of Rudra&lt;/strong&gt; send their windless Rain e&amp;apos;en on the desert places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in so many other places. So it is not wondering if Maruts are also present with Rudra. But actually Maruts are present with Indra (Devesha) in that verse. The problem arises because translation of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga23/bala_23_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ValmikiRamayan.net&lt;/a&gt; isn&amp;apos;t so good. I translate those verses as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कन्दर्पो मूर्तिमान् आसीत् काम इति उच्यते बुधैः | तपस्यंतम् इह स्थाणुम् नियमेन समाहितम् || कृत उद्वाहम् तु देवेशम् गच्छन्तम् स मरुद् गणम् | धर्षयामास दुर्मेधा हुम् कृतः च महात्मना || अवध्यतः च रुद्रेण चक्षुषा रघु नन्दन | व्यशीर्यन्त शरीरात् स्वात् सर्व गात्राणि दुर्मतेः तत्र गात्रम् हतम् तस्य निर्दग्धस्य महात्मनः | अशरीरः कृतः कामः क्रोधात् देव ईश्वरेण ह || तस्य अयम् आश्रमः पुण्यः तस्य इमे मुनयः पुरा | शिष्या धर्मपरा वीर तेषाम् पापम् न विद्यते ||&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  When Kandarpa (KamaDeva) was in the body he was called Kama. Sthanu (Lord Shiva) was regularly engaged in ascesis there. At that place Devesha (Indra) accompanied by Marut Ganas also reached there after having come from marriage. The high souled one (Lord Shiva) pronounced Hum Kaara seeing the evil intention of Kăma. Oh RaghuNandana then he was destroyed by (third) Eye of Rudra which made all limbs fall down from his body. There the body of Love-god is evanesced when that great soul burnt it down, and by the anger of that Lord of gods (Shiva), Love-god is rendered as a bodiless entity. This merited hermitage thus belongs to him (Shiva) and, oh, brave Rama, these sages abiding in virtue are his (Shiva&amp;apos;s) disciples at one time, thus sin is unverifiable with them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, these all things clearly prove that Lord Rudra is the destroyer of Manmatha. And Lord Rudra is Lord Shiva as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15124/how-rudra-became-shiva-in-vedas/15125#15125&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13649/what-names-of-lord-shiva-used-today-are-from-vedas/13650#13650&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-05-28T12:40:52.940" LastActivityDate="2017-05-28T12:40:52.940" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16771" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-17T06:00:23.737" Score="5" ViewCount="237" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna was &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;a great warrior(war before marriage with Rukmini), &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;a diplomat (his peacemaking before Mahabharata) and &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;in fact packed with a ton of other qualities. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I seldom find any material (a bhajan,a book etc.) praising Him for all those qualities. All praises for Him are monotonic in nature only describing in deep details his relationships with gopis (most of them are fake ones). See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Mobile&amp;amp;sd=Articles&amp;amp;ArticleID=3864&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why have we romanticized Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8723" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-17T06:14:51.590" LastActivityDate="2022-05-22T10:07:15.670" Title="Why is Krishna depicted as a love maker?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16772" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-17T06:31:28.457" Score="5" ViewCount="262" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Purva Mimamsa school was often borderline agnostic/atheist. But some Mimamsakas, particularly the Purva Mimamsa Acharya Kumarila Bhatta and his followers, believed in the existence of a supreme being, although they did not believe that this being was responsible for creating the Universe. (They thought the Universe was uncreated and eternal.)  But I just found an interesting statement in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/vUSi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Kumarila Bhatta's Tantra Vartika which sheds light on one role that he did envision Brahman as playing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The context is a discussion of a statement in the Vedas which says that &quot;the vessel must be washed&quot; in a Jyotishtoma Yagna.  Now the question arises whether the intention of the sentence is that you should only wash one vessel, since it says &quot;the vessel&quot;, or whether you should wash all the vessels.  But then an objection is raised: how can we even speak of the intention of a Vedic sentence?  When we're dealing with a humanly composed work, we can speak about the intentions of the author.  But the Vedas are authorless and eternal, so how can we speak about intentions?  Kumarila Bhatta responds that we can speak of the intentions of the soul which is present inside the Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Or again, the &quot;Intention&quot; or &quot;Non-intention&quot; spoken of might refer to the Intelligences ensouling the various Vedic collections, Rigveda and the rest[.]... &lt;strong&gt;And the Veda also, which is spoken of the &quot;Sabda-Brahma&quot;, is ensouled by a single Great Soul&lt;/strong&gt;; and hence the Rigveda etc., which are spoken of separately, all belong to the soul, and are endowed with conscious intelligence.... In this manner, it is quite possible to attribute, on the strength of the potency of the injunctive, the said &quot;Intention&quot; and &quot;Non-intention&quot; to the soul of &quot;Sabda-Brahma&quot;, which pervades all the Vedas; and there is nothing incongruous in speaking of &quot;Intention&quot; and &quot;Non-intention&quot;, even in the direct sense of these words, with reference to the Veda, which is beginningless and endless.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I find the statement in bold interesting for two reasons. First, because Kumarila Bhatta is embracing the theory of Sabda Brahman, which is usually associated with the Sphotavada school of Bhatrihari and the Kashmiri Shaivite sect.  And more importantly, because Kumarila Bhatta is declaring Brahman to be the soul of the Vedas/Sabda Brahman; here is the the bold statement in Sanskrit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;shabdabrahmeti yac cedaṃ shastraṃ ved khyam ucyate | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tad apy adhiṣṭhitaṃ sarvam ekena &lt;strong&gt;paramatmana&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Kumarila Bhatta is clearly referring to Paramatma, aka Brahman.  This is interesting because the Purva Mimamsa school is adamant that if Brahman even exists, Brahman is not the author of the Vedas, and doesn't even have the knowledge required to compose the Vedas!  So my question is, which other Purva Mimamsa philosophers think that Brahman is the soul of the Vedas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any followers of Kumarila Bhatta discuss this subject in their works?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-17T17:07:29.910" LastActivityDate="2017-05-17T17:07:29.910" Title="Which Purva Mimamsa philosophers think Brahman is the soul of the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|brahman|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16773" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7703" CreationDate="2017-01-17T07:24:46.717" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The deity Manasa is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shanti Parva of Mahabharata. If we read the full description there then it is clear that Manasa is none other than Brahman himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Bhrigu said, &lt;strong&gt;'There is a Primeval Being, known to the great Rishis, of the name of Manasa. He is &#xA;  without beginning and without end.&lt;/strong&gt; That Divine Being is incapable of being penetrated by weapons. He &#xA;  is without decay and is Immortal. He is said to be Unmanifest. He is Eternal, Undecaying, and &#xA;  Unchangeable. Through Him are creatures born and through Him they die. He first created a Divine &#xA;  Being known by the name of Mahat. Mahat created Consciousness. That Divine Being created Space. &#xA;  That puissant Being is the holder of all created objects. From Space was born Water, and from Water &#xA;  were born Fire and Wind. Through the union of Fire and Wind was born the Earth. Self-born Manasa&#xA;  then created a divine Lotus pregnant with Energy. From that Lotus sprang Brahman, that Ocean of &#xA;  Veda. The Srutis say that as soon as born, that divine Being uttered the words, 'I am He!' For this He &#xA;  came to be called by the name of Consciousness. He has all created things for his body and He is their &#xA;  Creator. These five elements that we see are that Brahman of great energy. The mountains are his &#xA;  bones. The earth is his fat and flesh. The oceans are his blood. Space is his stomach. The Wind is his &#xA;  breath. Fire is his energy. The rivers are his arteries and veins. Agni and Soma, otherwise called the Sun and the Moon, are called his eyes. The firmament above is his head. The earth is his two feet. The &#xA;  cardinal and subsidiary points of the horizon are his arms. Without doubt, He is incapable of being &#xA;  known and His Soul is inconceivable by even persons crowned with ascetic success. The Divine Being, &#xA;  who pervades the whole universe, is also known by the name of Ananta (Infinite). &lt;strong&gt;He lives in &#xA;  Consciousness, and is incapable of being known by persons of uncleansed souls.&lt;/strong&gt; Asked by thee I have &#xA;  now told thee of Him who created Consciousness for evoking into existence all created objects, and &#xA;  from whom this universe has sprung.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As it clearly says &quot;and is incapable of being known by persons of uncleansed souls.&quot; so I don't think we can have detailed explanation of Manasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As it says &quot;he is without beginning and without end&quot; so it is clear that he is same as Brahman. So, Brahmavãdis may call him just Brahman, Vaishnavas may call he is Vishnu, Shaivas may call he is Shiva and so on...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-01-17T07:24:46.717" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16774" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-17T08:30:16.190" Score="11" ViewCount="9962" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I saw some Karna movies and Mahabharata TV episodes and in there it's told that the main reason for Karna's defeat is that he was cursed (śāpa) by Lord Parashurama.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;All of them refer to Lord Parashurama cursing Karna that he would forget Brahmastra. But contrary to that, &lt;strong&gt;Karna used the Brahmastra&lt;/strong&gt; against Arjuna as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Karna Parva, Mahabharata.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This means that Karna could use the Brahmastra and there was no curse.&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If Karna was not cursed to use Brahmastra then what was the curse given to Karna by Lord Parashurama?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How can both stories – Parashurama cursing Karna that he would forget the Brahmastra and Karna actually using Brahmastra on Arjuna – be true?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How to solve this paradox?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T07:37:31.067" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T07:37:31.067" Title="If Lord Parashurama really cursed Karna, how could he launch Brahmastra on Arjuna twice?" Tags="|mahabharata|karna|parashurama|brahmastra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16775" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-17T09:38:24.323" Score="8" ViewCount="16906" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism doesn't favour violence or killing innocent beings. We support being vegetarians.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But isn't killing a deer for its golden skin unjustified?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm referring to the incident in Ramayana where Rama hunted the Golden Deer (Mareecha) for its skin. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga44/aranya_44_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama eliminates Maareecha when he is escaping beyond reach in the form of Golden Deer. He sports with that deer for a long time and when it is leading him away and afar from the hermitage, he is vexed with the trickery of the deer and kills it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8721" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-17T18:00:38.367" LastActivityDate="2017-01-18T17:57:43.337" Title="Why did Rama try to kill an innocent deer just for its skin?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|non-vegetarian|ahimsa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16776" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-17T10:21:37.843" Score="3" ViewCount="1054" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that Vedas are the “TRUE ESSENCE OF LIFE”. Ancient India has produced many precious takeaways for the upcoming generations. From among them, the most important and sacred ones have been the Vedas. The Vedas have highlighted the major issues and concerns of life in a beautiful manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are the major lessons of life to learn from the Vedas ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-05T06:15:40.527" LastActivityDate="2017-03-05T15:41:57.987" Title="What To Learn From The Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|life|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16778" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16779" CreationDate="2017-01-17T10:36:47.940" Score="6" ViewCount="790" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a well-known event that Mahadeva destroys the sacrifice of Daksha when Devi Sati destroys herself in the sacrifice. But it happened in the Pitri Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Destruction of Yajna of Daksha is the symbolism of the fact that Devas due to their arrogancy are stupefied to such level that they proceed to exclude Lord Rudra himself from the sacrifice. And thus finally Devas are punished. The punishment to the Devas due to committing this crime is also described in Taittariya Samhita of YajurVeda 2.6.8 as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The gods excluded Rudra from the sacrifice; he pierced the sacrifice,&lt;/strong&gt; the gods gathered round it (saying), 'May it be right for us.' They said, 'Well offered will this be for us, if we propitiate him.' That is why Agni is called the 'well offerer' (svistakrt). When it was pierced (by him) 3 they cut off (a piece) of the size of a barleycorn; therefore one should cut off (a piece) the size of a barleycorn. If one were to cut off more, he would confuse that part of the sacrifice. If he were to make a layer and then to sprinkle, lie would make it swell on both sides. He cuts it off and sprinkles it; there are two operations; the sacrificer has two feet, for support. If he were to transfer it (to the Brahman) crosswise, he would pierce the unwounded part of the sacrifice; lie transfers it in front; verily he transfers it in the proper way. They transferred it for Pusan. Pusan having eaten it lost his teeth; therefore Pusan has pounded food for his share, for he has no teeth. The gods said of him, 'He has lost (his teeth), he is not fit for the offering.' They transferred it to Brhaspati. Brhaspati was afraid, 'Thus indeed will this one fall on misfortune.' He saw this Mantra; 'With the eye of the sun I gaze on thee', he said, for the eye of the sun harms no one. He was afraid, 'It will harm me as I take it.' 'On the impulse of the god Savitr, with the arms of the Açvins, with the hands of Pusan I take thee', he says; verily, impelled by Savitr, he took it with the holy power (Brahman) and with the gods. He was afraid, 'It will harm me as I eat.' 'Thee with the mouth of Agni I eat', he said, for nothing harms the mouth of Agni. He was afraid, 'It will harm me when I have eaten.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The story described in the Vedas are eternal truths.&lt;/strong&gt; The Gods change in each Manvantara. As the punishment to Gods by Lord Rudra is ordained by the Vedas themselves, so punishment to arrogant Devas should happen in every Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;did the destruction of the sacrifice of Daksha also occur in the present Vaivasvata Manvantara?&lt;/strong&gt; If so, how did it happen? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-18T03:57:00.107" LastActivityDate="2017-01-18T03:57:00.107" Title="Did the destruction of Daksha's sacrifice also happen in present Vaivasvata Manvantara?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|shiva|vedas|yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16779" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16778" CreationDate="2017-01-17T10:45:29.357" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, the destruction of sacrifice of Daksha also happened in present Vaivasvata Manvanatara. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b111.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shanti Parva of Mahabharata clearly describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Janamejaya said, &amp;apos;How O Brahmana, was the &lt;strong&gt;Horse-sacrifice of the Prajapati Daksha,&lt;/strong&gt; the son of Prachetas, destroyed &lt;strong&gt;during the age of Vaivaswata Manu?&lt;/strong&gt; Understanding that the goddess Uma had become filled with rage and grief, the puissant Mahadeva, who is the soul of all things, gave way to wrath. How, again, through his grace, was Daksha enable to reunite the divided limbs of that Sacrifice? I desire to know all this. Tell me all this, O Brahmana, truly as it occurred.&amp;apos;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daksha excludes Lord Rudra from sacrifice but still other Gods due to their arrogancy reach there and Mahadeva creates Virabhadra to destroy the sacrifice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Unto his wife who was agitated with grief and who repeated these words the illustrious Mahadeva said with a joyous countenance, &amp;apos;Thou dost not know me, O goddess! Thou knowest not, O thou of delicate limbs and low belly, what words are proper to be addressed to the Lord of Sacrifices. O lady of large eyes, I know that it is only the sinful, who are bereft of contemplation, that do not understand me. &lt;strong&gt;It is through thy power of illusion that the deities with Indra at their head and the three worlds all become stupefied.&lt;/strong&gt; It is to me that the chanters utter their praises in Sacrifices. It is to me that the Saman-singers sing their Rathantaras. It is to me that Brahmanas conversant with the Vedas perform their Sacrifices. And it is to me that the Adhvaryus dedicate the shares of sacrificial offerings.&amp;apos; &amp;quot;The goddess said, &amp;apos;Persons of even ordinary abilities applaud themselves and indulge in the presence of their spouses. There is no doubt in this.&amp;apos; &amp;quot;The holy one said, &amp;apos;O Queen of all the gods, I do not certainly applaud my ownself. Behold now, O lady of slender waist, what I do. Behold the Being that I will create, O thou of the fairest complexion, for (destroying) this Sacrifice (that has displeased thee), O my beautiful spouse. &amp;quot;Having said these words unto his spouse Uma who was dearer to him than his own life, the puissant Mahadeva created from his mouth a terrible Being whose very sight could make one&amp;apos;s hair stand on its end. The blazing flames that emanated from his body rendered him exceedingly awful to behold. His arms were many in number and in each was a weapon that struck the beholder with fear. &lt;strong&gt;That Being, thus created, stood before the great god, with joined hands, and said, &amp;apos;What commands shall I have to accomplish?&amp;apos; Maheswara answered him, saying, &amp;apos;Go and destroy the Sacrifice of Daksha.&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And destroying everything, finally the sacrifice is also destroyed:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of fierce deeds, those Beings, impelled by Rudra&amp;apos;s wrath, very soon burnt that Sacrifice although it was protected with great care by all the deities. Loud were the roars they uttered which struck every living creature with dread. &lt;strong&gt;Having torn off the head of Sacrifice they indulged in glee and shouts. Then the gods headed by Brahman, and that progenitor of creatures,&lt;/strong&gt; viz., Daksha, joining their hands in reverence, addressed that mighty Being, saying, &amp;apos;Tell us, who thou art.&amp;apos;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata before mentioning this story also tells a slightly different story about how sacrifice of Daksha was destroyed. In it Lord Mahadeva himself goes (not Virabhadra) and destroys it himself. And it was also in the presence of Parvati. It means that it is story of destruction of Dakshas Yajna either of Chakshusa Manvantara (when present Parvati &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9633/when-did-parvati-devi-marry-shiva/14873#14873&quot;&gt;might have born&lt;/a&gt; or it is Parvati of previous Kalpas. (There were many Parvatis as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10141/wouldnt-most-of-the-incarnations-of-devi-be-of-sati-not-parvati/14868#14868&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt;). The story is in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b110.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shanti Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beholding the deities depart, the excellent &lt;strong&gt;daughter of the king of mountains,&lt;/strong&gt; addressed her divine spouse, viz., the Lord of all creatures, and said, &amp;apos;O illustrious one, whither are those deities headed by Sakra going? O thou that art conversant with the truth, tell me truly, for a great doubt has filled my mind.&amp;apos; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;Maheswara said, &amp;apos;O lady that art highly blessed, the excellent Prajapati Daksha is adoring the gods in a Horse-sacrifice. These denizens of heaven are proceeding even thither.&amp;apos; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;Uma said, &amp;apos;Why, O Mahadeva, dost thou not proceed to that Sacrifice? What objection is there of thy going to that place?&amp;apos; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;Maheswara said, &amp;apos;O highly blessed lady, the deities in days of yore made an arrangement in consequence of which no share was assigned to me of offerings in all Sacrifices. Agreeably to the course that was sanctioned in consequence of that arrangement, O thou of the fairest complexion, the deities do not give me, following the old custom, any share of the sacrificial offerings.&amp;apos; &amp;quot;Uma said, O illustrious one, among all beings thou art the foremost in puissance. In merit, in energy, in fame, and in prosperity, thou yieldest to none, and thou art, indeed, superior to all. In consequence, however, of this disability in respect of a share (in the Sacrificial offerings) I am filled with great grief, O sinless one, and a tremor overtakes me from head to foot.&amp;apos; &amp;quot;Bhishma continued, &amp;apos;The goddess (Parvati), having said these words unto her divine spouse, the Lord of all creatures, O monarch, remained silent, her heart burning the while in grief. Then Mahadeva, understanding what was in her heart and what her thoughts were (for wiping off that disgrace), addressed Nandi, saying, &amp;apos;Wait here (by the goddess). &lt;strong&gt;Summoning all his Yoga force, that Lord of all lords of Yoga, that god of gods, that wielder of Pinaka, possessed of mighty energy, quickly proceeded to the place (where Daksha was sacrificing) accompanied by all his terrible followers and destroyed that Sacrifice.&lt;/strong&gt; Amongst these followers of his, some uttered loud cries, and some laughed terribly, and some, O king, extinguished the (Sacrificial) fires with blood; and some, possessed of awful faces, pulling up&#xA;  the sacrificial stakes, began to whirl them. Others began to devour those that were ministering to the Sacrifice. &lt;strong&gt;Then that sacrifice, thus afflicted on every side, assumed the form of a deer and sought to fly away through the skies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the Shanti Parva of Mahabharata itself tells about destruction of sacrifice of Daksha two times which was witnessed by Parvati (not Sati). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-01-17T10:45:29.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16780" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16775" CreationDate="2017-01-17T11:02:00.233" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;We  find one of the possible explanation of Shree Rama's act of Killing a &lt;strong&gt;deer who actually was a  demon named Maricha&lt;/strong&gt;, Sent by Ravana ,to take Shree Rama away  from his hut ,and then to abduct Devi Sita in &lt;strong&gt;shreemad Bhgvatam&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this was Ravanas evil plan.&lt;strong&gt;That deer wasn't actually a Innocent animal but a demon disguised as Golden Deer.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And act of killing of Demon Maricha or Ravana,just was one  of the leelas  of Shree Rama.  &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्यापि भगवानेष साक्षाद ब्रह्मम्यो हरी:।&lt;br&gt;  अंशांशेन चतुर्धागात&#xA;  पुत्रत्वं प्रार्थित:सुरै:॥&lt;br&gt;  रामलक्ष्मणभरतशत्रुघ्ना इति&#xA;  संज्ञया॥2॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; tasyāpi bhagavān eṣa sākṣād brahmamayo hariḥ&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  aṁśāṁśena caturdhāgāt putratvaṁ prārthitaḥ suraiḥ&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  rāma-lakṣmaṇa-bharata-śatrughnā iti saṁjñayā &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;   Meaning -&#xA;  Being prayed for by the demigods, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;the Absolute Truth Himself&lt;/strong&gt;, directly appeared with His expansion and expansions of the expansion. Their holy names were Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa,&#xA;  Bharata and Śatrughna. These celebrated incarnations thus appeared in&#xA;  four forms as the sons of Mahārāja Daśaratha. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/10/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 9.10.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सिताकथाश्रवणदीपितहॄच्छयेन ।&lt;br&gt;  सृष्टम् विलोक्य नृपते&#xA;  दशकन्धरेण।।&lt;br&gt;  जघ्नेsद्भुतैणवपूषाssश्रमतोsपकृष्ठो&lt;br&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;मारीचमाशु&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  विशिखेन यथा कुमुग्र:॥10॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sītā-kathā-śravaṇa-dīpita-hṛc-chayena&lt;br&gt;  sṛṣṭaṁ vilokya nṛpate&#xA;  daśa-kandhareṇa&lt;br&gt;jaghne ’dbhutaiṇa-vapuṣāśramato ’pakṛṣṭo&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  mārīcam āśu viśikhena yathā kam ugraḥ&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O King Parīkṣit, when Rāvaṇa, who had ten heads on his shoulders,&#xA;  heard about the beautiful and attractive features of Sītā, his mind&#xA;  was agitated by lusty desires, and he went to kidnap her. &lt;strong&gt;To&#xA;  distract Lord Rāmacandra from His āśrama, Rāvaṇa sent Mārīca in the&#xA;  form of a golden deer,&lt;/strong&gt; and when Lord Rāmacandra saw that wonderful&#xA;  deer, He left His residence and followed it and finally killed it with&#xA;  a sharp arrow, just as Lord Śiva killed Dakṣa.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/10/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;9.10.10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;So from description given in this chapter we can see that originally Ravanas intention was to abduct sita so he used power of Mayavi Demon Maricha to fulfil his evil plan.&lt;strong&gt;As no actual killing of innocent deer took place&lt;/strong&gt; ,but at the end Golden Deer  shown his original demon form while dying.&lt;hr&gt;This is further clarified in Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सौवर्णः त्वम् मृगो भूत्वा चित्रो रजत बिन्दुभिः || ३-४०-१७&lt;br&gt; आश्रमे&#xA;  तस्य रामस्य सीतायाः प्रमुखे चर |&lt;br&gt; प्रलोभयित्वा वैदेहीम् यथा इष्टम्&#xA;  गन्तुम् अर्हसि || ३-४०-१८&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;On becoming an amazing silver-potted&#xA;  golden deer you move in front of Seetha in the hermitage of Rama, and&#xA;  on verily alluring Vaidehi you can go away as you like. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga40/aranya_5F40_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VR 3-40-17,&#xA;  18&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  प्राप्य सीताम् अयुद्धेन वंचयित्वा तु राघवम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लंकाम् प्रति गमिष्यामि कृत कार्यः सह त्वया || ३-४०-२५&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;My goal will be achieved just by misleading Raghava,&lt;/strong&gt; and by gaining Seetha without a conflict, then I will proceed to Lanka along with you.  [&lt;strong&gt;3-40-25&lt;/strong&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So the act of killing Golden deer by Shree Rama is completely justified one.As it was his leela or plan.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; Read whole chapter &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-01-17T14:44:21.933" LastActivityDate="2017-01-17T14:44:21.933" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16781" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16782" CreationDate="2017-01-17T11:11:36.047" Score="6" ViewCount="1009" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata is stated as the longest poem ever written. It consists of over 100,000 slokas and 200,000 individual lines. Is it true? Or are there any other holy books that are longer than the Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-19T13:14:45.020" LastActivityDate="2018-04-30T13:55:02.697" Title="Is Mahabharata the longest poem of the world?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|history|other-religions|shloka|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16782" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16781" CreationDate="2017-01-17T12:57:03.517" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually, the Sarala Mahabharata has 152,000 individual verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;not an exact translation from the Sanskrit original, but a full-blown independent work. Sarala Mahabharat has 152,000 verses compared to 100,000 in the Sanskrit version &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Odisha#Literature&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a Shaiva upapurana called the Shiva-rahasya-purana, which also consists of roughly 100.000 verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The book consists of twelve parts and has about one hundred thousand verses. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivarahasya_Purana&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then of course there are many now lost works counting well over 100.000 verses. A few examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manusmriti, used to be 100.000 verses &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc145480.html&quot;&gt;(source)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Gorakshasamhita, used to be 100.000 verses &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/gorak%E1%B9%A3asa%E1%B9%83hit%C4%81&quot;&gt;(source)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Lankavatara-sutra, used to be 100.000 verses &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/bb/bb07.htm&quot;&gt;(source)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br &gt;&#xA;The Brihatkatha, used to be 700.000 verses &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathasaritsagara&quot;&gt;(source)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Shukraniti, used to be 10.000.000 verses &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/69043&quot;&gt;(source, 1.4-5)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The various Agamas, having sometimes astronomical amount of verses &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.himalayanacademy.com/view/kamika-agama-purva-pada-part-1&quot;&gt;(source)&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the list goes on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="5384" LastEditDate="2017-01-17T14:04:49.200" LastActivityDate="2017-01-17T14:04:49.200" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16783" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14204" CreationDate="2017-01-17T13:59:30.473" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;These following is a compilation of responses written for my own clarity. Please edit, append, or add more comments as you see fit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;moonstar2001:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We do have &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Ala%E1%B9%85k%C4%81ra-%C5%9B%C4%81stra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;alankara sastra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;All Hindu art forms are a study of rasa (or the essence of life and its supreme form), and attaining the ultimate through art such as music and dance. ref. Bharata Muni's natya sastra, and other ancient texts on sangeetam (music). Upanishads extol &quot;raso vai saha&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mimamsa is an advanced study of epistemiology &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta are two very popular Hindu aestheticians&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Beauty in hinduism is likened to prakriti which is in turn a form of the divine. All human endeavor according to Hinduism is for the attainment of the divine and to revel in the divine while inhabiting the physical world. Hence, Hindu study of art is spread across the graphic arts, literature , religious practice (worship, ritual etc.), prescribed way of life, prescribed training for the mind etc. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is nothing in the Western world that has not already been studied in great detail by Hindus millennia ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not according to the user Swami Vishwananda, who suggests even closing this question!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Other comments:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The user yogi provides links in the comments to this question to Mahalakshmi Stotrams, which praise divine beauty but provide no normative basis for valuing beauty or the more general aesthetic quality. At least none that I could find. Links to Leela and Brahman are unrelated to the question hand. (please correct me if I'm wrong, thanks).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Final comment (for now):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After several months of thinking about this and following up on references (yes it took this long), I have concluded that Vineet Menon's response below gives the best starting point for understanding aesthetics. Most of the comments except for one or two seem to miss the whole point, especially those who insist on closing this question. The worst was an answer with a warning that &quot;...it is impossible to grasp&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyway, Vineet Menon's &lt;a href=&quot;http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/content/3/1/1.full&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link to one paper&lt;/a&gt; opens a whole source of modern Indian literature, Indian authors, and easily accessible references. More importantly, it addresses the question about aesthetics and the value judgements that are vastly broader than in western philosophy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyone searching for such topics in future, please give it some time for the right answers to show up. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2794" LastActivityDate="2017-01-17T13:59:30.473" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16784" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16775" CreationDate="2017-01-17T16:38:31.220" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama was not trying to kill the golden deer for its skin.&lt;/strong&gt; Sita wanted it as a pet to bring back to Ayodhya; here's what she tells Rama in &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga43/aranya_43_prose.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Aranya Kanda of the Ramayana: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, nobleman's son, that delightful deer is stealing my heart, oh, dextrous one, bring it round, it will be our plaything. Here in the threshold of our hermitage many animals with adorable manifestation are moving about in flocks and herds, say Caamara deer, like that Srimara deer. Also the animals that are excellent in their form, say monkeys, are moving here. Likewise herds of Kinnara deer, spotted-deer, and even bears of great-might are freely moving here. As to how this extraordinary deer is appearing, oh, king, by way of its brilliance, tameness, or by the lustre of its skin, I have not so far seen any coequal to this. Diversely coloured, amazingly limbed, and spotted with gemlike dapples it is shining forth like a deer that is completely gemmy, and while nonchalantly moving before me it is enlivening the forest like the moon. Ah, what a form, ah, what a brilliance, what a beautiful bleat! This amazingly limbed deer is wonderful, and this is stealing my heart, as it were. It will be surprising if this deer draws into your capture alive and well, as it creates astonishment to one and all. When we return to kingdom on completing our dwelling in forest this deer becomes a masterpiece in palacechambers for us.  Oh, lord, the form of this deer creates an excellent jubilation to Bharata, to you the son of the nobleman, to my mothers in law, and also to me in palace chambers. Else if that best deer does not come into you capture while alive, oh tigerly man, at the least its gorgeous deerskin will be remnant of it... I wish to sit along with you on its golden deerskin, overlaying it on a seat of tender darbha grass blades, in case the deer is felled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as you can see, it's only if Rama accidentally kills it in the process of trying to capture it that Sita wants its skin.  And in any case Kshatriyas are allowed to freely hunt animals, as Rama himself tells Vali in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga18/kishkindhasans18.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Kishkindha Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this world even the kingly sages well-versed in virtue will go on hunting, and hunting is no face to face game, as such, oh, vanara, therefore I felled you in combat with my arrow because you are a tree-branch animal, whether you are not combating with me or combating against me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss the justification for Rama killing Vali in more detail in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/246/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-01-18T16:29:41.883" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16785" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-17T20:07:30.257" Score="8" ViewCount="558" Body="&lt;p&gt;As most people know when a Hindu takes up &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sannyasa&quot;&gt;sannyāsa&lt;/a&gt;, he no longer performs the daily and other rituals like the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Ar%C4%81ddha&quot;&gt;śrāddha&lt;/a&gt; that normal householders do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; in the book &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt; § &lt;/sup&gt; explains &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part19/chap1.htm&quot;&gt;as below&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmin is born with three debts: he owes a debts to the sages, to the celestials and to the fathers. He repays the first by learning the Vedas as a student-bachelor; the second by taking a wife and performing sacrifices; and the third by begetting a son. So without marriage he cannot repay the second and third debts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sons are primarily intended for the repayment of the debts to the fathers. Performing the sraddha ceremony is not enough. Forefathers of the past three generations are to be made to ascend from the manes. So even after a man dies, for two generations the daily libations must be offered to him. That is why the birth of a son is considered important. (&lt;strong&gt;The case of the naisthika brahmacarin and the sannyasin is different. Because of their inner purity and enlightenment, they can liberate, not just two generations, but twenty-one generations of fathers without performing any sraddha ceremony&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Hindu Dharma » Grhasthasrama » Grhastha and Grhini]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm specifically interested in the line marked in bold above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which Hindu scripture says that (naiṣṭhika) brahmacārīs and sannyāsīs can liberate souls of deceased parents and 21 generations of their ancestors without performing the śrāddha?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt; § &lt;/sup&gt; &lt;sub&gt;An older and copyright-free version of this book is available for free &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/newlayout/template/hindudharma.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T08:35:04.120" Title="Which scripture says that a sannyāsi can liberate 21 generations of ancestors without performing the śrāddha?" Tags="|rituals|atma|sraddha|sannyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16786" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16356" CreationDate="2017-01-17T22:26:47.560" Score="2" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Is Tejasvī, a masculine or feminine term or name in Sanskrit?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We see Tejasvī (with a long I) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01200.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;being used&lt;/a&gt; as a name for Indra in the Mahābhārata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;01,189.028   vyāsa uvāca &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;01,189.028a    etac chrutvā vajrapāṇir vacas tu; devaśreṣṭhaṃ punar evedam āha &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;01,189.028c   vīryeṇāhaṃ puruṣaṃ kāryahetor; dadyām eṣāṃ pañcamaṃ matprasūtam &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;01,189.028d&lt;em&gt;1916_01     viśvabhug ṛtadhāmā ca śibir indraḥ pratāpavān &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;01,189.028d&lt;/em&gt;1916_02     śāntiś caturthas teṣāṃ vai &lt;strong&gt;tejasvī&lt;/strong&gt; pañcamaḥ smṛtaḥ &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa continued, 'Hearing these words of the former Indras, the wielder of the thunderbolt once more addressed that foremost of gods, saying, 'Instead of going myself, I shall, with a portion of my energy, create from myself a person for the accomplishment of the task (thou assignest) to form the fifth among these!' Vishwabhuk, Bhutadhaman, Sivi of great energy, Santi the fourth, and &lt;strong&gt;Tejaswin&lt;/strong&gt;, these it is said were the five Indras of old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tejasvī is also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/20378/13F_Chapter_8.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;used as&lt;/a&gt; an adjective for a female child:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कन्यामरगर्भाभां ज्वलन्तीमिव च श्रिया । तां ददर्श समुत्सृष्टां नदीतीरे महानृषिः ॥८॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्यूलकेशः स &lt;strong&gt;तेजस्वी&lt;/strong&gt; विजने बन्धुवर्जिताम् । स तां दृष्ट्रा तदा कन्यां स्थूलकेशो महाद्विजः ॥९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;01,008.007c   kanyām amaragarbhābhāṃ jvalantīm iva ca śriyā &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;01,008.008a   tāṃ dadarśa samutsṛṣṭāṃ nadītīre mahān ṛṣiḥ &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;01,008.008c   sthūlakeśaḥ sa &lt;strong&gt;tejasvī&lt;/strong&gt; vijane bandhuvarjitām &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;01,008.009a   sa tāṃ dṛṣṭvā tadā kanyāṃ sthūlakeśo dvijottamaḥ &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The great Rishi saw the girl lying forsaken in a lonely place on the banks of the river, &lt;strong&gt;blazing in beauty&lt;/strong&gt;; she was as beautiful as a child of an immortal. And the great Brahmana,&#xA;Sthulakesha, the chief of Munis, finding that female child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-01-17T22:31:55.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16787" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16811" CreationDate="2017-01-18T03:15:22.557" Score="11" ViewCount="7047" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to wear the Rudraksha bead but have some queries related to the rules. What are the exact rules?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-06-02T12:40:45.083" LastActivityDate="2023-06-02T12:40:45.083" Title="What are the rules for wearing Rudraksha bead?" Tags="|shiva|rudraksha|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16788" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7703" CreationDate="2017-01-18T03:18:25.990" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri gurave namah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, the evolution from being a &quot;forgetful&quot; soul called mode of ignorance, &quot;tamas&quot; can be equated to the darkness/night. The mode of passion 'Rajas' is the illumined way, nevertheless it's mixed with serious desires to enjoy the material world. The mode of goodness &quot;sattva&quot; is the path of following the Vedic injunctions to achieve the higher planets esp, punya karma etc., and so can be equated to the light/day. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, when we all fall into Maya(illusion), we are ignorant of our original state as the Sacchidaananda atma(an eternal blissful cognizant being). But as we gain experience we move onto choosing to act on ways that bring us the best benefit(usually called selfishness). Slowly as we keep acting in ways beneficial to us, we may (if ordained) realise that there's more better that lays in the punya(most people who do it expect a return from being a helpful pious person) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when we accumulate a lot of punya, we may be granted the chance to clear our mind of the illusion of tamas/rajas/sattva. That is when we realise all these three modes are still binding us to be reborn into the janma mrtyu cycle. We start seeking (and in specially blessed cases the divine intervenes in special unexplainable ways) for the truth. We then start the real inquiry. There starts the first aphorism of the Brahma Sutras &quot;Athato Brahma Jignasa&quot;, translated as 'so now we look into understanding the real truth into nature of existence'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While searching for answers that start within, one looks outside. Then the Divine manifests His mercy in the form of a Guru(who is a Guru is a very serious matter and we shall never be able to write properly of him here, but the wise have said, he is more important than the Lord Himself). The guru seeks a true disciple as much and then starts the process that Sri Krushna mentions in the Bhagavad Gita 4.34 &quot;tat viddhi pranipatena pariprashnena sevaya......&quot;&#xA;The guru imparts the knowledge of the absolute unto the disciple as the disciple may hold qualifications to understand. The Guru trains your body and also mind to tune to the actual truth. That is when the disciple understands that he has two coverings. One the material body (Sthuula shareeram) made of gross senses using the 5 elements (air, water, fire, earth and ether). Beyond this is the second covering (Suukshma deham) of the 3 subtle elements, the mind(manas), intelligence(buddhi) and the false ego(mithyaahankaara). The merciful Guru, reveals to the sincere disciple that it is only after we break this second covering shall we understand the truth of our being one with the Lord (eko Brahma dwitiya naasti - there are serious differences as to understanding the meaning and realising this)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the guru imparts knowledge (gyanam) that we shall accept and record in our mind(the manas). The next step is to utilise the mind to act wisely through our intelligence (buddhi). Now what is the right  that the wise act? DESTROY THE FALSE EGO(mithyaahankaara chhedanam). Nothing of this is as simple as I write here and you read. The merciful Guru guides the sincere disciple in every small stage of this development. I don't seem myself fit to write more about this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, what remains when we start misidentifying ourselves is that we learn and identify our real nature (swaroopam) as sat-chit-ananda. That is what is the basic definition of the atma. Now how we realise our atma is again a very disputed subject (ekam sat, vipraah bahudhaa vadanti) which I shouldn't talk of as I am still not realised.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha charanaaravindayor  samarpayaami.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS- So, there's this ambiguity. The person who raised the doubt quoted a second translation where he mentioned few names... How to understand that if it's only this simple that go to a Guru n learn from him! &#xA;Please remember I said we shall not be able to write enough of the Sadguru, for he manifests us knowledge in various ways and through various sources. The Avaduta avataram Sri Dattatreya Himself mentions that he has many gurus (including many creatures) from whom he learnt the various facets of the truth. I hereby do not ask you to run to everyguy who calls himself a Guru. NO. A Guru is not that easy to be found. Please research thoroughly as to how to understand what a Guru truly is and then look around, the Guru will reveal himself to the real seeker.&#xA;Cautionary Warning: I DONOT SUPPORT THE BIG CROWD OF BOGUS IMPOSTORS. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's a verse I wanted to quote from the Bhagavad Gita while I mentioned the process of separating the subtle body from oneself. I don't remember the sanskrutam verse. I ll post it as I find it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pranam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8726" LastActivityDate="2017-01-18T03:18:25.990" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16789" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-18T03:19:05.957" Score="2" ViewCount="78" Body="&lt;p&gt;I haven't purchased Rudraksh Bead ever, but before purchasing the Rudraksh Bead, I would like to understand how to recognized its real one. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While purchasing the Bead Can I ask them for certificate which is tested &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before wearing should I check if it suits me. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastActivityDate="2017-01-18T03:19:05.957" Title="Confirming Original Rudraksh Bead" Tags="|rudraksha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16790" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16918" CreationDate="2017-01-18T03:58:31.603" Score="2" ViewCount="692" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are a lot of our scriptures mentioning Gautam Buddha as one of Vishnu's avatars. You can see this Wikipedia post for the list&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha_in_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha_in_Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If it is so under which varna do they come,like should they be allowed to perform the Sacred Thread ceremony and other vedic ceremonies ?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;I want to know whether our scriptures give any guidelines on which varna do Buddhists belong (ideally, if our scriptures call Buddhists as Hindus,they should give details about their varna).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;I am not talking about conversions here&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8723" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-01-24T20:55:30.897" LastActivityDate="2022-10-06T13:35:49.320" Title="Which varna are 'Hindu' Buddhists part of?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|caste-system|buddhism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16791" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16785" CreationDate="2017-01-18T06:29:20.700" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;The book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt;(Essence of all Dharma Shastras) quotes Daksha Prajapati,in the context of discussing &quot;Sannyasa Dharma&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dakshan Prajapati affirms: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Trimshatparaamstrim shadaparaan trimshacchhapara –tah paraan,&#xA;  Sadyassannyasanaa deva narakaattraayete pitraan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On account of Sanyasa of a person in a vamsha, Pitru Devatas of thirty&#xA;  generations before and another thirty generations ahead would be saved&#xA;  from narakas!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,first of all it talks about 30 generations and not 21 and secondly i'm not sure which scripture is the source of that verse.It is natural to look in the Daksha Smriti first and i did too but apparently it does not contain the verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will try to update on the source soon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sannyasopanishad(Chapter 2,Verse 10) (related to Samaveda) talks about 60 generations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;9&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Seeing a Brahmana who has renounced the world t he sun moves from his place (thinking), ‘This person will reach Brahman breaking&#xA;  through my disc’.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That wise man who says ‘I have renounced’ raises to glory sixty generations of his family before him and sixty generations after him&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-20T08:35:04.120" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T08:35:04.120" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16792" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16876" CreationDate="2017-01-18T09:22:32.747" Score="4" ViewCount="660" Body="&lt;p&gt;The order of the Navagrahas is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aditya/Surya(Sun)&lt;br&gt;Soma/Chandra(Moon)&lt;br&gt;Angaraka/Mangal/Kuja(Mars)&lt;br&gt; Budha(Mercury)&lt;br&gt; Brihaspati(Jupiter)&lt;br&gt; Sukra(Venus)&lt;br&gt; Sani(Saturn)&lt;br&gt;Rahu and Ketu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This order can be found in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dilip-raut.blogspot.in/2013/07/nava-graha-stotra-by-sage-veda-vyasa.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vyasa Krutha Navagraha Stotram&lt;/a&gt; and similar &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Nava_Graha_Stotram_II&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;stotrams&lt;/a&gt; and even in the following small &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Nava_Graha_Prarthana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;prayer&lt;/a&gt; dedicated to them :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Soorya souryamadendhurucha padaveem , sanmangalam mangala,¬ Sad budhim&#xA;  cha budho Guruscha kurutham Shukra sukham , sam sani,¬ Rahur bahu&#xA;  balam karothu vipulam Kethukulasyonnathim,¬ Nithyam preethikara&#xA;  bhavanthu bhavatham sarve prasanna Graha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let &lt;strong&gt;sun&lt;/strong&gt; give me courage , &lt;strong&gt;Moon&lt;/strong&gt; give high position , &lt;strong&gt;Mars&lt;/strong&gt; grant&#xA;  auspiciousness,¬ Let &lt;strong&gt;mercury&lt;/strong&gt; give good brain , Let &lt;strong&gt;Jupiter&lt;/strong&gt; give great&#xA;  numbers , &lt;strong&gt;Venus&lt;/strong&gt; give pleasure ,&lt;strong&gt;Sani&lt;/strong&gt; peace, &lt;strong&gt;Rahu&lt;/strong&gt; give me physical strength and&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Kethu&lt;/strong&gt; greatness of our family,¬ And let all the planets be pleased&#xA;  with me and start liking me.¬&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the most natural way of associating the nine numbers 1,2..to..9 with the Navagrahas is this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sun-1,Moon-2,Mars-3,Mercury-4,Jupiter-5,Venus-6,Saturn-7,Rahu-8 and Ketu-9.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But those who are familiar with the subject of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanatansociety.org/vedic_astrology_and_numerology/indian_numerology_1.htm#.WH8wubnldoc&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Numerology&lt;/a&gt; will know that this is not quite the order that is followed .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In numerology they follow this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sun-1,Moon-2,Jupiter-3,Rahu-4,Mercury-5,Venus-6,Ketu-7,Saturn-8,Mars-9.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,quite different from the association given further above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Questions-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which Hindu Scriptures give these rules of Numerology  and in particular the rules regarding which number is to be associated with which of the Navagrahas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="13242" LastEditDate="2018-01-27T05:02:08.460" LastActivityDate="2018-01-27T05:02:08.460" Title="Is the concept &quot;numerology&quot; based on Hindu Scriptures?In particular which Texts give the rules of how to relate the Navagrahas with the numbers?" Tags="|scripture|navagraha|numerology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16794" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14907" CreationDate="2017-01-18T11:37:45.443" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Another answer based on another Shastra.(&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harita&lt;/a&gt; Smriti,Chapter 6,named Garhastya,The Domestic Mode of Life)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The significance of offering water to Sun is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having rinsed, the mouth, as laid down in the Mantram, one should&#xA;  again rinse it. Then sprinkling one's own self with water, as&#xA;  described in the Mantram, one should throw palmfuls of water. (12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By virtue of the boon conferred by Brahma, whose birth is not known,&#xA;  the Rakshasas Mandeha fight every morning with the Sun. (13)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The handfuls of water, thrown by the Brahmanas and inspired with the&#xA;  mystic verse Gdyatri, destroy all the Rakshasas passing under the&#xA;  appellation of Mandeha. (14)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE-This answer differs from the accepted answer only regarding the Scripture that is used as reference.Otherwise both answers say the same thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-18T11:47:58.757" LastActivityDate="2017-01-18T11:47:58.757" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16795" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16776" CreationDate="2017-01-18T14:28:53.100" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are verses from the &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; that are the essence of all life lessons and are given at the time of graduation from vedic studies. Primary among these are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;satyam vada; dharmam cara; mAtRu  dEvO bhava; pitRu dEvO bhava; AcArya dEvO bhava.(सत्यं वद धर्मं चर , मातृ देवो भव , पितृ देवो भव ,आचार्य देवो भव) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vedamanuchyacharyontevasinamanushasti &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;satyam vada . dharmam chara&lt;/strong&gt; . svadhyayanma pramadah &#xA;  acharyaya priyam dhanamahritya prajatantum ma vyavachchetsih &#xA;  satyanna pramaditavyam.h . dharmanna pramaditavyam.h &#xA;  kushalanna pramaditavyam.h . bhutyai na pramaditavyam.h &#xA;  svadhyayapravachanabhyam na pramaditavyam.h .. 1..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having taught the Vedas, the teacher thus instructs the pupil: Speak&#xA;  the truth. Practise dharma. &lt;strong&gt;Do not neglect the study of the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Having brought to the teacher the gift desired by him, enter the&#xA;  householder's life and see that the &lt;strong&gt;line of progeny is not cut off&lt;/strong&gt;. Do&#xA;  not swerve from the truth. Do not swerve from dharma. Do not neglect&#xA;  personal welfare. Do not neglect prosperity. Do not neglect the study&#xA;  and teaching of the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;devapitrikaryabhyam na pramaditavyam.h . matridevo bhava  pitridevo&#xA;  bhava . acharyadevo bhava . atithidevo bhava  yanyanavadyani karmani .&#xA;  tani sevitavyani . no itarani  yanyasmaka{\m+}  sucharitani  tani&#xA;  tvayopasyani .. 2..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do not neglect your duties to the gods&lt;/strong&gt; and the Manes. Treat your&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;mother as God&lt;/strong&gt;. Treat your &lt;strong&gt;father as God&lt;/strong&gt;. Treat your teacher as God.&#xA;  Treat your guest as God. Whatever deeds are faultless, these are to be&#xA;  performed-not others. Whatever good works have been performed by us,&#xA;  those should be performed by you-not others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;no itarani . ye ke charumachchreya{\m+}so brahmanah  tesham&#xA;  tvaya.a.asanena prashvasitavyam.h . shraddhaya deyam.h &#xA;  ashraddhaya.adeyam.h . shriya deyam.h . hriya deyam.h . bhiya deyam.h &#xA;  sa.nvida deyam.h  atha yadi te karmavichikitsa va vrittavichikitsa va&#xA;  syat.h .. 3. Those brahmins who are superior to us-you should comfort&#xA;  them by giving them seats. Whatever is to be given should be given&#xA;  with faith, not without faith-according to one’s plenty, with modesty,&#xA;  with fear, with sympathy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ye tatra brahmanah sammarshinah . yukta ayuktah aluxa dharmakamah syuh&#xA;  . yatha te tatra varteran.h tatha tatra vartethah . athabhyakhyateshu&#xA;  ye tatra brahmanah sammarshinah . yukta ayuktah aluxa dharmakamah syuh&#xA;  . yatha te teshu varteran.h tatha teshu vartethah . esha adeshah .&#xA;  esha upadeshah esha vedopanishat.h . etadanushasanam.h .&#xA;  evamupasitavyam.h evamu chaitadupasyam.h .. 4.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now, if there arises in your mind any doubt concerning any act, or any&#xA;  doubt concerning conduct, you should conduct yourself in such matters&#xA;  as brahmins would conduct themselves-brahmins who are competent to&#xA;  judge, who of their own accord are devoted to good deed and are not&#xA;  urged to their performance by others and who are not too severe, but&#xA;  are lovers of dharma. Now, with regards to persons spoken against, you&#xA;  should conduct yourself in such a way as brahmins would conduct&#xA;  themselves-brahmins who are competent to judge, who of their own&#xA;  accord are devoted to good deeds and are not urged to their&#xA;  performance by others and who are not too severe, but are lovers of&#xA;  dharma. This is the rule. This is the teaching. This is the secret&#xA;  wisdom of the Vedas. This is the command of God. This you should&#xA;  observe. This alone should be observed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-01-20T14:42:40.733" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T14:42:40.733" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16796" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16216" CreationDate="2017-01-18T17:44:23.207" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If I do a bad karma without knowing or realizing properly will I&#xA;  receive fruits for that or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes you will.Crimes committed intentionally yields more bad karma without doubt but even those done unknowingly yields bad karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.145. &lt;strong&gt;The guilt incurred intentionally or&#xA;  unintentionally by injuring (created beings) can be removed by means&#xA;  of these penances;&lt;/strong&gt; hear (now, how) all (sins) committed by partaking&#xA;  of forbidden food (or drink, can be expiated).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.146. He who drinks unintentionally (the spirituous liquor, called) Varuni, becomes pure by being initiated (again); (even for drinking&#xA;  it) intentionally (a penance) destructive to life must not be imposed;&#xA;  that is a settled rule.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses prove that one has to suffer even for one's those sins which were committed unknowingly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some further examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A washerman, a cobbler, an actor, a Varuda, a Kaivarta, a Mada, and a&#xA;  Bhilla these seven are known, in the Smriti, as degraded castes. (195)&#xA;  By knowing their women, taking their food and accepting gifts from&#xA;  them, &lt;strong&gt;if willingly, one should perform Prajapatya for a year ; and, if&#xA;  unknowingly, two Chandrayanas. (196&lt;/strong&gt;)(Atri Smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....by &lt;strong&gt;[unconsciously] killing a dog&lt;/strong&gt;, one should zealously drink milk&#xA;  for three nights. (7) Or &lt;strong&gt;by [unknowingly] killing a cat or a mongose&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  one should wend a way a Yojan [in length](Usana Smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,coming to your second question-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;At what age are you responsible for your own karma?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As long as a boy does not attain to the age of eight, [he is known] as&#xA;  a new-born babe&lt;/strong&gt;. He is to be known as an embryo, the difference [only]&#xA;  being that of his individuality. (4) '&lt;strong&gt;In the period&lt;/strong&gt; [that is during&#xA;  the period] that he is not invested with the sacred thread, &lt;strong&gt;there is&#xA;  no sin in a food and an interdicted edible, in drink, in what should&#xA;  be spoken or not, and in falsehood. (5)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is as per &lt;strong&gt;Daksha Smriti(Chapter 1).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Yama Smriti, however,the age limit is 5 years.Its only after that one becomes responsible for Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A father, brother, or any other relation should perform the penance&#xA;  for a child whose age is below the eleventh year and &lt;strong&gt;above the fifth&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  (15) &lt;strong&gt;There is no offence or sin for a child younger than this. There&#xA;  is no punishment from the king for him, nor any penance.&lt;/strong&gt; (16)-&lt;strong&gt;(Yama Smriti Chapter 1)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-24T07:22:56.717" LastActivityDate="2017-01-24T07:22:56.717" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16797" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16775" CreationDate="2017-01-18T17:57:43.337" Score="2" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Isn't killing a deer for its golden skin unjustified?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Rāma's case, it's not unjustified. Revealing her second boon to Daśaratha, Kaikeyī &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga11/ayodhyasans11.htm#Verse26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नव पञ्च च वर्षाणि दण्डकारण्यमाश्रितः || २-११-२६ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;चीराजिनजटाधारी&lt;/strong&gt; रामो भवतु तापसः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama has to take refuge in the forest of Dandaka for fourteen years and let him become an ascetic &lt;strong&gt;wearing rags&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;deer skin&lt;/strong&gt; and matted hair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=cIrA&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;choice=yes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;चीरा&lt;/a&gt; (cīrā) means 'piece of cloth' and &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=ajina&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;choice=yes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;अजिन&lt;/a&gt; (ajina) means 'skin of a wild animal.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, clearly, in those days, when you live in a forest, that's your usual attire. Rāma was simply following the norms of his day. Hunting, meat-eating, using deerskin as a mat or as a coat to protect oneself from the weather was all normal for forest dwellers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/11-12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad-gītā (Ch. 6: Dhyāna-yoga 11-12)&lt;/a&gt;, we have:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To practice yoga, one should go to a secluded place and should lay kuśa grass on the ground and &lt;strong&gt;then cover it with a deerskin&lt;/strong&gt; and a soft cloth. The seat should be neither too high nor too low and should be situated in a sacred place. The yogī should then sit on it very ﬁrmly and practice yoga to purify the heart by controlling his mind, senses and activities and ﬁxing the mind on one point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, one should not misinterpret the above to mean one cannot do yoga without getting a deerskin first, and ignoring other more important instructions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In your &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16775/why-did-rama-try-to-kill-an-innocent-deer-just-for-its-skin/16784#comment42911_16784&quot;&gt;comment&lt;/a&gt;, you also ask:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where is it said that Kshatriyas are allowed to hunt in Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Stating his opinion in Anuśāsana-parva of the Mahābhārata, this is what Bhīṣma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b081.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is even so, O mighty-armed one, as thou sayest. There is nothing on earth that is superior to flesh in point of taste. There is nothing that is more beneficial then flesh to persons that are lean, or weak, or afflicted with disease, or addicted to sexual congress or exhausted with travel. &lt;strong&gt;Flesh speedily increases strength. It produces great development. There is no food, O scorcher of foes, that is superior to flesh.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence, O Bharata, even royal sages betake themselves to the practice of hunting&lt;/strong&gt;. By such conduct they do not become stained with sin. &lt;strong&gt;Indeed, the practice is not regarded as sinful&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the earlier chapter, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b080.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Many kings in ancient days, O son of Pritha, who had constituted themselves the souls of all creatures and who were conversant with the truths of all things, viz., Soul and Not-soul, &lt;strong&gt;had abstained from flesh either for the whole of the month of Karttika&lt;/strong&gt; or for the whole of the lighted fortnight in that month. They were Nabhaga and Amvarisha and the high-souled Gaya and Ayu and Anaranya and &lt;strong&gt;Dilipa&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Raghu&lt;/strong&gt; and Puru and Kartavirya and Aniruddha and Nahusha and Yayati and Nrigas and Vishwaksena and Sasavindu and Yuvanaswa and Sivi, the son of Usinara, and Muchukunda and Mandhatri, and &lt;strong&gt;Harischandra&lt;/strong&gt;. Do thou always speak the truth. Never speak an untruth. Truth is an eternal duty. It is by truth that Harischandra roves through heaven like a second Chandramas. These other kings also, viz., Syenachitra, O monarch, and Somaka and Vrika and Raivata and Rantideva and Vasu and Srinjaya, and Dushmanta and Karushma and &lt;strong&gt;Rama&lt;/strong&gt; and Alarka and Nala, and Virupaswa and Nimi and &lt;strong&gt;Janaka&lt;/strong&gt; of great intelligence, and Aila and Prithu and Virasena, and &lt;strong&gt;Ikshvaku&lt;/strong&gt;, and Sambhu, and Sweta, and Sagara, and Aja and Dhundhu and Suvahu, and Haryaswa and Kshupa and Bharata, O monarch, &lt;strong&gt;did not eat flesh for the month of Karttika and as the consequence thereof attained to heaven&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we see Rāma and Kṛṣṇa as kṣatriya kings &amp;amp; in light of above statements, their actions are justified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Bhīṣma also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b081.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13,117.037a &amp;nbsp; ahiṃsā paramo dharmas tathāhiṃsā paro damaḥ &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  13,117.037c &amp;nbsp; ahiṃsā paramaṃ dānam ahiṃsā paramaṃ tapaḥ &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  13,117.038a &amp;nbsp; ahiṃsā paramo yajñas tathāhiṃsā paraṃ balam &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  13,117.038c &amp;nbsp; ahiṃsā paramaṃ mitram ahiṃsā paramaṃ sukham &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  13,117.038e &amp;nbsp; ahiṃsā paramaṃ satyam ahiṃsā paramaṃ śrutam &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abstention from cruelty is the highest Religion ... is the highest self-control. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abstention from cruelty is the highest gift ... is the highest penance. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abstention from cruelty is the highest sacrifice ... is the highest puissance. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abstention from cruelty is the highest friend ... is the highest happiness. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Abstention from cruelty is the highest truth ... is the highest Sruti. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that is only possible for sages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13,116.073a &amp;nbsp; madhu māṃsaṃ ca ye nityaṃ varjayantīha dhārmikāḥ &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  13,116.073c &amp;nbsp; janmaprabhṛti madyaṃ ca sarve te munayaḥ smṛtāḥ &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These righteous men who, from the time of birth, abstain from honey and meat and wine, are regarded as Munis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In conclusion, we should avoid judging characters in Hindu scriptures based on current trends and also mixing duties and living styles of different varṇas (kṣatriyas, brāhmaṇas, etc.) or of sannyāsīs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-01-18T17:57:43.337" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16798" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-18T19:04:48.210" Score="8" ViewCount="589" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some consider Krishna to be an avatar of Lord Vishnu but others worship him as the supreme godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read once in Vishnu Purana that Krishna is 'a very tiny part of Lord Vishnu.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know where this is said in the Vishnu Purana or other Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8730" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-18T20:28:46.290" LastActivityDate="2019-04-26T06:19:50.847" Title="Puranic reference for &quot;Krishna is a tiny part of Lord Vishnu&quot;" Tags="|scripture|vishnu|krishna|avatars|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16800" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16798" CreationDate="2017-01-19T01:47:12.447" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you are referring to the first few verses of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in//Content/Articles/PDFs/23871/29F_Chapter_81_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Book 5, Ch. 1&lt;/a&gt; where both sages Maitreya and Parāśara refer to Kṛṣṇa as aṃśāṃśasaṃbhūti (incarnation of a part of a portion) of Viṣṇu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;maitreya uvāca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nṛpāṇāṃ kathitaḥsarvo bhavatā vaṃśavistaraḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;vaṃśānucaritaṃ caiva yathāvadanuvarṇitam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;aṃśāvatāro&lt;/strong&gt; brahmarṣe yo 'yaṃ &lt;strong&gt;yadukulodbhavaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;viṣṇostaṃ vistareṇāhaṃ śrotumicchāmi tattvataḥ || ViP_5,1.2 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;cakāra yāni karmāṇi bhagavān puruṣottamaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;aṃśāṃśenāvatīryorvyāṃ&lt;/strong&gt; tatra tāni mune vada || ViP_5,1.3 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maitreya: You have related to me a full account of all the different dynasties of kings, and of their successive transactions. I wish now to hear a more particular description, holy Rishi, &lt;strong&gt;of the portion of Vishńu&lt;/strong&gt; that came down upon earth, and &lt;strong&gt;was born in the family of Yadu&lt;/strong&gt;. Tell me also what actions he performed in his descent, &lt;strong&gt;as a part of a part of the supreme&lt;/strong&gt;, upon the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śrīpāraśara uvāca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;maitreya śrūyatāmetadyatpṛṣṭo 'hamiha tvayā | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;viṣṇoraṃśāṃśasaṃbhūticaritaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; jagato hitam || ViP_5,1.4 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parāśara: I will relate to you, Maitreya, the account which you have requested; the &lt;strong&gt;birth of a part of a part of Vishńu&lt;/strong&gt;, and the benefits which his actions conferred upon the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T01:47:12.447" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16801" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8095" CreationDate="2017-01-19T05:03:17.557" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;yes it is mention in &quot;Bhavishya Purana &quot; @UPASARGA Adhaya . Mahamad is &quot;A-SUR &quot;( Devil) re born Demon of &quot; Tripura sur &quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahamad Captured &quot; Shivalaya &quot; of &quot; Marusthalya &quot; , Raja Boj Visited Marusthala ( Place in Desert ) .But GOD Shiva told him &quot; Instead to escape &quot; Shivalaya &quot; from Devil Mohamada , take care of &quot; Maha Kalyashwara &quot; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marusthala is now &quot;A-Pavitra &quot; ( non worshiped place ). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &quot;Bhavishya Purana &quot; and &quot; Muslim Quaran&quot; this place ( Mah-KKa or Mecca )will be free by Hindu King in 2000 yrs as per Hijari Calendar and the war is mention - name - &quot; Gazwa-e-Hind &quot; ( End of Hindustan i.e. killing of hindus and captured land of india ) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8733" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T05:03:17.557" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16802" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-01-19T05:20:37.950" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-01-19T05:20:37.950" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T05:20:37.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16803" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-01-19T05:20:37.950" Score="0" Body="Questions about Vedanta-Desika (वेदान्त देशिक), also known as Swami Desikan &amp; Swami Vedanta Desikan, a Sri Vaishanava guru &amp; philosopher, and about his works." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-19T05:31:48.053" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T05:31:48.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16804" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-01-19T05:41:42.153" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-01-19T05:41:42.153" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T05:41:42.153" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16805" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-01-19T05:41:42.153" Score="0" Body="Questions about Nyaya (न्याय), one of the six philosophy based on Nyaya-Sutra by Akṣapada Gautama. Epistemology on various Pramanas." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-19T06:01:51.957" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T06:01:51.957" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16807" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15363" CreationDate="2017-01-19T07:27:45.253" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shwetashwatara Upanishad in 6.22 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वेदान्ते परमं गुह्यं पुराकल्पे प्रचोदितम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नाप्रशान्ताय दातव्यं नापुत्रायाशिष्याय वा पुनः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The profound mystery in the Vedanta was taught in the previous cycle.&lt;/strong&gt; It should not be given to one whose passions have not been subdued, nor to one who is not a son or a disciple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means that the teachings present in Upanishads are eternal and they were taught also in the previous Kalpa. ie. The teachings of Upanishads are also cyclic and they are like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14913/where-does-rig-veda-states-about-cyclical-nature-of-creation/14914#14914&quot;&gt;Sun and Moon.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The philosophies like Samkhya and Vedanta are then derived from the intrepretation of these Upanishads. So, Upanishad is certainly older than any philosophy (actually we can&amp;apos;t find the origin due to cyclic nature of teachings.)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Regarding the word &amp;quot;Samkhya&amp;quot; occuring in Shwetashwatara Upanishad, different philosophers explain it different. For eg. The believers in the Samkhya theory of Kapila intrepret it as related to their theory. The believers in the Vedanta school intrepret it as referring to &amp;quot;Knowledge through Analysis&amp;quot; (and not doctrine of Kapila).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T07:27:45.253" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16809" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8009" CreationDate="2017-01-19T08:39:20.667" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Partial answer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, Swaminarayana was a saint. One of the most famous temples dedicated to him is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akshardham_(Delhi)#Akshardham_Mandir&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aksharadham temple in Delhi&lt;/a&gt;. I imagine it is one of the largest temples in the country. (Personally, I have been there, it makes for a very nice darshana for anyone visiting Delhi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.baps.org/About-BAPS/TheFounder%E2%80%93BhagwanSwaminarayan/Life/Timeline.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;timeline&lt;/a&gt; of his life as mentioned on the temple website:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;April 2, 1781 – Incarnates as Ghanshyam in Chhapaiya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;March 31, 1786 – Begins the study of Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1792 – Leaves home to begin Kalyan Yatra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1793 – Performs four months of severe penance in Muktinath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;October 24, 1794 – Masters ashtanga yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;August 21, 1799 – Arrives in Loj, meets Muktananad Swami.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;June 18, 1800 – Meets Ramanand Swami and Mulji Sharma in Piplana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;October 28, 1800 – Initiated into the sadhu fold in Piplana by&#xA;  Ramanand Swami.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;November 16, 1801 –Appointed as head of the fellowship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;December 31, 1801 – Reveals the Swaminarayan mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;November 5, 1802 – Muktanand Swami composes the aarti after&#xA;  understanding Bhagwan  Swaminarayan’s true glory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;November 1803 – Visits Bhadra and upon meeting Mulji Sharma again,&#xA;  reveals him to  be Aksharbrahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;June 18, 1804 – Initiates 500 paramhansas in Kalvani in one night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;December 25, 1808 – Performs ahimsic yagna in Jetalpur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;January 20, 1810 – Initiates Mulji Sharma as Gunatitanand Swami at the&#xA;  mahayagna  in Dabhan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;March 12, 1812 – Reveals the glory of Aksharbrahma Gunatitanand Swami&#xA;  during raas- lila in Sarangpur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1812 - 1813 – Organizes massive humanitarian relief campaign during&#xA;  the deadly  famine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;November 21, 1819 – Begins the discourses recorded in the Vachanamrut.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;November 1820 – Reveals the six reasons He incarnated on Earth to&#xA;  Gopalanand Swami&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;March 19, 1821 – Introduces Gunatitanand Swami as Aksharbrahma after&#xA;  applying a  tilak-chandlo on his forehead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;February 25, 1823 – The divine Maha Raas takes place in Panchala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;February 12, 1826 – The Shikshapatri is written in Vadtal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;November 11, 1827 – Appoints Gunatitanand Swami as mahant of Junagadh&#xA;  mandir.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1828 – Maharaj Wajesinh of Bhavnagar visit Bhagwan Swaminarayan in&#xA;  Gadhada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;July 25, 1829 – The discourses recorded in the Vachanamrut are&#xA;  completed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;February 26, 1830 – Meets with Sir John Malcolm, Lt. Governor of the&#xA;  British East  India Company.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;June 1, 1830 – Returns to Akshardham while in Gadhada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4157" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T08:39:20.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16810" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11510" CreationDate="2017-01-19T10:12:52.493" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes , Shree Ganesh is true Deva or God&lt;/strong&gt; and not only that &lt;strong&gt;he is said to be the the Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; ,giving Consciousness to All. We can find his description   In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_ganesha-ganapati_atharvashirsha.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganapati Atharvashirsha (Ganapati Upanishad)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here he is said to be the  visible Brahman -:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्वं &lt;strong&gt;प्रत्यक्षं ब्रह्मासि&lt;/strong&gt; - । Tvam P&lt;strong&gt;ratyakssam Brahma-Asi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You are the visible Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; (manifested as the Universe) (Therefore, O&#xA;  Ganapati, the Absolute Truth I have spoken will make the realized see&#xA;  this vast World as emanating from Sacchidananda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्वमेव सर्वं खल्विदं &lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्मासि&lt;/strong&gt; - ।Tvam-Eva Sarvam Khalv[u]-Idam&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Brahma-Asi&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(O Ganapati) You indeed are All This (The Universe); You verily are&#xA;  the Brahman (giving Consciousness to All)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here he is said to be INDRA ,AGNI ,SURYA ,CHANDRA ,WIND etc.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;मिन्द्रस्त्वम  स्त्वमग्निस्त्वं वायुस्त्वं सूर्यस्त्वं चन्द्रमास्त्वं ब्रह्म भूर्भुवस्सुवरोम् ॥६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; Vaayus-Tvam Suuryas-Tvam&#xA;    Candramaas-Tvam Brahma Bhuur-Bhuvas-Suvar-Om &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; Meaning: You are&#xA;    Indra, You are Agni (God of Fire), You are ... Vayu (God of Wind), You&#xA;    are Surya (The Sun God), You are Chandrama (The Moon God), You are ...&#xA;    Brahman (Absolute Consciousness), You pervade the Bhur-Bhuvah-Suvar&#xA;    Lokas; &lt;strong&gt;You are the Om Itself&lt;/strong&gt; (Parabrahman).&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in the end we can  find  Rushi Gannaka calling him as a God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सैषा गणेशविद्या । गणक ऋषिः । निचृद्गायत्रीच्छन्दः ।&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;गणपतिर्देवता ।&lt;/strong&gt; ॐ गं गणपतये नमः ॥९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sai[a-E]ssaa Gannesha-Vidyaa | Gannaka Rssih | Nicrdgaayatriic-Chandah&#xA;  |&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Gannapatir-Devataa&lt;/strong&gt; | Om Gam Gannapataye Namah &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is the Ganesha Vidya (A path leading to the Knowledge of the Self&#xA;  through the worship of Ganesha through His Mantra Swarupa), The Rishi&#xA;  who realized this Vidya is Ganaka Rishi, The Chhanda (Metre) is&#xA;  Nicrdgayatri,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Devata (God) worshipped is Ganapati,&lt;/strong&gt; Om Gang Ganapataye Namah (My Reverential Salutations to Ganapati), I seek Your Blessings to&#xA;  practice this Vidya)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the son of Lord Shiva and Parvati. A interested story of his birth is also  given in &lt;strong&gt;Vaman Purana. (Chapter 54 –Birth Of Ganesa)&lt;/strong&gt;. Although he is not mentioned in the list given by you in your answer. &lt;strong&gt;He is most popularly worshiped as a God worldwide.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;in which category Ganesha Belong -: (Adi-Dev , Lord of Ganas,Para-Brahman)&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/B0UIf.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/B0UIf.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-01-19T10:12:52.493" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16811" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16787" CreationDate="2017-01-19T11:41:12.553" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rules for wearing Rudraksha are discussed in &lt;strong&gt;Vidyes’vara Samhita ,Chapter 25 (The Glory of the Rudraksha) in Shiva Maha-Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are some of the Rules -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिरसीशानमन्त्रेण कर्णे तत्पुरुषेण च | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    अघोरेण गले धार्यं तेनैव ह्य्रुदयेsपि च ||40||&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should wear Rudraksha reciting the &lt;strong&gt;Isana-mantra&lt;/strong&gt; ,with&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Tatpurusha in ears&lt;/strong&gt; and with &lt;strong&gt;Aghora mantra&lt;/strong&gt; , over the heart.Rudrakasha thus be worn.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मद्यं मासं तु लशुनं पलाण्डु शिग्रुमेव च | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    श्लेष्मान्तकं  विड वराहं भक्षणे वर्जयेत्ततः ||43||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A person wearing Rudraksha beads ,&lt;strong&gt;shall not eat meat&lt;/strong&gt; ,garlic&#xA;  ,onion ,red garlic potherb glutinous fruits ,pig of rubbish and&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;wine.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वलक्षं रुद्राक्षं द्विजतनुभिरेवेह् विहितं &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    सुरक्तं क्षत्राणान प्रमिदितमुमे पितमसकृतं&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    ततो वैश्येर्धार्यं प्रतिदिवसमावश्यकमहो &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    तथा कृष्णं शुद्रै: श्रुतिगदितमार्गोsयमगजे || 44 || &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;    O Parvati&#xA;  ,the &lt;strong&gt;White  Rudrakasha  should be worn by the Brahmanas , the Red by&#xA;  Kshatriyas ,yellow by the vaishyas ,while the black should be used by&#xA;  the Sudras&lt;/strong&gt;.This has been propounded by the Vedas.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;उपवीते&lt;/strong&gt; त्रयं धार्यं शिवभक्तिरतैर्नरै:| &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      शेषानृर्वरितान्पच्त्र सम्मितान धारयेत्कटो: ||30||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Devotee of Shiva Should wear &lt;strong&gt;three beads in the yajnopavita and&#xA;  five in waist.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धात्रीफलप्रमाणं यत् श्रेष्ठमेतदुदाहॄतम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   बदरीफलमात्रं तु मध्यमं संप्रकीर्तितं ॥14॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rudraksha of size of Embolic Myrobaln is considered to be the best.The&#xA;  one is size of Jujube fruit is considered to be the middle one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-31T07:34:31.617" LastActivityDate="2017-03-31T07:34:31.617" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16812" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11510" CreationDate="2017-01-19T14:33:41.290" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata accepts Lord Ganesha as a true Devata. After all it was Lord Ganesha who actually wrote the Itihasa (although this is not accepted by the Bhandarkar critical edition). I am also posting this additional passage that reinforces Lord Ganesha's claim to be a true Deva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Narada on 5 deities&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada said, ‘Thou art He who is the topic of the five foremost of&#xA;scriptures (viz., those that appertain to the worship of Surya, of&#xA;Sakti, of &lt;strong&gt;Ganesa&lt;/strong&gt;, of Siva, and of Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCCXXXIX&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to the above the first possible references are in Krsna Yajur Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Maitrayaniya Samhita of the Krsna Yajur Veda we come across the&#xA;first stray references which leave footprints eerily suggesting&#xA;(pertaining to?) an elephant. For instance, we find the words &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;karata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;(one having the cheek of an elephant; one having a trunk), &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;hastimukha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;(one having the face and head of an elephant), and &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;dantin&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (one having&#xA;a tusk). In the same Krsna Yajur Veda, in its Tattiriya Aranyaka we&#xA;find the words &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vakratunda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; ( one with a twisted trunk) and &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;dantin&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (one&#xA;having a tusk).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tat karataya vidmaye, &lt;strong&gt;hastimukhaya&lt;/strong&gt; dhimahi, tan no danti pracodayat&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[May we know that grotesque one; may we meditate on the one with the&#xA;elephant face; may that one-toothed one inspire this our knowledge and&#xA;meditation.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tat purusaya vidmahe, &lt;strong&gt;vakratundaya&lt;/strong&gt; dhimahi, tan no &lt;strong&gt;danti&lt;/strong&gt; pracodayat&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[May we know that divine one; may we meditate on the one with the&#xA;curved trunk; may that one-toothed one inspire that knowledge and&#xA;meditation of ours.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both these texts from the Krsna Yajur Veda mention a gayatri addressed&#xA;to a deity called &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;dantin&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot; (the tasked one). One would expect such a&#xA;reference suggestive of Ganesa, and the famous Vedic commentator&#xA;Sayana explicitly establishes this identification in his commentary on&#xA;the Taittiriya Aranyaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Narayana Upanishad, Ganapati is addressed as the god who&#xA;possesses a twisted trunk (&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vakratunda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganapati Song of the Self, Chapter 2, In the Beginning ..., by John Grimes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2022-06-08T04:01:17.493" LastActivityDate="2022-06-08T04:01:17.493" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16813" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16663" CreationDate="2017-01-19T15:42:44.067" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;As described in a number of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puranas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purana&lt;/a&gt;, it was considered as a very destructive weapon. It is said that when the Brahmastra was discharged, there was neither a counterattack nor a defense that could stop it, except by &lt;strong&gt;another Brahmastra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna didn't use &lt;em&gt;Brahmastra&lt;/em&gt; against &lt;em&gt;Ghatotkacha&lt;/em&gt; because he knew Arjun also had a &lt;em&gt;Brahmastra&lt;/em&gt; to stop it. As Karna possessed a divine weapon &lt;strong&gt;Vasavi Shakti&lt;/strong&gt;(-that &lt;em&gt;Lord Indra&lt;/em&gt; had given to him), he saved that weapon for Arjun. But the Kaurava leader Duryodhana appealed to Karna to kill &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghatotkacha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ghatotkacha&lt;/a&gt; And he was unable to refuse Duryodhana, Karna discharged that weapon against Ghatotkacha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8739" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T07:26:48.827" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T07:26:48.827" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16814" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11510" CreationDate="2017-01-19T17:57:44.697" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganapati or Ganesha is a Vedic God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_ganesha-gananam_tva_ganapatim.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedic&lt;/a&gt; verse dedicated to him which is widely used as an Avahana Mantra for Lord Ganapati.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ गणानां त्वा गणपतिं हवामहे कविं कवीनामुपमश्रवस्तमम् । ज्येष्ठराजं&#xA;  ब्रह्मणाम् ब्रह्मणस्पत आ नः शृण्वन्नूतिभिःसीदसादनम् ॥ ॐ महागणाधिपतये&#xA;  नमः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Gannaanaam Tvaa Ganna-Patim Hava-Amahe Kavim&#xA;  Kaviinaam-Upama-Shravas-Tamam | Jyessttha-Raajam Brahmannaam&#xA;  Brahmannas-Pata Aa Nah Shrnnvan-Nuutibhih-Siida-Saadanam || Om&#xA;  Mahaa-Ganna-Adhipataye Namah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1: Om, O Ganapati, To You Who are the Lord of the Ganas (Celestial&#xA;  Attendants or Followers), we Offer our Sacrificial Oblations, 2: You&#xA;  are the Wisdom of the Wise and the Uppermost in Glory, 3: You are the&#xA;  Eldest Lord (i.e. ever Unborn) and is of the Nature of Brahman&#xA;  (Absolute Consciousness); You are the Embodiment of the Sacred Pranava&#xA;  (Om), 4: Please come to us by Listening to our Prayers and be Present&#xA;  in the Seat of this Sacred Sacrificial Altar. 5: Om, our Prostrations&#xA;  to the Mahaganadhipati (the Great Lord of the Ganas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar verse is in Yajurveda too:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganaanaam tvaa ganapatim&lt;/strong&gt; havaamahé Priyaanaam tvaa Priyapatim&#xA;  havaamahé, Nidheenaam tvaa nidhipatim havaamahe. vaso mama.&#xA;  Aahamajaani garbhadhamaa tvamajaasi garbhadham.  (Yajurveda: 23. 19)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,some people have confusion whether Brahmanaspati refered along with Ganapati in these verses is at all Lord Ganesha or Deva Guru Brihaspati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what i think:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses find place in the famous Vedic Suktam called the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlPuPepLo0o&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganapati Suktam&lt;/a&gt; .And these verses are widely used in all Vedic Pujas as avahana mantras for Ganesha.So,i can't believe that they will wrongly use mantras that are related to Brihaspati during Puja of Lord Ganapati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/ganapati-brahmanaspati-and-kumara-mantras-from-rig-veda-yajur-veda-and-upanishdas-sanskrit-text-with-transliteration-and-english-translation-NAE891/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page we find:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word Ganapati accompanies the word Brahmanaspati in several&#xA;  mantras.&lt;strong&gt;The great Tantric and commentator in Veda ,Kapali Sastry&#xA;  declares that the deity Ganapati and Brahmanaspati are the same.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QSxZP.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QSxZP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Image courtesy-Extoticindiaart.com.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganapati is also one of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Pancha_devatha_Sthuthi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pancha Devatas&lt;/a&gt; or the 5 (principle) Deities in Hinduism the other 4 being Shiva,Vishnu,Devi and Surya.So,he belongs to the category of Pancha Devatas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In every Hindu ceremonies worshiping the Pancha Devatas is usually  recommended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uE3iU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uE3iU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adityam GananAtham Cha Devim Rudram Cha Keshavam |&#xA;  PanchaDaivatyamityuktam Sarva Karmasu PujAyeth ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning-The Pancha Devas are -Surya,Ganesha,Devi,Shiva and Vishnu.In&#xA;  all ceremonies they should be worshiped.&lt;strong&gt;(Matsya Purana)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-22T08:23:55.270" LastActivityDate="2017-01-22T08:23:55.270" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16815" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-19T20:25:55.447" Score="4" ViewCount="254" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know, Lord Krishna had shown his &lt;em&gt;viswa rupa&lt;/em&gt; (universal form) to Arjuna. So why couldn't Lord Krishna tell everyone that He's God or show his &lt;em&gt;viswa rupa&lt;/em&gt; (universal form) to everyone so everyone could get to see God and attain His blessings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8076" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-01-19T20:40:09.700" LastActivityDate="2022-03-05T13:52:38.317" Title="Why didn't Lord Krishna in His time just tell everyone that He's God so everyone could see God?" Tags="|krishna|gods|arjuna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16816" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8327" CreationDate="2017-01-20T02:30:52.177" Score="5" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Vālmīki's depiction as a Robber&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It looks like Tagore's &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valmiki-Pratibha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vālmīki-Praṭibhā&lt;/a&gt; is partly based on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krittivasi_Ramayan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kṛttivāsa Rāmāyaṇa&lt;/a&gt;. In the &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6dS6102zcBgaGRVNkdQOXh3Y0k/view?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;opening chapters&lt;/a&gt; of his Rāmāyaṇa, Kṛttivāsa narrates how Ratnākara, son of sage Cyavana, used to be a dacoit before transforming himself into Vālmīki Ṛṣi by meditating on the Rāma-mahā-mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Ādi-kāṇḍa Ch. 1 (Birth of four aṁśas of Nārāyaṇa):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmā with a smile, asked Trilocana Śiva, to name a great sinner on earth. Śiva then asked Brahmā to listen attentively to him; He said, &amp;quot;On the madhya-patha (mid-way) there is a great sinner, who can achieve deliverance by the reciting of the name of Rāma. Go and give the Rāma-mantra to him which would remove his sins. Nārada then thought of the identity of such (a sinner) person, who was none else than &lt;strong&gt;Ratnākara&lt;/strong&gt; the son of sage Cyavana. &lt;strong&gt;He had been a dacoit, and lived on forcibly snatching others belongings and was a great sinner living in a forest.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Nārada and Brahmā then went (to the forest where Ratnākara lived) disguised as ascetics. As luck would have it, Ratnākara could not loot any one because no one passed that way on that day. He then climbed high in a tree and found Nārada and Brahmā coming together. Concealing himself (in the forest) he thought that he could snatch away the robes of the two ascetics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Ādi-kāṇḍa Ch. 3 (Ratnākara named as Vālmīki by Brahmā, and the boon of creating Rāmāyaṇa):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmā spoke to the sage, &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Up to now, you were known as Ratnākara, but henceforth you shall be known as Vālmīki&lt;/strong&gt;. The name of Rāma has purified you, therefore, you will create his Rāmāyaṇa in seven kāṇḍas.&amp;quot; Vālmīki, then spoke with humility, &amp;quot;I am quite an illiterate person having no knowledge of Kāvyas and Chandas; how can I create literature?&amp;quot; Brahmā, on hearing the words of Vālmīki spoke to him, &amp;quot;Sarasvatī resides in your tongue and as such you will be able to create the Kāvya quite easily, whatever verses you will create, will be devoted to Rāma in the universe.&amp;quot; Awarding the boon to Vālmīki, Brahmā went to his abode; Vālmīki was immensely pleased (by his achievement)...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Tagore's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.online-literature.com/tagore-rabindranath/my-reminiscences/29/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;own summary&lt;/a&gt; of the play:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[45] Valmiki Pratibha means the genius of Valmiki. The plot is based on the story of Valmiki, the robber chief, being moved to pity and breaking out into a metrical lament on witnessing the grief of one of a pair of cranes whose mate was killed by a hunter. In the metre which so came to him he afterwards composed his Ramayana. Tr.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, according to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valmiki-Pratibha&amp;amp;oldid=748292429#Synopsis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; of the play, Vālmīki had a change of heart after capturing a young girl to be used in a sacrifice, so, obviously, this account is very different from what's told in Kṛttivāsa Rāmāyaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One night, Valmiki, the robber chief, and his men &lt;strong&gt;captured a young girl to be sacrificed before Kali, goddess of death&lt;/strong&gt;. As Valmiki approached to behead the girl, her cries melt the robber chief's heart and she was released. Later Valmiki's men found that their leader was taking no more pleasure in bloodshed. Considering it a shameful cowardliness, they abandoned him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;How does Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa describe Vālmīki?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First off, Uttara-kāṇḍa of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/29232/9f_chapter_96.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says that&lt;/a&gt; Vālmīki is the son of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/23/16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pracetā&lt;/a&gt; (not &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/19/9-10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Cyavana&lt;/a&gt;). And Vālmīki in his testimony (of Sītā's chastity) to Rāma says that uttering a lie didn't arise even in his thoughts, ever. So he could not have been a robber.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I tell you the truth, O Rāma, that these irrepressible twin brothers are your sons, O descendant of Raghu. &lt;strong&gt;I am the tenth son of Pracetā, so, far from speaking untruth it does not even spring up in my mind.&lt;/strong&gt; I therefore know the truth that these twins are your sons. I have performed austere penances for many thousand years; I now swear before you, that if this Maithili is found touched by any sin I shall not reap the fruit of my ascetic observances extending over many thousand years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Vālmīki as depicted in Skanda Purāṇa&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As noted in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15196/2995&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27213/60f_chapter_124_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27214/60f_chapter_124_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the next&lt;/a&gt; parts of Skanda Purāṇa Vol. VI Ch. 124, Vālmīki was born into a brāhmaṇa family and was previously known as Lohajaṅgha (belonging to the family of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandavya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Māṇḍavya&lt;/a&gt;). He resorted to stealing things following a famine. A group of sages later rechristen him as Vālmīki after he's transformed himself into a ṛṣi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1-2. Then there is another excellent Tīrtha named Mukhāra where excellent Brāhmaṇa-sages had contact with a thief. That thief attained Siddhi, thanks to their power. Later he composed the epic Rāmāyaṇa and became well-known as Vālmīki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3. Formerly, there was a Brāhmaṇa named &lt;strong&gt;Lohajaṅgha&lt;/strong&gt; in Camatkārapura. He hailed from the family of Māṇḍavya. He was devoted to his father and mother.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;... &lt;br&gt;&#xA;13. Achieving his purpose thus, everyday by the acts of a thief, he maintained his family through thievery.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;... &lt;br&gt;&#xA;14. When the famine passed off and the time of plenty arrived, he never did any personal work. Forsaking his Brāhmaṇical pursuits, he continued the practice of a thief.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;... &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The sages said:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;... &lt;br&gt;&#xA;85. Since you achieved great Siddhi seated within a &lt;strong&gt;Valmīka&lt;/strong&gt; (an &lt;strong&gt;anthill&lt;/strong&gt;), you will become well-known in the world as &lt;strong&gt;Vālmīki&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;... &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of all the above, Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa's depiction is probably the most authentic simply because it's considered the oldest of the two Itihāsas and the Purāṇas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T02:30:52.177" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16817" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14130" CreationDate="2017-01-20T03:06:56.547" Score="4" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Vālmīki's depiction as a Robber in Kṛttivāsa Rāmāyaṇa&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6dS6102zcBgaGRVNkdQOXh3Y0k/view?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;opening chapters&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krittivasi_Ramayan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kṛttivāsa Rāmāyaṇa&lt;/a&gt; narrate how Ratnākara, son of sage &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/19/9-10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Cyavana&lt;/a&gt;, used to be a dacoit before transforming himself into Vālmīki Ṛṣi by meditating on the Rāma-mahā-mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Ādi-kāṇḍa Ch. 1 (Birth of four aṁśas of Nārāyaṇa):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmā with a smile, asked Trilocana Śiva, to name a great sinner on earth. Śiva then asked Brahmā to listen attentively to him; He said, &amp;quot;On the madhya-patha (mid-way) there is a great sinner, who can achieve deliverance by the reciting of the name of Rāma. Go and give the Rāma-mantra to him which would remove his sins. Nārada then thought of the identity of such (a sinner) person, who was none else than &lt;strong&gt;Ratnākara&lt;/strong&gt; the son of sage Cyavana. &lt;strong&gt;He had been a dacoit, and lived on forcibly snatching others belongings and was a great sinner living in a forest.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Nārada and Brahmā then went (to the forest where Ratnākara lived) disguised as ascetics. As luck would have it, Ratnākara could not loot any one because no one passed that way on that day. He then climbed high in a tree and found Nārada and Brahmā coming together. Concealing himself (in the forest) he thought that he could snatch away the robes of the two ascetics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Ādi-kāṇḍa Ch. 3 (Ratnākara named as Vālmīki by Brahmā, and the boon of creating Rāmāyaṇa):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmā spoke to the sage, &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Up to now, you were known as Ratnākara, but henceforth you shall be known as Vālmīki&lt;/strong&gt;. The name of Rāma has purified you, therefore, you will create his Rāmāyaṇa in seven kāṇḍas.&amp;quot; Vālmīki, then spoke with humility, &amp;quot;I am quite an illiterate person having no knowledge of Kāvyas and Chandas; how can I create literature?&amp;quot; Brahmā, on hearing the words of Vālmīki spoke to him, &amp;quot;Sarasvatī resides in your tongue and as such you will be able to create the Kāvya quite easily, whatever verses you will create, will be devoted to Rāma in the universe.&amp;quot; Awarding the boon to Vālmīki, Brahmā went to his abode; Vālmīki was immensely pleased (by his achievement)...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;How does Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa describe Vālmīki?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In one place, the Uttara-kāṇḍa of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/29232/9f_chapter_96.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says that&lt;/a&gt; Vālmīki is the son of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/23/16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pracetā&lt;/a&gt; (not &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/19/9-10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Cyavana&lt;/a&gt;). And Vālmīki in his testimony (of Sītā's chastity) to Rāma says that uttering a lie didn't ever arise even in his thoughts. So he could not have been a robber.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I tell you the truth, O Rāma, that these irrepressible twin brothers are your sons, O descendant of Raghu. &lt;strong&gt;I am the tenth son of Pracetā, so, far from speaking untruth it does not even spring up in my mind.&lt;/strong&gt; I therefore know the truth that these twins are your sons. I have performed austere penances for many thousand years; I now swear before you, that if this Maithili is found touched by any sin I shall not reap the fruit of my ascetic observances extending over many thousand years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ancientindians.in/rshis-rishis-rushis/valmiki-adikavi/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; blog, an excellent one, says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He may not have been a brahman like Vasishtha. He was not a raja (king) like Viswamitra. He was possibly born as an Adivasi (the first residents of India). There are people who say that he was a Bhil, and those who say that he was a Kirata. To the followers of the Valmiki religion, he is the Eternal God himself. The Uttarakanda of the Ramayana refers to him as Brahmarshi, &lt;strong&gt;Bhargava&lt;/strong&gt; son of Bhrgu and gives his name as &lt;strong&gt;Praceta&lt;/strong&gt; and in some places says that he is the &lt;strong&gt;son of Varuna&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given all the different origin stories of Vālmīki, I think it's impossible to ascertain his true identity!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T03:06:56.547" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16818" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16854" CreationDate="2017-01-20T05:21:28.063" Score="8" ViewCount="4645" Body="&lt;p&gt;The purposes of Shiva's Pancha Bramha Avatars are stated &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16553/who-are-pancha-brahmas-and-why-are-they-called-so&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. However, what are the purposes of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6906/is-there-any-scripture-that-tells-story-about-lord-vishnu-and-mahavishnu/6923#6923&quot;&gt;Vishnu's Vyuha avatars&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2018-06-24T10:23:02.557" Title="What are the purposes of Vishnu's Vyuha avatars?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16819" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-20T05:26:48.803" Score="5" ViewCount="435" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any avatars of Devi which are not mentioned in Vedas but there is a mention of them in puranas. Also are there any avatars, which are not a part of puranas and itihasas but in shrutis(Vedas, upanishads) ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorDisplayName="user4627" LastEditDate="2017-02-13T23:42:10.190" LastActivityDate="2017-03-21T08:21:28.067" Title="Are there any avatars of Devi mentioned in Vedas but not in scriptures(e.g. puranas) and vice versa" Tags="|avatars|devi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16820" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-20T05:37:03.943" Score="3" ViewCount="307" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Shaivaism, the practice of meditation is recommended for liberation. What are the other ways to achieve liberation recommended by the other sects? I'm aware that there are different denominations in every sect. What are the methods of liberation they recommend and do they differ from the other denominations of the same sect. How and why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-20T10:16:05.843" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T14:55:45.627" Title="What are the different paths of liberation which are recommended by the different sects of Hinduism?" Tags="|vaishnavism|moksha|shaivism|sects|shaktism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-01-20T15:09:02.827" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16821" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-20T06:14:58.140" Score="7" ViewCount="458" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several texts in Hinduism which flirts with the idea of morality and ethics. &lt;em&gt;Itihiasa&lt;/em&gt; texts like Mahabharata and Ramayana gives a subjective aura around the subject of morality, notably the conversation between &lt;em&gt;Yudhisthira&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;Yaksha&lt;/em&gt; and the conversation between Rama and &lt;em&gt;Vashishta&lt;/em&gt; in Yoga &lt;em&gt;Vashista&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there are dharmasashtras like &lt;em&gt;Manusmriti&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Yagyavalkyasmriti&lt;/em&gt; etc which lists out dos and don'ts in a more enumerative sense. So, does the yama-niyama of yogasutras. But I have a feeling that dharmasashtras and yogasutras are not talking about morality/ethics rather jurisprudence. For I believe, laws are not related to morality/ethics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I understand that dharma or 'righteous behaviour' is often described as a combination of &lt;em&gt;kula-dharma, jati-dharma, manava-dharma, pashu-dharma, mano-dharma, sad-dharma, sva-dharma&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is is there a canonical set of rules which all the &lt;em&gt;parampara&lt;/em&gt;/texts above agree upon? Or if someone can comment upon the aforementioned points?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2017-03-21T15:28:24.170" Title="What are the canonical texts in Hinduism for morality and ethics?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|dharma-shastras|manu-smriti|itihasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16823" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16820" CreationDate="2017-01-20T07:53:03.993" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A partial answer.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Shaivaism, the practice of meditation is recommended for&#xA;  liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its true that Yoga is a proven way of achieving Moksha but what you say is not entirely true also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even in the so-called &quot;Shaivism&quot; the &quot;Bhakti MArga&quot; seems to be the best way to attain liberation.At least ,Shiva Himself says so in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parama Shiva asserted:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Naaham Tapobhirvividhairna Daanena na cheyjyayaa, Shakyo hi Purushair&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;jaaturmutey Bhaktiamanuttamaam/&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;I am always realizable by Bhakti or Pure Devotion and not necessarily&#xA;  by Tapasya, Daana or Charity and Yagnaas!)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And further:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na madbhaktaa vinashyanti madbhaktaa veeta kalmashaah, Aadaavetat&#xA;  pratigjaanam na mey bhaktah pranashyati/ Patram Pushpam Phalam toyam&#xA;  madaaraadhana kaaranaat, Yo mey dadaati niyatah sa meyBhaktah&#xA;  Priyomatah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My Bhaktaas would never be destroyed nor harmed but would be washed&#xA;  off their sins as I took a vow that my Bhaktas are protected. &lt;strong&gt;Bhaktas&#xA;  are merely required to perform my Puja with utmost sincerity and offer&#xA;  leaves, flowers, fruits and even water as I would be pleased).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,as you can see,Parama Shiva himself is speaking so highly of the &quot;Bhakti MArga&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhyanena maam prapashyanti kechirjjnanena chaaparey, Aparey bhakti&#xA;  yogena chaaparey/ Sarveshaameva bhaktaamaamishtah Priyataro mama, Yohi&#xA;  jnaanena maam nitya maadhaaraahyayati nyaayathaa/ Anye chaye trayo&#xA;  Bhaktaa madaaraadhana kaankshinah, Teypi maam praapunanteva&#xA;  naavartantey cha vai punah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Some persons seek my Darshan through Dhyaana or meditation, some by&#xA;  Jnaana, but those by Bhakti are most dear to me and they would have no&#xA;  re-birth&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-20T08:37:21.507" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T08:37:21.507" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16825" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-20T09:02:35.103" Score="2" ViewCount="123" Body="&lt;p&gt;Have gods stopped sexually reproducing?&#xA;Why no more sons and daughters of dieties come in circulation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: I don't wish to offend others by using above words.  I am just curious to know why.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5365" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T10:17:51.477" Title="Why there are no new dieties?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-01-20T16:15:35.637" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16828" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-20T10:11:33.917" Score="3" ViewCount="38" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am french. I am looking for an appropriate English translation of ancient Sanskrit texts on yoga, in which the Ashta-Siddhis are described and written word for word exactly as for the version below or about the same as the version Below.&#xA;Would you please kindness help me find this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;version of the Ashta-Siddhis described in the ancient yoga texts:&#xA;1.- Anima = ability to make one's PHYSICAL BODY small, even smaller than an atome.&#xA;2.- Mahima = ability to make one's PHYSICAL BODY as big as one wishes.&#xA;3.- Laghima = ability to make the PHYSICAL BODY as light as one wants.&#xA;4.- Garima = ability to make the PHYSICAL BODY as heavy as one wishes.&#xA;5.- Praapti = ability to acquire any material items in the world.&#xA;6.- Prakaamya = ability to satisfy any wish one has in the mind.&#xA;7.- Ishitva = ability to roll over anyone.&#xA;8.- Vashitva = ability to control anyone's mind and make him work according to his wish.&#xA;*(Internet source).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you very much.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user8748" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T10:11:33.917" Title="Search old yoga text" Tags="|vedas|ramayana|puranas|bhagavad-gita|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-01-20T12:13:17.717" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16829" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16825" CreationDate="2017-01-20T10:17:51.477" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is due to the curse of Goddess Parvati to deities. This is present in &lt;em&gt;śiva Mahapurana Kumara Khanda chapter 2&lt;/em&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Gods, particularly wicked, selfish and cause pain to others. O Gods for the accomplishment of the selfish motive, you by the supreme lord Siva, have obstructed my conjugal pleasures, making me barren at the same time. No one can feel comfortable by opposing me. Therefore you will also have to suffer. Thus spoke the daughter of Himalaya enraged, pronounced a curse on Gods. &lt;em&gt;From Today onwards the wives of devas would remain barren (without children). Such of the Gods who will oppose me shall suffer&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to this curse to the Devas,  She also cursed Agni. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Agni, from today, you shall be the consumer of all (sarva bhakshaka). You will also suffer pain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This curse was pronounced by Pārvati  after knowing that Agni swallowed the semen of Lord śiva. So the count of the devatas was only 33(not 330 millions) when Gaṇeśa and Kārtikeya were born and it is 33 now also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T10:17:51.477" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16830" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-01-20T12:17:40.633" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-01-20T12:17:40.633" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T12:17:40.633" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16831" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-01-20T12:17:40.633" Score="0" Body="Questions about Purva Mimamsa (पूर्व मीमांसा) or Mimamsa, one of the six Hindu schools of philosophy, based on &quot;Purva Mimamsa Sutra&quot; composed by Rishi Jaimini. The word 'Purva' stands for 'earlier/prior' differentiating it from 'Uttar' Mimamsa which is also known as Vedanta. " OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-20T13:09:36.597" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T13:09:36.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16832" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16821" CreationDate="2017-01-20T14:16:05.003" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am posting 2 examples of canonical Hindu texts on morality and ethics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhartrihari's Niti Satakam is a famous text on ethics. The entire text is available here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/doc/34486135/Niti-Shatakam-of-Bhartrihari&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.scribd.com/doc/34486135/Niti-Shatakam-of-Bhartrihari&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vidura's conversation with Dhritarashtra in Mahabharata Udyoga Parva is a discourse on morality and ethics and is called Vidura Niti. Here are some examples of Vidura's discourse on morality and ethics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on forgiveness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is one only defect in forgiving persons, and not another; that&#xA;  defect is that people take a forgiving person to be weak. That defect&#xA;  , however, should not be taken into consideration, for forgiveness is&#xA;  a great power. Forgiveness is a virtue of the weak, and an ornament of&#xA;  the strong. Forgiveness subdueth (all) in this world; what is there&#xA;  that forgiveness cannot achieve? What can a wicked person do unto him&#xA;  who carrieth the sabre of forgiveness in his hand? Fire falling on a&#xA;  grassless ground is extinguished of itself. And unforgiving individual&#xA;  defileth himself with many enormities. Righteousness is the one&#xA;  highest good; and forgiveness is the one supreme peace; knowledge is&#xA;  one supreme contentment; and benevolence, one sole happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, Section 33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on Gates of hell&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Great fear springeth from these three crimes, viz, theft of other’s&#xA;  property, outrage on other’s wives, and breach with friends. These&#xA;  three, besides, being destructive of one’s self, are the gates of&#xA;  hell, viz, lust, anger, and covetousness. Therefore, every one should&#xA;  renounce them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, Section 33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura’s advice on how to act&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do not, O Bharata, set the heart upon means of success that are unjust&#xA;  and improper. A man of intelligence must not grieve if any purpose of&#xA;  his doth not succeed, notwithstanding the application of fair and&#xA;  proper means. Before one engageth in an act one should consider the&#xA;  competence of the agent, the nature of the act itself, and its&#xA;  purpose, for all acts are dependent on these. Considering these one&#xA;  should begin an act, and not take it up on a sudden impulse. He that&#xA;  is wise should either do an act or desists from it fully considering&#xA;  his own ability, the nature of the act, and the consequence also of&#xA;  success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, Section 34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on the importance of controlling one’s speech&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To control speech, O king, is said to be most difficult. It is not&#xA;  easy to hold a long conversation uttering words full of meaning and&#xA;  delightful to hearers. Well-spoken speech is productive of many&#xA;  beneficial results; and ill-spoken speech, O king, is the cause of&#xA;  evils. A forest pierced by arrows, or cut down by hatchets may again&#xA;  grow, but one’s heart wounded and censured by ill-spoken words never&#xA;  recovereth. Weapons, such as arrows, bullets, and bearded darts, can&#xA;  be easily extracted from the body, but a wordy dagger plunged deep&#xA;  into the heart is incapable of being taken out. Wordy arrows are shot&#xA;  from the mouth; smitten by them one grieveth day or night. A learned&#xA;  man should not discharge such arrows, for they do not touch the very&#xA;  vitals of others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, Section 34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on Kindness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ablution in all the holy places and kindness to all creatures – these&#xA;  two are equal. Perhaps, kindness to all creatures surpasseth the&#xA;  former.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, Section 35]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on how to treat others&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That which is antagonistic to one’s own self, should never be applied&#xA;  in respect of another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, Section 39]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-01-20T14:22:45.607" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T14:22:45.607" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16833" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16820" CreationDate="2017-01-20T14:55:45.627" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In all Vaishnava traditions it is said that the path of &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt; is recommended as the best. And in doing &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt; there are several practices, of which it is said that &lt;em&gt;hari kirtana&lt;/em&gt; or chanting holy names of Lord Vishnu and glorifying Him is the best, and it is especially recommended for this age of Kali or Kali yuga. There are many statements in the scriptures about that, and here is one of those verses, it's Bhagavatam 12.3.52:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/52&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/52&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dvāpare paricaryāyāṁ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Viṣṇu, in&#xA;  Tretā-yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dvāpara-yuga by serving&#xA;  the Lord’s lotus feet can be obtained &lt;strong&gt;in Kali-yuga simply by &lt;em&gt;hari-kīrtanāt&lt;/em&gt; or chanting&#xA;  the holy names of Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; (Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.)&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further explanation and additional quotes you can see in the commentary at the above vedabase link. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T14:55:45.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16835" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15882" CreationDate="2017-01-20T19:18:39.827" Score="4" Body="&lt;h3&gt;What is the definition of dharma as per Karṇa?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05141.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this conversation&lt;/a&gt; between Kṛṣṇa and Karṇa from Udyoga-parva of Mahābhārata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One should not let go of one's adopted parents if the real parents suddenly pop up one day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kunti, however, abandoned me without thinking of my welfare. The Suta, Adhiratha, as soon as he beheld me, took me to his home, and from her affection for me, Radha's breasts were filled with milk that very day, and she, O Madhava, cleansed my urine and evacuations. &lt;strong&gt;How can one like us, conversant with duties and ever engaged in listening to scriptures deprive her [Radha] of her Pinda?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So also Adhiratha of the Suta class regardeth me as a son, and I too, from affection, always regard him as (my) father. O Madhava, that Adhiratha, O Janardana, from paternal affection caused all the rites of infancy to be performed on my person, according to the rules prescribed in the scriptures. It is that Adhiratha, again, who caused the name Vasusena to be bestowed upon me by the Brahmanas. When also I attained to youth, I married wives according to his selections. Through them have been born my sons and grandsons, O Janardana. My heart also, O Krishna, and all the bonds of affection and love, are fixed on them. From joy or fear. O Govinda. &lt;strong&gt;I cannot venture to destroy those bonds even for the sake of the whole earth or heaps of gold.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Never betray your friend to win your blood relatives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In consequence also of my connection with Duryodhana of Dhritarashtra's race, I have, O Krishna, enjoyed sovereignty for thirteen years, without a thorn on my side. I have performed many sacrifices, always however in connection with persons of the Suta tribe. All my family rites and marriage rites have been performed with the Sutas. Obtaining me, O Krishna, Duryodhana hath, O thou of Vrishni's race, made this preparations for an armed encounter and provoked hostilities with the sons of Pandu. And it is for this, O Achyuta, that in the battle (that will ensue), I, O Krishna, have been chosen as the great antagonist of Arjuna to advance against him in a single combat. &lt;strong&gt;For the sake of death, or the ties of blood, or fear, or temptation, I cannot venture, O Janardana, to behave falsely towards the intelligent son of Dhritarashtra.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I read somewhere that actions that weakens the soul is not dharma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not sure where Karṇa says that, but if I find a reference I'll update my answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T19:18:39.827" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16836" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10125" CreationDate="2017-01-20T19:28:17.390" Score="4" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Why was Lord Kṛṣṇa named 'Kṛṣṇa'?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Sanjaya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05070.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;from&lt;/a&gt; the Mahābhārata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;05,068.005a &amp;nbsp; kṛṣir bhūvācakaḥ śabdo ṇaś ca nirvṛtivācakaḥ &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  05,068.005c   &amp;nbsp; kṛṣṇas tadbhāvayogāc ca kṛṣṇo bhavati śāśvataḥ &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Born of the Sattwata race, &lt;strong&gt;he is called Krishna because he uniteth in himself&lt;/strong&gt; what are implied by the two words '&lt;strong&gt;Krishi&lt;/strong&gt;' which signifieth 'what existeth' and '&lt;strong&gt;na&lt;/strong&gt;' which signifieth 'eternal peace'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Alternate translation from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/64/29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word kṛṣ is the attractive feature of the Lord’s existence, and na means 'spiritual pleasure.' When the verb &lt;strong&gt;kṛṣ&lt;/strong&gt; is added to &lt;strong&gt;na&lt;/strong&gt;, it becomes &lt;strong&gt;kṛṣṇa&lt;/strong&gt;, which indicates the Absolute Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-20T19:28:17.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16837" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-20T22:01:13.780" Score="2" ViewCount="113" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One famous Purva Mimamsa Acharya was Kumarila Bhatta, whose shishya Mandana Mishra was defeated in a debate by Adi Shankaracharya.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/wELO&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Tantra Vartika, Kumarila Bhatta discusses the subject of the same Yagna being discussed in multiple Shakhas of a Veda.  For those who don't know, each of the four Vedas comes in multiple Shakhas or recensions as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.  Now the question arises whether someone reading descriptions of the Jyorishtoma Yagna in multiple Shakhas of a Veda will get confused and think there are multiple Jyotishtoma Yagnas.  Kumarila Bhatta responds that such confusion will never arise, because a single person is not allowed to read multiple Shakhas of the same Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Objection: &quot;But then one who reads the Texts of two Recensions, could very well know the Jyotishtoma as mentioned in on text to be different from that mentioned in another text[.]&quot; ... [Reply:] This is no argument at all; because the texts of various Recensions are never meant to be read by one man; and the reason for this is that the injunction for Vedic study distinctly points to a single Text being read, specially as it is a general rule that when several things are found to serve the same purpose, they are accepted as optional alternatives; and this would be possible only when the same Action is taken as spoke of in the various texts.  That is to say, just as the Class inheres in each Individual, so does the character of &quot;Veda&quot; in each Recensional Text; and then again, in the Injunction &quot;svadhyayo'dyetavyah&quot; (Veda should be read), we find that the Veda is enjoined to be learnt for the purpose of knowing Dharma; and as such we must assign due significance to the singular Number in &quot;svadyayah&quot;; and this distinctly shows that only one Text should be studied.... Then again, &lt;strong&gt;if the mere fact of one's being very intelligent could justify his reading of the texts of various Recensions, then the fact of his being exceptionally rich would justify his making an offering of the Yava and Vrihi mixed up&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kumarila Bhatta's position here is interesting for a couple reasons.  First of all, it seems like a position unique to him, since Shabaraswami does not seem to mention this in his commentary on the same part of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras.  Second of all, Kumarila Bhatta seems to have violated this rule himself, since he discusses what different Shakhas of the same Veda say!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, do any scriptures say that you're not allowed to read multiple Shakhas of the same Veda?  By the way, I should add that Kumarila Bhatta thinks it's fine to read multiple Vedas (for instance Rig and Yajur), he just has a problem with reading say, two Yajur Veda Shakhas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-01-21T05:51:42.483" Title="Do any scriptures say you're not allowed to read multiple Shakhas of a Veda?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16838" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16303" CreationDate="2017-01-21T00:07:01.637" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Radha and Rukmini were one and the same! Radha represents love and devotion and Rukmini is epitome of devoted wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna knew it so he married Rukmini, his Radha. This is the main reason the ending of Radha is mystery whereas ending of Rukmini is clearly mentioned. There is another point to be considered that in the one hand the early life of Rukmini before she married Krishna is unknown and in the other hand Radha's story is vanished when Krishna left Vrindavan. It means when there was Radha, there was no Rukmini. Similarly, when there was Rukmini, there was no Radha. In this way it is proved that Radha and Rukmini are same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/radharukmini-282869&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/radharukmini-282869&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8751" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-21T00:43:00.640" LastActivityDate="2017-01-21T00:43:00.640" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16840" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-21T06:56:41.353" Score="9" ViewCount="453" Body="&lt;p&gt;The purposes of Shiva's Pancha Bramha Avatars are stated &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16553/who-are-pancha-brahmas-and-why-are-they-called-so&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. However, what are the purposes of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15717/is-there-any-hierarchy-for-devis-incarnations/16258#16258&quot;&gt;Devi's five forms&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, what is the need for five devi's when there already are the Tri Devi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2022-06-25T02:53:43.947" Title="What are the purposes of Devi's five main forms from the Devi Bhagavata Purana?" Tags="|avatars|devi|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16841" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-21T08:42:01.147" Score="8" ViewCount="410" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was once said by an elderly man that we should not touch the backside of a temple while doing pradakshina because ghosts and rakshasas live there and touching that part will wake them. Supporting this claim we also  have a shloka/mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उत्तिष्ठन्तु  भूतपिशाचा येते भूमि भारका |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येतेष्टामविरोधेन ब्रह्म कर्म समारभे ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;uttiṣṭaṃtu bhūtapiśācā yete bhūmi bhārakā |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yeteṣṭāmavirodhena brahma karma samārabhe || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which randomly means asking the ghosts, rakshasas to vacate the place as we are starting a brahma karma(auspicious deed).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above mantra is chanted before starting any pooja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do ghosts and rakshasas live behind the deity in the temple? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do they live in our homes? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/n6tbW.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/n6tbW.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning of this picture?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Picture taken from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_temple_architecture#Dravidian_architecture_&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; wikipedia page&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-21T08:58:12.287" LastActivityDate="2022-04-14T13:14:01.110" Title="Do piśācas' (ghosts) exist in temples or in our homes?" Tags="|temple|mantras|ghosts|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16842" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8591" CreationDate="2017-01-21T08:53:23.527" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Sruti&quot; means which has been heard.Sruti refers to the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Smriti&quot; however refers to the Dharma Shastras&lt;/strong&gt;.Smriti means which has to be remembered.It also means traditions that has to be remembered.So,Smritis are the traditions that are handed down to us from time immemorial.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 18 major Smritis :Manu,Yajnvalkya,Vyasa,Atri,Vishnu,Harita,Parashara,Yama,Daksha,Brihaspati etc are few of them.Apart from these major ones there are a few more minor ones which are called the Upasmritis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As far i'm concerned Sruti and Smriti are the two eyes of Almighty&lt;/strong&gt;.And this is not  merely my belief.It has been so stated in Hindu Scriptures only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatam58.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagvatam,Book 11,Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nârada said :– “O Muni! The S’âstras are not one, they are many and&#xA;  they lay down different rules and contradictory opinions, How then&#xA;  Dharma is to be followed? And according what Dharma S’âstra?” &lt;strong&gt;Nârâyana&#xA;  said :– S’ruti and Smriti are the two eyes of God; the Purânam is His&#xA;  Heart.&lt;/strong&gt; Whatever is stated in S’ruti, the Smriti and the Purânams is&#xA;  Dharma; whatever else is written in other S’âstras is not Dharma.&#xA;  Where you will find differences between S’ruti, Smriti and Purânas,&#xA;  accept the words of the S’rutis as final proofs. Wherever Smriti&#xA;  disagrees with the Purânas, know the Smritis more authoritative.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same thing has also been declared in a different way in other Scriptures like the Atri and Harita Smritis .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The S'ruti and the Smriti are described as the two eyes of the Vipras.&#xA;  One who is deficient in either of the two, is described as the&#xA;  one-eyed ; and one who is deficient in the both, as stone-blind&lt;/strong&gt;. (344)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore the Brahmanahood (i.e., the status and dignity) of a&#xA;  Brahmana[is encompassed] by both the Vedas and the Dharma-S'astras and&#xA;  not by the Vedas only. The divine Atri has said so. (346)(&lt;strong&gt;Atri&#xA;  Smriti,Chapter 1)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above passage,note that &lt;strong&gt;by Smritis Atri specifically mentioned the Dharma Shastras and not any other scriptures.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, also note that, the Devi Bhagvatam mentions the Puranas and Smritis separately.&lt;strong&gt;This clearly proves that Smritis and Puranas are different categories of Hindu Texts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmana who is ignorant of the S'ruti and the Smriti, encompasses the&#xA;  destruction of the giver's family. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore a Brahmana, with all&#xA;  care, should study the Dharma-Shastras. (23,24)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Sruti and the Smriti are the two eyes of the Brahmanas created by&#xA;  God.&lt;/strong&gt; If deprived [of' the knowledge] of the one, [a person] is called&#xA;  one-eyed ;and if of the two, a blind. (25)(&lt;strong&gt;Harita Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So,the Harita Smriti also mean the Dharma Shastras only when it refers to Smriti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence,Smritis are the Dharma Shastras.&lt;/strong&gt; And Srutis are the Vedas. This confusion needs to be cleared(that any scripture which is not Sruti is Smriti).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,Smritis,Puranas,Itihasas,Vedangas,etc can  together be and loosely called as the &quot;Hindu Shastras&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,regarding the relative importance of Sruti-Smriti, an interesting read,that clarifies a lot of confusions,is a book called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part15/chap8.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma&lt;/a&gt;,which is a collection of the speeches of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji&lt;/a&gt; (at various times during the years 1907 to 1994). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If  interested you can read the whole passage on the same page.Here i am quoting only  portions from it which i consider as the essence(of the whole chapter).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The experience constituted by the Vedas and manifested as the memory&#xA;  is the Smriti or Dharmasastra. Smriti does not become Smriti without&#xA;  its Vedic root.&lt;/strong&gt; Are not the Vedas the&quot;experience&quot; that is the source&#xA;  of the Smrtis? Without such a source the name suggesting &quot;notes of&#xA;  memory&quot; would be meaningless. How can we describe as notes of&#xA;  remembrance&quot; anything that is new and is not founded on something&#xA;  prior to it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no second opinion regarding the fact that what is called&#xA;  &quot;Srauta&quot;(directly mentioned in the Vedas) is wholly authoritative. But&#xA;  what is not directly mentioned in Sruti but included in Smriti - that&#xA;  is Smarta - is not to be taken to be less authoritative. Smarta never&#xA;  contradicts Srauta. In some matters Smritis may go beyond Sruti, but&#xA;  that too is fully authoritative being based on the inner spirit of&#xA;  Sruti. Just as the Sthala Puranas fill in the gaps in the major&#xA;  Puranas and the epics, so the Smritis speak of what is left out in the&#xA;  Vedas. We use terms &quot;Sruti pramana&quot; and &quot;Smriti pramana&quot;(the authority&#xA;  of the Vedas and the authority of the Smritis), but making such a&#xA;  distinction does not mean that we should treat Sruti and Smriti&#xA;  different or that we should think that the one is inferior to the&#xA;  other.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-21T14:42:18.793" LastActivityDate="2017-01-21T14:42:18.793" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16843" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-21T09:55:46.710" Score="4" ViewCount="291" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that Shiva has two sons, Kartikeya and Ganesha. But I heard that he has three daughters too. I also heard that these daughters are worshipped in some parts of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this true? If yes, who are the daughters of Lord Shiva? What are their stories?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-23T02:11:42.520" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T02:11:42.520" Title="Who are the daughters of Lord Shiva? What are their stories?" Tags="|shiva|goddess|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16845" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16815" CreationDate="2017-01-21T11:36:12.830" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;That would be counterproductive. Not only would that make everyone immersed in worship and the &lt;em&gt;bhakti&lt;/em&gt;, it would also stop the righteous defeat of the Kauravas, since no one would be unfazed enough to fight. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And additional, why would Krishna do that? Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it every time(Examples:Murder).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I DO NOT WISH TO OFFEND ANYONE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8752" LastActivityDate="2017-01-21T11:36:12.830" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16847" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-21T18:25:05.377" Score="8" ViewCount="263" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several pages out there claiming a legend of Rāvaṇa planning to build a staircase in order to get to heaven (or, the region of the moon) without performing Vedic rituals. All of the sources I could find however, can be traced back to Prabhupāda &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For exmple, a talk by Prabhupāda given in 1972.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Why you are undergoing so much severe austerities to go to heaven? I shall make a staircase, and you go directly, without having performed any austerities.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://old.prabhupadavani.org/main/AFP/Bhagavatam/077.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And from Prabhupāda’s commentary on the Bhāgavata-purāna :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Rāvaṇa was one of them, and he wanted to deport ordinary men to the planet of Indra (heaven) by material means without consideration of the necessary qualifications. He wanted a staircase to be built up directly reaching the heavenly planet so that people might not be required to undergo the routine of pious work necessary to enter that planet. He also wanted to perform other acts against the established rule of the Lord.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupadabooks.com/sb/1/3/22&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any older extant sources confirming this legend, or did he use sources currently unavailable to us?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-21T19:14:58.790" LastActivityDate="2018-07-17T09:11:58.580" Title="Sources validating Rāvaṇa’s plan to build a staircase to heaven" Tags="|ramayana|bhagavata-purana|itihasa|prabhupada|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16849" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8215" CreationDate="2017-01-22T03:53:40.047" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It has two different aspects.One form of Shiva is about Adiyogi,the description is that his head matches with head of full grown horse.It can be exaggerated as 7feet. There's another dimension for word Shiva,it means that which is not.Which is not is not a thing,just empty space. So in that context there's no end and no way you can find an end to this emptiness. So the story of finding the pillar of Shiva is about finding an end to this empty space which isn't possible,so it is packed in such story.This culture is such dialectical and the all the Puranas you find are packed like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8759" LastActivityDate="2017-01-22T03:53:40.047" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16850" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9962" CreationDate="2017-01-22T05:58:21.143" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do you have an &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhivadaye&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Abhivaadaye shloka&lt;/a&gt; that is taught to you during your &lt;code&gt;Bhrahmopadesam&lt;/code&gt; ? That will explain all that you are looking for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That typically has the form:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Abhivaadaye shri &amp;lt;pravaras here&amp;gt; trayaarsheya-pravraanvitaaha &amp;lt;gotram here&amp;gt; gotrah &amp;lt;sutram here&amp;gt; sutrah &amp;lt;veda here&amp;gt;-shaakadhyaayii shri &amp;lt;name&amp;gt; sharma naama ahamasmi&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For me, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;pravarah: bhaargava veethihavya sahavedasa (trayaarsheya meaning three rishis)&#xA;sutra: aapastamba&#xA;shaaka: yajur&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastEditorUserId="4133" LastEditDate="2017-01-28T21:57:12.157" LastActivityDate="2017-01-28T21:57:12.157" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16852" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16855" CreationDate="2017-01-22T06:36:00.993" Score="6" ViewCount="12184" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shannavathi Tharpanam - means 96 days of oblations to our elders. While &lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090227083847AAYI1a3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer beautifully explains how the count 96 is arrived, I am still perplexed on how to identify them on the calendar/panchangam(almanac)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To avoid a dead link, I quote the answer that I referred here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Number of Shraddham or Tharpana per year: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shannavathi - 96 days when Shraddham or atleast Tharpana is to be&#xA;  performed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following are the 96 days: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Amavasya - 12 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Masapirappu (Sankramanas) - 12 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pournami - 12 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kruthayugathi - 1 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Threthayugathi - 1 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dwaparayugathi - 1 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaliyugathi - 1 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaithruthi Yogas - 14 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyatheepatha Yoga -14 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahalayathi -16 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashtaka - 4 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anvashtaka - 4 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thisroshtaka -4 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Apart from the listed days above, one has to perform the Tharppanam on&#xA;  the Eclipse days and also on the next day to Mathru/Pithru Srardha&#xA;  days. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the Vaidhyanatheeyam and Srivaishnava Deepika, a dutiful&#xA;  Brahmin has to perform 96 tharppanams in a year, as stipulated in the&#xA;  Vedic scripts. Listed above are the days on which a Brahmin has to&#xA;  perform his duty in Thila tharpana roopam. Out of these, the Mahalaya&#xA;  Tharpanam can be done with Hiranyam or with Brahmmana bhojanam also;&#xA;  if not on all the sixteen days, any one day that one considers himself&#xA;  as most important – viz. Mahabharani, Madhyashtami or on his mathru/&#xA;  pithru srardha thithi days that falls during Mahalayam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one cannot afford to perform the Tharsha Srardham known as Thila&#xA;  tharppanam on all the above days, one should stick to minimum possible&#xA;  on Amavasya, Mesha Sangramanam, Dakshinayana punyakaalam, Thula Vishu&#xA;  Punyakalam, Utharayana punyakalam, Mahalaya Tharpanam (one day),&#xA;  Visible Surya/Chandra Grahana days and also on the next days to&#xA;  Mathru/Pithru srardha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) Shraddham and Tharpana in life time: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(i) Pinda Tharpanam at Badrinath: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pinda Tharpanam at Brahma Kapalam, Badrinath is to be done atleast&#xA;  once in life time by all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(ii) Shraddham and Tharpanam at Gaya: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following are to be performed atleast once in life time by all at&#xA;  Gaya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a) Pinda and Thila Tharpanam at the riverbed Falgu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;b) Pinda Tharpanam at Vishnupadam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;c) Shraddham at Gaya &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;d) Pinda Tharpanam at Akshayavada Source(s):&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.trsiyengar.com/id139.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.trsiyengar.com/id139.shtml&lt;/a&gt; C. Sri Vidya Rajagopalan · 8&#xA;  years ago&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of these listed days, it is easy for me to find:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Amavasya - 12 &#xA;  Masapirappu (Sankramanas) - 12 &#xA;  Pournami - 12 &#xA;  Mahalayathi -16 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While I have no clue on how to find:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kruthayugathi - 1 &#xA;  Threthayugathi - 1 &#xA;  Dwaparayugathi - 1 &#xA;  Kaliyugathi - 1 &#xA;  Vaithruthi Yogas - 14 &#xA;  Vyatheepatha Yoga -14 &#xA;  Ashtaka - 4 &#xA;  Anvashtaka - 4 &#xA;  Thisroshtaka -4 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2552" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T02:26:42.423" LastActivityDate="2020-04-26T12:22:07.993" Title="How to identify the shannavathi (96) days of an year for tharpanam?" Tags="|rituals|name|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16853" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16858" CreationDate="2017-01-22T09:42:50.827" Score="4" ViewCount="1118" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am interested to know if there is any book in Hinduism that describes the effects of different karmas.&#xA;For example, the karmic effects of act of theft or the karmic effects of act of offering food to poor etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit 1: &#xA;What is 'Brahmahatya' sin and if done what is the effect?&#xA;Also I feel angry about the way many people kill the foetus if it is of a girl.&#xA;A well developed foetus is considered similar to a Hrishi as he/she knows all his/her past lives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the ill effect of such acts? &#xA;Which kind of sin makes you suffer from mental disorders? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4103" LastEditorUserId="4103" LastEditDate="2017-01-23T12:29:21.623" LastActivityDate="2017-01-24T15:03:10.083" Title="What are different types of sins and good acts and their karmic effects?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16854" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16818" CreationDate="2017-01-22T13:31:36.153" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu in His &lt;strong&gt;vyūha manifestation which is four-fold (Chatur-vyūha) – Vasudeva (as the creator),Samkarsana  (as the sustainer),Pradyumna (as destroyer - dissolution of the universe) and Aniruddha (as promulgator of spiritual knowledge).&lt;/strong&gt; This is the Vaiśnava doctrine of Vyūha or the doctrine of formation. The Chatur-vyūha forms of Vishnu are related to four of the six causes of creation which six are God Himself as the final cause of creation and His five aspects – &lt;strong&gt;Narāyana ('thinking'), Vāsudeva ('feeling'), Samkarśana ('willing'), Pradyumna ('knowing') and Aniruddha ('acting')&lt;/strong&gt; successively; each divinity controls its specific creative energy. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Vyuha&amp;amp;item_type=topic&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vyuha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt; Here is the &#xA;excerpt from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c051.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shanti Parva ,Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am Brahma, the primeval master of all creatures, have started into&#xA;  birth from Him, and thou hast taken thy birth from me. From me have&#xA;  flowed the universe with all its mobile and immobile creatures, and&#xA;  all the Vedas, O son, with their mysteries. Divided into four portions&#xA;  (viz., &lt;strong&gt;Aniruddha, Pradyumna, Sankarshana, and Vasudeva.&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am giving answer about  ,&lt;strong&gt;Samkarsana&lt;/strong&gt;  and  ,&lt;strong&gt;Pradyumna&lt;/strong&gt; avataras only  Based on  &lt;strong&gt;Bhagvat Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pradyumna  avatara&lt;/strong&gt; -  Pradyumna was son of Lord Krishna  and Rukmini  Pradyumna was born in Dvaraka. &lt;strong&gt;He was the version of God&#xA;  Kamdev.&lt;/strong&gt; In the Treta Yuga, Kamdev was burnt by Shiva when he became&#xA;  a barrier to Shiva's meditation. Shiva blessed Kamdev's distraught&#xA;  wife, Rati and promised her that in his next birth Kamdev will be a&#xA;  part of Krishna and Rati will be the daughter of Bhimkaraya Rukmi and&#xA;  that she will marry him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; कामास्तु वसुदेवांशो दग्ध: प्राग&#xA;  रुद्रमन्युना  देहोपपत्तये भुयस्तमेव प्रत्यप स एव&lt;br&gt; जातो वैदर्भ्यां&#xA;  कृष्णवीर्यसमुद्भव:&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;प्रद्युम्न&lt;/strong&gt; इति विख्याता: सर्वतोsनवम: पितू: ||1 ,2||  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kāmas tu vāsudevāṁśo dagdhaḥ prāg rudra-manyunā dehopapattaye bhūyas&#xA;  tam eva pratyapadyata sa eva jāto vaidarbhyāṁ kṛṣṇa-vīrya-samudbhavaḥ&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;pradyumna&lt;/strong&gt; iti vikhyātaḥ sarvato ’navamaḥ pituḥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kāmadeva [Cupid], an expansion of Vāsudeva, had previously been burned&#xA;  to ashes by Rudra’s anger. Now, to obtain a new body, he merged back&#xA;  into the body of Lord Vāsudeva. He took birth in the womb of Vaidarbhī&#xA;  from the &lt;strong&gt;seed of Lord Kṛṣṇa and received the name Pradyumna.&lt;/strong&gt; In no&#xA;  respect was He inferior to His father.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/55/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.55.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/55/2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  10.55.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once, Ratidevī approached Pradyumna. &lt;strong&gt;She advised Him to kill&#xA;  Śambara,&lt;/strong&gt; and to help Him she instructed Him in the mystic mantras&#xA;  known as Mahā-māyā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तमिमं जहि दुर्धर्ष दुर्जयं शत्रुमात्मन:&lt;br&gt; मयशतविदं त्वं च&#xA;  मायाभिर्मोहनादिभि: ||14|&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tam imaṁ jahi durdharṣaṁ durjayaṁ śatrum ātmanaḥ māyā-śata-vidaṁ taṁ&#xA;  ca māyābhir mohanādibhiḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now kill this dreadful Śambara, Your formidable enemy. Although he&#xA;  knows hundreds of magic spells, You can defeat him with bewildering&#xA;  magic and other techniques. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/55/14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.55.14&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Sankarshana Avatara -&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्य मूल-देशे त्रिंशद्योजनसहस्त्रान्तर आस्ते&lt;br&gt; या वै कला भगवतस्तामसी&#xA;  समाख्याताsन्त इतिsसात्वतिया&lt;br&gt; दृष्टदृश्यो: संड.कर्षम् अहमित्यभिमान&#xA;  यं संड.कर्षम् इति आचक्षते ||1||  &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;  tasya mūla-deśe&#xA;  triṁśad-yojana-sahasrāntara āste yā vai kalā bhagavatas tāmasī&#xA;  samākhyātānanta iti sātvatīyā  draṣṭṛ-dṛśyayoḥ &lt;strong&gt;saṅkarṣaṇam&lt;/strong&gt; aham&#xA;  ity abhimāna-lakṣaṇaṁ yaṁ saṅkarṣaṇam ity ācakṣate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said to Mahārāja Parīkṣit: My dear King,&#xA;  approximately 240,000 miles beneath the planet Pātāla lives another&#xA;  incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. &lt;strong&gt;He is the&#xA;  expansion of Lord Viṣṇu known as Lord Ananta or Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa.&lt;/strong&gt; He&#xA;  is always in the transcendental position, but because He is worshiped&#xA;  by Lord Śiva, the deity of tamo-guṇa or darkness, He is sometimes&#xA;  called tāmasī. Lord Ananta is the predominating Deity of the material&#xA;  mode of ignorance as well as the false ego of all conditioned souls.&#xA;  When a conditioned living being thinks, “I am the enjoyer, and this&#xA;  world is meant to be enjoyed by me,” this conception of life is&#xA;  dictated to him by Saṅkarṣaṇa. Thus the mundane conditioned soul&#xA;  thinks himself the Supreme Lord.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/25/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 5.25.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्य ह वा इदं कालेनोपसंजिहीर्षतोsमर्ष – विरचितरुचिरभ्रमद्भ्रुवोरन्तरेण&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; साडक.र्षणो नाम रुद्र एकादशव्यूहस्त्र्यक्षस्त्रिशिखं&#xA;  शूलमुत्तम्भ्ययन्नु-दतिषठत् ||3||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasya ha vā idaṁ kālenopasañjihīrṣato&#xA;  ’marṣa-viracita-rucira-bhramad-bhruvor antareṇa sāṅkarṣaṇo nāma rudra&#xA;  ekādaśa-vyūhas try-akṣas tri-śikhaṁ śūlam uttambhayann udatiṣṭhat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the time of devastation, when Lord Anantadeva &lt;strong&gt;desires to destroy&#xA;  the entire creation,&lt;/strong&gt; He becomes slightly angry. Then from between&#xA;  His two eyebrows appears three-eyed Rudra, carrying a trident. &lt;strong&gt;This&#xA;  Rudra, who is known as Sāṅkarṣaṇa,&lt;/strong&gt; is the embodiment of the eleven&#xA;  Rudras, or incarnations of Lord Śiva. He appears in order to devastate&#xA;  the entire creation.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/25/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 5.25.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So from these shlokas we come to know that Sankarshna avatar takes place , when lord wishes to destroy the word ,as Sankarshna Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-01-22T15:40:58.093" LastActivityDate="2017-01-22T15:40:58.093" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16855" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16852" CreationDate="2017-01-22T17:17:31.440" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;My reference here is the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&quot; @Kamakoti.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 96(Shannavati) Shraddha days are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In fact in each year there are ninety six Shraaddhas to be performed&#xA;  and these are: &lt;strong&gt;twelve Amavasyas, four yugaadis, fourteen&#xA;  Manvantaraas, Twelve Kranthis, Twelve Vaidhritis, twelve&#xA;  Vyatipaataas, Mahalayaas fifteen , Ashtakas as five,&#xA;  Anvashtakas five , Purveddha shraaddhas five, totalling ‘Shannavati’&#xA;  Shraaddhaas.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now you have said that you already know some of these days. Those which are missing from your list and those days which you can't identify are given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4 Yugadi days(Yugadi day is the day on which the Yuga is believed to have started):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kritha Yugadi-Aksahya Navami&lt;/strong&gt;(Month-Karthik,Paksha-Sukla,Tithi-Navami)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Treta Yugadi-Akshaya Tritiya&lt;/strong&gt;(Vaishakh,Sukla,Triteeya)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dwapara Yugadi-Magha Bahula Trayodashi&lt;/strong&gt;(Magha,Krishna,Trayodashi)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kali Yugadi-Bhadrapada Krishna Trayodashi&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kali Yuga started on Bhadrapada, Krishnapaksha -13th day, in&#xA;  Vyatipaat yoga at midnight, in the Aashlesha Nakshatra and the age of&#xA;  the Kali Yuga has been fixed as 5101 years as till date that is Vikram&#xA;  Samvat 2057 = Shaka 1922 = 2000 AD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;12 Vyaptipata and 12 Vaidhruti Yogas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a year the Vyaptipata Yogas and Vaidruthi Yoga days are each 12 in number and not 14 like you mentioned.(See my quote above,they list 12 days for each of these yogas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A hindu day consist of 5 limbs or the &quot;Panchangas&quot; one of which is the Yoga other 4 being Tithi,Nakshtra,Vara and Karana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can check on any Panchanga site(like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/?l=10436&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Drikpanchang.com&lt;/a&gt; ) for Vyaptipata and Vaidruthi Yoga days for your place.This will give you the 24 Shraddha days in a year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Five Purvavedu days:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Five Purvavedu or &lt;strong&gt;Saptami days of Krishna Pakshas of Bhadrapada, Marg&#xA;  ashira, Pushya, Maagha, and Phalgunaas&lt;/strong&gt;;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;14 Manvadis(the day on which each Manvantara started):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the Chaitra Shukla Triteeya itself the Manvaadis or the beginning&#xA;  of reign of Fourteen Manus ; &lt;strong&gt;in fact the Manvaadis are celebrated on&#xA;  Chaitra Shukla Triteeya and Purnima, Jyeshtha Purnima, Ashadha Shukla&#xA;  Dashami and Purnima, Shravana Krishna ashtami, Bhadrapada Shukla&#xA;  Triteeya, Ashvayuja Shukla Navami, Kartika Shukla Dwadashi and&#xA;  Pournamaasi, Pousha Shuklaikaadashi, Maagha Shukla Saptami and&#xA;  Phalguna Purnima and Amavaashya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5 Ashtakas and 5 Anashtakas days&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashtami Tithis of Krishna Pakshas of the afore-mentioned Maasaas(the&#xA;  5 months mentioned under Purbavedu days) are the 5 Ashtakas and the&#xA;  and Anvashtaka Krishna Navamis of the same 5 Months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-23T06:13:40.373" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T06:13:40.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16856" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13780" CreationDate="2017-01-23T05:12:36.757" Score="3" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Is vacuum not same as Ākāśa? &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt; , Akasha or Space is not same as vacuum .Even from modern discoveries, its clear that empty space isn’t so empty , space is filled with invisible Dark-Matter , other low mass particles ,and background radiation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;How do Hindu scriptures define Ākāśa?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism scriptures like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/vedas-purusha_suktam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purusha Sukta from Rig-Veda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  and  various puranas  , Akasha or Antarikssam  or space is described as part of &lt;strong&gt;“Virat Purusha”&lt;/strong&gt; , which is first avatar of Paramatma or supreme soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नाभ्या आसीदन्तरिक्षं&lt;/strong&gt; शीर्ष्णो द्यौः समवर्तत ।&lt;br&gt; पद्भ्यां भूमिर्दिशः श्रोत्रात्तथा लोकाँ अकल्पयन् ॥१४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Naabhyaa Aasiid-Antarikssam&lt;/strong&gt; Shiirssnno Dyauh Samavartata | Padbhyaam Bhuumir-Dishah Shrotraat-Tathaa Lokaa Akalpayan ||14||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;  14.1: &lt;strong&gt;His Navel became the Antariksha&lt;/strong&gt; (the intermediate Space between Heaven and Earth), His Head sustained the Heaven,&#xA;  14.2: From His Feet the Earth (was sustained), and from His Ears the Directions (were sustained); in this manner all the Worlds were&#xA;  regulated by Him.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;द्वे जानुनी सुतलं विश्वमुर्ते रुरुद्वयम् वितलं चातलं च |&lt;br&gt; महीतलं&#xA;  तज्जघनं महीपते नभस्तलं नाभिसरो गृणन्ति ||27|| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dve jānunī sutalaṁ viśva-mūrter ūru-dvayaṁ vitalaṁ cātalaṁ ca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mahītalaṁ taj-jaghanaṁ mahīpate nabhastalaṁ nābhi-saro gṛṇanti&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning-&lt;/strong&gt; The knees of the universal form are the planetary system of the name Sutala, and the two thighs are the Vitala and Atala&#xA;  planetary systems. The hips are Mahītala, and outer &lt;strong&gt;space is the&#xA;  depression of His navel&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/1/27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 2.1.27&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;So from above shlokas we come to know that The space or Akasha itself is part of Virata purusha , which is everywhere in space. So space is different than a vacuum even in Hinduism scriptures. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also find definition of Akasha in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62934.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Sutras (Shankara Bhashya)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आकाशोऽर्थान्तरत्वादिव्यपदेशात्&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ ४१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ākāśo'rthāntaratvādivyapadeśāt || 41 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ākāśaḥ—Âkâsa; arthāntaratvādi-vyapadeśāt—because it is declared to be&#xA;  something different etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;41&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Âkâsa (is Brahman) because it is declared to be something different etc. (from names and forms and yet their revealer).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“That which is called Âkâsa is the revealer of all names and forms.&#xA;  That &lt;strong&gt;within which these names and forms are, is Brahman,&lt;/strong&gt; the immortal,&#xA;  the Self” (Chh. 8.14.1).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here ‘Âkâsa’ is Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; Why ? Because names and forms are snid to be&#xA;  within this Âkâsa, which is therefore different from these. In this&#xA;  phenomenal world everything is conditioned by name and form, and&#xA;  Brahman alone is beyond them. Âkâsa is said to be the revealer of&#xA;  names and forms; and as the Inner Ruler of the whole world of names&#xA;  and forms it cannot be anything else but Brahman. Moreover, epithets&#xA;  like ‘Infinite’, ‘Immortal’, ‘Self’ also show that ‘Âkâsa’ here refers&#xA;  to Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-01-23T06:39:28.467" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T06:39:28.467" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16857" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16865" CreationDate="2017-01-23T05:33:04.783" Score="3" ViewCount="1356" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/n_u5MhLtraI&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; YouTube video (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharat_(1988_TV_series)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1988 TV series Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt;, Episode 31 - Escape from Lakshagraha) it is shown that a niṣāda woman and her five children are urged by Purocana, the builder of the infamous lākṣāgṛha (house of lac) in Vāraṇāvata, to spend the night inside the newly constructed house. Not sure why he invites them inside the house? Maybe he wanted to blame them for setting the house on fire?!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01151.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (Ganguli's translation) it appears that those people just came there looking for food and entered the mansion on their own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Desirous of obtaining food, there came, &lt;strong&gt;as though impelled by fate&lt;/strong&gt;, to that feast, in course of her wanderings, &lt;strong&gt;a Nishada woman, the mother of five children, accompanied by all her sons&lt;/strong&gt;. O king, she, and her children, intoxicated with the wine they drank, became incapable. Deprived of consciousness and more dead than alive, she with all her sons lay down in that mansion to sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then when all the inmates of the house lay down to sleep, there began to blow a violent wind in the night. &lt;strong&gt;Bhima then set fire to the house just where Purochana was sleeping&lt;/strong&gt;. Then the son of Pandu set fire to the door of that house of lac. Then he set fire to the mansion in several parts all around.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How does the &lt;em&gt;latest&lt;/em&gt; BORI critical edition of the Mahābhārata narrate this event?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If indeed Ganguli's above translated version is the correct narrative, are Pāṇḍavas justified in killing the innocent niṣāda family to save their own?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if anyone happens to know how the recent TV series – &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suryaputra_Karn&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Suryaputra Karn, 2015&lt;/a&gt; (Sony) and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharat_(2013_TV_series)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat, 2013&lt;/a&gt; (STAR Plus) depict this scene, please leave a comment under the question or in your answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-11-18T03:19:49.463" LastActivityDate="2022-01-29T23:49:49.367" Title="To save themselves from the Lākṣāgṛha (house of lac), did Pāṇḍavas kill an innocent niṣāda woman and her five children?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|pandavas|critical-edition|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16858" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16853" CreationDate="2017-01-23T06:52:20.863" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question  in the the title is too broad IMO.It can't be answered in few lines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, i have covered all the questions that are in the body and also the one  that you asked in comments on adultery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Effects of Theft:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti in Chapter 12 discusses what a thief becomes in his/her next life depending on the objects that he/she has stolen.Here are a few such verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.61. A man who out of greed has stolen gems, pearls or coral, or any of the many other kinds of precious things, is born among the&#xA;  goldsmiths&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.62. For stealing grain (a man) becomes a rat, for stealing yellow metal a Hamsa, for stealing water a Plava, for stealing honey a&#xA;  stinging insect, for stealing milk a crow, for stealing condiments a&#xA;  dog, for stealing clarified butter an ichneumon;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.63. For stealing meat a vulture, for stealing fat a cormorant, for stealing oil a winged animal (of the kind called) Tailapaka, for&#xA;  stealing salt a cricket, for stealing sour milk a bird (of the kind&#xA;  called) Balaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;12.68. That man who has forcibly taken away any kind of property belonging to another, or who has eaten sacrificial food (of) which (no&#xA;  portion) had been offered, inevitably becomes an animal.(Manu Smriti)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,if someone steals a Brahmin's gold then that's one of the 5 grave sins(Mahapatakas).Other than that robbery/theft is only a minor sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A thief can also atone for the theft if he/she wants by following methods like the ones given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.163. The lunar penance has been declared to be the&#xA;  expiation for stealing men and women, and (for wrongfully&#xA;  appropriating) a field, a house, or the water of wells and cisterns&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.165. (To swallow) the five products of the cow (pankagavya) is the atonement for stealing eatables of various kinds, a vehicle, a bed, a&#xA;  seat, flowers, roots, or fruit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Effects of donating food to the poor:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Shastras charity of food is called  &quot;Anna Danam&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana11.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada described to Arjun about ‘daan’ (charity), its two ‘hethus’&#xA;  (varieties), six ‘Adhishtaans’ (Reasons), six ‘Anks’ (Parties), two&#xA;  ‘Parinaams’ (end results or fruits), three bhedas (classifications)&#xA;  and three ‘Vinas Saadhanas’ (negative results).....&lt;strong&gt;The donors of&#xA;  charity must have the perspective of what kind of material is required&#xA;  or useful to the receiver or otherwise the purpose of charity would be&#xA;  defeated&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,charity of food to the poor is excellent compared to the same when done to some well-to-do person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further,Anna Dana is listed as the second best charity possible:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Three ‘Bhedas’or types of Daan are classified; the best types are&#xA;  charity of houses, temples, buildings, Bhumi (farms / fields), cows,&#xA;  Wells, gold and ornaments and the best of course is to give away one’s&#xA;  own life itself as ‘Daan’. &lt;strong&gt;The Secondary Variety of charity relates to&#xA;  Anna (Food grains), Vastra (Clothing), ‘Vahan’ etc.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti,in chapter 4,gives the effects of different kinds of charities including that  of food:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 4.228. If he is asked, let him always give something, be&#xA;  it ever so little, without grudging; for a worthy recipient will&#xA;  (perhaps) be found who saves him from all (guilt).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.229. A giver of water obtains the satisfaction (of his hunger and thirst), &lt;strong&gt;a giver of food imperishable happiness&lt;/strong&gt;, a giver of sesamum&#xA;  desirable offspring, a giver of a lamp a most excellent eyesight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.230. A giver of land obtains land, a giver of gold long life, a giver of a house most excellent mansions, a giver of silver (rupya)&#xA;  exquisite beauty (rupa),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.232. A giver of a carriage or of a bed a wife, a giver of protection supreme dominion, &lt;strong&gt;a giver of grain eternal bliss,&lt;/strong&gt; a giver of the&#xA;  Veda (brahman) union with Brahman;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,Dana should be done with shraddha(devotion and sincerity) and not to an undeserving candidate(an Apatra).Some Danas(including Anna Dana) should however be made only when asked for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ayaachtaani deyaani sarva daanaani yatnatah, Annam Vidyaaha&#xA;  Kanyaachahyanarthibhyona deeyate// Dvaamimau purushaa loke&#xA;  swargasyopari tishthatah, Anna pradaataa durbhikshe subhikshe hema&#xA;  vastradah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shandalya Muni mentions that all types of charities be offered without&#xA;  being asked for and with clean conscience or with no view of securing&#xA;  returns; however Vidya, Kanya and &lt;strong&gt;Anna must not be offered without&#xA;  being asked for as a rule! Indeed, there are two types of charity&#xA;  givers who attam Swarga for sure: those who heartily give away Food&#xA;  during Durbhiksha&lt;/strong&gt; and also those who happily give away gold and&#xA;  clothing during the days of general prosperity!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma Hatya:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Killing a Brahmin is considered as one of the  major sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.235. &lt;strong&gt;The slayer of a Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt;, (A twice-born man) who&#xA;  drinks (the spirituous liquor called) Sura, he who steals (the gold of&#xA;  a Brahmana), and he who violates a Guru’s bed, &lt;strong&gt;must each and all be&#xA;  considered as men who committed mortal sins (mahapataka).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AFTER serving his term in hell, &lt;strong&gt;the destroyer of a Brahmana, is born&#xA;  afflicted with white leprosy.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore, for the expiation of that&#xA;  sin, one should perform a penitential rite, (Satatapa Smriti,Chapter 2,Verse 1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abortion:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abortion is stated in the Parashara Smriti as a sin that has no prayaschitta methods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/v0id5.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/v0id5.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What sin is incurred in killing a Brahman, abortion causes a sin twice&#xA;  as great ; there is no atonement for that sin.&lt;/strong&gt; The abandonment of such&#xA;  a woman has been ordained by law.(Parashara Smriti,Chapter 4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adultery&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adultery is mentioned as a minor offence or an Upapataka which causes loss of caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.59. Slaying kine, sacrificing for those who are&#xA;  unworthy to sacrifice, &lt;strong&gt;adultery&lt;/strong&gt;, selling oneself, casting off&#xA;  one’s teacher, mother, father, or son, giving up the (daily) study of&#xA;  the Veda, and neglecting the (sacred domestic) fire &lt;strong&gt;are Upatakas(minor sins)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which kind of sin makes you suffer from mental disorders?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A person, pilfering lead, is born as suffering from head-diseases.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Fasting for a day, he should give away one Dhenu weight of clarified&#xA;  butter according to the proper regulations. (7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By stealing milk curd a person is born insane&lt;/strong&gt;. For purification, curd,&#xA;  one Dhcnu in weight, should be given by him unto a Vipra. (9)&lt;strong&gt;(Satatapa Smriti,Chapter 4)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE-Satatapa Smriti,which i have used as a reference in this answer, is among the 18 major Smritis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-01-24T15:03:10.083" LastActivityDate="2017-01-24T15:03:10.083" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16859" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16057" CreationDate="2017-01-23T07:28:44.167" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think Tulasi is single Jiva  rather than set of jeevatmans. There is a conversation in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch25.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Bhagvatam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;(THE NINTH BOOK , Chapter XXV , On the method of worship of Tulasî Devî)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1-2. Nârada said :&lt;/strong&gt;-- When the Devî Tulasî has been made so dear to Nârâyana and thus an object for worship?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;15. Nârâyana said&lt;/strong&gt; :-- Bhagavân Hari raised Tulasî to the rank of Laksmî and thus made her fortunate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;18-44. The Bhagavân said&lt;/strong&gt; :-- The Tulasî trees collect in&#xA;multitudinous groups; hence the Pundits call it Vrindâ.&#xA;She appeared in the Vrindâvana forest and&#xA;therefore known as Vrindâvanî.&#xA;She is worshipped always in innumerable universes and is,&#xA;therefore, known as Vis’vapûjitâ (worshipped by all).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without Tulasî, the Devas do not get pleased,&#xA;though other flowers be heaped on them; therefore &lt;strong&gt;She is considered as&#xA;the essence of all the flowers.&lt;/strong&gt;  There is nothing in the universe that&#xA;can be compared to Her; hence She is called Tulasî;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is one shloka from Shreemad Bhagvatam about Tulasi , Here She is compared with other plants.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मन्दारकुन्दकुरबोत्पचम्पकार्ण पुन्नागनागबकुलाम्बपारिजाता:।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;गन्धेsर्चिते तुलसिकाभरणेन तस्या यस्मिनस्तप: सुमनसो बहु&#xA;मानयन्ति॥19॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;mandāra-kunda-kurabotpala-campakārṇa-punnāga-nāga-bakulāmbuja-pārijātāḥ|gandhe&#xA;’rcite tulasikābharaṇena tasyā yasmiṁs tapaḥ sumanaso bahu&#xA;mānayanti.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; Meaning- Although flowering plants like the&#xA;mandāra, kunda, kurabaka, utpala, campaka, arṇa, punnāga, nāgakeśara,&#xA;bakula, lily and pārijāta are full of transcendental fragrance, they&#xA;are still conscious of the &lt;strong&gt;austerities performed by tulasī, for&#xA;tulasī is given special preference by the Lord, who garlands Himself&#xA;with tulasī leaves.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/15/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;3.15.19&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are  various types of Tulsi plants like &lt;strong&gt;Ram Tulasi  , Krishana Tulasi&lt;/strong&gt;  , and also &lt;strong&gt;Tulasi is known by various names. Like (Krisnajîvanî. ,  Nandinî; , Vis’vapâvani (purifying the whole universe),&lt;/strong&gt; but from this we cant say she is set of jeevatmans.&#xA;So from above conversation so can say that Tulasi is  a single jeevatma because , Tulasi word  is used as singular noun here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T11:20:43.653" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16860" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2605" CreationDate="2017-01-23T08:33:51.677" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rather than having an abstract idea about these 5 elements and in particular about the Akasha element you can also have a more direct and a &quot;related to your own physical body&quot; kind of concept for each of them .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such expositions of ideas are found in the &lt;strong&gt;Yoga Tattva Upanishad (which is associated with the  Krishna YajurVeda).&lt;/strong&gt; Here Lord Vishnu is doing all the explanations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;83(b). There are the five elements: Prithvi, Apas, Agni, Vayu and&#xA;  Akasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PRithivi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;84-87(a). &lt;strong&gt;To the body of the five elements, there is the fivefold&#xA;  Dharana. From the feet to the knees is said to be the region of&#xA;  Prithvi,&lt;/strong&gt; is four-sided in shape, is yellow in colour and has the Varna&#xA;  (or letter) ‘La’. Carrying the breath with the letter ‘La’ along the&#xA;  region of earth (viz., from the foot to the knees) and contemplating&#xA;  upon Brahma with four faces and four mouths and of a golden colour,&#xA;  one should perform Dharana there for a period of two hours. He then&#xA;  attains mastery over the earth. Death does not trouble him, since he&#xA;  has obtained mastery over the earth element.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Apas&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;87(b)-90. &lt;strong&gt;The region of Apas is said to extend from the knees to the&#xA;  anus.&lt;/strong&gt; Apas is semi-lunar in shape and white in colour and has ‘Va’ for&#xA;  its Bija (seed) letter. Carrying up the breath with the letter ‘Va’&#xA;  along the regions of Apas, he should contemplate on the God Narayana....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agni&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;91. From the anus to the heart is said to be the region of Agni. Agni is triangular in shape, of red colour and has the letter ‘Ra’ for its&#xA;  (Bija) seed.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;92-93(a). Raising the breath made resplendent through the&#xA;  letter ‘Ra’ along the region of fire, he should contemplate on Rudra,&#xA;  who has three eyes, who grants all wishes, ....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vayu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;94(b)-96. From the heart to the middle of the eyebrows is said to the&#xA;  region of Vayu. Vayu is hexangular in shape, black in colour and&#xA;  shines with the letter 'Ya’&lt;/strong&gt;. Carrying the breath along the region of&#xA;  Vayu, he should contemplate on Ishvara, the Omniscient.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Akasha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From the centre of the eyebrows to the top of the head is said to be&#xA;  the region of Akasa, is circular in the shape, smoky in colour and&#xA;  shining with letter ‘Ha’&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;98(b)-101(a). Raising the breath along the region of Akasa, he should&#xA;  contemplate on Sadashiva in the following manner, as producing&#xA;  happiness, as of the shape of Bindu, as the great Deva, as having the&#xA;  shape of Akasa, as shining like pure crystal, as wearing the rising&#xA;  crescent of moon on his head, as having five faces, ten hands and&#xA;  three eyes, as being of a pleased countenance, as armed with all&#xA;  weapons, as adorned with all ornaments, as having Uma (the goddess) in&#xA;  one-half of his body, as ready to grant favours and as the cause of&#xA;  all the causes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So,the region from between the centre of the eyebrows to the top of your head is the region of Akasha&lt;/strong&gt;.Thus,Akasha is not anymore abstract but quite tangible now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Being Sadashiva along with his Shakti(Uma) reside there in the form of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanarishvara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ardhanareeswara&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-23T17:16:51.147" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T17:16:51.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16861" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11450" CreationDate="2017-01-23T11:46:34.983" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda thought that new Smritis would come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two sorts of truth we find in our Shâstras, one that is&#xA;  based upon the eternal nature of man — the one that deals with the&#xA;  eternal relation of God, soul, and nature; the other, with local&#xA;  circumstances, environments of the time, social institutions of the&#xA;  period, and so forth. The first class of truths is chiefly embodied in&#xA;  our Vedas, our scriptures; the second in the Smritis, the Puranas.&#xA;  etc. We must remember that for all periods the Vedas are the final&#xA;  goal and authority, and if the Purânas differ in any respect from the&#xA;  Vedas, that part of the Puranas is to be rejected without mercy. We&#xA;  find, then, that in all these Smritis the teachings are different. One&#xA;  Smriti says, this is the custom, and this should be the practice of&#xA;  this age. Another one says, this is the practice of this age, and so&#xA;  forth. This is the Âchâra which should be the custom of the Satya&#xA;  Yuga, and this is the Achara which should be the custom of the Kali&#xA;  Yuga, and so forth. Now this is one of the most glorious doctrines&#xA;  that you have, that eternal truths, being based upon the nature of&#xA;  man, will never change so long as man lives; they are for all times,&#xA;  omnipresent, universal virtues. But the Smritis speak generally of&#xA;  local circumstances, of duties arising from different environments,&#xA;  and they change in the course of time. This you have always to&#xA;  remember that because a little social custom is going to be changed&#xA;  you are not going to lose your religion, not at all. Remember these&#xA;  customs have already been changed. There was a time in this very India&#xA;  when, without eating beef, no Brahmin could remain a Brahmin; you read&#xA;  in the Vedas how, when a Sannyasin, a king, or a great man came into a&#xA;  house, the best bullock was killed; how in time it was found that as&#xA;  we were an agricultural race, killing the best bulls meant&#xA;  annihilation of the race. Therefore the practice was stopped, and a&#xA;  voice was raised against the killing of cows. Sometimes we find&#xA;  existing then what we now consider the most horrible customs. In&#xA;  course of time other laws had to be made. &lt;strong&gt;These in turn will have to&#xA;  go, and other Smritis will come.&lt;/strong&gt; This is one fact we have to learn&#xA;  that the Vedas being eternal will be one and the same throughout all&#xA;  ages, but the Smritis will have an end. As time rolls on, more and&#xA;  more of the Smritis will go, sages will come, and they will change and&#xA;  direct society into better channels, into duties and into paths which&#xA;  accord with the necessity of the age, and without which it is&#xA;  impossible that society can live. Thus we have to guide our course,&#xA;  avoiding these two dangers; and I hope that every one of us here will&#xA;  have breadth enough, and at the same time faith enough, to understand&#xA;  what that means, which I suppose is the inclusion of everything, and&#xA;  not the exclusion. I want the intensity of the fanatic plus the&#xA;  extensity of the materialist. Deep as the ocean, broad as the infinite&#xA;  skies, that is the sort of heart we want. Let us be as progressive as&#xA;  any nation that ever existed, and at the same time as faithful and&#xA;  conservative towards our traditions as Hindus alone know how to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In plain words, we have first to learn the distinction between the&#xA;  essentials and the non-essentials in everything. The essentials are&#xA;  eternal, the non-essentials have value only for a certain time; and if&#xA;  after a time they are not replaced by something essential, they are&#xA;  positively dangerous. I do not mean that you should stand up and&#xA;  revile all your old customs and institutions. Certainly not; you must&#xA;  not revile even the most evil one of them. Revile none. Even those&#xA;  customs that are now appearing to be positive evils, have been&#xA;  positively life-giving in times past; and if we have to remove these,&#xA;  we must not do so with curses, but with blessings and gratitude for&#xA;  the glorious work these customs have done for the preservation of our&#xA;  race. And we must also remember that the leaders of our societies have&#xA;  never been either generals or kings, but Rishis. And who are the&#xA;  Rishis? The Rishi as he is called in the Upanishads is not an ordinary&#xA;  man, but a Mantra-drashtâ. He is a man who sees religion, to whom&#xA;  religion is not merely book-learning, not argumentation, nor&#xA;  speculation, nor much talking, but actual realization, a coming face&#xA;  to face with truths which transcend the senses. This is Rishihood, and&#xA;  that Rishihood does not belong to any age, or time, or even to sects&#xA;  or caste. Vâtsyâyana says, truth must be realised; and we have to&#xA;  remember that you, and I, and every one of us will be called upon to&#xA;  become Rishis; and we must have faith in ourselves; we must become&#xA;  world-movers, for everything is in us. We must see Religion face to&#xA;  face, experience it, and thus solve our doubts about it; and then&#xA;  standing up in the glorious light of Rishihood each one of us will be&#xA;  a giant; and every word falling from our lips will carry behind it&#xA;  that infinite sanction of security; and before us evil will vanish by&#xA;  itself without the necessity of cursing any one, without the necessity&#xA;  of abusing any one, without the necessity of fighting any one in the&#xA;  world. May the Lord help us, each one of us here, to realise the&#xA;  Rishihood for our own salvation and for that of others!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 3, Reply to the Address of Welcome at Madura in 'Lectures from Colombo to Almora'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T11:46:34.983" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16862" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-23T13:09:27.707" Score="9" ViewCount="321" Body="&lt;p&gt;The famous &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallikattu&quot;&gt;Jallikattu&lt;/a&gt; festival of Tamil Nadu, India was temporarily banned and then reinstated recently. My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is the Jallikattu festival connected to Hinduism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If so, what is the significance of Jallikattu according to Hinduism?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there any Hindu rituals associated with this festival?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-02T04:03:22.040" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T04:03:22.040" Title="Is the Jallikattu festival connected to Hinduism? If so, what is its significance?" Tags="|rituals|culture|tradition|festivals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16863" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-23T13:48:02.357" Score="2" ViewCount="321" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Shiva Purana I heard it's mentioned that Shiva's army consisting of Bhūtas (bhūta gaṇa), Vetālas etc., molested many women who attended the Daksha Yagna. Is this true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, how is this action by Shiva's army justified?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8767" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-23T21:43:07.660" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T21:43:07.660" Title="Did Shiva's army molest women during Daksha Yajna?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|shiva-purana|women|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16864" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16863" CreationDate="2017-01-23T14:51:51.143" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva's army (Army of Shiva Ganas with valiant Veerabhadra) didn't molest any woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daksha Yajna is described in detail in &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 36 and 37 of Rudra Samhita (Sati Khanda) of Shiva Mahapurana.&lt;/strong&gt;  You can read those complete chapters from &lt;a href=&quot;http://indianscriptures.com/Content/Articles/PDFs/24048/30F_Chapter_88_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://indianscriptures.com/Content/Articles/PDFs/24049/30F_Chapter_88_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://indianscriptures.com/Content/Articles/PDFs/24050/30F_Chapter_89_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://indianscriptures.com/Content/Articles/PDFs/24051/30F_Chapter_89_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I quote all actions done by Shiva ganas during Daksha Yajna from those chapters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Chapter 36 of Rudra Samhita (Sati Khanda),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवानां ध्रं राष्टानां च तदासीत्समरो महान्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तीक्ष्णतामरनाराचैर्युयुधुस्ते बलान्विताः।।९।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the gods as well as the Šiva ganas started fighting with one&#xA;another using the sharp spears and arrows. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वृषभस्थान् पुरस्कृत्य स्वयं चैव महाबलः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;महात्रिशूलमादाय पातयामास&#xA;निर्जरान्।।१५।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mounted over the bull, the ganas were deputed in the front. Together&#xA;with his forces Virabhadra holding a trident in his hand felled the&#xA;god. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एते रुद्रसहायाश्च गणाः परमकोपनाः। आगता यज्ञविघ्नार्थं तं&#xA;करिष्यन्त्यसंशयम्॥३१॥  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These ganas with the help of Šiva, getting enraged are participating&#xA;in the war for the purpose of total destruction and they shall return&#xA;after doing so. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रहोवाच &lt;br&gt; एवमुक्त्वा शितैर्बाणैर्जघानाथ रुषान्वितः।&lt;br&gt; निखिलांस्तान्&#xA;सुरान् सद्यो वीरभद्रो गणाग्रणी:।&lt;br&gt; तैर्बाणैर्निहताः सर्वे वासवाद्याः&#xA;सुरेश्वराः।।३८।। &lt;br&gt;पलायनपरा भूत्वा जग्मुस्ते च दिशो दश।&lt;br&gt; गतेषु लोकपालेषु&#xA;विदुतेषु सुरेषु च। यज्ञवाटोपकण्ठे हि वीरभद्रोऽगमद्गणैः।।३९।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said, “Thus speaking, Virabhadra, the best among the ganas of&#xA;Šiva getting enraged, shot arrows at all the gods, who getting&#xA;injured, fled away to all the ten direction. After the fleeing of the&#xA;Lokapalas and the gods Virabhadra went to the place of yajña with his&#xA;ganas. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वीरभद्रः शूलपाणिर्नानागणसमन्वितः।&lt;br&gt; ददर्श विष्णुं सन्नद्धं योद्धुकामं&#xA;महाप्रभुम्।।४५।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Virabhadra on the other hand holding a trident in his hand,&#xA;accompanied with innumerable ganas found Visnu ready for Waging a War.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Chapter 37 of Rudra Samhita (Sati Khanda),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वीरभद्रगणैस्तेषां लोकपालाः सवासवाः।&lt;br&gt; युद्धाञ्चक्रुस्तथा सिंहनादं कृत्वा&#xA;बलान्विताः॥५। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mighty Indra and other Lokapalas then started fighting with the ganas&#xA;of Vīrabhadra roaring like a lion. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गणानां लोकपालानां द्वन्द्वयुद्ध भयावहम्।&lt;br&gt; अभवत्तत्र तुमुलं गर्जतां&#xA;सिंहनादतः।।६।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Roaring like the lion, the Sivaganas fought a terrific battle with Indra and Lokapalas. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यमेन सह सड्यार्म महालोको गणाग्रणी:।&lt;br&gt; चकार तुमुलं वीरो महादेवं&#xA;स्मरन्मुदा।।१२।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahāloka the chief of his ganas, meditating on Siva in his mind,&#xA;delightfully fought a horrible battle with Yama. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नैर्ऋतेन समागम्य चण्डश्च बलवत्तरः॥&lt;br&gt;युयुधे परमास्त्रैश्च नैर्ऋर्तिं&#xA;निविडम्बयन्।।१३।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The valorous Canda, attacking Nirrti with his astonishing types of&#xA;Weapons, fought with him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वरुणेन समं वीरो मुण्डश्चैव महाबलः।&lt;br&gt; युयुधे परया शक्त्या त्रिलोकीं&#xA;विस्मयन्निव।।१४।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The immensely strong Munda, carrying the divine Weapons, fought with&#xA;Varuna, carrying the huge spear. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वायुना च हतो भूङ्गी स्वास्त्रेण परमौजसा।&lt;br&gt; भृङ्गिणा च हतो&#xA;वायुस्त्रिशूलेन प्रतापिना॥१५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhring the glorious one, attacked over the wind god, with his trident,&#xA;while the wind god wounded Bhringi with his weapons.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कुबेरेणैव सङ्गम्य कूष्माण्डपतिरादरात्।&lt;br&gt; युयुधे बलवान्वीरो ध्यात्वा हदि&#xA;महेश्वरम्।१६।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The valorous, Kusmandapati, with his mind devoted&#xA;to Mahesvara, started fighting with Kubera. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;योगिनीचक्रसंयुक्तो भैरवीनायको महान्।&lt;br&gt;विदार्य देवानखिलान् पयौ&#xA;शोणितमद्भुतम्।१७।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The leader Bhairavi in association with the yoginis, tore out the&#xA;bodies of the gods and drank their blood. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;क्षेत्रपालास्तथा तत्र बुभुक्षुः सुरपुङ्गवान्।&lt;br&gt; काली चापि विदार्यैव&#xA;तान्पपौ रुधिरं बहु॥१८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ksetrapalas, devoured the gods. Mahakali on the other tore out several&#xA;gods and drank their blood. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्वचक्रमादाय महानुभाव क्षुकोष चातीव भवैकभत्ता। &lt;br&gt;महाबली तैर्युयुधे&#xA;प्रवीरैः सङ्क्रुद्धनानायुधधारकोऽस्त्रैः॥२२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The valorous lord Visnu who is the sole protector of the world,&#xA;carrying his cakra, started fighting with several of the Sivaganas.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततः प्रजापतिं धर्म कश्यपं च प्रगृह्य सः। &lt;br&gt;अरिष्टनेमिनं वीरो बहुपुत्रं&#xA;मुनीश्वरम्।॥४७॥ &lt;br&gt;मुनिमङ्गिरसं चैव कृशाश्वं च महागणः। &lt;br&gt;जघान मूर्ध्नि&#xA;पादेन दत्तं च मुनिपुङ्गवम्॥४८।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter the heroic Mahagana Virabhadra caught hold of Prajapati,&#xA;Dharma, Kasyapa, Aristanemi the sage with many sons, the sages Angira&#xA;and KrSasva and the great sage Datta and kicked all of them on their&#xA;heads. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विडम्विता स्वधा तत्र सा स्वाहा दक्षिणा तथा।&lt;br&gt; मन्त्रास्तन्त्रास्तथा&#xA;चान्ये तत्रस्था गणनायकैः॥५६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gana's leaders then attacked over Svadhā, Svāhā, Daksiņā, mantra,&#xA;tantra and all others who had been present there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ववृषुस्ते पुरीषाणि वितानाग्नौ रुषा गणाः।&lt;br&gt; अनिर्वाच्यं तदा चक्रुर्गणा&#xA;वीरास्तमध्वरम्।।५७।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ganas of Siva, getting enraged, showered filth and rubbish, over&#xA;the sacrificial fire. The heroic ganas absolutely polluted the&#xA;sacrifice. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तच्छिरस्तस्य दुष्टस्य दक्षस्य हरवैरिणः।&lt;br&gt; अग्निकुण्डे प्रचिक्षप वीरभद्रो&#xA;गणाग्रणी:।।६१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter Virabhadra- the leader of the ganas, dropped the head of&#xA;the inimical Dakşa in the sacred fire of the fire-altar. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see nowhere Veerabhadra, Bhringi, Nandi, Mahaloka or any other Shiva Gana misbehaved with women. They just fought with Devas and destroyed the Yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-23T15:47:49.997" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16865" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16857" CreationDate="2017-01-24T01:59:47.110" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's me again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I have not seen Suryaputra Karn. Starbharat has 6 bodies magically appear.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SOURCE: BORI Critical Mahabharat translated into English by Bibek Debroy (Book 1: Section 8 - Jatugriha-Daha Parva [Burning down the house of lac]&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Alright, first of all: &lt;em&gt;PLOT HOLE / DEUS EX MACHINA ALERT!!&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me put this story into context. The Pandavas, accompanied by Kunti, travel to Varnavat. They visited the town and finally settled in a house. They remained there for ten days. After that, Purochana (Duryodhan's lackey) had a great idea: he proposed that the Pandavas stay at &lt;em&gt;another&lt;/em&gt; house where they will be quite comfortable indeed. So the Pandavas went there. Yudhisthir immediately caught scent of the ghee and told Bhim that surely Purochana planned to set it on fire. Now, to those of you who watched Starbharat, you must be saying to yourselves: but Vidur went to Varnavat and then warned them! No. Vidur warned Yudhisthir before the Pandavas set course for Varnavat (he told them to be weary of poison and fire). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Naturally, Bhim tells Yudhisthir: hey let's get out of here! Yudhisthir refused. He claims that if they leave then Duryodhan will sent assassins after them (uhh, wouldn't they be able to handle them? you know...with Arjun and Bhim. I'll stop myself from further editorializing..). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here's your deus ex machina: the very next moment, a tunnel digger (sent by Vidur) arrives. The digger informs the Pandavas that Purochana will set the lac house on fire within two weeks (don't worry, plot hole coming soon!). We have no clue as to how Vidur came upon this information. Another deus ex machina (welcome to BORI MB!). At any rate, Vidur's man dug a tunnel in the middle of the lac house and covered it up with wooden planks. The Pandavas lived in the hole (beginning of the tunnel) during nighttime so as not to be burned in case Purochana started the fire. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yeah so about Purochana setting the lac house on fire within a fortnight...now the BORI MB states that the Pandavas lived like that for a year! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And now I can address the heart of your question&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhisthir said: “The cruel-hearted and evil Purochana thinks us to be trusting and has been deceived well. I think the time has come for our escape. &lt;strong&gt;Let us escape, unobserved by anyone, after setting fire to the armoury, burning Purochana to death and leaving six bodies here&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Driven by destiny and in search of food, a hunter woman also happened to come to the feast, accompanied by her five sons. All of them drank wine, until, with her sons, she was completely drunk. O ruler of men! &lt;strong&gt;She and her sons lost their senses and slept in that house, as if dead.&lt;/strong&gt; When everyone was asleep and a violent storm started in the night, Bhima started a fire at the spot where Purochana was sleeping.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Depends on what YOU think. Many people like to view MB through a relativist lens. They present the perspective of &quot;morally gray&quot; characters. Now, I'm going to assume that you're asking for my opinion. It is quite clear that Yudhisthir planned the cold blooded murder of &lt;strong&gt;seven people&lt;/strong&gt;: Purochana, a woman, and five adult-sized men. The Nishada woman and her children were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I clipped a bit of the quotation as it wasn't relevant to your question but...before they set the house on fire, Kunti hosts a group of Brahmanas and invited women from the Varnavat town to an evening of food and drink (of the alcoholic variety). This is where Kunti gets roped into the murder plot. Kunti was actively seeking out a woman to intoxicate so they could leave a burned female body at the scene of the fire. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'd love to have a debate on this one. I think that Yudhisthir, Kunti and Bhim are guilty of murder. It's quite clear to me. Now, you may argue on the Kunti point. But...may I remind you as to how Kunti met her demise? Ah! Poetic justice at its finest!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regards,&#xA;Your local Mahabharata passerby. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS I would have cited the text more frequently but I felt like I would simply be posting the entire chapter. I feel that may be in breach of copyright laws, and unfair use since the author does expect people to pay for the works. I can only hope that my summary provided you with a rich context. I added a fun sort of spin on it since MB! Until next time...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8770" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-24T02:28:28.370" LastActivityDate="2017-01-24T02:28:28.370" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16866" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-24T02:14:39.923" Score="12" ViewCount="6990" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Uttara-kāṇḍa of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, we see Vālmīki narrate the story of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambuka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Śambūka&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why did Rāma kill Śambūka? Is it because Śambūka was a śūdra or is it because he was doing Tapasya for the wrong reasons? Were śūdras not allowed to become a ṛṣi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And is Rāma justified in killing him without dialogue or a second chance? Why didn't he just imprison him? What was the need to eliminate Śambūka altogether?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;PS. This question is similar to: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/342&quot;&gt;Why did Lord Rama give a second chance to Ravana, but not to Vali?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-05-21T04:41:10.857" LastActivityDate="2022-09-16T11:08:16.803" Title="Why did Rāma kill Śambūka? And is Rāma justified in killing him without a second chance?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|dharma|caste-system|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16867" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10530" CreationDate="2017-01-24T07:43:50.013" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following verse found in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/kamesha.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;VAmakeswara Tantra&lt;/a&gt; explains in short why Shiva is not worshiped alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;shaktyA vinA shive sUkShme nAma dhAma na vidyate&lt;/strong&gt; | jnAtenApi mahAdevi&#xA;  sharma karma na kinchana ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;parabrahma is without any attributes and upAsanA of such an entity,&#xA;  involving nAma kIrtana etc. is not possible. Hence, it is shakti&#xA;  vishiShTa brahma who is the upAsya,&lt;/strong&gt; represented by mahAkAmeshvara&#xA;  mithuna in tripurA tantra. &lt;strong&gt;kAmeshvara, who represents the bindu of&#xA;  shrIchakra, due to abhAva or lack of saguNatva, cannot be &quot;worshiped&quot;&#xA;  alone and has to be worshiped along with kameshvarI&lt;/strong&gt; seated on his lap.&#xA;  Hence, it is also said to be mandatory to worship the Ayudhas of both&#xA;  kAmeshvarI and kAmeshvara outside mahAtryashra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's also why Sadashiva is  shown as being lying down in the following  Sri Lalita Mahatripurasundari image.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because Shiva denotes the supreme inactive consciousness.He is inactive without Shakti's presence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MkQtY.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MkQtY.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-24T16:47:38.437" LastActivityDate="2017-01-24T16:47:38.437" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16869" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16870" CreationDate="2017-01-24T17:10:00.843" Score="3" ViewCount="1295" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard lot about this mudra and its benefits and online text have different different version of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If any one can explain me in full detail with pictures, quoting the relevant texts and scriptures and how one can master it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7676" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T05:51:29.050" Title="What is Vajroli Mudra?" Tags="|yoga|asana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16870" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16869" CreationDate="2017-01-24T17:57:54.807" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vajroli mudra is quite an intricate Yogic practice,It involves sexual intercourse too.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,I don't really understand why you want to know about it from online resources.Or are you looking for some other Vajroli that i don't know about?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In anycase, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatha_Yoga_Pradipika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hatha Yoga Pradipika&lt;/a&gt;,we find the following description of Dasa mudras including the Vajroli mudra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Mzs7E.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Mzs7E.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karani viparitakhya vajroli saktichalanam Idam hi mudradasakam&#xA;  jaramarananasanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Viparîta Karanî, &lt;strong&gt;Vajroli&lt;/strong&gt;, and Sakti Châlana. These are the ten&#xA;  mudrâs which annihilate old age and death.[Note-These mUdras have sub-divisions hence the 10 ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the description of Vajroli Mudra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xCZkx.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xCZkx.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Svechchaya vartamanoapi yoghoktairniyamairvina Vajrolim yo vijanati sa&#xA;  yogi siddhibhajanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even if one who lives a wayward life, without observing any rules of&#xA;  Yoga, but performs Vajrolî, deserves success and is a Yogî.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Two things are necessary for this, and these are difficult to get for&#xA;  the ordinary people—(1) milk and (2) a woman behaving, as desired.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By practising to draw in the bindu, discharged during cohabitation,&#xA;  whether one be a man or a woman, one obtains success in the practice&#xA;  of Vajrolî.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,here are the benefits of practicing &amp;amp; mastering the Vajroli mudra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dehasiddhim cha labhate vajrolyabhyāsayogatah Ayam punyakaro yogho&#xA;  bhoghe bhukteapi muktidah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By the practice of Yoga consisting of the practices of Vajroli, bodily&#xA;  perfection is obtained (beauty, grace and great strength). This Yoga&#xA;  confers merit (punya), and though there is sensual experience, it&#xA;  leads to emancipation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also note that i have intentionally omitted the actual description because its of no use.One can't learn yoga by studying millions of shahtras.It is to be learnt only from a Guru.(This is what the Shastras declare &amp;amp; not something that i'm saying).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW-There is also a mudra in Yoga called &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Vajroni&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.Are you by any chance seeking information on that one ?If yes then i'll update my answer later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T05:51:29.050" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T05:51:29.050" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16871" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16873" CreationDate="2017-01-24T19:04:53.767" Score="6" ViewCount="239" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am from North India. I live in Banglore right now. Uttarayan is a famous festival in North India. Do people from Karnataka celebrate this festival?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10049" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T02:09:42.707" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T02:47:30.270" Title="Do people from Karnataka celebrate uttarayan festival?" Tags="|tradition|festivals|celebrations|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16872" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16790" CreationDate="2017-01-24T19:12:04.647" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is generally believed in Eastern India (  Orissa,Bengal and Assam) ,that the &lt;strong&gt;Kayastha caste&lt;/strong&gt;  was created to accommodate the &lt;strong&gt;Buddhists who integrated with Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;em&gt;Since the Buddhists did not believe in a Caste System ,the Kayasthas were given the freedom to take up any profession and inter marry with people of any Caste in Hinduism&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; I have ,however , not come across any written record ,in support of this belief...But till now , there are no caste related restrictions on the Kayasths (Karanas' in Orissa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2017-01-24T19:12:04.647" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16873" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16871" CreationDate="2017-01-25T02:47:30.270" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes. They do celebrate the festival Uttarayan but the name is different&lt;/strong&gt;. In fact, this festival is celebrated all over India but the names are different according to the language spoken at that place and customs at that place. Also the way of celebration slightly differ from state to state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Gujarat, it is called uttarayana. In Karnataka, it is called Suggi Habba, Makara Samkranthi, Makara Sankramana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why is the festival celebrated ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This festival marks the transition of the sun into the zodiac sign of Makara(capricorn). From that day onwards, auspicious uttarayana period begins. So, the worship of the Sun god is common in many states.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also a harvest festival. As a gratitude towards Sun god, they worship him on these days. They also decorate the cattle which has helped them during farming. Competitions involving cattle(in southern part of India), animals, roosters(in Andhra Pradesh) are held.  Dishes made with jaggery and sesame seeds are made and distributed among friends, relatives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Names of the festival in different places&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Suggi Habba&lt;/strong&gt;, Makara Sankramana, Makara Sankranthi: &lt;strong&gt;Karnataka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Makar Sankranti: Chhattisgarh, Goa, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Jammu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thai Pongal, Uzhavar Thirunal: Tamil Nadu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Uttarayan: Gujarat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maghi: Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Magh Bihu or Bhogali Bihu: Assam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shishur Saenkraat: Kashmir Valley&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Khichdi: Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Poush Sangkranti: West Bengal&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tila Sakrait: Mithila&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also celebrated in countries where is Hindu population.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Poush Sangkranthi/ Shakrain : Bangladesh&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nepal : Maghe Sankranti or Maghi- /Khichdi Sankranti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In many states, it is celebrated for four days in which different rituals are followed on different days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more information on similarities and differences in different regions of the country, See &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makar_Sankranti#Traditions.2C_rituals_and_celebration&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T02:47:30.270" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16874" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19282" CreationDate="2017-01-25T04:44:43.847" Score="6" ViewCount="323" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Arthanārīśvara form of śiva is quite famous. It depicts the equality of Male and female energy in the universe. There is also a hymn dedicated to Arthanārīśvara form called &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-0aNq2349E&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arthanārīśvara stotram&lt;/a&gt; composed by Adi Shankaracharya and also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Ardha_Nareeswara_Ashtakam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arthanārīśvara ashtakam&lt;/a&gt; which is written by sage Upamanyu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When and why did śiva give half of his body to śivā (Pārvati)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any story related to this?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which scriptures describes this form of śiva? &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/T2FLKl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/T2FLKl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Arthanareeshwara &quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-04T14:22:04.090" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T14:25:58.353" Title="When and why did Shiva take Arthanārīśvara form?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|parvati|shakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16876" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16792" CreationDate="2017-01-25T07:06:24.833" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all this answer does not address the main question which is about  Navagraha's relation with the numbers,nor the one which asks about the basis of numerology in Hindu Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It only indicates how the relation  may have been formed using the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katapayadi_system&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Katapayadi&lt;/a&gt; system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also it indicates that numerology is not quite out of place in hInduism as we can see from this article :   &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/aksharasamkhya.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aksharasamkhya Nirdesha(@Kamakotimandali.org)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ambA is worshipped through various mantras. Of these, panchadashI,&#xA;  shuddha ShoDashI, saubhAgya brahmavidyA or saubhAgya panchadashI&#xA;  (ShoDashI) and mahAShoDashI are the most important mantras in most of&#xA;  the dAkShiNAtya shrIvidyA sampradAyas. The number of letters in these&#xA;  mantras is indicated by the names of parAmbA based on katapaya&#xA;  calculations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Name 1: lalitAmbA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;La-3; li-3; tAm-6; bA-3 Total: 3+3+6+3 = 15 -&gt; shuddha panchadashI&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Name 2: lalitAmbikA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;La-3; li-3; tAm-6; bi-3; kA-1 Total: 3+3+6+3+1= 16 -&gt; shuddha ShoDashI&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Name 3: shrIlalitAmbikA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;shrI-2; La-3; li-3; tAm-6; bi-3; kA-1 Total: 2+3+3+6+3+1= 18 -&gt;&#xA;  saubhAgya brahmavidyA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Name 4: shrIrAjarAjeshvarI&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;shrI-2; rA-2; ja-8; rA-2; je-8; shva-4; rI-2 Total: 2+2+8+2+8+4+2 = 28&#xA;  -&gt; mahAShoDashI&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The same can be seen with respect to chaNDI as well. chan-6 and DI-3,&#xA;  thus indicating 6+3=9. On reversing the digits, the mantra denotes the&#xA;  thirty-six tattvas starting from shiva till dharA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T07:06:24.833" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16878" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12185" CreationDate="2017-01-25T07:52:51.367" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are various mantras which are used to worship Lord Rudra / Lord Shiva. In Shiva Gita various Gods and sages are seen singing various hymns of Lord Shiva. Shiva Gita is a part of UttarKhanda of Padma Purana which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15840/sarva-dharman-parityejya-mamekam-sharanam-vraja-in-shiva-gita&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;. One can read Shiva Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_giitaa/shivagiitaa.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the Shiva Gita, Shiva Pradhurbhavam chapter, when Lord Shiva manifests before Lord Rama, various Gods are seen singing various mantras and hymns in praise of him. It is described there as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौन्दर्यसारसंदोहां ददर्श रघुनन्दनः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्वस्ववाहनसंयुक्तान्नानायुधलसत्करान ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;बृहद्रथन्तरादीनि सामानि परिगायतः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्वस्वकान्तासमायुक्तान्दिक्पालान्परितः स्थितान।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अग्रगं गरुडारूढं शंखचक्रगदाधरम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कालाम्बुदप्रतीकाशं विद्युत्कान्त्या श्रिया युतम।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;जपन्तमेकमनसा रुद्राध्यायं जनार्दनम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पश्चाच्चतुर्मुखं देवं ब्रह्माणं हंसवाहनम।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;चतुर्वक्त्रैश्चतुर्वेदरुद्रसूक्तैर्महेश्वरम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्तुवन्तं भारतीयुक्तं दीर्घकूर्चं जटाधरम।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अथर्वशिरसा देवं स्तुवन्तं मुनिमण्डलम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;गङ्गादितटिनीयुक्तमम्बुधिं नीलविग्रहम।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;श्वेताश्वतरमन्त्रेण स्तुवन्तं गिरिजापतिम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अनन्तादिमहानागान्कैलासगिरिसन्निभान।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कैवल्योपनिषत्पाठान्मणिरत्नविभूषितान।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सुवर्णवेत्रहस्ताढ्यं नन्दिनं पुरतः स्थितम।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;दक्षिणे मूषकारूढं गणेशं पर्वतोपमम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मयूरवाहनारूढमुत्तरे षण्मुखं तथा।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;महाकालं च चण्डेशं पार्श्वयोर्भीषणाकृतिम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कालाग्निरुद्रं दूरस्थं ज्वलद्दावाग्निसन्निभम।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;त्रिपादं कुटिलाकारं नटद्भृङ्गिरिटिं पुरः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नानाविकारवदनान्कोटिशः प्रमथाधिपान।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नानावाहनसंयुक्तं परितो मातृमण्डलम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पञ्चाक्षरीजपासक्तान्सिद्धविद्याधरादिकान।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;दिव्यरुद्रकगीतानि गायत्किन्नरवृन्दकम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तत्र त्रैयम्बकं मन्त्रं जपद्द्विजकदम्बकम।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;गायन्तं वीणया गीतं नृत्यन्तं नारदं दिवि।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नृत्यतो नाट्यनृत्येन रम्भादीनप्सरोगणान।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;गायच्चित्ररथादीनां गन्धर्वाणां कदम्बकम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कम्बलाश्वतरौ शंभुकर्णभूषणतां गतौ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;गायन्तौ पन्नगौ गीतं कपालं कम्बलं तथा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;एवं देवसभां दृष्ट्वा कृतार्थो रघुनन्दनः।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;हर्षगद्गदया वाचा स्तुवन्देवं महेश्वरम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;दिव्यनामसहस्रेण प्रणनाम पुनः पुनः।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Raghunanda there saw the essence of beauty. Riding on their own vehicles and carrying respective weapons were the Digpalas shining in their own lusture in their respective places and singing the &lt;strong&gt;Brihad and Rathantara Saman.&lt;/strong&gt; In the front sitting on the Garuda and with the Sankha Chakra and Gada along with the lustrous Lakshmi was Janardana and singing &lt;strong&gt;Sri Rudram&lt;/strong&gt; with the concenterated mind. In the back was seated Brahma in the swan, singing the &lt;strong&gt;Rudra Suktas&lt;/strong&gt; of four Vedas from the four mouths along with Bharati. Devas and Munis were chanting the &lt;strong&gt;Atharvasiras&lt;/strong&gt; and praising the Lord. God of ocean standing beside Ganga was also signing &lt;strong&gt;Svetasvatara hymns&lt;/strong&gt; in praise of Lord of Girija. Great serpents like Aananta who looked as huge as Kailash mountain were seen singing hymns from &lt;strong&gt;Kaivalya Upanishad.&lt;/strong&gt; Nandi was seen in the front carrying a golden danda in his hands. In the south Ganesha was sitting in his mouse. In the north Shanmukha (Kartikeya) was seen sitting in his peacock. In the left and right side of Paramesvara were seen the Mahakala and Chandes. In a far distance was seen the Kalagni Rudra. Three legged Bhringi was dancing in the front along with the Ganas with various faces. In their respective vehicles were seated the divine mothers. Siddha Vidhyadharas were chanting the &lt;strong&gt;Panchakshari Mantra.&lt;/strong&gt; Kinnars were singing the Divya &lt;strong&gt;Rudra Gita.&lt;/strong&gt; Divine Brahmanas were chanting the &lt;strong&gt;Tryambakam mantra.&lt;/strong&gt; Narada was dancing in joy singing song from his Veena. Gandharvas like ChitraRathas were singing. All the Gods of heaven, heavenly snakes etc.. were seen all around singing the songs of Maheswara. Rama became ecstasic on seeing this beautiful scene. Then he started chanting &lt;strong&gt;Maheswara Sahasranama&lt;/strong&gt; with many salutations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Anushashana Parva also various Gods are singing various hymns in praise of Mahadeva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अस्तुवन्विविधैः स्तोत्रैर्महादेवं सुरास्तदा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ब्रह्मा भवं तदा स्तुन्वन्रथन्तरमुदीरयन् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ज्येष्ठसाम्ना च देवेशं जगौ नारायणस्तदा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;गृणञ्शक्रः परं ब्रह्म शतरुद्रीयमुत्तमम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ब्रह्मा नारायणश्चैव देवराजश्च कौशिकः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अशोभन्त महात्मानस्र्त्रयस्र्त्रय इवाग्नय ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The deities were engaged in singing the praises of Mahadeva by uttering diverse hymns. The Grandsire Brahma uttering a &lt;strong&gt;Rathantara,&lt;/strong&gt; praised Mahadeva. Narayana also, uttering the &lt;strong&gt;Jyestha Saman,&lt;/strong&gt; sang the praises of Bhava. Sakra also did the same with the aid of those foremost of Vedic Mantras, viz., the &lt;strong&gt;Sata-Rudriyam.&lt;/strong&gt; Verily, Brahma and Narayana and Sakra,--those three high-souled deities,--shone there like three sacrificial fires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in chapter 64 of Linga Purana, Parashara also worships Lord Shiva using various hymns like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अदृश्यंति वशिष्ठं च प्रणम्यारुन्धतीं तत ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कृत्वैकलिंगं क्षणिकं पांसुना मुनिसन्निधौ ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;संपूज्य शिवसूक्तेन त्र्यंबकेन शुभेन च।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;जप्त्वा त्वरितरुद्रं च शिवसंकल्पमेव च।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;नीलरुद्रं च शाक्तेयस्तथा रुद्रं च शोभनम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वामीयं पवमानं च पंचब्रह्म तथैव च।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;होतारं लिंगसूक्तं च अथर्वशिर एव च।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अष्टांगमर्घ्यं रुद्राय दत्वाभ्यर्च्य यथाविधि।। (Linga Purana chapter 64)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Then Parashara bowed in reverence to Adryasanti - his mother, Vasistha and Arundhati - his grandparents. In presence of the sage Vasistha, he made a temporary Iinga of clay. Then he reciting the hymns from the &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Sukta, Tryambakam mantra, Tvarita Rudra, Siva Sankalpa, Nila Rudram, Shakteya- Rudra, Vamiya, Pavaman Sukta, PanchaBrahman Sukta, Linga-Sukta and Atharvasiras mantras,&lt;/strong&gt; adored the Shivalinga. After worshipping the linga appropriately, he offered Ashtangya Arghya to Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Srimad Bhagvatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/7/29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;8.7.29&lt;/a&gt; states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मुखानि पञ्चोपनिषदस् तवेश&lt;br&gt;&#xA; यैस् त्रिंशद्-अष्टोत्तर-मन्त्र-वर्गः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यत् तच् छिवाख्यं परमात्म-तत्त्वं&lt;br&gt;&#xA; देव स्वयं-ज्योतिर् अवस्थितिस् ते (S.B. 8.7.29)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;O lord, the &lt;strong&gt;five important Vedic mantras&lt;/strong&gt; are represented by your five faces, &lt;strong&gt;from which the thirty-eight most celebrated Vedic mantras have been generated.&lt;/strong&gt; Your Lordship, being celebrated as Lord Śiva, is self-illuminated. You are directly situated as the supreme truth, known as Paramātmā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in the Bhakti Yoga chapter of Shiva Gita, Lord Shiva himself states about various hymns which pleases him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो वेदाध्ययनं यज्ञअं दानानि विविधानि च।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मदर्पणधिया कुर्यात्स मे भक्तः स मे प्रियः।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नर्यभस्म समादाय विशुद्धं श्रोत्रियालयात ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अग्निरित्यादिभिर्मन्त्रैरभिमन्त्र्य यथाविधि ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उद्धूलयति गात्राणि तेन चार्चति मामपि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्मात्परतरा भक्तिर्मम राम न विद्यते ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वदा शिरसा कण्ठे रुद्राक्षान्धारयेत्तु यः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पञ्चाक्षरीजपरतः स मे भक्तः स मे प्रियः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भस्मच्छन्नो भस्मशायी सर्वदा विजितेन्द्रियः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यस्तु रुद्रं जपेन्नित्यं चिन्तयेन्मामनन्यधीः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स तेनैव च देहेन शिवः संजायते स्वयम ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;जपेद्यो रुद्रसूक्तानि तथाथर्वशिरः परम ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कैवल्योपनिषत्सूक्तं श्वेताश्वतरमेव च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ततः परतरो भक्तो मम लोके न विद्यते ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ईशावास्यादि मन्त्रान यो जपेन्नित्यं ममाग्रतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मत्सायुज्यमवाप्नोति मम लोके महीयते ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;He who studies the Vedas, does Yajnas and Danas as per shastra, and offera his action to me, he is my favourite devotee. He who applies holy ash in his body reciting the mantras like &amp;quot;Agniriti Bhasma.. &amp;quot; no one is dear to me as him. He who wears Rudraksha Maala on his head and neck, and   he who always recites &lt;strong&gt;Panchkashari Mantra,&lt;/strong&gt; both these type of devotees are very dear to me. He who applies the holy ash, sleeps on holy ash and conquered all senses, reads the &lt;strong&gt;Sri Rudram hymn&lt;/strong&gt; with concenterated mind, he is Shiva himself from his body. He who chants the Rudra Suktas, chants &lt;strong&gt;Atharvasiras, Kaivalya and Svetasvatara Upanishad,&lt;/strong&gt; no one is superior to him. He who regularly chants the mantras of &lt;strong&gt;Isavasya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; is sure to get Sayujya Mukti on me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the above refrences from Padma Purana, Mahabharata, Linga Purana and Srimad Bhagvatam forms the summary of various mantras and hymns used for the worship of Lord Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some information of above mentioned mantras and shlokas are as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Panchakshari Mantra:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Considered as one of the most potent mantra of Lord Shiva. Mantra present in YajurVeda Samhita. I discuss Panchakshari Mantra in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16401/how-do-the-vedas-survive-during-the-dissolution-of-the-universe/16402#16402&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16417/can-a-sudra-become-a-brahmin-in-this-birth/16418#16418&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Trayambakam Mantra:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;Trayambakam Yajamahe... &amp;quot; is one of the most famous mantra and also known as Mahamrityunjaya or Mokshyadayini Mantra. It is present in RigVeda and YajurVeda and is asking for Moksha from Lord Shiva. I discuss Trayambakam Mantra in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12019/where-does-rig-veda-say-that-shiva-is-the-god-who-grants-moksha/12020#12020&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3563/who-gives-moksha/14374#14374&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) PanchaBrahman Mantras:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PanchaBrahman mantras are from Taittariya Aranyaka of Yajurveda and describe Sadyojata to Ishana forms of Lord Shiva. I discuss PanchaBrahman Mantras in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16553/who-are-pancha-brahmas-and-why-are-they-called-so/16557#16557&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt; These are the same mantras which is stated by Srimad Bhagvatam in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16553/who-are-pancha-brahmas-and-why-are-they-called-so/16557#16557&quot;&gt;8.7.29&lt;/a&gt;. The 38 mantras which are derived from these 5 mantras stated by Srimad Bhagvatam are given by Prabhupada in commentary of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/7/31&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;8.7.31:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) tat puruṣāya vidmahe śāntyai, (2) mahā-devāya dhīmahi vidyāyai, (3) tan no rudraḥ pratiṣṭhāyai, (4) pracodayāt dhṛtyai, (5) aghorebhyas tamā … , (6) atha ghorebhyo mohā … , (7) aghorebhyo rakṣā … , (8) aghoratarebhyo nidrā … , (9) sarvebhyaḥ sarva-vyādhyai, (10) sarva-sarvebhyo mṛtyave, (11) namas te ’stu kṣudhā … , (12) rudra-rūpebhyas tṛṣṇā … , (13) vāmadevāya rajā … , (14) jyeṣṭhāya svāhā … , (15) śreṣṭhāya ratyai, (16) rudrāya kalyāṇyai, (17) kālāya kāmā … , (18) kala-vikaraṇāya sandhinyai, (19) bala-vikaraṇāya kriyā … , (20) balāya vṛddhyai, (21) balacchāyā … , (22) pramathanāya dhātryai, (23) sarva-bhūta-damanāya bhrāmaṇyai, (24) manaḥ-śoṣiṇyai, (25) unmanāya jvarā … , (26) sadyojātaṁ prapadyāmi siddhyai, (27) sadyojātāya vai namaḥ ṛddhyai, (28) bhave dityai, (29) abhave lakṣmyai, (30) nātibhave medhā … , (31) bhajasva māṁ kāntyai, (32) bhava svadhā … , (33) udbhavāya prabhā … , (34) īśānaḥ sarva-vidyānāṁ śaśinyai, (35) īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām abhaya-dā … , (36) brahmādhipatir brahmaṇodhipatir brahman brahmeṣṭa-dā … , (37) śivo me astu marīcyai, (38) sadāśivaḥ jvālinyai.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4) Sri Rudram:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram is avaliable in all Shakhas of YajurVeda as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15301/are-there-any-variants-in-samhita-of-vedas/15445#15445&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt;. The Jabala and Kaivalya Upanishad recommend chanting of Sri Rudram hymn for Moksha/Immortality. One can read Sri Rudram hymn &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/rudra.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and with translation &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/stotra/Sri%20Rudram%20Anuvakam1.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;5) Linga Sukta:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Linga Suktas are from the Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda. They are just before the PanchaBrahman mantras described above. I discuss mantras of Linga Suktas in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt;. The mantras are also present in MahaNarayaniya and are as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;षोडशोऽनुवाकः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;निधनपतये नमः । निधनपतान्तिकाय नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ऊर्ध्वाय नमः । ऊर्ध्वलिङ्गाय नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;हिरण्याय नमः । हिरण्यलिङ्गाय नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सुवर्णाय नमः । सुवर्णलिङ्गाय नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;दिव्याय नमः । दिव्यलिङ्गाय नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;भवाय नमः। भवलिङ्गाय नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;शर्वाय नमः । शर्वलिङ्गाय नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;शिवाय नमः । शिवलिङ्गाय नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ज्वलाय नमः । ज्वललिङ्गाय नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;आत्माय नमः । आत्मलिङ्गाय नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;परमाय नमः । परमलिङ्गाय नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;एतत्सोमस्य सूर्यस्य सर्वलिङ्ग स्थापयति पाणिमन्त्रं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पवित्रम् ॥ १॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av10007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skambha Sukta&lt;/a&gt; of Atharvaveda also describes a pillar/Skambha/Linga which supports the entire creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;6) Atharvasiras Mantras:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atharvashiras_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharvasiras Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; is a part of Atharvaveda. It is an authentic Upanishad and quoted in numerous old texts like Gautama Dharmasutras19.12, Baudhayana Dharmasutra verse 3.10.10, Vasistha Dharmasutras verse 22.9, etc.. Atharvasiras explains the meaning of various names of Lord Shiva like Rudra, Maheswara, Ishana etc.. and it contains various mantras in praise of Lord Shiva. It also recommends to perform a holy rite called PashuPat Vrata for liberation (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16594/why-is-lord-shiva-called-pashupati-who-are-the-pashus/16596#16596&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;). One can read Atharvasiras in Sanskrit &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/atharvashira.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;7) Ishavasya Mantras:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isha Upanishad is one of the Mukhya Upanishad and is 40th chapter of Shukla YajurVeda. It was heard by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2826/who-is-the-seer-of-the-isha-upanishad/14443#14443&quot;&gt;Rishi Dadhichi.&lt;/a&gt; The first verse of the Upanishad states  &amp;quot;ईशा वास्यमिदं सर्वं&amp;quot; ie. &amp;quot;The entire universe is covered by Isha.&amp;quot; One can read Isha Upanishad in Sanskrit &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/iisha.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;8) Svetasvatara Mantras:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad is also considered among the Mukhya Upanishad and also quoted in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9517/procedures-used-for-preserving-the-integrity-of-the-vedas/13703#13703&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/a&gt;. It states &amp;quot;Eko hi Rudro Na Dwitiyaya... &amp;quot; ie. &amp;quot;Rudra is the only thing that exists, no second thing exists other than Rudra.&amp;quot; It also contains other names of Lord Rudra like Shiva, Hara, Isha, Ishana, Maheswara, etc... Svetasvatara Upanishad in Sanskrit is avaliable &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/shveta.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;9) Kaivalya Upanishad:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaivalya_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaivalya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; is also one of the important Upanishad. While commenting on the name 'Shiva' in Vishnu Sahasranama Adi Shankara has cited a verse from Kaivalya Upanishad as &amp;quot;स ब्रह्मा स शिवः सेन्द्रः सोऽक्षरः परमः स्वराट् ।&amp;quot; Kaivalya Upanishad also contains mantras to glorify Lord Shiva. One of the important mantra which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7591/is-parvati-mentioned-in-the-vedas/14888#14888&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; contained in this Upanishad is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उमासहायं परमेश्वरं प्रभुं त्रिलोचनं नीलकण्ठं प्रशान्तम् ।&#xA;ध्यात्वा मुनिर्गच्छति भूतयोनिं समस्तसाक्षिं तमसः परस्तात् ॥ 1.7॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Meditating on the highest Lord, allied to Uma, powerful, three-eyed, blue-necked, and tranquil, the holy man reaches Him who is the source of all, the witness of all and is beyond darkness (i.e. Avidya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;10) Nila Rudriyam:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nila Rudra Upanishad is a part of Kanda 14 Sukta 3 of Atharvaveda Paipplada Samhita. It contains numerous mantras which glorifies Lord Shiva. One can read NilaRudra Upanishad in Sanskrit &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/nIlarudropaniShat.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;11) Maheswara Sahasranama:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sahasranama of Mahadeva is present in various scriptures like Linga Purana, Shiva Purana, Skandha Purana, Anushashana Parva of Mahabharata etc.. Shiva Sahasranama of Anushasana Parva is avaliable &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_shiva/shivasahasMaha.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T07:52:51.367" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16879" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12185" CreationDate="2017-01-25T08:38:03.017" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although it's been said that Lord Shiva is very easily pleased but the method of his worship &lt;strong&gt;is by no way simple or short.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's easily the most elaborate process at least if you want to do it as the scriptures has ordained.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see a lot of mantras in Tezz's answer but the point is that not everyone is allowed to chant a lot of those mantras including in particular the Veda mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,i don't think you will benefit a lot by knowing the details of a ritualistic Shiva Puja or even the mantras used there in because that's a huge subject in itself.Instead,i think, you should always approach Shiva through devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parama Shiva himself recommends that path in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So basically i'm answering partially your question with my focus being on this question : &lt;strong&gt;&quot;What is the proper way to worship Lord Rudra&quot; ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parama Shiva asserted:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Naaham Tapobhirvividhairna Daanena na cheyjyayaa, Shakyo hi Purushair&#xA;  jaaturmutey Bhaktiamanuttamaam||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I am always realizable by Bhakti or Pure Devotion and not necessarily by Tapasya, Daana or Charity and Yagnaas!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na madbhaktaa vinashyanti madbhaktaa veeta kalmashaah, Aadaavetat&#xA;  pratigjaanam na mey bhaktah pranashyati|| Patram Pushpam Phalam toyam&#xA;  madaaraadhana kaaranaat, Yo mey dadaati niyatah sa meyBhaktah&#xA;  Priyomatah||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My Bhaktaas would never be destroyed nor harmed but would be washed&#xA;  off their sins as I took a vow that my Bhaktas are protected.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Bhaktas are merely required to perform my Puja with utmost sincerity and offer leaves, flowers, fruits and even water as I would be&#xA;  pleased.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,you are merely required to worship him with water,fruits and leaves as per your capabilities.Lord Shiva himself does not emphasize on a &quot;proper way&quot;.Because he knows very well that not everyone can worship him with all the needed mantras from Vedas and other Shastras.That is even very difficult for well-versed Vedic Purohits so what to say of the common man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T08:48:33.650" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T08:48:33.650" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16880" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7327" CreationDate="2017-01-25T10:02:03.480" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aghora is one of the '&lt;em&gt;vaama&lt;/em&gt;-&lt;em&gt;marga&lt;/em&gt;' in Hinduism i.e. left-hand-path is considered &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamachara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;vaamachaara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. The normal Hindu rituals are &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dak%E1%B9%A3i%E1%B9%87%C4%81c%C4%81ra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;dakshinachara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; or colloquially called right-hand path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Aghoris&lt;/em&gt; believe that although &lt;em&gt;dakshinachara&lt;/em&gt; is more easier, socially accepted and 'saner' way to attain &lt;em&gt;moksha&lt;/em&gt; and elevate &lt;em&gt;kundalini&lt;/em&gt; it's painfully slow. &lt;em&gt;Aghoris&lt;/em&gt; on the other hand use &lt;em&gt;vaamachara&lt;/em&gt;, which is considered very difficult (it's very easy to fall from dharmic path to adharma), socially taboo (the ingredients in a &lt;em&gt;tantric&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;pooja&lt;/em&gt; and the yantras etc).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tantra prescribes something called pancha-makara (5 things starting with 'm'). These include &lt;em&gt;Madya&lt;/em&gt; (wine), &lt;em&gt;Mamsa&lt;/em&gt; (meat), &lt;em&gt;Matsya&lt;/em&gt; (fish), &lt;em&gt;Mudra&lt;/em&gt; (cereal), and &lt;em&gt;Maithuna&lt;/em&gt; (sexual intercourse). Often it's said that these are allegories for other subtle elements. There are tantric yogic mudras like &lt;em&gt;sahajoli&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;vajroli&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;mudras&lt;/em&gt; which are again related to sex organs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason Tantra is not popular compared to dakshinachara is that it's very easy to stray from the path of moksha and indulge more in the mundane world when surrounded by earthly pleasures including tamasic food, intoxicants and sex.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since these things are considered taboo and scorned off in &lt;em&gt;dakshinachara&lt;/em&gt;, people started concocting stories around people who practice &lt;em&gt;vaamachara&lt;/em&gt; including but not limited to Aghoras being necro-cannibals (corpse eaters) and what-not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a more elaborate treatment, I recommend a three part book series titled &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217493.Aghora&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aghora&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="70" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T10:02:03.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16881" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8643" CreationDate="2017-01-25T13:00:58.400" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Examples are useful to understand and realize the true sense or meaning of preaching.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here (in BG 2.67), the example of wind carries out ship on the sea has following preaching sense:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the main goal/objective of man is to know and realize the true self. But indriya/senses can &lt;strong&gt;divert&lt;/strong&gt; the main goal (of realizing true self) through controlling mind (when followed/focused on indriya/senses) in experiencing the sense-objects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, let's consider the example given for preaching this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main objective/goal of man who is running ship is to reach at the destination by &lt;strong&gt;directing&lt;/strong&gt; ship towards the goal but wind can &lt;strong&gt;divert&lt;/strong&gt; the direction and the ship controlled by wind instead of man can never reach the destination as it roves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as wind carries out (control and divert) the ship, similarly indirya/sense (on which mind is followed/focused) carries out (diverts, roves) the wisom/intellect of man from the spirituality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me quote Adi Shankaracharya &amp;amp; Ramanujacharya's commentary on BG 2.67 which are useful and reliable interpretation to get the true sense of what is being preached or explained with the help of wind-ship example (quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=2&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=67&amp;amp;htshg=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;etradi=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita Supersite&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation Of Sri Shankaracharya's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Gambirananda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.67 Hi, for; yat manah, the mind which; anu-vidhiyate, follows in the wake of; caratam, the wandering; indriyani, senses that are tending towards their respective objects; tat, that, the mind engaged in thinking [Perceiving objects like sound etc. in their respective varieties.] of the objects of the senses; harati, carries away, destroys; asya, his, the sannyasin's; prajnam, wisdom born from the discrimination between the Self and the not-Self. How? Iva, like; vayuh, the wind; diverting a navam, boat; ambhasi, on the waters. As wind, by diverting a boat on the waters from its intended course, drives it along a wrong course, similarly the mind, by diverting the wisdom from the pursuit of the Self, makes it engage in objects. After having stated variously the reasons for the idea conveyed through the verse, 'For, O son of Kunti,' etc. (60), and having established that very idea, the Lord concludes thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation of Ramanuja's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Adidevananda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.67 That mind, which is allowed by a person to be submissive to, i.e., allowed to go after the senses which go on operating, i.e., experiencing sense-objects, such a mind loses its inclination towards the pure self. The meaning is that it gets inclined towards sense-objects. Just as a contrary wind forcibly carries away a ship moving on the waters, in the name manner wisdon also is carried away from such a mind. [The idea is that the pursuit of sense pleasures dulls one's spiritual inclination, and the mind ultimately succumbs to them unresisting.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also find the various commentaries on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-2-67/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;bhagavad-gita.us&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here example is analogous as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ship&lt;/strong&gt; (by means of which man can reach at the destination) &lt;strong&gt;-:-&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Intellect&lt;/strong&gt; or Wisdom (by means of which man can enrich the spiritual level to attain the true self)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wind&lt;/strong&gt; (which can divert the ship) &lt;strong&gt;-:-&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Indriya&lt;/strong&gt; (which can be cause of diversion of mind from spiritual inclination)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How the example is not trivial or silly:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can imagine how it is unexpected or dangerous when a man loss controls on ship if wind diverts the direction and ship can't reach at the destination. Similarly it is as unexpected/dangerous as can be imagined from above example for one who is on spiritual journey.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, the purpose of example is to get the idea how indriya/senses can interrupt and divert the spiritual goal of pursuing the self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T14:32:28.633" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16882" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-25T15:14:01.333" Score="2" ViewCount="1661" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the sloka 6 of Chapter 15 Bhagavadgita: Lord Krishna gives a hint of the physical appearance of his loka where he says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;na tad bhasayate suryo&#xA;na sasanko na pavakah&#xA;yad gatva na nivartante&#xA;tad dhama paramam mama&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Supreme abode of mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire. One who reaches it never returns to this material world.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By this sloka Lord Krishna implies that which is eternal or indestructible is independent upon the material constituents, for humans it is impossible to think of a world that is not lit by sun, moon, fire or electricity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By giving a description Lord raised the eyebrows of human conscious to think of what is beyond material worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is of much relevance as the supreme lord himself speaks of it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the dhama that Lord Krishna refers to in this sloka is it Vaikuntha, Goloka or any other world? Give documentary evidence in support of your answer&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If not by sun, moon or fire then what illuminates the param dhama ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1189" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T17:50:15.890" Title="What is the &quot;param dhama&quot; that Lord Krishna refers to in Bhagavadgita" Tags="|puranas|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16883" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16882" CreationDate="2017-01-25T16:13:03.190" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parama Dhama is mentioned in Bhagavad Gita verse 8.21 which I recommend to refer first:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अव्यक्तोऽक्षर&lt;/strong&gt; इत्युक्तस्तमाहुः &lt;strong&gt;परमां गतिम्&lt;/strong&gt;।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यं प्राप्य न निवर्तन्ते &lt;strong&gt;तद्धाम परमं मम&lt;/strong&gt;।।8.21।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who has been mentioned as the Unmanifested, the Immutable, &lt;strong&gt;they call Him the supreme Goal. That is the supreme abode of Mine&lt;/strong&gt;, reaching which they do not return.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedanta (spiritual) philosophy, Parama Dhama would be interpreted as either &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt; or BrahmaLoka. (Ref. Brahma Sutra 3.3.26 to 3.3.32)  Also visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6758/277&quot;&gt;Where does a Soul attach to the Body?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman is referred as Paramatma means the Supreme Self that dwells within all beings and &lt;strong&gt;Parama Dhama refers to it&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q.&lt;/strong&gt; If not by sun, moon or fire then what illuminates the param dhama ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually sun, moons are illuminated by the supreme self so they can't illuminate Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita is considered as Smriti &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthana_Trayi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prashthana&lt;/a&gt; for Vedanta. &lt;em&gt;Bhagavad Gita is considered as extract of Upanishads also.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse you've mentioned (BG 15.6) looks very similar to that of Upanishads:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न तत्र सूर्यो भाति न चन्द्रतारकं&#xA;  नेमा विद्युतो भान्ति कुतोऽयमग्निः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तमेव भान्तमनुभाति सर्वं&#xA;  तस्य भासा सर्वमिदं विभाति ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sun does not shine there, nor the moon and the stars, nor these lightnings, not to speak of this fire. &lt;strong&gt;When He shines, everything shines after Him; by His light everything is lighted&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which is from Kathopanishad 2.2.15, Maundakopanishad 2.2.10 &amp;amp; ShvetaSvataropanishad 6.14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also read the interpretation of BG verse 15.6 by Sri Ramanujacharya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;English Translation of Ramanuja's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Adidevananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15.6 The sun cannot illumine the light of the self, nor moon, nor fire. &lt;strong&gt;For, knowledge is indeed that which illumines them all&lt;/strong&gt;. External lights, however, are helpful only in removing the darkness which hinders the contact between the senses and the objects. &lt;strong&gt;It is the intelligence of the self that reveals such external lights&lt;/strong&gt;. What reveals this (i.e., the self) is Yoga (i.e., meditation) only. Beginningless Karma is the hindrance. It has been taught that the way for the erasing of Karma is self-surrender to the Lord through detachment etc. That supreme light, reaching which they do not return any more is the self, which is My glory (Vibhuti) and therefore belongs to Me and is a part of Myself. Such is the meaning. The supremacy of this light (i.e., individual self) consists in its capacity to illumine the light of knowledge. Knowledge alone can illuminate all things (including the light of the sun which sheds only physical light on objects.).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Brahma Loka or Surya Loka visit : &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/13637/277&quot;&gt;Surya Loka(सूर्य लोकं) in Hinduism&lt;/a&gt; and/or &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12400/277&quot;&gt;Want to know about Brahmaloka&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that &lt;code&gt;Adobe of Krisna&lt;/code&gt; is also known as &lt;code&gt;Goloka&lt;/code&gt; in some scriptures like  Garga Samhita and &lt;code&gt;Adobe of Vishnu&lt;/code&gt; is also known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaikuntha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;code&gt;Vaikuntha&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T17:50:15.890" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16884" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16892" CreationDate="2017-01-25T16:27:19.750" Score="3" ViewCount="319" Body="&lt;p&gt;After Deepavali, Hindus or Indians celebrate &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dev_Deepawali_(Varanasi)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dev Deepavali&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason for celebrating Dev Deepavali?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this festival or tradition find mention in the Puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10049" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-25T19:18:23.650" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T09:16:31.480" Title="Why do Indians or Hindus celebrate Dev Deepavali?" Tags="|puranas|festivals|ganga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-02-06T08:29:39.453" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16885" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16882" CreationDate="2017-01-25T16:50:03.800" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here's what different &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-15-6/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentaries&lt;/a&gt; on the Bhagavad Gita say.  Adi Shankaracharya identifies it as the supreme abode of Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na suryah, niether the sun-though possessed of the power of illumining everything; so also, na sasankah, nor the moon; na pavakah, nor even fire; bhasayate, illumines; tat, That [-this (word) refers to the remote word dhama (Abode) at the end of the verse-], that Abode which is of the nature of light. That abode, the State of Visnu, gatva, reaching, attaining; yat, which; they na, do not; nivartante, return, and which the sun etc. do not illumine; tat, that; is mama, My, Visnu’s; paramam, supreme; dhama, Abode, State.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prabhupada identifies it as Krishna's abode of Goloka, and says that the light that illuminates it is Brahmajyoti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The spiritual world, the abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna—which is known as Krishnaloka, Goloka Vrindavana—is described here. In the spiritual sky there is no need of sunshine, moonshine, fire or electricity, because all the planets are self-luminous. We have only one planet in this universe, the sun, which is self-luminous, but all the planets in the spiritual sky are self-luminous. The shining effulgence of all those planets (called Vaikunthas) constitutes the shining sky known as the brahmajyoti. Actually, the effulgence is emanating from the planet of Krishna, Goloka Vrindavana. Part of that shining effulgence is covered by the mahat-tattva, the material world. Other than this, the major portion of that shining sky is full of spiritual planets, which are called Vaikunthas, chief of which is Goloka Vrindavana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya interprets the verse as referring to the Jivatma, and how it is only illuminated by knowledge:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sun cannot illumine the light of the self, nor moon, nor fire. For, knowledge is indeed that which illumines them all. External lights, however, are helpful only in removing the darkness which hinders the contact between the senses and the objects. It is the intelligence of the self that reveals such external lights. What reveals this (i.e., the self) is Yoga (i.e., meditation) only. Beginningless Karma is the hindrance. It has been taught that the way for the erasing of Karma is self-surrender to the Lord through detachment etc. That supreme light, reaching which they do not return any more is the self, which is My glory (Vibhuti) and therefore belongs to Me and is a part of Myself. Such is the meaning. The supremacy of this light (i.e., individual self) consists in its capacity to illumine the light of knowledge. Knowledge alone can illuminate all things (including the light of the sun which sheds only physical light on objects.).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-01-25T16:50:03.800" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16888" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16890" CreationDate="2017-01-26T04:11:13.193" Score="4" ViewCount="1192" Body="&lt;p&gt;What would be the Varna of a son born out of Ugra father &amp;amp; Kshatriya mother?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;em&gt;Manu smriti chapter 10&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From a Kshatriya and the daughter of a Sudra springs a being, called Ugra&lt;/strong&gt;, resembling both a Kshatriya and a Sudra, ferocious in his manners, and delighting in cruelty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-26T04:52:38.687" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T08:05:50.863" Title="What would be the varna of son born out of Ugra father &amp; Kshatriya Woman?" Tags="|caste-system|dharma-shastras|smriti|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16889" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16888" CreationDate="2017-01-26T05:49:04.970" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Such a person is called a Kshota.&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=o21pAAAAcAAJ&amp;amp;dq=kshota&amp;amp;pg=PA154#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=kshota&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Vachaspati Mishra's Vivada Chintamani says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of a Sudra mother and kshatriya father is called ugra.  The son of a kshatriya mother and ugra father is called kshota.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vachaspati Mishta, by the way, was an early Advaita Acharya and one of the most famous commentators on Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T05:49:04.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16890" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16888" CreationDate="2017-01-26T07:35:07.237" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Basically the son has to be called an &lt;strong&gt;outcaste&lt;/strong&gt;(i.e one  without any varna) as said by Yogi in comments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because the castes are only 4 in number and there is no fifth caste.So one who does not belong to any of the 4 has to be treated as belonging to no caste .Or to be born in a confused caste(that is difficult or impossible to determine).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.4. Brahmana, the Kshatriya, and the Vaisya castes&#xA;  (varna) are the twice-born ones, but the fourth, the Sudra, has one&#xA;  birth only; &lt;strong&gt;there is no fifth (caste)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When marriages take place between the same castes its easy to determine the caste of the progeny &amp;amp; which is the same as that of the father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.5. In all castes (varna) those (children) only which&#xA;  are begotten in the direct order on wedded wives, equal (in caste and&#xA;  married as) virgins, are to be considered as belonging to the same&#xA;  caste (as their fathers)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,in cases where the father is one caste higher than the mother's caste then the son will be called as &quot;anantaras&quot; and he will belong to one caste lower than that of the father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.6. Sons, begotten by twice-born man on wives of the next lower castes, they declare to be similar (to their fathers, but) blamed on&#xA;  account of the fault (inherent) in their mothers&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.14. &lt;strong&gt;Those sons of the twice-born, begotten on wives of the next lower castes,&lt;/strong&gt; who have been enumerated in due order, &lt;strong&gt;they call by the&#xA;  name Anantaras (belonging to the next lower caste),&lt;/strong&gt; on account of the&#xA;  blemish (inherent) in their mothers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.24. &lt;strong&gt;By&lt;/strong&gt; adultery (committed by persons) of (different)&#xA;  castes, by &lt;strong&gt;marriages with women who ought not to be married,&lt;/strong&gt; and by&#xA;  the neglect of the duties and occupations (prescribed) to each, are&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;produced (sons who owe their origin) to a confusion the castes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,an Ugra is already an outcaste.And on cohabiting with a Kshatriya woman he will create another kind of outcaste or a confused caste progeny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,there is this following verse,which says,as far as duties are concerned,an Ugra can be treated as a Sudra also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.41. Six sons, begotten (by Aryans) on women of equal and the next lower castes (Anantara), have the duties of twice-born men; &lt;strong&gt;but all&#xA;  those born in consequence of a violation (of the law) are, as regards&#xA;  their duties, equal to Sudras.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,treating an Ugra as a Sudra ,the son in question can also be called a &lt;strong&gt;Kshattri:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.16. &lt;strong&gt;From a Sudra spring in the inverse order (by&#xA;  females of the higher castes)&lt;/strong&gt; three base-born (sons, apasada), an&#xA;  Ayogava, &lt;strong&gt;a Kshattri&lt;/strong&gt;, and a Kandala, the lowest of men&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,basically,the son has to be called an outcaste or a base-born(apasada).And,as far as his duties are concerned he can take upon Sudra's duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His prescribed duties are also specified by Manu as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.49. &lt;strong&gt;To Kshattris, Ugras,&lt;/strong&gt; and Pukkasas, &lt;strong&gt;catching and&#xA;  killing (animals) living in holes&lt;/strong&gt;; to Dhigvanas, working in leather;&#xA;  to Venas, playing drums&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-26T08:05:50.863" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T08:05:50.863" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16891" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-26T07:53:04.860" Score="3" ViewCount="112" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read almost all the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But my question is:&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;At present where are the original Ramayana and Mahabharata manuscripts which were written by  Valmiki and Vyasa Maharshi? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do they still exist or are they decomposed?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5302" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-26T10:46:22.933" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T10:46:22.933" Title="Source of Ramayan and Mahabharath which were written originally" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|ramayana|resource|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-01-28T05:19:14.197" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16892" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16884" CreationDate="2017-01-26T08:46:03.600" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dev Diwali is celebrated (in Varanasi) on the day of Kartika Poornima (कार्तिक पूर्णिमा) which is also known as Tripura Purnima (त्रिपुर पूर्णिमा) according to Hindu Panchang.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mythological story (पौराणिक कथा) related to this is about slaughter of demon/devil &quot;Tripura&quot; (त्रिपुर) by lord Shiva with the help of Vishnu &amp;amp; Brahma. And Devas celebrated this day like Diwali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find Scriptural Reference for this story in Srimad Bhagavat MahaPurana (7.10.52 to 7.10.71).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read full story at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/canto7/chapter10.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimadbhagavatam.in&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedabase.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  SB 7.10.56 — Thereafter, when the demons had begun to destroy the higher planetary systems, the rulers of those planets went to Lord Śiva, fully surrendered unto him and said: &lt;strong&gt;Dear Lord, we demigods living in the three worlds are about to be vanquished. We are your followers. Kindly save us.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  SB 7.10.67 — &lt;strong&gt;My dear King Yudhiṣṭhira, the most powerful Lord Śiva joined the arrows to his bow, and at noon he set fire to all three residences of the demons and thus destroyed them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  SB 7.10.68 — Seated in their airplanes in the sky, the inhabitants of the higher planetary systems beat many kettledrums. &lt;strong&gt;The demigods, saints, Pitās, Siddhas and various great personalities showered flowers on the head of Lord Śiva, wishing him all victory, and the Apsarās began to chant and dance with great pleasure.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  SB 7.10.69 — O King Yudhiṣṭhira, thus Lord Śiva is known as &lt;strong&gt;Tripurāri&lt;/strong&gt;, the annihilator of the three dwellings of the demons, because he burnt these dwellings to ashes. Being worshiped by the demigods, headed by Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva returned to his own abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This may be the belief/mythology related to the celebration of Deva Diwali.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For further information on celebration, tradition and rituals, you may visit: &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95_%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A3%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bharat Discovery&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.varanasi.org.in/dev-diwali&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varanasi.org.in&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dev_Deepawali_(Varanasi)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-26T09:16:31.480" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T09:16:31.480" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16893" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17758" CreationDate="2017-01-26T09:00:22.377" Score="21" ViewCount="4594" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've witnessed many Dwija-s behaving in lowly manner resorting to material pleasures, cruelty, ignorance, etc. &amp;amp; bereft of dhārmic conscience. On the other hand, I have witnessed many Śūdra-s behaving in nobler ways. How to explain this anomaly if we were to accept birth-based varṇa system to be the correct one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following questions are worthy of our attention,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How can a Dwija affirm that all its forefathers were not a product of intermixing of castes (varṇa-śankara), otherwise the complete generation must be outcaste. i.e, a Brahmaṇa is a Brahmaṇa if and only if all his forefathers since creation were strictly Brahmaṇa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we classify castes (varṇa) based on karma or guṇa, then how to determine someone's varṇa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there really a need of caste (varṇa) at all? Can't all live in unity without any distinction of caste (varṇa)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2021-03-12T06:04:41.567" LastActivityDate="2021-03-12T06:04:41.567" Title="Why casteism (varṇa system) is based on birth instead of present guṇa-s &amp; karma-s?" Tags="|caste-system|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16895" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16896" CreationDate="2017-01-26T09:46:45.843" Score="1" ViewCount="357" Body="&lt;p&gt;I used to believe that Hinduism is a polytheistic religion because of the sheer number of Gods around.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now I'm not so sure. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Personally, I've always been a devotee of Krishna (member of ISKCON). I'd come to believe that Krishna is the ultimate form of the divine. Everything else came from him. Including Vishnu (We believe Vishnu is merely a form of Krishna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But most other Hindus don't believe in that. They believe in &lt;em&gt;trimurthis&lt;/em&gt;. Bramha (The Creator), Vishnu (The Preserver) and Maheshwara (The Destroyer) are in fact the 3 supreme, prime forces of the universe, with neither of them better or inferior than the other. They believe that &lt;em&gt;Krishna is a form of Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; and not the the other way round. And this is just one small example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are plenty of examples I've noticed regarding &lt;strong&gt;Temples&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Gurus&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Temples are generally concerned with one particular God. They do not necessarily disapprove other Gods but they are nevertheless indifferent to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ISKCON does not celebrate any festival of any kind that is not related to Krishna in one way or the other (Like Ganesha festival). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Good many Temples even proclaim their respective Gods of worship &lt;em&gt;is&lt;/em&gt; the supreme and most powerful. Like the Temples of female Goddess in Tamil Nadu who claim that &lt;em&gt;mother&lt;/em&gt; is truly the most powerful as she gave birth to the &lt;em&gt;Trimurthis&lt;/em&gt;. In Shiva temples, Shiva is the most powerful and so on.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then we have the Gurus. Gurus are given so much importance in this country that many devotees place them above Gods. In fact I know some of my friends who believe Sai Baba or Ravi Shankar as &lt;em&gt;incarnation of Gods&lt;/em&gt; and their words are given precedence over any Vedas or scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it got me thinking. Is Hinduism really a polytheistic religion or is in fact an amalgam of monotheistic religions? I mean Islam and Christianity are monotheistic. For them, their respective Gods are most important, just like in any other Temple. Songs are sung and festivals are celebrated just like any Temple. But unlike Temples, these Western monotheistic religions &lt;em&gt;disapprove of other Gods&lt;/em&gt; and go as far as to &lt;em&gt;convert&lt;/em&gt; people in order to keep them from straying out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Indian counterparts are of course more tolerant than that. But is this extra tolerance the reason Hinduism or better, Indian religions, &lt;em&gt;seem&lt;/em&gt; polytheistic? What are your thoughts on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4893" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-01-26T10:02:34.233" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T10:57:08.130" Title="Is Hinduism fundamentally monotheistic or polytheistic or somewhere in between?" Tags="|other-religions|gaudiya-vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-01-26T11:08:01.837" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16896" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16895" CreationDate="2017-01-26T10:30:11.340" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hinduism is a monotheistic religion where the object of worship(Godhead) is decided by your sect or your choice as in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarta_Tradition&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smarthism&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lets consider for example &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Vaishnavism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Sampradayam&lt;/a&gt;, I belong to Sri sampradayam which is a sub-sect of Vaishnavism. So for me Shriman Naryana or Shri Hari Vishnu is supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly you are a gaudiya vaishnava so for you the object of worship is Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While in case of Smarthas the Object of worship is not Strict they would worship 5-6 types of gods and they can consider any one as their ishta devata or main object of Worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Smartha worship is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarta_Tradition#Panchayatana_Puja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchayatan&lt;/a&gt; based. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Advaita&lt;/a&gt; Philosophy says that Supreme Bramhan can take any form and to limit exploitation(adding of new gods or worshipping many gods without any good reason) of this philosophy Adi Shankaracharya set a limit on number of gods by creating Panchayatan system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/category/bhagavad-gita-chapter-12/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagwad Gita chapter 12&lt;/a&gt; Bhakti-Yoga/Path of Devotion krishna talks about nature of worship and why humans cannot worship the Avyakta or the unmanifested Bramhan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the relevant part of Discussion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna inquired: Which are considered to be more perfect, those who are always properly engaged in Your devotional service or those who worship the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: &lt;strong&gt;Those who fix their minds on My personal form and are always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith are considered by Me to be most perfect.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But those who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, fixed and immovable—the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth—by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason for worshipping Manifest form of God, which leads to choices and thus to polytheism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; No sect of Hinduism allows worship of Gurus as gods, but worship of Guru is allowed and is encouraged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T10:57:08.130" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16897" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8539" CreationDate="2017-01-26T11:03:05.693" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kãlãnjãra&lt;/strong&gt; means who is the destroyer of Kãla. ie. Who is Kãla of Kãla (Kãlakãla). There is also a tirtha called Kalanjara where Lord Shiva destroyed Kãla while protecting his devotee Sveta. Kurma Purana Uttara Bhaga chapter 36 tells that story:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a &lt;strong&gt;great Tirtha by the name Kãlanjara&lt;/strong&gt; which can lead to RudraLoka. Hara is the fond of the devotees who worship lord Kãlãnjãra. In ancient times, a saintly king, &lt;strong&gt;a devotee of Shiva named Sveta,&lt;/strong&gt; who with the blessings of Siva, used to adore lord Siva, the bearer of the trident. He, with all the devotion, consecrated the Sivalinga there. Thereafter, he devoting his mind to Shiva, recited the Rudramantra. Thereafter the time of death of the king arrived. In order to lead the king to Yamaloka, the god of death, Kala, arrived, holding a trident in his hand. Then the king Sveta, &lt;strong&gt;finding the god of death in the terrific form&lt;/strong&gt;, holding a trident in his hand, was terrified. Then the king touched Shivalinga with both the hands, bowed in reverence before lord Rudra, &lt;strong&gt;reciting the Satarudriya (Sri Rudram) stotra&lt;/strong&gt; at the same time. Standing in front of the king, Krtanta (God of Death), laughingly said to the king, who‘ was performing the Japa of Bhava, “You come away, you come away.&amp;quot; The king who was devoted to Rudra, getting terrified, &lt;strong&gt;said to Yama, “You leave me since, I am engaged in the worshipping of Shiva,&lt;/strong&gt; and carry the other people with you and destroy them. Then, &lt;strong&gt;lord Kala, spoke&lt;/strong&gt; to the terrified king. Whether he is engaged in the devotion of Rudra or anyone else, &lt;strong&gt;who is not overpowered by me?”&lt;/strong&gt; Thus speaking, &lt;strong&gt;Yama bound the king with his noose, but the king continued to recite the Satarudriya&lt;/strong&gt; stotra. Then the &lt;strong&gt;king Sveta, witnessed the great lustre of lord Shiva,&lt;/strong&gt; lord of the goblins, adorned with the garlands of flames, which pervaded the entire universe. He witnessed lord Mahadeva. in the lustre adorned with the digit of the moon over the head, illumining at the same time and accompanied by the goddess. The king was immensely pleased by looking at him and realised the arrival of the lord. Finding Rudra, the lord of everything, walking with goddess, at a distance near to him, &lt;strong&gt;the god of death remained unmoved&lt;/strong&gt; and tried to carry the great king with him in the presence of lord Shiva. The royal sage became free from fear. Observing this, &lt;strong&gt;Siva, the lord of the living beings, spoke&lt;/strong&gt; to the god of death, &lt;strong&gt;“You give away my devotee, who is reciting my name.” The devotee who remembers me, O Kala, he remembers my form.&lt;/strong&gt; Listening to the words of lord Shiva, the god of death, because of his nature being horrible, &lt;strong&gt;bound the devotee of Shiva in the noose again&lt;/strong&gt; and in anger he rushed towards lord Shiva. Finding the advance of the god of death, &lt;strong&gt;lord Siva,&lt;/strong&gt; looked at Parvati, the daughter of the mountain, and &lt;strong&gt;kicked him with his left foot,&lt;/strong&gt; while king Sveta was looking on. With the kicking by lord Siva, the awful &lt;strong&gt;Kaladeva was killed&lt;/strong&gt; and the Pinaka bearing lord Siva looked graceful with the goddess Uma. The king Sveta felt delighted at the Sight of lord Siva Offering his salutation to Siva, he started eulogising him. He said, “Salutation to Bhava, the cause of the world. Salutation to Hara and the form of welfare for the world. Salutation to the learned Siva, Salutation to the bestower of salvation. Salutation to the one whose body is besmeared with ashes and the possessor of all the fortunes. You have the undivided form, You are lord of the humans, salutation to you. You are the lord of all the Ganas, remover of the pain of those who take refuge in you. Saluation to you. You are without beginning, everlasting, possessor of all the fortunes, and carry the horn of a boar, salutation to you. Salutation to the bull bannered Lord. 0 wearing the garlands of skulls, salutation to you. 0 Great lord of mountain, salutation to you. Salutation to lord Siva, the bestower of welfare &lt;strong&gt;Then lord Sankara, showered his grace on him and bestowed on him the position of Ganapati (chief of his ganas) and the indestructible form of his own.&lt;/strong&gt; Then lord Siva with Parvati, accompanied with the king Sveta, having been adored by the Rsis and the Siddhas, disappeared in a moment. At the destruction of the god of death by Siva, &lt;strong&gt;Brahma,&lt;/strong&gt; the lord of the lokas, &lt;strong&gt;then asked for a boon from Siva,&lt;/strong&gt; “The god of death, &lt;strong&gt;Kala, should be brought back to life.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; Brahma said, “O lshana, Bull bannered God, Krtanta, the god of death, is not at all at any fault, because he has been entrusted with this duty of taking away the life of beings by you yourself.” Listening to the words of Brahma, lord Shiva, the lord of the chief of Devas, said, “Be it so.” &lt;strong&gt;The god of death then got back his life. Therefore this tirtha has been given the name of Kalanjara.&lt;/strong&gt; A person who adores lord Siva there, he achieves the position of a Shivagana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T11:03:05.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16898" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12447" CreationDate="2017-01-26T12:03:38.470" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Satya is supreme.Shiva never indulge in any work like satya. As a company owner appoints a CEO for the company who does every thing for the company on the behalf of company owner. Shiva as a whole never incarnate his ansha incarnated in the form of rudra etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8795" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T12:03:38.470" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16899" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-26T12:18:40.547" Score="17" ViewCount="15457" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya taught Advaita philosophy. What was his belief on how one should see Shiva and Vishnu? Was he a Shaiva or a Vaishnava? Are Shiva and Vishnu same as per Him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8795" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-28T09:36:38.337" LastActivityDate="2023-06-11T09:29:04.337" Title="Was Adi Shankaracharya a Shaiva or a Vaishnava? What were his views on Shiva and Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|history|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16900" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16893" CreationDate="2017-01-26T13:47:25.287" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The four castes are mentioned in Vedas itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मणोऽस्य मुखमासीद् बाहू राजन्यः कृतः । ऊरू तदस्य यद्वैश्यः&#xA;  पद्भ्यां शूद्रो अजायत ॥१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Braahmanno-Asya Mukham-Aasiid Baahuu Raajanyah Krtah | Uuruu Tad-Asya&#xA;  Yad-Vaishyah Padbhyaam Shuudro Ajaayata ||12||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;  12.1: The Brahmanas were His Mouth, the Kshatriyas became His Arms,&#xA;  12.2: The Vaishyas were His Thighs, and the Shudras were assigned to His Feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the rules related to these 4 varnas are to be strictly  followed.The hIndu society is based on these four varnas and their respective inter connected &amp;amp; proper functioning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If someone wants to destroy this backbone of Hindu society then first thing he needs to do is to create inter-mixing of castes .His job is half done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Kali Yuga this system falls apart.And that's why there is overwhelming Adharma everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sanatana Dharma everything is dependent on the caste-system or the varnasharama.To even know what is Dharma Or Adharma we have to first check to which varna the rule is being applied to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Dharma Shastras(the Smritis like Manu ,Parashara etc),for example, give laws based on the varnas only.Like these are the rules to be followed by the Brahmins and these are those to be followed by the Sudras and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.126. One fourth (of the penance) for the murder of a&#xA;  Brahmana is prescribed (as expiation) for (intentionally) killing a&#xA;  Kshatriya, one-eighth for killing a Vaisya; know that it is&#xA;  one-sixteenth for killing a virtuous Sudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,everything is very much caste-dependent.Without a proper varnashrama everything collapses in Hinduism and there is rampant Adharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If we classify castes as karma or Guna based then how to determine&#xA;  someone castes ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no definite answer to this.Suppose a Sudra by birth has all the attributes of a Brahmin.How is he gonna prove it?And prove it to whom ,which body etc?Should he have to pass some tests?If yes which are those tests?Are those tests mentioned in Scriptures?.Will  he be allowed to wear the sacred thread then if he passes those tests?NO is the answer of course.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;strong&gt;Karma-Birth-Guna these three are interwoven&lt;/strong&gt;.For example what determines our birth(where will we be born .in human yoni or other yonis etc)?Its only the Karmas that we have done in our previous births that determines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,birth based caste system is actually karma-based caste system also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,what determines our gunas?Its mostly our birth only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,just as the nature of a tree is determined by the quality of the seed and that of the soil on which the seed is being sown,similarly our gunas are dependent on our father(the seed) and our mother(the soil).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,birth based caste system takes into account the gunas also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;IMHO,to follow a caste system that is entirely based gunas or karma &amp;amp; not at all on birth is absurd and virtually an impossible task .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Take for example,the Upanayana Samskara (which is one of the 40 Samaskaras).The Scriptures give us the following ages when upanayana has to be done for the 3 dvija castes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.36. &lt;strong&gt;In the eighth year after conception, one should&#xA;  perform the initiation (upanayana) of a Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt;, in the eleventh&#xA;  after conception (that) of a Kshatriya, but in the twelfth that of a&#xA;  Vaisya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now a eight year old boy does not have any karmas(even if he has that will be very less in amount) and of course then comes the impossible task of determining his gunas.What are the methods of doing that?The Scriptures are also silent on the issue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But,having said all that,caste system is not entirely based on birth either.Otherwise we won't be having the following &amp;amp; many similar verses in Scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who sets his face against righteousness, is but a Chandala by his&#xA;  acts. He gains nothing by being a mendicant, or by worshipping the&#xA;  household fire.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;24&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Brahman, ignorant of the Gayatri hymn, is more unclean than even a Shoodra ;&lt;/strong&gt; the Brahmans who know the nature and the sanctity of&#xA;  the Gayatri hymn, are honored and revered by all persons.(Parashara&#xA;  Smriti)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, there is a way of segregating those who are twice borns merely by birth but who are not living their lives accordingly.They are to be treated like the outcasts only by the society.They are called by the name &lt;strong&gt;Vratya&lt;/strong&gt; in Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.20. Those (sons) whom the twice-born beget on wives of&#xA;  equal caste, but who, &lt;strong&gt;not fulfilling their sacred duties, are excluded&#xA;  from the Savitri, one must designate by the appellation Vratyas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.21. But from a Vratya (of the) Brahmana (caste) spring the wicked Bhriggakantaka, the Avantya, the Vatadhana, the Pushpadha, and the&#xA;  Saikha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.22. From a Vratya (of the) Kshatriya (caste), the Ghalla, the Malla, the Likkhivi, the Nata, the Karana, the Khasa, and the Dravida&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,even if one is Brahmin by birth (&amp;amp; by samskara) but if he is neglecting his sacred duties then he and his progeny are to be treated like the outcasts only.The rules that are mentioned in scriptures as applicable to the outcasts should apply to these kinds of Brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But even these rules are not followed nowadays.Varna is basically determined simply by observing whether one is wearing the sacred thread or not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On your newly added question :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Would be better if answer touches philosophy of non duality ( Adwait&#xA;  Vedanta )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can talk of advaita vedanta and other philosophies by studying books written on them but i have not achieved that state yet.So,tell me without having realized that state of non-dulaity myself what's the use of just speaking of it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Scriptures say to those who have realized the Brahman the Scriptures are of no use.But only for those realized ones not for everyone else.The Scriptures are important for everyone else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you say that &quot;i'm free from maya&quot; and &quot;i have achieved Brahman&quot; etc then you are blessed and then you are free from everything not just the caste-system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But,till that point is reached everyone has to follow certain rules which are called the Dharmas in our scriptures and without following the caste-system,samskaras Dharma can't be followed properly on a large scale.If we see around us in nature every being and even objects are following some patterns and some rules.We too have to follow our rules.And the rules mentioned in our Scriptures are those rules only.My humble opinion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-27T14:42:02.127" LastActivityDate="2017-01-27T14:42:02.127" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16901" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16893" CreationDate="2017-01-26T14:16:46.507" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a difference between caste and casteism. The present birth system was done on the basis of breeding specific castes. It was actually an experiment. This was made to ensure that the Gunas or qualities of Brahmins or Kshatriyas come out. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also earlier some of the Shudras became great saints or warriors. Somewhere down the line, we let somebody else take control or translate our systems  and we have the present result. And the Brahmins seem to be Brahmins only by birth, not by qualities, same goes for Kshatriyas or Vaishyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find Swami Chinmayananda talking about it &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/QEQ6jtrtUpk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8zpThSQ5eQ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="380" LastEditorUserId="380" LastEditDate="2017-01-26T14:54:44.110" LastActivityDate="2017-01-26T14:54:44.110" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16905" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-26T20:24:51.380" Score="5" ViewCount="6343" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irawati_Karve&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Irawati Karve&lt;/a&gt; in her book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Yuganta-Iravati-Karwe/dp/8125014241&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yugānta&lt;/a&gt;, which is a commentary on the Mahābhārata, says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two more incidents which lend support to this contention [that Dharma is the son of Vidura]. After Dhritarashtra and Gandhari, Kunti and Vidura had gone to live in the forest, the Pandavas would occasionally visit them. On one such visit, Dharma did not see Vidura and he asked after him. Dhritarashtra answered, 'He is practicing terrible penance, he doesn't eat or drink anything. Sometimes people see him wandering in the forest.' Just then, someone came to say that Vidura had been seen naked, dust-covered, nothing but skin and bones. Dharma ran after Vidura, crying, 'Vidura, stop. I am your dear Yudhishtira.' They both continued running until Vidura stopped under a tree, deep in the forest. He leaned against the tree. Dharma once again reminded him, 'I am Yudhishtira.' Vidura fixed his unblinking eyes on Dharma, and with his yogic power he entered Dharma's body limb by limb. Vidura gave Dharma everything - his life, his organs, his brilliance. &lt;strong&gt;This behavior at the time of death is like that of a father towards his son&lt;/strong&gt;. In the &lt;strong&gt;Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;, there is a description of what a man nearing the death is to do: he should lie on the bare ground, and make his son lie on top of him, saying, 'Son, I give you my organs.' The son should reply, 'I accept.' &lt;strong&gt;In this way the dying man transfers all his power, wealth, and intelligence to his son&lt;/strong&gt;. This last meeting between Dharma and Vidura seems to describe the same kind of transfer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Two chapters later we are told that Vyasa came to Dhritarashtra and said, 'Vidura was Yama incarnate, born to Vichitravirya's maid-servant and me through my yogic powers; and &lt;strong&gt;he, in his turn, through yogic powers, gave birth to Yudhishtira&lt;/strong&gt;, the king of the Kurus. He who is Dharma is Vidura, he who is Vidura is Pandava. And Dhritarashtra, just as your younger brother Vidura has served you, so will Yudhishtira-Dharma continue to serve you.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus the fact that Kunti had a son by her brother-in-law Vidura was kept a secret up to the end of the war&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to read the above two incidents she's referring to, from the Ganguli translation of the Mahābhārata (Āśramavāsika-parva), it's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m15/m15026.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (Yudhiṣṭhira-Vidura encounter) and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m15/m15028.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (Vyāsa's explanation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is Karve right in her analysis?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which father-son Upaniṣadic story is she referring to?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;sub&gt;PS. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Mahabharata-Hindu-epic-Yudhisthir-was-son-of-Dharmaraja-as-well-Vidhur-was-also-avtar-of-Dharmaraja-Vidhur-always-helped-pandavs-but-Vyas-never-mentioned-such-relationship-between-Kunti-and-Vidhura-Is-that-possible-that-Pandu-had-asked-Kunti-to-call-Vidhur-for-Viyog-for-birth-of-Yudhisthir?srid=hCPpK&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; Quora.com post also asks a similar question but as with most Quora answers, there's no proper references so I'm posting it here. Before you answer this, remember we have a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2&quot;&gt;Back It Up! rule&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2023-07-24T23:26:51.943" Title="Irawati Karve says &quot;Vidura is the biological father of Yudhiṣṭhira&quot;. Is she right? Which Upaniṣadic story is she referring to?" Tags="|mahabharata|upanishads|yudhisthira|vidura|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16906" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16905" CreationDate="2017-01-26T23:37:01.163" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura is not the father of Yudhishthira.&lt;/strong&gt;  The circumstances of Yudhishtira's birth are described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01124.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Janamejaya, when Gandhari's conception had been a full year old, it was then that Kunti summoned the eternal god of justice to obtain offspring from him. And she offered without loss of time, sacrifices unto the god and began to duly repeat the formula that Durvasa had imparted to her some time before. Then the god, overpowered by her incantations, arrived at the spot where Kunti was seated in his car resplendent as the Sun. Smiling, he asked, 'O Kunti, what am I to give thee?' And Kunti too smiling in her turn, replied, 'Thou must even give me offspring.' Then the handsome Kunti was united (in intercourse) with the god of justice in his spiritual form and obtained from him a son devoted to the good of all creatures. And she brought his excellent child, who lived to acquire a great fame, at the eighth Muhurta called Abhijit, of the hour of noon of that very auspicious day of the seventh month (Kartika), viz., the fifth of the lighted fortnight, when the star Jyeshtha in conjunction with the moon was ascendant. And as soon as the child was born, an incorporeal voice (from the skies) said, 'This child shall be the best of men, the foremost of those that are virtuous. Endued with great prowess and truthful in speech, he shall certainly be the ruler of the earth. And this first child of Pandu shall be known by the name of Yudhishthira. Possessed of prowess and honesty of disposition, he shall be a famous king, known throughout the three worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as to the Upanishad reference, Karve is referring to the ritual described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01240.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyaya 2&lt;/a&gt; of the Kaushitaki Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Next follows the father's tradition to the son, and thus they explain it. The father, when going to depart, calls his son, after having strewn the house with fresh grass, and having laid the sacrificial fire, and having placed near it a pot of water with a jug (full of rice), himself covered with a new cloth, and dressed in white. He places himself above his son, touching his organs with his own organs, or he may deliver the tradition to him while he sits before him. Then he delivers it to him. The father says: 'Let me place my speech in thee.' The son says: 'I take thy speech in me.' The father says: 'Let me place my scent (prâna) in thee.' The son says: 'I take thy scent in me.' The father says: 'Let me place my eye in thee.' The son says: 'I take thy eye in me.' The father says: 'Let me place my ear in thee.' The son says: 'I take thy ear in me.' The father says: 'Let me place my tastes of food in thee.' The son says: 'I take thy tastes of food in me.' The father says: 'Let me place my actions in thee! The son says: 'I take thy actions in me.' The father says: 'Let me place my pleasure and pain in thee.' The son says: 'I take thy pleasure and pain in me.' The father says: 'Let me place happiness, joy, and offspring in thee.' The son says: 'I take thy happiness, joy, and offspring in me.' The father says: 'Let me place my walking in thee.' The son says: 'I take thy walking in me 1.' The father says: 'Let me place my mind in thee.' The son says: 'I take thy mind in me.' The father says: 'Let me place my knowledge (pragñâ) in thee.' The son says: 'I take thy knowledge in me.' But if the father is very ill, he may say shortly: 'Let me place my spirits (prânas) in thee,' and the son: 'I take thy spirits in me.' Then the son walks round his father keeping his right side towards him, and goes away. The father calls after him: 'May fame, glory of countenance, and honour always follow thee.' Then the other looks back over his left shoulder, covering himself with his hand or the hem of his garment, saying: 'Obtain the heavenly worlds (svarga) and all desires.' If the father recovers, let him be under the authority of his son, or let him wander about (as an ascetic). But if he departs, then let them despatch him, as he ought to be despatched, yea, as he ought to be despatched.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A similar ritual is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15053.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyaya 1 Brahmana 5&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Next follows the handing over. When a man thinks he is going to depart, he says to his son: 'Thou art Brahman (the Veda, so far as acquired by the father); thou art the sacrifice (so far as performed by the father); thou art the world.' The son answers: 'I am Brahman, I am the sacrifice, I am the world.' Whatever has been learnt (by the father) that, taken as one, is Brahman. Whatever sacrifices there are, they, taken as one, are the sacrifice. Whatever worlds there are, they, taken as one, are the world. Verily here ends this (what has to be done by a father, viz. study, sacrifice, &amp;amp;c.) 'He (the son), being all this, preserved me from this world,' thus he thinks. Therefore they call a son who is instructed (to do all this), a world-son (lokya), and therefore they instruct him. When a father who knows this, departs this world, then he enters into his son together with his own spirits (with speech, mind, and breath). If there is anything done amiss by the father, of all that the son delivers him, and therefore he is called Putra, son. By help of his son the father stands firm in this world. Then these divine immortal spirits (speech, mind, and breath) enter into him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now granting the premises, why would Vidura interact with Yudhishthira in a manner akin to a father and son, when Vidura was not the father of Yudhisthira?  Because Vidura was an incarnation of Yudhisthira's father Yama, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And, O king, thou shouldst know that he who was known on earth as Vidura, who was the first of all virtuous men, who was the god of Justice himself[.]... And, O monarch, learn that king Yudhishthira was a portion of Dharma; that Bhimasena was of the deity of wind; that Arjuna was of Indra, the chief of the celestials; and that Nakula and Sahadeva, the handsomest beings among all creatures, and unrivalled for beauty on earth, were similarly portions of the twin Aswins. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is the point Vyasa is making in the quote misinterpreted by Karve from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m15/m15028.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Ashramavasika Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The eternal deity of Righteousness was stupefied by the Rishi Mandavya with an expenditure of his penances earned for a long time with great care. At the command of the Grandsire, and through my own energy, Vidura of great intelligence was procreated by me upon a soil owned by Vichitraviryya. A deity of deities, and eternal, he was, O king, thy brother. The learned know him to be Dharma in consequence of his practices of Dharana and Dhyana. He grows with (the growth of) truth, self-restraint, tranquillity of heart, compassion, and gifts. He is always engaged in penances, and is eternal. From that deity of Righteousness, through Yoga-puissance, the Kuru king Yudhishthira also took his birth. Yudhishthira, therefore, O king, is Dharma of great wisdom and immeasurable intelligence. Dharma exists both here and hereafter, and is like fire or wind or water or earth or space. He is, O king of kings, capable of going everywhere and exists, pervading the whole universe. He is capable of being beheld by only those that are the foremost of the deities and those that are cleansed of every sin and crowned with ascetic success. He that is Dharma is Vidura; and he that is Vidura is the (eldest) son of Pandu. That son of Pandu. O king, is capable of being perceived by thee. He stays before thee as thy servitor. Endued with great Yoga-puissance, thy high-souled brother, that foremost of intelligent men, seeing the high-souled Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, has entered into his person. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-01-27T02:15:02.587" LastActivityDate="2017-01-27T02:15:02.587" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16907" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9358" CreationDate="2017-01-27T12:02:19.200" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a partial answer. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is this passage that talks about ways to keep heavenly bodies pleased.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grahas in Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Markandeya answered, ‘There are three kinds of purity, viz., purity in&#xA;  speech, purity in deed, and purity achieved by use of water. He that&#xA;  has recourse to these three kinds of purity, attains, without doubt,&#xA;  to heaven. That Brahmana who adoreth the goddess Sandhya in the&#xA;  morning and the evening, and who recites meditatively the sacred&#xA;  goddess Gayatri who is the mother of the Vedas, sanctified by the&#xA;  latter, is freed from all his sins. Even if he accepts in gift the&#xA;  entire earth with her oceans, he doth not, on that account, suffer the&#xA;  least unhappiness. &lt;strong&gt;And those heavenly bodies in the sky including&#xA;  the sun that may be inauspicious and hostile towards him soon becomes&#xA;  auspicious and favorable towards him in consequence of these acts of&#xA;  his, while those stars that are auspicious and favorable become more&#xA;  auspicious and favorable in consequence of such conduct of his.&lt;/strong&gt;’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Vana Parva, Section CLXLIX&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-01-27T12:02:19.200" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16908" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-01-27T13:22:30.567" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-01-27T13:22:30.567" LastActivityDate="2017-01-27T13:22:30.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16909" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-01-27T13:22:30.567" Score="0" Body="Questions about Vadakalai (वडकलै), a sub sect of &quot;Sri Vaishnava&quot; which gives primary importance to Sanskrit Vedas in addition to Naalayira Divya Prabhandam. It is believed to be expounded by Vedanta Desikan. The Vadakalai doctrine also known as Markat Nyaya." OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-01-27T14:41:40.093" LastActivityDate="2017-01-27T14:41:40.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16910" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-01-27T13:31:23.900" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-01-27T13:31:23.900" LastActivityDate="2017-01-27T13:31:23.900" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16911" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-01-27T13:31:23.900" Score="0" Body="Questions about Thenkalai (तेन्कलै), a sub sect of Sri Vaishnava which gives primary importance to &quot;Naalayira Divya Prabhandam&quot;, a collection of 4000 Tamil verses composed by 12 alwars and was compiled by Natha Muni. Pillai Lokacharya, Manavala Mahamuni are believed as the chief expounders of Thenkalai. This doctrine is also known as Marjara Nyaya" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-31T08:00:10.853" LastActivityDate="2017-01-31T08:00:10.853" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16912" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-27T14:44:31.827" Score="9" ViewCount="1135" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Sadhaka gains  full mastery over a particular Mantra after obtaining it from a Guru and doing the japa as prescribed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This process is often called  &quot;Mantra Sadhana&quot; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=525&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Mantra Puruscharana&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.Now the Mantra can be of any Deity, depending on the nature of the Sadhana or the choice of the Sadhaka, like Kali,Tara,Shiva,Vishnu etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Description of the process of Purascharana is an important part of the Agama(Tantra) Texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the Sadhaka obtains such Mantra siddhis he can make the Mantra to work at his command to create even miracles like curing diseases of others etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Question&lt;/strong&gt;-Is Mantra Siddhi thus obtained  temporary(say it stays with the Sadhaka for only &quot;X&quot; number of years but not after that many years have passed) or it stays with the Sadhaka till his death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8808" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-28T06:51:58.457" LastActivityDate="2019-05-03T20:16:35.003" Title="Can mantra siddhi once gained be lost due to some reasons?" Tags="|mantras|kali|sadhana|tantra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16913" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9358" CreationDate="2017-01-27T15:36:01.127" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are a bunch of Vedic mantras  together called as the &amp;quot;Navagraha Suktam&amp;quot; which is considered to be a hymn dedicated to the Navagrahas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although it's called the &lt;strong&gt;Navagraha Suktam&lt;/strong&gt; and the mantras are accepted as mantras related to the Navagrahas by authoritative Hindu organizations but the explicit mention of Navagraha is never to be found in that hymn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case,the following are a few mantras from that hymn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantra that is attributed to Surya in that hymn is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/t8RYC.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/t8RYC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With  the Light   of  Truth   in  space   advancing,  determining life    and death,  borne   in  his golden  chariot he  comes,  Savitar,    God who gazes   upon    the worlds. (Rig    Veda    1.35.2  ;   Taitt.  Sam.3.4.11.2a)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a̱ gni ṁ d ū ̱ta ṁ v ṛ ̍ ṇ īmahe ̱ hot ā ̍ra ṁ vi ̱śvave ̍dasam | a&#xA;̱sya ya ̱jñasya ̍ su ̱kratum ̎ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We    choose  Agni    as  our messenger,  the herald, master  of  all wealth. Well    skilled in  this    our sacrifice.  (RigVeda    1.12.1; Taitt.  Sam.    2.5.8.5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ye ṣāmī śe ̍ paśu ̱pati ̍ ḥpa śūn āṁ catu ̍ ṣpad ām uta ca&#xA;̍ dvipadām | niṣkrī ̍to ̱’ya ṁ ya ̱jñiya ̍ ṁ bhā ̱game ̍tu r&#xA;ā ̱yas-poṣā ̱ yaja ̍m ānasya santu ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which creatures   does    the Lord    of  creatures   rule:—  both    the four    footed  and birds.  May He, being&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;propitiated,  accept  His sacrificial share,  may abundance   of  wealth  come    to  the sacrificer. (Taitariya Samhita. 3;1;4d)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly the mantra for Soma(Moon) is :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;om  aapyaa yasva  sametu tay vishvata: soma  vrushN iyam | bhavaa&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;vaajasya sangathay | apsumesomo  abraveedantar vish vaani bhesha  jaa&#xA;| agnincha  vishvasham bhuvamaapashcha vishva b heshajee: |  gouree&#xA;mimaaya salilaani  takshatyeka padee dvipade e  saa  chatushpadee |&#xA;ashTaapadee  navapadee babhoovushee   sahasra  aksharaa paramay vyoman&#xA;||   om  adhi devataa pratyadhi devataa sahitaaya somaaya  nama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp; similar mantras are there for each of the remaining 7 grahas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the whole suktam from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bharatiweb.com/English/Navagraha%20Sooktam%20Eng%20v1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;.For english translations you can refer to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Navagraha_Suktham&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindupedia.com.&lt;/a&gt;.And, for the Nakshatras we too have similar Veda mantras contained in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bharatiweb.com/wp-content/uploads/Nakshatra-Sooktam-Eng-v1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nakshtra Suktam&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-01-28T06:58:28.723" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16914" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16774" CreationDate="2017-01-27T16:03:49.087" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is what Mahabharata says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Unto the cheerless and trembling Karna, prostrated with joined hands&#xA;  upon earth, that foremost one of Bhrigu's race, smiling though filled&#xA;  with wrath, answered, '&lt;strong&gt;Since thou hast, from avarice of weapons,&#xA;  behaved with falsehood, therefore, O wretch, this Brahma weapon shall&#xA;  not dwell in thy remembrance. Since thou art not a Brahmana, truly&#xA;  this Brahma weapon shall not, up to the time of death, dwell in thee&#xA;  when thou shall be engaged with a warrior equal to thyself!&lt;/strong&gt; Go hence,&#xA;  this is no place for a person of such false behaviour as thou! On&#xA;  earth, no Kshatriya will be thy equal in battle.' Thus addressed by&#xA;  Rama, Karna came away, having duly taken his leave.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section III&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what happened at the time of Karna's death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'At that time, when hour of Karna's death had come, Kala, approaching&#xA;  invisibly, and alluding to the Brahmana's curse, and desirous of&#xA;  informing Karna that his death was near, told him, &quot;The Earth is&#xA;  devouring thy wheel'. &lt;strong&gt;Indeed, O foremost of men, when the hour of&#xA;  Karna's death came, the high Brahma weapon that the illustrious&#xA;  Bhargava had imparted unto him, escaped from his memory&lt;/strong&gt;.......When his&#xA;  car began to reel from the curse of the Brahmana and when the high&#xA;  weapon he had obtained from Rama no longer shone in him through inward&#xA;  light, and when his terrible snake-mouthed shaft also had been cut off&#xA;  by Partha, Karna became filled with melancholy.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section XC&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No definitive answer can be given to this question. One possible answer is to say that Arjuna+Krishna were superior to Karna in battle thus violating the 'equality in battle' condition. This weakened the effect of Parashuram's curse.&#xA;Of course one may object and say that Krishna stayed passive throughout the battle against Karna. I would say that Krishna's presence was vital throughout the Mahabharata war. Just think of Arjuna's plight after Krishna's death. In fact Krishna himself hinted that he was not entirely passive during the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna’s defense   Krishna defended his actions as follows in a voice&#xA;  deep as that of the clouds or the drum: &quot;All of them were great&#xA;  car-warriors and exceedingly quick in the use of weapons! If ye had&#xA;  put forth all your prowess even then ye could never have slain them in&#xA;  battle by fighting fairly! King Duryodhana also could never be slain&#xA;  in a fair encounter! The same is the case with all those mighty&#xA;  car-warriors headed by Bhishma! From desire of doing good to you, &lt;strong&gt;I&#xA;  repeatedly applied my powers of illusion and caused them to be slain&#xA;  by diverse means in battle. If I had not adopted such deceitful ways&#xA;  in battle, victory would never have been yours, nor kingdom, nor&#xA;  wealth!&lt;/strong&gt; These four were very high-souled warriors and regarded as&#xA;  Atirathas in the world. The very Regents of the Earth could not slay&#xA;  them in fair fight. Similarly, the son of Dhritarasthra, though&#xA;  fatigued when armed with mace, could not be slain in a fair fight by&#xA;  Yama himself armed with his bludgeon! Ye should not take it to heart&#xA;  that this foe of yours hath been slain deceitfully. When the number of&#xA;  one's foes becomes great, then destruction should be effected by&#xA;  contrivances and means. The gods themselves, in slaying the Asuras,&#xA;  have trod the same way. That way, therefore, that had been trod by the&#xA;  gods, may be trod by all.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Mahabharata, Salya Parva, Section 61)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-01-29T12:45:01.263" LastActivityDate="2017-01-29T12:45:01.263" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16915" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-27T17:16:13.700" Score="2" ViewCount="660" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that Skanda Puranam contains a very large section called Srisaila Khandam describing about the famous kshetra &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srisailam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srisailam&lt;/a&gt; which has the story of a Brahmana called Parvata doing tapas for Siva etc. Is the text of that khanda available in any language (preferably in sanskrit) ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-27T19:14:32.587" LastActivityDate="2017-01-27T19:14:32.587" Title="Srisaila Khandam - Skanda Purana" Tags="|puranas|translation-request|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16917" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-28T07:13:14.193" Score="5" ViewCount="143" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have a gross translation of &lt;code&gt;Astika&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;Nastika&lt;/code&gt; as theism and Atheism. However, the etymology of &lt;code&gt;Nastika&lt;/code&gt; (&lt;code&gt;na-asti-ka&lt;/code&gt;) seems to indicate 'someone who does not believe in what exists`.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there an accurate translation of the words in English ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what do they exactly mean as per Hindu scriptures ? I know of Charvaka and his Nastika theories, but is that the only one ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastEditorUserId="4133" LastEditDate="2017-01-28T07:30:33.570" LastActivityDate="2017-01-28T07:30:33.570" Title="Do Nastika and Astika have direct translations in English?" Tags="|philosophy|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-01-28T08:30:40.583" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16918" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16790" CreationDate="2017-01-28T07:37:47.677" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since the Buddhists don't follow the Hindu Caste system they will fall in the category of &quot;those having no cast&quot;(or outcast) from the Hindu perspective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If some generations ago some of their forefathers adhered to the Hindu caste system even then ,since that is all broken now,all the present Buddhists will fall in the outcast category only.Because mixed casts are outcast only.And,because there is no 5th caste in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.4 Brahmano Kshatriyo Vaisyas Trayo Varna DvijatayoH||&#xA;  Chaturtha Ekajatis Tu Sudro &lt;strong&gt;Na-asti Tu Panchamaha ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmana, the Kshatriya, and the Vaisya castes (varna) are the&#xA;  twice-born ones, but the fourth, the Sudra, has one birth only;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;there is no fifth (caste)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if you are among the ones who believe in a guna/karma-based caste system ,where one's birth plays no role,then i can't answer your question for sure.Because, then your guess is as good as mine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in Hinduism one's caste is &lt;strong&gt;mostly determined by birth&lt;/strong&gt;,although gunas and karmas also play some role in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example see the following verse from Manu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.3. On account of his pre-eminence, &lt;strong&gt;on account of the&#xA;  superiority of his origin,&lt;/strong&gt; on account &lt;strong&gt;of his observance of&#xA;  (particular) restrictive rules,&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;on account of his particular&#xA;  sanctification&lt;/strong&gt; the Brahmana is the lord of (all) castes (varna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here origin refers to &lt;strong&gt;birth&lt;/strong&gt;,observance of some restrictions refers to &lt;strong&gt;karma&lt;/strong&gt; and the sanctification process refers to the &lt;strong&gt;Saamskaras&lt;/strong&gt; we have(viz-the 40 Samskaras,including Upanayana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-01-28T07:37:47.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16919" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16774" CreationDate="2017-01-28T07:50:58.383" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;TL;DR: &lt;strong&gt;Karṇa was not cursed either by the brāhmaṇa or by Paraśurāma&lt;/strong&gt;. Karṇa's chariot wheel was not even stuck in the battlefield. The battle between the two greats Arjuna and Karṇa on the 17&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; day of the Mahābhārata war was a fair fight; there was no adharma by Kṛṣṇa or Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the following reasons, I strongly believe Paraśurāma's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;curse&lt;/a&gt; (śāpa) on Karṇa is an interpolation i.e., it's not part of the original Mahābhārata text but a later addition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;These four incidents all find mention in the first few chapters of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Śānti-parva&lt;/a&gt; and nowhere else in the Mahābhārata in so much detail:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Karṇa first goes to Droṇa to acquire the skill of Brahmāstra but Droṇa rejects him saying he's neither a brāhmaṇa nor a kṣatriya to receive the archery skills.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;⟪ &lt;em&gt;Here, the scene is set such that Karṇa should approach Paraśurāma next.&lt;/em&gt; ⟫&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Karṇa then goes to Paraśurāma and lies that he's a Brāhmaṇa to acquire Brahmāstra and other weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;⟪ &lt;em&gt;Here, Karṇa is portrayed as a liar.&lt;/em&gt; ⟫&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;While roaming about one day, he accidentally kills a Brāhmaṇa's cow and gets cursed (&quot;the earth will swallow up the wheel of your chariot&quot;). Karṇa begs for forgiveness, offers the Brāhmaṇa, cows, gemstones etc. as compensation, but the Brāhmaṇa is not convinced, sticks to his guns and doesn't offer Karṇa a way out (prāyaścitta).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;⟪ &lt;em&gt;I find this whole incident ludicrous, because, throughout our scriptures, e.g., &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/42&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.42&lt;/a&gt;, we're told that peacefulness, self-control, tolerance etc., are qualities that differentiate a brāhmaṇa from the rest and yet this particular brāhmaṇa is quite the opposite.&lt;/em&gt; ⟫&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what happens &lt;em&gt;before&lt;/em&gt; the Brāhmaṇa delivers his śāpa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once, near that hermitage, he was roaming around on the &#xA;  shores of the ocean. The son of the suta was wandering around &#xA;  alone, with a sword and a bow in his hand. O Partha! There was &#xA;  a person who was knowledgeable about the brahman and who &#xA;  performed the aghnihotra sacrifice every day. &lt;strong&gt;Unwittingly, he &#xA;  killed his homadhenu&lt;/strong&gt;. Having unwittingly performed this &#xA;  deed, Karna went and repeatedly told the brahmana, so that he &#xA;  might be pacified, 'O illustrious one! I have unwittingly killed &#xA;  your cow. Please show me your favours.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ch. 1330 (2), The Mahabharata: Volume 8, Bibek Debroy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;⟪ &lt;em&gt;Now, how can one &quot;inadvertently&quot; kill a sacred cow? The explanation is deliberately left out.&lt;/em&gt; ⟫&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yudhiṣṭhira &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a006.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;curses&lt;/a&gt; his own mother Kunti and all other women on earth for hiding Karṇa's identity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus addressed by his mother, king Yudhishthira, with tearful eyes and heart agitated by grief, said these words, 'In consequence of thyself having concealed thy counsels, this great affliction has overtaken me!' Possessed of great energy, the righteous king, then, in sorrow, &lt;strong&gt;cursed all the women of the world&lt;/strong&gt;, saying, '&lt;strong&gt;Henceforth no woman shall succeed in keeping a secret&lt;/strong&gt;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ch. 1334 (6), The Mahabharata: Volume 8, Bibek Debroy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;⟪ &lt;em&gt;Again, Yudhiṣṭhira cursing entire womenfolk including his own mother appears very flimsy. Also ask yourself: Why didn't he curse Kṛṣṇa, the mastermind who knew Karṇa's true identity as well and had a talk with Karṇa prior to the battle?&lt;/em&gt; ⟫&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Paraśurāma did really curse Karṇa, then Karṇa should have really forgotten how to invoke the Brahmāstra. Here's Paraśurāma's actual curse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;However, he [Paraśurāma] smiled and said, 'You acted in this false way because of your greed for weapons. O stupid one! In a different place, when the time for your death has come, &lt;strong&gt;you will be engaged in a fight with someone who is your equal and the brahmastra will not manifest itself before you&lt;/strong&gt;. The qualities of a brahmana will never remain with someone who is not a brahmana. Leave this place, since this is not meant for an untruthful one like you. There will be no kshatriya on earth who will be your equal in battle.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ch. 1331 (3), The Mahabharata: Volume 8, Bibek Debroy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let's examine the effects of the so-called curses in the real battlefield. Here's the first mention of them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because of the brahmana's curse, the chariot was whirled around in the encounter. Because of Rama's curse, the weapons no longer manifested themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ch. 1216 (66), The Mahabharata: Volume 7, Bibek Debroy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Karṇa has no problem invoking the Brahmāstra. He launches not one but two Brahmāstras on Arjuna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karna trembled. However, he exhibited &#xA;  great capacity. &lt;strong&gt;Using his strength, he invoked &#xA;  brahmastra&lt;/strong&gt;. On seeing this, Arjuna invoked &#xA;  mantras and released aindrastra. Dhananjaya &#xA;  also invoked mantras on the bowstring of &#xA;  Gandiva and the arrows. He released showers &#xA;  of arrows, like Purandara pouring down rain. &#xA;  Those energetic arrows issued from the &#xA;  immensely valorous Partha's chariot and were &#xA;  about to destroy Karna's chariot. However, &#xA;  when they arrived in front of him, maharatha &#xA;  Karna repulsed all of them. When that &#xA;  weapon was destroyed, the brave one from &#xA;  the Vrishni lineage said, 'O Partha! Radheya is &#xA;  destroying your arrows. Release supreme &#xA;  weapons.' Using mantras, Arjuna released &#xA;  brahmastra. With those radiant arrows, &#xA;  Arjuna shrouded Karna. But Karna used &#xA;  extremely energetic arrows to angrily sever &#xA;  his bowstring. Fixing another bowstring, &#xA;  Pandava enveloped Karna with thousands of &#xA;  fiemy arrows. In that battle, when Karna &#xA;  severed his bowstring, he fixed another one so &#xA;  quickly that no one could make this out. It &#xA;  was wonderful. Using his weapons, Radheya &#xA;  countered all of Savyasachi's weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ch. 1216 (66), The Mahabharata: Volume 7, Bibek Debroy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Vasudeva addressed Radheya in this &#xA;  way, Pandava Dhananjaya remembered all &#xA;  this and was overcome by great rage. &#xA;  Energetic flames of anger seemed to issue out &#xA;  from all the pores on his body and it was &#xA;  extraordinary. &lt;strong&gt;On seeing this, Karna again invoked &#xA;  brahmastra against Dhananjaya.&lt;/strong&gt; He showered &#xA;  down arrows and tried to extricate his chariot. &#xA;  Pandava countered those weapons with his &#xA;  own weapons. Kounteya then released &#xA;  another weapon, beloved of the fire god, &#xA;  towards Karna. It blazed fiercely. Karna &#xA;  pacified the fire through a varuna weapon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ch. 1217 (67), The Mahabharata: Volume 7, Bibek Debroy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you notice keenly, Karṇa himself doesn't recollect those curses. It is either &quot;kāla&quot; or the narrator(s) adding those curses into the mix.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At that time, when the hour of Karna's death had come, Kala, approaching invisibly, and alluding to the Brahmana's curse, and desirous of informing Karna that his death was near, told him, &quot;The Earth is devouring thy wheel!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, we don't find the above line (from Ganguli's tr.) in Debroy's tr. based on the latest critical edition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why do I think Karṇa himself should have recalled those curses? Because in Rāmāyaṇa we see that Daśaratha &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga64/ayodhyasans64.htm#Verse59&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;recollect&lt;/a&gt; a similar curse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O, Kausalya! The sin I myself committed through ignorance on that day, by invoking an arrow and hitting an invisible object the sound of which was heard, I remember it now on reflection over it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O, my dear lady! Those words of that noble sage, saying that I shall give up my life due to grief for the loss of my son, have come true to me now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;How to make sense of all this?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clearly, the later narrators of the Mahābhārata have interpolated several verses into the original text to suit their whims and that of their listeners and readers. The chapters describing Karṇa's two unfortunate curses are also such interpolated verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What could have really happened is that Karṇa's chariot skid and one of its wheel was stuck. Given that this was the 17&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; day of the war and there were several dead bodies of men, horses etc. still lying in the battlefield, it's plausible Karṇa's chariot was stuck momentarily. Karṇa then quickly tried to recover his chariot assuming Arjuna would not shoot arrows. But Kṛṣṇa had other plans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Another strong possibility is that Karṇa's chariot was not really stuck!&lt;/strong&gt; It was a fair fight after all and Arjuna was simply better at the end. And there was no adharma-yuddha for which Kṛṣṇa is often criticized by many!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why do I think so?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There's no report later of the chariot wheel being freed magically or manually:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The brave Karna fell down on the ground. Mangled by arrows, blood flowed out from his body. On seeing that he was lying down on the ground and seeing that the standard had been severed, &lt;strong&gt;the king of Madra [Shalya] withdrew on the chariot&lt;/strong&gt;. When Karna was slain, the Kurus fled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ch. 1217 (67), The Mahabharata: Volume 7, Bibek Debroy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Śalya doesn't report any adharma-yuddha to Duryodhana either. He simply blames it on destiny rather than Arjuna shooting at Karṇa unfairly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He swiftly went to Duryodhana's side &#xA;  and spoke these sorrowful words. 'The elephants, horses and &#xA;  best of rathas in your army have been destroyed. It looks like &#xA;  Yama's kingdom. The large armies with men, horses and &#xA;  elephants that are like mountain tops have clashed against each &#xA;  other and have been killed. O descendant of the Bharata lineage! &#xA;  There has never been a battle like that fought between Karna &#xA;  and Arjuna today. Karna clashed against the two Krishnas and &#xA;  others who are your enemies and has been devoured. &lt;strong&gt;Destiny &#xA;  flows according to its own rules.&lt;/strong&gt; That is the reason it is &#xA;  protecting the Pandavas and weakening us...'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ch. 1218 (68), The Mahabharata: Volume 7, Bibek Debroy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana also says all witnesses praised the fight, there were no complaints:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The foremost of brave ones among the Kurus had witnessed the terrible encounter between Dhananjaya and Adhiratha's son, destructive of lives. They were amazed. &lt;strong&gt;Now that it was over, they praised it and departed&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ch. 1218 (68), The Mahabharata: Volume 7, Bibek Debroy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-01-28T07:50:58.383" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16920" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17348" CreationDate="2017-01-28T12:17:29.343" Score="11" ViewCount="1102" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all,by Smriti here i mean only the Dharma Shastras  like Manu Smriti,Parashara Smriti etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is very often that i find comments of the following nature here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;In Hinduism Sruti is the ultimate authority ,so whenever you find a Smriti contradicting  Sruti you have to reject the Smriti in that case.&quot;(this is just a paraphrase &amp;amp; not an exact comment )&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,i assume there must be many such instances where a Smriti has contradicted  Sruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part15/chap8.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; speech &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji&lt;/a&gt; &quot; says that a Smriti never contradicts Sruti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no second opinion regarding the fact that what is called&#xA;  &quot;Srauta&quot;(directly mentioned in the Vedas) is wholly authoritative. But&#xA;  what is not directly mentioned in Sruti but included in Smrti - that&#xA;  is Smarta - is not to be taken to be less authoritative. &lt;strong&gt;Smarta never&#xA;  contradicts Srauta.&lt;/strong&gt; In some matters Smritis may go beyond Sruti, but&#xA;  that too is fully authoritative being based on the inner spirit of&#xA;  Sruti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti also says the same thing that Smriti is based on Sruti only.Those traditions that are not based on Vedas are false .So Manu Smriti being not a false doctrine itself is based on  the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.95. &lt;strong&gt;All those traditions (smriti)&lt;/strong&gt; and those despicable systems of philosophy, &lt;strong&gt;which are not based on the Veda&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;produce no reward after&#xA;  death; for they are declared to be founded on Darkness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.96. &lt;strong&gt;All those (doctrines), differing from the (Veda)&lt;/strong&gt;, which spring up and (soon) perish, &lt;strong&gt;are worthless and false,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the instances where a Smriti Text has contradicted a Sruti statement?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-28T16:41:09.527" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T06:02:51.310" Title="Any examples where a Smriti has contradicted a Sruti statement?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|dharma-shastras|smriti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16921" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20951" CreationDate="2017-01-28T15:06:02.027" Score="17" ViewCount="8326" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my study of Advaita Vedanta, I have come across many references to the point that one is not the doer of any action. See for example these two verses&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्माधर्मौ सुखं दुखं &#xA;  मानसानि न ते विभो।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न कर्तासि न भोक्तासि &#xA;  मुक्त एवासि सर्वदा॥६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Righteousness, unrighteousness, pleasure and pain are connected with the mind and not with the all-pervading you. You are neither the doer nor the reaper of the actions, so you are always almost free.॥6॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Ashtavakra Gita)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रकृते: क्रियमाणानि गुणै: कर्माणि सर्वश: |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहङ्कारविमूढात्मा कर्ताहमिति मन्यते || Chapter 3, verse 27||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A egotist, under the influence of the three modes of material nature-Rajas, Sattva and Tamas, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Bhagvad Gita)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if I am not the doer and reaper of any action what's the significance of law of karma? Lord Krishna says what is happening with us is the result of our past actions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, shouldn't we be taking responsibility of what we are doing instead of saying that we are not the doer?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's what Vasistha has to say about people who think they are not the doer of any actions in Yog Vasistha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who thinks of going to heaven or hell by the will of the Maker is also a slave to destiny and is no better than a beast.28 The man of a noble mind who is employed in acts of goodness, breaks off from the errors of the world like a lion from its cage.29 Those who vainly imagine themselves to be led about by some supernatural power, and so slight their necessary duties, are to be&#xA;  shunned at a distance as the mean and base.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Yog Vasistha, Part 2, chapter 6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But again in later Yog Vasistha, I have found Vasistha saying that we not the doer of actions we perform.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At this point I am totally puzzled as what to do. At one point they all are saying that I am not the doer and at other point they are saying I am the doer. Am I the doer of my actions or not? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-29T03:48:01.583" LastActivityDate="2018-02-05T02:11:35.927" Title="Why is it said in Vedanta that you are not the doer of any action?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|advaita|yoga-vashishtha|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16922" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16899" CreationDate="2017-01-28T16:22:25.370" Score="25" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shankaras Advaita is called Kevala Advaita ie. Only Advaita; there is no duality at all and any duality that is perceived is just due to ignorance. Here are some features of Shankara's philosophy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Omniscience, omnipotence etc.. attribute in Lord is seen due to Avidya.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This point is made by Adi Shankara in Brahma Sutra Bhasyam 2.1.14. This point clearly separates Advaita from other philosophies like Vishistadvaita. In Brahma Sutra Bhasyam 2.1.14 Shankara says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदेवमविद्यात्मकोपाधिपरिच्छेदापेक्षमेवेश्वरस्येश्वरत्वं सर्वज्ञत्वं सर्वशक्तित्वं च, न परमार्थो विद्यया अपास्तसर्वपाधिस्वरुपे आत्मनि ईशत्रीशितव्यसर्वज्ञत्वादिव्यवहार उपपद्यते, तथा चोक्तम् - 'यत्र नान्यपश्यति नान्यच्छृणोति नान्यद्विजानाति स भूमा इति' यत्र 'त्वस्य सर्वमात्मैवाभूत्तत्केन कं पश्येत्' इत्यादिना च एव परमार्थवस्थायां सर्वव्यवहाराभावं वदन्ति वेदान्ता ।। 2.1.14&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence &lt;strong&gt;the Lord's being a Lord, his omniscience, his omnipotence, &amp;amp;c. all depend on the limitation due to the adjuncts whose Self is Avidya;&lt;/strong&gt; while in reality none of these qualities belong to the Self whose true nature is cleared, by right knowledge, from all adjuncts whatever. Thus Scripture also says, 'Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else, that is the Infinite' (Ch. Up. VII, 24, 1); 'But when the Self only has become all this, how should he see another?' (Bri. Up. II, 4, 13.) &lt;strong&gt;In this manner the Vedânta-texts declare that for him who has reached the state of truth and reality the whole apparent world does not exist.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the above Bhasya makes it clear that the attributes of God like Shiva and Vishnu (like omniscience, omnipotence etc..) are seen due to Ignorance. &lt;strong&gt;These things do not exist at all.&lt;/strong&gt; So, the Shiva-Vishnu debate doesn't exist in Shankaras philosophy at all. This also makes it clear that when Shankara defines highest thing using name of God, it clearly represents Nirguna Brahman.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the same Bhasya Shankara also says:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; Such texts are, 'In that all this has its Self; it is the True, it is the Self, thou art that' (Ch. Up. VI, 8, 7); &lt;strong&gt;'This everything, all is that Self'&lt;/strong&gt; (Bri. Up. II, 4, 6); 'Brahman alone is all this' (Mu. Up. II, 2, 11); 'The Self is all this' (Ch. Up. VII, 25, 2); &lt;strong&gt;'There is in it no diversity'&lt;/strong&gt; (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 25).--On any other assumption it would not be possible to maintain that by the knowledge of one thing everything becomes known (as the text quoted above declares). We therefore must adopt the following view. In the same way as those parts of ethereal space which are limited by jars and waterpots are not really different from the universal ethereal space, and as the water of a mirage is not&#xA;really different from the surface of the salty steppe--for the nature of that water is that it is seen in one moment and has vanished in the next, and moreover, it is not to be&#xA;perceived by its own nature (i.e. apart from the surface of the desert -; so &lt;strong&gt;this manifold world with its objects of enjoyment, enjoyers and so on has no existence apart from Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Shankara rejects philosophy of both Shaiva Aagams and PanchaRatra Aagams:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those Vaishnavas, who adhere to Vedanta darshan, commented on Brahma Sutras by intrepreting Sutras in favour of PanchaRatra (Vaishnava) Aagams. Similarly , those Shaivas, who adhere to Vedanta darshan, commented on Brahma Sutras by intrepreting Sutras in favour of Shaiva Aagams.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However Shankara rejects both PanchaRatra Aagams and Shaiva Aagams.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Eg. Shankara rejects philosophy of Shaiva Aagams &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34213.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Máhesvaras (Saivas) maintain that the five categories, viz. effect, cause, union, ritual, the end of pain, were taught by the Lord Pasupati&lt;/strong&gt; (Siva) to the end of breaking the bonds of the animal (i.e. the soul); Pasupati is, according to them, the Lord, the operative cause.--Similarly, the Vaiseshikas and others also teach, according to their various systems, that the Lord is somehow the operative cause of the world. Against all these opinions the Sutra remarks 'the Lord, on account of the inappropriateness.' I.e. it is not possible that the Lord as the ruler of the pradhâna and &lt;br&gt;&#xA;the soul should be the cause of the world, &lt;strong&gt;on account of the inappropriateness of that doctrine.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Shankara criticises PanchaRatra (Bhagvata) doctrine [ &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34221.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; ] as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, &lt;strong&gt;manifold contradictions are met with in the Bhâgavata system,&lt;/strong&gt; with reference to the assumption of qualities and their bearers. Eminence of knowledge and ruling capacity, strength, valour, and glory are enumerated as qualities, and then they are in some other place spoken of as Selfs, holy Vâsudevas, and so on.--Moreover, &lt;strong&gt;we meet with passages contradictory of the Veda.&lt;/strong&gt; The following passage, for instance, blames the Veda, 'Not having found the highest bliss in the Vedas Sândilya studied this sâstra.'-- &lt;strong&gt;For this reason also the Bhâgavata doctrine cannot be accepted.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, for this reason also, Shankara can be neither called Shaiva nor Vaishnava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Shankara calls Narayana as the witness of all:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the BrihadAranyaka Upanishad Bhasya 3.7.1 Shankara states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवताकार्यकरणस्य ईश्वरसाक्षिमात्रसान्निध्येन हि नियमेन प्रवृत्तिनिवृत्ती स्याताम् ; यईदृगीश्वरो नारायणाख्यः, पृथिवीं पृथिवीदेवताम्...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The body and organs of the deity of the earth are regularly made to work or stop work by the mere presence of the Lord as witness.  &lt;strong&gt;Such an Iśvara, called Nārāyaṇa,&lt;/strong&gt; who controls the deity of the earth....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4) Shankara calls Shiva as Sarvajna Ishwara:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While identifying the Uma Haimavati Devi in Kena Upanishad Bhasya, Shankara states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथवा उमैव हिमवतो दुहिता हैमवती नित्यमेव सर्वज्ञेनेश्वरेण सह वर्तत इति ज्ञातुं समर्थेती कृत्वा ताम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Or Uma is Haimavati as she is the daughter of Himavat. &lt;strong&gt;As she always lives with that Sarvajna Ishwara&lt;/strong&gt; (Shiva), she knows the Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;5) Shankara cites Lord Avimukta as highest:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Brahma Sutra Bhasya 1.2.32, Shankara cites a Shruti passage from Jabala Upanishad which states Highest Lord is Lord Avimukta (Shiva) and he resides in Varanasi (which I also discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15072/what-is-the-yogic-meaning-of-getting-liberation-by-reaching-varanasi&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आत्मनन्ति चैनं परमेश्वरमस्मिन्मूर्धचुबुकान्तराले जाबाला - &amp;quot;  य एषोऽनन्तोऽव्यक्त आत्मा तं कथमहं विजानीयामिति ॥ स होवाच याज्ञवल्क्यः सोऽविमुक्त उपास्यो य एषोऽनन्तोऽव्यक्त आत्मा सोऽविमुक्ते प्रतिष्ठित इति ॥  का वै वरणा का च नाशीति ?&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Moreover the Gâbâlas speak in their text of the highest Lord as being in the interstice between the top of the head and the chin. 'The unevolved infinite Self abides in the avimukta (i.e. the non-released soul). &lt;strong&gt;Where does that Avimukta abide?&lt;/strong&gt; It abides in the Varanâ and the Nâsî, in the middle. What is that Varanâ, what is that Nâsî?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And at the last of that Bhasya he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्मात परमेश्वरो वैश्वानर इति सिद्धम् ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus it is proved that Vaishvanara is the Parameshwara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;6) Shankara in Vivekchudamani:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the 494th verse of Vivekchudamani Shankara states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नारायणोऽहं नरकान्तकोऽहं &lt;br&gt;&#xA;पुरान्तकोऽहं पुरुषोऽहमीशः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;अखण्डबोधोऽहमशेषसाक्षी &lt;br&gt;&#xA;निरीश्वरोऽहं निरहं च निर्ममः ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;494. &lt;strong&gt;I am Narayana,&lt;/strong&gt; the slayer of Naraka; &lt;strong&gt;I am the destroyer of Tripura,&lt;/strong&gt; the Supreme Being, the Ruler; I am knowledge Absolute, the Witness of everything; I have no other Ruler but myself, I am devoid of the ideas of &amp;quot;I’ and &amp;quot;mine&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This also shows Shiva-Vishnu Abheda philosophy of Shankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;7) Shankara while commenting the name 'Rudra' in Vishnu Sahasranaamam:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a name 'Rudra' in Vishnu Sahasranamam and Shankara comments it as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रुर्दुःखं दुःखकारणं वा, द्रावयतीति रुद्रः रोदनाद् द्रावद्वापि रुद्र इत्युच्यते ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;'Ru' means suffering or cause of suffering, and thus Rudra is the remover of suffering. Who ends the crying of samsara he is Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then he cites a verse from Shiva Purana stating it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'रुर्दुःखं दुःखहेतु वा तद्रावयति यः प्रभुः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;रुद्र इत्युच्यते तस्माच्छिव परमकारणम् ।।'&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot;Ru means suffering and cause of suffering and Lord is the remover of that. Thus he is called Rudra and thus Shiva is the Parama Kaaranam (Supreme cause).&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interestingly while commenting on names of Vishnu in Vishnu Sahasranaama he cites a verse from Shiva Purana which holds Shiva as Parama Kaarana. Thus it clearly shows that Adi Shankara held no difference between Hari and Hara. Shankara also cites a verse by Maheswara in Harivamsha in his Bhasya which states that name of Vishnu also belongs to Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नामानि तव गोविन्द यानि लोकेमहान्ति च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तान्येव मम नामानि नात्र कार्या विचारणा ।। (Harivamsha 3.88)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Oh Govinda &lt;strong&gt;your names&lt;/strong&gt; which are famous in this world, these &lt;strong&gt;are also my names&lt;/strong&gt; there is no doubt in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, actually Vishnu Sahasranaama Bhasya written by Adi Shankara is also Shiva Sahasranama Bhasya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;8) Shankara cites statement of Sri Krishna:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankara in Vishnu Sahasranama Bhasya cites statement of Lord Krishna from Vishnu Purana which was told by Lord Krishna to Lord Shiva during Banasur event:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्वया यदभयं दत्तं तद्दत्तमग्विलं मया ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मत्तो विभिन्नमात्मानं द्रष्ट्रं नार्हसि शंकर ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;योऽहं स त्वं जगच्चेदं स देवासुरमानुषम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अविद्यामोहितात्मानः पुरुषा भिन्नदर्शिन ।।(Vishnu Purana 5.33.47-49)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;That Abhaya which was given by you was also given by me. &lt;strong&gt;Oh Shankara do not see yourself different from me.&lt;/strong&gt; That which is me the same is you, this entire creation, Devas, Manyushyas and Asuras. &lt;strong&gt;Only those who are deluded by Avidya see me and you as different.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Shankara expounds those who see difference (especially between Hari and Hara) are &amp;quot;Avidya Mohita Atman&amp;quot; (those deluded by Avidya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;9) Shankara's warning to those who see difference:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankara in his Vishnu Sahasranama Bhasya explicitly states seeing Trimurtys (especially Hari and Hara) as different  is a great sin. Shankara cites &lt;strong&gt;statement of Maheswara from Bhavisyottar of Harivamsha&lt;/strong&gt; as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विष्णोरन्यं तु पश्यन्ति ये मां ब्रह्माणमेव वा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कुतर्कमतयोमूढा पश्यन्ते नरकेष्वध ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ये च मूढा दुरात्मानो भिन्नं पश्यन्ति मां हरे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ब्रह्माणं च ततस्तस्माद् ब्रह्महत्यासमं त्वधम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;He who sees myself and Brahma different than Vishnu, such fools surely fall in hell.&lt;/strong&gt; That Durãtmãn who sees myself different from Hari &lt;strong&gt;does a sin equivalent to BrahmaHatya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Shankara also states statement of Maheswara as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आवयोरन्तर नास्ति शब्दैरर्थैर्जगत्त्रये ।। (Harivamsha 3.88)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;There is no difference between you and me neither by Shabda (word) nor by meaning (artha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus it's clear that Shankara taught Trimurty Abheda philosophy. From the above statements we can know that Shankara holds those who see difference between Hari and Hara are Avidya Mohita Atman (Deluded by ignorance),Kutarkavadi (Who generates nonsense logic),Mudha (Who is fool), Narakeshvada (Who goes to Naraka), BrahmaHatya Sama (Who does sin equal as BrahmaHatya)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;All these are not self made claims of Adi Shankara. Shankara cites these verses or passages from Harivamsha Parva and Vishnu Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-02T11:09:59.817" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16923" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16921" CreationDate="2017-01-29T02:37:38.003" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding of advaita vedanta - when they refer to think as ' I am not the doer' what they mean is remove the doership of any karma. However, as per our prarabhdha karma which we are spending in this birth it will go on. But if we have the doership feeling then we can adding upto Agami karma which is accumulation of future karma which then would become sanchita karma for future births. To break free of these karmas when the individual doership is totally removed and the mind is dead then sanchita karma and agami karma would be removed, however prarabhda karma for this lifetime has to be completed but then we would not accumulate any further karma which would result in one freeing himself from the cycle of birth and rebirths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming back to the question of we trying to taking responbislity for our actions. As per the prarabhdha karma they are all predestined so even if we take the responsibility or even we think we are the doers or not the body will go through the predestined actions and it consequences. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When in vedanta they suggest to perform righteous activities or actions they advise us because those actions would purify the mind which is essentially collection of thoughts and help in subsiding the thoughts&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All of the above explanation is what i have read in Bhagvan Ramana Maharishi's book of 'Talks with Ramana Maharishi'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3252" LastActivityDate="2017-01-29T02:37:38.003" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16924" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15089" CreationDate="2017-01-29T03:42:15.123" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who is Hanuman's father?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hanuman's father name is Kesari who was a valiant Vanara. He is not the biological father of Hanuman. Hanuman is born in the womb of that vanara's wife Anjana by the grace of wind God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sundara Kanda, sarga 35, Hanuman explains the characteristics of Rama and Lakshmana and then gives a brief explanation of his birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कौरजो नाम वैदेहि गिरीणाम् उत्तमो गिरिः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततो गच्छति गो कर्णम् पर्वतम् केसरी हरिः ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O Seetha! There is a mountain called Malyavan, which is the best among mountains. From there, a monkeys called Kesari went to another mountain called Gokarna.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स च देव ऋषिभिः दृष्टः पिता मम महाकपिः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तीर्थे नदी पतेः पुण्ये शम्ब सादनम् उद्धरत् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;As prayed by gods and seers, that great monkey called Kesari, my father killed a demon named Shambasadana at a sacred shrine near the sea-shore.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तस्य अहम् हरिणः क्षेत्रे जातो वातेन मैथिलि |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हनूमान् इति विख्यातो लोके स्वेन एव कर्मणा ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;O Seetha! I am born in the womb of the wife of that Kesari the monkey, by the grace of the wind-god.&lt;/strong&gt; By my activity alone, I am renowned as Hanuma in this world.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr/&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Was he a king?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is not a king but a lieutenant in the vanara army. When we observe the verses in which Hanuma mentions Sugriva, he uses the word king. But he didn't use the word king when we told about his father. For example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वयम् तु &lt;strong&gt;हरि राजम् तम् सुग्रीवम्&lt;/strong&gt; सत्य सम्गरम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परिचर्यामहे राज्यात् पूर्वजेन अवरोपितम् || VR 5-35-26&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;We for one are serving that &lt;strong&gt;Sugreeva, the Lord of monkeys&lt;/strong&gt;, who was true to his promise, but was dethroned from the kingdom from his elder brother.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other instance, Vanaras who were happy after knowing that Hanuman had been successful in his work in knowing the whereabouts of Seetha goes to Madhuvana, a garden owned by monkey lord Sugreeva. They assault the guards and the keeper of the garden Dadhimukha. Dadhimukha is also  maternal uncle of Sugreeva. He was unable to stop the vanaras from drinking the honey and damaging the garden. He decides to complain this to Sugreeva in Kishkindha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the complaint, that Dadhimukha says as follows: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;न एव ऋक्ष रजसा राजन् न त्वया न अपि वालिना&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वनम् निसृष्ट पूर्वम् हि भक्षितम् तत् तु वानरैः || VR 5-63-4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;O king! Madhuvana was indeed not set free previously at any time by Riksharajas, your father, or by you, or by even Vali.&lt;/strong&gt; That Madhuvana has been consumed away by the monkeys.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the above shloka, it is clear that it was Sugreeva's father Rikshirajas was on the throne before Vali. Vali and Sugreeva acquired the throne by ancestry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Kesari was not the Lord of monkeys but a Valiant Vanara who had killed Rakshasas.   Not being a king doesn't defame his valiance or the greatness of Hanuman. The story which you have said in the question looks like a made up tale by television show writers to exaggerate Hanuman's birth and early life before meeting Sri Rama.&#xA;&lt;hr/&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;All translations from &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga35/sundara_35_frame.htm&quot;&gt;Valmikiramayan.net&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-01-29T03:42:15.123" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16926" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16921" CreationDate="2017-01-29T13:29:50.953" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Advaita Vedanta the ultimate concept is SOHAM or I am He (the Supreme Brahman). There is no difference between the spiritual aspirant and Brahman.I (the ego) is an illusion. Hence I (the ego) is not a doer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The status of I in Advaita Vedanta explained&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are two ways. One is the path of discrimination, the other is&#xA;  that of love. Discrimination means to know the distinction between the&#xA;  Real and the unreal. God alone is the Real and permanent substance;&#xA;  all else is illusory and impermanent. The magician alone is real; his&#xA;  magic is illusory. This is discrimination. One ultimately discovers&#xA;  God by trying to know who this 'I' is. Is this 'I' the flesh, the&#xA;  bones, the blood, or the marrow? Is it the mind or the buddhi?&#xA;  Analyzing this, you realize at last that you are none of these. This&#xA;  is called the process of 'Neti,neti', 'Not this, not this'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One can neither comprehend nor touch the Atman. It is without&#xA;  qualities or attributes. &lt;strong&gt;'I' and 'mine' - that is ignorance&lt;/strong&gt;. By&#xA;  discriminating you will realize that Krishna is Spirit, His abode is&#xA;  Spirit, and everything about Him is Spirit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What you call 'I' is really nothing but Atman&lt;/strong&gt;. Reason it out. Are you&#xA;  the body or the flesh or something else? At the end you will know that&#xA;  you are none of these. You are free from attributes. Then you will&#xA;  realize that you have never been the doer of any action, that you have&#xA;  been free from virtue and faults alike, that you are beyond righteous&#xA;  and unrighteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;God alone is the doer since the 'I' is He&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The younger Naren:&quot;Sir, have we any free will?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna:&quot;Just try to find out who this 'I' is. &lt;strong&gt;While you are&#xA;  searching for 'I'. 'He' comes out. 'I am the machine and He is the&#xA;  operator.'&lt;/strong&gt; You have heard of a mechanical toy that goes into a store&#xA;  with a letter in its hand. You are like that toy. &lt;strong&gt;God alone is the&#xA;  Doer. Do your duties in the world as if you were the doer, but knowing&#xA;  all the time that God alone is the Doer and you are the instrument.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-01-29T13:29:50.953" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16929" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16930" CreationDate="2017-01-30T00:04:35.277" Score="2" ViewCount="412" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Hinduism describe about the concept of atoms and molecules? If yes, is there any scientific method by which they came to a conclusion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="406" LastActivityDate="2017-01-30T01:07:39.913" Title="Concept of atoms and molecules in Hinduism" Tags="|science|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-01-30T18:09:03.507" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16930" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16929" CreationDate="2017-01-30T01:07:39.913" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atomism&lt;/a&gt; was very prominent among early Hindu schools of thought, including the Jain school. From Wikipedia:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;References to the concept of atomism and its atoms are found in&#xA;  ancient India and ancient Greece. In the West, atomism emerged in the&#xA;  5th century BCE with Leucippus and Democritus.[6] In India the&#xA;  Jain,[7][8] Ajivika and Carvaka schools of atomism may date back to&#xA;  the 4th century BCE.[9] The Nyaya and Vaisheshika schools later&#xA;  developed theories on how atoms combined into more complex&#xA;  objects.[10] Whether Indian culture influenced Greek or vice versa or&#xA;  whether both evolved independently is a matter of dispute.[11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most famous for Hindu Atomism was the Indian philosopher &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanada_(philosopher)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kanada&lt;/a&gt;, who observed the fundamental indestructibility of matter and that matter is in two general states, at rest or  in motion. He later developed the ideas of dvyanuka and tryanuka ,which would become diatomic and triatomic molecules.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7725" LastActivityDate="2017-01-30T01:07:39.913" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16931" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16951" CreationDate="2017-01-30T06:10:27.727" Score="9" ViewCount="3884" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindus remain austere and refrain from participating in any religious ritual for a specified number of days (mostly 13) when any family member expires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The popular thought is that the home becomes &quot;ashuddha&quot; and requires purification (either by virtue of 'Garuda Purana' or 'Gayatri Paath'). While I agree that these rituals may be necessary for the peace of the departed soul and their afterlife, but I am finding it difficult to understand why the home becomes contaminated. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the need to follow a period of aśuddha or aśauca following the death of a family person?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does the same aśuddha or aśauca apply when a pet or any other living being dies, as the soul departs in all of these other cases too?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there a logical explanation for all this?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8207" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-30T17:48:36.500" LastActivityDate="2017-01-31T11:25:21.017" Title="Do Hindus mourn the death of animals the same way they mourn their deceased relatives?" Tags="|rituals|atma|death|symbolism|animals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16932" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-30T07:38:55.167" Score="6" ViewCount="575" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16919/2995&quot;&gt;recent answer&lt;/a&gt;, I argued that both of Karṇa's two unfortunate curses were interpolations i.e., they were not part of Vyāsa's original Mahābhārata. I think the reason behind those particular interpolations is to elevate the stature of Karṇa, i.e., show him on par with Arjuna and that he'd be unbeatable if not for those two curses - one from a brāhmaṇa and other from Paraśurāma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apparently, there's a third curse-story mentioned in various online blogs according to which Karṇa tried to squeeze out spilled ghee (clarified butter) from soil which upset Bhūdevī (Goddess of Earth), so she cursed Karṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The full story from &lt;a href=&quot;http://varunmnayak.blogspot.com/2010/02/karna-and-three-curses.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;one such blog&lt;/a&gt; is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sometime later, when he was on a tour of his new kingdom, Karna is said to have encountered a girl who was crying out of fear of her step mother since her ghee had fallen to the ground. Being generous enough Karna told her that he would give her new ghee. But, the child insisted that she wanted only the ghee that was mixed with the soil and refused to take the new ghee. Taking pity on the girl, Karna took the soil mixed with ghee in his fist and squeezed it with all his might to extract the ghee and pour it back into the pot. However, Bhoomi Devi (Mother Earth) was furious at him for hurting her for the sake of a mere child. &lt;strong&gt;So, the Earth goddess cursed him that in a very crucial battle of his life, she would trap his chariot wheel in the same way that he held the fistful of soil, thereby making him vulnerable to his enemy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus, Karna was cursed on three separate and independent occasions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the origin of the above story? Which scripture contains it? Can you cite the exact verses or their translation from the relevant scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2020-10-07T18:50:20.517" Title="What scripture talks about Karṇa's third curse by Bhūdevī or Goddess of Earth?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|karna|bhumi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16933" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="902" CreationDate="2017-01-30T07:54:17.067" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;apos;Shiva&amp;apos; denotes the nature of the self&lt;/strong&gt; or the transcendental aspect. It represents Turiya which is beyond three Gunas of nature ie. Satva, Rajas and Tamas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;30th verse of Shiva Mahimna Stotra composed by Pushpadanta states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बहुल-रजसे विश्वोत्पत्तौ भवाय नमो नमः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रबल-तमसे तत्‌ संहारे हराय नमो नमः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जन-सुखकृते सत्त्वोद्रिक्तौ मृडाय नमो नमः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रमहसि पदे निस्त्रैगुण्ये शिवाय नमो नमः॥ ३०॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to you in the name of Bhava in as much as you create the world by taking the Rajas as the dominant quality; salutations to you in the name of Hara in as much as you destroy the world by taking the Tamas as the dominant quality; salutations to you in the name of Mrida in as much as you maintain and protect the world by taking Satva as the dominant quality . Again salutations to you &lt;strong&gt;in the name of Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; in as much as &lt;strong&gt;you are beyond the above-mentioned three qualities and are the seat of the supreme bliss.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus &amp;apos;Shiva&amp;apos; represents that which is beyond three Gunas (NisTraigunya).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhus%C5%ABdana_Sarasvat%C4%AB&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Madhusudana Saraswati&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; has written a commentary on Shiva Mahimna Stotram and for the phrase &amp;quot;&amp;nbsp; निस्त्रैगुण्ये शिवाय नमो नमः॥&amp;quot; he has commented upon as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रमहसिपदे निस्त्रैगुण्ये शिवाय नमो नमः – निर्गतं त्रैगुण्यं यस्मात्न्निस्त्रैगुण्यं तस्मिन्पदे पदनीये तत्पदप्राप्तििमित्तम् । कीदृशे ? प्रमहसि प्रकष्टं मायया अनभिभूतं महो ज्योिर्स्मिन्स्था । सर्वोत्तमप्रकाशरूपत्रिगुणशून्यमोक्षनिमित्तमित्यर्थः ।शिवाय – निस्त्रैगुण्यमङ्गलस्वरूपाय&amp;nbsp; ’शिवमद्वैतं चतुर्थं मन्यन्ते ’ इति श्रुतेः । प्रमहसि पदे सथिताय इति वा ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Now the explanation of the phrase &amp;quot;NisTraigunya Shivaya Namo Namaha.&amp;quot; Shiva transcends the three guṇas so he is called &amp;apos;Nirgata Traigunya&amp;apos;. Why is Shiva to be prostrated? With a view to attain Him, His state.&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;What is His nature, state? The Supreme Consciousness, effulgence, unaffected, untouched&amp;nbsp; by Maya is what He is. That is the supreme state of mokṣa which is free of all three guṇas.&lt;/strong&gt; Shiva is the Mangala swarupa beyond three Gunas. &lt;strong&gt;Shruti says ‘Shivam advaitam chaturtham manyante’&amp;nbsp; That pure auspicious essence that is free of the three guṇas which is non-dual, called the ‘fourth’ (Turiya).&lt;/strong&gt; Thus the explanation of the phrase ends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above citation &amp;quot; शिवमद्वैतं चतुर्थं मन्यन्ते ’&amp;quot; ie.&amp;quot;That Non-Dual Shiva is called the fourth&amp;quot; is from the 7th verse of the Mandukya Upanishad which describes Turiya state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नान्तःप्रज्ञं न बहिष्प्रज्ञं नोभयतःप्रज्ञं न प्रज्ञानघनं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न प्रज्ञं नाप्रज्ञम् । अदृष्टमव्यवहार्यमग्राह्यमलक्षणं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अचिन्त्यमव्यपदेश्यमेकात्मप्रत्ययसारं प्रपञ्चोपशमं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शान्तं &lt;strong&gt;शिवमद्वैतं चतुर्थं मन्यन्ते स आत्मा स विज्ञेयः&lt;/strong&gt; ॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Fourth is thought of as that which is not conscious of the internal world, nor conscious of the external world, nor conscious of both the worlds, nor dense with consciousness, nor simple consciousness, nor unconsciousness, which is unseen, actionless, &#xA;  incomprehensible, uninferable, unthinkable, indescribable, whose proof consists in the identity of the Self (in all states), in which all phenomena come to a cessation, and which is &lt;strong&gt;unchanging, auspicious, and non-dual. That is the Self; that is to be known.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana Koti Rudra Samhita chapter 42 also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिवे त्रिगुणसम्भिन्ने रुद्रे तु गुणधामनि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वस्तुतो न हि भेदोऽस्ति स्वर्णे तद्भूषणो यथा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There is absolutely no difference between &lt;strong&gt;Shiva who is beyond the three gunas&lt;/strong&gt; (satva, rajas and tamas) and Rudra, possessing all the gunas, in the same way as there is no difference between the gold and the gold ornaments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Shiva means the transcendental state, the nature of Atman, which is untouched by Trigunas and which is ever unchanging.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-01-30T07:54:17.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16934" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14738" CreationDate="2017-01-30T08:25:27.247" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, other Puranas do mention about prophecy of Adi Shankara. As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakotimandali.com/advaita/avatarita.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kamakoti Site&lt;/a&gt;, there are references to Adi Shankara being Avatara of Lord Shiva in Kurma Purana, Markandeya Purana, Aditya Purana, Shiva Purana and Linga Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among them, i found exact verses in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30601/79_chapter_30.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 30&lt;/a&gt; of Kurma Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदेव साधयेन्नृणां देवतानां च दैवतम्। &lt;br&gt;करिष्यत्यवताराणि शंकरो नीललोहितः॥&#xA;३३॥ &lt;br&gt;श्रीतस्मार्तप्रतिष्ठार्थ भक्तानां हितकाम्यया। &lt;br&gt;उपदेक्ष्यंति&#xA;तज्ज्ञानं शिष्याणां ब्रह्मसंज्ञितम्॥ ३४॥ &lt;br&gt;सर्ववेदान्तसारं हि&#xA;धर्मान्वेदनिदर्शितान्।&lt;br&gt; सर्ववर्णान् समुद्दिश्य स्वधर्मा ये निदर्शिताः।।&#xA;३५।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The people should adore lord Mahadeva, who happens to be the god of&#xA;gods. The brown complexioned Siva, for the establishment of Srauta&#xA;(Vedic) and Smarta dharmas (belonging to the Smritis), and for the&#xA;welfare of the devotees shall incarnate on earth. He will enlighten&#xA;his devotees on the subjects of the gist of Vedantas, the knowledge&#xA;relating to the Brahman, and all the dharmas enshrined in the Vedas,&#xA;which have been narrated earlier.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will update this answer with verses from above mentioned Puranas after finding them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T17:05:01.920" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16935" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-30T10:01:28.223" Score="3" ViewCount="90" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that the upanayanam is performed by the first 3 varna and only they are allowed to wear the thread. Even the threads are of different material cotton, hemp and wool. Presumably the rituals that are performed also differ per varna as well as the food and drink that may be consumed (for example I know that Kshatriya and Shudra varna are allowed meat) but the other two are not in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the difference in the rituals for dvija after initiation? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8825" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-02-01T05:12:28.587" LastActivityDate="2019-02-01T05:12:28.587" Title="What is the difference in the rituals per varna post upanayanam?" Tags="|rituals|upanayanam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16937" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16571" CreationDate="2017-01-30T11:53:52.297" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It actually depends on what do you mean by &amp;quot;Universe&amp;quot;. We should note that after day of Brahma, three worlds are merged into Supreme Brahman and after life span of Brahma, whole Brahmanda will be dissolved into Supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Srimadbhagavatam Skanda 12 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/canto12/chapter4.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyay 4&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्री-शुक उवाच &lt;br&gt; कालस् ते परमाण्व्आदिर् द्विपरार्धावधिर् नृप कथितो&#xA;युगमानं च शृणु कल्प-लयाव् अपि||  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;S'rî S'uka said: 'Time beginning with the smallest unit of the atom&#xA;and culminating in the two halves [or parârdhas of the life of Brahmâ]&#xA;oh King, has been described [in 3.11] together with the duration of&#xA;the yugas. Now hear about the annihilation of a kalpa. (4.1)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;चतुर्-युग-सहस्रं तु ब्रह्मणो दिनम् उच्यते स कल्पो&lt;/strong&gt; यत्र मनवश्च तुर्दश&#xA;विशाम्-पते|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One thousand cycles of four ages constitute a single day of Brahmā,&#xA;known as a kalpa.&lt;/strong&gt; In that period, O King, fourteen Manus come and go.&#xA;(4.2)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तद्-अन्ते प्रलयस् तावान्ब्रा ह्मी रात्रिर् उदाहृता &lt;strong&gt;त्रयो लोका इमे&#xA;तत्र कल्पन्ते प्रलयाय हि|&lt;/strong&gt;| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At their end there is a period of dissolution of the same duration&#xA;that is described as the night of Brahmâ. &lt;strong&gt;During that time the three&#xA;worlds are subject to destruction.&lt;/strong&gt; (4.3) &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एष &lt;strong&gt;नैमित्तिकः प्रोक्तः प्रलयो&lt;/strong&gt; यत्र विश्व-सृक्शे तेनन्तासनो&#xA;विश्वम्आत्मसात्-कृत्य चात्म-भूः|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is said to be the &lt;strong&gt;periodical annihilation [or naimittika pralaya]&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;in which [Nârâyana] the creator of the universe lies down upon His bed&#xA;Ananta, to absorb the universe including Lord Brahmâ. (4.4) &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;द्वि-परार्धे त्व् अतिक्रान्ते ब्रह्मणः &lt;strong&gt;परमेष्ठिनः तदा प्रकृतयः सप्त&#xA;कल्पन्ते प्रलयाय वै||&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the completion of two parârdhas [the two halves of the entire&#xA;life] of the highest situated living being, &lt;strong&gt;Lord Brahmâ, the seven&#xA;elements [mahat, ahamkâra and the five tanmâtras] are subject to&#xA;destruction.&lt;/strong&gt; (4.5) &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एष &lt;strong&gt;प्राकृतिको&lt;/strong&gt; राजन् &lt;strong&gt;प्रलयो&lt;/strong&gt; यत्र लीयते अण्ड-कोषस् तु सङ्घातो विघात&#xA;उपसादिते|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This [occasion] oh King, at which the universal egg, this aggregate&#xA;[of these seven universal aspects] reaches the time of its disruption&#xA;and dissolves oh King, constitutes the &lt;strong&gt;elemental [prâkritika]&#xA;annihilation.&lt;/strong&gt; (4.6) &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All verses and translations taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedabase&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Namittaka Pralaya will happen after period of 7 Manvantaras and 43 Chaturyugas&lt;/strong&gt; (71- 28 = 43) as we live in 28th Kali Yuga of Vaivasvara Manvantara of Sweta varaha Kalpa. Vaivasvara Manvanatara is 7th Manvantara in Swetavaraha Kalpa (current Kalpa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prakritika Paralaya will happen after period of 50 life years of Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; as we live in 51st year of Brahma. 360 days of Brahma (360*2 = 720 Kalpas: includes Pralaya too) constitute one year of Brahma. Srimadabagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/11/34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3.11.34&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यद् अर्धम् आयुषस् तस्य  परार्धम् अभिधीयते पूर्वः परार्धो ’पक्रान्तो&#xA;ह्य् अपरो ’द्य प्रवर्तते|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The one hundred years of Brahmā’s life are divided into two parts, the&#xA;first half and the second half. The first half of the duration of&#xA;Brahmā’s life is already over, and the second half is now current.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, different puranas give different numbers for Swetha Varaha kalpa. For example, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27477/62f_chapter_19_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; says Swetha Varaha Kalpa is 14th Kalpa in 51st year of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;54-56. In the second Parardha of Brahma, the thirteenth Kalpa was&#xA;well-known as Pitri Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27478/62f_chapter_19_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;succeding lines&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Shiva says Swetha Varaha Kalpa follows Pitri Kalpa. So, this makes SwethaVaraha Kalpa 14th Kalpa in 51st year of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-01-30T17:57:10.960" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16938" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-30T17:58:06.787" Score="0" ViewCount="10216" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we had a death in the family  ( fathers brother ) can we still conduct prayer ... such as kavady.. etc ....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It as been over 4 months that he as passed away ,  what's makes me unsure is the house that the funeral was conducted is doing all prayers &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when we wanted to partake in kavady they said we can't because of my fathers said .... it's like our blood line ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please can someone explain &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8829" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T10:56:56.063" Title="If we had a death in the family ( fathers brother ) can we still conduct prayer ... such as kavady.. etc" Tags="|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-02-26T11:08:24.997" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16939" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-30T18:27:15.667" Score="2" ViewCount="380" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read that Hindus usually pierce nose on the left side. Why is it so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any bad omen related to right side nose piercing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8830" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-30T18:38:14.613" LastActivityDate="2017-01-30T18:38:14.613" Title="Nose piercing in Hinduism" Tags="|belief|tradition|women|customs|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16940" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-31T00:14:41.960" Score="14" ViewCount="6215" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is one rumor that spread far and wide. That in the Maya sabhā, Draupadī ridiculed Duryodhana calling him the blind son of the blind father. One user also mentions it in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14064/2995&quot;&gt;his answer here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now it would be surprising to say that Pandavas were destroying Dharma. A few evidences are here below;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1] When Draupadi ridiculed Duryodhana saying '&lt;strong&gt;Blind son of a Blind Father&lt;/strong&gt;', she trampled Dharma. It was her human weakness, that made her say it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other people who truly believe the above (doubtful) event has triggered the whole Mahābhārata war!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's how they have shown the scene on TV:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/xOoZwfoKUcI?t=818&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1988 TV series Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/XhZQ7ZNB8d8?t=1447&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Suryaputra Karn, 2015&lt;/a&gt; (Sony)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02046.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the truth is&lt;/a&gt;, only four Pāṇḍavas (Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula &amp;amp; Sahadeva) laughed when Duryodhana fell into a pool of water mistaking it for land. Even then, they didn't insult Duryodhana nor did they say anything remotely close to 'blind son of a blind father.' As for Draupadī, she was not even in present in the sabhā at the time:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That bull among men, Duryodhana, continued to dwell in that, assembly house (of the Pandavas). And with Sakuni, the Kuru prince slowly examined the whole of that mansion, and the Kuru prince beheld in it many celestial designs, which he had never seen before in the city called after the elephant (Hastinapore). And one day king Duryodhana in going round that mansion came upon a crystal surface. And the king, from ignorance, mistaking it for a pool of water, drew up his clothes. And afterwards finding out his mistake the king wandered about the mansion in great sorrow. And sometime after, the king, mistaking a lake of crystal water adorned with lotuses of crystal petals for land, fell into it with all his clothes on. Beholding Duryodhana fallen into the lake, the mighty Bhima laughed aloud as also the menials of the palace. And the servants, at the command of the king, soon brought him dry and handsome clothes. &lt;strong&gt;Beholding the plight of Duryodhana, the mighty Bhima and Arjuna and both the twins – all laughed aloud.&lt;/strong&gt; Being unused to putting up with insults, Duryodhana could not bear that laugh of theirs. Concealing his emotions he even did not cast his looks on them. And beholding the monarch once more draw up his clothes to cross a piece of dry land which he had mistaken for water, they all laughed again. And the king sometime after mistook a closed door made of crystal as open. And as he was about to pass through it his head struck against it, and he stood with his brain reeling. And mistaking as closed another door made of crystal that was really open, the king in attempting to open it with stretched hands, tumbled down. And coming upon another door that was really open, the king thinking it as closed, went away from it. And, O monarch, &lt;strong&gt;king Duryodhana beholding that vast wealth in the Rajasuya sacrifice and having become the victim of those numerous errors within the assembly house at last returned&lt;/strong&gt;, with the leave of the Pandavas, to Hastinapore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how did the rumor that Draupadī laughed at and ridiculed Duryodhana originate? Which scripture contains this version of the story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the actual verses or their translation from the scripture that narrate the story of Draupadī laughing at Duryodhana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2021-06-19T09:09:41.457" Title="Did Draupadī ridicule Duryodhana calling him 'Blind Son of a Blind Father?'" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|duryodhana|draupadi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16941" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16940" CreationDate="2017-01-31T01:13:43.803" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telugubhakti.com/TELUGUPAGES/Monthly/Mahabharat/content202.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this translation&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andhra_Mahabharatam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Āndhra Mahābhārata&lt;/a&gt;, it appears that along with all five Pāṇḍavas, Draupadī also laughed at Duryodhana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suyodhana walked on such a plain ground and fell into a deep pond and his clothes were wet. On seeing this &lt;strong&gt;Pandavas&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Droupadi laughed&lt;/strong&gt;. Dharmaja immediately gave him some clothes and ornaments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suyodhana felt ashamed of that. He immediately left for Hastinapuram. His heart was filled with jealousy and the magnificent Maya Sabha became a heartburning for him. He was deteriorating day by day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recounting the incident later, Duryodhana says the following to Dhṛtarāṣṭra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O my King Dhrutarashtra! To have a glance of Dharmaja plaing dice game is itself a Yaaga. That is the only way left to grab all his wealth. I will tell you one thing. Please listen. After you all returned back to Hastinapura, I remained in Indraprastha to see Maya Sabha. In Maya Sabha I experienced some unpleasantness at the hands of Pandavas &lt;strong&gt;especially Droupadi&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;She laughed at me when I fell into a pond by mistake.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;That laughing of Droupadi is still piercing my heart like an arrow&lt;/strong&gt;. If we tolerate the prosperity of our enemies, it will destroy us. Therefore, we have to grab the kingdom and wealth of Pandavas by hook or by crook. Then only my heart will remain in peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there's no mention of Draupadī calling Suyodhana 'Blind Son of a Blind Father' so that part of the story might be based on a different version of the Mahābhārata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;You can find the relevant original verses of Āndhra Mahābhārata in Telugu along with their meaning at &lt;a href=&quot;http://ebooks.tirumala.org/Product/Book/?ID=1874&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ebooks.tirumala.org&lt;/a&gt; (p. 293 of 404)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-01-31T04:18:24.547" LastActivityDate="2017-01-31T04:18:24.547" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16942" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16946" CreationDate="2017-01-31T03:25:28.083" Score="7" ViewCount="9183" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शान्ताकारं भुजगशयनं पद्मनाभं सुरेशं&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विश्वाधारं गगनसदृशं मेघवर्ण शुभाङ्गम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लक्ष्मीकान्तं कमलनयनं योगिभिर्ध्यानगम्यम्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वन्दे विष्णुं भवभयहरं सर्वलोकैकनाथम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śāntākāraṃ bhujagaśayanaṃ padmanābhaṃ sureśaṃ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;viśvādhāraṃ gaganasadṛśaṃ meghavarṇa śubhāṅgam ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;lakṣmīkāntaṃ kamalanayanaṃ yogibhirdhyānagamyam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vande viṣṇuṃ bhavabhayaharaṃ sarvalokaikanātham ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above is a beautiful shloka written in the prayer of Lord Vishnu. I thought it was in Shri Ramcharitmanas and Shri Tulsidas ji was the author of this shloka but I was wrong. Please tell me the source of this shloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8833" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T05:43:18.190" Title="What is the source of &quot;śāntākāraṃ bhujagaśayanaṃ padmanābhaṃ sureśaṃ&quot; sloka of Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|scripture|vishnu|prayer|resource|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16943" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-31T03:40:44.930" Score="14" ViewCount="1625" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently I have seen a video in which an elderly man says sanyāsaṃ is prohibited in Kali yuga. His statement is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aśvamedha, Gomedha, &lt;strong&gt;sanyāsaṃ&lt;/strong&gt;, offering meat to manes, Begetting children after consuming alcohol should be given up in Kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the sanskrit verse? Which smriti has this statement?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is it said sanyāsaṃ should be given up in Kaliyuga?   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there any exceptions for the statement because we have many great acharyas who are sanyāsis' ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-31T03:42:46.860" LastActivityDate="2023-10-22T09:05:53.680" Title="Is sanyāsaṃ prohibited in Kaliyuga?" Tags="|kali-yuga|dharma-shastras|smriti|sanyasi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16945" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3999" CreationDate="2017-01-31T05:42:59.337" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita is  older than (or prior to) Brahma Sutra of Vedavyasa according to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hindu_texts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Timeline of Hindu texts&lt;/a&gt; or say the chronology of Hindu texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Adi Shankaracharya said in his Bhasya on Bhagavad Gita verse 13.5:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation Of Sri Shankaracharya's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Gambirananda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;13.5 Gitam, It has been sung of, spoken of; bahudha, in various ways; rsibhih, by the Rsis, by Vasistha and others; sung prthak, separately; vividhaih, by the different kinds of; chandobhih, Vedic texts-chandas mean the Rg-veda etc; by them; ca, and; besides, hetumadbhih, by the rational; and viniscitaih, by the convincing, i.e. by those which are productive of certain knowledge-not by those which are in an ambiguous form; &lt;strong&gt;brahma-sutra-padaih eva, sentences themselves which are indicative of and lead to Brahman. Brahma-sutras are the sentences indicative of Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; They are called padani since Brahman is reached, known, through them. By them indeed has been sung the true nature of the field and the Knower of the field (-this is understood). &lt;strong&gt;The Self is verily known through such sentences as, 'The Self alone is to be meditated upon' (Br. 1.4.7), which are indicative of and lead to Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the sentences which are indicative of and lead to Brahman are called Brahma-Sutra. The example of one Sutra/sentence which is indicative of and lead to Brahman is given as &lt;strong&gt;आत्मेत्येवोपासीत्&lt;/strong&gt; from Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.7.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;code&gt;ब्रह्मसूत्रपदै:&lt;/code&gt; (BG 13.5) may refer to the sentences (of Upanishads) which are indicative of and lead to Brahman, rather than Brahma Sutra of Vedavyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T05:36:54.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16946" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16942" CreationDate="2017-01-31T05:53:48.703" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The three Sahsranama stotrams dedicated to Lord Vishnu are found in Padma Purana,Skanda Purana and the Mahabharata.They are together called the &quot;Trividha Vishnu Sahasranamams&quot;.Similarly,for Shiva we have &quot;Chaturvidha Sahsranamams&quot; but from Agama Texts we have many more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways,the verse in question appears within the Dhyana Sloka of the Vishnu Sahasranama that is from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/mahabharata2.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anushasanika Parva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, as you  can see from the passage given below, that Vyasa is mentioned as the Rishi of the stotram so &lt;strong&gt;Vyasa only is the author of those verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asya Shri Vishnordivya Sahasra naama Stotra Maha Mantrasya &lt;strong&gt;Shri Veda&#xA;  Vyaaso Bhagavan Rishih&lt;/strong&gt; Anushtup Chhandah Shri Maha Vishnuh Paramatmaa&#xA;  Shrimannarayano Devata Amritaamshad –bhavo Bhanuriti beejam, Devaki&#xA;  nandanassrashteti Shaktih,Udbhavah Kshobhano Deva iti paramo Mantrah&#xA;  Shankha bhrinnandakeecha Chakriti keelakam, Sharangadhanvaa Gadaa&#xA;  dhara ithystram Rathaanga paani rakshobhya iti netram, Trisaamaa&#xA;  saamagassaameti kavacham, Aanandam Parabrahmeti yonih,&#xA;  Rithussudarshanah Kaala iti digbandhah Vishwarupa itidhyanam Shri Maha&#xA;  Vishnu preetyarthey kainkaryarupey Shri Vishnu Sahasra naama japey&#xA;  viniyogah......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhyaanam: Ksheerodanvatpradeshe Shuchimani Vilasatsaikatey&#xA;  Mouktikaanaam, Maalaaklaptaa –sanasthah Sphatika Mani nibhair&#xA;  mouktikair manditaangaha/ Shubhrabhrairadabhrairupari virachitairmukta&#xA;  peeyusha varshaih, Anandeenah puneeyaadari naleenagadaa shankha&#xA;  paanirmukundah/ Bhu paadasya naabhirviyadadasrura nilaschandra&#xA;  Suryoucha Netrey, Karnaavaashaashiro Dyormukhamkapi dakanoyasya&#xA;  vaasyamdbhih/ Antastham yasya Vishwam Sura nara khaga Gobhogi&#xA;  Gandharvadaityaschitramram Ramyate tam Tribhuvana vapusham Vishnu&#xA;  meesham Namaami/ &lt;strong&gt;Shantaakaaram Bhujagashayanam Padmanaabham&#xA;  Suresham, Vishwaakaaram Gagana sadrusham Meghavarnam Shubhangam/&#xA;  Lakshmi kaantam Kamala nayanam Yogi hriddhyaana gamyam, Vandey Vishnum&#xA;  Bhavabhayaharam Sarva Lokaika naatham/&lt;/strong&gt; Meghashyaamam Peetakousheya&#xA;  vaasam Shri Vatsaangkam Koustubhodbhaasitangam,Punyopetam&#xA;  Pundarikayataaksham Vishnum vandey Sarva Lokaika naatham/ Sashankha&#xA;  chakram Sakireeta kundalam Sapeeta Vastram Saraseeruhekshanam, Sahaara&#xA;  Vakshahsthala Koustubham Namaami Vishnum Shirasaa Chaturbhujam/ Harih&#xA;  Om/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May Bhagavan Mukunda purify us as he is seated on the Ocean of Milk in&#xA;  the surroundings of sand that reflects the illumination of precious&#xA;  gems while wearing garlands of pearls transparent like crystals and&#xA;  adorned with Gada-Shankha-Chakra-Padma besides smiles of blissful&#xA;  trance showering rains of nectar from pure clouds over head on the&#xA;  blue skies; I salute Vishnu with admiration and deep veneration as He&#xA;  his physique representing the Three Worlds apppears as though Earth is&#xA;  His Sacred Feet, Sky His Navel, Air as His breathing, Sun and Moon as&#xA;  His eyes, Dishas or Directions as His ears, Heaven as His head, Fire&#xA;  as His Countenance and Oceans as His stomach. I salute Vishnu who&#xA;  contains the Universe in totality with Devas, humanity, birds, cattle,&#xA;  snakes, Gandharvas, Demons and so on all of whom  act and play in&#xA;  their own ways and means. I salute to and prostrate before Vishnu who&#xA;  is the Paramount Power  in all the Lokas as He is the embodiment of&#xA;  Peace and Tranquility resting comfortably on Sesha Naaga as Padmanabha&#xA;  or with a Lotus sprouted from his naabhi, Suresha or the Over Lord of&#xA;  Sura Ganas, Vishwaakaaram or the Divine Profile of Vishwa or the&#xA;  Universe, Gagana Sadrusham or like the most undefinable Skies, Neela&#xA;  Varnam or of Blue complexion and Shubhangam or of the most auspicious&#xA;  Physical Frame; Lakshmi Kantam or the family partner of Devi Lakshmi;&#xA;  Kamala nayanam or of the enticing eyes of Lotus; Yogi hriddhyaana&#xA;  gamyam or the Ultimate Goal of the heart-felt meditation of Yogis;&#xA;  Bhavabhayaharam or the Single Saviour of the Dread and Distress of&#xA;  Life’s Travails and the Unique Chief of all the Lokas; Bhagavan is&#xA;  also renowned for His Physique of Cloud-like Blue Complexion, His&#xA;  abode as the Ocean of Milk or dressed in yellow robes, Shri Vatsa mole&#xA;  on his Chest,  the bright Koustubha Mani on his body, Punyopetam or&#xA;  surrounded by devotees and Dharmaatmas and of Lotus Eyes. Bhagavan is&#xA;  famed as the ever-adorned with Shankha-Chakra-Kireeta-Kundala-Yellow&#xA;  robes, Lotus like vision, Sacred and glitttering neck laces on chest&#xA;  and the outstanding Koustubha all decorated on his Four Mighty Hands!&#xA;  Indeed to that unparalleled Bhagavan Vishnu, my sincere salutations&#xA;  and Prayers&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskrit.safire.com/pdf/VISHNU_TRANS.PDF&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is another link for the Vishnu Sahsranama Stotram from Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the Dhyanam part from page 3 onwards  and on page 5 we get the verses in your questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8ODJX.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8ODJX.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm unable to copy sanskrit verses from that document hence given the image as a reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T05:43:18.190" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T05:43:18.190" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16947" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16943" CreationDate="2017-01-31T06:38:05.563" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&quot;&lt;/a&gt; we get the following list of acts that are considered as &quot;Nishiddhas&quot; or prohibited in Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kali Yuga Nishiddhas&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following are the avoidable and unnecessary acts of Kali Yuga viz.&#xA;  Samudra Yatra, carrying of Kamandulu to misdirect the Public ,&#xA;  remarriages, begetting children from husband’s brothers; &lt;strong&gt;Go Vadha;&#xA;  Mamsa Bhakshana at Shraddhas;&lt;/strong&gt; performing vivaha to a physically immature girl; Chira kaala Brahmacharitwa; Naramedha &lt;strong&gt;Ashwamedha Gomedha&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Yagna; Madya Paana, Abhakshya Bhakshana, Apeya paana, Agamyaagamana&#xA;  orcwandering aimlesly Rahasya Prayascittha, Devata Puja and Pashubali&#xA;  for evil ends; Kula Bhrashtata; Extreme Profiteering and narrow&#xA;  mindedness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,some things mentioned  in the sloka in your question,like gomedha,aswamedha,offering meat to manes,etc are indeed prohibited in kali yuga but not Sannyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-01-31T06:57:51.090" LastActivityDate="2017-01-31T06:57:51.090" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16948" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-01-31T06:40:33.363" Score="10" ViewCount="999" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do some Hindu sannyāsi names end in 'ānanda' e.g., Vivek&lt;strong&gt;ānanda&lt;/strong&gt;, Śiv&lt;strong&gt;ānanda&lt;/strong&gt;, Chinmay&lt;strong&gt;ānanda&lt;/strong&gt; etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it a mere coincidence or is there a rule or custom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2018-02-22T09:01:31.157" Title="Why do some Hindu sannyāsi names end in 'ānanda' e.g., Vivekānanda, Śivānanda etc?" Tags="|scripture|tradition|name|sannyasa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16950" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16948" CreationDate="2017-01-31T08:08:37.393" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, I would think that's because of the concept of &lt;em&gt;Sat-Chit-Anand&lt;/em&gt;. It says that the truths we experience are results of &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt;, and the eternal, unchangeable truth behind it is &lt;em&gt;Sat&lt;/em&gt;. When a yogi discovers &lt;em&gt;Sat&lt;/em&gt;, He goes into a state of &lt;em&gt;Chit&lt;/em&gt; and is filled with eternal happiness, &lt;em&gt;Anand&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the Anand suffix might be to signify 'Yeah, this guy has discovered &lt;em&gt;Sat&lt;/em&gt; and is filled with &lt;em&gt;Anand&lt;/em&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sory, but I can't think of any citations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Citations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Myth=Mithya: A Handbook to Hindu Mythology by Devdutt Pattnaik&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Pregnant King by Devdutt Pattnaik&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8752" LastEditorUserId="8752" LastEditDate="2017-01-31T08:16:29.450" LastActivityDate="2017-01-31T08:16:29.450" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16951" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16931" CreationDate="2017-01-31T09:57:26.477" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, Asuchi applies even when a pet dog or a household cow dies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Acharya is defined as he who conducted Upanayana and Vedadhyayana; it&#xA;  is he who teaches the ‘nirvahana’or the conduct of Smarta&#xA;  Karmas.Acharya’s Patni-Putra mrithyu,also demands one day’s Ashuchi.&#xA;  In reverse too, the death of a Sishya calls for Tri Ratras and so&#xA;  on.Sahadhyaayis death requires pakshini. A Sanyasi’s death requires&#xA;  snaanantara Shuddhi. &lt;strong&gt;Death of a household cow requires&#xA;  ‘Grihaasoucha’ till the body is cleared followed by Griha Suddhi. A&#xA;  house hold dog of a Vipra entails ten days of Ashoucha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source-&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Essence of Dharma Sindhu.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE-This book is in itself an authority but i'll still try to find out exact Scriptures which have provided the above &quot;Asuchi Vidhanas&quot; for household animal's death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT-Sorry i overlooked the questions that are in the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is the need to follow a period of aśuddha or aśauca following the&#xA;  death of a family person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is there a logical explanation for all this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know the reasons.For me &quot;since Shastras ask us to follow&quot; is reason enough.And people who follow the Asuchi rules follow them for the same reason that i have.The impurity obviously applies on the spiritual plane.So,i don't think one can have a rational explanation for the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think there are .At least i have not read any such explanations given in the Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-01-31T11:25:21.017" LastActivityDate="2017-01-31T11:25:21.017" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16952" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3999" CreationDate="2017-01-31T13:33:15.530" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a very interesting question. Gita does refer to Brahma Sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rsibhir bahudha gitam chandobhir vividhaik prthak| &lt;strong&gt;brahma-sutra-padais&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  caiva hetumadbhir viniscitaih&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In many and different ways have the Rishis sung about this subject in&#xA;  metres of varying description. The well-reasoned and definite&#xA;  aphorisms of the &lt;strong&gt;Brahma-sutras&lt;/strong&gt; too have discussed it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 13.4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The opposite is also true. Brahma Sutra also refers to the Gita. Here is one example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And this is also stated in the Smriti (Gita).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutra II.III.45&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This raises the interesting question about the relationship between the two texts, Gita and Brahma Sutra. Did the authors of the two texts know each other? Did the author of the Gita write parts of the Brahma Sutra? What does this mutual cross reference tell us about possible dates of the two texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am posting excerpts from Swami Vireswarananda's detailed discussion, albeit speculative, on this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Moreover, &lt;strong&gt;that the Vedanta-Sutras were known to exist before Buddha&#xA;  can also be made out from the Gita. The date of the Gita and the&#xA;  original Mahabharata, of which the Gita is a part, can be fixed before&#xA;  the time of Buddha. Both of them are pre-Buddhistic, for they contain&#xA;  no reference to Buddha and Buddhism. Quotations from both are found in&#xA;  Bodhayana who belongs to 400 B.C. The language of the Gita also seems&#xA;  to belong to a period before Panini. He [Badararayana] is also&#xA;  conversant with epic characters.So we can well say that the Gita and&#xA;  the Mahabharata were known before Buddha.&lt;/strong&gt; Now we find a clear&#xA;  reference to the Brahma Sutras, in Gita 13.4, where the word&#xA;  'Brahma-Sutra-padaih' occurs. This is a definite reference to the&#xA;  Vedanta Sutras. .....Tilak argues in his Gita-Rahasya that the first&#xA;  half [of Gita 13.4] refers to teachings which are disconnected and&#xA;  unsystematic and therefore refers to the Upanishad, while the later&#xA;  half to something definite and logical - a difference that is clearly&#xA;  brought out by this stanza and therefore refers to the systematized&#xA;  thought in the Vedanta Sutras. Max Mueller too is of the opinion that&#xA;  the Vedanta-Sutras belong to an earlier period than the Gita and in&#xA;  the text just quoted he finds a clear reference to the recognized&#xA;  title of the Vedanta or Brahma-Sutras. Indian commentators on the Gita&#xA;  like Ramayana, Madhva and others identify the Vedanta-Sutras in this&#xA;  passage of the Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But if the Vedanta-Sutras be of an earlier date than the Gita, how&#xA;  could it contain references to the Gita? In Sutras 2.3.45 and 4.2.21&#xA;  all the commentators quote the same text of the Gita, and there seems&#xA;  to be no doubt that they are right. &lt;strong&gt;These cross references show that&#xA;  the author of the Gita had a hand in the present recension of the&#xA;  Sutras.&lt;/strong&gt; This is made clear by the rejection of the four-fold Vyuha of&#xA;  the Bhagavatas both by the Gita and the Sutras and the great&#xA;  predominance given to the Samkhya school in both. The Gita accepts the&#xA;  Samkhya view of creation but modifies it to some extent and makes the&#xA;  Pradhana subservient to the Supreme Brahman which is non-dual. In the&#xA;  Vedanta-Sutras also the author refutes the dualism of the Samkhyas.&#xA;  Otherwise he has no objection in accepting the Pradhana or Prakrti as&#xA;  a principle dependent on the supreme Lord (vide 1.4.2-3). Sankara in&#xA;  his Bhasya on these Sutras makes this quite clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From what has been said above we find that there are strong grounds&#xA;  for believing that the Vedanta-Sutras must have existed before Buddha&#xA;  and that &lt;strong&gt;if Badarayana and Veda-Vyasa are not one and the same person&#xA;  as tradition holds, the latter must have had a hand in the present&#xA;  recension of the Sutras, though it is very difficult to say to what&#xA;  extent&lt;/strong&gt; - whether it was by way of merely revising the original Sutras&#xA;  of Badarayana or writing them down in toto after the teachings of&#xA;  Badarayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutras according to the commentary of Sri Sankaracharya translated by Swami Vireswarananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2018-05-05T01:08:32.003" LastActivityDate="2018-05-05T01:08:32.003" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16953" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="321" CreationDate="2017-01-31T22:34:41.183" Score="1" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All animals are given importance. But how can you possibly reference each specific life form in one place. So cows are used as a representative of all animals. Most rituals in Hinduism are representative of something larger in general.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cows are specifically worshiped as an example because of the benefit they provide. In India, milk is a MAJOR source of nutrients. And India is an extremely agricultural country so the cows fertilizer is necessary to sustenance as well. These, among many other reasons, make a cow the MVP of animals. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8838" LastActivityDate="2017-01-31T22:34:41.183" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16954" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10057" CreationDate="2017-02-01T08:36:44.077" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;So, does this mean we need 0 to count to 100 and beyond ?.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think we can count indefinitely without ever using 0. 0 is a symbol, a convenience and a convention, not a mathematical priori.  That's precisely the reason why it is called an invention and not a discovery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How many times do you utter the word &quot;zero&quot; while counting till hundred ? Not once, right ?.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Zero is &quot;applied&quot; in decimal number system because it makes conducting mathematical operations incredibly easy, which other systems couldn't guarantee us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas, that were written much before Aryabhatta have verses like :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dvâdaśa pradháyaś cakrám ékaṃ, trîṇi nábhyāni ká u tác ciketa tásmin sākáṃ triśatâ ná śaṅkávo,  'rpitâḥ ṣaṣṭír ná calācalâsaḥ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Dvadasa means 12, Sakam means Sixty,  Trisata means Three Hundred, hence Sakam Trishata means 360.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As evident, we don't need 0 for writing/speaking 60, 300.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Sahasraarjun has 1000 hands, Shat Kauravas are 100 Kauravas and Dashanan is Ravana with 10 heads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea of a zero-less counting system seems impossible to us because we deal with it on a daily basis and we rarely use any other system of counting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Speaking mathematically, even the concept of zero varies with the context. You can conceive it as absence of numbers, or a neutral on an integral line, or as a source/origin in a multi-dimensional space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Originally Answered: If ariabhatta discovered ZERO in kalyug, then how did they count a 100 kauravs and 10 heads of Raavan in Mahabharata and Ramayana respectively?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, zero was always known to ancient Vedic Indians. Not only Ravana and Kauravas, you can find several references to 1000, lakh and crore in our texts. For example please read the following chapter from Bhagavatam which defines time from Nano second to several yugas (SB 3.11: Calculation of Time, from the Atom). Surely, this wouldn't have been possible without the knowledge of zero.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would say Aryabhatta defined the formal definition of place value using Zero and its mathematical usage, because his work was intended to be a Mathematical treatise. Our Puranas and Itihasas on other hand were not Mathematical texts - Maths in them were incidental.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8839" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T08:45:49.933" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T08:45:49.933" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16955" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16982" CreationDate="2017-02-01T12:34:47.490" Score="5" ViewCount="22409" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am the youngest son of 3 brothers and my father passed away yesterday.  I went to the temple yesterday to seek the help of a pandit for funeral and cremation, when at the temple he mentioned that I should not enter the actual temple until my father has been cremated (actually I'm not sure if I should wait till the actual ashes are disbursed, or just wait till after the cremation).  Why is it that I cannot enter the temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I allowed to pray at home?  What should I be doing in these days other than planning the funeral/cremation, and notifying close family and friends of my father?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What should I be doing and what should I not be doing at this time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8840" LastEditorUserId="8840" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T12:43:34.500" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T10:43:14.423" Title="What should a Hindu son do after the death of his father?" Tags="|temple|death|prayer|funeral|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-02-15T06:55:00.373" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16956" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-01T14:22:20.963" Score="10" ViewCount="971" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you can see below, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23585/27F_Chapter_8_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Linga Purana&lt;/a&gt; says that a married man who is loyal to his wife is same as a celibate (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;brahmachari&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;svadāre vidhivatkṛtvā nivṛttiścānyataḥ sadā&lt;/em&gt; / &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;manasā karmaṇā vācā brahmacaryamiti smṛtam&lt;/em&gt; // LiP_1,8.18 //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The householders should have sexual intercourse with their legally wedded wives alone. For them to keep themselves away from other women, mentally, physically and by speech, &lt;strong&gt;would amount to the observing of brahmacarya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the very next verse says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;medhyā svanārī sambhogaṃ kṛtvā snānaṃ samācaret&lt;/em&gt; / &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;evaṃ gṛhastho yuktātmā brahmacārī na saṃśayaḥ&lt;/em&gt; // LiP_1,8.19 //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A householder, after enjoying an  intercourse with his own wife, should take a bath. &lt;strong&gt;Such a type of the yogi householder is surely considered to be a Brahmacāri&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is it justified that a married person is called a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;brahmachari&lt;/a&gt;? Do any scriptures explain more on this topic? Have any Gurus commented on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4103" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2021-09-07T19:41:23.417" Title="How is being loyal to one's wife same as celibacy?" Tags="|marriage|linga-purana|men|brahmacharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16957" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16956" CreationDate="2017-02-01T14:37:38.420" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;No just being loyal is not enough.One has to avoid his wife on the period days and few other forbidden days too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a husband does that then many scriptures declare him to be as good as a celibate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here i am quoting from Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.50. He who avoids women on the six forbidden nights and on&#xA;  eight others, is (equal in chastity to) a student, in whichever order&#xA;  he may live.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here by student is meant a Brahmachari(celibate) who has to maintain celibacy as a rule.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks @sv for adding that Linga Purana page in the question.That same page also says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore one should practice detachment mentally verbally and&#xA;  physically.&lt;strong&gt;Abstention from sexual intercourse ,except during the&#xA;  prescribed period after menstruation is believed to be celibacy for the&#xA;  householders.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,just being loyal to one's wife is not enough although it is absolutely necessary.There are few prescribed days and few forbidden days.On the forbidden days the wife should be avoided as well,and, it's only then that the husband is equal to a celibate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE-That one's wife is to be avoided on period days is mentioned in many Texts.I'll try to update my answer with them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) From Sadachara Varnan in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/brahma/bookview.php?chapnum=22&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....never sleep during day time, much less unite with wife; rajaswala&#xA;  women should observe four nights of menses and observance of five&#xA;  nights would assure Purushatwa in next birth; &lt;strong&gt;in any case, observing&#xA;  aloofness from husband for five nights would be recommended;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) From Parshara Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3YMSY.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3YMSY.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;18&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On the first day that the blood begins to flow, the woman is comparable to a female Chandala ; on the second, she is like a&#xA;  Brahmanicide ; on the third, she may be likened to a washerwoman. On&#xA;  the fourth day, * however, she is entirely pure. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[ Madhava says that&#xA;  the comparisons imply this, — &lt;strong&gt;as great a sin will be incurred by&#xA;  having intercourse with her on those particular days, as would be&#xA;  incurred by having intercourse with the females is compared to.]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,&lt;strong&gt;Yajnavalkya Smriti,Chapter 1,Verse 79&lt;/strong&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sixteen days or nights commencing with the day of menses are the&#xA;  menstrual period of the womankind ; of them one should know his wife&#xA;  on the night of an even day such as, the fourth,the sixth or the&#xA;  eighth , night.This is Brahmacharryam.On the other hand,&lt;strong&gt;one should&#xA;  avoid&lt;/strong&gt; parva days, and &lt;strong&gt;the first four days of menses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Vyasa Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The first four nights of the period should be avoided as Parva days,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  as well as those marked by the asterisms called Revati, Pitraksha and&#xA;  Rakshasa. Fecundation should take place on each even night during the&#xA;  menstrual peroid alone. (43)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even the vow of a Brahmacharin, who visits his wife during her&#xA;  menstrual period, is not vitiated by so doing. Even he, who does not&#xA;  know any other woman, commits no sin by going unto his own wife during&#xA;  her menstrual period according to the natural inclinations of his&#xA;  mind. (45)(Vyasa Smriti,Chapter 2,verses 43,45)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the point i made at the start of my answer is repeated in almost all Scriptures.Cohabiting with one's wife ,except on the given prohibited days,is equivalent to maintaining celibacy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,if your real question is &quot;how&quot; then that can't be answered from Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW your original question was asking Is being loyal to one's wife equivalent to celibacy if so how? But after the Edit it appears that you are only asking about the &quot;How&quot; part.So, i addressed your &quot;Is&quot; part quite well but as i have said the &quot;How&quot; part can't be answered from Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-06T05:55:13.963" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T05:55:13.963" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16958" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14790" CreationDate="2017-02-01T15:52:12.053" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all only the three dvija(Brahmin,Kshatriya,Vaisya) castes have the Upanayana samskara.Now, even if i assume that you are born in a family belonging to any of the 3 castes its clear that your  family is not following the traditions since many generations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In those cases the the persons belonging to that family are considered as having lost their caste and it(the caste) can not be recovered  even by Samskaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part17/chap12.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If the Gayatri has not been chanted for three generations in the&#xA;  family of a Brahmin, its members lose caste (they cease to be&#xA;  Brahmins).&lt;/strong&gt; The quarter where such Brahmins live cannot be called an&#xA;  &quot;agrahara&quot;. It is perhaps not yet three generations since Brahmins&#xA;  gave up the Gayatri. So they still may be called Brahmins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the same way if the Brahmin family has not performed sacrifices for&#xA;  three generations its members will be called &quot;Durbrahmanas&quot;,&#xA;  degenerate Brahmins. Even though degenerate the label &quot;Brahmin&quot; sticks&#xA;  to them. There are prayascittas (expiatory rites) by means of which&#xA;  the corrupted Brahmins will be remade true Brahmins. &lt;strong&gt;But there is no&#xA;  such hope for a Brahmin in whose family Gayatri has not been chanted&#xA;  for three generations. A member of such a family ceases altogether to&#xA;  be a Brahmin and cannot be made one again. He is just a &quot;Brahmana-&#xA;  bandhu&quot;, a kin or a friend of Brahmins. The same rule applies to&#xA;  Ksatriyas and Vaisyas with regard to the Gayatri mantra; they become&#xA;  &quot;ksatriya-bandhus&quot; and &quot;Vaisya-bandhus&quot; respectively.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About &quot;Hindu Dharma&quot; :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Hindu Dharma&quot; is a book which contains English translation of certain&#xA;  invaluable and engrossing speeches of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra&#xA;  Saraswathi MahaSwamiji&lt;/a&gt; (at various times during the years 1907 to&#xA;  1994).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,IMO upanayana is not recommended for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-01T16:28:27.273" LastActivityDate="2017-02-01T16:28:27.273" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16959" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14790" CreationDate="2017-02-01T19:13:51.997" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes you need to do penance before Upnayana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He, whose father and grandfather have not been initiated, (and his two ancestors) are called 'slayers of the Brahman.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If they wish it (they may perform the following) expiation;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the same manner as for the first neglect (of the initiation, a penance of) two months (was) prescribed, so (they shall do penance for) one year. 35&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Afterwards they may be initiated, and then they must bathe (daily).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe02/sbe0204.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apsthambha Grihya Sutra 1.1.1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For as many years as there are uninitiated persons, reckoning (one year) for each ancestor (and the person to be initiated himself),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(They should bathe daily reciting) the seven Pâvamânîs, beginning with 'If near or far,' the Yagushpavitra, ('May the waters, the mothers purify us,' &amp;amp;c.) the Sâmapavitra, ('With what help assists,' &amp;amp;c.), and the Âṅgirasapavitra ('A swan, dwelling in purity'),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Or also reciting the Vyâhritis (om, bhûh, bhuvah, suvah).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After that (such a person) may be taught (the Veda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe02/sbe0205.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apastambha Grihya Sutras 1.1.2&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Harm to family, No&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;In fact vedic karma(Karma prescribed for everybody in vedas) is always purifying and Bhadra(good/auspicious), you don't need to worry about affecting family members.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Acts of sacrifice, charity and penance are not to be given up; they must be performed. Indeed, sacrifice, charity and penance purify even the great souls.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-5/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.05&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So purify yourself and get ready to attain supreme position in lotus feet of Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the penance is not done your karma will be affected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If you don't have time, you have to resort to other means&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since there is limited time for Initiation of Different Dwija Varnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no dereliction (of duty, if the initiation takes place), in the case of a Brâhmana before the completion of the sixteenth year, in the case of a Kshatriya before the completion of the twenty-second year, in the case of a Vaisya before the completion of the twenty-fourth year. (Let him be initiated at such an age) that he may be able to perform the duties, which we shall declare below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suggest that you should consider the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saranagati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sharanagati&lt;/a&gt; to lotus feet of lord(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-66/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.66&lt;/a&gt;), since I've assumed that you don't have 12 years time period to do all the penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sin is equated to Brahmahatya so you can also resort to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11344/how-to-remove-bramhahatya-sin&quot;&gt;penance for Brahmahatya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or you can consult any scholar or acharya, they can help you with initiation by quickly performing Penances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can consider &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13537/where-is-the-mention-of-chanting-rama-three-times-is-equal-to-chanting-1000-nam&quot;&gt;rama nama japa&lt;/a&gt;, it equals 1000 Vishnu Sahasranama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-02-02T05:02:36.380" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16961" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6501" CreationDate="2017-02-02T07:58:23.147" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Holi&lt;/a&gt; is celebrated on the &lt;strong&gt;Phalguna Purnima&lt;/strong&gt; day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here i'm referring to the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&quot;&lt;/a&gt; which quotes from Scriptures like Matsya Purana and others while discussing Vastu Prakarana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaastu Prakarana:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaishaakhey &lt;strong&gt;Phalgune&lt;/strong&gt; Poushey Shraaaney Maargasirshakey, Grihaarambha&#xA;  Prave shoustah stambhocchraayas chashasyatey||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Grihaarambha, Stambhoddhaarana and &lt;strong&gt;Griha Pravesha are best performed&#xA;  in the months of&lt;/strong&gt; Vaishakha, &lt;strong&gt;Phalguna&lt;/strong&gt;, Pousha, Shraavana, and&#xA;  Margasirsha. Jyeshtha, Kartika Maagha Months are also beneficient as&#xA;  per Narada Vachana. A Parna Griha or a grass house could be&#xA;  constructed without any month or time. But a house in which one likes&#xA;  to reside himself or the Main House should not be constructed in&#xA;  Pushya Maasa.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So,to start with,  Phalguna month is one of the best months to do a Griha Pravesha in.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence,apparently,one can do Griha Pravesha on any of the days of Phalguna irrespective of whether that day comes before or after Holi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But having said that, there are other factors as well ,like Tithi-Nakshtra-Yogas etc,that are also  to be considered with due importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaastu Shanti has to be performed only in the day time. There is an&#xA;  opinion that Griha Pravesha might be done in the nights also, in&#xA;  which case, this Shanti function might as well be done at the same&#xA;  Dina Maasaadi of Grihaarambha. The Shubha Kaala for Griha Pravesha&#xA;  is stated to be in Maagha,Ashviyuja Jyeshtha Maasaas; Mridu-Dhruva&#xA;  Nashatras are the most suitable, while Kshipra-Chara Nakshatras are o&#xA;  f medium value. Teekshna-Ugra-Mishra Nakshatras are not good. If the&#xA;  Karta’s Janma Lagna is not in the Eighth position,the Graha Pravesha&#xA;  Lagna is commended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have posted the above passage only to emphasize the fact that a whole lot of rules and conditions are needed to be checked upon before planning a Griha Pravesha.And you should always consult a Pundit for that because all the rules are not known to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-02T08:22:00.310" LastActivityDate="2017-02-02T08:22:00.310" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16962" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-02T08:54:34.557" Score="10" ViewCount="1357" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that there are four Varna(वर्ण) called Brahmin, kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. I found words/terms like Jati(जाति) and Jnati(ज्ञाति) are also used to convey similar meanings. One another related term is Kula(कुल).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know the difference and relation among these Sanskrit words or terms. i.e. what do each terms refer to and how are they different and/or related to each other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-02T09:32:56.230" LastActivityDate="2019-04-21T15:35:42.593" Title="Difference/Relation between Varna and Jati" Tags="|sanskrit|caste-system|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16963" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-02T09:08:09.720" Score="5" ViewCount="138" Body="&lt;p&gt;Among the 18 major Puranas one is called the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/a&gt;.Usually its recited during death rites .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a belief that it should only be recited during death rites and not in normal circumstances i.e  where no death has occurred in a family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To verify the Scriptural basis of this belief i mailed one very learned(Shastragya) person( with whom i correspond quite often) who is very closely associated with the Kaamakoti.org's activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He has written a lot of books,on topics like Upanishads,Smritis,Puranas,Itihasas etc, which are hosted by Kamakoti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am giving below the correspondence that i had with him through e-mail:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me&lt;/strong&gt;-Dear Sir,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You have written books on every  major Puranas but not any on the&#xA;  Garuda Purana.&#xA;  Does it mean that not everyone is allowed to read or hear it in normal&#xA;  circumstances?&lt;strong&gt;Are there any such prohibitions?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Expert&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;strong&gt;yes, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayendra_Saraswati_Swamigal&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;HH Vijyendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; asked me not to translate and&#xA;  concise Garuda purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, to my question &quot;Are there any such prohibitions?&quot; he replied &quot;Yes[there are] and then he said that even Sri Vijyendra Saraswati opposed the idea of making the summary of Garuda Purana publicly available on their site for everybody's perusal.(and this can verified easily by visiting their site as well which provides summaries of all Puranas except the Garuda Purana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That proves that the belief might not be  just a belief and there are indeed some concerns regarding making Garuda Purana available publicly or on it being read on normal days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) Are there prohibitions regarding reading or hearing Garuda Purana and if yes which Scriptures mention them?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) Or are there some chapters in the Purana that make it unfit to be recited by everyone &amp;amp; on any occasions?If yes,which are those chapters?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-03T08:47:27.700" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T08:47:27.700" Title="Are there prohibitions regarding reading or hearing Garuda Purana and if yes which Scriptures mention them?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|death|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2017-02-21T08:26:04.493" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16965" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17016" CreationDate="2017-02-02T11:49:58.840" Score="5" ViewCount="93" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading shandilya bhakti sutras &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600200.us.archive.org/34/items/Bibliotheca_Indica_Series/AphorismsOfSandilyaWithCommentaryOfSwapnesvaraenglish-EbCowell1878bis.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; PDF link!!  Came across this. On page 59, sutra/aphorism no 51&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And because of prohibition of gambling and the king's service. (51)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We read in the dharmashastras that gambling and king's service is both prohibited;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know which dharmashastra this is from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QK4f8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QK4f8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Screenshot of the page&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T09:06:46.813" Title="Prohibition on King's service?" Tags="|dharma|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16966" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16723" CreationDate="2017-02-02T13:51:27.460" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The spider in question is a &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Gana named Malyavan&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Chola dynasty of kings is said to have sprung from the Surya Vamsa, at least according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legendary_early_Chola_kings&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;The last king to be mentioned in the list is &lt;strong&gt;King Kotchenganan&lt;/strong&gt;, who is incidentally one of the 63 Nayanars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The list claims that the dynasty descended from Ikshvaku, through &lt;strong&gt;Muchukunda&lt;/strong&gt;, the son of Mandhata. That Muchukunda is the son of Mandhata is confirmed from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/6/38&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Bhagavatam verse&lt;/a&gt;, which says &quot;Mucukundam Tu Yoginam&quot;. This King is the same person who burnt Kalayavana during Krsnavatara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The eldest and prominent son of Mandhata was Ambarisha, who therefore gained the throne of Kosala. Muchukunda thus had to conquer (or was gifted?) another kingdom. This kingdom happened to be the Chola Kingdom, of which he is a very famous king, as corraborated by the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thiyagarajaswamytemple.tnhrce.in/highlights.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sthala Purana of Tiruvarur&lt;/a&gt;, where the temple of Lord Tyagaraja is said to have been established by Muchukunda, who ruled the region. (He also established six more images of Tyagaraja, which together are known as Sapta Vitanka Sthalas.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the spider. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jambukeswarar_Temple,_Thiruvanaikaval&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sthala Purana of &lt;strong&gt;Thiruvainaikkaval&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; mentions the story of Malyavan, and Pushpadanta, two Shiva Ganas, who during a quarrel, cursed each other to become a spider and an elephant respectively. They were duely reborn, and the spider and elephant both unknowingly offered worship and protection to a Shiva Linga, by thwarting the other's efforts, and died doing so. In response to their devotion, Lord Shiva granted them release from their curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to the sin of killing the elephant, Malyavan the spider was reborn as the great King Kotchenganan, so named because his eyes were bloodshot when he was born. He is a descendant of Muchukunda, (though I do not think that there were so few kings between Muchukunda and him).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Arulnandi Shivacharya's argument that a spider was born into the Solar Race is hence verified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastActivityDate="2017-02-02T13:51:27.460" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16967" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18850" CreationDate="2017-02-02T16:07:02.237" Score="18" ViewCount="1039" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutras (also known as Vedanta Sutras) have very profound significance in Vedanta Darshan. They systematize and summarize the spiritual and philosophical teaching of Upanishads. It is considered as Nyaya (Yukti or logic) Prasthana in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthanatrayi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prasthanatrayi&lt;/a&gt; of Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Badarayana (Vedavyasa) has discussed and refuted other doctrines which are in possible objection with Vedanta school like Pradhanakaranavada (Samkhya), Paramanukaravada (Vaisheshiki), probably Yoga, Pancharatra, Buddhism, Jainism etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to ask: What are all doctrines or philosophies discussed (and either supported or refuted) in Brahma Sutras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T06:22:59.900" LastActivityDate="2017-11-27T06:11:33.343" Title="What are all doctrines or philosophies discussed in Brahma Sutra?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16968" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="16969" CreationDate="2017-02-02T17:17:05.110" Score="6" ViewCount="238" Body="&lt;p&gt;In fourth Chapter, Purvardha, Kashikhanda of Skanda Mahapurana, Lopamudra, wife of sage Agastya explains the characteristics of an ideal wife. In one of the shlokas, she says as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भर्ता देवो गुरुर्भर्ता धर्मतीर्थव्रतानि च ।&lt;br&gt; तस्मात्सर्वं परित्यज्य पतिमेकंसमर्चयेत् ॥ ४८ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;48.Husband is the god, husband is the preceptor; husband alone constitutes piety, holy place and pious and observances. Hence a  woman should forsake everything and worship her husband alone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also there are verses which says that approval should be taken from husband before starting a vrata or any ritual. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is approval necessary to do rituals for a wife?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is husband considered as guru?&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;Related but not a duplicate of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14865/are-married-women-allowed-to-fast-religiouslyvrata&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-02T18:12:41.083" LastActivityDate="2017-02-02T18:12:41.083" Title="Why should wife take approval from husband before starting a vrata?" Tags="|rituals|women|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16969" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16968" CreationDate="2017-02-02T17:37:41.550" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Guru is who initiates a pupil into Vedas.But for a woman,the Scriptures say,  there are no Vedic initiations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The marriage itself is regarded instead as her Vedic sacrament .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yKAZa.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yKAZa.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.67. The nuptial ceremony is stated to be the Vedic sacrament for women (and to be equal to the initiation), &lt;strong&gt;serving the husband&#xA;  (equivalent to) the residence in (the house of the) teacher, and the&#xA;  household duties (the same) as the (daily) worship of the sacred fire.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above portion which is highlighted explains why for any woman her husband is Guru,God and Dharma etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nB6XD.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nB6XD.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If a woman performs a religious rite, without taking her husband's&#xA;  consent, it is the Rakshasas who appropriate the whole of that&#xA;  religious rite.&lt;/strong&gt; This is in conformity to what Manu has said.(Parashara&#xA;  Smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the above verse explains why a wife should always take her husband's permission before starting a Vrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-02-02T17:37:41.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16970" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-03T03:59:06.590" Score="0" ViewCount="176" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am always trying to know how was my past. I just wanted to know is there any influence of my past life . So could anyone suggest how to know about past life ??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8850" LastEditorUserId="8850" LastEditDate="2017-02-03T08:23:46.890" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T08:23:46.890" Title="Is there a way to know about my past life?" Tags="|life|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-02-03T07:29:31.930" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16972" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11862" CreationDate="2017-02-03T05:09:44.860" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I&amp;apos;m not sure about Ramayana, but Varanasi is certainly mentioned in Vedas and Mahabharata. I discuss about Varanasi in Vedas in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15072/what-is-the-yogic-meaning-of-getting-liberation-by-reaching-varanasi/15073#15073&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; The Mahabharata also mentions the name Varanasi and Kasi many times. In the city Varanasi also the place where Lord Avimukta is present (Visweshar Linga) is the most sacred. The Mahabharata in the Vana parva Tirtha Yatra section also talks about the glory of Varanasi and Lord Avimukta there. It&amp;apos;s in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03084.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततो वाराणसीं गत्वा अर्चयित्वा वृषभध्वजम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कपिलाहृदे नरः स्नत्वा राजसूयमवाप्नुयात् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अविमुक्तं समासाद्य तीर्थसेवी कुरुद्वह ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दर्शनाद् देवदेवस्य मुच्यते ब्रह्महत्यया ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्राणानुत्सृज्य तत्रैव मोक्षं प्राप्नोती मानवः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Proceeding next &lt;strong&gt;to Varanasi,&lt;/strong&gt; and worshipping the god having the bull for his mark, after a bath in the Kapilahrada, one obtaineth the merit of the Rajasuya sacrifice. Repairing then, O perpetuator of the Kuru race, to &lt;strong&gt;the tirtha called Avimukta,&lt;/strong&gt; and beholding there the god of gods, the &#xA;  pilgrim, from such sight alone, is immediately cleansed of even the sin of slaying a Brahmana. &lt;strong&gt;By renouncing one&amp;apos;s life there, one obtaineth Moksha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the most glory of Lord Avimukta in Varanasi is that anyone who dies there attains moksha. As the above Mahabharata sloka states &amp;quot; प्राणानुत्सृज्य तत्रैव मोक्षं प्राप्नोती मानवः ।।&amp;quot; ie. &amp;quot;One who gives away Prana there (Prãnutsrijya tatraiva) is sure to obtain Moksha (Moksham Prãpnoti Mãnava)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As a Sidenote, Lord in Varanasi is called Lord Avimukta because Varanasi is never forsaken by Lord Shiva. And Avimukta literally means which is never forsaken. As described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14367/what-is-the-story-of-kasi-vishwanatha-jyotirlinga/14371#14371&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; Kashi is not destroyed by Lord Shiva even after completion of Kalpa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मणश्च दिने सा हि न विनश्यति निश्चितम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदा शिवस्त्रिशूलेन दधाति मुनयश्च ताम्।। २३ ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Even after the completion of a divine day of Brahmā, the city of Kāšî does not get destroyed. O Sages, at that point of time, Siva holds it over the tip of his trident.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुनश्च ब्रह्मणा सृष्टौ कृतायां स्थाप्यते द्विजाः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कर्मणां कर्षणाचैव काशीति परिपठ्यते॥ २४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Brähmanas, &lt;strong&gt;then Brahmā again recreates the universe, then he again establishes Kāśī.&lt;/strong&gt; Because of the bondages of the karmas and their attraction thereto, it is called Kāši. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T05:09:44.860" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16973" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16970" CreationDate="2017-02-03T06:46:39.840" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Patanjali Says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When you do not accumulate, then the knowledge of the previous births, knowledge of different species, the communication in you improves. Do you see what I am saying? When, a person says &quot;more for me, more for me&quot;, then he is obsessed with fear, one does not know the eternal value of life. Life has been there for ages and will continue for ages to come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Non-accumulating simply means confidence in one's existence. Confidence is in one's ability. Knowledge of one's self. You know how to make bread and know you can earn it. So you will not make bread for a week and store it for a whole year in your room. It becomes stale. In China there is a proverb &quot;What you give, you gain more. Whatever you scatter you have it all. What you hold on to, you lose that also&quot;. When you scatter it all, it all comes to you. Everything is yours all over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is very stingy? The one who is so afraid of himself, who has no idea of his strength. A person who is very selfish and stingy, he stores and stores accumulate. A very wealthy gentleman was on his death bed, but was on the telephone looking into the share market &quot;how much I have?&quot; He was going to die any moment, but was concerned about &quot;what the share prices are? How much am I gaining, losing?&quot; What is he going to do with the money now? He does not even believe that he has to leave everything here and go. If money transfer was possible, people would transfers all their money up there, before going. Lawyers would have had fun writing wills. They would transfer all their property up, take it with them. Fortunately or unfortunately this is not possible. People accumulate and accumulate and then they die. That does not mean that you should not save.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not accepting or accumulating anything from anyone. What do we do? When people give us a compliment, we accept the compliment and then we begin to have a different idea about ourselves. They tell you, &quot;You are so beautiful, so beautiful&quot;, and it goes to your head and you think you are beautiful. If ten people repeat the same thing it gets into your head and you lose all reality about who you are and what you are. Similarly, when you are on a trip to get things from others, that is called &quot;parigraha.&quot; meaning &quot;taking things&quot;. &quot;Aparigraha&quot; is the opposite of it, not trying to get anything from anybody.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali says, but what is the effect of it? Janma kathamta sambhodaha. You know, when you give things to people, it will give back something to you, some good vibrations to you. If you are very unhappy, then that day you give away something. Give some gifts to somebody. You will see how your consciousness will change, shift. Sometimes you accept things from someone, gifts or certain things and you feel miserable in life. In ancient days this rule stood very well. When someone accepts a gift, then the giver should be thankful. The giver is always thankful &quot;Oh! I am thankful that you accepted the gift&quot;. So that was called as dakshina.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.artofliving.org/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-71?mobile=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Patanjali&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7716" LastEditorUserId="7716" LastEditDate="2017-02-03T06:50:41.927" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T06:50:41.927" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16980" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10695" CreationDate="2017-02-03T10:06:25.857" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Lord Shiva and Tilottama is told by Lord Shiva himself in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b106.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Anushashana Parva. Lord Shiva himself tells that it is just to show the power of Yoga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तिलोत्तमा नाम पुरा ब्रह्मणा योषिदुत्तमा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तिलं तिलं समुद्धृत्य रत्नानां निर्मिता शुभा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  साभ्यगच्छत मां देवि रूपेणाप्रतिमा भुवि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रदक्षिणं लोभयन्ती मां शुभे रुचिरानना ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यतो यतः सा सुदती मामुपाधावदन्तिके ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततस्ततो मुखं चारु मम देवि विनिर्गतम्।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तां देदृक्षुरहं योगाच्चतुर्मूर्तित्वमागतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चतुर्मुखश्च संवृत्तॊ दर्शयन योगमात्मनः।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;apos;In days of yore, a blessed woman was created by Brahman, called Tilottama, by culling grains of beauty from every beautiful object in the universe. One day, that lady of beautiful face, unrivalled in the universe for beauty of form, came to me, O goddess, for circumambulating me but really compelled by the desire of tempting me. In whatever direction that lady of beautiful teeth turned, &lt;strong&gt;a new face of mine instantly appeared.&lt;/strong&gt; All those faces of mine became agreeable to look at. Thus, in consequence of the desire of beholding her, I became four-faced, through Yoga-puissance, &lt;strong&gt;Thus, I showed my high Yoga-power in becoming four- faced.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also these four faces shows the attributes of Lord which are also described in SataRudriya section of Yajurveda. Like &amp;quot;Bhavãya cha / who is the Origin&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Somãya cha/who is with Uma&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Rudrãya cha/ who ends the Cries&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Sarvãya cha / who destroys everything&amp;quot;, etc.. Lord Shiva himself explains the functions of his four faces there as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पूर्वेण वदनेनाहम इन्द्रत्वमनुशास्मि ह ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;With that face of mine which is turned towards the east, I exercise the sovereignty of the universe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उत्तरेण त्वया सार्धं रमाम्यहमनिन्दिते ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  With that face of mine which is turned towards the &lt;strong&gt;north, I sport with thee,&lt;/strong&gt; O thou of faultless features!&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पश्चिमं मे मुखं सौम्यं सर्वप्राणि सुखावहम् ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That face of mine which is turned towards the &lt;strong&gt;west&lt;/strong&gt; is agreeable and auspicious. With it &lt;strong&gt;I ordain the happiness of all creatures.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दक्षिणं भीमसंकाशं रौद्रं संहरति प्रजाः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That face of mine which is turned towards the &lt;strong&gt;south&lt;/strong&gt; is terrible. &lt;strong&gt;With it I destroy all creatures.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus these are the functions of four faces. These functions are always carried out by Lord Shiva but during Tilottama event he revealed upto 4 faces only and on being asked by Uma he replied the secret of four faces. Thus, Lord Shiva through his simple Leela displayed powers of Yoga and attributes through which he &lt;strong&gt;rules&lt;/strong&gt; (East face), &lt;strong&gt;sports&lt;/strong&gt; (North face), &lt;strong&gt;protects&lt;/strong&gt; (West face) and &lt;strong&gt;destroys&lt;/strong&gt; (South face) the whole world.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The story of Lord Shiva and Madhura is just a folklore and it is highly unlikely that it is mentioned in some scriptures. But still Folklores have their own justifications.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT UPDATE:&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Upotghatapaada Brahmanda Purana Chapter 7 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इत्यते बहुसाहस्रा भास्वरा अप्सरोगणाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवतामामृषीणां च पत्न्यश्च मातरश्च ह ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुगंधाश्चाथ निष्पंदा सर्वाश्चाप्सरसः समाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  संप्रयोगस्तु कामेन माद्यं दिवि हरं विना ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तासां देवर्षी संस्पर्शा जाताः साधारणा यतः ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  These brillant groups of Apsaras numbering many thousands are the wives and mothers of Gods and Sages. All these Apasars are equally fragrant and free from excitement. &lt;strong&gt;Except Hara, everyone from among the Devas and Sages had contact with them on account of Kãma&lt;/strong&gt; since they were common to all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-06-11T07:14:10.543" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T07:14:10.543" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16981" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16938" CreationDate="2017-02-03T10:12:26.170" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Depending on the Regions there are various Tradition . I am from Rajasthan so I am telling you about the tradition we follow and Now in Hinduism we are not allowed to Make  the festival's on large scale if there is a death in home for 1st year. You can't celebrate festival on large scale but you can celebrate the festival on small scale. Like in Holy you can celebrate this but within a limit you can go out color your relatives but in a limit.You can Celebrate with your relative or close ones. you can go to your relatives home or homes of people close to your family. You shouldn't celebrate with all person for eg. Neibours ,friends , colleagues you should celebrate with few one only relatives and person close to you .You had to celebrate first festival with  your whole Family You had to Celebrate festival with your whole family for eg. If a person has three son and two daughters after his death the whole family of his three sons had to celebrate the festival at the home of their father or where their father was living and for daughters they can come alone or they can come with husband to their Father's home to celebrate the festival after 1st festival you can Celebrate other separately or if you want to do it jointly you can do it .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In many region of India or In many castes you can't Celebrate the 1st festival because there is a sorrow in the family because of death , To express the sorrow of death and due to the cultural rules you aren't allow to celebrate. That's why in many regions people are not allowed to Celebrate festival for the First year or the first festival after the death&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8853" LastEditorUserId="8853" LastEditDate="2017-02-03T10:56:56.063" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T10:56:56.063" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16982" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16955" CreationDate="2017-02-03T10:43:14.423" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Firstly you had to do mukhagni (fire the body at cremation place) on third day you had to go to cremation place and put the ashes in Lota(Vessel) then you had to go Haridwar and deposit ashes of your father in Ganga River.On 13th day you had to organize a Function (Mrityu Bhoj) or Death feast  in which you and your family had to serve food to the persons come in Mrityu bhoj (In some areas there is tradition of Brahmana Bhoj ) All the food your guests will eat some portion of the food and Good wishes will be given to your father in the trip of heaven .You can't do prayers till the 12 or 13 days after the death because in these 13 days you had to do all the responsibility of a son. It is believed that Aatma or soul of a person live in his home till the 13th day of his death with his all relative. If you went to temple then the Soul will also go with you and that will make the temple Impure because this soul hasn't got his place in Heaven or hell. Also it is believed if you do any prayer than it will not with purity because you have done cremation of your relative and cremation  place is taken a place where ghost are said to be live so it is a Impure place so you can't do prayer till 13th day in your home or temple because the badness or impurities of cremation place is with you till the 13th day. After 13 days you can do any prayer at any place like home or temple. In Hinduism we are not allowed to Make  the festival's on large scale if there is a death in home for 1st year. You can't celebrate festival on large scale but you can celebrate the festival on small scale. Like in Holy you can celebrate this but within a limit you can go out color your relatives but in a limit.You can Celebrate with your relative or close ones. you can go to your relatives home or homes of people close to your family. You shouldn't celebrate with all person for eg. Neibours ,friends , colleagues you should celebrate with few one only relatives and person close to you .You had to celebrate first festival with  your whole Family You had to Celebrate festival with your whole family for eg. If a person has three son and two daughters after his death the whole family of his three sons had to celebrate the festival at the home of their father or where their father was living and for daughters they can come alone or they can come with husband to their Father's home to celebrate the festival after 1st festival you can Celebrate other separately or if you want to do it jointly you can do it .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8853" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T10:43:14.423" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16983" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8437" CreationDate="2017-02-03T11:34:21.050" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Valmiki was contemporary to Sri Rama. As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7189/3500&quot;&gt;Matsya Purana&lt;/a&gt;, Ramayana happenned during 24th Treta Yuga of Vaivasvara (current) Manvantara. Valmiki composed the story of Rama through meditation as described in Chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga2/bala_2_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga3/bala_3_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; of Balakanda. Valmiki composed not only past and present of Rama's life but also future work of Rama in advance. This clearly shows Valmiki was contemporary to Sri Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/canto3/chapter11.html#Text%2018&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;puranas&lt;/a&gt;, chaturyuga makes a period of 12,000 divine years. One must multiply divine years with 360 to convert to Human years. Different people differ on multiplication with factor 360. But traditional calculation puts date of Ramayana some lakhs of years ago.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to 100BCE, this date might be given by some western Indologist. They date the available manuscripts and infer some date through their dating techniques. They even dated Rigveda manuscripts and fixed a date for its composition, completely neglecting oral tradition of transmission of Shruti or Vedas. So, you can consider their dates with a grain of salt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T11:34:21.050" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16984" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8061" CreationDate="2017-02-03T12:11:35.687" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Vyasa saw and met Sri Krishna many times but this wasn't how Vyasa wrote Mahabharata.  One such meeting happened during &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmastra episode&lt;/a&gt; of Arjuna and Aswathama. Indeed, Kauravas are &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3061/3500&quot;&gt;biological descendants&lt;/a&gt; of Vyasa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa with his Trikaladarshi powers analyzed Vedas and taught Puranas to his disciples. Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter one&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Parva of Mahabharata says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Satyavati having, by penance and meditation, analysed the&#xA;  eternal Veda, afterwards composed this holy history, when that learned&#xA;  Brahmarshi of strict vows, the noble Dwaipayana Vyasa, offspring of&#xA;  Parasara, had finished this greatest of narrations, he began to&#xA;  consider how he might teach it to his disciples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, later Vyasa dictated Slokas of Mahabharata to Ganesha and Ganesha composed them as discussed &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4107/3500&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3550/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; to know  about Jaya, Bharata and Mahabharta in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedavyasa is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Avatar&lt;/a&gt; of Lord Vishnu. He was named &quot;Krishna Dwaipayana&quot; as he was born on island and black in complexion. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adiparva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And it was thus that Vyasa was born of Satyavati through Parasara. And&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;because he was born in an island, he was called Dwaipayana (Dwaipa or islandborn)&lt;/strong&gt;. And the learned Dwaipayana, beholding that virtue is&#xA;  destined to become lame by one leg each yuga (she having four legs in&#xA;  all) and that the period of life and the strength of men followed the&#xA;  yugas, and moved by the desire of obtaining the favour of Brahman and&#xA;  the Brahmanas, arranged the Vedas. And &lt;strong&gt;for this he came to be called&#xA;  Vyasa (the arranger or compiler)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa is Vishnu and Krishna is also Vishnu, you can consider Vyasa as Krishna though they differ in some qualities or attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T12:11:35.687" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16985" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14052" CreationDate="2017-02-03T13:24:50.873" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure if Puranas say such. But Gauli Sastra mentions the different omens or sakunas in detail. Gauli Sastra is prominent Sakuna system published with Panchangams or Astrology books in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamilnadu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Ragavendra Rao (M.A in Astrology) from Tirupati Sri Venkteswara University translated the Telugu Manuscripts to English and published them in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saptarishisastrology.com/filedownload.php?v=7&amp;amp;a=y&amp;amp;b=n&amp;amp;f=56-GauliPatnamGavuliPalkuLakshanam.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saptarishi&lt;/a&gt; Astrology Magazine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mdFQf.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mdFQf.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pcbJr.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pcbJr.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZPs62.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZPs62.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DhzxT.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DhzxT.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see the preserved Telugu Manuscripts of Gauli Sastra in above attached PDF.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T13:24:50.873" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16986" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-03T13:57:19.480" Score="7" ViewCount="9185" Body="&lt;p&gt;I could not understand, why Shiva showed all the worldly emotions like he cried and showed grief when Sati died, then he married Parvati and then lived with family. If he was a god and it is believed that the god has created all the maya then how come he himself got caught in it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people say that he married because some Asura had a boon that he would only be killed by Shiva's son but as he is a god he could have created his own son himself as Lord Vishnu created Lakshmi from his arm!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clarify my doubts and connect the missing dots if there are any!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8854" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-04T13:54:37.320" LastActivityDate="2019-07-21T15:39:16.850" Title="Why did Shiva cry and showed such grief when Sati died as he is a god and a god is free from all the Maya which is created by him?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|sati-goddess|brahma-vaivarta-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16987" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8318" CreationDate="2017-02-03T15:02:27.677" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Hanuman is avatar of Rudra or Shankara as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/24274/31F_Chapter_99.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 20&lt;/a&gt; Satarudriya Samhita of Shiva Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एकस्मिन्समये शम्भुरद्भुतोतिकरः प्रभुः। ददर्श मोहिनीरूपं विष्णोः स हि&#xA;वसद्गुणः॥ ३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The virtuous Siva, who is engaged in various types of sports, once witnessed the Mohinī form of Vishnu. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चक्रे स्वं क्षुभितं शम्भुः कामबाणहतो यथा। स्वं वीर्यमपातयामास&#xA;रामकार्यार्थमीश्वरः॥ ४॥ &lt;br&gt; तद्वीर्यं स्थापयामासुः पत्रे सप्तर्षयश्च&#xA;ते। प्रेरिता मनसा तेन रामकार्यार्थमादरात्॥ ५॥ &lt;br&gt; तैर्गौतमसुतायां&#xA;तद्वीर्यं शम्भोर्महर्षिभिः। कर्णद्वारा तथाञ्जन्यां&#xA;रामकार्यार्थमाहितम्॥ ६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like a person suffering from lust, Siva at the instance, the saptarsis, (the Seven sages) carried the semen of Siva, for the purpose of Šrī Rāma, with respect, over the tree leaf and inserted the same in the ear of Anjani the daughter of Gautama, through ear to her Womb. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततश्च समये तस्माद्धनूमानिति नामभाक्र। शम्भुर्जज्ञे&#xA;कपितनुर्महाबलपराक्रमः॥७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then after some time, Siva appeared in the form of a monkey by name of Hanuman who was quite valorous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/25320/44f_chapter_8_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 8&lt;/a&gt; Kedarakhanda- Maheshwara Khanda of Skanda Mahapurana mentions Hanuman as avatar of Nandi . But Nandi is again &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/24254/31F_Chapter_86_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;partial avatar&lt;/a&gt; of Shiva which indirectly makes hanuman as avatar of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;100&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nandi, the son of Silada, who was a favourite follower of Siva, incarnated as the great monkey Hanuman for rendering assistance to&#xA;Visnu of unmeasured splendour.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above difference could be due to Kalpa Bheda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2018-07-02T02:15:32.693" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="16988" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16986" CreationDate="2017-02-03T15:28:08.797" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all there is no mention of Lord Shiva crying during Sati episode in the Shiva Mahapurana. However &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7434/does-any-of-the-gods-or-goddesses-ever-cry/7622#7622&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; suggests that Brahma Vaivarta Purana states Lord Shiva crying.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However there is no surprising thing in this. The thing related to &amp;quot;Cry&amp;quot; is one of the fundamental attribute of Lord Rudra. As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9918/who-is-rudra-deva/11638#11638&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; Rudra means the one who cries who makes other cry and who removes the cry of Samsara. Lord Krishna in Harivamsha Parva 2.74 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रुद्रो देव त्वं रुदनाद् रावणाञ्च &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रोरुयमाणो द्रावणाच्चवातिदेवः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Lord Rudra, You are the one who cry, who makes other cry and who removes the cry of Samsara&lt;/strong&gt; (misery of Samsara).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there is nothing surprising when Lord Rudra cries. Now, if someone objects that if he is God then how can he cry then we can also say &amp;apos;By what authority someone can say that he can&amp;apos;t Cry? Is he not allowed to cry? &amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In any case these all are &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16182/what-exactly-is-a-leela-%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%b2%e0%a4%be-is-there-a-scriptural-definition-of-leela-%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%b2%e0%a4%be/16188#16188&quot;&gt;Leela of Lord.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T15:28:08.797" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16990" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10314" CreationDate="2017-02-03T17:40:53.240" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your assumption is not correct. There are many stories of Devas after marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Stories of Lord Shiva after marriage are quite famous. Stories of Ganesha  and Kartikeya are quite famous across India. Even Stories of Shiva being &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16987/3500&quot;&gt;born as hanuman&lt;/a&gt;, Shiva granting &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03040.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pasupatastra&lt;/a&gt; to Arjuna and many such stories are famous which happened after Shiva's marriage with Parvati. People usually worship Shiva's family as whole.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, main story of Ramayana starts only after marriage of Lord Rama and Goddess Sita. Ravana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga49/aranya_49_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kidnapping Sita&lt;/a&gt; and Rama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddha_108_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;killing Ravana&lt;/a&gt; happened only after their marriage. Stories of Sita's exile and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga4/balaitrans4.htm#Verse6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lava-Kusa&lt;/a&gt; are famous too. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This list is innumerable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-02-04T02:45:39.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16991" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6696" CreationDate="2017-02-03T18:21:50.127" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because Time is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14913/3500&quot;&gt;cyclic&lt;/a&gt; in nature as per Hinduism. Creation, preservation and destruction is happenning since eternity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/4/2/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavtam 12.4.2&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चतुर्-युग-सहस्रं तु ब्रह्मणो दिनम् उच्यते स कल्पो यत्र मनवश्च तुर्दश&#xA;  विशाम्-पते|| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One thousand cycles of four ages constitute a single day of Brahmā,&#xA;  known as a kalpa. In that period, O King, fourteen Manus come and go.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, 1 kalpa is 1000* 12,000* 360 = 4.32 billion years as said by you. After pralaya, Three worlds (Swarga, Earth and Patala) are again created by Brahma (which is next day for Lord Brahma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/11/23/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 3.11.23&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निशावसान आरब्धो लोक-कल्पो ’नुवर्तते यावद् दिनं भगवतो मनून् भुञ्जंश्&#xA;  चतुर्-दश||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the end of Brahmā’s night, the creation of the three worlds&#xA;  begins again in the daytime of Brahmā, and they continue to exist&#xA;  through the life durations of fourteen consecutive Manus, or fathers&#xA;  of mankind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same is the case with Mahapralaya. So, time is cyclic in nature with no beginning. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T18:21:50.127" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16992" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13874" CreationDate="2017-02-03T18:48:47.880" Score="22" Body="&lt;p&gt;No. Sanātana Dharma doesn't allow chanting &quot;translation&quot; of Veda Mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samhitas are core portions of Vedas. They are directly &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/3500&quot;&gt;heard by sages&lt;/a&gt; in deep tapasya (transcendental meditation). One must chant these Veda mantras exactly how those Rishis heard. Hence Vedas are called Shruti (that which is heard).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mrityunjaya Mahamantra or any Veda mantra must be heard (or learned) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/acall/ac-studyofvedas.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;from knowledgeable Guru&lt;/a&gt;. One should know proper &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_meter&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;meter&lt;/a&gt; while chanting. Improper intonation may result in negative consequences. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While performing the sacrifice to kill Indra, Tvasta, father of Visvaroopa, chanted mantras with wrong intonation which changed the meaning of sentence drastically.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupadabooks.com/sb/6/9/11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 6.9.11&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hata-putras tatas tvaṣṭā&lt;br&gt; juhāvendrāya śatrave &lt;br&gt; indra-śatro&#xA;  vivardhasva &lt;br&gt; mā ciraṁ jahi vidviṣam &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Viśvarūpa was killed, his father, Tvaṣṭā, performed ritualistic&#xA;  ceremonies to kill Indra. He offered oblations in the sacrificial&#xA;  fire, saying, “O enemy of Indra, flourish to kill your enemy without&#xA;  delay.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purport by Sri Prabhupada,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was some defect in Tvaṣṭā’s chanting of the mantra because he&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;chanted it long instead of short&lt;/strong&gt;, and therefore the meaning changed.&#xA;  Tvaṣṭā intended to chant the word &lt;strong&gt;indra-śatro&lt;/strong&gt;, meaning, “O enemy of&#xA;  Indra.” In this mantra, the word indra is in the possessive case&#xA;  (ṣaṣṭhī), and the word indra-śatro is called a tat-puruṣa compound&#xA;  (tatpuruṣa-samāsa). Unfortunately, instead of chanting the mantra&#xA;  short, Tvaṣṭā chanted it long, and &lt;strong&gt;its meaning changed from “the enemy&#xA;  of Indra” to “Indra, who is an enemy.”&lt;/strong&gt; Consequently &lt;strong&gt;instead of an&#xA;  enemy of Indra’s, there emerged the body of Vṛtrāsura, of whom Indra&#xA;  was the enemy&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mrityunjaya Mahamantra occurs in Rig Veda Samhita 7.59.12, Taittriya Samhita of Krishna Yajurveda 1.8.6.i, Vajasaneyi Samhita of Shukla Yajurveda 3.60; So one must recite this Veda mantra (in archaic Sanskrit) with proper meter. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit itself &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit#Writing_system&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;doesn't have any native script&lt;/a&gt;, as Vedas are taught orally. So, mantra can be written in any script but recitation should be in Sanskrit (Veda Basha) with proper intonation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T08:18:23.010" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16993" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-03T19:10:45.780" Score="1" ViewCount="610" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two unusual aspects of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Venkateshwara's&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdhva_Pundra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Urdhwapundra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) The size of UrdhwaPundra:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Urdhwpundra covers more than 30% of Lord's face, while normally it should cover around 10%. The Venkatanchalpati's urdhwapundra doesn't have the Sri Churnam or Red/Yellow part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Standard Urdhwapundram for Sri Vaishnavas&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CDGOL.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CDGOL.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Std Urdhwapundra1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sSDHH.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sSDHH.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Venkatanchalapti's Urdhwapundra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vByj0.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vByj0.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) The material used for drawing Urdhwapundra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In normal cases the Urdhwapundra is made out of Thiruman(special clay) and Red/Yellow part Sri Churnam. The Urdhwapundra on the face of Venkatanchalpati is made out of pachcha kapoor natural/edible camphor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-03T21:11:47.430" Title="What's the reason behind Venkateshwara's unusual urdhwapundra?" Tags="|venkateshwara|tilak|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16994" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-03T20:24:19.683" Score="7" ViewCount="1646" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most Hindus are familiar with the term &amp;quot;Sanātana Dharma&amp;quot; which is used in several scriptures. E.g., Manusmṛti 4.138 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200246.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;uses&lt;/a&gt; the term as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;satyaṃ brūyāt priyaṃ brūyānna brūyāt satyamapriyam | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;priyaṃ ca nānṛtaṃ brūyādeṣa &lt;strong&gt;dharmaḥ sanātanaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; || 138 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He shall say what is true; and he shall say what is agreeable; he shall not say what is true, but disagreeale; nor shall he say what is agreeable, but untrue; &lt;strong&gt;this is the eternal law&lt;/strong&gt;. — (138)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why is Sanātana Dharma also called Ārṣa Dharma (आर्ष धर्म) sometimes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it a colloquial term or actually used as such in any of our scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so, what are some scriptures that use the term &lt;em&gt;ārṣa dharma&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-07T18:22:40.670" Title="Why is Sanātana Dharma also sometimes called Ārṣa Dharma?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|name|etymology|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16995" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16994" CreationDate="2017-02-04T02:43:53.297" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;A look at any samskRta dictionary reveals that the word ArSa has several meanings in Sanskrit ; primary among them are :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;belonging to or related to or derived from rishis&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;speech of a rishi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;veda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also means hoary or sanatanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is based on veda and divination of rishis and is hoary. All these are encapsulated in the word &amp;quot;ArSa&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-04T14:59:17.393" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16996" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-04T05:15:53.240" Score="1" ViewCount="483" Body="&lt;p&gt;Spiritualism is commonly referred as a practice of specific religious thoughts and belief in afterlife or spirits. Basically, the word spiritualism has no specific definition as it’s meaning differs from person to person, place to place and religion to religion. But where ever we go; we can discover that spiritualism is superior than any other religion and it’s basic principle stands with three mighty words (truth, faith, and belief).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;How can I describe Spiritualism in Hinduism?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T08:58:49.483" Title="What is Spiritualism means in Hinduism?" Tags="|spirituality|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16997" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16994" CreationDate="2017-02-04T06:33:43.887" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;We find the word &amp;quot;Arsha&amp;quot; being used in the Manu Smriti itself.Its used in the context of declaring the 8 forms of marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.20. Now listen to (the) brief (description of) the&#xA;following eight marriage-rites used by the four castes (varna) which&#xA;partly secure benefits and partly produce evil both in this life and&#xA;after death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/l74Mg.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/l74Mg.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmo Daivas Tatha Eva &lt;strong&gt;Arshah&lt;/strong&gt; Prajapatyas Tatha Asuraha ||&#xA;Gandharvo Rakshas Cha Eva Paishachas Cha Ashtamo Adhamaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.21. (They are) the rite of Brahman (Brahma), that of the gods (Daiva), &lt;strong&gt;that of the Rishis (Arsha)&lt;/strong&gt;, that of Pragapati (Pragapatya),&#xA;that of the Asuras (Asura), that of the Gandharvas (Gandharva), that&#xA;of the Rhashasas (Rakshasa), and that of the Pisakas (Paisaka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Description of Arsha Vivaha is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.29. When (the father) gives away his daughter according to the rule, after receiving from the bridegroom, for (the fulfilment of) the&#xA;sacred law, a cow and a bull or two pairs, that is named the Arsha&#xA;rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,Arsha basically means which is related to the Rishis(Sages) &amp;amp; &amp;quot;Arsha Dharma&amp;quot; is &amp;quot;Dharma which is related to the Rishis&amp;quot; or another way to put it-&amp;quot;Dharma of the Rishis&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-04T08:52:10.083" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16998" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-04T06:48:09.463" Score="5" ViewCount="296" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11751/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the Purva Mimamsa school believed that the Vedas consist primarily of two kinds of statements, Vidhi or injunctions concerning Dharma, and Arthavada or statements that intended to glorify the actions prescribed in the Vidhis.  Arthavada in turn is divided into three types: Anuvada or statements which can be proven true by non-scriptural means (like fire burns things), Gunavada or statements which can be proven false by non-scriptural means (like fire is cold), and Bhutarthavada or statements where non-scriptural means cannot tell us whether it's true or false (like Indra killed Vritrasura).  Now in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/sbe34/sbe34102.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Brahma Sutra Bhashya, Adi Shankaracharya says that Bhutarthavadas should be treated as Anuvadas, i.e. they should be assumed as true:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the matter conveyed by the subordinate (arthavâda) passage can be known by some other means of knowledge, the arthavâda acts as a mere anuvâda, i.e. a statement referring to something (already known). When its contents are contradicted by other means of knowledge it acts as a so-called gunavâda, i.e. a statement of a quality. Where, again, neither of the two mentioned conditions is found, a doubt may arise whether the arthavâda is to be taken as a gunavâda on account of the absence of other means of knowledge, or as an arthavâda referring to something known (i.e. an anuvâda) on account of the absence of contradiction by other means of proof. The latter alternative is, however, to be embraced by reflecting people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya says much the same thing in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/sbe48/sbe48124.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Sri Bhashya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nor can it be said that those mantras and arthavâdas are really meant to express something else (than those details mentioned above), in so far, namely, as they aim at proclaiming or glorifying the action with which they are connected; for those very details subserve the purpose of glorification, and so on, and without them glorification is not possible. For we praise or glorify a thing by declaring its qualities; if such qualities do not exist all glorification lapses. It cannot by any means be maintained that anything may be glorified by the proclamation of its qualities, even if such qualities do not really exist. Hence the arthavâdas which glorify a certain action, just thereby intimate the real existence of the qualities and details of the action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now both Adi Shankaracharya and Ramanujacharya belonged to the Vedanta school, not the Purva Mimamsa school.  So my question is, are there any Purva Mimamsa school philosophers who agree with the Vedanta school's view that if an Arthavada can neither be proven nor disproven by other means of knowledge, then it should be assumed to be true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think Shabara Swami would disagree with this, since as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11788/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; he rejects Vedic statements that someone held  Indra's hands.  And I'm quite sure that Kumarila Bhatta would disagree as well, since as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/iXSx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Tantra Vartika he rejects the Mahabharata's description of the Kurukshetra war, and he even rejects something as benign as the Mahabharata's description of what the Gandhamadana mountain looks like.  But I think Narayana Bhattar may have agreed with it, because as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15489/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; he argues that scriptural descriptions of Rama and Krishna's life are true.  Here's what he says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15489/36&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Manameyodaya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is called Tradition is said to be a statement depending on common talk; for example &quot;Vaishravana [Kubera] sits on every banyan tree&quot;. This is recognized to be not a means of valid knowledge, since, as a general rule, it has no foundation. Now if it be so, then, indeed, how do you take the story of Krishna, Rama etc.? Not so, because like the Codes, they can have a foundation, being well-known to be the words of reliable persons; &lt;strong&gt;and because there is no opposition to other valid means of knowledge, such things are certainly Authority&lt;/strong&gt;. Further, the authenticity of the story of Krishna etc. has been firmly established by the author of the Nyayanirnaya in establishing the superiority of the Purusha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I right in thinking that Narayana Bhattar is making a statement about Bhutarthavada, and if so are there any other Purva Mimamsa philosophers who agreed with him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-04T16:32:24.600" Title="Do any Purva Mimamsa philosophers agree with the Vedanta school's view of Arthavada?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|vedanta|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="16999" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13874" CreationDate="2017-02-04T08:48:10.540" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sonorously composed chants of the Vedas propagate audible energy. Beneficial placement of sounds to rhyme with with unknown/esoteric Beeja Aksharas will get watered down in translation/transliteration and lose their vitality of vibration originally intended by the composer (and adopted through centuries of popular usage) ..if delivered inappropriately.There is nothing like the original.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can have &lt;em&gt;teekas and thatparyams&lt;/em&gt; but never discard the source/ &lt;em&gt;praman&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-02-05T16:29:02.420" LastActivityDate="2017-02-05T16:29:02.420" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17000" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16994" CreationDate="2017-02-04T11:51:26.113" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Dictionary&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/%C4%81r%E1%B9%A3a/30704/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;आर्ष&lt;/a&gt; relating or belonging to or derived from &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/?q=%E1%B9%9B%E1%B9%A3i&amp;amp;iencoding=deva&amp;amp;lang=sans&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ṛṣi&lt;/a&gt;-s (id est the poets of the Vedic and other old hymns) , archaistic &lt;sup&gt;[1][2]&lt;/sup&gt; etc. &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/scans/?col=1&amp;amp;img=mw0152.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot; title=&quot;View this entry on the original dictionary page scan&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/images/page_icon.gif&quot; alt=&quot;Image1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/%C4%81r%E1%B9%A3a/30707/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;आर्ष&lt;/a&gt; the speech of a &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/?q=%E1%B9%9B%E1%B9%A3i&amp;amp;iencoding=deva&amp;amp;lang=sans&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ṛṣi&lt;/a&gt;-, the holy text, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/?q=veda&amp;amp;iencoding=deva&amp;amp;lang=sans&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;veda&lt;/a&gt;-s &lt;sup&gt;[3][4][5]&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/scans/?col=1&amp;amp;img=mw0152.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot; title=&quot;View this entry on the original dictionary page scan&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/images/page_icon.gif&quot; alt=&quot;Image&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/%C4%81r%E1%B9%A3a/30709/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;आर्ष&lt;/a&gt;  the derivation (of a poem) from a &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/?q=%E1%B9%9B%E1%B9%A3i&amp;amp;iencoding=deva&amp;amp;lang=sans&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ṛṣi&lt;/a&gt;- author. &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/scans/?col=1&amp;amp;img=mw0152.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot; title=&quot;View this entry on the original dictionary page scan]&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/images/page_icon.gif&quot; alt=&quot;Image&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1] Literary Source: mahābhārata&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;[2] Literary Source: rāmāyaṇa&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;[3] Literary Source: nirukta, by yāska&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;[4] Literary Source: ṛg-veda-prātiśākhya&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;[5] Literary Source: manu-smṛti&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B7&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiktionary&lt;/a&gt; also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me quote two lines from Wikipedia:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi#Etymology&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rishi#Etymology&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sanskrit, forms of the root rish become arsh- in many words, (e.g., arsh)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit#Classical_Sanskrit&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit#Classical_Sanskrit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations ārṣa (आर्ष), meaning 'of the ṛṣis',&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the Sanskrit word Arsh is related to or belongs to Rishis; you may heard Brahm&lt;strong&gt;arsh&lt;/strong&gt;i, Mah&lt;strong&gt;arsh&lt;/strong&gt;i, Dev&lt;strong&gt;arsh&lt;/strong&gt;i, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The things related to Rishis (more precisely &amp;quot;of Rishis&amp;quot;) are called Arsh like Arsh Grantha, Arsh Vakya etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In similar way, as Sanatan Dharma is based on Vedas and called Vedic Dharma. Vedas are handed down by Rishis who are the Drashta (seer) of Vedic hymns. So, Vedic Dharma laid down by Rishis is called &lt;strong&gt;Arsh Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-04T14:46:00.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17001" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-04T12:11:49.677" Score="1" ViewCount="2150" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bilva tree is situated in a Devi temple complex.&#xA;How to worship the Bilva tree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8023" LastEditorUserId="8023" LastEditDate="2017-02-06T07:35:28.670" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T08:23:17.197" Title="How to worship a Bilva tree" Tags="|shiva|temple|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17006" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-05T02:50:08.017" Score="6" ViewCount="1882" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We can know about Lord Hanuman from Ramayana but it states only a small portion of his life.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there a scripture that tells about Lord Hanuman's story completely ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-05T07:15:42.997" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T18:27:27.270" Title="Which Scripture tells the Complete Story of Lord Hanuman?" Tags="|scripture|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17008" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14958" CreationDate="2017-02-05T06:45:24.790" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;A practical and easy prayaschitta measure that is effective in removing all kinds of sins is called &lt;strong&gt;Tula Purusha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It involves the making of gifts(donation of) any substance equal to one's own weight to a male human being .Most people make such donations to temples of male Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kFlIY.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kFlIY.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;80&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The chandrayana penance, the eating of unripe barley, &lt;strong&gt;the form of making a gift, called the Tulapurusha, [I, e., making a gift of such a&#xA;  quantity of any substance as is equal in weight to a male human&#xA;  being]&lt;/strong&gt;, and the act of walking behind cows, — &lt;strong&gt;these put an end to all&#xA;  kinds of sin.&lt;/strong&gt;(Parashara Smriti ,Chapter 12,verse 80)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have seen many people here are concerned about what to do when they know that they have committed a sin.Most people have not read the Scriptures so they are not aware of the prayaschitta measures given therein.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,many measures that are given in Shastras are very difficult to perform,like the Chandrayana penance,Krikkhara penance,Tapta Krikkhara penance,Samtapana Krrikkhra penance etc. all of which involves prolonged fasting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,for such situations,when one does not know which specific prayaschitta is to be performed, the Tula Purusha remedy comes very handy.And it can be done by anyone without any restrictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,its more effective a remedy in Kali Yuga in particular because of the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gyqah.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gyqah.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;23&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&quot; Self-mortification is the rule in the Krita age ; knowledge is said (to be the same) in the Treta ; in the Dvapara, (they) say&#xA;  sacrifice (to the gods to be) the sole (rule) ; &lt;strong&gt;and charity alone in&#xA;  the Kali age.&lt;/strong&gt;(Parashara Smriti,Chapter 1,verse 23)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-05T07:10:00.517" LastActivityDate="2017-02-05T07:10:00.517" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17009" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11080" CreationDate="2017-02-05T07:25:41.270" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The problem is not only with description of Parikshit but also with the narrator (of Bhagvatam) there. Because as per Mahabharata Suka had already attained Moksha long time before. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shanti Parva of Mahabharata clearly narrates it. It also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Rishi, beholding these movements, &lt;strong&gt;understood that his son had been emancipated from all attachments,&lt;/strong&gt; but that he himself was not freed therefrom. At this he became filled with both joy and shame. As Vyasa was seated there, the auspicious god Siva, armed with Pinaka, surrounded on all sides by many deities and Gandharvas and adored by all the great Rishis came thither. Consoling the Island-born Rishi who was burning with grief on account of his son, Mahadeva said these words unto him.--Thou hadst formerly solicited from me a son possessed of the energy of Fire, of Water, of Wind, and of Space; Procreated by thy penances, the son that was born unto thee was of that very kind. Proceeding from my grace, he was pure and full of Brahma-energy. &lt;strong&gt;He has attained to the highest end--an end which none can win that has not completely subjugated his senses, nor can be won by even any of the deities.&lt;/strong&gt; Why then, O regenerate Rishi, dost thou grieve for that son? As long as the hills will last, as long as the ocean will last, so long will the fame of thy son endure undiminished! Through my grace, O great Rishi thou shalt behold in this world a shadowy form resembling thy son, moving by the side and never deserting thee for a single moment!--Thus favoured by the illustrious Rudra himself, O Bharata, the Rishi beheld a shadow of his son by his side. He returned from that place, filled with joy at this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before narrating this the Mahabharata clearly states Suka entering over all elements of Universe, and becoming soul of all (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12137/how-do-dvaitins-and-vishistadvaitins-interpret-this-passage-of-mahabharata&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;) Particularly The Mahabharata states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शुक सर्वगतो भूत्वा सर्वात्मा सर्वतोमुख ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Suka entered all elements, Became Atman of all and omnipresent having face at all places.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as Suka had already attained Moksha (entering all elements, becoming Atman of all) and description of Parikshit also doesn't match with the description of Mahabharata. So, only two cases are possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Case 1:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;➡➡ It is an interpolation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Case 2:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;➡➡ Solution from Matsya Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7961/why-did-vyasa-depict-different-supreme-gods-in-different-puranas/11077#11077&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; different Puranas tell story of different Kalpas. So, that type of description for Srimad Bhagvatam is also possible as it primarily tells story of Sarswata Kalpa. Regarding Bhagvata Purana. Matsya Purana Chapter 53 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;सारस्वतस्य कल्पस्य मध्य मे स्युर्नरोत्तमा ।&#xA;    तद्वृत्तान्तोद्भवं लोके तद्भागवतमुच्यते ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;That Purana which tells the story of famous men who flourished in Sarswata Kalpa and also narrates the destruction of Vrittasura is known as Bhagvata.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus it means that Bhagvata Purana tells the story of men who flourished in Sarswata Kalpa. Present Kalpa is Svetavaraha Kalpa and so Mahabharata story of Parikshit is of SvetaVaraha Kalpa. So, two stories do not match as they are of different Kalpas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-05T07:25:41.270" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17010" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-05T08:18:14.807" Score="2" ViewCount="153" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We will go to heaven for our dharma activities and hell for adharma activities and experience them for a while.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Affter that we will take birth and experience a life also according to the dharma and adharma &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which some deeds are experienced in heaven and hell and why some are in earth ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2017-03-09T09:19:23.233" Title="Why some deeds are experienced in hell and heaven and some in earth?" Tags="|dharma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17011" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12447" CreationDate="2017-02-05T09:00:46.327" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Destruction and Creation of Prithivi is Kalpantaka pralaya. Ie. Destruction and creation of Prithivi ( also Swarga and Patala) takes place in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6696/1-kalpa-of-brahma/16991#16991&quot;&gt;each day of Brahma.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It doesn't affect to Lord Rudra at all. Actually it is Lord Rudra himself who runs Pralaya. Also Parvati / wife of Lord Rudra isn't affected by simple things like this Kalpantaka Pralaya. Actually as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9633/when-did-parvati-devi-marry-shiva/14873#14873&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; present Parvati has life span of Six months of Brahma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this Varaha Kalpa, O goddess, &lt;strong&gt;you became Parvati obtained by Himavan through his penance,&lt;/strong&gt; when the Chakshusha Manvantara has passed off. O beautiful lady, due to the anger of Daksha you had to be separated from me for the duration of a day of Brahma. &lt;strong&gt;Your span of life is the period of his six months.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ie. Present Parvati lives for about 6 × 30 = 180 kalpas. Then something may happen and she may leave her body. So the destruction and creation of Prithivi doesn't affect to Rudra/Parvati at all. ie. It is not necessary to reincarnate at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However after the Mahakalpa (when Brahmas 100 years is over) then Lord Rudra also may merge back to Lord Shiva as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10584/how-does-the-names-and-events-reoccur-in-different-manvantara-or-kalpa-or-differ&quot;&gt;answer here:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्ये च ये समुत्पन्ना यथानुक्रमतो लयम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यान्ति नैव तथा रुद्रः शिवे रुद्र विलियते ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Others which have origin finally dissolve as per their process. However &lt;strong&gt;Rudra merges back to Shiva himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, when New Brahma comes Lord Shiva again incarnates as Mahadeva as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av15001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Atharvaveda. He also takes AshtaMurti forms as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of YajurVeda Satapatha Brahmana. Similarly he also does all works assigned to him by Vedas as stories described in Vedas are eternal. Some of the works I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7954/why-did-lord-shiva-take-44-avatars-if-his-primary-role-is-to-be-the-destroyer/16687#16687&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; In this way the cycle continues. Shakti of Shiva which is Prakirti herself again incarnates in Human form to meet with Lord Rudra which is given by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9918/who-is-rudra-deva/9923#9923&quot;&gt;Lord Rudra to Lord Brahma&lt;/a&gt; to assist the creation. And also the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10141/wouldnt-most-of-the-incarnations-of-devi-be-of-sati-not-parvati/14868#14868&quot;&gt;cycle of Sati-Parvati&lt;/a&gt; goes on which represents meeting of Prakirti and Purusha again and again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-05T09:00:46.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17012" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17204" CreationDate="2017-02-05T09:37:38.983" Score="4" ViewCount="262" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recommended facts  to follow thing like &quot;on Saturday do not cut your hair and nails&quot; there are different people with different views. What is the exact thing which we should refer and follow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recently somebody told me that clean shaving is done only when elder brother is passed away, Is it true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-02-07T05:02:12.590" LastActivityDate="2017-03-22T04:36:32.267" Title="Following the exact Religious facts" Tags="|superstitions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17013" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17006" CreationDate="2017-02-05T10:42:28.910" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Valmiki Ramayana has the life of Hanuman which happened in Treta Yuga only. But the life of Hanuman is indeed wide in scope. He has been immortal since ages. He is alive even today. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why didn't Sage Valmiki focus on Hanuman like he did on Sita and Rama?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana doesn't mean the story of Rama but it is the life/history of Sita.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Balakanda, chapter 4 clearly states that.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;काव्यम् रामायणम् कृत्स्नम् &lt;strong&gt;सीतायाः चरितम् महत्&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पौलस्त्य वधम् इति एवम् चकार चरित व्रतः || १-४-७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: &#xA;  That sage with observed sacred vows has rendered the entire epic in the name of 'Ramayana', '&lt;strong&gt;Sublime Legend of Seetha&lt;/strong&gt;' and 'elimination of Ravana'. [1-4-7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Ramayana only discusses about Sita and Rama who is incomplete without&#xA;Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then which scripture discusses the complete life of Hanuman?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is &lt;strong&gt;Parāśara saṃhita&lt;/strong&gt;. The seer of this scripture is Parāśara( Father of Krishna Dwaipayana vyasa). In this scripture, life of Hanuman before Ramayana and the life of Hanuman which happened in Dwapara yuga are also present. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But some aspects in this scripture are not accepted by some people. For example  this book says Hanuman is married to Suvarchala, daughter of Sun God. On the contrary, our puranas, Mahabharata say Suvarchala is wife of Sun-God. See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16424/who-is-suvarchala-is-she-wife-or-daughter-of-sun-god&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question for details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parāśara saṃhita is also translated into Telugu and English languages. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can learn more about Parāśara saṃhita from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jayahanumanji.com/?p=605&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page. &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sanskritupload/parAsharasamhitAhanupatcharitra1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is Parāśara saṃhita in sanskrit.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-05T15:22:07.140" LastActivityDate="2017-02-05T15:22:07.140" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17014" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18540" CreationDate="2017-02-05T14:49:45.590" Score="9" ViewCount="4863" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ravana did many adharmas and got curses which let to the entire destruction of the asura race and him.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How many curses were given to ravana and what were the reasons for giving them to him ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2022-01-22T11:08:58.237" Title="What are the curses given to Ravana?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|curse|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17016" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16965" CreationDate="2017-02-06T08:55:01.430" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prohibition on gambling:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu smriti 9.221. &lt;strong&gt;Gambling and betting let the king exclude from his&#xA;  realm; those two vices cause the destruction of the kingdoms of&#xA;  princes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.222. &lt;strong&gt;Gambling and betting amount to open theft&lt;/strong&gt;; the king shall always exert himself in suppressing both (of them).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prohibition on service of kings:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.63. By low marriages, by omitting (the performance of) sacred rites, by neglecting the study of the Veda, and by irreverence towards&#xA;  Brahmanas, (great) families sink low.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.64. By (practising) handicrafts, by pecuniary transactions, by (begetting) children on Sudra females only, by (trading in) cows,&#xA;  horses, and carriages, by (the pursuit of) agriculture and &lt;strong&gt;by taking&#xA;  service under a king,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.65. By sacrificing for men unworthy to offer sacrifices and by denying (the future rewards for good) works, &lt;strong&gt;families&lt;/strong&gt;, deficient in&#xA;  the (knowledge of the) Veda, &lt;strong&gt;quickly perish&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope this is what you are looking for.But even i am surprised to know  that service to king can be a prohibited act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T08:55:01.430" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17017" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3093" CreationDate="2017-02-06T09:36:06.097" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What are those plants?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can answer this for the Navagrahas at least.Not sure about the Nakshatra plants but the 9 Navagraha plants are well-known.For example see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sushmajee.com/stories/topics/trees-planets.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Scripture which mention about these plants is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/06Yagyavalkya_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajnavalkya Smriti&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/exWKF.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/exWKF.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arka&lt;/strong&gt;(Sunplant),&lt;strong&gt;Palasa&lt;/strong&gt;(Soma),&lt;strong&gt;Khadira&lt;/strong&gt;(Mangal),&lt;strong&gt;Apamarga&lt;/strong&gt;(Budha),&lt;strong&gt;Pippala&lt;/strong&gt;(Brihaspati),&lt;strong&gt;Udumvara&lt;/strong&gt;(Sukra),&lt;strong&gt;Shami&lt;/strong&gt;(Sani),&lt;strong&gt;Durva&lt;/strong&gt;(Rahu)&#xA;  and &lt;strong&gt;Kusa&lt;/strong&gt;(Ketu) ,are,in order,the sacrificial fuels of the Nine&#xA;  Planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Yajnavalkya Smriti verse 302)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next verse then says how to use these plants as oblations in Navagraha Yajnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With each class of Samidh,soaked with honey ,clarified butter,curd,or&#xA;  thickened milk ,oblations,either 108 or 28 in number should be&#xA;  offered.(Verse 303)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,these 9 plants are used as sacrificial materials in Navagraha Yajnas.I don't know if they are themselves worshiped as representatives of the 9 Grahas,probably they are not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-06T10:18:44.563" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T10:18:44.563" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17020" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2456" CreationDate="2017-02-06T18:41:40.563" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Acceptance of Personal Deity in Maya vada&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Advaita Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; does accept Notion of personal Gods/Godess commonly known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%ADa-devat%C4%81_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ishta devta&lt;/a&gt; although the Ishta devta must be chosen from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchayatana_puja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchayatan&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanmata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shanmata&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why Did Adi Shankaracharya Promote Idol Worship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's because Krishna tells arjuna that Human beings or jeevas find it difficult to associate with Avyakta Bramhan aka Formless Bramhan. Although Worshipping formless Bramhan leads to Moksha, but that path is dreadful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;क्लेशोऽधिकतरस्तेषाम् अव्यक्तास्क्तचेतसाम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अव्यक्ताहिगतिर्दु:खमदेहवाद्भिरवाप्यते ॥१२.५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T18:41:40.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17023" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16259" CreationDate="2017-02-06T19:25:46.260" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;“They enter darkness those who worship natural things.They sink deeper in darkness those who worship sambhuti (created things)&quot; (Yajurved 40:9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;God Supreme or Supreme Spirit has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material shape&quot; (Yajurved chapter 32 verse 3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires they worship demigods i.e. idols.&quot; (Bhagavad Gita 7:20)     &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;He became formless himself, They became formless... The Idol worship is to create the awareness of his life in means of science and that doesn't mean that God will look alike the Idol.. The one who admires God will love to be the way he was... And the &quot;way&quot; will lead to dharma and outer bliss ....&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The ignorant believe that un-manifest Para Brahma (One God) incarnates or takes manifestations, because they do not completely understand My highest, immutable, incomparable, and transcendental existence.&quot; (Bhagavad Gita 7:24)    &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;True they are formless, Only through determined love and devotion, he becomes a form.  Incarnation must have a reason&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8880" LastActivityDate="2017-02-06T19:25:46.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17028" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-07T05:58:07.493" Score="3" ViewCount="60" Body="&lt;p&gt;Specifically, I am interested in the history of pūrvapakṣa approach during the period beginning from 1000 CE to 2000 CE in North India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-02-07T06:03:47.890" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T06:03:47.890" Title="Is there scholarship on the history of Tarka sastra in North India?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17029" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17035" CreationDate="2017-02-07T06:45:31.427" Score="4" ViewCount="3542" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard many times that reading Gita without a teacher can be dangerous. Does it mean reader can take serious action if influenced strongly in wrong direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-07T07:00:57.653" LastActivityDate="2017-02-08T07:47:11.300" Title="Why reading Bhagvad Gita without Guru can be dangerous?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|guru|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17030" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-07T06:55:14.027" Score="8" ViewCount="758" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manusmṛti 2.14 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc145588.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रुतिद्वैधं तु यत्र स्यात् तत्र धर्मावुभौ स्मृतौ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उभावपि हि तौ धर्मौ सम्यगुक्तौ मनीषिभिः ॥ १४ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śrutidvaidhaṃ tu yatra syāt tatra dharmāvubhau smṛtau | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ubhāvapi hi tau dharmau samyaguktau manīṣibhiḥ || 14 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where there is conflict between two Vedic texts, both are held to be Dharma; both have been rightly pronounced by the wise to be Dharma. — (14)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does &lt;em&gt;Vedic texts&lt;/em&gt; here literally mean the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does the above dictum apply when two Purāṇas also disagree with each other? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the Manusmṛti itself considered part of these &lt;em&gt;Vedic texts&lt;/em&gt;? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What prompted Manu to write the above?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, are there any examples from the Vedas (or the &lt;em&gt;Vedic texts&lt;/em&gt;) where such conflicts exist? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From a practical standpoint, if two Vedic texts contradict each other on a certain dharma, and both are right, which dharma should a layman follow?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;P.S. This is related but not a duplicate of &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16920&quot;&gt;Any examples where a Smriti has contradicted a Sruti statement?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-10T13:27:45.667" Title="Manu 2.14 - Any examples of conflicts in Vedic texts? Is Manusmṛti itself a Vedic text?" Tags="|vedas|dharma|manu-smriti|manu|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17031" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17012" CreationDate="2017-02-07T07:00:44.377" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Recently somebody told me that clean shaving is done only when elder&#xA;  brother is passed away, Is it true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The direct answer is NO.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See we all the &lt;strong&gt;enlightened people or Sikh people they usually keep their hairs and beard natural&lt;/strong&gt;, when asked they say we do not want to make any changes to the natural body, However &lt;strong&gt;it is obvious that trimmed or clean shave is more hygienic than keep long hairs&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My point is &lt;strong&gt;why Don't enlightened or sikh people cut their nails?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer may be they will say its not hygienic, but now where does the point goes for keeping the body natural?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is a Vast religion, people will tell you a million of things of Don't and Do's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism we are told a lot of things to do and they all are right,&#xA;The ultimate Goal is Mukti, for which the base is live in tranquility with a focused mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we should learn that &lt;strong&gt;along with senses and mind, we are given a thing called intellect, we should USE IT&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="8883" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T04:09:42.497" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T04:09:42.497" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17032" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17030" CreationDate="2017-02-07T07:20:23.300" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Does Vedic texts here literally mean the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes Vedic text mean vedas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What prompted Manu to write the above?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He wants to say Vedas are the supreme knowledge and even if you find paradoxical things in two different mantras then you are not getting the correct meaning, But Manu doesn't knew after Mahabharata some people will add mantras to vedas, Rishi Dayanada did not find true vedas in india, all were edited.&#xA;So he did what he came for, correct vedas, in his previous lives rishi dayananda had extreme knowledge of vedas, you should read &quot;Krishna dutt&quot; Who remembered his previous lives and had met Lord Rama himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From a practical standpoint, if two Vedic texts contradict each&#xA;  other on a certain dharma, and both are right, which dharma should a&#xA;  layman follow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Awesome question but answer is simple Krishan says to arjun &quot;Killing a cow is Crime&quot;, but if some one attacks our country and he is keeping thousands of cows in front of his army , So that you would not attack him, at that moment the very definition of Dharma changes &quot;Now you will have to kill the cows for your country&quot;.&#xA;More over Sanskrit language is very Deep, one word have many meanings.&#xA;I think you got the point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T07:20:23.300" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17033" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17030" CreationDate="2017-02-07T07:29:18.817" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am adding a partial answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By &quot;Sruti&quot; only Vedas are meant.The original verse has Sruti in it.So reference here is only to the Vedas .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,Manu Smriti is a &quot;Smriti&quot;(a Dharma Shastra).So,its not Sruti.It belongs to a different category of Hindu Texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From a practical standpoint, if two Vedic texts contradict each other&#xA;  on a certain dharma, and both are right, which dharma should a layman&#xA;  follow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He can follow his own Veda Shakha.If he can't then he should follow his traditions or local customs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatam58.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagvatam Book 11,Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Right conduct is of two kinds :– (1) as dictated by the S’âstras, (2)&#xA;  as dictated by the popular custom (Laukika). Both these methods should&#xA;  be observed by him who wants welfare for his Self. He is not to&#xA;  forsake one of them.&lt;/strong&gt; O Muni! The village Dharma, the Dharma of one’s&#xA;  own caste, the Dharma of one’s own family and the Dharma of one’s own&#xA;  country all should be observed by men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the same Devi Bhagavata page also explains how to make sense when Vedas themselves are in contradiction:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Muni! The S’âstras are not one, they are many and they lay down&#xA;  different rules and contradictory opinions, How then Dharma is to be&#xA;  followed? And according what Dharma S’âstra?” Nârâyana said :– S’ruti&#xA;  and Smriti are the two eyes of God; the Purânam is His Heart. Whatever&#xA;  is stated in S’ruti, the Smriti and the Purânams is Dharma; whatever&#xA;  else is written in other S’âstras is not Dharma. Where you will find&#xA;  differences between S’ruti, Smriti and Purânas, accept the words of&#xA;  the S’rutis as final proofs. Wherever Smriti disagrees with the&#xA;  Purânas, know the Smritis more authoritative.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And where differences will crop up in the S’rutis themselves, know&#xA;  that Dharma, too, is of two kinds&lt;/strong&gt;.   And where the differences will&#xA;  crop up in the Smritis themselves, consider, then, that different&#xA;  things are aimed at. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T07:29:18.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17035" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17029" CreationDate="2017-02-07T08:06:30.547" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people here are aware of the fact that Sruti(the Vedas) should be learned and studied only under the guidance of a Guru.But the necessity of a Guru is not limited to Veda study only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the other Hindu Scriptures, like Smritis(Dharma Shastras),Vedangas,Puranas,Itihasas etc, are also to be studied under and learned from a Guru only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A twice-born (pupil) should study the Dharma S'astras under- the&#xA;  guidance of his preceptor&lt;/strong&gt; for- learning the rules of decorum and&#xA;  cleanliness (both mental and physical), and: do whatever is beneficial&#xA;  to his, master. (25) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the best of Brahmanas should study the Vedas, histories&#xA;  (Itihasas), and the kindred branches of knowledge ( Vedangas), give&#xA;  instructions to his own pupils, and feed the good Brahmanas. (4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vyasa Smriti ,Chapter 1,Verses 4, 25.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Or, he should do it] in the first part of the first day of the month&#xA;  of Magha. After this, the twice-born ones should study the Vedas in&#xA;  the light fortnight. (57) &lt;strong&gt;In the dark fortnight, a person should study&#xA;  the Vedangas and the Puranas. Both the teacher and the pupil should&#xA;  carefully avoid the [following] periods,,&lt;/strong&gt; when no Vedic studies should&#xA;  be prosecuted&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Usana Smriti,Chapter 3.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The danger of learning Mantras, Scriptures on one's own from books or internet pages is explained in quite detail on this page: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/diksha.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kamakotimandali.org-Diksha Prakasha&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pustake likhitAnmantrAnAlokya prajapanti ye | brahmahatyAsamaM teShAM&#xA;  pAtakaM parikIrtitam || [Badabanala Tantra]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This instruction is of special relevance in the current days where&#xA;  people pick mantras from books or web pages and begin recitation.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  There are procedures described in the Shastras to pick mantras from&#xA;  Tantras by choosing Devi/Mahadeva as Guru but is only an Apaddharma.&#xA;  That cannot be considered as a universal rule. Moreover, one who has&#xA;  studied the shAstras and has the necessary power of discrimination&#xA;  alone can undertake such a practice. These days, when most ward off&#xA;  the need for traditional learning and resort of crash courses or&#xA;  counter every shAstra pramANa with hollow statements such 'Devi knows&#xA;  best! She wanted me to recite the mantra and hence she made me find&#xA;  it', it becomes even more important to understand the pre-conditions&#xA;  for mantra grahaNa. Devotion is an aspect of upAsanA but not upAsanA&#xA;  itself. Moreover, pure devotion is not a commonality in Kali Yuga.&#xA;  Also, adhikAra or qualification for upAsanA comes only through Diksha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,Bhagvata Gita is part of an Itihasa(the Mahabharata) but it is an important Hindu Scripture because of its far-reaching philosophical implications.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, since the very nature of the text is philosophical, its all the more  needed that it should be studied under the guidance of a Guru who knows the purport of all its verses fully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,suppose if you give a Scripture X to N number of persons to read and understand, chances are that they will interpret it in N number of ways.And the reason is simply that they are all in  different levels of consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,its better to learn all Scriptures(not just the Vedas) from a Satguru.By this process your own consciousness-level will also expand and you will have newer and better interpretations of the Scriptures that you have already read.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,not sure if it will be dangerous,but  it will be misleading  for sure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-08T07:47:11.300" LastActivityDate="2017-02-08T07:47:11.300" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17036" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17010" CreationDate="2017-02-07T08:41:32.280" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all in order to Undergo Karma there has to be a medium, example you can not see without eyes, So it means &lt;strong&gt;in order to undergo karma there has to be the medium of physical Body&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hell and Heaven are in your chitt(mind), not somewhere else on other planet. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some atma has to come back even from Moksha to undergo some Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire process of how karma works can never be known to humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All we know is by performing good karmas, one is practicing the purity of mind, because only a pure mind can become peaceful.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What we should learn from this Question is &lt;strong&gt;if something bad happens to us, show gratitude and ask god to give us strength to undergo this result of negative Karma.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the question arises should we pray only in bad times?  No we should pray daily because Lord Krishna says in Gita &quot;one perform karma every moment, even if one is sitting idle&quot; and &lt;strong&gt;by repeating a prayer(thought) over and over again our intellect will become sharp and pure, which leads to pure and controlled mind, and in the end a state of tranquility can be attained.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T08:41:32.280" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17037" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16996" CreationDate="2017-02-07T08:58:49.483" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hinduism is all about Spiritualism.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question should be what is the way of mukti in Hinduism ?&#xA;However spirituality means looking and studying inwards, the answer could be very vast but I will try to give you an overview, &lt;strong&gt;by practicing good karmas&lt;/strong&gt; one has to attain purity of intellect and mind, which result in tranquility, at last &lt;strong&gt;one can attain Moksha&lt;/strong&gt; or Mukti (Ultimate Freedom). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what should we learn from this Question is that &lt;strong&gt;Karma which start from thought&lt;/strong&gt;, if you think good , you will do good, hence Good karmas and we should try to remain conscious and also every karma has to be done towards God, not for self, but we all are looking outwards and finding other people mistakes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So instead of finding other people mistakes because &lt;strong&gt;Hinduism is the only religion where you are free to do prayer in your own way&lt;/strong&gt;, if you want to worship a river, stone, mountain, tree, chair, table etc. You are welcome just do it as deep as you can, Bharam is Omnipresent &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T08:58:49.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17039" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17029" CreationDate="2017-02-07T12:39:49.753" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This usually because people misunderstood some of the things mentioned in Gita. To understand terms in Gita it is required that a person should have some real life experience. That's one of the reason it has been said that we should do study or understand it with the help of Guru, but its doesn't mean that with Guru you will understand everything correctly. Don't limit yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7286" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T12:39:49.753" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17040" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-07T12:41:22.220" Score="6" ViewCount="439" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it necessary for a soul to attain enlightenment in order to attain liberation after death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is it sufficient to just focus the mind on God in order to attain liberation after death(even if the soul fails to attain enlightenment during lifetime), as Lord Krishna says &quot;Focus your mind on Me. I promise you, you will come to Me&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As some people are of the opinion that &quot;No enlightenment means No Moksha&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8887" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T10:11:13.417" Title="Is it necessary for a soul to attain enlightenment in order to attain liberation after death?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|moksha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17042" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17029" CreationDate="2017-02-07T13:01:04.093" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please go ahead and read Bhagvad Gita , I firmly believe this maha mantr should be made compulsory in all schools upto college (and beyond). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interpretation &quot;n&quot; times agreed and that's the beauty about Hinduism, (which had been misinterpreted by westerners and believed by people who have more faith in them then their own people) Bhagvad Gita will show you the path you deserve for your growth (even genetically identical twins have different path) so go ahead and read (Personally I believe Hindu scriptures should only be read in Sanskrit/Hindi. English or transliterated scripts should be forbidden) Read the Mahamantr multiple times (better) if you feel like. I will go as far as saying every religion (yes every) has originated from Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism shows infinite path to achieve but goal is similar rising above over many cycles (of life and death) and ultimately releasing ourselves. Another point to consider is even if we are not released by our karm then also at the end of 100 Brahm years we all merge into ONE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Follow the path : Keep doing your karm and dont focus on results let them be whatever they are, you are here to perform and not results&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8890" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T13:01:04.093" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17043" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17040" CreationDate="2017-02-07T13:06:10.073" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, you have to attain moksha if you want to permanently escape from the ravages of worldly life. Focusing the mind on God leads ultimately to liberation after many births. Even if such a person fails to gain liberation in one birth, he will eventually succeed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moksha only stable value&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who aspires to overcome the thick darkness of ignorance should&#xA;  never seek contacts that are contrary to the fourfold end of life&#xA;  (Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha). Of these four ends, &lt;strong&gt;Moksha alone is&#xA;  accepted as the really stable value to be sought; for the other three&#xA;  are subject to the destructive force of Time.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana IV.22.34-35&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T13:06:10.073" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17044" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-07T14:01:38.537" Score="7" ViewCount="224" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was mentioned in Sri Bhagavatam, that even goddess Lakshmi feared to approach Lord Narasimha (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/9/2&quot;&gt;reference&lt;/a&gt;) after Lord Narasimha killed Hiranyakasyapu.&#xA;Bhagavatam also mentions the formation of goddess Lakshmi, which occurred during the churning of Milk ocean.(&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/8/8&quot;&gt;reference&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the time of churning of the demons headed by Bali Maharaj (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/6&quot;&gt;see here&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the time of killing Hiranyakasipu his son Prahlada is a child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Linking these two and by additional fact that Bali Maharaj is Grandson of Prahlada(&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/20/3&quot;&gt;reference&lt;/a&gt;), how can Godess Lakshmi who was appeared/created by churning of milk ocean (i.e at the time of Bali Maharaj) can appeare at the time of killing of hiranyakasyapu (when prahlada was a child and so Bali maharaj was not even born)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7287" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T14:28:05.437" Title="How can Goddess Lakshmi appear before her creation" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17046" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17044" CreationDate="2017-02-07T14:28:05.437" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Goddess Lakshmi was not created by churning of milk ocean. She is eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord both male and female&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The people in general regard him [Lord Vasudeva] as twofold: of the&#xA;  form of male and of the form of female. The two should not be&#xA;  considered to be separate entities, O lord of birds. If the lord were&#xA;  separate from the female form, o lord of birds, how could the woman be&#xA;  his reflection? Hence the female is inseparable from the male form.&#xA;  The two forms constitute the very nature of the lord. This should not&#xA;  be taken otherwise. The neutral form is alien to his nature. It is the&#xA;  effect and not his real nature. It is not present in Hari, O lord of&#xA;  birds. &lt;strong&gt;Know that in the form of Hari there is reflected the form of&#xA;  Lakshmi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Garuda Purana, Moksha Khanda, chapter III]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T14:28:05.437" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17047" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-07T15:35:49.243" Score="2" ViewCount="180" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the exact nature of their relationship? Does one arise from the other? I have an operational hypothesis that Kālá is an emanation of Akasha - unfortunately, my hunt to gain clarity on the exact mechanisms is still very much a work in progress (in that it is inarticulate).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastActivityDate="2017-02-07T15:35:49.243" Title="What is the relation between Akasha(आकाश) and Kālá(काल) in Advaita Vedanta?" Tags="|advaita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17049" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17605" CreationDate="2017-02-07T16:46:34.940" Score="7" ViewCount="1090" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can any one explain what does &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Vigyan Bhairava Tantra&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; mean?&#xA;What does &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Vigyan&quot; i.e Science&lt;/strong&gt; here refer to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7676" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-09-07T22:49:45.450" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T22:49:45.450" Title="What is Vigyana Bhairava Tantra?" Tags="|agamas|science|tantra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17050" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17099" CreationDate="2017-02-08T05:52:53.270" Score="2" ViewCount="5984" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen in many pictures and temples that there is U symbol on forehead of lord Hanuman and other gods and some people also use it. I came to know that it is called vrindavan. But what is its significance? What does it mean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UIkPu.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UIkPu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8585" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-08T09:11:04.690" LastActivityDate="2020-04-06T19:27:04.360" Title="what is significance of symbol U on forehead?" Tags="|krishna|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17051" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-08T06:32:14.930" Score="4" ViewCount="217" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read this verse stated by Lord Shiva to Devi Parvati - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ārādhanaṃ sarveṣāṃ  viṣṇor ārādhanaṃ paraṃ&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;  of all kinds of worship, worship of Lord Vishnu is the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tasmāt parataraṁ devi tadīyānāṁ samarcanam&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;  and better than the worship of Lord Viṣṇu is the worship of His devotee, the Vaiṣṇava..&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gitabase.com/eng/SB/7/14/39&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source(1)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srila Prabhupada in his lectures has attributed this very verse to three different puranas - Devi &lt;a href=&quot;https://old.prabhupadavani.org/main/Bhagavatam/257.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(2)&lt;/a&gt;, Shiva &lt;a href=&quot;https://old.prabhupadavani.org/main/Bhagavatam/042.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(3)&lt;/a&gt; and Padma &lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupadabooks.com/sb/8/5/49&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(4)&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I feel that it is highly unlikely that the same verse exists in all three puranas. So I searched online but couldn't find the source. While searching I found that most of the times in his commentaries to Bhagavatam and the Gita and also in the above link, Prabhupada attributes this to padma purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.Can somebody please point to the actual source of the verse (preferably purana and verse number with the [authentic] link) and clarify whether this is repeated in the aforementioned puranas?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2. Also can someone comment on the translation of the next part of the verse - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tasmāt parataraṁ devi tadīyānāṁ samarcanam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2361" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-08T07:19:13.697" LastActivityDate="2017-02-08T22:13:40.420" Title="What is the correct source of this verse?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|shiva-purana|padma-purana|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17052" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10787" CreationDate="2017-02-08T07:53:16.873" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is very hard to find the prana pratishta and stapana mantras online.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have asked pundits in my area they are not willing to give the mantras saying that only brahmans are qualified to do the sthapanas etc., . Told them I am also a brahman but not a karmakandi yet. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8900" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-08T09:14:18.550" LastActivityDate="2017-02-08T09:14:18.550" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17053" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17056" CreationDate="2017-02-08T08:45:08.707" Score="5" ViewCount="181" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have always been taught that one should offer all his work to &quot;ब्रह्म&quot; (Supreme God), which seem to be very difficult while working in office.&#xA;I have been trying to remain conscious about what I do, but it's very difficult, and after a couple of days, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the methods one can use to remember God while performing daily life activities?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For e.g. When ever I go for lunch, I try to remain conscious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-04-23T04:14:27.293" LastActivityDate="2019-04-26T09:08:42.190" Title="How do I remember &quot;ब्रह्म&quot;(Brahman) while working in office?" Tags="|brahman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17054" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17138" CreationDate="2017-02-08T15:38:00.390" Score="5" ViewCount="1264" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhagavat gita should be read under a guru's guidance for getting proper knowledge without misleading.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;All people cannot get a guru in practical as some are of low wealth and need to work almost 12 hours a day. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;People who &lt;strong&gt;don't read&lt;/strong&gt; Bhagavat gita live a &lt;strong&gt;chances of ignorance and adharmas are highly possible&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we don't get a guru is it better not to read the Bhagavat gita by ourselves as knowledge may be misleading ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it better to read &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavat gita without guru's guidance&lt;/strong&gt; as being aware of the paramatma and karma life is &lt;strong&gt;better than living with more chances of ignorance and  adharmas&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-13T06:51:41.763" LastActivityDate="2017-02-14T05:51:45.267" Title="If we don't have a guru is it better not to read bhagavat gita or read it?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|guru|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="13" ClosedDate="2017-02-15T19:05:31.843" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17055" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17057" CreationDate="2017-02-08T15:39:28.973" Score="7" ViewCount="1477" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone provide some proofs that show Lord Shiva really includes his devotees as part of his own? A serial based on Mahadeva, they sometimes show as if Lord Shiva has unequal vision for his devotees &amp;amp; family. But That serial is base on Puranas, so I'm confused a bit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-09T04:46:03.777" LastActivityDate="2017-02-09T04:46:03.777" Title="What are some Stories of Lord Shiva which show tremendous Love of him to his devotees?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17056" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17053" CreationDate="2017-02-08T17:33:50.420" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Srimad Bhāgavataṃ &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/5/23-24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;7.5.23-24&lt;/a&gt;, Prahlada says there are nine ways of worshipping the Lord. They are famously known as the Navavidha bhakti margas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śrī-prahlāda uvāca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sakhyam ātma-nivedanam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;iti puṁsārpitā viṣṇau&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhaktiś cen nava-lakṣaṇā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kriyeta bhagavaty addhā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tan manye ’dhītam uttamam&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation : Prahlāda Mahārāja said: Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Viṣṇu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord, becoming His servant, considering the Lord one’s best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words) — these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service. One who has dedicated his life to the service of Viṣṇu through these nine methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has acquired complete knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The nine forms of devotion are&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shravanam – Hearing the names and glories of the Lord&lt;br&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Keertanam – Chanting His glories&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Smaranam – Remembering the Lord&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pāda sevanam – Serving the Lord’s feet&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Archanam      – Worshiping the Lord&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vandanam – Offering obeisance unto the Lord   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dāsyaṃ – Serving the Lord as His servant&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sakhyam – Developing friendship with the Lord&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ātma Nivedanaṃ – Total surrender of oneself to the Lord&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though the paths are different, they all lead to the same destination. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But from the above list Dāsyaṃ, sakhyam, ātmanivedanaṃ are practically not possible for normal human beings like us. So, the best ways one can easily follow are : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shravanam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing the glories, songs, bhajans of the Lord whenever possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Keerthanam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Singing or chanting the Lord's name and glories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Smaranam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The easiest way possible. Remembering the name of the Lord whenever possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vandanam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prostrating before the lord. Offering obeisances to the Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the easiest ways you can remember the Lord whatever you are doing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before having food, offering it to the Lord as gratitude also helps in developing devotion in one's heart. You can learn more about devotion from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7295/what-is-the-navavidha-bhakti/7298?s=2|0.1079#7298&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In one statement: You can chant or remember the name of the Lord while you are performing any other daily life activity (say while you are in office or having lunch).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-04-23T04:22:12.313" LastActivityDate="2019-04-23T04:22:12.313" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17057" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17055" CreationDate="2017-02-08T18:08:49.570" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many stories where Lord Shiva shows immense love to His devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Story of Kubera:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Just after creation, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16382/3500&quot;&gt;Kubera prayed&lt;/a&gt; to Lord Visveswara in holy city of Kasi. Shiva himself moved to Himalayas (Kailasa) in human form as Shankara or Rudra to stay close to his devotee.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23995/30F_Chapter_51.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 19&lt;/a&gt; &lt;em&gt;Rudra Samhita (Sristi Khanda)&lt;/em&gt; of &lt;em&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/em&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यक्षाणां किन्नराणां च राज्ञां राजा च सुव्रतः।  पतिः पुण्यजनानां च&#xA;सर्वेषां धनदो भव॥ २५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You would be the king of the kings of Yaksas and Kinnaras. You will be&#xA;the lord of auspicious people and will bestow riches on all the&#xA;people. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मया सख्यं च ते नित्यं वत्स्यामि च तवान्तिके। &lt;br&gt; अलकां निकषा मित्र!&#xA;तव प्रीतिविवृद्धये॥ २६ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will always remain friendly with me. I shall always reside close&#xA;to your city of Alaka, and shall keep on increasing your love for me.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Story of Yama and Markandeya:&lt;/strong&gt; This is an exemplary example which shows Shiva's colossal amount of love towards their devotees. Shiva, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9290/3500&quot;&gt;Lord of kaala&lt;/a&gt; (time), &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16897/3500&quot;&gt;Kãlãnjãra&lt;/a&gt; or Kãlakãla (Kãla of Kãla), destroyer of time, saved the Markandeya from clutches of &amp;quot;Kãla&amp;quot;(death), when he composed &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15035/3500&quot;&gt;Chandrashekhara Ashtakam&lt;/a&gt; hugging the mighty Shiva Linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though story of Markandeya, Yama and Shiva cannot be found in any Puranas as far as I know, it is quite famous story which shows Shiva's tremendous amount of love towards His devotees. I will quote Markandeya story as said by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaganti_Koteswara_Rao&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Chaganti Koteswara Rao&lt;/a&gt; who is well known Guru and Acharya in Telugu States. You can listen it &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uccnessxNFg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (Telugu). (Here is my rough translation)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yama after assuming fearful form appeared before Markandeya and threw&#xA;his noose to Markandeya's neck to capture him. Before hugging Shiva&#xA;Linga, Marakandeya sings Stotras in praise of Shiva (Chandrasekhara&#xA;Astakam). Marakandeya says that he has no pain for noose but he&#xA;sees (his) mother Parvati Devi to the left side of Linga. He says at&#xA;Her grace Yama threw noose at him. Markandeya says Shiva is creator, preservor and destroyer of cosmos and Yama is His servant and Yama has no right to kill when he is praying Shiva.  Narada conveys all this story to&#xA;Shiva. Markandeya says Shiva will come to him with affection because&#xA;he (Markandeya) believed in Him. After composing eight Sloka,&#xA;Markandeya hugs the Shiva lingam and noose touches the Shiva Linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva in Ardhanariswara form with Parvati comes out of Shiva linga and&#xA;kicks Yama on chest with left leg. Generally, any person would lift&#xA;right leg to kick but here Left leg denotes Parvati Devi as she felt&#xA;this incident of touching noose to Linga as insult to Her husband when&#xA;Markandeya was praising Shiva with Bhakthi. Thereafter, Yama was hit&#xA;by Trisula of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://sathyasaiwithstudents.blogspot.in/2014/02/chandrashekhara-ashtakam-eight-verses.html#.WJtqX_IwG1s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;meaning&lt;/a&gt; of Chandrasekshara Astakam to know exact meaning of Marakandeya's prayer and his bhakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There need not be tremendous amount of Bhakti towards Lord Shiva for his grace, even unintentional worship of Shiva or Shiva linga can get His grace. There are many such stories in Skanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Story of previous birth of Asura Mahabali:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asura Mahabali was gambler in his previous birth and he unintentionally anointed Shiva linga with flowers, bilva leaves and sandal paste and by Shiva's grace, he was given chance to rule Devaloka for a period of 1 hour and 12 minutes, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11560/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. Story of a Brahmin Devaraja and Chancula:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devaraja, though Brahmin by birth, stooped low by wandering with a whore. In mean time he gave all his possession to that whore. But Devaraja just heard Shiva stories at final stages of his life and Lord Shiva sent Aerial chariot for him after his death to bring him to Kailasa. This is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/24124/30F_Chapter_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt; of Shiva Purana Mahatmya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar is story of woman Chanchula. Even she goes to Kailasa on aerial chariot sent by Lord Shiva after listening to Shiva's stories, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/24125/30F_Chapter_3.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt; of Shiva purana Mahatmya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva also showed his tremendous love towards &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/nayanar.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nayanars&lt;/a&gt; who composed hymns in praise of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many such stories in scriptures which describe Shiva's tremendous love towards His devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-02-09T03:46:00.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17058" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22589" CreationDate="2017-02-08T18:42:03.220" Score="8" ViewCount="204" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any instances in Hindu mythology where instead of the original kings/queens other individuals have ruled as regents? The only instance I know of is when Bhishma ruled instead of Vichitravirya but are there any other examples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, did the regents have a separate title and if yes what was it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2897" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-19T04:54:18.867" LastActivityDate="2018-02-19T04:54:18.867" Title="Regent Kings/Queens in Hindu Mythology" Tags="|scripture|history|chandravansh|suryavansh|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17060" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17051" CreationDate="2017-02-08T22:13:40.420" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, the verse is from Padma Purāṇa (Uttara-kāṇḍa, Ch. 252-253: Modes of Viṣṇu's Worship)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find the Sanskrit verse in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicreserve.mum.edu/puranas/padma_purana_6uttara.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF&lt;/a&gt; (p. 1079):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आराधनानांसर्वेषांविष्णोराराधनंपरम् &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मात्परतरंदेवितदीयानांसमर्चनम्  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; १७६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below, in bold, is the meaning of the verse (from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/PadmaPuranaMotilalVol.3Thru10/Padma%20Purana%20-%20Motilal%20-%20Vol.%203%20thru%2010#page/n2447/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;). To provide some context, I've copied tr. of some adjoining verses as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;175-179. Thus till he is alive, he should diligently worship &#xA;  Viṣṇu. O auspicious one, he should especially always honor &#xA;  those that belong to him. &lt;strong&gt;O goddess, of all worships that of &#xA;  Viṣṇu is the best&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore, honoring those that belong to him, &#xA;  is the best.&lt;/strong&gt; He who would worship Viṣṇu, but would not honor &#xA;  those who belong to him should not be reckoned as Viṣṇu's &#xA;  devotee, but is known to be a hypocrite. Therefore, a man should &#xA;  always with (i.e. making an) effort honor those that belong to &#xA;  him. By means of honoring the best devotee of Viṣṇu, he overcomes the entire stream of difficulties. O goddess, thus I have &#xA;  described the excellent daily and occasional (obligatory) worship &#xA;  of Viṣṇu, so also that of those who belong to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-02-08T22:13:40.420" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17061" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-08T22:41:10.550" Score="4" ViewCount="675" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/vedic-lifestyle/symbols/urdhapundra-the-vaishnavite-tilak&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This article&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Urdhapundra – The Vaishnavite Tilak&lt;/em&gt;, claims:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Madhvacharis use &lt;strong&gt;hot iron blocks&lt;/strong&gt; to emboss their bodies, especially the shoulders, with the four symbols of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is the above really true?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do any of the Vaiṣṇava dharma śāstras recommend this practice?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do any Vaiṣṇavas still follow this?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2020-02-06T17:14:40.037" Title="Is it true that Madhvācārīs used to emboss their bodies with hot iron blocks?" Tags="|vaishnavism|tradition|dharma-shastras|madhvacharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17063" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-09T05:39:17.613" Score="5" ViewCount="2922" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two scorpions on the ears of lord Shiva. Who they are &amp;amp; who cursed  them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would be obliged if you could answer my query and this is my first attempt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8905" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-09T05:53:23.750" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T12:04:00.287" Title="Why Lord Shiva has two scorpions on his ears?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17064" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9272" CreationDate="2017-02-09T05:51:36.467" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all &lt;strong&gt;Japa&lt;/strong&gt; is not just unselfish, sincere prayer.Technically Japa is repetition of the Mantra or syllables again and again with full concentration and having in mind the meaning of the Mantra as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the superiority of &lt;strong&gt;Japa Yajna&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;Japa Yoga&lt;/strong&gt; is mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;,which is one of the most important Shakta Agama Shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Iswara Uvacha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Japa Yajnath Paro Yajno NAparohastiha Kaschana ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tasmajjapen DharmArthaKAmaMokshanscha SAdhayeth ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram,Chapter 15,Verse 3.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In this world there is no Yajna which is superior to Japa Yajna&lt;/strong&gt;,hence&#xA;  one should attain Dharma,Artha,Kama &amp;amp; Moksha through Japa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,since &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16541/4732&quot;&gt;Agamas&lt;/a&gt; have particular relevance and importance in Kali Yuga we can surely say that this statement is true as far as Kali is concerned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But,we can't say, with the same amount of authority, if Japa is the best mode in all the other 3 Yugas as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-02-09T05:51:36.467" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17066" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17067" CreationDate="2017-02-09T09:15:55.727" Score="4" ViewCount="966" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas state about Cyclic nature of time as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14913/where-does-rig-veda-states-about-cyclical-nature-of-creation/14914#14914&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; But are there &lt;strong&gt;any statement in Vedas which state about Universe being projected as space-time ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; As a sidenote, Adi Shankaracharya in his famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_shiva-dakshinamurthy_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dakshinamurty stotram:&lt;/a&gt; states how apparent creation proceeds with the appearance of space-time through Maya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt; बीजस्याऽन्तरिवाङ्कुरो जगदिदं प्राङ्गनिर्विकल्पं पुनः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मायाकल्पितदेशकालकलना वैचित्र्यचित्रीकृतम् ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;This World&lt;/strong&gt; is Like a Sprout of a Seed Within which transforms what is Changeless state Before, &lt;strong&gt;appear Again as Space and Time,&lt;/strong&gt; and endless Varieties of Pictures over it; all due to the Creation of Maya,  &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-09T09:19:53.883" Title="Where do Vedas state Universe being a projection in space-time?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|history|time|creation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17067" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17066" CreationDate="2017-02-09T09:19:53.883" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;19.53 is a Hymn to Kala in Atharvaveda also known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av19053.htm&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kala Sukta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. In it&amp;apos;s third verse it states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पूर्ण कुम्भोदिः काल आहितस्तं वै पश्यामो बहुदा नु सन्तः । [AtharvaVeda 19.53.3]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;A full pot has been placed in Time and it is that which we see manifoldly.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here a full pot ie. Purna Kumbha represents Hiranyagarbha (Sum total of the Universe) ie. It also represents space of Universe.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And when it is placed on Time then it causes people to see the manifold creation.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Translating the verse partly:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पूर्ण कुम्भोदिः काल आहितस्तं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pūrṇa kumbhodiḥ kāla āhitastaṃ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;A full pot has been placed in Time.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Round pot is called Kumbha and it is called full. Hiranyagarbha is round ie. also called golden egg and it is full as it represents sum total of Universe. And the second part states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वै पश्यामो बहुदा नु सन्तः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vai paśyāmo bahudā nu santaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;That is what is seen as Many.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It uses the word &amp;quot;Vai Pashyãmo&amp;quot; ie. &amp;quot;That is seen.&amp;quot; ie. It is suggesting about apparent nature of creation just as projection / just appearing only.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The translation of Griffith is not so good but still it makes sense. Griffth &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av19053.htm&quot;&gt;translates&lt;/a&gt; it as:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On Time is laid an overflowing beaker: &lt;strong&gt;this we behold&lt;/strong&gt; in many a place &lt;strong&gt;appearing.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-02-09T09:19:53.883" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17068" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13808" CreationDate="2017-02-09T10:01:02.423" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva says in KulArnava Tantram that &lt;strong&gt;Sri&lt;/strong&gt; should always be added at the start while addressing &lt;strong&gt;Gurus, Shastras and the Holy places.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SriGurum KulashAstrAni PujyasthAnAni YAni cha ||&lt;br&gt; BhaktyA&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Sripurvakam&lt;/strong&gt; Devi Pranamya Parikirtayeth||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 11, Verse 43.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey Devi, &lt;strong&gt;Guru, Kula Shastras and Pujyasthana&lt;/strong&gt; ( holy places or places that are worthy of worship ) --- while addressing any of these three &lt;strong&gt;the word &quot;Sri&quot;&#xA;   should be added at the start&lt;/strong&gt; and they should be addressed only after&#xA;  prostrating before them with devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, instead of mentioning simply KulArnava Tantram, one should say Sri  KulArnava Tantram. Similarly one should say Sri KAshi Kshetra instead of simply KAshi and similarly for Gurus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, that's why there is a custom of adding &lt;strong&gt;Sri&lt;/strong&gt; at the beginning of Holy Texts (scriptures).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-09-08T06:57:37.757" LastActivityDate="2018-09-08T06:57:37.757" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17069" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-09T11:12:19.817" Score="4" ViewCount="126" Body="&lt;p&gt;Thaipusam is an important festival celebrated by Tamil speaking Hindus all over the world. What is its significance and legends? What is Kevatti Ceremony? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastActivityDate="2017-02-09T11:12:19.817" Title="What is significance of Thaipusam Festival?" Tags="|worship|festivals|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17070" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-09T12:27:22.103" Score="1" ViewCount="98" Body="&lt;p&gt;While performing poojas to gods and goddesses on the same day for example - Satyanarayana Pooja and Vaibhava Lakshmi Pooja - which one is to be performed first?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8907" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-05-11T18:10:56.290" LastActivityDate="2023-05-11T18:10:56.290" Title="Performing pooja to God and Goddess on the same day" Tags="|rituals|worship|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17071" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-09T15:28:35.553" Score="3" ViewCount="622" Body="&lt;p&gt;If Rishabanatha was the first Tirthankar then why was his son Bharata so famous that India is called Bharata after his name. What was the reason of his glory?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8908" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T19:18:01.687" Title="Why was son of Rishabha famous? Rishabhanatha the first tirthankar" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17074" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17030" CreationDate="2017-02-10T05:37:29.777" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes there are instances where sruti seems to contradict. In his &lt;em&gt;Introduction&lt;/em&gt; to &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras According to Sri Sankara&lt;/em&gt; (available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62756.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62756.html&lt;/a&gt;) Swami Vireswarananda writes (p v.):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Upanishads do not contain any ready-made consistent system of thought. At first sight they seem to be full of contradictions.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence arose the necessity of systematizing the thought of the Upanishads. Bâdârayana, to whom the authorship of the Brahma-Sutras or Vedânta-Sutras is ascribed, is not the only one who had tried to systematize the philosophy of the Upanishads. From the Brahma-Sutras itself we find that there were other schools of Vedânta which had their own following. We find the names of Audulomi, Kâsakristna, Bâdari, Jaimini, Kârshnâjini, Âsmarathya and others mentioned. All this shows that Bâdarâyana’s Sutras do not constitute the only systematic work in the Vedânta school, though probably the last and best. All the sects of India now hold this work to be the great authority and every new sect starts with a fresh commentary on it —without which no sect can be founded in this country.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further into the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, there are examples of conflict between Sruti texts. An example is found in &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 1.4.14-15. The verses with Sankara's commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;14. (Although) as regards (things created, like) ether and so on (the Vedânta texts differ), (yet there is no such conflict with respect to Brahman) as the First Cause, (on account of Its) being represented (in other texts) as taught (in one text).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sânkhyas contend that though the Pradhâna cannot be the First Cause according to the Sruti, yet Brahman also cannot be taken to be the First Cause taught by the Sruti. Why? Because there is conflict as regards the order of creation; for some texts say that it is Âkâsa that was first produced from Brahman, some say that it is Prâna, others that it is fire. This Sutra says that though there are conflicting views with respect to things created, that is, as regards the order of creation, yet since it is not the main object of the Sruti to teach about creation, it matters little. The main object in these descriptions is to teach that Brahman is the First Cause, and with respect to this there is no conflict; for every Vedânta text holds that Brahman is that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;15. On account of the connection (with passage referring to Brahman, nonexistence does not mean absolute nonexistence).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A further objection is raised that even as regards the First Cause there is a conflict, for some texts say that the Self created these worlds (Ait. Ar. 2. 4. 1. 2-3), others say that creation originated from non-existence (Taitt. 2. 7). Again existence is taught as the First Cause in some texts (Chh. 6. 2. 1-2). Spontaneous creation also is taught by some texts (Brih, 1. 4. 7). On account of these conflicting texts it cannot be said that all the Vedânta texts refer to Brahman uniformly as the First Cause. These objections are answered as follows: “This was: indeed non-existence in the beginning” (Taitt. 2. 7). Non-existence here does not mean absolute nonexistence but undifferentiated existence. Existence was at the beginning undifferentiated into name and form. In the texts of the Taittiriyâ Upanishad Brahman is definitely described as not being nonexistence. “He who knows Brahman as nonexisting becomes himself non-existing. He who knows Brahman as existing is known by sages as existing” (Taitt. 2 . 6). This Brahman is again described as having wished to be many and created this world. Again “How can that which is be created from non-existence?” (Chh. 6. 2. 2) clearly denies such a possibility. “Now this was then undifferentiated” (Brih. 1 . 4. 7), does not speak of spontaneous creation without a ruler, for it is connected with another passage where it is said, “He has entered here to the very tips of the finger-nails” (Brih. 1 . 4. 7), where ‘He’ refers to this ruler, and hence we have to take that the Lord, the ruler, developed what was undeveloped. Similarly Brahman, which is described in one place as existence, is referred to in another place as being the Self of all by the word ‘Âtman’. So all texts uniformly point to Brahman as the First Cause, and there is no conflict as regards this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I said in my comment, there are conflicts, but most if not all of a philosophical nature. It is for this reason that sruti should be read with the guidance of one's guru and with the commentaries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a strict interpretation Manu Smriti is smriti. Smriti is not sruti. vedic texts refer to sruti alone - to the vedas. Smriti is written by men. Manu Smriti was written by Manu. Sruti are the revealed truths directly from God. However, in common parlance or common usage many old texts are referred to as 'vedic texts'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-02-10T05:37:29.777" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17075" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10524" CreationDate="2017-02-10T06:05:25.973" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shani Deva is the son of Lord Shiva through his AshtaMurty forms.&lt;/strong&gt; AshtaMurti forms are the 8 major forms of Lord Shiva which are described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Yajurveda Shatapatha Brahmana. The eight forms described there are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Form of Fire, Form of Water, Form of Air, Form of Indra, Form of Plants (earth), Form of rain cloud, Form of Moon, &lt;strong&gt;Form of Sun.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Sun is form of Lord Shiva through his AshtaMurty form and his son is Shainaschara (Saturn). The same thing is explained also in Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eg. 1.8 of Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवमुक्तः पुनः सोऽथ सप्तकृत्वो रुरोद वै। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततोऽन्यानि ददौ तस्मै सप्त नामानि वै प्रभुः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्थानानि चैषामष्टानां पत्नीः पुत्रांश्च वै प्रभुः।। ५ ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भवं सर्व महेशानं तथा पशुपति द्विज। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भीममुग्रं महादेवं उवाच स पितामहः।। ६ ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चक्रे नामान्यथैतानि स्थानान्येषां चकार सः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सूर्यों जल मही वहिर्वायुराकाशमेव च। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दीक्षितो ब्राह्मणः सोम इत्येतास्तनवः क्रमात्॥७॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुवर्चला तथैवोमा सुकेशी चापरा शिवा। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्वाहा दिशस्तथा दीक्षा रोहणी च यथाक्रमम् ॥८॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सूर्यादीनां नरश्रेष्ठ रुद्राधैर्नामभिः सह। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पत्न्यः स्मृता महाभाग तदपत्यानि मे शृणु। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येषां सूतिप्रसूतैर्वा इदमापूरितं जगत् ॥ ९ ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शनैश्चरस्तथा शुक्रो लोहिताङ्गो मनोजवः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्कन्दः खर्गोऽथ सन्तानो बुधश्चानुक्रमात् सुताः॥ १०॥ (Vishnu Purana 1.8) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  But, thus addressed, the boy [Rudra] still wept seven-times, and Brahma therefore gave to him seven other denominations; and to these eight persons, regions and wives and posterity belong. &lt;strong&gt;The eight manifestations, then, are named Rudra,&lt;/strong&gt; Bhava, Sarva, Isana, Pasupati, Bhima, Ugra and Mahādeva, which were given to them by their great progenitor. He also assigned to them their respective stations, &lt;strong&gt;the Sun,&lt;/strong&gt; water, ether, air, fire, earth, the ministrant Brahman, and the moon; for these are their several forms. &lt;strong&gt;The wives&lt;/strong&gt; of the Sun and the other manifestations, termed Rudra and the rest were respectively, &lt;strong&gt;Suvercalā,&lt;/strong&gt; Uma, Vikesi, Sivā, Svāhā, Dišā, Diksā and Rohiņī. Now hear an account of their progeny, by whose successive generations this world has been peopled. &lt;strong&gt;Their sons,&lt;/strong&gt; then, were severally, &lt;strong&gt;Sanaiśocara (Saturn),&lt;/strong&gt; Sukra (Venus), the fiery bodied Mars, Manojava, Skanda, Swarga, Santana, and Budha (Mercury).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in 2.13 of Linga Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रुद्र इत्युच्यते देवैर्भगवान् भुक्तिमुक्तिदः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सूर्यात्मकस्य रुद्रस्य भक्तानां भक्तदायिनः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुवर्चला स्मृता देवी सुतश्चास्य शनैश्चरः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  समस्तसौम्यवस्तुनां प्रकृतित्वेन विश्रुतः ।। (Linga Purana 2.13)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Lord in the form of Sun is called Rudra&lt;/strong&gt; by the Gods. In the form of sun he bestows prosperity to all and yields all the worldly pleasures and salvation. When he becomes Sun then &lt;strong&gt;his Godesses is Suvarchala and their son is Saturn (Sanaishchara).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also in Markandeya Purana chapter 52:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(He said): - Thou, O Deva or Bright One, &lt;strong&gt;shall be of the name of Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; Do not cry. Be patient. Thus spoken to, then he cried again and again seven times. Then to him the lord gave seven other names, and also the abodes of these eight Rudras, and their wives and sons, O thou twice-born one, (were duly assigned). The lord, the Grand-father (Brahma), spoke and gave these names, - namely Bhava, Sarva, similarly Ishana, likewise Pashupati, Bhima, Ugra, Mahadeva and made abodes for these. &lt;strong&gt;The sun,&lt;/strong&gt; the water, the earth, the fire, the ether, the initiated Brahman, and the moon, these became respectively their abodes. &lt;strong&gt;Suvarchala&lt;/strong&gt; and similarly Uma, Vikeshi and another, Swadha, Swaha, and likewise Disha, Diksha, Rohini these respectively, O thou superior among the twice-born, became with the sun &amp;amp;c., the possession of the holders of the names commencing with Rudra &amp;amp;c.,. &lt;strong&gt;Their sons respectively were Shanaishchara,&lt;/strong&gt; Shukra, Lohitanga, Monajaba, Skandha, Sarga, Santana, and Budha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus ShaniDeva is the son of Lord Shiva in his AshtaMurty form. As a sidenote I discuss difference between Rudra Avatar and AshtaMurti Avatar (both take place through Brahma) in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7954/why-did-lord-shiva-take-44-avatars-if-his-primary-role-is-to-be-the-destroyer/16687#16687&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-02-15T05:21:10.700" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17076" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10524" CreationDate="2017-02-10T06:17:53.720" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shani is a devotee of Lord Shiva.So no enmity as such.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer to &lt;strong&gt;Navagraha Peeda Hara stotram&lt;/strong&gt; on &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_navagraha/navagrahapIDAharastotram.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskritdocuments.org.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This stotram is a part of the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmanda Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;॥ इति &lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्माण्डपुराणोक्तं&lt;/strong&gt; नवग्रहपीडाहरस्तोत्रं सम्पूर्णम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus ends the Navagraha Peeda Hara Stotram which is found in the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse that is dedicated to Shani in the stotram is this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सूर्यपुत्रो दीर्घदेहो विशालाक्षः &lt;strong&gt;शिवप्रियः&lt;/strong&gt; । मन्दचारः प्रसन्नात्मा&#xA;  पीडां हरतु मे शनिः ॥ ७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Please steal away all my troubles, Oh Saturn, Who has a long body and&#xA;  is the son of Sun, Who has broad eyes and &lt;strong&gt;who likes Shiva,&lt;/strong&gt; Who&#xA;  moves slowly and is always cheerful[7].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,Shani being a devotee of Lord Shiva can't see him as his enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-02-10T06:17:53.720" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17077" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17030" CreationDate="2017-02-10T11:39:11.213" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The issue of the soul’s size has been extensively discussed in Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya. The issue arises due to contradictory statements made in the Upanishads. Svetasvatara Upanishad V.9 calls the Atman infinitesimal and infinite in the same shloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are reasons to think initially that the soul is atomic in size. However, the soul is really omnipresent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;And the individual soul is atomic because of the direct Upanishadic use of the word as well as mention of infintesimality&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The soul is atomic for this further reason that the Upanishad directly uses a word implying atomicity: “The atomic Self into which&#xA;  the vital force has entered in five ways has to be comprehended&#xA;  through the intellect” (Mundaka Upanishad III.i.9). From the&#xA;  association with the vital force it is understood that it is the&#xA;  individual soul that is referred to as atomic. Similarly the&#xA;  infintesimally small dimension of the individual soul mentioned in,&#xA;  “That soul is to be known as a hundredth part of the hundredth part of&#xA;  the tip of a hair” (Svetasvatara Upanishad V.9), makes us understand&#xA;  that it is atomic in nature&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya II.iii.22&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;……………………………&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedantin: This being the position, we say:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;But the soul comes to have such appellations because of the dominance of the modes of that (intellect ), as in the case of the supreme&#xA;  Self.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The word “but” overrules the opposing point of view. It is not a fact that the soul is atomic.&lt;/strong&gt; It has been said that the soul is none&#xA;  other than the supreme Brahman, for there is no mention of its origin&#xA;  in the Vedas, while the entry of the supreme Brahman is mentioned&#xA;  there and the identity of the two is taught. Now if the individual&#xA;  soul be none other than the supreme Brahman; and it is mentioned in&#xA;  the scriptures that the supreme Brahman is omnipresent, so the soul&#xA;  must be omnipresent. Thus only will those statements stand vindicated&#xA;  that are made in such texts of the Vedas and Smritis about the&#xA;  omnipresence of the soul as: “That Self is great and birthless which&#xA;  remains identified with the intellect and in the midst of the organs”&#xA;  (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.iv.22). …………………………………………………. Hence owing&#xA;  to the predominance of the modes of that intellect, the soul is said&#xA;  to have a dimension corresponding to that of the intellect. And it is&#xA;  said that it departs from the body and so on, in accordance as the&#xA;  intellect does so; but the soul does not do so naturally. &lt;strong&gt;Thus it is&#xA;  that after speaking of the atomicity of the soul, the Upanishad speaks&#xA;  of infinitude about that very soul in, “The soul is to be known as a&#xA;  hundredth part of a hundredth part of a hair’s end, into which it can&#xA;  be fancied to be divided. And the soul again is infinite”&#xA;  (Svetasvatara Upanishad V.9).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;This can be reasonably reconciled&#xA;  only if the atomic size of the individual soul be owing to limiting&#xA;  adjuncts, but infinitude be its innate nature; for both these cannot&#xA;  be thought of to be true in a primary sense.&lt;/strong&gt; Nor can it be&#xA;  understood that it has infinitude in a figurative sense, since it is&#xA;  the identity of the individual soul with Brahman that is sought to be&#xA;  taught in all the Upanishads. …………………….&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharay II.iii.29&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti is a Smriti and not Sruti and hence is not as authoritative as Sruti. Smritis are products of human minds unlike the Srutis which are records of Divine revelation granted to Rishis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-02-10T13:27:45.667" LastActivityDate="2017-02-10T13:27:45.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17078" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-10T12:22:27.130" Score="4" ViewCount="1043" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of us heard about yetis. I think they are real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if they're real: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why don't they appear to others?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What exactly is their purpose?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We don't know but there are proofs captured time and again of their existence mostly in the Himalayan region. This species is always hidden from the society. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have a belief that if they are protecting their secrecy of their existence that may be due to any religious reasons. We have also heard that the yogis or sadhus choose Himalayas to do the sadhana (meditation) and there are many sadhus who are into that state which we can't even imagine. From there are many states and there is a one state called samadhi in which a person's soul left his or her body and when they left their body for too long only the Himalayan below 0 degree temperature helps to preserve their body but what about if somebody reached there and see sadhu's body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think that is the reason that there are yetis who prevent their bodies so no one could reach there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8917" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-11T00:51:25.787" LastActivityDate="2017-02-11T22:39:46.773" Title="Are yetis for real? Do Himalayan yetis preserve bodies of sadhus who attain samadhi?" Tags="|samadhi|yogi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-02-12T04:34:13.720" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17079" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17078" CreationDate="2017-02-10T13:08:27.153" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;We do not know exactly whether yeti exists or not or knowing its existence has nothing to do with Spirituality or knowing Supreme Brahman. However, i will provide opinion of an old Tibetian Yogi, as mentioned in the book &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.amazon.in/Apprenticed-Himalayan-Master-Yogis-Autobiography-ebook/dp/B007F2I3F0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master&lt;/a&gt;&quot; by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Madhukarnath&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri M&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri M asks wandering Tibetian Monk a question about Yeti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Two more questions Sir, if I may?” I said.  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Go ahead” &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Some books say that hidden away in certain parts of Tibet, there are&#xA;  remains of old extraterrestrial civilizations, is that true? Secondly,&#xA;  does the Yeti, the abominable snowman, really exist? Have you seen&#xA;  one?” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“To the first question,,” said the Tibetan yogi, “yes, there are such&#xA;  places, and I have myself seen such a cave in an almost inaccessible&#xA;  part of Tibet. There, I have seen, well-preserved bodies of small&#xA;  built humanoids, with skulls larger than ours, and a dark almost&#xA;  grayish complexion. However, we believe that they are an ancient race&#xA;  from the earth itself, and not from some other planet or galaxy. Our&#xA;  teachers say that this particular race was destroyed by a war between&#xA;  two rival civilizations that had both evolved to great heights&#xA;  intellectually, and ignored the feelings of love and compassion&#xA;  totally. The way our present civilization is progressing, one wonders&#xA;  what fate awaits us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Now, regarding the Yeti – well, it exists, although many reported&#xA;  sightings may be false. On the ancient route to Kailash from&#xA;  Badrinath, across the Mana pass which is now almost never used, there&#xA;  exists an old Buddhist monastery called Tholingmutt on the Tibetan&#xA;  side. In the caves not far from Tholingmutt, some Lamas have sighted&#xA;  the Yeti even recently. I have seen one myself. Ask Babaji if he could&#xA;  take you to Tholingmutt or even to Kailash. He is quite familiar with&#xA;  the route, and has been there many times. Maybe you will see a Yeti&#xA;  too.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding reason, we don't know exactly what kind of living being it is. So, let's not speculate on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2017-02-10T13:08:27.153" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17081" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17832" CreationDate="2017-02-10T15:52:25.987" Score="6" ViewCount="1296" Body="&lt;p&gt;If someone is devotee or purely vegetarian, and that person is forced by doctor to eat non veg so that the disease or injury can cure. Is there any option that injury can cure and the religion policy not be disturbed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6826" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T05:57:04.270" LastActivityDate="2024-02-22T17:15:08.380" Title="What to do if doctor says to eat non veg?" Tags="|food|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17082" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-10T17:12:32.820" Score="2" ViewCount="196" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am studying Advaita Vedanta. According to Advaita Vedanta, this world is an illusion. It suggests one to do his duty with detachment. What I do not understand is why should one even do his duty when its clear that the world is an illusion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8577" LastActivityDate="2017-02-10T18:46:08.997" Title="Why should one do his duty?" Tags="|advaita|yoga-vashishtha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17083" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17082" CreationDate="2017-02-10T18:46:08.997" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why should I do my duty&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्त्विन्द्रियणि मनसा नियम्यार्भते अर्जुन​।&#xA;  कर्मेन्द्रिये: कर्मयोगमसक्त​: स विषिशय्ते।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Perform your prescribed duty, for doing so is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one’s physical body without work. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-8/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankra's bhasya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tvam, you, O Arjuna; kuru, perform; niyatam, the obligatory; karma, duties, those daily obligatory duties (nitya-karmas) or which one is competent (according to the scriptures), and which are not heard of [although no result of daily obligatory duties is mentioned in the scriptures, still Sankaracarya holds that it is either heaven or purification of the heart, because something done must have its consequence.-Tr.] as productive of any result; hi, for, from the point of view of result; karma, action; is jyayah, superior; akarmanah, to inaction, to non-performance (of duties). Why? Ca, and; akarmanah, through inaction; api, even; te sarira-yatra, the maintenance of your body; na prasiddhyet, will not be possible. Therefore, the distinction between action and in action is abvious in this world. ‘And as regards your ideea that action should not be udnertaken because it leads to bondage-that too is wrong.’ How?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Further Justification&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Inspiration from Shriman Narayana/Bramhan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न मे पार्थास्तिकर्तव्यम् त्रिषुलोकेशुकिन्च्न ।&#xA;  नाना वाप्तम् वातव्यम् वर्त एव च कर्मणि॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Pritha, there is no work prescribed for Me within all the three planetary systems(I would prefer Lokas). Nor am I in want of anything, nor have I a need to obtain anything—and yet I am engaged in prescribed duties. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-22/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.22&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord is Setting Example&lt;/strong&gt; for us humans to do karma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदिह्यहम् न वर्तेयम् जातुकर्मण्यतन्द्रित:।&#xA;  मम वर्त्मानु वर्तन्ते मनुष्या: पार्थसर्वष​:॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For if I ever failed to engage in carefully performing prescribed duties, O Partha, certainly all men would follow My path. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-23/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.23&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more details and clarity you should read full Bhagwad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/category/bhagavad-gita-chapter-3/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want a non-mayavadi(where world is considered real) world view you can consider reading Bhagwad Ramanujacharya's commentary through the same links provided. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2017-02-10T18:46:08.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17085" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-11T01:30:41.293" Score="9" ViewCount="2099" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What does the word &quot;Ārya&quot; really mean in the context of Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And which Hindu scriptures use this word and in what sense?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;If you think the question is too broad, limit your answer to The Vedas, Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T05:22:10.647" Title="Which Hindu scriptures use the word Ārya and in what sense?" Tags="|vedas|name|etymology|arya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17087" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-11T03:20:19.977" Score="1" ViewCount="82" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a Tamil thread ceremony function, who all can put akshathai. Can this be put only by senior members who are elder to the one performing the pujai (Dampathis)? Can this be put by a non Hindu person (Christian) ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are allowed to put akshati and bless the couple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8924" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-11T05:08:39.533" LastActivityDate="2017-02-11T05:08:39.533" Title="Who are allowed to put Akshathi on couple performing puja?" Tags="|rituals|marriage|puja|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17089" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17085" CreationDate="2017-02-11T05:44:28.757" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word Arya is used in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/vasisthadharmasutras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vasistha Dharma Sutras&lt;/a&gt; as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The country of the &lt;strong&gt;Âryas (Âryâvarta)&lt;/strong&gt; lies to the east of the region where (the river Sarasvatî) disappears, to the west of the&#xA;  Black-forest, to the north of the Pâripâtra (mountains), to the south&#xA;  of the Himâlaya. 8&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(According to others it lies to the south of the Himâlaya) and to the north of the Vindhya range (being limited east and west by the two&#xA;  oceans). 9&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Acts productive of spiritual merit, and customs which (are approved of) in that country, must be everywhere acknowledged (as&#xA;  authoritative);&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But not different ones, (i.e. those) of (countries where) laws opposed (to those of Âryâvarta prevail). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Some (declare the country of the Âryas to be situated) between the (rivers) Gaṅgâ and Yamunâ.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Vasistha Dharmasutras,Chapter 1)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti also uses the word Arya or Aryan many a times.This text uses such  words to mean a twice-born who has received his sacraments and who is also performing his duties without failure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.21. That (country) which (lies) between the Himavat and the Vindhya (mountains) to the east of Prayaga and to the west of Vinasana (the&#xA;  place where the river Sarasvati disappears) is called Madhyadesa (the&#xA;  central region).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mnp60.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mnp60.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.22. &lt;strong&gt;But (the tract) between those two mountains (just mentioned), which (extends) as far as the eastern and the western oceans, the wise&#xA;  call Aryavarta (the country of the Aryans).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.39. After those (periods men of) these three (castes) who have not received the sacrament at the proper time, become Vratyas (outcasts),&#xA;  excluded from the Savitri (initiation) &lt;strong&gt;and despised by the Aryans.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.103. But he who does not (worship) standing in the morning, nor sitting in the evening, &lt;strong&gt;shall be excluded, just like a Sudra, from all&#xA;  the duties and rights of an Aryan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.165. An Aryan must study the whole Veda together with the Rahasyas, performing at the same time various kinds of austerities and the vows&#xA;  prescribed by the rules (of the Veda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2.169. According to the injunction of the revealed texts the first birth of an Aryan is from (his natural) mother, the second (happens)&#xA;  on the tying of the girdle of Munga grass, and the third on the&#xA;  initiation to (the performance of) a (Srauta) sacrifice.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Arya in the Vedas&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have found more than one references to Arya in the Vedas themselves. Here is one such mantra from Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;YathA imAm vAcham kalyAnim AvadAni janebhyah (1) BrahmarAjanyAbhyAm&#xA;  sudrAya cha &lt;strong&gt;AryAya&lt;/strong&gt; cha (2) SwAya cha aranAya cha (3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May i speak the sacred word to the masses of the people (janebhya) (1)&#xA;  to the brahmana, kshatriya, to the sudra and the Arya (2) and to our&#xA;  own men and the strangers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shukla Yajur Veda 26.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, here is another mantra from the Atharva Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Priyam mam krinu deveshu piyam rAjashu mA krinu piyam sarvasya pashyat&#xA;  uta sudra &lt;strong&gt;utArye&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Make me dear to everyone (to Gods, Kshatriyas etc) and both to sudra&#xA;  and an AryA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 19.62.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In these mantras the word Arya simply means a noble one. Also note that, in the first mantra Brahmin, Kshatriya and Arya are all mentioned separately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it implies that it is not necessary for an Arya to belong to a particular caste (varna) like Brahmin or Kshatriya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-22T05:22:10.647" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T05:22:10.647" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17090" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6974" CreationDate="2017-02-11T08:45:18.617" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mantras are of 3 basic types viz-masculine,feminine and neutral.Those ending with Hum or Phat are masculine,those ending with Swaha are feminine in nature and those ending with Namaha are neutral mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/naradapurana12.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narada Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The basic forms of Mantras are of ‘Stree’ (Feminine), Purusha&#xA;  (Masculine) and Napumsak (Neuter). &lt;strong&gt;The Stree Mantras end up with&#xA;  ‘tha’or ‘swaha’; Purusha Mantras end up with ‘Hum’ and ‘Phut’; those&#xA;  Mantras end up with ‘Namah’ are used in Napumsak Mantras.&lt;/strong&gt; The various&#xA;  Mantras are utilised in the context of six ‘Karmas’ deeds) viz.&#xA;  ‘Shanti’ (Peaceful purposes), ‘Vashya’ (subjugation), ‘Stambhana’&#xA;  (paralizing), ‘Dwesha’ (creating hatred), ‘Ucchhanana (uprooting) and&#xA;  ‘Marana’ (death-related).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On Swadha:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While doing PitruYajnas(sacrifices to Manes or Pitrus) the mantras have &lt;strong&gt;Swadha&lt;/strong&gt; at the end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While doing DevaYajnas(oblations to Devas or Gods) the mantras have &lt;strong&gt;Namaha,Swaha or Vashat&lt;/strong&gt; at their end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,while doing Manushya Yajna(oblations to mankind) &lt;strong&gt;Hanta&lt;/strong&gt; is used similarly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Swaha,&quot; &quot; Vashat&quot; and &quot;Namah,&quot; [these three] are for the Celestials ;&#xA;  &quot; Swadha &quot; is for the departed Manes ; and &quot; Hanta&quot; is for mankind.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  (12) Therefore one should daily make offerings to the Pitris by&#xA;  reciting &quot; Swadha&quot; Some say the word &quot; Namah &quot; may be added to it. But&#xA;  Goutama [says], &quot;not so.&quot; (13)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Katyana Smriti,Chapter 13,Verse 13.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse &quot;Om Jayanti Mangala kali Bhadrakali Kapalini Durga Kshama Shiva dhatri swaha swadha namostute&quot; appears in the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_durga-argala_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Argala Stotram&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; which is to be recited before reciting the Devi Mahatyam(present in the Markandeya Purana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जयन्ती मङ्गला काली भद्रकाली कपालिनी । दुर्गा शिवा क्षमा धात्री स्वाहा&#xA;  स्वधा नमोऽस्तु ते ॥२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jayantii Manggalaa Kaalii Bhadrakaalii Kapaalinii | Durgaa Shivaa&#xA;  Kssamaa Dhaatrii Svaahaa Svadhaa Namostu Te ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.1: Salutations to Jayanti (Who is Ever-Victorious), Mangala (Who is the bestower of Auspiciousness), Kali (Who is beyond Kala or Time),&#xA;  Bhadrakali (Who is the controller of Life and Death, being beyond Kala&#xA;  or Time), Kapalini (Who wear a Garland of Skulls),&#xA;  2.2: Salutations to Durga (Who is Durgati-Nashini), Shiva (Who is Ever-Auspicious and One with Shiva as His Consort), Kshama (Who is an&#xA;  embodiment of Forbearance), Dhatri (Who is the Supporter of all&#xA;  Beings), &lt;strong&gt;Swaha (Who is the final receiver of the Sacrificial&#xA;  Oblations to Gods) and Swadha (Who is the final receiver of the&#xA;  Sacrificial Oblations to Manes); Salutations to You.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The implication is whether one is doing a Pitru Yajna (with Swadha) or a Deva Yajna(with Swaha) the oblations are eventually  reaching the Divine Mother Devi Durga only.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-02-11T08:45:18.617" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17091" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17100" CreationDate="2017-02-11T10:07:29.983" Score="6" ViewCount="11673" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have noticed in various congregation, especially during Athi Rudra Maha Yagnam, while chanting the 8th Anuvaka(i.e. Paragraph) of Namakam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नमः॒ सोमा॑य च रु॒द्राय॑ च॒ नम॑स्ता॒म्राय॑ चारु॒णाय॑ च॒ नमः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;either a bell is rung accompanied with Linga abhishekam which is not performed or while OM HARA HARA HARA HARA OM is chanted.I can understand that this anuvaka is special and this is done to draw the attention of the devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I wish to know is why this anuvaka is special and Is there any stories or punya phala in chanting this anuvaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-02-24T02:29:03.577" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T02:29:03.577" Title="Why 8th Anuvaka of Sri Rudram is special and what are benefits of chanting it?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|vedas|mantras|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17092" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17093" CreationDate="2017-02-11T10:09:03.970" Score="1" ViewCount="646" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shani is favourable in my birth chart and does me good, but I still worship lord shani. I place a diya with musturd oil and black til at a peepal tree at saturday nights and I offer him water also.&#xA;I have heard that if people do such worship, then lord shani will remove his malefic effect from thier life.I want to ask that I am also worshipping him this way, will the favourable effects of lord shani also be removed from my life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4294" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T12:30:35.677" Title="Worshipping lord Shani even when I have good Effects of Lord shani in my life" Tags="|worship|shani|peepal-tree|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17093" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17092" CreationDate="2017-02-11T10:30:12.110" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well the fact is, Lord Shani, in the simplest words, is the lord of Justice. He is the &quot;Karma fal Daata&quot;. All his actions towards you is based on your sole actions towards others.You must learn that helping others and behaving well with others is the key to make him happy. And if you still want to worship him, there is no ill effect of it. Worshiping never has any ill effect on anyone.It is meant for good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4294" LastActivityDate="2017-02-11T10:30:12.110" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17094" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17121" CreationDate="2017-02-11T10:48:02.197" Score="10" ViewCount="680" Body="&lt;p&gt;From what i have seen women are more religious than men.But there are many prohibitions on them when it comes to participating in religious acts.Restrictions that are imposed upon men are far less in comparison.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,widows are not allowed to be part of any auspicious ceremony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the basis of imposing such religious restrictions on women &amp;amp; in particular on the widows?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8928" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-11T15:48:27.127" LastActivityDate="2019-01-31T15:49:10.310" Title="Why are there religious restrictions on women?" Tags="|belief|rituals|women|widow|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17096" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-11T14:15:12.257" Score="1" ViewCount="1257" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In India lord Ganesh is worshipped as a bachelor in south india and in north india he worshipped with &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8671/do-we-have-any-information-about-other-wives-except-riddhi-siddhi-and-grandso&quot;&gt;wives&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If lord ganesh is married then why he is worshipped as a bachelor ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the reason for different way of worshipping  ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T19:37:46.883" Title="If Lord Ganesha is married then why is he worshipped as a bachelor.....?" Tags="|gods|ganesha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17097" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17118" CreationDate="2017-02-11T17:46:38.020" Score="6" ViewCount="6605" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because My Gotra is &lt;strong&gt;Gritakousik घृतकौशिक&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;I never read about Sage Gritakousik in puranas and scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8932" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-09T15:23:46.727" LastActivityDate="2017-04-09T15:23:46.727" Title="Does anyone know about Sage Gritakoushik?" Tags="|rishi|ancestry|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17099" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17050" CreationDate="2017-02-12T04:13:41.220" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's not called &quot;vrindavan&quot; but Vaishnava tilaka or Urdhva Pundra, see at &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilaka&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdhva_Pundra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdhva_Pundra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaishnavas use that sign to consecrate their body, to mark the body as a place in which the Supreme Lord Vishnu resides as the Supreme soul (Supersoul) called Paramatma. It also shows that the person is dedicated to Lord Vishnu as his devotee. And it is also a sign of recognition of different Vaishnava sampradayas (traditions) because each tradition has different sign of tilaka.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is mentioned in some scriptures such as the Vasudeva Upanishad, see at  &lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Upanishads/Sri_Vasudeva_Upanisad.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Upanishads/Sri_Vasudeva_Upanisad.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is intended to uplift one's spiritual life as stated in the Vasudeva Upanishad, text 8 and 9: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As there are three Deities (Brahma, Vishnu and Siva), three vyahrtis&#xA;  (Bhuh, Bhuvah  and Svah), three metres in the Vedic hymns, three&#xA;  sacred fires, three times, three states of being, three atmas, and&#xA;  three letters (a, u, and m) in the sacred syllable Om, so Vaishnava&#xA;  tilaka has three parts, which correspond to the letters in the sacred&#xA;  Om.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A person who chants the sacred syllable Om goes &lt;strong&gt;upward&lt;/strong&gt; (urdhva).  That&#xA;  is why Vaishnava tilaka is called `urdhva-pundra.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T04:13:41.220" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17100" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17091" CreationDate="2017-02-12T04:59:14.433" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram occurs in all 101 Shakhas of YajurVeda and hence called SataRudriya also (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15301/are-there-any-variants-in-samhita-of-vedas/15445#15445&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;) 8th Anuvaka of Sri Rudram (of Taittariya Samhita) is of special importance because of revelation of Panchakshari Mantra ie. &amp;quot;Namaha Shivaya&amp;quot; in this AnuVaka. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shiva denotes the transcendental aspect which is beyond 3 Gunas (ie. Turiya state) (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/902/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-word-shiva/16933#16933&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;) It is basically Saluting the transcendental state of Lord who is beyond the Tri Gunas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Panchakshari Mantra is of special importance. The five letters &amp;quot;Na&amp;quot; , &amp;quot;Ma&amp;quot; , &amp;quot;Shi&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Va&amp;quot; , &amp;quot;Ya&amp;quot; denote the five heads of SadaShiva as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16553/who-are-pancha-brahmas-and-why-are-they-called-so/16557#16557&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt; Vedas also enter inside Panchakshari during the Pralaya Kala which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16401/how-do-the-vedas-survive-during-the-dissolution-of-the-universe/16402#16402&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt; Similarly, another importance is one can also change his Varna through the application of Panchakshari Mantra which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16417/can-a-sudra-become-a-brahmin-in-this-birth/16418#16418&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;FurtherMore 8th Anuvaka is also of specific significance due to revelation of other things which are concerned with worldy state and liberated state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;➡➡ Parameswara along with Uma removes misery of Samsara:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8th Anuvaka starts with &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Namaha Somãya Cha Rudrãya Cha.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; ie. &amp;quot;Salutations to him who is with Uma and who removes the cry of Samsara (Rudra). It is of significant importance because whenever we see in scriptures that Lord Shiva goes to give boon to any devotee we see phrase like &amp;quot;Saha Devya Maheswara&amp;quot; &amp;quot;ie. Maheswara along with Uma (Devi). So, the form of Parameswara who is with Uma removes the misery of Samsara. Same thing is shown in Kena Upanishad. Also in Kaivalya Upanishad which states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;उमासहायं परमेश्वरं&lt;/strong&gt; प्रभुं त्रिलोचनं नीलकण्ठं प्रशान्तम् । &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;Meditating on the Parameswara, allied to Uma, powerful, three-eyed, blue-necked, and tranquil...&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;➡➡Parameswara is in the form of Sun:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although the 1st Anuvaka of Sri Rudram clearly states it is Parameswara himself who is in the form of Sun. But the occurence of &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Nama Tãmrãya Cha Arunãya Cha&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;  readvocates that not only Sun but the Colour seen in the Sun is also Parameswara himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;➡➡Parameswara as Pashupati provides comfort to all:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the statement &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Nama Shangãya cha Pashupataye Cha&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;  (Salutations to him who provides comfort and salutations to Pashupati) it is seen that Pashupati form of Parameswara provides Comfort to all (by removing the Pãshas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;➡➡Parameswara is in fierce manifestation and fear in Gods:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the statements like &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Nama Ugraya Cha Bheemãya Cha&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; it is seen that it is Parameswara who is embodied in fierce manifestation of creation (Ugra) also the fear of him causes the Gods to respectively perform that function (Bheemaya). Katha Upanishad states&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.III-3. For fear of Him, fire burns; For fear of Him, shines the sun; For fear of Him, Indra and Vayu function; For fear of Him, death, the fifth, stalks on the earth.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;➡➡Parameswara kills before one kills in the battle:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the statement &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Namo Agrevadhãyacha Durevadhãya cha&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; it is seen that it is Parameswara who kills first in the battle then only he is killed (Agrevadhãya). ie. The real killer in battle is just only namesake. It is Parameswara who does that task. Similarly it is Parameswara who kills in distant also (Durevadhya Cha). Same thing is seen in the Mahabharata where both Krishna and Vyasa tell to Arjuna that &amp;quot;the person who was killing remaining in front of Arjuna was Rudra.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;➡➡Parameswara Punishes the evil doers:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the statement &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Namo Hantre Cha Haniyese Cha&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; it is understood that it is Parameswara who gives little trouble and very high trouble (as per the Karma of evil doers). Also the term &amp;quot;Haniyeshe Cha&amp;quot; indicates that it is Parameswara who destroys everything in the end. ie. Who is PralayaKarta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;➡➡ Parameswara is in the form of Pranava:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the statement &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Nama Tãrãya cha&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; it is understood that it is Parameswara who is in the form of Pranava / Omkara / Taraka Brahman. Parameswara in the form of Taraka as Omkara provides Moksha. The Atharvasiras says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथ कस्मादुच्यत ओङ्कारो यस्मादुच्चार्यमाण एव&lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्राणानूर्ध्वमुत्क्रामयति तस्मादुच्यते ओङ्कारः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Why he (Rudra) is called Omkara? Because he sends the souls upward, at the time of dissolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;➡➡Parameswara is the cause of happiness, comfort and bliss in this world and in the liberated state:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the statement &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Nama Shambhave cha Mayobhave Cha&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; it is understood that Parameswara is the cause of happiness in this world (Shambhave) and cause of happiness in liberated state (Mayobhave ). By the statement &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Namas Shankarya Cha Mayaskarya Cha&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; it is understood that Parameswara is the provider of comfort in this world (Shankaraya) and provider of comfort in higher worlds (Mayaskarãya). By the statement &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Namaha Shivaya Cha Shivatarãya cha&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; it is understood that Parameswara himself is in Turiya state (beyond Triguna) and Parameswara is the provider of Turiya state (Shivatarãya)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;➡➡Parameswara is praised by the liberated ones:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the statement &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Nama Pãryaya cha Vãryaya Cha&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; it is understood that Parameswara is praised by those who are beyond (Pãra) this samsara ie. In liberated state (Pãryãye) and also by those who have not yet crossed river of Samsara. Ie. Who are in this side also (Vãryaye)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;➡➡Parameswara helps to cross and finally liberates:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the statement &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Nama Prataranãye cha Uttaranãye cha&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; it is understood that it is Parameswara who helps to cross river of sins (Pratarana) and it is Parameswara who finally liberates ie. Taraka (Uttarana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;➡➡Parameswara makes the souls enter and encourages:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the statement &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Namo Aataryãye cha Aãlyadhye cha&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; it is understood that it is Parameswara who makes the soul enter in the womb (Aataryãye) and who encourages jeeva to enjoy fruit of it's action (Aãlyadhye)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above described are the salient features of 8th Anuvaka. It is of special importance because it is concerned with both worldly and liberated state. So, it is chanted with special priority. 8th Anuvaka reveals that Parameswara is the cause of liberation of Jeeva and also binding of Jeeva, Parameswara is provider of comfort and bliss and as well as punisher and tormentor.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Regarding benefits of chanting it, it is itself clear from the meaning of Anuvaka. The chanter gets grace of Parameswara along with Uma. The chanter gets comfort and bliss in this world and also finally gets liberation. That's why &lt;strong&gt;the Kaivalya Upanishad and Jabala Upanishad recommended chanting of Sri Rudram hymn for liberation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T04:59:14.433" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17101" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-12T06:26:17.660" Score="5" ViewCount="286" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dristhi &lt;strong&gt;pottu for new babies&lt;/strong&gt; are applied as a black dot in their cheek to escape from Evil Eye.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Industries have scary photos&lt;/strong&gt; in its gate as to escape from Evil eye .&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When a person looks &lt;strong&gt;very jealously&lt;/strong&gt; or other bad emotions about the other persons &lt;strong&gt;wealth,beauty,fame&lt;/strong&gt; is said to be an Evil eye.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is said that these evil eyes can cause Harm to the person by health,wealth,beauty or even accidents.&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is these practices to escape from Dristhi or evil eye is said in our scriputres ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Explain how can one man's look can cause the problem to others ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-02-18T02:14:06.113" LastActivityDate="2017-02-18T02:14:06.113" Title="Is Dristhi (Evil Eye) Pottu,Photos and other activities are said in our scriptures?" Tags="|practice|culture|superstitions|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17102" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18292" CreationDate="2017-02-12T06:39:26.047" Score="6" ViewCount="1632" Body="&lt;p&gt;The yoginis are a group that consistsof 64 goddesses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some The Sixty-four Yogini as depicted in the complete Hirapur shrine are:&#xA;  •Bahurupa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Tara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Narmada&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Yamuna&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Shanti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Varuni&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Kshemankari&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Aindri&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Varahi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Ranveera&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Vanara-Mukhi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Vaishnavi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Kalaratri&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Vaidyaroopa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Charchika&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Betali&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Chinnamastika&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Vrishabahana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Jwala Kamini&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Ghatavara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Karakali&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Saraswati&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Birupa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Kauveri&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Bhaluka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Narasimhi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Biraja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Vikatanna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Mahalakshmi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Kaumari&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Maha Maya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Rati&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Karkari&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Sarpashya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Yakshini&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Vinayaki&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Vindya Balini&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Veera Kumari&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Maheshwari&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Ambika&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Kamiyani&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Ghatabari&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Stutee&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Kali&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Uma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Narayani&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Samudraa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Brahmani&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Jwala Mukhi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Agneyei&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Aditi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Chandrakanti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Vayubega&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Chamunda&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Murati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Ganga&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Dhumavati&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Gandhari&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Sarva Mangala&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Ajita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Surya Putri&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Vayu Veena&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•Aghora&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;•&lt;em&gt;Bhadrakali&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Link:&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogini&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogini&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the Devis(the ones in italics) in this group are easily recognisable. But who are the rest of them?Do they have individual stories?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note:I do not one stories of them collectively(e.g. I am not looking for a story about &lt;em&gt;all&lt;/em&gt; the yoginis, instead, I am looking for a story about each and everyone of them)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastEditorDisplayName="user4627" LastEditDate="2017-02-14T02:21:38.230" LastActivityDate="2023-04-29T12:23:07.520" Title="Who are these yoginis?" Tags="|avatars|devi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17103" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7451" CreationDate="2017-02-12T06:40:01.450" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What practices shall be followed to master Sri Vidya Sadhana? What&#xA;  does each mantra of Sri Vidya Sadhana mean? I've taken Sri Vidya&#xA;  Deeksha from a Guru,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once you have taken Deeksha the only person capable of answering your questions is your Guru itself. We are no one here. More so since all your questions are related to the Sadhana into which you are being initiated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I want to understand the meaning of each mantra, to have the emotion&#xA;  while I recite the mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is important. You should learn the meaning of the mantra from your Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the following verses and you will know why knowing the meaning of mantras is important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MantrArtham&lt;/strong&gt; Mantrachaitanyam YonimudrAm &lt;strong&gt;na Vetti Yah&lt;/strong&gt;||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SatakotijapenApi Tasya Siddhirna JAyate&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Those who do mantra japa without knowing its meaning&lt;/strong&gt; and consciousness and without knowing the Yonimudra ,&lt;strong&gt;for them even&#xA;  crores of japa can't bring mantra siddhi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram,Chapter 15,Verse 60.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The yonimudra part in the verse is of course irrelevant to your question but knowing the meaning of mantra is important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some other text, those who do mantra japa without realizing its meaning , &lt;strong&gt;are compared to the donkeys which carry loads of sugar&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And another relevant verse is the following :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TannisthaTathgataPrAnastaChittastathparAyanah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TathPadArthAnusandhAnam Kurban Mantram Japeth Priye||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Priye,mantra japa should be done with unflinching concentration and&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;constantly  meditating upon the meaning of the mantra in mind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram,Chapter 15,Verse 114.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-02-12T11:56:52.760" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T11:56:52.760" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17104" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-12T07:17:18.723" Score="3" ViewCount="574" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've been unable to find following answers regarding &lt;strong&gt;Niyati&lt;/strong&gt;. Can anyone describe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is Niyati?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who decides it? Is their any Deity to decide ? Or god ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can it be changed? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or there is no Niyati at all? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T07:17:18.723" Title="What is Niyati?" Tags="|gods|vedic-gods|demi-god|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-02-13T03:11:07.733" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17105" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15255" CreationDate="2017-02-12T08:04:16.257" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In KulArnava Tantram Lord Shiva says that &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17064/4732&quot;&gt;Japa Yajna&lt;/a&gt; is the best form of  Yajna.And in the 9th chapter of the same book he says that &lt;strong&gt;silence is the greatest form of Japa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,it becomes quite clear why some Sannyasis and Yogis chose to remain silent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Akriyaiba ParA PujA &lt;strong&gt;Maunmeva Paro Japah&lt;/strong&gt;|| Achintaiva Param&#xA;  DhyAnamanicchaiva Parama Phalam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Akriya is the best Puja ,&lt;strong&gt;Silence is the best Japa&lt;/strong&gt;,Achintha (the&#xA;  state of thoughtlessness) is the best Dhyana,and&#xA;  desirelessness(AnicchA ) is the best fruit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnva Tantram,Chapter 9,Verse 38.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,the &quot;Akriya&quot; in the above verse should not be interpreted as &quot;actionlessness&quot;. It indicates internal mode of worship more than anything else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,it is also a fact that,after a certain stage a Yogi does Sandhya without water,Puja without upacharas etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-13T05:35:28.783" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17106" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17091" CreationDate="2017-02-12T08:21:22.937" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The page &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/srirudram.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Astrojyoti.com (Sri Rudraprasna)&lt;/a&gt; gives the descriptions and significance of each of the anuvakas of Sri Rudram along with the benefits that is obtained by chanting them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the fifth Anuvaka Rudra’s existence in running waters is praised&#xA;  and his five activities are described (creation of the universe,&#xA;  preservation of it, destruction at the time of Pralaya, bondage in&#xA;  ignorance and the release of moksha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the sixth Anuvaka Rudra is identified with time (Kalarupa). He is&#xA;  described as the source of the different worlds, Shrutis (Vedas) and&#xA;  its essence in Vedanta. &lt;strong&gt;The fifth and sixth Anuvakas are chanted for&#xA;  the expansion of one’s own assets, victory against enemies, blessings&#xA;  for a son with the stature of Rudra, avoidance of a miscarriage and&#xA;  easy childbirth, averting difficult astrology and protection of one’s&#xA;  own son&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the eighth anuvaka, significance and benefits of chanting are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the eighth Anuvaka Rudra is described as He who illumines other&#xA;  Gods and confers powers on them.&lt;/strong&gt; He is seen as ever present in holy&#xA;  rivers and He who can absolve all sins. &lt;strong&gt;This Anuvaka is chanted for&#xA;  the destruction of enemies and possession of ones own kingdom (lands)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For  translations and detailed analyses and commentaries on the 8th anuvaka of Sri Rudram Namakam you can study the following page :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/stotra/Sri%20Rudram%20Anuvakam8.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham (Sri Rudram ,Anuvaka 8)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-12T08:30:21.800" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T08:30:21.800" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17107" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17130" CreationDate="2017-02-12T10:45:49.880" Score="5" ViewCount="1741" Body="&lt;p&gt;From what I read online both Durga and Shakti represent the female principle. What's the difference between them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7652" LastActivityDate="2017-02-13T15:26:09.457" Title="What's the relationship between Durga and Shakti?" Tags="|durga|shakti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17108" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-12T11:26:58.040" Score="6" ViewCount="485" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please convert the below sankalpam that i recite during my sandhyavandanam into location specific one. I am right now in Zurich,Switzerland. Can someone give me sankalpam specific to Zurich?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shubhe shobhana muhurthe, aadya bramhana, dwitiya pararthe, swetha varaha kalpe, vaivasvatha manvanthare, kaliyuge, prathama paade,JAMBU DWEEPE, BHARATA VARSHE, BHARATA KHANDE, DANDAKAARANYE, GODAVARYAAHA, DAKSHINE TEERE, SHAALIVAAHANA SHAKHE, BOUDHAVATHARE, RAMA KSHETHRE, KRISHNA KAAVERIYO MADHYA PRADESHE, samastha devatha brahmana harihara sannidhou......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am sure, everything in the capital letter will change. Can anyone kindly, sincerely reply to this question...?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8938" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T11:26:58.040" Title="Sankalpam for Switzerland location" Tags="|sandhyavandanam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17109" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17110" CreationDate="2017-02-12T11:53:57.677" Score="13" ViewCount="5950" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सप्ताश्व रथमारूढम् प्रचंडम् कश्यपात्मजम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   श्वेत पद्मधरम् देवम् तम् सूर्यम् प्रणमाम्यहम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;saptāśva rathamārūḍham pracaṁḍam kaśyapātmajam |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śvēta padmadharam dēvam tam sūryam praṇamāmyaham ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sun God who is mounted on a chariot driven by seven horses, the resplendent one, the son of sage Kaśyapa, holds a white lotus in the hand, I offer salutations to Him.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above is one of the eight verses of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr5wT3CFwmk&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Surya Ashtakam&lt;/a&gt;, a stotra on Aditya.  It is said that the chariot has only one wheel and is pulled by seven horses. Anūra drives the chariot. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many artists and some &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/why-7-horses-for-the-chariot-of-sun&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sites&lt;/a&gt; say that the seven horses indicate the colors of a rainbow i.e., &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROYGBIV&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;VIBGYOR&lt;/a&gt;.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/87nQh.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/87nQh.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Surya and his chariot&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My questions :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which scriptures describe the chariot of Sūrya  (Sun god)? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do those horses have any color?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-12T04:42:11.660" LastActivityDate="2020-12-22T13:44:14.413" Title="Which scriptures describe the chariot of Sun God?" Tags="|surya|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17110" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17109" CreationDate="2017-02-12T12:18:51.863" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavat Purana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavat Purana Canto 5, Chapter 21 describes &lt;code&gt;The movement of Sun and it's Chariot&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्यैकं चक्रं द्वादशारं षण्नेमि त्रिणाभि संवत्सरात्मकं समामनन्ति तस्याक्षो&#xA;  मेरोर्मूर्धनि कृतो मानसोत्तरे कृतेतरभागो यत्र प्रोतं रविरथचक्रं तैलयन्त्र&#xA;  चक्रवद्भ्रमन्मानसोत्तरगिरौ परिभ्रमति ॥१३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मिन्नक्षे कृतमूलो द्वितीयोऽक्षस्तुर्यमानेन सम्मितस्तैलयन्त्राक्षवद्ध्रुवे कृतोपरि भागः ॥१४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रथनीडस्तु षट्त्रिंशल्लक्षयोजनायतस्तत्तुरीयभागविशालस्तावान्रविरथयुगो यत्र हयाश्छन्दोनामानः सप्तारुणयोजिता वहन्ति देवमादित्यम् ॥१५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुरस्तात्सवितुररुणः पश्चाच्च नियुक्तः सौत्ये कर्मणि किलास्ते ॥१६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English translation of Verse 5.21.13 to 5.21.16 which are related to the chariot of Sun:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/21/13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 5.21.13&lt;/a&gt; — The chariot of the sun-god has only one wheel, which is known as Saṁvatsara. The twelve months are calculated to be its twelve spokes, the six seasons are the sections of its rim, and the three cātur-māsya periods are its three-sectioned hub. One side of the axle carrying the wheel rests upon the summit of Mount Sumeru, and the other rests upon Mānasottara Mountain. Affixed to the outer end of the axle, the wheel continuously rotates on Mānasottara Mountain like the wheel of an oil-pressing machine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/21/14&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 5.21.14&lt;/a&gt; — As in an oil-pressing machine, this first axle is attached to a second axle, which is one-fourth as long [3,937,500 yojanas, or 31,500,000 miles]. The upper end of this second axle is attached to Dhruvaloka by a rope of wind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/21/15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 5.21.15&lt;/a&gt; — My dear King, the carriage of the sun-god’s chariot is estimated to be 3,600,000 yojanas [28,800,000 miles] long and one-fourth as wide [900,000 yojanas, or 7,200,000 miles]. The chariot’s horses, which are named after Gāyatrī and other Vedic meters, are harnessed by Aruṇadeva to a yoke that is also 900,000 yojanas wide. This chariot continuously carries the sun-god. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/21/16&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 5.21.16&lt;/a&gt; — Although Aruṇadeva sits in front of the sun-god and is engaged in driving the chariot and controlling the horses, he looks backward toward the sun-god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://srimadbhagavatam.org/canto5/chapter21.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;srimadbhagavatam.org&lt;/a&gt; for alternative English translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://srimadbhagavatam.org/canto5/chapter21.html#Text%2013&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;(13)&lt;/a&gt; This vehicle has only one wheel with twelve spokes [the months], six segments [the seasons] and three pieces to its hub [four month periods], which in its entirety is known as a solar year [a samvatsara]. Its axle is fixed on the top of Meru with Mânasottara at the other end. The wheel of the chariot of the sun being fixed there rotates to the mountain range of Mânasottara like a wheel of an oil press machine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://srimadbhagavatam.org/canto5/chapter21.html#Text%2014&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;(14)&lt;/a&gt; Fixed to the base of that axle there is a second one which, like with the axle of an oil press machine, measures a quarter of its length. Its upper portion is fixed to Dhruvaloka [the center of the stars]. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://srimadbhagavatam.org/canto5/chapter21.html#Text%2015&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;(15)&lt;/a&gt; The inside of the vehicle measures 3.6 million yojanas long and a quarter of that distance wide, it is pulled by seven horses named after the Vedic meters [Gâyatrî, Brihati, Ushnik, Jagatî, Trishthup, Anushthup and Pankti] that, in order to carry the god of the sun, by Arunadeva are harnessed to a yoke as wide as the vehicle [the actual diameter of the sun itself is 1.392 million kilometers]. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://srimadbhagavatam.org/canto5/chapter21.html#Text%2016&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;(16)&lt;/a&gt; Even though Aruna, fulfilling his duties as the charioteer, sits in front of the sun god, he looks backward [not to show disrespect]. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Rigveda 1.164:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अस्य वामस्य पलितस्य होतुस्तस्य भ्राता मध्यमो अस्त्यश्नः।&#xA;  तृतीयो भ्राता घृतपृष्ठो अस्यात्रापश्यं विश्पतिं सप्तपुत्रम्॥ १.१६४.०१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सप्त युञ्जन्ति रथमेकचक्रमेको अश्वो वहति सप्तनामा।&#xA;  त्रिनाभि चक्रमजरमनर्वं यत्रेमा विश्वा भुवनाधि तस्थुः॥ १.१६४.०२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इमं रथमधि ये सप्त तस्थुः सप्तचक्रं सप्त वहन्त्यश्वाः।&#xA;  सप्त स्वसारो अभि सं नवन्ते यत्र गवां निहिता सप्त नाम॥ १.१६४.०३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01164.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sacred-texts&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.OF this benignant Priest, with eld grey-coloured, the brother midmost of the three is lightning.&#xA;  The third is he whose back with oil is sprinkled. Here I behold the Chief with seven male children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 Seven to the one-wheeled chariot yoke the Courser; bearing seven names the single Courser draws it.&#xA;  Three-naved the wheel is, sound and undecaying, whereon are resting all these worlds of being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 The seven who on the seven-wheeled car are mounted have horses, seven in tale, who draw them onward.&#xA;  Seven Sisters utter songs of praise together, in whom the names of the seven Cows are treasured.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-02-18T15:47:38.497" LastActivityDate="2017-02-18T15:47:38.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17111" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-12T12:25:04.400" Score="7" ViewCount="750" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am from North India and everyone pronounce this vowel ऋ as रि. I know this is wrong because vowel is a constant sound and when रि is pronounced for long it only comes as इ which is wrong. I did some research and found some pronounce it as रु but again this is wrong because of the above mentioned reason. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have been struggling to find the correct pronunciation of it. Most of the videos tutorials of teaching Sanskrit pronounce it wrong. Some might be right but I have no way to verify and on top of that I have no means to mimic it as they do not show the tongue movement. I came to &lt;a href=&quot;https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/sanskrit-pronunciation-of-obscure-vowels-%E0%A4%8B-%E0%A5%A0-%E0%A4%8C-and-%E0%A5%A1.2878583/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this thread&lt;/a&gt; and it explains a lot but because still I am unable to grasp anything concrete on the subject. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I finally resort to listening to Rig Veda chanting &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/yajurvedamp3.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and listening to the sound of ऋ but still it hasn't helped at all. It sounds like they are pronouncing it as रि which is probably because they are speaking it in a word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how shall I arrive at correct pronunciation of ऋ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please also do mention how to pronounce ऋ when it occurs with a consonant like कृ, मृ etc and how its different from क्र, म्र.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8577" LastEditorUserId="8577" LastEditDate="2017-02-14T18:13:42.827" LastActivityDate="2023-01-20T07:10:41.247" Title="How to pronounce ऋ in Rig Veda" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17112" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17054" CreationDate="2017-02-12T12:44:44.653" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;While it might not be possible for one to associate with a Guru physically we can certainly connect with him through his words or instructions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two ways of association ( Here in with a spiritual master or Guru ) - Vāṇī and Vapu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vapu&lt;/strong&gt; means physical presence and &lt;strong&gt;Vāṇī&lt;/strong&gt; means by sound/words (instructions) .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prabhpada says - &lt;a href=&quot;http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Two_ways_of_associating_-_by_vani_and_by_vapu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(1)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;There are two ways of association – by vani and by vapuh. Vani means words and vapuh means physical presence. Physical presence is&#xA;  sometimes appreciable and sometimes not, but vani continues to exist&#xA;  eternally. Therefore we must take advantage of the Vani, not the&#xA;  physical presence. Bhagavad Gita for example is the vani of Lord&#xA;  Krsna. Although Lord Krsna was personally present 5000 years ago and&#xA;  is no longer physically present from the materialistic point of view,&#xA;  Bhagavad Gita continues.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So coming back to your question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can accept a guru (that does not necessarily mean by formally taking diksha but accepting him as one) be it anyone bonafide and subsequently read Bhagavad-Gita according to his instructions/commentaries of the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Other interesting readings - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2394/how-do-i-find-the-right-guru/&quot;&gt;about guru&lt;/a&gt; also &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/28/47&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;vani and vapu&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://theharekrishnamovement.org/2013/01/10/vani-seva/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;vani seva&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2361" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T12:44:44.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17113" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16893" CreationDate="2017-02-12T15:28:05.990" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Caste or Varna is not rigid but dynamic in nature. One can be promoted or demoted to other varnas based on his deeds. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, varna is not for superiority or inferiority of anyone. Even non humans and objects have been classified as per varna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Today the Indian society is mainly divided on the lines of Brahmins&#xA;  and Non Brahmins. It is not very difficult to understand that such a&#xA;  division of the society is not provided for either in the dharma&#xA;  shAstra-s or the vedas. This man-made division is the height of&#xA;  absurdity considering the fact that vedas do not sanction such a&#xA;  division as the kShatriya-s &amp;amp; vaishya-s are considered to be equal to&#xA;  the Brahmins insofar as the study of veda-s and vedic practices are&#xA;  concerned. Just like brAhman the kShatriya &amp;amp; vaishya are also entitled&#xA;  to upanayana samskAra and gAyatri as is evident from different&#xA;  gRhyasUtra-s for eg, Apastamba says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“ गर्भाष्टमेषु ब्राह्मणं, गर्भैकादशेषु राजन्यं, गर्भाद्वादशेषु वैश्यम्।। (आपस्तम्बः)” in the eighth year from conception i.e. the 7th year from birth, the brAhman should be intitiated into gAyatri. Similarly, in the 10th year from birth for kShatriya and 11th year for vaishya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brAhmaNaH kShatriyo vaishyaH trayo varNAH dvijAdayaH&#xA;  saMskRtAshcAnyathA shUdrAH evaM vedavido viduH tasmAdayaM suto&#xA;  me.adyaH shUdravat vartate shishuH upanItaH kriyArhaH syAt iti vedeShu&#xA;  nirNayaH rAjJAmekAdashe varShe sadopanayanaM smRtaM aShTame&#xA;  brAhmaNAnAM ca vaishyAnAM dvAdashe kila (devI bhAgavata 7-7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The&#xA;  three varNa-s of brAhmaNa, kShatriya and vaishya are dvija (twice&#xA;  born) only if they undergo the upanayana saMskAra otherwise they are&#xA;  indeed considered to be shUdra in the absence of saMskAra”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;** &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How then did the kShatriya-s &amp;amp; vaishya-s came to be grouped as&#xA;  “non-brahmins” ? Grouping of certain varNa-s as non-brahmins is&#xA;  therefore unwarranted and uncalled for. It must also be understood&#xA;  that the words ‘varNa’ &amp;amp; ‘jAti’ stand for entirely different concepts&#xA;  and the word varNa cannot by any stretch of imagination be used to&#xA;  mean a particular caste or jAti. It is therefore worthwhile to&#xA;  understand the true concept of varNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The entire creation is in the form of three energies namely “brahma”&#xA;  (&lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्म&lt;/strong&gt;) , “kShatra” (क्षत्र) &amp;amp; “visha” (विश). For transactional&#xA;  purposes i.e. lokanirvAha in connection with religious rites&#xA;  pertaining to both daiva (दैव) &amp;amp; mAnuSha (मानुष) the created beings&#xA;  became four fold, into the four varNa-s. It must be understood that&#xA;  the varNa-s are not unique to human creation alone but obtains even in&#xA;  the created divine beings. It is therefore amply clear that the&#xA;  classification into the four varNa-s of the created beings does not&#xA;  actually make a particular varNa superior or inferior to the other&#xA;  varNa-s. Otherwise it would tantamount to attributing superiority or&#xA;  inferiority to the divine beings too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In all the sacrificial rites of the veda-s, the first offering is&#xA;  given to prajApati, indra, agni &amp;amp; soma. the first ablutions are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रजापतये स्वाहा |&#xA; इन्द्राय स्वाहा | &#xA;अग्नये स्वाहा |&#xA; सोमाय स्वाहा |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;offered to prajApati, indra, agni &amp;amp; soma and only thereafter the other&#xA;  devata-s are offered havirbhAga. Here prajApati is defined as brAhman,&#xA;  indra as kShatriya, agni as brAhmana and soma as the king of the&#xA;  brAhmaNa-s here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So Obviously, all are treated with due respects without any deva being treated as superior or inferior. “सोमोस्माकं ब्राह्मणानां&#xA;  राजेत्याह |” “ब्रह्म ह्यग्निः |” “क्षत्रमिन्द्रः|”&lt;/strong&gt; are but a few of&#xA;  the countless reference to the varNa classification of the divinities&#xA;  in the veda-s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, a prayer to agni in the beginning of yAga goes thus :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“रुचं नो धेहि ब्राह्मणेषु रुचं राजसु नस्कृधि | रुचं विश्येषु शूद्रेषु&#xA;  मयि धेहि रुचा रुचं |”  “rucaM no dhehi brAhmaNeShu rucaM rAjasu&#xA;  naskRdhi | rucaM vishyeShu shUdreShu mayi dhehi rucA rucaM |” (YV.&#xA;  Mula samhita K.5. P.7 A.6. - 3 and 4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;which is a prayer to the agni to “bestow upon us the radiance of the&#xA;  brAhmaNa-s, kShatriya-s, vaishya-s &amp;amp; shUdra-s”. Had the kShatriya or&#xA;  vaishya or shUdra been inferior to the brAhmaNa-s, would anyone pray&#xA;  for the energies of these varNa-s?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It must be understood that the varNa classification exists among the devas, the gems, the nine planets, in the animals and even in the&#xA;  letters of sanskrit. “vaiDUrya” (cat’s eye) a particular gem is&#xA;  classified as brAhmaNa, kshatriya, vaishya &amp;amp; shUdra based on its&#xA;  variation in color.&lt;/strong&gt; Among the nine planets, the sun is kShatriya,&#xA;  but shani, the son of sun is a shUdra. Similarly, budha is classified&#xA;  as a vaishya. But budha is stated to be the son born to chandra &amp;amp;&#xA;  tArA. guru &amp;amp; shukra are stated to be brAhmaNa-s. Now which of the nine&#xA;  planets is superior or inferior ? The soil of the earth is also&#xA;  subject to these varNa classification. By mixing different varNa-s of&#xA;  soil, fertility that is lost can be restored. The soil that has lost&#xA;  its fertility, though called by its original name, can never have the&#xA;  original characteristics unless mixed with fresh fertile soil. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the creation of humans also, the varnas are subject to changes&#xA;  arising out of various reasons. Manu smRti says a brAhmaNa can become&#xA;  a vaishya in three days if he resorts to selling milk. By indulging in&#xA;  trade, a brAhmaNa will become a vaishya. Similarly a shUdra can become&#xA;  a brAhmaNa by reciting gAyatri. There are umpteen instances of the so&#xA;  called shUdra-s attaining brAhman-hood. Hence, the varNa-s were never&#xA;  created or conceived as water tight compartments. The difference in&#xA;  the varNa-s was actually meant for evolution of mankind by improving&#xA;  the divine powers of “brahma” “kShatra” &amp;amp; “viT” energies through&#xA;  penance and religious practices as enjoined in the veda-s and&#xA;  definitely not for creating inequality or complexes and animosity in&#xA;  the minds of people. By the increase of divine power, the self and the&#xA;  society as a whole and the nation can attain comfort and happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/yamalesha/posts/435150996692767&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-06-26T18:08:34.880" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T18:08:34.880" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17115" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10338" CreationDate="2017-02-12T16:03:42.367" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Certainly there are non sanskrit mantras as well. If you look at Natha sampradaya, they have tradition of &lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101129213818AA3KJRd&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shabara mantras&lt;/a&gt; which contain hindi, sadhukkadi, avadhi, and urdu words in addition to sanskrit words. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After all mantras are based on the intention, concentration and belief of the chanter and based on the sound rather than any specific language. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many folk tales and tradition which talk of non sanskrit mantras. In kerela too there is a section called Kerela mantrikan which has non sanskrit mantras. In some tribal population we do find mantras or spells of different language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-02-12T16:50:40.243" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T16:50:40.243" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17116" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-12T17:11:31.233" Score="7" ViewCount="4815" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Sri Krishna and Sudama (Kuchela) is well known by everyone. But not much detail is known about Sudama after Sri Krishna alleviated his poverty. So, what happened after he was blessed richness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did he die? Is there any account for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8207" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2020-07-02T05:28:41.427" LastActivityDate="2020-07-02T05:28:41.427" Title="How did Sudama die?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17117" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16016" CreationDate="2017-02-12T18:39:50.200" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ardhaharilakshmi is worshiped in some of the Vishnu temples who follow agamic (tantric) procedures. During the final rituals of the day i.e after shayana aarati, they worship Ardhaharilakshmi. Some of the temples which follow this are Badrinath, Kedarnath, Jagan nath and few others in Kerela. A scripture named Vamadeva Kalpa written by Gautama Vamadeva has the protocol for this procedure. This is followed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagannath_Temple,_Puri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jagannath temple&lt;/a&gt; in Puri. &#xA;Source: from a friend.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T18:39:50.200" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17118" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17097" CreationDate="2017-02-12T19:07:49.800" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, Ghrita Kaushika is only mentioned in three places in Hindu scripture.  First, he's mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15063.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, in the Guru Parampara by which the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad was passed down:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;22&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ghritakausika&lt;/strong&gt; from Pârâsaryâyana,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pârâsaryâyana from Pârâsarya,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pârâsarya from Gâtûkarnya,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gâtûkarnya from Âsurâyana and Yâska,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Âsurâyana and Yâska from Traivani,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Traivani from Aupagandhani,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Aupagandhani from Âsuri,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Âsuri from Bhâradvâga,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhâradvâga from Âtreya,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Âtreya from Mânti,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mânti from Gautama,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gautama from Gautama,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gautama from Vâtsya,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vâtsya from Sândilya,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sândilya from Kaisorya Kâpya,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kaisorya Kâpya from Kumârahârita,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kumârahârita from Gâlava,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gâlava from Vidarbhî-kaundinya,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vidarbhî-kaundinya from Vatsanapât Bâbhrava,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vatsanapât Bâbhrava from Pathi Saubhara,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Pathi Saubhara from Ayâsya Âṅgirasa,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ayâsya Âṅgirasa from Âbhûti Tvâshtra,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Âbhûti Tvâshtra from Visvarûpa Tvâshtra,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Visvarûpa Tvâshtra from Asvinau,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Asvinau from Dadhyak Âtharvana,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dadhyak Âtharvana from Atharvan Daiva,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Atharvan Daiva from Mrityu Prâdhvamsana,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mrityu Prâdhvamsana from Prâdhvamsana,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prâdhvamsana from Ekarshi,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ekarshi from Viprakitti,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Viprakitti from Vyashti,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vyashti from Sanâru,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sanâru from Sanâtana,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sanâtana from Sanaga,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sanaga from Parameshthin,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Parameshthin from Brahman,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahman is Svayambhu, self-existent.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adoration to Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15078.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Another chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says the same thing.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure about the identity of Ghrita Kaushika's guru &quot;Parasharyayana&quot;, which means descendant of Parasharaya, where &quot;Parasharya&quot; in turn means descendant of the sage Parashara.  I think &quot;Parasharya&quot; refers to the present Vyasa here, because his guru is listed as Jatukarnya and Jatukarnya was the Vyasa of the previous Mahayuga as you can see in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3618/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  So just as Drona's son Ashwatthama became the shishya of the present Vyasa and he'll become the next Vyasa, it makes sense that the present Vyasa was a shishya of the previous Vyasa.  In any case, if Parasharya refers to Vyasa, then Parasharyayana would probably refer to Vyasa's son Shuka. But I'm not aware of any scriptures that say that Shuka had a shishya named Ghrita Kaushika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, one thing we can say about Ghrita Kaushika is that he's a descendant of Vishwamitra, which is evident from his surname but is also stated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/adWE2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Manava Shrauta Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Ghrita-Kushikas have three seer-ancestors.  The hotri says: &quot;O thou, related to Vishvamitra, to Ghrita, to Kushika&quot;, the adhvaryu: &quot;Like Kushika, like Ghrita, like Vishvamitra&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-02-13T16:08:21.117" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17119" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17071" CreationDate="2017-02-12T19:18:01.687" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;India was named after Rishabha's son Bharata because he conquered it, as described in _this chapter of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King, Bharata Mahārāja was a topmost devotee. Following the orders of his father, who had already decided to install him on the throne, he began to rule the earth accordingly. When Bharata Mahārāja ruled the entire globe, he followed the orders of his father and married Pañcajanī, the daughter of Viśvarūpa. Just as the false ego creates the subtle sense objects, Mahārāja Bharata created five sons in the womb of Pañcajanī, his wife. These sons were named Sumati, Rāṣṭrabhṛta, Sudarśana, Āvaraṇa and Dhūmraketu. &lt;strong&gt;Formerly this planet was known as Ajanābha-varṣa, but since Mahārāja Bharata’s reign it has become known as Bhārata-varṣa.&lt;/strong&gt;  Mahārāja Bharata was a very learned and experienced king on this earth. He perfectly ruled the citizens, being himself engaged in his own respective duties. Mahārāja Bharata was as affectionate to the citizens as his father and grandfather had been. Keeping them engaged in their occupational duties, he ruled the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Prabhupada's translation renders the word &quot;varsha&quot; as planet.   That's because ISKCON considers Bharatavarsha to be the entire Earth, Jambudvipa as something even bigger than that, etc.  But most other Hindus, myself included, believe that the seven Dvipas are the seven continents, Jambudvipa is the continent India is located in, Bharatavarsha refers to the Indian subcontinent, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T19:18:01.687" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17120" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17096" CreationDate="2017-02-12T19:37:46.883" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;this is because of different traditions of north and south india. &#xA;on the contrary Skanda is considered as a Brahmachari in many northern places. But in reality both &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consorts_of_Ganesha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganesha&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devasena&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda&lt;/a&gt; are married. These are regional/cultural differences. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T19:37:46.883" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17121" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17094" CreationDate="2017-02-12T20:17:44.013" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is because of the male chauvinistic people in the society who have snatched all the religious right from the women including that of the vedic studies and vedic rituals etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the recent centuries we saw that widow's suffered a lot of torture after the death of husband. At some places they were tonsured, they were kept isolated and forced not to wear make-up or jewelry etc. which is unethical. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;scriptures allow widows to remarry if they wish. (Rg Veda. X.18.8) (Ath Veda XVIII.3.2) Some Sutras allow a widow to marry her brother-in-law which is also stated in the Mahabharata though marrying brother-in law is not compulsory. Atharva Veda prescribes a ritual (ajA paNchodana) for lifelong union with the new husband. (AV  9.3.27). In MBH there are reference of widow remarriage. Arjuna had a son with the widowed daughter of Naga king airAvata. UgrAyudha wanted to marry Satyavati, the widow of shantanu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In terms of rituals, both widow and widowers have almost same rules. There is no partiality between a widow and a widower (vidhura). A widow can perform the pArvana shraddha at sacred places during occasions such as mahalaya. She is not debarred from performing Vriddhi shraddha (ref. Shraddha manjari). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are no injunctions in the vedas or scriptures like MBH or Puranas where we see widows getting tonsured hence such practices are later day additions. the Do's and Dont's are almost same for both wife and husband. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T20:17:44.013" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17122" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2310" CreationDate="2017-02-12T22:58:17.030" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Narada was a muni. He went in/out of Vaikuntha as he pleased i.e. the highest spirituality achievable&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Budhakaushik was a rishi. He wrote Rama Raksha stotras. Valmiki was also a rishi. He wrote Ramayan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gyaneshwar was a sant. So was Tukaram. They took Rishi's work to the masses &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sadhoo is anybody who renounces worldly comforts in search of truth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8941" LastActivityDate="2017-02-12T22:58:17.030" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17123" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17107" CreationDate="2017-02-13T05:47:01.277" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are correct. It is a representation of the female principle. Both Durga and Sakti are representations of the female principle. the goddess Durga refers to the female principle when seen with certain aspects or attributes. In his book, &lt;em&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt; (available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;), in his &lt;em&gt;Glossary&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Nikhilananda gives the following definitions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Durga A name of the Divine Mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sakti [or Shakti] Power, generally the Creative Power of Brahman; a name of the Divine Mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Unmanifested Brahman is often depicted as Siva (male), and the Manifested Brahman, Brahman in Its creative aspect, as Sakti (female). Since females create life by giving birth, It (Brahman Manifest, or Isvara) is seen as female and commonly referred to as the Divine Mother.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are mythical stories in the various Puranas that depict Durga and Shakti as anthropomorphic figures also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-02-13T05:47:01.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17124" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17054" CreationDate="2017-02-13T07:38:22.490" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are actually two aspects when it comes to a Guru  :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One searches for the physical company of a Guru and learn from him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One can surrender to the teachings and practices of any ideal of the past.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first option is more of a rare privilege. It is actually the result of lifetimes of accumulated good-Karma which eventually culminates into a strong desire for liberation (Mumukshatva). So unless your mind is free from all nonsensical distractions, you can pretty much rule this option out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second option is more practical for us less privileged ones. The Gurus of the past have been merciful enough to have left behind their teachings as their legacy. It's only a matter of our choosing the appropriate path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gita has been interpreted in various ways by various Gurus. Swami Chinmayanada comments from the Vedantic perspective, Paramahansa Yoganada comments from the perspective of Yoga science, Srila Prabhupada from the perspective of devotional service to the Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is only a matter of you doing some research into which path appeals to you the most. Then you choose any one teacher of that path, and STICK TO HIM WITH UNFLINCHING FAITH AND DEVOTION. Then maybe someday, that ideal out of mercy will create the right circumstances for you to reach the Ultimate goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8944" LastActivityDate="2017-02-13T07:38:22.490" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17125" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17272" CreationDate="2017-02-13T07:40:37.833" Score="12" ViewCount="3859" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b106.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Anushashana Parva of Mahabharata Lord Shiva tells the reason why his neck is blue. He states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देवकार्यार्थ सिद्ध्धयर्थम् पिनाकं मे करे स्थितम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इन्द्रेण च पुरा वज्रं क्षिप्तं श्रीकाङ्क्षिणा मम ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दग्ध्वा कण्ठं तु तद्यातं तेन श्रीकण्ठता मम ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The bow Pinaka is always in my hand for accomplishing the purposes of the deities. &lt;strong&gt;In days of yore, Indra, desirous of acquiring my prosperity, had hurled his thunderbolt at me. With that weapon my throat was scorched. For this reason I have become blue-throated.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_074.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Harivamsha Parva Lord Krishna also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;दत्तः प्रहारः कुलिशेन पूर्वं &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; तवेशान सुरराज्ञातिवीर्य ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; कन्ठे नैल्यं तेन ते यत्प्रवृत्तं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; तस्मात्ख्यातस्त्वं नीलकण्ठेति कल्पः ॥२-७४-३१&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O highly valiant lord! Long ago, &lt;strong&gt;the king of deva-s, Indra struck your neck with vajra. Hence there was a mark of blue. Hence you became famous as the one with blue neck.&lt;/strong&gt; You perceive all. Even then you pardon all such deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most famous reason for why Lord Shivas neck is blue is that he drank the Kãlakuta poison during Samundra Manthan which made his neck blue. However the blue necked epithet is itself described in SataRudriya portion of YajurVeda, and also in Kaivalya Upanishad which I also &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7456/why-didnt-lord-vishnu-drink-the-poison-that-came-out-from-the-churning-of-ocean/13884#13884&quot;&gt;discuss here.&lt;/a&gt; Epithets described in the Vedas are eternal so there can be many stories which make Lord Rudras neck blue. Similarly the above story is one of them.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, my question is:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;➡&lt;strong&gt;What is the story of Indra attacking on Lord Shiva&amp;apos;s neck with his Vajra?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As a sidenote, Indra also tried to attack Lord Shiva just after Tripura Samhara when Mahadeva took Vyuptakesha form as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15094/what-is-the-story-of-vyuptakesha-incarnation-of-lord-shiva/15126#15126&quot;&gt;discussed here.&lt;/a&gt;. Here Lord Shiva paralyses Indras arm as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sakra, through ill-feeling endeavoured to strike that child with his thunderbolt. The divine lord Mahadeva, smiling, quickly paralysed the arm of the enraged Sakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in the chapter 29 of Rudra Samhita, Shiva Purana, Sati is condemning all Gods and sages about their participation in Dakshas sacrifice. Particularly for Indra she says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इन्द्र त्वं किं न जानासि महादेवस्य विक्रमम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भस्मिकृत पविस्तेन हरेण क्रुरकर्मणा ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Oh Indra you are all aware of the prowess of&amp;nbsp; Mahadeva. The lord - performer of difficult tasks &lt;strong&gt;reduced your Vajra to ashes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is possible that Sati here is hinting the same incident to Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T18:47:55.940" Title="What is the story of Indra attacking Lord Shiva on his neck?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|shiva|puranas|indra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17126" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-13T09:11:39.000" Score="6" ViewCount="5201" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the life of Adi Shankara, there is a famous &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sringeri.net/history/sri-adi-shankaracharya/biography/abridged-madhaviya-shankara-digvijayam/part-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;incident&lt;/a&gt; involving a Chandala and his Four dogs:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Sankara was going with his disciples to the Ganges for midday ablutions, he noticed an outcaste approaching them with a pack of four dogs. Shankara and his disciples asked him to keep out of their path...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and the rest is history.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does this act of Sankara indicate that he practiced untouchability?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;SOURCE: Madhavīya Shankaravijayam Part 2, can be checked at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sringeri.net/history/sri-adi-shankaracharya/biography/abridged-madhaviya-shankara-digvijayam/part-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sringeri Mutt website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-01T19:40:30.877" LastActivityDate="2018-06-03T17:10:34.637" Title="Did Adi Sankara follow untouchability?" Tags="|adi-shankaracharya|untouchability|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17128" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17054" CreationDate="2017-02-13T13:22:51.980" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you do not have a Guru then you will have to use your judgement when reading the Gita. For example here is a book on the Gita where the author suggests that Gita is a book on terrorism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Satanic-Verses-Bhagavad-Gita-Kedar-Joshi/dp/1496194756/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1486991443&amp;amp;sr=8-1&amp;amp;keywords=gita+by+Kedar+Joshi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.amazon.in/Satanic-Verses-Bhagavad-Gita-Kedar-Joshi/dp/1496194756/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1486991443&amp;amp;sr=8-1&amp;amp;keywords=gita+by+Kedar+Joshi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such a book will definitely leave a bad impression about Hinduism to an unwary person who is not knowledgeable about Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another example of a hostile book on the Gita is Lord Meghnad Desai's book who follows the commentary of the Marxist scholar D. D. Kosambi. Lord Desai tries to show that the Gita is a toxic book that has ruined India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand the book 'Universal Message of the Bhagavad Gita: An Exposition of the Gita in the Light of Modern Thought and Modern Needs' by Swami Ranganathananda shows the applicability of Gita in the modern world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dictum that you should read the Gita with the help of a Guru is not a blanket ban on reading the Gita. It is asking you to exercise extreme caution whenever you pick up a commentary on the Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-02-13T13:47:30.120" LastActivityDate="2017-02-13T13:47:30.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17130" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17107" CreationDate="2017-02-13T15:26:09.457" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Another name of Goddess Durga is &lt;strong&gt;Adi Shakti,&lt;/strong&gt; so Durga and Shakti are same.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However if we see Shakti as concept of energy, then Durga is the personification of every Shakti of the Universe which I also &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15717/is-there-any-hierarchy-for-devis-incarnations/16238#16238&quot;&gt;discuss here.&lt;/a&gt; It is also seen in the Durga &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15358/reflection-of-yada-yada-hi-dharmasya-in-durga-saptashati&quot;&gt;Saptashati&lt;/a&gt; which is a part of Markandeya Purana. In the Saptashati it is clearly &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10662/is-mahishasura-mardini-lakshmi-or-durga/14427#14427&quot;&gt;seen&lt;/a&gt; that Durga is the innate power of all Gods and thus she also manifests from power of all Gods at one time:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्येषां चैव देवानां शक्रादीनां शरीरतः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निर्गतं सुमहत्तेजस्तच्चैक्यं समगच्छत॥११॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अतीव तेजसः कूटं ज्वलन्तमिव पर्वतम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ददृशुस्ते सुरास्तत्र ज्वालाव्याप्तदिगन्तरम्॥१२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अतुलं तत्र तत्तेजः सर्वदेवशरीरजम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एकस्थं तदभून्नारी व्याप्तलोकत्रयं त्विषा॥१३॥ (Durga Saptashati chapter 2)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;An immense mass of light (Teja) proceeded from the bodies of Sakra and all the other Devas, and conglomerated.&lt;/strong&gt; This effulgent lustre appeared as a flaming mountain: the Suras having seen the flame receded to the extremities of regions. &lt;strong&gt;The peerless light (Teja) issued from the bodies of all the Devas and the phenomenon was transfigured as a woman extending through the three worlds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the above passage clearly shows that Durga is personified energy (Shakti/Teja). She is called feminine principle because she is ever associated with the Purusha in every body and she is the active principle which runs the universe. For eg. Saptashati also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कलाकाष्ठादिरूपेण परिणामप्रदायिनि।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विश्‍वस्योपरतौ शक्ते नारायणि नमोऽस्तु ते॥ (Durga Saptashati chapter 11)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to Narayani, who protects all things in a spiritual and material form, &lt;strong&gt;who is the over-ruling power/ Shakti (Viswashyo Paratau Shakti) of the universe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्य सर्वस्य या शक्तिः सा त्वं किं स्तूयसे तदा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यया त्वया जगत्स्रष्टा जगत्पात्यत्ति यो जगत्॥ (Durga Saptashati chapter 1)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;You are the Shakti of everyone,&lt;/strong&gt; how can one praise you. You are the creator and the destructor of the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus if we think Shakti as the power/energy governing the Universe then Durga is personification of that power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-02-13T15:26:09.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17131" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17133" CreationDate="2017-02-13T17:06:59.690" Score="9" ViewCount="834" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone tell with reference? Would be helpful . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/H2vHv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-12-28T16:33:41.053" LastActivityDate="2017-12-28T16:33:41.053" Title="What is the theory of creation of the universe as per agama/tantra section of Hinduism" Tags="|creation|tantra|agamas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17132" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16417" CreationDate="2017-02-13T17:28:46.937" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;By Deeksha also (Guru Deeksha i mean)  a Sudra can get rid of his Sudratva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gatam Sudrasya sudratvam ViprashyApi cha VipratA||&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;DeekshasamskAraSampanne JAtibhedo Na Vidyate ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After Deeksha Samskara a Sudra does not remain a Sudra&lt;/strong&gt;,neither a Vipra&#xA;  remains a Vipra.&lt;strong&gt;There remains no differences of caste after Deeksha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram,Chapter 14,Verse 91.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its interesting to note that the differences due to varnashrama ceases to take effect after Guru Deeksha.That is why deeksha is given supreme importance in all Agama Shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-02-13T17:28:46.937" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17133" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17131" CreationDate="2017-02-13T19:47:04.513" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have posted it in my groups and blogs and reposting it here in parts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;षट् त्रिंशत् तत्त्वानि विश्वम् &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ShaT triMshat tattvAni vishvaM (ParashurAma kalpasUtra.) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;This universe is nothing but the 36 tattva-s.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is meant by tattva ? If the universe is made up of these tattva-s then they are verily the basic elements. By the very definition of the word tattva, understand that they are eternal and imperishable. Just as a building is constructed with brick, mortar, wood, iron etc., the universe with all its sentient and insentient (cetana &amp;amp; acetana) beings is composed of what is called as tattva-s. Just as the basic elements of a building on its demolition is segregated separately into brick, wood iron etc etc, so also at the time of pralaya this universe is deconstructed back into these basic elements and are re-absorbed in the Brahman without perishing and again come forth during the next cycle of creation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In effect, there are only two tattva-s known as “shiva” &amp;amp; “shakti” and the remaining tattva-s are the expansion of these two tattva-s. The 36 tattva-s are grouped into 3 main domains namely the &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡Shivatattva,  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡VidyAtattva and &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Atmatattva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these are absorbed in to the shaktitattva at the time of mahApralaya and re-emerge at the point of creation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;➡The shivatattva originates from Shaktitattva. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡VidyAtattva originates from the Shivatattva and &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ➡Atmatattva originates from VidyAtattva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The shivatattva consists of the 5 tattva-s namely &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva, Shakti, SadAshiva, Ishvara &amp;amp; ShuddhavidyA. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vidyAtattva in its domain has the 7 tattva-s: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mAyA, vidyA, kalA, rAga, kAla, niyati &amp;amp; puruSha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and the Atmatattva consists of 24 tattva-s namely &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prakRti, ahaMkAra, buddhi, manaH, tvak, cakShu, shrotra, jihvA, ghrANa, vAk, pANi, pAda, pAyu, upastha, shabda, sparsha, rUpa, rasa, gandha, AkAsha, vAyu, vahni, salila &amp;amp; pRthivi &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though the shiva &amp;amp; shakti tattva-s are two in number, they are always together &amp;amp; inseparable, like the word and its meaning, as in kAlidAsa’s Raghuvamsha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vAgarthAviva sampRktau vAgarthapratipattaye jagadaH pitarau vande pArvatIparameshvarau (Raghuvamsha starting) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  I salute the parents of the Universe Parvati and Parameswara &lt;strong&gt;who are inseparable like words and meanings.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly the Shiva Purana also in the chapter Shiva Shakti Vibhuti of Vidyesvara Samhita states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शब्दजालमशेषं तु धत्ते सर्वस्य वल्लभा । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अर्थस्वरुपमखिलं धत्ते मुग्धेन्दुशेखरः ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The beloved  of Shiva (Uma) is in the form of words. The moon crested Lord (Maheswara) is in the form of meaning of those words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shiva tattva which is the first and foremost of the 36 tattva-s is the absolute being which is in the state of “kevalanijarUpa” when nothing else exists besides the shakti tattva. The Lalita Sahasranama  states &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महेश्वरमहाकल्पमहाताण्डवसाक्षिणी । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  maheshvaramahAkalpamahAtANDAvasAkShiNI &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who is the witness of MahaTandava performed by Maheswara at the end of MahaKalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BhaskararAyA interprets this as follows: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the time of the great final dissolution called mahApralaya, shiva alone remains and is bliss personified having withdrawn the universe which results in his mahAtANDava. At this point, there is none else besides HER and therefore she alone is the witness to this (mahAsAkShiNI). In this context, bhAskararAya further refers to paJcadashIstava – &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;kalpopasaMharaNakalpitatANDavasya devasya khaNDaparashoH parabhairavasya | pAshAGkushaikShavasharAsanapuShpabANaiH sA sAkShiNI vijayate tava mUrtirekA||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shaktitattva referred to here is nothing but the jagat sisRkShA of the absolute being i.e. the desire or urge to create the universe. If the sole existence called “prakAsha” aspect of the “kevalacit” is the Shivatattva, then the “vimarsha” of that cit called “prapaJcavAsanA” or the urge or desire to create the universe is the Shaktitattva. In the understanding of the Shiva-Shaktitattva-s alone lies the understanding of the remaining tattva-s as they are derived from these two primordial tattva-s. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the absolute being which exists as the shivatattva, the icchA, JjAna &amp;amp; kriyA shaktis manifest the urge/desire to create the universe, as in “bahusyAM prajAyeya”. Due to this impulse or “sphuraNa” creation ensues in the form of “shabdasRShTi” and “arthasRShTi”. Now, the consciousness that “I am jagat” i.e. when this absolute being views the universe as self “jagadahaM” then it is called as SadAshivatattva which is the state called “ahantA”. This is an undifferentiated state, where the “vishvaM” is unmanifested but about to manifest and where everything is inside and nothing exists outside to address as “this” (idaM). This stage when the “idaM” amsha is not clearly differentiated and the absolute being is pregnant with benevolence or loving kindness (anugraha) for furthering the object of creation, is called as sadAshivatattva. Here icchAshakti is dominant. Thereafter when the absolute being views the manifested universe as “this is jagat” or “jagadidaM” such a state is known as Ishvaratattva which is “idantA”. Here JjAnashakti is predominant as the manifestation of the universe outside is clear to the self. The consciousness or knowledge that “ahantA” &amp;amp; “idantA” are one i.e. the jagat and paramashiva are one, is “shuddhavidyA”- “jagatparamashivayorabhedadhIH”. It is the recollection that “I only am this universe”. At this stage, the “kriyAshakti” is predominant as the universe clearly manifested. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first five tattva-s of shiva, shakti, sadAshiva, Ishvara &amp;amp; shuddhavidyA which are commonly grouped as shivatattva. Now, we will see the next group called vidyAtattva under which mAyA, vidyA, kalA, rAga, kAla, niyati &amp;amp; puruShatattva-s are grouped. We saw that the consciousness or knowledge related to the state of sadAshiva that “I only am this universe” is shuddhavidyA. Similarly, mAyA is the consciousness related to the state of Ishvara where it views the jagat or universe as distinct from self. ahantA is due to shuddhavidyAtattva and idantA is due to mAyAtattva Before we proceed to know further about these tattva-s its important to know that there is no difference between the absolute being and the created being called jIva. While the absolute being exists with the following five limitless vRtti-s, the jIva exists with the same vRtti-s but in a limited manner. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vRtti-s of paramashiva in this regard are:- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;sarvaJjatA or the state of being omniscient &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;sarvakartRtA or state of being the absolute creator of anything and everything &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;nityatRptatA or the state of absolute/eternal contentment &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;nityatA or perpetuity &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;sarvasvatantratA or absolute freedom / independence &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above five dharma-s of the absolute being are manifested in a limited manner in the jIva where sarvaJjatA is limited as vidyAtattva, sarvakartRtA as kalAtattva, nityatRptatA is limited as rAgatattva or desire, nityatA is limited as kAlatattva &amp;amp; sarvasvatantratA is limited as niyatitattva. It is to be understood that the absolute being from its state of limitless vRtti-s as above playfully (lIlayA) adopts the vidyA, kalA, rAga, kAla &amp;amp; niyatitattva-s collectively known as sharIrakaJcuka or cover which envelopes it to become jIva. The puruShatattva is nothing but the jIva endowed with the vidyA, kalA, rAga, kAla &amp;amp; niyatitattva-s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the third group of Atmatattva, the first is prakRtitattva. This is a state of equilibrium of the three guNa-s viz satva, rajas and tamas which is collectively termed as citta. PrakRtitattva is the gross manifestation of the creation and is the primal substance. Here it should be understood that the triguNa-s are nothing but the transformation (pariNAma) of icchA, JjAna &amp;amp; kriyA shakti-s. In the state of equilibrium called prakRtitattva exists the potential of creation of the grosser elements. Just as the icchA JjAna kriyA shakti-s exist in a subtle form called “shAntAshakti” in the absolute being and each of the trishakti-s spur the absolute being to manifest as causal elements, in a similar manner, the triguNa-s exist in a state of equilibrium viz “citta” in the prakRtitattva. The triguNa-s each in turn due to their influence make the 3 antaHkaraNa-s namely ahaMkAra, buddhi and manas to manifest and further the manifestation of other gross elements. Out of the triguNa-s, due to the influence of the icchAshakti when the rajoguNa dominates the other two guNa-s such a state is known as ahaMkAratattva which is the conception of individuality or individuation. Due to the influence of the JjAnashakti when the satvaguNa dominates the other two which are in a subdued state, then it is called as buddhitattva which helps in determination. Due to the tamoguNa when the kriyAshakti is predominant such a state is called the “manastattva” which is capable of volition or sankalpa. There is a general understanding that out of the triguNa-s, the sattvaguNa makes a person “sAttvika” and therefore desirable and the other two are undesirable. This is a misconception which stems from an incorrect understanding of the tattva-s. It should be understood that if the rajoguNa creates the urge for any activity, the sattvaguNa gives it direction and sustains it and the tamoguNa acts as a check. So adequate “checks &amp;amp; balances” are inherent in nature’s creation. What is therefore desirable is a balanced state of the guNa-s and not any one guNa alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-02-14T02:39:15.123" LastActivityDate="2017-02-14T02:39:15.123" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17134" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6667" CreationDate="2017-02-13T20:04:05.453" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas do not have any gender based discrimination. When it comes to vaidika dharma and practices both men and women enjoy same freedom. However, after the advent of sanyasa, the society slowly turned towards more male dominated and male chauvinistic in nature. Slowly women were deprived from their basic religious and social rights which were sanctioned by Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Haarita sutra, those women who are Brahma Vaadini have right for initiation, Vedic studies , Fire establishment and bhiksha etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;द्विऽविधाः स्त्रियो ब्रह्मवादिन्यः सदीवध्वश्च । तत्र ब्रह्मवादिनीनामुपनयनम्योन्धनं वेदाध्ययनं स्वगृहे भिक्शाचर्या चेति&lt;/strong&gt; ( 21:23)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Yama Smriti,&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पुरा कल्पे कुमारिणां मोञ्जोबन्धन मिष्यते । अध्यापनन्श्च वेदानां सावित्रीवाचनन्तथा ॥ पिता पितृव्यो भ्राता वा नैनामध्यापयेत् परः |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In olden times tying of girdle was prescribed for girls. So also study of vedas and uttering of Gayatri ( Savitur) preferably from father , brother or uncle. She is allowed for begging alms within her house limits. Yama refers to existence not only in olden days but during his times as well by his sentence पुराकल्पे ( यथैष्यत) तथा (अधुनाऽपि) इष्यते. The word तथा is specially put by Yama by way of comparison between old time and his own time so he says that during his time girls should learn from father, brother etc and she dont need to wear deer skin, bark etc. If Yama had intended to say that girls should not be initiated in his time unlike olden times he would say something like इह कल्पे तासामेवं न कुर्यान्मतिमान् क्कचित् ॥ As he uses verbs in present tense so we can make out that he prescribed rules for his own days and was the case in olden days too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gobhila says that Bride should wear the sacred thread when the bridegroom leads her to the altar.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;प्रावृतां यज्ञोपवीतिनीमम्युदानयन् जपेत् सीमोऽदाद् गन्धर्वायेति &amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; ( Gobhila Grhya sutra 2:1:19)&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;यज्ञोपवीतिनाऽचान्तोदकेन कृत्यम्&lt;/strong&gt; ( Gobhila Grhya sutra 1:1:2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like the women are eligible for vedas, they are eligible for brahmavidya too.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;यथाधिकरः श्रोतेषु योषितां कर्म सुश्रुतःएवमेवानुमन्यम्ब ब्रह्माणि ब्रह्मवादिताम्&lt;/strong&gt; Yama Smriti )&#xA;Brahamchari is one who is engaged in the study of vedas. ब्रह्मचर्येण ब्रह्म वेदः तदध्ययनार्थमाचर्यम् Atharva veda sAyana bhashyam 117.17&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A brahmacharin should be married to a brahmacharini. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मचरिणां च ब्रहचारिणीभिः सह विवाह् प्रशस्यो भवति - Pranavavada of maharshi Garga&#xA;The Rig-Veda (V, 7, 9) refers to young maidens completing their education as brahmacharinis and then gaining husbands… &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Rv. iii (55, 16) mentions unmarried learned and young daughters who should be married to learned bridegrooms.&#xA;Without initiated by proper samskara, no one is eligible to utter holy vedic mantras. But women are found to utter them in many of Shrauta and Grhya sacrifices (yajnas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the sAkamedha the third of chaturmasa (four monthly) sacrifice the girl uses the Tryambaka's mantra (&lt;strong&gt;त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पतिवेदनम्। उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनादितो मुक्षीय माऽमुतः&lt;/strong&gt;, Shukla Yajurveda Samhita III :60 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Shatapatha Brahmana, The priest and Sacrificer go round the altar thrice from right to left, but maidens go from left to right. While doing so the maidens utter the Tryambaka mantra. ( II : 6 : 2 : 13 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajnikadeva in the paddhati says वचनात् &lt;strong&gt;कुमार्या अपि मन्त्रपाठः&lt;/strong&gt; meaning that maidens should too utter the sacred formulas as prescribed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Madana pArijAta the author quotes KAtyayana (KAtyayana samhita p.330)  to show that if any samskara before the initiation ceremony is left unobserved, it should be performed with offering of oblation. Since Madana deals with these things under strI samskara section it is clear that women are entitled to initiation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vAchaknavi is venerated as best among all the learned brahmana present in the court of King Janaka to ask Yajnavalkya, the most learned sage of that time to ask series of questions to ascertain if they should debate with Yajnavalkya or not. Yajnavalkya answered first two questions correctly however on subsequent occasion he did not encourage her to ask any further question. ( &lt;strong&gt;Brhd. Up. III : 3&lt;/strong&gt; )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References of Vishpalaa being provided with a leg of iron in Khela's battle shows that women were trained in military arts as well. ( RV 1.116.15 , 1.112.10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per GovindAnanda,  The daughter will have the rights and not her father to perform the funeral and shraddha rites for her mother, provided she is brotherless. ( ShrAddha Kriya Kaumudi p. 464,469)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mahabhashya shows that women attained fame as Mimamsakas as well. Ladies specialist in Kaashakrtsna were called as Kaashakrtsnaas. It also specially mentioned group of women Grammarians called Aapishalaas. ( 72 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sulabhaa was a vidushi (learned) to the extent that she could teach even Janaka. She could not be married as no male of time was equal to her in terms of knowledge therefore she was initiated into brahmavidya. (Mbh. XII : 320 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Varuna PraghAsas ( second four monthly) sacrifice,  after havis is placed and when wife leading to the fire for the karambha pAtra oblations. She utters the mantra  &amp;quot;प्रघासिनो हवामहे मरुतः ...&amp;quot; [Shukla Yajurveda Samhita III : 45 ]  for invoking the Marut's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In AgnisToma sacrifice ( one of mahayaga) the wife while entering from south door, rubs the rods of the Soma Cart with remaining ghee left after the &lt;strong&gt;sAvitrI Homa with the mantra &amp;quot; देवश्रुतौ देवेष्वा घोषतम्प्राची&lt;/strong&gt; .....&amp;quot; [ Shukla Yajurveda Samhita V: 17 ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Shraddha Kalpataru   &amp;quot;स्त्रीणामप्येवम्&amp;quot; etc means  &amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;याध्यशेन सम्बन्धेन पित्रुव्यत्वादिना पुरुषाणामेकादशाहादि श्रद्धं, तट्टशेन च सम्बन्धेन स्त्रीणामेतत् कर्तव्यमिति&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot; which shows that women also utter the mantras in the shraddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajnavalkya says : After offering Ekoddistha and Sapindikarana with mantras. Both should be offered to women also ( Unavimsati Samhita 1 : 2 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Shankha, the daughter too like the son after the samskara, should observe the Ashaucha and perform funeral rites and do pinda dana and celebrate the Ekoddishta for her father. Here too no distinction has been mentioned between son and daughter.&#xA;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;दुहिता पुत्रवत् कुर्यात्  माता-पित्रोस्तु संस्कृता । अशौचमुदकं पिण्डमेकोद्दिष्टम्  सदा तयोः&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the shraddha's  the middle cake is to be eaten by the wife ( Patni )   ( Shraddha Manjari )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devana Bhatta in the Shraddha Kaanda says : If she is desirous of a child , the wife should eat the cake. ( Smritichandrikaa Vol 4 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the time of marriage,  the  householder and wife , children ( son &amp;amp; daughter) or disciple should offer oblations to the Grhya Agni ( &lt;strong&gt;Ashvalayana Grhya Sutra 1:  7 : 1&lt;/strong&gt; )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wife should verily offer the oblations to the Grhya fire at morning and evening&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;kAmaM gRhyegnau patnI juhuyAt sAyaMprAtarhomau, gRhAH patnI gRhya eShognirbhavatIti&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;  ( Gobhila Grhya sutra 1:3:15 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wife is so closely related to Agni that in the case of extinction of the fire, the wife has to do the fasting as a prayashchitta.  ( &amp;quot;यदि तूपशाम्येत्.....&amp;quot; Ashvalaayana Gruhya sutra 1:7:3 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the commentary of Gobhila sutra states that wife should be given enough education so that she becomes eligible to perform the sacrifice since the sutras do not say that she should offer oblations silently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;न खल्वनधोत्य शन्कोति पतिहोतुम् । न च तुष्णीमित्याह वचनम्&lt;/strong&gt; ( Gobhila 1:5:15)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wife desirous of a child should offer the first aahuti in the morning and evening with the prescribed mantra ending with SvAhA.&#xA;&amp;quot;......पुनः स्वाहेति पूर्वां गर्भकामा&amp;quot; (Paraskara Grhya sutra 1:9:3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From above evidences it is clear than women have right to vedas and yajnopavitam which is denied by most of vedantins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-01-29T20:53:04.223" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17135" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7727" CreationDate="2017-02-13T20:22:13.900" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It can be worn even today. Some institutions like Arya samaj and Gayatri parivar are doing some work to promote it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Haarita sutra, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;those women who are Brahma Vaadini have right for initiation, Vedic&#xA;  studies , Fire establishment and bhiksha etc. द्विऽविधाः स्त्रियो&#xA;  ब्रह्मवादिन्यः सदीवध्वश्च । तत्र ब्रह्मवादिनीनामुपनयनम्योन्धनं&#xA;  वेदाध्ययनं स्वगृहे भिक्शाचर्या चेति ( 21:23)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As per Yama Smriti, पुरा कल्पे कुमारिणां मोञ्जोबन्धन मिष्यते ।&#xA;  अध्यापनन्श्च वेदानां सावित्रीवाचनन्तथा ॥ पिता पितृव्यो भ्राता वा&#xA;  नैनामध्यापयेत् परः | In olden times tying of girdle was prescribed for&#xA;  girls.&#xA;  So also study of vedas and uttering of Gayatri ( Savitur) preferably&#xA;  from father , brother or uncle. She is allowed for begging alms within&#xA;  her house limits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yama refers to existence not only in olden days but during his times as well by his sentence पुराकल्पे ( यथैष्यत) तथा (अधुनाऽपि) इष्यते. The word तथा is specially put by Yama by way of comparison between old time and his own time so he says that during his time girls should learn from father, brother etc and she dont need to wear deer skin, bark etc. If Yama had intended to say that girls should not be initiated in his time unlike olden times he would say something like इह कल्पे तासामेवं न कुर्यान्मतिमान् क्कचित् ॥ As he uses verbs in present tense so we can make out that he prescribed rules for his own days and was the case in olden days too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;**Gobhila says that Bride should wear the sacred thread when the bridegroom leads her to the altar.  &quot;प्रावृतां यज्ञोपवीतिनीमम्युदानयन्&#xA;  जपेत् सीमोऽदाद् गन्धर्वायेति &quot; ( Gobhila Grhya sutra 2:1:19)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यज्ञोपवीतिनाऽचान्तोदकेन कृत्यम् ( Gobhila Grhya sutra 1:1:2) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like the women are eligible for vedas, they are eligible for&#xA;  brahmavidya too. (यथाधिकरः श्रोतेषु योषितां कर्म&#xA;  सुश्रुतःएवमेवानुमन्यम्ब ब्रह्माणि ब्रह्मवादिताम् Yama Smriti )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahamchari is one who is engaged in the study of vedas. ब्रह्मचर्येण ब्रह्म वेदः तदध्ययनार्थमाचर्यम् Atharva veda sAyana bhashyam 117.17**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A brahmacharin should be married to a brahmacharini. ब्रह्मचरिणां च ब्रहचारिणीभिः सह विवाह् प्रशस्यो भवति - Pranavavada of maharshi Garga The Rig-Veda (V, 7, 9) refers to young maidens completing their education as brahmacharinis and then gaining husbands… Rv. iii (55, 16) mentions unmarried learned and young daughters who should be married to learned bridegrooms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-03-30T09:29:19.590" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T09:29:19.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17136" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17374" CreationDate="2017-02-14T03:11:14.840" Score="7" ViewCount="2587" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently, while meditating, I had a vision of Lord Ganesha. The vision came to my 3&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; Eye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vision was of an Elephant, with its Trunk pointed down, but swaying back and forward, almost in a dancing rhythm. The Trunk had Fractals of other Trunks in it, and in those were more Fractal-ed trunks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have a great deal of interest in Hinduism, however I did not worship Ganesha, or speak to him previous to this vision.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From my subsequent research, I have learned that the Poses, and the orientation of Lord Ganesha's trunk are important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this mean anything? Does any Hindu scripture say anything about such visions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8951" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-22T05:31:34.823" LastActivityDate="2018-04-22T07:03:36.610" Title="Does Hindu scripture say anything about Third Eye visions?" Tags="|ganesha|symbolism|meditation|dream|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17138" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17054" CreationDate="2017-02-14T05:28:31.630" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Its obvious that this confusion arose in your mind only after seeing my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17035/4732&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;So,i am clarifying a bit more .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's a fact that all Hindu Shastras are to be studied under one's  Guru.This is the traditional system which is followed since time immemorial.That's also why we used to have the Gurukulas where the Gurus impart their knowledge and the pupils learn various kinds of Vidyas,Shastras etc under his guidance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This trend of learning Shastras from books(or from online resources), by self study, is only a recent one.It's not at all recommended.So,you should not follow it saying &quot;since everyone is doing so,i'll also do the same&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But your problem of not being able to find a Guru also seems to be a genuine one.And , if you see the description of a Satguru that is found in Scriptures ,you will know that finding such an ideal Satguru in today's time is a tough tough ask.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also, let me explain why reading Bhagavat Gita(BG) even without a Guru can't be dangerous.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some Scriptures which are full of mantras.If someone studies those Scriptures without initiation and proper guidance and practically apply the methods given therein then the result can be  fatal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,chanting mantras by picking them up from books is a sin too.See the following warning for example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Iswara Uvacha :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pusthake LikhitAnmantrAn Vilokya Prajapanti Ye || BrahmahatyAsamam&#xA;  Tesham PAtakam Parikirttitam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva said :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who chant mantras taking them up from books commit sin&#xA;  equivalent to killing a Brahmin(i.e one of the major sins).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram,Chapter 15,Verse 22.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But BG consists of slokas and not mantras.So,reading it on one's own is not dangerous as such.&lt;strong&gt;So,you can read it IMO even without a Guru's guidance.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Better buy a book that have the Sanskrit slokas and the translations in your mother tongue.The first BG that i got belonged to my grandmother which had  the Sanskrit slokas along with their translations in bengali , my mother tongue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I don't think you should read any Hindu Shastras in english unless there is no other option left.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, a Guru can be many.Anyone (or anything) who(which) teaches you something is your Guru.For example, the grass is also our Guru because it teaches us to be humble.So,you can treat the book itself as your Guru.Or the translator as your Guru.(You can refer to Lord Dattatreya's many Gurus) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-02-14T05:51:45.267" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17140" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-14T07:15:04.887" Score="4" ViewCount="780" Body="&lt;p&gt;If kurukshetra war was to reclaim the lost kingdom of the pandavas then what was this kingdom which pandavas ruled before battle of kurukshetra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8908" LastActivityDate="2017-03-19T06:30:29.817" Title="What kingdom did pandavas have at the first place?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17141" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16417" CreationDate="2017-02-14T07:31:52.133" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Very nice question. As far as Vedas are concerned, there is no differentiation based on caste or gender. Any genuine seeker is welcomed here. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there is brahmajijnasa/dharma jijnasa in anyone born in shudra family he can be verily initiated into vedas and gayatri by upanayana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;*&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;***brAhmaNaH kShatriyo vaishyaH trayo varNAH dvijAdayaH saMskRtAshcAnyathA shUdrAH evaM vedavido viduH tasmAdayaM suto&#xA;  me.adyaH shUdravat vartate shishuH upanItaH kriyArhaH syAt iti vedeShu&#xA;  nirNayaH rAjJAmekAdashe varShe sadopanayanaM smRtaM aShTame&#xA;  brAhmaNAnAM ca vaishyAnAM dvAdashe kila (devI bhAgavata 7-7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“The three varNa-s of brAhmaNa, kShatriya and vaishya are dvija (twice born) only if they undergo the upanayana saMskAra otherwise they are indeed considered to be shUdra in the absence of saMskAra”**** &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janmana jayate shudrah &lt;br&gt; One is a Shudra by birth &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samskarad dvija ucyate &lt;br&gt; By observing Sanskara one becomes a Dvija&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedapathi bhaved viprah &lt;br&gt; By studying the Vedas one becomes a Vipra&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma janati brahmanah &lt;br&gt; One who knows Brahman is a Brahmana &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence by performing samskara and giving mantra upadesha he gains dwijahood. there is no need to chant any panchakshari etc for million times. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यथेमां वाचं कल्याणीमावदानि जनेयः। ब्रह्म राजन्यायां शूद्राय, चार्याय च स्वाय चारणायच।। – यजुः अ. 26-2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as I am speaking these blessed words to people (without&#xA;  distinction), in the same way you also spread these words among all&#xA;  men and women – the Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, Shudras and all&#xA;  others, whether they be our own people or aliens(foreigners).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shukla Yajurveda 18.48:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ruchannu dhehi brahmanesu ruchaha rajasu naskrudhi | Ruchanwisyeshu Sudreshu mayi dheyi rucha rucham ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Lord! Provide enlightenment to our Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas and&#xA;  Shudras. Provide me also with the same enlightenment so that I can see&#xA;  the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, many shastras say that a brahmin or dwija becomes candala by doing wrong deeds or by ignoring the prescribed vedic duties like sandhyavandanam. Same way a shudra can also be promoted as a dwija and a dwija can become chandala by wrong deeds. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, there is also opinions that Mahidasa Aitariya and Satyakama Jabala etc were also born from low caste women. yet they went on to learn from gurus and became enlightened. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://muktipadablog.wordpress.com/2015/12/10/vedic-study-is-open-for-all/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-02-14T11:58:57.297" LastActivityDate="2017-02-14T11:58:57.297" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17143" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17144" CreationDate="2017-02-14T08:53:16.593" Score="6" ViewCount="1102" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that quatrains are called pAdas in Sanskrit. But what is the technical term for couplets in Sanskrit? I'm having lots of trouble identifying this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5101" LastActivityDate="2019-02-16T02:31:13.693" Title="What are couplets called in Sanskrit?" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17144" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17143" CreationDate="2017-02-14T09:19:02.133" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most common name in Sanskrit is śloka (श्लोक). A single śloka contains 2 lines of Sanskrit text, usually consisting of an equal amount of syllables. Lots of Sanskrit poetic works contain only a single meter for their śokas, but there are many kinds of meters and multiple can be used by a single work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to understand the anatomy of a śloka, such as what is meant by pāda (or, ‘foot’), you can look at various pages on the internet, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shloka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;such as wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;śloka&lt;/strong&gt; is treated as a couplet. Each hemistich (half-verse) of 16 syllables, composed of two &lt;strong&gt;pādas&lt;/strong&gt; of eight syllables, can take either a pathyā (&quot;normal&quot;) form or one of several vipulā (&quot;extended&quot;) forms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The śloka form was developed from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anu%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%ADubh&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;anuṣṭubh&lt;/a&gt;, but you can find a more extensive list of meters &lt;a href=&quot;https://sourceforge.net/projects/sloka-meter/files/Description%20of%20the%20Meters.%20PDF%20version.pdf/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;in this document.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Update: according to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-natyashastra/d/doc210082.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nāṭyaśāstra 15.89-90&lt;/a&gt;, an authorative work on prosody, a couplet is termed ''sampad'' (alternative spelling ''sampat''):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“A &lt;strong&gt;couplet&lt;/strong&gt; in which the number of syllables is neither in excess nor wanting is called a regular one (&lt;strong&gt;sampat&lt;/strong&gt;).”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="5384" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T19:08:43.373" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T19:08:43.373" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17146" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19189" CreationDate="2017-02-14T12:50:05.077" Score="7" ViewCount="2066" Body="&lt;p&gt;How does he get so much power that he can even break Bhima(or a statue) into pieces in Mahabharat after Pandavs wins againt Kouravas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who gave him that power?(I am not sure but I heard that he got 1000 Elephant power)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How much Power he had?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8932" LastEditorUserId="8932" LastEditDate="2017-02-15T05:32:27.270" LastActivityDate="2017-06-27T14:47:38.307" Title="Power of Dhritarashtra(धृतराष्ट्र)" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17147" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-14T13:24:55.433" Score="1" ViewCount="193" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Brahma Vaivarta Purana mentions the exchange of curses among the Goddesses - Lakshmi, Saraswathi &amp;amp; Ganga when they were wives of Lord Vishnu. Will they get back to their original positions after the curse is over? When will that be?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8955" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T11:13:21.123" LastActivityDate="2018-10-16T11:13:21.123" Title="Change in status of Lord Vishnu's wives according to Brahma vaivartha purana" Tags="|puranas|goddess|curse|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17148" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-14T14:47:43.610" Score="9" ViewCount="3754" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Many violence are occuring in name of STOPPING INTER CASTE marriage.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question :&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA; - Is our scriptures promoting these or not ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2019-07-06T16:53:58.207" LastActivityDate="2022-05-11T03:28:51.620" Title="Does Hinduism promotes violence against inter caste marriage" Tags="|dharma|caste-system|marriage|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17149" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17148" CreationDate="2017-02-14T16:24:41.867" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Inter caste marriages are never praised in Scriptures.Because they create   the &quot;Varna shankars&quot; or mixed castes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example see this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.24. &lt;strong&gt;By adultery (committed by persons) of (different)&#xA;  castes, by marriages with women who ought not to be married&lt;/strong&gt;, and by&#xA;  the neglect of the duties and occupations (prescribed) to each, &lt;strong&gt;are&#xA;  produced (sons who owe their origin) to a confusion the castes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In particular the son that a Sudra man begets on a Brahmin woman is called a Chandala , one of the base-borns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.12. &lt;strong&gt;From a Sudra are born&lt;/strong&gt; an Ayogava, a Kshatta, and &lt;strong&gt;a&#xA;  Chandala, the lowest of men, by&lt;/strong&gt; Vaisya, Kshatriya, and &lt;strong&gt;Brahmana)&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;females, (sons who owe their origin to) a confusion of the castes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,stopping such marriages will  possibly be good karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT-A little bit of more clarification for Sakthi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;@Sakthi If something of that sort is happening within your family you can(&amp;amp; you should) stop it.But if its happening to persons who are not related then you can at the most oppose and let everyone know that you are against such activities.Anything more than that from your side is not desired.And resorting to violence in order to stop such marriages is of course Adharma only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the following verse,which clearly suggests that &lt;strong&gt;undue interference&lt;/strong&gt; is not recommended in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 4.164. Let him, when angry, not raise a stick against&#xA;  another man, nor strike (anybody) &lt;strong&gt;except a son or a pupil&lt;/strong&gt;; those two&#xA;  he may beat in order to correct them&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-16T07:41:11.307" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T07:41:11.307" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17151" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17154" CreationDate="2017-02-14T19:48:56.887" Score="12" ViewCount="1979" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meelo_Evaru_Koteeswarudu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (Who among you is a Millionaire?), MEK for short, is the Telugu version of the more popular &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaun_Banega_Crorepati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindi KBC show&lt;/a&gt;. In a recent air of the show (Season 4), the final and the ₹ 10 million (1 cr.) question was based on the Mahābhārata. The guy unfortunately guessed the answer wrong and took home just ₹ 300,000.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question was:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the Mahabharata, who among these is not one of the 100 sons of Gandhari?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A. Sulochan &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; B. Nanda &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; C. Ugrasena &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; D. Srutasru&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QTNct.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QTNct.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The correct answer according to the show is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;!! spoiler alert !!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote class=&quot;spoiler&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;D&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Srutasru&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I tried to look up the above names in answers to &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6853&quot;&gt;Name all the hundred Kauravas in Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; but the names are spelled differently in different answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So did MEK base its question on Vyasa Mahābhārata or Andhra Mahābhārata or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaurava&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T04:33:06.123" LastActivityDate="2021-02-03T01:50:10.743" Title="Source of the ₹ 10 million question on Mahābhārata" Tags="|mahabharata|kauravas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17152" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-15T04:40:46.823" Score="5" ViewCount="872" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aum - Is the concept of Brahman, in the Philosophy of Hinduism, comparable with the Ideology of Panentheism? (the belief or doctrine that God is greater than the universe and includes and interpenetrates it.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From my research it seems to match, however I'm not certain if Brahman is separate from the universe, as well as a part of the Universe, or rather is Brahman the Universe, and nothing else? (Pantheism)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Z35xK.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Z35xK.png&quot; alt=&quot;Panentheism&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8951" LastActivityDate="2018-11-02T08:47:37.710" Title="Panentheism &amp; Hinduism" Tags="|brahman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17153" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15429" CreationDate="2017-02-15T04:47:04.317" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Markandeya Purana chapter 6 states that BalaRama repents for killing Suta. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suta, being slain, attained to the dignity of Brahma; and all the twice-born, clad in antelope skin, went away from the forest. Considering himself sullied, the holder of plough thought: &amp;quot;A great iniquity has been perpetrated by me. &lt;strong&gt;I have slain Suta who has attained to the dignity of Brahma; and seeing me all these twice-born ones have gone away. The smell of my body, hard as iron, is creating uneasiness. I have degraded my own-self cursed with the destruction of a Brahmana. Fie on spite, drink, egoism and rashness, possessed by which I have perpetrated this mighty iniquity. For expiating my sin, I shall observe a vow extending over twelve years by washing away my deed and making an excellent atonement. In this visit of the holy shrines which I have undertaken I shall go to Pratiloma Saraswati.&amp;quot; Thereupon Rama repaired to Pratiloma Saraswati;&lt;/strong&gt; hear next the narration concerning the Pandavas. (Markandeya Purana chapter 6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-02-15T04:47:04.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17154" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17151" CreationDate="2017-02-15T05:59:42.233" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Names of Kauravas are almost same in Vyasa Mahabharata and Andhra Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs01108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 108&lt;/a&gt; of Adiparva of Vyasa Mahabharata gives names as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;duryodhano yuyutsuś ca rājan duḥśāsanas tathā duḥsaho duḥśalaś caiva&#xA;  jalasaṃdhaḥ samaḥ sahaḥ vindānuvindau durdharṣaḥ subāhur&#xA;  duṣpradharṣaṇaḥ durmarṣaṇo durmukhaś ca duṣkarṇaḥ karṇa eva ca&#xA;  viviṃśatir vikarṇaś ca jalasaṃdhaḥ &lt;strong&gt;sulocana&lt;/strong&gt;ḥ citropacitrau citrākṣaś&#xA;  cāru citraḥ śarāsanaḥ durmado duṣpragāhaś ca vivitsur vikaṭaḥ samaḥ&#xA;  ūrṇu nābhaḥ sunābhaś ca tathā &lt;strong&gt;nando&lt;/strong&gt;panandakau senāpatiḥ suṣeṇaś ca&#xA;  kuṇḍodara mahodarau citrabāṇaś citravarmā suvarmā durvimocanaḥ ayo&#xA;  bāhur mahābāhuś citrāṅgaś citrakuṇḍalaḥ  bhīmavego bhīmabalo balākī&#xA;  balavardhanaḥ ugrāyudho bhīmakarmā kanakāyur dṛḍhāyudhaḥ dṛḍhavarmā&#xA;  dṛḍhakṣatraḥ somakīrtir anūdaraḥ dṛḍhasaṃdho jarāsaṃdhaḥ satyasaṃdhaḥ&#xA;  sadaḥ suvāk ugraśravā &lt;strong&gt;aśvasena&lt;/strong&gt;ḥ senānīr duṣparājayaḥ aparājitaḥ&#xA;  paṇḍitako viśālākṣo durāvaraḥ dṛḍhahastaḥ suhastaś ca&#xA;  vātavegasuvarcasau ādityaketur bahv āśīnāgadantogra yāyinau  kavacī&#xA;  niṣaṅgī pāśī ca daṇḍadhāro dhanur grahaḥ ugro bhīma ratho vīro&#xA;  vīrabāhur alolupaḥ abhayo raudrakarmā ca tathā dṛḍharathas trayaḥ &#xA;  anādhṛṣyaḥ kuṇḍa bhedī virāvī dīrghalocanaḥ dīrghabāhur mahābāhur&#xA;  vyūḍhorur kanakadhvajaḥ kuṇḍāśī virajāś caiva duḥśalā ca śatādhikā&#xA;  etad ekaśataṃ rājan kanyā caikā prakīrtitā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01118.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translation&lt;/a&gt; of Asvasena is made as Ugrasena by Ganguli as Ugrasena was another name for Asvasena.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Jarasandha, Satyasandha, Sada, Suvak, Ugrasravas, &lt;strong&gt;Ugrasena&lt;/strong&gt;, Senani,&#xA;  Dushparajaya, ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/txt/mbh01.itx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bori Critical Edition&lt;/a&gt; also mentions &quot;Ashvasena&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dRRiDhasandho jarAsandhaH satyasandhaH sadaHsuvAk | &lt;br&gt;ugrashravA&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ashvasenaH&lt;/strong&gt; senAnIrduShparAjayaH || 9||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bibek Debroy translates as &quot;Ashvasena&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..Dridhasandha, Jarasandha, Satyasandha, Sadahsuvak, Ugrashrava,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Ashvasena&lt;/strong&gt;, Senani, Dushparajaya, Aparajita, Panditaka,..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Panchamaasvasam, Adiparvam of &lt;a href=&quot;http://ebooks.tirumala.org/Product/?ID=1873&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Andhra Mahabharatam&lt;/a&gt; (Pg-518) mentions exact names as mentioned in question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/35AAx.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/35AAx.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sulochana is same as Sulochan (maybe Hindi sound). Nandopanandaka = Nanda + Upanandaka  which is &lt;em&gt;guNa sandhi&lt;/em&gt; (गुण सन्धि). Names of those brothers were Nanda and Upananda. Suffix &quot;Ka&quot; क is used in the sense of diminution or similarity or endearment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/AP90Scan/2014/web/webtc/indexcaller.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apte dictionary&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क: A Taddhita affix added to  nouns and adjectives, mostly to the &#xA;  former, in the sense of diminution,  deterioration, similarity,&#xA;  endearment, or sometimes to express the  original meaning of the&#xA;  word it-  self; e. g. वृक्षकः a small tree; बालकः  a chap; पुत्रकः&#xA;  dear boy; अश्वकः a  bad horse, or like a horse, or a horse  itself&#xA;  (स्वार्थे कन्).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we can consider they based this question on Andhra Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T04:37:49.803" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T04:37:49.803" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17155" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17126" CreationDate="2017-02-15T06:00:57.420" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;If Adi Shankara was trying to avoid the Chandala then he was simply following the injunctions of Scriptures. So, if you want to blame someone (or something) here, then blame the Scriptures. Because Adi Shankara was simply adhering to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the following verses from Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.239. &lt;strong&gt;A Chandala&lt;/strong&gt;, a village pig, a cock, a dog, a menstruating woman, and a eunuch &lt;strong&gt;must not look at the Brahmanas while they eat&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.85. &lt;strong&gt;When he[a brahmin] has touched a Chandala&lt;/strong&gt;, a menstruating woman, an outcast, a woman in child bed, a corpse, or one who has touched a (corpse), &lt;strong&gt;he&#xA;  becomes pure by bathing.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.51. &lt;strong&gt;But the dwellings of Chandalas&lt;/strong&gt; and Svapakas &lt;strong&gt;shall be outside the village&lt;/strong&gt;, they must be made Apapatras, and their wealth (shall be) dogs&#xA;  and donkeys.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.53. &lt;strong&gt;A man who fulfils a religious duty, shall not seek intercourse with them;&lt;/strong&gt; their transactions (shall be) among themselves, and their&#xA;  marriages with their equals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.175. A Brahmana who unintentionally approaches a woman of the Chandala or of (any other) very low caste, who eats (the food of such&#xA;  persons) and accepts (presents from them) becomes an outcast;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And from Parashara Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;23&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;For sleeping together with many of the Chandala caste, let a Brahman fast for full three nights. &lt;strong&gt;If he treads a path that a&#xA;  Chandala has trodden, his sin is removed by a remembrance of the&#xA;  Gayatri verse.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GUi1q.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GUi1q.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;24&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On seeing a Chandala, let him look at the sun without a moment's delay. For touching a Chandala, let him bathe with his clothing on.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Adi Shankara was simply following these instructions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, these verses should not taken as applicable only to a particular caste of people that is solely determined by birth. A Chandala is also the one who may not be that by birth but who is acting like one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5BJKr.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5BJKr.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who sets his face against righteousness, is but a Chandala by his&#xA;  acts.&lt;/strong&gt; He gains nothing by being a mendicant, or by worshiping the&#xA;  household fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;Parashara Smriti)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what Lord Shiva said simply means &quot;What is the difference between a Chandala and a Brahmin &lt;strong&gt;when Atma-Gyana (Brahma Gyana, Knowledge of the Self) is obtained?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Atma Gayna is obtained then one is free from all vedhas( dualities, differences) but till that (state of avedha) is achieved the vedhas are very much there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When one achieves Atma Gyana there is no karma for him (good or bad) and there are no rules for him. There is no need for him then to follow the Scriptural injunctions either.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But for all other persons those rules laid down in Shastras should always be followed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-01T19:47:41.220" LastActivityDate="2017-03-01T19:47:41.220" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17156" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17157" CreationDate="2017-02-15T09:17:19.660" Score="12" ViewCount="3562" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the real concept of brahmacharya as per vedas or Hindu scriptures ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it about remaining bachelor or about celibate? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or is it abstaining from inter course?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or controlling desires?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or striving for Brahman? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedas authority would be more desirous&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the reference I found this- but unable to understand this completely. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now what people call yajña(sacrifice) is really Brahmacharya, for only&#xA;  by means of Brahmacharya does the knower attain that world (of&#xA;  Brahman). And what people call Ishta (worship) is really Brahmacharya,&#xA;  for only worshipping by means of Brahmacarya does one attain the Atman&#xA;  (the liberated Self). Now, what people call the&#xA;  Sattrayana (sacrificial session) is really Brahmacharya, for only by&#xA;  means of Brahmacharya does one obtain one's salvation&#xA;  from Sat (Being). And what people call the Mauna (vow of silence) is&#xA;  really Brahmacharya for only through Brahmacharya does one understand&#xA;  the Atman and then meditate. Now, what people call a Anasakayana (vow&#xA;  of fasting) is really Brahmacharya, for this Atman never perishes&#xA;  which one attains by means of Brahmacharya. And what people call&#xA;  the Aranyayana (life of a hermit) is really Brahmacharya, for the&#xA;  world of Brahman belongs to those who by means of Brahmacharya attain&#xA;  the seas Ara and Nya in the world of Brahman. For them there is&#xA;  freedom in all the worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Chandogya Upanishad, VIII.5.1 - VIII.5.4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2018-10-13T17:08:23.187" LastActivityDate="2019-04-29T18:39:52.603" Title="What is the real concept of brahmacharya?" Tags="|scripture|brahmacharya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17157" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17156" CreationDate="2017-02-15T09:31:28.853" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THE CONCEPT OF BRAHMACARYA – ITS TRUE MEANING, NATURE &amp;amp; IMPLICATION&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmacarya as the name signifies, relates to brahman. The word ‘brahma’ derives its meaning from the root bRhmi “bRhmi dhAtvarthagocaraM vastu” (बृह्मि धात्वर्थगोचरं वस्तु) . The more famous term “brhatvAt bRhmaNatvAcca brahma ityucyate budhaiH” (&lt;strong&gt;बृहत्वात् बृह्मणत्वाच्च बृह्म इत्युच्यते बुधैः&lt;/strong&gt;) neatly explains brahma - Meaning, “In view of its vastness of size or extent and in view of its expansiveness, it is called as brahman by the wise”. The brahman is so called because of its inherent ability to expand. It will thus be known that brahman is nothing but the form of supra-conscious shakti (paracit shakti) that is the cause of this creation. viewed in this context, the real meaning of the word “brahmacarya” would be the religious anuShThAna-s or practices related to shiva-shakti or the experience of brahman in the turIya state or more appropriately, the anusaMdhAna of shiva-shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides the above, the vedas are also collectively known as brahma. This can be inferred from the words of shiva in &lt;strong&gt;bRhannIlatantra&lt;/strong&gt; –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekovedaH caturdhAbhUt yajussAma RgAdayaH | vedo brahmeti sAkShAdvai&#xA;  jAneham naganandinI || It is thus very clear from the above that the&#xA;  vedas were one and later branched out into four as Rgveda, yajurveda,&#xA;  sAmaveda &amp;amp; atharvaNaveda later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fact that the word &lt;strong&gt;brahma&lt;/strong&gt; refers to the &lt;strong&gt;vedas&lt;/strong&gt; and vice-versa can be inferred from innumerable mantras of the vedas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“yena devA apunata| tena divyena brahmaNA | idaM brahma punImahe|”&#xA;  (Y.V)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“mahimAnamagnervihitasya brahmaNA” (A.V. 18-4-8)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“gAtrANi te brahmaNA kalpayAmi” (A.V. 18-4-52)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verses are but a few examples which reveal that brahma is the name for vedas. And hence, veda- adhyayana or learning of the vedas is called “&lt;strong&gt;brahmacarya&lt;/strong&gt;”. Since control of the senses is laid down as a condition for the learning of the vedas, what is popularly known as “&lt;strong&gt;CELIBACY&lt;/strong&gt;” in english has now come to be termed as brahmacarya and the true import of the word “brahmacarya” and its true meaning has been completely obscured. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Today people simply know brahmacarya as abstinence or celibacy !&#xA;One should know that true brahmacarya is actually being in marital life. In the &lt;strong&gt;grihasthAshrama&lt;/strong&gt;, the couple involving in conjugal bliss after being totally devoted to each other is known as brahmacarya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Says &lt;strong&gt;yAjJavalkya&lt;/strong&gt; in his &lt;strong&gt;smRti&lt;/strong&gt; on the time favourable for conception&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ShoDashartunishA strINAM tasmin yugmAsu saMvishet | brahmacAryeva&#xA;  parvANyAdyAshcatasrashca varjayet ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“ Of the first sixteen nights from the onset of periods in woman, intercourse should be had with them in the even nights avoiding parva-s (amAvAsya &amp;amp; other parva like saMkrAnti) and the first four nights. By doing so, he will verily be a brahmacAri”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While commenting on the above verse, &lt;strong&gt;vijJAneshvara&lt;/strong&gt; observes that the fruit of brahmacarya is attaining of &lt;strong&gt;brahmaloka&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, the observance of brahmacarya by couple in their marital life is not a bar for &lt;strong&gt;intercourse&lt;/strong&gt; with the wife had with the purpose of obtaining progeny :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“…….. yatra brahmacaryaM coditaM tatra gacchatopi na&#xA;  brahmacaryaskhalanadoShaH….”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is therefore amply clear from the above that brahmacarya has nothing to do with &lt;strong&gt;abstinence&lt;/strong&gt; or celibacy and the union of the husband with his wife is indeed what is known as brahmacarya as it is aimed at begetting progeny. It is in this context that lord &lt;strong&gt;Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; though a much married man, is a &lt;strong&gt;nityabrahmacArI&lt;/strong&gt; and not as sought to be conveyed / confused by the &lt;strong&gt;sanyAsimata-s&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परमादेवता पत्नी संपूज्या गृहमेधिना&#xA;  सदा पत्न्याः शरीरे तु वर्तन्ते सर्वदेवताः&#xA;  paramAdevatA patnI saMpUjyA gRhamedhinA&#xA;  sadA patnyAH sharIre tu vartante sarvadevatAH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तथैवाग्निर्गार्हपत्यो ब्रह्मरूपं च वर्तते तस्मात् पत्या सदा पूज्या&#xA;  सेति वेदेषु निश्चयः tathaivAgnirgArhapatyo brahmarUpaM ca vartate&#xA;  tasmAt patyA sadA pUjyA seti vedeShu nishcayaH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्तु पत्नीं सुसंपूज्य गार्हपत्यमुपासते सभुक्त्वा सकलान् कामान्&#xA;  ब्रह्मलोके महीयते yastu patnIM susaMpUjya gArhapatyamupAsate sabhuktvA&#xA;  sakalAn kAmAn brahmaloke mahIyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wife&lt;/strong&gt; is the supreme deity required to be &lt;em&gt;worshipped&lt;/em&gt; by the husband who is a &lt;strong&gt;gRhamedhin&lt;/strong&gt; i.e. worshipper of the &lt;strong&gt;gArhapatyAgni&lt;/strong&gt;. In the body of the wife reside all the &lt;strong&gt;devatA&lt;/strong&gt;-s.&#xA;Likewise, the gArhapatyAgni which is verily &lt;strong&gt;brahmarUpa&lt;/strong&gt; also resides in her body. Hence, she should be worshipped always by the husband. Thus declare the veda-s.&#xA;Hence whosoever worships his wife &amp;amp; and &lt;strong&gt;gArhapatya&lt;/strong&gt;, attains all one can aspire for in this world and is worshipped in &lt;strong&gt;brahmaloka&lt;/strong&gt; after his death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;--'&lt;strong&gt;Yajnavalkaya smrit&lt;/strong&gt;i&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2019-04-07T15:40:54.340" LastActivityDate="2019-04-07T15:40:54.340" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17159" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="203" CreationDate="2017-02-15T14:41:50.100" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;strong&gt;quora.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hindu saints have always been amazed by nature. One of the biggest components of Vedas is the &quot;Aranyakas&quot; - experiments with nature. Two of the most impressive things that Hindu saints found were - Sandhya (time of sunset/sunrise) and Agni (fire). Big chunk of Vedas are about extolling the virtues of the Sun and Fire. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus thought that the fire symbolized everything about us. The fire destroys everything it comes across into a lump of ash - whether it is your precious rug or an inexpensive cloth, just as a king eventually meets the same end as the poorest pauper. The rich burns as well as the poor. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fire is a symbol of sacrifice and renouncing ego. During Yajna (fire worship), we offer plenty of dear things to the fire as an act of renunciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three predominant colors of sunset and agni are yellow, orange/saffron and red. These three thus became the holiest colors of Hinduism. The bottom of the fire is usually red (where the coal is red hot), the middle is yellow and at the top it is orange. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-color-Saffron-so-important-in-Hinduism-as-well-as-otherwise/answer/Balaji-Viswanathan-2?srid=u9oBe&amp;amp;share=d466ab33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-color-Saffron-so-important-in-Hinduism-as-well-as-otherwise/answer/Balaji-Viswanathan-2?srid=u9oBe&amp;amp;share=d466ab33&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8964" LastActivityDate="2017-02-15T14:41:50.100" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17160" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3880" CreationDate="2017-02-15T15:05:20.780" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can find lot of original scanned versions in the following site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/texts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://archive.org/details/texts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8963" LastActivityDate="2017-02-15T15:05:20.780" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17163" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17156" CreationDate="2017-02-16T04:44:34.440" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;brahmaiva satyam. In reality there is NO kaama / krOdha. Knowing this and living accordingly is the highest form of brahmacharya. It requires uttara meemaamsa / sanyaasa in mind (bhaavaadwaitam sadaa kuryaath, kriyaadwaitam na kurvayeth). Knowing He who is guiding .. having akartRtwa bhaava is the key for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;some more points:&#xA;According to our scriptures, praarabdha karma is the cause of incorrect behavior. When paapa is done the main result is not some hell but it is the tendency (preraNa is the word used - movement of body - (prachodayat)) to do it again. The only remedy for karma is to remove prakRti ahamkaara (the thought I am doing). Real ahamkaara (aham brahmosmi) is required. In fact it is the main helping factor. Unless the karma beeja (different from 3 types of karma) is removed - which only a sadguru (He who has proved the saastra vaakaya - gururviswam nachaanyOsti - by giving experience) can do, no amount of mere bhaava will help or rather will not stand against real world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user8967" LastEditorDisplayName="user8967" LastEditDate="2017-02-16T04:59:35.563" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T04:59:35.563" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17166" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4009" CreationDate="2017-02-16T09:43:59.923" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Puraścaraṇa means preparatory rites, which is associated with mantra japas. Puras means first of all and ācaraṇa means undertaking, practising and performing. Therefore puraścaraṇa means first preparatory rites. There are two types of puraścaraṇa rites. One is to make saṅkalpa to certain prescribed number of recitations followed by homa, tarpaṇa, mārjana and bhojana on a regular basis. The second one is to do mantra japa and after completing certain rounds as prescribed mantra śāstra-s. Puraścaraṇa should be done only after obtaining specific permission from the Guru, who initiated the mantra. Guru should be worshiped before and after puraścaraṇa. It is important that Guru should be offered dakṣiṇa. If Guru is not available, dakṣiṇa should be offered to his wife or son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Total clarification about the &quot;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://manblunder.com/articlesview/purascharana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purascharana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; is explained here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8971" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T09:43:59.923" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17167" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="425" CreationDate="2017-02-16T09:46:44.193" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Water coming from clouds, rivers.. and it is we who neglect but water is divine (marjana mantra of sandhya vandana). Remembering it and thus remembering Him after looking at just anything is even more important. Everything is valuable and divine. This is the ultimate meaning of abhisheka you get if you start contemplating on the mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user8970" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T09:46:44.193" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17168" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17179" CreationDate="2017-02-16T09:49:22.977" Score="4" ViewCount="215" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was trying to understand these Sanskrit Mahavakya &amp;amp; word respectively-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;प्रज्ञानम् ब्रह्म।  Why not विज्ञानं ब्रह्म ?  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;विज्ञानभैरवतंत्र। Why not प्रज्ञानभैरवतंत्र?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What's the difference between त्याग &amp;amp; परित्याग?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What actually is Vijnana and Prajnana? What's the difference between these two words?&#xA;Actually, these अ, वि, प्र are changing a lot of words in Sanskrit. Would be better if someone explains how they change the meaning of the word? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-02-16T10:56:57.447" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T13:28:38.527" Title="Can anyone here tell me how a Sanskrit word changes if prefixed with प्र , वि, अ, परि ।" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17169" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4009" CreationDate="2017-02-16T10:11:29.840" Score="1" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can Purascharana be initiated even without a guru?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. Ref: answer of Ramana Maharshi. Can refer any praacheena aacharyaas words. It is absolutely useless to do without a guru. But if it gives any result, it is due to satwa guNa in them. Same can be attained with nama japa also. Mantra is entirely different.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can he eat meat while doing Purasacharana? Doesn't this habit drop by itself when he reaches a certain stage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. (Concepts in History are repeating..) Budha came exactly for this - to avoid it. Ref: Jayadeva dasavataara stotra as a simple example. Almost all puranas who mentioned Budha mentioned this. This body is mantra pimDa, not maamsa pimDa. Proof? Refer Dr James Olds experiments with rats on pleasure points. The animal transcended the appetite even for sex, thus proving beyond senses bliss - the main point of chakras &amp;amp; mantras. Regarding meat: I have heard some elders saying: devatas/mantras + meat -&gt; it is like offering the meat of one's own kid to mother as food. Don't do it. This is why not all are eligible for their own good. With bhakti / nama japa also same result will come. Can refer mahatma's words for it - like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;About remaining questions: Mantra is NOT mechanical. It has bhaava. Ref: There are innumerable number of stories proving this point. Bhakti is first. If you are required to get a mantra, you will get. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the end, mantras are coming under purva meemaamsa. This is not ultimate. Uttara meemaamsa is ultimate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user8970" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T10:11:29.840" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17171" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-16T10:18:56.417" Score="1" ViewCount="99" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the difference between the Pancādaśi and śodaśākṣari(षोडशाक्षरि) mantras, of course apart from the fact that the later contains one more akshara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is the śodaśākṣari kept so secret?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you don't know about the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.manblunder.com/articlesview/panchadasi-mantra-explained&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Panchadasi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, here is the explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8971" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-25T18:28:11.897" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T18:28:11.897" Title="What is the difference beween śodaśākṣari and Pancādaśi mantras?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17172" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17183" CreationDate="2017-02-16T10:48:27.627" Score="3" ViewCount="1369" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Inter-caste marriage is not appreciated by our scriptures and also in practical life and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17148/is-stopping-an-inter-caste-between-a-brahmin-woman-and-a-shudra-man-dharma-or/17149?noredirect=1#comment44265_17149&quot;&gt;Stopping a inter - caste marriage&lt;/a&gt; is dharma and is of good karma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Couples get killed or beated by  their relatives if they have &lt;strong&gt;No other way&lt;/strong&gt; to stop the marriage.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does our &lt;strong&gt;Scriptures&lt;/strong&gt; provide punsihments for commiting Inter-Caste marriage ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Punishing&lt;/strong&gt; for misdeeds is applicable for a king and do their parents,brothers and relatives have right to punish them ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a couples parents punish them for the Inter - caste marriage will they get &lt;strong&gt;Bad karma&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-09-14T14:15:48.523" LastActivityDate="2020-09-14T14:15:48.523" Title="Punishing a couple to stop intercaste marriage is of which Karma(Good Or Bad)?" Tags="|dharma|marriage|caste-system|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17173" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17172" CreationDate="2017-02-16T11:33:52.673" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Inter-caste marriage is not appreciated by our scriptures and also in&#xA;  practical life and Stopping a inter - caste marriage is dharma and is&#xA;  of good karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all this statement is not true because vedas only talk about four वर्ण varan, which were on the basis of Karma not जाती.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as per the highest book vedas inter-caste marriages can be done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Couples get killed or beated by their relatives if they have No other&#xA;  way to stop the marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have no right to hurt other humans&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहिंसा परमॊ धर्मस तथाहिंसा परॊ दमः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहिंसा परमं दानम अहिंसा परमस तपः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहिंसा परमॊ यज्ञस तथाहिस्मा परं बलम।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहिंसा परमं मित्रम अहिंसा परमं सुखम।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहिंसा परमं सत्यम अहिंसा परमं शरुतम॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above passage from Mahabharata emphasises the cardinal importance of Ahimsa in Hinduism, and literally means: &lt;strong&gt;Ahimsa is the highest virtue, Ahimsa is the highest self-control, Ahimsa is the greatest gift, Ahimsa is the best suffering, Ahimsa is the highest sacrifice, Ahimsa is the finest strength, Ahimsa is the greatest friend, Ahimsa is the greatest happiness, Ahimsa is the highest truth, and Ahimsa is the greatest teaching.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above passage Source Wikipedia&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should himself honestly and the answer will be No you can not kill or beat other living being, other living being have the same feelings as other human being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T11:33:52.673" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17140" CreationDate="2017-02-16T12:05:11.917" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pandavs did not have any kingdom before war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When &lt;strong&gt;Pandavs lost everything in चोसर&lt;/strong&gt; (gambling) and they were to condemned to &lt;strong&gt;12 years of exile into forests&lt;/strong&gt; and a &lt;strong&gt;13th year to be spent incognito&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So &lt;strong&gt;During the 12 years of exile&lt;/strong&gt; in the forest, &lt;strong&gt;they prepared for war.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T12:05:11.917" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17175" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17205" CreationDate="2017-02-16T12:07:04.460" Score="10" ViewCount="754" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As lust is one of the desires of living beings and seems to be avoidable at high concentration.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The other desires of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadripu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;shada ripus&lt;/a&gt; are seems to be less difficult(my opinion)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We can see many people in our yuga who had overcome most of the desires fall in trap of kama deva.&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;EXAMPLE :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ravan and Vali were slain for his &lt;strong&gt;lust&lt;/strong&gt; towards other man's wife.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahabharatha war was brought for disroping draupadi commited by duryodhana's brother because of &lt;strong&gt;lust&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why many of them fall in this desire is it &lt;strong&gt;more powerful&lt;/strong&gt; than other desires of shada ripus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What are the ways said in our scriputre to &lt;strong&gt;overcome&lt;/strong&gt; this desire ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Answers with practical examples are needed&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-18T16:46:59.713" Title="Is lust the most powerful among the shada ripus?" Tags="|desire|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17176" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17172" CreationDate="2017-02-16T12:22:23.760" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Such punishment based on the spurious concept of last name based caste (not in Hindu scripture) violates basic tenet of Hindu ethics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on virtue&lt;/strong&gt;     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vidura said, ‘Study of the various scriptures,&#xA;  asceticism, gift, faith, performance of sacrifices, forgiveness,&#xA;  sincerity of disposition, compassion, truth, self-restraint, these&#xA;  constitute possessions of Virtue. Do thou adopt Virtue. Let not, thy&#xA;  heart ever turn away from it. Both Virtue and Profit have their roots&#xA;  in these. I think that all these are capable of being included in one&#xA;  term. It is upon Virtue that all the worlds depend (for their&#xA;  existence). It is by Virtue that the gods attained to their position&#xA;  of superiority. It is upon Virtue that Profit or Wealth rests. Virtue,&#xA;  O king, is foremost in point of merit. Profit is said to be middling.&#xA;  Desire, it is said by the wise, is the lowest of the three. For this&#xA;  reason, one should live with restrained soul, giving his attention to&#xA;  virtue most. &lt;strong&gt;One should also behave towards all creatures as he&#xA;  should towards himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CLXVII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on how to treat others&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That which is antagonistic to one’s own self, should never be applied&#xA;  in respect of another.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, Section 39]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhishma’s morality&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma said, &lt;strong&gt;‘Knowing how painful it is to himself, a person should&#xA;  never do that to others which he dislikes when done to him by others&lt;/strong&gt;.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLX&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moral guidelines for the Righteous&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira said, ‘Abstentions from injury, the observances of the&#xA;  Vedic ritual, meditation, subjugation of the senses, penances, and&#xA;  obedient services rendered to the preceptors - which amongst these is&#xA;  fraught with the greatest merit with respect to a person?’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vrihaspati said, ‘All these six are fraught with merit. They are&#xA;  different doors of piety. I shall discourse upon them presently. Do&#xA;  thou listen to them, O chief of the Bharatas! I shall tell thee what&#xA;  constitutes the highest good of a human being. That man who practices&#xA;  the religion of universal compassion achieves his highest good. That&#xA;  man who keeps under control the three faults, viz., lust, wrath, and&#xA;  cupidity, ,,, (and practises the virtue of compassion), attains to&#xA;  success. ……. &lt;strong&gt;That man who regards all creatures as his own self, and&#xA;  behaves towards them as towards his own self, laying aside the rod of&#xA;  chastisement and completely subjugating his wrath, succeeds in&#xA;  attaining to happiness. ….One should never do that to another, which&#xA;  one regards as injurious to one’s own self.&lt;/strong&gt; This, in brief, is the&#xA;  rule of righteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Anusasana Parva Section CXIII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-02-17T14:23:28.687" LastActivityDate="2017-02-17T14:23:28.687" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17177" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4009" CreationDate="2017-02-16T12:23:55.703" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;strong&gt;Meru Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;, a Shakta Agama :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One (&amp;amp; the best ) way (sadhan or means) of attaining the &quot;Chaturvidha Purusharthas&quot;&#xA;  (Dharma ,Artha etc) is Mantra. And, the first act (Purah=First, Act=Charja)&#xA;  that is done, after attaining Guru Upadesha, to attain &quot;Mantra Siddhi&quot; (mastery over a mantra) is called&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Purascharja&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;Purascharanakarma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;strong&gt;Viswa SAra Tantram&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The performance of the five acts viz- Japa ( repetition of mantra), Homa&#xA;  (Yajna), Tarpanam (oblations of water) , Abhisekha, and the feeding of &#xA;  Brahmins is what constitute the process of Purascharana.&#xA;  .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, it is to be noted the above is not a general (&amp;amp; the only) definition .&lt;strong&gt;All Mantras don't have this 5-limbed purascharana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet another scriptural definition of Purascharana is this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PujA TraikAliki Nityam Japastarpanameva Cha |&lt;br&gt; Homo BrAhman Bhuktischa&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Purascharana Muchyate&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Daily Tri Sandhya Puja, Japa, Tarpana, Homa and feeding the Brahmins-this&#xA;  constitute what is called Purascharana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 15-8.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if the Sadhaka can't perform any one (or more than one ) among these 5 limbs then he can compensate for that by doing a prescribed number of Japa as follows. Without this compensation Mantra Siddhi is not achieved and Purascharana is not considered to be complete.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yad Yadangam vihiyathe tath Sankhya Dviguno Japaha|&lt;br&gt; Kuryad&#xA;  Dvitrichatuhpanchasankhyam SA SAdhakah Priyeh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva says to Sri Devi] For not performing any number of angas (limbs), twice that number&#xA;  of japa is to be done as a compensation. Or the Sadhaka can do&#xA;  twice, thrice, four times or five times japa as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 15-9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what it means is, suppose,  the Sadhaka misses the two angas (say homa and tarpana) then he can do twice the number of Japa to compensate. So, if he were to do 1 lakh japa, for missing the two angas, compensation is done by doing japa of the mantra 2 lakh times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=525&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Number of times&lt;/a&gt; that a particular mantra has to be repeated  depends on the mantra itself. More precisely it depends on how many-lettered the mantra is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You can select any Mantra for Purascharana. Your Guru Mantra or Ishta&#xA;  Mantra is the best. Sandhya time, sunrise, sunset, midday are all&#xA;  recommended for Japa. Repeat the Mantra as many lakhs of times as&#xA;  there are letters in the Mantra. You can do half of that number. In no&#xA;  case the number should be less than a lakh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantra Siddhi can be obtained if the mantra is siddha (unlocked) or  is obtained from one's Guru. So, usually,initiation is &lt;strong&gt;always&lt;/strong&gt; needed. Mantra japa without Upadesha is considered  as a sin too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SiddhamatrAd &lt;strong&gt;GurorlavedhA&lt;/strong&gt; Mantro Yah Siddhi BhagBhaveth |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mantra Siddhi is obtained if the mantra is siddha and (or) is obtained&#xA;  from Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KT 15-14&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During Purascharana the Sattvik way of life style is to be adapted. &lt;strong&gt;So,meat eating, consumption of alcohol etc are to be avoided during that period.&lt;/strong&gt; The other rules to be followed during this time is sleeping on the floor and etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sivananda writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The practitioner should observe certain rules and undergo strict&#xA;  dietetic discipline to ensure quick Mantra Siddhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During the Purascharana take only fresh vegetables, fruits, milk,&#xA;  roots, barley and Havis-Anna (rice cooked with ghee, sugar, milk). A&#xA;  Sadhaka can live on pure Bhiksha (alms) also. If you can live on milk&#xA;  alone during the period of Purascharana it is highly laudable. You can&#xA;  have Mantra Siddhi even by repeating the Mantra a lakh of times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, mantra recitation in mind is accepted as japa. &lt;strong&gt;In fact that is considered as the best form of japa among all its three forms.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ucchair Japohadhamah Prokta UpAnsur Madhyamah Smrittaha | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Uttamo MAnaso&lt;/strong&gt; Devi Trividhah Kathithah Japaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi, the loud recitation of mantra is the worst kind of japa, middling is&#xA;  Upansu japa (whispering-Japa) and &lt;strong&gt;the best mode of Japa is Manasa Japa (that&#xA;  is done completely in mind).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 15-55.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are a few more rules which one is ought to learn from his Guru. And all Hindu rituals like Japa, Puja , Homa are always preceded by a Sankalpa. So,its also needed. Consult your Guru for the details of how to frame the Sankalpa mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, the place (of Japa) , Asana (posture) &amp;amp; the seat are important too. But i'm not posting those details here. You can simply follow these rules- Sit on a woolen mat (or still better a asana made of Kusa), facing east/north in Sukhasana or Padmasana posture. Don't do mantra japa while walking during Purascharana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hopefully ,i have answered few if not all of your questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T17:37:07.407" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T17:37:07.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17178" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17092" CreationDate="2017-02-16T12:30:35.677" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Understand that you can never control what is going to happen this Saturday, all you can control is what will happen inside of you everyday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However instead of worshiping Shani dev why not worship our own planet mother Earth plant more trees, Yajna (is done for entire universe), Worship Sun and moon, at least you can see and feel Sun, Moon and Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not denying that there are no effects of other planets on us, may be there are, Well i do not know, what we know is sun is the Source of energy for Mother earth and we should do something about it as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are made up of 5 elements which are in entire universe, Why not worship water, air, Earth, fire and Akash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I just believe that if we are discussing anything, we should get gain out of it, to have more knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hope it helps. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T12:30:35.677" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17179" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17168" CreationDate="2017-02-16T12:39:23.023" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;They are called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upasarga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upasarga&lt;/a&gt; (Sanskrit: उपसर्ग).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%89%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%97#.E0.A4.89.E0.A4.AA.E0.A4.B8.E0.A4.B0.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.97_.E0.A4.95.E0.A5.87_.E0.A4.85.E0.A4.A8.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.AF_.E0.A4.85.E0.A4.B0.E0.A5.8D.E0.A4.A5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%89%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%97&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bharat Discovery&lt;/a&gt; for simple meanings of Upasargas or prefixed used in Sanskrit/Devanagari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pra- &amp;quot;forth&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्र - अधिक, आगे&lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्र - forth, on, onwards, away, forward, very, excessive, great&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vi- &amp;quot;apart, asunder&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वि -  भिन्न, विशेष&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वि - without, apart, away, opposite, intensive, different&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Vi(वि) used to represent difference or some specialty of the word followed by it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the case of Vijnana (विज्ञान), it means some different/special kind of Jnana (ज्ञान) i.e knowledge or intelligence. I recommend to visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8788/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; post which clearly defines the Jnana and Vijnana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, talking about Pra (प्र), it usually represents something more/beyond (in the sens of &lt;em&gt;forth&lt;/em&gt;) then the meaning of the word followed by it. Like प्रशान्त, प्रख्यात, प्रबल etc. which signifies more than ordinary meanings (of शान्त, ख्यात, बल etc).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the case of Prajnana (&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/praj%C3%B1%C4%81na/142987/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;प्रज्ञान&lt;/a&gt;), as mentioned above, it enhance/amplifies the ordinary meaning of knowledge, intelligence, wisdom etc. Here, the word Prajnana (प्रज्ञान),  Prajna (प्रज्ञा and प्राज्ञ), Jna (ज्ञ) and Jnana (ज्ञान) are closely related. Jna means &amp;quot;knowing&amp;quot; and Prajna means intelligence, wisdom, judgement, understanding, awareness. According to the content, it refers to &lt;em&gt;transcendental&lt;/em&gt; wisdom or consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I recommend to read Aitariya Upanishad 3.1.2 and 3.1.3 for clear understanding of interpreting the Mahavakya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यदेतद्धृदयं मनश्चैतत् । संज्ञानमाज्ञानं विज्ञानं प्रज्ञानं मेधा दृष्टिर्धृतिमतिर्मनीषा जूतिः स्मृतिः संकल्पः क्रतुरसुः कामो वश इति । सर्वाण्येवैतानि प्रज्ञानस्य नामधेयानि भवंति ॥ २॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;III-i-2: It is this heart (intellect) and this mind that were stated earlier. It is sentience, rulership, secular knowledge, presence of mind, retentiveness, sense-perception, fortitude, thinking, genius, mental suffering, memory, ascertainment resolution, life-activities, hankering, passion and such others. All these verily are the names of Consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एष ब्रह्मैष इन्द्र एष प्रजापतिरेते सर्वे देवा इमानि च पञ्चमहाभूतानि पृथिवी वायुराकाश आपो ज्योतींषीत्येतानीमानि च क्षुद्रमिश्राणीव । बीजानीतराणि चेतराणि चाण्डजानि च जारुजानि च स्वेदजानि चोद्भिज्जानि चाश्वा गावः पुरुषा हस्तिनो यत्किञ्चेदं प्राणि जङ्गमं च पतत्रि च यच्च स्थावरं सर्वं तत्प्रज्ञानेत्रं प्रज्ञाने प्रतिष्ठितं प्रज्ञानेत्रो लोकः प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठा प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म ॥ ३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;III-i-3: This One is (the inferior) Brahman; this is Indra, this is Prajapati; this is all these gods; and this is these five elements, viz. earth, air, space, water, fire; and this is all these (big creatures), together with the small ones, that are the procreators of others and referable in pairs - to wit, those that are born of eggs, of wombs, of moisture of the earth, viz. horses, cattle, men, elephants, and all the creatures that there are which move or fly and those which do not move. All these have Consciousness as the giver of their reality; all these are impelled by Consciousness; the universe has Consciousness as its eye and Consciousness is its end. Consciousness is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Prajnanam refres to Chaitanya (चैतन्य).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Upasarga/Prefix meanings may differ according to the usage in Scripture or sentence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;You should refer Sanskrit grammar or dictionary. Also note though we encourage Sanskrit related questions regarding to interpretation of scripture, you should not ask purely Sanskrit grammar based question. Visit related meta post &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/748/277&quot;&gt;Should we close questions related to Sanskrit language and grammar as off-topic?&lt;/a&gt;. You may follow &lt;a href=&quot;http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/98070/sanskrit-language&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Languge&lt;/a&gt; proosal.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T13:28:38.527" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17180" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17182" CreationDate="2017-02-16T14:12:08.857" Score="8" ViewCount="855" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are some Advaita sounding verses in the Upanishads which declare that there is only &lt;em&gt;one without a second&lt;/em&gt; in the beginning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aitareya Upanishad 1.1.1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ आत्मा वा इदमेक एवाग्र आसीन्नान्यत्किंचन मिषत् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the beginning this was but the absolute Self alone. There was nothing else whatsoever that winked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad 6.2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सदेव सोम्येदमग्र आसीदेकमेवाद्वितीयम् । तद्धैक आहुरसदेवेदमग्र आसीदेकमेवाद्वितीयं तस्मादसतः सज्जायत ॥ ६.२.१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कुतस्तु खलु सोम्यैवꣳस्यादिति होवाच कथमसतः सज्जायेतेति। सत्त्वेव सोम्येदमग्र आसीदेकमेवाद्वितीयम् ॥ ६.२.२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VI-ii-1 'In the beginning, dear boy, this was Being alone, one only, without a second. Some say that, in the beginning, this was Non-being alone, one only, without a second. From that Non-being arose Being.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VI-ii-2: Aruni said, 'But now, indeed, dear boy, could it be so? How could Being arise from Non-being? In truth, dear boy, in the beginning (before creation), there was Being alone, one only, without a second.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am interested in knowing how Vishishtadvaita interprets this, as according to Vishishtadvaita, there are two realities – Jivatma and Paramatma. (World or Universe emerges and dissolves into Brahman but Jivatma doesn't).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;English translation quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/upanishads/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta Spiritual Library&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-10-08T08:43:17.023" LastActivityDate="2018-10-08T08:43:17.023" Title="How does Vishishtadvaita interpret &quot;One without a second&quot;?" Tags="|philosophy|upanishads|atma|brahman|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17182" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17180" CreationDate="2017-02-16T17:34:02.743" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Visistadvaita interpretation of the phrase &quot;one only without a second&quot; is that Sriman Narayana is unique and no other being is equal to him, not that no other being exists.  Here is what Yamunacharya, who was Ramanujacharya's guru's guru, says in his Siddhitrayam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To say that the Chola king, now reigning in this country, is all supreme and without a second, can only exclude the existence of another monarch equal &#xA;  (in power) to him; it cannot imply the denial of the existence of a wife, sons or servants of such a monarch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya says the same thing in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48026.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Sri Bhashya, his commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What the phrase 'without a second' really aims at intimating is that Brahman possesses manifold powers, and this it does by denying the existence of another ruling principle different from Brahman. That Brahman actually possesses manifold powers the text shows further on, 'It thought, may I be many, may I grow forth,' and 'it sent forth fire,' and so on.--But how are we to know that the mere phrase 'without a second' is meant to negative the existence of all other causes in general?--As follows, we reply. The clause 'Being only this was in the beginning, one only,' teaches that Brahman when about to create constitutes the substantial cause of the world. Here the idea of some further operative cause capable of giving rise to the effect naturally presents itself to the mind, and hence we understand that the added clause 'without a second' is meant to negative such an additional cause. If it were meant absolutely to deny all duality, it would deny also the eternity and other attributes of Brahman which you yourself assume. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in Ramanujacharya's view, that phrase indicates that Brahman is the only efficient cause and material cause of the Universe - there is no second cause.  This is elaborated in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48165.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;another section&lt;/a&gt; of the Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This clearly shows the unity of the operative (ruling or supervising) cause and the material cause; taken in conjunction with the subsequent declaration of the unity of the cause previous to creation, 'Being only, this was in the beginning, one only,' and the denial of a further operative cause implied in the further qualification 'advitîyam,' i.e. 'without a second.'--But how then have we to understand texts such as the one quoted above (from the Kûlika-Upanishad) which declare Prakriti to be eternal and the material cause of the world?--Prakriti, we reply, in such passages denotes Brahman in its causal phase when names and forms are not yet distinguished. For a principle independent of Brahman does not exist, as we know from texts such as 'Everything abandons him who views anything as apart from the Self; and 'But where for him the Self has become all, whereby should he see whom?' (Bri. Up. II, 4, 6; 15). Consider also the texts, 'All this is Brahman' (Kh. Up. III, 14, 1); and 'All this has its Self in that' (Kh. Up. VI, 8, 7); which declare that the world whether in its causal or its effected condition has Brahman for its Self. The relation of the world to Brahman has to be conceived in agreement with scriptural texts such as 'He who moves within the earth,' &amp;amp;c., up to 'He who moves within the Imperishable'; and 'He who dwells within the earth,' &amp;amp;c., up to 'He who dwells within the Self (Bri. Up. III, 7, 3-23). The highest Brahman, having the whole aggregate of non-sentient and sentient beings for its body, ever is the Self of all. Sometimes, however, names and forms are not evolved, not distinguished in Brahman; at other times they are evolved, distinct. In the latter state Brahman is called an effect and manifold; in the former it is called one, without a second, the cause. This causal state of Brahman is meant where the text quoted above speaks of the cow without beginning and end, giving birth to effects, and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T17:34:02.743" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17183" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17172" CreationDate="2017-02-16T17:44:53.100" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;@Sakthi,while the Scriptures generally don't encourage inter caste marriages but nowhere such marriages are said to be as punishable offences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some cases (where the caste of the bridegroom is higher than that of the bride) such marriages are even allowed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Brahmana can marry a Kshatriya or Vaishya girl; a Kshatriya can take&#xA;  a Vaishya wife, and a Vaishya can wed a Sudra's daughter. But the&#xA;  member of an inferior caste can not wed a girl of superior caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vyasa Smriti,Chapter 2,verse 11.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And punishment is not a bad thing either.Its  the fear of punishments only that stops offenders  from creating more crimes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 7.22. &lt;strong&gt;The whole world is kept in order by punishment&lt;/strong&gt;, for&#xA;  a guiltless man is hard to find; &lt;strong&gt;through fear of punishment the whole&#xA;  world yields the enjoyments.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,it is even stated at one place that one of king's duties is to prevent the creation of inter-mixing of castes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 8.172. By taking his due, &lt;strong&gt;by preventing the confusion of&#xA;  the castes (varna),&lt;/strong&gt; and by protecting the weak, the power of the king&#xA;  grows, and he prospers in this (world) and after death&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But , i have not found any punishments as such for couples who have inter-caste(varna) marriages.Punishments for inter caste adultery cases,however, are mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So,punishing such couples by inflicting them with pain will be unlawful.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-02-16T17:44:53.100" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17184" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-16T23:29:11.397" Score="5" ViewCount="955" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Rāma have Kuja doṣa (a.k.a  maṅgala doṣa, māṅgalika)? What about the Pāṇḍavas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I see all of them exiled to the woods in their prime years. This must be the worst thing that can happen to a kṣatriya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rāma even got separated from his wife, Sītā, not once but twice. At least the Pāṇḍavas always had Draupadī accompanying them wherever they went.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Rāma did have Kuja doṣa, how come Vasiṣṭa or Śatānanda didn't know about it? Why did they approve Rāma's marriage with Sītā?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what about Kṛṣṇa? Did he have Kuja doṣa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T15:46:42.367" Title="Did Rāma have Kuja doṣa? What about the Pāṇḍavas?" Tags="|krishna|rama|astrology|pandavas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17185" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-17T04:13:41.030" Score="0" ViewCount="3940" Body="&lt;p&gt;is there any mention of Life on MARS in any of the hindu texts Shastras or Puranas or Vedas. I know there were some questions around but never specific to life on Mars. I am very curious to know if there is any mention of life ever existed on planet MARS or anything related to Alien beings on MARS.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8956" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-02-18T02:11:15.940" LastActivityDate="2017-02-18T02:11:15.940" Title="What do hindu scriptures say about life on MARS?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|navagraha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17186" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17185" CreationDate="2017-02-17T05:05:54.100" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rishi भारद्वाज (Bhardwaj) asked कुंभकर्ण (great scientist of his time who used to meditate for 6 months and 6 months in his laboratory) that how long does it take your spaceship to go to moon, He answered 1 day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भारद्वाज (Bhardwaj) said go to mars and tell me what is the status of life there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कुंभकर्ण came back and tell him that &lt;strong&gt;life is there but in another dimension, which we can not see through naked eyes&lt;/strong&gt;, in fact they said no planet is left alone with out life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which &lt;strong&gt;off course no one can believe&lt;/strong&gt;, but again 99% is Dark energy and dark matter, which no one knows about.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We already have many evidence that science in that time was much more vast in terms of quantum Physics, &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman had an anklet which uses sun rays and generate enough power to made him fly&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: Book &quot;रावण ईतिहास&quot; by &quot;(श्रृंगी ऋषि in Satyug) &amp;amp; कृष्ण दत्त in present life&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="8883" LastEditDate="2017-02-17T05:37:57.483" LastActivityDate="2017-02-17T05:37:57.483" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17187" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="425" CreationDate="2017-02-17T05:19:00.647" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Milk is used for Shiva-Linga Abhisekam beacuse it is one of the thing which can be used for Linga Abhisekam. For eg. Kamika Aagama (which is one of the 28 principle Shaiva Aagama) state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वर्णभूत शरावैस्तु वज्राद्यैर्गोमयोद्भवैः| &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पैष्टिकैर्वा सुरचितैः राजिका लवणेन च|| ४०६ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कोष्णाम्बुभिर्गन्धतोयैः कषायैरभिषेचयेत्| &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पयोधति घृतक्षौद्र शर्कराद्यैः स्वशक्तितः|| ४०७ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कुडुपाद्याढकान्तैश्च कुडुपाद्वर्धितैरपि| &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  खण्डाभावादिक्षुसारो मध्वभावे घृतं भवेत्|| ४०८ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जलधूपान्तरैः कार्योऽभिषेको विभवे सति| &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नालिकेर फलाम्बोभिः अन्यैर्वा रसवद्रसैः|| ४०९ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुष्पाद्यैर्हेमतोयैश्च रत्नोदैर्गन्धतोयकैः| &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अभिषेकं ततः कुर्यान् न कुर्याच्छुन्यमस्तकम्||&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Keeping the well-ground flour of rice and other grains, black mustard and salt in one or&amp;nbsp; five shallow earthen plates or in the vajra-like plate made of cow-dung or in such other vessels, the Guru should besmear these &lt;strong&gt;over the Linga&lt;/strong&gt; and then perform the ablution with warm water, perfumed water and unguents. &lt;strong&gt;Milk, curd, clarified butter, honey, candied sugar and such other substances may be used for ablution, according to his capacity.&lt;/strong&gt; These may be with a measure of on kudupa (approximately, a quarter of a liter) to four kudupas(adhaka), increasing the measure by one kudupa each time. If candied sugar is not available, the juice of sugarcane may be used; if honey is not available, ghee may be used. If the resources are abundant, ablution may be done with the water collected from various sacred places and with various kinds of fumigation. Then the ablution should be done with tender coconut water , juices of various succulent fruits, flowered water, water deposited with gold or gold ornaments, water deposited with gems, and the water mixed with sandal paste. Ablution should not be done when the top of the Linga is bereft of flower or leaf.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana also states Sukra worshipping Vishweshwara Linga of Kashi with Panchamrita (&lt;strong&gt;Milk,&lt;/strong&gt; Sugar, Honey, Yoghurt, Ghee) Abhisekam while obtaining Mrita Sanjivani Vidya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्थापयामास तत्रैव लिंगं शम्भो परात्मनः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कूपं चकार सद्रम्यं वेदव्यास तदग्रतः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पञ्चामृतैर्द्रोणमितैर्लक्षकृत्वः प्रयत्नतः&amp;nbsp; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्रापयामास देवेशं सुगन्धस्रपनैर्बहु ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सहस्रकृत्वो देवेशं चन्दनैर्यक्षकर्दमै ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  समालिलिम्प सुप्रित्या सुगन्धोद्वर्त्तनान्यनु ।। (Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita chapter 50)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O! Vedavyasa he dug a pleasant well and consecrated an auspicious Linga of high souled Shiva (lodged at Kashi). &lt;strong&gt;He bathed Shiva a lakh of times assiduously with Panchamrita&lt;/strong&gt; using a Drona measure each time. He also used fragnant materials with them for ablutions. He also applied Sandala paste as well as the paste of Yakshadharma to Shiva.- the lord of Gods a thousand times. Thereafter he applied the fragnant ointment over the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, it is just a ritualistic method to worship Lord Shiva. And as already told above milk isn&amp;apos;t necessarily required to do Abhisekam. It can just be used also. One can do Abhisekam using water only also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-02-17T05:19:00.647" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17188" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17140" CreationDate="2017-02-17T05:37:12.530" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yuddishthir was chakravartin samrat that means he was king of India and his capital was Indraprasth. He lost everything to Duryodhan in gambling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8585" LastActivityDate="2017-02-17T05:37:12.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17189" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17184" CreationDate="2017-02-17T06:47:12.143" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes technically he did have Kuja dosha. &#xA;Mars was placed in 7th house in an exalted position. He was born under Cancer ascendant. Though it should be considered that Mars was exalted. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana described Bhagavan Sri Rama’s birth time in these slokas (Sansckrit verses)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhu maase, sithe pakshe, Navamyaam, Karkate subhe, Punarvas&#xA;  nakshathra sahithe, utchasthe graha-pamchake ! Mesahm Pooshani&#xA;  samprapthe, pushpavrushti samakule, aviraasee Jagannaatha,&#xA;  Parama-atmaa, sanaathanaha = &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During the Spring season of Vasantha-ruthu (madhumaase means Chaithra&#xA;  month; in April), Sukla paksha (waxing Moon), Navami thithi (9th day&#xA;  after new-moon), in Karkaataka lagna (Cancer is birth house;&#xA;  ascendant) . in Punarvasu star (Moon is in Punarvasu star in Cancer;&#xA;  so Cancer is also Rasi-lagna (Moon); Cancer is own house for Moon)&#xA;  when 5 planets were in exaltation and when Sun was in Mesha (Aries)&#xA;  Bhagavan Sri Jagannaath (the Supreme Lord of Universe was born; then&#xA;  sweet-scented flowers rained profusely for one muhurtha (duration of&#xA;  12 minutes) from the sky on the castle where Sri Rama was born. The&#xA;  time of birth was described based on Lunar System of Vedic astrology.&#xA;  Sun stays in Aries during Mesha month (roughly from April—14 to May—14&#xA;  ) of every year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://jyothishi-pandit.blogspot.co.ke/2010/03/bhagavan-sri-ramachandra-horoscope_24.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ref&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-02-19T15:46:42.367" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T15:46:42.367" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17190" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14026" CreationDate="2017-02-17T11:25:21.863" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The temples are constructed as per agamas and even the moortis are made with agama prescribed manner. entry into the temple and moola sthana etc also is done as per agama. After invaders harmed north india most of the places are not following agama strictly and hence the differences between temples. Some differenses are due to regional and cultural influences as well. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The worship of deities in public or at home might be the immediate cause for emergence of Agama traditions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Agamas in the present day find their full expression in temple- worship.  They form the basis for worship practices at temples, as it exists today. They prescribe the structure and architecture of various kinds of temples, the customs to be followed, the rituals to be performed and the festivals to be celebrated. They in fact cover the entire gamut of activities associated with temples, its activities and its purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;41.2. The Agamas deal with all types of worship practices followed either in temples or at home; either in communities or in private; either through image or formless fire or otherwise.  The worship in a temple has to satisfy the needs of individuals as also of the community. Agamas accommodate collective worship along with individual worship that is characteristically private when performed at home. The worships that take place in the sanctum and within the temple premises are important; so are the festivals and occasional processions that involve direct participation of the entire community. They complement each other. While the worship of the deity  in the sanctum might be an individual’s  spiritual or religious need ; the festival s are the expression of a community’s joy , exuberance , devotion , pride and are also an idiom of a community’s cohesiveness .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;41.3. The temple worship ritual has two other distinct aspects; the symbolic and the actual which is secondary. The former is the inner worship (manasa puja or antar yajna) of the antaryamin (the inner being) residing in ones heart; and the latter is external worship characterized by splendour, spectacle and an overflow of religious fervour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The inner worship involving Tantric rituals  that takes place in the privacy of the sanctum is more significant than the external worship These are in a sequence such as shudhi (purification of elements), mudras (assumption of appropriate and effective gestures), pranayama (regulation of breath to enable contemplation of the divinity), dhyana (contemplation), soham_bhava (identity of the worshipper with the worshipped), mantra (words to help realize the deity in worshipper’s heart) and mandala (diagrams representing aspects of divinity). In manasa puja, God is the worshipper’s innermost spirit. The worshipper visualizes and contemplates on the resplendent form of the deity as abiding in his own heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As regards the external worship it involves several kinds of service sequences (Shodasha Upachara) submitted, in full view of the worshipping devotees, to the personified god who is revered as the most venerated guest and as the Lord of Lords who presides over the universe (lokadyaksha). The services are rendered with gratitude, love and devotion to the accompaniment of chanting of passages and mantras taken from Vedas. The worship routine is rendered more colourful and attractive by presentations of music, dance, drama and other performing arts. These also ensure larger participation of the enthusiastic devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, at the temple, both the Agama worship-sequences and the symbolic Tantric rituals take place; but each in its sphere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;41.4. The worship practices that are followed in the temples are truly an amalgam of dissimilar streams of ideologies and practices. The rituals here are a combination of concepts, procedures and symbolism.  Each of these finds its relevance in its own context, without conflict or contradiction. The temple and iconic worship may appear like tantric. However, in practice the worship at temples involves both homa and archa rituals. The Agama mode of worship invariably borrows the mantras from the Vedic traditions along with ritualistic details from Tantric traditions. Vedic mantras are chanted in traditional manner while performing services such as ceremonial bath, adoring the deity with flowers, or waving lights. Apart from that, the Agama practices combine in themselves the elements from yoga, purana and Janapada the popular celebrations where all segments of the community joyously participate with great enthusiasm and devotion. The Janapada  includes  periodic Utsavas, processions, singing, dancing, playacting, colourful lighting, spectacular fireworks , offerings of various kinds etc.; as also various forms of physical austerities accompanied by sincere prayers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;41.5. You find that temple worship is judicious mix (misra) of:  the Vedic mantras and its vision of the divine; the tantric rituals with their elaborate symbolisms; the Agamic worship practices, attitudes and devotion; the discipline of Yoga and its symbolic purification gestures; and, the exuberance and gaiety of folk festivals, processions and celebrations in which the entire community participates with great enthusiasm. All these elements combine harmoniously in the service of the deity and create an integrated Temple –culture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;42.1. That is so far as Agama in general is concerned.  In the subsequent parts let’s talk about specific branches of the Agama. In next lets touch upon Vaikhanasa Agama  a major branch of the Vaishnava Agama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sreenivasaraos.com/tag/agama-temple-worship/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-02-17T11:25:21.863" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17192" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16401" CreationDate="2017-02-17T11:46:05.147" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas should not be confused as books. They are revelations or knowledge attained by evolved people. Veda is also referred as a synonym to the brahman. &#xA;The fact that the word brahma refers to the vedas and vice-versa can be inferred from innumerable mantras of the vedas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“yena devA apunata| tena divyena brahmaNA | idaM brahma punImahe|”&#xA;  (Y.V) “mahimAnamagnervihitasya brahmaNA” (A.V. 18-4-8) “gAtrANi te&#xA;  brahmaNA kalpayAmi” (A.V. 18-4-52)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verses are but a few examples which reveal that brahma is the name for vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This shows that as brahman is eternal, same way the veda or knowledge is also eternal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, the story of some demon stealing the vedas to Paataala should not be taken literally. Vedas is a knowledge which cannot be stolen. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thirdly, there is no DESTRUCTION of this universe but laya, dissolution. The whole expanded universe is again withdrawn back to its original source. Hemce technically nothing gets destroyed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-02-17T11:46:05.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17194" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17630" CreationDate="2017-02-17T14:47:12.717" Score="4" ViewCount="944" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmashirastra was said to be used by arjuna and aswathamma in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2942/what-is-the-story-behind-the-brahmasthra-was-it-actually-ever-fired/2945#2945&quot;&gt;mahabharatha&lt;/a&gt; war in dwarapa yuga.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I couldn't find any other wars explaining the use of Brahmashirastra in any &lt;strong&gt;other yugas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;BR/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who are the warriors that possessed the knowledge of Brahmashirastra other than arjuna and ashwatthama ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Did &lt;strong&gt;Lord Ram&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Lord Parashurama&lt;/strong&gt; incarnations of Lord vishnu possessed them ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If both of them didn't possessed it please answer the reason ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2021-01-29T23:27:20.953" Title="Who are the warriors that possessed Brahmashirastra other than Arjuna and Ashwatthama?" Tags="|weapon|war|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17195" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17175" CreationDate="2017-02-17T15:15:08.330" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes Kama is greatest enemy amongst the Six enemy’s (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadripu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shada Ripus&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More appropriate version of Lust is Kama or Deisre. Lust is sexual Desire while kama is generalized form of desire, Kama is most powerful amongst Shad ripus. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna asked a similar question to Krishna, following is the enquiry about the force which leads jiva to do sinful acts (as if forced to do it)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आर्जुन उवाच:&#xA;  अथ केन प्रयुक्तोयम् पापम् चरति पुरुष: ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनिछ्न्नबपि वार्ष्णेय बलादिव नियोजित​: ॥३.३६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna said: O descendant of Vrishni, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force? &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-36/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.36&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Krishna Answers it in next verse&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शरि भगवान उवाच​:&#xA;  काम एष क्रोध एष रजोगुण समुद्भव​।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महाशनो महापाप्मा विध्येन मिह वैरिणम् ॥३.३७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-37/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.37&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kama can be defeated in two ways &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) by Controlling Food habits (Easier)&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Avoiding these food items will remove rajas (as much as possible)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कट्वम्ललवणात्युष्णतीक्ष्णरूक्षविदाहिनः।&lt;br&gt;आहारा राजसस्येष्टा दुःखशोकामयप्रदाः।।17.9।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning are dear to those in the mode of passion. Such foods cause distress, misery and disease. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-17-9/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 17.9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) by Becoming Atmajnani&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवम् बुद्धे: परम्बुद्ध्वा संस्तभ्यात्मान आत्मना॥&#xA;  जहि शत्रुम् माहाबाहो कामरुपम् दुरासदम् ॥३.४३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to the material senses, mind and intelligence, O mighty-armed Arjuna, one should steady the mind by deliberate spiritual intelligence [Krishna consciousness] and thus—by spiritual strength—conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-43/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.43&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-02-18T10:16:57.003" LastActivityDate="2017-02-18T10:16:57.003" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17197" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17281" CreationDate="2017-02-17T17:18:39.133" Score="8" ViewCount="261" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've read Kashi is absorbed into trishul at the time of Dissolution. But Trishul too has to be absorbed. Can anyone give references about the Trishul? As it has to be absorbed, So Kashi ultimately absorbed into Brahm? &#xA;Please take into account both subtle &amp;amp; gross meaning of Trishul. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T08:30:13.403" Title="What happens to Lord Shiva's trishul during dissolution of universe?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|shiva-purana|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17198" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17199" CreationDate="2017-02-18T02:37:31.970" Score="9" ViewCount="1899" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I ask this qusetion because of confusion about kunti getting a boon from karna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The boon was karna should not kill the pandavas except arjuna and karna should &lt;strong&gt;not use same astra twice&lt;/strong&gt; against arjuna ?&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As karna &lt;strong&gt;refused&lt;/strong&gt; to use the &lt;strong&gt;same astra twice&lt;/strong&gt; and any of the pandavas were not killed by karna is this boon got by kunti true ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or is it a myth created by movies please refer clearly ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-02-18T13:29:16.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-18T13:29:16.163" Title="What are the boons got by Kunti from Karna?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|karna|weapon|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17199" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17198" CreationDate="2017-02-18T04:25:19.267" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was not a boon from Karna to Kunti but a promise. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna promises Kunti that he shall only slay Arjuna in the battle even he has a chance to slay Yudhistira and others. Using the same astra twice is not at all mentioned in the conversation of Karna and Kunti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the sake of Dhritarashtra's son, I shall fight against thy sons to the best of my strength and might. I must not, however, abandon kindness and the conduct that becometh the good. Thy words, therefore, however beneficial cannot be obeyed by me now. This thy solicitation to me will not yet be fruitless. &lt;strong&gt;Except Arjuna, thy other sons, Yudhishthira, Bhima, and the twins, though capable of being withstood by me in tight and capable also of being&#xA;  slain, shall not yet be slain by me. It is with Arjuna alone, among all the combatants of Yudhishthira, that I will fight.&lt;/strong&gt; Slaying Arjuna in battle, I shall achieve great merit, or slain by Savyasachin, I shall be covered with glory. O famous lady, the number of thy sons will never be less than five. Five it will always be,--either with me, or with Arjuna, and myself slain.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05146.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Udyoga Parva section 46&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing those words from Karna, Kunti was trembling with grief and embraced her son and said these words :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Indeed, O Karna, even if what thou sayest seemeth to be possible, the Kauravas will certainly be exterminated. Destiny is all. Thou hast, however, O grinder of foes, granted to four of thy brothers the pledge of safety. Let that pledge be borne in thy remembrance at the time of shooting of weapons in battle.' And having told all this, Pritha also addressed Karna, saying, 'Blessed be thou, and let health be thine.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But during the battle with Arjuna, Karna refuses to use the same shaft twice. This is not a part of the promise to anyone but his morality not to use a failed arrow twice. When a snake asks to shoot the same shaft twice against arjuna, he refuses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karna said, &quot;Karna, O snake, never desires to have victory in battle today by relying on another's might. Even if I have to slay a hundred Arjunas, &lt;strong&gt;I will not, O snake, still shoot the same shaft twice.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; Once more addressing him in the midst of battle, that best of men, viz., Surya's son, Karna, said, &quot;Aided by the nature of my other snaky weapons, and by resolute effort and wrath, I shall slay Partha. Be thou happy and go elsewhere.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Karna Parva section 91&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Kunti neither asked for a promise about using same shaft twice nor Karna granted it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-02-18T04:25:19.267" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17200" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-18T06:39:47.703" Score="3" ViewCount="271" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is story in other sites and many people say this story of Karna and the &lt;strong&gt;two golden mountains&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This story is about Karna and Arjuna giving &lt;strong&gt;dana&lt;/strong&gt; of the two golden mountains and the story concept &lt;strong&gt;varies&lt;/strong&gt; with many &lt;strong&gt;sites&lt;/strong&gt; and many people.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the &lt;strong&gt;real story&lt;/strong&gt; behind Karna and the two golden mountains ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Please give the answer from a trusted site&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-19T04:50:17.373" LastActivityDate="2017-04-23T11:54:31.020" Title="What is the story behind Karna and the Two golden Mountains?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|arjuna|karna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17201" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8109" CreationDate="2017-02-18T10:18:10.260" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. We say śrī Kṛṣṇārpaṇamastu (श्री कृष्णार्पणमस्तु) at the end of almost every ritual. It means everything goes to śrī Kṛṣṇā. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not only people whose ishta devata is Krishna say this but almost every Hindu says this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why only Krishna not Rama etc., ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna Paramatma says to Arjuna :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यत्-करोषि यद्-अश्नासि यज्-जुहोषि ददासि यत् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यत्-तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्-कुरुष्व मद्-अर्पणम् || २७ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yat-karoṣi yad-aśnāsi yaj-juhoṣi dadāsi yat |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yat-tapasyasi kaunteya tat-kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam || 9.27 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give away, whatever austerity you practice, O Kaunteya, do that as an offering to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By this verse he assures that He will take the offering to the proper destination without any cuts and discounts. People who worship other deities(Shiva, Amba, etc.,) too say śrī Kṛṣṇārpaṇamastu for this reason. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Commentary of Bhagavad Ramanujacharya on above verse :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatsoever secular work you do for the maintenance of the body, whatsoever you set aside for the sustenance of the body, whatsoever religious rites, obligatory (nityam) and occasional (naimittikam) you practice, like offering oblations into the sacred fire, performing charity and austerity — do all these as an offering to Me. Arpaṇa means offering — do all acts, secular and religious, as if the doer, the enjoyer and the worshipped were all offerings to Me.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other verses too&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कायेन वाचा मनसेन्द्रियैर्वा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बुद्ध्यात्मना वा प्रकृतेः स्वभावात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  करोमि यद्यत्सकलं परस्मै&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नारायणायेति समर्पयामि ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kāyena vācā manasendriyairvā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  buddhyātmanā vā prakṛteḥ svabhāvāt ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  karomi yadyatsakalaṃ parasmai&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nārāyaṇāyeti samarpayāmi ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Whatever I do) with my Body, Speech, Mind or Sense Organs,: (Whatever I do) using my Intellect, Feelings of Heart or (unconsciously) through the natural tendencies of my Mind, Whatever I do, I do all for others (i.e. without the sense of attachment to the results), (And) I Surrender them all at the Lotus Feet of Sreemannarayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your destination is moksha, you should not possess any fruits of efforts you have done. puṇya takes you Swarga and pāpā takes you to hell. These too are are not considered moksha. SO if you want to gain the moksha the liberation, all your fruits of effort should be given to the supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's the reason we offer our deeds saying śrī Kṛṣṇārpaṇamastu (श्री कृष्णार्पणमस्तु) or similar statement. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-18T14:02:28.723" LastActivityDate="2017-02-18T14:02:28.723" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17202" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12151" CreationDate="2017-02-18T11:31:15.343" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q&lt;/strong&gt;. I am looking for a translation of the Rig Veda by an Indian author. A translation either in English or Hindi would do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Hindi Translation:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can refer Rigveda with Hindi translation by &lt;strong&gt;Gayatri Parivar&lt;/strong&gt; at &lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Literature - All world Gayatri Parivar&lt;/a&gt;. By &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shriram_Sharma&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pandit &lt;strong&gt;Sri Ram Sharma Aacharya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find Rigveda (original scanned book version) [Sanskrit-Hindi] at &lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/book/rigveda&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (You can &lt;strong&gt;read online&lt;/strong&gt; or purchase the book):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/book/rigveda/v1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gCOuq.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Part 1 (A,B,C) contains Rigveda Mandala 1 and 2.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Part 2 (A,B,C) contains Rigveda Mandala 3 to 6.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Part 3 (A,B) contians Rigveda Mandala 7 and 8.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Part 4 (A,B) contains Rigveda Mandala 9 and 10.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the last page of Part 4-B available for reading online ends with 11&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Verse of 97&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Sukta of 10&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Mandala. i.e further pages are missing in online reading version.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Word for word Hindi/English Translation with commentary:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Word to word translation with commentary (Sanskrit+Hindi) is available at website of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AryaSamaj&lt;/strong&gt;, Jamnagar&lt;/a&gt;, by &lt;strong&gt;Dayananda Saraswati&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EIGgA.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EIGgA.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rigveda Bhashya in 5 volumes: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/rugveda/rugveda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/rugveda_v2/rugveda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/rugveda_v3/rugveda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 3&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/rugveda_v4/rugveda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 4&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/rugveda_v5/rugveda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/yajurveda/yajurveda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajurveda Bhashya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/samveda/samveda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samaveda Bhashya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atharvaveda Bhashya: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/athrvaveda/atharvaveda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 1&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/atharvaveda_v2/atharvaveda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also have a look at English translation of RigVeda at &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedaWww.aryamantavya.in&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Internet Archive&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Hindi Commentaries&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from Dayanada Saraswati's and Sriram Sharma Acharya's commentary and translations, I noticed another two reputed &lt;strong&gt;commentaries&lt;/strong&gt; you may find useful:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;RigVeda &lt;strong&gt;Subhodha Bhāṣya&lt;/strong&gt; by &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=2ahUKEwjGxfyR5N_lAhWBF3IKHXKmBqsQFjAAegQIABAB&amp;amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FShripad_Damodar_Satwalekar&amp;amp;usg=AOvVaw0OJJEfn3B3Ja-Ewj-nuJXf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Damodar Saatvalekar&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.402388&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part -1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedKaSubodhaBhashyaPart2SDSatwalekar1985&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 2&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/HindiBookRigvedSubodhBhashyaHindiPart3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 3&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedKaSubodhaBhashyaPart4SDSatwalekar1985&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rigveda &lt;strong&gt;Bhāṣā Bhāṣya&lt;/strong&gt; by Pandit Jaydeva Sharma: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedaSamhitaPartIAryaSahityaMandirAjmer1931&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedaSamhitaPartIIAryaSahityaMandirAjmer1931&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 2&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedaSamhitaPartIIIAryaSahityaMandirAjmer1931&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 3&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedaSamhitaPartIVAryaSahityaMandirAjmer1931&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 4&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedaSamhitaPartVAryaSahityaMandirAjmer1931&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 5&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedaSamhitaPartVAryaSahityaMandirAjmer1931&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 6&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedaSamhitaPartVIIAryaSahityaMandirAjmer1931&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-06-13T16:26:52.437" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17203" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-18T12:18:50.250" Score="4" ViewCount="1835" Body="&lt;p&gt;After going through stories of Shivansh, following patterns happened to be common in all-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All were against Lord Shiva. Even they wanted to kill Mahadeva!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All were against Devas despite of the fact they were born out of MahAdeva.(i.e, when actually they were Devas)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All resulted into the great chaos. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All had Asuri Pravritti or supported Asuras? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In short, why they weren't calm or Yogi like Lord Shiva when they were Shivansh?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, is there any subtle reason of their birth? Can anyone tell the exact reasons of their birth? &#xA;As far as I remember these were the Shivansh. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jalandhar&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Andhak&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rohitang&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-02-18T12:55:01.337" LastActivityDate="2017-02-18T12:55:01.337" Title="What were the exact reasons of birth of all the Shivansh?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17204" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17012" CreationDate="2017-02-18T15:24:58.233" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most popular bengali panchangam is called the &quot;Phool Panjika&quot;.The following information are taken from a hard copy of that book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shuvaashuva Vara(weekday) Phala for shaving &amp;amp; nail/hair cutting are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sunday&lt;/strong&gt;(if done on)-Loss of wealth(is the result)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Monday&lt;/strong&gt;-Auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tuesday&lt;/strong&gt;-Loss of longevity.(AyuhAni)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wednesday&lt;/strong&gt;-Auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thursday&lt;/strong&gt;-Loss of fame.(MAnhAni)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Friday&lt;/strong&gt;-Loss of virility(or of semen).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saturday&lt;/strong&gt;-Extremely inauspicious,with results like loss of children and&#xA;  wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that this is only the VAra Phala .Similarly there will be Tithi and Nakshtra phalas as well but those i have not found in that book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Personally i follow these restrictions while cutting hair and nails but unable to do so while shaving .:D&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its better for you that you acquire a copy of the Panchangam that your family/region follows.Because, from what i have seen, these customs vary a lot with regions.And usually all Panchanga books have such info.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,also avoid your janma vAra and janma nakshtra days, as a rule, for these acts.Hope this helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-02-18T15:24:58.233" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17205" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17175" CreationDate="2017-02-18T16:21:49.823" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I assume that you are here asking only about sexual desire as lust not about other forms of desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Ayurveda lust(sexual desire) is one of the natural four-fold human desires:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarire JAyayate Nityam VAnchah NrinAm ChaturvidhAHa | Vubhuksha Cha&#xA;  PipAsA SusupsA Cha &lt;strong&gt;RatisprihA ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Daily these four-fold desires are born in a human&#xA;  body-hunger,thirst,desire for sleep and &lt;strong&gt;desire for sex(RatisprihA)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BhAv Prakash&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Niruttara Tantram it is even said that the pleasure that is obtained in a sexual congress is so intense that it can be compared to the supreme bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Stree Pumso Samgame Saukham JAyate &lt;strong&gt;Tath Param Padam&lt;/strong&gt; (Niruttara&#xA;  Tantram,Chapter 6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The happiness that arises in sexual congress  is(like) Paramapadam (i.e&#xA;  supreme bliss).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This makes it clear why lust is so powerful a distraction &amp;amp; that's also why even the Mahamunis often fall prey to it.The remaining Shadripus are neither as powerful nor they are natural human inclinations like lust.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti too warns us about the power of lust in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.215. One should not sit in a lonely place with one’s mother, sister, or daughter; &lt;strong&gt;for the senses are powerful, and master even a learned&#xA;  man.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,lust is indeed the most powerful enemy among the Shadripus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,Yoga is a tested method by which one can win over it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-18T16:46:59.713" LastActivityDate="2017-02-18T16:46:59.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17206" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-18T17:51:33.233" Score="2" ViewCount="79" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many idols and pictures of Lord Shri Ganesha and have noticed in many idols that a snake is tied around his belly. What is the significance of that snake. Is it an ornament or does it have any story behind it &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i7kj0.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i7kj0.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;The snake is tied around his belly&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8964" LastActivityDate="2017-02-18T17:51:33.233" Title="Why is a snake tied around the belly of lord Shri Ganesha" Tags="|ganesha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-02-18T17:59:11.273" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17207" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10732" CreationDate="2017-02-19T05:08:56.217" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Obviously the shloka, as translated by our kind friend, dictates the same features of both Shri Vishnu and Shri Ganesh. Therefore, this Shloka is offered to the God of the mind's choice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How beautiful these shlokas are.... you can say Om shivamachyutam to mean Lord Vishnu, or Lord Shiva, or you can mean both. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main concept we need to wrap our minds around is that these sounds or vibration are made by us. We are not the tools, the Mantras are the tools. Mantra: Mana means mind; tra means instrument. Use these instruments of the mind for your benefit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hari Om Namah Shivaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8997" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T05:08:56.217" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17208" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17194" CreationDate="2017-02-19T05:45:37.447" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bramhashirastra was a celestial weapon powerful than Bramhastra ( 4 times the powerful of Bramhastra). It is capable of killing devas.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The warriors other than Arjuna and Ashwatthama who possessed the knowledge of this weapons were &lt;strong&gt;Indrajit&lt;/strong&gt; ( son of demon king Ravana), &lt;strong&gt;Karna&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Dronacharya&lt;/strong&gt; and  &lt;strong&gt;Bhishma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indrajit&lt;/strong&gt; killed 670 million vanaras during the epic war of Ramayana with this celestial weapon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dronacharya&lt;/strong&gt; ( who was a disciple of Lord Parshurama ) also possessed the knowledge of Bramhashirastra . He taught Ashwatthama how to invoke the Astra but Ashwatthaman lacked the knowledge how to withdraw it. During the epic war of Mahabharata he invoked Bramhashirastra from a blade of grass and directed it towards Lord Krishna and Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;( I don't know whether Lord Rama possessed the knowledge of invoking Bramhashirastra but he had the knowledge of Bramhastra.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;source : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10012.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10012.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8964" LastEditorUserId="8964" LastEditDate="2017-02-19T08:59:34.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T08:59:34.163" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17209" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16819" CreationDate="2017-02-19T08:19:26.773" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda mentions many female deities. Ushas is the most celebrated goddess along with Aditi, Prithvi, Rathri, Sarasvathi and Vac.The female deities in Rig Veda form the basis for the emergence of the later goddesses such as Shakthi, Devi and other mother goddesses glorified in the puranas. I think some of Rig Vedic deities are not dealt in puranas elaborately. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Rig Veda the goddess Usha is consistently associated with and often identified with the dawn. She reveals herself in the daily coming of light to the world. She has been described in the Rig Veda as a young maiden drawn by one hundred horses. She brings forth light and is followed by the sun who urges her onwards. She is praised for driving away, or is petitioned to drive away, the oppressive darkness. She is asked to chase away evil demons. As the dawn she is said to rouse all life, to set all things in motion and to send people off to do their duties. She sends the curled-up sleepers on their way to offer their sacrifices and thus render service to the other gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another goddess commonly referred to in the Rig Veda is the goddess Prithvi who is nearly always associated with the earth, the terrestrial sphere where human beings live. In the Rig Veda furthermore she is always coupled with Dyaus the male deity associated with the sky. So dependent are these two deities in the Rig Veda that Prithvi is rarely addressed alone but almost always as part of the dual compound Dyaus-Prithvi, Sky-Earth. Together they are said to kiss the centre of the world. They sanctify each other in their complementary relationship. Together they are said to be the universal parents who created the world and the gods. As might be expected, Dyaus is often called 'father' and Prithvi 'mother'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1991/ajan91/vedgod.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T08:19:26.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17210" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8737" CreationDate="2017-02-19T09:01:25.663" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. We can meditate on Lord during Asoucha or Sutak period which generally lasts for 13-15 days depending on region and caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jayahanumanji.com/?page_id=2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Annadanam Chidambara Sastry&lt;/a&gt;  says the following in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqGqEJFzPes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; which is part of Dharma Sandhehalu telecasted on Telugu Channel Bhakthi TV.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Soucham&lt;/em&gt; (cleanliness) is needed for works related to God. Like how we need a vehicle (milk or food or water) to carry medicine, rules are&#xA;  needed (followed) for Daiva Pooja (worship). We should worship with &lt;em&gt;Suchi&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;  (purity) both internally and externally. Asouchi acquired during death&#xA;  of relatives is called &lt;em&gt;Mrutaasoucha&lt;/em&gt;. Asouchi acquired during birth&#xA;  is called &lt;em&gt;Jatahasoucha&lt;/em&gt;. Upasana is not allowed during Jatahasoucha&#xA;  and Mrutaasoucha but those who are initiated with a mantra shouldn't&#xA;  stop chanting the mantra. &lt;em&gt;Mantratyaage Daridrataha&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Asoucha times, we can meditate in mind (mental meditation) without&#xA;  moving lips. There is no dosha for mental meditation during Asoucha&#xA;  days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-19T09:50:43.393" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T09:50:43.393" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17211" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-19T09:08:02.820" Score="2" ViewCount="253" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which meditation is better to do: Awareness meditation(such as:Vipasana) or concentration meditation (such as:&#xA;Tratak)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8808" LastEditorUserId="8808" LastEditDate="2017-02-19T09:10:14.377" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T06:55:33.123" Title="Concentration meditation vs awareness meditation" Tags="|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17212" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-19T10:00:33.543" Score="3" ViewCount="4951" Body="&lt;p&gt;How should I practice &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tr%C4%81%E1%B9%ADaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tratak meditation&lt;/a&gt; safely at home without a guru? What are its side effects if not done properly?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8808" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-02-19T10:17:50.897" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T06:40:56.740" Title="How should I do Tratak meditation myself safely at home? Does it have any side effects?" Tags="|meditation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17213" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17212" CreationDate="2017-02-19T11:14:28.653" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;One should always seek the guidance of a guru. Meditation on a single object is prescribed by many many seers. In Gita 6.13 Krishna says (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He should sit firm, holding his body, neck, and head erect and still, and gaze steadily at the tip of his nose, without looking around.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms (III. 1-6, commentary by Swami Vivekananda, available here under the heading Raja Yoga- &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dhâranâ is holding the mind on to some particular object.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharana (concentration) is when the mind holds on to some object, either in the body, or outside the body, and keeps itself in that state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;An unbroken flow of knowledge in that object is Dhyâna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The mind tries to think of one object, to hold itself to one particular spot, as the top of the head, the heart, etc., and if the mind succeeds in receiving the sensations only through that part of the body, and through no other part, that would be Dharana, and when the mind succeeds in keeping itself in that state for some time, it is called Dhyana (mediation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When that, giving up all forms, reflects only the meaning, it is Samâdhi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That comes when in meditation the form or the external part is given up. Suppose I were meditating on a book, and that I have gradually succeeded in concentrating the mind on it, and perceiving only the internal sensations, the meaning, unexpressed in any form — that state of Dhyana is called Samadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(These) three (when practiced) in regard to one object is Samyama.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a man can direct his mind to any particular object and fix it there, and then keep it there for a long time, separating the object from the internal part, this is Samyama; or Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi, one following the other, and making one. The form of the thing has vanished, and only its meaning remains in the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;By the conquest of that comes light of knowledge.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When one has succeeded in making this Samyama, all powers come under his control. This is the great instrument of the Yogi. The objects of knowledge are infinite, and they are divided into the gross, grosser, grossest and the fine, finer, finest and so on. This Samyama should be first applied to gross things, and when you begin to get knowledge of this gross, slowly, by stages, it should be brought to finer things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;That should be employed in stages.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is a note of warning not to attempt to go too fast.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See Chapter 1 of the Yoga Aphorisms also where concentration is explained. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I remember correctly Swami Vivekananda says at one point that he started meditation by focusing on a black dot. It is too hard to control the mind by trying to make the mind blank to start. It is best to focus on one object first. When the mind has been completely controlled to focus on one object, then it is easier to have the mind eliminate that object and make the mind completely blank.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is the warning on going too fast and without a guru. Both Patanjali (in his Yoga Aphorisms) and Swami Vivekananda (in his introduction to Raja Yoga) warn against this. Both the good and potentially bad side effects are stated in the Yoga Aphorisms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Start your meditations, but each time you start pray to God first that He sends your guru to you for further guidance so you are not side-tracked along the way!  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-02-19T11:14:28.653" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17214" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-19T12:11:00.720" Score="9" ViewCount="764" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;People live with many desires and karmas of good and bad come according to the kind of desire&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A man who perform's his duties without any desire and submits the results to god will not acquire any karma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a man always &lt;strong&gt;desires&lt;/strong&gt; to live without &lt;strong&gt;desire&lt;/strong&gt; then he desires to be desireless .&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As he desires for desireless he wants the state of desireless for his own(&lt;strong&gt;Under maya as a conditioned soul&lt;/strong&gt;)&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If we &lt;strong&gt;desire for desirelessness&lt;/strong&gt; isn't it a desire ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does &lt;strong&gt;karmas&lt;/strong&gt; takes place in these kinds of actions ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T12:40:40.353" LastActivityDate="2023-11-21T21:27:55.370" Title="If we desire to live without desire will it be a desire?" Tags="|karma|atma|maya|desire|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17215" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17212" CreationDate="2017-02-19T13:32:20.807" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally it is safe if practiced in a proper way. However, one should be slow in progression. Should not start doing it for long from the beginning but should increase in a gradual manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trataka: sadhana for mind control and awakening&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first step on the path of spirituality is to control the mind and&#xA;  make it useful. The first sadhana of a sadhaka consists of&#xA;  understanding the mind, in knowing its direction and turning it&#xA;  upwards. The sadhana of trataka will help you a great deal in&#xA;  understanding the mind and making its unseen powers active, so as to&#xA;  prepare you for self-realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The practice of trataka is independent in its own way and is meant for&#xA;  aspirants of higher categories. Trataka is a very powerful sadhana.&#xA;  Gandhari had mastered trataka. Ramana Maharshi also practised trataka.&#xA;  Many sadhus in the mountains have practised this sadhana. Trataka&#xA;  shows us that the eyes are the instruments by which the mind and the&#xA;  soul are reached.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Trataka is of two kinds: internal and external. Internal trataka is&#xA;  called dharana or concentration because in this practice the eyes are&#xA;  closed and the mind concentrated upon some subtle element within.&#xA;  External trataka means fixing the eyes on some object outside. Trataka&#xA;  on any object can be performed during the day or night. In this&#xA;  practice one has to take into account the object, the place and the&#xA;  time. What is the object on which the eyes are to be fixed? Where is&#xA;  the object to be placed? At what time should it be practised?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word trataka means to gaze steadily. Trataka is gazing without&#xA;  blinking at an object placed directly in front of the eyes. At the&#xA;  time of practising trataka, the eyeballs should remain steady and the&#xA;  eyelids should not flicker. No object except the one on which trataka&#xA;  is to be performed should be seen, and the mind should not wander&#xA;  hither and thither but be merged in observation of the object.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Methods of trataka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are many methods of trataka which can be utilized by sadhakas&#xA;  according to choice and situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On a leaf: Take a large betel leaf. Prepare a collyrium (paste) with&#xA;  castor oil and make a black dot on the betel leaf. The dot should be&#xA;  the size of a pea or a little smaller. Fix this leaf onto cardboard.&#xA;  Place a light, a lamp or a candle behind you. Practise trataka on that&#xA;  dot in the morning and evening. Go on gazing at the dot continually&#xA;  for five or ten minutes without moving your eyelids. Do this for six&#xA;  months and then consult your guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Candle flame: Light a candle in the darkness and fix your eyes on the&#xA;  flame for five or ten minutes without blinking. Perform this practice&#xA;  in the morning and evening. There should be no break even for a day in&#xA;  this sadhana. It should continue as long as the eyes cannot fix&#xA;  themselves steadily on the flame. People with eye defects should&#xA;  practise this sadhana. Even children who suffer from eye defects&#xA;  should be encouraged to practise this technique.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Darkness: Sit by yourself in the dark and practise trataka on the&#xA;  darkness. The eyes should be open fully. Continue to see in the&#xA;  darkness without any light. Sit there daily and practise it steadily&#xA;  and firmly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Blue sky: Sit in an open place or on a terrace at the end of the day&#xA;  and gaze at the blue sky without blinking. Try to feel that you have&#xA;  become like the sky or that the sky has come nearer to you. In due&#xA;  course the consciousness of the practitioner becomes so transformed&#xA;  that even though the object is in front of your eyes, you are not&#xA;  aware of it. The consciousness which separates the seer and the seen&#xA;  does not remain separate, but identifies with the object.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Photograph: Have a small photograph of your chosen deity. Take a sheet&#xA;  of blank paper, the size of a book, and cut out a circle two inches in&#xA;  diameter, so that there is a round open space in the paper. Now place&#xA;  the photo of your deity behind the paper, fixing it in such a manner&#xA;  that you can only see the face through the hole, and frame it under&#xA;  glass. During the day practise trataka on the photo. The photo should&#xA;  be straight in front of the eyes at a distance of one and a half feet.&#xA;  Try not to take your vision outside the round circle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Havan: Perform havan daily and in the sacrificial fire put scented&#xA;  objects. When the fire has ignited and has burned steadily for some&#xA;  time, repeat a prayer to the fire god Jataveda and perform trataka on&#xA;  the flame. Try to think of the divine being in the flame while doing&#xA;  trataka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Crystal: If you happen to have a crystal, practise trataka on it. This&#xA;  is an independent and important sadhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shivalinga: Worship a shivalinga daily with great devotion.&#xA;  Concentrate on the water being poured on it. The shivalinga must be a&#xA;  black stone. If it is a really black stone, make a sandalwood mark on&#xA;  it and steady your eyes on the mark. Otherwise try to concentrate on&#xA;  the entire black linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Flower: Take a red, white or yellow flower. It should preferably be a&#xA;  dark coloured flower. If it is a red rose, keep it in the light and&#xA;  practise trataka on it. If it is a white or yellow flower, then&#xA;  practise in a dark room.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Flower on cloth: Take a black or dark green cloth, two feet wide and&#xA;  three feet long. Hang it on the wall in front of you and in the centre&#xA;  of it pin a yellow, white or pink rose. Now sit in front of the flower&#xA;  in a semi-dark room and practise trataka on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Metal object: Take any small article made of bright metal, like&#xA;  vessels that shine when polished. It may be of brass, copper, silver&#xA;  or gold, for instance, an incense burner, a small jug, or a&#xA;  panchapatra. It should be no more than two inches in height. Practise&#xA;  trataka on that bright object in half light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your shadow: In the morning, stand with your back to the sun and&#xA;  practise trataka on the shadow of your neck.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guidelines for success in trataka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Trataka is a simple practice, but in this sadhana one has to be very&#xA;  careful and alert as one’s vision and mental processes have to be&#xA;  watched. If the mind is slightly active, the vision wanders away from&#xA;  the object. At the time of gazing the eyes should not be opened very&#xA;  wide. In the first stage, trataka is practised on an object without&#xA;  thinking of its form, steadily and devoid of any mental changes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beginners should practise trataka in such a way that the eyes are not&#xA;  strained. If gazing is done in a natural state of mind, strain will be&#xA;  avoided. It is difficult to explain this, but by practice this&#xA;  technique can be acquired automatically. When the gaze becomes fixed&#xA;  in a natural manner and the aspirant has success in practising trataka&#xA;  continually for fifteen to twenty minutes, without any feeling of&#xA;  fatigue, for a few days, then another technique should be taken up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The proper use of trataka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A little practice of trataka is of great use in removing eye&#xA;  disorders. Those who have weak eyesight and wear spectacles should&#xA;  practise trataka for five minutes daily on a dot on the wall. They&#xA;  should also wash the eyes with triphala every morning and evening.&#xA;  Practise for fifteen days or a month and then have your eyes examined&#xA;  by a doctor. There are other types of eye diseases. Certain people&#xA;  have double vision due to detachment of the retina. Some cannot focus&#xA;  their eyes properly. These disorders can be removed by performing&#xA;  trataka on the flame of a lamp.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During the practice of trataka the breathing must be slow, rhythmic&#xA;  and deep. This will bring steadiness to the breathing process, making&#xA;  the body and mind steady also. One can always control the onslaught of&#xA;  desire or anger by practising the elementary stage of trataka when&#xA;  excited. When any emotional shock is experienced, the practice of&#xA;  trataka is as beneficial as the practice of kumbhaka. Trataka opens up&#xA;  a storehouse of energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Trataka makes the mind steady and helps it to concentrate. Therefore,&#xA;  when an individual does any intellectual work, listens carefully to&#xA;  something or thinks about something, the eyes remain steady without a&#xA;  flicker, and thus a natural state of trataka is attained. This faculty&#xA;  can be applied consciously whenever necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Trataka should definitely be practised for at least five minutes&#xA;  before beginning any sadhana. When one wants the mind to be&#xA;  concentrated, trataka should be performed on any object for some time,&#xA;  or inner trataka may be practised. Students especially should practise&#xA;  trataka. Its daily practice will help them to develop concentration&#xA;  and memory power as well as improve their eyesight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogamag.net/archives/2005/cmar05/tratak.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T06:40:56.740" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T06:40:56.740" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17216" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17214" CreationDate="2017-02-19T13:55:37.743" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;When someone opts or &quot;wishes&quot; to get free from desire then it is not &quot;natural&quot;. But when desires themselves drop from your mind then that is real &quot;desirelessness&quot;. By consiously &quot;witnessing&quot; or &quot;observing&quot; these desires one slowly starts understanding the pattern and they start to diminish. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Buddha is saying: To be in desire is to be miserable. He is not saying&#xA;  desire about what: desire as such creates misery – because in desire&#xA;  you start moving from the present, you start thinking of the future.&#xA;  You start thinking of dreams – you are going to do this, and this is&#xA;  going to happen; and if this happens you will be happy, and if that&#xA;  happens you will be very very miserable. The moment you start dreaming&#xA;  and desiring you have missed contact with life; you disconnected. You&#xA;  are no more living in those moments of desire. Those moments of&#xA;  desiring are death moments. Life has stopped flowing. You are frozen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whenever you are in desire you are not alive. Life and desire can’t&#xA;  exist together. They are two gestalts, you can have only one at one&#xA;  time. If you move into desire, life disappears; if you are living,&#xA;  desire disappears.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Have you not seen in some psychology books a certain picture of an old&#xA;  woman? And in the same picture, in those same lines, is hidden a&#xA;  beautiful young woman – both are there. But if you look at the old&#xA;  woman, then you cannot see the young woman. If you look at the young&#xA;  woman, then suddenly the old woman disappears. They are BOTH there in&#xA;  the same lines, but you can see only one at a time. Your gestalt&#xA;  changes. When you are looking at the young face, then those lines are&#xA;  making a new pattern. Because of this pattern, the other pattern&#xA;  cannot be seen. When you start seeing the old woman, the young woman&#xA;  recedes back; because of the old woman’s pattern, you cannot see the&#xA;  new woman’s pattern. You cannot see both together. Because you cannot&#xA;  see both together, whenever you are with one the other becomes&#xA;  non-existential to you. And you know both are there; still you cannot&#xA;  see.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Exactly the same is the case with desire and life. If you desire, life&#xA;  is no more there; you stop living. The same energy becomes desire, so&#xA;  no more energy is available to live. When you start living, desire&#xA;  disappears because the same energy has become life; you cannot desire&#xA;  any more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But what happened? People listened to Buddha and they thought, ”He&#xA;  must be right. He says. ’With desire there is misery,’ So now we will&#xA;  desire desirelessness. How to attain desirelessness.?” Now they are&#xA;  ready to go on another journey of desire. Just the OBJECT of desire&#xA;  has changed. first they were thinking how to have more money, how to&#xA;  have more power, how to go to New Delhi, Washington, London, Moscow;&#xA;  now, their goal has changed – how to attain NIRVANA, MOKSHA, God,&#xA;  desirelessness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the object is there, and with the object the desire ii there. They&#xA;  have committed something very absurd. They missed the point. Buddha is&#xA;  not saying to create a new desire. Buddha is simply saying: Understand&#xA;  desire. Look into desire and you will find misery. Once this&#xA;  understanding has penetrated deep into your being, that desire is&#xA;  misery, then the problem has disappeared. Then you don’t desire at&#xA;  all. And, when you don’t desire, there is desirelessness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Desirelessness cannot be desired; MOKSHA cannot be desired; God cannot&#xA;  be desired. If you desire, God has become an object of lust. You are&#xA;  again in the same trap – with a new label, but the disease is the&#xA;  same. Maybe the skin is new, but the wine is old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-Osho , Zen: The path of paradox Vol 3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T07:05:50.057" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T07:05:50.057" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17217" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16151" CreationDate="2017-02-19T16:32:07.483" Score="5" Body="&lt;h3&gt;No.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 8.16 refers to BrahmaLoka(ब्रह्मलोक) not Brahman(ब्रह्म). The day (time period) duration mentioned in verse 8.17 is of/for &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma&lt;/a&gt;(ब्रह्मा) not &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt;(ब्रह्म).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read the english Translation Of Sri Shankaracharya's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Gambirananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.16 O Arjuna, all the lokah, worlds; abrahma-bhuvanat, together with &lt;strong&gt;the world of Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;-bhuvana is that (place) in which creatures are born, and brahma-bhuvana means the world of Brahma; punah avartinah, are subject to return, are by nature liable to come again; Tu, but; kaunteya, O son of Kunti, na vidyate, there is no; punarjanma, rirth; upetya, after reaching; mam, Me alone. Why are all the worlds together with the realm of Brahma subject to return? Becuase they are limited by time. How?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.17 Viduh, they know; that ahah, day; brahmanah, &lt;strong&gt;of Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;, of Prajapati, of Virat; yat, which; sahasra-yuga-paryantam, ends in a thousand yugas; and also the ratirm, night; yuga-sahasra-antam, which ends in a thousand yugas, having the same duration as the day. Who knows (these)? In reply the Lord says: Te, they; janah, poeple; ahoratra-vidah, who are the knowers of what day and night are, i.e. the people who know the measurement of time. Since the worlds are thus delimited by time, therefore they are subject to return. What happens during the day and the night of Prajapati is being stated:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Visit related post: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/263/277&quot;&gt;Does &amp;quot;day of Brahma&amp;quot; refer to the Trimurtic creator deity or to the supreme Brahman?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q.&lt;/strong&gt; BG 13.13 GambhirAnanda's also translates: Supreme Brahman dwelling under 'Me'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've double checked Gambhirananda's English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=13&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=13&amp;amp;etgb=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita Supersite&lt;/a&gt;. It doesn't include any such text like &lt;code&gt;dwelling under Me&lt;/code&gt;.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13.13 I shall speak of that which is to be known, by realizing which one attains Immortality. The supreme Brahman is without any beginning. That is called neither being nor non-being. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My theory: According to BG 13.14 verse, Brahman is having &quot;heads everywhere&quot;. Not only heads, but eyes, hands, feet everything, everywhere. In old times, people wanted to represent this Brahman, hence they painted with &quot;4 heads &amp;amp; several hands&quot;. May be with time &amp;amp; interpolations, this Brahman became BrahmA and further became an [inferior] part of trinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, verse 13.14 is talking about Brahman not Brahma. Brahman is not limited to time, space and Brahman is called Antaryami (inner self) of all the things (Sarva Khalvidam Brahman - सर्व खल्विदं ब्रह्म​). This can be confirmed by Upanishad preaching:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Shvetashvatar Upanishad 3.14:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सहस्रशीर्षा पुरुषः सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात् ।&#xA;  स भूमिं विश्वतो वृत्वा अत्यतिष्ठद्दशाङ्गुलम् ॥ १४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14 The Purusha with a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet, compasses the earth on all sides and extends beyond it by ten fingers' breadth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वतः पाणिपादं तत् सर्वतोऽक्षिशिरोमुखम् ।&#xA;  सर्वतः श्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति ॥ १६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;16 His hands and feet are everywhere; His eyes, heads and faces are everywhere; His ears are everywhere; He exists compassing all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q.&lt;/strong&gt; BG 14.27 also suggests as &quot;Brahman&quot; is in 'My' abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no big issue with verse 14.27. Let me highlight the points from Adi Shankaracharya's commentary to get or understand it correctly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14.27 Hi, for; aham, I, the inmost Self; am the pratistha brahmanah, Abode-that in which something abides is pratistha-of Brahman which is the supreme Self. Of Brahman of what kind? Amrtasya, of that which is indestructible; avyayasya, of that which is immutable; and sasvatasya, of that which is eternal; dharmasya, of that which is the Dharma, realizable through the Yoga of Jnana which is called dharma (virtue); and aikantikasya sukhasya, of that which is the absolute, unfailing Bliss by nature. Since the inmost Self is the abode of the supreme Self-which by nature is immortal etc.-, therefore, through perfect Knowledge it (the former) is realized with certainty to be the supreme Self. This has been stated in, 'he alifies for becoming Brahman'. &lt;strong&gt;The purport is this: Indeed, that power of God through which Brahman sets out, comes forth, for the purpose of favouring the devotees, etc., that power which is Brahman Itself, am I. For, a power and the possesser of that power are non-different. Or, brahman means the conditioned Brahman, since It (too,) is referred to by that word. 'Of that Brahman, I Myself, the unconditioned Brahman-and none else-am the Abode.'&lt;/strong&gt; (The abode of Brahman) of what alities? Of that which is immortal; of that which has the ality of deathlessness; of that which is immutable; so also, of that which is the eternal; which is the dharma having the characteristics of steadfastness in Knowledge; of that which is the absolute, unestionably certain Bliss born of that (steadfastness);-'I am the Abode' is understood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the conclusion is: Bhagavad Gita verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;8.16 is about BrahmaLoka not Brahman (Obviously)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;8.17 is talking about Brahma not Brahman (as delimited by time)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;13.13 is talking about Brahman not Brahma (confirmed by Upanishads)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;14.27 is not a issue (as explained by Adi Shankaracharya - you can equate power and possessor of power or it may talking about Saguna/conditioned Brahman)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Related: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16421/277&quot;&gt;Interpreting Bhagavad Gita verse 8.16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-12-02T14:23:37.480" LastActivityDate="2018-12-02T14:23:37.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17219" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-20T01:53:12.703" Score="2" ViewCount="1115" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is it recommended that we take head bath on 10th or 11th day after death of family members? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9001" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T01:53:12.703" Title="Reason to take head bath after death rituals" Tags="|rituals|death|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17220" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17109" CreationDate="2017-02-20T02:10:23.517" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;And about the colour of the horses, Aaditya hrudayam of Valmiki Ramayana describes them to be yellow in colour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;17th verse-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jayaaya jaya bhadraaya&#xA;   Hari-ashvaaya namO namaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Salutations to one who gives victory and protects it,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;To the one who possesses yellow(hari) steeds(ahvaa)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Hari refers to yellowish hues that could be greenish too. But since it's Sun, I'm assuming yellow to be the meaning of hari.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9001" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T02:52:45.500" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T02:52:45.500" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17221" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17214" CreationDate="2017-02-20T04:28:41.447" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If we desire for desirelessness isn't it a desire ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is indeed a desire, Which is necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Does karmas takes place in these kinds of actions ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita explains this in form of &lt;strong&gt;&quot; निष्काम कर्म &quot;&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;&quot; Selfless deeds &quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna said in Gita that One can not live with Karma, even if you are sitting ideal there is karma going on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma should be done in state of keeping the mind in tranquility which means selfless deeds. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is common misunderstanding but important to understand that Krisha &lt;strong&gt;does not mean we should not have desire&lt;/strong&gt; or ambition while doing निष्काम कर्म&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Example:&lt;/strong&gt; In office or in business we always want more for more prosperity in our life which is good, but keep in mind that instead or promotion or success in business, you may be kicked out of company or business may fall down. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So now what should be the state of mind, we are not the controller of what happens outside our body, but inside we can control and if we do not give the remote control of our emotions or desires to outside people and situation would be better, it sounds easy but trust me its very difficult.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At last we always see paradoxical points in spirituality, &lt;strong&gt;that is why it is said spirituality is a journey from known to unknown&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There has to be a powerful desire (तीव्र इच्छा) to get Mukti or Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in short as Buddha said find the point in middle, means there has to be balance in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T04:28:41.447" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17222" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-20T04:46:37.910" Score="-1" ViewCount="1408" Body="&lt;p&gt;I did &quot;sudarshan kriya&quot;or &quot;सुदर्शन क्रिया&quot; couple of days back in presence of a trainer, And suddenly entire body was bursting with energy and feels like body is going to explode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later on when I asked him he explained that due to our emotions our breathing pattern changes, which is also reversible means if we breath in a defined pattern body will explode with emotions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But i still do not understand but really happened? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T08:39:18.247" Title="My body was about to explode in sudarshan kriya (सुदर्शन क्रिया)?" Tags="|kriyayoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17223" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14866" CreationDate="2017-02-20T04:56:30.987" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The philosophy of Prabhupada and Gaudiya Vaishanva is &lt;strong&gt;Achintya Bhedabheda&lt;/strong&gt;. (Inconceivable oneness and difference)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've mentioned/listed it's overview in my answer on &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4064/277&quot;&gt;Dvaita vs Advaita vs Vishistadvaita vs Shuddhadvaita vs any other&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Achintya Bhedabheda, Brahman is simultaneously one with and different from his creation. The relationship between Brahman and Jivatman is like Sun and Sunshine. Qualitatively the Sun and the Sunshine are not different, but as quantities they are very different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse mentioned in the question is about &lt;code&gt;tattvaṁ&lt;/code&gt; i.e Absolute Truth &lt;code&gt;yaj jñānam advayam&lt;/code&gt; means of which knowledge is non-dual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read the Purport:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As it is explained in the first śloka of the First Chapter of the Bhāgavatam, the Supreme Truth is self-sufficient, cognizant and free from the illusion of relativity. &lt;strong&gt;In the relative world the knower is different from the known, but in the Absolute Truth both the knower and the known are one and the same thing.&lt;/strong&gt; In the relative world the knower is the living spirit or superior energy, whereas the known is inert matter or inferior energy. Therefore, there is a duality of inferior and superior energy, &lt;strong&gt;whereas in the absolute realm both the knower and the known are of the same superior energy. There are three kinds of energies of the supreme energetic. There is no difference between the energy and energetic, but there is a difference of quality of energies.&lt;/strong&gt; The absolute realm and the living entities are of the same superior energy, but the material world is inferior energy. The living being in contact with the inferior energy is illusioned, thinking he belongs to the inferior energy. Therefore there is the sense of relativity in the material world. In the Absolute there is no such sense of difference between the knower and the known, and therefore everything there is absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there is no difference between knower and known in the absolute that's why it is called non-dual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can refer alternative translation at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/25/132&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;CC Madhya 25.132&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“ ‘The Absolute Truth is known by the self-realized souls as a unified identity known by different names — impersonal Brahman, localized Paramātmā, and Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q.&lt;/strong&gt; How to interpret this Advayam word for Bramhan. How what are Sri Vaishnava views/comments on this word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you're looking for Vishishtadvaita interpretation for Advayam, refer to similar question: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/17180/277&quot;&gt;How does Vishishtadvaita interpret &amp;quot;One without a second&amp;quot;?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T11:59:50.090" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17224" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17211" CreationDate="2017-02-20T06:55:33.123" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vipassana meditation is basically used not to concentrate or focus you just sit and observe you sensation.&#xA;yes when you are sitting and you feel hot, cold, itch, pain, thoughts, anger, hatred, breathing everything inside your body sensation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what happens is sometimes you feel very good and enjoy meditation there comes the problem you are supposed to observe this enjoyment as well, i mean do not just get flown away by good or bad feelings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You should do this in group sitting, that may give you more confidence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See there are 108 ways of meditation given by Lord Shiva, you can pick any of them all leads to the same place, &lt;strong&gt;as Swami Vishwananda said in comments &quot;The goal of meditation is freedom FROM the senses; not freedom of the senses&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would suggest you can try different meditation techniques from different gurus and pick one which makes you more confident but remember in all meditation you are not supposed to get attach to a feeling just sit observe and get up, because you may get stuck at a point for your entire life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in essence of this answer if it does not matter which one you pick, it is just that how bad you want it, also how you eat is also very important in Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T06:55:33.123" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17225" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-20T07:07:54.957" Score="5" ViewCount="1755" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are plenty of videos on the Internet which show such talents of Hindu children. Example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/zJ4jqMZR5Os&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samyak Jain Super Wonder Kid who can read with closed eyes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/i3SX_1HEGnw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Human X-Ray machine: Unbelievable Eye sight&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/ZtLkzg8bFgA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Girl demonstrates Cool SuperPower (Third Eye)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi/can-you-read-blindfolded-this-8-year-old-can/story-q8vha4Ie7xbcSSjjyE0ZmM.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Can you read blindfolded? This 8-year-old can&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How it is possible for these blindfolded kids to read books and do everything?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it a yoga technique or a God-gifted power?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8808" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T23:22:34.587" LastActivityDate="2017-04-09T05:54:36.410" Title="How do Hindu kids see with their eyes closed?" Tags="|yoga|meditation|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17226" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17222" CreationDate="2017-02-20T08:39:18.247" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.artofliving.org/faqs-sudarshan-kriya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; on Sudarshan Kriya. Sri Sri said: The body has a particular rhythm. Life has a particular rhythm. Similarly, your breath also goes in a particular pattern. Your emotions move in a particular rhythm, as well as your thoughts. All these rhythms arise from your Being, which has its own rhythm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sudarshan Kriya we get into the rhythm of our Being and see how Being is permeating our emotions, our thoughts, our breath, and our bodies. Soon, every cell of the body becomes so alive and releases all the toxins and negative emotions it has stored from times past. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope its helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7128" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T08:39:18.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17227" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-20T09:21:25.340" Score="11" ViewCount="2041" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the members posted that &quot;for those who renounce worldly life (sanyasins)  self alone is the sacred thread So they can do any Vedic rituals also&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How can someone perform vedic rites like Yajnas and other rituals without a Sacred thread and wife?&lt;br&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If he is willing to perform vedic rites then why there is a need to renounce itself? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T14:36:00.433" LastActivityDate="2023-08-26T16:17:35.653" Title="Can Sanyasins perform Vedic rituals even after renunciation?" Tags="|vedas|rituals|yajna|sanyasi|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17230" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17225" CreationDate="2017-02-20T12:03:26.137" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is possible to see with eyes closed I have seen people who are literally blind and &lt;strong&gt;will tell you the color of the cloth by touching it&lt;/strong&gt; and we all have seen it on television as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so what is the catch, it is just that this body is way more complicated machine, &lt;strong&gt;it is all about perception&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If today is about to rain there will be certain changes in our bodies, if you can observe them, &lt;strong&gt;you can always tell by observing your body that it is going to rain today&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are people who will tell everything about you after just seing a picture of you, it is all that they can access certain dimension through this physical body, which indeed sounds phenomenal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Hinduism these are called Siddhis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But yogi should not go after Siddhis, as your spiritual growth will stop.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We always carry a thing called &quot;Sanskar&quot; from past lives, So if you have practiced good things it will become sankar and will go in next life as well. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the essence is that we should start listening to our body, soon you will be able to see what this body is asking for. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T12:03:26.137" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17231" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-20T12:18:15.950" Score="2" ViewCount="512" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabaratha and Bhagavatam, Vyasa narrated the birthdays of Krishna, Duryodhana etc., using the allignment of celestial bodies, signs and tithi etc., &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know that Satyabhama is the second most important wife of Krishna, does any text contains the birth date of the goddess? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please refer such text&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2017-04-12T18:23:31.827" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T18:23:31.827" Title="Birthday of Satyabhama" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|satyabhama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17232" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-02-20T12:30:49.590" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T12:30:49.590" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T12:30:49.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17233" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-02-20T12:30:49.590" Score="0" Body="Satyabhama is the second most important wife of the God Krishna. The second wife of Krishna, the avatar of the god Vishnu, Satyabhama is believed to be an avatar of Bhudevi, the earth goddess and consort of Vishnu. She is known for her strong will and tantrums. She aided Krishna defeat the demon Narakasura." OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T13:15:02.097" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T13:15:02.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17234" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17225" CreationDate="2017-02-20T12:49:41.577" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rishi's answer is correct.A Yogi can see that is not seen by eyes when he obtains mastery over the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manipura&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manipura Chakra&lt;/a&gt;. This is one of the many siddhis that Yoga has to offer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Samhita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siva Samhita&lt;/a&gt; ,Chapter 5 :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;81- &lt;strong&gt;When the Yogi contemplates on the Manipur lotus,&lt;/strong&gt; he gets the power of&#xA;  patala siddhi,-the giver of constant happiness.He becomes lord of&#xA;  desires ,destroys sorrows and diseases,cheats death,and can enter body&#xA;  of others(parakaya pravessha)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/55SDA.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/55SDA.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;82-He can make gold,etc,see the adepts(clairvoyantly),discover medicines&#xA;  for diseases,&lt;strong&gt;and see hidden treasures.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, since he can see hidden treasures means that he does not need external eyes to see things.It's then when he can  see things even with his eyes closed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The important thing to note here is that Manipura is associated with fire element.And fire is associated with form(rupa) just like say prithvi(Muladhara is the related Chakra) is associated with the sense of smell.And forms appear to us with the help of vision.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,its natural that a Yogi obtains a vision-related siddhi by mastering the Manipura(fire) within him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT-I missed that you are actually asking about children.Only two possible explanations are there IMO-either they have learned  Yoga to do so Or they are carrying forward their powers which they have obtained in their previous births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T13:05:28.470" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T13:05:28.470" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17235" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17227" CreationDate="2017-02-20T15:25:30.090" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Vidyaranya Swami says in his &lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt; Chapter 9 (Swami Swahananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;100&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All these injunctions and prohibitions are meant for those who believe themselves to belong to a certain caste or station and stage of life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The knower is convinced that caste, station, stc. are creations of Maya, and that they refer to the body and not to the Self whose nature is pure consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The clear sighted knower from whose heart all attachment has vanished is a liberated soul whether he performs or not concentration or action.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He whose mind is free from all desires or former impressions has nothing to gain from either action or inaction, meditation (Samadhi) or repetition of holy formulas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Self is associationless and everything other than the Self is a display of the magic of Maya. When a mind has such a firm conviction, wherefrom will any desire or impression come in it?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus when for an illumined sage there is no injunction or prohibition, where is his violating them? Only for him can violation be possible who is bound by them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See Gita 3.20-22 and 25-26 for further reference. A householder does rituals because he is bound by the vedas to perform them; hence a householder must perform them as prescribed by the vedas. A sannyasin is not bound by the vedas; as Sri Vidyaranya says in verse 105, he is not in violation since he is not bound by the vedas. So Yes, sannyasins can perform vedic rituals. It should be noted, however, they that do not do them for their own gain as verse 103 says, he has nothing to gain from either action or inaction or repetition of holy formulas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T15:36:16.300" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T15:36:16.300" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17236" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-20T16:03:40.880" Score="4" ViewCount="874" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know if Swamiji himself ever spoke about his enlightenment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did he or anyone talk about his enlightenment? I heard that he was more into social service and freedom movement. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-22T09:51:41.690" LastActivityDate="2019-01-29T03:37:02.833" Title="Did Swami Vivekananda speak about his enlightenment?" Tags="|vivekananda|enlightenment|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17238" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17239" CreationDate="2017-02-20T17:34:34.147" Score="3" ViewCount="1106" Body="&lt;p&gt;Katha Upanishad Valli 3 says such. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7&lt;/strong&gt;. Higher than the senses is the mind; &#xA;Higher than the mind is the essence; Higher than the essence is the &lt;strong&gt;immense self&lt;/strong&gt;; &#xA;Higher than the immense is the &lt;strong&gt;unmanifest&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8&lt;/strong&gt;. Higher than the unmanifest is the &lt;strong&gt;person&lt;/strong&gt;, pervading all and without any marks. &#xA;Knowing him, a man is freed, and attains immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Immense self is Jivatma(Pushtak).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Person is Brahm or ultimate reality. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then what Unmanifest is? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And what is the difference (possibly subtle) between unmanifest &amp;amp; Person? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-02-20T17:41:10.007" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T15:58:42.333" Title="What is Unmanifest &amp; what is Person? And what's the difference?" Tags="|upanishads|katha-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17239" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17238" CreationDate="2017-02-20T18:17:40.527" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/katha1/Commentary_on_Katha_Upanishad.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; On page 224, this is the translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इन्द्रियेभ्य: परं मनो मनस: सत्वमुत्तमम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सत्त्वादधि महानात्मा महतोsव्यकतमुत्तमम् ||7||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;indriyebhyaḥ param mano manasaṣ sattvam uttamam,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sattvād adhi mahān ātmā, mahato’vyaktam uttamam. (7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beyond the senses is the mind, higher than the mind is&#xA;  the intellect, higher than the intellect is the great Atman,&#xA;  higher than the mahat is avyaktam (the unmanifested).&#xA;  (II.3.7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अव्यक्तात्तु पर: पुरुषो व्यापकोsलिङ्ग एव च | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यं ज्ञात्वा मुच्यते जन्तुरमृतत्वं च गच्छति ||८||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;avyaktāt tu paraḥ puruso vyāpako’liṅga eva ca,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yaṁ jñātvā mucyate jantur amṛtatvaṁ ca gacchati. (8)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beyond the avyakta is Purusha, all-pervading and&#xA;  devoid of linga (indicative sign). He who knows Him is&#xA;  liberated and obtains Immortality. (II.3.8)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And on page 162, this is commentary. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why do you go to the senses as if they were everything?&#xA;  “The mind is superior to, and controls the, senses. The&#xA;  intelligence controls the mind; superior to the intellect is&#xA;  the mahat-tattva beyond which is mulaprakriti, of which&#xA;  hiranyagarbha is the manifestation. Beyond everything is&#xA;  the purusha.” Why don’t you go to the Supreme Being?&#xA;  Why to the senses which are the lowest manifestation? This&#xA;  purusha is all-pervading, and nothing is greater than He. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Unfortunately for us, we cannot define this purusha.&#xA;  The mind and the senses can be defined; hiranyagarbha&#xA;  and virat can be symbolically explained, but not the&#xA;  purusha. We cannot define anything without reference to&#xA;  its qualities and attributes, but He is devoid of these, and&#xA;  He is therefore undefinable. “He is alinga—but if you have&#xA;  the blessedness to realise Him by some means or other,&#xA;  titiksha is attained.” The purusha without any mark cannot&#xA;  be meditated upon. So different Upanishads give us&#xA;  definitions and qualities of Him to be meditated on, like &#xA;  satyam, jnanam, anantam, vijnanam, tat tvam asi, etad vai&#xA;  tat, etc. These are symbols; not definitions of God. There&#xA;  are various symbols, including the idols in temples. Any&#xA;  one will do, provided it is taken as the final one. By this, the&#xA;  purusha can be realised. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It seems &quot;senses&quot; in your translation is Samkhya tattva of panchendriyas, &quot;mind&quot; is samkhya tattva of manas, &quot;essense&quot; in your translation is samkhya tattva of buddhi/intellect. &quot;great atman&quot; is sankhya tattva of mahat. &quot;Unmanifest&quot; is sankhya tattva of mulaprakriti and &quot;person&quot; is purusha tattva of samkhya.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/24principles.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/24principles.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit: Vedanta interpretation of these verses can be more clearly seen &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/uploads/5/5/4/9/5549439/katha_upanishad.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; on pages 37 to 39&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The order of gradual inversion from the external world is being discussed. We experience&#xA;  the presence and power of the five sense-organs, we then reflect upon our perception of&#xA;  their objects and the relevance that we give them. We then reflect upon the mind that&#xA;  collates the data, we then progress to the contemplation of the intellect, to the process of&#xA;  understanding the thinking process itself. Once we transcend this state of thinking about&#xA;  thinking we can then perceive the Self as it is.&#xA;  arthāḥ = the “things” of the senses that have no meaning in themselves but the meaning&#xA;  that we give them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Great Self&lt;/strong&gt; = Shankara means by it the great “Self of the universe” said to be the firstborn&#xA;  of the Unmanifest. According to the RX. (X.121) in the beginning was the chaos of&#xA;  waters, floating on which appeared Hiranya-garbha, the golden germ, the first born of&#xA;  creation and the creator of all other human beings. &lt;strong&gt;Hiranya-garbha is the Self of the&#xA;  Universe. RV.X.129.2.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;For Ramanuja the Great Self is the individual Self or the subject of all experience which&#xA;  is indwelt by the Highest Self.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Unmanifest&lt;/strong&gt;. It is beyond mahat or the Self, it is prakṛti, the universal mother Nature&#xA;  from out of which, by the influence of the light of purusa, all form and all content emerge&#xA;  into manifestation.&#xA;  Shankara suggests that the &quot;Unmanifest” is the latent state of the whole universewhen&#xA;  name and form are unmanifested. The state when all forces of cause and effect are in a&#xA;  latent condition prior to manifestation. &lt;strong&gt;It is the same as Māyā – Illusion and Avidya –&#xA;  ignorance.&lt;/strong&gt; Puruṣa (That which fills, or the Supreme Person) is the subject, Prakṛti or&#xA;  material nature is the object, both are co-ordinate principles at the stage of cosmic&#xA;  creation, while their inter-action is essential for all manifestation, Puruṣa is considered to&#xA;  be higher as he is the source of light and his unit appears nearer to the Ultimate One than&#xA;  the multiplicity of Prakrti; strictly speaking, however, the Pure Self is beyond the&#xA;  descriptions of unity, duality and multiplicity.&#xA;  For Shankara, the “Unmanifest” here is not the Prakṛti or Primordial Nature of the&#xA;  Sankhya System but the māyā-śakti which is responsible for the whole world including&#xA;  the personal God. For Ramanuja, &lt;strong&gt;Unmanifest denotes the Brahman in its causal phase,&#xA;  when names and forms are not yet distinguished.&lt;/strong&gt; It is a real mode, prakāra or&#xA;  development, a real transformation of Brahman through which the universe is evolved&#xA;  and comes into being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Puruṣa – The term Puruṣa goes back to the Puruṣa Sukta (R.V. X. 90) where it is&#xA;  used in a distinctly personal way. The Ultimate Reality or Brahman contains all&#xA;  possibilities of manifestation and non-manifestation of both subject and object, both the&#xA;  light of unity and the darkness of multiplicity – &lt;strong&gt;Puruṣa is the subjective side of that&#xA;  Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; We do not reach it, until the end of the cosmic day when the entire universe is&#xA;  reabsorbed into Brahman. So from this point of view we can say that there is nothing&#xA;  beyond the Puruṣa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as per Sankara, great-self/mahat is hiranya-garbha and unmanifest is maya and avidya.&#xA;As per Ramanuja, great-self/mahat is individual self, jivatman and unmanifest is Brahman in its casual phase.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purusha is subjective side of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="6830" LastEditDate="2017-02-21T15:58:42.333" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T15:58:42.333" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17240" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-20T19:35:01.027" Score="4" ViewCount="1678" Body="&lt;p&gt;Contrary to popular belief, seems like it wasn't Kṛṣṇa who rescued Draupadī when she was being disrobed by Duḥśāsana. This is what Bibek Debroy writes in the introduction to his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/dp/0143425145&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translation&lt;/a&gt; based on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/mahabharata-bori.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BORI critical edition&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahābhārata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In similar vein, in popular renderings, when Droupadi is being disrobed, she prays to Krishna. Krishna provides the never-ending stream of garments that stump Duhshasana. The critical edition has excised the prayer to Krishna. The never-ending stream of garments is given as an extraordinary event. However, there is no intervention from Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I tend to agree with the above because as I point out in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14042/&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;this&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; answer to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/13994&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Krishna's role in the game of dice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, Kṛṣṇa neither acknowledges nor takes credit for coming to Draupadī's rescue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it's not Kṛṣṇa, then who's it that really saved Draupadī that day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if you believe that it was really Kṛṣṇa that saved Draupadī that day, then why did &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhandarkar_Oriental_Research_Institute&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BORI&lt;/a&gt; decide to edit out Draupadī's prayer from its critical edition? Why did they think it was an interpolation in the original text?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-11-18T03:41:51.383" LastActivityDate="2022-11-04T06:37:23.117" Title="Who was it that really saved Draupadī's modesty?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|draupadi|critical-edition|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17241" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17240" CreationDate="2017-02-20T20:22:43.883" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna saved Draupadi.&lt;/strong&gt; First of all, just so people know what we're talking about, here is the description of Krishna saving Draupadi form being disrobed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the attire of Draupadi was being thus dragged, the thought of Hari, (And she herself cried aloud, saying), &lt;strong&gt;'O Govinda, O thou who dwellest in Dwaraka, O Krishna, O thou who art fond of cow-herdesses (of Vrindavana). O Kesava, seest thou not that the Kauravas are humiliating me. O Lord, O husband of Lakshmi, O Lord of Vraja (Vrindavana), O destroyer of all afflictions, O Janarddana, rescue me who am sinking in the Kaurava Ocean. O Krishna, O Krishna, O thou great yogin, thou soul of the universe, Thou creator of all things, O Govinda, save me who am distressed,--who am losing my senses in the midst of the Kurus.'&lt;/strong&gt; Thus did that afflicted lady resplendent still in her beauty, O king covering her face cried aloud, thinking of Krishna, of Hari, of the lord of the three worlds. Hearing the words of Draupadi, Krishna was deeply moved. And leaving his seat, the benevolent one from compassion, arrived there on foot. And while Yajnaseni was crying aloud to Krishna, also called Vishnu and Hari and Nara for protection, the illustrious Dharma, remaining unseen, covered her with excellent clothes of many hues. And, O monarch as the attire of Draupadi was being dragged, after one was taken off, another of the same kind, appeared covering her. And thus did it continue till many clothes were seen. And, O exalted on, owing to the protection of Dharma, hundreds upon hundreds of robes of many hues came off Draupadi's person. And there arose then a deep uproar of many many voices. And the kings present in that assembly beholding that most extraordinary of all sights in the world, began to applaud Draupadi and censure the son of Dhritarashtra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second of all, Draupadi recalls the incident in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05082.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Kesava, the sons of Pandu, the Panchalas, and the Vrishnis being all alive, exposed to the gaze of the assembly I was treated as a slave by those sinful wretches. And when the Pandavas beholding it all sat silent without giving way to wrath, &lt;strong&gt;in my heart I called upon thee. O Govinda, saying,--Save me, O save me!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On top of that, Kunti mentions the incident in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear Kṛṣṇa, Your Lordship has protected us from a poisoned cake, from a great fire, from cannibals, &lt;strong&gt;from the vicious assembly&lt;/strong&gt;, from sufferings during our exile in the forest and from the battle where great generals fought. And now You have saved us from the weapon of Aśvatthāmā. I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally,  Madhvacharya describes the incident in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dvaipayana.net/mbtn-trans/Chapter_21_prabhanjanacharya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of his Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya, one of the oldest commentaries on the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When dushyAsana started disrobing her, draupadi started to remember kRushNa in a very special manner.&lt;/strong&gt; At that time, another saree which was divine, very delicate and glowing like gold appeared on her body.  As and when dushyAsana started snatching the sarees, a new saree appeared. Sinful dushyAsana could never reach the end. He was exhausted and sunk down in the assembly hall.  When the pile of sarees started to grow like mountain, ignorant duryOdhana who was furious said “why are you delaying, take her to our house”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I don't think there's any reason to doubt the story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-02-20T20:22:43.883" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17243" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-21T02:46:11.450" Score="4" ViewCount="817" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a scientist studying the effects of different drugs in the immune system. The immune system is so complex and we have such a limited understanding of it, that the only way to understand whether or not a drug is toxic is to study the effects on animals such as mice. Unfortunately, the way it works is that every animal that is used has to undergo a painful disease to replicate the conditions needed for the drug to work. After The study, every single animal has to be sacrificed. From a hypothetical perspective, it seems easy to say that this research is necessary and can save human lives at the cost of animal lives. From a practical perspective, it is terrifying to see the animals suffer every day and live a life that is horrific by any standard. Sometimes it feels like you are seeing the holocaust but for mice instead of humans. Finally it is incredibly difficult when the animal has to be sacrificed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there karmic consequences for animal testing? Who suffers the consequences and how much? The scientist doing the testing? The group of collaborators working on the project? People who sell the drugs that were created using this process? People who take the drugs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It gets more complicated in the real world. For example,when you are only 20% certain that the drug will work should you test it on animals anyways to learn something?Is there a cut off for the percentage?What number of animals should be used? And so on...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do The Scriptures suggest we think about these problems? Everything seems much more significant when taking an innocent life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I became a scientist to help humans avoid suffering. But seeing how much animals have to suffer makes me wonder if I am doing the right thing according to Hindu principles and if I will have to suffer the karmic consequences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3547" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T18:02:51.797" Title="What do scriptures say about animal testing for medical research?" Tags="|scripture|karma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17245" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17243" CreationDate="2017-02-21T04:53:04.650" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjuna ask Krisha on seeing his own family in front of him, for Dharma he was supposed to kill his own cousin brothers, teachers, grand parents and friends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गुरूनहत्वा हि महानुभावान्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रेयो भोक्तुं भैक्ष्यमपीह लोके।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हत्वार्थकामांस्तु गुरूनिहैव&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भुञ्जीय भोगान् रुधिरप्रदिग्धान्।।2.5।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.5 Better it is, indeed, in this world to accept alms than to slay the most noble teachers. But if I kill them, even in this world all my&#xA;  enjoyments of wealth and fulfilled desires will be stained with&#xA;  (their) blood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krisha said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः।।2.11।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.11 The Blessed Lord said Thou hast grieved for those that should not be grieved for, yet thou speakest words of wisdom. The wise grieve&#xA;  neither for the living nor for the dead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति।।2.13।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.13 Just as in this body the embodied (soul) passes into childhood, youth and old age, so also does it pass into another body; the firm&#xA;  man does not grieve thereat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मादसक्तः सततं कार्यं कर्म समाचर।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;असक्तो ह्याचरन्कर्म परमाप्नोति पूरुषः।।3.19।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.19 Therefore without attachment, do thou always perform action which should be done; for by performing action without attachment man&#xA;  reaches the Supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So these are some Shaloka from gita but would recommend to also see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17173/8883&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer for another perception for your situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism teaches us that &lt;strong&gt;Executioner is not doing anything nonreligious&lt;/strong&gt; (No Bad Karma's as it is his duty) and same goes with armies as well, What do you think your duty is?, if &lt;strong&gt;it is your Duty you must do it with out attachment with mice&lt;/strong&gt; on the other hand I have read that there were sages in ancient India who have successfully replaced the head of person Eg. Lord Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How ever there have been people who literally do not kill even a mosquito sitting on their hand, So they are also right from their perspective but same sounds rubbish from another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would suggest you first to decide is it what you want to do, clarity of mind is necessary from a religious perspective, So the &lt;strong&gt;Essence is that it all depends on your feelings&lt;/strong&gt; as the question is asked on Hinduism website, &lt;strong&gt;So from a Hindu perspective it is both right and wrong, No one knows you better than you.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can not argue with an owl what is light and what is darkness, What is right from one perspective could be wrong from another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I became a scientist to help humans avoid suffering. But seeing how&#xA;  much animals have to suffer makes me wonder if I am doing the right&#xA;  thing according to Hindu principles and if I will have to suffer the&#xA;  karmic consequences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Warning:&lt;/strong&gt; Below answer is only for this situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when you say that you have become scientist to help humans avoid suffering then why you are scared &lt;strong&gt;all mice would any way going to die and when they are dying for a good reason they will be born again as soul never dies&lt;/strong&gt;, it is just as simple as changing clothes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would recommend you to study Bhagvad Gita &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T05:41:13.453" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17246" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17243" CreationDate="2017-02-21T06:29:18.023" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all scriptures have not dealt with the issue directly.So,what we need to do is find verses that are closely related &amp;amp; adapt them to the situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What the scientists do is clearly unlawful(Adharma) IMO because they are killing/torturing innocent animals &lt;strong&gt;for their own good/benefit&lt;/strong&gt;.Even if they say &quot;we are doing it for the benefit of humanity&quot; then humanity is not the whole set of living beings that are on earth.&lt;strong&gt;Animals,insects and the trees are also Almighty's children just like we are.Their pains and sufferings also count&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hindu Scriptures,all throughout,its being said that the only lawful killing of animals(or even plants) is when they will be used in sacrifices for the Gods or for the Manes(Pitrus).I have not found any exception to this rule.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And any killing apart from that, for one's own need, is more or less bad karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The whole essence of what i am saying is summed up well in Lord Shiva's words given below :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Trinam VApyaVidhanena Chedyenna KadAchana| Vidhina GAm Dvijam VApi&#xA;  HatyA PApairna Lipyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If its not prescribed in Shastras don't even tear a grass&lt;/strong&gt;,but there is no sin even if one kills a cow or a dvija as per Shastra&#xA;  Vidhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, 2-137.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AvidhAnena Yo HanyAdAtmArtham PrAninah Priye| Nivasennarake Ghore&#xA;  DinAni Pasuromabhih|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who kills an animal for one's own good/benefit/enjoyement&lt;/strong&gt; goes after his death to hell and lives there for as many days as there are&#xA;  hairs on the animal's body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 2-131&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti also says the same thing in a different way:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.38. As many hairs as the slain beast has, so often indeed will he who killed it without a (lawful) reason suffer a violent death in&#xA;  future births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only lawful killing of an animal , as said earlier,is when done for sacrifices to Gods/Manes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.39. Svayambhu (the Self-existent) himself created&#xA;  animals for the sake of sacrifices; &lt;strong&gt;sacrifices (have been instituted)&#xA;  for the good of this whole (world);&lt;/strong&gt; hence the slaughtering (of beasts)&#xA;  for sacrifices is not slaughtering (in the ordinary sense of the&#xA;  word).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Who suffers the consequences and how much? The scientist doing the&#xA; testing? The group of collaborators working on the project? People who&#xA;sell the drugs that were created using this process? People who take&#xA; the drugs?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone involved in the process IMO,from the start till the end,will be equally guilty of the crime.Even the persons who are buying the medicines and consuming them included.&lt;strong&gt;Everyone who is benefiting from the process of torturing the animal will have to pay the price for it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A relevant verse from Manu that can be adapted here is this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.51. He who permits (the slaughter of an animal), he who cuts it up, he who kills it, he who buys or sells (meat), he who cooks it, he who&#xA;  serves it up, and he who eats it, (must all be considered as) the&#xA;  slayers (of the animal).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purport of this Manu verse is that everyone is equally guilty, from the one who kills the animal to the one who partakes it.Even one who is cooking is guilty (although he might not be  eating it). Similarly here.From one who is getting monetary benefits out the research to one who is getting the health benefits  all of them will have to pay the price for the animals' sufferings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, i don't think that we really need scriptures to tell us that what we are doing is wrong because our conscience will also tell us the same unless its dead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adding a couple of more verses from &lt;strong&gt;Parashara Smriti&lt;/strong&gt; which say that the animals that are working for us should be taken good care of.We should not burden them with over weight, over work.Because,if they get hurt or get killed in the process of working for us then we need to do penance to overcome that guilt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. An ox that is hungry, or thirsty, or fatigued, should not be harnessed (to a plough) . A bull wanting in a limb, or diseased, or&#xA;  impotent, should not, by a Brahman, be made to work.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;24. If a bull happens to be unduly burnt, on the occasion of cauterizing an injured part ; or if a bull is loaded beyond his&#xA;  strength ; and if he be sent, so loaded, to cross a river, or travel&#xA;  over hills,&lt;/strong&gt; — the following penances are prescribed by law :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses clearly prove that the practice of killing/torturing animals for our own use is unethical/unlawful from the Hindu perspective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-22T08:11:58.317" LastActivityDate="2017-02-22T08:11:58.317" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17247" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-21T07:25:17.623" Score="3" ViewCount="146" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata or any other scripture, are there any references which explicitly mention Lord Krishna eating meat like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9301/were-pandavas-non-vegetarians&quot;&gt;those&lt;/a&gt; of Pandavas? &#xA;As I did not find any reference in the other thread I have made a new thread for this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T08:30:58.867" Title="Are there any references about Krishna eating meat?" Tags="|scripture|krishna|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-02-21T08:37:58.780" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17248" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-21T09:24:53.163" Score="3" ViewCount="1282" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question has arises out of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17246/8883&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer and I want to know the truth because as per my knowledge several amendments have been made by pandits for their own benefits in past 4000 years, So how much truth can be in the statement that vedas allow us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know there are several pooja in which people give bali in the name of god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well on one hand vedas says so positive about be loving and on other how can it say to sacrifice the same animal for GOD. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-09-02T05:36:13.670" Title="Do Vedas allow sacrificing innocent animals in the name of GOD?" Tags="|vedas|yajna|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2017-09-02T07:22:46.397" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17249" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-21T09:29:49.770" Score="22" ViewCount="5140" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let us see some of the accusations of vedantins&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SANKARA’S ACCUSERS&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhaskara (9th Century CE), the propounder of bhedabheda-siddhanta was one of the earliest Indian philosophers to attack Mayavada. In his commentary on Vedanta-sutra, Bhaskara does not mention Sankara by name, nor does he mention the name of his philosophy. However by reviewing his arguments against the monistic doctrine of maya and the Advaitic concept of anirvacaniya, it is obvious who and what he is alluding to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhaskara is positively vitriolic when writing about the Advaitin’s concept of maya, referring to it’s adherents as bauddha-matavalambin (those that cling to Buddhist ideology) and goes on to say that their philosophy reeks of Buddhism (bauddha-gandhin). Bhaskara concludes that, “No one but a drunkard could hold such theories” and that Mayavada is subversive of all sastrika knowledge:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vigitam vicchinna-mulam mahayanika-bauddhagathitam mayavadam vyavarnayanto lokan vyamohayanti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Expanding on the contradictory and baseless philosophy of maya propagated by the Mahayanika Buddhists, the Mayavadis have misled the whole world. (Bhaskara’s Brahma-sutra-bhasya 1.4.25)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his Siddha-traya, the &lt;strong&gt;Vaisnava philosopher Yamunacarya&lt;/strong&gt; (917–1042 CE) stated that &lt;strong&gt;Buddhism and Mayavada was essentially the same thing&lt;/strong&gt;. The only difference he could see was that while one was openly Buddhist (prakata-saugata), the other was &lt;strong&gt;simply covered (pracchana-saugata)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following on from Yamunacarya, his disciple &lt;strong&gt;Sri Ramanuja (1017-1137 CE)&lt;/strong&gt; also concurred that Mayavada was another form of Buddhism. In his Sri Bhashya commentary on the Vedanta-sutras, Ramanuja says that to claim that non-differentiated consciousness is real and all else is false is the same as the Buddhist concept of universal void. Furthermore, Ramanuja states that the concepts of such crypto-Buddhists make a mockery of the teachings of the Vedas (veda-vadacchadma pracchana-bauddha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another acarya in the line of Ramanuja, &lt;strong&gt;Vedanta Desika&lt;/strong&gt; (1269–1370) wrote his famous Sata-dusini, a text expounding one hundred flaws found in Mayavada. In that work he refers to Sankara as a rahu-mimamsaka (one who obscures the true meaning of Vedanta), a bhrama-bhiksu (a confused beggar), a cadmavesa-dhari – one who is disguised in false garb, and goes on to assert that, &lt;strong&gt;“By memorizing the arguments of the Sata-dusini like a parrot, one would be victorious over the crypto-Buddhists.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In another work, Paramata-bhangam, Vedanta Desika refers to Sankara as, &lt;strong&gt;“One who studied the Vedas in the shop of a Madhyamika Buddhist”&lt;/strong&gt; (referring to Sankara’s param-guru Gaudapada of whom we will speak of later in this article).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later philosophers also declared Mayavada to be crypto-Buddhism. The Sankhya philosopher Vijnana-bhiksu (1550–1600 CE) tried to reconcile Vedanta with Sankhya philosophy and synthesize all theistic schools of Indian thought into a philosophy that he called Avibhagadvaita (indistinguishable non-dualism). He was an impartial writer who analyzed both the merits and problems of the various doctrines that he encountered. Concerning Sankara’s philosophy, Vijnana-bhiksu states in his Sankhya Pravacana Bhasya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahma-mimamsayam kenapi sutrenavidya-matrato bandhasyanuktatat.&#xA;  avibhago vacanaditya-sutrair-brahma-mimamsaya&#xA;  abhipretas-yavibhaga-laksanadraitasy-avidyadivastavatve’pyavirodhaccha.&#xA;  yat tu vedanta-bruvanamadhunikasya mayavadas-yatra lingam drsyate tat&#xA;  tesamapi vijnanavadyeka-desitaya yuktameva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is not a &lt;strong&gt;single Brahma-sutra&lt;/strong&gt; in which bondage is declared to be a mere deception. As to the novel theory of maya propounded by vedanta-bruva (those who claim to be Vedantists), it is only another type of Buddhist of the &lt;strong&gt;Vijnanavada school (vijnana-vadyekadesin)&lt;/strong&gt;. This theory has nothing to do with Vedanta and it should be understood that this doctrine of these new Buddhists, who assert the theory of maya and reduce our bondage to mere illusion is in this way refuted. (Sankhya Pravacana Bhasya 1.22)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later on in his work, &lt;strong&gt;Vijnana-bhiksu&lt;/strong&gt; also quotes the famous verse from Padma Purana (mayavadam asat-chastram). Vijnana-bhiksu considered Buddhism to be nastikavada, or atheism, as it was opposed to Vedic thought. Thus, in effect, he was declaring Mayavadis to be out and out atheists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amongst all acaryas and philosophers, &lt;strong&gt;Sri Madhvacarya was certainly the most hostile towards Sankara&lt;/strong&gt;. Throughout his campaign to establish his philosophy of Dvaitavada, Madhva continuously attacked Mayavada, which he considered to be the worst kind of heresy. In his Anu-vyakhyana, Brhad-bhasya and Tattvodyota, Madhva also makes the claim that the Advaitins are &lt;strong&gt;crypto-Buddhists – na ca sunyavadinah sakasad vailaksanyam mayavadinah (there is no doctrinal difference between Buddhism and Mayavada). He even quotes Buddhist texts and compares them to Advaitin works to prove his point.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gosai.com/writings/mayavada-and-buddhism-are-they-one-and-the-same&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T16:06:59.203" LastActivityDate="2021-08-15T11:59:14.543" Title="Why is Sankaracharya accused as Pracchana Bauddha (crypto-buddhist) by many Vedantins?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|adi-shankaracharya|buddhism|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17250" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17248" CreationDate="2017-02-21T10:10:05.810" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer of your question is given by &lt;strong&gt;Shree-Krishna in Shreemad Bhagvat Maha Purana. ( Canto 11 ,Chapter 21 , Shlokas 29-30) SB 11.21: Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Explanation of the Vedic Path.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/21&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ते मे मतमविज्ञाय परोक्षं विषयात्मका:।&lt;br&gt; हिंसायां यदि राग: स्याद्&#xA;  यज्ञ एव न चोदना॥29॥&lt;br&gt; हिंसाविहारा ह्यालब्धै: पशुभि: स्वसुखेच्छया&#xA;  ।&lt;br&gt; यजन्ते देवता यज्ञे: पितृभूतपतीन खला:॥30&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;te me matam avijñāya parokṣaṁ viṣayātmakāḥ hiṁsāyāṁ yadi rāgaḥ syād&#xA;  yajña eva na codanā hiṁsā-vihārā hy ālabdhaiḥ paśubhiḥ sva-sukhecchayā&#xA;  yajante devatā yajñaiḥ pitṛ-bhūta-patīn khalāḥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - Those who are sworn to sense gratification cannot understand the confidential conclusion of Vedic knowledge as explained&#xA;  by Me. Taking pleasure in violence, they cruelly slaughter innocent&#xA;  animals in sacrifice for their own sense gratification and thus&#xA;  worship demigods, forefathers and leaders among ghostly creatures.&#xA;  Such passion for violence, however, is never encouraged within the&#xA;  process of Vedic sacrifice.&lt;br&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/21/29-30&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.21.29-30&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Here is Swami Prabhupada's comentory on above shloka&lt;/strong&gt; -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Vedic scriptures sanction occasional animal sacrifice to satisfy&#xA;  cruel, low-class men who cannot live without the taste of flesh and&#xA;  blood.&lt;/strong&gt; Such concessions, however, are restricted by rigorous&#xA;  obligatory rituals and are meant to gradually discourage animal&#xA;  killing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But unscrupulous persons misconstrue such restrictive sanctions and&#xA;  declare that Vedic sacrifice is meant for killing animals in order to&#xA;  enjoy sense gratification.&lt;/strong&gt; Although understanding the authority of&#xA;  Vedic rituals, they do not accept the ultimate Vedic conclusion and&#xA;  therefore never surrender to God. Thus false religious principles&#xA;  flourish in the demoniac societies of the animal killers.&#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  So from above shlokas we can say that even though people are misinterpreting the meaning of  allowance of Vedic-sacrific in  limited manner ,  So in that sence ,&lt;strong&gt;Yes ,Vedas allow  occasional sacrifice of innocent animal in Yagnas.&lt;/strong&gt; however, is never encouraged within the process of Vedic sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt; - As said in the above shloka we must first understand ,why it is allowed in vedas.( for the people who cannot live without the taste of flesh and blood).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-02-21T10:21:08.373" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T10:21:08.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17251" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5150" CreationDate="2017-02-21T11:00:23.770" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know what you mean by &amp;quot;discovered&amp;quot;. Ganesha is mentioned in Vedas, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12043/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. So, He is eternal and He manifests differently in different Kalpas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-13/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 13&lt;/a&gt; Rudra Samhita (Kumara Khanda) of Shiva Purana&lt;/em&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रहोवाच &lt;br&gt; कल्पभेदाद्गणेशस्य जनिः प्रोक्ता विधेः परात्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;शनिदृष्टं शिरश्छिन्नं सञ्चितं गाजमाननम्॥५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said, “Because of the difference in the kalpas, there are&#xA;several stories of the birth of Ganesa. Once, because of Saturn's&#xA;casting his gaze over Ganesa, the latter's head was cut off and it was&#xA;replaced with the head of an elephant. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ड्दानी श्वेतकल्पोक्ता&#xA;गणेशोत्पत्तिसच्यते। । &lt;br&gt; यत्र छिन्नं शिरस्तस्य शिवेन च कृपालुना।। ६॥&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Presently, the story of the birth of Ganesa in the Sveta kalpa is&#xA;being narrated, wherein, the compassionate Šiva, had himself cut off&#xA;his head. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it's clear Ganesha is eternal (as He is mentioned in Vedas) and He manifests differently in different Kalpas. Each Purana describes stories of a particular kalpa which i discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11077/3500&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and Shiva Purana discusses stories of Sveta kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/the-varaha-purana/vol-i/chapter-23/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 23&lt;/a&gt; Part 1 of Varaha purana&lt;/em&gt; mentions different birth story of Ganesha. Varaha Kalpa mentions mainly stories of &amp;quot;Manava Kalpa&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11-15. How is it not there in sky ?&amp;quot; So thinking he laughed. By the&#xA;power of knowledge, by what was seen by Rudra in the sky, by what was&#xA;said by Brahma formerly as the body of all beings, by the laughter of&#xA;Rudra, by all these four in the four elements Earth and the rest,&#xA;there arose a boy effulgent with glowing face, looking like Rudra&#xA;himself and stupefying Devas with the charm of his dazzling&#xA;brilliance. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;16&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Seeing the person of this great boy, Uma remained with eyes stuck on him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Looking at the beautiful form of the boy and thinking of the fickleness of women's minds Rudra got angry and cursed him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;O boy, you will attain an elephant's face, protruding belly and yajnopavlta of serpents&amp;quot;. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to Sweta Varaha Kalpa (Current Kalpa), we do not know exactly in which Mahayuga He was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parvati was born just after beginning of Vaivasvara Manvantara in Swetha varaha Kalpa as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27478/62f_chapter_19_2.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Skanda Purana.  But Ganesha is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10867/3500&quot;&gt;elder brother of Skanda&lt;/a&gt;.  He might be born just after Marriage of Shiva and Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana happened during 24th treta yuga and Mahabharata happened during 28th Dwapara Yuga as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7189/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. There is huge difference in time span of Ganesha's birth and Mahabharata or Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, it was Ganesha who wrote Mahabharata when Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa narrated, as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adiparva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Ganesha existed and well known even during times of Mahabharata and Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T11:47:26.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17252" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-21T11:03:48.493" Score="9" ViewCount="3393" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Krishna advise Arjuna to use Shikhandi as a shield against Bhishma?  If yes, in which part of Bhishmaparva? I am reading Kisari Mohan Ganguli´s version of Mahabharata. But I couldn't find the part where Krishna advises Arjuna to use Shikhandi as a shield. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9016" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2019-02-23T08:26:57.520" LastActivityDate="2019-02-23T08:26:57.520" Title="In Mahabharata does Krishna advise Arjuna to use Shikhandi as a shield against Bhishma?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|bhishma|shikhandi|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17253" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-21T11:25:05.793" Score="7" ViewCount="502" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Yajna? How it is different from Tapas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone give scriptural references which describes these two terms? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-18T08:15:33.720" LastActivityDate="2018-02-18T08:15:33.720" Title="What is Yajna, how it is different from Tapas?" Tags="|yoga|yajna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17254" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14762" CreationDate="2017-02-21T11:45:36.993" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Varaha Purana gives answer for Yajnopavetha of snakes. As per Varaha Purana, Lord Shiva cursed him to get Yajnopavetha of snake. As mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17251/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Ganesha manifests differently in different Kalpas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Devas asks Lord Shiva to create a being to destroy obstacles. Lord Shiva sees Uma and creates a being. After creation of beautiful being, Shiva as part of His leela, curses that boy to get Elephant's head, protruding belly and Yajnopavetha of Snakes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/the-varaha-purana/vol-i/chapter-23/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 23&lt;/a&gt; Part1 of Varaha Kalpa describes birth story of Vinayaka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gods said: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;O great god with three eyes and trident in hand, it behoves you to create (a being) for obstructing the actions of the bad&amp;quot;. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus requested by Devas, Rudra with great pleasure looked at Uma for a moment. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When he was looking at Uma in the presence of gods, he was worried why no form of his was seen in the sky. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;There is the body in earth, there is one in water; so also in fire and air.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11-15. How is it not there in sky ?&amp;quot; So thinking he laughed. By the&#xA;power of knowledge, by what was seen by Rudra in the sky, by what was&#xA;said by Brahma formerly as the body of all beings, by the laughter of&#xA;Rudra, by all these four in the four elements Earth and the rest,&#xA;there arose a boy effulgent with glowing face, looking like Rudra&#xA;himself and stupefying Devas with the charm of his dazzling&#xA;brilliance. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;16&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Seeing the person of this great boy, Uma remained with eyes stuck on him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Looking at the beautiful form of the boy and thinking of the fickleness of women's minds Rudra got angry and cursed him. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;O boy, you will attain an elephant's face, protruding belly and &lt;strong&gt;yajnopavlta of serpents&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T12:13:04.643" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17255" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-21T12:20:18.243" Score="4" ViewCount="389" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like Lord Krishna in Mahabharata (geeta) made clear about his divinity, did Rama also show his divine aspect or claim that he was an avatara or god ?&#xA;Did he make any claims or statements that he was enlightened or an avatara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-21T12:38:06.537" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T18:17:19.507" Title="Did Lord Rama ever claim Godhood or divinity himself?" Tags="|ramayana|gods|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-04-10T08:40:54.663" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17256" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17249" CreationDate="2017-02-21T13:53:29.957" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his book &lt;em&gt;The Advaita Tradition in Indian Philosophy: A Study of Advaita in Buddhism, Vedanta and Kashmira Shaivism&lt;/em&gt;, Prof. Chandradhar Sharma (formerly Professor of Philosophy Banaras Hindu University and then Chair of Philosophy at University of Jabalpur and Visiting Professor in the University of Allahabad) says on pages 34-35:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Many Vedic schools of Indian philosophy have noticed the similarities between Mahayana Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta. Eminent Advaitins like Gaudapada, Shriharsa and Chitsukha have pointed out the similarities between Mahayana and Vedanta. Gaudapada approves of the doctrine of ajativada and the critique of causation in Shunyavada and the arguments of Vijnanavada against realism (&lt;em&gt;Gaudapada-karika&lt;/em&gt; IV, 5, 19, 22, 28, 72.). Shriharsa says that the onslaught of the dialectic of Shunyavada and Advaita Vedanta is valid against all views and cannot be set aside (&lt;em&gt;Khandana-khanda-khadya&lt;/em&gt;, p. 61.). Chitsuka admits the similarity of the Madhyamika distinction between &lt;em&gt;samvrti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;paramartha&lt;/em&gt; with the Vedantic distinction between &lt;em&gt;vyavahara&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;paramartha&lt;/em&gt; and defends the former against the attacks of Kumarila Bhatta (&lt;em&gt;Tattva-pradipika&lt;/em&gt;, pp. 42-3.). Even Kumarila, who is an arch-opponent of Buddhism, admits that anatmavada is helpful for purification of mind and detachment. The theistic Vedantins, Bhaskara, Ramanuja, Madhva, etc., are unanimous in condemning the Advaitin as a crypto-Buddhist (prachchhanna-Bauddha) which shows that they admit the similarities between Mahayana and Advaita Vedanta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fact that Buddha carried on, according to his own realisation, the Upanisadic tradition of Absolutism and that Mahayana Buddhists developed it in the light of the teaching of their Founder, is undeniable. Can anyone say that Buddha who accepts the Absolutism of the Upanisads and Mahayana Buddhists who follow him and develop it are opposed to the Upanisadic tradition, because they reject the ultimate reality of the individual self, while the schools of Vaishesika and Nyaya which pay allegiance to the Vedas, but which have reduced the self to an eternal substance devoid of consciousness and bliss like a stone-slab have continued the Upanisadic tradition?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus we see that Buddha's teachings of pratityasamutpada, anatmavada, &lt;em&gt;Nirvana&lt;/em&gt;, spiritual discipline and his silence on the &lt;em&gt;avyakrta&lt;/em&gt; reveal him as a great teacher of absolutism who carried on the tradition of the Upanisadic seers...Hinayana schools of...due to an imperfect understanding of these teachings, forgot his absolutism and created a metaphysics of radical pluralism in the form of the theory of momentary elements in their Abhidharma treatises and commentaries thereon. They substituted the dogmatism of the eternalists by an equally strong dogmatism of momentary elements which culminates in nihilism...The contradictions on Hinyayana philosophy were pointed out by Mahayana schools of Madhyamika and early Vijnanavada who correctly interpreted the absolutism of the Founder [Buddha]. The germs of the important doctrines of Mahayana are scattered in the Pitakas themselves, especially in the Suttapitaka, where there are many passages containing the spiritual absolutism of Buddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prof. Sharma goes int great detail in his book comparing the various aspects of Advaita and Mahayana to conclude that they are the same (as from the quote above). Those Vedantic commentators who compared Buddhism to nihilism were doing so on a limited understanding of the Hinayana school only and not on the Mahayana school. Tibetian Buddhist monks (who are followers of the Mahayana tradition) have also told me that there is no difference between Advaita and Mahayana. Buddha was a proponent of the Upanishads tradition. Rather than a calling Sankara a crypto-Buddhist, it is probably more logical to call Buddhists crypto-Advaitists. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T13:53:29.957" CommentCount="26" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17257" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17253" CreationDate="2017-02-21T14:24:33.970" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;An explanation of Yajna is given here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/196/what-is-the-difference-between-sacrifice-yajna-and-charity-dana&quot;&gt;What is the difference between sacrifice (yajna) and charity (dana)?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tapas is the spiritual practice part of Hinduism, i.e., it includes both the Yoga and the nidhidhyasana practices. Tapas used to be translated as penance in the 19th century. Thus the word penance is used to indicate Tapas in the two passages below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For them that perform the sacrifice of penance - the Yoga they&#xA;  endeavor to effect with Brahma is their ladle; the heart is their&#xA;  clarified butter; and high knowledge constitutes their Pavitra (couple&#xA;  of Kusa blades for sprinkling clarified butter upon the sacrificial&#xA;  butter). All kinds of crookedness mean death, and all kinds of&#xA;  sincerity are called Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section LXXIX&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma said, 'The fruits, however, of penance directed towards the&#xA;  soul are obtainable in this world. whatever be the object to which one&#xA;  devotes oneself, that object, O Bharata, and nothing else, appears to&#xA;  one as the highest of acquisitions fraught with the greatest of&#xA;  blessings. When one reflects properly (one's heart being purified by&#xA;  such reflection), one comes to know that the things of this world are&#xA;  as valueless as straw. Without doubt, O Yudhisthira, which is full of&#xA;  defects, is so constituted, every man of intelligence should strive&#xA;  for the emancipation of his soul.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section CLXXIV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri K. M. Ganguli, the 19th century English translator comments about the second passage, 'It is very difficult to literally translate such verses. ..... Tapah is generally rendered penance. Here, however, it has a direct reference to sravana (hearing), manana ( contemplation) and nidhidhyasana ( abstraction of the soul from everything else for absolute concentration). '&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T14:24:33.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17259" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-21T15:10:45.600" Score="11" ViewCount="1246" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sankara’s doctrine of maya has been one of the principle reasons that he has been accused of being a closet Buddhist. Yet it was actually Sankara’s parama-guru, Gaudapada who posited the idea of maya or ajativada in his famous Mandukya-karika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ajativada refers to the theory of non-creation. In his karika Gaudapada claims that the world of appearances is actually maya and does not factually exist. So this theory of maya/ajativada does not originate with Sankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it does not originate with Gaudapada either…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prior to Gaudapada, it was Nagarjuna that first postulated the concept of ajativada in his Madhyamika-karikas. In his Mandukya-karika, Gaudapada writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;khyapyamanamajatim tairanumodamahe vayam vivadamo na taih&#xA;sardhamavivadam nibodhata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We approve of the ajati declared them (the Buddhists). We do no quarrel with them. (Mandukya-karika 4.5)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is even affirmed by Sankara himself that Gaudapada accepted the arguments of the Buddhists regarding &lt;strong&gt;ajativada&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vijnanavadino bauddhasya vacanam bahyarthavadi-paksha-pratishedha-param acaryena anumoditam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The acarya (Gaudapada) has accepted the words of the &lt;strong&gt;Vijnanavada&lt;/strong&gt; Buddhist (&lt;strong&gt;Nagarjuna&lt;/strong&gt;) to prove the unreality of external things. (Sankara’s commentary on Gaudapada’s Karika 4.27)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gaudapada’s affiliation with Buddhism does not stop there. Gaudapada also gives arguments that are akin to those of the Buddhist scholar &lt;strong&gt;Vasubandhu&lt;/strong&gt; in order to prove that the phenomenal world is unreal by equating the &lt;strong&gt;dream&lt;/strong&gt; state with the &lt;strong&gt;waking&lt;/strong&gt; state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, the two illustrations of the city of the &lt;strong&gt;Gandharvas&lt;/strong&gt; (gandharva-nagara) and the magic elephant (maya-hasti) that Gaudapada uses in his karika to prove the &lt;strong&gt;illusory&lt;/strong&gt; nature of the world are both found in &lt;strong&gt;Mahayana Buddhist literature&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the fourth chapter of Mandukya-karika a case of similar &lt;strong&gt;terminology&lt;/strong&gt; is found between Gaudapada and Nagarjuna. Gaudapada writes in his karika (4.7):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;prakrter anyathabhavo na katham cid bhavisyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And we find a similar verse in &lt;strong&gt;Nagarjuna’s&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Madhyamaka&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;strong&gt;karika&lt;/strong&gt; (15.8):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;prakrter anyathabhavo na hi jatupapadyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The title of the fourth chapter of his karika is &lt;strong&gt;Alatasanti&lt;/strong&gt; (circle of fire) which is a word commonly found in Buddhist texts. But probably the &lt;strong&gt;biggest&lt;/strong&gt; give-away is in the fourth chapter of the karika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nivrttasyapravittasya nishcala hi tada sthitih visayah sa hi buddhanam&#xA;tatsamyamajamadvayam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, the mind freed from attachment and undistracted attains a state of immutability. Being realized by the wise, it is undifferentiated, birthless and non-dual. (Mandukya-karika 4.80)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;upalambhatsamacaradastivastutvavadinam jatistu desita buddhaih&#xA;ajatestrasata sada&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who, from their own experience and right conduct, believe in the existence of substantiality, and who are ever afraid of the birthless, instruction regarding birth has been imparted by the wise. (Mandukya-karika 4.42)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2023-08-14T11:26:49.973" Title="Were Gaudapada's views closer to Madhyamaka Buddhism?" Tags="|vedanta|advaita|buddhism|mandukya-upanishad|gaudapada|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17260" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-21T16:43:09.213" Score="5" ViewCount="2622" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know if there is any reference about the appearance/form of Satyanarayana and his story, not just the mention of his name. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorDisplayName="user9072" LastEditDate="2018-08-22T07:53:16.913" LastActivityDate="2023-12-10T00:41:38.543" Title="Is the story of Lord Satyanarayana mentioned in the Puranas?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|vrata|satyanarayana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17261" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-21T17:40:50.843" Score="3" ViewCount="150" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynodon_dactylon&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Durva&lt;/a&gt; (or scutch grass) offered to Lord Ganesha? What is the reason behind it? Does this grass have any ayurvedic properties? Why is it considered sacred?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y3za0m.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y3za0m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Scutch Grass&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8964" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-21T17:51:06.740" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T17:51:06.740" Title="Why is Durva grass offered to Lord Ganesha?" Tags="|rituals|ganesha|puja|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-02-21T18:01:36.520" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17262" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17255" CreationDate="2017-02-21T18:17:19.507" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Rāma did not make any such statements. In fact, he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga117/yuddhasans117.htm#Verse11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; quite the opposite:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आत्मानं मानुषं मन्ये रामं दशरथात्मजम्&lt;/strong&gt; || ६-११७-११ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोऽहं यस्य यतश्चाहं भगवंस्तद्ब्रवीतु मे |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ātmānaṃ mānuṣaṃ manye rāmaṃ daśarathātmajam&lt;/strong&gt; || 6-117-11 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  so.ahaṃ yasya yataścāhaṃ bhagavaṃstadbravītu me |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I think of myself to be a human being, by name Rama, the son of Dasaratha&lt;/strong&gt;. You, as a gracious Divinity, tell me that which I as such really am like this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-02-21T18:17:19.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17263" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-21T19:01:21.003" Score="7" ViewCount="1850" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some folks consider &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga90/yuddharoman90.htm#Verse71&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the following śloka&lt;/a&gt; uttered by Lakṣmaṇa to be the mūla-mantra of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्मात्मा सत्यसन्धश्च रामो दाशरथिर्यदि || ९०-६-७१ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पौरुषे चाप्रतिद्वन्द्वस्तदेनं जहि रावणिम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dharmātmā satyasandhaśca rāmo dāśarathiryadi || 90-6-71 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pauruṣe cāpratidvandvastadenaṃ jahi rāvaṇim |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O my dear arrow! If Rama the son of Dasaratha has set his mind on virtue, keeps up his promise and is second to none in his prowess, destroy this Indrajit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is not why this is considered the mūla-mantra but more to do with the how could such a mantra really work. I mean if Warrior A draws up his weapon against Warrior B and prays – &quot;if Warrior C is a dhārmic person, let my weapon kill B&quot; – logically, how is that supposed to work?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E.g., if Indrajit also drew a weapon and uttered a similar mantra that's based on Rāma's virtues and truthfulness and launches it on Lakṣmaṇa, will it work?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following example, where Sītā &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga53/sundarasans53.htm#Verse28&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;prays&lt;/a&gt; to Agni-deva to be gentle on Hanumān's burning tail, seems more logical to me because she's praying and counting on &lt;em&gt;her own&lt;/em&gt; chastity (pātivratya) instead of someone else's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;If I have&lt;/strong&gt; done any service to my husband, &lt;strong&gt;if I have&lt;/strong&gt; performed a penance and if I am a faithful wife, please be cool to Hanuma.&quot; &lt;sup&gt;[5-53-28]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If the wise Rama has even a little of kindness to me and &lt;strong&gt;if I have&lt;/strong&gt; still some good fortune remaining to my credit, please be cool to Hanuma.&quot; &lt;sup&gt;[5-53-29]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If that virtuous Rama recognises me as one, who is endowed with a good moral conduct and who is ardently desirous of meeting him, please be cool to Hanuma.&quot; &lt;sup&gt;[5-53-30]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given the above more logical example, how to make sense of Lakṣmaṇa's prayer before he killed Indrajit?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-02-21T19:06:53.963" LastActivityDate="2020-10-10T07:05:23.287" Title="How could Lakṣmaṇa's mantra to kill Indrajit really work?" Tags="|mantras|weapon|lakshmana|indrajit|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17265" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17270" CreationDate="2017-02-22T04:28:04.950" Score="6" ViewCount="612" Body="&lt;p&gt;Natalia Isayeva's 1992 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/24953669&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shankara and Indian Philosophy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, p. 2, says that Shankara was &quot;the most brilliant personality in the history of Indian thought&quot; and that because he united Atman and Brahman, he is to Indian thought what &lt;a href=&quot;https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;St. Thomas Aquinas&lt;/a&gt;, who reconciled Aristotelian philosophy with Christianity, is to Christian philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this comparison between Shankara and St. Thomas Aquinas fair?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;St. Thomas, for example, rejected anything in Aristotelian thought that contradicted the Catholic faith (e.g., Aristotle thought, contrary to the Catholic faith, the world is eternal).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Shankara reject some doctrines of Atman or Brahman in order to reconcile Atman and Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9007" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T09:53:36.413" Title="Did Shankara reject some doctrines of Atman or Brahman in order to reconcile Atman and Brahman?" Tags="|philosophy|atma|brahman|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17267" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17252" CreationDate="2017-02-22T05:46:50.760" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt; : Bhishma advised it himself . Bhishma gave the means of slaying him to Yudhishtira. You can find it in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;section CVIII&lt;/a&gt; of Kisari Mohan translation.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna did not advise Yudhishtira or Arjuna to use Shikhandi as shield against Bhishma. Krishna advised Yudhishtira to ask Bhishma his (Bhishma's) means of death.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the ninth day of the battle, Yudhishtira was stricken with fear. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then king Yudhishthira, seeing that twilight had come and that his own troops, slaughtered by Bhishma, had thrown aside their weapons, and that stricken with fear, and turned off the field, they were seeking to flee away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishtira wanted to abandon the battle and go to the woods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Krishna, I am, through the weakness of my understanding, plunged in an ocean of grief having got Bhishma (as a foe) in battle. I will retire into the woods, O invincible one. My exile there would be for my benefit. Battle, O Krishna, I no longer desire. Bhishma slayeth us always. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Krishna laments him and advises Yudhishtira to ask Bhishma himself the means to kill him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O king, he of Vrishni's race said unto Yudhishthira, 'O thou of great wisdom, these words of thine, O king, are to my taste. Bhishma, otherwise called Devavrata, is skilled in weapons. With only his glances he can consume the foe. Repair unto that son of the Ocean-going (Ganga), for asking him about the means of his death. Asked by thee, in particular, he will certainly say the truth. We will, therefore, proceed for questioning the Kuru grandsire. &lt;strong&gt;Repairing unto the reverend son of Santanu, we will, O Bharata, ask him his advice and according to the advice that he will give us we will fight with the foe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Listening to the words of Krishna, All the Pandavas along with Madhava proceed to Bhishma's abode. Bhishma welcomes the Pandavas with a cheerful heart. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Welcome art thou, O thou of Vrishni's race. Welcome art thou, O Dhananjaya. Welcome to thee, O king Yudhishthira the just, and to thee, O Bhima. Welcome to you also, ye twins. What am I to do now for enhancing your joy? Even if it be exceedingly difficult of achievement, I will yet do it with all my soul. Unto the son of Ganga who thus repeatedly spoke unto them with such affection. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishtira gets to the point straight away &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Tell us the means by which we may vanquish thee in battle, thee that art, when excited with wrath in the fight, like unto the Destroyer himself armed with mace. The wielder of the thunder-bolt may be vanquished or Varuna, or Yama. Thou, however, art incapable of being defeated in battle by even the gods and Asuras united together, with Indra at their head.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma himself answers the question &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One that hath thrown away his weapons, one that hath fallen down, one whose armour hath slipped off, one whose standard is down, one who is flying away, one who is frightened, one who says--I am thine--one who is a female, one who beareth the name of a female, one no longer capable of taking care of one's self, one who hath only a single son, or one who is a vulgar fellows,--with these I do not like to battle. Hear also, O king, about my resolve formed before. Beholding any inauspicious omen I would never fight. That mighty car-warrior, the son of Drupada, O king, whom thou hast in thy army, who is known by the name of Sikhandin, who is wrathful in battle, brave, and ever victorious, was a female before but subsequently obtained manhood. How all this took place, ye all know it truly. &lt;strong&gt;Brave in battle and clad in mail, let Arjuna, keeping Sikhandin before him, attack me with his sharp shafts. When that inauspicious omen will be there, especially in the form of one that was a female before, I will never seek, though armed with bow and arrow, to strike him. Obtaining that opportunity, let Dhananjaya the son of Pandu quickly pierce me on every side with his shafts&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the an excerpt from Bhishma parva &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;section 108&lt;/a&gt; of Kisari Mohan Ganguli translation of Mahabharata. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="9250" LastEditDate="2019-02-23T08:25:54.150" LastActivityDate="2019-02-23T08:25:54.150" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17268" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17269" CreationDate="2017-02-22T05:48:16.723" Score="5" ViewCount="405" Body="&lt;p&gt;SriKantha Shivacharya in his commentary on Brahma Sutra 3.2.38 gives various quotes to prove it is Parameswara alone who is actually worshipped in all sacrifices. The full Bhasya is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And because so He is declared to be- (III - ii 38 )&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Indeed the Parames&amp;apos;vara is declared to be the lord of all works,—as worshipped by their means and as the dispenser of their fruits,—in the following passages :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;...Rudra, the Lord of hymns, the Lord of sacrifices, possessed of medicaments that confer delight.&#xA;    &amp;quot; Secure Rudra, the king of sacrifice.. &amp;quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Smriti, too, based on these passages of the S&amp;apos;ruti, declares that the Parameswara is the lord of all sacrifices :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot; Let everyone worship, by soma, the Divine Being who is associated with Uma and who is adorned with the moon.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And the Ramayana, too, says:;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;There is no sacrifice, higher than the horse-sacrifice (as&amp;apos;vamedha), in the matter of Rudra&amp;apos;s worship.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And in the Chamakam also (Taittiriya-Samhita IV vii. I—11)—which read &amp;quot;May food (come) to me), may permission (come) to me ; may Dhatri (come) to me, .may VishnU (come) to me &amp;apos;—all things such as food, and all Gods such as Vishnu are declared as things to be given, so that,—as the sole alternative left,—the Parames&amp;apos;vara alone is the dispenser of the fruits of all actions. Therefore it is the Parames&amp;apos;vara alone who is to be worshipped by all sacrifices, and who is the dispenser of all fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the quotes above are traceable to various scripture. For instance the first quote is from RigVeda 1.43.4. The second quote &amp;apos;Rudra, King of Sacrifices&amp;apos; is from Yajurveda 1.3.14.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But where does Ramayana state that quote of Ashwamedha sacrifice being worship of Rudra?. Is that quote from Valmiki Ramayana or from some other Ramayana ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-15T09:51:37.657" LastActivityDate="2017-12-15T09:51:37.657" Title="Where does Ramayana state Ashwamedha Yajna is intended for worship of Lord Rudra?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|ramayana|vedanta|ashwamedha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17269" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17268" CreationDate="2017-02-22T10:08:10.337" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srikantha Sivacharya is referring to &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-103&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana, in which Brahma's son Kardama explains how the lunar dynasty king Ila's problem of continually changing between a man and a woman can be solved: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कर्दमस्त्वब्रवीद्वाक्यं सुतार्थ परमं हितम्। &lt;br&gt; द्विजाः शृणुत&#xA;  मद्वाक्यं यच्छेयः पार्थिवस्य हि।॥११ ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the welfare of his son, the patriarch Kardama said: Hear,&#xA;  O twice-born ones, how the well-being of the king Ila may be secured.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नान्यं पश्यामि भैषज्यमन्तरा वृषभध्वजम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;नाश्वमेधात्परो यज्ञः प्रियश्चैव महात्मनः।&lt;/strong&gt;॥१२ ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For this decease do not find any other good medicine but Uma's lord.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;And besides Asvamedha there is no other sacrifice more favourite to the high-souled deity&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-02-22T14:55:12.110" LastActivityDate="2017-02-22T14:55:12.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17270" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17265" CreationDate="2017-02-22T13:12:19.793" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Shankara explains away many scriptural passages that do not fit the Advaita Vedanta model. I am posting an excerpt of Sankara's introduction to his commentary of Svetasvatara Upanishad where he explains in detail his approach towards interpretation of Scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following objection may be raised: Granting that Brahman cannot&#xA;  have two aspects, because It is non-dual only, how can this prove that&#xA;  Brahman is devoid of forms? It may very well be endowed with the&#xA;  aspect of many forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In answer Vyasa contends (Brahma Sutra III.ii.14) that &lt;strong&gt;the conclusion of the scriptures is that Brahman is&#xA;  formless.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;This is because the scriptural passages describing the&#xA;  formlessness of Brahman reveal Its primary aspect&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To quote the scriptures: &quot;It (Brahman) is neither gross nor subtle,&#xA;  neither short nor long; It is soundless, formless, and immutable.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Akasa (matter) alone is the bearer of names and forms; that which is within&#xA;  them is Brahman.&quot; (Chandogya Upanishad VIII.xiv.1.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;That Brahman is&#xA;  untouched by cause and effect, without interior or exterior. This&#xA;  Atman is Brahman, the experiencer of all things. Such is the&#xA;  instruction of the Vedas.&quot; (Brihadaranyaka Upanishd II.v.19)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Passages like these lay emphasis on the Brahman devoid of phenomenal&#xA;  multiplicity. Other passages in the scriptures describe the Causal&#xA;  Brahman [1] and not Brahman as It essentially is. The passages&#xA;  speaking of the primary Brahman are necessarily stronger than those&#xA;  which speak of the secondary Brahman, which is  the Causal Brahman.&#xA;  Therefore Brahman should be known as being free from differentiations,&#xA;  and not otherwise, such being the clear evidence of the Vedas. In this&#xA;  way Vyasa establishes the undifferentiated nature of Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If that be so, the opponent contends, then what will be the fate of&#xA;  the scriptural passages describing Brahman endowed with forms? &lt;strong&gt;In&#xA;  reply Vyasa says (Brahma Sutra III.ii.15) that as the luminous sun and&#xA;  moon, when reflected in water and similar substances, appear in&#xA;  diverse forms, so also Brahman, in association with upadhis, assumes&#xA;  various forms. These forms, associated with Brahman, are helpful for&#xA;  worship for beginners. Therefore the instruction about Brahman with&#xA;  form does not conflict with that about the formless Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[1] Swami Nikhilananda writes, 'Brahman, in association with maya&#xA;  becomes the cause of the universe and is called the Causal Brahman,&#xA;  which is endowed with the attributes of creation, preservation and&#xA;  destruction, and also with those of omniscience, omnipresence,&#xA;  omnipotence, etc. Creation, which is maya, is not an inalienable&#xA;  characteristic of Brahman.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Sankaracharaya's Introduction to his commentary of Svetasvatara Upanishad translated by Swami Nikhilananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-02-22T13:17:20.810" LastActivityDate="2017-02-22T13:17:20.810" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17271" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9704" CreationDate="2017-02-22T13:45:50.953" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mother Meera as Sai Baba claim to be avatars, it is this claim along with their many deeds that underpin their avatorial status. Ramakrishna and Vivikenanda whom I love dearly were not avatars, their evolution, through meditational and mantra practices to spiritual heights shows this. This is also why I know Buddha was not an avatar, his story is one of human spiritual growth. Avatars descend full of perfect knowledge. &#xA;Krishna is back again now with some few other avatars helping us find our spirituality during this confusing time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9026" LastActivityDate="2017-02-22T13:45:50.953" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17272" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17125" CreationDate="2017-02-22T17:18:44.727" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Indra hurling Vajra at Rudra's throat is described in Vaishnava Khanda of Skanda Mahapurana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-vi/chapter-22/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 14&lt;/a&gt; Kartikamasa Mahatmya, Vaishnava Khanda of Skanda Purana&lt;/em&gt; describes the story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Formerly Sakra went to the Kailasa mountain to pay a visit to Siva. He was surrounded by all the Devas and accompanied by groups of&#xA;celestial damsels.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When he reached the abode of Siva, he saw a person of terrible activities there. He was highly terrifying on account of his curved&#xA;teeth and hideous face.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was asked by him (Indra) : “Who are you? Where has the Lord of the universe gone?&amp;quot; Though asked thus frequently, O king, he did not&#xA;reply. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8-9. Then the infuriated Lord with the thunderbolt in his hand&#xA;rebuked him and spoke these words: &amp;quot;Oh! Though you are being asked by&#xA;me, you have not replied. Hence I shall kill you with my thunderbolt.&#xA;O vicious-minded one, who is there to save you?' &lt;strong&gt;After saying this,&#xA;the Thunderbolt-bearing Lord smote him with force with his&#xA;thunderbolt.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;10&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thereby his throat became blue and the thunderbolt was reduced to ash. Then Rudra blazed with his refulgence as if he would burn&#xA;(everything).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;On seeing it Brihaspati immediately joined his palms in reverence. He made Indra prostrate flat on the ground and began to eulogize.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is during birth of Jalandhara. But Shiva Purana and Padma Purana doesn't mention this story. As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-33/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt;, Rudra stopped Indra's hand and he couldn't hurl it at Rudra. Padma Purana doesn't even mention this confrontation at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This difference is due to Kalpa Bheda, as Skanda Purana mainly mentions events of &lt;strong&gt;Satpurusha Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt; while Shiva Purana and Padma Purana mention stories of Sveta and Padma Kalpas respectively, as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11077/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, it is interesting to note that Skanda Purana says Shiva as Linga absorbed Kalakuta Poison contrary to popular story of drinking Poison (or storing it at throat).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-i/chapter-10/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 10&lt;/a&gt;, Kedarakhanda-Maheshwara Khanda of Skanda Purana&lt;/em&gt; describes kalakuta Episode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lomasa said &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;52-54. On being eulogized thus by Ganesa, &lt;strong&gt;the Lord&#xA;(Siva), the sanctifier of all living beings, assumed the form of a&#xA;Linga  and consumed the Kãlaküta that arose there&lt;/strong&gt; and caused the&#xA;destruction of all the worlds. He made everything free from&#xA;impurities. Since the lord Was endowed with great compassion  and&#xA;considerateness, all Devas, Asuras and human beings and all  the three&#xA;worlds were instantaneously saved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Story of Indra hurling Vajra happened in Satpurusha Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T18:47:55.940" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17278" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17495" CreationDate="2017-02-23T04:51:01.913" Score="8" ViewCount="338" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atharvashiras_Upanishad#cite_note-11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharvasiras Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; is one of the ancient Upanishad and perhaps the only Upanishad which is quoted in DharmaShastras (like Gautama 19.12, Vasistha 22.9 etc.. ) It is a part of AtharvaVeda. The beginning verse of the 6th chapter of the Upanishad &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/atharvashira.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;states:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;योऽग्नौ रुद्रो योऽप्स्वन्तर्य ओषधीर्वीरुध आविवेश । य इमाविश्वा भुवनानि चक्लृपे तस्मै रुद्राय नमोऽस्त्वग्नये । (Atharvasiras Upanishad 6.1)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Same Rudra who is in the Fire, entered in the waters, in the plants. He &lt;strong&gt;created all these worlds&lt;/strong&gt; (Vishwa-Bhuwana), Salutations to Rudra and his form of Agni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the text continues stating few similar verses. Now, this mantra seems to be derivation from mantra of YajurVeda 5.5.9 which is very similar to this mantra:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो रुद्रो अग्नौ यो अप्सु य ओषधिषु । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यो रुद्रो विश्वा भुवना विवेश तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु ।। (YajurVeda 5.5.9)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Rudra in the fire, in the waters, in the plants, the Rudra that has &lt;strong&gt;entered the whole world,&lt;/strong&gt; to that Rudra be homage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The difference between above mantra of YajurVeda and the Atharvasiras mantra is that, Yajurveda states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो रुद्रो विश्वा भुवना विवेश&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Rudra who entered the whole world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the Atharvashiras state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इमाविश्वा भुवनानि चक्लृपे तस्मै&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He who created this whole world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, there can be significant philosophical arguments in the both verses. The Yajurveda mantra means &amp;apos;who entered the whole world.&amp;apos; can also be intrepreted as Brahman just entered the world (which was already there) and it may also seem to support world (Prakirti) doesn&amp;apos;t emerge from Brahman and Brahman just enters in the world (like that in Samkhya.. ). While the Atharvasiras mantra says both entered and &amp;apos;created this whole world&amp;apos; which clearly means world/Prakirti also comes from Brahman and Brahman also enters there.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So &lt;strong&gt;Is the Atharvasiras Upanishad just deriving that mantra of YajurVeda or it is quoting from other parts of Veda?&lt;/strong&gt; It is possible that as Atharvasiras Upanishad belongs to Atharvaveda so it is quoting from&amp;nbsp; Atharvaveda. If it helps the mantra in IAST transliteration is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yo&amp;apos;gnau rudro yo&amp;apos;psvantarya oṣadhīrvīrudha āviveśa । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ya imā viśvā bhuvanāni caklṛpe tasmai rudrāya namo&amp;apos;stvagnaye ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-02-23T10:35:09.430" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T10:23:11.017" Title="Does the Atharvasiras derives this mantra from YajurVeda or quotes from other Veda?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|upanishads|vedanta|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17279" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19792" CreationDate="2017-02-23T05:07:23.143" Score="4" ViewCount="1880" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wanted to know following terms from scriptures -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Purusha Tattva&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Prakriti Tattva&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stri Tattva &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And are Stri &amp;amp; Prakriti Tattva &lt;strong&gt;exactly&lt;/strong&gt; same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-05-16T02:02:59.697" LastActivityDate="2018-05-16T02:02:59.697" Title="What is Purusha Tattva, Prakriti Tattva &amp; Stri Tattva?" Tags="|purusha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17280" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-23T06:06:36.743" Score="1" ViewCount="78" Body="&lt;p&gt;I haven't learned meditation from guru. But I know I have to be thoughtless to gain peace state of mind. Before doing meditation, I do pranayams like kapalbhati and anulom bilom.&#xA;When I sit on sukhasan to meditation, I will just get thoughtless and try to make my mind blank. I don't focus at any mental image or object or chakra. All I do is being empty or thoughtless with mind. Doing so, I feel so much peace state of mind. I try to remain on that state. I feel as I don't have my body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it a kind of meditation? If yes, what this meditation called?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8808" LastActivityDate="2017-03-25T09:36:46.817" Title="Being in the peace state of mind is a kind of meditation?" Tags="|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17281" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17197" CreationDate="2017-02-23T08:30:13.403" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;As described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14367/what-is-the-story-of-kasi-vishwanatha-jyotirlinga/14371#14371&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; Kashi only survives Kalpantaka Pralaya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मणश्च दिने सा हि न विनश्यति निश्चितम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदा शिवस्त्रिशूलेन दधाति मुनयश्च ताम्।। २३ ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Even after the completion of a divine day of Brahmā, the city of Kāšî does not get destroyed. O Sages, at that point of time, Siva holds it over the tip of his trident.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुनश्च ब्रह्मणा सृष्टौ कृतायां स्थाप्यते द्विजाः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कर्मणां कर्षणाचैव काशीति परिपठ्यते॥ २४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Brähmanas, then Brahmā again recreates the universe, then he again establishes Kāśī. Because of the bondages of the karmas and their attraction thereto, it is called Kāši.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However In the Mahapralaya neither Kashi nor Trishula remain because in the state of MahaPralaya the universe is in Nãsadiya state (Neither existing nor non-existing). Name-form aren&amp;apos;t differentiated and even space is not demarcated. Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita Shristi Khanda Chapter 6 describes state of MahaPralaya in the light of Nãsadiya Sukta of RigVeda. It states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महाप्रलयकाले च नष्ट स्थावरजङ्गमे। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आसीत्तमोमयं सर्वमनर्कग्रहतारकम्॥४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अचन्द्रमनहोरात्रमनग्न्यनिलभूजलम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अप्रधानं वियच्छून्यमन्यतेजोविवर्जितम्॥ ५॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अदृष्टत्वादिरहित शब्दस्पर्शसमुज्झितम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अव्यक्तगन्धरूपं च रसत्यक्तमदिङ्मुखम्।। ६ ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इत्थ सत्यन्धतमसे सूचीभेछे निरन्तरे। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्सद्ब्रहति यच्छुत्वा सदेकं प्रतिपद्यते॥७॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इतीदृशं सदा नासीद्यतत्सदसदात्मकम्।  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  योगिनोऽन्तर्हिताकाशे यत्पश्यन्ति निरन्तरम्॥८॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अमनोगोचरं वाचां विषयं न कदाचन:। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अनामरूपवर्णं च न च स्थूलं न यत्कृशम्॥९॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहृस्वदीर्घमलघु गुरुत्वपरिवर्जितम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न यत्रापचयः कश्चित्तथा नोपचयोऽपि च॥ १०॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अविधत्ते सचकितं यदस्तीति श्रुतिः पुनः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं च परानन्दम्परम्महः॥ ११॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अप्रमेयमनाधारमविकारमनाकृति। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निर्गुणं योगिगम्यञ्च सर्वव्याप्येककारकम्॥ १२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निर्विकल्पं निरारम्भ निर्मायं निरुपद्रपवम्।  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अद्वितीयमनाद्यन्तमविकाशं चिदात्मकम्। १३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यस्येत्थ संविकल्पं सञ्ज्ञासञ्ज्ञोक्तित: स्म वै। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कियता चैव कालेन द्वितीयेच्छाऽभवत्किल॥१४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अमूर्तेन स्वमूर्तिश्च तेनाकल्पि स्वलीलया। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वैश्वर्यगुणोपेता सर्वज्ञानमयी शुभा॥ १५॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;At the time of Great Dissolution when all the mobile and immobile objects of the world are dissolved everything gets enveloped in darkness,&lt;/strong&gt; without the sun, planets and stars. There is no moon. The day and the night are not demarcated. There is no fire, no wind, no earth and no water. There is one unmanifest primordial being. &lt;strong&gt;The whole firmament is one complete void, devoid of all Tejas elements.&lt;/strong&gt; There is no Dharma or Adharma, no sound, no touch. Smell and colour are not manifest. There is no taste. &lt;strong&gt;The face of the quarters is not demarcated.&lt;/strong&gt; Thus when there is pitch darkness that cannot be pierced with a needle and what is mentioned in the Vedas as “The Existent and the Brahman&amp;quot; is alone present. When the present visible world is not in existence, the Sat Brahman alone is present which Yogins observe per- petually in the inner Soul, the inner Firmament. It is incomprehensible to the mind. It cannot at all be expressed by words. &lt;strong&gt;It has neither name nor colour. It is neither thick nor thin.&lt;/strong&gt; It is neither short nor long. it is neither light nor heavy. There is neither increase nor decrease in it. The Veda says that it envelops whatever is in a surprising way. It is the splendour, the truth, the knowledge, the eternal and the great Bliss. It is immeasurable, propless, changeless, formless, attributeless, perceptible to the Yogins, all-pervasive and the sole cause of the universe. It is free from alternatives. It has no beginning. it is free from illusion and its harassment. It has no second. It has neither beginning nor end. It has no development. It is in the form of pure knowledge. People have doubts about giving it a name. &lt;strong&gt;That Being then after sometime, it is said wished for a second.&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  The Being, having no form of its own, wished to create, in the course of its own sport, an auspicious form of its own endowed with all power, qualities and knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then again in next creation (ie. After Mahapralaya), Shiva and Shakti again recreate Kashi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;युगपच्च तया शक्त्या साकं कालस्वरूपिणा। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिवलोकाभिधं क्षेत्रं निर्मितं तेन ब्रह्मणा॥ २७॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदेव काशिकेत्येतत् प्रोच्यते क्षेत्रमुत्तमम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परं निर्वाणसङ्खयानं सर्वोपरि विराजितम्॥२८॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The same Parabrahman, in the form of Kāla, in company of that Śakti, collectively built the Sivaloka. The best of that place is known as Kasi.&lt;/strong&gt; The place bestows salvation, therefore it is considered as Superior to all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it&amp;apos;s clear that during MahaPralaya, Shivas Trishula also get absorbed as there are neither name-forms nor space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T08:30:13.403" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17282" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17280" CreationDate="2017-02-23T08:44:30.683" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But I know I have to be thoughtless to gain peace state of mind&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This can not be done forcefully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I don't focus at any mental image or object or chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, no need to focus on any image as the very source of creation is shapeless, just observe the self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See meditating only one time is not gonna make any transformation, instead you will have to make you entire life style a meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some important points you can follow in Daily Routine:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1: &lt;strong&gt;Try to breath consciously&lt;/strong&gt;, (When ever you see a tree, breath as you are totally connected with mother nature, this body is soon going to be earth, This way you will automatically bow down to everything you see.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2: &lt;strong&gt;Respect all the 5 elements with great respect&lt;/strong&gt;, also read how water have memory and will help you if drank by one consciously(with gratitude).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3: &lt;strong&gt;Every hour remind once&lt;/strong&gt; that soon there will No identity of you (&lt;strong&gt;you will fall dead one day&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4: &lt;strong&gt;Keep your spine straight&lt;/strong&gt; at least few hours a day, this will make a &lt;strong&gt;tremendous amount of change in your life&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5: &lt;strong&gt;Eat with gratitude&lt;/strong&gt; that as you took everything from mother earth and will give everything back to it. (Do not eat after 8 p.m. and chew at least 60 times, as your entire life depends on how you eat, also do not watch T.V while eating, no talk over phone, &lt;strong&gt;just sit quite and eat&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6: try to make every &lt;strong&gt;gesture consciously&lt;/strong&gt; (karma towards source of creation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7: &lt;strong&gt;11 minutes 3 session each day&lt;/strong&gt;, No need to sit and meditate just do &lt;strong&gt;what ever you are doing&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;focusing your breathe&lt;/strong&gt;, heart beat or any part of you body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8: &lt;strong&gt;Try to sit one hour start&lt;/strong&gt; with small (just sit and observe the mind, &lt;strong&gt;where it is running always&lt;/strong&gt; and soon you will observe your heart beat clearly and you will feel blood rushing through veins in your body.) and do not try to clear thoughts let them come, just see what is going on soon they will get clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9: &lt;strong&gt;Last but not the least, Nature gives you tremendous opportunity to attain Deathless daily, which mean when you lay down to sleep (lay down in Shavasan, palms towards ceiling and now see your body, try to be aware of everything in body, after practicing for 21 days, you will be able to see how mind studs down in deep sleep)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T08:44:30.683" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17283" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17259" CreationDate="2017-02-23T08:50:57.253" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The theory of non-creation is older than the Buddhist Nagarjuna; it was expounded in the Upanishads. In his book, &lt;em&gt;The Advaita Tradition in Indian Philosophy: A Study of Advaita in Buddhism, Vedanta and Kashmira Shaivism&lt;/em&gt;, Prof. Chandradhar Sharma writes (pp. 123-4):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is contended by some that the doctrine of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;avidya&lt;/em&gt; is not found in the Upanishads and it is borrowed by Shankara from Buddhism. This contention can only be made by those who are un-informed or ill-informed about the Upanishadic philosophy. The term '&lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;' can be traced to the Rgveda (VI, 47, 18) where the one Supreme is said to appear in many forms through his power of maya. The Shvetashvatara (IV, 9-10) describes God as ‘&lt;em&gt;mayi&lt;/em&gt;’, Lord of &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt;, and his wonder-working power of creation as &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; [also see &lt;em&gt;Chanogya U&lt;/em&gt;. 3.14.4 and 8.7.1]. The term ‘&lt;em&gt;avidya&lt;/em&gt;’ is often used in the Upanishads in the sense of ignorance or appearance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, older than the Buddhist texts, also support this. See &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; 2.1.24-31 (available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Professor Sharma also covers in Guadpapda in some 33 pages of his aforementioned book and 20 pages of that address the philosophical points of sameness and differences between Advaita and Buddhism as asserted by Gaudapada in his Karika, especially in the Fourth Chapter. Prof. Sharma points out in detail the arguments that have been made by various theistic Vedantin commentators through the ages including that Gaudapada is a crypto-Buddhist, that his commentary on the Fourth Chapter was actually written by a Buddhist, or that he was influenced by Buddhist thought. Prof. Sharma writes (p. 145-6):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gaudapada is a highly respected teacher of Vedanta and to mistake him to be a hidden or open Buddhist is absurd. He is fully conversant with Mahayana which he calls Agrayana (a synonym of Mahayana in Buddhist literature) which flourished before him. Gaudapada, in his first three chapters of his Karika, has given a systematic exposition of Advaita Vedanta on the basis of scripture (shruti) as well as reasoning, and has composed the last fourth chapter of the Karika in order to elucidate his Advaita Vedanta by &lt;em&gt;comparing&lt;/em&gt; it with Mahayana Buddhism. He shows the similarities and also the differences between the two by referring to and sometimes by &lt;em&gt;reproducing&lt;/em&gt; from the Mahayana works. He discovered that these similarities were due to the fact that Buddha himself had partly assimilated the Upanishadic teachings, which were, later on, developed in the Mahayana schools of Madhyamika and Vijnanavada. He approves of some Mahayana doctrines which are in agreement with Vedanta, because these have been borrowed from the Upanishads and cannot be said to be the original contribution of Buddha or the Buddhists. He also points out the philosophical soundness of Vedanta over Mahayana. Thus, approving of the Mahayana doctrine of No-origination and the diacritical critique of causation, he points out that the Absolute must be equated with the pure non-dual Self; and approving of the arguments of Buddhist Vijnanavada in criticism of realism, he indicates that Buddhist idealism degenerates into subjectivism and pluralism, while Vedanta idealism has the merit of accommodating epistemic realism and is spiritual non-dualism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later on pages 152-4, Prof. Sharma lists the three points of agreement and six points of differences between Gaudapada and Vijnanavada Buddhism. The six points of differences are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gaudapada is a teacher of Advaita Vedanta and advocates ontological realism only, while Vijnanavada is idealism &lt;em&gt;par excellence&lt;/em&gt;—both ontologically as well as epistemologically. Gaudapada rejects epistemic idealism as illogical and unwarranted.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Though Gaudapada places the world-objects on a par with dream-objects and illusory objects due to their ultimate unreality, yet he does assert the empirical differences between these; even thought the difference is only of degree yet it is important in our empirical life. Vijnanavada, on the other hand, places all objects, whether world-objects or dream-objects or illusory objects, on the same level and pronounces them as utterly unreal like a sky-flower or a barren woman’s son.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vijananvada separates the ‘form’ from the ‘content’ of consciousness, rejecting the objective ‘content’ as utterly unreal (&lt;em&gt;parikalpita&lt;/em&gt;) and retaining the ‘form’ as relatively real (&lt;em&gt;paratantra&lt;/em&gt;). Gaudapada rejects the distinction between &lt;em&gt;parikalpita&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;paratantra&lt;/em&gt; which unnecessarily disturbs our empirical life and puts these both under samvrti or vyavahara. For him the ‘content’ and the ‘form’ of consciousness are inseparable and enjoy the same status as both arise together and vanish together.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vijananvada rejects the objective world as utterly unreal because it does not exist outside of consciousness. Gaudapada, like the Madhyamika, treats the world as ultimately unreal or false (&lt;em&gt;mitya&lt;/em&gt;), because it is indeterminate (&lt;em&gt;achintya&lt;/em&gt;) either as real or as unreal or as both and so is a self-contradictory appearance due to &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;avidya&lt;/em&gt;. The world of dream and illusion and the empirical world are perceived by us. Each works on its own sphere and is set aside only when sublating consciousness dawns.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gaudapada identifies the Absolute with the foundational Self (&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;) or Brahma [Brahman], while Vijnanavada calls it Vijnaptimatra (pure eternal non-dual consciousness), Parinispanna or Dharmadhatu.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vijnanavada believes that the Parinispanna Vijnana-matra due to beginningless and transcendental &lt;em&gt;Vasana&lt;/em&gt; of objectivity becomes paratantra or conditioned by the wheel of causation generating the world-cycle of origination and annihilation in which momentary vijnanas and &lt;em&gt;vasanas&lt;/em&gt; go on producing each other until &lt;em&gt;paratantra&lt;/em&gt; is freed from the transcendental &lt;em&gt;Vasana&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Avidya&lt;/em&gt; by rooting out ‘objectivity’ from the stream of consciousness and regains its original purity as Parinispanna. Acharya Gaudapada does not accept all this. He rejects epistemic idealism and the pluralism, momentariness and creativity of vijnanas and the theory of real causation. The Real itself appears as individual subjects and also as the world of objects. The subject-object duality is to be removed by the elimination of difference (&lt;em&gt;bheda&lt;/em&gt;); by the realization that &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt; is Brahma [Brahman] and the world also is Brahma [Brahman], because Brahma [Brahman] is the ground-reality of both. This realization dawns in &lt;em&gt;nirvikalpa samadhi&lt;/em&gt; in which knower, known, and knowledge are immediately realized as non-different in transcendental non-dual consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, at the conclusion of his analysis of Gaudapada, Prof. Sharma writes (pp. 162-3):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The knowledge of the enlightened sage (Buddha) is not related to any object nor is any object related to it. And then the Acharya [Gaudapada] concludes: This has not been said by Buddha—&lt;em&gt;naitad Buddhena bhasitam&lt;/em&gt; (Gaudapada’s Karika IV., 99.).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The above statement of Acharya Gaudapada may be interpreted in three ways. It may mean:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As the Absolute preached by Buddha is beyond thought and language, he preached through silence and not through words. The Buddhist texts mention this at many places (From the time Buddha got enlightenment till the time he obtained nirvana not a single word was spoken by him: [numerous Buddhist references by Prof Sharma not included here]).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Buddha preached spiritual Absolutism and epistemic idealism. The momentariness and plurality of vijnanas and their subjection to real causation leading to epistemic idealism were the fabrication of Vijnanavadins and were not taught by Buddha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The spiritual Absolutism preached by Buddha has been taken by him from the Upanishads. It is not original contribution. It is Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All these three interpretations are justified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Acharya ends his Karika with a salutation to the Absolute which is unborn, eternal, non-dual, ever-the-same, free from difference, pure and fearless, very deep and difficult to be realized.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We thus see that Acharya Gaudapada’s Karika is not only the first available systemic exposition of Advaita Vedanta, but also the first available work which brings out a correct relationship between Advaita Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T08:50:57.253" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17284" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-23T09:15:27.437" Score="9" ViewCount="3871" Body="&lt;p&gt;The narration of Geeta took place just when Arjuna refused to fight the battle and was becoming emotionally weak. How did it happen that everyone waited until the whole Geeta of 18 chapters was completed ?&#xA;Some people say that Krihna had stopped time while narrating it, If so then is there any reference for this in Geeta or Mahabharata? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-23T10:19:26.590" LastActivityDate="2021-09-02T10:57:57.983" Title="Was the time temporarily stopped by Lord Krishna during Geeta upadesham?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17286" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16306" CreationDate="2017-02-23T10:16:57.610" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Ravana used his sword against Jatayu. Ravana forcefully abducts Seetha in his air-chariot also known as Pushpaka Vimana. Finally, Seetha sees Jatayu, the great vulture, and asks him to narrate her abduction to Rama. Jataayu confronts Ravana on hearing the wailing of Seetha. He boldly forestalls Ravana and his air-chariot in the sky itself, and as an elderly being he reviles Ravana from the viewpoint of righteousness befitting to kings, but of no avail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the combat between Ravana and Jatayu takes place in mid-air. Ravana uses bow and arrows to fight with Jatayu. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga51/aranya_51_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; is how sage Valmiki explains the combat between Ravana and Jayayu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततो नालीक नाराचैः तीक्ष्ण अग्रैः च विकर्णिभिः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अभ्यवर्षत् महाघोरैः गृध्र राजम् महाबलः || ३-५१-४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tato nālīka nārācaiḥ tīkṣṇa agraiḥ ca vikarṇibhiḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;abhyavarṣat mahāghoraiḥ gṛdhra rājam mahābalaḥ || 3-51-4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the great-mighty Ravana incessantly stormed the lord of eagles Jataayu, with arrows that have excruciating and highly dreadful arrowheads, like tubular arrows, iron arrows, and with arrows that have crescentic arrowheads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Jatayu sustained those ferocious arrows. He broke the bow and armour of Ravana during the battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततो अस्य सशरम् चापम् मुक्ता मणि विभूषितम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;चरणाभ्याम् महातेजा बभंज पतगोत्तमः || ३-५१-१०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tato asya saśaram cāpam muktā maṇi vibhūṣitam |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;caraṇābhyām mahātejā babhaṃja patagottamaḥ || 3-51-10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That unexcelled bird of high refulgence then shattered Ravana's bow which is decorated with pearls and gemstones, and on which an arrow is admitted targeting the vulture, just by the pair of his bare feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत् च अग्नि सदृशम् दीप्तम् रावणस्य शरावरम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पक्षाभ्याम् च महातेजा व्यधुनोत् पतगेश्वरः || ३-५१-१४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tat ca agni sadṛśam dīptam rāvaṇasya śarāvaram |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;pakṣābhyām ca mahātejā vyadhunot patageśvaraḥ || 3-51-14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That highly resplendent lord of birds also blasted off the armour of Ravana, which is glowing and flamelike in its flare, with both of his feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कांचन उरः छदान् दिव्यान् पिशाच वदनान् खरान् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तान् च अस्य जव संपन्नान् जघान समरे बली || ३-५१-१५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kāṃcana uraḥ chadān divyān piśāca vadanān kharān |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;tān ca asya java saṃpannān jaghāna samare balī || 3-51-15&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mighty Jataayu also knocked off the ghost-faced mules yoked to the chariot of Ravana which are covered in golden armours and tantivy in fastness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथ त्रिवेणु संपन्नम् कामगम् पावक अर्चिषम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मणि सोपान चित्र अंगम् बभंज च महारथम् || ३-५१-१६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;atha triveṇu saṃpannam kāmagam pāvaka arciṣam |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;maṇi sopāna citra aṃgam babhaṃja ca mahāratham || 3-51-16&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then that great-chariot which is flourishing with three bamboos from chassis to yoke, and which traverses just by its steersman's wish, and which is crafted fantastically with gem-studded body and stairs, or, whose wheels are crafted with gold and gemstones, and which in its flare is like a Ritual-fire, Jataayu splintered down even that chariot of Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पूर्ण चन्द्र प्रतीकाशम् छत्रम् च व्यजनैः सह |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पातयामास वेगेन ग्राहिभी राक्षसैः सह || ३-५१-१७&#xA;pūrṇa candra pratīkāśam chatram ca vyajanaiḥ saha |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;pātayāmāsa vegena grāhibhī rākṣasaiḥ saha || 3-51-17&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jataayu swiftly collapsed the parasol of Ravana which in shine is mirroring the full moon, along with the regalia of white-royal-fur-fans, together with the demons handling them for fanning Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सारथेः च अस्य वेगेन तुण्डेन च महत् शिरः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पुनः व्यपाहरत् श्रीमान् पक्षिराजो महाबलः || ३-५१-१८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sāratheḥ ca asya vegena tuṇḍena ca mahat śiraḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;punaḥ vyapāharat śrīmān pakṣirājo mahābalaḥ || 3-51-18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again that highly energetic and imposing king of birds pecked off the robust head of the charioteer of Ravana with beak.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स भग्न धन्वा विरथो हत अश्वो हत सारथिः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अंकेन आदाय वैदेहीम् पपात भुवि रावणः || ३-५१-१९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sa bhagna dhanvā viratho hata aśvo hata sārathiḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;aṃkena ādāya vaidehīm papāta bhuvi rāvaṇaḥ || 3-51-19&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Ravana who is with his devastated bow, devoid of chariot, dispatched are his horses and departed is his charioteer, and such as he is, he on grabbing Vaidehi by her torso, or, placing her on the lower end of his torso, jumped to earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jatayu advises Ravana not to abduct Seetha. He warns that abducting Seetha will ruin him(Ravana) and his whole clan. But Ravana doesn't listen to him. Again an encounter takes place between both of them. Jatayu tears the back of Ravan with his sharp beak and claws. Jatayu rips off the ten left arms of Ravana with his beak inorder to release Seetha from Ravana. But Ravana's arms instantaneously ricocheted from his body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &lt;strong&gt;Ravana uses his sword against Jatayu&lt;/strong&gt; who was fighting with him for the sake of Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्य व्यायच्छमानस्य रामस्य अर्थे अथ रावणः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;पक्षौ पादौ च पार्श्वौ च खड्गम् उद्धृत्य सो अच्छिनत्&lt;/strong&gt; || ३-५१-४२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tasya vyāyacchamānasya rāmasya arthe atha rāvaṇaḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;pakṣau pādau ca pārśvau ca khaḍgam uddhṛtya so acchinat || 3-51-42&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ravana brandishing his sword at Jataayu, who is revolting for the sake of Rama, hewed off both of his wings, sides, and feet.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स छिन्न पक्षः सहसा रक्षसा रौद्र कर्मणा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;निपपात महा गृध्रो धरण्याम् अल्प जीवितः || ३-५१-४३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sa chinna pakṣaḥ sahasā rakṣasā raudra karmaṇā |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;nipapāta mahā gṛdhro dharaṇyām alpa jīvitaḥ || 3-51-43&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When that demon of cruel actions has ruptured his wings that colossal vulture Jataayu immediately fell down to earth with a lessened life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By above verses it is clear that Ravana used his sword against Jatayu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva said to Ravana : &lt;strong&gt;‘You should not disregard this sword. If you do, it will undoubtedly return to me.’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana used the sword to kill/harm Jatayu who was forestalling him in the abduction of Seetha. &lt;strong&gt;This is clearly adharma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this incident, there is only one incident where Ravana uses a sword but neither the name is mentioned nor the origin of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उत्प्लुत्य गुणसम्पन्नं विमलाम्बरवर्चसं |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;निष्पपात स वेगेन सभायाः सचिवैर्वृतः || &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga92/yuddha_92_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;6-92-39&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रावणः पुत्रशोकेन भृशमाकुलचेतनः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;संक्रुद्धः खड्गमादाय सहसा यत्र मैथिली || 6-92-40&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The enraged Ravana, who was very much agitated in mind because of the grief for his son's death, springing up suddenly and &lt;strong&gt;taking his excellent sword&lt;/strong&gt;, having the dazzle of a clear sky, sallied forth from the assembly hall along with his ministers swiftly and quickly to the place where Seetha was.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He thought of killing Seetha using his sword but got pacified later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was not explicitly mentioned that this sword is Chandrahasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;The sword used against Jatayu should possibly be Chandrahasa. The sword would have returned to Lord Shiva after this Jatayu incident. As the sword has returned, there is no mention of him using a sword against Rama in the final battle.  We cannot dismiss claim of using a sword in the battle saying it is a distance battle. Sword was used against Sugriva by the demon Virupaksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2023-06-08T01:46:47.763" LastActivityDate="2023-06-08T01:46:47.763" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17287" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3664" CreationDate="2017-02-23T11:27:23.480" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ruchi prajajapati is mentioned in garuda puraana and there is mention of pitru devatas. He is asked to marry so that he will be authorised to please the pitru devatas and there by finish his pitr runam which would further his moksh aspirations. All our ancestors are our pitrus no doubt.but pitru devathas are above them  like office bearers of pitr devatha department there are 31 such pitru ganam .When you do pitru karma it is carried to these celestial arrangements and from there to ur direct pitrus.in return pitrus and pitru devathas belonging to pithru ganam bless you.so when ruchi prajapati was asked to perform pitru pooja it was to please the pitru devathas and not his ancestors&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9036" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T11:27:23.480" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17289" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17284" CreationDate="2017-02-23T12:01:12.583" Score="-3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Based on the Book &quot;महाभारत के कुछ रहस्य&quot; by &quot;(श्रृंगी ऋषि in Satyug) &amp;amp; कृष्ण दत्त in present life&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No the time temporarily did not and can not be stopped, it was just an conversation of 20 minutes before the war&lt;/strong&gt; and no one can talk for near 700 shlokas we see in present Geeta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we should refer to the Geeta by &quot;श्रृंगी ऋषि shringi rishi in Satyug) &amp;amp; कृष्ण दत्त (krishna dutt in Kalyug)&quot;, which only includes the 20 minutes conversation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you see only 100 years back there at that time also there were not as shalokas as we have today, so we should always seek towards the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More over IMO the above incident given in the book sounds practical, No one is going to sit for both of them to talk for so long, &lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna was a great persuasive and can convince any one&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T12:01:12.583" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17290" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17249" CreationDate="2017-02-23T12:46:03.550" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is very natural that Vaishnavas do not like Sankara's interpretation of Vedanta. You can read my answer to another question here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17265/did-shankara-reject-some-doctrines-of-atman-or-brahman-in-order-to-reconcile-atm/17270#17270&quot;&gt;Did Shankara reject some doctrines of Atman or Brahman in order to reconcile Atman and Brahman?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankaracharya calls worshippers of forms as beginners and Brahman with form as not Its true essence. Naturally Sankara was called praccanna Bauddha by worshippers of forms of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T12:46:03.550" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17292" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17279" CreationDate="2017-02-23T15:42:03.307" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;To understand &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Prakriti&lt;/em&gt;, Let's first understand the &lt;strong&gt;36&lt;/strong&gt;Tattvas which takes part in course of Manifestation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;tattvas of the Universal experience&lt;/em&gt;. These are Shiva, Sakti, Sadashiva, Isvara &amp;amp; Sadvidya tattvas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;tattvas of limited individual experience&lt;/em&gt;. These are Maya &amp;amp; it's 5 &lt;em&gt;Kankukas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;tattvas of limited individual&lt;/em&gt;. These are &lt;strong&gt;Purusha&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;Prakriti&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;tattvas of mental operations&lt;/em&gt;. These are Buddhi, Ahamkar &amp;amp; Manas. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;tattvas of sensible experience&lt;/em&gt;. These are 5 jnanendriyas, 5 karmendriyas &amp;amp; 5 tanmatras. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;tattvas of Materiality&lt;/em&gt;. These are 5 known elements. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let's focus on &lt;em&gt;tattvas of limited individual&lt;/em&gt; -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purusha&lt;/strong&gt;- &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Siva  through  Mayasakti  which  limits  His  universal  knowledge and  power  becomes  Purusa  or  the  individual  subject.  Purusa in  this  context  means  every  sentient  being. Purusa  is  also  known  as  anu  in  this  system.  The  word  anu is  used  in  the  sense  of  limitation  of  the  divine  perfection. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prakriti&lt;/strong&gt;- &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While  Purusa  is  the  subjective  manifestation  of  Siva,  Prakrti is  the  objective  manifestation. There  is  a  difference  between  the  Sankhya  conception  of Prakrti  and  that  of  Trika.  Sankhya  believes  that  Prakrti  is one  and  universal  for  all  the  Purusas.  Trika  believes  that  each Purusa  has  a  different  Prakrti.  Prakrti  is  the  matrix  of  all Objectivity. Prakrti  has  three  gunas  or  genetic  constituents,  viz.,  sattva, rajas  and  tamas.  In  her  unmanifested  state  Prakrti  holds  these gunas  in  perfect  equipoise.  In  the  order  of  being,  sattva  is characterized  by  brightness  and  lightness,  in  the  psychological order,  it  is  characterized  by  transparency,  joy  and  peace;  in  the ethical  order,  it  is  the  principle  of  goodness.  In  the  order  of being,  tamas  is  the  principle  of  darkness,  inertness;  in  the  psychological  order,  it  is  characterized  by  dullness,  delusion  and dejection,  and  in  the  ethical  order,  it  is  the  principle  of  degradation,  debasement.  In  the  order  of  being,  rajas  is  characterized  by activity;  in  the  psychological  order,  it  is  characterized  by  craving and  passion;  in  the  ethical  order,  it  is  the  principle  of ambition  and  avarice. According  to  Pratyabhijna,  Prakrti  is  the  Santa  Sakti  of  Siva, and  the  gunas  sattva,  rajas  and  tamas  are  only  the  polarization  of His  saktis  of  jnana,  iccha  and  kriya  respectively.  Thus  in  the Pratyabhijna  system,  there  is  perfect  non-dualism,  not  dualism of  Prakrti  and  Purusa,  as  in  Sankhya. Purusa  is  the  experient  (bhokta)  and  Prakrti  is  the  experienced (bhogya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is nothing like Stri Tattva.&lt;/strong&gt; There are only these 36 Tattvas, no less no more. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref- &lt;strong&gt;Shiv Sutras by Jaidev Singh&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-02-23T15:47:21.793" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T15:47:21.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17294" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="35840" CreationDate="2017-02-23T17:41:25.597" Score="-7" ViewCount="1614" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many believe that Sri Rudra prashna of Taittariya Samhita is dedicated to Lord Shiva only. Do these mantras have an alternative meaning? Is there any different interpretation of these mantras in a different way?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-02-24T06:28:25.903" LastActivityDate="2019-07-28T16:15:19.500" Title="Does Sri Rudram Hymn indicate Lord Shiva or It can be attributed to some other God also?" Tags="|shiva|vedas|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17296" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-23T17:46:15.007" Score="2" ViewCount="241" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read that the blindness of Dhritarashtra is due to his actions in previous birth. He removed the eyes of a swan and killed hundred cygnets. But I couldn´t find this story in Mahabharatha. Where can I find it in Mahabharata? Can anybody help?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9016" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-09T05:29:38.620" LastActivityDate="2018-10-12T05:48:40.050" Title="Where is the story of Dhritarashtra removing eyes of swan mentioned?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17297" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-23T19:05:55.683" Score="2" ViewCount="419" Body="&lt;p&gt;Offering Food or Naivedyam/&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prasadam&lt;/a&gt; is integral part of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishnavism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; lifestyle. &#xA;Majority of Vaishnavas follow &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/12321/489&quot;&gt;Pancharatra Agama shastras&lt;/a&gt;, therefore I assume Naivedyam procedure is described in those texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the question becomes :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the method(from Pancharatra texts) to offer Naivedyam to Shriman Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there is a difference in Sri Vaishnava Naivedya procedure them please mention that in your answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T19:05:55.683" Title="How to offer Naivedyam to Shriman Narayana" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|food|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17298" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-23T22:07:04.150" Score="3" ViewCount="191" Body="&lt;p&gt;Varkari sect is Vaishnava community in Maharashtra which serves Panduranga(incarnation of Shri hari) in Pandharpur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since every Vaishnava tradition traces its Guru parampara back to Shriman Narayana, what is varkari guruparampara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2017-02-23T22:07:04.150" Title="What is Guru parampara of Varkari sect" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17299" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17301" CreationDate="2017-02-24T04:21:20.297" Score="6" ViewCount="476" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srikantha Shivacharya in his commentary on Brahma Sutra 4.1.15 quotes various scripture showing the efficiacy of names of Lord Shiva. A relevant portion of that Bhasya is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But the Agnihotra and others (contribute) only to this effect thereof, as seen (in the scriptures.) (4.1.15).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The study of the Veda means the repeated japa or recitation of the Vedic mantras which treat of matters concerning Atman, which are calculated to produce the highest knowledge constituting the means of &#xA;  attaining the supreme Lord, Paramesvara. The Jabala- Upanishad says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Then the students of Brahman thus addressed him : Tell us, 0 Lord, what mantra has to be recited whereby to attain immortality ?&amp;quot; Yajnavalkya said : &amp;quot; It is by Satarudriya. These are indeed the names of the Immortal, and thereby one becomes immortal.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Kaivalya-Upanishad it is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;That Brahmana who daily recites Satarudriya, he is purified by the sacred fires; he is purified by the air, he, is purified from liquor-drinking, he is purified from Brahmanicide. Taking his stand in the final order of holy life, let a man recite it always or, once; he attains the highest &#xA;    knowledge; the Ocean of Samsara undergoes extinction.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here we are given to understand that by the recitation of the mantras called Satarudriya which treat of Brahman, that supreme knowledge which extinguishes Brahman is attained, and that the sins which are opposed to the knowledge undergo destruction. The recitation of Satarudriya is here said to bring about destruction of all sins, on the ground that it comprises the names of Shiva who is immortal and free, through time without a beginning—as declared in the words &amp;quot; these indeed are the names of the immortal.&amp;quot; From this it will be seen that even the recitation of the names of the Paramesvara such as &amp;apos;Shiva,&amp;apos; —conduces to the destruction of all sins that may stand in the way of knowledge. &lt;strong&gt;The Sruti says:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;If even a Chandala, if he should utter the word &amp;apos;Shiva&amp;apos;, one may talk with him, dwell with him, eat with him.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here indeed we are given to understand that the greatest sinner who is most impure attains highest purity by a mere utterance of the word &amp;apos;Shiva&amp;apos; denoting Brahman. Elsewhere also the sruti, after saying that in the case of the Brahmana who recite daily the Atharvasiras all sins are extinguished declares also that he attains moksha, in the following words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Once reciting, he becomes clean, pure, and fit for sacrificial ritual. Reciting a second time, he attains the state of Ganapati; reciting it a third time he enters the Deva Himself.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And that the recitation of the Pranava. caases the break of the bond is taught in passages like the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Having made Atman the arani, and Pranava the upper arani, by practice of knowledge, by repeated churning, the wise man burns up the bond.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So also elsewhere. Accordingly, since we are given to understand that the Vedic mantras treating of Paramesvara constitute the means to Moksha by way of conducing to the knowledge of the Supreme,through destruction of all sins, the recitation of those mantras should be practised throughout life even by the enlightened sage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above Bhasya Srikantha Acharya is quoting; Shruti says 'If even a Chandala, if he should utter the word &amp;apos;Shiva&amp;apos;, one may talk with him, dwell with him, eat with him.' From which scripture is he quoting this?..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T06:26:30.303" Title="What Shruti source is SriKanthacharya quoting in this bhasya regarding efficacy of name 'Shiva'?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|vedas|vedanta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17300" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17252" CreationDate="2017-02-24T04:28:37.467" Score="3" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Does Kṛṣṇa advise Arjuna to use Śikhaṇḍī as a shield against Bhīṣma?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt;: No, Kṛṣṇa did not pressurize Arjuna into using Śikhaṇḍī as a shield against Bhīṣma. Neither did Bhīṣma suggest any such idea to the Pāṇḍavas. Arjuna fought Bhīṣma face to face without employing any human shield. In fact, it's the other way round: Arjuna and the rest of the Pāṇḍavas were merely supporting Śikhaṇḍī in fulfilling his oath to kill Bhīṣma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahābhārata texts available today – K. M. Ganguli's tr. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;based on&lt;/a&gt; Bengal and Bombay editions or &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.amazon.in/dp/B008ESLYSW&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bibek Debroy's&lt;/a&gt; based on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/mahabharata-bori.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BORI critical edition&lt;/a&gt;) – contain many &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/InterpolationsInTheMahabharata/INTERPOLATIONS%20In%20The%20Mahabharata#page/n0/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;interpolations&lt;/a&gt;. One needs a thorough understanding of the whole text to weed out exaggerations and obvious plot holes to get a clear grasp of the actual events that took place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;First of all, it is very unlike Arjuna to engage in a battle hiding behind somebody else. He's famously called &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15328/2995&quot;&gt;Bhībhatsu&lt;/a&gt; for never committing a detestable act on battlefield.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, Bhīṣma would be committing adharma on a monumental scale by colluding with the enemy (the Pāṇḍavas) on the 9&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; night of the war and secretly &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;planning his own murder&lt;/a&gt; behind Duryodhana's back. His reluctance to fight and that too on Duryodhana's side is understandable but a General planning a murder in enemy's favor is an unpardonable act. And Bhīṣma being epitome of dharma would never do such a thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This [fictitious statement], speaking to the Pāṇḍavas (from the night before the 10&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; day of war):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If, therefore, ye desire victory in the battle, smite me down without delay. &lt;strong&gt;I give you permission, ye sons of Pritha, strike me as ye please&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06110.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; (very believable statement) from the 10&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; day on the battlefield:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Duryodhana, listen calmly to what I say, O king, O thou of great might, formerly I vowed before thee that slaying every day ten thousand high-souled Kshatriyas, I would come back from the battle. I have fulfilled that vow, O bull of Bharata's race! O thou of great might, today I will achieve even a great feat. Today I will either sleep myself being slain, or, &lt;strong&gt;I will slay the Pandavas&lt;/strong&gt;. O tiger among men, &lt;strong&gt;I will today free myself from the debt I owe thee&lt;/strong&gt;, – the debt, O king, &lt;strong&gt;arising out of the food, thou gavest me&lt;/strong&gt;, – by casting away my life at the head of thy army.' Having said these words, O chief of the Bharatas, that invincible warrior, scattering his shafts among the Kshatriyas, attacked the Pandava host.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...don't go together. How do you repay your debt? By getting yourself killed? No way!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the 7&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; day, at one point, Bhīṣma does fight Śikhaṇḍī and destroy his weapon. Yudhiṣṭhira &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06086.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;rebukes&lt;/a&gt; Śikhaṇḍī for failing to keep his promise and running away from battlefield instead of facing Bhīṣma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;King Yudhishthira then, beholding &lt;strong&gt;Sikhandin&lt;/strong&gt; flying away, &lt;strong&gt;having had his weapon cut off by Santanu's son&lt;/strong&gt; became filled with anger. The high-souled Ajatasatru, angrily addressing Sikhandin in that battle, said these words, 'Thou saidst at that time, in the presence of thy sire, unto me – &lt;strong&gt;Even I shall slay Bhishma of high vows with my shafts of the hue of the effulgent sun. Truly do I say this.&lt;/strong&gt; – Even this was thy oath. That oath of thine thou dost not fulfil inasmuch as thou dost not slay Devavrata in battle. O hero, be not a person of unfulfilled vow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's how Debroy translates the above:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shikhandi's weapon had been sliced down by the king who was Shantanu's son&lt;/strong&gt;. On seeing that he was running away in that battle, the great-souled Ajatashatru [Yudhiṣṭhira] became wrathful and spoke these words of anger to Shikhandi...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now ask yourself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why did Bhīṣma destroy Śikhaṇḍī's weapon? What happened to his oath?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why would Śikhaṇḍī run away from Bhīṣma if he's aware of Bhīṣma's oath that he would not fire at him no matter what?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lastly, it is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06106.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;stated&lt;/a&gt; that, on the 10&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; day of the war, Duḥśāsana was protecting Bhīṣma. And if Arjuna was shooting arrows at Bhīṣma from behind Śikhaṇḍī's back, Duḥśāsana would surely notice and complain about it to Droṇa or Duryodhana immediately after Bhīṣma fell from his chariot. But then he doesn't. This is what Sañjaya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06121.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;reports&lt;/a&gt; to Dhṛtarāṣṭra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beholding Bhishma fallen, thy son Dussasana, with great speed, entered the division commanded by Drona. That hero, clad in mail and at the head of his own troops, had been placed by his elder brother (for the protection of Bhishma). That tiger among men now came, plunging the troops he had commanded into grief. Beholding him coming towards them, the Kauravas surrounded prince Dussasana, desirous, O monarch, of hearing what he had to say. &lt;strong&gt;Then Dussasana of Kuru's race informed Drona of Bhishma's slaughter.&lt;/strong&gt; Drona then, hearing those evil tidings, suddenly fell down from his car. Then the valiant son of Bharadwaja, quickly recovering his senses, forbade the Kuru army, sire, to continue the fight. Beholding the Kurus desist from battle, the Pandavas also, through messengers on fleet horses, forbade their orders, ceased to fight, the kings of both armies, putting off their armour, all repaired to Bhishma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No report of Arjuna or Śikhaṇḍī engaging in any illicit fight to take down Bhīṣma.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Conclusion&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For all the above reasons, both – &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the secret meeting&lt;/a&gt; between Kṛṣṇa, Pāṇḍavas &amp;amp; Bhīṣma during the war, &lt;strong&gt;and&lt;/strong&gt;, Bhīṣma's oath to not fight Śikhaṇḍī – have to be rejected as later additions or interpolations to the original Mahābhārata text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What's the Real Story then?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In those days, failing to keep an oath was very unmanly. After Abhimanyu was killed, Arjuna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07070.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;took an oath&lt;/a&gt; to kill Jayadratha and Kṛṣṇa did everything he could to help Arjuna keep his promise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, when Śikhaṇḍī took an oath to kill Bhīṣma, the Pāṇḍavas too were simply helping him out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the 7&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; day of the war it is already &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06086.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;stated&lt;/a&gt; that Śikhaṇḍī was leading Arjuna. And both of them already tried killing Bhīṣma that day but they failed and Śikhaṇḍī tried to run away from Bhīṣma's onslaught. Yudhiṣṭhira then reminds Śikhaṇḍī of his oath to motivate him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And having slain also the forces of those kings, &lt;strong&gt;Jishnu sped for Bhishma's slaughter&lt;/strong&gt;. Then the ruler of the Trigartas, beholding his friends those mighty car-warriors slain, speedily advanced upon Partha, with a number of (other) kings in his van, for slaying him. Then the &lt;strong&gt;Pandava warrior headed by Sikhandin&lt;/strong&gt;, beholding those combatants advancing upon Dhananjaya that foremost of all conversant with arms, proceeded with whetted weapons in hand, desirous of protecting the car of Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can also infer a lot of things from the many questions Dhṛtarāṣṭra &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;asks&lt;/a&gt; Sañjaya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How could Bhishma who was reckoned as an Atiratha and who could not be resisted by the very gods, &lt;strong&gt;be slain in battle by Sikhandin&lt;/strong&gt;, the prince of Panchala?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above implies that it was Śikhaṇḍī who finally killed Bhīṣma although the later chapters say that it was Arjuna who shot the final stream of arrows at Bhīṣma. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What great bowmen of my army, O Sanjaya, &lt;strong&gt;did not desert that hero&lt;/strong&gt; of unfading glory?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This implies that Bhīṣma was left unprotected by the Kauravas. They fled as the battle ensued which ultimately led to Bhīṣma's demise. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When all the Pandavas &lt;strong&gt;placing Sikhandin in their van&lt;/strong&gt; advanced against Bhishma, did not all the Kurus, O Sanjaya, stay by the side of that hero of unfading prowess?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above question from Ganguli translation doesn't make a lot of sense, in that, how can all the Pāṇḍavas place Śikhaṇḍī in the same chariot? Debroy's translation is more clear:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When all the Pandavas advanced against the undecaying Bhishma, &lt;strong&gt;with Shikhandi at the forefront&lt;/strong&gt;, were the Kurus frightened?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, 'at the forefront' here doesn't mean Śikhaṇḍī was shielding the Pāṇḍavas, it only means he was leading the charge.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="9250" LastEditDate="2019-02-23T08:21:31.017" LastActivityDate="2019-02-23T08:21:31.017" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17301" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17299" CreationDate="2017-02-24T05:56:57.220" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/VUojF.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Raghunatha Varman's Laukika Nyayaratnakara says that it's from the Katha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is on the other hand a passage of the Katha Brahmana which goes to give high social rank even to a Chandala if he merely utters the word 'Siva. The passage is as follows:— “If a Chandala utters the word Siva, with him (a man of higher castes) should freely enter into conversation, should reside with him, and should eat with him.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can't verify this, since there aren't any online translations of the Katha Brahmana; Susan Rosenfield wrote &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.worldcat.org/title/katha-brahmana-fragments-a-critical-edition-traslation-and-study/oclc/254606118&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;a translation&lt;/a&gt; but it doesn't seem to even be in print.  But you can read the Katha Brahmana in Sanskrit &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Brahmana/KathaBrahmana.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.    In any case, the Katha Brahmana is a text that only survives in fragments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-02-24T06:26:30.303" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T06:26:30.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17303" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17294" CreationDate="2017-02-24T08:07:27.603" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;To whom deity a hymn is addressed is known through the 'Devata' of the hymn.&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/LK6ws.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&#xA;As clearly seen from above the hymn is addressed to Rudra and Rudra Ganas. (Rudra Ganas are those which appear similar like Lord Rudra).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;What is the appearance of Lord Rudra in the Vedas?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People might be confused that how the God 'Rudra' is described in Vedas. As the name of Lord Vishnu in Vishnu Sahasranãma is also Rudra some people may refer that 'Rudra' is name of Vishnu. Although if the hymn was addressed to Vishnu then the Vedas will also list the Devata as Vishnu. But still we can see how the appearance of Lord in the hymn with Devata 'Rudra' is described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Three Eyed One:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RigVeda 7.59.12, YajurVeda 3.60 etc.. verses whose Devata is 'Rudra' call the deity as 'Trayambakam' ie. 'One having three eyes.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Holder of Pinaka:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram Anuvaka 10 states 'Pinaka Bibhradãgahi' ie. 'Come holding your Pinaka bow.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Wearer of animal skin:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram Anuvaka 10 states 'Krittivasãn' ie. 'Who wears animal hide.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4) Who also has form of NilaLohita:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram also calls Lord as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16375/why-is-lord-shiva-called-nilalohita&quot;&gt;'NilaLohita'&lt;/a&gt; which means having complexion of blue and red.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;5) Blue Necked one:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram also calls Lord as 'Nilagriva' (eg. 5th Anuvaka) many times which means 'Lord who is blue necked.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;6) Rider of bull:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram Anuvaka 2 states Lord as 'Bablusãye bi vyadhibe' ie. 'Who is the rider of bull'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;7) Who has matted hair;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram calls the Lord many times by the name 'Kapardin' (eg. 9th Anuvaka) which means who has matted hairs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;8) Who lives in mountains:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram calls the name 'Girishantãbhichãkasihi' ie. Who lives in mountains and also the names like 'Girisha&amp;quot; etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;9) Who is Pashupati and destroyer of Tripuras:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram gives the name 'Pashupati' many times and it should be noted that Vedas calls Lord Rudra as Pashupati many times in other hymns also. Now, he who is PashuPati is the same who destroyed the 'Tripuras'. YajurVeda Taittariya Samhita is very clear on it, it states;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तेषामसुराणां तिस्त्रः पुर आसन्नयस्मय्यवमाथ रजताथ हरिणी ता देवा जेतुं नाशक्नुवन्ता उपसदैवाजिगीषन्तस्मादाहुर्यश्चैव वेद यश्च नोपसदा वै महापुरं जयन्तीति त इषु समस्कुर्वताग्निमनीकं सोमं शल्यं विष्णुं तेजनं तेऽब्रुवन्क इमामसिष्यतीति रुद्र इत्यब्रुवन्रुद्रो वै क्रुरः सोऽस्यत्विति सोऽब्रवीद्वरंवृणा अहमेव पशूनामधिपतिरसानीति तस्माद्रुद्र पशूनामधिपतिस्ता रुद्रोऽवासृजत्स तिस्त्रः पुरो भित्वैभ्यो..... [YajurVeda 6.2.3 ]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The Asuras had Tripuras;&lt;/strong&gt; the lowest was of iron, then there was one of silver, then one of gold. The gods could not conquer them; they sought to conquer them by siege; therefore they say--both those who know thus and those who do not--'By siege they conquer great citadels.' They made ready an arrow, Agni as the point, Soma as the socket, &lt;strong&gt;Visnu as the shaft.&lt;/strong&gt; They said, 'Who shall shoot it?' 'Rudra', they said, 'Rudra is fierce, let him shoot it.' He said, 'Let me choose a boon; let me be overlord of Pashus.' &lt;strong&gt;Therefore is Rudra overlord of Pashus. Rudra let it go; it cleft the Tripuras and drove the Asuras away from these worlds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As clearly seen from above passage, Vishnu has become the shaft of arrow in Tripura Samhara event and it is Lord Rudra who destroyed the Tripuras and became Pashupati. So, it is clear that the PashuPati term used in YajurVeda (or other Vedas) is for Lord Rudra and not for Lord Vishnu.&#xA;So, it is very clear that the deity addressed in Sri Rudram is;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord PashuPati who has three eyes, blue neck, matted hairs, who wears animal skin, who holds Pinaka bow, who rides on a bull, who lives in mountains and who is the destroyer of Tripuras.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And same thing is also shown by the Mahabharata and all other Puranas. For instance one should also see what &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3666/what-is-the-best-time-to-read-sri-rudram/12361#12361&quot;&gt;Lord Lord Krishna himself says about Sata Rudriyam.&lt;/a&gt;  Also how SataRudriya stotra was used by Lord Krishna and Arjuna while &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15133/how-did-arjuna-succeed-in-learning-the-method-of-using-the-pashupatastra-again&quot;&gt;reacquiring MahaPashupatastra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तौ नागावुपतस्थाते नमस्यन्तौ वृषध्वजम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;गृणन्तौ वेदविदुषौ तद्ब्रह्म शतरुद्रियम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अप्रमेयं प्रणमन्तौ गत्वा सर्वात्मना भवम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And as they approached the snakes, conversant as they were with the Vedas, &lt;strong&gt;they uttered the SataRudriya hymn of the Vedas,&lt;/strong&gt; bowing the while with their sincere souls unto Bhava of immeasurable power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in many other places of Mahabharata same thing is shown. So, saying Sri Rudram as hymn to Vishnu is like saying; Vishnu Suktas are hymns to Shiva as Shiva Sahasranãma mentions 'Vishnu' as one of the name of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T08:07:27.603" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17304" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5483" CreationDate="2017-02-24T08:36:41.320" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mahashivaratri (Great night of Lord Shiva) is the night when Lord Shiva appeared as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14214/3500&quot;&gt;Linga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; to stop conflict of Vishnu and Brahma. &lt;em&gt;Chapter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-14/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-15/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;8&lt;/a&gt; of Vidyeswara Samhita of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/em&gt; describes this conflict in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-16/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 9&lt;/a&gt; Vidyeswara Samhita of Shiva Mahapurana describes origin and significance of Maha Shivaratri in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nandiswara says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तुष्टोऽहमद्य वां वत्सौ पूजायाऽस्मिन्महादिने॥ ९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Šiva, who always increases devotion, then said to Brahma and&#xA;Visnu delightfully, &amp;quot;Let both of your remain happy.” Siva again said,&#xA;&amp;quot;O Sons, this is the great day and I am happy with your worship for&#xA;me. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दिनमेतत्ततः पुण्यं भविष्यति महत्तरम्। &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;शिवरात्रिरिति ख्याता&#xA;तिथिरेषा मम प्रिया।।&lt;/strong&gt; १० ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since then, the day is considered to be most auspicious and yields&#xA;merit. &lt;strong&gt;This is the date dear to lord Siva and is well known by the&#xA;name of Sivarātri&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further Shiva says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यत्पुन: स्तम्भरूपेण स्वाविरासमहं पुरा। &lt;br&gt; स &lt;strong&gt;कालो मार्गशीर्षे&lt;/strong&gt; तु&#xA;स्यादार्द्राऋक्षमर्भकौ।। १५ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O boys, I had earlier appeared in the form of a pillar, it was &lt;strong&gt;the&#xA;month of Margasirsa&lt;/strong&gt; and the constellation was Ardra. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आर्द्रायां मार्गशीर्षे तु यः पश्येन्मामुमासखम्। &lt;br&gt; मद्वेरमपि वा&#xA;लिङ्गं स गुहादपि मे प्रियः।। १६ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the month of Margasirsa, during Ardra constellation, whosoever has&#xA;an audience with me (Umāpati) or the one who adores my image or&#xA;Siva-linga, he becomes dearer to me than Karttikeya even.&lt;br&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अलं दर्शनमात्रेण फलं तस्मिन्दिने शुभे। &lt;br&gt;अभ्यर्चनं चेदधिकं फलं&#xA;वाचामगोचरम्॥१७॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On that auspicious day, one achieves sufficient of merit even by&#xA;looking at me, but in case lord Siva is appropriately worshipped&#xA;during that day then the reward for the same is beyond the description&#xA;from the speech. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रणरङ्गतलेऽमुष्मिन्यदहं लिङ्गवष्र्मणा। &lt;br&gt; जृम्भितो&#xA;लिङ्गवत्तस्माल्लिङ्गस्थानमिदं भवेत्॥ १८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this battle ground of both of you, I had appeared in linga&#xA;therefore the place will be known as Linga-sthana. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अनाद्यन्तमिदं स्तम्भमणुमात्रं भविष्यति। दर्शनार्थं हि जगतां पूजनार्थं&#xA;हि पुत्रकौ॥ १९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Sons, this is without beginning or the end. This is a huge pillar,&#xA;but for the sake of the human beings, it would become smaller. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This place is known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;AruNaachala&lt;/a&gt;, which is also called as Tiruvannamalai.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T08:36:41.320" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17305" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-24T08:47:17.547" Score="2" ViewCount="4562" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know today its Shivratri and the reason what I know about the reason is if our spine is perpendicular to the planet tonight One's life forces may go higher (tonight our planet is on certain angle), I came to know it from Sadguru of Isha Foundation, Who have a great festival on every Shivratri&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How true is that if any one can educate me on that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks in Advance&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T08:47:17.547" Title="Why one should not sleep on Shiv-ratri?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17306" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-24T08:54:55.650" Score="0" ViewCount="785" Body="&lt;p&gt;whats the importance of Shodasi mantra in Sakteya sect? what benefits if a person starts chanting shodasi ona  daily basis, and what -ve effects , if he misses it ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9045" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T10:14:34.883" Title="whats the importance of Shodasi mantra in Sakteya sect?" Tags="|sects|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17307" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17306" CreationDate="2017-02-24T09:07:44.900" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This mantra is a form of Panchadashi mantra of Lalita Tripurasundari. In addition to the 15 letters, a single beeja is added to the mantra. This mantra would differ from person to person as the last beeja is given by Guru during higher deekshas. in the Sri Vidya tradition, this mantra holds a prime position hence it is a key mantra in Shakta tradition. &#xA;However, it is not generally recommended to chant it without initiation as it may not work properly. Traditional people suggest importance of Guru deeksha for chanting and success of this mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes it is able to give all the materialistic as well as spiritual benefits. There is no such thing that it will backfire if it is missed for a single day. But it is better to receive it from a good guru and then practice it regularly. In Sri vidya tradition, it is not given straight away but in 3rd or 4th stage of the worship. That is done as a krama deeksha. Step by step various mantra initiations are given to the sishya and Sodashi mantra is one of the mantras of higher deeksha (stage of worship). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-02-24T10:14:34.883" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T10:14:34.883" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17308" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-24T09:35:49.440" Score="1" ViewCount="200" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the significance for a woman of seeing one's hair parting filled with &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibhuti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vibhuti&lt;/a&gt; (sacred ash ) during her marriage in her dreams?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any Scriptures discuss the significance of such dreams?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does the analysis vary depending on whether the woman is married or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9048" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-25T06:57:49.737" LastActivityDate="2017-02-25T06:57:49.737" Title="What is the significance for a woman of seeing one's hair parting filled with Vibhuti (sacred ash ) during her marriage in her dreams?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|shiva-lingam|dream|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17309" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-24T09:57:28.187" Score="5" ViewCount="532" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from understanding the relationship between Ātman and Brahman, I'm also interested in the prescribed techniques &amp;amp; modes of realising and sustaining this understanding. please assume no access to qualified Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-02-24T10:46:21.710" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T08:12:53.820" Title="According to Viśiṣṭādvaita, how does Ātman relate to Brahman?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|atma|brahman|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17311" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3" CreationDate="2017-02-24T10:13:03.813" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are generally 5 major sects in Hinduism based on chief deity of worship. Unfortunately, Saura and Ganapatya is close to extinction now. They generally employ the process of worship based on their resective Agama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaishnava&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu is treated as the Supreme Godhead. He is said to be the sthiti-karaka, the eternal and the cause of all states of existence and the pervader. Vishnu is a Vedic deity. Vaishnavas are almost purely smartas, and the agamas they regard are Vaikhanasa and Pancaratras. The Vaishnava concept of bhakti is most famous. They describe five kinds of devotee-God relations, or five forms of devotion to God. They are santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya and madhura. In order, they are calm devotion, being a servant to God, being a friend of God, treating God as a child and treating God as husband. Though these in varying degrees are practiced by all religions they are explicitly categorized by the Vaishnavas. There are also five different forms in which the Godhead manifests according to Vaishnavas - Para, Arca, Vibhava, Vyuha and Antaryami.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many different schools in Vishnu-worship or Vaishnava: Smarta (Bhagavata mata) Sri Vaishnava (followers of Ramanujacarya - Visistadvaitins) Sad-Vaishnava (followers of Madhvacarya - Dvaita) Gaudiya Vaishnava (Bhedabheda) Vallabha Sampradaya (Shuddhadvaita) Nimbarka Sampradaya (Dvaitadvaita)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saiva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siva is treated as the Supreme Godhead. He is said to be the eternal, and the first cause of existence. Siva is a Vedic deity. There are many forms of Siva-worship, in smarta as well as Tantra. The smartas who are worshippers of Siva are usually advaitins. There are dvaita versions of Saiva too. There are many sects in Saiva, such as Bhairavas, Kapalikas, Veera Saivas. These are worship modes and worships of different forms of Siva and not different spiritual philosophies. The Saiva Agamas are twenty eight in number. There are two kinds of Saiva Agamas, Kashmira and Siddhanta. The former are followed in north and latter in south India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sakta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sakti, the Mother-Godess is treated as the Supreme Godhead. She is said to be the primal rhythmic energy, and the cause of all manifestation and action. Sakti could be found in multiple forms in the Veda, like Durga, Gauri, Saraswati, Dakshina, Bharati and Sri. There are both smarta and Tantric forms of Sakti-worship. The Sakti worshippers are usually advaitins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are ten forms in which Sakti is worshipped, Ganga, Bhavani, Gayatri Kali, Laksmi, Sarasvati, Rajarajesvari, Bala, Syamala and Lalita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are ten forms knowledge of Sakti or Mahavidyas, namely Kali, Tara, Chinnamasta, Bhuvaneshwari, Bagala, Dhumavati, Kamala, Matangi, Sodasi and Bhairavi. They include the philosophy, methods of worship with mantra, Yantra and Tantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The worship and knowledge of Sakti, is called Sri Vidya. There are schools like Pancadasi and Sodasi, which expound the philosophy of Sri Vidya. While Pancadasi is purely smarta, sodasi being a Mahavidya includes Tantric part too. The Sri Chakra or Sri Yantra is the one used in Sri Vidya. The devata is called Tripurasundari again called with names like Lalita and Bala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sakti is worshipped in three major forms, as a child or maiden (Bala), as the consort of Siva (Parvati/Uma) and as Kali. Because of this, many schools worship Siva and Sakti together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saura&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Surya is treated as the Supreme Godhead. He is said to be the giver of life, and the soul of all beings. Surya/Aditya/Savitr is a Vedic deity. Saura is a comparatively less practiced religion, but was more in practice a few centuries ago. There are few famous temples of Surya, like the ones in Konark (Orissa) and Arasavalli (Andhra Pradesh).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though Saura as an exclusive religion is not very famous, worship of Surya (as Savitr devata) is done by every practicing Brahmin in his Sandhya vandana thrice a day. Savitri is the sakti associated. She is said to be in three forms, Gayatri, Savitri and Saraswati (in the three parts of the day).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganapatya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganapathi is treated as the Supreme Godhead. He is the leader of all the forces or the pramadha ganas. In addition, Ganapati is the deity of obstacles and is to be worshipped before beginning any major work. He is said to reside and rule the muladhara or the base of energy centers. This is in fact the reason why He should be worshipped first, before any other deity. Thus, Ganapati is also said to be all the four forms of vak or word (para-pasyanti-madhyama-vaikhari). Ganapati is found as Brahmanaspati in the Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though worshiped all over, exclusive Ganapati worship is found more in Maharasthra and Karnataka. There are variedly eight, sixteen and thirty two forms in which Ganapati is worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides, there are many Tantric forms of worship of Ganapati, like Lakshmiganapati, Pingalaganapati, Uchchishtaganapati and Urdhvaganapati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Shanmatas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T10:13:03.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17312" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-24T10:23:20.840" Score="6" ViewCount="1556" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just started to read the Gita and I was wondering if I could write or highlight important verses,slokhas and more in it. Can anyone help me please ? Thanks. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9049" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-05-12T12:23:59.143" LastActivityDate="2017-05-12T18:46:22.067" Title="Can I write or highlight verses from scriptures?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17314" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-24T10:36:53.117" Score="7" ViewCount="697" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some texts of hinduism believe that such fire rituals are good sources of attracting clouds and bringing rains. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;annād bhavanti bhūtāni parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ yajñād bhavati&#xA;  parjanyo yajñaḥ karma-samudbhavaḥ Geeta 3.14 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from&#xA;  rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajna [sacrifice], and&#xA;  yajna is born of prescribed duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know how do these fire rituals help to purify the atmosphere and bring rains ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-02-27T09:01:31.120" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T09:01:31.120" Title="How do Vedic fire rituals like Yajnas and agnihotra help the environment?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|yajna|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17315" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-24T10:37:57.503" Score="4" ViewCount="644" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can Read more about Āvaṇi Aviṭṭam &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upakarma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; . Is the listed differences in the link exhaustive? And to the question, why so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T19:20:38.723" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T05:58:42.403" Title="What is the reason behind the differences between Samaveda Āvaṇi Aviṭṭam and other Āvaṇi Aviṭṭam (upAkarma)?" Tags="|vedas|rituals|brahmins|sama-veda|grihya-sutra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17316" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17314" CreationDate="2017-02-24T11:51:00.323" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The meaning of &lt;em&gt;annam&lt;/em&gt; can be here &lt;em&gt;vidyà&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;kàla&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;màyà&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;kalà&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;ràga&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;niyati&lt;/em&gt;. All these are &lt;em&gt;kankukas&lt;/em&gt; whose origin is in &lt;em&gt;màyà tattva&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Màyà tattva&lt;/strong&gt; is responsible for binding the individual self by creating an illusion of individuality. &#xA;Now the verse can be understood as &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From &lt;em&gt;annam&lt;/em&gt; which is an undivided object of experience or which is &lt;em&gt;kankukas&lt;/em&gt; emerge the multitude of creatures. &lt;strong&gt;Annam&lt;/strong&gt; comes from &lt;strong&gt;parjanya&lt;/strong&gt; who (as the enjoyer of object) is of the nature of consciousness. This is because the objects of enjoyment gain their existence only as a result of their contact with the enjoyer. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Parjanya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; becomes the enjoyer through sacrifice, which is the act of enjoyment. The act of enjoyment is the result of freedom (&lt;em&gt;svàtantrya&lt;/em&gt; which is the absolute freedom or autonomy of Shiva responsible for creation) of the &lt;em&gt;kriyasakti&lt;/em&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Parmeshvara&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus yajnà is not always physical, it can also be an act of enjoyment full of awareness. E.g, Partaking food while taking our consciousness to the chewing is a Yajna, &amp;amp; sense organs are Demigods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ref: BG by Abhinavgupta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T11:51:00.323" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17318" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17329" CreationDate="2017-02-24T15:13:34.980" Score="13" ViewCount="2541" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dana is a dharma action followed in every &lt;em&gt;yuga&lt;/em&gt; as it prevents selfishness, ignorance and helps other beings to live very peacefully.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But, the Dana which helps society can also bring problems to it if Dana is given to anyone without contemplating what Dana we are giving and to whom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Example:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Giving money to a lazy person will make him lazier.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Assume he has a powerful weapon(nuclear bomb) and giving dana to any terrorist will cause destruction.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Giving knowledge of yogic powers to an ignorant man will cause only problem to society.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna gave his &lt;em&gt;kavacha&lt;/em&gt; to lord Indra and it brought him death.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When we give Dana, should we consider what we are giving and to whom we are giving?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can we refuse to give Dana to a person who seeks it to do adharma and if we give it, will it cause bad karma to us?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Giving Dana to an adharma  person and help him to do more adharma is of adharma or not?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the rules for giving Dana?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="3745" LastEditDate="2017-02-27T03:07:18.217" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T04:17:30.517" Title="Is it adharma to give Dana without considering what we are giving and to whom we are giving?" Tags="|karma|dharma|tradition|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17319" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-24T16:50:47.370" Score="4" ViewCount="201" Body="&lt;p&gt;Would like to know how Lord Shiva got name as &quot;PanchaMukhan&quot; ,what are 5 names ? Any images of this PanchaMukhas?? Also when did he become five faced?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9045" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-02-25T03:45:19.297" LastActivityDate="2017-02-25T03:45:19.297" Title="How Lord Shiva got name as &quot;PanchaMukhan&quot; and when did he become Five faced?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-02-25T09:02:42.620" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17320" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17260" CreationDate="2017-02-24T17:52:33.970" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The mention to Lord SatyaNarayan is present in pratisarg parva inBhavishya Puran along with Katha(story of bhil, Sadhu merchant, king Tungdwaja etc.). It is also there in Sakanda puran.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9057" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T17:52:33.970" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17321" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-24T17:58:25.673" Score="1" ViewCount="232" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a brahmin , today i was doing shiva ratri's upavas ,evening me and my family went to shiva temple everything was good till i returned home , once my family members stepped down of car i took my car somewhat forward to park it correctly , suddenly a small dog which was being chased by a group of 5-6 dogs came below my car and it died , i am feeling so uncomfortable , i love street dogs so much infact the dog which was killed by me accidentally  its mother was born infront of me with 4 other dogs , i take care of  7-8 street dogs daily , now the mother dog which i used to feed daily and it used to always follow me during my small walks is shouting on me , what should i do please help me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9056" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T17:58:25.673" Title="Killed a dog puppy by accident , feelin uncomfortable please help me" Tags="|sin|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-02-24T18:13:42.160" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17323" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17318" CreationDate="2017-02-24T18:52:13.863" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Neetishastra says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;వృథా వృష్టిః సముద్రేషు వృథా తృప్తస్య భోజనం &lt;br&gt; వృథా దానం కదర్యస్య&#xA;  వృథా దీపో దివాపి చ. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vṛthā vṛṣṭiḥ samudreṣu vṛthā tṛptasya bhojanaṃ &lt;br&gt; vṛthā dānaṃ&#xA;  kadaryasya vṛthā dīpo divāpi ca.&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following actions are considered of no avail: Heavy rains in sea, food  given to a satiated person,&#xA;  Charity given to the rich and lighting the lamp during daytime.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also apAtra dAnam (Charity to unworthy) is prohibited.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9060" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-02-24T22:46:44.677" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T22:46:44.677" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17324" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17318" CreationDate="2017-02-24T19:58:04.860" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu11.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti explains the circumstances in which you should and should not give to someone: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should give, according to one's ability, wealth to Brahmanas learned in the Veda and living alone; (thus) one obtains after death heavenly bliss.... Accepting presents from blamed men, trading, serving Sudras, and speaking a falsehood, make (the offender) unworthy to receive gifts (Apatra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Krishna says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 17&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Charity given out of duty, without expectation of return, at the proper time and place, and &lt;strong&gt;to a worthy person&lt;/strong&gt; is considered to be in the mode of goodness.  But charity performed with the expectation of some return, or with a desire for fruitive results, or in a grudging mood is said to be charity in the mode of passion. And charity performed at an impure place, at an improper time, &lt;strong&gt;to unworthy persons&lt;/strong&gt;, or without proper attention and respect is said to be in the mode of ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-17-20/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Adi Shankaracharya explains the worthy person part:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;patre, to a (proper) person-to one who is versed in the Vedas together with their six branches, and such others&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-17-22/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how he explains the unworthy person part:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;apatrebhyah, to undeserving persons, to fools, thieves and others&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-02-24T19:58:04.860" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17326" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17319" CreationDate="2017-02-25T03:43:13.117" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;After the period of Brahmas 100 years become over, then Mahapralaya comes. After the Mahapralaya the Universe is in unmanifested state. There are no name and forms, even the space is not there, everything is enveloped by darkness alone. The state of Universe is like as described in Nãsadiya Sukta of RigVeda which I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17197/what-happens-to-lord-shivas-trishul-during-dissolution-of-universe/17281#17281&quot;&gt;discuss here.&lt;/a&gt; After a long time a desire comes in the unmanifest to become many. So, he chooses to make his own form which is most auspicious, all knowing abd the best. And that form is of five headed three eyed Lord which is named as SadaShiva (ever auspicious). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita Shristi Khanda chapter 6 describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्येत्थ संविकल्पं सञ्ज्ञासञ्ज्ञोक्तित: स्म वै। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कियता चैव कालेन द्वितीयेच्छाऽभवत्किल॥१४॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Its names go on changing. &lt;strong&gt;After a long time a desire developed in him to get himself multiplied.&lt;/strong&gt; Or in other words he thought that he was one and he should be multiplied into many form. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अमूर्तेन स्वमूर्तिश्च तेनाकल्पि स्वलीलया। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वैश्वर्यगुणोपेता सर्वज्ञानमयी शुभा॥ १५॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The said being, having no form of his own, created an auspicious image, during the course of his own sport, possessing all the virtues and fortunes, besides the power, qualities and knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वगा सर्वरूपा च सर्वदृक्सर्वकारिणी। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वैकवन्द्या सर्वाद्या सर्वदा सर्वसंस्कृतिः॥ १६॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;A form which could move everywhere, displays all the forms, could visualise everything, should be all powerful and respectable by all,&lt;/strong&gt; should be the ancient most and which could make all the people civilized.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परिकल्येति ता मूर्तिमैश्वरी शुद्धरूपिणीम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अद्वितीयमनाद्यन्तं सर्वाभासं चिदात्मकम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अन्तर्दधे पराख्यं यद्ब्रह्म सर्वगमव्ययम्॥ १७॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then he created the auspicious image of Isvara, then the original being who was beyond comparison, eternal, beyond measure, form of consciousness, which illuminates everything, form of pure knowledge, all pervading, indestructible, and supreme Brahman, disappeared. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अमूर्ते यत्पराख्यं वै तस्य मूर्तिः सदाशिवः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अर्वाचीना पराचीना ईश्वरं तं जगुर्बुधाः।। १८॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The manifest form of formless being is Sadasiva who is presently called by the people of wisdom as Isvara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शक्तिस्तदैकलेनापि स्वैरं विहरता तनुः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्वविग्रहात्स्वयं सृष्टा स्वशरीरानपायिनी।१९।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The lonely Isvara produced from his own body an everlasting Sakti. This Sakti did not effect his original body in any way. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रधानं प्रकृर्तिं तां च मायां गुणवतीं पराम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बुद्धितत्त्वस्य जननीमाहुर्विकृतिवर्जिताम्।।२०।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The said Sakti is variously known as Pradhan-Prakrti, Maya, Gunavati, Para. She happens to be the creator of the Buddhi-tattva (cosmic intelligence) and is unblemished. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सा शक्तिरम्बिका प्रोक्ता प्रकृतिः सकलेश्वरी। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्रिदेवजननी नित्या मूलकारणमित्युत॥ २१॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The same Sakti is also called Ambika, Prakrti, besides being the mistress of the three worlds. She is the mother of the three gods. She is everlasting and the main cause of the creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that form which he created is as:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eSydp.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eSydp.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Lord Sadashiva&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परः पुमानीश्वरः स शिवः शम्भुरनीश्वरः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शीर्ष मन्दाकिनीधारी भालचन्द्रस्त्रिलोचन:। २५॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thereafter the said Parama-Purusa Siva also known as Isvara, having no other lord over him, who holds the Mandakini over his head. &lt;strong&gt;He has three eyes and a crescent moon on his forehead.&lt;/strong&gt; ; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पञ्चवक्त्रः प्रसन्नात्मा दशबाहुस्त्रिशूलधृक्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कर्पूरगौरः सुसितो भस्मोद्धूलितविग्रहः॥२६॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Siva (SadaShiva) is five faced, a pleasant soul, holder of a trident, having complexion as white as the camphor, keeps on applying holy ashes over the body.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Lord SadaShiva is called five-faced because he choose that form when he first manifested from unmanifest. In this way he also got his name as PanchaMukham. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a sidenote each head of SadaShiva is of significant importance which I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16553/who-are-pancha-brahmas-and-why-are-they-called-so/16557#16557&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;. Also Sada Shiva carries various symbols in his hands which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13529/what-are-the-symbols-and-weapons-in-the-hand-of-sadashiva/13530#13530&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-25T03:43:13.117" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17329" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17318" CreationDate="2017-02-25T05:28:50.993" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all dealing with &lt;strong&gt;Apatra Dana&lt;/strong&gt;  or charity given to the undeserving candidate.This is condemned in Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Essence of Dharma Bindu &quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devala Maharshi clarifies: Charity given in small or large quanties is&#xA;  irrelevant but whatever is handed over with Shraddha bhakti or&#xA;  reverence and sincerity are given &lt;strong&gt;and the recipient too should truly&#xA;  desire and deserve it! Contrariwise, there might be negative impact!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana11.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; says one of the Dana Nashakas(destroyer of charity or of the purpose of it) is Apatra Dana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now, there are three kinds of ‘Daan Naashak’ reasons viz.&#xA;  ‘Paschattaap’ or regret of having given the Daan; ‘Apaatra Daan’ or&#xA;  charity to the wrong and undeserved person or ‘Ashraddha Daan’is to a&#xA;  person on account of laziness. Paschattapaya Daan indicates as to why&#xA;  the Daan is given at all; Ashraddha Daan is Rakshasa Daan &lt;strong&gt;and Apaatra&#xA;  Daan is as bad as not giving it away&#xA;  .&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahamuni Vyasa warns against Apatra Dana as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In good fields the seeds must be sown ; in good recipients the gifts&#xA;  should be stored. Whatever is cast in a good field or recepient can&#xA;  not suffer any deterioration. (49)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gifts made unto an illiterate (Brahmana), like seeds sown in a sandy&#xA;  soil,&lt;/strong&gt; or clarified butter kept in a pot of asheS) or libations poured&#xA;  over burnt out cinders &lt;strong&gt;prove abortive (fail to bear any merit)&lt;/strong&gt;. (62)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vyasa Smriti,Chapter 4&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Mahamuni Atri says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no Shastra superior to the Veda, there is no elderly person&#xA;  superior to the mother ; and there is no friend superior to charity&#xA;  both in this world and and in the next. &lt;strong&gt;But what is given to an&#xA;  unworthy person, consumes the family up to the seventh generation.&#xA;  (149)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti,Chapter 1,Verse 149.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And what should be given in charity depends on what exactly the receiver is in need of the most.For example if one his hungry give him food instead of clothes and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the same Skanda Purana page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The donors of charity must have the perspective of what kind of&#xA;  material is required or useful to the receiver or &lt;strong&gt;otherwise the&#xA;  purpose of charity would be defeated&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many rules of Charity are given in the Skanda Purana page linked above.You can read them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general this is what Shandilya Mahamuni prescribes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ayaachtaani deyaani sarva daanaani yatnatah, Annam Vidyaaha&#xA;  Kanyaachahyanarthibhyona deeyate| Dvaamimau purushaa loke&#xA;  swargasyopari tishthatah, Anna pradaataa durbhikshe subhikshe hema&#xA;  vastradah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shandalya Muni mentions that all types of charities be offered without&#xA;  being asked for and with clean conscience or with no view of securing&#xA;  returns; however &lt;strong&gt;Vidya, Kanya and Anna must not be offered without&#xA;  being asked for as a rule!&lt;/strong&gt; Indeed, there are two types of charity&#xA;  givers who attain Swarga for sure: those who heartily give away Food&#xA;  during Durbhiksha and also those who happily give away gold and&#xA;  clothing during the days of general prosperity(from the book Essence of Dharma Bindu)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adding another verse from Manu Smriti which aptly answer your third question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.271. &lt;strong&gt;All those&lt;/strong&gt; also &lt;strong&gt;who&lt;/strong&gt; in villages &lt;strong&gt;give food to thieves&#xA;  or grant them room for (concealing their implements), he shall cause&#xA;  to be put to death&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the king should punish  the thieves and also those who offer food and houses to the thieves equally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means,if you donate something to a person and which he uses latter to perform an Adharma &lt;strong&gt;then you are also sharing his guilt.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-25T06:28:06.053" LastActivityDate="2017-02-25T06:28:06.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17330" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-25T05:31:57.953" Score="8" ViewCount="7087" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Dakshina Murthi, is considered as the source of all types of knowledge. This form represents Shiva as a teacher of yoga, music, wisdom and giving exposition on the shastras. He is worshipped as the god of wisdom, complete and rewarding meditation. The significance of Dakshina murthy is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7896/what-scriptures-mention-shivas-dakshinamurthi-form/13945#13945&quot;&gt;this post&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RpOFk.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RpOFk.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Dakshina murthy&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is seen suppressing a demon &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apasmara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apasmara&lt;/a&gt; with his foot. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The relation between Apasmara and Shiva is not only limited to Dakshina Murthy but with other forms like Nataraja and Shiva in his human form. There is a temple by the name &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gudimallam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parashurameshwara Temple&lt;/a&gt; situated in Gudimallam, Andhra Pradesh. In this temple, Lord Shiva is shown as suppressing demon Apasmara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the story of the demon Apasmara, Daskshina murthy is suppressing with his foot? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-01-23T16:58:43.703" LastActivityDate="2019-01-23T16:58:43.703" Title="Why is dakshina murthy suppressing the demon Apasmara and what is his story?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17331" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17318" CreationDate="2017-02-25T06:04:28.427" Score="9" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Is it Adharma to give Dana without considering what we are giving  and whom we are giving.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We find exact answers to the above questions in our Purana’s also.. Puranic literature discusses about different kind of charitable gifts , who is eligible to provide charitable gifts their merits and demerits etc. .in very detail.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; For example  Form &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;  we come to know that “ Danna has two &lt;strong&gt;“Hetus”&lt;/strong&gt; (cause, motives),Six &lt;strong&gt;“Adhisthanas”&lt;/strong&gt; (base),Six &lt;strong&gt;Angas&lt;/strong&gt; (ancillaries), Two “Pakas”(Places of fruition), Four “Prakaras (Varieties)  ,Three &lt;strong&gt;“Vidhies&lt;/strong&gt;”(Procedures)  and Three &lt;strong&gt;“Nasas”&lt;/strong&gt;( Destructive factors or Agents).&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/garud-puran/garuda-vol-2/chapter-01/topic-24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; says :-&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथात: संप्रवक्षामि दानधर्मनुत्तमम |&lt;br&gt; अर्थनमुचिते पात्रे श्रद्धया&#xA;प्रतिपादनम् ||१||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning -Brahma said :- I will now describe the most excellent rules&#xA;of making charities. wealth should be &lt;strong&gt;respectfully given to worthy&#xA;person.&lt;/strong&gt; (GP Vol. 2 , Chapter 51 ,Page 119 ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So its clear that we should give charitable gifts to a person , &lt;strong&gt;who is worthy of it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here what Skanda Purana Says-: &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana Vol.2  Chapter 4 –Dialogue Between Narada and Arjuna: Different kind of charitable gifts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;48&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hence ,Lord Rudra  is gratified with that charitable gift offered by a faithful one and given to a &lt;strong&gt;deserving one.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Expecting something in return , if a gift is made on certain occasions with great attachment (but) &lt;strong&gt;to undeserving person&lt;/strong&gt; it is&#xA;called “kamaDana” (ie. Dana based on desire).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If anything is Gifted to good people , the benefit thereof  if attained in the other world..&lt;strong&gt;If any Gift made to Bad People&lt;/strong&gt; ,the&#xA;benefit thereof is enjoyed here (in this world) itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further Skanda Purana (Chapter 5 ,Dialogue between Narada and Sutanu) gives us more detail answer of your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;11&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If deserving persons are ignored and a charitable Gift is offered to an undeserving person , it is (as bad as) offering Gavahnika (a&#xA;daily measure of food given to a cow) to a donkey , after ignoring&#xA;cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;if a charitable gift offered to a fool is transitory and worthless like a seed sown in barren land.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a monetary gift is offered to an undererving persons and contrary to the injunctions , not only does the money so offered&#xA;vanish , but also the remaining  merit is destroyed..&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;न्यायोपर्जित वितस्य दशमांशेन धीमत:|&lt;br&gt; कर्तव्यो विनियोगश्च&#xA;ईश्वर्प्रीत्यर्थमेव च ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No virtue accrues from charity that is given out of ill gotten wealth.&#xA;In giving charity out of duty &lt;strong&gt;it is important that one must adhere to&#xA;morality and ethics&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/indian-religions/hinduism/charity-social-responsibility-hinduism/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence from the above verses its clear to us that , &lt;strong&gt;its not recommended to make Dana to a undeserving person.&lt;/strong&gt; Although the scriptures are not saying this act as “Adharma” but Further from analysis of verses , we can say that , &lt;strong&gt;If a person knowing all this offers charitable gifts to undeserving bad People then certainly it will be a “Adharma”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-02-25T09:53:01.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17332" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7584" CreationDate="2017-02-25T08:23:50.063" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Smritis give us penances for all sorts of sins committed.Some even  give you penances for accidentally killing  animals.But many of these penances will look outdated or at least will be difficult to perform for someone living in this age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case here are a few of them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By [consciously] killing a frog, mongoose, crow, cat, boar, mouse or a&#xA;  dog, a twice-born person should perform a great penance extending over&#xA;  sixteen days&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By [unconsciously] killing a dog&lt;/strong&gt;, one should zealously drink milk for&#xA;  three nights. (7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;by [unknowingly] killing a cat or a mongoose&lt;/strong&gt;, one should wend a way a&#xA;  Yojan [in length]. By killing a horse, a twice-born person should&#xA;  perform a hard austerity extending over twelve [days]. (8)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To take clarified butter is the purification [enjoined for destroying]&#xA;  flowering [plants]. &lt;strong&gt;By killing, by mistake, [a cow], one should&#xA;  perform the Chandrayana* and the Paraka.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Usana Smriti,Chapter 9.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW,Usana Smriti refers to the Smriti composed by Daityaguru Sukra and is one of the major 18 Smritis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,for &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17321/killed-a-dog-puppy-by-accident-feelin-uncomfortable-please-help-me&quot;&gt;accidentally killing a dog&lt;/a&gt; the remedy seems to be living on milk only for three nights.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-02-25T08:23:50.063" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17333" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-25T08:23:58.357" Score="4" ViewCount="125" Body="&lt;p&gt;The whole &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rvi09.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mandala 9 of Rig-Veda&lt;/a&gt; is devoted to the Soma. My question set is as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is Soma? What is its importance? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there both interior as well as exterior somas? I've read about interior somas which could be formed via yoga at ajna chakra, though I don't know of any scriptural references of interior somas. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do we still have methods to prepare external somas? (It's evident from sculptures found in Indus Valley civilization that (external) Somas could be prepared)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Related: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7968&quot;&gt;Which rituals need Soma? If the Soma plant is extinct, is there any substitute for it?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-12-26T20:47:22.950" LastActivityDate="2017-12-26T20:47:22.950" Title="What is Soma? Is it a drink or a metaphor for spiritual bliss or both?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|yoga|chakras|soma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-12-30T03:21:00.997" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17334" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17337" CreationDate="2017-02-25T08:50:21.233" Score="7" ViewCount="7666" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard &quot;Har Har Mahadev&quot;, that is call for &quot;Mahadev&quot; But I want to know the meaning of &quot;Har&quot; in &quot;Har Har Mahadev&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8928" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-02-25T11:04:53.500" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T05:33:12.110" Title="What is the meaning of 'Hara'?" Tags="|shiva|name|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17335" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-25T10:13:15.827" Score="1" ViewCount="173" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am aware of the different yugas and their different length.&#xA;As far as I know the time lenghts stand in a ratio of 4:3:2:1.&#xA;I believe that the ratio is always the same, but my question is whether the absolute time depends upon in which mahayuga we are in.&#xA;Moreover I have another question, do the yugas after descending from Satya Yuga to Kali Yuga ascend in reverse order to Satya Yuga or does Satya Yuga immediately follow Kali Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9065" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T05:39:09.720" Title="Time measurement in Hindu Scriptues" Tags="|yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17336" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-25T10:22:06.563" Score="4" ViewCount="387" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna was a great man in giving &lt;strong&gt;Dana to Anyone&lt;/strong&gt; who asks for Dana from him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17318/is-it-adharma-to-give-dana-without-considering-what-we-are-giving-and-to-whom-we&quot;&gt;Scriptures&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Support&lt;/strong&gt; giving Dana only to whose who that &lt;strong&gt;Deserves it&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sciptures Oppose&lt;/strong&gt; giving Dana to whose who that does &lt;strong&gt;Not deserves it&lt;/strong&gt; and giving to anyone is &lt;strong&gt;Punisable&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna would been full aware of this rules in scriptures but he gave to anyone that asks him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Karna &lt;strong&gt;Didn't Refuse&lt;/strong&gt; to &lt;strong&gt;give Dana even for one time&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXAMPLE :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Karna gave his Kavacha and Kundala to lord indra whose &lt;strong&gt;Intention was to kill karna&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why Karna didn't give Dana as said in scriptures to give only to whose who that deserves it ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Did he &lt;strong&gt;Took a Vow&lt;/strong&gt; to &lt;strong&gt;Give Dana to anyone&lt;/strong&gt; as opposing scriptures ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Will it cause &lt;strong&gt;Bad karma&lt;/strong&gt; to Karna or Anyone if &lt;strong&gt;Dana&lt;/strong&gt; is given to who that does not deserves it ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-08-05T10:41:48.803" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T10:41:48.803" Title="Why Karna didn't give Dana according to scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|karma|dharma|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17337" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17334" CreationDate="2017-02-25T11:04:29.003" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hara&lt;/strong&gt; means the one who destroys ie. Who does Harana. Lord Shiva is called Hara because he is the destroyer of world, sins, evils etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the phrase 'Hara Hara Mahadeva' the meaning which suits the most is 'Who destroys the sins.' Mahabharata Vana Parva Kairata section &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03039.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;states:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गतेषु तेषु सर्वेषु तपस्वीसु महात्मसु । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;पिनाकपाणिर्भगवान् सर्वपाप हरो हरः&lt;/strong&gt; ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  All the Mahatman and Tapasvis went away. Lord Hara is the Bhagvan who holds Pinaka in his hands and does Harana (destruction) of all sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Hara means the one who destroys Sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-02-25T11:04:29.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17338" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-25T12:33:24.923" Score="2" ViewCount="1220" Body="&lt;p&gt;We find many scriptures which are said to be authored by first Shankaracharya. But when we go through them we find it that the author cannot be Sankara for some obvious reason mentioned below. Why and how is then he acknowledged as the author ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a well known stotra &quot;Devi aparadha kshamapana stotram&quot; we find that author says that he has become very old as he has crossed 85 years so wants to take refuge in the goddess. But we know from various biographies that Sankara lived only for 30-40 years and not 85 !!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;परित्यक्ता देवा विविधविधसेवाकुलतया &#xA;मया पञ्चाशीतेरधिकमपनीते तु वयसि।&#xA;इदानीं चेन्मातस्तव यदि कृपा नापि भविता &#xA;निरालम्बो लम्बोदरजननि कं यामि शरणम्॥५॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O, Paravati Ma, Mother who has given birth to Ganesh, while I do&#xA;  prayers to other gods, I remain busy with different kinds of works,&#xA;  all gods have left me because I 'm eighty-five years, and I can not&#xA;  give them all the prayers. I am despaired and I can not expect any&#xA;  help from them. If you also leave me at this time where shall I go for&#xA;  support except to you?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a famous hymn &quot;Subramanya Bhujangam&quot; the author mentions about blessing his wife and children. But we know that sankara never married or have any children. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kaLathram suthA bandhuvarga pashurvA, naro vAtha nAree gruhe ye madheeyA&#xA;       yajantho namanthah stuvantho bhavantham, smaran thascha te santu sarve kumAra | 28&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;{Oh Lord Kumara! Let my wife, children, relatives, friends, other men&#xA;  and women in our household, venerate Thee! Praise Thee! And always be&#xA;  absorbed in Thy thoughts!}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this, there are many texts whose author is said to be Sankara but the real authorship is still disputed by the mutts. I think in Yoga taravali the author says he achieved enlightenment by following path of yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedicbooks.net/yoga-taravali-p-15865.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yogataravali&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14808/which-are-authentic-prakarana-grantha-of-adi-shankaracharya&quot;&gt;Sarva Vedanta Sidhaanta Saar Sangraha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are some of the texts which are NOT accepted by Sankara mutts as genuine. &#xA;So now we should understand that they have denied the authorship because of some strong reasons and not because they were &quot;not able to understand the intellectual meaning&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question-Is Shankaracharya wrongly attributed as author to many hymns?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T10:41:35.720" Title="Is Shankaracharya wrongly attributed as author to many hymns?" Tags="|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17340" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-25T18:44:21.337" Score="4" ViewCount="2948" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that a debate took place between Sri Vidyaranya of Sankara tradition and  Sri Akshobhya Teertha of Madhwa sampradaya and Sri Vedanta Desikan declared  Sri Akshobhya as a winner. Is it true ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2018-11-26T10:48:34.250" LastActivityDate="2022-06-04T02:42:59.410" Title="Was advaita scholar Sri Vidyaranya defeated by Sri Akshobhya Tirtha?" Tags="|history|advaita|dvaita|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17341" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17340" CreationDate="2017-02-25T19:01:18.860" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidyaranya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vidyaranya&lt;/a&gt; (Advaitin Scholar and brother of famous &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sayanacharya&lt;/a&gt;) was defeated by Akshobhya Tirtha (Dwaita Scholar) in famous debate moderated by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta_Desika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta Deshikacharya&lt;/a&gt; (Sri Vaishnava scholar founder of Vadakalai sect).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the year 1336 AD., Sri Akshobhya Tirtha had a scholarly disputation with Sri Vidyaranya on the interpretation of the &quot;Tatvam-asi&quot; (&quot;You are the same as&quot; or &quot;I am that&quot;) 'Shruthi' text. The extensive and elaborate and sometimes acrimonious arguments were exchanged in the presence of Sri Vedantha Deshika who was chosen by both as an arbitrator. Another tradition says that all the arguments were literally written down and then sent to Sri Vedantha Deshika whose verdict was in favour of Sri Akshobhya Tirtha. The epigraphic evidence of this historic victory is on a commemorative pillar of victory on a hill near Mulubagal that can be seen even today. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More evidence from same &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hknet.org.nz/gp-Akshobhya-JT.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sripad Akshobhya Tirtha's victory over Vidyaranya has been recorded in Jaya Tirtha Vijaya of Sripad Vyasa Tirtha, and in the Raghavendra Vijay (17th century) as well as in the Vishisthadvaitin (Sri Vaishnava) work Acarya Vijayachampu, and the epigraphic evidence carved in a pillar of stone at &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulbagal&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mulbagal&lt;/a&gt;.(BNK Sharma.1961. History of the Dvaita School of Vedanta. page 230.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-02-15T19:57:33.213" LastActivityDate="2019-02-15T19:57:33.213" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17343" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17334" CreationDate="2017-02-26T05:33:12.110" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not &quot;Har&quot; but the Sanskrit word &quot;Hara&quot; (हर् - हरति), which means to take away. This is to denote an embodiment of captivation (चित्त हरना), consolidation (संघन्नम्) and destruction (विनाश करना).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you know, Lord Shiva is also associated with the term &quot;The Destroyer&quot;. Thus, this chant implies that &quot;O Great Lord, liberate us from this vicious cycle of births and deaths (or attain Moksha).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Hara' here implies taking away our sorrows, grief, lust, ignorance and all worldly attachments and liberate our soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A similar name Hari is attributed to Vishnu which means taker of sorrow. The Gods are spiritual benefactors and remover of sins and miseries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T05:33:12.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17344" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17335" CreationDate="2017-02-26T05:39:09.720" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;'Yuga' technically means 'age' or 'era'. In Vedic metaphysical cosmology, there are 4 Yugas which consist of a fixed number of years, based on the magnitude of prevailing spiritual righteousness, or Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The collection of all four yugas is called a Chaturyuga. One day of Lord Brahma consists of 1000 such Chaturyugas. This time is called &quot;Kalpa&quot;. During this time 14 Manus come and go. Each Manu is created by Lord Brahma Himself, who assigns the Manu with the task of continuing the process of creation by creating generations of mankind called 'Manvantara'. One Manvantara is approximately 71 Chaturyugas. After the Manvantara, Lord Brahma creates another Manu, to carry on the process of creation and procreation. In this new Manvantara, Lord Vishnu takes on a new form, and a new Indra and new Saptarishis are appointed. The current form of Vishnu is the famous four-armed figure having a discus, a lotus, a conch and a mace in each hand. The current Indra is Purandar. The current Saptarishis are Kashyapa, Atri, Vashista, Vishvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni and Bharadvaja. Later on I will tabulate the other Saptarishis in all the 14 Manvantaras of this present Day of Brahma or the present Kalpa (1000-Chaturyuga-period).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After 1000 Chaturyugas have passed, Brahma's Day is over, which leads to Brahma's Night. During this time, there is no creation as Lord Brahma takes rest. It continues for the same amount of time as Brahma's Day. After the night is over, Brahma commences a fresh creation. The night of Brahma starts with 'Pralaya' (annihilation) and ends with 'Srishti' (creation/manifestation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as your second question goes, I am not aware of that because different people have different assumptions and theories. For example the great astrologer and master Sri Sri Yukteshwar Giri, the Gurudev of Paramahansa Yogananda, has stated that Kali Yuga gradually ascends to the Satya in a reverse order. He primarily said that because the principles of mystic development would be known by a more scientific insight in the Kali Yuga. For example the working knowledge of telepathy, telekinesis, psychokinesis, teleportation, astral projection etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But from the absolute point of view, Kali Yuga will last for 4,32,000 years. All scientific developments will take place till this limit of 4,32,000. Then a new Satya will emerge after Kalki Avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T05:39:09.720" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17345" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3078" CreationDate="2017-02-26T05:41:41.783" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The collection of all four yugas is called a Chaturyuga. One day of Lord Brahma consists of 1000 such Chaturyugas. This time is called &quot;Kalpa&quot;. During this time 14 Manus come and go. Each Manu is created by Lord Brahma Himself, who assigns the Manu with the task of continuing the process of creation by creating generations of mankind called 'Manvantara'. One Manvantara is approximately 71 Chaturyugas. After the Manvantara, Lord Brahma creates another Manu, to carry on the process of creation and procreation. In this new Manvantara, Lord Vishnu takes on a new form, and a new Indra and new Saptarishis are appointed. The current form of Vishnu is the famous four-armed figure having a discus, a lotus, a conch and a mace in each hand. The current Indra is Purandar. The current Saptarishis are Kashyapa, Atri, Vashista, Vishvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni and Bharadvaja. Later on I will tabulate the other Saptarishis in all the 14 Manvantaras of this present Day of Brahma or the present Kalpa (1000-Chaturyuga-period).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After 1000 Chaturyugas have passed, Brahma's Day is over, which leads to Brahma's Night. During this time, there is no creation as Lord Brahma takes rest. It continues for the same amount of time as Brahma's Day. After the night is over, Brahma commences a fresh creation. The night of Brahma starts with 'Pralaya' (annihilation) and ends with 'Srishti' (creation/manifestation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;=&gt; The actual duration of a Manvantara is 71*4*1000 years, with some additional years, which sum upto 8,52,000 divine years; or 30,67,20,000 human years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;=&gt; 14 times this number constitues a day of Brahma, as there are 14 Manvantaras in one Brahma's Day. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;=&gt; Overall, 4,320,000 years termed as 1 Chaturyuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;=&gt; 1 day of Brahma constitutes 1000 Chaturyugas (= 4,320,000,000 years). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;=&gt; Thus 1 year constitutes 360*4,320,000,000 = 1,555,200,000,000 years. Brahma lives for 100 Brahma years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;=&gt; Hence the lifespan of Brahma is 100 years = 100*1,555,200,000,000 = 155,520,000,000,000 years&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The following table will clearly link our time-scale to that of Lord Brahma's -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;365*(1/4) human days = 1 Deva Ahoratra (1 day + 1 night)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;360 Deva Ahoratras = 1 Deva Vatsara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12,000 Deva Vatsaras = 1 Chaturyuga **&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;71 Chaturyugas = 1 Manvantara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14 Manvantaras = 1 Kalpa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 Kalpas = 1 Day of Brahma + 1 Night of Brahma &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;360 Days of Brahma = 1 Brahma Varsha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma's life span is 100 Brahma Varshas, as we know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastEditorDisplayName="user9072" LastEditDate="2017-02-26T11:50:11.477" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T11:50:11.477" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17346" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10587" CreationDate="2017-02-26T05:45:52.443" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The episode of Kalki avatar of this 28th Chaturyuga cycle is not written anywhere, as it is not yet recorded in the Causal Ocean/Ocean of Events. It is Vishnu's Will and His Will only. Gods can know humans' wish and will, and can write down an entire story for what humans can do in the year 2110 AD. But knowing Vishnu's wish and will in the future is beyond their reach. So Kalki, who's not appeared yet is not recorded anywhere except the facts which were predetermined, like He will be born in Shambhala, will receive celestial weapons from Parashurama, will be assisted by Hanuman, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-09-29T07:07:24.257" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T07:07:24.257" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17348" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16920" CreationDate="2017-02-26T06:02:51.310" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adhyaya 1 Pada 3 of Purva Mimamsa Sutras&lt;/strong&gt; of Jaimini discuss of Authority of Shruti and Smriti and Authority of Shruti being higher than Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adhikarana 2 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shruti (Veda) more authoritative than Smrti.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sutra 3 of Adhikarana 2 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When There Is Conflict (Between Veda and Smriti,) The Smriti Should Be Disregarded; Because It Is Only When There Is No Such Conflict That There Is An Assumption (Of Vedic Text In Support Of Smriti).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shabara Bhasya on this Sutra is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The question that arises now is How would it be in cases where there is a conflict between Smriti and Shruti ? For instance&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;(a) The Smriti rule that the whole of the Udumbara-Post should be covered is in conflict with the Shruti rule that one should sing a Saman, touching the Post [no&#xA;    touching of the Post is possible when the whole of it is covered with cloth] ; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    (b) The Smriti rule that one should remain a Vedic Student for forty-eight years is in conflict with the rule that one should install the Fire when a son is born to him and his hair is still black&amp;apos;. [If a man is to remain a student for 48 years, he would not marry before he is 55 or 56 years old, by which time his hair would cease to be black, and he could not instal the Fire before marriage] ;  &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    (c.) the Smrti -rule that one should not take food at the place of one who has purchased Soma (for the Soma-sacrifice) is in conflict with the Shruti-rule that on the completion of the Agnistoma stage (of the Soma-sacrifice) one should dine at the house of the sacrifice!.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus in the above Bhasya we clearly see Smritis are in contradiction with Shruti.&lt;/strong&gt; There are also such contraction due to motives of Greedy persons. Hence Sutra 4 of Adhikarana 2 states: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also Because We Find Motives.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shabara Bhasya on this Sutra is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(a) Some greedy priests being desirous of having a large piece of cloth, covered up the whole of the Post at a certain performance ; tliis was what gave rise to the Smrti-rule (that the whole post should be covered up). (b) Some greedy Priest took food at the house of the Sacrificer after he had purchased the Soma [and this gave rise to the Smrti-rule permitting such eating]. (c) Some people, with a view to conceal their want of virility, remained Religious &#xA;  Students for forty-eight years ; and this is what gave rise to the Smrti-rule permitting such a course. [For this reason also, no authority can attach to the Smrti which is found to have its source in such motives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Hence the Adhikarana 3 states that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;No authority attaches to Smrtis prompted by worldly motives.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sutra 4 of Adhikarana 3 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If Worldly Motives Are Discernible The Smriti Rules Cannot Be Regarded as Trustworthy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shabara Bhasya on Sutra 4 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are such Smrti-rules as (a) &amp;apos;The cloth used at the Vaisarjana Homa is to be taken by the Adhvaryu priest &amp;apos;, and (6) They should give away the cloth covering the Post &amp;apos;. In regard to the authoritative character &#xA;  of these, the Purvapaksa view is that they are authoritative, because the agent is the same (as declared in Sutra 1. 3. 2).&amp;quot; The Siddhanta view however is that such Smrti-rules cannot be regarded as authoritative ; because at the root of these there is something totally different (from motives of Dharma) ; the fact being that some people did such an act through greed, and this gave rise to the Smrti. This view (rejecting the authority of such Smrtis) is more reasonable than the assuming of Vedic texts in their support.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when such no motives can be detected Smriti rules can be called Useful. Hence the Sutra 7 of Adhikarana 4 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But When No Motive Can Be Detected, They Should Be Recognised As Useful.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shabara Bhasya on this Sutra is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The right view is that when Smriti texts like those under consideration are such as are not found to have been prompted by an improper motive, they must be accepted as authoritative. But they are found to militate &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  against the prescribed order of sequence and the prescribed time.&amp;quot; Let them militate against it; that does not violate their authority; because the rinsing of the mouth is an act, while the order of sequence is only a quality of (accessory to) the act; and an act cannot be omitted for the sake of an accessory. Further, it is only when the acts are already done that the order of sequence comes in subsequently ; so that at the time that the acts appear there is no order present, with what then will the acts be in conflict ? [Hence there is nothing against the authority of the Smrti-rule in question.] Similarly, if with a view to guard against the transgression of time, one were to cease to act with the right hand only, in this case also considerations of time should not alter the form of the act [i.e. the act to be done by the right hand should not be done by the left] ; because Time is only a subsidiary factor in the performance and auxiliary to it ; and hence for the sake of the Time, the Act should not be disturbed. Further, acting with the right hand and wearing the sacrificial thread constitute purity (or cleanliness), and such things are not regarded as interruptions at all; because purity or cleanliness is a necessary adjunct to all actions. From all this it follows that the Smrti-rules relating to all these acts Rinsing, Using the Right Hand, Wearing the Sacrificial Thread and the like are authoritative (trustworthy).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T06:02:51.310" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17349" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="238" CreationDate="2017-02-26T06:16:53.547" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam (15-19): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;apāḿ rasam atho tejas&lt;br&gt; tā līyante 'tha nīrasāḥ&lt;br&gt; grasate tejaso&#xA;  rūpaḿ&lt;br&gt; vāyus tad-rahitaḿ tadā&lt;br&gt; līyate cānile tejo&lt;br&gt; vāyoḥ&#xA;  khaḿ grasate guṇam&lt;br&gt; sa vai viśati khaḿ rājaḿs&lt;br&gt; tataś ca&#xA;  nabhaso guṇam&lt;br&gt; śabdaḿ grasati bhūtādir&lt;br&gt; nabhas tam anu&#xA;  līyate&lt;br&gt; taijasaś cendriyāṇy ańga&lt;br&gt; devān vaikāriko guṇaiḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mahān grasaty ahańkāraḿ&lt;br&gt; guṇāḥ sattvādayaś ca tam&lt;br&gt; grasate&#xA;  'vyākṛtaḿ rājan&lt;br&gt; guṇān kālena coditam&lt;br&gt; na tasya&#xA;  kālāvayavaiḥ&lt;br&gt; pariṇāmādayo guṇāḥ&lt;br&gt; anādy anantam&#xA;  avyaktaḿ&lt;br&gt; nityaḿ kāraṇam avyayam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The element fire then seizes the taste from the element water, which, deprived of its unique quality, taste, merges into fire. Air&#xA;    seizes the form inherent in fire, and then fire, deprived of form,&#xA;    merges into air. The element ether seizes the quality of air, namely&#xA;    touch, and that air enters into ether. Then, O King, false ego in&#xA;    ignorance seizes sound, the quality of ether, after which ether merges&#xA;    into false ego. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;False ego in the mode of passion takes hold of the senses, and false&#xA;    ego in the mode of goodness absorbs the demigods.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Then the total mahat-tattva seizes false ego along with its various&#xA;    functions, and that mahat is seized by the three basic modes of nature&#xA;    - goodness, passion and ignorance. My dear King Parikshit, these modes&#xA;    are further overtaken by the original unmanifest form of nature,&#xA;    impelled by time. That unmanifest nature is not subject to the six&#xA;    kinds of transformation caused by the influence of time. Rather, it&#xA;    has no beginning and no end. It is the unmanifest, eternal and&#xA;    infallible cause of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Demigods here refer to gods other than Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma and other liberated souls, Vidhyadharas, Narada, saints, sages, Adi Shakti - Durga and the 4 Kumaras - Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanandana and Sanatkumara Demigods include Surya, Chandra, Varuna, Indra, Mitra, Marut, Vayu, Ashvins, Shani, Budha, Brihaspati, Rakshasas, Gandharvas, Apsaras, etc etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GHPWh.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GHPWh.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;The 4 eternal, exalted and lovable Kumaras&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam (20-21):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na yatra vāco na mano na sattvaṁ&lt;br&gt; tamo rajo vā mahad-ādayo ’mī&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  na prāṇa-buddhīndriya-devatā vā&lt;br&gt; na sanniveśaḥ khalu&#xA;  loka-kalpaḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na svapna-jāgran na ca tat suṣuptaṁ&lt;br&gt; na khaṁ jalaṁ bhūr anilo ’gnir&#xA;  arkaḥ&lt;br&gt; saṁsupta-vac chūnya-vad apratarkyaṁ&lt;br&gt; tan mūla-bhūtaṁ&#xA;  padam āmananti&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;In the unmanifest stage of material nature, called pradhāna, there is&#xA;    no expression of words, no mind and no manifestation of the subtle&#xA;    elements beginning from the mahat, nor are there the modes of&#xA;    goodness, passion and ignorance. There is no life air or intelligence,&#xA;    nor any senses or demigods. There is no definite arrangement of&#xA;    planetary systems, nor are there present the different stages of&#xA;    consciousness — sleep, wakefulness and deep sleep. There is no ether,&#xA;    water, earth, air, fire or sun. The situation is just like that of&#xA;    complete sleep, or of voidness. Indeed, it is indescribable.&#xA;    Authorities in spiritual science explain, however, that since pradhāna&#xA;    is the original substance, it is the actual basis of material&#xA;    creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the annihilation called prākṛtika, during which the energies belonging to the Supreme Person and His unmanifest material nature, disassembled by the force of time, are deprived of their potencies and merge together totally.It is the Absolute Truth alone who manifests in the forms of intelligence, the senses and the objects of sense perception, and who is their ultimate basis. Whatever has a beginning and an end is insubstantial because of being an object perceived by limited senses and because of being non-different from its own cause.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other Gods who don't get destroyed are the Gods which are prevalent in every timelines of the universal manifestation. Narada, the 4 Kumaras, Vidyadharas, Durga, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva etc., will be there in every universal manifestation. Gods like Varuna, Mitra, Indra, Vayu may have a different name and another conscious-tattva to rule the position. But liberated souls will forever stay in the body of Vishnu, who is the cause of all, and never dies nor dissolves into anything, as it is He who is the Absolute Reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastEditorDisplayName="user9072" LastEditDate="2017-02-26T06:28:05.617" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T06:28:05.617" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17351" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17353" CreationDate="2017-02-26T08:38:10.033" Score="16" ViewCount="980" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why one is not omniscient even after self realization as in self realization one knows he is no other than Brahm. But Brahm is omniscient as well, then why one is not omniscient even after self realization? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does it mean one is realized not being Brahm but mere Ananda? Or Does it contradict the very essence of Adwaitwaad? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note -&lt;/strong&gt; have just taken omniscience into account, but Brahm is omnipotent, omnipresent as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2023-08-26T16:31:24.213" Title="Why self realization doesn't imply omniscience?" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|brahman|advaita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17352" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17338" CreationDate="2017-02-26T09:05:05.707" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will show that the basic argument which you have used in assuming that Adi Shankara's many stotrams are incorrectly attributed to him is erroneous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all a saint,rishi or an acharya don't  compose stotrams only for their benefit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The basic idea is that those who will read them in future will be benefited.This thing becomes evident from the phalasrutis of various stotrams as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From phalasruti of Adi Shankara's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_lakshmi-kanakadhara_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kanakadhara Stotram&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;T&lt;strong&gt;hose who glorify with this Hymn,&lt;/strong&gt; everyday, ...&#xA;  18.2: ... the Ramaa (Devi Lakshmi) Who is Trayimayi (The embodiment of the Three Vedas) and Mother of the Three Worlds, ...&#xA;  18.3: ... will be filled with abundant Virtues, and be blessed with the destiny of very Venerable persons,&#xA;  18.4: &lt;strong&gt;They will become&lt;/strong&gt; Wise in the World by Your Grace awakening their Wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,its evident that here Shankara is composing the stotram for all those who are stricken with poverty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, from the phalasruti of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_durga-bhagavati_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vyasa Krutha Bhagavati Stotram&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.1: This Stotram (Hymn) is Composed by Sage Vyasa,&#xA;  6.2: &lt;strong&gt;Whoever&lt;/strong&gt; Recites this Stotram Regularly after becoming Bodily and Mentally Clean ,...&#xA;  6.3: ...in his Home or Anywhere with Pure Devotion to the Goddess,&#xA;  6.4: Will Please the Bhagavati Devi Always.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,this is the real motive behind composing stotrams.Mahamunis like Vyasa don't compose stotrams for themselves but for the benefits of common people like  me.Similar is the case with Adi Shankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_murugan-subramanya_bhujangam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Subhramanya Bhujangam&lt;/a&gt; Adi Shankara says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.1: (Salutations to Sri Subramanya) &lt;strong&gt;I know neither Words, nor their Meanings&lt;/strong&gt; O Lord,&#xA;  2.2: &lt;strong&gt;And I know neither Poetry, nor Prose&lt;/strong&gt;, but&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,are we to take this literally ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_bhavani-bhavani_ashtakam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhavani Ashtakam&lt;/a&gt;(another composition of Adi Shankara) we find the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhavaabdhaav-Apaare Mahaa-Duhkha-Bhiiru Papaata Prakaamii Pralobhii&#xA;  Pramattah | Ku-Samsaara-Paasha-Prabaddhah Sada-[A]ham Gatis-Tvam&#xA;  Gatis-Tvam Tvam-Ekaa Bhavaani ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.1: In this Ocean of Worldly Existence which is Endless, I am full of Sorrow and Very much Afraid,&#xA;  2.2: I have Fallen with Excessive Desires and Greed, Drunken and Intoxicated,&#xA;  2.3: Always Tied in the Bondage of this miserable Samsara (worldly existence),&#xA;  2.4: You are my Refuge, You Alone are my Refuge, Oh Mother Bhavani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na Jaanaami Daanam Na Ca Dhyaana-Yogam Na Jaanaami Tantram Na Ca&#xA;  Stotra-Mantram | Na Jaanaami Puujaam Na Ca Nyaasa-Yogam Gatis-Tvam&#xA;  Gatis-Tvam Tvam-Ekaa Bhavaani ||3||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;  3.1: Neither do I know Charity, nor Meditation and Yoga,&#xA;  3.2: &lt;strong&gt;Neither do I know the practice of Tantra, nor Hymns and Prayers,&#xA;  3.3: Neither do I know Worship, nor dedication to Yoga,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  3.4: You are my Refuge, You Alone are my Refuge, Oh Mother Bhavani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.1: &lt;strong&gt;I performed Bad Deeds, associated with Bad Company, cherished Bad Thoughts, have been a Bad Servant,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  5.2: &lt;strong&gt;I did not perform my Traditional Duties, deeply engaged in Bad Conducts,&#xA;  5.3: My eyes Saw with Bad Intentions, tongue always Spoke Bad Words&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  5.4: You are my Refuge, You Alone are my Refuge, Oh Mother Bhavani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनाथो दरिद्रो जरारोगयुक्तो महाक्षीणदीनः सदा जाड्यवक्त्रः । विपत्तौ&#xA;  प्रविष्टः प्रनष्टः सदाहं गतिस्त्वं गतिस्त्वं त्वमेका भवानि ॥८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anaatho Daridro Jaraa-Roga-Yukto Mahaa-Kssiinna-Diinah Sadaa&#xA;  Jaaddya-Vaktrah | Vipattau Pravissttah Pranassttah Sadaaham Gatis-Tvam&#xA;  Gatis-Tvam Tvam-Ekaa Bhavaani ||8|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.1: &lt;strong&gt;I am Helpless, Poor, Afflicted by Old Age and Disease,&#xA;  8.2: Very Weak and Miserable, always with a Pale Countenance&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  8.3: Fallen Asunder, Always surrounded by and Lost in Troubles and Miseries,&#xA;  8.4: You are my Refuge, You Alone are my Refuge, Oh Mother Bhavani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its obvious that Adi Shankara is talking on behalf of all those people who may have committed sins and now seeking surrender in Divine Mother and not for himself.So,even if he is talking about age in some stotrams, we should  interpret it like the way i have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the final reference i am using Durga Stava Raja(the king of all prayers to Durga) also known as Durga Apaduddhakraka Stotram composed by Lord Shiva himself.This stotram is found in many Agama texts like Rudra Yamala,Viswa Sara Tantram and in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_devii/durga-a8.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Siddheswari Tantram&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Take this verse from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Sri_Durga_Apad_udharaka_stotram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;stotram&lt;/a&gt;;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अरण्ये रणे दारुणे शुत्रुमध्ये जले सङ्कटे राजग्रेहे प्रवाते । त्वमेका&#xA;  गतिर्देवि निस्तार हेतुर्नमस्ते जगत्तारिणि त्राहि दुर्गे ॥ ४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are the only refuge and the boat that saves, Me from the forest,&#xA;  war, danger and from midst of enemies, Me from fire, ocean, from enemy&#xA;  territory and from forts of kings, And so salutations to you who saves&#xA;  the universe, With a request,”Please protect me oh, Durga”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,are we to take this literally as if Lord Shiva is asking for himself all these?Obviously not.Here Lord Shiva is asking on behalf of those who are inflicted with those dangers and who will be reading the stotram in times of such Apadas(dangers).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-26T09:23:17.093" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T09:23:17.093" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17353" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17351" CreationDate="2017-02-26T09:50:47.093" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nice question!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since you have mentioned 'Advaitavaad' in your question I'm answering from Adi Shankaras Advaita perspective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Self realization doesn't imply Omniscience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is because in Shankaras Advaita the attributes like Omniscient and Omnipotent etc... seen in Brahman are due to the  product of Avidya. I discuss it in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16899/was-adi-shankaracharya-a-shaiva-or-a-vaishnava-what-were-his-views-on-shiva-and/16922#16922&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Shankara in Brahma Sutra Bhasya 2.1.14 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तदेवमविद्यात्मकोपाधिपरिच्छेदापेक्षमेवेश्वरस्येश्वरत्वं सर्वज्ञत्वं सर्वशक्तित्वं च, न परमार्थो विद्यया अपास्तसर्वपाधिस्वरुपे आत्मनि ईशत्रीशितव्यसर्वज्ञत्वादिव्यवहार उपपद्यते, तथा चोक्तम् - 'यत्र नान्यपश्यति नान्यच्छृणोति नान्यद्विजानाति स भूमा इति' यत्र 'त्वस्य सर्वमात्मैवाभूत्तत्केन कं पश्येत्' इत्यादिना च एव परमार्थवस्थायां सर्वव्यवहाराभावं वदन्ति वेदान्ता ।। 2.1.14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence the Lord's being a Lord, his omniscience, his omnipotence, &amp;amp;c. all depend on the limitation due to the adjuncts whose Self is Avidya; while in reality none of these qualities belong to the Self whose true nature is cleared, by right knowledge, from all adjuncts whatever.&lt;/strong&gt; Thus Scripture also says, 'Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else, that is the Infinite' (Ch. Up. VII, 24, 1); 'But when the Self only has become all this, how should he see another?' (Bri. Up. II, 4, 13.) In this manner the Vedânta-texts declare that for him who has reached the state of truth and reality the whole apparent world does not exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus in Advaita these qualities like omniscience, omnipotence are the products of Avidya. So they do not exist in highest state. So, there is no meaning of omniscience and omnipotence to a realised soul. However one can get powers of omniscience through Tapas, Yogas, Yajna phalas etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a sidenote the BrihadAranyaka upanishad verse which Shankara is quoting there is 2.4.14 which states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;II-iv-14: Because when there is duality, as it were, then one smells something, one sees something, one hears something, one speaks something, one thinks something, one knows something. (But) when to the knower of Brahman everything has become the self, then what &#xA;  should one smell and through what, what should one see and through what, what should one hear and through what, what should one speak and through what, what should one think and through what, what should one know and through what ? Through what should one know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T10:50:38.600" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17354" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17265" CreationDate="2017-02-26T09:53:36.413" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda writes (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V3, p 326-7, also available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Lectures from Colombo to Almora&lt;/em&gt;, subheading &lt;em&gt;The Vedanta in All Its Phases&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/vol_3_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now both Shankara and Ramanuja laid aside all claim to originality. Ramanuja expressly tells us he is only following the great commentary of Bodhâyana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— &quot;Ancient teachers abridged that extensive commentary on the Brahma-sutras which was composed by the Bhagavân Bodhayana; in accordance with their opinion, the words of the Sutra are explained.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That is what Ramanuja says at the beginning of his commentary, the Shri-Bhâshya. He takes it up and makes of it a Samkshepa, and that is what we have today. I myself never had an opportunity of seeing this commentary of Bodhayana. The late Swami Dayânanda Saraswati wanted to reject every other commentary of the Vyâsa-Sutras except that of Bodhayana; and although he never lost an opportunity of having a fling at Ramanuja, he himself could never produce the Bodhayana. I have sought for it all over India, and never yet have been able to see it. But Ramanuja is very plain on the point, and he tells us that he is taking the ideas, and sometimes the very passages out of Bodhayana, and condensing them into the present Ramanuja Bhashya. It seems that Shankaracharya was also doing the same. There are a few places in his Bhashya which mention older commentaries, and when we know that his Guru and his Guru's Guru had been Vedantists of the same school as he, sometimes even more thorough-going, bolder even than Shankara himself on certain points, it seems pretty plain that he also was not preaching anything very original, and that even in his Bhashya he himself had been doing the same work that Ramanuja did with Bodhayana, but from what Bhashya, it cannot be discovered at the present time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T09:53:36.413" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17355" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17309" CreationDate="2017-02-26T11:13:04.493" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;So from what I understand there are 3 major schools of Vedanta: Advaita (pantheistic), Vishistadvaita (panentheistic), and Dvaitadvaita (dualistic).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the past I have researched Advaita-Vedanta but recently I've become interested in learning more about Vishistadvaita, for I've always been pretty drawn to &quot;panentheistic&quot; philosophies, and Vishistadvaita sounds very panentheistic to me - The Universe exists in Ishvara and Ishvara in the Universe (Atman), but ultimately Ishvara transcends the Universe as well. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Vishistadvaita seems like a &quot;middle ground&quot; between Advaita (everything is literally pure Brahman), and the dualism of Dvadiata. By the way, please correct me if anything I've said is wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God has two modes of being, as cause and as product. As cause, he is in his essence qualified only by his perfections. As product, he has as his body the souls and the phenomenal world. There is a pulsating rhythm in his periods of creation and absorption. For Ramanuja, release (moksha) is not a negative separation from transmigration, or a series of rebirths, but rather the joy of the contemplation of God. This joy is attained by a life of exclusive devotion (bhakti) to God, singing his praise, performing adulatory acts in temple and private worship, and constantly dwelling on his perfections. In return, God will offer his grace, which will assist the devotee in gaining release.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishishtadvaita flourished after Ramanuja, but a schism developed over the importance of God’s grace. For the northern, Sanskrit-using school, known as the Vadakalai (“Monkey”) school, God’s grace in gaining release is important, but a human individual should make the best possible effort, as a baby monkey must hold fast to its mother. This school is represented by the thinker Venkatanatha, who was known by the honorific name of Vedantadeshika (“Teacher of Vedanta”). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, you should start off with the &lt;strong&gt;Sri Bhasya&lt;/strong&gt; by Ramanuja. If you want to get into a little bit of Visishtadvaitic theology, you should read the &lt;strong&gt;BG&lt;/strong&gt; commentary by Ramanuja as well. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the references I can give for books.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman alone exists, but is characterized by multiplicity - is the key concept of qualified dualism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ishvara (denoted by Vishnu-Narayana) is the Supreme Cosmic Spirit who maintains complete control over the Universe and all the sentient beings, which together also form the pan-organistic body of Ishvara. The triad of Ishvara along with the universe and the sentient beings is Brahman, which signifies the completeness of existence. Ishvara is Parabrahman endowed with innumerable auspicious qualities (Kalyana Gunas). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shukla Yajur Veda 32.3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Ishvara is perfect, omniscient, omnipresent, incorporeal, independent,&#xA;    the creator of the universe, its active ruler and also its eventual&#xA;    destroyer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is causeless, eternal and unchangeable — and is yet the material and the efficient cause of the universe and sentient beings. He is both immanent (like whiteness in milk) and transcendent (like a watch-maker independent of a watch). He is the subject of worship. He is the basis of morality and giver of the fruits of one's Karma. He rules the world with His Maya — His divine power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3.7.4-14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;He who inhabits water, yet is within water, whom water does not know,&#xA;    whose body water is and who controls water from within - He is your&#xA;    Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;He who inhabits the sun, yet is within the sun, whom the sun does not&#xA;    know, whose body the sun is and who controls the sun from within - He&#xA;    is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chit is the world of sentient beings, or of entities possessing consciousness. It is similar to the Purusha of Samkhya system. The sentient beings are called Jīvās and they are possessors of individual consciousness as denoted by &quot;I&quot;. The scope of Chit refers to all beings with an &quot;I&quot; consciousness, or more specifically self-awareness. Therefore, all entities which are aware of their own individual existence are denoted as chit. This is called Dharmi-jnana or substantive consciousness. The sentient beings also possess varying levels of Dharma-bhuta-jnana or attributive consciousness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The jivas possess three different types of existence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nityas, or the eternally free Jivas who were never in Samsara.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Muktas, or the Jivas that were once in Samsara but are free.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Baddhas, or the Jivas which are still in Samsara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastEditorDisplayName="user9072" LastEditDate="2017-07-19T08:12:53.820" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T08:12:53.820" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17356" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3805" CreationDate="2017-02-26T11:35:56.377" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Firstly, the concept of population control, materialistic competition, abortion, sexual gratification, rape, cheating, divorce, etc. are all normal concepts for Kali Yuga, where people have no respect or inclination or rather that intellect required for spiritual learning and knowledge of the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A detailed analysis of Kali Yuga's symptoms is given in the Srimad Bhagavatam, which is one of the famous Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.2.3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dāmpatye 'bhirucir hetur&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  māyaiva vyāvahārike&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  strītve puḿstve ca hi ratir&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  vipratve sūtram eva hi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Men and women will live together merely because of superficial&#xA;    attraction, and success in business will depend on deceit. Womanliness&#xA;    and manliness will be judged according to one’s expertise in sex, and&#xA;    a man will be known as a brahmana just by his wearing a thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION&lt;/strong&gt; : Just as human life as a whole has a great and serious&#xA;  purpose -- namely spiritual liberation -- fundamental human&#xA;  institutions such as marriage and child-rearing should also be&#xA;  dedicated to that great objective. Unfortunately, in the present age&#xA;  the satisfaction of the sex impulse has become the overriding, if not&#xA;  the exclusive, reason for marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sexual impulse, which induces the male and female of almost every&#xA;  species to combine physically, and in higher species also emotionally,&#xA;  is ultimately not a natural urge, because it is based on the unnatural&#xA;  identification of the self with the body. Life itself is a spiritual&#xA;  phenomenon. It is the soul that lives and gives apparent life to the&#xA;  biological machine called the body. Consciousness is the soul's&#xA;  manifest energy, and thus consciousness, awareness itself, is&#xA;  originally an entirely spiritual event. When life, or consciousness,&#xA;  is confined within a biological machine and falsely mistakes itself to&#xA;  be that machine, material existence occurs and sex desire arises.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.2.5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;anāḍhyataivāsādhutve&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  sādhutve dambha eva tu&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  svīkāra eva codvāhe&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  snānam eva prasādhanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;A person will be judged unholy if he does not have money, and&#xA;    hypocrisy will be accepted as virtue. Marriage will be arranged simply&#xA;    by verbal agreement, and a person will think he is fit to appear in&#xA;    public if he has merely taken a bath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.2.6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dūre vāry-ayanaḿ tīrthaḿ&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  lāvaṇyaḿ keśa-dhāraṇam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  udaraḿ-bharatā svārthaḥ&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  satyatve dhārṣṭyam eva hi&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  dākṣyaḿ kuṭumba-bharaṇaḿ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yaśo 'rthe dharma-sevanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;A sacred place will be taken to consist of no more than a reservoir of&#xA;    water located at a distance, and beauty will be thought to depend on&#xA;    one’s hairstyle. Filling the belly will become the goal of life, and&#xA;    one who is audacious will be accepted as truthful. He who can maintain&#xA;    a family will be regarded as an expert man, and the principles of&#xA;    religion will be observed only for the sake of reputation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.2.7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;evaḿ prajābhir duṣṭābhir&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  ākīrṇe kṣiti-maṇḍale&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  brahma-viṭ-kṣatra-śūdrāṇāḿ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yo balī bhavitā nṛpaḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As the earth thus becomes crowded with a corrupt population, whoever among any of the social classes shows himself to be the strongest will&#xA;    gain political power.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.2.11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;triḿśad viḿśati varṣāṇi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  paramāyuḥ kalau nṛṇām&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The maximum duration of life for human beings in Kali-yuga will become&#xA;    fifty years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as we see here, texts absolutely prove how gratifying the procreating sense pleasures lead us to absolute blindness about God and the spiritual reality. Hence taking procreation for granted, we find the population high. As a balance, Prakriti also caused their lifespans to decrease vastly from earlier yugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T11:35:56.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17357" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19817" CreationDate="2017-02-26T11:53:32.300" Score="8" ViewCount="8116" Body="&lt;p&gt;The meaning of this Mahàkàvya is &lt;strong&gt;All that is Brahm alone&lt;/strong&gt;. Now question arises what &lt;strong&gt;All that is&lt;/strong&gt; here in the eyes of Sankara Vedàntin? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we know that world is mere a mirage in Sankara Vedànta, then what &quot;&lt;strong&gt;all that&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If &quot;&lt;strong&gt;all that&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; is world here, then Sankara Vedànta turns out to be in conflict with Màhàvàkya as world must be Mirage, not Brahm.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If &quot;&lt;strong&gt;all that&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; is not world, then what actually is &quot;&lt;strong&gt;all that&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;? As there is nothing we know about Brahm (&lt;strong&gt;Neti Neti&lt;/strong&gt;). hence this Màhàvàkya turned out to be meaningless. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If &quot;&lt;strong&gt;all that&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; is world &amp;amp; the world is Brahm but this Brahm is different, of different level then please give Scriptural references ( Shruti &amp;amp; Smriti ). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-02-27T02:50:56.567" LastActivityDate="2021-01-13T17:53:57.530" Title="What is Sankara Vedànta explanation of Sarvam Khalvidam Brahm?" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|brahman|advaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17358" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17357" CreationDate="2017-02-26T13:02:03.813" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;em&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (III.14.1.) A better translation is - All this is Brahman. Swami Nikhilananda in his translation, says that this chapter, chapter 14 (which consists of 4 verses) -&quot;The present chapter describes the meditation on Saguna Brahman without a physical symbol.&quot;  The verse reads (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All this is Brahman. (This) is born from, dissolves in, and exits in That. Therefore, one should meditate by becoming calm. Because a person is identified with (his) conviction, (therefore) just as the conviction a man has in this world, so does he become after departing from here. Therefore he should shape his conviction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another translation of the same verse by Swami Nikhilananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All this is Brahman, From It the universe comes forth, in It the universe merges, and in It the universe breathes. Therefore a man should meditate on Brahman with a calm mind.&#xA;  Now, verily, a man consists of will. As he will in the world, so does he become when he has departed hence. Let him (with this knowledge in mind) form his will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last part of this verse is an echo of &lt;em&gt;Asthvakra Samhita&lt;/em&gt; (1.11) Swami Nityaswarupananda translator:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who considers himself free is free indeed, and he who considers himself bound remains bound. 'As one thinks, so one becomes' is a popular saying in this world, and it is quite true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Upanishad says that all this universe is Brahman. We, however, do not see the universe as Brahman. Brahman has been compared to the desert and the world as a mirage in the desert. The desert is real, in seeing the mirage we do not see the desert, we see the mirage. In a mother of pearl shell we see silver, but it is not really silver, it is really just shell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt; V7, p 33; available here under the heading  &lt;em&gt;Inspired Talks&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;Saturday, July 6&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_7/vol_7_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_7/vol_7_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om tat sat! According to Shankara, there are two phases of the universe, one is I and the other thou; and they are as contrary as light and darkness, so it goes without saying that neither can be derived from the other. On the subject, the object has been superimposed; the subject is the only reality, the other a mere appearance. The opposite view is untenable. Matter and the external world are but the soul in a certain state; in reality there is only one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All our world comes from truth and untruth coupled together. Samsâra (life) is the result of the contradictory forces acting upon us, like the diagonal motion of a ball in a parallelogram of forces. The world is God and is real, but that is not the world we see; just as we see silver in the mother-of-pearl where it is not. This is what is known as Adhyâsa or superimposition, that is, a relative existence dependent upon a real one, as when we recall a scene we have seen; for the time it exists for us, but that existence is not real. Or some say, it is as when we imagine heat in water, which does not belong to it; so really it is something which has been put where it does not belong, &quot;taking the thing for what it is not&quot;. We see reality, but distorted by the medium through which we see it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We see Brahman, but It is distorted through the lens of Maya. For a detailed explanation of Adhyâsa, see Sankara's explanation in the section titled &lt;em&gt;Adhyâsa or Superimposition&lt;/em&gt; at the beginning of Sankara's commentary on the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T13:02:03.813" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17359" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17351" CreationDate="2017-02-26T14:20:56.507" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Omniscience implies an ego. In Advaita moksha the ego dissolves in Brahman and hence concepts like omniscience can not be even defined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do you know what I mean? Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss&#xA;  Absolute, as a shoreless ocean. Through the cooling influence as it&#xA;  were, of the bhakta's love, the water has frozen at places into blocks&#xA;  of ice. In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His&#xA;  lovers and reveals Himself to them as a Person. &lt;strong&gt;But with the rising of&#xA;  the sun of knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn't feel&#xA;  any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God's forms. What He&#xA;  is can not be described. Who will describe Him? He who would do so&#xA;  disappears. He cannot find his 'I' anymore.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If one analyzes oneself, one doesn't find any such thing as 'I'. Take&#xA;  an onion, for instance. First of all peel off the red outer skin; then&#xA;  you find thick white skins. Peel these off one after the other, and&#xA;  you won't find anything inside.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the state a man no longer finds the existence of his ego. And who&#xA;  is there left to seek it? Who can describe how he feels in that state&#xA;  - in his own Pure Consciousness - about the real nature of Brahman? There is a sign of Perfect Knowledge. Man becomes silent when It is&#xA;  attained. Then the 'I', which may be likened to the salt doll, melts&#xA;  in the ocean of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute and becomes one&#xA;  with It. Not the slightest distinction is left.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T14:20:56.507" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17361" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11324" CreationDate="2017-02-26T16:42:52.340" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no specific method to know who is your ideal life partner or soul mate. However, there are some methods in astrology to know if there will be good amount of compatibility between the two. This is called &quot;Ashta-Koota Paddhathi&quot; in which matching is done with 8 different sections with variable priority. Out of 36 gunas the minimum points should be 18 for advising a suitable marriage. There more the points the better will be the chemistry between both. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Eight Koota Types&#xA;Type&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Varna Koota    1 (points)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vashya Koota   2&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Dina Koota     3&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yoni Koota     4&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Graha Maitram  5&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Gana Koota     6&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Rasi Koota     7&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Nadi Koota     8&lt;/strong&gt;      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this, there are other factors taken into account for match making. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding marriage ceremony (paNi grahana samskara) we have to refer to the specific grihya sutra of husband/wife or of the acharya who is performing it. &#xA;The main points are given in short in the &lt;strong&gt;grihya sutras&lt;/strong&gt; and detailed mantra procedure is given in karma kanda texts like Vivaha paddhati etc. Some of the important steps of Vedic marriage are :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Main (mukhya) Sankalpa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha Poojan &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swasti Vachanam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Matrika poojan &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nava graha poojan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kalasha Sthapana &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhuparka vidhanam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni sthapanam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jaya homam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shakha-uccharanam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;laja homam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saptapadi &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abhshekam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;graha/surya/dhruva nirikshanam (star gazing) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sindoora &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vamsha/gotra uccharanam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aashirvadam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are some of the steps of vedic marriage along with this kulachara (family customs) and deshachara (regional customs) could be done along with the vedic steps. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Paraskara Grihya sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T16:42:52.340" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17362" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9726" CreationDate="2017-02-26T16:44:25.400" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Regarding marriage ceremony (paNi grahana samskara) we have to refer to the specific grihya sutra of husband/wife or of the acharya who is performing it. The main points are given in short in the grihya sutras and detailed mantra procedure is given in karma kanda texts like Vivaha paddhati etc. Some of the important steps of Vedic marriage are :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Main (mukhya) Sankalpa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swasti Vachanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kalasha Sthapana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhuparka vidhanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni sthapanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jaya homam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shakha-uccharanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;laja homam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saptapadi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;graha/surya/dhruva nirikshanam (star gazing)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vamsha/gotra uccharanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aashirvadam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are some of the steps of vedic marriage along with this kulachara (family customs) and deshachara (regional customs) could be done along with the vedic steps. Based on place, time and conditions some ceremonies can be modified. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref:&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe29/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Paraskara Grihya sutra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-02-26T19:07:13.173" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T19:07:13.173" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17363" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7968" CreationDate="2017-02-26T17:49:38.230" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Soma is indeed an important section of vedas as rightly pointed by you. Soma is also a name of herb/hervs, drink, deity etc. The importance of soma is so much that even the Devas are desperate to drink it. In many vedic sections we see stories and mantras which invite/tempt the celestial gods to come to earth for drinking this divine drink. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Over the time plants used for soma extractions have been changed in many places. This soma is also of importance in Zoroastrianism. In ancient Egyptian and many other civilizations there used to be some divine drink like soma which was prepared and processed in a ceremonial method. Such ceremony of Vedas is soma yaagas or yajnas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A householder is advised to complete a total of 21 yajnas in his life based on his financial and domestic capabilities. These yajnas consists of 7 Paakayajnas 7 Haviryajnas and 7 soma yajnas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedic yajna-s are the rituals of many kinds. Mainly there are 21 types&#xA;  of these yajna-s, 1] sapta paaka yajna-s are 7; 2] sapta havir yajna-s&#xA;  are 7; 3] sapta soma yajna-s are 7. Apart from these rituals, there&#xA;  are rituals for the overall development of society at large, called&#xA;  abhyudayaka yajna-s and under them categorised are: 1] ashvanmedha, 2]&#xA;  raajasuuya, 3] paunDariika, 4] bR^ihaspati sava, and some more are&#xA;  there. These grand scale rituals require a great patronage and&#xA;  support, not only of money but also of a variety of paraphernalia that&#xA;  go into the ritual. Hence only kings and emperors of yester years&#xA;  could conduct them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The yaaga shaala The Hall of Vedic ritual will be erected with&#xA;  platforms containing areas 1] yuupa stambha-s wooden posts to which&#xA;  the animals are tied. There will be 21 such posts, staked in the Vedic&#xA;  ritual hall, along with a half post staked near at the main altar; 2]&#xA;  uttara vedi, posterior platform; 3] dasha pada, platform for scholars;&#xA;  4] havirdhaana, place for oblatory paraphernalia; 5] sadas, place for&#xA;  assemblages; 6] agnihotra shaala, place of sacrificial fire; 7] vedi,&#xA;  main Altar of Fire; 8] patnii shaala, place for the wife / wives of&#xA;  the performer and other females. The main activity of the ritual is&#xA;  around the vedi, the 7th item as above, where a garuDa vedi, an Eagle&#xA;  shaped Alter of Fire will be constructed with bricks, where the brick&#xA;  laying and paving itself is a ritual, called iSTikaa chayana . Into&#xA;  this yajna vedi, Altar of Fire, all the oblations are poured.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga14/bala_14_prose.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a Brahmacharin enters grihastashrama through marriage, the first fire he has to maintain is the Smarta agni, which is lit during marriage in the ritual of Agni anusandhana. This is the basic Agni on which he has to perform what is called a series of Yajnas called Paaka Yajnas. The first of them is the Aupasana(Offering rice grains and samidh), that has to be performed daily in the morning(sunrise) and the evening(sunset) till death without allowing the fire to extinguish. In this karma, the role of the Patni is significant.  Before offering the oblations the Yajamana asks the permission of his wife and offers the oblations after she has agreed. Also whenever due to any emergency the Yajamana cannot perform it, then the patni can do it without mantras for 7 times (roughly 3 days).  If for some reason the fire is extinguished the Agni anusandhana has to be re-done again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next in the series of Paaka yajnas is the Darsha and purnamasa sthalipaaka. This consists of offering Charu(Boiled rice in a clay or bronze pot) and ghee to the devas during full and new moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence there are total 7 types of major soma yajnas which can be performed. As the name suggests, the major dravya for oblations is the liquid extract of soma plant. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somayag&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Types&lt;/a&gt; of Soma yajnas are&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agnistoma -&lt;/strong&gt; This is the first and main type, referred to as the ‘Prakriti’ (archetype) while the other six are its ‘Vikriti’ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another variation of this yajna in vikriti manner is called &quot;jyotistoma&quot; which is very famous in Kerela and was performed last time at Panjal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Uktya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shodashi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atiratra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atya Agnistoma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vajapeya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aptoryam&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the process, somayaga is the most complex ritual which usually runs for 11 or 13 days. But the preparations are done before several months. The person performing must be a nityagnihotri. He must have at least basic education of &quot;samhita&quot; of vedic recitation. He should have completed the prescribed paaka yajnas before performing the soma sacrifice. It involves constructing a yaagashala specially for this propose. The shala and yajna kundas and wooden and clay vessels are made as per the agama. Definitive size and shapes are to be employed while making these. After the ritual is over, all the items including the yaga shala is to be burnt (especially in higher yagas like vajapeya and agnistoma). After the commencement of the yaga, there is a special ritual for extraction and pressing of Soma plant to extract the soma juice which is of prime importance. Ritviks perform the yaga by giving oblations of soma juice to the celestial gods. Some portion of soma is also drank by the priests and wife. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra and Agni are very fond of soma juice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding soma plant, some say that it is a creeper in himalayan areas and it is close to extinct. The ritual is not lost because of procedure but because of extinction of the plant. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some believe that soma rasa is not a single plant but mixture of plant juices. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Dr Vamadeva's &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedanet.com/2012/06/13/the-secret-of-the-soma-plant/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;research&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Other scholars propose that the original Soma was the Amanita muscari&#xA;  mushroom, which is used by many shamans, particularly in Siberia.&#xA;  While I cannot say for certain that this mushroom was not a kind of&#xA;  Soma for some people, the Vedic Somas are described in very different&#xA;  ways. The Soma plant is described with leaves, which mushrooms do not&#xA;  have, and is often said to grow in water. Sharyanavat, the main Rig&#xA;  Vedic Soma land also refers to a lake and means ‘abounding with&#xA;  reeds’, with shara (Saccharum sara) being a type of reed related to&#xA;  sugarcane. Shara was mainly used to make arrows and was sacred to both&#xA;  Agni and Soma. Another later great Soma land of Munjavat also means&#xA;  ‘abounding with reeds’ with munja being a type of reed related to the&#xA;  same plant as Shara and considered to be the best of the Somas. This&#xA;  again shows Soma growing in marshy or aquatic areas and being some&#xA;  sort of reed. Some scholars have gone so far as to identify Soma with&#xA;  the sugar cane, another Saccharum species cultivated in ancient India.&#xA;  Sugar-cane was probably used in Soma preparations, if not another type&#xA;  of Soma. So the main Rig Vedic Somas were probably certain reed&#xA;  grasses, some of which do have nervine and nutritive properties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Atharva Veda (AV XI.6.15) specifically mentions five great plants&#xA;  of which Soma is the best, including marijuana, barley and darbha&#xA;  (kusha or durva), showing that many plants had Soma-like qualities.&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somayag&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  Here Soma is again connected with another type of reed (darbha,&#xA;  Saccharum cylindricum), which could have easily been pressed to get a&#xA;  juice, much like sugarcane. Soma is also connected with marijuana,&#xA;  suggesting that mind-altering plants were regarded as different types&#xA;  of Soma. Soma is in other places connected with kushta (Saussurea&#xA;  lappa), a kind of spicy nervine, and with the Ashvattha fig tree and&#xA;  said to grow in the Himalayas in the Atharva Veda (AV XIX.39.5, 6).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Other plants connected with Soma, which was often said to grow on&#xA;  mountain lakes, are the lotus and water lily. Like these Soma is&#xA;  described as having leaves that come out in a circular pattern like&#xA;  the Moon. Additional potential Soma like plants are members of the&#xA;  orchid and lily families. A number of these plants are nervines. Like&#xA;  Soma, they have milky juices, unusual leaves, and filaments. Their&#xA;  juice can be pressed out between rocks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In general, Soma was prepared in three forms, as cooked with grain or&#xA;  barley (yava), milk (go) or curds (dadhi).&lt;a href=&quot;https://vedanet.com/2012/06/13/the-secret-of-the-soma-plant/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; While some Somas had&#xA;  their fresh juice used, it seems the majority were part of elaborate&#xA;  prepartions. Soma was often used with ghee (ghrita) and honey (madhu),&#xA;  which are sometimes synonyms for Soma. In fact, Soma was often called&#xA;  madhu (honey or mead). Special herbal honey preparations and herbal&#xA;  ghee preparations were additional types of Somas. As connected to&#xA;  honey and flowers, Soma is connected to lotuses and other flowering&#xA;  aquatic plants. Soma, however, was discriminated from Sura or wine and&#xA;  alcohol, though fermentation may have been used in preparing some&#xA;  types of Somas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great early Ayurvedic doctor, Sushrut, mentions 24 Soma plants,&#xA;  growing mainly on Himalayan lakes and named after Vedic meters. He&#xA;  mentions 18 additional Soma like plants, which are mainly nervine&#xA;  herbs. Soma, therefore, was likely part of an entire science of sacred&#xA;  plant preparations and not just one plant in particular. A number of&#xA;  Soma-producing and Somalike plants existed. The search for one single&#xA;  Soma plant is therefore misleading.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Soma was also connected to the practice of alchemy and as early as the&#xA;  Rig Veda, it was prepared with gold and possibly lapis lazuli, perhaps&#xA;  even with sea shells or pearls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Somas in India were mainly special powerful plants growing in&#xA;  mountain lakes and riverine regions. With the shifting of the rivers,&#xA;  this cult changed, but reverence for Himalayan plants and rivers&#xA;  remained a characteristic feature of the Hindu religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hence some of the candidates for soma and its alternative are Ephedra,&#xA;  Ergtot, Sarcostemma acidum etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They have psychoactive ingredients which are capable of giving higher consciousness experiences to the drinkers and hence known as &quot;drink of immortality&quot;.  &lt;strong&gt;It should NOT be confused with alcoholic preparations or &quot;sura&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The oldest Vedic yajna surviving today is Atiratra ( type of agnistoma) which is on a verge of extinction. Some priests in Kerela perform it. It was done lastly in Panjal, Kerela. Below is a rare footage of the ancient most surviving vedic ritual on earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYvkYk7GvJ0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYvkYk7GvJ0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-12-11T12:30:44.227" LastActivityDate="2017-12-11T12:30:44.227" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17365" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17314" CreationDate="2017-02-26T19:39:03.530" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yagna produces rain(by satisfying gods) which is a necessity for life on earth, so yagna helps ecosystem/environment to sustain itself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You should look at context, Sri Krishna is showing importance of doing vedic karma/karma-yoga to arjuna(and the whole world).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In BG 3.12(context for BG 3.14)Bhagwan Sri Krishna is talking about benefits/good-consequences of doing Yagna/Worshipping gods by sacrifices(&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/?iencoding=iast&amp;amp;q=%E0%A4%87%E0%A4%B7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%9F&amp;amp;lang=sans&amp;amp;action=Search&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;aka Ishta&lt;/a&gt;). Bhagwan also points out that the one who does not perform Sacrifices is thief. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इष्टान्भोगान्हिवोदेवा दास्यन्ते यज्ञ भाविता: ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तैर्दत्तान प्रदायेभ्यो यो भुङ्तेस्तेन एव च ॥३.१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In charge of the various necessities of life, the demigods(I prefer gods), &lt;strong&gt;being satisfied by the performance of yajna [sacrifice], will supply all necessities to you&lt;/strong&gt;. But he who enjoys such gifts without offering them to the demigods in return is certainly a thief. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-12/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Since Rain is a necessity for life on earth, Gods shower rains as a result of Yagna-karma done by human beings, that's how yagna produces anna or food.&lt;/strong&gt;(Yagna -&gt; Rain -&gt; Food).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्नाद्भवन्ति भुतानि पर्जन्याद्न्नसम्भव​:।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यज्ञाद्भवतिपर्जन्यो यज्ञ: कर्मसमुद्भव ॥३.१४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajna [sacrifice], and yajna is born of prescribed duties. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-14/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-15/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Further&lt;/a&gt; Sri Krishna says that Yagna is born out of karma and karma from Bramhan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Point to be noted:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Yagna means Sacrifice and there are a lot of categories of Yagna. Out of which &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-10-23.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Japa yagna is the best one&lt;/a&gt;. So even Japa yagna helps in sustainment of environment, it is not necessary to do fire rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;On a side note I would like add some scientific speculation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its highly unlikely that the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghee&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ghee&lt;/a&gt; burnt in Agnihotra and Yagnas, would &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;burn&lt;/a&gt;(remember combustion is oxidation reaction consumes oxygen instead of releasing oxygen) and create oxygen to purify atmoshpere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-02-26T19:47:49.460" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T19:47:49.460" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17366" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17227" CreationDate="2017-02-26T20:43:43.373" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is mandatory for sanyasis(who have taken up sanyasa in satvika mode) to perform daily vedic rituals like Sandyavandanam,agnihotra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How can someone perform vedic rites like Yajnas and other rituals without a Sacred thread and wife?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Removal of sacred thread is clearly tamasic tyaga(you cannot perform nitya karma without it). There is no need of wife for daily rituals which are mandatory(nitya karma), other rituals for E.g. Soma Yagna(which requires wife) can be renounced as they are not necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If he is willing to perform vedic rites then why there is a need to renounce itself?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Renunciation is for those who cannot do tyaga in Grihasta life or if they are fed up with daily life, so they generate vairagya from samsara and turn their focus solely towards bramhan to attain moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example &lt;a href=&quot;http://srirangapankajam.blogspot.in/2007/11/ramanuja-vaibhavam-chapter-003.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagwad Yamunacharya&lt;/a&gt;(there are many other sages I've used this because its the best example I know).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one can lead life of a karma-yogi then there is no need of Sanyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Definition(s) of Sansaysa amongst men&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीभगवान उवाच&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;काम्यानां कर्मणां न्यासं सन्यासं कवयो विदु: ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वकर्मफलत्यागं प्राहुरस्त्यागं विचक्षणा: ॥१८.२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: &lt;strong&gt;The giving up of activities that are based on material desire is what great learned men call the renounced order of life [sannyasa].&lt;/strong&gt; And giving up the results of all activities is what the wise call renunciation [tyaga]. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/category/bhagavad-gita-chapter-18/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.02&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्याज्यं दोषवदित्येके कर्म प्राहुर्मनीषिणः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यज्ञदानतपःकर्म न त्याज्यमिति चापरे॥१८.३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some learned men declare that all kinds of fruitive activities should be given up as faulty, yet other sages maintain that acts of sacrifice, charity and penance should never be abandoned. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-3/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.03&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Concrete Definition of Sanyasa according to Bhagwan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निश्चयं श्रृणु मे तत्र त्यागे भरतसत्तम।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्यागो हि पुरुषव्याघ्र त्रिविधः संप्रकीर्तितः॥१८.४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O best of the Bharatas, now hear My judgment about renunciation. O tiger among men, renunciation is declared in the scriptures to be of three kinds( the three types are according to mode/nature of tyaga viz sattva, rajas and tamas read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/category/bhagavad-gita-chapter-18/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.7-18.9&lt;/a&gt;). &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-4/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.04&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यज्ञदानतपःकर्म न त्याज्यं कार्यमेव तत्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यज्ञो दानं तपश्चैव पावनानि मनीषिणाम्॥१८.५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Acts of sacrifice, charity and penance are not to be given up; they must be performed.&lt;/strong&gt; Indeed, sacrifice, charity and penance purify even the great souls. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-5/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.05&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एतान्यपि तु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा फलानि च।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कर्तव्यानीति मे पार्थ निश्चितम् मतमुत्त्मम्॥ १८.६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All these activities should be performed without attachment or any expectation of result. They should be performed as a matter of duty, O son of Pritha. That is My final opinion.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-6/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.06&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sattvika tyaga or Sanyasa which leads to bramhan:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कार्यमित्येव यत्कर्म नियतं क्रियतेऽर्जुन।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा फलं चैव स त्यागः सात्त्विको मतः॥१८.९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Arjuna, when one performs his prescribed duty only because it ought to be done, and renounces all material association and all attachment to the fruit, his renunciation is said to be in the mode of goodness. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-9/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.09&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one renounces prescribed duties such renunciation is categorized as Tamasic Renounciation by Bhagwan and it is useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नियतस्य तु संन्यासः कर्मणो नोपपद्यते।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मोहात्तस्य परित्यागस्तामसः परिकीर्तितः॥१८.७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prescribed duties should never be renounced. If one gives up his prescribed duties because of illusion, such renunciation is said to be in the mode of ignorance. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-7/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.07&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Related : &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17083/489&quot;&gt;Why should one do his duty&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-02-26T20:43:43.373" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17367" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17312" CreationDate="2017-02-27T03:55:42.537" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Absolutely. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garikapati_Narasimha_Rao&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dr. Garikipati Narasimha Rao&lt;/a&gt; in his discourse on Bhagavad-gītā in &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/DJHHpT4ZL2I?t=631&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; YouTube video (Telugu) says you can write, highlight, make notes and do everything you need for śravaṇa (reading), manana (reflection) and nididhyāsana (constant meditation or practice) of Bhagavad-gītā verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remember that nididhyāsana is a million times superior to reading, highlighting etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रुतेः शतगुणं विद्यान्मननं मननादपि । &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  निदिंध्यासं लक्षगुणमनन्तं निर्विकल्पकम् ॥ ३६४ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śruteḥ śataguṇaṃ vidyānmananaṃ mananādapi | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  nidiṃdhyāsaṃ lakṣaguṇamanantaṃ nirvikalpakam || 364 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;364. Reflection should be considered a hundred times superior to&#xA;  hearing, and meditation a hundred thousand times superior even to&#xA;  reflection, but the Nirvikalpa Samadhi is infinite in its results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/vivekachudamani/d/doc144799.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vivekacūḍāmaṇi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T03:55:42.537" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17368" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10932" CreationDate="2017-02-27T05:39:53.793" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Dakshinamurthy is the adiyogi. His idol is there in all south indian temples facing south. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See this wiki article&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakshinamurthy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; Dakshinamurthy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not new and is there in yogic tradition.But the fact is that the traces of the pure yogic tradition and its essence is more or less destroyed in the north india after years of long invavsion. But the south particularly tamilnadu was free from severe invasion of outsiders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;see this pic with seven sages in one of the old indian temples in madurai.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1eFb1.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1eFb1.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9084" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T05:39:53.793" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17369" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4149" CreationDate="2017-02-27T06:24:56.363" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;All of your questions have been answered in the &lt;strong&gt;Meru Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;, an important &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12282/what-are-the-agama-scriptures-are-they-related-to-shruti-vedas&quot;&gt;Agama&lt;/a&gt; Text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all you need to understand that there are basically two kinds of Shiva lingam,1)&lt;strong&gt;Krittim Lingam&lt;/strong&gt;(unnatural ,man made) &amp;amp; 2) &lt;strong&gt;Akrittim Lingam&lt;/strong&gt; (naturally manifested).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few examples of the Akrittim Lingams are the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirlinga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swaymabhu Lingam&lt;/a&gt;(refer to the Jyotirlingams),&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banalinga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Banalingam&lt;/a&gt;,Shiva Nabhi Lingam,Roudra Lingam etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whereas, the examples of Krittim lingas are Sphatika lingas,Parada Lingas and a whole lot of other Lingas that are made of metals, stones etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Meru Tantram text gives the relative importance of these Lingas in the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Komaleshu tu Lingeshu Parthivam Sresthamuchyate|&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Kathineshu Tu PAshAnAth Sphatikam Param|&lt;/strong&gt; Sphatikhath PadmarAgancha Kasmiram PadmaRAgatah| KashmirAth PushparAgotthamindranilodhbhavam&#xA;  Tatah| IndranilAccha Gomedam GomedAdvidrumodbhavam| VidrumAnmouktikam&#xA;  Sreshtham HairanyAdhvirakam Varam|&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;HirakAth PAradm Sreshtham Banalingam Tatah Param&lt;/strong&gt;||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among the Lingas made of soft materials Parthivalingas are the&#xA;  best(those made of clay) &amp;amp; among those made of hard materials&#xA;  Prastaralingas are the best(stone-made).Additionally,better than&#xA;  Prastaralingas are Sphatika Lingas,better than Spahtika Lingas are the&#xA;  Padmaragmani made ones,still better are the Kashmira Lingas,still&#xA;  better are the Pushparaga made ones,still better are the Indranilamani&#xA;  made ones,still better are the Gomeda made ones,still better are the&#xA;  Vidrumani made ones,still better are the ones made of&#xA;  pearls(mouktika),still better are the silver made ones,still better are&#xA;  the gold made ones,&lt;strong&gt;better than the gold made Lingas are the Parada&#xA;  Lingas &amp;amp; better than Parada Lingas are the Banalingas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another verse which depicts the greatness of Banalingas and Parada Lingas is :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;SamsthApya SriBanalingam RatnaKotigunam Bhaveth Rasalinge Tato BAnAth Phalam Kotigunam Smritam||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;What merit is achieved by worshiping crores of ratna(precious stones)&#xA;    made lingas is obtained by simply by worshiping one Banalinga.&lt;strong&gt;And the merit that is obtained on worshiping crores of Banalingas is&#xA;    obtained by simply worshiping one Parada Linga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,it is interesting to note that, although Banalingas are Akrittim, Lord Shiva is giving more importance to the Parada Lingas even though they are Krittim.And the reason is simply that since Parada is considered as Shiva Veerya(the semen of Shiva) ,that's why its so auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So,among Krittim Lingas Parada Linga is without any doubt the best one.Way better than the Sphatika Lingas.And, Lord Shiva has even given more importance to it over the Banalingas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T06:34:06.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17370" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17379" CreationDate="2017-02-27T07:13:42.520" Score="10" ViewCount="4495" Body="&lt;p&gt;People have been talking about kundalini shakti for a long time, Can anyone suggest to me which scripture should I refer to know more about kundalini and how to do &amp;quot;kundalini jagran&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-06-05T17:55:24.430" LastActivityDate="2023-04-12T12:56:54.990" Title="What do Scriptures tells us about Kundalini?" Tags="|scripture|kundalini|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17371" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17370" CreationDate="2017-02-27T08:17:47.800" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kundalini is the latent Shakti sleeping near the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muladhara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Muladhara&lt;/a&gt; region.The process of waking this sleeping force up and move it upwards is the first step in Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,its natural to look into Yoga treatises like &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatha_Yoga_Pradipika&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hatha Yoga Pradeepika&lt;/a&gt; and  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Samhita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siva Samhita.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Siva Samhita, chapter 5:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;56-Two fingers above the rectum and two fingers below the linga , four&#xA;  fingers in width is a space like a bulbous root.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HvdQQ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HvdQQ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Between this space is the yoni having its face towards the back.That&#xA;  space is called the root;&lt;strong&gt;there dwells the Goddess Kundalini.It&#xA;  surrounds all the nadis and has three coils and a half;and catching&#xA;  its tail in its own mouth,it rests in the hole of the Sushumna[nadi]&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uZdd7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uZdd7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;58- &lt;strong&gt;It sleeps there like a serpent and its luminous by its own&#xA;  light.&lt;/strong&gt; Like a serpent it lives between the joints;it is the Goddess of&#xA;  speech and is called the vija(seed).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the process of how to activate this sleeping Shakti can not be learned by reading books.It can only be learned from a Siddha Guru(one who has mastered the process himself) as rightly said in one of the comments under your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the first symptoms of an activated Kundalini are :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ndi0a.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ndi0a.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The brilliancy of the body is increased,the gastric fire becomes&#xA;  powerful,and freedom from disease,cleverness,and omniscience ensue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW,this is also the place near which the physical Swayambhu Linga resides in our body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T08:17:47.800" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17372" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-27T09:34:35.333" Score="5" ViewCount="1094" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know about many saints who possessed siddhis in the past. Are siddhis a criteria for an enlightened person ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-02-27T10:06:34.057" LastActivityDate="2018-04-20T17:01:23.387" Title="Is it necessary that an enlightened man should possess Siddhis or special powers?" Tags="|saint|siddhi|enlightenment|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17373" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17370" CreationDate="2017-02-27T11:57:26.730" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is described in &lt;strong&gt;Swami Vivekananda's Raja Yoga&lt;/strong&gt; which is available on line at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_1/raja-yoga/raja-yoga_contents.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting some basic and useful information from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_1/raja-yoga/the_psychic_prana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Physic Prana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;CHAPTER IV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;THE PSYCHIC PRANA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Yogis, there are two nerve currents in the spinal column, called Pingalâ and Idâ, and a hollow canal called Sushumnâ running through the spinal cord. &lt;strong&gt;At the lower end of the hollow canal is what the Yogis call the &amp;quot;Lotus of the Kundalini&amp;quot;. They describe it as triangular in form in which, in the symbolical language of the Yogis, there is a power called the Kundalini, coiled up.&lt;/strong&gt; When that Kundalini awakes, it tries to force a passage through this hollow canal, and as it rises step by step, as it were, layer after layer of the mind becomes open and all the different visions and wonderful powers come to the Yogi. When it reaches the brain, the Yogi is perfectly detached from the body and mind; the soul finds itself free. We know that the spinal cord is composed in a peculiar manner. If we take the figure eight horizontally (¥) there are two parts which are connected in the middle. Suppose you add eight after eight, piled one on top of the other, that will represent the spinal cord. The left is the Ida, the right Pingala, and that hollow canal which runs through the centre of the spinal cord is the Sushumna. Where the spinal cord ends in some of the lumbar vertebrae, a fine fibre issues downwards, and the canal runs up even within that fibre, only much finer. The canal is closed at the lower end, which is situated near what is called the sacral plexus, which, according to modern physiology, is triangular in form. The different plexuses that have their centres in the spinal canal can very well stand for the different &amp;quot;lotuses&amp;quot; of the Yogi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T13:59:14.237" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17374" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17136" CreationDate="2017-02-27T12:57:11.883" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is what Sri Ramakrishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fourth plane of the mind is at the heart. When the mind dwells&#xA;  there, one has the first glimpse of spiritual consciousness. One sees&#xA;  light all around. Such a man, perceiving the divine light, becomes&#xA;  speechless with wonder and says: 'Ah! What is this? What is this? His&#xA;  mind does not go downward to the object of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fifth plane of the mind is the throat. When the mind reaches this,&#xA;  the aspirant becomes free from all ignorance and illusion. He does not&#xA;  enjoy talking or hearing anything but God. If people talk about&#xA;  worldly things, he leaves the place at once.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The sixth plane is at the forehead. When the mind reaches it, the&#xA;  aspirant sees the form of God day and night. But even then a little&#xA;  trace of ego remains. At the sight of that incomparable beauty of&#xA;  God's form, one becomes intoxicated and rushes forth to touch and&#xA;  embrace it. But one doesn't succeed. It is like the light inside a&#xA;  lantern. One feels as if one could touch the light, but one cannot on&#xA;  account of the plane of glass.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the top of the head is the seventh plane. When the mind rises&#xA;  there, one goes into samadhi. Then the Brahmajnani directly perceives&#xA;  Brahman,. But in that state his body does not last many days. He&#xA;  remains unconscious of the outer world. If milk is poured into his&#xA;  mouth, it runs out. Dwelling on this plane of consciousness, he gives&#xA;  up his body in twenty-one days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna October 28, 1882&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T12:57:11.883" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17375" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-27T13:09:50.573" Score="4" ViewCount="497" Body="&lt;p&gt;How can Muktika be genuine when it lists later day upanishads like Kali santarana ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can it list vedas which were revealed later, eg: Shukla yajur veda releaved during the end of Dwapara yuga much later after the period of Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How come these names be listed in a text which is believed during that of Treta Yuga ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The canon lists upanishads like Sharabha, Skanda ,Rama tapini, Seeta upanishad etc which are usually not found in the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How come it mentions Suka (who lived in Dwapara yuga) ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, in Ramayana is there any mention where Rama says about his knowledge or about following Vedanta ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-14T11:08:01.880" LastActivityDate="2017-03-14T11:08:01.880" Title="Is Muktika Upanishad genuine?" Tags="|upanishads|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17376" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17372" CreationDate="2017-02-27T15:05:22.663" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Siddhi is not achieved by running after it. For God nothing is a siddhi or a miraculous event. Once a sadhaka reaches the state of God realization, he actually is immersed in God consciousness, wherein he steps into the virtual shoes of the Lord of the universe and can see/do things His way. So naturally to reach that level, a lot of tapasya and sadhana are required which naturally activates many centers of our body - physical/subtle/causal, which naturally gives the sadhaka access to higher realms and can do things normal for that realm, which are &quot;miraculous&quot; in this realm. In fact if you see, in the Satya, Treta and Dwapara yugas, having siddhis was natural. Its just that you are more attuned to the Purusha and Prakriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T15:05:22.663" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17377" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17372" CreationDate="2017-02-27T15:52:30.473" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;No it is not. Powers are a diversion which keeps one bound to this world. Patanjali in his &lt;em&gt;Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt;, Chapter 3 (commentary by Swami Vivekananda; available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms&lt;/em&gt;, sub-sub heading &lt;em&gt;Powers&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;50&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;By making Samyama on the discrimination between the Sattva and the Purusha come omnipotence and omniscience.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When nature has been conquered, and the difference between the Purusha and nature realised — that the Purusha is indestructible, pure and perfect — then come omnipotence and omniscience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;51&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;By giving up even these powers comes the destruction of the very seed of evil, which leads to Kaivalya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He attains aloneness, independence, and becomes free. When one gives up even the ideas of omnipotence and omniscience, there comes entire rejection of enjoyment, of the temptations from celestial beings. When the Yogi has seen all these wonderful powers, and rejected them, he reaches the goal. What are all these powers? Simply manifestations. They are no better than dreams. Even omnipotence is a dream. It depends on the mind. So long as there is a mind it can be understood, but the goal is beyond even the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;52&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Yogi should not feel allured or flattered by the overtures of celestial beings for fear of evil again.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are other dangers too; gods and other beings come to tempt the Yogi. They do not want anyone to be perfectly free. They are jealous, just as we are, and worse than us sometimes. They are very much afraid of losing their places. Those Yogis who do not reach perfection die and become gods; leaving the direct road they go into one of the side streets, and get these powers. Then, again, they have to be born. But he who is strong enough to withstand these temptations and go straight to the goal, becomes free.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also in &lt;em&gt;Raja Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, Chapter entitled &lt;em&gt;Dhyana and Samadhi&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Vivekananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When, by the previous preparations, it becomes strong and controlled, and has the power of finer perception, the mind should be employed in meditation. This meditation must begin with gross objects and slowly rise to finer and finer, until it becomes objectless. The mind should first be employed in perceiving the external causes of sensations, then the internal motions, and then its own reaction. When it has succeeded in perceiving the external causes of sensations by themselves, the mind will acquire the power of perceiving all fine material existences, all fine bodies and forms. When it can succeed in perceiving the motions inside by themselves, it will gain the control of all mental waves, in itself or in others, even before they have translated themselves into physical energy; and when he will be able to perceive the mental reaction by itself, the Yogi will acquire the knowledge of everything, as every sensible object, and every thought is the result of this reaction. Then will he have seen the very foundations of his mind, and it will be under his perfect control. Different powers will come to the Yogi, and if he yields to the temptations of any one of these, the road to his further progress will be barred. Such is the evil of running after enjoyments. But if he is strong enough to reject even these miraculous powers, he will attain to the goal of Yoga, the complete suppression of the waves in the ocean of the mind. Then the glory of the soul, undisturbed by the distractions of the mind, or motions of the body, will shine in its full effulgence; and the Yogi will find himself as he is and as he always was, the essence of knowledge, the immortal, the all-pervading.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The criteria that is necessary to attain enlightenment is purity of the heart. The &lt;em&gt;Katha Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (II.iii.15) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When all the knots of the heart are destroyed, even while a man is alive, then a mortal becomes immortal. This much alone is the instruction (of all the Upanishads).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Swami Vivekananda (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V4, p 220) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The value of ethics to the Yogi lies in that it makes the mind pure. The purer the mind, the easier it is to control it. The mind takes every thought that rises and works it out. The grosser the mind, the more difficult [it is] to control [it].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With a pure mind, love of God arises. Krishna says in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; (14.26), Swami Nikhilananda translator:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And he who worships Me with the yoga of undeviating love rises above the gunas and becomes fit to be one with Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T15:52:30.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17379" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17370" CreationDate="2017-02-27T17:44:23.193" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad 8.6.6 and Katha Upanishad&amp;nbsp; 2.16 speak the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदा सर्वे प्रभिद्यन्ते हृदयस्येह ग्रन्थयः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अथ मर्त्योऽमृतो भवत्येतावद्ध्यनुशासनम् ॥ १५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शतं चैका च हृदयस्य नाड्य-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; स्तासां मूर्धानमभिनिःसृतैका ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तयोर्ध्वमायन्नमृतत्वमेति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; विष्वङ्ङन्या उत्क्रमणे भवन्ति ॥ १६॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  When all the knots of Hridaya Granthi are cut down, mortal becomes an immortal and attains Brahman there. &lt;strong&gt;There are one hundred and one Nadis which emerge from Hridaya (heart) one Nadi goes out piercing the head.&amp;nbsp; Going up through that, one attains immortality; the others serve for departing in different ways.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, a question comes here whether the Nadis mentioned here are Arteries of heart where blood moves or Nãdis of Yoga where Prana moves. Prashna Upanishad 3.6 makes it clear:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हृदि ह्येष आत्मा । अत्रैतदेकशतं नाडीनं तासां शतं &#xA;  शतमेकैकस्या द्वासप्ततिर्द्वासप्ततिः&#xA;  प्रतिशाखानाडीसहस्राणि &#xA;  भवन्त्यासु व्यानश्चरति ॥ ६॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-6: This self (i.e. the subtle body) is surely in the Hridaya (heart). There are a hundred and one Nãdis. Each of them has a hundred (division). Each branch is divided into seventy-two thousand sub-branches. &lt;strong&gt;Among them moves Vyana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the Prashna Upanishad clearly says &amp;apos;among them moves the Vyana&amp;apos; so it is clear that Prana moves in these Nadis (and these are not Arteries).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now, we have to find which is that one Nãdi which is such important. The Maitryaniya Upanishad makes it clear:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;21&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And thus it has been said elsewhere: The artery, called Sushumna, going upwards (from the heart to the &#xA;  Brahmarandhra), serving as the passage of the Prâna,&lt;/strong&gt; is divided within the palate. Through that artery, when it has&#xA;  been joined by the breath (held in subjection), by the sacred syllable Om, and by the mind (absorbed in the contemplation of Brahman), let him proceed upwards, and after turning the tip of the tongue to the palate, without using any of the organs of sense, let greatness perceive greatness. From thence he goes to selflessness, and through selflessness he ceases to be an enjoyer of pleasure and pain, he obtains aloneness (kevalatva, final deliverance).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, now it becomes clear that the &amp;apos;Nãdi&amp;apos; which leads towards immortality is Sushumna.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What contains outside the world is also contained inside our body. Regarding this Chandogya Upanishad 8.1 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VIII-i-1: Om. Now, in this city of Brahman, there is a mansion in the shape of a small lotus; in it is a small inner Akasa. What is within that, that should be sought; that indeed, one should desire to understand. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  VIII-i-2-3: If the disciples should say to him, ‘In this city of Brahman in which is a small mansion in the shape of a lotus and in the small inner Akasa within – what is it that lies there which should be sought, which one should desire to understand ?’ – he should say in reply, &lt;strong&gt;‘As large indeed as is this Akasa, so large is that Akasa in the heart. Within it, indeed, are contained both heaven and earth, both fire and air, both the sun and the moon, lightning and the stars.&lt;/strong&gt; Whatever there is of him in this world and whatever is not, all that is contained within it.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the Yoga Kundalini Upanishad states that the realisation of this is possible through Kundalini Yoga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;49&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then he sees the whole universe in his body as not being different from Atman.&lt;/strong&gt; This path of the Urdhva-Kundalini (higher Kundalini), O chief of Kings, conquers the macrocosm. [Yoga Kundalini Upanishad]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are some of the concepts of Kundalini Yoga. Regarding exactly what is Kundalini is, it is Shakti which is present in every Nadi of our body and in personified Form Kundalini is present in Muladhara Chakra (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2641/reference-to-the-7-chakras-in-hinduism/13742#13742&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;). Regarding this Lalita Sahasranama of Brahmanda Purana states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तडिल्लता समरुचि: षट्चक्रोपरि संस्थिता । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महासक्ति: कुण्डलिनी विसतन्तु तनीयसी ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Bright&amp;nbsp; like Lightning you reach above the Six chakras. You are &lt;strong&gt;Kundalini the great energy which is subtle in nerves.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Detailed concepts of Kundalini is found in Yoga Upanishads like:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Mandala Brahmana Upanishad states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Taraka is Brahman which being in the middle of the two eyebrows, is of the nature of the spiritual effulgence of &#xA;  Sachchidananda. The (spiritual) seeing through the three Lakshyas (or the three kinds of introvision) is the means to It (Brahman). &lt;strong&gt;Susumna which is from the Muladhara to Brahmarandhra has the radiance of the sun. In the centre of it, is Kundalini shining like Crores of lightning and subtle as the thread in the lotus-stalk. Tamas is destroyed there.&lt;/strong&gt; (Mandala Brahmana Upanishad)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sandilya Upanishad states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;15&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Then Sandilya questioned Atharvan thus: &amp;quot;By what means are the Nadis purified ? How many are they in number ? How do they arise ? What Vayus (vital airs) are located in them ? What are their seats? &#xA;  What are their functions? Whatever is worthy of being known in the body, please tell me&amp;quot;. To that Atharvan replied (thus): &amp;quot;This body is ninety-six digits in length. Prana extends twelve digits beyond the &#xA;  body. He who through the practice of Yoga reduces his Prana within his body to make it equal to or not less than the fire in it becomes the greatest of the Yogins. In men, the region of fire which is triangular in &#xA;  form and brilliant as the molten gold is situated in the middle of the body. In four-footed animals, it (fire) is quadrangular. In birds, it is round. In its (the region of life’s) centre, the purifying, beneficial and &#xA;  subtle flame is situate. Two digits above the anus and two digits below the sexual organ is the centre of the body for men. For four-footed animals, it is the middle of the heart. For birds, it is the middle of the body. Nine digits from (or above) the centre of the body and four digits in length and breadth is situated an oval form. In its midst is the navel. In it, is situated the Chakra (viz., wheel) with twelve spokes. In the middle of the Chakra, the Jiva (Atman) wanders, driven by its good and bad deeds. As a spider flies to and fro within a web of fine threads, so Prana moves about here. In this body, the Jiva rides upon Prana. Lying &#xA;  in the middle of the navel and above it, is the seat of Kundalini. The Kundalini Sakti is of the form of eight Prakritis (matter) and coils itself eight ways or (times). The movement of Vayus (vital airs) checks duly &#xA;  the food and drink all round by the side of Skandha. It closes by its head (the opening of) the Brahmarandhra and during the time of (the practice of) Yoga is awakened by the fire (in the Apana); then it shines &#xA;  with great brilliancy in the Akasa of the heart in the shape of wisdom. &lt;strong&gt;Depending upon Kundalini which is situated in the centre, there are fourteen principal Nadis (viz.,) Ida, Pingala, Susumna, Sarasvati, Varuni, Pusha, Hastijihva, Yasasvini, Visvodhari, Kuhuh, Sankhini, Payasvini, &#xA;  Alambusa and Gandhari. Of them, Susumna is said to be the sustainer of the universe and the path of salvation.&lt;/strong&gt; Situated at the back of the anus, it is attached to the spinal column and extends to the Brahmarandhra of the head and is invisible and subtle and is Vaishnavi (or has the Sakti force of Vishnu). On the left of Susumna is situated&#xA;  Ida and on the right is Pingala. The moon moves in Ida and the sun in Pingala. The moon is of the nature of Tamas and the sun of Rajas. The poison share is of the sun and the nectar of the moon. They both direct (or indicate) time and Susumna is the enjoyer (or consumer) of time. To the back and on the side of Susumna are situate Sarasvati and Kuhuh respectively. Between Yasasvini and Kuhuh stands Varuni. Between Pusha and Sarasvati lies Payasvini. Between Gandhari and Sarasvati is situated Yasasvini. In the centre of the navel is Alambusa. In front of Susumna there is Kuhuh, which proceeds as far as the genital organ. Above and below Kundalini is situated Varuni, which proceeds everywhere. Yasasvini which is beautiful (or belonging to the moon), proceeds to the great toes. Pingala goes upwards to the right nostril. Payasvini goes to right ear. Sarasvati goes to the upper part or the tongue and Sankhini to the left ear, (while) Gandhari goes from the back of Ida to the left eye. Alambusa goes upwards and downwards from the root of the anus. From these fourteen Nadis, other (minor) Nadis spring; from them springing others and from them springing others; so it should be known. As the leaf of the Asvattha tree (ficus religiosa) etc., is covered with minute fibres so also is this body &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  permeated with Nadis.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sandilya Upanishad also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;54&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Having by contraction opened the door of Kundalini, one should force open the door of Moksha. Closing with her mouth the door through which one ought to go, the &lt;strong&gt;Kundalini sleeps spiral in form and coiled up like a serpent. He who causes this Kundalini to move - he is an emancipated person. If this Kundalini were to sleep in the upper part of the neck of any Yogin, it goes towards his emancipation. (If it were to sleep) in the lower part (of the body), it is for the bondage of the ignorant. Leaving the two Nadis, Ida and the other (Pingala),&lt;/strong&gt; it (Prana) should move in the Susumna. That is the supreme seat of Vishnu. One should practise control of breath with the concentration of the mind. The mind should not be allowed by a clever man to rest on any other thing. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly the Yoga Kundalini Upanishad states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Sakti (mentioned above) is only Kundalini. A wise man should take it up from its place (Viz., the navel, upwards) to the middle of the eyebrows. This is called Sakti-Chala. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In practising it, two things are necessary, Sarasvati-Chalana and the restraint of Prana (breath). &lt;strong&gt;Then through practice, Kundalini (which is spiral) becomes straightened.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  9-10(a). Of these two, I shall explain to you first Sarasvati-Chalana. It is said by the wise of old that Sarasvati is no other than Arundhati. It is only by rousing her up that &#xA;  Kundalini is roused. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  10(b)-11(a). When Prana breath is passing through (one’s) Ida (left nostril), he should &#xA;  assume firmly Padma-posture and should lengthen (inwards) 4 digits the Akasa of 12 digits. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  11(b)-13(a). Then the wise man should bind the (Sarasvati) Nadi by means of this&#xA;  lengthened (breath) and holding firmly together (both his ribs near the navel) by means of the forefingers and thumbs of both hands, (one hand on each side) should stir up Kundalini with all his might from right to left often and often; for a period of two &#xA;  Muhurtas (48 minutes), he should be stirring it up fearlessly. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  13(b)-14. Then he should draw up a little when Kundalini enters Susumna. &lt;strong&gt;By this means, Kundalini enters the mouth of Susumna.&lt;/strong&gt; Prana (also) having left (that place) enters of itself the Susumna (along with Kundalini). (Yoga Kundalini Upanishad)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It further states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;43&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When Apana is raised up and reaches the sphere of Agni (fire), then the flame of Agni grows long, being blown about by Vayu. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  44-45(a). Then Agni and Apana come to (or commingle with) Prana in a heated state. Through this Agni which is very fiery, there arises in the body the flaming (or the fire) &#xA;  which rouses the sleeping Kundalini through its heat. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  45(b)-46. &lt;strong&gt;Then this Kundalini makes a hissing noise, becomes erect like a serpent beaten with stick and enters the hole of Brahmanadi (Susumna).&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore Yogins should daily practise Mulabandha often.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Devi also speaks about knowledge of Kundalini and Chakras in Devi Bhagvatam in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk07ch35.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T17:44:23.193" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17380" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2977" CreationDate="2017-02-27T18:08:12.117" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;First you should understand that Hindu is not a religion. Hindu is a culture which followed by people from ancient India to few years back.&lt;br /&gt;People write religion as Hindu in certificates and so on but it is false.&#xA;&lt;br /&gt;Hindu is a mixture of many religions like Vaishno, Shaiva, sastha, etc. Each religion has it's own god for example, shaiva has lord Shiva, vaishno has lord Vishnu, sastha has Lord Ayyappa, and so on. &lt;br /&gt;It is a culture or a way of life. Buddha, Sikh, Jain, all are part of the Hindu Culture. The Muslim, Christian, etc., who follows the Indian culture is a part of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9093" LastActivityDate="2017-02-27T18:08:12.117" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17381" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17457" CreationDate="2017-02-27T19:43:23.627" Score="3" ViewCount="7191" Body="&lt;p&gt;What were Swami Vivekananda's views on astrology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did he believe in it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were his reasons for believing in it or not believing in it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-11-14T04:58:41.363" Title="Did Swami Vivekananda believe in astrology?" Tags="|astrology|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17383" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-28T05:07:27.870" Score="3" ViewCount="122" Body="&lt;p&gt;When àtmà is the one &amp;amp; indwelling in both Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu and When same àtmà manifests or descents on the earth, then why some Avatars are called Shiva Avatars or some Vishnu? On what basis? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-08-06T16:02:13.533" LastActivityDate="2018-08-06T16:02:13.533" Title="On what basis Avataras are classified as Rudra Avatar &amp; Vishnu Avatar?" Tags="|avatars|brahman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17384" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10893" CreationDate="2017-02-28T05:24:32.323" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;This can be easily answered by using only the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aghori.it/durga_sapta_sloki_eng.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Durga Sapta Sloki&lt;/a&gt; as the reference,which is a part of the famous &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi_Mahatmya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Mahatyam&lt;/a&gt; found in the Markandeya Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Durga Sapta Sloki (Seven verses to Durga) was taught by the&#xA;  Goddess herself to Lord Shiva, to realize our objectives in the Kali&#xA;  age. This is also called Amba Sthuthi. These seven verses are a&#xA;  selection from the Devi Mahatmya. &lt;strong&gt;It is believed that reading these&#xA;  verses is equivalent to read the full text of Devi Mahatmya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atha durgāsaptaślokī&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śiva uvāca |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;devī tvaṃ bhaktasulabhe sarvakāryavidhāyinī |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kalau hi kāryasiddhayarthamupāyaṃ brūhi yatrataḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Goddess who can be easily approached by devotion, who helps us to&#xA;  get all actions done. Please tell me the trick of achieving result for&#xA;  these actions in Kali age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;devyuvāca |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śṛṇu deva pravakṣyami kalau sarvaiṣṭasādhanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mayā tavaiva snehenāpyambāstutiḥ prakāśyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Goddess said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh god, please hear what I say, which is the one fulfilling all&#xA;  desires in Kali age. Due to my love for you, I am telling you this&#xA;  prayer to Mother Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om asya śrīdurgāsaptaślokīstotramahāmantrasya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nārāyaṇa ṛṣiḥ । anuṣṭupādīni chandāṃsi ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;śrīmahākālīmahālakṣmīmahāsarasvatyo devatāḥ ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;śrī jagadambāprītyartha pāṭhe viniyogaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of this Durga Sapta Sloki, Narayana is the Rishi, Anushtup (eight&#xA;  syllables in a pada) and others is the meter, &lt;strong&gt;Goddess Mahakali,&#xA;  Goddess Mahalakshmi and Goddess Mahasarasvati are the deities and it&#xA;  is recited for the love of Shri Jagadamba (Mother of the Universe).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,when you see that the Devata of this Durga mantra are three Goddesses Mahakali,Mahalakshmi and Mahasraswati, it easy to conclude that Jagadamba Durga(to please whom this mantra is chanted)  &lt;strong&gt;is a combined form of all the three aforesaid Goddesses and thus is superior to each of them considered individually.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,that's basically the reason why Durga Devi is given more importance than other forms of Devis or in your words &quot;only associated with Devi.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,btw Devi Durga is not only a combined from of various Devis but she is a combined form of various Devas also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-02-28T05:52:47.237" LastActivityDate="2017-02-28T05:52:47.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17387" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-28T10:26:02.843" Score="6" ViewCount="716" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am aware of Sri Yantra which is the yantra representation of Sri or Thirumagal, are there any other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-08-29T06:33:08.823" LastActivityDate="2018-08-29T06:33:08.823" Title="What are the Yantras associated with Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|tantra|yantra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17390" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-02-28T15:05:04.273" Score="6" ViewCount="819" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In common folk manner it is told that a Warrior named &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iravan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Irāvān or Aravan&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;Reference from Wikipedia is because it is at folk manner&lt;/strong&gt;) who was a great warrior and son of arjuna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is told that he was sacrificed (&lt;strong&gt;Human sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;) for mahabharatha war victory.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also He asked &lt;strong&gt;Boon&lt;/strong&gt; before his death as to marry a woman and every women refused due to his sacrifice for victory.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;At last Lord Krishna turned to &lt;strong&gt;Mohini avatar and married him&lt;/strong&gt; and next day morning he was sacrificed and Mohini turned into a widow and mourned for his death.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is also a temple named &lt;strong&gt;Kuttantavar&lt;/strong&gt;  where aravan is worshipped as a god.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did this warrior named  Aravan Existed in Mahabharatha or is it a myth ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If he existed did this marriage of Mohini avatar told ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-02T17:39:23.560" LastActivityDate="2018-06-12T11:42:59.553" Title="What do scriptures say about Irāvān (son of Arjuna) who married Mohini avatar?" Tags="|mahabharata|belief|temple|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17391" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16663" CreationDate="2017-02-28T18:26:16.680" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The very first thing,   as per Purans if two Bramhastra are used against each other.  They will cause destruction of everything i.e. Earth n Nature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As when Lord Ram used Bramhastra against Ravana,  Ravan didn't used Bramhastra as he knw he had a boon from Brahma Dev,  which will protect him from brahmastra.  But if uses the Brahmastra against lord Ram Brahmastra then their wud b a complete annailation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise,  a warrior like Arjun too knws, what can happen if two Bramhastra used against each other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Bramhastra was the divine weapon of the Creator (Brahma), having power destroy everything thing created by him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9108" LastActivityDate="2017-02-28T18:26:16.680" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17392" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-01T03:42:06.787" Score="6" ViewCount="129" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the question, I mean lower in terms of their capacity for Pramana. (please state your criterion when answering if it is different than this). &#xA;This definition thus includes all plants and animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example in your answer if you deal with animal ethics then it should include the guiding principles regarding interactions with animals and the various actions possible in situations involving animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S Why I say lower and not just animals and plants, it is because there may be other beings which fall short of the capacity of pramana at the level capable by humans, a possible example is that of Vaanaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T07:08:02.620" LastActivityDate="2018-12-18T07:31:38.750" Title="Which text(s) detail the ethics of how to treat beings lower than Man?" Tags="|scripture|ethics|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17393" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-01T05:22:01.313" Score="2" ViewCount="40" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone cite hymns about marriages particularly in Vedas? If nothing mentioned about marriages in the Vedas, Smriti or Puranas or Ramayana or Mahabharata references are also accepted in worst case. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-03-01T05:22:01.313" Title="What the Vedas say about marriages?" Tags="|vedas|marriage|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-03-01T08:10:39.927" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17394" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-01T06:08:38.037" Score="2" ViewCount="370" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vigyan Bhairav Tantra is know for its 108 methods of meditation which I think are not in vedas or not given by patanjali rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the essence of this book, Do we know when it was written (people says it was written by Lord Shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not a fan of any guru as if now, but Osho and many gurus have been talking about power of now, they just mean that living in the present moment is the way to enlightenment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How true is that it is different than the knowledge or the way vedas taught us in the path of self realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because they only talk about the power of observation, am i missing tons of things here?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-03-01T06:08:38.037" Title="Why Vigyan Bhairav Tantra have a different story of enlightenment?" Tags="|vedas|meditation|enlightenment|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2018-10-08T14:28:19.483" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17395" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15844" CreationDate="2017-03-01T06:46:09.167" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I try to avoid this site but this page came up when I was searching for Kālidāsa on StackExchange, so let me post an answer anyway.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Firstly, this is obviously not from Kālidāsa's &lt;em&gt;Meghadūta&lt;/em&gt;. The Meghadūta is entirely written in the Mandākrāntā metre, which has 17 syllables to each pāda (68 total). This one here is a standard śloka (anuṣṭup), with 8 syllables in each pāda (32 total).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also does not occur in any of the other works of Kālidāsa, and is just not his style.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Instead, it is a &lt;em&gt;subhāṣita&lt;/em&gt;, a pithy saying or proverb. Such subhāṣitas occur in many anthologies and tend to get attracted into editions of works like the &lt;em&gt;Hitopadeśa&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Pañcatantra&lt;/em&gt;. (Look at these works, or Bhartṛhari's &lt;em&gt;Nīti-śataka&lt;/em&gt;, for many similar verses about the world, about bad people, about fools, etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a nice śloka with a clever use of the same words to mean different things:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मनस्येकं वचस्येकं कर्मण्येकं दुरात्मनाम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनस्येकं वचस्येकं कर्मण्येकं महात्मनाम् ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  manasyekaṃ vacasyekaṃ karmaṇyekaṃ durātmanām /&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  manasyekaṃ vacasyekaṃ karmaṇyekaṃ mahātmanām //  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the &lt;em&gt;sandhi&lt;/em&gt;s split:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मनसि एकं वचसि एकं कर्मणि एकं दुर्-आत्मनाम् /&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनसि एकं वचसि एकं कर्मणि एकं महा-आत्मनाम् //&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  manasi ekaṃ vacasi ekaṃ karmaṇi ekaṃ dur-ātmanām /&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  manasi ekaṃ vacasi ekaṃ karmaṇi ekaṃ mahā-ātmanām //  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Literal translation / gloss:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[in mind] [one] [in speech] [one] [in action] [one] [of bad people] /&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  [in mind] [one] [in speech] [one] [in action] [one] [of great people] //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two sentences are grammatically equivalent and there's no trickery with the words; it's just based on the context/semantics that we are led to understand them differently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The former is the colloquial sense as in &quot;one here, one there…&quot; (we understand that they are different). The latter uses the repetition of &quot;one&quot; for emphasis: in thought, word and deed, the great have only one thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Some sources change the दुरात्मनाम् line to &quot;मनस्यन्यद् वचस्यन्यत् कर्मण्यन्यद् दुरात्मनाम्&quot; but that's just killing the nice thing about the verse.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, as a proverb, it's not something you should think too hard about, or treat as a law of nature. Famous proverbs like &quot;An apple a day keeps the doctor away&quot; or &quot;Time is money&quot; are too easy to pick holes in; yet they express some real truth, appropriate in some contexts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Enjoy the common-sense idea couched in memorable language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="55" LastActivityDate="2017-03-01T06:46:09.167" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17396" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16774" CreationDate="2017-03-01T06:58:02.330" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, this goes like this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When karna went to Parshuram to learn archery skills, in time Parshuram was very impressed with Karna skills, courage, dedication,  his knowledge of Dharma and Judgment towards Right or wrong and soon Karna become one of his very favorite. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of these qualities only Parshuram agreed to give Vidhya daan of the Brahmastra,  since it is the Supreme and Ultimate weapon and not a ordinary weapon to distribute to everyone who isn't worthy of it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;when Parshuram was asleep on Karna's thighs and he was bitten by scorpion. When Parshuram woke up, he praised Karna's devotion as he bare so much pain but didn't let this to broke his Guru's sleep. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However at the same he Parshuram realized only a Kshatriya can had such an endurance and he understood karna had lied that he was not a Kshatriya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parshuram was very angry and said for such a fraud with me I wud hv killed that person, but O karna you r so dear n favorite to me that my heart is not allowing me to use my Farsaa(Axe)  on you, even ur kawach n kundal can't protect u from wrath,  if I wish. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in anger he said &quot;In time when you will need my teaching the most, at that time you won't remember my teaching.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it was not like that karna can never use the Brahmastra. only at particular moment he didn't remember. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjun karna battle was that moment,  when Arjun summons the divine weapon. Karna tried to summon Brahmastra but was unable to remember the mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9113" LastActivityDate="2017-03-01T06:58:02.330" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17397" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11324" CreationDate="2017-03-01T07:59:53.283" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Choosing a bridegroom:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Yamasmriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should seek for seven qualities in a bridegroom viz. good &#xA;  family, good character, physical appearance, reputation, learning, &#xA;  wealth and [track record of] support [of relatives and friends]; the &#xA;  other matters need not be considered. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Choosing a bride:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should marry a girl who is endowed with intelligence, beauty, a&#xA;   good character and auspicious characteristics and who is healthy. &#xA;  Aśv. gr 1.5.3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Āpastamba Gr̥hya Sūtra states a commonsense rule: &#xA;  'A girl on whom his mind and eyes are riveted will bring him happiness &#xA;  (or prosperity), he should pay no heed to other things; this is the view of &#xA;  some’. Āp.gr.  (III.21)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One imbued with faith may acquire excellent learning even from a &#xA;  lowly person, special law even from the lowest, and the &lt;em&gt;gem of a wife &#xA;  even from a base family.&lt;/em&gt; Manu smriti 2.238&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Procedure of an ideal marriage:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The five essential features of a Vedic Marriage are: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vāgdānam ca pradānam ca varaṇam pāṇi-pīḍanam |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sapta-padi iti pañcāṅgo vivāha prakīrtiḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The engagement ceremony involving the consenting of the parents.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Formal bestowal of the bride on the groom.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ceremonial honouring of the groom by the bestower.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Taking of the bride's hand by the groom.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The rite of the seven steps.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The procedure of wedding differs from place to place. The reason for it &#xA;is most of the South Indians follow Āp.gr whereas North Indians follow Par. Gr.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Procedure of marriage according to Āp.gr&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vara Preśaṇam (Invitation of the Bride):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Firstly permission is requested from the elders to begin the ceremonies.&#xA;After offering worship to Ganesa (or viṣvaksena)  for the removal of &#xA;obstacles, betel leaves and areca nuts along with some monetary offering is given to 2 brahmins who are requested to go and ask for the hand of &#xA;the bride.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;.Vara Varaṇam (Invitation of the Groom) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bestower formally welcomes the groom and after washing his feet and&#xA;honouring him, invites him to accept the hand of the bride and to become&#xA;his son in-law. The bride is then brought to the canopy and is seated to the right of the groom.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kanyadānaṃ (bestowal of the bride): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After reciting the Saṅkalpa or Statement of Intent the hands of the &#xA;couple are joined. The bride’s father places a coconut in their hands &#xA;and after the clan (gotra) and the names of the illustrious ancestors &#xA;(pravara) have been proclaimed, water is poured from a conch-shell over the coconut by the bestower’s wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“This maiden is well adorned and bedecked with gold. I, desirous of&#xA;  attaining the realm of Vishnu, give her to you O [embodiment of]&#xA;  Vishnu.”&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “The Supreme Being who resides in the hearts of all beings, and all&#xA;  the gods are witnesses. I bestow my daughter upon you so that you may&#xA;  fulfil your mutual obligations to your forefathers [through the &#xA;  begetting of offspring].”&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “For the performance of Dharma, for the begetting of offspring, and&#xA;  for companionship in your daily duties are you formally joined in marriage.”&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “This daughter well-dressed, righteous, well-mannered and intelligent&#xA;  is united with you in matrimony so that you may fulfil your social and&#xA;  religious duties, for prosperity and fulfilment of desires.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The groom then recites:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“This woman will be before me, she will be beside me, she will&#xA;  encompass me on every side, may you be Liberated through your gift.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Acceptance By The Groom..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The groom recites:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Impelled by God I receive you, with the two arms of Right &#xA;  Knowledge &amp;amp; Right Action, and with the hands of the Enricher I receive you.”&#xA;  (Tait. Sam 1.8.7.2)&#xA;  “May King Varuna lead you, O Goddess to a partner for the sake of&#xA;  progeny. By that may you attain to immortality as well as material&#xA;  enjoyment &amp;amp; well-being.” (TA. 3.10.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Who is giving what and to whom? Love is the Giver and Love the&#xA;  Receiver. Love has entered into the Ocean of Being. Through Love I&#xA;  receive you. O Love all this is for you.” (TA. 3.10.1.4 &#xA;  AV. 3.29.7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vows of the couple&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The couple now recite the vows. They promise that in the three areas of &#xA;life that they live together; in the field of &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dharma – the religious/moral/spiritual field,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Artha – prosperity, mutual financial arrangements and &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kama – pleasure, recreation and procreation; they will never do the wrong thing by each other.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Admonition — “In righteousness, in prosperity, in recreation; nurture&#xA;her at all times, and never offend this tender woman in any way.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Groom- “I will not offend her in any way.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu (IX.47) declares—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Once is the partition of inheritance made, once is a maiden given &#xA;  in marriage’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Madhu-parka/Vara Puja: (offering of honey by way of honour to a &#xA;distinguished guest). The word literally means — 'a ceremony in which &#xA;honey is shed or poured' (on the hand of a person).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The madhu-parka is offered to six persons who happen to visit one’s &#xA;home:_&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ṛtviks(priests officiating at sacrifices) when they are chosen for a&#xA;sacrifice,&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A snataka(a Vedic graduate),&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The king or a government official,&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One's acarya(spiritual teacher)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A bride-groom&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One’s father-in-law, paternal and maternal uncles or any other person who is dear to one and whom one wishes to honour.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is still performed at the canopy after the groom arrives at the &#xA;hall. On their wedding day the groom is considered as the embodiment of &#xA;Vishnu the Preserver and the bride is Lakshmi — the Goddess of &#xA;prosperity. The groom is received by his father in law – his feet are &#xA;washed, water is given to sip and a honey-yoghurt drink called &#xA;madhuparka is offered. According to the ancient manuals a cow is &#xA;supposed to be killed to feed the groom’s party. Nowadays this is done &#xA;symbolically by offering a coconut which the groom rolls away saying:— &#xA;“I say to those who understand — don’t kill this cow for me release her, let her drink water and eat grass!”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A few small matters may be noted. Several grhya-sutras (such &#xA;as the Manava) describe madhu-parka as a part of the marriage rite, &#xA;while others like Asvalayana describe it independently. Others like Hir. gr. (I.12-13) describe it as part of the graduation ceremony (Samavartana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In modern times there is generally no madhu-parka except in marriage and then too it is a simple matter and the elaborate procedure prescribed in some of the grhya sutras is hardly ever followed. &lt;strong&gt;Meat is never offered.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Samīkṣaṇam (Setting face to face) : The couple sit and face each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Om. To us, O God Varuna, bring her, kind to her brothers; bring &#xA;  her, O Lord of the Universe Brihaspati, kind to her husband and her children&#xA;  O Indra. O Creator of the Universe Savita bring her with prosperity.”&#xA;  (AV 14.1.62)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Om. Gaze gently upon each other, never be hostile to each other, &#xA;  be tender to animals, of cheerful mind, beautiful in your glory, the &#xA;  parents of heroes, be devoted to the gods, be the bestower of happiness, be&#xA;  good and kind to us, and to all creatures.” (RV.10.85.44)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kanya Saṃskāram (Sanctification of the Bride): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Previously men undertook the vow of brahmacarya(studentship) and studied&#xA;the Vedas. Women were excluded from the privilege of Vedic study and &#xA;consigned to home duties. The wedding ceremony therefore became the &#xA;equivalent of the bride’s initiation ceremony (upanayana) that the boys &#xA;underwent. The groom is the “guru” and through the vivaha samskaram she &#xA;is initiated into her domestic duties, and living with the husband is &#xA;the equivalent of living with the guru and his family (guru-kula-vasa)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bride sits on a chair facing the east. The groom takes a blade of &#xA;sacred grass (darbha) and wipes the forehead of the bride and then casts&#xA;it to the west.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“I remove from you all that is negative and inauspicious.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O Brahmins bring pure water with which to bathe this maiden,&#xA;  removing from her all sin, detriments and faults.” (AV.14.1.39)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The groom places a crown of sacred grass on her head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“May this bride be surrounded by the blessings of all your mutual&#xA;  relatives.” (AV.14.1.39)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He holds a miniature yoke above her head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O talented groom, sanctify your highly competent wife through &#xA;  these three devices; through the yoke which symbolises her union with you,&#xA;  through the gold which represents the Ultimate Truth, and through the&#xA;  water which represents the Cosmic Principles. May she be radiant like&#xA;  the sun and attain the goal of life.” (AV. 14.1.41)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some gold or the mangala sutra is placed over the hole of the yoke.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The priests perform the holy bath (mangala snanam) by sprinkling holy &#xA;water on the bride.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“May the Golden-hued, the Bright, the splendid Cosmic Principles &#xA;  that produced the Sun and Fire. Those that contain the Supreme Wisdom, the&#xA;  golden Ones bring joy to you and bless you.” (AV. 1.33.1 &#xA;  Tait. Sam 5.6.1.1.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“May the subtle ether in the midst of which the Resplendent Lord&#xA;  pervades, watching men's pious and impious deeds, which acts as a&#xA;  medium for lightning, beautiful in appearance, bring joy to you and &#xA;  bless you.” (AV 1.33.2 Tait. Sam. 5.6.1.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“May the subtle ether which supports the manifold beautiful objects&#xA;  in the sky, which acts as a medium for lightning, beautiful in appearance,&#xA;  bring joy to you and bless you.” (A.V. 1.33.3 Tait. Sam. 5.6.1.1)&#xA;  “May the Cosmic Principles behold you with auspicious eye, touch you&#xA;  with their auspicious hands. May they bright and pure, shedding&#xA;  loveliness and brilliance, bring joy to you and bless you.” &#xA;  (AV 1.33.4 Tait. Sam 5.6.1.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vastra Dānam (Presentation of clothing):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The groom presents the bride with a new set of clothes as a token of his&#xA;intention to take care of all her material needs for the rest of her life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O lover of song, may these our chants encompass you on every side;&#xA;  strengthening you with long life, may they bring delight to you. (S.Y.V. 5.29)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bride retires to don the new sari.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mangalya-Dhāraṇam (Bestowing the Tokens of Marriage): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The brahmins bless the maṅgala-sutra and the tray is carried around for &#xA;all the congregation to bless The bride returns to the maṇḍapa and sits &#xA;on her father's lap, according to some traditions she sits on a bag of &#xA;rice symbolising abundance and fecundity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The groom holds the cord of the maṅgala sutra around her neck and ties &#xA;three knots.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following verse is chanted by the groom and the brahmins;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mangalyam tantunanena mama jeevana hetuna&#xA;  kanthe badhnami subhage twam jeeva sarada satam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om I tie this sacred thread [I place this sacred ornament] around &#xA;  your neck, so that we may live long together, and remain together enjoying&#xA;  prosperity for an hundred autumns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A present is given to the sister of the groom by the bride's party.&#xA;The couple exchange garlands three times to confirm their intimate bond &#xA;with each other. According to Hindu culture, food, garlands and clothing can &#xA;only be shared with those who are most intimate.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yoktra Bandhanam (Binding of the girdle): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The groom ties the yoktram or girdle made of sacred grass around the &#xA;waist of the bride.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“We pray with a pure mind that we may obtain the blessing of good&#xA;  children, fortunate and of sound health. O Agni be propitious to us in&#xA;  this matter. I bind this girdle for happiness and the performance of&#xA;  righteous deed.” (AV 14.1.42 Tait. Sam 1.1.10.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The groom takes the bride by the hand and leads her to the fire while &#xA;the priests chant the following verse:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Let the Lord who Nourishes take your hand and hence conduct you;&#xA;  may Right Action &amp;amp; Right Knowledge transport you. Go to the house&#xA;  of your husband to be the mistress of his household and speak as a&#xA;  Lady to the gathered people.” (RV 10.85.26)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agnisthāpanam (Kindling the Sacred fire) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A new grass mat is spread to the west of the fire. The couple take their seats with the bride to the right of the groom. &#xA;&lt;br&gt;The groom performs the preliminary rites &amp;amp; then recites &#xA;the following two verses:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O Woman, equanimity is your first guardian, observance of the Vedic law is your second, knowledge and strength of character are your third&#xA;  guardians. One born of woman is your fourth guardian.”(AV.14.2.3.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Tranquillity develops in the girl the sentiment of following the &#xA;  Vedic law; which in turn brings her knowledge and strength of character;&#xA;  which bestows upon me prosperity and progeny.” (AV. 14.2.4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pāṇigrahaṇam (Holding hands) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The groom takes the bride's right hand and recites the following &#xA;mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“I take your hand for wellbeing so that together we may attain to &#xA;  old age in happiness. The Sovereign Cosmic Principles; Enjoyment&#xA;  [Bhaga], Aspiration [Aryaman], Creativity [Savitar] and Completeness&#xA;  [Purandhri] have united us for the performance of our duties as&#xA;  householders.” (RV 10.85.36)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “This institute of Householders was previously established by these&#xA;  Cosmic Principles, may we attain their benediction.” (Ap.MB&#xA;  .1.3.4)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O” Sarasvati! Personification of learning and eloquence, the source of&#xA;  well-being, O Gracious One, You whom I praise are the source of all&#xA;  creation.” (Ap.MB 1.3.5)&#xA;  “May the out-stretched golden hands of the purifying life force which&#xA;  pervades all directions unite our minds as one.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An appointed member of the family then ties the hems of the couples’ garments&#xA;together.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Saptapadi (Taking of seven steps) : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The couple now take the first seven steps in their journey of life &#xA;together. These steps represent the seven areas of life that they need &#xA;to work on together in order to have a perfect marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Significance of Saptapadi is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11804/what-are-the-saptapadi-or-the-seven-promises-of-marriage/11805#11805&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vaivāhika Homam (The wedding sacrifice)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The priests now make oblations of ghee into the sacred with the &#xA;following vedic verses. If the groom has been initiated and wears the &#xA;sacred thread he may be encouraged to make the oblations himself. If &#xA;not, the priests do it on his behalf.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Aśmarohanam (Treading upon the mill-stone): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The couple retire to the north of the fire where a millstone has been &#xA;placed. The bride stands upon it facing the east. The stone represents &#xA;difficulties and hurdles in married life. Conflict is inevitable and the success of a marriage depends on how effectively the couple learn to &#xA;apply their conflict-resolution skills.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tread upon this stone, be you firm and steadfast as this stone, in&#xA;  all your tribulations, pressing underfoot all negativity and grief. (Ap.MB. 1.5.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lāja Homam (Offering of puffed-grains):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bride’s cupped palms are filled with puffed-rice by her brother, &#xA;then supported by her husband she offers the grains into the fire with the &#xA;following mantras.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“This woman thus prays to God as she offers oblations of grains; &#xA;  long live my husband! Yea, a hundred autumns let him live!” (AV. &#xA;  14.2.63)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  May this maiden sacrificing here in the fire be completely united &#xA;  to her husband, O Aryaman grant you this, that they may never be parted.&#xA;  (Ap.MB 1.5.7)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Aryaman, you are the personification of Spiritual Aspiration,&#xA;  mysterious are you. O Self-sustainer, as a kind friend, with streams of&#xA;  milk they anoint you, when you makes wife and husband &#xA;  one-minded.(RV. 5.3.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The person who helps the bride in this ritual is the nominated protector or sponsor of the bride. If she encountered any domestic difficulties in her new home she could then summon her sponsor to come to her aid and to mediate on her behalf.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pradakṣinam (Circumambulation): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The couple then circumambulate the fire altar three times with the groom&#xA;leading.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O Agni, in obedience to your command, we have brought the bride&#xA;  along with the marriage procession, unite her now with the husband&#xA;  along with future progeny.” (RV. 10.85.38)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Agni, give long life and energy to this couple, May they both &#xA;  live for a hundred autumns.” (AV. 14.2.1 RV. &#xA;  10.85.39)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “Guide them through all tribulations as easily as one passes &#xA;  through&#xA;  rivulets of water.” (RV. 2.7.3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yoktra Vimocanam (Releasing of the Girdle): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The groom releases the grass-girdle (yoktram) that was tied around the &#xA;bride's waist. This act is symbolic of transferring the duty of &#xA;protection from the father to the husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Bride! I free you from the restrictions of your parents, &#xA;  wherewith your blessed father has bound you. Into the Seat of the Sacred Law, to the world of virtuous actions, I give you up uninjured with your consort.&#xA;  (RV. 10.85.24)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus I release you from the noose of Varuna, wherewith the &#xA;  Impeller, the Giver of Success hath bound you. I establish you in the realm of spirituality, in the world of virtuous actions, together with your&#xA;  husband.(Tait. Sam 1.1.10.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Final oblation : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O Mystic Fire, giver of refuge are you, irreproachable, in truth &#xA;  the&#xA;  refuge of the devotees. We meditate upon you in our minds, O Bearerof-&#xA;  oblations, grant unto us healing remedies.” (Ap.MB 1.5.18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Blessing: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is of a hundred measures, man has a hundred years of life, a &#xA;  hundred powers; verily on life and power he rests.(Tait. Sam3.2.6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Highly auspicious is this bride, come congratulate her; wish her a&#xA;  married life filled with her husband's love, and then repair to your&#xA;  respective dwellings.(R.V.10.85.33)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Departure&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Bride, radiant as the Sun, mount this all-hued, golden-tinted, &#xA;  strongwheeled, highly brilliant car, gently rolling, bound for the world&#xA;  of life immortal. Make for your husband a happy bridal procession.&#xA;  (RV.10.85.20)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rise over conflicts and calamities, exceed your husband, and your&#xA;  children in dignity and pride and be you famous.” (Ap.MB 1.6.5)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Be an empress over your father-in-law, an empress over your &#xA;  mother in-law, be an empress over your husband's sisters, and an empress over&#xA;  his brothers too. (RV. 10.85.46)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  May you radiate over the daughters-in-law in your new home, over &#xA;  all the children and the property, over your husband and his brothers and&#xA;  over all the community.(Ap.MB 1.6.7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who are at cross purposes and opposed to the wedded couple&#xA;  may they not succeed. May the hard path of life be crossed by pleasant&#xA;  journey. May all the forces of evil shrink away.(RV. 10.85.32)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Marriage according to Paraskara Grhya sūtra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dvāra Pūjā (Reception of the Groom’s party) : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The wedding venue is technically the “Home” of the bride, so the groom’s party is welcomed at the gate with customary ceremonies done by the women of the family. What is done varies from community to community but the intention is to create auspiciousness and to avert negative influences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Milini&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Milini is the “meeting” of the relatives of the two sides. Usually done by&#xA;Punjabis. The respective male members of the two families meet, greet, garland and hug each other. Fathers, brothers, uncles etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantras chanted by the priests are from the final hymn of the Rig Veda:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Meet together, talk together, let your minds comprehend in&#xA;  harmony; In like manner as the ancient gods concurring, accepted&#xA;  their portion of the sacrifices.”&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “May you pray together in harmony, may you strive for common&#xA;  goals with a common purpose, may you have associated desires. I&#xA;  repeat for you a common prayer, I offer for you a common&#xA;  oblation.”&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “United be your intention, united be your hearts, united your&#xA;  thoughts, so that there may be a thorough harmony among you.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The father of the bride then welcomes the groom. He anoints his forehead with sandalwood paste and rice grains and places a garland around his neck.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O noble son, with this tilak may you have longevity, health,&#xA;  excellence, radiance, and blazing intellect!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The women perform ārati which is the waving of a tray with auspicious objects and a light in front of the groom. The exact method of doing this varies from family to family. There are traditional songs which are sung by the women at this time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The groom’s party is led to the pandal and the groom takes his seat. The priest assists the groom to perform a Ganesha puja for the removal of all&#xA;hindrances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A sacred protective thread is tied to the groom’s right wrist. This is called Kankana Dhāraṇam. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vara Pūjā (Reception of the Groom): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is already explained above. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kanyā Āgamana (Arrival of the Bride): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bride now makes her entrance accompanied by her bridal party. How the bride approaches the canopy is an individual matter nowadays. Sometimes she is accompanied by her uncles, and sometimes by her friends or bride’s maids.&#xA;Sometimes she is carried in a palanquin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She approaches the pandal and meets the groom outside and the couple stand&#xA;facing each other and then when the priest recites the following mantra they&#xA;garland each other :—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May all the Directive Energies of the Cosmos unite our hearts, may the&#xA;  Universal Principles, the Life Force and the heavens keep us two&#xA;  together. (RV.10.85.47) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vastra Dānam (Presentation of Clothing): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The groom now presents the bride with a set of clothing. According to some Grihya Sutras the clothes are given by the groom’s side and some say that 4 items of clothing are given by the bride’s father — one for the groom and one for the bride.The groom takes 2 for himself and presents the bride with her set.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kanya-dāna (Bestowal of the Bride):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The father of the bride or the authorised person is called upon by the priest to recite the saṃkalpa or recites it on the bestower’s behalf.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A coconut etc is placed in the bride’s hand by the father. The bride’s hand and coconut is then placed in the groom’s right hand. The bride’s mother pours water over the coconut.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is already explained above. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The couple then recite the kāma-stuti or hymn in praise of Love together:—&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kāma Stuti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who is giving what and to whom? Love is the Giver and Love the&#xA;  Receiver. Love has entered into the Ocean of Being. Through Love I receive you. O Love all this is for you.” (Tattiriya Aranyaka. 3.10.1.4 A.V. 3.29.7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agni-sthāpanam (Establishing the sacred fire): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is explained already.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pratijña (Vows by the couple): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Groom — dharme ca arthe ca, kāme ca, imāṃ nāticarāmi ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Bride — dharme ca arthe ca, kāme ca, imā nāticarāmi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In our mutual pursuit of spiritual development, in our mutual financial&#xA;  arrangements and in our mutual pursuit of pleasure and intimacy I shall never do the wrong thing by you. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is observed in South India also. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Śubha dṛṣṭi (Auspicious gazing):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The couple are requested to look at each other without breaking their gaze as the following verse is recited :—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om. Gaze gently upon each other, never be hostile to each other, be&#xA;  tender to birds and animals, of cheerful mind, beautiful in your glory, the&#xA;  parents of heroes, be devoted to the gods, be the bestowers of happiness,&#xA;  be good and kind to us, and to all creatures.(RV.10.85.44)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om. To us, O God, bring her, kind to her brothers; bring her, O Lord of&#xA;  the Universe, kind to her husband and her children. O Creator of the&#xA;  Universe bring her along with prosperity.(AV.14.1.62)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Woman, Soma knew you first, and then the Gandharva, thirdly Agni&#xA;  knew you, your fourth husband is one born of woman.” (AV. 14.2.3.)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Soma gave you to the Gandharva, the Gandharva gave you to Agni, O&#xA;  Agni transfer her now to me along with prosperity and progeny.(AV. 14.2.4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also performed in South India especially in Telugu states. Till this moment, the bride and groom are separated by a cloth screen. This is the first gaze of the bride and the groom.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Granthi Bandhanam (tying the knot): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An appointed member of the family then ties the hems of the couples’ garments together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With the bonds of the food that you eat together, with the many-colored&#xA;  thread of life; with the knot of truth I bind together your minds and&#xA;  your hearts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lāja Homa # 1 (Offering of Puffed-rice): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bride’s brother or a substitute places puffed rice in the bride’s cupped palms — the groom places his palms below hers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This woman thus prays to God as she offers oblations of grains; long&#xA;  live my husband! Yea, a hundred autumns let him live! (AV 14.2.63)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The couple circumambulate the fire with the bride in front while the priests chant the following mantra:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Primordial God, in obedience to your command, we have brought the&#xA;  bride along with the marriage procession, Give her now to her husband&#xA;  along with future progeny. (RV. 10.85.38)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Aśmarohanam (Treading upon the mill-stone):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The couple stop to the north of the fire where a millstone has been placed. They stand opposite each other touching the stone with their right feet. They can either hold hands of the bride places her hands upon the groom’s shoulders.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Tread upon this stone, be you firm and steadfast as this stone, in all&#xA;your tribulations, pressing underfoot all negativity and sorrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This procedure is called &lt;em&gt;Sannikallu&lt;/em&gt; in Telugu.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lāja Homa #2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bride’s brother places puffed rice in the bride’s cupped palms for a second time — the groom places his palms below hers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May this maiden sacrificing here in the fire be completely united to&#xA;  her husband, O Aryaman grant you this, that they may never be parted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The couple circumambulate the fire for a second time with the bride in front while the priests chant the following mantra:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Agni, give long life and energy to this couple, May they both live&#xA;  for an hundred autumns. (AV. 14.2.1 RV.10.85.39)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lāja Homa #3: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bride’s brother places puffed rice in the bride’s cupped palms for a third time — the groom places his palms below hers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aryaman, you are the personification of Spiritual Aspiration,&#xA;  mysterious are you. O Self-sustainer, as a kind friend, with streams of&#xA;  milk they anoint you, when you makes wife and husband one-minded.&#xA;  (RV.5.3.2.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The couple circumambulate the fire for a third time with the bride in front:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Guide them through tribulations As easily as one passes through rivulets of water. (RV 2.7.3) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gāthā Gānam: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Sarasvati Goddess of learning and eloquence, the source of wellbeing,&#xA;  O Gracious One, You whom I praise are the source of all&#xA;  creation. (ApMB 1.3.5)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  It is in you the whole creation arose and in whom it is sustained and&#xA;  into whom it is ultimately diṣsolved. Today I shall sing that song which&#xA;  is the highest glory of women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Final offering:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Together holding the winnowing basket the couple offer all the rest of the puffed rice. They then circumambulate the fire for the fourth time this time the groom leads.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Veṇī mocanam (Releasing a lock of hair):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The groom releases a few locks of the bride’s hair to symbolically liberate the bride from her parental control.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Bride! I now free you from the restrictions of your parents,&#xA;  wherewith your blessed father had bound you. I now establish you with&#xA;  your consort in the practice of Dharma, in the realm of virtuous&#xA;  actions. (RV 10.85.24)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Saptapadi (The rite of the Seven Steps): Explained already.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Abhyukṣaṇam (Sprinkling with Holy Water): The priests now sprinkle the couple with holy water. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sūrya Darśanam (The Prayer to the Sun): The couple then either go outside to look at the Sun or stay where they are and pretend to see the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hṛdaya Sparśam (Touching the hearts): The couple touch each other’s hearts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Māṅgalya Dhāraṇam (Donning the tokens of marriage.):&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sacred necklace is then placed around the bride’s neck or Rings are exchanged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;24&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sindūr Dānam: A red dot is placed on the forehead of the bride by the groom and a little vermilion paste is also placed in the parting of her hair.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Āśīrvādam (Blessing): Blessings are taken from father-in-law,mother in-&#xA;law,husband's sisters and his brothers too.(RV.10.85.46) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;ācārya sambhāvanam (Giving Honorarium to the priests): A formal presentation of honorarium is given to the officiating priests. A tray is&#xA;prepared with some fruit,flowers,betel leaves and nuts along with a coconut&#xA;which is a substitute for the cow which should be give as the wedding fee.&#xA;Usually the price of the cow is substituted.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maṇḍap Udvāsanam &amp;amp; Prasthānam: &#xA;(Dismantling of the canopy and departure)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is similar to the departure which is stated above and the priests chant mantra (RV.10.85.20). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mother of the bride or another married woman goes to the&#xA;vehicle and anoints the driver with tilak.  wheels of the car and anoints it with sandalwood paste, red-powder and some rice grains. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some post nuptial rites like Dhruva-Arundhati Darśanam (Viewing of the Polar Star), Griha Praveśa(entrance into new home), Samaveshana (Garbha-danam Rite of Consummation) etc., which you can read in the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/uploads/5/5/4/9/5549439/the_hindu_sacrament_of_marriage.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Hindu sacrament of marriage.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;R.V. — Rig Veda&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A.V. — Atharva Veda&lt;br&gt;&#xA;S.Y.V. — Sukla Yajur Veda&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Tait. Sam. — Taittiriya Samhita&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Aśv. gr. — Aśvalāyana Gr̥hya Sūtra&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yaj. — Yājñavālkya Gr̥hya Sūtra&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Āp.gr. — Āpastamba Gr̥hya Sūtra&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ap.MB. — Āpastamba Mantra Brahmaṇa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hir. gr. — Hiraṇyakeśin Grhya sūtra&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Par. Gr — Paraskara Grhya sūtra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-19T11:01:55.813" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T11:01:55.813" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17398" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17252" CreationDate="2017-03-01T09:33:08.170" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well to understand that we need to know,  who was Shrikhandi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually Shrikhandi was reincarnated Princess Amba. In her and her sister's Swayamvar Hastinapur was not invited and to avenge this Bhishma goes to the Swayamvar and kidnap all the Princess, and challenges all the kings who have cme to Swayamvar, but no one was able to stood up against mighty Bhishma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Out of the 3 Princess, 2 were married to king of Hastinapur.  But Amba said to Bhishma,  l like someone else so can't marry Hastinapur king. Accordingly he sent Amba to the that king but he rejects her and says l didn't want charity from Bhishma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to this,  Amba says Bhishma is reason for all this as l can't marry to the Hastinapur king n her lover too. Bhishma shud accept responsibility to these events and shud marry her.  But Bhishma had vowed not to get marry in his lifetime. So Amba was insulted due to this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She went Parshuram to resolve this matter bt Bhishma defeated his own Guru in the battle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally,  Amba went for Tapasya of Lord Shiva and asked for boon that I want kill Bhishma to revenge my insult. God said u can't do that as he has the iccha-mrityu Vardan. So he give a boon that u will becum cause to Bhishma death,  u will reincarnated as half man n half lady, it will be a reincarnation however u will remember ur pastlife. This was Shrikhandi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further,  it was impossible to win battle of Mahabharta as there was no one who can defeat mighty Bhishma. Bhishma too knws this, so he tells in a enigma that l will gave up my weapons if a lady comes against me a war. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shrikhandi came n Bhishma gave up his weapons and Shrikhandi becomes the cause of Bhishma's death and boon was fruitful&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9113" LastActivityDate="2017-03-01T09:33:08.170" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17399" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-01T12:49:33.897" Score="6" ViewCount="5427" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, Zoroastrian is the closest among all to the Vedic religion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many similarities like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both have fire and fire rituals as its core. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Deities like Soma, Mitra, Varuna etc are in both faiths. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Avestan resembles vedic to an extent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both have similar customs of sacred thread. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be noted that &quot;asura&quot; is not &quot;demon&quot; which is in many later day Hindu texts like Puranas. Many vedic deities are referred to as &quot;asura&quot; in the Vedas Eg: Mitra, Varuna, Indra etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Purānas and other of the later writings of the Hindus, and also in the popular mind, the Asuras are powerful evil beings; in translations the word is represented by such terms as demons, giants, etc. As the Asuras * were the gods, the asuras were not-gods, and therefore the enemies or opponents of the gods. In the Vedas the name asura is applied more frequently to the gods themselves than to their enemies, whilst it is also used very much in the same manner as in the later writings. In the Rig-Veda, Varuna is accosted as follows: &quot;King Varuna has made a highway for the sun to go over. O thou wise asura and king, loosen our sins!&quot; Again: &quot;The all-knowing asura established the heavens, and fixed the limits of the earth. He sat as the supreme ruler of all worlds. These are the works of Varuna.&quot; &quot;Asura stands for the Supreme Spirit,&quot; in another verse, and &quot;also as an appellative for Prajāpati or creation's lord.&quot; † Again and again Varuna alone, and also in conjunction with Mitra, is called an asura. &quot;All the Vedic gods have shared the same title, not excepting even goddesses.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Varuna was the all-knowing asura, Prajāpati the Supreme Being; Indra, the Maruts, Tvastri, Mitra, Rudra, Agni, Vāyu, Pushan, Savitri, Parjanya, the sacrificial priests, were all asuras. In fine, Deva (god) and asura were synonymous expressions in a multitude of texts.&quot; *&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, in the Rig-Veda, Indra is the destroyer of asuras. &quot;The same Veda which speaks of the asuras as celestial beings supplies its readers also with the Mantras, by means of which devas overcame asuras. The texts which are condemnatory of the suras as impure and ungodly are far less in number than those which recognize the term as applicable to gods and priests.&quot; Dr. Banerjea, in the most interesting and ingenious article from which the above extracts are made, suggests a means of reconciling these contradictory uses of the word &quot;asura.&quot; Before the Indo-Aryans arrived in India, they had lived in close proximity to the Persians, the original worshipers of fire. &quot;What could be more natural,&quot; he asks, &quot;than that the Asura-Pracheta, or Asura-Viswaveda of the one branch, was but the translation of the Ahura-Mazda (the Wise Lord, according to the 'Zend-Avesta') of the other branch; and that the word 'Ahura,' which the one used in a divine sense, would become a household word in the other branch, in the same sense?&quot; the word &quot;Ahura&quot; being changed into &quot;Asura,&quot; in a way common to many other words. He then goes on to say, that as &quot;Assur&quot; was the term used in Assyria for the Supreme Lord, and the Assyrians were for some time the rulers of the Persians, it was natural that this word should find its way into Persia; the only change being this, that the Persians added&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp43.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T18:13:02.270" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T06:20:46.173" Title="Why are there so many similarities between Zoroastrianism and Hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|other-religions|asuras|agni|varuna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-10-09T12:57:34.320" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17400" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-01T13:14:39.690" Score="4" ViewCount="554" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the difference between jeevatma and kaarana sareera (causal body)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9116" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-09T07:55:15.247" LastActivityDate="2018-06-09T07:55:15.247" Title="What is the difference between jeevatma and kaarana sareera" Tags="|vedanta|jiva|body|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17403" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11842" CreationDate="2017-03-01T18:17:55.597" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a type of Astrology which is not of Indian origin but came to India via Persian influence. The principle is &quot;Varsha Phala&quot; or &quot;yearly chart&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is very useful because unlike the lagna chart, it helps in brief reading for one year period. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The chart is cast during the time when one enters a new year from his birth when the sun is in exactly same degrees of his birth chart. A chart is made during this time is known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedic-astrology.net/Courses/Tajika-Courses.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varsha&lt;/a&gt; Phala kundali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Muntha is an important part of the Kundali. It changes one sign every year in a fixed manner. It is NOT  planet but a progressive lagna (ascendant) which changes one house every year. So it is not actually muntha chart but year chart of which muntha is a part. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-03-01T18:17:55.597" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17404" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-01T19:08:17.467" Score="9" ViewCount="1962" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is believed by his followers that Srimad Ananda Teertha (a.k.a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhvacharya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Madhvacharya&lt;/a&gt;) was the third incarnation of Vayu (MukhyaprAna), the previous two were:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman (Treta yuga)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bheema Sena (Dwapara yuga)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is claimed that Madhvacharya had met Vyasa in the Badarika ashrama in Himalayas and learned deeper meanings of shastras there. Later he had toured the entire country towards the mission of fighting against the doctrines of maayavada. Also against non-Hindu forces. Later he disappeared with his physical body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do scriptures mention anything about Madhvacharya being an incarnation of Vayu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is there any mention in his biographies about the same ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-11-19T16:39:23.990" LastActivityDate="2022-01-03T10:35:34.657" Title="Do scriptures mention about Srimad Madhvacharya being an avatar of Lord Vayu?" Tags="|avatars|dvaita|madhvacharya|vayu|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17405" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-01T20:05:30.927" Score="6" ViewCount="149" Body="&lt;p&gt;Saamveda is really a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJJvr1nvs6Y&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;delight&lt;/a&gt; to hear. That's why Bhagwan Shri Krishna says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वेदानां सामवेदोऽस्मि देवानामस्मि वासवः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इन्द्रियाणां मनश्चास्मि भूतानामस्मि चेतना॥१०.२२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of the Vedas I am the Sama Veda; of the gods I am Indra, the king of heaven; of the senses I am the mind; and in living beings I am the living force [consciousness]. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-10-22/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 10.22&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Really Saamns remind me of Pundarikaksha(beautiful lotus petal like eyes of lord).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The problem with Delightful video is annoying background noise and I think chanting is incomplete or specifically Sri Rudram is chanted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I need is Purusha Suktam(some details about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/oppiliappan/archives/jun07/msg00094.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saamveda Purusha Suktam&lt;/a&gt;), Sri Suktam, etc in Saamaveda Chanting format.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2021-02-27T21:39:24.020" Title="Where can I get full (if not possible some selected) Samveda chants" Tags="|vedas|sama-veda|purusha|vedic-chanting|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17407" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-02T02:22:16.330" Score="3" ViewCount="139" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am interested in becoming a Sanyasin but live in the UK. Apart from the Hare Krishna are there any Sanyasins in the UK and if not where could I get initiation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9120" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-03-02T10:04:44.470" LastActivityDate="2017-03-02T10:04:44.470" Title="Sanyasin initiation" Tags="|rituals|sannyasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-03-06T06:36:52.397" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17408" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-02T02:42:00.580" Score="4" ViewCount="2376" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ahobilamutt.org/us/home/welcome.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ahobila mutt&lt;/a&gt; is a prominent muth in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Vaishnavism#Vadakalais_.28.22northern.22.29_-_Vedanta_Desika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vadakalai&lt;/a&gt; sect of Sri Vaishnava tradition. The exponder of this sect is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta_Desika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sriman Vedanta desika&lt;/a&gt;.  Acharya Lineage(parampara) is one of the important characteristics of Sri Vaishnava tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ahobila Mutt has two different lineages. The branches are listed as Samasrayana Parampara and Kalakshepa Parampara with the acharya lineage branching after Swami Bhashyakarar. Click &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ahobilamutt.org/us/acharya/lineage/lineage.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are samashrayana parampara and Kalakshepa parampara?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the reason behind two different lineages?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-11-19T06:04:00.837" Title="What is the reason behind Sri Ahobila Mutt having two acharya parampara branches?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|vadakalai|vedanta-desika|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17409" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17413" CreationDate="2017-03-02T03:20:23.057" Score="10" ViewCount="4983" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the different types of Yagya(यज्ञ)? It is also spelled as Yajna.&#xA;What are the purposes and benefits of Yagya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8932" LastEditorUserId="2987" LastEditDate="2017-10-24T04:11:09.067" LastActivityDate="2017-10-24T04:11:09.067" Title="What are the different types of Yagya (Yajna) and what are their benefits?" Tags="|yajna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17410" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-02T04:01:38.760" Score="4" ViewCount="348" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their devotional poetry in praise of Vishnu. One of the alwars is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thondaradippodi_Alvar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Thondaradippodi Azhwar&lt;/a&gt;. In his lifetime, he composed two hymns Thirumaalai and Tiruppalli Ezuchi in the dedication of Lord Ranganatha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxeOefTeAFM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thirumaalai Pasuram&lt;/a&gt; of Sri Thondaradippodi Azhwar, there is a verse (snapshot below) that discusses how the denizens of Naraka upon listening to the auspicious discussion between Naman and Murkalan got elated as if they are in Swarga. &#xA;Click &lt;a href=&quot;http://azhwar.org/documents/Thirumalai_text%20and%20meaning.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for a verse-by-verse translation of Thirumaalai Pasuram in english, the verse in the snapshot is the 12th verse, here is the referenced translation of the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My heart indeed goes out to the unfortunates who fall into purgatory swayed by false tenets without realizing that the very mention of the name of the Lord whom residence in Sri Rangam, will redeem. Is it not that Hell was transformed to Paradise when Yama was heard to explain that mention of Krishna’s name was reason for Mudgala’s salvation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It seems clear from this that Naman is reference to Yama, what is the origin of this name?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who is this Murkalan/Mudgala who Yama is speaking to?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/VEhm8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/VEhm8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Naman &amp;amp; Murkalan verse in Thirumaalai&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-03-02T06:39:55.077" LastActivityDate="2017-03-02T17:59:01.277" Title="Who are Naman and Murkalan as referred to in Thirumaalai Pasuram?" Tags="|scripture|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17412" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-02T07:59:19.373" Score="13" ViewCount="3691" Body="&lt;p&gt;The oldest and primary scripture we do have is Veda and we &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/277&quot;&gt;know&lt;/a&gt; that ancient Rishis heard Veda in the state of Tapasya directly from Ishwara and that is called Shruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But one question often comes in my mind - How did they perform Tapasya (Dhyana or deep mediation), since they had no scripture (and probably no Guru)? What led  them to the state of deep Tapasya where they heard Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I want to know, whether it is possible for one to hear Veda in similar way that ancient Rishis heard?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T11:21:39.647" Title="How did Rishis perform Tapasya (transcendental meditation) so that they heard Shruti/Veda?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|rishi|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17413" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17409" CreationDate="2017-03-02T10:04:49.320" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna describes &lt;strong&gt;eleven&lt;/strong&gt; types of Yajna (sacrifice) in &lt;a href=&quot;http://esamskriti.com/essays/BG-CH-4.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagvad Geeta&lt;/a&gt;. (source is in pdf format).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;दैवमेवापरे यज्ञं&lt;/strong&gt; योगिनः पर्युपासते।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्माग्नावपरे यज्ञं&lt;/strong&gt; यज्ञेनैवोपजुह्वति।।4.25।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some yogis perfectly worship the demigods by offering different sacrifices to them, and some of them offer sacrifices in the fire of the Supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Deva Yagna - Some Yogis perform sacrifice to Devas alone.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;2) Brahma Yagna - Offering the Self as a sacrifice by the Self in the fire of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्रोत्रादीनीन्द्रियाण्यन्ये&lt;/strong&gt; संयमाग्निषु जुह्वति।&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;शब्दादीन्विषयानन्य इन्द्रियाग्निषु&lt;/strong&gt; जुह्वति।।4.26।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some again offer hearing and other senses as sacrifice in the fire of restraint; others offer sound and other objects of the senses as sacrifice in the fire of the senses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)Offering hearing and other senses in the fire of restraint.&lt;br&gt; 4) offering sound and other objects of sense in the fire of the senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वाणीन्द्रियकर्माणि प्राणकर्माणि चापरे।&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;आत्मसंयमयोगाग्नौ&lt;/strong&gt; जुह्वति ज्ञानदीपिते।।4.27।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Others again sacrifice all the functions of the senses and the functions of the breath (vital energy) in the fire of the Yoga of self-restraint kindled by knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5) Control of the ego by better understanding of the Divine behind it is called atmasamyama-yoga i.e., the Yoga of self-restraint.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;द्रव्ययज्ञास्तपोयज्ञा योगयज्ञा&lt;/strong&gt; स्तथापरे।&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;स्वाध्यायज्ञानयज्ञाश्च&lt;/strong&gt; यतयः संशितव्रताः।।4.28।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Others again offer wealth, austerity and Yoga as sacrifice, while the ascetics of self-restraint and rigid vows offer study of scriptures and knowledge as sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Split the words&lt;/em&gt; द्रव्ययज्ञास्तपोयज्ञा योगयज्ञा - द्रव्ययज्ञाः , तपोयज्ञ, योगयज्ञ and स्वाध्यायज्ञानयज्ञाश्च - स्वाध्याय  ज्ञानयज्ञाश्च.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6)Dravya Yagna: Charity and distribution of honestly acquired wealth in a spirit of devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7)Tapo Yagna: Offering of a life of austerity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8)Yoga Yagna: Yoga is an attempt to grow from the lower in us to the higher standard of divine living&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9)Swadhyaya Yagna: This means study and understanding of the scriptures without which no progress in spiritual practices is possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10)Jnana Yagna: It is that activity in man by which he renounces all his ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपाने &lt;strong&gt;जुह्वति&lt;/strong&gt; प्राण प्राणेऽपानं तथाऽपरे।&lt;br&gt; प्राणापानगती रुद्ध्वा प्राणायामपरायणाः।।4.29।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Others offer as sacrifice the out-going breath in the in-coming and the in-coming in the out-going, restraining the courses of the out-going and in-coming breaths, solely absorbed in the restraint of breath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here जुह्वति means sacrifice.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA; 11) Pranayama is referred to here as a Yagna where the practitioner offers all the five subsidiary Pranas into the main Prana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Result of these Yajnas/sacrifices:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवं बहुविधा यज्ञा वितता ब्रह्मणो मुखे।&lt;br&gt; कर्मजान्विद्धि तान्सर्वानेवं ज्ञात्वा विमोक्ष्यसे।।4.32।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All these different types of sacrifice are approved by the Vedas, and all of them are born of different types of work. Knowing them as such, you will become &lt;strong&gt;liberated.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above verse (4.32), it is clear that the result of all the Yajnas is same i.e., Liberation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-02T10:46:22.310" LastActivityDate="2017-03-02T10:46:22.310" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17416" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17126" CreationDate="2017-03-02T13:13:20.330" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara is no doubt the most important Acharya in medieval India. He, however, had a dark side. A perusal of his commentary on Pseudo-Sudra in Brahma Sutra lays bare his attitude on Sudras. I am posting an excerpt of his bhasya below. We do not know enough of his daily activity to know whether he personally practiced untouchability. However, his writings suggest that he may well have done so (at least till he wrote the Maneesa Panchakam). He supports every barabaric suggestion of Hindu scriptures without any pangs of conscience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;And because the Smriti prohibits for the Sudras the hearing, study, and acquisition of the meaning (of the Vedas).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is another reason why the Sudra has no right: By the Smriti he is&#xA;  debarred from hearing, studying, and acquiring the meaning of the&#xA;  Vedas. The Smriti mentions that a Sudra has no right to hear the&#xA;  Vedas, no right to study the Vedas, and no right to acquire the&#xA;  meaning of the Vedas (and perform the rites). As for prohibition of&#xA;  hearing, we have the text, &quot;Then should he happen to hear the Vedas,&#xA;  the expiation consists in his ears being filled with lead and lac&quot;,&#xA;  and &quot;He who is a Sudra is a walking crematorium. &lt;strong&gt;Hence one should not&#xA;  read in the neighbourhood of a Sudra&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. From this follows the&#xA;  prohibition about study. How can one study the Vedas when they are not&#xA;  to be recited within his hearing? Then there is the chopping off his&#xA;  tongue if he should utter the Vedas and the cutting of his body to&#xA;  pieces if he should commit it to memory. From this it follows by&#xA;  implication that the acquisition of meaning and acting on it are also&#xA;  prohibited, as is stated in, &quot;Vedic knowledge is not to be imparted to&#xA;  a Sudra&quot;, and &quot;Study, sacrifice, and distribution of gifts are for the&#xA;  twice born&quot;. But from those to whom knowledge dawns as a result of&#xA;  (good) tendencies acquired in the past lives, as for instance to&#xA;  Vidura, Dharmavyadha, and others, the reaping of the result of&#xA;  knowledge cannot be withheld, for the result of knowledge is&#xA;  inevitable. This position is confirmed by the Smriti text, &quot;One should&#xA;  read out to the four castes (keeping the Brahmana in front)&quot;, which&#xA;  declares the competence for all the four castes for the acquisition of&#xA;  the anecdotes and mythologies. But the conclusion stands that a Sudra&#xA;  has no right to knowledge through the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya I.iii.38&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda also felt that Shankara's writing on Sudras is obnoxious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Buddha and Shankara&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What Buddha did was to break wide open the gates of that very religion&#xA;  which was confined in the Upanishads to a particular caste. . . His&#xA;  greatness lies in his unrivalled sympathy. The high orders of samadhi&#xA;  etc., that lent gravity to his religion, are almost all there in the&#xA;  Vedas; what are absent there are his intellect and heart, which have&#xA;  never since been paralleled throughout the history of the world. . .&#xA;  The religion of Buddha has reared itself on the Upanisads, and upon&#xA;  that also the philosophy of Shankara. Only Shankara had not the&#xA;  slightest bit of Buddha's wonderful heart, dry intellect merely! For&#xA;  fear of the Tantras, for fear of the mob, in his attempt to cure a&#xA;  boil, he amputated the very arm itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, VI. 225-27)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankara's intellect was sharp like a razor. He was a good arguer and&#xA;  a scholar, no doubt of that, but he had no great liberality; his heart&#xA;  too seems to have been like that. Besides, he used to take great pride&#xA;  in his Brahmanism -- much like a southern Brahmin of the priest class,&#xA;  you may say. How he has defended in his commentary on the Vedanta&#xA;  Sutras that the non-Brahmin castes will not attain to a supreme&#xA;  knowledge of Brahman! . . . But look at Buddha's heart! -- Ever ready&#xA;  to give his own life to save the life of even a kid -- what to speak&#xA;  of bahujanahitayabahujanasukhaya -- For the welfare of the many, for&#xA;  the happiness of the many&quot;! See what a large-heartedness – what a&#xA;  compassion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, VII. 117-18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Can one possibly explain Sankara's writings on Sudras?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We must remember that tradition says that Shankara wrote his great commentary on Brahma Sutra when he was between 12 and 16 years. It is thus possible to believe that the pitiless writing is a reflection of immaturity. Another possibility is that the young Shankara did not muster enough courage to challenge the orthodoxy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-03-02T13:13:20.330" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17417" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17421" CreationDate="2017-03-02T14:05:58.343" Score="9" ViewCount="2315" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any mantra attributed to Vishnu in the Veda (moola samhita). Not mention of word &quot;Vishnu&quot; but is he a &quot;devata&quot; for any specific mantra for example &quot;brahmanaspati&quot; devata for &quot;gana nan tva ganapati...&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2019-11-24T18:09:35.417" Title="Is Vishnu a Vedic deity ? Are there any mantras attributed to him?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|samhita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17418" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17420" CreationDate="2017-03-02T14:12:45.243" Score="10" ViewCount="4408" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Wikipedia article on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sayana&lt;/a&gt; from the Vijayanagara Empire, he wrote a commentary on the Vedas. It also states that his commentary on Rigveda was edited and published by Max Müller.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm looking for the unabridged and unedited works of Sayana on Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any help will be appreciated.&#xA;Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2695" LastActivityDate="2020-07-08T18:56:24.863" Title="Unedited works of Sayana on Veda" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17419" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-02T14:40:08.687" Score="2" ViewCount="208" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In Hindu marriage &lt;strong&gt;Sacred Fire&lt;/strong&gt; is used as a important ritual by all the people.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;During the rituals the &lt;strong&gt;Bride and Groom circumambulate&lt;/strong&gt; the Sacred Fire for 7 times(Not Sure).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the &lt;strong&gt;Meaning of circumambulating the Sacred Fire&lt;/strong&gt; by the bride and groom ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How &lt;strong&gt;Many times&lt;/strong&gt; should the couples circle the Sacred Fire ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What does the Circumambulating of &lt;strong&gt;Each round&lt;/strong&gt; of Sacred fire signify ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-02T18:06:36.063" LastActivityDate="2017-03-02T18:06:36.063" Title="What is the significance of circumambulating the sacred fire by bride and groom in marriage?" Tags="|rituals|culture|marriage|tradition|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-03-02T18:25:51.197" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17420" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17418" CreationDate="2017-03-02T15:22:58.803" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can find original Sanskrit Sayanacharya Bhashya/works at &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Internet Archive&lt;/a&gt; or at Digital Library of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Followings are some useful scanned books on Sayanacharya's Sanskrit &#xA;Bhashya on Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda with Sayana's Commentary &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RgVedaWithSayanasCommentaryPart1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RgVedaWithSayanasCommentaryPart2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 2&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RgVedaWithSayanasCommentaryPart3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 3&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RgVedaWithSayanasCommentaryPart4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ASS042KrishnaYajurvediyaTaittiriyaSamhitaPart1KasinathSastriAgase1940&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;A set of Yajurveda Sayanacharya Bhashya&lt;/a&gt; (9 parts)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ASS037TaittiriyaBrahmanamWithSayanabhashyaPart1NarayanasastriGodbole1934&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajurveda Brahmana Sayana Bhashyam&lt;/a&gt; (3 parts)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ASS036TaittiriyaAranyakamWithSayanaBhashyaPart1BabasastriPhadke1898&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajurveda Aranyaka Sayana Bhashyam&lt;/a&gt; (2 parts)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/atharva-veda-sAyaNa-bhAShyam&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharva Veda Sayana Bhashyam&lt;/a&gt; (9 parts)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sama Veda Samhita &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.344920&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vol. 1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.514035&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vol. 2&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.344954&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vol. 3&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.487161&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vol. 4&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.487322&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vol. 5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-03-02T15:40:35.503" LastActivityDate="2017-03-02T15:40:35.503" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17421" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17417" CreationDate="2017-03-02T15:38:45.397" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani given in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu is the Devata of several hymns of the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01022.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 1 Hymn 22&lt;/a&gt; Verses 16-21&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01154.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 1 Hymn 154&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01155.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 1 Hymn 155&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01156.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 1 Hymn 156&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07099.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 7 Hymn 99&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07100.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 7 Hymn 100&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there are several hymns of the Rig Veda where the Rishis is either Vishnu  or one of his incarnations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 90&lt;/a&gt; was heard by Vishnu's incarnation sage Narayana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10110.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 110&lt;/a&gt; was heard by Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10134.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 134&lt;/a&gt; was heard by Vishnu's incarnation Mandhata&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10148.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 148&lt;/a&gt; was heard by Vishnu's incarnation Prithu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10184.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 184&lt;/a&gt; was heard by Vishnu himself&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, while the Devata may very from one hymn to another, all the hymns of the Vedas ultimately praise Vishnu.  As Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, &quot; Those who are devotees of other gods and who worship them with faith actually worship only Me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2017-03-02T15:38:45.397" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17422" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17410" CreationDate="2017-03-02T17:59:01.277" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Naman referred to in the pāsuram is Yama Dharmaraja. Murkalan or Mudhgala is a person belonging to ancient times who got a warm welcome from Yama Dharma Raja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why did Azhwar sing this verse?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The samsāris told AzhwAr &amp;quot;you had told us to recite his divine names. Due to our sins, we are only able to talk about various worldly matters and are unable to recite Sriman Nārāyaṇa's divine names&amp;quot; Azhwar responded saying &amp;quot;in that case, hearing Sriman Nārāyaṇa's divine names would uplift you&amp;quot; and told them about &lt;strong&gt;mudhgalOpAkhyAnam(the story of a person called mudhgalan)&lt;/strong&gt;. He further added “I am unable to bear the samsāris' sorrows because they continue to suffer in samsāram instead of being uplifted by saying &lt;em&gt;Thiruvarangam (Sri Rangam) is the dwelling place of Sriman Nārāyaṇa  whose divine names are so great&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Story of Mudgalan:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ancient times, there was a person by name Mudhgalan. He was constantly indulging in vices. Once, to atone for his sins, he gifted a cow made of sesame (तिल). At the time of giving the gift, he said Kriśṇārpaṇam and gifted it. After he died, he was dragged by the servitors of yama to hell. yama welcomed him which surprised mudhgalan. He told yama &amp;quot;your followers are dragging me here and you are welcoming me and treating me well. What is the reason for this?&amp;quot; yama replied &amp;quot;neither my followers nor you know your greatness. Once you said Kriśṇārpaṇam and it is because of that, I am welcoming you and treating you nicely&amp;quot; explaining the greatness of reciting Sriman Nārāyaṇa’s divine name. As these two people were discussing the greatness of divine names, those who were suffering in hell heard this. As they were hearing, the troubles in hell disappeared for them and they felt as if they were enjoying in heaven. This anectode is given in Viśṇu dharmam. AzhwAr is quoting this incident in this pāsuram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This change was the result of the greatness of the names. Even though it is  Sriman Nārāyaṇa who grants the fruits of effort, since he gives that only after divine names are recited, it is not out of place to state that it is the divine names that brought about the change [from hell to heaven].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://divyaprabandham.koyil.org/index.php/2016/09/thirumalai-12/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-02T17:59:01.277" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17423" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-02T18:03:11.033" Score="2" ViewCount="2066" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have noticed that after performing rituals, Hindus give dakshina (or fees) to the pandit (priest) in the form of ₹ 101, 151, 501 or ₹ 1001  and not ₹ 100, 150, 500 or simply any round figure. Even in the temples the money offered to the god (Hundi) is ₹ 101, 151, 1001 etc. What is the reason behind adding that one rupee to that round figure (₹1000 + ₹1)? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8964" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-02T20:16:30.093" LastActivityDate="2017-03-02T20:16:30.093" Title="Why is money offered to God as ₹101, 1001 etc. and not ₹ 100, 1000 etc?" Tags="|temple|worship|superstitions|priests|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-03-03T15:49:14.817" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17424" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-02T20:56:14.470" Score="3" ViewCount="237" Body="&lt;p&gt;To follow Vaikhanasa one must belong to the family lineage of Vaikhanasa tradition unlike the pancha ratra in which anyone can adopt it by deeksha. &#xA;is this notion true ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so then is it not discrimination? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-03-03T06:54:08.537" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T06:54:08.537" Title="Is it true that a person can only become Vaikhanasa by birth and not by Samskara?" Tags="|pancharatra|agamas|vaikhanasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17425" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-03T05:10:52.893" Score="1" ViewCount="88" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is enforced at my place and many of Brahmins community to not have haircuts on Tuesday, Full Moon Day, &lt;code&gt;Birth days&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May i know the reason for the same if there is any significant aspect behind these custom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2953" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-13T12:25:08.253" LastActivityDate="2018-04-13T12:25:08.253" Title="Is there any significance of not having haircuts on Tuesdays and Fullmoon day?" Tags="|belief|practice|superstitions|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2018-04-14T04:36:54.567" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17428" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-03T09:49:51.277" Score="5" ViewCount="2381" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a modern business going on now a days in the homa, japa in all temples nearby our places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was a traditional belief that by doing &lt;code&gt;Parijanya Japa&lt;/code&gt; will lead to rainfall in barren lands. Is that applicable in today's modern world as well?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2953" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-03T13:03:21.770" LastActivityDate="2018-08-20T05:23:12.927" Title="Does Parjanya japa really bring rain?" Tags="|belief|japa|homam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17429" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11005" CreationDate="2017-03-03T10:03:29.760" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes , Puranas also do talk about eye-twitching. There is a discussion mentioned in Shreemad Bhagvat purana between Yudhishthira and Bhima , &lt;strong&gt;( Skanda 1 ,Chapter 14 ,Shloka 12)&lt;/strong&gt; --the background of which is like this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira send's Arjuna to Dwaraka to make a enquiry about Shree-Krishna and to meet their relatives.But even after 7 months when Arjuna do not return. Yudhishthira then discussed this thing with Beema. He says why Arjuna not returned ,i am seeing some bad oman's.Is it time for Shree-Krishna to depart to his abode?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This shloka gives us idea about  &lt;strong&gt;left eye-twitching incident which&#xA;  is mentioned by Yudhishthira&lt;/strong&gt; ,he describes this as a bad oman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ऊर्वक्षिबाहवो मह्यं स्फुरन्त्यङ्ग पुनः पुनः । &lt;br&gt; वेपथुश्र्चअपि&#xA;  ह्यदये आद्दास्यन्ति विप्रियम् ॥11॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ūrv-akṣi-bāhavo mahyaṁ  sphuranty aṅga punaḥ punaḥ &lt;br&gt; vepathuś cāpi&#xA;  hṛdaye ārād dāsyanti vipriyam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt; - The left side of my body — my thighs, arms and eyes — are all quivering again and again. I am having heart palpitations due&#xA;  to fear. All this indicates undesirable happenings. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/14/11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  1.14.11&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Here is the commentary by Swami Prabhupada :-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;When a man’s left eye, arm and thigh all quiver constantly, one must know that something is going to happen which is undesirable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T10:03:29.760" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17431" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-03T11:22:00.357" Score="3" ViewCount="1416" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can some one explain me about Niṣedha padārthas i.e., items prohibited from eating?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard about few vegetables which were grown by Vishwamitra out of anger, therefore, they're not to be consumed. Does anyone know which scripture mentions these?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9136" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-06T17:00:38.140" LastActivityDate="2020-04-17T18:28:20.707" Title="Niṣedha padārthas (items prohibited from eating)" Tags="|scripture|belief|food|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17432" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16028" CreationDate="2017-03-03T11:57:25.273" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;(Not specific to chanting name of Krishna), I'm here quoting verse which has similar meaning/preaching to that of Bhagavad-Gita (which is believed to be an essene of Upanishads) you've mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chhandogya Upanishad : Adhyaya 3, Khanda 14 (also known as Shandilya Vidya (which Starts from popular Upanidhadic declaration : &lt;em&gt;Sarva Khalvidam Brahman&lt;/em&gt;), Verse 14:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वकर्मा सर्वकामः सर्वगन्धः सर्वरसः सर्वमिदमभ्यात्तोऽवाक्यनादर एष म आत्मान्तर्हृदय एतद्ब्रह्मैतमितः प्रेत्याभिसंभवितास्मीति यस्य स्यादद्धा न विचिकित्सास्तीति ह स्माह शाण्डिल्यः शाण्डिल्यः ॥ ३.१४.४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4. He whose creation is this universe, who cherishes all desires,  who contains all odours, who is endowed with all tastes, who  embraces all this, who never speaks and who is without  longing-He is my Self within the heart, He is that Brahman.  &lt;strong&gt;When I shall have departed hence I shall certainly reach Him:  one who has this faith and has no doubt will certainly attain to  that Godhead.&lt;/strong&gt; Thus said Sandilya, yea, thus he said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T12:11:58.927" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17433" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-03T13:05:42.933" Score="5" ViewCount="1240" Body="&lt;p&gt;As &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16028/8696&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question explains one is liberated on remembering God during last time. Actually, whatever object one has meditated on throughout one's life, that very object he attains at the time of leaving his body. So, only such people (Yogi) will be able to actually remember God at the time of death. Remembering God at the time of death is impossible if one has not remembered God throughout one's life as other &lt;strong&gt;impressions&lt;/strong&gt; which are powerful will influence less powerful impression (God's impression here). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In short, Stronger impressions at the time of death decide one's attainment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the question is &lt;strong&gt;reverse&lt;/strong&gt;. What will happen during premature or sudden death of a Yogi? Or what happen if the Yogi remembers accidentally water or food or wife or children at the time of death due to some unexpected reasons possibly? Will he get liberation even in such case? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2018-03-24T16:18:21.420" Title="Will one get liberation, if at the time of death one doesn't remember God though the one has been remembering God throughout his life?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|brahman|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17434" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17433" CreationDate="2017-03-03T13:13:47.423" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;He will surely get liberation as it is explained in the question itself. Impressions one has accumulated throughout his life actually dominate other weak impressions during last moment. One gets liberated even one has remembered something else during last time. This concept is supported by &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com/en/abhinavagupta-s-paramarthasara-stanzas-83-to-86-trika-scriptures-non-dual-shaivism-of-kashmir/785&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Paramārthasāra&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the very time when a yogin attains liberation, he may shed his body at any sacred place or at the house of an untouchable. In both cases he is free from suffering and attains liberation even if he &lt;strong&gt;loses his memory at the time of death&lt;/strong&gt;.(verse. 83)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may argue why some non-yogis could attain liberation chanting Lord's name during death but doing nothing whole life. The reason can be either prarabdha Karmas (as in case of Shishupala who got liberation even when he was enemy of Lord Krishna) or they have accumulated Yogic impressions of past lives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-03-03T16:58:55.440" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T16:58:55.440" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17435" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-03T14:12:59.163" Score="3" ViewCount="93" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Antahkarana (Inner Organ or Inner Cause) is composed of four parts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chitta (Consciousness)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Manas (Mind)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ahamkara (Ego)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Buddhi (Intellect)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Chaturvyuhas are the primitive emanations of Sriman Narayana and are listed as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vasudeva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sankarshana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pradyumna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aniruddha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a one-one correspondence between the two lists? If so, what does this relationship indicate?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T14:12:59.163" Title="Is there a correspondence between Antahkarana and Chaturvyuha?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|consciousness|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17436" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-03T15:04:40.187" Score="1" ViewCount="59" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a bit confused about how Ravan looked. He had 10 heads. That's an even number. So where did his neck join? I mean the only possible way I can think of is that 4 heads , then the central head, then 5 heads(or in the reverse order). But this seems an awful violation of symmetry. Can someone clarify his appearance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9138" LastActivityDate="2017-03-03T15:04:40.187" Title="Ravan's Head Asymmetric?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-03-03T15:27:43.583" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17440" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17446" CreationDate="2017-03-04T04:07:11.757" Score="0" ViewCount="254" Body="&lt;p&gt;The late Mohanlal Agrawal composed two volumes entitled &quot;Aghor Nagara Vage&quot; regarding the secret practices and siddhis of Hindu ascetics/yogis.  Why aren't these books discussed more within the Hindu community? They seem to address the esoteric aspect of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastActivityDate="2017-03-04T09:06:03.110" Title="Esoteric Hindu Religion?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17441" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17433" CreationDate="2017-03-04T04:34:44.447" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the Gita 6.40 (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Lord said&lt;/em&gt;: O Partha, there is no destruction for him either in this world or the next; no evil, My son, befalls a man who does good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in 9.22:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those persons who worship Me, meditate on their identity with Me and ever devoted to Me--to them I carry what they lack and for them I preserve what they already have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in 9.34:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to Me, sacrifice to Me, bow down to Me. Having thus disciplined yourself, and regarding Me as the Supreme Goal, you will come to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your karma means that you give up the body in an outwardly unconscious state, that does not mean that you are passing into death 'unconscious' of the Lord. All the three states of waking, dream, and dreamless are equally unreal. One's jiva can pass into Reality from any of the three states. All is possible for the Lord. The Lord never abandons His devotee.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-03-04T04:34:44.447" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17442" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17445" CreationDate="2017-03-04T06:04:36.163" Score="15" ViewCount="7444" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bṛhat samhita- chapter 35 (6th century CE) describes the formation of a rainbow. This was later proposed by Sir Issac Newton nearly after 11 centuries. The verse is as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूर्यस्य विवधवर्णाः पवनेन&lt;br&gt;&#xA;विघट्टिताः कराः साभ्रे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वियति धनुः संस्थानाः &lt;br&gt;&#xA;ये दृश्यन्ते तदिन्द्रधनुः ।।&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Meaning: The multi colored rays of the Sun, being dispersed in a cloudy sky, are seen in the form of a bow, which is called the rainbow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even in Vedas 7 colors of light are represented by 7 horses of God Sun which was shown much later.&#xA;In fact, the same scripture describes the formation of thunderbolt as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is what are &lt;strong&gt;some&lt;/strong&gt; other such verses which highlight such scientific facts? Please provide along with exact Sanskrit verses &amp;amp; chapters along with the scripture name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-07-29T16:29:15.130" LastActivityDate="2022-07-29T16:29:15.130" Title="What are some scientific facts described in Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|puranas|smriti|science|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-03-04T16:30:32.923" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17445" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17442" CreationDate="2017-03-04T08:56:34.257" Score="23" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do not like to call anything discovered now as 'scientific fact' as any fact which is established now can be disproved in the future. (For eg. quantities like mass, time etc.. were considered absolute in the past and now they are considered relative). So, I like to use the term 'scientific concepts' for the present discoveries. There can be many scientific facts which are in Hindu scriptures and here are few concepts described in relation with modern scientific discoveries. (What I mean is following concepts can be derived after reading those quoted verses):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Concept of Gravity:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaishesika Sutras discuss about Gravity which I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9102/are-there-any-references-to-gravity-in-hindu-scriptures/14860#14860&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;answer here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Relevant quotes from that answer are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आत्मकर्म हस्तसंयोगाश्च । संयोगभावे गुरुत्वात्पतनम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नोदनाद्यभिषोः कर्म तत्कर्मकारिताच्च संस्कारादुत्तरं तथोत्तरमुत्तरं च । संस्काराभावे गुरुत्वात्पतनम।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अपां संयोगाभावे गुरुत्वात्पतनम। द्रवथ्वास्यन्दनम् ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Action of body and it's members is also from conjunction with the hand. &lt;strong&gt;In the absence of conjunction falling results from Gravity.&lt;/strong&gt; The first action of arrow is from impulse; the next is resultant energy produced by the first action, and similarly the next next. In the absence of resultant/propulsive energy generated by action, falling results from Gravity. &lt;strong&gt;The falling of water in absence of conjunction is due to Gravity.&lt;/strong&gt; Flowing results from fludity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Concept of Time Dilation:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can find various stories about Time Dilation in Hindu scripture. The most famous is the story of Kakudami which I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11277/how-much-earth-year-passes-in-1-second-of-brahmaloka/11278#11278&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;discuss here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; They  sit in BrahmaLoka for only about 20 minutes and millions if years passes in the Earth. Relevant verses from Srimad Bhagvatam 9.3 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/3/30&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;is as:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आवर्तमाने गान्धर्व स्थितो ’लब्ध-क्षणः क्षणम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तद्-अन्त आद्यम् आनम्य स्वाभिप्रायं न्यवेदयत्।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तच् छ्रुत्वा भगवान् ब्रह्मा प्रहस्य तम् उवाच ह।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अहो राजन् निरुद्धास् ते कालेन हृदि ये कृताः।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तत् पुत्र-पौत्र-नप्तॄणां गोत्राणि च न शृण्महे।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कालो ’भियातस् त्रि-णव-चतुर्-युग-विकल्पितः।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;When &lt;strong&gt;Kakudmi arrived there,&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Brahma was engaged in hearing musical performances by the Gandharvas and had not a moment to talk with him. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore Kakudmi waited, and at the end of the musical performances he offered his obeisances to Lord Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; and thus submitted his long-standing desire. After hearing his words, Lord Brahma, who is most powerful, laughed loudly and said to Kakudmi: O King, all those whom you may have decided within the core of your heart to accept as your son-in-law have passed away in the course of time. &lt;strong&gt;Twenty-seven catur-yugas have already passed. Those upon whom you may have decided are now gone, and so are their sons, grandsons and other descendants. You cannot even hear about their names.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Concept of Multiverses:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The concept of Multiverse has not been practically proved by modern science. But still it is an interesting concept in Modern science also. Hindu scriptures talk about multiverses. For instance as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11660/do-hindus-believe-in-adam-and-eve-if-not-who-is-the-first-person-man-or-woman/11662#11662&quot;&gt;here,&lt;/a&gt; Srimad Bhagvatam in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/14/11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;10.14.11&lt;/a&gt; talks of multiverses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;क्वाहं तमो-महद्-अहं-ख-चराग्नि-वार्-भू-&lt;br&gt;&#xA; संवेष्टिताण्ड-घट-सप्त-वितस्ति-कायः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;क्वेदृग्-विधाविगणिताण्ड-पराणु-चर्या-&lt;br&gt;&#xA; वाताध्व-रोम-विवरस्य च ते महित्वम् ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;What am I, a small creature measuring seven spans of my own hand? I am enclosed in a potlike universe composed of material nature, the total material energy, false ego, ether, air, water and earth. And what is Your glory? &lt;strong&gt;Unlimited universes pass through the pores of Your body just as particles of dust pass through the openings of a screened window.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/593/are-there-other-brahmas-and-universes/9329#9329&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; Devi Bhagvatam also states presence of other Brahma, Vishnu and Rudras in other universes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the car, where we were situated, began to get up high in the sky, and in the twinkling of an eye, we reached Brahmâ loka, that is saluted by all the Devas. &lt;strong&gt;There S'ambhu and Kes'ava were greatly bewildered to see Brahmâ of that place. In the council hall of Brahmâ, the Vedas with their Angas, the serpents, hills, oceans and rivers were seen. Seeing all these, Visnu and Mahes'vara asked me :-- “O Four-faced one! Who is this eternal Brahmâ? I replied :-- I do not know who is this Brahmâ? Who am I? and who is He? why has this error come over me?&lt;/strong&gt; You, too, also are gods so you can better ponder over it.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly as quoted in the same answer, chapter 10 'Shiva swallowing poison' of Skandha Purana also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He (Ganesha) saw &lt;strong&gt;crores of spherical Cosmic Eggs like so many atoms.&lt;/strong&gt; They were getting merged and dissolved in Mahesha who was in linga form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7767/what-are-the-main-differences-between-valmiki-ramayana-and-ram-charit-manas/11150#11150&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; Ramcharitmanas also mentions Kakabhusundi visiting multiple universes and even visiting himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In all these universes I saw myself in every universe. Each universe had its own Ayodhya with its own Sarayµu and its own men and women.&lt;/strong&gt; And listen, dear Garuda : Ramas parents Dasaratha and Kausalya as well as Ramas brothers, Bharata and others, were all different in each universe. In each such universe I witnessed the descent of Rama as well as the infinite variety of His childish sports.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4) Concept of sphericity of Earth and rising-setting of Sun:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12365/what-is-the-shape-of-earth-according-to-hindu-scriptures/12369#12369&quot;&gt;answer here,&lt;/a&gt; Srimad Bhagvatam 5.21.9 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/21/8-9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;states:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्रत्यानां दिवस-मध्यङ्गत एव सदादित्यस् तपति सव्येनाचलं दक्षिणेन करोति; यत्रोदेति तस्य ह समान-सूत्र-निपाते निम्लोचति यत्र क्वचन स्यन्देनाभितपति तस्य हैष समान-सूत्र-निपाते प्रस्वापयति तत्र गतं न पश्यन्ति ये तं समनुपश्येरन्.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The living entities residing on Sumeru Mountain are always very warm, as at midday, because for them the sun is always overhead. Although the sun moves counterclockwise, facing the constellations, with Sumeru Mountain on its left, it also moves clockwise and appears to have the mountain on its right because it is influenced by the dakṣiṇāvarta wind. &lt;strong&gt;People living in countries at points diametrically opposite to where the sun is first seen rising will see the sun setting, and if a straight line were drawn from a point where the sun is at midday, the people in countries at the opposite end of the line would be experiencing midnight. Similarly, if people residing where the sun is setting were to go to countries diametrically opposite, they would not see the sun in the same condition.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the rising and setting of Sun, Aitreya Brahmana of RigVeda 3.44 states:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Sun does never set nor rise.&lt;/strong&gt; When people think the Sun is setting (it is not so). For after having arrived at the end of the day it makes itself produce two opposite effects, making night to what is below and day to what is on the other side…Having reached the end of the night, it makes itself produce two opposite effects, making day to what is below and night to what is on the other side. In fact, the Sun never sets….”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly as discussed in the same answer Yoga Vasistha also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10 Vasishta said:— &lt;br&gt;&#xA;There is only one space enveloping all things. The worlds seen in the infinite and indiscernible womb of emptiness are like worms moving on the surface of water. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;11 &lt;strong&gt;All these bodies that move about in the world by their lack of freedom are thought to be up and down relative to our position on earth. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;12 So when there are ants on an earthen ball, all its sides are reckoned below that are under their feet, and those as above which are over their backs. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;13 Such is this ball of earth in one of these worlds,&lt;/strong&gt; covered by vegetables and animals moving on it, and by gods, demons and men walking upon it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;5) Concept of Universe as being Projection in space-time:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17066/where-do-vedas-state-universe-being-a-projection-in-space-time/17067#17067&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; Vedas state Universe as being appearance in space time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पूर्ण कुम्भोदिः काल आहितस्तं वै पश्यामो बहुदा नु सन्तः । [AtharvaVeda 19.53.3]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A full pot has been placed in Time and it is that which we see manifoldly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in the Dakshinamurty stotram composed by Adi Shankara he states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;बीजस्याऽन्तरिवाङ्कुरो जगदिदं प्राङ्गनिर्विकल्पं पुनः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मायाकल्पितदेशकालकलना वैचित्र्यचित्रीकृतम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;This World&lt;/strong&gt; is Like a Sprout of a Seed Within which transforms what is Changeless state Before, &lt;strong&gt;appear Again as Space and Time,&lt;/strong&gt; and endless Varieties of Pictures over it; all due to the Creation of Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;6) Concept of Cyclic Nature of Time:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14913/where-does-rig-veda-states-about-cyclical-nature-of-creation/14914#14914&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; Rig Veda states about Cyclical Nature of Time and Creation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूरय्याचन्द्रमसौ धाता यथा पूर्वमकल्पयत् I&lt;br&gt;&#xA;दिवं च पृथ्वीं  च अंतरिक्षमथो स्वः   II  RigVeda 10.190.3  II&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;The Ordainer created the sun and moon like those of previous cycles.&lt;/strong&gt; He formed in order Heaven and Earth, the regions of the air, and light.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;7) Concept of Speed of Light:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12075/the-speed-of-light-taittirya-brahmana-of-the-yajurveda/12080#12080&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; Sayanacharya while commenting on RigVeda on a verse related to Sun, quotes from Taittariya Brahmana of Yajurveda.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तथा च स्मर्यत योजनानां सहस्रम् द्वे द्वे शते द्वे च योजने । एकेन निमिषार्धेन क्रममाण नमोऽस्तु ते ॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is remembered, [O Sun] bow to you, you who &lt;strong&gt;traverse 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And on converting the above quote with respect to modern figures as done in that answer we get approximate value to speed of light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;8) Concepts of One being essence of another:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some scientific concepts in present day which are related with the nature of Observer. Ie. For the existence of something an observer is required. for eg. If we say fire exists there then there should be an observer to acknowledge the existence of fire (It is related to quantum physics concept and simple common sense can't solve it). Another simple example is Schrodingers Cat experiment related to observer (and also Many World Theory which comes to solve it).  In conclusion the concept is if Fire is the essence of living beings then living beings are also essence of fire. Ie. They have mutual existence.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A similar Knowledge is taught in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad which is also called Madhu Vidya. A literal translation can be 'Knowledge of Honey' but it actually means 'Knowledge of Essence'. (Just like Honey is the essence prepared by Bees from flowers). It starts from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.5.1. Some of it's verses are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;II-v-1: &lt;strong&gt;This earth is (like) honey to all beings, and all beings are (like) honey to this earth.&lt;/strong&gt; (The same with) the shining immortal being who is in this earth, and the shining, immortal, corporeal being in the body. (These four) are but this Self. This (Self-knowledge) is (the means of) immortality; this (underlying unity) is Brahman; this (knowledge of Brahman) is (the means of becoming) all. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;II-v-2: &lt;strong&gt;This water is (like) honey to all beings, and all beings are (like) honey to this water.&lt;/strong&gt; (The same with) the shining immortal being who is in this water, and the shining, immortal being identified with the seed&#xA;in the body. (These four) are but this Self. This (Self-knowledge) is (the means of) immortality; this (underlying unity) is Brahman; this (knowledge of Brahman) is (the means of becoming) all. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;II-v-3: &lt;strong&gt;This fire is (like) honey to all beings, and all beings are (like) honey to this fire.&lt;/strong&gt; (The same with) the shining immortal being who is in this fire, and the shining, im&#xA;mortal being identified with the organ of speech in the body. (These four) are but this Self. This (Self-knowledge) is (the means of) immortality; this (underlying unity) is Brahman; this (knowledge of Brahman) is (the means of becoming) all.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;II-v-4: &lt;strong&gt;This air is (like) honey to all beings, and all beings are (like) honey to this air.&lt;/strong&gt; (The same with) the shining immortal being who is in this air, and the shining, immortal being who is the vital force in the body. (These four) are but this Self. This (Self-knowledge) is (the means&#xA;of) immortality; this (underlying unity) is Brahman; this (knowledge of Brahman) is (the means of becoming) all. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;II-v-5: &lt;strong&gt;This sun is (like) honey to all beings, and all beings are (like) honey to this sun.&lt;/strong&gt; (The same with) the shining immortal being who is in this sun, and the shining, immortal being identified with the eye in the body. (These four) are but this Self. This (Self-knowledge) is (the means of) immortality; this (underlying unity) is Brahman; this&#xA;(knowledge of Brahman) is (the means of becoming) all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the summary of the Madhu Vidya is all the things in this Universe are interelated and everything is the essence of Everything.For eg. If air is the essence of all beings, then all beings are also the essence of air. Madhu Vidya also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;II-v-13: &lt;strong&gt;This human species is (like) honey to all beings, and all beings are (like) honey to this human species.&lt;/strong&gt; (The same with) the shining immortal being who is in this human species, and the shining, immortal being identified with the human species in the body. (These four) are but this Self. This (Self-knowledge) is (the means of) immortality; this (underlying unity) is Brahman; this (knowledge of Brahman) is (the means of becoming) all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Madhu Vidya Concludes with an important verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;II-v-15: This Self, already mentioned, is the ruler of all beings, and the king of all beings. Just as all the spokes are fixed in the nave and the felloe of a chariot-wheel, so are all beings, all gods, all worlds, all organs and all these (individual) selves fixed in this Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the concept is just as this Universe is an essence for me similarly I'm the essence  of this whole Universe. (Note That Madhu Vidya is one of the most important Vidyas and it was also used to revive the Deads also by the Gods and Rishis)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The above I have quoted are some verses/stories which can be related to modern scientific discoveries. There are still much more things which I have to write here I will try to continue updating the answer regularly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-04T12:20:44.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17446" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17440" CreationDate="2017-03-04T09:06:03.110" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The very word Esoteric means that its not common but limited to a group of people. Such practices of agama are done with high secrecy and are not generally discussed openly. &#xA;But it is certainly discussed by many people related to the sects or paths. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can recommend some books if you want to explore these paths via books like these, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Blavatsky, H.P.  Foundations of Esoteric Philosophy from the Writings of H.P. Blavatsky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arundale G. S.,  Kundalini&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;C. W. Leadbeater,  Chakras &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aghora: At the Left Hand of God by Robert E. Svoboda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These books are good in understanding many occult and esoteric principles. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-03-04T09:06:03.110" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17448" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-04T09:52:42.820" Score="10" ViewCount="677" Body="&lt;p&gt;For example, one popular rule that is believed to be scripturally imposed is that brahmanas can't participate in sea voyages. &lt;strong&gt;Where is it mentioned that such journey is prohibited&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-02T18:47:32.910" LastActivityDate="2017-11-26T12:43:44.490" Title="What do scriptures say regarding Immigration &amp; Emigration?" Tags="|scripture|brahmins|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17449" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-04T10:16:27.750" Score="3" ViewCount="1464" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did he take up sanyasa under sankara mutt (dashanami sampradaya) or from some other source ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he took it from Ramakrishna then when did Sri Ramakrishna took sanyasa and what was his sanyasa name ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-03-04T11:56:19.973" LastActivityDate="2017-03-04T11:56:19.973" Title="From where or whom did Swami Vivekananda take sanyasa?" Tags="|sanyasi|vivekananda|dashanami|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17450" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17452" CreationDate="2017-03-04T10:30:31.663" Score="6" ViewCount="340" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been reading about the six classical schools of Hindu philosophy (also known as the Shad-Darshan system).  Did all of these schools exist simultaneously and debate with each other (thereby being equally valid perspectives)? Or was there a gradual evolution of these schools (where Nyaya was the original progenitor and Vedanta became the crowning achievement and thereby most valid perspective)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7049" LastActivityDate="2017-03-04T10:46:14.817" Title="Six Classical Schools in Hindu Philosophy" Tags="|history|philosophy|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17452" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17450" CreationDate="2017-03-04T10:46:14.817" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his &lt;em&gt;Introduction&lt;/em&gt; to his translation of the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Vireswarananda writes, pp ii-iii, available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the age immediately preceding Buddha and during his lifetime there was a great religious and philosophical upheaval in India. From the Brahma-jâla-Sutras we learn that in his time there wrere as many as sixty-two different schools of philosophy in India. We also learn from Buddhistic literature the names of a good number of teachers who were venerated in Âryâvarta at the time—names like Purâna Kasyapa, Kâtyâyana, Makkâli Gosâla, Nigantha Nâthaputra, the founder of Jainism, and others. While these great souls represented Indian culture from an anti-Vedic standpoint there were many great names that represented the culture from the traditional standpoint—names that are still venerated by Hindu religion and culture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The destructive criticism of everything in the old system by the Chârvâkas and others set the orthodox section to organize their belief on a more rationalistic basis and render it immune against all such criticism. This led to the foundation of the six systems of orthodox Hindu philosophy—orthodox[1] in the sense that they accepted the authority of the Vedas in things transcendental—while there were others who did not accept this authority and therefore were dubbed heterodox, though otherwise they too were the outcome of Upanishadic thought. The acceptance of the authority of the Vedas by these orthodox schools, however, does not mean that they accepted them in toto . Their allegiance to the Vedas varied widely and often it was too loose. Of the six orthodox schools, viz. Nyâya, Vaiseshika, Sânkhya, Yoga, Purva Mimâmsâ and Uttara Mimâmsâ or Vedanta, the last two are intimately connected with the Vedas, which is one of the reasons why they are not mentioned in the Jaina and Buddhistic literature, while the others are mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These six orthodox systems of thought developed side by side at different intellectual centres, of which there were a good number all over the country even during the Upanishadic period. Again in each system there were shades of difference. Thus for centuries philosophic thought developed in India till at last it became so unwieldy that a regular systematization of each school of thought was found a great necessity. This led to the Sutra literature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-03-04T10:46:14.817" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17453" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-04T11:01:28.123" Score="5" ViewCount="776" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Rudra is Human destructive aspect of Supreme Shiva or Sada Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Vaishnav philosophy Lord Vishnu as Maha Vishnu lays in the Causal ocean and breathes out the number of universes. How Vishnu creates and maintains the universes is described in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10949/questions-about-various-incarnations-of-vishnu/10950#10950&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;So when a universe is created, there are 3 personalities that are directly incharge of &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maintenance-Lord Vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Creation-Lord Brahma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Annihilation -Lord Rudra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is Vishnu-Tatva or Sva-amsha(direct expansion) of Maha-Vishnu;i.e. to say Jiva can never become Vishnu in a universe.&#xA;Brahma is generally a jiva-tatva(Jivatma; a living entity like us) but sometimes when there is no living entity qualified to take up the position of Brahma, Lord &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/tlc/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu takes up the position of Brahma&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If in some kalpa there is no suitable living entity who can act in&#xA;  Brahmā’s capacity, Garbhodaka-śāyī Viṣṇu Himself becomes Brahmā and&#xA;  acts accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I've said in very 1st statement of this question,&lt;strong&gt;Lord Rudra is Human destructive aspect of Supreme Shiva or Sada Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;That is, He is Shivatma(Shiv-tatva**).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But here is what Srila Rupa Goswami says in His Laghu-Bhagavatamrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The scriptures explain that, as Brahma' is, so Siva is sometimes a&#xA;  jiva soul and sometimes an amsa-avatara like Lord Sesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Rupa Goswami gives analogy of Lord Shesha, thats because Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe that Shesha-Nag on whom Lord Vishnu lies is expansion of Vishnu(Vishnu-Tatva); whereas Shesha-Nag who carries universe on His hoods is a separate ; and He could be a Jivatma sometimes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my question is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is lord Rudra always an expansion of Shiva(i.e. Sada-Shiva ; just like Anant-Shesha being always an expansion of Lord Vishnu); or can a Jiva become Lord Rudra sometimes in a universe?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;** Shiva-Tatva ,Jiva-tatva, Shakti-tatva, Vishnu-Tatva: These are different types of living entities that I've heard of in Vaishnav terminology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2023-12-10T16:55:59.263" Title="Can Jivatma take the position of Lord Rudra?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|bhagavata-purana|creation|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17455" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17433" CreationDate="2017-03-04T15:48:10.720" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;Swami Vishwananda&quot; has given a good answer and example of &quot;Shishupal&quot; by &quot;Seeker&quot; is also a good point to mention. I agree with both of them and would like to share and elaborate my view on this. Please correct me if I am wrong on any point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may wonder, if just remember the God at the time of death is enough for getting liberated. If so, what will happen if any person recites God at his end time but his soul is very impure. Will he still be liberated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ANSWER1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, I believe that when we say &quot;Uttering&quot; Gods name does not imply just to making sound out of mouth. The name of God must be taken from deep inside the heart, not from the tongue. It does not matter if one ever pronounces Gods name or not, as long as he is remembering at his heart. Even the name is not necessary. If one recites just the figure of God or even just the sense of God, then that will count. So, just saying &quot;Narayana&quot; at the time of death is not enough. It must come from the heart with Devotion towards the God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devotion is something that God admires a lot but also an equally rare thing. It is not found with everyone. When we speak of Hindus, there will be very few who will never go to Temple or worship to God. But is that Devotion? I don't think so. It is just a kind of activity by us. Devotion is a rare Gem that is found only within the individuals with Pure Soul. For one to recall God from his heart at his last moment, he must be practicing this throughout his life. One suddenly can not think of God at the time of death when he has not been doing so regularly in his lifetime. So, I believe that one who do not have pure soul will not be able to think of God with devotion. Hence that will not get him liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What will happen to an individual who has pure soul and who has been devoted to God throughout his life but my mistake or due to some circumstances he remembers other things and not God at his end time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ANSWER2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are mentions of such cases and examples in Upanishads. There is one episode regarding that on famous serial &quot;Upanishad Ganga&quot;. Veda and Upanishads mention the importance of reciting Gods name at the time of death and on failure of doing so it is stated that one will have to take rebirth once again. There are examples of Yogis and highly spiritual individuals who failed to do so and then were reborn. So, the crude reply seems to be No, he will not be liberated. But there is more to this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First, I would like to restate the fact that any individual who has been devoted to God his whole life, how can he not remember God during his last moment. It will not only be a tough job but an impossible task for someone who has not been near to God during his lifetime but not for someone who is a real worshiper of God. It will be like a daily routine to him. He will never forget him. On every activity he does and at every moment he is thinking about God. So, it is highly unrealistic that he will think about anything else during his last moment. It does not matter whether the death is sudden or an accident. If one thinks of God every moment then it dose not matter if the check is done on the first moment of life or last or any other moment in between.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may argue that thinking about God every moment must be a very difficult if not next to impossible. But that is not true. I can say that with my experience. I cannot say that I always recite God and only God every moment of my time. But I can say that I do remember him most of the time. I associate him with everything and think about him when doing any activity. It is not like it has to be 100% of time or every second. It is more like in the sense of Generally. God looks at the &quot;Sense&quot; or &quot;BhAva&quot; and not Words. And I am not a Yogi or a very Divine person. I am just like anyone else. I may be slightly more devotional than average individual but I am still not that highly Spiritual. So, for highly spiritual it is not the matter of ease of difficult not it is any option for them. It is like breathing to them, and comes naturally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, the true answer to this question is not just blunt NO. A true follower of God is never separated from God, at the time of death or any other time. So, he will be liberated. But we human are not perfect. Time and again we fall from our position. So, one cannot discard the fact that no matter how spiritual we are or how pure soul we have, we are liable to make mistake at our last moment. We are prone to foster of Desire within us. Desire is the key to the cycle of Life and Death. As long as we have any desire we can not break through this cycle. So, there is very likely possible that we think of any of our desire and not the God. What will happen then?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since we are not free of our desires, we will have to take new birth according to what desire we have. So then all the devotion and spirituality of lifetime is wasted just because of the last moment? It is not like that. It is true that we missed our opportunity of getting enlightened at the very last moment, however, all that devotion and spirituality is does not go wasted. As we know, anyone who does good, will not come to a bad end himself. So, all that good deeds will help him in retaining good spirituality quickly and gives one more attempt to become One with God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CONCLUSION&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we talk about God and Spirituality, the faith and sense or (BhAva) is more important than Words or Acts. One may be a priest of a temple throughout his life but may not take Gods name from heart even once. So, in Gods world acts and deeds are not important. Going to temple is not that important as going to temple with Faith and Pure Heart. We can not decide whether to remember God or not at the time of death. Only at that last moment, it will be revealed. We are not in control of that. What we are in control of is what we do now. Only if we think of God from our heart now then we might be blessed by God and make us remember to call him at the last moment. Or else, it is not a lottery that has some chance of winning and we may or may not remember God when we are about to end this life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We may not succeed in our liberation even after the lifetime of worship and devotion to God and may need one or many other lives to get to that point. It is not certain but one thing is sure. If we do not get in God now, we will surely fall into some worldly desire at the time of test. So, it is Now that is more important than what we will do at our last moment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9146" LastEditorUserId="9125" LastEditDate="2017-03-05T04:50:01.117" LastActivityDate="2017-03-05T04:50:01.117" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17457" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17381" CreationDate="2017-03-04T17:30:45.957" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;It looks like Swami Vivekanda didn't give much importance  to  Jyotishya or blindly followed it, though he might have slightly believed in it. Rather he gave emphasis on realization of God. This is evident from his quotes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vievekanda quotes, (&lt;a href=&quot;http://belurmath.org/complete_works_of_swami_vivekananda/volume_8/notes_of_class_talks_and_lectures/man_the_maker.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Man the maker of History&lt;/a&gt;, Volume 8, Complete works.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All these ideas such as astrology, although there may be a grain of  truth in them, should be avoided.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;We may be under planetary influence, but it should not matter much to us. Buddha says, &amp;quot;Those that get a living by calculation of the stars by such art and other lying tricks are to be avoided&amp;quot;; and he ought to know, because he was the greatest Hindu ever born. Let stars come, what harm is there? If a star disturbs my life, it would not be worth a cent. You will find that astrology and all these mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind; therefore as soon as they are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food and rest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Excessive attention to the minutiae of astrology is one of the superstitions which has hurt the Hindus very much.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I have seen some astrologers who predicted wonderful things; but I have no reason to believe they predicted them only from the stars, or&#xA;anything of the sort. In many cases it is simply mind-reading.&#xA;Sometimes wonderful predictions are made, but in many cases it is&#xA;arrant trash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He quotes following example, to say willpower is greater than influence of stars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was once travelling in the Himalayas, and the long road stretched before us. We poor monks cannot get any one to carry us, so we had to&#xA;make all the way on foot. There was an old man with us. The way goes&#xA;up and down for hundreds of miles, and when that old monk saw what was&#xA;before him, he said, &amp;quot;Oh sir, how to cross it; I cannot walk any more;&#xA;my chest will break.&amp;quot; I said to him, &amp;quot;Look down at your feet.&amp;quot; He did&#xA;so, and I said, &amp;quot;The road that is under your feet is the road that you&#xA;have passed over and is the same road that you see before you; it will&#xA;soon be under your feet.&amp;quot; The highest things are under your feet,&#xA;because you are Divine Stars; all these things are under your feet.&#xA;You can swallow the stars by the handful if you want; such is your&#xA;real nature. Be strong, get beyond all superstitions, and be free.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, Swami Vivekandanda quotes an old story&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is an old story of an astrologer who came to a king and said,&#xA;&amp;quot;You are going to die in six months.&amp;quot; The king was frightened out of&#xA;his wits and was almost about to die then and there from fear. But his&#xA;minister was a clever man, and this man told the king that these&#xA;astrologers were fools. The king would not believe him. So the&#xA;minister saw no other way to make the king see that they were fools&#xA;but to invite the astrologer to the palace again. There he asked him&#xA;if his calculations were correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The astrologer said that there could&#xA;not be a mistake, but to satisfy him he went through the whole of the&#xA;calculations again and then said that they were perfectly correct. The&#xA;king's face became livid. The minister said to the astrologer, &amp;quot;And&#xA;when do you think that you will die?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;In twelve years&amp;quot;, was the&#xA;reply. The minister quickly drew his sword and separated the astrologer's head  from the body and said to the king, &amp;quot;Do you see this liar? He is dead this moment.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what he thought on origin of Astrology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was a very powerful dynasty in Southern India. They made it a&#xA;rule to take the horoscope of all the prominent men living from time&#xA;to time, calculated from the time of their birth. In this way they got&#xA;a record of leading facts predicted, and compared them afterwards with&#xA;events as they happened. This was done for a thousand years, until&#xA;they found certain agreements; these were generalised and recorded and&#xA;made into a huge book. The dynasty died out, but the family of&#xA;astrologers lived and had the book in their possession. &lt;strong&gt;It seems&#xA;possible that this is how astrology came into existence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think the Greeks first took astrology to India and took from the&#xA;Hindus the science of astronomy and carried it back with them from&#xA;Europe. Because in India you will find old altars made according to a&#xA;certain geometrical plan, and certain things had to be done when the&#xA;stars were in certain positions, therefore I think the Greeks gave the&#xA;Hindus astrology, and the Hindus gave them astronomy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But In &lt;a href=&quot;http://belurmath.org/complete_works_of_swami_vivekananda/volume_9/lectures_and_discourses/history_of_the_aryan_race.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;History of Aryan Race&lt;/a&gt;, Volume 9, he quotes Astrology was taken (separated) from Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Vedas are a vast mass of literature by themselves. That is to&#xA;say, in those ancient times, in every country, religion was the first&#xA;ideal to spring out of the heart of man, and all the secular knowledge&#xA;that men got was made over to religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, people who deal with religion and in later times came to be&#xA;called priests — being the first thinkers of every nation — not only&#xA;thought about religious subjects, but secular matters also; and, as&#xA;such, all knowledge was confined to them. These masses of knowledge —&#xA;both secular and religious — will always be gathered together and made&#xA;into a vast mass of literature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In much later times, this is the case. For instance, in studying the&#xA;Bible of the Jews, we find the same thing. The Talmud contained a vast&#xA;mass of information on all subjects and so did the Pentateuch. In the&#xA;same way, the Vedas give information on various subjects. They have&#xA;come together and form one book. And in later times, when other&#xA;subjects were separated from religion — &lt;strong&gt;when astronomy and astrology&#xA;were taken out of religion — these subjects, being connected with the&#xA;Vedas and being ancient, were considered very holy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are some of his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swamivivekanandaquotes.org/2013/12/swami-vivekananda-destiny-quotes-comments.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;quotes on destiny&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One's destiny is' in one's own hands.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The knowledge of Brahman is the ultimate goal -- the highest destiny of man.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The present is determined by our past actions, and the future by the present.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We make our own destiny.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can deduce from above quotes and examples, he gave more emphasis to realization of God and willpower than believing in Astrology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-07T17:33:00.463" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17459" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10606" CreationDate="2017-03-04T19:24:03.850" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all read &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.org/purusha/sukta-intro.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purusha Suktam&lt;/a&gt;, It reveals Identity of Veda Purusha Shriman Naryana and encourages us to follow the karma yoga by doing kainkarya (sewa) to Veda Purusha  and Uphold Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read Bhagwad Gita Bhasya of Bhagwad Ramanujacharya, there are many good online sources to read it. I am giving you few of them &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-1-1/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/chapter-18.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=18&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=66&amp;amp;scram=1&amp;amp;scvv=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was the prerequisite now the main sanctum sanatorium of Vishitadvaita Temple i.e Sri Bhasya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then dive into the divine three secrets, by reading Rahasyatrayasara of Kavitrakika Simha Vedantaacharya aka Vedanta Deshikacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2017-03-04T19:24:03.850" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17460" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-04T21:49:51.233" Score="5" ViewCount="96" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sāmaveda includes sāmagāna which is singing of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ruchas&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is eligible for chanting or singing of Sāmans? Is it only a Sāmavedi Brahmana or other Brahmanas can chant them too?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, is every &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvija&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;dwija&lt;/a&gt; eligible for sāmagāna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-22T04:36:12.760" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T04:36:12.760" Title="Eligiblity of Sāmagāna (सामगान​)" Tags="|sama-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17463" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-05T14:12:33.830" Score="2" ViewCount="283" Body="&lt;p&gt;As verse 24 of Vijnabhairav Tantra says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhairava says: Para devi or Highest Sakti who is of the nature of &lt;strong&gt;visarga&lt;/strong&gt; goes on (ceaselessly) expressing herself upward (urdhve) (from the centre of the body to &lt;strong&gt;dvàdashànta&lt;/strong&gt; or a distance of twelve fingers) in the form of exhalation (pràna) and downward  (from dvàdashànta to the centre of the body) in the form of inhalation (jiva or apana). By steady fixation of the mind at the two places of their origin (viz., centre of the body in the case of pràna) and dvàdashànta in the case of apàna), there is the situation of plenitude (bharitàsthiti, which is the state of paràSakti or nature of Bhairava).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Visargatma&lt;/strong&gt; - Who is of the nature of visarga. The word visarga means letting go, projection or creation, i.e. who is creative. The creative function of the Divine includes two movements-outward and inward or centrifugal and centripetal. In living beings, the outward or centrifugal movement is represented by expiration or exhalation; the inward or centripetal movement is represented by inspiration or inhalation. Parā or parā devī or Parā Sakti is designated as Visargātmā, because it is by this rhythm of centrifugal and centripetal movement that she carries on the play of life whether in the macrocosm or the microcosm. This movement is known as uccāra or spandana or ceaseless throb of Parādevi. In Sanskrit, visarga is represented by two points or dots one above the other. One point in this case is dvàdashànta where prāña ends and the other is the centre of the body where apāna ends. It is because of these two points also that Parasakti is known as visargatma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dvàdashànta&lt;/strong&gt;-literally meaning 'end of twelve' indicates the point at a distance of 12 fingers from the tip of the nose in the outer space where expiration arising from the centre of the human body, and passing through the throat and the nose ends. This is known as bàhya dvàdashànta or the external dvàdashànta.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As its presence is known which is 12 fingers away from the tip of the nose. &#xA;But can anyone tell in which &lt;strong&gt;direction&lt;/strong&gt;? Can anyone affirm the pic, I've concluded Black dot as Dvàdashànta.&#xA;[&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PFe3y.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;1]&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-03-06T08:10:42.400" LastActivityDate="2017-03-06T08:10:42.400" Title="Dvādashānta in which direction from the tip of the nose?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17464" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16776" CreationDate="2017-03-05T15:41:57.987" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Each Veda consists of four parts: the Mantra-Samhitas or hymns, the Brahmanas or explanations of Mantras or rituals, the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads. The division of the Vedas into four parts is to suit the four stages in a man's life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas primarily have 2 parts - Karma Kanda and Gyana Kanda. Karma Kanda contains all the prescribed rituals and chants, and material oblations to offer to the gods, which count as the sacrifice. It also asks blessings from the gods to assist in our personal day-2-day dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्मः तस्माद्धर्मात् परं नास्त्य् अथो अबलीयान् बलीयाँसमाशँसते धर्मेण&#xA;  यथा राज्ञैवम् । यो वै स धर्मः सत्यं वै तत् तस्मात्सत्यं वदन्तमाहुर्&#xA;  धर्मं वदतीति धर्मं वा वदन्तँ सत्यं वदतीत्य् एतद्ध्येवैतदुभयं भवति ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Nothing is higher than Dharma. The weak overcomes the stronger by&#xA;    Dharma, as over a king. Truly that Dharma is the Truth (Satya);&#xA;    Therefore, when a man speaks the Truth, they say, &quot;He speaks the&#xA;    Dharma&quot;; and if he speaks Dharma, they say, &quot;He speaks the Truth!&quot; For&#xA;    both are one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upanishads are parts of the last section - Gyana Kanda which emphasized on the integration of spiritual wisdom with material rites and rituals. How material rites and rituals are linked with inner focus, one-pointedness (ekagrata), inward investigation (antarmookhi vichaar), non-duality (advaita) etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gyana Kanda speaks of all beings, gods and other entities as essentially the same in essence and totality, but different in transactional reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.22 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who seek Brahman wish to realize It by the study of the Vedas,&#xA;  by performing sacrifices, by giving gifts and by austerities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 6.3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आरुरुक्षोर्मुनेर्योगं कर्म कारणमुच्यते |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  योगारूढस्य तस्यैव शम: कारणमुच्यते |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ārurukṣhor muner yogaṁ karma kāraṇam uchyate&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  yogārūḍhasya tasyaiva śhamaḥ kāraṇam uchyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;To the soul who is aspiring for perfection in Yog, work without&#xA;    attachment is said to be the means; to the sage who is already&#xA;    elevated in Yog, tranquility in meditation is said to be the means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna mentioned that there are two paths for attaining welfare—the path of contemplation and the path of action. Between these, he recommended to Arjun to follow the path of action. Again in &lt;strong&gt;chapter 5, verse 2&lt;/strong&gt;, he declared it to be the better path. Does this mean that we must keep doing work all our life? Anticipating such a question, Krishna sets the limits for it. When we perform Karma yoga, it leads to the purification of the mind and the ripening of spiritual knowledge. But once the mind has been purified and we advance in Yoga, then we can leave karma yoga and take to karma sanyāsa. Material activities now serve no purpose and meditation now becomes the means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the path we must follow filters down to a matter of our eligibility and Krishna explains the criteria of eligibility in this verse. He says that for those who are aspiring for Yoga, the path of karma yoga is more suitable; and those who are elevated in Yoga, the path of karma sanyāsa is more suitable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-03-05T15:41:57.987" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17465" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17466" CreationDate="2017-03-06T05:51:11.760" Score="12" ViewCount="6434" Body="&lt;p&gt;Codes of Conduct or Ethical codes are very essential norms, rules and values that guides the right living practices and standard behaviour for individual as well as social welfare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example Code of Conduct for organizations or project-- &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/conduct&quot;&gt;StackExchange&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ubuntu.com/about/about-ubuntu/conduct&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.python.org/psf/codeofconduct/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Python&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/GNU_Health/Code_of_Conduct&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;GNU Health&lt;/a&gt; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly I've heard about Religious Code of Conduct for Christianity, Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know &lt;strong&gt;what are the Codes of Conduct (Ethics) or Ethical Codes of Hinduism?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-11-14T04:26:18.043" LastActivityDate="2021-11-14T04:27:10.187" Title="What are the Hindu Code of Conduct (Ethics)?" Tags="|dharma|practice|ethics|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17466" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17465" CreationDate="2017-03-06T05:51:11.760" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Santana Dharma, the &amp;quot;right way of living&amp;quot; is preached in many scriptures. Actually the Sanskrit word &amp;quot;Dharma&amp;quot; itself stands for similar meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ethics (Ethical code or Code Of Conduct) are taught in various ways in Hindu Scriptures like as &lt;em&gt;Divine Commandments&lt;/em&gt; in Vedas-Upanishad, Bhagavad Gita. In terms of &lt;strong&gt;Yama (यम) &amp;amp; Niyama (नियम)&lt;/strong&gt; in Smriti literatures (&amp;quot;Dharma Shashtra&amp;quot;) and in Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Yamas:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहिंसासत्यास्तेयब्रह्मचर्यापरिग्रहा यमाः।।2.30।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt; 2.30 Self-restraint in actions includes abstention from violence, from falsehoods, from stealing, from sexual engagements, and from acceptance of gifts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to Hatha Yoga (Pradipika) &lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहिंसा सत्यमस्तेयं बरह्मछर्यं कष्हमा धॄतिः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;दयार्जवं मिताहारः शौछं छैव यमा दश || १७ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ten rules of conduct are: ahiṃsâ (non-injuring), truth, non-stealing, continence, forgiveness, endurance, compassion, meekness, sparing diet and cleanliness. 17.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, There are 10 Yamas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ahiṃsa (अहिंसा): Non-violence, Non-injury&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satya (सत्य): Truthfulness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Asteya (अस्तेय): Non-stealing&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmacharya (ब्रह्मचर्य): Divine conduct, Chastity&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kshama (क्षमा): Patience, Forgiveness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhṛti (धृति): Steadfastness, Fortitude&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Daya (दया): Compassion&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aarjava (आर्जव): Honesty, non-hypocrisy, Sincerity&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mitahara (मिताहार): Moderate Appetite, Measured diet&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saucha (शौच): Purity, Cleanliness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Niyamas:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शौचसंतोषतपः स्वाध्यायेश्वरप्रणिधानानि नियमाः।।2.32।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;2.32 The fixed observances are cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study and persevering devotion to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to Hatha Yoga (Pradipika) &lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तपः सन्तोष्ह आस्तिक्यं दानमीश्वर-पूजनम |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सिद्धान्त-वाक्य-शरवणं हरीमती छ तपो हुतम |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नियमा दश सम्प्रोक्ता योग-शास्त्र-विशारदैः || १८ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ten niyamas mentioned by those proficient in the knowledge of yoga are: Tapa, patience, belief in God, charity, adoration of God, hearing discourses on the principles of religion, shame, intellect, Tapa and Yajña.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, There are 10 Niyamas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hri(ह्री): Remorse (Acceptance of one's past, modesty, humility)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Santoṣa(सन्तोष): Contentment (Acceptance of others and of one's circumstances as they are, optimism for self)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aastikya(आस्तिक्य): Faith (in God, Scripture)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dana(दान): Giving, generosity, charity, sharing with others&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ishvarapujana(ईश्वरपूजन): Worship of (Ishvara, God, Brahman)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Siddhanta Shravana (सिद्धान्त श्रवण): Scriptural listening&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mati(मति): Cognition (thinking and reflecting to develop wisdom and spirituality according to guidance of Guru)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vrata (व्रत): Sacred vows (Fulfilling vows, rules and observances faithfully)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Japa(जप): Recitation (reciting sacred sound, prayers)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tapas(तपस्): Austerity, persistence, perseverance towards the goal or purpose.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the better understanding and explanation it is recommended to go through scripture or books on this topic. Also note that no. of Yama and Niyama may change according to different scripture, above is the most adopted or significant code of conduct in Hinduism universally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are some useful pages/articles you may visit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.himalayanacademy.com/media/books/code-of-conduct_ei/web/ch42.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Himalaya Academy - Hinduism Code of Conduct or Ethics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/vedic-lifestyle/beginners-guide/hinduism-code-of-conduct&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indianscriptures.com - Hinduism Code of Conduct&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Ethics_of_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ethics of Hinduism - Hindupedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/czCbZ.jpg&quot; width=&quot;450&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;Iamge &lt;a href=&quot;https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/79/73/d6/7973d6ff6128b5d5062c7a199de0ba38.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1] Quoted from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sacred Texts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Related: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16821/what-are-the-canonical-texts-in-hinduism-for-morality-and-ethics&quot;&gt;What are the canonical texts in Hinduism for morality and ethics?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-11-14T04:27:10.187" LastActivityDate="2021-11-14T04:27:10.187" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17467" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6586" CreationDate="2017-03-06T07:57:02.453" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit verse used in YajurVeda Taittariya Samhita 3.4.5 is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;विष्णु पर्वतानां ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vishnu Parvatãnãm&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu of the Parvatas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &amp;apos;Parvata&amp;apos; is used there which can be used to &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?beginning=0+&amp;amp;tinput=+%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A4&amp;amp;trans=Translate&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;mean&lt;/a&gt; both mountains and Hills.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Regarding that verse Sayana just uses a single sentence and tells:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विष्णुः पर्वतानां गोवर्धनादीनामधिपति ।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vishnu the Lord of Paravatas like Gorvardhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sayana is primarily using the meaning &amp;apos;Hill&amp;apos; of the word &amp;apos;Paravat&amp;apos;. So, this verse can be intrepreted also to mean:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu the lord of Paravatas like 7 Hills of Venkateshwara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-03-06T07:57:02.453" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17468" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="774" CreationDate="2017-03-06T08:31:10.900" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;All the Vedic texts are eternal and appeared from the Supreme Lord:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 11.7.24:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rcah samani chandamsi puranam yajusa saha ucchistaj-jajnire sarve divi&#xA;  deva divi-sritah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The Rg, Sama, Yajur and Atharva became manifest from the Lord, along&#xA;  with the Puranas and all the Devas residing in the heavens.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 15.6.10–12:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa brhatim disam anu vyacalat tam itihasas ca puranam ca gathas ca&#xA;  itihasasya ca sa vai puranasya ca gathanam ca narasamsinam ca priyam&#xA;  dhama bhavati ya evam veda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He approached the brhati meter, and thus the Itihasas, Puranas, Gathas and Narasamsis became favorable to him. One who knows this verily becomes the beloved abode of the Itihasas, Puranas, Gathas and Narasamsis.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Madhyandina-sruti, Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad 2.4.10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;asya mahato bhutasya nihsvasitam etad yad rg-vedo yajur-vedah sama&#xA;  vedo’tharvangirasa itihasah puranam ityadina &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O Maitreya, the Rg, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas as well as the Itihasas and the Puranas all manifest from the breathing of the Lord.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gopatha Brahmana, purva 2.10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;evam ime sarva veda nirmitah sa-kalpah sa-rahasyah sa-brahmanah&#xA;  sopanisatkah setihasah sanvakhyatah sa-puranan &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“In this way, all the Vedas were manifested along with the Kalpas, Rahasyas, Brahmanas, Upanishads, Itihasas, Anvakhyatas and the Puranas.” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kauthumiya Chandogya Upanisad 7.1.4&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nama va rg-vedo yajur-vedah sama-veda atharvanas caturtha&#xA;  itihasa-puranah pancamo vedanam vedah &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Indeed, Rg, Yajur, Sama and Atharva are the names of the fourVedas. The Itihasas and Puranas are the fifth Veda.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: &lt;a href=&quot;https://nitaigaurangablog.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/what-are-the-puranas/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;nitaigaurangablog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All this texts appeared from the supreme Person and transferred from generation to generation through various disciplic chains as described in Srimad Bhagavatam canto 12, chapter 6 and 7: Vedabase.com/en/sb/12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5794" LastEditorUserId="10017" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T12:38:24.053" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T12:38:24.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17470" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2931" CreationDate="2017-03-06T08:57:21.630" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a story behind his disappearance, he didn't die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many misconceptions about this because some people do not study the Vedic texts properly and out of curiosity and half-knowledge makes some baseless conclusions like Lord Krishna died from just an arrow by Hunter Jara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Story of Jara shoots an arrow at Krishna’s lotus feet should be studied properly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We should first understand how can a Greatest Kshatriya die from just an arrow which just hit the foot of Lord Krishna? Are the Kshatriyas so weak (I’m talking this on the material plane)? And the person who makes alive the son of his guru and took him back from the abode of Yama (the god of death) to his father (guru) can really die?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The story is as follows:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 10.45.45 — The Supreme Personality of Godhead said:&#xA;Suffering the bondage of his past activity, My spiritual master’s son&#xA;was brought here to you. O great King, obey My command and bring this&#xA;boy to Me without delay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.45.46 — Yamarāja said, “So be it,” and brought forth the guru’s&#xA;son. Then those two most exalted Yadus presented the boy to Their&#xA;spiritual master and said to him, “Please select another boon.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Vedabase.com/en/sb/10/45&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna defeated Indra as well as Mahakala (The god of god of death) Shiva. //Lord Krishna is the original Mahakala as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When Lord Krishna defeated Lord Shiva and Banasura, Lord Shiva said:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 10.63.38 — You are the original person, one without a second,&#xA;transcendental and self-manifesting. Uncaused, you are the cause of&#xA;all, and You are the ultimate controller. You are nonetheless&#xA;perceived in terms of the transformations of matter effected by Your&#xA;illusory energy — transformations You sanction so that the various&#xA;material qualities can fully manifest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Vedabase.com/en/sb/10/63&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moreover, by the mercy of Lord Krishna, Hunter Jara went to the abode of Lord Krishna without leaving his body:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.39 — The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Jarā,&#xA;do not fear. Please get up. What has been done is actually My own&#xA;desire. With My permission, go now to the abode of the pious, the&#xA;spiritual world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.40 — So instructed by the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, who assumes His&#xA;transcendental body by His own will, the hunter circumambulated the&#xA;Lord three times and bowed down to Him. Then the hunter departed in an&#xA;airplane that had appeared just to carry him to the spiritual sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Vedabase.com/en/sb/11/30&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Person, whose pastimes are divine, can he really die and that is too by just an arrow?&#xA;If we look at the eleventh canto of Srimad Bhagavatam carefully that when the hunter shot an arrow at Lord Krishna’s feet, he realized that He was the Lord, he was aghast. He came there, but there is no description that he removed the blood or he treated the wound over there. That arrow just touched the Krishna’s Lotus feet because his body is Fully Transcendental. He was actually very repentful and he was very prayerful, begging forgiveness. So actually it was just a Lila of the Lord to leave this material world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When Krishna was talking with Daruka, Lord Krishna abandoned his four arm form and appeared in his own original two hand form, this is confirmed in the following verses of Srimad Bhagavatam (SB):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.45 — All the divine weapons of Viṣṇu rose up and followed the&#xA;chariot. The Lord, Janārdana, then spoke to His chariot driver, who&#xA;was most astonished to see all this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.46 — O driver, go to Dvārakā and tell Our family members how&#xA;their loved ones destroyed one another. Also tell them of the&#xA;disappearance of Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa and of My present condition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.47 — You and your relatives should not remain in Dvārakā, the&#xA;capital of the Yadus, because once I have abandoned that city it will&#xA;be inundated by the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.48 — You should all take your own families, together with My&#xA;parents, and under Arjuna’s protection go to Indraprastha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.49 — You, Dāruka, should be firmly situated in devotion to&#xA;Me, remaining fixed in spiritual knowledge and unattached to material&#xA;considerations. Understanding these pastimes to be a display of My&#xA;illusory potency, you should remain peaceful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.50 — Thus ordered, Dāruka circumambulated the Lord and&#xA;offered obeisances to Him again and again. He placed Lord Kṛṣṇa’s&#xA;lotus feet upon his head and then with a sad heart went back to the&#xA;city.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Vedabase.com/en/sb/11/30&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After this incident, Lord Krishna manifests his last divine pastime and disappears from the material world:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.1 — Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Then Lord Brahmā arrived at&#xA;Prabhāsa along with Lord Śiva and his consort, the sages, the&#xA;Prajāpatis and all the demigods, headed by Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.2-3 — The forefathers, Siddhas, Gandharvas, Vidyādharas and&#xA;great serpents also came, along with the Cāraṇas, Yakṣas, Rākṣasas,&#xA;Kinnaras, Apsarās and relatives of Garuḍa, greatly eager to witness&#xA;the departure of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As they were&#xA;coming, all these personalities variously chanted and glorified the&#xA;birth and activities of Lord Śauri [Kṛṣṇa].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.4 — O King, crowding the sky with their many airplanes, they&#xA;showered down flowers with great devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.5 — Seeing before Him Brahmā, the grandfather of the&#xA;universe, along with the other demigods, who are all His personal and&#xA;powerful expansions, the Almighty Lord closed His lotus eyes, fixing&#xA;His mind within Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.6 — Without employing the mystic āgneyī meditation to burn up&#xA;His transcendental body, which is the all-attractive resting place of&#xA;all the worlds and the object of all contemplation and meditation,&#xA;Lord Kṛṣṇa entered into His own abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.7 — As soon as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa left the earth, Truth,&#xA;Religion, Faithfulness, Glory and Beauty immediately followed Him.&#xA;Kettledrums resounded in the heavens and flowers showered from the&#xA;sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.8 — Most of the demigods and other higher beings led by&#xA;Brahmā could not see Lord Kṛṣṇa as He was entering His own abode,&#xA;since He did not reveal His movements. But some of them did catch&#xA;sight of Him, and they were extremely amazed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.9 — Just as ordinary men cannot ascertain the path of a&#xA;lightning bolt as it leaves a cloud, the demigods could not trace out&#xA;the movements of Lord Kṛṣṇa as He returned to His abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.10 — A few of the demigods, however — notably Lord Brahmā and&#xA;Lord Śiva — could ascertain how the Lord’s mystic power was working,&#xA;and thus they became astonished. All the demigods praised the Lord’s&#xA;mystic power and then returned to their own planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Vedabase.com/en/sb/11/31&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna says:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bg 4.6 — Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never&#xA;deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, I&#xA;still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Vedabase.com/en/bg/4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another famous misconception about Hunter Jara that is he was a re-incarnation of Vali but there is no single statement from shastra to support such claim. Valmiki Ramayana says vali attained Moksha after getting killed by Lord Rama himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5794" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-07T07:27:07.393" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17472" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-06T10:03:42.280" Score="5" ViewCount="1535" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 4 states of consciousness - waking, dreaming, dreamless and Turiya although some people do refer to 5th state called &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8993/3872&quot;&gt;Turiyatita&lt;/a&gt;. According to Adi Shankara, dreams are &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14597/3872&quot;&gt;created by Jiva&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.3.9 - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He himself destroying, he himself shaping dreams with his own splendour, with his own light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a type of dream known as lucid dream. According to Wiki:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A lucid dream is a dream during which the dreamer is aware of dreaming&lt;/strong&gt;. During lucid dreaming, the dreamer may be able to exert some degree of control over the dream characters, narrative, and environment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the difference between normal dreams and lucid dreams, in normal dreams, dreamer has no control over environments and objects but in lucid dreaming, the dreamer decides what to do next!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dreamer might want to go on a solar system trip or a visit to Betelgeuse which is 700 light years away. Dreamer can fly like a free bird or dive in the ocean like Godzilla!&#xA;There are a lot of experts in this field who have years of experience in lucid dreaming and according to research, most people experience atleast 1 lucid dream in their life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But do scriptures contain anything about it? As far as I know, Upanishads talk about dreaming state but not sub type of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-03-06T10:03:42.280" Title="What do scriptures say about lucid dreaming?" Tags="|dream|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17473" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17465" CreationDate="2017-03-06T12:15:55.563" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is already a discussion on ethics and morality in a related question, '&lt;em&gt;What are the canonical texts in Hinduism for morality and ethics?&lt;/em&gt;'. Here are some additional teachings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhishma’s morality&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma said, ‘Knowing how painful it is to himself, a person should&#xA;  never do that to others which he dislikes when done to him by others.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLX&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Protest against slavery&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tuladhara said, ‘…Men are seen to own men as slaves, and by beating,&#xA;  by binding, and by otherwise subjecting them to restraints, cause them&#xA;  to labour day and night. These people are not ignorant of pain that&#xA;  results from beating and fastening in chains. In every creature that&#xA;  is endued with the five senses live all the deities, Surya,&#xA;  Chandramas, the god of wind, Brahman, Prana, Kratu, and Yama (these&#xA;  dwell in living creatures). There are men that live by trafficking in&#xA;  living creatures!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Treatment of servants&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma said, ‘…One should not make distinction between one’s guests&#xA;  and attendants and kinsmen in matters of food. Equality (in this&#xA;  respect) with servants is applauded.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CXCIII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Condemnation of dowry&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A wife should never be purchased. Nor should a father sell his&#xA;  daughter. Only those persons of sinful soul who are possessed,&#xA;  besides, by cupidity, and who sell and purchase female slaves for&#xA;  making serving women, regard the status of wife as capable of arising&#xA;  from the gift and acceptance of a dowry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata AnusasanaParva Section XLIV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Condemnation of Usury&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma said, ‘They who betake themselves to improper conduct, they&#xA;  who take exorbitant rates of interest, and they who make unduly large&#xA;  profits on sales, have to sink in hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, AnusasanaParva, Section XXIII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Highest Morality&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tuladhara said, ‘O Jajali, I know morality, which is eternal, with all&#xA;  its mysteries. It is nothing else than that ancient morality which is&#xA;  known to all, and which consists of universal friendliness, and is&#xA;  fraught with beneficence to all creatures. That mode of living which&#xA;  is founded upon a total harmlessness towards all creatures or (in case&#xA;  of actual necessity) upon a minimum of such harm, is the highest&#xA;  morality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLXII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Need to feel for the afflicted&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I abide in all beings as their inner-most soul. Disregarding My&#xA;  presence within them, men make a show of worshiping Me through images.&#xA;  If one disregards Me present in all as their soul and Lord but&#xA;  ignorantly offers worship only to images, such worship is as&#xA;  ineffective as a sacrificial offering made in ashes. A man who&#xA;  persecutes Me residing in others, who is proud and haughty, who looks&#xA;  upon God as the other – such a person will never attain to peace of&#xA;  mind. If a man disregards and persecutes fellow beings, but worships&#xA;  Me in images with numerous rituals and rich offerings, I am not at all&#xA;  pleased with him for proffering such worship. A man should, however,&#xA;  worship Me in images, side by side with discharging his duties, which&#xA;  include the love of all beings, until he actually realises My presence&#xA;  in himself and in all beings. As long as man is self-centred and makes&#xA;  an absolute distinction between himself and others (without&#xA;  recognizing the unity of all in Me, the Inner Pervader), he will be&#xA;  subject to the great fear of Death (including every form of&#xA;  deprivation of self-interest). So overcoming the separateness of a&#xA;  self-centred life, one should serve all beings with gifts, honour and&#xA;  love, recognising that such service is really being rendered to Me who&#xA;  reside in all beings as their innermost soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana III.29.21-27&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moral guidelines for the Righteous&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira said, ‘Abstentions from injury, the observances of the&#xA;  Vedic ritual, meditation, subjugation of the senses, penances, and&#xA;  obedient services rendered to the preceptors - which amongst these is&#xA;  fraught with the greatest merit with respect to a person?’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vrihaspati said, ‘All these six are fraught with merit. They are&#xA;  different doors of piety. I shall discourse upon them presently. Do&#xA;  thou listen to them, O chief of the Bharatas! &lt;strong&gt;I shall tell thee what&#xA;  constitutes the highest good of a human being. That man who practices&#xA;  the religion of universal compassion achieves his highest good. That&#xA;  man who keeps under control the three faults, viz., lust, wrath, and&#xA;  cupidity, ,,, (and practises the virtue of compassion), attains to&#xA;  success. ……. That man who regards all creatures as his own self, and&#xA;  behaves towards them as towards his own self, laying aside the rod of&#xA;  chastisement and completely subjugating his wrath, succeeds in&#xA;  attaining to happiness. ….One should never do that to another, which&#xA;  one regards as injurious to one’s own self. This, in brief, is the&#xA;  rule of righteousness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Anusasana Parva Section CXIII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-03-06T12:15:55.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17474" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="937" CreationDate="2017-03-06T12:23:54.627" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna disappeared from the material world at the age of 125. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said to Krishna in Srimad Bhagavatam 11.6.25 — &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Supreme Personality of Godhead, O my Lord, You have descended into&#xA;  the Yadu dynasty, and thus You have spent one hundred twenty-five&#xA;  autumns with Your devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref:&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/6/25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/6/25&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, he didn't get old. He was ever-fresh or ever-youth all the time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another thing is, you have misunderstood Krishna's disappearance pastime. He was not killed by anyone, he just disappeared from the material world in a transcendental way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a story behind his disappearance. From my previous answer to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2931/is-there-any-story-behind-lord-krishnas-death/17470#17470&quot;&gt;Is there any story behind Lord Krishna&amp;#39;s death?&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many misconceptions about this because some people do not study the Vedic texts properly and out of curiosity and half-knowledge makes some baseless conclusions like Lord Krishna died from just an arrow by Hunter Jara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Story of Jara shoots an arrow at Krishna’s lotus feet should be studied properly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We should first understand how can a Greatest Kshatriya die from just an arrow which just hit the foot of Lord Krishna? Are the Kshatriyas so weak (I’m talking this on the material plane)? And the person who makes alive the son of his guru and took him back from the abode of Yama (the god of death) to his father (guru) can really die?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The story is as follows:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 10.45.45 — The Supreme Personality of Godhead said:&#xA;  Suffering the bondage of his past activity, My spiritual master’s son&#xA;  was brought here to you. O great King, obey My command and bring this&#xA;  boy to Me without delay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.45.46 — Yamarāja said, “So be it,” and brought forth the guru’s&#xA;  son. Then those two most exalted Yadus presented the boy to Their&#xA;  spiritual master and said to him, “Please select another boon.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Vedabase.com/en/sb/10/45&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna defeated Indra as well as Mahakala (The god of god of death) Shiva. //Lord Krishna is the original Mahakala as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When Lord Krishna defeated Lord Shiva and Banasura, Lord Shiva said:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 10.63.38 — You are the original person, one without a second,&#xA;  transcendental and self-manifesting. Uncaused, you are the cause of&#xA;  all, and You are the ultimate controller. You are nonetheless&#xA;  perceived in terms of the transformations of matter effected by Your&#xA;  illusory energy — transformations You sanction so that the various&#xA;  material qualities can fully manifest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Vedabase.com/en/sb/10/63&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moreover, by the mercy of Lord Krishna, Hunter Jara went to the abode of Lord Krishna without leaving his body:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.39 — The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Jarā,&#xA;  do not fear. Please get up. What has been done is actually My own&#xA;  desire. With My permission, go now to the abode of the pious, the&#xA;  spiritual world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.40 — So instructed by the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, who assumes His&#xA;  transcendental body by His own will, the hunter circumambulated the&#xA;  Lord three times and bowed down to Him. Then the hunter departed in an&#xA;  airplane that had appeared just to carry him to the spiritual sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Vedabase.com/en/sb/11/30&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Person, whose pastimes are divine, can he really die and that is too by just an arrow?&#xA;If we look at the eleventh canto of Srimad Bhagavatam carefully that when the hunter shot an arrow at Lord Krishna’s feet, he realized that He was the Lord, he was aghast. He came there, but there is no description that he removed the blood or he treated the wound over there. That arrow just touched the Krishna’s Lotus feet because his body is Fully Transcendental. He was actually very repentful and he was very prayerful, begging forgiveness. So actually it was just a Lila of the Lord to leave this material world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When Krishna was talking with Daruka, Lord Krishna abandoned his four arm form and appeared in his own original two hand form, this is confirmed in the following verses of Srimad Bhagavatam (SB):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.45 — All the divine weapons of Viṣṇu rose up and followed the&#xA;  chariot. The Lord, Janārdana, then spoke to His chariot driver, who&#xA;  was most astonished to see all this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.46 — O driver, go to Dvārakā and tell Our family members how&#xA;  their loved ones destroyed one another. Also tell them of the&#xA;  disappearance of Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa and of My present condition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.47 — You and your relatives should not remain in Dvārakā, the&#xA;  capital of the Yadus, because once I have abandoned that city it will&#xA;  be inundated by the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.48 — You should all take your own families, together with My&#xA;  parents, and under Arjuna’s protection go to Indraprastha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.49 — You, Dāruka, should be firmly situated in devotion to&#xA;  Me, remaining fixed in spiritual knowledge and unattached to material&#xA;  considerations. Understanding these pastimes to be a display of My&#xA;  illusory potency, you should remain peaceful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.30.50 — Thus ordered, Dāruka circumambulated the Lord and&#xA;  offered obeisances to Him again and again. He placed Lord Kṛṣṇa’s&#xA;  lotus feet upon his head and then with a sad heart went back to the&#xA;  city.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Vedabase.com/en/sb/11/30&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After this incident, Lord Krishna manifests his last divine pastime and disappears from the material world:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.1 — Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Then Lord Brahmā arrived at&#xA;  Prabhāsa along with Lord Śiva and his consort, the sages, the&#xA;  Prajāpatis and all the demigods, headed by Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.2-3 — The forefathers, Siddhas, Gandharvas, Vidyādharas and&#xA;  great serpents also came, along with the Cāraṇas, Yakṣas, Rākṣasas,&#xA;  Kinnaras, Apsarās and relatives of Garuḍa, greatly eager to witness&#xA;  the departure of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As they were&#xA;  coming, all these personalities variously chanted and glorified the&#xA;  birth and activities of Lord Śauri [Kṛṣṇa].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.4 — O King, crowding the sky with their many airplanes, they&#xA;  showered down flowers with great devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.5 — Seeing before Him Brahmā, the grandfather of the&#xA;  universe, along with the other demigods, who are all His personal and&#xA;  powerful expansions, the Almighty Lord closed His lotus eyes, fixing&#xA;  His mind within Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.6 — Without employing the mystic āgneyī meditation to burn up&#xA;  His transcendental body, which is the all-attractive resting place of&#xA;  all the worlds and the object of all contemplation and meditation,&#xA;  Lord Kṛṣṇa entered into His own abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.7 — As soon as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa left the earth, Truth,&#xA;  Religion, Faithfulness, Glory and Beauty immediately followed Him.&#xA;  Kettledrums resounded in the heavens and flowers showered from the&#xA;  sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.8 — Most of the demigods and other higher beings led by&#xA;  Brahmā could not see Lord Kṛṣṇa as He was entering His own abode,&#xA;  since He did not reveal His movements. But some of them did catch&#xA;  sight of Him, and they were extremely amazed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.9 — Just as ordinary men cannot ascertain the path of a&#xA;  lightning bolt as it leaves a cloud, the demigods could not trace out&#xA;  the movements of Lord Kṛṣṇa as He returned to His abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.31.10 — A few of the demigods, however — notably Lord Brahmā and&#xA;  Lord Śiva — could ascertain how the Lord’s mystic power was working,&#xA;  and thus they became astonished. All the demigods praised the Lord’s&#xA;  mystic power and then returned to their own planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Vedabase.com/en/sb/11/31&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna says:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 4.6 — Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never&#xA;  deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, I&#xA;  still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Vedabase.com/en/bg/4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, It was not Vali who re-incarnated as Jara. It is another famous misconception about Hunter Jara that is he was a re-incarnation of Vali. There is no single statement from shastra to support such claim. Valmiki Ramayana says vali attained Moksha after getting killed by Lord Rama himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5794" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-03-06T17:03:33.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17475" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2175" CreationDate="2017-03-06T12:28:40.873" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many stories in which it is said Shiva or Agni gifted Sudarshana Chakra to Vishnu, but in reality it is not the case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srila Prabhupada said:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sudarśana&lt;/strong&gt;: This wheel which is accepted by the Personality of Godhead&#xA;  (Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa) as His personal weapon is the most powerful weapon,&#xA;  greater than the brahmāstras or similar other disastrous weapons. In&#xA;  some of the Vedic literatures it is said that Agnideva, the fire-god,&#xA;  presented this weapon to Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, but factually this weapon is&#xA;  eternally carried by the Lord. Agnideva presented this weapon to Kṛṣṇa&#xA;  in the same way that Rukmiṇī was given by Mahārāja Rukma to the Lord.&#xA;  The Lord accepts such presentations from His devotees, even though&#xA;  such presentations are eternally His property. There is an elaborate&#xA;  description of this weapon in the Ādi-parva of the Mahābhārata. Lord&#xA;  Śrī Kṛṣṇa used this weapon to kill Śiśupāla, a rival of the Lord. He&#xA;  also killed Śālva by this weapon, and sometimes He wanted His friend&#xA;  Arjuna to use it to kill his enemies (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa-parva 56.3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Purport of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/9/6-7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/9/6-7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hare Krishna!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5794" LastActivityDate="2017-03-06T12:28:40.873" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17476" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1982" CreationDate="2017-03-06T12:35:56.317" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many stories in which it is said Shiva or Agni gifted Sudarshana Chakra to Krishna/Vishnu, but in reality it is not the case. All the weapons are Krishna's eternal property and his weapons immediately appear in front of him when he calls them or wish to use them. Just because, he received the weapon (s) from someone in his divine pastimes, it doesn't mean someone gifted it to him originally or it was not his own property.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srila Prabhupada said:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sudarśana&lt;/strong&gt;: This wheel which is accepted by the Personality of Godhead&#xA;  (Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa) as His personal weapon is the most powerful weapon,&#xA;  greater than the brahmāstras or similar other disastrous weapons. In&#xA;  some of the Vedic literatures it is said that Agnideva, the fire-god,&#xA;  presented this weapon to Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, but factually this weapon is&#xA;  eternally carried by the Lord. Agnideva presented this weapon to Kṛṣṇa&#xA;  in the same way that Rukmiṇī was given by Mahārāja Rukma to the Lord.&#xA;  The Lord accepts such presentations from His devotees, even though&#xA;  such presentations are eternally His property. There is an elaborate&#xA;  description of this weapon in the Ādi-parva of the Mahābhārata. Lord&#xA;  Śrī Kṛṣṇa used this weapon to kill Śiśupāla, a rival of the Lord. He&#xA;  also killed Śālva by this weapon, and sometimes He wanted His friend&#xA;  Arjuna to use it to kill his enemies (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa-parva 56.3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref: Purport of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/9/6-7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/9/6-7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hare Krishna!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5794" LastActivityDate="2017-03-06T12:35:56.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17477" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="937" CreationDate="2017-03-06T12:58:39.517" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Swahananda says that Sri Krishna lived 128 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a Chandogya Upanishad mantra which says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ghora Angirasa expounded this well known doctrine to Devaki's son&#xA;  Krishna and said , 'Such a knower should at the time of death repeat&#xA;  this triad - &quot;Thou art the imperishable, Thou art the unchangeable,&#xA;  Thou art the subtle essence of Prana.&quot; (on hearing the above) Krishna&#xA;  became thirstless. There are two Rk stanzas in regard to this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad mantra 3.17.6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Swahananda writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sankaracharya states that the mention of Krishna is only for the&#xA;  purpose of bringing out the excellence of this Vidya (sacrifice). He&#xA;  says that the desire for Vidyas was quenched in the mind of Krishna&#xA;  after listening to the instruction of Gora Angirasa. The Mimamsakas&#xA;  whose central dogma is that every syllable of the Sruti is&#xA;  beginningless and eternal would consider the reference to Krishna as&#xA;  Arthavada and not an allusion to the historical personality. Students&#xA;  of historical thought, however, find a definite reference to the&#xA;  teacher of the Gita in the epithet Devakiputra. This conclusion is&#xA;  rendered probable by the identification of man and sacrifice&#xA;  (corresponding to the Gita ideal of the dedication of every activity&#xA;  of life to the Divine) and &lt;strong&gt;by the long life of Sri Krishna extending&#xA;  to 128 years described in the Bhagavata&lt;/strong&gt; while a period of 116 years&#xA;  is considered normal in this Vidya. In this passage historians find&#xA;  the earliest reference to Sri Krishna which can not be dismissed as&#xA;  legendary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad commentary by Swami Swahananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-03-06T12:58:39.517" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17478" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-06T13:33:15.570" Score="5" ViewCount="464" Body="&lt;p&gt;Festivals of color Holi is celebrated in all over India with lots of fun and joy. In different region; there are different legends on origin of this auspicious festival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Origin of Holi ? Mythology behind Holi Celebration ? Reason behind playing with colors ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastActivityDate="2017-03-06T16:55:38.050" Title="What is the actual reason behind Holi Celebration?" Tags="|krishna|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-03-06T18:00:55.680" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17479" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17478" CreationDate="2017-03-06T16:55:38.050" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Holi&lt;/strong&gt; is an ancient festival of India and was originally known as 'Holika'. The festivals finds a detailed description in early religious works such as Jaimini's Purvamimamsa-Sutras and Kathaka-Grhya-Sutras. Historians also believe that Holi was celebrated by all Aryans but more so in the Eastern part of India.&#xA;It is said that Holi existed several centuries before Christ. However, the meaning of the festival is believed to have changed over the years. Earlier it was a special rite performed by married women for the happiness and well-being of their families and the full moon (Raka) was worshiped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference in Ancient Paintings and Murals&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;The festival of Holi also finds a reference in the sculptures on walls of old temples. A 16th century panel sculpted in a temple at Hampi, capital of Vijayanagar, shows a joyous scene of Holi. The painting depicts a Prince and his Princess standing amidst maids waiting with syringes or pichkaris to drench the Royal couple in coloured water.A 16th century Ahmednagar painting is on the theme of Vasanta Ragini - spring song or music. It shows a royal couple sitting on a grand swing, while maidens are playing music and spraying colors with pichkaris.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Legend of Holi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hiranyakashyap wanted everybody in his kingdom to worship only him but to his great disappointment, his son, Prahlad became an ardent devotee of Lord Naarayana. Hiaranyakashyap commanded his sister, Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap. Holika had a boon whereby she could enter fire without any damage on herself. However, she was not aware that the boon worked only when she enters the fire alone. As a result she paid a price for her sinister desires, while Prahlad was saved by the grace of the god for his extreme devotion. The festival, therefore, celebrates the victory of good over evil and also the triumph of devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Legend of Lord Krishna is also associated with play with colors as the Lord started the tradition of play with colours by applying colour on his beloved Radha and other gopis. Gradually, the play gained popularity with the people and became a tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holifestival.org/history-of-holi.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.holifestival.org/history-of-holi.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8964" LastActivityDate="2017-03-06T16:55:38.050" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17480" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17491" CreationDate="2017-03-06T17:39:08.720" Score="6" ViewCount="118144" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the names of conch shells used by the Pandava and Kaurava (notable) warriors in Mahabharata and why were they named so?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What was the speciality about each of them ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8964" LastEditorUserId="8964" LastEditDate="2021-11-23T07:43:04.477" LastActivityDate="2021-11-23T21:13:11.907" Title="What are the names of conch shell ( shankh ) used by the warriors in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17481" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-06T17:51:41.283" Score="8" ViewCount="377" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm interested to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is time an eternal aspect of all the worlds or is it specific to our particular world?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How is this concept of eternity handled? Specifically, Is it different when it is future looking as opposed to the past? In other words, how is the qualitative experience of the past reconciled with the qualitative experience of future(according to the Vedas)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-03-07T09:57:51.573" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T08:42:52.793" Title="According to the Vedas, what are the properties of time?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|time|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17482" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="334" CreationDate="2017-03-07T01:40:16.930" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why traditional dress and men not allowed to wear shirts in temple? &#xA;these temples are located strategically at a place where the positive energy is abundantly available from the magnetic and electric wave distributions of north/south pole thrust. The main idol is placed in the core center of the temple, known as “Garbhagriha” or Moolasthanam. In fact, the temple structure is built after the idol has been placed. This Moolasthanam is where earth’s magnetic waves are found to be maximum. We know that there are some copper plates, inscribed with Vedic scripts, buried beneath the Main Idol. What are they really? No, they are not God’s / priests’ flash cards when they forget the shlokas. The copper plate absorbs earth’s magnetic waves and radiates it to the surroundings. Thus a person regularly visiting a temple and walking clockwise around the Main Idol receives the beamed magnetic waves and his body absorbs it. This is a very slow process and a regular visit will let him absorb more of this positive energy. Scientifically, it is the positive energy that we all require to have a healthy life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why only men and not ladies? &#xA;Energy flows from altar of diety to your chakra system. For men, Aanahat chakra near to heart is the most significant, so they are suppose to receive the energy my chest. while for woman its Adya chakra at the forehead and face to get tejus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9169" LastActivityDate="2017-03-07T01:40:16.930" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17483" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17465" CreationDate="2017-03-07T11:39:15.490" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanatana Dharma does not have a single code of conduct that is universally and comprehensively applicable to all human beings.  It recognizes the basic reality that people are different in their temperament, abilities, desires, station in life etc. and prescribes codes of conduct based on a fundamental principle of Adhikaara - or competence (qualification). &lt;p&gt; There are two basic sets of dharma - based on Adhikaara: &lt;i&gt;Saamanya Dharma&lt;/i&gt; - ordinary rules and &lt;i&gt;visesha dharma&lt;/i&gt; or special rules.&#xA;The Yama and Niyama principles outlined above are &lt;i&gt;Visesha Dharma&lt;/i&gt; applicable to people who are seeking &lt;i&gt;Moksa&lt;/i&gt; or liberation from the cycle of birth and death. &lt;p&gt;&#xA;&lt;i&gt;Saamanya Dharma&lt;/i&gt; is outlined in many places, particularly in the Upanishads where it says to the student entering adulthood:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;satyam vada; dharmam chara; svadhyayaanmaa pramadhah; .... maatru devo bhavah; pitru devo bhavah; achaarya devo bhavah; athithi devo bhavah;...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Speak the truth; Perform charitable acts; perform your (prescribed) duties; ... treat your mother, father, teacher and guests in your home as though they were Isvara (God); &quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are other such guidelines and exhortations on leading an ethical life as the child becomes an adult and enters the Asrama of the householder.&lt;p&gt;&#xA;&lt;i&gt;Ahimsa&lt;/i&gt; is not a universal guideline in sanatana dharma.  For instance, the King is not bound to &lt;i&gt;Ahimsa&lt;/i&gt; as commonly understood as eschewing &lt;b&gt;all&lt;/b&gt; violence.  In its subtle meaning, &lt;i&gt;Ahimsa&lt;/i&gt; refers to &lt;b&gt;unjust&lt;/b&gt; violence as in violence towards the defenceless. &lt;p&gt;In this framework, hunting an adult deer is OK but not the hunting of a baby or a female deer looking after young ones. A King is allowed to visit punishment, including capital punishment, on the guilty after a fair trial, but not violence towards the children of the person so condemned.&lt;p&gt; In all cases, Adhikaara or qualification is a fundamental principle of Sanatana Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9171" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-03-07T12:51:26.117" LastActivityDate="2017-03-07T12:51:26.117" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17484" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3936" CreationDate="2017-03-07T12:33:44.270" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Satsangijeevan (Ahmedabad edition) has vast chapters dedicated to this detail where Dharma (father of Nar Narayan) explains to Rishi Sanak the advent of Lord Nara Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satsangijeevan (Adhyay 4 Chapter 31)&#xA;&quot;....The first Swarup of benevolent and merciful&#xA;Lord will become known as Bhagwan Narayan, as He will redeem and grant salvation&#xA;to innumerable souls that are lost in the never ending cycle of death and rebirth due to&#xA;their ignorance or past deeds. He will also be known as Lord Narayan as human race&#xA;can attain Moksha only through Him. He will also be known as Lord Narayan as He&#xA;rests on a bed made of the coiled serpent Shesh in the middle of an ocean at the end&#xA;of Atyantik Pralay. As He is the sole controller of uncountable universes, Maya and&#xA;Kaal, His second Swarup will be known as Bhagwan Nar. In the absence of all feminine&#xA;features such as a raised chest (or breasts) and long hair, He will be known as Lord&#xA;Nar (the complete male). Bhagwan Nar and Narayan will proceed to Badrikaashram&#xA;to undergo severe austerity together for the benevolence of people of Bharat Khand&#xA; He will also be known as Lord Nar as He, through His potency, will guide the&#xA;great kings on the path of righteousness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The third Swarup of Bhagwan will be known&#xA;as Lord Hari as He will remove all sorrows of the Devtas and anyone coming under&#xA;His shelter. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fourth Swarup will become known as Bhagwan Krishna as He will&#xA;attract and merge within Him the brilliant radiance that has mesmerised and bewildered&#xA;the Devtas and demons. O Muni! The other Devtas and I prepared for the worship of the four Swarups of Bhagwan after Brahma completed their introduction and naming...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satsagijeevan (Adhyay 4 Chapter 39)&#xA;Dharmadev said, “O Sanak Muni! Our illusion and ignorance vanished after&#xA;hearing Narayan Bhagwan’s sermon. Narayan Bhagwan asked Bhagwan Nar, Hari&#xA;and Krishna to let the female deities worship them. Listening immediately to Lord&#xA;Narayan, Bhagwan Nar said, ‘Hold on! Nar and Narayan cannot be separated. Nar&#xA;always follow Narayan. Whatever Narayan does, Nar emulates.’ &#xA;Just as Bhagwan&#xA;Hari and Krishna were about to stop female deities offering their worship, Bhagwan&#xA;Narayan asked them to relent. Understanding the latent desire of Bhagwan Narayan,&#xA;Lord Hari and Krishna permitted deities to worship them. The female deities, aware of&#xA;Lord Narayan’s wish, happily performed elaborate worship of Lord Hari and Krishna with camphor, Kumkum, sandalwood paste etc. They offered many expensive golden&#xA;robes, ornaments such as bracelets and earrings and many flower garlands...&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satsangijeevan (Adhyay 4 Chapter 40)&#xA; Dharmadev said, “O Sanak Muni! Bhagwan Narayan got up to leave after soothing&#xA;my mind with His divine sermon. He asked Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and other Devtas&#xA;to return to their respective abodes. &#xA;He stopped Bhagwan Hari and Krishna from&#xA;accompanying Him and for the benevolence of mankind, advised them individually. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘O&#xA;Hari! Please proceed to Vainkunth with Laxmiji. O Krishna! Please go and make Your&#xA;home at Golok. O Vaasudev! Please proceed to Shwetdweep and O Sankarshan!&#xA;You proceed to the bottom of earth to hold it steady. O Pradhyumna! Protect and&#xA;sustain the whole universe by residing on Lokalok Mountain. O Aniruddha! Dwell as a&#xA;soul of Virat and help in the process of creation.’ O Muni! Bhagwan Nar and Narayan,&#xA;dressed as Naisthik Brahamcharis and ever eager to undergo severe austerities,&#xA;departed for Badrikaashram after assigning the various benevolent tasks. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We were&#xA;very depressed, but nonetheless, sprinkled flowers as a good portent on the path&#xA;Bhagwan Nar and Narayan walked. Their radiant and round faces had a serene smile;&#xA;their eyes were large and beautiful like petals of a lotus, their hands were long enough&#xA;to reach their knees; their teeth were uniformly set and sparkling white, their large&#xA;chest were adorned with the insignia of ‘Shree Vatsa’; their wide foreheads and beautiful&#xA;ears lent their faces an extra splendour and their bodies emanated luminous radiance&#xA;like the sun or moon. Holding Kamandalus in their hands, Bhagwan Nar and Narayan&#xA;walked together, flanked by many people eager for their Darshan. I, other Devtas,&#xA;Gandharva and sages led by Narad walked behind Him to bid Him farewell. Bhagwan&#xA;Narayan stopped us after a while and asked us to turn back. He went to Badrikaashram&#xA;and lived under a berry tree called ‘Vishala’ where Bhagwan Nar has remained in His&#xA;service ever since. As others returned to their respective homes and hermits, I came&#xA;here.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9173" LastActivityDate="2017-03-07T12:33:44.270" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17486" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-07T15:37:16.443" Score="6" ViewCount="19685" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Shani's vakra Drishti? Is it bad or good? What are its consequences? Is there any role of karma to remove vakra Drishti if one is likely to have? What should one do or don't do if one is having that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9091" LastEditorUserId="9091" LastEditDate="2018-03-22T06:02:17.633" LastActivityDate="2018-07-09T03:44:35.660" Title="What is Shani's Vakra Drishti?" Tags="|karma|astrology|shani|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17487" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17486" CreationDate="2017-03-07T15:53:55.093" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;A brief reference is made to the question. As far as the effects of Vakri grahas go I have not given any answer.For the last part of the question a detailed response is given. the answer may not be complete in all aspects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hindu astrology, Vakri grahas are those planets of the Solar System other than the Sun and the Moon that appear to move backwards, which apparent motion is due to earth’s orbit. Vakri in Sanskrit means twisted or crooked; it also means indirect, evasive and ambiguous. A Vakri graha is also known as the Saktha graha. Vakragati confers exceptional i.e. Cheshtabala, to Vakra grahas whose strong influence is expressed by the manner they affect the Natal Chart and by their transits. The two Lunar Nodes have perpetual retrograde motion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shani's vakra drishti can be removed in a number of ways. I have forgotten the name of the exact source, but I have the words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After completing his education, Lord Hanuman wants to repay his guru&#xA;  Lord Surya. Though Surya tells Hanuman to go back without repaying him&#xA;  anything, Hanuman insists him to ask for his guru dakshina. This is&#xA;  the time when Lord Surya talks about his son Shani who never listens&#xA;  to him and creates problem for everyone. He asks Hanuman if he can&#xA;  make him mend his ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuman then enters Shani Lok and request Shani to return to his&#xA;  father. Shani who is too haughty cannot believe the fact that Hanuman&#xA;  could enter his Shani Lok effortlessly. So, he decides to teach&#xA;  Hanuman a lesson. He then climbs on Lord Hanuman’ shoulder and implies&#xA;  all his energy to put an influence on him. However, much to his&#xA;  surprise, it doesn’t affect Lord Hauman in any way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In fact, Lord Hanuman increases his size so much that poor Shani is&#xA;  caught between the ceiling of the room and Hanuman’s shoulder. Now&#xA;  that the pain becomes unbearable, Shani requests Hanuman to leave him&#xA;  with a promise that he would never trouble anybody who is a Hanuman&#xA;  devotee, moderating all his effects in front of a Hanuman devotee.&#xA;  Hearing this, Hanuman released Shani Dev from his catch.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Next, Shani dev asks Lord Hanuman for til and tail so that he could&#xA;  apply on him, and get away from the pain. Ever since then it is a&#xA;  normal practice to offer oil and black til in the name of Shani Devta.&#xA;  It not only soothes his pain, but also makes him beneficent towards&#xA;  Ram and Hanuman devotees. This is the reason why every Saturday you&#xA;  see a huge line in every Hanuman temple to visit both Hanuman and&#xA;  Shani devta. People who give an offering of til and tail (oil) to&#xA;  Shani devta on this day are not affected by Shani’s dosha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In another story, the boon of Lord Shiva and Brahma made Ravana&#xA;  invincible. &gt; He wanted a similar fate for his son Meghnath, and so&#xA;  when he was about to be born, Ravana kidnapped all the 9 planets and&#xA;  placed them in the 11th position so that his newborn too could be&#xA;  immortal and invincible. This made him lock up all the planets&#xA;  including the Saturn,that is Shani Dev in a place where it would be&#xA;  very difficult for them to get out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;However, Lord Hanuman reached the place when he was searching for&#xA;  Maata Sita in Lanka after she was kidnapped by Ravana. It was then&#xA;  Lord Hanuman rescued Shani Dev from Ravana. As a thank you gesture,&#xA;  Shani Dev gave a boon to Lord Hanuman that the effect of Shani’s&#xA;  inauspiciousness will never affect him in any way. In return, Lord&#xA;  Hanuman mentioned that none of his devotees should be affected as&#xA;  well. Shani dev obliged. This is the reason why people worship Shani&#xA;  Dev on Saturday and why Shani do not cause adversities to Hanuman&#xA;  devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastEditorUserId="11625" LastEditDate="2018-07-09T03:44:35.660" LastActivityDate="2018-07-09T03:44:35.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17488" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17490" CreationDate="2017-03-07T19:15:26.683" Score="4" ViewCount="381" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any reference(for ex. wears Janoi) in any Vedas or in any other book that describes &lt;strong&gt;God as brahmin&lt;/strong&gt; (by &lt;strong&gt;caste&lt;/strong&gt;)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One reference I found in &lt;strong&gt;Hanuman Chalisa&lt;/strong&gt; is,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हाथ बज्र औ ध्वजा बिराजै ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;काँधे मूँज जनेउ साजै ॥५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2368" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T06:09:26.263" Title="Reference of any god being brahmin (by caste)" Tags="|vedas|brahmins|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17489" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17492" CreationDate="2017-03-07T21:07:25.197" Score="4" ViewCount="2555" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am from Tripura.Our (unofficial) state goddess is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripura_Sundari_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tripura Sundari devi.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to the similarity in appearance, people of our state think that she is an another form of Kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Wikipedia says that she actually gave birth to all other gods and goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,Who is our state goddess actually? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9cgbC.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9cgbC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9176" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-08T04:37:52.743" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T06:50:41.487" Title="Who is Tripura Sundari?" Tags="|temple|shakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-03-08T07:43:39.110" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17490" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17488" CreationDate="2017-03-08T05:52:59.097" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;All male Gods(Ganapaty,Shiva,Vishnu etc) wear the Yajnopavita.And we can't arrive at any conclusion regarding the caste(varna) of them just by looking at their Upavita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,Ketu(one of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navagraha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Navagrahas&lt;/a&gt;) is regarded as an Antyaja(baseborn/outcaste) in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brihat_Parashara_Hora_Shastra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra&lt;/a&gt;.But as per the &lt;a href=&quot;http://stotrasamhita.net/wiki/Ketu_Panchavimshati_Nama_Stotram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ketu Pancha Vimsati Nama Stotram&lt;/a&gt;(The Stotram comprised of the 25 names of Ketu),found in the Skanda Purana,even Ketu wears the sacred thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;raudrō rudrapriyō rudraḥ krūrakarmā sugandhadhṛk|&#xA;  palāladhūmasaṅkāśaścitra&lt;strong&gt;yajñōpavītadhṛk&lt;/strong&gt;||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Sri_Kethu_Stotram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who is angry, he who likes Shiva, he who is fierce, He who does&#xA;  cruel deeds, He who is seen by pleasant smell, One who resembles the&#xA;  smoke of husk, &lt;strong&gt;one who is seen wearing sacred thread.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the rules that apply to the human beings with respect to wearing the sacred thread(that is the Dvijas only should wear it) may not be valid for the Devas(divine beings) as well. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-08T06:09:26.263" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T06:09:26.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17491" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17480" CreationDate="2017-03-08T06:29:17.073" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 1, The conch shells used by Lord Krishna and Pandavas.The slokas are as follows,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पाञ्चजन्यं हृषीकेशो देवदत्तं धनंजयः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पौण्ड्रं दध्मौ महाशङ्खं भीमकर्मा वृकोदरः।।1.15।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अनन्तविजयं राजा कुन्तीपुत्रो युधिष्ठिरः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नकुलः सहदेवश्च सुघोषमणिपुष्पकौ।।1.16।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pancajanya&lt;/strong&gt; — the conchshell of Lord Sri Krishna. It was taken from the demon Pancajana after Krishna slew him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anantavijaya&lt;/strong&gt; — name of King Yudhisthira’s conch shell, meaning “Unending victory.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Paundra&lt;/strong&gt; — the terrific conchshell of Bhima.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devadatta&lt;/strong&gt; — the conch of Arjuna which was obtained by Maya Danava from Varuna. The name means, “God given.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manipuspaka&lt;/strong&gt; — name of Sahadeva’s conch-shell, meaning “Jewel bracelet.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sughosa&lt;/strong&gt; — the conch shell of Nakula, meaning “Making a pleasant sound.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The very next sloka mentions about various kings and Maharathis blowing their respective conch shells which  King of Kasi, Sikhandi, Virata, Sätyaki, Drupada, Abhimanyu.But not their names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T06:29:17.073" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17492" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17489" CreationDate="2017-03-08T06:50:41.487" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tripura Sundari or Lalita Mahatripura Sundari is the presiding Deity of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Yantra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Yantra&lt;/a&gt; Or the Sri Chakra.She is also known as Parabhattarika Sri Rajarajeswari or the queen of queens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She appeared to eradicate a most powerful demon called the Bhandasura, who was impossible to be defeated even by the Trinities(Brahma,Vishnu,Mahesha) and their respective consorts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read a summary of what actually led to the manifestation of Parashakti (The force of the Parabrahman,Mahashambhu) as Sri Lalita Devi in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/brahmandapurana-3.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;  Brahmanda Purana chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lalita Parameswari appeared from a Homa Kunda unto which the whole of creation was offered as oblation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;H.  At the end of this great fire sacrifice, all of you (the performers&#xA;  of the Yaga) should jump in to the Homa Kunda (fire pit). While doing&#xA;  so, you must possess absolute devotion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I. Then, Lalita Parameshwari will manifest.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;J. She will be seated in a chariot called Chakra Raja Ratha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;K. She will create Parabrahma in the name of Kameshwara and will have&#xA;  Him as Her consort.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;L. This couple will re-create the entire universe, which will turn out&#xA;  to be more beautiful than the previous creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;M. Lalita Parameshwari will bring Manmatha back to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;But Wikipedia says that she actually gave birth to all other gods and goddess.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also true.Sri Lalita created Kameswara(or the Supreme Shiva or Sadashiva )from herself.And she created all other Gods from her body's various parts as mentioned below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lalita Parameshwari so manifested, &lt;strong&gt;created a male form from&#xA;  within Herself. His name was Kameshwara&lt;/strong&gt;. By her power of will, she&#xA;  created 4 different weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A. &lt;strong&gt;From the left eye&lt;/strong&gt;, which was of the nature of Soma (moon)&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;came Brahmaand Lakshmi Devi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;B. &lt;strong&gt;From the right eye&lt;/strong&gt;, which was of the nature of Soorya (sun)&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;came Vishnu and Parvati.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;C. &lt;strong&gt;From the third eye&lt;/strong&gt;, which was of the nature of Agni (fire),&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;came Rudra and Sarasvati.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D. Lakshmi &amp;amp; Vishnu, Shiva &amp;amp; Parvati and Brahma &amp;amp; Sarasvati became&#xA;  couples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.................................................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;E. Lalita Devi directed them to continue the process of Creation. She&#xA;  herself continued to create certain things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(i) From her long hair she created darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(ii) From her eyes, she created the sun, the moon and the fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(iii) From the pendent hanging in front of her forehead came the&#xA;  stars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(iv) From the chain above her forehead came the nine planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(v) From the eyebrows, she created the penal code.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(vi) From her breath, she created the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(vii) From her speech, she created poetry and plays.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(viii) From her chin she created the Vedangas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........................................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(ix) From the three lines in her neck, she created various Shaastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(x) From her breasts, she created mountains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(xi) From her mind, she created the power of bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(xii) &lt;strong&gt;From her fingernails, she created the 10 incarnations of&#xA;  Vishnu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(xiii) From her palms, she created the Sandhyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(xiv) She created other things as narrated in the Purusha Sookta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(xv) &lt;strong&gt;From her heart, she created Baalaa Devi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(xvi) &lt;strong&gt;From her intellect, she created Shyamala Devi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(xvii) &lt;strong&gt;From her ego, she created Vaaraahi Devi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(xviii) &lt;strong&gt;From her smile, she created Vighneshwara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(xix) From the Ankusha (a special hook), she created Sampatkaree Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(xx) Form the noose, she created Ashwaa Roodha Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(xxi) From her cheeks, she created Nakuleshvari Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(xxii) From her Kundalini Shakti, she created Gayatri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And among the  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Dasa_Maha_Vidhya_Sthuthi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dasamahavidyas&lt;/a&gt; her form is adored as the 16 year old Goddess Shodashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.Shodasa Kala paripoorne AAdhya Shakthi roopini , Sri Vidhya Pancha vakthra nama Vikhyathe , Shodasi namosthuthe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Salutations to the Goddess Shodasi , Who has completed sixteen years&#xA;  of age , Who has the l,ook of the primeval power , Who is well known&#xA;  as Srividhya and Panchavakthra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,your state Goddess is the most supreme  Deity Sri Lalita who is the source of all that exists and who is constantly served by other Goddesses like Saraswati and Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T06:50:41.487" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17493" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17481" CreationDate="2017-03-08T08:42:52.793" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Svetasvatara Upanishad there is a part called Jnana Mimamsa in the beginning. And one question is asked there as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कालः स्वभावो नियतिर्यदृच्छा भूतानि योनिः पुरुष इति चिन्त्या ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  संयोग एषां न त्वात्मभावा-दात्माप्यनीशः सुखदुःखहेतोः ॥ २॥ (Shwetashwatara Upanishad 1.2)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Should time,&lt;/strong&gt; or nature, or necessity, or chance, or the elements &lt;strong&gt;be regarded as the cause?&lt;/strong&gt; Or he who is called the purusha, the living self?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And finally it is established that Purusha is the cause and not Time. The Upanishad also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वभावमेके कवयो वदन्ति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; कालं तथान्ये परिमुह्यमानाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवस्यैष महिमा तु लोके&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; येनेदं भ्राम्यते ब्रह्मचक्रम् ॥ १॥ (Sve. Up. 6.1)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Some learned men speak of the inherent nature of things and &lt;strong&gt;some speak of time, as the cause of the universe. They all, indeed, are deluded.&lt;/strong&gt; It is the greatness of the &#xA;  self−luminous Lord that causes the Wheel of Brahman to revolve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Brahman is also called as Maker of Time (Kãlãkãro).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;येनावृतं नित्यमिदं हि सर्वं ज्ञः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;कालकारो&lt;/strong&gt; गुणी सर्वविद् यः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तेनेशितं कर्म विवर्तते ह&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; पृथिव्यप्तेजोनिलखानि चिन्त्यम् ॥ २॥ (Sve. Up. 6.2)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He by whom the whole universe is constantly pervaded is the Knower, &lt;strong&gt;the Maker of time.&lt;/strong&gt; He is sinless and omniscient, It is at His command that the work which is called earth, water, fire, air and akasa appears as the universe. All this should be reflected upon by the wise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Brahman is the Maker of Time. So, what can we call to Brahman related with Time? We can call him &amp;apos;Time of the Time.&amp;apos; (Kãlaķãlo)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स विश्वकृद् विश्वविदात्मयोनि-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; र्ज्ञः &lt;strong&gt;कालकालो&lt;/strong&gt; गुणी सर्वविद् यः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रधानक्षेत्रज्ञपतिर्गुणेशः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; संसारमोक्षस्थितिबन्धहेतुः ॥ १६॥ (Sve. Up. 6.16)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He who is the support of both the unmanifested prakriti and the jiva, who is the Lord of the three gunas and who is the cause of bondage, existence and Liberation from samsara, is verily the Creator of the universe, the Knower, the inmost Self of all things and their Source−the omniscient Lord, &lt;strong&gt;the Time of time,&lt;/strong&gt; the Possessor of virtues, the Knower of everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, Brahman is called &amp;apos;The Time of Time&amp;apos; / &amp;apos;Kãlakãlo&amp;apos; / &amp;apos;The destroyer of Time&amp;apos; / Mahakãla.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now, to this Mahãkala or &amp;apos;Time of Time&amp;apos; there is a hymn called Kãla Sukta in Atharvaveda where properties of time are spoken. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av19053.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;19.53&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av19054.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;19.54&lt;/a&gt; are the Hymns to Mahakãla where Properties of Time are also spoken.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;One of the important property of time which I also discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17066/where-do-vedas-state-universe-being-a-projection-in-space-time/17067#17067&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; that time causes the Universe to appear in multiform:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पूर्ण कुम्भोदिः काल आहितस्तं वै पश्यामो बहुदा नु सन्तः । [AtharvaVeda 19.53.3]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  A full pot has been placed in Time and it is that which we see manifoldly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Kãla Suktam also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कालो ह भूत भव्यं च पुत्रो अजनयत् पुरा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कालिदृचः समभवन्यजुः काल अजायत ।। (AtharvaVeda 19.54)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Time is that which was and which shall be produced. From time sprang the Rig Veda, SamaVeda and YajurVeda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse explicitly proves that Mahãkãla is same as Purusha as the Purush Suktam of the Vedas also state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुरुष एवेदं सर्वं यद्भूतं यच्च भव्यम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्माद्यज्ञात्सर्वहुत ऋचः सामानि जज्ञिरे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  छन्दांसि जज्ञिरे तस्माद्यजुस्तस्मादजायत ॥९॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Purusha is all that was and that shall be. From his sacrifice came Rig Veda, SamaVeda, YajurVeda and Chhandas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other properties of Time described in Kãla Sukta are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From Time sprang the Waters, sprang the regions, Brahma, Holy Fire. The Sun ascends by Time, and in Time sinks again to rest. By Time freshly blows the wind, mighty through Time is the Earth: on Time rests the mighty Sky. In Time erst the text produced what is and what is yet to be.&#xA;  From Time sprang the Richas, and from Time was the Yajus born. They formed in Time sacrifice, eternal portion for the Gods.In Time the Gandharvas and Apsarasas and worlds abide. Atharvan and this Angiras in Time are supreme o&amp;apos;er heaven.Both this world and the world that is most lofty, the pure worlds and pure intermediate spaces,&#xA;  Yea, having conquered all the worlds by Brahma, Time as God Supreme is supplicated. (Atharvaveda 19.54)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the 53rd chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prolific, thousand-eyed, and undecaying, a horse with seven reins Time bears us onward. Sages inspired with holy knowledge mount him: his chariot wheels are all the worlds of creatures. This Time hath seven rolling wheels and seven naves immorality is the chariot&amp;apos;s axle. This Time brings hitherward all worlds about us: as primal Deity is he entreated. Time is laid an overflowing beaker: this we behold in many a place appearing. He carries from us all these worlds of creatures. They call him Time in the loftiest heaven. He only made the worlds of life, he only gathered the worlds of living things together. Their son did he become who was their Father: no other higher power than he existeth. Time created yonder heaven, and Time made these realms of earth.&amp;nbsp; By Time, stirred to motion, both what is and what shall be &amp;nbsp;expand. Time created land; the Sun in Time hath his light and heat. In Time rest all things that be: in Time doth the eye discern. In Time mind, in Time breath, in Time name are fixed and joined. These living creatures, one and all, rejoice when Time hath&amp;nbsp; approached. Time embraces Holy Fire, the Highest, Brahma in himself. Yea, Time, who was father of Prajāpati, is Lord of All. He made, he stirred this universe to motion, and on him it rests. He, Time, having now become Brahma, holds Parameshthin up Time created living things and, first of all, Prajāpati.From Time self-made Kasyapa, from Time Holy Fire was born. (Atharvaveda 19.53)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus above mentioned are the properties of Time mentioned in Kãla Sukta of Atharvaveda. In conclusion we can say Brahman is &amp;apos;Time of Time&amp;apos; hence called &amp;apos;Kãlakãla&amp;apos;. And he is also the Maker of Time in different realms hence called &amp;apos;Kãlakãra.&amp;apos;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T08:42:52.793" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17494" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17497" CreationDate="2017-03-08T09:08:26.267" Score="4" ViewCount="760" Body="&lt;p&gt;For example in my case:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Serious and self-conscious most of the times.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Problem maintaining eye contacts and talking to people.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lack of close relationships.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I often have a sense of &quot;what is all this thing called life&quot; thoughts even at home.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to some scholars I have heard, &lt;em&gt;mind&lt;/em&gt; is just a bunch of &lt;em&gt;thoughts&lt;/em&gt;. So in that sense there is nothing like Mental Disorders. Disorders just mean that your thought patterns are aligned in a certain way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, does Sanatana Dharma actually say about dealing and overcoming such personality disorders? Does anyone have any experience with such problems?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have started practicing Yoga and Pranayama but I don't see it is making me funny or anything like that!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7698" LastEditorUserId="7698" LastEditDate="2017-03-08T10:30:16.320" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T13:11:18.323" Title="What does Hinduism say about Mental Disorders? How do we overcome them?" Tags="|mind|health|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17495" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17278" CreationDate="2017-03-08T10:23:11.017" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just found answer to my question. Atharvasiras is not deriving mantras from Yajurveda while it itself being part of AtharvaVeda, it is quoting from Atharvaveda Samhita.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The same Mantra is found in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av07087.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharvaveda Samhita 7.87&lt;/a&gt;. It was heard by Atharvan Rishi, Devata of the mantra is Lord Rudra and Chhanda is Jagati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;योऽग्नौ रुद्रो योऽप्स्वन्तर्य ओषधीर्वीरुध आविवेश ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  य इमाविश्वा भुवनानि चक्लृपे तस्मै रुद्राय नमोऽस्त्वग्नये ।। &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  To Rudra in the fire, to him who dwells in floods, to Rudra who hath entered into herbs and plants, To him who formed and fashioned all these worlds, to him this Rudra, yea, to Agni, reverence be paid!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, it is clear Atharvasiras is quoting mantra from Atharvaveda and not deriving Mantra of YajurVeda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T10:23:11.017" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17496" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7187" CreationDate="2017-03-08T11:04:37.283" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There win occur one opportunity for his slaughter. When his car-wheels will sink in the earth, availing thyself of that opportunity, thou shouldst slay him in that distressful situation. I will make thee a sign beforehand. Warned by it, thou shouldst act. The vanquisher of Vala himself, that foremost of heroes, wielding his thunder, is incapable of slaying the invincible Karna while the latter stands weapon in hand&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;reference &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07177.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07177.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above text is krishna telling Arjun that the only way to kill Karna is when he is unarmed. I think that is enough proof that Krishna definetely considered Karna better than Arjuna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5579" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T11:04:37.283" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17497" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17494" CreationDate="2017-03-08T11:57:56.490" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu way of life, the best treatment for mental disorders is &lt;strong&gt;Yoga and meditation.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not only for mental disorders, but it also treats many of out illness and also help to improve concentration, make us feel relaxed etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to mention 10 advantages here from the site &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1- It lowers oxygen consumption.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2- It decreases respiratory rate.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;3- It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;4- Increases exercise tolerance.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;5- Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;6- Good for people with high blood pressure.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;7- Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;8- Decreases muscle tension&lt;br&gt;&#xA;9- Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;10- Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see more here : &lt;a href=&quot;http://ineedmotivation.com/100-benefits-of-meditation/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://ineedmotivation.com/100-benefits-of-meditation/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adding from comment : Pranayamam is a good practise to purify our blood, to get a good mental strength, etc. (Thanks @Nishant for this point which I forgot.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9093" LastEditorUserId="9093" LastEditDate="2017-03-08T13:11:18.323" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T13:11:18.323" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17498" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17499" CreationDate="2017-03-08T12:17:18.673" Score="7" ViewCount="18331" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any rule for chanting Mahamantra :- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Oṃ namo bhagavate Vāsudevāya  &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or can any one chant this anywhere at anytime (while travelling, eating, sleeping, resting on bed) as we can do nama smarana(taking name of lord).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-09T07:49:17.827" LastActivityDate="2018-12-28T09:24:49.580" Title="Rules for chanting Oṃ namo bhagavate Vāsudevāya" Tags="|krishna|belief|mantras|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17499" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17498" CreationDate="2017-03-08T14:18:42.467" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who can chanta the mantra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Any Sincere Vaishnava can chant it regardless of caste creed or sex&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantra Om Namo Bhagwate Vasudevaya is very first verse of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/sb/1/1/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagwatam&lt;/a&gt;, Shrimad Bhagwatam is a smriti, so there are no restrictions on who is eligible to recite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantra is open to all, and anyone who is sincere Vaishanva can recite(do japa) it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or can any one chant this anywhere at anytime (while travelling, eating , Slipping , resting on bed) as we can do namasmaran.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The basic rules of japa must be followed, Vaishnava means one who has tan(body),mana(mind), atman(soul) everything dedicated or surrendered to Shriman Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Vaishnava must maintain sattva, it can be maintained by sattvik food and everyday life discipline is must.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2660/489&quot;&gt;Categorization of food items&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Everyday life discipline&lt;/strong&gt; includes a specific place to chant(clean, neither too hot nor too cold, noise free zone) must be chosen, an asana of choice mostly kusha asana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bodily discipline&lt;/strong&gt; basic sanitation, regular bathing, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16465/48&quot;&gt;achmana&lt;/a&gt;, celibacy, and following Dharma as in Dharma Shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Time discipline&lt;/strong&gt; Since I don't follow it I cannot comment on it, but one thing for sure &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanatanavenkat.blogspot.in/2007/11/sandhyavandanam-time.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sandhya kala&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmamuhurtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;bramha muhurata&lt;/a&gt; are best timings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For travelling only bodily discipline is enough(while travelling even Dwijas are exempted from doing Sandhyavandanam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Resting on bed : no, sleeping no, eating: yes(if you follow food discipline and eat prasadam, then food is ambrosia)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T15:04:23.390" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17500" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-08T15:20:14.783" Score="1" ViewCount="1007" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism and Christianity have few similarities. What are main similarities and differences in the concept of christianity heaven and Hindu moksha?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;For example how to get there? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What does it mean to a Hindu to achieve moksha?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How much of a priority is it compared to christianity?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9179" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-09T06:59:55.177" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T10:13:58.437" Title="What are the main differences and similarities between the christian heaven and moksha" Tags="|moksha|atma|christianity|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-06-30T10:04:33.177" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17501" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17500" CreationDate="2017-03-08T15:34:36.253" Score="0" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Christian's Heaven and Moksha are almost same concept.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svarga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Heaven&lt;/a&gt; in Hinduism and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moksha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Moksha&lt;/a&gt; have lot of difference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Heaven is an after death &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loka#Hindu_tradition&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;world&lt;/a&gt;. According to Hindu, Heaven and Moksha is there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Heaven and Hell is maintained by lord Shiva. Souls went to heaven or hell will have rebirth in the earth in the form of anything(I mean any creature).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha is provided by lord Vishnu. Souls that get Moksha will be shifted to Vaikundam and they don't have a rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same is said by Christianity that heaven is the ultimate end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9093" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T10:13:58.437" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17502" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-08T15:39:36.537" Score="2" ViewCount="100" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas tells about 4 casetes&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Brahmin, Kshatriya, Shudra and vaishya based on jobs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now, there are many castes like nambissan, namboodiri, thiyya, nair, etc. etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How this splitted?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9093" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T09:09:49.490" Title="Vedas said about only 4 castes based on job. Then how these much castes came" Tags="|caste-system|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-05-31T10:48:24.150" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17504" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17500" CreationDate="2017-03-08T18:29:57.507" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda states (Complete Works, V6 p 85 also V4 pp 188-9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas teach that the soul of man is immortal. The body is subject to the law of growth and decay; what grows must of necessity decay. But the indwelling spirit is related to the infinite and eternal life; it never had a beginning, and it will never have an end. One of the chief distinctions between the Vedic and the Christian religion is that the Christian religion teaches that each human soul had its beginning at its birth into this world; whereas the Vedic religion asserts that the spirit of man is an emanation of the Eternal Being and had no more a beginning than God Himself. Innumerable have been and will be its manifestations in its passage from one personality to another, subject to the great law of spiritual evolution, until it reaches perfection, when there is no more change.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Christians believe that they live one time and that they will be eventually be 'reunited' with their physical bodies and live with God in heaven. Hindus assert that we are spirit and that in the lokas we live in subtle bodies, not physical bodies. Moksha refers to final liberation from rebirth on this earth. What Moksha is beyond that depends upon which philosophy and sect you follow in Hinduism. Advaitists and Dvaitists have different beliefs to this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are no permanent hells in Hinduism as there is in Christianity. Everyone will eventually attain Moksha.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-03-08T18:29:57.507" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17505" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-08T20:10:47.140" Score="14" ViewCount="12372" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many Puranas reference the separation of Shiva and Adishakti in order to create the universe. Adishakti then took many forms (Sati, Parvati, etc.) and each time married Shiva, so they can be united once again. If both entities are so powerful, why did they have to separate in order to create? Why is it that destruction doesn't take place when they unite? Please list any references that support your answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7743" LastActivityDate="2017-12-24T14:54:32.053" Title="Why did Shiva and Adishakti have to separate to create the universe?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|creation|shakti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17507" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17505" CreationDate="2017-03-09T09:21:51.953" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is basically what i can think of the reasons of separation of Shiva and Shakti for the sake of creation .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Para Shiva+Para Shakti=Parabrahman ,loosely speaking.Actually these two are inseparable entities too.(And that is why we worship the formless Shakti Vishita Parabrahman in the form of a Shiva lingam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;strong&gt;Gandharva Tantram,Chapter 40,Verse 4&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;NAnyorVidyate Vedo YA Shaktihi Sa Shivo Druvam .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who is Shakti is Shiva.This is the eternal truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,this Parabrahman does not have attributes like sex etc.So It is neither a male,nor a female not even a Kliva(Napunsak).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Naiva Stree PumAnesha Na ChaivAyam Napunsakaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Brahman] is neither male,nor female not even a napunsaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SwetASwataRopanishat 5-10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the Agama Shastras also say:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Neyam Yoshinna Cha PumAn Na Shando Na Jaro Smrito .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[That is] basically neither a female,nor a male and not even a&#xA;  Jara(Napunsak).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, the act of creation  needs a female and a male form.Which is basically why Parabrahman separated itself into Purusha(Shiva) and Prakriti(Shakti).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,some Scriptures say that Adishakti creates, from herself the male form(Sadashiva or Kameswara), to continue the act of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/brahmandapurana-4.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Lalita Parameshwari so manifested, created a male form from within Herself&lt;/strong&gt;. His name was Kameshwara................&lt;strong&gt;She&#xA;  extended Herself in both male and female forms and continued the&#xA;  process of creation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly ,the Mahanirvana Tantram describes Adi Shakti creating the male form Sadashiva and all other Gods like Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesha etc from herself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sadashiva Uvacha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TwamAdyA SarvaVidyAnAmasnAkamapi Janambhuhu|&lt;/strong&gt; Twam JAnAsi Jagath Sarvam Na TwAm JAnAti Kaschana||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All Vidyas(Knowledge) and &lt;strong&gt;we all are created from you only&lt;/strong&gt;. You&#xA;  know everything but nobody knows you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahanirvana Tantram,Chapter 4,Verse 12.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But,there can be verily some other Scriptures as well, which describe the same process from a different perspective.Like Shiva creating Shakti from himself etc.But in any case,the reason for separation is still the same and that is to achieve the objective of creation(Srishti).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,it is to be noted,that,as per Agama shastras,ShivaShakti is twofold -Saguna(with attributes) and Nirguna(without attributes) , just like  Saguna and Nirguna Brahman .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,its the Saguna  Shiva Shakti that separates to create.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ShivaShaktirdvida Devi ! NirguA SagunApi Cha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;NirgunA JyotishAm Brindam Param Brahmasanatani||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey Devi ! Shiva Shakti is two types-Nirguna and Saguna.Nirguna&#xA;  [ShivaShakti] is Prabrahmamayi SanAtani(the illumionous and the&#xA;  eternal one).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Niruttara Tantram,Chapter 2.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in &lt;strong&gt;Shakti Sangama Tantram,Sundari Khanda&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SaivAham Pumrupena Stree RupenAhameva Hi|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AvAbhyAm Nahi Bhedohasti BhedstvaJyAnasambhavam ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi is me in the form of Purusha and I am Devi in the form of&#xA;  Devi(Shakti).There are no differences between us.&lt;strong&gt;Whatever&#xA;  differences are imagined is only due to ignorance(Avidya/Ajnyana).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,the &lt;strong&gt;VAmekaswara Tantram&lt;/strong&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tripura Trividha Devi BrahmAvishnIshSvarupini .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi says to Shiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are not different from me.You are me .Even Brahma and Vishnu&#xA;  are me only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,it can also be said,that this so called separation of Shiva Shakti actually does not happen but  happens only in Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW, the Vedas also have the similar concept in the form of Purusha and Viraja.Will try to add these details later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-09T15:01:37.673" LastActivityDate="2017-03-09T15:01:37.673" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17509" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-09T11:22:51.410" Score="2" ViewCount="198" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dara_Shikoh&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia states&lt;/a&gt; : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dara Shikoh subsequently developed a friendship with the seventh Sikh Guru, Guru Har Rai. Dara Shikoh devoted much effort towards finding a common mystical language between Islam and Hinduism. Towards this goal he completed the translation of fifty Upanishads from their original Sanskrit into Persian in 1657 so that they could be studied by Muslim scholars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where are the 50 Sanskrit Upanishads which were referred by Dara Shikoh?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2695" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-03-09T14:23:21.303" LastActivityDate="2017-03-09T14:23:21.303" Title="Where are the Sanskrit texts of Upanishads referred by Dara Shikoh?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|history|upanishads|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17510" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-09T13:19:21.120" Score="7" ViewCount="750" Body="&lt;p&gt;I myself answered a question on the so-called &quot;Shabar Mantras&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16673/what-are-the-shabar-mantras&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shabarmantraonline.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; webpage claims that these mantras are auto energized or Siddha so to speak.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A shabar mantra is quite different from a classical or Vedic mantra.&#xA;  One needs to attain siddhi to use a Vedic mantra but it is nothing&#xA;  like this in case of a shabar mantra. &lt;strong&gt;Shabar mantras as auto-energized&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  and can be used even by a common man easily to bring his wishes true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also does that  imply that for these mantras upadesha from Guru(initiation) is not needed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.797" LastActivityDate="2018-02-15T09:58:46.353" Title="Are Shabar Mantras really auto-energised?" Tags="|mantras|guru|nath|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17511" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-09T13:24:52.167" Score="5" ViewCount="1607" Body="&lt;p&gt;What to do when vow has been broken by a person? Can any prayaschit is there&#xA;What are the Prayaschitta measures for breaking a vow??? Here&#xA;Here the vow maker taken aperson(who took the vow) took it without knowing anything about it. Now&#xA;Now what kind of punishment(as per Scriptures) must the aspirantone undergo for the breakage ofbreaking such vow???&#xA;Here the vow maker took a vow to complete a vow when he gets job and in his mind he was thinking of a govt job but now he get a private job. Shall he have to fulfill his vow ??? Does his words taken into consideration or what he think will be taken into consideration???if he fulfill it now then it will be consider na that his vow is completed and when he get govt job then he don't have to do it again???&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9140" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-30T02:42:15.653" LastActivityDate="2020-01-08T17:22:13.643" Title="What to do when a vow has been broken by a person?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17513" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-09T13:31:16.047" Score="6" ViewCount="2072" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrospeak.com/prashnavali&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Ramacharitamanas Prashnavali or Sri Ramashalaka Prashnavali&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The answers/predictions in Ramacharitamanas Prashnavali or Sri&#xA;  Ramashalaka Prashnavali (राम शलाका प्रश्नावली) are based on the&#xA;  Chopais (couplets) from 'Shri Ram Charit Manas' or &quot;Ramayana&quot; written&#xA;  by poet-saint Tulsidas. Ramayana Prashnavali is used to get answers to&#xA;  your questions, predict the outcome of new endeavors, overcome&#xA;  double-mindedness, resolve doubts and select the right path since&#xA;  Vedic times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How does it work:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramayana Prashnavali is a grid of 15X15 Hindi alphabets.&#xA;      Each square in the grid has one Akshar (Hindi alphabet) from nine Chopais (couplets) of Shri Ram Charit Manas.&#xA;      Seeker has to select a grid with closed eye. The Akshars from every ninth square starting from the selected square are taken and&#xA;  joined in a sequence.&#xA;      This creates one Chopai from &quot;Shri Ram Cahrit Manas&quot;.&#xA;      The answer to the question asked is derived from this particular Chopai.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Things to remember while using the Ramcharitramanas Prashnavali:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Keep your mind free from all negative thoughts&#xA;      Ask only one question at a time&#xA;      You must pray to Lord Rama before asking your question&#xA;      Ask questions that are pertinent to you and your life only&#xA;      Do not ask vague questions&#xA;      The Prashnavali only shows you the path to solve your problem&#xA;      You should use the Prashnavali only if you have devotion and complete faith in it&#xA;      The grid is covered with 'OM' image so that you can select the character with open eyes without looking or knowing the character you&#xA;  select.&#xA;      You can click anywhere on the image below.&#xA;      The prediction for your query/question will be based on the square you clicked, hidden behind the OM image.&#xA;      Never use this as a game or for amusement purposes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Questions-How did this concept evolve?Does it have any basis in any of our Scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-03-09T13:31:16.047" Title="Does the Ramacharitamanas Prashnavali concept have any basis in Scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|rama|ramcharitmanas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17514" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-09T13:53:30.497" Score="5" ViewCount="260" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any references in the Vedas which suggest that the Vishnu, as described by the Puranas is the same as that of the Vedic? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because in some places Vishnu is referred as one among the Adityas (sun-gods) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-03-09T13:53:30.497" Title="Is Vedic Vishnu the same as Puranic Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|puranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17515" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17547" CreationDate="2017-03-09T14:58:45.467" Score="8" ViewCount="1617" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A brahmin is considered to be of &lt;strong&gt;Purity(Sattva guna)&lt;/strong&gt; and Sudra of &lt;strong&gt;Impurity(Tamas guna)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Both Brahmin and Sudra position are given to a person who is &lt;strong&gt;Born&lt;/strong&gt; in that varnas(Brahmin Varna , Sudra Varna) and also with &lt;strong&gt;Qualities&lt;/strong&gt;(Sattva Guna , Tamas Guna) according to it .&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A Person can be born in a brahmin family cannot be accepted as a Brahmin if he posses sudra qualities. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a Sudras touch is considered to be impure can the touch of the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmin possesing sudra quality&lt;/strong&gt; can also be considered to be &lt;strong&gt;IMPURE&lt;/strong&gt;   ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it is considered to be IMPURE should the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmin be prohibited from his duties&lt;/strong&gt;( Right to perform Pooja in Temple, Various Yagna )    &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2020-05-22T07:26:56.510" Title="If a brahmin has qualities of sudra should he be prohibited from duties of a brahmin?" Tags="|scripture|tradition|brahmins|gunas|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17516" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17511" CreationDate="2017-03-09T16:07:28.417" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Taking Vows and accomplishing them is related to personal belief. So, scriptures (Dharma Sastras) don't explicitly mention rules about &quot;Vows&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what an Acharya from Telugu states &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xad_AuDgFAA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; (Video in telugu)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People take vows to fulfill their wishes or to get rid of their wordly&#xA;  difficulties (&lt;em&gt;iShTa&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;kaShTa&lt;/em&gt;). Now, arises the doubt of Sastra&#xA;  Pramana for vows. For example, if a burglar takes a vow to not get&#xA;  caught and police officer takes a vow to catch him and if both of them take vow to&#xA;  same God, then which vow God should fulfill? So, it is purely&#xA;  related to personal belief. It's always better to fulfill the vow in same temple, as this is related to belief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.blogger.com/profile/11677443994890021401&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Annadanam Chidambarasastry&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLoDwZ0kxIU&amp;amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;amp;t=90&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; (Video in telugu)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Generally we feel there's no need to fulfill our vow if our problem is&#xA;  not solved. But our conscience should agree with it. Lord knows what&#xA;  is correct and not correct. For example, if we want to meet a person&#xA;  for some urgent work and if we are waiting for a bus to go to his city&#xA;  and bus got delayed, we ask God to send bus early and may take a vow&#xA;  to visit temple if it fulfills. But we miss the bus and it turns out&#xA;  the person whom we want to meet stays in the same city we live and we&#xA;  saw him in Bus Station. Here, we didn't know what was correct but Lord&#xA;  helped us. We may not get what we wish, but Lord grants the correct or beneficial thing to us. So, it's always better to fulfill our vow even though our particular wish is not fulfilled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's always better to fulfill our vow, irrespective of what we get. God owes us if we do that, as said by &lt;a href=&quot;http://pedia.desibantu.com/mylavarapu-srinivasa-rao/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mylavarapu Srinivasa Rao&lt;/a&gt; in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzeDLgu_-XM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; (Telugu). So, instead of Prayaschita, we can fulfill vow or from above statements, fulfilling vow can be considered as atonement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-03-09T16:45:21.887" LastActivityDate="2017-03-09T16:45:21.887" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17519" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-10T05:11:26.010" Score="1" ViewCount="174" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a Hanuman temple near our house there is a nandi statue. Temple is very old . Nandi statue is now coming near the road. I want that it should be placed some where away from road. Hanuman temple is east facing and Nandi statue is north facing. Please advice me how the statue should be placed. Your valuable suggestions will change many things&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9191" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-10T05:23:17.267" LastActivityDate="2017-03-10T05:23:17.267" Title="How to position nandi statue in Hanuman temple?" Tags="|temple|hanuman|agamas|vastu-shastra|nandi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2018-02-04T11:54:11.233" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17522" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-10T08:46:37.113" Score="2" ViewCount="142" Body="&lt;p&gt;In one of online answers I've found sage Aitareya who wrote Aitareya Upanishad was born out of Shudra woman! &#xA;Can anyone give reference to support or reject this claim? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-03-10T08:46:37.113" Title="Was sage Aitareya born out of Shudra woman?" Tags="|caste-system|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17523" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17538" CreationDate="2017-03-10T14:34:47.360" Score="6" ViewCount="280" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17318/is-it-adharma-to-give-dana-without-considering-what-we-are-giving-and-to-whom-we&quot;&gt;Scriptures&lt;/a&gt; oppose giving Dana to those who that does not deserves it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In temples AnnaDana is given to Anyone who comes to the temple.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In my personal experience i had seen many people who stay near the temple and live by it as &lt;strong&gt;3 TIMES&lt;/strong&gt; a day &lt;strong&gt;Anna Dana&lt;/strong&gt; is given.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;These kinds of activities can make a person to become &lt;strong&gt;Lazy&lt;/strong&gt; and give up work&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why &lt;strong&gt;Temples&lt;/strong&gt; where learned &lt;strong&gt;Brahmins&lt;/strong&gt; are &lt;strong&gt;Present&lt;/strong&gt; follow this way of giving Dana to &lt;strong&gt;Anyone&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any &lt;strong&gt;Previlage to AnnaDana&lt;/strong&gt; besides the other Danas (Money,Land,etc,..) ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-03-11T15:14:21.727" Title="If giving Dana to anyone is adharma then why temples give AnnaDana to anyone?" Tags="|scripture|temple|practice|dharma|tradition|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17524" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17515" CreationDate="2017-03-10T15:14:33.223" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yaksha asked Yudhishtir the following question- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राजन् कुलेन वृत्तेन स्वाध्यायेन शृतेन वा।&#xA;  ब्राह्मण्यं केन भवति? प्रब्रूह्मोतत्सुनिश्चितं&#xA;  Meaning: King, how does one become a Brahmin: by birth? By conduct? By study of Vedas? By education? Tell me precisely. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To which Yudhishtir replies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शृणु यक्ष कुलं तात न स्वाध्यायो न च शृतं&#xA;  कारणं हि द्विजत्वे च वृतमेव न संशयः।&#xA;  Meaning: Listen, Yaksha, it is neither birth nor education, nor even the study of Vedas. Without doubt, it is conduct alone that marks the Brahmin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, it is clearly seen a conduct only, tells whether someone is Brahmin. And conduct is manifestation of what has been accumulated in conscious, subconscious &amp;amp; unconscious mind.&#xA;Given that someone is born Brahmin implies his unconscious &amp;amp; subconscious mind is Sattvik which can be downgraded to Tamsik or Rajsik or mixture based on present Karmas (happens if deluded into Māyā or poor upbringing) &amp;amp; at the same time one born into lower caste can upgrade his mind through Rigorous spiritual practices which can burn all his previous Tamsik or Rajsik Samskars imbedded in subconscious &amp;amp; unconscious mind ( through grace or good upbringing). &#xA;Therefore conduct alone should be the criteria of one's purity or impurity.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ref- &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=643NDAAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT84&amp;amp;lpg=PT84&amp;amp;dq=Yaksha%20prashna%20on%20caste&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=mNiKeYK5tG&amp;amp;sig=FzIMzOFov7Vn3O6IQ7YNjU0KHmo&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjckNfClMzSAhXLjZQKHSiLAtwQ6AEIQjAF#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=Yaksha%20prashna%20on%20caste&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Actually the Mahabharata episode/event&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-03-10T17:17:18.813" LastActivityDate="2017-03-10T17:17:18.813" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17525" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-10T16:58:57.550" Score="4" ViewCount="149" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know about the mother of sage Parashara and story of her birth. Which varna, background did she belong ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-03-10T17:07:43.303" LastActivityDate="2017-03-10T17:07:43.303" Title="What Varna did Parashara's mother belong to?" Tags="|mahabharata|parashara|varna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17526" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15582" CreationDate="2017-03-10T17:07:16.373" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is what Ranga Ramanuja, the Sri Vaishnava commentator on the Upanishads, says about this verse in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/AtL9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Mandukya Upanishad Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yaḥ tat brahmaveda prītirupāpannadarśanasamānakārapāsanoyukto bhavatī - when he is endowed with Upasana which is of the character of vivid perception and which is of the form of love.  &lt;strong&gt;brahmaiva bhavatī means ābhirvuta brāhmarupo bhavatī - he will become one in whom the nature of Brahman becomes manifested.&lt;/strong&gt; Being freed from rāga, dveṣa and others caused by matter having the three gunas, he will manifest himself the eight characteristics of Brahman such as apahatapāpmatva etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in Ranga Ramanuja's view the verse is talking about liberated souls manifesting the characteristics of Brahman, not becoming Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya also touches on the verse in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48027.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The objects of meditation in all the vidyâs which refer to the highest Brahman, are Brahman viewed as having qualities, and the fruit of all those meditations. For this reason the author of the Sûtras declares that there is option among the different vidyâs--cp. Ve. Sû. III, 3, II; III., 3, 59. In the same way the Vâkyakâra teaches that the qualified Brahman only is the object of meditation, and that there is option of vidyâs; where he says '(Brahman) connected (with qualities), since the meditation refers to its qualities.' The same view is expressed by the Bhâshyakâra in the passage beginning 'Although he who bases himself on the knowledge of Being.'--&lt;strong&gt;Texts such as 'He knows Brahman, he becomes Brahman' (Mu. Up. III, 2, 9)&lt;/strong&gt; have the same purport, for they must be taken in connexion with the other texts (referring to the fate of him who knows) such as 'Freed from name and form he goes to the divine Person who is higher than the high'; 'Free from stain he reaches the highest oneness' (Mu. Up. III, 2, 8; III, 1,3); 'Having approached the highest light he manifests himself in his own shape' (Kh. Up. VIII, 3, 4). &lt;strong&gt;Of him who has freed himself from his ordinary name and form, and all the distinctions founded thereon, and has assumed the uniform character of intelligence, it may be said that he is of the character of Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &quot;Bhashyakara&quot;, by the way, is the ancient Vedantic philosopher Dramidacharya, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16535/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-03-10T17:07:16.373" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17527" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-10T18:25:33.557" Score="3" ViewCount="374" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya's body is preserved in Sri Rangam temple by mummification. Is it allowed as per agama or other shastra to bury/preserve a body inside a temple premises?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-12-02T22:18:41.457" LastActivityDate="2017-12-02T22:18:41.457" Title="Is it allowed to preserve a body in a temple's premises?" Tags="|temple|ramanujacharya|body|ranganatha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17528" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-11T00:06:02.850" Score="-4" ViewCount="3188" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the fundamental differences between the Buddhist &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/j4/j4025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Daśaratha-Jātaka&lt;/a&gt; and the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa is that Sītā is portrayed as Rāma's half-sister in the Jātaka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once upon a time, at Benares, a great king named &lt;strong&gt;Dasaratha&lt;/strong&gt; renounced the ways of evil, and reigned in righteousness. Of his sixteen thousand wives, the eldest and queen-consort bore him two sons and &lt;strong&gt;a daughter&lt;/strong&gt;; the elder son was named Rama-paṇḍita, or Rama the Wise, the second was named Prince Lakkhaṇa, or Lucky, and &lt;strong&gt;the daughter's name was the Lady Sītā&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whereas, per Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Janaka &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga66/balaroman66.htm#Verse13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;miraculously finds&lt;/a&gt; Sītā while plowing the field one day, adopts her and names her Sītā:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;atha me kṛṣhataḥ kṣhetram lāṃgalāt utthitā mama || 1-66-13&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;kṣhetram śhodhayatā labdhvā nāmnā sītā iti viśhrutā |&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later, when I was ploughing the ritual field then raised by the plough [from the furrow is a baby girl... since she is] gained while consecrating the ritual-field, she is named as Seetha, and thus she is renowned... [1-66-13b, 14a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;I want to know if Daśaratha-Jātaka predates Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa or vice versa or are both of them independent and parallel works derived from an even older version of Rāmāyaṇa.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS. Please don't answer citing &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/94/2995&quot;&gt;blogs or Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T16:42:19.910" LastActivityDate="2019-05-14T16:19:07.770" Title="Between Daśaratha-Jātaka and Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa which is older?" Tags="|ramayana|history|valmiki|buddhism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17530" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-11T03:25:08.293" Score="16" ViewCount="2139" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mainda and Dvivida are the valiant lieutenants in the army of Vānara. They are the sons of Ashwini Kumaras. Hanuman describes the plight of Lanka to his fellow vānaras and praises every Vānara including Angada, Jambavan, Neela etc., When it comes to Mainda and divida, Hanuman praises them as &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga59/sundara_59_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;follows&lt;/a&gt;.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अश्विपुत्रौ महाभागावेतौ प्लवगसत्तमौ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एतयोः प्रतियोद्धारम् न पश्यामि रणाजिरे ||  ५-५९-१७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aśviputrau mahābhāgāvetau plavagasattamau |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  etayoḥ pratiyoddhāram na paśyāmi raṇājire || 5-59-17&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;These two illustrious sons of Ashvini Kumaras, Mainda and Dvivida are the foremost among the monkeys. In the battle-field, I do not find anyone who can fight against these two monkeys.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पितामहवरोत्सेकात्परमम् दर्पमास्थितौ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अमृतप्राशनावेतौ&lt;/strong&gt; सर्ववानरसत्तमौ || ५-५९-१८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pitāmahavarotsekātparamam darpamāsthitau |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;amṛtaprāśanāvetau&lt;/strong&gt; sarvavānarasattamau || 5-59-18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Proud of having received boons from Brahma the creator and their grandfather&lt;/strong&gt; and abiding in a supreme haughtiness, these two foremost among all the monkeys &lt;strong&gt;live on Amrita the nectar&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In yuddhakanda too, they were said as drinking amrita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यौ तौ पश्यसि तिष्ठन्तौ कुमारौ देव रूपिणौ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    मैन्दः च द्विविदः च उभौ ताभ्याम् न अस्ति समो युधि || 6-28-6&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ब्रह्मणा समनुज्ञाताव् अमृत प्राशिनाव् उभौ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    आशंसेते युधा लंकाम् एतौ मर्दितुम् ओजसा || 6-28-7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The two who stand there, who have the same resemblance and have the appearance of celestials, are Mainda and Dvivida. None can equal them in combat. &lt;strong&gt;These two, who ate ambrosion on due authorization by Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;, are hopefully of destroying Lanka by their power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What boons did Mainda and Dvivida receive from Brahma?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When did Mainda and Dvivida drink nectar? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How was Dvivida &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2094/what-happened-to-the-vanara-sena-after-the-ramayana/2100#2100&quot;&gt;got killed&lt;/a&gt; by Balarāma despite of drinking nectar? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-05T05:29:00.927" LastActivityDate="2022-03-19T11:19:34.827" Title="When did Mainda and Dvivida drink Amrita with the permission of Brahma?" Tags="|ramayana|brahma|hanuman|balarama|amrita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17531" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17543" CreationDate="2017-03-11T05:54:22.173" Score="15" ViewCount="2662" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that we have lost a huge volume of our Scriptures including the Vedas.A huge amount of Agama Texts are also lost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example ,AFAIK,Rig Veda itself originally contained 8 Shakhas but of them currently  only one is extant(the Sakala Shakha).And,similarly for the other Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any way to calculate precisely the amount of Vedas that has been lost?For example-30% of the Vedas has been lost -Can we conclude something like that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-11T16:40:57.183" LastActivityDate="2020-05-17T09:29:48.673" Title="Can it be precisely known exactly how much amount of Vedas has been lost?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17533" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-11T10:44:06.370" Score="2" ViewCount="1087" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11024.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharatha&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Gandhari said ... Since deliberately, O slayer of Madhu, thou wert indifferent to this universal carnage, therefore, O mighty-armed one, thou shouldst reap the fruit of this act. By the little merit I have acquired through waiting dutifully on my husband, by that merit so difficult to attain, I shall curse thee, O wielder of the discus and the mace! Since thou wert indifferent to the Kurus and the Pandavas whilst they slew each other, therefore, O Govinda, thou shalt be the slayer of thy own kinsmen! &lt;strong&gt;In the thirty-sixth year from this, O slayer of Madhu, thou shalt, after causing the slaughter of thy kinsmen and friends and sons, perish by disgusting means in the wilderness.&lt;/strong&gt; The ladies of thy race, deprived of sons, kinsmen, and friends, shall weep and cry even as these ladies of the Bharata race!’&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This explains Mother Gandhari cursing Lord Krishna and his Entire Yadhava Race to be destroyed in 36 years.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is No Mentioning of destroying Dwarka City and cursing it to be flooded.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As Mother Gandhari didn't said it to be flooded why Dwarka city was destroyed by flood and is submerged in sea ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there reason for destroying dwarka specifically by flood ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2018-11-02T17:13:34.290" Title="What is the reason for Dwarka to be destroyed specifically by Flood?" Tags="|mahabharata|gandhari|curse|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17535" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-11T13:24:23.843" Score="2" ViewCount="152" Body="&lt;p&gt;If someone vow to do this when she get this. And after vowing she came to know that after getting fulfil her wish she can't be able to fulfill her vow. So what she can do?Can she fulfill her vow before getting her wish fulfill n don't have to fulfill her vow after her wish get fulfill? Can god forgive her?? Pls answer I am in great need&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9196" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-09T09:38:06.860" LastActivityDate="2018-04-09T09:38:06.860" Title="forgiveness after understanding" Tags="|prayaschitta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2018-04-10T02:20:23.187" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17537" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17528" CreationDate="2017-03-11T14:08:34.240" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki is Lord Ramas contemporary.&lt;/strong&gt; For eg. In the Ayodhya Kanda Lord Rama, along with Sita and Sri Lakshmana meet Valmiki in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga56/ayodhya_56_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chitrakuta forest.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इति सीता च रामश्च लक्ष्मणश्च कृताञ्जलिः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अभिगम्याश्रमम् सर्वे वाल्मीकि मभिवादयन् || २-५६-१६&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;After deciding thus Seetha, Rama and Lakshmana all with joined palms approached the hermitage and offered salutation to the sage Valmiki.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus this clearly proves that Ramayana written by Sage Valmiki is the Original one. Now, if you believe Rama came after Buddha then one can&amp;apos;t do anything.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As a sidenote all the Jataka tales are written after the period of Buddha. They are considered the stories which were told by Buddha to make layman person understand various theories like law of Karma, law of reincarnation. Obviously the Dasaratha Jataka is also clear on it as in the last part it is stated:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Master having ended this discourse, declared the Truths,&lt;/strong&gt; and identified the Birth: (now at the conclusion of the Truths, the land-owner was established in the fruit of the First Path:) &quot;At that time the king Suddhodana was king Dasaratha, Mahāmāyā was the mother, Rāhulā's mother was Sītā, &lt;strong&gt;Ānanda was Bharata, and I myself was Rāma-paṇḍita.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it's clear that Dasaratha Jataka is a story told by Buddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-03-12T05:07:48.320" LastActivityDate="2017-03-12T05:07:48.320" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17538" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17523" CreationDate="2017-03-11T14:35:38.637" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Temples don't donate food to anyone.They donate food to those who come asking for it and obviously these people are in need of it too and understandably poor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will show, in what follows, that by virtue of being poor and in need of food ,they are qualified as worthy recipients of Dana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you have but a morsel of food, &lt;strong&gt;why don't you give half of it to the&#xA;  poor ?&lt;/strong&gt; Will any body ever get his wished-for riches in this life ?&#xA;  (23)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vyasa Smriti,Chapter 4,Verse 29&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By an intelligent person, seeking his own well-being, these gifts and&#xA;  others should be made &lt;strong&gt;specially unto the poor&lt;/strong&gt;, the blind and other&#xA;  distressed persons. (91)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samvarta Smriti,Chapter 1,Verse 91&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Vasava, O foremoost of the Celestials, &lt;strong&gt;eternal is the gift that is&#xA;  made unto a person who is&lt;/strong&gt; well-read in the Vedas, born in a good&#xA;  family, &lt;strong&gt;poor&lt;/strong&gt;, contented, humble, given to the well-being of all&#xA;  creatures, who studies the Vedas, performs penances..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vrihaspati Smriti,Chapter 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,it is clear that, one of the qualities that make the recipient of Dana worthy, is being poor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,the poor and needy are included among the &lt;em&gt;Poshyas&lt;/em&gt;.The society has the responsibility of taking care of their needs,taking care of them.So,the Temples are doing Punya karma only by feeding them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The father, the mother, the preceptor, the wife, the children, &lt;strong&gt;the&#xA;  poor people,&lt;/strong&gt; the dependents, the incomers and the guests, are spoken&#xA;  of as the Poshyas (i.e., &lt;strong&gt;those who should be supported&lt;/strong&gt; . (29)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daksha Smriti,Chapter 2,Verse 29&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some further relevant verses are given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is presented as a gift&lt;/strong&gt; to the father, to the mother, to the&#xA;  .preceptor, to a friend, to a humble person, to one who has done any&#xA;  good, &lt;strong&gt;to the poor, to the helpless&lt;/strong&gt; and to distinguished persons,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;yields fruits&lt;/strong&gt;. (15)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daksha Smriti, Chapter 3,Verse 15&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sandhya adorations, bathing, recitation of the Homa, Vedic study,&#xA;  adorations of the Deities, adoration of the Vis'wadevas, hospitable&#xA;  treatment extended to the guests, according to one's own might, &lt;strong&gt;proper&#xA;  allotment of food for the&lt;/strong&gt; departed Manes, Deities, human beings, the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;poor, the helpless&lt;/strong&gt;, the ascetics, the father, the mother and the&#xA;  preceptor, &lt;strong&gt;these are the nine [sacred] works.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daksha Smriti,Chapter 3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One desiring for lordly powers, &lt;strong&gt;should make gifts unto the poor, the&#xA;  helpless&lt;/strong&gt; and the learned. By making gifts unto unworthy persons,&#xA;  people are born dependant on another's fortune.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daksha Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,as you can see, by simply being poor and in need of food they should be considered as worthy recipient of Dana as opposed to an unworthy one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,one of the rules for Anna Dana is that it should not be made unasked for.So,here too the Temple authorities are not in fault.They are donating food to only those who are asking for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ayaachtaani deyaani sarva daanaani yatnatah, Annam Vidyaaha&#xA;  Kanyaachahyanarthibhyona deeyate| Dvaamimau purushaa loke&#xA;  swargasyopari tishthatah, Anna pradaataa durbhikshe subhikshe hema&#xA;  vastradah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shandalya Muni mentions that all types of charities be offered without&#xA;  being asked for and with clean conscience or with no view of securing&#xA;  returns; &lt;strong&gt;however Vidya, Kanya and Anna must not be offered without&#xA;  being asked for as a rule!&lt;/strong&gt; Indeed, there are two types of charity&#xA;  givers who attain Swarga for sure: those who heartily give away Food&#xA;  during Durbhiksha and also those who happily give away gold and&#xA;  clothing during the days of general prosperity&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the last quote being taken from the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Essence of Dharma Bindu&quot;&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And ,moreover,the Temples distribute the Prasadam and not just any food.So,the act is even more sacred and beneficial for everyone involved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-11T15:14:21.727" LastActivityDate="2017-03-11T15:14:21.727" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17539" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-11T21:37:25.173" Score="6" ViewCount="1334" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vithoba&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vitthala&lt;/a&gt; means the one who stands on veeta(Brick), is an &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;avatar&lt;/a&gt; of Shriman Naryana aka Panduranga(whose colour is like that of mud pandu). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vitthala is worshipped by Vaishnavas all over the world and he is most popular amongst Dwaitins and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varkari&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varkari sect&lt;/a&gt; people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where is Vitthala avatar mentioned in Scriptures or in other words which purana(s) mention &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitthal_Temple,_Pandharpur&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sthala(place)&lt;/a&gt; mahatmya of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandharpur&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pandharpur&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: Quote the story for taking avatar if possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-03-11T22:09:47.967" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T12:51:26.687" Title="Pandharpur Mahatmya, Importance of Pandharpur" Tags="|puranas|temple|vaishnavism|vitthal|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17542" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-12T05:45:01.367" Score="5" ViewCount="937" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In our scriptures it is said that destiny is given only according to Karma and is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2399/is-our-destiny-predetermined-if-yes-then-why-do-our-actions-affect-our-karma&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not Predetermined&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As in mahabharatha Arjuna Lost his Archery skills and is said that arjuna's power's were &lt;strong&gt;Given by Lord Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After his purpose is fulfilled the Powers were &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2362/did-lord-krishna-take-away-arjunas-dhanur-vidya-archery-abilities&quot;&gt;Taken by Lord Krishna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; as it is Lord krishna's will.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weakness or Trouble&lt;/strong&gt; comes to a soul only by its &lt;strong&gt;Bad Karma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;BR/&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;EXAMPLE :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Women of Dwarka were cursed by a Muni so they were caught by theives&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is in consequence, then, of the &lt;strong&gt;curse of the Muni Asht́ávakra&lt;/strong&gt; that these females, who were at first the wives of Keśava, have now fallen into the hands of the barbarians; and there is no occasion, Arjuna, for you to regret it in the least. All this destruction has been effected by the lord of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Veda Vyasa said it was due to the Womens curse in previous birth and didn't tell it was due to Arjuna's Bad Karma that caused him to loss his power .&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A soul's Karma is experienced fully himself(&lt;strong&gt;WOMEN&lt;/strong&gt;) and Not by others(&lt;strong&gt;ARJUNA&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How can Arjuna became Powerless due to &lt;strong&gt;Other souls Bad Karma&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Was his &lt;strong&gt;Destiny Predetermined&lt;/strong&gt; as he experienced Karma's of other soul &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If  it was not Pre - Determined by &lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna's will&lt;/strong&gt; then why did he &lt;strong&gt;Forgot the Astras&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2021-05-22T18:53:54.140" Title="Was Arjuna's Destiny Predetermined?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|karma|atma|arjuna|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17543" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17531" CreationDate="2017-03-12T05:51:52.923" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Regarding loss of Shakha we can make calculation based on the no. of present Shakha. For instance Kurma Purana Purva Bhaga Chapter 52 gives this data;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एकविंशतिभेदेन ऋग्वेदं कृतवान् पुरा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शाखानान्तु शतेनैव यजुर्वेदमथाकरोत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सामवेदं सहस्रेण शाखानां प्रविभेद स ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अथर्वाणमथोवेदं विभेद कुशकेतन ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भेदैर्ष्टादशैर्व्यासः पुराण कृतवान् प्रभुः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोऽयमेकश्चतुष्पादो वेदः पूर्वं सनातन ।। (Kurma Purana 1.52)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Initially, the &lt;strong&gt;Rigveda was divided into twentyone branches, while the Yajurveda was divided into a hundred branches.&lt;/strong&gt; Thereafter, Vyasa who dwelt in the house of Kus&amp;apos;a, distributed &lt;strong&gt;Samaveda into a thousand branches.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Atharvaveda too was also distributed into nine branches.&lt;/strong&gt; Besides this, Vyasa composed eighteen types of the Puranas. Thus in the ancient times there had been a single Veda, which was subsequently divided into four parts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we add the total Shakhas of Veda we come to know that originally there were about 1130 Shakhas. Now, as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15301/are-there-any-variants-in-samhita-of-vedas/15445#15445&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; only about 12 - 13 Shakhas of Vedas are surviving. If we calculate in percentage the loss of Shakha is about 98.94%. ie. &lt;strong&gt;It means  about 98% Shakhas of Vedas are lost upto now.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now, regarding loss of verses (Richas/Suktas), Samhitas of same Vedas do not differ so much wildly in content. For instance in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15301/are-there-any-variants-in-samhita-of-vedas/15445#15445&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; I have presented variation of Sri Rudram Hymn in various Shakhas. And regarding content we can&amp;apos;t be sure how much percentage of Vedas we have lost.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-03-12T05:51:52.923" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17546" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17515" CreationDate="2017-03-12T15:10:59.467" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti II.168 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A twice-born man who, not having studied the Veda, applies himself to other (and worldly study), soon falls, even while living, to the condition of a Sudra and his descendents (after him).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-03-12T15:10:59.467" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17547" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17515" CreationDate="2017-03-12T16:34:08.673" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Brahmin who does not have the qualities of an ideal Brahmin should have to be treated accordingly.There are many verses in Smritis which say so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 4.245. A Brahmana who always connects himself with the&#xA;  most excellent (ones), and shuns all inferior ones, (himself) becomes&#xA;  most distinguished; &lt;strong&gt;by an opposite conduct he becomes a Sudra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu smriti 8.102. Brahmanas who tend cattle, who trade, who are&#xA;  mechanics, actors (or singers), menial servants or usurers, &lt;strong&gt;the&#xA;  (judge) shall treat like Sudras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The panegyrics, the flatterers, cheats, those who act harshly, and&#xA;  those who are avaricious, &lt;strong&gt;these five Brahmanas should never be adored,&#xA;  even if they are equal to Vrihaspati in learning&lt;/strong&gt;.(Atri Smriti Chapter 1,Verse 273)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly a Brahmin who does not know the Gayatri or who fails do his religious duties is also a Sudra by karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;24&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Brahman, ignorant of the Gayatri hymn, is more unclean than even a Sudra ;&lt;/strong&gt; the Brahmans who know the nature and the sanctity of the&#xA;  Gayatri hymn, are honored and revered by all persons.&lt;strong&gt;(Parashara Smriti,Chapter 8,Verse 24)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And a Brahmin who is of unrighteous conduct is a Chandala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who sets his face against righteousness, is but a Chandala by his&#xA;  acts. He gains nothing by being a mendicant, or by worshipping the&#xA;  household fire.&lt;strong&gt;(Parashara Smriti,Chapter 8 )&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, i have not found any verses like the ones you are looking for.Which say that a bad Brahmin should be prohibited from participating in religious acts.On the contrary i found this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AYz1V.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AYz1V.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;25.&lt;strong&gt;Even a Brahman of a bad character deserves respect;&lt;/strong&gt; but not so a Sudra, even though his passions may have been subdued by him. &lt;strong&gt;Who&#xA;  would quit a wicked cow, and try to milk a docile female&#xA;  ass?(Parashara Smriti,Chapter 8,Verse 25)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is possibly because the Smritis give considerable importance to the sanctity of a Brahmin birth  and also to the power of the purificatory Samskaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T08:43:08.140" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T08:43:08.140" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17549" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17566" CreationDate="2017-03-12T23:32:11.840" Score="7" ViewCount="713" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gayatri Mantra&lt;/a&gt; is dedicated to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savitr&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Savitr&lt;/a&gt;. In the Hindi version of both Wikipedia pages, different pronunciations are given. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The former says it's &quot;सवित्र&quot;, while the latter says it's &quot;सवितृ&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which is the correct pronunciation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit :&lt;/strong&gt; As the user &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/5154/tezz&quot;&gt;Tezz&lt;/a&gt; points out that pronunciation &quot;Savita&quot; has also been used in scriptures. I think that all three pronunciations are correct, but vary as per context. For instance, the word &quot;Pitra&quot; refers to ancestors and &quot;Pita&quot; refers to father. Any references illustrating the uses in different contexts of the word are welcome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2695" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-03-14T09:02:53.270" Title="Correct pronunciation of Lord Savitr" Tags="|vedas|mantras|sanskrit|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17552" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17549" CreationDate="2017-03-13T04:10:45.460" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The correct pronounciation is सविता ie. Lord Savitã.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0K1Vw.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As one can see the Devata of Mantra 10-12 is सविता (Savitã) and the 10th Mantra is the Gayatri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In IAST:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;savitā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ITRANS:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;savitA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-03-13T04:10:45.460" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17553" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17515" CreationDate="2017-03-13T05:00:35.480" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is statement of Lord Maheswara himself from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anushashana Parva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Endued with knowledge and science, purified from all dross, and fully conversant with the Vedas, a pious Kshatriya, by his own acts, becomes a Brahmana. It is with the aid of these acts, O goddess, that a person who has sprung from a degraded order, viz., a Sudra, may become a Brahmana refined of all stains and possessed of Vedic lore, &lt;strong&gt;One that is a Brahmana, when he becomes wicked in conduct and observes no distinction in respect of food, falls away from the status of Brahmanahood and becomes a Sudra. Even a Sudra, O goddess, that has purified his soul by pure deeds and that has subjugated all his senses, deserves to be waited upon and served with reverence as a Brahmana.&lt;/strong&gt; This has been said by the Self-born Brahmana himself. When a pious nature and pious deeds are noticeable in even a Sudra, he should, according to my opinion, be held superior to a person of the three regenerate classes. Neither birth, nor the purificatory rites, nor learning, nor offspring, can be regarded as grounds for conferring upon one the regenerate status. &lt;strong&gt;Verily, conduct is the only ground. All Brahmanas in this world are Brahmanas in consequence of conduct.&lt;/strong&gt; A Sudra, if he is established on good conduct, is regarded as possessed of the status of a Brahmana. The status of Brahma, O auspicious lady, is equal wherever it exists. Even this is my opinion. He, indeed, is a Brahmana in whom the status of Brahma exists,--that condition which is bereft of attributes and which has no stain attached to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, obviously Brahmana by birth can become Sudra by his conduct. Statement of Lord Shiva certainly has high authoritiy than any other Smritis or Acharyas. For instance, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av06061.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Atharvaveda whose Devata is Lord Rudra, Lord states: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My word is truth, what I deny is falsehood.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-03-13T05:05:39.093" LastActivityDate="2017-03-13T05:05:39.093" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17556" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-13T07:33:32.220" Score="0" ViewCount="79" Body="&lt;p&gt;Could anyone tell me about why womens are kept untouchable when they are in period.In which scripture it is mentioned.And any scientific explanation of it?&#xA;Because nowadays girls are becoming extra secular and liberal we have to explain them about that..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8932" LastEditorUserId="8932" LastEditDate="2017-03-13T10:59:46.900" LastActivityDate="2017-03-13T10:59:46.900" Title="Does any Scripture say women who are suffering period are untouchable by men or they cant go temple" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-03-14T18:44:10.933" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17557" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10090" CreationDate="2017-03-13T08:20:40.647" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shani Deva's vahana is &lt;strong&gt;Grudha&lt;/strong&gt; to be precise i.e &lt;strong&gt;a vulture&lt;/strong&gt; and not a crow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Sanaischara_Kavacham&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanaischara Kavacham&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asya Sri Sanaischara kavacham Maha manthrasya Kasyap Rishi , anushtup&#xA;  Chanda , Sanaischaro devathaa¬&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the great armour of Sani , the sage is Kashyapa , the meter is&#xA;  anushtup and the god addressed is Sanaischara.¬&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sam Bheejam, Nam Shakthi , mam keelakam, Sanaischara krutha peeda&#xA;  parihararthe jape viniyoga.¬&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sam is the root , Nam is the power , Mam is the nail and this being&#xA;  chanted to get rid of the problems created by Lord Sanaischara.¬&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, refer to Dhyana Sloka (the meditative verse) given further below on the linked page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhyanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishnambaradaram devam dvibujam &lt;strong&gt;gruda samsthitham,&lt;/strong&gt;¬ Sarva peedaa&#xA;  haram dhyayeth graham ganothamam.¬&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I meditate of the best among planets who wears black silk,¬ Who has&#xA;  two hands , &lt;strong&gt;who sits on a vulture&lt;/strong&gt; and who removes all sufferings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another Dhyana Sloka for Shani Deva is this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saurashtram Kashyapam Sudram SuryAsyam Chaturangulam| &lt;br&gt;Krishnam&#xA;  Krishnambaram &lt;strong&gt;Grudhagatam&lt;/strong&gt; Sourim Chaturbhujam||&lt;br&gt; UdyadvAnadharam&#xA;  Sulam Dhanur hastam SamAhvyeth | &lt;br&gt;YamAdhidaivatam DhyAyeth&#xA;  PrajApatyadhidaivatam||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grudhagatam&lt;/strong&gt; means one who moves on a Grudha or vulture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The source of this above sloka is a bengali prayoga book that i have called &quot;Brihat Vishuddha Nitya Karma Paddhati&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book is of the same genre as Gita Press's prayoga book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/nitya-karma-puja-prakash-most-useful-book-for-performing-puja-NZA152/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot; Nitya Karma Puja Prakash&quot;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/matsya/bookview.php?chapnum=12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matsya Purana&lt;/a&gt; ,the description of Shani Deva is given as follows,which also says that vulture is his mount or vahana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra neela dutih Shuli varado &lt;strong&gt;Grudha vaahanah&lt;/strong&gt; Baana&#xA;  baanaasanadharah kartavy -orka suthastathaa/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shanaischara's body colour is of Indraneelamani/ blue diamond; &lt;strong&gt;he&#xA;  rides a Grudha/ Vulture&lt;/strong&gt; and carries bow and arrows, Trishula and&#xA;  Varada Mudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-10T16:40:41.207" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T16:40:41.207" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17558" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-13T11:21:23.500" Score="5" ViewCount="1380" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translation of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; by K. M. Ganguli, we see a paragraph note in the page which states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Santi Parva is a huge interpolation in the Mahabharata, in the&#xA;  genre known as 'wisdom literature.' The narrative progression is&#xA;  placed on hold almost from the first page. Instead we get a long and&#xA;  winding recapitulation of Brahmanic lore, including weighty treatises&#xA;  on topics such as kingcraft, metaphysics, cosmology, geography, and&#xA;  mythology. There are discussions of the Sankya and Yoga philosophical&#xA;  schools, and mentions of Buddhism. It is apparent that the Santi Parva&#xA;  was added to the Mahabharata at a later time than the main body of the&#xA;  epic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it possible? Because it is not normal that such sections suddenly talk of cosmology and philosophies in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-13T17:23:38.063" LastActivityDate="2020-08-02T12:16:05.120" Title="Is Shanti Parva an interpolation in the Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|darshan|interpolation|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2020-09-25T12:11:04.813" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17559" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8744" CreationDate="2017-03-13T12:06:57.050" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a passage that accepts the existence of homosexuals as simply a fact. An ignorant jiva might be born as a third gender or as a man or as a woman. It is significant that the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc202068.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;punishment for homosexuality&lt;/a&gt; in Manu Smriti is merely bathing. This suggests that homosexuality is not a major sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the Jiva, who is by nature self-luminous, forgets the Bhagavan,&#xA;  the supreme Teacher and the Soul of all souls, and become identified&#xA;  with the Gunas of Prakriti, then that Jiva, strengthening this&#xA;  identification and attachment through the senses and their objects,&#xA;  engages himself in various actions, and bears the ultimate fruits of&#xA;  these actions by way of embodiments in wombs that are high or low.&#xA;  Sometimes, on the strength of actions of a Sattvika nature, the Jiva&#xA;  attains to worlds of light; sometimes by Rajasika actions, to the&#xA;  world of men full of sorrows and difficulties; and sometimes by&#xA;  Tamasika actions to low worlds of darkness and suffering. &lt;strong&gt;The Jiva who&#xA;  is blinded by ignorance, sometimes is embodied as a man, sometimes as&#xA;  a woman, sometimes as a neuter.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Srimad Bhagavata Purana IV.29.26-29)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Math did not have any problem getting the well-known homosexual intellectual &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Isherwood#Work_on_Vedanta_and_the_West&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Christopher Isherwood&lt;/a&gt; to write a biography of Sri Ramakrishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-13T16:12:39.937" LastActivityDate="2017-03-13T16:12:39.937" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17562" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-13T16:32:23.020" Score="5" ViewCount="935" Body="&lt;p&gt;Saying a mantra has energy inside can't be true as every word has energy within it. Then what's the criteria of Mantra? On what basis a word should be called Mantra? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-03-20T17:01:19.730" Title="What is Mantra? What is the criteria by which a word turns into mantra?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17564" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17404" CreationDate="2017-03-14T01:23:14.160" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not all Hindus are aware of Srimad Madhvacharya and his existence. The followers who believe in him being the third avatar of Vayu are known as Madhvaas, a community that follows Madhvacharya's Dvaita philosophy. &#xA;There is no reference of Srimad Madhvacharya being the third incarnation of Vayu in the scriptures. &#xA;To learn more about Madhvacharya, I recommend reading “Madhwavijaya” by Narayana Panditha. It is a very informative book, so I definitely encourage you to check it out!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9216" LastActivityDate="2017-03-14T01:23:14.160" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17565" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11093" CreationDate="2017-03-14T05:02:32.237" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Katyayana Smriti also says the same :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;During solar and lunar eclipses all the waters, that exist on earth&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  and even that in a well, &lt;strong&gt;become like that of the Ganges.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Katyayana Smriti,Chapter 10,Verse 14&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-03-14T05:02:32.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17566" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17549" CreationDate="2017-03-14T09:02:53.270" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sanskrit grammar, each सुबन्त (grossly interpreted as a noun) has 7 (+1) cases and its form will vary as per the case. This is unlike Hindi (which uses something similar to the prepositions in English) but many south-indian languages will find similarities in the different forms and modifications of the words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the word सवितृ is the root of a ऋ-कारन्त पुल्लिङ्ग सुबन्त. The word सविता is the first case singular.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's declension is somewhat like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    Singular     Dual           Plural&#xA;1.  सविता          सवितरौ        सवितरः&#xA;1a. (हे सवितः      हे सवितरौ        हे सवितरः)&#xA;2.  सवितरम्       सवितरौ         सवितॄन्&#xA;3.  सवित्रा         सवितृभ्याम्       सवितृभ्यः&#xA;4.  सवित्रे         सवितृभ्याम्       सवितृभ्यः&#xA;5.  सवितुः         सवितृभ्याम्       सवितृभ्यः&#xA;6.  सवितुः         सवित्रोः         सवित्रूणाम्&#xA;7.  सवितरि        सवित्रोः          सवित्रुषु&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, depending on what the intent is, different forms will be used. The सवितुः used in the Gayatri will mean 'from the Sun' or 'belonging to the Sun' depending  on whether it's the 5th or 6th विभक्ति. And in the case of the Sun, there are no two or more Suns, so the dual and plural cases are not used (unless some respect is to be shown, in which case the plural may be used).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the पितृ, the declension is similar since it is also a ऋ-कारन्त पुल्लिङ्ग सुबन्त.  Context matters behind the usage of this word. The word पिता (1st विभक्ति singular) means Father, while the (1st विभक्ति) plural form पितरः (meaning Fathers) is usually used to indicate ancestors. Note that the (1st विभक्ति) dual form पितरौ (meaning two Fathers) is usually used to indicate मातापितरौ (father and mother).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastActivityDate="2017-03-14T09:02:53.270" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17568" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17570" CreationDate="2017-03-14T11:30:27.147" Score="4" ViewCount="383" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/J7YUf.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/J7YUf.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;Significance of Chaitra Navratri ?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Rituals to be followed ?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Why people keep fast on chaitra navratri and reason behind it ?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Why it is celebrated for nine days and nights ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastActivityDate="2017-03-14T16:39:33.263" Title="Significance of Chaitra Navratri?" Tags="|festivals|durga|navrathri|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17569" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19330" CreationDate="2017-03-14T14:27:43.487" Score="5" ViewCount="3607" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In mahabhartha arjuna was told to be saved from Vaishnava astra by Lord Krishna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A warrior named Bhagadatta used this astra against Arjuna, as Lord krishna stood up and the astra turned into a garland and fell on Lord Krishna.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As Arjuna had &lt;strong&gt;Brahmastra, Brahmahasisthra, and the Pashupatastra (Special)&lt;/strong&gt; why didn't he used it to stop it ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is Vaishnava Astra &lt;strong&gt;Powerful than Pashupatastra&lt;/strong&gt; or Brahmastra which made Lord krishna to stop it ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T17:10:52.500" Title="Why Lord Krishna saved Arjuna from Vaishnava Astra?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|weapon|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17570" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17568" CreationDate="2017-03-14T15:11:48.710" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a partial answer based on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatam13.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavata Purana,BOOK 3 Chapter 26&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharshi Vyasa explains the significance of performing the Asvin and Chaitra Navaratris to King Janamejaya :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Janamejaya said :– “O Best of the Brâhmins! What are men to do in the time of Navarâtra? Especially in the Navarâtra ceremony during the&#xA;  autumnal season how is the ceremony to be performed? Kindly relate all&#xA;  this with the prescribed rules and regulations.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O intelligent one! What are the fruits therein of the Navarâtra ceremony? and what are the rules to be observed? Kindly describe all&#xA;  these to me.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3-5. Vyâsa said :– O king! Hear about the vow of auspicious Navarâtra.&#xA;  This has to be performed with loving devotion in the vernal season;&#xA;  but its special season is autumn. &lt;strong&gt;The two seasons, autumn and&#xA;  spring, are famous as the teeth of Yama, the God of Death; and these&#xA;  are the two seasons, very hard for the persons to cross over.&#xA;  Therefore every goodfaring man should everywhere perform this vow very&#xA;  carefully.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6-8. O king! The people are very much afflicted with various terrible diseases in these two seasons autumn and spring and many lose&#xA;  their lives during these portions of the year. Therefore the wise&#xA;  should unquestionably worship with great devotion the Chandikâ Devî in&#xA;  these auspicious months of Chaitra and Âs’vin.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From,&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Pithru%20Puja%20and%20Kanya%20Puja.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kamakoti.org&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;द्वाव्रृत्तयमदंष्ट्राख्यौ नूनं सर्वजनेषु वै। शरदः सन्तानमनौ दुर्गमौ&#xA;  प्राणिनामिह॥ तस्मात् यत्नतः इदम् कार्यं सर्वत्र&#xA;  शुभमिच्छुना॥(देवीभागवतम्, तृतीयस्कन्धम्, २६ अध्यायः)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yama is son of Surya. He is called as Dharmaraja. He will not go&#xA;  astray from the righteous path. He condemned the folly done by Chaya&#xA;  Devi, second wife of his father. He is an embodiment of peace for the&#xA;  good. He is a tyrant for the sinners. &lt;strong&gt;He has two long and sharp&#xA;  teeth on both sides of his mouth. They are the VASANT and SHARAD&#xA;  RITUS&lt;/strong&gt; . (Duration of every two months is called a RITU. They are six&#xA;  Ritus: VASANTA, GREESHMA, VARSHA, SHARAD, HEMANTA &amp;amp; SHISHIRA). All the&#xA;  diseases under the sun are YAMA’s servants to fetch the lives of those&#xA;  dead in this world. He is by himself very ferocious in appearance. He&#xA;  is also known as BHAYANKARA. Those who see his long teeth protruding&#xA;  on the sides of the mouth are sure to shudder. In the VASANTH and&#xA;  SHARAD RITUS, the world suffers various diseases&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To escape from the clutches of Yama's two teeth the Sharad and Vasant(Chaitra) Navaratris are celebrated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-14T16:39:33.263" LastActivityDate="2017-03-14T16:39:33.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17572" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-14T17:30:18.247" Score="1" ViewCount="91" Body="&lt;p&gt;My friend took a few pictures of what appears to be a Hindu goddess and asked my help to identify them. Unfortunately, I am unable to definitively say who they are. My first guess was Lakshmi or Parvati but I don't think that's correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tP2p9.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tP2p9.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;A dancing statue next to a statue of Buddha.&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tGbnQ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tGbnQ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Another statue in a dancing pose.&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do not have these images in higher resolution. I'm sorry if this is not the right place to ask this question. Thanks!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9221" LastActivityDate="2017-03-14T17:30:18.247" Title="Please help me identify these statues" Tags="|identification-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17573" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-14T19:17:20.773" Score="6" ViewCount="515" Body="&lt;p&gt;Drona is great Brahmin acharya (professor) for Pandavas, Kauravas and many other Kshatriyas of that time. He has &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drona#Revenge_upon_Drupada&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;revenge&lt;/a&gt; on Drupada due to insult made by Drupada and hence Dronacharya took revenge on Drupadha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chanakya is a famous Brahmin mentor for Chandragupta. He has &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhana_Nanda#Reign&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;revenge&lt;/a&gt; on Dhana nanda due to insult made by Dhana nanda and hence chanakya took revenge on Dhana nanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many such famous 'take revenge's' in mythology and in Indian history.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have doubt regarding this take revenge stories. Is taking revenge for some insult a sin or not? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What if some one excuses other in-spite of getting insult? Is it dharma to take revenge for getting insult?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-11-10T07:19:33.523" LastActivityDate="2019-11-10T17:23:15.880" Title="Is taking revenge not a sin?" Tags="|history|dharma|sin|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17574" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-14T20:24:44.920" Score="3" ViewCount="800" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bharasamarpanam is a process of explicit surrender which is done by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2835/489&quot;&gt;Vadakalai sub-sect&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Vaishnavism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnavism&lt;/a&gt;. Bharasamarpanam or Bharanasyam is done after &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samasrayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samashrayanam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any evidence of Purvaachrayas performing Bharasamarpanam(before the split between vadakalai and thenkalai sects occurred).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Pancharatra Agamas approve of Bharasamarpanam so there is no doubt about its authenticity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-06-01T04:31:07.507" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T14:55:05.093" Title="Sri Vaishnava Acharyas and BharaSamarpanam" Tags="|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|vadakalai|sharanagati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17577" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10057" CreationDate="2017-03-15T05:18:47.187" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think they wrote &lt;em&gt;zata&lt;/em&gt;(in Harvard-Kyoto transliteration) in Sanskrit which means hundred and they did not use Roman numerals. They knew the counting but they denoted it differently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9227" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T06:15:05.587" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T06:15:05.587" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17578" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17573" CreationDate="2017-03-15T06:23:03.880" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Taking revenge is at least a bad conduct or unethical as per the Atri Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If external or spiritual pain is created by others, &lt;strong&gt;and one is not&#xA;  offended and does not wreak revenge, it (i.e., the spirit) is called&#xA;  Dama.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti , Chapter 1 , Verse 39&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dama,Daya(mercy),Aspriha(want of desire) etc are the basic ethical conducts or ideal behaviour as per the aforementioned Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To follow good conduct always and to renounce a bad one, has been&#xA;  described as &lt;strong&gt;Mangala&lt;/strong&gt; by the 'R.ishis well-read in Religious Codes.&#xA;  (36)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,Dama is mentioned as one of the Mangalas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-15T06:29:51.567" LastActivityDate="2017-03-15T06:29:51.567" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17579" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17465" CreationDate="2017-03-15T06:36:27.030" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most Smriti Texts mention about such ethical conducts. I am here quoting from the Atri Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A really accomplished person &lt;strong&gt;does not try to suppress another's merit&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  : he praises another's accomplishments ; &lt;strong&gt;he does not laugh at&#xA;  another's shortcomings&lt;/strong&gt; ; [such a spirit] is called &lt;strong&gt;Anasuya&lt;/strong&gt; (want&#xA;  of jealousy).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Renunciation of forbidden food&lt;/strong&gt;, association with those who are not&#xA;  badly spoken of, and abiding by good conduct is spoken of as&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;S'oucha&lt;/strong&gt; (purity).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To follow good conduct always and to renounce a bad one, has been&#xA;  described as Mangala by the 'R.ishis well-read in Religious Codes.&#xA;  (36)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One should not do, to an excess&lt;/strong&gt;, what afflicts the body, whether good&#xA;  or bad. This is called &lt;strong&gt;Anayasa&lt;/strong&gt; (want of exertion). (37)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One should be contented with all articles&lt;/strong&gt;, whenever what arrives ; one&#xA;  should not long for another's wives ; this is called &lt;strong&gt;Aspriha&lt;/strong&gt; (want&#xA;  of desire). (38)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If external or spiritual pain is created by others, and one is not&#xA;  offended and does not wreak revenge, it (i.e., the spirit) is called&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Dama.&lt;/strong&gt; (39&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even from a limited income, &lt;strong&gt;something should be given away daily&lt;/strong&gt; with&#xA;  care and liberal spirit. This is called &lt;strong&gt;Dana&lt;/strong&gt; (charity). (40)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should behave, &lt;strong&gt;like his own self, towards others&lt;/strong&gt;, his own&#xA;  relations and friends, him who envies him, and an enemy. This is&#xA;  called &lt;strong&gt;Daya&lt;/strong&gt; (mercy). (41)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti Chapter 1, Verses 34-41&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-31T05:05:31.283" LastActivityDate="2017-03-31T05:05:31.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17580" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-15T07:16:02.943" Score="4" ViewCount="278" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in Adhyaya 1 Pada 2 Sutra 1 of Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa School, Jaimini says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;āmnāyasya kriyārthatvādānarthakyamatadarthānāṃ tasmādānityamucyata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purpose of the Veda lying in the enjoining of actions, those parts of the Veda which do not serve that purpose are useless, in these therefore the Veda is declared to be non-eternal (unreliable).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Purva Mimamsa philosophers interpret this Sutra as saying that any statements in the Vedas that don't prescribe an action are mere Arthavada, i.e. statements that are just meant to glorify an action.  (See &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/KGgm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Shabara's commentary for more details, like the fact that this is a Purvapaksha Sutra.)  But the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, disagreed with this view, as being a member of the Vedanta school he believed that Vedic statements about Brahman were meaningful and not connected to actions.  And yet he had to contend with the Sutra above.  How he deals with this is by arguing that Purva Mimamsa philosophers are misinterpreting what Jaimini is saying; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34010.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his  Brahma Sutra Bhashya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With regard to the other passage quoted ('as action is the purport of the Veda, whatever does not refer to action is purportless') we remark that if that passage were taken in an absolutely strict sense (when it would mean that only those words which denote action have a meaning), it would follow that all information about existent things is meaningless.... Moreover, there are found (even in that part of the Veda which treats of actions) such passages as 'a Brâhmana is not to be killed,' which teach abstinence from certain actions. Now abstinence from action is neither action nor instrumental to action. If, therefore, the tenet that all those passages which do not express action are devoid of purport were insisted on, it would follow that all such passages as the one quoted, which teach abstinence from action, are devoid of purport--a consequence which is of course unacceptable. Nor, again, can the connexion in which the word 'not' stands with the action expressed by the verb 'is to be killed'--which action is naturally established --be used as a reason for assuming that 'not' denotes an action non-established elsewhere, different from the state of mere passivity implied in the abstinence from the act of killing. For the peculiar function of the particle 'not' is to intimate the idea of the non-existence of that with which it is connected, and the conception of the non-existence (of something to be done) is the cause of the state of passivity. (Nor can it be objected that, as soon as that momentary idea has passed away, the state of passivity will again make room for activity; for) that idea itself passes away (only after having completely destroyed the natural impulse prompting to the murder of a Brâhmana, &amp;amp;c., just as a fire is extinguished only after having completely consumed its fuel. Hence we are of opinion that the aim of prohibitory passages, such as 'a Brâhmana is not to be killed,'is a merely passive state, consisting in the abstinence from some possible action; excepting some special cases, such as the so-called Pragâpati-vow, &amp;amp;c. Hence the charge of want of purpose is to be considered as referring (not to the Vedânta-passages, but only) to such statements about existent things as are of the nature of legends and the like, and do not serve any purpose of man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, Adi Shankaracharya is saying that if we interpet the Sutra as saying that only Vedic statements about actions are meaningful, then that would mean that Vedic statements telling you NOT to do a particular action would be meaningless.  And so we should interpret the Sutra more loosely, so that it only applies to statements about &amp;quot;legends and the like&amp;quot;, not statements about Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, have there been any responses by Purva Mimamsa philosophers to Adi Shankaracharya's argument here?  The reason I ask is that the reasoning seems rather tenuous to me, and if I were a Purva Mimamsa philosopher I think I could come up with an interpretation of the Sutra where both Vedic statements to do an action and Vedic statements not to do an action are meaningful, but statements about legends and Brahman are meaningless. (Not that I agree with Mimamsakas about the substance of their view.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-02T14:42:00.060" Title="Have there been any responses to Adi Shankaracharya's Purva Mimamsa Sutras interpretation?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|vedanta|advaita|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17581" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-15T07:43:42.570" Score="8" ViewCount="15666" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/418/what-is-the-significance-of-the-janeva-sacred-thread&quot;&gt;Yagnopavitam&lt;/a&gt; is worn by dwijas, it should be changed when it gets impure or during &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2784/what-scripture-does-the-sacred-thread-mantra-come-from&quot;&gt;Upakarma&lt;/a&gt;, what gṛhya sūtrās or Dharma śāstrās discuss the situations or conditions under which we have to change the sacred thread(the situations when it becomes impure)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it possible that the rules are different(slightly varying) for gṛhastās and Bramhachāris ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2022-02-01T02:04:19.033" Title="Conditions for changing sacred thread?" Tags="|rituals|vedic-rituals|yagnopavitam|bramhacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17583" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17584" CreationDate="2017-03-15T08:05:16.103" Score="5" ViewCount="295" Body="&lt;p&gt;According Hindu Mythology Maa Durga has lots of avtars with various powers. Navratri vrat is dedicated to Maa Durga's nine forms. What is about other forms of Maa Durga ??  Names of Maa Durga and their meanings with significance of worshiping them ??? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-23T11:25:28.333" LastActivityDate="2017-03-23T11:25:28.333" Title="All 108 Names of Maa Durga?" Tags="|festivals|durga|goddess|navrathri|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17584" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17583" CreationDate="2017-03-15T08:28:52.080" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;|| durgaa ashTottara shata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bharatiweb.com/new/wp-content/uploads/Durga-Ashtottara-Shata-Namavali-Eng-v1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;naamaavalee&lt;/a&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om shriyai nama: &#xA;  om umaayai nama: &#xA;  om bhaaratyai nama: &#xA;  om bhadraayai nama: &#xA;  om sharvaaNyai nama: &#xA;  om vijayaayai nama: &#xA;  om jayaayai nama: &#xA;  om vaaNyai nama: &#xA;  om sarvagataayai nama: &#xA;  om gauryai nama: |10| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om vaaraahyai nama: &#xA;  om kamalapriyaayai nama: &#xA;  om sarasvatyai nama: &#xA;  om kamalaayai nama: &#xA;  om maayaayai nama: &#xA;  om maatangyai nama: &#xA;  om aparaayai nama: &#xA;  om ajaayai nama: &#xA;  om shaankabharyai nama: &#xA;  om shivaayai nama: |20| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om chaNDayai nama: &#xA;  om kuNDalyai nama: &#xA;  om vaishNavyai nama: &#xA;  om kriyaayai nama: &#xA;  om shriyai nama: &#xA;  om aindrayai nama: &#xA;  om madhumatyai nama: &#xA;  om girijaayai nama: &#xA;  om subhagaayai nama: &#xA;  om ambikaayai nama: |30| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om taaraayai nama: &#xA;  om padmaavatyai nama: &#xA;  om hansaayai nama: &#xA;  om padmanaabhasahodaryai nama: &#xA;  om aparNaayai nama: &#xA;  om lalitaayai nama: &#xA;  om dhaatryai nama: &#xA;  om kumaaryai nama: &#xA;  om shikhavaahinyai nama: &#xA;  om shaambhavyai nama: |40| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om sumukhyai nama: &#xA;  om maitryai nama: &#xA;  om trinetraayai nama: &#xA;  om vishvaroopiNyai nama: &#xA;  om aaryaayai nama: &#xA;  om mruDaanyai nama: &#xA;  om heemkaaryai nama: &#xA;  om krodhinyai nama: &#xA;  om sudinaayai nama: &#xA;  om achalaayai nama: |50| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om sookshmaayai nama: &#xA;  om paraatparaayai nama: &#xA;  om shobhaayai nama: &#xA;  om sarvavarNaayai nama: &#xA;  om harapriyaayai nama: &#xA;  om mahaalakshmyai nama: &#xA;  om mahaasiddhayai nama: &#xA;  om svadhaayai nama: &#xA;  om svaahaayai nama: &#xA;  om manonmanyai nama: |60| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om trilokapaalinyai nama: &#xA;  om udhbhootaayai nama: &#xA;  om trisandhyaayai nama: &#xA;  om tripuraantakyai nama: &#xA;  om trishaktyai nama: &#xA;  om tripadaayai nama: &#xA;  om durgaayai nama: &#xA;  om braahmayai nama: &#xA;  om trailokyavaasinyai nama: &#xA;  om pushkaraayai nama: |70| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om atrisutaayai nama: &#xA;  om gooDhaayai nama: &#xA;  om trivarNaayai nama: &#xA;  om trisvaraayai nama: &#xA;  om triguNaayai nama: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om nirguNaayai nama: &#xA;  om satyaayai nama: &#xA;  om nirvikalpaayai nama: &#xA;  om niranjinyai nama: &#xA;  om jvaalinyai nama: |80| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om maalinyai nama: &#xA;  om charchaayai nama: &#xA;  om kravyaadopa nibarhiNyai nama: &#xA;  om kaamaakshyai nama: &#xA;  om kaaminyai nama: &#xA;  om kaantaayai nama: &#xA;  om kaamadaayai nama: &#xA;  om kalahansinyai nama: &#xA;  om salajjaayai nama: &#xA;  om kulajaayai nama: |90| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om praagnyai nama: &#xA;  om prabhaayai nama: &#xA;  om madanasundaryai nama: &#xA;  om vaageeshvaryai nama: &#xA;  om vishaalaakshyai nama: &#xA;  om sumangalyai nama: &#xA;  om kaalyai nama: &#xA;  om maheshvaryai nama: &#xA;  om chaNDyai nama: &#xA;  om bhairavyai nama: |100| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om bhuvaneshvaryai nama: &#xA;  om nityaayai nama: &#xA;  om saanandavibhavaayai nama: &#xA;  om satyagyaanaayai nama: &#xA;  om tamopahaayai nama: &#xA;  om maheshvarapriyankaryai nama: &#xA;  om mahaatripurasundaryai nama: &#xA;  om durgaaparameshvaryai nama: &#xA;  |108| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this there are 9 major forms of durga, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Śailaputrī शैलपुत्री&#xA;&#xA;Brahmachāriṇī व्रह्मचारणी&#xA;&#xA;Candraghaṇṭā चन्द्रघण्टा&#xA;&#xA;Kuśamāṇḍā कुशमाण्डा&#xA;&#xA;Skandamātā स्कन्दमाता&#xA;&#xA;Kātyāyanī कात्यायनी&#xA;&#xA;Kālarātrī कालरात्री&#xA;&#xA;Mahāgaurī महागौरी&#xA;&#xA;Siddhidātrī सिद्धिदात्री&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meanings of the 108 names of Goddess Durga from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-names/goddesses/durga/108-durga-names.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;श्री    ॐ श्रियै नमः।   Shree   Auspicious&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;उमा     ॐ उमायै नमः।    Uma     Mother or Lady of the Mountains&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;भारती   ॐ भारत्यै नमः।      Bharati     Goddess of Speech&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;भद्रा   ॐ भद्रायै नमः।      Bhadra&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;शर्वाणी     ॐ शर्वाण्यै नमः।    Sharvani    Consort of Sharva&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;विजया   ॐ विजयायै नमः।      Vijaya      Conqueror&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;जया     ॐ जयायै नमः।    Jaya    The Victorious&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;वाणी    ॐ वाण्यै नमः।   Vani&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;सर्वगताय    ॐ सर्वगतायै नमः।    Sarvagataya&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;गौरी    ॐ गौर्यै नमः।   Gauri   Goddess of Purity and Posterity&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;वाराही      ॐ वाराह्यै नमः।     Varahi      Shakti of Varaha, A Sow Headed Goddess&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;कमलप्रिया   ॐ कमलप्रियायै नमः।      Kamalapriya&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;सरस्वती     ॐ सरस्वत्यै नमः।    Saraswati   The Goddess of Learning&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;कमला    ॐ कमलायै नमः।   Kamala&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;माया    ॐ मायायै नमः।   Maya    She Who is Illusion&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;मातंगी      ॐ मातंग्यै नमः।     Maatangi    Goddess of Matanga&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;अपरा    ॐ अपरायै नमः।   Apra&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;अजा     ॐ अजायै नमः।    Aja     She Who Has No Birth&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;शांकभर्यै   ॐ शांकभर्यै नमः।    Shankbharye&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;शिवा    ॐ शिवायै नमः।   Shiva   Shiva's Half&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;चण्डी   ॐ चण्डयै नमः।   Chandi      The Fierce Goddess&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;कुण्डलिनी   ॐ कुण्डल्यै नमः।    Kundalini   She Who Has the Form a Coil&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;वैष्णवी     ॐ वैष्णव्यै नमः।    Vaishnavi   The Invincible&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;क्रियायै    ॐ क्रियायै नमः।     Kriyayai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;श्री    ॐ श्रियै नमः।   Shri    Auspicious&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;इन्दिरा     ॐ ऐन्द्रयै नमः।     Indira      The Goddess Lakshmi, Wife of the God Vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;मधुमती      ॐ मधुमत्यै नमः।     Madhumati   She Whose Nature is as Sweet as Honey&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;गिरिजा      ॐ गिरिजायै नमः।     Girija      Daughter of Himalaya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;सुभगा   ॐ सुभगायै नमः।      Subhaga     She Who is the Seat of all Prosperity&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;अंबिका      ॐ अंबिकायै नमः।     Ambika      The Mother of the Universe&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;तारा    ॐ तारायै नमः।   Tara    One Who Ferries Across (Samsara)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;पद्मावती    ॐ पद्मावत्यै नमः।   Padmavati   Possessing Lotus&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;हंसा    ॐ हंसायै नमः।   Hansa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;पद्मनाभसहोदरी   ॐ पद्मनाभसहोदर्यै नमः।      Padmanabha sahodari     She Who is Vishhnu's Sister&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;अपर्णा      ॐ अपर्णायै नमः।     Aparna      She Who Doesn't Eat Even Leaves While Fasting&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;ललितायै     ॐ ललितायै नमः।      Lalita      She Who is Pleasant, Charming, Desirable&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;धात्री      ॐ धात्र्यै नमः।     Dhatri&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;कुमारी      ॐ कुमार्यै नमः।     Kumari      The Beautiful Adolescent&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;शिखवाहिन्यै     ॐ शिखवाहिन्यै नमः।      Shikhvahinyai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;शांभवी      ॐ शांभव्यै नमः।     Shambhavi   The Consort of Shambhava&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;सुमुखी      ॐ सुमुख्यै नमः।     Sumukhi     She Who Has A Beautiful Face&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;मैत्र्यै    ॐ मैत्र्यै नमः।     Maitryai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;त्रिनेत्रा      ॐ त्रिनेत्रायै नमः।     Trinetra    One Who Has Three-Eyes&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;विश्वरूपा   ॐ विश्वरूपिण्यै नमः।    Vishvarupa      She Who Has The Whole Universe As Her Form&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;आर्य    ॐ आर्यायै नमः।      Aarya   Goddess&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;मृडानी      ॐ मृडान्यै नमः।     Mridani     She Who Gives Pleasure&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;हींकार्यै   ॐ हींकार्यै नमः।    Hinkaryai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;क्रोधिन्यै      ॐ क्रोधिन्यै नमः।   Krodhinyai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;सुदिनायै    ॐ सुदिनायै नमः।     Sudinayai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;अचल     ॐ अचलायै नमः।   Achala      The Immovable One&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;सूक्ष्म     ॐ सूक्ष्मायै नमः।   Sukshma     Subtle&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;परात्परायै      ॐ परात्परायै नमः।   Paratpara   She Who Is The Most Supreme Of The Supreme Ones&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;शोभा    ॐ शोभायै नमः।   Shobha      Brilliance&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;सर्ववर्णायै     ॐ सर्ववर्णायै नमः।      Sarvavarna      All Coloured&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;हरप्रिया    ॐ हरप्रियायै नमः।   Haripriya&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;महालक्ष्मी      ॐ महालक्ष्म्यै नमः।     Mahalakshmi     She Who Is The Great Goddess Lakshmi&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;महासिद्धि   ॐ महासिद्धयै नमः।   Mahasiddhi&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;स्वधा   ॐ स्वधायै नमः।      Swadha      Shape of Swadhadevi&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;स्वाहा      ॐ स्वाहायै नमः।     Swaha   Shape of Swahadevi (Auspicious)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;मनोन्मनी    ॐ मनोन्मन्यै नमः।   Manonmani   She Who is Shiva's Shakti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;त्रिलोकपालिनी   ॐ त्रिलोकपालिन्यै नमः।      Trilokapalini&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;उद्भूतायै   ॐ उद्भूतायै नमः।    Udbhutayai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;त्रिसन्ध्या     ॐ त्रिसन्ध्यायै नमः।    Trisandhya      Name of Goddess Durga&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;त्रिपुरान्तक्यै     ॐ त्रिपुरान्तक्यै नमः।      Tripurantakyai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;त्रिशक्त्यै     ॐ त्रिशक्त्यै नमः।      Trishaktyai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;त्रिपदायै   ॐ त्रिपदायै नमः।    Tripadayai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;दुर्गा      ॐ दुर्गायै नमः।     Durga   Remover of Distress&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;ब्राह्मी    ॐ ब्राह्मयै नमः।    Brahmi      Power of God Brahma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;त्रैलोक्यवासिनी     ॐ त्रैलोक्यवासिन्यै नमः।    Trailokyavasini&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;पुष्करा     ॐ पुष्करायै नमः।    Pushkara    She Who Is Complete&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;अत्रिसुतायै     ॐ अत्रिसुतायै नमः।      Atrisutayai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;गूढ़ा    ॐ गूढ़ायै नमः।   Gudha&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;त्रिवर्णा   ॐ त्रिवर्णायै नमः।      Trivarna&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;त्रिस्वरा   ॐ त्रिस्वरायै नमः।      Triswara&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;त्रिगुणा    ॐ त्रिगुणायै नमः।   Triguna     She Who Is Endowed With The Three Gunas Of Sattva, Rajas And Tamas&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;निर्गुणा    ॐ निर्गुणायै नमः।   Nirguna     She Who Is Beyond All Three Gunas Of Nature, Namely Sattva, Rajas And Tamas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;सत्या   ॐ सत्यायै नमः।      Satya   The Truth&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;निर्विकल्पा     ॐ निर्विकल्पायै नमः।    Nirvikalpa      She Who Is Free Of False Imaginings&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;निरन्जना    ॐ निरंजिन्यै नमः।   Niranjana   She Who Stays Unattached, Bound To Nothing&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;ज्वालिन्यै      ॐ ज्वालिन्यै नमः।   Jwalinyai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;मालिनी      ॐ मालिन्यै नमः।     Malini      She Who Is Wearing Garlands&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;चर्चायै     ॐ चर्चायै नमः।      Charchayai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;क्रव्यादोप निबर्हिण्यै      ॐ क्रव्यादोप निबर्हिण्यै नमः।   Kravyadopa nibarhinyai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;कामाक्षी    ॐ कामाक्ष्यै नमः।   Kamakshi    She Whose Eyes Awaken Desire&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;कामिन्यै    ॐ कामिन्यै नमः।     Kaminyai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;कान्ता      ॐ कान्तायै नमः।     Kanta   She Who Is Beautiful&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;कामदायै     ॐ कामदायै नमः।      Kamdaayai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;कलहंसिन्यै      ॐ कलहंसिन्यै नमः।   Kalahansinyai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;सलज्जायै    ॐ सलज्जायै नमः।     Salajjaayai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;कुलजायै     ॐ कुलजायै नमः।      Kulajaayai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;प्राज्ञ्यै      ॐ प्राज्ञ्यै नमः।   Pragyai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;प्रभा   ॐ प्रभायै नमः।      Prabha&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;मदनसुन्दरी      ॐ मदनसुन्दर्यै नमः।     Madanasundari&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;वागीश्वरी   ॐ वागीश्वर्यै नमः।      Vagishvari      The Sovereign Goddess of Speech&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;विशालाक्षी      ॐ विशालाक्ष्यै नमः।     Vishalakshi     She Who Has Large Eyes&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;सुमङ्गली    ॐ सुमंगल्यै नमः।    Sumangali   She Who Is Eternally Auspicious&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;काली    ॐ काल्यै नमः।   Kali    Dark-Complexioned Goddess&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;महेश्वरी    ॐ महेश्वर्यै नमः।   Maheshvari      She Who Is The Wife Of Maheshvara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;चण्डी   ॐ चण्ड्यै नमः।      Chandi      Great Goddess, Angry name of Goddess Shakti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;भैरवी   ॐ भैरव्यै नमः।      Bhairavi    She Who Is The Wife Of Bhairava (Shiva)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;भुवनेश्वरी      ॐ भुवनेश्वर्यै नमः।     Bhuvaneshvari   She Who Is The Ruler Of The Universe&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;नित्या      ॐ नित्यायै नमः।     Nitya   She Who Is Eternal&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;सानन्दविभवायै   ॐ सानन्दविभवायै नमः।    Sanandavibhvayai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;सत्यज्ञाना      ॐ सत्यज्ञानायै नमः।     Satyagyana      She Who Is Truth, Knowledge And Bliss&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;तमोपहा      ॐ तमोपहायै नमः।     Tamopaha    She Who Removes The Ignorance Born Of Tamas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;महेश्वरप्रियंकर्यै      ॐ महेश्वरप्रियंकर्यै नमः।   Maheshvarpriyankaryai&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;महात्रिपुरसुन्दरी   ॐ महात्रिपुरसुन्दर्यै नमः।      Maha Tripura Sundari    She Who Is The Great Tripurasundari&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;दुर्गापरमेश्वर्यै   ॐ दुर्गापरमेश्वर्यै नमः।    Durgaparmeshvaryai&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-17T08:35:35.843" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T08:35:35.843" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17585" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="746" CreationDate="2017-03-15T09:23:14.660" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not mandatory, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the famous tantric mantras like &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch50.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Navaarna mantra&lt;/a&gt; (navakshari chandi mantra)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saraswati mantra&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhuvaneshwari mantra (&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=28CIEnZCcqMC&amp;amp;pg=PA57&amp;amp;dq=bhuvaneswari%20mantra&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwi5weKFstjSAhUcSY8KHXgKDu0Q6AEIITAC#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=bhuvaneswari%20mantra&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;hrillekha&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kamala &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=isRCbVNR6WwC&amp;amp;pg=PT133&amp;amp;dq=kamala%20mantra&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjzpLSftdjSAhVMXBoKHduKBs4Q6AEIJDAC#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=kamala%20mantra&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mantra&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha Mantras (six lettered (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/doc/296251766/179139376-Mantra-Mahodadhi-Shukadeva-Chaturvedi-pdf-pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mantra mahodadadhi&lt;/a&gt; 2.2), &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dakshina Kali mantra (Mantra.Mahodashi 3.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ucchistha Ganapati mantra (mantra mahodadadhi 2.32)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shivashakti.com/tripura.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tripurasundari mantra&lt;/a&gt; etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do not begin with Om and there is no need to prefix Om.  There is one more belief that in the tantric literature, &quot;Hreeem&quot; is referred to as Shakti pranava which is as good as Om or Aum. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T08:24:30.737" LastActivityDate="2017-03-16T08:24:30.737" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17586" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17562" CreationDate="2017-03-15T09:53:56.623" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The&#xA;  first sutra  is  the  explanation&#xA;  of&#xA; &lt;a href=&quot;http://abhidharma.ru/A/Simvol/Indyizm/Shiva-sutra/0004.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mantra&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;cittam     mantrah    //    (Shiva sutra 2.1)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mind     is     mantra.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In  this  sutra,  there  are  two  understandings  of the  mind  and both are divine.  The  first understanding is that the mind is the thought  of  a  sacred  word.  The  second  understanding  is  that&lt;br&gt;&#xA;mind is the thought of a  sacred aspirant who is treading on the &#xA;sacred  path.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The  author  now  explains  this  sutra  in  these  two  ways.  The   word  &quot;mind&quot;  does  not mean  what we  ordinarily  understand  by   the  word  &quot;mind.&quot;  Here,  the  word  mind  means  &quot;that  by  which   you  become  aware  of supreme  consciousness.&quot; So  this  mind  issaid  to be that by which your self is exposed  in its  fullness.  It is vimarsa-  I  consciousness  -  thought  in  two  ways:  in prasada mantra and   in pranava   mantra.   Prasada   mantra is  &quot;the  mantra  of external  flow.&quot;Pranava  mantrais  &quot;the  mantra  of external  and  internal  flow.&quot;  It  is  the  internal  flow  in  the  external world  and  the  external  flow  in  the  internal  world.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in both ways,  this  is  the  state  of  citta  (thought).  It is  said   to  be  mantra  because  it  is  secret   (guptam).   It  is  not  written,  it   lives  in  a  secret  world.  When  you  recite  this  mantra,  you  are   not  reciting  it with lips,  but with  consciousness.  When  you re-cite  and  you  are  aware   of  the  mantra,&quot;of  its occurrence in your own  self, you  will understand that this whole universe  is  the  expansion  of yourself.  This  is  the  kind  of rise that  occurs  when  you  travel  from  the  internal  world  to  the  external  world.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is said that this pranava  mantrais  truly  a  mantra,  for  the  word  &quot;mantra&quot;is  made   up   from manandtra.   Man from  the  word manana means  &quot;causes  you  to  reside  in  your  own  God  consciousness.&quot;Tra from  the  word trana means  &quot;protects you  from  all the  evils of the  world.&quot;So  when  you  focus  your  mind towards  God  con-sciousness,  you  are  protected  from  all  the horrors  of the  world.Here,  this  is the  meaning  of the  word &quot;mantra.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now  this  exposition  of mantra  is  explained  in  another  way.Because the mind of this yogi is always purified and never think sabsurd  thoughts,  thinking  only  divine  thoughts  and  being  focused towards  God consciousness, it is mantra. Whatever comes into  the  mind  of this  yogi  is  divine.  So,  all  of his  thoughts  are divine and hence,  his  thought  is  also mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;om padmni om&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;om nama  sivaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;svacchanda  bhairavaya  namah  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These  sentences are  collections  of sacred  words.  Collections  of sacred  words  are  not mantras,  but just  a  waste  of time  for the aspirant.  In  a real sense, these  two  - the aspirant's mind and  a sacred  word  experienced   as prasada mantra   and/or pranav amantra  -  are  mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sarvajnanottara also  explains  this  in  the  same  way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those mantras which are recited with the lips and with the mindare not&#xA;  really mantras.Devatas and Gandharvas,all these great- souls, have&#xA;  deluded themselves in thinking that these are actually mantras.  And &#xA;  additionally,  they are  filled  with  tremendous pride  thinking that &#xA;  they  are  verbally reciting the  name  of God.(Sarvajnanottara16-17)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those  so-called  mantras  are  not  actually  mantras.  Mantra  is divinity  in  the  mind  of the  yogi  or  the  flow  of subjective  God consciousness  towards  objective  God  consciousness  or  the  simultaneous  flow  of subjective  God  consciousness  towards  objective  God  consciousness,  and  the  flow  of objective  God  consciousness  towards  subjective  God  consciousness.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In  the Tantra  Sadbhava,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;this  same  thing  is  also  explained:The life of all mantras is&#xA;  solely the energy of God consciousness.When  that  energy  is  absent,&#xA;  all  those  collections  of words  are useless just  like  a  mass  of &#xA;  clouds  in  the  rain less  autumn  sky.(Tantra   Sadbhava)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In  the Srikanthi samhita     Sastra,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;it  is  also  said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The  one  who  recites  mantra  for  the  sake  of realizing  God &#xA;  will never attain the reality of God consciousness.  There  is  only&#xA;  one  thing that  a  yogi  must maintain  and that is  awareness, &#xA;  awareness  of the union  of objective  God  consciousness  with&#xA;  subjective God consciousness and, in one driving push, the flow of&#xA;  objective and  subjective  God  consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This  is  narrated  in Spanda &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;in  this  verse:Because  these  words  are  digested  along  with  the&#xA;  mind  of theaspirant, they are said to be, along with the divinity of&#xA;  the yogi,one with  divine  God  consciousness.(Spanda  Karika2.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is why Bhagavan Bhairava, Lord Śiva, has explained in Mālinīvijaya tantra that when meditation, or any practice, is done without the development of pramiti bhāva1, it becomes useless. So meditation should be done with the attachment of pramiti bhāva, there must be pramiti bhāva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance there is mantra, “oṁ namaḥ śivāya,” it is to be repeated in continuity but not through your tongue, not through your words, it is to be repeated in awareness, in pramiti bhāva . . . what you are speaking. You must know what you are speaking. When you speak and you don’t know what you are speaking it is useless, that japa becomes useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that first glow of that thought is subsided a little, a little, by and by, by and by, by and by. That should not take place. It must be just as fresh as it was at the first moment of practice. So you should do practice in such a way that the continuity of this production of sparks of the same thought should be as fresh as it was at the beginning point. You should not get stale. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the way of meditation is, just to meditate and hold the first freshness. And this first freshness must live in the cycle of these sparks, in the cycle of these sparks of this thought of meditation. The first fresh thought must pervade throughout, then your meditation is successful. Otherwise it is useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is what he says, &lt;strong&gt;in Mālinīvijaya Tantra Lord Śiva has said; tena guptena tena&lt;/strong&gt;, when it is locked, when it is subsided, when it is covered by other thoughts, other subsided thoughts, tena guptā, that pramiti bhāva is subsided, it subsides by and by; śeṣā varṇā then afterwards there are only letters and words and sentences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any thought will take you to the state of God consciousness; but there must be one thought and this first fresh thought, like that, in all the cycles of thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Speciality, that does not count, special thoughts only we produce in the beginning in disciples. Afterwards, when they have developed this strength of awareness of pramiti bhāva then it does not matter. You can give rise to any thought, any disgusted thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thought becomes mantra. Because in each and every word there is the residence of God consciousness. God consciousness is residing in each and every action, each and every word; so it does not matter. In the beginning we produce mantras just to create faith in the devotee that, “I am reciting mantra of God!”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also mantra of God: “this is specs (spectacles, glasses), this is specs, this is specs.” When you say, “this is specs, this is specs,” just from the very [first} fresh point, [have] attentive awareness; it will carry you to God consciousness. And just embrace your girlfriend; while embracing your girlfriend it will carry you to God consciousness if you develop that awareness of pramiti bhāva there. It does not matter; mantras are not only mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is said in the same Mālinīvijaya tantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śloka ghatādi yatkiṁcit . . . /&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can do [it with] any topic, just discuss some points of your business, but there, if you maintain awareness and pramiti bhāva you will rise to God consciousness. You will not rise, you have not to rise; you’ll get establishment in that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Establishment, you have not to get establishment also; it is there! It will appear. It will appear to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NB:  When there is objective state also attached to subjective state that is not pramiti bhāva, that is pramātṛi bhāva. And when that objective state is connected with cognitive state also that is pramāṇa bhāva. When that objective state is completely pure objective state that is prameya bhāva. And pramiti bhāva is complete subjective consciousness without the slightest touch and traces of this object. Pramiti bhāva is the life of all the four.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lakshmanjooacademy.org/break-less-awareness/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Laxmanjoo Lectures&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-03-15T09:53:56.623" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17587" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16452" CreationDate="2017-03-15T10:23:26.187" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;But what is the need to treat guest as God?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The exact answer to your above question is given in &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana  Book 6 ,Nagara Khanda  ,Chapter One Hundred Eighty six ( Importance of an Atithi).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's said in Skanda Purana that Lord Shambhu and Lord Vishnu gets pleased with worship of Atithi including all the gods .Hence Atithi is full of all the devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the excerpt-: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9 : If the Guest is pleased with the householder, all the devas are&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;also pleased with him.If he is displeased (keeps his face averted)&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  ,&lt;strong&gt;all the devas are also displeased.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;23 : Shambhu is pleased if he is given Arghya and all the devas&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;including Vasava.Vishnu shall be pleased if food is offered to the&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;guests.. Hence Atithi is full of all the devas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 : There is no greater duty of Householders than worship of a guest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10: Hence the guest must always be satisfied by a householder ,even by&#xA;  sacrificing himself if he wishes for his own good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from above excerpts we can conclude that &lt;strong&gt;Atithi is equal to god and so treating Atithi (guest)  as a god is advised.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-03-15T10:23:26.187" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17588" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17581" CreationDate="2017-03-15T10:42:00.867" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti simply says to change the thread when its &lt;strong&gt;damaged&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.64. His girdle, the skin (which serves as his upper&#xA;  garment), his staff, &lt;strong&gt;his sacrificial thread&lt;/strong&gt;, (and) his water-pot &lt;strong&gt;he&#xA;  must throw into water, when they have been damaged, and take others,&#xA;  reciting sacred formulas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some further conditions when the sacred thread is needed to changed are given in the Hindi prayoga book called &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/HindiBookNityaKarmPoojaPrakashCompletebyGitaPress&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nitya Karma Puja Prakash(Gita Press)&lt;/a&gt; : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/t7GsP.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/t7GsP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VAmahaste Vyatite Tu Tath TwakthA DhArayeth Navam   &lt;strong&gt;1&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Patitam Truthitam VApi Brahmasutram YadA Bhaveth  Nutanam&#xA;  DhArayedhvipraha SnAtvA Sankalpa Purvakam   &lt;strong&gt;2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Malamutre Twajedh Vipra Vismritaiyvopavitadhruk  Upavitam Taduthsrijya&#xA;  DadhyA Danyannavam TadhA   &lt;strong&gt;3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the Yajnopavita slips from shoulder and falls below the level of&#xA;  left hand (&lt;strong&gt;1&lt;/strong&gt;),if some of the threads are torn (&lt;strong&gt;2&lt;/strong&gt;),if one&#xA;  forgets to place it on ear during soucha etc (&lt;strong&gt;3&lt;/strong&gt;) ,then it should&#xA;  be replaced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It further states that if an untouchable touches it then also it should be changed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PeUcX.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PeUcX.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the yajnopavita is touched by untouchables then a new upavita is to&#xA;  be worn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Nitya Karma Puja Prakash book , more often than not , quotes from Puranas,Smritis and other Shastras and it also gives the original sources for almost all the verses/mantras given in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However , in this particular case,it simply cites an Achara samhita book called Acharendu , as you can see from the images posted above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: You can read/get Acharendu quoted in Nitya Karma Pooja Prakash from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.312014/2015.312014.Acharendu#page/n275/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Internet Archive&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-07-17T12:01:11.743" LastActivityDate="2018-07-17T12:01:11.743" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17589" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-15T10:50:24.670" Score="3" ViewCount="712" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Śiva said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear son, I, Lord Brahmā and the other devas, who move within this universe under the misconception of our greatness, cannot exhibit any power to compete with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for innumerable universes and their inhabitants come into existence and are annihilated by the simple direction of the Lord &lt;strong&gt;(Bhagavata Purana 9.4.56)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Please explain the meaning of this verse. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are other universe's inhabitants and their life cycle different from our universe according to scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9232" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-05-23T19:27:42.973" LastActivityDate="2018-05-23T19:27:42.973" Title="What does this verse of SB say about Multiverse?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|universe|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17591" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-15T13:50:53.410" Score="2" ViewCount="600" Body="&lt;p&gt;Three major branches of Buddhism along with their percentage of practitioners are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mayāyāna - 53.2%&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Theravad - 35.8%&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vajrayana - 5.7% &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My interest is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajrayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vajrayana&lt;/a&gt; here. As you can see through the link, it is Tantrik tradition of Buddhism. Moreover, it is highly related to Shaivism (according to the link ). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Hevajra is considered to be the first enlightened being in Vajrayana. Some of the characteristics of &lt;strong&gt;Hevajra&lt;/strong&gt; are happened to be as follows-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is dark blue in color. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He appears from a syllable Hum which is appeared on a lotus. ( NOTE- Hum is pranava for Lord Shiva )&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Each face of Hevajra has 3 eyes. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is wrathful yet compassionate. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He dances with his consort Nairātmyā in ecstasy. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He has skulls with him. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At other places we found Hevajra is accompanied with 8 more females which are his consorts. Their name are as follows - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gauri&lt;/strong&gt; , holding a moon. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Cauri, holding a sun vessel. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vetaali&lt;/strong&gt;, holding a pure water.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ghasmari, holding a medicine. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pukashi, holding a vajra. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Savari, holding ambrosia.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chandali&lt;/strong&gt;, holding a drum.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dombi, With hands dancing. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is basically whether there are any texts in Scriptures or Tantra ( Buddhist or Hindu ) which can be taken as sufficient to claim Hevajra &amp;amp; Nairātmyā as Lord Shiva &amp;amp; mother Parvati respectively. &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/48DQ0.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/48DQ0.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Hevajra&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-03-15T15:05:49.310" LastActivityDate="2017-03-15T15:05:49.310" Title="Hevajra &amp; Nairātmyā are Lord Siva &amp; Ma Parvati respectively?" Tags="|shiva|parvati|buddhism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17592" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="746" CreationDate="2017-03-15T16:28:00.897" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every mantra should begin with the pranava OM otherwise it is considered as lifeless as per the following &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14769/what-is-the-origin-of-the-sloka-mantraanaam-pallavo-vaaso&quot;&gt;verse&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मंत्राणां पल्‍लवो वासो । मंत्राणां प्रणव: शिर: । शिर: पल्‍लव संयुक्तो&#xA;  । कामधुक्‌ भवेत्‌ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The mantra is the body.And Pranava OM is the head.When the&#xA;  body(mantra) and the head(OM) are connected only then the recital(of the mantra) bears fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10550/is-reciting-vedic-mantras-without-being-preceded-by-om-condemned-somewhere-in&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; post to know why not only mantras but all Vedic recitals should begin with the pranava OM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However,as per the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aghori.it/mahanirvana_tantra.htm#CAP.9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahanirvana Tantram&lt;/a&gt;,which is a Shakta Agama,mantras &lt;strong&gt;in Kali Yuga are more effective if preceded by  HREEM (the maya beeja) instead of OM.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the Satya, Treta, and Dvapara Ages, the Mantras, O Kalika! were in&#xA;  their application preceded by the Pranava (9); but in the Kali Age, O&#xA;  Supreme Devi! the decree of Shankara is that man do perform all rites&#xA;  with the aid of the same Mantras, but preceded by the Maya Bija&lt;/strong&gt; (10).&#xA;  All Mantras in the Nigamas, Agamas, Tantras, Samhitas and Vedas, have&#xA;  been spoken by Me. Their employment, however, varies according to the&#xA;  Ages (11). For the benefit of men of the Kali Age, men bereft of&#xA;  energy and dependent for existence on the food they eat, the Kula&#xA;  doctrine, O Auspicious One! is given (12).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahanirvana Tantram Chapter 9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE-Hreem is called the maya beeja which is present in many famous Devi mantras.Other some important beejas are Kleem(Kama Beejam) Aim (Vaga Beejam)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-03-15T16:49:39.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17593" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-15T20:01:33.643" Score="8" ViewCount="262" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people know about The Cycle of 4 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yugas&lt;/a&gt; and DashaAvatars of Shriman Narayana ,but very few know that the Dashaavatars are not bound to the cycle of 4 Yugas. The Avatars of Bhagwan are infinite in number and he incarnates randomly, so technically Dashaavatars are distributed over the entire &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_(aeon)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kalpa&lt;/a&gt;, starting from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varaha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha avatar&lt;/a&gt; before the beginning of Shweta Varaha Kalpa(current Kalpa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; will help those who want to understand Hindu time distribution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is related to the future avatar Kalki Avatar. Since there were many Kaliyugas prior to this Kaliyuga, then why didn't Bhagawan appear in previous &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manvantara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manvantara&lt;/a&gt; Kaliyuga? Is this Kaliyuga the most polluted?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T12:30:45.833" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T12:30:45.833" Title="Why is Bhagwan incarnating as Kalki in this(particular) Kaliyuga?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|kali-yuga|kalki|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17594" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-15T20:19:31.300" Score="5" ViewCount="357" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2835/489&quot;&gt;SriVaishnavism&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana&lt;/a&gt; finds a special place in hearts of Bhagwatas(Sri Vaishanvas) and it is known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saranagati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sharanagati&lt;/a&gt; Grantham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the specific reason to call it Sharanagati Grantham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: I already know the abstract reason i.e. because every Kanda of Ramayana has Sharanagati Involved, I need elaborate answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T21:40:14.357" Title="Why is Ramayana known as Sharanagati Grantham?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17595" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6951" CreationDate="2017-03-16T00:55:48.237" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79772.html#note-t-44743&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; on Taittirīya Upaniṣad, Śaṅkarācārya explains as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥ ३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ || 3 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3. Om! Peace! Peace! Peace!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The uttering of the word ‘peace’ three times is intended to ward off the troubles&lt;/strong&gt; that occur on the path to wisdom owing to causes operating in the individual organism, in the external beings, and in the region of Devas or Cosmic Intelligences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having thus prayed to the perceptible Brahman as Vāyu, the student contemplates by means of Praṇava which designates Him—the imperceptible Antaryāmin, the Ruler within, and prays for the removal of obstacles:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There are three kinds of troubles&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;the Ādhyātmika, those which arise from causes operating in the student’s own body, namely, fever, pain in the head, and so on;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;the Ādhidaivika the troubles from the Devas etc.;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;the Ādhibhautika, troubles arising from Yakṣas, Rākṣasas, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For the cessation of these three, the word 'peace' is uttered thrice&lt;/strong&gt;. That the contemplation of Īśvara by Praṇava is meant for the removal of obstacles is formulated by Patañjali in four Sūtras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/yoga-sutras-with-vedanta-commentaries/d/doc115485.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;as follows&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Īśvara is a particular soul untouched by affliction, works, fruition and impressions. His designation is Praṇava. A constant repetition of it and an intense meditation on its meaning should be practised. Thence arises a cognition of the Inner Consciousness and absence of obstacles.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavamana_Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;asato mā sadgamaya&lt;/em&gt; mantra&lt;/a&gt; you cite in your question is actually part of The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc117898.html#page-85&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1.13.28&lt;/a&gt;) and neither does it begin with an ॐ (Oṃ) nor does it end with Oṃ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T01:11:43.423" LastActivityDate="2017-03-16T01:11:43.423" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17596" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16646" CreationDate="2017-03-16T03:33:03.930" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many so called modern astrologers don’t take enough care while matching horoscope for marriage. In my view following are the factors should be considered while matching two horoscope,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Matching according to Nakshatara. There are several matching that need to be considered &#xA;a) Dina&#xA;b) Gana&#xA;c) Mahendra&#xA;d) Stree Deergha&#xA;e) Yoni&#xA;f) Rasi&#xA;g) Rasi Adhipati&#xA;h) Vasiya&#xA;i) Rajju&#xA;J) Vedha&#xA;K) Varna &#xA;l) Nadi&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;7th house(Marriage life) and 7th lord placement, aspection, conjunction&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;8th house(Mangalaya sthana), 8th lord placement, aspection and conjunction&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;2nd house(Family life), 2nd lord placement, aspection and conjunction&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;5th house(children), 5th lord placement, aspection and conjunction. When people matched without analyzing 5th house, they will have problem in getting children&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Beja and Khestra sthana and its lord - To find whether couples will get children&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Any relation between 7th, 2nd and 12th lord. When someone have combined affliction in these houses they might get separated after marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dasa Bukti of both boy and girl, need to check if both have any common bad periods&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the dosha percentage between Boy and girl. Ex: Kuja Dosha, Rahu/Ketu dosha etc&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When astrologer give importance to all these factors, then couple will lead happy life after marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9237" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T15:09:21.613" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T15:09:21.613" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17597" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19805" CreationDate="2017-03-16T04:58:05.907" Score="9" ViewCount="1750" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism there are very large spans of time when yugas are considered. Is there any mention of significant Geological changes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We see the account of a large flood as part of the Matsya Avatara, which could correspond to some effects of the ice age. But that seems to be a common theme in many religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there some note that chronicles any climate change from earlier? Hindu scriptures do believe the world to be a lot older than what some other religions (such as Christianity for example) believe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-19T08:34:11.463" LastActivityDate="2020-06-19T08:34:11.463" Title="Geological changes in Hindu Scriptures" Tags="|puranas|geography|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17598" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14355" CreationDate="2017-03-16T08:02:54.790" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two books which are considered as part of Vamakeshwara. Some believe they are separate text but they are closely related to each other. One is sanskrit and another book is available with moola sanskrit and hindi commentary. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/document/266454681/Yogini-Hridaya-Vraj-Vallabha-Rare-Book&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yogini Hridaya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/document/13883204/Nityashodashikarnava-With-Setubandha-Transliteration&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nityashodashikarnava with Setu bandha&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T08:13:30.347" LastActivityDate="2017-03-16T08:13:30.347" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17599" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17601" CreationDate="2017-03-16T08:11:05.010" Score="6" ViewCount="2041" Body="&lt;p&gt;Intellectual, psychical, physical, psychological, physiological, mental &amp;amp; spiritual comparisons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T10:06:55.800" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T05:42:50.537" Title="What are the capabilities &amp; incapabilities of Kaliyuga people comparing to people of other Yugas" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17597" CreationDate="2017-03-16T08:37:35.940" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is one little puranic scripture mentioning geological changes happening  on mountain  surface. Although it’s a story about Narad , Vindhya Mountain and Meru mountain competition. It is mentioning phenomenon’s like Increase in height of mountain and change in geology of  mountain etc.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We find mentioning of  Increase in the height of Mountain Vindhya and the mountain changing into soft  from   hard (rocky) nature   through a story told in  &lt;strong&gt;Skandha Purana –Book 4 –Kashi Khanda –Section 1 :Poorvardha  , Chapter one – Increase In Height of Vindhya.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the excerpts-:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;39 : &lt;strong&gt;Though the mountain was hard&lt;/strong&gt; , he eschewed  the hardness (due&#xA;  to being Rocky in Nature) ; &lt;strong&gt;he assumed softness&lt;/strong&gt; because of sense&#xA;  of awe arose in him and due to the spiritual splendor (of Narada) and&#xA;  because his activities were like of good people.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; 40: On seeing&#xA;  the softness (of the mountain) in its two forms Narada rejoiced&#xA;  much.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; 81 : After deciding thus the &lt;strong&gt;Vindhya Mountain began to&#xA;  increase in height&lt;/strong&gt; with the determination of good fighter. by means&#xA;  of his peaks , which would reach and bring about an end to the&#xA;  limitless firmament.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another  story of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Parashurama&lt;/strong&gt; asking sea to give some of the land to him after he gifted  the entire  earth to Brahmans in  &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana Vol.-16  , Book 6 Nagar Kanda  ,Chapter 68 , The sea recedes .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This land is a strip of land to the west of Western Ghats from Gujarat to the southern end of kerala is regarded as the land won from the sea. A mythological explanation of a geological phenomenon.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14 : After gifting the earth to brahmanas I will not take it bac from&#xA;  them. Hence you recede and give me some space of land.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15 : In case , O lord of the rivers you do not act according to my&#xA;  direction now , I will dry you up by means of fire missile and convert&#xA;  you into piece of land.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;16: On hearing his words the ocean became frightened. He receded as&#xA;  far as he (Parashurama) desired that he should.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-04-05T04:36:55.070" LastActivityDate="2017-04-05T04:36:55.070" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17601" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17599" CreationDate="2017-03-16T10:05:01.373" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The exact &amp;amp;  precise  psychological, , mental &amp;amp; spiritual comparison  between the  People of Other yugas and Kaliyuga is provided in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana. Book 2 , Skandha 12 ,Chapter 3  (Dharma Of kaliyuga)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the comparison (relative incapabilities of Kaliyuga people) -: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;संतुष्टा: करुणा मैत्रा: शान्ता दान्तास्तितिक्षव: |&lt;br&gt;आत्माराम:&#xA;  समदृश्य: प्रयाश: श्रमणा जना : ||१९|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;santuṣṭāḥ karuṇā maitrāḥ śāntā dāntās titikṣavaḥ&lt;br&gt; ātmārāmāḥ&#xA;  sama-dṛśaḥ prāyaśaḥ śramaṇā janāḥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;people of Satya-yuga&lt;/strong&gt; are for the most part self-satisfied,&#xA;  merciful, friendly to all, peaceful, sober and tolerant. They take&#xA;  their pleasure from within, see all things equally and always endeavor&#xA;  diligently for spiritual perfection. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/19&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 12.3.19&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt; तदा&#xA;  क्रियातपोनिष्ठा नातिहिंस्त्रा न लंपट: |&lt;br&gt;त्रैवर्गिकास्त्रयीवृद्धा&#xA;  वर्णा ब्रह्मोत्तरा नृप ||२१|&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tadā kriyā-tapo-niṣṭhā nāti-hiṁsrā na lampaṭāḥ &lt;br&gt; trai-vargikās&#xA;  trayī-vṛddhā varṇā brahmottarā nṛpa &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the Tretā age people&lt;/strong&gt; are devoted to ritual performances and severe austerities. They are not excessively violent or very lusty&#xA;  after sensual pleasure. Their interest lies primarily in religiosity,&#xA;  economic development and regulated sense gratification, and they&#xA;  achieve prosperity by following the prescriptions of the three Vedas.&#xA;  Although in this age society evolves into four separate classes, O&#xA;  King, most people are brāhmaṇas.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/21&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 12.3.21&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt; यशस्विनो&#xA;  महाशाला: स्वाध्यायाध्ययने रत: |&lt;br&gt;आढया: कुटुम्बीनो हृषटा वर्णा:&#xA;  क्षत्रद्विजोत्तरा: ||२३||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yaśasvino mahā-śīlāḥ svādhyāyādhyayane ratāḥ &lt;br&gt; āḍhyāḥ kuṭumbino&#xA;  hṛṣṭā varṇāḥ kṣatra-dvijottarāḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the Dvāpara age people&lt;/strong&gt; are interested in glory and are very noble. They devote themselves to the study of the Vedas, possess great&#xA;  opulence, support large families and enjoy life with vigor. Of the&#xA;  four classes, the kṣatriyas and brāhmaṇas are most numerous.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/23&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  12.3.23&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;तस्मिल्ल्लुब्धा दुराचारा निर्दया: शुष्कवैरिण: |&lt;br&gt;दुर्भगा भूरितर्षाश्र्च शुद्रदाशोत्तरा: प्रजा: ||२५||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasmin lubdhā durācārā nirdayāḥ śuṣka-vairiṇaḥ &lt;br&gt; durbhagā&#xA;  bhūri-tarṣāś ca śūdra-dāsottarāḥ prajāḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the Kali age people&lt;/strong&gt; tend to be greedy, ill-behaved and merciless, and they fight one another without good reason. Unfortunate&#xA;  and obsessed with material desires, the people of Kali-yuga are almost&#xA;  all śūdras and barbarians.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3/25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 12.3.25&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T13:53:48.070" LastActivityDate="2017-03-16T13:53:48.070" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17602" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6745" CreationDate="2017-03-16T11:49:08.893" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all it should be noted that Tantra is not a synonym for &quot;bad spells&quot;. It is a agamic tradition of worship. Power can be used in a positive or a negative way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marana comes under the &quot;shat-karmas&quot; of tantra. Here the will-power and power generated from the sadhana is used and directed against an individual. With the help of yantra, mantras, and other methods the energy is directed against the individual which can cause him grave diseases/paralysis or death. But such acts are extremely difficult to perform. It is only to be done when there is a great danger of life from the opposite person or any problem of similar magnitude. There are heavy prayashchita to be done if someone does the prayoga for extreme reasons.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-03-16T11:49:08.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17605" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17049" CreationDate="2017-03-16T13:08:37.417" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;There have been, in India, two main ways of approach to Reality or the Essential Nature of Self, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vivekaja mārga. (the path of distinction or discrimination). Systems following this mārga are patanjali yoga &amp;amp; Sankara Vedanta. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yogaja mārga.(the path of union or integration). Saivāgama has adopted the Yogaja mārga in which the goal is not isolation of the Self from Prakrti or Màyà (in case of Sankara Vedanta) but the integration of the individual Self to the Universal Self or Bhairava and the realization of the universe as the expression of His Sakti or spiritual Energy. The ideal of Saivāgama is not the rejection of the universe but its assimilation to its Source. Vijnānabhairav is an excellent exposition of the yogaja mārga. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Literal meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Vijnānabhairav consists of two words, vijnāna and bhairava. We have first of all to understand the esoteric significance of Bhairava. Ksemarāja in his Udyota commentary gives a description of the esoteric meaning of Bhairava. The sum and substance of it is that Bhairava is an acrostic word consisting of the letters, bha, ra, and va; bha indicates bharaña or maintenance of the universe; ra indicates ravaña or withdrawal of the universe; va indicates vamana or projection i.e., manifestation of the universe. Thus Bhairava indicates all the three aspects of the Divine. From the mystic point of view Bhairava is the ultimately reality in which there is no distinction of Shiva &amp;amp; Shakti. &#xA;The svarupa or essential nature of Bhairava is vijnāna or bodha or mahābodha, cit or caitanya the main characteristic of which is svatantrya or absolute freedom revealing itself in icchā, jnāna &amp;amp; kriyā. It is to this vijnānabhairav that the seeker of spiritual life has to be integrated. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire manifestation consisting of subject and object is a mere reflection in this vijnāna. Just as a city in a mirror appears as something different from the mirror, though it is nothing different from the mirror, even so the universe though appearing different from vijnāna is nothing different from it. In verses 2 to 6 of vijnānabhairav, the Devi mentions certain well known statements about Bhairava and wants to know His highest state or essential nature. Bhairava categorically rejects the various well known opinions about his highest state and pithily but with luminous clarity states in verses 14 and 15 what His essential nature consists in :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The highest state of Bhairava is free of all notions pertaining to direction, time, nor can that be particularized, by some definite space or designation. In verity that can neither be indicated nor described in words. One can be aware of that only when one is completely free of all thought-constructs. One can have an experience of that bliss in his own inmost Self (when one is completely rid of the ego, and is established in the plenitude of the divine I-consciousness). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That &lt;strong&gt;state&lt;/strong&gt; of Bhairava which is full of the bliss of non-difference from the entire world is alone Bhairavi or Sakti of Bhairava. That &lt;strong&gt;state&lt;/strong&gt; is vijnāna-a state of consciousness which is free of all thought-constructs. This vijnānabhairav is the goal of man. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Content of Vijnānabhairav Tantra&lt;/strong&gt;-&#xA;In short - Devi asks - &quot; Who are you&quot;&#xA;Lord Shiva in reply end up replying the methods to know him. Methods which are 112 in number, all are sufficient to realize that Bhairava, becomes the content of Tantra/Āgama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ref- &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/VijnanaBhairavaOrDivineConsciousnessJaidevaSingh&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vijnānabhairav Tantra by Jaidev Singh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-09-05T17:54:56.917" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T17:54:56.917" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17606" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-16T15:16:10.653" Score="3" ViewCount="869" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although I'm not a Hindu, I once had a beautiful dream about a Hindu lady who presented me with a purple lotus. The dream was AMAZING, but I didn't really understand it, but I remember seeing her eyes and experiencing an intense feeling of love. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I recently bought a statue and researched it, the statue turned out to be Goddess Parvati, and when I saw her image, I realized it was the women in my dream!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of a purple Lotus flower and Goddess Parvati?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'd love to learn more! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9241" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-08-06T15:58:10.597" LastActivityDate="2018-08-06T15:58:10.597" Title="What is significance of purple lotus in hands of Goddess Parvati?" Tags="|symbolism|parvati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17607" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12194" CreationDate="2017-03-16T15:37:23.550" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the universe all the creatures are related to Adhivyadhi, which indicates mental agony or bodily pain. Acharyas of Ayurveda like Charaka, Sushruta and Kashyap have classified diseases into various categories like Agantuja, Sharirika, Manasika, Swabhavika, etc. Charaka classified diseases based on the prognosis like Sadhya, Asadhya, Mrudu and Daruna. Ayurveda also suggested Daiva Vyapashraya Chikitsa which includes of Manidharana and chanting Mantras. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3764876/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Astrological sciences&lt;/a&gt; suggest 10 types of remedial measures in the treatment of diseases. This science considers that causative factors of various disorders are the Navagrahas (nine planets). The influence of the planets on various procedures like d&lt;strong&gt;rug processing, bath taking, performing Yajna, wearing Ratna, etc.&lt;/strong&gt; are well documented in Jyotisha shastra. Drugs processed in Chandra Nakshatra acts as ambrosia and subdues Tridoshajanya Vyadhi. Medicated baths are suggested for diseases engendered due to involvement of different planet effects viz. &lt;strong&gt;Sarshpa for Shukra, Haridra and Daruharidra for Shani Lodhra for Ketu, Sharpunkha for Rahu, etc.&lt;/strong&gt; In a close scrutiny it appears that Jyotishashastra Siddhanta can play crucial role in the management of chronic diseases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most wonderful feature of the Vedic astrology or jyotiSha is the availability of remedies for any problem, let it be loukika(materialistic) or AdhyAtmika(spiritual)! The solution is not a black-magic type of remedy, but vaidika(from Veda) in nature - a good for all technique. Vaidika remedies can be classified broadly into &lt;strong&gt;maNi, mantra and auShadha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://vedanet.com/2012/06/13/ayurvedic-astrology/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ayurvedic Astrology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet, though they have their specializations in many areas, both Vedic astrology and Ayurveda have a significant overlap as well. Vedic astrology contains a medical system based upon Ayurveda, while Ayurveda contains a system for the timing of disease and its treatment based upon Vedic astrology. We can designate this combined usage of Ayurveda and Vedic astrology more simply as ‘Ayurvedic Astrology’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayurvedic astrology is the medical branch of Vedic astrology, adding to it the Ayurvedic view of health and healing. It uses the language of Ayurveda to understand the effects of the planets on the body and mind relative to health, disease and longevity. Ayurvedic astrology also uses Vedic astrology as an aid to Ayurvedic analysis, diagnosis and treatment, showing how planetary factors cause disease and balancing them can be an important aid in any cure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayurvedic astrology combines these two great disciplines, using Vedic astrology to plot the influences of time and karma and Ayurveda to show how these relate on to our state of Prana or vital energy. Combining these two great disciplines together, there is nothing that we cannot treat or cannot understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dirah.org/ayurveda.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;THE THREE DOSHA'S&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayurveda is based on the three constitutions, the three dosha's. These three doshas are called &lt;em&gt;vata, pitta and kapha.&lt;/em&gt; Vata corresponds to air, pitta to fire, and kapha to earth and water. The astrological signs can then be divided as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vata&lt;/em&gt; : Gemini, Virgo, Libra, Capricorn and Aquarius. Virgo is placed here because it is ruled by Mercury, which is an air planet in Vedic astrology. Capricorn is mentioned here because it is ruled by the vata planet Saturn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pitta&lt;/em&gt; : Aries, Leo, Sagittarius and Scorpio. Scorpio is pitta because the classic ruler of Scorpio is the fire planet Mars. In Vedic astrology, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not used, and so Mars remains the ruler of Scorpio.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kapha&lt;/em&gt; : Taurus, Cancer, and Pisces. These are the earth and water signs not assigned to vata and pitta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-07-02T03:45:30.243" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T03:45:30.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17609" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-16T16:37:39.373" Score="4" ViewCount="172" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since Shiva was the first living entity in the universe followed by Bhagwaan Vishnu and  Brahma, according to many puranas, I have several questions about Shiva Bhagwaan and even after searching many times, i could not find answers to my questions.  My questions are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When and how did Shiva attain his damaroo? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Where did He get the leather for his damaru?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have found answers for all weapons of Vishnu. Can someone provide an answer?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9244" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T17:06:14.510" LastActivityDate="2017-03-16T17:06:14.510" Title="How did Lord Shiva get his Damaru and leather for His Damaru?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17610" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15984" CreationDate="2017-03-16T18:17:27.453" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the chart, the Sun is the significator of Pitr (manes). So this dosha is generally formed when Sun is significantly afflicted in the chart. However, it is not evil as portrayed by some of the astrologers which frightens common people. Usually if Sun is afflicted by enemy planets like Rahu or Ketu this can be a factor. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The best remedies is to perform regular tarpanam on every amavasya and do some charity to the poor and/or feed stray animals/birds. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regular chanting of gayatri or an anushthan is extremely helpful. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One must try to offer pinda by visiting places like Gaya or any other pilgrim place. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regularly watering plant is also beneficial. Planting new saplings is also very good. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-03-16T18:23:02.173" LastActivityDate="2017-03-16T18:23:02.173" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17611" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2537" CreationDate="2017-03-16T18:20:05.710" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vaidika &lt;a href=&quot;http://jyotishavedika.blogspot.in/2005/10/remedies-in-astrology-how-do-they-work.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;remedies&lt;/a&gt; can be classified broadly into &lt;strong&gt;maNi&lt;/strong&gt;, mantra and auShadha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;maNi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is the remedy involving gems and precious stones. It is mainly used to build the psychological strength and will power of a native suffering with problems. There are different gems prescribed for different planets in jyotiSha and the use of respective gem pacifies the planet causing troubles or strengthens the planet at weak position in the horoscope. But this is not a magic or illogical remedy that is to be laughed at. This kind of remedy prescribes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-usage of gems in ornaments&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-usage of gems in medicines(since gems are metallic compounds)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-usage of gems in dAna(charity, donation)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-usage of gems in worship and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-03-16T18:20:05.710" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17613" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17599" CreationDate="2017-03-17T05:42:50.537" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from what's being said in the above answer here is what i would like add.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14976/which-sm%E1%B9%9Btis-dharma-%C5%9B%C4%81stras-are-to-be-followed-in-kali-yuga/14977#14977&quot;&gt;Kaliyuga's Dharma Shastra(Smriti)&lt;/a&gt; is considered to be the Parashara Smriti which mentions some peculiarities of Kali Yuga and of the persons living in that age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/e2MJQ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/e2MJQ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Self-mortification is the rule in the Krita age ; knowledge is said (to be the same) in the Treta ; in the Dvapara, (they) say&#xA;  sacrifice (to the gods to be) the sole (rule) ; &lt;strong&gt;and charity alone in&#xA;  the Kali age.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parashara Smriti Chapter 1 Verse 23&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,what this verse implies is that the Kali people are not fit for extreme Tapas etc.Charity is  most suitable for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,its stated that the Kali Yuga people derive their energy from their food only(the same thing has been stated in other Scriptures too eg-The Mahanirvana Tantram).So,fasting is not recommended for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Life in the Krita has its seat in the bones ; in the Treta it has its seat in the flesh ; in the Dvapara the blood is the seat of&#xA;  life ; &lt;strong&gt;in the Kali, however, life is dependent upon food and the&#xA;  like.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parashara Smriti Chapter 1 Verse 32&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahanirvana Tantra also provides  description for the people of (the 4 yugas including those of) Kali in its first chapter.The description is quite similar to the ones given in Swiftpushkar's answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now the sinful Kali Age is upon them, when Dharmma is destroyed, an&#xA;  Age full of evil customs and deceit. Men pursue evil ways. The Vedas&#xA;  have lost their power, the Smritis are forgotten, and many of the&#xA;  Puranas, which contain stories of the past, and show the many ways&#xA;  (which lead to liberation), will, O Lord! be destroyed. Men will&#xA;  become averse from religious rites, without restraint, maddened with&#xA;  pride, ever given over to sinful acts, &lt;strong&gt;lustful, gluttonous, cruel.&#xA;  heartless, harsh of speech, deceitful, short-lived, poverty-stricken,&#xA;  harassed by sickness and sorrow, ugly, feeble, low, stupid, mean, and&#xA;  addicted to mean habits, companions of the base, thievish, calumnious,&#xA;  malicious, quarrelsome, depraved, cowards, and ever-ailing, devoid of&#xA;  all sense of shame and sin and of fear to seduce the wives of others.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Vipras will live like the Shudras, and whilst neglecting their own&#xA;  Sandhya will yet officiate at the sacrifices of the low. They will be&#xA;  greedy, given over to wicked and sinful acts, liars, insolent,&#xA;  ignorant, deceitful, mere hangers-on of others, the sellers of their&#xA;  daughters, degraded, averse to all tapas and vrata. They will be&#xA;  heretics, impostors, and think themselves wise. They will be without&#xA;  faith or devotion, and will do japa and puja with no other end than to&#xA;  dupe the people. They will eat unclean food and follow evil customs,&#xA;  they will serve and eat the food of the Shudras and lust after low&#xA;  women, and will be wicked and ready to barter for money even their own&#xA;  wives to the low. In short, the only sign that they are Brahmanas will&#xA;  be the thread they wear. Observing no rule in eating or drinking or in&#xA;  other matters, scoffing at the Dharmma Scriptures, no thought of pious&#xA;  speech ever so much as entering their minds, they will be but bent&#xA;  upon the injury of the good (37-50). By Thee also have been composed&#xA;  for the good and liberation of men the Tantras, a mass of Agamas and&#xA;  Nigamas, which bestow both enjoyment and liberation, containing&#xA;  Mantras and Yantras and rules as to the sadhana of both Devis and&#xA;  Devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Advantages of being born in Kali Yuga :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although there are many disadvantages,yet the Maharishis are full praise of Kali Yuga simply because of the fact that the path of realization(liberation) has been supposedly made simpler for the age. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that in Kali Yuga simple Nama Sankeertana (chanting of God's holy names or nama japa) is capable of giving mukti.And such an easy way of liberation was not present in the previous yugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In what follows i will be quoting from the book  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Essence of Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu Purana: Sarve Brahma vadavyanti sampraptetun Kaloau yuge, Naanu&#xA;  tishthanti Maitreya shishnodara parayanaah| Yada yadaasataam haanih&#xA;  Vedamargaanu saarinaam, Tadaa tadaa Kaler - vriddhih anumeyaa&#xA;  vichakshanaih|| Veda Vyaasauvaacha: Yatkrute dashabhirvarshaih&#xA;  tretaayaam vaayanenatu Dvaapare tacchamaasena hyahoraatrena tatlalou|&#xA;  Dhyaayan Krite yajan yagjnaih Tretaayaam Dwapare archayan, Yadaapnoti&#xA;  tadaapnoti Kalou samkeerta Keshavam/ Naaradiye/ Hare Keshava Govinda&#xA;  Vaasudeva Janaarddana, Iteetayanti nityam sahitaan badhate Kalih ||&#xA;  Shiva Shankara Rudreti Nilakantha Trilochana, Iteerayanti ye nityam&#xA;  sahitaan baadhate Kalih/ Shiva Shankara Rudreti Neelakantha&#xA;  Trilochana, Iteerayanti ye nityam sahitaan baadhate Kalih||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu Purana details Yuga dharmas as follows: In Kali Yuga, every one&#xA;  discusses about Brahma Jnaana but none is really interested in it&#xA;  since they are overwhelmed of selfishness, centric pysche and sex but&#xA;  none really is serious in favour of Brahma Jnaana; as and when there&#xA;  occurs a danger to the Virtuous, there is the upgradation of evil&#xA;  forces and infringement of virtue, and the signs of Kali Yuga become&#xA;  prominent and clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The rewards of virtue by of Tapas during Krita Yuga are as good as Yagnas in Treta yuga, worships in Dvapara Yuga and even ‘Samkeertanas’&#xA;  rendering Sacred Songs in Kali yuga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Narada says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada Brahmarshi  states that the soulful singing of Narayana as: Here&#xA;  Keshava Govinda Vaasudeva Janardana  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Iteerayanti nityam sahitaan baadhate Kalih. Or alternatively as Shiva&#xA;  Shankara Rudreti Neelakantha Tricochana, Itirtayanti ye nityam&#xA;  sahitaan baadhate Kalih ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That is either render Hari Smarana or Hara&#xA;  smarana as above! &lt;strong&gt;Kali Yuga would never ever torment sincere prayers&#xA;  with the naamas as mentioned above.&lt;/strong&gt; Such indeed are the Yuga Dharmas!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada Brahmarshi states that the intensity of Kali Yuga is gradually&#xA;  diminished with Nitya Keertana: Shiva Shankara Rudresha Neelakantha&#xA;  Trilochana, Iteerayantiye nityam na Kalirbhaadhyate chataan/ Mahadeva&#xA;  Virupaksha Gangaadhara Mridaavyaya, Iteeranti ye nityam te kritaadhona&#xA;  shamshayah||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nitya keertana of ‘Shiva Shankara Rudresha Neelakantha Trilochana’ or&#xA;  ‘Mahadeva Virupaaksha Gangaadhara Mrida - avyaya’ assuages the&#xA;  severity of Kali Yuga, reduces its impact and bestows fulfillment of&#xA;  one’s life!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, as per the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/bhavishya/bookview.php?chapnum=31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhavisya Purana&lt;/a&gt; ,the people living in Kali Yuga will not only be short-lived but their heights will also be short.And it will get even shorter as the Yuga progresses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Over two thousand years, the established Regulations made by Lord&#xA;  Brahma and the &lt;strong&gt;successive Manus would get thinner and thinner&lt;/strong&gt; and by&#xA;  the Second Paada of Kali Yuga, Kali Devata would be happy to witness&#xA;  that the old Vedic values would be obliterated, that the Daityamaya&#xA;  human beings (fully soaked in Daitya activities) &lt;strong&gt;would be of&#xA;  two-and-half feet height, that their life span would be forty years&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  maximum (as against hundred years now) and that they would be free&#xA;  like birds without any Karmic regulations!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T05:42:50.537" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17614" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15009" CreationDate="2017-03-17T06:16:23.573" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the &lt;strong&gt;Samvarta Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;, Achamana , if done while sitting on a seat or while sitting on one's thighs,the act does not purify the performer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is possibly the reason why squatting is considered as the recommended posture for performing Achamana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A S'udra becomes purified [by touching the twelve limbs] with his hand&#xA;  ; a Vais'ya, with water 'touching merely] the teeth. And a Kshatriya,&#xA;  by performing the A'chamanam with water reaching the throat, attains&#xA;  to purification. (21)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[By performing it,] being seated on a seat, or when sitting on his&#xA;  hams&lt;/strong&gt; with a cloth girt round the legs and knees, or with one foot&#xA;  placed above another, &lt;strong&gt;one never attains to purification.&lt;/strong&gt; (22)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samvarta Smriti Chapter 1 Verse 22.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given below is an image of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Maha Periyava&lt;/a&gt; in a squatting posture.Probably he is about to perform achamana or just finished doing so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A7YzJ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A7YzJ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T06:16:23.573" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17615" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9156" CreationDate="2017-03-17T06:53:48.777" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karna was NOT the greatest archer at all. He has done NOTHING to qualify as the greatest. Every time he ever won any fights in Mahabharata was when he was up against fodder warriors who you would expect him to be able to defeat like Nakula, Sahadeva, Virata etc. You would expect him to be at least be able to beat them right? &#xA;Or his weapons would do all the work for him. He only killed Ghatotkaca using the Vasavi dart. Before that Ghatotkaca defeated him multiple times. Also Karna was literally forced to use that Vasavi dart because ALL OF HIS OTHER WEAPONS HAD FAILED HIM (Bhargavastra, Brahmastra, Nagastra etc). He had no other choice his life was in peril. And anyone who has the Vasavi dart can kill anyone, so it doesn't prove any great power of Karna. Anyone who has a nuclear weapon can drop it on a bunch of soldiers and kill them with it, but it doesn't make them stronger than those soldiers. He either never won through his own merit or always only beat weak people.&#xA;As for his defeats in the Kurukshetra war he was defeated by Dhrishtadyumna 2 times (12th day and 15th day), Ghatotkaca defeated Karna 3 times, Abhimanyu defeated Karna 6 times, Satyaki defeated Karna 8 times, Bhima defeated Karna 10 times, Arjuna defeated Karna 7 times.&#xA;Karna with his vijaya bow on the 17th day still lost to Satyaki, Bhima, Arjuna, Yudhishthira etc. And was stalemated by Dhrishtadyumna. Many people spared Karna's life. His life was spared many times and he ran away from countless battles. He always relied too much on astras. That is not what a &quot;greatest&quot; does. He is just an overrated warrior.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://logicastra.blogspot.com/2017/02/all-of-karnas-defeats.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Whoever's reading this you can find all of Karna's defeats in my blog post at logic astra.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9248" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T06:53:48.777" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17616" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17618" CreationDate="2017-03-17T07:21:11.430" Score="17" ViewCount="24735" Body="&lt;p&gt;I vaguely remember hearing that women were cursed with menstruation or probably I read it on this site itself in some comment that I'm unable to trace now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Were women cursed by any sage or god with menstruation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm also curious to know if only earthly beings (women) were cursed or did the curse apply to women, Demigoddesses, Apsaras, demons, etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story of women being cursed with menstruation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2019-12-08T09:12:57.770" LastActivityDate="2019-12-08T09:12:57.770" Title="Were women cursed with menstruation?" Tags="|puranas|women|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17617" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17616" CreationDate="2017-03-17T07:34:14.570" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was not actually a curse.The women took some share of Indra's sin/guilt.The story  given in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/vasisthadharmasutras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vashishta Dharma Sutras&lt;/a&gt;  is related to Indra's killing of the demon Vritraasura &amp;amp; is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;For it has been declared in the Veda, ‘When Indra had slain (Vritra) the three-headed son of Tvashtri, he was seized by Sin, and&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;he considered himself to be tainted with exceedingly great guilt&lt;/strong&gt;. Al&#xA;  l beings cried out against him (saying to him), 7 ‘ thou slayer of a&#xA;  learned Brâhmana! O thou slayer  of a learned Brâhmana!’ &lt;strong&gt;He ran to the&#xA;  women for protection (and said to them), ‘Take upon yourselves the&#xA;  third part of this my guilt (caused by) the murder of a learned&#xA;  Brâhmana.’ They answered, ”What shall we have (for doing thy wish)?’&#xA;  He replied, ‘Choose a boon.’ They said, ‘Let us obtain offspring (if&#xA;  our husbands approach us) during the proper season, at pleasure let&#xA;  us dwell (with our husbands until (our children) are born.’ He&#xA;  answered, ‘ So be it.’ (Then) they took upon themselves (the t hird&#xA;  part of his guilt). That guilt of Brâhmana-murder appears every month&#xA;  as the menstrual flow.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore let him not eat the food of a woman&#xA;  in her courses; (for) such a one has put on the shape of the guilt of&#xA;  Brâhmana-murder.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vashishta Dharma Sutras Chapter 5.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not sure though if the same story is repeated in some other Scriptures like the Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-17T08:41:41.563" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T08:41:41.563" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17618" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17616" CreationDate="2017-03-17T09:21:39.883" Score="19" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Were women cursed by any sage or god with menstruation? What is the story of women being cursed with menstruation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think &lt;strong&gt;that is not a curse given to women&lt;/strong&gt; by any sage or god, &lt;strong&gt;but women themselves accepted the menstruation cycle&lt;/strong&gt; to make Indra free of his sin along with Prithivi, Jal, and Vruksha (earth, water and trees).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a story described in Shreemad Bhagvat Purana of Indra killing Vishwroopa and to get rid of the sin, he distributed his sin of killing a brahmana (Brahma-Hatya) in four parts to women, water, trees and earth. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/9/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Book 1, skandha 6, chapter 9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्महत्यामज्त्रलिना जग्राह यदपीश्वर | &lt;br/&gt; संवत्सरान्ते तदघं भूतानां&#xA;  स विशुद्धते | &lt;br/&gt; भूम्यम्बुद्रुमयोषिद्भ्यच्श्रतुर्धा वयभजद्भरि:&#xA;  ||६|| &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahma-hatyām añjalinā jagrāha yad apīśvaraḥ &lt;br/&gt; saṁvatsarānte tad&#xA;  aghaṁ bhūtānāṁ sa viśuddhaye &lt;br/&gt; bhūmy-ambu-druma-yoṣidbhyaś caturdhā&#xA;  vyabhajad dhariḥ &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although Indra was so powerful that he could neutralize the sinful&#xA;  reactions for killing a brāhmaṇa, he repentantly accepted the burden&#xA;  of these reactions with folded hands. He suffered for one year, and&#xA;  then to purify himself &lt;strong&gt;he distributed the reactions for this sinful&#xA;  killing among the earth, water, trees and women.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/9/6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 6.9.6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr/&gt;&#xA;This is further confirmed in another chapter, &lt;strong&gt;Skandha 6 chapter 13 shloka 5&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्त्रीभूजलद्रुमैरेनो विश्वरुपधोद्भ्वम् | &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  विभक्तमनुह्णद्भिर्व्रुत्रहत्यां क्व माज्म्यर्यहं ||५|| &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;strī-bhū-druma-jalair eno viśvarūpa-vadhodbhavam &lt;br/&gt; vibhaktam&#xA;  anugṛhṇadbhir vṛtra-hatyāṁ kva mārjmy aham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;King Indra replied: When I killed Viśvarūpa, I received extensive&#xA;  sinful reactions, but &lt;strong&gt;I was favored by the women, land, trees and&#xA;  water, and therefore I was able to divide the sin among them.&lt;/strong&gt; But&#xA;  now if I kill Vṛtrāsura, another brāhmaṇa, how shall I free myself&#xA;  from the sinful reactions? &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/13/5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 6.13.5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And here is your answer:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शश्र्वत्कांमवरेणामहस्तुरियं जगृहु: स्त्रिय:| &lt;br/&gt; रजोरुपेण तास्वमहो&#xA;  मासि मासि प्रदृश्यते ||९|| &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śaśvat-kāma-vareṇāṁhas turīyaṁ jagṛhuḥ striyaḥ &lt;br/&gt; rajo-rūpeṇa tāsv&#xA;  aṁho māsi māsi pradṛśyate &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In return for Lord Indra’s benediction that they would be able to enjoy lusty desires continuously, even during pregnancy for as long as&#xA;  sex is not injurious to the embryo, women accepted one fourth of the&#xA;  sinful reactions. As a result of those reactions, women manifest the&#xA;  signs of menstruation every month.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/9/9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 6.9.9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="245" LastEditDate="2017-03-18T11:36:01.327" LastActivityDate="2017-03-18T11:36:01.327" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17619" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-17T09:31:12.273" Score="7" ViewCount="205" Body="&lt;p&gt;Association of various bodily organs to Lord Shivas AsthaMurty form (8 forms) are mentioned in YajurVeda. Here is passage from YajurVeda Taittariya Samhita 1.4.36:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चित्तम् संतानेन भवं यक्ना रुद्र तनिम्ना पशुपतिम् स्थूलहृदयेनाग्नीम् हृदयन रुद्रं लोहितेन शर्वम् मतस्नाभ्याम् महादेवम् अन्तःपार्श्वेनौषिष्ठहनम् शिंगीनिकोश्याभ्याम् ।। (Yajurveda 1.4.36) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Chitta with the &lt;strong&gt;sinew,&lt;/strong&gt; Bhava with the &lt;strong&gt;liver,&lt;/strong&gt; Rudra with the &lt;strong&gt;taniman,&lt;/strong&gt; Pashupati with the &lt;strong&gt;thick heart,&lt;/strong&gt; Agni with the &lt;strong&gt;heart,&lt;/strong&gt; Rudra with the &lt;strong&gt;blood,&lt;/strong&gt; Sarva with the &lt;strong&gt;kidneys,&lt;/strong&gt; Mahadeva with the &lt;strong&gt;intestinal flesh,&lt;/strong&gt; him that slayest most quickly with the entrails.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are these parts associated with offerings of animal organs of the sacrificed animals of Yajna?&lt;/strong&gt; Or it is about association with living organs like, Bhava is associated with liver, Pashupati with thick heart etc.. etc...?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;If it is about offering of animal parts from Vedic Yajna, then in which Yajnas are these parts offered?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As a sidenote I guess that these are offered also in Ashwamedha Yajna, because as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17268/where-does-ramayana-state-ashwamedha-yajna-is-intended-for-worship-of-lord-rudra/17269#17269&quot;&gt;answer here,&lt;/a&gt; Ramayana states &amp;apos;Ashwamedha Yajna is the highest worship of Rudra.&amp;apos;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T13:21:05.193" Title="In which worship are these organs mentioned in YajurVeda offered to Lord Shiva?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|vedas|yajur-veda|yajna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17620" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17616" CreationDate="2017-03-17T10:13:21.993" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/4600/11C_Chapter_1_28.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 32&lt;/a&gt; Preta Khanda of Garuda Purana says Brahma gave 1/4th of Indra's Brahmahatya sin to women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऋतुकाले च नारीणां वज्जर्यं दिनचतुष्टयम्॥ &lt;br&gt; यतस्तिस्मिन्&#xA;ब्रह्महत्यां पुरावृत्रसमुत्थिताम्॥ ७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first four days of menstrual flow of blood shall be avoided when&#xA;the sin of a Brahmin's slaughter resides in her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मा शक्रात् समुक्तार्य्य चतुर्थाशेन दत्तवान्॥ ८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma had removed this sin from Indra and apportioned a fourth in&#xA;women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T10:13:21.993" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17621" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17631" CreationDate="2017-03-17T10:21:24.073" Score="7" ViewCount="15310" Body="&lt;p&gt;How is it possible to rule a kingdom for so many years? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or was it like his kingdom followed his dynasty for so many years?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana lived more than Lord Shree Ram as per &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/How-old-were-Lord-Rama-Lord-Hanuman-Ravana-and-Indrajit-at-the-time-of-the-war&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt;. How is this possible?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I assume is Ram Rajya was there for 11000 years, he created such a robust living style that it was continued for 11000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastEditorUserId="81" LastEditDate="2017-03-21T15:02:33.490" LastActivityDate="2023-05-06T18:16:15.053" Title="Lord Shree Rama ruled his kingdom for 11000 years?" Tags="|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="28" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17622" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17336" CreationDate="2017-03-17T11:17:23.480" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why Karna didn't give Dana as said in scriptures to give only to whose who that deserves it :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's May be just because Indra deserves the Dana and it's was required to save his own son Arjun. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Did he Took a Vow to Give Dana to anyone as opposing scriptures ?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Never read something like that anywhere. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Will it cause Bad karma to Karna or Anyone if Dana is given to who that does not deserves it ?&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;Only If it was intentionally for someone's bad. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3835" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T11:17:23.480" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17623" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17627" CreationDate="2017-03-17T14:02:50.673" Score="2" ViewCount="1230" Body="&lt;p&gt;As God moon is connected to feminine aspects of brain (emotions, love, devotion etc). Will worshipping God Moon helps us to ( helps mean being lubricant or catalyst )  make us femininely strong, i.e emotionally strong? &#xA;Also, As god sun is connected to intellect, god moon is connected to mind (manas) so will it help to control mind as well? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T18:06:45.817" Title="What are the spiritual benefits of worshipping God moon?" Tags="|vedic-gods|demi-god|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17624" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-17T15:21:11.500" Score="2" ViewCount="91" Body="&lt;p&gt;As goddess Gouri is connected to feminine aspects of brain (emotions, love, devotion etc). Will worshipping goddess Gouri helps us to ( helps mean being lubricant or catalyst )  make us femininely strong, i.e emotionally strong? &#xA;Also, As Lord Shiva is connected to intellect/masculinity, goddess Gouri is connected to mind (manas)/feminine so will it help to &lt;strong&gt;control mind&lt;/strong&gt; as well? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T15:21:11.500" Title="What are the spiritual benefits of worshipping goddess Gouri?" Tags="|shiva|devi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17626" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9038" CreationDate="2017-03-17T16:52:09.507" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vamachara is not a synonym to tantra but one of the achara of tantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Tanyate, vistaryate jñanam anena iti Tantram.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; According to this derivation of the word &lt;strong&gt;Tantra&lt;/strong&gt; from the root &quot;Tan&quot; &quot;to spread,&quot; it is defined as the Shastra, by which knowledge (Jñana) is spread. Mark the word Jñana. It is here we find that variety which is so puzzling to those who have not gone to the root of the religious life of India. The end is substantially one. The means to that end necessarily vary according to knowledge, capacity, and temperament. But here again we may analyze the means into two main divisions, namely, Vaidik and Tantrik, to which may be added a third or the mixed (Mishra). The one body of Hinduism reveals as it were, a double framework represented by the Vaidik and Tantrik Acharas, which have in certain instances been mingled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Kularnava and Jñanadipa Tantras there are seven Acaras of which the first four, Veda, Vaishnava, Shaiva and Dakshina belong to Pashvacara; then comes Vama, followed by Siddhanta, in which gradual approach is made to Kaulacara the reputed highest. Elsewhere six and nine Acaras are spoken of and different kinds of Bhavas, Sabhava, Vibhava and Dehabhava and so forth which are referred to in Bhavacudamani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pañcatattva are either real (Pratyaksha. &quot;Idealizing&quot; statements to the contrary are, when not due to ignorance, false), substitutional (Anukalpa) or esoteric (Divyatattva). As regards the second, even a vegetarian would not object to &quot;meat&quot; which is in fact ginger, nor the abstainer to &quot;wine&quot; which is coconut water in a bell-metal vessel. As for the Esoteric Tattva they are not material articles or practices, but the symbols for Yogic processes. Again some notions and practices are more moderate and others extreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus we find in this Pañcatattva Ritual a counterpart to the Vaidik usage of wine and animal food. As regards wine, we have the partaking of Soma; meat was offered in Mamsashtaka Shraddha; fish in the Ashtakashraddha and Pretashraddha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vamacara&lt;/strong&gt; means literally &quot;left&quot; way, not &quot;left-handed&quot; in the English sense which means what is bad. As the name is given to these Sadhakas by themselves it is not likely that they would adopt a title which condemns them. What they mean is that this Acara is the opposite of Dakshinacara. Philosophically it is more monistic. It is said that even in the highest Siddhi of a Dakshinacari &quot;there is always some One above him&quot;; but the fruit of Vamacara and its subsequent and highest stages is that the Sadhaka &quot;becomes the Emperor Himself&quot;. The Bhava differs, and the power of its method compared with Dakshinacara is said to be that between milk and wine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kauladharma&lt;/strong&gt; is in no wise sectarian but on the contrary claims to be the head of all sects. It is said &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;at heart a Shakta, outwardly a. Shaiva, in gatherings a Vaishnava&#xA;  (who are wont to gather together for worship in praise of Hari) in&#xA;  thus many a guise the Kaulas wander on earth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Antah-shaktah bahih-shaivah sabhayam vaishnava matah&#xA;Nana-rupadharah Kaulah vicaranti mahitale.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A rudimentary form of Shakta beliefs and practices can presumably be traced to the ruins of the pre-Vedic Harappa civilization. The earlier Vedic tribes, whose material cultures and social institutions have been revealed in the Rig Veda, appear to have disliked the conception of the Female Principle owing to their patriarchal bias, but [even] they had to incorporate some female deities into their pantheon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk03ch25.htm#page_225&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shaktism and Agama worship in Devi Bhagvatam:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;43&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus the &lt;strong&gt;Durgâ Devî&lt;/strong&gt; became very widely celebrated in this world. O king! Thus in different countries, the devotion began to increase towards the Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Devî Bhagavatî Bhavânî&lt;/strong&gt; became in every way an object to be worshipped and adored by all people and everywhere in &lt;strong&gt;Bhâratavarsa&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The people began to recite slowly, meditate, and chant hymns as advocated by the Âgamas constantly and became deeply attached to the S’akti worship and began to be looked upon with the highest honour by others.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O king! From that time all the people used to worship, perform Homa ceremony and sacrifice duly in honour of the Devî in every &lt;strong&gt;Navarâtri&lt;/strong&gt; (for the first nine days of the bright half in the months of Âs’vin and Chaitra).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was a revival of the pre-Vedic Mother &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaktisadhana.50megs.com/Newhomepage/Frames/messageboard/themothergoddess.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Goddess cult&lt;/a&gt; in the post- Rigvedic age, probably due to the initiation of the Vedic tribes into the agricultural way of life and agricultural rituals; and since then, the Female Principle never ceased to be an important cult of the people. It was so deep-rooted in the Indian mind that even in sectarian religions like Vaishnavism, Shaivism, etc, the Female Principle had to be given a prominent position. Even the basically atheistic systems like Buddhism and Jainism could not avoid this popular influence. Later Buddhism is, in fact, nothing but a disguised Tantric cult of the Female Principle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each of the ten personalities of the Divine Mother in Tantra had been formulated based on certain concepts and realizations of the Vedic seers.  Also, for certain deities, in addition to prescribing the Tantric Mantras, the Tantric Seers prescribed Vedic verses for worship.  Some of the examples cited by Shankaranarayan are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;In the Rig Veda, Agni is shown as having the power of carrying the spiritual aspirant across all tribulations while Aditi (Divine Mother) is said to  afford shelter as a ship.   In Tantra, these functions are built into the conception of **Tara**.&#xA;&#xA;The Vedic symbolism of “primordial darkness covered by darkness” gave rise to the concept of **Dhumavati** (Divine Smoke Screen) in Tantra.&#xA;&#xA;The Rig Vedic primal seed of mind, Desire (Kama) was amplified as **Kamakala**, the concept of **Tripurasundari**.&#xA;&#xA;The all-pervasive indivisible infinity of the Divine Mother, Aditi, was used to build the concept of **Bhuvaneshwari** (she who pervades the worlds).&#xA;&#xA;The mounting aspiration concentrated at the base of things, flaming forth as Agni became the principle of **Tripura Bhairavi**.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kapali Sastry notes that in the Vedas, Agni is the seer who finds the way, who burns the dross and cleanses the seeker of all sin and impurity, carries him through all obstacles, like a boat over the seas. In the Shakta Tantra, this same Deity came to be worshipped as &lt;strong&gt;Durga&lt;/strong&gt;, the indomitable, the protectrix who carries the devotee safe across the sea of misery, the ocean of birth and death.  More importantly, he found that in one place the exact Mantra addressed to Agni in the Vedas had been applied in Tantra to Durga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedic theory of Vak posits a Universe created by sound (cosmic vibrations) and it says that this Sound exists at four levels, from the subtle to the gross, in the Universe (see blog post Vedic Vak : four levels of sound).  In his book Sidelights on Tantra, Kapali Sastry discloses how Tantra incorporated the Vedic theory of Vak and adapted it for practical purposes.   Tantra correlated the four levels of Vak to the four subtle centers (Chakras) in the human subtle body (Para to the Muladhara Chakra; Pashyanti Vak to the Manipura Chakra in the navel; Madhyama to the heart; Vaikhari to the throat).  In the Vedas, the beginning of creation is signified by the symbol of the “Bull that Roars” (Rig Veda 4.58.2).  In Tantra, this concept is represented by the Adya Spanda (i.e. primal vibration).   The original Word (AUM – primal root sound) of the Veda was further developed by Tantra into the theory of seed sounds (bija-aksara) which was  then applied to the practice of Mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a connection between the Upanishadic Vidyas and the Tantric &lt;strong&gt;Goddesses&lt;/strong&gt;.   In his book Ten Great Cosmic Powers, Shankaranarayanan credits Sri Vashishtha Ganapati Muni, disciple of Ramana Maharshi, with revealing how the ten Personalities of the Divine Mother can be traced to the Vidyas in the Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tantra in Upanishad vidya:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kali    ---- Prana Vidya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tara    -----Akshara Vidya Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III. 8&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tripura Sundari     ---- Vaishwanara Vidya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhuvaneshwari   -----Parovariyasi Vidya of the Chandogya Upanishad 1.9.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tripura Bhairavi    -----Shandilya Vidya of Chandogya III.14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chinnamasta     ----Jyotirvidya of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhumavati   -----Dhuma Vidya of Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bagalamukhi     ----Indra Yoni Vidya of Taittiriya Upanishad&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Matangi     ----Udgitha Vidya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kamalatmika     Madhu Vidya of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kulluka Bhatta, the celebrated commentator on Manu, says that Shruti is of two kinds, &lt;strong&gt;Vaidik&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Tantrik&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaidiki tantrums caviar dvividha shrutih kirtita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is there in the great &lt;strong&gt;Devi Sukta&lt;/strong&gt; of the Rigveda (Mandala X, Sukta 125) which the Shakta Tantra does not teach? The Rishi of this revelation was a woman, the daughter of Rishi Ambhrina. It was fitting that a woman should proclaim the Divine Motherhood. Her Hymn says: &lt;strong&gt;&quot;I am the Sovereign Queen the Treasury of all treasures; the chief of all objects of worship whose all-pervading Self all Devatas manifest; whose birthplace is in the midst of the causal waters; who breathing forth gives form to all created worlds and yet extends beyond them, so vast am I in greatness.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; (The full Hymn is translated in the French Edition of A. and E. Avalon's Hymns to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Goddess&lt;/a&gt;, Bossard, Paris.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;From the above points, we can see that shaktism was present since time immemorial and tantric practices are indeed part of ancient Indian tradition. Vamachara is a stage of tantra worship hence it is also a part of ancient agama based worship.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-03-18T08:23:37.810" LastActivityDate="2017-03-18T08:23:37.810" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17627" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17623" CreationDate="2017-03-17T17:57:29.037" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moon is also known as &quot;soma&quot; and is the nourisher. There can be internal and external practices. Chandra is said to be the giver of nectar. Same thing can be seen in yogic practices as well. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Internal worshipping of Chandra&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;lt;\H3&gt;&lt;BR&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1978/fjune78/khec678.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Khechari Mudra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Hatha Yoga Pradipika states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;When the yogi now curls his tongue upward and back, he is able to,&#xA;  close the place where the three paths meet' The bending back of the&#xA;  tongue is khechari mudra and the closing of the three paths in akasha&#xA;  chakra. The yogi who remains but half a minute in this position is&#xA;  free from illness, old age and death. He who has mastered khechari&#xA;  mudra is not afflicted with disease, death sloth hunger', thirst and&#xA;  swooning.&quot;(HYP 8: 36-39)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gherand Samhita states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The body becomes beautiful; samadhi is attained, and the tongue&#xA;  touching the holes in the roof of the mouth obtains various juices,...&#xA;  first he experiences a saltish taste, thru alkaline to bitter then&#xA;  astringent, then he feels the taste of butter then ghee, then of milk,&#xA;  then of curds, then of whey, then of hone then of palm juice, and&#xA;  lastly arises the taste of nectar.&quot;(GS iii, 30-32)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Hatha Yoga Pradipika further states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Daily he may eat the flesh of the cow and drink wine. The word go&#xA;  (cow) means tongue; eating it is to thrust it into the gullet, which&#xA;  produces heat in the body causing nectar to flow out of the moon&#xA;  (chandra nadi) situated on the left side of the eyebrow centre, also&#xA;  called ida nadi, and that is called drinking wine.&quot;(HYP 8: 47-49)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Khechari and Meditation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Khechari mudra can be practiced with pranayama and shambhavi mudra, gazing at the eyebrow centre. All these practices are symbolic of turning the mind inwards. The eyes which always face outward are made to turn in and gaze at the ajna chakra or third eye in the eyebrow centre. Khechari mudra turns the tongue, which always points outward, in and up towards the pituitary gland, the physical correlation of sahasrara chakra. Thus, by these practices, we turn the attention of the mind inwards and stimulate prana in this direction. When we enter deeper states of meditation, khechari prevents the air from coming out of the lungs, thus acting in the same way as jalandhara bandha. If the awareness introverts and we lose body consciousness, it is natural for the breath, to be exhaled. Khechari mudra prevents this and allows us to retain oxygen in our lungs to feed the hypometabolic (slowed down) body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Khechari influences the nectar glands by which we can conquer thirst and hunger, and stop the decay of the physical body. Of course, this is a very advanced practice. However, we see its practical aspect in ujjayi pranayama with khechari as, for example, in ajapa japa or kriya yoga. It allows us to maintain the practice for many hours as the flow of saliva from the salivary glands under the tongue is stimulated, the mouth remaining moist. Without khechari the mouth becomes dry and painful, drawing attention outward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://vedanet.com/2012/06/13/the-flow-of-soma/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agni and Soma and the Practice of Yoga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the practice of Yoga, Agni is the fiery Kundalini force that dwells in the root or earth chakra below. It is the power of aspiration that rises from below and ascends to the heavens above. Soma is the watery nectar that dwells in the crown or head chakra. It is the power of Divine grace that descends from above. As Agni rises, Soma descends. The oily drops of Soma provide the fuel for Agni to aid in its upward movement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yoga tradition teaches us that the crown chakra is the region of the Moon or Soma (Chandra Kanda), just as the lower three chakras are the region of fire (Agni-Kanda). Soma, according to the Vedas, flows in a thousand streams. These are the thousand currents of the crown chakra, the Sahasrara or thousand petalled lotus. Physiologically, Agni relates to the solar plexus, while Soma relates to the soft palate in the head, the source of saliva and other secretions in the head. Balancing these two energy centers is an important Yoga practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Soma and the Heart&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet in Vedic thought, Soma descends and flows through the purification filter (pavitra) of the heart, which is also the original home of Agni. The heart is the meeting place of the dual principles of Agni and Soma, fire and water, or consciousness and delight. In this regard we must remember that the spiritual heart or hridaya is not simply a location in the chest. It is also linked with the center of the thousand-petalled lotus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything is contained in the small space (dahara akasha) within heart, including all the other chakras. It contains the entire universe, all worlds and planes of experience, all time and space, and what is beyond all manifestation as well. It is the ultimate abode of God and the soul. In fact, the soul is Soma or the food for God in his creation. In this supreme place, God is the inextinguishable fire and the entire universe is its unending Soma offering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://yoganirvana.com/chakras/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lalana Chakra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bindu Visagra is a secondary chakra located behind the nasal cavity, and works in conjunction with the Lalana. The Bindu Visagra produces Amrita (the nectar of immortality); the Lalana then stores it, distils it, and sends it to the Vishudha chakra for its redistribution throughout the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Approximately two inches above the Vishudha, in the area behind the uvula, there is another secret and sacred secondary chakra called the Lalana, which is the seat of the female energy of the tongue.  It is also known as the Talu chakra. Some ancient tantric texts advise practitioners to bring the Kundalini to this chakra and let it stabilize there before attempting to bring it up into the higher chakras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Saubhagya-Lakshmi Upanishads&lt;/em&gt; (111, 6) the &lt;strong&gt;Lalana chakra&lt;/strong&gt; is described as having 12 bright red petals.  Other texts say it has 64 silvery white petals and a bright red periphery called ghantika, where the energy of the moon exudes its nectar (bramhi or bhumi).  When this chakra opens, it gives the sadhak (practitioner) a glimpse of cosmic emptiness or the great Void.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-03-17T18:06:45.817" LastActivityDate="2017-03-17T18:06:45.817" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17628" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16899" CreationDate="2017-03-18T05:00:06.477" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of your questions is &quot;Was Adi Shankara a devotee of Lord Shiva or of Lord Vishnu?&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,while this can not be ascertained definitively but we can surely get some hints.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_ganga-ganga_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganga Stotram&lt;/a&gt; and here is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_annapoorna-annapoorna_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Annapoorna Stotram&lt;/a&gt;, both of which are compositions of Sri Adi Shankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The concluding verse of Ganga Stotram is :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गङ्गास्तोत्रमिदं भवसारं वाञ्छितफलदं विमलं सारम् ।&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;शङ्करसेवकशङ्कररचितं&lt;/strong&gt; पठति सुखी स्तव इति च समाप्तः ॥१४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ganggaa-Stotram-Idam Bhava-Saaram Vaan.chita-Phala-Dam Vimalam Saaram&#xA;  |&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Shankara-Sevaka-Shankara-Racitam&lt;/strong&gt; Patthati Sukhii Stava Iti Ca Samaaptah ||14||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;  14.1: (Salutations to Devi Ganga) This Ganga Stotram is the true substance in this Samsara, giving desired Fruits, and is the essence&#xA;  of Purity,&#xA;  14.2: &lt;strong&gt;This hymn is composed by Shankara (Adi Shankaracharya), the servant of Shankara (Shiva)&lt;/strong&gt;; those who read it will be filled with&#xA;  Joy; thus ends this Stava (Hymn) (with good wishes for all).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, here Adi Shankara declares himself as to be a &quot;Shankara Sevaka&quot; or a servant of Bhagavan Shankara(Lord Shiva).So,this indicate that he might be a devotee of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,the concluding verse of the Annapoorna Stotram is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;माता च पार्वती देवी पिता देवो महेश्वरः । बान्धवाः शिवभक्ताश्च स्वदेशो&#xA;  भुवनत्रयम् ॥१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maataa Ca Paarvatii Devii Pitaa Devo Maheshvarah | Baandhavaah&#xA;  Shiva-Bhaktaash-Ca Svadesho Bhuvana-Trayam&lt;/strong&gt; ||12||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;  12.1: (Salutations to Mother Annapoorna) &lt;strong&gt;My Mother is Devi Parvati, and my Father is Deva Maheswara (Shiva),&#xA;  12.2: My Friends are the devotees of Shiva, and my Country is all the Three Worlds (Whose Lord is Shiva-Parvati).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse also can be taken as to indicate that Sri Adi Shankara was a devotee of Shiva-Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in any case ,a devotee of whomsoever,Adi Shankara never discriminated between Shiva and Vishnu as explained in Tezz's answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,for that reason,he promoted the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchayatana_puja&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchayatana Puja&lt;/a&gt; system in which all the 5 major Hindu Deities(Shiva,Vishnu,Devi,Ganapati and Surya) are worshiped together with equal respect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-23T07:51:34.243" LastActivityDate="2017-04-23T07:51:34.243" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17630" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17194" CreationDate="2017-03-18T07:30:40.373" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Lord Rama had the knowledge of the Brahma shirastra. Not only Brahma Shirastra, he had the knowledge of many divine weapons. All these weapons were given by his teacher Brahmarshi Viśvāmitra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दण्ड चक्रम् महत् दिव्यम् तव दास्यामि राघव || १-२७-४&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धर्म चक्रम् ततो वीर काल चक्रम् तथैव च |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विष्णु चक्रम् तथा अति उग्रम् ऐन्द्रम् चक्रम् तथैव च || १-२७-५&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वज्रम् अस्त्रम् नरश्रेष्ठ शैवम् शूलवरम् तथा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अस्त्रम् ब्रह्मशिरः&lt;/strong&gt; च एव ऐषीकम् अपि राघव || १-२७-६&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ददामि ते महाबाहो ब्राह्मम् अस्त्रम् अनुत्तमम् |  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;daṇḍa cakram mahat divyam tava dāsyāmi rāghava || 1-27-4&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dharma cakram tato vīra kāla cakram tathaiva ca |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  viṣṇu cakram tathā ati ugram aindram cakram tathaiva ca || 1-27-5&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vajram astram naraśreṣṭha śaivam śūlavaram tathā |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;astram brahmaśiraḥ&lt;/strong&gt; ca eva aiṣīkam api rāghava || 1-27-6&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dadāmi te mahābāho brāhmam astram anuttamam |&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Raghava, I am going to give the highly divine Danda disc [Punisher disc]; next, oh, best one among men, Dharma disc [Virtue-disc,] and like that kaala disc [Time-disc]; then oh, brave one, Vishnu disc; similarly oh, dextrous Rama, Indra disc and Thunderbolt missile; the best trident pertaining to Shiva; &lt;strong&gt;the missile called Brahma-shira [Brahma-crest]&lt;/strong&gt;; the missile called the Aishiika missile [Grass-Blade missile,] and that way oh, Raghava, I am going to give the unexcelled and highly formidable missile called Brahma missile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indrajeet obtained this weapon by a penance. It is mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga85/yuddha_85_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;85&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; sarga&lt;/a&gt; of YuddhaKanda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेन वीरेण तपसा वरदानात्स्वयंभुवः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अस्त्रं ब्रह्मशिरः प्राप्तं कामगाश्च तुरंगमाः || ६-८५-१२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tena vīreṇa tapasā varadānātsvayaṃbhuvaḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  astraṃ brahmaśiraḥ prāptaṃ kāmagāśca turaṃgamāḥ || 6-85-12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By his penance, Indrajit obtained a weapon called Brahmashira, by way of a gift from Brahma and also horses, which are coursing at his will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The missiles possessed by Rama are given &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga27/bala_27_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA; The knowledge of this weapon was given to Arjuna and Aśvatthāma by Dronacharya. Teacher of Dronacharya is a sage named Agnivesha. Drona learnt it from him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01142.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of Sambhava Parva, Adi Parva, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One day, Drona, addressing Arjuna before the assembled Kaurava princes, said, 'There was a disciple of Agastya in the science of arms called Agnivesha. He was my preceptor and I, his disciple. &lt;strong&gt;By ascetic merit I obtained from him a weapon called Brahmasira&lt;/strong&gt; which could never be futile and which was like unto thunder itself, capable of consuming the whole earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Agnivesha was a disciple of Agastya in the science of arms. So, it is very much possible that Agastya was also knowledgeable of the astra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore the possible warriors with knowledge of the weapon would be&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indrajeet&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Agnivesha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Droṇācārya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arjuna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aśvatthāma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Agnivesha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhishma (highly possible).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Viśvāmitra &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-22T05:45:49.707" LastActivityDate="2017-12-22T05:45:49.707" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17631" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17621" CreationDate="2017-03-18T07:33:08.370" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga1/balasans1.htm#Verse97&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga1/balasans1.htm#Verse97&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;raamaraajyam upaasitvaa = Rama having served the kingdom&#xA;dashavarSasahasraaNi = for ten thousand years; dashavarShashataani ca&#xA;= and also for thousand years; brahmalokam gamiShyati = will go to the abode of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Having served the kingdom for ten thousand years and another one&#xA;thousand years, i.e. for a total of eleven thousand years, Rama will&#xA;go to the abode of Brahma... [1-1-97]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you don't believe it is possible for humans to live this long, I empathize with you, so let us be really scientific for a moment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do you believe Rama existed ? Yes or No ?&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;If Yes, did you see him personally ? Yes or No ?&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;If No, then what is your basis/proof for the belief that he existed ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We all know about Rama only through Valmiki muni's Ramayan.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;If you believe Rama existed just because it is said so in Ramayan (meaning you have faith in the book Ramayan), then you should also believe Rama ruled for 11,000 years just because it is said so in Ramayan.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Similarly, if you reject the 11000-year life based on 'common sense' (you don't see anyone living for more than 100+ years nowadays), then you should also reject Rama's existence based on common sense (you don't see Rama nowadays).&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;If you neither accept nor reject the 11000 year-rule, then you should neither accept nor reject Rama's existence. All you can scientifically say is &amp;quot;I do not know enough about either claim to confirm or deny it&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apply the &lt;strong&gt;same level of belief OR non-belief&lt;/strong&gt; on an evidence. If you want to be scientific, you cannot accept one part of an evidence based simply on faith, and reject another part of an evidence based on 'common sense', which is subjective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2023-05-06T18:16:15.053" LastActivityDate="2023-05-06T18:16:15.053" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17632" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16550" CreationDate="2017-03-18T09:45:32.237" Score="11" Body="&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Was Rama not aware about withdrawal of Brahmāstra?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama invocated Brahmāstra more than once. We can find the references in Valmiki Ramayana on this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;During the exile on Kākā.(Narrated by Sita in the Sundara Kanda)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Against the ocean god. But was not fired on Ocean god. It was directed towards a place called Drumatulya.(Now Malwar desert in Rajasthan).  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Against Ravana in the final battle. It was fired and it became successful. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama used the Brahmastra on a crow which finally resulted in the loss of right eye. Here Rama could invoke Brahmastra on a blade of Grass. This is because Rama has the knowledge of a particular divine weapon. The name of the weapon is &lt;strong&gt;ऐषीकम्&lt;/strong&gt;(aiṣīkam) or ऐषीकास्त्र(aiṣīkāstra). You can find that Aśvatthāma also invokes a Brahmashira astra using the same missile. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अस्त्रम् ब्रह्मशिरः च एव &lt;strong&gt;ऐषीकम्&lt;/strong&gt; अपि राघव || १-२७-६&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ददामि ते महाबाहो ब्राह्मम् अस्त्रम् अनुत्तमम् | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;astram brahmaśiraḥ ca eva &lt;strong&gt;aiṣīkam&lt;/strong&gt; api rāghava || 1-27-6&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dadāmi te mahābāho brāhmam astram anuttamam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The missile called Brahma-shira [Brahma-crest]; the missile called the &lt;strong&gt;Aishiika missile [Grass-Blade missile,]&lt;/strong&gt; and that way oh, Raghava, I am going to give the unexcelled and highly formidable missile called Brahma missile.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Rama received the hymns from Viśvāmitra, all the presiding deities appeared before Rama in their astral bodies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जपतः तु मुनेः तस्य विश्वामित्रस्य धीमतः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उपतस्थुः महा अर्हाणि सर्वाणि अस्त्राणि राघवम् || १-२७-२४  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While that intelligent saint Viśvāmitra chanted the hymns, all of those highly venerable missiles came nigh and stood accessible to Raghava in their astral form. [1-27-24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ऊचुः च मुदिता रामम् सर्वे प्रांजलयः तदा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इमे च परमोदार किंकराः तव राघव || १-२७-२५&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;यद् यद् इच्छसि भद्रन् ते तत् सर्वम् करवाम वै&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All of those highly obliging missiles in astral bodies, gladdening to come under the aegis of Rama, then spoke to him making palms-fold, &quot;here are your thralls, &lt;strong&gt;Sire, we are here to accomplish whatever you bid us to do&lt;/strong&gt;, let safety be with you.&quot; So said the deities presiding over the missiles to Rama. [1-27-25]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततो राम प्रसन्न आत्मा तैः इति उक्तो महाबलैः || १-२७-२६&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रतिगृह्य च काकुत्स्थः समालभ्य च पाणिना |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनसा मे भविष्यध्वम् इति तानि अभ्यचोदयत् || १-२७-२७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On receiving them with a pleased heart, then Rama patted them with his palm, and that Rama of Kakutstha-s also spoke this way to those mightily forceful missiles in ethereal bodies saying, &quot;you may manifest yourselves in my cognisance whenever I need you,&quot; and &lt;strong&gt;he motivated them to take leave and to come back at his beck and call.&lt;/strong&gt; [1-27-26b, 27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He not only had the knowledge of projectile missiles like Brahmāstra aiṣīkāstra etc., but also he was able to launch and withdraw many &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga28/balaitrans28.htm#Verse4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;annulment missiles&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बाढम् इति एव काकुत्स्थ प्रहृष्टेन अंतरात्मना |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दिव्य भास्वर देहाः च मूर्तिमन्तः सुखप्रदाः || १-२८-११&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  केचिद् अंगार सदृशाः केचिद् धूम उपमाः तथा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चन्द्र अर्क सदृशाः केचित् प्रह्व अंजलि पुटाः तथा || १-२८-१२&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रामम् प्रांजलयो भूत्वा अब्रुवन् मधुर भाषिणः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इमे स्म नरशार्दूल शाधि किम् करवाम ते || १-२८-१३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gladdening in his heart of hearts Rama of Kakutstha received the annulment missiles saying, &quot;Agreed! Sire!&quot; Those missiles are with radiantly divine bodies, appealing and endowing bliss. Some are fire-like, some smoke-like, and some moon-like and some sun-like, and such as they are, some of them holding out their hollowed palms, and some with palms adjoined melodiously spoke to Rama saying, &quot;here we are, oh, manly-tiger, what can we do for you.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गंयताम् इति तान् आह यथा इष्टम् रघुनन्दनः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मानसाः कार्य कालेषु साहाय्यम् मे करिष्यथ || १-२८-१४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;While remaining in my memory you assist me as and when needed&lt;/strong&gt;, and till then you may go away as you wish,&quot; thus that legatee of Raghu's said to those deities of annulment missiles. [1-28-14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ ते रामम् आमन्त्र्य कृत्वा च अपि प्रदक्षिणम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एवम् अस्तु इति काकुत्स्थम् उक्त्वा जग्मुः यथाआगतम् || १-२८-१५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saying &lt;strong&gt;&quot;it will be done that way&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; to Rama, the legatee of Kakutstha-s, also on performing circumambulation to him and then on taking his consent those deities have gone away as they have come. [1-28-15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This implies that Rama was full control of the missiles. He was able to withdraw any missile with ease. Rama can withdraw all the projectile missiles and annulment missiles.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then why didn't he withdraw Brahmāstra?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama invoked Brahmāstra to fire on the Ocean God when Ocean god didn't answer the prayers of Lord Rama for three long nights.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मेणास्त्रेण सम्योज्य ब्रह्मदण्डनिभम् शरम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सम्योज्य धनुषि श्रे ष्ठे विचकर्ष महाबलः || २-२२-५ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to request of the Ocean God, he doesn't fire it on him but directs it to a place called Drumatulya.(Now Malwar desert in Rajasthan).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तमब्रवीत्तदा रामः शृणु मे वरुणालय || २-२२-२९&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अमोघोऽयम् महाबाणः कस्मिन् देशे निपात्यताम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tamabravīttadā rāmaḥ śṛṇu me varuṇālaya || 2-22-29&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  amogho'yam mahābāṇaḥ kasmin deśe nipātyatām |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, Rama spoke to that ocean as follows: &quot;Listen to me. &lt;strong&gt;This great arrow should not go in vain&lt;/strong&gt;. In which region should it be descended?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama says &lt;em&gt;this great arrow should not go waste&lt;/em&gt; but did not say it can't be withdrawn. Brahmāstra is not an ordinary astra to withdraw. Only few could withdraw it(Of course Rama is one of them). This shows his respect towards the divine weapon Brahmāstra and the presiding deity Brahma. By invoking Brahmastra, it literally means summoning Lord Brahma in the arrow. Brahma enters into the arrow with his astral body. Withdrawing it after invoking shows disrespect to Creator of the universe. So He said this great arrow should not go in vain should not go vain. He thus reduced the power of the Brahmāstra invoked in ऐषीकास्त्र(grass-blade missile) in case of Jayanta(disguised as a crow) because Jayanta took the refuge of him(Rama).   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All Translations from &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga27/bala_27_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Balakanda&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga22/yuddha_22_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yuddha Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of Valmiki Ramayana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-03-18T09:45:32.237" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17634" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="736" CreationDate="2017-03-18T12:48:25.053" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;the stories relating shani dev and lord hanuman cannot be true as veerbhadra-the avatar of lord shiva was not abe to beat shani dev and shani dev was said to be the the most fearful god after tridev. also shani dev had got a boon from lord shiva that the dand shani holds could not loose. even tridev could not win against shani if he wanted.(though shani would not loose he could not even win.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9266" LastActivityDate="2017-03-18T12:48:25.053" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17635" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-18T13:03:42.293" Score="11" ViewCount="804" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm an American and a Christian, and I don't know a lot about it but I think Hinduism just seems really beautiful and intriguing. I've heard of Hindu Atheists and one person told me it's more a way of life, so I'm wondering if it's possible to be a Christian Hindu? And if so how, and where do I start learning about Hinduism ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9267" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T14:54:55.843" LastActivityDate="2018-04-22T04:42:27.580" Title="Looking to learn about Hinduism?" Tags="|christianity|atheism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17638" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17635" CreationDate="2017-03-18T18:23:40.217" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How and where do I start learning about Hinduism?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's no straightforward answer to this question, as Hinduism or Sanātana Dharma or सनातन धर्म or eternal Righteousness or eternal order (word Dharma is non-translatable) is very vast. However I provide some basic introduction and you can decide on your own, where to start, after understanding basics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you might aware, all Hindu Scriptures are written, to be precise passed down through oral tradition through various generations in divine language called Sanskrit or Saṃskṛtam. (Actually it was other way round, Saṃskṛtam was derived from Vedas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most important scriptures for Hindus, though &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/65/3500&quot;&gt;the (origin of) word Hindu&lt;/a&gt; is nowhere related to Sanātana Dharma, are &lt;strong&gt;Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;. Vedas were &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/781/3500&quot;&gt;heard by Rishis&lt;/a&gt; in deep tapasya (transcendental meditation). This is what Sri Swami Prabhavanada says in the book &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/spiritualheritag1963prab&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Spiritual heritage of India&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The authority of the Vedas does not depend upon anything external. They themselves are authority, being the knowledge of God. And, as we shall see later, their truth is verifiable by any spiritual aspirant in transcendental consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unlike other scriptures, Vedas are completely verifiable in state of transcendental mediation. In present state (limited consciousness), we may or may not understand them completely. So, one must study Vedas under a knowledgeable Guru (preceptor). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas are true for all times and so language of Vedas (Saṃskṛtam). Sanskrit or Veda Bhasha (language of Vedas) is language of attributes. It doesn't have proper nouns. Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16264/3500&quot;&gt;my answer&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit is language of Attributes. It doesn't have proper nouns. Krishna is named for person who is &quot;black&quot;. Shiva is named for a person who is &quot;auspicious&quot;. But a person has many attributes. You can call a person by any of his attributes. But Supreme God or Parabrahma has infinite attributes. So, Parabrahma has infinite names . Unlike other languages, a Sanskrit name gives some info or qualities a person possess. So, if you come across a name &quot;Shiva&quot; in scripture, you should understand that person has an attribute &quot;auspiciousness&quot; besides other additional attributes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit has fixed &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.yoga-vidya.de/Sanskrit_Verbal_Roots_List_with_English_Translation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dhatus&lt;/a&gt; (Verb roots), by which you can analyze the meaning of word by yourself without help of any dictionary. You can even guess Sanskrit word for modern English words. So, Sanskrit has no need to evolve though there may be change in Syntax or Grammar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An attribute can refer to multiple persons. Meaning of words in a Sanskrit sentence depends on context. Some foreign authors who translated our scriptures failed to derive meaning based on context and rather they translated literal meaning. Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hitxp.com/articles/sanskrit-lessons/sanskrit-lesson-1-secret-science-sacred-sanskrit/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Blog by gurudev&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Take for instance the translations making round about people eating&#xA;  beef or killing the cow during the vedic period. The whole basis of&#xA;  this myth is translations of Sanskrit verses like the one which&#xA;  actually means “control your sense organs” which was translated as&#xA;  “kill the cow“, all just because the word used was go/gau can refer&#xA;  not only to cow, but also to sense organs in Sanskrit. So when taken&#xA;  out of context and translated using its most popular object, you end&#xA;  up with misinterpretations like these. Sanskrit translation can never&#xA;  be done by going word by word, the entire context should be used as&#xA;  the basis to understand the meaning. And there are multiple rules and&#xA;  hints to understand the context of words which we shall learn in the&#xA;  future lessons of this series.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can learn more about basics of Sanskrit from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hitxp.com/articles/sanskrit-lessons/sanskrit-lesson-1-secret-science-sacred-sanskrit/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this blog by Gurudev&lt;/a&gt;. So, it is always recommended to learn Hindu Scriptures under a Knowledgeable Guru. Since it is difficult to get Guru in USA, you can read Hindu Scriptures with commentaries of Knowedgeable Acharyas (Hindu Scholars). But, it's  &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7834/3500&quot;&gt;not impossible to get Guru.&lt;/a&gt;, even in USA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Terse Vedic verses were interpreted differently by different scholars (as I explained above, this is due to nature of Sanskrit language and our limited consciousness). The six Hindu schools of philosophy, based on interpretation of Vedas, are &lt;strong&gt;Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta.&lt;/strong&gt; Most of the Hindus now in India or worldwide, knowingly or unknowingly, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/3500&quot;&gt;follow Vedanta School&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu Scriptures are divided primarily into two categories: &lt;strong&gt;Shruti&lt;/strong&gt; (that which has to be heard) and &lt;strong&gt;Smriti&lt;/strong&gt; (which has to remembered).  Vedas come under Shruti whereas Ithihasas, Puranas and Dharma Sastras come under Smriti. There are other scriptures called &lt;strong&gt;Agamas&lt;/strong&gt;. All rituals in Hindu temples are primarily based on Agamas but Agamas do have deep philosophy. Different Sholars classify Agamas differently. You can learn more about &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12282/3500&quot;&gt;Agamas here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Authors of Smriti are Rishis (seers), unlike Vedas (authorless). Smriti is derivative work (produced out of intellect) that is usually attributed to an author (Rishi). Ithihasas are epics. Ramayana  and Mahabharata  are two important ithisas and are accepted as true records of the events . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana talks about Journey of Lord/King Rama who was avatar of Lord Vishnu. Swami Prabhavanada in his book &quot;Spiritual heritage of India&quot; says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Ramayana (Life of Rama) is generally regarded as the first poetical work of purely human origin in the literature of India, and its traditional author, Valmiki, as the first Indian poet. The general style in which the poem is composed differs from that of the verse portions of the Vedas by its greater diffuseness, simplicity, and charm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though Ramayana is true event, Lord/King Rama's story also teaches us many morals and for many Hindus, Rama is an inspiration and embodiment of Dharma (Righteousness).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other important epic is Mahabharata, which talks about kings of descendants of Bharata. The most popular Bhagavad Gita (song of God) is present in epic Mahabharata. Lord Krishna delivers Bhagavadgita to Arjuna at beginning of war, when Arjuna (Kuru Prince) was reluctant to participate in war. Lord Krishna says essence of Vedas to Arjuna  and exhorts him to do his Dharma (duty). Bhagavadgita is like bible to Hindus, though they are &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_giitaa/allgita.html?lang=en-IN&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;other Gitas&lt;/a&gt;. Sri Krishna as Supreme Brahman taught this valuable knowledge to Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Lord Krishna is not prophet. Sri Krishna is God Himself in Human form. God is both Sakara (with form) and Nirakara (without form), as mentioned in Brh. Up - 2.3.1 of Shukla YajurVeda). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Puranas are other important scriptures which talks about myriad topics ranging from Cosmology to Supreme truth. Some scholars consider them as history books while some consider the stories in Puranas as allegories.  Puranas give importance to three dieties: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, whose duties are creation, preservation and destruction respectively. This is what Sri Swami Prabhavanada says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word purana literally means ancient, the name being applied to&#xA;  certain scriptures to mean 'that which lives from of old' or 'that&#xA;  which is ever new though old'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;K. S. Ramaswami, the Indian scholar, has described Puranas as:&#xA;  '. . . the Puranas are a vital portion of the scriptures of the Hindus. They are primarily an extension, amplification and&#xA;  illustration of the spiritual truths declared in the Vedas. Outsiders&#xA;  may call them legends like the works of fiction current today. Some&#xA;  insiders too may regard them as mere illustrative fictions or&#xA;  allegories, or as relating to yogic realities unconnected with the&#xA;  external material world. But the bulk of the Hindus and the main body&#xA;  of traditional opinion attribute to the Puranas a double character,&#xA;  viz. illustrative value and impressive actuality. They have largely&#xA;  moulded public life, belief and conduct in our land for thousands of years, and they must be fully utilized by us ifwe are to realize the truths of the Vedas. Herein lies their permanent and supreme value to us.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Altogether there are eighteen Puranas, six devoted to Visnu, six to&#xA;  Brahma, and six to Siva. All of them are written in verse, and all are&#xA;  usually attributed to Vyasa, the reputed author of the Mahabharata and&#xA;  editor of the Vedas. Their date may safely be assigned to the somewhat&#xA;  uncertain Epic Period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next comes Dharma Sastras. Dharma Sastras are code of conducts. Sri Swami Prabhavananda describes Dharma Sastras as follows in his book &quot;Spiritual heritage of India&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since to the Hindu mind only the Vedas are wholly sacrosanct, it&#xA;  follows that the Smrtis at best possess but a secondary authority.&#xA;  They record civil laws, social obligations, and ceremonies performed&#xA;  at the birth of a child, during initiation into Vedic mantra, at&#xA;  marriage, and at the moment of death. They comprise, in short, the&#xA;  daily duties, usages, and customs to be observed by the several castes&#xA;  and by people in different stages of life; and their avowed purpose is&#xA;  to aid all men to attain the highest spiritual development. The&#xA;  extraordinary thing about these ceremonies, usages, and customs, for&#xA;  daily observance and for special occasions, as practised in every part&#xA;  of India, is their infinite variety and yet their substantial&#xA;  underlying unity. The variety is accounted for by the fact that they&#xA;  were given many different forms, each developing independently of the&#xA;  rest in a particular part of the country; their unity by their common&#xA;  source in the Vedic religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of these important Smriti (Dharma Sastras) are Manu Smriti, Yajnavalkya Smriti and Parashara Smriti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can learn more about Shruti and Smriti from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8591/3500&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15772/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; to know more about Hindu Scriptures in detail. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read books mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16694/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; to get Comprehensive idea about Hinduism,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, what scriptures to start solely depends on your interest.  If you are interested in  Yoga or meditation, you can study &quot;Patanjali Yoga Sutras&quot; (Aphorisms of Yoga School of thought). If you want to know Supreme truth by Knowledge , you can study Vedanta (end portion of Vedas) or Upanishads. If your interest is mythology (to be precise legends) with morals, epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata are best suitable to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Personally I suggest you to read Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavadgita. You can start with Bhagavadagita, if you are interested in knowing essence of Hindu Philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is it possible to be a Christian Hindu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu Scriptures don't mention anything about Christianity, though &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/142/did-hindu-scriptures-predict-muhammad-and-or-jesus/148#148&quot;&gt;Bhavishya Purana&lt;/a&gt; mentions about Isha Putra (Son of God), Jesus. But Bhavishya Purana (Purana of future) is highly interpolated during Islamic and British invasions of Bharata Varsha (Indian Subcontinent). Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma has &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/407/is-it-true-that-one-can-not-convert-to-hinduism-from-any-other-religion-or-vice&quot;&gt;no particular ritual&lt;/a&gt; for conversion, as the word &quot;Religion&quot; itself is very new to Sanskrit or Indian Languages. All faiths of Indian Subcontinent were called as Dharmas in olden days, such as Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism), Bauddha Dharma (Buddhism) and Jina Dharma (Jainism). All Dharmic faiths or philosphies were revealed after enlightement. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/881/3500&quot;&gt;Can one be a Hindu that worships through Christ?&lt;/a&gt; for more information.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T14:54:38.890" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T14:54:38.890" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17640" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-19T03:36:54.543" Score="3" ViewCount="273" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prana_Pratishtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; wikipedia article says that during prANa pratishthA, nyAsa is done ON THE MURTI where various deities are installed in various parts of murti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ritual typically involves a Puja, chanting of Sanskrit mantras as the deity is moved from outside into the center place, inviting the deity as resident guest of the temple, bathing and cleansing the deity whose feet may be washed just like a revered guest arriving after a long journey, dressing and seating in a place of comfort, placing the image's face towards east (marking sunrise), &lt;strong&gt;followed by Nyasa with hymns (act of touching different parts of the deity murti signifying the presence of various gods as sensory organs – Indra as hand, Brahma as heart, Surya as eyes, and so on),&lt;/strong&gt; spraying of scented water and flowers, with the Chaksunmilan (Sanskrit: चक्षन् मिलन, meeting the eye opening) ceremony marking the high point of the ritual.[6] The image is then considered as consecrated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is this wikipedia claim true? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit: &lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.baps.org/thingstoknow/satsang/47.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; site also mentions similar procedure of nyAsa on murti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If true, what is full list of deities installed in various body parts of murti? If this differs from tradition to tradition then give any list you are aware of. I am not asking for nyAsa mantras or prANa pratishthA mantras or procedure or anything of that sort. Just list of deities and corresponding body parts of murti. Thank you. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="6830" LastEditDate="2017-03-25T06:10:23.247" LastActivityDate="2017-03-25T06:10:23.247" Title="nyAsa on murti during prANa pratishthA" Tags="|worship|vedic-gods|pranapratishtha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17641" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-19T05:35:30.103" Score="1" ViewCount="33" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is evident that life exists in unicellular organisms such as bacteria, amoeba etc, implies the existence of Jeevatma there. But can we generalize this fact for each cell in multicellular organisms as well? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-03-19T05:35:30.103" Title="Each cell has a Jeevatma?" Tags="|science|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-03-19T06:25:10.703" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17642" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9038" CreationDate="2017-03-19T06:09:32.053" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The first misconception you have is that Tantra is equal to Vamachara which is not the case.Vamachara is only a part of Tantra.A Tanrik may not be Vamachari but still be a Tantrik.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tantra is basically the mass of Agamas and Nigamas.Of which those Tantras which prescribe the use of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchamakara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchamakara&lt;/a&gt; in Sadhana is called the Vamachara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Shakta Agamas, like Kularnava Tantra and others ,Tantrik Upasanas fall primarily into the following seven paths (called Acharas):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedachara,Vaishnavachara,Shaivachara,Dakshinachara,Vaamachara,Siddhantachara &amp;amp; Kaulachara.And,according to Kularnava , the highest among these paths is Kaulachara and next best is the Siddhantachara &amp;amp; so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of these seven, followers of both Kaula &amp;amp; Siddhanta may follow the practices of Vamachara but yet they are different from one another.Vamachara sadhana is the sadhana of Panchatatva or Panchamakara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Various definitions of Vamachara are given .Few among them are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kaundilya,while commenting on Pasupata Kalpa Sutra,says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vama means Sreshta (best).Hence the achara(conduct) that is followed&#xA;  by the best Sadhaka is Vamachara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, another definition is that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vama means Viparita or opposite.Vamachara defies the mainstream idea&#xA;  of Dharma which says mukti is obtained by subduing the senses.&#xA;  Vamchara prescribes just the opposite of this very idea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet another saying is that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;there was a great Yogi called Vama.The achara that he propogated is&#xA;  Vaamachara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are further deep Yogic interpretations of Vamachara found in several Tantra Texts, but its not worthwhile to give them here on seeing the context of the present question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,coming to your main question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tantra is not a recent phenomenon.Tantras or Agamas existed since Krita Yuga.&lt;/strong&gt; We can easily prove that using the case of Sri Vidya ,which is known as Tantraraja,or the king of all Tantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Vidya can be of two types 1)Vaidika or 2) Kaulika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Krita Yuga Lord Hayagriva gave Sri Vidya to Agastya Mahamuni.This Sri Vidya was Vaidkika i.e no practices of Panchamakara were involved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again,in Treta Yuga,Lord Dattatreya gave it to Parashurama who complied the Parashurama Kalpa Sutra.This involved Vamachara or Kaulachara.&lt;strong&gt;So,Vamachara Tantra existed in Treta.Where as Vaidika Tantras existed since Krita.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/shodasimantra.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Srividya or Shodasi Vidya was 1st taught in Satya Yuga by Lord&#xA;  Hayagriva to Agastya and his wife Lopamudra&lt;/strong&gt;. This is as per the&#xA;  Vaidic-achara or Vedic tradition. &lt;strong&gt;Again in Treta yuga it was given to&#xA;  Lord Parashurama by Dattatreya&lt;/strong&gt; who was the combined incarnation of&#xA;  Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara and considered the greatest incarnation.&#xA;  Lord Parashurama gave it to his disciples and it is called Parashurama&#xA;  Kalpa Suktam. &lt;strong&gt;This is as per the Kaulava-achara or Kaulava tradition.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://kamakotimandali.com/srividya/dakshavama.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Daksha-Vamachara Nirnaya(kamakoti.org)&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dakshinachara is the method taught by Sri Hayagriva in Hayashirsha&#xA;  Samhita, Daskhinamurti Samhita, parts of Vasistha, Shuka Samhitas and&#xA;  various Smrti/Purana/Itihasas. Vamachara was taught by Sri Ananda&#xA;  Bhairava, through various Tantras, summarized in Parasurama&#xA;  Kalpasutra. Though some of the mantras used in both these paths are&#xA;  same/similar, differences are many [Guru Parampara, Patra Sthapana,&#xA;  Patra Samkhya, differences in dravya used, its purpose and&#xA;  presence/absence of shuddhi/shapoddhara, anga devata parikalpana etc.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,it may be relevant to note here, that there is  a misconception that no Vaishnava schools follow the leftist path.This is wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/adhikarabheda.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhikara Bheda (Kamakoti.org)&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is a misconception that Vamachara is not practiced among the&#xA;  Vaishnavas.&lt;/strong&gt; The ten chief classes of Vaishanavas are: Vaikhanasa,&#xA;  Radhavallabha, Gaukulesha, Vrindavani, Pancharatra, Viravaishnava,&#xA;  Ramanandi, Harivyasi, Nimbarka and Bhagavata. &lt;strong&gt;Among these, Gaukulesha,&#xA;  Vrindavani etc are leftist paths.&lt;/strong&gt; Shiavas again are classified into&#xA;  Sapta Pashupatas – Shikhi, Mundi, Jati, Dwidandi, Tridandi, Ekadandi&#xA;  and Virashaiva, where some are leftist paths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,although Vamachara Tantra is mostly seen as equivalent to Shaktism but in truth it is not so.Even the Shaivas and Vaishnavas (can or)do follow the leftist path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, i need to add,regarding Kaulachara,that it can be both with or without Vamachara practices,as per the following verse from Pranatoshini(Samayachara Tantram) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AdrASushkaVibhAgena DvidhAcharm Punah Srunu | AdrAchArasthu Vigneyo&#xA;  MakAraih Panchavijuktoh | MakArpancharahitah SushkAcharah&#xA;  Prakirtithaha| Kalou Visheshatah Devi AdrAchArah Phalapradah|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaulachara is of two kinds-Wet(Adra) and Dry(Sushka).When it is&#xA;  practiced with Panchamakara it is called wet and otherwise its called&#xA;  dry.In Kali Yuga,O Devi,the Adrachara is the one which is more fruitful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-19T07:48:03.747" LastActivityDate="2017-03-19T07:48:03.747" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17643" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-19T08:28:36.270" Score="2" ViewCount="97" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can we pluck flowers in the evening (before sunset and/or after sunset)? To be more specific, can we pluck fragrant flowers in the evening and decorate our puja room in our house. Because I have heard people saying we can decorate the room with flowers only in the morning and not after sunset. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that true??? Does scriptures says any reason for the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4640" LastEditorUserId="4640" LastEditDate="2017-03-20T04:32:05.317" LastActivityDate="2017-03-20T04:32:05.317" Title="Why should not we pluck fragrant flowers for puja in the evening?" Tags="|puja|superstitions|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-03-19T09:04:46.467" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17644" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18856" CreationDate="2017-03-19T09:23:05.827" Score="14" ViewCount="3400" Body="&lt;p&gt;Khila Suktas of RigVeda are those Suktas which are associated only in Baskala Shakha of RigVeda and not in Sakala Shakha. For eg. Sri Suktam of RigVeda is also a Khila Sukta.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shiva Sankalpam Sukta is a part of Vedas. In the 34th chapter of Vajasaneyi Samhita Shukla Yajurveda first six mantras form Shiva Sankalpa Suktam. They all end with the line:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पम् अस्तु ।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tanme manaha: ShivaSankalpam Aastu&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  May my mind do Sankalpa of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However &lt;a href=&quot;http://ahymsin.org/main/swami-veda-bharati/shiva-sankalpa-sukta.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this website&lt;/a&gt; states that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The 33rd chapter of Kanva recension of Yajur-veda contains only the first mantra.&amp;nbsp; The 34th chapter of the Vajasaneya recension has six. These are the most well known. &lt;strong&gt;Less known is the apocryphal version in the Khila-suktas of Rg-veda (Khila-sukta 33), containing 26 mantras.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, Is Shiva Sankalpa Sukta also a part of Khila Sukta of RigVeda?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Particularly I&amp;apos;m interested in the verse 14 of the Hymn:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the charming peak of Kailasha mountain is the home temple of the Peace-creator Shiva; gods rejoice in that. May such my mind be of beautiful and divine resolves, filled with Shiva-thoughts. -14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a sidenote, Srikantha Shivacharya in his Brahma Sutra Bhasya 3.2.35 also quotes Shiva Sankalpa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even in the Siva-Sankalpa, He is declared to have faces on all sides.&lt;/strong&gt; In the Atharvasiras, the Paramesvara is said to have many faces, feet, and so on. He is said to be associated with the Universe as an integral part of His being : &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;This Maya, indeed, as Prakriti, man should know and the possessor of Maya as the Mahesvara. All this universe is pervaded by that which forms a limb of His.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, can someone post here Shiva Sankalpa Khila Sukta of RigVeda in Sanskrit? At least I want to confirm whether Shiva Sankalpa Sukta also forms a part of Khila Sukta of RigVeda or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T15:35:45.693" LastActivityDate="2023-07-19T14:59:12.993" Title="Is Shiva Sankalpa Suktam also a Khila Sukta of RigVeda?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|vedas|rig-veda|hymn|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17645" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9251" CreationDate="2017-03-19T09:38:58.953" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a longer version of mantra. there is another famous mantra &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sahasrara Hum Phat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These mantras and its detailed procedures are explained in Sudarshana kalpam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have found only the telugu copy of the book which I am posting here. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601903.us.archive.org/20/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.395957/2015.395957.Sudarsana-Kalpam.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Sudarshana Kalpam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though I am not sure if this mantra is there or not but most of authentic mantras are given here. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can refer page 42, 51, and 53. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-03-19T09:38:58.953" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17646" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-19T21:14:15.953" Score="6" ViewCount="1561" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10290&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; answer clarifies that the men or women who participates in illicit sex is considered as sinner and undergoes punishment in Taptasurmi naraka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My doubt is whether the multiplicity of illicit sex matters? I mean whether the punishment in hell depends on the number of times the corresponding person involves in such activity or on the number of times the corresponding person participates with distinct participants?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any expiation for the sin of illicit sex?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9276" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T07:08:43.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T08:35:09.123" Title="Expiation for illicit sex" Tags="|sin|sex|naraka|kama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17647" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-19T22:14:27.273" Score="2" ViewCount="325" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam that in the period of the eighth Manu, the incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears as the son of Devaguhya &amp;amp; Sarasvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देवगुह्यात् सरस्वत्यां&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सार्वभौम इति प्रभुः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्थानं पुरन्दराद् धृत्वा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बलये दास्यतीश्वरः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;devaguhyāt sarasvatyāṁ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sārvabhauma iti prabhuḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sthānaṁ purandarād dhṛtvā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  balaye dāsyatīśvaraḥ &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/13/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 8.13.17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the eighth manvantara, the greatly powerful Personality of Godhead Sārvabhauma will take birth. His father will be Devaguhya, and His mother will be Sarasvatī. He will take the kingdom away from Purandara [Lord Indra] and give it to Bali Mahārāja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sarasvati that is mentioned here - Is it Goddess Saraswati ? Who is Devaguhya ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8955" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-20T04:56:28.743" LastActivityDate="2017-03-20T04:56:28.743" Title="Question about Sarasvati, mother of Sarvabhauma" Tags="|puranas|bhagavata-purana|saraswati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17649" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-20T04:46:26.297" Score="2" ViewCount="7670" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know, whether any scriptures mentions about rules of diya lighting. Like&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When and in which direction to light a lamp (Kuthu vilakku or Panch mukha lamp) - any specification like it has to be lit only during partiular prahar (early morning or evening)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of fuel used to light lamp - some use ginger oil, ghee, coconut oil and mixture of several oils - why different oils are used&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can we light single kuthu vilakku or it must always be lit in even numbers (2). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the whole, where can I find details about what shastra or vedic scripts say about significance of lighting a lamp?.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4640" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T05:43:17.507" Title="Is there specific timing or general rules to follow while lighting diyas?" Tags="|rituals|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17651" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-20T07:01:53.263" Score="3" ViewCount="639" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do Hindu women leave their parents' house and go to husbands or in-laws place after marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While this is a custom among almost all the religions; I'm interested in knowing if there is any reference to this in Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do scriptures say as to why it is this way or how it benefits society or the married couple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To put it in simple words, Why is there concept of &lt;strong&gt;Kanya-Dana&lt;/strong&gt; and not &lt;strong&gt;Putra-Dana&lt;/strong&gt; in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2859" LastEditDate="2017-03-22T07:07:37.197" LastActivityDate="2017-03-22T07:07:37.197" Title="Why does Hinduism advocate Kanya-Dan over Putra-Dan?" Tags="|marriage|tradition|women|customs|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17653" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17562" CreationDate="2017-03-20T09:03:11.417" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Tantra, the Varnas(alphabets) are nothing but Matrikas(Deities related to Mother Goddess).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One meaning of Matrika is &quot;one who creates&quot;.So, Matrika is nothing but Brahmarupini Shakti.And the Varnas are the Matrikas.And the reason for that is that Nada or sound is nothing but another form of Shakti.And,thus,we have,from अ(a)  to क्ष(kṣa) , the 50 Matrikas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But,having said that, any such combinations of varnas or of words can not be technically called a Mantra as well.Because, all Mantras have to have the three limbs(Angas) viz-Devata,Rishi and Chandah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devata&lt;/strong&gt;-The Deity who is being praised by the Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rishi&lt;/strong&gt;-The Seer to whom the Mantra was first revealed.From him only we all get to know the Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chandah&lt;/strong&gt;-The metre (like Gayatri,Nichruth Gayatri,Ushnik,Anshthupa etc) in which the Mantra is composed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, for the Gayatri Mantra,the most famous among all Veda Mantras,the Rishi is Vishvamitra Gathinah , Devata is Savitr,Chandah is Nichruth Gayatri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is found in  the 62nd Sukta of the 3rd Mandala of Rig Veda(RV 3.62.10).&#xA;In Yajur Veda (Vajasaneyi Samhita 36.3 etc) the same Mantra is found with only difference being in the Chandah part, which is now Ushnik(comprised of 27 syllables ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next,take this rather popular Puranic Mantra &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_vishnu-om_apavitrah_pavitro_va.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Apavitrah Pavitrova..&quot;&lt;/a&gt; ,which is found in more than one Puranas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ अपवित्रः पवित्रो वा सर्वावस्थां गतोऽपि वा । यः स्मरेत्पुण्डरीकाक्षं&#xA;  स बाह्याभ्यन्तरः शुचिः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Apavitrah Pavitro Vaa Sarva-Avasthaam Gato-[A]pi Vaa | Yah&#xA;  Smaret-Punnddariikaakssam Sa Baahya-Abhyantarah Shucih ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is  a Mantra and not just a Sloka and the three limbs of it are as given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c3jjo.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c3jjo.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For this mantra,Vamdeva is the Rishi,Vishnu is the Devata,Gayatri is&#xA;  the Chandah and internal purification(Hrudi Pavitrakarana) is the &#xA;  purpose for which it is chanted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly,for Tantrik Mantras(those found in the Agamas) there are additional limbs.They have six limbs(some even say seven but six is usually agreed upon ) viz-Rishi,Chandah,Devata,Beejam,Shakti and Keelakam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a typical example i can cite:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For Kalimantra Rishi is Bhairava,Chandaha is Ushnik,Devata is&#xA;  Kalika,Beejam is Hrim ,Shakti is Hum and Keelakam is Krim(also called the Adya&#xA;  Beejam).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,in a nutshell,all Mantras have to have at least the 3 aforementioned limbs to be technically called a Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even,the Ekakshara Pranava(OM) has the following limbs:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jnq0R.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jnq0R.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For Omkara Brahma is the Rishi,Gayatri is the Chandah,Agni Paramatma&#xA;  is the Devata,Suklo Varna,and it is to be invoked at the beginning of&#xA;  all Karmas(Rituals).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A nirukta of Mantra(why it is so called) is found in the 17th chapter of the Kularnava Tantram and is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MananAttatvasvarupasya DevvasyAmitatejasaha| TrAyate&#xA;  sarvabhayatasmanmantra Ittiritaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By meditation, (&lt;strong&gt;Man&lt;/strong&gt;ana), on the luminous Deity who is the form of&#xA;  Truth ,it saves, (&lt;strong&gt;tra&lt;/strong&gt;yate), from all fear; therefore it is called&#xA;  mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kularnava Tantram, Chapter 17,Verse 54&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-03-20T17:01:19.730" LastActivityDate="2017-03-20T17:01:19.730" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17654" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-20T13:02:21.963" Score="3" ViewCount="719" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gayatri Mantra&lt;/a&gt; is a highly revered mantra from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/a&gt;. The prefix &quot;oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ&quot; is known as &quot;mahāvyāhṛt&quot; (mystical utterance) is mentioned later in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aranyaka#Taittiriya_Aranyaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Taittiriya Aranyaka&lt;/a&gt;, which states to chant the mantra with this prefix.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did the Sapta Rishis chant the mantra with this prefix?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2695" LastActivityDate="2017-03-21T09:47:50.603" Title="How did the Vedic Rishis chant Gayatri Mantra?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|rishi|vedic-chanting|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17655" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-20T13:41:25.137" Score="9" ViewCount="3345" Body="&lt;p&gt;Besides Śaṃkara Vedānta, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_Shaivism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaśmīri Śaivism&lt;/a&gt;, which is another monist/advaita school of Hinduism too talks about Māyā. According to it, the basic definition of Māyā is -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मियते अनय इती माया। &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;Meaning: That &lt;strong&gt;power&lt;/strong&gt; by which experience is experienced in a particular way is Māyā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, that power which makes experience measurable, i.e limited &amp;amp; separates the 'this' from 'I' &amp;amp; 'I' from 'this' &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;excludes&lt;/strong&gt; things from one another is Māyā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Māyā draws a veil on the self, causes sense of duality. In simple words, Brahman¹ put goggles to see his own grandeur to see himself. These goggles are what Māyā Tattva &amp;amp; the cause of Māyā. But certain points are to kept in the mind -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Māyā is the power of Brahman. Therefore, Māyā is controlled by Brahman. There is no separate existence of Māyā .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Māyā draws veil in the experience but doesn't create an experience of inexistence. In simple words, through Māyā whatever is being perceived is actually present in Brahman it is just that our perception is limited which is not allowing ourselves to see divinity in the perceived objects. ( &lt;strong&gt;Perfect explanation of &amp;quot;All that is Brahman alone&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;). Maya is not creating perception of something which is not present in Brahman in any form!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there are 5 &lt;strong&gt;products&lt;/strong&gt; of Māyā which are covering. It is like what happens the moment Brahman wears goggles ( Māyā Tattva ). How Brahman's experience changes (Short summary)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalā - Brahman starts feeling it² doesn't owe everything.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vidyā - Brahman starts feeling it doesn't know everything. It forgets its omniscience.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rāga - Brahman forgets it's all satisfactory nature &amp;amp; thus develops desires. In other words, Brahman forgets its &lt;strong&gt;completeness&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kāla - Brahman forgets its timelessness or eternity &amp;amp; see eternity as past, present &amp;amp; future.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Niyatī - Brahman forgets the freedom of pervasiveness (vyApaktA).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, herein all about Māyā explained according to Kaśmīri Śaivism.&#xA;Now, I'm interested to know &lt;strong&gt;similar explanation on Māyā according to Śaṃkara Vedānta&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is Māyā? Basic definition? It's role? It's products?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;From where Māyā comes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What are its characteristics?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How can it independently exist outside Brahman?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1-&lt;/strong&gt;- In Kaśmīri Śaivism, Brahman is not passive unlike Śaṃkara Vedānta. Brahman is active here. It's nature is Prakāśavimarśaya. In short, Prakāśa is Siva &amp;amp; vimarśaya is Śaktī. Brahman thus here has capability to create, maintain &amp;amp; withdraw the universe &amp;amp; there is nothing existing outside Brahman.&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;2&lt;/strong&gt;-  such pronoun is used as Brahman transcends gender.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note- here Māyā is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9448/8696&quot;&gt;briefly&lt;/a&gt; explained but I wanted a detailed answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2021-02-11T06:49:07.417" LastActivityDate="2021-02-11T06:49:07.417" Title="What is Māyā according to Śaṃkara Vedānta? What are its characteristics?" Tags="|vedanta|maya|kashmiri-shaivism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17656" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-20T16:46:50.457" Score="1" ViewCount="168" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is solar Longitude and  Lunar Longitude while calculating tithi[(Lunar Longitude-solar Longitude)/12]. I could not get their meaning and values anywhere. How are they connected to their Azimuth angle and altitude angle? Because I only find these values.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9283" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T09:21:08.447" Title="Calculation of tithi" Tags="|astrology|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17657" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17662" CreationDate="2017-03-20T17:33:28.780" Score="3" ViewCount="97" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to read about human body described in hindu scriptures.&#xA;If there is any please provide links or references or books?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8660" LastActivityDate="2017-03-21T11:58:16.023" Title="Sources to read about human body described in hinduism" Tags="|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17660" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-21T05:33:32.213" Score="4" ViewCount="180" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Shaivite&quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, Iyer Brahmins are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to philosophical Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is related to a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta, which is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the Nayanars just as the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the Alwars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the figure most responsible for combining the Sanskrit and Tamil wings of Shaiva Siddhanta is Aghorasiva, a Shaiva Siddhanta Acharya who lived in the 12th century.  In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BcBj4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Aghorasiva's Kriyakramadyotika, Aghorasiva discusses the steps a guru must take before he initiates a new shishya into the Shaiva Agamas.  In particular, he has to invoke the Lokapalakas, the guardians of the directions.  One of the Lokapalakas is Vishnu, and here is the description of Vishnu's appearance that's supposed to be meditated on:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[E]ndless, covered by tens of thousands of snake hoods, shining like a flash of lightning, &lt;strong&gt;mounted on a tortoise&lt;/strong&gt;, with his hands in the anjali mudra.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now some of these attributes are recognizable; Vishnu is indeed endless and shining, and he is covered by the countless hoods of the serpent Adiseshan.  But my question is, what scriptures describe Vishnu as riding a tortoise?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu's usual Vahana is his eagle Garuda.  The only gods I know of who have a tortoise as a Vahana are Yama, Varuna, and possibly Sadashiva (as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9989/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  But is Vishnu ever described that way as Aghorasiva suggests?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:14.203" LastActivityDate="2017-03-23T04:48:13.600" Title="What scriptures describe Vishnu riding a tortoise?" Tags="|vishnu|shaivism|animals|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17662" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17657" CreationDate="2017-03-21T08:52:40.587" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;From an Ayurvedic perspective, there is the the Sharirasthana of the Sushruta-samhita which deals with anatomy and the human body (sharira), and various other subjects:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-3-sharirasthana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-3-sharirasthana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A small chapter from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad also deals with the Sharira (body):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc120048.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc120048.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And from the advaita-vedanta perspective, we have the Taittiriya Upanishad where five chapters are dedicated to the five layers (kośa, ‘sheats’) of a human being:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Book II: Brahmavalli, Part A: Brahmavidyā expounded:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79813.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter XI - Annamaya-kośa&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79815.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter XII - Prāṇamaya-kośa&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79817.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter XIII - Manomaya-kośa&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79819.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter XIV - Vijñānamaya-kośa&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79821.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter XV - Ānandamaya-kośa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And finally, the ‘Vedic index of names and subjects’ also has a detailed definition on the human body (sharira) including many references to Vedic literature:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/vedicindexofname02macduoft#page/358/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://archive.org/stream/vedicindexofname02macduoft#page/358/mode/2up&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="5384" LastEditDate="2017-03-21T11:58:16.023" LastActivityDate="2017-03-21T11:58:16.023" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17663" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17654" CreationDate="2017-03-21T09:47:50.603" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is very difficult to know how did the Saptarishis chanted the mantra, because they existed in different times. Before the revelation of the mantra to Vishwamitra they would have chanted Indra or other Surya mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Vyâhritis, our grihya sutras prescribe addition of Vyâhritis before the Savitri/Gayatri mantra. Hence we can believe that it is a genuine practice. However, &lt;strong&gt;while chanting the samhita in various ways there is no need to utter the vyahritis.&lt;/strong&gt; But in separate mantra anushthana or rituals it should be chanted. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vyâhritis preceded by (the syllable) Om (stand first); (these)&#xA;  and the Sâvitrî he should repeat three times and then recite the&#xA;  beginning of the Veda. Ashvalayana Grihya sutra &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe29/sbe29138.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3.5.12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having offered the chief oblations (belonging to each sacrifice)&#xA;  according to prescription, he adds the following oblations, viz. the&#xA;  Gaya, Abhyâtâna, Râshtrabhrit oblations, the oblation to Pragâpati,&#xA;  the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin//sbe30/sbe30095.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vyâhritis&lt;/a&gt; one by one, the oblation to (Agni) Svishtakrit with&#xA;  (the following formula), 'What I have done too much in this ceremony,&#xA;  or what I have done here too little, all that may Agni Svishtakrit, he&#xA;  who knows, make well sacrificed and well offered. Svâhâ!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having made oblations with the single Vyâhritis and with (the three&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin//sbe30/sbe30069.htm#fn_638&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vyâhritis&lt;/a&gt; together), and having made an oblation with the verse,&#xA;  'Thou art quick, Agni, and free from imprecation. Verily (satyam) thou&#xA;  art quick. Held by us in our quick mind (manas), with thy quick (mind)&#xA;  thou carriest the offering (to the gods). Being quick bestow medicine&#xA;  on us! Svâhâ!'—this (last) oblation contains an allusion to the mind&#xA;  (manas), it refers to Pragâpati, and alludes to the number seven&#xA;  (?),—he quickly repeats in his mind the dasahotri formula (Taitt.&#xA;  Ârany. III, 1, 1). Then he makes the sagraha oblation (?); (then&#xA;  follow the oblations), 'This, O Varuna' (&amp;amp;c.; see I, 2, 8, 16, down to&#xA;  the end of the Sûtra). Then he serves food to the Brâhmanas and causes&#xA;  them to say, 'An auspicious day! Hail! Good luck!' he then performs in&#xA;  the known way the sacrifice of a mess of cooked food to Agni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He goes to a place near which water is, puts wood on the fire,&#xA;  performs the rites down to the oblations made with the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe30/sbe30052.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vyâhritis&lt;/a&gt;,&#xA;  and puts a piece of Palâsa wood on (the fire) with (the verse), 'Let&#xA;  us prepare this song like a chariot, for Gâtavedas who deserves it,&#xA;  with our prayer. For his foresight in this assembly is a bliss to us.&#xA;  Agni! Dwelling in thy friendship may we not suffer harm. Svâhâ!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Then he sacrifices with the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe30/sbe30052.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vyâhritis&lt;/a&gt; as above,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-03-21T09:47:50.603" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17665" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17669" CreationDate="2017-03-21T13:57:47.423" Score="5" ViewCount="1098" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Many say  Hinduism is a Way of life and there are &lt;strong&gt;no compulsory in following any traditions&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As when compared with &lt;strong&gt;Other religions&lt;/strong&gt; in the world they &lt;strong&gt;force many rules&lt;/strong&gt; to be followed.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why Hinduism &lt;strong&gt;does not force any rules like other religion&lt;/strong&gt; and gives us the chance to decide to follow or not follow ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there any &lt;strong&gt;specific reasons for not to force us&lt;/strong&gt;  ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-22T08:55:29.910" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T08:53:56.727" Title="Why Hinduism does not force any rules like other religions?" Tags="|scripture|tradition|other-religions|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17666" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-21T14:19:55.700" Score="1" ViewCount="41" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the purpose of life. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does God wants us to worship him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is if only for human beings that is heaven and hell is for. What about the other living beings.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9292" LastActivityDate="2017-03-21T14:19:55.700" Title="About Life I have 3 question" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-03-22T05:16:21.087" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17667" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2310" CreationDate="2017-03-21T23:01:27.263" Score="6" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ṛṣi (ऋषि)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medh%C4%81tithi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Medhātithi&lt;/a&gt; commenting on the opening verse of Manusmṛti &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc145371.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;defines&lt;/a&gt; Ṛṣi (ऋषि) as both denoting the Vedas and also those who excel at Vedas both in words and actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मनुमेकाग्रमासीनमभिगम्य &lt;strong&gt;महर्षयः&lt;/strong&gt; । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  प्रतिपूज्य यथान्यायमिदं वचनमब्रुवन् ॥ १ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;manumekāgramāsīnamabhigamya &lt;strong&gt;maharṣayaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; | &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  pratipūjya yathānyāyamidaṃ vacanamabruvan || 1 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Great Sages&lt;/strong&gt;, having approached Manu, paid their respect to him in due form, and finding him seated with mind calm and collected, addressed him these words—(1).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great sages. — The word ‘ṛṣi’ means the Veda; and &lt;strong&gt;the word ‘ṛṣi’ is applied also to a person, by virtue of his possessing excellent knowledge of the Veda and all that is prescribed therein and acting up to these&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Ṛṣis, sages, who approached Manu, were great; the said persons become ‘great,’ when the above-mentioned qualities become developed in them to a very high degree; just as Yudhiṣṭhira is called the ‘greatest of the Kurus’ (because he possessed, in a very high degree, the qualities that distinguished the members of the Kuru-race).— Or the sages may be regarded as ‘great,’ by virtue of their superior austerities, or of the great respect and fame enjoyed by them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among other &lt;a href=&quot;http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/contextualize.pl?p.1.apte.2550052&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;definitions&lt;/a&gt;, V. S. Apte citing &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C4%81ska&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yāska&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They are the authors or seers of the Vedic hymns; ऋषयो मन्त्रद्रष्टारो वसिष्ठादयः; or, &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  according to Yāska, &lt;strong&gt;यस्य वाक्यं स ऋषिः&lt;/strong&gt;, i.e., &lt;strong&gt;they are the persons to whom the Vedic hymns were revealed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Muni (मुनि)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medh%C4%81tithi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Medhātithi&lt;/a&gt; commenting on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200583.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu 6.25&lt;/a&gt; defines a Muni as a hermit who has taken a vow of silence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अग्नीनात्मनि वैतानान् समारोप्य यथाविधि । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  अनग्निरनिकेतः स्यान् मुनिर्मूलफलाशनः ॥ २५ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;agnīnātmani vaitānān samāropya yathāvidhi | &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  anagniraniketaḥ syān &lt;strong&gt;muni&lt;/strong&gt;rmūlaphalāśanaḥ || 25 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Haying reposited, according to rule, the Śrauta Fires within himself, he shall be a &lt;strong&gt;silent hermit&lt;/strong&gt;, without fires and without a house, living upon roots and fruits. —(25).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘He shall be a silent hermit’. — The construction is ‘muniḥ syāt’, ‘he shall be a muni’; &lt;strong&gt;which means that he shall keep his speech under control&lt;/strong&gt;; the man who has his speech under control is called ‘a keeper of the vow of silence’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again commenting on Manu 6.41 he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200602.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अगारादभिनिष्क्रान्तः पवित्रोपचितो &lt;strong&gt;मुनिः&lt;/strong&gt; ।  &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  समुपोढेषु कामेषु निरपेक्षः परिव्रजेत् ॥ ४१ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;agārādabhiniṣkrāntaḥ pavitropacito &lt;strong&gt;muniḥ&lt;/strong&gt; |  &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  samupoḍheṣu kāmeṣu nirapekṣaḥ parivrajet || 41 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having departed from his house, fully equipped with the sacred things, he shall go forth, silent and wholly indifferent towards pleasures that may be presented to him.—(41.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘Muni’, — ‘silently,’ — speaking little.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;(English translation by Ganganath Jha)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-03-21T23:01:27.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17669" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17665" CreationDate="2017-03-22T05:26:52.093" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Religions like Christianity and Islam threaten their followers with eternal hell if they don't obey the rules. Thus these rules are commandments. There is no fear in Hinduism. The reason is that God runs the entire show in Christianity and Islam and any wrong doing is a direct offence against God. That is not the case in Hinduism. God is a non-doer and unattached to the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Resorting to Prakrti, Nature, which is My own Power, I send forth&#xA;  again and again this multitude of beings that are without any freedom,&#xA;  owing to Nature's sway over them.    &lt;strong&gt;These activities do not in any&#xA;  way bind Me, because I remain detached like one unconcerned in their&#xA;  midst.&lt;/strong&gt;   Under My direction and control, Nature brings out this mighty&#xA;  universe of living and non-living beings. Thus does the wheel of this&#xA;  world revolve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 9.8-10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any wrongdoing merely adds to the stock of bad karma and is not an offence against God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhakti and not fear of God&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Bhakti of India is not like the western Bhakti. The central idea&#xA;  of ours is that there is no thought of fear. It is always, love God.&#xA;  There is no worship through fear, but always through love, from&#xA;  beginning to end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, V, p300-301&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the Lord does not ask Hindus to accept His teachings blindly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Reflecting on this entire teaching, do as you think fit.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 18.63&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-07-16T16:24:25.137" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T16:24:25.137" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17670" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-22T06:09:35.493" Score="0" ViewCount="55" Body="&lt;p&gt;In previous days there was something called sati pratha, as per my assumption which is not followed in the current time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Hinduism We give respect everything in this universe, So why we followed such a wrong concept. Was it portrayed in a wrong way?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4764" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-22T08:47:19.710" LastActivityDate="2017-03-22T08:47:19.710" Title="Are there any proofs for followed sati pratha in any scripture" Tags="|scripture|practice|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-03-22T07:05:44.077" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17675" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2573" CreationDate="2017-03-22T11:41:09.880" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;essence of earth and heaven&amp;quot; is holy water (Ganga) given by Shiva .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-147/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 26&lt;/a&gt;, Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/strong&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततस्तु शङ्करो देवः पृथिव्याश्च दिवश्च सः। &lt;br&gt;सारं चैव समुदधृत्य&#xA;रक्षितं पूर्वमेव तत्॥ २१॥ &lt;br&gt; विवाहे ब्रह्मणा दत्तमवशिर्छ च किञ्चन।&#xA;&lt;br&gt;तत्तस्मै दत्तवाञ्शम्भुर्मुनये भक्तवत्सलः॥ २२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Siva, took out the essence of the heaven and earth, which had&#xA;been extracted earlier, and was given by Brahma to Siva in the&#xA;marriage of the latter, besides the remaining water of the Ganga, was&#xA;given away to Gautama by lord Siva, who is well disposed towards his&#xA;devotees. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above story is described in detail in &lt;strong&gt;Gautami Mahatmya of Brahma Purana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know, Lord Brahma spilled His semen on seeing Devi Parvati during Shiva Parvati's marriage. To liberate Brahma from that sin, Lord Shiva produced essence of Earth and water and gave it to Brahma in a jar vessel. On touching that Ganga, Brahma was liberated from that sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/20270/3/Chapter%201-20_759-838p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt; Gautami Mahatyam of Brahma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siva said : &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;22&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Call Brahmä here. I shall make him free from sin. Even if other people commit offences good people take pity on them. They have&#xA;sympathy for them in their minds, This is  the nature of worldly&#xA;objects. They delude even great scholars. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said : &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;23-25. After saying this, Lord Siva accompanied by Umä began&#xA;operations. The lord of the worlds did this due to his sympathy for me&#xA;and desire for the welfare of the worlds. Listen to it attentively, O&#xA;Närada.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;'The Earth and Waters shall become the means ofredemption of sinners from their sins. I shall extract their ultimate essence that is holy,&amp;quot;&#xA;After declaring this the lord extracted their essence.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;26-27. &lt;strong&gt;He made the Earth into a water-jar and poured water into&#xA;it.&lt;/strong&gt; With great effort he chanted Pävamänya (Verses in 9th mandala of&#xA;Rigveda relating to Soma Pavamana) and other hymns and consecrated&#xA;them. The lord who dispels sins  remembered Sakti who sanctifies the&#xA;universe and invoked her  there. Then the lord of the worlds said to&#xA;me, &amp;quot;Take this water-jar, &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;28&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Indeed the waters are goddesses and mothers, The Earth is another mother. So both of them are the causes of existence, creation and&#xA;destruction. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is here that Dharma is established. It is here that the eternal sacrifice is established. It is here that enjoyment and salvation,&#xA;mobile and immobile beings are established. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;By remembering it the mental sin perishes. By bowing to it the verbal sin perishes. By bathing, drinking and performing the holy&#xA;ablution, the physical sin perishes. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This alone is nectar in the world. There is nothing greater in sanctity than this. O Brahmä, take this water-jar consecrated by me&#xA;with holy Mantras. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Whoever remembers or drinks the water herein attains all desired things. Take this water-jar, &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of all the five elements, water is the element of great effect. This water is the best among all those waters. Take this water-jar,&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O Brahmä, by touching, remembering and seeing the water herein, which is very splendid, holy and sacred, one is  liberated from sin.&amp;quot;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;35-36. &lt;strong&gt;After saying this the supreme lord gave me the water-jar.&lt;/strong&gt; Then&#xA;Devas joyously spoke to their lord. There was great exhilaration&#xA;there. Cries of victory rang the sky. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;fourth Chapter of Gautami Mahatmya&lt;/strong&gt;, Lord Brahma says He offered Holy water from his water-jar to Holy feet of Vamana (Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;58&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;What is that work which shall be auspicious in this second step of Vishnu whereby my water-jar shall become excellent&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;59-63. The water bestowed by the enemy of Tripuras is highly&#xA;meritorious, It is excellent, It bestows boons. It is calm. It is&#xA;highly conducive to tranquillity, It is splendid. It bestows&#xA;splendour. It is eternal. It yields worldly enjoyment and salvation,&#xA;It is in the form of the mother of the worlds, It is nectar. It is&#xA;holy. It is sacred. It is It is pure panacea (for all ills). worthy of&#xA;worship. It is the greatest and the most excellent. It is conducive to&#xA;splendour, By remembering it sanctifies the worlds. What if it is seen&#xA;? Remaining pure, I shall utilize that water as the libation to my&#xA;father.  &lt;strong&gt;Thinking that, I took that water and used it for argha&#xA;(offering ) The water for Argha, that was consecrated by the&#xA;recitation of Mantras fell on Vishnu's foot.&lt;/strong&gt; That water fell on the&#xA;Meru and  flowed to the Earth in four ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By means of his matted hair, Shankara caught hold of water that flowed towards south.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Portion of Ganga in matted hair of Lord Shankara was later given to Gautama as Gautami (Godavari).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story of &amp;quot;origin of Ganga&amp;quot; might have happened in some Kalpas (such as Kalpas of Shiva Purana and Brahma Purana), as there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupadabooks.com/sb/5/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;other story&lt;/a&gt; about &amp;quot;origin of Ganga&amp;quot; from holy Feet of Vamana (Lord Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-03-22T16:17:42.710" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17678" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17351" CreationDate="2017-03-22T18:04:02.610" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;If self realization means &lt;strong&gt;complete&lt;/strong&gt; liberation or enlightenment then &lt;strong&gt;question is wrong&lt;/strong&gt;. Complete enlightenment do implies omniscience, omnipotence etc and thus doesn't contradict the very notion of Adwaitwaad explained by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/17655/8696&quot;&gt;Trika philosophy of Kashmiri Shaivism&lt;/a&gt;. It is supported by following verse of Spanda Karika as well &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as all knowability, etc., in respect of the body occurs when it is pervaded by that spanda principle, even so when the yogi is established in his essential Self, he will have omniscience, etc. everywhere. &lt;BR&gt; verse 7.(3) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-03-22T18:11:25.223" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17679" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23240" CreationDate="2017-03-22T18:29:06.137" Score="10" ViewCount="487" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've found this basic definition of &lt;em&gt;Dīkṣā&lt;/em&gt; though I don't know in which scripture it appears -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;svarupasambodhadanatmako bhedamayabandha-ksapanalaksanasca  sarhskaravisesah&lt;/em&gt; &lt;BR&gt; i.e.  Dikshā  is  a particular  consecration  ceremony  for  initiation  into  the  higher life,  conferring  on  the  initiate  the  gift  of  knowing  oneself,  and casting  away  the  impurity  due  to  the  sense  of  difference  that binds  oneself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Going through this definition, it seems one can be initiated by oneself, without &lt;strong&gt;physical&lt;/strong&gt; guru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;So can I initiate myself, if possible how?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone cite the source &amp;amp; explanation of this verse or &lt;strong&gt;answer the esoteric meaning of Dīkṣā citing any good source?&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-01-05T15:30:21.030" LastActivityDate="2018-01-07T06:03:30.337" Title="What is Dīkṣā (दीक्षा)?" Tags="|scripture|practice|guru|initiation|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17681" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15749" CreationDate="2017-03-22T21:12:11.837" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am reading a book about the apostle St. Thomas, who came to South-India in the first century CE (Christian Era). In this book the author is writing, that &quot;Yavanas&quot; were white men from South Europe (Greeks and later Romans). They, the Greeks and Romans, settled in (South-)India, because there were relations between India and Greek (Alexander the Great) and later between India and the Roman Empire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With best wishes to India!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9304" LastActivityDate="2017-03-22T21:12:11.837" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17683" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3594" CreationDate="2017-03-23T02:48:33.800" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; in the book &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; explains satī or sahagamana as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h3&gt;Sahagamana&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When people nowadays talk of &quot;satī&quot; or &quot;sahagamana&quot; they mean it to be a &#xA;  custom in which the widow is forcibly thrown into the funeral pyre of her &#xA;  husband. We do not know for sure whether such an act of cruelty was indeed &#xA;  committed at any time in the past in any part of our land, that of forcibly pushing a widow into the funeral pyre of her husband. In any case satī has never been a widely practised custom. &lt;strong&gt;Only women of exemplary chastity and devotion, who did not wish to live after the passing of their husband, resorted to sahagamana&lt;/strong&gt;. I have heard stories of such pativratas in my childhood. When the relatives lamented, &quot;Oh, you are burning yourself alive,&quot; the widow exclaimed, &quot;This fire does not burn me. I am dying in the warmth of my husband's embrace.&quot; Such noble women died with a smile on their lips.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A wife of exemplary pātivratya falls dead on the death of her husband.&lt;/strong&gt; In &#xA;  the story of Kaṇṇagī we come across such an example of devotion. When the &#xA;  Pāṇdyan king dies owing to his profound feeling of guilt, his queen also dies with him. There is a similar story told of Padmāvatī, wife of Jayadeva, author of the Gīta-Govindam. In order to test her devotion for her husband, the queen light-heartedly tells her that Jayadeva, who had been out on a journey, was dead. Thereupon Padmāvatī falls dead. The queen is filled with remorse for her &#xA;  thoughtlessness and it is said that Jayadeva was able to restore his wife to life with the grace of Kṛṣṇa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only women highly devoted to their husbands resorted to sahagamana. &#xA;  They were not forcibly thrown into the fire and were indeed prevented from &#xA;  taking such an extreme step. When Pāṇḍu died, &lt;strong&gt;Mādrī&lt;/strong&gt;, one of his two wives and mother of Nakula and Sahadeva, &lt;strong&gt;ascended the funeral pyre of her husband as &#xA;  expiation for her being the cause of his death&lt;/strong&gt;. The great men who permitted this &#xA;  act of sacrifice prevented Kuntī, the second of the two wives, from taking a similar step. They said to her: &quot;Desist from such an extreme act. Your duty now is to bring up your own children as well as Mādrī's.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like sannyāsa, sahagamana has never been compulsory. I will tell you an &#xA;  important reason for this. The dharmaśāstras deal extensively with the conduct &#xA;  of widows. If everybody was expected to be a sannyāsin there would be, as I said &#xA;  before, no need for cremation to be brought under the purview of the śāstras. &#xA;  Similarly, if every widow was expected to immolate herself in the funeral pyre of her husband, where would be the need for a separate code of conduct for them &#xA;  (that is for widows)? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nobody can foretell when the hand of death will strike. It can come in &#xA;  one's childhood or during the time one is a householder. So everyone cannot be &#xA;  expected to die a sannyāsin. If the śāstras insist that on the death of a man his widow must also be cremated with him, then there will be no need for codifying &quot;vidhavā dharma&quot; (code of conduct for widows). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Hindu Dharma » Gṛhasthāśrama » Sahagamana]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;(You can read the whole chapter &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6dS6102zcBgSTl3ZDByekdJa28/view?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt; Although in Mādrī's case, I'm not too sure if she really performed the satī. In his report titled &lt;em&gt;Interpolations In The Mahābhārata&lt;/em&gt;, M. A. Mehendale of BORI &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/InterpolationsInTheMahabharata/INTERPOLATIONS%20In%20The%20Mahabharata#page/n8/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another similar example is from the Ādiparvan. It is usually believed&#xA;  that Mādrī committed satī after the death of Pāṇḍu. In support of this belief&#xA;  we have a specific statement in the Mbh. which occurs without exception&#xA;  in all the versions and hence forms part of the constituted text. That statement&#xA;  tells us very clearly that Mādrī mounted the funeral pyre of Pāṇḍu and burnt&#xA;  herself with him. (&lt;em&gt;taṃ citāgatam ājñāya vaiśvānaramukhe hutam&lt;/em&gt; / &lt;em&gt;praviṣṭā pāvakaṃ mādrī hitvā jīvitam ātmanaḥ&lt;/em&gt; 1.117.28; also 1.116.31). However, it is not so well known that immediately after this stanza we have another one which also occurs in all the versions and hence forms part of the constituted text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The latter stanza directly contradicts what is said in the preceding stanza.&#xA;  According to this stanza the sages who, after the death of Pāṇḍu, brought&#xA;  Kuntī and the young Pāṇḍavas to Hāstinapura, also brought with them the two&#xA;  dead bodies of Pāṇḍu and Mādrī. They handed them over to the elders of the&#xA;  Kauravas and asked them to perform the due funeral rites (&lt;em&gt;ime tayoḥ śarīre dve... pretakārye ca nirvṛtte pitṛmedhaṃ mahāyaśāḥ/ labhatāṃ... pāṇḍuḥ...&lt;/em&gt;/&#xA;  / 1.117.30-31). Then, in the following adhyāya (1.118) we have a detailed&#xA;  description of the cremation of Pāṇḍu and Mādrī. &lt;strong&gt;Both these accounts could&#xA;  not be true at the same time. Either Pāṇḍu was cremated on the Śataśṛṅga&#xA;  mountain and Mādrī mounted the funeral pyre, or cremation did not take place&#xA;  and the dead bodies were brought to Hāstinapura&lt;/strong&gt;. Nīlakaṇṭha's feeble attempt&#xA;  to remove the contradiction by interpreting &lt;em&gt;śarīra&lt;/em&gt; 'body' as &lt;em&gt;asthi&lt;/em&gt; 'bone' is not&#xA;  convincing. Sukthankar, following Hopkins, has already expressed his&#xA;  dissatisfaction with Nīlakaṇṭha's explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Clearly here, as in the above case, we have conflation of two different accounts of the same incident. The interpolator while borrowing stanzas from a different account and inserting them in his own has shown scant regard for the contradiction his interference with the received text involved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-03-23T02:48:33.800" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17684" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-23T04:21:30.850" Score="4" ViewCount="950" Body="&lt;p&gt;Viṣṇu dharma purāṇa is one of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upapurana#The_Brihadddharma_Purana_list&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;18 upa purāṇas&lt;/a&gt;. This text is available in Sanskrit online. Is it available in English or Hindi or any other Indian language? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-08-06T16:23:44.123" LastActivityDate="2018-08-06T16:23:44.123" Title="Translation of Vishnu Dharma Purana" Tags="|vishnu|translation-request|resource|upapuranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17685" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-23T04:47:56.447" Score="2" ViewCount="1094" Body="&lt;p&gt;ShriRama was a purushottama. However he is linked only to Raghu, one of his ancestors but not Dilipa, Sagara, Ikshvaku, Bhagiratha, Aja, Dasharatha. Why Raghu is so important? Also after Rama, his sons are not referred as Raghus why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8052" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T11:03:25.493" LastActivityDate="2017-12-21T11:03:25.493" Title="Why Shrirama often referred as Raghava after Raghu when before and after Raghu many illustrious kings have emerged?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|suryavansh|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17686" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16052" CreationDate="2017-03-23T09:37:51.023" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Puranic rituals as compared to the Vedic rituals were less cumbersome. They opened doors for the lower caste and women. They mentioned rituals which could be performed by all with minor alterations. The aim was to gain popularity among the masses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://vle.du.ac.in/mod/book/print.php?id=12993&amp;amp;chapterid=28032&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purāṇas&lt;/a&gt; are normative Brahmanical texts, which eulogize various deities. They describe various gods and sometimes goddesses, celebrated with many legends and emphasize on their divinity and ‘protector of all’ image. The shift was towards sectarian gods. Thus the Puranic religion brought in many variations. The emphasis was on the cult of the particular god and complete devotion. This ideology was popularized by the Puranic religion which exemplified sects of Śiva and Viṣṇu as well as epics such as the Mahābhārata through Bhagavata-gītā. Prominence was given to construction of temples and worshipping the deity instead of performing Vedic sacrifices. Besides containing myths, the texts specified various religious acts to be performed in order to please the deities. Purāṇas also has Dharmasastric matter as it discusses various issues of caste, kingship, punishments, social norms etc. Religious acts were recommended for prosperity, peace, and progeny. Expiation of sin was also a strong motive for ritual action as portrayed in the Purāṇas. Every religious act such as sacrifices, going to a sacred place, vowed observance, or even reading and listening to the text was considered to be pious and would expiate one from the sins of the Kali yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The details of rituals can be directly found in the puranas and subordinate texts. Puranic mantras are easy and puranic worship usually involves poojas with 5, 10, 16 or more upacharas (materials). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedic rituals are more cumbersome and has to be done on the specific muhurtam. The core of Vedic rituals are fire rituals. Broadly Vedic rituals are of Shrauta rituals and smarta rituals. These rituals are mainly explained in the Shrauta, Grihya sutras and related texts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Vedic_religion&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Specific rituals&lt;/a&gt; and sacrifices of the Vedic religion include, among others:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Soma rituals, which involved the extraction, utility and consumption of &lt;strong&gt;Soma&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Agnistoma or Soma sacrifice&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fire rituals involving oblations (havir):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Agnihotra or oblation to Agni, a sun charm,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Agnicayana&lt;/strong&gt;, the sophisticated ritual of piling the fire altar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The New and Full Moon as well as the Seasonal (&lt;strong&gt;Cāturmāsya&lt;/strong&gt;) sacrifices&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tantra is a collective set of rituals and philosophies which comes under &quot;Agama&quot;. The rituals can be simple or extensive depending on the type and lineage. The details of these rituals can be found directly in the respective tantras. It is usually performed in a secretive way and a yantra (sigil) is used for the worship. Extensive types of nyasas and purification rites are done before the actual pooja. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other of the many elements in daily puja include meditation and recitation of the particular mantra of the devata, as well as worship of the Guru, considered to be one with Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other types of worship include optional pujas (kamya), usually performed for some particular object. According to the tradition, these may only be performed if daily puja is also done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As with so many other aspects of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shivashakti.com/ritual.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;tantrik tradition&lt;/a&gt;, there is a gross, a subtle and a supreme aspect to worship. External puja, using either an image or another object such as a yantra or a lingam, is a dualistic form intended, however, to lead the sadhaka to the recognition that there is no difference between worshipper and the worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After a certain stage, outer worship may no longer be necessary, or may be further complemented with inner worship. Here, for example, offerings to the favoured god or goddess (the isthadevata), may be in the form of offering the senses and the other elements and functions of the human body, all taken here to represent shaktis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also combined with meditation and contemplation of the essential oneness of worshipper and worshipped, and may include other elements of the outer worship including recitation of the mantra (japa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-03-23T09:37:51.023" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17687" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9980" CreationDate="2017-03-23T10:35:15.787" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Tirumazhisai azhwar is speaking about his symbolic birth. He says that he attained birth with wisdom due to grace of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tirumazhisai was not stuck to one philosophy in his life. He wanted to explore many philosophies and religions. He has followed many philosophies before becoming a Vaishnava. He has been a Buddhist, Jain, Shaiva in his lifetime before becoming a Vaishnava. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a poem he &lt;a href=&quot;http://thehistoryofsrivaishnavam.weebly.com/thirumalisai-alvar.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; when he reached the birthplace of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poigai_Azhwar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pogai azhwar&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;sAkkiyam katrOm, SamaNam katrOm, SankaranAr aakkiya Aagamanool&lt;br&gt;&#xA;                                                                                                aarAindhOM; BhaggiyathAl venkaTkariyAnai SerndOm&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have been a follower of Jainism for long, follower of Buddhism for long, a follower of agamas written by Shiva(shaiva) too. But, due to sheer grace, I landed at the feet of TiruvengadathAN.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to traditional Vaishnava accounts, he lived for unbelievable period of 4700 years.  Even though he was born in Dwapara yuga, he considers that his birth happened after he has realised the lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vedanta Desikan quotes this verse in his work Upakara Sangraham while explaining section 5 23&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; upakara i.e., favour done to us by the lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;viveka-vyavasāya-viṣeśangkaḻ&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;anRunAn  piRanthilEn;  piRanthapin &#xA;   maRanthilEn”,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   “inRAka  nAlaiyEyAka&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  iniccirithu    ninRAka    ninaruL    enpAlath&#xA;  E”    enkiRapadiyE,    vivEka-vyavasAya-&#xA;  vishEshangkaLaip piRappitthathuvum;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the alternate translation for the verse of Tirumazhisai Azhwar from the question: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My Lord was standing in Thiruvoorakam; he was sitting in  ThirupAdakam;  and  the  lying-down  posture  in  ThiruvekkA.  At  that  time,  I  was not born (since I didn’t acquire wisdom of my being a servant of the Lord); now, after getting the knowledge, I have not forgotten it. Hence, the Lord has taken these postures of standing, sitting and lying-down in my heart. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taittiriya_Upanishad#Ananda_Valli&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmananda valli&lt;/a&gt; chapter 6 also says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;असन्नेव स भवति | असद् ब्र्हमेति वेद चेत्  अस्ति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्र्हमेति चेत् वेद | सन्तमेनम् ततो विदुः इतिः |? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a person takes Brahman as a non-reality, then he becomes non-existent. If he thinks Brahman as existent, then he becomes consequently wise.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clear that Azhwar is talking about his birth with wisdom when got realised that he is the servant of the Lord. Not only Tirumazhisai Azhwar, every sātvik soul considers its birth when it gets enlightenment about lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He mentioned the deity forms of the god to indicate that he got enchanted due to the manifestation of Lord in those holy places. Lord followed him wherever he(Tirumazhisai) went just to capture azhwar's heart towards him. This makes clear that Azhwar got this wisdom by the grace of Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also find another example from scriptures who is also got enchanted due to virtues of the Lord. Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga4/kishkindha_4_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kishkindha Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहम् अस्य अवरः भ्राता गुणैः दास्यम् उपागतः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कृतज्ञस्य बहुज्ञस्य लक्ष्मणो नाम नामतः || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aham asya avaraḥ bhrātā guṇaiḥ dāsyam upāgataḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kṛtajñasya bahujñasya lakṣmaṇo nāma nāmataḥ || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am the one who obtained servitude by the justness of this faithful and knowledgeable one, and his younger brother, by name I am named as Lakshmana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/periyavachan-pillai/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Periyavachan Pillai&lt;/a&gt; who wrote commentaries for Nalayira Divya &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naalayira_Divya_Prabhandham&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prabandham&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://4000divyaprabandam.blogspot.in/p/thiruchchandha-viruththam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in his commentary: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a person gives debt to another, he comes to ask for the money. First he comes and stands at the door steps and requests him to pay the amount. If he doesn’t get it, then the next time he sits on the front yard and forces him to pay. If he doesn’t get even then he lies down in front of the houses and refuses to leave unless he gets the money back. Similarly Bhagavan stands, sits and lies down to get kainkarya from us (that is the debt).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above are the reasons why Tirumazhisai alwar said that he was born after Pandava Thootar statue. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sources:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sadagopan.org/index.php/component/djcatalog2/?format=raw&amp;amp;task=download&amp;amp;fid=392&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta Desikan's Sri Upakaram Part 1[vol2] by Anbil Sri Sowmia Narayanan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://azhwar.org/documents/Thirucchandaviruttam.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tiruchchanda Viruttam text with free translation and commentary by Dr. N. Ranganathan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-04-20T04:57:59.977" LastActivityDate="2019-04-20T04:57:59.977" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17688" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-23T10:41:15.250" Score="4" ViewCount="1589" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lately, I was reading the article on Sukha Brahma on Wikipedia. There, it is mentioned that there are two completely different versions of Sukha Brahma's story. One in Mahabharata and the other in Devi Bhagavata Purana. How could there be two completely different versions in two famous Scriptures. Please shed some light on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;this is the link to the article - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuka&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks in advance!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7166" LastActivityDate="2017-03-23T18:24:18.373" Title="What is the correct story of Sukha Brahmarishi?" Tags="|mahabharata|rishi|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17689" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17690" CreationDate="2017-03-23T12:53:14.947" Score="4" ViewCount="12442" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana we see that Sri Vishwamitra imparted a special mantra called &quot;balA-atibalA&quot; to Sri Rama and Lakshmana which is considered to be immensely helpful in both spiritual and materialistic domains. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is this mantra and what is its significance? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-04T02:15:56.723" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T02:15:56.723" Title="What is the Balatibala Mahamantra which was taught to Rama by Sage Vishwamitra?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|gayatri-mantra|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17690" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17689" CreationDate="2017-03-23T12:53:14.947" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This mantra is very powerful and it looks like gAyatri mantra. It has additionally some beejas and other words hence it is a very long mantra. It is capable of slowly making one evolve to higher spiritual level of super-consciousness and helps one to go beyond the pull of lower forces. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We find its mention in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga22/balaitrans22.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/a&gt; when sage imparted this knowledge to Sri Rama and Lakshmana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Dasharatha sends Rama and Lakshmana along with Sage &lt;strong&gt;Vishvamitra&lt;/strong&gt; as requested by the sage. In their course of travel, Sage Vishvamitra imparts a secret knowledge to the young princes Rama and Lakshmana, called &lt;strong&gt;bala atibala&lt;/strong&gt; vidya-s, by practicing which nothing can wither their vigour and vitality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;balaam atibalaam caiva paThataH taata raaghava || 1-22-14&#xA;na saubhaagye na daakSiNye na j~naane buddhi nishcaye |&#xA;na uttare prati vak{}tavye samo loke tava anagha || 1-22-15&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;My dear Raghava, if bala atibala hymns are practised, oh, impeccable&#xA;  one, none can equal you in the world by your handsomeness, calibre,&#xA;  erudition, by your discernment, and even in replying or rebutting you.&#xA;  [1-22-14b, 15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;etat vidyaa dvaye labdhe na bhavet sadR^ishaH tava |&#xA;balaa ca atibalaa caiva sarva j~naanasya maatarau || 1-22-16&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;On receiving these two teachings there will be none similar to you,&#xA;  for bala and atibala are the mothers of all knowledge. [1-22-16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kSut pipaase na te raama bhaviSyete narottama |&#xA;balaam atibalaam caiva paThataH taata raaghava || 1-22-17&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Oh, best one among men, Raghava, if you go on reciting bala and&#xA;  atiblala hymns, my dear Rama, there will be no hunger or thirst to&#xA;  you. [1-22-17]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vidyaa samudito raamaH shushubhe bhiima vikramaH || 1-22-21&#xA;sahasra rashmiH bhagvaan sharadiiva divaakaraH |&#xA;guru kaaryaaNi sarvaaNi niyujya kushika aatmaje |&#xA;uuSuH taam rajaniim tatra sarayvaam susukham trayaH || 1-22-22&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama, the one with marvellous valiance, on obtaining those teachings&#xA;  performed all his duties of a student in respect of a teacher and then&#xA;  shone forth like the thousand rayed sun on a cloudless sky of autumn.&#xA;  Then those three very happily stayed on the riverbank of Sarayu for&#xA;  that night. [1-22-21b, 22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.homam.org/mantradocs/pages/Balatibala%20Mantra.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Balatibala Mahamantra:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Mo0nR.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Mo0nR.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(103 letters , 158 mAtrAs) &#xA;(Taken from &lt;strong&gt;sAvitryupanishat of gopatha brAhmana&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purashcharana of this mantra is 1 lac 3 thousand times as the number of letters are these many. After the purashcharana one starts feeling the divine grace and becomes a medium of the divine power. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-03-24T14:25:03.023" LastActivityDate="2017-03-24T14:25:03.023" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17691" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17688" CreationDate="2017-03-23T18:24:18.373" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The second story seems more reasonable because Shuka's forefathers did not adopt Sanyasa. Vyasa , Parashara and their forefathers were householders. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, in the present time, we see many brahmins of the &quot;Parashara&quot; gotra. Especially in the Northern India. This means that they were descendants of Sri Shuka Deva.  As Parashara has one son Vyasa and Vyasa had only one son Shuka so it is more reasonable that Sri Shuka would have carried forward the family lineage of the Parashara Vamsha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-03-23T18:24:18.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17692" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17693" CreationDate="2017-03-23T20:53:46.150" Score="7" ViewCount="1737" Body="&lt;p&gt;This seems like a rather rhetorical question to ask. But this question has been in my mind since I saw a video of Yogi and Mystic Jaggi Vasudev. Guru Jaggi Vasudev is sometimes really confusing for me and is the only spiritual teacher till now that I have seen who sometimes speaks completely opposite of what you would hear from other great spiritual masters and philosophers. An example would be &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyMXTPlyPgc&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; in which he clearly states and I quote, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyMXTPlyPgc#t=02m07s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;If you say God loves me, you should know that you are a pathetic, despicable case.&lt;/a&gt;&quot; and &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyMXTPlyPgc#t=03m09s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;It (the source of creation) has no love, it has no compassion, it has no intention of helping you, it has no intention of harming you, it has nothing.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And never have I heard in any of Guru Jaggi Vasudev's videos that God is always with you or God will help you in your difficult situations or anything like that which other famous spiritual personalities have said. He even in some of his videos vaguely seems to say that there is no God. Or at least that's what I think.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum it up, the specific questions that I need answers to are stated below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does God love us?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does God help us in difficult situations?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, please present any scriptural references about love of God for us and if God helps us if there are any. That will greatly help!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8076" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-24T10:33:37.780" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T16:11:24.867" Title="Does God love us?" Tags="|scripture|gods|guru|love|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17693" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17692" CreationDate="2017-03-24T09:30:30.803" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1- Yes, God loves.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The virtuous ones who worship me are of four kinds, the distressed, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of wealth, and the man of knowledge, O Lord of the Bharatas. (&lt;strong&gt;BG 7.16&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;BR&gt;Of these, the man of knowledge, who is permanently established in yoga, whose devotion is single-minded, is &lt;strong&gt;the best. For I'm dear to him and he is&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;exceedingly&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;dear to me&lt;/strong&gt;. (&lt;strong&gt;BG 7.17&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, it is clearly explained man of knowledge is very &lt;strong&gt;dear&lt;/strong&gt; to God. &#xA;Further, Krishna says in the next verse-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Noble indeed are all of these, but the man of knowledge I consider to be &lt;strong&gt;My very self&lt;/strong&gt;. For, with an integrated self he resorts to me alone as the highest goal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, it is clearly explained by the ultimate reality, the extent of his love to the man of knowledge which he expressed calling him his very &lt;strong&gt;self.&lt;/strong&gt; He although loves everyone but he exceptionally love the man of knowledge. &#xA;The same union or immense love between God &amp;amp; devotee (man of knowledge) is expressed again in the BG 9.30. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I'm the same in all beings. None I hate nor &lt;strong&gt;particularly&lt;/strong&gt; like. But those who worship Me with devotion, they stand in Me &amp;amp; I also in them (particularly like).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2- Yes, he protects as well.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;Lord Krishna, the ultimate reality says in Bhagvat Geeta chapter 18, verse 58.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fixing your mind on me, you will, by My grace, &lt;strong&gt;cross over all difficulties;&lt;/strong&gt; but if, through the sense of egoism, you will not listen, you will perish. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Krishna clearly says he helps us to cross over all difficulties through &lt;strong&gt;his grace.&lt;/strong&gt; And grace can be gotten by fixing our mind on the ultimate reality. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-03-24T10:12:10.637" LastActivityDate="2017-03-24T10:12:10.637" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17694" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-24T15:23:26.927" Score="3" ViewCount="235" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Marriage should be made in Love by the couples towards each other.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Marriages are also conducted with &lt;strong&gt;Desires&lt;/strong&gt; like &lt;strong&gt;Beauty,Money,Physical Strength&lt;/strong&gt;,etc,....&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Material desires are not considered to be a dharma activity and thier actions are similar to &lt;strong&gt;Business as the actions are for Profit in material&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;BR/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If marriage made in love is made with desire will the marriage considered like marriage or &lt;strong&gt;Business&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If Marriage is done in desire will it be considered &lt;strong&gt;Adharma&lt;/strong&gt; as it &lt;strong&gt;Violates the Core of Our Scriptural way for Marriage&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2017-03-24T15:23:26.927" Title="Is Marriage with desire considered to be adharma?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|tradition|marriage|desire|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17695" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17699" CreationDate="2017-03-24T16:23:57.220" Score="7" ViewCount="2207" Body="&lt;p&gt;While commenting on the verse &quot;&lt;strong&gt;tasya yatha kapyasam pundarikamevamakshini&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; in his bhashya on the Chandogya Upanishad, Shankara describes the eyes of Ishwara as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;eyes of that golden Purusha are like two lotuses which are red like&#xA;  the nates (buttocks) of a monkey&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does the above interpretation compare to commentaries of other Vedantins?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-16T15:45:59.017" LastActivityDate="2021-10-12T11:14:37.420" Title="Why did Adi Sankaracharya compare the color of Ishwara's eyes to that of monkey's nates?" Tags="|vedanta|upanishads|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|chandogya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17696" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17702" CreationDate="2017-03-24T16:36:08.443" Score="8" ViewCount="445" Body="&lt;p&gt;As the guru is made up with two syllables &lt;em&gt;gu&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;ru&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Gu&lt;/strong&gt; means darkness &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;ru&lt;/strong&gt; means dispeller. Thus the term &lt;em&gt;Guru&lt;/em&gt; means &lt;strong&gt;one who&lt;/strong&gt; dispels our darkness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As it is said,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिवे क्रुद्धे गुरुस्त्राता गुरौ क्रुद्धे शिवो न हि।&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  तस्मात्सर्वप्रयत्नेन श्रीगुरुं शरणं व्रजेत्॥४४॥ &lt;BR&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: When Śiva is angry, the Guru is the Protector, but when the Guru is angry, Śiva is not the Protector, undoubtedly. For that reason, with all one’s own effort one should take refuge in the venerable Guru.&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Commentary&lt;/strong&gt;:This famous stanza where He says that when Śiva is angry with you, Guru can protect you, but when Guru is angry with you, not even Śiva can protect you. Common human minds think that Guru is a guy maybe… or a higher entity (like a light or something). And Śiva is another light (or something like this). They think like this. No, it’s not like this. The meaning is like this.&#xA;  In this case (in the context of Gurugītā)… It’s vedic context with some touch of Śaivism… In this context, Śiva is your Self – your Self, your inner Self, your nature. And Guru is Śiva teaching (Śiva revealing nature). So if Śiva is angry with you –if Śiva doesn’t want to reveal that you are Him–, you are alone; Śiva doesn’t want to reveal that you are Him. You are Him! But He doesn’t want to… Guru can protect you. Guru can force Śiva to be revealed, yes? It’s very strange concept. Because it’s vedic. It’s Gurugītā. It’s the way they speak about Guru and Śiva. So Guru is Śiva teaching. So this aspect of Śiva can force the aspect like the Self to appear and to reveal that you are Him!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now after this commentary, I want to ask - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does guru necessarily be physically present? Or Guru is &lt;strong&gt;anything which dispels our darkness&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-06-18T19:03:11.070" LastActivityDate="2019-06-18T19:03:11.070" Title="What/Who is guru? Can it be a concept/idea/teachings or necessarily be a physical person?" Tags="|shiva|guru|guru-geetha|trika|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17697" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17542" CreationDate="2017-03-24T17:45:12.697" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavan is common cause, not specific. e.g. earth. Plants cannot grow without earth. But whatever seed of the plant, only that specific plant will grow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, Bhagavan provides entire infrastructure - body, mind, food, water earth, sun, universe etc. but whatever seed you plant (good or bad karma), you will get those fruits (good or bad results). And only you will get those fruits, no one else. But there is one specialty/difference - you can surrender to lord asking him to stop the results of the actions. He can stop any sanchita karma (that which has not yet resulted in fruits), but won't stop prarabdha karma (that which has already started yielding fruits).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is given in Brahma sutras (bhagavan has no vaishamyam or nairgrunyam)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to answer your question - it was arjuna's own karma only. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But sometimes, Lord has great mercy on some souls that is without reason (actually with reason but more like an excuse for a reason e.g. Ajamila charitram). Other times, Lord and his Bhaktas have freedom to play with each other - Lord can affect your destiny, or you can affect Lord's destiny. That relationship cannot be judged by us. Only the two of them know the secrets to that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a concept called avesha avatara - where Lord enters a Jivatma's body or gives him some of his powers, and achieves great things through him. e.g. Parashurama, KartiviryaArjuna. But that is also only because those Jivatma's are fit for such avataras through devotion/dharma/tapas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-03-24T17:45:12.697" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17698" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17695" CreationDate="2017-03-24T18:10:31.833" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whether Adi Shankarar gave the original analogy is debatable - &lt;a href=&quot;http://kapyasampundarikam.blogspot.in/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://kapyasampundarikam.blogspot.in/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, Swami Ramanujar was deeply disturbed by this simili given by his acharya Yadava Prakashar (who was an Advaitin), and and gave a different/better/correct explanation - Kapi means sun, Asam means to bloom, Kapyasam Pundarikam means - sun-bloomed-lotus (lotus blooms in morning when sun rays hit it). Lord's eyes are like sun-bloomed-lotus.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was a huge discussion even thousand years ago, and scholars give technical points based on sanskrit grammar on why the monkey-analogy isn't proper.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g. if kapyasam is a simili for lotus, and lotus is a simili for Lord's eyes, then the sentence should be 'Lord's eyes are like lotus which is like monkey-rear', so in sanskrit there should be 2 'like' or 'eva' i.e 'kapyasam eva pundarikam eva akshini' but there is only one 'eva', so, kapyasam is not a simili, but an adjective. And as an adjective 'sun-bloomed' fits properly, whereas 'monkey-rear' does not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more points mentioned by a scholar just few days back in an upanyasam, let me see if I can find his source.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-03-24T18:16:52.647" LastActivityDate="2017-03-24T18:16:52.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17699" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17695" CreationDate="2017-03-24T19:12:54.383" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01027.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Chandogya Upanishad verse in question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasya yathā kapyāsaṃ puṇḍarīkamevamakṣiṇī &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tasyoditi nāma sa eṣa sarvebhyaḥ pāpmabhya udita &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  udeti ha vai sarvebhyaḥ pāpmabhyo ya evaṃ veda  ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whose eyes are like blue lotus's, his name is ut, for he has risen (udita) above all evil. He also who knows this, rises above all evil.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Adi Shankaracharya interprets the word &quot;kapyasam&quot; in that verse as saying that the supreme lord's eyes are the color of a monkey's butt, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xjr2E.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Chandogya Upanishad Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Kapyasa&quot; is the &quot;asa&quot;, seat, of the &quot;Kapi&quot;, monkey; the term &quot;asa&quot; being derived from the root &quot;asa&quot;, to sit, with the ghan affix.  The term &quot;Kapyasa&quot; therefore stands for the part of the monkey's back on which it sits; so that when the lotus is spoken of as &quot;Kapyasa&quot;, &quot;monkey-seat&quot;, what is meant is that it is extremely bright (and red); so the eyes of the Solar Person also are bright red.  Inasmuch as the Simile is an indirect one, - the lotus being likened to the monkey's seat, and the eyes being likened to the lotus, - it cannot be regarded as incompatible with the dignity of the subject.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, to answer your question, no, other commentators do not interpret the word &quot;kapyasam&quot; as referring to a monkey's butt.  In fact, this verse played a major role in the history of Sri Vaishnavism.  Before Ramanujacharya became a Sri Vaishnava, he was the shishya of a guru named Yadava Prakasha, who was teaching his students Adi Shankaracharya's Chandogya Upanishad Bhashya.  When they got to the part of the Bhashya that we're discussing, boiling hot tears came out of Ramanujacharya's eyes.  He explained &quot;How can you compare Sriman Narayana's eyes to a monkey's butt?  The Chandogya Upanishad is saying that his eyes are the color of a lotus flower kissed by the sun!&quot;  Yadavaprakasha was angered that his student was challenging him, and this created a rift between guru and shishya that ultimately led to Ramanujacharya leaving Yadava Prakasha and becoming a Sri Vaishnava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, here is how the Sri Vaishnava commentator Ranga Ramanuja interprets the verse in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wcQmp.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kapi means one who drinks water (kam pibati), namely the sun. The lotus which is thrown out (asyate), that is, struck on and opened by the sun is therefore called kapyasa. The Author similarly states: &quot;(1) Kapyasa is that which has been struck by the sun, for it is endowed with beauty; (2) or again, Kapi means one who drinks water (kam pibati), namely a stalk. Because the lotus) is seated upon a stalk, it) is called kapyasa. This is what is intended here, because the lotus seated on a stalk is more beautiful than one which has been cut off; (3) or, ka refers to water, and the root as (to sit) is preceded by the prefix api. It becomes pyasa) because there is the declaration that the grammarian) Bhaguri holds that in cases where prefixes ava- and api- are added, the first vowel is dropped. Thus) the term kapyasa means that it takes its seat on water, that is, that it lives in water.&quot; Taking into account this threefold meaning thus established for the word kapyasa) by the Author, Bhagavat Bhasyakara (= Ramanuja) stated in (his) Vedarthasamgraha&quot; (that it means) &quot;Having pure and large eyes like the petals of a lotus, opened by the sun's beams, and on a fine stalk, born in the deep water.&quot; But other meanings such as &quot;like the lotus which resembles the rump of a monkey&quot; were ignored by the Bhasyakara, since they had been ignored by the Author (Vakyakrt) as suffering from such faults as vulgarity of language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it's not just people who came after Adi Shankaracharya who disagreed with his interpretation.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9325/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the most important pre-Shankara Vedanta philosophers was the Vakyakara, known as Tanka or Brahmanandi.  He wrote an ancient Vakya or commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad, where he analyzed the word &quot;kapyasam&quot; and gave six possible meanings it could have, and then rejected three of them as inappropriate to the context.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wRSlc.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from from S.S. Raghavachar's book &quot;Ramanuja on the Upanishads&quot; gives the six meanings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sudarshana Suri, commenting on Ramanuja's explanation, observes that the Vakyakara has enumerated six interpretations of the term, &quot;kapyasam&quot;, of which three are acceptable and three are not.  All the acceptable views are here set out - opened by the sun, having stout stalks and growing in deep water.  The rejected explanations suggest that it refers to the sphere of the sun, &lt;strong&gt;the posteriors of a monkey&lt;/strong&gt; and a state of half-blossoming.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as you can see, Adi Shankaracharya adopted a meaning which the Vakyakara had earlier rejected as inappropriate to the context.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-03-24T19:12:54.383" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17700" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-24T20:21:25.083" Score="1" ViewCount="168" Body="&lt;p&gt;In today's world we are seeing so many corporate organizations for everything and they are controlling and affecting many of our lives in their desired way. And also many giant corporations have so much influence in Government decisions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is in Treta yuga and Dvapara yuga, and in Rama's kingdom and Krishna's kingdom, did these corporate organizations exist? If they existed how did they work, how King(Rama or Krishna) controlled over these organizations? Or what kind of influence does these had on King's administration?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1131" LastEditorUserId="9125" LastEditDate="2017-03-25T05:12:58.787" LastActivityDate="2017-03-25T05:12:58.787" Title="Did big corporate organizations exist in Treta yuga and Dvapara yuga?" Tags="|yuga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17701" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-24T23:00:54.057" Score="2" ViewCount="741" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism talks about paths a a departed soul would take&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Devayana-  Path for liberated souls&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pitrayana- Path of Ancestors , taken by not so sinful souls&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Adhoyana - Path of sinners , directly to hell.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was bit confused on , what exactly &lt;strong&gt;liberated&lt;/strong&gt; here meant. After some study I found interesting quote in  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ananda.org/autobiography/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Autobiography of yogi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here swami yogananda talks about hiranyaloka(Upper astral/mental plane) and who can go there . He says that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The physical karma or desires of man must be completely worked out&#xA;  before his permanent stay in astral worlds becomes possible&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it mean souls who take devayana  , are liberated from physical karma ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=siQYAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA158&amp;amp;lpg=PA158&amp;amp;dq=svarga%20pitriloka&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=QUEaP0pdvX&amp;amp;sig=mJCGezPyP4CtY85MKytfWPihkpc&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiJ0bay2dnSAhVV82MKHdUCBtQQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=remarks%20that%20these%20are%20not&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;book&lt;/a&gt; , makes another interesting claim. It says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;souls who took devayana , don't compulsorily return during &lt;strong&gt;a&#xA;  kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that devas/gods or higher being live up to a kalpa. Perhaps they became gods , after taking devayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My speculation is souls who takes devayana , has opportunity to get progressive salvation(krama mukti) . Like  suppose if someone reaches maharloka , with meditation/tapas he can reacher higher and higher lokas and finally to brahma loka. Finally when brahma dies , he can merge with brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But coming back on earth would definitely hasten process. Thats why out of their own choice , some souls in higher worlds come back  on earth, as saints.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whoever takes chandrayana (Pitrayana) has to come back on earth as they don't have much choice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am trying find quotes from scriptures to back up my claims . But I am unable to find any .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone comment on my understanding?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="1166" LastEditDate="2017-03-26T04:52:03.833" LastActivityDate="2019-04-19T07:19:19.270" Title="Devayana, Pitrayana and Progressive Salvation" Tags="|puranas|bhagavata-purana|gods|mukti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17702" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17696" CreationDate="2017-03-25T04:58:19.053" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The very thought that an idea/philosophy, concept or some Shastras can remove darkness is wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;None of the these create the darkness (Avidya or ignorance). So,they are not capable of removing it either.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you think study of Shastras etc can dispel the darkness then you are mistaken.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na VedAh KArnam MukterdarsanAni Na Karanam |&lt;br&gt; Tathaiva sarva ShAshtrani&#xA;  Gyanameva hi Karanam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Veda is not the reason for mukti (liberation),neither are the&#xA;  Philosophies (the six Darshanas) and nor are the other Shastras&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  Knowledge (of Paratatva,BrahmaGyana ) is the only mode for liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MuktiDa GuruVAgeKA VidyAh SarvA VirambakAha&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt; KAshthaBhArasramAdasmAdekam Sanjeevanam Param ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Only Guruvakya (the words of Guru) is the giver of liberation&lt;/strong&gt;. Without&#xA;  Guru upadesha all Vidyas deprive us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram ,Chapter 1,Verses 106 ,107&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upanishads also tell us the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;NAyamAtmA Pravachena Labhyo Na MedhayA Na BahunA Srutena|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atma(or BrahmaGyana) is not obtained by Pravachana(discourses on&#xA;  Shastras),not by intellect(or by intellectual methods) neither by&#xA;  listening to a whole lot of Shastras.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na NarenAvarena Prokta Esha Suvigyo VahudhA ChintyamAnaha|&lt;br&gt;Ananyaprokte&#xA;  Gatiratra NAsyaniyAn HytharkyamanupramAnAth||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BrahmaVidya should be obtained only from a Guru who is himself&#xA;  BrahmaGyani. &lt;strong&gt;Brahmagyana (or self realization) is not obtained from that&#xA;  Guru's upadesha who himself is not self realized.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kathopanishad 1.2.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, if you think that adhering to a particular philosophy will help you in dispelling the darkness ,then also you are mistaken.See the following verse :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Advaitam Kochidicchanti Dvaitamicchanti ChApare |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Mama Tatvam Na Jananti DvaitAdvaitavivarjitam ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some are the followers of Advaita, some others of Dvaita. &lt;strong&gt;But none among&#xA;  these know by my true nature which is beyond (or devoid of) both&#xA;  Advaitic and Dvaitic principles.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram , Chapter 1, Verse 110&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only Sadashiva , in the form of a mortal/physical Guru , can remove the darkness. Because he himself creates the darkness (mala, avidya or whatever you call it) so only he himself is capable of removing it too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact,your physical Guru and my Guru might not be the same apparently,  but in truth both are Sadashiva only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ataeva Shivaha SAkshAd Gururupam SamAsritaha |&lt;br&gt; Bhaktya Sampujito Devi&#xA;  Bhuktim Muktim Prajacchati ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So,hey Devi, Shiva takes the mortal form of a Guru&lt;/strong&gt;. Worshiping him (the&#xA;  Guru) with devotion results in both Bhukti (material pleasures) and&#xA;  Mukti (liberation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kularnava Tantram 13-52 .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ManushyacharmanAvaddhah SAkshAt  ParaShivaha Swayam&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt; SacchiYAyAnugrahArthAya Guram ParjaTathi Khsithou ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ParaShiva himself comes in disguise of a human being and roams&#xA;  around secretly to do his favor on the disciples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sadbhakta Rakshnayaiva NirAkArohapi SAkritihi |&lt;br&gt; Shivah KripAnidhirloke&#xA;  SamsAriva Hi Chestathe ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Compassionate Shiva is without form but still to protect  true&#xA;  devotees he comes on earth and behaves like mortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 13-54,55&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guruh SadAshivah SAkshAt&lt;/strong&gt; Satyameva Na Samsayaha|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no doubt in the fact that Guru is none other than Sadashiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Mahanirvana Tantram , its further stated that during each initiations, Sadashiva comes in the respective Gurus and speaks the mantra unto  pupils' ears and thereby dispels their ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So,Guru  has to be living person, a physical one.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But , in exceptional cases, a Guru can be anyone or anything who/that teaches you something. This was the case with &lt;a href=&quot;https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dattatreya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Dattatreya&lt;/a&gt; who had such 24 unconventional Gurus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Uddhava Gita, a song embedded in the Bhagavata Purana&#xA;  (11.7-9), Dattatreya tells King Yadu about his 24 unusual gurus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;1. The Earth&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Earth is disrespectfully trodden on by all creatures but bears&#xA;  them all without complaint. &lt;strong&gt;So from Her, I learned to accept all of&#xA;  life’s pleasures and pains with forbearance.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;2. The Wind&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wind is of two types, Prana refers to the internal life forces and&#xA;  Vayu refers to the external movement of air.  Prana is in all bodies&#xA;  but takes on the shape and form of the particular body it is in.  Vayu&#xA;  passes everywhere but does not remain in one place.  &lt;strong&gt;So from Prana and&#xA;  Vayu I learned to avoid attachment to any place but to adapt to&#xA;  wherever I might find myself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;3. Akasha&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Akasha is one and all-pervading.  &lt;strong&gt;From it I learned that Brahman is one&#xA;  and all-pervading.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;4. Water&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Water purifies and sanctifies.  &lt;strong&gt;From it I learned to be a source of&#xA;  purity and sanctity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;5. Fire&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fire burns things leaving only their essence. &lt;strong&gt;From it I learned that a&#xA;  yogi should see in beings not all the false opposites like rich-poor,&#xA;  old-young, high-low, but only the Atma which is the essence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;6. Moon&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The one and same moon appears to go through changes, waxing, waning&#xA;  etc. &lt;strong&gt;From Him I learned that the one atman only appears to go through&#xA;  changes such as birth and death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can learn about Lord Dattatreya's 24 unusual Gurus and what he learned from each of them from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aghori.it/24-Guru-of-Datta.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; booklet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-12T05:17:45.797" LastActivityDate="2017-09-12T05:17:45.797" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17703" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17695" CreationDate="2017-03-25T05:26:00.847" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;A colour is colour is a colour. To debate the 'appropriateness' of an analogy is a fruitless and endless endeavor as there are no scriptural rules for analogies. Everyone's sense of 'decorum' is different. In Swami Gambhirananda's translation of the Chandogya U I.6.6-7, Sankara says in his commentary on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Of Him, of the diety, &lt;em&gt;aksini&lt;/em&gt;, the two eyes; are like &lt;em&gt;pundarikam&lt;/em&gt;, a lotus; which is very bright &lt;em&gt;kapyasam iva&lt;/em&gt;, like the seat of a monkey. The illustration is not blasphemous because that which illustrates is itself compared to another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Swami Gambhirananda's footnote to this statement:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is also noted that &lt;em&gt;pundarika&lt;/em&gt; literally means a white lotus. But the intended idea is that of a red lotus. Hence the illustration of a monkey's seat becomes a necessity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Focus on the colour the analogy is meant to convey, not the analogy.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-03-25T05:26:00.847" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17704" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18602" CreationDate="2017-03-25T07:15:50.390" Score="8" ViewCount="3036" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In our country  &lt;strong&gt;Child marriages&lt;/strong&gt; were done in &lt;strong&gt;Hinduism at Large Level&lt;/strong&gt; and still continuing in a small level.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Many people were against this child marriage with scientific basis that it is Bad and  was &lt;strong&gt;Banned by the government&lt;/strong&gt; thinking that it is illegal to their Law.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why our &lt;strong&gt;Anscestors&lt;/strong&gt; followed this practice of child marriage ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What was the &lt;strong&gt;True Reason Behind Child Marriage&lt;/strong&gt; as said in our scriptures ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-06-01T12:47:05.560" LastActivityDate="2022-06-12T10:47:34.173" Title="What was the true reason behind the practice of Child Marriage?" Tags="|scripture|practice|tradition|marriage|india|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17705" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-25T07:35:00.157" Score="10" ViewCount="2554" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Hinduism we get 84 lakh yoni time birth on this earth. So how many times we get birth as human being ? is it true that we get human birth only once out of 84 lakh yoni ?&#xA;Please let me know If anyone knows that...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9318" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2017-12-18T17:56:50.373" LastActivityDate="2017-12-19T10:02:57.837" Title="How many times jeeva gets human birth?" Tags="|atma|death|rebirth|human|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17709" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-25T14:42:06.450" Score="5" ViewCount="1407" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;BR/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhisma laid in Bed Of Arrows due to his Bad karma in his past lives by &lt;strong&gt;Piercing a Butterfly&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As he pierced the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15698/a-question-about-blood-sacrificial-acts-in-hinduism/15713#15713&quot;&gt;Butterfly&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; In Return he got Pierced by Arrows or a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/When-Bhisma-Pitamah-was-laying-on-the-bed-of-arrows-and-asked-Lord-Krishna-Why-do-bad-things-happen-to-noble-people-what-did-Lord-Krishna-reply&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Snake&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; that was put into &lt;strong&gt;Thorns&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bad Karma for &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9175/is-it-wise-to-kill-an-insect-just-because-it-is-bothering-you&quot;&gt;Killing a Insect&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is Less when compared to harming a Human. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhisma was a &lt;strong&gt;Bramacharya,Great Warrior,Dharma Follower&lt;/strong&gt; and would had &lt;strong&gt;Good Karmas in Great Level&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Bad Karma for Killing a Insect is Very Small then how a Great Dharma person like Bhisma would be Affected by Bed of Arrows ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why Insects Killing are compared to be Less as compared to humans ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T06:12:53.140" Title="If Bad Karma for Killing a Insect is Very Small then how Bhisma suffered Bed of Arrows for Piercing a Butterfly or a Snake?" Tags="|mahabharata|karma|dharma|animals|bhishma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17711" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17692" CreationDate="2017-03-25T15:48:14.937" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes,God both protect us and love us too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,I don't know why Guru Jaggi Vasudev said what he said.May be we have failed to understand the context.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyway, in  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/a&gt;;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parama Shiva says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adveshata Sarva bhutaanaam maitrah Karuna yevacha,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nirmomaa nirahankaaro yo madbhaktah sa mey Priyah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Santhushtah Satatam Yogi yatatatmaa drudha nischayah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mayyarpitamano buddhiryo madhaktah sa mey priyah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yasmaannuddejito loko Lokaannujjeto cha yah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Harshaamarsha bhayodvegairmukto yah sa hi mey priyah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anapekshah Shuchirdaksha udaaseeno gatvyathah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarvaarambha parityaagi Bhaktimaan yah sada mey priyah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those Bhaktaas who treat every Being without malice, hatred, and&#xA;  self-pride; but with friendliness, kindness and affection &lt;strong&gt;are dear to&#xA;  me;&lt;/strong&gt; those who are contented, self-controlled, strong willed,&#xA;  ever-engaged in Yoga and totally dedicated to me &lt;strong&gt;are dear to me&lt;/strong&gt;; those&#xA;  who neither get excited nor prone to exciting others, but are&#xA;  fearless, placid and composed &lt;strong&gt;are dear to me&lt;/strong&gt;; those who never crave&#xA;  for worldly desires, but are ready to sacrifice, are impartial, are&#xA;  ready to face challenges of the right kindand are not non-starters due&#xA;  to hesitation &lt;strong&gt;are indeed near and dear to me&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly He gives &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;assurance of protection&lt;/a&gt; to devotees as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na madbhaktaa vinashyanti madbhaktaa veeta kalmashaah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aadaavetat pratigjaanam na mey bhaktah pranashyati/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Patram Pushpam Phalam toyam madaaraadhana kaaranaat,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yo mey dadaati niyatah sa meyBhaktah Priyomatah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My Bhaktaas would never be destroyed nor harmed but would be washed off their sins as I took a vow that my Bhaktas are protected&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  Bhaktas are merely required to perform my Puja with utmost sincerity&#xA;  and offer leaves, flowers, fruits and even water as I would be&#xA;  pleased.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, God also helps us in getting rid of difficult situations too.There is a famous stotram dedicated to Goddess Durga named &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_devii/durga-a8.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Durga Apad Uddharaka Stotram&lt;/a&gt; which literally means the stotram that relieves us from Apada or dangers or emergencies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T16:11:24.867" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T16:11:24.867" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17716" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17705" CreationDate="2017-03-26T05:03:57.913" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question can't be definitely answered from Scriptures.Its true that the soul gets a variety of Yonis(wombs) as per its karmas and  its also true that the number of such Yonis is 84 lacs .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But we can't exactly say how many times it gets born in a particular Yoni (possibly innumerable times) .The Scriptures only emphasize the fact that a birth in a human Yoni is very very rare.So we all should be proactive and make full use of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chaturashitilakshesu&lt;/strong&gt; Sarireshu SaririnAm | Na Manushyam VinA Annyatra Tatva GyAnantu Labhyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Among the 84 lacs of kinds of bodies(wombs)&lt;/strong&gt; Tatva Gyana(Brahma Gyana,self realization) is achieved only in the human body and not in&#xA;  any other bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kularnava Tantram,Chapter 1, Verse 14.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SopAnabhutam Mokshasya MAnushyam PrApya Durlabham | YastArayati&#xA;  NAtmAnam TasmAth PApatarohatra ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who is more sinner than the one who does not make full use of the&#xA;  human birth, which is rare(durlabham) and which is like a staircase to moksha(liberation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 1-16.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-12-19T10:02:57.837" LastActivityDate="2017-12-19T10:02:57.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17717" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-26T05:09:01.343" Score="3" ViewCount="455" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like the Panchangam of the jyotisha, we have the Ashtangam used by shaktas, what are its constituents ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-03-27T05:23:14.873" Title="What is astrological Devimana Ashtangam followed by the Shaktas?" Tags="|astrology|shaktism|sri-vidya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17718" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17717" CreationDate="2017-03-26T05:13:21.170" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a similar calculation of days like that of the Panchangam. It is useful for deciding daily worship and special parvas of the Shaktas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/devimana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kAla gaNanA&lt;/a&gt; is accomplished normally by adopting pa~nchA~Nga&#xA;  scheme which most of us are familiar with. The five angas are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Tithi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;nakShatra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;yoga&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;karaNa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;vAra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Similarly, a parallel calendar is used by Srividyopasakas who have&#xA;  undergone pUrNAbhiSheka, called devImAna aShTA~Nga. The source for&#xA;  this scheme is Rudrayamala, Shaktiyamala, Paramananda Tantra,&#xA;  Kaulikarnava, Tantraraja, Srigarbha Kularnava, Nathakrama patala of&#xA;  Badabanala, Tripurasundari Tantra and works such as Saubhaya Tantra,&#xA;  Saubhagya Chintamani, Dattareya Samhita, Saubhagyodaya, Nitya Kalpa,&#xA;  Nathodaya, Kala Nitya Nirnaya, Durvasa Kalpa etc. The knowledge of&#xA;  Ashtanga is considered very auspicious and important for a Srividya&#xA;  Upasaka as it has various applications in Japa, Puja, Parayana, Kala&#xA;  Nitya Krama etc. The Ashtangas are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Yuga&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Parivritti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Varsha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Masa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Divasa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nityaa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vasara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Ghatikodaya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The number of yugas are: 36 Every Yuga has 36 Parivrttis Every&#xA;  Parivrtti has 36 years Every year has 16 months Every month has 36&#xA;  days Every month has 15+15 Nityas Every week has 9 days and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi herself pervades everything as kAlanityA and these form her&#xA;  organs or avayavas. Like rashmi samkalana normally done applies to&#xA;  desha sundarI, aShTa~Nga is applicable in terms of kAla sundarI. As&#xA;  this refers only to kAla and not desha, samkalpa is incomplete if&#xA;  performed only using aShTA~Nga, which is unfortunately followed by&#xA;  most due to incorrect understanding of the Tantra. For the same&#xA;  reason, Samkalpas printed in Srividya Nityahnikam, Kanchi Mutt&#xA;  Panchangam, Coimbatore edition etc. should not be adopted directly.&#xA;  The procedure for desha kirtana is to be learnt from Sadguru. Further,&#xA;  Mahayuha, Kalpa, Mahakalpa, Natha Yuga, Nitya Yuga, Matrika Yuga and&#xA;  other concepts are also used by Upaskas. Shodashanga and&#xA;  Dvatrimshadangas are also known but less used due to complexity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On Aug 27, the new Parivrtti [daM chakShustattvAkhya] will start and&#xA;  this will result in ten mahAyogas [from puShpiNI to chandroparAga] to&#xA;  converge on the same day. This day is more auspicious can one can ever&#xA;  imagine and occurs once in every 144 years. Worshiping Paradevata on&#xA;  such a day will invite divine grace. This day is of greater&#xA;  significance at Kanchipuram as Sage Durvasa performs Mahabhisehka and&#xA;  another auspicious ritual to Sri Kamakshi on this sacred day in the&#xA;  presence of all celestial deities. Those who behold the Sri Vigraha of&#xA;  Kamakshi and the Salagrama Srichakra attain great merit. Japa, Homa,&#xA;  Saparya, Tarpana, Brahmana Bhojana etc performed on this day&#xA;  yieldgreat phala. Also, on this sacred day, the cycle of lopAmudrA&#xA;  culminates and the age of Sri Bhairava commences. The Maha Samayaa for&#xA;  this day is Jaya Durga, Nakshatra Yogini is Vajra Kubja, Dina Yogini&#xA;  is Guhya Kali and soon. The Euphoria associated with this sacred day&#xA;  can only be experienced and not expressed in words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;darpA~Nkuro makaraketanavibhramANAm&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nindA~Nkuro vidalitotpalachaturINAm |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dIpA~Nkuro bhavatamisrakadambakAnAm&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kAmAkShi palayatu mAm tvadapA~NgapAtaH ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-27T05:23:14.873" LastActivityDate="2017-03-27T05:23:14.873" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17719" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-26T06:52:40.517" Score="1" ViewCount="168" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per shrimad bhagwat geeta, everyone should do their respective karmas and putting their efforts and do not focus on outcome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I am asking my question through a scenario.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If my wallet is stolen then,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Should I think that it's result of previously charged karmas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Should I need to put efforts to find wallet? If yes then how much efforts I need to put to satisfy karma theory?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Should I need to happy that I have tried to find it for 2 days and  now everything on 'niyati'.(destiny a fix state of situation in which we can't do anything)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding that I just do karma(try to find it) and do not think about outcome(whether I will get it or not)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not sure  how much efforts are required like If I find it 2 days and if  I not get it so I have dilemma that if I find it another 2 days then may be chance to get it back or I should stop my efforts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks in advance for reading this question and your guidance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4622" LastEditorUserId="4622" LastEditDate="2017-03-26T07:26:38.113" LastActivityDate="2017-03-26T07:26:38.113" Title="Destiny vs Efforts" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|karma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2017-03-26T07:12:07.430" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17720" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17542" CreationDate="2017-03-26T09:48:24.633" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your actions and Arjuna's are determined by your own karma and not any others. All of our destinies, including Arjuna's, are predetermined. Sri Krishna says in the Gita XVIII.60-61 (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;60&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bound by your own karma, O son of Kunti, which is born of your very nature, what through delusion you seek not to do, you shall do even against your will.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Lord dwells in the hearts of all beings, O Arjuna, and by His maya causes them to revolve as though mounted on a machine.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So yes, everything is predetermined by your own past karma, and yes, everything at a karmic level is predetermined. There is only one thing that is not predetermined. Your body will act out it's karma according to the will of the Lord, but what you do with your mind is up to you. If your mind dwells on the Lord and not upon the karmic actions which you are experiencing then you have surrendered yourself to the Lord. Be unattached to the actions that the body goes through. By being attached to the Lord and unattached to your body's actions you can achieve Liberation - which is the one thing not determined by karma. Again Lord Krishna says in Gita XVIII.62:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Take refuge in Him alone with all your soul, O Bharata. By His grace will you gain Supreme Peace and the Everlasting Abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we see in these three verses that you cannot escape your karma, that everything is predetermined by the Lord, and that the way to 'escape' is by taking refuge in the Lord with all your soul. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-03-26T09:48:24.633" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17721" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-26T13:37:33.857" Score="11" ViewCount="1000" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16922/8696&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer where it explains about &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; being &lt;em&gt;Nirguṇa&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Guṇas&lt;/em&gt; (attributes) appearing due to &lt;em&gt;Avidyā&lt;/em&gt;, the ācārya writes,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदेवमविद्यात्मकोपाधिपरिच्छेदापेक्षमेवेश्वरस्येश्वरत्वं सर्वज्ञत्वं सर्वशक्तित्वं च, न परमार्थो विद्यया अपास्तसर्वपाधिस्वरुपे आत्मनि ईशत्रीशितव्यसर्वज्ञत्वादिव्यवहार उपपद्यते, तथा चोक्तम् - 'यत्र नान्यपश्यति नान्यच्छृणोति नान्यद्विजानाति स भूमा इति' यत्र 'त्वस्य सर्वमात्मैवाभूत्तत्केन कं पश्येत्' इत्यादिना च एव परमार्थवस्थायां सर्वव्यवहाराभावं वदन्ति वेदान्ता ।। 2.1.14 &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;Hence the Lord's being a Lord, his omniscience, his omnipotence, &amp;amp;c. all depend on the limitation due to the adjuncts whose Self is Avidya; while in reality none of these qualities belong to the Self whose true nature is cleared, by right knowledge, from all adjuncts whatever. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, positing &lt;em&gt;Guṇas&lt;/em&gt; appearing due to &lt;em&gt;Māyā&lt;/em&gt; implies &lt;em&gt;Guṇas&lt;/em&gt; were inherently present in &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, in latent form, which appears due to &lt;em&gt;Avīdyā&lt;/em&gt;. If it were not so, then &lt;strong&gt;it would imply that &lt;em&gt;existence&lt;/em&gt; sprung out from &lt;em&gt;non-existence&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt; rendering it inconsistent with &lt;em&gt;Chānḍogya Upaniṣada 6&lt;/em&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;“The Existent was here in the beginning, my son, alone and without a second. On this there are some who say, ‘The Nonexistent was here in the beginning, alone and without a second. From that Nonexistent sprang the Existent.’ “But how could it really be so, my son?” he said. “How could what exists spring from what does not exist? On the contrary, my son, &lt;strong&gt;the Existent was here in the beginning, alone and without a second.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wherefore end up expositing &lt;em&gt;existence&lt;/em&gt; couldn't sprung from &lt;em&gt;non-existence&lt;/em&gt;. It makes me wonder—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How all these Guṇas sprung forth out of Nirguṇa Brahman presuming Nirguṇa means attributeless?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Or is it the case that &lt;em&gt;Nirguṇa&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; is endowed with all the Guṇas in latent form?&lt;BR&gt; &lt;em&gt;i.e,&lt;/em&gt; Claiming &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; to be &lt;em&gt;Nirguṇa&lt;/em&gt; actually means that the &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; consists of all Guṇas while simultaneously surpassing them (panentheistic &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;?), which doesn't leave Brahman confined to a particular Guṇa anymore, thus rendering &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; fully &lt;em&gt;Nirguṇa&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what's the definition of &lt;em&gt;Nirguṇa&lt;/em&gt; according to &lt;em&gt;Advaita Vedānta&lt;/em&gt; if the world with its &lt;em&gt;Guṇas&lt;/em&gt; sprung forth from &lt;em&gt;Nirguṇa Brahman&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2021-04-17T12:33:12.047" LastActivityDate="2021-04-20T07:50:51.790" Title="What exactly is meant in Saṅkara (Advaita) Vedānta when it declares that Brahman is Nirguṇa (attributeless)?" Tags="|advaita|upanishads|brahman|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17722" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-26T14:45:22.560" Score="7" ViewCount="640" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas are said to be voice of God so should be universally true, should be true for all times,  and true from the perspective of every region/country/person. But almost half of Atharava Veda and a significant portion of others are devoted only to cows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to ask does not giving so much consideration towards cows gives it a more regional perspective? i.e. does it not make Vedas look more like a commonly accepted set of social norms which ancient Indians devised to live peacefully and with prosperity rather than it being a universal voice of infinite God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also how is this relevant in current times? when we have advanced from primary activities of animal rearing to more sophisticated ones of digitized world? Now if someone would be to write Vedas by hearing voice of God, would they still hear the same voice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7926" LastEditorUserId="7926" LastEditDate="2017-03-26T15:28:05.203" LastActivityDate="2021-09-25T13:17:20.860" Title="Why cows are given so much importance in Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|cows|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17724" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18121" CreationDate="2017-03-27T07:01:48.153" Score="6" ViewCount="2189" Body="&lt;p&gt;A well known analogy of two birds seating on the tree appears in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15020.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mundaka&lt;/a&gt; Upanishad.(Similar verse also appears in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15103.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Svetâsvatara Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two birds, inseparable friends, cling to the same tree. One of them eats the sweet fruit, the other looks on without eating.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the same tree man sits grieving, immersed, bewildered by his own impotence (an-îsâ). But when he sees the other lord (îsâ) contented&#xA;  and knows his glory, then his grief passes away .&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here two birds are Jiva/Atma(individual soul) and Lord/Paramatma(Super Soul).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Advaita Doctrine there is no difference between these two and that individuality appears only owing to our Avidya(Ignorance). As per Shankaracharya the individuality appears only at empirical level of existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As famous verse of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9960/help-me-to-find-out-the-verse-brahma-satyam-jagat-mithya-jivo-brahmaiva-napa&quot;&gt;Shankaracharya&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma satyam jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: Brahman is the only truth, the world is unreal, and there&#xA;  is ultimately no difference between Brahman and individual self&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So How does Advaita interpret this analogy of two birds seating on a tree?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2019-02-17T11:17:17.943" Title="How does Advaita explain analogy of two birds on the tree(body)?" Tags="|upanishads|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17725" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17709" CreationDate="2017-03-27T08:25:40.833" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe the story of piercing insects and having to undergo some retribution is part of the story of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandavya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mandavya&lt;/a&gt;, who was impaled by a set of soldiers of the king when they mistook him to be some robbers. When he met Dharma and asked for a reason, Dharma mentioned that it was due to the fact that he had tortured (impaled) birds and bees as a child. Out of anger due to the disproportionate punishment for the crime, Mandavya cursed Dharma to be born on earth and that leads to the story of how &lt;a href=&quot;https://web.archive.org/web/20100803035523/http://www.india-intro.com/birth-of-vidhura-story&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vidura&lt;/a&gt; was an incarnation of Dharma. He also established that actions of children should not be considered to have such repercussions. I think the above story belongs to the MBH but I don't have links to justify it. I read this for the first time in Rajaji's Mahabharata (which is not the same as Vyasa's / Janamejaya's version).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That was the back-story. Now I see many people in this site asking how something happened in Mahabharata and ask for justification. It should be understood that MBH happened close to the beginning of the Kali Yuga, and morals were bad throughout. The stories we read there have all of the good and bad people participating in this breach of Dharma throughout, and only in some cases there are explanations. We should not consider all actions done by the Pandavas as noble, or all actions of the Kauravas as evil. This was a time when there was general moral decrepitude. The stories are historic and not a lesson in morality. Very few people come out clean from the MBH. Arguably, the reason the Pandavas won was because they had God (Lord Krishna) on their side, and not due to moral superiority.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastActivityDate="2017-03-27T08:25:40.833" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17726" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8957" CreationDate="2017-03-27T10:04:09.887" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;These are given in various books.They vary depending upon the sources .There were 3-4 types of Pashupatastra.&#xA;A book in Marathi--Mantra Shastra by Shankaracharya Khare has given a few.Nothing happens after chanting them.This was sound power and since we do not know how to convert the same into other forms of energy,these mantras are useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9338" LastActivityDate="2017-03-27T10:04:09.887" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17727" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17709" CreationDate="2017-03-27T10:23:51.110" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;if there is Unwholesome sanakars one can not get liberated. If one have done any Karma good or Bad, No one can hide from the result.  You may have noticed when ever you try to walk on path of spiritual or Dharma, soon you will notice that you will get the results on your deeds on the same day, Nature wants you to walk on the path of Dharm.  And when a person wants liberation, Nature will give all the result on his bad or good deeds results fast.  If you closely see Lord Rama lived a very difficult life, same Lord Krishna did, Lord Buddha everyone went through so much suffering because this was their last time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastActivityDate="2017-03-27T10:23:51.110" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17728" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17729" CreationDate="2017-03-27T12:55:57.707" Score="3" ViewCount="507" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karthika Masam is sacred days dedicated only to Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Why Maha Shivaratri won't fall on Karthika Masam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9340" LastActivityDate="2021-03-11T12:54:17.387" Title="Why Maha Shivaratri won't fall on Karthika Masam?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17729" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17728" CreationDate="2017-03-27T13:51:44.003" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Maha Sivaratri is the night when Lord Shiva appeared as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14214/3500&quot;&gt;Linga&lt;/a&gt; to stop confict between Brahma and Vishnu, which i described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5483/why-do-we-celebrate-maha-shivratri-festival/17304#17304&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-16/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 9&lt;/a&gt; Vidyeswara Samhita of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/strong&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रसन्नः प्राह तौ नम्रौ सस्मितं भक्तिवर्धनः। ईश्वर उवाच &lt;br&gt;&#xA;तुष्टोऽहमद्य वां वत्सौ पूजायाऽस्मिन्महादिने॥ ९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Šiva, who always increases devotion, then said to Brahma and&#xA;Visnu delightfully, &amp;quot;Let both of your remain happy.” Siva again said,&#xA;&amp;quot;O Sons, this is the great day and I am happy with your worship for&#xA;me. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दिनमेतत्ततः पुण्यं भविष्यति महत्तरम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;शिवरात्रिरिति ख्याता तिथिरेषा मम प्रिया।।&lt;/strong&gt; १० ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since then, the day is considered to be most auspicious and yields&#xA;merit. &lt;strong&gt;This is the date dear to lord Siva and is well known by the&#xA;name of Sivarātri.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यत्पुन: स्तम्भरूपेण स्वाविरासमहं पुरा। &lt;br&gt; स &lt;strong&gt;कालो मार्गशीर्षे&lt;/strong&gt; तु&#xA;स्यादार्द्राऋक्षमर्भकौ।। १५ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O boys, I had earlier appeared in the form of a pillar, &lt;strong&gt;it was the&#xA;month of Margasirsa&lt;/strong&gt; and the constellation was Ardra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clear that Lord Shiva appeared as linga for the first time (in that Kalpa) during month of Margasira. So, Chaturdasi tithi during Krishna Paksha in month of Margasira is Maha Shivaratri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to Kartika Masa, Kartika Masa is dedicated to both Shiva and Vishnu. There's a Section called &lt;strong&gt;Kartikamasa Mahatmya&lt;/strong&gt; (with 36 chapters) &lt;strong&gt;in Vaishnava Khanda of Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; describing importance of Vishnu worship in Kartika Masa, which you can read briefly in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15667/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-03-27T13:51:44.003" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17730" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-27T17:10:20.673" Score="5" ViewCount="5085" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can someone please enlighten the importance of worshipping Sri chakra. I have a few friends who worship at home. What are the things to remember when we worship. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1232" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T05:19:30.880" Title="Importance of worshipping Maha Meru or Sri Chakra" Tags="|sri-vidya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17731" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17730" CreationDate="2017-03-27T17:51:16.697" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Meru and Maha-Meru are different things. Maha-meru are big in size and usually established in temples or peethams. The pooja process is same of that of the sri chakra. Meru is the 3D form of normal sri yantra. The process of worship is mentioned in authentic books like &quot;Nityotsava&quot;. However, one must be initiated in the vidya in order to do ritualistic pooja as per shastra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://kamakotimandali.com/srividya/srichakra.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srichakra&lt;/a&gt; is the diagrammatic representation of Shiva-Shakti in&#xA;  the Cosmic and the individual aspects. In the Hindu Tantras, there are&#xA;  three kinds of external symbols used for worship of the Supreme Being&#xA;  who is Himself formless and nameless. The most external is the image&#xA;  cast in the human forms but with paraphernalia signifying supra-human&#xA;  divinity. The last and the subtlest are the Mantras, which are Divine&#xA;  sounds or Bijaksharas or letters indicating certain indeclinable seed&#xA;  sounds. A Mantra is divine power clothed in sound. Between these two&#xA;  come Yantras, also called Chakras, which are representations of the&#xA;  Deity in geometrical diagrams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Srichakra is conceived as Shiva-Shakti in the macrocosmic as well&#xA;  as in the microcosmic aspects i.e. as the cosmos and the individual.&#xA;  The Chakra consists of a series of nine triangles superimposed around&#xA;  a central point called Bindu, forming forty-three Konas or triangular&#xA;  projections. In the center is the Bindu, representing Shiva-Shakti in&#xA;  union in the causal state from which all the other parts of the&#xA;  diagram representing the cosmos are evolved. The Bindu is in a central&#xA;  triangle with apex downwards in the Samhara Chakra of the Kaulas, but&#xA;  in the Srishti Chakra of the samayins, it is below the base of the&#xA;  central triangle with its apex upwards. Enclosing it and superimposed&#xA;  on one another are the four Shiva triangles with apexes upward and&#xA;  five Shakti triangles (inclusive of the inner triangle) with apexes&#xA;  downward. Two circles of lotuses, one with eight petals and the other&#xA;  with sixteen petals surround these. Outside these, are three circles&#xA;  around and a rectangular enclosure (Bhupura) of three lines for the&#xA;  entire Chakra, with four entrances on the four sides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The central Bindu stands for Shiva-Shakti in the causal state of&#xA;  creation. Shakti is here represented as Mahatripurasundari, the great&#xA;  Mother or the incomparable beauty of the three Puras or three Bindus.&#xA;  The Bindu represents the initial pushing forth of massive or&#xA;  ghanIbhUtA Shakti, with the potentiality of the universe within&#xA;  itself. It is spoken of as three to indicate the three stresses when&#xA;  the unified non-dual Shiva- Shakti seem to separate into two aspects&#xA;  Prakasha (the Aham or I consciousness) and Vimarsha (the idam or&#xA;  this-consciousness). These three stresses are technically called Nada,&#xA;  Kalaa and Bindu. Naada is the inchoate sound movement (interpreted by&#xA;  human ear as Omkara) and Kalaa is the Kaama Kalaa, the desire to&#xA;  create, which the Vedas represent as 'May I be many'. Bindu is the&#xA;  potential universe ready to separate into various categories. All&#xA;  these three stresses of Shiva-Shakti together are represented by the&#xA;  central red Bindu with an imaginary line across it to represent the&#xA;  polarity in the supreme category as Shiva-Shakti. The great Bindu, the&#xA;  threefold stress of the externalizing or creative Shakti is indeed the&#xA;  divine mother Mahatripurasundari. She is described as 'puramathiturAho&#xA;  puruShikA' in the seventh verse of Saundaryalahari, popularly&#xA;  interpreted as the 'Pride of Shiva'. It however really means that&#xA;  Shiva as Prakasha (Luminosity or consciousness) realizes Himself as 'I&#xA;  am', through Her, the Vimarsha Shakti (the Object as the reflector).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The rest of the Srichakra represents the whole of the Brahmanda&#xA;  (cosmos) as evolved from the Bindu, standing for Mahatripurasundari.&#xA;  Surrounding the Bindu is a series of overlapping triangles. These nine&#xA;  triangles constitute the nine basic categories of the universe,&#xA;  evolving from the supreme mother Mahatripurasundari represented by the&#xA;  central Bindu. Hence they are called Mula Prakritis or root substances&#xA;  of the universe. The Shiva and Shakti triangles are superimposed to&#xA;  indicate that Shiva and Shakti are involved in the whole process of&#xA;  ‘Becoming’ in its microcosmic and cosmic aspects. In the individual,&#xA;  they are present as the nine Dhatus or substances constituting the&#xA;  physical body. These are Tvak (skin), Asrk (blood), Mamsa (flesh),&#xA;  Medhas (fat), and Asthi (bone). These five categories are born of&#xA;  Shakti element while the evolutes of the Shiva elements constitute of&#xA;  shukla (semen), majja (marrow), prana (vital energy) and Jiva (the&#xA;  individual soul). On the cosmic side, the five constitutes of Shakti&#xA;  are the five elements (pancha mahabhutas i.e. earth, water, fire, air&#xA;  and space) and the five Tanmatras (subtle elements), the five&#xA;  karmendriyas (organs of action), the five Gnanendriyas (organs of&#xA;  knowledge) and Manas (mind)- these have their origin in the Shakti&#xA;  element, while Maya, Suddha Vidya, Maheshwara and Sadashiva form the&#xA;  Shiva element. Thus the nine basic triangles symbolize the twenty-five&#xA;  elements or Tatvas that constitute the cosmos and the individual&#xA;  bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The poojan is done in 9 stages where each &quot;avarana&quot; is done with the&#xA;  corresponding deities. Hence the pooja is also known as &quot;Nava-avarana&#xA;  pooja&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Each of the nine Aavaranas of the Srichakra has a speical&#xA;  significance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Trailokyamohana Chakra: Here, the word Loka indicates Maata, Meya and Maana i.e the seer, the object seen and the act of seeing itself&#xA;  or in other words Kartru, karma and kriya. The compound of these three&#xA;  is Trailokya. This great chakra enchants these three i.e the trailokya&#xA;  and dissolves the three into a single non-dual entity which is what&#xA;  leads to complete Advaita.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sarvaashaaparipooraka Chakra: Here, the word Asha indicates the insatiable desires of the mind and the senses which lead us more and&#xA;  more towards duality. This great Chakra grants all desires by uniting&#xA;  its Sadhaka with the ever satisfied, all fulfilling, eternal&#xA;  Parabrahman or Paramashiva. This stage is indeed the Kamakoti the&#xA;  state of accomplishment of all desires or actually going beyond all&#xA;  desires by achieving the most desirable thing, which indeed is the&#xA;  liberating Brahma Jnana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sarvasamkshobhana Chakra: During dissolution, all Tatvas right from Prithvi upto Shiva dissolve into one another. This great Chakra&#xA;  creates the destructive agitation (Kshobha) in all the Tatvas causing&#xA;  duality, thus dissolving any duality in the Sadhaka. It agitates and&#xA;  destroys duality in the sadhaka.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sarvasoubhagyadayaka Chakra: Saubhagya is something that is desired by everyone. This great Chakra grants the most desired object to the&#xA;  Sadhaka which is nothing but the great Paramashiva or&#xA;  Mahatripurasundari. What greater fortune or Bhagya does a sadhaka long&#xA;  for other than his beloved mother? Thus this Chakra is indeed&#xA;  Chintamani - Kalpataru - Kamadhenu, all put in one.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sarvarthasadhaka Chakra: The ultimate goal of all Vedic and Tantric rites and ceremonies is the attainment of Paramashiva. Various&#xA;  scriptures elaborate numerous methods to achieve this final beatitude.&#xA;  In the same way as all rivers merge into the great ocean finally, any&#xA;  of these legitimate means take the Sadhaka to the same destination.&#xA;  This great Chakra results in the Siddhi of all these paths or means&#xA;  i.e it grants the final Siddhi which is doubtlessly Parabrahma Prapti.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sarvarakshaakara Chakra: This great Chakra protects the Sadhaka from all forms and kinds of Avidya and duality, which are the only&#xA;  reasons for misery and grief. The visible world, constituted of the 36&#xA;  Tatvas is impermanent and since these Tatvas grant Bhedadrishti or a&#xA;  sense of separation between the Atman and the Paramatman, the world&#xA;  has to be rejected as falsehood. By flooding the Sivaaham Bhavana (the&#xA;  sense of Iam Shivaa i.e the Advaita Bhavana) through the Sadhaka, this&#xA;  Chakra protects him from the treacherous Samsara composed of 36&#xA;  Tatvas, all leading to duality. When the Sadhaka realizes himself and&#xA;  the entire world as not separate from Paramashiva, he is automatically&#xA;  protected from Avidya. What this Chakra does is to destroy 'Idamtaa or&#xA;  sense of this' by the pure awareness of 'Ahamtaa or I-ness'.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sarvarogahara Chakra: There is no worse disease than Samsara which induces duality. Due to its constituent 36 Tatvas which are different&#xA;  from each other. This great Chakra destroys the disease of this&#xA;  Samsara which is the root cause of all other types of diseases. When&#xA;  Vamakeshwara Tantra and also the Mudra kanda of Rudrayamala speak of&#xA;  Khechari as destroying all diseases, this is what is hinted at.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sarvasiddhiprada Chakra: Yoginihridaya says that this Chakra indicates the potentiality to create - maintain - destroy the&#xA;  universe. As Pratyabhijnaahridaya says 'Chiti Shakti is indeed&#xA;  responsible for the Siddhi of the universe'. Thus, the trikona or the&#xA;  triangle Chakra is responsible for creation, destruction and&#xA;  preservation, while the other two acts namely Tirodhana and Anugraha&#xA;  are indicated by these three only.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The state of complete harmony of Shiva and Shakti exists in Sarvaanandamaya Chakra. Thus this Chakra is the very personification&#xA;  of eternal, limitless bliss. This grants Brahmananda to Sadhaka.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-28T05:19:30.880" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T05:19:30.880" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17732" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-27T17:53:09.023" Score="4" ViewCount="1095" Body="&lt;p&gt;The famous Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya was once asked by his shishya Vangipuram Nambi what the obstacles to Moksha are.  In response, he gave a list of 83 obstacles to Moksha, known as the Virodhi Pariharam.  The 55th item on the list is &quot;Bhojya Virodhi&quot;, which means &quot;food is an obstacle&quot;.  Here is Vangipuram's explanation of what falls under that obstacle:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The obstacles in this head are: food eaten in the houses of materialistic family; food eaten in houses of ordinary people related by natural kinships; the god's prasadam at special occasions given by people desirous of trivial objectives; not accepting prasadams in divyadesams of great influence; food eaten in houses of mere devotees of God; food self-cooked in srivaishnava houses; food given on an account; food offered for fame; wedding food; food for posthumous rites; food given for a price; defiled food; food given on a declaration; food given with some pride; food touched by others; food kept in vessels touched by others; food cooked by people thinking of other god or chanting other verses; food not cooked by people thinking of the God and reciting divyaprabandham; food not prepared with the objective of God and bhaagavatas but with the objective of oneself; food served from vessels not having the emblem of tirunamam; food not already offered to the God; food offered by ordinary people to the God; &lt;strong&gt;food cleaned of others sight&lt;/strong&gt;; food offered only to the God and not to Sesha Seshaashana (Anantha Garuda adhi nithyasooris) and Alwars; food defiled as a category; food defiled owing to its possession; food circumstantially defiled owing to falling of worms,insects hair etc; food eaten in the row of non-bhaagavatas; food eaten after chanting bad things; food not offered with dvaya chanting; food eaten with the sense of enjoyability; food eaten without sense of its being prasadam of bhagavan; food eaten without a sense of worship of internal God; food eaten without completion of the God's worship; food not eaten as the prasadam of the food accepted by bhaagavatas; food not taken as the prasadam of a good Acharya; food eaten with a mere wrong sense as the remainder of pancha prana aahuthis; food eaten without an understanding of the power of sanctification of the seeing and touch etc of special bhaagavatas; food eaten with hesitation to mix with bhaagavatas who are sanctifiers of the row in which they are sitting (pankti pavanar); regular food in one's house and regular food in the houses of persons equal to the Acharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now there are many items I could ask about, but I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, what does Vangipuram Nambi mean by saying that &quot;food cleaned of others sight&quot; is an obstacle to Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it mean that it's bad to eat food that's free from other's people sight, i.e. you should eat in the presence of others?  That seems to be the meaning, but that's contrary to the traditional advice that you should eat when others &lt;em&gt;aren't&lt;/em&gt; looking, to avoid their evil eye.  But perhaps that advice is for those who are concerned with the materialistic harm that comes from the evil eye, and not for those who seek Moksha.  Perhaps those seeking Moksha should be willing to share their food with onlookers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any commentaries on the Virodhi Pariharam that shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-02-18T12:21:40.007" LastActivityDate="2018-02-18T12:21:40.007" Title="Do Sri Vaishnavas believe you should not eat food in the presence of others?" Tags="|practice|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|food|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17733" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17696" CreationDate="2017-03-27T18:39:16.417" Score="4" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Who is a Guru?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upa=near; nayana=to take or lead (a child). Near whom or what is (the child) taken? Near the guru. That is what upanayana means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who is a guru?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who has mastered the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is one guru during the brahmacaryāśrama (student-bachelorhood) and another during the last āśrama of sannyāsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first guru is learned in the Vedas, Vedāngas and so on while the second is one who has forsaken all including the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the first āśrama you acquire vidyā; in the last āśrama you realise jñāna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part17/chap1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma » Brahmacaryāśrama » Upanayana&lt;/a&gt;]&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Does Guru need to be physically present?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes &amp;amp; No.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c026.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahābhārata&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Without the aid of an understanding cleansed by study of the scriptures and without that true conception of all things which is known by the name of Vijnana, the attainment of Emancipation is impossible. That &lt;strong&gt;cleansed understanding&lt;/strong&gt;, again, it is said, &lt;strong&gt;is unattainable without one's connection with a preceptor&lt;/strong&gt;. The preceptor is the helmsman, and knowledge is the boat (aided by whom and which one succeeds in crossing the ocean of the world). After having acquired that boat, one becomes crowned with success. Indeed, having crossed the ocean, one may abandon both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramana Maharshi&lt;/a&gt; had no physical guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Questioner: J. Krishnamurti says, &quot;No Guru is necessary.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramana Maharshi: How did he know it? One can say so after realizing but not before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q: Sri Aurobindo and others refer to you as having had no Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A: &lt;strong&gt;It all depends on what you call a Guru. He need not be in a human form.&lt;/strong&gt; Dattatreya had twenty-four Gurus including the five elements- earth, water, etc. Every object in this world was his Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Guru is absolutely necessary. The Upanishads say that none but a Guru can take a man out of the jungle of intellect and sense perceptions. So there must be a Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q: I mean a human Guru - Maharshi did not have one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A: I might have had one at one time or other. But did I not sing hymns to Arunachala? What is a Guru? Guru is God or the Self. First a man prays to God to fulfill his desires. A time comes when he will no more pray for the fulfillment of material desires but for God Himself. &lt;strong&gt;God then appears to him in some form or other, human or non-human&lt;/strong&gt;, to guide him to Himself in answer to his prayer and according to his needs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=VtAvJ3y57MoC&amp;amp;lpg=PP1&amp;amp;dq=isbn%3A0141935383&amp;amp;pg=PT118#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%22guru%20is%20necessary%22&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi by David Godman&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-03-27T18:39:16.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17734" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17709" CreationDate="2017-03-27T21:39:56.370" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Without going into whether Bhishma was on a bed of arrows due to killing a butterfly or snake in the past life, I'll answer the questions I assume you are trying to ask - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why is human life valued more over insect life?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Due to its unique faculties of inquiry, capability for religion, and the only possibility for liberation. This &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/value-of-human-life&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; can be helpful.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How could such a small amount of bad Karma cause a virtuous person as Bhishma to suffer to such a degree?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The amount of bad karma is not negated by the good karma, the effects of both are to be individually &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma#In_Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;realized&lt;/a&gt;. The story of Pandavas suffering in hell for a short duration after their death, is one &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;example&lt;/a&gt; in this regard. Also, though causing death of an insect is a smaller sin compared to the murder of a human, it is enough to cause a painful death.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He who injures harmless creatures from a wish to give himself pleasure, never finds happiness in this life or the next.” (Manu-samhita 5.45) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The sins generated by violence curtail the life of the perpetrator.” (Mahabharata, Anu.115.33)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Men gifted with intelligence and purified souls should always treat others as they themselves wish to be treated.&quot;(Mahabharata, Anu.115.20)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9342" LastEditorUserId="9342" LastEditDate="2017-03-28T06:12:53.140" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T06:12:53.140" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17735" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17721" CreationDate="2017-03-28T02:25:35.143" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My question is - saying Gunas/attributes/qualities appear due to Māyā clearly implies Gunas were present in Brahman in latent form which appears clearly due to Avīdyā, if it not so then it would mean that existence sprung out from non existence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the fundamental concepts in Advaita Vedanta is &quot;Mithya&quot;.  While there is no correct translation into English, the closest is &quot;Relative Reality&quot;.  &quot;Satyam&quot; on the other hand is &quot;Absolute Reality&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three states of awareness - waking, dream, deep-sleep - are all Mithya.  Most people realize easily that the dream state is Mithya, because it's not available during the waking state.  However, when you are in the dream, it appears real.  Note that the Advaitin does not negate the experience, only the absoluteness of that reality.  Similarly, the waking state is not available in the dream or deep sleep states, and therefore is not Absolute Reality.  Only Brahman, which permeates and transcends the three states is Absolute Reality, or Satyam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, getting to your question, the Attributes/Gunas are also Mithya or ASat. (sorry - I don't know how to put the fancy characters up).  Only Satyam is Absolute Existence; all Mithya is Relative Existence.  The attributes are &quot;relatively-existent&quot;, but not &quot;absolutely-existent&quot;.  Therefore, existence has NOT sprung from non-existence.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9345" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T02:25:35.143" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17737" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17738" CreationDate="2017-03-28T06:24:50.033" Score="-3" ViewCount="6231" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Maharashtra, the New Year is celebrated with a holiday called Gudi Padwa.  I had heard dark history behind it and I became speechless.  So what's the truth behind Gudi Padwa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9347" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-18T17:43:46.183" LastActivityDate="2018-03-10T20:10:27.907" Title="What is the origin of &quot;Gudi Padwa&quot;?" Tags="|festivals|celebrations|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17738" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17737" CreationDate="2017-03-28T06:29:08.860" Score="-3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gudi Padwa was first celebrated in 1689 after the killing of Chatrapati&#xA;Sambhaji Raje. Why?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Gudipadva&lt;/em&gt; is auspicious day for western Maharashtrian Hindu. &lt;em&gt;Gudi&lt;/em&gt; is&#xA;sort of flag comprises &lt;em&gt;bambu&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;saree&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;neem&lt;/em&gt; branches, inverted &lt;em&gt;lota&lt;/em&gt; all&#xA;inauspicious things to hindus. Still it is proudly flagged high on their&#xA;houses. This gudi which is made from inauspicious things to hindus has been flagged&#xA;high since the death of Chatrapati Sambhaji Raje by the Aurangjeb's Brahmin&#xA;ministers at Vadhu-Budruk. For the high class of Maharashtrians it was the&#xA;happiest moments in their life, it was a victory for them as Mahant Athavale&#xA;of Sanatan says, &quot;Gudi is symbol of victory&quot;. Why Brahmin minister's killed&#xA;Sambhaji Raje? Because&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Raje had killed four ministers who had betrayed him, withdrew&#xA;their *sanad *and &lt;em&gt;vatan&lt;/em&gt;(donated land and authority)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sambhaji Raje had written &lt;i&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Budhbhushanam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/i&gt; sanskrit granth (&lt;i&gt;Manusmriti&#xA;says only Brahmins can study sanskirt and has refused other castes to study&#xA;sanskrit, if Shudra listen, read, write sanskrit, he will have to face&#xA;punishment&lt;/i&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Religious reformation in Maharashtra was started by Raje.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these movements were revolt against Hindu religious establishments. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Note: Can found same reference in the book &lt;strong&gt;&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://cdn.satyashodhak.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/shivrayanche-khare-shatru.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shivaji Rajanche Khare Shatru Kon?&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; of Shiv Shrimant Kokate&lt;/a&gt;. page no. 43  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That providing information that Aurangjeba didn't killed Sambhaji Raje because of religion it just because political reason.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And for kind information it isn't anti-Brahmin because who else claiming that weren't against Brahmin but their violence that they committing through Manusmriti. And as their precepts. Guys considering I'm spreading poison it isn't true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You must read &lt;strong&gt;Historiography&lt;/strong&gt; wiki(&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivaji&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shivaji&lt;/a&gt;) document it's also authenticate and that is also proving that isn't anti-Brahmin.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And so it is thinkable why considerable anti-Brahmin organizations support  honorable Narendra Dabholkar when he was Brahmin? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That isn't what you guys thinking. It feels bitter as poison because truth is always bitter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Concern is not to celebrate what isn't truth, isn't prideful and it's not our festival truly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9347" LastEditorUserId="9347" LastEditDate="2017-04-18T05:41:42.113" LastActivityDate="2017-04-18T05:41:42.113" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17739" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17741" CreationDate="2017-03-28T07:35:14.807" Score="10" ViewCount="2951" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people cite the example of the Pandavas hunting deers to prove that its ok for the Kshatriyas (&amp;amp; the Kingly classes) to hunt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) But are there any Scriptures which explicitly say that Kings and Kshatriyas are allowed to hunt?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) And how do they (the Scriptures) justify the act which is, needless to say, cruel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case of animal sacrifices. its stated (for example in Manu Smriti &amp;amp; in several other Scriptures) that since, the sacrifice is being done for the benefit of the whole world (including that of the animal which is being sacrificed), that killing is not &quot;killing&quot; and it does not incur any sin. That's understandable, but how is killing innocent animals for pleasure and pastime  justified in the Scriptures? And how does the act benefit anyone?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What the Manu Smriti says, is quite the opposite though, that is, for the Kings, hunting is one of the vices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.47. &lt;strong&gt;Hunting&lt;/strong&gt;, gambling, sleeping by day, censoriousness, (excess with) women, drunkenness, (an inordinate love for) dancing, singing,&#xA;  and music, and useless travel &lt;strong&gt;are the tenfold set (of vices) springing&#xA;  from love of pleasure.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;EDIT&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By killing all sorts of forest-ranging deer, one should remain fasting&#xA;  for three nights and recite the AgniMantrams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;~Samvarta Smriti;  1-143&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-26T15:22:23.037" LastActivityDate="2023-04-10T01:20:21.320" Title="Which scriptures say that the Kings and Kshatriyas are allowed to hunt animals?" Tags="|scripture|animals|smriti|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17740" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17746" CreationDate="2017-03-28T08:50:37.907" Score="12" ViewCount="918" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vmission.org.in/hinduism/samskaras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samskaras&lt;/a&gt; or the purificatory rituals (like Garbhadana,Upanyana etc) play pivotal role.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The complete list of such Samskaras are as given below :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Garbhaadaana Pumsavana Seemontonnayana Jaata karma naama karana annapraashanaashchoulopa nayanam chatvaari Veda Vrataani snaatakam&#xA;  sahadharma chaarini samyogah, panchaanaam yagjnaanaamanushthaanam Deva&#xA;  pitru Manushya Bhuta braahmanaa meteshaam cha Ashtakaa paarvanah&#xA;  Shraddham Shraavanyaagrahaayani Chaitraashvayujeeti sapta paaka yajna&#xA;  samsthaa agnaadheyamagnihotram Dharma purna maasaagrayanam&#xA;  chaaturmaasyaani nirudha pashu bandhasoutraanameeti saptahaviryagjna&#xA;  samsthaa/ Agnishtomotyagnishtoma ukthyasshodashi vaajapeyaati raatro&#xA;  aapnoyami iti sapta soma samsthaa ityete chatvaarimshat samskaaraah&#xA;  athashtaavaatma gunaah&#xA;  dayaasarvabhuteshukshaantiranashyaashouchamanaayaasomangala&#xA;  kaarpanyaheti&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are forty Samskaaras viz. Garbha daana, Pumsavana,&#xA;  Seemontonnayana, Jaata Karma,Naama karana, Anna praashana, Choula,&#xA;  Upanayana, Four Veda Vrataas, Snaataka, Saha dharma charini samyoga;&#xA;  Pancha yajnaanushthaana viz. of Deva-Pitru-Manushya-Bhuta- Braahma;&#xA;  Ashtakaa paarvana, Shraaddha, Shravani, Agrahaayani, Chaitri and&#xA;  Ashviyuji being Seven Paaka Yajnas; Seven Haviryajnas viz.&#xA;  Agnyaadheya, Agni hotra, Darsha purna momths, Agraayana,Chaturmaasya,&#xA;  nirudha, pashubandha and Soatramani; and Seven Somas viz. Agnishtoma,&#xA;  Atyagnishtoma, Ukthya, Shodashi,Vaajapeya, Atiraatra and Aapteya: all&#xA;  these totalling forty!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After marriage the Garbhadana samskara is done on the couple before they unite for the first time.This is the first among all the samskaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,suppose a Brahmin couple begets a son without performing the samskara .And that son grows up and in due time  receives initiation into Vedas  (Upanayana) too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now,did this boy attain Dvijatva at all or he failed to do so because the Garbhadana was not performed before his birth?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If yes is the answer,then what is the need of performing Garbhadana at all?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question arose in my mind upon seeing how &lt;a href=&quot;http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/In_the_Kali-yuga,_everyone_is_sudra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt; is trying to prove that everyone is a Sudra in Kali Yuga .They use various kinds of argument to prove their point and one among them is that since Garbhadana is not performed in this age everyone is perpetually Sudras :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is said in the scriptures, kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ. In the age of&#xA;  Kali everyone will be like śūdras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the age of Kali the population all over the world is of śūdra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;quality or lower for want of this purificatory process&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a need for a good and intelligent class of brāhmaṇas who are&#xA;  expert in performing the purificatory processes prescribed in the&#xA;  system of varṇāśrama-dharma. Unless such purificatory processes are&#xA;  performed, there is no possibility of good population, and in the age&#xA;  of Kali the population all over the world is of śūdra quality or lower&#xA;  for want of this purificatory process. It is not possible, however, to&#xA;  revive the Vedic process of purification in this age, for want of&#xA;  proper facilities and good brāhmaṇas, but there is the Pāñcarātrika&#xA;  system also recommended for this age. The Pāñcarātrika system acts on&#xA;  the śūdra class of men, supposedly the population of the Kali-yuga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is also stated that in this age of Kali, everyone is śūdra due to&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;the absence of the garbhādhāna-saṁskāra&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word śaukra janma means &quot;taking birth by seminal discharge.&quot;&#xA;  Animals can take their birth in this way too. However, a human being&#xA;  can be reformed from the śaukra janma, as recommended in the Vedic&#xA;  civilization. Before the birth takes place, or before father and&#xA;  mother unite, there is a ceremony called garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, which&#xA;  must be adopted. This garbhādhāna-saṁskāra is especially recommended&#xA;  for higher castes, especially the brāhmaṇa caste. It is said in the&#xA;  śāstras that if the garbhādhāna-saṁskāra is not practiced among the&#xA;  higher castes, the entire family becomes śūdra. It is also stated that&#xA;  in this age of Kali, everyone is śūdra due to the absence of the&#xA;  garbhādhāna-saṁskāra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An auxiliary question-Is the Garbhadana Samskara performed at all among at least the priestly classes of India these days ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE-Please answer my questions marked in bold &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; by citing from Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-28T12:27:13.910" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T05:49:23.827" Title="Does not performing the Garbhadana samskara result in Sudra progeny?" Tags="|scripture|brahmins|smriti|samskara|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17741" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17739" CreationDate="2017-03-28T12:21:40.963" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhishma says this to Yudhishthira in Mahabharata Book 13 of Anushasana parva Chapter CXVI  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b081.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b081.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Bhishma said, 'It is even so, O mighty-armed one, as thou sayest. There is nothing on earth that is superior to flesh in point of taste. There is nothing that is more beneficial then flesh to persons that are lean, or weak, or afflicted with disease, or addicted to sexual congress or exhausted with travel. Flesh speedily increases strength. It produces great development. There is no food, O scorcher of foes, that is superior to flesh. But, O delighter of the Kurus, the merits are great that attach to men that abstain from it. Listen to me as I discourse to thee on it. That man who wished to increase his own flesh by the flesh of another living creature is such that there is none meaner and more cruel than he. In this world there is nothing that is dearer to a creature than his life. Hence (instead of taking that valuable possession), one should show compassion to the lives of others as one does to one's own life. Without doubt, O son, flesh has its origin in the vital seed. There is great demerit attaching to its eating, as, indeed, there is merit in abstaining from it. One does not, however, incur any fault by eating flesh sanctified according to the ordinances of the Vedas. The audition is heard that animals were created for sacrifice. They who eat flesh in any other way are said to follow the Rakshasa practice. &lt;strong&gt;Listen to me as I tell thee what the ordinance is that has been laid down for the Kshatriyas. They do not incur any fault by eating flesh that has been acquired by expenditure of prowess. All deer of the wilderness were dedicated to the deities and the Pitris in days of old, O king, by Agastya. Hence, the hunting of deer is not censured. There can be no hunting without risk of one's own life. There is equality of risk between the slayer and the slain. Either the animal is killed or it kills the hunter. Hence, O Bharata, even royal sages betake themselves to the practice of hunting. By such conduct they do not become stained with sin. Indeed, the practice is not regarded as sinful.&lt;/strong&gt; There is nothing, O delighter of the Kurus, that is equal in point of merit, either here or hereafter, to the practice of compassion to all living creatures&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Kshatriyas are allowed to hunt all wild deer species so as to eat their meat which they acquire at risk to their lives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hunting of animals whose meat you don't plan to eat would not be allowed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hunting should involve risk to hunter's life, so hunting using traps, dogs and modern rifles etc which keep hunters safe would not be allowed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Justification for this act are twofold.&#xA;1. All wild deer have been dedicated to devas and pitris in ancient times, so hunting them is same as sacrificing them in vedic ritual as far as its sinfulness is concerned.&#xA;2. Risk taking during hunting tests kshatriya's prowness. This is probably most close to battle situation kshatriya will come without actually doing battle and killing other humans. Hunting would test and train Kshatriya's courage , athletic abilities and ability to think on one's feet. This was probably best way to stay sharp and trained during peace times. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T12:21:40.963" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17742" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17740" CreationDate="2017-03-28T13:01:38.617" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I asked this question to a vaidika brahmanar.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;He said, since most grooms nowadays do not know garbhadana samskara mantra (which must be said in private at night when husband and wife are together), and since it is not practical/comfortable to invite a priest to the home on a specific night, the garbhadana mantra is told (by the priest and repeated by the groom) during the marriage ceremony itself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T13:01:38.617" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17743" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17744" CreationDate="2017-03-28T13:53:47.197" Score="0" ViewCount="162" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chaitra Shukla Pratipada has began onTuesday, March 28 at 8.26 am. Chaitra Amavasya is ended on 8.27 am in the morning of March 28 this year and Chaitra Shukla Pratipra has started  from 8.28 minutes and the sunrise standard will end on March 29 at 6.44 minutes. Many Pandit ji has different opinion about it and some are saying that as Chaitra Shukla Pratipra has started  from 8.28 minutes, so Chaitra Navratri mahurat is from 8.28 minutes on 28th march and it is until 29th march morning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our pundit ji said that it has started on 28th from 8.28 minutes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;according to different websites, there are different opinions given such as Wikipedia has mentioned that it is starting on 29th march.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_New_Year%27s_days&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_New_Year%27s_days&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyone has any other opinion on it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9114" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T14:24:47.867" Title="When Chaitra Navratri mahurat 2017 is starting - 28th or 29th" Tags="|navrathri|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17744" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17743" CreationDate="2017-03-28T14:24:47.867" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hari Om! This is the post made by well know astrologer-researcher Narasimha Rao. I hope it will be useful :) &#xA;&quot;There is a little confusion in India on whether the new year starts on 2017 March 28 or 29. If you live in US or Europe, there is no confusion - Chaitra Sukla Pratipada started on Monday night and ends on Tuesday night. So it is clearly Tuesday.&#xA;In India, Chaitra Sukla Pratipada starts on Monday &lt;em&gt;after&lt;/em&gt; sunrise and ends &lt;em&gt;before&lt;/em&gt; the sunrise on Tuesday. Again, as per shastras, it is on Tuesday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, some people do not use Drik siddhanta and erroneously stick to outdated formulas for computing planets. They get the end of Pratipada a little after sunrise on Wednesday.&#xA;Ancients did curve fitting on observations of their time and gave simple formulas for easy computation without constant observation. These formulas were meant to be refined from era to era, to match observations within some precision. However, some scholars of Kali yuga decided to just use them without refinement for ever, thus considerably deviating from observations!&#xA;Even in that case, Pratipada does not last long enough after sunrise on Wednesday. So, as per the minimum time given by shastras, Wednesday does not qualify and it is still Tuesday. But they ignore the minimum time dictum and claim that Wednesday is the new year day.&#xA;They are using wrong planetary calculations and also ignoring the minimum time dictum. Unfortunately, two wrongs don't make a right in this case. :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, I do think this new year definition based on Chaitra Sukla Pratipada is a relatively modern definition. Upanishads speak of a different lunar new year. Even today, there are many different new lunar years defined in different parts of the world. People take new Moon and full Moon of various months as the start of lunar new year.&quot;&#xA;Happy Yugadi, Ugadi, Samvatsaradi, Gudi Padwa or lunar new year, to those who celebrate it today/tomorrow).:)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9353" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T14:24:47.867" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17745" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8481" CreationDate="2017-03-28T14:36:48.303" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Once Hanuman ji saw Sita Mata applying sindoor on her head in partition of hair. He asked Mata why she was applying sindoor. She told that sindoor is symbol of her love, her marriage and she does it for long life of long life. It also makes shree Ram happy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman Ji thought that he also wants to make shri Ram Happy and wish for Long life of Shri Ram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Bajrangbali ji applied Sindoor with Ghee on his body. This was Tuesday when it happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman ji went in front Shri Ram and Sita mata in the Shri Ram Darbar ( Court of Shri Ram )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where everyone started laughing on Shri Hanuman, Shri Ram asked Hanuman ji the reason for applying sindoor on His whole body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman ji told the reason of doing it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Ram was very happy and he gave blessings to Hanuman ji and Bhakt / who will workship Hanuman ji that Who so ever will worship Hanuman ji with red sindoor and chola or who will help to do so, all the wishes will come true for him / her. He will have blessings of Hanuman ji and Shri Ram too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9114" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T14:36:48.303" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17746" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17740" CreationDate="2017-03-28T14:58:32.017" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;This issue arises only when we relate Garbhadhana with &amp;quot;varna&amp;quot;. We must understand that all the samskaras are not related to varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have given references of &amp;quot;varna&amp;quot; in my answers &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17141/7853&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17113/7853&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to show that varna is not fixed but it can even change after birth and samskaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word is derived from &amp;quot;garbha&amp;quot; (womb) and &amp;quot;AdhAna) means &amp;quot;to keep , to place&amp;quot;. Here husband and wife approach each other with a desire of procreating and ask the gods to bless them with a good progeny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;brAhmaNaH kShatriyo vaishyaH trayo varNAH dvijAdayaH&#xA;saMskRtAshcAnyathA shUdrAH evaM vedavido viduH tasmAdayaM suto&#xA;me.adyaH shUdravat vartate shishuH upanItaH kriyArhaH syAt iti vedeShu&#xA;nirNayaH rAjJAmekAdashe varShe sadopanayanaM smRtaM aShTame&#xA;brAhmaNAnAM ca vaishyAnAM dvAdashe kila (devI bhAgavata 7-7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“The three varNa-s of brAhmaNa, kShatriya and vaishya are dvija (twice&#xA;born) only if they undergo the upanayana saMskAra otherwise they are&#xA;indeed considered to be shUdra in the absence of saMskAra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Janmana jayate shudrah&#xA;One is a Shudra by birth&#xA;&#xA;Samskarad dvija ucyate&#xA;By observing Sanskara one becomes a Dvija&#xA;&#xA;Vedapathi bhaved viprah&#xA;By studying the Vedas one becomes a Vipra&#xA;&#xA;Brahma janati brahmanah&#xA;One who knows Brahman is a Brahmana&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence by performing samskara and giving mantra upadesha he gains dwijahood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विष्णुर्योनिं कल्पयतु त्वष्टा रूपाणि पिंशतु । आ सिञ्चतु प्रजापतिर्धाता&#xA;गर्भं दधातु ते ॥१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गर्भं धेहि सिनीवालि गर्भं धेहि सरस्वति । गर्भं ते&#xA;अश्विनौ देवावा धत्तां पुष्करस्रजा ॥२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हिरण्ययी अरणी यं निर्मन्थतो&#xA;अश्विना । तं ते गर्भं हवामहे दशमे मासि सूतवे ॥३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May Vishnu construct&#xA;the womb, may Twashtri fabricate the member, may Prajapati sprinkle&#xA;the seed, may Dhatri cherish thy embryo; Sustain the embryo Sinivali,&#xA;sustain the embryo Saraswati, may the divine Aswins, garlanded with&#xA;lotuses, sustain thy embryo; We invoke thy embryo which the Aswins&#xA;have churned with the golden pieces of Arani (firewood), that thou&#xA;mayest bring it forth in the tenth month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbhadhana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/a&gt; 10.184.1 - 10.184.3,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be noted that this has nothing to do with &amp;quot;Dvijahood&amp;quot;. If the garbhadhana would decide the dvijahood then &amp;quot;upanayana&amp;quot; samskara would be of no use !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A bachelor usually performs &amp;quot;samidhA-AdhAna&amp;quot; which is the daily fire ritual which is the preparatory for the future &amp;quot;agni-hotra&amp;quot;. Here the brahmachari &amp;quot;places&amp;quot; the agni and prepares for the future agni upasana with the wife. Similarly garbha-adhana is the preparatory rite for conception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any person born to any varna can attain dvijahood with prescribed samskara and regular upasana. Further, there is also a provision of doing the leftover samskaras before the upanayaya. Hence not having done garbhadhana does not have direct impact on the varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even a child born to the brahmin couple after garbhadhana samskara is not except from the upanayana which shows that only the &amp;quot;upanayana&amp;quot; decides the varna and NOT birth alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the verses of SB, it should be noted that this cannot be taken as authority for Vedic samskaras. We have the related grhya and shrauta sutras to look into the matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one accept these verses of SB then it would mean that all the Vedic worship going on is a waste. If all are shudras without an exception then where is the question of performing &amp;quot;samskaras&amp;quot; like upanayana etc?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It would also mean that if all the population is shudras then all the Vedic rituals must stopped. These verses boil down to the point that every Vedic ritual is useless and only bhakti to Lord Vishnu is correct. Similar idea is also conveyed in Kali-Santarana upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We must not forget that these vedanga sutras are STILL VALID FOR KALI YUGA. We have Apastamba, Paraskara, Gobhila etc. which gives guidelines about various samskaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses would also mean that NO BODY IN KALI YUGA is performing garbhadhana which is again not very logical. If all are shudras in kaliyuga then all the Vedic rites and ceremonies should be stopped. I feel that these verses are spurious in nature and are indirectly trying to divert people away from Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shukla Yajurveda 18.48:&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Ruchannu dhehi brahmanesu ruchaha rajasu naskrudhi | Ruchanwisyeshu Sudreshu mayi dheyi rucha rucham ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Lord! Provide enlightenment to our Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas&#xA;and Shudras. Provide me also with the same enlightenment so that I can&#xA;see the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T05:49:23.827" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17747" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17751" CreationDate="2017-03-28T15:06:10.613" Score="4" ViewCount="140" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17457/8696&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer we find the following quote of Swāmi Vivekānanda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...You can swallow the stars by the handful if you want; such is your &lt;strong&gt;real&lt;/strong&gt; nature...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16922/8696&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer we find the &lt;strong&gt;real nature&lt;/strong&gt; of Nīrguna Brahman is not omnipotent enough to swallow the stars, moreover Nīrguna Brahman is inactive. ( Actually stars ain't existing on plane of &lt;strong&gt;our real nature&lt;/strong&gt;, then also the quote doesn't make any sense )So according to Advait/Sankara Vedànta, Swāmi Vivekānanda shouldn't have said so because such is not our &lt;strong&gt;real&lt;/strong&gt; nature (real nature is Nīrguna/inactive). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then what exactly was the philosophy of Swāmi Vivekānanda? Or I'm &lt;strong&gt;missing&lt;/strong&gt; something? In any case please answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T22:07:03.170" Title="What was the exact philosophy of Swāmi Vivekānanda?" Tags="|vedanta|advaita|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17748" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17793" CreationDate="2017-03-28T15:34:42.207" Score="5" ViewCount="236" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karma for &lt;strong&gt;killing a Brahmin&lt;/strong&gt; is given &lt;strong&gt;punishment higher&lt;/strong&gt; than other Varnas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This is because Brahmins are of &lt;strong&gt;Sattva guna in dominant manner&lt;/strong&gt; than others Varnas.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXAMPLE :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Lord Ram got Dosha for Killing Ravana as he was Brahmin(Paulastiya) by Birth&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gunas reflect one's ignorance level(High Sattva has low ignorance and low sattva has high Ignorance) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Animals, plants, insects are of high Level of ignorance than Humans&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does Karma punishment vary with material nature and ignorance(&lt;strong&gt;Killing a Brahmin and killing an animal&lt;/strong&gt;) ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If Karma varies with ignorance then killing animals will cause punishment at low level?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-09T08:08:05.760" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T08:08:05.760" Title="Does Karma punishment vary according to one's material nature and Ignorance?" Tags="|karma|caste-system|animals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17749" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-28T15:43:35.607" Score="6" ViewCount="367" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally, Vaishnavas follow the Pancharatra Agamas, Shaivites follow the Shaiva Agamas, and Shaktas follow the Shaiva Agamas.  But long ago, there was a group of people in Kashmir who followed the Shakta Agamas but adopted Shiva as their Ishta Devata.  That group evolved into what we now call Kashmir Shaivism.  Because it has its roots in Shakta Agamas, it subscribes to a monistic philosophy, as opposed to philosophic Shaivite sects like Shaiva Siddhanta which are more dualistic in their philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now one important Kashmiri Shaivite text is the Virupaksha Panchashika, which takes the form of a dialogue between Indra and Shiva's incarnation Virupaksha.  In this &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/h9J3z.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Virupaksha Panchashika, Virupaksha tells Indra that other texts agree with what he has been saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indeed, in the writings of the sages Shuka, Vamadeva, Krishna, Dadhichi, and &lt;strong&gt;Vainya&lt;/strong&gt;, identity with the universe is explained to born of the yoga of identification with the elements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most of these are recognizable: the work of Vamadeva probably refers to the two Vedic hymns I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4050/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the work of Krishna probably refers to the Bhagavad Gita, and the work of Dadhichi probably refers to the Isha Upanishad (see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14443/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;).  But I'm interested in the last name mentioned, Vainya.  That's a reference to Vishnu's incarnation Prithu, who was the son of the evil ruler Vena.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As described in numerous scriptures including &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp048.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana, Vena put a ban on Yagnas, which led to Bhumidevi goddess of the Earth deciding to stop producing crops.  So the Rishis gathered together and killed Vena, and then from his body they produced a new heir to the throne, namely Vishnu's incarnation Prithu.  Prithu chased Bhumidevi, who took the form of a cow, and convinced her to start producing crops again by promising to be her protector.  That is why Bhumidevi is known as Prithvi.  Prithu was also the first human ruler to be given the titles Raja or king and Chakravarthi or emperor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what work of Prithu is Virupaksha referring to, in which &quot;identity with the universe is explained to born of the yoga of identification. with the elements&quot;?  The story of Prithu is described in the Mahabharata and many Puranas, including the Vishnu Purana chapter I linked to above.  And he's mentioned in the Brahmanas of the Vedas, for instance in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4117.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda.  But none of those would qualify as works of Prithu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only thing I can think of that might qualify as a work of Prithu is Rig Veda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10148.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 148&lt;/a&gt; which was heard during Tapasya by Prithu as you can see in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17421/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But that's just a hymn to Indra, not something about being one with the Universe.  So does anyone know what work the Virupaksha Panchashika is referring to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T15:43:35.607" Title="What did Vishnu's incarnation Prithu say about being one with the Universe?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|shaivism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17751" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17747" CreationDate="2017-03-28T22:07:03.170" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;He once again expounded the entire Hindu philosophy. He never claimed it as his own brand, but did mention personal religious  experiences that he verified, reinforcing beliefs and sharing his feelings convincingly with all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastActivityDate="2017-03-28T22:07:03.170" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17753" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13638" CreationDate="2017-03-29T05:57:55.890" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Anyone or any being killed by Shiva attains Shivatva (Shiva Himself) or Moksha. This becomes evident when we see the mantra given for animal sacrifice (Balidana) in KulArnava Tantram (one of the most authoritative ShAkta Agama).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you might be knowing that sacrificing animals for Deva , Pitru Yajnas has been adjudged as legal in all Hindu Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this sacrifice has to be done only as prescribed in Scriptures. Usually the sacrificial animal is infused &amp;amp; worshiped with some mantras before the sacrifice is performed , so that it attains higher heavens as a reward of sacrificing its life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Mahanirvana Tantram (another Shakta Agama), a different mantra, called the Pashu Gayatri , is mentioned. This mantra has to be spoken into the animal's ears before performing the sacrifice and it serves a similar purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sacrifices which are done without the use of such prescribed mantras takes the performer  to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantra given in KulArnava says- Hey animal know that , since you are being killed by Shiva , hence you are attaining Shivahood (i.e moksha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shivotkrittamidam Pindamatastvam&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;ShivatAm Gataha&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tadbudhyasva Paso Tvam MAshivastvam Shivohas Hi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You are being killed (cut) by Shiva. Hence , you will attain Shiva (moksha)&lt;/strong&gt;. Hey animal,know this. You are not Ashiva. You are Shiva&#xA;  only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram , Chapter 5 ,Verse 50.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The previous verse says one who does not worship the animal with gandha-akshata-pushpa along with this mantra, before the sacrifice, goes to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I agree that this is an indirect approach  but this is the most i could gather for the time being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-30T05:29:12.547" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T05:29:12.547" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17754" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17755" CreationDate="2017-03-29T06:48:05.143" Score="7" ViewCount="690" Body="&lt;p&gt;The second day of Navaratri is observed on the Dwitya Tithi. On this day Goddess Brahmacharini is worshiped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is Goddess Brahmacharini and what is the mythological story behind worshiping Brahmacharini Devi ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-03-29T08:42:08.110" LastActivityDate="2017-03-29T12:55:47.630" Title="Is Goddess Brahmacharini an avatara of Mata Durga?" Tags="|scripture|goddess|devi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17755" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17754" CreationDate="2017-03-29T07:51:35.480" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, not an avatara. Brahmacharini is one of the 9 forms of Devi Durga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sailaputri-adi 9 forms of Goddess Durga is collectively known as the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navadurga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Navadurgas&lt;/a&gt;. They have been defined in the beginning verses of the Devi Kavacham which is found in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi_Mahatmya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Mahatyam&lt;/a&gt;, which in turn is a part of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markandeya_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Markandeya Purana.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Kavacham is recited as a part of reciting the Durga Saptashati or the Chandi Patha. The viniyoga of this Kavacha is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asya SriDevi Kavchasya Brahma Rishihi Anushtup Chandahas Chamunda&#xA;  Devata, Sri Deviprityartham Saptasatipanga Jape Viniyogaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the Devi Kavacha Brahma is the Seer, Anushtup is the Meter,Chamunda&#xA;  is the Deity, &amp;amp; for the appeasement of Devi and as a part of Chandipatha&#xA;  its recited.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rishi Markandeya  asked Lord Brahma for a Kavacham(an armour like mantra) that is highly auspicious but very secret and which has not been hitherto  told by anyone to someone too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma then gave MahaMuni Markandeya this Kavacham:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmovacha :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asti Guhyatamam Vipra Sarva Bhutopakarakam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devyashtu Kavacham Punyam Tath Srunush Mahamune ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma said :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey Vipra, Devi's Kavacham is very secret and auspicious and is&#xA;  beneficial for all beings.Hey Mahamuni, listen:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord Brahma defined the 9 forms of Devi Durga as follows :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prathamam Sailaputriti &lt;strong&gt;Dvitiyam Brahmacharini&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tritiyam Chandra Ghanteti Kushmandeti Chaturthakam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Panchamam Skandamateti Sashtam Katyayani Tatha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saptamam Kalaratriti Mahagouriti Chashtamam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Navamam Siddhidatri Cha &lt;strong&gt;Navadurga Prakirtithah&lt;/strong&gt;|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Uktan Yetani Namani Bramanaiva Mahatmana ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These 9 names as told by Lord Brahma are known as the Navadurgas ;&#xA;  Sailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata. Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri&#xA;  and Siddhidatri (or Mokshada).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this form Goddess Durga is having only two arms, she is wearing white clothes,having rudraksha rosary beads mala in her hand. She is also calm,extremely religious and in a meditative mood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Brahmacharini form Goddess Durga resembles Goddess Parvati who was then doing a severe Tapasya (penance) for getting Lord Shiva as her consort.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some useful info of Devi's Brahmacharini form is also obtained from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-goddesses/parvati/durga/navdurga-brahmacharini.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Navratri Worship&lt;/strong&gt; - Goddess Brahmacharini is worshipped on the second&#xA;  day of Navratri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Governing Planet&lt;/strong&gt; - It is believed that Lord Mangal, the provider of&#xA;  all fortunes, is governed by Goddess Brahmacharini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Iconography&lt;/strong&gt; - Goddess Brahmacharini is depicted as walking on the bare&#xA;  feet. She has two hands and She carries Jap Mala in the right hand and&#xA;  Kamandal in the left hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Details&lt;/strong&gt; - Goddess Brahmacharini did severe penance to get Lord Shiva&#xA;  as her husband. She performed hard austerity and due to which She was&#xA;  called Brahmacharini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is stated that during her penance to get Lord Shiva as her husband&#xA;  She spent 1000 years on the diet of flowers and fruits and another 100&#xA;  years on the diet on leafy vegetables while sleeping on the floor. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IgPfJ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IgPfJ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devanagari Name&lt;/strong&gt; - ब्रह्मचारिणी&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Favourite Flower&lt;/strong&gt; - Jasmine (चमेली) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prarthana&lt;/strong&gt; -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दधाना कर पद्माभ्यामक्षमाला कमण्डलू। देवी प्रसीदतु मयि&#xA;  ब्रह्मचारिण्यनुत्तमा॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dadhana Kara Padmabhyamakshamala Kamandalu। Devi Prasidatu Mayi&#xA;  Brahmacharinyanuttama॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-03-29T12:55:47.630" LastActivityDate="2017-03-29T12:55:47.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17756" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10593" CreationDate="2017-03-29T10:22:43.533" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is NO:&#xA;first i would first appreciate the scence of enquiry ,&#xA; but we observe in all pauranic stories that all rishi patnees are depicted with long hair and even various forms of goddess all have again long hair.&#xA; it is believed that it signifies &quot;Ksheel&quot; (sorry not word in english to make you understand better) of a lady.&#xA; moreover i even asked an ayurveda doctor who is a good friend of mine she also agreed that ladies shouldn't cut their hair  because of it's deep connection with harmones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;but weather to tie or not it depends situation to situation ,&#xA;there is no serious issue or concept regarding this ..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9361" LastActivityDate="2017-03-29T10:22:43.533" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17757" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-29T15:45:13.340" Score="8" ViewCount="777" Body="&lt;p&gt;I live in America, and a few days ago I visited a Vishnu temple near my house.  It's called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedmandir.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ved Mandir&lt;/a&gt;, and it's run by followers of &lt;a href=&quot;http://gurugangeshwaranandjimaharaj.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gangeshwar Maharaj&lt;/a&gt;, whom I had never heard of.  So I did a little digging, and I found out that he belongs to a sect called the Udasi sect, which seems to be some sort of mixture of Hinduism and Sikhism.  That's because it traces its origins to Guru Nanak's son &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Chand&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Chand&lt;/a&gt;, who seems to have joined a Hindu Guru Parampara as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gurugangeshwaranandjimaharaj.org/?event=abhinandan-granth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sadgurudev [Gangeshwar] Maharaj is a unique Saint who has obtained Deeksha in the Udaseen Sampradaya of Sanatan-Sant-Parampara. Based on available words, the pravartan of this Sampradaya was done by Bhagwan Vishnu in the form of a Swan Avataar (Paramhans) and the Updesh of this Darshan was given to Shri Sanatkumar, Brahma’s Manasputra(son born out of mind).Muniraj Shri Sanatkumar gave the Updesh to Devarshi Shrautmuni Shri Narad who in turn promoted this Updesh amongst his disciples. &lt;strong&gt;Acharya Shri Chandra Bhagwan became an Avataar in the middle of the 16th century in the Shishya-Parampara of Narad-muni. ShriChandra Bhagwan is the son of Adhi-Dharma-Guru of Sikh Bandhus, Shri Nanakdev and is at the level of 165th generation from Shri SanatKumar.&lt;/strong&gt; These Acharya-Charan have saved again the Udaseen Sampradaya , which was almost lost in time. Paramhans Udaseen-Sant-Shiromani Shri Ramanandji Maharaj who was at the level of 16th generation of ShriChandra Bhagwan’s Shishya-Parampara and whose position is also said to be 181st from the Mool-Purush. Our Aradhya Gurudev Shri Gangeshwaranandji Maharaj, is the disciple of Shri Ramanandji.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Sri Chand seems to have joined the Parampara of Brahma's son Sanatkumara.  But the thing is, he's not the only one in Sanatkumara's Parampara.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10174/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four disciples: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara. And in turn they started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Sampradayam.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Kumara Sampradaya, the one started by Sanatkumara, is the one that the 12th century philosopher Nimbarkacharya belonged to.  For those who don't know, Nimbarkacharya subscribed to a philosophy known as Dvaitadvaita, according to which Brahman is simultaneously the same and different from the Jivatma.  In any case, my question is, did Guru Nanak's son Sri Chand belong to the Parampara of Nimbarkacharya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only clue we have is that Sri Chand's guru was someone named Avinashi Muni, as described in page 7 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://puranbaba.com/img/book.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanat Kumar was the first Udasin Acharya. The second was Narad Muni. There were about one hundred sixty five Acharyas in total. In the holy order of the Udasin, Sampradaya Avinashi Muni has the one hundred sixty fourth place and Bhagwan Srichand Baba has one hundred and sixty fifth place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is there anything known about who Avinashi Muni's guru was?  Was Avinashi Muni in the Parampara of Nimbarkacharya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-14T01:53:05.340" LastActivityDate="2022-06-28T12:02:20.197" Title="Was Guru Nanak's son a follower of the Hindu philosopher Nimbarka?" Tags="|vishnu|history|vaishnavism|other-religions|sects|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17758" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16893" CreationDate="2017-03-29T16:38:44.320" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Better we talk about &lt;em&gt;Sukshma Sharir&lt;/em&gt; in prior. It is made up of &lt;strong&gt;Manas, Buddhi &amp;amp; Ahamkar + 5 tanmatras&lt;/strong&gt;. A soul (Jeevatma) leaves the body in this form after death. This is a bag whose content decides the next birth of the soul after death.&#xA;This is explained by Swami Vivekananda (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 2/Jnana-Yoga/The Cosmos: The Microcosm) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_2/Jnana-Yoga/The_Cosmos:_The_Microcosm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...Again, if in the bioplasmic cell the infinite amount of impressions from all time has entered, where and how is it? This is a most impossible position, and until these physiologists can prove how and where those impressions live in that cell, and what they mean by a mental impression sleeping in the physical cell, their position cannot be taken for granted. So far it is clear then, that this impression is in the mind, that the mind comes to take its birth and rebirth, and &lt;strong&gt;uses the material which is most proper for it, and that the mind which has made itself fit for only a particular kind of body will have to wait until it gets that material&lt;/strong&gt;. This we understand. The theory then comes to this, that there is hereditary transmission so far as furnishing the material to the soul is concerned. But the soul migrates and manufactures body after body, and each thought we think, and each deed we do, is stored in it in fine forms, ready to spring up again and take a new shape. &lt;strong&gt;When I look at you a wave rises in my mind. It dives down, as it were, and becomes finer and finer, but it does not die. It is ready to start up again as a wave in the shape of memory. So all these impressions are in my mind, and when I die the resultant force of them will be upon me.&lt;/strong&gt; A ball is here, and each one of us takes a mallet in his hands and strikes the ball from all sides; the ball goes from point to point in the room, and when it reaches the door it flies out. What does it carry out with it? The resultant of all these blows. That will give it its direction. So, what directs the soul when the body dies? The resultant, the sum total of all the works it has done, of the thoughts it has thought. &lt;strong&gt;If the resultant is such that it has to manufacture a new body for further experience, it will go to those parents who are ready to supply it with suitable material for that body.&lt;/strong&gt; Thus, from body to body it will go, sometimes to heaven, and back again to earth, becoming man, or some lower animal. This way it will go on until it has finished its experience, and completed the circle. It then knows its own nature, knows what it is, and ignorance vanishes, its powers become manifest, it becomes perfect; no more is there any necessity for the soul to work through physical bodies, nor is there any necessity for it to work through finer, or mental bodies. It shines in its own light and is free, no more to be born, no more to die...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore since it is the soul or JeevaAtma that has conditioning or attributes, it is clearly evident Varna is solely dependent upon the soul, not the body of parents, as that is the &lt;strong&gt;soul&lt;/strong&gt; which has accumulated all the past impressions in it, not body &amp;amp; fixing the womb according to its resultant accumulations. Now &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17524/8696&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer concludes the same which say &lt;strong&gt;conduct&lt;/strong&gt; alone tells the Varna of a person. This concept is further backed up by Lord Shiva as well (from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17553/8696&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer) -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Endued with knowledge and science, purified from all dross, and fully conversant with the Vedas, a pious Kshatriya, by his own acts, becomes a Brahmana. It is with the aid of these acts, O goddess, that a person who has sprung from a degraded order, viz., a Sudra, may become a Brahmana refined of all stains and possessed of Vedic lore, One that is a Brahmana, when he becomes wicked in conduct and observes no distinction in respect of food, falls away from the status of Brahmanahood and becomes a Sudra. Even a Sudra, O goddess, that has purified his soul by pure deeds and that has subjugated all his senses, deserves to be waited upon and served with reverence as a Brahmana. This has been said by the Self-born Brahmana himself. When a pious nature and pious deeds are noticeable in even a Sudra, he should, according to my opinion, be held superior to a person of the three regenerate classes. &lt;strong&gt;Neither birth, nor the purificatory rites, nor learning, nor offspring, can be regarded as grounds for conferring upon one the regenerate status. Verily, conduct is the only ground. All Brahmanas in this world are Brahmanas in consequence of conduct. A Sudra, if he is established on good conduct, is regarded as possessed of the status of a Brahmana.&lt;/strong&gt; The status of Brahma, O auspicious lady, is equal wherever it exists. Even this is my opinion. &lt;strong&gt;He, indeed, is a Brahmana in whom the status of Brahma exists,--that condition which is bereft of attributes and which has no stain attached to it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can upgrade one's mind through rigorous Sadhna, devotion &amp;amp; love &amp;amp; thus become  Brahmin in this birth alone. Further, if parents which were born Shudra but devoted to their life to the divine their progeny would be Brahmin or near to Brahmin because of the explanation above ( Jeevatma would fix into the womb according to its accumulation). This too has been supported by Mandukya Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sound “U” is Dreaming / Subtle: Taijasa is the consciousness experienced during the dreaming state, and is U, the second letter of Om. This intermediate state operates between the waking and sleeping states, reflecting some qualities of the other two. One who knows this subtler state is superior to others. For one who knows this, knowers of Brahman, &lt;strong&gt;the Absolute Reality, will be born into his family&lt;/strong&gt;. (Verse 10).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus it is evident from the above explanation &lt;strong&gt;Gunas&lt;/strong&gt; only describes one's Varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Why birth based?&lt;/strong&gt;-&#xA;Actually, one can only know about Varna of oneself ( if one is honest) but can't know about others. Others can act as being of a nobleman as well. Here comes a birth-based social structure of Varnashram due to impracticality to know someone's Gunas or nature. But birth based works if &amp;amp; only if&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One is strict in following one's prescribed duties on &lt;strong&gt;physical, mental &amp;amp; intellectual&lt;/strong&gt; level so as to exhaust Karmic debt. ( Explained above)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In such a case, a noble impression accumulated Jeevatma would always fix dvija womb &amp;amp; chaos won't be created. But in Kaliyuga, due to Adharma, Brahmin parents downgraded to Shudra before procreation results into Shudra progeny. And similarly, Shudra born parents become Brahmin by noble deeds before procreation results into Brahmin progeny (using the above explained concepts) by l &lt;strong&gt;direct inference&lt;/strong&gt;.  But birth based casteism can again be revived but with two modifications - &lt;strong&gt;Upgradation&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;Downgradation&lt;/strong&gt; of Varnas based on present deeds because the influence of Kali &amp;amp; the grace of Lord both are very intense, sufficient to change one's Varna in the present life alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA; **Mahabharata incident-**&#xA;The above explanation is strongly supported by the following dialogues between Yudhishtir &amp; Serpent (Nahusha) narrated [here][4].&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The serpent said&lt;/strong&gt;, &amp;quot;O Yudhishthira, say--Who is a Brahmana and what should be known? By thy speech I infer thee to be highly intelligent.&amp;quot;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;Yudhishthira said, &amp;quot;O foremost of serpents, he, it is asserted by the wise, in whom are seen the truth, charity, forgiveness, good conduct, benevolence, observance of the rites of his order and mercy is a Brahmana. And, O serpent, that which should be known is even the supreme Brahma, in which is neither happiness nor misery and attaining which beings are not affected with misery; what is thy opinion?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Serpent ask again-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The serpent said&lt;/strong&gt;, &amp;quot;O Yudhishthira, truth, charity, forgiveness, benevolence, benignity, kindness and the Veda which worketh the benefit of the four orders, which is the authority in matters of religion and which is true, are seen even in the Sudra. As regards the object to be known and which thou allegest is without both happiness and misery, I do not see any such that is devoid of these.&amp;quot; &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Yudhishthira said,&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;Those characteristics that are present in a Sudra, do not exist in a Brahmana; nor do those that are in a Brahmana exist in a Sudra. &lt;strong&gt;And a Sudra is not a Sudra by birth alone nor a Brahmana is Brahmana by birth alone. He, it is said by the wise, in whom are seen those virtues is a Brahmana. And people term him a Sudra in whom those qualities do not exist, even though he be a Brahmana by birth.&lt;/strong&gt; And again, as for thy assertion that the object to be known (as asserted by me) doth not exist, because nothing exists that is devoid of both (happiness and misery), such indeed is the opinion, O serpent, that nothing exists that is without (them) both. But as in cold, heat doth not exist, nor in heat, cold, so there cannot exist an object in which both (happiness and misery) cannot exist?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An interesting question again asked by the serpent -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The serpent said&lt;/strong&gt;, &amp;quot;O king, if thou recognize him as a Brahmana by characteristics, then, O long-lived one, the distinction of caste becometh futile as long as conduct doth not come into play.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To which Yudhishtir replies -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;In human society, O mighty and highly intelligent serpent, it is difficult to ascertain one's caste, because of promiscuous intercourse among the four orders. This is my opinion. Men belonging to all orders (promiscuously) beget offspring upon women of all the orders. And of men, speech, sexual intercourse, birth, and death are common. And to this the Rishis have borne testimony by using as the beginning of sacrifice such expressions as--of what caste so ever we may be, we celebrate the sacrifice. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore, those that are wise have asserted that character is the chief essential requisite&lt;/strong&gt;. The natal ceremony of a person is performed before the division of the umbilical cord. His mother then acts as its Savitri and his father officiates as a priest. He is considered as a Sudra as long as he is not initiated in the Vedas. Doubts have arisen on this point, O prince; of serpents, Swayambhuba Manu has declared, that the mixed castes are to be regarded as better than the (other) classes, if having gone through the ceremonies of purification, the latter do not conform to the rules of good conduct, O excellent snake! &lt;strong&gt;Whosoever now conforms to the rules of pure and virtuous conduct, him have I, ere now, designated as a Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot; &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;The serpent replied, &amp;quot;O Yudhishthira, thou art acquainted with all that is fit to be known and having listened to thy words, how can I (now) eat up thy brother Vrikodara!&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover from the above narration, we conclude &amp;amp; note -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The serpent was satisfied with the answers implies answers were correct as the serpent was none other than Nahusha who was known as wise, virtuous, learned, etc. ( Qualities that made him King of heaven )&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Answerer was none other than highly learned &lt;em&gt;Dharmaraj&lt;/em&gt;. which strengthens the answers.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dharmaraj actually answering based on wise's words of that time, implies the true theory of casteism in the eyes of wises.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore final answers are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is no proof all ancestors were strict with their allotted castes &amp;amp; it doesn't matter as long as the current progeny has according conduct. Conduct is sufficient to determine one's caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Birth based classification is necessary as alike soul fixes into alike womb. But this classification should be flexible in the manner - a Brahmin would fall from his varNa on any act contrary to scriptural injunctions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Varna Dharma or class system is &lt;strong&gt;eugenics&lt;/strong&gt; - it is a pivot of Dharma because, without one's Varna, one's occupation (Swadharma) can't be asserted &amp;amp; when a larger population stray away from its swadharma, adharma escalates that eventually leads to sufferings &amp;amp; evils in the society. Equality is deception; Shouldn't wise secure a higher level in the hierarchy than ignorant ones?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: Answer will continually be updated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2020-06-18T15:21:58.823" LastActivityDate="2020-06-18T15:21:58.823" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17759" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17763" CreationDate="2017-03-29T17:43:24.560" Score="2" ViewCount="574" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any significance of doing gambling on this Ugadhi day? I am seeing from my childhood days, people keep playing cards all over the city without any fear of cops during these day. Any myth behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2953" LastEditorUserId="2953" LastEditDate="2017-03-29T17:53:10.233" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T04:49:26.277" Title="Why people play cards during Ugadhi?" Tags="|belief|culture|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17761" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-30T04:13:14.510" Score="10" ViewCount="35301" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have always heard that because he was a pure celibate, and have never allowed his body to waste the best chemical on planet (sperm).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism at least this reason does not make any sense, because in Mahabharata  Bhishma was roughly 300 year old and was a pure celibate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the reason for Swami Vivekananda's death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-05-04T21:18:27.073" LastActivityDate="2020-07-12T15:26:04.157" Title="What was the reason for Swami Vivekananda's Death?" Tags="|death|vivekananda|life-span|brahmacharya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17763" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17759" CreationDate="2017-03-30T04:49:26.277" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no relation between Ugādi and gambling cards. In fact thee is no relation with gambling with any Hindu festival. This is just a custom which became popular. Spending quality time with friends and family might be a reason behind this. This is just like people drinking bhaang(a fermented drink) on Holi. This does not scriptural basis for this neither.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ugadi is the new year in many states where lunar calendar is followed. The following are to be done on Ugadi festival. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Taking oil bath (abhyaṃgana snānaṃ) before sun rise. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Wearing new clothes because it is the new year. It signifies a new beginning in our life. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Respecting our parents has always been a part in our culture. Bowing down to parents. Then praying lord for his blessings in the new year.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Eating &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugadi#Practices&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ugadi paccaḍi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; and other special dishes. Niṃba kusuma bhakṣaṇaṃ meaning Eating neem flowers is important on Ugadi. This indicates that you should be ready to face bitter experiences in your life too.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Inviting friends and family to our home(if possible) and listening to early prediction. This is called as paṃcāṃga śravaṇaṃ. These predictions help in planning our life in the coming new year. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Then listening to stories of lord in the evening. Spending most of the time in listening to the stories of lord till the night. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHg7JTNvujI&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Video&lt;/a&gt;(Telugu)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt; 1.Some people add salt and pepper(or chilly) in Ugādi  paccadi. Our festivals are always linked with health. Ugadi paccadi also has importance in health also. Adding salt and pepper nullifies raw mango which helps in keeping blood pressure in normal levels. Adding anything and everything in some dishes according to our own wish is not recommended. &lt;/sup&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T04:49:26.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17764" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17803" CreationDate="2017-03-30T06:47:42.423" Score="12" ViewCount="936" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think Barbarika was son of arjun and came from patal lok of ancient time, Lord Khatu-Shayam is the same Warrior who was killed by Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who trained Barbarika to become so powerful, in a book I read most of the warriors were also scientists, So basically he invented this &quot;self-propelled precision-guided munition system&quot; which was able to attack anything by his guildelines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the truth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have read a book &lt;em&gt;अतीत का दिग्दर्शन (atīt kā digdarśan)&lt;/em&gt;, which says Barbarika was son of &quot;Arjuna and king of PatalPuri&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the Book&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rdFnW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rdFnW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Brabhuvahan was Barbarika introduced himself to Krishna)&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Iyswj.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Iyswj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Barbarika said I don't have army, Krishna wanted to test him)&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1r40h.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1r40h.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Barbarika was able to finish every thing with in a moment)&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SBeF3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SBeF3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-04-16T12:12:42.940" LastActivityDate="2017-05-17T08:04:01.703" Title="Who was Barbarika?" Tags="|mahabharata|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17765" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3523" CreationDate="2017-03-30T08:15:02.720" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;New year that is wished on Diwali is financial hindu new year. The day new account books are opened. Religious hindu new year happens in march/april on first day of month of Chaitra, the day Lord Brahma created universe.  In some communities which are business oriented, financial new year has acquired more prominence than religious new year. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;India was an agricultural society where people would seek the divine blessing of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, as they closed their accounting books and prayed for success at the outset of a new financial year. Today this practice extends to businesses all over the Indian subcontinent, which mark the day after Diwali as the first day of the new financial year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/diwali/#diwali_candles.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/diwali/#diwali_candles.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.diwalifestival.org/chopda-pujan.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.diwalifestival.org/chopda-pujan.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Diwali is the last day of financial year in traditional Hindu business and Chopda Pujan is performed on the day on the new account books. This ritual is also known as Muhurat Puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.14gaam.com/chopda-pujan-poojan-diwali.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.14gaam.com/chopda-pujan-poojan-diwali.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T08:15:02.720" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17767" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-30T09:09:37.310" Score="0" ViewCount="350" Body="&lt;p&gt;I took a vow in an extreme situation. Now that is proving to be counter productive as it is effecting personal life. Can a vow be taken back? Are there any recital of taking back a vow?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9371" LastActivityDate="2017-03-31T03:53:53.493" Title="Can a vow be taken back ?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-03-31T07:20:32.383" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17769" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17767" CreationDate="2017-03-30T11:43:32.720" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me tell you a little incident happened with Arjuna, So Arjuna had taken this vow that if anyone abuse his &quot;Gandiva bow &quot; He would take his head off right away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in short his elder brother Yudhister abused him and his gandeev in front of family (Lord Krishna was there too).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Arjuna told everyone and he had this vow and now he is going to take his head off.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna smiled as always.... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And told him to call his elder brother using ekavachanam 'you' (tvam, instead of bhavan) - because disrespecting your elders is equal to killing them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna calls him all sorts of names starting with 'tvam', it is called 'tvamkara-adhyayam' in mahabharata and in this way he disrespected his brother enough and which is no less than taking his head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he kills Yudhistira but Yudhistira does not die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna understood (So should you)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the day you will take the Vow back no matter what answers you get.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if it doesn't make any sense take it back right away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-03-30T17:24:03.793" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T17:24:03.793" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17770" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-30T12:41:53.803" Score="5" ViewCount="603" Body="&lt;p&gt;From Mahabharata incident, explained in the comments &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17769/8696&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Actually, I'm not accepting those comments as  authority but accepting as I had read the incident in Mahabharata in the past. Question In other words Why one shouldn't praise oneself? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T14:05:59.830" Title="Why self praise is considered equal to suicide?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17771" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17465" CreationDate="2017-03-30T15:34:15.870" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, let me say that I'm saying this with very limited experience of Hindu scripture. My experience is mainly based on a &quot;general feeling&quot; I have gathered, and also from watching lectures and talks on e.g. YouTube. It could be that those speakers are not Hindu, but rather New Age. Anyway, the question made thoughts pop up in my head. Let me share those thoughts, and I would like to ask for feedback from the community if I'm on the right track. So here is goes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no code of conduct. There doesn't have to be one. Instead, we are taught to live our lives rooted in yoga. In my understanding, this means to continuously do conscious actions to dissolve our egos, listen to our hearts, and align everything that goes on inside us with the universe around us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we do this, we don't need a code of conduct or a &quot;judge&quot; to tell us what to do and what not to do. It will come naturally. We can do whatever we want and whatever we feel, because our feelings will actually point us in the right direction. Acts such as killing and stealing will be very unnatural. If a person lives their life in touch with themselves and in harmony with their community and the universe around them, it is very unlikely for that person to want kill someone or want to steal something from someone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We could deceive ourselves to think that we want to steal something from someone for personal gain. But that's not our sacred selves talking, it is just our egos. If we can manage to dissolve it and live in harmony with what goes on around us, we will not have such thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9379" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T15:34:15.870" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17772" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17542" CreationDate="2017-03-30T21:13:36.473" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;How can Arjuna became Powerless due to Other souls Bad Karma ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The karma of Krishna's wives had to be worked out, and Arjuna doesn't have the power to change the law of Karma. So, he wasn't really influenced by their karma, but rather could do nothing to change it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;As a man himself sows, so he himself reaps; no man inherits the good or evil act of another man. The fruit is of the same quality as the action.&quot;&#xA;— Mahabharata, xii.291.22&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Was his Destiny Predetermined as he experienced Karma's of other soul?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He did not experience karma of other souls. He might have his own karma that put him into the situation, though Vyasa doesn't tell him so. Maybe he didn't have any past karma, but still had to face the situation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the sense you use the word &quot;pre-determined&quot; - i.e. determined irrespective of individual's actions - No, his destiny was not predetermined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;If one's action bore no fruit, then everything would be of no avail,&#xA;if the world worked from fate alone, it would be neutralized.&quot;&#xA;— Mahabharata, xiii.6.19&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If it was not Pre - Determined by Lord Krishna's will then why did he Forgot the Astras ?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the main point of confusion. Lord Krishna is a special case, and everything is pre-determined by His will. So just because the destiny was pre-determined by Krishna, doesn't mean it was &quot;pre-determined&quot; in the general sense. So, destiny cannot be predetermined in general, but it is always predetermined by Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9342" LastActivityDate="2017-03-30T21:13:36.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17773" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17767" CreationDate="2017-03-31T03:53:53.493" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have to say, sorry I am not quoting any sources here. So consider this as just my own thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Short answer - Depends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's not talk about morals here, forget about recitals.&#xA;This is a thought experiment. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is your identity and the scope of your vow? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That will decide if you are taking the right decision - be it taking back or sticking to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are different identities you can take&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yourself&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Family&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Caste/Group&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Country&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Beyond&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Place yourself in one of those, now think about this, how does stepping back vs keeping your vow affects your identity and the scope of your vow? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example - &#xA;If you took a vow that's scoped to your family (assuming it's beneficial to your family) and your identity is &quot;Yourself&quot;, then probably keeping it will be right choice, if you so surely want to take it back :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2401" LastActivityDate="2017-03-31T03:53:53.493" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17774" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17764" CreationDate="2017-03-31T04:17:59.877" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Skanda Purana, Barbarika,Baliyadev (IAST Barbarīka) was the son of Ghatotkacha and Maurvi (Ahilawati), daughter of Muru, a Yadava king.&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The interesting thing about him is that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Before the Mahabharata war, Lord Krishna asked all the warriors how&#xA;  many days they would take to end the war. All of them answered at an&#xA;  average of 20-15 days. When asked, Barbarika answered that he will end&#xA;  the war in just a minute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wait, how can he do that? Because he is the &quot;bearer of three arrows&quot; (you call it &quot;self-propelled precision-guided munition system&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His &lt;strong&gt;one&lt;/strong&gt; arrow is capable of marking all the things he wants to destroy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His &lt;strong&gt;second&lt;/strong&gt; arrow is capable of marking all the things he wants to save.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His &lt;strong&gt;third&lt;/strong&gt; arrow destroys all the things marked by first arrow or unmarked by the second arrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna tested and realized that no body would be able to escape his arrows.&lt;a href=&quot;http://ritsin.com/tag/three-arrows/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Barbarika wants to side with the weaker side, but Krishna asks him not to do so as that side will surely win.So, he keeps switching sides during the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, is there something we can learn? Any metaphors may be? Sure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The three arrows are signs of three 'taapa's that a human being&#xA;  experiences. These include the physical, the mental and the emotional&#xA;  turmoils, conflicts and confusions that are found almost everywhere.&#xA;  These three 'taapa's are cleared with chanting of name of Shri&#xA;  Krishna. Thus, giving Barabarika the name &quot;Shyaam&quot;, the Lord intended&#xA;  to remove the three 'taapa's of human life, symbolized by the three&#xA;  arrows, without which it might not be possible to destroy or overcome&#xA;  the 'taapa's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One another legend says that the three arrows of Barabarika can be&#xA;  used as follows: First arrow to mark all the near and dear ones,&#xA;  relatives, etc., Second arrow to mark the people who are not part of&#xA;  the war or who are not taking any side in the war, and the third arrow&#xA;  to destroy everything that is not marked by first and second arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2401" LastEditorUserId="2401" LastEditDate="2017-03-31T04:23:05.923" LastActivityDate="2017-03-31T04:23:05.923" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17778" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10286" CreationDate="2017-03-31T09:15:20.490" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Understand first what do u mean by god ? is it oneness u r seeking ? or&#xA;a powerful being who can do anything with the flick of the hand.&#xA;I believe we can be both but not at a time. seeking &quot;the light&quot; means being brahman; without guilt, the desire of materials. U r already GOD ( part of him) , u just need to realize it. medidate unless u see the while light nd feel peacefull.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9383" LastActivityDate="2017-03-31T09:15:20.490" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17779" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-31T09:20:19.583" Score="0" ViewCount="243" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;, Why &lt;strong&gt;Pregnant&lt;/strong&gt; Sita sent to &lt;strong&gt;forest&lt;/strong&gt; without any Mercy? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Question is different from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8225/ramayana-why-did-rama-and-sita-wait-so-long-to-have-kids&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9385" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-03-31T09:20:19.583" Title="Why Pregnant Sita sent to forest without any Mercy?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|sita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-03-31T11:02:50.953" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17780" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="29041" CreationDate="2017-03-31T11:05:17.210" Score="4" ViewCount="422" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can someone please tell me about the principal teachings and methodology of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiddu_Krishnamurti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jiddu Krishnamurti&lt;/a&gt; and his approach towards spiritual progress ?&#xA;Some people also believe that he was also related to &quot;Maitreya&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2018-09-12T14:34:53.590" LastActivityDate="2018-09-12T14:34:53.590" Title="What are the teachings of Sri Jiddu Krishnamurti?" Tags="|philosophy|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2018-09-14T05:52:53.357" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17782" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17789" CreationDate="2017-03-31T17:21:25.223" Score="4" ViewCount="183" Body="&lt;p&gt;From Mahabaratha, Ramayana we find Guru's like Dronacharya, Viswamitra, Sandipani  etc., &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is emphasized many times in Mahabaratha that Guru should be respected well. If a person humiliates/ disrespects his guru, then the person is a sinner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My doubt is whether any text clearly defines 'GURU'? Does the current teachers in schools/ colleges/ universities are guru's? Does an undeserved person can be a guru? Suppose a person has very much angry behavior, is he eligible to be a guru?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-03-31T18:44:17.470" LastActivityDate="2017-04-02T05:04:34.040" Title="Can present day teachers be considered as Gurus?" Tags="|guru|terminology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17783" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-31T19:42:31.900" Score="4" ViewCount="1708" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Mantra#Text&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia states&lt;/a&gt; that a metrically restored version of Gayatri Mantra would have &quot;váreṇiyam&quot; instead of &quot;vareṇyaṃ&quot; i.e, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tát savitúr váreṇiyam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     bhárgo devásya dhīmahi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dhíyo yó naḥ pracodáyāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Has it ever been chanted with &quot;váreṇiyam&quot; instead of &quot;vareṇyaṃ&quot; anytime in ancient rituals?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2695" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-07-25T04:50:33.517" LastActivityDate="2018-07-25T04:50:33.517" Title="Metrical restoration of Gayatri Mantra" Tags="|vedas|gayatri-mantra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17784" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-03-31T20:02:03.720" Score="2" ViewCount="363" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any gurus living today that claim to teach people how to attain siddhis (super-powers) that have been provided in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra?  Or are there no such gurus left in the world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9388" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-02T14:19:53.977" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T09:38:30.273" Title="Gurus that teach Attainment of Siddhis (super-powers)" Tags="|siddhi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17785" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-01T02:13:06.780" Score="3" ViewCount="1139" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was 14 years when out of devotion I bought a small metal Shivling from a pilgrimage. But I got to know that Shivling is not kept at home. I am unable to worship it daily, especially I am unable to do even a simple abhishek daily. I read and heard that this is not a good thing to keep Shivling and not worshipping. I also read that we cannot also put the Shivling out of house as it is insult to Lord Shiva. It's not that I am not devoted to Lord Shiva , but I am unable to do daily poojan to the Shivling. What should I do? Can I keep it in a temple, our should I flow it in river, or should I keep it at home , or what. Please guide and help me come out of this sorrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-04-01T02:13:06.780" Title="What should I do if I already have a small metal Shivalinga?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-04-01T04:07:36.530" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17786" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-01T03:46:49.647" Score="3" ViewCount="51" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whenever I have accidentally stepped on a book of any sort, or even a school bag; my parents have always said that I must ask forgiveness from god by placing my hand on the object first, then my forehead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I understand that goddess Saraswati is the god of education, is this why Hindus have this tradition?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-01T14:38:24.960" LastActivityDate="2017-04-01T14:38:24.960" Title="Why are educational objects classified as being holy?" Tags="|belief|worship|practice|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17788" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-01T05:15:31.673" Score="5" ViewCount="2232" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya.  My question is about the Yoga school, which had a similar worldview to the Samkhya school except it embraced the existence of a supreme being.  The defining text of the Yoga school is Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now one of the tenets of the Yoga school is that you can obtain Siddhis or magical powers through meditation.  But that's not the only way to obtain Siddhis, as Patanjali describes in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ashtangayoga.info/philosophy/yoga-sutra/chapter-4/item/janma-sadhi-mantra-tapas-samaadhi-siddhaya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyaya 4 Sutra 1&lt;/a&gt; of the Yoga Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;janma-&lt;strong&gt;oṣadhi&lt;/strong&gt;-mantra-tapas-samādhi-jāḥ siddhayaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Supernatural powers (siddhis) arise from birth, &lt;strong&gt;drugs&lt;/strong&gt;, mantras, austerity, or yoga (samadhi)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, one of the methods of obtaining Siddhis is through the use of drugs or herbs.  Here is what the Advaita philosopher Vachaspati Mishra says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MyJ0l.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Yoga Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He describes the attainments [Siddhis] due to drugs: - &amp;quot;In the houses of the Asuras.&amp;quot;  Man passes to the places of the Asuras for some reason.  He is met there by lovely Asura damsels, and is given an offering of elixer.  Using that he comes to possess the attainments of freedom from decay and death, and other attainments.  &lt;strong&gt;Or, the same may take place even here by the use of elixir, as in the case of the thinker Mandavya, who resided in the Vindhya mountains and who used the elixir.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it would obviously be impractical to go to Patalaloka and obtain herbs from Asura damsels.  But I'm interested in the part in bold, where Vachaspati Mishra claims that you can obtain Siddhis using herbs right here on Earth.  So my question is, what herbs available on Earth grant Siddhis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any scriptures shed light on this?  What was the elixir used by sage Mandavya, for instance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-13T16:55:41.727" Title="What herbs found on Earth give magical powers?" Tags="|yoga|siddhi|plants|yoga-sutras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17789" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17782" CreationDate="2017-04-01T05:46:27.140" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;No. They are just teachers but not Gurus as far as how Gurus are understood in Hindu Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedic Dharma, Guru is one who initiates you into the Vedas by giving you the Gayatri Mantra. This Samskara is called the sacred thread ceremony or the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upanayanam&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BrQuD.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BrQuD.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.149. &lt;strong&gt;(The pupil) must know that that man also who&#xA;  benefits him by (instruction in) the Veda, be it little or much, is&#xA;  called in these (Institutes) his Guru,&lt;/strong&gt; in consequence of that benefit&#xA;  (conferred by instruction in) the Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in Tantra, Guru is one who relieves you from the ignorance by initiating you into a Mantra. This process is called the Guru Deeksha or the Mantra Deeksha or the Deeksha Samskara. And the Mantra is called the Guru Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Tantra, there are three lines of Gurus : The Divine line (comprised of Gods and Goddesses as Gurus ) , The Enlightened line (comprised of Siddhas or enlightened beings as Gurus ), and the Human line (comprised of human beings as Gurus ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Divine line or the &lt;strong&gt;Divyauga Guru Pangti&lt;/strong&gt; consists of 12 Gods like Adi Natha and his consort, Sadashiva and his consort, Iswara and his consort, Rudra and his consort, Vishnu and his consort, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The enlightened line of Gurus or the &lt;strong&gt;Siddhauga Pangti&lt;/strong&gt; comprises of 11 Gurus viz- Sanaka, Sanananda, Sanatana, Sanatkumara, Sanat-Sujata, Dattatreya, Vyasa, Vamadeva etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the human line of Gurus or the &lt;strong&gt;Manavauga Pangti&lt;/strong&gt; consists of 6 human beings viz- Nrisimha, Mahesha, Bhaskara, Mahendra, Madhava, and Vishnu (not to be confused with Lord Vishnu ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the disciples of these 6 human Gurus are all the Hindu Gurus that we have in the current world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Divyaughe&lt;/strong&gt; ChAdinAthashcha Tacchshaktischa sadAshivaha| Tathpatni Cheswarastasya BhAryA Rudrascha Tadvaduhu|| Vishnushcha TathpriyA&#xA;  BrahmA TathkanthA &lt;strong&gt;DwAdaseritAha&lt;/strong&gt;|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Divyauga Guru Pangti consists of 12 Gurus viz-  Adinatha, Sadashiva,&#xA;  Iswara, Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma along with their respective shaktis&#xA;  or consorts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Siddhaughe&lt;/strong&gt; Sanakaishchaba Sanandashcha SanaAtanah| SanatkumArascha SanathsujAtascha Rhibhukshajah|| DattAtreyo Raibtako VAmadevastathaha&#xA;  Parma| Tato VyAsah Sukaishchava &lt;strong&gt;Ekadasha SamiritA&lt;/strong&gt;||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The enlightened Gurus are 11 in number and they are- Sanaka, Sananda,&#xA;  Sanatana, Sanathkumara, Sanath-Sujath, Rhibhukshaja, Dattatreya,&#xA;  Raivataka, Vamadeva &amp;amp; Vyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MAnvaughe&lt;/strong&gt; Nrisimhashcha Mahesho BhAskara TathA| Mahendro MAdhavo Vishnu &lt;strong&gt;Shadethe Cha PrakirtithAha&lt;/strong&gt;||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The human lines of Gurus consist of six Gurus namely- Nrisimha, Mahesha,&#xA;  Bhaskara, Mahendra, Madhava &amp;amp; Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 6, Verses 64-67.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the point is, my badminton teacher is only a badminton teacher but not a Guru in the strict Hindu sense of the word unless he duly belongs to any one of the lineages mentioned above. Similarly for your school teachers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Does an undeserved person can be a guru? Suppose a person has very&#xA;  much angry behavior, is he eligible to be a guru?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, certainly not&lt;/strong&gt;. In KulArnava Tantram's 13th chapter we find the descriptions of such long lists of qualities that a Guru or Sath Guru must possess. One such quality is :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedako Vodakah Santhah Sarvajivadayaparaha| SwAdhinendriyasamchAra&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Shadavargavijayakshamaha&lt;/strong&gt;||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Guru is one who is capable understanding the hidden truths of Vedas,&#xA;  who is calm, who has compassion for all beings, who has mastered over&#xA;  the movements of his senses, &lt;strong&gt;who is capable of winning over the&#xA;  shadavarga or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadripu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;shadaripus&lt;/a&gt; (which are anger, lust etc )&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 13, Verse 42.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, needless to say, a very angry person is not fit to be a Guru. Because he is yet to master anger,  which is one of the shadaripus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;NOTE for hanugm&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see from my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17702/4732&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt;, that anyone or anything that teaches you something can also be considered as a Guru. Lord Dattatreya had such 24 unconventional Gurus. But whatever i have written above holds if we use the word Guru in the strict and usual Hindu sense. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2017-04-01T14:56:52.773" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17790" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17783" CreationDate="2017-04-01T06:13:19.533" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is chanted in both ways. As far as I know, it appears in the Samhita as &quot;Varenyam&quot; Rig Veda 3.62.10. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But to fit in the meter of 24 letters (gAyatri chhandas) it is chanted as vareniyam by many. However, Vareniyam or Varenyam do not alter its meaning. It is just done for the purpose of maintaining the chhandas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;North Indians mostly chant it as Varenyam. Some people say that it comes under Nichrud gAyatri chhandas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;South Indians prefer to chant as Vareniyam. Still meaning and potency is not altered. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the vyahriti is chanted as &quot;suvah:&quot; by some south Indians and as &quot;svah:&quot; by north Indians. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-04-01T06:13:19.533" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17791" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10286" CreationDate="2017-04-01T06:24:22.343" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;. One can become Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As stated by Lord Krishna in Bhagvad Geeta,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मां च योऽव्यभिचारेण भक्ति-योगेन सेवते।&lt;br&gt;स गुणान्समतीत्यैतान् &lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्मभूयाय कल्पते&lt;/strong&gt;।। (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-14-26/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;14.26&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus &lt;strong&gt;comes to the level of Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-14-22-25/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How one can become Brahman?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रकाशं च प्रवृत्तिं च मोहमेव च पाण्डव।&lt;br&gt;न द्वेष्टि सम्प्रवृत्तानि न निवृत्तानि काङ्क्षति।। (14.22)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उदासीनवदासीनो गुणैर्यो न विचाल्यते।&lt;br&gt;गुणा वर्तन्त इत्येव योऽवतिष्ठति नेङ्गते।। (14.23)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समदुःखसुखः स्वस्थः समलोष्टाश्मकाञ्चनः।&lt;br&gt;तुल्यप्रियाप्रियो धीरस्तुल्यनिन्दात्मसंस्तुतिः।। (14.24)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मानापमानयोस्तुल्यस्तुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयोः।&lt;br&gt;सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी गुणातीतः स उच्यते।। (14.25)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Pandu, he who does not hate illumination, attachment and delusion when they are present or long for them when they disappear; who is unwavering and undisturbed through all these reactions of the material qualities, remaining neutral and transcendental, knowing that the modes alone are active; who is situated in the self and regards alike happiness and distress; who looks upon a lump of earth, a stone and a piece of gold with an equal eye; who is equal toward the desirable and the undesirable; who is steady, situated equally well in praise and blame, honor and dishonor; who treats alike both friend and enemy; and who has renounced all material activities—such a person is said to have transcended the modes of nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, the one who is neutral in all the opposites (honor-dishonor, friend-enemy, desirable-undesirable etc) i.e., one who transcends all three Gunas can become Brahman who is Ultimate Reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from the Supreme Brahman, &lt;strong&gt;one can become Lord Indra&lt;/strong&gt; by performing &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/619/what-is-the-significance-of-ashwamedha-yagna&quot;&gt;hundred Ashwamedha Yagnas&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a person is born and lives as the purest one and when he attains the state as God, can he be included in the Gods of today?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, he is included in the Gods. For example, the story of present Purandhara Indra who became Indra by performing yagnas is discussed &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7234/story-of-purandara-indra&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2017-04-17T08:13:49.347" LastActivityDate="2017-04-17T08:13:49.347" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17792" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17783" CreationDate="2017-04-01T07:03:30.667" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gayatri Mantra that is present in the Veda Samhitas has &lt;strong&gt;Varenyam&lt;/strong&gt; in it and not Vareniyam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gayatri mantra of Viswamitra Gatinah is not in the Gayatri metre but in a slightly variant metre called the Nichruth Gaytari which is made of 23 syllables and not of 24 syllables.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is found in Rig Veda 3.62.10, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taittiriya_Shakha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Taittiriya Samhita&lt;/a&gt; 1.5.6.12 of Krishna Yajur Veda  and in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajurveda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vajasaneyi Samhita&lt;/a&gt; 3.35 of the Shukla Yajurveda. And in all these versions &lt;strong&gt;varenyam is only present&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tat savitur varenyam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All throughout North India varenyam is chanted. Probably they pronounce it as vareniyam in the South only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same Mantra is present in the Yajur Veda ( Vajasaneyi Samhita 36.3, Krishna Yajur Veda Taiitiriya Samhita 4.1.11.1 ) as well, but there the additional words are present viz &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhur bhuvah svah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;thus changing the chandah (metre) to Ushnik from Nichruth Gayatri. Ushnik has 27 syllables.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know how vareniyum came into being though. Probably something to do with Veda  Shakhas ( ? ). For example, the persons belonging to Krishna Yajur Veda indeed replace the word Svah by Suvaha in the Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Abbreviations used in the answer :&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 3.62.10&lt;/strong&gt; - Mantra 10 of Sukta 62 of Mandala 3 of Rig Veda Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taittiriya Samhita 1.5.6.2&lt;/strong&gt; - Verse 2 in Anuvaka 6 in Prapathaka 5 of Kanda 1 of that Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vajasaneyi Samhita 3.35&lt;/strong&gt; - Mantra 35 of Adhyaya 3 of that Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another confusion which must be cleared is that Gayatri metre have to have 24 syllables. &lt;strong&gt;This is completely wrong. Gayatri is a name of a family of metres.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The number of syllables can vary from 26 to 19. &lt;strong&gt;The Gayatri metre has as many as 10 variants.&lt;/strong&gt;. The Nichruth Gayatri is one such variant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from differences in the number of syllables, more variants occur due to the padas. Some variants of Gayatri have 5 padas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of them have formations such as :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5|5|5|5|6, 5|5|5|4|6, 6|7|11, 7|7|7|, 7|6|6 etc and all of them belong to the Gayatri family of metre.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gayatri mantra that appears in RV 3.62.10 is having 23 syllables. Even in the classical reference, Katyayana's Anukramanika, &lt;strong&gt;Katyayana calls the 23-syllabled metre by the name Gayatri only.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, all the other major Vedic meters are having more than one variants. For example, Anushtup is having 11 variants. Brihati is having 11 variants and the Trishtup chandaha has as many as 14 variants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-04T03:50:13.397" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T03:50:13.397" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17793" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17748" CreationDate="2017-04-01T08:19:09.410" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;@Rickross thanks friend please answer with scriptures and answer also&#xA;WHY SIN IS LESS ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This can be easily understood. In fact killing any human being is a greater sin than killing animals unless we are talking about the cows which are considered as very sacred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, the Scriptures say that, one who commits sins has the two options to choose form. Either do the necessary atonement ( Prayaschitta ) or face the consequences in the hells.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, after the terms in hells are complete the soul again gets appropriate bodies depending on the remnant karma that it still has.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Now after having suffered the torments inflicted in the hells, the evil-doers pass into animal bodies.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Criminals in the highest degree enter the bodies of all plants successively.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mortal sinners enter the bodies of worms or insects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Minor offenders enter the bodies of birds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Criminals in the fourth degree enter the bodies of aquatic animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those who have committed a crime effecting loss of caste, enter the bodies of amphibious animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those who have committed a crime degrading to a mixed caste, enter the bodies of deer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those who have committed a crime rendering them unworthy to receive alms, enter the bodies of cattle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those who have committed a crime causing defilement, enter the bodies of (low-caste) men (such as Kandâlas), who may not be touched.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those who have committed one of the miscellaneous crimes, enter the bodies of miscellaneous wild carnivorous animals (such as tigers)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Smriti, Chapter XLIV .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we can easily identify the pattern being followed here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The highest degree sinners are getting born in plant bodies, ( which have the lowest degree of awareness or consciousness among all living beings )  relatively lesser sinners get insect bodies, animal bodies and so on depending on the degree of bad karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Human bodies are however obtained very very rarely when the karmas are more on the merit side . So, the soul which is being born as a human being, for example, has more punya karma (merit) than the one which is being born as an animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, going by this logic we can say that killing a plant is a lesser sin than killing an animal. Because the highest degree sinners are getting born as plants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, this is also the reason why a plant based diet is preferred over an animal based one with the former incurring lesser bad karmas than the later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, by the same logic,  killing an animal will also be a lesser sin than killing a human being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thing to understand here is that the greater the degree of sins, the lower the awareness or consciousness levels of the being into which the soul is getting born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-01T08:48:18.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17795" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18089" CreationDate="2017-04-01T13:43:07.013" Score="9" ViewCount="1416" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the exclusive names of Yudhishtira is Ajāta śatru (अजात शत्रु). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ajāta śatru = Who has no enemies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is he called as  Ajāta śatru. Kauravas are his enemies. Aren't they? Why is the name exclusive to him?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-04-28T17:12:27.133" LastActivityDate="2017-04-28T22:45:24.357" Title="Why Yudhishtira is called Ajāta śatru (अजात शत्रु)?" Tags="|mahabharata|name|yudhisthira|etymology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17797" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="43228" CreationDate="2017-04-01T18:50:13.427" Score="3" ViewCount="2389" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found many anti-women verses in &amp;quot;so called&amp;quot;  Sanyasa-upanishads. I am disappointed to see such hatred and prejudice towards women. Women are compared with objects, animals and what not !  This is also evident from the lifestyle of many of these Sanyasins. They even forbid them to talk to a Woman ! This is nothing but suppressed desires making one's mind psychologically abnormal and insecure. It also shows insecurity in their minds with regard to the sexuality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us see some of the references below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Firstly, they are denied this so called Sanyasa. Why is this so called Vedanta is only for males? Dont women need advaita for their spiritual pursuit ? What Vedanta has to do with Gender ? When it focuses on Soul ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘These (the following persons) do not deserve to renounce worldly&#xA;life. A eunuch, one fallen (from right conduct), deformed person,&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;women&lt;/strong&gt;, the deaf, a child, the dumb, the heretic, an emperor, a&#xA;religious student, a Vaikhanasa anchorite and a Haradvija (Kapalika?),&#xA;a hired teacher, a man without prepuce and one who does not maintain&#xA;the sacred fire, even though all these are possessed of dispassion.&#xA;Even if they adopt (the life of) renunciation they have no right to&#xA;receive (instruction in) the great Vedic texts ('Thou art That'&#xA;etc.,). Narada-Parivrajaka Upanishad 3.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedarahasya.net/yajnaval.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yagnyavalkya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (is it the same yagnyavalkya of the yajur veda?)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;14&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What possibly is charming in a &lt;strong&gt;woman&lt;/strong&gt; who is a &lt;strong&gt;doll made of flesh&lt;/strong&gt;, in a cage of limbs which is moved by machinery and who is  a&#xA;conglomerate of tendons bones and joints ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In cemeteries (situated) in remote places the same breast of a &lt;strong&gt;woman&lt;/strong&gt; is &lt;strong&gt;eaten&lt;/strong&gt; in due course by &lt;strong&gt;dogs&lt;/strong&gt; as if it were a small morsel of food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Having (attractive) tresses and putting on collyrium, &lt;strong&gt;women&lt;/strong&gt;, difficult to touch but pleasing to the eyes are &lt;strong&gt;(verily) the flames of&#xA;the fire of sin and they burn men as though they were straw.&lt;/strong&gt; (any&#xA;hidden meaning in these upanishadic sayings? I hope its quite explicit)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women&lt;/strong&gt; pleasing and cruel, are the &lt;strong&gt;fuel for the hell-fires&lt;/strong&gt;, that inflame even at a distance and though juicy (loveable) are devoid of&#xA;moisture (flavour).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Silly&lt;/strong&gt; women are the &lt;strong&gt;nets&lt;/strong&gt; spread by the &lt;strong&gt;hunter&lt;/strong&gt; called Cupid to entangle the bodies of men in the form of birds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Woman is the &lt;strong&gt;bait&lt;/strong&gt; stuck in the fish-hook at the &lt;strong&gt;string of evil propensity to catch men&lt;/strong&gt; in the form of fish that are in the pond of&#xA;worldly life and that are active in the mud of the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Enough of women to me, forever, &lt;strong&gt;who are the strong caskets (to preserve) all gems of evil and are the chains of misery&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/sannyasa.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanyasopanishad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;97&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(The ascetic) shall discard clarified butter like blood, taking food in one house like flesh, using cosmetics like smearing himself&#xA;with unclean things, salt and molasses like an outcaste, garment like&#xA;dirty dishes, oil bath like courting women, pleasant company of&#xA;friends like urine, desire like beef, familiar places like the hut of&#xA;an outcaste, &lt;strong&gt;women like snakes&lt;/strong&gt;, gold like deadly poison, an assembly&#xA;hall like a cemetery, the capital (city) like hell and food in one&#xA;house like the balls of rice at a funeral. There is no worship of gods&#xA;(by him). Discarding the way of the world he shall become one&#xA;‘liberated while living’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A wise man, though very old, &lt;strong&gt;shall not trust in women&lt;/strong&gt; though very old. Even in very old patched garments old cloth will stick (when&#xA;stitched).( what is the purport of this upanishadic wisdom ?)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thirtyminorupani00xxxxuoft/thirtyminorupani00xxxxuoft_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Naradaparivrajaka Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ignorant man that is fond of this body, which is but a compound&#xA;of flesh, blood, the ill-smelling urine and offal, nerve, fat and&#xA;bone, i will be fond of hell too. &lt;strong&gt;Though there is no  difference&#xA;between the women s secret parts that cannot be  described by words&#xA;and an (ever) oozing tubular wound,&lt;/strong&gt; yet  through the difference of the&#xA;mind, (men are deluded). 4.29&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/naradaparivrajakaupanishad-3.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;IV-28&lt;/a&gt;. Though there is &lt;strong&gt;no difference between the unmentionable region of women and a purified ulcer&lt;/strong&gt;, people are generally deceived by the&#xA;difference in outlook.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;III-71. A bedstead, white clothes, &lt;strong&gt;talk on women&lt;/strong&gt;, unsteadiness,&#xA;daytime sleep and a carriage – these six cause the fall of ascetics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IV-3. He shall neither &lt;strong&gt;converse&lt;/strong&gt; with any &lt;strong&gt;woman&lt;/strong&gt; nor remember one&#xA;seen before; he shall avoid all talks on them and never look at one&#xA;even in a picture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;VI-36. &lt;strong&gt;Conversing&lt;/strong&gt; with &lt;strong&gt;women&lt;/strong&gt;, as well as chatting with and sending&#xA;them on errands, their dance, music and laughter and scandals about&#xA;them – these (the ascetic) shall avoid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedarahasya.net/mandbrah.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mandalabrahmana Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The body has five stains (viz.,) passion, anger, out-breathing, fear and sleep. The removal of these can be affected respectively  by&#xA;absence of Sankalpa, forgiveness, moderate food, carefulness and a&#xA;spiritual sight of Tattvas. In order to cross the ocean of  Samsara&#xA;where sleep and fear are the serpents, injury, etc., are the waves,&#xA;Trishna (thirst) is the whirlpool and &lt;strong&gt;wife is the mire&lt;/strong&gt;, one  should&#xA;adhere to the subtle path and overstepping Tattva and other Gunas&#xA;should look out for Taraka.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/kaivalya.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaivalyopanishad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;12&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;With his self thus deluded by Maya or ignorance, it is he who identifies himself with the body and does all sorts of things. In the&#xA;waking state it is he (the Jiva) who attains satisfaction through the&#xA;varied objects of enjoyment, &lt;strong&gt;such as women&lt;/strong&gt;, food, drink, etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-10-18T02:15:38.380" Title="Why do sanyasa scriptures degrade women?" Tags="|vedanta|upanishads|women|sanyasi|sannyasa|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17798" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-01T20:14:54.637" Score="3" ViewCount="111" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are supposed to be more than one aspect of Lord Shiva. Sri Hanuman is Rudra, the 11&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; aspect of Lord Shiva, can someone shed some light on the other aspects of lord Shiva? In particular the 9&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9398" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-02T03:55:01.317" LastActivityDate="2017-04-02T03:55:01.317" Title="Who is the 9th Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17799" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-02T02:16:41.290" Score="2" ViewCount="42" Body="&lt;p&gt;At a temple, I usually see the &lt;em&gt;pujari&lt;/em&gt; often reminding people that they should face towards god. He also said that facing our backs towards god is classified as a sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would think that facing our backs towards god is disrespectful, but would it be a sin? What if it is just an accident?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastActivityDate="2017-04-02T02:16:41.290" Title="Why should we not face our backs towards god?" Tags="|belief|karma|tradition|customs|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-04-02T05:32:35.780" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17801" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17782" CreationDate="2017-04-02T05:04:34.040" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is up to the student 'disciple' to take the teacher for a guru. No one can decide it for the student. No one can come between the Guru and Shishya. Just like no one can come between God and the Devotee. It's a relationship of ecstasy, bliss. To be experienced. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again whether one has one guru or many also depends on the disciple. It is a one way relationship. Everything depends on the disciple. This should be understood. It is one way. The moment you start seeking a guru, the guru starts unfolding. This is profound.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9382" LastActivityDate="2017-04-02T05:04:34.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17803" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17764" CreationDate="2017-04-02T06:53:43.503" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Story of Barbarika is mentioned in detail in &lt;strong&gt;Kaumarika Khanda, Maheswara Khanda of Skanda Mahapurana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Barbarika was son of Ghatotkacha and Kāmakaṭankaṭa. Gatotkacha was son of Hidambi and Pandava Bhima.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In city of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamakhya_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pragjyotisapura&lt;/a&gt;, there was Rakshasa Muru who was defence officer of Asura Naraka. Sri Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/59/2-3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;killed&lt;/a&gt; Narakasura and Mura. Muru's daughter, kāmakaṭankaṭa , fought with Sri Krishna as He killed her father. But kāmakaṭankaṭa  was devotee of Goddess Kamakhya and Goddess Kamakhya suggested not to fight with Sri Krishna. Thereafter, she married Ghatotkacha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Complete story of events that lead to their marriage are described in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-ii/chapter-59/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 59&lt;/a&gt; and Chapter 60 of Kaumarika Khanda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Birth of Barbarika is mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-ii/chapter-60/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 60&lt;/a&gt; of Kaumarika Khanda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततो वनेषु चित्रेषु निम्नगापुलिनेषु च । &lt;br&gt; रेमे सह तया&#xA;भैमिर्मन्दोदर्येव रावणः ॥ ६०-६१ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;61.Thereafter, the son of Bhima sported with her in the forests of variegated colours and the banks of rivers like Ravana along with&#xA;Mandodari. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एवं विक्रीडितस्तस्य गर्भो जज्ञे महाद्युतेः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;हैडिम्भैराक्षसव्याघ्राद्बालसूर्यसमप्रभः ॥ ६०-६२ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;62.Even as the son of Hidambi, a tiger among Raksasas, (a leader) of great lustre was sporting about thus, a son was born to him. He had&#xA;the lustre of the rising sun. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स जातमात्रो ववृधे क्षणाद्यौवनगोऽभवत् । &lt;br&gt; नीलमेघचयप्रख्यो घटास्यो&#xA;दीर्घलोचनः ॥ ६०-६३ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऊर्ध्वकेशश्चोर्ध्वरोमा पितरौप्रणतोऽब्रवीत् । &lt;br&gt; प्रणमामि&#xA;युवांचोभौजातस्यपितरौगुरू ॥ ६०-६४ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भवतोर्हिप्रियंकृत्वाअनृणःस्यांसदाह्यहम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;भवद्भ्यांदत्तमिच्छामिअभिधानंयथात्मनः ॥ ६०-६५ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अतः परंतु यच्छ्रेयः कर्तव्यंप्रोन्नतिप्रदम् । &lt;br&gt; ततो&#xA;भैमिस्तमालिङ्ग्य पुत्रं वचनमब्रवीत् ॥ ६०-६६ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;63-66. &lt;strong&gt;As soon as he was born, he increased in size. In a moment he&#xA;became a young man. He had the lustre of a blue cloud. His face&#xA;resembled a pot. He had long eyes. His hair on the head as well as on&#xA;the body rose up.&lt;/strong&gt; He bowed down to his parents and said: “I bow down&#xA;to both of you. Parents are the preceptors of a person born. I shall&#xA;become free from the indebtedness to you by always doing what is&#xA;pleasing to you. I wish to have a name given by you two. Thereafter&#xA;what is conducive to welfare and prosperity should be performed.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereupon the son of Bhima embraced his son and spoke these words:&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;बर्बराकारकेशत्वाद्बर्बरीकाभिधोभवान् । &lt;br&gt; भविष्यति महाबाहो&#xA;कुलस्याऽऽनन्दवर्धनः ॥ ६०-६७ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रेयश्च ते यत्परमं दृढं च तत्कीर्त्यते बहुधा विप्रमुख्यैः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्रक्ष्यावहे तद्यदुवंशनाथं गत्वा पुरीं द्वारकां वासुदेवम् ॥ ६०-६८ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;67-68. “&lt;strong&gt;Since you have the hair like that of a Barbara, you will be&#xA;named Barbarika,&lt;/strong&gt; O mighty-armed one, You will increase the delight&#xA;of the family. What is conducive to your welfare is glorified by the&#xA;leading Brahmanas in various ways. Therefore, we shall go to the city&#xA;of Dvaraka and ask Vasudeva, the Lord of the race of Yadu.'&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna blessed the boy and taught him Kshatriya Dharma. As per suggestions of Krishna, Barbarika pleased various forms of Mother Goddess. Barbarika helped Brahmana Vijaya in performing Ganeswara Homa and &lt;strong&gt;Devas granted him the sacred ash obtained in Homam&lt;/strong&gt;, which is mentioned in detail in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-ii/chapter-61/topic1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 61&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-ii/chapter-63/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 63&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, Barbarika met Bhima and other Pandavas at Mahi Sagara Sangama, as described in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-ii/chapter-64/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 64&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When 13th year of Pandavas Vanavasa was over, various kings gathered and were discussing stategies and prowess of each other. When there were discussing time limit of each king to kill enemies (within how much time a king alone can kill all enemies) Barbarika said he would kill everyone in a Muhurta. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-ii/chapter-66/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 66&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; describes it in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूत उवाच &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्युक्तो वासुदेवेन सर्वभूतेश्वरेण च । &lt;br&gt; सिंहवक्षाः पर्वताभो&#xA;नानाभूषणभूषितः ॥ ६६-३५ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;घटास्यो घटहासश्चऊर्ध्वकेशोऽतिदीप्तिमान् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;विद्युदक्षोवायुजवोयश्चेच्छेन्नाशयेज्जगत् ॥ ६६-३६ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवीदत्तातुलबलो बर्बरीकोऽभ्यभाषत । &lt;br&gt; यदि वो मानसं वीरा उपायस्य&#xA;प्रदर्शने ॥ ६६-३७ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदहं दर्शयाम्येष पश्यध्वं सहकेशवाः । &lt;br&gt; इत्युक्त्वा धनुरारोप्य&#xA;सन्दधे विशिखं त्वरन् । &lt;br&gt; निःशल्यं चाऽपि सम्पूर्णं सिन्दूराभेण&#xA;भस्मना ॥ ६६-३८ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आकर्णमाकृष्य च तं मुमोच &lt;br&gt; मुखादथोद्भूतमभूच्च भस्म ॥ ६६-३९ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सेनाद्वये तच्च पपात शीघ्रं यस्यैव यत्राऽस्ति च मृत्युर्मम । ६६-४० (a)&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sita said: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;35-40a. On being asked thus by Vasudeva, the Lord of all living&#xA;beings, Barbarika spoke out. He had the chest like a lion. He&#xA;resembled a huge mountain. He was bedecked in different kinds of&#xA;ornaments. His face resembled a pot. The sound of his laughter&#xA;resembled the sound from a pot. The hair on his head stood up. He had&#xA;great refulgence. His eyes shone like lightning streaks. He had the&#xA;velocity of the wind. If he wished he could destroy the universe. He&#xA;had unparalleled strength granted by the goddess. He spoke out thus,&#xA;“O warriors, if you are inclined to see the means (to be) used, I&#xA;shall exhibit it. All of you together with Kesava witness it.' &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After saying thus he strung his bow and hurriedly fitted the arrow&#xA;thereto. The entire portion of the dart was filled with ash resembling&#xA;saffron. The ash fell on the soldiers of both the armies exactly on&#xA;the vulnerable spot. (If they were hit there they would die&#xA;instantaneously.) &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वरोमसु भीष्मस्य कण्ठे राधेयद्रोणयोः ॥ ६६-४० (b)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऊरौ दुर्योधनस्याऽपि शल्यस्याऽपिच वक्षसि । &lt;br&gt; कण्ठे च शकुनेर्दीप्तं&#xA;भगदत्तस्यचापतत् ॥ ६६-४१ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कृष्णस्य पादतलके कण्ठे द्रुपदमत्स्ययोः । &lt;br&gt; शिखण्डिनस्तथा कट्यां&#xA;कण्थे सेनापतेस्तथा ॥ ६६-४२ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पपात रक्तं तद्भस्म यत्र येषां च मर्मच । &lt;br&gt; केवलं चैव पाण्डूनां&#xA;कृपद्रौण्योश्च नास्पृशत् ॥ ६६-४३ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;40b-43. &lt;strong&gt;The ash fell on the hair of Bhisma; on the neck of Karna and&#xA;Drona; on the thigh of Duryodhana; on the chest of Salya; the&#xA;brilliant ash fell on the necks of Sakuni and Bhagadatta; on the sole&#xA;of the foot of Krsna; on the necks of Drupada and Matsya; on the hip&#xA;of Sikhandin; on the neck of the commander-in-chief of the army&#xA;(Dhrstadyumna). The red ash fell on the vulnerable spot of everyone.&#xA;But the ash did not touch the Pandavas, Krpa and Asvatthama.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इति कृत्वा ततो भूयो बर्बरीकोऽभ्यभाषत । &lt;br&gt; दृष्टं भवद्भिरेवं यन्मया&#xA;मर्म निरीक्षितम् ॥ ६६-४४ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अधुना पातयिष्यामि मर्मस्वेषां शिताञ्छरान् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;देवीदत्तानमोघाख्यान्यैर्मरिष्यन्त्यमी क्षणात् ॥ ६६-४५ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शपथावः स्वधर्मस्यशस्त्रं ग्राह्यं न वः क्वचित् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;मुहूर्तात्पातयिष्यामि शत्रुनेताञ्छितैः शरैः ॥ ६६-४६ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;44-46. After doing thus, Barbarika spoke once again: “Was this noticed&#xA;by you all how the vulnerable spot was located by me? Now I shall&#xA;discharge sharp arrows on the vulnerable spots of these, &lt;strong&gt;the arrows&#xA;that will never fail, the arrows that the goddess granted me.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Thereby, they will die in a moment. There is a solemn oath on the&#xA;Svadharma-your own Dharma. No weapon should be taken up by any of you.&#xA;I shall make these enemies fall down (dead) within a short while by&#xA;means of these sharp arrows.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After uttering these words by Barbarika, Krishna immediately beheaded Barbarika. When everyone was awestruck, 14 Goddesses appeared and explained the reason for beheading.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before incarnation of Krishna, all Devas went to abode of Lord Vishnu to save Earth from Rakshas. So, Lord Vishnu decided to incarnate as krishna. But a Yakhsa leader named &lt;strong&gt;Suryavarchas&lt;/strong&gt; said he alone would kill all Rakshasas and there would be no need for Vishnu's incarnation. Brahma infuriated at his arrogance and cursed yaksha leader to get killed by Vishnu's incarnation Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूर्यवर्चेति यक्षेन्द्रश्चतुराशीतिकोटिपः । &lt;br&gt; किमर्थं मानुषे लोके&#xA;भवद्भिर्जन्म कार्यते ॥ ६६-५९ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मयि तिष्ठति दोषाणामनेकानां महास्पदे । &lt;br&gt; सर्वे भवन्तो मोदन्तु&#xA;स्वर्गेषु सहविष्णुना ॥ ६६-६० &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहमेकोऽवतीर्यैतान् हनिष्यामि भुवोभरान् । &lt;br&gt; स्वधर्मशपथा वो&#xA;वैसन्तिचेज्जन्मप्राप्स्यथ ॥ ६६-६१ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the meantime, a &lt;strong&gt;Yaksa leader named Suryavarcas&lt;/strong&gt;, lord of&#xA;eighty-four crores, lifted his hand and spoke loudly: “What for do you&#xA;promise to take birth in the human world which is a receptacle of many&#xA;defects (and that too) while I am alive? All of you may rejoice in the&#xA;heavenly worlds along with Visnu, I alone shall incarnate and kill&#xA;these people who become burden to the Earth. There is a solemn oath on&#xA;your Dharma, if you take up birth.” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्युक्तवचने ब्रह्मा क्रुद्धस्तं समभाषत । &lt;br&gt; दुर्मते&#xA;सर्वदेवानामविषह्यं महाभरम् ॥ ६६-६२ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्वसाध्यं ब्रूषे मोहात्त्वं शापयोग्योऽसि बालिश । &lt;br&gt; देशकालोचितं&#xA;स्वीयं परस्य च बलं हृदा ॥ ६६-६३ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अविचार्यैव प्रभुषु वक्ति सोऽर्हति दण्डनम् । &lt;br&gt; तस्माद् भूभारहरणे&#xA;युद्धस्योपक्रमे सति ॥ ६६-६४ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शरीरनाशं कृष्णात्त्वमवाप्स्यसि न संशयः । &lt;br&gt; एवं शप्तो ब्रह्मणाऽसौ&#xA;विष्णुमेतदयाचत ॥ ६६-६५ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;62-65. When he spoke these words, the infuriated Brahma spoke to him:&#xA;“O evil-minded one, you say that you can accomplish (the removal of)&#xA;the great burden unbearable to all the Devas. It is only due to your&#xA;delusion. O childish fellow, you are worthy of being cursed. Without&#xA;pondering over what is relevant to the time and place, one's own power&#xA;and that of the enemy, if anyone says anything in the midst of lords&#xA;and masters, he deserves punishment. &lt;strong&gt;Hence at the start of the&#xA;battle for the purpose of removing the burden, you will undoubtedly&#xA;meet with the destruction of your body at the hands of Krsna.&lt;/strong&gt;' &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suryavarchas requested Lord Vishnu to grant him the intellect to accomplish any task. Lord Vishnu granted that boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On being cursed thus by Brahma, he requested Visnu as follows: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यद्येवं भविता नाशस्तदेकं देव प्रार्थये । &lt;br&gt; जन्मप्रभृति मे देहि मतिं&#xA;सर्वार्थसाधनीम् ॥ ६६-६६ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;66.“If my death must occur thus, O Lord, I make a single request. Grant me an intellect that accomplishes all tasks, ever since my&#xA;birth.' &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततस्तथेति तं प्राह केशवो देवसंसदि । &lt;br&gt; शिरस्ते पूजयिष्यन्ति देव्याः&#xA;पूज्यो भविष्यति ॥ ६६-६७ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;67.“So be it', said Kesava in the assembly of the Devas, “People will worship your head. You will be worthy of being adored by&#xA;goddesses.'&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess sprayed amruta on Barbarika's head and Barbarika's head witnessed entire Kurukshetra War.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Sanskrit verses are taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dvaipayana.net/purana/barbarika/barbarika-skandapurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dvaipayana.net&lt;/a&gt; and English translation from Skanda Purana by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-05-17T08:04:01.703" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17804" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-02T12:06:03.687" Score="2" ViewCount="193" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;All &lt;strong&gt;websites and television shows&lt;/strong&gt; say &lt;strong&gt;Lord Ram's Name&lt;/strong&gt; was carved on the &lt;strong&gt;boulders of Ram Setu Bridge&lt;/strong&gt; that was built by Vanara Army.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ACCORDING to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga22/yuddha_22_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SCRIPTURES&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nala had a Boon that he can make stones float.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O, excellent man! This one, named Nala, a glorious person, is the son of Vishvakarma; who was given a boon by his father and is equal to Visvakarma. Let this greatly energetic monkey build a bridge across me. I can hold that bridge. He is just the same as his father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There was &lt;strong&gt;not mentioned any reason&lt;/strong&gt; for carving Lord Ram's Name on rocks.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What was the &lt;strong&gt;reason behind carving Lord Ram's Name&lt;/strong&gt; on the boulders of Ram Setu Bridge ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UAYPJ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UAYPJ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Rama setu bridge&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-04-02T14:28:57.923" LastActivityDate="2017-04-02T14:28:57.923" Title="What was the reason behind carving Lord Ram's name on the boulders of Ram Setu Bridge?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17805" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17797" CreationDate="2017-04-02T12:11:00.073" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The points that you make are not at all true only for the Sanyasa Upanishadas(I'm really not aware of any such Upanishadic classification), but see the other texts you mention in comments:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Those who are not married — sannyāsīs, vānaprasthas and brahmacārīs — should never associate with women by glancing, touching, conversing, joking or sporting. Neither should they ever associate with any living entity engaged in sexual activities.&amp;quot; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/17/33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 11.17.33&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;A man understanding what's best for him, should never run after women or associate with men thus engaged, for the sole reason that the mind united with the senses reaches for sense objects and thus gets agitated &amp;quot; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/26/22/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 11.26.22&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;One gets attached to this unholy matter and praises it, in case of a woman, for having such a cute nose, beautiful smile and face, but one heads with it for the lowest destination [of decay].&amp;quot; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/26/19-20/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 11.26.20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;A saintly person should never touch a young girl. In fact, he should not even let his foot touch a wooden doll in the shape of a woman. By bodily contact with a woman he will surely be captured by illusion, just as the elephant is captured by the she-elephant due to his desire to touch her body.&amp;quot; - &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/8/13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 11.8.13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;“And whilst not coming into contact with Sûdras and remains of food; for this Gharma is he that shines yonder, and he is excellence, truth, and light; but woman, the Sûdra, the dog, and the black bird (the crow), are untruth: he should not look at these, lest he should mingle excellence and sin, light and darkness, truth and untruth.” - &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44117.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Satapatha Brahmana 14:1:1:31&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Indra himself hath said, The mind of woman brooks not discipline, her intellect hath little weight.” - &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv08033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda 8:33:17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“they could not discern the world of heaven, they saw this (cup) for the wives, they drew it; then indeed did they discern the world of heaven; in that (the cup) for the wives is drawn, (it serves) to reveal the world of heaven. Soma could not bear being drawn for women; making the ghee a bolt they beat it, they drew it when it had lost its power; therefore women are powerless, have no inheritance, and speak more humbly than even a bad man” -&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajur Veda – Taittiriya Samhita 6:5:8:2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more point to be mentioned here is that the study of Vedas, as you show that some women earlier had access to, is different from initiation as a sanyasin, and in Hindu scriptures only male Brahmins are allowed it. I would like to see any references that contradict this statement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9342" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-02T12:11:00.073" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17806" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17797" CreationDate="2017-04-02T12:35:17.587" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanyas Upanishads were written for male spiritual aspirants and thus talk of women being dangerous to males. Women are allowed to be monks. Just as women are dangerous for men who are spiritual aspirants similarly men are dangerous for women. I am astonished that some people believe that Hindu women are not allowed to be monks when there are women monk organizations &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srisaradamath.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.srisaradamath.org/&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Man dangerous to woman in the spiritual path&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Just as a woman is a danger to a man desiring progress on the&#xA;  spiritual path, so is a man to woman.&lt;/strong&gt; It is the man who is uxorious,&#xA;  and engrossed too much with women, that gets a woman’s body in the&#xA;  next birth. &lt;strong&gt;Having become a woman, and being unaware that it is My&#xA;  binding power of Maya, as dictated by her Karma, that approached her&#xA;  as husband offering her wealth, children and home, she succumbs to&#xA;  these attractions to Maya without knowing that they mark her spiritual&#xA;  doom, even as a male deer meets with its death at the hands of a&#xA;  hunter who attracts it by his musical call imitating the mating cry of&#xA;  the female.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana III.31.41-42&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women as monks&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are examples of women Sannyasis who have attained Moksha in Mahabharata. I will give here 2 such examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(1) Pingala said, ‘…What women is there that regards that Supreme Soul&#xA;  as her dear Lord, even when he comes near? I am now awake. I have been&#xA;  roused from the sleep of ignorance. I am no longer influenced by&#xA;  desire. Human lovers, who are really the embodied forms of hell, shall&#xA;  no longer deceive me by approaching me lustfully. Evil produces good&#xA;  through the destiny or the acts of a former life. Roused (from the&#xA;  sleep of ignorance), I have cast off all desires for worldly objects.&#xA;  I have acquired a complete mastery over my senses. One freed from&#xA;  desire and hope sleeps in felicity.Freedom from every hope and desire&#xA;  is felicity. Having driven off desire and hope, Pingala sleeps in&#xA;  felicity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CLXXV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(2) In the same Satya Yuga, a woman of the name Sulabha, belonging to&#xA;  the mendicant order, practised the duties of Yoga and wondered over&#xA;  the whole Earth. In course of her wanderings over the Earth, Sulabha&#xA;  heard from many Dandis of different places that the ruler of Mithila&#xA;  was devoted to the religion of emancipation. ....Sulabha became&#xA;  desirous of a personal interview with Janaka. [ The story is very&#xA;  long. So I will shorten it by saying that Sulabha went to Janaka and&#xA;  entered his mind through her Yoga Power to check if Raja Janaka was&#xA;  truly emancipated. Janaka protested saying that as a mendicant and a&#xA;  woman she should not have entered his body to check whether he has&#xA;  really attained Emancipation. Sulabha gave Raja Janaka a good dressing&#xA;  down. I will quote only a few lines of her retort.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sulabha said, 'The contact of one that is emancipated with another&#xA;  that has been so, or Purusha with Prakriti, can not lead to&#xA;  intermingling of the kind thou dreadest. Only those that regard the&#xA;  soul to be identical with the body, and that think the several orders&#xA;  and modes of life to be really different from one another, are open to&#xA;  the error of supposing an intermingling to be possible. My body is&#xA;  different from thine. But my soul is not different from thine. When I&#xA;  am able to realise this, I have not the slightest doubt that my&#xA;  understanding is really not staying in thine though I have entered&#xA;  into thee by Yoga.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCCXXI&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Equal rights enjoyed by women&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am posting a passage from a famous 14th century text which shows the equal rights enjoyed by women in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Renunciation is mentioned in the Taittiriya and other Upanishads:&#xA;  'Some have attained immortality, not by acts, nor by offspring, nor by&#xA;  wealth, but by renunciation alone' (Kaivalya Upanishad., 3). &lt;strong&gt;Females&#xA;  also are entitled to this kind of renunciation. The Caturdharike of&#xA;  the Mokshadharma, by using the word bhikshuki (female mendicant) with&#xA;  reference to the lady in question, when dealing with the controversy&#xA;  between Sulabha and janaka, indicated that females may renounce before&#xA;  marriage, or after the death of their husband and may go about as&#xA;  religious mendicants, may learn and hear the sastras dealing with&#xA;  moksha (namely the Upanishad and cognate literature), may meditate&#xA;  upon the atman in seclusion and assume the emblems of tri-danda, etc&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  In the wake of the argument in the Devatadhikarana (the section about&#xA;  devata) in the fourth chapter of the third book of the Sarirakabhasya,&#xA;  wherein a discussion has been started relating to the rights of a&#xA;  widower (to such renunciation), the name of the lady Vacaknavi has&#xA;  also been mentioned. &lt;strong&gt;These references go to strengthen the right&#xA;  claimed by Maitreyi, the wife of Yajnavalkya, of whom she inquires in&#xA;  the words: 'Of what use would such (wealth) be to me, if the&#xA;  possession of such would not render me immortal? Tell me whatever your&#xA;  worship knows,as to what I should do, in order to be free from&#xA;  mortality' (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.5.4).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jivanmuktiviveka of Vidyaranya translated by S. Subrahmanya Sastri and T.R. Srinivasa Ayangar, Chapter 1, Vividisa-samnyasa: The Renunciation of the Seeker&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-04-02T14:42:52.447" LastActivityDate="2017-04-02T14:42:52.447" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17808" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17788" CreationDate="2017-04-02T15:25:35.333" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the answer in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books/content?id=C8LWAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA366&amp;amp;img=1&amp;amp;pgis=1&amp;amp;dq=Amalaka&amp;amp;sig=ACfU3U0vtV6C1RlRZB4UMqxnpAhTZF9UaQ&amp;amp;edge=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Adi Shankaracharya's commentary on the Yoga Sutras: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dehāntaritā yathā yogādinā dehāntareṣu svargādiṣu janmasiddhiḥ. oṣadhibhir asurabhavaneṣu *rasāyanena somāmala- kādibhakṣaṇena** pūrvadehānapanayenaiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The perfections from birth are in a different body&quot;, being attainment of another body in heaven or similar region, by yoga or other means. &quot;From drugs - such as the elixir of the demon realms&quot;: here the original body is not discarded, but by taking &lt;strong&gt;drugs such as Soma or the Amalaka plant&lt;/strong&gt; (some perfection [Siddhi] is attained)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Soma plant is notoriously hard to identify, although scholars today think it's most likely the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephedra_(plant)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ephedra&lt;/a&gt; plant.  But the identity of Amalaka is well-known; it's the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllanthus_emblica&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indian gooseberry&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And indeed, Rasayana made from Amalaka, which is what Adi Shankaracharya is talking about, is a well-known Ayurvedic medicine; see page 32 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=ekjtVOppIxwC&amp;amp;lpg=PA32&amp;amp;dq=amalaka%20rasayana&amp;amp;pg=PA32#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;, which says that the effect is &quot;to transform old men into young, with new hair and teeth, and induce physical power like that of an elephant.&quot;  That sounds like a Siddhi to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-04-02T15:25:35.333" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17809" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-02T15:27:28.083" Score="1" ViewCount="85" Body="&lt;p&gt;In satayuga the place where devas used to live was called as Amaravati. What had happened to Amaravati now? Does this place still exist?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9091" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-02T16:07:19.400" LastActivityDate="2017-04-02T16:07:19.400" Title="What happened to Amaravati the city of devas?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17811" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-02T17:07:25.787" Score="7" ViewCount="1342" Body="&lt;p&gt;After reading a lot of articles on different websites and watching videos concerning different philosophies and views, I seek to ask a question here to get an emphatic and most importantly, a true answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the modern world, light is portrayed as the elimination of depression and sadness, and the source of happiness and joy. Many say that God is the most pure, divine and brightest shining light ever while others say that God is complete darkness. And by this they do not mean that God is evil or unholy, they just say that God is darkness because God created light and before light, there was nothing but darkness. And this kind of makes sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the exact questions that I need answers to are stated below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is God light or did God create light? And if He created light, then what is God? Darkness?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Scientifically, light is a thing and the absence of light is known as darkness. Darkness is not a thing. Hence, by this explanation, I would assume that there was darkness before light and that God is darkness. Or maybe my assumption is wrong. But regardless of that, if the answer to the first question is &quot;light&quot;, &lt;strong&gt;then what is your explanation for this scientific fact?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And please present any scriptural verses regarding your explanation. That will be very helpful!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8076" LastActivityDate="2020-11-28T09:28:54.463" Title="Is God darkness or light?" Tags="|scripture|brahman|science|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17814" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17811" CreationDate="2017-04-03T06:36:51.903" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahman is the one constant, shining light that is beyond even the darkness that engulfs the universe at pralaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita said -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ज्योतिषामपि तज्ज्योतिस्तमसः परमुच्यते।&lt;br&gt; ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं ज्ञानगम्यं&#xA;  हृदि सर्वस्य विष्ठितम्।। BG 13.18।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jyOtiSAmapi tat jyOtiH tamasah param ucyatE|&lt;br&gt; jnyAnam jnyEyam&#xA;  jnyAna gamyam hRdi sarvasyadhiSThitam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: It is said to be the light of lights; that which is&#xA;  beyond darkness. It is the knowledge itself, the knowable (i.e. the&#xA;  destination of knowledge) and is reachable through knowledge. It&#xA;  resides in the hearts of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are several upanishad vAkyAs also that mean the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-21T10:56:30.620" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T10:56:30.620" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17815" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17811" CreationDate="2017-04-03T08:16:06.893" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;God dispels the darkness of ignorance and hence we are sure that at least he is not darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But then is God light?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when we think of light, we think of light that is visible to our eyes. And something that is visible to material eyes is also material. But God is Sat-Chit-Anand i.e full of bliss, knowledge and eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;hence the answer here would depend on &lt;strong&gt;what you call as light&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If we are referring to light as perceived by our eyes then No. God&#xA;is not light.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But if I say here light as knowledge then yes God is Knowledge,God&#xA;is light.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 4.37&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a blazing ﬁre turns ﬁrewood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the ﬁre of&#xA;  knowledge burn to ashes all reactions to material activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We cannot apply the idea of our limited mind to God. God is beyond the imagination of our mind. Nor we can think of him as something black or white as in we cannot say that if He is not Darkness then He must be light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So who is God?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vedanta Sutra says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;JanmaDyasya yatah (1.1.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;strong&gt;From whom birth etc.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God is He from whom everything emanates i.e. from whom light, darkness etc everything has come.Everything that our mind can possibly think of and not think of emanates from Him only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is light?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In very simple terms light is energy of God; Material energy to be specific. And God is energetic. Just like Sun is the Source of Sunshine and Sun Shine is his energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if you call Knowledge of self, Knowledge of God as light then that is God. Knowledge of God and God are non-different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Gita Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/bg/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Says&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All&#xA;  beings are in Me, but I am not in them. And yet everything that is&#xA;  created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Although I am&#xA;  the maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhere, I&#xA;  am not a part of this cosmic manifestation, for My Self is the very&#xA;  source of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Krishna says that by His energy he pervades the entire universe and yet He is not the part of this material cosmic creation. he is beyond it. He is fully spiritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;later in Gita Krishna &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/15/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by&#xA;  ﬁre or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material&#xA;  world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to answer your query in Nutshell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;God is neither light nor darkness but the very Source of both. Light or Darkness are just expansion of His energy or one of His unlimited energies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But Light of Knowledge(Knowledge of self) is God.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2859" LastEditDate="2017-04-03T10:25:02.587" LastActivityDate="2017-04-03T10:25:02.587" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17817" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-03T14:02:33.070" Score="10" ViewCount="1059" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16577/untouchability-during-ramayana-or-mahabharata-period/16589#16589&quot;&gt;Scriptures&lt;/a&gt; confirm that the  untouchability was practiced during Dwapara Yuga. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Rama and Lord Krishna were incarnations of God incarnated to destroy adharma on the earth in Treta Yuga and Dwapara Yuga respectively.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord would be aware of untouchability in that Yuga and its continuation  in Kali Yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is not mentioned that they opposed untouchability and/or tried to stop it.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why didn't Lord Rama and Lord Krishna try to stop or eradicate untouchability&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any specific reason for not eradicating it ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-16T04:00:13.250" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T04:00:13.250" Title="Why didn't Lord Rama and Lord Krishna stop untouchability?" Tags="|scripture|krishna|rama|untouchability|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17818" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16123" CreationDate="2017-04-03T14:52:20.677" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are no such mantras which are in Sama Veda but not in the Rig Veda. &lt;strong&gt;That is, the text of all the Sama Veda mantras are already present in the Rig Veda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The whole Vedas consist only of  three types of mantras viz: the &lt;strong&gt;Riks&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;strong&gt;Yajus&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; the &lt;strong&gt;Samans&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Rik&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Rik mantra has a metrical structure which is determined by the number of syllables in it. The number of syllables determine the metre (chandah) part of the mantra. Few examples of metres are Gayatri (composed of 24 syllables), Ushnik (28 syllables), Anushtup (32 syllables) etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A typical example of a Rik is the most famous Veda mantra called the Gayatri mantra of Viswamitra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Yajus&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Yajus will be in a short rhythmic prose. A typical example of such a mantra is the most famous mantra of Lord Shiva viz  &quot;namah shivaya&quot; ( TS 4.5.8.11 ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Saman&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The text of a Saman mantra will be a Rik mantra, only difference being is in the method of chanting it. &lt;strong&gt;A Saman is chanted in a more elaborate way, more like singing.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, the number of mantras in Rig Veda ( Shakalya Shakha ) is &lt;strong&gt;10,552&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the number of mantras in Sama Veda is &lt;strong&gt;1875&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the text of all these 1875 mantras are already found in the Rig Veda samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Some additional info regarding the distribution of Riks, Yajus and Samans among the four Vedas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1- &lt;strong&gt;All the mantras that are present in Rig Vedas are Riks.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2- Atharva Veda has mostly Riks, but it also has a small number of Yajus mantras. The total number of mantras in Atharva Veda is 5038.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3- &lt;strong&gt;All the Riks are not present in the Rig Veda itself.&lt;/strong&gt; That is, there are Rik mantras that are found in other Vedas but not in Rig Veda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, TS of Yajur Veda has in all 4773 mantras. Of which,  3248 are Yajus and the remaining 1525 are Riks. And, among these 1525 Riks, 862 are found in the Rig Veda samhita. The remaining 663 Riks are not to be found in the Rig Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, not all Riks are found in the Rig Veda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A rough Venn diagram indicating the overlapping among Vedas is as given below :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TZWBI.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/TZWBI.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abbreviations used :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TS- &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taittiriya_Shakha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Taitarriya Smahita of Yajur Veda.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TS 4.5.8.11- TS, Kanda 4, Prapathaka 5, Anuvaka 8, Mantra 11.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-04T04:23:01.893" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T04:23:01.893" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17819" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-03T15:11:45.850" Score="3" ViewCount="8528" Body="&lt;p&gt;They say one shouldn't dig into rishi-moolam and nadi-moolam, cos it is very hard to find source.. but still curious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When mentioning gotra during abhivaadaye, there is a rishi-pravara : Vaishvamitra, Aaghamarshana, Koushika - is the lineage for koushika gotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was this Koushika the same as Vishvamitra before he became Brahma Rishi by tapas? Or was it another rishi called Koushika in the Vishvamitra lineage ? cos it is common to call someone by a distinguished ancestor's name (e.g. Raghava, or Kourava).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Was this Koushika a Brahma rishi or Raja rishi ? Are his descendants brahmanas or kshatriyas ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-04-08T18:34:28.187" Title="Who was Koushika (of Koushika gotra)?" Tags="|gotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17820" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-03T21:07:06.360" Score="1" ViewCount="1510" Body="&lt;p&gt;From what I understand, and by using a mathematical metaphor, everything manifests like: 0, 1, and n.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna, thus, exists in unmanifest form, but manifests as Balarama (Sankarsana), Who then proceeds to create the world of plurality. Yet, when the world is about to end, Sankarsana begins to draw the multiplicity together into a united whole (hence His usage of a plough and His name). Once the entirety of plural existence has been organized into a whole, this whole is then subjected to the Original God (Krishna, the 0), and the souls of the jivas thus exist within Krishna in an unmanifest form for a time (as &quot;seeds&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankarsana continues to exist outside of Krishna as Sesa, the sole part of Vishnu that exists outside of Vishnu during the pralaya, hence His name, the &quot;remainder.&quot; (It appears that Lakshmi continues to exist outside of Vishnu as well.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the manifest perspective of the whole lila. But it appears to leave no location for a Moksha-ed soul to exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reading some answers and comments from this question: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8967/what-will-happen-if-all-souls-inhabiting-earth-attain-moksha&quot;&gt;What will happen if all souls inhabiting Earth attain Moksha?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My understanding is that a person who attains Moksha simply exits the entire play and perceives it to be an illusion. The only reality this person sees is Brahman (ultimate non-dual reality). Everything else is Maya, for this person. The question of the existence of other people, the pralaya, the end of the world (the yuga), of birth, and of death, simply ceases to exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This must ultimately mean that the appearance/existence of Krishna, of the pralaya, the cycle of yugas, the existence of Sankarsana/Sesa, even the existence of God, must be a complete illusion for someone who only perceives Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given these two ideas, I have no choice but to conclude that God only exists in Samsara as Maya, this God-in-Samsara-as-Maya, appears as Krishna (the highest form of God). Krishna of course, appears with His expansions, Balarama and Radha, and Whoever else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But for a Moksha-ed person, the entirety of the manifestation, including the apparent-manifestation of God is also transcended, leaving apparently, nothing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is theism in conflict with liberation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It seems so from this perspective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8163" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T03:45:27.287" Title="What happens to the soul that attains Moksha during the pralaya?" Tags="|krishna|moksha|maya|pralaya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17821" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17811" CreationDate="2017-04-04T02:01:55.267" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question is one among many which leads to a much deeper discussion about time and eternality. The way I have come to understand this is that both God/Krishna and light &lt;strong&gt;exist without beginning&lt;/strong&gt;. There are several references where it is stated that Krishna is the origin of everything as well as the resting place, including &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/govindam_prayers.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma-samhita&lt;/a&gt; (specifically, first verse) and Bhagavad Gita (Ch.10, verse 3 and Ch. 10, verse 8). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is important to note that Krishna describes Himself as &quot;beginningless&quot;, and the same can be said of most things in creation, such as the individual jiva souls (all of us, Gita Ch.2, verse 12), or the spiritual world. So, while light originates in Krishna, this cannot be traced back in time, and therefore the discussion about what existed before light came into being does not fit in with the paradigm of eternality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Explaining this in another way,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;when we say that Krishna or God is the source of light, that's an&#xA;  expression to explain the hierarchical relationship between the two,&#xA;  and does not refer to a specific act of Krishna creating light&#xA;  (which could have a 'timestamp' associated with it.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9417" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T02:01:55.267" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17822" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17817" CreationDate="2017-04-04T02:19:45.703" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several issues with the link you have used as the basis of your question, but ignoring those, I will answer the underlying question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Karma decides quality of life&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The body that a soul takes birth in is primarily determined by its karma, in a way that it can get appropriate reactions and nullify the karma (in minute parts per birth, but that's the goal). Some of these may require being born as a plant, as a microorganism, a small or large animal, a fish, a bird, a human, etc. Within the human form of body, there are further divisions such as the four varnas (brahman, kshatriya etc.), and others such as chandalas who are considered outside the varnashram system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are several activities that were considered not acceptable for anyone within the varnashram system, but the chandalas and similar classes could engage in, including consuming the meat of cows, making leather products etc. Their status in the human society is of course much lower than the other 4 varnas. What needs to be understood is that their existence is still essential for those souls to receive certain karmic reactions that they could otherwise not have received. Therefore, despite their deplorable living condition, their presence was not meaningless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;The problem with the question/argument&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, a similar argument could be made for any of the lower life forms, or for that matter the living entities in hellish planets. While life is very difficult for all of them, it's not unfair, since it is simply a reaping of karma that they sowed themselves. Lord Ram and Lord Krishna do not directly interfere in the cycle of karma, except for those who specifically approach Him/Them. &lt;strong&gt;There are many historical instances of those rejected by the society being delivered by Lord Ram or Lord Krishna.&lt;/strong&gt; The basis of this difference in treatment is Lord Krishna's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/4/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;statement&lt;/a&gt; in Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows&#xA;My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9417" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-09T11:41:24.310" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17823" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17797" CreationDate="2017-04-04T02:57:11.363" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Disclaimer: My answer is based on my understanding after having closely observed multiple Vaishnava sannyasis and heard from them and their followers on this topic (and some simple logic); I am not including many references at the moment but could look for them if really required.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'll divide my answer in 3 sections to address the 3 main points I see here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Attachment to opposite sex difficult to overcome&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sannyasa scriptures are specifically meant for people who have retired from and renounced the social orders of life (ashram) - brahmacari, grihastha and vanaprastha - and are expected to not have social interaction with people of the opposite sex. Therefore, many times such scriptures may be excessive in their admonishing of women, only to make a very strong case against any possibility of intimate contact with women. This is done because for many men, interaction or relationships with women may be among the greatest hurdles in the renounced life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Instruction for novice or inexperienced sannyasi&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will also add that this is primarily for novitiate sannyasi, as one who is realized or has greater spiritual insight is expected to be able to differentiate between matter and spirit, and see everyone with equal vision (Gita 5.18 and probably other references). So you can compare this to parents protecting (or wanting to protect) their very young children by telling them things that are not factual, but which may help them stay safe. E.g., making up stories like the multiple variants of Boogieman, or saying something drastic to encourage them to take a medicine, etc. (you get the idea). These stories are not real, or may be very exaggerated, but serve a very clear purpose of creating a mental 'fence', until intelligence is sufficiently trained/developed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Women denied sannyas&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I find these points very clearly explaining the denouncement of women in sannyasa literature (however you identify/classify those). As for the very first point of them being denied sannyas, that is a very generic statement, and you can find many exceptions to almost every category mentioned there who did take up the sannyas way of life (you don't have to wear the same clothes or look the same to be a sannyasi(n)). It's just that based on the psychophysical nature of 'most' men compared to 'most' women, women tend to be more emotional while men tend to be more rational, thus making different directions of spiritual pursuit more or less suitable for the two. But this is only a very general directive, it is always the guru who decides based on the nature of his/her disciple what would work best in their case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9417" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T02:57:11.363" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17824" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-04T03:34:52.287" Score="3" ViewCount="392" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sankara's Manīṣā panchakam we find the following excerpt -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a person has attained the firm knowledge that he is not an object of perception, but is that pure consciousness which shines clearly in the states of waking, dream and deep sleep, and which, as the witness of the whole universe, dwells in all bodies from that of the Creator Brahma to that of the ant, then he is my Guru, irrespective of whether he is an outcast or a Brahmana. This is my conviction. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also we find from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;his&lt;/a&gt; commentary to Vedanta sūtrās the following passage&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sūdras are not qualified for that reason also that Smriti prohibits their hearing the Veda, their studying the Veda, and their understanding and performing Vedic matters. The prohibition of hearing the Veda is conveyed by the following passages: '&lt;strong&gt;The ears of him who hears the Veda are to be filled with (molten) lead and lac,' and 'For a Sūdra is (like) a cemetery, therefore (the Veda) is not to be read in the vicinity of a śūdra.'&lt;/strong&gt; From this latter passage the prohibition of studying the Veda results at once; for how should he study Scripture in whose vicinity it is not even to be read? There is, moreover, an express prohibition (of the Sūdras studying the Veda). &lt;strong&gt;'His tongue is to be slit if he pronounces it; his body is to be cut through if he preserves it.'&lt;/strong&gt; The prohibitions of &lt;strong&gt;hearing and studying&lt;/strong&gt; the Veda already imply the prohibition of the knowledge and performance of Vedic matters; there are, however, express prohibitions also, such as &lt;strong&gt;'he is not to impart knowledge to the Sūdra,'&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now going through above sayings by him, we find &lt;strong&gt;both are mutually exclusive sayings.&lt;/strong&gt;. A &lt;strong&gt;chāndāla or Sūdra (obviously his opinions are same for chāndālas as well as they are outcast)&lt;/strong&gt; required to learn Vedanta to have BrahmanJnāna but at the same time Sankara is reluctant to let them study Vedanta to develop discrimination by which an outcast could become BrahmanJnāni ( or attain a firm knowledge he is none other than Brahman). Isn't this a deadlock condition? Or hypocrisy? Or wickedness? &lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;It is like Sankara is cutting hands of outcasts &amp;amp; then saying &quot;I will accept you my Guru if you feed me&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-04T03:57:20.227" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T06:10:00.030" Title="Deadlock in Sankara's views?" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|brahman|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17825" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17820" CreationDate="2017-04-04T03:39:47.103" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a very interesting question for me, since I never thought about moksha in this direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Types of moksha&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The way I understand moksha, or liberation from the cycle of death, is that one transcends the material creation and moves or returns (based on how you understand things) to the spiritual world. Further, there are multiple forms of moksha, with 5 main categories - &lt;strong&gt;sayujya&lt;/strong&gt; (becoming one with Brahman; the commonly perceived notion of moksha), &lt;strong&gt;samipya&lt;/strong&gt; (being close to God), &lt;strong&gt;salokya&lt;/strong&gt; (being on the same planed as God), &lt;strong&gt;sarsti&lt;/strong&gt; (having the same opulence as God) and &lt;strong&gt;sarupya&lt;/strong&gt; (having a similar appearance as God), with &lt;em&gt;God referring to the personal form, &lt;strong&gt;Visnu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, in these categories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Pralaya unique to material world&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pralaya is a phenomenon exclusive to the material creation, while spiritual planets (Vaikuntha planets, part of Kailash, etc.) are located in spiritual sky/world, and both are completely separate from each other. One who has Sayujya moksha/mukti, merges with Brahman and loses their active consciousness, thus being unable to observe anything. For all the other cases, they do not experience pralaya either, because they are already in a different part of the 'world'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It may also be worth noting that there are multiple levels of 'pralaya' or destruction, with one happening at the end of each 4-yuga-cycle (divya/maha yuga), another happening during every night of Lord Brahma, and a final one happening at the end of Brahma's lifespan. The material world is destroyed to different extents during each of these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;God in Samsara (not) as Maya&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes Himself as beyond the material modes of nature:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When one properly sees that in all activities no other performer is at&#xA;work than these modes of nature and he knows the Supreme Lord, who is&#xA;transcendental to all these modes, he attains My spiritual nature.&#xA;(14.19)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kuntī, are&#xA;made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the&#xA;seed-giving father. (14.4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Material nature consists of three modes – goodness, passion and&#xA;ignorance. When the eternal living entity comes in contact with&#xA;nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he becomes conditioned by these modes.&#xA;(14.5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Also look at Sri Isopanisad, verse 8)&#xA;All of this leads to the generally accepted conclusion (especially by Vaishnava scholars) that when Krishna or Ram or Their expansions/associates such as Lakshman, Radha, etc. appear or manifest in this world, they appear in their self-same form, without taking a physical, material body. They remain transcendental to and unaffected by the modes of nature that affect all other ordinary living entities. This seems conclusive to me, but I can provide further elaboration if needed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9417" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T03:39:47.103" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17826" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2304" CreationDate="2017-04-04T03:43:13.390" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The primary object of Moksha is knowledge itself. Nearly all schools of thought that acknowledge jivanmukta, acknowledge Ignorance (avidya) as the sole source of all evil and suffering. Buddhism, Jainism, Samkhya, and Vedanta are all agreed on this. There is even an extreme sect of the Shīʿa Muslims known as the the Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs who believe in liberation from birth and death in a similar manner. The same probably goes for the Sikhs. Even the Bhagavad Gita places a great emphasis on knowledge, claiming that an extremely sinful person could cross over the entirety of Samsara, with the aid of knowledge alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A soul &amp;quot;knows&amp;quot; that it has attained Moksha because knowledge is a soul's innate nature. Knowledge is also always correct (or else it wouldn't be knowledge). Since knowledge is &amp;quot;comprehensive&amp;quot; (it knows all there is to know) it illuminates both itself and the object of knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words a person possesses knowledge because the object of knowledge is something real, something true (Brahman). Cognizance of something real and true corrects one's perception and destroys ignorance (it makes the knowledge valid). Thereafter, the questions about knowledge, &amp;quot;how,&amp;quot; and so on and so forth, all dissolve as non-questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's the best way I can put it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Passions attract the flow of karmic matter into the souls. And passions are due to ignorance. So ignorance is the real cause of bondage. Here Jainism agrees with Sankhya, Buddhism and Vedanta. Now, ignorance can be removed only by knowledge. So right knowledge is the cause of liberation. (A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy, by Chandradhar Sharma, page 65.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Al-Tabarani opens his work with the recurrent Nusayri injunction to attain the gnostic mystery of the divinity. Moreover, according to a tradition ascribed to the Imam al-Hasan al-Askari—on whose authority many traditions in Kitab al-ma'arif are transmitted—God in fact exempted His creatures from worshiping Him through religious commandments and only &amp;quot;wanted them to know Him, for gnosis is the worship of God&amp;quot; (fa-ma arada minhum illa al-ma'rifa wa-hiya al-ibada). (Dogma and Ritual in Kitab al-Ma'arif, by M.M. Bar-Asher and Aryeh Kofsky, page 49.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gnosis means to &amp;quot;know,&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;knowledge.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically, knowledge (or gnosis), is the indisputable bottom line of liberation, in any religious or spiritual tradition (whether Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, theistic, or atheistic, or whatever). Even non-religious teachers emphasize a form of epistemic knowledge that arises after enlightenment (cf. Stephen Jourdain, Jed McKenna, and Philip Goddard).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8163" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T04:17:46.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17827" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17795" CreationDate="2017-04-04T03:55:03.277" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;(Most of this is same as Rakesh's comment, with a tiny bit added)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That name has more to do with Yudhishthira's perspective, of not seeing anyone as his enemy, rather than others not seeing him as enemies. He fights them purely on the basis of dharma, to establish a government/kingdom which rules according to dharma, and not because he feels enmity towards them. The same is not true for Kauravas, who denied Pandavas the simple request of just 5 villages to govern. Or the rest of the Pandavas, who also feel a certain level of enmity towards Duryodhan and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira alone is firmly and completely established in dharma, and therefore is called ajata satru, not seeing anyone as an enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9417" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T03:55:03.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17828" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7860" CreationDate="2017-04-04T04:38:42.063" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Atharva Veda itself has mantras which clearly mention that earth will have people who will speak different languages and who will be following different religions ( Dharma ) depending on the different places of their abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janam Vibhrati VahudhA VichAsam - 1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NAnAdhArmAn Prithvi - 2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;YathA Okasam - 3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sahasram DhArA Dravinasya Me DuhAm - 4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhruveva Dhenuh Anapasphuranthi - 5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Earth has people who speak various tongues - 1,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;and those who have various religions - 2,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;according to their places of abode - 3,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(May She) pour for me treausres in a thousand streams - 4,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;like a constant cow that never fails - 5.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda, Kanda 12, Sukta 1, Mantra 45.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-04T15:58:07.850" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T15:58:07.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17829" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17824" CreationDate="2017-04-04T04:46:19.310" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not well-read with Sankara's teachings, but there were certain parts in your question that I have participated in discussions about in the past. For my answer, of most importance is this part of your second quote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'For a Sūdra is (like) a cemetery, therefore (the Veda) is not to be&#xA;  read in the vicinity of a śūdra.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two points I'll mention:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I always visualize the four varnas as being divided based on how much a person's consciousness is elevated, rather than the family or place they were born in, etc. So, a person born in a sudra family could have, for example, had a very similar realization as Gautam Buddha, and thus become qualified for Vedic education. On the other hand, a person born in a brahmana family may not have appropriate traits or interests, and may thus not study the Vedas. And there are examples of both, one that came into mind readily is of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jada Bharata&lt;/a&gt;, who is born to a brahman father but acts as if he's dumb and does not pursue Vedic study.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Giving Vedic education to a sudra is considered dangerous for both the sudra him/herself and the society as well, since their consciousness is not in the mode of goodness (sattva-guna or sattvik), and they may end up causing more bad than good with that education. It is like letting a person of questionable background into the upper echelons of a government and giving them power through knowledge of a nation's defense systems. That would not make people around that person feel very secure..&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, to conclude, it's not that the sudra cannot receive Vedic education, but that they must show/prove their qualification (or adhikara) first to a guru who may personally decide how to proceed. Of course, I cannot really say what exactly Sankara wanted to say here, but there are similar statements in many other sects of Hinduism and I thus wanted to offer my two paise about the more general debate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&#xA;Adding a couple of things based on feedback. What I wrote above strictly compares the two references, without discussing anything specific to Sankara and his teachings in general. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on the verse listed as &quot;Quote 04&quot; on &lt;a href=&quot;http://harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/05-14/editorials11673.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt;, everyone is born a sudra, and becomes a brahman/kshatriya/vaishya at the upanayanam ceremony when the guru accepts them as disciple, thus they are also called dvija (twice-born, second birth by guru making them brah/ksh/vai). So anyone could approach a guru (including someone born in a shudra family), and the guru would decide which varna that person is really in, based on their 'gunas' (qualities or nature). If guru finds them to be of sudra mentality, then the second quote would apply, and they would not receive Vedic education.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also adding some points on people changing varnas during their lifetime from &lt;a href=&quot;http://agniveer.com/manu-smriti-and-shudras/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.65 asserts that Brahmin can become Shudra and Shudra can become Brahmin. Similarly Kshtariyas and Vaishyas can also change&#xA;  their Varnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.335: If a Shudra (uneducated) serves the educated ones, is polite, devoid of ego and stays in respectful company of&#xA;  knowledgeable ones, he/ she is considered as having a noble birth and&#xA;  stature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are several shlokas in Manusmriti that state that a person belonging to high Varna falls down to level of a Shudra (uneducated)&#xA;  if he does not conduct noble deeds. For example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;2.104: A person who does not worship the Supreme Lord twice daily should be considered a Shudra.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;2.172. He who has not been initiated with teaching of the Vedas is a Sudra.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;4.245: A Brahmin acquires brilliance through company of noble persons and avoiding bad company. On contrary, if he indulges in bad company, he becomes a Shudra.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9417" LastEditorUserId="9417" LastEditDate="2017-04-04T06:10:00.030" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T06:10:00.030" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17830" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16123" CreationDate="2017-04-04T05:15:21.143" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;One verse of the Sama Veda Samhita that is not present in the Rig Veda is verse 527, which is near the Aranya Archikah, Aranya Kandam section as you can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/sv-kauthuma.itx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ahamasmi prathamajā ṛtasya pūrvaṃ devebhyo amṛtasya nāma | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  yo mā dadāti sa idevamāvadahamannamannamadantamadmi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have been created before the creation of devtas and nobody can survive without consuming me. Those who donate me in Yagna etc., I protect them and bestow them with the result of pious deeds [punya].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Richa is the basis of the Purushagati Saman, which is chanted by Jivas after attaining Moksha as I discuss in my question and answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5396/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And although it's not found in the Rig Veda, it is found in the Taittiriya Brahmana of the Yajur Veda; see my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6582/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I find more such Sama Veda-exclusive verses I may expand my answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sadagopan.org/index.php/component/djcatalog2/?format=raw&amp;amp;task=download&amp;amp;fid=239&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This PDF&lt;/a&gt; says &quot;There are only the 1875 Saama Veda [mantras] that are unique to it; rest of them are mostly from Rg Veda with minor verbal differences and to music.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-20T06:24:25.357" LastActivityDate="2017-04-20T06:24:25.357" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17831" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18501" CreationDate="2017-04-04T05:26:56.027" Score="7" ViewCount="892" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that the Vedas are authorless or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apauru%E1%B9%A3ey%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;apaurusheya.&lt;/a&gt;. At least we believe the Vedas to be so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantras of Vedas are revealed directly by God to some selected Rishis in a trance like state that they obtained by ascesis or tapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are there any mantras in the Veda Samhitas that confirm this &quot;apaurusheya&quot; nature of the Vedas?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that i want mantras &lt;strong&gt;only from the Veda Samhitas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-05T15:26:39.043" LastActivityDate="2019-08-15T12:01:15.970" Title="Are there any mantra or mantras in Veda Samhitas that confirm that Vedas are apaurusheya?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|rishi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17832" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17081" CreationDate="2017-04-04T05:29:23.953" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;From what I understand about Ayurveda, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;for medicinal purposes animal products can be used, especially if there is no alternative. They just should not be a part of regular diet.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; For reference, the following is a quote from &lt;a href=&quot;http://easyayurveda.com/2010/07/15/is-ayurveda-totally-vegetarian/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Note that I do not agree with the conclusion of the article&lt;/em&gt;, as it says a non-vegetarian diet is acceptable based on non-vegetarian items having been included in some Ayurvedic treatments. The important point is that they are only included in treatments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ayurveda is not totally vegetarian by any stretch of imagination.&#xA;  Mamsarasa – the meat soup is explained in all the classical texts as&#xA;  the best medicine for extreme emaciation. It reduces tiredness due to&#xA;  Pitta imbalance (for example working under Sun for long hours), ideal&#xA;  for those who do daily exercise, improves voice strength, skin&#xA;  quality, immunity etc. (Reference: Charaka samhita Sutra sthana&#xA;  27/312-325).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://easyayurveda.com/2009/11/10/ajaswagandhadi-leham/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aswagandhadi leham&lt;/a&gt;, also known as Ajaswagandhadi lehyam conains meat&#xA;  as an ingredient, along with other herbs. [Some companies manufacture&#xA;  it without meat as an ingredient]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Varients of meat soup are explained as Vesavara in Bhavaprakasha,&#xA;  another classical Ayurvedic text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meat soup and other non veg diet has been prescribed along with&#xA;  certain medications. Eg: Meat soup is a co -drink for the medicine&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://ayurmedinfo.com/2012/07/18/punarnavadyarishta-benefits-dosage-ingredients-side-effects/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Punarnvadyarishta&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taking care of health is quite important, as without that, in our current situation, it would be very difficult to pursue spirituality. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9417" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T05:29:23.953" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17833" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-04T05:59:14.190" Score="4" ViewCount="694" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have a very small thumb size, black colour shivalingam at home. Can my mother and me do abishekam on it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also I want to know the difference between laghurudram and Mahārudram .Which helps in fulfilling one's desires? If any one could shed light on these subjects, it would be great.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9419" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-04-05T11:59:59.737" LastActivityDate="2017-04-05T11:59:59.737" Title="Can married women do abishekam on shivalingam at home?" Tags="|shiva|practice|shiva-lingam|women|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17834" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-04T06:12:47.667" Score="5" ViewCount="804" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Yoga school, which had a similar worldview to the Samkhya school except it embraced the existence of a supreme being. The defining text of the Yoga school is Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ashtangayoga.info/philosophy/yoga-sutra/chapter-4/item/janma-sadhi-mantra-tapas-samaadhi-siddhaya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyaya 4 Sutra 1&lt;/a&gt; of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali discusses the various ways you can obtain Siddhis or magical powers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;janma-&lt;strong&gt;oṣadhi&lt;/strong&gt;-mantra-tapas-samādhi-jāḥ siddhayaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Supernatural powers (siddhis) arise from birth, &lt;strong&gt;drugs&lt;/strong&gt;, mantras, austerity, or yoga (samadhi)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/17788/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I asked what drugs or herbs give Siddhis, and I found an &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17808/36&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;, namely the Soma plant and the Amalaka plant, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books/content?id=C8LWAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA366&amp;amp;img=1&amp;amp;pgis=1&amp;amp;dq=Amalaka&amp;amp;sig=ACfU3U0vtV6C1RlRZB4UMqxnpAhTZF9UaQ&amp;amp;edge=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Adi Shankaracharya's commentary on the Yoga Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;oṣadhibhir asurabhavaneṣu rasāyanena somāmala-kādibhakṣaṇena&#xA;   pūrvadehānapanayenaiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;From drugs - such as the elixir of the demon realms&quot;: here the original body is not discarded, but by taking drugs such as Soma or &lt;strong&gt;the Amalaka plant&lt;/strong&gt; (some perfection [Siddhi] is attained)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Soma plant is notoriously hard to identify, although scholars today think it's most likely the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephedra_(plant)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ephedra&lt;/a&gt; plant. But the identity of Amalaka is well-known; it's the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllanthus_emblica&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indian gooseberry&lt;/a&gt;.  So my question is, what Siddhis does the Amalaka plant give?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhi#Eight_primary_siddhis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; are the traditional Siddhis described in the Yoga Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aṇimā: reducing one's body even to the size of an atom &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Mahima: expanding one's body to an infinitely large size &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Garima: becoming infinitely heavy &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Laghima: becoming almost weightless &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Prāpti: having unrestricted access to all places &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Prākāmya: realizing whatever one desires &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Iṣṭva: possessing absolute lordship &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vaśtva: the power to subjugate all&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So which of these Siddhis does the Amalaka plant give?  Page 32 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=ekjtVOppIxwC&amp;amp;lpg=PA32&amp;amp;dq=amalaka%20rasayana&amp;amp;pg=PA32#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; describes an Ayurvedic medicine made from Amalaka whose effect is &quot;to transform old men into young, with new hair and teeth, and induce physical power like that of an elephant.&quot;  It's possible that that's related to a Siddhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what does Hindu scripture have to say on the subject?  And does Hindu scripture discuss how to use the Amalaka plant to obtain Siddhis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.733" LastActivityDate="2017-04-13T16:15:35.863" Title="What magical powers are obtained from the Amalaka plant?" Tags="|yoga|adi-shankaracharya|siddhi|plants|yoga-sutras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17835" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-04T06:21:33.137" Score="6" ViewCount="656" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the following theory true? :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Astrology has 12 Bhavas viz: Lagna, Dvitiya, Tritiya ..to the Dwadasha Bhava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a person does 13 crores of Rama Nama Japa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For each 1 crore, his 1 Bhava will get cleaned of Doshas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eg. If a person completes a Japa of 1 crore then the Lagna will get cleared of its defects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the next 1 crores, all negative effects of the 2nd Bhava will be destroyed and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12 places in Horoscope are as &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://astrolibrary.org/images/houses-wheel.jpg&amp;amp;imgrefurl=https://astrolibrary.org/houses/&amp;amp;h=300&amp;amp;w=301&amp;amp;tbnid=6Q9PGht_fzfDXM:&amp;amp;tbnh=160&amp;amp;tbnw=160&amp;amp;usg=__QJJc6XGQXrONVJ_Ck7i9Srzl2aM=&amp;amp;vet=1&amp;amp;docid=XMjli8wjjXL5EM&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjDmvL9qIrTAhUEMGMKHWDDApAQ9QEIHTAA#h=300&amp;amp;imgrc=6Q9PGht_fzfDXM:&amp;amp;tbnh=160&amp;amp;tbnw=160&amp;amp;vet=1&amp;amp;w=301&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-06-02T22:53:05.930" LastActivityDate="2022-06-02T22:53:05.930" Title="Nama Japa &amp; the 12 Bhavas of astrology" Tags="|belief|astrology|japa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17836" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17835" CreationDate="2017-04-04T07:19:44.263" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can probably find similar references/claims in other sastras, with naam japa destroying sinful reactions or cleaning karma and so on. See some &lt;a href=&quot;https://nitaaiveda.com/Compiled_and_Imp_Scriptures/Prema_Vivarta/20._The_Glories_of_the_Holy_Name.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrishnajapa.com/2016/07/24-even-improper-chanting-of-the-holy-name-yields-beneficial-results/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. You can find them in other Vedic literature as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's also considered important to understand though, a caveat if you will, is that the effect may not be immediate, depending on how the japa was performed, with what intention etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9417" LastActivityDate="2017-04-04T07:19:44.263" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17838" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-04T16:12:41.577" Score="1" ViewCount="179" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know there are lot of Hinduism temples where idols are standing from many centuries best example is Lord Venktaeshwara in Tirumala, Tirupati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This idol is standing from many centuries it survived from those many thousands of years. What construction technique they used earlier to establish a idol in temple to last so long? For example nowadays they use cement to establish idol in temples but cement were not available during those time, so what was the technique they used to make idols stand and survive for so long?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am sure people say Lord Balaji is self manifested not built by human being (but there must be some sort of physical support right for idol to stand), but there many idols established by saints like Adi Shankara etc. So what they used in-lieu of cement to establish an idol?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone please shed some light on this? I am confused from many years on this topic!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4941" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T11:02:48.960" Title="What technique they used earlier to make idols stand for centuries" Tags="|temple|practice|customs|idols|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17841" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-05T11:38:20.953" Score="1" ViewCount="4090" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata Kaushika gotra is mentioned and kashyapa gotra might have mentioned. Are the two gotras same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9398" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-04-05T11:52:55.223" LastActivityDate="2017-04-05T12:34:44.283" Title="Is Kashyapa gotra same as Koushika gotra?" Tags="|mahabharata|gotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17842" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17841" CreationDate="2017-04-05T11:59:28.713" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu society, Gotra broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male lineage from a common male ancestor or patrilineage. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kashyapa was one of the eight original gotras (clans) of the Brahmins, being derived from Kashyapa, the name of a rishi (hermit) whom they believed to have heard the Veda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On other hand, Brahmins belonging to the Vishvamitra Gotra/Kaushika Gotra consider Brahmarshi Vishvamitra as their ancestor. As Brahmarshi Vishvamitra was also known as  Rishi 'Kaushika'[He is the son of the king Kusha.]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Kashyapa gotra is &lt;strong&gt;NOT&lt;/strong&gt; the same as Kaushika gotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9437" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-05T12:34:44.283" LastActivityDate="2017-04-05T12:34:44.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17843" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17831" CreationDate="2017-04-05T12:14:12.413" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;At least Adi Shankaracharya thinks the answer is yes.  In his commentary on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34098.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyaya 1 Pada 3 Sutra 29&lt;/a&gt; of the Brahma Sutras, Adi Shankaracharya presents various arguments for the Vedas being eternal:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[T]he eternity of the Veda is founded on the absence of the remembrance of an agent only.... The eternity of the word of the Veda has to be assumed for this very reason, that the world with its definite (eternal) species, such as gods and so on, originates from it.--&lt;strong&gt;A mantra also ('By means of the sacrifice they followed the trace of speech; they found it dwelling in the rishis,' Rig-veda Samh. X, 71, 3) shows that the speech found (by the rishis) was permanent.&lt;/strong&gt;--On this point Vedavyâsa also speaks as follows: 'Formerly the great rishis, being allowed to do so by Svayambhû, obtained, through their penance, the Vedas together with the itihâsas, which had been hidden at the end of the yuga.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34098.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the Rig Veda verse in question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yajñena vācaḥ padavīyamāyan tāmanvavindannṛṣiṣupraviṣṭām | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tāmābhṛtyā vyadadhuḥ purutrā tāṃ saptarebhā abhi saṃ navante ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With sacrifice the trace of Vāk they foIlowed, and found her harbouring within the Ṛṣis. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  They brought her, dealt her forth in many places: seven singers make her tones resound in concert.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the Rig Veda Anukramani in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2430/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, this verse was heard during Tapasya by Brihaspati, the guru of the gods, and the subject of the hymn is listed as &quot;Jnanam&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, it's not completely clear to me how this verse would prove the eternality of the Vedas, which is why I posted &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11809/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2017-04-05T12:14:12.413" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17845" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19450" CreationDate="2017-04-05T15:29:52.913" Score="5" ViewCount="947" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) In any case, in Adhyaya 2 Pada 1 Sutra 6 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dṛśyate tu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it is seen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me explain what this means.  One of the tenets of the Vedanta school is that Brahman is both the material cause and the efficient cause of the Universe, i.e. both the source and the operator of the Universe.  But an objection is raised, how can Brahman be the source of the Universe of Brahman is conscious and the Universe is unconscious?  For don't conscious entities only emerge from conscious entities (like a child emerging from its mother) and unconscious entities only emerge from unconscious entities (like sparks emerging from a fire)?  Vyasa responds that actually it is seen in real life that sometimes you have cause-and-effect situations where one thing is conscious and the other thing is unconscious.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34145.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Advaita commentator Adi Sankaracharya says in his commentary on this Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your assertion that this world cannot have originated from Brahman on account of the difference of its character is not founded on an absolutely true tenet. For we see that from man, who is acknowledged to be intelligent, non-intelligent things such as hair and nails originate, and that, on the other hand, &lt;strong&gt;from avowedly non-intelligent matter, such as cow-dung, scorpions and similar animals are produced&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48176.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Sri Vaishnava commentator Ramanujacharya says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 'but' indicates the change of view (introduced in the present Sûtra). The assertion that Brahman cannot be the material cause of the world because the latter differs from it in essential nature, is unfounded; since it is a matter of observation that even things of different nature stand to each other in the relation of cause and effect. For it is observed that from honey and similar substances there originate worms and other little animals.--But it has been said above that in those cases there is sameness of nature, in so far as the relation of cause and effect holds good only between the non-intelligent elements in both!--This assertion was indeed made, but it does not suffice to prove that equality of character between cause and effect which you have in view. For, being apprehensive that from the demand of equality of character in some point or other only it would follow that, as all things have certain characteristics in common, anything might originate from anything, you have declared that the equality of character necessary for the relation of cause and effect is constituted by the persistence, in the effect, of those characteristic points which differentiate the cause from other things. But it is evident that this restrictive rule does not hold good in the case of the origination of worms and the like from honey and so on; and hence it is not unreasonable to assume that the world also, although differing in character from Brahman, may originate from the latter. For in the case of worms originating from honey, &lt;strong&gt;scorpions from dung&lt;/strong&gt;, &amp;amp;c., we do not observe--what indeed we do observe in certain other cases, as of pots made of clay, ornaments made of gold--that the special characteristics distinguishing the causal substance from other things persist in the effects also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And for good measure, &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hqaOb.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Shaiva Siddhanta commentator Srikantha Shivacharya says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though distinct in their nature, Brahman and the universe can be related as cause and effect, because the sentient scorpion is seen to take its birth in insentient cow-dung, and that the insentient hair is found growing out of sentient man.  Hence the conclusion that mere unaided reasoning cannot prevail against the exegetical interpretation of the sruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what scriptures say that scorpions can be born from cow dung?  Because it seems to have been common knowledge in ancient India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is similar to my questions &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15583/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16654/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, which are about other phenomenon that ancient Indians apparently took for granted but which seem totally foreign to our experience today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: It looks like it's not just Vedanta philosophers who talk about scorpions born from cow-dung; here's what the Kashmiri Shaivite philosopher Abhinava Gupta says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801607.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/31/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.147560/2015.147560.The-Aesthetic-Experience-According-To-Abhinavagupta-Vol-lxii_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=2015.147560.The-Aesthetic-Experience-According-To-Abhinavagupta-Vol-lxii_jp2/2015.147560.The-Aesthetic-Experience-According-To-Abhinavagupta-Vol-lxii_0083.jp2&amp;amp;scale=5.220095693779904&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on Bharata's Natya Shastra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From some particular scorpions, for instance, it is legitimate to infer that their cause is cow dung; and the inference, from them, of another scorpion, as their cause, would be nothing but a false cognition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T10:54:23.970" Title="What scriptures describe scorpions born from cow dung?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahma-sutras|animals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17847" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-06T01:34:13.693" Score="1" ViewCount="93" Body="&lt;p&gt;I live in Australia. The management committee of Lord Siva Temple here imports flower garland from India. After the arrival The Australian quarantine department spray chemicals on garland to stop any insects spreading.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please let us know that can we use these garlands for God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9443" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-04T11:57:58.923" LastActivityDate="2018-02-04T11:57:58.923" Title="Can imported flowers be used to decorate God?" Tags="|worship|customs|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17848" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17665" CreationDate="2017-04-06T04:53:11.633" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The basis for this religion is Vedas. Which says belive things which you think true. It never forces you to do something which you don't belive. Beleive only if you have sufficient reasons to believe. Never blindly believe in anything just because somebody says something. But nowadays people made temple and worshping is Hinduism. But it is not. Believe in yourself that is what vedas teaches you. All other relgions teach believe in this God or that God. But vedas teach believe in yourself. You can read about this in Swami Vivekananda's complete works. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="876" LastActivityDate="2017-04-06T04:53:11.633" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17849" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-06T06:49:02.277" Score="9" ViewCount="814" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that the Vedas are considered as both &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17831/are-there-any-mantra-or-mantras-in-veda-samhitas-that-confirm-that-vedas-are-apa&quot;&gt;Apaurusheya&lt;/a&gt; and the most authoritative among all Hindu Shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But do the Vedas themselves speak about their authoritative nature?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AFAIK, such authoritative nature of the Vedas can only be proved by taking help of other Hindu Shastras like the Smritis and the Puranas. But i may be wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16510/4732&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;  mentions that both the Vyasa Smriti and the Devi Bhagavatam say that the Vedas are the supreme authority as far as Hindu Scriptures are concerned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But, can the same be proved from Vedas themselves?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE&lt;/strong&gt;- Please answer with &lt;strong&gt;only Veda Samhita Mantras&lt;/strong&gt; as references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-10-15T16:22:00.827" Title="Can the &quot;supreme authority&quot; of Veda be proved from Veda itself?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|puranas|smriti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17851" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-06T09:43:37.080" Score="3" ViewCount="434" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read a lot about it that even if it is not the highest mountain on the planet  there is something which makes this mount unique because when ever a person goes there to climb on it, either there is so much snowfall that one has to back off or else some how their plan cancels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is amazing that no one has ever been able to even start climbing mount Kailash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know is there anything in hinduism which says something about it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-06T10:42:41.847" LastActivityDate="2017-04-06T10:42:41.847" Title="Why no one can climb Mount Kailash?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17852" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8997" CreationDate="2017-04-06T10:15:29.107" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think that  arjun  had that  divine  pashupatastra that  lord  Shiva  used  to  destroy  tripura  city &amp;amp;that  weapon  could  have finished  t war  on  t very  1st  day! !?had  he  used  it? But wasn't  he  supposed  to be  on dharma 'S side? So  he  could nt, ,,,and  all  those  karna  lovers  who  always  cry  for  unfair  means  by  which  karn was  killed and  that  if  he  had  his  kavach&amp;amp;kundal he  wd  me invincible =,,,,first  they  need  to  know  t  truth  about  those kavach&amp;amp;kundal (999 kavach&amp;amp;kundal  of 1000 had  been destroyed by  NAR &amp;amp;NARAYAN  in the  previous  yuga of rakshash damboduvna which  was  given  as  a boon  by Surya dev,, ,,,karn  got  t  last  one  of  that kavach&amp;amp;kundal on  his  birth ~he was reincarnation  of  that  raksash! !!!ARJUN&amp;amp;LORD  KRISHNA  were reincarnation of NAR &amp;amp;NARAYAN of TRETA yug #####.now can anyone put  some  COMMON SENSE to all the karn lovers  that  if 999 of those  armour  could  be  destroyed  ,,,,why couldn't 1000th be? ?????????????????TELL ME.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9448" LastActivityDate="2017-04-06T10:15:29.107" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17853" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-06T10:21:15.953" Score="5" ViewCount="1889" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can one worship of The God without idols? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;already written in vedas as na tasya pratimā asti yasya nāma mahadyaśaḥ ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9447" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-04-06T14:27:04.640" LastActivityDate="2017-04-07T05:35:10.717" Title="Is it necessary to worship of idols (ie. Lord Shiva's or Hanuman&quot;s Idol) ? Can one worship of The God without idols?" Tags="|vedas|gods|worship|idols|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17854" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17849" CreationDate="2017-04-06T11:04:48.157" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutra 1.3.29 with the commentary of Sankara has a Rig Veda reference. It says(&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;From this very reason also (results) the eternity (of the Vedas).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since the objects are eternal, that is, gods etc. as types are eternal, the Vedic words are eternal. This establishes the eternal nature of the Vedas. The Vedas were not written by anybody. They are impersonal and eternal. The Rishis only discovered them but were not authors of the Vedic texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“By means of their past good deeds (the priests) attained the capacity to understand the Vedas; (then) they found them dwelling in the Rishis” (Rig-Veda 10.71.3),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;which shows that the Vedas are eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his &lt;em&gt;Sri Bhasya&lt;/em&gt;, Ramanujaji in his commentary on verse 1.3.29 references &lt;em&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; 6.18. That verse says (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who created Brahma in the beginning and who, indeed, delivered the Vedas to him,--in that very Deity, who is the revealer of the knowledge regarding the Self, I, being very desirious of Liberation, seek refuge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja refers to the supreme authority of the Vedas in several places in his &lt;em&gt;Sri Bhyasa&lt;/em&gt;. In his commentary to verse 2.2.35 he quotes several Upanishads to support his view. He says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...The Upanishads declare clearly that the ultimate Reality, the supreme Person, can be known only through the Vedanta texts and not through any other means of knowledge. &quot;I ask you of that supreme Person taught by the Upanishads' etc. (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III.ix.26). Again, the Vedanta texts declare that this supreme Person is both the efficient and the material cause of the world, 'He desired, &quot;Let me be many, let me be born&quot;....He created all this that exists' etc. (Taittiriya Upanishad II.6); 'That Being willed, &quot;May I become many, may I grow forth&quot;, It created fire' Etc. (Chandogya Upanishad VI.ii.3)...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person who accepts the authority of the Vedas is astika - orthodox. A person who does not accept the authority of the Vedas is nastika - hetrodox - not a Vedantist, not a Hindu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-04-09T04:58:13.807" LastActivityDate="2017-04-09T04:58:13.807" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17855" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-06T14:48:28.723" Score="7" ViewCount="2939" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10174/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four gods: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara. And they in turn started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Sampradayam. Now the Sri Sampradayam, the one started by Lakshmi, is most famous for containing the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member). But this is not the only sect that traces its origins to the Sri Sampradayam. There's also the Swaminarayan sect, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10174/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. And then there is the Ramanandi sect, which is the subject of my question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ramanandi or Ramavat sect was popularized by Ramananda, who believed that Rama is the supreme being. It's similar to the ISKCON worldview, where Krishna is supreme and Vishnu is an incarnation of Krishna, except Krishna is replaced by Rama. Famous devotees of Rama like Tulsidas and Kabir belonged to this sect.  And they believe in Visistadvaita as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10180/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, the reason the consider themselves part of the Sri Sampradayam is that they trace their origins to the Guru Parampara of the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya; see the Parampara given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://lordrama.co.in/sri-vaishnav-parampara.html#lineageVMB&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Ramanandi website&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SitaRam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sita (Shri-Devi) &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  ।  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Pritanapati  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shathkop  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Nathamuni  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Pundari  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shri Ram Misra  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yamun Muni  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  PurNa  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Jagadguru Ramanuja (incarnation of Shri Lakshman)  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kuresh  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Purushottam  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Devanand  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Haryanand  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Shriyanand  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Raghavanand  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Jagadguru Ramanandacharya (Incarnation of Shri Rama himself, he brought Bhakti from south to North) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as a Sri Vaishnava, one glaring difference I see compared to the Parampara I'm familiar with is that it says Rama and Sita rather than Vishnu and Lakshmi.  But that's just an issue of what god they consider supreme.  The next nine names are recognizable from the Sri Vaishnava Guru Parampara: you have Vishvaksena, then Nammalwar, then Nathamuni, then Uyyakondar, then Manakkal Nambi, then Yamunacharya, then Periya Nambi, then Ramanujacharya, then Kurathalwan.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, how does the rest of the Parampara connect with the Sri Vaishnava Parampara?  Who is this &quot;Purushottam&quot; figure who is listed as the shishya of Kurathalwan?  For those who don't know, Kurathalwan was the shishya of Ramanujacharya who had his eyes plucked out in the court of a Shaivite Chola king as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16200/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And Kurathalwan was the father of the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Parashara Bhattar.  But the only shishya of Kurathalwan that I know of is Thiruvarangathu Amudhunar, who was the author of the Ramanuja Nootrandhadhi, a famous poem in praise of Ramanujacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any records of Kurathalwan having a shishya named Puroshottam?  Could Puroshottama be the Sanskrit name of Thiruvarangathu Amudhunar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I found three other Shishyas of Kurathalwan.  First there's Naluran, who was a minister to the Shaivite Chola king who persecuted Kurathalwan as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16200/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And the other two are Pillai Pillai Alwan and a local king named Virasundara Brahmaraya.  During the time when Kurathalwan's son Parashara Bhattar was the head of the Sri Vaishnava sect, the king Virasundara Brahmarayan rebuilt one of the walls of the Sri Rangam temple.  In the course of doing so he demolished the house of Pillai Pillai Alwan, against Parashara Bhattar's express instructions.  Parashara Bhattar was so outraged by the Bhagavata Apachsram (offense against a fellow Vaishnava) that he left his beloved Sri Rangam and went to Thirukoshtiyur, only returning to Sri Rangam after Virasundara Brahmarayan died.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, I still haven't found a shishya named &quot;Puroshottam&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-12-31T17:22:21.617" LastActivityDate="2023-12-11T09:03:10.337" Title="How does the Ramanandi sect originate from the Sri Vaishnava Parampara?" Tags="|history|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|sects|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17856" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17853" CreationDate="2017-04-06T16:16:55.667" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Can one worship of The God without idols?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Gods can be invoked and worshiped in as many as &lt;strong&gt;ten places&lt;/strong&gt; among which idol is just one such place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The different ten places are given in the following verses from the KulArnava Tantram, which is a Shakta Agama Shastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Iswara Uvacha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Linga SthandilaVahnyamvusurpa Kubhyapateshu Cha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mandale Phalake Muddhni Hrudi &lt;strong&gt;VA Dasha KirtitA&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Eshu SthAneshu Devesi Yajanthi Paramam ShivAm |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ArupAm Rupinim KritvA Karma KAndaratA NarAha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kularnava Tantram, Chapter 6, Verses 74-75.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva said :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The worshiper visualizes the Formless Devi Parama Shiva  in Form and&#xA;  adores Her in the linga, sign-symbol, altar, Fire, Water, winnowing&#xA;  fan, wall, image/idol , Mandala (diagram), plank, in the head or in&#xA;  the heart. &lt;strong&gt;These ten places are known to be the different places of worship.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as you can see, Gods can be invoked in fire (as is done in fire ritual or Homa), water (Ambu, as we do while doing Deva-Rishi-Pitru Tarpanam) and also in one's heart (Hrudi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a definite process of worshiping God within oneself in one's heart. This is called the &quot;Manasa Puja&quot; and can be learned from one's Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, in short, idol worship is just one of the ways of worshiping Gods but certainly not the only one.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the reason why God, who is essentially Nirguna (attributeless) and Nirakara (formless),  is worshiped in idols having forms is given in the following  verse of the same Scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ChinmayasyAprameyasya NirgunasyA Saririnaha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SAdhanAm HitArthaya Brahmano RupakalpanA&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 6, Verse 73.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahman is indeed the Immeasurable, the Impersonal, without&#xA;  attribute, a sheer Consciousness. &lt;strong&gt;Yet for the benefit of the aspiring,&#xA;  of those who seek for It, Brahman assumes forms, determines Itself in&#xA;  a way as to be cognisable and accessible. It takes Form but certainly&#xA;  It is not limited by that Form or any number of Forms.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, you can invoke &amp;amp; worship Lord Shiva or Sri Hanumana in your own heart, or in fire or in water. And you need not require idols for your worship then.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW, if you are not aware of the term &lt;strong&gt;Shakta Agama&lt;/strong&gt;, then Shakta denotes the devotees of Shakti or Mother Goddess and for knowing what Scriptures are denoted by Agama,  you can see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16541/4732&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; or this &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80gama_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.820" LastActivityDate="2017-04-07T04:36:12.080" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17857" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-06T16:57:47.700" Score="1" ViewCount="116" Body="&lt;p&gt;I had performed the death rituals of my father in law since he does not have sons and my wife being his elder daughter.  Now I have a doubt that whether I can perform my elder son's marriage with in one year.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9452" LastActivityDate="2017-04-06T16:57:47.700" Title="regarding performing marriage of son within one year if death of father in law" Tags="|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-04-06T17:11:28.253" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17858" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12481" CreationDate="2017-04-06T18:05:02.233" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is often seen that Ram worshipping Shiva is referred to as Shiva is great, but the fact is in the avtara of Ram NY Vishnu, never ever shows he was great in whole Ramayana, hence Worshipping Shiva won't make him the great amoungst both. Further as per Bhagvata Vaishnavas (Madhwacharya ) Vishnu from his nabhi raised a lotus in which Bramha was created, once Bramha was very angry n he pinched his lalata (part between eyebrows where anger is represented) there Shiva was born. Hence as per us there is no surprise that Shiva was great Vaishnava, But he comes after Bramha, Madwa/Hanuma/Bhima, Vadiraja. N then SHIVA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9453" LastActivityDate="2017-04-06T18:05:02.233" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17859" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-06T20:57:17.187" Score="18" ViewCount="2815" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any incidence or statement in the scriptures which shows that varna/caste was not deduced from birth/parentage, and was deduced &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; from &quot;qualities independent of parentage&quot;(without referring to parentage at all).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The top answer to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/157/what-is-the-purpose-of-the-caste-system-how-has-it-changed?rq=1&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question uses this verse as a reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;catur-varnyam maya srstam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  guna-karma-vibhagasah - (BG 4.13)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and says that &quot;They substituted heredity in place of qualities&quot;, but doesn't provide any reference to a prior system which didn't consider heredity. All authentic commentaries interpret the word &quot;guna&quot; here to mean that &quot;qualities acquired by birth&quot;. So, this verse doesn't seem to fulfill my need.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, please note that I'm &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; asking about the flexibility of varna system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please cite &lt;strong&gt;direct scriptural references&lt;/strong&gt;(if possible with links). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;: It would do if Shruti(Vedic or Upanishadic) references are provided which show that varna/caste was deduced from birth/parentage, and was not deduced from &quot;qualities independent of parentage&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9342" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.880" LastActivityDate="2022-11-03T04:55:55.933" Title="Any references where varna/caste is determined independent of birth/parentage?" Tags="|scripture|caste-system|varna|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17860" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16647" CreationDate="2017-04-07T05:06:52.627" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra Deva is related to the Indriyas which in turn are related to the mind (Manas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Atharva Veda itself explicitly says that Indra is the lord of the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indro Manasaspata.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra is the Lord of the Divine Mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda Samhita, Kanda 7, Sukta 97, Mantra 8.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another Mantra in the same Samhita which asks Indra to kill the Shada Ripus which are the six enemies of a human mind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;UlukayAtum ShushulukayAtum Jahi SvayAtum Uta KokayAtum SuparnayAtum&#xA;  Uta Grdhrayatum Drshadeva Pra Mrna Raksha Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Indra! kill the delusion (owl), anger (wolf), jealousy (dog), the&#xA;  lust (chakravAka), arrogance (eagle) and the greed (vulture).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 8.4.22&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Here, the Mantra mentions the six enemies by means of six relevant animals.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, its Indra who not only rules the mind but who also kills its 6 enemies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, its quite natural to think that Indra reserves the right to test the minds of all specially of those Tapasvins whose main objective is to have control over mind and senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what the Acharyaji has said makes complete sense to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, may be we can  find more explicit references of what you are looking for in the Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-15T12:41:53.997" LastActivityDate="2017-04-15T12:41:53.997" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17861" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15366" CreationDate="2017-04-07T05:34:05.530" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?beginning=0%20&amp;amp;tinput=%20shri&amp;amp;trans=Translate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shri&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; denotes, among many other things, prosperity, splendour, beauty , abundance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Mantra Vidya adding a bindu to Shri makes the Rama (not Lord RAma) or the Lakshmi beejam. Which is the beejam for abundance, wealth and also prosperity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri or Shriman or Shrimad is often added before a name to show respect. Shrimad denotes one who is ( or which is ) endowed with Shri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a tradition of adding Shri or Shrimad before the names of Holy Texts , Holy places and also before the names of Gurus and Acharyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Lord Shiva orders in the KulArnava Tantram :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SriGurum KulashAstrAni PujyasthAnAni YAni cha || BhaktyA &lt;strong&gt;Sripurvakam&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Devi Pranamya Parikirtayeth||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey Devi, &lt;strong&gt;Guru, Kula Shastras and Pujyasthana&lt;/strong&gt; ( holy places or&#xA;  places that are worthy of worship ), &lt;strong&gt;while addressing any of these&#xA;  three the word &quot;Sri&quot; should be added at the start and they should be&#xA;  addressed&lt;/strong&gt; only after prostrating before them with devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 11, Verse 43.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is why we say Sri XYZ Purana, or Sri Bhagavat Gita and not just Gita. Similarly we should say Sri Kashi Kshetra instead of simply saying Kashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Acharyas and Gurus like Sri Adi Shankara too we should also follow the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Take for example the &lt;a href=&quot;http://stotrasamhita.net/wiki/Shukra_Chaturvimshati_Nama_Stotram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sukra Chaturvimsati Nama Stotram&lt;/a&gt; found in the Skanda Purana . It ends like this :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;||iti &lt;strong&gt;śrī&lt;/strong&gt;skāndapurāṇē &lt;strong&gt;śrī&lt;/strong&gt; śukracaturviṃśatināmastōtraṃ&#xA;  sampūrṇam||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Shri is added before both the Purana's  and Sukra's names. It just shows respect . And, Shrimad is just a variant of Shri with both the words being used for exactly the same purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-07T05:56:31.553" LastActivityDate="2017-04-07T05:56:31.553" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17862" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17853" CreationDate="2017-04-07T05:35:10.717" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is it necessary to worship of idols ? Can one worship of The God without idols ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me start my answer by firstly explaining &lt;strong&gt;why idol worship of gods came into existence.&lt;/strong&gt; Its said in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&lt;/strong&gt; that in the beginning of Treta yuga saints ,sages introduced deity worship in the form of idols when they saw people are doing Disdain (Tiraskar ) , Malice and disrespecting each other .&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दृष्ट्वा तेषांमिथो नृणामवज्ञानात्मतां नृप |&lt;br&gt; त्रेतादिषु हरेरर्चा&#xA;  क्रियायै कविभि: कृता ||३९||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dṛṣṭvā teṣāṁ mitho nṛṇām avajñānātmatāṁ nṛpa&lt;br&gt; tretādiṣu harer arcā&#xA;  kriyāyai kavibhiḥ kṛtā&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King, when great sages and saintly persons saw mutually&#xA;  disrespectful dealings at the beginning of Tretā-yuga, &lt;strong&gt;Deity worship&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;in the temple was introduced&lt;/strong&gt; with all paraphernalia. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/14/39&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  7.14.39&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt; &#xA;The answer to your question is given by Shree Krishna in Shreemad Bhagvat Purana . &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Skanda  11 Chapter 27  , Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Instructions on the Process of Deity Worship.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here  in this shloka Shree Krishan is telling us the  &lt;strong&gt;methods by which  worship is done&lt;/strong&gt; to him.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shree Krishan said -: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वैदिकस्तान्त्रिको मिश्र इति मे त्रिविधो मख: |&lt;br&gt; त्रयाणामीप्सितेनैव&#xA;  विधिना मां समर्चयेत ||७||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaidikas tāntriko miśra iti me tri-vidho makhaḥ &lt;br&gt; trayāṇām&#xA;  īpsitenaiva vidhinā māṁ samarcaret.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should carefully worship Me by selecting one of the three methods&#xA;  by which I receive sacrifice: &lt;strong&gt;Vedic, tantric or mixed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  11.27.7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Here in this shloka Shree Krishna is saying that he is worshiped according to the faith of a particular worshiper.&lt;strong&gt;So one can worship him in deity form OR one can worship him in his heart also&lt;/strong&gt; , its called Manas pooja ( pooja by mind).&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;द्रव्यै: प्रसिद्भैर्मदयाग: &lt;strong&gt;प्रतिमादिष्वमायिन:&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt; भक्तस्य च&#xA;  यथालब्धैर्ह्यदि भावेन चैव हि ||१५||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dravyaiḥ prasiddhair mad-yāgaḥ &lt;strong&gt;pratimādiṣv&lt;/strong&gt; amāyinaḥ&lt;br&gt; bhaktasya&#xA;  ca yathā-labdhair  hṛdi bhāvena caiva hi &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should worship Me in My Deity forms by offering the most excellent&#xA;  paraphernalia. But a devotee completely freed from material desire may&#xA;  worship Me with whatever he is able to obtain, and may even worship Me&#xA;  within his heart with mental paraphernalia. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27/15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.27.15&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;And here Shree krishana is telling us that &lt;strong&gt;either one can worship me Saguna as well as in Nirguna form.&lt;/strong&gt; But he exist’s  in both within all , as he is the supreme soul. That mean no matter which method one use , supreme person exsists in all in the Saguna as well as Nirguna form. So Shree Krishan is saying &lt;strong&gt;both forms of worships are the same.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्चादिषु यदा यत्र श्रद्भा मां तत्र चार्चयेत |&lt;br&gt; सर्वभूतेषश्वात्मानि&#xA;  च सर्वात्माहमव्यवस्थित: ||४८||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;arcādiṣu yadā yatra śraddhā māṁ tatra cārcayet&lt;br&gt; sarva-bhūteṣv&#xA;  ātmani ca sarvātmāham avasthitaḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whenever one develops faith in Me — in My form as the Deity or in&#xA;  other bona fide manifestations — one should worship Me in that form.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;I certainly exist both within all created beings&lt;/strong&gt; and also separately in My original form, since I am the Supreme Soul of all.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27/48&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.27.48&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt; &#xA;The Deity form, arcā, is specifically mentioned here because Deity worship is essential for spiritual progress. Inexperienced persons may think that the Deity is meant for the sense gratification of the worshiper, since superficially the Deity is made of external substances such as marble or brass. But through the process of installing the Deity by chanting of authorized mantras, one invites the Supreme God to enter the Deity form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt; – So from analyzing obove shlokas , we can say that  &lt;strong&gt;both forms of worship are the same (Saguna and Nirguna)&lt;/strong&gt;. So its &lt;strong&gt;not necessary&lt;/strong&gt; that gods should only be worshiped in deity form (Idol worship).&lt;strong&gt;One can worship god through Mind and Heart also.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-04-07T05:35:10.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17863" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-07T11:55:50.803" Score="0" ViewCount="69" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know that penis is the most hidden part of body, and society could not accept to see any one nude. Then isn't it disrespecting to worship Lord Shiva's penis ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9447" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-04-07T14:20:11.310" LastActivityDate="2017-04-07T14:20:11.310" Title="Is there any erroneous belief to worship of Shiva Linga?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-04-08T03:16:13.153" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17864" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20632" CreationDate="2017-04-07T14:33:11.490" Score="4" ViewCount="3367" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasharatha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dasharatha&lt;/a&gt; was a great &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikshvaku_dynasty&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ikshvaku King&lt;/a&gt;(of Ayodhya) and Bhagawan &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shri Ram&lt;/a&gt;'s father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When we take the literal meaning&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dasharatha or Dasharath  means &lt;strong&gt;ten Chariots&lt;/strong&gt;, because sandhi viccheda for Dasharatha would be &#xA;Dasha + Ratha : Dasha means ten and Ratha means chariot. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can someone have a name like 10 Chariots? is there another meaning or &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10852/36&quot;&gt;story&lt;/a&gt; associated with this name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: I prefer answer from valid sanskrit dictionary like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Practical-Sanskrit-English-Dictionary-V-S-Apte/dp/8120815688&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apte&lt;/a&gt; and/or Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T21:14:20.820" Title="What is meaning associated with the name Dasharatha?" Tags="|ramayana|dasharatha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17867" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-07T17:32:36.930" Score="3" ViewCount="574" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am so much devoted to my Mother ShriLalita Maheshwari AdShakti.&#xA;When I was small I loved God, but as I reached 13-14 years, I thought that the concept of religion, God and others is a superstition, so I rejected all this. But as I grew to 16, I read various articles about religion, Bhakti, Yog, Ved, Purans. So I became very devoted to Mother Laita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now sometimes when I worship, doubts come in my mind that does Mother Lalita even exists or not. I tried to resist these doubts. But my science-based thinking keeps on making me doubt. I read Devi bhagwatam, Vivek Chudamani, various Stotram etc. a little bit. But still the doubt comes to my mind that does God even exist?&#xA;I read in Vivek Chudamani that this condition - &quot;doubt whether God is real or unreal&quot; is called ViPratiPatti.&#xA;But I then doubt is this Vipratipatti real or the author has just written it as such. And if Brahma really exists, why does It(from 'It' I mean the genderless Brahma), need to take form of Mother Lalita, or Shri Shiva, or Shri Vishnu and others? And if all these forms are true and complete Brahma, why should we worship any one of them and consider the rest inferior? And so many other doubts. So I feel that all the Ved Purans etc have been written only to establish  good rules to benefit people. &#xA;But then again I argue to myself, if God is unreal, then why in many tantras etc. there is a procedure or sadhana to even get Darshan of God? But again I start feeling that maybe the Darshan is just because of some psychological reason or something. And even if mantra work, they might work by creating waves of fmvarious frequency and these waves effect the various mantra such as Mohan, Ucchatan, Maran etc. And no real God is behind the working of these mantra. And so many other doubts come to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read BhagwatGeetaa a little bit, but I then questioned myself- is this Geeta ever been said by ShriVishnu, or is it just an Imagination. Is it just to benefit the old aged people, because when someone will become old, he may not be able to do anything, so some wise people thought let us create the concept of Moksha Sannyaas etc. for the benefit of these people. And maybe some wise men got jealous and they created other sects of getting Moksha such as- Gyan marg, Yog, Bhakti, Sadhana, Tantra, etc. And so many other doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want my life back. Please save me. I was really devoted to Devi. But these doubts are hindering me for the true devotion. And this has really caused a lot of mental problems to me like depression, fear that God will will punish me, preoccupation, lack of confidence, stammering etc. I don't want anything. I just want to know if God exists or not. I really want to devote myself completely to Mother Laita. Please save me from these doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-04-07T17:32:36.930" Title="I am devoted to God, but doubts keep on coming in my mind about existence of God. Please save me. I want real devotion." Tags="|vishnu|shiva|gods|philosophy|devi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2017-04-07T17:33:14.517" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17869" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17887" CreationDate="2017-04-07T19:18:29.090" Score="6" ViewCount="726" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the mythological story behind &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhinnamasta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chhinnamasta&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;br/&gt; Is there any philosophical meaning behind this image shown below ? &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ek2xz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ek2xz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;छिन्नमस्ता, Chinnamastā Deví&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What benefits can one earn by worshiping this form?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2021-03-23T04:58:46.283" LastActivityDate="2021-03-23T05:00:58.973" Title="Questions about the image of goddess Chhinnamasta?" Tags="|goddess|tantra|shaktism|dasha-mahavidya|chinnamasta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2018-01-12T13:19:41.973" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17870" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-07T19:37:54.087" Score="6" ViewCount="1048" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a husband intentionally deserts his wife by listening to wrong and misleading people, then how will GOD punish him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9464" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-08T02:13:16.070" LastActivityDate="2017-04-14T11:49:43.257" Title="How will God punish a person who deserts his wife?" Tags="|sin|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17872" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17870" CreationDate="2017-04-08T05:04:56.643" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;God does not have to personally execute punishments. For that very purpose in the netherworld he has appointed Yama. And on the earth he appointed the Kings. God punishes through the Kings here as Kings represent the Gods on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.303. Let the king emulate the energetic action of Indra,&#xA;  of the Sun, of the Wind, of Yama, of Varuna, of the Moon, of the Fire,&#xA;  and of the Earth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.308. As (a sinner) is seen bound with ropes by Varuna,&#xA;  even so let him punish the wicked; that is his office in which he&#xA;  resembles Varuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unless the wife is guilty of a minor sin the wife must not be abandoned. A minor sin is called an Upapataka (which causes loss of caste) as opposed to a major sin which is called a Mahapataka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The King can  punish such guilty husbands by imposing fines on them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 8.389. Neither a mother, nor a father, &lt;strong&gt;nor a wife&lt;/strong&gt;, nor a&#xA;  son shall be cast off; &lt;strong&gt;he who casts them off, unless guilty of a crime&#xA;  causing loss of caste, shall be fined six hundred (panas)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And casting off any relatives without sufficient reasons is also mentioned by Manu as an Upapataka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.62. Living as a Vratya, &lt;strong&gt;casting off a relative&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  teaching (the Veda) for wages, learning (the Veda) from a paid&#xA;  teacher, and selling goods which one ought not to sell, are all minor&#xA;  offences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Vishnu Smriti, abandoning one's wife falls under &quot;fourth degree  crimes&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Abandoning) one's holy fire, or one's father, mother, son, or wife;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus have the crimes in the fourth degree been enumerated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Smriti, Chapter XXXVII.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,  another chapter of the same Smriti says that offenders guilty of such fourth degree crimes are re-born as aquatic animals in the next births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Minor offenders enter the bodies of birds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Criminals in the fourth degree enter the bodies of aquatic animals&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Smriti, Chapter XLIV.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, as per the Daksha Smriti, the husband guilty of such crimes gets reborn as barren woman in the next birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He, who renounces, in youth, a wife who is free from any fault and is&#xA;  not degraded, &lt;strong&gt;will attain, after death, to womanhood and become&#xA;  barren.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daksha Smriti, Chapter 4, Verse 17.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, there are also prescribed penances or prayaschittas by performing which one gets relieved of one's sin in the current birth only. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-14T11:49:43.257" LastActivityDate="2017-04-14T11:49:43.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17874" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-08T06:59:45.377" Score="7" ViewCount="335" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that Brihaspati is Teacher of Devas. Shukracharya is also teacher of Daityas. Mangal Deva etc. Are also Deva. So are the planets and sun moon just their abodes or is Surya Deva really a sphere of Hydrogen changing to Helium etc. ? If these planets and sun, moon are the very Deva, then does man landing on moon lands on Chandra Deva's body? Did the satellite of India 'MangalaYaana' land on Mangal's body.? Then why did not these Devatas talked to Human beings.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if this is their Abode, then where is the well expounded aishwarya of their respective Lokas- the throne of these Deva, their servants, palace etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We cannot deny that the planet our sages pointed in sky and calling them Devatas, are not the same planets and celestial bodies that have been reached by humans now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if human being is this able to reach their Abode, where has gone the power of these Devatas? Why did not the gatekeepers of their Loka obstruct satellites and human beings reaching Saturn, Mangal, Moon etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The celestial objects that we see now are the very ones who were pointed by the Shastras and Purans. So these celestial objects have to be- either the Devatas, or their Loka. And in both case, if human being is this able that to even reach them, where has gone their power? This all leads to us thinking that all things written in our Shastras are just some very very intelligent imagination by some very very wise and intellectual persons. And the GOD is also one of this Imagination. And if it be so, then does God exist. And if the things written them are true, then where is the validity of the fact that has been questioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note, then I am not a science based atheist hypocrite. I am very devoted to Mother Lalita. But doubts of this kind, as I mentioned in my question, make me feel if God even exists or not. Moreover, if God exists and the composers of Veda Purans were blessed by this Same God, then how could they be so wrong in writing these facts about the celestial bodies?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-08T08:04:52.533" LastActivityDate="2017-04-09T20:31:03.010" Title="Are the planets of our solar system ( like Brihaspati, Shukra, Chandra etc) Devas or the abodes of the respective Devas?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|gods|astrology|navagraha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17875" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-08T09:07:17.393" Score="4" ViewCount="608" Body="&lt;p&gt;Man is reaching Moon, satellites reached Saturn and Mangal. If these heavenly bodies are Devatas, Chandra and Surya being ''Vedic Deva''. Then how was Chandra Deva not able to stop or even react when Human beings, dogs and satellites landed on him. And if these are only physical entities, then why is it their effect is said to occur on us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Surya Dev made of Hydrogen and Helium. If it is so, then is ParaBrahma Surya made of Atoms I.e. mass and energy?&#xA;Brahma is beyond mass, energy, existence or inexistence, then why is Surya Deva, not even able to move and is fixed in our solar system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if Surya Deva is not the one whom we see in sky, then why is it in our scriptures that Sun is eclipsed by rahu, the very rahu who was severed by Vishnu's Chakra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it is not the same Surya Deva, then this means either astrology is wrong, or it was a mistake of our Sages to write Ved Purans. And how did those sage, knower of Brahma, so careless as to make such great mistakes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it be argued that astrology does not at all work, then the other part of our Shastras giving knowledge of God is also false. And this means God is false and just a story. But we know God is true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if the planets in our solar system not the same Devatas as mentioned in our Scriptures, then why is that in our jyotish, the placement of these very celestial bodies is seen? And if the Upaayas done for curing them is also based on these very physical celestial bodies, then who is the consumer or see-er of these Upaayas, is he Brihaspati, Shani, Moon? And if it so, then what does Chandra Deva(a vedic God), do when man lands on his physical entity of Moon? Does Chandra Deva become happy or sad? Of is he not able to account for anything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mars Planet of our solar system is said to be ruled by Angaraka Mangal. Now, Mangal has to answer to his Prati-adhi-devata Subrahmanya Kartikkeya. So what does Mangal tell to Lord Kartikkeya, when a satellite comes on the Mars Planet or Mangal Graha. (I know planet is not the translation to Graha, but I'm just using it as a convention).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if Human beings some day would start landing on Mars Planet, then what will Angaraka tell Kartikkeya? And will Kartikkeya , who is son of Shri Shiva, not even tell Lord Shiva about these things? And is then, even a stupid person be able to connect to Supreme Soul Shiva this easily?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If astrology is not a proper or complete Gyan or Vidya, and astrology is spread throughout our scriptures, then how can we say that our scriptures are correct? And if these are not correct, then what path we follow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-04-19T06:34:06.947" Title="Is astrology even true? If it is true, then how these Grahas called Devata become dumb bodies of Moon, Star Sun, Mars etc" Tags="|scripture|gods|astrology|navagraha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ClosedDate="2017-06-06T09:20:44.037" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17876" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17859" CreationDate="2017-04-08T12:50:51.293" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we say varnas can be determined entirely neglecting the &lt;strong&gt;birth factor&lt;/strong&gt; then that will clearly contradict the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/invoc/in_pura.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purusha Suktam&lt;/a&gt; which says how the four castes came out of (or &lt;strong&gt;born of&lt;/strong&gt;) four parts of the Purusha's body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AqHlX.gif&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AqHlX.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brāhmaṇo'sya mukhamāsīd bāhū rājanyaḥ kṛtaḥ, ūrū tadasya yad vaiśyaḥ&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;padbhyāgï śūdro ajāyata.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmana (spiritual wisdom and splendour) was His mouth; the&#xA;  Kshatriya (administrative and military prowess) His arms became. His&#xA;  thighs were the Vaisya (commercial and business enterprise); &lt;strong&gt;of His&#xA;  feet the Sudra (productive and sustaining force) was born.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the varnas  very much depend on &lt;strong&gt;how they were born&lt;/strong&gt; to start with. Then how can we expect that varnas can be decided by entirely neglecting the birth factor?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, the Sudras are the ones  &lt;strong&gt;who were born out of the Purusha's feet.&lt;/strong&gt;  So, the birth factor is the first deciding factor for determining the varnas. Then how can we ignore it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then of course come the Samskara and the conduct factors. Because the scriptures say that everyone is a Sudra by birth; &amp;amp; one becomes a Dvija only by Samskaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See, the following verse from Manu Smriti, that says  birth, samskara (purificatory rituals) and conduct all collectively determine a Brahmin. The purport is all those three factors are important and we can't neglect anyone of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.3. On account of his pre-eminence, on account of the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;superiority of his origin&lt;/strong&gt;, on account of &lt;strong&gt;his observance of&#xA;  (particular) restrictive rules,&lt;/strong&gt; and on account &lt;strong&gt;of his particular&#xA;  sanctification&lt;/strong&gt; the Brahmana is the lord of (all) castes (varna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-08T14:13:31.143" LastActivityDate="2017-04-08T14:13:31.143" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17877" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17819" CreationDate="2017-04-08T17:16:05.563" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a belief that Vishwamitra and Kaushika are same person but then why would there be two pravaras of Kaushika and Vishwamitra in same gotra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The pravara of Kaushika gotra is &amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;Vaiswaamitra, Aghamarshana, Koushika &amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; and the pravara of Vishwamitra gotra is &amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;Vaiswaamitra, Devaraata, Owtala&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Technically, Vishwamitra is also called &amp;quot;kaushika&amp;quot; because he was the descendant of Rishi Kusha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was a king named &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga51/bala_51_prose.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kusha&lt;/a&gt;, a brainchild of Prjaapati, and Kusha's&#xA;son was the powerful and verily righteous Kushanaabha. One who is&#xA;highly renowned by the name Gaadhi was the son of Kushanaabha, and&#xA;Gaadhi's son is this great-saint of great resplendence, Vishvamitra.&#xA;Vishvamitra ruled the earth, and this great-resplendent king ruled the&#xA;kingdom for many thousands of years. At one time the great-resplendent&#xA;king Vishvamitra went round the earth marshalling a unit of akshauhini&#xA;army.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So King Gaadhi was the grandson of King Kusha and the father of Vishwamitra. Hence Vishwamitra is also known by the name &amp;quot;Kaushika&amp;quot; because his ancestor was Raja-rishi Kusha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was also a king but also a &lt;strong&gt;rishi&lt;/strong&gt;. He is the rshi for the mantra of Rigveda. For example &lt;strong&gt;he is the rishi of the mantra &lt;a href=&quot;https://doc-14-bc-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/ha0ro937gcuc7l7deffksulhg5h7mbp1/79u3482fvg58f95l05le1tb7di9mbthr/1491667200000/02058467015715614041/*/0ByTrbPQHgxJdVlpubndDcm41OFk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3.31&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence Kusha was the propagator of Kaushika gotra and then again Viswhamitra was the propagator of Vishwamitra gotra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-08T18:34:28.187" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17878" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-08T20:07:43.980" Score="5" ViewCount="2439" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Lalita Sahasranama Stotra belongs to the Uttarakhanda (latter part) of the Brahmanda Purana. In which  chapter can I find the work??&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-03-15T12:21:19.527" LastActivityDate="2020-03-15T12:21:19.527" Title="In which chapter of Brahmanda purana is Shri Lalita Sahasranama present?" Tags="|scripture|devi|brahmanda-purana|lalita-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17882" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17885" CreationDate="2017-04-09T05:16:32.393" Score="24" ViewCount="29656" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ saṁskārad bhaved dvijaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Everyone_is_born_sudra._But_if_one_does_not_accept_the_samskaras,_he_remains_a_sudra,_not_that_sudras_are_not_allowed_to_take_samskara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse&lt;/a&gt; in question which means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everyone is born a shudra and  by samskara one upgrades to dvija status.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it the Bhagavata Purana that contains this verse? If not which scripture contains it?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What was the context in which it was said?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-04-17T23:04:31.760" LastActivityDate="2018-04-17T23:04:31.760" Title="Which scripture is the source of the verse &quot;janmana jayate shudrah.. &quot; (everyone is born a shudra)?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|shloka|varna|shudra|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17883" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17870" CreationDate="2017-04-09T05:51:26.880" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before you get answer to this it is important to understand whether GOD punishes somebody for a wrong act done or is it something else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will explain it to you clearly. Everything in this world works on a Law. For good actions you perform, you get good returns. For bad actions, you get bad returns. If you help somebody, you will get blessing in return from that person and that will be added to your fortune and will be responsible for your Good Luck in life. Similarly, if you hurt somebody, you will create a Bad Luck for you yourself. This can also be called as the universal LAW OF KARMA. God has nothing to do about it. He won't punish anybody being the most loving, most caring and most obedient father of the Humanity. All the scriptures which we read has his teachings about what kind of actions one perform, what are good actions, what are bad actions and why one should not perform any sins. The reason is everything in this world happens according to Law of Karma. If you open a school in this life, in next life you will be a highly educated person. If you open a hospital in this life, you will get good health in the next life. Similarly, if you kill many people in this life, probably you will have a very bad life in your next birth and so on. Everything is based on Law of Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, now coming to your question: &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;If a husband intentionally deserts his wife by listening to wrong and misleading people, then how will GOD punish him?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is clear that if the husband knows that what he is doing is wrong but still does it intentionally, then definitely in his next life he will be in misery of some kind for this wrong action he does in this life. There can't be a definite answer but you can guess that in his next life either his family members will not love him or desert him, or nobody will respect him or like him in his next life and he will crave for love and respect from people in his next life. But most important thing to understand is GOD has nothing to do here in his destiny, nor GOD is punishing him here. It's just Law of Karma. Every Action has equal and opposite Reaction. This is true not only for Physics but for the Life Actions as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to learn from this, we should be very cautious about our actions we perform in our life. Even a small hurt or anger or greed or ego you show others can be a reason for your misery in your current life or next life or many coming lives. So love and respect everyone with heart. Be generous towards even those who do bad to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source of this Knowledge: The Hindu scripture &quot;Gita&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8488" LastEditorUserId="8488" LastEditDate="2017-04-09T10:14:16.330" LastActivityDate="2017-04-09T10:14:16.330" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17884" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17225" CreationDate="2017-04-09T05:54:36.410" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not really sure if all those videos are true, but it's possible to attain Siddhis (or some occult powers) through birth as mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;Sutra 1, Adhyaya 4 of Patanjali Yoga Sutras&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जन्मओषधिमन्त्रतपस्समाधिजाः सिद्धयः ॥१॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  janma-oṣadhi-mantra-tapas-samādhi-jāḥ siddhayaḥ ॥1॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Siddhis (powers) are attained by birth, chemical means, power of&#xA;  words, mortification or concentration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swami Vivekananda commentary&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sometimes a man is born with the Siddhis, powers, of course from the&#xA;  exercise of powers he had in his previous birth. In this birth he is&#xA;  born, as it were, to enjoy the fruits of them. It is said of Kapila,&#xA;  the great father of the Sankhya Philosophy, that he was a born Siddha,&#xA;  which means, literally, a man who has attained to success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Commentary of Vyasa&lt;/strong&gt;: (translated by Ganganatha Jha)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Com :— &lt;strong&gt;The Power due to birth is brought about by corporeal&#xA;  change&lt;/strong&gt;, &quot; By herbs: &quot; e.g, the medicinal preparations in the house&#xA;  of the Asaras (i.e, Påtåla) &quot; By incantations.&quot; Such as the&#xA;  acquirement of &quot; Molecularity &quot; (Animå ),  &quot;By austerities&quot; the &#xA;  capability of approaching the sky, accomplishment of desire, e.g,&#xA;  being capable of attaining any desirable form, the yogi moves about&#xA;  here, there and  everywhere, in accordance with his own unimpeded&#xA;  will, The  Powers due to Meditation have already been described. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Notes&lt;/strong&gt; :—( 1 ) &quot;&lt;em&gt;Corporeal change&lt;/em&gt;' - Sometimes the actions of the yogi  in his earthly life are developed to such on extent that he is&#xA;  directly  born among the gods, with a celestial body, and as such&#xA;  molecularity  ind the rest come to him naturally,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These occult powers in those kids might be due to their past birth vasanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2017-04-09T05:54:36.410" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17885" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17882" CreationDate="2017-04-09T06:56:59.687" Score="32" Body="&lt;p&gt;No this shloka is not from Shreemad Bhagvat Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This shloka is given in &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana  Vol.18 Book VI , Nagar Kanda , Chapter 239 , ( Efficacy of Adoration , Penance etc.)  Verse 31-34&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जन्मना जायते शूद्रः संस्कारात् द्विज उच्यते।&lt;br&gt; शापानुग्रहसामर्थ्यं&#xA;  तथा क्रोधः प्रसन्नता ।|31-34||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;31 : &lt;strong&gt;A Man is no better than a sudra at his birth&lt;/strong&gt; .He is called&#xA;  Brahmana (Twice Born) due to the consecration. The ability to curse&#xA;  and to bless, the state of being angry and pleased and the status of&#xA;  being the foremost in all three worlds occur only in Brahmana &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This chapter is about  adoration of Lord Vishnu is  performed by means of Sixteen Upacharas. (Shodasopachara puja) (षोडशोपचार पूजा). This shloka is used in context of Achamana ,Yajnopavita , Dvija's. But the specific chapter talks about Devotion , Chatrumas puja and Panchyatana puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9ELW8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9ELW8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-04-09T10:28:42.140" LastActivityDate="2017-04-09T10:28:42.140" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17886" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17849" CreationDate="2017-04-09T13:10:51.610" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of my answer uses &lt;a href=&quot;http://agniveer.com/origin-of-vedas/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; as its source (the section on Origin of Vedas). I also took notes from some other articles, but this one includes all of them. Here's the relevant excerpt:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajurved 31.7&lt;/strong&gt; clearly states that Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and&#xA;  Atharvaveda were originated from Him – the ultimate Ishwar who is&#xA;  omnipresent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharvaveda 10.7.20&lt;/strong&gt; reiterates the same essence beautifully. It says&#xA;  that Rik, Yajuh, Sama and Atharva originated from the ultimate Ishwar.&#xA;  It asks “Which deva (provider ofbliss/knowledge) gave the Vedas?” And&#xA;  answers that the One who is controlling and maintaining the entire&#xA;  universe is the creator of Vedas. Atharva is like the mouth of that&#xA;  Ishwar, Samaveda is like the hair on the skin, Yajurveda is akin to&#xA;  the heart and Rigveda is the Prana or source.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shatpath Brahman 14.5.4.10&lt;/strong&gt; states that Ishwar, who is present even&#xA;  beyond the Akash/Sky created the Vedas. The way breath goes out of&#xA;  body and then comes in, during inception of creation, Ishwar creates&#xA;  the Vedas and illuminates the world, and in the phase of dissolution&#xA;  (Pralay), Vedas no more remain in world. However just as a sapling&#xA;  remains inside the seed, Vedas still remain in knowledge of Ishwar,&#xA;  unchanged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankaracharya writes in commentary on Geeta 3.15 that Vedas are&#xA;  actually never created or destroyed. They merely get illuminated and&#xA;  de-illuminated but remain in Ishwar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rigveda 10.190.3&lt;/strong&gt; states that the creation remains same in all cycles&#xA;  and hence even the constitution of the creation – the Vedas – also&#xA;  remain exactly the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One other reference that I saw being referred to was from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, though that would not be one of the samhitas. I'm just including it here since I did find it (let me know if you would prefer I not include it):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brhadaranyaka Upanishad(2. 4. 10)&lt;/strong&gt; As from a fire kindled with wet&#xA;  faggot diverse kinds of smoke issue, even so, my dear, the Rg-Veda,&#xA;  Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda, Atharvahgirasa, history, mythology, arts,&#xA;  Upanishads, verses, aphorisms, elucidations and explanations are&#xA;  (like) the breath of this infinite Reality. They are like the breath&#xA;  of this (Supreme Self). (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.upanishads.kenjaques.org.uk/Brihadaranyaka_Upanishad_Chapter_Two.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translation found here&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9417" LastActivityDate="2017-04-09T13:10:51.610" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17887" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17869" CreationDate="2017-04-09T13:43:41.293" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;ChinnamastA means the one with severed head. In the shAkta tradition, &lt;strong&gt;she is the sixth cosmic goddess of the ten &amp;quot;mahAvidyAs&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. Her form is very fierce and hence has attracted many controversies over the meaning. Some have even linked it with black magic etc. Let us see the esoteric meaning of the iconography,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most controversial and important feature is the &amp;quot;head&amp;quot;. The head signifies the mind and because the head is severed, it signifies transcending the mind or &amp;quot;mindlessness&amp;quot;. This can also be equated to &amp;quot;turiya&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;turiyAteeta&amp;quot; state where mind is dissolved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, the head is not severed by someone but by herself only. This shows sacrifice, the sacrifice of Ego (mind). Thus one reaches egoless state once the mind is dissolved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be noted that the severed head does not show any pain or sorrow. But it has the expression of tranquility and contentment. The bliss which is experienced after mind and body consciousness is transcended. It is also the symbol of transcending the bondage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Out from the severed body, i.e. The neck, three streams of blood ooze out. The three streams can be equated to ida, pingala and sushumna respectively. It should be noted that the central stream (susumna) is flowing to the actual severed head. Thus it shows that one has to reach to the highest chakra of the head via the path of central spinal passage of susumna with the Egoless mind in order to experience awakening and bliss in totality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thirdly, she is standing on kAma (ananga) and rati. This shows the transcending of desires and lust. It is more of a transformation of materialistic love to the divine love rather.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is a very powerful and ferocious deity. She is also known as &lt;em&gt;prachanda chandikA&lt;/em&gt; meaning fierce form of chandi goddess. She is also known as &lt;em&gt;vajra vairochani&lt;/em&gt; meaning &amp;quot;the brilliant (radiant) one who is holding the thunder&amp;quot;. Thus she is also equated with indrAnI the consort of Lord Indra. Because Indra holds the vajra (not an established fact yet).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is the giver of yogic powers and enlightenment. There is much importance of this goddess in the Tibetian tantric cult as well. There she is referred as &amp;quot;Vajra yogini&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2021-03-23T05:00:58.973" LastActivityDate="2021-03-23T05:00:58.973" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17888" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10599" CreationDate="2017-04-09T17:28:40.563" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;www.satsangh.org is a website which has many blogs on Hinduism. You could visit that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You could also visit www.shrinimishamba.org There are lot of articles in the teachings section of the page. Many scriptures are discussed here. Currently they are running a series on Shri Guru Gita from Skanda Purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9333" LastActivityDate="2017-04-09T17:28:40.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17890" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-10T01:08:13.637" Score="7" ViewCount="493" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Lord in Bhagavad Gita prescribed selfless action or actions where do not expect any rewards. In the modern world every business is financially and goal driven. Even if you do good work it goes unnoticed without self promotion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How can one achieve materialistic goals through selfless action? how can a selfless person get something without asking for it - be it a raise, starting salary, opportunity? What is the way prescribed by the Lord for such goals?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="757" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-04-12T07:32:29.183" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T07:32:29.183" Title="Karma Yoga in Workplace" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17891" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17859" CreationDate="2017-04-10T03:23:05.180" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is one reference in Mahabharata that clearly states that Varna is independent of birth and specifies conduct to be the only ground.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maheshwara said, ‘.&lt;strong&gt;.Neither birth, nor the purificatory rites, nor&#xA;learning, nor offspring, can be regarded as grounds for conferring&#xA;upon one the regenerate status. Verily, the conduct is the only&#xA;ground.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;All Brahmanas in this world are Brahmanas in consequence of&#xA;conduct. A Sudra, if he is established on good conduct, is regarded as&#xA;possessed of the status of a Brahmana.&lt;/strong&gt; The status of a Brahma, O&#xA;auspicious lady [Uma], is equal wherever it exists. Even this is my&#xA;opinion. He, indeed, is a Brahmana in which the status of Brahma&#xA;exists – that condition which is bereft of attributes and which has no&#xA;stain attached to it. of human beings in four orders dependent on&#xA;birth is only for purposes of classification.&lt;strong&gt;The boon giving Brahma,&#xA;when he created all creatures, himself said that the distribution of&#xA;human beings in four orders dependent on birth is only for purposes of&#xA;classification.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata Anusasana Parva Section CXLIII&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover the birth based caste system is an invalid system since it violates the guidelines given in Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guidelines&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything written in Hindu scripture is not valid. A scriptural statement can be invalid if it does not satisfy reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Primacy of reason&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma Said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the words heard from an ignorant person, if in themselves they be&#xA;fraught with sense, come to be regarded as pious and wise. In days of&#xA;old, Usanas said unto the Daityas this truth, which should remove all&#xA;doubts, that &lt;strong&gt;scriptures are no scriptures if they cannot stand the&#xA;test of reason&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata Shanti Parva Section CXLII&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Acharya Shankara says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The appeal to the infallibility of the Vedic injunction is&#xA;misconceived. The infallibility in question refers only to the unseen&#xA;forces or apurva, and is admissible only in regards to matters not&#xA;confined to the sphere of direct perceptions, etc ... Even a hundred&#xA;statements of sruti to the effect that fire is cold and non-luminous&#xA;won't prove valid. If it does make such a statement, its import will&#xA;have to be interpreted differently. Otherwise, validity won't attach&#xA;to it. Nothing in conflict with the means of valid cognition or with&#xA;its own statements may be imputed to sruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;REF: Srimad Bhagavad Gita Bhasya 18.66 of Sri Sankaracarya translation by Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier, p. 629.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rejection of discriminatory verses&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any discriminatory verse in Hindu scripture is also automatically invalid according to Hindu scripture and should not be followed. This is necessary because Hinduism is not an organized dharma and does not have any central body to oversee the content of Hindu spiritual texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a holy act is against the interest of other members of the society,&#xA;it should not be practiced. It is Dharma which is the source of Artha&#xA;and even of Kama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kurma Purana I.2.54&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The implication of the Kurma Purana verse is that the hereditary caste system practiced by Hindus is an invalid system on the grounds of discrimination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2022-11-03T04:55:55.933" LastActivityDate="2022-11-03T04:55:55.933" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17892" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17878" CreationDate="2017-04-10T05:32:25.327" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/brahmandapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this version&lt;/a&gt; of the Lalita Sahsranama Stotram hosted by the Kamakoti.org, the  Stotram is present in the &lt;strong&gt;2nd chapter&lt;/strong&gt; of Uttara Khanda of the Brahmanda Purana. The name of the chapter is &lt;strong&gt;&quot; Shri Lalitaa Rahasya naama Saahasra Stotra Kathanam &quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Iti &lt;strong&gt;Shri Brahmaanda Puraaney Uttara Khandey&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Hayagreevaagasthya Samvaadey&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shri Lalitaa Rahasya naama Saahasra Stotra Kathanam Naama&#xA;  Dwiteeyodhyaayah&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus ends the &lt;strong&gt;2nd chapter named &quot; Sri Lalita Rahasya Nama Sahasra Stotra&#xA;  Kathanam&quot; of the Uttara Khanda of the Brahmanada Purana&lt;/strong&gt; which is in&#xA;  the form of a dialogue between Sri Hayagreeva &amp;amp; Sri Agastya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-10T12:47:35.507" LastActivityDate="2017-04-10T12:47:35.507" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17893" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-10T07:17:58.567" Score="3" ViewCount="10614" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently, for sometime my friend have been dreaming of his dead relatives. This is happening for a few days now. Usually it's 3-4 relatives whom he dreams about.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I would like to know why is he dreaming of dead relatives again and again, does this mean something and is there any way to get rid of these dreams?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9480" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-12T08:08:53.267" LastActivityDate="2018-11-12T08:08:53.267" Title="What does it mean to see dead relatives in dreams" Tags="|dream|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-04-10T21:33:12.493" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17895" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-10T17:31:09.623" Score="-3" ViewCount="1592" Body="&lt;p&gt;What would happen to a non-Dalit if a Dalit touched them in Ancient India?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9486" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-22T14:09:24.003" LastActivityDate="2017-05-30T03:51:16.013" Title="What happens if non-Dalit touches a Dalit?" Tags="|caste-system|untouchability|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-04-11T10:56:48.543" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17897" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17895" CreationDate="2017-04-10T20:30:42.087" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, the word &quot;Dalit&quot; is not an ancient Sanskrit word.  Like the word &quot;Harijan&quot;, &quot;Dalit&quot; is a word used by so-called  anti-caste &quot;reformers&quot; to attack certain aspects of the caste system they disagreed with.  So Hindu scripture doesn't talk about the word &quot;Dalit&quot;, but it does talk about Chandalas.  Here is what Bhishma says about Chandalas in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b013.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a Sudra unites with a woman belonging to the foremost of the four orders, the son that is begotten is called a Chandala. Endued with a fierce disposition, he must live in the outskirts of cities and towns and the duty assigned to him is that of the public executioner. Such sons are always regarded as wretches of their race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More detail is provided in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu10.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the dwellings of Kandalas and Svapakas shall be outside the village, they must be made Apapatras, and their wealth (shall be) dogs and donkeys. Their dress (shall be) the garments of the dead, (they shall eat) their food from broken dishes, black iron (shall be) their ornaments, and they must always wander from place to place.  A man who fulfils a religious duty, shall not seek intercourse with them; their transactions (shall be) among themselves, and their marriages with their equals. Their food shall be given to them by others (than an Aryan giver) in a broken dish; at night they shall not walk about in villages and in towns. By day they may go about for the purpose of their work, distinguished by marks at the king's command, and they shall carry out the corpses (of persons) who have no relatives; that is a settled rule. By the king's order they shall always execute the criminals, in accordance with the law, and they shall take for themselves the clothes, the beds, and the ornaments of (such) criminals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Vyasa's father Parashara says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b119.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The man of intelligence would never do an act that is sinful in character even if it leads to the greatest advantage, just as a person that is pure would never touch a Chandala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now this may harsh treatment of Chandalas may seem unjustified on the surface, but it's completely justified once you take reincarnation into account.  The Chandala did heinous acts in past births to deserve to be born as a Chandala; here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu12.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The slayer of a Brahmana enters the womb of a dog, a pig, an ass, a camel, a cow, a goat, a sheep, a deer, a bird, a Kandala, and a Pukkasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01104.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chandogya Upanishad says much the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those whose conduct has been good, will quickly attain some good birth, the birth of a Brâhmana, or a Kshatriya, or a Vaisya. But those whose conduct has been evil, will quickly attain an evil birth, the birth of a dog, or a hog, or a Chandâla.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the situation of a Chandala is not without hope; here is what Krishna says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 9&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Pṛthā, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth – women, vaiśyas [merchants] and śūdras [workers] – can attain the supreme destination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I encourage everyone, Chandala and Dvija alike, to perform Sharanagati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-30T03:51:16.013" LastActivityDate="2017-05-30T03:51:16.013" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17899" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="411" CreationDate="2017-04-11T05:19:56.890" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As Hanuman is known to all of us from the Legendary Itihasa &quot;Srimath Ramayana&quot; the holy scripture which was visualised and presented by the great Sage Valmiki. Valmiki Ramayana is the only Ramayana that is authentic for all the references and discussions about any body related to this itihaasa. Rest all Ramayanas which are written by great bhaktas and Scholars are baising on their own vision and experiences that they have with the almighty. but can be considered as their own experiences but not as authentic. One of such work is &quot;Parasara Samhitha&quot; which is written in the very recent times and not ancient. It was said that it is not even written by the great sage Parasara as it has very minute grammar mistakes in it. The so called parasara samhitha has given such explanations about Lord Hanumans marriage and Hanuman having Camel as Vahana which are base less. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as Suvarchala is concerned, she is not the daughter of Surya but his wife. It was clearly said in Valmiki Ramayana by Goddess Sita to Rama. At the time Rama is leaving to Vanavasa.. He requests Goddess Sita to stay back at Ayodhya. Then Goddess Sita explains to Lord Rama that &quot; like Sachi devi will not be away from Lord Indra, As like Suvarchala Devi will not be Away from Lod Surya. AS like Arundhati will not be away from Sage Vashishta .. I will not and can not live away from You &quot;  &quot;Yatha Suryam Suvarchala &quot; is the part of the Stranza from Valmiki Ramayana - Ayodhya Kanda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Hanuman is Brahmachari. Suvarchala is the wife of Surya  and not the daughter according to Valmiki Ramayana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9494" LastActivityDate="2017-04-11T05:19:56.890" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17905" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17919" CreationDate="2017-04-11T14:53:19.527" Score="4" ViewCount="1606" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Yantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Yantra&lt;/a&gt; is probably the most well-known among all yantras. It is   also called the king of yantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The presiding deity of the yantra is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripura_Sundari&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Lalita Mahatripurasundari or Sri Rajarajeswari Devi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Sri Yantra can be inscribed on a metal plate  and it can also have the 3-dimensional Meru form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meru Sri Yantra:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ANynq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ANynq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given below are pics of two kinds of Sri Yantra that i have found on net (that are available for shopping). One of which has some color fillings and one is without them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PIC 1:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kyCoM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kyCoM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PIC 2:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rk8DW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rk8DW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Is the &lt;strong&gt;PIC 2&lt;/strong&gt; Yantra defective? If yes, which Scripture prescribes what color should fill in which triangles of the Sri Yantra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) What do these different colors signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T05:28:30.633" LastActivityDate="2017-04-13T05:28:52.490" Title="Are the Sri Yantras that are devoid of color fillings defective?" Tags="|scripture|devi|tantra|sri-vidya|yantra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17906" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-11T15:07:45.203" Score="3" ViewCount="285" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/ZWCY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Baudhayana Shrauta Sutras, a text associated with the Yajur Veda, a ritual is described where a person who wants to perform a Yagna (fire ritual) begs the priests to give him the place where he's planning to perform in turn.  And the priests in turn pray to the gods to grant the person that place:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now he begs the sacrificial place to the priests. To the Adhvaryu, “O Adhvaryu, do you give me the sacrificial place.&quot; (He says), &quot;God Aditya is the divine Adhvaryu, may he grant you the sacrificial place.&quot; &quot;Be it so,&quot; is the reply. To the Brahman, &quot;O Brahman, do you give me the sacrificial place.” (He says) &quot;God Chandrama is the divine Brahman; may he give you the sacrificial place.” “Be it so,&quot; is the reply. To the Hotr, &quot;O Hotr, Do you give me the sacrificial place.&quot; (He says), &quot;God Agni is the divine Hotr, may he give you the sacrificial place.&quot; &quot;Be it so,&quot; is the reply. To the Udgat, &quot;O Udgatr, do you give me the sacrificial place.&quot; (He says) &quot;God Parjanya is the divine Udgatr; may he give you the sacrificial place.&quot; &quot;Be it so,&quot; is the reply. To the Sadasya, &quot;O Sadasya, do you give me the sacrificial place.&quot; &quot;God Akasa is the divine Sadasya; may he give you the sacrificial place.&quot; &quot;Be it so&quot; is the reply. To the Hotrakas, &quot;O Hotrakas, do you give me the sacrificial place.” “Goddesses waters are the divine Hotrasarhsins; may they give you the sacrificial place.&quot; &quot;Be it so,&quot; is the reply. To the Camasadhvaryus, &quot;O Camasadhvaryus, do you give me the sacrificial place.&quot; &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Gods Rasmis&lt;/strong&gt; are the divine Camasadhvaryus; may they give you the sacrificial place.&quot; &quot;Be it so,&quot; is the reply.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss some of these types of priests, like Hotri, Advaryu, etc., in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6807/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But I'm interested in the gods mentioned in this passage.  Most of them are recognizable: Surya the sun god, Chandra the moon god, Agni the fire god, Parjanya the rain god (whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6578/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and the various goddesses of the rivers.  And even Akasha, who isn't familiar, can easily be inferred to be the god of space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, who are the &quot;Rashmi&quot; gods, who are the Chamasadhvaryus of the gods? The Chamasadhvaryus are a group of 10 or 11 priests who bear the drinking vessels during a Yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it helps, the Sanskrit word rashmi means rope or string, for instance it denotes the reins of a horse.  And it can also mean ray of the Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2017-04-11T16:31:28.550" Title="Who are the Rashmi gods worshiped before a Yagna?" Tags="|vedas|gods|practice|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17907" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12502" CreationDate="2017-04-11T18:18:18.013" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Pashupatastra was only counterable by two weapons. Those weapons were Brahmandastra, Narayanastra. The Vasvi Shakti could be countered by Pashupatastra very easily but the matter of fact is that Arjun had taken a vow that we will use any super destructive weapon in the Mahabharat. He also knew that after the use of Pashupatastra, everything will finish and die out.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9502" LastActivityDate="2017-04-11T18:18:18.013" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17908" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17923" CreationDate="2017-04-11T18:47:29.707" Score="2" ViewCount="656" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am searching for an authentic source to read garuda purana in Hindi or english.&#xA;Share If there is any website or link.&#xA;Also any book recommendation will do the job.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8660" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T08:38:24.873" Title="Online Garuda purana" Tags="|garuda-purana|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-04-12T08:34:51.680" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17910" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17908" CreationDate="2017-04-11T19:23:37.223" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can find the book online in Sanskrit &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/GarudaPurana.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The synopsis of the book in English is available &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/garudapurana.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; link has the English translation of the Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9342" LastActivityDate="2017-04-11T19:23:37.223" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17911" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-12T00:37:59.193" Score="2" ViewCount="265" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like many other I expect Hinduism suggest a way to  live life. Is it true? Can we interpret that it also means there are solutions in Hinduism to every problem one can encounter? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8443" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T11:08:33.040" Title="Does Hinduism offer solution for each and every problem of human life?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|karma|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17912" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-12T04:12:05.630" Score="9" ViewCount="15404" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya is an advaita philosopher and wrote commentaries to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthanatrayi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;prasthāna trayi&lt;/a&gt; and composed many stotras on different deities.. It is believed that he established four mutts(denoting four vedas) in four directions of India. They are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;East : Pooramnaya Shri Govardhana Peetham (Rigveda-eastern Monastery) located at Jagannadh Puri, Orissa. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;West :  Paschimamnaya Shri Sharada Peetham (samaveda-western Monastery)— Located At Dwaraka, Jamnagar, Gujarat. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;North : Uttaramnaya Shri Jyotish Peetham (atharva Veda-northern Monastery)— Located At Badarinath, Uttarakhand.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;South :  Dakshinamnaya Sri Sringeri Sarada Peetam (yajurveda-southern Monastery)— Located at Shringeri, Karnataka.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The pontiffs of these monastery institutions are called as Shankaracharyas and recognised equal to Adi Shankaracharya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But many people believe that &lt;a href=&quot;http://in.kamakoti.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kanchi kamakoti peetham&lt;/a&gt; located at Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu is also established by Adi Shankaracharya. Kanchi Kamakoti peetham in its &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/peeth/origin.html#monastic&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;history&lt;/a&gt; states that Adi Shankara established 5 mathas rather than 4. The pontiff of this math is also called as Shankaracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how many monastery institutions did Adi Shankara establish in his lifetime? What do Shankara Digvijayas state about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-30T03:34:16.510" LastActivityDate="2021-11-16T23:40:27.787" Title="How many mutts did Adi shankaracharya establish in his lifetime?" Tags="|history|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17914" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12060" CreationDate="2017-04-12T04:28:37.433" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In addition to the great list shared by @Student and @SwamiVishwananda, I would recommend &lt;a href=&quot;http://practicalphilosophy.in/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/tattvabodha.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tattva Bodha&lt;/a&gt; by Adi Sankaracharya.  It's more of a primer and introduction than an advanced text, but important nonetheless.  IMHO, the Mandukya Upanishad with the accompanying Gaudapada Karika is the pinnacle of Advatic teaching.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9345" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T04:28:37.433" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17915" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17912" CreationDate="2017-04-12T04:28:38.073" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you want to know what Shankara Digvijayas say on the subject, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/peeth/origin.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kanchi Kamakoti site&lt;/a&gt; has a pretty thorough list of citations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Anantanandagiri (1119- 1199 A.D.) whose work is the earliest biography of Sankara, down to Mahamahopadhyaya lakshmana Suri (Author of &amp;quot;Bhagavatpadabhyudayam&amp;quot; -1917) of the last century, a number of reputed historians, distinguished scholars and researchers have candidly stated, in their works, that the Great Sankara established monastic institutions (mathas) at many an important and sacred places that he visited, during his digvijaya tours. Guhya-Sahasranama (Sanskrit) refers to &lt;strong&gt;five Sankaracharya Peethas (Mathas), -Kamakoti Peetha as presided over by Sankara himself&lt;/strong&gt;, to four disciples, Suresvara, Padmapada, Totaka and Hastamala, to the places of the four other peethas and to five Sphatika lingas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pracheena Sankara Vijaya refers to &lt;strong&gt;Sankara's residence in his own Matha at Kanchi&lt;/strong&gt;, after ascending the Sarvajnapeetha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Keraliya Sankara Vijaya states that &lt;strong&gt;Sankara Desika staying in the Sharada Matha&lt;/strong&gt; (The Sankaracharya Matha at Kanchi is known as Sharada Matha) and directing Suresvara to teach the Bhashyas to disciples. There is also the reference to the worship of the Yoga Linga to be performed by the sishyaparampara - continuous line of disciple Acharyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Sadasiva Brahamendra in his Guru Ratnamala (Verse 31) indicates that the &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavatpada established the Sharada Matha at Kanchi&lt;/strong&gt;, famous from the snow-clad Himalayas to the Southern sea, for the enforcement of Dharma. In Anantanandagiri's biography of Sankaracharya, it is said that &lt;strong&gt;Sankara established a Math at Kanchi fit for his own residence and his living there&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So all these sources apparently say that in addition to Adi Sankaracharya putting his four shishyas in charge of four Mathams, he personally established a 5th Matham in Kanchipuram.  But the Madhaviya Shankara Digvijaya, the most famous biography of Adi Shankaracharya, doesn't mention a Matham at Kanchipuram.  And the Sringeri Matham disputes the provenance of the Kanchipuram Matham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, all these biographies were composed centuries after the time of Adi Shankaracharya, so it's natural that there would be differences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T04:28:38.073" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17916" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-12T04:53:30.263" Score="3" ViewCount="321" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are all Hindus, or at least all Indian Hindus descendants of Suryavamshis and Chandravamshis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kindly through some light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-13T12:04:05.403" LastActivityDate="2017-06-13T12:04:05.403" Title="Are Hindus descendants of Surya and Chandra Vamshis?" Tags="|history|india|gotra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17917" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-12T04:55:08.030" Score="4" ViewCount="4361" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Vidya is a Shakta sect which believes that the goddess Lalita Tripurasundari is supreme.  Now one of the most important texts of the Sri Vidya sect is the Lalita Sahasranamam, found in the Lalita Mahatmya of the Brahmanda Purana, so the 18th century Sri Vidya philosopher Bhaskararaya wrote a commentary on it.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801008.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/30/items/MantrashastraLalitasahasranaman/Mantrashastra-Lalitasahasranaman_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Mantrashastra-Lalitasahasranaman_jp2/Mantrashastra-Lalitasahasranaman_0040.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; of his commentary, Bhaskararaya discusses a verse in the Lalita Mahatmya which says that Lalita Tripurasundari was worshipped by gods, humans and Siddhas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;87. There were also a multitude of Devas, a multitude of men, and a multitude of Siddhas ; and Devi Lalità allowed herself to be seen by them all.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;A multitude of Devas (Divyaugha)&amp;quot; the holy Brahmarşis, Visvāmitra, etc. The Siddhas are Sanaka, Narada and other Yogins. The Rudrayamala, says, “Devi was attended by many crores of rulers of Quarters, by many crores of Moons, Suns and Vasus, by many crores of Yogins such as Sanaka, and by many Saptarisis and by many Naradas.&amp;quot; Or, the word &amp;quot;Ogha&amp;quot; (multitude) of Devas, men, and Siddhas, may mean the different assemblies of Gurus. &lt;strong&gt;For there are seven Gurus of Gurus (Parama-Gurus) headed by Paraprakasanandanatha, eight Parapara-Gurus headed by Gaganānandanatha, and four Apara-Gurus headed by Bhoganandanatha.&lt;/strong&gt; These three assemblies of Gurus are indicated by the words &amp;quot;Devas&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;men&amp;quot;, and &amp;quot;Siddhas&amp;quot; respectively. The above explanation follows the view of the followers of Kamaraja, but according to the School of Lopā nedrã, and according to the divisions of Viclydis, as described in the Jnanarnava etc., there are many groups of Gurus headed respectively by Misranandanātha, and others. The gradations among the Gurus can only be learned through the instructions of a Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who are the Paramagurus, Parapara Gurus, and Aparagurus referred to by Bhaskararaya?  Their names are listed in full in chapter 3 of of the Nityotsava, a work by Bhaskaraya's shishya Umanandanatha, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shivashakti.com/nityot.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A large section on the different gurus in the Shri Vidya tradition follows this section, and, as in the Ganapati section of Nityotsava, these are divided into celestial, siddha and mortal gurus, both for the vidya (mantra) that begins with Ka (Kadi) and for that which begins with Ha (Hadi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The celestial gurus in the Kadi group are listed as Paraprakashandanatha, Parashivanandanatha, Parashaktyamba, Kauleshvaranandanatha, Shukladevyamba, Kuleshvaranandanatha and Kameshvaryamba. The siddha aughas are Bhoganandanatha, Chinnanandanatha, Samayanandanatha and Sahajanandanatha. The manava augha consists of Gaganandanatha, Vishvananandanatha, Vimalanandanatha, Madanandanatha, Bhuvananandanatha, Lilanandanatha, Svatmanandanatha and Priyanandanatha. At the close of this lengthy section, mantras are given for other, unknown gurus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But who are these figures?  Presumably they  must be ancient, since Bhaskararaya thinks the Brahmanda Purana is referring to them.  Are they referred to in Hindu scripture, or in the works of earlier Sri Vidya philosophers, or what?  Does anyone know their stories or when they lived?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-10-11T06:27:07.477" Title="Who are the Sri Vidya Gurus mentioned by Bhaskararaya?" Tags="|history|shaktism|brahmanda-purana|sri-vidya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17918" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17890" CreationDate="2017-04-12T05:00:56.920" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karma Yoga means doing your &lt;strong&gt;best&lt;/strong&gt; work without getting attached to the outcome.  One technique that is effective is to have the attitude that whatever you do is for God, and whatever result you get as what God gives you.  Since you are doing everything for God, you will do your best in anything you do.  The important thing is to take any outcome as God's gift to you (aka Prasada Buddhi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How is this going to help you achieve materialistic goals?&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It will, because you will be very good at your job.  Everyone will be able to see the excellence of your work, and rewards will follow.  Even if you don't ask for a raise or promotion, it will come to you, if not this year, the next year.  We typically get disappointed if we don't get the reward right away.  But in the long run, it doesn't matter that you got promoted a year later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: Bhagavad Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.santosha.com/philosophy/gita-chapter3.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.9 do your duty efficiently as a service or Seva to Me, free from attachment to the fruits of work&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3.19 always perform your duty efficiently and without attachment to the results because by doing work without attachment one attains the Supreme&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3.30 Dedicating all works to Me in a spiritual frame of mind, free from desire, attachment, and mental grief, do your duty.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9345" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-12T05:30:27.133" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T05:30:27.133" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17919" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17905" CreationDate="2017-04-12T06:51:03.287" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am adding my own &lt;strong&gt;partial&lt;/strong&gt; answer based on information found on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/sriyantracolours.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Astrojyoti.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the author of the above article, the correct color fillings for Sri Yantra has been given in various Scriptures. But the author quotes only the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/mantra-mahodadhi-HAA381/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mantra Mahodadhi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For quite sometime I have been observing the many multi coloured sri&#xA;  yantra pictures published in the various websites and tantra books.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;While one is free to visualize HER as one wants, being a sri vidya&#xA;  upasaka I thought of making a sri chakra with the right colours as&#xA;  described in the various scriptures. The following is the outcome of&#xA;  my study of several tantrik scriptures, mantra mahodadhi and also the&#xA;  writings of Sri Amritananda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The author then gives the following list of colors that should fill the different avaranas (layers) of the Sri Chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1st Avarana the outer square with three lines and 4 gates is brown.&#xA;  The outer line is white (though the colour of the 10 deities here is&#xA;  like molten gold), the middle line is orange red like the rising sun&#xA;  and the inner line is yellow like the colour of butter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2nd Avarana the 16 petal lotus is pink like lotus flower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3rd Avarana the 8 petal lotus is red – the colour of Bandhuka flowers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4th Avarana the 14 cornered triangle is colour green like the colour&#xA;  of glow worms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5th Avarana the outer 10 corners triangle is red like Japakusuma&#xA;  flowers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6th Avarana the inner 10 corners triangle is colour blue (though the&#xA;  deities here have the lusture of 1000 rising suns).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7th Avarana the 8 corners triangle is colour red like Dadini flowers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.The innermosst triangle is white.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.The Bindu the central point is red like Sindoor. I made the above picture by colouring the 9 avaranas accordingly. The background&#xA;  colours are of course to give a visual effect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5OXrx.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5OXrx.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the &lt;strong&gt;PIC 2&lt;/strong&gt; Sri Yantra might not be defective but it can certainly be thought of as being less effective than the one which have the correct colors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But i am not satisfied with this answer. And, i am expecting more answers from other users which have explicit quotes from the relevant Kaula Scriptures.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T05:28:52.490" LastActivityDate="2017-04-13T05:28:52.490" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17920" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9960" CreationDate="2017-04-12T07:05:24.503" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As stated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9970/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Adi Shankara's &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_shankara/brahmajna.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmajnanavalimala&lt;/a&gt; has the complete verse. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Half verse &quot;ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या&quot; is also present in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/niralamba.itx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Niralamba Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तप इति च &lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्ये&lt;/strong&gt; त्यपरोक्ष ज्ञानाग्निना&#xA;  ब्रह्माद्यैश्वर्याशासिद्धसङ्कल्प बीजसन्तापं तपः । &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tapa iti ca &lt;strong&gt;brahma satyaṃ jaganmithye&lt;/strong&gt;tyaparokṣa- jñānāgninā&#xA;  brahmādyaiśvaryāśāsiddhasaṅkalpa- bījasantāpaṃ tapaḥ । &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation from &lt;a href=&quot;https://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Upanishads/Sri_Niralamba_Upanisad.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nitaaiveda&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Spiritual austerity is austerity where the fire of&#xA;  transcendental knowledge, which teaches &lt;strong&gt;&quot;This material world is an&#xA;  illusion&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, burns away the desire to have powers and opulences like&#xA;  Brahma and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T12:51:12.623" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T07:05:24.503" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17922" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2367" CreationDate="2017-04-12T07:42:44.990" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scholars say this is God's way of achieving karmic balance. In his previous life, Krishna was Rama. And Rama had sided with Surgiva, monkey son of Surya, the sun-god, and shot Bali, monkey son of Indra, the rain-god, in the back. As Krishna, it was necessary to reverse the situation. God sided with Arjuna, who was the son of Indra, while shooting Karna, the son of Surya, in the back. He who is blessed with divine favors in one lifetime loses it in the next; thus are the books of karma balanced and closure achieved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;reference : &lt;a href=&quot;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/mahabharata/a-boy-called-karna.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/mahabharata/a-boy-called-karna.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7563" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T07:42:44.990" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17923" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17908" CreationDate="2017-04-12T08:28:33.197" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;An English translation by Manmatha Nath Dutt is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-garuda-purana-dutt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;available online here&lt;/a&gt; in proofread HTML. Also see a Sanskrit/English edition which is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/garud-puran/garuda-vol-1/chapter-01/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;available here&lt;/a&gt; in PDF format.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are looking to buy the book, I can recommend two editions, one by Dutt, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/garuda-purana-sanskrit-text-with-english-translation-set-of-2-volumes-NAL509/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;edition 2012&lt;/a&gt; and the other by various translators, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/garuda-purana-3-volumes-IDE886/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;edition 2007&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T08:38:24.873" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17924" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-12T10:11:46.617" Score="3" ViewCount="152" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am in a big confusion, please correct me if I am wrong in some points.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Almost in every religion there are stories about catastrophic end of this world/universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism it is believed that there is a catastrophic end at the end of each kalyuga of every mahayuga. That means there are 996 catastrophic happen in each day of Brahma. Also there are 14 manvantara in each day of Brahma and for every manvantara 1 Manu is assigned. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my point of view assigning 1 Manu for 1 manvantra signifies starting of an entirely new world this clearly proves a catastrophic happens before the assignment of Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also after the passage of 996 mahayugas (1 kalpa) the whole universe is destroyed. And again recreation happens when Brahma ji awakes from his samadhi kala. This cycle goes on until the age of Brahma reaches to 100 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vishnu Purana it is written that at the beginning (satyuga) Brahma ji with 4 kumaras himself shared the knowledge of vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to ask the meaning of beginning here, is it satyuga of first mahayuga of this kalpa? or it is satyuga of this current mahayuga?,&#xA;or it is first satyuga of each manvantra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In sort I want to ask, when actually Brahma ji shares Vedas? Beginning of mahayuga or manvantra or kalpa? The Vedas we are reading today is an outcome of how many catastrophic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8660" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2018-02-16T07:45:00.653" LastActivityDate="2024-02-04T09:41:44.200" Title="When actually lord brahma shares the knowledge of vedas?" Tags="|vedas|brahma|time|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17925" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17911" CreationDate="2017-04-12T10:41:13.233" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is all about living style. If you see hinduism as a religion it will look like one. But when you start digging this beautiful source of knowledge you will find every point in each of ved, purana, upnishad, mahabharta, ramayana. Teaches us how to live life and at some point you will find its not a religion its a formula to life.&#xA;This is all about hinduism.&#xA;Hinduism means life itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Problems does not matter in hinduism, we means humans are the one who creates problem and the only thing which hinduism teaches is self-realisation. &#xA;If everyone will attain self realisation then there will be no problem at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8660" LastEditorUserId="8660" LastEditDate="2017-04-12T11:08:33.040" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T11:08:33.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17926" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17917" CreationDate="2017-04-12T11:52:13.170" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The guru paramparA of Sri Vidya consists of broadly 3 sections or &quot;ogha&quot; which literally means &quot;&lt;strong&gt;flock&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; or &quot;&lt;strong&gt;groups&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First is the &lt;strong&gt;Divyaugha&lt;/strong&gt; (divine or celestial beings including gods and devatas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second is &lt;strong&gt;Siddhaugha&lt;/strong&gt; (extra ordinary beings including rishis, saints)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Third is &lt;strong&gt;mAnavaugha&lt;/strong&gt; (human beings from which human paramparA continues)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Divyougha include Sri Kameshwara and Kameshwari , Dakshinamurti , Ananda Bhairava etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siddhaugha gurus include rishis like Sri Agastya, Sri Durvasa, Sri LopAmudra etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the ‘Prakasa’ swarupa of Sat-chit-ananda alongwith his own Sakti&#xA;“Vimarsa” does the samkalpa “May I become many” ie., “Bahusyaam Prajayeeya….”,&#xA;the first throb or spandana becomes “Charyanatha” who is non-different from Para&#xA;Siva. Charyanatha is the Adi-guru of this Haadi Tradition in Krita Yuga. This&#xA;vimarsa sakti is Mahakameswari. &lt;a href=&quot;http://urdhwa.blogspot.in/2014/01/lopamudra-vidya-haadi-vidya-mantra.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Charyanatha&lt;/a&gt; hands down this vidya to Kameswari. At the Bindu sthana  sports the Adi Guru Charyanatha alongwith Kameswari. They are in the Saamarasya Bhava / Non-differential State with one another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Kaliyuga, Mitreshanatha handed down this vidya to Lopamudra. Lopamudra&#xA;teaches this vidya to Agastya. Given below the guruparampara from Lopamudra and&#xA;Agastya till the recent guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lopamudra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agastya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kankalatapasa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharmacharya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Muktakesini (One of the greatest Yoginis of Kaliyuga)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dipakanathacharya (Srividya upasaka at the court of the king Bhoja and&#xA;commentator on Nityasodasikarnava)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jishnudevacharya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Matruguptadeva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tejodeva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manojadeva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kalyananatha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramanandanatha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;LalitA sahasranama is not the first text which talk of the gurus. Nor is the nityotsava is the first scripture to talk of these. These ogha-traya are mentioned in the most ancient texts of Sri VidyA like &quot;parashurama kalpasutra&quot; from which nityotsava is written in order to facilitate the nitya karma and poojas on parvAs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ogha are mentioned in the fourth chapter of PKS in the 10th verse which is given below. &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nxIz0.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nxIz0.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the lineage is very ancient hence it is not possible to know about all the gurus of the paramparA. We know about some of the famous sages through purAnas and other books. In rest of the cases, there is no information available about their lives. So mostly we do not get to know about most of the gurus except a few popular names. Nevertheless, all the gurus are venerated and respected during the poojAs.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lastly, Sri vidyA is &lt;strong&gt;not a philosophy like advaita vedAnta&lt;/strong&gt;. It is more of a &lt;strong&gt;upAsana&lt;/strong&gt; paddhati. Majority of the scriptures related to this shAstra talks more on the practical aspects rather than going much into the philosophy. Hence this shastra should not be confused with philosophies or other darshanas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-04-12T11:52:13.170" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17928" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-12T16:36:30.630" Score="2" ViewCount="393" Body="&lt;p&gt;Someone who has read Vedas, please answer these questions to strengthen the belief of any person in Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there anything written in Vedas which seems to be non-evident to common sense/is otherwise non-trivial and thus requires higher consciousness to be aware of?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words any fact which ancient people would not not be able to know in those times by ordinary means  but are written in Vedas and have been proven by modern science eg. something like sun being the center of solar system or age of universe or something of this sort?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks in advance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The question is not duplicate of the below mentioned one as I am specifically asking facts written in Vedas not a general proof based on logic as given in that answer. Please provide facts which seem to be known only via supernatural powers but are written in Vedas. So please remove duplicate tag.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7926" LastEditorUserId="7926" LastEditDate="2017-04-13T07:04:20.250" LastActivityDate="2017-04-13T07:04:20.250" Title="Why should i believe in vedas? Any scientific proof for the same?" Tags="|vedas|science|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ClosedDate="2017-04-13T03:40:23.993" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17929" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-12T18:30:08.210" Score="8" ViewCount="1202" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per story, Raja Harishchandra was 33&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; descendant of Ikshvaku family. Bhagiratha was 44&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; and Rama 63&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Raja Harishchandra worked on ghats of Benares cremation grounds on banks of Ganga but Ganga should come after Bhagiratha because Bhagiratha brought Ganga to the Earth by his tapa.&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On which river bank was Raja Harishchandra working? Was it Ganga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How could Ganga be present at the time of Harishchandra when it is brought to earth by his descendant Bagiratha? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9513" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-24T09:33:37.620" LastActivityDate="2018-04-24T09:33:37.620" Title="Clarification about Ikshvaku lineage" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ganga|suryavansh|harishchandra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17930" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17941" CreationDate="2017-04-13T14:09:38.103" Score="14" ViewCount="5748" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why are miracles not seen or don't occur in Kali Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I ask because:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Each of the previous yugas have stories like Sages, Rishis, or Muni &lt;strong&gt;cursing or giving Boon&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is also said they possess magical powers and now there are &lt;strong&gt;no magic or powers seen in daily life&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-04-12T23:16:24.080" LastActivityDate="2023-04-12T23:16:24.080" Title="Why don't Miracles occur in Kali Yuga?" Tags="|kali-yuga|siddhi|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17931" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17930" CreationDate="2017-04-13T14:20:27.707" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Miracles happened in kali yuga too. the fact is we not believe them or clarify them right now. because it is kali yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did you hear about Sai Baba? Many educated people pray sai baba. &#xA;Everyone who knows him says he is god.&#xA;he born in kali yuga only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This section put light on current theory &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Baba_of_Shirdi#Claimed_miracles&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Baba_of_Shirdi#Claimed_miracles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9518" LastEditorUserId="9518" LastEditDate="2017-04-20T18:51:33.207" LastActivityDate="2017-04-20T18:51:33.207" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17932" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-13T14:37:39.773" Score="4" ViewCount="803" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to dharma shastras, are ladies allowed to take bath by pouring water on their head after dusk, in the dark ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard someone say it is a bad thing, similar to ladies leaving their hair untied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-04-20T17:19:49.037" LastActivityDate="2021-09-04T17:25:19.187" Title="Can ladies take head bath after dark?" Tags="|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17933" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17930" CreationDate="2017-04-13T15:45:37.827" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a spiritual leader and avatar of Lord Vishnu in kali yuga (next will be Lord Kalki).   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the historical records about Lord Chaitanya, we will get a picture of a God-conscious saint who appeared in India during the sixteenth century.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu united in himself two aspects:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;an ecstatic devotee of Krishna and Krishna himself in inseparable union with Radha.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;According to the hagiographies of 16th-century authors, he exhibited his Universal Form identical to that of Krishna on a number of occasions, notably to Advaita Ācārya and Nityānanda Prabhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaitanya_Mahaprabhu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaitanya_Mahaprabhu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9091" LastActivityDate="2017-04-13T15:45:37.827" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17934" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17834" CreationDate="2017-04-13T16:15:35.863" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This source states it possibly reduces blood glucose levels and triglycerides, essentially making one more healthy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://examine.com/supplements/emblica-officinalis/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://examine.com/supplements/emblica-officinalis/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;it could lower blood glucose in both healthy persons and diabetics with a potency similar to the reference drug glibenclamide. In animal research, amla appears to be able to reduce triglycerides and better the cholesterol profile as well as benefit cardiovascular health (the heart and vessels themselves)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also backs up the claim from your book about hair and youth and vitality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a hair growth promoting effect that exceeds that of minoxidil, and a longevity promoting effect in fruit flies that (while not directly compared against other agents) appears to be more effective than other nutraceutical options&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Hindu texts referenced are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among some ayurvedic texts (Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita), this herb is referred to as the &quot;best among the sour fruits&quot; or &quot;the best among rejuvenative herbs&quot;.[4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The best way to use the plant seems to be to eat the fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't see how this correlates with any of the 8 gifts you listed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9520" LastActivityDate="2017-04-13T16:15:35.863" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17936" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17788" CreationDate="2017-04-13T16:55:41.727" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you are looking for specific 'siddhis', realize that those ancient authors may have been exaggerating or speaking metaphorically, in terms of the astral/ethereal body and not the physical body. However, I've come to learn the following herbs do give some 'special powers'. These gifts can be obtained through intense meditation, so herbs aren't strictly necessary, but they provide a 'shortcut', like steroids do for athletes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;kanna - This makes me more sensitive to pranna/chi/qi and I can feel energy fields of people and crystals with my hands, and direct energy as well. The chakras become very sensitive, and kanna especially works to open up the heart chakra. &lt;a href=&quot;https://examine.com/supplements/sceletium-tortuosum/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://examine.com/supplements/sceletium-tortuosum/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;sativa - This also makes one more sensitive to energy, however it often has unpleasant side effects like dry mouth, dry eyes, or paranoia. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;LSD - not really a plant, but it does exist in nature. This seems to improve your reaction time and concentration in micro doses. Anything that requires rhythmic movement becomes magically easier as time seems to slow down during concentration. This one may fit &quot;Mahima: expanding one's body to an infinitely large size&quot;. I've experienced this while on LSD and staring at the full moon and holding a quartz crystal. It felt like my presence extended up towards the top of the clouds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;ayahuasca - This may fit &quot;Laghima: becoming almost weightless&quot; or &quot;Prāpti: having unrestricted access to all places&quot; from what I've read, as you experience relaxation and visions which may be a form of astral travel. I've not tried this. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9520" LastActivityDate="2017-04-13T16:55:41.727" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17937" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-13T18:40:56.707" Score="5" ViewCount="2054" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3187/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu's incarnation sage Kapila burnt the sons of the Rama's ancestor Sagara to ashes.  And at the time there was no sacred body of water in the area to put the ashes in.  (Because Agastya drank the ocean as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9276/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  So Sagara's descendant Bhagiratha engaged in Tapasya to get the Ganga river, which was a river in Devaloka, to descend to the Earth so that he could finally scatter the ashes of Sagara's sons.  Brahma appeared before Bhagiratha and granted his boon, but the goddess Ganga did not want to leave Devaloka.  So she tried to flood the Earth, but then Shiva caught the Ganga river in his hair, and released her in a more measured fashion.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Ganga river is said to have its origin point in Shiva's head.  Yet Shiva lives on Mount Kailash, and the origin point of the Ganga river is Gangotri.  And Gangotri is over 200 kilometers from Mount Kailash.  So my question is, why are Gangotri and Mount Kailash so far apart?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does Hindu scripture say on the subject?  One thought I had is that Gangotri is the source of the Bhagirathi river, which is the source stream of the Ganga, but the Ghagara river, another tributary of the Ganga, has its origin point near Kailash.  So could it be the Ghagara river, not the Bhagirathi, that originates from Shiva's head?  Or could it be that there's a form of Shiva who dwells in Gangotri, and it's from his head that the Bhagirathi originates?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I don't want scientific speculation; I want to know what Hindu scripture says.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2018-08-08T16:43:54.733" LastActivityDate="2018-08-08T16:43:54.733" Title="Why is Gangotri so far from mount Kailash?" Tags="|shiva|temple|ganga|rivers|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17939" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17930" CreationDate="2017-04-14T05:34:26.990" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, miracles can only be performed by Gods and by beings who are enlightened like the powerful &lt;code&gt;Yogis&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;Siddhas&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;Mahamunis&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;Rishis&lt;/code&gt; etc. We ordinary beings can't perform the miracles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we need to see why Gods are not performing any miracles these days or where those enlightened Munis and Yogis are nowadays.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Kali Yuga the atmosphere is overwhelmingly sinful. In Kali the PApa Purusha rules. Adharma rules over Dharma. In such situations Deva's beneficial powers get diminished. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, without proper Yajnas Gods gradually loose their power, If cows are slaughtered Gods loose their power too. So. that's why Gods don't probably show their miraculous powers. The sinful and impure state of Kali Yuga &amp;amp; their inhabitants prevent the Gods from producing miracles in this age like they used to do so often in the previous Yugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gods need a pure plane to operate upon which they are possibly not getting in this age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, its stated  in Puranas like the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatam1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; and the Vayu Puranam that although the ill effects of Kali is very powerful but it can not reach a place called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naimisha_Forest&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Naimisharanya or the Naimish forest&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that by the order of God all the Mahamunis, Rishis and Yogis take shelter in this forest until the next Satya Yuga arrives. It is by that way they save themselves from the sinful grasp of Kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, since the enlightened beings, capable of performing the miraculous acts, take rest in a secluded forest in Kali, they don't interact with us. And, so even if they are performing some miracles we can't even have  a clue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;S’aunaka said :– “O Sûta! What are those Purânas and how many verses&#xA;  are contained in each? Speak all those in detail in this holy Ksettra;&#xA;  we, the residents of Naimisâranya are all very eager to hear this.&#xA;  (Why we call ourselves as the residents of Naimisâranya, hear; &lt;strong&gt;you&#xA;  will realise then that no other place exists in this Kali age for&#xA;  hearing the holy discourses on religion) :– When we were afraid of the&#xA;  Kali age, Brahmâ gave us a Manomaya Chakra (wheel) and I said to all&#xA;  of us :– Follow this wheel, go after it and the spot where the felly&#xA;  of the wheel will become thin (so as to break) and will not roll&#xA;  further, that country is the holy place; Kali will never be able to&#xA;  enter there; you all better remain there until the Satya age comes&#xA;  back&lt;/strong&gt;. Thus, acording to the saying of Brahmâ, we have got orders to&#xA;  stay here. On hearing the words of Brahmâ, wo went out quickly keeping&#xA;  the wheel go on, our object being to determine which place is best and&#xA;  holiest. When we came here, the felly of the wheel become thin and&#xA;  shorn before my eyes; hence this Ksettra is called Naimis; it is the&#xA;  most sanctifying place. &lt;strong&gt;(Devi Bhagavatam, Book 1, Chapter 1)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IMHO, these are the reasons why we don't see too many miracles happening these days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-04-14T07:31:59.087" LastActivityDate="2017-04-14T07:31:59.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17940" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-14T05:35:47.667" Score="1" ViewCount="124" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) In any case, in Adhyaya 2 Pada 1 Sutra 6 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dṛśyate tu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it is seen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me explain what this means. One of the tenets of the Vedanta school is that Brahman is both the material cause and the efficient cause of the Universe, i.e. both the source and the operator of the Universe. But an objection is raised, how can Brahman be the source of the Universe of Brahman is conscious and the Universe is unconscious? Vyasa responds that actually it is seen in real life that sometimes you have cause-and-effect situations where one thing is conscious and the other thing is unconscious.  I discuss one example given by commentators, that of scorpions born from cow dung, in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/17845/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But I'm interested another such example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what the Sri Vaishnava commentator Ramanujacharya says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48176.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 'but' indicates the change of view (introduced in the present Sûtra). The assertion that Brahman cannot be the material cause of the world because the latter differs from it in essential nature, is unfounded; since it is a matter of observation that even things of different nature stand to each other in the relation of cause and effect. For &lt;strong&gt;it is observed that from honey and similar substances there originate worms and other little animals&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what the Gaudiya Vaishnava commentator Baladeva Vidyabhushana says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/bKuB&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; of his Govinda Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word tu (but) is used here to dispel doubt. The word na (not), taken from the previous sutra, should be understood in this sutra also. Someone may say: &amp;quot;Because He is different in nature, the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot be the ingredient from which the material universe is made.&amp;quot; The answer is given: &amp;quot;Because it is many times seen that there is a difference between things and the ingredients of which they are made, it cannot be said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot be the ingredient of which the material universe is made.&amp;quot; The material universe is made from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, just as many things are manifested from sources very different in nature, &lt;strong&gt;just as worms come from honey&lt;/strong&gt;, as elephants, horses, and other animals come from the kalpa-druma tree, and as gold and other things come from the cintamani jewel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures say that worms can be born from honey? Because it seems to have been common knowledge in ancient India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is similar to my questions &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15583/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16654/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, which are about other phenomenon that ancient Indians apparently took for granted but which seem totally foreign to our experience today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-14T13:42:26.687" Title="What scriptures describe worms born from honey?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahma-sutras|animals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17941" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17930" CreationDate="2017-04-14T07:13:30.310" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/miracle&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;oxford dictionary&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Miracle&lt;/strong&gt; is 'an extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore attributed to a divine agency'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we go by above definition, there are many such events happened in Kali Yuga too. Books by recent Yogis or Swamis narrate many such episodes. You also mentioned in your question, &amp;quot;now there are no magic or powers seen day to day&amp;quot;. Such &amp;quot;magical powers&amp;quot; are possessed by few Yogis. I quote few incidents from books I read.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Miracles performed by Neem Karoli Baba:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neem_Karoli_Baba&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Neem karoli Baba&lt;/a&gt; was ardent devotee of Lord Rama and used to chant Rama nama always. Here are some of his powers or miracles he preformed which are mentioned in Book, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Living-Himalayan-Masters-Rama-Swami/dp/0893891568&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Living with Himalayan Masters&lt;/a&gt; by Swami Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day a pharmacist was delivering some powder from Talital to&#xA;Malital. He was a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba, so he stopped to see&#xA;him on the way. I was also there. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Baba said, “I’m hungry. What is&#xA;that you are carrying?” The pharmacist said, “This is arsenic. Wait&#xA;and I will bring some food for you.” But Baba snatched the powder from&#xA;him and ate a handful. Then he asked for a glass of water. The&#xA;pharmacist thought he would die from the poison, but the next day he&#xA;was quite normal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also ate continuously all day 40 times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day I thought, “Let me see how many times he can eat.” That day he&#xA;took forty meals at various houses. He was eating the whole day. We&#xA;wanted to know about his powers, and he knew what we wanted. So when&#xA;anyone brought food before him, he ate. They would ask, “Will you&#xA;eat?” And he would say, “Okay.” He went on eating all day. Finally I&#xA;came and said, “You have eaten enough.” He said, “Oh, have I?” I said,&#xA;“Yes!” In such a high state one becomes like a child. He is not fully&#xA;aware of mundane things, but he is constantly aware of the Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Rama lived in Himalayas meeting various Yogis with supernatural powers. He described many such miracles in his book &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Living with Himalayan Masters&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Giri Bala- Women Yogi who never eats&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramahamsa Yoganada, in his famous book &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Autobiography of Yogi&lt;/a&gt;, mentions many miracles. One such miracle is about Giri Bala who never ate anything in her life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Sir, we would like to know more of the fasting saint.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Her name is Giri Bala,&amp;quot; I informed my companions. &amp;quot;I first heard&#xA;about her years ago from a scholarly gentleman, Sthiti Lal Nundy. He&#xA;often came to the Gurpar Road home to tutor my brother Bishnu.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;'I know Giri Bala well,' Sthiti Babu told me. 'She employs a certain&#xA;yoga technique which enables her to live without eating. I was her&#xA;close neighbor in Nawabganj near Ichapur (in West Bengal). I made it a point to&#xA;watch her closely; never did I find evidence that she was taking&#xA;either food or drink. My interest finally mounted so high that I&#xA;approached the Maharaja of Burdwan  and asked him to conduct an&#xA;investigation. Astounded at the story, he invited her to his palace.&#xA;She agreed to a test and lived for two months locked up in a small&#xA;section of his home. Later she returned for a palace visit of twenty&#xA;days; and then for a third test of fifteen days. The Maharaja himself&#xA;told me that these three rigorous scrutinies had convinced him beyond&#xA;doubt of her non-eating state.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maheswaranath Babaji meeting Sarpa from Sarpa Loka&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Madhukarnath&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri M&lt;/a&gt; went to Himalayas to find his Guru &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavatar_Babaji&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahavatar Babaji&lt;/a&gt; who taught him in his previous birth. He encounters Maheswaranth Babaji, direct disciple of Mahavatar Babaji in Uttarakhand. Madhukarnath also mentions many miracles in his book, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.amazon.in/Apprenticed-Himalayan-Master-Yogis-Autobiography-ebook/dp/B007F2I3F0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apprenticed to Himalayan Master&lt;/a&gt;. Here is one such incident.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A strange spectacle unfolded before my astounded eyes. The rumbling&#xA;had stopped and there was utter silence. The fireball, which was about&#xA;two feet in diameter, split vertically into two, and out of it emerged&#xA;something that caused goose pimples all over my body. It was a large&#xA;snake, with a hood like a cobra, glowing electric blue, as if made of&#xA;a transparent, violet, glass like material, with electric filaments&#xA;lit inside. The snake-like creature’s eyes glowed, and it hissed&#xA;softly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My fear vanished the moment I saw the creature bend down and&#xA;touch Babaji’s feet with its hood. Babaji blessed it by touching its&#xA;head with his right hand, and then did something, which for a second,&#xA;made me wonder if what I was seeing was a silly dream, or reality. He&#xA;hissed in reply. The blue cobra straightened up and sat facing Babaji.&#xA;A hissing conversation went on for quite some time. Then Babaji said,&#xA;“Madhu, come forward and see the deputy chief of the Sarpa Loka.” I&#xA;moved forward and carefully sat behind Babaji. The snake hissed.&#xA;Babaji said, “Bow down to Nagaraj.” I bowed low before the snake. At&#xA;close quarters, I could see that he was quite big and had intelligent&#xA;sparkling eyes. The snake hissed and touched my head with his forked&#xA;tongue. I found that I was not the least bit frightened, although I&#xA;could feel a mild electric shock passing through my body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then&#xA;abruptly, it slithered back into the globe, the two halves of which&#xA;clicked shut, and with a rumbling sound, the globe took off and soon&#xA;vanished in the clouds. I could not but ask Babaji to explain.&#xA;“Babaji,” I said, “I deserve an explanation. If I said this to&#xA;anybody, they would think I am utterly crazy, or that I am concocting&#xA;some kind of fiction, so I shall keep this to myself. But please,&#xA;explain to me.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To this, Babaji says there was stellar system in Milkyway where Sarpa Loka exists. Nagas encountered with humas when people were evolved mentally through Yoga. He says when people became selfish Nagas stopped contacting with people of earth and went to NagaLoka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though these all appear as miracles, in reality they all can be explained by Yoga or by sastras (scriptures) derived from Vedas. Paramahamsa Yoganada explains science behind these miracles in &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 30 &amp;quot;Laws of Miracles&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; in his book &lt;strong&gt;Autobiography of a Yogi&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from Miracles mentioned in books, they are also miracles happened very recently, such as  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psT_-i9NtQ4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;strange Light caught&lt;/a&gt; before &lt;strong&gt;Utsava Murthi of Venkateswara in Tirupati Brahmotsavams&lt;/strong&gt;. We may infer (from Chapter 30 of Autobiography of a Yogi) that light could be any Deva or creator Brahma in their Sookshma Sareera (Subtle body) who usually come there to perform &lt;em&gt;utsavam&lt;/em&gt; (celebration) for Lord Venkateswara (Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read above mentioned books to know more about miracles performed by various Yogis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a sidenote, Siddhis (supernatural powers)  acquired by Yoga shouldn't become obstacles in our quest to find the Ultimate truth (Brahman).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-24T07:25:21.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17942" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17937" CreationDate="2017-04-14T07:48:09.897" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gangotri with Shiva's locks - 2004 or 2005&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Speaking from personal experience, having been to Gangotri and Gomukh, at Gangotri there are rock formations that resemble long locks of hair. I think the story 'grew' around the formation of rocks, in other words, the rocks were there first. But remember, Gangotri and Gomukh are the source of Mother Ganga - not Shiva. Is not Shiva infinite? Cannot He reside on Mount Kailash and have his hair locks flow a few hundred kms if He is infinite? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Hveoj.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Hveoj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-04-14T07:48:09.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17943" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-14T11:57:26.883" Score="2" ViewCount="89" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Present &lt;strong&gt;Caste System&lt;/strong&gt; is a &lt;strong&gt;modified Varna Dharma&lt;/strong&gt; by Britishers.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There are &lt;strong&gt;many subcategories&lt;/strong&gt; even for a &lt;strong&gt;single Caste&lt;/strong&gt;. (more than 7 in some cases) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I didn't see any scriptures mentioning subcategories in any Varna. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do/did Varnas also have subcategories like Caste or Jati ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-04-14T12:03:31.760" LastActivityDate="2017-04-14T12:03:31.760" Title="Do Varnas have subcategories?" Tags="|scripture|tradition|caste-system|varna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17944" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-14T12:25:28.533" Score="0" ViewCount="556" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is &lt;em&gt;markathe&lt;/em&gt;? And why does King Vali calls Hanuman a &lt;em&gt;markathe&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9528" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-04-14T12:58:10.657" LastActivityDate="2017-04-14T17:53:12.600" Title="What is markathe? And why does King Vali calls Hanuman a markathe?" Tags="|hanuman|vali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17945" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-14T13:42:41.090" Score="3" ViewCount="4624" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am preparing to do the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prana_Pratishtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prana Pratishtha&lt;/a&gt; of maa kali idol. Please help me to Prana Pratishtha of Maa Kali Idol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9529" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-04-14T14:01:13.880" LastActivityDate="2024-01-29T12:26:02.723" Title="How to do Prana Prathishta of Maa Kali Idol?" Tags="|kali|pranapratishtha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17946" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-14T15:47:03.110" Score="6" ViewCount="1271" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many Hindu Temples we can see Snake Idol which has two Snakes, bound to each other like a DNA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What does this form of two snakes indicate and why do we worship it ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is a picture for reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/48tuum.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/48tuum.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-06-17T18:01:33.940" LastActivityDate="2019-06-17T18:01:33.940" Title="What do the Snake Idols in Binded form Indicate?" Tags="|temple|worship|idols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17947" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17945" CreationDate="2017-04-14T16:58:25.070" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you know that prAna pratistha means transferring and establishing the life force into the idol or sigil. As the name suggests, there should be an actual movement of prAna into the object. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To stimulate the flow of prAna, it is good to adopt a few yogic techniques. First of all, it is good to perform mahA-mudra for 5 minutes. Then one must start rhythmic breathing and continue for at least 15 minutes. It could be anuloma-viloma or any other mode of breathing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then one must be calm in order to feel the prana. One should shake the hands a few times and focus on the fingers and palm in order to feel the energy flowing. After shaking the hands a few times, one should hold them facing each other and gently bring them close and then move them apart and should feel the energy between them. The posture is given in the picture below. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/H09pW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/H09pW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will start feeling some kind of energy or magnetic power in a few minutes. Then one must hold the hands in the form of anjali and hold the idol in it. Then one must mentally imagine goddess or focus on the idol (as it is the picture of goddess itself). After meditating for a few minutes, one should start feeling that the energy from your body is getting transfered to the idol via your palms and fingers. anjali posture of hand is as below&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rk8C3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rk8C3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Imagine inhaling in energy as you inhale and imagine it going through your hand into the idol in a form of liquid light. Be calm and repeat the process at least for 30 minutes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While holding the idol and energizing it, mentally repeat the following &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pranapratisthaofyantra.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mantra&lt;/a&gt; along with your breathing. Imagine idol getting energized with the liquid light or prAna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aim Hrim Shrim Om Am Hrim Kraum Yam Ram Lam Vam Sham Sham Sam Haun Ham Sah &quot;may Life exist here in the idol!&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om Am Hrim Kraum Yam Ram Lam Vam Sham Sham Sam Ham Ham Sah &quot;my individual existence be here in the idol!&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om Am Hrim Kraum Yam Ram Lam Vam Sham Sham Sam Ham Ham Sah  &quot;may all the senses be here in the idol!&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this, if you wish then you can continue the process with chanting mantra of the goddess or simply her name. Finally request goddess establish the pranic energy in the idol and make it established in the idol. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then you can place it in the pooja place and worship with some flowers, rice etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is process given in a brief manner in order to make it simple. There are other detailed and more complicated procedures available too. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-04-14T17:07:39.267" LastActivityDate="2017-04-14T17:07:39.267" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17948" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17944" CreationDate="2017-04-14T17:53:12.600" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vaali calls Hanuman by the name Markata because in Sanskrit मर्कट​(Markata) denotes a Monkey/Ape which is similar to the appearance of Vanara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/marka%E1%B9%ADa/172022/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2017-04-14T17:53:12.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17949" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17950" CreationDate="2017-04-15T05:43:08.080" Score="18" ViewCount="4407" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas are revealed scriptures without authors. They contain revelations of many things. In the hymns of respective deities, various characters of that respective deities are revealed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding Lord Shiva, SataRudriya/ Sri Rudram hymn found in YajurVeda summarizes many attributes of Lord Shiva. &lt;strong&gt;But what are the characteristics and attributes of Lord revealed in the Rig Veda? What does RigVeda state about Lord Shiva?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-16T03:23:55.603" LastActivityDate="2021-06-21T23:38:15.933" Title="How is Lord Shiva revealed in the Rig Veda?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|vedas|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17950" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17949" CreationDate="2017-04-15T05:57:21.213" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;Various aspects of Lord Shiva are revealed under Rudra Suktas of RigVeda. They are like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Revealing of Lord Rudra as One without Second:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Rudra in Vedas has one peculiar characteristic ie. He is stated as the one without second. YajurVeda Taittariya Samhita 1.8.6 clearly states '&lt;em&gt;Eka Eva Rudro Na Dwitiya.&lt;/em&gt;' ie. 'Rudra yields noone to second.' Now a question arises whether this is just &lt;em&gt;Arthavãda&lt;/em&gt; or has special significance. It is not Arthavãda because same verse is derived by Svetasvatara Upanishad in 3.1 and used as to glorify Brahman '&lt;em&gt;Eko hi Rudro Na Dwitiyaya...&lt;/em&gt; '. So, Lord Rudra is the one who is without second. Same thing is also revealed in Rudra Suktas of RigVeda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न वा ओजीयो रुद्र त्वद् अस्ति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;na vā ojīyo rudra tvad asti (RigVeda 2.33.10)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;a mighter than you there is not Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अषाल्हाय सहमानाय वेधसे&lt;br&gt;&#xA;aṣālhāya sahamānāya vedhase (RigVeda 7.46.1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;whom noone may overcome.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तवस्तमस् तवसा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;tavastamas tavasā &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Mightiest of the mighty.&lt;/strong&gt; (R.V. 2.33.3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Revealing form of Lord Rudra:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The form of Lord Rudra is well revealed in YajurVeda. For instance YajurVeda records Lord as blue-necked one, rider of bull, holder of Pinaka, wearer of animal hide etc.. but still RigVeda also reveals some aspects about form and aura of Lord:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्रयम्बकं यजामहे&lt;br&gt;&#xA;trayambakaṃ yajāmahe (RigVeda 7.59.12)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We worship &lt;strong&gt;the three eyed one.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कपर्दिने &lt;br&gt;&#xA;kapardine (Rig Veda 1.114.1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;One who has matted hairs.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हिरण्यम् इव रोचते&lt;br&gt;&#xA;hiraṇyam iva rocate (RigVeda 1.43.5)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Shining like the bright gold.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शुक्र इव सूर्यो&lt;br&gt;&#xA;śukra iva sūryo (RigVeda 1.43.5)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Shines like the Sun&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्थीरेभिरंगै &lt;br&gt;&#xA;sthīrebhiraṃgai (RigVeda 2.33.9)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;who is with firm limbs.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Revealing LordShip aspect of Lord Rudra:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Lordship aspect of Lord Rudra is well revealed in SataRudriya section of YajurVeda in the 2nd Anuvakam. RigVeda also states many verses which states about LordShip aspect of Lord Rudra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ईशानादस्य भुवनस्य &lt;br&gt;&#xA;īśānādasya bhuvanasya (RigVeda 2.33.9)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;who is Lord of the Universe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भुवनस्य पितरम् &lt;br&gt;&#xA;bhuvanasya pitaram (RigVeda 6.49.10)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Father of the Universe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न वा उ योषद् रुद्राद् असुरयम् &lt;br&gt;&#xA;na vā u yoṣad rudrād asurayam (RigVeda 2.33.9)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The strength of Godhead never departs from Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सत्पतिं &lt;br&gt;&#xA;satpatiṃ (RigVeda 2.33.12)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Lord of the Existence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गाथपतिं &lt;br&gt;&#xA;gāthapatiṃ (RigVeda 1.43.4)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Lord of the Hymns.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मेधपतिं &lt;br&gt;&#xA;medhapatiṃ (RigVeda 1.43.4)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Lord of the sacrifice.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रेष्ठो देवानां वसुः &lt;br&gt;&#xA;śreṣṭho devānāṃ vasuḥ (RigVeda 1.43.5)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Best among the Gods.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुरुरुप&lt;br&gt;&#xA;pururupa (RigVeda 2.33.9)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;who has multiforms.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यजतं विश्वरुपम् &lt;br&gt;&#xA;yajataṃ viśvarupam (RigVeda 2.33.10)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;who has this whole universe as his form.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सुगन्धीम् &lt;br&gt;&#xA;sugandhīm (RigVeda 7.59.12)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;who is the essence&lt;/strong&gt; (like sugandha is essence in flower).&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुष्टीवर्धनम् &lt;br&gt;&#xA;puṣṭīvardhanam (RigVeda 7.59.12)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;who is the cause of the growth of the Universe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4) Revealing of grace seeking verses from Lord Rudra:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RigVeda reveals many verses which sing to Lord Rudra so that the sages can receive grace of Lord Rudra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कद् रुद्राय प्रचेतसे मीड्हुष्टमाय तव्यसे। वोचेम शंतमं हृदे ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;kad rudrāya pracetase mīḍhuṣṭamāya tavyase। vocema śaṃtamaṃ hṛde&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(RigVeda 1.43.1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;What shall we sing to Rudra, strong, most bounteous, excellently wise, That shall be dearest to his heart?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;क्व से ते रुद्र मृडयाकुर हस्तो &lt;br&gt;&#xA;kva se te rudra mṛḍayākura hasto (RigVeda 2.33.7)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;where is that gracious Hand of thine?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गीर्भिराभि रुद्रं दिवा वर्धया रुद्रमक्तौ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;gīrbhirābhi rudraṃ divā vardhayā rudramaktau (RigVeda 6.49.10)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Rudra by day Rudra in night we honour with these songs.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;महो महि सुष्टुतिम् ईरयामी &lt;br&gt;&#xA;maho mahi suṣṭutim īrayāmī (RigVeda 2.33.8)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;I utter forth mighty hymn of praises.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गृणीमसि त्वेषं रुद्रस्य नामः &lt;br&gt;&#xA;gṛṇīmasi tveṣaṃ rudrasya nāmaḥ (RigVeda 2.33.8)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;We sing the splendid name of Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कुमारश् चित् पितरं वन्दमानम् प्रति नानाम रुद्रोपयन्तम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;kumāraś cit pitaraṃ vandamānam prati nānāma rudropayantam (RigVeda 2.33.12)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;I have surrendered myself to you as a boy to the respected father approaching.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;5) Revealing of grace showing verses of Lord Rudra:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RigVeda also narrates many verses which shows how Lord Rudra graces to the devotees:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भिषक्तमं त्वा भिषजां शृणोमी &lt;br&gt;&#xA;bhiṣaktamaṃ tvā bhiṣajāṃ śṛṇomī (RigVeda 2.33.4) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;I hear you as the most curing among all curing.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हस्ते विभ्रद् भेषजा &lt;br&gt;&#xA;haste vibhrad bheṣajā (RigVeda 1.114.5) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;whose hand filled of sovran medicines.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वार्याणी शर्म वर्म छर्दिर&lt;br&gt;&#xA;vāryāṇī śarma varma chardira (RigVeda 1.114.5)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;grant us refugee, protection and shelter.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अपभर्ता रपसो दैव्यस्याभी &lt;br&gt;&#xA;apabhartā rapaso daivyasyābhī (RigVeda 2.33.7)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Deliverer from defect of the Gods.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;बृहन्तमृष्वमजरं &lt;br&gt;&#xA;bṛhantamṛṣvamajaraṃ (RigVeda 6.49.10) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Great Blissfull and Immortal.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भूरेर् दातारं &lt;br&gt;&#xA;bhūrer dātāraṃ (RigVeda 2.33.12) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The giver of many.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मृत्योर्मुक्षीय मामृतात् &lt;br&gt;&#xA;mṛtyormukṣīya māmṛtā (RigVeda 7.59.12)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;who provides immortality through Moksha.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;6) Revealing of Desire of Rudra Consciousness:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RigVeda also reveals about state which sages seek where perfect thoughts of Lord Rudra comes to their mind. ie. Wishing of full mind devotion to Lord Rudra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आ ते पितर मरुतां सुम्नम् एतु&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ā te pitara marutāṃ sumnam etu (RigVeda 2.33.1) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;May your perfect thought come to us&lt;/strong&gt; Oh father of Maruts. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आ विवासेयं रुद्रस्य सुम्नम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ā vivāseyaṃ rudrasya sumnam (RigVeda 2.33.6)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;May perfect thought of Rudra comes in mind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-15T16:50:26.667" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17951" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-15T06:40:52.517" Score="2" ViewCount="395" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-04-13.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagwad Gita (4:13)&lt;/a&gt; lord Krishna said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Four classes have been created by me, based on the division of guna&#xA;  and action&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The four &lt;strong&gt;varnas&lt;/strong&gt; are &lt;em&gt;Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on the &lt;em&gt;varna compatibility&lt;/em&gt; for marriages &lt;a href=&quot;https://imarriages.com/d/images/advice/how-kundali-matching-works-varna-chart.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;as per astrology&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, the overall scenario is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Groom varna &gt;= Bride varna (Allowed) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Groom varna &amp;lt; Bride varna (Not allowed)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/31904/661&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, the conclusive lines for &lt;em&gt;marriage compatibility based on caste&lt;/em&gt; are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Groom caste = bride caste  (Allowed, Encouraged)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Groom caste &gt; bride caste  (Allowed, Not encouraged)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Groom caste &amp;lt; bride caste  (Not Allowed)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I can draw the following conclusion for &lt;em&gt;marriage compatibility, either based on varna or caste&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Groom &gt;= Bride (Allowed)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Groom &amp;lt; Bride (Not allowed)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, scriptures are clearly stating that &lt;strong&gt;if a groom is higher than a bride in terms of either varna or caste, then the marriage between them is allowed&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But since some scriptures &lt;em&gt;may&lt;/em&gt; contain different views other than the sources I provided, I am asking the following question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any explicit statement from any scripture forbidding a bride to marry a groom of higher caste(kula)/varna/jati etc.,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-11-10T09:50:21.167" LastActivityDate="2019-11-10T09:50:21.167" Title="Are there any explicit statements forbidding a bride to marry a groom of higher caste/kula/varna/jati?" Tags="|scripture|caste-system|marriage|varna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="22" ClosedDate="2018-02-05T10:26:27.263" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17954" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17956" CreationDate="2017-04-16T05:11:53.587" Score="8" ViewCount="1754" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Republic is a country where the ruler is democratically elected by the people of the country. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Democracy&lt;/a&gt; is the opposite of dictatorship or monarchy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Today's India is such a democratic republic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in ancient past Indian kings were not always selected by people. Mostly a king's son will become the king and then his son and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.booksfact.com/vedas/rig-veda/ancient-democracy-in-vedas-buddhist-greek-history.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this webpage&lt;/a&gt; claims the Vedas , the most ancient among Hindu scriptures, support the idea of democracy. It quotes a Rig Veda mantra in support of the claim which is given below. But i fail to understand how the mantra explicitly supports the idea of democracy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Today India is the largest democratic nation in terms of population.&#xA;  But history and ancient literature suggest that demcoracy and republic&#xA;  ideas were implemented ever since the ‘Age of Vedas‘ and even before.&#xA;  The present westminister style of democracy in India was inherited&#xA;  from the British but the principle of democracy in Vedas existed as a&#xA;  core value in Ancient India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramayana has the first instance where a king tells his people to&#xA;  disagree with him if needed and was open to suggestions in&#xA;  administration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Evidence of a Democratic system of government in India is originally&#xA;  found in Rig Veda, which mentions a thriving republican form of&#xA;  Government in India. These are the slokas from Rig Veda which were to&#xA;  be sung in unison at the beginning of the republican assembly&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;sáM sam íd yuvase vRSann ágne víshvAny aryá Á&#xA;iLás padé sám idhyase sá no vásUny Á bhara ||&#xA;sáM gachadhvaM sáM vadadhvaM sáM vo mánAMsi jAnatAm&#xA;devÁ bhAgáM yáthA pÚrve saMjAnAnÁ upÁsate ||&#xA;samAnó mántraH sámitiH samAnÍ samAnám mánaH sahá cittám eSAm&#xA;samAnám mántram abhí mantraye vaH samAnéna vo havíSA juhomi ||&#xA;samAnÍ va ÁkUtiH samAnÁ hRdayAni vaH&#xA;samAnám astu vo máno yáthA vaH súsahÁsati || [Rig Veda 10.191.1-4]&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation :THOU, mighty Agni, gatherest up all that is precious for&#xA;  thy friend. Bring us all treasures as thou art enkindled in libation’s&#xA;  place. Assemble, speak together: let your minds be all of one accord,&#xA;  As ancient Gods unanimous sit down to their appointed share. The place&#xA;  is common, common the assembly, common the mind, so be their thought&#xA;  united. A common purpose do I lay before you, and worship with your&#xA;  general oblation. One and the same be your resolve, and be your minds&#xA;  of one accord. United be the thoughts of all that all may happily&#xA;  agree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do the Vedas support democracy? If yes, please quote the relevant mantras from the Veda Samhitas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-26T15:22:35.283" LastActivityDate="2022-09-24T18:21:51.973" Title="Where do the Vedas support democracy?" Tags="|vedas|mantras|samhita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17955" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-16T05:35:31.447" Score="5" ViewCount="1235" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are the two verses in question from Rigveda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv01163.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 1 Hymn 163&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदक्रन्दः परथमं जायमान उद्यन समुद्रादुत वा पुरीषात | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      शयेनस्य पक्षा हरिणस्य बाहू उपस्तुत्यं महि जातं ते अर्वन ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01163.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translation&lt;/a&gt; from Ralph Griffith :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;WHAT time, first springing into life, thou neighedst, proceeding&#xA;  from the sea or upper waters,&#xA;      Limbs of the deer hadst thou, and eagle pinions. O Steed, thy birth is nigh and must be lauded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire hymn is titled &lt;strong&gt;'The Horse'&lt;/strong&gt;. I want to understand why is this horse (&lt;em&gt;arvan&lt;/em&gt;) said to arise from the sea ? What's the context of this praise of the horse ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9543" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-04-16T05:39:10.163" LastActivityDate="2018-12-19T13:02:40.633" Title="What's the meaning of these verses of 'The Horse' hymn in RigVeda?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|sanskrit|hymn|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17956" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17954" CreationDate="2017-04-16T05:51:32.020" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes the Veda does support the idea of democracy. It clearly talks of people or their representatives choosing the king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TwAm Vishor VrinatAm (1)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TvAmimAh Pradishah Pancha Devi (2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vashmarn RAshtrashya Kakudi Srayasya (3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tator Na Ugro Vi BhajA Vasuthi (4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let the people choose you for the king (1)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;you have the knowledge of the five divine realms (or directions) (2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let the royal words flow from the peaks (3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Firmly share your riches with all (4).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda Samhita 3.4.1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the word &quot;Visha&quot; denotes the people or their representatives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 10.124.8&lt;/strong&gt; mantra also indicate the visha or people chose the king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, &lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 3.3.6&lt;/strong&gt; clearly says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We have elected you&lt;/strong&gt;, let your enemies challenge you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-04-16T05:51:32.020" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17957" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21550" CreationDate="2017-04-16T07:18:46.477" Score="7" ViewCount="453" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of us know that Lord Shiva is &lt;strong&gt;Abhisekhapriya&lt;/strong&gt; or one who loves to be bathed. Similarly, Lord Vishnu is &lt;strong&gt;Alankarapriya&lt;/strong&gt; or one who is fond of wearing ornaments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, i know that Lord Ganesha is called &lt;strong&gt;Tarpanapriya.&lt;/strong&gt; Or one who loves the act of Tarpana (the act of offering water through the Deva Tirthas on our hands).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that all the pains and sufferings of the universe reside in the belly of Sri Ganesha (this is something that i have been told by one of my Gurujis) and that's why its being depicted as so large. And, by doing Tarpana we remove those pains from His belly and thereby give him appeasement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I am looking for some Puranic verses which explicitly state Lord Ganesha as Tarpanapriya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;NOTE- Even only one verse will do.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-15T06:09:45.990" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T19:27:10.667" Title="Looking for some scriptural verses which say that Lord Ganesha is tarpanapriya (fond of tarpana)" Tags="|scripture|puranas|gods|ganesha|shloka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17958" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-16T13:07:56.287" Score="1" ViewCount="358" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard people refer to Vedas as &lt;code&gt;Adi Granth&lt;/code&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is &lt;code&gt;Adi Granth&lt;/code&gt; used as a special term, and if yes, which books does it refer to ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do the Vedas or other scriptures themselves use this term ? If yes, where ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9543" LastActivityDate="2017-04-19T06:53:00.573" Title="What are 'Adi Granth' in Hinduism ? Is it a properly-defined technical term?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17959" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14665" CreationDate="2017-04-16T14:23:00.930" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yāmunācārya also popularly known as ālavaṇdār, was the son of Ishwara Muni and grandson of the great acharya Nathamuni. He was born in 916 A.D at Viranarayanapuram (present day Kattu Mannargudi) in Tamil Nadu. Yāmunācārya was a genius – a child prodigy. He was instructed in all Sastras. He had the gift of eka-santha – graha (remembering forever by learning only once).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ālavaṇdār is a title given by the queen of Pandya Kingdom when he has won a debate with the royal chief scholar. The name means who has come to rule me or the one who has come to save me.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was skilled in the art of debate and a learned scholar. During his life time he wrote 8&lt;sup&gt;*&lt;/sup&gt; works.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://kcsujata.blogspot.in/2016/03/chatusloki-by-alavandar-translation-in.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chatushloki&lt;/a&gt; : Chatusloki are four  sanskrit slokas dedicated to Mahalakshmi. It is in the praise of Sri or Lakshmi. These are concise in form but also explain in great clarity the auspicious qualities of Maha Lakshmi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bvml.org/VS/Y_stotra-ratna.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sthotra Ratnam&lt;/a&gt; : Sthotra ratnam consists of 65 verses. This work of Yāmunācārya played important role in creating interest in Ramanujacharya towards Vishishtadvaita philosophy and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15616/ramanujacharyas-brother/15637#15637&quot;&gt;restoring back Embar&lt;/a&gt; into Sri Vaishnavism.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;āgama prāmāṇyaṃ : This is work of Yāmunācārya which is the first literary work which highlights the validity of the Pāṃcarātra āgamas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Siddhi Trayam (Atma trayam, Samvit trayam, Eeswara trayam) : These helped Swami Ramanuja to formulate his philosophy in Sri Bashyam.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahāpuruṣa nirṇayaṃ : This describes the supremacy of the Lord Vishnu and his consort.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://githa.koyil.org/index.php/githartha-sangraham/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gītārtha saṃgrahaṃ&lt;/a&gt; : This is the work of Yāmunācārya in which he gives the essence of Bhagavad Gita in 32 verses. &lt;hr/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;*When counted Atma trayam, Samvit trayam, Eeswara trayam as three different works. Generally these three are collectively  known as Siddhi Trayam.&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-04-16T14:23:00.930" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17961" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18619" CreationDate="2017-04-17T10:28:25.083" Score="5" ViewCount="442" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Goats, roosters and pigs are given as sacrifice to gods.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There are also many other animals and birds living but they are not Sacrificed.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why certain animals like Goat, roosters, pigs are given as animal sacrifice and others NOT ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-02T06:48:46.393" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T07:43:36.463" Title="Why animals other than Goat, Chicken and pigs are not given as animal sacrfice?" Tags="|temple|practice|animals|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17962" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18005" CreationDate="2017-04-17T11:58:22.207" Score="3" ViewCount="1261" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karna is my role model, I keep on reading about him but I am unable to find the moment of his death, I also read that Lord Krishna tested him when he was on deathbed, I would like to know what exactly happened?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks in advance!!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3053" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-17T17:12:00.043" LastActivityDate="2020-05-24T14:05:29.103" Title="How did the death of Karna happen?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|karna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17966" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-17T15:58:43.813" Score="0" ViewCount="1093" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that Shri Rama is God , then why did He worship Shiva Linga in Ramayana? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9447" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-18T05:13:10.750" LastActivityDate="2017-04-18T13:40:30.367" Title="Why did Shri Rama worship Shiva in Ramayana eventhough He is god?" Tags="|shiva|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-04-18T16:54:20.517" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17967" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-18T05:35:14.147" Score="7" ViewCount="981" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nammalwar was one of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvars&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Alwars&lt;/a&gt; (Tamil:ஆழ்வார், Hindi: आलवार), a group of 12 ancient Tamil saints known for their poetry of 4000 verses in praise of Vishnu and preaching &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saranagati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sharanagati&lt;/a&gt;. These 4000 verses were later compiled by Natha Muni as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naalayira_Divya_Prabhandham&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nalayira Divya Prabandham&lt;/a&gt; which is considered alike or equivalent to Sanskrit Vedas (known as Dravida Veda) in Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nammalwar is considered the greatest among 12 Alwars, he has contributed more than 1100+ verses in Nalayira Divya Prabandham. His four works are considered the essence of (or corresponds to) each of four Vedas in as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thiruvaimozhi (தாந்திருவாய்மொழி) : 1102 verses - Sama Veda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thiruviruttam (திருவிருத்தம்) : 100 verses - Rig Veda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Peria Thiruvanthadi (பெரிய திருவந்தாதி) : 87 verses - Atharva Veda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thiruvasiriyam (திருவாசிரியம்) :7 verses - Yajur Veda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, what I want to know is: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does this connection mean these works are based on Sanskrit Vedas or contains the similar/alike preaching to that of corresponding Vedas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How is the connection of these works with Sanskrit Veda recognised or established?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-18T05:45:26.923" LastActivityDate="2019-04-21T23:22:26.960" Title="Connection of Nammalwar's work with Sanskrit Vedas" Tags="|vedas|sri-vaishnava|alwar|tamil|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17968" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15020" CreationDate="2017-04-18T07:58:27.873" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas, in particular, do not have a limited (narrow) vision of patriotism. The Vedas clearly say that we all are the children of Mother Earth. Hence, we should love the whole earth as our motherland and not just our own country.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MAta Bhumih Putro Aham PrithivyAha .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The earth is my mother, I her son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda Samhita, Kanda 12, Sukta 1, Mantra 12.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-18T08:13:02.730" LastActivityDate="2017-04-18T08:13:02.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17969" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10286" CreationDate="2017-04-18T09:48:46.460" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is question often arising even in modern times.  Swami Vivekananda supplies a sufficiently modern answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“&lt;strong&gt;Each soul is potentially divine&lt;/strong&gt;. The goal is to manifest this divinity by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy - by one, or more, or all of these - and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are all but secondary details.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The precept is very ancient... given out in English (language of this site) after Swami's visit to US.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2020-02-20T18:54:16.327" LastActivityDate="2020-02-20T18:54:16.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="17970" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17966" CreationDate="2017-04-18T13:40:30.367" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama was never mentioned as a god in Ramayana. If you've ever heard Rama as god, it is just because of his godly nature and for his golden era of ruling the kingdom, but not because he is god. The avatar of Rama is human and so, he faces so many difficulties. &#xA;The intention in Lord Rama worshiping Lord Siva is that &quot;god-told&quot; Rama worshiped a god (here it is Siva) when he is in hard situations. It is to impart a faith in god when you are facing hard situations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9559" LastActivityDate="2017-04-18T13:40:30.367" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17972" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10122" CreationDate="2017-04-18T18:36:30.317" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhisma vowed not to get married (Bhisma pratigya) thus was never a father. As per Hinduism, once you are born it's one of your dharma (duty) to become a father. Pitradharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9561" LastActivityDate="2017-04-18T18:36:30.317" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17973" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10286" CreationDate="2017-04-19T04:50:38.443" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord May be realized on different levels. As Bhagavatam States &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/2/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this&#xA;  nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just like Sun and Sunshine. There are three features viz, Sunshine(Brahman), Sun Globe(Paramatma), Sun Deity Vivasvan(Bhagvana or personal feature).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are different philosophies that subscribe to Vedanta school, Viz Advaita, VishishtAdvaita, Dvaita and so on as described in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/4064/dvaita-vs-advaita-vs-vishistadvaita-vs-shuddhadvaita-vs-any-other&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now different philosophies have different opinions as to three levels of God realization. I.e Advaita says that Brahman realization is highest where as there are other schools(Vaishnava) who believe that associating with God in His personal form is superior i.e. Realization of Bhagavan feature is highest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Advaita &lt;strong&gt;YOU ARE GOD&lt;/strong&gt;. So no question of becoming God, of course you have forgotten or due to Avidya you perceive the individuality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I have mentioned the sun example, You may merge into sunshine but you can never become one with the King of Sun planet. &#xA;That is in Advaita terms you can never become a Saguna Brahman(refer this answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14114/how-does-adishankaracharya-advaita-explain-concept-of-avatar&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in Vedanta sutra and Gita it is mentioned that we are part and parcel of One Supreme God. &lt;strong&gt;We are not one with Him&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;But we are one in quality with Him. Just like Sunshine is one in quality with Sun but Sunshine is not Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2017-04-19T04:50:38.443" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17974" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17875" CreationDate="2017-04-19T06:29:06.743" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per arya samaj(which holds vedas as only true source), but still it is held that there is no devta existent and astrology etc are false.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So you may assume that vedas are true source and you may believe in one single God(represented by Om) and still holding astrology to be false is officially possible in Hinduism's one or many sects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just assume that all the puranic and other mythological stories as &quot;mixture of analogies and some history and some literature stories&quot; to inculcate dharma in followers. These puranic stories do not have to be taken 100% literally. Be vedic, esp upanishad follower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9564" LastEditorUserId="9564" LastEditDate="2017-04-19T06:34:06.947" LastActivityDate="2017-04-19T06:34:06.947" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17975" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17958" CreationDate="2017-04-19T06:53:00.573" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you are referring as canonical text, then it depends upon hinduism sects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Almost all sects assign Vedas as canonical text authority. &#xA;But In various hindu sects they may assign &quot;additional texts (like gita, ramayana, some purana) &quot; also on the canonical text level authority.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;==========&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also taken literally, Adi granth term has not been used in hindu scriptures. But if we interpret it as &quot;Adi granth&quot; meaning 'the text which was in the beginning', then also vedas only - fit on that term, as per belief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9564" LastActivityDate="2017-04-19T06:53:00.573" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17976" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-19T08:53:07.313" Score="12" ViewCount="1497" Body="&lt;p&gt;In most of the hindu homes as well as temples, it is a customary practice to have sessions of Sundara Kanda on either day of week (preferably Tuesday). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What makes Sundara Kanda more special to be enchanted over other sections of Ramayana? I have never heard that session of Bala Kanda or Lanka Kanda etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8207" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-20T04:19:39.740" LastActivityDate="2020-06-06T12:01:25.123" Title="Why is Sundara Kanda more glorified than other Kandas of Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|ramcharitmanas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17979" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17982" CreationDate="2017-04-19T12:28:32.967" Score="3" ViewCount="421" Body="&lt;p&gt;In our family,they tell us to worship our ancestors from where family have been started&#xA;Is it right that we should worship them rather than worshipping God??&#xA;Please tell me in detail&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6826" LastActivityDate="2017-04-21T10:58:32.757" Title="Believing our family ancestors" Tags="|gods|worship|ancestry|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17981" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4143" CreationDate="2017-04-19T14:08:39.463" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; section of Adi Parva of MahaBharat, Nahusha had connection with Vaivasvat Manu from paternal side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana said, 'Hear then, O monarch, as I recite in full the&#xA;auspicious account of thy own race just as I had heard it from&#xA;Dwaipayana before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Daksha begat Aditi, and Aditi begat Vivaswat, and Vivaswat begat&#xA;Manu, and Manu begat Ha and Ha begat Pururavas. And Pururavas begat&#xA;Ayus, and Ayus begat Nahusha, and Nahusha begat Yayati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I'am not sure who is this son of Manu called 'Ha' here. Probably its Ila, Manu's Daughter. As described here in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01076.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; section of Adi Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu begat ten other children named Vena, Dhrishnu, Narishyan,&#xA;Nabhaga, Ikshvaku, Karusha, Saryati, the eighth, a daughter named Ila, Prishadhru the ninth, and Nabhagarishta, the tenth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The learned Pururavas was born of Ila. It hath been heard by us that&#xA;Ila was both his mother and father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So here it looks like Budha was not the father of Pururava. But Bhagavatam decribes Budha as his father in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of Ninth Canto.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the womb of Tārā, Soma begot a son named Budha, who later begot in&#xA;the womb of Ilā a son named Aila, or Purūravā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As long as 'Samvarna' is concerned, only Samvarna that i know is mentioned &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01174.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O thou of Kuru's race, Vivaswat then resolved to bestow his daughter&#xA;on that best of kings, viz., Samvarana, the scion of a race of&#xA;world-wide fame.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So at least this Samvarna is not Vaivasvat Manu.Nor does it look like another Name of Ayu because Ayus father was Pururava where as father of Samvarna was Riksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-19T14:52:39.060" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17982" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17979" CreationDate="2017-04-19T14:38:42.843" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Scriptures pleasing the Gods is not enough. Pleasing the Manes (Pitrus or ancestors) is also needed and is in fact even more important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually, the Scriptures ordain the &lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/panchamahayajna&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Pancha Maha Yajnas&quot;&lt;/a&gt; for all householders to satisfy the Rishis (Sages), Devas (Gods), Manushyas (Human Beings), Pitrus (Manes) and Bhutas (Beings). So satisfying all of them is necessary for our all round peace and prosperity. Satisfying only one or two among them is not enough.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.176. Every day, having bathed, and being purified, &lt;strong&gt;he&#xA;  must offer libations of water to the gods, sages and manes,&lt;/strong&gt; worship&#xA;  (the images of) the gods, and place fuel on (the sacred fire)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu smriti 5.169. (Living) according to the (preceding) rules, &lt;strong&gt;he&#xA;  must never neglect the five (great) sacrifices,&lt;/strong&gt; and, having taken a&#xA;  wife, he must dwell in (his own) house during the second period of his&#xA;  life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And appeasing the Manes is even more important than pleasing the Gods as said in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.203. &lt;strong&gt;For twice-born men the rite in honour of the&#xA;  manes is more important than the rite in honour of the gods;&lt;/strong&gt; for the&#xA;  offering to the gods which precedes (the Sraddhas), has been declared&#xA;  to be a means of fortifying (the latter).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-19T14:43:57.857" LastActivityDate="2017-04-19T14:43:57.857" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17983" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11798" CreationDate="2017-04-19T15:37:59.157" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dronacharya was silent.&lt;/strong&gt; Here's what Bhishma says immediately after the disrobing episode in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have already said, O blessed one that the course of morality is subtle. Even the illustrious wise in this world fail to understand it always. What in this world a strong man calls morality is regarded as such by others, however otherwise it may really be; but what a weak man calls morality is scarcely regarded as such even if it be the highest morality. From the importance of the issue involved, from its intricacy and subtlety, I am unable to answer with certitude the question thou hast asked. However, it is certain that as all the Kurus have become the slaves of covetousness and folly, the destruction of this our race will happen on no distant date. O blessed one, the family into which thou hast been admitted as a daughter-in-law, is such that those who are born in it, however much they might be afflicted by calamities, never deviate from the paths of virtue and morality. O Princess of Panchala, this conduct of thine also, viz. that though sunk in distress, thou still easiest thy eyes on virtue and morality, is assuredly worthy of thee. &lt;strong&gt;These persons, Drona and others, of mature years and conversant with morality, sit heads downwards like men that are dead, with bodies from which life hath departed.&lt;/strong&gt; It seemeth to me, however, that Yudhishthira is an authority on this question. It behoveth him to declare whether thou art won or not won.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-04-19T15:37:59.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17984" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-19T19:40:47.380" Score="3" ViewCount="308" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous parts of a Hindu marriage ceremony is the tying of the Mangal Sutra.  Yet the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanuja.org/sri/Web/VedicWeddingCeremony&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;procedure&lt;/a&gt; for Vedic Marriage has nothing like Mangala Sutra involved (i.e. there is no Veda mantra described for tying this thread).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, what scriptures describe the wearing of the Mangala Sutra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-19T19:44:49.360" LastActivityDate="2017-04-19T19:44:49.360" Title="What scriptures describe the wearing of the Mangala Sutra?" Tags="|scripture|rituals|marriage|life|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2017-04-20T04:47:19.720" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17985" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="17986" CreationDate="2017-04-20T05:34:17.010" Score="5" ViewCount="415" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17963/could-you-people-debunk-what-is-written-in-this-website&quot;&gt;This question&lt;/a&gt; contains a link to a blog which tries to prove that the position of a Hindu woman is not that respectful in the society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the points it makes is that a Hindu woman can't choose a husband for herself. It has to be her father's choice always.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, we know from Puranas and Itihasas, that for Kshatriyas at least a bride can be &lt;strong&gt;Swayamvara&lt;/strong&gt;. That is, she can choose a husband of her choice among many suitors. So, its not that difficult to debunk this particular claim by that blog.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is slightly different. I want to know if Vedas support the concept of a bride choosing a husband for herself or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-20T05:58:45.627" LastActivityDate="2017-04-20T06:04:06.887" Title="Do the Vedas support the concept of a maiden choosing a husband for herself?" Tags="|vedas|marriage|women|samhita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17986" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17985" CreationDate="2017-04-20T05:57:31.473" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes the Vedas do support the concept. Given below are two relevant Mantras from the Rig Veda Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BhadrA Vadhuh Bhavati Yath SupeshA (1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Syayam SA Mitram Banuthe Jane Chith (2)  ---  &lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 10.27.12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DhAthA DAdhAr Prithivir DhAthA DdhAmuta Suryam (3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DhAtAsthA Agruvei Patim DadhAthu PratikAmyam (4)&lt;/strong&gt; --- &lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 6.60.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The bride, beautiful of form attains happy good (1), when she chooses&#xA;  herself a friend as her mate (2).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Creator sustains the earth, heaven and sun (3). &lt;strong&gt;May He assign a&#xA;  husband of her choice for this lady (4).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-20T06:04:06.887" LastActivityDate="2017-04-20T06:04:06.887" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17987" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18016" CreationDate="2017-04-20T06:12:23.287" Score="3" ViewCount="492" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in Adhyaya 6 Pada 7 of Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa school, Jaimini discusses a Yagna described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/u6kDE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; of the Panchavimsha Brahmana of the Sama Veda which lasts for 1000 years.  The issue is, how is it possible to perform a Yagna for 1000 years?  Jaimini considers various potential explanations: that it's a Yagna meant for the gods, that it's a Yagna meant for long-lived human beings, that it's meant to be performed over several generations, and that 1000 years really means 1000 months.  He rejects all these explanations and comes to the conclusion that 1000 years really means 1000 days.  (Which is not surprising as the Purva Mimamsa school was reluctant to believe anything out of the ordinary or supernatural.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm interested in Jaimini's argument against the &quot;long-lived humans&quot; explanation.  He argues that no human can possibly live for 1000 years; here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/tfur&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Shabara's commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But humans cannot live so long....&quot;They can attain longevity by means of medicines.&quot; ... No medicines have been found to possess the capacity of prolonging life to the extent of a thousand years. All that they are capable of doing is — the improving of digestive powers, &lt;strong&gt;the removal of wrinkles and grey hair&lt;/strong&gt;, the improving of voice and complexion and the resuscitation of memory ; — they are never found to bring about longevity. — &quot;From the improvement of voice and complexion and other signs, we shall infer a longer life also.&quot; — That is not possible, we say. — &quot;Why?&quot; — Because there is the text declaring that 'a man's life extends to a hundred years'[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe medicines to remove wrinkles and grey hair?  Because they seem to have existed in ancient India given Shabara's statement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Page 32 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=ekjtVOppIxwC&amp;amp;lpg=PA32&amp;amp;dq=amalaka%20rasayana&amp;amp;pg=PA32#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; describes an Ayurvedic medicine made from the Amalaka plant, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17808/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/17834/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, that is said to &quot;transform old men into young, with new hair and teeth, and induce physical power like that of an elephant&quot;.  But what does Hindu scripture have to say on the subject?  Ayurvedic texts would be the best place to look.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-07T19:41:04.307" LastActivityDate="2017-05-07T19:41:04.307" Title="What scriptures describe medicines to remove wrinkles and grey hair?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|yajna|purva-mimamsa|ayurveda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17990" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-20T13:03:47.123" Score="8" ViewCount="4526" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why always it is seen Maa Kali's tongue out side from mouth ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9447" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-23T03:06:22.820" LastActivityDate="2017-04-23T03:06:22.820" Title="Why Divine Mother's (Kali) tongue is out of mouth?" Tags="|puranas|goddess|devi|kali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17991" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17990" CreationDate="2017-04-20T14:03:41.480" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;My preferences goes to the following two explanations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First one: where the act of sticking out the tongue is meditated upon as exterminating (drinking) the desires of existence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Every time a Seed of Desire touches the ground, a new Seed of Desire is born in that very same place. Ultimately the entire earth has been filled with Seeds of Desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing this and understanding fully well the tremendous import and significance of the all-pervasiveness of desire, the Gods became extremely dejected. In great alarm we all called to the Divine Mother for help. '&lt;strong&gt;Oh Compassionate Kali, stick out your tongue&lt;/strong&gt; and drink up all the desires of existence. Only your mouth has sufficient capacity to consume all desire! And when you will have digested all desire, then the Gods will be free from desire.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is why She shows Her very lovely, red, protruding tongue -- &lt;em&gt;in order to make all existence free from desire.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://redzambala.com/hinduism/mother-kali-and-what-she-symbolizes.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second interpretation: which targets Mahākālī as the first of the ten wisdom goddesses, the tongue is explained as evoking disgust on purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kālī’s gaping mouth and &lt;strong&gt;lolling tongue&lt;/strong&gt;, her appearance and habits generally, are unquestionably repulsive to our ordinary sensibilities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Tantra, this is probably &lt;em&gt;precisely the point&lt;/em&gt;. What we experience as disgusting, polluted, forbidden, and gruesome is grounded in and conditioned by limited human (or cultural) consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://redzambala.com/hinduism/the-10-great-wisdom-goddesses.html#01&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, a third source, wikipedia, gives two different interpretations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) One interpretation of Kali's tongue is that the red tongue symbolizes the rajasic nature being conquered by the white (symbolizing sattvic) nature of the teeth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) The most widespread interpretation of Kali's extended tongue involve her embarrassment over the sudden realization that she has stepped on her husband's chest. Kali's sudden &quot;modesty and shame&quot; over that act is the prevalent interpretation among Oriya Hindus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali#Symbolism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But personally, I prefer to stick with the first two sources.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="5384" LastEditDate="2017-04-20T14:23:56.810" LastActivityDate="2017-04-20T14:23:56.810" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17992" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-20T16:45:27.333" Score="-1" ViewCount="534" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every Vedas have separate knowledge. Please define &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9447" LastActivityDate="2017-04-20T22:43:22.690" Title="How many types of Vedas there ? And these are related to?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-05-07T14:58:01.507" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17994" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17992" CreationDate="2017-04-20T22:43:22.690" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 4 types of Vedas : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RigVeda&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;YajurVeda&lt;/strong&gt; :  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/index.htm&lt;/a&gt; (Krishna Version); &#xA;             &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/index.htm&lt;/a&gt; (Shukla Version)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SamaVeda&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sv.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sv.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AtharvaVeda&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8450" LastActivityDate="2017-04-20T22:43:22.690" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17995" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18003" CreationDate="2017-04-20T22:54:01.433" Score="5" ViewCount="1399" Body="&lt;p&gt;During my childhood 1980s-90s &lt;strong&gt;SaiBaba&lt;/strong&gt; was not very popular in north india. Gradually(1990s) I saw people started praying or putting his photographs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, initially the Van with Sai Baba posters used to come as Sai is Avatar of Lord Shiva. After few years (2000) , I found people started praying him as &quot;Jagannath&quot; or &quot;Sachhidananda&quot; which is synonym for Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So , I have two questions: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a) Since When SaiBaba was incepted in Hindu Religion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;b) Is he Avatar of Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu (Although None of the granthas talk about his incarnation/avatar) ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have read the below posts but still needs more clarification :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7978/sai-babas-association-with-hinduism&quot;&gt;Sai Baba&amp;#39;s association with Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/829/what-is-the-basis-for-worshipping-sai-baba-are-there-are-references-to-him-in-t&quot;&gt;What is the basis for worshipping Sai Baba? Are there are references to him in the Vedas or other Vedic literature?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3445/is-sai-baba-of-shirdi-really-a-god&quot;&gt;Is Sai Baba of Shirdi really a God?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8450" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-04-21T15:44:15.880" LastActivityDate="2017-04-21T20:49:45.517" Title="Since when Sai got added to Hindu Dharma" Tags="|vedas|sai|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17996" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17227" CreationDate="2017-04-21T05:40:53.497" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, those Sanyasi who have removed Yajnopavitam can also perform Vedic rituals like Homam and chant Vedic mantras.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shiva Purana Kailasha Samhita chapter 13 deals about the method of renunciation. Relevant verses from that chapter are as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्राच्यां दिश्यप उद्धृत्य प्रक्षिपेदंजलिं ततः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिखा यज्ञोपवितं च यत्रोत्पाट्य च पाणिना ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गृहित्वा प्रणवं भूश्च समुद्रं गच्छ संवदेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वह्निजायां समुच्चार्य सोदकांजलिना ततः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अप्सु हूयादथ प्रेषैरभिमंत्र्य त्रिधा त्वपः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्राश्य तीरे समागत्य भूमौ वस्त्रादिकं त्यजेत् ।। (Shiva Purana Kailash Samhita chapter 13)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then filling the hand cups with water it should be released to the east. &lt;strong&gt;Then he should remove the tuft and yajnopawita, from his hands, should recite the mantras,&lt;/strong&gt; holding the water in his palm thus : “vahni jayam svaha&amp;quot; Then he should speak out “om bhuh samudram svaha ’ Reciting the aforesaid “Praisa mantras should drop the yajnopavita and the Sikha in the water. Then performing the acamana (sipping water) should remove his clothes and drop them on the ground.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the same chapter after mentioning the above process also mention the things Sanyasi should do in the latter verses. Relevant portion is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कर्मारम्भात्पूरवमेव गृहित्वा गोमयं शुभम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्थूलामलकमात्रेण कृत्वा पिण्डान्वशोषयेत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोरैस्तु किरणैरेव होमारम्भाग्निमध्यगान् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निक्षिप्य होमसम्पूर्तौ भस्म संगृह्य गोपयत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततो गुरुः समादाय विरजानलजं सितम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भस्म तेनैव तं शिष्यमग्निरित्यादिभिः क्रमात् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मन्त्रैरंगानि संस्पृश्य मूर्द्धादिचरणान्ततः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ईशानाद्यैः पञ्चमन्त्रैः शिर आरभ्य सर्वत ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  समुद्धृत्य विधानेन त्रिपुण्ड्रं धारयेत्ततः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्रियायुषैस्त्र्यम्बकैश्च मूर्ध्न आरभ्य च क्रमात् । (Shiva Purana Kailasha Samhita chapter 13)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Before the start of work, he should collect the cow-dung and prepare bells of the size of the big myrobalam and dry them up. &lt;strong&gt;When the long balls are dried up with the sun rays, he should place then over the fire of the homa.&lt;/strong&gt; After the homa is over, he should collect the ashes and keep them carefully. Then the preceptor, take the ashes which are made from the Viraja fire &lt;strong&gt;should sanctify reciting the mantra Agniriti bhasma.&lt;/strong&gt; Repeating the mantra Agniriti bhasma he should apply the sacred ashes over the body of the disciple from head to foot. &lt;strong&gt;Repeating the five mantras Ishana, Tryayusa, Tryambakam,&lt;/strong&gt; he should apply the Tripundra marks too beginning with head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is very clear that the Purana is stating these things to do those who have removed Yajnopavitam also:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Performance of Homa ie. Fire Ritual.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2) Chanting of mantras from Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the mantras refrenced above are mentioned from Vedas. For eg. The &amp;apos;Agniriti Bhasma... &amp;apos; mantra is from Atharvasiraas Upanishad. The five mantras referred above are the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16553/who-are-pancha-brahmas-and-why-are-they-called-so/16557#16557&quot;&gt;PanchaBrahaman mantras&lt;/a&gt; from Taittariya Aranayka. Trayusha Mantra is the mantra present in Vajasaneyi mantra 3.62 and the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12185/which-mantras-should-be-recited-to-properly-worship-lord-rudra/16878#16878&quot;&gt;Trayambakam mantra&lt;/a&gt; ie. &amp;apos;Trayambakam Yajãmahe... &amp;apos; is from Rig Veda and YajurVeda Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may wonder how is one eligible to chant Veda mantras without Yajnopavitam. But it is ordained by Vedas themselves that for Sanyasi self alone acts as sacred thread. Here is excerpt from Jabala Upanishad (which I also &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15072/what-is-the-yogic-meaning-of-getting-liberation-by-reaching-varanasi/15073#15073&quot;&gt;discuss here.&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;V-1. Then the (sage) Atri asked Yajnavalkya: ‘May I ask you Yajnavalkya, &lt;strong&gt;how is one without the sacred thread a Brahmana ?’ Yajnavalkya replied: (‘The conviction I am the) Self alone is his sacred thread.&lt;/strong&gt; He shall then sip water (ceremoniously thrice). &lt;strong&gt;This is the method enjoined on those who renounce worldly life.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-05-02T12:31:37.603" LastActivityDate="2017-05-02T12:31:37.603" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17998" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17995" CreationDate="2017-04-21T05:54:02.027" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism apart from Gods, the Gurus, the Saints are given immense importance. And Sai Natha is one such Saint Guru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God sends such Sadhus, Gurus to earth for doing some work on his behalf.  For  preaching  some mantras may be or for spreading some knowledge. So Sai Baba came on earth probably for fulfilling one or many such purposes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;b) Is he Avatar of Lod Shiva or Lord Vishnu (Although None of the&#xA;  granthas talk about his incarnation/avatar) ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is difficult to say as we can't find anything about him in traditional Hindu scriptures . But there are nonetheless a lot of hymns composed on him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Sainathashtakam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sainathashtakam&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jagadhodharanartham yo naroppa tharo vibuhu Yoginamcha mahathmanam sai&#xA;  natham namamyaham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I salute that Lord Sai, &lt;strong&gt;Who took the human form of a saint, For the&#xA;  redemption of this world,&lt;/strong&gt; And who is the greatest among saints.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I salute that Lord Sai, Who is the disciple of Narasimha, &lt;strong&gt;Who is the&#xA;  teacher of all teachers,&lt;/strong&gt; Who cuts of attachments in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhana heenaan dhanaatyanyaha sama drishtyaiva pashyathi Karunaa&#xA;  saagaram devam sai natham namamyaham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, obviously Sai Baba is worshiped or revered just like Gurus are and this is not unusual in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Jai_Guru_Deva_Sai_Natha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this stotram&lt;/a&gt;, he is an avatara of Hari or Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiridi vaasa sai natha &lt;strong&gt;Shrihari roopa&lt;/strong&gt; sai natha Dwantha vinaashaka&#xA;  sai natha Dwaraka vaasa sai natha...(Jaya Guru)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who lives in Shirdi, Sainatha, &lt;strong&gt;One who has form of Hari&lt;/strong&gt;, Sainatha,&#xA;  One who desrtoys separate identity, Sainatha, One who lives in&#xA;  Dwaraka, Sainatha... (Victory to the great teacher&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And further, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pankaja nayana sai natha Mangala roopa sai natha Vengucha ramana sai&#xA;  natha Sankata harana sai natha...(Jaya Guru)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lotus eyed one, Sainatha, One with holy form, Sainatha, &lt;strong&gt;One who is&#xA;  Balaji&lt;/strong&gt;, Sainatha, Dispeller of sorrow, Sainatha...(Victory to the&#xA;  great teacher)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the same stotram (Jai Guru Deva Sai Natha) also mentions him by the name Dakshinamoorthy which is of course the form of Lord Shiva when he is the Guru of all or the universal Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thathwa bodhaka sainaatha &lt;strong&gt;Dakshina moorthe&lt;/strong&gt; sai natha Dharma supaalana&#xA;  sai natha Dareedra naashaka sai natha...(Jaya Guru)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The teacher of philosophy, Sainatha, The Lord of the South, Sainatha,&#xA;  One who looks after faith, Sainatha, Destroyer of poverty, Sainatha...&#xA;  (Victory to the great teacher)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, it is quite clear to me, that Sri Sai Baba is revered allover just like a Sath Guru is revered by the Hindus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;NOTE- This is only a partial answer.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-21T12:44:14.497" LastActivityDate="2017-04-21T12:44:14.497" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="17999" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17979" CreationDate="2017-04-21T10:58:32.757" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Vedas&lt;/em&gt; layout the attainment of different paths - Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. If your goal in this life is the attainment of various heavens (and consequently, rebirth) then worship of others than the Lord is prescribed. In his introduction to the &lt;em&gt;Kena Upanishad&lt;/em&gt;, Sankara says (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Answer: No, because in the Vajasaneyaka (Brhadaranyaka) Upanishad that (combination of rites and meditation) has been spoken of as the cause of a different result. Starting with the text, &quot;Let me have a wife&quot;. (Br. I.iv.17), the Vajasaneyaka shows in the text, &quot;This world of man is to be won through the son alone, and by no other rite; the world of the Manes through rites; and the world of the gods through meditation' (Br. I.v.16), how rites and duties lead to the attainment of the three worlds that are different from the Self. And there (in that Upanishad itself), again, the reason for embracing renunciation is adduced thus: &quot;What shall we achieve through children, we to whom the Self we have attained is the goal?&quot; (Br. IV.iv.22). The explanation of that reason is this: What shall we do with progeny, rites, and meditation combined with rites, which are the means for the attainment of worlds other than that of the Self, and are the causes for the attainment of the three worlds of men, Manes, and gods? Nor are the three worlds--transitory and attainable by means as they are--desirable for us, to whom is desirable the world that is natural, &quot;birthless, undecaying, immortal, fearless&quot; (Br. IV.iv.25)...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sri Krishna says in the &lt;em&gt;Uddhava Gita&lt;/em&gt; XII 52-58 (Swami Madhavananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;52&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He should not get attached to his family, and, even though he is a householder, should not forget God. The wise man should consider the unseen enjoyments of future life just as perishable as the visible enjoyments of this life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The association with one's sons, wife, relatives, and friends is like the chance meeting of travelers. They depart with the end of each body, as dreams are inextricably bound by sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One who reflecting thus lives at home without attachment and egoism, like a guest, is not fettered by the home, and is free.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A devotee, worshipping Me through his household duties, may lead a householders life, may retire into the forest, or, if he has progeny, may embrace monasticism.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But he who is attached to his house, is afflicted by the desires for sons and wealth, and is henpecked--is foolish, and being beguiled, he comes under the bondage of &quot;I and mine&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Alas, my parents are old, my wife has got young children; and how can she in her helpless state live, with these poor children, without me?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus does the foolish man, with his heart distracted by thoughts of home, continue to think of them without satisfaction. Then he dies and enters into abysmal darkness (birth in a very undesirable body).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sri Krishna in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; 9.25 (Swami Gambhirananda translator)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Votaries of the gods reach the gods; the votaries of the manes go the the manes; the worshippers of the Beings reach the Beings; and those who worship Me reach Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sankara's commentary on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;em&gt;Pitr-vratah&lt;/em&gt;, the votaries of the manes, those who are occupied with such rites as obsequies etc., who are devoted to the manes; go &lt;em&gt;pitrn&lt;/em&gt;, to the manes such as Agnisvatta and others...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and at the end of the commentary he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although the effort (involved) is the same, still owing to ignorance they do not worship Me exclusively. Thereby they attain lesser results. This is the meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Honor your ancestors, worship the Lord exclusively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-04-21T10:58:32.757" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18003" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17995" CreationDate="2017-04-21T18:52:59.763" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Truth is bitter&lt;/strong&gt;, and many will find this hatred against him....just a warning for people who worship him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q1) &lt;strong&gt;Since When SaiBaba was incepted in Hindu Religion?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well just after he started 'preaching' people, they were influenced by his magic, and miracles and people started blindly following him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from this &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Baba_of_Shirdi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt;, which uses a SaiBaba book and historical records for this speculation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is generally accepted that Sai Baba stayed in Shirdi for three years, disappeared for a year, and &lt;strong&gt;returned permanently around 1858.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from this we can make an educated guess, and conclude that his influence(on 'Broad-minded' Hindus) started from(around) &lt;strong&gt;year 1858.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q2) &lt;strong&gt;Is he Avatar of Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; (Although none of the granthas talk about his incarnation/avatar) ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clearly NO! you've mentioned the reason yourself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Worship of Sai Baba as a saint!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All of the vedanta followers(atleast &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarta_Tradition&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Smarthas&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishnavism#Traditions&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagwatas&lt;/a&gt;) would deny his worship because of the following reasons&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) &lt;strong&gt;He is preaching people without any qualification.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To qualify as an Acharya or just to initiate Vedic Studies you need to go through &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upanayana ceremony&lt;/a&gt; which involves adhering to rules of Bramhacharya and wearing of Shikha(tuft)/&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/442/489&quot;&gt;Yagnopavitam&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people would say that even Shankaracharyas don't wear Yagnopavitam and Shikha, that is because they follow sanyasa order of Smartha sect(Advaita) for which they don't keep Shikha/Yagnopavitam, but still they have their Ekadanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He had no Yagnopavitam, never did he officially declare that he was an Acharya or even a Sanyasi. So there is no purpose or reason for his worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) &lt;strong&gt;He never talked about getting Moksha for his people.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All acharyas are concerned about moksha of their shishyas, and they give them(shisyas) tips and tricks(methods) to attain moksha. Vedanta acharyas mainly focus on Upanishadic Bramha vidya and Bhakti marga for moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;One should not disrespect Gods by associating random people as their incarnations in Bhuloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can follow/Worship him if you want to but there is no use, at best he can make your life materially successful without moksha(which is eternal success).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-04-21T20:49:45.517" LastActivityDate="2017-04-21T20:49:45.517" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18004" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-21T21:07:37.920" Score="6" ViewCount="354" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11457/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Purva Mimamsa school believed that Upanishad verses describing the nature of the Atma refer to the Jivatma or individual soul, not Paramatma or the supreme soul. The Purva Mimamsa philosopher Kumarila Bhatta believed that Atmavidya or knowledge of one's own soul served three purposes: it was useful in performing Yagnas, it caused happiness in this life, and it led to Moksha by leading to Nishkama Karma (as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16045/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  Here's what Kumarila Bhatta says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/XByD&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Tantra Vartika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As for the knowledge of Self; both by Conjunction and Disjunction it is found to help the sacrifice as well as the Person; because unless are knows his self (to be something other than the body that perishes) he would never underfake the sacrifices whose results are said to accrue to the man in another birth. And then again, such passages as-' the Self free from all evil...is to be song.ht after, &amp;amp;c.,” “one should worship the Self&quot; -lay down the knowledge of Self as accomplished by a process accompanied by due reflection, &amp;amp;c.; and then from such knowledge, we find that there accrues to the agents both kinds of result-Happiness as well as final Deliverance, as is shown by the following passages:-&lt;strong&gt;&quot;He obtains all worlds and all desires, passes beyond all sorrow, &amp;amp;c, &amp;amp;c.,&quot;-which speaks of all the eight perfections of Yoga accruing to the person knowing the self&lt;/strong&gt;; and the passage-“passing his life thus he, after death, reaches the regions of Brahma, and from there he never returns'--which points to the attainment of the Supreme Self (Final Deliverance) also as following from a due knowledge of the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  I think Kumarila Bhatta is referring to verse 1 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01167.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prapathaka 8 Khanda 7&lt;/a&gt; of the Chandogya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ya ātmāpahatapāpmā vijaro vimṛtyurviśoko &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  vijighatso'pipāsaḥ satyakāmaḥ satyasaṃkalpaḥ so'nveṣṭavyaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sa vijijñāsitavyaḥ sa sarvām̐śca lokānāpnoti &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarvām̐śca kāmānyastamātmānamanuvidya vijānātīti ha &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  prajāpatiruvāca ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pragâpati said: 'The Self which is free from sin, free from old age, from death and grief, from hunger and thirst, which desires nothing but what it ought to desire, and imagines nothing but what it ought to imagine, that it is which we must search out, that it is which we must try to understand. &lt;strong&gt;He who has searched out that Self and understands it, obtains all worlds and all desires.&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now when Kumarila Bhatta says that one who knows the self obtains  &quot;the eight perfections of Yoga&quot;, he's talking about the eight &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siddhis&lt;/a&gt; or magical powers described in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.  So my question is, does anyone besides Kumarila Bhatta, i.e. anyone from the Vedanta school, believe that this Chandogya Upanishad verse refers to obtaining magical powers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Adi Shankaracharya says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600301.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/29/items/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English_jp2/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English_0462.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Advaita commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So that this - attaining of all regions and becoming the All-Self are the results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Ranga Ramanuja says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.imgur.com/CyUVQlo.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Sri Vaishnava commentary on the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The atman who is opposed to all that is defiling, free from old age, death, grief, hunger and thirst, who is of true desires and true will, is to be sought.  He is to be enquirer into.  He who realizes through meditation that atman after gaining the knowledge of that atman through scriptures, attain all worlds and all desires.  Thus did Prajapathi declare.&quot; The eight qualities of the atman are mentioned.  They are common to Jivatman and Paramatman.  After concluding Daharavidya the Upanishath introduces here the Pratyagatma Vidya which is an accessory to Daraha Vidya. &quot;Anuvidya&quot; means after gaining vakyartha jnanam. Vijanati signifies dhyanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So both of these commentators interpret this verse as referring to attaining Moksha, not obtaining magical powers.  But are there any commentators who agree with Kumarila Bhatta on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-01T00:38:30.520" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T00:38:30.520" Title="Who agrees with Kumarila Bhatta that the Chandogya Upanishad refers to magical powers?" Tags="|vedanta|upanishads|purva-mimamsa|siddhi|chandogya-upanishad|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18005" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17962" CreationDate="2017-04-22T03:49:34.140" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Detailed story related to Karna death can be read in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Karna Parva, Section 90&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Karna Parva, Section 91&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna testing Karna at time of death is not mentioned in Mahabharata. Karna's last moment is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Karna Parva, Section 91&lt;/a&gt; as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile the diadem-decked and high-souled Arjuna, recovering his senses, took up a shaft, fatal as the rod of Death, and called anjalika. Then Vasudeva, addressing Partha, said, &quot;Cut off with thy arrow the head of this enemy of thine, viz., Vrisha, before he succeeds in getting upon his car.&quot; Applauding those words of the lord Vasudeva, and while the wheel of his enemy was still sunk, the mighty car-warrior Arjuna took up a razor-headed arrow of blazing effulgence and struck the standard (of Karna) bearing the elephant's rope and bright as the spotless sun. That standard bearing the device of the costly elephant's rope, was adorned with gold and pearls and gems and diamonds, and forged with care by foremost of artists excelling in knowledge, and possessed of great beauty, and variegated with pure gold. That standard always used to fill thy troops with high courage and the enemy with fear. Its form commanded applause. Celebrated over the whole world, it resembled the sun in splendour. Indeed, its effulgence was like that of fire or the sun or the moon. The diadem-decked Arjuna, with that razor-headed shaft, exceedingly sharp, equipped with wings of gold, possessed of the splendour of fire when fed with libations of clarified butter, and blazing with beauty, cut off that standard of Adhiratha's son, that great car-warrior. With that standard, as it fell, the fame, pride, hope of victory, and everything dear, as also the hearts of the Kurus, fell, and loud wails of &quot;Oh!&quot; and &quot;Alas!&quot; arose (from the Kuru army). Beholding that standard cut off and thrown down by that hero of Kuru's race possessed of great lightness of hand, thy troops, O Bharata, were no longer hopeful of Karna's victory. Hastening then for Karna's destruction, Partha took out from his quiver an excellent Anjalika weapon that resembled the thunder of Indra or the rod of fire and that was possessed of the effulgence of the thousand-rayed Sun. Capable of penetrating the very vitals, besmeared with blood and flesh, resembling fire or the sun, made of costly materials, destructive of men, steeds, and elephants, of straight course and fierce impetuosity, it measured three cubits and six feet. Endued with the force of the thousand-eyed Indra's thunder, irresistible as Rakshasas in the night, resembling Pinaka or Narayana's discus, it was exceedingly terrible and destructive of all living creatures. Partha cheerfully took up that great weapon, in the shape of an arrow, which could not be resisted by the very gods, that high-souled being which was always adored by the son of Pandu, and which was capable of vanquishing the very gods and the Asuras. Beholding that shaft grasped by Partha in that battle, the entire universe shook with its mobile and immobile creatures. Indeed, seeing that weapon raised (for being sped) in that dreadful battle, the Rishis loudly cried out, &quot;Peace be to the universe!&quot; The wielder of Gandiva then fixed on his bow that unrivalled arrow, uniting it with a high and mighty weapon. Drawing his bow Gandiva, he quickly said, &quot;Let this shaft of mine be like a mighty weapon capable of quickly destroying the body and heart of my enemy, if I have ever practised ascetic austerities, gratified my superiors, and listened to the counsels of well-wishers. Let this shaft, worshipped by me and possessed of great sharpness, slay my enemy Karna by that Truth.&quot; Having said these words Dhananjaya let off that terrible shaft for the destruction of Karna, that arrow fierce and efficacious as a rite prescribed in the Atharvan of Angiras, blazing with effulgence, and incapable of being endured by Death himself in battle. And the diadem-decked Partha, desirous of slaying Karna, with great cheerfulness, said, &quot;Let this shaft conduce to my victory. Shot by me, let this arrow possessed of the splendour of fire or the sun take Karna to the presence of Yama.&quot; Saying these words, Arjuna, decked with diadem and garlands, cherishing feelings of hostility towards Karna and desirous of slaying him, cheerfully struck his foe with that foremost of shafts which was possessed of the splendour of the sun or the moon and capable of bestowing victory. Thus sped by that mighty warrior, that shaft endued with the energy of the sun caused all the points of the compass to blaze up with light. With that weapon Arjuna struck off his enemy's head like Indra striking off the head of Vritra with his thunder. Indeed, O king, with that excellent Anjalika weapon inspired with mantras into a mighty weapon, the son of Indra cut off the head of Vaikartana in the afternoon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-04-22T03:49:34.140" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18006" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18014" CreationDate="2017-04-22T04:59:41.780" Score="8" ViewCount="3144" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma is considered to be one of the oldest religions. (Christianity came after Christ's birth more than 2000 years ago, and Islam came mostly after Paigambar).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What could be the reason that such an old religion's spread was limited to India, Nepal, Indonesia, Cambodia, and a few other countries? What was the reason that Hinduism did not grow or spread exponentially? At least it could have spread to other countries. But it didn't, so why not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8450" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-04-13T18:48:41.287" LastActivityDate="2023-04-13T18:48:41.287" Title="Why didn't Hinduism get propagated to the entire world?" Tags="|history|other-religions|conversion|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18008" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-22T06:36:25.957" Score="4" ViewCount="557" Body="&lt;p&gt;Among sanyasins we see difference in rules and regulation in sampradayas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in brahmacharya or grihastha we dont see much of difference. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason that different traditions have different sanyasa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;for example in Sri Vaishnava tradition they do not give up the sacred thread tuft but in Dashanami tradition most of them have to give up these. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the rules for these? Are there any texts which explicitly list out the rules to be followed by sanyasins ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the reason that different sects have different rules? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-24T05:41:57.837" LastActivityDate="2017-04-24T05:42:16.357" Title="Why there is a difference in rules and regulations of sanyasins?" Tags="|scripture|vedanta|sri-vaishnava|sannyasa|dashanami|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18009" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5378" CreationDate="2017-04-22T06:47:48.360" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Southern India Shiva is worshipped ,for ,he is the Pantomath.(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation, search. A pantomath is a person who wants to know and knows everything.) He knows all the four vedas. But in Northern India, he is known as Bhole Nath, which is he is not aware of the (in hindi- Saansarik vyavhar) cultural world. A story describes as-- he doesn't believe in &quot;my&quot;. What is my wife, my children, my house.&#xA;For him, &quot;my&quot; describes one as a selfish and doesn't care for anyone.&#xA;A evil &quot;Bhasmasur&quot; asked Shiva to grant him a boon, on anything he keeps hand will be destroyed. And, Shiva accepted.&#xA;He was then destroyed by Mohini, an avatar of Vishnu- Very beautiful (word derives from &quot;Moh&quot; meaning lust and desire).&#xA;He has neither beginning nor end&#xA;He is for everyone,&#xA;not just a single person&#xA;He is the garland as well as the beads in it&#xA;He is carefree and happy in his own life....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9577" LastEditorUserId="9577" LastEditDate="2017-05-06T11:56:57.960" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T11:56:57.960" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18010" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9556" CreationDate="2017-04-22T06:59:45.320" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this it is stated that Kalki can only be the one whose Birthday/Tithi falls on Dvadasi of Sukla Paksha. This amounts to just 12 days per any given year furthermore as it can only be the day of the Lord Sri Maha Vishnu (Chaitra Dwadashi) this amounts to just one day each year or 100 days in the last century.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indian astrologers have analysed Puranas extensively to try and foretell the time of birth of Kalki. The signs described in the Kalki Purana are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.The moon will be in Dhanishtha nakshatra, Aquarius, suggesting he will be wealthy, acclaimed and swift in action and thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.The sun will be in Swati, the nakshatra of the sword.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.Jupiter will be in Purva Ashadha nakshatra, Sagittarius.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4.The Ascendant Lord will be in Purva Ashadha nakshatra, also Sagittarius, suggesting invincibility and early victory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5.Saturn will be exalted in Libra, predicting a balance between justice and the sword.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6.Ketu, a five-headed snake god in navagraha, will be exalted in Scorpio, suggesting he will descend atop a great white steed.&#xA;The Puranas describe the date as twenty-one fortnights from the birth of Krishna, which itself falls on Janmashtami in August. This would put his descent at Vaishakha, between April and May. At this time, the father of Kalki is foretold to be overwhelmed by the incarnation of Godhead that he sees as his son. This places Kalki under the sun sign of Aries or Taurus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9577" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-04-22T09:06:16.283" LastActivityDate="2017-04-22T09:06:16.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18011" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18015" CreationDate="2017-04-22T07:13:29.387" Score="2" ViewCount="266" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is easy to understand why Lord  Vishnu, descended on Earth taking avatars. To finish evil. But why is it necessary for him to descend on earth? If he comes to earth to save us, that means he is the cause for destruction also. Because he will descend on earth upon his free will? Why can't he finish the earth peacefully? This would, by me, mean that he will descend on earth to prove his ego, his power. Tell me an answer to prove me wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9577" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-22T09:47:59.017" LastActivityDate="2017-04-22T15:02:42.793" Title="Kalki -- Birth or Destruction" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|avatars|kalki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18012" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="147" CreationDate="2017-04-22T11:02:15.243" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes there is a concept of Evil spirits in Hinduism , but  not  similar with the concept of  Satan of Abrahamic religions. Instead the evil spirits are grouped in classes like &lt;strong&gt;Bhoot (ghosts) , Pisachas( flesh-eating demons) Vetala  , Preta&lt;/strong&gt;  etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One thing to note that the concept or Demons or Rakshasas is different from evil spirits. Evil spirits do not posses a material body but Demons or Rakshasas do posses a body. So These beings, in a limited sense, can be called demons.. Rakshasa also can assume the form of evil spirits. (invisible form).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a sukta in A&lt;strong&gt;tharvaveda called “Pishacha kshayan sukta”  (पिशाच क्षयन सूक्त )&lt;/strong&gt; which requests Mother Goddess for protection  from   evil spirits or Pishacha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अविष्क्रुणुष्व रूपाणि मात्मानमप गूहथा: |&lt;br&gt; अथो सहस्त्रचक्षो त्वं&#xA;प्रति पश्या: किमीदिन ||५|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AvishKrnuShava Rupani MatMaNaMapa Guhatha &lt;br&gt; Atho SahastraChaksho&#xA;Tvam Prati Pashya KimiDin &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Mother goddess bring out your that form which removes demons and&#xA;evil spirits. Please do not hide yourself. O goddess with thousands of&#xA;eyes , &lt;strong&gt;to protect us from the Pishacha's who Roam  secretly ,look at&#xA;them.(evil spirits).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दर्शय मा यातुधानान् दर्शय यातुधान्य: |&lt;br&gt; पिशाचान्त्सर्वान दर्शयेति&#xA;त्वा रभ ओषधे ||६|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Darshaya Ma YatuDhaNaNaan Darshya YatuDhanyaha &lt;br&gt; PichachaNtasaRvaan&#xA;Darshayeti Tva Rabha Aushadhe &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O goddess ,Please show us the all the  demonic forms , thus they could&#xA;not harm us by remaining invisible. &lt;strong&gt;Show us the Yatudhani and all type&#xA;of Pishacha’s  to us.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Atharvaveda Book 1 , Kanda 4 ,Sukta 20  shloka 5-6 , Pishacha kshayan&#xA;sukta)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also  find mention of Evil spirits like Bhoot,Pishach ,Preta etc.in puranic literature. &lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana , Preta Khanda&lt;/strong&gt;  ,describes various demonic forms and evil spirits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भगवान उवाच-:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भूतप्रेतपिशाचैर्वा&lt;/strong&gt; स चेदन्यै: प्रपीडयते |&lt;br&gt; पितृद्देशेन वै&#xA;कुर्यान्नारायणबलिं तदा ||&lt;br&gt; विमुक्त: सर्व्वपीडाभ्य इति सत्यं वचो मम&#xA;||२४||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagvan Uvacha -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is never affected by &lt;strong&gt;Bhutas and Pisccas&lt;/strong&gt; or other sorts of ghosts.&#xA;By performing rites of oblations to Narayana with the ancestors in&#xA;view he shall be freed of all sort of affliction .This is my sworn.&#xA;statement.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/garud-puran/garuda-vol-1/chapter-01/topic-21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GP Preta kanda chapter 22 ,Verse 24&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman Chalisa  a  prayer to Lord Hanumana by poet saint Tulsidas also says that those who recite this stotra with devotion won’t get affected by evil spirits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a very popular belief that chanting the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hanumanchalisa.org/hanumanchalisa.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hanuman Chalisa&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; invokes Hanuman's divine intervention in grave problems, including those concerning evil spirits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भूत पिशाच निकट नहिं आवै।&lt;br&gt; महाबीर जब नाम सुनावै॥ २४ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhoot Pisach Nikat Nahi Aavai&lt;br&gt; Mahavir Jab Naam Sunavai &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the ghosts, demons and evil forces keep away, with the sheer&#xA;mention of your great name, O'Mahaveer!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-04-22T11:28:55.447" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18013" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18076" CreationDate="2017-04-22T12:43:12.027" Score="7" ViewCount="1535" Body="&lt;p&gt;Firstly would like to know the &lt;strong&gt;Deeper significance of a Marriage&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few enlightened souls tell no need to marry(adopt sanyasa ashram) to achieve God but few others do tell Gruhastha ashrama is the one of the best(Shreshta) way to achieve the divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could any one please share your thoughts on this and shed some light which is the path very near to the God and loved by him and listens to his devotees prayers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7753" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T05:30:00.563" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T05:30:00.563" Title="What is the significance of Marriage as per Sanatana dharma?" Tags="|gods|marriage|grihastha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18014" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18006" CreationDate="2017-04-22T13:58:22.813" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism does not have a start date.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In olden days, there was no religion called 'Hinduism', it was just Veda (vaidika) or Sanatana Dharma, and it was prevalent all over the world.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But only people in Bharata desh followed it strictly. Other tribes who followed it a little bit or not at all were the Mlecchas, Yavanas (Greeks), Turushkas (Turks) etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In past few hundred years, Western explorers called people who live across Sindh river (now in Pakistan) as Sindhus, which over time became Hindus. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's look at the 2 core concepts in the 2 most prevalent religions today - Surrender in Christianity and Namaz in Islam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Surrender is equivalent to Sharanagathi in Hinduism. Even etymologically, it sounds the same.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Namaz is equivalent to Namaste in Hinduism. Again etymologically, the word was derived from it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look at ancient texts in any religion, they have words and concepts which ultimately derive from Sanskrit/Vedas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g. The word 'Brahma' is related to word 'Abraham' and Judaism/Islam/Christianity are all Abrahamic religions.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When some Christians say the earth is 6000 years old, they probably unknowingly refer to the fact that the present Yuga - Kali Yuga, started around 5000 years back. Their story of Noah's ark is the same as Manu's during great flood of Matsya avatara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are Hindu temples in Burma &amp;amp; Indonesia.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Kandahar in Afghanistan was the Gandhara desh in Mahabharata where Gandhari &amp;amp; Sakuni came from.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Kazhakistan was probably Kaikeya desham because in Ramayana, Bharata's wife was from Russia.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;California in USA was probably originally called 'Kapilaranyam' - which was Kapila muni's ashram which Sagara kumaras found when searching for the sacrificial horse. The path they dug is now covered with water, hence it's called Sagar (or sea).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more examples to show Sanatana Dharma was prevalent all over the world. Over time, in Kali Yuga, religion deteriorates, so new religions have to pop up to cater to the needs and characteristics of those who are unable/unwilling to follow tenets of Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ANSWER - Hinduism/Sanatana Dharma used to be prevalent all over world once. It is not prevalent nowadays, because people's minds have deteriorated and they're unable to follow its rules, while other religions have lesser/easier rules.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part2/chap2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part2/chap2.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2018-11-14T09:39:55.630" LastActivityDate="2018-11-14T09:39:55.630" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18015" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18011" CreationDate="2017-04-22T15:02:42.793" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavan Krishna answers this question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम्‌ ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To protect Sadhus, and to destroy evil-doers, to well-establish dharma, I appear from time to time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, he descends out of his free-will to destroy bad people. Yes, he can destroy them just by his sankalpam sitting high up in vaikuntam, and there is no need for him to descend.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if you notice what he said, killing demons is not his first priority, his first priority is to protect sadhus.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And sadhus are always yearning to see him, meet him, talk to him and play with him. Making them happy is his main goal, and that can be done only if he descends. He doesn't come down for his ego or show off his power, he comes down because his Bhaktas are longing to see him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While he is here, he also destroys demons and these acts are also enjoyed by sadhus. So Krishna is hitting two mangoes with one stone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - Gita upanyasam by Velukkudi &amp;amp; Krishna Premi. Simply reading bare scripture is not enough to understand true purport of author. Otherwise there is no need for Bhashyams (explanations) by various gurus. If this source is not accepted on this site, answer can be deleted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-04-22T15:02:42.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18016" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17987" CreationDate="2017-04-22T15:42:20.100" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the answer in &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sXm5Q.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Adinatha's Khechari Vidya, an early Hatha Yoga text dated to the 15th century:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[The yogin] should use equal amounts of the pollen of nirgundi, amala and&#xA;  mundi, anointed with sugar, ghee and honey; after a year he destroys grey hair and wrinkles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirgundi is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitex_negundo&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chinese chastetree&lt;/a&gt;, Amala is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllanthus_emblica&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indian gooseberry&lt;/a&gt;, and Mundi is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphaeranthus_indicus&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sphaeranthus indicus&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other answers are welcome, as I'd ideally want references from an older scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-22T15:51:33.807" LastActivityDate="2017-04-22T15:51:33.807" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18017" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-22T15:49:17.310" Score="1" ViewCount="87" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't have much details but have a straight question about the celibacy of hanuman. Is there any specific reason that hanuman is brahmachari other than that he is true devotee of lord ram and don't want any distraction from serving the lord ram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7376" LastActivityDate="2017-04-22T15:49:17.310" Title="What is the reason behind hanuman's brahmacharya?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|brahmacharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-04-23T05:24:50.780" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18018" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12313" CreationDate="2017-04-22T17:17:41.893" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Indra had other weapons besides Vajra which was made from the rib cage of Sage Dadhichi. One of them is a bow named Vijaya. This is the bow used by Karna in the Kurukshetra. The first owner of this bow was Indra. Karna explains the history of this celestial bow to Duryodhana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is an &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08031.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Karna Parva section 31.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My bow, called Vijaya, is the foremost of all weapons (of its kind). Desirous of doing what was agreeable (to Indra), &lt;strong&gt;it was made by Vishakarman (the celestial artificer) for Indra. With that bow, O king, Indra had vanquished the Daityas.&lt;/strong&gt; At its twang the Daityas beheld the ten points to be empty. That bow, respected by all, Sakra gave to Bhrigu's son (Rama). That celestial and foremost of bows Bhrigu's son gave to me. With that bow I will contend in battle with the mighty-armed Arjuna, that foremost of victorious warriors, like Indra fighting with the assembled Daityas. That formidable bow, the gift of Rama, is superior to Gandiva. It was with that bow that the Earth was subjugated thrice seven times (by Bhrigu's son).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is possible that there are many bows made for Indra by Vishvakarma besides this bow Vijaya. In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08082.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;section 82&lt;/a&gt; of Karna Parva it is mentioned as below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shooting his shafts with that &lt;strong&gt;large and extended bow of his that resembled the bow of Sakra himself&lt;/strong&gt;, the son of Adhiratha looked resplendent like the sun, with his multitude of blazing rays, within his corona.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we can assume that there are many other bows owned by Indra which resemble the Vijaya bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra also has an excellent golden chariot. Indra sends this chariot for Rama to fight Ravana in the battle field.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रथेन मम भूमिष्ठं शीघ्रं याहि रघूत्तमम् || ६-१०२-७&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आयूय भूतलं यातः कुरु देवहितं महत् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rathena mama bhūmiṣṭhaṃ śīghraṃ yāhi raghūttamam || 6-102-7&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  āyūya bhūtalaṃ yātaḥ kuru devahitaṃ mahat |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Go quickly with my chariot to Rama, who is standing on the earth. After reaching the earth, invite him to take his seat in the chariot and carry out a great service to the gods.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga102/yuddha_102_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the description of the same chariot: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then came the glorious and excellent chariot of Indra, having variegated body decked in gold, which was fitted with hundreds of tiny bells, with its pole of cat's eye gems shone like the morning sun, yoked to excellent green horses, having golden chaplets on their heads, having white whisks, covered with nets of gold, shining like the sun and bearing a flag-staff raised on a golden bamboo. Ascending the chariot, as enjoined by Indra and descending from paradise, Matali approached Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra has a noose which is mentioned in the Rig  Veda and the Atharvana Veda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Rig Veda Mandala 7 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07104.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hymn 104&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13 Never doth Soma aid and guide the wicked or him who falsely claims the Warrior's title. He slays the fiend and him who speaks untruly: both lie entangled in the &lt;strong&gt;noose of Indra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Atharvana Veda Kanda 8 Sukta 4 mantra 24 which is a prayer against enemies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;24 Whatever, etc. Let him not be freed from the &lt;strong&gt;noose of Indra&lt;/strong&gt;-&#xA;    Agni, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also wields a net named indrajāla with which he has slain millions of dasyus.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is mentioned several times in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av08008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atharvana Veda Kanda 8, Sukta 8&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 Great is thy net, brave Indra, thine the mighty match for a&#xA;     thousand, Lord of Hundred Powers!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    Holding them, with his host, therewith hath Indra slaughtered&#xA;    Dasyus a hundred, thousand, myriad, hundred millions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8 This world so mighty was the net of Sakra, of the Mighty One:&#xA;    With this, the net of Indra, I envelop all those men with gloom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-09T07:12:39.783" LastActivityDate="2017-12-09T07:12:39.783" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18019" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-22T17:40:02.803" Score="5" ViewCount="1474" Body="&lt;p&gt;Surya-Shani: Shani was not obedient to His father Surya, moreover Shani was son of Chaayaa, so Surya Deva did not like Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rahu,Ketu-Surya,Chandra: Surya and Shashi told Narayan that the demon is drinking Amrta, so when Rahu, Ketu took incarnation, they disliked Surya,Chandra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru-Shukra: Both were in childhood the disciples of same Guru Angirasa Rishi. But Angirasa Rishi showed bias and more fondness to his own son Brihaspati. So Shukra did not like Guru. Moreover there are several more accounts of Guru-Shukra enmity in various Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Budha-Chandra: Here only Budha see Chandra as enemy whereas Chandra is friend of Budha. Budha dislikes his father Chandra because - Chandra abducted Tara,wife of Guru, and by their union Budha was born. Budha knowing this illegitimate reason of his birth does not like Chandra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;•&#xA;•&#xA;•&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the reasons of other enmity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Between, Shani-Mangala,&#xA;Guru-Budha,&#xA;Chandra-Shani,&#xA;Shukra-Chandra,&#xA;Surya-Shukra&#xA;And others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please correct me where I am wrong, but please tell me reasons also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-04-22T17:40:02.803" Title="Reasons of enmity between planets?" Tags="|scripture|gods|astrology|navagraha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18020" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16349" CreationDate="2017-04-23T03:50:24.887" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, Hindu scripture does not discuss whether buying or renting a house is superior.&lt;/strong&gt;  But it does recognize both of those as legitimate activities.  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe33/sbe3367.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihaspati Smriti about acquiring immovable property:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Immovable property may be acquired in seven different ways, viz. by learning, &lt;strong&gt;by purchase&lt;/strong&gt;, by mortgaging, by valour, with a wife (as her dowry), by inheritance (from an ancestor), and by succession to the property of a kinsman who has no issue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe33/sbe3338.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Narada Smriti says about renting:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a man has built a house on the ground of a stranger and lives in it, paying rent for it, he may take with him, when he leaves the house, the thatch, the timber, the bricks, and other (building materials). * But if he has been residing on the ground of a stranger, without paying rent and against that man's wish, he shall by no means take with him, on leaving it, the thatch and the timber.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which sounds strange to me, but I suppose houses were more primitive then.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But concerning &quot;Does Hindu scripture discuss whether the house one buys should be a new one or an old construction?&quot;, here is what the sage Bodhya tells Yayati in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I conduct myself according to the instructions of others but never instruct others myself. I shall, however, mention the indications of those instructions (according to which my conduct is framed). Thou mayst catch their spirit by reflection. My six preceptors are Pingala, the osprey, the snake, the bee in the forest, the maker of shafts (in the story), and the maiden (in the story)! ... Hope is very powerful (in agitating the heart), O King! Freedom from hope is high felicity. Reducing hope to an absence of expectation, Pingala sleeps in peace. Beholding an osprey with meat in his beaks, others, that have not found any meat, assail and destroy him. A certain osprey, by altogether abstaining from meat obtained felicity. &lt;strong&gt;To build a house for one's own self is productive of sorrow and not of happiness.&lt;/strong&gt; The snake, taking up his residence in another creature's abode, lives in felicity. The ascetics live happily, betaking themselves to mendicancy, without being injured by any creature, like bees in the forest. A certain maker of shafts, while employed at his work, was so deeply attentive to it that he did not notice the king who passed by his side. When many are together, dispute ensues. Even when two reside together, they are sure to converse. I, however, wander alone like the anklet made of sea-shells in the wrist of the maiden in the story.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;On a &lt;strong&gt;side note&lt;/strong&gt;, this list of Gurus overlaps with the the list of Dattatreya's gurus whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6772/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  That list was narrated by Dattatreya to the king Yadu, whereas this list was narrated by Bodhya to Yadu's father Yayati.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-04-23T11:23:43.087" LastActivityDate="2017-04-23T11:23:43.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18021" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18297" CreationDate="2017-04-23T05:13:03.667" Score="2" ViewCount="484" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adinatha's Khechari Vidya is an early Hatha Yoga text dated to the 15th century.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fNGzq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Khechari Vidya describes various Siddhis or magical powers that can be obtained by a Yogic practice involving the tongue:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The best adept quickly attains absolutely all magical powers that are found in the three worlds, such as magical sandals, the magical sword, power over zombies, magical elixirs, &lt;strong&gt;realgar&lt;/strong&gt;, invisibility, access to the treasures of the subterranean realms, and power over male and female genies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the magic achieved through realgar, which is another word for &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realgar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;red arsenic&lt;/a&gt;.  Here is what the translator says in a footnote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Realgar (manahsila) is red arsenic, an ingredient in elixirs[.]... [A] Budhhist Kriyatantra, the Amoghapashakalparaja, describes how manahsila, when applied to the eyes, can make the wearer invisible and able to move in the ether[.]... Cf. Kamasutra 7.2.46, in which it is said that if one coats one's hand with the faeces of a peacock that has eaten haritala and/or manahsila and touches something, it becomes invisible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, I wasn't able to track down that statement in the Kama Sutra, although for obvious reasons I didn't look very thoroughly.  But my question is, what scriptures describe using red arsenic to make yourself or other objects invisible?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Buddhist texts like the Amoghapashakalparaja may discuss it, but I want to know what Hindu scripture has to say on the subject.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-17T16:31:32.387" LastActivityDate="2017-05-17T16:31:32.387" Title="What scriptures describe using Red Arsenic for invisibility?" Tags="|practice|yoga|siddhi|plants|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18022" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18027" CreationDate="2017-04-23T05:33:31.570" Score="4" ViewCount="261" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part5/chap31.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kamakoti.org&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Brahmasutra, on which there are commentaries according to the&#xA;  various philosophical schools, Vyasa presents in an extremely terse&#xA;  form the substance of the ten (principal) Upanisads. Since he dwelt&#xA;  under the badari tree (jujube) he came to be called &quot;Badarayana&quot; and&#xA;  his work became well-known as &quot;Badarayana-sutra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, by Hindu scriptures we mean the Vedas, Vedangas (Kalpa, Jyotisha etc), UpaVedas (Ayurveda, Stapathyaveda etc), Smritis, Upasmritis, Puranas, Upapuranas, Itihasas, Agamas, Tantras, Yamalas, Damaras and the Darsanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, the Brahma Sutras don't fit in precisely in any of the above groups. It closely resembles  the Darsanas though, but it is not a Darsana either since we know that they are only 6 in number.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q1- Then technically what kind of Hindu scripture it is?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q2- Can we ascertain the time period of these sutras? (I don't think they are  very ancient).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q3- Do any other Hindu scripture ever mention about these sutras by Vyasa Muni?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-26T03:47:39.597" LastActivityDate="2017-04-26T03:47:39.597" Title="What kind of scripture is Vyasa's BrahmaSutras technically?" Tags="|scripture|upanishads|brahma-sutras|vyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18023" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-23T05:51:20.643" Score="6" ViewCount="439" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srisailam is one of the most ancient kshetras in our country. There are legends associated with this sacred place. Srisailam is one of only three kshetras which is a jyotirlinga Kshetra and also a Shakti peetha. The other two are Kashi and Ujjain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SriSailam is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas. The jyotirlinga at this place is called Mallikarjuna jyotirlinga. This is also one of the 18 shakti peethas. The neck part of Sati Devi fell in this place. The deity form of goddess is Bhramaramba. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides this information, I have read in a magazine that this place is also one of daśa bhāskara kṣetras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other Bhāskara kṣetrās I found are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sparthasarathy.com/vaishnava/ddesam/012.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thirukkudanthai - Sri Sarangapani Perumal Temple, Kumbakonam&lt;/a&gt;. This is also one of the 108 divya desams. Divya desams are sacred places for Sri Vaishnavas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tirumala.org/TemplesAtTiruchanoor.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Surya Narayana temple&lt;/a&gt; near &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tirumala.org/PatAtThiruchanoorTempleLegend.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tiruchanoor Padmavati temple&lt;/a&gt; located in the state of Andhra Pradesh.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I want to know what is a Bhāskara kṣetram? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;what are the other Bhāskara kṣetrās? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any mention of any of these  kṣetrās in any puraṇa like that of Jyotirlingās and other sacred places?    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-04-23T05:51:20.643" Title="What are the &quot;Daśa bhāskara kṣetrās&quot;?" Tags="|puranas|temple|surya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18024" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18026" CreationDate="2017-04-23T07:37:44.887" Score="7" ViewCount="24328" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, there is importance of taking bath before doing rituals, and an important part of ritual purification in Hinduism is the bathing of the entire body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is considered auspicious to perform this form of purification before any festival, before visiting a temple or performing a worship. One not only purifies one's body but also the mind during taking a bath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is one famous shloka that I am aware of, typically used while taking a bath&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गङ्गेच यमुने चैव गोदावरी सरस्वति । नर्मदा सिन्धु कावेरी जलेऽस्मिन्&#xA;  संनिधिं कुरु ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: In this water, I invoke the presence of divine waters from the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri. These rivers are considered as goddesses and I pray to them for considering me for their blessings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other similar shloka/mantra recommended in Hindu scriptures which one can chant when taking a bath?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-23T07:58:18.583" LastActivityDate="2017-12-09T03:35:19.387" Title="Which mantra or shloka to be chanted while taking a bath?" Tags="|scripture|practice|mantras|prayer|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18026" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18024" CreationDate="2017-04-23T08:19:08.373" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is stotram comprised of 12 names of Ganga Devi. It is said that whoever recites this stotram (before taking bath) in front of any water body Gangaji immediately obliges and comes into that water body making that water most pure by her grace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/F96Q8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/F96Q8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Transliteration(ITRANS)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nandinI naLinI sItA mAlatI cha mahApagA &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  viShNupAdAbjasaMbhUtA ga~NgA tripathagAminI &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  bhAgIrathI bhogavatI jAhnavI tridasheshvarI &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;dvAdashaitAni nAmAni yatra yatra jalAshaye&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  snAnodyataH smarennityaM tatra tatra vasAmyahaM&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verses in bold means that Ganga Devi once said  that if anyone who is gong to bath utter these 12  of her names then she will grace the water body by her presence. So, by means of this sloka anyone can effectively bath in Ganges.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Needless to say, one who is bathing naked should not chant this sloka.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, according to Scriptures there are 5 kinds of bathing. Not all of them require water bath. One of them is called Mantra Snana or Brahma Snana. Here purification is accomplished by means of chanting mantras only. If you are looking for these info then I will update this answer with them later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Source of the stotram is the Gita Press Book called &lt;strong&gt;Nitya Karma Puja Prakash (check around page 45 where it is describing how to bath properly).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-23T17:16:26.450" LastActivityDate="2017-04-23T17:16:26.450" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18027" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18022" CreationDate="2017-04-23T08:38:31.603" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; are one of the three basic texts (&lt;em&gt;prasthanatrayi&lt;/em&gt;) of Vedanta (modern day Hinduism), the other two being the &lt;em&gt;Upanishads&lt;/em&gt; (original texts, &lt;em&gt;mula-prasthanatrayi&lt;/em&gt;) and the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/em&gt;. The &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; are a short summary in terse aphorisms of the philosophy of the Upanishads.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his &lt;em&gt;Introduction&lt;/em&gt; to his translation of the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras with Sankaracharya's Commentary&lt;/em&gt; (available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62756.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62756.html&lt;/a&gt;), Swami Vireswarananda writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The destructive criticism of everything in the old system by the Chârvâkas and others set the orthodox section to organize their belief on a more rationalistic basis and render it immune against all such criticism. This led to the foundation of the six systems of orthodox Hindu philosophy—orthodox[1] in the sense that they accepted the authority of the Vedas in things transcendental—while there were others who did not accept this authority and therefore were dubbed heterodox, though otherwise they too were the outcome of Upanishadic thought. The acceptance of the authority of the Vedas by these orthodox schools, however, does not mean that they accepted them in toto . Their allegiance to the Vedas varied widely and often it was too loose. Of the six orthodox schools, viz. Nyâya, Vaiseshika, Sânkhya, Yoga, Purva Mimâmsâ and Uttara Mimâmsâ or Vedanta, the last two are intimately connected with the Vedas, which is one of the reasons why they are not mentioned in the Jaina and Buddhistic literature, while the others are mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These six orthodox systems of thought developed side by side at different intellectual centres, of which there were a good number all over the country even during the Upanishadic period. Again in each system there were shades of difference. Thus for centuries philosophic thought developed in India till at last it became so unwieldy that a regular systematization of each school of thought was found a great necessity. This led to the Sutra literature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Sutras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These systematic treatises were written in short aphorisms called Sutras, meaning clues, and were intended as memory-aids to long discussions on any topic which the student had gone through with his teacher or Guru. The thought was very much condensed, for much was taken for granted. Consequently the maximum of thought was compressed into these Sutras in as few words as possible. Madhwâ-chârya quotes from Padma Purâna a definition of the Sutra in his commentary on the Brahma-Sutras which runs as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अल्पाक्षरमसंदिग्धं सारवद्विश्वतोमुखम् ।&#xA;     अस्तोभमनवद्यं च सूत्रं सूत्रविदो विदुः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;alpâkṣaramasaṃdigdhaṃ sâravadviśvatomukham |&#xA;     astobhamanavadyaṃ ca sūtraṃ sūtravido viduḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“People learned in Sutra literature say that a Sutra should be concise and unambiguous, give the essence of the arguments on a topic but at the same time deal with all aspects of the question, be free from repetition and faultless.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though this definition states what a Sutra ought to be, in practice, however, the desire for brevity was carried to such extremes that most part of the Sutra literature is now unintelligible, and this is particularly so with respect to the Vedânta-Sutras which has consequently given rise to divergent systems.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was Sutra literature in every branch of Indo-Aryan knowledge which had become cumbrous through centuries and required systematization. The authors of these Sutras, as we see, are not the founders of the thought or systems they propounded, but are mere systematizers of the thought developed on the subject by successive generations of thinkers for centuries. The thought of these Sutras was much developed by later thinker and even modified by them, though all of them disclaimed any originality in it, declaring that they were merely interpreting the Sutras. This was specially the case with respect to the philosophical Sutras. All these subsequent thinkers belonged lo one or other of the six systems and developed its traditionary thought from generation to generation, rendering it more and more perfect, and more and more secure against the ever new criticisms of rival schools. Such interpretations of the Sutras gave rise to various kinds of literary writings like Vâkvas, Vrittis, Kârikâs and Bhâshyas, each of them being more and more elaborate than the previous ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Brahma-Sutras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Upanishads do not contain any ready-made consistent system of thought. At first sight they seem to be full of contradictions. Hence arose the necessity of systematizing the thought of the Upanishads. Bâdârayana, to whom the authorship of the Brahma-Sutras or Vedânta-Sutras is ascribed, is not the only one who had tried to systematize the philosophy of the Upanishads. From the Brahma-Sutras itself we find that there were other schools of Vedânta which had their own following. We find the names of Audulomi, Kâsakristna, Bâdari, Jaimini, Kârshnâjini, Âsmarathya and others mentioned. All this shows that Bâdarâyana’s Sutras do not constitute the only systematic work in the Vedânta school, though probably the last and best. All the sects of India now hold this work to be the great authority and every new sect starts with a fresh commentary on it —without which no sect can be founded in this country.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Author and Date of the Sutras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;About Bâdârayana, the author of the Sutras, very little is known to-day. Tradition, however, identifies him with Vyâsa, the author of the Gita and the Mahâbhârata. Sankara, however, in his commentaries refers to Vyâsa as the author of the Mahâbhârata, and the author of the Sutras he refers to as Bâdarâyana. Perhaps to him these two personalities were different. His followers, Vâchaspati, Ânandagiri and others identify Vyâsa and Bâdarâyana, while Râmânuja and other commentators on the Sutras attribute it to Vyâsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Deussen infers from the cross references in the works of Jaimini and Bâdarâyana that they may have been combined by a later editor into one work, and provided with the cross references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This combined work, he says, was commented upon by Upavarsha op whose work the commentaries of Sahara on the Purva Mimâmsâ and Sankara on the Uttara Mimâmsâ rest. Sankara’s commentary on 3.3.53 gives support to this last view and it also explains the popular idea that the two Mimâmsâs form one Sâstra. This combined work might well have been arranged by Vyâsa, the author of the Mahâbhârata. Or it may be that he had written them himself according to the views that were traditionally handed down as Bâdarâyana’s. This latter view easily accounts for the reference to Bâdarâyana by name in the Sutras. That such a thing was not uncommon in ancient India is established by Cole-brook 011 the authority of Indian commentators of Manu and Yâjnavalkya.[2] Max Müller also says that Bâdarâyana and other similar names are simply eponymous heroes of different philosophies.[2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In support of the view that the two persons are one it can be pointed out that there existed in the time of Panini Sutras known as Bhikshu-Sutras which are identified by Vâchaspati with the Vedânta-Sutras. The subject-matter of the Vedânta-Sutras being Brahman, the knowledge of which is pre-eminently meant for Sannyâsins, it might well be called Bhikshu-Sutras. Pânini in his Sutras ascribes these Bhikshu-Sutras to Pârâsarya, the son of Parâsara, i.e. Veda-Vyâsa, who was also called Bâdarâyana as he had his Âshrama at Badari in the Himalayas. That the Vedânta-Sutras and Purva Mimâmsâ-Sutras must have existed before Pânini can also be inferred from the commentary on both of them by Upavarslia who is said to be the Guru of Pânini in the Kathâ-saïit-sâgar, though we must admit it cannot be conclusively proved that the two Upavarshas are one and the same person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The identity of the Vedânta-Sutras and the Bhikshu-Sutras would no doubt fix the date of the Sutras very early, before Buddha, and a question may arise how such an early work could have referred to various other schools of philosophy of a much later date and refuted them. In this connection we must not forget that the author of the Sutras does not refer to any founder of the different schools by name. He even does not use the technical terms of the different schools as they are known to us to-day. During that great philosophical ferment which followed at the close of the Upanishadic period various metaphysical views were held which later developed in definite channels. Therefore the fact that Bâdarâyana is acquainted with certain systems of thought which later came to be associated with certain names does not show that Bâdarâyana was later than these persons. These later names were by no means the original founders of these systems of thought, but only gave definite shape to some particular thought that was found in that mass of philosophical speculations which existed in that period. Bâdarâyana could anticipate even the Buddhistic and Jaina schools, for Buddha and Mahâvira also were not the founders of any altogether new schools of philosophy but imbibed much of the thought current in the country at the time. There was no revolutionary departure in their philosophy, but it was their great personality that shaped the history of India for centuries. As regards Jaina thought we know definitely that it existed from even before the time of Parswanâth (8th or 9th century B. C.). In fact all these systems must have belonged to the same period of philosophical ferment which preceded the rise of Buddhism. Thus a writer of the Vedânta-Sutras before Buddha may well be acquainted with the different schools of philosophy refuted in the Tarkapâda of that book, though they might not have existed in the form in which we know them to-day or in the form in which they have been refuted by Sankara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Moreover, that the Vedânta-Sutras were known to exist before Buddha can also be made out from the Gitâ. The date of the Gitâ and the original Mahâbhârata, of which the Gitâ is a part, can be fixed before the time of Buddha. Both of them are pre-Buddhistic, for they contain no reference to Buddha and Buddhism. Quotations from both are found in Bodhayana who belongs to 400 B.C. The language of the Gitâ also seems to belong to a period before Pânini. He is also conversant with the epic characters. So we can well say that the Gitâ and the Mahâbhârata were known before Buddha. Now we find a clear reference to the Brahma-Sutras, in Gitâ 13.4), where the word ‘Brahma-Sutra-padaih’ occurs. This is a definite reference to the Vedanta-Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The full text runs as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“This has been sung by the Rishis in various ways and in different metres and definitely and logically by the words of the Brahma-Sutras.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tilak argues in his Gitâ-Rahasya that the first half refers to teachings which arc disconnected and unsystematic and therefore refers to the Upanishads, while the later half to something definite and logical—a difference that is clearly brought out by this stanza and therefore refers to the systematized thought in the Vedânta-Sutras. Max Müller too is of opinion that the Vedânta-Sutras belong to an earlier period than the Gitâ[3] and in the text just quoted he finds a clear reference to the recognized title of the Vedânta or Brahma-Sutras.[4] Indian commentators on the Gitâ like Râmânuja, Madhwa and others identify the Vedânta-Sutras in this passage of the Gitâ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But if the Vedânta-Sutras be of an earlier date than the Gitâ, how could it contain references to the Gitâ? In Sutras 2. 3. 45 and 4. 2. 21 all the commentators quote the same text of the Gitâ, and there seems to be no doubt that they are right. These cross references show that the author of the Gitâ had a hand in the present recension of the Sutras. This is also made clear by the rejection of the fourfold Vyuha of the Bhâgavatas both by the Gitâ and the Sutras and the great predominance given to the Sânkhya school in both. The Gitâ accepts the Sânkhya view of creation but modifies it to some extent and makes the Pradhâna subservient to the Supreme Brahman which is non-dual. In the Vedânta-Sutras also the author refutes the dualism of the Sânkhyas. Otherwise he has no objection to accepting the Pradhâna or Prakriti as a principle dependant on the Supreme Lord (vide 1. 4. 2-3). Sankara in his Bhâshya on these Sutras makes this quite clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From what has been said above we find that there are strong grounds for believing that the Vedânta-Sutras must have existed before Buddha and that if Bâdarâyana and Veda-Vyâsa are not one and the same person as tradition holds, the latter must have had a hand in the present recension of the Sutras, though it is very difficult to say to what extent— whether it was by way of merely revising the original Sutras of Bâdarâyana or writing them down in toto after the teachings of Bâdarâyana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Commentators on the Brahma-sutras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It has already been shown that the Brahma-Sutras of Bâdarâyana somehow gained prominence and popularity and as a result all the great Âchâryas have written commentaries on it. The oldest of the extant commentaries is by Sankara, the exponent of Monism. A Vritti by Upavarsha is mentioned by Sankara and Bhâskara and a Vritti by Bodhâyana is referred to and often quoted by Râmânuja in his Sri Bhâshya. Sankara does not refer to Bodhâyana. According to Vedânta Desika the two are one person. Unfortunately this work of Bodhâyana is not available now. Ramânuja quotes also from the Dramida Bhâshya which evidently belongs to the Bhakti cult of Southern India. Sankara was followed by a host of commentators on these Sutras—Yâdava Prakâsha, Bhâskara, Vijnâna Bikshu, Ramânuja, Nilakantha, Sripati, Nimbârka, Madhwa, Vallabha and Baladeva There are even some recent commentaries, though of not much value. All these try to maintain that their system is the one that Bâdarâyana propounded through his Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At present, however, only five of these great commentators have a large following—Sankara, the exponent of Monism; Râmânuja, the exponent of Visishtâdvaita or qualified Monism; Nimbârka, the exponent of Bhedâbhedavâda or the theory of difference and non-difference; Madhwa, the exponent of Dualism; and Vallabha, the exponent of Suddhâd-vaitavâda. All of these systems seem to be based on the views of one or other of the ancient Vedânta schools which we find Bâdarâyana referring to in his Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A question may be raised how the same work could have given rise to so many conflicting schools of thought. The reasons are many. In the first place the brevity of the Sutras leaves much to be supplied by the commentators, and in the absence of an universally accepted unbroken tradition each is free to do this according to his own preconceived ideas. Sometimes even without supplying anything the same Sutra is capable of being interpreted differently and even conveying quite the opposite meaning (e.g. Sankara and Ramânuja on 3. 2. II) by the mere shifting of the stops. Again, while there is a tradition which is accepted more or less by all as regards the arrangement into chapters and sections, there is no such accepted tradition as regards the division into Adhikaranas (topics), nor is there anything authoritative to guide us as to which Sutras form the Purvapaksha or the prima facie view and which give the Siddhânta or the author’s view. So every one is free to divide the Sutras into topics according to his own choice and regard any Sutras as giving the author’s view. Then again, the Sutras do not give any reference as to which texts of the scriptures are being discussed and as a result the commentator is free to select any texts from that vast repertory, so much so that it often happens that different commentators see different topics discussed in the same set of Sutras. Added to all this is the difficulty that Bâdarâyana is often silent as regards his own decision and that on fundamental questions. He merely gives the views of different Vedântins and ends the topic (vide 1. 4. 20-22).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The five great commentators more or less agree on certain points, especially where the author attacks the principles of the non-Vedântic schools. All of them agree that Brahman is the cause of this world and that knowledge of It leads to final emancipation which is the goal to be attained; also that Brahman can be known only through the scriptures and not through mere reasoning. But they differ amongst themselves as to the nature of this Brahman, Its causality with respect to this world, the relation of the individual soul to It and the condition of the soul in the state of release.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-04-23T08:38:31.603" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18028" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-23T09:39:06.177" Score="8" ViewCount="207" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana Kailasha Samhita chapter 13 (13.29-30) states;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मायां तु प्रकृतिं विद्यादिति माया श्रुतीरिता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तज्जान्येतानि तत्त्वानि श्रुत्युक्तानि न संशय ।।29&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;It has been propounded in the Vedas that Maya is same as Prakirti.&lt;/strong&gt; The principles as mentioned in Srutis are born of that.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;कालस्वभावो नियतिरिति च श्रुतिरब्रवित्&lt;/strong&gt;।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एतत्पञ्चकमेवास्य पञ्चकञ्चक्रमुच्यते ।।30&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Vedas also declare that the destiny is the nature of Kãla (Time).&lt;/strong&gt; This set of five is called wheel of five.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first quote mentioned there can be found in the Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.10 which states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मायां तु प्रकृतिं विद्यान्मायिनं च महेश्वरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्यवयवभूतैस्तु व्याप्तं सर्वमिदं जगत् ॥ १०॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Know, then, that Prakriti is Maya&lt;/strong&gt; and Maheswara is the Lord of maya. The whole universe is filled with objects which are parts of His being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But from where is the second quote from?&#xA;ie. &lt;strong&gt;Where do Vedas mention as destiny is the nature of Time?&lt;/strong&gt; ie. From where is the Shiva Purana quoting that quote of &amp;apos;kãlaswabhãvo niyati&amp;apos; ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-04-23T09:39:06.177" Title="Where do Vedas state that Destiny is the nature of Time?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|shiva-purana|time|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18029" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18008" CreationDate="2017-04-23T09:53:24.563" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am only providing an answer of your below  question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are the rules for these? Are there any texts which explicitly list out the rules to be followed by sanyasins ?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are various Sanyasi Upanishads which talk about rules and regulations about sanyasi life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avadhutaka_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Avadhutaka Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabala_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jabala Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turiyatitavadhuta_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Turiyatitavadhuta Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabrahma_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parabrahma Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also &lt;strong&gt;Bhiksukopanisad&lt;/strong&gt; which deals with the subject.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is   excerpt from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedarahasya.net/jabala.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jabala Upanishad.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VI-1&lt;/strong&gt;. There are sages called Paramahamsas (as in the days of yore, the&#xA;  sages) Samvartaka, Aruni, Svetaketu, Durvasas, Ribhu, Nidagha,&#xA;  Jadabharata, Dattatreya, Raivataka and others, wearing no&#xA;  distinguishing marks, with conduct beyond the ken (of worldly people)&#xA;  and who behaved as though bereft of their senses though (perfectly)&#xA;  sane.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Discarding all these, namely the threefold staff (of bamboo), the&#xA;  water pot, the sling (to carry personal effects), the (alms-)bowl, the&#xA;  cloth for purifying water (tied to the staff), tuft of hair and sacred&#xA;  thread in water (i.e. a reservoir) by reciting Bhuh Svaha, the&#xA;  Paramahamsa shall seek the Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;V-3&lt;/strong&gt;. Then (in the case of those entitled to renunciation) the&#xA;  mendicant monk wearing (ochre) coloured garment, with shaven head,&#xA;  accepting nothing (excepting food for bare sustenance), being pure,&#xA;  injuring none (in thought, word and deed), (austerity) living on alms,&#xA;  becomes fit for realizing Brahman. If sorely afflicted (by disease,&#xA;  etc.,) he may renounce the world by mental resolve, or by spoken words&#xA;  uttering mantras. This way (of renunciation) has been prescribed by&#xA;  Brahma (the creator, in the Vedanta); the ascetic (the Sannyasin who&#xA;  has renounced the world) following this path realizes Brahman. Thus&#xA;  indeed it is, O, revered Yajnavalkya (appreciated Janaka).&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_shankara/kaupiina5.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yati Panchakam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;is a work  by Adi Shankaracharya which speaks about as to how a Yati or a person who has realized the ultimate reality of Brahman and is completely detached to the world would behave in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yati panchakam  or Kaupina Panchakam – &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मूलं तरोः केवलमाश्रयन्तः| पाणिद्वयं भोक्तुममन्त्रयन्तः ।&lt;br&gt; कन्थामिव&#xA;  श्रीमपि कुत्सयन्तः |कौपीनवन्तः खलु भाग्यवन्तः ॥ २॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sitting at the foot of a tree for shelter, Eating from his hands his&#xA;  meagre portion, Spurning wealth like a patched-up garment, Blest&#xA;  indeed is the wearer of the loin-cloth . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वेदान्तवाक्येषु सदा रमन्तो भिक्षान्नमात्रेण च तुष्टिमन्तः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विशोकमन्तःकरणे चरन्तः कौपीनवन्तः खलु भाग्यवन्तः ॥ १॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Roaming ever in the grove of Vedanta, Ever pleased with his beggar's&#xA;  morsel, Wandering onward, his heart free from sorrow, Blessed indeed is&#xA;  the wearer of the loin-cloth &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat purana&lt;/strong&gt; also discusses the rules for Yati’s or Sanyasis. There is separate chapter about Rules to be followed by Sanyasis.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 7.13&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some Rules and Regulations mentioned- :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बिभृयद् यदयसौ वास: कौपीनाच्छादनं परम् | &lt;br&gt; त्यक्तं न&#xA;  दण्डलिग्डादेरन्यत किच्त्रिदनापदि ||२|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bibhṛyād yady asau vāsaḥ kaupīnācchādanaṁ param &lt;br&gt; tyaktaṁ na liṅgād&#xA;  daṇḍāder anyat kiñcid anāpadi &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A person in the renounced order of life may try to avoid even a dress&#xA;  to cover himself. If he wears anything at all, it should be only a&#xA;  loincloth, and when there is no necessity, a sannyāsī should not even&#xA;  accept a daṇḍa. A sannyāsī should avoid carrying anything but a daṇḍa&#xA;  and kamaṇḍalu. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/13/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 7.13.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एक एव चरेद् भिक्षुरात्मारामोsनपाश्रय: |&lt;br&gt; सर्वभूतसुहृछ्चान्तो&#xA;  नारायणपरायणा ||३||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;eka eva cared bhikṣurātmārāmo ’napāśrayaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarva-bhūta-suhṛc-chāntonārāyaṇa-parāyaṇaḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sannyāsī, completely satisfied in the self, should live on alms&#xA;  begged from door to door. Not being dependent on any person or any&#xA;  place, he should always be a friendly well-wisher to all living beings&#xA;  and be a peaceful, unalloyed devotee of Nārāyaṇa. In this way he&#xA;  should move from one place to another.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/13/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 7.13.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नासच्छास्त्रेषु सज्जेत नोपजीवेत जीविकाम | &lt;br&gt; वादवादांस्तजेत&#xA;  तर्कान्प्क्षं कं न संश्रयेत ||७||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nāsac-chāstreṣu sajjeta nopajīveta jīvikām &lt;br&gt; vāda-vādāṁs tyajet&#xA;  tarkān pakṣaṁ kaṁca na saṁśrayet&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Literature that is a useless waste of time — in other words,&#xA;  literature without spiritual benefit — should be rejected. One should&#xA;  not become a professional teacher as a means of earning one’s&#xA;  livelihood, nor should one indulge in arguments and counterarguments.&#xA;  Nor should one take shelter of any cause or faction.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/13/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  7.13.7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नशिष्याननुबन्धित ग्रन्थान्नैवाभ्यसेद् बहुन् |&lt;br&gt; नव्याख्यामुपयुञ्जीत&#xA;  नारंभानारभेत् क्वचित् ||८||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na śiṣyān anubadhnīta granthān naivābhyased bahūn &lt;br&gt; na vyākhyām&#xA;  upayuñjīta nārambhān ārabhet kvacit&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A sannyāsī must not present allurements of material benefits to gather&#xA;  many disciples, nor should he unnecessarily read many books or give&#xA;  discourses as a means of livelihood. He must never attempt to increase&#xA;  material opulences unnecessarily.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/13/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 7.13.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it seems that there are various texts which are available on the subject you enquired , but I will also try search a exclusive book on Rules of sanyasis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-24T05:42:16.357" LastActivityDate="2017-04-24T05:42:16.357" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18031" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-23T12:48:29.107" Score="3" ViewCount="1498" Body="&lt;p&gt;My family says not to water the tulsi plant on sunday and even not to pluck it on that day.&#xA;Is it right??&#xA;Please explain it with proper justification.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6826" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-24T05:40:53.583" LastActivityDate="2017-04-24T05:40:53.583" Title="Watering tulsi plant on sunday is not allowed?" Tags="|tulasi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2018-10-15T04:25:19.767" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18032" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18033" CreationDate="2017-04-23T15:49:36.423" Score="6" ViewCount="4657" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know when Shree Krishna and Arjuna met for the first time.&#xA;(if the answer is in childhood, please mention when they first met as youth too.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-23T17:03:56.287" LastActivityDate="2019-04-18T16:33:50.010" Title="When did Krishna and Arjuna meet for the first time?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18033" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18032" CreationDate="2017-04-23T16:36:05.503" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They met for the first time after Draupadi's Swayamvara.&lt;/strong&gt; In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01192.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, Krishna and Balarama see the Pandavas for the first time during Draupadi's Swayamvara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And beholding those feats of both Jishnu and his brother, Damodara (Krishna) of superhuman intelligence and inconceivable feats, addressing his brother, Halayudha (Valadeva) of fierce energy, said, 'That hero there, of tread like that of a mighty lion, who draweth the large bow in his hand four full cubits in length, is Arjuna! There is no doubt, O Sankarshana, about this, if I am Vasudeva. That other hero who having speedily torn up the tree hath suddenly become ready to drive off the monarchs is Vrikodara! For no one in the world, except Vrikodara, could today perform such a feat in the field of battle. And that other youth of eyes like unto lotus-petals, of full four cubits height, of gait like that of a mighty lion, and humble withal, of fair complexion and prominent and shining nose, who had, a little before, left the amphitheatre, is Dharma's son (Yudhishthira). The two other youths, like unto Kartikeya, are, I suspect, the sons of the twin Aswins. I heard that the sons of Pandu along with their mother Pritha had all escaped from the conflagration of the house of lac.' Then Halayudha of complexion like unto that of clouds uncharged with rain, addressing his younger brother (Krishna), said with great satisfaction, 'O, I am happy to hear, as I do from sheer good fortune, that our father's sister Pritha with the foremost of the Kaurava princes have all escaped (from death)!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Immediately after the Swayamvara, Krishna introduces himself to the Pandavas, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01194.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sons of Pandu, then, hearing those words of their eldest brother, began to revolve them in their minds in great cheerfulness. The hero of the Vrishni race (Krishna suspecting the five persons he had seen at the Swayamvara to be none else than the heroes of the Kuru race), came accompanied by the son of Rohini (Valadeva), to the house of the potter where those foremost of men had taken up their quarters. On arriving there, Krishna and Valadeva beheld seated in that potter's house Ajatasanu (Yudhishthira) of well developed and long arms, and his younger brothers passing the splendour of fire sitting around him. Then Vasudeva approaching that foremost of virtuous men--the son of Kunti--and touching the feet of that prince of the Ajamida race, said, '&lt;strong&gt;I am Krishna.&lt;/strong&gt;' And the son of Rohini (Valadeva) also approaching Yudhishthira, did the same. And the Pandavas, beholding Krishna and Valadeva, began to express great delight. And, O thou foremost of the Bharata race, those heroes of the Yadu race thereafter touched also the feet of Kunti, their father's sister. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see from the timeline &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/mahabharat/mahab_patnaik.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, this was when Krishna and Arjuna were 37 years old, or 52 years before the Mahabharata war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-23T19:12:32.407" LastActivityDate="2017-04-23T19:12:32.407" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18034" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18032" CreationDate="2017-04-23T16:55:25.247" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;AFAIK Lord Krishna and Arjuna met first after Draupadi's Marriage. Lord Krishna has identified Pandavas in Draupadi's Swayamvara but did not met (as written in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01192.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva, SECTION CLXLI&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And beholding those feats of both Jishnu and his brother, Damodara (Krishna) of superhuman intelligence and inconceivable feats, addressing his brother, Halayudha (Valadeva) of fierce energy, said, 'That hero there, of tread like that of a mighty lion, who draweth the large bow in his hand four full cubits in length, is Arjuna! There is no doubt, O Sankarshana, about this, if I am Vasudeva. That other hero who having speedily torn up the tree hath suddenly become ready to drive off the monarchs is Vrikodara! For no one in the world, except Vrikodara, could today perform such a feat in the field of battle. And that other youth of eyes like unto lotus-petals, of full four cubits height, of gait like that of a mighty lion, and humble withal, of fair complexion and prominent and shining nose, who had, a little before, left the amphitheatre, is Dharma's son (Yudhishthira). The two other youths, like unto Kartikeya, are, I suspect, the sons of the twin Aswins. I heard that the sons of Pandu along with their mother Pritha had all escaped from the conflagration of the house of lac.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that Krishna and Balarama followed Pandavas and met them to the Potter's house where Pandavas were leaving those days (as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01194.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva, SECTION CLXLIII&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The hero of the Vrishni race (Krishna suspecting the five persons he had seen at the Swayamvara to be none else than the heroes of the Kuru race), came accompanied by the son of Rohini (Valadeva), to the house of the potter where those foremost of men had taken up their quarters. On arriving there, Krishna and Valadeva beheld seated in that potter's house Ajatasanu (Yudhishthira) of well developed and long arms, and his younger brothers passing the splendour of fire sitting around him. Then Vasudeva approaching that foremost of virtuous men--the son of Kunti--and touching the feet of that prince of the Ajamida race, said, 'I am Krishna.' And the son of Rohini (Valadeva) also approaching Yudhishthira, did the same. And the Pandavas, beholding Krishna and Valadeva, began to express great delight. And, O thou foremost of the Bharata race, those heroes of the Yadu race thereafter touched also the feet of Kunti, their father's sister. And Ajatasatru, that foremost of the Kuru race, beholding Krishna, enquired after his well-being and asked, 'How, O Vasudeva, hast thou been able to trace us, as we are living in disguise?' And Vasudeva, smilingly answered, 'O king, fire, even if it is covered, can be known. Who else among men than the Pandavas could exhibit such might? Ye resisters of all foes, ye sons of Pandu, by sheer good fortune have ye escaped from that fierce fire. And it is by sheer good fortune alone that the wicked son of Dhritarashtra and his counsellors have not succeeded in accomplishing their wishes. Blest be ye! And grow ye in prosperity like a fire in a cave gradually growing and spreading itself all around. And lest any of the monarchs recognise ye, let us return to our tent.' Then, obtaining Yudhishthira's leave, Krishna of prosperity knowing no decrease, accompanied by Valadeva, hastily went away from the potter's abode.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-04-23T16:55:25.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18035" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-23T18:48:21.603" Score="2" ViewCount="168" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element#Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Classical Elements&lt;/a&gt; are foundation elements for Material Universe, every object in physical realm has some configuration of these five elements viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Space/Aakash&lt;/strong&gt; : most subtle and difficult to understand.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Water/Jal&lt;/strong&gt; : more subtle than water Manu Smriti describes creation in&#xA;water.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Air/Vayu&lt;/strong&gt; : not just atmospheric air more subtle meanings/forms&#xA;exist.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fire/Agni&lt;/strong&gt; : related with every thing that burns including acid in&#xA;    stomach.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Earth/Bhoomi&lt;/strong&gt; : anything which is solid.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are certain situations in which these elements are(said to be) contaminated, like when impure woman touches fire/water, when someone eats food(mainly associated with earth and water element) prepared by impure person etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt; : Is there any proof in Hindu scriptures about this contamination concept?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;If I am correct fire gets contaminated for sure, because Girija(Godess Parvati Shiva's consort) cursed Agni (that he will be impure and surrounded by black smoke) at the time of Skanda/Murugan's birth, which is mentioned in Skanda Purana.&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-04-23T19:00:17.540" LastActivityDate="2017-04-23T19:00:17.540" Title="Do PanchaMahaBhutas(five elements) get contaminated?" Tags="|scripture|panchabhoota|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18036" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-23T21:23:59.303" Score="10" ViewCount="643" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dharma is a Sanskrit word that has no equivalent in English language. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The closest imitation of this word is Righteousness' but after reading even a little bit about Dharma in Hindu scriptures, anyone would conclude that Dharma is more than 'just' :) Righteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question:&lt;/strong&gt; Is there any Official Definition for Dharma? If yes then please Define dharma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2017-05-01T04:04:44.797" Title="What is Definition of 'Dharma'" Tags="|scripture|dharma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18037" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-24T05:40:51.530" Score="3" ViewCount="108" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is a pooja conducted at pradaosham called thirumuruga thirumangalya yagam? Pradosham  conducted in temple. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below are the pics&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AGgFQl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot;&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AS5vvl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9590" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-24T08:27:37.783" LastActivityDate="2017-04-24T08:27:37.783" Title="What is thirumuruga thirumangalya yagam?" Tags="|shiva|puja|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18038" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-04-24T08:10:39.150" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-04-24T08:10:39.150" LastActivityDate="2017-04-24T08:10:39.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18039" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-04-24T08:10:39.150" Score="0" Body="This is a special tag that is designed to be used only by the system for questions that have had all of their other tags removed. Do not add this tag to existing questions, it is reserved for use by the system to identify posts with no valid tags. " OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-24T10:10:07.293" LastActivityDate="2017-04-24T10:10:07.293" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18040" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-24T11:44:48.740" Score="4" ViewCount="240" Body="&lt;p&gt;Including myself, many of my family members got their names 12 days after their birth, a day called &lt;em&gt;Namakarana&lt;/em&gt;. This is done via a ritual, for example in &lt;em&gt;Nepalese&lt;/em&gt; tradition (My ethnicity) we have an extra tradition called &lt;em&gt;Nwaran&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why do we give names to our newborn on their twelfth (some at eleventh) day? and any references to the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastActivityDate="2017-04-24T11:44:48.740" Title="Why are we named 12 days after birth?" Tags="|scripture|belief|rituals|practice|culture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18046" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-24T16:54:23.173" Score="2" ViewCount="865" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skepdic.com/astrology.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Skeptic's Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; while arguing that astrology is nothing more than a superstition brings up some interesting questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Astrologers emphasize the importance of the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, etc., at the time of birth. However, the birthing process isn’t instantaneous. There is no single moment that a person is born. The fact that some official somewhere writes down a time of birth is irrelevant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do they pick the moment the water breaks? The moment the first dilation occurs? When the first hair or toenail peeks through? When the last toenail or hair passes the last millimeter of the vagina? When the umbilical cord is cut? When the first breath is taken? Or does birth occur at the moment a physician or nurse looks at a clock to note the time of birth?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why are the initial conditions more important than all subsequent conditions for one’s personality and traits?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why is the moment of birth chosen as the significant moment rather than the moment of conception?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm looking for answers to some or all of the above with regard to Hindu astrology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T16:01:24.343" Title="Hindu astrology and the timing of birth" Tags="|astrology|time|superstitions|birth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="24" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18047" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18060" CreationDate="2017-04-24T18:01:27.537" Score="9" ViewCount="2798" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, Shree krishna tells Arjuna to destroy his enemies and brothers. He reminds Arjuna of how draupadi was insulted and everything. He tells that punishing the sinful is the duty of Kshatriyas and it's not sin. If so, can someone take revenge and punish someone who has done some wrong things? should a person be blamed if he punishes the corrupt group of people in society?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9166" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-26T14:55:40.650" LastActivityDate="2017-04-26T14:55:40.650" Title="Are revenge and punishment allowed in hinduism?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|dharma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18048" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18069" CreationDate="2017-04-24T18:21:28.797" Score="6" ViewCount="262" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Richard Dawkins&lt;/a&gt; in &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/tD1QHO_AVZA?t=563&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; debate argues that, in science, asking a question such as 'Why we exist?' or 'Why is there suffering in this world?' are not meaningful questions in the same sense as 'Why do mountains exist?', 'What is the color of jealousy?' etc. which cannot be answered objectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does Advaita answer the questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why we exist?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is there suffering in this world?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are these even valid questions as per Advaita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-04-27T05:34:50.383" Title="Is 'Why is there suffering?' a valid question according to Advaita philosophy?" Tags="|philosophy|advaita|life|atheism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18058" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-25T04:25:11.303" Score="4" ViewCount="1124" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just like Vaishnavas follow Pancharatra Agamas and Shaivites follow Shaiva Agamas, Shakta follow Shakta Agamas, aka Shakta Tantras.  (I discuss an exception which proves the rule &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/17749/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) One such Shakta Agama is the Todala Tantra.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Y-EZ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Patala 5&lt;/a&gt; of the Todala Tantra, Shiva tells Parvati about methods of worshiping Shiva.  But in the course of doing so he makes one interesting prohibition:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi, one should never meditate on the deva with poison in his throat in the Kali yuga.  If you want to perish, if you desire madness, you gain it by worshiping Nilakantha.  If someone does the puja or actions of Nilakantha, it is like slaying me.  Maheshani, if a fool should commit the sin of performing this prohibited action, he is a very wicked person. His son, wife and wealth are destroyed, no doubt, if he should do puja of the deva with poison in his throat. In this world, he becomes poverty-stricken and after death is reborn as a pig.  If he should do purascarana of Nilakantha's mantra, he must certainly die within a fortnight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, why does the Todala Tantra prohibit the worship of Nilakantha during the Kali Yuga?  For those who don't know, Nilakantha is a famous name of Shiva, referring to the fact that Shiva's throat turned blue when he drank the Kalahuta poison.  So it's strange that he'd say &quot;If someone does the puja or actions of Nilakantha, it is like slaying me.&quot; when he is Nilakantha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think this is a case of a Shakta text discouraging worship of a rival god, because this entire chapter of the Todala Tantra is devoted to worshiping Siva.  Could this be related to Bhrigu's curse on Shiva that he can only be worshiped in Linga form, which I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/122/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;?  That happened shortly before the story of Venkateshwara, which would align with the Kali Yuga timing mentioned in the quote.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-12-09T02:36:05.930" LastActivityDate="2017-12-09T02:36:05.930" Title="Why does the Todala Tantra describe worshiping Nilakantha as sinful?" Tags="|shiva|kali-yuga|agamas|shaktism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18060" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18047" CreationDate="2017-04-25T05:53:55.430" Score="8" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If so, can someone take revenge and punish someone who has done some&#xA;  wrong things? should a person be blamed if he punishes the corrupt&#xA;  group of people in society?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taking revenge and to punish someone are not exactly one and the same thing. Wrong doers should always be punished. To not punish them is again a blameable act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some verses from the Manu Smriti that talk about the need for punishment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 7.22. &lt;strong&gt;The whole world is kept in order by punishment&lt;/strong&gt;, for&#xA;  a guiltless man is hard to find; through fear of punishment the whole&#xA;  world yields the enjoyments (which it owes)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 7.23. &lt;strong&gt;The gods, the Danavas, the Gandharvas, the&#xA;  Rakshasas, the bird and snake deities even give the enjoyments (due&#xA;  from them) only, if they are tormented by (the fear of) punishment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 7.14. For the (king’s) sake the Lord formerly created his&#xA;  own son, Punishment, the protector of all creatures, (an incarnation&#xA;  of) the law, formed of Brahman’s glory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, its the duty of the king to execute punishments. A king who does not punish the wicked sinks to the lower worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 7.16. Having fully considered the time and the place (of&#xA;  the offence), the strength and the knowledge (of the offender), let&#xA;  him justly inflict that (punishment) on men who act unjustly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.18. Punishment alone governs all created beings, punishment alone protects them, punishment watches over them while they sleep; the wise&#xA;  declare punishment (to be identical with) the law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.19. &lt;strong&gt;If (punishment) is properly inflicted after (due) consideration, it makes all people happy;&lt;/strong&gt; but inflicted without consideration, it&#xA;  destroys everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.20. &lt;strong&gt;If the king did not, without tiring, inflict punishment on those worthy to be punished, the stronger would roast the weaker, like fish&#xA;  on a spit;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taking revenge, on the other hand, is not considered as a good attribute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If external or spiritual pain is created by others, and one is not&#xA;  offended and does not wreak revenge, it (i.e., the spirit) is called&#xA;  Dama. (39)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti, Chapter 1, Verse 39.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, Dama, Dana (charity), Aspriha (want of desire), Daya (mercy), Soucha (cleanliness) etc are considered as some auspicious traits or Mangala for all householders. So, a vengeful temperament is not at all praised in Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-26T05:43:53.720" LastActivityDate="2017-04-26T05:43:53.720" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18061" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-25T09:24:26.047" Score="1" ViewCount="618" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Everything which is achieved, has to be loosed away&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; which means Liberation is not a sate which can be attained because we are already liberated, we just have to see it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Liberation is very simple thing, like the normal taste of tongue, (not sweet, not bitter just no taste at all). It's like I am waiting for something great to happen, but there is nothing to be happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This book &quot;Renounce God be Good&quot;, Which is telling us the way to achieve a state of Nirvana, Mukti, Liberation, self realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Guru says something interesting that &quot;There is nothing to be done&quot;, that is all we need to realize.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says 2 ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1: One directly feels I am Atman and got liberated, but it happens to 1 in a billion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2: One totally surrenders himself to God, his every action everything is GOD, this happens to 1 in a Million.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One the same page it says but with understanding 100 out of 100 can be liberated. (That understanding is just let the mind work)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By letting our mind work naturally. I do not get it, what is Sadhna here? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I understand from this book is he is trying to say had actually confused me (Guru's always confuses Layman) by saying there is nothing to be achieved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says let the mind work naturally and you will find out active state becomes a dream state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can any one please help me What this book is trying to say or if some one know the teachings of this Guru, Kindly explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8883" LastEditorUserId="8883" LastEditDate="2017-04-25T09:42:14.980" LastActivityDate="2017-04-25T09:42:14.980" Title="Sri bhagavad ayya says &quot;There is nothing to be done&quot;" Tags="|guru|sadhana|mukti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2017-04-26T13:17:41.427" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18062" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15694" CreationDate="2017-04-25T13:37:38.743" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna and Balarama learned from Saandeepani is described in Srimad Bhagavatam (10.45):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/45/32&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.45.32&lt;/a&gt; — Sāndīpani thought very highly of these two self-controlled disciples, whom he had obtained so fortuitously. By serving him as devotedly as one would serve the Supreme Lord Himself, They showed others an irreproachable example of how to worship the spiritual master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/45/33&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.45.33&lt;/a&gt; — That best of brāhmaṇas, the spiritual master Sāndīpani, was satisfied with Their submissive behavior, and thus he taught Them the entire Vedas, together with their six corollaries and the Upaniṣads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/45/34&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.45.34&lt;/a&gt; — He also taught Them the Dhanur-veda, with its most confidential secrets; the standard books of law; the methods of logical reasoning and philosophical debate; and the sixfold science of politics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/45/35-36&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.45.35-36&lt;/a&gt; — O King, those best of persons, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, being Themselves the original promulgators of all varieties of knowledge, could immediately assimilate each and every subject after hearing it explained just once. Thus with fixed concentration &lt;strong&gt;They learned the sixty-four arts and skills&lt;/strong&gt; in as many days and nights. Thereafter, O King, They satisfied Their spiritual master by offering him guru-dakṣiṇā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/45/35-36&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;PURPORT of SB 10.45.35-36&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Lords learned (1) gītam, singing; (2) vādyam, playing on musical instruments; (3) nṛtyam, dancing; (4) nāṭyam, drama; (5) ālekhyam, painting; (6) viśeṣaka-cchedyam, painting the face and body with colored unguents and cosmetics; (7) taṇḍula-kusuma-bali-vikārāḥ, preparing auspicious designs on the floor with rice and flowers; (8) puṣpāstaraṇam, making a bed of flowers; (9) daśana-vasanāṅga-rāgāḥ, coloring one’s teeth, clothes and limbs; (10) maṇi-bhūmikā-karma, inlaying a floor with jewels; (11) śayyā-racanam, covering a bed; (12) udaka-vādyam, ringing waterpots; (13) udaka-ghātaḥ, splashing with water; (14) citra-yogāḥ, mixing colors; (15) mālya-grathana-vikalpāḥ, preparing wreaths; (16) śekharāpīḍa-yojanam, setting a helmet on the head; (17) nepathya-yogāḥ, putting on apparel in a dressing room; (18) karṇa-patra-bhaṅgāḥ, decorating the earlobe; (19) sugandha-yuktiḥ, applying aromatics; (20) bhūṣaṇa-yojanam, decorating with jewelry; (21) aindrajālam, jugglery; (22) kaucumāra-yogaḥ, the art of disguise; (23) hasta-lāghavam, sleight of hand; (24) citra-śākāpūpa-bhakṣya-vikāra-kriyaḥ, preparing varieties of salad, bread, cake and other delicious food; (25) pānaka-rasa-rāgāsava-yojanam, preparing palatable drinks and tinging draughts with red color; (26) sūcī-vāya-karma, needlework and weaving; (27) sūtra-krīḍā, making puppets dance by manipulating thin threads; (28) vīṇā-ḍamarukavādyāni, playing on a lute and a small x-shaped drum; (29) prahelikā, making and solving riddles; (29a) pratimālā, capping verses, or reciting poems verse for verse as a trial of memory or skill; (30) durvacaka-yogāḥ, uttering statements difficult for others to answer; (31) pustaka-vācanam, reciting books; and (32) nāṭikākhyāyikā-darśanam, enacting short plays and writing anecdotes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma also learned (33) kāvya-samasyā-pūraṇam, solving enigmatic verses; (34) paṭṭikā-vetra-bāṇa-vikalpāḥ, making a bow from a strip of cloth and a stick; (35) tarku-karma, spinning with a spindle; (36) takṣaṇam, carpentry; (37) vāstu-vidyā, architecture; (38) raupya-ratna-parīkṣā, testing silver and jewels; (39) dhātu-vādaḥ, metallurgy; (40) maṇi-rāga-jñānam, tinging jewels with various colors; (41) ākara-jñānam, mineralogy; (42) vṛkṣāyur-veda-yogāḥ, herbal medicine; (43) meṣa-kukkuṭa-lāvaka-yuddha-vidhiḥ, the art of training and engaging rams, cocks and quails in fighting; (44) śuka-śārikā-pralāpanam, knowledge of how to train male and female parrots to speak and to answer the questions of human beings; (45) utsādanam, healing a person with ointments; (46) keśa-mārjana-kauśalam, hairdressing; (47) akṣara-muṣṭikā-kathanam, telling what is written in a book without seeing it, and telling what is hidden in another’s fist; (48) mlecchita-kutarka-vikalpāḥ, fabricating barbarous or foreign sophistry; (49) deśa-bhāṣā-jñānam, knowledge of provincial dialects; (50) puṣpa-śakaṭikā-nirmiti-jñānam, knowledge of how to build toy carts with flowers; (51) yantra-mātṛkā, composing magic squares, arrangements of numbers adding up to the same total in all directions; (52) dhāraṇa-mātṛkā, the use of amulets; (53) saṁvācyam, conversation; (54) mānasī-kāvya-kriyā, composing verses mentally; (55) kriyā-vikalpāḥ, designing a literary work or a medical remedy; (56) chalitaka-yogāḥ, building shrines; (57) abhidhāna-koṣa-cchando-jñānam, lexicography and the knowledge of poetic meters; (58) vastra-gopanam, disguising one kind of cloth to look like another; (59) dyūta-viśeṣam, knowledge of various forms of gambling; (so) ākarṣa-krīḍa, playing dice; (61) bālaka-krīḍanakam, playing with children’s toys; (62) vaināyikī vidyā, enforcing discipline by mystic power; (63) vaijayikī vidyā, gaining victory; and (64) vaitālikī vidyā, awakening one’s master with music at dawn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also find name of these 64 Kalas at footnote at Gita Press Gorakhpur Edition; at &lt;a href=&quot;http://srimadbhagavatam.org/canto10/chapter45.html#footnote4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavatam.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/69z5a.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/69z5a.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other list/name of 64 Kalas can be found in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi-Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt; (12.11):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting English translation of 12.11 from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk12ch11.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sacred-texts.com&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O King! Now hear the names of the sixty four Kalâs. They are :-- Pingalâksî, Vis’âlâksî, Samriddhi, Vriddhi, S’raddhâ, Svâhâ, Svadhâ, Mâyâ, Sañgñâ, Vasundharâ, Trîlokadhâtrî, Sâvitrî, Gâyatrî, Tridas’es’vsrî, Surûpâ, Bahurûpâ, Skandamâtâ, Achyutapriyâ, Vimalâ, Amalâ, Arunî, Ârunî, Prakriti, Vikriti, S’rîsti, Sthiti, Samrhiti, Sandhyâ, Mâtâ, Satî, Hamsî, Mardikâ, Vajrikâ, Parâ, Devamâtâ, Bhagavatî, Devakî, Kamalâsanâ, Trimukhî, Saptamukhî, Surâsura vimardinî, Lambosthî, Ûrdhakes’î, Bahusîrsâ, Vrikodarî Ratharekhâhvayâ, S’as’irekâ, Gaganavegâ, Pavanavegâ, Bhuvanapâlâ, Madanâturâ, Anangâ, Anangamathanâ, Anangamekhalâ, Anangakusumâ, Visvarûpâ, Surâdikâ, Ksayamkarî, Aksyobhyâ, Satyavâdinî, Bahurûpâ, S’uchivratâ, Udârâ and Vâgis’î. These are the sixty four Kalâs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also visit &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16226/277&quot;&gt;18 Vidyas&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-25T18:53:37.407" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18063" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-26T03:39:34.447" Score="10" ViewCount="511" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lalla's Shishyavriddhida Tantra is a Hindu astronomical work dating to the 8th century.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ObVGi.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shishyavriddhida Tantra, Lalla describes the geography of Bharatavarsha, i.e. the Indian subcontinent:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are (nine) parts of (the country of Bharata), viz., Aindra, Kaseru, Tamraparna, Gabhastimat, Kanya, Saumya, Naga, Varuna and Gandhaarva.  There are seven principal mountains (in Bharata), viz. Mahendra, Shulti, Sahya, Vindhya, Pariyata, Malaya and Riksha.  &lt;strong&gt;Kumarika (Kanya) has all four castes (as inhabitants); the remaining eight parts of only the outcastes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the Kanya region of India which the Shishyavriddhida Tantra identifies as the only place where the four castes live, at least as of the 8th century?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Considering that it is known as both &quot;Kanya&quot; and &quot;Kumarika&quot;, I think it may refer to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanyakumari&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kanyakumari&lt;/a&gt;, which is the Southern tip of Tamil Nadu.  If so, it would be consonant with what the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/8f0D&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of his Rahasyatraya Sara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Holy regions like Aryavarta have, owing to the nature of the Yuga (Kali) become unfit for abode, owing to the rites of varna and ashrama getting mingled....  [W]e are also told about places where Bhagavatas live in Kali Yuga: &quot;In Kali Yuga there will be born, here and there, noble souls who consider that Narayana is the supreme object of attainment.  They will be born in number in Tamil Nad on the banks of the Tamraparni, of the Kritamala, of the Palar, of the renowned Cauvery and of the river which flows westwards[.]&quot; ... As stated in these passages, it is these places inhabited by Bhagavatas, that are suitable for the residence of the prapanna in this Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, are there any commentaries on the Shishyavriddhida which shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-26T23:35:31.120" LastActivityDate="2021-05-11T10:45:05.543" Title="What is the Kanya region of Bharatavarsha, identified as the only residence of the four castes?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|caste-system|kali-yuga|india|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18064" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-26T07:13:45.940" Score="2" ViewCount="125" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishishtadvaita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Viśiṣṭādvaita&lt;/a&gt; is one of the most popular school of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12272/489&quot;&gt;Vedanta philosophy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ādvaita can easily incorporate Formless Brahman because they believe that Brahman is without attributes, and Form is an attribute. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, Viśiṣṭādvaita believes in Realism (asti, asti), that everything including illusions are real, because the illusory object has some common properties with the thing imagined like snake and rope have some common properties and one can easily mistake snake for a rope in dim light or pitch dark.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means that the attributes are also real and Brahman has attributes. There is a widespread misconception that anything with attributes cannot be formless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does Viśiṣṭādvaita incorporate formless Brahman, with Realism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-01-12T19:33:41.947" LastActivityDate="2019-01-12T19:33:41.947" Title="How does Viśiṣṭādvaita incorporate formless Brahman?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18066" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18107" CreationDate="2017-04-26T12:49:33.710" Score="6" ViewCount="1488" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitya_karma&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nitya karma&lt;/a&gt; refers to the daily obligatory duties performed by the Hindus. Naimittika karmas on the other hand are the occasional rites that are performed with a reason (nimitta). Similarly, we have Kamya karmas which are done to obtain some specific goals. These acts are not obligatory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a relevant sloka from the Shiva Samhita, a Yoga treatise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/q7vMN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/q7vMN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, one who has received initiation of the Gayatri through upanayana must perform Sandhya rites each day without fail. So, this is one of the nitya karma for him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, let's take the example of a non-initiate. One who is neither invested with the sacred thread nor had any kind of mantra upadesam (Deeksha) from Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose, such a person daily worships Shiva or any other deity of his choice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question 1- Will this act be his nitya karma or  naimittika karma or kamya karma?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;This is important to know because naimittika &amp;amp; kamya karmas are said to be fruitless if done without wearing the ring (anguriya) whereas in nitya karmas anguriya is not needed (wearing it does not harm in nitya karmas too but its not compulsory). &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question 2- Except bathing what are  all the nitya karmas for a non-initiate?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-27T05:04:53.900" LastActivityDate="2023-11-29T16:17:44.213" Title="What is the scriptural definition of &quot;Nitya Karma&quot; for a non-initiate?" Tags="|scripture|karma|worship|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18067" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-26T15:26:31.530" Score="4" ViewCount="259" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just like Vaishnavas follow Pancharatra Agamas and Shaivites follow Shaiva Agamas, Shakta follow Shakta Agamas, aka Shakta Tantras. (I discuss an exception that proves the rule &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/17749/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) One such Shakta Agama is the Matrikabheda Tantra.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8J8Gl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Matrikabheda Tantra, Shiva tells Parvati about different kinds of eclipses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, listen to me! The eclipse is a very good occasion. It is of three kinds, relating to the Sun, Moon, or fire respectively. On the forehead of Sakti (Durga) fire exists, in her left eyes glows the Moon and in her right eye the Sunshine. These three types of eclipses originate differently at the time of union of Siva with Parvati.  When the left eye of Parvati is kissed by Siva, the lunar eclipse occurs. At the time of kissing of right eye the solar eclipse takes place and &lt;strong&gt;at the time of his kissing the fore-head the fire­ eclipse is generated. But as the fire is the hidden energy of Siva hence fire eclipse can not be seen outwardly.&lt;/strong&gt;  Rahu, Siva and Sakti are considered to be three qualities. The union of Siva and Sakti causes eclipse. The time when Siva and Sakti unite is thought to be an auspicious hour pervaded with divinity or bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now solar eclipses and lunar eclipses are well-known astronomical phenomena. But my question is, what scriptures describe fire eclipses?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the passage says that fire eclipses are not visible, but is it possible to calculate when they occur?  After all, Rahu, Ketu, and the other &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upagraha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upagrahas&lt;/a&gt; or shadow planets are not visible, yet their location can still be calculated mathematically.  So is it similarly possible to mathematically calculate the location of the fire which is said to be &quot;the hidden energy of Siva&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-13T15:40:38.247" LastActivityDate="2017-05-13T15:40:38.247" Title="What scriptures describe the phenomenon of Fire Eclipses?" Tags="|agamas|tantra|shaktism|eclipse|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18068" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-27T04:11:47.447" Score="9" ViewCount="231" Body="&lt;p&gt;Marriage binds man and woman together for a life. But in Hinduism what is the exact definition of Marriage and how it evolved? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-04-27T04:58:48.483" LastActivityDate="2019-10-25T05:20:01.800" Title="What is the exact definition of marriage in Hinduism?" Tags="|marriage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18069" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18048" CreationDate="2017-04-27T05:34:50.383" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V6, pp 44-45, available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Lectures and Discourses&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;Introduction to Jnana Yoga&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_6/vol_6_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_6/vol_6_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Being of perfect nature, universally appearing to us, is God, is Absolute. The undifferentiated is the perfect condition; all others must be lower and not permanent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What makes the undifferentiated appear differentiated to mind? This is the same kind of question as what is the origin of evil and free will? The question itself is contradictory and impossible, because the question takes for granted cause and effect. There is no cause and effect in the undifferentiated; the question assumes that the undifferentiated is in the same condition as the differentiated. &quot;Whys&quot; and &quot;wherefores&quot; are in mind only. The Self is beyond causation, and It alone is free. Its light it is which percolates through every form of mind. With every action I assert I am free, and yet every action proves that I am bound. The real Self is free, yet when mixed with mind and body, It is not free. The will is the first manifestation of the real Self; the first limitation therefore of this real Self is the will. Will is a compound of Self and mind. Now, no compound can be permanent, so that when we will to live, we must die. Immortal life is a contradiction in terms, for life, being a compound, cannot be immortal. True Being is undifferentiated and eternal. How does this Perfect Being become mixed up with will, mind, thought — all defective things? It never has become mixed. You are the real you (the Y of our former statement); you never were will; you never have changed; you as a person never existed; It is illusion. Then on what, you will say, do the phenomena of illusion rest? This is a bad question. Illusion never rests on Truth, but only on illusion. Everything struggles to go back to what was before these illusions, to be free in fact. What then is the value of life? It is to give us experience. Does this view do away with evolution? On the contrary, it explains it. It is really the process of refinement of matter allowing the real Self to manifest Itself. It is as if a screen or a veil were between us and some other object. The object becomes clear as the screen is gradually withdrawn. The question is simply one of manifestation of the higher Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The questions of 'Why' can only be asked within time, space, and causation. In Brahman, there is no 'why'. From the standpoint of Brahman, there is no suffering. From the standpoint of our perceived universe - why is there suffering? Karma. All living beings carry with them their own karma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-04-27T05:34:50.383" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18070" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-27T08:19:32.903" Score="-1" ViewCount="224" Body="&lt;p&gt;How lord venkateshwara and parameshwara are different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9616" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T04:54:02.420" LastActivityDate="2020-03-09T04:54:02.420" Title="How Lord venkateshwara and Shiva are different?" Tags="|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2020-03-09T15:48:09.347" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18071" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13569" CreationDate="2017-04-27T13:12:14.170" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just happened to see this question, posted 10 months back. If you are still searching for an answer, here's an explanation from dvaitin:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word 'आत्मा' has multiple meanings: self, Brahman, mind, body across the scriptures, within Gita itself. For example in gita 6.36 (vashyAtmanA), Shankara himself interprets AtmA as 'manas'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The brahmasutra 1.3.1, relying on Mundaka Upanishad's statement, holds that to be referred as AtmA, which holds the heavens and the earth and everything - which is Paramaatmaa, and not the individual soul. Even according to Shankara, the word 'AtmA' &lt;strong&gt;primarily&lt;/strong&gt; refers to Paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above are conventional meanings (रूढयर्थ) of the word 'AtmA'. It has more meanings etymologically (यौगिकार्थ). That which creates and pulls in; that which is pervasive and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With this background, the verse is easy to interpret. I am that who pervades (or who supports this entire universe), and I am situated in the heart (aashaya) of all beings. I am the beginning (i.e. creator), the middle (the sustainer, स्थितिकर्ता), and the end (the destroyer) of all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hardly advaitic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9621" LastActivityDate="2017-04-27T13:12:14.170" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18072" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11874" CreationDate="2017-04-27T16:33:27.673" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since I cannot add a comment (being a newcomer on this forum), adding it as answer.&#xA;Shri Madhvacharya justifies his interpretation, while showing the inaccuracy in the conventional or the superficial meaning. He says, in his commentary on Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, that if the meaning of that phrase was 'I am Brahman', the words 'AtmAnaM' would be redundant -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yadyahaMshabdo asmachChabdArthavAchI, asmishabdashchottamapuruShe tadA.a.atmAnamiti vyarthaM syAt..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire line is तदात्मानमेवावेत् ‘अहं ब्रह्मास्मि’ इति. If you take every word at its conventional meaning, it means - Then, it knew itself as I am Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is grammatically wrong. It should either be 'it knew itself as Brahman' or 'it knew as - I am brahman'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since the flawless Veda wouldn't indulge in superfluous usage, even in terms of svara or chandas, the superficial interpretation as 'I am Brahman' should be rejected. Moreover, the Vedantic lore (including Brihadaranyaka Upanishad) considers 'ahaM' as not just a pronoun, but also as a name. See 1.4.1 tato ahaM-nAma abhavat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While non-dvaitins may ignore or reject the above as nitpicking or hairsplitting every vedic utterance, the dvaitin holds that any interpretation that makes vedic words redundant, should be shunned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9621" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-04-27T16:47:31.860" LastActivityDate="2017-04-27T16:47:31.860" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18073" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18070" CreationDate="2017-04-27T17:27:01.380" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu Mythology&#xA;it so simple that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;parameshwara is other name of Lord shiva &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;venkateshwara is Avatar of Lord Vishnu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9622" LastActivityDate="2017-04-27T17:27:01.380" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18074" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="270" CreationDate="2017-04-27T17:35:53.730" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Deva(देव) - God (Its categorized further in 33 category(तैतिसकोटि). Which sometime misunderstood as 33 Crors) &#xA;&#xA;Daiva(दैव) - According to Law of Karma, Your balance according to good and bad karma(Fortune) &#xA;&#xA;Asur(असुर) - People of a perticular culture. Mostly from south India(पाताललोक).&#xA;&#xA;Rakshash(राक्षस) - Devils&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4092" LastActivityDate="2017-04-27T17:35:53.730" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18075" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-27T18:11:14.343" Score="5" ViewCount="6452" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who (or what) was Swami Vivekananda in his previous births?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3277&quot;&gt;This answer&lt;/a&gt; to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3237/&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why don't we remember our past lives?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda said he remembered all his past lives. Patanjali says in the Yoga Aphorisms that a man who attains samadhi is able to know all his past lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Vivekananda wrote at length on several topics, why was he silent about his past lives?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's the harm in writing about ones previous births?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2018-10-18T06:44:32.930" Title="Who or What was Swami Vivekananda in his previous births? Why was he silent about his past lives?" Tags="|yoga|rebirth|vivekananda|samadhi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18076" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18013" CreationDate="2017-04-27T21:01:56.710" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AykAshramyam tvacAryA: pratyakshavidhAnAt gArhasthasya&lt;/strong&gt; | (Apasthamba Sutram)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - There is only one Ashramam and that is Grahastha dharma.&#xA;  Thus, the only Ashramam advocated by the vedAs is the eternal&#xA;  gArhastyAshramam and none other. This is the reason why all our seers&#xA;  (cause for our gotrAs) like atri , vasishta ,agastya , bharadvAja ,etc&#xA;  led a lifestyle of jaDa, maravuri, living with consort in the forest,&#xA;  doing penance, performing daily rituals (nitya karmA) , upAsana&#xA;  (worship) of agni , yagnyA and chanting of vedAs until their last&#xA;  breath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It should be understood that there is no virtue that is superior to&#xA;  &quot;Daampatya-dharma’, the path of married life. Every one should follow&#xA;  this advice of wisdom-Incarnate throughout their life time as wedlock&#xA;  is the way to salvation. One can never experience the fruit of&#xA;  creation without Wedlock. Male and Female species in creation are&#xA;  complementary to each other. One can become whole and complete only&#xA;  after Wedlock. Without Wedlock neither man nor woman can attain&#xA;  fulfillment- they will remain incomplete.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The cause of this universe and the basis for all existence  is the&#xA;  penance of Brahman. The result of unswerving penance is knowledge&#xA;  (vidya), gnyAnam , satyam (truth) , sukham (Happiness). This world,&#xA;  created by, and resulting from unswerving penance, has these aspects&#xA;  of form:  vidyArUpam , gnyAnarUpam , satyarUpam , sukharUpam . The&#xA;  same is bestowed upon us by the vedAs. Vedas have provided a platform&#xA;  for every soul (being in their respective states) to experience this&#xA;  'Brahman'. ( the ultimate power)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The main objective of all the Vedas is ‘garhastyashramam’ i.e,  family&#xA;  life (dampatya). ‘&lt;strong&gt;Brahmacharyam&lt;/strong&gt;’ is instrumental and the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;preliminary&lt;/strong&gt; practice for ‘garhastyashramam’. Brahmacharyam is the life of Veda adyayanam, enjoying all sorts of happiness, well being,&#xA;  etc i.e. Shastric veda adyayanam is brahmacharyam. Brahmacharyam is&#xA;  also known as ‘garhasyta sadhanam’ as it is preliminary and part of&#xA;  the garhastyashramam referred to in the Vedas.  Brahmacharyam which is&#xA;  the life of Veda adyayanam and Gayathri upasana is applicable for all,&#xA;  irrespective of their sex and creed. The regulated  proper method  of &#xA;  mastering  Vedas  etc.,    helps  one lead  Dhampathya  life &#xA;  successfully.  This is applicable to woman also. Women are entitled to&#xA;  all ceremonies like Upanayanam, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mastering the Vedas as ordained is itself a Tapas (Penance). It must&#xA;  be noted that Karma (or action) and Jnana (or knowledge) are not two&#xA;  separate entities. Therefore there is no separate path for Jnanamarga.&#xA;  There is only one path, and that is Vedamarga, the path of the Vedas.&#xA;  Its culmination is in Dhampathya life. The Maharshi couple led the&#xA;  Dhampathya life throughout their lives. Remaining in that Dhampathya,&#xA;  one should desire good progeny, beget ideal children and bring them up&#xA;  with great care. They are the true wealth for ‘the here’ and ‘the&#xA;  hereafter.’  Immortals are fortunate enough to hear the lisping of&#xA;  their children. In a sense, one can attain immortality, if, being of&#xA;  good character, one is born as his/her own progeny. The Vedas state&#xA;  this explicitly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a man and a woman of pure conduct, bound by mutual love,&#xA;  consummate their marriage, all elements like form, etc., get totally&#xA;  absorbed in the fire of their union. This absorption creates an&#xA;  intoxicating light radiating from them. When this intoxicating light&#xA;  is also absorbed, Ananda, or Bliss arises and shines forth. The light&#xA;  is absorbed in itself, and Ananda shines. From that, issues forth a&#xA;  child, the sum total of all elements. The Maharishis advised- Always&#xA;  live in the state of Vedic Dampatya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahashakthi  who created  the whole universe,  laid down  the&#xA;  vedic path  so  that all mankind could live happily enjoying all&#xA;  comforts- temporal and spiritual. The Vedic  path  is  nothing  but &#xA;  the  life  lived  by  the  Maharshis:  the  eternal  dhampathya life &#xA;  enjoined  by  the  Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“uthishtatha maaswapta agni michadhvam bharataaha” (YV)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This means “ O Bharathiyas! Awake and yearn for fire”, Bha in Sanskrit&#xA;  means light. One who worships light is a Bharateeya. That India is&#xA;  called Bharat clearly conveys that all Indians were following the&#xA;  Vedas and leading a life as prescribed by the Vedas. It extols all to&#xA;  worship fire which is the primordial energy behind all creation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedic path refers to the &lt;strong&gt;three stages of a person&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The initial stage, which is Brahmacharya: the study and learning of&#xA;  Vedas and Gayathri Upasana, and worship of Agni through oblations&#xA;  twice a day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The next stage is the Grihastashrama (getting into marital life) and&#xA;  offering oblations to Agni by performing  Agni upasana , Yagas , etc.&#xA;  along with the life partner which are meant for the evolution of one’s&#xA;  self in the spiritual realm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The final stage is offering one’s body after death to the Agni that&#xA;  was worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It should be understood that &lt;strong&gt;vanaprastha&lt;/strong&gt; is the &lt;strong&gt;continuation&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  of &lt;strong&gt;grahastha&lt;/strong&gt; stage after discharging the duties and retiring along&#xA;  with the &lt;strong&gt;wife&lt;/strong&gt; and continuing &lt;strong&gt;agni&lt;/strong&gt; upasana, &lt;strong&gt;penance&lt;/strong&gt;, and&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;nitya&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;karmas&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To lead a life as prescribed by the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sridevinatha.org/vedic.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedas&lt;/a&gt;, here is the system to&#xA;  be followed by one and all:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Initiation into Gayathri Upasana&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Study of the Vedas or understanding the messages given in them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agni upasana as part of Gayathri Upasana and vedic study      (BRAHMACHARYA).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Getting into married life and continuing Agni Worship as a couple – Grahastha Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Offering one’s body in the fire worshipped by the couple (The concept behind the ritual followed for cremation in the present day)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-28T12:17:08.980" LastActivityDate="2017-04-28T12:17:08.980" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18078" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-28T02:49:27.577" Score="5" ViewCount="315" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question refers to the link &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17911/does-hinduism-offer-solution-for-each-and-every-problem-of-human-life&quot;&gt;Does Hinduism offer solution for each and every problem of human life?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It appears Hinduism offer solution or at least a path to find a solution. So is there any known way to give the &quot;life&quot; back to someone dead? It appears somewhere in Mahabharata it is mentioned that Krishna gave back life to someone dead. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8443" LastEditorUserId="8443" LastEditDate="2017-04-29T20:57:48.640" LastActivityDate="2022-05-02T02:50:10.933" Title="How to reverse death?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18079" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-28T03:43:02.983" Score="4" ViewCount="133" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a formal study to find how Vedas treated mathematics? I am interested to know; have we understood all the mathematics in Vedas by now? Does Vedas covers has all the present topics of mathematics? Is there anything in Vedas (mathematically) that we do not understand? Is there anyone who is still trying to bridge the gap?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8443" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T09:20:02.527" Title="How Vedas treat mathematics?" Tags="|vedas|mathematics|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18080" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-28T05:55:57.067" Score="5" ViewCount="101" Body="&lt;p&gt;AFAIK, any act done without wearing the upavita and the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sikha&lt;/a&gt; tied is like an act not done. These are the first prerequisites and there are obviously few others as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the doubt arose in my mind after seeing what &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanakya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chanakya&lt;/a&gt; did.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Supposedly, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chanakya is said to &lt;strong&gt;have taken an oath to leave his śikhā untied&#xA;  until he humbles the Nanda kings&lt;/strong&gt; who insulted him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then being a Brahmin, how was he able to perform his daily rites and other rites for so many years?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that, here my question is not exactly how Chanakya did his nitya karmas with sikha untied but generally is it possible at all to do so? Are there any shortcuts given in the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-28T07:09:06.917" LastActivityDate="2017-04-28T07:09:06.917" Title="Is it possible, by any means, for a brahmin to perform nitya karmas or any rituals with sikha untied?" Tags="|scripture|history|rituals|brahmins|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18082" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="29536" CreationDate="2017-04-28T11:34:22.760" Score="4" ViewCount="146" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a person for some reasons forgets or is not able to do Shradhha Paksha of his ancestors, but does lots of Namajapa or chants Hari-nama lots of times in his life everyday, does he still get the ill effects of that omission?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T10:02:52.327" LastActivityDate="2018-10-17T16:10:43.313" Title="Can the bad effects of not performing Shradhha Paksha be avoided through Hari Nama?" Tags="|belief|karma|sraddha|japa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18083" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18084" CreationDate="2017-04-28T12:20:33.333" Score="13" ViewCount="1601" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many books, TV shows, and discourses there are various definitions and explanations of Sri Vidya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what exactly is Sri Vidya? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-01-10T07:29:44.703" LastActivityDate="2021-01-03T06:09:57.550" Title="What is Sri Vidya?" Tags="|agamas|tantra|shaktism|sri-vidya|upasana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18084" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18083" CreationDate="2017-04-28T12:20:33.333" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Vidya is one of the most popular and discussed subjects today pertaining to the goddess worship. There have been many confusions revolving around the subject since quite a while. Following points might help to understand it better.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When it is not even possible to grasp and understand the tenets of this great shAstra in its entirety, how is it possible to define her? If you define, you confine ! i.e If you even attempt to define shrIvidyA, then you are attempting to confine her ! neither is possible. However let us discuss certain basic concepts of this highly secretive path which has to be learnt only from one's pujya shrIguru, avoiding transmission of prohibited aspects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some popular views obtaining on &lt;a href=&quot;http://yamalesha.blogspot.in/2012/09/what-is-shrividya.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;shrIvidyA&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;--shrI vidyA upasana is worship of Goddess sarasvati .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;--shrI vidyA belongs to vAmamArga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;--shrIvidyA belongs to dakShiNamArga , samayamArga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;--shrIvidyA is advaitic (vedantic) as it is practiced in shankara Mutts&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so on and so forth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;but what then is shrIvidyA ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'&lt;strong&gt;shrI&lt;/strong&gt;' vidyA - is a combination of two words - shrI and vidyA. It is a popular misconception that the word 'shrI' is a title which is added to vidyA like shrI rama shrI krishna etc. Just as brahma vidyA is the knowledge of brahman, shrI vidyA is the knowledge of 'SHRI'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word shrI in shrIvidyA is derived as 'shrayaNe' and indicates the supreme shakthi who is the final retreat and shelter for everything- chetanAchetana, sthAvara jangama, everything, right from the brahma to the smallest creature in this universe. The verse :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;yasyAM sarvaM samutpannaM yasyAM adyApi tiShTati layameShyati yasyAM&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;tvAM pancamIM praNamAmyaham&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;neatly describes shrI -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That supreme sakthi from whom everything has originated, by whom everything is sustained and in whom everything is withdrawn is known as shrI. This shrI is known as the supreme bliss or kevalAnanda. The vidyA of shrI is therefore known as shrIvidyA. vidyA here is jnAnarUpA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;shrIvidyA is the ultimate and all other mArga-s dakShiNa samaya etc or paths are only s&lt;strong&gt;teps or sopana to this vidyA&lt;/strong&gt;. In that case where does brahma vidyA stand ? what is brahma vidyA ? is it the same as shrI vidyA ? if yes how ? If not how ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vedas are also known as &amp;quot;brahma&amp;quot;. The tripadA gayatri mantra into which one is initiated as a pre-qualification for the veda adhyayana actually denotes this brahman. Hence, having been initiated into this gayatri mantra, the next step is to do the veda adhyayana. The vedas unequivocally advice svAdhyAya which is nothing but tapas or penance, as a mode of acquiring the knowledge about brahman. For such a tapas to fructify, one has to lead a householder's life and worship the agni. By worshipping the gArhapatyAgni, by being in the grihasthAshrama, when a person realises that there is a greater bliss to be experienced/enjoyed which is different and superior to the enjoyment from the senses, then this is called as brahma jigyAsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now comes the 'brahman'. The brahman is so called because of its inherent ability to expand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'&lt;strong&gt;brhatvAt brhmaNatvAt ca brahma ityucchate budhaiH&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning, “In view of its vastness of size or extent and in view of its&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;expansiveness, it is called as brahman by the wise&lt;/strong&gt;”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the entire sRShTi or creation is viewed in this perspective, it is abundantly clear that this entire universe is nothing but the expansion of the brahman and consists of the same brahman in different levels of existence and evolution. Each created being experiences bliss according to its state of evolution and each created individual being is endowed with the intelligence, aspiration and ability to progressively evolve and attain higher levels of evolution. The vedas specify the way to realize this brahman by taking recourse to specified modes of worship. As I said earlier, the vedas themselves are known as 'brahma' because they primarily deal with the brahman. And the vidyA contained in the preaching of the vedas is therefore known as 'Brahma VidyA'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SAT-CHIT-ANANDA&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I said earlier, when one realises by being in the gRhasthAshrama, that there is a &lt;strong&gt;greater bliss&lt;/strong&gt; to be experienced/enjoyed which is different and superior to the the enjoyment from the senses, then that is &amp;quot;brahma jijnAsa&amp;quot;. Understanding the preaching of the vedas and understanding the nature of that which is declared by these brahma vidyas through brahma jijnAsa and experiencing the brahman enables one to enjoy the fruits of creation as an evolved being. AT THIS EVOLVED STATE ALONE A PERSONS QUALIFIES FOR SHRIVIDYA . Entry into shrIvidyA becomes possible only to those who have enjoyed the fruits of brahma vidya. In other words, only a person who has attained brahma vidya attains the desire to know about the shrIvidyA . This desire is known as &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;shakti jijnAsa&lt;/strong&gt;'. shakti jijnAsa leads to &amp;quot;Ananda jijnAsa&amp;quot;. &lt;strong&gt;Ananda jijnAsa&lt;/strong&gt; ultimately leads to &amp;quot;shrI&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are quite familiar with the phrase &amp;quot;sat-chit-Ananda&amp;quot;. In essence, the 'sat' amsha is nothing but brahma jijnAsa leading to brahman in the 'sat bhUmika' which is attainable by virtue of veda adhyayana and the vedokta svAdhyaya/penance. shakti jijnAsa leads one to '&lt;strong&gt;chit bhUmika&lt;/strong&gt;' . Experiencing the chit bhUmika bestows &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Ananda jijnAsa&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; which ultimately leads to shrI.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vedas openly advocate gayatri upasana as a means to attain the brahman and secretively lays down shrIvidyA as the way to attain the Brahma MUla that is Ananda or supreme bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“&lt;strong&gt;Anando brahmetivyajAnAt. Anandat eva khalu imAni bhutAni jAyante&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘&lt;strong&gt;Anando brahmayonih&lt;/strong&gt;” &amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anandam parabrahmeti yoniH&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; (viShNu sahasranAma)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are but a few examples of innumerable such statements found in the shrutis. If Brahman in its aspect of &amp;quot;supramental consciousness&amp;quot; is attributed with creation, then the bliss mentioned above should be considered as the root or mUla or the mother or creatrix of that Brahman !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now - If indeed Ananda or bliss is the root cause for the creation of the creator or Brahman, then the nature of the bliss is required to be inquired into. For this, one should be aware of the basic principle of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;KalidAsa's famous shloka :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vAgarthAviva samprktau vAgartha pratipattayejagataH pitarau vande&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;pArvati paramesvarau&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;beautifully describes the sambandha of shiva and shakti as the primordial parents. It says, Shiva and Shakti are as inseparable as the word and its meaning and they truly reflect the 'vAk' &amp;amp; 'artha' concept of creation. vAk is the shabda sRShTi and artha is the artha sRShTi. vAk is the sound and artha is the meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this universe, every form of sound from the vedas onwards is subtly contained in the akArAdi kShakArAnta (from 'a' to 'kSha') varNas known as the mAtRkAkShara-s of Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the creation originates in bliss and ends in bliss. The &amp;quot;brahma yoni&amp;quot; 'brahma janani&amp;quot; etc that we were discussing is nothing but the aikya or sAmarasya or union of paramashiva &amp;amp; paramAshakti and this supreme blissful effulgence is only known as kalA, lalitA or ShRI:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand the subtle concepts of shrIvidyA and to know more about the path and to attain such a glorious state by being in this distinguished mArga, one has to be blessed enough to get a worthy guru belonging to a paramparA of the highest order.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-01-22T01:52:19.797" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18088" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-28T16:19:49.897" Score="1" ViewCount="149" Body="&lt;p&gt;I saw in movie &quot;Final Destination Series&quot; that if you cheat death once, the next time you would die in a more brutal way? So, according to many websites, it is done by grim reaper. But would this be true from the perspective of Hinduism --- I mean is death there?? Can someone beat death??(Sorry about wrong tags!!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9577" LastEditorUserId="9577" LastEditDate="2017-05-06T12:01:49.847" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T11:39:42.830" Title="Death has a Theory?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|moksha|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18089" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17795" CreationDate="2017-04-28T22:45:24.357" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;While narrating the Mahābhārata, Vaiśampāyana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02013.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;explains&lt;/a&gt; how Yudhiṣṭhira acquired the epithet Ajātaśatru. But he may have acquired it before the Rājasūya quest when his kingdom was limited to Indraprastha and its surroundings, because when you start conquering kings and their lands you will inevitably make new enemies like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jarāsandha&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For Yudhishthira, that foremost of all virtuous men, always kind unto his subjects, worked for the good of all without making any distinctions. Indeed, shaking off both anger and arrogance, Yudhishthira always said,--Give unto each what is due to each,--and the only sounds that he could hear were,--Blessed be Dharma! Blessed be Dharma! Yudhishthira! conducting himself thus and giving paternal assurance to everybody, &lt;strong&gt;there was none in the kingdom who entertained any hostile feelings towards him&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;He therefore came to be called Ajatasatru&lt;/strong&gt; (one with no enemy at all). The king cherished every one as belonging to his family...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Monier-Williams &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/monier/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw0010-ajanayonija.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;dictionary&lt;/a&gt;, a few others also had this title.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ajātaśatru (अजातशत्रु)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mfn. (/ajāta--) having no enemy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mfn. having no adversary or equal (Indra), RV.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;m. (us-) Name of Śiva-, of Yudhiṣṭhira-, of a king of Kāśī-, of a son of Śamika-, of a son of Vidmisāra- or Bimbisāra- (contemporary of Śākyamuni-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-04-28T22:45:24.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18091" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-29T07:36:24.017" Score="2" ViewCount="630" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many accounts of Krishna using a flag with the Garuda Emblem on his chariot. I'd like to know if the color of the flag is mentioned anywhere?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8009" LastActivityDate="2017-04-29T07:36:24.017" Title="Color of Krishna's Garud-dhwaj flag?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|vaishnavism|garuda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18092" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18114" CreationDate="2017-04-29T09:10:48.807" Score="7" ViewCount="456" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumantiram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumantiram&lt;/a&gt; is more than 3000 verses in Tamil written by Tirumular in about 5th Century. In the 1&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; verse of Tirumantiram he writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1: &lt;strong&gt;One Is Many&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The &lt;strong&gt;One&lt;/strong&gt; is He, the &lt;strong&gt;Two&lt;/strong&gt; His sweet Grace, &#xA;  In &lt;strong&gt;Three&lt;/strong&gt; He stood, in all the &lt;strong&gt;Four&lt;/strong&gt; witnessed, The &lt;strong&gt;Five&lt;/strong&gt; He conquered, the &lt;strong&gt;Six&lt;/strong&gt; He filled, The &lt;strong&gt;Seven&lt;/strong&gt; Worlds pervades, manifests the &lt;strong&gt;Eight&lt;/strong&gt; And so remains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How are the figures one, two,&amp;nbsp; three, ..etc. interpreted here?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;In my speculation:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;One = Param Shivam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Two= Shiva and Shakti&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Three = &amp;apos;Jeeva, Jagat and Ishwara&amp;apos; or &amp;apos;Pati, Pashu and Pasha&amp;apos; or &amp;apos;Sthoola, Karana and Sookshma&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Four = Jagrat, Swapna, Shushupti and Turiya.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Five = Five senses or Pancha Chakra of Kãla.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Six = No Idea&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Seven = Seven worlds.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Eight = AshtaMurti forms mentioned in Brahmanas of Vedas. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some points may match with my speculation above. Also I have no idea about some figures above.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;So, are there any commentaries or interpretation of 1st verse of Tirumantiram by someone ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-04T15:17:47.743" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T15:17:47.743" Title="How is Tirumantiram 1st verse by Tirumular 'One Is Many' interpreted?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|shaivism|tamil|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18093" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18094" CreationDate="2017-04-29T12:13:09.757" Score="6" ViewCount="3976" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like the question says, do the scriptures say that we should clean our bodies with water every day? What happens if one forgets or does not feel like showering? is it classified as a sin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastActivityDate="2017-05-02T21:23:18.223" Title="In Hindu culture, is it mandatory to bathe everyday?" Tags="|belief|practice|culture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18094" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18093" CreationDate="2017-04-29T15:02:27.013" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it is mandatory. In fact it is one of the 3 Pratahkrittas ( the 3 deeds that must be done  by all at morning; pratah is morning ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the dawn arrives, one should, after duly performing the&#xA;  purificatory works &lt;strong&gt;(i.e., passing urine and excreta)&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;cleansing the&#xA;  teeth, bathe in the morning.&lt;/strong&gt; (6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bathing in the morning is the purifier of the highly dirty body,&#xA;  having nine apertures, [and] passing [urine and excreta] day and&#xA;  night. (7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daksha Smriti, Chapter 2, Verses 6, 7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same Smriti says one who does not bath at least once in the morning, suffers from perpetual impurity. So, he becomes unfit for performing any kinds of rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Perpetual impurity is spoken of for all of them, who,- without&#xA;  bathing&lt;/strong&gt;, offering oblations to the Fire and making gifts, &lt;strong&gt;partake of&#xA;  [their] meals'.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daksha Smriti, Chapter 6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some more verses from the same Smriti are given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bathing has been spoken of as being threefold, viz.  &lt;strong&gt;Nitya (daily),&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Naimitika (obligatory, as in the solar or lunar eclipse), and Kamya&#xA;  (having an end, such as the attainment of the celestial region in&#xA;  view;. (37)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A man, neglecting his own duties, &lt;strong&gt;and failing to bathe&lt;/strong&gt;, offer&#xA;  oblations to the Fire, recite the Mantrams and make gifts, does not&#xA;  become [a householder] by [merely having] a son and a wife. (47)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, daily bathing is one of the compulsory duties for everyone. Specially if its done at the time when sun rises or just before that time then its considered as even more auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bathing in the morning, at the period of conjunction when the Sun&#xA;  rises, is equal to the [penitential rite of] Prajapatya in the&#xA;  destruction even of mighty iniquities. (11)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt; quotes Maharshi Vyasa as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa opines: Praatah kaaletu sampraapte kritvaa chaavashyakam budhah,&#xA;  Snaayaannadeeshu shuddhaasu shoucham kritvaa yadhaa vidhi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A virtuous person would perform his morning routine and then take&#xA;  bath in rivers or running water&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further it quotes Atri Muni as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atri explains further: Asnaataasheemalam bhuktehyajapah puyashonitam,&#xA;  Ahuutaashee krimim bhuktehyadaataa vishamashnute/ Snaana mulaah kriyaa&#xA;  sarvaah shrutismrityuditaa nrinaam, Asnaatastu pumaannaarhah&#xA;  japahomaadi karmasu/ Praatar madhyaahnoh snaanam vaanaprastha&#xA;  grihasthayoh, Yatestrishavanam snaanam sakruccha brahma chaarinaam/&#xA;  Sarvepi sakrit kuryuh Ashaktaochodakam vinaa, Saamardhyechaambu&#xA;  sadbhaave yathaa shastram hitat bhavet, Snaanam cha sarva varnaanaam&#xA;  kaaryam shochaparassaram ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A person who is not bathed but eats food, that food is as bad as&#xA;  excretion&lt;/strong&gt;, just as a person does not meditate and eats food that&#xA;  food is as horrible as consuming blood; food without performing Agni&#xA;  Homa is stated to eating worms and food without daana is to be&#xA;  considered as poisonous! Both Grihastaas and Vaanaprasthaas ought to&#xA;  take bath twice in the morning and evening, Sanyasis thrice and&#xA;  Brahmacharis on ‘sakrit’ basis or as when water is unavailable or not&#xA;  possible physically beyond the minimum a day. In fact, this clause of&#xA;  Sakrit is available to all, but subject to one’s own ability and&#xA;  shortage of water the escape clause is not applicable. &lt;strong&gt;In any case,&#xA;  the first bath in the morning is compulsory!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, if one is ill then he can either do a rub/sponge with wet towel or take a warm water bath. Both are prescribed in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-04-30T05:05:51.057" LastActivityDate="2017-04-30T05:05:51.057" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18095" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18099" CreationDate="2017-04-29T21:12:16.760" Score="6" ViewCount="5490" Body="&lt;p&gt;Charama means peak or climax, the Shloka which is given by Bhagwan as a climax to a great Dialogue and contains essence of Sharanagati(to he Lotus feet of Shriman Narayana) like BG 18.66.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now there are various Charma Shlokas the most famous Shloka is from Bhagwad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः।।18.66।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of Dharma, and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-66/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.66&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Relinquishing all Dharma means the complete relinquishment of the sense of agency, possessiveness, fruits etc,. while practising of Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga in the instructed way, and the realising of Me as the agent and object of worship namely the means and the end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question : &lt;strong&gt;How many types of Vaishnava Charma Shlokas are listed in Scriptures&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-04-30T09:35:10.250" Title="How many types of Vaishnava Charama Shloka(s) exist?" Tags="|scripture|bhagavad-gita|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|sharanagati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18097" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9291" CreationDate="2017-04-30T03:34:13.527" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Shaivites do believe in higher than SadaShiva also. Tirumantiram written by Tirumular is one of the oldest texts considered as authoritative by Shaiva Siddhantin. Tirumular is also one among 63 Nayanars and also among 18 Siddhars.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In his work &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumantiram&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumantiram:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;1) Tirumular states Ultimate state of Jiva is beyond SadaShiva also:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2374 The Ultimate State in Jiva&amp;apos;s Journey &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Beyond Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Beyond Maheswara and Sadashiva,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Beyond Para Bindu and Para Nada, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Beyond Tattvas Thirty and Six, When all these are transcended, &lt;strong&gt;The Jiva is left alone with Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Tirumular states &lt;strong&gt;SadaShiva also has one Mala (impurity) called Anava:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2183 Number of Malas for the Five Gods &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Five are the Malas For Brahma on the Lotus Bloom, Anava (Egoity) and the rest; (Anava, Maya, Karma, Mayeyam and Tirodayi) Four are the Malas for Vishnu; Anava and others (Mayeyam devoid) Three for Rudra, Anava and Others (Mayeyam and Tirodayi devoid); Two for Mahesa Anava and Karma; &lt;strong&gt;One alone for Sadashiva--Anava.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Tirumular states &lt;strong&gt;SadaShiva is born of Anava Shakti:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;398: The Five Gods Were Born of Anava Sakti&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Out of the union of Anava Sakti with Bindu&lt;/strong&gt; The Five Gods were born. Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, &lt;strong&gt;Sadasiva&lt;/strong&gt; and Maheswara. For the five acts to perform-- Creation, preservation, destruction, obscuration and redemption-- As One from the other in causative succession; Born as they were of the Anava Sakti, Of Anava they were not rid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;400: The Five Gods Were the Primal Family for Five Duties to Perform &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;From out of Anava Sakti Arose the Primal Family; Sadasiva was the First Born;&lt;/strong&gt; With Him came the brothers Maheswara, Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma-- Each to perform on heaven and earth His allotted function--Creation, Preservation and the rest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4) Tirumular talks of &lt;strong&gt;various higher manifestations like Para Shiva, Paramam etc..&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2285 Further Beyond Para Siva State is Paramam, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Paramparam and Para Maha Sivam &lt;strong&gt;Beyond Para Siva is Paramam ; Beyond Paramam is Paramparam&lt;/strong&gt;; Thus are states ascending; From Para Siva Jagra, to Para Siva Svapna, and to Para Siva Sushupti The Jiva that has Para Siva become reaches The Finite Truth that is Para Nandi. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2286 Nine &lt;strong&gt;Manifestations of Para Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Pertaining to Para Siva Are the (Para) Sakti, &#xA;  Para Nada and Para Bindu; And &lt;strong&gt;Sadasiva,&lt;/strong&gt; Brahma, and Hari; Rudra the Lord of Devas, And Mahesvara to count.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, SadaShiva is also called the manifestation of ParaShiva and there are also higher states than ParaShiva as described above. Maybe the term Sakshat Shiva used in the Shiva Purana corresponds to ParaShiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-04-30T13:32:31.717" LastActivityDate="2017-04-30T13:32:31.717" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18099" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18095" CreationDate="2017-04-30T06:25:33.807" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are the Charama Shlokas listed by the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Chinna Jeeyar Swami in &lt;a href=&quot;http://jetuk.org/2016/01/04/charama-slokas/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SRI:RA:MA CHARAMA SLO:KAM&#xA;  sakrude:va prapanna:ya thava:smi:thi cha ya:chathe: |&#xA;  abhayam sarvabhu:the:bhyo: dada:mye:thad vratham mama ||&#xA;  mithrabha:ve:na sampraptham na thyaje:yam katthamchana |&#xA;  do:sho: yadyapi thasya sya:th satha: me:tha dagarhitham ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SI:THA: CHARAMA SLO:KAM&#xA;  pa:pa:na:m va subha:na:m va: vadha:rha:na:m plavamgama! |&#xA;  ka:ryam karuna ma:rye:na na kaschin na:apara:dhyathi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VARA:HA CHARAMA SLO:KAM&#xA;  stthithe: manasi susvastthe: sari:re: sathi yo: naraha |&#xA;  dha:thusa:mye: stthithe: smartha: visvaru:pam cha ma:majam ||&#xA;  thathastham mriyama:nam thu ka:shta pa:sha:na sannibham |&#xA;  aham smara:mi madbhaktham naya:mi parama:m gathim ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SRI: NA:RASIMHA CHARAMA SLO:KAM&#xA;  sathyam bravi:mi manuja:ha svayamu:rdhva bahuhu&#xA;  yo: ma:m muku:nda narasimha jana:rdane:thi |&#xA;  ji:van japathynu dinam marane: runi:va&#xA;  pa:sha:na ka:shta sadru:sa:ya dada:mi mukthim ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SRI:RANGA CHARAMA SLO:KAM&#xA;  Ma:me:va:anusmarasva thvam thva:maham samsmara:mi cha |&#xA;  Upa:ya mapavargasya rahasya mapi me: srunu ||&#xA;  Sarva karma:ni santhyajya sarva karma phala:ni cha |&#xA;  Saranam ma:m prapdyasva sarva bandha vimukthaye: ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SRI: SUDARSANA CHARAMA SLO:KAM&#xA;  Sudarsana! Maha:jva:la! Ko:ti su:rya samaprabha! |&#xA;  Agjnya:na:ndhasya me: de:va vishno:rma:rgam pradarsaya ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SRI: PA:NCHAJANYA CHARAMA SLO:KAM&#xA;  Pa:nchajanya nijadhva:na dhvastha pa:thaka samchaya |&#xA;  Pa:hi ma:m pa:pinam gho:ra samsa:ra:rnava pa:thinam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rama Charama Shloka is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga18/yuddhasans18.htm#Verse38&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 18 verse 33&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana.  And the Sita Charama Shloka is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga113/yuddhasans113.htm#Verse51&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 113 verse 46&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana.  I'm pretty sure the Varaha Charama Shloka is from a dialogue between Varaha and Bhumidevi in the Varaha Purana.  The Panchajanya and Sudarshana Charama Shlokas are chanted when metal brands of the Shankha and Chakra are placed on the shoulders during Samashrayanam, the initiation ritual into Pancharatra, so they're probably from the Pancharatra Agamas.  I'm not sure where the rest are from, but I can keep looking.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-04-30T06:31:02.217" LastActivityDate="2017-04-30T06:31:02.217" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18100" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-30T06:57:12.617" Score="3" ViewCount="169" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across a story in which once Brihaspati left Indra and due to that Indra appointed another Brahmin for a Yagna and since he was half Asur (born from Asur mother, therefore, he made Yagna  Aahuti in favour of Asuras. When Indra came to know of this he killed him and but then Indra got the sin of Bramha-Hatya. This story I have read many times and I think the one killed was Sage Twastha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the story doesn't end here, I have read somewhere now that Indra did Penance for 1 lakh years but still to be free from the sin he has to pass it to Plants, Water, Earth and Women. They all accepted to take away part of his sin and get a boon in favour of that. It was mentioned that due to this reason the women have periods every month. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the summary text that I have read about this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&#xA;भागवत पुराण के अनुसर एक बार ब्रहस्पती जो देवताओं के गुरु थे, इंद्र से नाराज़ हो गए. इस के चलते असुरों ने देवलोक पर आक्रमण कर दिया और इंद्र को अपनी गद्दी छोड कर भागना पडा. इंद्र मदद मंगने के लीए ब्रह्मा के पास पहुँचे. ब्रह्मा जी ने इंद्र को बताया की उसे एक ब्रह्म-ज्ञानी की सेवा करके ब्रहसपती को वापस प्रसन्न करना पड़ेगा.&#xA;इंद्र एक ब्रहम-ज्ञानी की सेवा में जी-जान से जुट गया. लेकिन उस ज्ञानी की माता एक असुर थी इसलिए उसके मन में असुराओं के लीए एक विशेष स्थान था. हवन की सामग्री जो देवताओं को चढाई जाती है, वह ज्ञानी उसे असुरों को चढा रहा था, यह देख इंद्र के गुस्से का ठिकाना ना रहा और उसने उस ब्रह्म-ज्ञानी की हत्या कर डाली.&#xA;क्योंकी इंद्र ने उस ब्रह्म-ज्ञानी को अपना गुरु माना था इसलिए इंद्र के उपर ब्रह्म-हत्या-पताखा का पाप आ गाया. ये पाप एक भयानक राक्षशी के रूप में इंद्र का पिछा करने लगा. किसी तराह इंद्र ने खुद को एक फुल के अंदर छुपाया और एक लाख साल तक भगवान विष्णु की तपस्या की. विष्णु की कृपा से वह उस राक्षशी से तो मुक्ति पा गया पर ब्रह्म-हत्या का पाप अब भी इंद्र के सर था.&#xA;अपने सर से यह पाप हटाने के लीए और अपना राज्य वापस पाने के लिये इंद्र ने पेड, जल, भूमि और स्त्री से अपने पाप का थोडा थोडा हिस्सा लेने का आग्रह किया. सभी राज़ी हो गए पर इस शर्त पर की इंद्र का पाप लेने पर उनको कोई वरदन भी मिलना चाहिये. सबसे पहले पेडों के राजा ने एक-चोथाई पाप लिया जिसके कारण पेडों के तनों अक्सर रिस्ते हैं. वरदान स्वरूप इंद्र ने कहा की कोई भी पेड अपने आपका दुअबरा उगा सकता है/जीवित कर सकता है.&#xA;दूसरे नंबर पर था जल. जल ने इंद्र का पाप लिया तो पश्चाताप स्वरूप जो झाग/बुलबुले पानी के उपर बन जाता हैं वे अपवित्र हो गये. वरदान स्वरूप इंद्र ने जल को सब चीज़ों को पवित्र करने की शक्ति दे डी. यही कारण हैं की पूजा पाठ के कामों में जल का इस्तमाल होता है. फिर नंबर था भूमि का, पाप लेने के कारण भूमि की कई हिस्से बंजर हो गाए और वरदान स्वरूप धरती पर आई कोई भी चोट हमेशा भर जाती है.&#xA;फिर स्त्री की बारी आई. इंद्र का बचा हुआ पाप लेने के कारण, पश्चाताप स्वरूप हर महीन स्त्रीयों को मासिक धर्म होता है और वरदान के रूप में इंद्र ने कहा की &quot;महिलायें, पुरुषों से कई गुना ज्यादा काम का आनंद उठाएंगी. हिन्दू धर्म के अनुसर मासिक धर्म के दौरान महिलायें ब्रह्म-हत्या का पाप ढो रही होती हैं, अपने गुरु की हत्या का पाप और गुरु के बीना भगवान नहीं मिलते इसलिए महिलाओं को मन्दिर नहीं जना चाहिये.&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone please tell me where is the latter part of story mentioned? The story says it is from Bhagavata purana, but can anyone please let me know the exact line no.s where this is mentioned. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit: As I stated in comments, can anyone please confirm whether it is written in texts that this is the reason why women are not allowed in temples/religious ceremonies or customs during their mensuration periods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2017-05-01T12:16:47.143" LastActivityDate="2017-05-01T12:16:47.143" Title="Where is it mentioned about story and reason for women periods (menstruation) in our religious texts?" Tags="|women|indra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2017-05-01T09:36:31.967" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18101" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-30T11:50:42.090" Score="2" ViewCount="91" Body="&lt;p&gt;If yes means what were they born as?  Somewhere I heard that Arjuna reincarnated as kannappa nayanar in Kali yuga. Whether this is true? I want to know about the rebirth of all pandavas and kauravas. Not just Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-04-30T14:12:51.127" LastActivityDate="2017-04-30T14:12:51.127" Title="Were pandavas and kauravas reborn after their death?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-04-30T12:51:39.483" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18102" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-30T13:32:13.130" Score="6" ViewCount="637" Body="&lt;p&gt;I find it fascinating that the Indraloka been referred to in very many puranic episodes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I for one believe it is quite a terrestrial place, not so high up in the skies as picturized in so many old films and neither can it be pure imagination. During slaying of Ravana by Rama the former said he regretted postponing construction of a stairway to Indraloka and advised Rama not to postpone important things.Indraloka may perhaps be on top of a remote tall mountain in the middle of an ocean perhaps not normally accessible even in those days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayodhya, Sri Lanka, Dwarka have their locations identified now.The Rama Sethu to Sri Lanka exists now and even visible by satellite or Dwarka by underwater &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SONAR&lt;/a&gt;. Their existence and location was common knowledge in those days spread merely by word of mouth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/search?q=ahobilam&amp;amp;tbm=isch&amp;amp;imgil=JmswEnFIjPDqwM%253A%253B36jqv-URKWX4YM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Ftemple-of-secrets.blogspot.com%25252F2013%25252F09%25252Fahobilam-nava-narasimha-temples.html&amp;amp;source=iu&amp;amp;pf=m&amp;amp;fir=JmswEnFIjPDqwM%253A%252C36jqv-URKWX4YM%252C_&amp;amp;usg=__E6v-zp1cPXjKo9vtq3t0GyKXHAo%3D&amp;amp;biw=1221&amp;amp;bih=566&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjRxo2OwczTAhUeS48KHf-fAfYQyjcIPA&amp;amp;ei=eQQGWZGmEJ6WvQT_v4awDw#tbm=isch&amp;amp;q=ahobilam%20temples&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ahobilam Temples&lt;/a&gt; are so ancient are well charted and even today remain places of pilgrimage. Their location spread just by popular word of mouth in those times. Modern information systems can benefit Faith with help from visually verified belief. While increasing tourism of today we can combine recreation and spirituality as desirable punyam &amp;amp; purushartham destinations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a recent video SubramaniaSwamy said that &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0aqzd7d9PY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ravana &amp;amp; Mandodari are of North-Indian Origin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Video references Ravana as from village Basrak near Noida U.P., video time 34m 24s and Mandodari from near Meerut U.P., video time 34-49. Also &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om1yTuV7PaU&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ravana &amp;amp; Mandodari&lt;/a&gt; at 10 min 55 secs. Any historical references available, that they are not native Sri Lankans but originate from towns in far away India ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2020-03-11T14:48:44.100" LastActivityDate="2020-03-11T14:48:44.100" Title="Mythology geographic location of Indraloka.. Ravana and Mandodari nativity" Tags="|ravana|lokas|geography|mandodari|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18103" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-30T17:51:45.147" Score="4" ViewCount="915" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Shaivite&quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, Iyer Brahmins are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to philosophical Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is related to a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta.  Just as the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the Alwars, the Shaiva Siddhanta sect is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the Nayanars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the reason why it's called Shaiva &lt;em&gt;Siddhanta&lt;/em&gt; is because of the Nyaya school's terminology of Purvapaksha and Siddhanta.  In any argument the Purvapaksha is the opponent's position, and the Siddhanta is the final conclusion that refutes the Purvapaksha position.  The Shaiva Siddhanta sect considers all other schools of philosophy to be Purvapaksha positions, and considers itself to be the ultimate Siddhanta which refutes all of them.  In that context, it classifies philosophical schools into different categories according to how closely they agree with Shaiva Siddhanta.  As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/JWvKk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from K. Sivaraman's book &lt;em&gt;Shaivism in Philosophical Perspective&lt;/em&gt;, the categories are the outermost group, the outer group, the inner-outer group, and the inner group.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The outermost group consists of Nastika schools like Buddhism, Jainism, and Charvaka.  The outer group consists of the six Astika schools.  The inner-outer group consists of Shaivite sects like Pashupata and Kapalika that follow Agamas and consider Shiva supreme, but don't follow the specific Agamas which go by the name &quot;Shaiva&quot; and thus don't recognize the concept of Mala or impurity.  And the inner group consists of Shaivite sects which specifically follow Agamas that are called &quot;Shaiva Agamas&quot; and thereby recognize Mala, but which still disagree with Shaiva Siddhanta in some way.  Here are the sects listed by Sivaraman as comprising the inner group:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The schools with which Shaiva Siddhanta has closest affinity are six in number - Pashanavada, Bhedavada, Shivasamavada, Shivasankrantavada, Avikaravada, Nimittokarana-Parinamavada (Shivadvaita).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the last one is recognizable; I think it refers to the Shivadvaita philosophy of Srikantha Sivacharya, who subscribed to the Vedanta school in contrast to most Shaiva Siddhantins who reject Vedanta.  But my question is, what are the other five Shaivite sects listed in the inner group of Shaiva Siddhanta?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sivaraman provides some additional information in a &lt;a href=&quot;https://image.ibb.co/cODVFk/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;footnote&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sometimes a Shuddhashaiva-vada is added to the list and the first two, namely pashana-vada and bheda-vada, identified bringing the total again to six.  Mapadiam p. 44 (Cf. also the Agamic citation: &quot;shaivabhedam pravakshyami, aikyapashanavadinau bhedavadi samavadi sankranti cha'vikaravan parinami cha shaivascha siddhanti parairitah&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does anyone know any details about these sects, like who founded them, what do they believe, and which of them if any still exist?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-07T09:06:34.583" LastActivityDate="2017-05-07T09:06:34.583" Title="What Shaivite sects are classified as the ingroup of Shaiva Siddhanta?" Tags="|philosophy|shaivism|sects|agamas|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18104" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-30T20:57:55.097" Score="2" ViewCount="1197" Body="&lt;p&gt;In jyotisha, Budha and Shukra are best friends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story and reason behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-04-30T20:57:55.097" Title="Why are Budha and Shukra friends?" Tags="|scripture|astrology|navagraha|shukra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18105" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-04-30T21:24:46.553" Score="9" ViewCount="363" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did other schools of Indian philosophy respond to &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha.by.Madhavacharya-Vidyaranya.tr.by.E.B.Cowell#page/n19/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this argument&lt;/a&gt; by the Cārvākas with regard to animal sacrifice as part of a yajña?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a beast slain in the Jyotishtoma rite will itself go to heaven, &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Why then does not the sacrificer forthwith offer his own father?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why isn't a human offered (more frequently) in place of an animal in a sacrifice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2023-01-15T10:14:59.030" Title="What's the response to the Cārvāka thought on animal sacrifice in a yajña?" Tags="|philosophy|animals|yajna|sacrifice|charvaka|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="27" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18107" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18066" CreationDate="2017-05-01T03:53:17.367" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The very thing Nitya karma is related to the specific branch or sects to which an individual belongs. If he does not belong to any sect (without initiation) the right thing for him is to get initiated soon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because every text to be followed for nitya karma is linked to a particular sect and is done after initiation only. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one is not initiated he can continue to lead a righteous life by following injunctions of smritis and dharma shastras. However, vedas ask people to get initiated and start worship and continue until the death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, verses of Vedas ask everyone irrespective of gender and caste to worship the agni. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“uthishtatha maaswapta agni michadhvam bharataaha” (YV) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;meaning: “O people of Bharath! awake, don’t be asleep, yearn for&#xA;  Agni”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another place, vedas ask the followers to spread the message to others too. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथेमां वाचं कल्याणीमावदानि जनेयः। ब्रह्म राजन्यायां शूद्राय, चार्याय च&#xA;  स्वाय चारणायच।। – यजुः अ. 26-2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as I am speaking these blessed words to people (without&#xA;  distinction), in the same way you also spread these words among all&#xA;  men and women – the Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, Shudras and all&#xA;  others, whether they be our own people or aliens(foreigners).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence those desirous of nitya karma should find a proper path and get initiated and continue the nitya anushthana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even non initiates are engaged in some kind of regular worship but it cant be strictly called as nitya karma because the set of rituals are self decided and may not be in a specific sequence as described in the shastras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-01T05:00:44.407" LastActivityDate="2017-05-01T05:00:44.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18108" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18036" CreationDate="2017-05-01T04:04:44.797" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The official definition of Dharma is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;prabhāvārthāya bhūtānāṃ dharmapravacanaṃ kṛtam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;yat syād ahiṃsāsaṃyuktaṃ sa dharma iti niścayaḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dhāraṇād dharma ity āhur dharmeṇa vidhṛtāḥ prajāḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;yat syād dhāraṇa saṃyuktaṃ sa dharma iti niścayaḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Righteousness was declared (by Brahman) for the advancement and growth of all creatures. Therefore, that which leads to advancement and growth is Righteousness. Righteousness was declared for restraining creatures from injuring one another. Therefore, that is righteousness which prevents injury to creatures. Righteousness (dharma) is so called because it upholds all creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Mahābhārata, Śānti-parva, Bhīṣma responding to Yudhiṣṭhira&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It comes with a disclaimer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tādṛśo 'yam anupraśno yatra dharmaḥ sudurvacaḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;duṣkaraḥ pratisaṃkhyātuṃ tarkeṇātra vyavasyati&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The question ('How should a person act who desires to adhere to virtue?') you have asked me is a difficult one, since it is difficult to say what righteousness is. It is not easy to indicate it. No one in discoursing upon righteousness, can indicate it accurately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kṛṣṇa defines it in a similar manner:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dhāraṇād dharmam ity āhur dharmo dhārayati prajāḥ&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;yaḥ syād dhāraṇa saṃyuktaḥ sa dharma iti niścayaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharma protects and preserves the people. So it is the conclusion of the pandits that what maintains is Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Mahābhārata, Karṇa-parva, Kṛṣṇa speaking to Arjuna&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanada_(philosopher)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaṇāda&lt;/a&gt; in his &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vai%C5%9Be%E1%B9%A3ika_S%C5%ABtra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaiśeṣika Sūtras&lt;/a&gt; defines dharma &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/4/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;as&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यतोऽभ्युदयनिःश्रेयससिद्धिः स धर्मः ॥ १ । १ । २ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharma (is) that from which (results) the accomplishment of Exaltation and of the Supreme Good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That which leads to the attainment of Abhyudaya (prosperity in this world) and Niḥśreyasa (total cessation of pain and attainment of eternal bliss hereafter) is Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-05-01T04:04:44.797" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18109" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18113" CreationDate="2017-05-01T06:34:43.360" Score="8" ViewCount="1782" Body="&lt;p&gt;.........&amp;quot;The Atri Smriti also mentions homosexuality as a sin and prescribes an expiation measure for the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By discharging semen into inhuman females except a cow&lt;/strong&gt;, into a woman in [her] menses, into others that have no female organs (i.e., a man or a eunuch), or into water one should perform the penance of Santapanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Atri Smriti, Chapter 1, Verse 268)&amp;quot;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Taken from Rickross' &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8744/vedas-and-vedic-dharma-on-homosexuality/15520#15520&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why a man should not be discharging semen in inhuman females &amp;quot;except for cow&amp;quot;? Can a man discharge semen in a cow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="30315" LastEditDate="2023-07-17T13:37:31.700" LastActivityDate="2023-07-17T13:37:31.700" Title="Relations with Cows?" Tags="|scripture|smriti|cows|sex|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18110" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-01T07:39:30.817" Score="5" ViewCount="233" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shaiva Siddhanta is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the 63 Nāyanārs . One of those 63 Nāyanārs is Saint Tirumūlar and also one of the 18 Siddhars and also a Yogi himself. His work &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumantiram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumantiram&lt;/a&gt; is the tenth of the twelve volumes of the Tirumurai, the key texts of Shaiva Siddhanta. He is the first one to use to the term &lt;em&gt;Shaiva Siddhanta&lt;/em&gt; in his works.  My question is not about the text but the invocatory verse to Vināyaka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the English translation to  Tirumūlar's work Tirumantiram, there is an invocatory verse to Ganesha, it is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://shaivam.org/thirumurai/tenth-thirumurai/298/thirumoolar-nayanar-thirumandiram-payiram-kadavul-vazhthu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Original verse&lt;/a&gt; in Tamil (Thanks to TheDestroyer for finding it)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;விநாயகர் காப்பு &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ஐந்து கரத்தனை யானை முகத்தனை &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  இந்தின் இளம்பிறை போலும் எயிற்றனை &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;நந்தி மகன்தனை&lt;/strong&gt; ஞானக் கொழுந்தினைப் &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  புந்தியில் வைத்தடி போற்றுகின் றேனே. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vināyakar kāppu&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  aintu karattaṉai yāṉai mukattaṉai&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  intiṉ iḷampiṟai pōlum eyiṟṟaṉai&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;nanti makaṉtaṉai&lt;/strong&gt; ñāṉak koḻuntiṉaip&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  puntiyil vaittaṭi pōṟṟukiṉ ṟēṉē.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.himalayanacademy.com/view/tirumantiram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;English translation&lt;/a&gt; to  Tirumūlar's work Tirumantiram, there is an invocatory verse to Ganesha, it is: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who has the five hands and the elephant's face,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Whose tusk is even as the crescent moon,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The son of Nandi&lt;/strong&gt;, the Flower of Wisdom,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Him I cherish in thought, His feet adore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PiCyT.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/PiCyT.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is already a question about Ganesha having five hands - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16621/5212&quot;&gt;What scriptures describe Ganesha having five hands?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is Vināyaka called as Son of Nandi here?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-04T08:46:17.800" LastActivityDate="2018-09-04T08:46:17.800" Title="Which scriptures describe Vināyaka as son of Nandi?" Tags="|ganesha|shaivism|shaiva-siddhanta|nandi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18112" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24571" CreationDate="2017-05-01T13:55:37.847" Score="9" ViewCount="1575" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any reference of temple of lord in the time of Satya Yuga?&#xA;Around that time people used to worship which God/Goddess?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8031" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T03:40:02.873" LastActivityDate="2018-02-23T08:18:44.917" Title="Were there any temples in Satya yuga?" Tags="|gods|temple|worship|yuga|goddess|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18113" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18109" CreationDate="2017-05-01T15:13:28.950" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is forbidden.  Intercourse with all animals is forbidden, it's just that the Prayaschitta required is more arduous in the case of a cows than in the case of another animal.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=MC-IK69vF84C&amp;amp;dq=%22into%20inhuman%20females%20except%20a%20cow%22&amp;amp;pg=PA318#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Atri Smriti says in context:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prajapatya is laid down for holding sexual intercourse with a beast, or with a harlot. &lt;strong&gt;By holding intercourse with a cow, one should perform a Chandrayana spoken of by Manu.&lt;/strong&gt; By discharging semen into inhuman females except a cow, into a woman in [her] menses, into others that have no female organs (i.e., a man or a eunuch), or into water one should perform the penance of Santapanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-05-01T15:13:28.950" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18114" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18092" CreationDate="2017-05-01T15:47:01.897" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is how B. Natarajan explains the numbers 1 through 8 in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/W76f&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his translation of Tirumular's Tirumantiram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The One&lt;/strong&gt; - The Uncreated Eternal Being-Sivam. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Two&lt;/strong&gt; - Siva/Sakti. Sakti is the dynamic aspect of static Sivam. She confers grace on the Jivas. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Three&lt;/strong&gt; - Triads are many: Primal Sakti evolves into three subsidiary Saktis: Iccha (desire), Jnana (knowledge) and Kriya (action);  &lt;br&gt; the three Gods - Brahma or Aya (of creation), Vishnu or Mal (of preservation) and Siva or Rudra (of dissolution); &lt;br&gt; the three primal gunas-Rajas, Tamas and Sattvas; &lt;br&gt; the entire creation represented by the three genders, he, she and it; &lt;br&gt; the three theological categories-pati, pasu and pasam. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Four&lt;/strong&gt; - the four Vedas: Rk. Yajus, Sarna, AtluJrvana; &lt;br&gt; the four steps to God­ realization: Charya and Kriya, Yoga and Jnana. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Five&lt;/strong&gt; - the five senses; &lt;br&gt; the five acts: creation, preservation, dissolution, obfuscation and liberation. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Six&lt;/strong&gt; - the six schools of philosophy; the six Adhvas or steps to final realization: padam (sound), ez.huthu (letter), mantram (syllable), kalai (light), tattvam (principles ofmatter), and bhuvanam (world); &lt;br&gt; the six adharas or plexuses (chakras) : muladhara, svadhisthana, manipuraka, anahata, visuddhi, ajna.  &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Seven&lt;/strong&gt; - the seven worlds: Bhuloka, Bhuvarloka, Svarloka, Maharloka, Tapoloka, Satyaloka, and Sivaloka For an elaborate and esoteric account of the lokas (worlds), see the Vishnu, Bhagavata, Vaya and other Puranas. See also Introduction to Tantra Sastra by Sir John Woodroffe (Ganesh &amp;amp; Co., Madras) pp. 25 ff.; the seventh chakra, sahasrara, located above the cranium. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Eight&lt;/strong&gt; - pervasiveness through earth, water, fire, air, sky, sun, moon and Jiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-05-02T00:49:34.503" LastActivityDate="2017-05-02T00:49:34.503" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18115" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18109" CreationDate="2017-05-01T16:07:41.393" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Oh ok just now realised what you are actually  asking. What Atri Smriti is saying is , that (santapana) is the punishment for having unnatural sexual intercourse with any female animals except a cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case of a similar offence against a cow, the punishment is even more severe. And this is mentioned in just the previous verse of the same chapter. I am giving both the verses here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prajapatya is- laid down for holding sexual intercourse with a beast,&#xA;  or with a harlot. &lt;strong&gt;By holding intercourse with a cow, one should&#xA;  perform- a Chandrayana spoken of by Manu.&lt;/strong&gt; (267)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By discharging semen into inhuman females except a cow, into a woman&#xA;  in [her] menses, into others that have no female organs ( a man&#xA;  or a eunuch), or into water one should perform the penance of&#xA;  Santapanam. (268)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri smriti, Chapter 1, Verses 267, 268.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Santapana is relatively a lot  easy to perform. Whereas, Chandrayana is a much more difficult prayaschitta or penance which involves prolonged fasting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Definitions of Chandrayana and Samtapana penances from Manu Smriti are given below:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.212. (Subsisting on) the urine of cows, cowdung, milk, sour milk, clarified butter, and a decoction of Kusagrass, and fasting during one&#xA;  (day and) night, (that is) called a Samtapana Krikkhra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.216. If one diminishes (one’s food daily by) one mouthful during the dark (half of the month) and increases (it in the same manner)&#xA;  during the bright half, and bathes (daily) at the time of three&#xA;  libations (morning, noon, and evening), that is called a lunar penance&#xA;  (Chandrayana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-02T12:25:15.903" LastActivityDate="2017-05-02T12:25:15.903" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18117" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9291" CreationDate="2017-05-01T18:20:20.747" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;See in the pic given. According to Kashmiri Shaivism, Time is the product of Māyā Tattva &amp;amp; it's Kankukas (&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/17655/8696&quot;&gt;Read here&lt;/a&gt;). Therefore, there is no time for the beings higher than Māyā Tattva so no relative relationship can be asserted among them regarding time. Time is felt/experienced by the beings from Māyā Tattva, not Sadashiva or Maheshvara ( = Shiva + Shakti).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qyuEH.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qyuEH.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Cosmology in Kashmiri Shaivism.&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-05-01T18:20:20.747" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18118" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-02T02:42:08.007" Score="4" ViewCount="255" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most prominent thinker associated with the Advaita Vedanta school is Adi Shankaracharaya, but he wasn't the founder of Advaita; Adi Shankaracharaya's guru Govinda and Govinda's guru Gaudapada were also Advaitins.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7084/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Gaudapada is famous for his Karika or commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad, which you can read here.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In chapter 2 of the Mandukya Karika, Gaudapada says that although Brahman is the ultimate reality, people of different philosophical schools conceive reality as a variety of different things due to their Avidya.  In particular, he says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mandukya-upanishad-karika-bhashya/d/doc143659.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pañcaviṃśaka ityeke ṣaḍviśa iti cāpare | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  ekatriṃśaka ityāhurananta iti cāpare ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some say that the Reality consists of twenty-five categories, others twenty-six, while there are others who conceive It as consisting of thirty-one categories and lastly &lt;strong&gt;people are not wanting who think such categories to be infinite&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me explain what Gaudapada is saying (as described in Anandagiri's Tika or subcommentary).  Kapila's Samkhya school believes in 25 Tattvas or elements: 24 evolutes of Prakriti (matter/energy) along with Purushas or souls.  Patanjali's Yoga school believes in 26 Tattvas because it adds Ishwara or the supreme being to the Samkhya worldview.  The Pashupata sect of Shaivism believes in 31 Tattvas, because it adds 6 evolutes of Prakriti to the Samkhya worldview, most prominently Kala or time.  And although Gaudapada doesn't mention it, followers of the Shaiva and Shakta Agamas believe in 36 Tattvas, because they add five more Tattvas to the Pashupata worldview, most prominently various types of Mala or impurity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, what school of philosophy believes in an infinite number of Tattvas?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And does this school believe in an infinite number of evolutes of Prakriti, or does it believe in finitely many evolutes of Prakriti and infinitely many non-Prakriti elements, similar to Purusha and Ishwara?  Do any commentaries on Gaudapada's Karika shed light on this?  As I noted above Anandagiri's Tika discusses other parts of the verse but not the infinite Tattvas part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-02T17:13:09.607" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T06:14:20.940" Title="What school of philosophy believes in an infinite number of Tattvas?" Tags="|philosophy|advaita|shaivism|sankhya|gaudapada|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18121" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17724" CreationDate="2017-05-02T06:58:24.140" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, according to Advaita, there is no difference in Atman and Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to ignorance Atman tastes the fruit of Karma and believes him as occupying the subtle body but when he realize that I'm Atman, upon clearing the ignorance, became free from grief (bondage of samsara) and became grateful. So, Here one bird refers to Jiva with ignorance and other refers to realized Atman.&lt;sup&gt;Note1&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is Adi Shankaracharya's commentary on following verses of Mundaka Upanihad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तयोरन्यः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नन्नन्यो अभिचाकशीति ॥ १ ॥&lt;sup&gt;Note2&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mundaka-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145122.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shankara’s Commentary:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Com.—The Para vidya has been explained, by which the immortal ‘purusa’ or the Truth could be known, by whose knowledge the cause of Samsara, such as the knot of the heart, etc., can be totally destroyed. Yoga which is the means to the realization of the Brahman has also been explained by an illustration “taking the bow and the rest.” Now the subsequent portion is intended to inculcate the auxiliary helps to that yoga, as truth, etc. Chiefly, the truth is here determined by another mode, as it is extremely difficult to realize it. Here, though already [Page 65] done, a mantra (brief) as an aphorism is introduced for the purpose of ascertaining the absolute entity. Suparnau, two of good motion or two birds; (the “word Suparna” being used to denote birds generally); Sayujau inseparable, constant, companions; Sakhayau, bearing the same name or having the same cause of manifestation. Being thus, they are perched on the same tree (‘same,’ because the place where they could be perceived is identical). ‘Tree’ here means ‘body;’ because of the similitude in their liability to be cut or destroyed. Parishasvajate, embraced; just as birds go to the same tree for tasting the fruits. This tree as is well known has its root high up (i.e., in Brahman) and its branches (prana, etc..) downwards; it is transitory and has its source in Avyakta (maya). It is named Kshetra and in it bang the fruits of the karma of all living things. &lt;strong&gt;It is here that the Atman, conditioned in the subtle body to which ignorance, desire, karma and their unmanifested tendencies cling, and Isvara are perched like birds.&lt;/strong&gt; Of these two so perched, one, i.e., kshetrajna occupying the subtle body eats, i.e., tastes from ignorance the fruits of karma marked as happiness and misery, palatable in many and diversified modes; the other, i.e., the lord, eternal, [Page 66] pure, intelligent and free in his nature, omniscient and conditioned by maya does not eat; for, lie is the director of both the eater and the thing eaten, by the fact of Ids mere existence as the eternal witness (of all); not tasting, he merely looks on; for, his mere witnessing is direction, as in the case of a king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaita explanation get clear from Adi Shankaracharya's Bhashya on next verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समाने वृक्षे पुरुषो निमग्नोऽनिशया शोचति मुह्यमानः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जुष्टं यदा पश्यत्यन्यमीशमस्य महिमानमिति वीतशोकः ॥ २ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mundaka-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145123.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shankara’s Commentary:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Com.—In this state of things, the &lt;strong&gt;Jiva, i.e., the enjoyer occupying the body as above described, under the heavy load of ignorance, desire and thirst for the fruits of Karma&lt;/strong&gt;, etc., sinks down like a bottle-gourd in the waters of the sea, is convinced beyond doubt that &lt;strong&gt;the body is the atman&lt;/strong&gt; and thinking that he is the son of this man or the great-grandson of that, lean or stout, with or without good qualities, is enjoying or suffering, and that there is none but him, is born, dies, is united with and parted from relations and kinsmen; therefore, he grieves from helplessness thus: “I am good for nothing; I have lost my son; my wife is dead; what [Page 67] avails my life” and so forth and is subject to anxiety from ignorance owing to numerous kinds of troubles; but when thus constantly degenerating in births, of pretas, beasts, men and the like, he happens, owing to the result of pure deeds stored up in many (previous) births to be instructed in the path of Yoga by some preceptor surpassingly compassionate and being qualified by abstinence from giving pain, truth speaking, continence, complete renunciation and control over the internal and external senses and with his mind concentrated, finds by dint of meditation, the other who is approached by different paths of Yoga and by the followers of Karma distinct from him, conditioned in the body, not subject to the bondage of Samsara, unaffected by hunger, thirst, grief, ignorance, decay and death and lord over all the universe and thinks thus: &lt;strong&gt;“I am the atman, alike in all, seated in every living thing and not the other, the illusory atman, enclosed under conditions created by ignorance and this glory—this universe is mine, the lord of all,”&lt;/strong&gt; then he becomes absolved from grief, i.e., is released entirely from the ocean of grief, i.e., his object is accomplished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note1: Actually both the Jiva and Ishwara (both birds) are illusive title due to ignorance, and in absolute there is only Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note2: This verse is found in both Mundaka and Shvetashvatar Upanishads and looks actually comes from Rigveda 1.164.20.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="16083" LastEditDate="2019-02-17T11:17:17.943" LastActivityDate="2019-02-17T11:17:17.943" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18122" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-02T10:34:12.873" Score="4" ViewCount="3041" Body="&lt;p&gt;I observed difference in Vedic and Puranic deities, worshiping methods and philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know is there any difference between Vedic Dharma and Hindu Dharma or Sanatan Dharma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And is there any sect or denomination of Hindu that are non-vedic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9649" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-05-02T15:58:29.840" LastActivityDate="2017-05-02T15:58:29.840" Title="Is there a difference between Vedic Dharma and Hindu Dharma or Sanatan Dharma?" Tags="|vedas|belief|philosophy|dharma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18123" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18122" CreationDate="2017-05-02T11:00:12.863" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a good question, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More or less most of the sects of Hinduism are in accordance with the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are right that Vedas focus more on the Vedic deities viz. Indra, Surya, Aditya, Agni, Prajapati, Varuna, Mitra etc. but the worship of these deities have declined in the past few centuries. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many are of the opinion that when Puranic deities became popular it affected the popularity of Vedic deities and people shifted to Puranic deities and puranic rituals which are relatively less complex than the Vedic. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedic dharma refers to following the tenets of the Vedas and living the life accordingly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To lead a life as prescribed by the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sridevinatha.org/vedic.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedas&lt;/a&gt;, here is the system to be followed by one and all:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Initiation into Gayathri Upasana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Study of the Vedas or understanding the messages given in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni upasana as part of Gayathri Upasana and vedic study (BRAHMACHARYA).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Getting into married life and continuing Agni Worship as a couple – Grahastha Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Offering one’s body in the fire worshipped by the couple (The concept behind the ritual followed for cremation in the present day)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatana Dharma is usually used as a synonym to the Vedic dharma. Hinduism is more of a broader term which has more focus on gee-cultural aspects. Hence Hindus means those who belong to the region around Sindhu river. There are many sects which have emerged in India. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Presently there are some sects like Veerashaiva and kapalika which do not directly subscribe to Vedas but consider the respective agamas as the final authority. However, the principles are more or less related to the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the past, Vratyas and people from Charvaka sect were considered as non-vedic.  Vratyas were group of wandering tribes with no specific religion or well organized rules. Charvaka was the materialism centered sect which gave utmost importance to materialism and did not bother about hell or heavens. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There were shramanic people too who existed during Vedic era and later they developed as non hindu sects like Jainism and buddhism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-05-02T11:00:12.863" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18124" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-02T12:51:50.893" Score="2" ViewCount="809" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hello I am hoping someone can put my curiosity to rest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now this might be an ignorant question but I have wondered about this for a long time without knowing who to ask. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When I worked in a shop about ten years ago a gentleman came in who I believe was a Hare Krishna. He appeared to be chanting under his breath and didn't speak to me directly at any point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What he wanted to do was touch my forehead and mumble something (prayer?), his thumb might have had some sort of powder on it. Now since he didn't speak to me I didn't know what he was doing or why so jerked my head away and backed off. He simply continued to chant, turned around and left the shop without saying anything else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are 1) What is the significance of touching someone on the forehead like this? 2) Is it normal practice to do this without explaining what you're doing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I believe he was a Hare Krishna is mainly because of his style of dress. It is conceivable this is a wrong assumption but I don't believe so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9650" LastActivityDate="2017-05-02T12:51:50.893" Title="What is the significance of touching someones forehead" Tags="|krishna|sects|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18125" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-02T16:51:18.363" Score="8" ViewCount="8642" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who composed the Mahishasura Mardini stotram?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was it Adi Sankaracharya ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9651" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-06T06:52:17.833" LastActivityDate="2023-12-13T06:32:29.310" Title="Who composed the Mahishasura Mardini stotram?" Tags="|durga|stotra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18126" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-02T18:21:45.487" Score="2" ViewCount="4912" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there occult powers attributed to chanting the holy Mahishasura Mardini stotram?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason behind asking this is -&#xA;1.  some mantras/shlokas are chanted for invoking the specific deity for general well-being.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2. And there are some that have more potency - giving much higher perception to one who chants.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Does Mahishasura Mardini stotram come under the second category?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9651" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-04T06:40:23.343" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T06:40:23.343" Title="Does chanting Mahishasura Mardini stotram bestow occult powers?" Tags="|devi|stotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18131" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="744" CreationDate="2017-05-03T06:42:51.907" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.salagram.net/sstp-NityaKriya.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.salagram.net/sstp-NityaKriya.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cutting hair is said to cause loss of energy. Certain days also put the body into a weak state. Therefore on these day shaving is not recommended, especially for sick or unhealthy people. Shaving at night is forbidden. It is done in the daytime, usually before the noon bath. It should never be done after eating. It is said that shaving on Sundays reduces ones life by one month; shaving on Saturdays reduces ones life by seven months; shaving on Tuesdays reduces ones life by eight months. Shaving on Wednesdays increases ones life by five months; shaving on Mondays increase life by seven months; shaving on Thursdays increases life by ten months; and shaving on Fridays increases life by eleven months. Other authorities say that shaving on Sunday brings physical well-being; shaving on Monday, bright complexion; shaving on Thursday, success; shaving on Friday, universal respect. Shaving on Tuesdays reduces life span; shaving on Saturdays causes decay of the body. Monday is good only during the waxing phase of the moon. However, brahmanas may shave on Sundays and kshatriyas may shave on Tuesdays. Sannyasis customarily shave on purnima. Of the tithis, prathipat, chaturthi, astami, chaturdasi, purnima, amavasya; and sasthis, navamis, dvadasis, sankrantis, and any day of fasting, such as ekadasi, are also unfavorable. The favorable tithis are dvitiya, tritiya, panchami, saptami dasami and trayodasi. The moon in waxing phase is favorable and in the waning phase, particularly the latter half, is unfavorable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;At the least, shaving, hair/nail cut is to be avoided on Tuesdays and Saturdays.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-05-03T12:28:23.273" LastActivityDate="2017-05-03T12:28:23.273" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18132" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13601" CreationDate="2017-05-03T06:53:47.633" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 18 symbols on the lotus feet of lord Krishna&#xA;sankha&#xA;chakra &#xA;astakona&#xA;urdhwa rekha&#xA;ambar&#xA;swastik&#xA;ardha indu&#xA;bajra&#xA;kalas&#xA;gospad&#xA;ankush&#xA;dhanu&#xA;dhwaj&#xA;padma&#xA;java&#xA;indu(full moon)&#xA;matsya&#xA;trikona&#xA;And also there are 19 symbols on the lotus feet of Sri radha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9657" LastActivityDate="2017-05-03T06:53:47.633" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18133" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-03T07:12:30.137" Score="2" ViewCount="916" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dnyaneshwari (IAST:'Jñānēśvarī) is a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, written by the great Saint Sant Dnyaneshwar in Marathi. It's considered to be the best scripture in Marathi literature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What ideas are in the Dnyaneshwari which are not in other commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-03T10:27:48.023" LastActivityDate="2017-05-03T10:27:48.023" Title="What are differences between Dnyaneshwari and other Bhagavad Gita commentaries?" Tags="|scripture|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18134" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-03T07:50:07.627" Score="5" ViewCount="475" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is story behind him?  Is the story written in some Scriptures? How did Mother kill him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-05-03T12:39:37.457" LastActivityDate="2022-04-23T17:26:46.517" Title="Who was Kohlaasura? How did Mother Lakshmi kill him?" Tags="|scripture|lakshmi|asuras|devi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18137" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17428" CreationDate="2017-05-03T17:06:09.647" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the book, &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;sup&gt; §&lt;/sup&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; cautions these japas and homas don't work always:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It may be that sometimes the Varuna japa does not succeed in bringing rains.&lt;/strong&gt; But this is no reason why all mantras should be rejected outright as of no value. Sick people die even after the regular administration of medicine. For this reason do we condemn medical science as worthless? We have an explanation for the patient's failure to recover: his illness and reached such an advanced stage that no medicine could be of any avail. &lt;strong&gt;Similarly, no mantra is of any help when it has to contend against the working of powerful karma.&lt;/strong&gt; There is also another reason. If you are not strict about your diet, the medicine taken may not work. Similarly, if we are lax in the observance of certain rules, the mantras will not produce the desired result.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Hindu Dharma » The Vedic Religion And Varna Dharma » Preserving the Vedas: Why it is a Lifetime Mission]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I tend to believe that there is 50-50 chance of any japa or homa bringing rain. When the homa does yield rain, people tend to attribute it to the homa. But &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;correlation does not imply causation&lt;/a&gt;. The homas that don't bring rain are not reported by people in the same way when it &quot;really worked.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ironically, in 2015, when Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was conducting a mahāyāga for universal peace, a fire &lt;a href=&quot;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Fire-breaks-out-at-yagna-organized-by-Telangana-CM-K-Chandrasekhar-Rao/articleshow/50341683.cms&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;broke out&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;HYDERABAD: A fire broke out at the 'yagna' organized by Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday afternoon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The incident occurred at around 1.30pm at Erravelli village in neighbouring Medak district when fire, that erupted from the 'homagundam' (pedestal for sacred fire), spread to the 'Yagashala' shed (made of grass), they said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;No one was injured in the incident and all the people present there were immediately evacuated. The flames have been brought under control,&quot; the DSP said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to reports, about 2,000 priests from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are taking part in the mega 'yagam' being performed for universal peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rao has spent about Rs 7 crore on performing 'Ayutha Maha Chandi Yagna' in the state for universal peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I quoted the above news article is to simply show that despite the best intentions a yajña can go wrong. All the more reason to believe it's a hit-and-miss. Also, there is no way to tell if a yajña done for &quot;universal peace&quot; really worked or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's &lt;a href=&quot;http://capstrat.in/gurusangamam/allguruspages/chinnajeeyar/about_chinnajeeyar.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;an example&lt;/a&gt; of a yajña that seems to have worked:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For about four years i.e., from 1985 to 1988 there was a continuous and constant failure of rains in Andhra Pradesh. The state in general and Hyderabad in particular were reeling under the conditions of drought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Swamiji (Chinna Jeeyar) was merciful enough to perform a Varuna Yagna in Hyderabad for a period of 9 days. From the last day of the yagnam (i.e. Poornahuti day) miraculously there were heavy rains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bio however doesn't tell if Chinna Jeeyar Swami performed other such Varuna yajñas and if there were &quot;heavy rains&quot; immediately following the other yajñas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt; § &lt;/sup&gt; &lt;sub&gt;An older and copyright-free version of this book is available for free &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part3/chap8.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-05-04T16:46:46.653" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T16:46:46.653" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18139" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-04T04:38:48.533" Score="8" ViewCount="510" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Sg9Q&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Anusanga Pada of the Brahmanda Purana describes the gods of the different planets and the Nakshatras they were born in in the present Vaivasvata Manvantara.  In particular, it says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tvisiman, the son of Dharma, the lord moon god, the son of Vasu, the cool-rayed cause of nights was born in the constellation Krittika&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/ig06&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Upodhghata Pada of the Vayu Purana says much the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tvisimat, the son of Dharma, known as Vasu is the lord Moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this runs counter to my understanding of things.  I thought the moon god was Soma son of Atri, not Tvisiman son of Dharma.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1984/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Atri and Anasuya have three prominent sons: Brahma's incarnation Soma, Vishnu's incarnation Dattatreya, and Shiva's incarnation Durvasa.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And I thought Soma was the moon god in the present Vaivasvata Manvantara.  That's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/AyVY&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Prabhasa Kanda of the Skanda Purana and numerous other scriptures say.  So my question is, who is the current moon god, Soma son of Atri or Tvisiman son of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://preview.ibb.co/j9jHD5/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the newly released Amar Chitra Katha comic book &quot;Saptarshi&quot; may shed light on how there could be multiple claimants to the title of current moon god:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chandra was born from the Churning of the Ocean, while Soma also called Chandra is the son of Atri.  Soma merges with Chandra to become one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But is there any scriptural basis for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T04:38:48.533" Title="Who is the current moon god, Soma son of Atri or Tvisiman son of Dharma?" Tags="|puranas|navagraha|chandra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18140" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-04T05:49:32.230" Score="5" ViewCount="1593" Body="&lt;p&gt;Several times I got to hear that Mahabharata battle fought in Kurukshetra is also famously known as &lt;em&gt;Dharma-Yuddha&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This battle was fought between Pandavas and Kauravas who were cousins then why it is still called as &lt;em&gt;Dharma-yuddha&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T09:22:29.157" LastActivityDate="2019-08-06T19:23:34.373" Title="Why Mahabharata battle is also called as Dharma Yuddha" Tags="|mahabharata|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18141" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18118" CreationDate="2017-05-04T06:14:20.940" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is verse II. 26 of the &lt;em&gt;Karika&lt;/em&gt;. This verse says what some say the Atman consists of. It is important to note that the verses prior to and subsequent to this verse describe the beliefs of what others think the Atman is. In other verses it says there are some who say the Atman is the Vedas, or padas, or the lokas, or as sacrifices, or as the gods, or as objects of enjoyment, etc., etc. He is setting up all these verses, including verse 26 to refute them. The point that Gaudapada is making in this verse 26 is that there are some that say the Atman consists of x number of tattvas. By ending the verse in a reference to an infinite number, he is saying that you can find different people that will say it is any number – be it x, y, z or infinite. He is not referring to any specific group or school of philosophy; a better translation to convey his meaning might be “…and there will be others that say it is 100, 200, 500, 1000 - or whatever, up to infinity.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Nikhilananda adds in his translation the following as a commentary to this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The mutual contradictions involved in these theories prove their fallacious nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gaudapada is not putting forth any specific number of tattvas over another. If you read the subsequent verses, you then know is he saying that they are all contradictory. In verse 29 he then says (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The disciple grasps only that idea which is presented to him by his teacher. Atman assumes the form (of what is taught) and thus protects the disciple. Absorbed in that idea, he realizes it as Atman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Swami Nikhilananda adds the following to the commentary on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following is adapted from Sankara’s commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What will one gain by endless discussion of this kind? Whatever interpretation of Atman—whether mentioned above or not—is given to the disciple by the teacher, he takes for Ultimate Reality; he says to himself: “I am that” or “That is mine.” Such a conception of Atman as is explained to the inquirer appears to him as the sole Reality. It protects him and keeps him away from other ideas. On account of his single-minded devotion to that ideal he attains identity with it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Follow the one idea/concept that your teacher expounds to you. Krishna says in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; 9.23 (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even those devotees who, endowed with faith, worship other gods, worship Me alone, O son of Kunti, though in a wrong way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gaudapada is saying that these are all ‘likely stories’ of how to explain creation from within creation and by reasoning alone in II and III refutes them all. Further on in IV. 42-43 (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wise men teach causality only for the sake of those who, afraid of non-creation, assert the reality of (external) objects because they perceive such objects and also because they cling to various social and religious duties.&#xA;  Those who, because of their fear of the truth of absolute non-creation and also because of their perception (of external objects), deny ajati (non-creation) are not affected by the evil consequent on the belief in creation. This evil, if any, is insignificant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Vidyaranya Swami echoes this in his &lt;em&gt;Pancadasi&lt;/em&gt; 100-102 (Swami Swahananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The followers of Sankhya, Vaisesika, the Buddhist and other schools have established with quite an array of arguments (the real nature of) the multiplicity in the universe. Let them have these. We have no quarrel with them. (In the pragmatic world we too accept them all.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are philosophers who, holding an opposite view, disregard the real non-duality entity. That does not harm us, who (following the Veda, reason and experience, are convinced of our own unshakable position and therefore) have no regard for their conclusion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Krishna says in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; 9.15:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Others, again, offer the oblation of knowledge, and worship Me either as one with them or as distinct from them: and still others in various ways worship Me, whose form is the whole universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pick whatever theory of creation or number of tattvas that appeals to your mind. Follow it faithfully. All roads lead to the Divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T06:14:20.940" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18143" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18126" CreationDate="2017-05-04T06:34:53.517" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;We can't say for sure if reading this particular stotram gives the reader occult powers (i think you meant siddhis by that).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What one achieves upon reciting a stotram/kavacham is usually found in the phalasruti given at its end . In this case the author simply does not mention anything at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last stanza of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_durga-mahishasura_mardini_stotra.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the stotram&lt;/a&gt; says only this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अयि मयि दीन दयालुतया कृपयैव त्वया भवितव्यमुमे अयि जगतो जननी कृपयासि&#xA;  यथासि तथानुमितासिरते । यदुचितमत्र भवत्युररीकुरुतादुरुतापमपाकुरुते जय&#xA;  जय हे महिषासुरमर्दिनि रम्यकपर्दिनि शैलसुते ॥ २१ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ayi Mayi Diina Dayaalu-Tayaa Krpaya-Iva Tvayaa Bhavitavyam-Ume Ayi&#xA;  Jagato Jananii Krpayaasi Yathaasi Tathanu-mita-Asira-Te |&#xA;  Yad-Ucitam-Atra Bhavatyurarii-Kurutaa-Duru-Taapam-Apaakurute Jaya Jaya&#xA;  He Mahissaasura-Mardini Ramya-Kapardini Shaila-Sute || 21 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;  21.1: (Salutations to the Divine Mother) You Must Bestow Your Grace on Me, O Mother Uma, Who is Compassionate to the Miserable.&#xA;  21.2: O Mother of the Universe; Just as Your Grace is Showered (on the Devotees), In the Same Manner are Your Arrows Scattered (on the&#xA;  Enemies).&#xA;  21.3 Please do Whatever is Appropriate at this time, O Worshipful Mother, to Remove My Sorrows and Afflictions which has become&#xA;  Difficult for me to bear.&#xA;  21.4: Victory to You, the Destroyer of the Demon Mahishasura, Who has Beautiful Locks of Hair and Who is the Daughter of the Mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand what i am saying you can see Sri Adi Shankara's &lt;a href=&quot;http://stotrarathna.blogspot.in/2009/07/adhi-shankaras-lalitha-pancha-rathnam.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lalita Pancha Ratnam Stotram&lt;/a&gt;. Here, the phalasruti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ya sloka panchakam idham, Lalithambikya, Soubhagyuam, sulalitham&#xA;  patathi prabhathe, Thasmai dadathi lalitha jadithi prasanna, Vidhyaam&#xA;  sriyam vimala soukha manantha keerthim.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who reads these five stanzas, In the morning&lt;/strong&gt; , extolling the mother&#xA;  Lalitha,. Who is easy to please&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Would get luck, knowledge riches, endless fame By the grace of Goddess Lalitha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we know for sure what are achieved by reading this particular stotram and its clearly mentioned by the author himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://manotha.blogspot.in/2012/12/sri-lalita-panca-vimshati-nama-stotram.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here is another stotram&lt;/a&gt; dedicated to Sri Lalita Mahatripurasundari called Sri Lalita Pancha Vimsati Nama Stotram (Pancha Vimasati is 25). This stotram is from the Brahmanda Purana. Its being told by Sri Hayagriva to Agastya Muni. Here, author clearly mentions that upon reading this stotram siddhis or super natural powers are obtained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्तुवन्ति ये महाभागां ललितां परमेश्वरीम् | ते प्राप्नुवन्ति&#xA;  सौभाग्यमष्टौ सिद्धीर्महद्यश: |6|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;stuvanti ye mahAbhAgAM lalitAM parameshvarIm |&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;te prApnuvanti saubhAgyam-aShTau siddhIr-mahadyashaH ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who recites these twenty-five names shall attain eight great&#xA;  spiritual-accomplishments, prosperity and fame.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, IMO,  the answer to your question will be &quot; we can't say for sure since the author himself has not mentioned any thing of that sort.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T06:34:53.517" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18144" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-04T06:43:34.953" Score="4" ViewCount="191" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we wear the same clothes for more than a day, is it unclean according to the culture? I know in general, that one should change his clothes everyday if possible, but what does our culture say regarding this matter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T06:43:34.953" Title="In Hinduism, is it commanded to change clothes everyday?" Tags="|belief|philosophy|karma|practice|culture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18145" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18148" CreationDate="2017-05-04T08:08:23.383" Score="12" ViewCount="5880" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like there is no difference in Vishnu, Krishna, Raama, NriSimha and other manifestation. But sometime Bhairavanatha appears a little different from Lord Shiva, as if He is a part incarnation of Lord Shiva. Is Bhairavanatha completely same as Shiva or is He a part incarnate?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T07:53:34.220" Title="Is Lord Bhairava same as Lord Shiva, or are they a little different? Is Bhairava a part incarnation or complete Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|gods|avatars|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18146" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11629" CreationDate="2017-05-04T08:48:54.407" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Valmiki Ramayana, it is mentioned that no woman become widow in Rama Rajya. So I think sisters of Sita died earlier than their husbands. &#xA;Please refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga128/yuddha_128_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;shloka 99&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While Rama was ruling the kingdom, &lt;strong&gt;there were no widows to lament&lt;/strong&gt;, nor there was no danger from wild animals, nor any fear born of diseases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9671" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-04T09:35:49.523" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T09:35:49.523" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18147" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18151" CreationDate="2017-05-04T08:50:57.410" Score="3" ViewCount="240" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know you may find it odd. But Hinduism is not spiritual or material based. So what should be done if a spiritual person wants to become materialistic. (Shankaracharya also went to a King's body to experience Gaarhasthya. I know we cannot relate this incidence here, nor can we compare ourselves to ShreeAdiShankaracharya, but still)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-16T03:50:26.137" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T03:50:26.137" Title="How to become materialistic from spiritual?" Tags="|spirituality|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18148" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18145" CreationDate="2017-05-04T08:51:01.490" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva took his fifth incarnation as Bhairav and his Shakti was called 'Bhairavi'.&#xA;So he is incarnation of shiva .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An incarnation may not be same as the one who is taking avatar like narsimha is not like how lord Vishnu is shown.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana says in&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.1.7     Shiva Obliges Brahma Nandikeshwar continuing with the tale said:   &quot;After according same status to Vishnuji as that of his own,&#xA;  Lord Shiva opened his third eye from it manifested 'Bhairav'. He&#xA;  ordered Bhairav to kill Brahmaji. Bhairav severed the fifth head of&#xA;  Lord Brahma with his sword. Brahmaji became very terrified. He was&#xA;  trembling in fear. Lord Vishnu felt pity on his condition and&#xA;  requested Lord Shiva to forgive him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and here&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.3.16 The first incarnation of Lord Shiva was as Mahakal and his corresponding Shakti was called Mahakali.&#xA;  His second incarnation is Tar and his Shakti was called ‘Tara’.&#xA;  The third incarnation is Bhuvaneshwar and his Shakti was called ‘Bhuvaneshwari’.&#xA;  Fourth incarnation as ‘Shodash’ and his Shakti was called ‘Shodashi’ or ‘Shri’.&#xA;  Fifth incarnation as Bhairav and his Shakti was called ‘Bhairavi’.&#xA;  Sixth incarnation of Lord Shiva is famous as ‘Chhinamastak’ and his Shakti by the name of ‘Chhinamasta.&#xA;  Seventh incarnation as ‘Dhoomvan’ and his Shakti was known as ‘Dhoomvati.&#xA;  Eighth incarnation was as Baglamukh and his Shakti as Baglamukhi.&#xA;  Nineth incarnation of lord Shiva became famous as Matang and his Shakti as ‘Matangi’.&#xA;  Tenth incarnation as ‘Kamal’ and his Shakti as Kamala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;by the way while searching for Partial incarnation I could only find Ashwathama as partial Incarnation which is mentioned here&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.3.29&#xA;  Indra went to Arjuna in the guise of a celibate and asked about the purpose for which he was doing penance. Arjuna told him that he wanted to defeat the Kauravas. Indra then told Arjuna that it was not in his capacity to help him achieve victory over the Kauravas, because of Aswatthama who was a partial incarnation of lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3102" LastEditorUserId="3102" LastEditDate="2017-05-04T10:27:10.913" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T10:27:10.913" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18149" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18140" CreationDate="2017-05-04T10:40:57.260" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mythology is followed by most of the people irrespective of science facts. All it teaches is to be a better human. In the same aspect Mahabharata was explained in such a way that Dharma will be apex of any other aspect in the universe. When a man stands for Dharma, all his relations fall under it and no matter what consequences he may face, all you need is to fight for Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharatha was explained to Arjuna by Lord Krishna in the battle field, which include many slokas that helped Arjuna in the later stages of war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many assumptions are made to get the facts about the existence of epics like Mahabharatha, Ramayana as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a story of every man who was tightly coupled with lot of emotions and in the end still stands for Dharma. Thus Mahabharatha became sacred epic for every human who observe the intense of morals stuffed in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any reviews to my answer are happily accepted, and corrections appreciated.&#xA;Thank You.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9672" LastEditorUserId="9672" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T09:43:03.700" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T09:43:03.700" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18151" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18147" CreationDate="2017-05-04T12:08:24.330" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Very simple - just think about material things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://asitis.com/2/62.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna says in Gita (2.62-63)&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dhyayato visayan pumsah&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;sangas tesupajayate&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;sangat sanjayate kamah&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;kamat krodho 'bhijayate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;krodhad bhavati sammohah&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;sammohat smrti-vibhramah&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;smrti-bhramsad buddhi-naso&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;buddhi-nasat pranasyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From thinking about stuff, association is born. From association, desire. From desire, anger (when desire is not fulfilled). Anger -&amp;gt; Illusion -&amp;gt; Memory bewildered (as to what is right or wrong) -&amp;gt; Intelligence lost -&amp;gt; Nasham (destruction).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All you need to do is mentally keep thinking about material things (food, money, power, women, prestige) and associating with materialistic people, and you'll automatically develop desire and attachment towards those.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T16:49:26.843" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18152" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18164" CreationDate="2017-05-04T14:29:13.820" Score="3" ViewCount="3257" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some people say that it was first said to Suryadev Vivasvaan and other say, it was recited to Arjuna, Sanjay and Drithrashtra? So, who is supposed to be the first to hear Bhagavad-Gita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9577" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2017-05-07T04:27:00.913" LastActivityDate="2021-03-13T09:03:01.773" Title="Bhagavad Gita was first recited to whom?" Tags="|history|bhagavad-gita|philosophy|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18153" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15648" CreationDate="2017-05-04T14:38:28.770" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this you will find:-&#xA; it is written in Kalki Purana that he will have four brothers who are Sumanta, Prajna and Kavi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9577" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T14:38:28.770" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18154" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18145" CreationDate="2017-05-04T15:01:33.553" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhairava is  amsa of Shiva but yet full Shiva. He is described as full Shiva in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-87&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 8&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-88&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 9&lt;/a&gt; - Satarudra Samhita of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 8&lt;/strong&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भैरवः पूर्वरूपो हि शङ्करस्य परात्मनः।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; मूढास्ते वै न जानन्ति मोहिताः शिवमायया॥२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhairava happens to be the complete form of Siva.&lt;/strong&gt; The people overpowered with the illusion of Siva, remain ignorant about the Same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says Bhairava is full form of Shiva Paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva created Bhairava as part of sports or leela, to behead creator Brahma (To know more about leela, refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16188/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्राक्च पङ्कजजन्मासौ शास्यस्ते कालभैरव!। &lt;br&gt; कालवद्राजसे&#xA;साक्षात्कालराजस्ततो भवान्॥४६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siva said, “O Kalabhairava, initially, you punish this Brahma. You&#xA;would possess the lustre of the god of death and shall be known as&#xA;Kalaraja. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विश्वं भर्तुं समर्थोऽसि भीषणाद्धैरवः स्मृतः। &lt;br&gt; त्वत्तो भेष्यति&#xA;कालोऽपि ततस्त्वं कालभैरवः॥ ४७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are known as Bhairava because you possess horrible features and&#xA;are capable of supporting the earth. Because even Kala is afraid of&#xA;you, therefore, you are known as Bhairava. Even Kala will be afraid of&#xA;you. Therefore you would be known as Kālabhairava. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva also created Bramahatya as a part of leela and said it to inflict Bhairava and told him to get liberate from it in holy city of Kasi or Varanasi. Bhairava took &lt;em&gt;Vrata of Brahmahatya&lt;/em&gt; at command of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नन्दीश्वर उवाच &lt;br&gt; एवान्वरान्प्रगृह्याथ तत्क्षणात्कालभैरवः।&#xA;&lt;br&gt;वामाङ्गुलिनखाग्रेण चकर्त्त च विधेः शिर:॥५२॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nandisvara said, &amp;quot;Accepting these boons, Kalabhairava, atonce, severed&#xA;the fifth head of Brahma, with the nail of his left finger. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्युक्त्वा पश्यतस्तस्य तेजोरूपः शिवोऽब्रवीत्। &lt;br&gt; उत्पाद्य चैकां&#xA;कन्यान्तु ब्रह्महत्याभिविश्रुताम्॥ ६३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus speaking and in full view of all, Siva produced a small girl&#xA;named Brahmahatya. Then Siva in the form of mass flame spoke. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यावद्वाराणसीन्दिव्याम्पुरीमेषा गमिष्यति। &lt;br&gt; तावत्त्वं भीषणं&#xA;कालमनुगच्छोग्ररूपिणम्॥६४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Until she goes to the divine city of Varanasi, you too shall follow&#xA;her, for a long period. &lt;br&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वत्र ते प्रवेशोऽस्ति त्यक्त्वा&#xA;वाराणसीं पुरीम्। &lt;br&gt; वाराणसीं यदा गच्छेत्तन्मुक्ता भव तत्क्षणात्॥६५॥&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can freely move to any place, except the city of Varanasi. On&#xA;reaching Varanasi, you would be freed from Brahmahatya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In next chapter (&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 9&lt;/strong&gt;), Bhairava is praised as full Shiva by Lord Vishnu. Verse 6 says  Bhairava has amsa of Shiva and also says Bhairava has full form like Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;महादेवांशसम्भूतं&#xA;पूर्णाकारं च भैरवम्॥ ६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mahādevāṃśasambhūtaṃ pūrṇākāraṃ ca bhairavam॥ 6॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhairava is born from amsa of Mahadeva and also has full form like Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Bhairava goes to Narayana for begging alms due to Brahmahatya sin (as part of Shiva's leela), Narayana praises Bhairava as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अयं धाता विधाता च लोकानां प्रभुरीश्वरः। &lt;br&gt; अनादिः शरणं शान्तः पुरः&#xA;घड्वंशसम्मितः॥ ११॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the creator the preserver, besides being the lord of the world.&#xA;He is the primordial being, the lord and the refuge of all. He is calm&#xA;and greater than the twenty six principles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वज्ञः सर्वयोगीशः सर्वभूतैकनायकः। &lt;br&gt;सर्वभूतान्तरात्माऽयं सर्वेषां&#xA;सर्वदः सदा।। १२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the omniscient, lord of the yogis, the sole leader of all the&#xA;beings, the internal soul of all the living beings and he always&#xA;bestows everything to everyone. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ये विनिद्रा विनिश्वासाः शान्ता ध्यानपरायणाः। &lt;br&gt; धिया पश्यन्ति हृदये&#xA;सोऽयं पद्मे ! समीक्षताम्।। १३।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Laksmi, look, he is the lord whom the conscious people, are engaged&#xA;in yogic practices, visualise in their hearts, discarding their sleep,&#xA;stopping their breathing, concentrating their minds. He happens to be&#xA;the same. You better visualise him with the vision of your knowledge,&#xA;in your own heart. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यं विदुर्वेदतत्त्वज्ञा योगिनो यतमानसाः। &lt;br&gt; अरूपो रूपवान्भूत्वा&#xA;सोऽयमायाति सर्वगः।। १४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the one who is known to the yogis who are well-versed in the&#xA;Vedic tattvas. He is the one, who being formless, is at times visible&#xA;in some definite form. The one who is all pervading is arriving here.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तं दृष्ट्रा न पुनर्जन्म लभ्यते मानवैर्भुवि। &lt;br&gt;सोऽयमायाति&#xA;भगवां&lt;strong&gt;स्त्र्यम्बकः&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;शशिभूषणः&lt;/strong&gt;॥ १६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the mere sight of the lord, the people are never reborn on earth.&#xA;Such a type of &lt;strong&gt;lord Tryambaka&lt;/strong&gt; who has the &lt;strong&gt;crescent as an&#xA;ornament&lt;/strong&gt;, is arriving here. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुण्डरीकदलायामे धन्ये मेऽद्य विलोचने। &lt;br&gt; यद्दृश्यते &lt;strong&gt;महादेवो&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;ह्याभ्यां लक्ष्मि ! &lt;strong&gt;महेश्वरः&lt;/strong&gt;॥ १७॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Laksmi, my eyes resembling a lotus leaf, have become graceful today&#xA;because I would have an opportunity to have a look with these eyes,&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Mahesvara&lt;/strong&gt;, (Maheshwara) the great lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;धिग्थिक्यदन्तु देवानां परं दृष्टा न &lt;strong&gt;शङ्करम्&lt;/strong&gt;। &lt;br&gt; लभ्यते यत्र&#xA;निर्वाणं सर्वदुःखान्तकृतुि यत्।। १८ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Disgrace to the position of the gods, who have not seen &lt;strong&gt;lord&#xA;Shankara&lt;/strong&gt; (Siva) so far, who bestows salvation, and who is the&#xA;remover of all the miseries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवात्वादशुभ किञ्चिद्देवलोके न विद्यते। &lt;br&gt;दृष्ट्राऽपि सर्वे देवेशं&#xA;यन्मुक्तिं न लभामहे॥ १९॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is use of becoming a god in the heaven, in case, we people are&#xA;unable to achieve salvation by looking at Mahadeva.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see Lord Shiva's epithets are used for Bhairava.  So, Lord Bhairava is verily Lord Shiva Himself. You can read complete chapter to know about Vishnu's obeisances to Bhairava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Adi Shankara's &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_shiva-kalabhairava_ashtakam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kalabhairava Astkakam&lt;/a&gt; describes Bhairava as complete Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a side note, Tantras like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17605/3500&quot;&gt;Vijnana Bhairava Tantra&lt;/a&gt; descibe Bhairava  as Supreme Lord (with profound philosophy).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T15:13:37.540" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18155" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-04T15:05:46.543" Score="2" ViewCount="85" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lalla's Shishyavriddhida Tantra is a Hindu astronomical work dating to the 8th century.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/JaoM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shishyavriddhida Tantra, Lalla attempts to refute various astronomical theories he regards as false.  Most of the theories he tries to refute are ones found in Hindu scripture: the theory that eclipses are caused by Rahu and Ketu, the theory that the Earth is supported by the serpent Adiseshan, the theory that the Moon is farther than the Sun, the theory that the Earth moves, etc.  But there's one theory he tries to refute that I'm not familiar with:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Again, some say that the night is caused by the darkness due to the mountain Meru.&lt;/strong&gt;...  If the night of the men in this world is caused by the Meru covering the Sun, tell me how the night of the gods, (who live on the Meru) and feed on nectar, is caused.  (Therefore the statement) is irrational.  When the Sun goes to the southern part (of the ecliptic beginning with) Libra, it is always night for the dwellers of Meru.  When it moves along the north (of the ecliptic beginning with) Aries, (it is continuous night) for the demons.  When the Sun is hidden by part of the earth, it is night for the men also.  Just as the shadow of a tree is longer when it is directly opposite to the Sun than at other times, so is the part of the shadow of the earth (directly) opposite to the Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Lalla concludes that night is caused not by the shadow of mount Meru, but rather by the shadow of the Earth, which incidentally is the view of modern science.  But my question is, what scriptures describe night being caused by the shadow of mount Meru?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have come across passages in the Puranas which describe the Sun (and other planets) circling mount Meru.  But does anyone know if any scriptures say that night is caused by Meru blocking the Sun?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-04T15:44:44.180" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T15:44:44.180" Title="What scriptures describe night being caused by mount Meru?" Tags="|puranas|temple|india|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18156" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18145" CreationDate="2017-05-04T16:16:27.157" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here I explain Bhairava philosophically according to īśvarādvayavāda (Trika philosophy) According to it, Bhairava is the ultimate reality beyond the contemplation, it is fully transcendental. On questions asked by Devī, Lord Shiva describes Bhairava as follows. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Good! Good! Dear one, you have put questions which pertain to the very quintessence of Tantra. Though the matter is most esoteric, oh auspicious one, yet shall I explain it to you. Whatever has been declared to be the composite form (Sakala¹) of Bhairava, that oh goddess should be considered as insubstantial (asāratayā), as phantasmagoria (lit. as the net of Indra), as magical illusion (māyā), as dream, as the mirage of a town of Gandharva in the sky. The sakal aspect of Bhairava is taught, as a prop for meditation, to those who are of deluded intellect, who are interested in ostentatious performance of rituals, it has been declared for those people who are a prey to dichotomising thought constructs. (Verse 7-10, Vijnānabhairav tantra)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1- All manifestation from gods down to the mineral is known as sakala. Sakala is the sphere of Māyā tattva. It con-sists of bheda-difference or division. The essential nature of Bhairava cannot be known by means of sakala which consists of difference and division. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then he describes the real nature of Bhairava as follows-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In reality, Bhairava is neither of the form of nine (navātma), nor a multitude of letters (sabdarāsi) nor of the three heads (trishirā) nor of three Sakti, nor consisting of nāda and bindu, nor of ardhacandra, nirodhikā, etc., nor is His essence concerned with the piercing of the (six) chakras, nor does sakti or Energy constitute His essence. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  The above concepts are used for those whose intellect is not yet mature enough to grasp Reality (in its highest aspect), Just as a bogy is used to frighten away children from their obstinacy for getting some worthless or undesirable thing. These concepts play the same role as the bonbon of the mother. They are meant to induce the aspirants to tread the path of righteousness and spiritual practices in order that they may ultimately realize the nature of Bhairava which is &lt;strong&gt;non-different from their essential Self&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The hermeneutic etymology of the word Bhairava has been given in various ways in Trika philosophy. The important interpretations are given below.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;1-&lt;/strong&gt; The word 'Bhairava' is composed of four letters- 'bhā' + 'ai' + 'ra' + 'va'. 'bhā' + 'ai' by the rule of sandhi becomes bhai. This bhai together with 'ra', 'va' becomes bhairava. Each of these letters connotes certain important ideas. Bhā is a word by itself which means 'light' i.e. the light of consciousness in this context; ai according to Trika philosophy is symbolic of kriyāshakti (the power of activity); rava connotes ravayati which, in this context, means vimarshati i.e. comprehends. So according to this etymology Bhairava means &quot;He whose light of consciousness-joined with his ·power of activity ('bhā' + ai i.e. bhai) comprehends (ravayati) the entire universe is His Self&quot;. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;2-&lt;/strong&gt; In Parātrimshikā, Abhinavgupta gives another interpretation of Bhairava viz.,' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhairavo bharañātmako mahāmantraravātmakascha&quot; (p.63).&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;   i.e. '&lt;strong&gt;Bhairava is one who supports and protects the cosmos and (constantly) sounds the great mantra of 'I' (aham)&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3-&lt;/strong&gt; He offers intrepidity to those who are terrified by the cycle of transmigratory existence.&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;4-&lt;/strong&gt; Each letter of Bhairava is symbolic of His three main activities; Bha is symbolic of bharaña or maintenance of the universe; ra is symbolic of ravaña or withdrawal of the universe; va is symbolic of vamana or projection of the universe. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;The two adjectives of 'Bhairava' viz., sarvadah (bestower of all) and vyāpakah (all-pervasive) are also connected by implication with two letters of Bhairava, viz., ra and va; ra is symbolic of the root ra which means to give, to grant, to bestow. He is called sarvadah, because he bestows everything, 'va' is symbolic of va which means 'to be diffused' Bhairava is called vyāpakah because of the diffusion of His presence everywhere. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, as a conclusion Bhairava if taken with respect to non-māyā sphere, it is the ultimate reality with more emphasis on Shiva part with his Shakti. (According to Trika the ultimate reality is Shiva along with Shakti as inseparable).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-05-04T17:05:51.833" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T17:05:51.833" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18157" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18147" CreationDate="2017-05-04T17:25:53.743" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Spirituality is ego-less condition of our being. In, non dual terms, indwelling is our real nature is spirituality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After defining spirituality as above in non dual terms, I would like to attempt to answer how to become spiritual, not following which, one can be material. As darkness is nothing but absence of light.&#xA;So, To become material one has to objectify the self only.&#xA;One can objectify the self by going against these verses said by Adi Shankar (Atma Shatakam)-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have no hatred or dislike, nor affiliation or liking, nor greed, nor delusion, nor pride or haughtiness, nor feelings of envy or jealousy. I have no duty (dharma), nor any money, nor any desire (kāma), nor even liberation (mokṣa). I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, the auspicious (Śivam), love and pure consciousness. (Verse 3)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See, you can easily become material (though you/we already are) by converting &lt;strong&gt;real I&lt;/strong&gt; into &lt;strong&gt;psycho-phyical I&lt;/strong&gt; or removing not/nor in the verses.&#xA;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;Same procedure you can apply in other verses as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; I have neither merit (virtue), nor demerit (vice). I do not commit sins or good deeds, nor have happiness or sorrow, pain or pleasure. I do not need mantras, holy places, scriptures (Vedas), rituals or sacrifices (yajñas). I am none of the triad of the observer or one who experiences, the process of observing or experiencing, or any object being observed or experienced. I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, the auspicious (Śivam), love and pure consciousness. ( verse 4)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do not have fear of death, as I do not have death. I have no separation from my true self, no doubt about my existence, nor have I discrimination on the basis of birth. I have no father or mother, nor did I have a birth. I am not the relative, nor the friend, nor the guru, nor the disciple. I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, the auspicious (Śivam), love and pure consciousness. (Verse 5) &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am all pervasive. I am without any attributes, and without any form. I have neither attachment to the world, nor to liberation (mukti). I have no wishes for anything because I am everything, everywhere, every time, always in equilibrium. I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, the auspicious (Śivam), love and pure consciousness. (Verse 6) &lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, in actual we are already material as we identify ourselves as something which we're not. Our basic 'I' is ontologically psycho-phyical already rather than real 'I' therefore we don't need to put extra efforts to become material anymore.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-04T17:25:53.743" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18158" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="36131" CreationDate="2017-05-04T20:48:21.890" Score="8" ViewCount="1718" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen in a Vikram and Betal story that the prince is not allowed to marry the princess since prince has secretly learnt Archery from the princess in that way the princess is his Guru and Guru-Shishya Marriage is not allowed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Guru-Shishya marriage prohibited in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Has it been written somewhere that Guru-Shishya marriage is prohibited in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3053" LastEditorUserId="3869" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2019-08-26T17:01:43.947" LastActivityDate="2019-08-26T17:01:43.947" Title="Does Hinduism allow Guru-Shishya Marriage?" Tags="|scripture|belief|culture|marriage|guru|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18159" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18186" CreationDate="2017-05-04T23:13:58.910" Score="7" ViewCount="217" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2989/is-the-ultimate-purpose-of-life-only-to-serve-god&quot;&gt;Some suggest&lt;/a&gt; the purpose of human life is happiness, but no references to explicit statements in the scriptures were provided.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there &lt;strong&gt;explicit&lt;/strong&gt; statements about the purpose of human life in the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2528" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-05-05T00:55:30.957" LastActivityDate="2020-04-17T02:46:08.490" Title="Are there explicit statements in the scriptures about the purpose of human life?" Tags="|scripture|life|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18160" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18161" CreationDate="2017-05-05T04:38:47.770" Score="12" ViewCount="4744" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well-known that the sage Gautama cursed his wife Ahalya to turn into a rock.  What is less well-known, however, is that the sage Vishwamitra cursed the Apsara Rambha in a similar fashion.  Vishwamitra once engaged in Tapasya for a thousand years, after which Brahma granted him the title of Maharishi.  But Vishwamitta was not satisfied by this, as he wanted to be a Brahmarishi so that he would be Vasishtha's equal.  So he engaged in another thousand years of Tapasya, which was so intense that it caused disruption in the three worlds.  So Indra told the Apsara Rambha to tempt Vishwamitra away from his Tapasya. Vishwamitra was indeed distracted by Rambha, but then he cursed her to turn to stone, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga64/bala_64_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Bala Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whereof you tried to entice me who am wishing to win over the wanton and wroth, you unlucky female Rambha, thereof you will become a rocklike statued wastrel [for ten thousand years]. A highly resplendent Brahman who is ascetically powerful redeems you, oh, Rambha, who are now blemished by my anger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question, who is the Brahmana who freed Rambha from Vishwamitra's curse?  We know that she was ultimately freed; for instance she's described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/bhavishyaparva/hv_3_005.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter of the Harivamsa&lt;/a&gt; as out and about in the time of Arjuna's great-grandson Janamejaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translator says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga64/balasans64.htm#Verse13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This ascetically powerful Brahman-saviour of Rambha is none other than the Sage Vashishta, the brainchild of Brahma. Even though Vishvamitra is at loggerheads with Vashishta, he holds Vashishta in high respect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does this have a scriptural basis?  If so, what are the circumstances in which Vasishtha freed Rambha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, I've had this question for many years, ever since I watched the Dhoordarshan TV serial &quot;Vishwamitra&quot;; they showed Rambha turning to stone but they never showed her being freed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-06T05:57:51.213" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T05:57:51.213" Title="Who freed Rambha from Vishwamitra's curse?" Tags="|ramayana|vashishta|vishwamitra|curse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18161" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18160" CreationDate="2017-05-05T06:24:37.610" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The sage Shweta freed Rambha.&lt;/strong&gt;  I found the answer in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/26006/51f_chapter_39_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Setu Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana, in a chapter dealing with a Tirtha in Setu called Kapitirtha.  Agastya's disciple sage Shweta is engaged in Tapasya when he is disturbed by the demoness Angaraka (who was actually the Apsara Ghritachi in a cursed form).  So he takes the rock that Rambha had turned into, invokes the Vayavyastra (weapon of the Vayu the wind god) on it, and launches it at Angaraka.  Angaraka flees and jumps into Kapitirtha, but the rock follows her into the water and kills her.  Finally Rambha is freed from her curse by touching the water of Kapitirtha, as it had been blessed by Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On account of the curse of Visvamitra, she became a stone just after.... Rambha remained in his hermitage for a long time in the form of a rock. In that very meritorious hermitage one honoured disciple of Agastya, the sage named Šveta, performed a great penance as he was desirous of salvation. While that great sage was performing the penance for a long time, a certain demoness, notorious by the name Angaraka, came to his hermitage. She was extremely cruel. Her loud voice resembled thunder.  That terrible demoness defiled the hermitage with urine, blood, faeces and other filthy things. She harassed that sage in various other modes of nuisance.  The infuriated Sage Sveta fitted the stone, the result of the curse of Visvamitra, with a missile having Wind-god for its presiding deity and discharged it against the demoness.  When the Vayavya (having Wind as the presiding deity) missile was aimed at her, the demoness fled. She was pursued by the stone fitted to the Vayavya missile. The frightened demoness fled to the shore of the southern sea. The rock fitted to the miraculous missile chased the fleeing demoness. As she jumped into Kapitirtha and sank into it, the stone fell on her head and she died by the impact of the stone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Rambha, who had been cursed by Visvamitra, discarded the form of a stone as it plunged into Kapitirtha. She regained her form as Rambha.&#xA;The charming lady was incessantly showered with flowers by the Devas. She got into a divine aerial chariot. She shone in her divine robes. She was bedecked in necklaces, armlets, bangles and nose-ornament. She was surrounded by her companions, the celestial damseis including Urvasi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-05-05T15:35:30.767" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18164" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18152" CreationDate="2017-05-05T09:19:39.477" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my knowledge of Mahabharatha, Krishna has given the knowledge of Shrimad Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna in the middle of battlefield i.e. Kurukshethra (as written by Vyasa Bhagawan himself). Sanjaya had was provided a power to know what's happening at other places and he has listened to Gita from the court of Dhritharastra. Sanjaya also explained this to Dhritharastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="865" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-05-05T10:15:30.650" LastActivityDate="2017-05-05T10:15:30.650" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18165" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17063" CreationDate="2017-05-05T09:52:13.460" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is partial answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two scorpions on the ears of lord Shiva. Who are they?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Serpents &lt;strong&gt;Kambala&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Asvatara&lt;/strong&gt; are Lord Shiva's earrings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-i/chapter-34/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 34&lt;/a&gt;, Kedarakhanda- Maheswarakhanda of Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; mentions names of all serpents which are present on Lord Shiva as ornaments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada goes to Kailasa and sees the Lord Shiva as follows: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;33&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Similarly Sambhu, the lord of the three worlds, was seen by Narada, as being served by Suras and Asuras. The lord had the lustre&#xA;of pure gold. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;34-35. His lotus-like feet were served by Sankha, the excellent&#xA;serpent. He was served by the following serpents: Dhrtarastra, Takşaka&#xA;in particular, the great serpent Padma and Šeșa in particular. He was&#xA;continuously served by other excellent serpents. Vasuki had become a&#xA;necklace of great lustre and was retained in the neck. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;36&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kambala and Asvatara were his perpetual ear-rings.&lt;/strong&gt; Other excellent serpents were ensconced at the root of his matted hair. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;37-44. He was covered by serpents of many colours and types, e.g.&#xA;Taksaka, Kulika, Sankha, Dhrtarastra of great lustre, Padma, Dambha,&#xA;Sudambha, Karāla, Bhīşaņa-these and many other serpents formed parts&#xA;of Hara who was the most worthy of being worshipped in the three&#xA;worlds. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These two Serpents live in &lt;strong&gt;Sutala loka&lt;/strong&gt;. Sutala loka is one of the nether worlds below earth. Seven Nether lokas are Atala, Vitala, &lt;strong&gt;Sutala&lt;/strong&gt;, Talaatala, Rasatala, Mahaatala and Paatala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/the-brahmanda-purana/vol-i/chapter-20/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 20&lt;/a&gt;, Anusanga of Brahmanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;20b-25a. In the nether-world Sutala, O Brähmanas,  are the abodes of&#xA;the following, viz. the city of the first lord of the Daityas and&#xA;Räksasas i.e. Of Mahäjambha, the palace of  Hayagriva, Krsna and&#xA;Nikumbha, the city of the Daitya named  Sankha and that of Gomukha,&#xA;the abode of the demons Nila,  Megha and Kathana, the abode of&#xA;Kukupäda and &lt;strong&gt;that of Mahosnisa, the city of Kambala the serpent and&#xA;that of Asvatara&lt;/strong&gt; and the city of Taksaka the noble-souled son of&#xA;Kadru.  Thus there are, O Brähmana, thousands of cities belonging to&#xA;the serpents, Dänavas and the Räkshasas in the nether-world of pale&#xA;white coloured soil.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are wondering how could those serpents live at two places simultaneously, divine amsas of them could stay with Shiva forever while physically they could live in Sutala loka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T12:04:00.287" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18166" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-05T10:00:22.170" Score="2" ViewCount="2649" Body="&lt;p&gt;How to surrender to god? For attaining moksha.in kaliyuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9680" LastEditorUserId="9680" LastEditDate="2017-05-05T13:34:47.857" LastActivityDate="2022-03-13T21:15:16.783" Title="Do grave sinners attain moksha if they remember Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|moksha|sin|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18167" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9943" CreationDate="2017-05-05T10:29:18.107" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha is final destination an ideal goal for merging with supreme. The heaven and hell are temporary stops and when the good or bad karma get exhausted they return to earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;trai-vidya mam soma-pah puta-papa&#xA;  yajnair istva svar-gatim prarthayante&#xA;  te punyam asadya surendra-lokam&#xA;  asnanti divyan divi deva-bhogan&quot; (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Nine verse 20)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Lord Sri Krishna said: Those who study the Vedas and drink the soma juice, seeking the heavenly planets, worship Me indirectly. Purified of sinful reactions, they take birth on the pious, heavenly planet of Indra, where they enjoy godly delights.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;te tam bhuktva svarga-lokam visalam&#xA;  ksine punye martya-lokam vishanti&#xA;  evam trayi-dharmam anuprapanna&#xA;  gatagatam kama-kama labhante&quot; (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Nine verse 21)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Lord Sri Krishna said: When they have thus enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasures and the results of their pious activities are exhausted, they return to this mortal planet (earth) again. Thus those who seek sense enjoyments by adhering to the principles of the three Vedas achieve only repeated birth and death.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;yanti deva-vrata devan&#xA;  pitrn yanti pitr-vratah&#xA;  bhutani yanti bhutejya&#xA;  yanti mad-yajino ’pi mam&quot; (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Nine verse 25)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Lord Sri Krishna said: Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods; those who worship the ancestors go to the ancestors; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; and those who worship Me (Lord Sri Krishna) will live with Me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;yat karosi yad asnasi&#xA;  yaj juhosi dadasi yat&#xA;  yat tapasyasi kaunteya&#xA;  tat kurusva mad-arpanam&quot; (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Nine verse 27)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Lord Sri Krishna said: Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform—do that, O Arjuna, as an offering to Me (Lord Sri Krishna).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;subhasubha-phalair evam&#xA;  moksyase karma-bandhanaih&#xA;  sannyasa-yoga-yuktatma&#xA;  vimukto mam upaisyasi&quot; (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Nine verse 28)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Lord Sri Krishna said: In this way you will be freed from bondage to work (karmas) and its auspicious and inauspicious results. With your mind fixed on Me (Lord Sri Krishna) in this principle of renunciation, you will be liberated and come to Me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Let's pray to God (Lord Sri Krishna) always in life so that we can go to God's abode than going to heaven as we shall need to take rebirth after going to heaven while we shall get permanent life in God's abode. Let's pray to God always so that He can bless us in this &amp;amp; after this life. Loving &amp;amp; praying to God only can save us from the cycles of birth &amp;amp; death &amp;amp; from all types of miseries in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9680" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-05-06T05:23:34.877" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T05:23:34.877" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18168" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18177" CreationDate="2017-05-05T11:43:15.857" Score="7" ViewCount="3272" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://englishkambaramayanam.blogspot.sg/2014/07/kamba-ramayanam-aranya-kandam-padalam-1.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kamba Ramayana&lt;/a&gt;, a Gandharva praises Rama as such:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2575.Oh Rama   who is a boar  unearthed the earth by your horn,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Taking  the shape of a swan , you taught   Vedas  to Lord Brahma,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Who taught you that Vedas before? Were they all dead at that time?&#xA;  If those which separated from a thing  , join together   to form  ,&#xA;  That same thing, does it mean they are    the same thing  or,&#xA;  Does it mean they have not come by division,&#xA;  I am not able    to understand   this  illusion.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which avatar of Vishnu is this? Is he mentioned in any other texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastActivityDate="2020-09-07T18:41:17.430" Title="Who is the swan avatar of Vishnu who taught the Vedas to Bramha?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|avatars|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18169" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18216" CreationDate="2017-05-05T12:03:30.750" Score="9" ViewCount="402" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Devi Bhagvata Purana, in the rules for performing the Kumari Puja, it said that girls embody certain goddesses according to their age:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;41-43. The virgin aged two years is named the &lt;strong&gt;Kumârî&lt;/strong&gt; ; aged three years is named the &lt;strong&gt;Trimurtî&lt;/strong&gt; four years, is called the &lt;strong&gt;Kalyânî&lt;/strong&gt; ; five years, &lt;strong&gt;Rohinî&lt;/strong&gt;; six years, Kâlikâ; seventh year, Chandikâ; eighth year, &lt;strong&gt;S’âmbhavî&lt;/strong&gt; ; ninth year, Dûrgâ; and a virgin, aged ten years, is called &lt;strong&gt;Subhadrâ&lt;/strong&gt; . Virgins aged more than ten years are not allowed in all ceremonies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are these goddesses? The only goddesses I know of (a little bit) are Rohini and Subhadra. Rohini is the wife of Chandra, the moon god, and Subhadra is the sister of Krishna(I am not really sure if Subhadra is the avatar of the goddess who Kansa tried to kill, as I think she became Vidhya Vasini) and both goddesses have not, to my knowledge, displayed the power as goddesses.As for their roles, the Devi Bhagvata Purana says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;45. The worship of Kumârî leads to the extinction of miseries and poverty, to the extirpation of one’s enemies and the increment of riches, longevity and power.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;46. The Trimurtî Pujâ yields longevity, and the acquisition of the three things, Dharma, wealth, and desires, the coming in of riches, sons and grandsons.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;47&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Those who want learning, victory, kingdom and happiness, they should worship the Kalyânî, the fructitier of all desires.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;48-49. Men should worship Rohinî duly for the cure of diseases.&lt;/strong&gt; For the destruction of enemies, the worship of the Kâlikâ with devotion is the best. For prosperity and riches, Chandikâ is to be worshipped with devotion. O king! &lt;strong&gt;For the enchanting and overpowering of one’s enemies, for the removal of miseries and poverty, and for victory in battles, S’âmbhavî worship is the best.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;50-51. For the destruction of awfully terrible enemies and for happiness in the next world, the worship of Dûrgâ is the safest and best. &lt;strong&gt;People worship Subhadrâ when they want their desires to be fulfilled&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also said that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;53. The Goddess who can create without any difficulty all the sacred tattvas of the Kumâr Kârtikeya and who effects, as if in sport, the creation of all the Devas Brahmâ and others; I am worshiping the same Kumârî Devî.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;54. She who is appearing under the three forms as differentiated by the three gunas Sâttva, Râjas, and Tâmas, and who is appearing in multiple forms, owing to the differentiations of the three gunas again into various minor differences, I am worshipping Her the Trimûrtî Devî.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;55. She who being worshipped always fares us with auspicious things, I am worshipping Her, with devotion, the Kumârî Kalyânî, the awarder of all desires.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;56. I am worshipping the Rohinî Devî with a heart, full of devotion who is germinating all the karmas in seed forms, that have accumulated owing to past deeds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;57&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;She who, at the end of a Kalpa gathers unto Her in the form of Kâlî all this Universe, moving and unmoving, I worship that Kâlikâ Devî with devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;She, who is furious and wrathful and hence is called Chandikâ and who killed the two Demons Chanda and Munda I bow down to Her humbly with devotion, to that Chandikâ Devî, who destroys the terrible sins.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;59. I worship that S’âmbhavî Devî, the giver of all pleasures and happiness, whose form is the Veda Brahmâ, and whose origin is without any cause, and whe is so recited in the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;60&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;She who saves from danger her devotees and who always delivers from various difficulties and troubles, whom all the Devas are incapable to know, I worship with devotion that Dûrgâ Devî the destroyer of all calamities.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;61. I, with my mind devoted, offer my salutations to that Subhadrâ Devî, Who procures all auspiciousness to Her devotees and removes all inauspicious incidents.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are these goddesses? Are they mentioned in any other texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user4627" LastActivityDate="2022-07-04T17:54:51.353" Title="Who are these goddesses?" Tags="|avatars|devi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18170" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21614" CreationDate="2017-05-05T12:10:35.130" Score="16" ViewCount="1490" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16133/3500&quot;&gt;This answer&lt;/a&gt; says sins are attached to hair and devotees tonsure their hair when they visit temples to get rid of sins. It says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Sindhu&lt;/a&gt; mentions the verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तीर्थोपवास कर्तव्य सिरसोमुन्दनानिच सिरोगतानि पापानि यान्तिमन्दनथो यतह्&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tīrthopavāsa kartavya sirasomundanānica sirogatāni pāpāni&#xA;  yāntimandanatho yatah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma Sindhu is a book written by Panditha Kashinaatha taking essence of various Dharma Sastras and Puranas. This is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookview.php?chapnum=2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;preface &lt;/a&gt; of book says, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Drushtaa purva nibandhaatrirnaaya sindhu kramena siddharthaan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Praayena mula vachaannyujijjtya likhvaami baalabodhaaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having studied various ancient Sciptures and strictly based on the&#xA;  rudimentary facts delineated in those Root-Grandhas that the essence&#xA;  of &lt;em&gt;Dharma Nirnayaas&lt;/em&gt; (Regulatoty Verdicts) is sought to be described.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this must be presumably present in Puranas or Smritis or Dharma Sastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Dr. Sri Vaddiparti Padmakar, famous scholar in Telugu states, says the same in &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/4F4vUW1o2SE&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; (in Telugu). I searched in Shiva Purana and Padma Purana but couldn't find any references for it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: &lt;strong&gt;What scriptures, such as Dharma Sastras or smritis or puranas or any authoritative Hindu scriptures, say Paapa or Sins are stored or attached to hair?&lt;/strong&gt; Please don't answer from books by Acharyas or Swamijis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: This question is not duplicate to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/572/3500&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; or any such related question. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T05:15:58.423" Title="What scriptures other than Dharma Sindhu say sins are stored in hair?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|sin|dharma-shastras|smriti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18172" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-05T12:55:03.270" Score="7" ViewCount="291" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Short Question (or say subset of below longer question - Just to make long question easier to understand)&lt;/strong&gt; - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Will Vaikuntha be ever &lt;strong&gt;over populated&lt;/strong&gt; by liberated souls? If not, Lord Vishnu is not benevolent as some poor souls will never get Moksha which is cosmic injustice. If yes, how will he deal with such situation?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note -&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;Replace Vaikuntha with any other permanent physical place where you believe you will reside permanently after getting Moksha and Lord Vishnu with any God with whom you believe you are gonna live forever. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Long Question -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are only three non dual schools of thoughts namely &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sāntabrahmavāda&lt;/a&gt; (Sankara Vedanta), &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_Shaivism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ishvarādvayavāda&lt;/a&gt; (Kashmiri Shaivism) &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuddhadvaita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shuddhadvaita&lt;/a&gt;. In all these systems, liberation is assimilation of empirical self into universal self (in simple terms). Therefore, there is no empirical self or monad exists after liberation, it's identity is with universal consciousness only after liberation. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;Apart from these 3 systems, all systems are either semi dual or dual. According to these systems, empirical self isn't assimilated into universal consciousness rather exists even after liberation although in purer &amp;amp; bliss form. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;My question is from later systems of thoughts - &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There are infinite creations. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Because there are infinite creations, every individual empirical self is destined to get liberated. If it isn't, God is not benevolent. But God is benevolent therefore every individual self surely attains liberation in some point in time however very long. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once liberated individual self won't take birth once again, otherwise what use of liberation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From 2, there would be a point of time when all individuals souls would be liberated however may be so long. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Now after point 4 is accomplished, on what basis creation would be accomplished?&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;BR&gt; &#xA;If answers are one among -&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;New individual self would be created. Then on what basis? Even if we accept they are created somehow then it would imply the increasing number of individual selves, which leads to infinite number of individual selves at some point of time!!!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Same individual selves will again take part in creation &amp;amp; will take births.&lt;/strong&gt; If it is &lt;strong&gt;then what is the use of liberation?&lt;/strong&gt; Doesn't it imply liberation according to these systems are temporary only.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-11-29T18:16:12.920" LastActivityDate="2017-11-29T18:16:12.920" Title="Liberation according to dual (Dvait) or semi dual (Vishishta Advait) schools is temporary?" Tags="|vedanta|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|gaudiya-vaishnavism|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18173" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-05T14:42:36.490" Score="1" ViewCount="193" Body="&lt;p&gt;Siddhas or Yogis are those who have gained super-human powers through meditation or tapas. The Ashta-Maha siddhis detail some of these. But there are other 'smaller' siddhis as well.&#xA;e.g. in Ramakrishna Kathamrita, they mention a Pavhri baba who subsists only on air.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have any of you met such a person while traveling in India ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What powers did they exhibit ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-05-05T14:42:36.490" Title="Are there siddhas/yogis living today in Bharata ? Have any of you met one?" Tags="|siddhi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-05-10T09:42:13.697" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18166" CreationDate="2017-05-05T15:34:11.307" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;If someone wants to surrender to Lord Vishnu then he must have left off all his desires first. Means his/her all expectations, desires, wishes also need to be surrendered to Lord. In order to surrender he must do the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You should gift all good deeds (Punya karma phal) to Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means, in our life we all do some good deeds. And in return of our good deeds we get returns/gifts from Lord in form of money, fame, peace etc. This is our divine income that we can only earn from the Lord after doing good deeds. If someone wants to surrender to the Lord then he should gift away all his divine income (punya phal) back to Lord Vishnu. Why should we do that? This implies that you don't want fame, money and other good things that we can get in this world anymore. We pray &quot;that's why (because I do not want the worldly items) I am gifting all my divine income back to you, my Lord!&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If while gifting all your divine (income) you have any kind of greed/attachment in your heart  except Moksha then Lord Vishnu won't accept this gift. If there is some feeling in your heart that if I gift away all my divine income to the Lord then I am left with no fame, respect and other good things of life for myself. Because of such thinking Lord will never accept my gift to Him because, Lord Vishnu only accepts if someone really wants to give with all his/her heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You should gift away all your sins to Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After giving all divine income (punya phal) to the Lord one should also give all sin income (papa phal, that we get by doing bad deeds ) also to Lord vishnu. This can be accepted by God only when you have full faith in the Lord and you are determined about not doing any more sins in future. One should tell the Lord &quot; If you want to forgive me about my sins then I will be grateful to you, but, if you want to punish me for my sins then also I accept  that punishment with all my heart&quot;. After seeing your faith and determination Lord Vishnu will accept all your sins.. meaning he will make you fully pure (sinless).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You should have left all worries&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The humans always worry about their present, future etc. If you have surrendered to Lord vishnu then you have no need to take on those worries. And why so? Because if you already have surrendered yourself to Lord then how you can worry about yourself? You can only worry about your Lord now. If your Lord want you to suffer then you must accept all suffering given by your Lord and if your Lord wants you to enjoy then you should do that also. You have to obey whatever your Lord commands. The commands come to you through good incidents or bad ones in your lifetime... means if something bad  happens to you then you should accept it by thinking it's your Lord's wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keep thinking about your lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One thing that should keep in your mind foremost is Lord vishnu. While you are thinking (Chinta) about your Lord then don't let anything else distract you. You should forget the whole world and only one thing should remain in your mind and that is Lord Vishnu, nothing else. Your whole mind must be full with Lord vishnu's thoughts so that no other thought can enter in your mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu also tests (Pariksha) of his devotee to check how much they are determined on their words of surrender and how much real faith they have in Him. For that He will put obstacles in your way and also might impose lots of suffering on you to check how much faith/respect you have in Lord Vishnu. So be prepared for that examination to prove that your surrender is not going to break that easily. Lord's examination is not going be that easy. He will test your surrender in all ways possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another important thing is, it is not necessary that you have to make this kind of surrender to Lord Vishnu only to get Moksha. If you are a devotee of Lord Shiv then you should surrender to Lord Shiv and if you are Devotee of Mata Durga/Kali or Devi Lakshmi then you can surrender to them also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva and their wives have power to give Moksha. So to get Moksha you have to surrender to one of them only. But do surrender to &lt;em&gt;one&lt;/em&gt; only so that your surrender won't get distracted by diluting your faith in different Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-05-06T09:42:18.650" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T09:42:18.650" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18175" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-05T16:05:49.630" Score="5" ViewCount="529" Body="&lt;p&gt;How should we purify chitta so that our death and time after death can't be harmful or full of suffering for us.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;How someone can get peace with it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-05-05T17:49:45.240" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T04:18:07.447" Title="What is chitta ? How can we purify it to make our life and afterlife peaceful?" Tags="|moksha|death|food|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18176" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18277" CreationDate="2017-05-05T16:38:13.117" Score="3" ViewCount="279" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe Lord Rama is a symbol of Perfect man (as Son, Husband, Father and King), but still I don't know the reason for Rama's disappearance. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Padma Purana &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Disappearance of Sri Rama from earth happened when he entered voluntarily into the Sarayu River. This divine event is described as the death of Lord Rama. The story of the disappearance of Sri Ram is mentioned in many Hindu scriptures&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any reason behind this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-12-11T07:33:17.197" LastActivityDate="2021-03-10T17:56:17.450" Title="What is the reason behind Lord Rama's disappearance?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18177" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18168" CreationDate="2017-05-05T16:39:31.400" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This avatar of Vishnu is described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 11 Chapter 13&lt;/a&gt; known as the Hamsa avatar. The story of his manifestation is cited below. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uddhava asks Krishna how he(as Vishnu) dispelled the doubts of the Sanatakumara. &#xA;The Sanatkumara once went to Brahma to inquire about the science of Yoga. Brahma was confounded by their questions as he was in the process of creation and meditated on Lord Vishnu for answers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu appears in the avatar of a Hamsa (swan) and imparts the essential knowledge to them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.13.15 — Śrī Uddhava said: My dear Keśava, &lt;strong&gt;at what time and in&#xA;  what form did You instruct the science of yoga to Sanaka and his&#xA;  brothers?&lt;/strong&gt; I now desire to know about these things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.13.16 — &lt;strong&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Once, the&#xA;  mental sons of Lord Brahmā, namely, the sages headed by Sanaka,&#xA;  inquired from their father about the difficult subject matter of the&#xA;  supreme goal of yoga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.13.17 — The sages headed by Sanaka said: O Lord, people’s minds&#xA;  are naturally attracted to material sense objects, and similarly the&#xA;  sense objects in the form of desire enter within the mind. Therefore,&#xA;  how can a person who desires liberation, who desires to cross over&#xA;  activities of sense gratification, destroy this mutual relationship&#xA;  between the sense objects and the mind? Please explain this to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.13.18 — The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear&#xA;  Uddhava, Brahmā himself, who is born directly from the body of the&#xA;  Lord and who is the creator of all living entities within the material&#xA;  world, being the best of the demigods, seriously contemplated the&#xA;  question of his sons headed by Sanaka. &lt;strong&gt;The intelligence of Brahmā,&#xA;  however, was affected by his own activities of creation, and thus he&#xA;  could not discover the essential answer to this question.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 11.13.19 — Lord Brahmā desired to attain the answer to the question&#xA;  that was puzzling him, and thus he fixed his mind on Me, the Supreme&#xA;  Lord. &lt;strong&gt;At that time, in My form of Haṁsa, I became visible to Lord&#xA;  Brahmā.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-05-05T16:39:31.400" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18178" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18175" CreationDate="2017-05-05T16:57:21.717" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chitta means mind in general.&#xA;Mind itself can be categorized into many subtler parts like Manas, Buddhi etc.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Food eventually transforms into the mind (I don't recall exact shastra quote for this, but it exists)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, to purify chitta, answer is simple : clean (meaning satvik) food = clean chitta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आहार  शुद्धौ सत्त्व  शुद्धिः  सत्त्व शुद्धौ ध्रुव स्मृतिः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ध्रुव स्मृति-लम्भे सर्व ग्रन्थीनां  विप्र  मोक्षः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ahara suddhau sattva-suddhih Sattva-suddhau dhruva smrtihi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dhruva smrti-lambhe sarva-granthinam vipra-moksah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From purity of food, follows purity of mind.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Pure mind -&gt; Firm memory -&gt; Knots (of samsara) are loosened -&gt; Wise get liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna also says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ayuh-sattva-balarogya- sukha-priti-vivardhanah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  rasyah snigdhah sthira hridya aharah sattvika-priyah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So.. I said it is simple, but it is not at all easy.. what are exactly are Satvik foods ? Krishna mentioned this only in very general terms in Gita.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Whereas, there is an entire grantha &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://srivaishnavam.com/desikaprabandam/ahara_meaning.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ahara Niyama&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; that mentions exact fruits/vegetables/milk we cannot eat, when to eat, how to eat, who should serve it etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some samples:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- Avoid liquor&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- Avoid meat&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- Avoid eating in restaurants&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- Avoid onion, garlic, mushrooms, drumstick, watermelon, white brinjal etc.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- Avoid milk taken from cow whose own calf is not nearby or was not fed by it  , the milk for first 10 days after it gave birth, or milk from pregnant cow .. most milk available in cities nowadays does not meet these requirements, you have to &lt;em&gt;go to goshala for satvik milk&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- Avoid tea, coffee, soda&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- Avoid eating before bathing, or at dusk, or at midnight, or while standing, or with left hand&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- Avoid food that is ucchishtam (no sipping drinks or licking fingers, because saliva has already transferred from mouth to that food) - exceptions are ucchishtam of one's father, eldest brother, or acharya&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- Avoid husband and wife eating together (wife should serve husband first)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- Avoid food seen by immoral people and food touched by sanyasi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- Avoid food with hair or nails in it, and avoid food fallen on cloth&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- Avoid food kept separately for oneself before serving guests&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;- Avoid food on Ekadashi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most importantly&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;- Avoid food not offered to God&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-05-05T17:40:57.863" LastActivityDate="2017-05-05T17:40:57.863" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18179" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-05T17:16:47.403" Score="11" ViewCount="2156" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gosai.com/writings/the-divinity-of-sri-caitanya-mahaprabhu-0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; website provides many evidences to prove &lt;em&gt;the divinity of Caitanya Mahaprabhu&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse from &lt;em&gt;Padma purana&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yatrayogesvarah saksad&#xA;  yogi-cintyo &lt;strong&gt;janardanah&#xA;  caitanya&lt;/strong&gt; vapur aste vai&#xA;  sandranandatmakah &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kaleh prathama-sandhyayam&#xA;  gaurangotham mahi-tale&#xA;  bhagirathi-tate ramye&#xA;  bhavisyami saci-sutah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: The Supreme Personality, Janardana, who is the object of the yogis' meditation, who saves the devotees from various sufferings, and who is the master of all yogic practices, who is always full of divine transcendental ecstasy and bliss, will advent in &lt;strong&gt;His own divine form of Sri Caitanya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I shall appear on this earth in the first part of Kali-yuga in a beautiful place on the bank of the Bhagirathi. I shall have a golden form, and I shall take birth as the son of Saci.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and from &lt;em&gt;Narasimha purana&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;satye daitya-kuladhi-nasa-samaye&#xA;  simhordhva-martyakrtis&#xA;  tretayam dasa-kandharam&#xA;  paribhavan rameti namakrtih&#xA;  gopalan paripalayan vraja-pure&#xA;  bharam haran dvapare&#xA;  gaurangah priya-kirtanah&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;kali-yuge caitanya-nama prabhuh&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: The Supreme Personality of Godhead who in the Satya-yuga appeared as a half-man, half-lion to cure a terrible disease that had ravaged the daityas, and who in the Treta-yuga appeared as a person named Rama (Lord Ramacandra), a person who defeated the ten- headed Demon Ravana, and who in the Dvapara-yuga removed the earth's burden, and protected the Gopa (cowherd men) people of Vraja-pura, will appear again in the Kali-yuga. His form will be golden, He will delight in chanting the Lord's holy names, and &lt;strong&gt;His name will be Caitanya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the above highlights explicitly use the word &lt;em&gt;Chaitanya&lt;/em&gt; but that site didn't give exact verse number. So, &lt;em&gt;Which verse of Padma purana and Narasimha purana claims Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna/Vishnu Himself?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2017-05-05T17:34:37.330" LastActivityDate="2023-08-02T21:59:53.923" Title="Which verse of Padma purana and Narasimha purana claims Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna/Vishnu Himself?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|padma-purana|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18180" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18196" CreationDate="2017-05-05T17:35:52.947" Score="5" ViewCount="3128" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the significance of Jyotirlinga?&#xA;Are these temples or just ling placed on ground?&#xA;Also why there are only 12 Jyotrilinga? Also at specific places only?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8031" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-07T06:17:36.273" LastActivityDate="2017-05-07T06:17:36.273" Title="What is the significance of jyotirlinga?" Tags="|shiva|gods|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18181" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-05T19:05:01.420" Score="3" ViewCount="710" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/CsJj&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the newly released Amar Chitra Katha comic book &quot;Saptarshi&quot; tells a story I hadn't heard before.  In this account, the sage Vishwamitra visits the ashram of the sage Vasishta, who is telling his shishyas about how Japa or repeating the holy names bestows the greatest power on a person.  But Vishwamitra disputes this, saying that Dhyana or meditation bestows the greatest power.  To resolve their disagreement, Vishwamitra and Vasishta go to Vishnu, but he's busy and leaves his serpent Adiseshan to settle it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adiseshan says it is difficult for him to think while he is supporting the Earth on his hoods.  So Vishwamitra offers to hold the Earth for him, using the power of meditation to give himself strength.  But he's not able to hold it on his head for even a minute, so Adiseshan gives it to Vasishta.  Vasishta chants Vishnu's name, and is thereby able to hold it on his head.  And so Vishwamitra finally concedes that Japa is more powerful than Dhyana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hMlQ9.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hMlQ9.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is there any scriptural basis for this story?  Amar Chitra Katha comic books are sometimes based on scripture and sometimes based on folklore, so I'd like to find out which it is in this case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only other Rishi I know of who carried the Earth was the sage Kashyapa, who did it twice as discussed in my answers &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7552/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/433/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  On a side note, assuming the story is true, Vishwamitra and Vasishtha presumably used Mahima &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8265/489&quot;&gt;Siddhi&lt;/a&gt; or the power of becoming large to get big enough to hold the Earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-06T17:18:48.370" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T17:18:48.370" Title="What scriptures describe Vishwamitra and Vasishtha carrying the Earth?" Tags="|vashishta|earth|adisesha|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18182" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18180" CreationDate="2017-05-05T20:07:04.910" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Jyotir Lingam means the &lt;strong&gt;Radiant Sign&lt;/strong&gt; of the Almighty Shiva. No Jyotirlinga was established by us, it was all already established by Lord Shiva himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below link will explain you fully,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2533/what-is-the-difference-between-a-shiva-temple-and-a-jyotirlinga/3284#3284&quot;&gt;What is the difference between a Shiva temple and a Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-05-06T05:13:25.900" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T05:13:25.900" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18183" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-06T03:39:25.243" Score="4" ViewCount="795" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Shaivite&quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, Iyer Brahmins are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is about a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta, which is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the Nayanars just as the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the Alwars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in the worldview of the Shaiva Agamas, the hierarchy of gods from lowest to highest is Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheshwara, Sadashiva.  I had initially thought that Sadashiva was considered the supreme being in the Shauva Agamas.  But based on my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9291/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and my answers to it, I revised my view and concluded that Para Shiva is considered higher than Sadashiva, and that Para Shiva is the one who's considered supreme, akin to Para Vasudeva in the Pancharatra worldview.  But now it seems that even Para Shiva may not be considered supreme.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I mentioned above, the Shaiva Siddhanta is based on the poems of the Nayanars.  One of the most famous Nayanars was Tirumular.  In Tantra 8 of his Tirumantiram, Tirumular says &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.himalayanacademy.com/media/books/tirumantiram/web/Tantra_8.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Paramparam and Para Maha Sivam&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Beyond Para Siva is Paramam;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Beyond Paramam is Paramparam;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; Thus are states ascending; &lt;br&gt; From Para Siva Jagra, to Para Siva Svapna, and to Para Siva Sushupti &lt;br&gt; The Jiva that has Para Siva become reaches &lt;br&gt; The Finite Truth that is Para Nandi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who are the beings &quot;Paramam&quot; and &quot;Paramparam&quot; whom Tirumular considers to be higher than Para Shiva?  And what is the exact distinction between Para Shiva, Paramam, and Paramparam?  What are their roles, their nature, etc.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any Shaiva Siddhanta works that discuss beings higher than Para Shiva?  Commentaries on the Tirumantiram may be a good place to look.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-06T03:45:35.233" LastActivityDate="2019-11-21T04:10:06.960" Title="Who are the beings above Para Shiva recognized by Tirumular?" Tags="|shiva|philosophy|shaivism|shaiva-siddhanta|nayanar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18184" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18175" CreationDate="2017-05-06T04:18:07.447" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are clearing chitta requires a lifestyle change food affects mind. You need to have positive thoughts towards Lord God is grateful. He will guide us if we remember him. You think of him doing anything daily activities offer your karma. Meditate on him think about Lord sleeping and waking. Chitta will be purified. It also depends on your spiritual evolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9680" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T04:18:07.447" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18185" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10741" CreationDate="2017-05-06T04:41:28.710" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MahaMrityunjaya mantra&lt;/strong&gt; is one of the most special mantra from Veda Samhita addressed to Lord Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is in &lt;em&gt;Rig Veda Samhita 7.59.12.&lt;/em&gt; Sage Vasistha is the Rishi (who heard) of the mantra and Devata is 'Rudra'. Similarly Mahamrityunjaya mantra is also avaliable in YajurVeda Samhitas like Taittariya Samhita 1.8.6.i, Vajasaneyi Samhita in 3.60 etc...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The mantra is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात्&lt;/strong&gt; ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;om tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ pushtivardhanam ǀ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;urvārukamiva bandhanān mrityormukshīya mā'mritāt ǁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning of mantra is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We worship the Three-eyed Lord who is fragrant and who nourishes and nurtures all beings. As is the ripened cucumber freed from its bondage (to the creeper), may He liberate us from death for the sake of immortality.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sukra while teaching this mantra to Dadhichi tells that this is the best mantra as per him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मृतसञ्जीवनीमन्त्रो मम सर्वोत्तमः स्मृतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;एवं जपपरः प्रीत्या नियमेन शिवं स्मरन् ।। (Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita chapter 38) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;In my opinion, this Mrityunjaya mantra is the excellent of all.&lt;/strong&gt; Repeat the mantra regularly with your mind devoted to Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Trayambakeshwara appears before Sage Dadhichi as he does penance by this mantra and he asks for three boons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दधीच उवाच&lt;br&gt;&#xA;देवदेव महादेव मह्यं देहि वरत्रयम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वज्रास्थित्वमवध्यत्वमदीनत्वं हि सर्वतः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Dadhicha said &amp;quot;O Great lord of the gods, kindly bestow three boons to me. First my bones should be strong like Vajra, No one should be able to kill me and I should never feel distress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Suta also states that Mahamrityunjaya mantra is the best of all Veda mantras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नानेन सदृशो मंत्रो लोके वेदे च सुव्रताः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्मात्त्रियंबकं देवं तेन नित्यं प्रपूजयेत् ।। (Linga Purana II.54)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;There is no mantra better in the world as well as in Vedas (than this).&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore one should always adore the God Trayambakeswara in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Explanation of the words of the mantra is avaliable in Shiva Purana and Linga Purana;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Tryambakam:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Trayambakam denotes that Lord who has three eyes is the lord of three worlds, three Gunas, Trimurtis etc.. or Lord of everything which exists in Triad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्रयम्बकं यजामहे च त्रैलोक्यपितरं प्रभुम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;त्रिमण्डलस्य पितरं त्रिगुणस्य महेश्वरम् ।। (Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita chapter 38)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We worship &lt;strong&gt;lord Shiva having three eyes, who is the lord of three worlds and the master of three gunas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;त्रयाणामपि लोकानां गुणानामपि यः प्रभुः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वेदानामपि देवानां ब्रह्मक्षत्रविशामपि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अकारोकारमकाराणां मात्राणामपि वाचक ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तथा सोमस्य सूर्यस्य वह्नेरग्नित्रयस्य च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अंबा उमा महादेवो ह्यंबकस्तु त्रियंबक ।। (Linga Purana II.54)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The word ‘Tryambaka’ has been defined as the one, &lt;strong&gt;who happens to be the lord of the three worlds, three gunas, three Vedas, three gods, three castes— He is revealed by the three syllables ‘a’, ‘u’, ‘m’.&lt;/strong&gt; He is the lord of three fires, Viz. : the sun, the moon and the fire. He represents Amba, Uma and Mahadeva. Thus, the lord of all the sets of three is known as Tryambaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Yajāmahe:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantra contains the words 'Yajãmahe' to denote that such Lord who is Trayambaka is to be worshipped by various methods:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तं पुष्टीवर्धनम् देवं घृतेन पयसा तथा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मधुना यवगोधुममाषबिल्वफलेन च ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कुमुदार्कशमीपत्रगौरसर्षपशालिभिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;हुत्वा लिंगे यथान्यायं भक्त्या देवं यजामहे ।। (Linga Purana II.54)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yajãmahe (we worship him) is thus defined. &lt;strong&gt;We worship lord Siva in a proper manner and devoutly&lt;/strong&gt; by performing homas with ghee, milk, honey, wheat, black gram, wood apple fruits, lilies, Arka flowers, Sami leaves, white mustard and Sali grains in a Linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Sugandhim:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord is called 'Sugandhim' because he is the essence of Everything which exists in this Universe just as Sugandha (fragrance) is the essence of a flower:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इन्द्रियेषु तथान्येषु देवेषु च गणेषु च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पुष्पे सुगन्धिवत्सरः सुगन्धिरमरेश्वर ।। (Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita chapter 38)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;As the fragrance is enshrined in the flowers, similarly he is found present in all the sense organs, the gods, gunas, in a very strong manner.&lt;/strong&gt; And thus he is the Ishwara.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सुपुष्तितस्य वृक्षस्य यथा गंधः सुशोभनः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाति दूरात्तथा तस्य गंधः शंभोर्महात्मन ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्मात्सुगन्धो भगवान्गंधारयति शंकर ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;गांधारश्च महादेवो देवानामपि लीलया ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सुगंधस्तस्य लोकेस्मिन्वायुर्वाति नभस्तले ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्मात्सुगन्धिस्तं देवं सुगंधी पुष्टिवर्धनम् ।। (Linga Purana chapter 54)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The splendid fragrance of a tree in a full bloom is wafted to a great distance. Similar is the fragrance of the great Lord. &lt;strong&gt;The lord is the fragrance or the holder of the fragrance on all other Devas.&lt;/strong&gt; His fragrance is wafted in the world where the wind blows. Hence the attribute Sugandhim refers to the Lord. Now the word Pushtivardhanam is being defined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Pushtivardhanam:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord is called Pushtivardhanam because he is the cause of the growth of the Universe, and source of nourishment of everyone:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विष्णोः पितामहस्यापि मुनीनां च महामुने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;इन्द्रियाणां च देवानांतस्माद्वै पुष्टिवर्द्धनः ।। (Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita chapter 38)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;O Excellent sage, he happens to be Brahma, Visnu and other gods, who &lt;strong&gt;derive their nourishment from him.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यस्य रेतः पुरा शम्भोहरेर्योनौ प्रतिष्ठितम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्य वीर्यादभूदण्डं हिरण्यमयमजोद्भवम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;चंद्रादित्यौ सनक्षत्रौ भूर्भुवः स्वर्महस्तपः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सत्यलोकमतिक्रम्य पुष्टिवीर्यस्य तस्य वै ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पञ्चभूतान्यहंकारो बुद्धिः प्रकृतिरेव च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पुष्टिर्बीजस्य तस्यैव तस्माद्वै पुष्टिवर्धनः ।। (Linga Purana II.54)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Formerly, the semen of the lord Shiva was deposited in the womb of Vishnu. It was from this semen that the cosmic golden egg, the source of origin of Brahma originated. &lt;strong&gt;The nourishment of his semen extends beyond the moon, sun, stars, earth, Bhuvah. Svah. Mahah, Tapah and Satya. The Five elements, the cosmic ego. the cosmic intellect and Prakrti are nourished by his semen virile Hence. the lord is Pushtivardhanam (the nourisher).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;urvārukamiva bandhanān mrityormukshīya mā'mritāt ǁ&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the latter half part of the Mantra. In the former part, Lord is praised with various attributes while this latter half part asks from the Lord. Mantra says that just as the ripened cucumber is freed from it's bandhan (bond) in the similar way may Lord free us from death and give Moksha which is Immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सत्येनान्येन सूक्ष्मायान्मृत्युपाशाद्भवः स्वयम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;बन्धमोक्षकरो यस्मादुर्वारुकमिव प्रभुः।। (Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita, chapter 38)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;you will be surely freed from the noose of Yama. &lt;strong&gt;The lord is the cause of both bondage and Moksha and hence Lord is denoted as Urvarukamiva (in the mantra).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ऋतेनानेन मां पाशाद्वंधनात्कर्मयोगतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मृत्योश्च बन्धनाच्चैव मुक्षीय भव तेजसा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उर्वारुकाणां पक्वानां यथा कालादभेत्पुनः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तथैव कालः संप्राप्तो मनुना तेन यत्नतः ।। (Linga Purana II.54)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The later half of the mantra is now interpreted. By the grace of the Rta (systematic worship), &lt;strong&gt;let me be released from the bondage of actions and reactions as well as fetters of death.&lt;/strong&gt; Let me be released from the resplendence of the worldly existence. &lt;strong&gt;Just as a mature cucumber falls from it's stalk when the season arrives, so also, the time of liberation has arrived by the grace of mantra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus it is very clear that the Mantra is primarily asking Moksha from Lord Shiva so that one can become Immortal as Moksha is related to Immortality. But the Mantra is also chanted  to gain long life in the worldly existence. It is because as clear from the above, Lord becomes the cause of bondage and liberation for the chanter. And one is also freed from the Bandhan of Kãla (i.e., Yama Pãsha) as he is freed from every kind of Pãshas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिवस्य सन्निधौ ध्यात्वा नास्ति मृत्युभयं क्वचित् ।। (Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita chapter 38)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;In case the penance is done in presence of Shiva, &lt;strong&gt;there is no fear of death from any quarters.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;एवं मन्त्रविधिं ज्ञात्वा शिवलिंगं समर्चयेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्य पाशक्षयोऽतीव योगिनो मृत्युनिग्रहः ।।  (Linga Purana II.54)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;One should worship ShivaLinga after well understanding the meaning and the rites related to Mantra. &lt;strong&gt;The Yogi shall severe all the bonds. He can control death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T11:38:52.917" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18186" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18159" CreationDate="2017-05-06T05:29:54.893" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, in the Mrigendra āgama the purpose of &lt;strong&gt;human&lt;/strong&gt; life is mentioned. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atha dehādi sāpekṣaṁ tatpumartha prasādhakam| &lt;BR&gt;                                     tato niyati sāpekṣamastu karma niyāmakam|| &lt;BR&gt;                                            So, if it is maintained that karma itself is capable of accomplishing &lt;strong&gt;all the four goals of human life - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;dharma&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;artha&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kāmā&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moksha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;moksha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; – for the souls depending on body, instruments and others, then that karma is to be held as depending on niyati tattva also. So, it is niyati tattva that is responsible for the regulation and restraint of the karmic fruits.  Chapter 10, verse 16,17.&#xA;  &lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover first three goals are said to be &lt;strong&gt;inferior&lt;/strong&gt; by the same āgama, these 3 are just to accomplish last goal because one can't attain moksha without exhausting previous Samskars. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mastrivargavāmatvāt rahasyañca  svabhāvataḥ|| &lt;BR&gt;                                                 vāmaṁ dhāma paraṁ guhyaṁ yasyāsau vāmaguhyakaḥ| ,&lt;BR&gt;                    Since the three goals – dharma, artha and kama – &lt;strong&gt;are of inferior nature when compared to the highest state of liberation(moksha)&lt;/strong&gt;, they are collectively known as ‘vama’. That effulgence(deva) of Siva which enables the souls experience dharma, artha and kama according to their karmic fruits becomes known as  ‘vama deva’. Since, by its own nature, it remains very subtle and secret(guhya, not exposed to vision), the ‘Vamadeva’ mantra is considered to constitute the privy part of the form of Lord Siva (vamadeva guhya) Chapter 3, verse 12,13.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purpose of human life in Chandogya Upanishad is said to be Moksha.&lt;/strong&gt; -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Higher than the immense self is the unmanifest;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;   Higher than the unmanifest is the person;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;   Higher than the person there’s nothing at all. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  That is &lt;strong&gt;the goal&lt;/strong&gt;, that’s the highest state. CU. Valli 3, verse 10.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna seems to reiterate this in BG as well&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This unmanifested state is called the Indestructible. They call that the &lt;strong&gt;highest goal&lt;/strong&gt; which, having obtained, they return not. That is My highest abode. BG.Ch 18, verse 21.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT:&lt;/strong&gt;- From &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/groups/1181901391942378/permalink/1231995163599667/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; link, I have found a beautiful verse. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सोपानभूतं मोक्षस्य मानुष्यं प्राप्य दुर्लभम् | &#xA;  यस्तारयति नात्मानं तस्मात् पापतरोत्र कः || &#xA;  ततश्चाप्युत्तमं जन्म लब्ध्वा चेन्द्रियसौष्ठवम् | &#xA;  न वेत्तात्महितं यस्तु स भवेदात्मघातकः || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Who is the greater sinner than the one who, having found an elusive human embodiment close to liberation, does not save himself? &#xA;  He who, having found this best birth, does not [apply] the efforts of the senses, does not comprehend the good of the soul, he is the murderer of the Atman.&#xA;  (कौलावलीनिर्णय, प्रथम उल्लासः / Kaulavalinirnya Tantra, the first chapter, Shloka 31-32)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2018-02-08T16:24:05.273" LastActivityDate="2018-02-08T16:24:05.273" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18187" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18166" CreationDate="2017-05-06T07:57:15.517" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Chapter 9 of the Gita Krishna says (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I am the same towards all beings; to Me there is none hateful or dear. But those who worship Me with devotion--they are in Me, and I too am in them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even the most sinful man, if he worships Me with with unswerving devotion, must be regarded as righteous; for he has formed the right resolution.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He soon becomes righteous and attains eternal peace. Proclaim it boldly, O son of Kunti, that My devotee never perishes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For those who take refuge in Me, O Partha, though they be of sinful birth--women, vaisyas, and sudras--even they attain the Supreme Goal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to me, sacrifice to Me, bow down to Me. Having thus disciplined yourself, and regarding Me as the Supreme Goal, you will come to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and in Chapter 18, He says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;62&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Take refuge in Him alone with all your soul, O Bharata. By His grace will you gain Supreme peace and the Everlasting Abode.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Fix your heart on Me, give your love to Me, worship Me, bow down before Me; so shall you come to Me. This is My pledge to you, for you are dear to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Abandon all dharmas and come to Me alone for shelter. I will deliver you from all sins; do not grieve. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T07:57:15.517" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18188" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18192" CreationDate="2017-05-06T08:30:15.270" Score="7" ViewCount="10195" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sometimes people have a certain wish that they want to be fulfilled. I've read and heard that God can grant any wish. How does one ask or approach Him to grant a wish. If you chant His name numerous time everyday almost all the day will that work? Sometimes people are in situations where they feel only a miracle can help them and some people believe God can make miracles happen. Is there a particular way to meditate or worship Shiva to ask Him to grant wishes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9689" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-05-06T10:23:50.487" LastActivityDate="2018-03-17T13:30:32.740" Title="Does Lord Shiva grant wishes?" Tags="|shiva|bhakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18190" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18079" CreationDate="2017-05-06T09:20:02.527" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although there was a great understanding of mathematics during the vedic period, they are not mentioned per se in the vedas. The Mundaka Upanishad (part of the Atharva Veda) says in I.i.4-6 (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To him he said, &quot;' There are two kinds of knowledge to be acquired--the higher and the lower', that is what, as tradition runs, the knowers of the import of the Vedas say.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of these, the lowers comprises the Rg-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda, Atharva-Veda, the science of pronunciation etc., the code of rituals, grammar, etymology, metre, and astrology. Then there is the higher (knowledge) by which is realized that Immutable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(By the higher knowledge) the wise realize everywhere that which cannot be perceived and grasped; which is without source, features, eyes, and ears, which has neither hands nor feet; which is external, multi-formed, all-pervasive, extremely subtle, and undiminishing; and which is the source of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So mathematics is not mentioned as one of the lower knowledges or the higher knowledge. For more information on early Indian mathematics see - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mathematics&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mathematics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T09:20:02.527" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18191" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-06T12:46:38.543" Score="1" ViewCount="64" Body="&lt;p&gt;What concise classical references do we have in English of Hindu/Indian mythology, religion and philosophy subjects especially from the colonial period by non-Indian indologists? An objective narrative from a non-indian viewpoint may be interesting in this changing world. The following is one such but is not really sufficient on Indian philosophy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=PwsYAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;amp;dq=dhara%20sacrifiA%20Classical%20Dictionary%20of%20Hindu%20Mythology%20and%20Religion,%20Geography,%20History%20...ce%20flow%20water&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjK7ZCVpNvTAhWIr48KHbGmACoQ6AEINDAD#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T09:58:13.240" LastActivityDate="2018-10-16T09:58:13.240" Title="Reference Books for Hindu/Indian Mythology, Culture &amp; Philosophy?" Tags="|philosophy|culture|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2018-10-17T05:06:00.230" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18192" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18188" CreationDate="2017-05-06T12:49:13.950" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anugraham&lt;/strong&gt; (bestowing grace) is one of the fundamental characteristic of Lord Shiva. So, Lord Shiva certainly grants wishes. In the scripture also we find many many stories where Lord Shiva grants wishes to his devotees. Like giving son to Vyasa, Sanjivani Vidya to Sukra, Drinking poison on request by Devas, Giving Chandrahaans to Ravana etc... and so on. YajurVeda also after the Rudram section asks of many desires from it's Chamakam section. Similarly the Upanishads also speak the same. Eg. Svetasvatara Upanishad 6.13 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नित्यो नित्यानां चेतनश्चेतनाना-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;मेको बहूनां यो विदधाति कामान्&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्कारणं सांख्ययोगाधिगम्यं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; ज्ञात्वा देवं मुच्यते सर्वपाशैः ॥ १३॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He is the Eternal among the eternal, the Conscious among the conscious and &lt;strong&gt;though non-dual, fulfils the desires of many.&lt;/strong&gt; He who has known Him, the luminous Lord, the Great Cause, to be realised by Knowledge and yoga, is freed from all fetters. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the thing is doing various methods so that Lord Shiva graces us. There are various methods provided in Puranas like Shiva Purana and Linga Purana which can be used to obtain various desires. Like; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;1) Performing ShivaLinga Abhisekam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;2) Performing Sri Rudram Homam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;3) Performing MahaMrityunjaya Yajnam etc...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These all methods should be done as per the methods given in Puranas and with the help of a good Priest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also Nãma-Japa methods which can be used to invoke Grace of Lord Shiva. The most special is Shivas eight name which are very much emphasized in Vedas and Puranas. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10524/whats-the-relation-between-lord-shiva-and-lord-shani-dev/17075#17075&quot;&gt;eight names&lt;/a&gt; are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;● रुद्र (Rudra) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ● भव (Bhava) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ● सर्व (Sarva) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ● ईशान (Ishana) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ● पशुपति (Pashupati) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ● भीम (Bhima) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ● उग्र (Ugra) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ● महादेव (Mahadeva)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Eight names of Lord Shiva are very beneficial and chanting them can invoke grace of Lord Shiva. There are also &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15124/how-rudra-became-shiva-in-vedas/15125#15125&quot;&gt;five names&lt;/a&gt; which are also verified by Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;● रुद्र (Rudra) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ● भव (Bhava) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ● सर्व (Sarva) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ● शिव (Shiva) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ● मृड (Mrida) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chanting of these five names can also invoke grace of Lord Shiva. Similarly, chanting of the name '&lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;' is also highly emphasized in Shiva Purana. Hearing of stories related to Lord Shiva can also invoke grace of Shiva. And the Panchakshari Mantra '&lt;strong&gt;Om Namaha Shivãya&lt;/strong&gt;' though seems simple is highly potent and the most emphasized mantra in Shiva and Linga Purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a sidenote I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12185/which-mantras-should-be-recited-to-properly-worship-lord-rudra/16878#16878&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; various mantras which can be used to worship Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T12:49:13.950" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18194" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18180" CreationDate="2017-05-06T13:57:36.473" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The significance of the Jyotirlingas is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-122/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 1 of the Koti-Rudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sages ask Suta to describe the glory of the Shivalingas. Suta replies that there are Shivalingas all over the three worlds as Shiva is worshiped by everyone be it gods, demons or humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shivalingas are consecrated to shower grace upon the devotees. Suta goes on to say that whenever the devotees remembered Lord Shiva he appeared there and established himself in the form of a linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वेषां शिबलिङ्गंन्धां’मुने! सङ्खद्या न विद्यतॆ। सर्वालिङ्गययीभूमि:&#xA;सर्वंलिङ्गग्रयंजगतू॥९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Sage, there are innumerable Sivalingas in the world.&lt;/strong&gt; The entire earth&#xA;is full of lingas, besides the entire earth has the form of linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यत्र यत्र यदा शम्भुंर्भक्त्यां भक्तेश्च संस्मृतः। तत्र तन्रावतीर्याथ&#xA;कार्यं वृभ्त्वम्या स्थितस्तदा॥१६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wherever Siva was remembered with&#xA;devotion by the devotees, he appeared at such places and after&#xA;performing the task of his devotees, he established himself there.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लोकप्ताप्रुक्कारार्घं स्वलिङ्गं चाप्यवल्मयत्। तल्लिङ्गं पूजयित्वा तु&#xA;सिद्धि समधिगच्छति॥१७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In order to do good to the people, he created&#xA;the linga and by adoring the lingas, the devotees meet with success.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since there are innumerable lingas all over the world Suta describes the most prominent ones to the sages which constitute the 12 Jyotirlingas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Out of all the lingas in the world these 12 are the most auspicious and bestow the highest merits. The merit that these Shivalinga's bestow cannot be described by Brahma himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पृथिव्यां यानि लिङ्गानि तेषां सङ्खद्या न विद्यते।&#xA;तथापिचप्नधानानिकय्यन्तेचमयाद्विजा:।।१८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Brahmanas, all the lingas of Siva found on earth, are beyond&#xA;counting, still I would like to describe the prominent lingas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ज्योतिर्लिङ्गानि यानीह मुख्यमुख्यंम्यानि सत्तम!। तान्यहं कथयाम्यद्य&#xA;श्रुत्वा पापं व्यपोहति॥२०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Excellent one, all the prominent Jyotirlinga are being described by&#xA;me. By listening to their names all the sins are washed out in a&#xA;moment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौराष्टे सोमनाथंच श्रीज्ञैले मल्लिकार्जुनम्। उज्जयिन्यां&#xA;महक्कालमोड्क़रे परपेश्वरम्॥२१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;केदारं हिमवल्पृष्ठे ङाकिन्यां भीमशङ्करम्। वाराण्स्यां च विश्वैशं&#xA;त्र्यम्बकं गौतमीतटे॥२२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वैद्यनाथं चिताभूमी नागेशं दारुकावने। सेतुबबन्ध च रामेशं घुश्मेशं च&#xA;शिवालये॥२३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is Somanatha in Saurastra, Mallikarjuna at Srisaila, Mahakala in&#xA;Ujjaini, Paramesvara or Amalesvara at Omkara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kedarasvara is in Himalaya, Bhimasankara in Dakini, Visvanatha at&#xA;Varanasi, Trayambaka at the banks of the Gautami&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Baidyanatha at the cremation grounds, Nagesvara at Darukavana,&#xA;Rameshvara at Setubandha, while Ghusmesvara or Ghusnesvara at Sivalaya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;द्वादशैतानि नामानि प्रातरुत्थाय य: पठेत्। सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्ता&#xA;सर्वसिद्धिफलं लभेत्।। २४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A person who recites the name of these twelve&#xA;Jyotirlinga daily in the early morning, he is relieved of all the&#xA;sins, and he meets with all the success.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यं यं कापग्मपेक्ष्यैव पठिष्यन्ति नरोत्तमा:। प्राएयन्ति कामं तं तं हि&#xA;परत्रेह मुनीश्वरा॥२६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Excellent sage, whosoever will recite the names of these Jyotirlinga with&#xA;any particular desire in his mind, he will achieve success in that&#xA;particular field in the present as well as in  the future world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ज्योतिषां चैव लिङ्गानां व्रह्मादिभिरलं द्विजा:। विशेषत:फलंबक्तुंशक्यतेनपरैस्तथा॥२९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Brahmanas, the result of the worship of&#xA;the Jyotirlinga cannot be described by Brahma and others.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T13:57:36.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18195" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18258" CreationDate="2017-05-06T14:14:27.117" Score="6" ViewCount="843" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have found the following ritual for collecting herbs in the Kamaratna-tantra, which is a Hindu tantra from the 14th century (although its contents may be derived from older source).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there more sources describing rituals/mantras for collecting herbs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To collect medicinal plants a man should fast over night, and in the following morning, after offering salutations to Mahadeva, should approach the plant with due respect and utter the mantra (No. 1)—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Ye betāl, pishāsa, rākshas, and creeping animals that live in the plant, go away at the command of Shiva.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the plant should be saluted by uttering the mantra (No. 2)—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘Oh mother, thou hast they birth in the nectar, and thou incresest strength and vitality. Let me drive away the sins and diseases.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this the plant should be dug with a flawless weapon while uttering the mantra (No. 3)—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘I dig thee with the same sacred hand with which Brahmā, Bhrigu, Indra and Varuna dug you.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this prayer, mantra (No. 4) should be recited—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘Oh mother, what is my fault? May the divine life depart from this plant, so that I may be saced from the sin of uprooting and cutting it. Go thou to heaven doing good to me.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this prayer, the medicinal plant should be dug on a Sunday in Paushyā lunar mansion and in the Rabi Yoga while uttering the eight-lettered mantra (No. 5). The plant should then be cut after reciting the six-lettered mantra. (No. 6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/KamaratnaTantra#page/n19/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T03:03:57.123" Title="Sources describing rituals for collecting herbs" Tags="|mantras|tantra|ayurveda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18196" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18180" CreationDate="2017-05-06T15:26:53.277" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The significance is that all the 12 Jyotirlingas are &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swayambhu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swayambhu&lt;/a&gt; or self- manifested or self- existent. They are not man made or krittima. So, they represent Lord Shiva fully. And their greatness is unmatched.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In MatrikA Bheda Tantram, Lord Shiva says that in Kailasa there exists a Jyotirmaya lingam (or Jyotirlingam ) ( which is of course inaccessible to human beings ) , similarly on earth  a corresponding lingam exists in Visweswara KAsi. And, similarly there 11 others at different places of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can't see the most divine lingam that is there on the Kailasa mountain but we can definitely see ( &amp;amp; pray to ) the lingam ( that is in KAsi ) which Lord Shiva says as being representing the one-sixteenth potency of the Kailasa lingam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this gives us a rough idea of the divinity and the unmatched greatness of the Jyotirlingams that are found earth and in particular that of the KAsi lingam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Shiva Uvacha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;YathA Jyotirmayam Lingam KailAsha Shikhare Mama | Tasyaiva&#xA;  ShodashAnsaikah KAshyAm Visweswarah Stithaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;( Hey Parameswari ), Just like there is a Jyotirmaya Lingam on top of&#xA;  Kailasa there is a Lingam at &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashi_Vishwanath_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Visweswara Kasi&lt;/a&gt; , which is of one&#xA;  sixteenth potency of the lingam at Kailasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MAtrikA Bheda Tantram, Chapter 8, Verse 4.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Are these temples or just ling placed on ground?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These lingas came first, then came the temples and holy kshetras associated with them. So, the temples were built later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The stories associated with these Jyotirlingams are found in several Puranas and i have seen questions and answers on quite a few of them on this site. So you can do a search.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, as to why there are exactly 12 such Jyotirlingams on earth  and not one less or one more , i can't answer. But even i want to know the reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-07T06:10:29.813" LastActivityDate="2017-05-07T06:10:29.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18197" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18214" CreationDate="2017-05-06T16:34:21.010" Score="5" ViewCount="346" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a small book on Lord Shiva called &quot;Shiva Tattva Pradipika&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the final chapter of the book i found the verse in question. The author says its a Puranic verse but does not mention which Purana contains it. The verse extols the greatness of Shiva Lingam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AKasam LingamityAhuhu Prithivi Tasya PeethikA |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Alayaha Sarva DevAnAm LayanAllinga Muchyathe ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Akasha is called the Linga. And Prithvi  its Peethika ( or the&#xA;  Yoni Peethika or Gauri Vedika ). The Akasha is famous as the Linga as&#xA;  its the home of all Gods and as it is in which everything ends (or go to at their end ) ( Laya ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question- Which Purana is the source of this verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-07T08:25:54.887" LastActivityDate="2017-05-08T08:04:04.680" Title="&quot;Akasam Lingamityahu...&quot; which Purana is the source of this verse?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|shiva-lingam|shloka|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18198" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7313" CreationDate="2017-05-06T16:47:03.377" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is in your question itself&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;The birth and death of the body are incidental and material. If this applies to mortals..&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it applies to mortals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;..then why does the birth of a deity considered a special occasion?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because it does not apply to deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says so himself in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-4-9/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 4.9&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जन्म कर्म च मे दिव्यमेवं यो वेत्ति तत्त्वतः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्यक्त्वा देहं पुनर्जन्म नैति मामेति सोऽर्जुन ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;janma karma ca me divyam evaḿ yo vetti tattvataḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tyaktvā dehaḿ punar janma naiti mām eti so arjuna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My birth and deeds are divine. One who knows this, leaves his body, is not born again and attains me Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavan is celebrated as Aja and Vija - He is the unborn, yet he takes birth. Both God and soul are 'unborn' in the sense that they are not created by anyone. But souls are born in the sense that they take birth due to past karma. God is born in the sense that he takes birth due to karuna (pity), but unborn in the sense that he is unaffected by past karma, and is born of his own free will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason Krishna is born is to prevent us from being born again. But being adamant, we want to enjoy &amp;amp; suffer in this playground of samsara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We celebrate Janmashtami to remind ourselves that Krishna is waiting for us to join him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-05-06T16:52:10.490" LastActivityDate="2017-05-06T16:52:10.490" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18199" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18204" CreationDate="2017-05-07T06:31:01.673" Score="6" ViewCount="441" Body="&lt;p&gt;Those who are acquainted with Shakta Tantras and Agamas will find that the common feature in all these scriptures is that they are mostly spoken by Lord Shiva upon requests made by His consort or Devi or Adi Shakti or Para Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its always Devi asking questions and Shiva answering them. Few Tantras are however exceptions to this rule. Some Tantras are spoken by Devi to Shiva. Examples of such texts are the Rudra Yamala Tantram, Kulachudamani Tantram etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, i have heard from my Guruji that there is a symbolism and deeper meaning behind this pattern. And it has something to do with the Guru Tattva &amp;amp; Sishya Tattva. And as we can see, even the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Gita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Guru Gita from Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; follows the same pattern.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are the symbolisms behind Lord Shiva speaking tantras and agamas to Devi?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE- I prefer answers that are based on scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-07T08:46:36.447" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T07:16:06.940" Title="What are the symbolisms behind Lord Shiva speaking tantras and agamas to Devi?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|devi|agamas|tantra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18200" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18197" CreationDate="2017-05-07T06:31:28.383" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, this verse is found with a slight variation in &lt;a href=&quot;http://read.84000.co/#UT22084-051-004/part%20one&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of a Buddhist text called the Karandavyuha Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;akasam lingam ity ahuh prithivi tasya pithika | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  alayah sarvabhutanam liyanal lingam uchyate || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is said: the sky is his liṅga, &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  The earth is his seat. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  He is the foundation of all beings. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  The liṅga is so called because they dissolve into it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse you're referring to, though, has &quot;sarvadevanam&quot; or &quot;all gods&quot; rather than &quot;sarvabhutanam&quot; or &quot;all created beings&quot;.  In any case, concerning the &quot;sarvadevanam&quot; verse, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://preview.ibb.co/iB9uT5/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his book &quot;The Origin of Om Manipadme Hum&quot;, Alexander Studholme cites other authors who claim that the verse is from the Skanda Purana, but says that he was not able to find it himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With regard to the couplet, it is, to say the least, unfortunate that Regamey was unable to give a precise reference for this verse in the Skanda Purana, having come across it not in any edition of the text itself, but in a modern anthology of Indian religious scriptures compiled by Alain Danielou.  Danielle notes only that it appears in the Skanda Purana.  The task of pinpointing the two lines is made somewhat difficult, not only because of the vast size of this purana, but also because it exists in several different editions.  Like Regamey, I, too, have failed to discover the exact location of the couplet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've found many other books that claim this verse is from the Skanda Puranas, like &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=S1HkAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;q=ahuh+tasya+linga&amp;amp;dq=ahuh+tasya+linga&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiS1JjAid7TAhVMQyYKHTIoADIQ6AEIHDAA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this one&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=rQJuAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;q=alayah+sarvadevanam&amp;amp;dq=alayah+sarvadevanam&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwi2pvHmid7TAhXLOSYKHYVpAYEQ6AEIJDAB&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this one&lt;/a&gt;, but none that specify its location. As Studholme suggests, this may be a verse that is found in some recensions of the Skanda Purana and not others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-07T15:19:40.143" LastActivityDate="2017-05-07T15:19:40.143" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18201" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18209" CreationDate="2017-05-07T06:32:16.843" Score="4" ViewCount="2472" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read Ramayana and I know little bit about Bhagavad gita. In these, as per dharma, parents wishes and promises are more important than wife. And this might be acceptable in those days because women's dharma was to follow husband. (Correct me if I am wrong)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in today's modern world, everyone prefer equal rights to women and their wishes also should be honoured. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, when there is a conflict between parents and wife, what decision a man should make as per dharma, if both are correct from their perspective?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any Purana addresses this situation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4507" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-28T06:04:28.250" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T06:04:28.250" Title="Modern day dharma - parents vs wife?" Tags="|puranas|dharma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18202" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18299" CreationDate="2017-05-07T07:07:18.853" Score="7" ViewCount="8192" Body="&lt;p&gt;In 34th verse in 109 sarga of ayodhya kanda in valmiki Ramayana, the words यथा हि चोरः स तथा हि बुद्ध | appear. My question here is how did Buddha come to be referenced in Treta yuga? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-06T04:46:37.033" LastActivityDate="2021-03-09T22:43:52.447" Title="Did Rama really call Buddha as a thief?" Tags="|ramayana|buddhism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18204" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18199" CreationDate="2017-05-07T09:35:27.130" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Osho says on this in his commentary on the Vijnānabhairav tantra.  -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is a different type of language. You must know something about it before we enter into it. All the tantra treatises are dialogues between Shiva and Devi. Devi questions and Shiva answers. All the tantra treatises start that way. Why? Why this method? It is very significant. &lt;strong&gt;It is not a dialogue between a teacher and a disciple, it is a dialogue between two lovers&lt;/strong&gt;. And tantra signifies through it a very meaningful thing: &lt;strong&gt;that the deeper teachings cannot be given unless there is love between the two –the disciple and the master&lt;/strong&gt;. The disciple and master must become deep lovers. Only then can the higher, the beyond, be expressed. &lt;strong&gt;So it is a language of love; the disciple must be in an attitude of love.&lt;/strong&gt; But not only this, because friends can be lovers. &lt;strong&gt;Tantra says a disciple moves as receptivity, so the disciple must be in a feminine receptivity; only then is something possible.&lt;/strong&gt; You need not be a woman to be a disciple, but you need to be in a feminine attitude of receptivity. When Devi asks, it means the feminine attitude asks. Why this emphasis on the feminine attitude? Man and woman are not only physically different, they are psychologically different. Sex is not only a difference in the body; it is a difference in psychologies also. &lt;strong&gt;A feminine mind means receptivity–total receptivity, surrender, love. A disciple needs a feminine psychology; otherwise he will not be able to learn.&lt;/strong&gt; You can ask, but if you are not open then you cannot be answered. You can ask a question and still remain closed. Then the answer cannot penetrate you. Your doors are closed; you are dead. You are not open. &lt;strong&gt;A feminine receptivity means a womb-like receptivity in the inner depth, so that you can receive. And not only that –much more is implied. A woman is not only receiving something, the moment she receives it, it becomes a part of her body. A child is received. A woman conceives; the moment there is conception, the child has become part of the feminine body. It is not alien, it is not foreign. It has been absorbed. Now the child will live not as something added to the mother, but just as a part, just as the mother. And the child is not only received: the feminine body becomes creative; the child begins to grow. A disciple needs a womb-like receptivity. Whatsoever is received is not to be gathered as dead knowledge. It must grow in you; it must become blood and bones in you. It must become a part, now. It must grow! This growth will change you, will transform you –the receiver.&lt;/strong&gt; That is why tantra uses this device. Every treatise starts with Devi asking a question and Shiva replying to it. Devi is Shiva's consort, his feminine part. So Devi is not just a consort, she is Shiva's other half. And &lt;strong&gt;unless a disciple becomes the other half of the master it is impossible to convey the higher teachings, the esoteric methods.&lt;/strong&gt; When you become one then there is no doubt. When you are one with the master –so totally one, so deeply one –there is no argument, no logic, no reason. One simply absorbs; one becomes a womb. And then the teaching begins to grow in you and change you. &lt;strong&gt;That is why tantra is written in love language&lt;/strong&gt;. Something must also be understood about love language. There are two types of language: logical language and love language. There are basic differences between the two. Logical language is aggressive, argumentative, violent. If I use logical language I become aggressive upon your mind. I try to convince you, to convert you, to make a puppet of you. My argument is ”right” and you are ”wrong.” Logical language is egocentric: ”I am right and you are wrong, so I must prove that I am right and you are wrong.” I am not concerned with you, I am concerned with my ego. My ego is always ”right.” &lt;strong&gt;Love language is totally different. I am not concerned with my ego; I am concerned with you. I am not concerned to prove something, to strengthen my ego. I am concerned to help you.&lt;/strong&gt; It is a compassion to help you to grow, to help you to transform, to help you to be reborn. Secondly, logic will always be intellectual. Concepts and principles will be signicant, arguments will be signicant. With love language what is said is not so signicant; rather, it is the way it is said. The container, the word is not important; the content, the message is more important. It is a heart-to-heart talk, not a mind-to-mind discussion. It is not a debate, it is a communion. So this is rare: Devi is sitting in the lap of Shiva and asking, and Shiva answers. It is a love dialogue no conict, as if Shiva is speaking to himself. &lt;strong&gt;Why this emphasis on love –love language? Because if you are in love with your master, then the whole gestalt changes; it becomes different. Then you are not hearing his words. Then you are drinking him. Then words are irrelevant. Really, the silence between the words becomes more signicant. What he is saying may be meaningful or it may not be meaningful... but it is his eyes, his gestures, his compassion, his love.&lt;/strong&gt; That is why tantra has a xed device, a structure. Every treatise starts with Devi asking and Shiva answering. No argument is going to be there, no wastage of words. There are very simple statements of fact, telegraphic messages with no view to convince, but just to relate. If you encounter Shiva with a question with a closed mind, he will not answer you in this way. First your closedness has to be broken. Then he will have to be aggressive. Then your prejudices, then your preconceptions have to be destroyed. Unless you are cleared completely of your past, nothing can be given to you. But this is not so with his consort Devi; with Devi there is no past. Remember, when you are deeply in love your mind ceases to be. There is no past; only the present moment becomes everything. When you are in love the present is the only time, the now is all –no past, no future. So Devi is just open. There is no defense –nothing to be cleared, nothing to be destroyed. The ground is ready, only a seed has to be dropped. The ground is not only ready, but welcoming, receptive, asking to be impregnated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-05-07T11:45:59.627" LastActivityDate="2017-05-07T11:45:59.627" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18209" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18201" CreationDate="2017-05-07T16:28:48.267" Score="9" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, when there is a conflict between parents and wife, what decision a&#xA;  man should make as per dharma, if both are correct from their&#xA;  perspective?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we follow Manu Smriti then we have to listen to what the parents say. But again nothing specific, because none of the verses given below take into account the wife and your specific problem.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.227. That trouble (and pain) which the parents undergo&#xA;  on the birth of (their) children, cannot be compensated even in a&#xA;  hundred years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.228. &lt;strong&gt;Let him always do what is agreeable to those (two)&lt;/strong&gt; and always (what may please) his teacher; when those three are pleased, he&#xA;  obtains all (those rewards which) austerities (yield).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.235. &lt;strong&gt;As long as those three live, so long let him not (independently) perform any other (meritorious acts); let him always&#xA;  serve them, rejoicing (to do what is) agreeable and beneficial (to&#xA;  them).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.236. &lt;strong&gt;He shall inform them of everything that with their consent he may perform&lt;/strong&gt; in thought, word, or deed for the sake of the next world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-05-07T16:28:48.267" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18210" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-08T04:51:13.167" Score="8" ViewCount="822" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone explain about it with good examples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the different types of &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shaktipata&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9658" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-08T06:04:51.220" LastActivityDate="2017-09-12T05:09:49.170" Title="What is Shaktipata?" Tags="|philosophy|practice|tantra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18211" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-08T05:10:02.470" Score="10" ViewCount="7479" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27480/62f_chapter_20_1.pdf#toolbar=0&amp;amp;pagemode=none&amp;amp;view=FitBH&amp;amp;page=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Prabhasa Kanda of the Skanda Purana describes how long different demons ruled the three worlds for:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hiranyakashipu shone as the king for one hundred seven million two hundred eighty thousand years.  He was the emperor of the three worlds.... He performed a very severe penance for a hundred thousand years.  Formerly he had stayed in the womb of Diti for ten thousand years.... After his term was over, Bali became the king for ten million three hundred sixty thousand years....The rule of the Daityas continued thus for ten Yugas without any enemy.  Then for eighteen Yugas, the entire region of the three worlds was protected carefully by Mahendra....Kaikasi ... gave birth to Ravana who later became the lord of Rakshasas.... He was a king for fourteen Yugas as a Rakshasa.  O my beloved, in terms of years, the time extended to five crore sixty-one lakh sixty thousand years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up according to the Skanda Purana, Hiranyakashipu ruled for 107.28 million years, Mahabali ruled for 10.36 million years, and Ravana ruled for 56.16 million years.  And the Asuras collectively ruled for 10 Yugas, the Devas ruled for 18 Yugas, and Ravana ruled for 14 Yugas.  Whew!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, during what specific Yugas/Mahayugas did Hiranyakashipu, Mahabali, and Ravana respectively rule?  For those who don't know, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7189/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; we are currently living in the 28th Kali Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manu, Rama was born in the 24th Treta Yuga, and Krishna was born in the 28th Dwapara Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, I think at least some of the instances of the word &amp;quot;Yuga&amp;quot; in this passage actually refers to Mahayuga; Ravana is said to have ruled for 56.61 million years, which works out to 13 Mahayugas, close to the figure of 14 that's given in the passage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: I'm not looking for answers that dispute the traditional Yuga lengths or the notion of people living millions of years.  I just want answers that explain what Yugas the Skanda Purana is referring to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2019-04-13T12:43:40.527" Title="During what Yugas did Hiranyakashipu, Mahabali, and Ravana rule?" Tags="|yuga|time|asuras|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18212" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18210" CreationDate="2017-05-08T06:22:01.357" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shaktipata&lt;/strong&gt; is the most essential part of the the &lt;strong&gt;Tantrik Deeksha Samskara.&lt;/strong&gt; It literally means the transfer of energy from Guru to the disciple. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In KulArnava Tantram Lord Shiva clearly says, that Deeksha where Shaktipata is absent fails to bear any fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ShaktipAtAnusArena Shishyohanugrahamaharti |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Yatra Shaktirna Patati Tatra Siddhirna JAyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Shaktipata a disciple receives Guru's anugraha. &lt;strong&gt;There is&#xA;  no siddhi (accomplishment) where there is no Shaktipata.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 14, Verse 38.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, this transfer of energy can be achieved by mainly three methods as given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;SparsakhyA Deeksha&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is also known as &lt;strong&gt;Sparsha Deeksha&lt;/strong&gt; or simply &lt;strong&gt;Sparshani&lt;/strong&gt;. ( Sparsha&#xA;  means touch). In this , the Guru meditates on his own Guru as Parama&#xA;  Shiva in his own hand. Then he performs Mula Mantra Shadanga Nyasa,&#xA;  Matrika Nyasas etc and then places his right hand on the shishya's&#xA;  head. After that Mantra upadesam is done. This is called Sparsha&#xA;  Deeksha and its extremely fruitful (siddhiprada).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Drik Sanga Deeksha&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is also known as &lt;strong&gt;Drik Deeksha&lt;/strong&gt; or simply &lt;strong&gt;Chaksushi&lt;/strong&gt;. (Drik relates&#xA;  to vision ). Here the Guru contemplates on Paramatma Shiva with closed&#xA;  eyes and after having vision of Him he opens eyes and views the&#xA;  disciple with  eyes filled with joy. Then with a happy mind&#xA;  (prasanna chitta) he initiates the disciple into the mantra. This&#xA;  Deeksha is also known as &lt;strong&gt;Phaladayini Deeksha&lt;/strong&gt; and is highly fruitful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;MAnasAkyA Deeksha&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is also known as &lt;strong&gt;Manasa Deeksha&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;Mano Deeksha&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;Vedamayi&#xA;  Deeksha&lt;/strong&gt;. ( Manas is mind). Here the Guru meditates on the&#xA;  Kulakundalini Shakti which is situated within the four petaled lotus in the&#xA;  disciple's Muladhara Chakra. And  meditating thus, he moves the Shakti upwards&#xA;  by piercing the Shatchakras and unites it with Shiva who is in the Sahsrara&#xA;  Chakra. By doing so, by the Guru's order, the disciple gets rid of&#xA;  three Pashas namely Sahaja, Agantuka and Sangsagika. The disciple is&#xA;  then filled with Shivatva and becomes like no other than the supreme&#xA;  Shiva. This Deeksha is considered as the one to give the quickest&#xA;  results among all and also as the most fruitful among all Shaktipata Deekshas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva mentions about these 3 kinds of highly beneficial Deekshas in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SparshakhyA Devi DriksangyA MAnasAkhyA Maheswari |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  KriyAyAsAdirahitA Devi DeekshA TridhA SmritA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi, Hey Maheswari, Sparsha, Drik and Manas, Deekshas are of these&#xA;  three kinds. In these three Deekshas elaborate rituals (Ayasha and&#xA;  Kriya) are not needed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kularnava Tantram, Chpater 14, Verse 34.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As an additional note, elaborate rituals are needed for Deekshas called the &lt;strong&gt;Kriyavati Deeksha&lt;/strong&gt; which are the ones that are usually practiced. Descriptions related to them are found in the same chapter of the aforementioned Tantra Text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-12T05:09:49.170" LastActivityDate="2017-09-12T05:09:49.170" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18214" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18197" CreationDate="2017-05-08T07:59:36.320" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The verse is from Skanda Purāṇam. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%83/%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%9C&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Śabda Kalpa Drumaḥ&lt;/a&gt; states that the verse from Skanda Purāṇam though the particular khaṇḍa or samhita is not stated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लिङ्गव्युत्पत्तिर्यथा, -- &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“आकाशं लिङ्गमित्याहुः पृथिवी तस्य पीठिका । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;आलयः सर्व्वदेवानां लयनाल्लिङ्गमुच्यते ॥” &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इति स्कन्दपुराणम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-08T08:04:04.680" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18216" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18169" CreationDate="2017-05-08T09:53:51.013" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, they are mentioned in many Tantra texts like the &lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, PurascharjArnava&lt;/strong&gt; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example the following verse mentions when to worship the Nava Kumaris.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Iswara Uvacha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kurjannava KumArinAm PujAmAsvinmAsake |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PrAtarnimantrayedbhaktyA SAdhakah SuddhamAnasaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the Asvin month puja of Navakumaris are to be done&lt;/strong&gt;. The devotee&#xA;  should invite them in the morning with a pure mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 10-20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In another Shakta text called the PurascharjArnava maidens aged one year to sixteen years are defined to be the Kumaris. Their names are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SandhyA ( 1-year old), Saraswati, TridhAmurthi, KAlikA, SubhagA, UmA,&#xA;  MAlini, KubjikA, KAlangkarshA, AparAjitA, RudrAni, Bhairavi,&#xA;  MahAlakshmi, KulanAyikA, KshetragyA and ChadikA (16-years old).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, regarding the names, there is a difference of opinion. In KulArnava Tantram, for example, different names are mentioned:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BAla SuddhA Cha LalitA MAlini Cha VasundharA |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saraswati RamA Gouri DurgA Cha Nava KeerthitAha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BAla, SuddhA, LalitA, MAlini, Vasundhara, Sarswati, RamA, Gauri and&#xA;  Durga are the 9 [Kumaris].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 10-27.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now whether they are some specific Goddesses (as it might seem from their names) , then they are not. These Pujas are done to please the Supreme Goddess like  Lalita etc. These girls are treated as Devi herself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, while doing the Puja the sadhaka should be able to visualize his Ishta Devata ( like Lalita, Durga, Mahakali etc) in the kumaris and do the Puja as if they are worshiping their Ishtas only. This is mentioned in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BAlAmalankritAm Pasyan &lt;strong&gt;Chintayeth SwestadevatAm&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sadhaka upon seeing the Kumaris decked in ornaments &lt;strong&gt;should think&#xA;  about their own Ishta Devatas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 10-25.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, instead of worshiping Kumaris, worship of Yuvatis in Devi SWarupa are also prescribed. And their names as given below are mentioned in the same chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;HrillekhA, GananA, RaktA, MahattundA, KarAlikA, IcchA, GyanA, KriyA&#xA;  and DurgA are the Navayuvatis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 10-35.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE&lt;/strong&gt;- KulArnava Tantram 10-35 means verse 35 in chapter 10 of that text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-08T09:59:59.103" LastActivityDate="2017-05-08T09:59:59.103" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18217" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-08T10:13:02.713" Score="5" ViewCount="698" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know the story that to stop KumbhaKarna from asking boon from Brahma, all Gods eulogized Saraswati to enter KumbhaKarna's mouth to ask- &quot;I may sleep for years&quot;. &lt;strong&gt;And Mother Saraswati did it!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why were Gods so unfair, specially the kind Mother of Universe Saraswati?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if one asks for boon- &quot;I may kill Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu.&quot; This boon is also to be fulfilled by God, as one has complete right over this also (&#xA;even though it is unimaginably sinful).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why would Gods play so unjust befooling KumbhaKarna, and specially Mother Saraswati, the Goddess of purity(of truth, dharma), would do such a culpable thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2021-08-19T02:02:35.240" Title="Why was Mother Saraswati so unfair with KumbhaKarna?" Tags="|ramayana|dharma|saraswati|kumbhakarna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18218" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18220" CreationDate="2017-05-08T11:40:59.680" Score="1" ViewCount="4522" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;adhuna kahkula ndsavatdro bauddha pdsanda mlecchadindnca &#xA;vedadharma setu panpdlandya krtavatarah&#xA; kalh mpendsman stntva nirayddudhrta &#xA;vanasi tavdnukampam kimiha kathaydmah&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;---------Kalki Purana chapter 10 text 30&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Recently, You appeared as Lord Kalki in order to eliminate the dynasty of Kali by destroying the Buddhists, atheists, and mlecchas,thereby protecting the true path of religion What more can we say about Your causeless mercy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="4133" LastEditDate="2017-08-23T04:48:38.030" LastActivityDate="2021-12-11T21:23:14.423" Title="Is Kalki avatar a killer of Buddhist?" Tags="|puranas|kalki|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18219" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8735" CreationDate="2017-05-08T13:24:36.643" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna said &quot;Those who are devotees of other gods and who worship them with faith actually worship only Me, O son of Kuntī, but they do so in a wrong way.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Commentary&lt;/strong&gt;: Those who, in the process of worship, use different names or forms, they also worship the highest Lord. This is because everything that exists that could be worshiped is included in that Brahman. However, the difference between these two types of worship is that those who worship by using different names, etc., worship according to the different injunctions(avidhi). The word &lt;em&gt;avidhi&lt;/em&gt; simply means different types of injunctions. Therefore the Lord said that he, who is of the nature of the highest Brahman, could be worshiped through various kinds of injunctions. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods; those who worship the ancestors go to the ancestors; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; and those who worship Me will live with Me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Commentary:&lt;/strong&gt; Even those kinds of people- who under the influence of a &lt;strong&gt;dualistic philosophy&lt;/strong&gt; worship other gods and treat them as different from their own self and as different from the nature of the Brahman - worship only the highest Brahman, who is identical with their own &lt;em&gt;ātman&lt;/em&gt;. However, these kind of people follow wrong injunctions because their worship includes within itself the &lt;strong&gt;notion of duality&lt;/strong&gt;. Therefore the Lord said :&lt;em&gt;&quot;They don't know me who is their own self, who is the real enjoyer of sacrifices and who has taken the form of that particular God (that they worship). Therefore, such people deviate from my path&quot;&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;In this context, the word deviate means that they go to other gods because they are devoted to them. Those who, on the other hand, know the Lord as undivided reality worship only him even when they sacrifice to other gods or to their ancestors. Thus, we can conclude that all those who worship the highest Brahman, attain the Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary-&lt;/strong&gt; Nothing wrong in worshipping any demigod as long as that God of worshipper's interest is not perceived as different from &lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; worshipper. The moment non duality between the worshipper, worshipped &amp;amp; Brahman is forgotten the worshipper ends up being in the world of that particular God. Otherwise, worshipping anyone with the sense of non duality, one attains Brahman alone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentary excerpts from the great &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhinavagupta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Abhinavgupta&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yhH58.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yhH58.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="13223" LastEditDate="2018-01-23T11:34:17.287" LastActivityDate="2018-01-23T11:34:17.287" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18220" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18218" CreationDate="2017-05-08T13:29:11.943" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer of your question -&lt;code&gt;Is Kalki Avatara a murderer of Buddhists&lt;/code&gt; is &lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt; according to &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&lt;/strong&gt;. Skandha 2 Chapter 7 : &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/7/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 2.7&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;: Scheduled Incarnations with Specific Functions and Skandha 12 chapter 2 :&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 12.2&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;: The Symptoms of Kali-yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यहर्यालयेष्वपि सतां न हरे: कथा: स्यु:&lt;br&gt; पाखण्डिनो द्विजजना वृषला&#xA;  नृदेवा ।&lt;br&gt; स्वाध्या स्वधा वषडिति स्म गिरो न यत्र &lt;br&gt; शास्ता&#xA;  भविष्यति कलेर्भगवान युगांते ॥38॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yarhy ālayeṣv api satāṁ na hareḥ kathāḥ syuḥ&lt;br&gt; pāṣaṇḍino dvija-janā&#xA;  vṛṣalā nṛdevāḥ&lt;br&gt; svāhā svadhā vaṣaḍ iti sma giro na yatra&lt;br&gt; śāstā&#xA;  bhaviṣyati kaler bhagavān yugānte&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter, at the end of Kali-yuga, when there exist no topics on the&#xA;  subject of God, even at the residences of so-called saints and&#xA;  respectable gentlemen of the three higher castes, and when the power&#xA;  of government is transferred to the hands of ministers elected from&#xA;  the lowborn śūdra class or those less than them, and when nothing is&#xA;  known of the techniques of sacrifice, even by word, at that time the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Lord will appear as the supreme chastiser&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/7/38&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 2.7.38&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विचरन्नाशुना क्षोणयां हयेना प्रतिमद्यूति:।&lt;br&gt; नृपलिङ्गछ्चदो दस्युन&#xA;  कोटिशो निहनिष्यति॥20॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vicarann āśunā kṣauṇyāṁ hayenāpratima-dyutiḥ&lt;br&gt; nṛpa-liṅga-cchado&#xA;  dasyūn koṭiśo nihaniṣyati&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Godhead. Displaying His unequaled effulgence and riding with great&#xA;  speed, &lt;strong&gt;He will kill by the millions those thieves who have dared dress&#xA;  as kings.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 12.2.20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Now if we look at the verse no.38  and verse 20 we can see the exact purpose ok Kalki-Avatara , In Kali-Yuga When there will no Katha-Kirtana will get performed even at the homes of most spiritual oriented people , Brahmana , Kshatriya's and Vaishya's will became atheist (nastika) ,Shudras will became kings ,and there will  no sound heard of Swaha ,Swadha and Vashtkara ,at that time Lord will take &lt;strong&gt;Kalki avatara to punish Kali-Yuga and those thives who have falsely dressd as kings&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kalki will punish Kali-Yuga and demons and nor the buddhist people , &lt;strong&gt;it doesn't saying anything about murdering of Buddhists.&lt;/strong&gt; Buddha is considered a Avatara of Lord Vishnu here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;we can see that the lord himself will assume  dress of buddha and will preach false dharma , when Danavas by using knowledge of vedas and becoming invisible  reciding in City of Maya Danava ,will cause destruction of the people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So according to me the answer will be  simply No.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-05-08T13:29:11.943" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18221" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18222" CreationDate="2017-05-08T15:11:55.977" Score="5" ViewCount="1524" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriman_Narayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sriman Narayana&lt;/a&gt; amongst his &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu_sahasranama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ThiruNaamams&lt;/a&gt;(holy names), is referred to as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achyuta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Achyuta&lt;/a&gt;. In fact, Sri Krishna is fondly referred to as Achyuta by Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a narrative thread which pillars this ThiruNaamam within the context of the Mahabharata apart from the Gita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Edit&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: Although the question focuses on asking for references from Mahabharata (which has been answered), I would appreciate any additional references from other scriptural sources for purposes of comparative understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-05-08T18:07:07.650" LastActivityDate="2017-05-08T18:07:07.650" Title="Origin of the ThiruNaamam(Exalted Name) of Lord Narayana as Achyuta" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|vaishnavism|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18222" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18221" CreationDate="2017-05-08T15:46:57.163" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is how Krishna explains the name Achyuta to Arjuna in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The cessation of separate conscious existence by identification with Supreme Brahman is the highest attribute or condition for a living agent to attain. And since I have never swerved from that attribute or condition, I am, therefore, called by the name of Achyuta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800703.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/19/items/Vishnu.Sahasranama.with.the.Bhasya.of.Sankaracharya/Vishnu.Sahasranama.with.the.Bhasya.of.Sankaracharya_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Vishnu.Sahasranama.with.the.Bhasya.of.Sankaracharya_jp2/Vishnu.Sahasranama.with.the.Bhasya.of.Sankaracharya_0061.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya interprets the name Achyuta in his commentary on the Vishnu Sahasranamam :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He was not shaken and is not and will not be shaken from his own glory; hence the name Achyuta.  The Shruti (Narayana Upanishad 13) says &quot;He is eternal, calm, and unswerving (Achyuta).&quot;  Lord also (Mahabharata Shanti Pava 343) says &quot;I did not swerve from my path at any time before; hence I am called Achyuta by that act.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://antaryami.net/darpanam/2013/07/22/commentary-on-the-second-hundred-names/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is how the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Parashara Bhattar explains the name Achyuta in the Bhagavad Guna Darpana, his commentary on the Vishnu Sahasranamam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The one who does not get separated from such surrendered souls is called ‘achyutaH’ – the infallible. The scriptures say thus in this regard: “Since I never gave up anything in the past, I am called ‘achyuta’” “I never get separated from such a devotee” “I shall never forsake him; that will never happen”, et al. Etymology: Since Bhagavan never gets separated from His devotees, He is called ‘achyutaH’. Alternately, He is also called ‘achyutaH’, by whose grace the surrendered souls never face any shortcomings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-05-08T15:46:57.163" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18223" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18221" CreationDate="2017-05-08T15:48:49.333" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shanti Parva of Mahabharata, in the Nãrãyaniya section; Lord Krishna himself speaks about why he (Vishnu) is called Achyuta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The cessation of separate conscious existence by &#xA;  identification with Supreme Brahman is the highest attribute or condition for a living agent to attain. &#xA;  And since I have never swerved from that attribute or condition, &lt;strong&gt;I am, therefore, called by the name of &#xA;  Achyuta.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-05-08T15:48:49.333" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18224" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-08T16:06:45.610" Score="3" ViewCount="164" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अग्निना तुर्वशं यदुं परावत उग्रादेवं हवामहे |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  अग्निर्नयन नववास्त्वं बर्हद्रथं तुर्वीतिं दस्यवे सहः || Rig Veda 1.36.18? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;We call on Ugradeva, Yadu, Turvaśa, by means of Agni, from afar;&#xA;Agni, bring Navavāstva and Bṛhadratha, Turvīti, to subdue the foe.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is Bṛhadratha mentioned in the above verse? Is he the founder of Magadha dynasty?                                                                                                                                  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-09T05:56:03.417" LastActivityDate="2018-11-26T05:23:32.767" Title="Why the name Bṛhadratha mentioned in Rig Veda 1.36.18? Does Bṛhadratha here mean legendary Bṛhadratha dynasty of Magadha?" Tags="|mahabharata|vedas|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18225" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-08T22:43:10.497" Score="14" ViewCount="3680" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scriptures contain a mantra about the Eight immortals:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;अश्वत्थामा बलिव्र्यासो हनूमांश्च विभीषण:। कृप: परशुरामश्च सप्तएतै चिरजीविन:॥&#xA;&#xA;सप्तैतान् संस्मरेन्नित्यं मार्कण्डेयमथाष्टमम्। जीवेद्वर्षशतं सोपि सर्वव्याधिविवर्जित॥&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashwathaama Balirvyaaso Hanumanshcha Vibheeshanaha&#xA;  Krupaha Parshuramascha &lt;strong&gt;Saptaitey Chiranjivinaha&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Saptaitaan Samsmareynnityam Markandeymathaashtamam&#xA;  Jivedvarshshatam Sopi Sarvavyadhivivarjit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above lines mean that by daily remembering these &lt;strong&gt;8 immortals&lt;/strong&gt; - Ashwatthama, King Bali, Ved Vyasa, Hanuman, Vibhishan, Kripacharya, Parashuram and Rishi Markandaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe Lord Hanuman appeared in  Ramayana and also plays an important part in the Mahabharata but what about Kali yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any signs in 20th/21st century of these Chiranjivi's appearing in Kali yuga? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-27T11:07:32.597" LastActivityDate="2021-02-13T02:32:30.313" Title="Do the eight immortals (Including Lord Hanuman) still exist in Kaliyuga?" Tags="|scripture|hanuman|kali-yuga|chiranjivi|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18226" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3384" CreationDate="2017-05-09T02:17:03.530" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can see where your confusion is. Regrettably most translations get the contextual meaning correct that we are asking for courage strength, but not many get the translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are confused by &quot;tanu&quot; which roughly translates to &quot;you&quot; (I was confused by this as well, but did a little research). Most people forget that &quot;Tanu&quot;= you in modern day haryanvi, or punjabi, while the chalisa has sanskrit words in it. &#xA;so if you take the sanskrit translation of &quot;tanu&quot; the entire phrase will come together. Tanu in sanskrit = Delicate, weak, slender or emaciated body.  Once you plug in that meaning, the translation becomes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Consider this weak body devoid of intellectual merits, I invoke Sri Hanuman, the son of wind-god. O! Bestow on me the strength, intellect and knowledge. Kindly remove my bodily ailments and mental maladies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So now it makes sense. the singer's body is weak as well as devoid of intelligence, hence not only give me intelligence, but physical strengths as well. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9714" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-09T04:26:45.140" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T04:26:45.140" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18227" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-09T04:51:48.943" Score="4" ViewCount="671" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Hayavadana Perumaal is the Horse headed Avatara of Sriman Narayana. Kavacha Stotram or Kavacham are hymns of Exhortation and/or Reassurance with an usual intended effect of bestowing protection to the reciter/listener. Literally, Kavacham means Divine Armour. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Hayavadana Kavacham or Sri Hayagreeva Kavacham, as can be listened to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTsaI7WnkOw&amp;amp;t=2787s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and read about &lt;a href=&quot;http://stotrarathna.blogspot.in/2014/02/hayagreeva-kavacham.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, is a Kavacha Stotram said to belong to the Poorva samhitha of Atharva Vedam (said to be seen or received as revelation by Sage Hayagreeva). This Kavacham focuses on protection of various aspects of the body by exhortation to various divine aspects of the Cosmos with an overarching relational reference to Sri Hayavadana Perumaal, moves next to the guarding of the ten directions by various divine aspects, states that &quot;giving up the body will result in becoming as god of speech&quot; (&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yevam nyastha sareero  asou sakshad  Vageeswara bhaved&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;) and as final exhortation seeks Lord Hayagreeva's grace and bestowal of knowledge &amp;amp; wisdom of Shaastras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is the Atharva Veda Shakha(recension) where this Kavacham is from intact even today? Please provide reference to the same.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who is Sage Hayagreeva?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How should &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yevam nyastha sareero  asou sakshad  Vageeswara bhaved&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; be interpreted in the context of the Kavacham in so far as it is related to &lt;em&gt;Viśiṣṭādvaita&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-05-09T08:16:12.787" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T08:16:12.787" Title="Sri Hayavadana Kavacham (alternately, Sri Hayagreeva Kavacham)" Tags="|vishnu|vishishtadvaita|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18228" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-09T04:57:49.623" Score="4" ViewCount="484" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Rudram hymn is a part of YajurVeda Samhita (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10818/which-verse-of-sri-rudram-of-yajurveda-has-the-word-shiva/11792#11792&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) In the Krishna Yajurveda Taittariya Samhita it is present from 4.5.1 to 4.5.11, thus forming total 11 Anuvakams:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sixth mantra of 1st Anuvaka states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अध्यवोचदधिवक्ता प्रथमो दैव्यो भिषक्  । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहींश्च सर्वान् जम्भयन् सर्वाश्च यातुधान्यः  ॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The lord who speaks in favour of devotees, may he speak in favour of me (AdhyavochadAdhivakta), the foremost (Prathamo), present as godliness in Gods (Daivyo), the Doctor who treats all troubles (Bhisak). May he destroy (Jambhayan), seen enemies like serpents scorpions... (Sarvãn Ahinscha) and unseen enemies like ghosts, spritis, rakshasas (Sarvãscha yãtudhãnya:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the meaning of the mantra itself it is clear that the mantra is asking for protection from everything from Lord Shiva, so it itself is like a Kavacham (Armour).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commentary on Sri Rudram given by Kamakoti site &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/stotra/Sri%20Rudram%20Anuvakam1.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;states this:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chanting this mantra is capable of completely destroying miseries from Rakshasas, spirits, poison, fever etc. &lt;strong&gt;Hence this mantra has been hailed as ‘kavacham’ (armour) by Maharishi Bodhayana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I'm interested, Where does Maharshi Bodhayana calls this mantra as Kavacham or Armour ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T04:57:49.623" Title="Where does Maharishi Bodhayana hails Sri Rudram 1.6 mantra as Kavacham (Armour)?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|vedas|mantras|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18230" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-09T09:10:09.783" Score="9" ViewCount="338" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://preview.ibb.co/nAE7GQ/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Baudhayana Shrauta Sutras, a text associated with the Yajur Veda, describes a ritual which ironically is not from the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;athātathchandasyanāmrātāni hutānumantraṇāni vyākhyāsyāmaḥ।vaimṛdha– miṣṭamanumantrayata indrasya vaimṛdhasyāhaṃ devayajyayendriyāvyasapatno vīryavāñchīmānbhūyāsamityasapatno vīryavānbhūyāsamiti vā । parjanyasyāhaṃ devayajyayā suyavaso bhūyāsam । somasyāhaṃ devayajyayā pra prajayā ca paśubhiśca janiṣīya suretā reto dhiṣīyeti vā । saviturahaṃ devayajyayā svastimānpaśumānbhūyāsam। sarasvatyā ahaṃ devayajyayā vācamannādya puṣeyam । sarasvato 'haṃ devayajyayā śraddhāmanā bhūyāsam । pūṣṇo 'haṃ devayajyayā puṣṭimānpaśumānbhūyāsam । marutāmahaṃ devayajyayā prāṇairṛdhyāsam। viśveṣāṃ devānāmahaṃ devayajyayā prāṇaiḥ sāyujyaṃ gameyam । dyāvāpṛthivyorahaṃ devayajyayobhayolakiyoṛdhyāsaṃ bhūmānaṃ pratiṣṭhāṃ gameyamitivā। &lt;strong&gt;vājināmahaṃ devayajyayā&lt;/strong&gt; retasvī bhūyāsam । varuṇasyāhaṃ devayajyayā dharmabhāgbhūyāsam । kasyāhaṃ devayajyayā śaviṭho bhūyāsam। viśvakarmaṇo 'haṃ devayajyayā viśvāni karmāṇyavarundhīya । adityā ahaṃ devayajyayāśhaso mucyeya । vāyorahaṃ devayajyayā ratnabhāgbhūyāsam। sūryasyāhaṃ devayajyayā sudṛśīko bhūyāsam। agrāviṣṇavorahaṃ devayajyayā vīryavānbhūyāsam। viṣṇoraha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now we shall explain the followings of offerings (by the sacrificer) not recorded in the (Taittiriya) Veda. He follows the offering to Vaimrdha Indra with the formula, &amp;quot;May I become powerful, without an enemy, possessing valour and wealth through the offering to Vaimrdha Indra&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;... without an enemy and possessing valour.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I become possessing ample barley through the offering to Parjanya.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I propagate offspring and cattle through the offering to Soma,&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;May I have seminal fluid and be possessing ample seminal fluid.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I befaring well and possessing cattle through the offering to Savitr.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I develop power of speech and food through the offering to Sarasvati.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I become faithful-minded through the offering to Sarasvant.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I become prosperous and possessing cattle through the offering to Pusan.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I become accomplished with vital breaths through the offering to Maruts.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I be associated with vital breaths through the offering to Visve Devas.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I prosper in both the worlds through the offering to Dyavaprthivi,&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;May I obtain abundance and stability.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I be possessing seminal fluid through &lt;strong&gt;the offering to Vajins&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I be observing law through the offering to Varuna.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I become mighty through the offering to Ka.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I achieve all deeds through the offering to Visvakarman.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I be relieved of evil through the offering to Aditi.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I be receiving gifts through the offering to Vayu.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I be possessing good sight through the offering to Surya.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I become possessing valour through the offering to Agni-Visnu,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I become pervaded by rays throgh the offering to Visnu.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;May I reach the heaven through the offering to Aryaman.&amp;quot; In this way he follows the offering to the relevant divinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most of these gods are recognizable: you have Indra king of the gods, Parjanya the rain god, Chandra the moon god, Surya the sun god, Saraswati goddess of learning, Sarasvant the mysterious male counterpart to Saraswati (whom I may post a question about in future), Pushan god of cattle, the Maruts or storm gods, the Vishve Devas or all-gods, Dvayaprithvi or the gods of heaven and earth, Varuna the ocean god, Brahma god of creation, the divine architect Vishwakarma, Aditi mother of the gods, Vayu the wind god, Agni the fire god, Vishnu god of preservation, and Aryaman god of departed ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, who are the Vajin gods mentioned in the passage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it helps, the Sanskrit word &amp;quot;vajin&amp;quot; means horse.  It's possible that they're connected to the Rashmi gods I asked about in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/17906/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, who are also described in the Baudhayana Shrauta Sutras.  The reason I say they may be connected is that the Sanskrit word &amp;quot;rashmi&amp;quot; means reins of a horse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-07-24T14:55:09.113" Title="Who are the Vajin gods?" Tags="|vedas|gods|yajur-veda|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18231" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-09T09:21:28.533" Score="4" ViewCount="89" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a fight is taking place or someone is being harassed/bullied, what do the Shastras say we do? If for instance, I do nothing to help the victim but just take no action, will this be wrong?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7947" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-05-09T09:35:26.733" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T09:35:26.733" Title="Is being a bystander considered as being a sin?" Tags="|karma|sin|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-05-11T04:56:24.603" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18232" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-09T11:18:59.287" Score="3" ViewCount="957" Body="&lt;p&gt;In most societies, clothing is a requirement to cover the private parts. But  Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65Q1EbsKRnY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Future of Feminine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; said that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Our Body parts are &lt;strong&gt;Not Secret&lt;/strong&gt; it is just that we learnt &lt;strong&gt;How to handle our Body&lt;/strong&gt; and conduct it in a certain way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, does Hindu scripture discuss the need for clothing?  And if so, what reason does it give?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-10T16:43:14.993" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T11:17:25.947" Title="What does Hindu scripture say about the need for clothing?" Tags="|belief|culture|tradition|human|body|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18233" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18088" CreationDate="2017-05-09T11:39:42.830" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the perspective of Vaishnava branch of what you call &quot;Hinduism&quot;, death is intrinsic to the material world we live in. It's not governed by any specific deity like &quot;Grim Reaper&quot; or whatnot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is directly written in the Bhagavad-Gita 2.22, 2.27, 2.18. Also, 2.20 is enlightening in this regard, too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the moment of death of your body messengers of the Yama-raja demigod will come to you to get you (the real you, not your body you lived inside) to the location of the Yama to decide on the punishment for all the stuff you really f*#ked up in your current life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the punishment ends, you'll be given the next body, according to what you thought of at the moment of death. And your next live will begin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is written in scrutinizing details in the Garuda Purana. It's relatively short, so I believe no link to specific shloka is necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There's no way you can &quot;cheat&quot; or &quot;beat&quot; the death. It's completely absurd to think this way. The so-so comparison would be as if a single-cell bacteria would &quot;cheat&quot; or &quot;beat&quot; the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, as a side note, it's not wise to believe to &quot;many websites&quot;, as it's very easy to put information without any authority to the Web.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="578" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T11:39:42.830" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18234" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="952" CreationDate="2017-05-09T11:48:21.217" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Garuda Purana (especially) and the Bhagavata Purana (in general):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After your body dies, you are being brought to the judgment of the Yama-raja demigod at his location, and he will decide on punishment &lt;em&gt;and&lt;/em&gt; reward according to your really bad and really good deeds in the live which just ended.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For all the f*#ck-ups a person is being granted life on one of the appropriate hellish location, until he dies there at appointed time. For all the ascetic achievements a person is being granted life on one of the paradise-like locations, until he dies there at appointed time. Good deeds do not cancel bad deeds, by the way.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You &lt;em&gt;always&lt;/em&gt; rebirth, whether it was on one of the hellish locations, paradise-like locations, on Brahma location, on the Earth or on some other location in the current universe. It can be different body appropriate to the location, but it always ends at some point of time.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="578" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T11:48:21.217" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18235" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-09T12:37:21.253" Score="2" ViewCount="77" Body="&lt;p&gt;which temple among the Vaishnava/Shiva shrines are the oldest?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9715" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T12:37:21.253" Title="What is the oldest hindu temple?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-05-11T21:54:59.333" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18237" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18239" CreationDate="2017-05-09T13:12:30.290" Score="5" ViewCount="503" Body="&lt;p&gt;We find &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It has been ascertained that the earth and other objects are the created ones (they are basically products) and ascertained that the creator of all these products is Isvara. &lt;strong&gt;Since that Isvara is  a Supreme Being associated with perpetual contentment (nitya trupta)&lt;/strong&gt;, the created objects could be of no use to Him. Nor the created worlds could utilize themselves, since they are non-intelligent. &lt;strong&gt;Since Lord Siva is with such a greatness and  lordship, he cannot perform purposeless actions; He cannot create purposeless objects.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore, through the process of elimination, it is ascertained that the creative function and the created worlds are neither for their own sake nor for the &lt;strong&gt;ever-content&lt;/strong&gt; Lord who has created all these, &lt;strong&gt;but only for an intelligent being existing apart from the created and the Creator&lt;/strong&gt;. That intelligent being is known as the &lt;em&gt;kshetrajñahah&lt;/em&gt;. Mregendra āgama 6.2. &lt;BR&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhinavagupta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Abhinavgupta&lt;/a&gt; provides following explanation about &lt;em&gt;kshetrajñahah&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The field (&lt;em&gt;kshetra&lt;/em&gt;) is the body of worldly beings where the seed of action is nurtured. In the case of worldly beings the embodied self (jivātma) is called the &lt;strong&gt;knower of the field (kshetrajñahah)&lt;/strong&gt; , who remains polluted by temporary impurities. However, in the case of enlightened ones, the embodied self is called &lt;em&gt;kshetra&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore it is clearly explained, Lord Shiva has not created the universe for his own, he created for Kshetrajñahah. But why would Shiva create the universe for them? &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-05-09T17:30:49.900" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T17:30:49.900" Title="Why Shiva created the universe for Kshetrajñahah?" Tags="|shiva|brahman|creation|agamas|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18238" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-09T13:41:19.167" Score="2" ViewCount="115" Body="&lt;p&gt;My questions are. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sequential and untimely deaths in a family by accident can be the curse of one's forefathers ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does one's jeevātmā wanders due to death in young age?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any remedy or solution to solve the problem if jeevātmā of one's beloved wandering due to death at young age? Provided it had attachments to its beloved ones as well.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does &lt;em&gt;Ashtamangala Prashnam&lt;/em&gt; find the reason of deaths? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any remedy to stop sequential deaths in one's family?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9716" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-10T05:27:15.263" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T04:55:19.767" Title="One's wife's or death of beloved ones can be the result of sins committed by ancestors?" Tags="|moksha|atma|death|curse|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18239" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18237" CreationDate="2017-05-09T14:37:34.423" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The chapter of that &lt;em&gt;Mrigendra Aagama&lt;/em&gt; is talking about '&lt;strong&gt;Pashu Lakshanam&lt;/strong&gt;' or the 'Nature of the Bound Soul', so the Kshetrajna there refers to Individual souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why would Shiva create the universe for them ?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Shaiva Siddhantam there is purpose for the creation of universe. However in the Vedanta, creation by Brahman is just considered purposeless and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16182/what-exactly-is-a-leela-%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%b2%e0%a4%be-is-there-a-scriptural-definition-of-leela-%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%b2%e0%a4%be/16188#16188&quot;&gt;solely Leela.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is given by the reasoning of this in the Aagama: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nor the created worlds could utilize themselves, since they are non-intelligent. &lt;strong&gt;Since Lord Siva is with such a greatness and lordship, he cannot perform purposeless actions; He cannot create purposeless objects.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the reason given is that &lt;em&gt;Lord Shiva won't create purposeless objects like unintelligent matter just for play.&lt;/em&gt; There must be some reason. And the reason is individual soul by nature is composed of &lt;strong&gt;Anava impurity&lt;/strong&gt; and when that impurity is removed then only soul attains Supreme Shivam state. So, Shiva has purpose to create Universe and it's because he wants that souls get rid of Anava and attain Supreme state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the creation of the world as inclusive of body(tanu), instrument(karana), sources of enjoyments &#xA;  (bhoga) and so forth, soul is the necessitating factor. Even while expounding the nature of Siva, the&#xA;  specific nature of the soul has been told. &lt;strong&gt;The soul, in its embodied state, is with a knowledge shrouded &#xA;  by the darkness of anava-mala. It is not independent.&lt;/strong&gt; Such characteristics were expressed there. Now, &#xA;  the essential nature of the soul is succinctly established.&#xA;  (Mrigendra Aagama 6.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T14:37:34.423" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18240" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-09T17:09:00.613" Score="6" ViewCount="997" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have asked many people but haven't got a satisfactory answer. Not only Hindus reluctant to convert other people, but also it is extremely difficult for people from other religion to become Hindu. Why is that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9718" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-05-13T18:50:40.663" LastActivityDate="2018-03-01T07:09:48.567" Title="Why does Hinduism not encourage converting people of other religion?" Tags="|other-religions|conversion|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18241" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18244" CreationDate="2017-05-09T18:17:28.187" Score="7" ViewCount="8399" Body="&lt;p&gt;A friend forwarded me the following story of a man clinging to a tree branch amidst a lot of troubles and still manages to sip honey from a hive. I've also heard this story before from others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's the source of the story? Is it taken or adapted from another story within some Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xmy5Kl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xmy5Kl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are way too engrossed with the worldly pleasures, depicted as the honey drops, and so we miss God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The elephant, our past karmas is holding us down in our current life and we are paying for our past actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The snakes, are waiting to bite back in the future life times, if we continue to indulge only in pleasures and wrong doings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our current reality is the only thing which decides our future. Burn all past karmas by doing penance and embrace Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T21:01:20.903" Title="Which Hindu scripture contains the story of a desperate man hanging from a tree branch?" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18243" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6508" CreationDate="2017-05-09T19:34:38.413" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The oldest Hindu image (if at that time, any kind of Hindu religion, as we know it existed ??) idol, statue or figurine that has stood the wear and tear of time to survive until the 21st century is the small 41 gms bronze-like alloy figurine of (Shiva or Vishnu - ?? we are not sure which). The idol is over 28,000 years old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The small metal figurine, also called &quot;KALPA VIGRAHA&quot; and was the subject of a lot of controversy for over 50 years. World leaders and many celebrities were known to have got involved in the experiments that followed the find in the 1950s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story begins when the Kalpa Vigraha was seized by the CIA from Nepal or Tibet in the 1950s from a Buddhist monk (in an old wooden box) who was later killed by the invading Communist Chinese. The CIA found an old manuscript in the same wooden box, written on a number of wooden strips in a language that was older and preceded the Sanskrit language. Two years were spent on trying to translate the manuscript. Carbon dating of the manuscript at the California laboratory showed it was more than 28,000 years old. The awe-struck CIA officials then finally deciphered the manuscript and the instructions contained in it. For example they found out that the name of the idol was &quot;Kalpa maha ayusham rasayana Vigraha.&quot; Word-for-word it translates as &quot;Idol of great-age-life-endowing-elixir&quot;. Further instructions contained how the idol was to be activated, utilized and worshipped. The CIA ignored the &quot;worshipping&quot; and concentrated on the other instructions. They conducted a secret experiment on US citizens to test the veracity of the claims on the manuscript. This involved feeding water in which the Kalpa Vigraha figurine had been immersed for 9 days. Unsuspecting people were fed this water for three consecutive days. Then all of a sudden the experiment was wound up, but the human-beings (hundreds of them -some even outside the US) were &quot;tagged&quot; and a &quot;watch&quot; was kept on them for decades following the experiment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, this is the most startling part of the story:- Sometime in 2006, some retired CIA agents suddenly or inadvertently revealed the story of the experiments they had conducted in the 1950s to some well known journalists. Only then did the outcome of the watering experiments became apparent. Almost all the unsuspecting recipients of the water (in the 1950s) were still alive, some well beyond 100 years old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As late as 2006 in the 21st century the CIA realized the meaning of &quot;Idol of great-age-life-endowing-elixir&quot;. But now confusion reigns in the CIA departments as the idol is suspected to be missing. It was stolen by a deeply religious Telugu IT professional, smuggled out of the US, and is believed to be somewhere in Andhra Pradesh among the many gods he worships in his family Puja room. Images of the Kalpa Vigraha, which were circulated by the CIA, can be seen on the internet.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9719" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T19:34:38.413" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18244" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18241" CreationDate="2017-05-09T21:01:20.903" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vidura tells this story to Dhritarashtra in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Stri Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having bowed down to the Self-create, I will obey thy behest by telling thee how the great sages speak of the wilderness of life. A certain brahmana, living in the great world, found himself on one occasion in a large inaccessible forest teeming with beasts of prey. It abounded on every side with lions and other animals looking like elephants, all of which were engaged in roaring aloud. Such was the aspect of that forest that Yama himself would take fright at it. Beholding the forest, the heart of the brahmana became exceedingly agitated. His hair stood on end, and other signs of fear manifested themselves, O scorcher of foes! Entering it, he began to run hither and thither, casting his eyes on every point of the compass for finding out somebody whose shelter he might seek. Wishing to avoid those terrible creatures, he ran in fright. He could not succeed, however, in distancing them or freeing himself from their presence. He then saw that that terrible forest was surrounded with a net, and that a frightful woman stood there, stretching her arms. That large forest was also encompassed by many five-headed snakes of dreadful forms, tall as cliffs and touching the very heavens. Within it was a pit whose mouth was covered with many hard and unyielding creepers and herbs. The brahmana, in course of his wanderings, fell into that invisible pit. He became entangled in those clusters of creepers that were interwoven with one another, like the large fruit of a jack tree hanging by its stalk. He continued to hang there, feet upwards and head downwards. While he was in that posture, diverse other calamities overtook him. He beheld a large and mighty snake within the pit. He also saw a gigantic elephant near its mouth. That elephant, dark in complexion, had six faces and twelve feet. And the animal gradually approached that pit covered with creepers and trees. About the twigs of the tree (that stood at the mouth of the pit), roved many bees of frightful forms, employed from before in drinking the honey gathered in their comb about which they swarmed in large numbers. Repeatedly they desired, O bull of Bharata’s race, to taste that honey which though sweet to all creatures could, however, attract children only. The honey (collected in the comb) fell in many jets below. The person who was hanging in the pit continually drank those jets. Employed, in such a distressful situation, in drinking that honey, his thirst, however, could not be appeased. Unsatiated with repeated draughts, the person desired for more. Even then, O king, he did not become indifferent to life. Even there, the man continued to hope for existence. A number of black and white rats were eating away the roots of that tree. There was fear from the beasts of prey, from that fierce woman on the outskirts of that forest, from that snake at the bottom of the well, from that elephant near its top, from the fall of the tree through the action of the rats, and lastly from those bees flying about for tasting the honey. In that plight he continued to dwell, deprived of his senses, in that wilderness, never losing at any time the hope of prolonging his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, the description is considerably more elaborate than what the picture shows.  In any case, Vidura explains the meaning of this allegory in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11006.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Stri Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They that are conversant, O monarch, with the religion of moksha cite this as a simile. Understanding this properly, a person may attain to bliss in the regions hereafter. That which is described as the wilderness is the great world. The inaccessible forest within it is the limited sphere of one’s own life. Those that have been mentioned as beasts of prey are the diseases (to which we are subject). That woman of gigantic proportions residing in the forest is identified by the wise with Decrepitude which destroys complexion and beauty. That which has been spoken of as the pit is the body or physical frame of embodied creatures. The huge snake dwelling in the bottom of that pit is time, the destroyer of all embodied creatures. It is, indeed, the universal destroyer. The cluster of creepers growing in that pit and attached to whose spreading stems the man hangeth down is the desire for life which is cherished by every creature. The six-faced elephant, O king, which proceeds towards the tree standing at the mouth of the pit is spoken of as the year. Its six faces are the seasons and its twelve feet are the twelve months. The rats and the snakes that are cutting off the tree are said to be days and nights that are continually lessening the periods of life of all creatures. Those that have been described as bees are our desires. The numerous jets that are dropping honey are the pleasures derived from the gratification of our desires and to which men are seen to be strongly addicted. The wise know life’s course to be even such. Through that knowledge they succeed in tearing off its bonds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-05-09T21:01:20.903" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18245" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-10T03:22:59.023" Score="6" ViewCount="1063" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yesterday was Narasimha Jayanti, so I thought I'd post a question I've had about Narasimha's birth.  Most people only know the story of how he emerged  from a pillar in Ahobilam in order to save Prahlada from Hiranyakashipu. But some Puranas describe another origin of Narasimha.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27478/62f_chapter_19_2.pdf#toolbar=0&amp;amp;pagemode=none&amp;amp;view=FitBH&amp;amp;page=1%22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Prabhasa Kanda of the Skanda Puranas describes the various incarnations that Vishnu has taken in the present Vaivasvata Manvantara.  Here's what it says about Narasimha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the fourth quartet of Yugas, when Suras became distressed, he issued forth from the ocean for killing Hiranyakashupu.  The second incarnation was Narasimha.  Rudra was his priest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss this &amp;quot;priest&amp;quot; business &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7192/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is, what is the story of Narasimha being born from the ocean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=nckrAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;pg=PA138#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Matsya Purana says much the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was another incarnation of the Supreme Soul.  When the Devas were in distress, then, on the fourth day of the Moon, which was the anniversary of the beginning of a Yuga, &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu manifested Himself on the sea-coast&lt;/strong&gt;.  He incarnated himself as Narasimha for the destruction of Hiranyakashipu.  Rudra officiated as the sacrificial priest.  This was His second incarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the thing is, Ahobilam is over 200 kilometers from the sea coast.  Could this be a case of Kalpa Bheda?  Narasimha could have emerged out of a pillar in Ahobilam in the Swayambhuva Manvantara, and emerged from the ocean in the present Vaivasvata Manvantara (assuming it happened twice).  Are there any scriptures which shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-05-10T13:37:38.110" Title="What is the story of Narasimha being born in the ocean?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|avatars|narasimha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18247" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-10T09:08:08.237" Score="9" ViewCount="259" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my understanding, nature is the supreme power to be worshiped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scriptural basis for nature being the Supreme God or Goddess?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9724" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-11T06:26:00.980" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T14:49:47.267" Title="Is nature a deity in Hinduism?" Tags="|gods|goddess|nature|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18248" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18245" CreationDate="2017-05-10T12:06:09.600" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It seems that the ocean which is mentioned in the so called text is a metaphor for the ocean in which shri vishnu lives-The Ksheer Sagar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I cant confirm the correctness of the translation you mentioned from the Matsya Purana. For example try translating the original work from the Sanskrit text. It may be about the comparison of shri vishnu appearing on this earth(which may be have translated as arriving on land) from his abode(Ksheer Sagar).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remember Hinduism is all about finding unity in diversity in all things(inc vocabulary). Hence metaphors are common in texts. Understanding the message of texts is as important(if not less) than being entangled in the meaning of individual words and refrences. Hope my answer helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sorry if I seem too direct.&#xA;Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9727" LastActivityDate="2017-05-10T12:06:09.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18249" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18255" CreationDate="2017-05-10T12:30:21.763" Score="1" ViewCount="1807" Body="&lt;p&gt;ShriVishnu knows everything, yet He lets Pandavas and Karna be at fight. Moreover, Karna, born to ShriSurya, the Illuminator of whole Universe, had to suffer worse than the most unfortunate mortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T13:19:22.023" Title="If ShriKrishna knew Karna and Arjuna are brothers, why did not he stop their fight?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|karna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18251" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18245" CreationDate="2017-05-10T13:37:38.110" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This place is &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simhachalam_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Simhachalam&lt;/a&gt;. Simhachalam is suburb of Vizag city which is located on banks of Bay of Bengal. Sthala Purana of Simhachalam temple says Sriman Narayana saved Prahlada when Hiranyakasipu was about to place mountain on Prahlada after throwing him into sea. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://simhachalamdevasthanam.net/home.html#&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sthala Purana&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Son of Hiranyakasipu, named Prahalada became a devotee of Vishnu even&#xA;  from his birth and thus brought upon himself the wrath of his father.&#xA;  Hiranyakasipu tried to mend the ways of his son, but when he found him&#xA;  to be adamant, made him undergo severe hardships. He made the&#xA;  elephants trample over him and set poisonous snakes against him.&#xA;  Prahalada, protected as he was by divine grace, stood firm&#xA;  Hiranyakasipu as a last resort, asked his servants to throw his son&#xA;  into the sea and place huge mountain over him. &lt;strong&gt;His servant choose to&#xA;  drop Prahalada in the sea near the mount Simhadri with a view to place&#xA;  the mountain over him. But before they could complete their act Lord&#xA;  Narayana rescued him by jumping over the hill and lifting up Prahalada&#xA;  from the sea. Simhadri is thus the place where the Lord rescued&#xA;  Prahalada.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this story happened before manifestation of Sri Narasimha from Pillar and this incident of manifesting from Pillar happened at Ahoba(i)lam. Sri Chaganti Koteswara Rao, a well know scholar in Telugu states, describes the detailed story in &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/tA-RT6YCQbw?t=916&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Video&lt;/a&gt; (in telugu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Chaganti Koteswara Rao says Lord Vishnu blew air out from his mouth and mountain moved away from ocean and rescued Prahlada from drowning into ocean. Lord Vishnu also showed Prahlada Narasimha form, by which he would kill Hiranyakasipu in future. The mountain which moved away from ocean looks like lion when seen from sky and thus called &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Simhachalam&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. Narayana said he would manifest on Simhachalam as Narasimha and asked Prahlada to serve Him on this hill during his (Prahlada's) Vanaprastha stage of life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this place could be Simhachalam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2017-05-10T13:37:38.110" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18254" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5382" CreationDate="2017-05-10T14:15:27.003" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Both are same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Appa means &quot;father&quot; in telugu. Word &quot;Appa&quot; is added as Narasimha Swamy is father to all. So, He is also called as &quot;Appanna&quot; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chaganti Koteswara Rao, well known scholar in Telugu states,  explains the meaning of word Appa and reason for adding it in &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/tA-RT6YCQbw?t=1460&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; (in telugu). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2017-05-10T14:15:27.003" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18255" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18249" CreationDate="2017-05-10T16:04:38.153" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05140.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishna tried to&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Sama, Dana, Bheda, Danda&lt;/em&gt; - neeti - are the 4 types of bringing about reconciliation between two enemies, to be followed in that order preferably.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Duryodhana said he wouldn't return Pandavas kingdom after 13 years as per agreement during Dice game, Pandavas send Krishna as messenger to Kauravas to talk samadhaan (diplomatic dialogue). When Duryodhana refuses, Krishna asks him to gift (Dana) 5 cities, or 5 villages, or 5 houses, or at least a house with 5 rooms. He still refuses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Krishna knows Duryodhana is ready to go to war because he feels he can rely on Karna as his biggest strength/weapon. So, Krishna goes to Karna, tells him the true story of his birth, that his mother is Kunti, and Pandavas are his younger brothers, and asks him to join his side (Bheda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna however says he is 'indebted' to Duryodhana since he gave him Anga desh as gift during Pandavas 'graduation' ceremony where Karna was insulted that he could not participate in Dhanur Vidya exhibition/competition, as he was charioteer's son.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, he refuses to join Pandavas' side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So finally, Krishna takes up punishment (Danda), and orchestrates Kurukshetra war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, just because two people are brothers does not mean they should not fight if one of them is doing Adharma. In previous Avatara, Shri Rama showed this twice - Vali vs. Sugriva, Vibhishana vs. Ravana. He didn't tell Sugrive that he should not fight with his brother Vali, or Visbhishana that he should not fight with his brother, Ravana.. because Rama always takes side of Dharma, irrespective of being one's brother or any other relation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We all have free will.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;God can show us the path, but if we refuse to walk the path, he won't force us to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-05-10T18:31:35.633" LastActivityDate="2017-05-10T18:31:35.633" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18256" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-10T18:57:28.593" Score="12" ViewCount="3883" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;According to&lt;/a&gt; Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam a.k.a Bhāgavata Purāṇa, King Bharata a.k.a Jaḍa Bharata was reborn as a deer at some point because he was too attached to the deer which he adopted when it was still very young:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although Bharata Mahārāja was very elevated, he fell down due to his attachment to a young deer. One day after Bharata Mahārāja had taken his bath as usual in the river Gaṇḍakī and was chanting his mantra, he saw a pregnant deer come to the river to drink water. Suddenly there could be heard the thundering roar of a lion, and the deer was so frightened that it immediately gave birth to its calf. It then crossed the river, but died immediately thereafter. Mahārāja Bharata took compassion upon the motherless calf, rescued it from the water, took it to his āśrama and cared for it affectionately. He gradually became attached to this young deer and always thought of it affectionately. As it grew up, it became Mahārāja Bharata’s constant companion, and he always took care of it. Gradually he became so absorbed in thinking of this deer that his mind became agitated. As he became more attached to the deer, his devotional service slackened. Although he was able to give up his opulent kingdom, he became attached to the deer. Thus he fell down from his mystic yoga practice. Once when the deer was absent, Mahārāja Bharata was so disturbed that he began to search for it. While searching and lamenting the deer’s absence, Mahārāja Bharata fell down and died. &lt;strong&gt;Because his mind was fully absorbed thinking of the deer, he naturally took his next birth from the womb of a deer.&lt;/strong&gt; However, because he was considerably advanced spiritually, he did not forget his past activities, even though he was in the body of a deer. He could understand how he had fallen down from his exalted position, and remembering this, he left his mother deer and again went to Pulaha-āśrama. He finally ended his fruitive activities in the form of a deer, and when he died he was released from the deer’s body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/58GZX.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/58GZX.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QmcvZm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QmcvZm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are several things that don't add up in this story. Namely:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The story seems to suggest that your final thoughts play such a crucial role that nothing else matters. Then whatever happens to your past karma and karma of your most recent life?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the final moment, if you think of money and gold you have accumulated all your life, will you be born in to a wealthy family? And if you die thinking of a close relative (a human), you'll be reborn as a human being again?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;So according to Hindu scripture, you can be born as a deer in at least two ways: a) constantly thinking about deer -or- b) committing a sin that would cause you to be born as a deer. Correct?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given all the above inconsistencies, is the story meant to be taken literally or was it merely written to convey a message?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;P.S.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;- Related but not duplicate: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9091&quot;&gt;What happens to a person&amp;#39;s Karma if he attains salvation at the time of his death?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;- Please don't answer citing &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/94&quot;&gt;blogs or Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2020-05-16T15:05:02.343" Title="Karma &amp; Rebirth: If you're too attached to your pet and are reborn as that pet, what happens to your karma?" Tags="|karma|bhagavata-purana|death|rebirth|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18257" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18232" CreationDate="2017-05-11T04:12:02.000" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It says a lot of of things about the need for proper clothing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For e.g. Manu Smriti 4.45&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नान्नमद्यादेकवासा न नग्नः स्नानमाचरेत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न मूत्रं पथि कुर्वीत न भस्मनि न गोव्रजे ॥ ४५ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nānnamadyādekavāsā na nagnaḥ snānamācaret |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  na mūtraṃ pathi kurvīta na bhasmani na govraje ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He shall not eat food &lt;em&gt;with only one piece of cloth on him; he shall not bathe naked;&lt;/em&gt; he shall not pass urine on the road, nor on ashes, nor on the haunts of cows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is just one example, I'm sure people can add more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Brahmin culture, there are separate types of clothing for married and unmarried men &amp;amp; women - so that, just by looking from long distance, we can find out if a person is married and give them respect or distance. Otherwise, it may lead to men talking to married women with an inappropriate mindset.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ancient times, only boys used to attend school, so these rules were directed at men. It was then the duty of these men to instruct their wives when they married later in life. Whatever rules apply to men, most of them apply to women too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T11:17:25.947" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T11:17:25.947" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18258" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18195" CreationDate="2017-05-11T06:07:51.177" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, for collecting leaves like Durva, Bilva and Tulasi to be used in Puja there are certainly some mantras that are used. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Tulasi chayana mantra:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om TulasyamritanAmAsi Sada Twam Keshava PriyA | KesavArthe Chinomi&#xA;  TwAm Barada Bhva Shovane || Twadnga Sambhavaih Patraih PujaYAmi YathA&#xA;  Harim | TathA Kuru PavitrAngi Kalau MalavinAshini ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mantra basically praises Tulasi as being born of amrita or nectar. It also asks for permission for plucking its leaves which are to be used during puja of Keshava or Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Bilva chayana mantra:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Punya Vriksha MahAbhAga MalurSreephala Prabho | MaheshpujanArthAya&#xA;  TwatpatrAni Chinomyaham ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mantra also asks permission from the Bilwa tree to pluck its leaves for using them in Mahesha puja or puja of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;DurvA chayana mantra:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Sahsra ParamA Devi SatamulA SatankurA | Sarvam Haratu Me PApam&#xA;  durvA Duswapna NAsini ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is to be chanted while collecting Durva grass (which is of course very dear to Lord Ganesha and also it represents Rahu samidh among the navagrahas). The mantra praises Durva as having 100 roots and 100 seedlings and also as being capable of  removing all kinds of sins as well as the bad dreams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source of the mantras is a bengali book i possess called &lt;strong&gt;Brihat Visuddha Nitya Karma Paddhati.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-12T05:37:58.850" LastActivityDate="2017-05-12T05:37:58.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18259" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18247" CreationDate="2017-05-11T06:22:05.693" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prakriti is not just the physical aspect of nature but it is the feminine aspect of Supreme. Prakriti has been hailed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch01.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavatam, Ninth Book, Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt; by lord Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;S’ri Nârâyana said :-- This (Highest) Prakriti is recognised as five-fold. When She is engaged in the work of Creation, She appears as :-- (1) Durgâ, the Mother of Ganes’a,  (2) Râdhâ, (3) Laksmî, (4) Sarasvatî and (5) Sâvitrî.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4-18. Nârâyana said :-- “O Child! Who is there in this world that can describe fully the characteristics of Prakriti! However I will describe to you that much which I heard from my own father, Dharma. Hear. The prefix “Pra” in the word Prakriti means exalted, superior, excellent; and the affix “Kriti” denotes creation. So the Goddess, &lt;strong&gt;the Devî Who is the most excellent in the work of creation is known as the Devî Prakriti&lt;/strong&gt;. To come closer :-- “Pra” signifies the Sattva Guna, the most exalted quality, “Kri” denotes the Rajo Guna and “Ti” denotes the Tamo Guna. (The Sattva Guna is considered as the Highest as it is perfectly clear and free from any impurities whatsoever; the Rajo Guna is considered intermediate as it has this defect :-- that it spreads a veil over the reality of things, so as not to allow men to understand the True Reality, while the Tamo Guna is considered worst as it completely hides the Real Knowledge).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when this Intelligence of the nature of Brahmâ, beyond the three attributes, gets tinged with the above three Gunas and becomes omnipotent, then She is superior (Pradhânâ) in the work of creation. Hence She is styled as Prakriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Child Nârada! The state just preceding that of creation is denoted by “Pra”; and “Kri” signifies creation. So the Great Devî that exists before creation is called Prakriti after creation. &lt;strong&gt;The Paramâtmâ by His Yoga (i.e., Mâyâ S’akti, the Holy Ghost) divided Himself into two parts; the right side of which was male and the left side was the female Prakriti&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T06:22:05.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18260" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-05-11T07:33:44.653" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shudra is one of the four Varna (social categories) besides Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-11T07:33:44.653" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T07:33:44.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18261" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-05-11T07:33:44.653" Score="0" Body="Shudra is one of the four Varna (social categories) besides Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-11T07:33:44.653" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T07:33:44.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18262" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18256" CreationDate="2017-05-11T08:39:51.963" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Jada Bharata story is true.&lt;/strong&gt; It's completely consistent with Hinduism.  It is indeed true that your final thought at the moment of death is what you will attain.  Here is what Krishna says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 8&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And whoever, at the end of his life, quits his body remembering Me alone at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.  &lt;strong&gt;Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.&lt;/strong&gt;  Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Kṛṣṇa and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of ﬁghting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence ﬁxed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this does not mean that the rest of your life doesn't matter.  On the contrary, it is only if you have been devoted to Sriman Narayana all your life that you will deserve to have that rarest of blessings of getting to think of him at the moment you leave your body; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/201908.Ramana_Maharshi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Ramana Maharshi says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You must achieve liberation during your life time. Even if you fail to do it during your lifetime, you must think of god at least at the time of death, since one becomes what he thinks of at the time of death. But unless all your life you have been thinking of God, unless you have accustomed yourself to dhyana of 'God always during life, it would not at all be possible for you think of God at the time of death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is one escape route if you don't want to worry about what your final thought is going to be.  Here is one of the six statements that the Vishnu deity of the Kanchipuram Varadaraja Perumal temple communicated  to Ramanujacharya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;anthima smrthi varjanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means that Antima Smriti or remembrance of Sriman Narayana at the moment of death is not required for one who has performed Sharanagati. That's because for the Prapanna or performer of Sharanagati, Vishnu remembers the person at the moment of death, as described in the Varaha Charama Shloka quoted in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18099/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-11T14:01:58.127" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T14:01:58.127" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18263" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18256" CreationDate="2017-05-11T09:02:16.733" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was it merely written to convey a message? &lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt; I think so and its seems “The story seems to suggest that your final thoughts play such a crucial role that nothing else matters. “ is also right. The  concept  is conveyed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Prashna%20Upanishad%20-%20Swami%20Sarvanand%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prashna-Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;.Question 3 ,&lt;strong&gt;Shloka 10  - Outcome of  Sankalpa (Resolution)  at the time of death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यच्चित्तस्तेनैष प्राणमायाति प्राणस्तेजसा युक्तः । &lt;br&gt; सहात्मना&#xA;  यथासंकल्पितं लोकं नयति ॥ १० ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yaccittastenaiṣa prāṇamāyāti prāṇastejasā yuktaḥ | &lt;br&gt; sahātmanā &#xA;  yathāsaṃkalpitaṃ lokaṃ nayati || 10 ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Whatever his thought at the dying moment&lt;/strong&gt; with that he comes to&#xA;  the  prana ; th prana united with the fire leads on with the Atman&#xA;  unto the  desired world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt; And this is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/prashna-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145316.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shankara’s Commentary&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;on above verse -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of what thought he is at the time of death, by that thought, i.e.,&#xA;  volition, he attains along with the senses, the prâna, i.e., he puts&#xA;  forth the activity of the chief Prâna. The meaning is that at the time&#xA;  of death, the activity of the senses having declined, he lives putting&#xA;  forth the activity of the chief Prânaalone. Then his relations around&#xA;  say ‘he breathes and lives’; and that prâna manifesting the activity&#xA;  of udâna (têjas); with the âtman ] with the owner, i.e., the enjoyer.&#xA;  The prâna manifesting the activity of the udâna alone, leads the&#xA;  enjoyer to worlds (bodies) thought of, according to the influence of&#xA;  virtuous and sinful karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So we can safely say that this story is  written to convey above message.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T09:02:16.733" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18264" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18256" CreationDate="2017-05-11T09:47:47.227" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You have only given part of the story. Swami Vivekananda tells the story of Jada Bharata in the following way (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V4, pp 111-114; available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Lectures and Discourses&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;The Story of Jada Bharata&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was a great monarch named Bharata. The land which is called India by foreigners is known to her children as Bhârata Varsha. Now, it is enjoined on every Hindu when he becomes old, to give up all worldly pursuits — to leave the cares of the world, its wealth, happiness, and enjoyments to his son — and retire into the forest, there to meditate upon the Self which is the only reality in him, and thus break the bonds which bind him to life. King or priest, peasant or servant, man or woman, none is exempt from this duty: for all the duties of the householder — of the son, the brother, the husband, the father, the wife, the daughter, the mother, the sister — are but preparations towards that one stage, when all the bonds which bind the soul to matter are severed asunder for ever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great king Bharata in his old age gave over his throne to his son, and retired into the forest. He who had been ruler over millions and millions of subjects, who had lived in marble palaces, inlaid with gold and silver, who had drunk out of jewelled cups — this king built a little cottage with his own hands, made of reeds and grass, on the banks of a river in the Himalayan forests. There he lived on roots and wild herbs, collected by his own hands, and constantly meditated upon Him who is always present in the soul of man. Days, months, and years passed. One day, a deer came to drink water near by where the royal sage was meditating. At the same moment, a lion roared at a little distance off. The deer was so terrified that she, without satisfying her thirst, made a big jump to cross the river. The deer was with young, and this extreme exertion and sudden fright made her give birth to a little fawn, and immediately after she fell dead. The fawn fell into the water and was being carried rapidly away by the foaming stream, when it caught the eyes of the king. The king rose from his position of meditation and rescuing the fawn from the water, took it to his cottage, made a fire, and with care and attention fondled the little thing back to life. Then the kindly sage took the fawn under his protection, bringing it up on soft grass and fruits. The fawn thrived under the paternal care of the retired monarch, and grew into a beautiful deer. Then, he whose mind had been strong enough to break away from lifelong attachment to power, position, and family, became attached to the deer which he had saved from the stream. And as he became fonder and fonder of the deer, the less and less he could concentrate his mind upon the Lord. When the deer went out to graze in the forest, if it were late in returning, the mind of the royal sage would become anxious and worried. He would think, &quot;Perhaps my little one has been attacked by some tiger — or perhaps some other danger has befallen it; otherwise, why is it late?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some years passed in this way, but one day death came, and the royal sage laid himself down to die. But his mind, instead of being intent upon the Self, was thinking about the deer; and with his eyes fixed upon the sad looks of his beloved deer, his soul left the body. As the result of this, in the next birth he was born as a deer. But no Karma is lost, and all the great and good deeds done by him as a king and sage bore their fruit. This deer was a born Jâtismara, and remembered his past birth, though he was bereft of speech and was living in an animal body. He always left his companions and was instinctively drawn to graze near hermitages where oblations were offered and the Upanishads were preached.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the usual years of a deer's life had been spent, it died and was next born as the youngest son of a rich Brahmin. And in that life also, he remembered all his past, and even in his childhood was determined no more to get entangled in the good and evil of life. The child, as it grew up, was strong and healthy, but would not speak a word, and lived as one inert and insane, for fear of getting mixed up with worldly affairs. His thoughts were always on the Infinite, and he lived only to wear out his past Prârabdha Karma. In course of time the father died, and the sons divided the property among themselves; and thinking that the youngest was a dumb, good-for-nothing man, they seized his share. Their charity, however, extended only so far as to give him enough food to live upon. The wives of the brothers were often very harsh to him, putting him to do all the hard work; and if he was unable to do everything they wanted, they would treat him very unkindly. But he showed neither vexation nor fear, and neither did he speak a word. When they persecuted him very much, he would stroll out of the house and sit under a tree, by the hour, until their wrath was appeased, and then he would quietly go home again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One day; when the wives of the brothers had treated him with more than usual unkindness, Bharata went out of the house, seated himself under the shadow of a tree and rested. Now it happened that the king of the country was passing by, carried in a palanquin on the shoulders of bearers. One of the bearers had unexpectedly fallen ill, and so his attendants were looking about for a man to replace him. They came upon Bharata seated under a tree; and seeing he was a strong young man, they asked him if he would take the place of the sick man in bearing the king's palanquin. But Bharata did not reply. Seeing that he was so able-bodied, the king's servants caught hold of him and placed the pole on his shoulders. Without speaking a word, Bharata went on. Very soon after this, the king remarked that the palanquin was not being evenly carried, and looking out of the palanquin addressed the new bearer, saying &quot;Fool, rest a while; if thy shoulders pain thee, rest a while.&quot; Then Bharata laying the pole of the palanquin down, opened his lips for the first time in his life, and spoke, &quot;Whom dost thou, O King, call a fool? Whom dost thou ask to lay down the palanquin? Who dost thou say is weary? Whom dost thou address as 'thou'? If thou meanest, O King, by the word 'thee' this mass of flesh, it is composed of the same matter as thine; it is unconscious, and it knoweth no weariness, it knoweth no pain. If it is the mind, the mind is the same as thine; it is universal. But if the word 'thee' is applied to something beyond that, then it is the Self, the Reality in me, which is the same as in thee, and it is the One in the universe. Dost thou mean, O King, that the Self can ever be weary, that It can ever be tired, that It can ever be hurt? I did not want, O King — this body did not want — to trample upon the poor worms crawling on the road, and therefore, in trying to avoid them, the palanquin moved unevenly. But the Self was never tired; It was never weak; It never bore the pole of the palanquin: for It is omnipotent and omnipresent.&quot; And so he dwelt eloquently on the nature of the soul, and on the highest knowledge, etc. The king, who was proud of his learning, knowledge, and philosophy, alighted from the palanquin, and fell at the feet of Bharata, saying, &quot;I ask thy pardon, O mighty one, I did not know that thou wast a sage, when I asked thee to carry me.&quot; Bharata blessed him and departed. He then resumed the even tenor of his previous life. When Bharata left the body, he was freed for ever from the bondage of birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story is meant to convey the message of the scripture (in SwiftPuskar's answer from the Prashna Upanishad and Keshav Srinivasan's answer that quotes the Gita.) What you think of in your final moments determines the push of your soul at death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T09:47:47.227" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18265" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-11T10:36:09.937" Score="6" ViewCount="212" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to one thought &quot;If you can't explain anything simply that means you don't understand it&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does that mean we human beings don't certainly know about god also? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's Hinduism's views on above saying ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9724" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-05-11T18:29:51.340" LastActivityDate="2017-05-15T10:56:43.950" Title="According to one thought &quot;If you can't explain anything simply that means you don't understand it&quot;" Tags="|gods|philosophy|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18266" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18265" CreationDate="2017-05-11T11:55:22.733" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;human beings don't know about god am I right?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See what &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;url=http://estudantedavedanta.net/Kena%2520Upanishad%2520-%2520Swami%2520Sarvanand%2520%5BSanskrit-English%5D.pdf&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwi0-PjY3-fTAhXHQ48KHcrMBgIQFggoMAI&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNGclbyHOlNwvZDCBPbUNb2dH1DsEw&amp;amp;sig2=VkisdnTnc4cR6oy66-xqWQ&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kena-Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; says about your question.&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्यमतं तस्य मतं मतं यस्य न वेद स:।&lt;br&gt;  अविज्ञातं विजानतां&#xA;  विज्ञातमविजानताम ॥3॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;YasyaMatam Tasya Matam Matam Yasya na Ved sa &lt;br&gt;  AvigyanTam&#xA;  Vijanatam  VigyanTaMaVijanaTam&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who thinks he does not know It, knows It.  He who thinks he knows&#xA;  It, does not know It. The true knowers think they can never know It&#xA;  (because of Its infinitude), while the  ignorant think they know It. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kena-Upanishad Khand -2 ,Shloka 3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  This verse brings out how we struggle with difficulties of human expression and insufficiency of mental utterance. By this text the teacher confirms the idea that &lt;strong&gt;Brahman is unthinkable,&lt;/strong&gt; because it is unconditioned.  Therefore he says: &lt;strong&gt;He who considers It beyond thought, beyond sense perception, beyond mind and speech, he alone has a true understanding of Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T11:55:22.733" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18267" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18268" CreationDate="2017-05-11T12:04:00.720" Score="6" ViewCount="809" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna is also called KandarpaJanaka, meaning the father of Kaama. Moreover Kaama Himself is a God. So why are we constantly told to shun lust, sexual desires et cetera.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note, that I am not seeking for an approval from our Scriptures that - &quot;go have sexual courses&quot;. I just want to know why should we disregard it. Why should we look at it as a bad thing. Can we not have equal vision?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I should disregard Kaama, why should I not disregard compassion, mercy, helpfulness et cetera also?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T10:24:21.740" LastActivityDate="2018-04-25T15:24:34.143" Title="If Narayana is father of Kaama, then why should we disregard lust, sex, et cetera?" Tags="|scripture|vishnu|sex|kamadeva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18268" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18267" CreationDate="2017-05-11T12:09:53.697" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;We are not asked to shun Kama.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha - are the 4 purusharthas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA; &lt;strong&gt;As long as it follows the rules of Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;, it is completely acceptable.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But since Kama is so powerful that it can make us ignore the rules of Dharma, we are asked to be very careful with it, just like we are told not to play with fire but keep a safe distance from it.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Kama includes all sensory enjoyment (hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, smelling), not just lust.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-6-34/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The senses are strong like horses, they can drag away even a man of intelligence if not under control - Bhagavad Gita&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-05-11T12:15:36.737" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T12:15:36.737" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18270" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18247" CreationDate="2017-05-11T14:49:47.267" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prakirti is the aspect of Supreme Brahman himself and Maya of Lord is itself indentified with Prakirti in the Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मायां तु प्रकृतिं विद्यान्मायिनं च महेश्वरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्यवयवभूतैस्तु व्याप्तं सर्वमिदं जगत् ॥ १०॥ (Shwetashwatara Upanishad 4.10)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Know, then, that Prakriti is Maya&lt;/strong&gt; and Maheswara is the Lord of Maya. The whole universe is filled with objects which are parts of His being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Shakti of Lord belongs to Lord himself:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ते ध्यानयोगानुगता अपश्यन्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; देवात्मशक्तिं स्वगुणैर्निगूढाम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यः कारणानि निखिलानि तानि&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; कालात्मयुक्तान्यधितिष्ठत्येकः ॥ ३॥ (Shwetashwatara Upanishad 1.3)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The sages, absorbed in meditation through one−pointedness of mind, &lt;strong&gt;discovered the Shakti, belonging to the Lord Himself&lt;/strong&gt; and hidden in its own gunas. That non−dual Lord rules over all those causes−time, the self and the rest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Prakirti is called Perishable with respect to Brahman because Prakirti undergoes changes with time whereas Brahman is always the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्षरं प्रधानममृताक्षरं हरः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; क्षरात्मानावीशते देव एकः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्याभिध्यानाद्योजनात्तत्त्व-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; भावात् भूयश्चान्ते विश्वमायानिवृत्तिः।। (Shwetashwatara Upanishad 1.10)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Prakriti is perishable. Hara, the Lord, is immortal and imperishable.&lt;/strong&gt; The non−dual Supreme Self rules both prakriti and the individual soul. Through constant meditation on Him, by union with Him, by the knowledge of identity with Him, one attains, in the end, cessation of the illusion of phenomena.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as the Prakirti is just form of Brahman itself, Brahman is also identified with Prakirti also:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शून्यं तत्प्रकृतिर्माया ब्रह्मविज्ञानमित्यपि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिवः पुरुष ईशानो नित्यमात्मेति कथ्यते ॥ (Mahopanishad 6.61)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;That Brahman has been (identified with)&lt;/strong&gt; emptiness, &lt;strong&gt;Prakriti,&lt;/strong&gt; Maya and also consciousness. It has also been said to be &amp;quot;Shiva, pure Spirit, the Lord, the eternal and the self&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Maya (in personified form) is also capable of providing wordly things and liberation (which I also discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15717/is-there-any-hierarchy-for-devis-incarnations/16238#16238&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;). It is also seen in the Stuti to YogaMaya (a form of Durga) by Lord Vishnu &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_003.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;in Harivamsha:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AvAsaH sarvabhUtAnAM niShThA cha paramA gatiH ||2-3-10&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;You are the abode, death and liberation of all beings.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  R^ishINAM dharmabuddhistu devAnAM mAnasI tathA |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are dharmabudhhi of sages and mind (fixed in truth) of devA-s. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vidyAnAM brahmavidyA tvamo~NkAro.atha vaShaT tathA |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Among all kinds of knowledge, &lt;strong&gt;you are BrahmaVidya.&lt;/strong&gt; You are Om and vaShaT &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tvayA vyAptamidaM sarvaM jagatsthAvaraja~Ngamam |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The entire world of non-moving and moving entities is pervaded by you.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in any case the elements of Prakirti (like fire, water, air etc..) is pervaded and created by Supreme Lord himself as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shatapatha Brahamana and in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17278/does-the-atharvasiras-derives-this-mantra-from-yajurveda-or-quotes-from-other-ve/17495#17495&quot;&gt;AtharvaVeda&lt;/a&gt;. And Svetasvatara Upanishad also says the same deriving &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17278/does-the-atharvasiras-derives-this-mantra-from-yajurveda-or-quotes-from-other-ve&quot;&gt;this mantra of YajurVeda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो देवो अग्नौ योऽप्सु&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; यो विश्वं भुवनमाविवेश ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  य ओषधीषु यो वनस्पतिषु&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; तस्मै देवाय नमो नमः (Svetasvatara Upanishad 2.17) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Self−luminous Lord, who is in fire, who is in water, who has entered into the whole world, who is in plants, who is in trees−to that Lord let there be adoration!&lt;/strong&gt; Yea, let there be adoration!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the Lord himself is also present in Prakirti elements and Prakirti is itself the potency of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-05-11T14:49:47.267" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18271" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-11T15:17:01.510" Score="9" ViewCount="1827" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu philosophy there are three main Pramanas or valid means of knowledge: Pratyaksha or sensory perception, Anumana or inference, and Shabda or revelation/scripture.  And there is a hierarchy of these Pramanas: Anumana is only applicable to those things which cannot be known through Pratyaksha, and Shabda is only applicable to those things which cannot be known through either Pratyaksha or Anumana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc117893.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;first section&lt;/a&gt; of his commentary on the Brihadaranyaka  Upanishad, the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya argues that the existence of a soul which transcends the body cannot be established by either Pratyaksha or Anumana Pramana, and thus we must rely on Shabda Pramana, specifically the Vedas, to know that the soul transcends he body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, unless a person is aware of the existence of the self in a future life, he will not be induced to attain what is good and avoid what is evil in that life. For we have the example of the materialists. Therefore the scriptures proceed to discuss the existence of the self in a future life and the particular means of attaining the good and avoiding the evil in that life. For we see one of the Upaniṣads starts with the words, ‘There is a doubt among men regarding the life after death, some saying that the self exists, and others that it does not’ (Ka. I. 20), and concludes, ‘It is to be realised as existing indeed’ (Ka. VI. 13), and so on. Also, beginning with, ‘How (the self remains) after death’ (Ka. V. 6), it ends with, ‘Some souls enter the womb to get a new body, while others are born, as stationary objects (plants etc.), all according to their past work and knowledge’ (Ka. V. 7). Elsewhere beginning with, ‘The man (self) himself becomes the light’ (IV. iii. 9), it ends with, ‘It is followed by knowledge, work’ (IV. iv. 2). Also, ‘One becomes good through good work and evil through evil work’ (III. ii. 13). Again beginning with, ‘I will instruct you’ (II. i. 15), the existence of the extracorporeal self is established in the passage, ‘Full of consciousness (i.e. identified with the mind),’ etc. (II. i. 16-17).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Objection: &amp;quot;Is it not a matter of perception?&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Reply: No, for we see the divergence of opinion among different schools. Were the existence of the self in a future body a matter of perception, the materialists and Buddhists would not stand opposed to us, saying that there is no self. For nobody disputes regarding an object of perception such as a jar, saying it does not exist.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Objection: &amp;quot;You are wrong, since a stump, for instance, is looked upon as a man and so on.&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Reply: No, for it vanishes when the truth is known. There are no more contradictory views when the stump, for instance, has been definitely known as such through perception. The Buddhists, however, in spite of the fact that there is the ego-consciousness, persistently deny the existence of the self other than the subtle body. Therefore, being different from objects of perception, the existence of the self cannot be proved by this means. &lt;strong&gt;Similarly inference too is powerless.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Objection: &amp;quot;No, since the Śruti (Veda) points out certain grounds of inference for the existence of the self, and these depend on perception, (these two are also efficient means of the knowledge of the self).&amp;quot;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Reply: Not so, for the self cannot be perceived as having any relation to another life. &lt;strong&gt;But when its existence has been known from the Śruti and from certain empirical grounds of inference cited by it, the Mīmāṃsakas and logicians, who follow in its footsteps, fancy that those Vedic grounds of inference such as the ego-consciousness are the products of their own mind, and declare that the self is knowable through perception and inference.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in Adi Shankaracharya's claim that the existence of a soul which transcends the body cannot be known through Anumana or inference.  The thing is, in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38197.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; on Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 Sutra 54 of the Brahma Sutras, Adi Shankaracharya refutes the view of Charvakas or materialists that the soul is the same as the body, and presents a logical argument that the soul must transcend the body:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The assertion that the Self is not separate from the body cannot be maintained. The Self rather must be something separate from the body, 'because the existence (of the Self) does not depend on the existence of that (i.e. the body).' For if from the circumstance that they are where the body is you conclude that the qualities of the Self are qualities of the body, you also must conclude from the fact that they are not where the body is that they are not qualities of the body, because thereby they show themselves to be different in character from the qualities of the body. Now the (real) qualities of the body, such as form and so on, may be viewed as existing as long as the body exists; life, movement, &amp;amp;c., on the other hand, do not exist even when the body exists, viz. in the state of death. The qualities of the body, again, such as form and so on, are perceived by others; not so the qualities of the Self, such as consciousness, remembrance, and so on. Moreover, we can indeed ascertain the presence of those latter qualities as long as the body exists in the state of life, but we cannot ascertain their non-existence when the body does not exist; for it is possible that even after this body has died the qualities of the Self should continue to exist by passing over into another body. The opposite opinion is thus precluded also for the reason of its being a mere hypothesis.--We further must question our opponent as to the nature of that consciousness which he assumes to spring from the elements; for the materialists do not admit the existence of anything but the four elements. Should he say that consciousness is the perception of the elements and what springs from the elements, we remark that in that case the elements and their products are objects of consciousness and that hence the latter cannot be a quality of them, as it is contradictory that anything should act on itself. Fire is hot indeed but does not burn itself, and the acrobat, well trained as he may be, cannot mount on his own shoulders. As little could consciousness, if it were a mere quality of the elements and their products, render them objects of itself. For form and other (undoubted) qualities do not make their own colour or the colour of something else their objects; the elements and their products, on the other hand, whether external or belonging to the Self (the organism) are rendered objects by consciousness. Hence in the same way as we admit the existence of that perceptive consciousness which has the material elements and their products for its objects, we also must admit the separateness of that consciousness from the elements. And as consciousness constitutes the character of our Self, the Self must be distinct from the body. That consciousness is permanent, follows from the uniformity of its character (and we therefore may conclude that the conscious Self is permanent also; as also follows) from the fact that the Self, although connected with a different state, recognises itself as the conscious agent--a recognition expressed in judgments such as 'I saw this,'--and from the fact of remembrance and so on being possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That sounds like he is using Anumana to establish the existence of a soul which transcends the body.  So my question is, does Adi Shankaracharya believe that Anumana is able to establish the existence of a soul which transcends the body, or does he believe that it can only be established through the Vedas?  Is there any way to reconcile his statements in these two works?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, Ramanujacharya and other commentators do not think that Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 Sutra 54 of the Brahma Sutas is about refutation of Charvakas and the existence of the soul; see my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14552/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-10-08T17:10:08.847" Title="Does Adi Shankaracharya believe the existence of the soul requires scripture to establish?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|atma|adi-shankaracharya|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18273" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18271" CreationDate="2017-05-11T18:04:42.463" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does Adi-Shankaracharya believe the exsistance of soul requires Scripture to establish.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am trying to answer your question from translation of one Shloka from Adi Shankara's work &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Sri_Shankaracharya-AtmaBodha%20%28and%20Other%20Stotras%29%20-%20Swami%20Nikhilananda%20%281947%29%20%5BSanskrit-English%5D.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atma Bodha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;where he says - &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Atman being luminous by nature , illumines itself does not depend on anything else for its manifestation.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्वबोधे नान्यबोधेच्छा बोधरूपतयात्मन: ।&lt;br&gt; न दीपस्यान्यदीपेच्छा यथा&#xA;स्वात्मप्रकाशने ।।28॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;swabodhe nānyabodhecchā bodharūpatyātmanaḥ&lt;br&gt; na dīpasyānyadīpecchā yathā svātmaprakāśane&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a lighted lamp does not need another lamp to manifest it's light ,&#xA;So Atman being consciousness itself , &lt;strong&gt;does not need another&#xA;instrument of consciousness to illumine itself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another translation of the same is found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.inner-quest.org/Atma_Bodha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;29. A lighted-lamp does not need another lamp to illumine its light. So too, Self which is knowledge itself needs no other knowledge to know it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion - &lt;strong&gt;So from above passages we can see Adi Shankara's views on this , IMO he does not think that exsistance of soul requires Scripture to establish.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="16889" LastEditDate="2020-10-08T17:10:08.847" LastActivityDate="2020-10-08T17:10:08.847" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18274" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18276" CreationDate="2017-05-11T18:32:58.810" Score="5" ViewCount="3531" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know both &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iskcon.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ISKCON&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jiva.org&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jiva Institute&lt;/a&gt;  are Gaudiya Vaisnavas, but what are the philosophical differences between these two ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9736" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-12T04:29:33.950" LastActivityDate="2022-06-04T10:24:40.640" Title="Where are the main differences between ISKCON and Jiva Institute?" Tags="|philosophy|gaudiya-vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18275" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-11T18:41:10.700" Score="4" ViewCount="483" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, in Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;53&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;eka ātmanaḥ śarīre bhāvāt&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some deny the existence of the soul, its existence being dependent on the existence of the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;54&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;vyatirekastadbhāvabhāvitvānna tūpalabdhivat&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this is not so; there is a distinction (between the soul and the body) because consciousness may not exist even when the body exists, as it is in the case of perception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This translation is written from the viewpoint of the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, who believes that in these Sutras Vyasa is demonstrating that there exists a soul which is different from the body.  Now in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38196.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya, a hypothetical opponent raises the objection that it's improper for Vyasa to discuss this subject, because it was already discussed in the Purva Mimamsa Sutras. As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14035/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras and Vyasa's Brahma Sutras originally formed a unified Mimamsa Shastra, so it would be like discussing the same subject twice in the same work.  But Adi Shankaracharya responds by saying that the existence of the soul is only discussed in a commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, not in the text itself, and so it's fine for Vyasa to discuss it in the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, an objection is raised, already in the first pâda which stands at the head of this Sâstra (i.e. the first pâda of the Pûrva Mîmâmsâ-sûtras) there has been declared the existence of a Self which is different from the body and hence capable of enjoying the fruits taught by the Sâstra.--&lt;strong&gt;True, this has been declared there by the author of the bhâshya, but there is in that place no Sûtra about the existence of the Self. Here, on the other hand, the Sûtrakâra himself establishes the existence of the Self after having disposed of a preliminary objection. And from hence the teacher Sabara Svâmin has taken the matter for his discussion of the point in the chapter treating of the means of right knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt; For the same reason the reverend Upavarsha remarks in the first tantra--where an opportunity offers itself for the discussion of the existence of the Self--'We will discuss this in the Sârîraka,' and allows the matter to rest there. Here, where we are engaged in an inquiry into the pious meditations which are matter of injunction, a discussion of the existence of the Self is introduced in order to show that the whole Sâstra depends thereon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss the statement about Upavarsha in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14552/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But now I'm interested in the statement in bold.  Let me explain what Adi Shankaracharya is saying.  Shabara Swami's Mimamsa Sutra Bhashya is the canonical commentary on Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/ufG0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 Sutra 5 of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, Shabara Swami presents an argument for the existence of the soul, which he needs to establish because he's trying to show that Yagnas which bear fruit in the afterlife really work.  What Adi Shankaracharya is saying is that Shabara Swami actually took the argument he's presenting from Vyasa's Brahma Sutras, specifically from the Sutras I gave above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, are there any other arguments that Shabara Swami took from the Brahma Sutras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do any Purva Mimamsa works or Vedanta works shed light on this?  And for that matter, does anyone else agree with Adi Shankaracharya that Shabara Swami took his existence of soul argument from the Brahma Sutras?  I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14552/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; how Ramanujacharya and other commentators don't even think the Sutras are talking about the existence of the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-21T15:28:34.467" Title="What arguments does Shabara's Mimamsa Sutra Bhashya take from the Brahma Sutras?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahma-sutras|adi-shankaracharya|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18276" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18274" CreationDate="2017-05-11T20:57:59.927" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There aren't many philosophical differences between ISKCON and the Jiva Institute.  They both believe in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's philosophy of Achintya Bhedabheda.  And Babaji Satyanarayana Dasa, the founder of the Jiva Institute, is a former ISKCON member, as he describes in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jiva.org/babajis-sahajiyas-and-apasampradayas/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I never made any propaganda against Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON or Gaudiya-Math, either through internet, through writing books, articles, or by speaking. On the contrary, in my books I have honored and recognized Srila Prabhupada as a propagator of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I left ISKCON, or rather, was forced to leave about fourteen years ago because of some philosophical differences. Having philosophical differences is common any spiritual organization, and this is certainly also the case in our Gaudiya Vaishnava history. The beauty of Vedic Culture is that one can have differences of opinion and respect simultaneously. In fact, our very philosophy is based on the principle of difference and non-difference simultaneously. For the modern mind this seems absurd, and any difference is taken as disrespect and inimical. I tried to reconcile one of the differences I had with ISKCON in my book, “In Vaikuntha not even the Leaves Fall”, so that ISKCON’s teachings could be in line with the teachings of the Gosvamis, but this was not acceptable to the ISKCON leadership. As a result I was mistreated and my book was banned. Thus I saw no possibility of reconciliation, although that was my heart’s desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even though I was defamed and mistreated, I did not endeavor to harm ISKCON or the Gaudiya Math. I have never stepped into ISKCON territory after my departure from ISKCON to avoid any conflict or confrontation. At the same time, curiously many ISKCON leaders over the years approached me privately for philosophical advice and consultation and used the material they received for their own projects – often without mentioning my name which was blacklisted in ISKCON. I was and I am still open to peaceful dialogue.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, one prominent philosophical difference they have is that ISKCON believes that Jivas sometimes fall from Vaikuntha into the world of Samsara if they do bad deeds in Vaikuntha, whereas the Jiva Institute believes that Jivas who dwell in Vaikuntha never fall from it.  This difference is discussed in great detail in Babaji Satyanarayana Dasa's book &quot;In Vaikuntha Not Even the Leaves Fall&quot;, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.interessantes.at/jiva-tattva/InVaikunthaNotEvenTheLeavesFall108.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another thing to note is that ISKCON has a sharply negative view of the Jiva Institute, described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/08-13/editorials10510.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this editorial&lt;/a&gt; from the ISKCON publication the Sampradaya Sun.  They put Jiva Institute people in the general category of &quot;Babajis&quot; who have the potential of leading ISKCON novices astray by overly focusing on the romantic Lilas of Krishna in Vrindavan, which can lead the novices to material temptation.  They also characterize Jiva Institute people as &quot;Asampradaya&quot; or lacking a proper Sampradaya.  Which brings me to the final difference, namely a difference in Guru Paramparas.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/introduction&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the ISKCON Guru Parampara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kṛṣṇa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahmā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nārada&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vyāsa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Madhva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Padmanābha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nṛhari&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mādhava&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Akṣobhya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jaya Tīrtha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jñānasindhu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Dayānidhi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vidyānidhi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rājendra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jayadharma&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Puruṣottama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahmaṇya Tīrtha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vyāsa Tīrtha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Lakṣmīpati&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Mādhavendra Purī&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Īśvara Purī, (Nityānanda, Advaita)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Lord Caitanya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rūpa, (Svarūpa, Sanātana)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Raghunātha, Jīva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kṛṣṇadāsa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Narottama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Viśvanātha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(Baladeva), Jagannātha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhaktivinoda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Gaurakiśora&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sriharidasniwas.org/index.php/sri-guru-parampara/our-guru-shishya-parampara.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Jiva Institute Guru Parampara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UQjCq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UQjCq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both ISKCON and the Jiva Institute trace their Guru Paramparas to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the founder of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sect, but ISKCON's Parampara traces its origins to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's shishya Rupa Goswami, whereas the Jiva Institute's Parampara traces its origins to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's shishya Gadadhara Pandita.  It's also worth noting that the Jiva Institute claims that Rupa Goswami received Diksha from Gadadhara Pandita; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jiva.org/sri-gadadhara-panditas-role-in-the-gaudiya-sampradaya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-13T21:47:33.553" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T21:47:33.553" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18277" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18176" CreationDate="2017-05-12T03:40:27.157" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's because his planned time on Earth was over.&lt;/strong&gt;. As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2111/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, at the end of Rama's life Yama god of death came to Ayodhya and conveyed a message from the god Brahma.  The message is given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-117&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O hero, I am thy son. Thou didst, in thy pristine birth, beget me on Maya I am Kala, the destroyer of all. Lord Brahma, the father of all creatures, has said that thou didst promise to preserve the three worlds.  Formerly when having slain all animals by thy Maya thou wert asleep in the waters of the mighty deep I was born. Thereafter thou didst create the huge bodied Ananta, living in the waters as the king of Nagas. Then thou didst create two highly powerful Asuras named Madhu and Kaitabha.  At that time the bones of those two Asuras having been scattered far and wide this earth containing many mountains was named Medini. Having procreated me in thy lotus navel, dazzling in celestial brilliance thou didst employ me in the work of generation. I took the charge and procreated men; but finding no other means to preserve them I worshipped thee, the lord of the universe and said O lord, thou shouldst protect the creatures, for thou art my father and giver of energy and therefore irrepressible.  Thereupon for concerting means for the preservation of creatures, thou didst renounce thy irrepressible shape and assume Vishnu form. And taking thy birth from Aditi's powerful son, thou wert engaged in enhancing the delight of my brothers. Thou didst use to protect the Devas whenever they were assailed by any calamity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O lord of the universe, it is for that reason, on beholding the destruction of creatures thou wert born on earth to slay Dasagriva. And at that time thou didst promise that thou wouldst live in the land of mortals for Eleven thousand years.&lt;/strong&gt; Thereupon thou didst assume a human form to carry out thine desire.  Now that period is ripe and this is the proper time to inform thee of it. O great king, do thou wait in this land of mortals if dost thou wish to govern people for some time more. And if dost thou wish to repair to the region of immortals, do thou again lord over the Devas in thy Vishnu form and let them be freed from anxiety.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he defeated Ravana and ruled for 11000 years as he planned, so now his task on Earth was over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="17186" LastEditDate="2021-03-10T17:56:17.450" LastActivityDate="2021-03-10T17:56:17.450" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18278" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-12T04:34:11.443" Score="5" ViewCount="517" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally, Vaishnavas follow the Pancharatra Agamas, Shaivites follow the Shaiva Agamas, and Shaktas follow the Shaiva Agamas. But long ago, there was a group of people in Kashmir who followed the Shakta Agamas but adopted Shiva as their Ishta Devata. That group evolved into what we now call Kashmir Shaivism. Because it has its roots in Shakta Agamas, it subscribes to a monistic philosophy, as opposed to philosophic Shaivite sects like Shaiva Siddhanta which are more dualistic in their philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the most famous Kashmiri Shaivite philosopher was Abhinavagupta, who lived in the 10th century.  Abhinavagupta's guru was Lakshmanagupta, whose guru was Utpaladeva, whose guru was Somananda.  Now Somananda was the shishya of Vasugupta, the author of the Shiva Sutras, the defining text of Kashmiri Shaivism.  But that's not the only lineage Somananda is associated with.  Somananda is also claimed to be a biological descendant of Durvasa's son Tryamabaka, who is also revered as a Kashmiri Shaivite Acharya.  Here is what Abhinavagupta says about Tryambaka in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/JQAw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Tantraloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As, thus, with the disappearance of the Shāstras the world became engrossed in spiritual darkness, Shiva-as the Deity is called-took pity on men and, appearing on the Kailāsa mountain in the form of Shrikantha, commanded the Sage Durvasas to spread in the world the knowledge of these Shāstras again. &lt;strong&gt;Durvasas, thus commanded, created, by the power of his mind, three sons - Tryambaka, Amardaka and Shrinātha&lt;/strong&gt; by names - whom he charged with the mission of establishing spiritual order and of teaching men again the ancient and eternal Shaiva faith and doctrine in their three aspects of Abheda, Bheda and Bhedabheda-of Unity, Diversity and Diversity-in-unity. Tryambaka was to teach the first, Amardaka the second, while Shrinatha was to have the charge of the last, It is this Abheda or Advaya Shaiva teaching, thus retaught to the world by Tryambaka, which is spoken of as the Trika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Trika is basically what we now call the Kashmiri Shaivism.  In any case, the idea is that Tryambaka promulgated the 64 Bhairava Tantras which Kashmiri Shaivites focus on, whereas Amardaka and Srinatha promulgated the 28 traditional Shaiva Agamas which philosophical Shaivite sects like Shaiva Siddhanta are based on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what scriptures describe Durvasa's mind-born sons Tryambaka, Amardaka, and Srinatha?  Do any Puranas or Agamas mention them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only putative sons of Durvasa I know of are Ilvala and Vatapi who were killed by the sage Agastya.  Ilvala and Vatapi are mentioned in Hindu scripture, but their being sons of Durvasa may just be folklore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-23T15:57:56.050" LastActivityDate="2017-11-23T15:57:56.050" Title="What scriptures describe Durvasa having three sons who promulgated Agamas?" Tags="|shaivism|agamas|tantra|kashmiri-shaivism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="16" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18279" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-05-12T05:02:35.190" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ayodhya is the place where Lord Rama was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-12T05:02:35.190" LastActivityDate="2017-05-12T05:02:35.190" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18280" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-05-12T05:02:35.190" Score="0" Body="The place where Lord Rama was born." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-12T05:02:35.190" LastActivityDate="2017-05-12T05:02:35.190" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18281" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-12T05:49:58.933" Score="1" ViewCount="3396" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to tattoo the loard shiva's pray like the image below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bZ5Cb.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bZ5Cb.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is that ethical that to tattoo as I'm non-vegetarian.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2961" LastEditorUserId="2961" LastEditDate="2017-05-12T12:05:11.580" LastActivityDate="2017-05-12T12:05:11.580" Title="Is that ethically correct if non-vegetarian to Tattoo god's pray or image on forearm" Tags="|shiva|gods|mantras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-05-12T11:36:47.130" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18282" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3321" CreationDate="2017-05-12T06:16:20.363" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before I answer this question, want to share story about Manthara: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Manthara - Hunchbacked maid of Queen Kaikeyi)&#xA;  Manthara is a servant who convinced Kaikeyi that the throne of Ayodhya belonged to her son Bharatha and that Rama should be exiled from the kingdom. Manthara is described in the Ramayana as a hunchback, and extremely ugly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manthara Past Life: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even Manthara was one of good nature. She was only acting because of an incident that had happened in her previous birth. She was a deer then. One day she was playing with her husband in the forest. The king of Kekaya had come to the forest on hunting. He saw both the deer playing with each other and he killed the male deer with an arrow. The female deer was grief stricken. Then the female deer went to the king and poured out her anguish thus, “Oh king! We were leading our lives peacefully and blissfully. You have inflicted untold grief on me by killing my husband. You have ruined my life.” The king ruefully said” Nobody can escape the sequence of his actions. The female deer took birth as Manthara and caused the death of Dasaratha who was the son-in–law of the King of Kekaya. This life is nothing but an ocean with the waves of union and separation. Everybody must pass through the adversities of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manthara heard the conditions for Kaikeyi’s Marriage, Manthara never forgot her past resolve and therefore decided to poison Kaikeyi's mind against her natural affection and her duties towards Dasaratha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When anger seizes a person, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He cannot perform any work successfully. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He gathers sin and is humbled. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anger extinguishes one’s reputation, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And separates him from people who are near and dear. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manthara used many a specious and cunning argument to cloud and poison the pure and unselfish mind of Kaikeyi, there is none who can destroy 'Manthara'. Manthara ultimately succeeded in changing the mind of Kaikeyi&#xA;  and caused the departure of Rama, Lakshmana and Sita from&#xA;  Ayodhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The anger of Manthara  sent Rama to the forest, when Lakshmana wanted to kill her, Rama stopped him, saying, &quot;One should not kill a woman.&quot; Jealousy is the worst of all evil qualities. Three-fourths of the world is ruined because of jealousy. Jealousy has no limits whatsoever. People are jealous of others’ prosperity, beauty and education, and try to cause their downfall. One should not speak bad words, listen to bad things and indulge in evil activities. This is the main teaching of Ramayana. Manthara indulged evil talk and Kaikeyi paid heed to her. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my view the story behind the Manthara attempt to &quot;Destroy Earth&quot; means form of Jealous, who indulge in evil talk and evil actions should be spoil the world&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• The Ramayana gives examples of Ravana and Manthara as both had evil propensities in them. Ravana was slain in the battle, but Manthara is alive even today in the form of jealousy. There is none who can destroy 'Manthara'. We should ignore this 'Manthara' and carry on with our duties. When Lakshmana wanted to kill her, Rama stopped him, saying, &quot;One should not kill a woman.&quot; Jealousy is the worst of all evil qualities. Three-fourths of the world is ruined because of jealousy. Jealousy has no limits whatsoever. People are jealous of others’ prosperity, beauty and education, and try to cause their downfall. One should not speak bad words, listen to bad things and indulge in evil activities. This is the main teaching of Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qt4AR.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qt4AR.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;the point where Indra needed to kill her? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• Manthara sister of Bali and daughter of Virocana and Lord Indra killed Manthara, when she wanted to destroy earth with her evil mind. Many great personalities had to kill women when those women went away from path of Righteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: I tried to answer (partial) this question as much as I know and lot of Google search help me too, but I haven't find full answer for this question. As per my research I come to know there is no actions from Manthara to Destroy Earth? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-05-12T06:16:20.363" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18285" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-12T11:24:07.903" Score="9" ViewCount="151" Body="&lt;p&gt;I tried google search but I found nothing about mathas in pashupata shaivism. I am interested in becoming a ordained monk in hinduism sub-school pashupata shaivism. I would like to know where those mathas are located and if they have their own websites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9741" LastActivityDate="2017-05-13T09:29:07.403" Title="Do pashupata-shaivists have mathas?" Tags="|shaivism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18287" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17312" CreationDate="2017-05-12T14:30:53.803" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The only Restriction on Bhagwad Gita is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इदं ते नातपस्काय नाभक्ताय कदाचन।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न चाशुश्रूषवे वाच्यं न च मां योऽभ्यसूयति।।18.67।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This confidential knowledge may never be explained to those who are not austere, or devoted, or engaged in devotional service, nor to one who is envious of Me. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-67/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;18.67&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentary by Bhagwad Ramanujacharya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have taught you this most secret doctrine. This should not be imparted by you to someone who has not practised austere disciplines. Never should this be taught to someone who is not devoted to Me and to you, the teacher (i.e., when you have to play the role of a teacher of this doctrine). The meaning is that it should not be taught by you to someone who, though practising austerities, is not a devotee and does not serve Me. It is also never to be taught to one who has no wish to listen, even though he is a devotee. Nor should it be imparted to one who traduces Me, that is, who — when My nature, glories and attributes are described — discovers defects in them. The differences of case (from ablative to nominative form) is to teach that the last one is the most despicable character.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Definition(s) of a Bhakta :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Definition 1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्री भगवानुवाच&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मय्यावेश्य मनो ये मां नित्ययुक्ता उपासते।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रद्धया परयोपेतास्ते मे युक्ततमा मताः।।12.2।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Those who fix their minds on My personal form and are always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith are considered by Me to be most perfect. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-12-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;12.2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentary by Bhagawad Ramanujacharya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lord said — I consider them to be the highest among the Yogins (i.e., among those striving for realisation) — them who worship Me focusing their minds upon Me as one exceedingly dear to them, who are endowed with supreme faith, and who are ever ‘integrated’ with Me, namely ever desirous of constant union with Me. Those who thus worship Me, focusing their minds on Me as their supreme goal, attain Me soon and easily. Such is the meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Definition 2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनपेक्षः शुचिर्दक्ष उदासीनो गतव्यथः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी यो मद्भक्तः स मे प्रियः।।12.16।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My devotee who is not dependent on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, expert, without cares, free from all pains, and not striving for some result, is very dear to Me. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-12-16/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;12.16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentary by Bhagawad Ramanujacharya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who is free from ‘desires’, i.e., who has no longing for anything except the self; who is ‘pure’, namely, whose body is nourished on the food prescribed by the Sastras; who is an ‘expert’ namely, who is an expert in performing actions prescribed by the Sastras; who is ‘indifferent’, i.e., not interested in matters other than those enjoined by the Sastras; who is free from ‘agony’, i.e., of pain caused by heat, cold, contact with coarse things etc., which are inevitably associated with the performance of rites prescribed by the Sastras; who renounces all ‘undertakings,’ i.e., who renounces all undertakings except those demanded by the Sastras — the devotee who is like this is dear to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Bhakta Lakshana (Identification of Bhaktas) :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्रः करुण एव च।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निर्ममो निरहङ्कारः समदुःखसुखः क्षमी।।12.13।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सन्तुष्टः सततं योगी यतात्मा दृढनिश्चयः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्यो मद्भक्तः स मे प्रियः।।12.14।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who is not envious but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor and is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service with determination, his mind and intelligence fixed on Me—such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-12-13-14/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;12.13-12.14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentary By Bhagwad Ramanujacharya &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In these and succeeding verses the Lord mentions the nature of the Karma Yogi who adores Him through his works. &lt;strong&gt;In other words the Bhakti element in Karma Yoga is emphasised&lt;/strong&gt;. He never hates any being even though they hate him and do him wrong. For he thinks that the Lord impels these beings to hate him and do him wrong for atoning for his transgressions. He is ‘friendly’, evincing a friendly disposition towards all beings whether they hate him or do him wrong. He is ‘compassionate’, evincing compassion towards their sufferings. He is free from the ‘feeling of mine,’ i.e., he is not possessive with regard to his body, senses and all things associated with them. He is free from the feeling of ‘I’, i.e., is free from the delusion that his body is the self. Therefore, ‘pain and pleasure are the same to him,’ i.e., he is free from distress and delight resulting from pain and pleasure arising from his deeds. He is ‘enduring’, unaffected even by those two (i.e., pleasure and pain) due to the inevitable contact of sense-objects. He is ‘content’, namely, satisfied with whatever chance may bring him for the sustenance of his body. He ‘ever meditates,’ i.e., is constantly intent on contemplating on the self as separate from the body. He is ‘self-restrained’, namely, he controls the activities of his mind. He is of ‘firm conviction’ regarding the meanings taught in the science of the self. His ‘mind and reason are dedicated to Me’ i.e., his mind and reason are dedicated to Me in the form ‘Bhagavan Vasudeva alone is propitiated by disinterested activities, and when duly propitiated, He wil bring about for me the direct vision of the self.’ Such a devotee of mine, i.e., who works in this manner as a Karma Yogin, is dear to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note you should never give Bhagwad gita or any Bhagwata shastras to the people who are envious to Shriman Narayana, giving gold to cobbler is of no use. So while distributing this Ambrosia be cautious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-05-12T18:46:22.067" LastActivityDate="2017-05-12T18:46:22.067" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18289" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16162" CreationDate="2017-05-13T03:51:02.607" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Why it is believed that it will give positive effects only if it is Lord Shiva's own wish to perform Tandava and not of others?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure from where do you get this idea. But in Narada Purana we see Sage Jaimini asks to do Tandava for Shiva and Lord Shiva happily does it and result is also described auspicious:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is relevant part from Narada Purana II.73:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jaimini said : &amp;quot;O! God of gods, the Lord of the universe, I am blessed, I feel that I have accomplished all objectives of life in as much as you who are worthy of being meditated upon by great gods like Brahma and others have personally revealed yourself before my eyes.” &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then the delighted lord Girisha placed his hand on Jaimini’s head and told him—“O dear son, tell me what you wish ? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  On hearing those words of Sambhu, Jaimini replied, “May I see the lord accompanied by Amba, Vighnesa and Kumara.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then Sankara appeared before him accompanied by his son as well as by Amba. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Then the delighted lord asked again—“Tell me, dear son, what do you wish ?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  On seeing the merciful nature of the lord, of the preceptor of the universe, &lt;strong&gt;Jaimini smilingly said—&amp;quot;May I see you performing the Tandava dance.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Then, in order to fulfil that desire of his, lord Ambikapati remembered Siva Pramathas who are experts in different sports. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The moment they were remembered, all of them led by Nandin, Bhringi and others came there chattering enthu-siastically. After bowing down to the lord accompanied by Vighnesa, Kumara, and Amba they remained silent and stood there with palms joined in reverence. They eagerly waited for the behests of the lord of the Devas. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Then at the behest of Jaimini, Shiva assumed a wonderfuul form with ornaments and dress of variegated nature, and began to dance. He shone with the tremulous creeper like serpents appearing as kindled fire. A slight smile flickered over his face. The crescent moon rendered the forehead splendid. His arms were lifted up like a banner.&lt;/strong&gt; ...... ........ .......... ........... ... The devotees who were highly delighted shouted cries of victory for him. &lt;strong&gt;The lord shone brilliantly with the Tandava dance that followed.&lt;/strong&gt; He brightened the quarters. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Then, on seeing the dance of Mahesa Jaimini was immersed in the ocean of bliss.&lt;/strong&gt; With great concentration, he eulogised the lord with hymn consisting of verses having one quatrain from the Vedic texts in each.  ...... ...... .......... ........  ...... After eulogising Siva thus with this hymn, that great sage, bowed down to Sabhapati. His eyes were filled with tears of affection. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He frequently imbibed the auspicious nectar of the Tandava of Isha. After attaining all cherished desires, he obtained the state of being the Ganapati.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-05-13T03:51:02.607" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18291" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-13T06:27:52.400" Score="2" ViewCount="271" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7896/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, one of the most popular forms of Shiva worshipped in South India is the young sage Dakshinamurthi, whose name literally means &quot;the South-facing form&quot;.  The Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya composed a poem about Dakshinamurthi called the Dakshinamurthi Stotram, and his shishya Sureshwaracharya wrote a commentary on it called the Manasollasa.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/gRq8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Manasollasa, Sureshwaracharya describes the theories of different philosophical schools concerning how many Tattvas or elements reality consists of:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The doctors of Samkhya-Shastra enumerate twenty-four tattvas (principles) comprising the five bhutas (elements of matter), the five vital airs, and the fourteen indriyas (organs of sensation and action).  &lt;strong&gt;To these adding Mahat, Time, Pradhana, Maya, Avidya and Purusha, the Pauranikas enumerate thirty principles.&lt;/strong&gt; Adding to these Bindu and Nada, Shakti and Shiva, Shanta and Atita, the doctors of Shaivagama enumerate thirty-six principles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it's well-known that followers of Kapila's Samkhya school believe in 24 Tattvas (25 if you include Purusha), and that followers of Shaiva (and Shakta) Agamas believe in 36 Tattvas.  But my question, who are the &quot;Pauranikas&quot; that Sureshwaracharya alludes to, who believe in 30 Tattvas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The closest theory I could find is that of Pashupata Shaivites, who believe in 31 Tattvas as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mandukya-upanishad-karika-bhashya/d/doc143659.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Anandagiri's subcommentary on Adi Shankaracharya's Mandukya Upanishad Bhashya.  Their list has some overlap with the Pauranika list, but there are some differences, like Pashupata Shaivites believing in Tattvas called Rāga, Kalā, and Niyati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, since they're called Pauranikas, I assume their beliefs are based on the Puranas.  So does anyone know if the Puranas ever describe this theory of 30 Tattvas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Narayana Bhattar mentions the Pauranikas in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/fwaO&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Manameyodaya, in the course of listing the number of Pramanas or means of valid knowledge accepted by different schools of Indian philosophy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Perception and inference, similarly authority and analogy, presumption and negation - these are the six means of valid knowledge for those who think like us. Charvakas speak of one; the Buddhists and the Vaisheshikas speak of two; Bhasarvajna and the Samkhyas speak of three; Udayana and others speak of four; the followers of Prabhakara speak of five; we and those well-versed in Vedanta speak of six; &lt;strong&gt;the Pauranikas, however, speak of eight, adding inclusion and tradition&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So out of all the philosophical schools listed, the Pauranikas believe in the greatest number of Pramanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T05:53:38.490" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T05:53:38.490" Title="Who are the &quot;Pauranikas&quot; who believed in 30 Tattvas and 8 Pramanas?" Tags="|puranas|adi-shankaracharya|shaivism|agamas|sankhya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18292" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17102" CreationDate="2017-05-13T07:14:41.530" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;These Yoginis are actually &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavati's mates or sakhi or sahachari&lt;/strong&gt;. They are also called the &lt;strong&gt;Avarana Devatas&lt;/strong&gt; . That is, they cover (or veil) the main Goddess, that is Bhagavati, in several layers ( avarana means layer).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gods always like to be veiled and here these Yoginis provide that veil for Goddess Bhagavati. They also accompany serve Devi Bhagavati constantly. This  also shows that it is exceedingly difficult reaching the ultimate destination or Bhagavati. There are several thousand crores of such layers (or obstacles) to cross before reaching her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The number or type of such Yoginis is actually more than crores. But the principle Yoginis are 64 in number as said by you. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are together called the Chatuh Shashti Yoginis. The Brihannandikeswara Purana (an upapurana) lists the following 64 Yoginis :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;NArAyani, Gauri, ShAkambhari, BhimA, RaktadantikA, BhrAmari, PArvati,&#xA;  DurgA, KatyAyini, MahAdevi, Chandraghanta, MahAvidyA, MahAtapA,&#xA;  SAvitri, BrahmavAdini, BhadrakAli, VisAlakshi, RudrAni,&#xA;  KrishnapingalA, AgnijwAlA, Raudramukhi, KAlarAtri, Tapaswini,&#xA;  MeghaswanA, SahasrAkshi, VishnumayA, Jalodari, Mahodari, Muktakeshi,&#xA;  GorarupA, MahAbala, Sruti, Smriti, Dhriti, Tushti, Pushti, MedhA,&#xA;  VidyA, Lakshmi, Saraswati, AparnA, AmbikA, Yogini, DAkini, SAkini,&#xA;  HArini, HAkini, LAkini, Tridaseswari, MahAshasti, Sarvamangala, LajjA,&#xA;  Kaushiki, BrahmAni, MAheswari, KoumAri, Vaishnavi, Aindri, NArasimhi,&#xA;  VarAhi, ChAmunda, Shivaduti, VishnumAyA and MAtrikA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An explanation or nirukta of the word Yogini is given in KulArnava Tantram  as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yo&lt;/strong&gt;nimudrAnusandhAnAth &lt;strong&gt;Gi&lt;/strong&gt;rijApAdasevanAth |&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Ni&lt;/strong&gt;rlinoPAdhivibhavAd YoginityAbhdhiyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Meaning&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She is known as Yogini, as she practices yonimudra, as she serves&#xA;  the lotus feet of Girija (or Bhagavati) and also as she has&#xA;  become devoid of upadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantra, Chapter 17, Verse 31.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upadhi here means the attributes. For example, richness is the upadhi for the rich. In Tantra,  Jiva's Jivatva is its upadhi. But it is ultimately the eternal Shiva which it does not know because of Avidya or ignorance. So, this upadhi is not eternal too. Once self knowledge is obtained the upadhi dissolves and the Jiva attains Shivatva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse says that a Yogini's upadhi is also have been already dissolved. They know their true nature which is not different from Bhagavati Parameswari's. But they constantly serve her lotus feet too. And, Yonimudra is a secret mudra used in Devi's ritualistic Puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, that there are actually crores and crores of such avarana devatas or Yoginis is seen from the following verse which provides an explanation for the word Shakti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satakoti MaHadivyayogini&lt;/strong&gt; PritikAranAth | TivrasphurtipradAnnAncha Shaktityabhidhiyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h1&gt;Meaning&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She is known as Shakti, as she is the reason for bliss (or happiness,&#xA;  actually priti is happiness) for the &lt;strong&gt;hundred crores of great and&#xA;  divine yoginis&lt;/strong&gt;, and as she gives intense energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 17, Verse 32.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Yoginis are not exactly Devi's incarnations ( i am mentioning this  specifically since you added the avatara tag to your question) but her mates. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You must be knowing about Goddess Lalita  being constantly served by several devatas including Lakshmi, Saraswati etc. Goddess Lalita who resides along with Kameswara in the inner most triangle (in the bindu to be precise) of the Sri Chakra is  similarly being constantly served by crores and crores of other such Yogini-Devatas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-13T15:27:40.393" LastActivityDate="2017-05-13T15:27:40.393" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18293" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18285" CreationDate="2017-05-13T08:36:37.850" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes there is the main place in Gujarat. Some people are in Karnataka also. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kayavarohan is a village in the Vadodara district of the state of Gujarat, India. Kayavarohan is popularly known as Karvan and is situated on the National Highway 8 at a distance of 30 km from Vadodara. Kayavarohan is considered as the birthplace of Lakulisha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can refer to &lt;a href=&quot;http://ktss.in/html/index.aspx?page=home&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; website for more details. From there the address is -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SHREE KAYAVAROHANA SEVA SAMAJ&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  Kayavarohan-391 220,Dist.Vadodara&#xA;  Gujarat-India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-05-13T09:29:07.403" LastActivityDate="2017-05-13T09:29:07.403" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18297" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18021" CreationDate="2017-05-13T19:24:13.673" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This book &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=GPiPCgAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA29&amp;amp;lpg=PA29&amp;amp;dq=manahsila%20invisibility&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=gn4cMdhQow&amp;amp;sig=XuGoRHSbqMERehHnMaOJzokNhkU&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwj71Pqyu-3TAhVGpo8KHeHPAM4Q6AEILDAB#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism&lt;/a&gt; makes a reference to a procedure in the Brahmayamala Tantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Zhkq4.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Zhkq4.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to an &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/brahmayamala-tantra-or-picumata-religious-observances-and-sexual-ritual-of-tantric-practitioner-chapter-3-21-and-45-NAK612/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;exoticindiaart description&lt;/a&gt; Brahma Yamala Tantra is one of the oldest Bhairava Tantras and Kasmira Shaivaite Abhinavagupta has cited from this text in his Tantraloka. Moreover even some Buddhist Tantra scriptures like Laghusarprava contain extensive passages that are borrowed from this tantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wasn't able to get a direct source to this tantra since I couldn't find anything on the net. If anybody else has a more reliable answer please feel free to contribute. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-05-13T19:24:13.673" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18299" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18202" CreationDate="2017-05-13T21:56:13.640" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga109/ayodhya_109_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this translation&lt;/a&gt; translates the word buddah in the literal meaning of intellection, rather than the name of the founder of Buddhism:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is an exact state of the case that a &lt;strong&gt;mere intellection&lt;/strong&gt; deserves to be punished as it were a thief and know an atheist to be on par with a mere intellectual. Therefore he is the most suspectable and should be punished in the interest of the people. In no case should a wise man consort with an atheist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second of all, Buddha got refer to the previous Buddha incarnation that Vishnu took to lead the Asuras astray in Tripura, rather than to Vishnu's incarnation as Siddhartha Gautama.  The story of Tripura happened before the Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, many scholars do think this reference to Buddhism is an anachronism and that this passage is an interpolation; here's what Gaurinath Shastri says on page 29 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=QYxpvZLg4hAC&amp;amp;lpg=PA29&amp;amp;dq=ramayana%20buddha%20interpolation&amp;amp;pg=PA29#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=ramayana%20buddha%20interpolation&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Traces of Buddhism cannot be found in the Ramayana and the solitary where the Buddha is mentioned is believed to be an interpolation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-05-13T21:56:13.640" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18300" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-14T03:20:02.760" Score="10" ViewCount="1518" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally, Vaishnavas follow the Pancharatra Agamas, Shaivites follow the Shaiva Agamas, and Shaktas follow the Shaiva Agamas. But long ago, there was a group of people in Kashmir who followed the Shakta Agamas but adopted Shiva as their Ishta Devata. That group evolved into what we now call Kashmir Shaivism. Because it has its roots in Shakta Agamas, it subscribes to a monistic philosophy, as opposed to philosophical Shaivite sects like Shaiva Siddhanta which are more dualistic in their philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the most famous Kashmiri Shaivite philosopher was Abhinavagupta, who lived in the 10th century.  Similar to Ramanujacharya, Abhinavagupta had a lot of Gurus; I've seen sources that say he had 12 Gurus.  So my question is, who are all the Gurus of Abhinavagupta, and what Guru Paramparas did they belong to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So far I've found information on four Gurus of Abhinavagupta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhattenduraja&lt;/strong&gt; - He was in the Parampara of Kallata Bhatta, who was a shishya of Vasugupta, the author of the Shiva Sutras, which are the defining text of Kashmiri Shaivism.  Either Kallatta Bhatta or Vasugupta himself composed a work called the Spanda Karika which is the canonical commentary on the Shiva Sutras (although it's not a really a verse by verse commentary).  Either way, Kallata Bhatta wrote a Vritti or commentary on the Spanda Karika.  In any case, Bhattenduraja taught Abhinavagupta about poetics.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lakshmanagupta&lt;/strong&gt; - He was the shishya of Utpaladeva, the author of the Ishwara Pratyabhijna Karika, an important work in Kashmiri Shaivism.  Utpaladeva was the shishya of Somananda, the author of the Shivadrishti, which in my view is a splendid example of the narcissism of small differences; Somananda focuses on criticizing the Sphotavada school of Bhartrihari, which is the philosophical school that agrees most with Kashmiri Shaivism.  Now Somananda was a shishya of Vasugupta whom I mentioned above, but that's not the only lineage he's associated with; he also claimed to be a biological descendant of Durvasa's mind-born son Tryamabaka, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18278/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case Lakshmanagupta taught Abhinavagupta about the Pratyabhijna school of Kashmiri Shaivism.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shambhunatha&lt;/strong&gt; - He is said to have belonged to the lineage of Durvasa's mind-born daughter Ardhatryambaka, as described on page 157 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=vEKkuLQUza8C&amp;amp;pg=PA157&amp;amp;dq=ardhatryambaka&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwixocjzzurTAhUHKCYKHUQYDSgQ6AEIKTAC&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;.  Ardhatryambaka seems similar to Durvasa's mind-born son Tryambaka whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18278/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  I don't know anything about the lineage between Ardhatryambaka and Shambhunatha.  But Shambhunatha was the one who initiated Abhinavagupta into the Kaula Tantras, and he's seems to be the one whom Abhinavagupta viewed as his main Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vamananatha&lt;/strong&gt; - According to Wikipedia, he taught Abhinavagupta about &quot;dualistic Shaivism&quot;, which may refer to the Shaiva Siddhanta sect.  But I don't know anything more about Vamananatha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does anyone have a complete list of Gurus of Abhinavagupta along with the Paramparas they belonged to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-19T21:12:24.940" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T21:12:24.940" Title="Who are all the Gurus of Abhinavagupta and what Paramparas did they come from?" Tags="|history|shaivism|guru|tantra|kashmiri-shaivism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18301" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18998" CreationDate="2017-05-14T04:15:29.790" Score="9" ViewCount="2275" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karma gives the situation, parents, physical body,etc,... to a soul according to type of Karma that it accumulated.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Living beings face untimely death and face unexpected problems in which they didn't involve.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;People say that these are due to their previous life's bad Karma and his &lt;strong&gt;age is only upto it&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does Karma of our previous lives determine the lifespan of our present birth?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-14T05:20:12.837" LastActivityDate="2017-06-18T05:31:59.437" Title="Does Karma of our previous lives determine the lifetime of our present birth?" Tags="|karma|rebirth|life|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18302" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="1964" CreationDate="2017-05-14T04:58:31.070" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. There are references of Ramachandra in Valmiki Ramayana. But Rama is not directly called Ramachandra. Sage Valmiki compares Rama with the moon i.e., chandra while describing his life at Ayodhya. The name &quot;Chandra&quot; is added to the name Rama by the citizens of Ayodhya city. They felt like flowers which wait for the rise of moon when Rama was away from them. They felt happy if they just look at Rama. There were only two types of people who were unhappy in Ayodhya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who didn't see Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who were not not seen by Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They were very affectionate towards Rama that they did not care for their food and activity if they have seen Rama's coronation. It is described in the Ayodhya Kanda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga17/ayodhya_17_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sarga 17&lt;/a&gt; of Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अलमद्य हि भुक्तेन परम अर्थैः अलम् च नः || २-१७-१०&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  यथा पश्याम निर्यान्तम् रामम् राज्ये प्रतिष्ठितम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If we can see Rama going forth in the city after getting coronated today, it is enough of eating or other activities.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततः हि न प्रियतरम् न अन्यत् किंचित् भविष्यति || २-१७-११ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथा अभिषेको रामस्य राज्येन अमित तेजसः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;There is no other dearer thing to us than coronation of Rama of unbounded splendour&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न हि तस्मान् मनः कश्चिच् चक्षुषी वा नर उत्तमात् || २-१७-१३&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नरः शक्नोति अपाक्रष्टुम् अतिक्रान्ते अपि राघवे |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though Rama became distant, no one could turn back one's eyes and mind from him, the best of men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यश्च रामं न पश्येत्तु यं च रामो न पश्यति || २-१७-१४ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निन्दतः सर्वलोकेषु स्वात्माप्येनम् विगर्हते |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the people blamed the one who did not see Rama and the one who was not seen by Rama. Such a person would blame himself of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They were disappointed very much when they didn't have a look at Rama and waited for him just like we wait for the beauty of the full moon when there is a new moon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They waited for Rama's arrival when he went away form them and went to his father just like the ocean waits for the moon to rise. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मिन् प्रविष्टे पितुर् अन्तिकम् तदा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जनः स सर्वो मुदितः न्ऱ्प आत्मजे |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;प्रतीक्षते तस्य पुनः स्म निर्गमम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथा उदयम् चन्द्रमसः सरित् पतिः&lt;/strong&gt; || २-१७-२२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Rama went nearer to his father, all the people there were delighted waiting for his return as the ocean waits for raising of the moon**.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Rama is compared with the moon in the above shlokas, the name Ramachandra became popular. This was widely used by his devotees, poets etc.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-14T05:12:38.217" LastActivityDate="2017-05-14T05:12:38.217" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18303" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-05-14T07:46:48.560" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;First son of Pandu and Kunti, incarnation of Yama and known as Dharmaraja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-14T07:46:48.560" LastActivityDate="2017-05-14T07:46:48.560" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18304" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-05-14T07:46:48.560" Score="0" Body="First among Pandavas also known as Dharmaraja." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-14T07:46:48.560" LastActivityDate="2017-05-14T07:46:48.560" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18305" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-05-14T07:49:02.360" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-14T07:49:02.360" LastActivityDate="2017-05-14T07:49:02.360" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18306" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-05-14T07:49:02.360" Score="0" Body="Questions related to war (Yuddha)." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-14T07:49:02.360" LastActivityDate="2017-05-14T07:49:02.360" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18307" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-05-14T07:55:39.287" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu has taken Vamana incarnation to free three-worlds from the hold of Mahabali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-14T07:55:39.287" LastActivityDate="2017-05-14T07:55:39.287" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18308" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-05-14T07:55:39.287" Score="0" Body="Questions related to Vamana (dwarf) incarnation of Lord Vishnu." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-14T07:55:39.287" LastActivityDate="2017-05-14T07:55:39.287" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18309" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-14T08:13:10.033" Score="2" ViewCount="50635" Body="&lt;p&gt;How is varjyam calculated and is there any scientific reason behind it.&#xA;When a child is born in varjyam it is told as a bad sign.&#xA;If it is right what are the problems faced by the child in life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9753" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-06-15T12:36:49.353" LastActivityDate="2019-06-15T12:36:49.353" Title="What is meant by varjyam? What are the consequences of born in it?" Tags="|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18311" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18300" CreationDate="2017-05-14T08:51:27.153" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universalshaivafellowship.org/swamiji/masters/#.WRgZWDclHIW&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Durvasa Rishi&lt;/a&gt; created one mind-born daughter, whom he initiated completely in the monistic way. Known as the Ardhatryambaka school of the Bhairava Tantras, this teaching manifests itself secretly from one woman to another. Kashmir Shaivism does not recognize women as inferior. In fact, Swami Lakshmanjoo tells us, “if a woman&#xA;remains one-pointed in her spiritual practice, she can achieve in twelve days what would normally take one year”. There is no history of this school in kali-yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Durvasa Rishi’s mind born son Tryambakanatha, also created his own mind-born son and named him Tryambakaditya, which means “the expansion of Tryambakanatha”. Tryambakaditya created his own mind-born son, and after initiating him he disappeared into the ether.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this manner fifteen generations of Siddha’s were created by mind. When, however, the fifteenth Siddha attempted to create a mind-born son, he was not successful. It is said he was not fully introverted, as he was also given to worldly pleasures. However,&#xA;after sitting in long meditation, he found in this world a girl with good qualities, and went to her father and made arrangements to marry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They had one son named Sangamaditya who came to the valley of Kashmir. Like his father, Sangamaditya married and produced a son named Varshaditya, whom he initiated completely in the thought of the monistic Bhairava Tantras. Varshaditya married and produced a son named Arunaditya, whom he initiated fully. Arunaditya also married and created a son named Ananda, whom he initiated and who was also completely informed in all practical aspects of Shaivism. This sage Ananda was the father of Somananda, the originator of the Pratyabhijna School of Shaivism and author of the ‘Shiva Dristi’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AbhinavaguptaUp to this time (800 C.E.), initiation into the monistic thought of the Bhairava Tantras took place from father to son only. After Somananda this initiation took place from Master to disciple. Somananda was the master of Utpaladeva. Utpaladeva was the master of Lakshmanagupta. And Lakshmanagupta was a master of the great Abhinavagupta, (950-1025 C.E.).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Kula&lt;/strong&gt; system was introduced in Kashmir in the beginning of the 5th century A.D. by Shri &lt;strong&gt;Macchandanatha&lt;/strong&gt;. Later, in the 9th century, because its teachings had become distorted, it was reintroduced by Sumatinatha. In the line of masters that followed from Sumatinatha, Somanatha was his disciple. &lt;strong&gt;Shambhunatha&lt;/strong&gt; was the disciple of Somanatha, and the great Abhinavagupta was the disciple of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lakshmanjooacademy.org/the-schools-of-kashmir-shaivism/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shambhunatha&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lkJ72.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lkJ72.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/88plE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/88plE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Narasimha Gupta (His father).    Grammar.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vainanatha.      Dvaitadvaita Tantras.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhuti Rajatanaya.    Daulistic Saivism&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhuti Raja.      Brahma- Vidya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Laksmanagupta.   Pratyabhijna.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indu Raja.   Dhvani.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhatta Tota.     Dramaturgy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These were also his gurus. He was also adept in grammar and various art forms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other gurus whose details are not mentioned are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Srichandra&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhakti Vilasa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yogananda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chandravara&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Abhinanda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shivabhakti&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vichitranatha&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dharma&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Siva&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vaamana&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Udbhata&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhutisha&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhaskara&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can know more about his works and life from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.koausa.org/Glimpses/abhinava.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; website.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-05-14T15:58:13.813" LastActivityDate="2017-05-14T15:58:13.813" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18312" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18319" CreationDate="2017-05-14T12:05:37.260" Score="7" ViewCount="921" Body="&lt;p&gt;On what grounds are the Vedas divided ?  There are many suktas and mantras in two or more Vedas which are chanted  differently. I am a novice, so I apologise if I have transgressed some rules while asking this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9755" LastActivityDate="2017-05-16T01:22:33.230" Title="Basis of dividing Vedas" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18313" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7725" CreationDate="2017-05-14T13:47:24.537" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;We shouldn't count Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Draupadi, Gandhari because they didn't participate in the war. They are not survivors of the war as they didn't fight the war. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On the Kaurava side:&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Aśvatthāma&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kṛpācārya &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kritavarma&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kṛta varma&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On the Pāṇḍava side:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Five Pāṇḍavas&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Krishna - We should count him because he is the charioteer of Arjuna and participated in the war.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyaki&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sātyaki&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuyutsu&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yuyutsu&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aśvatthāma and Kṛpācārya are considered &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2034/who-are-the-seven-immortals-chiranjeevi&quot;&gt;immortals&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it sums up to &lt;strong&gt;11 people&lt;/strong&gt; who survived the Kurukshetra war. As said above, Gandhari, Draupadi shouldn't be counted as they didn't take part in the war. Dhṛtarāṣṭra was only listening the narration of the war from Sanjaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: Different chapters of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sauptika parva&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-05-14T13:47:24.537" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18314" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18317" CreationDate="2017-05-14T14:16:43.177" Score="6" ViewCount="360" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Parashurama is an avatar of Lord Vishnu and is a Brahmin with Unimaginable skill in Battle.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In Television Shows,Movies say that Lord Parashurama has &lt;strong&gt;Very High Anger&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anger is One of the Rasas and it Affects Majorly Normal People in Ignorance.&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;How can &lt;strong&gt;Lord&lt;/strong&gt; be affected by Anger Rasa ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it is possible then please state the &lt;strong&gt;Reason&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also state that why specifically &lt;strong&gt;Anger Rasa affect&lt;/strong&gt; him ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2017-05-15T01:29:11.597" Title="Is Lord Parashurama affected by Anger Rasa?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|avatars|parashurama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18315" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-14T14:40:48.213" Score="2" ViewCount="39" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why isn't Lord Venkateswara included in avatars of Lord Vishnu even though Lord Venkateswara is a form of Lord Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8016" LastEditorUserId="8016" LastEditDate="2017-05-14T16:15:24.493" LastActivityDate="2017-05-14T16:15:24.493" Title="Why isn't Lord Venkateswara included in avatars of Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|venkateshwara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-05-14T14:57:22.197" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18316" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18225" CreationDate="2017-05-14T17:46:19.620" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chiranjivi's still exist in kali-Yuga? (Partial Answer).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shreemad Bhagavata purana mentions one Saptarshi &lt;strong&gt;Lord Parashurama who is Avesha Avatara of Lord Vishnu still residing on Mahendra Parvat.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, unlike all other avatars, Parashurama still lives on earth, even today. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जमदग्न्योsपि भगवान राम: कमललोचन:।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    आगामिन्यन्तरे राजन वर्तायिष्यति वै बृहत ॥25॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jāmadagnyo ’pi bhagavān rāmaḥ kamala-locanaḥ&lt;br&gt; āgāminy antare rājan&#xA;  vartayiṣyati vai bṛhat &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King Parīkṣit, in the next manvantara the lotus-eyed Personality of Godhead Lord Paraśurāma, the son of Jamadagni, will be a great propounder of Vedic knowledge. In other words, he will be one of the seven sages. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/16/25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 9.16.25&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  आस्तेsद्यापि महेन्द्रादौ न्यस्तदण्ड: प्रशान्तधी:।&lt;br&gt; उपगीयमाचरित:&#xA;  सिद्धगन्धर्वचारणै ॥26॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;āste ’dyāpi mahendrādrau nyasta-daṇḍaḥ praśānta-dhīḥ&#xA;  upagīyamāna-caritaḥ siddha-gandharva-cāraṇaiḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Paraśurāma still lives as an intelligent brāhmaṇa in the&#xA;  mountainous country known as Mahendra. Completely satisfied, having&#xA;  given up all the weapons of a kṣatriya, he is always worshiped, adored&#xA;  and offered prayers for his exalted character and activities by such&#xA;  celestial beings as the Siddhas, Cāraṇas and Gandharvas. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/16/26&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  9.16.26&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kalki Purana writes that he will reappear at end of time to be the martial guru of Kalki. He will then instruct the kalki avatar to undertake penance in order to receive celestial weaponry, required to save dharma at the end of kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T15:16:46.803" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T15:16:46.803" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18317" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18314" CreationDate="2017-05-15T01:29:11.597" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;I&amp;apos;m answering this question from general perspective and not being specific to Lord Parashurama. It is because other incarnations of Lord Vishnu also show anger many times.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For eg. Lord Rama becomes very angry with ocean when ocean doesn&amp;apos;t come to adress prayer of Rama. (Valmiki Ramayana VI.21)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Lord Nrisimha is also very angry with Hiranyakashipu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manifesting a full effulgence and a fearsome countenance, &lt;strong&gt;Lord Nrsimha, being very angry&lt;/strong&gt; and finding no contestant to face His power and opulence, then sat down in the assembly hall on the excellent throne of the king. Because of fear and obedience, no one could come forward to serve the Lord directly. (Srimad Bhagvatam 7.8.34)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly we find Lord Krishna is also angry in certain parts of Mahabharata. And not only to incarnations of Lord Vishnu, we find incarnations of Lord Shiva also show anger. For eg. Sage Durvasa. Similarly the Sata-Rudriya prayer itself starts from - &amp;apos;&lt;em&gt;Namaste Rudra Manyava&amp;apos; / &amp;apos;Salutations to thy anger Oh Rudra&lt;/em&gt;&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, a question arises &amp;apos;&lt;strong&gt;Can Lord Become Angry?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Regarding this Srimad Bhagvatam states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For persons with impure vision, the Supreme Lord&amp;apos;s eyes appear like those of someone who indiscriminately drinks intoxicating beverages. &lt;strong&gt;Thus bewildered, such unintelligent persons become angry at the Supreme Lord, and due to their angry mood the Lord Himself appears angry and very fearful. However, this is an illusion.&lt;/strong&gt; When the wives of the serpent demon were agitated by the touch of the Lord&amp;apos;s lotus feet, due to shyness they could proceed no further in their worship of Him. Yet the Lord &#xA;  remained unagitated by their touch, for He is equipoised in all circumstances. Therefore who will not worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead? (Srimad Bhagvatam 5.17.20)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, again there is a question &lt;strong&gt;whether attributes like anger are only shown by Gods (ie. Devatas) or by forms of Supreme Lord also?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The answer is it can be shown by Supreme Lord also. For eg. Katha Upanishad says Gods fear of Lord&amp;apos;s nature:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2-III-3. &lt;strong&gt;For fear of Him,&lt;/strong&gt; fire burns; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  For fear of Him, shines the sun; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;For fear of Him,&lt;/strong&gt; Indra and Vayu function; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  For fear of Him, death, the fifth, stalks on the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may ask &lt;strong&gt;Is there an Explicit Shruti proof that Brahman described in Upanishad is stated to be angry?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The answer is yes. For eg. Svetasvatara Upanishad IV.22 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मा नस्तोके तनये मा न आयुषि&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; मा नो गोषु मा न अश्वेषु रीरिषः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वीरान् मा नो रुद्र भामितो&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; वधीर्हविष्मन्तः सदामित् त्वा हवामहे ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Injure us not in respect of children, grand-children and life, nor in respect of cows and horses. &lt;strong&gt;Do not destroy our heroes in Thy anger,&lt;/strong&gt; O Rudra. We invoke Thee always with offerings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is already proved Supreme Lord can show anger also.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any benefit of anger of Supreme Lord?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yes, anger of Supreme Lord can also act as grace of Lord. I remember Shiva Purana statement that &amp;apos;&lt;em&gt;Anger of Rudra is better than Grace of other Gods.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;apos; I&amp;apos;m not exactly able to locate where it is this time. (I&amp;apos;ll update if I find.) Similarly, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12032/why-ravana-of-ramayana-is-worshipped-like-god-and-also-considered-as-a-demon/12033#12033&quot;&gt;this anger&lt;/a&gt; sage Agastya tells about benefit of Ramas anger too:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O king, all the monarchs, slained by Janarddana,holding discus and the lord of the triple world, ained to his own region; &lt;strong&gt;even his anger becometh like a boon.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Supreme Lord (being Purusha) can associate himself with various Prakirti elements (like satwa-rajas-tamas) and can show anger like attributes also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-05-15T01:29:11.597" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18319" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18312" CreationDate="2017-05-15T05:54:02.383" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his &lt;em&gt;General Introduction&lt;/em&gt; to his translation of the Upanishads, Swami Nikhilananda states (&lt;em&gt;The Upanishads&lt;/em&gt;, Vol 1, pp 2-3):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Division Of The Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...In the Puranas it is stated that Vyasa was commanded by Brahma to make a compilation of the Vedas. Vyasa is reputed to be the author of the &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;, of which the Bhagavad Gita forms a part. He lived at the time of the battle of Kurukshetra. With the help of four disciples, so the tradition goes, this great saint and poet arranged the Vedas into four books, namely the Rik, Yajur, Saman, and Atharva. He was thus the classifier of the Vedas, though not their author. For many centuries before his time the vedas had been known and their injunctions had formed the basis of all Hindu philosophic thought and all brahminical ceremonial. But the texts had not existed in a systemic form. THey had been revealed by the Lord to certain holy men of the remote past who had purified their minds by the practice of such spiritual disciplines as self-control and concentration--the great teachers known as the rishis, or seers of truth. The Vedas name both men and women among the rishis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa compiled the Rig-Veda by collecting the riks. Of the samans he composed the Sama-Veda, while the Yajur-Veda he composed of the yajus. The Rig-Veda which may be called the book of chants, is set to certain fixed melodies. The Sama-Veda has no independent value; for it consists mostly of stanzas from the Rig-Veda. The arrangement of its verses os solely with reference to their place and use in the Soma-sacrifice. The Yajur-Veda contains, in addition to verses taken from the Rig-Veda, many original prose formulas which may be called sacrificial prayers. The Atharva-Veda consists of a special class of Vedic texts known as chhandas. These deal with spells, incantations, and kingly duties, as well as exalted spiritual truths. Western scholars sometimes exclude this compilation from their consideration of the Vedas; but according to the Hindu view it definitely belongs among them. The name Trayi, or Triad, often used to denote the Vedas, is collectively applied to the RIg-Veda, the Sama-Veda, and the Yajur-Veda, the Atharva Veda being excluded from the Triad because it has no application to sacrificial actions. Nevertheless, one of the four priests officiating in all Vedic sacrifices had to be thoroughly versed in the chhandas.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-05-15T05:54:02.383" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18320" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18312" CreationDate="2017-05-15T07:26:21.533" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thoughtco.com/what-are-vedas-1769572&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.thoughtco.com/what-are-vedas-1769572&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word Veda means wisdom, knowledge or vision, and it serves to manifest the language of the gods in human speech. The laws of the Vedas have regulated the social, legal, domestic and religious customs of Hindus up to the present day. All the obligatory duties of Hindus at birth, marriage, death etc. are guided by Vedic rituals. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ORIGIN OF THE VEDAS&#xA;  It is difficult to say when the earliest portions of the Vedas came into existence, but it seems clear they are among the very earliest written wisdom docments produced humans.  As the ancient Hindus seldom kept any historical record of their religious, literary and political realization, it is difficult to determine the period of the Vedas with precision. Historians provide us many guesses but none are guaranteed to be precise. It is thought, though, that the earliest Vegas may date back to roughly 1700 BCE—the late Bronze Age. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;WHO WROTE THE VEDAS?&#xA;  Tradition has it that humans did not compose the revered compositions of the Vedas, but that God taught the Vedic hymns to the sages, who then handed them down through generations by word of mouth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another tradition suggests that the hymns were &quot;revealed&quot; to the sages, who were known as the seers or “mantradrasta” of the hymns. The formal documentation of Vedas was done mainly by Vyasa Krishna Dwaipayana around the time of Lord Krishna (c. 1500 BC)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CLASSIFICATION OF THE VEDAS&#xA;  The Vedas are classified into four volumes: the Rig-Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Atharva Veda, with the Rig Veda serving as the principle text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The four Vedas are collectively known as “Chathurveda, ” of which the first three Vedas--Rig Veda, Sama Veda and Yajur Veda--agree with one another in form, language and content. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;STRUCTURE OF THE VEDAS&#xA;  Each Veda consists of four parts--the Samhitas (hymns), the Brahmanas (rituals), the Aranyakas (theologies) and the Upanishads (philosophies). The collection of mantras or hymns is called the Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmanas are ritualistic texts that include precepts and religious duties. Each Veda has several Brahmanas attached to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Aryanyakas (forest texts) intend to serve as objects of meditation for ascetics who live in forests and deal with mysticism and symbolism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Upanishads form the concluding portions of the Veda and is therefore called the “Vedanta” or the end of the Veda. The Upanishads contain the essence of Vedic teachings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;THE MOTHER OF ALL SCRIPTURES&#xA;  Although the Vedas are seldom read or understood today, even by the devout, they no doubt form the bedrock of the universal religion or “Sanatana Dharma” that all Hindus follow. The Upanishads, however, are read by serious students of religious tradition and spirituality in all cultures and are regarded as principle texts within the body of mankind's wisdom traditions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas have guided our religious direction for ages and will continue to do so for generations to come. And they will forever remain the most comprehensive and universal of all ancient Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Next, let's look at the four Vedas individually, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The One Truth the sages call by many names.” ~ Rig Veda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;THE RIG VEDA: THE BOOK OF MANTRA&#xA;  The Rig Veda is a collection of inspired songs or hymns and is a main source of information on the Rig Vedic civilization. It is the oldest book in any Indo-European language and contains the earliest form of all Sanskrit mantras, dating back to 1500 BCE- 1000 BCE.  Some scholars date the Rig Veda as early as 12000 BCE - 4000 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Rig-Vedic ‘samhita’ or collection of mantras consists of 1,017 hymns or ‘suktas’, covering about 10,600 stanzas, divided into eight ‘astakas,’ each having eight ‘adhayayas’ or chapters, which are sub-divided into various groups. The hymns are the work of many authors, or seers, called ‘rishis.’ There are seven primary seers identified: Atri, Kanwa, Vashistha, Vishwamitra, Jamadagni, Gotama and Bharadwaja. The rig Veda accounts in detail the social, religious, political and economic backgro&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9763" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-05-16T01:22:33.230" LastActivityDate="2017-05-16T01:22:33.230" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18322" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18265" CreationDate="2017-05-15T10:56:43.950" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Use of the verb &quot;know&quot; is contradictory with &quot;belief&quot;. God was (and is) a part of believe system even in the time of ramayana. That's why the words &quot;theist&quot; or &quot;atheist&quot; (nastik) appeared in the texts. If there exists an word for atheists in texts it means God has always been part of a &quot;belief system&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like a knowledge a belief system is also &lt;strong&gt;explainable&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;aggreable&lt;/strong&gt;. Often the term &lt;strong&gt;understandable&lt;/strong&gt; is used to refer &lt;strong&gt;aggreable&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;convincible&lt;/strong&gt;. So those who can explain god &lt;strong&gt;believes&lt;/strong&gt; (understands) w.r.t. those who also believes (&lt;strong&gt;simple&lt;/strong&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who &lt;strong&gt;believes&lt;/strong&gt; (read understands) but fails to convince (read explain) others don't understand (read have enough convincing power) as the previous case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And those who don't &lt;strong&gt;believe&lt;/strong&gt; (read understand) don't bother to convince (read explain) others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9765" LastActivityDate="2017-05-15T10:56:43.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18323" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18443" CreationDate="2017-05-15T11:04:28.947" Score="4" ViewCount="529" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/W2Lpu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The picture you see is of - Abigail Hensel and Brittany Hensel, two conjoined twins. Wikipedia- &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abby_and_Brittany_Hensel&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abby_and_Brittany_Hensel&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do conjoined twins have different souls? Both have different feelings, taste, sensations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What happens to their Karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-05-25T05:19:27.673" LastActivityDate="2017-05-25T08:09:47.150" Title="Do conjoined twins have same soul?" Tags="|scripture|belief|philosophy|karma|atma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18326" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-15T13:33:37.647" Score="3" ViewCount="42" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CpnyI.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CpnyI.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Shiva symbolism&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On each side of this picture there is a pool of water. It looks to be flowing in from the right ear and flowing out of the left. What is this about?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;THIS IS NOT A DUPLICATE:&#xA;The previous question deals with the water coming from the crown of the head. I'm talking about the pools of water water at the ears.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9768" LastEditorUserId="9768" LastEditDate="2017-05-15T14:09:31.777" LastActivityDate="2017-05-15T14:09:31.777" Title="What is the symbolism of the two pools of water in this picture" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-05-15T13:40:48.623" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18327" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-15T15:09:50.413" Score="18" ViewCount="3199" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kripa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kripacharya&lt;/a&gt;, is one of the &lt;em&gt;Chiranjivi&lt;/em&gt; (long lived) mentioned in the Sapta Chiranjivi Stuthi - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashwathaama Balirvyaaso Hanumanshach Vibhishanha &lt;strong&gt;Krupascha&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Parshuramascha Saptaitey Chiranjivinaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, how and why did he gain his extremely long life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2021-06-19T16:32:57.910" LastActivityDate="2022-04-24T12:11:41.417" Title="How did Kripacharya become &quot;Chiranjivi&quot;?" Tags="|mahabharata|guru|chiranjivi|kripa|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18329" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18330" CreationDate="2017-05-15T17:46:14.403" Score="4" ViewCount="740" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wondered if there were any relationship between those concepts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9770" LastActivityDate="2019-02-12T03:03:13.990" Title="Is there any relationship between Sat, Chit, Ananda, and the Three gunas Sattva, Rajas and Tamas?" Tags="|gunas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18330" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18329" CreationDate="2017-05-15T21:45:03.617" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This a partial answer: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman is the relationship between Philosophy of Life and Three Gunas. It means the concept of the transcendent and immanent ultimate reality, Supreme Cosmic Spirit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahman:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The concept of God in Upanishads is the ‘Brahman’ or the Universal Soul (synonymous with The Absolute, Supreme Being or World Spirit – param-atman). Brahman is the term used to indicate pure, limitless, attribute less, universal, absolute awareness.&#xA;  Thanks @The Destroyer, Brahman is Sat-Chid-Ananada which is beyond three Gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sat Chit Ananda:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sat Chit Ananda, Sat is that never changes, Truth, Absolute Being. Chit is consciousness. Ananda is bliss. Absolute Bliss Consciousness. So this word “Sat Chit Ananda” opens to us the entire philosophy of life. “Sat Chit Ananda” and “That I am”, “That thou art”, and “all this is That”, and “That is It”. This is the story of “Sat Chit Ananda”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The one point, because Absolute is a living reality, it can be equated with Chit, which is Consciousness, if it were not consciousness, it could not become an experience, and if it could not become an experience, it could not become a living reality. But we live it, we know it. And therefore, Sat is equated with Chit, and Chit equated with Ananda. Because when Sat is Chit, it is a direct experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Three Gunas (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the Bhagavadgita, the gunas (the primary qualities or modes of Nature) are three in number, sattva, rajas and tamas. They exist in all, including humans, in various degrees of concentration and combination. They also exist in all objects and natural products. Hence, even the food which we eat is important if we want to cultivate good behavior. Depending upon their relative strengths and ratios, the gunas determine the nature of things, beings, their actions, behavior, attitude and attachments and their involvement with the objective world in which they live. The primary purpose of the gunas in the living beings is to create bondage, through desires for sense objects, which lead to various attachments with them and which in turn keep them bound to the world and under the perpetual control of Prakriti (7.13).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the fourteenth chapter of the Bhagavadgita, Lord Krishna gives us a very detailed description and definition of the three gunas, which is summarized below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sattva is pure, without impurities, illuminating and free from sickness. It binds the soul through attachment with happiness and knowledge (14.6).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rajas is full of passion (ragatmakam) and is born out of &quot;thrishna&quot; (thirst or intense desire) and &quot;sanga&quot; (attachment). It binds the soul through attachment with action (14.7).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tamas is the darkness and the crudeness in man. It is &quot;ajnanajam&quot; (born of ignorance) and &quot;mohanam&quot; (the cause of delusion). It binds the soul through recklessness, indolence and sleep (14.8).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the beings the three gunas compete among themselves for supremacy and try to suppress each other. Sattva predominates by suppressing Rajas and Tamas. Rajas predominates by suppressing Sattva and Tamas, and Tamas by suppressing both Sattva and Rajas(14.10).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1xy9f.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1xy9f.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More information check: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=H7UnFB9uuLgC&amp;amp;pg=PA133&amp;amp;lpg=PA133&amp;amp;dq=Is%20there%20any%20relationship%20between%20Sat,%20Chit,%20Ananda,%20and%20the%20Three%20gunas%20Sattva,%20Rajas%20and%20Tamas?&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=Lq-vqBveIN&amp;amp;sig=IvM0f3GE9KFG4cq8dQF3U4Ody04&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiuk6TU5vLTAhUhilQKHUgSBKAQ6AEILjAC#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=Is%20there%20any%20relationship%20between%20Sat%2C%20Chit%2C%20Ananda%2C%20and%20the%20Three%20gunas%20Sattva%2C%20Rajas%20and%20Tamas%3F&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;enter link description here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-16T04:41:04.720" LastActivityDate="2017-05-16T04:41:04.720" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18332" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-16T05:50:52.280" Score="17" ViewCount="6318" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am talking about monotheism and polytheism. When we refer to bagavat Gita we can see that bagvan gives answer to this, he is the creator, preserver and destroyer. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9724" LastEditorUserId="9724" LastEditDate="2017-05-18T05:20:12.023" LastActivityDate="2022-10-26T13:30:40.427" Title="According to Bhagvad Gita, Lord Krishna is the ultimate God. So why are there other beliefs in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|krishna|gods|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18333" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18332" CreationDate="2017-05-16T07:45:28.757" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Krishna references Himself in the Gita, he is referring to the Supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;em&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says (available here, Chapter 25 - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter25.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter25.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The pundit and Mani Mallick became engaged in conversation. Mani was a member of the Brahmo Samaj. The pundit argued vehemently about the good and bad sides of the Samaj. Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the small couch and looked on, smiling. Presently he remarked: &quot;This is the tamasic aspect of sattva, the attitude of a hero. This is necessary. One should not hold one's tongue at the sight of injustice and untruth. Suppose a bad woman wants to drag you from the path of righteousness. You must then assume the heroic attitude and say: 'What? You witch! You dare injure my spiritual life? I shall cut your body in two right now.' &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With a smile Sri Ramakrishna said to the pundit: &quot;Mani Mallick has been following the tenets of the Brahmo Samaj a long time. You can't convert him to your views. Is it an easy thing to destroy old tendencies? Once there lived a very pious Hindu who always worshipped the Divine Mother and chanted Her name. When the Mussalmans conquered the country, they forced him embrace Islam. They said to him: 'You are now a Mussalman. Say &quot;Allah&quot;. From now on you must repeat only the name of Allah.' With great difficulty he repeated the word 'Allah', but every now and then blurted out 'Jagadamba'.  At that the Mussalmans were about to beat him. Thereupon he said to them: 'I beseech you! Please do not kill me. I have been trying my utmost to repeat the name of Allah, but our Jagadamba has filled me up to the throat. She pushes out your Allah.' (All laugh.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(To the pundit) &quot;Please don't say anything to Mani Mallick. You must know that there are different tastes. There are also different powers of digestion. God has made different religions and creeds to suit different aspirants. By no means all are fit for the Knowledge of Brahman. Therefore the worship of God with form has been provided.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The mother brings home a fish for her children. She curries part of the fish, part she fries, and with another part she makes pilau. By no means all can digest the pilau. So she makes fish soup for those who have weak stomachs. Further, some want pickled or fried fish. There are different temperaments. There are differences in the capacity to comprehend.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He is indeed a real man who has harmonized everything. Most people are one-sided. But I find that all opinions point to the One. All views-the Sakta, the Vaishnava, the Vedānta-have that One for their centre. He who is formless is, again, endowed with form. It is He who appears in different forms: The attributeless Brahman is my Father. God with attributes is my Mother. Whom shall I blame? Whom shall I praise? The two pans of the scales are equally heavy.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He who is described in the Vedas is also described in the Tantras and the Puranas. All of them speak about the one Satchidananda. The Nitya and the Lila are the two aspects of the one Reality. It is described in the Vedas as 'Om Satchidananda Brahman', in the Tantras as 'Om Satchidananda Śiva', the ever-pure Śiva, and in the Puranas as 'Om Satchidananda Krishna'. All the scriptures, the Vedas, the Puranas, and the Tantras, speak only of one Satchidananda. It is stated in the Vaishnava scripture that it is Krishna Himself who has become Kāli.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All are referring to Satchidananda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-05-16T07:45:28.757" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18334" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18332" CreationDate="2017-05-16T08:10:55.637" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many scriptures in Hinduism which are classified as &lt;strong&gt;Shruti, Smriti, Itihasa, Puranas&lt;/strong&gt; etc...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And among all scriptures Shruti (Veda) has the highest authority and the ultimate Shabda-Pramana.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Bhagvad Gita is a text inside Mahabharata which is itself an Itihasa. So, Bhagvad Gita comes under Itihasa portion.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the Vedas we find many statements which seem to be contradictory (in the surface) and these give rise to various views.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the Vedas we find statements like &amp;apos;Indra is all and everything&amp;apos;, &amp;apos;Rudra is all and everything&amp;apos;, &amp;apos;Vishnu is all and everything&amp;apos; etc.. etc... Some which I also discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/237/how-were-the-trimurthi-born/13639#13639&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra is the Truth (Aitreya Upanishad)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Prajapati was only here in the beginning. He wished &amp;apos;May I exist.&amp;apos; (Shatapatha Brahmana 6.1.3.1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;apos;Eka Eva Rudro Na Dwitiyaya&amp;apos; Rudra is truly one without second (Yajurveda 1.8.6)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;apos;Tad Visnor yat Paramam Padam&amp;apos; / &amp;apos;Place of Vishnu is the highest&amp;apos; (RigVeda 1.22.21)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Indra says &amp;apos;Know me only, no Karmas can touch you&amp;apos; (Kaushitki Brahmana Upanishad)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Aditi is all Gods. (RigVeda 10.89)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there are many many such statements like this which seem to show that, that particular God is Ultimate.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;These gives rise to various views like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Some think that this type of praise by Vedas to many Gods is just an &amp;apos;Arthavãda&amp;apos; ie. Mere glorification.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2) Some think that this praise is actually to the Antaryami of Gods who remains as self of self of these Gods too.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3) Some think that prayers are true as they are as every god is just form of Ultimate Supreme God.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  .... and so on....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Bhagvad Gita can&amp;apos;t settle these disputed/diverse views because they already come from the higher authority Vedas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And on being specific to Bhagvad Gita also there are various views like:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;1) View that it is Vishnu who is described in Bhagvad Gita&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;From Bhagvad Gita we know that it is Krishna who is without birth and death and who is the Lord of all and the Purusha and as Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu these all things actually applies to Vishnu. E.g: Sri Vaishnavism and major Vaishnava Sampradayas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;2) View that it is Krishna who is described in Bhagvad Gita:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In Bhagvad Gita Krishna speaks and it is Krishna who is Ultimate and even Vishnu is incarnation of Krishna. eg. Also in Gita Krishna says &amp;apos;Vasudeva Sarvam Iti&amp;apos; &amp;quot;ie. Vasudeva is all and everything.&amp;apos; and hence Krishna is everything and even Vishnu is an incarnation of Krishna. Gaudiya Vaishnavas/ ISKCONS have this view.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;3) &lt;strong&gt;View that it is Param Brahma who is speaking through mouth of Krishna in BhagVad Gita:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Actually it is Param Brahman who is speaking through the mouth of Krishna. For eg. Krishna in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m14016.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashwamedha Parva&lt;/a&gt; tells this about Bhagvad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasudeva said, ‘I made thee listen to truths that are regarded as mysteries. I imparted to thee truths that are eternal. Verily, I discoursed to thee on Religion in its true form and on all the eternal regions. It is exceedingly disagreeable to me to learn that thou didst not, from folly, receive what I imparted. &lt;strong&gt;The recollection of all that I told thee on that occasion will not come to me now.&lt;/strong&gt; Without doubt, O son of Pandu, thou art destitute of faith and thy understanding is not good. It is impossible for me, O Dhananjaya, to repeat, in detail, all that I said on that occasion. That religion (about which I discoursed to thee then) is more than sufficient for understanding Brahma. I cannot discourse on it again in detail. &lt;strong&gt;I discoursed to thee on Supreme Brahma, having concentrated myself in Yoga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is Brahman who spoke Gita making Krishna as medium. People believe many things as Brahman like Self, Devi, Shiva, Vishnu, Avyakta etc.... So, Bhagvad Gita is describing these things.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;4) View that Lord Shiva speaks through mouth of Krishna in Bhagvad Gita:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;nbsp;It is Lord Shiva who spoke through mouth of Krishna during Bhagvad Gita. It&amp;apos;s because Lord Shiva is Brahman and also while showing Mahakala form in Bhagvad Gita, it is stated:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मात्वमुत्तिष्ठ यशो लभस्व जित्वा शत्रून्भुङ् क्ष्व राज्यं समृद्धम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मयैवैते निहता: पूर्वमेव निमित्तमात्रं भव सव्यसाचिन् || 33|| (Bhagvad Gita 11.33) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Therefore,&amp;nbsp; stand up and win glory. Conquer your enemies and enjoy an opulent kingdom.&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;Verily, by Me and none other they have been already slain; you be a mere&amp;nbsp; instrument, O Arjuna!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, this is Shiva who is speaking because Arjuna asks the same question to Vyasa in Mahabharata and Vyasa replies &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07198.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;it is Shiva:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna asked: ‘O great Rishi, while I was engaged in slaying the foe in battle with showers of bright shafts, I continually beheld before me, proceeding in advance of my car, a person of blazing hue, as if endued with the effulgence of fire. Whithersoever he proceeded with his uplifted lance, all the hostile warriors were seen to break before him. Broken in reality by him, people regarded the foe to have been broken by me. &lt;strong&gt;Following in his wake, I only destroyed those, already destroyed by him.&lt;/strong&gt; O holy one, tell me &lt;strong&gt;who was that&lt;/strong&gt; foremost of persons, armed with lance, resembling the sun himself in energy, that was thus seen by me? He did not touch the earth with his feet, nor did he hurl his lance even once. In consequence of his energy, thousands of lances issued out of that one lance held by him’.”&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;“Vyasa said, ‘Thou hast, O Arjuna, seen Sankara,&lt;/strong&gt; that First cause from which have sprung the Prajapatis, that puissant Being endued with great energy, he that is the embodiment of heaven, earth and sky, the Divine Lord, the protector of the universe, the great Master, the giver of boons, called also Isana. O, seek the protection of that boon, giving Deity, that lord of the universe”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in Ishwara Gita Kurma Purana it is told that the knowledge passed by Ishwara (Shiva) there is same which is passed by Krishna to Arjuna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नारायणोऽपि भगवान्देवकीतनयो हरिः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अर्जुनाय स्वयं साक्षाद्दत्तवानिदमुत्तमम् ।। (Kurma Purana II.11)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lord Narayana Hari, &lt;strong&gt;in the form of the son of Devaki himself transferred this knowledge of Yoga to Arjuna.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is Shiva who is described in Bhagvad Gita. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;5) View that Krishna spoke anything in Bhagvad Gita just to induce him to fight:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is also another view. Some think that Bhagvad Gita is spoken only to induce Arjuna to fight thus it has no authority. For eg. Arulnandi Shivacharya in Shiva Jnana Siddhiyar states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Partha seated on the car saw the assembled hosts and all of them his kinsmen and he refused to slay them with his sharp arrows and reign as king after their death, &lt;strong&gt;the willy words uttered by Vishnu to introduce him to fight, you accept as your higher authority.&lt;/strong&gt; Why don&amp;apos;t you also accept the words of Buddha Avatar of Vishnu, propagated for the conquest of Tripura Asuras ?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However this doesn&amp;apos;t mean that all Shaivites do not consider Bhagvad Gita as authority. There are also some Shaivites like Abhinavgupta who have written commentary on Bhagvad Gita.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;.... and so on there can be other views too.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Anyway the point is there are diverse interpretations and diverse scriptures thus giving rise to various beliefs. Regarding this Suta Samhita of Skandha Purana in Yajna Baibhava Khanda &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13623/where-is-buddhism-also-considered-a-valid-path-in-hindu-scriptures/13624#13624&quot;&gt;states:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अधिकारिविभेदेन नैकस्यैव सदा द्विजा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तर्कैरेते हि मार्गास्तु न हन्तव्या मनीषिभि ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथा तोयप्रवाहाणां समुद्र: परमावधि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथैव सर्व मार्गाणां साक्षान्निष्ठा महेश्वरः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The wise say that each of these sastras is intended for a particular class according to the individual qualification, not all for one. These paths are not to be rudely handled by the learned subjecting them to rigorous unrelenting logic. As all streams ultimately empty themselves into the ocean, so all these paths ultimately lead to the Great Lord Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And finally I want to close this answer with one verse from RigVeda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuṇa, Agni, and he is heavenly nobly-winged Garutmān. To what is One, sages give many a title they call it Agni, Yama, Mātariśvan.&lt;/strong&gt;(RigVeda 1.164.46)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-17T08:13:02.953" LastActivityDate="2017-05-17T08:13:02.953" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18335" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18332" CreationDate="2017-05-16T08:39:26.857" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;It was Supreme Brahman (through Krishna) who said Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m14016.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anugita Parva of Aswamedha Parva&lt;/a&gt;, Arjuna asked Krishna to repeat Bhagavadgita but Krishna said it was not possible to him again and says he was in Yoga (union) with Supreme Brahman at time of Gita recitation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana said, &quot;The son of Pritha (Arjuna), having recovered his&#xA;  own kingdom, joyously spent his time, without doing anything else, in&#xA;  the company of Krishna, his heart filled with delight, in that palace&#xA;  of celestial beauty. One day, those two listlessly proceeded to a&#xA;  particular part of the palace that looked, O king, like a veritable&#xA;  portion of Heaven. Themselves filled with delight, they were then&#xA;  surrounded by their relatives and attendents. Pandu's son, Arjuna,&#xA;  filled with joy in the company of Krishna, surveyed that delightful&#xA;  mansion, and then addressed his companion, saying, 'O--mighty-armed&#xA;  one, thy greatness became known to me upon the approach of the battle.&#xA;  O son of Devaki, thy form also, as the Lord of the universe, then&#xA;  became known to me! What thy holy self said unto me at that time, O&#xA;  Kesava, through affection, has all been forgotten by me, O chief of&#xA;  men, in consequence of the fickleness of my mind. Repeatedly, however,&#xA;  have I been curious on the subject of those truths. Thou again, O&#xA;  Madhava, wilt repair to Dwaraka soon.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana continued, 'Thus addressed by him, Krishna of mighty&#xA;  energy, that foremost of speakers, embraced Phalguna and replied unto&#xA;  him as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Vasudeva said, 'I made thee listen to truths that are regarded as&#xA;  mysteries. I imparted to thee truths that are eternal. Verily, I&#xA;  discoursed to thee on Religion in its true form and on all the eternal&#xA;  regions. It is exceedingly disagreeable to me to learn that thou didst&#xA;  not, from folly, receive what I imparted. The recollection of all that&#xA;  I told thee on that occasion will not come to me now. Without doubt, O&#xA;  son of Pandu, thou art destitute of faith and thy understanding is not&#xA;  good. &lt;strong&gt;It is impossible for me, O Dhananjaya, to repeat, in detail,&#xA;  all that I said on that occasion&lt;/strong&gt;. That Dharma (about which I&#xA;  discoursed to thee then) is more than sufficient for understanding&#xA;  Brahman. I cannot discourse on it again in detail. &lt;strong&gt;I discoursed to&#xA;  thee on Supreme Brahman, having concentrated myself in Yoga.&lt;/strong&gt; I shalt&#xA;  now, however, recite to thee an old history upon the same topic. O&#xA;  foremost of all persons, observant of duty, listen to everything I now&#xA;  say, so that, with an understanding adapted to my teaching, thou mayst&#xA;  succeed in attaining to the highest end. O chastiser of foes, on one&#xA;  occasion, a Brahmana came to us from the regions of Heaven. Of&#xA;  irresistible energy, he came from the regions of the Grandsire. He was&#xA;  duly reverenced by us. Listen. O son of Pritha, without yielding to&#xA;  scruples of any kind, to what he, O chief of Bharata's race, said, in&#xA;  answer to our enquiries, agreeably to heavenly forms.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As said in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18334/3500&quot;&gt;Tezz's answer&lt;/a&gt;, Vedas are given priority over all other scriptures in Hinduism. There are many statements in Vedas, which describe dieties such as Indra, Brahma, Rudra, Vishnu as Supreme Brahman. &lt;strong&gt;Different schools interpret these Vedic statements differently.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shaivites consider that Supreme Brahman as Sada Shiva (or by other name depending on subsects), Vaishnavites consider that Supreme Brahman as Vishnu (or any higher form of Him depending on Subsects), Advaitins consider Supreme Brahman as Iswara or Saguna Brahman (wrt Maya) and so on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2017-05-16T08:39:26.857" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18339" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="157" CreationDate="2017-05-16T12:45:57.817" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question was:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;I understand there is a caste system on the basis of occupation. What is the reason for having such a classification system?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Has the original concept stayed the same or has it evolved over time (if at all)?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the reason? It is hard to know why the founders of Hinduism decided to create this hierarchical system. There are no written records of what happened at 1000 BC. But one can speculate, based on what the caste system does achieve in practice. But the foundations of the caste system are clearly delineated in Hindu scripture. This would be my obvious theory:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The views presented in the Hindu scriptures were most likely expressly codified to preserve the privileges of a pre-existing, entrenched elite. By&#xA;1. Postulating that certain groups (to which the elites belonged) were superior to others;&#xA;2. Asserting that this superiority was obtained only by birth; and&#xA;3. Restricting inter-group marriage (and excommunicating those who did marry between groups),&#xA;these groups were able to preserve the existing hierarchy for all time and for all future generations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for the second question: has the original concept evolved over time? I don't think anyone knows, and I do not think it matters. What matters is what is in the scriptures today, because the scriptural sanction for caste-based discrimination is corrosive, and is the cause for the great injustice we see before us. If scriptures sanction an injustice, it is much harder to remove that injustice from society - maybe even impossible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have explored the question of whether caste is sanctioned by Hindu scripture in great detail, and have come to the conclusion that indeed, the scriptures as they exist today certainly sanction caste discrimination, and even enjoin the faithful to discriminate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have written a multi-part article series to share the results of my research.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Part I gives an overall summary of what I have learned, talks about the methodology of the study, and discusses why so many people have been in denial of what should have been obvious truths:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.leftbrainwave.com/2017/01/the-scriptural-sanction-for-caste-based.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.leftbrainwave.com/2017/01/the-scriptural-sanction-for-caste-based.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Part II takes up the study of the Bhagavad Gita, one of the holiest books of Hinduism, and shows how caste discrimination is not only present in the Gita, but is the very basis of Krishna's arguments in the Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.leftbrainwave.com/2017/03/the-scriptural-sanction-for-caste-based_0.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.leftbrainwave.com/2017/03/the-scriptural-sanction-for-caste-based_0.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parts III to IX form a 7-part miniseries on the Bhagavad Gita, where I have taken every verse in the Gita that is relevant to caste discrimination and analyzed it threadbare, beginning with the Sanskrit shloka, its word-by-word translation, free translation, and the commentaries of six highly respected saints/philosophers on the Gita: Adi Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Jnaneshwar, Shridhara Swami, and Keshava Kashmiri. Based on all these, I draw overall conclusions about the exact import of each verse. The links to parts III to IX can be found at the end of either part I or part II.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on all this, I show how caste-based discrimination is essential to the very foundation of Hinduism as described by Krishna in the Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gita is the first of many scriptures that I will analyze in detail in this evolving series. I will also be writing on the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Manu Smriti, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope this helps answer your question, at least partially.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9778" LastActivityDate="2017-05-16T12:45:57.817" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18341" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12438" CreationDate="2017-05-16T15:25:53.100" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a049.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, Bhumidevi goddess of the Earth tells the sage Kashyapa about the Kshatriyas who have survived:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are, O, regenerate one, some foremost of Kshatriyas concealed by me among women. They were born in the race of Haihayas. Let them, O sage, protect me. There is another person of Puru's race, viz., Viduratha's son, O puissant one, who has been brought up among bears in the Rikshavat mountains. Another, viz., the son of Saudasa, has been protected, through compassion, by Parasara of immeasurable energy and ever engaged in sacrifices. Though born in one of the regenerate orders, yet like a Sudra he does everything for that Rishi and has, therefore, been named Sarvakarman (servant of all work). Sivi's son of great energy, viz., Gopati by name, has been brought up in the forest among kine. Let him, O sage, protect me. Pratardana's son, named Vatsa of great might, has been brought up among calves in a cowpen. Let that one of the royal order protect me. Dadhivahana's grandson and Diviratha's son was concealed and protected on the banks of Ganga by the sage Gautama. His name is Vrihadratha. Possessed of great energy and adorned with numerous blessed qualities, that blessed prince has been protected by wolves and the mountains of Gridhrakuta. Many Kshatriyas belonging to the race of Maratta have been protected. Equal unto the lord of Maruts in energy, they have been brought up by Ocean. These children of the Kshatriya order have been heard of as existing in different places. They are living among artisans and goldsmiths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/433/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, following Bhumidevi's instructions Kashyapa, who had been given the Earth by Parashurama, gave the Earth to those Kshatriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-05-16T15:25:53.100" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18342" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-16T15:28:07.213" Score="1" ViewCount="477" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some people are saying by birth he was a Shudra, but others say he was a Brahmin by birth - which one is correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9780" LastActivityDate="2017-05-16T15:28:07.213" Title="Was Valmiki a Shudra by birth?" Tags="|ramayana|valmiki|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-05-16T15:31:37.590" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18343" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15372" CreationDate="2017-05-16T16:11:23.913" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;'Ulu dhoni' is used know others about a good news. The 'Ulu' can make loud sound from the tongue which can go far away. So anyone from distance can easily recognize  a good thing happening around. &#xA;This is a tradition only by the Bengali Hindu community. They make Ulu during their social and religious festival.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9782" LastActivityDate="2017-05-16T16:11:23.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18344" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18348" CreationDate="2017-05-16T19:33:30.773" Score="7" ViewCount="2173" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are some of the major forests mentioned in Hindu mythology and what are their locations ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have researched and found out a few but want to know if there are more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dandaka Aranya&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khandava_Forest&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Khandava Vana&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naimisha_Forest&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Naimisha Aranya&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2897" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-19T09:26:30.513" LastActivityDate="2017-05-19T09:57:47.860" Title="Forests mentioned in Hindu mythology" Tags="|scripture|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18345" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-17T04:13:33.093" Score="3" ViewCount="523" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Shaivite&quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, Iyer Brahmins are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is about a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta, which is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the Nayanars just as the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the Alwars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Shiva Tattva Viveka is a work by the 16th century Shaiva Siddhanta philosopher Appaya Dikshitar which seeks to show that Shiva is supreme.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://preview.ibb.co/jVVei5/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shiva Tattva Viveka, Appayya Dikshitar makes a distinction between Paramashiva, whom he considers to be the supreme Brahman, and Rudra, the god of destruction who's part of the Trimurthi.  And then he addresses the question of what forms of Shiva are forms of Paramashiva as opposed to Rudra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now among the images of Shiva described in the Puranas, etc., which are of Paramashiva and which are of Rudra with attributes? &lt;strong&gt;Some say that the form with the blissful dance, i.e., Anandatandaveshvara, the second being Dakshinamurti and the third one being Ardhanarishvara in the dancing posture.  Only those forms are of Paramashiva.  Other forms are of Rudra endowed with guna.&lt;/strong&gt;  We do not like it, because in Yogayagnavalkya, Paramashiva is mentioned in the form of the five-faced Sadashiva[.]... In the Kurma Purana... [Shiva's] image as sitting with Uma as his consort and holding the trident weapon is mentioned with the words &quot;athanvapashyadgirisham ... sanatana,&quot;. Therefore according to the teachers of the Agamas, other forms of Paramashiva should also be accepted.  They are not shown here because the judgment about them is very secret and can be understood only with the instruction by a guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Mgiea.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Mgiea.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WIyAv.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WIyAv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OJCAl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OJCAl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Anandatandeshvara refers to Nataraja, the dancing form of Shiva whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6886/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Dakshinamurthi refers to the South-facing young sage form of Shiva whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7896/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. And Ardhanarishvara refers refers to the half-Shiva half-Parvati form.  It seems that &quot;some&quot; people say that these are the only three forms of Paramashiva and that other forms are merely forms of Rudra, but Appaya Dikshitar criticizes this view and says that the five-headed Sadashiva form whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9989/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; as well as the form of Shiva holding a Trishula and sitting next to Parvati are also forms of Paramashiva.  He says his view is the view of the teachers of the Shaiva Agamas, which I assume refers to Shaiva Siddhanta Acharyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, who believes that Nataraja, Dakshinamurthi, and Ardhanarishvara are the only three forms of Paramashiva?  I've never heard of this view before.  It's strange that someone would believe that the five-headed Sadashiva form is a manifestation of Rudra.  But I suppose it's possible in principle for a Shaivite sect to deny the existence of five-headed Sadashiva altogether&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, does anyone know what Shaivite sect believes this?  And does this sect still exist?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T09:16:56.597" LastActivityDate="2017-12-21T09:16:56.597" Title="Who thinks the supreme Shiva's only forms are Nataraja, Dakshinamurthi, and Ardhanarishvara?" Tags="|shiva|shaivism|agamas|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18346" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-17T07:10:13.547" Score="4" ViewCount="4104" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anybody tell me that who was the wife of Ghatotkacha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9787" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-05-17T07:36:36.250" LastActivityDate="2017-05-17T16:42:29.297" Title="Who was the wife of Ghatotkacha" Tags="|ghatotkacha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18347" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-17T08:44:28.990" Score="6" ViewCount="186" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hindu Scriptures, from what stage of prenatal development is the human organism considered as being alive? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In particular, do the Vedas talk about this anywhere? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5488/in-which-month-of-pregnancy-a-soul-enters-in-to-a-new-bodyfoetus&quot;&gt;The question here&lt;/a&gt;, in principle, asks for when the soul enters the body which is similar to my question since timing of pregnancy can be matched with stage of prenatal development. However, the body of the same question requests various different aspects of exact point of entry of the soul, metaphysics associated with selection of a particular body and point of entry, gender etc,. This vastly deviates from the fundamental point stressed in this question namely regarding &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;which scriptural injunction details from when body is considered to be alive and whether the same is present in the Vedas. This is the point of interest in this question.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-05-17T14:55:47.870" LastActivityDate="2017-05-18T04:38:36.017" Title="According to scriptures, from when is the foetus/embryo considered to be alive?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|life|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2017-05-23T13:25:52.177" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18348" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18344" CreationDate="2017-05-17T09:11:12.470" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are Various forest’s mentioned in Hinduism Mythology as well as in Our Puranas and Itihasas like Mahabharata and Ramayana. Here are some of them -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tataka Forest&lt;/strong&gt; - from Valmiki Ramayana: -Valmiki Ramayana (Bala Kanda 26): Sri Rama killing Tataka:, &lt;strong&gt;Chitrakoota Forest&lt;/strong&gt; - from Valmiki Ramayana: , &lt;strong&gt;Madhuvana Forest&lt;/strong&gt; –Shreemad Bhagvatam , &lt;strong&gt;Pushkara Forest&lt;/strong&gt; - from Padma Purana:  Vol 1  ,Shrushti Kanda Chapter 15 – Importance of dwelling at sacred places. &lt;strong&gt;Kamyaka woods&lt;/strong&gt; – Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेन शब्देन वित्रस्ताः &lt;strong&gt;ताटका वन&lt;/strong&gt; वासिनः |&lt;br&gt; ताटका च सुसंक्रुद्धा&#xA;  तेन शब्देन मोहिता || १-२६-७&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By that sound the inhabitants of &lt;strong&gt;Tataka forest&lt;/strong&gt; are startled, and&#xA;  even Tataka is stupefied by that sound, and she is intolerably&#xA;  infuriated at it. [1-26-7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विश्वामित्रः वचः श्रुत्वा हृष्टो दशरधात्मजः || १-२६-३४&lt;br&gt; उवास रजनीम्&#xA;  तत्र ताटकाया वने सुखम् |&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On listening sage Vishvamitra's words, Dasharatha's son Rama,&#xA;  comfortably stayed that night there in that forest of Tataka.&#xA;  [1-26-34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga26/bala_26_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana (Bala Kanda 26&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Sage Bharadwaja informs the route by which Rama and Lakshmana can reach &lt;strong&gt;Chitrakuta&lt;/strong&gt;. They cross the River Yamuna by a raft prepared by themselves. Seetha prays the River Yamuna and a fig tree called Syama. The three of them traveled for a couple of miles along the bank of Yamuna, strolling in the charming forest and reach a leveled ground on the bank to take rest for the night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समासाद्य तु तम् वृक्षम् वसेद्वातिक्रमेत वा |&lt;br&gt; क्रोशमात्रम् ततो&#xA;  गत्वा नीलम् द्रक्ष्यथ काननम् || २-५५-८&lt;br&gt; पलाशबदरीमिश्रम् रम्यम्&#xA;  वंशैश्च यामुनैः |&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Having approached that tree, you can stay there or go beyond it.&#xA;  After going only for two miles from there, you will see a &lt;strong&gt;beautiful&#xA;  forest blue in colour&lt;/strong&gt; with bamboo trees touching upon Yamuna river&#xA;  and interspersed with Sallaka and jujube trees.&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga55/ayodhya_55_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana&#xA;  ,Ayodhya Kanda&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Madhuvana Forest&lt;/strong&gt; -: Shreemad Bhagvat Purana &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 4.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;: Dhruva Mahārāja Leaves Home for the Forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्तात गच्छं भद्रं ते यमुनायस्तटम् शुचि|&lt;br&gt; पुण्यं &lt;strong&gt;मधुवनं&lt;/strong&gt; यत्र&#xA;  सांनिध्यं नित्यदा हरे: ||४२||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tat tāta gaccha bhadraṁ te yamunāyās taṭaṁ śuci puṇyaṁ madhuvanaṁ&#xA;  yatra sānnidhyaṁ nityadā hareḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear boy, I therefore wish all good fortune for you. You should go&#xA;  to the bank of the Yamunā, where there is a virtuous &lt;strong&gt;forest named&#xA;  Madhuvana,&lt;/strong&gt; and there be purified. Just by going there, one draws&#xA;  nearer to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who always lives&#xA;  there.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/8/42&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB4.8.42&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pushkara Forest- Padma purana -:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;There is story of Lord Brahma in Padma Purana Vol 1  ,Shrushti Kanda Chapter 15 – Importance of dwelling at sacred places in which Pushkara Forest is described in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;20:  That lotus , that sprung from Vishnu’s naval , and in which I was&#xA;  born , is called &lt;strong&gt;Pushkkar Tirtha&lt;/strong&gt; by the sages who recite the&#xA;  vedic-texts. 21 : When Brahma was thus thinking, this idea came to his&#xA;  mind: 'I now go to the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;22-24. Reaching the place first, he&#xA;  entered that best forest, full of many trees and creepers; adorned&#xA;  with many flowers; filled with the notes of many birds; crowded with&#xA;  groups of many beasts; making gods and demons fragrant with the&#xA;  perfumes of the abundant flowers of trees; its ground was graced with&#xA;  flowers which were as it were intentionally placed there.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ofXcr.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ofXcr.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is mentioning of &quot; &lt;strong&gt;Daruka forest&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; , in   Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana  where 12 Jyotirlingas are described  in chapter &quot;Dwadash Jyotirlinga Mahatmya&quot;. -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परल्यां वैद्यनाथं च डाकिन्यां भीमाशंकरम् ।&#xA;  सेतुबंधे तु रामेशं नागेशं &lt;strong&gt;दारुकावने&lt;/strong&gt; ॥२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Paralyam Vaidyanatham Ca Dakinyam Bhimashankaram | Setubandhe Tu&#xA;  Ramesham Nagesham &lt;strong&gt;Darukavane&lt;/strong&gt; ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also find two forest names in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata index&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt; Part 22 -   namely - &lt;strong&gt;Dwaita&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;Kamyaka&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The entrance of the sons of Pandu into the &lt;strong&gt;romantic Dwaita wood&lt;/strong&gt;;&#xA;  conversation of Bhima, Yudhishthira, and Draupadi; the coming of Vyasa&#xA;  to the Pandavas and his endowing Yudhishthira with the power of&#xA;  Pratismriti; then, after the departure of Vyasa, the removal of the&#xA;  Pandavas to the &lt;strong&gt;forest of Kamyaka;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-05-19T09:57:47.860" LastActivityDate="2017-05-19T09:57:47.860" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18349" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-17T13:12:52.947" Score="12" ViewCount="3170" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is migration between Varna really allowed in Hinduism? If yes, please give examples along with reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9788" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-05-18T13:50:56.540" LastActivityDate="2020-06-28T03:50:46.677" Title="Examples of Varna migration in Hindu mythology?" Tags="|mahabharata|vedas|caste-system|varna|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18350" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="4043" CreationDate="2017-05-17T13:28:53.310" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every women has many husbands because after death, we will get new body and new husband that is not a sin only in one birth u should have only one husband this is what  shastras said. but Draupadi changes her body gaining new virgin body for each pandava and always faithful to each pandava at that time not with relation with other pandava with heart and body so draupadi changes her body. It means she gains new birth that is not a sin so she always had purity with body and heart not with soul. Soul can change many husbands &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9789" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-18T03:18:47.063" LastActivityDate="2017-05-18T03:18:47.063" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18351" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18346" CreationDate="2017-05-17T16:01:53.310" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ahilawati (aka Maurvi) or Kamakatankata was the wife of Ghatotkacha? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Skanda Purana (Chapter 59) it explain fully &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dvaipayana.net/purana/barbarika/barbarika-skanda-summary.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.dvaipayana.net/purana/barbarika/barbarika-skanda-summary.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But We got different opinion when we look in to Google sources.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira requested Krishna to suggest a suitable wife for ghatotkacha. Krishna  thought for a moment and said: &lt;strong&gt;Kamakatankata, the daughter of the demon mura is suitable to be the wife of ghatotkacha.&lt;/strong&gt; After I killed the demon mura, she fought with me. When I invoked sudarshana chakra to kill her, Goddess Kamakhya appeared before me saying that she has granted invincibility to her along with a sword and shield. I agreed to stop fighting and requested the Goddess to make mura's daughter stop fighting as well. The Goddess embraced her devotee and asked her to stop fighting saying that even shiva cannot defeat Krishna. The Goddess also told her that she will become the daughter-in-law of bhIma. Hearing this, Mura's daughter bowed down and offered her obeisance to me. I told her: Stay in Pragjyotisha, ruled by naraka's son, bhagadatta. While residing at the city, you will marry the son of Bhima and Hidimbi. Mura's daughter made a condition that she will marry the man who conquers her by silencing her with questions as well as by subduing her in battle. Many demons went to win her in marriage but all of them were defeated by her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing this Yudhishthira said: O lord! This girl does not appear to be suitable for Bhima's son. Suggest someone else. &#xA;  Bhima said: I approve what Krishna said. Let Hidimbi son bring mura's daughter. &#xA;  Arjuna said: Since Goddess Kamakhya has predicted that Ghatotkacha will marry mura's daughter, let him leave for pragjyotisha at once. &#xA;  Krishna said: No one equals ghatotkacha in prowess and intellect. Let him leave for prajyotisha without any delay. &#xA;  Ghatotkacha said: I am happy to obey your orders. He bowed down before Pandavas and Krishna.&#xA;  Krishna said: Remember me at the time of debate. I will enhance your intellectual prowess. ghatotkacha rose up in the sky and departed for pragjyotisha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ghatotkacha finally married Kamakatankata and they had a son named Barbarika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-05-17T16:42:29.297" LastActivityDate="2017-05-17T16:42:29.297" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18352" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-17T19:27:20.293" Score="6" ViewCount="148" Body="&lt;p&gt;Janaashucha is the period of impurity after birth in family. Manu Smriti prescribes Janashucha for the period of 10,12,15,30 days for the four Varnas respectively &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Brahmana shall be pure after ten days, a Kshatriya after twelve, a Vaisya after fifteen, and a Sudra is purified after a month. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ManuSmriti 5.83&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Applicability of Ashucha for Sapindas is upto 7 Generations in Family tree. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the Sapinda-relationship ceases with the seventh person (in the ascending and descending lines), the Samanodaka-relationship when the (common) origin and the (existence of a common family)-name are no (longer) known. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ManuSmriti 5.60&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Applicability of Ashucha is to the all the Sapindas according to verse 5.61&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As this impurity on account of a death is prescribed for (all) Sapindas, even so it shall be (held) on a birth by those who desire to be absolutely pure. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti 5.61&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In very next verse i.e. 5.62 the smriti contradicts itself saying that Ashucha period is only for Parents of the new born jiva connecting it with all sapindas who need absolute purity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Or while) the impurity on account of a death is common to all (Sapindas), that caused by a birth (falls) on the parents alone; (or) it shall fall on the mother alone, and the father shall become pure by bathing; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti 5.62&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which verse should be used to decide Janana(Birth) Ashoucha period in family? Is it okay if we ignore Janan Ashucha as its only applicable to Parents?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-05-18T03:13:20.393" LastActivityDate="2017-05-18T03:13:20.393" Title="Is it okay to Ignore Jananashucha from distant relative(but sapinda)" Tags="|dharma|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18353" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18349" CreationDate="2017-05-18T05:27:46.893" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda writes (&lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V4, pp 469-70, and available here under the heading &lt;em&gt;Translation: Prose&lt;/em&gt;, sub-heading &lt;em&gt;Modern India&lt;/em&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In spite of the spread of education in the West, there is a great hindrance in the way of the rising of the Shudra class, and that is the recognition of caste as determined by the inherence of more or less good or bad qualities. By this very qualitative caste system which obtained in India in ancient days, the Shudra class was kept down, bound hand and foot. In the first place, scarcely any opportunity was given to the Shudra for the accumulation of wealth or the earning of proper knowledge and education; to add to this disadvantage, if ever a man of extraordinary parts and genius were born of the Shudra class, the influential higher sections of the society forthwith showered titular honours on him and lifted him up to their own circle. His wealth and the power of his wisdom were employed for the benefit of an alien caste — and his own caste-people reaped no benefits of his attainments; and not only so, the good-for-nothing people, the scum and refuse of the higher castes, were cast off and thrown into the Shudra class to swell their number. Vasishtha, Nârada, Satyakâma Jâbâla, Vyâsa, Kripa, Drona, Karna, and others of questionable parentage* [footnote 1] were raised to the position of a Brahmin or a Kshatriya, in virtue of their superior learning or valour; but it remains to be seen how the prostitute, maidservant, fisherman, or the charioteer* [footnote 2] class was benefited by these upliftings. Again, on the other hand, the fallen from the Brahmin, the Kshatriya, or the Vaishya class were always brought down to fill the ranks of the Shudras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;*footnote 1: (1) Vasishtha's father was Brahmâ and mother unknown. (2) Narada's mother was a maidservant and father unknown. (3) Satyakama Jabala's mother was a maidservant, by name Jabâlâ, and father unknown. (4) Vyasa's father was a Brahmin sage Parâshara, and mother Matsyagandhâ, the virgin daughter of a fisherman. (5) Kripa s father was a Brahmin sage, Sharadvân Gautama, and mother the goddess Jânapadi. (6) Drona's father was the Brahmin sage, Bharadvâja, and mother the goddess Ghritâchi. (7) Karna's mother was Kunti, who conceived during her maidenhood, and father the god sun. For detailed information vide the accounts of their births: for (1), see chapter 174, Âdiparva, Mahabharata, or in Rigveda, 7, 33, 11-13; for (2), chapter 6, Skandha I, Srimad Bhagavata, for (3) section 4 Prapâthaka iv, Chhândogya Upanishad; for (4), (5), (6) and (7) chapters 105, 130, 130 and 111, respectively of the Âdiparva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;*footnote 2: In her anxiety to save her reputation, Kunti threw the newborn child Karna, into water. A charioteer found the child in his pitiable condition and adopted him as his son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-05-18T05:27:46.893" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18354" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18332" CreationDate="2017-05-18T05:57:37.450" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/stotra/Sri%20Rudram%20Anuvakam2.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedas&lt;/a&gt; mention Lord Shiva as &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavan&lt;/strong&gt;. And, there are no scriptures which has more authority than Vedas . So, there is no way one should stop praying to a Vedic deity who is described as Bhagavan in the Vedas. Similarly for other Vedic deities. Their worship is ordained in the Vedic scriptures so it should also be continued. Bhagavad Gita or any other scriptures for that matter don't have the authority to say otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रमुञ्च धन्वनस्त्वमुभयोरार्त्नियोर्ज्याम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;याश्च ते हस्त इषवः पराता &lt;strong&gt;भगवो&lt;/strong&gt; वप  ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भगवः-  Bhagavan Parameswara!&lt;/strong&gt;     धन्वनः- of your bow,     उभयोः आर्त्नियोः-   (tied) in the two ends,      ज्यां- the bowstring,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वं-  you yourself,   प्रमुञ्च-  untie.    ते-  your,    हस्ते- in&#xA;  the hand,     याः-  which,     इषवः-   arrows (are present),     ताः&#xA;  च- them also,    परावप- take away (from direct presence).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Explanation:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagavan Parameswara! Please untie yourself the string tied at both&#xA;  ends of your bow. Please also hide from our vision the arrows that you&#xA;  have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विकिरिद विलोहित &lt;strong&gt;नमस्ते अस्तु भगवः&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यास्ते सहस्रँ हेतयोन्यमस्मन्निवपन्तु ताः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विकिरिद-  Destroyer of miseries like sin, disease, poverty etc., &#xA;  विलोहित-  Of white complexion, भगवः-   Possessor of six glories like&#xA;  wealth etc.,  ते-  to you,  नमः अस्तु- may prostration be.  ते-  Your,&#xA;  याः-  which,  सहस्रं हेतयः-  thousands of weapons,  ताः- those, &#xA;  अस्मत् अन्यं-  our enemy (sin),  निवपन्तु-  may destroy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सहस्राणि सहस्रधा बाहुवोस्तव हेतयः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तासामीशानो &lt;strong&gt;भगवः&lt;/strong&gt; पराचीना मुखाकृधि ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भगव:-   Bhagavan!&lt;/strong&gt;   तव-  Your,   बाहुवोः-  in both hands,  सहस्राणि-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  thousands of,   हेतयः-  weapons, सहस्रधा-  are in many shapes.  ईशानः-&#xA;  All-powerful you,  तासां- of those weapons,   मुखा-  ends,  पराचीना-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  not facing us, but turned away from us,  कृधि- please do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantras are from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/stotra/Sri%20Rudram%20Anuvakam10.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Rudram Anuvaka 1 &amp;amp; 10&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Bhagavad Gita was composed during the end of Dwapara Yuga. Many beleif systems already existed at that time (from the earlier yugas Krita, Treta). So, there is no way people will abandon their belief systems just because of Bhagavad Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, Bhagavad Gita is not the only Gita. There are many others. All of them are composed by Vyasa who is the author Bhagavad Gita. And various such Gitas uphold various deities as supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-18T07:03:41.097" LastActivityDate="2017-05-18T07:03:41.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18356" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2094" CreationDate="2017-05-18T10:16:59.350" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana describes as Mainda and Dwiwida as having drunk Amruta and thus became immortal i.e. could not be killed.  Brahma give them boon which gave them this capacity.  They were alive till the time of rajasooya yaga by Pandavas, but bhagavata describes them as being slain by balaram which is somewhat inconsistent as someone who had drank amruta cannot be killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9797" LastActivityDate="2017-05-18T10:16:59.350" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18357" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8944" CreationDate="2017-05-18T10:17:18.793" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally this word is not used in most of the popular texts but some minor texts and agamic literature do give importance to the fifth state of nondual experience. &#xA;Even puranas linked to agama such as Devi bhagvatam has mentioned it as given in the question itself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the scripture where it is mentioned is,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;II.4. There are five AvasthA-s (states): jAgrat (waking), svapna&#xA;  (dreaming), suShupti (dreamless sleeping), the turIya (fourth) and&#xA;  turyatita (that beyond the fourth)...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;II.5. The Yogin is one that has realised Brahman that is all-full&#xA;  beyond turIya. (from &quot;Mandala Brahmana Upanishad&quot;, Translated by K.&#xA;  Narayanasvami Aiyar)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There is nothing other than Brahman of the five padas (i.e. the turyatita)… (from &quot;Para-Brahma Upanishad&quot;, Translated by Prof. A. A.&#xA;  Ramanathan)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can also find explanation of this in the books of Sri Ramana Maharshi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another reason for five states, rather than four, is due to the stage&#xA;  of establishing oneself in the Witness State and recognizing that 'I&#xA;  am' is not any of the other three states. Perhaps here, the term&#xA;  'turIya' is used to stand for the fourth state as the Witness State.&#xA;  However, the spiritual aspirant has yet to realize herself as the&#xA;  non-dual Brahman - a fifth 'state' (so called). Hence this latter&#xA;  stage is referred to as turyatita, beyond the fourth (turIya). Sri&#xA;  Ramana says as much when asked, &quot;Why is the Self described both as the&#xA;  fourth state (turIya) and beyond the fourth state (turyatita)?&quot; He&#xA;  replies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;turIya means that which is the fourth. The experiencers (jIva-s) of&#xA;  the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep, known as vishva,&#xA;  taijasa and praj~nA, who wander successively in these three states,&#xA;  are not the Self. It is with the object of making this clear, namely&#xA;  that the Self is that which is different from them and which is the&#xA;  witness of these states, that it is called the fourth (turIya). When&#xA;  this is known, the three experiencers disappear and the idea that the&#xA;  Self is a witness, that it is the fourth, also disappears. That is why&#xA;  the Self is described as beyond the fourth (turyatita).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/teachers/turiya_peter.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(from, &quot;Spiritual Instruction&quot; no. 8.)&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another so called minor upanishad whose name is derived from the word. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Turiyatita Avadhuta Upanishad&#xA;Translated by Prof. A. A. Ramanathan&#xA;Published by The Theosophical Publishing House, Chennai&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om ! That (Brahman) is infinite, and this (universe) is infinite. The&#xA;  infinite proceeds from the infinite. (Then) taking the infinitude of&#xA;  the infinite (universe), It remains as the infinite (Brahman) alone.&#xA;  Om ! Let there be Peace in me ! Let there be Peace in my environment !&#xA;  Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Kashmir Shaivism&lt;/strong&gt; also this concept is present. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Swami Laxmanjoo &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lakshmanjooacademy.org/what-is-to-be-realized-in-kashmir-shaivism/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;lectures&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;*. . . that state of doership he perceives in all the other three states–in wakefulness, in the dreaming state, and in the dreamless&#xA;  state. In wakefulness, in the dreaming state, and in the dreamless&#xA;  state, he perceives the state of that doership. As he used to perceive&#xA;  that [state] in turya and &lt;strong&gt;turīyātitā&lt;/strong&gt;, in the same way, he perceives&#xA;  that state in these three states also–in jāgrata, in svapna, in&#xA;  suṣupti also–always (nityaṁ syāt suprabuddhasya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The final state is &lt;strong&gt;anupaya&lt;/strong&gt;, which means “the non-technique.” At this point there’s no effort at all. We simply relax into our inner being continually, resting in our true nature. At this level we enter a superhuman state of consciousness called &lt;strong&gt;turiyatita&lt;/strong&gt;, which means “even beyond turiya.” &lt;a href=&quot;https://yogainternational.com/article/view/tantra-and-the-teachings-of-abhinavagupta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Abhinavagupta&lt;/a&gt;’s descriptions of what this is like sound like science fiction and yet the reality of this condition has been attested to by many advanced yogis. At this level the distinction between us and Shiva dissolves. We feel ourselves pervading all of space; the universe itself becomes our body. We can sense anything that’s happening anywhere. If we sense that anyone is in distress, through the merest flicker of our will we can send comfort and aid. Abhinavagupta says that masters of this caliber can create their own universes if they want to. And indeed the yoga tradition is full of accounts of Buddhas and other great siddhas who actually manifest new heaven worlds which other souls can visit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-05-18T10:17:18.793" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18358" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18349" CreationDate="2017-05-18T10:20:59.847" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, it is not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Krishna in the Gita, one's varNa is a consequence of his innate guNas (pre-natal qualities attached to the soul or AtmA), which are determined by his actions in past births (karmas), over millions of past births. The guNas that a person possesses at the time of his death determine his varNa in the next birth - if he is dominated by sattva (goodness), then he is born as a Brahmana; if he is dominated by rajas (passion, activity), then he is reborn as a Kshatriya; if he has a mixture of rajas and tamas (darkness, ignorance, laziness, superstition), but with rajas dominating, he is reborn as a Vaishya; and if he has a dominance of tamas with some rajas, then he is born as a Shudra. If his soul is completely enveloped in tamas, he will be reborn as an animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is done so that in his next birth, his AtmA is born into an environment which matches the guNas he possesses. According to Krishna's teaching, Brahmanas possess sattva in abundance, and therefore a soul that dies with sattva as dominant will be born into a family of Brahmanas. Kshatriyas possess rajas in abundance, and so an AtmA dying in the mode of rajas is reborn as a Kshatriya, to provide a proper match for its guNas; and so on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A change in varNa is only possible on rebirth. One cannot short-circuit this process. This is illustrated very well by the story of Matanga, mentioned in the Mahabharata. Matanga was born a Chandala and abandoned as a baby. A childless Rishi adopted the abandoned newborn and raised him as his own child. As a teenager, he learned the truth of his low birth, and resolved that he would correct it. He performed intense penance again and again and invoked Indra, the king of the Gods, and asked him for a boon that he would be converted to a Brahmana. Indra said this was absolutely impossible, and told him he would have to go through trillions and quadrillions of births in other varNas before he could become a Brahmana, even though Matanga was by now a purified soul because of all the penance he had done, and had achieved complete mastery over his senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read about the story here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a027.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a027.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other examples people will give you, such as Parashurama, Vishwamitra, etc., are all special cases, and do not represent the standard rule. You can read about those here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.leftbrainwave.com/2017/01/the-scriptural-sanction-for-caste-based.html#TOC5c2f&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.leftbrainwave.com/2017/01/the-scriptural-sanction-for-caste-based.html#TOC5c2f&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope that answers your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9778" LastActivityDate="2017-05-18T10:20:59.847" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18360" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-18T10:30:23.443" Score="6" ViewCount="1728" Body="&lt;p&gt;In popular belief, Karna is usually viewed as a strong warrior, perhaps even stronger than Arjuna.  But my question is, does Hindu scripture ever describe Karna as a weak warrior?  (I'm not asking about events that answerers may subjectively characterize as weak or strong, I'm just asking about scriptural statements that explicitly say he's weak.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if Hindu scripture does explicitly say that he's weak, does it give a reason for his weakness?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9798" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T16:38:55.367" LastActivityDate="2019-10-12T10:55:10.823" Title="Is Karna described as a weak warrior in Hindu scripture?" Tags="|karna|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18361" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14130" CreationDate="2017-05-18T10:37:15.130" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The well-known story about Valmiki having been a low-caste highway robber and murderer is not well-corroborated in scripture. This has recently been the subject of a court case. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the original Valmiki Ramayana itself, there is no mention of this. It refers to Valmiki as a highly honoured sage. The first reference to Valmiki as a robber comes only in the Skanda Purana, which is dated to the 10th century AD, long after the epic was composed. So this story, although it is prominently highlighted in Amar Chitra Katha, is very dubious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.leftbrainwave.com/2017/01/the-scriptural-sanction-for-caste-based.html#TOC5c2g&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;my blog&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With regard to Valmiki, the story regarding his beginnings is controversial, to say the least. The popular story that he was a low-caste highway robber is not well-corroborated in scripture. Most versions of the Ramayana do not mention this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For instance, the translation of the Ramayana by Manmatha Nath Dutt (Volume 7, Uttara Kanda, Calcutta, 1894, page 1909) mentions that when Valmiki brings Sita and the twins Lava and Kusha to Rama's court to prove Sita's innocence, he says, “I tell you the truth, O Rama, that these irrepressible twin brothers are your sons, O descendant of Raghu. I am the tenth son of Pracheta, and so, far from speaking untruth, it does not even spring up in my mind. I have performed austere penances for many thousand years; I now swear before thee, that if this Maithili is found touched by any sin, I shall not reap the fruit of my ascetic observances extending over many thousand years. I have never before perpetrated a crime, either in my mind, body, or speech. If Maithili is found divested of sin, I may then partake of the fruits of piety.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This passage does not support any suggestion of Valmiki having been a highway robber in his past — his clear assertion that he had never before perpetrated a crime, either in his mind, body, or speech, puts paid to that speculation. Also, the way he states his birth (as the son of Prachetas, and therefore speaking untruth never even springs up in his mind) clearly indicates that he is high-born, and the son of a Brahmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The question of whether Valmiki was a highway robber before becoming a sage has been hotly debated, and has even been the subject of a court case. I quote some relevant portions of the judgement in this case below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A debate rages on amongst scholars both religious and academic about the authenticity of the story, whether Maharshi Valmiki was a dacoit. The actual facts appear to be lost in the mists of antiquity. Dr. Manjula Sehdev, one such scholar kindly consented to address this court. She has carried out a detailed research into the origin and authenticity of this story and if her work is to be accepted as correct, there may be force in the argument raised by counsel for the respondent that there is no historical or mythological basis for the story that Maharishi Valmiki was a dacoit before he became a sage. It would, therefore, be relevant to reproduce a few salient features of her research.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;From Vedic literature upto 9th Century A.D., there is no reference as such that Maharishi Valmiki led a life of a dacoit or a Highwayman.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Even upto 9th Century A.D., the etymology of the word Valmiki (a person born from an ant-hill) is not available.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In his own work 'Ramayana', he is called Bhagwan, Muni, Rishi and Maharishi. No reference of his Highwaymanship is available there.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;First reference regarding Rishi Valmiki as a Highwayman is mentioned in the Skand Purana. The time of this Purana is considered 10th Century A.D.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The first reference of the mantra 'Mara-Mara' has been mentioned in the Adhyatma Ramayana (Ayodhya kanda, 6.80-81). The time of Adhyatma Ramayana has been considered 15th Century A.D. by scholars. In the same way, we find mantra 'Mara-Mara' in Ananda Ramayana (Rajya-Kanda, 14.141). This work has been considered of 16th Century A.D.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Bhakti movement was started in the southern part of India about 8th &amp;amp; 9th Century A.D. by Alwars. When this movement came at its peak from 3th to 16th Centuries A.D., many stories were woven around the personality of Rishi Valmiki keeping in view the importance of Sri Rama as an incarnation of Vishnu.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The salient features of this research appear to cast a doubt about the authenticity of the story that Maharishi Valmiki was a dacoit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But even if Valmiki were a low-caste person, it is not relevant to the message of the Ramayana. Even if one were to assume that he was a Shudra by birth and reformed through Narada’s intervention, the story of Shambuka mentioned earlier clearly indicates that his low-caste birth has nothing to do with the message of the Ramayana, because in the story of Shambuka, a man is executed simply because he chanted mantras and performed penance in spite of being a Shudra — something that Valmiki himself clearly did quite regularly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope than answers your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9778" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-01-08T15:43:38.913" LastActivityDate="2018-01-08T15:43:38.913" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18362" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18349" CreationDate="2017-05-18T12:02:32.940" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes Varna migration is possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Change of Varna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada said, 'If in members born in a certain Varna the qualities&#xA;  pertaining to another Varna are seen, they (the former) are to be&#xA;  classified as belonging to the latter Varna.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana VII.11.35&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sage Pulastya's views on how to become a Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sage Pulastya said,&quot;..by vows, by investiture of the sacred, by fasts,&#xA;  by rites, and by Mantras, one becometh a Brahmana.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Mahabharata, Aranya Parva LXXXIII)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am supplementing my answer with actual examples of persons who have changed Varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Examples of Change of Varna in Hindu scripture&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagavan Rishabha, realising that the region of his advent was a place&#xA;  dominated by Vedic rituals, adopted the life of a religious student&#xA;  under a teacher with gifts, came back home with his blessings. He&#xA;  adopted the householder’s station of life in order to teach the world&#xA;  about the duties of that order, observed all the ceremonials and&#xA;  duties laid down in the scriptures, married a girl named Jayanti given&#xA;  to him by Indra, and begot by her a hundred sons equal to himself in&#xA;  all respects. Of all these sons, Bharata was the eldest and noblest.&#xA;  This Ajanabha Varsha came to be known after him as Bharatavarsha. Next&#xA;  to him, the eldest nine other sons ….. were elder to the remaining&#xA;  ninety. Among these ninety, another nine … became great devotees and&#xA;  teachers of the Bhakti cult. ….. The remaining eighty one of the&#xA;  brothers, who were humble in nature, learned in the Vedas, adepts in&#xA;  sacrificial rites, and extremely pure through their observances,&#xA;  became Brahmanas according to their father’s instruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana, V.4.8-13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At Kamyaka, Kusika’s son had quaffed the Soma juice with Indra. Then&#xA;  abandoning the Kshatriya order, he began to say,’‘I am a Brahmana’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Vana Parva, Section LXXXVII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-05-18T12:02:32.940" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18364" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18360" CreationDate="2017-05-18T17:32:54.850" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karna lied to Parashurama that he was a brahmana in order to study under him, since Parashurama had taken vow to teach only  brahmanas and not kshatriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One day Rama of great intelligence, while roving with Karna in the vicinity or his retreat, felt very weak in consequence of the fasts he had undergone. From affection begotten by confidence, the tired son of Jamadagni placing his head on Karna's lap, slept soundly, White his preceptor was thus sleeping (with head) on his lap, a frightful worm, whose bite was very painful and which subsisted on phlegm and fat and flesh and blood, approached the presence of Karna. That blood-sucking worm, approaching Karna's thigh, began to pierce it. Through fear of (awaking) his preceptor, Karna became unable to either throw away or kill that worm. Though his limb was bored through by that worm, O Bharata, the son of Surya, lest his preceptor should awake, suffered it to do its pleasure. Though the pain was intolerable, Karna bore it with heroic patience, and continued to hold Bhrigu's son on his lap, without quivering in the least and without manifesting any sign of pain. When at last Karna's blood touched the body of Rama of great energy, the latter awoke and said these words in fear, 'Alas, I have been made impure! What is this that thou art doing, Tell me, casting off all fear, what is the truth of this matter!' Then Karna informed him of that worm's bite. Rama saw that worm which resembled a hog in shape. It had eight feet and very keen teeth, and it was covered with bristles that were all pointed like needles. Called by the name of Alarka, its limbs were then shrunk (with fear). As soon as Rama cast his, eyes on it, the worm gave up its life-breath, melting in that blood which it had drawn. All this seemed wonderful. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day, when Parashurama was resting on Karna's lap, Karna patiently withstood immense pain of an insect bite so as to not wake up his guru. Parashurama woke up and realized no Brahmana could withstand such pain. After finding out the truth, he cursed Karna that in crucial moments of fight, he would forget astra mantras.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, in 3 major fights (Draupadi Swayamvara, Virata Go-grahana, Mahabharata), Karna couldn't win.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, there could be another aspect to his weakness, when compared to Arjuna.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Both in Ramayana &amp;amp; Mahabharata, the amshas or sons of &lt;strong&gt;Surya (Sugriva, Karna) and Indra (Vali, Arjuna)&lt;/strong&gt; fight against each other.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Indra is stronger than Surya in parakrama e.g. Vali is stronger than Sugriva and Arjuna is stronger than Karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, as Bhagavan clearly demonstrates, the side he is on will win irrespective of strength of fighter :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana - Sugriva (Surya's son) + &lt;strong&gt;Rama&lt;/strong&gt; defeat Vali (Indra's son)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata - Arjuna (Indra's son) + &lt;strong&gt;Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; defeat Karna (Surya's son)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : Padma Purana Srishti Khanda Chapter 14. The  See verses 40 to 73&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-09T06:59:26.023" LastActivityDate="2018-06-09T06:59:26.023" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18365" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-18T17:59:12.050" Score="6" ViewCount="631" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, as I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10235/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vyasa criticizes the Shaiva Agamas for their belief that Ishwara is only the efficient cause of the Universe, in contrast to the Vedanta school's view that Brahman is both the efficient cause and the material cause of the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Different Shaivite philosophers respond to Vyasa's criticism differently.  Some Shaivites reject the Vedanta school altogether.  The Veerashaiva commentator Sripati somehow shifts the criticism to Vaishnavism.  The Shaiva Siddhanta philosopher Srikantha Sivacharya argues that Vyasa is just criticizing people who misinterpret the Shaiva Agamas.  But I'm interested in the response of Appaya Dikshitar, a 16th century Shaiva Siddhanta philosopher who simultaneously believed in both Shaiva Siddhanta and Adi Shankaracharya's philosophy of Advaita.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/HbXO&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Shiva Tattva Viveka, Appaya Dikshitar argues that the issue is not different interpretations of the same Shaiva Agamas as Srikantha Sivacharya suggests, but rather different sets of Shaiva Agamas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our answer is as follows. The Pasupata System is two­ fold. One follows the sruti and the other does not.... Thus the statements censuring the acceptance of the Pasupatagamas pertain to the followers of the Vedic Path who enter the non-Vedic Pasupatagamas.... The chief goal of the Vedic Pasupatagama is elaboration of the highest Vedic vows called Pasupata, sambhava, etc., that are taught in the Atharvasiras, Kalagni and Rudra Upanisads. Therefore, they don't have any point of view that is different from the Vedic viewpoint. The refutation of the validity of the Pasupatagamas in &amp;quot;patyurasamatjasyat&amp;quot; pertains to the non- Vedic Pasupatagamas. Indeed the viewpoint that Isvara is inerely the efficient cause of the Universe is refuted here. This viewpoint is well-known in the non-Vedic Pasupatagamas only, not in the Vedic Pasupatagamas.... Besides even the non-Vedic Pasupatagamas also are not wholly invalid.... The Mahabharata establishes the authority of the independent agamas com­ posed by Siva, Kesava, etc., just like that of the Vedas....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the question as to who is authorized to follow the practices described in the independent agamas is answered as follows. Those men who have been cast outside the Vedas either due to some great sin or due to the curse by the sages like Gautama, etc., those who are of mixed birth, women and Sudras are authorized suitably to follow the practices described in the tantras. The agamas were created before in order to bestow favour upon these people. Thus the Kurma Purana describes that those who were ostricized from the Vedic Path because of the curse of great men, are fit to follow the practices in the tantras. The Kurma Purana describes those who were cursed by Gautama[.]... It then shows that they prayed to Siva and Kesava for salvation[.]... Then it describes that Siva and Kesava composed Pasupata and Pancaratragamas respectively for somehow granting them salvation[.]... These agamas are called false doctrines because as explained earlier, somewhere some of their parts are rooted in deception in order to create delusion in the minds of sinners.... As explained earlier, the Saivagamas which summarize the essential meaning of the Vedas and which are free from the fault of even any doubt are established as superior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Appaya Dikshitar argues that there are two kinds of Shaiva Agamas, Vedic and non-Vedic, and that Vyasa is criticizing the non-Vedic kind, which are only meant for low-caste people and women.  So my question is, which Shaiva Agamas does Appayya Dikshitar consider Vedic and which ones does he consider non-Vedic?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says that the Vedic Shaiva Agamas agree with the Vedanta school's view that Ishwara is both the efficient cause and material cause of the Universe, whereas the non-Vedic ones see Ishwara only as the efficient cause.  Now the Kashmiri Shaivite sect, which mainly focuses on the 64 Bhairava Tantras rather than the 28 Shaiva Agamas, nevertheless have an opinion on the 28 Shaiva Agamas.  They think the 28 Shaiva Agamas can be divided into two categories: 10 Shiva Agamas which are dualistic in philosophy, and 18 Rudra Agamas which are semidualistic in philosophy.  (They connect these to Durvasa's sons Amardaka and Srinatha whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18278/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  I don't know whether the Shaiva Siddhanta sect embraces this distinction between Shiva Agamas and Rudra Agamas, but assuming they do, that could be what Appaya Dikshitar is referring to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know of any Shaiva Siddhanta works which shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-14T21:14:07.013" Title="Which Shaiva Agamas does Appayya Dikshitar consider anti-Vedic?" Tags="|philosophy|shaivism|agamas|tantra|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18366" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18442" CreationDate="2017-05-18T21:50:48.733" Score="7" ViewCount="1692" Body="&lt;p&gt;Our Ancients built Hindu Temples in a Straight line (From Kedarnath to Rameswaram - all are Lord Shiva temples), at that time without having proper Maps and Satellite's how can they built in straight line? Our ancestors known about Earth Geometry or Any one helped? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T06:07:50.120" Title="Mystery of Ancient Hindu Temples?" Tags="|shiva|history|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18367" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-19T04:57:41.213" Score="3" ViewCount="594" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the Puranic story being discussed &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17616/were-women-cursed-with-menstruation/17617#17617&quot;&gt;in this post&lt;/a&gt; Indra, after killing the demon called Vritra, acquired the brahmahatya dosha. His gulit was thereafter shared by women, earth, water and the trees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The women as result started to have menses and they are from then on wards considered as being impure in those days of a month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,  water also shared Indra's guilt. So, all waters must also get impure during some days of say a month or the year. Now if it really so happens, then in those few days all pujas and other religious rites ( like sandhyavandanam etc) must be entirely stopped because without water its impossible to take bath, perform puja etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, afaik, there are no such days in a year or a month when all religious rites stop due to such impurities that water has.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question : On which days of a month/year does all water become impure as a result of sharing Indra's guilt of brahminicide?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-19T05:33:09.493" LastActivityDate="2017-05-20T05:11:29.707" Title="When does all water become impure as a result of sharing Indra's guilt of brahminicide?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|women|sin|indra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18368" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18367" CreationDate="2017-05-19T05:11:16.780" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is my own partial answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as the rivers are concerned i know when they are considered as being impure. During the two Hindu months, &lt;strong&gt;Sravana and Bhadra&lt;/strong&gt;,  the rivers are considered as impure in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In two months, beginning with S'ravana  all the rivers get their&#xA;  menstrual courses.&lt;/strong&gt; [No one] should bathe in them, excluding the rivers&#xA;  which go to an ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Katyayana Smriti, Chapter 10, Verse 5.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT- The book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt; quotes the Brahmanda Purana &amp;amp; gives the following days when the Mahanadis are considered impure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aadou karkatake sarvaa Maha Nadyoh rajasva - laah, Tridinantu&#xA;  chaturdhehni shuddhaasyurjaahnavi yadhaa | Chatram cha harat paadam&#xA;  Ardham harati paadukou, Yaaam heretripaadam tu sarvam harati dolikaa |&#xA;  Yescharyaallobha mohaadvaa gacchedyaana abhistuyah, Nishphalam tasya&#xA;  teertham tasmaadyaanaadi varjayet ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Maha Nadis are stated to be Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari,Tungabhadra,&#xA;  and Kaveri and &lt;strong&gt;during the first three days of Karkataka Rashi, these&#xA;  rivers are stated to be affected by menses and on the fourth day they&#xA;  attain Shuddi or Purity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, this does not answer the question &lt;strong&gt;when all waters get impure&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-20T05:11:29.707" LastActivityDate="2017-05-20T05:11:29.707" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18369" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18349" CreationDate="2017-05-19T07:13:17.053" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Is migration between Varna really allowed in Hinduism ?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt; , the migration between Varnas are allowed in Hinduism and the topic is  discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  - Book 13: Anusasana Parva   SECTION CXLIII &#xA;through conversation between &lt;strong&gt;Devi Uma &amp;amp; Lord Mahadeva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the excerpts-:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The boon-giving Brahma, while he created all creatures, himself said&#xA;  that the distribution of human beings into the four orders dependent&#xA;  on birth is only for purposes of classification. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;section 306 &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By these good acts, again, O goddess, when performed, a Sudra becomes&#xA;  a Brahmana, and a Vaisya becomes a Kshatriya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;section 304 &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A pious Kshatriya, by his own acts, becomes a Brahmana. It is with the&#xA;  aid of these acts, O goddess, that a person who has sprung from a&#xA;  degraded order, viz., a Sudra, may become a Brahmana refined of all&#xA;  stains and possessed of Vedic lore, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even a Sudra, O goddess, that has purified his soul by pure deeds and&#xA;  that has subjugated all his senses, deserves to be waited upon and&#xA;  served with reverence as a Brahmana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;section 305 &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sudra, if he is established on good conduct, is regarded as possessed&#xA;  of the status of a Brahmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;section 306 &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Footnote -: 304.1 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sense seems to be this: a Vaisya ultimately becomes a Brahmans by&#xA;  observing the duties indicated in verses 30 to 33. As the immediate&#xA;  reward, however, of his observance of these duties, he becomes a great&#xA;  Kshatriya. What he should next do in order to become a Brahmana is&#xA;  said in the verses that follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Although this section is mainly  talking about the birth one gets by following his own dharma /  duties in next life , the points mentioned above  hints us towards allowance of varna migration in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-05-19T07:27:50.787" LastActivityDate="2017-05-19T07:27:50.787" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18370" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18377" CreationDate="2017-05-19T11:21:41.423" Score="0" ViewCount="9618" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajur Veda 13.12,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;”O king, make progress in thy duty of administration, extend happiness&#xA;  to the virtuous. O terrible chastiser, burn down the irreligious foes.&#xA;  O splendid person, humiliate and consume utterly like dried up&#xA;  stubble, him, who encourages our foe.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 12.5.62&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rend, rend to bits, rend through and through, scorch and consume and&#xA;  burn to dust, the one who rejects the Vedas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 12.2.23&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who dwells fixed in the atmosphere, smiting the blasphemers of the&#xA;  god that do not sacrifice to him be reverence with ten&#xA;  Sakvari-stanzas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 10.3.3&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This charm shall conquer and cast down thy foemen. Be thou the first&#xA;  to slay the men who hate thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 20.93.1&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May our hymns give you great delight. Display your bounty, Thudered.&#xA;  Drive off [kill] the enemies of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone must kill Blaspemers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 6.72.1&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ye killed all darkness and the Gods’ blasphemers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam 4.4.17&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sati continued: If one hears an irresponsible person blaspheme the&#xA;  master and controller of religion, one should block his ears and go&#xA;  away if unable to punish him. But if one is able to kill, then one&#xA;  should by force cut out the blasphemer’s tongue and kill the offender,&#xA;  and after that one should give up his own life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2018-02-16T17:59:38.457" LastActivityDate="2023-08-04T09:43:14.397" Title="Is killing infidels allowed in Hindu Scriptures?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavata-purana|yajur-veda|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18371" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-19T14:16:25.080" Score="6" ViewCount="1106" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.129 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;em&gt;No collection of wealth must be made by a Sudra, even though he be able (to do it); for a Sudra who has acquired wealth, gives pain to Brahmanas.&lt;/em&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9810" LastActivityDate="2017-05-19T14:42:55.880" Title="Why Shudras are not allowed to have wealth?" Tags="|caste-system|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18372" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18371" CreationDate="2017-05-19T14:42:55.880" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201871.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt; the explanation given by Medhatithi in his commentary on the Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘Even though he is able’—by means of agriculture and such acts,—wealth shall not be amassed by the Śūdra. In support of this the Author adds an argument in the form of a declamatory statement—‘Having acquired wealth the Śūdra harasses the Brāhmaṇas.’ “What is the harassment caused to Brāhmaṇas?” Becoming very rich, they would make the Brāhmaṇas accept gifts from themselves, and the accepting of gifts from the Śūdra has been forbidden for them; hence becoming a party to their doing what is forbidden, he would incur sin.  The danger of incurring such sin however could not apply to the case of one who goes on fulfilling all that is prescribed for him. Hence the ‘harassment’ of the Brāhmaṇa that is meant is only this that he would no longer serve them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the problem is that by acquiring wealth he may be tempted to stop performing his duty of serving Brahmanas and other members of the first three castes.  And so he's forbidden from acquiring wealth in order to prevent this temptation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, if a low-caste person violates this and acquires wealth anyway, he should use this wealth to support members of the first three castes, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe02/sbe0274.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Gautama Dharma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And a man of higher caste (who is his master and has fallen into distress must be maintained) by him.  &lt;strong&gt;His hoard shall serve this purpose.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-05-19T14:42:55.880" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18373" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18374" CreationDate="2017-05-19T15:33:59.917" Score="2" ViewCount="3446" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, how is Raavana a rakshasa and a brahmin at the same time? Second, if Raavana is Brahmin, how is he the king of Lanka? Since one's caste was determined based on one's karma, I would think Raavana to be a Kshatriya by that logic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2987" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T06:33:11.247" LastActivityDate="2022-01-25T10:08:58.853" Title="Is Raavana a rakshasa or a brahmin and how he can be a king too?" Tags="|caste-system|ravana|rakshasa|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18374" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18373" CreationDate="2017-05-19T15:41:35.183" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This explains it in detail:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-difference-between-Asuras-and-Rakshasas-per-Hindu-mythology-Was-Ravana-an-Asura-or-a-Rakshasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-difference-between-Asuras-and-Rakshasas-per-Hindu-mythology-Was-Ravana-an-Asura-or-a-Rakshasa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically, the 4 varnas (Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra) exist in every jati (deva, manushya, gandharva, rakshasa, pishacha)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we can have Deva Vaishya, manushya Kshatirya, Rakshasa Brahmana etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g. Ravana was Rakshasa jati &amp;amp; Brahmana varna. Shukracharya is Deva Brahmana. Chitrangadha is Gandharva Kshatriya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next, both birth &amp;amp; character determine one's varna. Normally, either one alone is not sufficient.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g. Drona was brahmana but fought in Mahabharata, Koushika was kshatriya but did severe penance for thousands of years and converted into brahmana (Vishvamitra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-05-19T16:05:29.687" LastActivityDate="2017-05-19T16:05:29.687" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18375" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-19T15:51:47.103" Score="5" ViewCount="143" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dadhichi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt; on Dadhichi says that he saved some Kshatriya children from Parashurama's wrath by hiding them in the Hinglaj Devi Temple. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://brahmkshatriya.in/origin.htm#shelter&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This site&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinglaj_Mata&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this wiki page on Hinglaj Mata&lt;/a&gt; gives an account of how a King known as Ratnasena of Sindh took shelter at Dadhichi's ashram as Parashurama wreaked havoc and his 5 queens gave birth to 5 sons in the ashram. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ratnasena was killed by Parshurama when he ventured outside the ashram and Dadhichi disguised Ratnasena's children as brahmins to hide them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the children named Jayasena returned to Sindh under a protection mantra of Hinglaj Devi given to him by Dadhichi. It is said Hinglaj Devi also asked Parashurama to stop his massacre.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this story have any scriptural basis or is it just a folktale? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-19T16:57:24.633" LastActivityDate="2017-05-19T16:57:24.633" Title="Which scriptures describe Dadhichi hiding Kshatriya children from Parashurama?" Tags="|devi|parashurama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18377" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18370" CreationDate="2017-05-19T17:02:13.167" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt; , killing of Infidels are not fully allowed in Vedas. There are some mantras in Atharva-Veda which asks god  agni about destroying evil minds of foes , pardoning / Sheltering then , Welcoming those who came to ask pardon /shelter. Destroying only evil-nature or evil-mind of foes and not the people , even Atharva-Veda prays to god agni for welfare of son's and daughter's of evil-minded people and to motivate them towards good path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva-Veda , First Kandam , Sukta 7 &amp;amp; 8 , YatudhanNashan Sukta.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atharva-Veda Samhita , Translated by Pandit ShriRam Sharma Acharya. Published by - Yuga Nirmaan Yojana , Mathura , Uttar-Pradesh , which is a hindi translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are some of the mantras from Atharva-Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पश्याम ते वीर्यम्  जातवेदा प्र णो ब्रुहि यतुधानान नृचक्ष: ।&lt;br&gt; त्वया&#xA;  सर्वे परितप्ता: पुरस्तात त आ यन्तु प्रब्रुवाणा उपेदम ॥ 7.5॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Agni you are the form of the  knowledge , let us see your bright&#xA;  bravery. You are the guide to whom who have lost the right way. By&#xA;  your grace lead our foes to the right path. By your order, let wickedness&#xA;  come here to repentance by identifying themselves.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अयं स्तुवान आगमदिमं स्म प्रति हर्यत ।&lt;br&gt; बृहस्पते वशे लब्ध्वाग्निषोमा&#xA;  वि विध्यतम् ॥ 8.2॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Welcoming those wicked minded people who came here for&#xA;  repentance. O guiding star! source of bright knowladge! By your grace&#xA;  take them in your control. To cure them, O Agni &amp;amp; Soma examine them.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यातुधानस्य सोमप जहि प्रजां नयस्व च ।&lt;br&gt; नि स्तुवानस्य पातय&#xA;  परमक्षुतावरम् ॥8.3॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Soma! you let us drink the nectar of knowledge by your grace. Let the&#xA;  evil-nature gets destroyed by roots, let this reach to the children&#xA;  of evil-minded once &amp;amp; let them also be made good minded. Let the eyes be&#xA;  lowered of those, who praise you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;so from above shlokas of Atharva-Veda it is clear that vedas do not at all support/suggest the concept of infidels. It supports a Humanist approach towards enemies, evil-minded people.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5VTdn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5VTdn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-05-20T04:32:56.087" LastActivityDate="2017-05-20T04:32:56.087" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18378" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18349" CreationDate="2017-05-19T17:18:16.317" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All enlightened people other than Brahmin born are examples of Varna migration&lt;/strong&gt;. Because only Brahmin is capable to become enlightened. &lt;strong&gt;One takes many birth to become Brahmin, some (however few) become Brahmin in single birth.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;BR&gt; &#xA;One must have these qualities to become enlightened. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The actions of a brahmana arising from his own nature are serenity, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge of the Vedas, wisdom and firm faith. BG 18.42. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same concept is beautifully expressed in the commentary of Yathartha Geeta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ancient  sages  divided  the  travellers  on  the  eternal  path  of  the Self  into  four  classes,  Shudr,  Vaishya,  Kshatriy,  and  Brahmin,  according to  their  innate  abilities.  In  the  primary  stage  of  accomplishment  every seeker  is  a  Shudr,  meaning  one  who  is  deficient  in  knowledge.  He spends  hours  on  worship  and  adoration  of  God,  and  yet  fails  to  render even  ten  minutes  of  his  time  truly  beneficial  to  his  spiritual  quest.  He  is unable  to  cut  through  the  illusory  facade  of  the  material  world.  Sitting devoutly  at  the  feet  of  a  realized  Sage,  an  accomplished  teacher,  at  this stage  helps  in  the  cultivation  of  virtues  in  his  nature.  With  this  he  is promoted  to  the  level  of  a  seeker  of  the  Vaishya  class.  Gradually realizing  that  accomplishments  of  the  Self  are  the  only  true accomplishments,  he  becomes  adept  in  seizing  and  protecting  his senses.  Passion  and  wrath  are  fatal  to  the  senses,  whereas discrimination  and  renunciation  protect  them,  but  they  are  by  themselves incapable  of  annihilating  seeds  of  the  material  world.  Gradually,  then,  as the  worshipper  progresses  further,  his  heart  and  mind  grow  strong enough  to  carve  their  way  through  the  three  properties  of  nature.  This  is the  inborn  quality  of  a  Kshatriy.  At  this  point  the  worshipper  acquires  the ability  to  destroy  the  world  of  nature  and  its  perversions.  So  this  is  the point  of  commencement  of  the  war.  By  further  refinement  after  this,  the worshipper  is  slowly  elevated  to  the  category  of  a  Brahmin.  Some  of  the virtues  that  now  grow  in  the  seeker  are  control  of  the  mind  and  senses, incessant  contemplation,  simplicity,  perception,  and  knowledge.  By slowly  perfecting  these  qualities,  then,  he  ultimately  attains  to  God,  and at  this  stage  he  ceases  to  be even  a Brahmin. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  Krishn  lays  down  that  even  if  the  inherent  ability,  by  which  a  man participates  in  this  dharm,  is  of  the  unmeritorious  and  ignorant  Shudr level,  it  is  beneficial  in  the  highest  sense,  because  it  is  the  starting  point from  where  he  can  set  out  on  the  path  of  Self-cultivation.  &lt;strong&gt;However,  the worshipper  is  destroyed  if  he  imitates  the  manner  of  higher  classes&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion-&lt;/strong&gt; Order of progress to become one with ultimate reality is: Shudra -&gt; Vaishya -&gt; Kshatriya -&gt; Brahmin -&gt; Beyond 3 Gunas. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;Many take many births to go beyond 3 Gunas from Shudra, some can go beyond 3 Gunas from Sudra in single life as well via dedicated intense Spirituality &amp;amp; devotion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-05-19T17:18:16.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18379" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-19T17:34:42.830" Score="14" ViewCount="450" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dropbox.com/s/z66c2co3e26379i/Chapter4_2873-2942p.1.pdf?dl=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this extract&lt;/a&gt; from the Uttarakhanda of Padma Purana there is a Goddess named Kotara/Kotaraksi that was worshiped by Aniruddha (Krishna's grandson) during his battle against Banasura. Krishna established her tirtha at the bank of a river.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1-13. A little away from it is the excellent Siddhaksetra, O goddess.&#xA;Formerly Aniruddha was chosen by Citralekha for Usá.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was taken to Banasura's city formerly and he stayed in his (i.e.&#xA;Banasura's) house. Checked by nooses and arrows, he then remembered&#xA;Kotaraksi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is actually the power of Visnu, always engaged in protecting (the&#xA;devotees). Krsna installed (the image of) this goddess here on the&#xA;bank of the river. Due to the hymn of Aniruddha, returning to Dvaraka,&#xA;after having vanquished Banasura in a battle, she actually came near&#xA;(him).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She seems to be the same goddess mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_120.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this portion&lt;/a&gt; of Harivamsa known as Kotavati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although I am more interested in this sentence that Mahadeva narrated to Parvati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kotaraksi has a universal form. She has great divine power. She is&#xA;superior in strength. She in Tripura, is the destroyer of Tripura; is&#xA;Siva and of the form of Siva. &lt;strong&gt;She is said to be the daughter of&#xA;Sarasvati.&lt;/strong&gt; She is Durga. She removes misery. She is Bhairavi,&#xA;Bhairavaksi, and Laksmi, to whom the people (i.e. devotees) of the&#xA;goddess are dear, O Chief goddess. Thus various names (of her) are&#xA;mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did Kotara come to be Sarasvati's daughter? I am assuming this refers to the Goddess Sarasvati consort of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/PadmaPuranaUttaraKhandam.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here (page 601 of the pdf)&lt;/a&gt; are the Sanskrit verses of the above quote if it helps. I've put them up as a screenshot because the copy-paste translated them as gibberish. &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1Vjg0.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1Vjg0.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="25676" LastEditDate="2023-11-04T00:23:41.420" LastActivityDate="2023-11-04T03:36:54.970" Title="Who is Sarasvati's daughter Kotara?" Tags="|devi|saraswati|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18381" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18382" CreationDate="2017-05-19T18:57:45.963" Score="4" ViewCount="208" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said in Bhagavad Geeta, that we should live our life according to scriptural injunctions.&#xA;What scriptures should we follow exactly?&#xA;Where are the regulated principles laid out?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9068" LastActivityDate="2017-05-20T05:15:16.263" Title="How to live our life?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18382" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18381" CreationDate="2017-05-20T05:15:16.263" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will answer according to Kashmiri Shaivism because the teachings of Bhagvat Geeta are meant to unite individual consciousness to the universal consciousness which is the ultimate aim in Kashmiri Shaivism (is to unite with Śiva/universe - Shivvyāpti.) This is said in &lt;em&gt;Virupākshapañchākshikā&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indeed, in the writings of the sages Shuka, Vamadeva, &lt;strong&gt;Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;, Dadhici, and  Vainya, identity with the universe is explained to be born of the yoga of identification with the elements. ( Verse 50)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, any scripture which are meant to unite individual consciousness to universal consciousness should be followed. i.e Shāstras teaching the methods &amp;amp; philosophy to unite with the ultimate reality. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;One may read Bhagvat Geeta &amp;amp; Upanishads with &lt;strong&gt;non dual&lt;/strong&gt; commentaries to understand non duality which is prerequisite to unite individual consciousness to the universal consciousness. But I will cite scriptures of Kashmiri Shaivism as I'm answering according to Kashmiri Shaivism. Kashmiri Shaiva scriptures are broadly classified as &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pratyabijna Shāstras&lt;/strong&gt; - teaches philosophy of Pratyabijna. Non dualism between Shiva &amp;amp; Añu. Pratyabijna Hridyam, Ishvar Pratyabijna, Shiv drishti, Tantrāloka, tantrasāra etc are some Pratyabijna Shāstras. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Spanda Shāstras&lt;/strong&gt; - Expands content of Shiv Sutras &lt;strong&gt;from the point of Shakti&lt;/strong&gt;. E.g, Spanda Karika or Spanda Sutras. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Āgama Shāstras&lt;/strong&gt; - Revelation &lt;strong&gt;of Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;. They lay down both principles &amp;amp; practices. E.g, Mālinivijay tantra, Svechcandra tantra, Vijnānabhairav tantra, Rudrayāmala tantra, Shiv Sutras etc. &#xA;&lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Summary verse by achārya Abhinavgupta&lt;/strong&gt; in his commentary on Bhagvat Geeta. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That all merciful &lt;em&gt;Parāshakti&lt;/em&gt;, which blesses all living beings, blossoms &amp;amp; expands in that unitary consciousness called &lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;; therefore, one should strive to attain that highest reality. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-05-20T05:15:16.263" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18383" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-20T06:53:45.590" Score="4" ViewCount="218" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srisailam is a Holy place known which is called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshetram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kshetra&lt;/a&gt;, amongst other things, for hosting &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srisailamtemple.com/srisailam/about-the-main-temple.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Mallikarjuna Jyotirlingam&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shaktipeethas.org/ashtadasa/topic50.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Goddess Bhramaramba Devi&lt;/a&gt;, one of the eighteen Mahashakthi peethas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The origin of Srisailam Hills has significant conflicting accounts - on the one hand, as stated &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srisailamtemple.com/srisailam/legends.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the sthala is on the hill which is of the body of Parvatha, son of Silada Maharishi whilst according to this &lt;a href=&quot;https://tirumalatirupativaibhavam.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/contest-between-adisesha-and-vayudeva/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;account&lt;/a&gt; on the other hand, the sthala are part of the tail of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shesha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SheshaNaga&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, which of these accounts is accurate? Is there mention of any of the accounts in Scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T02:17:17.583" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T02:17:17.583" Title="Origin of Srisailam Hills" Tags="|history|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18384" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-05-20T07:04:02.210" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-05-20T07:04:02.210" LastActivityDate="2017-05-20T07:04:02.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18385" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-05-20T07:04:02.210" Score="0" Body="For questions about stories regarding revered and notable places that are part of Hindu religious beliefs. Sthala Puranams(literally place stories) are scattered throughout many places in Hindu scriptures as well as have a rich oral tradition - usually passed on through priests officiating at the these Sthalas." OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-05-20T07:22:38.660" LastActivityDate="2017-05-20T07:22:38.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18386" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-20T07:20:55.027" Score="4" ViewCount="629" Body="&lt;p&gt;Few days ago I had an arguments with one person on instagram on one topic. suddenly our discussion turns towards Shree Ram and our discussion turned into religious topic. Here are some parts of discussions (as I remember) which will help you to understand what is my question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He:&lt;/strong&gt; Civilised people is not what you are saying because even Shree Ram killed bali with fraud, how you will see Ram on this?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me:&lt;/strong&gt; Don't give example of Shree Ram without knowing the full truth. He did it on purpose of protecting dharma and spread justice&#xA;in world. I use to watch Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan on YouTube almost&#xA;daily. I know all fact about it. If you wanna know more on it then go&#xA;and watch by yourself.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He:&lt;/strong&gt; ahaha you are telling me on behalf of a tv serial lol. What you will find from a serial. Go and read Ramayan and Ram&#xA;Charitmanas... Only after reading these books you will come to know&#xA;about it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Me:&lt;/strong&gt; (got little agry after reading his last comment) Why not tv serial? You think books are more genuine than TV serial? May be you&#xA;don't know but let me tell you for your information that the books&#xA;that you use to read are Published by companies and writer of those&#xA;books will be a writer from today's time. If you will see writer name&#xA;of Ramayan then you won't see Balmiki written on it but instead it&#xA;will be name of some writter who just wrote this book. The actual&#xA;Ramayan of Balmiki can't be found. So the writer of books and writer&#xA;of TV serial script are both from today's time, not from Satyug or&#xA;DwaparYug. Then on what basis you believe books are more genuine than&#xA;serial since both are written by companies (publisher company and tv&#xA;serial maker company).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He:&lt;/strong&gt; (stated laughing at me and earagantly reply with some very bad words) I read books and also watch serials, so I know what's the&#xA;difference between them. Go and read books then you will come to&#xA;know.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Although he said he knows the difference since he has seen both but still I believe he just faking it so that he won't loose the arguments and the bad words he used in last comments (that i didn't mentioned) are proove of this coz when people start loosing any arguments then they start getting personal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now I actually want to know is there any difference between knowledge provides by books and TV serial? Both shares same incidents of Lord Ram's life and teachings then what could be possible difference between them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can't I say that I know all about my Lord Ram's life because I have watched Ramanad Sagar's Ramayan? Or I will be applicable of saying this only when I will read Ram Charitmanas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I got some useful comments but still not got clear answer. I know serials can add stuff to increase TRP but I am not talking about all serial but only Ramand Sagar's Ramayan because I believe this is most trustworty serial ever made on Ramayan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If some one has read books and also watch serial of Ramanad Sagar then Please point out what difference are there. Give example of some incident which are in book but not in serial and which are in serial but not in book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Right now I am getting reply only based on assumptions which might be right or might be wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-05-20T08:06:12.723" LastActivityDate="2017-05-20T08:06:12.723" Title="Is there any difference between religious books and religious tv serials?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2017-05-20T14:07:40.153" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18387" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-20T11:19:56.800" Score="3" ViewCount="1042" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shani has always been one of the most feared planets in Hindu astrology. Shani sade-sati is considered highly ill-fated and all other planets fail to give any positive results if Shani is in a bad position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Lord Shani Harmful OR a ‘Friend’&#xA;Who is Lord Shani? Why is Shani Dev feared? How to please Shani Dev?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T05:44:49.003" Title="Is Lord Shani Harmful ? OR a Friend?" Tags="|gods|shani|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18390" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7173" CreationDate="2017-05-20T16:10:24.580" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indonesian/Balinese Culture&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes Balinese Hinduism is similar to Indian Hinduism both &lt;a href=&quot;https://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/vedas-in-bali-islands-catur-veda-sira/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;revere same set of Scriptures&lt;/a&gt; with Supremacy of Vedas. The supreme Bramhan is known by the name &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acintya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Achintya&lt;/a&gt;, you can read more about &lt;a href=&quot;https://tamilandvedas.com/2015/01/29/hindu-kings-of-indonesia/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Rulers of Bali&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Temples Dedicated to Trimurti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shriman Naryana :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shri Balaji Venkateshwara Kovil, Jln.Bunga Wijaya Kesuma/Pasar&#xA;IV,Padang Bulan, Medan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parambanan Temple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Siva Temple, Pluit, North Jakarta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parambanan Temple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bramha&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prambanan Temple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So its clear that Bali people worship Trimuriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2017-05-20T16:10:24.580" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18391" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-20T17:16:59.443" Score="3" ViewCount="321" Body="&lt;p&gt;While marrying, the hindus pledge considering &quot;fire&quot; as a witness. Is there any specific with fire that it is given priority over the other master elements of the universe?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8207" LastActivityDate="2017-05-20T17:16:59.443" Title="Why are Hindu marriages done “Agni Sakshi” (fire as witness)" Tags="|marriage|agni|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-05-22T05:46:35.097" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18392" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10282" CreationDate="2017-05-20T20:13:19.870" Score="1" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;When we finish getting all bad returns and keep doing only good karma, then we would keep &#xA;getting only good returns. Is that so? Then when would we get moksha?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, what you sow is what you reap. But if you will do &lt;code&gt;Nishkama Karma&lt;/code&gt; (actions without attachment), you will not be bound by this law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=3&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=9&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;etassa=1&amp;amp;etradi=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavad Gita 3.9&lt;/a&gt; lord Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यज्ञार्थात्कर्मणोऽन्यत्र लोकोऽयं कर्मबन्धनः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदर्थं कर्म कौन्तेय मुक्तसंगः समाचर।।3.9।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation By Swami Gambirananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.9 This man becomes bound by actions other than that action meant for God. Without being attached, O son of Kunti, you perform actions for Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation Of Sri Shankaracharya's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Gambirananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.9 Ayam, this; lokah, man, the one who is eligible for action; karma-bandhanah, becomes bound by actions- the person who has karma as his bondage (bandhana) is karma-bandhanah-; anyatra, other than; that karmanah, action; yajnarthat, meant for Got not by that meant for God. According to the Vedic text, 'Sacrifice is verily Visnu' (Tai. Sam. 1.7.4), yajnah means God; whatever is done for Him is yajnartham. Therefore, mukta-sangah, without being attached, being free from attachment to the results of actions; O son of Kunti, samacara, you perform; karma, actions; tadartham, for Him, for God. An eligible person should engage in work for the following reason also:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation of Ramanuja's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Adidevananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.9 The world is imprisoned by the bond of work only when work is done for personal ends, but not when work is performed or money acired for the purpose of sacrifice etc. prescribed in the scriptures. So, for the purpose of sacrifice, you must perform acts like the acisition of money. In doing so, overcome attachments generated by the pursuit of personal ambitions, and then do your work in the spirit of Yajna. When a person free from attachment does the work for the sake of sacrifices etc., the Supreme Person, propitiated by sacrifices etc., grants him the calm vision of the self after destroying the subtle impressions of his Karmas, which have continued from time without beginning. Sri Krsna stresses the need for sustenance of the body solely by the remnants of sacrifices in respect of those who are devoted to all ends of human life. He decries the sin of those who nourish the body by things other than the remnants of sacrifices:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation of Abhinavgupta's Sanskrit Commentary By Dr. S. Sankaranarayan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.9 Yajnarthat etc. Binding are the actions which are different from the one that is Yajnartha, i.e., the one that is to be performed necessarily. The action, that is to be performed necessarily, does not yield any fruit, if it is performed with no attachment for the fruit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=3&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=19&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;etassa=1&amp;amp;etradi=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, 3.19&lt;/a&gt; lord Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्मादसक्तः सततं कार्यं कर्म समाचर।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;असक्तो ह्याचरन्कर्म परमाप्नोति पूरुषः।।3.19।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation By Swami Gambirananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.19 Therefore, remaining unattached, always perform the obligatory duty, for, by performing (one's) duty without attachment, a person attains the Highest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation Of Sri Shankaracharya's Sanskrit&#xA;Commentary By Swami Gambirananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.19 Since this is so, therefore, asaktah, remaining unattached; samacara, perform; satatam, always; karyam, the obligatory; daily karma, duty; hi, for; acaran, by performing; (one's) karma, duty; asaktah, without attachment, by doing work as a dedication to God; purusah, a person; apnoti, attains; param, the Highest, Liberation, through the purification of the mind. This is meaning. And (you should perform your duty) for the following reason also:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation of Ramanuja's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Adidevananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.19 Therefore, considering that work has to be performed with detachment, you perform it, considering yourself a non-agent. This will be declared in the words 'with detachment' and 'which ought to be done,' meaning that one attains the Supreme by Karma Yoga itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation of Abhinavgupta's Sanskrit Commentary By Dr. S. Sankaranarayan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.17-19 Yas ca etc. upto purusah. However, for a person who rejoices in the Self and performs action simply as a [routine] business of organs of action, there is no difference between (his) action and nonaciton. That is why he inflicts punishment on, or does favour to, every being, not with desire for any gain for himself, but with a conviction that it a is thing that deserves to be performed. Therefore, just unattached, one should perform action that is to be performed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And by doing &lt;code&gt;Nishkama Karma&lt;/code&gt; you will be freed from the bondage of birth. It is said by Lord Krishna in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=2&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=51&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;etassa=1&amp;amp;etradi=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavad Gita 2.51&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कर्मजं बुद्धियुक्ता हि फलं त्यक्त्वा मनीषिणः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;जन्मबन्धविनिर्मुक्ताः पदं गच्छन्त्यनामयम्।।2.51।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation By Swami Gambirananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.51 Because, those who are devoted to wisdom, (they) becoming men of Enlightenment by giving up the fruits produced by actions, reach the state beyond evils by having become freed from the bondage of birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation Of Sri Shankaracharya's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Gambirananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.51 The words 'phalam tyaktva, by giving up the fruits' are connected with the remote word 'karmajam, produced by actions'. Hi, because; [Because, when actions are performed with an attitude of eanimity, it leads to becoming freed from sin etc. Therefore, by stages, it becomes the cause of Liberation as well.] buddhi-yuktah, those who are devoted to wisdom, who are imbued with the wisdom of eanimity; (they) becoming manisinah, men of Enlightenment; tyaktva, by giving up; phalam, the fruit, the acisition of desirable and undesriable bodies; [Desirable: the bodies of gods and others; undesirable: the bodies of animals etc.] karmajam, produced by actions; gacchanti, reach; padam, the state, the supreme state of Visnu, called Liberation; anamayam, beyond evils, i.e. beyond all evils; by having become janma-bandha-vinirmuktah, freed from the bondage of birth birth (janma) itself is a bondage (bandha); becoming freed from that , even while living. Or: Since it (buddhi) has been mentioned as the direct cause of the elimination of righteousness and unrighteousness, and so on, therefore what has been presented (in the three verses) beginning with, 'O Dhananjaya,৷৷.to the yoga of wisdom' (49), is enlightenment itself, which consists in the realization of the supreme Goal, which is comparable to a flood all around, and which arises from the purification of the mind as a result of Karma-yoga. [In the first portion of the Commentary buddhi has been taken to mean samattva buddhi (wisdom of eanimity); the alternative meaning of buddhi has been taken as 'enlightenment'. So, action is to be performed by taking the help of the 'wisdom about the supreme Reality' which has been chosen as one's Goal.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation of Ramanuja's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Adidevananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.51 Those who possess this evenness of mind while performing actions and relinish their fruits, are freed from the bondage of birth, and go to the region beyond all ills. 'Hi' means that this dictum or teaching is well known in all the Upanisads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation of Abhinavgupta's Sanskrit Commentary By Dr. S. Sankaranarayan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.51 Karmajam etc. The persons who are endowed with the determining faculty with regard to the Yoga, renounce the birth-bondage, by renouncing the fruit of actions; and they attain the Brahman-existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And now come to your second question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;One would say that karma ends when we get moksha. If that's so, then what happens to our&#xA;Sanchita Karma?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if we will renounce the fruit of actions, then there will not be any Sanchita Karma (It's my understanding).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Please note that this answer is only based on BG.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-22T04:54:01.933" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18393" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-20T21:10:59.087" Score="11" ViewCount="512" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10174/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four disciples: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara. And in turn they started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam (which I belong to), Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Sampradayam.  My question is about the Rudra Sampradayam, the one founded by Shiva.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most famous Acharya associated with the Rudra Sampradayam is Vallabhacharya, the founder of the Pushtimarg sect which worships the Srinathji form of Krishna (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2950/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;). The reason that Vallabhacharya's followers consider themselves part of the Rudra Sampradayam is they believe that Vallabhacharya was in the disciplic succession of Vishnusvami, an earlier Vaishnava Acharya associated with the Rudra Sampradayam. But in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Ntx8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this journal paper&lt;/a&gt;, G. H. Bhatt argues that Vallabacharya did not actually belong to the disciplic succession of Vishnusvami, and that Vishnusvami believed in a dualistic philosophy that has no connection to Vallabacharya's philosophy of Shuddhadvaita.  So my question is, what surviving works of the Rudra Sampradayam are there from before the time of Vallabhacharya?  That should help settle the issue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/x_ki&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Vidyaranya's Sarva Darshana Sangraha, written contains some references to works from Vishnuswami's sect.  The context is that Vidyaranya is discussing a Shaivite sect called the Raseshvaras, who believed in using Mercury to make the body immortal and thereby achieve Jivanmukti.  The Raseshvaras argue that it's possible for a body to be eternal, because Vishnuswami's sect says the body of Vishnu's incarnation Narasimha is eternal:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And this is not to be supposed to be unprecedented, for the adherents of the doctrine of Vishnusvámin maintain the eternity of the body of Vishnu half-man and halflion. Thus it is said in the &lt;strong&gt;Sákára-siddhi&lt;/strong&gt; - “I glorify the man-lion set forth by Vishnusvámin, whose only body is existence, intelligence, and eternal and inconceivably perfect beatitude.” If the objection be raised that the body of the man-lion, which appears as composite and as coloured, is incompatible with real existence, it may be replied: How can the body of the man-lion be otherwise than really existent, proved as it is by three kinds of proof: (1) by the intuition of Sanaka and others; (2) by Vedic texts such as, A thousand heads has Purusha; and (3) by Purānic texts such as, That wondrous child, lotus-eyed, four-armed, armed with the conch-shell, the club, and other weapons? Real existence and other like predicates are affirmed also by &lt;strong&gt;Srikántamišra, the devoted adherent of Vishnusvámin&lt;/strong&gt;. Let, then, those who aspire to the highest end of personal souls be assured that the eternity of the body which we are setting forth is by no means a mere innovation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So do the Sakara Siddhi or the works of Srikantamishra still exist?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, I've seen claims that Sridharaswami was an Acharya of the Rudra Sampradayam who lived between the time of Vishnuswami and the time of Vallabhacharya.  Can anyone verify if that's correct?  If so, his commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam still exist.  But I've seen claims that there are multiple Sridharaswamis, so the one who lived before Vallabhacharya may not belong to the Rudra Sampradayam.  In any case, other than the works of Sridharaswami, are there any other works of the Rudra Sampradayam before the time of Vallabhacharya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/antya/2/95&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the ISKCON commentary on the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Srila Prabhupada claims that Vishnuswami wrote a commentary on the Brahma Sutras called the Sarvajna Bhashya.  Is that correct?  If so, I assume it no longer exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T06:01:04.250" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T06:01:04.250" Title="What surviving works of the Rudra Sampradayam are there before Vallabhacharya?" Tags="|vishnu|history|vaishnavism|sects|pushti-marga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18394" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19187" CreationDate="2017-05-20T22:29:02.880" Score="7" ViewCount="1220" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata Gandhari curses Krishna with the death of all the Yadavas. A rishi cursed Samba to destroy his entire race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who is the rishi, why two curses, and whose curse came true? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9706" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2018-07-14T18:08:56.373" LastActivityDate="2018-07-14T18:08:56.373" Title="Yadava race destruction?" Tags="|krishna|yadavas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18395" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10932" CreationDate="2017-05-20T23:53:10.570" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sadhguru in many of his Satsangs told Adiyogi IS Dakshinamurthy &#xA;He explained hat since Adiyogi sat facing South in Himalayas, people called him Dakshinamurthy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devon ke Dev Maha dev tv series showing Shiva as Adiyogi ( Thats how Parvati calls him in one of her births ) teaching yoga to Parvati. This tv serial as they claim they have taken references from Shiva Purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also i remember reading in Shivapurana that Shiva is Adiyogi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9824" LastActivityDate="2017-05-20T23:53:10.570" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18397" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10282" CreationDate="2017-05-21T06:08:06.850" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Assuming free from birth &amp;amp; death cycle as Moksha.&lt;/strong&gt; From Patanjali Yoga Sutra.  &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoga is the control ( nirodhah, regulation, channeling, mastery, integration,coordination, stilling, quieting, setting aside) of &lt;strong&gt;the modifications (gross and subtle &#xA;  thought patterns) of the mind field ( chitta )&lt;/strong&gt;. Yog Sutra 1.2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now see this analogy -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chitta or mind stuff - lake. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vritti or modifications - ripples on lake. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What you call as Karma is physical manifestation of Vritti ( modifications ) on chitta. These modifications are Samskars which you have been carrying, decide your birth.  &lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once your modifications faded out, &lt;strong&gt;Moksha&lt;/strong&gt; is achieved! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the Seer abides in Itself, resting in its own True Nature, which is called &lt;strong&gt;Self-realization or moksha&lt;/strong&gt;. Yog Sutra 1.3 &lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Analogically, when ripples in the lake vanish completely, the surface of the lake knows it's real nature. Note that eradications of Samskars implies self realization. Which means self realized has no modifications, no fuel left to create next life therefore no &lt;strong&gt;next birth.&lt;/strong&gt;.  This is Moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;H3&gt; Ques. When we do good karma, we get some good return. When we do some bad karma, we get some bad return. When we finish getting all bad returns and keep doing only good karma, then we would keep getting only good returns. Is that so?&lt;/H3&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here comes next sutra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those gross and subtle thought patterns or modifications (vrittis) fall into five varieties, of which some are &lt;strong&gt;pleasant&lt;/strong&gt; (klishta) and others are &lt;strong&gt;unpleasant&lt;/strong&gt; (aklishta). 1.5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pleasant vrittis results in accumulation of attachment &amp;amp; unpleasant vrittis results in accumulation of aversion. When something Good happens as a result of Good previous Karmas. You develop attachments (pleasant modification) to good happening thus accumulate &lt;strong&gt;fresh&lt;/strong&gt; Samskar which is newer modification, a fuel for movement of a soul. Similarly, when something bad happens as a result of bad Karmas, you lament or develop aversion (unpleasant modifications) for bad event, again a fuel for movement of soul. &lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus result whether auspicious or inauspicious results into accumulation of Samskars, a fuel for next birth&lt;/strong&gt;. Analogically, it is the story of Shumbh Nishumbh where goddess kāli keeps killing Asuras but falling down of blood drops give rise to next Asuras. Actually this is external manifestation of this concept only as whatever happens inside is fated to be manifested outside. &#xA;&lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;H2&gt; &lt;em&gt;Ques- Then when/how will we get moksha?&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/H2&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ans - By &lt;strong&gt;being equanimous ( Sthitiprajna )&lt;/strong&gt; or in simple terms -. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By neither rejecting anything nor accepting anything. By rejecting duality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we neither elate on pleasant circumstances nor become miserable on miseries, we don't develop newer Samskars or impressions, hence no fuel of new birth hence self realization. This was the reason Lord Krishna said -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O noblest of men, that person of wise judgement &lt;strong&gt;equipoised in happiness and distress&lt;/strong&gt;, whom cannot be disturbed by these is certainly eligible for &lt;strong&gt;Liberation&lt;/strong&gt;. 2.15. &lt;BR&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Being &lt;strong&gt;equipoised in happiness and unhappiness, profit and loss, victory and defeat&lt;/strong&gt;; thereafter prepare for battle and in this way you will not incur sinful. 2.38.&lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note, Lord Krishna advising Arjun to engage in battle with &lt;strong&gt;equanimity&lt;/strong&gt;. Because &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arjun has &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt; Samskars on his chitta. Fleeing from battle wont exhaust these Samskars. Battle will exhaust &lt;strong&gt;assuming he is not going to practice some Sadhnas to eradicate Samskars by yogic practices.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mere battle is not sufficient, it is necessary but not sufficient condition for liberation. &lt;strong&gt;Battle with equanimity&lt;/strong&gt; is necessary &amp;amp; sufficient condition to exhaust Kshatriya Samskars. Otherwise, if Arjun develops hatred, anger, lust etc while battling it would be newer Samskar ( possibly a Shudra or Rakshashi Samskar) which possibly gives rise to Shudra or Rakshashi or lower birth after &lt;strong&gt;heavenly enjoyments&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt; - Equanimity is sufficient condition for liberation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-05-21T06:29:47.680" LastActivityDate="2017-05-21T06:29:47.680" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18398" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-21T06:16:16.323" Score="10" ViewCount="1367" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Wife at the time of husbands death &lt;strong&gt;wear white saree&lt;/strong&gt; and does not put &lt;strong&gt;Kunkumam&lt;/strong&gt; on her forehead.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;She also does not participate in certain functions and seeing her is considered as a Bad Omen.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Husbands don't change their life style even in a small way.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why husbands &lt;strong&gt;don't change their dress code&lt;/strong&gt; after wife's death like the women who wear white sarees after husbands' death ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-21T12:45:48.117" LastActivityDate="2018-02-28T14:06:08.900" Title="Why don't husbands change their dress code after wife's death like the women who wear white saree after husband's death?" Tags="|rituals|practice|marriage|tradition|widow|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18399" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18387" CreationDate="2017-05-21T06:38:25.690" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;We find a nice description about Shani-Deva in our puranas like &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana &amp;amp; Padma purana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Puranas tells us that Shani Deva is &lt;strong&gt;sun's son.&lt;/strong&gt; He gained favour of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Mahadeva&lt;/strong&gt;. And Lord Mahadeva granted him the status of planet. He is also called in puranas as &quot;Sauri&quot; or &quot;Surishwara&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is said to be a downward-look.Gods ,Asuras &amp;amp; humans are get affected by his look &amp;amp; fear him.So he is a fierce deity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a story of King Dasharatha &amp;amp; Shani Deva. King Dasharatha composed a hymn to Shani-Deva , and Shani Deva became pleased with him.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to please Shani-Deva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Padma purana  Part 2  , chapter 52 , in the chapter  &quot;The worship of the planets&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pulastya said &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;20-21a : For the worship of Shanaischara (i.e. Saturn ) one should draw&#xA;  a circle (i.e. figure) resembling a human figure with black powders&#xA;  and there should devoutly worship the planet with black sandle , black&#xA;  flowers , pieces of cloth of that kind (black).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;21b-22 : Iron and other gifts should be given also oil cakes &amp;amp;&#xA;  sesamums. The present for shani being unfavorable is black cow and a&#xA;  black garment.One should also give according to one's capacity gold&#xA;  and sapphire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;23 : One should recite the hymn - O sun's son , O glorious one ,O you&#xA;  very mighty one , O you having downward look , O shani be pleased by&#xA;  means of  these presents made by me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;24 : He who having thus devoutly pleased shani ,would give presents to&#xA;  Brahmanas has shani favourable to him.If he was unfavourable at his&#xA;  birth and passing to other zodiacal sign.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Skanda-Purana says -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana ,Book 7  - PRABHASA KANDA , Chapter 49 , &quot;Sanaicaresvara&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 : The lord without beginning or death was bought down to the linga by&#xA;  him.Due to his devotion to shambhu he gained his favour &amp;amp; status of&#xA;  planet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5-7 : The great community of devas and asuras is afraid of his adverse&#xA;  look.In whole of the cosmos consisting of mobile &amp;amp; immobile beings&#xA;  ,there is no living being ,Deva or Danava who is not affected by sauri&#xA;  (saturn).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The devotee should worship saureshwara shiva with  devoutly on&#xA;  saturdays with sami leaves and rice cooked with gingerly seeds , black&#xA;  gram and jaggery.After offering libations according to injections ,he&#xA;  should offer a black bull to Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was Shani who was said to have burnt off  head of&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp42.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganesha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नीलांजन समाभासम रवि पुत्रम यमाग्रजं ।&lt;br&gt; छाया मार्तान्ड समभुतम तं&#xA;  नमामि शनैश्चरम ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;NILANJANA SAMABHASAM RAVI PUTRAM YAMAGRAJAM | CHAYA MARTHANDA&#xA;  SAMBHUTAM TAM NAMAMI SHANAISCHARAM ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning- Oh god dressed in blue silk, who has a blue body, Who wears a&#xA;  crown, who sits on vulture, Who gives misfortunes, who is armed with a&#xA;  bow, Who has four hands and who is son of Sun God, Be pleased with me&#xA;  always and happily grant me boons.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sfry5.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sfry5.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HYPF6.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HYPF6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T05:44:49.003" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T05:44:49.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18400" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7726" CreationDate="2017-05-21T09:27:42.753" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sacred thread and its strands has nothing to do with number of wives or children etc.  Nor they are worn for someone else. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Usually the thread is given during the thread ceremony which is of three strands. This marks the beginning of the studies in the brahmacharya ashrama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later, after the completion of Vedic studies in the gurukula, the person finally graduates. The graduation is the completion of vedic studies and is marked by the ceremony, a samskara called as Samavartana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the student is given six strand threads as he has completed the vedic studies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-05-21T09:27:42.753" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18401" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18398" CreationDate="2017-05-21T13:32:42.157" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;These rule (white dress on husband's death) and many other are set by humans (males) not by God! Males always prefers himself superior than females and with this arrogance of themselves they put lots of restriction on women in earlier time like... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;They have to burn herself with husband's body.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Later they change a little and impose new rule on women that they have to wear white sari after husband's death.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These rules are imposed on women in name of Parmpara or dharma But actually these rules has nothing to do with dharma. How in the world a dress code can decide whether you are a Dharmatma or not lol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me give you an example through which you will come to know that these rules (parampara) doesn't make a woman Dharmatma or anything like great.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Shree Ram said to Lakshman that Man can't be a saint or branhman by his birth but instead he can be by his karma (Deeds that man does). Even if you are son of a Maharish that doesn't make you also a Rishi but your karma will decide what you actually are... This is the reason, Maharishi Vishwamitra is know as the great Brahma Rishi instead of a great king (Vishwamitra is a son of a king) And Bhagwan Parshuram knows as Kshatriya more than Brahman (His father Maharishi Jamdagney was a Great Maharishi). Both of their karma was apposite of their father's that's why they are not famous for the same thing, for which their father was.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence your karma will decide what actually you are, not your birth or your father's karma. And to be more clear, Dress code (whether white sari or saint cloth) has nothing to do with karma or dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-09-22T11:05:57.327" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T11:05:57.327" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18402" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17392" CreationDate="2017-05-21T13:40:54.613" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism tells us to respect all living beings from animals to small insects to plants. It treats them as jivas (living beings) and having souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मृगोष्ट्रखरमर्काखुसरीसृप्खगमाक्षिका: ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   आत्मन: पुत्रवत पश्येतैरेषामन्तरं कियत ।।9।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mṛgoṣṭra-khara-markākhu-sarīsṛp khaga-makṣikāḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ātmanaḥ putravat paśyet tair eṣām antaraṁ kiyat &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should treat animals such as deer, camels, asses, monkeys, mice, snakes, birds and flies exactly &lt;strong&gt;like one’s own son.&lt;/strong&gt; How little difference there actually is between children and these innocent animals. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/14/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 7.14.9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is Swami Prabhupada's commentary on above verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For example, in the agricultural fields there may be many mice, flies and other creatures that disturb production, and sometimes they are killed by pesticides. In this verse, however, such killing is forbidden. Every living entity should be nourished by the food given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Human society should not consider itself the only enjoyer of all the properties of God; rather, men should understand that all the other animals also have a claim to God’s property. In this verse even the snake is mentioned, indicating that a householder should not be envious even of a snake.&#xA;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;About killing of animals as game - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तीर्थेषु प्रतिदृष्टेषु राजा मेध्यान पशुन वने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   यावदर्थमलं लूब्धो हन्यादिति &lt;strong&gt;नियम्यते&lt;/strong&gt; ॥६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tīrtheṣu pratidṛṣṭeṣu rājā medhyān paśūn vane&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    yāvad-artham alaṁ lubdho hanyād iti &lt;strong&gt;niyamyate&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a king is too attracted to eating flesh, he may, according to the directions of the revealed scriptures on sacrificial performances, go to the forest and kill some animals that are recommended for killing. One is not allowed to kill animals unnecessarily or without restrictions. The Vedas regulate animal-killing to stop the extravagance of foolish men influenced by the modes of passion and ignorance. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/26/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 4.26.6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;story&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in Shreemad Bhagavata Purana about ten sons of King &quot;PrachinBarhi&quot;  called &quot;Prachetas&quot;. When they emerged out of ocean, they saw whole  earth covered with plants and started to burn all the trees. Then Chandra pacified them by saying this -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मा द्रुमेभ्यो महाभागा दिनेभ्यो द्रोग्धुमर्हथ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   विवर्धयिषवो यूयं प्रजानां पतय: स्मृता ॥७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mā drumebhyo mahā-bhāgā dīnebhyo drogdhum arhatha |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   vivardhayiṣavo yūyaṁ prajānāṁ patayaḥ smṛtāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O greatly fortunate ones, you should not kill these poor trees by burning them to ashes. Your duty is to wish the citizens [prajās] all prosperity and to act as their protectors. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/4/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 6.4.7&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is indicated herein that the government or king has the duty of protecting not only human beings, but all other living entities including animals, trees and plants. No living entity should be killed unnecessarily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the scripture urges us to treat animals &amp;amp; plants fairly and not to harm them.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-18T07:31:38.750" LastActivityDate="2018-12-18T07:31:38.750" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18403" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-21T16:30:05.547" Score="1" ViewCount="143" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am interested in stories involing Gulika and Mandi, Shani's sons. Could somebody reference any mention of them in Puranas and other classical texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7161" LastActivityDate="2017-05-21T16:30:05.547" Title="Gulika and Mandi" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-05-21T17:02:11.060" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18404" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18408" CreationDate="2017-05-21T16:34:07.850" Score="5" ViewCount="2120" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2010/12/what-is-aarti/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt; we get the below explanation about arati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;it is not very clear what is what, where can we get a more detailed description on what is what in the aratik?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;these are the elements I can think of:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;conshell sound - ? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;incense - ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ghee lamp - fire&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;water in a conshell&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;water handkerchief - ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;flower&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;peacock feathers fan - ? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;yak tail whisk -?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;obeisances -?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the singing&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the dancing&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is offered? Figuratively, aarti signifies the offering of&#xA;  creation (represented by the various items offered during the aarti)&#xA;  to the creator (represented by the Deity, the iconic representation of&#xA;  the Divine). The Bhagavad-gita (7.4-5) analyzes the material world to&#xA;  be made of eight elements: earth (representing all solids), water&#xA;  (representing all liquids), fire (representing all radiations and&#xA;  energies), air (representing all gases), ether (the substratum for the&#xA;  existence of space and the transmission  of sound), mind (the subtle&#xA;  faculty for emotions), intelligence (the subtle faculty for rational&#xA;  thinking) and false ego (the invisible bond that causes the soul to&#xA;  misidentify with the body). During the aarti, the various items&#xA;  offered to the Deity represent these elements: the flower and the&#xA;  cloth represent earth, the water represents the element water, the&#xA;  ghee lamp represents fire, the yak-tail fan represents air, the sound&#xA;  of the conch and the bell represents ether, the emotional involvement&#xA;  in the songs sung and the mantras chanted represent the mind, the&#xA;  intellectual focus on the purpose of the aarti represents the&#xA;  intelligence, the obeisances represent the ego and the pujari&#xA;  represents the assembled worshipers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How is it offered? All the items are offered by waving them in a&#xA;  circle around the Deity, to remind us to keep the Lord at the center&#xA;  of all our activities during the cyclic motions of time from the&#xA;  minutes to the decades.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When is it offered? Etymologically, the word aarti means “before&#xA;  night.” This refers to the fact that the first of the aartis in&#xA;  traditional temples is performed before the night ends, that is, at&#xA;  early dawn. As the darkness of forgetfulness of God tends to envelope&#xA;  us repeatedly, the aarti is performed repeatedly to end the night of&#xA;  forgetfulness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why is it offered? Everything that we have belongs to the Lord and&#xA;  aarti is the method prescribed in the Vedic texts like the&#xA;  Pancharatras to humbly and gratefully acknowledge his divine&#xA;  proprietorship. When we prayerfully perform or reverentially observe&#xA;  the aarti, our head becomes illumined with God’s glory and our heart&#xA;  enlivened with God’s beauty. The items offered become transmuted into&#xA;  carriers of divine mercy or Prasad and thus we can receive divine&#xA;  energy from the lamp with cupped hands passed over its flames and&#xA;  touched to the forehead, from the sacred water by having it sprinkled&#xA;  on our bowed heads, from the sanctified flowers by reverentially&#xA;  smelling their fragrance. So next time we attend an aarti, let’s tune&#xA;  in to the divine vibrations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3294" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T06:07:01.960" Title="What is offered during Arati and what they represent?" Tags="|worship|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18406" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14211" CreationDate="2017-05-21T17:36:20.903" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, the tree having its roots upwards and branches downwards is mentioned in other scriptures. It is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15015.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Katha Upanishad 2.6.1&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'There is that ancient tree, whose roots grow upward and whose branches grow downward;--that indeed is called the Bright, that is called Brahman, that alone is called the Immortal. All worlds are contained in it, and no one goes beyond. This is that.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may also read the commentaries by Shri Shankaracharya, Shri Ramanuja etc of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=15&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=1&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;etradi=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;15th chapter of Bhagavad Gita&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्री भगवानुवाच&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ऊर्ध्वमूलमधःशाखमश्वत्थं प्राहुरव्ययम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;छन्दांसि यस्य पर्णानि यस्तं वेद स वेदवित्।।15.1।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation By Swami Gambirananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;15.1 The Blessed Lord said They say that the peepul Tree, which has its roots upward and the branches downward, and of which the Vedas are the leaves, is imperishable. He who realizes it is knower of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation Of Sri Shankaracharya's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Gambirananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;15.1 Urdhva-mulam, that which has its roots upwards:- Brahman, possessed of the unmanifest power in the form of Maya, is referred to by the word 'upward' because of Its subtleness in point of time by virtue of Its being the Cause, and also because of Its eternality and vastness; and That is the root (mulam) of this world. The Tree of the World which is such, is urdhva-mulam. This accords with the Upanisadic text, 'This has its roots above and branches below' (Ka. 2.6.1). In the Purana also we have: It sprouts from the Root in the form of the Unmanifest; it grows through the sturdiness of that very One. And it has abundance of intelligence as its trunk, and the appertures of the organs as the hollows. The great elements are its boughs [A.G. takes the word visakha (boughs) in the sense of stambha, perhaps meaning the aerial roots.-Tr.]; so also, it has the objects of perception as its leaves. It has virtue and vice as its beautiful flowers, and happiness and sorrow are the fruits it bears. This eternal Tree presided over by Brahman is a means of livelihood to all creatures. And this verily is the resort of Brahman [Or, etat brahma-vanam means: This Tree has Brahman as its object of adoration, its support. For, the world has nothing but Brahman as its support.] in it Brahman dwells for ever. Having felled and split this Tree with the great sword of Knowledge, and then attaining the bliss of the Self, one does not return from that (bliss).' (Cf. Mbh. As. 47.12-15.) That Tree which has its roots upwards and is constituted by the enchantment of mundane existence, and adhah-sakham, which has the branches downwards-mahat, [See under 7.4.-Tr.] egoism, subtle elements, etc. are its branches (sakhah), as it were, extending downwards (adhah); so, it has its branches downwards-; that Tree with its branches downwards, which does not (a) last (stha) even for the morrow (svah), is asvatthah (lit. Peepul tree). Ahuh, they say; that the asvatthah, Peepul Tree, undergoing destruction every moment; is avyayam, imperishable, and constituted by the enchantments of mundane existence. Having been in existence from time without beginning, that Tree of the World is imperishable. It is, indeed, will known as the sustainer of the beginningless and ceaseless series of bodies etc. They call that the imperishable. Of that very Tree of the World here is another alification: Yasya, that Tree of the World of which; chandamsi-chandas being derived in the sense of covering (protecting)-, the Vedas in the form of Rk, Yajus and Sama; are the parnani, leaves, as it were. As leaves serve as protectors of a tree, so the Vedas serve as the protectors of the world; for they reveal what are virtue and vice as also their causes and results. Yah, he who; veda, knows; tam, that-the Tree of the World along with its root, as has been explained; sah, he; is a vedavit, knower of the Vedas, i.e. versed in the meaning of the Vedas. Since, apart from this Tree of the World along with its root, not even an iota of any other thing remains to be known, therefore he who knows the purport of the Vedas is omniscient. In this way the Lord euligizes the knowledge of the Tree together with its root. An imagery of the other parts of that very Tree of the World is being presented:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation of Ramanuja's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Adidevananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;15.1 The Lord said The Vedas speak of the imperishable 'Asvattha tree' called Samsara, which has its 'roots above and branches below', in such passages as the following: This Asvattha tree with its roots above and branches below is eternal' (Ka. U., 6.1), and 'He who knows the tree with its roots above and branches below' (Tai. A., 1.11.5). It has its roots above since it has its roots in Brahma (the Creator otherwise known as Hiranyagarbha) who is seated above the seven worlds. It has 'branches below' ending with denizens like men, animals, beasts, worms, insects, birds and immovables. It is 'immutable' since it cannot be felled, being of the form of a continual flow. It can be felled only at the dawn of perfect knowledge which causes detachment. They say that the leaves of this Asvattha tree constitute the Vedas. 'The Vedas are said to be the leaves', since this tree of Samsara increases by actions prompted by worldly desires as taught in certain Srutis as, 'He who desires prosperity should sacrifice a white animal to Vayu' (Taitt. Sam., 2.1.1) and 'The desirer of offspring shall offer to Indra and Agni a sacrifice with eleven cups of rice-cakes' (Ibid., 2.2.1). Indeed the tree flourishes with the help of leaves. He who knows the Asvattha of such a nature 'knows the Vedas'. The Vedas also set forth the means of felling this tree of Samsara. He who understands this is called the knower of the Vedas, since knowledge of the nature of the tree to be cut off is helpful to the knowledge concerning the means of felling the tree. This tree spreads downward with men etc., who are the products of their Karma, as branches. It again spreads above into Gandharvas, Yaksas, gods, etc. They are nourished by the Gunas of Sattva etc. They have tender shoots augmented by sense-objects. How does this happen? Sri Krsna explains:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-21T17:36:20.903" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18407" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18448" CreationDate="2017-05-21T23:50:29.263" Score="5" ViewCount="584" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to ask this question with the help of a real life scenario. Basically, what if one wants to pursue an educational field associating with this world just for a living so that he can progress in the spiritual path to attain union with the help of a Satguru, but his father doesn't merely want him to stay in the same country and do nothing special materialistically. Instead, he wants him to live abroad and progress immensely in this world and make a name for himself. The father might allow it but will be disappointed and unhappy with him along with some other people. Lets suppose the son listens to himself and disappoints his father, will this be violating Dharma? Because it is our respective duty to keep our parents' will in consideration. Plus, it may also be bad Karma making his parents unhappy. And it is also said by many saints and rishis that if we do anything even good against our parents' will, it will be of no benefit to us. But that may not be the case when one's parents are completely wrong and there is no good in what they are thinking. But regardless of that, my consciousness tells me that fulfilling your parents' desires is the better path to choose. But I would like to hear what the scriptures have to say about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8076" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-05-25T10:41:33.090" LastActivityDate="2017-05-25T15:39:01.737" Title="Should one always abide by his parents' will or can he go against it only if he is right?" Tags="|karma|dharma|moksha|guru|spirituality|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="17" ClosedDate="2017-05-25T14:37:21.930" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18408" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18404" CreationDate="2017-05-22T06:16:21.220" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It seems you are asking about the things or upacharas that are offered to a deity in worship. Then it is not necessary that they are all offered together during arati. They are all offered one by one, in a definite order.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The number of upacharas can vary from 5 (as in panchopachara puja) to 10 (as in dasopachara puja) to the most common 16 ( as in shodashopachara puja) to 18 (as in asthadasopachara puja ) to even  64 (as in chatuh shasti upachara puja).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Pancha Upacharas:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atho PanchopachArAhA : Gandham Pushpam TathA Dupam Dipam Naivedyameva&#xA;  Cha | Akhandam PhalamAsAdya Kaivalyam Labhate &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gandha (Scented things like sandalwood paste etc) , Pushpa (flowers),&#xA;  Dhupa (incense), Dipa ( lighted lamps) and Naivedya ( or food&#xA;  offerings); These five things are known as Panchopachara in Deva Puja.&#xA;  One attains kaivalya ( or liberation) by offering whole fruits to Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Dasa Upacharas:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atha DasopachArAh: PAdyamarhyam TathAchamam MadhuparkAchamanam TathA |&#xA;  Gandhadayo NaivwdyAntA UpachArA Dasa KramAth ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...............................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PAdya (water for washing feet), Argya (water for washing hands),&#xA;  Achamaniya (water for sipping), Madhuparka (sweet offerings made with&#xA;  honey,sugar etc), Achamaniya, Gandha, Pushpa, Dhupa, Dipa and Naivedya&#xA;  : These tenfold things are known as Dasa Upacharas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Shodasha Upacharas:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atha ShodasopacharAh: Padyamarghyam TathAchamam SnAnam Vasana Bhusane&#xA;  | GandhapushpadhupadipanaivedyAchaman Tatah || TAmbulamarchanA Stotram&#xA;  Tarpanamcha NamshkriyA | Prajojayeccha PujAyamupachArAmsthu Shodasha&#xA;  ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....................................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Padya, Arghya, AchAmaniya, SnAniya (water for head bath), Vasana&#xA;  (clothings), Bhusana (ornaments), Gandha, Pushpa, Dhupa, Dipa,&#xA;  Naivedya, Achamaniya, TAmbula (betel leaves and nuts), Stotram&#xA;  (hymns), Tarpana ( act of offering water from Deva Tirtha in hands)&#xA;  and Namaskara (prostrations). A devotee should offer these 16&#xA;  upacharas to God during puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Ashta Dasa UpachAras:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atha AshtadasopachAraha: Asanam SwAgatam, PadyamarghyamAchamaniyayakam&#xA;  | SnAnam Vastropavitancha BhushanAni Cha Sarvvasah || Gandham, Pushpam&#xA;  TathA Dhupam Dipamannacha Tarpanam | MAlynulepanananchaiva&#xA;  NamaskAravisarjane || AshtadasopachAraintu Mantri PujAm SamAchAreth ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asana (seat), SwAgata Prasna ( don't know how to translate this to&#xA;  english ), Padya, Arghya, Achamaniya, SnAniya, Vastra, Yajnopavita&#xA;  (sacred thread), Bhusana, Gandha, Pushpa, Dhupa, Dipa, Naivedya,&#xA;  Tarpana, Malya (garland), Anulepan (body mask) and namskar . The&#xA;  sadhaka should perform puja to Ishta Devata with these 18 upacharas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All verses are from a Hindu Agamic scripture called the Siddhi Yamala.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now to understand the deeper meanings of offering these things we need to see how are these things offered while we are doing a mental worship ( a manasa puja where external objects are not required). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For doing that, i am quoting from the procedure of mental worship of Sri Devi ( Divine Mother or Sri Adi Parashakti) as detailed by Lord Sadashiva in the Mahanirvana Tantram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From MahAnirvAna Tantram's Chapter 5:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pujayeth Paraya BhaktyA MAnasairuppachArakaihi || HritpadmamAsanam&#xA;  DadAth SahsrArchyutAmrityeihi| PAdyam Charanayoddardhyath&#xA;  Manastvarghyam Nivedayeth || TenAmritenAchamanam SnAniyamapi Kalpayeth&#xA;  | AkAshtattvam Vasanam Gandhantu Gandhatattvakam || Chittam&#xA;  Prakalpayeth Pushpam Dhupam PrAnAn Prakalpayerh | Tejastattvantu&#xA;  DipArthe Naivedyacha SudhAmbudhim || AnAhatadhvanim GhantAm&#xA;  VAyutattvancha ChAmaram | NrityamindriyakarmAni ChAnchalyam Manas&#xA;  statha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;................................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Description of manasa puja : The devotee should imagine and offer his&#xA;  own lotus like heart as seat (asana) to Devi. He should offer the&#xA;  nectar (amrita) that flows from the Sahasrara lotus (at the top of the&#xA;  head) as padya (water to wash feet). The mind should be offered as the&#xA;  arghya. And the aforementioned amrita should be offered as the water&#xA;  for bath and that for sipping. The devotee should imagine the ether&#xA;  element in him as the vasan or clothings and should imagine the earth&#xA;  element within him as the gandha offering. The Chitta ( mind) should&#xA;  be imagined as flowers. The 5 pranas ( prana, apana, vyana, udana and&#xA;  samana) are to be imagined as the incense. Our fire element should be&#xA;  offered as lighted lamps. The unstruck sound in the anahata chakra is&#xA;  to be offered as ghanta or ringing of bells. The sudhambudhi inside us&#xA;  is offered as food to Devi. The wind element inside is to be offered&#xA;  as the chamara or fan. All acts that the indriyas (or the senses)&#xA;  perform and all fickle-mindedness (or disturbances) of mind are to be&#xA;  offered as dancing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verses 142- 146.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above passage you will get the real significance of specific offerings or the upacharas used in deity worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As regards the pushpa or the flower part, it has special significance. There are a total 15 kinds of flowers that are offered to Devi ( or any deity) all of which have deeper symbolism. Among these 15, i am mentioning about the pancha pushpas or the 5 flowers which are very dear to Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ahimsa Paramam Pushpam Pushpamindriyanigrahah | Daya Kshama&#xA;  GyAnapushpam Panchapushpam Tatah Param || (Verse 149)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......................................................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Non violence is the best flower offering. Control of the senses,&#xA;  compassion, forgiveness and knowledge are the other 4 making the total &#xA;  panchapushpas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Normally, while doing panchaopachara puja (while mantra japa or otherwise) we also chant  mantras like &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;lam prithviatmikayai gandham samarpayami, ham akashatmikayai pushpaihi pujayami, yam vayabathmikai dhupam&#xA;  aghrapayamai, ram agniatmikayai dipam darsayami, vam amritatmikayai&#xA;  amritam mahanaivedyam nivedayami etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the correspondence that these mantras suggest is the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earth element ---------&gt; Gandham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ether element ----------&gt; Pushpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Air element ------------&gt; Dhupa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fire element ------------&gt; Dipa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Water element -----------&gt; Naivedya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-15T06:07:01.960" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T06:07:01.960" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18410" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-05-22T08:09:58.640" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kashmir Shaivism is a group of &lt;strong&gt;Non-Dualist&lt;/strong&gt; critical explanation or interpretation from Kashmir opposite  to the dualistic exegesis of the Shaiva Siddhanta.This tradition is also termed the &lt;strong&gt;Trika&lt;/strong&gt; school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To attain moksha, sādhana or spiritual practice is necessary. Kashmir Shaivism describes four methods.They are&#xA;1)āṇavopāya 2)śaktopāya 3)śāmbhavopāya 4) anupāya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-05-22T08:09:58.640" LastActivityDate="2017-05-22T08:09:58.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18411" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-05-22T08:09:58.640" Score="0" Body="Tantra , Tantrik Shaivism , Kali , Non-Dualist Tantrik Shaivism , Shiva , Shaivism ,Kashmir , Abinavgupta ,Trika school " OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-05-22T08:09:58.640" LastActivityDate="2017-05-22T08:09:58.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18412" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-22T08:27:21.017" Score="2" ViewCount="206" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why suthak effects on people for different days in defferent region or cast? I did read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5248/death-in-family-does-a-marriage-need-to-be-postponed#answer-11782&quot;&gt;THIS ANSWER&lt;/a&gt; and came to know about suthak. But from the answer and also from the comment section of this answer I came to know that Suthak apply for different number of days in different religion and cast! Why is that...?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all who decides days of suthak? Means, suthak will be applied for that many days, this is decided by whom? And why different days in different casts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also what will happen if we don't care about suthak and just follow our life's work by ignoring suthak's time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-05-22T09:08:28.297" LastActivityDate="2017-05-22T09:08:28.297" Title="Why suthak applies for different number of days in different casts?" Tags="|tradition|caste-system|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18413" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-22T10:25:23.523" Score="4" ViewCount="220" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any mentions of Iravati River(irawaddy River in Burmese) in our Hindu scriptures? It is the blood line of Myanmar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We(Hindus) of Myanmar call it Iravati Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8932" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-22T10:46:31.587" LastActivityDate="2017-05-22T12:28:55.467" Title="Mentions of River Iravati(ऐरावती) which is from Myanmar(Burma)?" Tags="|scripture|rivers|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18415" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-22T13:55:25.030" Score="5" ViewCount="731" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard from many teachings that 'Guruvu leni vidya ranimchadhu' (telugu) which means the skill or knowledge gained without guru doesn't shines. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which text says the above phrase and who says to whom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it is true, then my doubt is that does guru has to be in-person or guru can be remote person? Suppose now a days world is going online, if a guru is posting videos and people are following, such vidya shines or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that here Vidya refers to skill in any field such as mantra siddhi, archery, research, martial arts etc., not only brahma gyan. Suppose Arjuna became skilled archer with the help of his guru Drona, suppose a person learns archery as ekalavya, does it shine?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana and Mahabaratha there are gurus such as Vashistha, Kripacharya, Drona etc., they gave focused guidance to their sishyas. Does vidya shines if guru-sishya relation is not face-to-face?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-05-22T15:16:45.233" LastActivityDate="2019-06-17T20:48:05.887" Title="Vidya without a Physical Guru?" Tags="|scripture|belief|guru|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2018-10-03T16:19:38.710" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18418" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18415" CreationDate="2017-05-23T05:32:10.820" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, without physical guru our knowledge can shine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, have physical guru is more beneficial for us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ekalavya had more skill than Arjuna, he learned skill without physical guru, as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01135.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; written by Veda Vyasa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And hearing reports of his skill, kings and princes, desirous of learning the science of arms, flocked to Drona by thousands. Amongst those that came there, O monarch, was a prince named Ekalavya, who was the son of Hiranyadhanus, king of the Nishadas (the lowest of the mixed orders). Drona, however, cognisant of all rules of morality, accepted not the prince as his pupil in archery, seeing that he was a Nishada who might (in time) excel all his high-born pupils. But, O oppressor of all enemies, the Nishada prince, touching Drona's feet with bent head, wended his way into the forest, and &lt;strong&gt;there he made a clay-image of Drona, and began to worship it respectfully, as if it was his real preceptor&lt;/strong&gt;, and practised weapons before it with the most rigid regularity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In consequence of his exceptional reverence for his preceptor and his devotion to his purpose, all the three processes of fixing arrows on the bowstring, aiming, and letting off became very easy for him&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So our skill can shine without physical guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9845" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-06-17T20:48:05.887" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18419" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="51232" CreationDate="2017-05-23T05:43:53.267" Score="10" ViewCount="7801" Body="&lt;p&gt;During the last day of Mahabharata war, Kripa accompanied Aswathamaa and helped him to execute the bloody murder of the Upapandavas and other soldiers in Pandava Army. After which there is no mention about Kripacharya in Mahabharata. What happened to him after that? The immortality conferred on him (It is well known that he is Chiranjeevi) is a blessings or curse like Aswathmaa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3745" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2021-06-19T16:32:40.157" LastActivityDate="2022-04-24T12:20:43.457" Title="What happened to Kripa after Mahabharata War?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|kripa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18420" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17498" CreationDate="2017-05-23T05:53:01.580" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the powerful mantras of Vishnu is the dwadashaksra mantra or the  &lt;code&gt;Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya&lt;/code&gt; mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can be taken only from a Guru. One can't simply start chanting it by taking it from a book. That is a sin as per scriptures. And, this is valid for not just for this mantra but for every other mantras too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vaisnava Agama shastras provide the following procedures for chanting this mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atha VAsudeva Mantrah : Pranavo Hritbhagavate VAsudevAya Kirtitah |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  PradhAne Vaisha Ve Tantre Mantrohaya SurapAdapah |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om namo bhagavate vAsudevaya, this 12-lettered mantra is&#xA;  &quot;kalpapAdapa-swarupa&quot; that is,  japa of this mantra fulfills all&#xA;  desires of the sadhaka.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the procedure for pithanyasa, rishyadi nyasa, kara-anga nyasas are laid down:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yatha sirasi prajapataye rishaye namah, mukhe gayatricchandase namaha,&#xA;  hrudi vAsudevAya devatayai namaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above rishyadi nyasas give the rishi, chanda and devata of the mantra as prajapati , gayatri and vasudeva respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then comes kara (hands) and anga (parts of body) nyasas which are done like this ( I am intentionally omitting almost all mantras &amp;amp; giving only a few as  samples as the full procedure should only be learned from the GUru) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om angushtabhyAm namha |&lt;br&gt; namastarjanibhyAm swAhA |&lt;br&gt; bhagavate&#xA;  madhyamAbhyAm vashata etc etc...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the sadhaka has to do anga nyasa with prescribed mantras given in Agamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that comes mantra nyasa, where the devotee plants the 12 letters of the mantra on different parts of his body using prescribed mudras and mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that comes the dhyana part where the devotee chants the dhyana sloka for Vasudeva. Thereafter manasa puja is done by the sadhaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that the sadhaka has to do pitha puja with Vishnu mantras and etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mantra's purascharana is done  by 12 lakh japas and 12,000 homas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asya Purascharanam &lt;strong&gt;DwAdasalakshyajapaha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although  after completing one lakh japa only a devotee attains jitendriyata or victory over senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Varna Laksham Japenmantram &lt;strong&gt;Dikshito&lt;/strong&gt;vijitendriyoho .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, note that in the above verse its stated about the &lt;strong&gt;dikshito&lt;/strong&gt; or one who is initiated. &lt;strong&gt;Now this clearly indicates that only initiated person is allowed to chant the mantra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, pranava or OM should not be chanted without initiation. See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/31621/4732&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; for example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in short, many rules are there for chanting this mantra and for every other mantras. And if you are genuinely interested in learning them , then initiation is the only method.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - The verses from Vaishnava Agamas as quoted in the compendium &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shivashakti.com/tantrasara.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihat Tantrasara.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-12-28T09:24:49.580" LastActivityDate="2018-12-28T09:24:49.580" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18421" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3344" CreationDate="2017-05-23T06:29:19.853" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This has already been answered straightforwardly in Mṛgendra Āgama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fruits which are effected by the modes related to the vainayika and prakruta are: &lt;strong&gt;Through dharma – heaven&lt;/strong&gt;; through jnana – liberation; through vairagya – absorption into the prakriti tattva; through aisvarya – unobstructed and unassailable state; &lt;strong&gt;through adharma – occurrence of birth in the categories of animals and others; through ajnāna – hell&lt;/strong&gt;; through avairagya – bondage; through anaisvarya – obstructions, limitations. 10.30.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding what Vainayika &amp;amp; Prakṛta are,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The modes (bhavas) pertaining to the bound souls  are classified into three – samsiddhika, vainayika and prakruta. Owing to the meritorious  and auspicious  deeds such as  the construction of a temple, tank and  such others performed by good-minded persons, a well-illumined consciousness dawns on them, free from the   limitation and  imperfection caused by anava mala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samsiddhika is the constant manifestation of such perfect consciousness in them, even after the cessation of their bodily existence, in the same way as it was present during the embodied state. &lt;strong&gt;Vainayika&lt;/strong&gt; is that consciousness which gets illumined  and vitalized  through  Guru’s instructions(upadesa), study of the Scriptures and the knowledge gained through experience and intuition. Such vainayika is earned through mind, word and deed. &lt;strong&gt;Prakruta&lt;/strong&gt; is that consciousness which occasionally manifests in the mind like a dream while being  in embodied state. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, hell is a result of ajñāna whereas a lower birth is a result of adharma.**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2021-03-24T13:41:20.323" LastActivityDate="2021-03-24T13:41:20.323" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18422" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18419" CreationDate="2017-05-23T06:48:17.643" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Pandavas had decided to renounce the world, Kripacharya was installed as the preceptor of Parikshit. This incident is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m17/m17001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Book 17: Mahaprasthanika Parva, Section-1&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Having said these words, king Yudhishthira the just, along with his brothers, promptly offered oblations of water unto Vasudeva of great intelligence, as also unto his old maternal uncle and Rama and others. He then duly performed the Sraddhas of all those deceased kinsmen of his. The king, in honour of Hari and naming him repeatedly, fed the Island-born Vyasa, and Narada, and Markandeya possessed of wealth of penances, and Yajnavalkya of Bharadwaja’s race, with many delicious viands. In honour of Krishna, he also gave away many jewels and gems, and robes and clothes, and villages, and horses and cars, and female slaves by hundreds and thousands unto foremost of Brahmanas. Summoning the citizens. &lt;strong&gt;Kripa was installed as the preceptor and Parikshit was made over to him as his disciple&lt;/strong&gt;, O chief of Bharata’s race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-05-26T05:17:18.217" LastActivityDate="2017-05-26T05:17:18.217" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18423" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18415" CreationDate="2017-05-23T06:50:45.440" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Guruvu leni vidya ranimchadhu' (telugu) which means the skill or&#xA;  knowledge gained without guru doesn't shines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a verse in KulArnava Tantram which exactly says the same thing. Only difference is in the words used. Lord Shiva says to Devi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MuktidA GuruvAgekA &lt;strong&gt;VidyA SarvA VirambakAhA&lt;/strong&gt; |&#xA;  KAsthabhArasramAdsmAdekam Sanjeevanam Param ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only Guru's words or advice is capable of giving mukti or liberation.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Without Guru's upadesha or advice or guidance all vidyas or all forms of knowledge deprive us.&lt;/strong&gt;  Guru's amtita (nectar) like words&#xA;  and advice give liberation from the weight of (such nishphala vidyas)&#xA;  or fruitless knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 1, Verse 107.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Consider this as a partial answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-05-23T06:50:45.440" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18424" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18415" CreationDate="2017-05-23T07:03:38.523" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Vidya which if gained without Physical guru  shines or not?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer to this question according to me is &lt;strong&gt;NOT&lt;/strong&gt;. The answer is provided by Shree Adi Shankarachrya in his stotra called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rkmdelhi.org/videos/guru-ashtakam-of-adi-shankaracharya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Guru Astakam (गुरु अष्टकं)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;  ,  a hymn with 8 verses in praise of the Guru , which is my most favorite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;षडङ्गादिवेदो मुखे शास्त्रविद्या कवित्वादि गद्यं सुपद्यं करोति &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनश्र्चेन लग्नं गुरोरङ्घ्रिपद्मे ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं ॥3॥&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ṣaḍańgādivedo mukhe śastravidyā &lt;br&gt; kavitcādi gadyaḿ supadyaḿ&#xA;  karoti &lt;br&gt; gurorańghripadme ḿanaścenna lagnaḿ &lt;br&gt; tataḥ kiḿ&#xA;  tataḥ kiḿ tataḥ kiḿ tataḥ kiḿ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: The Vedas with their six limbs and the knowledge of all&#xA;  sciences may be on one’s lips; one may possess the poetic gift and may&#xA;  compose fine prose and poetry; yet if one’s mind be not centred upon&#xA;  the lotus feet of the Guru, what then, what then, what then? &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विदेशेषु मान्यः स्वदेशेषु धन्यः सदाचारवृत्तेषु मत्तो न चान्यः &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनश्र्चेन लग्नं गुरोरङ्घ्रिपद्मे ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं ॥4॥&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;videśeṣu mānyaḥ svadeśeṣu dhanyaḥ &lt;br&gt; sadācāravṛtteṣu matto na&#xA;  cānyaḥ &lt;br&gt; gurorańghripadme ḿanaścenna lagnaḿ &lt;br&gt; tataḥ kiḿ&#xA;  tataḥ kiḿ tataḥ kiḿ tataḥ kiḿ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: “I am honoured in other lands and I am prosperous in my&#xA;  homeland; in the paths of righteous conduct there is none who&#xA;  surpasses me”, thus one may think; yet if one’s mind be not centred&#xA;  upon the lotus feet of the Guru, what then, what then, what then? &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यशो मे गतं दिक्षु दानप्रतापा जगद्वस्तु सर्वं करे यत्प्रसादात्  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनश्र्चेन लग्नं गुरोरङ्घ्रिपद्मे ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं ॥6॥ &#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yaśo me gataḿ dikṣu dānaptratāpāj- &lt;br&gt; jagadvastu sarvaḿ kare&#xA;  yatprasādāt &lt;br&gt; gurorańghripadme ḿanaścenna lagnaḿ &lt;br&gt; tataḥ kiḿ&#xA;  tataḥ kiḿ tataḥ kiḿ tataḥ kiḿ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: “My repute has travelled in all directions through my&#xA;  philanthropy and prowess; all the things of this world are in my hands&#xA;  as rewards for my virtues”, yet if one’s mind be not centred upon the&#xA;  lotus feet of the Guru, what then, what then, what then?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In which Shree  Adi Shankarachrya says -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if one gains very good reputation and becomes renowned and even one gets rich in wealth , even one is master in Vedas ,Shastras &amp;amp;  poetry , even one is honoured in other lands as well as his homeland and nobody can surpasses one. There is no use of this all , unless one took a Guru and bowdown to lotus feet of Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here what Shankaracharya mean is  that there is no use of all this Vidya unless once mind is devoted to a Guru or without a physical Guru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;what then, what then, what then? ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It does not shines ultimately.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/Svetasvatara-Upanishad-~-Chap-6-The-One-God-and-the-Cosmic-Process-1.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;  says about your question -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्य देवे परा भक्तिर्यथा देवे तथा गुरौ । &lt;br&gt; तस्यैते कथिता ह्यर्था&#xA;  प्रकाशन्ते महात्मन: ॥6.23॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau /  tasyaite kathitā hy&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  arthāḥ prakāśante mahātmanaḥ prakāśante mahātmanaḥ // 6.23 // &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If these truths have been told to a high-minded person who feels the&#xA;  highest devotion for God and &lt;strong&gt;for his guru as for God&lt;/strong&gt;, and then they&#xA;  will surely shine forth as inner experiences - &lt;strong&gt;then, indeed, they will&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;shine forth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Upanishad teachings taught by a Guru bear fruit only for those aspirants who cherish devotion to the Lord and the teacher. It is God who teaches the disciple through an illumined human teacher.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a story of Satyakama Jabala in &lt;strong&gt;Chhandogya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;   Part IV Chapter 9: Instruction by the Teacher where Satyakama says following to his Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have definitely heard from persons like your venerable self that the&#xA;  knowledge directly learnt from one's own teacher becomes most&#xA;  beneficial.' CH 4.9.3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another Translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4.9.1 Satyakama reached the teacher’s hermitage. The teacher said to him: &quot;Satyakama!&quot; &quot;Revered Sir!&quot; Satyakama replied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4.9.2 The teacher said: &quot;Beloved, you shine like one who knows Brahman. Who has taught you?&quot; &quot;Others than men,&quot; he replied. &quot;But I wish, revered Sir, that you alone should teach me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.9.3 &quot;For I have heard from persons like your good self that &lt;strong&gt;only knowledge which is learnt from a teacher [acharya] leads to the&#xA;  highest good.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; Then he [Gautama] taught him [Satyakama] the same&#xA;  knowledge. Nothing whatsoever was left out, yea, nothing whatsoever&#xA;  was left out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-05-23T10:11:31.127" LastActivityDate="2017-05-23T10:11:31.127" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18426" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7803" CreationDate="2017-05-23T13:39:22.533" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As described in the &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, Indra's  duty was managing all kind of activity of world(Brahmand). Indraloka is the center of World and Capital of world. Who sits on Indrasan (seat of Indra) they get the power of Indra. That's why all asuras want to win Indraloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9845" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-23T13:46:43.953" LastActivityDate="2017-05-23T13:46:43.953" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18430" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18469" CreationDate="2017-05-23T20:55:29.257" Score="1" ViewCount="3359" Body="&lt;p&gt;The 24 Chapter of Uma Samhita is purely dedicated to insulting women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here is summary of the verses of the chapter-&#xA;You won't believe what has been said-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15-16: No one is more sinful than a woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;17-23: Women do not stay in limits and keep an eye on men for sexual pleasures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;24-29: They just want any man. &lt;strong&gt;There is no one&lt;/strong&gt;, be him ugly, dwarf, blind, hunchback, &lt;strong&gt;who cannot be approached​ by women for lust&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  30-31: &lt;strong&gt;On seeing a man their vagina gets wet like water dripping from leather bag.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;32-34: Women are never satisfied by their husband. They want extra illicit affairs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;35: Ever since Brahma has created the whole universe, &lt;strong&gt;the fault is always in women&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why does our Hinduism put Women as such an impure sinful disgusting beings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-26T15:33:05.847" LastActivityDate="2023-09-26T02:35:01.797" Title="Why does Uma Samhita, Chapter 24 of Shiva Purana insult Women?" Tags="|scripture|shiva-purana|women|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18431" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15938" CreationDate="2017-05-23T21:00:58.527" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Our scriptures have a lot of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Puran, Uma Samhita, Chapter 24&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;This whole chapter is dedicated to insulting women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a short summary-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;15-16: No one is more sinful than a woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;17-23: Women do not stay in limits and &lt;strong&gt;keep an eye on men for sexual pleasures&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;24-29: They just want any man. &lt;strong&gt;There is no one&lt;/strong&gt;, be him ugly, dwarf, blind, hunchback, &lt;strong&gt;who cannot be approached​ by women for lust&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;30-31: &lt;strong&gt;On seeing a man their vagina gets wet like water dripping from leather bag&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;32-34: Women are never satisfied by their husband. They want extra illicit affairs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;35: Ever since Brahma has created the whole universe, &lt;strong&gt;the fault is always in women.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-23T21:00:58.527" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18432" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18430" CreationDate="2017-05-24T02:25:57.687" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all it is not that chapter 24 of Uma Samhita Shiva Purana is wholly dedicated to Insult women. That chapter is &lt;em&gt;just recording the dialogue which took place between Nãrada and Apsarã named Panchachuda.&lt;/em&gt; And Apsara Panchachuda is speaking all things about women. So, the things spoken by Panchachuda should be looked upon under authority of Apsara and not under authority of Bhagavan.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Mahabharata also recalls about this dialogue between Panchachuda and Narada in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Anushashana Parva. And it was told because Yudhisthira wanted to hear about disposition of women:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Yudhishthira said, 'O best of the Bharatas, I wish to hear thee discourse on the disposition of women. Women are said to be the root of all evil.&lt;/strong&gt; They are all regarded as exceedingly frail.'&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot;Bhishma said, '&lt;strong&gt;In this connection is cited the old history of the discourse between the celestial Rishi Narada and the (celestial) courtezan Panchachuda.&lt;/strong&gt; Once in ancient times, the celestial Rishi Narada, having roamed over all the world, met the Apsara Panchachuda of faultless beauty, having her abode in the region of Brahman. Beholding the Apsara every limb of whose body was endued with great beauty, the ascetic addressed her, saying, 'O thou of slender waist, I have a doubt in my mind. Do thou explain it.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same way Shiva Purana also presents that story and says that it was intended for detachment of Narada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Listening to the words of the nymph and taking them to be true Nãrada felt detached.&lt;/strong&gt; (Uma Samhita chapter 24)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharata too Bhishma further goes on giving his opinions to induce detachment to Yudhisthira and &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Bhishma said, 'It is even so as thou sayest, O thou of mighty arms. There is nothing untrue in all this that thou sayest, O thou of Kuru's race, on the subject of women. In this connection I shall recite to thee the old history of how in days of yore the high-souled Vipula had succeeded in restraining women within the bounds laid down for them. I shall also tell thee, O king, how women were created by the Grandsire Brahman and the object for which they were created by Him. &lt;strong&gt;There is no creature more sinful, O son, than women. Woman is a blazing fire.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These all things are not taken to be literally they are just told to induce detachment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Why does our Hinduism put Women as such an impure sinful disgusting beings?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All women are considered as form of Devi herself&lt;/strong&gt; in Hinduism. And all such above things spoken by Panchachuda or others should not be taken literally. Here is what Lord Krishna tells in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_074.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Harivamsha;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; यल्लिङ्गाङ्कं यच्च लोके भगाङ्कं &lt;br&gt;&#xA;        सर्वं सोम त्वं स्थावरं जङ्गमं च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    प्राहुर्विप्रास्त्वां गुणिनं तत्त्वविज्ञा-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;        स्तथा ध्येयामम्बिकां लोकधात्रीम् ॥२-७४-३२&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;O the great lord accompanied by Uma! The fixed and movable entities of &lt;strong&gt;this world marked by masculine and feminine genders, are the manifestations of both of you.&lt;/strong&gt; The wise brahmins, knowledgeable about the principles, call you the one with qualities and worship ambikA, as the mother of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same thing is also told &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_072.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;by Kashyapa&lt;/a&gt; in Harivamsha of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; यल्लिङ्गाङ्कं त्र्यम्बकः सर्वमीशो &lt;br&gt;&#xA;        भगलिङ्गाङ्कम् यद्ध्युमा सर्वधात्री ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    नान्यत्तृतीयं जगतीहास्ति किञ्चि-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;        त्महादेवात्सर्वसर्वेश्वरोऽसौ ॥२-७२-६०&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;All bodies in the world with masculine gender (Lingam) are forms of three eyed lord shiva. &lt;strong&gt;All bodies in the world with feminine gender (Bhaga) are forms of universal mother Uma.&lt;/strong&gt; There is nothing else in the world other than these two. Lord shiva is the lord of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same thing is told &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;by Upamanyu&lt;/a&gt; in Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma has for his sign the lotus, Vishnu has for his the discus, Indra has for his sign the thunder-bolt. But the creatures of the world do not bear any of the signs that distinguish these deities. On the other hand, all creatures bear the signs that mark Mahadeva and his spouse. Hence, all creatures must be regarded as belonging to Maheswara. &lt;strong&gt;All creatures of the feminine sex, have sprung from Uma's nature as their cause, and hence it is they bear the mark of femininity that distinguishes Uma;&lt;/strong&gt; while all creatures that are masculine, having sprung from Siva, bear the masculine mark that distinguishes Siva. That person who says that there is, in the three worlds with their mobile and immobile creatures, any other cause than the Supreme Lord, and that which is not marked with the mark of either Mahadeva or his spouse should be regarded as very wretched and should not be counted among the creatures of the universe. &lt;strong&gt;Every being with the mark of the masculine sex should be known to be of Isana, while every being with the mark of the feminine sex should be known to be of Uma.&lt;/strong&gt; This universe of mobile and immobile creatures is provided by two kinds of forms (viz.,male and female).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upamanyu tells this to Lord Krishna in Vyayaviya Samhita chapter 4 Shiva Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यथा न जायते पुत्रः पितरं मातरं विना ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तथा भवं भवानीं च विना नैतच्चराचरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्त्रीपुंसप्रभवं विश्वं स्त्रीपुंसात्मकमेव च॥ r&amp;gt;&#xA;As a child can not be born without parents, similarly this mobile and immobile world can't be created without Bhava and Bhavani. &lt;strong&gt;Because of the emerging of world due to union of man and women, therefore it is called as the one having the nature of both male and female.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Upamanyu again repeats:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शङ्करः पुरुषाः सर्वे स्त्रियः सर्वा महेश्वरी ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वे स्त्रीपुरुषास्तस्मात्तयोरेव विभूतयः ॥ (Shiva Purana Vyayavviya Samhita chapter 4)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;All males in this world represent Shankara and all females represent Maheswari. Therefore all men and women represent grace of both of them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus all women are considered as representation of Devi herself. So, there is no disrespect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-24T16:12:06.360" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18434" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17917" CreationDate="2017-05-24T05:34:00.683" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Few months ago i bought the book &lt;strong&gt;NityAshodasikArnava&lt;/strong&gt; which is widely considered as a part of the most authoritative text for Sri Vidya Sadhana called &lt;strong&gt;Sri VAmAkeswara Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The introduction of the book gives the Guru Paramapara of Sri Vidya from Krita to Kali Yuga as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Divyaugha (Divine line of Gurus):&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Satyayuga first Guru was Adiguru or Parama Shiva. His name was Sri&#xA;  CharyAnAtha. His disciple was his own vimarshini Shakti who is not&#xA;  different from Shiva himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Her disciple in TretAyuga is Guru Sri OdyAn Natha Deva. His disciple&#xA;  in DwApara Yuga was Guru Sri Shastha Natha Deva. His disciple in Kali&#xA;  Yuga was Guru Sri Sri Mitresanatha Deva. His disciples were Agstya and&#xA;  Lopamudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Different opinion- There are 5 divyauga pangti which ends with Sri&#xA;  Mitresanatha Deva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Siddhaugha (Siddha line of Gurus):&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agastya and LopamudrA's disciple was KankAltApas. His disciple&#xA;  DharmAchArya. His disciple was Muktakesini Or Muktakesi. Her disciple&#xA;  was DeepakAcharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Manavaugha (Human line of Gurus):&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DeepakAchArya's disciple was his own son Jishnudeva. His disciple was&#xA;  Tejodeva. His disciple was Manojadeva. His disciple was KalyAndeva. His&#xA;  disciple was Ratnadeva. His disciple was VAsudevamahAmuni. And, his disciple was&#xA;  SivAnandamahAyogi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These are the 8 Manavauga pangtis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Different opinion- Upto VAsudevamahamuni 7 Manavaugas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IMO , this is the most we can know from Scriptures about the Guru Parampara of Sri VidyA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-24T05:39:21.863" LastActivityDate="2017-05-24T05:39:21.863" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18435" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16787" CreationDate="2017-05-24T07:32:08.747" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adding one important rule which the selected answer has not mentioned. Apart from energizing the Rudraksha beads with Panchakshara and Trayambaka Shiva mantras, each of the 14 types of Rudrakshas has to be worn by the devotee &lt;strong&gt;only after chanting a particular mantra that is associated with that particular type of Rudraksha .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By not doing so one accrues sins. The 14 mantras can be found in both Padma and Skanda Puranas with some variations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;NischidrAscha SupakkAscha RudrakshadhArane SmritAha |&lt;br&gt; PanchAmritam&#xA;  Panchagavyam SnAnakAle Prajojayeth |&lt;br&gt; RudrAkshasya PratishthAyAm&#xA;  Mantram PanchAksharam TathA |&lt;br&gt; TryambakAdimantrancha TathA Tatra&#xA;  Prajojayeth |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only ripe ones and Rudrakshas which are free from holes are good to wear. During the pranpratishtha of Rudrakshas they are to be bathed first with&#xA;  panchagavyas ( 5 things from cow like her urine, milk etc) and&#xA;  panchamritas ( milk, ghee, sugar etc) and then energised with panchakshara,&#xA;  tryambaka and other Shiva mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is the warning i am talking about:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VinA Mantrena Yo Dhatte RudrAksham Bhuvi Manavah |&lt;br&gt; Sa YAti GhorAn&#xA;  YAvadindrAschaturdasa |&lt;br&gt; Iti Padma PurAne RudrAkshyamAhAtyam..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who wears Rudraksha without  mantra lives in dreadful hells for as much&#xA;  amount time as long as the 14 Indras rule.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verses are from Padma PurAna.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the 14 mantras given in Padma PurAna are as given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tatra Kramena MantrAha | OM OM Bhrisam namaha (for one-faced&#xA;  Rudrakshas), OM OM Namaha (for two-faced ones),........ OM Namo Namaha&#xA;  (for 14-faced ones).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, omitted most mantras as they are to given by the very knowledgeable person who prescribed a Rudraksha for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Skanda PurAna , however, different mantras are given. Here are a few samples of them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;OM Aim (for one-faced), Om Srim (for two-faced)................... OM&#xA;  TamAm (for 14-faced).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Updating the answer with more relevant information found in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/rudrakshajabalaupanishad.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;RudrAksha JabAla Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; (which is linked to the SAma Veda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One who wears Rudrakshas, should not use intoxicants, meat, garlic,&#xA;  onions, carrots and all such prohibited things. By wearing Rudrakshas&#xA;  during eclipses, Vishusankranti (the end of Mina and beginning of&#xA;  Mesha Masa), new moon, full moon and other such auspicious days, one&#xA;  is freed of all sins. The base of the Rudraksha bead is Brahma, its&#xA;  navel is Vishnu, its face is Rudra and its hole consists of all gods.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The four kinds of people, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras are&#xA;  born as merely a worthless burden on the earth. The real Brahmin is&#xA;  the white Rudraksha. The red is a Kshatriya. The yellow is a Vaisya.&#xA;  And the black is a Sudra.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, a Brahmin should wear white Rudrakshas, a Kshatriya the&#xA;  red, a Vaisya the yellow and a Sudra the black. One should use those&#xA;  Rudraksha-beads which are nice, goodlooking, strong, big, auspicious&#xA;  and thorny. One should avoid those eaten by worms, broken, without&#xA;  thorns, and having sores.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also many kinds of them (as already noted), like one-faced, two-faced etc till fourteen faced. One needs to know which one is he wearing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Kalagnirudra said: The bead with one face is of the form of the&#xA;  Supreme Truth. A disciplined one (controlling his senses) mingles&#xA;  himself with the one Eternal Truth, after wearing these Rudrakshas.&#xA;  The bead with two faces is of the form of Ardhanarisvara and the&#xA;  devotee wearing it attains the grace of Ardhanarisvara (Siva united&#xA;  with Sakti). The bead with three faces is of the form of the three&#xA;  fires and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of Agni. The bead&#xA;  with four faces is of the form of the four-faced Brahma and the&#xA;  devotee wearing it attains the grace of Brahma. The bead with five&#xA;  faces is of the form of Panchabrahman (the five-faced Siva) and the&#xA;  devotee wearing it attains the grace of Panchabrahman and drives away&#xA;  the sin of homicide. The bead with six faces is of the form of the&#xA;  six-faced Kartikeya or Ganesha and the devotee wearing it attains the&#xA;  grace of wealth and health, clear intellect and wisdom, and&#xA;  purification.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, if you know your type, but do not know which Mantra to chant before wearing it, then you can consult &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rudraksha-ratna.com/p/rudraksha-1-mukhi---21-mukhi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if your RudrAksha is five-faced, for example, then you have to check &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rudraksha-ratna.com/k/5-mukhi-rudraksha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; to find the Mantra. And, it gives the following Mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Hreem Namaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-01-22T14:46:55.217" LastActivityDate="2018-01-22T14:46:55.217" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18436" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-24T08:20:08.593" Score="6" ViewCount="262" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many planes of existence, grouped into hierarchies. Everything which is inside of human being is fated to be manifested outside ( or vice versa) is the reason of existence of worlds. Therefore, respective tattvas are the material cause of the existence of worlds as shown in the pic. &lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;From the pic, Lord Rudra has been named among Trinity for the &lt;em&gt;Sakala beings&lt;/em&gt;. Also, as it can be seen,  &lt;strong&gt;Sri Kantha Nath&lt;/strong&gt; is the Lord of the upper plane of &lt;strong&gt;pralayākalas beings.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;As it has been explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18278/8696&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question how Kanthanāth started lineage of Shaiva agamas, in fact Kanthanāth is the source of almost all 'Shiva-Shakti' agamas. But a verse of Matanga āgama drew my attention as it seems &lt;strong&gt;Sri Kanthanāth is Mahadeva only.&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having deeply involved himself primarily in the worship of Siva, Sage Matanga played the flute with intense and deep devotion for a long time, his inner self all the time being  engrossed in delighted and blissful state. Thereupon, the &lt;strong&gt;Supreme Lord Srikantha, along with His consort Parvati&lt;/strong&gt;, manifested before Matanga, who was the most celebrated one and who had accomplished great penance and enabled him to see His own form directly. &lt;BR&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, we find same in Mrigendra āgama &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Umapati&lt;/strong&gt; who set the tree of Manmatha to be engulfed by the flames of fire emitted from His forehead eye received this Agama from &lt;strong&gt;Anantesvara&lt;/strong&gt;. He, in turn, revealed this Agama to me in an abridged way, reducing the number of the verses to 11,000. Avoiding the elaboration as much as possible, I now proceed to instruct the principles set forth in this Agama which are free from inconsistency and ambiguity. I reveal  to you the important principles largely through the  same statements as employed in this Agama.” 1.27.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;BR&gt; &#xA;Note that Lord Ananteshvar is that Lord Shiva which is efficient cause of the world. Btw, from the pic we also find the planes of pralayākalas are result of &lt;em&gt;Purusha &amp;amp; Prakriti tattvas&lt;/em&gt;. Lord Mahadeva &amp;amp; Goddess Uma are called &lt;em&gt;Purusha &amp;amp; Prakriti&lt;/em&gt; respectively as well which is in consistence. &lt;strong&gt;These facts conclude Lord Mahadeva is not among Trinity but he is Lord of higher plane.&lt;/strong&gt; In any case he too can be called Rudra but not the Lord Rudra as the destroyer among Trinity supergods. &lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is, are there any scriptures other than āgamas which talk about &lt;strong&gt;Lord Mahadeva not being destroyer (i.e, not one among Trinity) but the supreme reality of higher plane&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;either indirectly or indirectly&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0lqYT.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0lqYT.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Cosmology&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-02-08T12:09:42.930" LastActivityDate="2018-02-08T12:09:42.930" Title="Kailāshpati Mahādeva is not the destroyer (one among Trinity)?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|agamas|tantra|kashmiri-shaivism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18437" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-24T09:21:55.237" Score="1" ViewCount="311" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the difference between Mahadeva, Shiva, Shankar and Rudra ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;where do they came from ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;what are their duties?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3274" LastActivityDate="2018-12-23T10:53:03.607" Title="What is the difference between Mahadeva, Shiva, Shankar and Rudra?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2019-07-11T16:08:03.820" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18439" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18440" CreationDate="2017-05-24T18:52:34.613" Score="7" ViewCount="155" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mackenzie Brown's paper titled &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Purāṇa as Scripture&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, we see a reference wherein it says that,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mahabharata, as well as the ancient Smriti writer Vṛddha Gautama(of the Dharmaśāstra) proclaims, &quot;Veda-sellers and those who dishonor the Vedas and also those who write down the Vedas shall go to hell.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are as follows: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;1) Which verses of the Mahabharata expressly prohibit the writing down of Vedas?&#xA;2) Was the concept of 'Writing' elucidated or mentioned in the Śruti?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastActivityDate="2017-05-24T19:21:34.557" Title="Writing down the Vedas" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18440" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18439" CreationDate="2017-05-24T19:21:34.557" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They who sell the Vedas, they who find fault with the Vedas, and they who reduce the Vedas into writing, have all to sink in hell. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as far as I know, the Vedas never discuss writing.   A quick Google search of the English translations of the Vedas given at &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://sacred-texts.com&lt;/a&gt; confirms my understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-05-24T19:21:34.557" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18441" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-24T20:20:44.237" Score="2" ViewCount="88" Body="&lt;p&gt;What happens if there is a break in the propitiation of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitrs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pitrs&lt;/a&gt;(ancestors) in patrilineal lineage? Are subsequent generations affected adversely? How so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Supposing there is a minimum of one generation gap in the performance of these rituals, what are the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C4%81ya%C5%9Bcitta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prāyaścitta&lt;/a&gt; to be pursued to redeem the situation permanently?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Answers that draw reference wholly applicable to SriVaishnava Sampradaya are requested. Please quote scriptures as much as possible.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-05-24T20:47:32.133" LastActivityDate="2017-06-03T01:53:44.287" Title="SriVaishnava - propitiation rituals for the Pitrs - redemption for breaks" Tags="|scripture|rituals|sri-vaishnava|pitru|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18442" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18366" CreationDate="2017-05-25T01:57:42.243" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not that these temples were built by looking geometry of earth or using some advanced technology to map latitude and longitude.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;These are Tirtha sthalas and they are not like modern day temples where they can be built anywhere (looking latitudes and longitudes). Tirthasthalas are those where some divine story happened there and temple is built at that place in the rememberance of that story and recognizing the special divinity residing there.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kedarnath&lt;/strong&gt; is the place where Nara-Narayana established Shiva Linga as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14414/what-is-the-story-of-kedarnath-jyotirlinga/14418#14418&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Similarly in &lt;strong&gt;Rameshwaram&lt;/strong&gt; Rama established Shiva Linga near Setu Bandha area as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14349/what-is-the-story-of-rameshwaram-jyotirlinga/14350#14350&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Sri Kalahasti&lt;/strong&gt; is the place where Vayu established Shiva Linga as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10820/legend-behind-origin-of-vayu-lingam-in-srikalahasti-and-its-meaning/10824#10824&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; And similarly all Tirtha sthalas are those place where some divine things happened there and thus temple is built there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The point is these Temples aren&amp;apos;t built by selecting such places where Latitude and Longitude matches. They are established where some divine story happened. So, there is no question of using some technologies to match latitude and longitude.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But how is it possible that they all came to lie on straight line? We can just say this is a divine coincidence and it&amp;apos;s all Shiva&amp;apos;s plan. So, the stories happened on particular place and temples were built there. It&amp;apos;s all wish of Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-05-25T01:57:42.243" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18443" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18323" CreationDate="2017-05-25T05:19:37.807" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, they have different soul because they have different Consciousness. Here is passage from Aitreya Upanishad showing it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;III-i-3: This One is Brahman; this is Indra, this is Prajapati; this is all these gods; and this is these five elements, viz. earth, air, space, water, fire; and this is all these (big creatures), together with the small ones, that are the procreators of others and referable in pairs to wit, those that are born of eggs, of wombs, of moisture of the &#xA;  earth, viz. horses, cattle, men, elephants, and all the creatures that there are which move or fly and those which do not move. &lt;strong&gt;All these have Consciousness as the giver of their reality;&lt;/strong&gt; all these are impelled by Consciousness; the universe has Consciousness as its eye and&#xA;  Consciousness is its end. Consciousness is Brahman. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-i-4: &lt;strong&gt;Through this Self that is Consciousness,&lt;/strong&gt; he ascended higher up from this world, and getting all desires fulfilled in that heavenly world, he became immortal, he became immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First Sutra of Shiva Sutras also state '&lt;em&gt;Chaitanyam Atman'&lt;/em&gt; or 'Consciousness is the self.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-25T08:09:47.150" LastActivityDate="2017-05-25T08:09:47.150" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18444" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-25T05:26:36.353" Score="2" ViewCount="5983" Body="&lt;p&gt;My Surname is Yadav and my  gotra is Gargeya . Is that possible because Gargeya are Suryavanshi lineage and Yadav are Chandravanshi lineage. I am confused. I am from Maharashtra if it helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9868" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-08-09T02:22:36.850" LastActivityDate="2018-08-09T02:22:36.850" Title="Gargeya Gotra / Gargi Gotra" Tags="|gotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18445" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-25T08:04:52.980" Score="5" ViewCount="2274" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the differences if any among the following Lokas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.Indra Loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.Deva loka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.Vaikuntha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9871" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-15T10:52:38.153" LastActivityDate="2018-02-15T10:52:38.153" Title="What is the difference between Indra loka, Deva loka and Vaikuntha?" Tags="|lokas|cosmology|swarga|vaikuntha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18448" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18407" CreationDate="2017-05-25T13:17:06.633" Score="3" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You don't need India only to unite individual consciousness to the universal consciousness. Spiritual process is not based on geography. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You had gotten such father owing to your past Karmas. Following your father's wish would be your Dharma because Dharma is nothing but any act which exhausts one's Karmas. Following your father's wish will exhaust your Karmic bondings which are result of past lives &amp;amp; thus pave your path to unite individual consciousness to the universal consciousness. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Don't choose any guru until you develops razor sharp conscience to discriminate between fake &amp;amp; bona fide Gurus as more gurus are today fake. Till read scriptures by your own. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Being in a world doesn't run contrary to the Spiritual process. Leaving home is not a prerequisite to unite individual consciousness to the ultimate consciousness. Only prerequisite is to become &lt;strong&gt;witness&lt;/strong&gt; from &lt;strong&gt;enjoyer&lt;/strong&gt;. i.e, Drishta bhaav is only prerequisite. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You don't need ashram to meditate, you can meditate anytime &amp;amp; anywhere. If you are serious &amp;amp; developed &lt;strong&gt;dhāran&lt;/strong&gt;, sitting on cozy cushion with any pose can unite you with the ultimate reality. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/strong&gt; Follow your father's wish because it is not in conflict with spiritual process in any way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;References-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Obviously.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18397/8696&quot;&gt;Partial reference&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Obviously.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhagvat Geeta. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vijnānabhairav tantra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/W2S60.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/W2S60.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;This pic will help to choose.&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-05-25T15:39:01.737" LastActivityDate="2017-05-25T15:39:01.737" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18450" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="567" CreationDate="2017-05-26T03:20:40.527" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mars is a red planet and the shading red symbolizes animosity, enrages and manliness. Planet Mars rules mettle, certainty, enthusiasm, assurance, aspiration and consolation. It urges us to face challenges and to be our best. Affirmation and a challenging, intrepid nature satisfy this planet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mars, the God of War, is the leader of Aries. In astrology, Mars is the planet of vitality, activity, and craving. It is the survival sense, and can be considered as the &quot;remaining&quot; creature nature of man. Mars in Ascendant makes a man look youthful. It controls enthusiasm and shows solid and wild sexual desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mars play a very important role in marriage of a girl and boy. The ‘defect or dosh’ created by planetary position of Mars is known as Mangal Dosha. Mangal dosha is completely based on the planetary status. According to Vedic Astrology birth cycle of a born if Mangal is present in 1st , 4th , 7th , 8th  and 12th  house, then such a situation is called the 'natives born Manglik'. This condition is considered extremely inauspicious for marriage, stress and disarray in relationship, unusual and unpleasant incident, constraints and discomfort in work, at home and any kind of inexplicably damage and problems caused by the fault of accelerated Asamayik of death. According to astrology, a Manglik girl or boy should marry another Manglik. If the bride and groom both have Mangal dosha yoga, then it gets cancelled out or eliminated. Basically, according to the nature of the planet Mars, this yoga is harmful, but with certain vedic rituals and methods effects could be easily reduced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How we can diminish the Effect of Mars or Mangal Dosha&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The red coral gemstone is controlled via planet Mars. Red coral decreases the impact of Mangalik Dosha and bring concordance amongst a couple and enhances the relationship. It controls the imprudence and rankles. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As said above, if both accomplices are Manglik then this gets invalidated and all the awful impacts gets offset. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mangal Pooja(Bhat Pooja) or Ritual in Mangal Nath Temple : Managl Nath Temple is arranged in Holy City Ujjain on Mangal Nath street on the bank of River Shipra and arranged on the land line of 'Tropic of Cancer'. The Mangal pooja is performed by savants and if performed for Mangal Shanti.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Fasting on Tuesday – It is likewise a compelling solution for lessen the impact of Mangal in Kundali.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Offer sustenance to creatures winged creatures and poor ones on Tuesday.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gemsratna.com/red-coral-can-diminish-the-effect-of-mars-or-mangal-dosha-benefits-and-uses-of-red-coral&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Read More&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9262" LastActivityDate="2017-05-26T03:20:40.527" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18451" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7153" CreationDate="2017-05-26T05:20:14.037" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You must be knowing that there are kinds of japa or chanting viz- vAchika, upAnsu and mAnasika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Visuddheswara Tantram&lt;/strong&gt; defines them as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;NijakarnAgocharohayam Sajapo MAnasah Smrito | UpAnsunijakarnasya&#xA;  Gocharaha Parikirtitaha | MantromucchArayedvAchA Sajapo VAchika Smrito&#xA;  ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the chants are completely done in one's mind and they are not&#xA;  audible even to oneself its called mAnasa. When its done like whispers&#xA;  and the chants are audible to one's own ears then its called upAnsu.&#xA;  Loud japa which everyone around can hear is called vAchika japa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among these 3 kinds of japa, the scriptures say that the mAnasika japa is the best followed by upAnsu followed by vAchika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;ShivAgama&lt;/strong&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TasmAcchatagunopansuhu Sahasro MAnasah Smritoho |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;UpAnsu japa is 100 times more fruitful than vAchika and mAnasa 1000&#xA;  times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if you are doing japa loudly (vAchika) then there are many rules to be followed. Your purity matters, the purity of the place of japa matters etc. But in case of mental chanting (mAnasa) there are absolutely no such restrictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the following verses from &lt;strong&gt;VaRahi Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ushnishi Kanchuki Nagno Muktakeso Ganabritoho | Apavitrakarohoshuddhah&#xA;  Pralapanna Japeth Kacchit || AnAsanaha SayAno VA Gacchana BhunjAn Eva&#xA;  VA | ApPrAvritokarou KritvA SirovA PrAvritopi VA..... PrsArya Na&#xA;  Japeth PAdAvuthkatAsna Eva VA ||...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Japa becomes fruitless if done with head gear, chest gears on, while&#xA;  naked, while hair not tied, while surrounded by friends, with impure hands,&#xA;  while traveling or walking, while lying down on bed, while eating,&#xA;  while one is hungry, while one's mind is disturbed, while one is angry&#xA;  or sad..., while on roads, in impure places, with shoes on, while sitting on&#xA;  the utkata asana etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the above rules apply for loud japa. For mAnasa japa there are no rules as stated in the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MAnase Tu Niyamo NAstyeva&lt;/strong&gt; | TathAcha Asuchirbba SuchirvApi Gacchan Stishthan Swapannapi | ... &lt;strong&gt;Na Dosha MAnase JApye Sarvadesepi&#xA;  SarvadAhA&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are no rules for mAnasa japa. Whether one is pure or impure ,&#xA;  whether one is traveling, eating or while lying on bed mental japa&#xA;  can always be done.... There are no sthanAdi doshas in mAnasa japa.&#xA;  (That is there is no need to consider purity of place of japa etc).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-05-26T05:20:14.037" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18452" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18366" CreationDate="2017-05-26T06:03:41.163" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Siva Temples in India on almost same Longitude&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kedarnath – Kedarnath Temple (30.7352° N, 79.0669)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaleshwaram – Kaleshwara Mukteeshwara swamy Temple (18.8110, 79.9067)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Srikalahati – Srikalahasti Temple (13.749802, 79.698410)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kanchipuram – Ekambareswarar Temple (12.847604, 79.699798)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thiruvanaikaval – Jambukeswara Temple (10.853383, 78.705455)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tiruvannamalai – Annamalaiyar Temple (12.231942, 79.067694)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chidambaram – Nataraja Temple (11.399596, 79.693559)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rameswaram – Ramanathaswamy Temple(9.2881, 79.3174)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The five temples were built according to the yogic sciences, and are placed in a certain geographic alignment with each other, so that the entire region reverberated with the possibility they offered.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.booksfact.com/mysteries/ancient-siva-temples-straight-line.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.booksfact.com/mysteries/ancient-siva-temples-straight-line.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9845" LastEditorUserId="9845" LastEditDate="2017-05-26T13:59:32.653" LastActivityDate="2017-05-26T13:59:32.653" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18453" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12473" CreationDate="2017-05-26T06:26:23.983" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;See the following verse from the Manu Smriti :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.9. (If) an opulent &lt;strong&gt;man (is) liberal towards strangers,&#xA;  while his family lives in distress,&lt;/strong&gt; that counterfeit virtue will first&#xA;  make him taste the sweets (of fame, but afterwards) make him swallow&#xA;  the poison (of punishment in hell)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, this verse talks about an opulent man but your question is about a man who is already in distress. So, this verse is not immediately applicable to the scenario. But it still can be adapted to your situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse means that the first duty is to look after the family. Only then one can donate to others. But , if a person is already having loans on him, implies that he and his family is in a financially distressed condition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In that situation his first priority will be to clear the loans and make his and his family's life easy. But instead of doing that if he continues to donate then he is only adding to the financial distress he is already having and thereby neglecting his duties towards his family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it will be bad karma (or mixed karma) IMO and more so because he is donating with the ulterior motive of earning punya or merits only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-26T06:34:40.480" LastActivityDate="2017-05-26T06:34:40.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18454" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18456" CreationDate="2017-05-26T07:14:34.470" Score="12" ViewCount="7122" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as I know,lusting is one of the biggest sin a person can commit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9877" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-26T09:20:37.213" LastActivityDate="2017-12-29T15:13:13.733" Title="Does god know our thoughts? and is it a sin to have lustful thoughts?" Tags="|karma|sin|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18455" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18454" CreationDate="2017-05-26T07:53:43.507" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Does god knows our thoughts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Offcourse God know our thoughts, that's why he called as Anteryami (who knows every feeling/thoughts/imagination of our). All of your imagination is use to store in brain as a memory and God can read brain because it's his creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;is it a sin to have lustful thoughts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thoughts alone can't do any sin but it's your decision (karma) that can do. What kind of decision you will make when your mind is full of lusting thoughts, that will decide sin or not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be more clear, decision (karma) can also be perform in non pysical way. For example: If someone is asking for help then if one will not do any help then this karma (decision, not phisical movement) is sin. That's mean you can do sin without moving phisicaly because some times not doing physical movement is sin. So your decision is know as karma, not your physical activities. And you will get Karma fal of your karma(decision).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Points to remember&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case one must try to avoid these thoughts and should keep pure thoughts only. If you will keep negative feelings inside your mind than this feeling will force you to do any sin. Lets take an example of anger (another negative thought like lust), we all feel anger many times, and when our anger is more, then we lost control of our physical movement and eventually our movements started to act on its own and try to do anything that can calm our feelings of anger down. And we ended up doing any sin. We all have experienced result of our anger. So try to keep all negative thoughts away, so that these thoughts couldn't overtake control of our movements/decision.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I got this message below my answer&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some of the information contained in this post requires additional references. Please edit to add citations to reliable sources that support the assertions made here. Unsourced material may be disputed or deleted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this message they told me to add references BUT I have learned those from Bhagwat geeta shown in Ramanand Sagar's Shree Krishna and Mahabharat on starplus. And I don't remember which episode was that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If after reading this, you think tv shows (only my trusted tv shows, not all) is not reliable then even online info regarding this in text form on different sites are also don't have any reliability.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-05-26T10:59:21.180" LastActivityDate="2017-05-26T10:59:21.180" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18456" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18454" CreationDate="2017-05-26T09:09:11.690" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes God knows as he is antaryami or one who resides inside us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas say that the Brahman or God has entered our body and has established himself in the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shariram brahma prAvishat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman (or God) has entered our body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 11.8.30&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Eko ha devo manasi pravishtah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sole God (or the one God) has established himself in the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 10.8.28&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, even if we think that we are talking or thinking or doing something secretly there is always a divine witness who is observing everything. So, there is nothing which we can do or even think in mind which won't be noticed by God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dvau samnishadya yat mantrayete rAja tat veda varunah tritiyah .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When you talk in secret, &lt;strong&gt;there is always the third observer, divine&#xA;  observer Varuna.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 4.16.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;As far as I know,lusting is one of the biggest sin a person can commit&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, that's wrong. Lust is innate in human and other beings as well. Its a natural pravritti that is born in humans everyday along with the other pravrittis like hunger, thirst, desire for sleep etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarire JAyayate Nityam VAnchah NrinAm ChaturvidhAHa | Vubhuksha Cha&#xA;  PipAsA SusupsA Cha RatisprihA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Daily these four-fold desires are born in a human&#xA;  body-hunger,thirst,desire for sleep and desire for sex (RatisprihA)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BhAvaprakash.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, being lusty in itself is not a sin. Just like being hungry or feeling sleepy are not sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, if afflicted by lust one cohabits with someone who's another person's wife then that is a sin. If you are hungry then that's natural order but if tormented by hunger you eat something that's forbidden in scriptures then that becomes a sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abbreviations used :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 11.8.30 ------&gt; Atharva Veda Samhita, KAnda 11, Sukta 8, Mantra 30 etc&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-26T11:36:03.040" LastActivityDate="2017-05-26T11:36:03.040" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18457" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18183" CreationDate="2017-05-26T10:44:34.893" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a saint known as Ramalinga adigal (Vallalar) who identified the ultimate to be a big light. He created the mahamantra:&#xA;&quot;Arutperunjoti Arutperunjyoti Thaniperunkarunai Arutperunjyoti&quot;.&#xA;Following the book of Tirumular (Thirumandiram) he attained the form of light.&#xA;But in his lectures and poems he insists on &quot;Sympathy&quot; (Dayavu) towards fellow beings and offering food to the hungry to get the grace of the ultimate light.&#xA;May be you can read his poem &quot;Thiruvarutpa&quot; (6th Thirumurai) to know about the ultimate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9880" LastActivityDate="2017-05-26T10:44:34.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18459" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-26T14:38:29.557" Score="3" ViewCount="138" Body="&lt;p&gt;When we visit a navagraha mandapa(where the nine planets are placed) in a temple, we observe a distinct placement of the planets. No planet faces other planet. But in reality, a planet faces other planet at some point of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/K1xfW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/K1xfW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a reason why these planets are placed such in temples? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-05-26T14:38:29.557" Title="Why are nava grahas in a temple placed such?" Tags="|temple|navagraha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-05-26T16:25:07.567" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18461" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-26T17:07:05.603" Score="1" ViewCount="341" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the reason why these Jyothirlingas have formed on the earth?&#xA;What is the story behind these 12 Jyothirlingas?&#xA;How many of these are Svayambhu Jyothirlingas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4956" LastActivityDate="2017-05-27T05:50:53.087" Title="How are the Jyothirlingas formed in 12 places of India?" Tags="|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-05-27T05:49:33.123" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18462" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18466" CreationDate="2017-05-26T17:10:34.627" Score="3" ViewCount="2436" Body="&lt;p&gt;Griffith translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;As in his rapid course the Sun encompasses the heaven and earth,&#xA;  So do I compass round thy mind that thou mayst be in love with.&#xA;   me, my darling, never to depart.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does the first line looks like scientific error?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says like Sun revolves around the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-05-27T05:39:56.480" LastActivityDate="2023-05-17T18:02:19.640" Title="Does Atharva Veda 6.8.3 talk about Sun revolving around Earth?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18464" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-26T17:48:49.067" Score="2" ViewCount="194" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said to be the respect that the King Mayura Dhwaja has earned by donating his complete left half of his body to Lord Sri Krishna in one of his leelas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that the reason why we need to pray to the Dhwajasthamba first even before we offer our prayers to the main diety in the temple?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kindly provide if there are any citations of this in any of the Holy scriptures!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4956" LastEditorUserId="4956" LastEditDate="2017-05-29T13:14:41.353" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T13:14:41.353" Title="What is the importance of Dhwajasthamba in any of the temples that we go?" Tags="|krishna|temple|dharma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18465" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10057" CreationDate="2017-05-27T04:39:51.570" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since Vedic times Hindus were able to describe very large numbers by using appropriate names. The 9 numbers were already mentioned in RV like eka, dwi, tri, chatur,......., nava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The names for 10, 20,..., 90 occurs in RV 2.18.5-6. Other numbers are described thus-  for example 84 is spelled as four plus eighty. 18 is spelled as 2 less than 20 and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RV 3.9.9 for example has the number 3339 spelled as three thousand, three hundred, and 39.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.onlineved.com/yajur-ved/?language=1&amp;amp;adhyay=17&amp;amp;mantra=2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The YV 17.2&lt;/a&gt; mentions numbers upto ten raised to the power of 12.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इमा मेऽअग्नऽइष्टका धेनवः सन्त्वेका च दश च दशु च शतं च शतं च सुहस्रं च&#xA;  सहस्रं चायुतं चायुतं च नियुतं च नियुतं च प्रयुतं चार्बुदं च न्यर्बुदं&#xA;  च समुद्रश्च मध्यं चान्तश्च परार्द्धश्चैता मेऽअग्नऽइष्टका धेनवः&#xA;  सन्त्वमुत्रामुष्मिँल्लोके॥॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhavarth. O learned person, may the materials of my yajna, like&#xA;  milchkine, be the givers of happiness to me. They may be one, and ten,&#xA;  and tentens, a hundred, and ten hundred, a thousand and ten thousand&#xA;  and a hundred thousand, a lac and ten lacs, a million, and ten&#xA;  millions, a crore, ten crores, hundred crores, thousand crores, its&#xA;  tentimes Maha Padma, its ten times Shankh, its tentimes Samudra, its&#xA;  tentimes Madhya, its tentimes Prardh.. May these bricks of my altar be&#xA;  a source of happiness to me, like milch-kine in this world and the&#xA;  next World.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example: ayuta is 10^4 (10 raised to the power of 4), niyuta is 10^5, payuta is 10^6, arbuda is 10^7, nyarbuda is 10^8, samudra is 10^9, madhya is 10^10, anta is 10^11, pararardha is 10^12 etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar list can be found in Taittiriya Samhita 4.4.11, MaitrAyani Samhita 2.8.12, Kathaka Samhita 17.10 etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The AV 8.3.21 for example mentions the following number:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;shatam te ayutam hyanan dwai trini chatvAri krama&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here shatam= 100, ayutam=10,000, dwai=2, trini=3, chatvari=4. The number is to be read in a reverse order by the standard convention.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shatam te ayutam is one million. So, the number is 432 million.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the Chamaka mantras found in the Yajur Veda also describe certain numbers as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;navadasha cha me ekavimsatih cha me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;( 9 and 11)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;trayodasha cha me panchadasha cha me saptadasha cha me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;( 13, 15 and 17)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekatrimshat cha me trayatrimshat cha me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(31 and 33)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dvatrimshat cha me shattrimshat cha me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(32 and 36)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;chatvarimshat cha me chatuschatvarimshat cha me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;( 40 and 44)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;etc... (Mantras from YajurvEda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Abbreviations used&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RV 2.18.5 ---&gt; Rig Veda Samhita Mandala 2, Sukta 18, Mantra 5.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;YV 17.2 ----&gt; Adyayaya 17, Mantra 2 of Yajur Veda Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AV 2.6.1 ---&gt; Atharva Veda Samhita, Kanda 2, Sukta 6, Mantra 1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T05:57:44.567" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T05:57:44.567" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18466" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18462" CreationDate="2017-05-27T05:42:19.037" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Atharvaveda 6.8 is called &lt;strong&gt;Kãmãtma Sukta&lt;/strong&gt; (or Hymn to fulfill desire). It was heard by sage Jamadagni.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The first line of 6.8.3 is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथेमे द्यावापृथिवी सद्यः पर्येति सूर्यः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yatheme dyāvāpṛthivī sadyaḥ paryeti sūryaḥ ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथेमे (yatheme) = Just like&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  द्यावापृथिवी (dyāvāpṛthivī) = Earth and Heaven&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सद्यः (sadyaḥ) = Immediately&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पर्येति (paryeti) = Reaches&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सूर्यः (sūryaḥ) = Sun&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the word &amp;apos;सद्य&amp;apos; / &amp;apos;Sadya&amp;apos; is used there which means &amp;apos;Immediately&amp;apos;. So it is referring to the &amp;apos;Light of Sun&amp;apos;. As it is light of Sun which reaches immediately. So, the meaning is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as light of Sun reaches immediately Earth and Heaven...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In anycase if one interprets it as &amp;apos;Sun&amp;apos; only also then it doesn&amp;apos;t matter because the verse is nowhere talking about revolution of sun towards earth.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And Vedas do not propagate the idea that rising and setting of sun is due to revolution of Sun towards earth. For eg. RigVeda Aitreya Brahmana 3.44 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एष न कदा चनास्तमेति नोदेति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  eṣa na kadā canāstameti nodeti&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;This (Sun) never rises and never sets.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-27T06:00:27.273" LastActivityDate="2017-05-27T06:00:27.273" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18467" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16473" CreationDate="2017-05-27T06:10:58.917" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all i am posting only according to the Sakala &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;shakha&lt;/a&gt; of Rig Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;RV Mandala 10&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mandala has &lt;strong&gt;191 suktas with 1754 mantras&lt;/strong&gt;. It has many famous Suktas including the Purusha Suktam (RV 10.90).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rishi (seer) of the Purusha Suktam is NArAyana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given below are few manadala 10 suktas along with their respective seers (not all suktas are given):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;Sukta (#s) ------------------- Seer (Rishi)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-7 ....... Trita Aptya.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;19 ....... BhriguvAruni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;20-26 ....... Vimada Aindra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;27-29 ......... Vasukra Aindra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;28, 86 ......... Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;30- 34 .......... Kavasha Ailusha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;42- 44 ......... Krishna Angirasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;48- 50 .......... Indra Vaikuntha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;51- 53, 79, 80 ...... Agni Sauchika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;54- 56 ...... Brhaduktha VAmadevya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;57- 60 ....... Bandhu GopAyana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;67, 68 ...... AyAsya Angirasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;81, 82 ...... VisvakarmA Bhauvana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;110, 167 ..... Jamadagni BhArgava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;137 ........... Sapta Rshayah .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this mandala (RV 10.137) the sapta rishis or the seven celestial sages are mentioned explicitly by their names viz Bharadwaja, Kashyapa, Gotama, Atri, Viswamitra, Jamadagni and Vashishtha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Other few important suktas of RV mandala 10 :&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) Agahamrashana Suktam ( 10.9.1-3)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This sub hymn is dedicated to the energies of water. It is used in sandhya vandanam. It is known as the destroyer of sins or agha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) Yama, Death :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 5 suktas from 10.14 to 10.18 deal with various aspects of death such as mantras to be chanted during cremation, the paths to be traversed by the soul or jiva after death i.e devayAna and pitryAna etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire sukta 10. 135 is dedicated to Yama. Ideas here are some what similar to those found in the Katha Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3) Purusha Suktam :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This very famous suktam is in this mandala and it is RV 10.90.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4) Creation:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are several hymns dedicated to the subject of creation such as 10.129, 10.121, 10.81-82, 10.154, 10.190.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5) Healing plants and thoughts :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sukta RV 10.97 has 23 mantras in all and it discusses the healing power of plants and thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6) A colloquy between Pururavas and Urvashi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sukta 10.95 contains a colloquy between Pururavas and Urvasi. This story has also been mentioned in Puranic literature, but the Vedic story can have deeper interpretations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is , in brief, an overview of Rig Veda Mandala 10.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abbreviations:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RV 1.164.12 -----&gt; Rig Veda Samhita, Mandala 1, Sukta 164, Mantra 12 etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference used :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda Samhita Mandala 10 by R. L. Kashyap.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/rigveda/rv10.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here is the full mandala 10&lt;/a&gt; in sanskrit. You can get the Rishi, Chandah and Devata of all the mantras of mandala 10 from that PDF.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T05:46:32.897" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T05:46:32.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18468" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-27T08:43:12.777" Score="2" ViewCount="226" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know Shiva cursed Brahma not to be worshipped. We all know the many stories behind it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what is the &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Purpose&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; of this- banishing Brahma's worship?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Shiva has done this, there must be some deeper purpose of it. Shiva cannot do it just out of revenge of insult.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is deeper and greater purpose of this?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T23:21:44.473" Title="What was the &quot;Purpose&quot; behind Shiva's banishing Brahma's worship?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|brahma|curse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18469" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18430" CreationDate="2017-05-27T10:59:27.847" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;We should read or understand &lt;strong&gt;Chapters 22, 23 and 24 of Uma Samhita of Shiva Purana completely&lt;/strong&gt; to get proper meaning. In these 3 chapters, Vyasa asks Sanatkumara to explain things so that he can get Vairagya (detachment). Sanatkumara here explains things in such a way that Vyasa develops detachment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 22 of Uma Samhita&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;व्यास उवाच &lt;br&gt; विधि तात वदेदानीं जीवजन्मविधानत:। &lt;br&gt; गर्भस्थितिं च&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;तस्यापि वैराग्यार्थं&lt;/strong&gt; मुनीश्वर॥१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, “O excellent sage, how does the living being remain in the&#xA;mother's womb in the process of birth. You kindly mention with&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;purpose of achievement of the vairagya or detachment&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सनत्कुमार उवाच &lt;br&gt; शृणु व्यास समासेन शास्त्रसारमशेषतः। &lt;br&gt; वदिष्यामि&#xA;सुवैराग्यं &lt;strong&gt;मुमुक्षोर्भवबन्धकृत्&lt;/strong&gt;॥२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatkumara said, “O Vyasa, I shall now speak out in brief the essence&#xA;of all the Scriptures, which bestows &lt;strong&gt;detachment and removes the&#xA;Worldly bondages&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatkumara can explain how birth happens in simpler way but he chooses words demeaning physical body and sensual pleasures, so that it can develop Vairagya. You can read complete Chapter 22 to understand it in detail. Let me quote some verses said by Sanatakumara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यथा गिरिवराक्रान्तः कश्चिद्दुःखेन तिष्ठति। &lt;br&gt; तथा जरायुणा देही दुःखं&#xA;तिष्ठति वेष्टितः॥३०॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a person Surrounded by the mountains (slanting lands), feels&#xA;miserable, similarly the jiva having been surrounded by the membrane&#xA;in the womb, feels miserable. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पतितः सागरे तद्वद्दुःखमास्ते समाकुलः। &lt;br&gt;गर्भोदकेन सिक्ताङ्गः&#xA;सर्वदाऽऽकुलितस्तदा॥३१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a person feels disturbed with a fall in the ocean, similarly the&#xA;creature, during the period of pregnancy, having been drowned in the&#xA;water of the womb feels painful, &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लोहकुम्भे यथा न्यस्त: पच्यते कचिदग्निना। &lt;br&gt;गर्भकुम्भे तथा क्षिप्तः&#xA;पच्यते जठराग्निना॥३२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a person is roasted in an iron vase with the fire, similarly the&#xA;creature placed in the vase like womb is heated with the gastric fire.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Sanatkumara explains painful side of rebirth so that Vyasa can develop detachment and thereby he can avoid rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 23 of Uma Samhita&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शुक्रशोणितसंयोगाद्देहः संजायते यतः। &lt;br&gt; नित्यं&#xA;विण्मूत्रसम्पूर्णस्तेनायमशुचिः स्मृतः॥२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The body is considered to be impure, because it is formed of the semen&#xA;and blood and is filled with filth as well as urine. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यथान्तर्निष्ठया पूर्णः शुचिमान्न बहिर्घटः। &lt;br&gt; शोध्यमानो हि देहोऽयं&#xA;तेनायमशुचिस्ततः॥३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is like a vase filled with filth and as such, though it outwardly&#xA;looks pure, but in reality it is impure. Similarly, the body though is&#xA;purified outwardly, but inwardly it is not so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सम्प्राप्यातिपवित्राणि पञ्चगव्यं हवींषि च। &lt;br&gt; अशुचित्वं क्षणाद्यान्ति&#xA;किमन्यदशुचिस्ततः॥४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The extremely auspicious pancagavya as well as the havirdravyas also&#xA;get polluted with the mere touch of the body in a moment. What more&#xA;impurity could be these. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हे जनाः किन्न पश्यन्ति यन्निर्याति दिनेदिने। &lt;br&gt;स्वदेहात्कश्मलं&#xA;पूतिस्तदाधारः कथं शुचिः॥६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O humans, do you not observe that the filth and urine, which daily&#xA;emerges from the body, (which are impure) then how could the body,&#xA;which is the source of the same could be pure? &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But same chapter says the man whose mind is pure can make his body pure. You can see Sanatkumara is explaining things in such a way that Vyasa develops Vairagya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatakumara also says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्त्रीष्वध्यासितचित्तस्य ये पुंसः शुक्रबिन्दवः। &lt;br&gt; ते सुखाय न&#xA;मन्यन्ते स्वेदजा इव ते तथा॥५५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The drops of semen of a person who is lustful with his mind engaged in&#xA;women when dropped, they cannot make him comfortable like the drops of&#xA;sweat. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कृमिभिस्तुद्यमानस्य कुष्टिनो वानरस्य च। &lt;br&gt; कण्डूयनाभितापेन&#xA;यद्भवेत्स्त्रीषु तद्विदः॥५६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A leprous monkey, when it scratches itself having been afflicted with&#xA;worms, the same pleasure is derived by cohabiting with a women. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यादृशं मन्यते सौख्यं गण्डे पूतिविनिर्गमात्। &lt;br&gt; तादृशं स्त्रीषु&#xA;मन्तव्यं नाधिकं तासु विद्यते॥५७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The pleasure one derives from the company of a woman, is equal to the&#xA;pleasure derived from a boil by removing the puss. There is nothing&#xA;more to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These strong words are aimed to develop Vairagya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 24&lt;/strong&gt;, Vyasa asks story of Apsara Panchachuda and Narada (which seems to be famous story among Sanyasa to develop Vairagya). All those quotations about women are opinions of Apsara and whole purpose of recounting this story is to develop Vairagya. This is what Sanatkumara says at end:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इति श्रुत्वा वचस्तस्या नारदस्तुष्टमानसः॥ &lt;br&gt; तथ्यं मत्वा ततस्तद्वै&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;विरक्तोऽभूद्धि&lt;/strong&gt; तासु च॥३६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatkumara said, &amp;quot;Listening to the Words of the nymph, and &lt;strong&gt;taking&#xA;them to be true, Narada felt detached&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्युक्तः &lt;strong&gt;स्त्रीस्वभावस्ते पञ्चचूडोक्त&lt;/strong&gt; आदरात्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;वैराग्यकारणं&lt;/strong&gt; व्यास किमन्यच्छ्रोतुमर्हसि॥३७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Vyasa, I have narrated about the nature of the woman, as was&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;explained by the apsara Pañcactida&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;which is the cause of my getting detached&lt;/strong&gt;. Now what else do you intend to listen from me.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatkumara says this story helped him in getting Vairagya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does that mean Sanatakumara really hates Human body as he said it is&#xA;impure?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. In &lt;strong&gt;chapter 20 of same Umasamhita&lt;/strong&gt;, Sanatakumara praises human body as vehicle to Moskha and says it is even difficult for Devas to attain Humanbody.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मानुष्यं च समासाद्य &lt;strong&gt;स्वर्गमोक्ष&lt;/strong&gt;प्रसाधनम्। &lt;br&gt; नाचरत्यात्मनः श्रेयः स&#xA;मृतः शोचते चिरम्॥३०॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The human body is the means for achieving of the &lt;strong&gt;heaven and moksa&lt;/strong&gt; and&#xA;even after achieving the same, he does not do good to himself. After&#xA;death he keeps on thinking for a long time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवासुराणां सर्वेषां मानुष्यं चातिदुर्लभम्। &lt;br&gt; तत्सम्प्राप्य तथा कुर्यान्न&#xA;गच्छेन्नरकं यथा॥३१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is difficult for even the gods and the demons to achieve the human&#xA;body. Therefore after achieving the human body, one should act in a&#xA;way that he has not to face the agonies of the hell. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uma Samhita itself praises Divine Mother or Shakti from &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 46&lt;/strong&gt;. As explained in other answer, &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 4 of Vyayaviya Samhita (Uttara Bhaga)&lt;/strong&gt; praises woman as Divine Mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शङ्करः पुरुषाः सर्वे &lt;strong&gt;स्त्रियः सर्वा महेश्वरी।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; सर्वे स्त्रीपुरुषास्तस्मात्तयोरेव विभूतयः॥५४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the men represent&#xA;Shankara, while their &lt;strong&gt;spouses represent Shivaa (Maheswari)&lt;/strong&gt;. Therefore&#xA;all the men and women represent the grace of both of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Shiva Purana doesn't demean women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-28T04:29:10.527" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18471" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-27T16:04:32.070" Score="4" ViewCount="33491" Body="&lt;p&gt;Today when I was praying to God, I saw flower which was tucked to the left side of the photo (Lakshmi-venkateshwara) fell down. Is it a good or bad omen, if it is falling towards left side?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9903" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2018-06-09T06:32:56.960" LastActivityDate="2018-06-09T06:32:56.960" Title="Is flower falling from photo towards left side a bad omen?" Tags="|prayer|superstitions|omens|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-06-01T21:17:18.303" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18472" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-27T17:27:04.010" Score="3" ViewCount="77" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the special characteristics of  this alwar and how many names was given to him by almighty? What is his significant contribution towards Vaishnavism ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-28T11:05:46.533" LastActivityDate="2017-05-28T11:05:46.533" Title="Thirumangai alwar" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|saint|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18473" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-27T17:31:32.540" Score="2" ViewCount="174" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the great achievement by this maharishi? How the God appeared before him and what the God asked him to do?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2017-05-28T08:48:41.943" Title="Significant devotion of Gunaseela Maharishi" Tags="|rishi|bhakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18474" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14582" CreationDate="2017-05-27T20:14:55.783" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I live in Bhubaneshwar , which is a Shaiva Pitha. The Lingaraj Temple is quite famous and devotees from all over India visit this Temple . A large number of Shiva Temples , have been built in Bhubaneshwar , between 8th Century AD to 11 th Century AD.&lt;br/&gt; We do keep Shiva Lingas at home for worship . There are no restrictions imposed on the worship of Shiva Linga . It is worsipped along with Images or Paintings of other Gods and Goddesses..&lt;br/&gt;One thing , however, we are required to remember, is this -&quot; SARVAM KHALU IDAM BRAHMAM &quot;--God has transformed Himself into the whole Universe. &quot; KA KAN MEIN BHAGAWAN&quot; -is the equivalent in Hindi ..God exists in all atoms and particles in this Universe --is the meaning of this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2589" LastActivityDate="2017-05-27T20:14:55.783" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18479" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="492" CreationDate="2017-05-28T06:50:41.557" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ashtanga is &quot;eight limbs&quot;. SAshtanga is &quot;with eight limbs&quot;. So, prostration which is done by involving the eight particular limbs of body is called the ShAshtanga Namaskara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the formal definition from &lt;strong&gt;Viswa SAra Tantram&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PadbhyAm KarAbhyAm JAnubhyAmurasA SirasA DrisA VachasA ManasA Chaiva&#xA;  PranAmohashtAnga Iritaha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A prostration which is done by employing the following eight limbs is called&#xA;  the Ashtanga pranam - Two feet, two hands, two knees, chest, head,&#xA;  two eyes, speech ( Vakya) and mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When performed the shastanga pranam will look something like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/C7Fmv.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/C7Fmv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, there is a panchanga pranam which involves 5 limbs instead of 8.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BAhuBhyAnchaiva JAnubhyAm SirasA VachasA DrisA PanchAngohayam&#xA;  PranAmaha SyAt PujAsu Prvaravimau |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The prostration which is done by involving the following five limbs is&#xA;  called the panchanga pranam. Both these prostrations are prescribed&#xA;  during pujas- Two hands, two knees, head, speech and mind&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When done the panchanga pranam will look something like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Wgye7.gif&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Wgye7.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In such kind of prostrations we offer God all our senses along with the mind. So, they signify a total, all-round surrender to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-28T07:49:35.383" LastActivityDate="2017-05-28T07:49:35.383" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18480" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18473" CreationDate="2017-05-28T07:36:42.040" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gunaseela MahAtmiyam(குணசீல மஹாத்மியம்)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gunaseela Maharishi is the devout sishyA of ThAlpiya Maharishi(தால்பிய மஹரிஷி). Once ThAlpiya Maharishi along with his sishyAs went to the Himalayas to worship Vyasa then took Ganga snAnam and snAnam in other holy waters. On their return, they stopped at ThiruVenkatamalai (திருவேங்கடமலை) to worship ThiruVEnkatamUdayAn(திருவேங்கடமுடையான்) or Perumaal Venkateswara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gunaseela Maharishi felt inseparable devotion to Perumaal and beseeched Perumaal to come with them. On hearing this devout Bhakta of his, Perumaal said that he had committed to grace darshan onto devotees from Thirumalai till the end of the current Kalpa and told Gunaseela Maharishi to perform Tapasya upon returning to the Ashram, by receiving the right notion from his GuruNatha ThAlpiyar to undertake the same, assuring Gunaseelar that his intention will be duly fulfilled.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gunaseelar then told his GuruNathar about this, to which ThAlpiyar responded, &quot;It is well known that future events are foretold in the Puranams. &lt;strong&gt;In that way it is known that as a result of your Tapasya, SriVaikunthaVaasudeva will rise in your Ashram located in the North bank of Cauvery as DivyaMangalaVigrahaSwaroopan with ThiruNaamam of Sri Prasanna Venkatesan&lt;/strong&gt;(ஸ்ரீ பிரஸன்ன வேங்கடேசன்) &lt;strong&gt;along with Sri Devi ThAyAr gracing Devotees with their presence and granting the bhaktas' wishes till the end of the current Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;(ஸ்ரீதேவியுடன் ஸ்ரீ பிரஸன்ன வேங்கடேசன் என்ற திருநாமத்துடன் இந்த கல்பம் முடியும் வரை திவ்யமங்கள விக்ரஹ ஸ்வருபனாய் எழுந்தளியிருந்து). Having said so, ThAlpiya Maharishi blessed Gunaseelar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gunaseela Maharishi upon returning to his Ashram, after duly bathing in the river Cauvery, undertook steadfast Tapasya, meditating with his Manas one-pointed on SriVaikunthaVaasudevar(ஸ்ரீ வைகுண்ட வாஸுதேவனை மனதில் தியானம் செய்து தவம் இயற்றலானர்). &lt;strong&gt;His Tapasya undeterrable - amidst PanchAgni in the summer, donning wet vasthram in Winter, Standing in Water during Monsoon. Devas became aware of it and became afraid. Indra, fearing that his post might be usurped, launched a host of attacks with Thunder, Rain, Storm, Lightning and other numerous means attempted to shatter Gunaseelar's Tapasya in vain.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devas flabbergasted by defeat approached Lord Brahma and enquired onto the reason for Gunaseelar's Tapasya. Brahma immediately saw with the power of his Jnana Dhrishti that Gunaseelar, with the express intent of being graced by Perumaal in his Ashram, was meditating unshaken on SriVaikunthaVaasudeva. Thus, having heard from Brahma that they had nothing to fear, the Devas paid respect to Lord Brahma and returned to their abode. Such is the greatness of Gunaseela Maharishi's meditation on Perumaal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In due time, EmPerumaal SriVaikunthaVaasudevar along with SriLakshmi ThAyAr set out on VedaSwaRoopan GarudAzhwan to Gunaseela Maharishi's Ashram to grace him who had taken Perumaal himself as his only refuge and meditated unwaveringly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Knowing thus, that Perumaal and ThAyAr are arriving from Vaikuntham, Brahma &amp;amp; Saraswati, Siva &amp;amp; Parvati, Devis &amp;amp; Devas, Sanatkumara Munis, Sage Naradar, Thumburu &amp;amp; GandharvAs, Kinnargal &amp;amp; Kimpurushargal, Yakshas, Sakhyas, SAranAs &amp;amp; others and ThAlpiyar &amp;amp; his Sishyas arrived to Gunaseela Maharishi's Ashram and awaited eagerly Perumaal &amp;amp; ThAyAr's Arrival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Arrival, EmPerumaal grants glorious Darshan to Gunaseelar(which is described in exquisite detail &lt;a href=&quot;http://gunaseelamtemple.com/aboutus.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) and grants Maharishi Gunaseelar a boon - through which he asks for SrimanNarayana to grace all his devotees and grant their wishes by taking Nitya Vaasam at his Ashram till the end of the Kalpa. Perumaal obliges Gunaseelar's wishes as Sri Prassana Venkatesan carrying Lakshmi ThAyAr in his chest appearing with Shanka, Chakra, VaradaHastham &amp;amp; KadiHastham(கலியுக தெய்வமாய்த் திகழ ஸ்ரீ பிரஸன்ன வேங்கடேசனாக திவ்யமங்கள விக்ரஹஸ்வரூபனாய் சங்கு சக்கரம் வரதஹஸ்தம் கடிஹஸ்தம் உடையவராய், திருமார்பில் இலக்குமியைத் தாங்கி நின்ற திருகோலத்தில் காட்சியளித்தார்).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OBmFW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OBmFW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Gunaseelam-Sri-Prasanna-Venkatesa-Perumaal&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://gunaseelamtemple.com/index.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Official Temple site&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-05-28T08:48:41.943" LastActivityDate="2017-05-28T08:48:41.943" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18481" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8962" CreationDate="2017-05-28T07:52:51.113" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the common &quot;śloka&quot; chanted right after &quot;Aarti&quot; and It is found in Yajurveda, one of the four canonical texts of Hinduism is below one, in Praise of Lord Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कर्पूर गौरम करूणावतारम संसार सारम भुजगेन्द्र हारम | सदा वसंतम&#xA;  हृदयारविंदे भवम भवानी सहितं नमामि ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first word in above sloka, describe the complexion of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कर्पूरगौरं (karpūragauraṁ): The one who is as &lt;strong&gt;pure/white&lt;/strong&gt; as a camphor(karpur)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastEditorUserId="2311" LastEditDate="2017-05-29T14:20:37.060" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T14:20:37.060" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18486" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16306" CreationDate="2017-05-28T14:54:28.123" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I remember few occasions when Chandrahaas is mentioned in Sundar Kaand and Yuddh Kand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Raising Chandrahaas over Sita&lt;/strong&gt; : After Sita refuses to be her wife, Raavan lifts Chandrahaas upon her to kill. Mandodari stops him, stating that it doesn't befit a king to kill a woman. This is the incident overseen by Hanuman, while hiding in Ashoka tree. It is mentioned in Sundarkaand, doha 10 in Ramcharitmanas. It is not there in Valmiki Ramayan though. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सीता तैं मम कृत अपमाना। कटिहउँ तव सिर कठिन कृपाना।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नाहिं त सपदि मानु मम बानी। सुमुखि होति न त जीवन हानी।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्याम सरोज दाम सम सुंदर। प्रभु भुज करि कर सम दसकंधर।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सो भुज कंठ कि तव असि घोरा। सुनु सठ अस प्रवान पन मोरा।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;चंद्रहास हरु मम परितापं। रघुपति बिरह अनल संजातं।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सीतल निसित बहसि बर धारा। कह सीता हरु मम दुख भारा।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुनत बचन पुनि मारन धावा। मयतनयाँ कहि नीति बुझावा।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कहेसि सकल निसिचरिन्ह बोलाई। सीतहि बहु बिधि त्रासहु जाई।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मास दिवस महुँ कहा न माना। तौ मैं मारबि काढ़ि कृपाना।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दो0-भवन गयउ दसकंधर इहाँ पिसाचिनि बृंद।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सीतहि त्रास देखावहि धरहिं रूप बहु मंद।।10।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandrahaas was rendered ineffective by Rama in the 1st battle between Ram and Ravan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandrahaas was also used by Ravan against Hanuman's gada, following which Ram had to intervene (1st battle between Ram and Ravan)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3881" LastEditorUserId="3881" LastEditDate="2019-04-23T17:22:13.310" LastActivityDate="2019-04-23T17:22:13.310" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18488" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14492" CreationDate="2017-05-28T16:49:03.440" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rigveda &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upakarma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Upakarma&lt;/a&gt;: Should be done on the day in shraavana where shravana is the star and spans at least from sunrise to mid day.But not in Uttara Ashadha if present during sunrise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्रवणे श्रवणायाम् उपाकर्म कुर्वीत आश्वलायन गृह्य सूत्र&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samaveda Upakarma: Should be done on hasta nakshatra on bhadrapada shuklapaksha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रौष्ठपदी हस्तायाम् वा श्रवणे श्रवणायां उपक्रमण= गोभिल गृह्य सूत्र&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna Yajurveda: i.e. Taittiriyas &amp;amp; Maitrayanis should do on shravistha, dhanistha,(avittam in Tamil),on shraavana month,whether it falls on purnima yukta Pratipada (Pratipat)during sunrise (Telugu- paadyami) or prathama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shukla Yajurveda: i.e. Vajasaneyi Kanvas and Madhyandinas do in purnima day if purnima is present up to evening.But if punima and pratipada both are present on next day(para viddha) they should do on previous day when chaturdashi stays in day and then purnima comes after mid day(purva viddha).Under no condition they should do/avoid doing in krishna paksha pratipat or broadly speaking they should finish upakarma before approach of krishna paksha.but they postpone upakarma to the next day if purnima is having Uttara Ashadha nakshatra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्रवणे पौर्णमास्यां उपाकर्म =पारस्कर गृह्य सूत्र&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda: They do on the day when purnima lasts during sunrise.(udaya vyapini tithi)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there occurs Eclipse and sankranti when sun enters Leo (masa pirrapu/avani 1st in Tamil) during purnima,the people having upakrama for that day should be finished prior to punima when hasta nakshatra is available(generally shravana shukla Panchami/shashti.and for samaveda,if there is sankramana(purattasi 1st) to kanya in bhadrapada then shraavana month's hasta should be considered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If shraavana suddha Panchami(hasta) day is having sankramana/sankranti and purnima is having eclipse then upakarma is postponed to Samaveda upakarma day,i'e. bhadrapada hasta nakshatra but only Vajasaneyi Shukla Yajurveda people can do upakarma on the Panchami(hasta) having simha sankramana and avoid upakarma on purnima having eclipse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The details of upAkarma initially is taken from grhya sutras but as they are short aphorisms, the procedures is given in elaborate in the ritualistic books. Hence respective grhya sutra is to be referred for upAkarma and related rituals. &#xA;The whole procedure of upAkarma is very long hence it is not possible to include in the post. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For date &lt;strong&gt;calculations&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nirnaya Sindhu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dharma sindhu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A detailed &lt;strong&gt;procedure&lt;/strong&gt; could be found in the books like &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;upAkarma paddhati (for respective veda)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;aahnika krama (for respective veda)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T19:28:39.793" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T19:28:39.793" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18489" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18515" CreationDate="2017-05-28T17:52:44.307" Score="3" ViewCount="3248" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Internet we see many sites which claim that Mantras are locked in Kaliyuga. Are the mantras really locked? Why are they locked? &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Also does anyone know methods to unlock Mantras which can be propagated in public if they are locked?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-05-29T06:37:36.367" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T17:21:53.920" Title="Are Mantras really Locked?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2017-06-02T13:18:05.830" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18490" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18489" CreationDate="2017-05-28T18:49:09.750" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;So far as I know there isn't a lock on all Mantras.  But Shaktas do speak of a lock on the Gayatri mantra.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk11ch16.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Devi  Bhagavatam says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Next for the freedom of the curse of Gâyatrî, do the things properly. Brahmâ gave a curse to Gâyatrî; Vis’vâmitra gave a curse to Her and Vas’istha also cursed Her. These are the three curses; they are removed in due order by recollecting Brahmâ, Vis’vâmitra and Vas’istha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this should be taken with a grain of salt, since many people believe that the Devi Bhagavatam is neither one of Vyasa's 18 Mahapuranas nor one of Vyasa's 18 Upapuranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-05-28T18:49:09.750" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18493" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18494" CreationDate="2017-05-29T05:19:12.587" Score="6" ViewCount="740" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally, Vaishnavas follow the Pancharatra Agamas, Shaivites follow the Shaiva Agamas, and Shaktas follow the Shaiva Agamas. But long ago, there was a group of people in Kashmir who followed the Shakta Agamas but adopted Shiva as their Ishta Devata. That group evolved into what we now call Kashmir Shaivism. Because it has its roots in Shakta Agamas, it subscribes to a monistic philosophy, as opposed to philosophical Shaivite sects like Shaiva Siddhanta which are more dualistic in their philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the most famous Kashmiri Shaivite philosopher was Abhinavagupta, who lived in the 10th century.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18300/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Abhinavagupta had many gurus, but one of them was Lakshmanagupta, whose guru was Utpaladeva, who is the subject of my question.  Utpaladeva composed a work called the Ishwara Pratyabhijna Karika, which is the defining work of the Pratyabhijna school, a philosophical school founded by Utpaladeva's guru Somananda which involves regaining knowledge of one's own Shiva-nature.  The Pratyabhijna school is one of the traditions that merged to form the Kashmiri Shaivite sect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, Utpaladeva wrote two commentaries on his own Ishwara Pratyabhijna Karika, the Vritti which is short and the Vivriti which is long.  The Vritti still exists, and has been translated by Rafaelle Torella in &lt;a href=&quot;https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8120818679&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;.  But the Utapaladeva's Vivriti is mostly lost now.  That's because people stopped paying attention to it and started paying attention to Abhinavagupta's two commentaries on the Ishwara Pratyabhijna Karika, namely the Ishwara Pratyabhijna Vimarshini and the Ishwara Pratyabhijna Vivriti Vimarshini.  That's ironic, because the latter work is actually a commentary on the Vivriti, but the problem is that Abhinavagupta seldom quotes the actual verses of the Vivriti in his commentary.  And so the Vivriti was eventually lost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what surviving fragments of Utpaladeva's Ishwara Pratyabhijna Vivriti have been translated into English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-03-25T23:54:03.840" LastActivityDate="2018-03-25T23:54:03.840" Title="What parts of Utpaladeva's Ishwara Pratyabhijna Vivriti are available in English?" Tags="|history|philosophy|translation-request|shaivism|kashmiri-shaivism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18494" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18493" CreationDate="2017-05-29T05:19:41.003" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt;: Read &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/cl66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF document&lt;/a&gt; I created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me start off by posting a useful chart from Isabelle Ratié 2016 paper &quot;In Search of Utpaladeva's Lost Vivriti on the Pratyabhijna Treatise&quot;, showing exactly what major fragments of Utpaladeva's Vivriti have been discovered to date:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IH1Yq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IH1Yq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The numbers shown are the verses of Utpaladeva's Ishwara Pratyabhijna Karika (IPK), and if a number is shaded then that means that we have a fragment of Utpaladeva's Vivriti which comments on this verse of the IPK.  In any case, here are the fragments of the Vivriti which have been translated into English so far:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Isabelle Ratié's 2016 paper &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.academia.edu/29774243/Some_hitherto_unknown_fragments_of_Utpaladeva_s_Vivrti_III_on_memory_and_error&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Some Hitherto Unknown Fragments of&#xA;Utpaladeva’s Vivriti (III)&quot;&lt;/a&gt; translates a fragment of the Vivriti commenting on IPK verses 1.3.5.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rafaelle Torella's 1988 paper &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.jstor.org/stable/29756859&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;A Fragment Of Utpaladeva's Isvara Pratyabhijna Vivritti&quot;&lt;/a&gt; translates a fragment of the Vivriti commenting on IPK verse 1.3.6, and a few other fragments that are also translated in Torella's other papers.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Torella's 2007 paper &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.academia.edu/4476017/Studies_in_Utpaladeva_s_%C4%AA%C5%9Bvarapratyabhij%C3%B1%C4%81-viv%E1%B9%9Bti._Part_I._Apoha_and_anupalabdhi_in_a_%C5%9Aaiva_garb&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Studies on Utpaladeva's Isvara Pratyabhijna Vivritti Part I&quot;&lt;/a&gt; translates a fragment of the Vivriti commenting on IPK verse 1.3.7.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Torella's 2007 paper &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/document/81013345/Studies-on-Utpaladeva-s-Ishvara-pratyabhijna-vivritti-Part-II-Torella&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Studies on Utpaladeva's Isvara Pratyabhijna Vivritti Part II&quot;&lt;/a&gt;, which translates a fragment of the Vivriti commenting on IPK verses 1.4.1-2.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Torella's 2012 paper &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.academia.edu/4476020/Studies_in_Utpaladeva_s_%C4%AA%C5%9Bvarapratyabhij%C3%B1%C4%81-viv%E1%B9%9Bti._Part_V_Self-awareness_and_yogic_perception&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Studies on Utpaladeva's Isvara Pratyabhijna Vivritti Part V&quot;&lt;/a&gt;, translates a fragment of the Vivriti commenting on IPK verses 1.4.3-5.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ratié's 2015 paper &lt;a href=&quot;https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01235189&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Some Hitherto Unknown Fragments of&#xA;Utpaladeva’s Vivriti (I)&quot;&lt;/a&gt; translates a fragment of the Vivriti commenting on IPK verses 1.5.4-5.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ratié's 2016 paper &lt;a href=&quot;http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10781-016-9302-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;In Search of Utpaladeva's Lost Vivriti on the Pratyabhijna Treatise&quot;&lt;/a&gt; translates a fragment of the Vivriti commenting on IPK verses 1.8.10-11.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yohei Kawajiri's paper &quot;New Fragments of the Isvarapratyabhijna Vivritti&quot; apparently contains some fragments of Vivriti, but I can't seem to find the paper, so I'm not sure what IPK verses they comment on or whether Kawajiri translates them into English.  But the above 2016 Isabelle Ratié paper suggests that these fragments are quite meager.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from Kawajiri's paper, I have compiled all the translations given in the above papers into a &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/cl66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;single 76-page PDF file&lt;/a&gt;.  Hopefully people will find it useful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this isn't the end of the story.  I contacted both Rafaelle Torella and Isabelle Ratié, and here is what they told me about Vivriti fragments that will be translated in future:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Torella is working on a translation of a Vivriti fragment commenting on IPK verses 1.4.6-1.5.3, which will be published in a volume in memory of Helmut Krasser.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ratié is working on a translation of a Vivriti fragment commenting on IPK verses 1.5.6-9, which will be published in a volume in honor of Alexis Sanderson.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ratié is working on a translation of a Vivriti fragment commenting on IPK verses 2.1.1-8.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Torella is working on a translation of a Vivriti fragment commenting on IPK verses 2.2.1-7.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ratié is working on a translation of a Vivriti fragment commenting on IPK verses 2.3.1-8.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when all is said and done, we will have at least two portions of the Vivriti translated into English: a portion commenting on IPK verses 1.3.5-1.5.9, and a portion commenting on IPK verses 1.8.10-2.3.8 (and possibly whatever Kashmiri had found).  And my 76-page PDF would probably expand to over 200 pages.  Whew!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T20:37:12.767" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T20:37:12.767" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18495" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-29T05:30:15.350" Score="0" ViewCount="140" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Gita there is also caste system. May be it was for the stability of the society. My question : A son of a sudra may have potential to become a bramhin.( I mean to say that he may have more brain capacity and may contribute more to Hinduism by writing some philosophy). So wasn't it unfair for that sudra's son? I think this is a waste of talent. I also think god also don't want that, that is why caste system is not rigid nowadays.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T05:33:25.863" Title="about caste system" Tags="|caste-system|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-05-29T05:33:05.087" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18496" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17649" CreationDate="2017-05-29T05:43:17.507" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Normally for pujas,we have to use 9 wicks which shows the presence of all deities and for sandhya kal 1 or 3 wicks can be used.1 wick for lord Ganesha,and 3 wicks for Lord Shiv,Vishnu &amp;amp; devis. Strictly we are not allowed to put 2 wicks  &quot;Dvidivya Balabalam&quot; means always there will be a fight b/w the husband &amp;amp; wife who staying in that family.Regarding this 4 wicks,which is also not allowed because it cause the arise of diseases.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank You&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9913" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T05:43:17.507" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18497" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18499" CreationDate="2017-05-29T05:49:14.927" Score="3" ViewCount="661" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am confused with the name Krishna. As per my current knowledge, then name of the the Ninth Avatar(birth) of Narayan is Krishan/krishn (not krishna). And Krishna is the name of Draupadi. But we often use word Krishna as Lord Vishnu's avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think this confusion is because of English language. In English laguage we often messes up Lord's name by putting &quot;a&quot; at the end of the name like we type Ram as Rama, Ramayan as Ramayana etc. And same way we type Krishan/krishn as Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the question is whether Lord Narayan Avatar also has same name as Draupadi had because we often use word Krishna for Lord Narayan even when we talk in Hindi OR Krishna is only name of Draupadi, not of Narayan. Is name Krishna is being used in any of our scriptures as Lord Narayan's Avatar name?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-07-10T05:17:51.080" LastActivityDate="2018-07-10T05:17:51.080" Title="Who is Krishna? Is it Draupadi or an avatar of Vishnu?" Tags="|krishna|name|draupadi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18499" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18497" CreationDate="2017-05-29T06:21:11.630" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Correct pronunciation of name in Sanskrit = कृष्ण: or Krishnaha , राम: or Raamaha , &#xA;because in Sanskrit grammar, that is the first vibhakthi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last 8th vibhakthi allows for saying Krishna (कृष्ण) or Raama (राम) when calling the person.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt; - this is not Krishnaa (कृष्णा) or Raamaa (रामा), which is not technically correct male name. But when calling someone, they might elongate the 'aa' at the end, and that is fine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कृष्णा or Krishnaa is correct female name, and it denotes Draupadi. She was black in complexion, and so was Krishna, hence the name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Btw, due to slight cultural variations in language, North Indians generally say राम् (Raam), while in Tamilnadu they generally say रामा (Raamaa).. neither of which is 100% correct, but it's alright for daily use.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see vibhakthis explained here - &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritinstitute.wordpress.com/sanskrit/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://sanskritinstitute.wordpress.com/sanskrit/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-05-29T06:32:10.427" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T06:32:10.427" CommentCount="22" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18500" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-29T06:46:41.190" Score="3" ViewCount="71" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that souls( atma) never born, never died. Its target is unity with paramatma and atma accomplished  this through different births. My question: Since total population is increasing then from where the extra souls are coming? Actually number of souls should decresing as some souls attain the unity. Then we arrive at a contradiction...&#xA;If the 1st line of my question is false then tell me the truth about souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T06:57:13.017" Title="regarding some questions on souls" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-05-29T12:23:09.027" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18501" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17831" CreationDate="2017-05-29T06:50:40.870" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am answering for the time being only from Rig Veda. The answer may be updated in future with references from the other Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, a Rishi is a person to whom is revealed at least one Rik mantra of the Rig Veda. The Rishi literally hears the mantra by super- physical methods in a state like trance, which he has achieved by means of tapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the source of all the Rik mantras has  already been declared in a Rig Veda Mandala 1 mantra  as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rcho akshare parame vyoman (1) Yasmin devA adhi visve nisheduh (2)&#xA;  yastan na veda kim rchA karishyati (3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Riks exist in a supreme ether, imperishable and immutable (1), in&#xA;  which all the Gods are seated (2)&lt;/strong&gt; ; One who knows not that, what shall&#xA;  he do with the RIk ? (3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 1.164.39&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This clearly indicates that Riks are not products of a human mind. Their source is the higher ether in which all the Gods are seated. This proves the apaureshaya nature of Veda mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the full-fledged apaurasheya doctrine would also require that the Rishi seeing the whole or full form of the mantra . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, this idea is not validated in Rig Veda. The revelations that are received by the Rishis come from a higher plane alright but the Rishis also transcribe these revelations in their heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Eshah vah stomo maruto namsvan (1), hridA tashto manasAdhyAyi devAh&#xA;  (2).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Maruts, the hymn of your affirmation (stoma), is fraught with my&#xA;  obeisance (1), &lt;strong&gt;It was framed by the heart, it was established by the&#xA;  mind,&lt;/strong&gt; O ye Gods (2).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 1.171.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RV 1.67.4 also states that the mantra is crafted or formed (tashtam) in the heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abbreviations:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RV 1.171.2 ----&gt; Rig Veda Samhita, Mandala 1, Sukta 171, Mantra 2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-30T04:38:22.337" LastActivityDate="2017-05-30T04:38:22.337" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18502" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18504" CreationDate="2017-05-29T08:01:32.850" Score="4" ViewCount="554" Body="&lt;p&gt;Evil thoughts can destroy a person's well being &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9916" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T12:46:37.467" Title="What type of thoughts are negative?and can these negative thoughts control our mind?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18503" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18513" CreationDate="2017-05-29T08:44:10.063" Score="10" ViewCount="8432" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a mention of World Turtle/World Elephant theory in Hindu scripture? I heard many unsourced stories about Sheshanaga or Nandi being the one holding the earth on their head/horns respectively. But I want to know from scripture point of view, who holds the earth/bhumi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-30T14:48:57.447" LastActivityDate="2022-04-15T14:57:46.477" Title="What does Hindu scripture say about World Turtle/World Elephant theory?" Tags="|scripture|adisesha|nandi|bhumi|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18504" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18502" CreationDate="2017-05-29T09:07:09.220" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu Shastras has identified primarily six inner foes of mankind. They are collectively called the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadripu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arishadvargas or Shadaripus.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are kAma (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (delusion), mada (arrogance) and mAtsarya (jealousy).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the evil  thoughts that arise in our minds are triggered by one or more of the above 6 foes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example from lust arises illicit thoughts about sexual gratification, from anger arises the evil thoughts of destruction and revenge, from greed arises the desire of owning things illegally etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedas there is a  mantra that symbolically identifies these 6 foes as six relevant animals. It also asks Lord Indra (the king of Gods) to kill them all for us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;UlukayAtum shushulukayAtum jahi shvayAtum uta kokayAtum suparnayAtum&#xA;  uta grdhrayAtum drshadeva pra mrina raksha indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Indra, kill the delusion (identified as the owl), anger (wolf),&#xA;  jealousy (dog), the lust (chakravAka, a kind of bird), arrogance&#xA;  (eagle) and the greed (vulture).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda Samhita 8.4.22&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sanskrit literature the chakrvAka bird is often described as being stricken with love and lust. So, its being associated in the mantra with lust or kama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For dog we have a popular saying which says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot; dog neither eats the grass nor allows the cow to eat the grass in&#xA;  the manger.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dog is associated with jealousy or matsarya in the mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vulture can mean &quot; a person of rapacious and predatory nature.&quot; Vulture is associated with arrogance and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically, any thoughts that can be traced back to anyone of these aforementioned six foes of mind is detrimental to our spiritual progress and hence can be marked as &quot;evil&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we have to monitor them and try to put a check on them. But obviously that is easier said than done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-29T12:46:37.467" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T12:46:37.467" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18505" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18503" CreationDate="2017-05-29T09:19:23.493" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There must some Puranic stories saying something or the other. But in Vedas its clearly stated that its truth that upholds or supports the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I am only answering the following question of yours.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;But I want to know form scripture point of view, who holds the earth/bhumi?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;satyena uttabhita bhumihi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The earth is supported by the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 14.1.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is another relevant Veda mantra :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satyam brihat ritham&lt;/strong&gt; ugram , dikshA tapo brahma yajna , &lt;strong&gt;prithvim&#xA;  dhArayanthi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The truth, the vast, truth-in-movement (ritam), strength (ugram),&#xA;  consecration (dikshA), tapas (askesis), mantra (brahma) and yajna.&#xA;  These uphold the Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 12.1.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-05-29T09:45:06.937" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T09:45:06.937" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18506" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18503" CreationDate="2017-05-29T11:04:42.133" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But I want to know form scripture point of view, who holds the earth/bhumi?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-iii/chapter-15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 15&lt;/a&gt; of Umasamhita of Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt; says Adi Sesha holds the Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्याधारः स्थितो नागः स च विष्णुः प्रकीर्तितः। &lt;br&gt; ब्रह्मणो वचसो&#xA;हेतोबिभर्तिं सकलं त्विदम्।।११।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sesa is the base of the globe, who is also called Visnu, who according&#xA;to Brahma preserves the universe. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अास्ते पातालमूलस्थः &lt;strong&gt;सशेषः क्षितिमण्डलम्।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; बिभ्रत्स्वपृष्ठे भूतेशः&#xA;शेषोऽशेषगुणार्चितः।।१८।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is lodged at the base of Patala and is adored with innumerable&#xA;virtues. He is lord of all the living beings. Such a type of serpent&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Sesa carries the earth (Kshiti Mandala)&lt;/strong&gt; over his back. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्य वीर्यप्रभावश्च साकांक्षैस्त्रिदशैरपि। &lt;br&gt; न हि वर्णयितुं शक्यः&#xA;स्वरूपं ज्ञातुमेव वा।।१९।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gods are unable to describe his prowess, though they are desirous&#xA;to do so. His real form also cannot be known.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आस्ते कुसुममालेव फणामणिशिलारुणा। &lt;br&gt; यस्यैषा सकला &lt;strong&gt;पृथ्वी&lt;/strong&gt; कस्तद्वार्यं&#xA;वदिष्यति।।२०।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;earth&lt;/strong&gt; is lodged over his hoods with red complexion, like the&#xA;garland. Therefore who can describe his strength? &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यदा विजृम्भतेऽनन्तो मदाघूर्णितलोचनः। &lt;br&gt; तदा चलति भूरेषा&#xA;साद्रितोयाधिकानना।२१। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Getting intoxicated when he rolls his eyes, yawning at the same time&#xA;then the earth with mountains, oceans and forests, shakes. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/25/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 5.25.2&lt;/a&gt; also says the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यस्येदं &lt;strong&gt;क्षिति-मण्डलं&lt;/strong&gt; भगवतो ’नन्त-मूर्तेः सहस्र-शिरस एकस्मिन्न् एव&#xA;शीर्षणि ध्रियमाणं सिद्धार्थ इव लक्ष्यते||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: This &lt;strong&gt;great universe (ksiti mandalam)&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;situated on one of Lord Anantadeva’s thousands of hoods, appears just&#xA;like a white mustard seed. It is infinitesimal compared to the hood of&#xA;Lord Ananta. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though Srila Prabhupada translates  &amp;quot;kShiti maNDala&amp;quot; as Universe, dictionaries say &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/2014/web/webtc/indexcaller.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kShiti&lt;/a&gt; maNDala is Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T11:04:42.133" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18507" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10945" CreationDate="2017-05-29T11:24:00.280" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm giving here instances other than &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14349/what-is-the-story-of-rameshwaram-jyotirlinga/14350#14350&quot;&gt;Rameshwaram.&lt;/a&gt; Lord Rama being a perfect example for every human being, prays and respects every divinities. It is also seen in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga56/ayodhya_56_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ayodhya Kanda:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वैश्वदेवबलिम् कृत्वा रौद्रम् वैष्णवमेव च |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वास्तुसंशमनीयानि मङ्गळानि प्रवर्तयन् || २-५६-३१&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जपम् च न्यायतः कृत्वा स्नात्वा नद्याम् यथाविधि |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पाप संशमनम् रामः चकार बलिम् उत्तमम् || २-५६-३२ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Having taken bath in the river as prescribed &lt;strong&gt;Rama offered oblations to Lord Rudra (Shiva) and Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; after offering tributes to Vaisvadeva. He performed benedictions relating to the purification of house and also a silent prayer as per prescribed rites. He finally offered excellent tributes to the deities, for removing sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="4133" LastEditDate="2019-04-06T19:31:22.423" LastActivityDate="2019-04-06T19:31:22.423" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18509" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2260" CreationDate="2017-05-29T12:39:10.170" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8095/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A6-is-not-islamic-muhammad-its-a-sanskrit-word-and-it-has-its-own-meaning&quot;&gt;this post&lt;/a&gt; regarding mention of prophet in Hindu texts. The person have provided explanation to misconceived texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9170" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T12:39:10.170" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18510" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18503" CreationDate="2017-05-29T12:46:22.637" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from the puranas &#xA;the theory of earth being supported or upholded by four elephents is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Brihatsamhita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Brihatsamhita&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; &lt;/a&gt; by &lt;strong&gt;Varaha-Mihira&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 32  &quot; Bhukampa Laxan Adhyay , Signs of an earthquake.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्षितिकंम्पमाहुरेके बृहदन्तर्जलनिवासिसत्वकृतम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;भूभारखिन्नदिग्गज&lt;/strong&gt;विश्रामसमुद्भवं चान्ये ॥१॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some hold that an earth-quake is caused by huge animals living in the&#xA;  midst of the ocean , while others opine that it is the result of the&#xA;  rest that is availed of by the elephants of the quarters tired by the&#xA;  weight of the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now what Varaha-Mihira says in this shloka is that ,earth-quakes are caused by tried elephents who are upholding or supporting the earth.And ultimately that the earth is supported by four elephents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read here more about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Var%C4%81hamihira&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Varaha-mihira&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vXJTN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vXJTN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-05-29T12:57:36.243" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T12:57:36.243" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18512" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18526" CreationDate="2017-05-29T15:27:03.137" Score="9" ViewCount="2398" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know God is not the greatest for an individual. There are some other persons who are even greater than God Himself like: Guru, Father and Mother. All three are considered greater than God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per my knowledge which I learned from TV serial &lt;strong&gt;Devo ke Dev Mahadev&lt;/strong&gt;. In one of its episode when Shiva first meets Ganesha then He asks Ganesh that What you know about importance of Father and Mother. Then Shree Ganesh replied, my Mother told me that 3 persons matter the most in life. They are Guru, Father and Mother. Guru is greater than God Himself because God gives us life but Guru is the one who makes this life meaningful by educating us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[ As per my understanding by these wordings, it's same as the mother who raises us is greater than the mother who gives birth to us. Here God gives birth but Guru helps us to raise our knowledge so that we can make this life successful. So Guru is greater than God. ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, As per the serial: &lt;strong&gt;Father is even greater than Guru. One father is consider as equal to 100 Gurus. But Mother's place is even higher than Father, Even greatness of 100 fathers can't match the greatness of single Mother. Hence Mother is greater than all.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this was Shree Ganesh's reply to Mahadev's question. As per this message, no one is greater than mother. And no service (seva) is greater than Mother's service (seva). That's why it is used to say that heaven is situated in mother's feet. This means one can easily get heaven if he gives his services to Mother's feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But one said to me that as per shastras, Guru is greater than all. This message of him is directly conflicting with my understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So who is the greatest? A Mother Or A Guru?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am getting some different kind of answer. So let me ask with an example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Great Saint Kabir....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गुरू गोविन्द दोऊ खड़े, काके लागूं पांय।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बलिहारी गुरू अपने गोविन्द दियो बताय।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means If Guru and Lord both is standing in front of you then whose feet you will touch first? In that case as per Saint Kabir, we must do pranam to Guru first, after Guru we should bow in front of lord. And What I am asking is, If Mother and Guru is standing in front of you then one should do pranam to whom first? What you suggest on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-05-30T16:09:04.053" LastActivityDate="2021-06-07T14:21:01.337" Title="Who is the greatest personality for an individual?" Tags="|scripture|gods|guru|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18513" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18503" CreationDate="2017-05-29T15:40:34.183" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are scriptural sources that describe different kinds of animals supporting the Earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;World Elephants&lt;/strong&gt;: In the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana, Indra steals the horse of Ashwamedha Yagna of Rama's ancestor Sagara, and so Sagara tells his sons to dig the Earth to find the horse, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga40/bala_5F40_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Let the earth be dug further, may safety be with you, and verily splitting open the surface of the earth you catch hold of the thief of the horse, and on achieving your purpose you may return to me.&quot;  In this way Sagara ordered his sons. On catching up the words of their father, the great-souled Sagara, his sixty thousand sons rushed towards the surface of the rasaa tala, the netherworld.  While digging the earth there they beheld a mountain similar easterly elephant named Viruupaaksha, which is bearing the eastern side of earth's surface on its head. Oh, Rama, the legatee of Raghu, &lt;strong&gt;that great easterly elephant Viruupaaksha is bearing the entire eastern earth along with its mountains and forests on its head&lt;/strong&gt;. They circumambulated the great elephant in supplication, oh Rama, and on worshipping that elephant which is the protector of easterly direction they proceeded to netherworld duly splitting the earth. After splitting the eastern direction then they split opened the southern direction, and even in southern direction &lt;strong&gt;they beheld an elephant that is similar to a very great mountain, and that is sustaining southerly side of earth on its head, and on seeing that mammoth elephant of venerable character, namely Mahapadma&lt;/strong&gt;, they went into an inordinate astonishment. On circumabulating that elephant Mahaapada in supplication, they the sixty thousand sons of great-souled Sagara scooped out the westerly direction. Even in the westerly direction those great mighty sons of Sagara beheld an &lt;strong&gt;infinite and mountain similar elephant of western direction, called Sumanasa&lt;/strong&gt;. Circumabulating that elephant namely Sumanasa in western side, and even on asking about its well-being, then they reached the northern direction duly digging the earth. In the northern direction, oh, Rama, they beheld &lt;strong&gt;Bhadra, a snow-white elephant with an auspicious body bearing northern side of this earth&lt;/strong&gt;. On touching that elephant reverently and also circumambulating it, those sixty thousands sons of Sagara further burrowed to the surface of the earth. The sons of Sagara have then gone to the auspicious northeast direction, iishaana digbhaaga, Shiva sthaana, and all those sons of Sagara have tunnelled the earth rancorously. The eyes of the princes are agitated in fury in construing the sage Kapila as the stealer of ritual-horse, and they furiously dashed towards him wielding crowbars, ploughs, and various trees and boulders, and shouting at him, 'stay, stay.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kapila burnt the sons of Sagara to ashes, which necessitated the famous story of the descent of the Ganga.  But what's relevant for our purposes is that the Earth is described as being supported by four World Elephants: Virupaksha who supports the Eastern quarter, Mahapadma who supports the Southern quarter, Sumanasa who supports the Western quarter, and Bhadra who supports the North quarter.  Also, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga41/bala_41_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana describes these four elephants as eloquent and revered by the gods and other beings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And he that resplendent Amshuman beheld one of the four directional elephant of the earth which is being venerated by gods, monsters, demons, imps, vultures and serpents.... All the elephants that safeguard the directions of earth which have the faculties of articulation and eloquence have adored Amshuman and motivated him by saying, 'you will be going from here taking the horse.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the four World Elephants are also described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/20/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, albeit with different names:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the top of Lokāloka Mountain are the four gaja-patis, the best of elephants, which were established in the four directions by Lord Brahmā, the supreme spiritual master of the entire universe. The names of those elephants are Ṛṣabha, Puṣkaracūḍa, Vāmana and Aparājita. They are responsible for maintaining the planetary systems of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;World Tortoise&lt;/strong&gt;: The 8th century Hindu astronomer Lalla mentions it as one of the Puranic theories he is trying to refute in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/JaoM&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of his Shishyavriddhida Tantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some say that the earth is supported by a &lt;strong&gt;tortoise&lt;/strong&gt;, a serpent, a boar, an elephant, or by mountain ranges.... If the earth is supported by tortoise and other things, by whom are they supported in space?  If these can reman in space (unsupported), what prevents the earth from remaining thus (i.e. unsupported)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it's described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch38.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Devi Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Whose command the wind supports the water; the water supports the tortoise; &lt;strong&gt;the tortoise supports the Ananta and the Ananta supports the earth&lt;/strong&gt;; the earth supports the oceans, mountain and all the jewels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I don't know anywhere else in Hindu scripture where this notion is mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;World Serpent&lt;/strong&gt;: This is the most common theory found in Hindu scripture.  Here's how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp063.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The extent of the surface of the earth has been thus described to you, Maitreya. Its depth below the surface is said to be seventy thousand Yojanas, each of the seven regions of Pátála extending downwards ten thousand. These seven, worthy Muni, are called Atala, Vitala, Nitala, Gabhastimat, Mahátala, Sutala, and Pátála.... Below the seven Pátálas is the form of Vishńu, proceeding from the quality of darkness, which is called Śesha, the excellencies of which neither Daityas nor Dánavas can fully enumerate.... Śesha bears the entire world, like a diadem, upon his head, and he is the foundation on which the seven Pátálas rest. His power, his glory, his form, his nature, cannot be described, cannot he comprehended by the gods themselves. Who shall recount his might, who wears this whole earth, like a garland of flowers, tinged of a purple dye by the radiance of the jewels of his crests. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata describes how Adiseshan became the supporter of the Earth.  It was a duty given to him by Brahma as a result of his Tapasya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Sesha replied, 'O divine Grandsire, this is the boon desired by me; viz., may my heart always delight in virtue and in blessed ascetic penances, O Lord of all!' Brahman said, 'O Sesha, I am exceedingly gratified with this thy self-denial and love of peace. But, at my command, let this act be done by thee for the good of my creatures. Bear thou, O Sesha, properly and well this Earth so unsteady with her mountains and forests, her seas and towns and retreats, so that she may be steady.' Sesha said, 'O divine Lord of all creatures, O bestower of boons, O lord of the Earth, lord of every created thing, lord of the universe, I will, even as thou sayest hold the Earth steady. Therefore, O lord of all creatures, place her on my head.' Brahman said, 'O best of snakes, go underneath the Earth. She will herself give thee a crevice to pass through. And, O Sesha, by holding the Earth, thou shalt certainly do what is prized by me very greatly.' ... Then the elder brother of the king of the snakes, entering a hole, passed to the other side of the Earth, and holding her, supported with his head that goddess with her belt of seas passing all round.' Brahman said, 'O Sesha, O best of snakes, thou art the god Dharma, because alone, with thy huge body, thou supportest the Earth with everything on her, even as I myself, or Valavit (Indra), can.' ... The snake, Sesha, the lord Ananta, of great prowess, lives underneath the Earth, alone supporting the world at the command of Brahman. And the illustrious Grandsire, the best of the immortals, then gave unto Ananta the bird of fair feathers, viz., the son of Vinata, for Ananta's help.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure how Vishnu's bird Garuda helps Vishnu's serpent Adiseshan support the Earth though. In any case, here's how &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/25/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhaagavatam describes Adiseshan supporting the Earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King, approximately 240,000 miles beneath the planet Pātāla lives another incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the expansion of Lord Viṣṇu known as Lord Ananta or Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa.... This great universe, situated on one of Lord Anantadeva’s thousands of hoods, appears just like a white mustard seed. It is infinitesimal compared to the hood of Lord Ananta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as you can see, there's many different world animal theories, and sometimes these animals are described as stacked on top of each other.  In any case, some people (like ISKCON members for instance) reconcile these theories with our understanding of the world by saying that the Earth is just Jambudvipa or even just Bharatavarsha, and that it is some much larger entity, like the entire physical Universe, which is the Bhuloka carried by Adiseshan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-30T14:55:22.093" LastActivityDate="2017-05-30T14:55:22.093" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18514" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18512" CreationDate="2017-05-29T15:50:29.823" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So who is greatest? A Mother Or A Guru?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no need to start a race here. Guru , father and mother all should be respected like God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However the scriptures always give more importance to the Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.146. &lt;strong&gt;Of him who gives natural birth and him who gives&#xA;  (the knowledge of) the Veda, the giver of the Veda is the more&#xA;  venerable&lt;/strong&gt; father; for the birth for the sake of the Veda (ensures)&#xA;  eternal (rewards) both in this (life) and after death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.147. &lt;strong&gt;Let him consider that (he received) a (mere animal)&#xA;  existence, when his parents beget him through mutual affection, and&#xA;  when he was born from the womb (of his mother&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.148. &lt;strong&gt;But that birth which a teacher&lt;/strong&gt; acquainted with the&#xA;  whole Veda, in accordance with the law, &lt;strong&gt;procures for him through the&#xA;  Savitri, is real, exempt from age and death&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verses are self explanatory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, for mother we have the following verses from Usana's Smriti (which is among 18 major Smritis) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of all elderly persons, five are to be particularly [adored], viz.,&#xA;  the father, the mother, the spiritual guide,, the teacher and the&#xA;  priest ; of them the first three are the foremost ;. &lt;strong&gt;and of them a&#xA;  mother is to be particularly adored&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no Deity equal to mother&lt;/strong&gt; ; there is no Guru (elder) equal to&#xA;  father ; there exists no return of their good offices. (Chapter 1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, both of them have supreme importance in our life but for some reason the scriptures always glorify the Guru a bit more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-29T17:48:43.903" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T17:48:43.903" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18515" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18489" CreationDate="2017-05-29T16:38:31.427" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all a siddha mantra means one that is unlocked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no mantra that is permanently locked for some particular Yuga. Even if the Devi Bhagavata Purana says that Gayatri is cursed to be ineffective, then there are the shapa vimochana mantras as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does that mean Gayatri is really locked? You can start chanting it by taking the mantra from a Guru and it will work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, each mantra is initially locked. The Tantrik mantras, for example has the 6 limbs viz : Rishi , Devata, Chandah, Bija, Shakti and Kilaka. Of which the kilaka literally means the lock.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, without knowing the kilaka, japa does not bear fruit. All these angas are in fact kind of a lock each. We unlock the mantra by planting them on various places (like rishi nyasa is done on the top of head, Devata nyasa in the heart etc) with appropriate mantras and mudras during japa. Only then japa gives the full results. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But mantras can have as many as 60 doshas or defects and before chanting  hence it is needed to purify them with the dasasamskaras. In KulArnava Tantram the 60 mantra doshas and 10 samskaras are mentioned by Lord Shiva as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rudhah KutAksharo Mugdho Vaddhah Kruddhascha Bheditah | VAlah KumAro&#xA;  Yuvakaha Proura Bhriddhascha Garvitaha || ...... Nirviryo Bhramito&#xA;  Supta rinaklishtahangahinakah |....... ShashtyatAn MantrdoshAmscha&#xA;  YohagyAtvA Prajapenmanum | Siddhirna JAyate Tasya LakshyakotijapAdapi&#xA;  ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ruddha (blocked), Kutakshara, Mugdha, Baddha (bound), Kruddha (angry),&#xA;  Bhedita (pierced), Valaka (boy), kumara, Yuvaka, , Proura ( old),&#xA;  BHriddha, Garvita (proud), Stambhita, Murchita ( unconscious),&#xA;  ...Achetan (lacking consciousness), ...Nirjiva (lifeless), Ari&#xA;  (enemy), ....Tiraskrita (condemned), ....Abhisapagrasta (cursed),&#xA;  Angahina (lacking the limbs), jada ( dead)... Thes rae the sixty&#xA;  mantra doshas. If mantra japa is done without knowing these doshas&#xA;  then even one lakh crores of japa can't give siddhi or fruits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 15, verses 66- 71.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.........................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kathyante Dasa SamskArA MantradoshaharAh Priye | Jananam Jivanam&#xA;  PaschAttAranam Vodhanam Tatah || Abhisekahatha VimalikarnopyAyane&#xA;  TathA | Tarpanam Dipanam Guptihi SamskArAha KulanAyike || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Priye, I am saying the dasa samskaras that removes the errors (doshas)&#xA;  of mantras. Hey Kulanayike, Janana, Jeevana, TArana, Bodhana,&#xA;  Abhisekha, Vimalikarana, ApyAyana, Tarpana, Dipan, and Gupti---- These&#xA;  are the dasa samskaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KUlArnAva Tantram, Chapter 15, Verses 72, 73&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A very brief description of these samskaras are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Janana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The process of successive recovering of mantras from matrika yantra (&#xA;  i can't explain to you what is matrika yantra within few lines).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jivana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The successive varnas or mantras thus recovered are then to be chanted&#xA;  separately preceded by OM for 100 or 10 times. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TArana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All the varnas of the mantra are to be separated. Then each varnas are&#xA;  to be separately chanted for 100 or 10 times. Then the varnas are to&#xA;  be separately written down by adding the vayu beejam or YAM to them&#xA;  and thereafter water mixed with sandal paste is to be sprinkled on&#xA;  them. This is TArna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vimalikarana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The mantra is to be imagined at the bottom and middle of the sushumna&#xA;  nadi and the malatrayas (the three impurities anvaya, mayik etc) are&#xA;  to be burnt off using the Jyotir mantra (omitted the mantra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;strong&gt;most importantly&lt;/strong&gt;, there are several mantras like the Sruti mantras (Veda mantras) , ekakshara mantras (OM, Hrim, Houm etc) for which siddhadi nirnaya is not needed at all. That is they are permanently unlocked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the Gayatri mantra was just cursed. It was not locked. Being cursed is just one of the doshas given in the above list. And, it can removed by using the curse removal mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mantrosiddhopadishteshu ChaturamnAyajeshu Cha | MAlAmantreshu Deveshi&#xA;  SiddhAdinaiva Shodhyeth ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Deveshi, Mantra obtained from a siddha Guru is always siddha. &lt;strong&gt;There is&#xA;  no need for sidhAdhi nirnaya for the mantras that are originated from&#xA;  the five Amnayas and for mala mantras.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 15. 100.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MAlA mantra :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A mantra that contains more than 20 alphabets or varnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Amnaya :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Parasurama Kalpasutra's (1.2) commentary RAmeswara writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The principle meaning of the word Amnaya is Veda but since Tantras are&#xA;  the essence of Vedas it can also mean the Tantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 5 Amnayas in all which originated from the 5 faces of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the import of the above verse is that all mantras that are found in Vedas as well as in the Tantras are unlocked. Temporary locks are however there on all Tantrik mantras in form of the kilaka as already discussed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also note that  Veda mantras don't have even the kilaka or the temporary lock.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally adding the following verse from the Viswa SAra Tantram which says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MahAdikshA TathA DikshA Upadesastah Param | Yuge Yuge Cha Kartabya&#xA;  Upadese Kalou Yuge.....||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the other three yugas performance of Diksha, Manhadiksha and&#xA;  Upadesha are to be done. &lt;strong&gt;In Kali Yuga only Upadesha can bring forth&#xA;  the desired results.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if the mantras are all locked this advice would not have  made any sense. Because what is the use of giving locked mantras after all? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-29T17:21:53.920" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T17:21:53.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18517" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18512" CreationDate="2017-05-29T18:30:07.103" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Our parent's are our first gurus.They bring us to this world. Spiritual guru can lead us towards mukti or help us in achieving our goals of life. Our parents gives us the skills and knowledge of surviving this world ,they prepare us to live our life in such a way that we can walk towards mukti with the help of God &amp;amp; Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both parents play significant role and guru also plays his role.So everybody is important in their respective places , no one is superior than other. Thank you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9706" LastActivityDate="2017-05-29T18:30:07.103" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18518" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-29T18:31:47.483" Score="1" ViewCount="543" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hinduism includes a diversity of ideas on spirituality and traditions, but has no ecclesiastical order, no unquestionable religious authorities, no governing body, no prophet(s) nor any binding holy book; Hindus can choose to be &lt;strong&gt;polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, agnostic, atheistic or humanist&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Different Hindus worship God in their own different ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does that mean everyone is a Hindu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9486" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T06:28:30.530" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T06:28:30.530" Title="Is everyone a Hindu?" Tags="|other-religions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18519" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-29T18:47:20.713" Score="9" ViewCount="376" Body="&lt;p&gt;We see a lot of conflicts, accidents, diseases, poverty, pain and suffering around us in our day to day life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I often wonder why god created so much misery and so little goodness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is His plan in all this (happiness &amp;amp; suffering) at the end? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9706" LastEditorUserId="7442" LastEditDate="2017-06-08T16:45:01.123" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T08:46:17.540" Title="Why pain and suffering?" Tags="|philosophy|bhagavad-gita|bhagavata-purana|upanishads|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-06-09T05:24:56.350" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18522" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13874" CreationDate="2017-05-30T00:04:34.810" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;yes.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Ishvara understands every language, he needs only that it should be chanted with devotion, purity and surrender to Him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna, The Supreme Lord Says in Bhagvad Gita —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 7.19 — After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 4.41 — One who acts in devotional service, renouncing the fruits of his actions, and whose doubts have been destroyed by transcendental knowledge, is situated factually in the self. Thus he is not bound by the reactions of work, O conqueror of riches.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 6.47 — And of all yogīs, the one with great faith who always abides in Me, thinks of Me within himself and renders transcendental loving service to Me – he is the most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all. That is My opinion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 7.23 — Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme planet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 8.28 — A person who accepts the path of devotional service is not bereft of the results derived from studying the Vedas, performing sacriﬁces, undergoing austerities, giving charity or pursuing philosophical and fruitive activities. Simply by performing devotional service, he attains all these, and at the end he reaches the supreme eternal abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 12.6-7 — But those who worship Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, having ﬁxed their minds upon Me, O son of Pṛthā – for them I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 12.16 — My devotee who is not dependent on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, expert, without cares, free from all pains, and not striving for some result, is very dear to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 18.55 — One can understand Me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of Me by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 18.64 — Because you are My very dear friend, I am speaking to you My supreme instruction, the most conﬁdential knowledge of all. Hear this from Me, for it is for your beneﬁt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 18.65 — Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 18.66 — Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;==&amp;gt;&#xA;God just needs devotional love and purity and fixing up of devotee's mind upon Him; and then the devotee's prayer(and mantras)/homage shall reach upto him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9933" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-30T02:03:52.323" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18524" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18527" CreationDate="2017-05-30T03:49:46.273" Score="8" ViewCount="1260" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yoga means union of atma and paramatma. It's sole purpose is about spiritual. Yoga also helps in curing some disease and brings mental peace. Can I use yoga only for this reason? I mean is it selfish act?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-05-30T05:34:25.467" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T05:42:16.783" Title="Can I use Yoga for personal gain only?" Tags="|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18525" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8400" CreationDate="2017-05-30T04:19:21.440" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri Suktam&lt;/strong&gt; is a Vedic hymn which is found in Bashkala Shakha of Rig Veda. The significance of this hymn is that this is the hymn which was muttered for the manifestation of Lakshmi during Samudra Manthana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then all the hosts of gods and the very powerful demons extracted the Mandara mountain and put it into the Milky Ocean. Then the powerful lord Visnu, the creator of the beings, and of unlimited valour, supported, in the form of a tortoise, the mountain. The eternal, immutable, omniscient one, whose body has no beginning, middle or end, who is of a universal form, who is the lord of the worlds fit to be worshipped, supported the excellent mountain with one arm only. Then all gods and demons churned the Ocean, after encircling the Mandara mountain with the lord of serpents. &lt;strong&gt;Then when the Milky Ocean was being churned by the very powerful deities for generating (i.e. taking out) Lakshmi, all the great sages fasted, observed restrictions and also muttered Srisukta.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;(Padma Purana VI.232)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And hence Goddess Lakshmi becomes very pleased when she is worshipped with the Sri Suktam hymn:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then they, with their desires fulfilled, put the mountain as it was before, and having together praised the mother, muttered &lt;strong&gt;the excellent Sri-sukta&lt;/strong&gt; (i.e. hymn in honour of Laksmi). &lt;strong&gt;Then that goddess, who was pleased,&lt;/strong&gt; said to all gods: &amp;quot;Well-being to you, O best gods, ask for a boon. I shall grant it.&amp;quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The gods said: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;O goddess Kamala, O mother of all, O you who are dear to Visnu, be pleased. Without you the world is a void. Protect our lives.&amp;quot; &lt;em&gt;(Padma Purana IV.10)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding methods of recitation as it a Vedic hymn it should be recited under the rules and regulations which apply to Vedic Hymns. Padma Purana (VI.253) chapter &amp;apos;Mode of Vishnu's worship&amp;apos; gives details of worship of Vishnu and Lakshmi. In particular it says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having taken himself round (the idol) and having saluted and praised (it) with excellent hymns, he should offer &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  auspicious materials of worship after making (the idol) lie on the lap of Garuda. Having repeated auspicious names, he should then perform a sacrifice. He should make an offering into the fire-circle with the remaining of eatables offered to Visnu. &lt;strong&gt;He should (repeat) every re (of) the Purusa-sukta and the Srisukta invoking auspiciousness. He should offer into the Vedic fire oblation mixed with ghee.&lt;/strong&gt; He should devoutly offer (it) with the gem of a hymn as (already) mentioned. &lt;em&gt;(Padma Purama VI.253)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-05-30T04:19:21.440" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18526" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18512" CreationDate="2017-05-30T04:27:37.827" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mother, Father, Teacher and Guest all should be given same respect. Because they play important role at different stages of our life. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79789.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad, Chapter 11&lt;/a&gt; convey the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मातृदेवो भव । पितृदेवो भव । आचार्यदेवो भव । अतिथिदेवो भव ॥ ४ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Treat thy mother as a God; as a God treat thou thy father; as a God shalt thou treat thy teacher; thy guests as Gods shalt thou treat.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as you are looking for the order of reverence, so &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti, Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt; has your answers. According to this the order is &lt;strong&gt;Mother &amp;gt; Father &amp;gt; Teacher&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The teacher (akarya) is ten times more venerable than a sub-teacher (upadhyaya), the father a hundred times more than the teacher, but the mother a thousand times more than the father.&lt;/strong&gt; (145)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The teacher, the father, the mother, and an elder brother must not be treated with disrespect, especially by a Brahmana, though one be grievously offended (by them). (225)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The teacher is the image of Brahman, the father the image of Pragapati (the lord of created beings), the mother the image of the earth, and an (elder) full brother the image of oneself. (226)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But again after some verses, teacher is glorified as supreme between these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The father, forsooth, is stated to be the Garhapatya fire, the mother the Dakshinagni, but the teacher the Ahavaniya fire; this triad of fires is most venerable. (231)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who neglects not those three, (even after he has become) a householder, will conquer the three worlds and, radiant in body like a god, he will enjoy bliss in heaven. (232)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By honouring his mother he gains this (nether) world, by honouring his father the middle sphere, but by obedience to his teacher the world of Brahman. (233)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T13:06:52.150" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18527" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18524" CreationDate="2017-05-30T05:03:30.403" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are absolutely right about yoga being the union of atma with paramatma. That is yoga's real meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Gautamiya Tantra :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoga is the method of going beyond the samsara. The yoga experts call&#xA;  the union of jivatma &amp;amp; paramatma as yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the Shaivites :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The knowledge of non-difference between Shiva &amp;amp; atma is Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the Tantriks :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The knowledge pertaining to Shiva + Shakti is yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the thing is that, with a diseased body such an union is not possible. So, in the process of making one's atma fit for the union one also has to make the mind and body disease free.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the process of Yoga does both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example the Yoga Kundalini Upanishad says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3-4. I shall explain the nature of these. Listen to it, O Gautama. One&#xA;  should take a sweet and nutritious food, leaving a fourth (of his&#xA;  stomach) unfilled, in order to please Shiva (the patron of Yogins).&#xA;  This is called moderate food. Posture herein required is of two kinds,&#xA;  Padma and Vajra.&#xA;  5. &lt;strong&gt;Placing the two heels over the two opposite thighs (respectively) is the Padma (posture) which is the destroyer of all sins.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the padmasana, which cures several ailments, also burns away our sins at the same time. So, yoga serves a two-fold purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the importance of having a healthy body in mokshasadhana this is what LOrd Shiva says in the KulArnava Tantram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VinA Dehen KashyApi PurushArtho Na Vidhyate |........... Raksheth&#xA;  SarvAtmanAtmAnam....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Without the physical body the four purusharthas can't be achieved.....&#xA;  Hence, one should preserve one's body with care...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly the Gandharva Tantram says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sariram Tu ManushyAnAm PurushArthaikasAdhanam (34|15).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Human body is the only means of achieving the purusharthas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The four purusharthas are : Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, yoga serves the purpose of keeping our body and mind healthy and thereby accelerates the process of the atma-paramatma union.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the most popular quotes of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swamivivekanandaquotes.org/2014/03/you-will-be-nearer-to-heaven-through-football-than-through-the-study-of-the-gita.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Vivekananda&lt;/a&gt; also has a similar purport:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;YOu will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study&#xA;  of the Gita.&quot; — that is one of the most popular quotes of Swami&#xA;  Vivekananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, practicing yoga with the aim of achieving a healthy body is not selfishness . On the contrary not doing so is foolishness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T05:42:16.783" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T05:42:16.783" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18528" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18512" CreationDate="2017-05-30T05:53:15.063" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The question of the greatest appear when there is talking of two. When there are no others, who is greater?&#xA;  &lt;BR&gt; &#xA;  All that is Brahman alone. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When there is only Brahman nothing else, then can there be possibility of differentiations? Lord Krishna asks us not to differentiate between friend &amp;amp; foe, what to talk about others? ( How is outside the scope of question)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That person &lt;strong&gt;who is equal to an enemy as well as a friend&lt;/strong&gt;, also in honor or dishonor, impartial in cold, heat, happiness and distress, exempt from attachment, equipoised in praise or repute, contemplative before speaking,satisfied with whatever comes on its own accord, unattached to domestic life, fixed in determination and engaged in devotional service; such a one is very dear to Me. BG12.12-12.13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-05-30T05:53:15.063" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18529" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18518" CreationDate="2017-05-30T06:05:47.243" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can call someone Hindu if -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He/She believes in Karma theory. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He/She derives his philosophy from Vedas or Āgamas (revelations). See, it is not necessary whether he/she have read scriptures or not, it's just that his/her philosophy should derive from these scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He/She never partakes flesh of cow as cow is substrata of Vedic/Yajna culture (of course milk giving mother as well). Yajnas are impossible to carried out without cows. Prerequisites materials used in Yajna can't be derived in absence of cows.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-05-30T06:05:47.243" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18530" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18531" CreationDate="2017-05-30T06:17:26.470" Score="0" ViewCount="13711" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard a few stories about the deity brahma and saraswati. I felt disappointed and I hope it is not true.I hope incest is wrong(incest between daughter and father,brother and sister, and mother and son)is strictly against the law of nature and shouldn't be encouraged in any religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9938" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-30T08:03:50.573" LastActivityDate="2021-08-18T17:25:29.877" Title="Does Hinduism encourage incest?" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18531" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18530" CreationDate="2017-05-30T06:37:03.277" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NO.&lt;/strong&gt; It does not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Incest is one of the grave sins in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are few verses from the Manu Smriti :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.58. &lt;strong&gt;Carnal intercourse with sisters by the same  mother&lt;/strong&gt;, with (unmarried) maidens, with females of the  lowest castes, with the&#xA;  wives of a friend, &lt;strong&gt;or of a son, they  declare to be equal to the&#xA;  violation of a Guru’s bed&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.170. &lt;strong&gt;He who has had sexual intercourse with sisters  by the same mother&lt;/strong&gt;, with the wives of a friend, or of a son, with unmarried&#xA;  maidens, and with females of the  lowest castes, &lt;strong&gt;shall perform the&#xA;  penance, prescribed  for the violation of a Guru’s bed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.171. &lt;strong&gt;He who has approached the daughter of his  father’s sister, (who is almost equal to) a sister,  (the daughter) of his mother’s&#xA;  sister, or of his mother’s  full brother, shall perform a lunar&#xA;  penance.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, violation of Guru's bed is one of the mahapatakas or mortal sins in Hinduism as stated in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.235. The slayer of a Brahmana, (A twice-born man) who&#xA;  drinks (the spirituous liquor called) Sura, he who steals (the gold of&#xA;  a Brahmana), &lt;strong&gt;and he who violates a Guru’s bed, must each and all be&#xA;  considered as men who committed mortal sins (mahapataka).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here a few verses from the &lt;strong&gt;Parashara Smriti's chapter 10&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tqK4e.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tqK4e.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;9&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If a person, bereft of all sense, cohabits with his mother, or sister, or self-begotten daughter, he must  perform a three-fold&#xA;  Krichchhra penance&lt;/strong&gt; ; a tire-fold  Chandrayana should also be performed&#xA;  ; &lt;strong&gt;he must,  likewise, cut off his male organ.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On cohabitation with a mother's sister, it is  requisite to cut off the male organ ;&lt;/strong&gt; but if it has been done  unwittingly, the sinner&#xA;  must perform a double  Chandrayana. He must give ten couples of&#xA;  cattle, each couple to consist  of a female and a male, as fee : this&#xA;  is the expiation as  declared by Parasara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On sexual union with a father's wife, or a near  relative of the mother, or a brother's daughter, or the  preceptor's wife, a son's&#xA;  wife, or the wife of a brother, or the wife of a brother of the&#xA;  mother, or any woman of the same  gotra, a three-fold Prajapatya is&#xA;  the expiation prescribed&lt;/strong&gt; ; a  couple of cattle is the fee to be given.&#xA;  Thus the sinner undoubtedly gets rid of his sin.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as you can see, such sins are quite grave and the expiation measures are quite severe too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-30T06:42:12.950" LastActivityDate="2017-05-30T06:42:12.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18534" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18539" CreationDate="2017-05-30T10:39:17.147" Score="4" ViewCount="2425" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since Lord Vishnu is considered supreme God of universe (at-least from Vaishnava's perspective), so each and every part of universe comes under him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this is the case how can Kubera lend huge amount of loan to supreme God and how can he put a condition that Lord Venkateshwara cannot return to Vaikunta until he clears his debt?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a well known story that Kubera gave loan to Srinivasa during his marriage with Padmavati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any reason/logic for Kubera to do like this? Can someone help me in understanding this concept? I didn't get much information outside of this site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4941" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T05:56:24.447" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T05:56:24.447" Title="How can Kubera give loan to Supreme God Vishnu/Venkateshwara?" Tags="|vishnu|venkateshwara|kubera|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18535" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-30T12:02:31.510" Score="1" ViewCount="67" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any good book on Mahabharata which explains the psychology behind the stories with real life lessons ?&#xA;Thanks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9940" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-30T12:03:49.670" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T19:04:00.520" Title="Application of teachings of Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18536" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-30T12:15:47.357" Score="3" ViewCount="3040" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 1.50.8, 1.50.1 O, Bright sun, a chariot named harit with seven horses takes you to sky. Bhagavata Purana also says the same. &#xA;But Sun cannot physically travel in Chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-05-30T13:28:35.293" LastActivityDate="2024-03-31T12:32:51.507" Title="Hindu scriptures say Sun moves in a Chariot pulled by horses. What does this mean?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|rig-veda|surya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18537" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18541" CreationDate="2017-05-30T12:42:47.263" Score="12" ViewCount="14945" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord  venkateshwara is adorned with white camphor (that looks like a white spot) on his chin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the story behind this application of camphor at his chin &amp;amp; what's the significance of this? &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/r4A0D.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/r4A0D.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2021-06-12T19:31:44.963" Title="Why Lord venkateshwara has a white spot on the chin?" Tags="|vishnu|venkateshwara|tirupati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18539" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18534" CreationDate="2017-05-30T13:39:02.050" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's just Vishnu's Lila.&lt;/strong&gt;. You can see how farcical the situation is in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/RDex&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Sthala Purana (temple scripture) of Tirupati.  Vishnu pretended to be so concerned about money that he didn't even want to give food to a messenger.  Then he asked for a loan for wedding expenses from Kubera, who said that Vishnu is the supreme lord and all the Universe's riches belong to him, but agreed to give the loan anyway:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He thought that a messenger should leave in advance without taking food even.  &amp;quot;My dear boy, proceed to Narayanapura in advance.  Don't waste time.  The four forces and sages will accompany you&amp;quot; said Srinivasa to a messenger.  Brahma, however, felt that it would be better if the messenger left after taking food.  &amp;quot;You are not considering the circumstances.  You are speaking like a child.  So much expenditure has to be met!&amp;quot; pointed out Srinivasan.  Brahma kept quiet.  Lord Shiva intervened and said: &amp;quot;As in the case of construction of a house, so also performance of marriage! One should try his best.  Meeting heavily expenditure also, all arrangements have to be made.&amp;quot;  The bridgegroom asked &amp;quot;who will be my creditor to finance a grand marriage? Mere talk is of no use.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kubera was present there.  The bridegroom, Brahma and Shiva took him aside to a solitary place west of Swami Pushkarini.  &amp;quot;Kindly advance the amount needed for the marriage to he bride-groom,&amp;quot; Kubera requested. &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;The entire Universe is at your beck and call. All my money is yours.&lt;/strong&gt; I have no control over it. You are its master&amp;quot; said Kubera [to Vishnu]. Finally, Kubera agreed to lend the money required if the necessary document was executed by the debtor. Brahma then dictated a promissory note. The note was executed. &amp;quot;This, the 7th day of the bright-fortnight of the month of Vysakha in Kaliyuga, The debtor is Srinivasa, the creditor is Dhaneswara. Purpose: marriage of the loanee. Amount of loan fourteen lakhs in Ramamudra coins. The loanee should repay it with interest in one thousand years after the loanee's marriage.&amp;quot; Brahma and Siva attested as witnesses. The scribe was the loanee himself. After accepting the promissory note, Kubera paid the amount in cash.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think that the 1000 years is Deva years, not human years, i.e. the duration of the loan is the Kali Yuga.  In any case, this whole Lila of the loan benefits devotees, so that they can donate money to Venkateshwara to help repay the loan and thereby acquire Punya themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-30T13:39:02.050" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18540" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17014" CreationDate="2017-05-30T15:36:50.587" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga60/yuddhasans60.htm#Verse10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, right before deciding to wake up Kumbakarna, Ravana enumerates various curses that he's received which have led up to the defeat he is now experiencing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All that great penance performed by me became a waste indeed, for, I who am equal to Mahendra the Lord of Celestials have been defeated by a mere man!  The terrible words of Brahma the Lord of Creation saying, 'You know of the threat from men' appear true. That is so.  I sought immunity from death at the hands of celestials, titans or celestials musicians, or semi divine beings or demons or serpent-demons, but of man I made no mention.  Rama the son of Dasaratha is the man I think of whom Anaranya born of Ikshvaku dynasty formerly spoke, saying: 'O, the worst of demons, the worst of your race and the wretched one! In my race will be born a man who will slay you in battle with your sons, ministers, army, horses and charioteer.  Further, I was formerly cursed by Vedavati when she was humiliated by me. The same Vedavati is born as the highly fortunate Seetha the daughter of Janaka.  What was predicted by Parvati the consort of Shiva, Nandishvara the attendant of Shiva, Rambha the wife of Nalakubara and Punjikasthala the daughter of Varunda has come to pass! The words of the sages never prove false.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me enumerate them more systematically:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana, Ravana goes to the Sharavana forest, the birthplace of Shiva's son Kartikeya, and he mocks Nandi for having a monkey-like face.  So Nandi curses him to be defeated by a race of monkeys:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As O Dasanana, deriding me for my monkey like form, thou hast indulged in a laughter resembling the bursting of thunder, so Vanaras endowed with prowess, and possessed of my form and energy shall be born for compassing the destruction, of thy race. And armed with teeth and claws, and fierce and furnished with the fleetness of thought, and mad for encounter, and bursting with vigor, and resembling moving mountains. And being born, they shall crush thy high pride and power along with thy courtiers and sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana, Ravana attempts to ravish Brihaspati's granddaughter Vedavati, but she commits suicide to prevent that and she curses him right before she dies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou abject, having been outraged by thee I wish not to live. Therefore, O Raksha, I will enter into fire in thy very presence. And as I have in this world been dishonored by thee thou at nefarious. I shall again be born to compass thy destruction. It lieth not in a female to slay a male intent on sin; and if I utter a curse, it shall cost my asceticism. But if I have done anything, given away any thing, offered obtations unto the fire, then I shall be the chaste daughter of some virtous person, albeit unborn of any female vessel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3555/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Vedavati was reborn as a Sita lookalike and let to Ravana's demise.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana, Ravana kills Anaranya king of Ayodhya, who curses Ravana to be killed by a future descendant of Anaranya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If I have practised charity, if I have offered oblations into fire, if I have carried on pious, penances, if I have governed my people well, then be my words verified! There shall spring in the line of the high souled Ikshwaku, one named Rama son unto Dasaratha, who shall deprive thee of thy life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the ultimate curse which led to Rama killing Ravana is the curse of the Sanatkumaras on Jaya and Vijaya, which I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2042/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T10:15:17.690" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T10:15:17.690" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18541" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18537" CreationDate="2017-05-30T16:23:53.230" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is due to an action done by Anantāḻvār.&lt;/strong&gt; (āḻvār is added as a suffix to great bhaktas in Vaishnava tradition like Garudāḻvār etc.,)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anantāḻvār is one of the disciples of Sri Ramanujacharya. After Sri Ramanujacharya has solved the dispute on the identity of the deity on the Tirumala hills, he appointed simhāsanādhipati at that place in the year of 1057 AD. He also appointed one of his favourite disciples Anantāḻvār to take care of the temple administration and daily worship.  Ananta was a staunch devotee of his teacher. So he started to live in Tirumala hills along with his wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramanujachrya ordered Anantāḻvār to build a flower garden for the service of Lord Venkateshwara. He also told Anantāḻvār  that all the flowers in this garden should be grown for Lord Sri Venkateswara alone and all these flowers should be used in the daily sevas and kainkaryams performed to him in the Tirumala Temple everyday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to his master's orders, Anantāḻvār started building a garden for the Lord's service. As already said, He was a staunch devotee of his guru. So he thought that he should not seek help in achieving this divine task. He said the same to his wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a very divine task our Acharya had assigned to us hence we would not be seeking assistance from anyone outside our family. We must carry entire burden of building this garden for the Lord,on our own shoulders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His wife obliged her husband's orders, the work went on for many days. He engaged in work along with his wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it was not an easy task. Tirumala hills were very dangerous back then with many wild animals. The area too was not fertile to build a flower garden. It was a hilly area, wife of Anantāḻvār was pregnant during that time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Lord Venkateshwara wanted to interfere in the work and help his ardent devotees. After few days, He assumed the form of a child and began to help Anantāḻvār's wife in the work. Anantāḻvār noticed this change and got angry because he didn't wanted any outsiders to interfere in the work assigned to him by his Acharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He ordered the boy to go away from the site. But the boy didn't listen to the words of Anantāḻvār and continued to help them. Then Anantāḻvār  could not control his anger. So he decided to punish the boy for intruding into his land, his work and also into his personal affairs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Out of anger,&lt;strong&gt;he threw the crow bar (which he was holding in his right hand) towards the boy. The crow bar hit the boy's chin.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this incident, the boy disappeared from the sight of Ananta. As usual, when he went to the temple for worship , he found that the chin of the main deity is bleeding. It was the time when he realised that the boy who came to help him and his wife is none other than Lord Venkateshwara. He pleaded to lord to forgive him for his folly. He then applied &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camphor&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;camphor&lt;/a&gt;(పచ్చ కర్పూరం in telugu) on the chin of the idol of Venkateshwara to heal the wound caused by him. Camphor reduces the heat in the body and increases coolness. So, this has become a tradition and is being followed even today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vignanam.org/veda/sri-srinivasa-gadyam-devanagari.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;śrīnivāsa gadyam&lt;/a&gt;, a sanskrit hymn composed on Lord Venkateshwara which is penned by Purusai Rangachari, it is stated as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आर्यधुर्यानन्तार्य पवित्र खनित्रपात पात्रीकृत निजचुबुक गतव्रणकिण विभूषण वहनसूचित श्रितजन वत्सलतातिशयः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;āryadhuryānantārya pavitra khanitrapāta pātrīkṛta nijacubuka gatavraṇakiṇa vibhūṣaṇa vahanasūcita śritajana vatsalatātiśayaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation of the line: The one who is adored by the scar on the chin which is caused by the sacred crowbar of foremost devotee Ananta which indicates that you are affectionate towards the needy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can see the crow bar which is the cause of the scar on the chin of Lord Venkateshwara even today. It is displayed on the wall of right side of the main entrance of the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6kgMZ.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6kgMZ.png&quot; alt=&quot;Crow bar of Anantāḻvār&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The flower garden which was built by Anantāḻvār is still maintained by the successors of Anantāḻvār. It is called as Anantāḻvār's Bṛndāvanaṃ. We can visit that garden too. A seva is performed at this garden by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tirumala.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam(TTD)&lt;/a&gt; every year as a honour to the great devotee Anantāḻvār. This is called &lt;a href=&quot;http://news.tirumala.org/anantalwar-himself-became-a-sacred-flower-at-the-floral-feet-of-lord-muktheswara-rao/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purusaivari Thototsavam&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayappa_swami&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Malayappa&lt;/a&gt; visits that place during this seva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T04:09:15.847" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18542" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-30T17:08:47.247" Score="4" ViewCount="500" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, in the beginning of Adhyaya 2 Pada 1 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa refutes Kapila's Samkhya school:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If it be argued (that from the acceptance of Brahman as the cause of the universe) arises the defect of the (Samkhya) Smritis being left without any scope, then not so, for otherwise will arise the defect of other Smritis losing their scope.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And (Pradhana is not the cause) since the others are not met with (in the Vedas and common experience).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This translation is written from the viewpoint of the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, who believed that in Sutra 2 Vyasa is rejecting Mahat and the other evolutes of Prakriti acknowledged by the Samkhya school; here's what he says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34141.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Brahma Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The principles different from the pradhâna, but to be viewed as its modifications which the (Sânkhya) Smriti assumes, as, for instance, the great principle [Mahat], are perceived neither in the Veda nor in ordinary experience. Now things of the nature of the elements and the sense organs, which are well known from the Veda, as well as from experience, may be referred to in Smriti; &lt;strong&gt;but with regard to things which, like Kapila's great principle [Mahat], are known neither from the Veda nor from experience--no more than, for instance, the objects of a sixth sense--Smriti is altogether impossible&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  In Hindu philosophy, there are three main Pramanas or valid means of knowledge: Pratyaksha or sensory perception, Anumana or inference, and Shabda or scriptural testimony. And there is a hierarchy of these Pramanas: Anumana is only applicable to those that which cannot be known through Pratyaksha, and Shabda is only applicable to that which cannot be known through either Pratyaksha or Anumana.  Now the Purva Mimamsa school believed that scripture was only authoritative on the subject of Dharma, since Dharma cannot be known through perception or inference, and that it has no authority on Siddharthas or objects which already exist in the Universe.  The Vedanta school, on the other hand, believes that scripture is also authoritative over already-existing objects like Brahman whose existence cannot be known through perception or inference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what Adi Shankaracharya is saying is that not all scriptures can establish the existence of objects; he's saying that if the existence of an object is not known perception or through Shruti (i.e. the Vedas), then its existence cannot be established through Smriti.  Now it's a well-established principle, going back to Adhyaya 1 Pada 3 of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, that if Smriti prescribes an &lt;em&gt;action&lt;/em&gt; which Shruti is silent on, like the payment of Guru Dakshina, then Smriti is authoritative.  (But if Smiriti prescribes an action prohibited by Shruti, then Shruti prevails.)  But Adi Shankaracharya apparently believed that that principle does not extend to the existence of the objects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, do any other Vedantic philosophers agree with Adi Shankaracharya that Smriti has no authority over the existence of objects?  Presumably Adi Shankaracharya's followers agree with him, but I'm interested in what non-Advaitins have to say. The Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya doesn't address this issue in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48150.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;corresponding section&lt;/a&gt; of his Sri Bhashya, because he accepts the existence of Mahat and the evolutes of Prakriti, and he argues that their existence is actually supported by the Vedas.  But does he address this issue elsewhere?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-04-06T00:34:20.227" LastActivityDate="2018-04-06T00:34:20.227" Title="Who agrees with Adi Shankaracharya on Smriti having no authority over the existence of objects?" Tags="|vedanta|adi-shankaracharya|purva-mimamsa|sankhya|pramana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18544" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-30T18:38:01.797" Score="-3" ViewCount="782" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know that Low caste people are not allowed to enter temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Did Hindu God say only high caste can worship and low caste can not?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9947" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-06-01T08:31:28.673" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T09:50:12.890" Title="Why in Hinduism, God is only for high caste?" Tags="|caste-system|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="17" ClosedDate="2017-06-01T18:17:16.973" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18545" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21961" CreationDate="2017-05-30T19:12:56.020" Score="3" ViewCount="799" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swayambhu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swayambhu&lt;/a&gt; Vigraha means incarnated figure or an idol which has no human involvement in its creation, generally such Idols/figures are more important and considered to be more sacred than man-made idols/figures. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moolavar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mulavar&lt;/a&gt; or the main deity in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara_Temple,_Tirumala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Venkateshwara Swamy Temple&lt;/a&gt; is one of the Swayambhu idols.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uthsavar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Utsava Murty&lt;/a&gt; in Tirumala Tirupati Temple is known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayappa_swami&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Malayappa Swamy&lt;/a&gt;, all the sevas like Arjita Vasantaotsavam, Sahasra Deepa Mala etc., are performed to Malayappa Swamy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Malayappa Swamy self-manifested? What about Sri Devi and Bhu Devi Vigraha with swamy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T04:26:38.600" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T18:42:18.480" Title="Is Malayappa Swamy Vigraha Swambhu/Self Manifested" Tags="|vishnu|venkateshwara|tirupati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18546" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18536" CreationDate="2017-05-30T21:59:28.507" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The bringer of the Sun, Surya was thought to ride his chariot across the sky &amp;amp; defeat the demons of darkness. Sun/Surya may ride his chariot led by seven horses or a single horse with seven heads (representing the colors of the rainbow and seven chakras), all with rays of light shining from them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The references to Surya's chariot, in a similar manner, can provide us not only information about the ancient Hindus' religious and cosmological beliefs but also about their Science and Astronomical judgements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chariot of the Sun-God:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Various scriptures describe the Celestial chariot of the Sun. Rig Veda [1.35] says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;**आ कृष्णेन् रजसा वर्तमानो निवेशयन्न अमृतं मर्त्यं च ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हिरण्ययेन सविता रथेना देवो याति भुवनानि पश्यन ॥**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Throughout the dusky firmament advancing, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Laying to rest the immortal and the mortal, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Borne in his golden chariot he cometh, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Savitar, God who looks on every creature.&#xA; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the Greek Apollo used to ride four-horse chariot, Vedic texts clearly mention Seven horses of Surya who are called - Gayatri, Brhati, Usnik, Jagati, Tristup, Anustup and Pankti. The Rig Veda [1.164.1-5] says:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A seven-named horse draws the three naved wheel,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seven steeds draw the seven-wheeled chariot,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wise poets have spun a seven-strand tale,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And glorified this Heavenly calf, the Sun. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most scholars believe the seven horses represent Seven days of the week. Ancient Indians were great astronomers and this could very well be true. However, I believe, the seven horses probably also represent the Seven colors of Sunlight! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The seven horses of Surya?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other scriptures talk in a similar vein and describe the chariot of the Sun-god in much detail. Although Arun-deva sits in front of the sun-god and is engaged in driving the chariot, he looks backward toward the sun-god. The chariot has a single wheel with 12 spokes and is yoked to seven horses.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sixty thousand saintly persons named Valkhilyas, each the size of a thumb, are located in front of the sun-god and offer him prayers. The Gandharvs and Pannags sing in front of him, Apsaras dance before the chariot while Nishachars and Yakshas follow and guard it. These seven groups of fourteen associates arrange the proper times for regular snow, heat and rain throughout the universe and are responsible for maintaining the Seasons on Earth!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This means:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sun moves in chariot with 7 horses means 7 horses are representing the seven colors of Indera danush and Chariot represents the Light Travel in Waves.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sun is the source of light and that is white light .VIBGYOR ==white Voilet + indigo + blue + green +yellow + orange + red ==white So all 7—horses repersent each colour of the VIBGYOR&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As well, Modern physics confirmed that the sun's rays travel in a curved way, but not in a straight line. Our ancestors told that the sun's chariot was drawn by seven horses tied by snakes. As the movements of the snakes are crooked and curved, so also the sun's ray. The phenomenon is described in a metaphysical poetic line &lt;strong&gt;bhujagana mita sapta turaga&lt;/strong&gt;. The chapter on light says that there are seven colors in the white ray of the sun. Artharveda says that there are seven types of sun's rays, &lt;strong&gt;sapta surayasya rasmayah&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rig Veda repeatedly asks, &amp;quot;How is it that though the Sun is not bound and is directed downwards, it does not fall?&amp;quot; A question asked by Isaac Newton more than three thousand years later, and no one else, because the Greeks had furnished the crystal spheres to which these objects were attached! When we talk of gravity, Newton comes to our mind, but in the text Surya Sidhantha dated around 400 AD, Bhaskaracharya described it stated. &amp;quot;objects fall on the earth due to one force. The Earth, planets, constellations, moon and sun are held in orbit because of that one force&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/why-7-horses-for-the-chariot-of-sun&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/why-7-horses-for-the-chariot-of-sun&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; Puranas explain everything in protective manner (Like Trees and Sun we treat as God), I believe Sun Moves in a Chariot pulled by 7 Horses explains all super natural powers in poetic way to future generations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-30T22:06:50.560" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18547" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-31T01:54:25.973" Score="3" ViewCount="136" Body="&lt;p&gt;I couldn't help but notice but all tales are about the victors. They are always about how the good one, a subjective entity, won over the bad one, again a subjective entity. The voice of the vanquished seldom noted in a sense of appraisal, it almost always describes why they are bad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Hanuman burns down Lanka and is captured, Vibhishana tries to reason with Ravana on why he is wrong and why he should seek the feet of Rama. In process Vibhishana describes how great Rama is, how he is an embodiment of everything that is good in the world, how he is pinnacle of human excellence, how he is not a mere human but a great Saint. It is merely a laurel for Rama rather than reason. It seems that all of dharma at the moment was to serve what was right, again a subjective entity. It is told as if seeking the feet of Rama was the only truth in the universe. He is the one that would lead the world to salvation. Nothing else could lead you to moksha. Although, Ravana might be the one with pride and anger, how come praising someone else in front of a person with a high self esteem be ever be the solution. It is rather provocative. It would anger a person even more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The concept of 'papa', also is used ever so randomly. When the good one does a deed that could be called bad, it is termed as 'leela' or 'maya' of the great one. When someone challenges this notion, it is always shut down by saying that the great one is great and you are too small to question the great one. It is the mystery of the great one to do such things. How are we to measure the greatness?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is it that we have to lookup to one that is good? Is it our ultimate goal to serve the great?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user7159" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-06-01T19:14:11.347" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T19:14:11.347" Title="Are Hindu scriptures (itihasas) written from the winners' perspective?" Tags="|ramayana|philosophy|dharma|sin|evil|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-05-31T04:07:45.050" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18548" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18547" CreationDate="2017-05-31T02:23:29.907" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;To look up to the good and great is a hallmark of civilized society. Because Truth triumphs and is lasting. By not doing so you are promoting evil. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And have you not heard that history is written by the victor?  He has the right of way, he is right in the aftermath of a successful conflict..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T02:28:44.363" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T02:28:44.363" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18549" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18547" CreationDate="2017-05-31T04:03:06.963" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First - While Ramayana is itihaasa, you must remember that it was written by a RuShi which means that the author is committed to speaking the truth. They do not color the narrative with personal biases or ulterior motives. They always call a spade a spade. To wit, there are accounts of the superior lives of the inhabitants of Lanka both in terms of prosperity and adherence to dharma (agni kriyas etc.). Do not confuse western definition of &quot;history&quot; with what is RuSi prOktam. Western(Xtian) history is indeed the account of the victor but not Hindu itihAsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second- &quot;seeking the feet of Ram was the only truth in the universe.&quot; This IS the only truth in the universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Third - &quot;It seems that all of dharma at the moment was to serve what was right,&quot; But of course! Why are you questioning it? If you are talking about the subjectivity of what is right - this is why there are clearly defined dharma sastras. To remove the subjectvitiy and individual interpretation of right and wrong. Do you question the constitution or the law or the penal code as subjective? These have been defined after sifting through all possible interpretations and subjectivity and arriving at the truth that endures across time and space and applies universally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There may be nuances but by and large the law is the law. No?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fourth - &quot;how come praising someone else infront of a person with a high self esteem be ever be the solution&quot; Heard of counselling, intervention etc.? These are accepted in modern day because they have &quot;western&quot; sanction but we cannot look past the packaging when they are offered in Hindu texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fifth - &quot;The voice of the vanquished seldom noted in a sense of appraisal, it almost always describes why they are bad. &quot; Wrong again. Take the example of Rama- Vali samvaada. Vali challenges Rama's actions and tries to justify his own deed. As the dialogue progresses, Vali sees the truth of the matter and acknowledges his wrong-doings. His voice was not silenced nor were his views suppressed. They were reasoned out. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sixth- &quot;The concept of 'papa', also is used ever so randomly.&quot;  No. It is well-defined. &quot;When the good one does a deed that could be called bad, it is termed as 'leela' or 'maya' of the great one. &quot; The good ones do not do bad things. They only seem bad because we do not understand the nuances of dharma. Once we understand these, we also realise that the good ones did not do bad. The view is a limitation of the viewer not of the dharma itself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seventh - &quot;Why is it that we have to lookup to one that is good? Is it our ultimate goal to serve the great? &quot;  Do you want to look up one that is bad? Is your ultimate goal to serve evil? Why? Answer this and we will find sufficient reason to look up to that which is good. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Last- &quot; He is the one that would lead the world to salvation. Nothing else could lead you to moksha. &quot; This IS the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S. What is your confusion here? You don't like good ; you like bad?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T04:03:06.963" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18551" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18580" CreationDate="2017-05-31T05:27:14.230" Score="9" ViewCount="3029" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know staying virgin whole-life really needs good discipline, strong will power et cetera.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what are Spiritual &amp;amp; Material benefits of being Virgin whole life? Id est, dying as a virgin? Do Hindu scriptures have options on this matter? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9952" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-19T08:37:26.097" LastActivityDate="2022-07-22T16:37:33.440" Title="Is there any advantage for a person dying as virgin?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|practice|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18553" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-31T05:45:52.757" Score="7" ViewCount="1697" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am seeing lord Narayana in everything in my daily life. In every particle, in every tree , in every person who I see, in every animal, in every leaf, in every flower, in every food dish, in every computer in my office, in every building, on every road, in every vehicle, everywhere its as if Lord Narayana is everything. What does this mean ?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9496" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T05:55:13.673" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T20:57:08.800" Title="I am seeing Lord Narayana in everything. What does this mean?" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18554" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18518" CreationDate="2017-05-31T05:59:07.090" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No Every one is not Hindu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of Every religions have different regions and different time lines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more detail you can look this image&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ceWuH.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ceWuH.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9845" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T05:59:07.090" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18555" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="43134" CreationDate="2017-05-31T06:46:16.400" Score="6" ViewCount="1248" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banalinga&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Banalingas or Narmada lingas&lt;/a&gt; are considered as Swayambhu Shiva Lingams which are found on the river beds of Narmada river.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many shops which sell them online as wearable pendants. Like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IImvE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IImvE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there must be many people who wear them on their body. But is it allowed in scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which scriptures discuss the rules of wearing Banalingas and what are those rules?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AFAIK, there is a shaivite sect called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingayatism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Veerashaiva&lt;/a&gt; where followers do wear such Shiva Lingas as pendants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T07:03:01.800" LastActivityDate="2020-10-10T13:57:49.500" Title="Can we wear Banalinga as pendant around our neck?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|shiva-lingam|shaivism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18556" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-31T07:24:24.367" Score="5" ViewCount="8901" Body="&lt;p&gt;12 Jyotirlingas are shown in the pic. I'm interested to sort these Jyotirlingas based on the time of their appearance. ( To analyze the pattern they form once joined based on chronological order of their appearance) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Can anyone give me chronological order of their appearances?  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/k5ji7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/k5ji7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2018-02-16T08:27:27.113" Title="What is the chronological order of appearance of Jyotirlingas?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18558" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2696" CreationDate="2017-05-31T07:42:35.017" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Colour represents the specific attribute of a deity. I'm giving here example from different colours of Lord Shiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Purely white SadaShiva:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SadaShiva is purely white as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8962/is-lord-shiva-dark-in-complexion/8973#8973&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; White colour here represents that SadaShiva is eternally pure and untouched by the Tri-Gunas (satwa-rajas-tamas) of Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नीलग्रिवं पञ्चवक्त्रं त्रयम्बकं चन्द्रशेखरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वामांगे बिभ्रतं गौरीं विद्युतपुञ्ज समप्रभाम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;कर्पूरगौर गौरिशं सर्वालंकारधारिणम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सितभस्मलसद्देहं सितवस्त्रं महोज्जवलम् ।। (Shiva Purana Mahatmyam, Chapter 4)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;His neck had a blue hue ; &lt;strong&gt;he had five faces,&lt;/strong&gt; three eyes , the cresent moon as crest-ornament and his left hand was apportioned to Gauri , who had the brilliance of lighting. &lt;strong&gt;He was white in complexion like camphor&lt;/strong&gt; and wore all ornaments. Besmeared with white ashes all over the body and clad in white clothes,he shone brilliantly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shivam represents the Turiya state which is beyond realm of Maya as I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/902/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-word-shiva/16933#16933&quot;&gt;discuss here.&lt;/a&gt; Hence pure white colour of Sada-Shiva rightly represent it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Aditya Varnam Rudra (Golden Coloured Rudra):&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also one form of Lord Shiva which is of Aditya Varnam (golden colour). I discuss it also in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15124/how-rudra-became-shiva-in-vedas/15125#15125&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवा वै रुद्रं स्वर्गं लोकं गतं न व्यजानन्न् आदित्यवर्णं चरन्तन् | (Katha Aranyaka 2.100) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Indeed the deva-s did not recognize &lt;strong&gt;Rudra who had entered the heavenly world wandering in Aditya Varnam&lt;/strong&gt; (Solar/Golden Lusture)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly the SataRudriya hymn stating (Namo Hiranyabaahave / Salutations to him who has golden arns) and the Taittariya Aranyaka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नमो हिरण्यबाहवे हिरण्यवर्णाय... (Taittariya Aranyaka 10.22)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutations to him who has Golden arms and Golden complexion..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the RigVeda also as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17949/how-is-lord-shiva-revealed-in-the-rig-veda/17950#17950&quot;&gt;answer here:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हिरण्यम् इव रोचते&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shining like the bright gold.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;शुक्र इव सूर्यो&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shines like the Sun.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Golden complexion of Lord represents the Purusha attribute of Lord:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वेदाहमेतं पुरुषं महान्त-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;         मादित्यवर्णं तमसः परस्तात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तमेव विदित्वातिमृत्युमेति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;         नान्यः पन्था विद्यतेऽयनाय ॥ ८॥ (RigVeda 10.90, Svet. Up. 3.8)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;I know the &lt;strong&gt;great Purusha, who is of Aditya Varna&lt;/strong&gt; and beyond darkness. Only by knowing Him does one pass over death; there is no other way to the Supreme Goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Nila-Lohita Rudra (The Blue and Red Rudra):&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also another form of Lord Shiva which is half blue and half red and called as Nilalohita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;द्रापे अन्धसस्पते दरिद्रन्नीललोहित (YajurVeda 16.47)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Oh you who punishes as per sin of people. Oh! Lord of Food. Oh! NilaLohita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The blue and red colour form of Lord also has special significance which I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16375/why-is-lord-shiva-called-nilalohita/16376#16376&quot;&gt;discuss here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ललाटमस्य निर्भिद्य प्रादुरासीत्पितामहात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;लोहितोऽभूत्स्वयं नीलः शिवस्य हृदयोद्भव ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वह्रश्चैव तु संयोगात्प्रकृत्या पुरुषः प्रभुः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नीलश्च लोहितश्चैव यतः कालाकृतिः पुमान् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नीललोहित ईत्युक्तस्तेन देवेन वै प्रभुः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;All pervading lord born of body of Bhava, came out of Brahma by piercing his forehead. The lord who born of the heart of Shiva was originally blue but became red coming in contact with fire. &lt;strong&gt;It represents the form of combination of Prakriti and Purusha of the Lord.&lt;/strong&gt; Because of the form with both blue and red colour resembling Kãla, Lord came to be known by the name NilaLohita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the Nila-Lohita form of Lord represents the Union of Prakirti and Purusha.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There are also other coloured forms of Lord Shiva which has it's own meaning. It is already proved that these colours have special meaning and colour of God shows that meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is dark-blue in colour. I'm sure it has also it's special meaning. I scanned searched in three puranas; Srimad Bhagvatam, Vishnu Purana and Padma Purana. They call Vishnu as 'dark-blue' colour many many times but they do not give meaning of the colour. I think Pancharatra Scriptures discuss about this thing. I'll update the answer when I find any reference from scripture regarding meaning of colour of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T07:42:35.017" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18560" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18553" CreationDate="2017-05-31T09:44:37.220" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I am seeing Lord Narayana is everything. What does this mean ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I too agree with the views expressed by users in the comments section that indeed &quot;You are very fortunate and a blessed person, as you have achieved the state of the mind which is very difficult to achieve, while we are mentally involved in our family life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have found some shlokas from &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvad Gita&lt;/strong&gt; as well as &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, where lord himself is describing your state of mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagvad Gita -: &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तानि सर्वाणि संयम्य युक्त आसीत मत्पर: । &lt;br&gt; वशे हि यस्येन्द्रीयाणि&#xA;  तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥६१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tāni sarvāṇi saṁyamya yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ &lt;br&gt; vaśe hi yasyendriyāṇi&#xA;  tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who restrains his senses, keeping them under full control, and&#xA;  ﬁxes his consciousness upon Me, &lt;strong&gt;is known as a man of steady&#xA;  intelligence.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/61&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 2.61&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  तदबुद्धयस्तदात्मानस्तन्निष्ठास्तत्परायणाः। &lt;br&gt;गच्छन्त्यपुनरावृत्तिं&#xA;  ज्ञाननिर्धूतकल्मषाः ॥१७॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tad-buddhayas tad-ātmānas tan-niṣṭhās tat-parāyaṇāḥ &lt;br&gt; gacchanty&#xA;  apunar-āvṛttiṁ jñāna-nirdhūta-kalmaṣāḥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When one’s intelligence, mind, faith and refuge are all ﬁxed in the&#xA;  Supreme, then one becomes fully cleansed of misgivings through&#xA;  complete knowledge and thus &lt;strong&gt;proceeds straight on the path of&#xA;  liberation.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/5/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 5.17&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Bhagvat purana says -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इति सर्वाणि भूतानि मद्भावेन महाद्युते । &lt;br&gt; सभाजयन मन्यमानो ज्ञानं&#xA;  केवलमाश्रित: ॥१३॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;iti sarvāṇi bhūtāni mad-bhāvena mahā-dyute &lt;br&gt; sabhājayan manyamāno&#xA;  jñānaṁ kevalam āśritaḥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O brilliant Uddhava, one who thus views &lt;strong&gt;all living entities with the&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  idea that I am present within each of them, and who by taking shelter&#xA;  of this divine knowledge offers due respect to everyone, &lt;strong&gt;is&#xA;  considered actually wise.&lt;/strong&gt; (True knower). &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/29/13-14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.29.13&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  अयं हि सर्वकल्पानां सध्रीचीनो मतो मम । &lt;br&gt; मद्भाव: सर्वभूतेषु&#xA;  मनोवाक्कायवृत्तिभि: ॥१९॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ayaṁ hi sarva-kalpānāṁ sadhrīcīno mato mama &lt;br&gt; mad-bhāvaḥ&#xA;  sarva-bhūteṣu mano-vāk-kāya-vṛttibhiḥ  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indeed, I consider this process — using one’s mind, words and bodily&#xA;  functions for realizing Me within all living beings — to be the best&#xA;  possible method of &lt;strong&gt;spiritual enlightenment.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/29/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.29.19&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from analysing above shlokas we can say that your current state is of &lt;strong&gt;Gyani&lt;/strong&gt; who have realised  god in everything.&#xA;And proceeding towards final goal i.e. Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T13:13:40.067" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T13:13:40.067" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18561" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18553" CreationDate="2017-05-31T10:52:25.247" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are seeing Nārāyana everywhere &lt;code&gt;outside&lt;/code&gt; is not a final accomplishment, (to see &lt;code&gt;inside&lt;/code&gt; is,) rather it is a sort of &lt;strong&gt;divine&lt;/strong&gt; welcome by Lord to you for journey to the ultimate &lt;code&gt;Vasudeva tattva&lt;/code&gt;. (This is a descent of Shakti), You should intensely dive into spirituality &amp;amp; devotion to Lord Nārāyana, now material world should be of no use to you other than a play where you have to complete your play without any material desires. It seems Lord saying to you these words -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just think of Me, be My devotee, worship Me, offer obeisance unto Me; certainly you will come to Me, I promise this in truth to you being dear to Me. BG-18.65.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Concentrate the mind upon Me, apply spiritual intelligence for Me; verily you will reside with I after this existence without doubt. BG-12.8.&#xA;  &lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is &lt;strong&gt;not the end&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Highest step&lt;/strong&gt; yet to achieve from where there is no return. As also said in the Chāndogya Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a man’s mind is his reins, intellect, his charioteer; He reaches the &lt;strong&gt;end of the road&lt;/strong&gt;, That highest step of &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;. Valli 3.9.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T10:52:25.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18564" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-31T12:45:55.820" Score="9" ViewCount="1602" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prana&lt;/strong&gt; is said to be an energy and is said to be universal.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Akasha&lt;/strong&gt; is said to be very subtle form of energy.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Both of these two are &lt;strong&gt;subtle&lt;/strong&gt; to see and are present in all places.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How do we find the difference between Akasha and Prana ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is Akasha is &lt;strong&gt;Essential to live&lt;/strong&gt; as like Prana is essential ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T12:51:07.657" LastActivityDate="2019-07-03T19:47:54.577" Title="What is the difference between Prana and Akasha?" Tags="|scripture|life|panchabhoota|akasha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18565" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18373" CreationDate="2017-05-31T12:48:36.110" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;One way to see it would be in terms of psychology of a person.&#xA;Where Rakshasa means a person with hightened Ego&#xA;Not to think of Rakshasha as some terrestial being&#xA;But instead a human being with Bad qualities&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whereas real meaning of Brahmin is different but here probably it is meant that Ravana is a Brahmin because he was a Shiv Bhakta or religious.&#xA;Well being relgious does not mean that a person doesnt have any ego. You can see in the world people going to temples and cheating others or harming others. One can be Brahmin by taking birth in a brahmin family.&#xA;But his psychological makeup may be totally destructive to others... and may be a terrorist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per what i have read the real meaning of Brahmin is one who has realized Brahman or Atman. But nowadays this term is used loosely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9940" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T12:48:36.110" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18566" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-31T13:17:13.470" Score="2" ViewCount="630" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;People doing &lt;strong&gt;Penance&lt;/strong&gt; are in meditation posture.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meditating&lt;/strong&gt; people are also in same posture.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Penance have goals&lt;/strong&gt; to achieve and &lt;strong&gt;Meditators have goals&lt;/strong&gt; like controlling mind and thoughts,etc,...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Both of them have &lt;strong&gt;Motives&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Benefits&lt;/strong&gt; so i cannot experience the difference.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the difference between Penance and Meditation ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T13:17:13.470" Title="What is the difference between Meditation and Penance?" Tags="|yoga|meditation|mind|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18567" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-31T13:22:15.957" Score="0" ViewCount="841" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to what I know, Hindu texts have always focused on cyclic nature of universe. But have only mentioned this one universe only and that it will be created and get destroyed over and over again. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any mention of other universes or multiverse or of the word &lt;em&gt;infinite&lt;/em&gt; in terms of number of universes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2999" LastActivityDate="2017-05-31T13:36:50.750" Title="Is there a concept of parallel universes in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-05-31T13:35:57.857" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18568" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-31T13:34:25.987" Score="5" ViewCount="2814" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it permissible in Hinduism to donate blood? I have no idea whether Hinduism ever talk about blood donation! Are there any slokas regarding this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-05-31T16:19:39.257" LastActivityDate="2023-12-09T14:03:43.187" Title="What does Hinduism say about blood donation?" Tags="|scripture|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18569" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6657" CreationDate="2017-05-31T13:49:07.577" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Human is a vehicle to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubera&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kubera&lt;/a&gt;, the lord of wealth and also the guardian of the north direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Valmiki Ramayana, &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga48/aranya_48_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aranya Kanda&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मत् भय आर्तः परित्यज्य स्वम् अधिष्ठानम् ऋद्धिमत् |&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;कैलासम् पर्वत श्रेष्ठम् अध्यास्ते नर वाहनः || ३-४८-५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am that Ravana by whom Kubera, the god for Wealth-Management whose vehicular transport is handled by humans, is tormented fearfully and made to completely abandon his wealthiest place which is presided over by him till then, and I am the one who made that Kubera to flee to the excellent Mt. Kailash where he is somehow living, because I will not cause any harm on Mt. Kailash as I hold it sacred. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga48/aranyasans48.htm#Verse5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[3-48-5]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mounts of the Gods are explained in detailed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/18305/22F_Chapter_9.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 9 of Vamana Purana&lt;/a&gt; when a battle between Devatas and Daityas took place. While narrating the incident, Narada said to Pulastya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रौद्रः शकतचक्राक्षः शैलाकारौ &lt;strong&gt;नरोत्तमम्&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अम्बिकापादसंभूतो वाहनम् धनदस्य तु ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Narottama (meaning the best of human)&lt;/strong&gt; having eyes like chariot wheels, a gigantic body as the mountain, a fierce figure was the carriage of Kubera, the lord of wealth. It originated from the feet of Ambika.(Here the first birth is told not at the time of churning of the ocean.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kubera is not only the one with Men as his carriage. The Yakshas(Demigods) also have men as Demigods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कुञ्जरस्थाश्च वसवो &lt;strong&gt;यक्षाश्च नरवाहनाः&lt;/strong&gt;| &lt;br&gt;&#xA;किन्नरा भुजगारूढा हयारूढौ तथाश्विनौ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Elephants are the carriages of Vasus. &lt;strong&gt;Men are the carriages of demigods&lt;/strong&gt;, serpents are the carriers of the eunuchs(Kinnaras) and horses were the carriages of Ashvini Devatas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why isn't a human the vahana of above mentioned Gods?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There will be a reason why Gods only chose them as the Vahanas. Having them as Vahanas(carriers) doesn't only mean that Gods are carried by that particular mount, but it also means that they have total control over it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E.g : Shiva's vahana is an ox. To which the sanskrit word is Vṛṣabha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya while commenting on the name &lt;em&gt;Vṛṣa&lt;/em&gt; in Vishnu sahasranama says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The term Vrisha though not very familiar now is used in the Vedic literature to indicate Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vṛṣa also means virtue. So the bull is equated with Dharma. So it should be taken that Shiva not only rides on a bull. But he rides on Virtue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gods are not carried by same Vahana all the time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that Goddess Lakshmi's mount is an Owl. But it is not the same all the time. She takes different mounts at different times like a swan, lotus etc.,.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Indra also owns a horse named Uchhaishrava. He is not always carried by the elephant Airavata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu usually rides on a mighty eagle named Garuda. But he is carried by a mighty serpent named Adi Shesha. So, in a way he is also a carrier(Vahana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha has a mouse as his mount. Usually a rat or a mouse is recognised as a stealer and one with unstable mentality. Taking control over the mouse shows that he is not the one with unstable behavior. It also teaches that we should control our unstable behavior by worshipping Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why is only Kubera associated with a man as his vahana?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Kubera is associated with human carriage. It could mean that he has control over the Human. Because humans are very much attracted to money.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2018-06-30T18:13:43.623" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18570" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18568" CreationDate="2017-05-31T15:03:40.230" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Hindu Dharma will stop someone from saving a life? Hindu Dharma promotes donation instead. To save a life, whatever sacrifices you have to make, that will be real dharma. And your those sacrifices will make you a pure soul or dharmatma. To save a life whatever one has to do that will be Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let's see some examples by which you will come to know that sacrifices are a necessary part of Dharma. Dharma can't be completed without sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;An ancestor of Shree Ram named as Maharaja Shibi sacrificed his&#xA;whole body to save life of a bird.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another ancestor of Shree Ram named as Raja Harish Chandra, who sold his own wife and children in open market just to save his promise (रघुकुल रीत सदा चली आयी, प्राण जाये पर वचन न जाये ).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In Mahabharata, Karna did donate his life saving armour to Indra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is stated in last lines of Satya Narayan katha that A vaishya named as Sadhu gets moksha by cut down (आरे से चीयर कर) his own Son with chainsaw.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhagwaan Parshuram also chopped head of his own mother just to fulfill his promise given to his father.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now what will you ask by seeing those examples? may be something like this, Is selling own family in market allowed in Hinduism or chopping head of own Mother is allowed in Hiduism? There are many more examples can be found in history...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now think again what you are asking, You are asking Blood Donation is allowed on hinduism... Just see those examples and you will come to know blood donation is a very very small thing in front of those sacrifices which are being done by great Dharmatma by getting inspiration from Hindu Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are worrying about blood donation but people have sacrificed their body, own wife and children and even mother just to save their Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me clear my points. As per Bhagavat Geeta, Dharma is totally depended upon situation. Hence Dharma changes every second. One karma(deeds) which is Dharma right now that same Karma can be a sin also in different time or situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example: Telling lie is sin, but if that lie is being told to save someone then that sin is greater than truth said by Shree Krishna in Bhagwat Geeta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence our karma itself can't be bad or good but instead our intention behind that karma makes our karma bad or good. If your intention is pure than no sin can be done with your hand. Whatever Karma (whether blood donation or anything else) you will do that karma can be sin(paap) or Saintly(punya) depends on situation. There is no such karma exist in this world who can always be Saintly or always be sin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence those sacrifices which I have shown above must seem so cruel on first sight but those sacrifices are totally correct in point of view of Hindu Dharma. As I said, all karma depends on situation. Sometimes a situation comes in life when two dharma conflict with each other. For example.. In one of above example, one conflict was between saving a promise or saving a family. Then in that tricky situation (Dharma Sankat). One has to decide which Dharma is greater and he/she has to follow that Dharma by giving up on other. In above example saving a promise is more important than saving own family as per Hindu Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-06-26T04:31:44.347" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T04:31:44.347" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18571" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-05-31T15:31:44.967" Score="5" ViewCount="896" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Rajasthan High Court judge recently made &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-pushpa-i-hate-tears-twitter-loses-it-over-rajathan-hc-judge-s-sanskari-peacock-comments-2457099&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the following statement&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Peacock is a Bramhachari and it does not have sex with a peahen. The peahen gets pregnant drinking the tears of the peacock. Even lord Krishna carried the feather of a peacock on his head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The judge was roundly mocked for this, but I think he is conveying a Hindu concept.  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.india.com/news/india/do-you-know-why-lord-krishna-wears-a-peacock-feather-on-his-crown-1430810/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a mythological belief (albeit false) that peacocks do not use sex for reproduction but rather, the peahen drinks the tears of the peacock to conceive. Thus, Krishna is as pure as a peacock and that is what the feather signifies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://pbks.info/Website%20written%20materials/murlis/vcd146-gp.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this religious discourse&lt;/a&gt; by a Swami named Shiv Baba says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Peacock is even today considered the National Bird of India. Why is it considered so? Why is not any other bird taken as the example. Any other bird could have been chosen as the national bird. Because, all other birds procreate by sexual contact. Only Peacock (male) is such an unusual bird. That the peahen (morni ) swallows the tear drops of the Peacock ( mor ) dancing in stately courtship around her. Then the peahen becomes pregnant. It shows that even today the example of such a bird prevails in this creation. And that same bird is considered as the National Bird of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, are there any scriptures which describe peahens getting pregnant from the tears of peacocks?  This is similar to the phenomena discussed in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15583/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-06-01T19:18:29.843" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T19:18:29.843" Title="What scriptures describe peacocks producing children through tears?" Tags="|scripture|krishna|animals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18572" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18617" CreationDate="2017-05-31T17:56:03.943" Score="3" ViewCount="173" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that if we refuse to donate someone who has come to ask for donations, then our Punya is lost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are other ways, as per Scriptures, which make us lose Good Virtues?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-06-01T06:56:32.253" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T05:58:36.730" Title="What are various ways, as per Scriptures, by which we lose our Punya:Good Merits?" Tags="|scripture|karma|sin|punyam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18573" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15603" CreationDate="2017-05-31T18:12:59.320" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let's see whether he lived in 1st century BC(44 BC to 12 BC):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Sringeri mutt:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sringeri mutt established by Shankara, records Shankara was born in 14th year from the era of Vikramadhitya. It is concluded that Vikram era started in 57 BC, so Adi Shankara born somewhere 13-14 years after 57 BC. But this mutt is in the south, Vikramaditya of Ujjain never ruled southern India, even if he was a historical figure. So, Karnataka was ruled by 2 Vikramadhityas of Chalukhyas. One of them lived in 7th century AD and another king ruled in 8th century AD. So,there is a huge possibility that Sringeri mutt might have recorded Chalukhya dynasty Vikramadhityas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Kanchi Mutt:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the only mutt claiming that Shankara born in 509 BC and died in 477 BC. But it was established after 1820 AD. It has nothing to do with ADI Shankara. SO, the claims of this mutt are irrelevant. This mutt is lying in the name of god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Dharmakirti&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the most important point. Hsuan Tsang, a Chinese traveler who visited India in the 7th century AD, said Dharmakirti was his contemporary. As he was a traveler, his antiquity cannot be shifted before 7th century AD. He also said Dharmakirti contributed a lot for Buddhism and praised him for this. He also mentions Bhartrhari, but not Shankara. As Adi Shankara defeated Buddhism in India, Hsuan Tsang definitely mentioned Shankara if he lived before him. This itself gives the clue that Shankara is post Dharmakirti and post Hsuan Tsang.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Mandana Mishra&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara is debated with Mandana Mishra which is confirmed by Shankara Digvijaya. This record is maintained by Sringeri mutt. We can fully trust Sringeri mutt, as it is the only one which has not experienced any destruction from Islamic rulers like other mutts. Mandana Mishra's historicity has been fixed as 8th century AD. In this debate, Adi Shankara mentioned Dharmakirti's work on Vijnanavada. As Dharmakirti' date has been fixed as 7th century AD by foreign accounts, Adi Shankara lived after 7th century AD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the conclusion is, Adi Shankara lived somewhere between 750 to 850 CE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-08T03:40:39.750" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T03:40:39.750" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18576" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17967" CreationDate="2017-06-01T01:22:51.660" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nammalwar's Thiruvaymozhi is equal to Veda in that it too is sruthi. It is considered superior to Veda since it points out the Supreme Being directly and lucidly. This is stated in Acharya Hrudayam, a Manipravalam work written by Azhagiya Manavala Perumal Nayanar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas, however, are intended for people of all varieties of temperaments and traits, so kainkaryam to Him is only one small portion of the Vedas and is interwoven in and around other subjects. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From beginning to end, the Nalayiram speaks only of the Supreme Being and Boundless Kindness towards all. Consequently, Nayanar says that, in this way, it is superior to Vedas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9958" LastEditorUserId="9958" LastEditDate="2019-04-21T23:22:26.960" LastActivityDate="2019-04-21T23:22:26.960" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18579" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18874" CreationDate="2017-06-01T04:03:22.533" Score="2" ViewCount="1622" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came to know from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Autobiography of a Yogi&lt;/a&gt;, by Swami Yogananda that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavatar_Babaji&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Babaji&lt;/a&gt; is an immortal. My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the birthdate of Mahavatar Babaji?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the last account of babaji? I mean when he was last seen? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do babaji still give visit to some?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2018-11-19T10:57:27.900" LastActivityDate="2022-12-16T06:00:46.240" Title="Regarding some questions on Mahavatar Babaji" Tags="|saint|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18580" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18551" CreationDate="2017-06-01T04:54:30.290" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no advantage in dying a virgin unless one has formally taken up the Sannyasa dharma i.e unless one has ritually become a sannyasi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a sannyasi strict celibacy is a must.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But for all other situations dying a virgin is considered as a bad karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because as soon as we are born we obtain the three debts on us : Deva Rina (debt to the Gods), Rishi Rina (debt to the Seers) and the Pitru Rina (debt to the ancestors or the manes). Of which, the Pitru Rina can not be repaid unless  one begets a son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.106. &lt;strong&gt;Immediately on the birth of his first-born a man is (called) the father of a son and is freed from the debt to the manes&lt;/strong&gt;; that&#xA;  (son), therefore, is worthy (to receive) the whole estate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.107. &lt;strong&gt;That son alone on whom he throws his debt and through whom he obtains immortality&lt;/strong&gt;, is begotten for (the fulfilment of) the law; all&#xA;  the rest they consider the offspring of desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manu Smriti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a father sees the face of a' living son born, he is Freed from the&#xA;  debt [he owes to his ancestors] and attains to immortality. (53) &lt;strong&gt;With&#xA;  the very birth of a son, a father is freed from his ancestral debt and&#xA;  attains to purification on that Very day, for he (i.e., the son)&#xA;  liberates him from the hell. (54)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti Chapter 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not repaying any of the three debts is an offence as stated in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 6.35. When he has paid the three debts, let him apply his&#xA;  mind to (the attainment of) final liberation; &lt;strong&gt;he who seeks it without&#xA;  having paid (his debts) sinks downwards&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in all cases clearing the debts is a must and the first priority. And if one is a life long virgin that is not possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also as per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the book &quot;essence of dharma sindhu&quot;&lt;/a&gt; chirakAla bramachArya is prohibited in this age that is in Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kali Yuga Nishiddhas&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following are the avoidable and unnecessary acts of Kali Yuga viz.&#xA;  Samudra Yatra, carrying of Kamandulu to misdirect the Public ,&#xA;  remarriages, begetting children from husband’s brothers; Go Vadha;&#xA;  Mamsa Bhakshana at Shraddhas; performing vivaha to a physically immature girl; &lt;strong&gt;Chira kaala Brahmacharitwa&lt;/strong&gt;; Naramedha Ashwamedha Gomedha&#xA;  Yagna; Madya Paana, Abhakshya Bhakshana, Apeya paana, Agamyaagamana&#xA;  orcwandering aimlesly Rahasya Prayascittha, Devata Puja and Pashubali&#xA;  for evil ends; Kula Bhrashtata; Extreme Profiteering and narrow&#xA;  mindedness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T04:54:30.290" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18581" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-01T05:00:10.510" Score="-2" ViewCount="236" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vanisource.org/wiki/SB_3.16.22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Lord is tri-yuga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above translation states that the Lord descends in three yugas: Satya, Treta, and Dvapara. Or rather, the translation doesn't say that, but the commentary does. This makes no logical sense to me, because the Satya Yuga seems to be the age when everything is perfect, thereby non-necessitating an Incarnation of the Lord to fight demons and atheists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, the &quot;earlier&quot; Incarnation of the Lord is Matsya, but if we correlate the Satya Yuga with the &quot;Garden of Eden&quot; (i.e. when everything is perfect), even the Matsya Incarnation would occur when Manu (i.e. Adam) had already left Eden (when the Satya Age had ended). Therefore the Manu that Matsya helps would be equivalent to Noah, but this wouldn't be in the Satya Yuga, it would be in the... Treta Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore we can't even really locate a pure Vaishnava Incarnation like Rama and Krishna as far back as the Satya Age anyways. (We only have animal Incarnations like Matsya, Kurma, and Varaha. Perhaps Narasimha would count as a &quot;Perfect Incarnation,&quot; but even so, why would the Lord incarnate in the Satya Yuga?) It would seem to make more sense that the Lord would incarnate in the following three ages: Treta, Dvapara, and Kali, since there would be actual work to be done in those ages, both &quot;intellectual,&quot; and &quot;material.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if everything is perfect... why an Incarnation of the Lord?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This makes way more sense to me:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rama in Treta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna in Dvapara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalki in Kali&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can't really equivocate the Buddha with a &quot;personal&quot; Incarnation of the Lord because he doesn't even teach a theistic doctrine, rather he seems to represent the gradual decline of theism after its peak, which reaches its perfect expression in the Mahabharata (with Krishna). If we consider the Lord as Time, Time definitely reaches its full stature in the Krishna Incarnation, specifically because Krishna is involved in all aspects of life, material and spiritual, the Buddha seems to represent old age and death, this is probably why Krishna is regarded as the purnavatara. Even Krishna Himself states: &quot;I am Time, grown to full stature.&quot; After the peak, there can only be the decline.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it also seems like Kalki is explicitly theistic and IN the Kali Age, so it would make some sense for Kalki to be a personal Incarnation of the Lord. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.narach.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This website&lt;/a&gt; has some good information, particularly &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.narach.com/philosophy/incarnations_and_ages_of_time.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://harekrsna.com/philosophy/incarnations/dasavatara.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; also makes sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sometimes Vishnu descends personally, sometimes he sends his bonafide representative in the form of his son or servant, and sometimes he comes himself in a disguised form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, personal descents would include: Rama, Krishna, and Kalki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Representative in the form of a servant, maybe Muhammad (s.a.w.). Representative in the form of his son, maybe Jesus. As a disguised Incarnation, maybe ‘Ali. (There are some sects of Islam that believe ‘Ali was God, &lt;em&gt;veiled&lt;/em&gt; by Muhammad (s.a.w.).)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thoughts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, it's easy to provide correlations between Islam and Hinduism, Islam is the youngest religion and Hinduism is the oldest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In all three &quot;personal&quot; Incarnations of the Lord, he always comes in &quot;catur-bhuja&quot; form, meaning he always comes with three co-incarnations or relatives who aid him in his fight against atheism. When he was Rama, he came with Laksmana, Bharata, and Satrughna. When he was Krishna, he came with Balarāma, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha. When he was Kalki, he came with Kavi, Sumanta, and Prajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This four-armed form doesn't occur for Incarnations like the Buddha, for example. Maybe the Buddha isn't even the &quot;Lord of the World,&quot; but at that point we'd be bringing Theosophy into this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even in the Islamic &quot;Incarnation&quot; of ‘Ali, we find the Lord disguised by Muhammad (s.a.w.), literally veiled (i.e. hijab).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most explicit Incarnation is Krishna, but even Krishna states that He is &quot;veiled by His Divine Maya, unknown to the world.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, we have, Krishna -&gt; Balarāma, and then Balarāma -&gt; Vāsudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Islam we have God (Allāh (s.w.t.)) -&gt; Muhammad, and then Muhammad -&gt; ‘Ali, Fatir (i.e. Fatima), Hasan, and Husayn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we want to add Samba, we add Muhsin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Either way the correlation is clear. ‘Ali seems more like a &quot;disguised&quot; or veiled Incarnation (i.e. by Maya, the ism, or the hijab) then a &quot;personal&quot; Incarnation. But even Krishna in the Gita speaks of being veiled by His Divine Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Veiled by My creative power (yogamaya) I am not revealed to all. This bewildered world knows Me not, the unborn, the unchanging. [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gita-society.com/backup/hare_krishna.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita Society&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea that God (the ma'na) is a &quot;veiled&quot; &quot;Incarnation&quot; who appears concealed by a second divinity called the ism or hijab, is an Islamic one, possessed by a sect called the Nuṣayrī‐ʿAlawīs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8163" LastEditorUserId="8163" LastEditDate="2017-06-01T05:34:07.720" LastActivityDate="2017-06-13T23:59:34.880" Title="The Lord is tri-yuga?" Tags="|vishnu|yuga|kali-yuga|kalki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="17" ClosedDate="2017-06-14T08:54:17.590" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18582" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18544" CreationDate="2017-06-01T05:09:29.503" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;God is equally there for all people irrespective of caste, creed etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This has been explicitly declared in the Vedas as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PurutrA hi sadrngngasi visvo vishvA anu prabuhuh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou art the lord &lt;strong&gt;who looks with equal eyes on all the peoples in many&#xA;  lands.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 8.43.21&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, just ignore all those people or institutions who/which say otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-01T06:38:24.797" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T06:38:24.797" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18585" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18581" CreationDate="2017-06-01T06:14:09.507" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Obviously my answer is fairly obvious, I believe that the three Incarnations of the Lord in those three millenniums are: Rama in Treta, Krishna in Dvapara, and Kalki in Kali. It simply makes sense. From a Theosophical point of view, the Buddha wouldn't be an Incarnation of the Lord, but rather an individual on the Eighth Rung.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On an unrelated note, and once again referencing &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.narach.com/philosophy/incarnations_and_ages_of_time.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt;, it seems that the principle idea of incarnation is to rid the world of false notions regarding God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the opinion of the present writer they refer principally to true and false ideas concerning the Supreme Purusha himself; and if we agree that all evil action arises from evil thought, and there can be no greater evil thought than false ideas regarding the Supreme Creator of life, the establishment of Truth in connection with the Supreme means the establishment of Righteousness in every direction. [&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.narach.com/philosophy/incarnations_and_ages_of_time.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Incarnations and Ages of Time&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A clear progression can be seen: ignorance (wrong views) -&gt; wrong thoughts -&gt; wrong actions. Incidentally... this is exactly what the Buddha taught. Perhaps then, we can see that Buddhism is not so discontinuous from Hinduism as was previously thought...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, the appearance of Jesus seems to represent a clear stand-in for the &quot;Vishnu guna-avatar.&quot; Since Christ is explicitly represented as &quot;Incarnating,&quot; perhaps the second coming of Christ is really the coming of Kalki. Perhaps it's the &quot;return of the Vishnu aspect.&quot; I've previously mused that the Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad (s.a.w.) are actually guna-avataras. &lt;a href=&quot;https://grahamhancock.com/dmisrab6/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This website&lt;/a&gt; believe that the present Kali Age actually began in 600 BC. Perhaps the Buddha is symbolically Brahma, played by the Buddha, Jesus is symbolically Vishnu (hence the emphasis on &quot;Incarnation&quot; in the Christian religion), played by Dattatreya, and Muhammad (s.a.w.) is symbolically Shiva (after all, Muhammad (s.a.w.) claimed that his arrival coincided with the end of the world), played by Narada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But from another perspective, we could say that each of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Abrahamic religions&lt;/a&gt; represents a guna, especially since the first one (Judaism), places a heavy emphasis on the God of Genesis, who floats on the deep and dark waters of creation... (Incidentally, Brahma wakes up to find only darkness and water around him... )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then again, the notion of Tamas, and its association with darkness, water, and prakrti is a recurring theme. The Narach website I've been continuously linking touches on this theme a lot. If it is true that Matsya is the same God of the Bible who aided Noah (AKA Manu), then that means that humanity has a primordial religious tradition grounded in God, and not necessarily in sectarian division.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Back to the ignorance issue, I agree with the Narach author (his name is Akash Thadani, I believe) that wrong thoughts or wrong perceptions are the greatest evil, since they lead to wrong actions. Simply put, incorrect views regarding the Greatest Object, AKA God, would be the greatest wrong thought, and therefore the most evil (the greatest wrong perception). Incidentally, Islam treats disbelief or atheism as the greatest evil, and not some arbitrary action, such as murder. Similarly, Buddhism states that ignorance is the greatest evil. The Buddha explicitly refutes the belief that actions committed with the body are heavier than actions committed with the mind, furthermore ignorance is the &quot;greatest sin.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ignorance in Buddhism, however, is simply an inability to distinguish between the Permanent and impermanent, or in Islamic terms... God and His creation. In other words, it almost seems like the Buddhist view of ignorance, the Islamic view of disbelief, and the Hindu view of incorrect conceptions regarding God, coincide. Meaning that God's work is mainly intellectual, i.e. combating false ideas, in order to bring about unity, and therefore, peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Nuṣayrī‐ʿAlawīs are an interesting sect. In some of the works I've read, associated with the sect, the Twelve Imams are presented as manifestations of the deity. M.A. Amir-Moezzi translates some discourses by the Imam ‘Ali that sound like proclamations of divinity, I believe these same songs are translated on the bahai-library.com website. These songs sound eerily similar to Krishna's proclamation of divinity in the Bhagavad Gita. It seems however, that Krishna's incarnation is &quot;unveiled&quot; while ‘Ali's is &quot;veiled.&quot; Both say very similar things, ‘Ali says: &quot;I am the Lord of the Ka'ba, and the month of Ramadan … the secret of the letters, the meaning of tawasin, esoteric of hawamim, the Lord of the alif-lam-mim … I am the Mahdī of all moments, and the Jesus of the Time … the High, the Most High, the Lion of the sons of Banu Ghalib. I am Ali b. Abū Talib.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whereas Krishna says: &quot;of the seasons I am Spring, of the Vedas I am the Sama, … I am the luck of the gambler and the strength of the strong … of sages I am Vyasa …&quot; and so on and so forth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both sound like proclamations of the ma'na.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8163" LastEditorUserId="8163" LastEditDate="2017-06-13T22:30:32.653" LastActivityDate="2017-06-13T22:30:32.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18586" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-01T06:21:35.720" Score="5" ViewCount="346" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Alwars (also spelled Azhwars) are a group of 12 ancient Vaishnava saints who lived in Tamil Nadu and are famous for their devotional poetry in praise of Vishnu. The collection of their 4000 poems, known as the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, is considered by many to be the &quot;Dravida Veda&quot;, or South Indian Veda. The Alwars are crucially important figures in the history of Vaishnavism; it's the beliefs and principles embodied in the Alwars' poems that ultimately gave rise to the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now one of the most famous Alwars was Nammalwar, aka Sadagopan who spent his life under a tree.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2755/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, in one of his poems Nammalwar says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I, Sadagopan of Kurugur [am] one who is ... joined with His Holy Feet that grew to the heavens.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Vaishnavas commemorate this by using a crown called the Sadagopam which represents the head of Nammalwar, and it has the feet of Vishnu on top since Nammalwar is united with Vishnu's feet.  The idea is that just as Nammalwar surrendered to the lotus feet of Sriman Narayana, so should you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QfU4f.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, who started the practice of the Sadagopam?  Since it pertains to Nammalwar, I assume it was some Sri Vaishnava Acharya.  It could be Nathamuni, since he compiled the poems of the Alwars.  Or it could be Ramanujacharya, since he often treated Alwar poems as an impetus for action, like going to the Madurai Kalazhagar temple and offering sweets just because Andal had promised to do so in one of her poems.  (That's how he earned the title of Andal's elder brother.)  It could be even be Thirumangai Alwar, since he was the one who instituted the Adhyayana Utsavam, the first festival in honor of Nammalwar in Sri Rangam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know the earliest Sri Vaishnava work that discusses the practice of Sadagopam?  That may help narrow it down.  It might have originated in the Upilliappan temple, since Upilliappan is the one whom the Nammalwar verse I discuss above is dedicated to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-01T07:20:00.487" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T07:20:00.487" Title="Who started the practice of Sadagopam?" Tags="|vishnu|practice|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18587" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-01T09:09:10.857" Score="7" ViewCount="845" Body="&lt;p&gt;I wear a Rudraksha with 5 faces / Panchamukhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read somewhere that there are certain mantras to be chanted while wearing it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;can anyone tell how can I know which one is associated with the Rudraksha I wear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3274" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-06-01T11:52:14.837" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T11:54:26.493" Title="What Mantra should be chanted while wearing Five-faced Rudraksha?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|shiva-purana|rudraksha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18589" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18587" CreationDate="2017-06-01T11:54:26.493" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana Vidyesvara Samhita Chapter 25 describes about the greatness of Rudraksha.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For the five-faced Rudraksha (Pancha Mukhi Rudraksha) Shiva Purana states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पञ्चवक्त्र स्वयं रुद्र कालाग्निर्नामत प्रभुः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वमुक्तिप्रदश्चैव सर्वकामफलप्रद ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Rudraksha having five faces represents Rudra himself and is known by the name Kãlagni. It fulfills all the desires, bestows salvation to the devotees.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the mantra to chant while wearing five faced Rudraksha it states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ ह्रिं नमः &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om Hrim Namaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a sidenote Mantras are not supposed to be chanted and applied just because you see it here or in other places. One should have authority to chant mantra. So, I suggest you at least you read that chapter from &lt;em&gt;Vidyesvara Samhita (Chapter 25)&lt;/em&gt;, so that you can have authority from Shiva Purana itself to chant it while wearing.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There are also seperate mantras which are to be chanted while wearing Mãlã of Rudraksha or while wearing it in specific places. Like the use of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16553/who-are-pancha-brahmas-and-why-are-they-called-so/16557#16557&quot;&gt;PanchaBrahman Mantras.&lt;/a&gt; That chapter of Shiva Purana (Vidyesvara Samhita Chapter 25) makes it clear regarding recitation of other mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T11:54:26.493" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18592" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18593" CreationDate="2017-06-01T14:28:17.817" Score="2" ViewCount="4903" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10174/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four disciples: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara. And in turn they started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Sampradayam. My question is about the Rudra Sampradayam, the one founded by Shiva.  Currently the only Vaishnavas who trace their origins to the Rudra Sampradayam are members of Vallabhacharya's Pushtimarga sect, which worships the Srinathji form of Vishnu (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2950/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now like the Sri Vaishnava sect (which I belong to), the Pushtimarga sect believes in the notion of Sharanagati or complete surrender to Vishnu.  But Sri Vaishnava perform Sharanagati using the Dvaya mantra (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7971/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), whereas followers of Pushtimarga use a different mantra, the Brahma Sambandha mantra.  The Brahma Sambandha mantra is not found in any scripture, but Vallabhacharya claimed to have learned it from Krishna in a dream.  Here's how Vallabhacharya describes it in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pushti-marg.net/siddhant.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siddhanta Rahasya&lt;/a&gt;, one of the most important texts of the Pushtimarga sect:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here I state, word by word, what the Lord Shri Krshna said to me on the mid-night of the eleventh day of the dark fortnight of the month of Shravan (monsoon season).  By the virtue of being initiated by the &quot;Brahma Sambandha&quot; mantra (sacred mantra, given separately to Shri Acharya), all the sins of the body and the soul are destroyed. Hence, the five obstacles (mentioned in the Vedas and Puranas) to service / &quot;seva&quot; of the divine are also removed.  These obstacles, viz (1) body and it's various states and pure/ impure conditions, (2) your environs, eg country or general state of the area around you (e.g desert, mountains, foreign country etc.) And influence of Kala or &quot;time&quot; ie age, time of day / night etc. (3) Instructions as set by the society at large and the scriptures (Vedas) etc. (4) Influence of your friends and company in general. (5) Impurity incurred by touching impure / inauspicious things. Let none of these stand in your way of service to the Lord.  Apart from Brahma Sambandha (relationship with the Lord), there is no way to destroy one's sins. Hence, discard all things that have not been offered to the Lord.  Those devoted to me, after having taken the Brahma Sambandha, must offer up all their actions and fruits of their deeds un-to me. Lord Shri Krshna, God of all the gods, should never be offered anything that has already been offered to others, or used by others.  Therefore, a devotee must offer everything to the Lord before beginning any project (this includes the &quot;desire to do the work&quot;, all the physical objects required to do the work) and also the fruits (success or otherwise) of the work to the Lord. Some sects believe that those things offered up to the Lord are Lord's possessions and can not be used by them. But this is not the view of the Pushti Marga. All things must be offered to the Lord before utilising them yourself.  In a worldly relationship, an employee always seeks guidance and approval of his employer, similarly, always seek guidance and approval of the Lord in all your actions. By offering all your actions un-to Him, your actions will also become as pure and divine like Him.  Like the great Ganges, the Lord purifies all those who come to Him. Muddy / dirty waters of a spring, when they meet the Ganges, are purified by Her divine touch and hence-forth the waters of that spring are given the same respect as the Ganges. Similarly, once a soul merges with the Lord, no matter what his/her previous state, he/she becomes as pure as the Lord Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what are the actual words of the Brahmasambandha mantra?  Are there any works by members of the Pushtimarga sect which contain the exact words?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-03T16:28:46.887" LastActivityDate="2018-05-07T20:47:22.433" Title="What are the words of the Brahmasambandha Mantra of Pushti Marga?" Tags="|vishnu|mantras|vaishnavism|sharanagati|pushti-marga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18593" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18592" CreationDate="2017-06-01T14:28:17.817" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the words of the Brahmasambandha Mantra in three books, with minor differences:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/cFWMna/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Paul Arney's paper &quot;The Bade Shikshapatra: A Vallabhite Guide to the Worship of Krishna’s Divine Images&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Shri Krishnah Sharanam Mama Sahasraparivatsaramitakalasanjat Krishnaviyogajanitatapakleshananda Tirobhavoham Bhagavate Krishnaya Dehendriyapranantahkaranataddharmamshcha Daragaraputraptavittehpranyatmna Saha Samarpayami Dasoham Krishnatavasmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books/content?id=0vwYAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA532&amp;amp;img=1&amp;amp;pgis=1&amp;amp;dq=&amp;quot;saha+samarpayami&amp;quot;&amp;amp;sig=ACfU3U23MLUrhgy8KRzJ8x9zADy06VTfvg&amp;amp;edge=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Ganga Prasad Upadhyaya's translation of Dayananda Saraswati's Satyartha Prakasha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Krsnah sharanam mama sahasra parivatsaramita kalajat krsna viyogajanita tapa kleshanantatirobhavoham bhagavate Krsnaya dehendriya pranantahkaranataddharmanshcha daragaraputrapta vittehaparanyatmana saha samarpayami daso-aham Krsna tavasmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books/content?id=ziENAAAAIAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA134&amp;amp;img=1&amp;amp;pgis=1&amp;amp;dq=&amp;quot;dllso%27ham+krsna+tavftsmi.1%27+above&amp;quot;&amp;amp;sig=ACfU3U1LtSC6ZRuR9XWiN7qIZV-2aa1x7Q&amp;amp;edge=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the introduction of M.T. Telivala's edition of Vallabhacharya's Siddhanta Rahasya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sahasra-parivatsara-mita-kala-jata-krsna-viyoga-janita-tapa-klesananda-tirobhavo'ham bhagavate krsnaya dehendriya-pranantahkaranani taddharmamsca daragara-putrapta-vittehaparani atmana saha samarpayami daso'ham krsna tavasmi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;M.T. Telivala seems to have been a member of Vallabhacharya's Pushtimarga sect, so I think his version would probably be the most accurate.  (Except he omits the Pushtimarga ashtakshari mantra that is customarily chanted in the beginning.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, Paul Arney also provides a translation of the mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om. The Lord Krishna is my refuge. For thousands of years and countless eons I have been lost in pain, grief, and sorrow caused by separation from Krishna.  Together with my wife, home, children, elders, and all assets in this world and the next, I  dedicate the functions of my body, senses, life, and soul to the Almighty, Lord Krishna. O Krishna, I am your servant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T14:28:17.817" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18594" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18596" CreationDate="2017-06-01T14:58:40.703" Score="8" ViewCount="671" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Chandala is a person who disposes corpses. As Hindus don't even touch a person if anyone in his household is dead, a chandala cannot be touched by anyone as he always deals with disposal of corpses. After disposing, is there any ritual for him to purify himself so that anyone can touch him? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-08T06:36:37.193" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T07:24:27.837" Title="How can a Chandala purify himself?" Tags="|rituals|caste-system|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18595" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-01T15:17:34.863" Score="6" ViewCount="2444" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, the beginning of Adhyaya 2 Pada 1 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If it be argued (that from the acceptance of Brahman as the cause of the universe) arises the defect of the (Samkhya) Smritis being left without any scope, then not so, for otherwise will arise the defect of other Smritis losing their scope.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And (Pradhana is not the cause) since the others are not met with (in the Vedas and common experience).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most commentators agree that in these Sutras, Vyasa is refuting Kapila's Samkhya school.  Now in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34140.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Brahma Sutra Bhashya, the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankarachrya refutes the objection that the philosophical doctrines found in the Smritis of the Samkhya school should be accepted as valid, since Kapila had extra-sensory perception due to his magical powers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nor can we assume that some persons are able to perceive supersensuous matters without Sruti, as there exists no efficient cause for such perception. Nor, again, can it be said that such perception may be assumed in the case of Kapila and others who possessed supernatural powers, and consequently unobstructed power of cognition. &lt;strong&gt;For the possession of supernatural powers itself depends on the performance of religious duty, and religious duty is that which is characterised by injunction;&lt;/strong&gt; hence the sense of injunctions (i.e. of the Veda) which is established first must not be fancifully interpreted in reference to the dicta of men 'established' (i.e. made perfect, and therefore possessing supernatural powers) afterwards only. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Adi Shankaracharya is saying is that magical powers can only be obtained through the injunctions found in the Vedas, so it's invalid to use information gleamed from those magical powers to devise a fanciful interpretation of the Vedas themselves.  But my question is, why does Adi Shankaracharya say that magical powers can only be obtained through the injunctions of the Vedas?  Are there Yagnas enjoined by the Vedas which yield magical powers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Siddhis or magical powers are mainly discussed by Patanjali's Yoga school; here is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ashtangayoga.info/philosophy/yoga-sutra/chapter-4/item/janma-sadhi-mantra-tapas-samaadhi-siddhaya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyaya 4 Sutra 1&lt;/a&gt; of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras says about the means of acquiring Siddhis:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;janma-oṣadhi-mantra-tapas-samādhi-jāḥ siddhayaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Supernatural powers (siddhis) arise from birth, drugs, mantras, austerity, or yoga (samadhi)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it's possible that the Vedanta school disagrees with the Yoga school on how to obtain Siddhis.  In any case, does anyone know of any references in the Brahmanas or Aranyakas of the Vedas of a Yagna which yields Siddhis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-12-27T07:26:01.973" LastActivityDate="2017-12-27T07:26:01.973" Title="Why does Adi Shankaracharya say magical powers can only be obtained through the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|yoga|brahma-sutras|siddhi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18596" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18594" CreationDate="2017-06-01T16:02:16.437" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There might be various methods described in Puranas, Itihasas and Smritis regarding rituals or methods for purification of Chandala.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However here I prefer to quote a method given in the Vedas. Srikantha Shivacharya in his Brahma Sutra Bhasya (Srikantha Bhasya) quotes this quote which I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17299/what-shruti-source-is-srikanthacharya-quoting-in-this-bhasya-regarding-efficacy&quot;&gt;question here:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sruti says:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;If even a Chandala, if he should utter the word &amp;apos;Shiva&amp;apos;, one may talk with him, dwell with him, eat with him.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17299/what-shruti-source-is-srikanthacharya-quoting-in-this-bhasya-regarding-efficacy/17301#17301&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt; given there the above quote is found to be from &lt;strong&gt;Katha Brahmana of Krishna YajurVeda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Basically what the quote is saying is if a Chandala pronounces the name &amp;apos;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;apos; it makes him so pure that one can even eat and dwell with him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T16:02:16.437" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18597" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18683" CreationDate="2017-06-01T17:21:55.410" Score="2" ViewCount="170" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the uponayana ceremony, the boys should take 3 steps. Why the boys are stopped at 2.5 steps to remains at home? Is that mean we are not following the actual procedure? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-06-24T17:25:05.283" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T17:25:05.283" Title="regarding some questions on upanayana" Tags="|practice|vedic-rituals|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18598" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-01T18:24:32.973" Score="4" ViewCount="7559" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Indra himself has said, 'The mind of woman cannot be disciplined; she has very little intelligence.' &quot; Rig Veda 8.33.17&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Women are powerless, have no inheritance, and speak more humbly than even a bad man. Krishna Yajur Veda Taittiriya Samhita 6.5.8.2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Women by nature are crooked, fickle, devoid of religious knowledge, and bring about difference between father and sons -Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kanda, Sarga 45.29-30&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-08-04T13:20:06.707" LastActivityDate="2021-05-29T10:51:45.967" Title="Why some Hindu Scriptures are against women?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|women|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18599" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14867" CreationDate="2017-06-01T18:26:32.157" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is chapter 12 verse 7 of Chanakya's Niti Shastra.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_major_works/chANakyanItisort.html?lang=iast&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; it is in Sanskrit and &lt;a href=&quot;https://eislibrary.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/chanakya-nity.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; it is in English&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sādhūnāṃ darśanaṃ puṇyaṃ sparśanaṃ pāpanāśanam । &lt;br&gt; saṃbhāṣaṇaṃ koṭitīrthaṃ vandanaṃ mokṣadāyakam ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One indeed becomes blessed by having darshan of a devotee; for the devotee has the ability to purify immediately, whereas the sacred tirtha gives purity only after prolonged contact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning of Sanskrit words :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing sadhus is punya. Touching them destroys sins. Talking to them is equivalent to a crore pilgrimages (holy rivers). Prostrating them paves way to Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T18:44:41.153" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18601" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-01T18:59:24.813" Score="2" ViewCount="691" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many sources translate &amp;quot;Baba&amp;quot; as &amp;quot;beloved&amp;quot;. For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/6888/baba-nam-kevalam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yogapedia said&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mantra is used for practice of kirtan in Ananda Marga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Baba means &amp;quot;beloved,&amp;quot; nam means &amp;quot;name&amp;quot; and kevalam means &amp;quot;only.&amp;quot; Therefore, the mantra may be translated as &amp;quot;only the name of the beloved.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_(honorific)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;other sources&lt;/a&gt; claim that &amp;quot;Baba&amp;quot; (or &amp;quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babaji&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Babaji&lt;/a&gt;&amp;quot;) is a honorific that means &amp;quot;Father&amp;quot;. I haven't found any &amp;quot;beloved&amp;quot; translation variant out of the context of Ananda Marga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can &amp;quot;Baba&amp;quot; really be translated as &amp;quot;beloved&amp;quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9970" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T09:21:23.173" Title="What does &quot;Baba&quot; (बाबा) in the &quot;Baba Nam Kevalam&quot; mantra mean?" Tags="|name|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18602" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17704" CreationDate="2017-06-01T19:03:41.060" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;See similar &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10018/what-is-the-recommended-age-for-marriage-for-girls-as-per-shastra&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; and  reference from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu09.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of the 8 types of marriage, the first and foremost is Brahma type, where groom's family comes searching for bride, and she is given as kanyadaan to a brahmachari who has completed gurukula and done samavartana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is to be done &amp;quot;Pradanam prak rtoh:&amp;quot; - Before Rtu (menses)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marriage for girl is same as Upanayana for boy - they both have to surrender to someone at age 7 - 16 - boy surrenders to guru, girl surrenders to husband. 7 is lower limit (but not hard limit, it can be done &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;earlier&lt;/a&gt; for spiritually advanced aspirants) , 16 is upper limit, according to shastras, for both upanayana &amp;amp; marriage. Beyond this, it loses both effectiveness and charm.&#xA;There are prayaschittas for late doing too, but don't know how many people do it, or how useful it is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - &lt;a href=&quot;http://kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part18/chap5.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part18/chap5.htm&lt;/a&gt; , and other chapters dealing with age of marriage, and why 'progressive' thinkers tried to increase age of marriage, and how Britishers passed law to enact Sarda act even though opinion among people was split 50-50.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Even on this site, 'forward' thinkers are going to post comments arguing against this saying it goes against 'Constitution', which was a document copied from constitutions of various countries, written within past 100 years, in mlechha basha, with little  consideration for Bharatha Kalachaar and her ancient Dharma Shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I mentioned in a comment above, Child marriage does not mean child-physical relations (aka pedophilia). The girl is only sent to husband's home after puberty. Also this is not like modern day 'grooming' where the sole purpose of older men is lust.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have to build a protective wall around the heart before lust enters it, that is the reason for doing upanayana and marriage before puberty. But nowadays most people don't follow this - boys get upanayana at age 24 and girls marry at age 24.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can clearly see lustful consequences in society today of not following both above practices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2022-06-12T10:47:34.173" LastActivityDate="2022-06-12T10:47:34.173" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18603" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18535" CreationDate="2017-06-01T19:04:00.520" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It will vary by tradition but I would recommend Sanyal Mahasay's Gita. It breaks down the symbolism of the different Mahabharat characters and what they represent within each sadhaka. The &quot;real life lessons&quot; are taught through sadhana that needs to be learned from Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His Gita is available in Hindi-&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://indianmind.co.in/books/srimadbhagavadgita-3-vols-in-hindi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://indianmind.co.in/books/srimadbhagavadgita-3-vols-in-hindi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in English (but Hindi version is better if you can read)-&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.abebooks.com/Spiritual-Gita-3-Vols-Set-Shyamacharan-Lahiris/209683059/bd&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.abebooks.com/Spiritual-Gita-3-Vols-Set-Shyamacharan-Lahiris/209683059/bd&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9971" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T19:04:00.520" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18604" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18454" CreationDate="2017-06-01T21:23:57.637" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Annamayya, a great devotee of Lord Venkateswara states rhyming (in Telugu)   &lt;em&gt;Kaami gani vadu Mokshagami kaadu&lt;/em&gt;. Among the four Purusharthas is contained lust, but must be confined to marriage relations only as a necessary transitional phase before attainment of Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Video &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIpp4kratQ0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;KonarakTempleOfEducaton&lt;/a&gt; projects a view of ancient India (symbolically portrayed in temple architecture human interest education for every 5 years up to adulthood and beyond) when the four &lt;em&gt;Arthas&lt;/em&gt; have their rightful and respected place in the Hindu scheme of life..start and end of lust included... reflecting Dr. Radhakrishna's quote that Hinduism is a way of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T21:45:39.447" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T21:45:39.447" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18605" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18471" CreationDate="2017-06-01T21:37:56.720" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Flower falling while you pray itself is a good indication!  Flowers are always considered very sacred, Goddess Laxmi is shown sitting on a lotus and her Favorite flowers are Lotus and any kind of Red Flowers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While worshipping If a flower falls from the Picture or idol its a Good sign that your wish is going to fulfil and you will get success in your works. Left and right both sides are equally beneficial, Though in some places right side is considered more auspicious than left!! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though, there is nothing to worry about as it's overall a good sign! You should keep that flower with you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9957" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T21:37:56.720" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18606" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18641" CreationDate="2017-06-01T21:55:01.343" Score="7" ViewCount="360" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14035/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Brahma Sutras  and the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa school, were originally part of a larger whole.  There was originally a 20-chapter Mimamsa Shastra, consisting of the 12 chapters of Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, which analyze the Brahmanas of the Vedas; the 4 chapters of Kasakritsna's now-lost Devata Kanda Sutras, which analyzed the Samhitas of the Vedas, and the 4 chapters of Vyasa's Brahma Sutras, which analyzed the Upanishads of the Vedas.  These three parts formed a sequence: first a person seeks happiness in this life and in Swarga, so they acquire a desire to know Dharma, and so they read the Purva Mimamsa Sutras and learn how to do various Yagnas.  Then they realize that the fruit of all Yagnas are ultimately temporary, and so they acquire a desire to know the gods, in the hope that the gods may grant them eternal happiness.  So they read the Devata Kanda Sutras and learn how to meditate upon the gods, but then they realize that even that won't lead to eternal happiness, so they acquire a desire to know Brahman.  And so finally they read the Brahma Sutras and learn how to meditate upon Brahman, which leads them to the eternal bliss of Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But people today can't really follow this sequence, because as I said the Kasakritsna's Devata Kanda Sutras are lost.  (That doesn't mean that Moksha is impossible though, since Sharanagati doesn't require following this sequence.) But they were lost relatively recently, so they're quoted by numerous Acharyas including Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, Sudarshana Suri, Vedanta Desikan, and Appaya Dikshitar.  We know of five Sutras from the Devata Kanda Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Athato Daivi Jijnasa - Now therefore there is a desire to know the gods&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nana Va Devata Prithaktvat - They are different gods because they are cognized thus.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ante Harau Taddarshanat - Ultimately Hari is to be meditated upon&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sa Vishnuraha Hi - He is called Vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tam Brahmetyachakshate, Tam Brahmetyachakshate - He is announced as Brahman, he is announced as Brahman&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But all hope is not lost!  Some time relatively recently, I think in the 1800's, several manuscripts were discovered with the title &quot;Sankarsha Kanda&quot;.  This is exciting, because Sankarsha Kanda is an alternative name for Kasakritsna's Devata Kanda Sutras.  But don't get too excited!  The text found in these manuscripts doesn't have anything to do with the gods or meditating on them.  However, it does have one connection with the Devata Kanda Sutras, namely it has the second Sutra I quoted above, &quot;Nana Va Devata Prithaktvat&quot;.  My question is, in what context does this Sutra occur in the discovered Sanksharsha Kanda text?  And what is its meaning in this context?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I ask is that we can compare this with its meaning in the Devata Kanda Sutras, where it means that Prana and Vayu are different gods.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38186.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Adi Shankaracharya describes it in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With regard to the ishti comprising three sacrificial cakes, which is enjoined in the passage, Taitt. Samh. II, 3, 6, 'A purodâsa on eleven potsherds to Indra the ruler, to Indra the over-ruler, to Indra the self-ruler,' it might be supposed that the three cakes are to be offered together because they are offered to one and the same Indra, and because the concluding sentence says, 'conveying to all (gods) he cuts off to preclude purposelessness.' But as the attributes (viz. 'ruler' and so on) differ, and as scripture enjoins that the yâgyâ and anuvâkyâmantras are to exchange places with regard to the different cakes, the divinity is each time a different one according to the address, and from this it follows that the three offerings also are separate.--Thus, in the case under discussion, Vâyu and Prâna, although fundamentally non-different, are to be held apart as objects of meditation, and we have therefore to do with two separate meditations.--&lt;strong&gt;This is explained in the Saṅkarsha-kânda, 'The divinities are separate on account of their being cognized thus.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is the Sutra used in the same way in the discovered Sankarsha Kanda text?  You can read the discovered Sankarsha Kanda text in Sanskrit &lt;a href=&quot;http://peterffreund.com/sankarsha/sankarsha_kanda/PDF_files/sankarsha_kanda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  We're interested in Sutra 2.2.36.  And you can read Devasvami's commentary on the discovered Sankarsha Kanda text &lt;a href=&quot;http://peterffreund.com/sankarsha/sankarsha_kanda/PDF_files/sankarsha_devasvami.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ngmP7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt; the relevant portion.  I don't know Sanskrit, so can someone translate it for me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T05:50:40.123" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T05:50:40.123" Title="What is the context of an important Sutra from Sankarsha Kanda manuscripts?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|translation-request|brahma-sutras|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18607" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18419" CreationDate="2017-06-01T22:07:43.717" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft#page/418/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puranic Encyclopedia&lt;/a&gt;, Kṛpa died at the end like everyone else:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8). End of Kṛpa. The great war ended. Duryodhana &#xA;  and others were killed and, when Dhṛtarāṣṭra left for &#xA;  the forest with Gāndhārī, Kṛpa desired to accompany &#xA;  them. But, Dhṛtarāṣṭra did not permit it. &#xA;  as advised by Dhṛtarāṣṭra, put up Kṛpa with him. &#xA;  (Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 16, Verse 5). Before the &#xA;  Pāṇḍavas set out on their great journey Yudhiṣṭhira appointed Kṛpa as the preceptor of Parīkṣit, the son of &#xA;  Arjuna. (Mahāprasthāna Parva, Chapter 1, Verse 4). &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;During his last days Kṛpa went into the forest for penance and there he breathed his last.&lt;/strong&gt; (Śānti Parva, Chapter 296, Verse 14).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I cannot find the verse in the latest BORI critical edition of the Mahābhārata so it's possible that over the centuries Kṛpa is made immortal a.k.a chiranjīvi by the various &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16245/2995&quot;&gt;interpolators of the Mahābhārata&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-06-01T22:07:43.717" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18608" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18612" CreationDate="2017-06-02T01:47:36.620" Score="3" ViewCount="1504" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some say that Sachi approached Vishnu to be her lover, but He refused but made her take birth as Radha in her next life. Is it true or is it some fake story created by the British?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9973" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2017-06-03T04:09:27.437" LastActivityDate="2017-12-23T08:48:54.620" Title="Is Sachi(Indrani), Radha, the consort of Krishna?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|puranas|radha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18609" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17855" CreationDate="2017-06-02T02:48:41.750" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I seem to recall having read in A L Basaham's Wonder That Was India that Ramananda was originally from Melukote. He was expelled from the Muttam because of his having moved about with Muslims. He then moved to Benares and started the Sect which bears his name. Dr. Vasudha Narayanan records how he wrote his own version of Mimukshupadi and Sri Vachana Bhushanam, putting Rama slokas in place of the Mantra Trayam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basham states he influenced Tulsi, Kabir and Nanak. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All this took place around the start of the 15th century, so I doubt there was direct connection to Kurattalwan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9958" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T02:48:41.750" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18611" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18608" CreationDate="2017-06-02T03:03:52.323" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Prof. M A Venkatakrishnan and other scholars, Radha is not mentioned anywhere in Srimad Bhagavatham. She has been popularized in Jayadeva Ashtapadi. So, there is no way she can be a reincarnation of anyone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prof. M. S. Rangachari of Triplicane told me that the root of the name Radha means sorrow or concern, symbolizing the Supreme Being's concern for the souls trapped in samsaram. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9958" LastEditorUserId="9958" LastEditDate="2017-06-02T03:09:25.497" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T03:09:25.497" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18612" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18608" CreationDate="2017-06-02T03:34:57.227" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story seems to be from the Panduranga Mahatmya of the Padma Purana, which tells the story of the Krishna deity of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=o0_5caqiUH0C&amp;amp;lpg=PT13&amp;amp;ots=GaDpeKAvju&amp;amp;dq=radha%20dwaraka&amp;amp;pg=PT13#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panduranga Vitthoba temple&lt;/a&gt;.  Here's how page 22 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=ZznkAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;q=&amp;quot;But+Vishnu+politely+and+sincerely+rejected&amp;quot;&amp;amp;dq=&amp;quot;But+Vishnu+politely+and+sincerely+rejected&amp;quot;&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjKotPFmZ7UAhWF7yYKHfWvDa4Q6AEIHDAA&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; summarizes the Panduranga Mahatmya's account:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It begins in Vaikunta. The time of action was a pleasant dusk. Sri Mahavishnu was seen absorbed then in the colourful spectacle of the west, bathed in the mellowed light of the setting Sun, caressed by cool fragrant breeze, coming over His Nandanodyan, when Sachidevi, wife of Devendra stood before him. All alone in her full splendour. Up from his dream world, he requested with all decorum due, to inform him the reason of her surprising visit, unattended by any companion. And without appointment at it. Quivering all through, as shyness enveloped her whole frame, she let out that she had been pining for amorous union with him, though she knew, it was unbecoming on her part to entertain such lewd desire and it was rather sinful too. Even though she tried all means to suppress that impious instinct, the temptation of his jaganmohanakara was irresistibly too much for her, and so there she was. But Vishnu politely and sincerely rejected her advances, as it would prove disgraceful to both. Moved by the moist eyes, he said that her desire would be fulfilled in her next birth, when he would be born as Krishna and she as Radha. Despaired Sachi devi left him at once.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Page 907 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=jJ5hAAAAIAAJ&amp;amp;q=panduranga+sachi&amp;amp;dq=panduranga+sachi&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjB6LjkmJ7UAhVGNSYKHfGbC2UQ6AEIIDAB&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; claims to give an exact quote of the Panduranga Mahatmya's account:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once the wife of Indra, the king of gods, named Sachi, approached god Vishnu. She wanted him to fulfil her lustful desire but failed. God Vishnu, however, promised her that he would fulfil her desire in the next incarnation. Accordingly Vishnu became Krishna and Sachi became Radha. Both of them were living in Mathura. Rukhmini, the wife of lord Krishna, one day caught them sitting together and got furious. To teach a lesson to her husband she left Dwarka without anybody's knowledge. Her husband, on noticing this, started for her search. During the course of his search he came to a place called Dindeervan where he found her engaged in meditation. He also started penance. Both of them would have continued with the tapa (penance) but for the intervention of Pundlik.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I can't seem to find the Panduranga Mahatmya in the Padma Puranas, so it's possible that it's an interpolated section.  And this whole story rests on a premise that Radha and Krishna reunited at some point in Mathura/Dwaraka, and as far as I know there's no scriptural basis for this encounter.  It is mentioned in folklore though, as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=o0_5caqiUH0C&amp;amp;lpg=PT13&amp;amp;ots=GaDpeKAvju&amp;amp;dq=radha%20dwaraka&amp;amp;pg=PT13#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, Radha is usually not thought of an incarnation of Indra's wife Shachi, instead she's either thought of as an incarnation of Vishnu's wife Lakshmi or Vishnu's wife Niladevi, or she's conceived of as the eternal consort of Krishna in Goloka by Gaudiya Vaishnavas and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T03:34:57.227" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18614" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-02T04:19:46.750" Score="14" ViewCount="9530" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc122237.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 6.4.7&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If she is not willing, he should buy her over; and &lt;strong&gt;if she is still unyielding, he should strike her with a stick or with the hand&lt;/strong&gt; and proceed, uttering the following Mantra, ‘I take away your reputation,’ etc. She is then actually discredited.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-garuda-purana-dutt/d/doc122589.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana 1.109.31&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rogues, artisans, servants, badmen, drums, and &lt;strong&gt;women, are softened and set right by beating.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q1:&lt;/strong&gt; Should these instructions be taken literally? If not, how should one interpret these?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01075.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva, 1.74.50-51&lt;/a&gt;, however, suggests the opposite:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No man, even in anger, should ever do anything that is disagreeable to his wife&lt;/strong&gt;, seeing that happiness, joy, and virtue,--everything dependeth on the wife. A wife is the sacred field in which the husband is born himself. Even Rishis cannot create creatures without women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q2:&lt;/strong&gt; How to reconcile this statement from Mahabharata with the above two?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9810" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2021-04-28T17:06:52.603" LastActivityDate="2022-01-21T12:17:04.230" Title="Are these verses from Garuda Purana and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad asking men to beat women? If not, how should they be interpreted?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|women|garuda-purana|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18615" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-02T04:53:29.237" Score="7" ViewCount="994" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we all know, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmanas&lt;/a&gt; of the Vedas describe rituals to attain to the post of various deities through the performance of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajna&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yagas&lt;/a&gt;(or Yajñas) among other things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most famous of these is the one where the fruit is the post of Indra, with the prescribed ritual being the Ashwamedha Yagna performed a hundred times. The deities such as Indra, Brahma, etc,. are part of the world cycle cosmogeny and have finite lifespans (though it seems infinite in comparison to short human lives). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Question is as follows: Do any of the scriptures talk about the ritual(s) to be followed to attain to the Post of Brahma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastActivityDate="2023-01-29T10:47:43.263" Title="Attaining the Post of Brahma" Tags="|scripture|rituals|brahma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18616" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18668" CreationDate="2017-06-02T05:45:00.713" Score="8" ViewCount="1766" Body="&lt;p&gt;Any proof in the Chaitanya Charitamrita that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says Mahavishnu is an incarnation of Krishna? Apologies to anyone offended by my question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-03-19T20:32:13.737" LastActivityDate="2018-03-19T20:32:13.737" Title="Did Chaitanya Mahaprabhu indeed say Mahavishnu was an incarnation of Krishna?" Tags="|krishna|avatars|bhagavata-purana|identification-request|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18617" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18572" CreationDate="2017-06-02T05:58:36.730" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There must be many ways of doing so. Here are few of them from the &lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;To cleanse the teeth with a finger, to eat unmixed salt, and to eat&#xA;    earth is equally sinful like eating beef. (310)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[To live under] the shade of a Kapithva-tree during the day, [to take] curd in the night,[to live] under the shade of a Sami-tree, to use a cotton-reed for cleaning the teeth, robs even Vishnu's prosperity (311). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Sun [when seen at the rising], the wind [of the cremation ground], the water on the finger-nails, the water in a pitcher touched by a cloth at the time of bathing, the dust of a broomstick, and water sprinkling from the hairs, destroy the virtue acquired in the day&lt;/strong&gt;. (312)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the above methods are effective ways of losing punyas specially the ones highlighted. :D&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T05:58:36.730" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18618" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18622" CreationDate="2017-06-02T06:07:10.773" Score="0" ViewCount="1526" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrishnatemple.com/chapter19.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article, it is mentioned that in the end of kaliyuga , people will live only 20 for years and eat only non-veg.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By now already 5000 years of Kali yuga have passed and it is predicted that by the end of the yuga people will hardly be older than 20 years and their only food will be meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt; : why ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9976" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-02T14:29:01.720" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T14:29:01.720" Title="In the end of kaliyuga , Will people live only for 20 years and eat only non veg?" Tags="|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18619" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17961" CreationDate="2017-06-02T06:41:59.643" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many more animals other than the ones mentioned in the question, that can be sacrificed. Sacrificing animals for both Gods and Manes is prescribed in scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti mentions the following animals that can be offered to manes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.266. I will now fully declare what kind of sacrificial food, given to the manes according to the rule, will serve for a long time or for&#xA;  eternity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.267. The ancestors of men are satisfied for one month with sesamum grains, rice, barley, masha beans, water, roots, and fruits, which&#xA;  have been given according to the prescribed rule,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.268. Two months with fish, three months with the meat of gazelles, four with mutton, and five indeed with the flesh of birds,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.270. Ten months they are satisfied with the meat of boars and buffaloes, but eleven months indeed with that of hares and tortoises,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And what kind of meat can be offered to Gods is mentioned in the following verse of the KulArnava Tantram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MAmsantu Tribidham Proktam Kha-Bhu-Jalacharam Priye |&#xA;  YathAsambhavampekyam TarpanArtham Prakalpayeth ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The meat is of three kinds ; obtained from animals that fly , that walk&#xA;  on earth and that live in water. For the gratification of deity anyone of them&#xA;  has to be arranged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 5-44.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, i need to reiterate here that killing is only allowed for the sake of Devas and Pitrus. If its done without sacrifice and for our own gratification then that is a sin as stated in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pitridevatayajneshu VaidhahimsA Vidhiyathe | ATmArtham PrAninAm HimsA&#xA;  KadAchinnoditA Priye ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Killing is legal in sacrifices for manes and gods. Priye, but no&#xA;  scriptures ever allow doing the same for one's own pleasure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 5-45.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-02T07:43:36.463" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T07:43:36.463" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18620" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18301" CreationDate="2017-06-02T07:01:49.487" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not an expert on the Hindu scriptures but I am familiar with the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda who is considered by many to be enlightened. Karma is just the universal law of cause and effect, everything an entity thinks, speaks and does(actions) have a cumulative effect on one's life situation which of course includes one's health and therefore one's longevity. So I guess the answer to your question would be a yes, the karma of all past lives and the karma and actions of the present life determine the lifespan in general, but of course you can mitigate bad karma by meditation, yoga, proper diet, right actions, ect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4058" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T07:01:49.487" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18621" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8876" CreationDate="2017-06-02T07:09:13.577" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why isn't there one Absolute Reality?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ultimate reality is indeed one. But it is known by different names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suparnam viprAh kavyo vachobhir ekam santam bahudhA kalpayanti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The wise seers describe the one existence (ekam santam) in various&#xA;  words&lt;/strong&gt; (bahudha vachobhih).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.114.5.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ekam sad viprA bahudhA vadanti agnim yamam mAtrishvAnam Ahuh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The sages describe the one existence (ekam sat) in many ways&lt;/strong&gt;. It is&#xA;  called as Agni, as Yama as Matarishvan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.184.46.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, God himself has also become divergent into many forms as the following mantra state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Durmantvatra amritasya nAma, salakshma yad visurupA bhavAti .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hard to seize by the mind in this world is the name of the immortal,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;because he puts on features and becomes divergent forms&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.12.6.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that's why we have so many different paths of attaining God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T06:07:06.810" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T06:07:06.810" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18622" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18618" CreationDate="2017-06-02T07:20:24.187" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The maximum age of human beings will become fifty years as per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatamclass.com/srimad-bhagavatam-canto-12-chapter-02-text-11/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatham 12.2.11&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;trimsad vimsati varsani paramayuh kalau nrnam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The maximum duration of life for human beings in Kali-yuga will become fifty years.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;About eating flesh, as per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatamclass.com/srimad-bhagavatam-canto-12-chapter-02-text-09/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 12.2.09;&lt;/a&gt; people will eat both flesh and Veg-Foods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;saka-mulamisa-ksaudra- phala-puspasti-bhojanah  anavrstya&#xA;  vinanksyanti durbhiksa-kara-piditah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Harassed by famine and excessive taxes, people will resort to eating leaves, roots, flesh, wild honey, fruits, flowers and seeds. Struck by drought, they will become completely ruined.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T07:20:24.187" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18624" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18676" CreationDate="2017-06-02T07:36:45.227" Score="4" ViewCount="463" Body="&lt;p&gt;If the Sun loses fuel, does that correspond to Surya the Sun god getting old?  If the Sun burns out, does that correspond to Surya dying?  What does Hindu scripture have to say on the subject of Surya getting old or dying?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-03T22:29:49.560" LastActivityDate="2017-06-04T06:51:12.050" Title="Will Lord Surya Die?" Tags="|surya|pralaya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18626" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18564" CreationDate="2017-06-02T07:53:40.677" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Akasha is said be to one of the Pancha Mahabhuta and firstly created from Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taittariya Upanishad 2.1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ ब्रह्मविदाप्नोति परम् । तदेषाऽभुक्ता ।&#xA;  सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं ब्रह्म ।&#xA;  यो वेद निहितं गुहायां परमे व्योमन् ।&#xA;  सोऽश्नुते सर्वान् कामान्सह । ब्रह्मणा विपश्चितेति ॥&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;तस्माद्वा एतस्मादात्मन आकाशः सम्भूतः&lt;/strong&gt; । आकाशाद्वायुः ।&#xA;  वायोरग्निः । अग्नेरापः । अद्भ्यः पृथिवी ।&#xA;  पृथिव्या ओषधयः । ओषधीभ्योन्नम् । अन्नात्पुरुषः ।&#xA;  स वा एष पुरुषोऽन्नरसमयः । तस्येदमेव शिरः ।&#xA;  अयं दक्षिणः पक्षः । अयमुत्तरः पक्षः ।&#xA;  अयमात्मा । इदं पुच्छं प्रतिष्ठा ।&#xA;  तदप्येष श्लोको भवति ॥ १॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;II-i-1: The knower of Brahman attains the highest. Here is a verse uttering that very fact: “Brahman is truth, knowledge, and infinite. He who knows that Brahman as existing in the intellect, lodged in the supreme space in the heart, enjoys, as identified with the all - knowing Brahman, all desirable things simultaneously.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;From that Brahman, which is the Self, was produced space.&lt;/strong&gt; From space emerged air. From air was born fire. From fire was created water. From water sprang up earth. From earth were born the herbs. From the herbs was produced food. From food was born man. That man, such as he is, is a product of the essence of food. Of him this indeed, is the head, this is the southern side; this is the northern side; this is the Self; this is the stabilising tail.&#xA;  Here is a verse pertaining to that very fact&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Akash is said to be support of all things and all things rest in Akash. From Chhandogya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अस्य लोकस्य का गतिरित्याकाश इति होवाच&#xA;  सर्वाणि ह वा इमानि भूतान्याकाशादेव समुत्पद्यन्त&#xA;  आकाशं प्रत्यस्तं यन्त्याकाशो ह्येवैभ्यो ज्यायानकाशः&#xA;  परायणम् ॥ १.९.१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1. 'What is the origin of this world?' 'Ether , 'he replied. For all these beings take their rise from the ether, and return into the ether. Ether is older than these, ether is their rest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Importance of Akash as explained in 7th chapter: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आकाशो वाव तेजसो भूयानाकाशे वै सूर्याचन्द्रमसावुभौ&#xA;  विद्युन्नक्षत्राण्यग्निराकाशेनाह्वयत्याकाशेन&#xA;  शृणोत्याकाशेन प्रतिशृणोत्याकाशे रमत आकाशे न रमत&#xA;  आकाशे जायत आकाशमभिजायत आकाशमुपास्स्वेति&#xA;  ॥ ७.१२.१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1. 'Ether (or space) is better than fire. &lt;strong&gt;For in the ether exist both sun and moon, the lightning, stars, and fire (agni).&lt;/strong&gt; Through the ether we call, through the ether we hear, through the ether we answer. In the ether or space we rejoice (when we are together), and rejoice not (when we are separated). In the ether everything is born, and towards the ether everything tends when it is born. Meditate on ether.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, talking about &lt;strong&gt;Prana&lt;/strong&gt;, it is said to be greatest than all &lt;strong&gt;Indriyas&lt;/strong&gt;. It is explained by metaphor in Chhandogya Upanishad (5.1) that once there were a debate among all Indriyas claiming I'm the best of all. And finally it's concluded that &lt;strong&gt;Prana is the sovereign&lt;/strong&gt;. Similar preaching found from Kaushitaki Upanishad 3.3:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जीवति वागपेतो मूकान्विपश्यामो जीवति&#xA;  चक्षुरपेतोऽन्धान्विपश्यामो&#xA;  जीवति श्रोत्रापेतो बधिरान्विपश्यामो जीवतो बाहुच्छिन्नो&#xA;  जीवत्यूरुच्छिन्न इत्येवं हि पश्याम इत्यथ खलु प्राण एव&#xA;  प्रज्ञात्मेदं शरीरं परिगृह्योत्यापयति&#xA;  तस्मादेतमेवोक्थमुपासीत&#xA;  यो वै प्राणः सा प्रज्ञा या वा प्रज्ञा स प्राणः सह&#xA;  ह्येतावस्मिञ्छरीरे वसतः सहोत्क्रामतस्तस्यैषैव&#xA;  दृष्टिरेतद्विज्ञानं यत्रैतत्पुरुषः सुप्तः स्वप्नं न&#xA;  कञ्चन&#xA;  पश्यत्यथास्मिन्प्राण एवैकधा भवति तदैनं&#xA;  वाक्सर्वैर्नामभिः&#xA;  सहाप्येति चक्षुः सर्वै रूपैः सहाप्येति श्रोत्रं सर्वैः&#xA;  शब्दैः&#xA;  सहाप्येति मनः सर्वैर्ध्यातैः सहाप्येति स यदा प्रतिबुध्यते&#xA;  यथाग्नेर्ज्वलतो विस्फुलिङ्गा&#xA;  विप्रतिष्ठेरन्नेवमेवैतस्मादात्मनः&#xA;  प्राणा यथायतनं विप्रतिष्ठन्ते प्राणेभ्यो देवा देवेभ्यो&#xA;  लोकास्तस्यैषैव सिद्धिरेतद्विज्ञानं यत्रैतत्पुरुष आर्तो&#xA;  मरिष्यन्नाबल्य न्येत्य मोहं नैति तदाहुरुदक्रमीच्चित्तं न&#xA;  शृणोति न पश्यति वाचा वदत्यथास्मिन्प्राण एवैकधा भवति&#xA;  तदैनं वाव सर्वैर्नामभिः सहाप्येति चक्षुः सर्वै रूपैः&#xA;  सहाप्येति श्रोत्रं सर्वैः शब्दैः सहाप्येति मनः&#xA;  सर्वैर्ध्यातैः&#xA;  सहाप्येति स यदा प्रतिबुध्यते यथाग्नेर्ज्वलतो विस्फुलिङ्गा&#xA;  विप्रतिष्ठेरन्नेवमेवैतस्मादात्मनः प्राणा यथायतनं&#xA;  विप्रतिष्ठन्ते प्राणेभ्यो देवा देवेभ्यो लोकाः ॥ ३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3. Man lives deprived of speech, for we see dumb people. Man lives deprived of sight, for we see blind people. Man lives deprived of hearing, for we see deaf people. Man lives deprived of mind, for we see infants. Man lives deprived of his arms, deprived of his legs, for we see it thus. &lt;strong&gt;But prâna alone is the conscious self (pragñâtman), and having laid hold of this body, it makes it rise up.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore it is said, Let man worship it alone as uktha. What is prâna, that is pragñâ (self-consciousness); what is pragñâ (self-consciousness), that is prâna, for together they (pragñâ and prâna) live in this body, and together they go out of it. Of that, this is the evidence, this is the understanding. When a man, being thus asleep, sees no dream whatever, he becomes one with that prâna alone. Then speech goes to him (when he is absorbed in prâna) with all names, the eye with all forms, the ear with all sounds, the mind with all thoughts. And when he awakes, then, as from a burning fire sparks proceed in all directions, thus from that self the prânâs (speech, &amp;amp;c.) proceed, each towards its place; from the prânas the gods (Agni, &amp;amp;c.), from the gods the worlds. Of this, this is the proof, this is the understanding. When a man is thus sick, going to die, falling into weakness and faintness, they say: 'His thought has departed, he hears not, he sees not, he speaks not, he thinks not.' Then he becomes one with that prâna alone. Then speech goes to him (who is absorbed in prâna) with all names, the eye with all forms, the ear with all sounds, the mind with all thoughts. And when he departs from this body, he departs together with all these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Akasha is one of the Pancha Mahabhuta created firstly and supports all things whereas Prana is one which can't live without and is greatest among all other indriya/consciousness in the body. But one important thing to take in to consideration is that both words &lt;strong&gt;Akash&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Prana&lt;/strong&gt; ultimately refers to nothing other than &lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Brahma Sutra 1.1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आकाशस्तल्लिङ्गात् ॥ १.१.२२॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  23. Ether (is Brahman), on account of the characteristic marks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अत एव प्राणः ॥ १.१.२३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  24. For the same reason breath (is Brahman).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T17:36:39.573" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T17:36:39.573" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18627" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-02T09:09:31.343" Score="2" ViewCount="130" Body="&lt;p&gt;Regular process is mother will give birth to new baby.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then who is the first man or woman born in this yuga or in any other yuga? How were those first persons born?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Were they born as babies or directly as adults?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;this question is not duplicate as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11660/do-hindus-believe-in-adam-and-eve-if-not-who-is-the-first-person-man-or-woman&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; , because i didt got solution for those first persons born as babies or adults ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9976" LastEditorUserId="9976" LastEditDate="2017-06-05T05:43:25.070" LastActivityDate="2017-06-05T05:43:25.070" Title="Who is the first man or woman born in this yuga or in any other yuga?" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|human|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-06-05T10:47:42.940" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18628" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7754" CreationDate="2017-06-02T09:19:31.880" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are only three kind of Avatar as per Ved and Upadenished ,&#xA;1 ) Purna Avatar&#xA;2) Amsha Avatar&#xA;3) Nimmitta Avatar &#xA;Taking about Purna Avatar , Ram, Krishna Vishnu are Purna Avatar,&#xA;Because the main Purpose of Purna Avatar is to Make Peace and Sanatan Religion in the world , they visit world in the by  respecting Nature ( in Natural Way like other human) and finished their work and go back where they belongs .&#xA;Similarly Amsha Avatar also have particular task to do in the world which is directed by purna Avatar,&#xA;They have specific goal on their appearance and return  by spreading  various  precious message towards human kinds . eg :- Gutam Buddha , ParashuRam , Jesus Crist, etc….&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like wise  Nimmitta avatar is a special Avatar who appears for a specific purpose ,  They appear suddenly as per requirement, Some time ther appear for their special followers and some time they appear for securing world and mankind . eg:-  Narashima , Matshya,   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9978" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T09:19:31.880" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18629" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-02T10:07:33.193" Score="-9" ViewCount="187" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since hinduism believes in transmigration of souls, if someone kills a chicken or sheep or mosquito, is it possible one has killed ram or raavan or krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9979" LastActivityDate="2022-03-30T17:15:00.973" Title="Can someone kill Rama or Ravaan or Krishna?" Tags="|rebirth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18630" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18644" CreationDate="2017-06-02T10:40:05.407" Score="9" ViewCount="1088" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Penanace&lt;/strong&gt; is said to be a major way to eliminate our Bad Karmas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Today's Life&lt;/strong&gt; it is hard to do Penance for some reasons.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any &lt;strong&gt;Other method&lt;/strong&gt; for eliminating our Bad Karmas &lt;strong&gt;Equal&lt;/strong&gt; to doing a penance ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2017-06-05T12:23:00.963" Title="What is the alternate way to eliminate our Bad Karmas equal in doing Penance?" Tags="|scripture|karma|dharma|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18631" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-02T10:41:04.057" Score="1" ViewCount="85" Body="&lt;p&gt;In our stories too, we see Rishis and Gods travelling miles and miles on Foot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There were Vimanas but not everyone had them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Letters were posted via messengers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now, on Earth, we have excellent Technologies​.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do the Heavens and Hells, and the higher realms use technologies​?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do Indra, Chandra, Surya, and other use technologies like we do?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T10:41:04.057" Title="Do Heaven or Hell have Technologies​ like we have on Earth?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-06-03T16:59:02.267" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18632" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18615" CreationDate="2017-06-02T12:01:48.183" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is only the view of Shaivas, Vaisnavas etc.. who think Lord Brahma is a post and one can achieve it by doing Karmas/Yajnas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For the &lt;strong&gt;Hiranyagarbhas;&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Brahma is the ultimate reality and is the Lord of the all. So, he is not post but he is Supreme Lord.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Vartika (3.7) Sureshwaracharya, who is direct disciple of Adi Shankaracharya writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यः पृथिव्यामितीशोऽसावन्तर्यामी जगद्गुरु ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हरिर्ब्रह्मा पिनाकीति बहुधैकोऽपि गीयते ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He who is residing inside the prithivi devata but whom prithivi devata doesn&amp;apos;t know is said to be Antaryami and is the teacher of the universe. &lt;strong&gt;That Antaryami has been sung as&lt;/strong&gt; Hari, &lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; and Pinaki (Shiva) and many.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above quote it is clear that during the time of Sureshwaracharya too there were Hiranayagarbhas who hold Lord Brahma as the Antaryami of all (and not as post/position).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata too Lord Brahma is told to be unmanifest, and declared as unborn:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तथा प्रजापतिर्ब्रह्मा अव्यक्तः प्रभुरव्ययः&lt;/strong&gt;।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येनेदं निखिलं विश्वं जनितं स्थावरं चरम्॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अण्डजातं तु ब्रह्माणं केचिदिच्छन्त्यपण्डिताः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अण्डाद्भिन्नाद्बभुः शैला दिशोऽम्भः पृथिवी दिवम्॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  द्रष्टव्यं नैतदेवं हि कथं जायेदजो हि सः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्मृतमाकाशमण्डं तु तस्माज्जातः पितामहः॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Lord of all creatures, Brahma, unmanifest,&lt;/strong&gt; endued with puissance, and of unfading glory, who created this boundless universe with its mobile and immobile creatures (is a Brahman). Some persons there are, destitute of wisdom, who say that Brahma was born of an Egg. From the original Egg, when it burst forth, mountains and the points of the compass and the waters and the earth and the heavens all sprang forth into existence. This birth of the creation was not seen by any one. &lt;strong&gt;How then can Brahma be said to have taken his birth from the original Egg, when especially he is declared as Unborn?&lt;/strong&gt; It is said that vast uncreate Space is the original Egg. It was from this uncreate Space that the Grandsire was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the important quote in the above passage is &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;How then can Brahman be said to have taken his birth from the original Egg, when especially he is declared as Unborn?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But where is Lord Brahma declared to be unborn?&amp;nbsp; Actually it is in the Vedas itself Lord Brahma is declared as unborn; ie. As self existent. I discuss it in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/237/how-were-the-trimurthi-born/13639#13639&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; and quote is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana&lt;/a&gt; of Yajurveda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verily, Pragâpati alone was here in the beginning. He desired, &amp;apos;May I exist,&lt;/strong&gt; may I reproduce myself!&amp;apos; He toiled, he practised austerity (or, became heated). From him, worn out and heated, the waters were created: from that heated Person the waters are born.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above quote is itself self-explanatory. Not only in Vedas also in many Puranas Lord Brahma is declared as unborn. Actually many people are aware of only Puranas glorifying just Vishnu or Shiva. But there are plenty and plenty of passages in many Puranas which state Lord Brahma is the Lord of all. For eg. 1.4 of Kurma Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He resorts to the special creation, destroys as well, while protecting the same at the same time.&lt;/strong&gt; Because of the said quality, he is conceived to be one in all the three times, i.e. past, present and nature. The eternal Hiranyagarbha Brahma appeared first of all. Because of his emerging on earth, first of all, he has been known as Adideva. &lt;strong&gt;Because of his being unborn, he is also called as Aja.&lt;/strong&gt; All the people are maintained by him because of which he is also known as Prajapati. &lt;em&gt;(Kurma Purana 1.4)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, again there are many objectors who claim that Lord Brahma is born. He takes birth from lotus navel of Vishnu etc.. etc.. First of all the view of Brahma coming from navel of Vishnu is not mentioned in Vedas at all, it is only view of Puranas and some parts of Mahabharata. Even Vasistha when gives description about creation of Universe in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga110/ayodhya_110_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ayodhya Kanda&lt;/a&gt; starts from mentioning of Lord Brahma. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And secondly Brahma taking birth from Vishnu is just stated to be act of Brahma itself in Puranas. For eg. In Kurma Purana (1.9) it is told that Brahma enters stomach of Vishnu and emerges from navel of Vishnu and thus giving his name Padmayoni. So, it is not his real birth at all.&#xA;Again there are some things like life if Brahma being age of 100 yrs. etc.. etc.. It is all thing which is planned by Lord Brahma himself for the purpose of manifestation of creation. It his only his pretence. It is made clear itself in Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PARÁŚARA.--The essential properties of existent things are objects of observation, of which no foreknowledge is attainable; and creation, and hundreds of properties, belong to Brahma, as inseparable parts of his essence, as heat, oh chief of sages, is inherent in fire. Hear then how the deity Náráyána, in the person of Brahmá, the great parent of the world, created all existent things. &lt;strong&gt;Brahmá is said to be born: a familiar phrase, to signify his manifestation;&lt;/strong&gt; and, as the peculiar measure of his presence, a hundred of his years is said to constitute his life: that period is also called Param, and the half of it, Parárddham. I have already declared to you, oh sinless Brahman, that Time is a form of Vishńu: hear now how it is applied to measure the duration of Brahmá, and of all other sentient beings, as well as of those which are unconscious, as the mountains, oceans, and the like. &lt;em&gt;(Vishnu Purana 1.3)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear from above passage when it is said that Brahma is born it is said just to signify his presence.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The actual Sanskrit verse used in that passage of Vishnu Purana is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निजेन तस्य मानेन आयुर्वर्षशतं स्मृतम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;As a result of this pretence he is said to have age of 100 years.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear that Lord Brahma is not a post he is Lord.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For the passages like &amp;apos;Brahma is Jeeva&amp;apos; we can say &amp;apos;As Lord Brahma is everything, so yes he is also a Jeeva.&amp;apos; For the various episodes like Lord Brahma being cursed or similar things like this, &lt;strong&gt;these are just Leelas of Lord Brahma.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Regarding the views of Shaivas, Vaisnavas etc.. they would have their own interpretations of the quoted passages (obviously). And they may also have rituals, statements etc.. for attaining position of Brahma. But I&amp;apos;m answering the question not by giving rituals to get post of Brahma but by showing that &amp;apos;Lord Brahma is not post at all.&amp;apos; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-06-03T03:46:37.477" LastActivityDate="2017-06-03T03:46:37.477" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18633" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18630" CreationDate="2017-06-02T12:18:13.667" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are various methods to expiate sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to get rid of the effect of sins&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira says,’…a perpetrated sin is expiated by auspicious acts, by publishing it wildly, by repentance, by alms-giving, by&#xA;  penances, by trips to tirthas after renunciation of everything, by&#xA;  constant meditation on the scriptures. Of all these, he that has&#xA;  practiced renunciation is believed to be incapable of committing sins&#xA;  anew. ‘&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section VII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T12:18:13.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18634" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18630" CreationDate="2017-06-02T12:55:27.307" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Saranagati(Self-Surrender) to SrimanNarayana is the easiest way to absolve oneself of all sins. This sentiment is aptly reflected in the following &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-18-62.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse&lt;/a&gt; of Bhagavad Gita as expounded by Sri Krishna to Arjuna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज।&lt;br&gt; अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो&#xA;  मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः।।18.66।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarva Dharmaan Parityajya Mamekam Sharanam Vraja|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Aham tva sarva papebhyo moksha ishyami ma shuchaha||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Meaning:&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Relinquishing all notions of dharma, surrender yourself onto me alone and I shall deliver you from your sins. Knowing thus, Do not Grieve!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-06-05T12:23:00.963" LastActivityDate="2017-06-05T12:23:00.963" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18635" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18629" CreationDate="2017-06-02T12:58:38.630" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Transformation of soul is nothing but transforming of energy into other form, in Hinduism,is the oldest form of religion as compared to other religions which are just 2 to 3 thousands years old, which previously dominated by Rishis as oldest form of scientists in every area, they described the complex things or topics in easy and understandable meanings, they know the truth of life hence they created meanings to describe it to common people, now imagine ten thousand years back in time, people of that period, who were believed in supernatural power, would not like to listen the truth, hence Rishis described in religious manner,all the things which was described in religious books were not in the same meaning. but they have meanings in other form, it is up to you which meaning you like as per your knowledge of nature.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In Hinduism, The great Rishis know that all the life on earth is created by Sun energy, hence they started the day with Surya Namaskar ( Giving thanks to Sun i,e. the father of all energy) and they also worship Shiva as the the true energy, because all the planets, sun, stars and matters you see in the universe are form of energy, it is the ultimate source of life and universe, so if you want to understand it you have to leave the religion aside and because just saying all is created by god/allah or some other supper power mean s you do not want to understand the Nature.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9982" LastEditorUserId="9982" LastEditDate="2017-06-02T13:14:05.713" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T13:14:05.713" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18636" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-06-02T13:17:47.990" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pushti mArga is the sub-sect of Rudra Sampradaya. It was founded by Vallabhacharya around 1500 AD.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-06-02T13:17:47.990" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T13:17:47.990" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18637" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-06-02T13:17:47.990" Score="0" Body="Pushti mArga is the sub-sect of Rudra Sampradaya. It was founded by Vallabhacharya around 1500 AD." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-06-02T13:17:47.990" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T13:17:47.990" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18638" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18651" CreationDate="2017-06-02T13:29:29.900" Score="5" ViewCount="3767" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said, after 4,32,000 years that the current Kali Yuga will end and then a new Satya Yuga will be created(as mentioned &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2875/what-exactly-happens-at-end-of-kali-yuga-how-will-the-world-be-destroyed&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)how will Kalki destroy all the bad people? [ is it by fire or water ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)Will the good people live for 1,00,000 years as they will be part of a new Satya Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)Will all the current technologies like internet, planes &amp;amp; mobiles exist in the new Satya Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9976" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-06-02T14:23:40.697" LastActivityDate="2021-11-07T00:18:28.313" Title="how will Kalki destroy all the bad people at the end of Kali Yuga" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|kalki|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18639" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="799" CreationDate="2017-06-02T14:03:07.170" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As a practicing Tenkalai studying under an Acharya, I can point out that the Tenkalais view the nature of the jeeva as being paritantriyam, wholly dependent upon the mercy of the Supreme Being. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Smartha/Vadakalai term preethyartham suggests we out of our own volition perform this action to please Him such that He will grant us some Palam (Moksham in the case of a prapanna). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The use of Kainkaryam implies the cause and effect relationship is moot, our actions simply responses to His Mercy in a spirit of adimai. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9958" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T14:03:07.170" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18606" CreationDate="2017-06-02T15:58:08.637" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's speaking of different forms of Indra.&lt;/strong&gt; I found the answer in &lt;a href=&quot;http://peterffreund.com/sankarsha/sankarsha_kanda/PDF_files/Sankarsha%20English%20translation.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;S. Shastri's summary&lt;/a&gt; of the Adhikaranas (sub-sections) of the discovered Sankarsha Kanda text.  Here are the relevant Adhikaranas in Adhyaya 2 Pada 2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;15&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the Ishti where there are three purodasha cakes to be offered to three deities, the cutting of slices from them is simultaneous.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But they should be offered to the respective deities one by one, since the deities are different.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was focusing on the wrong part of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38186.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ad Shankaracharya quote&lt;/a&gt; I gave in my question.  I was focusing on the difference between Prana and Vayu, when I should have been focusing on the differences in the three forms of Indras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;With regard to the ishti comprising three sacrificial cakes, which is enjoined in the passage, Taitt. Samh. II, 3, 6, 'A purodâsa on eleven potsherds to Indra the ruler, to Indra the over-ruler, to Indra the self-ruler,' it might be supposed that the three cakes are to be offered together because they are offered to one and the same Indra, and because the concluding sentence says, 'conveying to all (gods) he cuts off to preclude purposelessness.' But as the attributes (viz. 'ruler' and so on) differ, and as scripture enjoins that the yâgyâ and anuvâkyâmantras are to exchange places with regard to the different cakes, the divinity is each time a different one according to the address, and from this it follows that the three offerings also are separate.&lt;/strong&gt;--Thus, in the case under discussion, Vâyu and Prâna, although fundamentally non-different, are to be held apart as objects of meditation, and we have therefore to do with two separate meditations.--This is explained in the Saṅkarsha-kânda, 'The divinities are separate on account of their being cognized thus.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya also discusses the same issue of offerings to different forms of Indra in the same context, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48426.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a text 'He is to offer a purodâsa on eleven potsherds to Indra the ruler, to Indra the supreme ruler, to Indra the self-ruler.' This injunction refers to one and the same Indra, possessing the qualities of rulership and so on; but as, through connexion with those several qualities, the aspects of Indra differ, the oblation of the purodâsa has to be repeated. This is declared in the Sânkarshana, 'The divinities are different on account of separation.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it seems that the discovered Sankarsha Kanda text utilizes the &quot;Nana Va Devata Prithaktvat&quot; verse in the same way as Kasakritsna's Devata Kanda Sutras, which makes it all the more strange why it seems to have no other connection to the Devata Kanda Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, for good measure let me give the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;relevant passage&lt;/a&gt; of the Taittiriya Samhita of the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prajapati assigned food to the gods; he said, 'Whatever shall be left over these worlds, be that mine.' That was left over these worlds, Indra, the king, Indra, the overlord, Indra, the sovereign; thence he milked these worlds threefold; that is the cause of its having three elements. &lt;strong&gt;For him of whom he desires, 'May he be an eater of food', let him offer this (offering) of three elements, to Indra, the king, a cake on eleven potsherds, to Indra, the overlord, to Indra, the sovereign.&lt;/strong&gt; Indra, the king, is this (world of earth), Indra, the overlord, is this (atmosphere), Indra, the sovereign, is yonder (world of heaven); verily he has recourse to these worlds with their own share; verily they bestow food on him; he becomes an eater of food. Even as one milks a cow ready to give milk by reason of its calf, so he milks these worlds, made ready, for desire, for food; he places (the cake) on potsherds face upwards, for variety. There are three cakes, these worlds are three; (verily they serve) to obtain these worlds; each one above the other is larger, for so as it were are these worlds; (verily they serve) for prosperity; he cuts off from all (the cakes) as he sets them up without making a failure; be recites (the verses) alternating, to prevent burning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the difference being discussed is between Indra the king, Indra the overlord, and Indra the sovereign.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T15:58:08.637" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18642" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18630" CreationDate="2017-06-02T16:11:00.780" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do Om Meditation Continually ,it slowly clear your sins and good for health.&#xA;As human beings, we have the ability to erase impression and fear through meditation. Meditation is there to rectify painful karma, at least reduce their impact or effect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Links: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.artofliving.org/meditation/meditation-for-you/meditation-and-karma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Karma – the secret of dealing with it through meditation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.inner-light-in.com/2012/08/how-to-clear-karma-the-meditative-way/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;How to clear Karma:The Meditative Way&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9985" LastEditorUserId="9985" LastEditDate="2017-06-02T16:29:59.580" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T16:29:59.580" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18643" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-02T16:17:49.417" Score="1" ViewCount="138" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana and Mahabharata few well known characters are not born from Womb. Most of all unusual births. Few Examples Here: Lord Rama and his 3 brothers  (born after eating Dessert) Karna and Pandavas (Mantra), Kauravas (Lump of Flesh)  and Drona (Born in a Vessel), Is it true. If yes, How is it possible? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it happen only once in period of Ramayana and Mahabharata, are there are any signs in Kaliyuga? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-07T04:59:30.663" LastActivityDate="2017-06-07T04:59:30.663" Title="Secret behind great personalities' birth stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata? Are there any signs of them in Kaliyuga?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|birth|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="15" ClosedDate="2017-06-06T04:25:29.633" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18644" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18630" CreationDate="2017-06-02T17:18:18.150" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.227. By confession, by repentance, by austerity, and by&#xA;  reciting (the Veda) a sinner is freed from guilt, and in case no other&#xA;  course is possible, by liberality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if you are not willing to do penance or austerity then charity is the best way along with confessions and repentance. All these remove bad karmas or sins as per the above verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, specially in Kali Yuga charity or danam is most effective as the following verse from Parashara Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gUHti.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gUHti.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tapah Param Krita Yuge TretAyAm GyAnamuchayathe | DwApare YajnamevAhuh&#xA;  DAnameva Kalau Yuge ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;23&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&quot; Self-mortification is the rule in the Krita age ; knowledge is said (to be the same) in the Treta ; in the Dvapara, (they) say&#xA;  sacrifice (to the gods to be) the sole (rule) ; &lt;strong&gt;and charity alone in&#xA;  the Kali age.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, instead of adopting the other paths which were more suitable for the previous yugas, one can adopt charity as an effective measure for removing sins in the current yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, among all kinds of charity, one charity stands out, viz: the one called  &lt;strong&gt;Tula Purusha&lt;/strong&gt; which is described in the following verse :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;80&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The chandrayana penance, the eating of unripe barley, &lt;strong&gt;the form of making a gift, called the Tulapurusha, [I, e., making a gift of such a&#xA;  quantity of any substance as is equal in weight to a male human&#xA;  being]&lt;/strong&gt;, and the act of walking behind cows, — &lt;strong&gt;these put an end to all&#xA;  kinds of sin&lt;/strong&gt; ( Parashara Smriti 12-80).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T17:18:18.150" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18645" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2831" CreationDate="2017-06-02T17:19:35.713" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Traditional Smartha Brahmins wear a U-shaped namam on their foreheads which represents the Feet of Krishna.  It is made of chandanam.  The Vadakalais probably borrowed this shape to show their support for the Sanskrit theology. This is only my opinion, because in the History of Melukote Through the Ages, it says that Thiruman shapes were based on natural objects, and at one time there were many shapes.  The two we have today are the standardly accepted ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9958" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T17:19:35.713" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18646" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18663" CreationDate="2017-06-02T17:46:46.917" Score="8" ViewCount="8484" Body="&lt;p&gt;In puranas or vedas, is there any information about gem stones?&#xA;Do people of that time used to wear these kinds of stones for the betterment of their life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8031" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-03T13:04:44.277" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T23:56:19.203" Title="is there any mention of gem stones in puranas?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|belief|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18648" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7754" CreationDate="2017-06-02T18:49:23.680" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, It certainly has a scriptural basis and there are such types of Avatars. Narada says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%97%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%97%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE/%E0%A4%96%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A1%E0%A4%83_%E0%A5%A7_(%E0%A4%97%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%96%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A1%E0%A4%83)/%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%83_%E0%A5%A6%E0%A5%A7&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garga Samhita - Goloka Khanda - First Chapter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीबहुलाश्व उवाच -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कतिधा श्रीहरेर्विष्णोरवतारो भवत्यलम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;साधूनां रक्षणार्थं हि कृपया वद मां प्रभो ॥ १५ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bahulāśva says - To protect the pious ones how many avatars did Sri&#xA;  Vishnu take, please kindly tell me o Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीनारद उवाच -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अंशांशोंऽशस्तथावेशः कलापूर्णः प्रकथ्यते ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;व्यासाद्यैश्च स्मृतः षष्ठः परिपूर्णतमः स्वयम् ॥ १६ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada said - O King. The avataras of Bhagavān are six types as told&#xA;  by sages like Vyāsa which are  - &lt;strong&gt;amśa, amśāmśa, āveśa, kalā, pūrṇa and&#xA;  paripūrṇatama (or paripūrṇa)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अंशांशस्तु मरीच्यादिरंशा ब्रह्मादयस्तथा ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कलाः कपिलकूर्माद्या आवेशा भार्गवादयः ॥ १७ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sages like Marīci are amśāmśa avatars, Brahma and his likes are amśā&#xA;  avatars. Paraśurāma and like are āveśa avatars.Kapila, Kūrma and the&#xA;  likes are kalā avatars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पूर्णो नृसिंहो रामश्च श्वेतद्वीपाधिपो हरिः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वैकुण्ठोऽपि तथा यज्ञो नरनारायणः स्मृतः ॥ १८ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pūrṇa avatars are Narasimha, Śrī Rāma, śvetadvīpādhipati Hari,&#xA;  Vaikuntha, Yajna and Nara Nārāyaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परिपूर्णतमः साक्षाच्छ्रीकृष्णो भगवान् स्वयम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;असंख्यब्रह्माण्डपतिर्गोलोके धाम्नि राजते ॥ १९ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Krishna is Paripūrṇatama avatar who is the lord of infinite&#xA;  Brahmāṇḍas and who resides in Goloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कार्याधिकारं कुर्वन्तः सदंशास्ते प्रकिर्तिताः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्कार्यभारं कुर्वन्तस्तेंऽशांशा विदिताः प्रभोः ॥ २० ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who like Brahma take up the authority of works like creation&#xA;  etc., are the sāttvic amśa avatars of Lord. Those who help in such&#xA;  works are amśāmśa avatars like Marīci and other prajāpatis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;येषामन्तर्गतो विष्णुः कार्यं कृत्वा विनिर्गतः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नानाऽऽवेषावतारांश्च विद्धि राजन्महामते ॥ २१ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The all pervading vishnu who resides in the inner heart with his power&#xA;  to accomplish a certain work and leaves the person or body (though the&#xA;  person doesn't die) after the accomplishment, such avatars like&#xA;  Paraśurāma are called āveśa avatars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्मं विज्ञाय कृत्वा यः पुनरन्तरधीयत ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;युगे युगे वर्तमानः सोऽवतारः कला हरेः ॥ २२ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In every Yuga, when the Lord descends to earth, protects and&#xA;  establishes the dharma and takes back his avatara after that is called&#xA;  kalā avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चतुर्व्यूहो भवेद्‌यत्र दृश्यन्ते च रसा नव ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अतः परं च वीर्याणि स तु पूर्णः प्रकथ्यते ॥ २३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Where the four vyūhas are manifested like Rāma, Lakshmana, Bharata and&#xA;  Satrughna are manifestations of Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and&#xA;  Anirudhas (four vyūhas of Vishnu), where nine rasās are visible and&#xA;  where the utmost valour, power and strength are manifested like Rāma,&#xA;  Narasimha such avatars are called Pūrṇa avatars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्मिन्सर्वाणि तेजांसि विलीयन्ते स्वतेजसि ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तं वदन्ति परे साक्षात्परिपूर्णतमं स्वयम् ॥ २४ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Paripūrṇatama avatar is the one in whos tejas, the tejas (lusture and&#xA;  splendour in all their fullness) of all other avatars gets absorbed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/GargaSamhita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garga Samhita&lt;/a&gt; is a great book also called Garga Bhagavatam. The Hindi prose version is available &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/HindiBookGargSanhitaByGitaPress&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T18:49:23.680" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18649" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19144" CreationDate="2017-06-02T19:58:33.677" Score="4" ViewCount="1501" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausala_Parva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki page on Mausala Parva&lt;/a&gt; has this to say about the destruction of the Yadavas -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Soon everyone who is battling is dead, except Vabhru, Daruka and&#xA;Krishna. Balarama survives because he was not at the fracas, and not&#xA;inebriated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Balarama and Vabhru die next. Krishna asks Daruka to go to Pandavas&#xA;... Vasudeva dies next while he is meditating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which means everyone died but that can't be correct as Krishna's great grandson &amp;quot;Vajra&amp;quot; was appointed King later on as pointed out in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2512/2897&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the great-grandson of Shri Krishna, Vajra, the son of Anirudha&#xA;(Anirudha was son of Pradyumna ) survived and was appointed as King by&#xA;Arjuna as described in Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, who all actually survived that conflict?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2897" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T12:53:08.937" Title="Which of the Yadavas survived the destruction of Yadavas at Prabhas?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|yadavas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18650" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18646" CreationDate="2017-06-02T20:20:30.087" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The History of Indian Gemology:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cultures of the Indian subcontinent have studied gemstones for millennia, and many ancient texts detail the medicinal, spiritual, and supernatural powers of various gems. Evidence, dating as far back as 5,000 years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas, the oldest Indian scriptures, contain several references for the use of gems in ceremonial rituals and everyday life. They describe the &lt;strong&gt;powers of precious stones to influence subtle energies and connect the Earth to the rest of the universe&lt;/strong&gt;. Because precious stones were closely associated with the gods, they had the power to heal and influence destiny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to ancient Indian texts, sapphires were grouped onto four ‘varnas’ or classes. Hindus were only allowed to wear sapphires with the color designated for their caste. The Brahmins’ stone was whitish blue, the Kshatriyas’ was a reddish blue, the Vaishyas’ was yellowish blue, and the Sudras’ was a dark or blackish blue. Nine astrological gemstones are associated with these Nine planets in our Solar system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Study Of Stones and Usage in Puranas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gemology or the scientific and ethnic study of gemstones is an important and integral part of applied astrology. Use of precious gems and stones has been an ancient practice in India. Scriptural evidences however show that concept of gemology is as old as the creation itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A very famous hymn says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SASHANKH CHAKRAM SAKIRIT KUNDALAM,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SAPEET VASTRAM SARASI RUNEKSHANAM ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SAHAR VAKSH STHAL KAUSTUBHASHRIYAM,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NAMAMI VISHNUM SIRASA CHATURBHUJAM ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from many kinds of weapons, &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu bears Kaustubha Mani (a gem named Kaustubh) on his chest&lt;/strong&gt;. This gem is most dear to Him. This hymn shows that even before the whole universe came into being, Lord Vishnu did have an existence and the gem Kaustubh also existed along with Him. During medieval period also, various scholars shed light on the science of gemology. They authored many great scriptures as well. &lt;strong&gt;Acharya Varahmihir&lt;/strong&gt; was the most prominent of those great scholars. A scripture &lt;strong&gt;Vrihat Samhita&lt;/strong&gt; written by &lt;strong&gt;Varahmihir&lt;/strong&gt; still has a wide recognition among the gemologists. It has a whole chapter, Ratnadhyay devoted to the comprehensive description of the gemstones. Among Puranas, Agnipurana contains exhaustive description about gemology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GEM:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A gem is something that has been dug out from earth or deep sea and has many rare but miraculous qualities. A gem is unique and often rare because of its specific composition. It may differ in effects, colour, tinge and hues.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JEWEL:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Puranas people use to wear Jewels, Jewel is an ornament or piece of jewelry containing precious Gem stones. They too have their distinct appearance, beauty, hues and effects and are important accordingly. Their uses are also wide and varied such as &lt;strong&gt;personal beautification, adornment, house building, idol construction, exhibition of wealth and luxury&lt;/strong&gt; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to mythology, jewels found in heaven are- &lt;strong&gt;Kaustubh Mani, Chinta Mani,  Syamantak Mani, Rudra Mani.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) Kaustubh Mani:&lt;/strong&gt; It has a deep blue colour like a blue lotus and a radiance equal to the sun. According to Hindu mythology, Lord Vishnu wears Kaustubh Mani in a garland on his chest. It is a powerful jewel and bestows fortune, luxuries as well as invincibility on to its wearer besides extremely beautiful and imposing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) Chinta Mani:&lt;/strong&gt; Name of this jewel is self-explicit. The wearer is freed from all the worries and fretting. It is white in colour and has a brilliant hue. It gives its wearer all kinds of wealth and comforts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3) Syamantak Mani:&lt;/strong&gt; It is a common belief that this jewel adorns the necklace of Lord Surya (the sun god). It is said to have a brilliant blue hue that instantaneously blinds the onlooker. If it is taken in darkness, it fills the ambience with day-like light. There is an interesting tale related to this jewel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4) Rudra Mani:&lt;/strong&gt; Nobody will be unaware of the bounty of Lord Shiva. His costumes as well as ornaments are strange. He wears only tiger’s skin and formidable black snakes around his shoulder. The gods presented Lord Shiva with a jewel that came to be known as Rudra Mani. Lord Shiva threadened the jewel among the beads of His rosary. The jewel Rudra Mani is also benevolent in virtues.&#xA;Thus, according to Hindu mythology, only four jewels come in the category of heavenly jewels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to Garuda Purana:&lt;/strong&gt; Vedic View of Gems (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.agt-gems.com/mysticarticles/flawless.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.agt-gems.com/mysticarticles/flawless.html&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T20:20:30.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18651" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18638" CreationDate="2017-06-02T22:33:32.697" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is the Partial answers for your questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Lord KALI Destroy all bad people when he appears:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are many incarnations of the Supreme Being as stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.3.26): &lt;strong&gt;“O brahmanas, the incarnations of the Lord are innumerable, like rivulets flowing from inexhaustible sources of water.”&lt;/strong&gt; However, out of all the various incarnations of the Supreme, the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.3.28) specifically states “krishnas tu bhagavan svayam,” which means that Lord Sri Krishna is the original Supreme Personality of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Will the good people live for 1,00,000 years as they will be part of a new Satya Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Lord Kalki will appear in the home of the most eminent brahmana of Shambhala village, the great soul Vishnuyasha.”&lt;/strong&gt; (Bhag.12.2.18) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharatra (Vana Parva, 190.93-97) adds to the description of Lord Kalki’s appearance: &quot;Impelled by time, a Brahmana named Kalki Vishnuyasha will be born. He will possess great energy, intelligence and prowess. He will be born at a village called Shambhala in a blessed Brahmana family. As soon as thought of, vehicles, weapons, warriors, and arms and armors will all be at his command. He will be the imperial sovereign, ever victorious by the strength of his virtue. He will restore order and peace in this world, overcrowded with creatures and contradictory in its laws. That effulgent and greatly intelligent Brahmana will destroy all things. He will be the destroyer of all and He will be the maker of a new Yuga [Satya-Yuga]. That twice-born one surrounded by the Brahmanas, will exterminate all the low and despicable mlecchas wherever they will be found.&quot; So it explains Kali will destroy all and if need he is going to create people again with out any sins (He will establish moral law in the form of the fourfold varnas, or the suitable organization of society in four classes. After that people will return to the path of righteousness) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Will all the current technologies like internet, planes &amp;amp; mobiles exist in the new Satya Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If Kali establish moral law and make suitable organization of society in four classes. After that people will return to the path of righteousness. I don't think so our current technologies like internet, planes &amp;amp; mobiles will not be  exist, it's going to be a creating new Yuga again based on his rules, thoughts and needs.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-06-02T22:33:32.697" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18655" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18646" CreationDate="2017-06-03T05:24:00.890" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas itself mention using gemstones for increasing strength, vigour etc. The Atharva Veda has many suktas dedicated to gemstones and gem therapy. I am giving below few mantras from few of those suktas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.onlineved.com/atharva-ved/?mantra=1&amp;amp;language=1&amp;amp;kand=19&amp;amp;sukt=46&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 19.46&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O man , Prajapatih the master of house hold binds on you, this&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;invincible stone&lt;/strong&gt; at first for might and vigour. I the physician bind&#xA;  on you for long life, splendour, energy and strength. Let this&#xA;  invincible one protect you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 8.5 :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This mani is the sign of killing enemies, this is a mark of good&#xA;  heroism, this is the sign of victory, this is the sign of strength,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  conquest and might. Let this succeed ruining the enemies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The king decorated with this mani destroys the assailant, the&#xA;  enlightened statesman decorated with it inflicts defeats to anti&#xA;  social and anti national elements&lt;/strong&gt;: decorated with this the king&#xA;  becomes victorious over earth and heaven both; he maintains with this&#xA;  his supremacy in four regions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, there are many other suktas in Atharva Veda Samhita that talk about manis or gemstones. Few among them are 19.31, 8.5, 4.20 , 19.28 etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, yes people must be wearing gemstones from very ancient times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abbreviations:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AV 19.46 ---&gt; Atharva Veda Samhita KAnda 19, Sukta 46.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-03T07:38:26.513" LastActivityDate="2017-06-03T07:38:26.513" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18656" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="44671" CreationDate="2017-06-03T05:48:47.747" Score="9" ViewCount="348" Body="&lt;p&gt;In KulArnava Tantram's 13th chapter, Lord Shiva discusses about Guru and its signs in great details. In that context he says the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shaive Gurutrayam Proktam&lt;/strong&gt; Vaishnave Gurupanchakam |&lt;br&gt; VedashAshtreshu Sataso Gururekah KulAgame ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to Shaiva Tradition, Gurus are three&lt;/strong&gt;, according to Vaishnava, Gurus&#xA;  are five, according to Vaidika Tradition Gurus are numerous but according&#xA;  to Kula Agama Guru is only one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, its obvious to me that here Lord Shiva is not talking about the number of Gurus that a Shaiva can have. Because in the same chapter itself, he mentions that one can have many Gurus as long as one does not get a good one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, is he talking about &lt;strong&gt;three types&lt;/strong&gt; of Shaiva Gurus that the Shaiva scriptures prescribe for the disciples at different stages of sadhana? If yes which are those three Gurus?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-14T08:23:15.520" LastActivityDate="2021-02-09T10:11:51.173" Title="What does Lord Shiva mean by saying that in Shaiva traditions Gurus are three?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|shaivism|guru|agamas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18657" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-03T08:05:14.513" Score="5" ViewCount="151" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know about 4 ashram and 4 purusharth but does it somewhere suggest that we should only focus on moksha (as in jainism) and not on purusharth and ashram system. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9989" LastActivityDate="2017-06-04T17:43:10.787" Title="Does hinduism also suggest shedding of karma and renunciation?" Tags="|moksha|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18658" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-03T08:31:23.607" Score="1" ViewCount="112" Body="&lt;p&gt;Blessings, everyone.  There are so many versions of the Mahabharata with variations on the spellings of character names I.E. Bheeshma, Bhism, Bishma, Bhishma. Is there a reliable location of one list with the most authentic spellings--Closest to the oldest Sankrit translations?   Thank you for your kind consideration. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9772" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T04:55:21.207" LastActivityDate="2020-03-09T04:55:21.207" Title="Authentication of Mahabharata character names" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18660" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18598" CreationDate="2017-06-03T10:36:03.697" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are right, there is plenty of stuff in Hinduism that is blatantly misogynistic. Why, you ask? Simply because the text only reflects the attitude of the society in which these texts were written. And they were written by men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is an extract from the Mahabharata (Anushasana Parva, Section XXXVIII): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Yudhishthira said, 'O best of the Bharatas, I wish to hear thee discourse on the disposition of women. Women are said to be the root of all evil. They are all regarded as exceedingly frail.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Bhishma said, 'In this connection is cited the old history of the discourse between the celestial Rishi Narada and the (celestial) courtesan Panchachuda. Once in ancient times, the celestial Rishi Narada, having roamed over all the world, met the Apsara Panchachuda of faultless beauty, having her abode in the region of Brahman. Beholding the Apsara every limb of whose body was endued with great beauty, the ascetic addressed her, saying, 'O thou of slender waist, I have a doubt in my mind. Do thou explain it.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Bhishma continued, 'Thus addressed by the Rishi, the Apsara said unto him, 'If the subject is one which is known to me and if thou thinkest me competent to speak on it, I shall certainly say what is in my mind.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Narada said, 'O amiable one, I shall not certainly appoint thee to any task that is beyond thy competence. O thou of beautiful face, I wish to hear from thee of the disposition of women.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Bhishma continued, 'Hearing these words of the celestial Rishi, that foremost of Apsaras replied unto him, saying, 'I am unable, being myself a woman, to speak ill of women. Thou knowest what women are and with what nature they are endued. It behoveth thee not, O celestial Rishi, to set me to such a task.' Unto her the celestial Rishi said, 'It is very true, O thou of slender waist! &lt;strong&gt;One incurs fault by speaking what is untrue. In saying, however, what is true, there can be no fault.&lt;/strong&gt;' Thus addressed by him, the Apsara Panchachuda of sweet smiles consented to answer Narada's question. She then addressed herself to mention what the true and eternal faults of women are!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Panchachuda said, 'Even if high-born and endued with beauty and possessed of protectors, women wish to transgress the restraints assigned to them. This fault truly stains them, O Narada! &lt;strong&gt;There is nothing else that is more sinful than women. Verily, women, are the root of all faults.&lt;/strong&gt; That is, certainly known to thee, O Narada! Women, even when possessed of husbands having fame and wealth, of handsome features and completely obedient to them, are prepared to disregard them if they get the opportunity. &lt;strong&gt;This, O puissant one, is a sinful disposition with us women that, casting off modesty, we cultivate the companionship of men of sinful habits and intentions.&lt;/strong&gt; Women betray a liking for those men who court them, who approach their presence, and who respectfully serve them to even a slight extent. Through want of solicitation by persons of the other sex, or fear of relatives, women, who are naturally impatient of all restraints, do not transgress those that have been ordained for them, and remain by the side of their husbands. There is none whom they are incapable of admitting to their favours. &lt;strong&gt;They never take into consideration the age of the person they are prepared to favour. Ugly or handsome, if only the person happens to belong to the opposite sex, women are ready to enjoy his companionship.&lt;/strong&gt;' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'&lt;strong&gt;That women remain faithful to their lords is due not to their fear of sin, nor to compassion, nor to wealth, nor to the affection that springs up in their hearts for kinsmen and children.&lt;/strong&gt; Women living in the bosom of respectable families envy the condition of those members of their sex that are young and well-adorned with jewels and gems and that lead a free life. &lt;strong&gt;Even those women that are loved by their husbands and treated with great respect, are seen to bestow their favours upon men that are hump-backed, that are blind, that are idiots, or that are dwarfs. Women may be seen to like the companionship of even those men that are destitute of the power of locomotion or those men that are endued with great ugliness of features.&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O great Rishi, &lt;strong&gt;there is no man in this world whom women may regard as unfit for companionship. Through inability to obtain persons of the opposite sex, or fear of relatives, or fear of death and imprisonment, women remain, of themselves, within the restraints prescribed for them.&lt;/strong&gt; They are exceedingly restless, for they always hanker after new companions. In consequence of their nature being unintelligible, &lt;strong&gt;they are incapable of being kept in obedience by affectionate treatment.&lt;/strong&gt; Their disposition is such that they are incapable of being restrained when bent upon transgression. Verily, women are like the words uttered by the wise. Fire is never satiated with fuel. Ocean can never be filled with the waters that rivers bring unto him. &lt;strong&gt;The Destroyer is never satiated with slaying even all living creatures. Similarly, women are never satiated with men.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This, O celestial Rishi, is another mystery connected with women. As soon as they see a man of handsome and charming features, unfailing signs of desire appear on their persons. They never show sufficient regard for even such husbands as accomplish all their wishes, as always do what is agreeable to them and as protect them from want and danger. Women never regard so highly even articles of enjoyment in abundance or ornaments or other possessions of an agreeable kind as they do the companionship of persons of the opposite sex. The destroyer, the deity of wind, death, the nether regions, the equine mouth that roves through the ocean, vomiting ceaseless flames of fire, the sharpness of the razor, virulent poison, the snake, and Fire--all these exist in a state of union in women. That eternal Brahman whence the five great elements have sprung into existence, whence the Creator Brahma hath ordained the universe, and whence, indeed, men have sprung, verily from the same eternal source have women sprung into existence. &lt;strong&gt;At that time, again, O Narada, when women were created, these faults that I have enumerated were planted in them!&lt;/strong&gt;'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b003.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, no doubt, some here will say that these are the views only of the Apsara Panchachuda and not the word of God. But note that this is part of the Anushasana parva. This is Bhishma's last conversation before his death. Prior to Bhishma beginning this discourse, Krishna tells Yudhishthira that Bhishma knows about all things past present and future, and is the greatest authority on dharma and wisdom, and so Yudhishthira should ask all his doubts of the great man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna also blesses Bhishma before the discourse, saying that he is giving Bhishma divine vision, so that Bhishma knows everything that is ever there to know, and tells the assembled Pandavas that the words of the wise Bhishma are to be &quot;regarded as authoritative as the Vedas themselves.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given this context, if Yudhishthira asks Bhishma a question about women's character, and if this is the reply Bhishma gives, then this IS THE WORD OF GOD as regards women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9778" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-06-03T12:00:49.690" LastActivityDate="2017-06-03T12:00:49.690" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18662" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="36144" CreationDate="2017-06-03T10:56:41.170" Score="5" ViewCount="540" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any special deity dedicated for sri vidya upasana? I heard that it can also be done along with worship of Lord Narasimha, Lord Ganapathy etc. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9045" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-23T12:07:41.167" LastActivityDate="2019-08-28T07:22:40.857" Title="Can Sri Vidya Upasana be performed with multiple Gods/Godesses?" Tags="|worship|puja|sri-vidya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18663" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18646" CreationDate="2017-06-03T12:53:09.430" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt; , Gemstones  very amply are discussed in Hinduism scriptures. Especially the Puranas  we find very detail description of the gemstones. For example &lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana  Achar Kanda , chapter 68  ( Agastya Samhita ) Description of te origin of the gems in the treaties of Ratna Pariksha (test of gems ) by Holy Agastya  -&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;mentions some of the valuable gemstones , states How to Test genuineness of gems  , the rules to wear them etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are some of the gemstones mentioned -  1) Padmaraga -2) Emerald -3) Indranila -4) Vaidurya – 5) Pusparaga -6) Diamond the Pearl -7) Karketana – 8) Pulaka -8) Rudhiraktya (blood stone)- 9) Crystal -10)  Coral. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वज्रं मुक्तमणय: सपद्मरागा: समरकता: प्रोक्ता : | &lt;br&gt; अपि&#xA;  चेन्द्रनीलमणिवरवैदुर्या: पुष्करागाश्च: || ९ || &lt;br&gt; कर्केतनं सपुलकं&#xA;  रुधिराख्यसमन्वित तथा स्फटिकम् | &lt;br&gt; विद्रुममणिश्च यत्नादुद्दिष्टं&#xA;  संग्रहे तज्ज्ञनये ||१०||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gems such as Padmaraga , the Emerald , the Indranila and Vaidurya the&#xA;  Pusparaga , the Diamond the pearl , the Karketana , the Pulaka&#xA;  Rudhiraktya (blood stone) the crystal and coral should be carefully&#xA;  collected. Subject to the advice to the experts on the subject.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA; &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the same chapter we find following description -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेषु रक्षोविषव्यालव्याधिध्नान्यघहानि च | &lt;br&gt; प्रदुर्भवान्ति रत्नानि&#xA;  तथैव विगुणानि च ||८|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of the gems and the precious stones , some are endured with the&#xA;  virtues of expiating all sins or of acting as a prophylactic against&#xA;  the effect of poison , snake bytes and diseases , while there are&#xA;  others which are possessed of contrary virtues.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रथमं गुणसंपदाभ्युपेतं प्रतिबद्भं | &lt;br&gt; समुपैति यच्चदोषम् ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अलमाभरणेन तस्य राज्ञ्नो&lt;br&gt; गुणहीsपि मणिर्न भुषणाय ||४२||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Diamonds are prohibited as articles of female wear , as they are&#xA;  possessed of the Mystic Virtues and making them sterile and Unhappy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So its clear that gems posses mystic powers and  people of that time used to wear these kinds of stones for the betterment of their life .&lt;hr&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yBRvn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yBRvn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2wBwS.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2wBwS.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-03T13:07:19.140" LastActivityDate="2017-06-03T13:07:19.140" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18665" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18301" CreationDate="2017-06-03T13:21:08.323" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma of one's previous births (not just the last one, but the millions of past births) influences one's present birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is particularly seen in which varNa one is born in. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 14, Verse 14, Krishna says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-14-14.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-14-14.html&lt;/a&gt; (all the verses I am quoting, translations, and commentaries are derived from this same website)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;yadA sattvE pravRuddhe tu pralayam yAti dEha-bhRut &#xA;tadottama-vidAm lokAn amalAn pratipadyatE&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;When the embodied being transitions death, predominated by the mode of goodness – at that time, the pure worlds with the highest knowledge are attained.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Ramanujacharya explains it,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Lord Krishna explains that when the jIva, or embodied being, is in sattva guNa, or mode of goodness, at the time of death, then numerous blessed regions, where the knowers of AtmA tattva, or knowledge of the immortal soul, reside, are reached. The word amalAn means pure, exempt from blemish, and devoid of ignorance. The understanding is that the fate of a jIva, who dies under the influence of sattva guNa, would be that the next birth would take place in the environment of pious and holy people that have realised AtmA tattva; and so, combined with an inner impulse to pursue this way of life, and with opportunity in abundance, one would continue in sattva guNa, purifying one's existence by performing spiritual activities, until one achieves perfection.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, in 14-15, Krishna says that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;rajasi pralayam gatvA karma-sangiShu jAyatE &#xA;tathA pralInas tamasi mUDha-yOniShu jAyatE&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Succumbing to death in the mode of passion, one takes birth among those beings attached to fruitful activities; similarly, dying in the mode of ignorance, one takes birth from the womb of an animal.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Shridhara Swami explains it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Continuing, Lord Krishna explains that the result of raja guNa, or mode of passion, being predominant at the time of death is that the jIva, or embodied being, is born into families that are involved in vigorous activity. Likewise, the result of tama guNa, or mode of ignorance, being predominant at the moment of death is that the jIva is born in the wombs of irrational species as animals.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, Ramanujacharya explains this verse thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Now Lord Krishna explains that when a jIva, or embodied being, dies while in raja guNa, or the mode of passion, one takes birth among those who perform activities out of desire for rewards; and having been born as such, will endeavour mightily to accomplish works that would be rewarded by immense wealth and power, even up unto the heavenly spheres. Similarly, if one dies while under the influence of tama guNa, or the mode of ignorance, then such jIvas will be born from the wombs of animals such as pigs and dogs, where one would be completely incapacitated to perform any activity that would give any spiritual benefit.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise, Acharya Keshava Kashmiri explains this verse thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Lord Krishna states that if death comes upon a jIva, or embodied being, while predisposed to raja guNa, or the mode of passion, then one takes birth next from those who are obsessed to perform actions in anticipation of rewards. Also, a jIva dying while under the influence of tama guNa, or mode of ignorance, is forced to take birth as an animal in the next life.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Shankaracharya explains the verse thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;If he meets death when rajas is predominant, he is born among men, who are attached to action. The “irrational” refers to cattle and the like.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&quot;mUDha-yOnishu&quot; means &quot;womb of irrational being,&quot; i.e., animal.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one's varNa in a future birth (as a sattva-dominant, rajas-dominant, or tamas-dominant soul is determined by the guNa in which one dies. This guNa is the result of one's actions in millions of past births. As is seen in Chapter 18, those who are steeped in sattva guNa are the Brahmana varNa; those who are steeped in rajas guNa are the Kshatriya varNa, and those who are steeped in tamas guNa are the Shudra varNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance, 18-42 says about the Brahmana varNa: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;shamO damas tapaha shaucam kshAntir Arjavam Eva ca &#xA;jnAnam vijnAnam Astikyam brahma-karma svabhAva-jam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The actions of a Brahmana, arising from his own nature, are serenity, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge of the Vedas, wisdom, and firm faith.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that this arises from birth (&quot;arising from his own nature&quot;), not nurture. This is the link between guNa and varNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, 18-43 talks about the nature of Kshatriyas (again, &quot;born of his own nature&quot;): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;shauryam tEjO dhRutir dAkshyam yuddhE cApi apalAyanam &#xA;dAnam Ishvara-bhAvashca kshAtram karma svabhAva-jam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The actions of a Kshatriya, born of his own nature, are heroism; exuberance; determination; resourcefulness; no trace of cowardice in battle; generosity; and leadership.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This, again, is not learned. It is born of his own nature - i.e., is determined by birth. Hence, Kshatriyas = rajas. So if you die in rajas, as 14-15 says, he is to be reborn as a Kshatriya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And 18-44 talks about the nature of Vaishyas and Shudras (again, &quot;born of his own nature&quot;): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;kRushi-gau-rakshya-vANijyam vaishya-karma svabhAva-jam &#xA;paricaryAtmakam karma shUdrasyApi svabhAva-jam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The actions of a Vaishya, born of his own nature, are agriculture, cow protection, and trade; also, the actions of a Shudra, born of his own nature, consist in service to Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna has already defined the three guNas by their effects in Chapter 14, which leave no room for doubt what guNas the characteristics mentioned in Chapter 18 refer to. For example, in 14-6, Krishna says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;tatra sattvam nirmalatvAt prakAshakam anAmayam &#xA;sukha-sangEna badhnAti jnAna-sangEna cAnagha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;O sinless one, among these, the mode (guNa) of goodness (sattva), being pure, illuminating, and serene, binds one due to the attachment of happiness and the attachment of knowledge.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note the obvious connection between &quot;pure, illuminating, and serene,&quot; &quot;attachment to knowledge&quot; in 14-6, and &quot;serenity...knowledge of the Vedas, wisdom, and firm faith&quot; in 18-42. There can be no doubt that Krishna is talking about the same qualities in both verses. The implication is clear. Die in the mode of sattva and you are born in a community of sAttviks, i.e., Brahmanas. That's clearly what Krishna is saying here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, in 14-7, Krishna says, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;rajO rAgAtmakam viddhi truShNA-sanga-samudbhavam &#xA;tan nibadhnAti kauntEya karma-sangEna dEhinam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;O Arjuna, know that the mode of passion (rajas guNa) is the source of lust and attachment, and the producer of desire for sense gratification and sentimental infatuation, that enslaves the embodied consciousness by attachment to activities motivated by their fruits.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note again the connection between &quot;lust and attachment,&quot;&quot;sense gratification,&quot; and &quot;activities motivated by their fruits&quot; in 14-7, &quot;takes birth among those beings attached to fruitful activities&quot; in 14-15, and &quot;heroism; exuberance; determination&quot; in 18-43.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Brahmanas = sattva; Kshatriyas = rajas; Vaishyas = rajas + tamas, rajas dominant; Shudras = tamas dominant. And if you die with these guNas dominant in your past birth at the time of death, you will be born into the corresponding varNas in your next birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So yes, karma very strongly influences your fate in the next birth, according to Krishna in the Gita. It certainly determines which varNa you are born into in the next life. And that, as we know, matters a lot in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9778" LastActivityDate="2017-06-03T13:21:08.323" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18666" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18667" CreationDate="2017-06-03T14:31:50.377" Score="2" ViewCount="1286" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is embryology mentioned in the Bhagavata Purana? Is it contradictory with present day biology?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-04T07:27:11.567" LastActivityDate="2017-06-04T07:27:11.567" Title="Embryology in the srimad bhagavatam?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavata-purana|science|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18667" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18666" CreationDate="2017-06-03T16:52:43.913" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Is embryology mentioned in bhagavata Purana?-&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes it is mentioned in Shreemad Bhagvat Purana you can read it here  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 3.31&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; In the chapter &lt;strong&gt;SB 3.31: Lord Kapila’s Instructions on the Movements of the Living Entities.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कर्मणा दैवनेत्रेण जन्तुर्देहोपपत्तये | &lt;br&gt; स्त्रिया: प्रविष्टं उदरं&#xA;  पुंसो रेत: कणाश्रय: ||१||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye  &lt;br&gt; striyāḥ praviṣṭa&#xA;  udaraṁ puṁso retaḥ-kaṇāśrayaḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme&#xA;  Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the&#xA;  soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle&#xA;  of male semen to assume a particular type of body. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB3.31.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कललं त्वेकरात्रेण पञ्चरात्रेण बुद्बुदम् | &lt;br&gt; दशाहेन तु कर्कन्धु:&#xA;  पेश्यण्डं वा तत : परम् ||२||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kalalaṁ tv eka-rātreṇa pañca-rātreṇa budbudam &lt;br&gt; daśāhena tu&#xA;  karkandhūḥ peśy aṇḍaṁ vā tataḥ param &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the first night, the sperm and ovum mix, and on the fifth night the&#xA;  mixture ferments into a bubble. On the tenth night it develops into a&#xA;  form like a plum, and after that, it gradually turns into a lump of&#xA;  flesh or an egg, as the case may be. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB3.31.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मासेन तु शिरो द्वाभ्यां बाह्यान्घ्रादयङ्गविग्रह: | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नखलोमास्थिचर्मणि लिङ्गच्छिद्रोद्भवस्त्रिभि: ||३||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;māsena tu śiro dvābhyāṁ bāhv-aṅghry-ādy-aṅga-vigrahaḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nakha-lomāsthi-carmāṇi liṅga-cchidrodbhavas tribhiḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the course of a month, a head is formed, and at the end of two&#xA;  months the hands, feet and other limbs take shape. By the end of three&#xA;  months, the nails, fingers, toes, body hair, bones and skin appear, as&#xA;  do the organ of generation and the other apertures in the body, namely&#xA;  the eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth and anus. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB3.31.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चतुर्भिर्धातव: सप्त पच्स्च्रभि: श्रुत्तृडुद्भव: | &lt;br&gt; षड्भिर्जरायुणा&#xA;  वीत: कुक्षो भ्राम्यति दक्षिणो ||४||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;caturbhir dhātavaḥ sapta pañcabhiḥ kṣut-tṛḍ-udbhavaḥ  &lt;br&gt; ṣaḍbhir&#xA;  jarāyuṇā vītaḥ kukṣau bhrāmyati dakṣiṇe &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Within four months from the date of conception, the seven essential&#xA;  ingredients of the body, namely chyle, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow&#xA;  and semen, come into existence. At the end of five months, hunger and&#xA;  thirst make themselves felt, and at the end of six months, the fetus,&#xA;  enclosed by the amnion, begins to move on the right side of the&#xA;  abdomen. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB3.31.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उल्बेन संवृतस्तस्मिन्नन्त्रैच्श्र बहिरावृत: | आस्ते कृत्वा शिर: कुक्षो&#xA;  भुग्नपृष्ठशिरोधर: ||८||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ulbena saṁvṛtas tasminn antraiś ca bahir āvṛtaḥ  āste kṛtvā śiraḥ&#xA;  kukṣau bhugna-pṛṣṭha-śirodharaḥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Placed within the amnion and covered outside by the intestines, the&#xA;  child remains lying on one side of the abdomen, his head turned&#xA;  towards his belly and his back and neck arched like a bow.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB3.31.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आरभ्य सप्तमान्मासाल्लब्धबोधोsपि वेपित: | &lt;br&gt; नैकत्रास्ते&#xA;  सुतिवातैर्विष्ठाभूरिव सोदर: ||१०|| &lt;br&gt; ārabhya saptamān māsāl&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;labdha-bodho ’pi vepitaḥ   &lt;br&gt; naikatrāste sūti-vātair viṣṭhā-bhūr&#xA;  iva sodaraḥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus endowed with the development of consciousness&#xA;  from the seventh month after his conception, the child is tossed&#xA;  downward by the airs that press the embryo during the weeks preceding&#xA;  delivery. Like the worms born of the same filthy abdominal cavity, he&#xA;  cannot remain in one place.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/31/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB3.31.10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Now coming to your second question – Does it contradictory with present day biology – No its NOT , the description is &lt;strong&gt;fairly correct&lt;/strong&gt; although not accurate because &lt;strong&gt;that is (biology) not the scope of the text&lt;/strong&gt;  see&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/embryo-and-fetus-i-development-fertilization-birth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;encyclopedia.com&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;&#xA; -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The embryonic phase initiates with fertilization, the meeting of the&#xA;  male (sperm) and female (oocyte) gametes, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The embryo then undergoes gastrulation, the process that starts with&#xA;  the formation of the primitive streak. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the end of the embryonic phase, many important organ systems are in&#xA;  place, at least in rudimentary form. The fetal phase is characterized&#xA;  by further differentiation and maturation of tissues and organs,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the beginning of the fetal period (eighth week), the rudiments of&#xA;  the heart, blood and blood vessels, the major segments of the skeleton&#xA;  and associated muscle groups, the limbs, and many other structures are&#xA;  in place&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is important to keep in mind when interpreting early movements of&#xA;  the fetus, visualized more and more accurately by ultrasonography.&#xA;  These movements reflect the maturation of local neuromuscular&#xA;  structures&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5 weeks&lt;/strong&gt; Your baby resembles a tadpole more than a human, but is growing fast. The circulatory system is beginning to form, and the&#xA;  tiny heart will start to beat this week.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;16 weeks&lt;/strong&gt; he patterning on your baby's scalp has begun, though the hair isn't visible yet. His legs are more developed – find out when&#xA;  you're likely to feel your baby kick! His head is more upright, and&#xA;  his ears are close to their final position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;28 weeks&lt;/strong&gt; Your baby's eyesight is developing, which may enable her to sense light filtering in from the outside. She can blink, and her&#xA;  eyelashes have grown in.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.babycenter.com/fetal-development-week-by-week&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-03T17:02:24.250" LastActivityDate="2017-06-03T17:02:24.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18668" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18616" CreationDate="2017-06-03T20:09:34.653" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am only answering the following question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Any proof in the Chaitanya Charitamrita that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says Mahavishnu is an &#xA;incarnation of Krishna? &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya, Chapter 20&lt;/a&gt; Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that Lord Maha Vishnu is an incarnation of Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 20.250&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prathamei kare kṛṣṇa ‘puruṣāvatāra’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;seita puruṣa haya trividha prakāra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“In the beginning, Kṛṣṇa incarnates Himself as the puruṣa-avatāras, or Viṣṇu incarnations. These are of three types.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 20.251&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;viṣṇos tu trīṇi rūpāṇi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;puruṣākhyāny atho viduḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekaṁ tu mahataḥ sraṣṭṛ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dvitīyaṁ tv aṇḍa-saṁsthitam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tṛtīyaṁ sarva-bhūta-sthaṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tāni jñātvā vimucyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“ ‘Viṣṇu has three forms called puruṣas. The first, Mahā-Viṣṇu, is the creator of the total material energy [mahat], the second is Garbhodaśāyī, who is situated within each universe, and the third is Kṣīrodaśāyī, who lives in the heart of every living being. He who knows these three becomes liberated from the clutches of māyā.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-06-06T04:49:21.130" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T04:49:21.130" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18670" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14438" CreationDate="2017-06-04T04:28:29.720" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana, Rama says &quot;AtmAnAm mAnusham manyE...&quot;, meaning that to his knowledge he is a human being. He may be God in Heaven, but on Earth, his kindness makes him to tell us he is human. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9958" LastActivityDate="2017-06-04T04:28:29.720" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18671" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-04T04:32:05.510" Score="6" ViewCount="368" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.). Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14035/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Brahma Sutras were originally part of a 20-chapter unified Mimamsa Shastras, consisting of the 12 chapters of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the 4 chapters of the now-lost Devata Kanda Sutras, and the four chapters of Brahma Sutras.  My question is about the Devata Kanda Sutras, a work by Vyasa's shishya Kasakritsna which was devoted to analyzing the Samhitas of the Vedas in order to find information about the gods and how to meditate on them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18606/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Devata Kanda Sutras are now lost, but they were lost relatively recently, so we have a lot of information about them.  This quote from a Purva Mimamsa work called the Prapancha Hridayam mentions some of the commentators on the Devata Kanda Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mimamsa Shastra is contained in a text of 20 chapters. Of these, the first 16 chapters constitute the Purva Mimamsa. In this Mimamsa Shastra, the Purvakanda deals on issues of Dharma, and is compiled by Jaimini. The last 4 chapters constitute the Uttara Kanda or the Uttara Mimamsa and are compiled by Vyasa for dealing with the nature of Brahman. On this Mimamsa Shastra of 20 chapters, Bodhayana wrote a Bhashya that bore the name Krtakoti. Fearing that the great length of this commentary would cast it into oblivion, Upavarsha somewhat abridged it. Even this commentary might be considered too voluminous for study by people of dull wit - fearing thus, Devasvamin considerably abridged Upavarsha's already abridged commentary. Bhavadasa also wrote a commentary on Jaimini's Shastra. Of the 2 kandas comprising the Dharma Mimamsa Shastra, Sabara wrote a very brief commentary on the Tantra Kanda, ignoring the second kanda- Sankarsha Kanda. &lt;strong&gt;And likewise, Sankarshana wrote a brief commentary on the Devata Kanda.&lt;/strong&gt; On the Brahma Kanda, Bhagvatpada, Brahmadatta and Bhaskara etc. too wrote commentaries with different interpretations of the Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6923/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, in the worldview of the Pancharatra Agamas, Vishnu has four Vyuha forms, namely Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha.  So my question is, is the Sankarshana who wrote a commentary on the Devata Kanda Sutras the same as Vishnums Vyuha form Sankarshana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One reason I suspect that they are the same is because of what Shiva tells Kartikeya in Vidyaranya's Madhaviya Shankara Digvijaya, the traditional biography of Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Veda has three strands in its comprehensive teaching - the ritualistic, the meditative and the gnostic.... Now, coming to understand My design and following My instruction, &lt;strong&gt;Hari and Sesha have already been born as the sages Sankarshana and Patanjali for the resuscitation of the middle section of the Veda&lt;/strong&gt; dealing with meditation and have produced texts on Bhakti and Yoga. And I have now promised to the Devas, as you know very well, that I shall undertake to rejuvenate the gnostic teachings which form the ultimate purport of the Veda. Now, you have to do your part of the work, and that is the revival of the ritualistic section of Brahma (the Veda) condified by Jaimini; and thereby gain the reputed name of Subrahmanya (promoter of Brahmanya), besides the commonly known name of Kumarila Bhatta, the preacher of the Vedic Karma-Kanda. In order to refute and confute the Buddhists who are attacking the Vedic teachings and to establish the Vedic way of life, you have to be born in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vidyaranya seems to be saying that Shiva's son Kartikeya incarnated as Kumarila Bhatta to write a commentary on the Purva Mimams Sutras, which analyze the Karma Kanda or Brahmanas of the Vedas, Vishnu incarnated as Sankarshana to write a commentary on the Devata Kanda Sutras, which analyze the Madhyana Kanda or Samhitas of the Vedas, and Shiva incarnated as Adi Shankaracharya to write a commentary on the Brahma Sutras, which analyze the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas.  (I'm not sure how Patanjali fits in though.)  So at least Vidyaranya considers the commentator Sankarshana to be an incarnation of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another reason is that the last three Sutras of the Devata Kanda Sutras, which you can see in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18606/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, are in praise of Vishnu, so it would makes sense if the text has some connection to Vaishnavism.  In any case, are there any other Purva Mimamsa or Vedanta works which shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-06T20:54:02.853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T20:54:02.853" Title="Was Vishnu's Vyuha form Sankarshana a commentator on the Devata Kanda Sutras?" Tags="|vishnu|vedanta|vaishnavism|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18672" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14297" CreationDate="2017-06-04T04:38:07.137" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As taught to me by my Acharyan, the color white is universally considered a symbol of peace. The twin feet of Our Lord give us peace so we wear them on our forehead to invoke that in us. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Red is universally the symbol of love, kripa.  We are because of His love. We are constantly reminded of that by wearing that. So, our way is of Love and Peace. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please recognize that this is the explanation from a Jeeyar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://jetuk.org/2016/05/26/what-is-oordhwapundra-namam-on-the-forehead/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; is also  source link which says the same.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9958" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-04T06:41:09.423" LastActivityDate="2017-06-04T06:41:09.423" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18673" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18630" CreationDate="2017-06-04T05:09:09.987" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you acquire true knowledge about Lord Krishna, that will release you of all sins (bad karma) as stated in the Bhagavad gita 10.3:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who knows Me&lt;/strong&gt; as the unborn, as the beginningless, as the Supreme&#xA;  Lord of all the worlds – &lt;strong&gt;he only, undeluded among men, is freed from&#xA;  all sins&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2017-06-04T05:09:09.987" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18674" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19116" CreationDate="2017-06-04T05:17:38.743" Score="7" ViewCount="1440" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a mention of the shodahAdhAras or the sixteen adharas ( adhara means base).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ShadadvAnam ShadAdhAram &lt;strong&gt;ShodasAdhAra&lt;/strong&gt;nirnayam |&lt;br&gt; Yo JAnAthi&#xA;  VidhAnena Sa Guruh Kathitha Priye ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva says to Devi] One who knows how to determine the ShadadvA,&#xA;  ShadAdhAra and ShodashAdhAras accurately is called a Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 13-69.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translator gives the following information on what is what:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ShadadvA:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Varna, Pada, Mantra, KalA, Tattva and Bhuvan- These six ways or&#xA;  methods (AdhvA means ways or means).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ShadadhAra:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MulAdhAra, SwAdhishthAna, Manipura, AnAhata, Visuddha and AjnA- These&#xA;  six chakras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ShodhashAdhAra:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The six ShadadhAras plus the following ten- Bindu, KalA, NivodhikA,&#xA;  Ardhendu, NAda, NAdAnta, Unmani, Vishnuchakra and Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know about the 10 adharas mentioned above, from Bindu to Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know that the six chakras are located in our body ( muladhara near the anus to ajna at between the eyebrows.). The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahasrara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;7th chakra (Sahasrara)&lt;/a&gt; of course lies at the top of the head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do these 10 adharas also have a location each with respect to our body? If so which are those locations?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-08-23T14:19:03.277" LastActivityDate="2018-08-23T14:27:28.690" Title="What are the shodashAdhAras the first six of which are the shatchakras?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|yoga|agamas|chakras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18675" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-04T06:00:47.200" Score="8" ViewCount="203" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a small book called Shiva Tattva PradipikA which discusses the various facts associated with Lord Shiva by quoting from scriptures like Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Agamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In it we find the mention of several kinds of Shiva Lingas like Swayambhu, Bana, Indra, Vaishnava, Gola, Arsha, Raudra, Manasa, Shivanabhi and many others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book also discusses the signs that determine some of these lingas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Swayambhu Lingas (self manifested lingas) following are the lakshanas (or signs) mentioned:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NAnacchidrasamAdhritam NAnAvarnasamanvitam | Adrishtamulam Yalingam&#xA;  Karkasam Bhuvi Drisyathe || Tallinganthu Swayambhutamatharam&#xA;  Lakshyanachyutam |&lt;/strong&gt; Swayambhulingamityuktam Taccha NAnAvidha Matam ||&#xA;  ShankhAbhamastakam Lingam Vaishnavam TadudAhritam | PadmAbhamastakam&#xA;  BrAhmam ChatrAbham Shatrumuchyathe ||........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Lingas which have many pours or holes, which have different&#xA;  colors, whose root is deep within the earth and can't be seen. which&#xA;  are rough are called Swayambhulingas. The Lingas which are deprived of&#xA;  these signs are lakshanachyuta.&lt;/strong&gt; Swayambhulingas are of various kinds.&#xA;  The head of which is like a conch shell is called a Vaishnavalinga. If the head&#xA;  is like a lotus then its  known as BrAhmalinga. If head is like an&#xA;  umbrella is called the Aindralinga and so on...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) From which scripture the above verses are taken?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Do Puranas like Shiva. Linga etc discuss the various kinds of Swayambhu lingas and do they mention their signs? If yes, what are those signs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-04T17:13:16.973" LastActivityDate="2017-06-04T17:13:16.973" Title="Which scriptures describe swayambhu linga lakshanas (signs) and what are those?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|puranas|shiva-lingam|agamas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18676" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18624" CreationDate="2017-06-04T06:51:12.050" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas mention Sun or Lord Surya as the inner soul of everything. So, needless to say there is no question of that eternal Sun (mentioned in Vedas) ever dying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Surya AtmA&lt;/strong&gt; jagatah tasthushah cha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Sun is the soul of all&lt;/strong&gt; that is dynamic and static.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda Samhita, KAnda 13, Sukta 2, Mantra 35.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-06-04T06:51:12.050" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18677" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-04T13:09:23.453" Score="0" ViewCount="1494" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/14/36&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 9.14.36&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Urvaśī said: My dear King, you are a man, a hero. Don’t be impatient&#xA;  and give up your life. Be sober and don’t allow the senses to overcome&#xA;  you like foxes. Don’t let the foxes eat you. In other words, you&#xA;  should not be controlled by your senses. Rather, you should know that&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;the heart of a woman is like that of a fox. There is no use making&#xA;  friendship with women.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/14/37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 9.14.37&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women as a class are merciless and cunning.&lt;/strong&gt; They cannot tolerate even a slight offense. For their own pleasure they can do anything irreligious, and therefore &lt;strong&gt;they do not fear killing even a faithful husband or brother.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/14/38&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 9.14.38&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women are very easily seduced by men.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore, polluted women give up the friendship of a man who is their well-wisher and establish false friendship among fools. Indeed, they seek newer and newer friends, one after another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9810" LastActivityDate="2017-06-04T17:12:19.507" Title="Why Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 9 Chapter 14 insults women too much?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|bhagavata-purana|women|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18678" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18677" CreationDate="2017-06-04T15:59:15.267" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The quotes you mentioned in your question are &lt;strong&gt;not insulting women at all.&lt;/strong&gt; Although it looks like a insult , but we can't conclude that with just interpretation of 2-3 verses , without knowing the whole story and the background of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This chapter is about Chandra-Vamsha in which there is a story about Pururava and Urvashi. First of all let us see in what context and in which situation these sentences are said by Urvashi to Pururava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The summery of which is as follows &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Urvashi the celestial nimph fells in love with Pururava and he&#xA;  welcomes her and accepts her love proposal. Urvashi then hands him her&#xA;  two lambs for protection and sets one condition that he should not&#xA;  come in front of her naked. Meanwhile Indra knowing that Urvashi is&#xA;  not present at his court sends two gandharvas to bring her back to&#xA;  him.Those gandharvas stole the two lambs of Urvashi upon which&#xA;  Pururava flights with them and brings them back (in naked condition in&#xA;  hurry) and Urvashi leaves him as she sees him naked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that in lamenting, he began traveling about the earth like a madman.One day he spots Urvashi at kurukshetra (banks of river Saraswati)and says following to her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुदेहोsयं पत त्यत्र देवि दुरं ह्यतस्त्वया ।&lt;br&gt; खादनत्येनं वृका&#xA;  ग्रुध्रास्त्वतत्प्रसादस्य नास्पदम् ।।36।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sudeho ’yaṁ pataty atra devi dūraṁ hṛtas tvayā&lt;br&gt; khādanty enaṁ vṛkā&#xA;  gṛdhrās tvat-prasādasya nāspadam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O goddess, now that you have refused me, my beautiful body will fall&#xA;  down here, and because it is unsuitable for your pleasure, it will be&#xA;  eaten by foxes and vultures. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/14/35&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 9.14.35&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And thus he decides to die in the sorrow of Urvashi.Then Urvashi says to him thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मा मृथा: पुरुषोsसि त्वं मा स्म त्वाद्युवृका इमे।&lt;br&gt; क्कपि सख्यम न वै&#xA;  स्त्रीणाम वृकाणाम ह्यदयं यथा।।36।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mā mṛthāḥ puruṣo ’si tvaṁ mā sma tvādyur vṛkā ime  kvāpi sakhyaṁ na&#xA;  vai strīṇāṁ vṛkāṇāṁ hṛdayaṁ yathā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Urvaśī said: My dear King, you are a man, a hero. Don’t be impatient&#xA;  and give up your life. &lt;strong&gt;Be sober and don’t allow the senses to overcome&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  you like foxes. Don’t let the foxes eat you. In other words, you&#xA;  should not be controlled by your senses. Rather, you should know that&#xA;  the heart of a woman is like that of a fox. There is no use making&#xA;  friendship with women. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/14/36&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 9.14.36&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now its quite clear that - Urvashi says this by knowing Pururava's wish to die in her love &amp;amp; in her grief. So she just says all this in order to give courage to pururava and inorder to drove away his thoughts of dying in her grief of her and &lt;strong&gt;to tell him to control his senses.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;In other words intentionally to calm him down and to set his heart free of excessive love &amp;amp; lust etc.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no any intention of insulting  women in any way in that story nor it does so.Because Urvashi says this in different context as stated above and not in intention of  insulting  women&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism scriptures strongly respects women.And believes that   society only   flourishes in which women are given respect and treated with equality.&#xA; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-04T17:12:19.507" LastActivityDate="2017-06-04T17:12:19.507" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18679" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18657" CreationDate="2017-06-04T17:43:10.787" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;but does it somewhere suggest that we should &lt;strong&gt;only focus on moksha&lt;/strong&gt; (as&#xA;  in jainism) and not on purusharth and ashram system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, it does not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One can focus wholeheartedly on moksha once he has grown sufficiently old &amp;amp; when he has already fulfilled all his duties first.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When one can fully focus on  liberation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 6.2. When a householder &lt;strong&gt;sees his (skin) wrinkled, and&#xA;  (his hair) white, and. the sons of his sons, then he may resort to the&#xA;  forest.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What happens if someone applies himself fully for liberation without performing his preliminary duties first?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 6.36. Having studied the Vedas in accordance with the&#xA;  rule, having begat sons according to the sacred law, and having&#xA;  offered sacrifices according to his ability, &lt;strong&gt;he may direct his mind&#xA;  to (the attainment of) final liberation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 6.37. A twice-born man &lt;strong&gt;who seeks final liberation,&#xA;  without having studied the Vedas, without having begotten sons, and&#xA;  without having offered sacrifices, sinks downwards&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, one who seeks moksha for oneself without clearing the three debts (debts to gods, sages and ancestors) first sinks to hell as said in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.35. When he has paid the three debts, let him apply his mind to (the attainment of) final liberation; &lt;strong&gt;he who seeks it without having paid&#xA;  (his debts) sinks downwards.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, in whatever ashrama one lives in Hinduism always emphasizes on collecting spiritual merit because:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.239. &lt;strong&gt;For in the next world&lt;/strong&gt; neither father, nor mother, nor wife, nor sons, nor relations stay to be his companions; &lt;strong&gt;spiritual merit alone&#xA;  remains (with him).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note- All verses are from Manu Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-06-04T17:43:10.787" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18682" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-05T05:47:01.177" Score="4" ViewCount="1197" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu took the female role of Mohini during Samudra Manthan(churning of the ocean). Few misinterpret it to be gay interest of Hindu God Vishnu and that prompts some Hindu Godmen/sannyasis to fool young devotees. Is it right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10004" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-05T11:39:57.887" LastActivityDate="2017-06-05T12:56:10.910" Title="Is Avatar of Mohini a sign of support for homosexuality?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|avatars|homosexuality|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18683" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18597" CreationDate="2017-06-05T06:02:31.410" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Upanayana means the initiation of studies in the gurukulam after getting the gayAtri mantra upadesham. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The child after the ceremony proceeds straight to the gurukulam for the studies of shastra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Traditionally these boys were sent to ashrams with the gurus to learn&#xA;  in a gurukul system of education but in modern times this act of the&#xA;  boy doing for first alms round in town and leaving his family for&#xA;  gurus hermitage is done symbolically within the family and is later&#xA;  stopped by his maternal uncle (Mama) from leaving. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana#cite_note-Shore-33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was the practice followed in the ancient days. However, in today's time most of us do not go to Gurukula. Hence the maternal uncle usually stops the child once he commences his journey towards the gurukula. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This has become a custom that the child should be stopped else he will proceed to the gurukula. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-06-24T17:17:52.867" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T17:17:52.867" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18687" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18595" CreationDate="2017-06-05T06:33:39.090" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there are different kinds of havan- homa and yagya for attaining siddhi, but they are of different kinds not what we generally conduct. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There have been times in history when an entire race of mystical nagas was going to be annihilated in a yagya conducted by Raja JanamaJeya, son of King Parikshit, who was himself son of Abhimanyu, who you ought to know was himself son of the Legendary Arjun of Mahabharata. &#xA;So here's the story from Wikipedia: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to legend, Sarpa Satra or Snake sacrifice was a yagna performed by Emperor Janamejaya of the Kuru empire who had ascended to the throne of Hastinapura upon the death of his father Parikshit. The legend states that Parikshit, the lone descendant of the House of Pandu, son of Abhimanyu and grand son of Arjuna of the Mahabharata fame, had died of snakebite. He had been cursed by a sage to die so, the curse having been consummated by the serpent-chieftain Takshaka. Janamejaya bore a deep grudge against the serpents for this act, and thus decided to wipe them out altogether. He attempted this by performing a great Sarpa Satra – a sacrifice that would destroy all living serpents. At that time, a learned sage named Astika, a boy in age, came and intervened to stop the yagna; Astika's mother Jaratkaru also known as Manasa was a Naga and father was also Jarakaru, a saintly Brahmin. Janamejaya had to listen to the words of the learned Astika and set Takshaka free. He also stopped the massacre of the snakes (Nagas) and ended all the enmity with them. From then onward the snakes (Nagas) and Kurus lived in peace. ]]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See? Similarly, there was yagya conducted  in the beginning of kaliyug to kill many malechas, who almost were extinct, but then More Malechas were created by Lord Vishnu himself at the behest of kali, who would worship him and propogate kaliyug. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are similarly many aspects which are unknown to me, many many things which we can't fathom. But it's how it's ought to be, it's kaliyug. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They don't disagree, yoga is part of Atharva veda, but they might be lack the knowledge or proper insight since they never got to sit on other branches of Sanatan dharma so there's confusion. What we read is not the whole story, there are always untold aspects. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10003" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-06T20:59:28.767" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T20:59:28.767" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18688" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10654" CreationDate="2017-06-05T06:46:25.080" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Bali Maharaj was a noble man and also have favors of Brahmanas and noble persons. But Aditi, the mother of Demi-gods, had completed the &lt;code&gt;Payo-Vrata&lt;/code&gt; to please Lord Vishnu. So, Lord Vishnu had given her the boon to protect her sons. This is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto 8, Chapter 17&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.17.16&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;prāyo ’dhunā te ’sura-yūtha-nāthā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;apāraṇīyā iti devi me matiḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yat te ’nukūleśvara-vipra-guptā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;na vikramas tatra sukhaṁ dadāti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O mother of the demigods, in My opinion almost all the chiefs of the demons are now unconquerable, for they are being protected by brāhmaṇas, whom the Supreme Lord always favors. Thus the use of power against them now will not at all be a source of happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.17.17&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;athāpy upāyo mama devi cintyaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;santoṣitasya vrata-caryayā te&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mamārcanaṁ nārhati gantum anyathā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śraddhānurūpaṁ phala-hetukatvāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yet because I have been satisfied by the activities of your vow, O goddess Aditi, I must find some means to favor you, for worship of Me never goes in vain&lt;/strong&gt; but certainly gives the desired result according to what one deserves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.17.18&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tvayārcitaś cāham apatya-guptaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;payo-vratenānuguṇaṁ samīḍitaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;svāṁśena putratvam upetya te sutān&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;goptāsmi mārīca-tapasy adhiṣṭhitaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You have prayed to Me and properly worshiped Me by performing the great payo-vrata ceremony for the sake of protecting your sons. Because of Kaśyapa Muni’s austerities, I shall agree to become your son and thus protect your other sons&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T07:15:07.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18689" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18711" CreationDate="2017-06-05T07:24:58.387" Score="2" ViewCount="787" Body="&lt;p&gt;I saw &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2050/do-ghosts-and-spirits-exist-in-hindu-beliefs&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question. But as we saw in films ghosts can move chairs, beat &amp;amp; kill human, they don't have legs....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can ghosts kill human?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9976" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T10:25:10.710" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T10:25:10.710" Title="Can ghosts kill human according to hindu beliefs?" Tags="|belief|ghosts|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18691" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-05T08:38:55.043" Score="3" ViewCount="441" Body="&lt;p&gt;In ShreemadDeviBhagawatam, First Skandha, Fourth Chapter&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Conversation between Vishnu and Brahma  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu says-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शक्तिरूपं महाभाग किं पृच्छसि पुनः पुनः॥ ५२॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Highly Fortunate Brahma! even after realizing the Highest Aadyaa Shakti, why are you asking about Her Nature again and again?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यदिच्छः पुरुषो भूत्वा विचरामि महार्णवे।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;कच्छपः कोलसिंहश्च वामनश्च युगे युगे॥५६॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;By Her will&lt;/strong&gt;, I assume this human like body and roam in this great ocean.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And sometimes &lt;strong&gt;I assume Tortoise, Human-lion, Dwarf forms in various Yugas.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;न कस्यापि प्रियो लोके तिर्यग्योनिषु सम्भवः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नाभवं स्वेच्छया वामवराहादिषु योनिषु॥५७॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Who in the world endears birth in wombs of inferior animals? There is none.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Brahma! &lt;strong&gt;do I take these inferior births of tortoise, boar et cetera, because I want to?&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;विहाय लक्ष्म्या सह संविहारं को याति मत्स्यादिषु हीनयोनिषु।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शय्यां च मुक्त्वा गरुडासनस्थः करोमि युद्धं विपुलं स्वतन्त्रः ॥ ५८ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Brahma! leaving the pleasures with Lakshmi, &lt;strong&gt;who in the world beseeches for birth in heinous and inferior wombs of fish, tortoise, boar et cetera.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Who is that independent man, who leaves the majestic bed of AdiShesha or the grand seat of GarudaRaaja, and becomes assiduous towards the desire of fighting great wars and conflicts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above words of Narayana, it is clear thus- Narayana does not like taking inferior births and incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So why does He do it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16708/why-take-different-avatar-each-time?__=1242917510&quot;&gt;SwiftPushkar's answer&lt;/a&gt;, the reason is thus- Vishnu takes Avataara according to need (Human-lion form necessary to kill Hiranyakashipu, Tortoise form necessary to uphold Mandarachala et cetera).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if above SwiftPushkar's reason is correct, then &lt;strong&gt;why does he say- I do not like it. I hate taking birth in lower wombs.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, He further declares-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तस्मान्नाहं स्वतन्त्रोऽस्मि शक्त्यधीनोऽस्मि सर्वथा।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;तामेव शक्तिं सततं ध्यायामि च निरन्तरम्॥६१॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Therefore, I am not independent, I am always appurtenant to that AdyaShakti.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I meditate incessantly that Shakti only.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नातः परतरं किञ्चिज्जानामि कमलोद्भव।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Lotus born Brahma! I do not know anything beyond that Great AadiShakti.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the point in calling Narayana as - ParaBrahma? Though there is no difference in Narayana and AdiShakti, but still&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-06-06T09:06:08.363" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T03:20:58.687" Title="Why does Narayana take incarnation if He says- I dislike taking Avataara?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|shakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18692" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18693" CreationDate="2017-06-05T08:40:18.533" Score="10" ViewCount="1193" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a similar question which asks definition of Bhagavan from Vishnu Purana:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14377/definition-of-bhagavan-as-per-vishnu-purana?__=786307383&quot;&gt;Definition of Bhagavan as per Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here I&amp;apos;m asking about definition of Bhagavan as per Shiva Purana. So, &lt;strong&gt;what does Shiva Purana state about meaning of the word &amp;apos;Bhagavan&amp;apos; ?&lt;/strong&gt; Is the definition reflected in other scriptures like Vedas too?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2018-01-18T04:05:18.660" Title="What is the meaning of Bhagavan as per Shiva Purana?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|vedas|puranas|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18693" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18692" CreationDate="2017-06-05T08:45:27.333" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana Vidyesvara Samhita chapter 16 gives definition of what is meant by &amp;apos;Bhagavan&amp;apos; and why is Lord Shiva called Bhagavan:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भं वृद्धिं गच्छतीत्यर्थाद्भगः प्रकृतिरुच्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्राकृतैः शब्दमात्राद्यै प्राकृतेन्द्रियभोजनात् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भगस्य दं भोगमिति शब्दार्थो मुख्यतः श्रुतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मुख्यो भगस्तु प्रकृतिर्भगवाञ्छिव उच्यते ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भगवान् भोगदाता हि नान्यो भोगप्रदायकः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भगस्वामी च भगवानन्भर्ग इत्युच्यते बुधैः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भगेन सहितं लिंगं भगं लिंगेन संयुतम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इहामुत्र च भोगार्थ नित्यभोगार्थमेव च ।। (Shiva Purana 1.16)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The word Bhaga means the Prakirti because it increases and flourishes.&lt;/strong&gt; The Sabda matras etc. (the cosmic sound principle it: all objects of enjoyment) evolved out of Prakrti, being enjoyed by the sense organs, the word Bhaga comes to mean that which gives Bhoga. &lt;strong&gt;Bhaga is of course the Prakrti and Bhagavan is Lord Shiva himself.&lt;/strong&gt; Bhagavan alone bestows the Bhoga of everything. No one else except him bestows the Bhoga. &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavan is indeed the lord of Bhaga, therefore he is also called Bharga.&lt;/strong&gt; Bhaga is meant for Linga and the Linga is meant for Bhaga in this world as well as in the Paraloka. Shivalinga of Mahadeva should be adored with Bhaga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Bhagavan means the one who owns &amp;apos;Bhaga&amp;apos; or the Lord of Bhaga is known as Bhagavan. From the above passage we find:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;1) Bhagvan is the one who is Lord of Bhaga (Prakirti)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;2) Bhagvan is the one provides Bhoga.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;3) Lord is also called Bharga as he is Lord of Bhaga.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;4) Lord is worshipped in Linga form along with Bhaga (which is Yoni/Vedi of ShivaLinga)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Regarding the above conclusion some questions may arise such as:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Is Lord Shiva associated with &amp;apos;Bhaga&amp;apos; ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yes, he is associated. For eg. As described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18332/according-to-bhagvad-gita-lord-krishna-is-the-ultimate-god-so-why-are-there-ot/18354#18354&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; SataRudriya section of Yajurveda itself associates Lord Shiva with Bhaga:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namaste Astu &lt;strong&gt;Bhagava&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tâsãmishãno &lt;strong&gt;Bhagava&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Parãtã &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavo&lt;/strong&gt; vapaha&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also the Maitryayani Samhita of Sri Rudram itself calls Lord by addressing as &amp;apos;Bhagavan&amp;apos;. Similarly Svetasvatara Upanishad also states &amp;apos;Sarvavyapi sa Bhagavan&amp;apos; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The definition of Shiva Purana says &amp;apos;&lt;strong&gt;Bhaga Swami cha Bhagavan&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;apos; or &amp;apos;he who is Lord of Bhaga is Bhagavan.&amp;apos; So &lt;strong&gt;Is Lord Shiva called Lord of Bhaga also?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yes, he is called in Svetasvatara Upanishad 6.6:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स वृक्षकालाकृतिभिः परोऽन्यो&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; यस्मात् प्रपञ्चः परिवर्ततेऽयम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धर्मावहं पापनुदं &lt;strong&gt;भगेशं&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; ज्ञात्वात्मस्थममृतं विश्वधाम ॥ ६॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He from whom this universe proceeds is higher and other than all forms of the Tree of the World and of time. When one knows Him who is the indweller, the bringer of good, the destroyer of evil, &lt;strong&gt;the Lord of Bhaga,&lt;/strong&gt; the immortal support of all, one attains final Liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The definition of Shiva Purana also says &amp;apos;Bharga itiuchyate budhai&amp;apos; or &amp;apos;That&amp;apos;s why he is also called Bharga.&amp;apos; &lt;strong&gt;Is Lord Shiva also called Bharga?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yes, &amp;apos;Bharga&amp;apos; denotes Lord Shiva. Actually the word &amp;apos;Bharga&amp;apos; in Gayatri Mantra also denotes Lord Shiva. It is stated in Maitrayani Aranyaka as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ भर्ग इति यो ह वा अमुष्मिन्नादित्ये निहितस्तारकोऽक्षिणिवैष भर्गाख्यः। भाभिगंतिरस्य हीति भर्गः । भर्जयतीति वैष &lt;strong&gt;भर्ग इतिरुद्रो ब्रह्मवादिन ।&lt;/strong&gt; (Maitrayani Aranyaka 6.7)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Now he who is called bharga is he who is placed in yonder Aditya, or he who is the pupil in the eye. And he is so called, because his going (gati) is by rays (bhabhih); or because he parches (bhargayati) and makes the world to shrivel up. &lt;strong&gt;Rudra is called Bharga, thus say the knower of Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus Lord Shiva is called Bhagavan because he is the Lord of Bhaga (Bhagesha), Provider of Bhoga (Bhogadãtã), worshipped along with Bhaga (Bhagena Sahita Lingam) and also called as Bharga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-06-05T11:50:02.247" LastActivityDate="2017-06-05T11:50:02.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18695" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18360" CreationDate="2017-06-05T09:12:13.343" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;I felt obliged to answer this Question, as many people misunderstood my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10767/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. I no way projected Karna as a weak warrior. But there was never an opportunity to express that. Thanks for reopening this thread.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is &lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In fact Karna was considered one of the strongest.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;On the backdrop of Ghatotkacha's death, Krishna describes Karna's warring greatness in following ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;With &lt;em&gt;Kavacha-Kundala&lt;/em&gt;, he was &lt;strong&gt;invincible&lt;/strong&gt;; &lt;em&gt;Sudarshana chakra&lt;/em&gt; even cannot kill him&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Without &lt;em&gt;Kavacha-Kundala&lt;/em&gt;, but with Indra's dart (divine weapon), he was &lt;strong&gt;indefeasible&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Without any of above, he was still &lt;strong&gt;indefeasible by anyone except Arjuna&lt;/strong&gt;; Even Arjuna also might have to adopt some deceit to vanquish Karna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07177.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Drona Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasudeva said, ..., O Dhananjaya, that Karna, his dart being baffled through Ghatotkacha, is already slain in battle. &lt;strong&gt;The man does not exist in this world that could stay before Karna armed with that dart&lt;/strong&gt; and looking like Kartikeya in battle. By good luck, his (natural) armour had been taken away. By good luck, his earrings also had been taken away. By good luck, his infallible dart also is now baffled, through Ghatotkacha. Clad in (natural) coat of mail and decked with his (natural) ear-rings, Karna, who had his senses under control, could singly vanquish the three worlds with the very gods. Neither Vasava, nor Varuna the lord of the waters, nor Yama, could venture to approach him. Indeed, &lt;strong&gt;if that bull among men had his armour and ear-rings, neither thyself, bending the Gandiva, nor myself, uplifting my discus, called Sudarsana, could vanquish him in battle.&lt;/strong&gt; For thy good, Karna was divested of his ear-rings by Sakra with the help of an illusion. Similarly was that subjugator of hostile towns deprived of his (natural) armour. ... But &lt;strong&gt;though deprived of that dart, O sinless one, I swear to thee that hero is still incapable of being slain by anybody else save thee&lt;/strong&gt;. He is incapable of being vanquished in battle by the gods ... When his car-wheels will sink in the earth, availing thyself of that opportunity, &lt;strong&gt;thou shouldst slay him in that distressful situation&lt;/strong&gt; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-06T09:44:12.873" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T09:44:12.873" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18696" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18702" CreationDate="2017-06-05T09:19:57.560" Score="2" ViewCount="1088" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is scolding, insulting someone a sin ? what punishments will we face for this ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If someone insults us, is it right to insult them back or is it better to leave to God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9976" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-05T10:33:58.243" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T12:04:59.743" Title="Is scolding or insulting someone a sin?" Tags="|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18697" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18682" CreationDate="2017-06-05T09:20:09.647" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Few MISINTERPRET it to be Gay Interest of Hindu God Vishnu &amp;amp; that prompts some Hindu Godmen/sannyasis.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No  , the story of Lord Vishnu’s Mohini Avatara  is not to be interpreted as said by you above OR those who are interpreting it in some different way&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu took two Mohinhi Avataras 1) During churning of the ocean &amp;amp; 2) To show it to lord Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lets first look at Mohini avatara clarification from Churning of Ocean part.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA; The Churning of the Milk Ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the churning of the ocean process  Lord Dhanvantari came out  from the ocean with the  jug of nectar (Amruta). The demons, desiring the jug and its contents, immediately snatched it away by force. When the jug of nectar was carried off by the demons, the demigods were morose. Thus they sought shelter at Lord Vishnu.&#xA;And then Lord Vishnu assured gods that  - “Do not be aggrieved. By My own energy I shall bewilder the demons by creating a quarrel among them. In this way I shall fulfill your desire to have the nectar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धन्वन्तरिरिति ख्यात आयुर्वेदद्रुगिज्यभाक् |&lt;br&gt; तमालोक्यासुरा: सर्वे&#xA;  कलशं चामृताभृतम् ||३५||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dhanvantarir iti khyāta āyur-veda-dṛg ijya-bhāk | tam ālokyāsurāḥ&#xA;  sarve kalasaṁ cāmṛtābhṛtam &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upon seeing Dhanvantari carrying the jug of nectar, the demons,&#xA;  desiring the jug and its contents, immediately snatched it away by&#xA;  force.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/8/35&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.8.35&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लिप्सन्त: सर्ववस्तुनि कलशं तरसाहरन् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नियमानेsसुरैस्तस्मिन्कलशेsमृतभाजने ||३६||&lt;br&gt; विषण्णमनसो देवा हरिं&#xA;  शरनमाययु: |&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;lipsantaḥ sarva-vastūni kalasaṁ tarasāharan | nīyamāne ’surais tasmin&#xA;  kalase ’mṛta-bhājane |  viṣaṇṇa-manaso devā hariṁ śaraṇam āyayuḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the jug of nectar was carried off by the demons, the demigods&#xA;  were morose. Thus they sought shelter at the lotus feet of the Supreme&#xA;  Personality of Godhead, Hari. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/8/36&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 8.8.36&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इति तदैन्यमालोक्य भगवान्भुत्यकामकृत | &lt;br&gt; मा ख्यिदयत मिथोर्थ व:&#xA;  सधयिश्ये स्वमायया ||३७||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;iti tad-dainyam ālokya bhagavān bhṛtya-kāma-kṛt  mā khidyata mitho&#xA;  ’rthaṁ vaḥ sādhayiṣye sva-māyayā &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who always desires to fulfill&#xA;  the ambitions of His devotees, saw that the demigods were morose, He&#xA;  said to them, “Do not be aggrieved. By My own energy I shall bewilder&#xA;  the demons by creating a quarrel among them. In this way I shall&#xA;  fulfill your desire to have the nectar.”&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/8/37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.8.37&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So its quite clear that Lord Vishnu took the Monhini avatara during Samudra Manthana  , &lt;strong&gt;because daityas forcibly took /aquaired the jar of nectar&lt;/strong&gt;  denying its part of share to gods . Lord Vishnu took this avatara  as  confuse daityas and to bring back the jar of nectar. And not of  gay interest . &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The clarification and the  purpose of Lord Vishnu’s  &lt;strong&gt;Second  Mohini avatara&lt;/strong&gt; which he showed to Lord Mahadeva is explained  in Shreemad Bhagvat purana .&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/12/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;   The Mohinī-mūrti Incarnation Bewilders Lord Śiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Lord Mahdeva wished to see Lord Vishnu’s Yog-Maya and beautiful young female form (Mohini Avtara).  And was  very eager to see that form. So Lord Mahadeva requested to show this form to Lord vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अवतारा मया दृष्टा रममाणस्य ते गुणै: | &lt;br&gt; सोsहं तद् द्रष्टुमिच्छामि&#xA;  यत् ते योषिव्दपुर्धुतम् ||१२||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;avatārā mayā dṛṣṭā ramamāṇasya te guṇaiḥ &lt;br&gt; so ’haṁ tad draṣṭum&#xA;  icchāmi yat te yoṣid-vapur dhṛtam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My Lord, I have seen all kinds of incarnations You have exhibited by&#xA;  Your transcendental qualities, and now that You have appeared as a&#xA;  beautiful young woman, &lt;strong&gt;I wish to see that form of Your Lordship&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/12/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;SB 8.12.12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt; येन संमोहिता दैत्या: पयिताच्श्रामृतं सुरा | &lt;br&gt; तद् दिद्रुक्षव आयाता: परं कौतुहलं हि न: ||१३||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yena sammohitā daityāḥ pāyitāś cāmṛtaṁ surāḥ &lt;br&gt; tad didṛkṣava āyātāḥ&#xA;  paraṁ kautūhalaṁ hi naḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My Lord, we have come here desiring to see that form of Your Lordship&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;which You showed to the demons to captivate them completely and in this way enable the demigods to drink nectar. I am very eager to see&#xA;  that form.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/12/13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.12.13&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord Vishu Replied thus and took the form of beautiful women (Mohini which he took during Churning of Ocean)  -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्तेsहं दर्शयिष्यामि दिद्रुक्षो: सुरसत्तम |&lt;br&gt; कामिनां बहु मन्तव्यं&#xA;  सङ्कल्पप्रभवोदयम् ||१६|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tat te ’haṁ darśayiṣyāmi didṛkṣoḥ sura-sattama &lt;br&gt; kāmināṁ bahu&#xA;  mantavyaṁ saṅkalpa-prabhavodayam &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O best of the demigods, I shall now show you My form that is very much&#xA;  appreciated by those who are lusty. Since you want to see that form, &lt;strong&gt;I&#xA;  shall reveal it in your presence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/12/16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.12.16&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Afterall all this was just a Maya of Lord Vishnu created to let Lord Mahdeva familiar with the Maya , which irresistible  OR impossible to break. And he Warns Mahadeva about this which is  also stated in this chapter .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आत्मानं मोचयित्वाग्ड. सुरर्षभभुजान्तरात | &lt;br&gt; प्राद्रवत्सा पृथुश्रोणि&#xA;  माया देवनिर्मिता ||३०|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ātmānaṁ mocayitvāṅga surarṣabha-bhujāntarāt &lt;br&gt; prādravat sā&#xA;  pṛthu-śroṇī māyā deva-vinirmitā &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O King, this woman, who had large, high hips, &lt;strong&gt;was a woman of yoga-māyā&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  presented by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/12/29-30&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.12.30&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and then Lord Mahadeav gets  become perplexed and confused. Even though knowing his abilities and capability , this also a kind of leela of Lord Mahdeva to get Bewailed by Maya.  And the moral of the story is to tell us that  - A devotee should not be agitated under any circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दिष्ट्या त्वं विभुधश्रेष्ठ स्वां निष्ठात्मना स्थित: | &lt;br&gt; यन्मे&#xA;  स्त्रीरुपया स्वैरं मोहितोsप्यग्ड. मायया ||३८|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;diṣṭyā tvaṁ vibudha-śreṣṭha svāṁ niṣṭhām ātmanā sthitaḥ yan me&#xA;  strī-rūpayā svairaṁ mohito ’py aṅga māyayā &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O best of the demigods,&#xA;  although you have been amply harassed because of My potency in&#xA;  assuming the form of a woman, y&lt;strong&gt;ou are established in your position.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Therefore, may all good fortune be upon you. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/12/38&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.12.38&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And this is the actual meaning of the above shloka - : After being amply harassed by Lord Viṣṇu’s potency, &lt;strong&gt;Lord Śiva resumed his normal, unagitated condition.&lt;/strong&gt; This is the position of a devotee. A devotee should not be agitated under any circumstances, &#xA;even in the worst reverse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So the story tells us that How powerful this Maya is and what great efforts one should need to overcome this maya and how difficult its is.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the way the story is to be interpreted  and not as stated in question or told by somebody else as stated by you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion -: &lt;strong&gt;And the Mohini Avatara is not supporting Homosexuality at all&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-05T12:56:10.910" LastActivityDate="2017-06-05T12:56:10.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18698" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18691" CreationDate="2017-06-05T12:38:09.587" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत। &lt;br&gt; अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य&#xA;  तदाऽऽत्मानं सृजाम्यहम्।।4.7।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;yadA yadA hi dharmasya glAnirbhavati bhArata, &lt;br&gt; abhyutthAnam&#xA;  adharmasya tadAtmAnam sRjAmyaham&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=4&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 4.7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम्।&lt;br&gt; धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय&#xA;  संभवामि युगे युगे।।4.8।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;paritrANAya sAdhUnAm vinAzAya ca duSkRtAm  &lt;br&gt;dharma&#xA;  samsthApanArthAya sambhavAmi yugE yugE&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=4&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 4.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana takes avatara for the above reasons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T03:20:58.687" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T03:20:58.687" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18699" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18714" CreationDate="2017-06-05T13:17:27.950" Score="7" ViewCount="119" Body="&lt;p&gt;We put images of God in every marriage invitation or in newspapers etc.,.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People neglect those papers or invitations.Sometimes we can see those kind of invitation or newspapers in &lt;strong&gt;streets&lt;/strong&gt;. We respect same god who is present in temple. But neglect who is on papers!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So who gets the sin? The people who print god images acquire sin or who throw those papers or invitation cards get sin? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9976" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-05T13:34:31.470" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T16:47:35.977" Title="Is putting images of God in marriage invitation acceptable?" Tags="|gods|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18700" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-05T13:51:33.127" Score="1" ViewCount="224" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many Hindu scriptures talk about some events which occurred all over the Vishwa or world. Does the world here mean then undivided Bharat (from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka to Myanmar) as there was no trace of Hinduism outside Bharat?&#xA;E.g. After the death of sati, lord shiva danced in anger with the dead body of sati all over the world but there are 51 shakti pith only in India, none outside of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-23T12:06:06.383" LastActivityDate="2018-10-23T12:06:06.383" Title="What is the meaning of the word VISHWA (world) in Hinduism" Tags="|india|sati-goddess|geography|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18702" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18696" CreationDate="2017-06-05T16:41:11.630" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If someone insults us, is it right to insult them back?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahābhārata says (quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13971&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यस्मिन् यथा वर्तते यॊ मनुष्यस; तस्मिंस तथा वर्तितव्यं स धर्मः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मायाचारॊ मायया वर्तितव्यः; साध्व आचारः साधुना परत्युदेयः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yasmin yathā vartate yo manuṣyas; tasmiṃs tathā vartitavyaṃ sa dharmaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;māyācāro māyayā vartitavyaḥ; sādhv ācāraḥ sādhunā pratyudeyaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should treat another as the latter does to him. A deceitful person should be thwarted with deceit, while an honest man should be treated with honesty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T12:04:59.743" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18703" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18716" CreationDate="2017-06-05T17:16:14.680" Score="2" ViewCount="4639" Body="&lt;p&gt;I provide some translation by Griffith here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 6.77.1&lt;/strong&gt; Firm stands the heaven, &lt;strong&gt;firm stands the earth&lt;/strong&gt;, firm stands this universal world&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 6.44.1&lt;/strong&gt; Firm stood the heaven, &lt;strong&gt;firm stood the earth&lt;/strong&gt;, firm stood this universal world. Firm stood the trees that sleep erect: let this thy malady be still.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 13.1.6&lt;/strong&gt; …Rohita with his might hath established Earth and Heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 6.88.1&lt;/strong&gt; Firm is the sky, firm is the earth, and firm is all this living world;&#xA;  Firm are these mountains on their base, and stedfast is this King&#xA;   of men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastEditorUserId="10008" LastEditDate="2017-07-28T16:57:38.657" LastActivityDate="2019-02-08T10:08:29.760" Title="What is the meaning of Atharva Veda 6.77.1, 6.44.1, 13.1.6, 6.88.1?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|science|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18704" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18722" CreationDate="2017-06-05T17:58:12.327" Score="2" ViewCount="554" Body="&lt;p&gt;(SB. 12:13:16)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as the Gańgā is the greatest of all rivers, Lord Acyuta the supreme among deities and Lord Śambhu [Śiva] the greatest of Vaiṣṇavas, so Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the greatest of all Purāṇas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verse is used my many Krishna-centric Vaishnavas to say that the Srimad Bhagavatam is the greatest of all the puranas. I have heard from many people that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself recommended this purana to all Vaishnavas. But is it mentioned in the Chaitanya Charitamrita that Mahaprabhu himself recommended this purana? Apologies to anyone offended by my question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-03-19T20:30:44.153" LastActivityDate="2018-03-19T20:30:44.153" Title="Any verse in the Chaitanya Charitamrita where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that Srimad Bhagavatam is the greatest of all puranas?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|identification-request|chaitanya|chaitanya-charitamrita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18705" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8938" CreationDate="2017-06-05T20:49:56.260" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is my partial answer to the Question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are Navagrahas?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The nine planets are collectively known as Navagrahas. They are worshipped in Hinduism for good luck or to overcome adversity, bad luck or misfortune arising from past karmas or birth related defects (dhoshas). They are found in most Hindu temples either grouped together on a panel or on a pedestal in commonly visible areas of the temple. (Most of Navagrahas Idols present in Shiva temple, it gives give us pleasure and serenity and remove obstacles from our way) Devotees usually propitiate these gods before offering prayers to the main deity in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. Of the nine deities, seven are named after the planets in the solar system, and correspond with the names of the seven days in the week of the Hindu calendar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significance in astrology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The nine planetary gods have a great significance in Vedic astrology. Hindu astrologers draw the birth charts of individuals based upon the their position at the time of their birth. Depending upon where they are located in the astrological chart at a given time, they exert positive or negative influence upon people and their destinies. The position of Sani, Rahu and Ketu are especially considered important. If their positions are not favorable, astrologers suggest remedial measures to pacify the planets and ward off their negative influence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reason for having Navagrahas Idols:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Each of the Navagrahas has one supreme goddess. Lord Shiva was appointed by the gods. Shiva is also the goddess of the sun god, the source of the planets. For this reason, all the planets are bound to follow Shiva's direction. That is why Navagraha idols are mostly present in Shiva temples. (Now a days we can see Navagraha in most of temples )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to mythology, Navagrahas can not have any effect if it is the grace of Lord Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt; That is why most devotees do not have Navagrahha pooja in the Shiva temples, but the Lord Shiva is certainly anointed with an anhishakam or Archana. If we did like this the devotees believe that if the Navagraha errors will fall. Apart from the Shiva temples, we see Navagrahas in some other temples. But any temple in Navagrahas is good to Pradhikshina around, then we believe that will make/reduce Graha Dosha on us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rahu and Ketu&lt;/strong&gt;: The remaining two deities are actually demons who managed to gain a place in the pantheon through an act of trickery. Their names are derived from either comets or from the dark and somewhat hostile planets of the solar system (Neptune and Pluto). Depending upon their location in the planetary system and their association with the remaining deities, they are deemed either auspicious or inauspicious. Of the &lt;strong&gt;nine planets, only seven are actually gods and the other two, Rahu and Ketu are demons&lt;/strong&gt;. The seven are usually spoken as planets, while the &lt;strong&gt;two (Rahu and Ketu) are compared to comets and the like, having a shadowy influence upon the destinies of people.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;So people used to believe if we offer payers to those two it will not show any effect to devotees&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People use to offer prayers to the Navagraha using Slokas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SlOKA:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aadhithyaaya Cha Somaaya Mangalaaya Bhudhaaya Cha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Guru Sukra Sanibhyascha Raahave, Kethave Namaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Salutations to the Sun God, the Moon, and to Mangala (Mars) and Budha (Mercury). Also to the divine preceptor Brahaspathi and to Sukra, the teacher of Ausuras, and to Sani, the planet Saturn. Salutations to Rahu and Kethu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another important point here is that there are many people who doubt that Navagrahas should visit before or after the Shiva temple or visit the Lord Shiva. The Navagrahas in Shiva temple will soon be the first to see whether or not to go to Lord Shiva or Navagrahas. Lord Shiva is the ruler. Lord Shiva taught the subject of duty, so First have to visit the Shiva. Or Navagrahas, but the blessing of Lord Shiva does not have any trouble. Similarly, Navagrahas praying to Lord Shiva give grace to the Devotees. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-06-05T20:49:56.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18706" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-06T00:43:46.403" Score="0" ViewCount="268" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Caitanya Carita 2.15-16 says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....Then, the Lord, who is known as the annihilator of the armies of the demons, &lt;strong&gt;gave breast milk to those most exalted of godly men&lt;/strong&gt;. And, as they gazed upon the Supreme Lord, whose beautiful eyes were filled with tender compassion, His associates felt joy. (Sri Caitanya-carita 2.15-16)....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what do these verses mean?  How do Prabhupada and other Gaudiya Vaishnavas interpret these verses?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10013" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-07T21:45:55.653" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T06:22:58.440" Title="What does Sri Caitanya Carita 2.15-16 mean?" Tags="|vaishnavism|gaudiya-vaishnavism|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18711" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18689" CreationDate="2017-06-06T04:34:10.280" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g. Brahma Rakshas can kill and eat humans. Does not mean any ghosts can kill humans, they need to be very powerful or have great tapas shakti while they were alive. No need to worry about your average ghost haunting and killing people. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - Kaishika Mahatmyam in Varaha Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone who dies becomes a preta (ghost), but they leave earth once samskaras are done. Most ghosts who remain that way are souls who did not have samskaras done for them, or untimely death, or suicide.&#xA; many don't care about killing humans. They just want to go to yama-loka so they can get their rewards or punishments according to karma, and then take on a new body according to desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-06-06T05:21:13.557" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T05:21:13.557" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18712" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18704" CreationDate="2017-06-06T04:46:42.053" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/25/266&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya Lila, Chapter-25, Verse-266&lt;/a&gt;, that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is preached by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śrī-bhāgavata-tattva-rasa karilā pracāre&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kṛṣṇa-tulya bhāgavata, jānāilā saṁsāre&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has personally preached the transcendental truths and mellows of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam&lt;/strong&gt;. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are identical, for Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the sound incarnation of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T09:13:32.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18713" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14109" CreationDate="2017-06-06T06:07:47.830" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rahu and Kethu are chaya grahas. They will travel alongwith other graha as per kocharas. An experienced sivan temple archaka in  Chennai  said do all the nine pradakshinams in clockwise direction only. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T06:07:47.830" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18714" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18699" CreationDate="2017-06-06T06:08:18.027" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Have a look at the following verse which are  words of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agnou Tishtathi ViprAnam Hrudi Devo ManishinAm |&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;PratimAswapravuddhAnAm Sarvatra ViditAtmanAm ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the brahmins God resides in fire, for the manishi (or&#xA;  mahatma) God resides in his heart, &lt;strong&gt;for the unintelligent he resides&#xA;  in idols but for the self-realized he resides everywhere.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 9-44.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it actually depends. If someone thinks he has successfully enclosed God in a small piece of paper, he can think of, putting that paper in some dirty places, like the streets, as an insult to him. But in truth none have the power to insult God like that, because he resides everywhere including even on the streets which apparently look dirty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, having said that, such behavior is not expected from persons who love God even a bit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any things related to him (like his images, nirmalayas etc) are ideally best disposed by immersing them in flowing rivers like the Ganges.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-06T16:47:35.977" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T16:47:35.977" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18715" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12002" CreationDate="2017-06-06T07:25:40.363" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Riding camels is not inauspicious. Camel can be just used as vehicles as elephants and horses are used. Kandika 15, Kanda 3 of Paraskara Grihya Sutra (associated with Shukla YajurVeda) gives instructions on what should one do/recite in specific conditions like riding horses, elephants etc.. or walking in path etc.. It also states what should one do while riding on a camel. Relevant portion is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथातो हस्त्यारोहणम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  1. Now how he should mount an elephant.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एत्य हस्तिनमभिमृशति हस्तिशसमसि हस्तिवर्चसमीति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2. He goes to the elephant and touches it (saying), &amp;apos;The elephants&amp;apos; glory art thou. The elephants&amp;apos; honour art thou.&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अथारोहतीन्द्रस् त्वा वज्रेणभितिष्ठामि स्वस्ति मा संपारयते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3. He then mounts it with (the words), &amp;apos;With Indra&amp;apos;s thunder-bolt I bestride thee. Make me arrive safely.&amp;apos; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एतेनैवाश्वारोहणं व्याख्याताम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  4. Thereby it has also been declared how he should mount a horse.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उष्ट्रमारोक्ष्ययन्नभिमन्त्रयते त्वाष्ट्रोऽसि त्वष्टदैवत्यः स्वस्ति मा संपारयति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  5. &lt;strong&gt;When he is going to mount a camel, he addresses it: &amp;apos;Thou art the son of Tvashtri; Tvashtri is thy deity. Make me arrive safely.&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Paraskara Grihya Sutras Kanda 3 Kandika 15.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, it is itself clear from above passage that one can ride camel just like one rides horses or elephants. So, it is not inauspicious. Regarding the dream described in Valmiki Ramayana it is there called inauspicious because it is dream interpretation not real life interpretation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T07:25:40.363" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18716" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18703" CreationDate="2017-06-06T09:04:26.253" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question is what is actual meaning of AtharvaVeda Mantras you quoted - translated by    Griffith.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Let's look at the verses from another translation of Atharva-Veda by Shri Ram Sharma Acharya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/AtharvavedaSubodhBhashya/%22Atharvaved%20Subodh%20Bhashya%20Bhag%202%20%20Satavleka%2C%20damodar.%201958.%20sanskrit.%20Veda.%20431%20pgs.%22#page/n363/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva-Veda 6 .44 .1&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;-  Roga-Nashana Sukta .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अस्थाद्&lt;/strong&gt; दयौरस्थात पृथव्यस्थाद् विश्वमिदं जगत् |  &lt;br&gt; अस्थुर्वुक्षा&#xA;  ऊर्ध्वस्वप्नातिषठात रोगो अयं तव || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Dyuloka or swarga is stable likewise this earth which  is base of&#xA;  all the creatures on it is also stable . The trees which sleeps even&#xA;  they remain standing are stable or not moving. Just like all of these &#xA;  let this bleeding from wound stop .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here  in this mantra there is a prayer to stop bleeding.  If we look at the translation we can see that the actual meaning of firm stands the earth or &quot;Astahat&quot; is not be taken as static but as firm and not frequently changing shape ,form etc. providing a stable , non movable  land support and rigid support - which is essential for creatures living on her to live well. i.e. for building homes , agriculture purposes etc. &#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;In the similar way the word &quot;Asthat&quot; is used in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/HindiBookAtharvavedaSanhitaPart1/page/n223&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva-Veda 6 .77.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Which is  Pratisthapana Sukta and Griffith translated it as  firm stood the earth. Let's have another look. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अस्थाद् दयौरस्थात पृथव्यस्थाद् विश्वमिदं जगत् | &lt;br&gt; आस्थाने पर्वता&#xA;  अस्थु स्थान्मश्र्वाम् अतिष्ठिपम् ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Swarga , earth and centers of both are stable in their respected&#xA;  positions and boundaries  on this universe. The mountains are also&#xA;  stable. Likewise let us control our dynamics with our power of soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in this mantra a advice is given to us by risies to control our senses and to keep them in their respect boundaries for the sake of our own good. Just like Swarga and Earth  and their centers are stable i.e. they are not freely moving uncontrollably in this universe also we should not let our dynamic powers (senses) loose. And here stable boundaries of earth and swarga are used as example. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/HindiBookAtharvavedaSanhitaPart1/page/n229&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva-Veda 6 .88 .1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; – Dhruvo Raja Sukta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ध्रुवा&lt;/strong&gt; दयौर्ध्रुवा पृथिवी ध्रुवं विश्वमिदम् जगत | &lt;br&gt; ध्रुवास: पर्वता&#xA;  इमे ध्रुवो राजा विशामयम् || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just like the sky , mountains and entire universe is not deviating ,&#xA;  let the king of the land be stable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the word Dhruva is used as Synonyms to stable. But the meaning of it is totally different is not unmovable but not deviating , the purpose of the mantra is a prayer for a king to remain fixed in his views and he may not get confused or change his mind frequently . let the mind of the king do not deviate or unstable.  firm etc&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA; Now coming to AV 13.1.6 . It’s a Adhyatma –Prakarana Sukta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रोहितो द्यवापृथिवी जजान तत्र तन्तु परमेष्ठि ततान | &lt;br&gt; तत्र&#xA;  शिश्रियेsज एकपादोsद्रुंहद् द्यावा पृथिवी बलेन ||  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swarga and earth are emerged from Surya (sun god)&lt;/strong&gt; .There Prajapati&#xA;  developed and broadened the the Atmatattva ( soul element). the Atman&#xA;  has taken shelter over there. And given the strength to earth  and&#xA;  swarga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is mantra from Adhyatma prakarana. i.e. this is spiritual section  and eulogy of sun god (surya ) , Rohita (shining sun). This sukta has 60 mantras in which how surya or sun god created the earth and swarga is described  i.e. from his various rays , how sun god created various   fires and how he established earth as vedika ( alter for Yajna) , due to him rain came etc. &#xA;Here surya is considered as soul of this world and in his eulogy its said that he has created whole universe and in similar way he has fashioned earth and swarga. I.e. he created everything on earth  like mountains , food , trees etc. from his powers &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Conclusion - SO if we look closely at other translators we can find&#xA;  that all these mantras is having deeper meaning than it appears , and&#xA;  not to be interpreted as they are. Griffiths translation generally is&#xA;  word to word and lagging in core message of vedas. Any way the words&#xA;  like Dhruva and  firm are just used to give examples . They does not&#xA;  necessarily mean to say that earth is static  or immovable , but as&#xA;  shown above each word  is used for different purpose , and this does&#xA;  not mean those are the errors in Atharva veda , or the Mantra-Drashta&#xA;  Rishi's were believing that earth is static.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/I1AXH.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/I1AXH.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2019-02-08T10:08:29.760" LastActivityDate="2019-02-08T10:08:29.760" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18720" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-06T10:41:17.367" Score="5" ViewCount="235" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my knowledge, a sin is committed when mind or body breaks the law of sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does it mean by 'sinful' thoughts? What kind of thoughts are involved?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there an official list of these sinful thoughts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10016" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-06-08T16:33:30.267" LastActivityDate="2017-06-08T16:56:05.877" Title="What does it mean by sinful thoughts? What kind of thoughts are involved?" Tags="|scripture|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18721" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18616" CreationDate="2017-06-06T13:03:19.937" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said in the Bhagavatam 12.13.18:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/13/18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/13/18&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the spotless Purāṇa (&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;amalam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; — &lt;strong&gt;perfectly&#xA;  pure Purana&lt;/strong&gt;). It is &lt;strong&gt;most dear to the Vaiṣṇavas&lt;/strong&gt; because it&#xA;  describes &lt;strong&gt;the pure and supreme knowledge of the paramahaṁsas&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  (&lt;strong&gt;topmost devotees&lt;/strong&gt;). This Bhāgavatam reveals the means for becoming&#xA;  free from all material work, together with the processes of&#xA;  transcendental knowledge, renunciation and devotion. Anyone who&#xA;  seriously tries to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, who properly hears&#xA;  and chants it with devotion, becomes completely liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that the Puranas are classified according to the influence of the three qualities of material nature to &lt;em&gt;sattvic&lt;/em&gt; (pure) Puranas, &lt;em&gt;rajasic&lt;/em&gt; Puranas (impure with passion), and &lt;em&gt;tamasic&lt;/em&gt; Puranas (impure with darkness or ignorance). And in the above verse it is said that the Bhagavatam is &lt;em&gt;amalam&lt;/em&gt; &quot;perfectly pure&quot; Purana, which means that it gives the best and purest Vedic knowledge to learn among all the Puranas. It is even said in some other Puranas that the Bhagavatam is the best of all the Puranas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;That is why Sri Caitanya told to his followers to learn the Bhagavatam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some quotations from the Caitanya caritamrita (a biography of Sri Caitanya) about the importance of Bhagavatam:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;CC Madhya 25.153, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/25/153&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/25/153&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, “Study&#xA;  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam very scrutinizingly. Then you will understand the&#xA;  actual meaning of the Brahma-sūtra.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;CC Antya 13.113, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/antya/13/113&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/antya/13/113&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said to Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa, “When you return&#xA;  home, serve your aged father and mother, who are devotees, and try to&#xA;  study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from a pure Vaiṣṇava who has realized God.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;CC Madhya 19.115, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/19/115&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/19/115&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī the ultimate limit&#xA;  of the truth about Lord Kṛṣṇa, the truth about devotional service and&#xA;  the truth about transcendental mellows, culminating in conjugal love&#xA;  between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Finally He told Rūpa Gosvāmī about the&#xA;  ultimate conclusions of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The followers of Sri Caitanya also used to study or recite the Bhagavatam together with the learned men of the society: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;CC Madhya 19.17, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/19/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/19/17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī used to discuss Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in an assembly&#xA;  of twenty or thirty learned brāhmaṇa scholars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;CC Ādi 10.158, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/10/158&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/10/158&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While he (Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī) stayed with Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, his engagement was to recite&#xA;  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for him to hear. As a result of this Bhāgavatam&#xA;  recitation, he attained perfectional love of Kṛṣṇa, by which he&#xA;  remained always maddened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suggest you read the purports to those verses at the above links. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="2790" LastEditDate="2017-06-06T13:11:50.843" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T13:11:50.843" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18722" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18704" CreationDate="2017-06-06T13:34:34.593" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu definitely recommended the Srimad Bhagavatam.  Here's what he says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/22/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chaitanya Charitamrita: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should associate with devotees, chant the holy name of the Lord, hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, reside at Mathurā and worship the Deity with faith and veneration. These five limbs of devotional service are the best of all. Even a slight performance of these five awakens love for Kṛṣṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T13:34:34.593" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18723" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5447" CreationDate="2017-06-06T15:31:10.330" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Bharata, as the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so does the living entity, one within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;what's wrong?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sun alone Gives Light to earth, we know Moon doesn't have own light, it's also gift from sun and stars must be big, some others pole star etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the light of star doesn't reach the earth! carefully Look at the sky New Moon Nights! &amp;amp; there are so many stars in the sky but earth in deep Darkness!! so, where are Light of those stars?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only sunlight &amp;amp; moonlight reach earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So read carefully &amp;amp; think deeply, GITA Is hidden Treasure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10020" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-06T15:59:59.890" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T15:59:59.890" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18725" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18726" CreationDate="2017-06-06T17:56:03.763" Score="6" ViewCount="1933" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanjay is the only character who gets to listen to Bhagvad Gita directly from Lord Krishna outside Kurukshetra battefield. This fact somewhere emphasis that he was important in grand scheme of things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why was he given such a great privilege?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the last reference of Sanjay in Mahabharat? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What happened to him after war was over?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T20:03:42.753" Title="What is the last reference to 'Sanjay' - Dhritarashtra's narrator in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18726" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18725" CreationDate="2017-06-06T20:03:42.753" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The last reference to Sanjaya is in the Ashramavasika Parva of the Mahabharata.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7353/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, Kunti, Vidura, and Sanjaya all left Hastinapura and went to Vyasa's Ashram to become Sanyasis.  Vidura died there, and after that the rest of them decided to go to Gangadwara, which is modern-day Haridwar, and engage in Tapasya on the Ganga river.  One day, there was a forest fire, which Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, and Kunti chose to be consumed by, since fire is a fitting death for a Sanyasi.  But on Dhritarashtra's instruction Sanjaya escaped the fire, as described by Narada in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m15/m15037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Ashramavasika Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The king, seeing the conflagration approach him from all sides, addressed the Suta Sanjaya, that foremost of skilful charioteers, saying,--'Go, O Sanjaya, to such a place where the fire may not burn thee. As regards ourselves, we shall suffer our bodies to be destroyed by this fire and attain to the highest goal.' Unto him, Sanjaya, that foremost of speakers, said,--'O king, this death, brought on by a fire that is not sacred, will prove calamitous to thee. I do not, however, see any means by which thou canst escape from this conflagration. That which should next be done should be indicated by thee.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus addressed by Sanjaya the king once more said,--'This death cannot be calamitous to us, for we have left our home of our own accord. Water, fire, wind, and abstention from food, (as means of death), are laudable for ascetics. Do thou, therefore, leave us, O Sanjaya, without any delay. Having said these words to Sanjaya, the king concentrated his mind. Facing the east, he sat down, with Gandhari and Kunti. Beholding him in that attitude, Sanjaya walked round him. Endued with intelligence, Sanjaya said,--'Do thou concentrate thy soul, O puissant one.' The son of a Rishi, and himself possessed of great wisdom, the king acted as he was told. Restraining all the senses, he remained like a post of wood. The highly blessed Gandhari, and thy mother Pritha too, remained in the same attitude. Then thy royal sire was overtaken by the forest-conflagration. &lt;strong&gt;Sanjaya, his minister, succeeded in escaping from that conflagration.    I saw him on the banks of Ganga in the midst of ascetics. Endued with great energy and great intelligence, he bade them farewell and then started for the mountains of Himavat.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the last bit of information we have about Sanjaya is that Narada saw him leaving Haridwar and heading for the Himalayas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-06T20:03:42.753" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18727" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9543" CreationDate="2017-06-07T03:58:58.137" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know whether I'm eligible for answering this question. But I've been boggled by this question for long time. Reading BG and various answers on this forum, I narrowed down to following simple things:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Good karma is remembering God. This is absolute. This will always be good karma. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A good karma is doing the RIGHT thing given a particular situation in the name of God, without expectation of results.&#xA;This RIGHT thing is not absolute. It changes with the situation. Killing a person for selfish desires is bad karma. But as we see in BG, Arjuna to avoid killing his brothers will only lead to bad karma for him. So in this particular situation, killing was actually a good karma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4166" LastActivityDate="2017-06-07T03:58:58.137" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18728" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-07T04:29:04.857" Score="12" ViewCount="2683" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Polygamy in Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna Yajur Veda 6.5.1.4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;therefore as one goes many follow; therefore one becomes superior&#xA;among many; therefore &lt;strong&gt;one wins many wives&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Polygamy in Ithihas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Adi Parva 1.160.36&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Vaisampayana said, &amp;quot;On hearing these words of the Brahmana, &lt;strong&gt;his wife said&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no sin in this. &lt;strong&gt;For a man polygamy is an act of merit&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;but for a woman it is very sinful to betake herself to a second&#xA;husband after the first.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Anusasana Parva 13.47&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It has been laid down, O grandsire, that a &lt;strong&gt;Brahmana can take four&#xA;wives&lt;/strong&gt;, viz., one that belongs to his own order, one that is a&#xA;Kshatriya, one that is a Vaisya, and one that is a Sudra, if the&#xA;Brahmana wishes to indulge in the desire of sexual intercourse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many smritis allow Brahmin to have 4 wives, for a Kshatriya three, for a Vaishya 2 and for Shudra one. Now, is there any scripture which condemn polygamy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="21895" LastEditDate="2021-12-24T17:14:30.517" LastActivityDate="2021-12-24T17:14:30.517" Title="Is there a Hindu Scripture that prescribes monogamy?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|vedas|puranas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18729" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18728" CreationDate="2017-06-07T04:42:36.240" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Polygamy for men is allowed :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there are very strict rules - regarding how many wives, the order of varna to marry in order to avoid varna-sankara (a higher varna man can marry a lower varna woman, but not other way), how to treat them (go to naraka if one wife is given preference over other), how to divide wealth of inheritance for sons (according to both varna &amp;amp; seniority) etc. And polygamy is illegal in many countries nowadays.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For women it is not allowed :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once is the partition of the inheritance made, once is a maiden given in marriage, and once does a man say,' I will give; each of those three acts is done once only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Full detail here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu09.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu09.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-06-07T04:42:36.240" CommentCount="63" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18731" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-07T05:37:34.680" Score="7" ViewCount="2744" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10174/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four disciples: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara. And in turn they started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Sampradayam. My question is about the Rudra Sampradayam, the one founded by Shiva.  Currently the only Vaishnava sect which traces its origins to the Rudra Sampradayam is Pushtimarga, the sect of Vallabhacharya which worships the Srinathji form of Vishnu (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2950/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Vallabhacharya's followers believe that Vallabhacharya belonged to the Guru Parampara of Vishnuswami, an earlier Acharya of the Rudra Samparadayam.  But the Gaudiya Vaishnava sect, which traces its origins to the Brahma Sampradaya, claims that before Vallabhacharya joined Vishnuswami's sect, he was originally a Gaudiya Vaishnava.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/19/61&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Srila Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada, the founder of the popular Gaudiya Vaishnava organization ISKCON, says in one of his commentaries:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vallabha Bhaṭṭa was a great learned scholar of Vaiṣṇavism. In the beginning he was very much devoted to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but since he thought that he could not receive proper respect from Him, he later joined the Viṣṇu Svāmī sect and became the ācārya of that sect. His sect is celebrated as the Vallabhācārya-sampradāya. This sampradāya has had great influence in Vṛndāvana near Gokula and in Bombay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Vallabhacharya is mentioned in two chapters of the Chaitanya Charitamrita, the traditional biography of Chaitanya Mahaparbhu, the founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/19/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;, Vallabhacharya meets Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers, has religious discussion with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, ferries him across the Yamuna river to his house, serves him devotedly in his house, and then ferries him across the Ganga river to Prayaga.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/antya/7/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Vallabhacharya goes to Puri to meet Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and gives food to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his associates.  Then some time later, Vallabhacharya comes back and tells Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that he has just written a commentary on the Srimad Bhagavatam, and that it's superior to Sridharaswami's commentary.  Chaitanya Mashaprabhu takes offense to this, as he has great respect for Sridharaswami's work.  This leads Vallabhacharya to lose his false pride, and he ultimately receives initiation from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's shishya and childhood friend Gadadhara Pandita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, do Vallabhacharya's followers agree that Vallabhacharya was originally a Gaudiya Vaishnava?  How do they characterize the encounters between Vallabhacharya and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, assuming they even happened?  And do they accept that Vallabhacharya received initiation from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's shishya Gadadhara Pandita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user9072" LastEditDate="2018-07-07T11:11:26.273" LastActivityDate="2018-07-07T11:11:26.273" Title="Do Vallabhacharya's followers believe he was originally a Gaudiya Vaishnava?" Tags="|history|vaishnavism|gaudiya-vaishnavism|chaitanya|pushti-marga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18735" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-07T07:58:27.003" Score="9" ViewCount="2158" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Advaita Vedanta of Adi Shankara, The Supreme reality i.e. Brahman is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11737/what-arguments-adi-shankara-makes-to-claim-that-supreme-is-devoid-of-any-attribu&quot;&gt;without any attributes&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaita philosophy says that we perceive the world only owing to maya(ignorance).i.e. This world does not exists. But only Brahma exists who is non-dual. This is called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajativada&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;AjatVada&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Advaita makes two assertions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nirguna/ attributeless Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The world is unreal&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However the vaishnava Acharya's who later came argued that Brahman does have attributes and that world is real but temporary. One of the foremost Vaishnava Acharya is Sripad Ramanujacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is What Ramanujacharya Said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lets take example of rope and snake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If I See a rope and mistake it for snake; then that misunderstanding&#xA;  is because Snake has something like Rope in it; namely shape. So if I&#xA;  see this Brahman and mistake it for this creation(say pot); Then there&#xA;  must be something like pot in Brahman. Hence He has Attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another argument is that #&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If I mistake a rope for snake(Which is non-existent according to&#xA;  Advaita); Than that is because I have seen a real snake before. So&#xA;  real real snake exists.  So Everything that I perceive must also have&#xA;  some real existence. So Now i'm seeing this world owing to Maya; But&#xA;  then real world must also exists which I have previous perception of&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in first argument attributelessness of Brahma is refuted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In second argument non-existence of the world is refuted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So has any advait philosopher answered the Ramanuja's arguments? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;# Not sure if this was Ramanujacharya's argument. Citation required.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2859" LastEditDate="2017-06-07T08:05:13.950" LastActivityDate="2019-12-22T05:04:35.673" Title="How did Advaitins Defend Attributeless brahman from Ramanuja's arguments?" Tags="|philosophy|advaita|vishishtadvaita|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18736" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9543" CreationDate="2017-06-07T08:24:40.540" Score="7" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Who or What defines which karmas are good and which are bad?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its mostly the holy scriptures that determine the nature of karmas. Our own inner conscience also should be able to judge in many situations if not in all situations. Further, our elders also help us in determining what's good and what's not. The advices of our parents and elders are nothing but the knowledge which were brought down from one generation to the next and finally to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;What are the bad karmas &amp;amp; what are the good ones?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 12.3. &lt;strong&gt;Action, which springs from the mind, from speech,&#xA;  and from the body, produces either good or evil results;&lt;/strong&gt; by action&#xA;  are caused the (various) conditions of men, the highest, the middling,&#xA;  and the lowest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.5. Coveting the property of others, thinking in one’s heart of doing harm to others , and adherence to false (doctrines), are the&#xA;  three kinds of (sinful) mental action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.6. Abusing (others, speaking) untruth, detracting from the merits of all men, and talking idly, shall be the four kinds of (evil) verbal&#xA;  action&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.7. Taking what has not been given, injuring (creatures) without the sanction of the law, and holding criminal intercourse with another&#xA;  man’s wife, are declared to be the three kinds of (wicked) bodily&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Daksha Smriti (chapter 3)&lt;/strong&gt; also lists the following 9 virtuous deeds and 9 evil deeds:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Good deeds:&lt;/strong&gt; Sandhya adorations, bathing, recitation of the Homa, Vedic study,&#xA;  adorations of the Deities, adoration of the Viswadevas, hospitable&#xA;  treatment extended to the guests, according to one's own might, proper&#xA;  allotment of food for the departed Manes, Deities, human beings, the&#xA;  poor, the helpless, the ascetics, the father, the mother and the&#xA;  preceptor, these are the nine [sacred] works.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bad deeds:&lt;/strong&gt; Iniquitous deeds are, again, [the following : ] Falsehood, knowing&#xA;  another's wife, taking forbidden food, knowing a woman who should not&#xA;  be known, drinking what should not be drunk, theft, committing injury,&#xA;  doing works not sanctioned in the S'ruti, transgression of a friend's&#xA;  duty, these are nine improper deeds. One should avoid them all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Does the definition change with Yugas?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mostly NO. But there is a thing called Yuga-Dharma. So sometimes small alterations take place according to the nature of the age we live in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As, an example, i quote the following verse from Parashara Smriti's chapter 1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;26&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&quot; In the Krita sin is incurred by one who converses (with a sinner) ; in the Treta by one who touches (the sinful man) ; in the&#xA;  Dvapara by taking the sinner's food ; in the Kali by a (sinful) act&#xA;  (alone).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, while talking to a sinner is considered as an evil act in the Satya Yuga it is not so in the Kali Yuga. So, some rules do change like that with time but most of them don't.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-07T08:48:45.087" LastActivityDate="2017-06-07T08:48:45.087" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18738" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-07T14:51:27.043" Score="-13" ViewCount="704" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaali drinking blood of Raktabīja.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bheema drinking blood of Dushasana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Draupadi intending to drink blood of Bheema.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What's the intent behind drinking blood?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9979" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-06-13T16:49:35.470" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T09:04:06.993" Title="Stories in Hindu scripture on drinking human blood" Tags="|mahabharata|practice|symbolism|teaching|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-07-14T09:04:17.577" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18739" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9078" CreationDate="2017-06-07T14:53:39.250" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Over internet we usually get Hindi Puranas but there are some indian libraries where you can search for English translated version of Puranas like &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dli.ernet.in/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.dli.ernet.in/&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cognise.quinki.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cognise.quinki.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10031" LastActivityDate="2017-06-07T14:53:39.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18740" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18738" CreationDate="2017-06-07T15:35:57.533" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;All these examples has nothing to do with Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaali drinking blood of raktabija.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because Raktbija got boon that when even his single drop of blood will fall on earth, then from that Drop another Raktbija(demon/devil) will be created. And death of Raktbija was necessary to save world. Then Mahakali came in front and to avoid any drop of his blood from falling on earth she herself drank his whole blood so more devil's generation can be stopped by his blood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE&lt;/strong&gt; This action of Mahakali was only to protect mankind from cruelty of Raktbija. Drinking blood was only option to kill him. From where Hinduism came here. This act of Mahakali is directly related with Humanity, not with Hinduism because she did this not only to protect Hindus but to protect all mankind including all religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bheem drinking blood of dushashana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bheem took promise of drinking blood of Dushasan and also swear that he will wash Draupadi's hair with his blood. He did that Promise when Dushasan brought Draupadi in Sabhaa by dragging her by hair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Promise/swear of him was the result of his anger, not the result of his teaching of Hinduism. In anger one can't judge good or bad. So you can't match inhuman promise of him with Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Draupadi intending to drink blood of bheem.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I never even heard anything like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To know full detail with references, read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16531/who-are-chamunda-and-chandika/16536#16536&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="10063" LastEditDate="2017-06-10T03:25:31.237" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T03:25:31.237" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18741" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-07T17:54:08.900" Score="1" ViewCount="49" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Nyaya philosophy in Hinduism? Is there any scripture for this Philosophy? Is it required to learn the basics of Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastActivityDate="2017-06-07T17:54:08.900" Title="What is Nyaya Philosophy?" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|nyaya|nyaya-sutra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-06-07T20:18:24.597" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18742" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17704" CreationDate="2017-06-07T19:06:54.833" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What's the true (scriptural) reason behind Child Marriage?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt;: For the same reason a child is admitted to school at a very early age and not at age 20. For the Hindu woman, husband is the ultimate God (&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12392/2995&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pati Parameshwar&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;). So why not get to know him and his family (in-laws) from an early age – this seems to be the basic idea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the book &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/8172760558&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrashekarendra_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Chandrasekarendra Saraswati&lt;/a&gt;, there's a whole chapter on this very topic so I'm only quoting below a few relevant lines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A girl must become attached to her husband [that is she must be married]&#xA;  before her mind is distributed by thoughts of love and desire and before&#xA;  she begins to take an interest in her body. The innocent child that she is&#xA;  now, she will have the humility to regard her husband in an attitude of&#xA;  surrender in the thoughts that he alone is her guru and that he alone is&#xA;  her Isvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Women in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra even today observe many&#xA;  vratas. Unmarried girls in these parts of the country worship Siva, looking&#xA;  upon him as their husband. When they get married they worship the&#xA;  husband as Siva. First a girl, before her marriage, worships Siva as her&#xA;  husband; later whoever comes into her life as her husband she looks&#xA;  upon as Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In childhood a girl does not ask questions. It is now that she will, out of&#xA;  her simple faith, look upon her husband as Paramesvara.&lt;/strong&gt; This faith,&#xA;  formed in her innocence, will take firm root in her mind when she&#xA;  becomes older and begins to understand things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the Dharmasastra, a girl must be entrusted in the hands of a man, that is her husband, before she starts feeling the urge of kama. She will then&#xA;  become steeped in the belief that he is her Lord. And when she begins to&#xA;  feel the natural urges she will dedicate her body to him. This is the law of&#xA;  the Dharmasastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[ Hindu Dharma » Marriage » Why Child Marriage ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-06-07T19:06:54.833" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18743" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-07T22:19:19.353" Score="5" ViewCount="9628" Body="&lt;p&gt;In this Shlokha, which talks about the geography of the Ancient India? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sloka as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jambudveepe Bharatha Varshe Bharata Khande&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here I got some different views from Different scholars consider it variously as either the 'Indian sub-continent' or the 'Asian continent'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However we can see, none of them come even close to the TRUTH!! Let me share some of the important scriptural references here for you:&#xA; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Markandeya Puraan describes Jambu-dvip- as being depressed above and below and broad in the middle just like a Globe.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam points out that on Jambu-dvipa, night prevails diametrically opposite to a point where it is day and Sun sets at a point opposite to where it rises.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharat describes the Universe as a series of shells divided in two by an earth plane called the Bhu-mandala; Jambu-dwip- is the central landmark on this plane.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jain and Buddhist cos- mologies indicate Jambū-dweep at the centre of Madhyaloka or the middle part of the universe, the place where Human-beings reside.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And last but not least, It describe Bharat Varsha or India as just ONE of the NINE divisions of Jambu-dweep? Jambudvipa was divided into nine varshas (geographical regions) of which one was Bharatha Varsha. The other eight varshas were Ketumula Varsha, Hari Varsha, Ilavrita Varsha, Kuru Varsha, Hiranyaka Varsha, Ramyaka Varsha, Kimpurusha Varsha, Bhadrasva Varsha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question was What is the real meaning of Jambudweep? These all 9 varsha's represent ancient time continents? or Nine Planets on our Solar system? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-06-08T15:34:38.970" LastActivityDate="2024-03-07T04:09:26.247" Title="What is the Story behind Jambudweep?" Tags="|puranas|history|shloka|earth|cosmology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18744" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24700" CreationDate="2017-06-07T23:52:57.130" Score="12" ViewCount="974" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3860/2995&quot;&gt;Is the Gadhimai massacre a Hindu ritual?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; has an answer which says animal sacrifice is against the Hindu principles of ahimsa while the other answer says 'Animal sacrifice is spoken of in the Vedas. It belongs to another era.' probably discouraging animal sacrifices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now since those answers were written in 2014, it appears as stated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadhimai_festival&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; Wikipedia article this archaic Hindu ritual has been stopped for good:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is estimated that 50,000 animals were sacrificed during the Gadhimai festival of 2009. In 2015, Nepal's temple trust has &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hsi.org/assets/pdfs/gadhimai-temple-trust-statement-ram-chandra-shah.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;announced&lt;/a&gt; to cancel all future animal sacrifices at the country's Gadhimai festival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hsi.org/assets/pdfs/gadhimai-temple-trust-statement-ram-chandra-shah.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; announcement:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For generations, pilgrims have sacrificed animals to the Goddess Gadhimai, in the hope of a&#xA;  better life. For every life taken, our heart is heavy. The time has come to transform an old&#xA;  tradition. The time has come to replace killing and violence with peaceful worship and&#xA;  celebration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Gadhimai Temple Trust hereby declares our formal decision to end animal sacrifice. With&#xA;  your help, we can ensure Gadhimai 2019 is free from bloodshed. Moreover, we can ensure&#xA;  Gadhimai 2019 is a momentous celebration of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Hindu morality come from scripture or is it the other way round?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Scripture guiding morality:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7EFVg.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7EFVg.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Inherent) Morality guiding our perception of scripture:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DOmbN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DOmbN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given the above example (animal sacrifice once done and now stopped or discouraged), it appears it's our inherent morality that's been guiding our perception of scripture. In one case, we deliberately choose to ignore animal sacrifices. In another case, it could be &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18728/2995&quot;&gt;polygamy&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is it correct to assume that the Hindu morality is constantly changing and beyond the scope of any one scripture including the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T11:06:29.993" LastActivityDate="2019-01-02T10:22:59.143" Title="Does Hindu morality come from scripture or is it the other way round?" Tags="|scripture|karma|dharma|smriti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18745" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-08T02:56:11.440" Score="4" ViewCount="2425" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11311/8696&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, we find&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Continuing with the tale of Sri Ram, Lord Mahadeva told Parvati–Dasharath requested Vashishth to perform the Jaatkarm Sanskar of Sri Ram. In course of time Kaikeyi gave birth to &lt;strong&gt;Bharat–an incarnation of Panchajanya conch&lt;/strong&gt;. Similarly, Sumitra gave birth to two sons–Laxman and Shatrughan. Laxman was the incarnation of Sheshnag while &lt;strong&gt;Shatrughan was the incarnation of Sudarshan Chakra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;BR&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How non living things (insentient beings) like &lt;strong&gt;Sudarshan chakra&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;conch&lt;/strong&gt; could take avatar? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-08T04:15:32.973" LastActivityDate="2017-06-08T04:15:32.973" Title="How could Bharata and Shatrughna be incarnations of inanimate objects?" Tags="|vishnu|philosophy|avatars|atma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18746" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18744" CreationDate="2017-06-08T04:21:25.447" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Morality comes from scripture.&lt;/strong&gt;  For starters, here is what Adi Shankaracharya says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Brahma Sutra Bhashya, which is actually about the subject of animal sacrifice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The reasoning criticizing animal sacrifice] is not valid, because our knowledge of what is duty and the contrary of duty depends entirely on scripture. The knowledge of one action being right and another wrong is based on scripture only; for it lies out of the cognizance of the senses, and there moreover is, in the case of right and wrong, an entire want of binding rules as to place, time, and occasion. What in one place, at one time, on one occasion is performed as a right action, is a wrong action in another place, at another time, on another occasion; none therefore can know, without scripture, what is either right or wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a more systematic look at things, we must turn not to the Brahma Sutras, which begin with &amp;quot;Athato Brahma Jijnasa&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Now therefore there is a desire to know Brahman&amp;quot;, but to the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, which begin with &amp;quot;Athato Dharma Jijnasa&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Now therefore there is a desire to know Dharma&amp;quot;.  Here is what Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 Sutra 4 of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;satsaṃprayoge puruṣasyendriyāṇāṃ buddhijanma tatpratyakṣamanimitrta vidyamānopalambhanatvāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That cognition by a person which appears when there is contact of the sense-organs is &amp;quot;sense-perception&amp;quot;, and it is not a means (of knowing Dharma), as it apprehends only things existing at the present time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600202.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/14/items/shabarabhasyavol032868mbp/shabarabhasyavol032868mbp_tif.zip&amp;amp;file=shabarabhasyavol032868mbp_tif/shabarabhasyavol032868mbp_0030.tif&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Shabaraswami's commentary says about this Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The examination (promised in the preceding Sutra) is as follows:- Sense. perception is not the means (of knowing Dharma), - why?- because the character of Sense-perception is that it is &amp;quot;that cognition by a person, etc.&amp;quot;(sutra); that is, it is that cognition which a man has when his sense-organs are in contact with the object cognised. - Dharma however is something that is yet to come, and it does not exist at the time that it is to be known; - while Sense-perception is the apprehending of an object that is actually present and not non-existent at the time (of cognition); - hence Sense-perception cannot be the means (of knowing Dharma). In the Sutra, no stress is meant to be laid upon either &amp;quot;cognition&amp;quot;, or the &amp;quot;appearance&amp;quot;, or upon mere &amp;quot;contact&amp;quot;; the only factor meant to be emphasised is the fact of its being such as is possible only when there is contact between the sense-organ and the object, and not when there is no such contact between them. If stress were laid upon several factors, then there would be syntactical split. As for (the other means of Cognition.) Inference, Analogy, and Apparent Inconsistency, these also presuppose (are based upon) Sense-perception; hence these also cannot be the means (of knowing Dharma). Nor can Dharma be amenable to “Negation' (i.e. it cannot be regarded as non-existent; because of the reason given in the next Sutra which indicates the real means of knowing Dharma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea is that perception and inference can only tell us about the world of things which already exist.  They cannot tell us about that which does not yet exist, namely the consequences that you will experience for the actions that you do.  So we require some other means of knowledge to tell us what actions are linked to what kinds of consequence.  What is that means of knowledge? It is Hindu scripture.  Here is what Adhyaya 1 Pada Sutra 5 of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;autpattikastu śabdasyārthena sambandhastasya jñānamupadeśo 'vyatirekaścārthe 'nupalabdhe tatpramāṇaṃ bādarāyaṇasyānapekṣatvāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The relation of the word with its denotation is inborn.- [Vedic] instruction is  the means of knowing it (Dharma) - infallible regarding all that is imperceptible; it is a valid means of knowledge, as it is independent, according to Badarayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea is that the human mind is powerless to find out what is right or wrong, since as I discussed above morality concerns that which does not yet exist, but the Vedas, since they are Apaurusheya or authorless, have the capacity to talk about the imperceptible realm, since they do not depend on the knowledge of a human being.  (The authoritativeness of Smriti is derived from the authoritativeness of the Vedas in Adhyaya 1 Pada 3 of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I could go on to discuss Shabara's commentary on Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 Sutra 5 and on the subsequent Sutras of Adhyaya 1, which demonstrate the Pramanya (authoritativeness) and Apaurusheyatva (authorlesness) of the Vedas, but that would require me to write a book.  (Which I might well do!  See idea #1 in my Medium post &lt;a href=&quot;https://medium.com/@lugita15/potential-hinduism-related-writing-projects-34a227b4f99c&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bottom line, people might have all kinds of false, ever-changing beliefs about morality due to the temptations of the Kali Yuga, but what is actually moral and immoral is based on scripture, not on human beliefs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-02-27T20:01:40.577" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18748" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18885" CreationDate="2017-06-08T05:56:55.533" Score="11" ViewCount="6791" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Hanuman always depicted with carryinging a mace:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FUbNg.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FUbNg.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But during few conversation with our in-house user &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/5212/sree-charan&quot;&gt;Sree Charan&lt;/a&gt;, he said &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no explicit reference that Hanuman used Gada/mace. In Sundara Kanda(a chapter in Ramayana an epic of India), he used a iron club which he finds in Lanka instantaneously. - &lt;a href=&quot;http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/37452999#37452999&quot;&gt;src&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which made me wonder, then how come Hanuman is always depicted with Mace/Gada as primary weapon? What is the primary weapon of Hanuman from scripture then?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-08T06:01:22.540" LastActivityDate="2018-12-20T09:32:22.377" Title="What is Lord Hanuman's weapon of choice from scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|hanuman|weapon|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18749" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-08T05:58:47.717" Score="8" ViewCount="3904" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know, One single Veda is divided into four Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;SamaVeda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda (Believed to be divided later)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas were &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16053/similarities-and-differences-in-the-four-vedas/16121#16121&quot;&gt;divided&lt;/a&gt; by Krishna Dwaipayana on the basis of the usage of the  mantras in the Yagnas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the Vedas do not have classifications except the Yajur Veda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is there two classifications in YajurVeda i.e., Shukla(White) and Krishna(Black)?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T06:30:01.747" Title="Why is Yajurveda classified as Krishna and Shukla?" Tags="|vedas|yajur-veda|vyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18750" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18744" CreationDate="2017-06-08T05:59:42.513" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Laws of morality or the laws pertaining to what's good and what's bad are the ones which are laid down in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, its definitely not the other way round.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedo Akhilo Dharmamulam Smritikhilo Cha...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.6. &lt;strong&gt;The whole Veda is the (first) source of the sacred law, next the tradition&lt;/strong&gt; and the virtuous conduct of those who know the (Veda&#xA;  further), also the customs of holy men, and (finally)&#xA;  self-satisfaction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.7. Whatever law has been ordained for any (person) by Manu, that has been fully declared in the Veda: for that (sage was) omniscient.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The knowledge that is there in the Vedas are God's  words so irrefutable. The orders that are present in the Smritis are also the words of the sages who were omniscient.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, both determine all laws including even those pertaining to morality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Srutis Tu Vedo Vigneyo Dharmashastram Tu Vai Smriti...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.10. But by Sruti (revelation) is meant the Veda, and by Smriti (tradition) the Institutes of the sacred law (or the Dharmashastras):&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;those two must not be called into question in any matter, since from those two the sacred law shone forth&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However there is also an option of applying our own conscience before adhering to the scriptural injunctions, but still scriptures shall override in all conditions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.8. &lt;strong&gt;But a learned man after fully scrutinizing all this with the eye of knowledge,&lt;/strong&gt; should, &lt;strong&gt;in accordance with the authority of the revealed&#xA;  texts, be intent on (the performance of) his duties.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTe: All verses are from the Manu Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-06-08T05:59:42.513" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18751" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-08T06:09:03.030" Score="8" ViewCount="271" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well-known that there are four Ashramas or stages of life in Hinduism: Brahmacharis or celibates, Grihastis or householder, Vanaprasthis or forest-dwellers, and Sanyasis or ascetics.  What is not as well-known, however, is that in ancient times, some people didn't believe in this system; here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe14/sbe1465.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Baudhayana Dharma Sutras says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Ascetics shall) say, 'Renouncing the works taught in the Veda, cut off from both (worlds), we attach okurselves to the central sphere (Brahman).' But the venerable teacher (declares) that there is one order only, because the others do not beget offspring. &lt;strong&gt;With reference to this matter they quote also (the following passage): 'There was, forsooth, an Âsura, Kapila by name, the son of Prahlâda. Striving with the gods, he made these divisions. A wise man should not take heed of them.'&lt;/strong&gt; Because no (other meaning is) perceptible, (the text) 'Four paths,' &amp;amp;c., refers to sacrificial rites, (viz.) to Ishtis, animal sacrifices, Soma sacrifices, Darvîhomas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  The argument is that the Ashrama system was invented by an Asura, Kapila son of Prahlada, so it's not valid.  But my question is, what is the story of Kapila son of Prahlada?  Because the only son of Prahlada is Virochana, whom I discuss in my question and answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11555/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the name Kapila is famous; there are at least three figures named Kapila, some of whom may be the same person:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu's incarnation Kapila, who is the son of Brahma's son Kardama and Swayambhuva Manu's daughter Devahuti, who burned the sons of Sagara to ashes.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kapila the founder of the atheistic Samkhya school.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kapila descendant of Angiras, who is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03220.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people believe that the first and second Kapilas are the same.  Others, like Adi Shankaracharya, believe that the first and second Kapilas are different, and some like Baladeva Vidyabhushana believe that the first and second Kapilas are different but the second and third Kapilas are the same.  (See my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18805/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more details.) In any case, does Kapila son of Prahlada have any relation to any of these three figures, or is the name just a coincidence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures that shed light on the story of Kapila son of Prahlada and what role if any did he have in creating the Ashrama system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-15T14:11:43.943" LastActivityDate="2017-07-15T14:11:43.943" Title="What is the story of Kapila son of Prahlada?" Tags="|vishnu|asuras|dharma-shastras|kapila|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18752" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18749" CreationDate="2017-06-08T06:50:59.227" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of division of Yajurveda is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp079.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter of Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt;. Once Vaiśampáyana accidentally killed his sister's child and so all his disciples to perform the expiatory penance but Yájnawalkya refused to do so. On this, Vaiśampáyana commanded him to return all his knowledge learned from him. So, Yájnawalkya ejected it from his stomach. This Shakha is called as Taittiríya or Krishna-Yajurveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It had been formerly agreed by the Munis, that any one of them who, at a certain time, did not join an assembly held on mount Meru should incur the guilt of killing a Brahman, within a period of seven nights 2. Vaiśampáyana alone failed to keep the appointment, and consequently killed, by an accidental kick with his foot, the child of his sister. He then addressed his scholars, and desired them to perform the penance expiatory of Brahmanicide on his behalf. Without any hesitation Yájnawalkya refused, and said, &quot;How shall I engage in penance with these miserable and inefficient Brahmans?&quot; On which his Guru, being incensed, commanded him to relinquish all that he had learnt from him. &quot;You speak contemptuously,&quot; he observed, &quot;of these young Brahmans, but of what use is a disciple who disobeys my commands?&quot; &quot;I spoke,&quot; replied Yájnawalkya, &quot;in perfect faith; but as to what I have read from you, I have had enough: it is no more than this--&quot; (acting as if he would eject it from his stomach); &lt;strong&gt;when he brought up the texts of the Yajush in substance stained with blood. He then departed. The other scholars of Vaiśampáyana, transforming themselves to partridges (Tittiri), picked up the texts which he had disgorged, and which from that circumstance were called Taittiríya&lt;/strong&gt;; and the disciples were called the Charaka professors of the Yajush, from Charańa, 'going through' or 'performing' the expiatory rites enjoined by their master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Yájnawalkya did a penance to Lord Surya (sun) and learned Shukla Yajurveda from him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus eulogized by Yájnawalkya, the sun, in the form of a horse, appeared to him, and said, &quot;Demand what you desire.&quot; To which the sage, having prostrated himself before the lord of day, replied, &quot;Give me a knowledge of those texts of the Yajush with which even my preceptor is unacquainted.&quot; Accordingly the sun imparted to him the texts of the Yajush called Ayátayáma (unstudied), which were unknown to Vaiśampáyana: and because these were revealed by the sun in the form of a horse, the Brahmans who study this portion of the Yajush are called Vájis (horses). Fifteen branches of this school sprang from Kańwa and other pupils of Yájnawalkya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story is also mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/6/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 12.6&lt;/a&gt; (verse 62-74) where division of Vedas are discussed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-06-11T06:30:01.747" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T06:30:01.747" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18753" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18760" CreationDate="2017-06-08T06:56:28.750" Score="3" ViewCount="2412" Body="&lt;p&gt;From wikipedia, I found Lord Buddha who is said to be the ninth avatara of Vishnu to be mentioned in the following texts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Harivamsa (1.41)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu Purana (3.18)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhagavata Purana (1.3.24, 2.7.37, 11.4.23)&lt;br&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Garuda Purana (1.1, 2.30.37, 3.15.26)&lt;br&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Agni Purana (16)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Naradiya Purana (2.72)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Linga Purana (2.71)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Padma Purana (3.252) &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone provide me the above verses and their translations from the above texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-08T14:28:46.350" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T17:02:49.130" Title="Can anyone provide me all the verses of Buddha and their translations in the puranas?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|avatars|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18754" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18935" CreationDate="2017-06-08T07:43:51.960" Score="10" ViewCount="605" Body="&lt;p&gt;Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita are two major ancient Hindu texts on health related subjects, include many chapters on the role of diet and personal needs of an individual.The two texts give a list of food considered healthy and unhealthy. Do these texts forbid consumption of any food?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-11-17T02:40:42.840" LastActivityDate="2018-11-17T02:40:42.840" Title="Do the Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita forbid the consumption of any food?" Tags="|food|ayurveda|charaka-samhita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18756" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18519" CreationDate="2017-06-08T09:57:01.960" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why pain &amp;amp; sufferings?-&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;It has been explained in Shiva Rahasya Chapter 2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;25&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Time  is  eternal and restrains everything from  within.  Hence, Time  is  One  with the Supreme All-Knowing Lord.   Indeed, Infinite Time is Eternal  Truth Itself.   It creates  and destroys  the finite time known to unawakened man.  He who realises the power of Unending Time, for him limited time comes to an end.  He attains Eternal Life. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But he  who is pray  to  finite time,  knows not  the Limitless.  He is bound to  the limited things of limited life.  Thinking,  What is now being  perceived by  me: this Mind, this Body, these Possessions; they belong to me, they  are  part of  me, I am  these and  nothing else.  By  this way of thinking, the unenlightened Ego Mind leads the Soul  to identify  himself  with these constituents of Material Reality. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O  you  who are most wise! know that the Universe is a well-ordered Unity of interdependent forms.  All things therein,  rocks, plants, fish, birds and beasts dwell in harmony with each other and according to My  World-Supporting  Law. &lt;strong&gt;Of all creatures, ignorant  men alone act not by  My Command.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;For they  are possessed by a vain  Ego: not content with what I Myself allotted them, they yearn to be  something else.  Moreover, they  lift  themselves in pride above others and  give themselves to works that are hateful and wrong. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Possessed by  a defective Ego  they break the Sacred Bond of  Unity  and go to the Abode of Discord where Sin is their God and sorrow their lot&lt;/strong&gt;.  Therefore, well do the wise ones know that Ego is man's greatest foe. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Thus, through association with the Ego, the deluded Sense of I, the Soul who is Pure  Spirit comes to forget his true identity and succumbs to the conviction that he is non-Spirit. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Having  forgotten that he himself is Pure  and Perfect, Self-Shining Light, the Soul deems himself to be as dull and lacklustre as the material substance he identifies with. &lt;strong&gt;In this dull condition, having once  shined like  a Great Star  in the midst of the Infinite Vault of Consciousness, he becomes dependent upon outer, physical light.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Having once soared like an Eagle in the Radiant Sky  of Spiritual Reality, &lt;strong&gt;he now stands helpless upon the hard ground of physical existence, enveloped in gloom.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Due to this blind darkness that  separates  them  from  the  Light of Spirit, &lt;strong&gt;the heart  of unEnlightened Souls is ever-restless, tormented and suffers all kinds of pain&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary-&lt;/strong&gt; Identifying ourselves with something which we're not &lt;strong&gt;is the ultimate reason of sufferings.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1x65sl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NxWyYl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tIjbel.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T08:46:17.540" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T08:46:17.540" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18757" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-08T11:08:28.917" Score="-12" ViewCount="3576" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the meantime Jalandhar went to Parvati disguised as Lord Shiva, but was recognized by her. Being enchanted by the beauty of goddess Parvati, he looked at her with his evil intentions, but was immobilized by her wrath. Goddess Parvati then went to Lord Vishnu and narrated the whole tale. She requested Lord Vishnu to go to Jalandhar's wife in the guise of Jalandhar and act in the same way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a source of full story: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp43.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jalandhar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question: Jalandhara should be punished for thinking evil about Parvati, then &lt;strong&gt;why is vrinda punished for his misdeeds?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This sounds injustice. How to justify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10035" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2020-05-04T06:05:28.833" LastActivityDate="2020-05-04T06:05:28.833" Title="Vishnu seducing Jalandhar's wife Vrinda: How justified?" Tags="|vishnu|dharma|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18758" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18735" CreationDate="2017-06-08T11:21:29.797" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his book, &lt;em&gt;A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy&lt;/em&gt;, by Dr. Prof. Chandradhar Sharma, addresses these attacks on Advaita. Venkatanatha (also known as Vedantadeshika) (a follower of Ramanuja) in his &lt;em&gt;Shatadusani&lt;/em&gt;, levels 66 charges on Advaita. Prof. Sharma addresses these in the following manner. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prof. Sharma writes (pp 361-2):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…[charge] If Brahman is a qualityless homogenous entity, the word ‘Brahman’ cannot denote it either in a primary sense or in an implied sense (laksana) and hence it becomes useless.&#xA;  [answer] Venkatanatha  forgets that words, according to Shankara himself, can never denote the Absolute which can be realized only be direct spiritual vision. Language and thought would become insignificant only when they are transcended, not before. As long as we are in the phenomenal sphere, they are the instruments available to us and we have to work with them however defective they may be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further on page 365:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…Ramanuja is credited with reconciling the demands of philosophical thinking with those of religious feeling. These people do justice to Ramanuja but injustice to Shankara. They forget the important fact that neither Shankara overlooked the demands of religious feeling nor could Ramanuja satisfactorily harmonize religious feeling with logical thinking. To dub Shankara’s Absolute as a bare identity is to betray ignorance even of the significant name his philosophy bears—‘Advaita’—which means not ‘bare identity’ but ‘denial of ultimate difference’. He who imagines that Shankara’s position means complete denial of this world, of the souls, of action, of philosophy, of religion and even of God, may know anything but Shankara Vedanta. The veteran idealist of England, T. H. Green has rightly remarked: ‘the fact that there is a real external world—is one which no philosophy disputes’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And on pp 366-8 he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let no man stand up and say that Shankara’s philosophy is the philosophy of bare identity or that it lacks religious fervor. One has only to turn to the practical life of Shankara which has always been a paradox to those who have misunderstood or half-understood the teachings of the great Acharya. Shankara would gladly say with Bradley that ‘the man who demands a reality more solid than that of the religious consciousness knows not what he seeks.’ Bosanquet, a great idealist, has said in connection with realism-idealism controversy: ‘Certainly for myself if an idealist were to tell me that a chair is really not what we commonly take it to be, but something altogether different, I should be tempted to reply in language below the dignity of the controversy.’ A follower of Shankara might be tempted to reply similarly to one who tells him that Shankara’s philosophy advocates bare identity or that it is devoid of religious fervor or that it denies the world outright. Or perhaps he would not. He would simply remember the words of Gaudapada: It is only the dualists who in order to establish their respective views fight with one another; Advaitin fights with none. (Karika III.17)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let us try to do justice to both Shankara and Ramanuja. It has been already pointed out that Ramanuja was much influenced by the Alvars and the Archaryas and by the bhedabhedadvadins who preceded him. Indeed his main task was to combine the Pancharatra theism with the Upanishadic Absolutism. He wanted to find philosophical justification for the Vaisnava theism in the Prasthana-traya of the Vedanta and thus tried to harmonize the demands of religious feeling with logical thinking. But he confined himself to justify Pancharatra theism by means of Upanishadic Absolutism. It is one thing to combine Philosophy with Religion, but quite another thing to one particular philosophical doctrine with a particular religious creed. Shankara has attempted the former, while Ramanuja has attempted the latter. For Shankara, the only scriptures were the Vedantic texts and he interpreted them so as to harmonize logical thinking with religious feeling. For Ramanuja, the scriptures included besides the Vedantic texts, the Vaisnava Puranas, the Pancharatra-Agama and the Tamil Prabandham, and his main task was to prove that the doctrines of the Vaisnava theism are in conformity with the Vedantic tradition. There are some doctrines of the Vaisnava theism which can be harmonized with the Vedantic Absolutism, but not all. And if, therefore, Ramanuja failed, his failure is due not to his personal incapacity but due to the very nature of the difficult task he undertook to perform. It must be admitted without reservation and in all fairness to Ramanuja that no one else could have done it better. He has given us the best type of monotheism pregnant with immanentism. He has emphasized the religious side but not at the cost of the philosophical…Ramanuja’s position is essentially similar to the position of Shankara viewed from the practical or phenomenal (vyavahara) standpoint. For all practical purposes Shankara maintains the the reality of all secular and Vedic acts. From this standpoint the entire universe including the material world and the individual souls is as real as it can be. And though the highest reality is the indeterminate Brahman, yet the highest conception open to us, finite intellectual beings, is Ishvara and Ishvara alone. Though the universe is only a vivarta or an appearance of Brahman, yet as long as it lasts it is as good as real. Sarvajnatma-Muni is right in holding that Parinamavada (the position of Ramanuja) is an earlier stage of Vivartavada (the position of Shankara) and that the two are not opposed.       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let us now turn to the diacritical unfolding of the inherent contradictions in the philosophy of Ramanuja. Ramanuja has failed to express the relation between the universe and God. According to him matter, souls and God are the three realities and all the three make up the Absolute. And yet he identifies the Absolute with God who is only one of the three realities. God is the underlying substratum of matter and souls which are said to be His attributes. But if they are His attributes or modes, how can they be as real as God? The criticism of Spinoza leveled against Descartes that matter and souls cannot be called ‘substances’ if they are dependent on God can be very well leveled against Ramanuja also. Ramanuja abolishes the distinction between attributes and modes and though he explicitly maintains the distinctions between attributes and substance, yet he implicitly undermines this distinction also. According to him a thing can be a substance as well as an attribute. The distinction is relative. Though matter and souls are substances in themselves yet in relation to God they are merely His attributes. The very definition of ‘substance’ is that it has an independent existence. Ramanuja undermines this definition when he says that independence does not constitute the essence of substance, that a thing may be dependent and yet a substance. This is logically most unsatisfactory. If matter and souls are absolutely dependent on God, how can they be as real as God? Shankara defines the real as that which has independent existence for all times and tells us that Brahman alone is real. But he does not deny the existence of matter and souls. The dilemma before Ramanuja is this—either maintain the relative existence of matter and souls or abolish your Absolutism. And Ramanuja is prepared to do neither. Loyalty to the Upanishads makes him cling to Absolutism while sympathy for Vaisnavism makes him recognize ultimate distinctions. Thus Vishistadvaita is a house divided against itself…Ramanuja, therefore, has not been unable to solve the problem of the relation between the universe and the Absolute. He has stated that the universe is organically related to the Absolute, that it is the body of God, that though it has a right to exist separately it is not external to God who is All-inclusive, that identity is always qualified by difference. But he fails to explain his position further. The relation between the universe and God is not pure identity, for the very notion is a pseudo-concept, a bare abstraction. This relation is not that of difference for pure difference also is equally an abstraction. Difference belongs to and cannot remain separate from identity. This relation is not that of identity-and-difference (bhedabheda) for it is self-contradictory. Both identity and difference like light and darkness cannot belong to the same thing in the same sense…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And on page 370:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…Verily then, Ramanuja’s Absolute is Shankara’s Brahman bound to this world, while Shankara’s Absolute is Ramanuja’s Ishvara liberated from this world, Ramanuja cannot sustain the distinction between God’s body and soul. One cannot, as Shankara says, keep half a hen for cooking and reserve another half for laying eggs. It cannot be logically maintained that the soul of God is changeless and perfect while His body suffers change and imperfections.&#xA;  Again, Ramanuja tries to combine the Upanishadic Absolutism with the personal Theism of the Pancharatras. Here also he fails. If God is the immanent soul of the universe, how can He at the same time be a transcendent Person living in Vaikuntha with His consort Laksmi and attended upon by the nitya and the mukha souls? As Dr. Radhakrishnan says: “Ramanuja’s beautiful stories of the other world, which he narrates with the confidence of one who had personally assisted at the origination of the world, carry no conviction…”…The distinction between the Prakrti ot Lilavibhuti and Shuddhasattva or Nityavibhuti is arbitrary. If the body of God is made up of Prakrti and souls, what is the necessity of assuming Nityavibhuti as the stuff where God dwells and which constitute the body of God? Moreover, when sattva, rajas and tamas are the gunas of Prakrti and as such inseparable from it how can sattva be abstracted and made to form Nityavibhuti which limits Prakrti from above?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The distinction between the nitya and the mukta souls is also arbitrary. Souls may be either bound or liberated. What is the necessity of maintaining the third variety?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…Though Ramanuja admits the self as the self-conscious subject, yet he is unable to shake off the Nyaya-Vaishesika influence that the self is a substance possessing the quality of consciousness…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a sample of some of the arguments made, but is not complete as the arguments are extensive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would conclude this answer with Swami Vireswarananda’s comments at the end of his &lt;em&gt;Introduction&lt;/em&gt; to his translation of Ramanuja’s &lt;em&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/em&gt;. He says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Upanishads, as already stated at the very beginning, do not teach any particular doctrine. They teach various doctrines suited to different people at different stages of spiritual evolution. They are not contradictory, but based on the principle of individual fitness for receiving a truth (Adhikaribheda). The aspirants are taken step by step to the ultimate truth, from dualism to qualified monism and finally to monism. “That thou Art” is the last word of the Upanishads in religion. The &lt;em&gt;Brahma-Sutras&lt;/em&gt; also are as comprehensive as the Upanishads and contain references to these various stages. Hence, commentators, when they claim that their commentary alone is correct, do not reflect Badarayana’s view truly.             &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-06-08T13:11:17.277" LastActivityDate="2017-06-08T13:11:17.277" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18759" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18519" CreationDate="2017-06-08T11:56:41.370" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The explanation for pain and suffering is that Jivas live in duality where there is both pain and pleasure, both happiness and misery. You can't have only pleasure and no pain since this world is in a state of duality. Only in the non-dual state is there no such pairing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman is beyond vidya and avidya, knowledge and ignorance. It is&#xA;  beyond maya, the illusion of duality.  The world consists of the&#xA;  illusory duality of knowledge and ignorance. It contains of knowledge&#xA;  and devotion, and also attachment to 'lust and greed'; righteousness&#xA;  and unrighteousness; good and evil. But Brahman is unattached to&#xA;  these. Good and evil apply to the jiva, the individual soul, as do&#xA;  righteousness and unrighteousness; but Brahman is not at all&#xA;  unaffected by them.  One man may read the Bhagavata by the light of&#xA;  the lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light; but&#xA;  that lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well&#xA;  as on the virtuous.  &lt;strong&gt;You may then ask, 'How, then can one explain&#xA;  misery, and sin and unhappiness?' The answer is that these apply to&#xA;  the jiva.&lt;/strong&gt; Brahman is unaffected by them. There is poison in a snake;&#xA;  but though others may die if bitten by it, the snake itself is not&#xA;  affected by the poison.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-06-08T11:56:41.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18760" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18753" CreationDate="2017-06-08T12:44:04.133" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am only providing Sanskrit verses from four  Puranas Garuda purana , Harivamsha Purana , Shreemad Bhagvatam and vishnu purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So consider this as partial answer &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Harivamsha Purana 1.41.164&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कल्किर्विष्णुयशा नाम् शम्भले ग्रामके दविज : | &lt;br&gt; सर्वलोकहितार्थाय&#xA;  भुयच्श्रयोत्पत्स्यते प्रभु || 164||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the future avataras Buddha will appear first&lt;/strong&gt; , then there will be a&#xA;  famous avatara called “Kalki”     also will be known as “VishnuShaya”&#xA;  .Lord Vishnu will appear as brahamna in “Shammal” village for welfare&#xA;  of this universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagavata purana १.३.२४&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत: कलौ संप्रवृत्ते सम्मोहाय सुरद्विषाम् | &lt;br&gt; बुद्धो नाम्नाजनसुत:&#xA;  कीकटेषु भविष्यति ||१.३.२४|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tataḥ kalau sampravṛtte sammohāya sura-dviṣām &lt;br&gt; Budho&#xA;  nāmnāñjana-sutaḥ kīkaṭeṣu bhaviṣyati &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord&#xA;  Buddha,&lt;/strong&gt; the son of Añjanā, in the province of Gayā, just for the&#xA;  purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theist.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/24&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 1.3.34&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देवद्विषाम निगमवर्त्मनि निष्ठितानां | &lt;br&gt; पूर्भिर्मयेन&#xA;  विहिताभिरदृश्यतुर्भि:| &lt;br&gt; लोकान घ्रतां मतिविमोहमतिप्रलोभं ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वेषं विधाय बहु भाष्यत औपधर्म्यम् ||३७||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;deva-dviṣāṁ nigama-vartmani niṣṭhitānāṁ pūrbhir mayena vihitābhir&#xA;  adṛśya-tūrbhiḥ  lokān ghnatāṁ mati-vimoham atipralobhaṁ veṣaṁ vidhāya&#xA;  bahu bhāṣyata aupadharmyam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the atheists, after being well versed in the Vedic scientific&#xA;  knowledge, annihilate inhabitants of different planets, flying unseen&#xA;  in the sky on well-built rockets prepared by the great scientist Maya,&#xA;  the &lt;strong&gt;Lord will bewilder their minds by dressing Himself attractively as&#xA;  Buddha&lt;/strong&gt; and will preach on subreligious principles.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/7/37&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 2.7.37&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भूमेर्भरावतरणाय यदुष्वजन्मा | &lt;br&gt; जात: करिष्यति सुरैरपि दुष्कराणि||&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; वादैर्विमोहयति यज्ञकृतोsतदर्हान् | &lt;br&gt; शूद्रान् कलौ क्षितिभुजो&#xA;  न्यहनिष्यदन्ते ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhūmer bharāvataraṇāya yaduṣv ajanmā &lt;br&gt;jātaḥ kariṣyati surair api&#xA;  duṣkarāṇi  vādair vimohayati yajña-kṛto ’tad-arhān&lt;br&gt; śūdrān kalau&#xA;  kṣiti-bhujo nyahaniṣyad ante &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To diminish the burden of the earth, the unborn Lord will take birth&#xA;  in the Yadu dynasty and perform feats impossible even for the&#xA;  demigods. &lt;strong&gt;Propounding speculative philosophy, the Lord, as Buddha&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  will bewilder the unworthy performers of Vedic sacrifices. And as&#xA;  Kalki the Lord will kill all the low-class men posing as rulers at the&#xA;  end of the Age of Kali.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/4/22&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.4.22&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana  , Brahma Moksha Kanda , Chapter 15&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत: कलौ संप्रवृत्ते हार्रिस्तु | &lt;br&gt; संमोहनार्थं चासुरणां खगेन्द्र ||&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; नाम्ना बुद्धो कीकटेषु प्रजातो |&lt;br&gt; वेदप्रमाणम निराकर्तुमेव&#xA;  ||२६||  GP 3.15.26 ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then in the Kali age , &lt;strong&gt;the lord was born in Kikatas as Buddha&lt;/strong&gt;.He&#xA;  deluded the asuras  and flouted the Vedas.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana , Preta Kanda , Chapter 30&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मत्स्यं कर्म्मं च वाराहं नारसिंहस्च्र वामनं | &lt;br&gt; रामं रामं च कृष्णं&#xA;  च बुद्धं चैव सकल्किनं |&lt;br&gt; एतानि दशे नामानि स्मर्त्यव्यानि सदा बुधै&#xA;  ||३७||  GP 2.30.37  &lt;br&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The names of ten incarnations of the lord viz.  Matsya (fish) , Kurma&#xA;  (tortoise) , Varaha (boar) , Narasihmha , Srirama , Parashu-rama ,&#xA;  Krishna ,&lt;strong&gt;Buddha&lt;/strong&gt; and Kalki shall remembered always.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana - Book 3 - Chapter 18 verse 18,19,20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवं बुध्यत बुध्यत्वं बुध्यतैवमितिरयन |&lt;br&gt; मायामोह: स दैतेयान्&#xA;  धर्ममत्याजयन्निजम् || १८ || &lt;br&gt; नानाप्रकारवचनं स तेषां युक्तियोजितम्&#xA;  |&lt;br&gt; तथा तथा च तध्दर्मं तत्यजुस्ते यथा यथा || १९||&lt;br&gt; तेsप्यन्येषान&#xA;  तथैवोचुन्यैरन्ये तथोदिता : |&lt;br&gt; मैत्रैय ! तत्यजुर्धर्मं&#xA;  वेद   स्मृत्युदितं परम् ||२०||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parasara said – In this manner , exclaiming to them , “Know”&#xA;  (Budhyadvam) and they replying “It is known”( Budhyati) , these&#xA;  Daityas were induced by the arch deceiver to deviate from their&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;religious deities (and become Buddhas)&lt;/strong&gt;, by his repeated arguments and&#xA;  variously urged persuasion’s. When they abandoned  their own faith ,&#xA;  they persuaded  others to do the same and the heresy spread and any&#xA;  deserted the practices enjoined by the Vedas and the Laws.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Correction required -  It’s the verse no 11.4.22 and not the 23 of Bhagvata Purana as stated by you in question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WOBCS.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WOBCS.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DiifS.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DiifS.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note – I will update the answer with verses from other puranas very soon.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-10T17:02:49.130" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T17:02:49.130" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18761" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18768" CreationDate="2017-06-08T14:27:22.743" Score="-6" ViewCount="6098" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/VRyXw.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/VRyXwl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;google search screenshot&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Goddess Sarasvati, by the standard mythological authorities, is the wife of Lord Brahma. The Vaishnavas of Bengal have a popular legend that she was the wife of Lord Vishnu, as were also Goddess Lakshmi and Gangā. The ladies disagreed, goddess Sarasvati, like the other type of learned ladies, Minerva, being something of a termagant; and Lord Vishnu, finding that one wife was as much as even a god could manage, transferred goddess Sarasvati to Lord Brahma and Gangā to Lord Siva, and contented himself with goddess Lakshmi alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/amp/www.speakingtree.in/allslides/did-lord-brahma-marry-his-own-daughter/m-lite&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.google.co.in/amp/www.speakingtree.in/allslides/did-lord-brahma-marry-his-own-daughter/m-lite&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10035" LastEditorUserId="8500" LastEditDate="2017-06-09T04:46:19.933" LastActivityDate="2020-05-03T08:32:14.993" Title="Did Lord Vishnu have 3 wives?" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18763" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18720" CreationDate="2017-06-08T16:56:05.877" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Evil deeds, depending on how they are performed, has been classified into three groups : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Evil deeds performed by mind. 2) Evil deeds performed by speech. and 3) Evil deeds performed by the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of which, following is the list of sinful deeds that are committed by mind or thoughts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 12.5. &lt;strong&gt;Coveting the property of others, thinking in one’s&#xA;  heart of doing harm to others , and adherence to false (doctrines)&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  are the three kinds of (sinful) mental action&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/details/skandapurana16.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; mentions the following sinful acts that involve the mind:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adharmas or Acts of Sin are mainly of three categories: ‘Sthuula’ (in&#xA;  Gross Form), ‘Sukshma’ (Small in content) and ‘Athyantha Sukshma’&#xA;  (Minute). These sins are performed by Mind (Manas), Tongue (Vani) or&#xA;  Karma (Action). The &lt;strong&gt;Manasik type is four-fold: Thinking of other’s&#xA;  women, wealth, material loss and difficulties&lt;/strong&gt;. ‘Vachik Paap karma’&#xA;  (Sinful Utterances) like lies, unpalatable sayings, blaming others and&#xA;  using provocative language&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-06-08T16:56:05.877" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18766" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18797" CreationDate="2017-06-08T18:30:26.260" Score="12" ViewCount="306" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedanta schools extensively deal with the concept of brahman. What do non-vedanta schools like nyaya-vaishesika, samkhya-yoga etc say about shruti statements about Brahman?  How do they reconcile their atomism or dualism with shruti statements?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T04:04:49.280" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T21:47:25.087" Title="How do non-vedanta darshanas deal with shruti statements about Brahman?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahman|sankhya|shad-darshana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18767" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9543" CreationDate="2017-06-08T18:34:36.647" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;What I actually think is &lt;br&gt;There actually doesn't exist anything like good &lt;strong&gt;Karma&lt;/strong&gt; or bad &lt;strong&gt;Karma&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Karma&lt;/strong&gt; is just an action which you knowingly or unknowingly set in to motion. Nothing is good or bad. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Example :&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Suppose you have a bucket ,and there are 2 well or say some small water bodies.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Well A has fresh clean water,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;opposite to that Well B has dirty and smelly water. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Its your whole decision from which well you want to draw water from.&#xA;If you decide to draw water from well A you will get fresh water.&#xA;But on the other hand if you decide to take it from the well B you will get dirty water. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Deciding and drawing water from well is your karma and you will get water according to your decision. You know which water is good for you and which is not. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;All you needs clam mind to figure it out. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Anything that you do is your responsibility. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;There was a beautiful example I have heard :&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;There is was a boy whose father was on the verge of death and his fathers wish was that his son should pour water in his mouth spoon by spoon. So the son decides to full fill his fathers wish,giving him water spoon by spoon. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Unfortunately some bandit attack their village , and they start kidnapping the young girls, so all the men start trying to save those girls. &#xA;NOW its the decision of the boy to complete his fathers wish or to save those girls.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;He will face the consequences according to his decision. &#xA;No one but the boy himself is responsible for deciding his &lt;strong&gt;Karma&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What you have set in action you have to face the consequences its the law of nature,if you think its good/bad that's your earthly perspective nature doesn't care about your perspective. Its as simple as. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;As you sow so shall you reap.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7171" LastEditorUserId="7171" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T08:49:35.270" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T08:49:35.270" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18768" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18761" CreationDate="2017-06-08T18:36:07.493" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;YES &lt;strong&gt;Narayana Has Three Wives: Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लक्ष्मीः सरस्वती गङ्‌गा &lt;strong&gt;तिस्रो भार्या हरेरपि&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रेम्णा समास्तास्तिष्ठन्ति सततं हरिसन्निधौ ॥ १७ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narayana says: O Naarada! Lakshmi, Saraswati and Ganga, &lt;strong&gt;these are Three Wives of Hari Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who always abide closest to Vishnu with love and harmony.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Devi Bhagwatam, Ninth Book, Chapter 6, verse 17.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T16:09:23.957" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T16:09:23.957" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18769" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17001" CreationDate="2017-06-08T18:47:48.100" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bilva treated as Lord Shiva’s Tree&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmyaascha stana utpannam Mahaadeva sadaa priyam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bilva vriksham prayachchhaami eka bilvam Shivaarpanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Darshanam bilva vrikshasya sparshanam paapanaashanam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aghorapaapasamhaaram eka bilvam shivarpanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Born from the bosom of Goddess Lakshmi, the Bilva tree is ever dear to Mahadeva. So I ask this tree to offer a Bilva leaf to Lord Shiva. To have darshan of the Bilva tree, and to touch it, frees one from sin. The most terrible karma is destroyed when a Bilva leaf is offered to Lord Shiva.&#xA;Sri Bilva Shtakam (v. 6–7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Purana (7 AD) the Bilva tree is the manifest form of Lord Shiva himself&lt;/strong&gt;, while all the great tirthas (pilgrimage places) are said to reside at its base. One who worships the shivalingam while sitting under the Bilva, claims this great epic, attains the state of Shiva. Washing the head by this tree is said to be the equivalent of bathing in all the sacred rivers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who performs Bilva pooja with flowers and incense achieves Shiva loka, the abode of pure consciousness, and has happiness and prosperity bestowed upon them. The lighting of the deepak (lamp) before this tree bestows knowledge and enables the devotee to merge in Lord Shiva. The Shiva Purana also claims that if the devotee removes the new leaves from one of the branches of that tree and worships the tree with them, they will be freed from vice, while one who feeds a devotee under the Bilva will grow in virtue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-08T20:09:49.177" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18770" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18773" CreationDate="2017-06-08T20:02:49.260" Score="12" ViewCount="4661" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the alcoholic beverages suitable for consumption by a Kshatriya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What about other three varnas? Are they allowed to consume alcohol?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-02-14T16:52:24.940" LastActivityDate="2023-02-12T13:00:31.347" Title="Kshatriyas and alcohol consumption" Tags="|dharma|caste-system|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18771" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18770" CreationDate="2017-06-08T21:26:30.353" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Consumption of alcohol is not recommended in Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt;, but it is allowed for special occasions and occupations (allowed for all vernas Except Brahmans).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kshatriyas&lt;/strong&gt; may and commonly do eat meat (though never beef), and many also take &lt;strong&gt;alcoholic drinks(mostly Wine and Spirits&lt;/strong&gt;); both of these characteristics set them apart from the Brahmans. An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Popular &lt;strong&gt;Alcoholic beverages are wines, and spirits. (now a days Beer).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ayurveda&lt;/strong&gt;, the medical branch of Hindu dharma, contains clearly defined &lt;strong&gt;views on the use alcohol&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Ayurveda uses alcohol as a solvent for extracting the active ingredients of certain herbs&lt;/strong&gt;. Tinctures are used in western herbalism in the same way. Ayurveda also prepares &lt;strong&gt;special herbal wines called asavas and arishtas&lt;/strong&gt;. Herbal wines are regarded as particularly good medicines to take for a weak digestion and as relaxants for stress. Ayurveda recognizes that certain alcoholic beverages (like wine) can have health benefits, like improving digestion or circulation, but only taken in moderation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Alcoholic beverages that have a lower alcohol content (beer and wine) are produced by fermentation of sugar- or starch-containing plant material. Beverages of higher alcohol content (spirits) are produced by fermentation followed by distillation. Ayurveda also recognizes that excessive alcohol consumption can cause or contribute to physical or psychological diseases. Excess alcohol can damage the liver, make the blood toxic, and overheat the brain. Alcohol can impair our mental judgment as well as our sensory coordination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Shukracharya due to his alcoholism caused Kacha to be killed, ground up and mixed in his alcohol by the Asuras.&lt;/strong&gt; After going through an ordeal of having to teach Kacha the secret &lt;strong&gt;Sanjivani knowledge, Shukracharya&lt;/strong&gt; came to his senses, and pronounced these sayings on drinking:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यो ब्राह्मणो अद्य प्रभृतीह कश्चिन्मोहात्सुरां पास्यति मन्दबुद्धिः।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अपेतधर्मो ब्रह्महा चैव स स्यादस्मिँल्लोके गर्हितः स्यात्परे च ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Whoever foolish brahmana henceforth drinks alcohol out of delusion, he should be considered as devoid of dharma, a killer of brahmanas, and should be forever despised in this world and the next.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/muNRS.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/muNRS.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All Four Varnas in Hinduism -  Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra. As far as Brahmins are concerned to drink Alcohol drinks. However, since Vedic times there have been special yajnas for Kshatriyas where drinking is done in a restricted way so as to allow them to indulge in their vices but in a controlled way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Dharma shastras (law books) by default condemn alcoholism for any person regardless of occupation. However, in consideration of &lt;strong&gt;physical exertion and exhaustion of Kshatriyas and Shudras, alcohol is allowed for them to bring some relaxation and relief of pain.&lt;/strong&gt; If based on Varnas people had any restrictions to consume Alcohol, it's not effecting the people who consume because it is purely interest matters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-08T21:35:04.233" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18772" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24299" CreationDate="2017-06-08T21:32:01.857" Score="6" ViewCount="1081" Body="&lt;p&gt;I genuinely believe this question is a bit in bad taste but do read below my thoughts of inquisitiveness for putting up a bland question like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was curious to know if karma would adjudge me as more guilty if i kill say a cow instead of a dog? The Vedas mention cow to be holy while a dog has no such mention and assuming that I kill them both under pretty much same conditions, would I be more guilty for killing the cow because it's mentioned as holy in vedas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sorry for such macabre query, depictions and ideas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2974" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-14T09:04:32.890" LastActivityDate="2018-02-14T09:04:32.890" Title="Do I commit a sin of greater degree when I kill a holy creature (say cow) instead of any other creature?" Tags="|vedas|karma|sin|animals|cows|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18773" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18770" CreationDate="2017-06-08T22:17:36.633" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kshatriyas and Vaishyas are allowed to drink certain forms of alcohol.&lt;/strong&gt;  Kumarila Bhatta discusses this in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/bNbd&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Tantra Vartika, one of his commentaries on Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras.  The context is that Kumarila Bhatta is discussing the fact that the practices of good men knowledgable about the Vedas are a Pramana or means of knowledge concerning morality, since such men naturally make sure that their actions are in accordance with the Vedas.  But then an objection is raised that there are various stories in Hindu scriptures of good men acting contrary to Dharma, one example being that the Mahabharata describes Krishna and Arjuna drinking alcohol, even though drinking alcohol is a sin.  Kumarila Bhatta responds that Krishna and Arjuna drank the kind of alcohol that is allowed for Kshatriyas, not the kind that is forbidden:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then remains the case of Krishna and Arjuna being drunk with wine, ... being [an] instance[] of [a] direct transgression[] of the law.  But it is only the wine distilled from grains, which is called &amp;quot;Sura,&amp;quot; that is prohibited for the three higher castes; says the Smriti: &amp;quot;Sura is the impure essence of the grains at it is spoken of an impure; hence the Brahmana, Kshatriya and the Vaishya should never drink Sura.&amp;quot;  As for the particular wines &amp;quot;Madhu&amp;quot; (wine distilled from certain fruits, as grapes and the like), and the &amp;quot;Sidhu&amp;quot; (that distilled from molasses), these are not prohibited for the Kshatriya and the Vaishya, as &amp;quot;all intoxicating drunks&amp;quot; have been prohibited for the Brahmana alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though there as a passage that declares - &amp;quot;all the three kinds of wine, the Gaudi (that distilled from molasses), Paishthi (that distilled from grains) and Madhvi (distilled from fruits), being the same, they should not be drunk by the Brahmavadis,&amp;quot; - yet here the word &amp;quot;Brahmavidi&amp;quot; should be taken as denoting the Brahmanas only, as the word literally means &amp;quot;one who is capable of teaching Brahma&amp;quot;, or &amp;quot;whose duty it is to teach Brahma&amp;quot;, or &amp;quot;whose excellence lies in such teaching&amp;quot;, and as the root &amp;quot;Vada&amp;quot;' is synonymons with &amp;quot;Bru&amp;quot; such duties are distinctly restricted to the Brahmana alone, by such texts as - &amp;quot;from among the three higher castes, the Brahmana, alone should teach&amp;quot;. And it has also been pointed out in connection with the vilificatory Arthavada, that are taken along with the prohıbıtıon of wınes ın general, that the Brahmana, deluded under the influence of wine, might do many such things as should not be done which shows that wine in general is prohibited for the Brahmana only. Hence we take the passage-&amp;quot;All the three kinds of wine, &amp;amp;c.,&amp;quot; to mean that just as the one, Sura distilled from grains, is not drinkable by the three higher castes, so are all the three undrinkable by the Brahmana. Otherwise, if the sample prohibition of wine in general were meant, then the words &amp;quot;Yathaiva, &amp;amp;c.,&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Brahmavadibhih&amp;quot; would be totally redundant.  The mention of &amp;quot;the three castes&amp;quot; we shall supply from out of another verse. For this reason, the fact of Krishna and Aruna - both Kshatriyas - being intoxicated with Madhu (grape wine) is in no way a transgression of the law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, as a matter of fact, we have Vedic texts that distinctly show (1) that the prohibition of wine is for others (i. e., Brahmanas), and also (2) that it is distinctly permissible (in the case of others).  For instance, (1) &amp;quot;That which was impure came out afterwards, wine is that ampurity, this became attached to the Kshatriya, hence it is that superiors, daughters-in-law, and the father-in-law drink the wine and go on talking; evil indeed is impurity, hence the Brahmana, should not drink the wine; lest he be attached to evil&amp;quot;, and (2) &amp;quot;The Kshatriya should say to the Brahmana - the drinking of wine does no harm to him who knows this&amp;quot;, and this latter is with reference to the &amp;quot;Madhu&amp;quot; and the &amp;quot;Siddhu&amp;quot; (and not the &amp;quot;Sura&amp;quot; which is in no case allowed to anyone else but the Shudra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up, Brahmanas are not allowed to drink any kind of alcohol, whereas Kshatriyas and Vaishyas are allowed to drink Madhu and Siddhu but not Sura.  But Sura can be consumed during certain Yagnas, like the Sautramani Yagna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T03:58:08.453" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18774" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-08T22:59:16.700" Score="2" ViewCount="70" Body="&lt;p&gt;As Buddhism grew, a number of Hindu deities were incorporated into Buddhism. For example, Saraswati became Benzaiten in Japan. Did this happen with Lord Shiva? If so, what name is he called in Asian cultures outside of India?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9653" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-09T03:22:48.310" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T03:22:48.310" Title="Who is Lord Shiva in religion that grew out of Hinduism?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18775" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9075" CreationDate="2017-06-09T00:03:36.510" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can read it in Scripture: Shree Haricharitramrut Sagar, it is in hindi. Shree Haricharitramrut Sagar is the scripture mentioned life events (lila) of Bhagavan Swaminarayan. There are many, but this is the only one I found in hindi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read over here: &lt;a href=&quot;https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Swaminarayan_Saint_Sadguru_Shree_Adharanandswami_S?id=7ZERAgAAQBAJ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Swaminarayan_Saint_Sadguru_Shree_Adharanandswami_S?id=7ZERAgAAQBAJ&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you read Pur 1, Tarang 31 to 35. it has all the details you need. Page number 115 to 130. Hope that helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks,&#xA;Nixit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3880" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T00:03:36.510" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18776" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-09T03:26:12.420" Score="4" ViewCount="112" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many foreign visitors visited India since ancient times to study the cultures and religions of the land.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did India have any of its own in the past who similarly travelled across nations to study the different faiths, cultures etc., Is there any written account of Indian travellers describing the world outside India? Are their Journals documenting their travels available?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answers needed from religious perspective i.e., from Hindu Texts.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9706" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-22T07:06:52.833" LastActivityDate="2017-11-22T07:06:52.833" Title="Are there any Indian travellers who visited abroad for learning other cultures, faiths?" Tags="|history|pilgrimage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18780" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18772" CreationDate="2017-06-09T06:01:54.030" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well .. killing any life has a certain karma associated with it. No animal is holy or dirty for that matter. All life has a certain sanctity. However, we do not treat a rock and a flower in the same way in the social sense! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A cow is known to exhibit human-like emotions of joy, tears &amp;amp; pain according to how people act with it. And in India, lot of children grow up drinking cow's milk, especially in rural India. So, it is considered like killing a human if one kills a cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A dog is also a man's friend but sometimes acts violently. So, people have generally kept them at a certain distance (though that is all changing nowadays).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's first see how the principle of Karma works. &lt;strong&gt;It is not just about action, but also about volition.&lt;/strong&gt; If you think of doing a violent act, and not actually do it, you still acquire the karma because what we do physically in the world is just an outwardly manifestation of what we think in our mind. &lt;strong&gt;Thought precedes action and every action has a consequence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma is so feared because of the impact it is supposed to have on a human being. Most people are ok with taking an action but do not want to deal with the consequence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if you are killing a human being, do you acquire a bigger karma than killing an animal? Most people would argue yes. But bring in the context that the human is a terrorist trying to kill you &amp;amp; your family whereas the animal is a cow or a dog you are lovingly bringing up. What happens in that case? The equation reverses for most people. Karma does not work like that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is actually about how we are while thinking or performing the action! If one is in awareness, of life and consequences of every action one performs, one is said to be free from Karma. This can be considered as the essence of Bhagavat Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the answer to &quot;do you get more Karma while killing a cow than while killing a dog?&quot; is - &lt;strong&gt;'It Depends'&lt;/strong&gt;! It depends entirely on how the volition &amp;amp; action happens within you. If you are acting utterly out of cruelty (knowingly or unknowingly), killing any animal or human will get you lot of Karmic burden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may also want to read this to get an idea of how in Sanatana Dharma, a butcher could become a Guru for a monk: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyadha_Gita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyadha_Gita&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10048" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T06:01:54.030" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18781" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18706" CreationDate="2017-06-09T06:22:58.440" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is the structure of Chaitanya Charitamrit(CC).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;CC is divided into three parts &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Adi Leela&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Madhya Leela&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Antya Leela&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi lila deals with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's life before Sanyas(till the age of 24 years)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhya Leela mainly contains His pastimes when He went on tour of India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last part,Antya Lila speaks about His pastimes in Jagannath Puri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each of these sections have chapters and each chapter in tern has verses.&#xA;Now from your question we know that you are talking about 2.15-16 i.e. Chapter 2, verse 15-16. But which Lila? That we do not know. In any case I'l link below Prabhupada's translation of verses 2.15-16 of all three Leelas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Lila &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2.15-16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Brahmā said:] “The opulences of the impersonal Brahman spread&#xA;  throughout the millions and millions of universes. That Brahman is but&#xA;  the bodily effulgence of Govinda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“I worship Govinda. He is my Lord. Only by His grace am I empowered to&#xA;  create the universe.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhya Leela &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2.15-16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to express His mind in this way: “Where&#xA;  is the Lord of My life, who is playing His flute? What shall I do now?&#xA;  Where should I go to find the son of Mahārāja Nanda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“To whom should I speak? Who can understand My disappointment? Without&#xA;  the son of Nanda Mahārāja, My heart is broken.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Antya Leela &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/antya/2&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2.15-16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this way Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu delivered the entire three worlds,&#xA;  not only by His personal presence but also by empowering others. I&#xA;  shall briefly describe how He empowered a living being in Bengal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Āmbuyā-muluka there was a person named Nakula Brahmacārī, who was a&#xA;  perfectly pure devotee, greatly advanced in devotional service.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from this we know that the source from where you read this verse is a very very bad translation to say the least. It is nowhere even little related to correct translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case you can read Chaitanya Charitamrit &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T06:22:58.440" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18782" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16553" CreationDate="2017-06-09T06:49:46.573" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Panchabrahma (Mantras) have been described in Mrigendra āgama as well. Note that, they are beyond Māyā Tattva therefore they don't possess body of Buddhi, intellect, flesh etc, the very nature of their body is Mantra. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;Therefore when they are beyond space &amp;amp; time, how &lt;strong&gt;can she even sit on them&lt;/strong&gt;? &lt;em&gt;Sthitham&lt;/em&gt; seems to signify here contemplation, indwelling etc. E.g someone sthit on Brahman doesn't mean &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sitting&lt;/a&gt; on Brahman, it just means indwelling in Brahman. In chapter 3, we find the roles of these manifestations of Lord Shiva-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Since there are no body-creating seeds such as mala, karma and others for the Supreme Lord, His body is not like our own bodies.&lt;/strong&gt; His body is of the very nature of Sakti only. &lt;strong&gt;The body of Siva is constituted of five mantras so as to be instrumentally useful in performing the five cosmic functions.&lt;/strong&gt; With these five mantras are designed the head and other parts of  the body of Siva. &lt;strong&gt;The  five constituent mantras are: Isana, Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vama and Sadyojata&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Because of the nature of bestowing grace  upon all,  because of its existence and function in the higher plane of pure adhva (pure realm of Māyā) and because of its highly elevated state comparable to the head-portion, &lt;strong&gt;Isana mantra is considered to  constitute the head of  Lord Siva&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Since it exists as the activating and energizing source  in the bodies of the  higher souls (devas) and of other beings, since it manifests and illumines the knowledge of  the beings, since it dispels the fear related to the   continuing transmigration and since it protects  the souls, &lt;strong&gt;Tatpurusha mantra is  considered to constitute the face of  Lord Siva.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The word &lt;code&gt;hrudaya&lt;/code&gt; is synonymous with consciousness.  Siva's form which is of the nature of that consciousness is  pure and tranquil. Being free from  the state of dreadfulness (aghora), the mantra assumes the form &lt;strong&gt;aghora hrudaya&lt;/strong&gt;. Since the assumptive energy (parigraha sakti) otherwise known as &lt;code&gt;adhikara sakti&lt;/code&gt; related to impure maya is very dreadful, &lt;strong&gt;the form of Siva has been figuratively told to be dreadful&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Since the three goals – dharma, artha and kama – are of inferior nature when compared to the highest state of liberation (moksha), they are collectively known as &lt;code&gt;vama&lt;/code&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;That effulgence (deva) of Siva which enables the souls experience dharma, artha and kama according to their karmic fruits becomes known as vama deva&lt;/strong&gt;. Since, by its own nature, it remains very subtle and secret (guhya, not exposed to vision), the &lt;code&gt;Vamadeva&lt;/code&gt; mantra is &lt;strong&gt;considered to constitute the privy part of the form of Lord Siva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-06-09T08:14:06.450" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T08:14:06.450" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18783" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18757" CreationDate="2017-06-09T07:12:12.460" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;The source you have cited in question is not proper. You should read &lt;em&gt;Rudra Samhita (Yuddha Khanda) (chapter 13 - Chapter 25) of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/em&gt; and/or &lt;em&gt;Uttarakhada (Chapter 3 - Chapter 18) of Padma Purana&lt;/em&gt; to know complete story though &lt;em&gt;Chapter 97 of Linga Purana&lt;/em&gt; mentions different story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, it was Jalandhara who started everything. He went into chambers of Parvathi (disguised as Shiva) from middle of the war and droped his semen on seeing beauty of Parvathi. Parvathi Devi knew it was not Shiva and immediately disappeared from place and went to Manasa Lake. There she asked help of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-42/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 23&lt;/a&gt;, Rudra Samhita (Yuddha Khanda) of Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यावद्ददर्श चार्वङ्गीं पार्वतीं दनुजेश्वरः। &lt;br&gt; तावत्स वीर्यं मुमुचे&#xA;जडाङ्गश्चाभवत्तदा॥४१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On looking at the beautiful Parvati, by the lord of Daityas, his semen&#xA;fell on the ground and all his limbs became benumbed. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथ ज्ञात्वा तदा गौरी दानव भयविह्वला। &lt;br&gt; जगामान्तहिंता वेगात्सा&#xA;तदोत्तरमानसम्॥४२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, when Gauri came to realise, the truth that he was a Daitya&#xA;and not Siva, she disappeared from the site and went to northern shore&#xA;of the lake Manasa. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पार्वत्यपि महाविष्णु सस्मार मनसा तदा। &lt;br&gt; तावद्ददर्श तं देवं&#xA;सोपविष्टं समीपगम्॥ ४४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Parvati remembered lord Vishnu mentally and she found at once&#xA;that the lord was seated before her. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jalandhara followed Adharmic path and Vishnu too helped Shiva to establish Dharma by following same path of Jalandhara. Devi Parvathi says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सनत्कुमार उवाच &lt;br&gt; तच्छुत्वा विष्णुवचनं पुनरप्याह पार्वती। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;हृषीकेशं जगन्माता धर्मनीर्तिं सुशिक्षयन्॥४९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पार्वत्युवाच &lt;br&gt; तेनैव दर्शितः पन्था बुध्यस्व त्वं तथैव हि। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;तत्स्त्रीपातिव्रतं धर्मं भ्रष्टं कुरु मदाज्ञया॥ ५० ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatkumara said, “On hearing the words of Vishnu, Parvati, the mother&#xA;of the universe, then desired to teach the policy based on dharma.'&#xA;Parvati said, “He himself has shown the path, now that has to be the&#xA;way and he should be paid in the same manner. At my command, destroy&#xA;the chastity of his wife. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before Judging this act of Narayana, you should know Narayana is not humanbeing. He is a trimurthi (also Supreme Brahman in Vaishnava philosophies).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13639/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Vedas also describe Him as Supreme Being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana is the Supreme Reality designated as Brahman. Narayana is the&#xA;highest (Self). Narayana is the supreme Light. Narayana is the&#xA;infinite Self. [Narayana is the most excellent meditator and&#xA;meditation.] Whatsoever there is in this world known through&#xA;perception (because of their proximity) or known through report&#xA;(because of their distance), all that is pervaded by Narayana within&#xA;and without.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taittariya Aranyaka of Yajurveda 10.13&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas extol Him as infinite self. It is ridiculous to say he did that act for sexual pleasure. Pure self or Brahman manifest in different forms such as Vishnu, Shiva and other Devas (from Advaitic perspective). Brahman is beyond human intellect and whatever acts he does are called Leelas. To know more about Leela, read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16188/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here we can say, this sport or leela is to get cursed by Vrinda, so that He can born as Rama. Vrinda curses Vishnu as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यौ त्वया मायया ख्याती स्वकीयौ दर्शितौ मम। &lt;br&gt; तावैव राक्षसौ भूत्वा&#xA;भार्या तव हरिष्यतः॥ ४४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By displaying the two Raksasas to me with your illusion, they would be&#xA;turned as the demons in reality and shal kidnap your wife. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्वं चापि भार्यादुःखातों वने कपिसहायवान्। &lt;br&gt; भ्रम सर्वेश्वरेणायं&#xA;यस्ते शिष्यत्वमागतः॥ ४५ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You, yourself, suffering from the separation of your wife, with the&#xA;lord of serpents who is acting as your disciple, will wander in the&#xA;forest with him.'&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-43/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 24&lt;/a&gt;, Rudra Samhita (Yuddha Khanda) of Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For beginners in Hinduism, this leela concept would be difficult to understand. Reading Puranas or other scriptures may help in understanding &amp;quot;Leela&amp;quot;more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a sidenote, Stories in Puranas could be allegorical in nature or could be literal. Swami Prabhavananda says the following in his book &lt;strong&gt;Spiritual heritage of India&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word purana literally means ancient, the name being applied to&#xA;certain scriptures to mean 'that which lives from of old' or 'that&#xA;which is ever new though old'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;K. S. Ramaswami, the Indian scholar, has described Puranas as: '. . .&#xA;the Puranas are a vital portion of the scriptures of the Hindus. They&#xA;are primarily an extension, amplification and illustration of the&#xA;spiritual truths declared in the Vedas. Outsiders may call them&#xA;legends like the works of fiction current today. Some insiders too may&#xA;regard them as mere illustrative fictions or allegories, or as&#xA;relating to yogic realities unconnected with the external material&#xA;world. But the bulk of the Hindus and the main body of traditional&#xA;opinion attribute to the Puranas a double character, viz. illustrative&#xA;value and impressive actuality. They have largely moulded public life,&#xA;belief and conduct in our land for thousands of years, and they must&#xA;be fully utilized by us ifwe are to realize the truths of the Vedas.&#xA;Herein lies their permanent and supreme value to us.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Altogether there are eighteen Puranas, six devoted to Visnu, six to&#xA;Brahma, and six to Siva. All of them are written in verse, and all are&#xA;usually attributed to Vyasa, the reputed author of the Mahabharata and&#xA;editor of the Vedas. Their date may safely be assigned to the somewhat&#xA;uncertain Epic Period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T07:12:12.460" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18784" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18790" CreationDate="2017-06-09T08:51:40.617" Score="4" ViewCount="3375" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard that &lt;strong&gt;Laxman&lt;/strong&gt; is an avatar of &lt;strong&gt;Sheshnag&lt;/strong&gt;? Is this true? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10049" LastEditorUserId="10049" LastEditDate="2017-06-09T09:16:43.943" LastActivityDate="2022-12-28T08:40:11.060" Title="Is Laxman an avatar of Sheshnag?" Tags="|ramayana|avatars|lakshmana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18785" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18784" CreationDate="2017-06-09T09:45:22.137" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes,this is true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Treta Yuga&lt;/strong&gt;, Lord &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; took seventh avatar as Lord &lt;strong&gt;Rama&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Sheshnag&lt;/strong&gt; accompanied him and took avatar as &lt;strong&gt;Lakshman&lt;/strong&gt;–the younger brother. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer this good &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.templepurohit.com/lakshman-balrama-avatars-of-sheshnag/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10049" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T09:45:22.137" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18786" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-09T09:57:56.713" Score="10" ViewCount="3763" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मानुष्यं च समासाद्य स्वर्गमोक्षप्रसाधनम्।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;नाचरत्यात्मनः श्रेयः स मृतः शोचते चिरम्॥३०॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The human body is the means for achieving of the heaven and moksa and even after achieving the same, he does not do good to himself. After death he keeps on thinking for a long time.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;देवासुराणां सर्वेषां मानुष्यं चातिदुर्लभम्।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;तत्सम्प्राप्य तथा कुर्यान्न गच्छेन्नरकं यथा॥३१॥&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is difficult for even the gods and the demons to achieve the human body. Therefore after achieving the human body, one should act in a way that he has not to face the agonies of the hell. &#xA;    &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The above verses are from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18430/why-does-uma-samhita-chapter-24-of-shiva-purana-insult-women&quot;&gt;TheDestroyer's answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And we all along find several verses through Hinduism saying this- &lt;strong&gt;Human Birth is extremely rare and auspicious. We must not waste it and effect our Moksha practicing Yoga &lt;em&gt;(Karma, Gyaana, Bhakti, Kriya, Raaja Yog: means of attaining Brahma)&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now, God knows this very well. Then how can it &lt;em&gt;(from 'it' I mean genderless Brahma)&lt;/em&gt; make some people &lt;strong&gt;Lunatic, Autistic, Schizophrenic&lt;/strong&gt; et cetera.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There is no method of their Moksha(the highest duty of their Human Birth), until unless God itself comes to give them moksha, or Some Real Guru comes and enlightens them.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Then, &lt;strong&gt;Why God produces them like that, where it is certain they are never going to achieve no goals?&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it be argued- &lt;strong&gt;'&lt;em&gt;God gave those human being punishment of previous Karma&lt;/em&gt;'&lt;/strong&gt; , then also God could have given them inferior births such as- fishes, birds, animals, et cetera. Why does God give them Human Birth?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Why does God need to deliberately make them Human Beings, and then deliberately defy this law- &lt;em&gt;'Human Birth is rare and meant to attain moksha.'&lt;/em&gt; .&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Why does God need to create this 'divine holy body'(meant for Moksha) just to see it 'wasting'&lt;em&gt;(as a lunatic person can never use his Human form for Moksha)&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T10:51:47.497" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T13:06:01.047" Title="If Human birth is so Auspicious and Rare, why does God let some people be born as - Lunatic, Autistic, Schizophrenic et cetera?" Tags="|karma|moksha|sin|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18787" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18791" CreationDate="2017-06-09T10:33:54.077" Score="2" ViewCount="5180" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard Ashwatthama who is an important character in the story in the Mahabharata epic and one of the chiranjeevas (immortals) to be the twelfth Rudra. However, he is seen as a cruel person for having the killing all the sons of the Pandavas and siding with the evil Kauravas. My question is how can such an evil person be the partial incarnation of the great Lord Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T11:55:11.017" Title="How can Ashwatthama be an incarnation of Lord Shiva?" Tags="|mahabharata|shiva|ashwatthama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18788" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18802" CreationDate="2017-06-09T11:10:16.910" Score="14" ViewCount="1469" Body="&lt;p&gt;Normal duties of Brahmana varna are waking up early morning, learning and chanting Vedas, etc, But if a Brahmin doesn't perform these duties, is he still respected like other brahmins who perform these duties regularly?                        I am providing a verse from Manusmriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अविद्वांश्चैव विद्वांश्च ब्राह्मणो दैवतं महत् । &#xA;  प्रणीतश्चाप्रणीतश्च यथाऽग्निर्दैवतं महत् ॥ ३१७ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;avidvāṃścaiva vidvāṃśca brāhmaṇo daivataṃ mahat | &#xA;  praṇītaścāpraṇītaśca yathā'gnirdaivataṃ mahat || 317 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Learned or unlearned, the Brāhmaṇa is a great divinity; just as consecrated or unconsecrated, the fire is a great divinity.—(317)    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-09T12:23:36.593" LastActivityDate="2022-05-25T11:31:11.787" Title="If a Brahmin doesn't perform duties as per his varna, is he still called as brahmin?" Tags="|practice|caste-system|brahmins|varna|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18789" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-09T11:20:15.307" Score="6" ViewCount="1119" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharathi_(warrior)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; link, Parshurama belonged to the Atimaharathi class of warrior, the only other being Meghanaada. But some other links like &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhakti4mukti.blogspot.in/2015/08/7-levels-of-warrior-excellence-as-per.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; mentioned Parshurama as Maharathi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any relevant text mentioned in any of our Epics which clarify this ambiguity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8207" LastEditorUserId="8207" LastEditDate="2017-06-09T11:56:19.217" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T11:56:19.217" Title="Atimaharathi class of warrior: Was Parshurama one of the Atimaharathi?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|parashurama|war|indrajit|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18790" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18784" CreationDate="2017-06-09T11:26:27.937" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Shree Laxman and Balraam both are the avatars of Sheshnag. In &lt;strong&gt;Padma Puran&lt;/strong&gt; there is a &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 1.5.11&lt;/strong&gt;, The proof is mentioned here in this chapter. According this: &lt;strong&gt;When lord Mahadev was telling the story of Sri Ram to Parvati here he mentioned about Sri Laxman&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Mahadeva told Parvati- &quot;Dasharath requested Vashishth to perform the Jaatkarm Sanskar of Sri Ram. In course of time Kaikeyi gave birth to Bharat- an incarnation of Panchajanya conch. Similarly,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sumitra gave birth to two sons--Laxman and Shatrughan. Laxman was the&#xA;  incarnation of Sheshnag while Shatrughan was the incarnation of&#xA;  Sudershan chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ram and his brothers received education under the guidance of Sage Vashishth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a very short time they became proficient in all the scriptures and mastered various weaponaries. Although all the four brothers were very close to each other, yet Laxman could not bear to live in Ram's separation even for a moment and was specially close to him.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Link: &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/PadmaPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another Proof, When Goswami Tulsidas was praying to Sri Laxman he also describes him as a Avatar of Sheshnag in below lines...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बंर्दौं &lt;strong&gt;लछिमन&lt;/strong&gt; पद जलजाता। सीतल सुभग भगत सुखदात।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रघुपति कीरति बिमल पताका। द्वंड समान भयउ जस जाका।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;सेष सहस्रसीस&lt;/strong&gt; जगकारन। जो &lt;strong&gt;अवतरेउ&lt;/strong&gt; भूमि भय टारन।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9957" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-09T12:08:52.647" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T12:08:52.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18791" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18787" CreationDate="2017-06-09T11:55:11.017" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all Ashwatthama is not purely Shiva Avatar, he is mixed incarnation as told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And, O king, his son &lt;strong&gt;the heroic Aswatthaman,&lt;/strong&gt; of eyes like the lotus-petals, gifted with surpassing energy, and the terror of all foes, the great oppressor of all enemies, was born on earth, of the &lt;strong&gt;united portions of Mahadeva, Yama, Kama, and Krodha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, it is Lord Mahadeva himself who possessed Ashwatthama and created all destructions which happened in that night of Mahabharata. It is seen from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Saupitaka Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सत्यशौचार्जव त्यागैस् तपसा नियमेन च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  क्षान्त्या भक्त्या च धृत्या च बुद्ध्या च वचसा तथा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथावद् अहम् आराद्धः कृष्णेनाक्लिष्टकर्मणा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्माद् इष्टतमः कृष्णाद् अन्यो मम न विद्यते।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कुर्वता तस्य संमानं त्वां च जिज्ञासता मया।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पाञ्चालाः सहसा गुप्ता मायाश् च बहुशः कृताः।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कृतस् तस्यैष संमानः पाञ्चालान् रक्षता मया।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अभिभूतास् तु कालेन नैषाम् अद्यास्ति जीवितम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “एवम् उक्त्वा महेष्वासं भगवान् आत्मनस् तनुम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आविवेश ददौ चास्मै विमलं खड्गम् उत्तमम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अथाविष्टो भगवता भूयो जज्वाल तेजसा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वर्ष्मवांश् चाभवद् युद्धे देव सृष्टेन तेजसा ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;With truth, purity, sincerity, resignation, ascetic austerities, vows, forgiveness, devotion, patience, thought, and word, I have been duly adored by Krishna of pure deeds. For this there is none dearer to me than Krishna. &lt;strong&gt;For honouring him and at his word I have protected the Pancalas and displayed diverse kinds of illusion. By protecting the Pancalas I have honoured him. They have, however, been afflicted by time. The period of their lives hath run out.&amp;quot; Having said these words unto the high-souled Ashvatthama, the divine Mahadeva entered Ashvatthama&amp;apos;s body after giving him an excellent and polished sword.&lt;/strong&gt; Filled by that divine being, Drona&amp;apos;s son blazed up with energy. In consequence of that energy derived from godhead, he became all-powerful in battle. Many invisible beings and rakshasas proceeded along his right and his left as he set out, like the lord Mahadeva himself, for entering the camp of his foes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is Lord Mahadeva himself becoming Mahakala who destroyed that night. They were destroyed because their time for destruction had come. Same thing is told by Lord Krishna to Yudhisthira in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Saupitaka Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira in great grief said these words unto him of Dasharha&amp;apos;s race: &lt;strong&gt;‘How, O Krishna, could my sons, all of whom were mighty car-warriors, be slaughtered by the sinful and wretched Ashvatthama of no great skill in battle?&lt;/strong&gt; How also could Drona&amp;apos;s son slay the children of Drupada, all of whom were accomplished in weapons, possessed of great prowess, and capable of battling with hundreds of thousands of foes? How could he slay that foremost of car-warriors, Dhrishtadyumna, before whom the great bowman Drona himself could not appear? What act was done by the preceptor&amp;apos;s son, O bull among men, in consequence of which he succeeded in slaying, single-handed, all our men in battle?&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Vasudeva said, &amp;quot;Verily, Drona&amp;apos;s son had sought the aid of that highest of all the gods, the eternal Mahadeva. It was for this that he succeeded in slaying, single-handed, so large a number of warriors. If Mahadeva be gratified, he can bestow even immortality.&lt;/strong&gt; Girisha can give such valour as will succeed in checking Indra himself. I know Mahadeva truly, O bull of Bharata&amp;apos;s race! I know also his various acts of old. He, O Bharata, is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Ashwatthama is just a medium for the destruction. It was Lord Mahadeva who did that task. One may hold Ashwatthama also somehow responsible for invoking destruction. But the thing is as Mahadeva says &amp;apos;They are afflicted by time.&amp;apos; So, they must die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason why Lord Shiva goes to Ashwatthama is because he &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;fully surrendered&lt;/a&gt; upon Lord Rudra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashvatthama said, &amp;quot;Sprung from Angirasa&amp;apos;s line, &lt;strong&gt;I am about to pour my soul, O god, as a libation on this fire! Accept, O lord,&lt;/strong&gt; this victim! In this hour of distress, O Soul of the universe, I offer up my own self as the sacrificial victim, from devotion to thee and with heart concentrated in meditation! All creatures are in thee and thou art in all creatures! Assemblage of all high attributes occur in thee! O lord, O thou art the refuge of all creatures. I wait as a libation for thee, since I am unable to vanquish my foes. Accept me, O god.&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;Having said these words, Drona&amp;apos;s son, ascending that sacrificial altar on which a fire blazed brightly, offered himself up as the victim and entered that blazing fire.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may feel that Lord Rudra is doing injustice there by creating such havoc in the camp of Pandava. But Lord Rudra was in his Mahakala aspect at that time and he treated&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; equally. Mahabharata also in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a072.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shanti Parva states that Lord Rudra comes and annhilates totally there when sins increase in some place:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In consequence of the sins perpetrated by sinful men, the god Rudra appears in the kingdom. Indeed, the sinful by their sins bring upon them that god of vengeance. He then destroys all, the honest and the wicked alike (without making any distinction).&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;Aila said, &amp;apos;Whence does Rudra spring? What also is his form? Creatures are seen to be destroyed by creatures. Tell me all this, O Kasyapa! Whence does the god Rudra spring?&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;Kasyapa said, &amp;apos;Rudra exists in the hearts of men. He destroys the bodies themselves in which he dwells as also the bodies of others. Rudra has been said to be like atmospheric visitations and his form is like that of the wind-gods.&amp;apos;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is a common thing that when sins accumulate in a place Lord Rudra comes in his Mahakãla aspect and annhilates all. Actually it is Lord Shiva himself in his Mahakãla aspect who destroyed warriors of Kurukshetra too as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07198.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Drona Parva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The SataRudriya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/stotra/Sri%20Rudram%20Anuvakam9.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hymn&lt;/a&gt; of Yajurveda too states that it is Lord Rudra himself who torments (as per Karma of beings):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नम आक्खिदते च प्रक्खिदते च । (9th Anuvaka) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Salutations to him who troubles little and to him who troubles most.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the Gracer is also Lord Shiva and troubler is also Lord Shiva. His portion of Ashwatthama served like troubler during the time of Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T11:55:11.017" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18792" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15665" CreationDate="2017-06-09T12:14:26.453" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is true that Lord Hanuman have a son. Name of his son is &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Makardhwaja&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, which belongs to Samundra (Sea) and Patal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story about &lt;strong&gt;Lord Hanuman and Makardhwaja fight is mentioned in Adbhut Ramayan&lt;/strong&gt;. According this Story: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When King Ravana was sure about his defeat in The war with Lord Rama,&#xA;  He approached Ahiraavan to help him. Ahiraavan was the king of Patal&#xA;  Lok, and Makardhwaja is the Protector of Patal Lok.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When, Ahiravana tricked and Kidnapped Shri Rama and Laxman and took&#xA;  Rama and Lakshmana to Patala. Lord Hanuman followed them to their&#xA;  rescue, where at the gate of Patala Lok he met his Son &quot;Makardhwaja&quot;&#xA;  when Makardhwaja introduced himself as the son of Hanuman and told the&#xA;  story about his birth, Lord Hanuman Accepted him as his Son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Sri Hanuman told him to save Sri Rama and Laxman, But&#xA;  &quot;Makardhwaja&quot; said that Ahiravana is the Master of Patallok and as you&#xA;  are doing your duty i am also serving my master to protect the patal&#xA;  lok.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That&lt;code&gt;s why i can&lt;/code&gt;t allow you to enter in Patallok, then to save the life of Sri Rama and Laxman, Lord Hanuman fought and defeated his son &quot;Makardhwaja&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can watch this Video in Hindi which describes &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76ph4QoDs0M&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchmukhi Hanuman Story&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, the Complete Story and Birth Details of &quot;Makardhwaja&quot; and his Mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9957" LastEditorUserId="9957" LastEditDate="2017-06-09T12:40:32.493" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T12:40:32.493" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18793" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18788" CreationDate="2017-06-09T12:23:06.840" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;janmana jayate sudrah&#xA;samskarat dwij uchchte&#xA;veda pathnat bhavet viprah&#xA;brahma janati iti brahmanah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“By birth one is a sudra (lowest caste), by the purificatory process one becomes a dvija (higher caste), by study of the Vedas one becomes a vipra, and one who knows Brahman is a brahmana.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10052" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T12:23:06.840" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18794" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18788" CreationDate="2017-06-09T13:24:17.117" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;One can't be Brahman by his/her birth but instead by his/her karma (deeds that man does).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Shree Ram said to Lakshman that Man can't be a saint or branhman by his birth but instead he can be by his karma (Deeds that man does). Even if you are son of a Maharish that doesn't make you also a Rishi but your karma will decide what or who you actually are... This is the reason, Maharishi Vishwamitra is know as the great Brahma Rishi instead of a great king (Vishwamitra is a son of a king) And Bhagwan Parshuram knows as Kshatriya more than Brahman (His father Maharishi Jamdagney was a Great sage). Both of their karma was apposite of their father's that's why they are not famous for the same thing, for which their father was.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence your karma will decide what actually you are, not your birth or your father's karma. So what kind of karma we will perform in our life that karma will decide whether we are brahman or anything else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2022-05-25T11:31:11.787" LastActivityDate="2022-05-25T11:31:11.787" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18795" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18799" CreationDate="2017-06-09T13:56:54.593" Score="6" ViewCount="524" Body="&lt;p&gt;How did sanatkumars reach Lord Vishnu's abode? Sanatkumars were also incarnation of Vishnu, but they were only children, how did they reach there in such a small age? This is a difficult task. What technology they used?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-20T11:57:24.013" LastActivityDate="2018-03-15T15:35:07.510" Title="How did sanatkumars reach Lord Vishnu's abode?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|vishnu-purana|sanatkumara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18796" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18786" CreationDate="2017-06-09T14:08:01.263" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all live in Mrityu Lok or Karma Lok. It is called karma lok because we do Karma in this world/lok and get karma phal in return. Whatever deeds we do, we will surely get Karma phal of that deed in return.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The grief or joy we experience in life is nothing but result of our karma referred as karma phal. If we do good deeds then we will get joy and if we do bad then we will get grief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;strong&gt;Bhagwat Geeta&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Garur Puran&lt;/strong&gt;, when human dies then he only carries his karma phal (not worldly things like money, fame etc) with him while traveling to other lok known as Yam lok. There Yamraj judges our all karma and decides whether we will stay in Hell or we will go to heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whether we will go to hell or heaven, The main purpose of visiting those loks are just to get karma phal of those karma which we did when we were alive in karma lok. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even when we visit hell or heaven to get karma phal, our all karma phal can't be given in one lok at a time. Means, we have to take birth again to get all of our karma phal but that birth is not easy to get.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We only get birth in karma lok if any of our karma phal is pending, hence we have to take birth to get our pending karma phal. And that pending karma phal can be of any kind of karma whether it was sin karma or saintly karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How Lord decide where and how we will be born&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following things are decided for us before giving us birth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;whether we will born in rich family or in poor family.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We will born as beautiful/pretty person Or ugly person&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We will born as healthy or with diseased (mentally or physically).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;how long we will live or what will be our age.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How much joy and how much grief we will get during our life time.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How much struggle we need to do in our life to get success.&#xA;and so on...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these things are decided by the Lord himself before giving us birth. And these things are decided by our karma phal, those karma phal which we earn in our previous birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So whether people are &lt;strong&gt;Lunatic&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Autistic&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;Schizophrenic&lt;/strong&gt;... etc. It's not Lords wish to make such kind of people but It's karma phal of those people which they earn in previous birth and because of their karma phal they get diseases and other things, Lord can't do anything in this. Pretty much this is the only reason for getting birth in this lok so that we can get all of our karma phal because as par &lt;strong&gt;Bhagawad Geeta&lt;/strong&gt; one can't get moksha, if their karma phal is pending. So to get moksha we have to get birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But unfortunate thing is that, when we get birth to get our pending karma phal then we also do new karma and hence our new karma phal gets generated and to get karma phal of our new karma (which we do in our current birth) we have to take birth again then in next birth while getting our pending karma phal we again do new karma and to get karma phal of new karma we again take birth and then again and again... This cycle of rebirth continues to flow because our karma continues to flow. As long as we are doing karma in this lok, we will be getting birth again and again and we will never get moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-09-29T13:06:01.047" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T13:06:01.047" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18797" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18766" CreationDate="2017-06-09T14:19:15.003" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know of two non-Vedantic Astika schools which seriously engage with the statements in the Upanishads about Brahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Purva Mimansa&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11457/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; Mimamsakas believed that the Upanishads provide knowledge of the Jivatma, not Paramatma, and that this knowledge serves a useful purpose in Yagnas. See &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/0Znn&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; of Shabara's commentary on Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras for details, but suffice it to say that when the Upanishads say things like &quot;The Atman is neither the body, nor the mind, nor the senses.&quot;, Mimamsakas interpret that as a message to Yagna priests along the lines of &quot;You know that there is a self within you which is neither the body, nor the mind, nor the senses.  Similarly your king has a self within him which is neither the body, nor the mind, nor the senses.  If you want to send the king's self to Swarga after he dies, then you should perform this Yagna for him.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the Purva Mimamsa philosopher Kumarila Bhatta thought that Atmavidya or knowledge of one's own soul served three distinct purposes: it's useful for Yagnas (which I discuss above), it leads happiness in this life (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18004/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and it leads to Karma Yoga through which Moksha is attained (which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16045/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  Here's what he says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/XByD&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Tantra Vartika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As for the knowledge of Self; both by Conjunction and Disjunction it is found to &lt;strong&gt;help the sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt; as well as the Person; because unless are knows his self (to be something other than the body that perishes) he would never undertake the sacrifices whose results are said to accrue to the man in another birth. And then again, such passages as - &quot;the Self free from all evil...is to be sought after, &amp;amp;c.,” “one should worship the Self&quot; -lay down the knowledge of Self as accomplished by a process accompanied by due reflection, &amp;amp;c.; and then from such knowledge, we find that there accrues to the agents both kinds of result - &lt;strong&gt;Happiness&lt;/strong&gt; as well as &lt;strong&gt;final Deliverance&lt;/strong&gt;, as is shown by the following passages:-&quot;He obtains all worlds and all desires, passes beyond all sorrow, &amp;amp;c, &amp;amp;c.,&quot;-which speaks of all the eight perfections of Yoga accruing to the person knowing the self; and the passage-“passing his life thus he, after death, reaches the regions of Brahma, and from there he never returns'--which points to the attainment of the Supreme Self (Final Deliverance) also as following from a due knowledge of the Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I should add that Kumarilaa Bhatta, unlike some other Mimamsakas, did believe in the existence of a supreme being.  He didn't believe that this being was responsible for creating the world, which he saw as eternal and uncreated, or responsible for authoring the Vedas, which he saw as Apaurusheya or authorless, but he did see it as being the soul of the Vedas, as I discuss in my question my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16772/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Samkhya&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kapila's Samkhya school believed that when the Upanishads speak of Brahman, they are really speaking about Prakriti, which the Samkhya school saw as the material cause of the Universe.  Vyasa refutes the notion that Brahman refers to Prakriti in Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 of the Brahma Sutras (which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Pradhana of the Samkhyas is not the cause of the universe, because it is not mentioned in the Upanishads, which fact is clear from the fact of seeing (or thinking).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If it be argued that the seeing is in a secondary sense, we say, not so, owing to the use of the word Self.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(Pradhana is not the meaning of the word “Self”), because liberation is promised for one who holds on to That.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(Pradhana has not been spoken of even indirectly), because there is no subsequent mention of its rejection, and (because that militates against the assertion at the beginning).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Because of the merger of the individual into his own Self.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Because the knowledge (gathered from the various Upanishads) is the same (as regards Consciousness being the cause).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And because (Brahman is) revealed (as such) in the Upanishads.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, here is how Adi Shankaracharya summarizes the Samkhya school's view regarding this in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34010.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Brahma Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sânkhyas who opine that the non-intelligent pradhâna consisting of three constituent elements (guna) is the cause of the world argue as follows. The Vedânta-passages which you have declared to intimate that the all-knowing all-powerful Brahman is the cause of the world can be consistently interpreted also on the doctrine of the pradhâna being the general cause. Omnipotence (more literally: the possession of all powers) can be ascribed to the pradhâna in so far as it has all its effects for its objects. All-knowingness also can be ascribed to it, viz. in the following manner. What you think to be knowledge is in reality an attribute of the guna of Goodness 1, according to the Smriti passage 'from Goodness springs knowledge' (Bha. Gîtâ XIV, 17). By means of this attribute of Goodness, viz. knowledge, certain men endowed with organs which are effects (of the pradhâna) are known as all-knowing Yogins; for omniscience is acknowledged to be connected with the very highest degree of 'Goodness.' Now to the soul (purusha) which is isolated, destitute of effected organs, consisting of pure (undifferenced) intelligence it is quite impossible to ascribe either all-knowingness or limited knowledge; the pradhâna, on the other hand, because consisting of the three gunas, comprises also in its pradhâna state the element of Goodness which is the cause of all-knowingness. The Vedânta-passages therefore in a derived (figurative) sense ascribe all-knowingness to the pradhâna, although it is in itself non-intelligent. Moreover you (the Vedântin) also who assume an all-knowing Brahman can ascribe to it all-knowingness in so far only as that term means capacity for all knowledge. For Brahman cannot always be actually engaged in the cognition of everything; for from this there would follow the absolute permanency of his cognition, and this would involve a want of independence on Brahman's part with regard to the activity of knowing. And if you should propose to consider Brahman's cognition as non-permanent it would follow that with the cessation of the cognition Brahman itself would cease. Therefore all-knowingness is possible only in the sense of capacity for all knowledge. Moreover you assume that previously to the origination of the world Brahman is without any instruments of action. But without the body, the senses, &amp;amp;c. which are the instruments of knowledge, cognition cannot take place in any being. And further it must be noted that the pradhâna, as consisting of various elements, is capable of undergoing modifications, and may therefore act as a (material) cause like clay and other substances; while the uncompounded homogeneous Brahman is unable to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is how Ramanujacharya summarizes it in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48038.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pûrvapakshin maintains that the Pradhâna is meant. For he says, the Khândogya text quoted expresses the causal state of what is denoted by the word 'this', viz. the aggregate of things comprising manifold effects, such as ether. &amp;amp;c., consisting of the three elements of Goodness, Passion and Darkness, and forming the sphere of fruition of intelligent beings. By the 'effected' state we understand the assuming, on the part of the causal substance, of a different condition; whatever therefore constitutes the essential nature of a thing in its effected state the same constitutes its essential nature in the causal state also. Now the effect, in our case, is made up of the three elements Goodness, Passion and Darkness; hence the cause is the Pradhâna which consists in an equipoise of those three elements. And as in this Pradhâna all distinctions are merged, so that it is pure Being, the Khândogya text refers to it as 'Being, one only, without a second.' This establishes the non-difference of effect and cause, and in this way the promise that through the knowledge of one thing all things are to be known admits of being fulfilled. Otherwise, moreover, there would be no analogy between the instance of the lump of clay and the things made of it, and the matter to be illustrated thereby. The texts speaking of the origination of the world therefore intimate the Pradhâna taught by the great Sage Kapila. And as the Khândogya passage has, owing to the presence of an initial statement (pratigñâ) and a proving instance, the form of an inference, the term 'Being' means just that which rests on inference, viz. the Pradhâna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T21:47:25.087" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T21:47:25.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18798" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18786" CreationDate="2017-06-09T14:41:16.640" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Human birth is result of accumulation in Manas of a Jeeva. After death, the impressions on Manas if are in resonance with human birth, the Jeeva will appear in human womb. From Chapter 1 of Shiv Rahasya, we find. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;62&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Verily  from  lack of Awareness, there arises  Self-forgetfulness. From  that springs wrong knowledge.  From  wrong knowledge  comes greed, lust, envy,  hatred and other defects  of the mind. &lt;strong&gt;Moreover, man reaps the fruits  of his  own  actions. And actions are done according  to his knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt;  Therefore, the performance of actions  that spring  from  wrong knowledge is  the greatest defect of all.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;It is due to this cause that  men  are invested  with different kinds of physical bodies  and minds. For, &lt;strong&gt;one is born with a body  and mind that  correspond to  the inner latent tendencies one has developed in a previous existence.  All bodies are born of mind. And the mind is nothing  but the light of the Soul tinted by  latent  tendencies  acquired in the past.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore, know that whatsoever corporeal form a Soul assumes in this  life or the next, the same will  reflect his  mental state, even as the light that passes through a coloured gem (assumes that very colour).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This has been explained by Swāmi Vivekānanda (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 2/Jnana-Yoga/The Cosmos: The Microcosm) very well &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_2/Jnana-Yoga/The_Cosmos:_The_Microcosm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; as well. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Again, if in the bioplasmic cell the infinite amount of impressions&#xA;  from all time has entered, where and how is it? This is a most&#xA;  impossible position, and until these physiologists can prove how and&#xA;  where those impressions live in that cell, and what they mean by a&#xA;  mental impression sleeping in the physical cell, their position cannot&#xA;  be taken for granted. &lt;strong&gt;So far it is clear then, that this impression is&#xA;  in the mind, that the mind comes to take its birth and rebirth,&#xA;  and uses the material which is most proper for it, and that the mind&#xA;  which has made itself fit for only a particular kind of body will have&#xA;  to wait until it gets that material.&lt;/strong&gt; This we understand. The theory&#xA;  then comes to this, that there is hereditary transmission so far as&#xA;  furnishing the material to the soul is concerned. But the soul&#xA;  migrates and manufactures body after body, and each thought we think,&#xA;  and each deed we do, is stored in it in fine forms, ready to spring up&#xA;  again and take a new shape.When I look at you a wave rises in my mind.&#xA;  It dives down, as it were, and becomes finer and finer, but it does&#xA;  not die. It is ready to start up again as a wave in the shape of&#xA;  memory. So all these impressions are in my mind, and when I die the&#xA;  resultant force of them will be upon me. A ball is here, and each one&#xA;  of us takes a mallet in his hands and strikes the ball from all sides;&#xA;  the ball goes from point to point in the room, and when it reaches the&#xA;  door it flies out. What does it carry out with it? The resultant of&#xA;  all these blows. That will give it its direction. &lt;strong&gt;So, what directs the&#xA;  soul when the body dies? The resultant, the sum total of all the works&#xA;  it has done, of the thoughts it has thought. If the resultant is such&#xA;  that it has to manufacture a new body for further experience, it will&#xA;  go to those parents who are ready to supply it with suitable material&#xA;  for that body. Thus, from body to body it will go, sometimes to a&#xA;  heaven, and back again to earth, becoming man, or some lower animal.&#xA;  This way it will go on until it has finished its experience, and&#xA;  completed the circle.&lt;/strong&gt; It then knows its own nature, knows what it is,&#xA;  and ignorance vanishes, its powers become manifest, it becomes&#xA;  perfect; no more is there any necessity for the soul to work through&#xA;  physical bodies, nor is there any necessity for it to work through&#xA;  finer, or mental bodies. It shines in its own light, and is free, no&#xA;  more to be born, no more to die...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, Resultant forces of impressions decide next birth. For example, let's say you have gathered -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;10 units of impressions of Dog.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;15 units of impressions of Cockroache. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;50 units of impressions of human. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Resultant impressions = max(10 of human, 15 of Cockroaches, 50 of human) = 50 units. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, you will get human birth after death with some hidden qualities of Cockroaches &amp;amp; dog. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T04:27:37.757" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T04:27:37.757" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18799" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18795" CreationDate="2017-06-09T14:46:51.320" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are asking how Sanat-Kumaras reached the abode of Lord vishu – what technology they used?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The answer is given in Shreemad Bhagvat Purana Skandha 3 Chapter 15&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses tell us how Sanat-Kumaras used to travel in celestial regions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्राह्मो उवाच मानसा मे सुता युष्मत्पुर्वजा: सनकादय : | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चेरुर्विहायसा लोकानलोकेषु विगतस्पृहा: ||१२|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mānasā me sutā yuṣmat-&lt;br&gt; pūrvajāḥ sanakādayaḥ &lt;br&gt; cerur vihāyasā&#xA;  lokāl&lt;br&gt; lokeṣu vigata-spṛhāḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Brahmā said: My four sons Sanaka, Sanātana, Sanandana and&#xA;  Sanat-kumāra, who were born from my mind, are your predecessors.&#xA;  Sometimes they travel throughout the material and spiritual skies&#xA;  without any definite desire.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/15/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 3.15.12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse tells us that they used to travel  throughout the material and spiritual skies. The Gita Press version tells us that they were traveling through Skyway (Akash-Marga).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now look at this verse &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तद्विव्श्रगूर्वधिकृतं भुवनैकवन्धं | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    दिव्यं विचित्रविबुधाग्र्य&lt;strong&gt;विमानशोचि:&lt;/strong&gt; | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    आपु: परां मुदमपूर्वमुपेत्य योग |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    मायाबलेन मुनयस्तदथो विकुन्ठम् ||२६||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tad viśva-gurv-adhikṛtaṁ bhuvanaika-vandyaṁ &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    divyaṁ vicitra-vibudhāgrya-&lt;strong&gt;vimāna-śociḥ&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    āpuḥ parāṁ mudam apūrvam upetya yoga-&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    māyā-balena munayas tad atho vikuṇṭham &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus the great sages Sanaka, Sanātana, Sanandana and Sanat-kumāra,&#xA;  upon &lt;strong&gt;reaching the above-mentioned Vaikuṇṭha in the spiritual world by&#xA;  dint of their mystic yoga performance,&lt;/strong&gt; perceived unprecedented&#xA;  happiness. They found that the spiritual sky was illuminated by highly&#xA;  decorated airplanes piloted by the best devotees of Vaikuṇṭha and was&#xA;  predominated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/15/26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 3.15.26&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This verse says that they have reached the Vaikuntha by  dint of their mystic yoga performance i.e. (YogMayaBala) (Yogic Powers). So they haven’t used any technology but their own yoga power to reach over there.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read more about the story in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/15/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-25T18:44:23.480" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T18:44:23.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18800" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18786" CreationDate="2017-06-09T15:25:50.507" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, we do bad karmas &amp;amp; we face the consequences, we do good karmas &amp;amp; we reap the benefits. So, why are you bringing in God into all this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The diseases from which we suffer in our lifetime are nothing but signs of our bad karmas or crimes done in our previous lives. This has been explicitly stated in many scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose, one does bad karmas in one's lifetime. Then he has two options: either to repent for it by performing the prescribed expiation measures or suffer the torments in the hellish planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that (the punishments in hell), depending on the seriousness and nature of crimes, one gets birth in lower yonis like plants, insects, animals etc or gets human birth with bodily deformities (like deaf and dumb, blind etc) and diseases of various sorts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.52. &lt;strong&gt;Thus in consequence of a remnant of (the guilt of former) crimes, are born idiots, dumb, blind, deaf, and deformed men,&lt;/strong&gt; who are&#xA;  (all) despised by the virtuous&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.53. Penances, therefore, must always be performed for the sake of purification, &lt;strong&gt;because those whose sins have not been expiated, are&#xA;  born (again) with disgraceful marks.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manu Smriti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Depending on the nature of sins one gets one or the other diseases in their next births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A person, stealing tin, is born suffering from eye diseases&lt;/strong&gt;. Fasting&#xA;  for a day, he should give away one hundred Palas of tin. (6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A person, pilfering lead, is born as suffering from head-diseases&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  Fasting for a day, he should give away one Dhenu weight of clarified&#xA;  butter according to the proper regulations. (7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A person, stealing milk, is born as a diabetic patient.&lt;/strong&gt; He should duly&#xA;  give, unto a Brahmana, milk one Dhenu in weight. (8)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By stealing milk curd a person is born insane&lt;/strong&gt;. For purification, curd,&#xA;  one Dhcnu in weight, should be given by him unto a Vipra. (9) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satatapa Smriti, Chapter 5.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, all the diseases we suffer from in our present life are nothing but results of our own bad karmas which we did in our previous lives. And, we should not blame God  for that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In several Agama &amp;amp; Tantra texts its clearly stated that a person who has bodily deformity , has one finger more in hand or less, is not fit to be a Guru. Because Guru himself has to be sinless but all these bodily deformities are nothing but pathakas (or sins) that he is carrying forward from his previous births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-09T16:04:30.930" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T16:04:30.930" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18801" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16660" CreationDate="2017-06-09T16:10:50.977" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Rama, Lakshmana and crores of monkey warriors fell down due to the wrath's Brahmāstra of Indrajeet, Jambavan asked Hanuman to bring four herbs from the herbal mountain named Oushadhi mountain. They were: &#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;1. Mrita Sanjivani (capable of restoring the dead to life)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.Vishalyakarani (capable of extracting weapons and healing all wounds inflicted by weapons) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.Suvarnakarani (restoring the body to its original complexion) and &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4.Sandhani, the great herb (capable of joining severed limbs or fractured bone)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hanuman uprooted that herbal mountain with required herbs for the first time, after Rama, Lakshmana and the other monkey warriors came to consciousness, he restored back the mountain to its original place.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga74/yuddha_74_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 74&lt;/a&gt; of Yuddha Kanda, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तावप्युभौ मानुषराजपुत्रौ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तं गन्धमाघ्राय महौषधीनाम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  बभूवतुस्तत्र तदा विशल्या |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उत्तस्थुरन्ये च हरिप्रवीराः || ६-७४-७३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By inhaling that fragrance of those great herbs, both Rama and Lakshamana became healed of their wounds then and there. Other monkey-warriors rose up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वे विशल्या विरुजाः क्षणेन |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हरिप्रवीराश्च हता श्च ये स्युः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गन्धेन तासाम् प्रवरौषधीनां |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुप्ता निशान्तेष्विव संप्रबुद्धाः || ६-७४-७४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the fragrance of those most powerful herbs, all those monkey-warriors who were earlier dead were healed momentarily of their wounds, relieved of their pain, even as those who are asleep fully get up at the close of night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ततो हरिर्गन्धवहात्मजस्तु |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तमोषधीशैलमुदग्रवीर्यः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निनाय वेगाद्धिमवन्तमेव&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुनश्च रामेण समाजगाम ||६-७४-७७&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then, Hanuma the son of wind-god, with a great speed, carried away that mountain of herbs quickly back to the mountains of Himalayas and again joined Rama.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Lakshmana was struck with the sakthi weapon of Ravana and felt consciousness, Sushena asked Hanuman to bring the same herbs again. This is mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga101/yuddha_101_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 101 of Yuddha kanda&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सौम्य शीघ्रमितो गत्वा शैलमोषधिपर्वतम् || ६-१०१-३१ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पूर्वन् हि कथितो योअसौ वीर जाम्बवता शुभः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दक्षिणे शिखरे तस्य जातामोषधिमानय || ६-१०१-३२ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विशल्यकरणी नाम विशल्यकरणीन् शुभाम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  संजीवकरणीं वीर संधानीं च महौषधीम् || ६-१०१-३३ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  संजीवनार्थं वीरस्य लक्ष्मणस्य महात्मनः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Proceeding from this place with full speed, &lt;strong&gt;O gentle one!, to the mountain called Oushadhi (Mahodaya), which was already described to you previously by Jambavan,&lt;/strong&gt; O brave one! Bring here for restoring the great-souled and heroic Lakshmana to consciousness, the precious herb &lt;strong&gt;Vishalyakarani&lt;/strong&gt; by name which was sprung up on its southern peak, &lt;strong&gt;Savarnakarnani&lt;/strong&gt; , &lt;strong&gt;Samjivakarani&lt;/strong&gt; and the precious herb, &lt;strong&gt;Samdhanakarani&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He brought the mountain in the same way just like he did during the first time i.e., by uprooting the whole mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is not two different mountains. It is the same mountain with same medicinal herbs twice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-06-09T16:10:50.977" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18802" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18788" CreationDate="2017-06-09T16:30:39.217" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;No. He will be considered degraded then. He will be a Brahmin just for the namesake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;strong&gt;Manu Smriti:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.103. &lt;strong&gt;But he who does not (worship) standing in the morning, nor sitting in the evening, shall be excluded, just like a Sudra,&lt;/strong&gt; from all&#xA;  the duties and rights of an Aryan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;strong&gt;VYasa Smriti , chapter 4:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Brahmana, who has not studied the Vedas, is like a wooden elephant,&#xA;  or a leather-deer&lt;/strong&gt;, but bear the name of the genus he belongs to. (37)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like a deserted hamlet, like a waterless well, &lt;strong&gt;a Brahmana, who has&#xA;  not read the Vedas, is a Brahmana only in name.&lt;/strong&gt; (38)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grains of rice given to an unholy Brahmana,&lt;/strong&gt; who has broken his vows&#xA;  and neglected the study of the Vedas, &lt;strong&gt;begin to cry in dismay,&#xA;  saying, &quot; what evils have we committed to be punished with such a&#xA;  degradation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, from the &lt;strong&gt;Parashara Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahmans who know not the Gayatri relating to Savita, who are unacquainted with the Sandhya prayers, and with the sacrifice of fire,&#xA;  and who betake to tillage, — &lt;strong&gt;are Brahmans in name only&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Brahmans, the mere bearers of a Brahman's name, &lt;strong&gt;presume to prescribe a penance for sin, — they are guilty of a sin, and are&#xA;  destined to go to hell.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Brahman, ignorant of the Gayatri hymn, is more unclean than even a Shoodra ;&lt;/strong&gt; the Brahmans who know the nature and the sanctity of the&#xA;  Gayatri hymn, are honored and revered by all persons.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in afterlife a Brahmin, who has not performed his duties well, becomes a particular preta as mentioned in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 12.71. &lt;strong&gt;A Brahmana who has fallen off from his duty&#xA;  (becomes) an Ulkamukha Preta, who feeds on what has been vomited&lt;/strong&gt;; and&#xA;  a Kshatriya, a Kataputana (Preta), who eats impure substances and&#xA;  corpses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-10T05:28:11.373" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T05:28:11.373" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18805" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20922" CreationDate="2017-06-09T19:01:22.140" Score="8" ViewCount="778" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya.  My question is about Samkhya school, which believed that there were two kinds of entities in the Universe, Purushas or souls and Prakriti or matter/energy, and that Prakriti takes on a variety of forms in the presence of Purushas.  And they rejected the existence of a supreme being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the Samkhya school was founded by someone named Kapila.  This name is highly significant, because Hindu scripture speaks of a Rishi named Kapila, who was an incarnation of Vishnu and the son of Brahma's son Kardama and his wife Devahuti. This Kapila taught his mother Devahuti about philosophy, and he burnt the sons of king Sagara to ashes, which ultimately led to the descent of the Ganga river as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3672/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Yet when we examine the teachings of Kapila to his mother Devahuti, in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;third Skandha&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, we see that they're very different from the doctrines of the Samkhya school; not only does Kapila acknowledge the existence of a supreme being, he also teaches his mother about the importance of Bhakti Yoga or devotional service to Vishnu.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I wrote &lt;a href=&quot;https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ev0XgyKjqu1iktUfgRIWhXnjor6KoWOuvRiGCb9_AYU/edit?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this fictional dialogue&lt;/a&gt; to try to reconcile how the Samkhya school could reject the existence of a supreme being despite being founded by an incarnation of Vishnu.  But others reconcile things in a different way, namely by arguing that there are two Kapilas, one Kapila who was an incarnation of Vishnu and burnt the sons of Sagaras to ashes, and another Kapila who founded the atheistic Samkhya school.  There's evidence on both sides:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One piece of evidence for the one-Kapila theory is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam, which says that Vishnu's incarnation Kapila had a shishya named Asuri:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fifth incarnation, named Lord Kapila, is foremost among perfected beings. He gave an exposition of the creative elements and metaphysics to Āsuri Brāhmaṇa, for in course of time this knowledge had been lost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is significant because verse 70 of Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika, the defining text of the Samkhya school, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universaltheosophy.com/legacy/movements/ancient-east/sankhya/samkhya-karika/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; that Kapila the founder of the Samkhya school had a shishya named Asuri:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This sacred and supreme (Knowledge), the sage (Kapila) gave to Āsuri out of compassion. Āsuri (gave it) to Pañcaśikha, who elaborated the doctrine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One piece of evidence for the two-Kapilas theory &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03220.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;, which lists Kapila founder of the Samkhya school as one of the fire gods descended from the sage Angiras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That divine spirit whose course is marked with black and white stains, who is the supporter of fire, and who, though free from sin, is the accomplisher of desired karma, whom the wise regard as a great Rishi, is the fire Kapila, the propounder of the Yoga system called Sankhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu's incarnation Kapila, on the other hand, is not a descendant of Brahma's son Angiras, rather he's the son of Brahma's son Kardama.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, which Acharyas believe in the two-Kapilas theory, and which Acharyas believe in the one-Kapila?  So far I've found two supporters of the two-Kapilas theory: the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, who in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34140.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Brahma Sutra Bhashya that the two Kapilas are different; and the Gaudiya Vaishnava commentator Baladeva Vidyabhushana, who says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Baladeva_Vidyabhushana/Vedanta_Sutra/Chp_2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Govinda Bhashya that Kapila the founder of the Samkhya school is the descendant of Angiras I mentioned above, rather than Vishnu's incarnation Kapila.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any Acharyas who are neither Advaitins nor Gaudiya Vaishnavas who support the two-Kapilas theory?  What about Acharyas who support the one-Kapila theory?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-19T01:15:31.287" LastActivityDate="2019-06-09T10:48:14.890" Title="Which Acharyas believe in the two-Kapilas theory and which don't?" Tags="|vishnu|philosophy|sankhya|kapila|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18806" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-10T02:40:46.670" Score="7" ViewCount="3786" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhandarkar_Oriental_Research_Institute&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BORI&lt;/a&gt; removes Bhagavad gita from the Mahabharata claiming it to be a later addition. How authentic its claim can be? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10063" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-11-18T03:40:41.013" LastActivityDate="2018-11-18T03:40:41.013" Title="Was Bhagavad Gita a later interpolation?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavad-gita|critical-edition|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18808" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18786" CreationDate="2017-06-10T04:53:47.700" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Everything and everyone is Brahman. When you harm others you are harming yourself. There are people in this world who bring great pains to animal and human life, ie they destroy themselves according to karmic laws.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;just like an alcoholic do not understand at the time that he is destroying his liver, the evil doer does not understand what part of himself he is destroying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the sinner is still not one with Brahman. His field of experience is what he calls as himself. So when such an individual dies and when his mind is destroyed he comes into contact with reality, which includes the person he wronged or tortured. He comes into contact with the agony he created and that becomes his reality and he is born with this reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asking why is there suffering in the world, when humans, animals and even the earth is tortured, ignored and humiliated, is like stabbing yourself in the leg and wondering 'why am I in pain?!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When people do good deeds their soul becomes strong and the grace of God is on them. Painful realities they encounter while they die are not strong enough to change their reality because they gave comfort, trust and justice to souls their reality becomes enriched by their good actions and they receive appropriate life's, bodies and circumstances, when they are reborn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But still everyone who are involved in the circle of Karma are all fools according to the great sages like Vyasa. Because you are still bound by Karma. liberation from the bondage of Karma is what you should seek. Which is easy in Kali Yuga(current yuga is kali. Kali the demonic era, not to be confused with Kahli the goddess). In Kali yuga you don't have to meditate for years or do great yagnas to attain liberation, simply chanting the name of God with submission, trust and honesty will do. If you don't do this you are carrying the burden of karma on your shoulders good or bad and therefore you are not free and hence will be born again and again to pay your karmic debt or receive credit or both, with increased levels of debt and low level of credit or vice versa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God has nothing to do with it. God is Satchitananda. You can't know the wishes of Brahm because you are it and you choose to be ignorant of your reality in the spirit of playing the game of life. Whether you are suffering or having a good time you are always playing. There is no victim in life you are doing everything to yourself. Waking up to this reality is enlightenment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10066" LastEditorUserId="10066" LastEditDate="2017-06-10T05:10:17.557" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T05:10:17.557" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18812" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18813" CreationDate="2017-06-10T05:28:50.710" Score="5" ViewCount="192" Body="&lt;p&gt;A translation of a verse in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15061.htm#fn_340&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Fourth Brâhmana&lt;/a&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Now as the sounds of a drum, when beaten, cannot be seized externally (by themselves), but the sound is seized, when the drum is seized or&#xA;  the beater of the drum; And as the sounds of a conch-shell, when&#xA;  blown, cannot be seized externally (by themselves), but the sound is&#xA;  seized, when the shell is seized or the blower of the shell; 'And as&#xA;  the sounds of a lute, when played, cannot be seized externally (by&#xA;  themselves), but the sound is seized, when the lute is seized or the&#xA;  player of the lute;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, the translation &quot;seized&quot; is used many times. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is this word &quot;seized&quot; in Sanskrit, readible (transliteration) in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7335" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T11:17:28.353" Title="Fourth Brâhmana - what is the Sanskrit word for &quot;seized&quot;?" Tags="|sanskrit|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18813" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18812" CreationDate="2017-06-10T05:57:24.197" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are referring to verses 7-8 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc117950.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyaya 2 Brahmana 4&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa yathā dundubherhanyamānasya na bāhyāñchabdāñchaknuyādgrahaṇāya, dundubhestu grahaṇena—dundubhyāghātasya vā—śabdō gṛhītaḥ || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sa yathā śaṅkhasya dhmāyamānasya na bāhyāñchabdāñchaknuyādgrahaṇāya, śaṅkhasya tu grahaṇena—śaṅkhadhmasya vā—śabdō gṛhītaḥ || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word translated as seizing is &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=grahaNa&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;beginning=&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;grahaṇa&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T05:57:24.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18814" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-10T06:06:15.053" Score="7" ViewCount="1408" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word trishul I think denotes the three points of the shulam. The &quot;tri&quot; in trishulam = is it from Sanskrit or English like trinity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10067" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-10T06:20:23.393" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T08:21:12.360" Title="Meaning of the &quot; tri &quot; in trishulam - Is it english or sanskrit?" Tags="|shiva|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18815" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16738" CreationDate="2017-06-10T06:17:20.610" Score="31" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, the bond of marriage has a great importance. Marriage is seen as a way to achieve Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha. Marrying once/monogamy is given an importance. Monogamy is one of the reasons which made Sri Rama a model for our generations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Mahaswami (Kanchi Periyava) while explaining the greatness of marriage in Hinduism:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In  our  religion  the  man-wife  relationship  is  not  concerned  with  the mundane  alone.  It  serves  the  Atman  as  well  as  the  good  of  mankind.&lt;/strong&gt;  In other religions too marriages are conducted, say, in a church with God as witness.  But  ideal  of  marriage  is  not  as  lofty  as  ours.  The  purpose  of marriage in our religion is to purify the husband further and to impact the wife fullness as his devoted and self-effacing companion. There is no such high  purpose  in  the  marriage  of  other  religion.  In  other  countries  the man-woman relationship is akin to a family or social contract. &lt;strong&gt;Here it is an Atman  connection.  But  this  very  connection  is  a  means  of  disconnection also of  freeing  the  Atman,  the  self,  from  the  bondage  of  worldly existence. There is no room for divorce in it. Even to think of it is sinful.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An excerpt from Hindu Dharma: The universal way of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu states the importance of marriage and bestowal of a bride in a marriage as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let no intelligent man, after having given his daughter to one man, give her again to another; for he who gives and then gives is guilty of deceit. (Manu 9;71)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sakṛdaṃśo nipatati sakṛt kanyā pradīyate |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sakṛdāha dadānīti trīṇyetāni satāṃ sakṛt || 9.47 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once is the partition of inheritance made,&lt;strong&gt;once is a maiden given away; once does one say ‘I give’; each of these three comes only once&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;We all know that, there is no concept of &quot;divorce&quot; in Hinduism.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, the concept of divorce and remarriage are very rare. Even though Hindu dharma gives much importance to the bond of marriage, it has given &lt;strong&gt;certain conditions under which divorce and remarriage is allowed.&lt;/strong&gt; These must not be taken advantage of to annul the marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In present social conditions, divorce or remarriage is considered as an anathema by most orthodox Hindus. But only some knew that there are certain conditions under which annulment of marriage and divorce is allowed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But while he is explaining about annulment of marriage:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vidhivat pratigṛhyāpi tyajet kanyāṃ vigarhitām | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vyādhitāṃ vipraduṣṭāṃ vā chadmanā copapāditām || 72 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Though a man may have accepted a damsel in due form, &lt;strong&gt;he may&#xA;  abandon her if she be blemished, diseased, or deflowered, and if she&#xA;  has been given with fraud&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yastu doṣavatīṃ kanyāmanākhyāyaupapādayet | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tasya tad vitathaṃ kuryāt kanyādāturdurātmanaḥ || 73 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If anybody gives away a maiden possessing blemishes without&#xA;  declaring them, the bridegroom may annul that contract with the evil-minded&#xA;  giver. (Manu 9;73.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in Yajnyavalkya Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a man gives away a girl without mentioning her defects, he should be fined with the highest amercement; &lt;strong&gt;but the man that abandons a faultless girl betrothed to him should be punished; and if he falsely attributes defects to her, he should be fined one hundred&lt;/strong&gt;. (1.66)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vishnu Smriti: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who forsakes a faultless wife should be punished like a thief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If there is a lack of Harmony between husband and wife, then divorce is allowed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For one year let a husband bear with a wife who hates him; but after&#xA;  that let him deprive her of her [share] of the property and cease to live&#xA;  with her. [But he should still make arrangements for her clothing and&#xA;  food.] (Manu 9;77.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Alcoholism in either parties is a justification for divorce: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She who drinks spiritous liquor, is of bad conduct, rebellious,&#xA;  diseased (with leprosy), violent, or wasteful of money, may at any&#xA;  time be superseded by another wife. (Manu 9;80)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who drinks wine, or is diseased, or guileful, or barren, or destructive of wealth, or harsh-tongued, or brings forth only female children*, or bears malice towards her man,—shall be superseded. (Yajnyavalkya 1.73)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Conditions of a remarriage:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the maiden is married to blemished man without his declaring them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Narada Smriti: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When a faultless maiden has been married to a man who has a blemish&#xA;  unknown before the marriage, and does not take to another man after&#xA;  discovering it, shall be enjoined to do so by her relatives&lt;/strong&gt;. If she has no&#xA;  relations living she may go to live with another man of her own&#xA;  accord. (12;96)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In case of prolonged absence of husband or disappearance of husband. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the husband went abroad for some sacred duty, the wife should wait&#xA;  for him eight years, if he went for acquiring learning or fame six years&#xA;  and if he went for pleasure three years. [Thereafter she may remarry&#xA;  without incurring any sin or guilt.] (Manu 9;76)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the husband becomes a monk and renounces the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the husband is untraceable, dead, &lt;strong&gt;renounced the world&lt;/strong&gt;, impotent or&#xA;  degraded - in these cases of emergency a woman can remarry.&#xA;  (Parashara 28)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the husband becomes impotent and the  wife is still young. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a man is unable to have sexual relations with his wife, then she may&#xA;  divorce him and take another husband. (Narada 12;18.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the husband is untraceable, dead, renounced the world, &lt;strong&gt;impotent&lt;/strong&gt; or&#xA;  degraded - in these cases of emergency a woman can remarry.&#xA;  (Parashara 28)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Legal reasons for divorce by men:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If the wife squanders his property.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If the wife makes an attempt on the husband's life.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If the wife continually shows him malice&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If the wife slanders her husband&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To sum up the reasons for remarriage:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In both the parties:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Affliction with a chronic or disgusting disease&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Deformity&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Madness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Inability to have sexual relations&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a man:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Committing of a crime (grave sin) for which loss of caste is the penalty.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If the groom has forsaken his family.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a woman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Loss of virginity [that was not previously declared]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above reasons should not be taken advantage of gratuitously. These are applicable in extreme situations only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So by above verses, it is clear that remarriage of innocent men and women is allowed. A marriage which happened under false pretences can be annulled.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;*&lt;sub&gt;A women who gives birth to female children only should not be abandoned because female chromosomes do not have a role in deciding the gender of the child. It is the male chromosome which decides the gender of a new born baby.&lt;/sub&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;**&lt;sub&gt; The word 'superseding' should be understood as divorce according to  present social conditions. In ancient days, polygamy was allowed. But in present days, polygamy is not allowed (eg: In India, it is a crime if a Hindu marries multiple women)&lt;/sub&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="9250" LastEditDate="2018-12-08T08:42:00.650" LastActivityDate="2018-12-08T08:42:00.650" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18816" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18824" CreationDate="2017-06-10T06:47:12.960" Score="7" ViewCount="261" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Pali Buddhism, the word &amp;quot;gandhabba&amp;quot; is used in relation to the conception of an embryo.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the following passage, the question is asked to &amp;amp; answered by Brahmins. Therefore, it seems this subject matter was common knowledge to Vedic Brahmins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Do you know how there is the descent of an embryo?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yes, master, we know how there is the descent of an embryo. There is the case where the mother &amp;amp; father have come together, the mother is fertile, and a gandhabba [the being about to be reborn] is standing present. The coming together of these three is the descent of the embryo.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.093.than.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Assalayana&lt;/em&gt; Sutta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, Buddhists remain unclear about &amp;amp; often debate what the &amp;quot;gandhabba&amp;quot; is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, is the word &amp;quot;gandharva (gandhabba)&amp;quot; related to the conception of an embryo?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7335" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T02:30:52.750" Title="Is the word &quot;Gandharva&quot; related to the conception of an embryo?" Tags="|vedas|other-religions|buddhism|gandharva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18817" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18814" CreationDate="2017-06-10T07:12:23.483" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;With no doubt, &quot;tri&quot; in त्रिशूल (triśūla) is Sanskrit. You can check it in any Sanskrit dictionary, such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/AP90Scan/2014/web/webtc/indexcaller.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apte&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/2014/web/webtc/indexcaller.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Monier-Williams&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/three#Etymology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Etymology of English word&lt;/a&gt; three or tri is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From Middle English thre, threo, thrie, thri, from Old English þreō,&#xA;  þriē, þrī, from Proto-Germanic *þrīz, from Proto-Indo-European&#xA;  *tréyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Western Linguists, PIE or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Proto-Indo-European language&lt;/a&gt; is common ancestor of all Indo European Languages, including Deva Bhasha  or Deva Vani (देव वाणि) संस्कृतम् (Saṃskṛtam). Obviously, those who know about structure of Sanskrit and its semantics will never &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hitxp.com/articles/sanskrit-lessons/sanskrit-lesson-1-secret-science-sacred-sanskrit/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;believe in this PIE theory&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T08:21:12.360" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T08:21:12.360" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18818" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18806" CreationDate="2017-06-10T08:52:25.500" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;What's the claim? Actually we don't have clear ground to check authenticity for Bhagavad-Gita according to Vivekananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/lectures_and_discourses/thoughts_on_the_gita.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Vivekananda's thoughts on Bhagavad-Gita&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book known as the Gita forms a part of the Mahâbhârata. To understand the Gita properly, several things are very important to know. First, whether it formed a part of the Mahabharata, i.e. whether the authorship attributed to Veda-Vyâsa was true, or if it was merely interpolated within the great epic; secondly, whether there was any historical personality of the name of Krishna; thirdly, whether the great war of Kurukshetra as mentioned in the Gita actually took place; and fourthly, whether Arjuna and others were real historical persons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in the first place, &lt;strong&gt;let us see what grounds there are for such inquiry.&lt;/strong&gt; We know that there were many who went by the name of Veda-Vyasa; and among them who was the real author of the Gita — the Bâdarâyana Vyasa or Dvaipâyana Vyasa? &amp;quot;Vyasa&amp;quot; was only a title. Anyone who composed a new Purâna was known by the name of Vyasa, like the word Vikramâditya, which was also a general name. Another point is, the book, Gita, had not been much known to the generality of people before Shankarâchârya made it famous by writing his great commentary on it. Long before that, there was current, according to many, the commentary on it by Bodhâyana. &lt;strong&gt;If this could be proved, it would go a long way, no doubt, to establish the antiquity of the Gita and the authorship of Vyasa.&lt;/strong&gt; But the Bodhayana Bhâshya on the Vedânta Sutras — from which Râmânuja compiled his Shri-Bhâshya, which Shankaracharya mentions and even quotes in part here and there in his own commentary, and which was so greatly discussed by the Swami Dayânanda — not a copy even of that Bodhayana Bhashya could I find while travelling throughout India. It is said that even Ramanuja compiled his Bhashya from a worm-eaten manuscript which he happened to find. When even this great Bodhayana Bhashya on the Vedanta-Sutras is so much enshrouded in the darkness of uncertainty, it is simply useless to try to establish the existence of the Bodhayana Bhashya on the Gita. Some infer that Shankaracharya was the author of the Gita, and that it was he who foisted it into the body of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another point addressed by Vivekananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another point to be especially noted here is that whoever might have been the author of the Gita, &lt;strong&gt;we find its teachings the same as those in the whole of the Mahabharata.&lt;/strong&gt; From this we can safely infer that in the age of the Mahabharata some great man arose and preached the Brahma-Jnâna in this new garb to the then existing society. Another fact comes to the fore that in the olden days, as one sect after another arose, there also came into existence and use among them one new scripture or another. It happened, too, that in the lapse of time both the sect and its scripture died out, or the sect ceased to exist but its scripture remained. Similarly, it was quite probable that the Gita was the scripture of such a sect which had embodied its high and noble ideas in this sacred book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But we're not finding any strong proof against Bhagavad-Gita that can prove it an interpolation.&#xA;Also no Acharyas e.g Ramanuja, Madhava etc has doubt about authenticity of Bhagavad-Gita. So, we should not suspect regarding it's authenticity much and we should look at what is the inside i.e preaching of Bhagavad-Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One thing should be especially remembered here, that there is no connection between these historical researches and our real aim, which is the knowledge that leads to the acquirement of Dharma. Even if the historicity of the whole thing is proved to be absolutely false today, it will not in the least be any loss to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T09:02:15.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18819" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18814" CreationDate="2017-06-10T09:15:37.843" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &quot;tri&quot; in trishulam is from Sanskrit. Later Indo and European languages had taken from Sanskrit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In sanskrit threee is denoted by Trí (three), त्रीणि - trīṇi , त्रयः - trayaḥ etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are more examples where Latin and Greek words resemble sanskrit &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ashta (eight) - octo (Latin)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sarpa (snake) -- serpens (Latin)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pitar (father) -- pater (Latin), pater (Greek)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="10074" LastEditDate="2017-06-10T15:40:10.813" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T15:40:10.813" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18821" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18978" CreationDate="2017-06-10T10:06:13.300" Score="17" ViewCount="9232" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is believed that Jagannath suffers from a high fever after the Snana-Yatra. During this time, devotees are prevented from seeing Him. After taking special care, the deities gets cured and the famous Ratha-yatra is started.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://topyaps.com/11-interesting-facts-puri-rath-yatra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;....9) Resting in high fever time:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The door to the main Jagannath Temple in Puri is kept shut for the last 7 days before the Rath Yatra festival. Well, can you guess the reason? Apparently, every year, during this time, Lord Jagannath gets high fever due to which “visitors” are not allowed to see him. And, it is this fever that calls for a change and hence, the famous visit to their maternal aunt’s (or Mousi’s) place!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sandpebblestours.com/snana-yatra-rath-yatra-mysteries-rituals-lord-jagannath/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the rituals, as per the mysteries the deities fall ill, supposedly suffering from fever after taking the bath, and would remain on bed for 15 days. In this period, the deities are kept in a special sick room called the ‘Ratan vedi’ inside the temple. The deities stay away from the public view for a period of 15 days. This period is known as ‘Anasara’.&#xA;During Anasara the deities are offered only fruits and water mixed with cheese and Dasamula medicines to cure from fever and are treated by the Raj Vaidya with specific medicines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want know: how/why did this custom (Jagannath getting fever) come into existence? Is there any story behind it? And how many days are the deities kept for special care?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorUserId="20968" LastEditDate="2023-01-20T06:23:18.840" LastActivityDate="2023-01-20T06:23:18.840" Title="Why does Lord Jagannath suffer from fever?" Tags="|scripture|krishna|belief|temple|jagan-natha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18824" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18816" CreationDate="2017-06-10T11:18:45.930" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Is the word &quot;gandharva (gandhabba)&quot; related to the conception of an embryo?&lt;/code&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. The word Gandharva is not related to the conception of an embryo. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gandharvas are a type of celestial beings. They are recognised as celestial musicians in the court of Indra along with the celestial nymphs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Gandharva named Viśvāvasu has been mentioned several times in the Rig Veda and also in the Shatapatha Brahmana. He is the king of Gandharvas. His special duty is to guard Soma. For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The middle stick he lays down first (on the west side of the fire), with the text 'May the &lt;strong&gt;Gandharva Viśvāvasu&lt;/strong&gt; lay thee around. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1215.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(Shatapatha Brahmana 4.2)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उदीर्ष्वातः पतिवती हयेषा &lt;strong&gt;विश्वावसुं&lt;/strong&gt; नमसागीर्भिरीळे |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    अन्यामिछ पित्र्षदं वयक्तां स ते भागोजनुषा तस्य विद्धि || Rig Veda 10.85.21 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;udīrṣvātaḥ pativatī hayeṣā &lt;strong&gt;viśvāvasuṃ&lt;/strong&gt; namasāgīrbhirīḻe |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    anyāmicha pitrṣadaṃ vayaktāṃ sa te bhāgojanuṣā tasya viddhi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bound for the world of life immortal, Sūrya: make for thy lord a happy bridal journey.  Rise up from hence: this maiden hath a husband. I laud Viśvāvasu with hymns and homage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gandharvas are many times mentioned in epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata also. But they are not told that they are related to embryos.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, they are not related to the conception of Embryos. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By observing the text you have quoted, the word Gandhabba could be synonomous to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MW72Scan/2014/web/webtc/indexcaller.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kandarpa&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. Kandarpa is another name of Kāma, the god of Love. He is the reason for the birth of an off-spring. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from Srimad Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;āyudhānām ahaṃ vajraṃ dhenūnām asmi kāmadhuk |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;prajanaścāsmi kandarpaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; sarpāṇām asmi vāsukiḥ || BG 10.28 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among weapons, I am the Vajra (thunderbolt). Among cows, I am Kamadhuk; &lt;strong&gt;among progenitors, I am Kandarpa (the god of love)&lt;/strong&gt;. Of dragons, I am Vasuki .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Kāndarpa is a person related to Kandarpa. A child is born when a father, mother and their love is combined. So, the word Kandarpa can be related to conception of embryo. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above paragraph is just a guess. I might be wrong though. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-11T02:30:52.750" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T02:30:52.750" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18825" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18827" CreationDate="2017-06-10T11:21:08.723" Score="4" ViewCount="2908" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, Near Burial Grounds have lord Shiva paintings but  people shout &quot;Govinda Govinda&quot; for death rites. Both are different gods, then why lord Venkateshwar paintings are not present at burial grounds? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9952" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T03:48:10.753" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T03:48:10.753" Title="Why do people shout &quot;Govinda Govinda&quot; during death rites whereas burial ground consists of lord shiva paintings?" Tags="|shiva|practice|cremation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18826" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10974" CreationDate="2017-06-10T11:26:04.507" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Bhagvat Gita is not an independent scripture. It is part of Mahabharata. Only reading Bhagvat Gita is not ideal. Mahabharata is ideal scripture for you, read Vedas and other Puranas only if you wish to be an expert on the subject. Because Mahabharata is written for the people of Kali Yuga ie, you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also see if you can find a no bullshit guru, who is a scholar and a sanyass. Because there are many wrong interpretations of Bhagvat Gita. I think Swamy Chinmayananda(RIP, his talks are on youtube) is a great guru. I also like one of his disciple Swamy Sandeep Chaithanya who I get all my knowledge about Mahabharata from, but his talks are in Malayalam. These gurus are genuine in my opinion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also check out &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.schoolofbhagavadgita.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.schoolofbhagavadgita.org/&lt;/a&gt; I don't know if all their publications are in Malayalam or not. You have to enquire. But still a good source on Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also you can check out one of my favorite philosophers on Hinduism and Buddhism, Alan Watts(RIP) on youtube. Jiddu Krishnamurthy(RIP) is also worth mentioning. Great talks by all these people are available on youtube I believe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10066" LastEditorUserId="10066" LastEditDate="2017-06-10T13:16:07.630" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T13:16:07.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18827" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18825" CreationDate="2017-06-10T12:20:45.383" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question can be divided into two different questions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why are there pictures of Shiva painted near cremation walls? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why do people chant Govinda Govinda during death rites? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now answering your first question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Why are there pictures of Shiva painted near cremation walls?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is called as Bhootanath meaning the lord of Ghosts. He is accompanied by many ghosts. His ganas(forces) consist of different types of Ghosts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As stated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12296/why-is-shiva-called-bholenath-bhootnath-amarnath-kedarnath-omakara-etc/16108#16108&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9782/what-scriptures-say-that-lord-shiva-sits-in-smashan-cremation-grounds/13890#13890&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is seated in a crematorium. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O thou of sweet smiles, &lt;strong&gt;the multitudes of ghostly beings that are my companions love to reside in such spots. I do not like, O goddess, to reside anywhere without those ghostly creatures being by my side. Hence, the crematorium is a sacred abode to me.&lt;/strong&gt; Indeed, O auspicious lady, it seems to me to be the very heaven. Highly sacred and possessed of great merit, the crematorium is much applauded by persons desirous of having holy abodes.' [Anushasana Parva section CXLI]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All friends and family members weep for sometime for the person who had passed away. Bury or cremate the body of the deceased one and leave. But it is a symbolism to show that he is the only one who cares after the death of a person too. So he resides in a crematorium. So, his paintings are depicted in a crematorium.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2.Why do people chant &quot;Govinda Govinda&quot; during death rites?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, optimistic attitude is encouraged rather than pessimistic. If we observe, people say &lt;strong&gt;His/her soul is united with Shiva(Shivaikyam) or He has reached Vaikuntham&lt;/strong&gt; while conveying a person's death message to others i.e., We do not try to speak bad or inauspicious talk even at the time of inauspicious events. We can find many similar statements in different languages and regions of India.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person's death is an inauspicious event. But in Hinduism, is seen as a way to attain salvation. So, people take the name of the Lord while sending a person to the abode of Lord. The chant you say is taken in Telugu states. In North Indian states, it is &lt;strong&gt;राम नाम सत्य है  Rām nām Satya hai&lt;/strong&gt; meaning the name of the Rama is the truth.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, people take the name of Govinda indicating that the person has attained the Lord's abode.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T12:20:45.383" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18828" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="84" CreationDate="2017-06-10T12:57:38.470" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;To understand the Moksha, one should first understand the concept of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83s%C4%81ra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samsara&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3568/277&quot;&gt;life cycle&lt;/a&gt; of soul. Samsara means cycle of repetitive birth-rebirth. Jiva gets birth according to his past Karma, then lives, experience fruits of Karma, does new Karma, dies and again born according to previous Karma. Which is subjected to birth-rebirth in different &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoni#In_Indian_religions&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;species&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loka#Hindu_tradition&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;lokas also&lt;/a&gt;. These is considered the bondage of Karma and hence suffering in Samsara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha/Mukti means permanent liberation from this bondage and Samsara. It's said who attains Moksha never has to return in Samsara. So, unlike Samsara which is subjected to continuous changes, Moksha is considered eternal, free from suffering and bondage. That's why Moksha is believed to be ultimate goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Katha Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्त्वविज्ञानवान् भवत्यमनस्कः सदाऽशुचिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न स तत् पदमाप्नोति &lt;strong&gt;संसारं चाधिगच्छति&lt;/strong&gt; ।। 1.3.7 ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-III-7. But whoso is devoid of a discriminating intellect, possessed of an unrestrained mind and is ever impure, &lt;strong&gt;does not attain that goal, but goes to samsara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्तु विज्ञानवान् भवति समनस्कः सदा शुचिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स तु तत् पदमाप्नोति &lt;strong&gt;यस्माद्भूयो न जायते&lt;/strong&gt; ।। 1.3.8 ।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-III-8. But whoso is possessed of a discriminating intellect and a restrained mind, and is ever pure, &lt;strong&gt;attains that goal from which he is not born again.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Bhagvad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अव्यक्तोऽक्षर इत्युक्तस्तमाहुः परमां गतिम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यं प्राप्य &lt;strong&gt;न निवर्तन्ते&lt;/strong&gt; तद्धाम परमं मम।।8.21।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.21 What is called the Unmanifested and the Imperishable, That they say is the highest goal. &lt;strong&gt;They who reach It do not return (to this Samsara)&lt;/strong&gt;. That is My highest abode (place or state). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are various &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2179/277&quot;&gt;paths called Margas&lt;/a&gt; (namely Karma, Bhakti, Jnana, Sharanagati) for attaining Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually the true self of Jiva is Atma which is described in Bhagavad-Gita as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.20 It is not born, nor does It ever die; after having been, It again ceases not to be; unborn, eternal, changeless and ancient, It is not killed when the body is killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.21 Whosoever knows It to be indestructible, eternal, unborn and inexhaustible, how can that man slay, O Arjuna, or cause to be slain? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.22 Just as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so also the embodied Self casts off worn-out bodies and enters others which are new.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This true self is to know and realize. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Vedanta the only way to attain Moksha is &lt;em&gt;Know &amp;amp; Realize &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. One who know &amp;amp; realize Brahman attains the Param Satya and Moksha. From ShvetaShvatar Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;III-8: I have realized this Great Being who shines effulgent like the sun beyond all darkness. One passes beyond death only on realizing Him. &lt;strong&gt;There is no other way of escape from the circle of births and deaths.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I recommend to read the story of Nachiketa from Katha Upanishad to understand the concept of Moksha. Nachiketa asked to explain the death and existence of soul after death from deity of death and the deity of death preached how and why ignorant people suffer into Samsara how can one attain the Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-I-20. This doubt as to what happens to a man after death - some say he is, and some others say he is not, - I shall know being taught by thee. Of the boons, this is the third boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-III-15. By knowing that which is soundless, touchless, formless, un-decaying, so also tasteless, eternal, odourless, beginningless, endless, subtler than Mahat and constant, &lt;strong&gt;man is liberated from the jaws of death&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you go into deeper, the philosophy of Moksha is interpreted differently according to the school of philosophy viz. Samkhya, Yoga, Vedanta etc. Among them worth to mention is Advaita &amp;amp; Vishishtadvaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Advaita, Jiva (Individual soul) is Brahman (Supreme soul) and hence self-realization leads you to Brahman-realization and to Moksha ultimately. According to Vaishnava, there are 5 types of Moksha/Mukti: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/sb/3/29/13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Salokya, Sarsti, Samipya, Sarupya and Ekatva&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;The Moksha described by Yoga and Advaita is often refereed as Kaivalya.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-11T01:49:23.377" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T01:49:23.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18830" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-10T15:45:46.680" Score="10" ViewCount="778" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know the childhood of Prahlada, who was rescued from his from Hiranyakashipu by Vishnu's incarnation.  What is less well-known, however, Prahlada's adulthood.  As king of the Asuras, Prahlada was a formidable enemy of the gods, and he even managed to conquer Devaloka, although Indra was able to get it back through trickery as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7330/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But through all of this he still maintained the noble character of his childhood; he was the one who inculcated devotion to Vishnu in his grandson Mahabali.  And when Mahabali was defeated by Vishnu's incarnation Vamana, both Prahlada went along with Mahabali to Patalaloka, and he later attained Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But now I've come across across incident in Prahlada's life.  I found it in this excerpt from the Prabhasa Kanda of the Skanda Purana, which discusses how long different demons ruled the three worlds for:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hiranyakashipu shone as the king for one hundred seven million two hundred eighty thousand years. He was the emperor of the three worlds.... After his term was over, Bali became the king for ten million three hundred sixty thousand years.  &lt;strong&gt;When Bali continued to be the king, Prahlada was held as hostage by the Suras.&lt;/strong&gt;  Indra and other famous (Suras) killed the Asuras with their valour.  The rule of the Daityas continued thus for ten Yugas without any enemy.  Then for eighteen Yugas, the entire region of the three worlds was protected carefully by Mahendra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of Prahlada being held hostage by the gods during Mahabali's reign?  How was he taken hostage, and how was he freed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He must have been freed, because Prahlada was present during Mahabali's encounter with Vamana.  So did Mahabali mounted a rescue mission for his grandfather, or did he pay the gods a ransom, or what?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T18:33:11.260" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T18:33:11.260" Title="What is the story of Prahlada being held hostage by the gods?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|asuras|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18831" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18814" CreationDate="2017-06-10T16:28:15.713" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here, &quot;tri&quot; is from Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually, the prefix &quot;tri-&quot; is not of English origin. It is borrowed from Latin &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tri-#Latin&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;tri-&lt;/a&gt;&quot; and Ancient Greek &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%84%CF%81%CE%B9-#Ancient_Greek&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;τρι-&lt;/a&gt;&quot;. Latin and Ancient Greek are closely related to Sanskrit, hence the &quot;tri-&quot; in Sanskrit as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, English shares a common ancestor with Latin, Greek and Sanskrit as well, and English &quot;three&quot; is related to all three of the above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10075" LastActivityDate="2017-06-10T16:28:15.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18832" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17243" CreationDate="2017-06-10T21:26:03.193" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, verses from Bhagavad Gita are not to be taken and interpreted according to one's own whim and fancy. Any Vedic teacher would refer to commentaries by previous acharyas, which are handed down in tradition. Commentaries to verse 2.19 of Bhagavad Gita by acharyas such as Ramanuja and Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada of ISKCON clearly cite: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ma himsyat sarva bhutani - violence to any living entity is forbidden. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the Vedic injunction. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Citing verbatim from Bhaktivedanta Swami's English version of Bhagavad Gita &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never commit violence to anyone. Nor does understanding that the living entity is not killed encourage animal slaughter. Killing the body of anyone without authority is abominable and punishable by the  law of the state as well as by the law of the Lord. &lt;a href=&quot;https://prabhupadabooks.com/bg/2/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here is a link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;@Rishi above has stated that if it is your duty you must do it without attachment to mice. &quot;Duties&quot; in Bhagavad Gita are referring to Vedic duties, not whatever you choose and call it duty. I would never choose a profession like that and risk all my future births (and deaths). Ayurvedic science never developed by horrific torture of innocent animals. Numerous organizations exist even today that advocate products free from animal testing, for, everyone with conscience can understand this is inhumane. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding your concern about whether you will accrue karma or not, &lt;a href=&quot;http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Animal-killing_and_the_law_of_Manu_(Manu-samhita)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this link might be helpful to you&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to call yourself a scientist/researcher in this field, come up with ways of testing drugs without using animals. That will be a huge contribution to humanity! The argument that animal sacrifice is useful to save humans is only valid if humans are living a life better than animals i.e., using it for self-realization. If they are doing the same four things an animal is doing (eating, mating, sleeping and defending), and not using the additional gift of human life (ability to rationalize, contemplate higher things of life), they do not rank in a higher position than animals. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṇām&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dharmo hi teṣām adhiko viśeṣo&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dharmeṇa hīnāḥ paśubhiḥ samānāḥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: Eating, sleeping, sex, and defense—these four principles are common to both human beings and animals. The distinction between human life and animal life is that a man can search after God but an animal cannot. That is the difference. Therefore a man without that urge for searching after God is no better than an animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if there are such humans living purely and pursuing the goal of human life (self-realization and God realization), then by virtue of their sincere practices, they burn up all previous karmas and such diseases do not necessarily attack them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I had been thinking of @rishi's answer further to my typing the above answer. I would like to clarify what it means to work with detachment from Bhagavad Gita's point of view. It is detaching oneself from three things - phala (attachment to fruits or thinking yourself to be the enjoyer of the work), sanga (thinking yourself to be the proprietor of the work) and kartrutva (the doership mentality or aham-bhava). In your specific case, even if you may be free from phala and sanga, it is unlikely that you can be free from kartrutva ahankara. kartrutva ahankara, here means &quot;I have to do something to save the world from deadly diseases&quot;. Modern medicine/science as a field has evolved independent of the Vedic science. The Vedas already contain answers to everything that a human needs to pursue the goal of life. And dependence on the Vedas is a process given by God to pursue human needs. The Vedas prescribe three ways for handling diseases that obstruct one from the goal of life - mantras (chants/hymns), manis (stones and gems) and aushadhas (herbs). For instance, in the phala-stuti portion of the Vishnu Sahasranama Stotra, it is said: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;ghoreshu cha vyadhishu vartamanah sankirtya narayana sabda matram&quot; - &quot;One can transcend even the deadliest of disease conditions just by chanting the name of Narayana&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But how to chant, how much to chant, in what form to chant, and under what circumstances to chant, with what qualifications to chant requires guidance. When applied with proper attention to detail, these will yield fruitful results, and our scriptures are replete with such examples. Same is the case with herbs or gems and there are herbs, mantras and gems specific for each condition.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thing modern researchers need to do therefore, is to excavate these solutions to health problems from relevant portions of the Vedas. By depending on the Vedas, there is a lesser chance of a feeling that you are trying to accomplish something which does not already exist. In this way, it &lt;em&gt;may&lt;/em&gt; be possible to be detached while you work, which is not necessarily possible in modern scientific pursuits - which are mostly destroying the ecosystem at large than aiding it. The answer is probably more elaborate than what you asked for, but this discussion might help someone in the future.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10076" LastEditorUserId="10076" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T18:02:51.797" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T18:02:51.797" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18833" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-11T00:52:07.383" Score="4" ViewCount="305" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to wikipedia article of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arishadvargas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arishadvargas&lt;/a&gt; it states&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the Hindu scriptures, Kama and krodha or lust and anger are responsible for all kinds of difficult experiences which we have in our lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And according to purusharth it is one of the goals of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So i am confused here. Any explaination would be helpful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the question is different because here in wikipedia it says kama is bad for life also where as it is one of the goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9989" LastEditorUserId="9989" LastEditDate="2017-06-11T17:00:37.300" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T17:00:37.300" Title="Is Kama good or bad for life" Tags="|kama|purushartha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-06-11T03:33:45.150" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18834" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18835" CreationDate="2017-06-11T04:02:43.480" Score="9" ViewCount="2413" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Section V, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc117941.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 1.5.16&lt;/a&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;There are indeed three worlds, the world of men, the world of the Manes and the world of the gods. This world of men is to be won through the son alone, and by no other rite; the world of the Manes through rites; and the world of the gods through meditation. The world of the gods is the best of the worlds. Therefore they praise meditation.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is meant by &quot;the world of the Manes&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7335" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T08:12:32.253" Title="What is meant by &quot;the world of the Manes&quot;?" Tags="|brihadaranyaka-upanishad|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18835" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18834" CreationDate="2017-06-11T05:32:02.000" Score="10" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथ त्रयो वाव लोकाः—मनुष्यलोकः &lt;strong&gt;पितृलोको&lt;/strong&gt; देवलोक इति; सोऽयं&#xA;  मनुष्यलोकः पुत्रेणैव जय्यः, नान्येन कर्मणा; कर्मणा पितृलोकाः, विद्यया&#xA;  देवलोकः; देवलोको वै लोकानां श्रेष्ठः, तस्माद्विद्यां प्रशंसन्ति। ॥ १६&#xA;  ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atha trayo vāva lokāḥ—manuṣyalokaḥ &lt;strong&gt;pitṛloko&lt;/strong&gt; devaloka iti; so'yaṃ&#xA;  manuṣyalokaḥ putreṇaiva jayyaḥ, nānyena karmaṇā; karmaṇā pitṛlokāḥ,&#xA;  vidyayā devalokaḥ; devaloko vai lokānāṃ śreṣṭhaḥ, tasmādvidyāṃ&#xA;  praśaṃsanti || 16 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are indeed three worlds, the world of men, &lt;strong&gt;the world of the&#xA;  Manes&lt;/strong&gt; and the world of the gods. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc117941.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&#xA;  1.5.16&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pitriloka has been translated as &amp;apos;World of Manes&amp;apos;. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitrs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pitris&lt;/a&gt; are the ancestors who departed from this world and reside in Pitriloka. One may attain Manushya Loka or Pitri loka or Deva Loka as per their Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-07T08:12:32.253" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T08:12:32.253" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18836" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18834" CreationDate="2017-06-11T06:18:32.163" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;: Now, these are, verily, the three worlds: the world of men, the &lt;strong&gt;world of the Manes and the world of the gods.&lt;/strong&gt; The world of men can be gained through a son only and by no other rite; the world of the Manes through rites; and the world of the gods through meditation. The world of the gods is the best of the worlds. Therefore they praise meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The world of the Manes means pitris or ancestors&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Manes - souls of dead ancestors&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And appeasing the Manes is even more important than pleasing the Gods as said in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.203. For twice-born men the rite in honour of the manes is more important than the rite in honour of the gods; for the offering to the gods which precedes (the Sraddhas), has been declared to be a means of fortifying (the latter).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Adition, It is &lt;strong&gt;one of 3 runas (debts)&lt;/strong&gt; we borrow when taking birth as a man - to &lt;strong&gt;pitrus&lt;/strong&gt;, which is repaid by begetting a son doing tarpana/shraddam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T06:18:32.163" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18837" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18840" CreationDate="2017-06-11T06:56:00.290" Score="12" ViewCount="3124" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Agamas, we find the mention of  three Jyotirlingas or Shiva lingas known by the names Itaralinga, BAnalinga and Swayambhu linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example in KulArnava Tantram Lord Shiva says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BAnetaraswayambhA&lt;/strong&gt;khylingatritayasamstitham| Tattvato Yo VijAnAthi Sa&#xA;  Guruh Kathithah Priye||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva says to Devi] One who has the knowledge about the locations of&#xA;  BAnalinga, Itaralinga and Swayambhulinga is called a Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another reference from the same scripture :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lingatraya&lt;/strong&gt;visheshagyah ShadAdhArvibhedakaha...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The devotee who has the knowledge of the three lingas can move upwards&#xA;  the kundalini shakti by piercing the shatchakras..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are these three lingas being mentioned by Lord Shiva and where are they located?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T14:54:22.943" Title="What are the three Shivalingas ( Itara, Bana and Swayambhu) mentioned in some Agama texts?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|yoga|shiva-lingam|agamas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18838" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-11T07:19:46.340" Score="11" ViewCount="1323" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that Shiva is clearly noted as &quot;Prathama Purusha&quot; in any veda? If yes, please give me the references of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I need the Sree rudra suktam reference from agniveer foundation veda pdfs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10079" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T04:36:19.700" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T04:36:19.700" Title="Is Lord Shiva clearly noted as Prathama Purusha in any Veda?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|vedas|purusha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18839" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18837" CreationDate="2017-06-11T07:52:33.497" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;These lingas do not actually mean the physical swayambhu and bAna lingas. There is an esoteric meaning to this in the tantric tradition with respect to Kundalini. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The location of Swayambhu linga is at the &lt;strong&gt;muladhara&lt;/strong&gt; chakra of the astral body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bAna linga is believed to be located at the region of &lt;strong&gt;anAhata&lt;/strong&gt; chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Itara linga is located at the &lt;strong&gt;ajna&lt;/strong&gt; chakra of the kundalini passage in the sushumna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may also link them with brahma, vishnu, and rudra granthis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=6_sKqkhwRzoC&amp;amp;pg=PA136&amp;amp;lpg=PA136&amp;amp;dq=itaralinga&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=_oX0Y6WjUn&amp;amp;sig=nFKUL4buGzT3BS2d5FlDZLRNjXs&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiejJCipbXUAhVFKo8KHeFFAD0Q6AEIPTAE#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=itaralinga&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Primal Power in Man: The Kundalini Shakti --By Swami Narayanananda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=AX_XFEAn0dwC&amp;amp;pg=PA23&amp;amp;lpg=PA23&amp;amp;dq=itaralinga&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=3W0_5h4ee7&amp;amp;sig=AGG3jq611KAcldEYCcpis9h39Mc&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiejJCipbXUAhVFKo8KHeFFAD0Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=itaralinga&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Secret Power of Tantric Breathing --By Swami Sivapriyananda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T07:52:33.497" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18840" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18837" CreationDate="2017-06-11T08:33:35.497" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, its quite obvious that here Lord Shiva is talking about three internal lingas that is located inside our body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, as is well-known, as is our body so is the cosmos. So, these lingas have locations outside our body too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Samhita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Samhita&lt;/a&gt; Lord Shiva says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gBVYn.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gBVYn.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All the beings that exist in the three worlds are also to be found in&#xA;  the body;&lt;/strong&gt; surrounding the Meru (or the vertebral column) they are&#xA;  engaged in their respective functions. (4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But ordinary men do not know it. He who knows all this is a Yogi;&#xA;  there is no doubt in it. (5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, these three lingas have  internal as well as external locations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three lingas are also mentioned in NityAshodasikArnava's Chapter 5, Verse 20 as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yatra VA Kutrachiddese Lingam Vai PaschimAmukham| &lt;strong&gt;Swayambhu&#xA;  BAnalingam VA ItarA&lt;/strong&gt;dvAhapi Subrate......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At any places where Swayambhu, Bana or Itara linga are found being&#xA;  west-faced .... [Here Lord Shiva is talking about doing some japa in&#xA;  some particular places]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who don't know about it, NityAshodasikArnava is another important ShAkta Agama which is considered to be a part of the VAmakeswara Tantram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My answer here is based on the commentaries given by the three Sri Vidya acharyas namely, Sivananda, VidyAnanda &amp;amp; BhAskararaya on NityAshodasikArnava's 5-20.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Internal Swayambhu linga:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muladhara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;MulAdhara chakra&lt;/a&gt; there is a four-petaled lotus. Inside that&#xA;  lotus rests a triangle named &quot;Traipura&quot;. Inside that triangle exists&#xA;  the internal Swayambhu linga which has the glow of crores of&#xA;  suns. The chit-rupini Kundalini Shakti embraces that linga just like a&#xA;  snake embraces a tree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;External Swayambhu linga:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The external Swayambhu lingas are mostly small hills, hill-tops and&#xA;  small stones that erupted out of the grounds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Internal BAnalinga:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Inside the AnAhata Chakra there resides a triangle in which is placed&#xA;  the internal BAnalinga. It shines like gold as if it is smeared with golden&#xA;  buds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;External BAnalinga:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Shivalingas that are obtained from and naturally formed on the&#xA;  Narmada river bed are known as the external Banalingas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Internal Itara linga:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the AjnA Chakra there resides a two-petaled lotus, inside of which&#xA;  is found the Shakti Trikona or Yoni. In which, exists the Itara Shiva&#xA;  linga which shines with electrifying brilliance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;External Itara linga:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to VidyAnanda external Itara lingas are Parvatalingas or&#xA;  Lingas which are of the form of hills. An example will be the sacred&#xA;  and  well-known &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/arunachala-hill/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arunachala Hill&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise, there are the Shakti Pithas (Shakti Pitha means the bases on which Mahadevi or Parashakti rests, sits or stands) in our body as well as in the external world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devi Bhagavata Purana mentions about 108 such pithas. Some Agamas mention about 51 of them. But ancient Tantra texts mention primarily about the 4 pithas as mentioned below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to YogasAra, In mulAdhara lies the &lt;strong&gt;KAmrupa Pitha&lt;/strong&gt;, in AnAhata&#xA;  lies the &lt;strong&gt;Purnagiri Pitha&lt;/strong&gt;, in Visuddha Chakra lies the &lt;strong&gt;JAlandhara Pitha&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  in AjnA lies the &lt;strong&gt;UdyAkhya or the UddiyAna Pitha&lt;/strong&gt;. And in the SahsrAra&#xA;  lies the internal KailAsa Kshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-11T14:54:22.943" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T14:54:22.943" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18841" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18834" CreationDate="2017-06-11T08:46:07.197" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;‘Yājñavalkya,’ said he, ‘how many kinds of oblations will the&#xA;Adhvaryu offer in this sacrifice to-day?’&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;‘Three.’ ‘Which are those&#xA;three?’&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;‘Those that blaze up on being; offered, those that make a&#xA;great noise, and those that sink.’ ‘What does he win through them?’&#xA;‘Through those that blaze up on being offered he wins the world of the&#xA;gods, for this world shines, as it were. Through those that make a&#xA;great noise he wins the world of the Manes, for this world is full of&#xA;uproar. And through those that sink he wins the human world, for this&#xA;world is lower.’&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc118302.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 3.1.8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7335" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T08:46:07.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18842" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18838" CreationDate="2017-06-11T10:25:45.680" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all Each Veda is divided into four portion Samhita, Brahamnas, Aranyakas and Upanishads which I also discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9517/procedures-used-for-preserving-the-integrity-of-the-vedas/13703#13703&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Secondly Lord Shiva is called by the name Rudra in Vedas which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15124/how-rudra-became-shiva-in-vedas/15125#15125&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14206/what-is-the-vedic-origin-of-lord-shiva/14208#14208&quot;&gt;here,&lt;/a&gt; along with many other names which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13649/what-names-of-lord-shiva-used-today-are-from-vedas/13650#13650&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Direct Refrences Regarding Lord Shiva as Purusha from Vedas:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Reference from Taittariya Aranyaka:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taittariya Aranyaka is the Aranyaka of Taittariya Shakha of Krishna YajurVeda. We find direct reference for Lord Shiva being Purusha from Taittariya Aranyaka. Taittariya Aranyaka 10.12 states that Rudra is the one who is the first among Gods and who saw Hiranyagarbha being born:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो देवानां प्रथमं पुरस्ताद्विश्वाधिको रुद्रो महर्षिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;हिरण्यगर्भं पश्यत जायमान स नो देवः शुभयास्मृत्या संयुनक्तु ॥ १२॥ (Taittariya Aranyaka 10.12)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;He who is the first among the Gods, that Rudra who is the great seer who is higher than the Universe (VishwaAdhik), he is the one who saw Hiranyagarbha being born.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Taittariya Aranyaka 10.24 explicitly states 'Purusho vai Rudraha:' or 'Rudra is the Purusha.' It also explains why Rudra is Purusha as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वो वै रुद्रस्तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु । &lt;strong&gt;पुरुषो वै रुद्रः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सन्महो नमो नमः । विश्वं भूतं भुवनं चित्रं बहुधा जातं जायमानं चयत् । सर्वो ह्येष रुद्रस्तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु ॥ कद्रुद्राय प्रचेतसे मीढुष्टमाय तव्यसे । वोचेम शंतम हृदे । सर्वोह्येष रुद्रस्तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु ॥ (Krishna YajurVeda Taittariya Aranyaka 10.24.1, 10.25.1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;All this verily is Rudra. To Rudra who is such we offer our salutation. &lt;strong&gt;We salute again and again that Being, Rudra, who is Purusha.&lt;/strong&gt; The material universe the created beings and whatever there is manifoldly and profusely created in the past and in the present in the form of the world, all that is indeed this Rudra. Salutations be to Rudra who is such. We sing a hymn that confers on us happiness in the highest degree to Rudra who is worthy of praise, who is endowed with the highest knowledge, who rains objects to the worshippers most excellently, who is more powerful and who is dwelling in the heart. &lt;strong&gt;Indeed all this is Rudra. Salutations be to Rudra who is such.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus from Taittariya Aranyaka we know Lord Shiva is the one who is the first among the gods, who is Purusha and who saw Hiranyagarbha being born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Reference from Svetasvatara Upanishad:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad is one of the major Upanishad which is associated with Krishna YajurVeda. It's verses are also discussed in Brahma Sutras. It also takes verses from Taittariya Aranyaka, Taittariya Samhita, Sri Rudram, Skambha Suktam etc...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Svetasvatara Upanishad (4.12) also states Lord Rudra is the one who gave birth to Hiranyagarbha in the beginning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो देवानां प्रभवश्चोद्भवश्च विश्वाधिपो रुद्रो महर्षिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;हिरण्यगर्भं जनयामास पूर्वं स नो बुद्ध्या शुभया संयुनक्तु ॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;He, the creator of the gods&lt;/strong&gt; and the bestower of their powers, the Support of the universe, &lt;strong&gt;Rudra the omniscient, who at the beginning gave birth to Hiranyagarbha−&lt;/strong&gt; may He endow us with clear intellect!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In 3.11 Svetasvatara Upanishad Rudra is explicitly called Bhagavan Shiva (&lt;em&gt;Sarvavyapi sa Bhagavan Tasmat Sarvagata Shiva&lt;/em&gt;). In 3.12 he is called Great Purusha (&lt;strong&gt;Mahãn prabhurvai Purusha&lt;/strong&gt;) and it is stated Flame of Ishana is eternal (&lt;em&gt;Ishano Jyotir Aavyaya&lt;/em&gt;). In 3.13 it is stated he is the same Purusha who is of size if thumb seated as self of all beings (&lt;em&gt;Angustha Mãtra Purushãntaratma:&lt;/em&gt;).  In 3.14 it is stated he is the Purusha of 1000 heads, 1000 eyes and 1000 feets. In 3.15 it is stated he is everything that was, that is and that will be and he is Lord of Immortality and Ishana (&lt;em&gt;Utãmritatwa Ye Ishano&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सहस्रशीर्षा पुरुषः सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स भूमिं विश्वतो वृत्वा अत्यतिष्ठद्दशाङ्गुलम् ॥ १४॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;पुरुष एवेदं सर्वं यद् भूतं यच्च भव्यम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उतामृतत्वस्येशानो यदन्नेनातिरोहति ॥ १५॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(He is) The Purusha with a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet, compasses the earth on all sides and extends beyond it by ten fingers' breadth. The Purusha alone is all this−what has been and what will be. He is also the Lord of Immortality and of whatever grows by food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there is direct reference in Svetasvatara Upanishad for Lord Shiva being Purusha. Svetasvatara Upanishad (4.21) also prays for Dakshinamurty form (south facing form) to end birth and rebirth cycles:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अजात इत्येवं कश्चिद्भीरुः प्रपद्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;रुद्र यत्ते दक्षिणं मुखं तेन मां पाहि नित्यम् ॥ २१॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;It is because Thou, O Lord, art birthless, that some rare souls, frightened by birth and death, take refuge in Thee. O Rudra, may Thy South facing face protect me for ever!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Reference from Shiva Sankalpa Sukta:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Sankalpa Sukta is also a Khila Sukta of RigVeda which I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17644/is-shiva-sankalpa-suktam-also-a-khila-sukta-of-rigveda&quot;&gt;discuss here.&lt;/a&gt; Shiva Sankalpa Khila Sukta also contains direct reference of Lord Shiva being Purusha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वेदाहमेतं पुरुषं महान्तमादित्यवर्णं तमस परस्तात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तस्ये योनि परिपश्यन्ति धीरास्तन्मे मनः शिव संकल्पमस्तु ।।9&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;This great Purusha of the solar hue,&lt;/strong&gt; beyond darkness I do know; The wise ones who see its womb and origin do so with the mind. May such my mind be of beautiful and divine resolves, filled with Shiva-thoughts.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यो वै वेद महादेवं परमं पुरुषोत्तमम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यः सर्व यस्य चित्सर्व तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 22&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;It is known that Mahadeva is the highest Purusha.&lt;/strong&gt; All this is his consciousness, May my mind be filled with Shiva thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4) Other Indirect references:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There can be so many other direct references. However there are also many Indirect references from Vedas which matches with Characteristics of Purusha like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत उदतिष्ठत् सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात्  (Kaushitki Brahmana RigVeda 6.1.13)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There arose &lt;strong&gt;(Rudra) of thousand eyes and thousand feets.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सहस्राक्षाय च शतधन्वने च (Sri Rudram YajurVeda)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;He who has &lt;strong&gt;1000 eyes and holds hundreds of bows&lt;/strong&gt; in his eyes.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;मृत्युर्मुक्षिय मामृतात् ।। [RigVeda 7.59.12]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;who Gives Moksha and &lt;strong&gt;Immortality.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अन्नानां पतये नमः [Sri Rudram Anuvaka 2]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutations to him who is &lt;strong&gt;Lord of Food.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;देवानां हृदयभ्यो। [YajurVeda SriRudram]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;who is on the heart of Devas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तासामीशानो भगवः [Yajurveda Sri Rudram]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;who is Bhagavan &lt;strong&gt;Ishana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यो रुद्रो विश्वा भुवना विवेश [YajurVeda 5.5.9]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Rudra &lt;strong&gt;who entered the whole world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;इमाविश्वा भुवनानि चक्लृपे तस्मै [Atharvaveda &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17278/does-the-atharvasiras-derives-this-mantra-from-yajurveda-or-quotes-from-other-ve/17495#17495&quot;&gt;7.87&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;He who created this whole world.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;देवा वै रुद्रं स्वर्गं लोकं गतं न व्यजानन्न् आदित्यवर्णं चरन्तन् | [Katha Aranyaka &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15124/how-rudra-became-shiva-in-vedas/15125#15125&quot;&gt;2.100&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Indeed the &lt;strong&gt;deva-s did not recognize Rudra&lt;/strong&gt; who had entered the heavenly world &lt;strong&gt;wandering in Aditya Varnam.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And so on there can be many many references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-11T10:25:45.680" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18844" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18845" CreationDate="2017-06-11T11:33:52.067" Score="8" ViewCount="1986" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for some mantras for chanting mantras specific to Sita and radha rani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10063" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-11T11:38:57.083" LastActivityDate="2023-01-12T06:20:17.977" Title="Can anyone suggest mantras for worshiping Mata Sita and Sri Radha Rani?" Tags="|worship|mantras|sita|radha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18845" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18844" CreationDate="2017-06-11T14:49:22.657" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is Gayatri Mantras for various deities mentioned &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Gayatri_mantras_of_Several_Gods&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Gayatri mantra for Devi Radha is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ वृषभानुजायै विद्महे कृष्णप्रियायै धीमहि तन्नो राधा प्रचोदयात्॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om Vrishabhanujayai Vidhmahe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishnapriyayai Dheemahi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thanno Radha Prachodayath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, Let me meditate on the daughter of Vrishabhanu,&#xA;  Oh, darling of Krishna, give me higher intellect,&#xA;  And let Radha illuminate my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gayatri mantra for Devi Sita is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ जनकनन्दिन्यै विद्महे भूमिजायै धीमहि तन्नः सीता प्रचोदयात्॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Om Janaka Nandinyai Vidhmahe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhumijayai Dheemahi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thannah Sita Prachodayath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, Let me meditate on the daughter of Janaka&#xA;  Oh, daughter of earth, give me higher intellect,&#xA;  And let Sita illuminate my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also there are some Stotras for Devi Sita and Devi Radha are present. There is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_radharani-sixteen_names.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Radha Shoddasha Nama Stotram&lt;/a&gt; that is said to be from Brahma Vaivartha Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीनारायण उवाच&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राधा रासेश्वरी रासवासिनी रसिकेश्वरी ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कृष्णप्राणाधिका कृष्णप्रिया कृष्णस्वरूपिणी ॥१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shriinaaraayanna Uvaaca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Raadhaa Raaseshvarii Raasavaasinii Rasikeshvarii |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krssnnapraannaadhikaa Krssnnapriyaa Krssnnasvaruupinnii ||1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Narayana said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.1: (The sixteen names of Radharani are) Radha, Raaseshwari, Raasavasini, Rasikeshwari, ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.2: ... Krishnapranadhika, Krishnapriya, Krishna Swarupini, ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कृष्णवामाङ्गसम्भूता परमानन्दरूपिणी ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कृष्णा वृन्दावनी वृन्दा वृन्दावनविनोदिनी ॥२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krssnnavaamaanggasambhuutaa Paramaanandaruupinnii |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krssnnaa Vrndaavanii Vrndaa Vrndaavanavinodinii ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(The sixteen names of Radharani continued)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.1: ... Krishna Vamanga Sambhuta, Paramanandarupini, ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.2: ... Krishnaa, Vrindavani, Vrindaa, Vrindavana Vinodini,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चन्द्रावली चन्द्रकान्ता शरच्चन्द्रप्रभानना ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नामान्येतानि साराणि तेषामभ्यन्तराणि च ॥३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Candraavalii Candrakaantaa Sharaccandraprabhaananaa |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Naamaany-Etaani Saaraanni Tessaam-Abhyantaraanni Ca ||3||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(The sixteen names of Radharani continued)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.1: ... Chandravali, Chandrakanta, Sharacchandra Prabhanana (Sharat Chandra Prabhanana), &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.2: These (sixteen) Names, which are the essence are included in those (thousand names),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;24 more verses are there you may read in link. There is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_sita-janaki_stutih.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Janaki stuti mentioned here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जानकि त्वां नमस्यामि सर्वपापप्रणाशिनीम् ॥१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jaanaki Tvaam Namasyaami Sarva-Paapa-Prannaashiniim ||1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Hanumanji said:)&#xA;  1.1: O Devi Janaki, I salute You; You are the destroyer of all Sins,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दारिद्र्यरणसंहर्त्रीं भक्तानाभिष्टदायिनीम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विदेहराजतनयां राघवानन्दकारिणीम् ॥२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Daaridrya-Ranna-Samhartriim Bhaktaana-Abhisstta-Daayiniim |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Videha-Raaja-Tanayaam Raaghava-[A]ananda-Kaarinniim ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.1: (I Salute You) You are the destroyer of Poverty (in the battle of life) and bestower of wishes of the Devotees,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.2: (I Salute You) You are the daughter of Videha Raja (King Janaka), and cause of Joy of Raghava (Sri Rama),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भूमेर्दुहितरं विद्यां नमामि प्रकृतिं शिवाम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पौलस्त्यैश्वर्यसंहत्रीं भक्ताभीष्टां सरस्वतीम् ॥३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhuumer-Duhitaram Vidyaam Namaami Prakrtim Shivaam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Paulastya-[A]ishvarya-Samhatriim Bhakta-Abhiissttaam Sarasvatiim ||3||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.1: I Salute You, You are the daughter of the Earth and the embodiment of Knowledge; You are the Auspicious Prakriti,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.2: (I Salute You) You are the destroyer of the Power and Supremacy of (oppressors like) Ravana, (and at the same time) fulfiller of the wishes of the Devotees; You are an embodiment of Saraswati,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पतिव्रताधुरीणां त्वां नमामि जनकात्मजाम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनुग्रहपरामृद्धिमनघां हरिवल्लभाम् ॥४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pativrataa-Dhuriinnaam Tvaam Namaami Janaka-[A]atmajaam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anugraha-Paraam-Rddhim-Anaghaam Hari-Vallabhaam ||4||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.1: I Salute You, You are the best among Pativratas (Ideal Wife devoted to Husband), (and at the same time) the Soul of Janaka (Ideal Daughter devoted to Father),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.2: (I Salute You) You are very Gracious (being Yourself the embodiment of) Riddhi (Lakshmi), (Pure and) Sinless, and extremely Beloved of Hari,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आत्मविद्यां त्रयीरूपामुमारूपां नमाम्यहम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रसादाभिमुखीं लक्ष्मीं क्षीराब्धितनयां शुभाम् ॥५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aatma-Vidyaam Trayii-Ruupaam-Umaa-Ruupaam Namaamyaham |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prasaada-Abhimukhiim Lakssmiim Kssiira-Abdhi-Tanayaam Shubhaam ||5||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.1: I Salute You, You are the embodiment of Atma Vidya, mentioned in the Three Vedas (Manifesting its Inner Beauty in Life); You are of the nature of Devi Uma,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.2: (I Salute You) You are the Auspicious Lakshmi, the daughter of the Milky Ocean, and always intent on bestowing Grace (to the Devotees),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमामि चन्द्रभगिनीं सीतां सर्वाङ्गसुन्दरीम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमामि धर्मनिलयां करुणां वेदमातरम् ॥६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namaami Candra-Bhaginiim Siitaam Sarva-Angga-Sundariim |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namaami Dharma-Nilayaam Karunnaam Veda-Maataram ||6||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.1: I Salute You, You are like the sister of Chandra (in Beauty), You are Sita Who is Beautiful in Her entirety,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.2: (I Salute You) You are an Abode of Dharma, full of Compassion and the Mother of Vedas,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पद्मालयां पद्महस्तां विष्णुवक्षःस्थलालयाम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमामि चन्द्रनिलयां सीतां चन्द्रनिभाननाम् ॥७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Padma-[A]alayaam Padma-Hastaam Vissnnu-Vakssah-Sthala-[A]alayaam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namaami Candra-Nilayaam Siitaam Candra-Nibha-[A]ananaam ||7||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.1: (I Salute You) (You as Devi Lakshmi) Abide in Lotus, hold Lotus in Your Hands, and always reside in the Heart of Sri Vishnu,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7.2: I Salute You, You reside in Chandra Mandala, You are Sita Whose Face resembles the Moon,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आह्लादरूपिणीं सिद्धिं शिवां शिवकरीं सतीम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमामि विश्वजननीं रामचन्द्रेष्टवल्लभाम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सीतां सर्वानवद्याङ्गीं भजामि सततं हृदा ॥८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aahlaada-Ruupinniim Siddhim Shivaam Shivakariim Satiim |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namaami Vishva-Jananiim Raamacandre[a-I]sstta-Vallabhaam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Siitaam Sarvaan-Avadya-Anggiim Bhajaami Satatam Hrdaa ||8||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.1: (I Salute You) Your Form gives Joy to all, You are the Sati (Devoted Wife) Whose presence is Auspicious and confers Siddhi and Liberation,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.2: I Salute the Mother of the Universe, Who is the Beloved of Ramachandra,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.3: I always Worship You in my Heart, O Mother Sita, You are Beautiful in entirety, the Beauty which cannot be expressed in words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T06:56:20.310" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T06:56:20.310" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18847" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-11T18:13:33.043" Score="1" ViewCount="77" Body="&lt;p&gt;How could Ravana be an Asura  and Brahmin at the same time? Although he was born Brahmin (as son of Pulasthya Brahma) did he become or get declassified as Asura after his egoistic  sin ? Are there other examples of mythological personalities who had undergone such conversion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T08:29:33.347" LastActivityDate="2020-03-09T08:29:33.347" Title="Ravana Brahmana or Asura?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-06-12T02:15:16.183" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18850" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16967" CreationDate="2017-06-12T05:03:31.413" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are the main philosophical schools discussed by Vyasa in the Brahma Sutras (which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt;: The Brahma Sutras are the defining text of Vedanta school, so in some sense all the Sutras are giving the views of the Vedanta school.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samkhya&lt;/strong&gt;: Kapila's Samkhya school seems to have been the most popular school of Hindu philosophy at the time, so Vyasa refutes it in many places in the Brahma Sutras.  For instance, here's what Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-5: The first Cause Possessed of Consciousness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Pradhana of the Samkhyas is not the cause of the universe, because it is not mentioned in the Upanishads, which fact is clear from the fact of seeing (or thinking).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be argued that the seeing is in a secondary sense, we say, not so, owing to the use of the word Self.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Pradhana is not the meaning of the word “Self”), because liberation is promised for one who holds on to That.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Pradhana has not been spoken of even indirectly), because there is no subsequent mention of its rejection, and (because that militates against the assertion at the beginning).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because of the merger of the individual into his own Self. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because the knowledge (gathered from the various Upanishads) is the same (as regards Consciousness being the cause).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And because (Brahman is) revealed (as such) in the Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Adhyaya 1 Pada 2 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-5: The Internal Ruler&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;18&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The internal Ruler in the divine and other contexts (is the supreme Self), since the characteristics of that (supreme Self) are spoken of.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Neither Pradhana, known from the (Samkhya) Smriti, is the internal Ruler, for qualities that do not belong to Pradhana are spoken of.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The embodied soul also (is not the internal Ruler); for the followers of both the recensions read of this one as different&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-6: The One That is Unseen etc.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;21&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The entity, possessed of the qualities of not being seen etc., is Brahman, for Its characteristics are spoken of.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And the other two (viz., the individual soul and Pradhana) are not meant, for there is the mention of the distinctive characteristics (of Brahman) and (Its) difference (from the two). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And because there is a presentation of form&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Adhyaya 1 Pada 4 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-1: The Inferred Entity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be said that even the inferred entity (Pradhana) is revealed to the followers of some recension, we say, not so, for the word is cognized as occurring in a simile illustrating the body. And the Upanishad also shows this. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rather the subtle (causal state) is meant (by avyakta), for it deserves that epithet.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Avyakta is not Pradhana) because it is dependent on that (God); (but this avyakta has to be admitted as) it serves some purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And because (avyakta is) not mentioned as an entity to be known.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be argued that the Upanishad does mention Pradhana (by the word avyakta), we say: No, for the conscious Self is understood from the context.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And thus there is the presentation of three things alone and the question also is concerned with them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And like Mahat (avyakta does not signify any Samkhya category).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-2: The Bowl&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(The word aja does not refer to Pradhana), because special characteristics have not been stated as in the case of the bowl.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The aja certainly consists of the elements counting from fire, for some read of them as such.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And since this is an instruction in the form of an imagery, just as in the case of honey etc., therefore there is no incongruity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-3: Statement of Number&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;11&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not even on the strength of the mention of number can Pradhana have Vedic sanction, because the entities are disparate and they involve an excess.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The vital force and the rest (are the panchajanah), (as is known) from the complementary passage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For the followers of some recension, the number five has to be made up with light in the absence of food.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Adhyaya 2 Pada 1 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-1: Conflict with Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be argued (that from the acceptance of Brahman as the cause of the universe) arises the defect of the (Samkhya) Smritis being left without any scope, then not so, for otherwise will arise the defect of other Smritis losing their scope. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (Pradhana is not the cause) since the others are not met with (in the Vedas and common experience)...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-3: Difference in Nature&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahman is not the cause of the universe owing to the dissimilarity in the nature of this universe; and the fact of being so is known from the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But this is only a reference to the presiding deities, because of the mention of distinction (between the sentient deities and the insentient organs and elements) and the inherence (of these deities in them).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But it is seen.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be said that the effect (in that case) is non-existent (before creation), then not so; for it is merely a negation (without any object to deny).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since in dissolution there is the predicament of the cause becoming just like that effect, therefore this (theory that Brahman is the material cause) becomes incongruous.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But that cannot be so on account of the existence of supporting illustration.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And because the defects cling to your own point of view.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be argued that although reasoning is inconclusive, still it has to be done in a different way, (so as to avoid this defect), then even so there will be no getting away from the defect....&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-9: Wholesale Transformation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;26&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(If Brahman changes into the world, then) there will arise the contingency of either wholesale transformation or the violation of the texts about partlessness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But (this has to be accepted) on the authority of the Upanishad, for Brahman is known from the Upanishads alone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because it occurs thus in the case of the individual soul as well and creation of diverse kinds occur in the cases of gods and others.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And because the opponent’s own point of view is equally vitiated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Adhyaya 2 Pada 2 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-1: Samkhya View Refuted (Impossibility of Design)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The inferred one (Pradhana) is not (the cause) owing to the impossibility of explaining the design, as also for other reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And the inferred (Pradhana) cannot be the cause, since the tendency to create (cannot logically arise in it).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be claimed (that Pradhana acts spontaneously) like milk and water, then even there (intelligence is the guide).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (Pradhana is not the cause) since (nothing extraneous to it exists, so that) it has nothing to rely on (for impulsion to or stoppage from action).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And Pradhana cannot change (automatically) like grass etc., (into milk in a cow) for such a change does not occur elsewhere (e.g. in a bull).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even if (spontaneous modification of Pradhana be) accepted, still (Pradhana will not be the cause) because of the absence of any purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be argued that like a (lame) man (riding on a blind man) or a lodestone (moving iron), (the soul can stimulate Pradhana), even then (the defect will persist).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Besides, Pradhana cannot act on account of the impossibility of (the existence of) any relationship of the principal and its subordinates (among the gunas constituting Pradhana).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And even if the inference be pursued otherwise (still the defect will persist) owing to the absence of the power of intelligence (in Pradhana).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (the Samkhya doctrine is) incoherent because of the contradictions involved.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;: Patanjali's Yoga school is refuted by a single Sutra in Adhyaya 2 Pada 1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-2: Refutation of Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Hereby is refuted Yoga.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What that means is that the arguments used in Adhyaya 2 Pada 1 Sutras 1-2, which were used to refute the Samkhya school, apply equally well to the Yoga school.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaisheshika&lt;/strong&gt;: Kanada's Vaisheshika school is refuted in Adhyaya 2 Pada 2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-2: Vaisesika Objection Refuted&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;11&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rather (the universe may originate from Brahman) even as the great and long (triads etc.,) originate from the short (dyad) or the inextensive (atom).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-3: Atoms Not the Cause of Universe&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;12&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(Whether adrista leads the atoms or conjunction helps them), in either case no action is possible and hence there can be no creation or dissolution.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (there can be no creation or dissolution) by reason of assuming inherence, for this leads to an infinite regress on a parity of reasoning.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(The atomic theory is inadmissible) for the further reason of (activity etc.,) persisting eternally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And on account of the possession of colour etc., there will be a reversal (of the nature of the atoms), for this accords with experience.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (the atomic theory is untenable) because it is defective from either point of view.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This (theory of atom as the cause) is to be entirely ignored, since it is not accepted (by the worthy).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Buddhism&lt;/strong&gt;: Various Buddhist philosophical ideas is refuted in Adhyaya 2 Pada 2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-4: Refutation of Buddhist Realists&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;18&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even if the integration be supposed to arise from either of the causes, that will not be achieved.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be argued that a combination becomes possible since (nescience and the rest) can be the causes of one another (in a successive series), then we say, no, (for nescience etc.,) can each merely be the cause of origin of another just succeeding.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And because the earlier is negated when the later emerges, (therefore nescience and the rest cannot each be the cause of the next in the series).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(If it be contended that the effect arises) even when there is no cause, then your assertion (of causation) will be stultified; else (if you contend that the entity of the earlier moment continues till the entity of the later moment emerges), the cause and effect will exist simultaneously.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Neither pratisamkhya-nirodha (artificial annihilation) nor an apratisamkhya-nirodha (natural annihilation) is possible, for there can be no cessation (either of the current or of the individuals forming the current).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (the Buddhist view is untenable) owing to defect arising from either point of view.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (non-existence cannot be asserted) in the case of Akasa on account of the absence of (its) dissimilarity (with destruction).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (a permanent soul has to be admitted) because of the fact of remembrance (ie., memory).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Something does not come out of nothing, for this does not accord with experience.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (if something can come out of nothing, then) on the same ground, success should come even to the indifferent people.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-5: Buddhist Idealism Refuted&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;28&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(External objects are) not non-existent, for they are perceived. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And because of the difference of nature (the waking state is) not (false) like dream etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Tendencies) can have no existence since (according to you) external things are not perceived.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (the ego-consciousness cannot be the abode), for it is momentary.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Besides (this view stands condemned), it being untenable from every point of view.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's never mentioned by name though.  (The Adhikarana headings are added by the translator for convenience.) But the ideas which later came to be known as Buddhism are what are refuted above.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jainism&lt;/strong&gt;:  Jain philosophy is refuted in Adhyaya 2 Pada 2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-6: Jaina View Refuted&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;33&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(The Jaina view is) not right since the presence (of contradictory attributes) in one and the same thing is impossible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Similarly also (arises the defect of) the soul having no all-pervasiveness (or having only a medium dimension).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And the contradiction cannot be avoided even by an assumption of sequence (in the increase and decrease of parts), for still there will be the defects of mutability etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The ultimate size attainable (by the soul) being permanent, the other two sizes also must be so; and hence there will be no distinction (among the sizes). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pashupata&lt;/strong&gt;: Pashupata Shaivism and the Shaiva Agamas are refuted in Adhyaya 2 Pada 2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-7: God Is Not a Mere Superintendent&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;37&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For the Lord there can be no creatorship, for that leads to incongruity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (the incongruity arises) because of the impossibility of a relationship.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (the position is untenable) because of the impossibility of (Nature) coming under (His) direction. (Or) And (God cannot be proved), since no physical support (adhisthana) is possible for Him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Should it be argued that God will direct Nature like (a man directing) the organs, then it cannot be so, for that will result in God’s having experiences (of happiness, sorrow etc.). (Or) If a body, equipped with sense-organs, be assumed for God, (we say that) this is not possible; because of (consequent) experiences etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;God will be subject to finitude or loss of omniscience.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most philosophical Shaivites reject the Vedanta school, so not many Shaivites philosophers have had to seriously contend with Vyasa's critique of the Shaiva Agamas.  But the Shaiva Siddhanta philosophers Srikantha Sivacharya and Appaya Dikshitar interpret these Sutras to mean that Vyasa accepts some Shaivites and Shaiva Agamas and rejects others.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pancharatra&lt;/strong&gt;: The philosophy of the Pancharatra Agamas are discussed in Adhyaya 2 Pada 2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-8: Bhagavata View Refuted&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;42&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(The Bhagavata view that Samkarsana and others originate successively from Vasudeva and others is wrong), since any origin (for the soul) is impossible.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (this view is wrong because) an implement cannot originate from its agent (who wields it).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Alternatively even if (it be assumed that Vasudeva and others are) possessed of knowledge, (majesty etc.,), still the defect cannot be remedied.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Besides, (in this scripture) many contradictions are met with and it runs counter to the Vedas. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This translation is written from the viewpoint of the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, but Ramanujacharya and others interpret these Sutras as either supporting the Pancharatra Agamas or refuting the Shakta Agamas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Charvaka&lt;/strong&gt;: Adi Shankaracharya believes that Vyasa refutes Brihaspati's Charvaka school in Adhyaya 3 Pada 3:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-30: The Self Distinct from Body&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;53&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some deny the existence of the soul, its existence being dependent on the existence of the body.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But this is not so; there is a distinction (between the soul and the body) because consciousness may not exist even when the body exists, as it is in the case of perception. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But other commentators on the Brahma Sutras think that these Sutras have nothing to do with either the Charvaka school or the existence of the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purva Mimamsa&lt;/strong&gt;: Vyasa's shishya Jaimini, the founder of the Purva Mimamsa school, is quoted by Vyasa numerous times throughout the Brahma Sutras, in Jaimini's capacity as a Vedantic philosopher.  And also, the Vedanta school is built on a Purva Mimamsa foundation; there was originally a unified Mimamsa Shastra consisting of Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, Kasakritsna's now-lost Devata Kanda Sutras, and Vyasa's Brahma Sutras.  In fact, the primary purpose of the Brahma Sutras is to apply methods of Mimamsa to the Upanishads.  So naturally the Brahma Sutras invoke Mimamsa ideas quite a bit.  But there are several Sutras which pertain to disagreements between the Vedanta school and the Purva Mimamsa school.  For instance, here is what Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-3: Scripture as Source of Knowledge of Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(Brahman is omniscient) because of (Its) being the source of the scriptures.&#xA;  (Or) (Brahman is not known from any other source), since the scriptures are the valid means of Its knowledge.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-4: Upanishads Reveal Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But that Brahman (is known from the Upanishads), (It) being the object of their fullest import.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Adhyaya 1 Pada 3 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-8: Gods&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;26&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Badarayana thinks that beings higher than those (men) (are also qualified for knowledge), for that is possible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be objected that this (corporeality of the gods) wilt give rise to a contradiction (in the matter of the gods being associated) in rites, then we reply: Not so, for in the Vedas are noticed the assumption of many bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be objected that this contradicts the validity of Vedic words, then not so, for the universe arises from this, which fact is proved by direct revelation and inference.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And from this very fact follows the eternality (of the Vedas).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And there is no contradiction, since similar names and forms are repeated even in the revolution of the world cycles, as is known from the Vedas and the Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jaimini asserts (that the gods and others have) no competence (for knowledge of Brahman), owing to the impossibility of their competence for Madhu-vidya etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because of the occurrence of the words in respect of a sphere of flight.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Badarayana upholds the existence of competence (for the gods); for (the requisite for competence) exists (in them).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here's what Adhyaya 3 Pada 2 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-8: Fruits of Action&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;38&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The fruit of action is from Him, this being the logical position.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(God is the ordainer of results) for the further reason that the Upanishads say so.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For these very reasons Jaimini considers virtuous deeds to be the yielder of results.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Badarayana considers the earlier One (viz., God) (as the bestower of results), because He is mentioned as the cause of even action.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here's what Adhyaya 3 Pada 4 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-1: Knowledge not a Subsidiary of Rites&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Badarayana thinks that liberation results from this (knowledge of the Self), (as presented in the Upanishads), because the Vedic texts declare so.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jaimini thinks that since the Self holds a subservient position in rites etc., the mention of the result of knowledge is (merely) in glorification of the agent, as is the case elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(This is confirmed) on the strength of what is revealed about the behaviour (of the knowers of Brahman).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(This is so) because the Upanishad declares this.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(This is so), because both knowledge and work follow the Self (when it transmigrates).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(And this is so) because rites are enjoined for one who is possessed of that (knowledge of the Vedas).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And (this follows) from the restrictive texts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Badarayana’s view stands unshaken because of the instruction that the supreme Self is even greater (than the agent); for so it is revealed (by the Upanishads).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the Upanishadic declaration (of conduct) is equally in evidence (proving that knowledge is not subservient to religious acts). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The declaration is not universal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Knowledge and action are to be divided like a hundred things.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Engagements in religious actions is prescribed) for him only who has merely recited the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(The restrictive texts) do not apply (to the man of knowledge), since the restrictions is made without any specification.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or rather the consent (accorded) for doing religious acts is meant for the glorification of knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, some refrain from (religious) work according to personal predilection.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, (from knowledge comes) the destruction (of the whole world).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And knowledge belongs to the monks, for they are met with in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-3: Injunctions for Meditation Not Eulogistic&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;21&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be contended that texts (about Udgitha etc.) are merely eulogistic, because of having been accepted as subservient to ritual acts, then not so, because of the extra-ordinariness (of the texts).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, (there must be injunctions) on account of the occurrence of words having an injunctional meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Topic-4: Upanishadic Stories&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;23&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If it be argued that they (the Upanishadic stories) are meant for the (ritualistic application called) Pariplava, (we say) that this not so, on account of the stories for the Pariplava having been specified.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And because (the stories) become connected (with meditations) through unity of idea in that way, (therefore they are meant for illuminating the proximate knowledge).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whew!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-27T06:11:33.343" LastActivityDate="2017-11-27T06:11:33.343" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18851" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="902" CreationDate="2017-06-12T05:17:31.800" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Definition of Shiva is directly given in chapter 4 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/ShriShivaRahasya/ShriShivaRahasya_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiv Rahasya&lt;/a&gt; while Lord Shiva explaining himself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am Shiva, the &lt;strong&gt;Stillness (Shi)&lt;/strong&gt; Whereof &lt;strong&gt;all Movement (Va)&lt;/strong&gt; is born. As Water, Fire and the Sun at once move and are still, so I, the Great Life &lt;strong&gt;both Move and Stand Still&lt;/strong&gt;. Verse 8.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, from the same scripture in chapter 7, we find.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva said:&lt;/strong&gt; For this reason, &lt;strong&gt;the Wise Ones have called Him Shiva which means, That in Whom &#xA;  everything rests (Shi) and by Whose Power everything moves (Va)&lt;/strong&gt;. I Am that Shiva, the Original &#xA;  Ever-Living One; the Unseen and Uncreated Who Ever Is before everything that is seen and &#xA;  created is born or dies. verse 3.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore Siva word is a combination of two syllables - Shi + Va. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shi&lt;/strong&gt; denotes seed, primordial cause, stillness etc. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Va&lt;/strong&gt; denoted creation from seed, effect of primordial cause, creation etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, Shiva word represents the one who has created the world (movement) yet not have become two (stillness). i.e Oneness has been being maintained even after creation. So, Shiva can also mean &lt;strong&gt;who is never changed&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-08-21T14:27:41.547" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T14:27:41.547" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18852" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16553" CreationDate="2017-06-12T06:22:33.897" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am providing another reference about  “ Pancha-Brahmas”  you asked in the question , from &lt;strong&gt;Linga Purana – Uttara Bhaga – Chapter 14 –Panca-Brahmas&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Linga Purana Lord Shiva the form of Panca-Brahmas. In the form of Panca-Brahmas, Shiva is the creator of the universe , beside being its destroyer and protector.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are  &lt;strong&gt;Isana , Tatpurusa , Aghora , Vamdeva and Sadyojata.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the verses describing them -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सनत्कुमार उवाच &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पच्श्र ब्रह्माणि मे नंदिन्नाचव्क्ष गणसत्तम | &lt;br&gt; श्रेय: करणभूतानि&#xA;  पवित्राणि शरीरिणाम् ||१|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanatkumara said &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O best among the Ganas known as Nandikeshwara , you speak about to me about Panca-Brahmas , who purify the embodied beings and bestow welfare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नन्दिकेश्वर उवाच &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिवस्यैव स्वरुपाणि पच्श्र ब्रह्माह्यानि ते |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   कथयामि यथातत्वं पद्मयोने: सुतोत्तम ||२||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nandikeshwara said &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Siva indeed is the form of Panca-Brahmas&lt;/strong&gt;. O excellent son of Brahma ,&#xA;  I shall now speak out to you about them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वलोकैकसंहर्ता सेर्वलोकैकरक्षिता |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  सेर्वलोकैकनिर्माता पच्श्रब्रह्मात्मक: शिव: ||३||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the form of Panca-Brahmas, Shiva is the creator of the universe ,&#xA;  beside being its destroyer and protector.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्षेत्रज्ञ: प्रथमा मूर्ति: शिवस्य परमेषष्ठीन: |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  भोक्ता प्रकृतिवर्गस्य भोग्यस्येशानसंज्ञीत: ||६||&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  स्थाणोस्तत्पुषाख्या च द्वितीयामूर्तिरुच्यते | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;   प्रकृति: सा हि विज्ञेया परमात्मगुहात्मिक||७||&lt;br&gt; &#xA;   अघोराख्या तृतीया च शंभोमूर्तिरीयसी |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   बुद्भे: सा मूर्तिरित्युक्ता धर्मादयाष्टाग्ड.संयुता ||८||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   चतुर्थी वामदेवाख्या मूर्ति: शंभोर्गरीयसी |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;   सद्योजाताह्या शंभो: पच्श्रमी मूर्तिरुच्यते |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   अहङ्कारात्मकत्वेन व्याप्य सर्वं व्यवस्थिता||९||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   मनस्त्त्वात्मकत्वेन स्थिता सर्वशरीरिषु ||१०||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Isana happens to be the first form of shiva Parameshti  also known as&#xA;  kestraina. I this form he is the knower of the field and enjoyer of&#xA;  Prakriti which is fit to be enjoyed. The second   physical form of the&#xA;  lord is known as Tatpurusa , which again is equal to prakrati as the&#xA;  abode of supreme soul.  The third physical form of the Lord is known&#xA;  as Aghora , which form pertains to the cosmic intellect. It has eight&#xA;  related parts starring with Dharma. Vamadeva is the fourth physical&#xA;  form of lord Shiva which pervades in all the living being in the form&#xA;  of ego. What is called Sadyojata is the fifth physical form and is&#xA;  stationed in all the embodied beings in the form of mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses from same Purana describing the respected places where these Panch-Brahmas are residing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्थितस्तत्पुरुषो देव: शरीरेषु शरीरिणम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   त्वगिन्द्रियात्मकत्वेन तत्वविद्भिरुदाह्यत: ||१२||&lt;br&gt; &#xA;   अघोरोपि महादेवच्श्रक्षुरात्मतया बुधै|&lt;br&gt; &#xA;   कीर्तित: सेर्वभुतानां शरीरेषु व्यवस्थित: ||१३||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जिव्हेंद्रियात्मकत्वेन वामदेवोपि विश्रुत: |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अग्ड.भाजामशेषाणामग्डेषु परिधिष्ठीत: ||१४|| &#xA;    घ्राणेंद्रियात्मकत्वेन सद्योजात: स्मृतो बुधै |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    प्राणभाजां समस्तानां विग्रहेषु व्यवस्थित: ||१५|| &#xA;    सर्वेष्वएव शरीरेषु प्राणभाजां प्रतिष्ठित: |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   वागिंन्द्रियात्मकत्वेन बुधैरीशान उच्यते ||१६||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tatpurusha&lt;/strong&gt; is stationed in the embodied beings in the form of &lt;strong&gt;touch&lt;/strong&gt; –the sense organ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aghora&lt;/strong&gt; , who is immensely glorified is lodged in the &lt;strong&gt;eyes&lt;/strong&gt; of all the embodied beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vamadeva&lt;/strong&gt; is established in the sense organ of the &lt;strong&gt;tongue&lt;/strong&gt;  of the  embodied beings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is stated that &lt;strong&gt;Sadyojata&lt;/strong&gt; is stationed in the form of sense organ of &lt;strong&gt;smell&lt;/strong&gt; in the embodied beings. Isana is said to be stationed in the  embodied beings as an organ of &lt;strong&gt;speech.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we can see that each of these  five brahmas resides in the different sense organs of embodied beings  ,So  in a another way &lt;strong&gt;Lalita Devi   sitting on the PanchaBrahmas implies that she is the master of all these senses and ruler of those&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I too agree with the explanation provided by @Tezz regarding the  Lalita Devi  sitting on the PanchaBrahmas. – &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sitting over PanchaBrahmans does not mean sitting over Sadyojata, Vamadeva, Tatpurusha, Aghora and Ishana. But it means sitting over Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheswara and Ishana which are also PanchaBrahmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T06:46:50.180" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T06:46:50.180" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18853" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-12T07:11:11.283" Score="4" ViewCount="537" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Brahmavaivarta Purana is one of the eighteen major Puranas (Maha-purana) which centers around Krishna and Radha. Now &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Vaivarta_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; claims that there is another such Purana available in South India with a &quot;similar a sounding title&quot; and similar plot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Another text, with a similar-sounding title, called Brahmakaivarta Purana calling itself also the twelfth Mahapurana also exists, is related&lt;/strong&gt;, but was likely revised somewhere in South India. Numerous versions of this Purana exist, in up to 274 or 276 chapters, all claiming to be either part of, or manuscripts of the Brahmavaivarta Purana or the Brahmakaivarta Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any major differences in the content of the existing mauscripts labelled &quot;Brahma Vaivarta Purana&quot; and the &quot;Brahma Kaivarta Purana&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-03-19T20:40:44.690" LastActivityDate="2018-03-19T20:40:44.690" Title="What are the differences in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana and the Brahma Kaivarta Purana?" Tags="|brahma-vaivarta-purana|manuscripts|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18854" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8352" CreationDate="2017-06-12T07:16:31.120" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The chore of the sanathana  dharma/principle is to ascend to godhood/to realise the supreme nature ie to  become as mighty as paramatma itself. this the aim of the life all human being irrespective of his caste sex  religion.This can be achieved by GAYATHRI YOGA that is by chanting gayathri manth through pranayaama. In sandhya kriya   this is compulsory. PRANAVASYA  PARABRAHMA RISHIHI, PARAMAATMAA DEVATHA GAYATHRI CHANDAHA  PRANAAYAAME VINIYOGAHA.One has to perform this pranayama in brahmi muhurtha for one hour on daily basis for 14 years, by utilising griva pranayama after locking kishkindha pradesh ie one throat. this is called tapasya where  ones semen collected in MOOLADHARA is heated and  it turns to  fire and when continuously  raised temperature with further praanamaya the fire transforms to light and with force it jumps/rushes to swadhistana through the shushumna naadi and RUSHES  THE semen    resides   in the form of white light in that swadhistana chakra which is termed as one ATMA/BRAHMA. THIS IS  SPIRITUAL REALISATION WHEREIN YOU WILL BE ABLE KNOW EVERY THING IN THE WORLD   AFTER  HAVING THIS DARSHANA. SUCH PERSONS ARE CALLED BRAHMANA. IT IS  STATED IN GAYATHRI DHYANA ' AGNI MUKHA BRAHMA SHIRAHA PRAANO  APAANO VYANO UDANAHA SAMANAHA SATHPRANAHA SWETHAVARNAHA SANKHYAYANASA GOTHRA' FURTHER CONTINUTING THE THAPA IN PRANAYAMA THAT LIGHT WILL  TRAVEL THROUGH MANIPURA ANAHATHA VISHUDDHI AND AJNA CHAKRA WHEREIN  ONE WILL HAVE DARSHANA OF PARAMATMA. THIS IS GOD REALISATION.  ONE WILL HAVE ALL THE BENEFIT OF THE GREAT CREATOR/PARAMATMA HIMSELF HE WILL HAVE ICHHA MARANA AND  MOKSHA HE WILL NOT REBORN. THIS IS TERMED  AS TAMASOMA JYOTHIRGAMAYA AND THEN MRUTYURMA AMRUTANGAMAYA. THIS  IS THE BENEFIT OF PRESERVING ONE SEMEN AND UTILISING THE SAME TO ASCEND TO YOUR ORIGIN IE godhood/PARAMATMA.THIS KNOWLEDGE IS CALLED naarashamsha shaastra which was lost somewhere 20 thousand years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10086" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T14:31:21.673" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T14:31:21.673" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18855" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18748" CreationDate="2017-06-12T07:19:59.623" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman's ultimate weapon is Ramnam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यत्र यत्र रघुनाथकीर्तनं तत्र तत्र कृतमस्तकांजलिम् &lt;br&gt;&#xA;वाष्पवारिपरिपूर्णालोचनं मारुतिं नमत राक्षसान्तकम्&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wherever the Glories of Raghunatha are Sung, there, with Hands held over His Bowed Head in Salutation, and Eyes Filled with&#xA;Tears, Maruti (Hanuman) is Present; I Salute Maruti Who puts an&#xA;End to the Rakshasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T07:19:59.623" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18856" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17644" CreationDate="2017-06-12T08:19:06.760" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Shiva Sankalpa Sukta is also a Khila Sukta of RigVeda. In the archive site we can find it in the book &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800808.us.archive.org/3/items/RgVedaWithSayanasCommentaryPart4/rv_sayanabhasya_part4.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig-Veda Sayana Commentary Part 4&lt;/a&gt; in the Khilani section where Khila Suktas of RigVeda are given. Shiva Sankalpa Sukta is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;येनेदं भूतं भुवनं भविष्यत् परिगृहिततममृतेन सर्वम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येन यज्ञस्तायते सप्त होता तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 1&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येन कर्माण्यपसो मनीषिणो यज्ञे कृण्वन्ति विदथेषु धीराः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यदपूर्वं यक्षमन्तः प्रजानां तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 2&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यत्प्रज्ञानमुत चेतो धृतिश्च यज्ज्योतिरन्तरमृतं प्रजासु ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यस्मान्न ऋते किं चन कर्म क्रियते तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 3&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यज्जाग्रतो दूरमुदैति दैवं तदु सुप्तस्य तथैवैति।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दूरंगमं ज्योतिषां ज्योतिरेकं तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 4&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यस्मिन्नृचः साम यजूंषि यस्मिन् प्रतिष्ठिता रथनाभाविवाराः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यस्मिश्चित्तं सर्वमोतं प्रजानां तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 5&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुसारथिरश्वानिव यन्मनुष्यान्नेनीयतेऽभीशुभिर्वाजिन इव ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हृत्प्रतिष्ठं यदजिरं जविष्ठं तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 6&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यदत्र षष्ठं त्रिशतं शरीरं यज्ञस्य गुह्यं नवनाभमाद्यम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दश पञ्च त्रिशतं यत्परं च तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 7&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  य पञ्चपञ्चा दशतं शतं च सहस्रं च नियुतं न्यर्बुदं च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ते यज्ञचित्तेष्टकात्तं शरीरं तन्मे मनः शिव संकल्पमस्तु ।। 8&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वेदाहमेतं पुरुषं महान्तमादित्यवर्णं तमस परस्तात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्ये योनि परिपश्यन्ति धीरास्तन्मे मनः शिव संकल्पमस्तु ।। 9&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येन कर्माणि प्रचरन्ति धीरा विप्रा वाचा मनसा कर्मणा च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यस्यान्वितमनु सं यन्ति प्राणिनस्तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 10&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ये मनो हृदयं ये च देवा ये अन्तरीक्षे बहुदा चरन्ति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ये श्रोत्रं चक्षुषी संचरन्ति तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 11&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येन द्यौरुग्रा पृथिवी चान्तरिक्षं ये पर्वताः प्रदिशो दिशश्च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येनेदं जगद्व्याप्तं प्रजानां तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 12&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येनेदं सर्वं जगतो बभूवुर्ये देवा अपि महतो जातवेदाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदिवाग्निस्तपसो ज्योतिरेकं तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 13&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अचिन्तयं चाप्रमेयं च व्यक्ताव्यक्तपरः च यत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सूक्ष्मात्सूक्ष्मतरं ज्ञानं तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 14&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अस्ति विनाशथित्वा सर्वमिदं नास्ति पुनस्तथैव द्दृष्टं ध्रुवम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अस्ति नास्ति हितं मध्यमं पदं तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 15&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अस्ति नास्ति विपरीतो प्रवादोऽस्ति नास्ति सर्वं वा इदं गुह्यम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अस्ति नास्ति परात्परो यत्परं तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 16&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परात्परतरं यश्च तत्पराश्चैव यत्परम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्परात्परतोऽज्ञेयं तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 17&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परात्परतरो ब्रह्मा तत्परात्परतो हरिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्परात्परतो ईश तन्मे मन शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 18&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गोभिर्जुष्टो धनेन ह्यायुषा च बलेन च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रजया पशुभिः पुष्कलाद्यं तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 19&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रयतः प्रणवो नित्यं परमं पुरुषोत्तमम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ओंकारं परमात्मानं तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 20&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यो वै वेदादिषु गायत्री सर्वव्यापिमहेश्वरात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तद्विरुक्तं यथाद्वैश्यं तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 21&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यो वै वेद महादेवं परमं पुरुषोत्तमम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यः सर्व यस्य चित्सर्व तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 22&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  योऽसौ सर्वेषु वेदेषु पठते ह्यज ईश्वरः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अकायो निर्गुणोऽध्यात्मा तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 23&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कैलासशिखरे रम्ये शंकरस्य शुभे गृहे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवतास्तत्र मोदन्ति तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 24&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कैलासशिखराभासा हिमवद्गिरिसंस्थिताः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नीलकण्ठं त्रिनेत्रं च तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 25&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आब्रह्मस्तम्बपर्यन्तं त्रैलोक्य स चराचरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उत्पातितं जगद्व्याप्तं तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु।। 26&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  य इमं शिवसंकल्पं सदा ध्यायन्ति ब्राह्मणाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ते परं मोक्षं गमिष्यन्ति तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 27&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the quotations of Shiva Sankalpa Khila Sukta; Srikantha Shivacharya has quoted it in his Brahma Sutra Bhasya 4.3.18. The verse which he has quoted is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परात्परतरो ब्रह्मा तत्परात्परतो हरिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्परात्परतो ईश तन्मे मन शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 18&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Greater than the great is Brahma, greater still than that great one is Hari, even greater than this one is Isha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in the footnote of the same book it is written Medhatithi (commentator on Manu Smriti) has written as &amp;apos;खिलादि श्रीसुक्तशिवसंकल्पादिनी श्राद्धे ब्राह्मणान् श्रवयेत्&amp;apos; or &amp;apos;Brahmana should listen to Khila Suktas like Sri Sukta and Shiva Sankalpa Sukta with faith.&amp;apos; while commenting on Manu 3.232. Similarly Manu Smriti also in 11.251 states &amp;apos;शिवसंकल्प पापहरमिती...&amp;apos; &amp;apos;(chanting) Shiva Sankalpa destroys (this) sin.&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Regarding the references in Puranas Agni Purana in chapter 259 while stating about benefits of Rig-Veda mantras also state about Shiva Sankalpa Sukta as &amp;apos;yenedamiti&amp;apos; hymn. Linga Purana also state Parashar worshipping Shiva using Shiva Sankalpa Sukta &amp;apos;...जप्त्वा त्वरितरुद्रं च शिवसंकल्पमेव च...।।&amp;apos; /&amp;apos;...he worshipped chanting Tvarita Rudra as well as Shiva Sankalpa...&amp;apos; which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12185/which-mantras-should-be-recited-to-properly-worship-lord-rudra/16878#16878&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I also discuss some quotes of Shiva Sankalpa Sukta in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18838/is-lord-shiva-clearly-noted-as-prathama-purusha-in-any-veda/18842#18842&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt; Similarly regarding the quote which I mentioned in question it is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कैलासशिखरे रम्ये शंकरस्य शुभे गृहे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवतास्तत्र मोदन्ति तन्मे मनः शिवसंकल्पमस्तु ।। 24&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;In the summit of Kailash is the beautiful home of Shankara. Gods rejoice in that, May my mind be filled with Shiva thoughts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T08:19:06.760" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18857" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-12T08:26:44.147" Score="16" ViewCount="520" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;logical&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; arguments do our scriptures advance to show that Atma is not something material like the body?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How do the six astika schools of Hindu Philosophy(Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika and Vedanta) deal with this question?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do the different vedantic philosophies like VisistAdvaita, Dvaita and Advaita, etc,. share the same stance on this issue? In what ways do they differ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: I want the core philosophical view only for 2) &amp;amp; 3) i.e couple of statements or brief information only needed for each, no need to elaborate descriptively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-31T09:45:59.557" LastActivityDate="2018-07-11T16:03:03.483" Title="Is Atma the same as the body?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|atma|body|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18858" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18879" CreationDate="2017-06-12T09:55:52.223" Score="6" ViewCount="2616" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading what ISKCON has to say over the authenticity of the Devi Bhagavatam, I found some people saying that the controversial Purana saying that Lakshmi and Saraswati to be the daughters of Maa Durga when other scriptures say that Saraswati is the daughter of Brahma and Lakshmi the daughter of Bhrigu and Khyati. So is this true that the Devi Bhagavatam says that Lakshmi and Saraswati of being the daughters of Parvati?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The link where I found this bizarre claim is here:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iskcondesiretree.com/forum/topics/devi-bhagwatam-or-devi-purana-controversy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.iskcondesiretree.com/forum/topics/devi-bhagwatam-or-devi-purana-controversy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2021-03-24T10:26:10.800" Title="Does the Devi Bhagavatam say that Lakshmi and Saraswati are daughters of Parvati?" Tags="|lakshmi|durga|parvati|saraswati|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18859" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18858" CreationDate="2017-06-12T10:56:38.773" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vijnanananda in his &lt;em&gt;Foreword&lt;/em&gt; to his translation to the &lt;em&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/em&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What the Srimad Bhagavat is to the Vaisnavas, the Devi Bhagavatam is to the Saktas. The question of the priority of the two Bhagavatas has been often discussed more in the spirit of partisians rather than that of sober scholars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The subject of The coming in this world of Laksmi, Ganga, and Sarasvati is covered in the 9th book, Chapter 6. The birth of Laksmi is in the 9th book, Chapter 40. You might want to read the first part of book 9 to get a better feeling for the cited chapters. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find Swami Vijnanananda's translation here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/index.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think you will find that there is some distortion in the website you cited.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T10:56:38.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18861" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18579" CreationDate="2017-06-12T12:16:35.167" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a lot of fancy and myth surrounding mahavatar or Kriya baba. This became very famous from some of the books of Yogananda Paramahamsa and other monks. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, Lahiri Mahashaya did not refer to his guru as &quot;mahavatar&quot; in his books. Further, there are 5-6 different people in recent times who claimed to have an encounter with kriya baba. Most likely it was either not true or they might have mistaken someone else as kriya baba. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Famous Yogi from bengal from the dual lineage of Lahiri mahashay who recently passed away had clarified this issues in this books. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;if Lahiri Baba was all-pervasive, then what about his guru Mahavatar Babaji? Chatterjee dismisses Mahavtar Babaji completely. His logic is: when Lahiri Mahasaya said that he himself is God can there be anybody above him? “&lt;strong&gt;Nobody has seen Mahavtar Babaji. He was Lahiri Mahasaya’s guru&lt;/strong&gt;. Mahavtar Babaji is &lt;strong&gt;none other than Lahiri Mahasaya&lt;/strong&gt;. It’s a tradition in India that a disciple has to be initiated by a guru. Hence, in keeping with the tradition, Lahiri Mahasaya caused Babaji to &lt;strong&gt;appear from within him&lt;/strong&gt; and then took diksha, initiation, from him,” says Chatterjee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Chatterjee, the name Mahavatar is given by the Americans to Lahiri Mahasaya’s guru; Babaji Maharaj is the name Lahiri Mahasaya gave to his guru. Babaji Maharaj came and gave diksha and went away and met Lahiri Mahasaya only a few times after that. “Once Lahiri Mahasaya promised his friends that he can make them meet a genuinely powerful yogi — Babaji Maharaj. In a room, he invoked his guru; Babaji Maharaj appeared and blessed him and his friends. There cannot be a Mahavatar over an avatar,” says &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/article/nobody-has-seen-mahavtar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashoke Kumar Chatterjee&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is to be understood that over time some many people have emerged as self proclaimed gurus in kriya and to attract more following they have created many fancy stories related to babaji. When someone claims that one has directly received initiation from babaji then it is not possible to verify for anybody. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2018-11-20T00:54:30.443" LastActivityDate="2018-11-20T00:54:30.443" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18862" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18864" CreationDate="2017-06-12T12:50:54.047" Score="6" ViewCount="729" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripura_(mythology)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tripura&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;-  meaning three cities, were  constructed by the great Asura architect Mayasura. These were united afterwards ,  Maya's cities were destroyed by god Tripurantaka, an aspect of Shiva.&#xA;The above link provides  very interesting but a very short description of those 3 cities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I am interested in a &lt;strong&gt;detail description about these three cities from puranas.&lt;/strong&gt; Like the names , locations , residents and  internal details etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T15:13:46.457" Title="Description of Tripura (Three cities) which were destroyed by Shiva from puranas?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18863" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18862" CreationDate="2017-06-12T13:13:36.433" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The available description of tripura in Srimad Bhagvatam is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स निर्माय पुरस्तिस्रो हैमीरौप्यायसीर्विभुः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दुर्लक्ष्यापायसंयोगा दुर्वितर्क्यपरिच्छदाः ॥ ५४ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/10/54-55&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 7.10.54&lt;/a&gt; — Maya Dānava, the great leader of the demons, prepared three invisible residences and gave them to the demons. These dwellings resembled airplanes made of gold, silver and iron, and they contained uncommon paraphernalia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/canto7/chapter10.html#Text%2054-55&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Alternative translation&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The demon constructed three big and mighty cities made of gold, silver and iron. Possessing the uncommon ability to move [floating] around in formation they were difficult to discern.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;He constructed for them three huge cities, made of gold, silver and iron, that were immensely great and of an uncommon traffic and of peculiar specialties [they were reported to hover as airships over one another in the sky].&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T13:22:41.923" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T13:22:41.923" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18864" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18862" CreationDate="2017-06-12T14:11:53.447" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The three cities (Tripura) are described in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-21/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt;, Yuddha Khanda (Rudra Khanda) of Shiva Mahapurana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mayadanava built three different cities at one place made of gold, silver and iron &amp;amp; steel for Tarakaksha, Kamalaksha and Vajramali respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आज्ञां ददौ मयस्यापि कुरु त्वं नगरत्रयम्। &lt;br&gt; काञ्चनं राजतं चैव अायसं&#xA;चेति भो मय! ॥ ५५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mayadanava was then ordered to build three cities of gold, silver and&#xA;iron. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्यादिश्य मयं ब्रह्मा प्रत्यक्षं प्राविशद्दिवम्। &lt;br&gt; तेषां&#xA;तारकपुत्राणां पश्यतां निजधाम हि॥५६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After thus issuing a command to Mayadanava, in the presence of the&#xA;sons of Taraka, Brahma- the creator, returned to his abode, in full&#xA;view of all of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततो मयश्च तपसा चक्रेत धीरः पुराण्यथ। &lt;br&gt; काञ्चनं तारकाक्षस्य&#xA;कमलाक्षस्य राजतम्॥५७॥ &lt;br&gt; विद्युन्माल्यायसं चैव त्रिविधं&#xA;दुर्गमुत्तमम्। &lt;br&gt; स्वर्गे व्योम्नि च भूमौ च क्रमाज्ज्ञेयानि तानि वै॥&#xA;५८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Maya who was filled with wisdom, making all the efforts,&#xA;made the city of gold for Tarakaksa, a silver city for Kamalaksa and a&#xA;city of iron, for Vidyunmall, together with three forts, which were&#xA;located with heaven, the sky and the earth.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दत्त्वा तेभ्योऽसुरेभ्यश्च पुराणि त्रीणि वै मयः। &lt;br&gt;प्रविवेश स्वयं&#xA;तत्र हितकामपरायणः॥ ५९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bestowing the three cities to the Danavas, keeping in view their&#xA;welfare, he himself also started living there.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एवं पुरत्रयं प्राप्य प्रविष्टास्तारकात्मजाः। &lt;br&gt;बुभुजुः सकलान्भोगान्&#xA;महाबलपराक्रमाः॥ ६०॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After getting the possession of the three cities, the sons of Taraka,&#xA;entered therein. The immensely valorous Danavas, started enjoying all&#xA;the comforts there.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They had  citadels, Rivers, kalpavriksha trees ,places for worship of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कल्पद्रुमैश्च सङ्कीर्ण गजवाजिसमाकुलम्। &lt;br&gt;नानाप्रासादसङ्कीर्णं&#xA;मणिजालसमावृतम्॥ ६१॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Numerous kalpavriksas were growing in those cities, besides numerous&#xA;horses and the elephants. There were several places, with gem-studded&#xA;windows. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूर्यमण्डलसङ्काशैर्विमानैः सर्वतोमुखैः। &lt;br&gt; पद्मरागमयैश्चैव शोभितं&#xA;चन्द्रसन्निभैः॥ ६२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There were several planes in which rubies were fixed in all the four&#xA;sides, and illumined like the sun rays. Some of them resembled the&#xA;moon, which decorated the city. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रासादैर्गोपुरैर्दिव्यैः कैलासशिखरोपमैः।&#xA;&lt;br&gt;दिव्यस्त्रीजनसङ्कीर्णैर्गन्धर्वैः सिद्धचारणैः॥ ६३॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There were the huge royal places. The gates of the cities, resembled&#xA;the peaks of the Kailasa mountain. There were numerous divine damsels,&#xA;besides those of the Gandharvas, siddhas and cdranas.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रुद्रालयैः प्रतिगृहमग्निहोत्रैः प्रतिष्ठितैः।&lt;br&gt; द्विजोत्तमैः&#xA;शास्त्रविज्ञैः शिवभक्तिरतैः सदा।। ६४॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every house had a Siva temple, places for performing the homas, and&#xA;the learned people well-versed in the scriptures, lived there.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वापीकूपतडागैश्च दीर्घिकाभिः सुशोभितम्। &lt;br&gt; उद्यानवनवृक्षैश्च&#xA;स्वर्गच्युतगुणोत्तमैः।। ६५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There were enough of step-wells, wells, tanks, both big and small,&#xA;besides the divine orchards with charming trees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नदीनदसरिन्मुख्यपुष्करै: शोभितं सदा।&#xA;&lt;br&gt;सर्वकामफलाद्यैश्चानेकैर्वृक्षैर्मनोहरम्॥ ६६॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the rivers, rivulets and canals were filled with water. The place&#xA;was quite delightful with the trees which yielded useful fruits.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मत्तमातङ्गयूथैश्च तुरङ्गैश्च सुशोभनैः।&lt;br&gt; रथैश्च विविधाकारैः&#xA;शिबिकाभिरलङ्कृतम्॥ ६७॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The place had the herds of elephants, horses, chariots and palanquins&#xA;of different types.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People there even studied Vedas, women were chaste and highly devoted to Lord Shiva. This is also the reason why Lord Shiva was reluctant to destroy three cities initially.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;समयाध्युषितैधैव क्रीडास्थानैः पृथक्पृथक्रा वेदाध्ययनशीलाभिर्विविधाभिः&#xA;पृथक् पृथक्॥ ६८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the evening time, besides the play grounds, the separate rooms&#xA;were made for the study of the Vedas.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अदृष्टमनसा वाचा पापान्वितनरै: सदा।&lt;br&gt; महात्मभिः शुभाचारैः पुण्यवद्भिः&#xA;प्रवीक्ष्यते॥६९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No sinful persons, could be found there who spoke evil words by speech&#xA;or the mind. Everywhere only the noble people with good conduct could&#xA;be seen. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पतिव्रताभिः सर्वत्र पावितं स्थलमुत्तमम्। &lt;br&gt;पतिसेवनशीलाभिर्विमुखाभिः&#xA;कुधर्मतः॥७०॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The houses of the city were adored with the chaste women who were&#xA;devoted to their husbands and served them well, and were averse to&#xA;evil ways.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दैत्यशूरैर्महाभागैः सदारैः ससुतैर्द्विजैः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;श्रौतस्मार्तार्थतत्त्वज्ञैः स्वधर्मनिरतैर्युतम्॥७१॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The immensely fortunate, daitya-warrior lived with their sons and&#xA;wives, besides the Brahmana, who were well-versed in the Smarta&#xA;doctrine and were devoted to their dharma.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;व्यूढोरस्कैवृषस्कन्धै: सामयुद्धधरै: सदा। &lt;br&gt;प्रशान्तैः कुपितैश्चैव&#xA;कुब्जैर्वामनकैस्तथा॥७२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There were enough of dwarfs, having broad chests, high shoulders,&#xA;well-versed in peace and war, who could get enraged at the appropriate&#xA;time only and found everywhere.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नीलोत्पलदलप्रख्यैर्नलकुख्रितमूद्धजै:। &lt;br&gt;मयेन रक्षितैः सर्वैः&#xA;शिक्षितैर्युद्धलालसैः॥७३॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mayadanava, had kept on duty the warriors there, who had the&#xA;complexion like the blue lotus flowers, having the curly hair&#xA;resembling the black wasps and who were always anxious to fight.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is mythological description or mythological story of Tripura Dahana. But three cities or Tripura have deeper metaphorical meanings. Three cities can be interpreted as &lt;em&gt;three states of wakefulness, dream and profound sleep&lt;/em&gt; and destruction of cities is destruction of these states and dissolving into Lord, as stated in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/kaivalya.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaivalya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; (translated by Swami Madhavananda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स एव मायापरिमोहितात्मा शरीरमास्थाय करोति सर्वम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्त्र्यन्नपानादिविचित्रभोगैः स एव जाग्रत्परितृप्तिमेति ॥ १२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12.With his self thus deluded by Maya or ignorance, it is he who identifies himself with the body and does all sorts of things. In the&#xA;waking state it is he (the Jiva) who attains satisfaction through the&#xA;varied objects of enjoyment, such as women, food, drink, etc. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्वप्ने स जीवः सुखदुःखभोक्ता स्वमायया कल्पितजीवलोके । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;सुषुप्तिकाले सकले विलीने तमोऽभिभूतः सुखरूपमेति ॥ १३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;13.In the dream-state that Jiva feels pleasure and pain in a sphere of existence created by his own Maya or ignorance. During the state of&#xA;profound sleep, when everything is dissolved (into their causal&#xA;state), he is overpowered by Tams or non-manifestation and comes to&#xA;exist in his form of Bliss. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुनश्च जन्मान्तरकर्मयोगात्स एव जीवः स्वपिति प्रबुद्धः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;पुरत्रये&lt;/strong&gt; क्रीडति यश्च जीवस्ततस्तु जातं सकलं विचित्रम् । &lt;br&gt; आधारमानन्दमखण्डबोधं यस्मिँल्लयं &lt;strong&gt;याति पुरत्रयं&lt;/strong&gt; च ॥ १४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;14.Again, through his connection with deeds done in previous births, that very Jiva returns to the dream-state, or the waking state. The&#xA;being who sports in the &lt;strong&gt;three cities (viz., the states of&#xA;wakefulness, dream and profound sleep)&lt;/strong&gt; – from Him has sprung up all&#xA;diversity. He is the substratum, the bliss, the indivisible&#xA;Consciousness, in whom the &lt;strong&gt;three cities dissolve themselves&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T15:13:46.457" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18865" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-12T15:05:33.597" Score="9" ViewCount="15998" Body="&lt;p&gt;Patala-Loka, as we know, is home to Asuras (Daityas) &amp;amp; Nagas. However, where is Patala-Loka actually located? Many say that Patala-Loka is situated under the Earth's crust while others say it is not on Earth referring to the story of Hiranyaksha and Varaha where it is said that Hiranyaksha took the Earth in Patala-Loka. However, there is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asur_people&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Asuri&lt;/a&gt; tribe that is mainly found in Jharkhand, India; which claims to be the descendants of the Asuras. Where is the exact location of Patala-Loka? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-08T07:17:37.860" LastActivityDate="2018-11-08T07:17:37.860" Title="Where is the exact location of Patala-Loka?" Tags="|asuras|lokas|earth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18866" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18869" CreationDate="2017-06-12T15:24:53.063" Score="16" ViewCount="38429" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yogis claim that of all the energies that are in the human body&#xA;  the highest is what they call &quot;Ojas&quot;. Now this Ojas is stored up in&#xA;  the brain, and the more Ojas is in a man's head, the more powerful he&#xA;  is, the more intellectual, the more spiritually strong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do one improve his ojas capacity ? How can one  measure his existing ojas level ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10063" LastActivityDate="2023-08-04T06:15:13.857" Title="How to increase one's ojas capacity ?" Tags="|yoga|spirituality|yoga-sutras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18867" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18866" CreationDate="2017-06-12T15:40:02.803" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;The body has three subtle important elements viz ojas, tejas, and prana. Ojas is believed to be the last essence of semen. It is related to vigor and vitality. Ayurveda gives special importance to these three factors. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ojas is the super-fine essence of kapha dosha associated with lunar cycles; it is therefore connected to regeneration. The qualities of ojas and kapha dosha are similar: liquid, sweet, and unctuous. Together they provide great support for the immune system and the reserves of life force.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ojas can be increased by the combination of balanced diet, herbs, proper lifestyle, and yoga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While building ojas it is also essential to avoid stress and other related factors. One should also focus on cleaning the system with processes like pancha-karma and then rejuvenating the body with rasayana and tonics. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;list of things that use up, diminish and deplete &lt;a href=&quot;http://baliayurveda.com/ojas-plus-10-potent-ways-increase/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ojas&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Stress, anxiety, fear, worry, sorrow, and grief&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lack of sleep&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Strong, bright, overpowering experiences and sensations&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excessive computer / television use&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Loss of vital fluids (especially blood and semen)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excessive sexual activity (for both sexes)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Use of drugs and stimulants (medical and recreational)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excess, pretended and repressed emotions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fasting&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lack of deep sleep, disturbed sleep&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devitalized food&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dwelling in unnatural environments&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Overworking&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excessive exercising&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excess and/or incorrect meditation/breathing practices&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Injuries&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.banyanbotanicals.com/info/blog-the-banyan-insight/details/cultivating-juiciness-with-ayurveda&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Increasing&lt;/a&gt; ojas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Honoring solar-lunar rhythms in one’s practice&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lunar and Sringara Rasa (visualizing the communion of opposite poles of the body) yoga and daily mantra, pranayama, mudra, and meditation&#xA;Nourishing the Heart Fire with love, sukha (intrinsic happiness), and santosha (contentment) in your life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cultivating aesthetics, beauty, the arts, peaceful rhythm, and enjoyment of the art of living&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Steadily following nourishing rhythms of dinacharya (daily routine) and rtucharya (seasonal routine)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nutrition with organic cooked (for digestion), vegetarian food, not overly spiced&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Organic dairy or nut milks if vegan (almond, cashew), ghee, fresh butter, small amounts of cream&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fresh nuts, honey, dates&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whole grains and rice&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fresh, sweet fruits and vegetables&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Balancing sexual energy in accordance with the seasons and one’s constitution&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayurvedic herbs and rasayanas—tonic drinks and jams like Chayvanprash&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Making rasayanas with the guidance of an Ayurvedic counselor of herbs, including &lt;strong&gt;Ashwagandha&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Brahmi&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Kumari&lt;/strong&gt; (Aloe), &lt;strong&gt;Shankhapushpi&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Shatavari&lt;/strong&gt;, Shilajit, and Licorice&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Practicing various hatha yogic disciplines. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T15:40:02.803" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18869" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18866" CreationDate="2017-06-12T15:53:42.293" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;One can improve Ojas Shakti by transforming &lt;em&gt;Veerya&lt;/em&gt; (semen) to Ojas by Spiritual Sadhana. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sivananda_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Swami Sivanda&lt;/a&gt; wrote many articles and books on this topic. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sivananda says the following in his article on &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1214&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Practice of Brahmacharya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Yogic science, semen (Suklam or Sukram) exists in a&#xA;  subtle form throughout the whole body. It is withdrawn and elaborated&#xA;  into a gross form in the sex organ under the influence of the sexual&#xA;  will and excitement. To be an Oordhvareta is not merely to prevent the&#xA;  emission of gross semen already formed, but to prevent its formation&#xA;  as gross seed and absorb it into the general system. The body of a man&#xA;  who is a true Oordhvareta has the scent of the lotus. A chaste man in&#xA;  whom the gross semen is formed, may, on the other hand, have the odour&#xA;  of a goat. The semen dries up in those who practise Pranayama&#xA;  seriously. The semen energy ascends up to the brain. It is stored up&#xA;  as Ojas Sakti (spiritual energy) and comes back as Amrita or nectar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the sexual energy is transmuted into Ojas or spiritual energy by&#xA;  pure thoughts, it is called sex-sublimation in Western psychology.&#xA;  Just as metals and chemicals are purified by heating, so also the&#xA;  sexual energy is purified and changed into divine energy by spiritual&#xA;  Sadhana, by entertaining sublime, soul-elevating thoughts of the Self&#xA;  or Atman. In Yoga he is called an Oordhvareta in whom the seminal&#xA;  energy has flown upwards into the brain as Ojas Shakti. There is no&#xA;  possibility of the semen going downward through sexual excitement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Normal people send semen outside through sex or copulation (downwards) but Yogis convert it Ojas Shakti and transform Sukshma or Subtle energy to brain (Upwards: as in Kundalini Yogi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sivanada also wrote a book on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/brahmacharya.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Practise of Brahmacharya&lt;/a&gt;. He explains various methods and Science behind it in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sexual impulses can, with difficulty, be controlled. A rebellion of&#xA;  the sexual impulses takes place when you attempt to control them.&#xA;  Constant Japa and meditation for a long period are necessary to direct&#xA;  the sex energy into the spiritual channel. Complete sublimation of the&#xA;  sexual energy into Ojas Sakti is necessary. Then only you are&#xA;  perfectly safe. Then only you will be established in Samadhi, as&#xA;  Rasasvad will entirely vanish. Extreme patience, constant vigilance,&#xA;  perseverance and rigorous Sadhana are necessary to eradicate the&#xA;  sexual impulses and attain perfect purity in thought, word and deed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the book for more details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sivananda suggests constant thoughts on Lord, Nama Japa and various other methods, when an aspirant asked the same question, which is mentioned in his book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/may_ianswer.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;May i answer that?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;43&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Would you kindly suggest some effective methods for conversion and sublimation of the sexual energy into spiritual energy or Ojas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Observe strict continence in thought, word and deed. Give up thinking&#xA;  useless and vain thoughts. Keep balance of mind in all conditions and&#xA;  circumstances, contemplating the Divine. Practice Sirshasan,&#xA;  Sarvangasan and Oordhva Padmasan, besides Viparitakarani Mudra.&#xA;  Preserve the energy by constantly repeating the Name of the Lord,&#xA;  doing intense Japa and meditation, and study of the Gita, the&#xA;  Bhagavata, the Ramayana and the like. Develop Viveka, Vairagya and&#xA;  Vichara. As dispassion increases, so is the vital energy not allowed&#xA;  to leak out. The greater the Vairagya (non-attachment to worldly&#xA;  objects) the more secure will be the semen. The more the preservation&#xA;  of semen, the greater will be the transmutation into Ojas which means&#xA;  abundant physical, mental, moral and spiritual strength and quick&#xA;  evolution. Pranayam helps a lot in gaining control over the physical&#xA;  machinery and the mind. To have control over the mind means to have&#xA;  control over the Prana Sakti and prevent Veerya from being let out. To&#xA;  have control over this masculine power means to have abundant Ojas&#xA;  which enables the aspirant to glow spiritually. Intense Sadhana, with&#xA;  the desires reduced to the barest minimum, will sublimate the sexual&#xA;  energy into spiritual energy. For further information, go through my&#xA;  book Practice of Brahmacharya. It gives exhaustive details regarding&#xA;  the subject in question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T17:26:33.807" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T17:26:33.807" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18871" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18748" CreationDate="2017-06-12T17:08:15.600" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like any other vānara, Hanumān's weapon of choice was 'bare hands' for close combat and uprooted trees and rocks for distant combat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's a scene from Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa where Hanumān &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga59/yuddharoman59.htm#Verse56&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;uses&lt;/a&gt; his fist to hit Rāvaṇa in the chest but he was no match for Rāvaṇa's strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;This five-branched right hand of mine&lt;/strong&gt;, which I now raise, will rob you of your life that has long been resident in your body.&quot; [6-59-56]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing the words of Hanuma, the exceedingly valiant Ravana, his eyes inflamed with anger, answered. [6-59-57]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Strike quickly without fear, O Monkey! Win eternal renown. Thereafter, I shall destroy you, after measuring your strength.&quot; [6-59-58]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, Hanuma answered, &quot;O, Ravana! Cursed by that strength since you do still survive!&quot; [6-59-65]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O, foolish fellow! Why this boasting? Now come, strike me once! &lt;strong&gt;My fist is about to dispatch you to the Abode of Yama the Lord of Death!&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; [6-59-66]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing the words of Hanuma, the powerful Ravana, enraged, his eyes red with fury and whirling his fist with force knocked it down violently on Hanuma's chest. [6-59-67/68]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Under the shock, Hanuma reeled once again. Seeing that mighty Hanuma exhausted, Ravana turned his chariot towards Nila. [6-59-69]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another incident from Sundara Kāṇḍa where Hanumān &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga44/sundararoman44.htm#Verse10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;throws&lt;/a&gt; rocks and uprooted trees on Jambumālī:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;cukopa bāṇa abhihato rākṣasasya mahākapiḥ |&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;    &lt;em&gt;tataḥ pārśve ativipulām dadarśa mahatīm śilām || 5-44-10&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;10. mahaakapiH = Hanuma; baaNaabhihataH = struck by the arrows; chukopa = was enraged; raakSasasya = of the demon; tataH = and then; dadarsha = saw; paarshve = by his side; &lt;strong&gt;ativipulaam shilaam = a big rock&lt;/strong&gt;; mahatiim = of a very large measure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuma, struck by those arrows, was enraged with that demon and then saw by his side, a big rock of a very large measure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Uplifting that rock&lt;/strong&gt; with strength, the athletic Hanuma hurled it with force. The enraged demon then struck back that rock with ten arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing that work in vain, the powerful Hanuma of terrific prowess, &lt;strong&gt;uprooted a very large &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorea_robusta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sal tree&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and whirled it around.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing the mighty Hanuma, whirling around the sal tree, the exceedingly strong Jambumali discharged numerous arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A true vānara has no use for things like maces, swords, bow &amp;amp; arrow, etc. Bare hands will do it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T17:08:15.600" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18874" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18579" CreationDate="2017-06-12T18:19:29.880" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Birthdate of Mahavatar Babaji is not known, he is the immortal Siddha who is living since many centuries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9UgCU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9UgCU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Babaji's disciples call him by the name of Sri Guru Babaji, the term &quot;Mahavatar&quot; was coined by Paramahansa Yogananda and due to his autobiography, the name &quot;Mahavatar Babaji&quot; got popular instead of &quot;Sri Guru Babaji&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is well known that Lahiri Mahasaya's guru was Mahavatar Babaji who revived the lost technique of Kriya Yoga which Sri Krishna mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita 5000 years ago:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;apāne juhvati prāṇaṁ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prāṇe ’pānaṁ tathāpare&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prāṇāpāna-gatī ruddhvā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prāṇāyāma-parāyaṇāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;apare niyatāhārāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prāṇān prāṇeṣu juhvati [BG 4.29]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:-&lt;/strong&gt; Still others, who are inclined to the process of breath restraint to remain in trance, practice by offering the movement of the outgoing breath into the incoming, and the incoming breath into the outgoing, and thus at last remain in trance, stopping all breathing. Others, curtailing the eating process, offer the outgoing breath into itself as a sacriﬁce.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Babaji also had a disciple by the name of &quot;Maheshwarnath Babaji&quot; who himself is the guru of Sri M, a yogi who lives in Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh. Sri M has written 2 autobiographies - the first one is &quot;Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master&quot; and the second one is &quot;The Journey Continues&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri M's meetings with Mahavatar Babaji are recorded in both books. In the second book, a lot of information is available about Babaji. Sri M has mentioned about his past births, he was born as a girl 5000 years ago and met Sri Krishna who told him that he will send a great Siddha in his future life. In one of his future birth, Sri M was born in present day Jaisalmer, in that birth Sri M met Babaji for the first time. Jaisal Singh founded Jaisalmer in 1156 AD but Babaji is also known to give initiation to Adi Shankara who lived in the 8th century.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) What is the birthdate of Mahavatar Babaji?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;- No limiting facts about Babaji’s family or birthplace, dear to the annalist’s heart, have ever been discovered - Paramahansa Yogananda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) What is the last account of babaji? I mean when he was last seen?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Babaji has never appeared in public but he is well known in yogic world. It is very much possible that while you are reading this line, someone somewhere is conversing face to face with Babaji. We'll never know as he never comes in public but many people in the past have met him like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Sri Yukteswar Giri, Paramahansa Yogananda and many more people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do babaji still give visit to some?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes. Call him with faith, he might come. Paramahansa Yogananda said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whenever anyone utters with reverence the name of Babaji, that devotee attracts an instant spiritual blessing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T18:19:29.880" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18876" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18806" CreationDate="2017-06-12T20:11:55.790" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;BORI removes Bhagavad Gita from the Mahabharata claiming it to be a later addition.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, it doesn't. Bibek Debroy writes the following in the introduction to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/dp/0143425188&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;his translation&lt;/a&gt; of the BORI critical edition (CE) of the Mahābhārata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are many different versions or recensions of the &#xA;  Mahabharata. However, between 1919 and 1966, the Bhandarkar &#xA;  Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in Pune produced what has &#xA;  come to be known as the critical edition. This is an authenticated &#xA;  text produced by a board of scholars and seeks to eliminate later &#xA;  interpolations, unifying the text across the various regional &#xA;  versions. &lt;strong&gt;This is the text followed in this translation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should also mention that the critical edition's text is not invariably &#xA;  smooth. Sometimes, the transition from one shloka to another is &#xA;  abrupt, because the intervening shloka has been weeded out. &#xA;  With the intervening shloka included, a non-critical version of &#xA;  the text sometimes makes better sense. On a few occasions, I &#xA;  have had the temerity to point this out in the notes which I have &#xA;  included in my translation. On a slightly different note, the &#xA;  quality of the text in something like Dana Dharma Parva is &#xA;  clearly inferior. It couldn't have been 'composed' by the same &#xA;  person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Debroy translation of Mahābhārata does include the Bhagavad-gītā:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Section Sixty-Three&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita Parva&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This parva has 994 shlokas and twenty seven chapters. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 874(14): 13 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 875(15): 75 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 876(16): 46 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 877(17): 39 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 878(18): 18 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 879(19): 44 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 880(20): 20 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 881(21): 17 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 882(22): 22 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 883(23): 47 shlokas&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;code&gt;[BG STARTS HERE]&lt;/code&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 884(24): 72 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 885(25): 43 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 886(26): 42 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 887(27): 29 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 888(28): 47 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 889(29): 30 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 890(30): 28 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 891(31): 34 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 892(32): 42 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 893(33): 55 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 894(34): 20 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 895(35): 34 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 896(36): 27 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 897(37): 20 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 898(38): 24 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  Chapter 899(39): 28 shlokas &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 900(40): 78 shlokas&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;code&gt;[BG ENDS HERE]&lt;/code&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This section is so named because it includes the Song Celestial or the&#xA;  Bhagavad Gita, the teachings of Krishna to Arjuna. The section begins&#xA;  with the dramatic news that Bhishma has been killed. When Sanjaya tells&#xA;  Dhritarashtra this, Dhritarashtra (and the reader) is astounded, wishing&#xA;  to know how this came to be. After a description of the arrangements for&#xA;  war, the rest of this section is the Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While there can be other good arguments like '&lt;em&gt;does Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna really have the time for a 700-verse dialogue standing amidst the battlefield?&lt;/em&gt;', '&lt;em&gt;if they did have this dialogue, what were all the other warriors doing meanwhile?&lt;/em&gt;' etc. for calling Bhagavad-gītā a wrong fit in the Mahābhārata epic, calling it a later interpolation when BORI CE actually includes it isn't a valid argument.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vivekananda too expresses some doubts on the historicity of Gītā in &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/lectures_and_discourses/thoughts_on_the_gita.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this lecture&lt;/a&gt; citing some logical contradictions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;how could there be so much discussion about Jnâna, Bhakti, and Yoga on the battle-field, where the huge army stood in battle array ready to fight, just waiting for the last signal?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And was any shorthand writer present there to note down every word spoken between Krishna and Arjuna, in the din and turmoil of the battle-field?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to some, this Kurukshetra War is only an allegory. When we sum up its esoteric significance, it means the war which is constantly going on within man between the tendencies of good and evil. This meaning, too, may not be irrational.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;About the fourth point, &lt;strong&gt;there is enough ground of doubt as regards the historicity of Arjuna and others&lt;/strong&gt;, and it is this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shatapatha Brâhmana is a very ancient book. In it are mentioned somewhere all the names of those who were the performers of the Ashvamedha Yajna: but in those places there is not only no mention, but no hint even of the names of Arjuna and others, though it speaks of Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit who was a grandson of Arjuna. Yet in the Mahabharata and other books it is stated that Yudhishthira, Arjuna, and others celebrated the Ashvamedha sacrifice.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;P.S. For people who get easily offended by historical research and cannot digest the truth, he offers the following advice:&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Even if the historicity of the whole thing is proved to be absolutely false today, it will not in the least be any loss to us. Then what is the use of so much historical research, you may ask. It has its use, because we have to get at the truth; it will not do for us to remain bound by wrong ideas born of ignorance. &lt;strong&gt;In this country people think very little of the importance of such inquiries.&lt;/strong&gt; Many of the sects believe that in order to preach a good thing which may be beneficial to many, there is no harm in telling an untruth, if that helps such preaching, or in other words, the end justifies the means. Hence we find many of our Tantras beginning with, &quot;Mahâdeva said to Pârvati&quot;. &lt;strong&gt;But our duty should be to convince ourselves of the truth, to believe in truth only.&lt;/strong&gt; Such is the power of superstition, or faith in old traditions without inquiry into its truth, that it keeps men bound hand and foot, so much so, that even Jesus the Christ, Mohammed, and other great men believed in many such superstitions and could not shake them off. &lt;strong&gt;You have to keep your eye always fixed on truth only and shun all superstitions completely.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-06-12T22:24:46.463" LastActivityDate="2017-06-12T22:24:46.463" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18877" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18865" CreationDate="2017-06-12T21:51:56.283" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pataala-Loka&lt;/strong&gt;: The lowest territory of the materialistic universe is called Patala or Nagaloka. Vasuki is the ruler of this Naga region. Here live quite a lot of Nagas whose hoods are decorated with a jewel and thus enlighten this realm with the lights reflected from the jewels. &lt;strong&gt;Vedic mythology, Pataala-Loka also seems to be very much a real place that has been stylized in various ways- located under the sea, located beneath the earth like so many stories we have&lt;/strong&gt;. So Pataala-Loka may be located on the other side of the earth. &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;when the sun sets in the earth, it rises in Pataala&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; which is a clear indication that it is on the other side of the globe (Somewhere in &lt;strong&gt;South America may be Mexico/Belize&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt; the divine itinerant sage Narada once visited Pataala Loka. Narada expresses Pataala more attractive than Svarga (paradise). Pataala is depicted as overflowing with luxurious jewels, striking orchards and lakes and appealing demon maidens. Charming fragrance all in the air merged with sweet music.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagavat Geeta&lt;/strong&gt; also describes this region as more affluent than the upper regions of the universe, including heaven. Here in the Pataala Loka life is full of joy, riches, and comfort. There are constructions including palaces, temples, houses, yards, and hotels for foreigners embellished with jewels which are made by demon architect Maya. Though there is no sunlight available in Pataala Loka it is always enlightened with the lights reflected from the jewelry worn by the Pataala dwellers. There is no old age, no fret, no malady in Pataala Loka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;, During battle between Rama and Ravana, Mahiravana, the step-brother of Ravana kidnaps Rama and Lakshmana and takes them to Patala Loka through a tunnel, later Hanuman travelled to Pataala Loka through a Tunnel, so exactly below India if we dig a hole(tunnel) of that distance to travel vertically maybe we can go Pataala Loka (South America)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The term Pataal-Lok slowly began to be applied to lands outside India. The Vedas which predate the Puranas hardly mention the Pataala-Loka, but do mention certain foreign tribes like the Nagas. The Puranas which came later, describe the Pataal-Lok in greater detail and make foreign tribes a part of it. Considering the opulence of these foreign lands, these lands could very well be outside India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This image represents one theory as to the location of the various realms of the Pataal-Lok:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fJ4cg.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fJ4cg.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Belize&lt;/code&gt; in Central America is believed to also have been inhabited by descendants of Bali who are said to have come from Belize in Angola. Yucatan territory in Mexico is believed to have taken its name from the Yakshas, who were residents of Pataala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-01-21T02:03:52.597" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18878" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18887" CreationDate="2017-06-13T04:53:45.643" Score="7" ViewCount="10316" Body="&lt;p&gt;First let me tell you who and what I am as a devotee because that might help you to give my answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am devotee of Shree Ram and Lord Hanuman. I am small devotee, not any major one. But as a devotee I want to increase my level in eyes of my Lord so that I can also get moksha.&#xA;To achieve this righ now I am doing fasts (Vrata) of Lord Hanuman since few months and I am willing to continue this fasts until my last breath. Means, as long as I am alive, I will keep doing fasts on Tuesday for Lord Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I am devotee of Shree Ram also (Both are so close to my heart), so I am doing Satya Narayan Fast also on every purnima since months. And this fast of Narayan, also willing to continue till end of my life. Never gonna quit...&#xA;I can't say that I don't have any greed in doing these fasts although I am also human that can go selfish sometimes. But my biggest greed is Moksha. That's why I am doing this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But here I am only for Lord Hanuman right now. So let's come to real question. I heard that Lord Hanuman blesses their true devotee with some sidhies. He is one of the few Lord who gives sidhi/power to their devotee (not completely clear on that point).As per my knowledge, Mata Kali and Lord Hanuman use to give sidhies to thier devotees. So what I want to know is, how one can get any siddhi from Lord Hanuman? Is there any mantra that can help to pleased Lord Hanuman or any other way through which Lord Hanuman will give blessing to their devotee in form of any siddhi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastActivityDate="2018-02-06T11:51:43.253" Title="How someone can get any siddhi from Lord Hanuman?" Tags="|hanuman|siddhi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18879" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18858" CreationDate="2017-06-13T05:22:51.473" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is nothing bizarre or surprising in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/brahmandapurana-3.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; says that Mother Lalita recreates the entire universe and recreates every deities including Lakshmi and Saraswati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;H. At the end of this great fire sacrifice, all of you (the performers&#xA;  of the Yaga) should jump in to the Homa Kunda (fire pit). While doing&#xA;  so, you must possess absolute devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I. Then, Lalita Parameshwari will manifest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;J. She will be seated in a chariot called Chakra Raja Ratha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;K. She will create Parabrahma in the name of Kameshwara and will have&#xA;  Him as Her consort.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;L. This couple will re-create the entire universe, which will turn out&#xA;  to be more beautiful than the previous creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;M. Lalita Parameshwari will bring Manmatha back to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lalita Parameshwari so manifested, created a male form from within&#xA;  Herself. His name was Kameshwara. By her power of will, she created 4&#xA;  different weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A. &lt;strong&gt;From the left eye&lt;/strong&gt;, which was of the nature of Soma (moon) &lt;strong&gt;came&#xA;  Brahmaand Lakshmi Devi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;B. From the right eye, which was of the nature of Soorya (sun) came&#xA;  Vishnu and Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;C. &lt;strong&gt;From the third eye&lt;/strong&gt;, which was of the nature of Agni (fire), &lt;strong&gt;came&#xA;  Rudra and Sarasvati.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-06-13T05:22:51.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18880" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18882" CreationDate="2017-06-13T05:47:38.077" Score="6" ViewCount="413" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2952/8696&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; answer explains the need of worshipping God. The answerer is talking about the impossibility of getting &lt;strong&gt;liberation&lt;/strong&gt; without being a devotee. But Gautam Buddha &amp;amp; Mahavir proved the statement wrong. One crosses the cycle of death &amp;amp; birth using teachings of Gautam Buddha where one neither worship any Deity nor believe in any soul. So -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does worshipping/believing God for sake of liberation is &lt;strong&gt;optional though recommended only&lt;/strong&gt;? Not mandatory?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;code&gt;As You reap what you sow&lt;/code&gt;, there is no possibility that the God will help you to accomplish material things in your life. In fact, success &amp;amp; failures are result of our &lt;strong&gt;Karmas&lt;/strong&gt; only, then&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is no need of worshipping/believing God for material benefits &lt;strong&gt;at all&lt;/strong&gt;? ( Because Karma is taking care about the material possessions. )&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-06-13T17:30:00.260" LastActivityDate="2017-06-13T17:30:00.260" Title="Is there any no need of worshipping/ believing God for material benefits? &amp; For liberation, is recommended but optional?" Tags="|gods|philosophy|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18882" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18880" CreationDate="2017-06-13T06:35:29.713" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why are you unnecessarily complicating things up? :D&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its well known that by worshiping Gods we can get both Bhukti (worldly pleasures) and Mukti (liberation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, here is how Lord Shiva describes the greatness of Sri Vidya sadhana in &lt;strong&gt;JyAnarnava Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaktra Kotisahasraisthu Jihvakotisatairapi| Varnitum Naiva Shakyem&#xA;  SriVidya Shodashakshari || Vaikhari VAchyabhAvatvAdasagunavarnane | Yato&gt; Niraksharam Vasatu PArA Tatraiva KAranam || MukibhutA Hi Pasyanthi Madyama Madhyama Bhaveth| &lt;strong&gt;BrahmavidyAswarupA Hi BhuktimuktiphalapradA&lt;/strong&gt;|| Ekoccharena Deveshi &lt;strong&gt;VAjapeyasya Kotayah|  AswamedhasahsrAni&lt;/strong&gt; PrAdakshinam BhuvastathA|| KAshyAditirthayatrAh Syuh SArdhakotitrayanmitAHA|| Tulyam Na YAnthi Devesi NAtra KAryA Vicharana| &lt;strong&gt;Ekoccharena Kim Purnabrahma Kevalam&lt;/strong&gt;|| ShodasArna  MahAvidyA Na PrakAshyA KadAchana | GopaniyA TwayA Bhadre Swayoniriva PArvati||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva says to Devi Parvati] The greatness of the Shodashi&#xA;  mahavidya can not be described even if one has thousand crores of&#xA;  mouths and hundred cores of tongues. If the mantra is uttered only&#xA;  once one gets the results of performing crores of vAjapeya yajnas and&#xA;  thousands of aswamedha yajnas. &lt;strong&gt;This vidya is brahmavidya and is the&#xA;  giver of both worldly pleasures and liberation&lt;/strong&gt;..... Never ever&#xA;  disclose this vidya , it should always be kept secret like your yoni..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even &lt;strong&gt;Yogini Tantram&lt;/strong&gt; says the same about the same vidya or sadhana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BhuktimuktipradA VidyA Anthe Kaivalya DAyini ..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This vidya is the giver of both spiritual and material benefits and in&#xA;  the end is a giver of kaivalya or moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.........................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Also, As You reap what you sow, there is no possibility that the God&#xA;  will help you to accomplish material things in your life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no contradictions here. If you worship God then you are making him happy and if he is happy everyone is happy. So, if you are worshiping God even for your own benefits you are indirectly adding to every being's happiness by doing so. So, this act is an act which results in universal welfare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, see what Lord Sadashiva says to Sri Adya in Mahanirvana Tantram's 4th chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Twam Sarvaswarupini Devi SarveshAm Janani ParA| &lt;strong&gt;TushtayAm Tvayi&#xA;  Deveshi Sarvesham Toshanam Bhaveth ||&lt;/strong&gt; (verse 24).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......... &lt;strong&gt;When you are happy everyone is happy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, even if you are worshiping God with selfish motives you are indirectly adding to the well being of every creatures in this universe and you are also helping in the proper functioning of the universe. So, you are bound to get both material and spiritual benefits out of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Does worshipping/believing God for sake of liberation is optional&#xA;  though recommended only? Not mandatory?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Liberation is achieved only when we realise the self. This has been mentioned in the Vedas as well as in the Agamas. And, there is no other way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, there are paths ( like Yoga for example) where worshiping Gods is not required in its usual way but still some sort of internal worship and involvement of mantras are there. And Yoga is one of the valid paths to liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, IMO the answer is-  no its not compulsory. (NOTe : I will support this point with scriptural quotes later, for the time being consider this answer as a partial one.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-13T16:11:44.563" LastActivityDate="2017-06-13T16:11:44.563" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18883" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-13T07:26:44.103" Score="2" ViewCount="920" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it written anywhere in Ramayana that Ravana failed to defeat Nivatakavacha and Kalakeyas? If it is true then can you give me link of that section?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10100" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T06:11:50.380" LastActivityDate="2018-12-25T12:59:12.557" Title="Is it written anywhere in Ramayana that Ravana failed to defeat Nivatakavacha and Kalakeyas?" Tags="|ramayana|ravana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18884" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18886" CreationDate="2017-06-13T07:32:27.820" Score="7" ViewCount="446" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Agni in Agni Purana chapter 296 tells about Five Mantras used in worship of Lord Rudra. The chapter is itself named as &amp;apos;The Five Constituents of the worship of Rudra.&amp;apos;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fire God Said:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  1-2 I shall describe the five constituents of the worship of Rudra. It is the most excellent that confers everything. The &lt;strong&gt;ShivaSankalpa&lt;/strong&gt; is the heart. The &lt;strong&gt;Purusha Sukta&lt;/strong&gt; is the head. The hymn &lt;strong&gt;Adbhyah Sambhuta&lt;/strong&gt; is the tuft. The hymn (called) &lt;strong&gt;Aashu&lt;/strong&gt; is the armour. The &lt;strong&gt;SataRudriya&lt;/strong&gt; is the weapon. These are the five constituents in the worship of Rudra. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3-4a. After having assigned the five constituents and contemplating Him, the. Rudra hymns are repeated in order. The hymn (beginning with) yajjagrata is known to be repeated mentally The sage (of that hymn) is ShivaSankalpa and the metre is said to be Tristubh.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  4b-5a. (For the hymn) sahasrasirsha for the head the sage is Narayana. The deity (of this hymn) is the Supreme Soul. The metre is known as Tristubh.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  5b-6. The sage for the hymn &amp;apos;adbhyah sambhuta&amp;apos; is the person going to the north. Tristubh is the metre for the first three hymns, anustubh for the next two and tristubh for the last hymn. The deity for this hymn is also Supreme Soul.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  7-8 &lt;strong&gt;Indra is the Lord of the 12 Hymns beginning with āśu. Tristubh is said to be the metre and Pratiratha, the sage. The deities are seperate for each one of the verses in the hymn of seventeen verses. The deity of the constituent part is Puruvit. The metre of the remaining deities is said to be anustubh.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the Hymns described there are recognisable. For example, Shiva Sankalpa is the hymn of YajurVeda and RigVeda as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17644/is-shiva-sankalpa-suktam-also-a-khila-sukta-of-rigveda/18856#18856&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purush Sukta&lt;/a&gt; is hymn from RigVeda 10.90. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/stotra/Sri%20Rudram%20Anuvakam1.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SataRudriya&lt;/a&gt; or Sri Rudram is the Hymn from YajurVeda. The footnote given there states the hymn &amp;apos;adbhyah sambhuta&amp;apos;&amp;nbsp; is from Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda 3.13.1.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;But where is the hymn called &amp;apos;Aashu (आशु)&amp;apos; found?&lt;/strong&gt; As all the other 4 hymns described are Vedic so it is likely that this hymn is also from Vedas. The description of sages and metres and other information of this hymn is given itself in the Purana passage quoted above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-06-13T09:58:01.750" Title="What are the Twelve Hymns beginning with 'Aashu' whose Lord is Indra?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|vedas|indra|agni-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18885" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18748" CreationDate="2017-06-13T07:37:52.617" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we all know, Hanuman belongs to a class of being called Vānara. As &#xA;described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga17/bala_17_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of Balakanda, they are the attackers &#xA;using trees and rocks. Their favorite weapons are nails and claws. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिला प्रहरणाः सर्वे सर्वे &lt;strong&gt;पर्वत योधिनः&lt;/strong&gt; || १-१७-२५ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;नख दन्ष्ट्र आयुधाः&lt;/strong&gt; सर्वे सर्वे सर्व अस्त्र कोविदाः | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All of them are the &lt;strong&gt;assaulters with stones&lt;/strong&gt;, and all are the &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;attackers with trees&lt;/strong&gt;, and all have &lt;strong&gt;their nails and claws as their &#xA;  weapons&lt;/strong&gt;, yet all are experts in missiles. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, expert in the missiles means that they are skillful in warfare and&#xA; weaponry. They know how to face missiles and weapons Yet they chose to &#xA;use nails, claws and rocks in case of war. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ते तार्क्ष्य बल संपन्नाः &lt;strong&gt;सर्वे युद्ध विशारदाः&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विचरन्तोऽर्दयन् सर्वान् सिंह व्याघ्र महोरगान् || १-१७-३४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All of those who are well-versed in warfare&lt;/strong&gt; and endowed with &#xA;  the might of divine eagle Garuda, used to thwart the pride of lions, &#xA;  tigers and great snakes just by their own prideful subjugation while &#xA;  they move about the forests. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the fight between Vāli and Sugriva, it is generally depicted that &#xA;they used their golden maces to attack each other. But &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga16/kishkindha_16_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;they used&lt;/a&gt; &#xA;fists, trees and rocks in their combat. Vāli says these words to his brother Sugriva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एष मुष्टिर् महान् बद्धो गाढः सुनियत अंगुलिः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मया वेग विमुक्तः ते प्राणान् आदाय यास्यति || ४-१६-२०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Properly clenching fingers this great fist of mine&lt;/strong&gt; is firmly clenched, and it will unclench only on taking your lives when I pitch this on you at full speed.&quot; So said Vali threateningly to Sugreeva. [4-16-20]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Sugriva replied:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवम् उक्तः तु सुग्रीवः क्रुद्धो वालिनम् अब्रवीत् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तव च एष हरन् प्राणान् मुष्टिः पततु मूर्धनि || ४-१६-२१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus said, Sugreeva with high dudgeon said, &quot;&lt;strong&gt;this fist of mine shall fall on your forehead plundering your lives&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot; [4-16-21]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वृक्षैः स शाखैः शिखरैः वज्र कोटि निभैः नखैः || ४-१६-२८&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मुष्टिभिः जानुभिः पद्भिः बाहुभिः च पुनः पुनः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तयोः युद्द्धम् अभूत् घोरम् वृत्र वासवोः इव || ४-१६-२९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among those two there happened a deadly fight time and &lt;strong&gt;again &#xA;  using trees with branches, peaks of mountains, their own nails that are &#xA;  similar to the razor-sharp edges of thunderbolts, and with fists, knees,&#xA;   feet, and arms,&lt;/strong&gt; like the fight that once chanced between demon Vritra&#xA;   and Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hanuman's primary choice of weapon:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We don't find specifically a choice of a weapon of Hanuman like sword, maces etc., he uses what he finds instantly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Sundara kanda, when Hanuman fought with Kinkaras, the demon &#xA;soldiers of Ravana, he grabbed an iron rod instantaneously from the &#xA;Ashoka Garden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स तैः परिवृतः शूरैः सर्वतः स महाबलः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आससाद आयसम् भीमम् परिघम् तोरण आश्रितम् || ५-४२-३९&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स तम् परिघम् आदाय जघान रजनी चरान् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स पन्नगम् इव आदाय स्फुरन्तम् विनता सुतः || ५-४२-४० &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विचचार अम्बरे वीरः परिगृह्य च मारुतिः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Surrounded on all sides by those strong demons, that &lt;strong&gt;Hanuma &#xA;  endowed with a great strength seized a huge iron bar belonging to the &#xA;  arched gate&lt;/strong&gt;. Taking that iron rod, Hanuma killed the demons. That &#xA;  violent Hanuma strolled in the sky, &lt;strong&gt;taking that iron rod in his &#xA;  hand&lt;/strong&gt;, as Garuda the eagle would carrying a serpent in its &#xA;  claws.[5-39-40]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;While fighting with Prahasta's son Jambumali, Hanuma uses rocks and &#xA;Sal trees. He kills Jambumali with the same Iron rod with which he killed &#xA;thousands of soldiers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuma, struck by those arrows, was enraged with that demon and &#xA;  then saw by his side, a big rock of a very large measure. [5-44-10]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing that work in vain, the powerful Hanuma of terrific &#xA;  prowess, &lt;strong&gt;uprooted a very large sal tree&lt;/strong&gt; and whirled it &#xA;  around.[5-44-12]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuma, with his body full of arrows, was highly enraged and &#xA;  taking the &lt;strong&gt;same iron rod&lt;/strong&gt; as well as clasping it swiftly, whirled it &#xA;  around.Spinning the iron rod with a great speed, Hanuma, richly endowed &#xA;  with strength and highly agitated, threw it on the broad chest of &#xA;  Jamubumali. [5-44-15,16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this incident, Ravana sends seven sons of his minister Prahasta &#xA;and army to fight with Hanuma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hanuma uses his body to fight with them now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Hanuma, the annihilator of enemies, struck some with his &#xA;  palms, some with his feet and some others with his fists. He tore down &#xA;  some others with his nails.[5-45]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then Hanuman kills Ravana's army generals using various weapons like a&#xA;Sal tree, a mountain top and his body itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Like a mass of lightning on a mountain, Hanuma instantaneously &#xA;  fell on Durdhara's chariot, by jumping up from far above with great &#xA;  speed.Losing his chariot whose axle and pole had been broken and all his&#xA;  eight horses destroyed, Durdhara then dropped down, losing his life, to&#xA;  the ground.  [5-46-25,26]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Approaching a sala tree and uprooting it, that Hanuma the monkey &#xA;  killed those two valiant demons(Virupaksha and Yupaksha).[5-46-30]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having plucked up the &lt;strong&gt;top of a mountain&lt;/strong&gt; with its various &#xA;  animals serpents and trees, the heroic Hanuma the best among monkeys, &#xA;  killed those two demons(Praghasa and Bhasakarna). [5-46-33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;During his battle with Aksha Kumara, son of Ravana, he destroyed Aksha 's chariot using his palms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, the great chariot of Aksha, thus struck by the palm** and subdued by Hanuma the counsellor of Sugreeva, had its interior broken, its carriage pole loosened and its horses dead and fallen from the sky to the ground. [5-47-32]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter, Hanuma with his prowess equal to that of wind, approaching Aksha moving in the sky, which is often frequented by Garuda the eagle, the wind and Siddhas the ascetics endowed with supernatural powers, slowly &lt;strong&gt;grasped his feet firmly&lt;/strong&gt;.[5-47-34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the final battle too, Hanuman used huge rocks, trees, mountain peaks to attack the demons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;During the duel with demon Jambumali(not the son of Prahasta), he destroyed a chariot with bare hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanuman, the son of the wind-god, ascended his chariot and soon overthrew it together with the demon, &lt;strong&gt;with the palm of his hand&lt;/strong&gt;.[6-43-22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;While fighting with the demon Dhumraksha, used trees, rocks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing the army perturbed due to tormented by Dhumraksha, Hanuman was enraged and turned towards him, &lt;strong&gt;taking a gigantic rock in his hands&lt;/strong&gt;. [6-52-27]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter, Hanuman the son of Maruta (the wind-god), after breaking the chariot, destroyed the demons with trunks of trees furnished with their branches.[6-52-30]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Hanuman, who was endowed with an energy similar to the wind, was in no way disturbed by that blow but struck Dhumraksha on the middle of his skull with his rocky peak.[6-52-35]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hanuma and Neela join Angada to fight with Mahodara, Trishiras and Devantaka. Trishira and Devantaka are Ravana's sons. Hanuman kills Devantaka.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, Hanuma the foremost of monkeys, while jumping up, struck on the head of Devantaka rushing upon him with &lt;strong&gt;his fist equal to a thunder-bolt.&lt;/strong&gt;[6-70-24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While that enraged &lt;strong&gt;Hanuma hurled a mountain-peak&lt;/strong&gt;, the strong Trishira broke it into several pieces with his sharp arrows. [6-70-34]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing that mountain-peak becoming useless, Hanuma then hurled a &lt;strong&gt;volley of trees&lt;/strong&gt; towards Trishira in that battle-field.[6-70-35] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above are only some examples of Hanuman's choice of weapons. If we search each and every chapter of YuddhaKanda, we find that he killed many demons using his nails, fists, trees and mountain peaks. Not only Hanuma, other valiant vānaras like Nala, Neela, Angada et cetera had used similar weapons like Hanuma does.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/strong&gt; Hanuma used rocks, trees and his body parts to attack his enemies(demons) in the war making them his primary weapon of choice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How come Hanuman is always depicted with Mace/Gada as primary weapon?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman is widely known for his physical strength. The mace is also the  primary weapon of some strong warriors of Mahabharata like Duryodhaa, Bhima. If we look at the picture, A mace in the hand increases an opinion that the warrior is very strong. So, this is an attempt to depict that Hanuman is a very strong and glorify them. Other famous vānaras like Sugriva and Vāli are also shown holding maces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translators on Valmikiramayan.net also &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga17/bala_17_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;add&lt;/a&gt; in their commentary to the verse 1-17-25,26&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The golden maces or clubs handled by Hanuma, Sugreeva, and Vāli usually depicted in pictures are for more mythical ornamentation to glorify the characters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Numbers in brackets after english translation denote verse number from Valmiki Ramayana. Format - [Kanda-chapter number-verse number]&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-20T09:32:22.377" LastActivityDate="2018-12-20T09:32:22.377" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18886" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18884" CreationDate="2017-06-13T09:16:29.310" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The third chapter of Ashtadhyaayi Rudri of Shukla Yajurveda (Vajasaneyi Samhita, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/wyv/wyvbk17.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 17&lt;/a&gt;) consists of mantras which are 17 in number whose devata is Lord Indra. The meter is in trishtup and anushtup. &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Rb6gi.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Rb6gi.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vaSW2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vaSW2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Pg7AO.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Pg7AO.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ziHyo.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ziHyo.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XaxJq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XaxJq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/s5mDe.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/s5mDe.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MkMbN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MkMbN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KqKIq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KqKIq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its audio can be found &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPlEZDKxhcE&amp;amp;t=1199s&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-06-13T09:58:01.750" LastActivityDate="2017-06-13T09:58:01.750" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18887" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18878" CreationDate="2017-06-13T09:30:08.067" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jai Shree Ram!&lt;/em&gt; This Mantra &lt;strong&gt;&quot;अष्ट-सिद्धि नव निधि के दाता । अस बर दीन जानकी माता।।&lt;/strong&gt;  clearly states that Lord Hanuman have all these 8 Siddhis and he is also able to give these Siddhis to his devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To Answer your question i would like to describe about these Siddhis. There are Ashta (8) Siddhis which are very similar to Supernatural powers. But, It`s really not easy to get these Siddhis by chanting Mantras only! As its extremely rare and very difficult to find such mantra and the saadhna of that Mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These are The eight siddhis: anima (the power to assimilate oneself&#xA;  with an atom); mahima (the power to expand oneself into space);&#xA;  laghima (the power to be as light as cotton or any similar thing);&#xA;  garima (the power to be as heavy as anything); prapti (the power of&#xA;  reaching anywhere, even to the moon); prakamya (the power of having&#xA;  all wishes, of whatever description, realized); isvata (power to&#xA;  create); vasvita (power to command all).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Watch this video which describes all of Ashta Siddhis in Hindi: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAlg9SI-8tg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAlg9SI-8tg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It`s Really Hard! Though, if you truly want to attain any of these siddhis you can try deep Sadhana to attain these Siddhis which are also called as spiritual advancement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It`s Hard to find the exact process or Mantras to get these Ashta Siddhis from Lord Hanuman. Though, there is a Mantra Saadhna from &quot;Shree Hanumat Beesa Yantra&quot;, which only works for devoted Hanuman Bhakts. You can try the below Mantra with the procedure mentioned here in this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prophet666.com/2016/06/hanuman-mantra-to-get-ashta-siddhi-and.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;. This is a kind of Hanuman Mantra Sadhana which brings the Hanuman Bhakt close to  Lord Hanuman and Help to get Ashta Siddhis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mantra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;|| ॐ ह्रां ह्रीं ह्रूं ह्रें ह्रों हँ: श्री हनुमते नमः रं राम भक्त हं&#xA;  हनुमंता सर्व सिद्धि प्रदः सर्व संकटादि नाशकः अं अंजनिपुत्र आंजनेय मम&#xA;  सहाय कुरु कुरु स्वाहा ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Asht Siddhis are also mentioned in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras IV: 1, Patanjali mentions ways to attain these supernatural powers. You can also do the deep sadhna &quot;Bandhas in Yoga&quot; which is a &quot;secret&quot; aspects of Yoga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It can be translated roughly as breathing exercises. After the body&#xA;  has been prepared by thorough practice in the different asanas and&#xA;  clarified by the breathing exercises, the Yogi is ready for the&#xA;  Bandhas. These may not be attained immediately, since they depend on a&#xA;  full state of body and mental relaxation for successful attainment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read all these &quot;Bandhas&quot; here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rwy/rwy09.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rwy/rwy09.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, and beyond the siddhis, comes the grand result of mukti, or emancipation from rebirth, and the conscious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9957" LastActivityDate="2017-06-13T09:30:08.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18888" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18938" CreationDate="2017-06-13T10:24:05.373" Score="6" ViewCount="2897" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sampradaya is one of the 4 major sects of Vaishnavism. The sect is said to have been taught Vishnu worship by Lord Brahma himself and hence the sampradaya named after him. The Brahma Sampradaya has two major divisions:- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.The Madhva sect started by Madhvacharya and &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.The Gaudiya Vaishnava sect started by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now what was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's opinion on Madhvacharya? Is there any verse in the Chaitanya Charitamrita which talks about the Madhvacharya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-03-19T20:46:48.863" LastActivityDate="2019-02-19T14:15:12.430" Title="What was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's opinion on Madhvacharya?" Tags="|vaishnavism|identification-request|chaitanya|gaudiya-vaishnavism|madhvacharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18889" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18888" CreationDate="2017-06-13T11:03:02.797" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;From many sources we come to know that Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya is like a branch of Madhva siddhanta. Hence it is natural that he had high regards for Sri Madhvacharya. Even Prabhupada has glofified Sri Madhwa in many places. In Chaitanya Charitamrita also there are various mentions of Sri Madhva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Udupi, Madhvacharya installed a beautiful Deity of Gopala&#xA;  standing alone holding a cowherding stick. This Deity manifested from&#xA;  within a chunk of gopi-candana (sacred clay). He established eight&#xA;  mathas (Temples) to lovingly serve &quot;Udupi Krishna.&quot; The sannyasi&#xA;  leaders of each matha worship the Krishna Deity with a rigorous&#xA;  regimen of ceremonial ritual, punctuality, and impec-cable personal&#xA;  conduct. Every Ekadashi they observe nirjala (total fast all food and&#xA;  water).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya originates with the Madhvas. Shri&#xA;  Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His followers thoroughly studied Madhva's&#xA;  works before compiling their philosophy. For the Sat Sandarbhas Shri&#xA;  Jiva Goswami drew heavily from Madhva's writings. Jiva Goswami found&#xA;  'the Gaudiya philosophy of acintya-bheda-abheda tattva in Madhva's&#xA;  Bhagavat-parya. Shri Chaitanya Himself visited Udupi, the seat of&#xA;  Madhva's sect. The Lord introduced Hari Nama sankirtana into their&#xA;  sect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Madhvas and Gaudiyas share many of the same philosophical points.&#xA;  Both consider it necessary to surrender to the lotus feet of the guru&#xA;  (gurupadashraya). In Sutra Bhasya, Madhvacharya cites the Brihat&#xA;  Tantra and Mahasamhita to show that a disciple may reject a &quot;bogus&#xA;  guru&quot; who proves to be useless. He may then accept another qualified&#xA;  self-realized person as his guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Prameya-ratnavalli, Shri Baladeva Vidyabhushana summarized the&#xA;  nine principles common to both Shri Chaitanya's and Madhva's&#xA;  teachings. In Vaishnava Siddhanta Mala, Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura&#xA;  says Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ordered all Gaudiya Vaishnavas to&#xA;  carefully observe the nine instructions of truth given by Shri&#xA;  Madhavacharya through our guru parampara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gaudiyahistory.iskcondesiretree.com/sri-madhvacarya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Madhavendra Puri is one of the acharyas in the disciplic&#xA;  succession from Madhvacharya. Madhavendra Puri had two principal&#xA;  disciples, Ishvara Puri and Sri Advaita Prabhu. Therefore the Gaudiya&#xA;  Vaishnava-sampradaya is a disciplic succession from Madhvacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This fact has been accepted in the authorized books known as&#xA;  Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika and Prameya-ratnavali, as well as by Gopal Guru&#xA;  Goswami. The Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika clearly states the disciplic&#xA;  succession of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Lord Brahma is the direct disciple of Vishnu, the Lord of the&#xA;  spiritual sky. His disciple is Narada, Narada's disciple is Vyasa, and&#xA;  Vyasa's disciples are Sukadev Goswami and Madhvacharya. Padmanabha&#xA;  Acharya is the disciple of Madhvacharya, and Narahari is the disciple&#xA;  of Padmanabha Acharya. Madhava is the disciple of Narahari, Akshobhya&#xA;  is the direct disciple of Madhava, and Jayatirtha is the disciple of&#xA;  Akshobhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Jayatirtha's disciple is Jnanasindhu, and his disciple is Mahanidhi.&#xA;  Vidyanidhi is the disciple of Mahanidhi, and Rajendra is the disciple&#xA;  of Vidyanidhi. Jayadharma is the disciple of Rajendra. Purushottama is&#xA;  the disciple of Jayadharma. Sriman Lakshmipati is the disciple of&#xA;  Vyasatirtha, who is the disciple of Purushottama. And Madhavendra Puri&#xA;  is the disciple of Lakshmipati.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scsmath.com/docs/articles/Madhvacharya.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shri Madhvacharya's Nine Teachings&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(1) Bhagavan Shri Krishna alone is the Supreme Absolute Truth, one&#xA;  without a second.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(2) He is the object of knowledge in all the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(3) The universe is real, satya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(4) The differences between Ishvara (God), Jiva (soul) and Matter are real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(5) Jiva souls are by nature the servants of the Supreme Lord Hari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(6) There are two categories of jivas; liberated and illusioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(7) Liberation (moksha) means attainmg the lotus feet of Bhagavan&#xA;   Krishna, in other words, entering an eternal relationship of service&#xA;    to the Supreme Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(8) Pure devotional service to Krishna is the only way to attain his liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(9) The truth may be known by pratyaksha (direct perception), anuman (inference or logic), sabda (spiritual sound or Vedic&#xA;  authority.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Madhvacharya serves as Madhavi-gopi in Radha-Govinda's eternal Vrindavana pleasure pastimes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gaudiyahistory.iskcondesiretree.com/sri-madhvacarya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-02-19T14:15:12.430" LastActivityDate="2019-02-19T14:15:12.430" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18890" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18891" CreationDate="2017-06-13T11:22:32.773" Score="3" ViewCount="1585" Body="&lt;p&gt;I saw &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/385/what-is-the-reason-behind-fasting-vrat&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; , I want to know what's the 1) Advantage of &lt;strong&gt;Sankasta hara chaturthi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Why doing Tuesday is more helpfull.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) Why we need to see moon and eat at night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4)Why Rice are not allowed to eat on this day for those who are doing fasting....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9976" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-13T11:29:30.450" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T06:35:27.103" Title="Advantage of Sankasta hara chaturthi" Tags="|belief|ganesha|food|vrata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18891" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18890" CreationDate="2017-06-13T11:45:07.797" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Performing this Vrata is more beneficial. We know that Lord Ganesha is the god of prosperity and dispeller of obstacles. Hence this vrata is recommended for overall prosperity and getting rid of obstacles in various areas of your life. By the grace of the lord one is blessed with health, wealth, and prosperity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the vrata ends in the evening, one has to do chandra darshana and do the concluding pooja before breaking the fast. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tuesday is an auspicious day and &quot;mangala&quot; also means auspicious hence sankashta chaturthi of Tuesday is more potent and auspicious. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/how-to-do-sankashti-chaturthi-fasting&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sankashti Chaturthi&lt;/a&gt; is observed on the &lt;strong&gt;fourth day (Chaturthi)&#xA;  of the waning phase (dark half of lunar month)&lt;/strong&gt; of the moon which is&#xA;  also called as Krishna Paksha. The other name of this vrat is Sankata&#xA;  Hara Chaturthi meaning the Chaturti that can alleviate all the&#xA;  obstacles (Sankat means obstacles and Hara means the act of removal)&#xA;  Incidentally, Ganesh is also called by another name ‘Vignesh’ or&#xA;  ‘Vignaraj’ meaning the god who is the Lord of obstacles – the giver as&#xA;  well as remover of obstacles according to the situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sankashti Chaturthi falling on &lt;strong&gt;Tuesdays is also called as&#xA;  Angarika Sankashti Chaturthi&lt;/strong&gt; (Angarak is the Sanskrit term denoting&#xA;  Mars – the Lord of Tuesday) which is the most &lt;strong&gt;auspicious&lt;/strong&gt; of the&#xA;  Sankashti Chaturthis. Based on the convenience of the person observing&#xA;  this fast, total fasting or partial fasting can be taken up. The&#xA;  period of this fasting stretches from the time of sunrise in the&#xA;  morning on the dedicated day to the time of moonrise on the same&#xA;  evening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the morning of Sankashti Chaturthi, early rise is advised. The&#xA;  observer takes holy bath and chants the names of Ganesh while bathing.&#xA;  After this, the altar of Ganesh needs to be prepared and prayers must&#xA;  be offered. People going ahead with their regular routine or official&#xA;  works can do so after that excepting the fasting aspect. If they&#xA;  remain home or take a day off, they can engage in scriptural study or&#xA;  listening to divine stories or chanting the names of Lord Ganesh&#xA;  throughout the day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the evening, the fast is concluded after &lt;strong&gt;sighting the moon and&#xA;  offering pooja to Lord Ganesh.&lt;/strong&gt; The time of moon rise is mentioned in&#xA;  the calendar. Those who have difficulties in witnessing the moonrise&#xA;  may take note of this time and prepare for the conclusion of the vrat.&#xA;  However, seeing the moon physically towards the end of the vrat is&#xA;  said to be highly auspicious. After the time of moon rise, the&#xA;  observer will set up the altar, install a picture or idol of Lord&#xA;  Ganesh, offer a formal pooja and break the fast.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T06:35:27.103" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T06:35:27.103" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18893" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18908" CreationDate="2017-06-13T12:23:20.750" Score="10" ViewCount="17510" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Geeta, Chapter 9 verses 32 and 33 have implications related to the superiority of particular varna and gender over the others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse states that &quot;EVEN Women and Shudra can attain God&quot;. Does this mean that in general circumstances they are not able to attain god ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;maam hi paartha vyapaashritya ye (a)pi syuh paapa-yonayah |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;striyo vaishyaas tathaa shudraas te (a)pi yaanti paraam gatim ||9.32||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us see its meaning in the Sankara bhashya which is the first and most famous commentary on Geeta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sankara Bhasya:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;maam hi yasmaat paartha vyapaashritya - maam aashrayatvena grheetvaa,&#xA;  ye api syu: paapa-yonaya: ; paapaa yonir yeshaam te paapa-yonaya: ;&#xA;  syu: - bhaveyu: | paapa-yonaya: paapa yonir yeshaam te paapa-yonayah&#xA;  paapa-janmaana: | &lt;strong&gt;ke te ? ity aaha—striyo vaishyaas tathaa sudraa:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  tepi yaanti - gacchanti, paraam - prakrshtaam gatim ||9.32||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;for; O son of Prtha, ye api, even those; papayonayah syuh, who are&#xA;  born of sin;-as to &lt;strong&gt;who they are&lt;/strong&gt;, the Lord says-&lt;strong&gt;striyah, women;&#xA;  vaisyah, Vaisyas, tatha, as also; sudrah&lt;/strong&gt;, Sudras; te api, even they;&#xA;  yanti, reach, go to; the param, highest; gatim, Goal vyapasritya, by&#xA;  taking shelter; mam, under Me-by accepting Me as their refuge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note what he has said here – papayonaya: are those who are born sinners (papa janmaana:) ke te? - Who are they ? striya: - women, vaishya: people of the vaishya caste, sudra: of the sudra caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, the verse 9.32 shoud not be read in isolation. While the verse 32 defines papa yonaya:, the verse following that ie 33 defines punya yonaya: as per shankara bhashya: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kim punar braahmanaa: punyaa bhaktaa raajarshayas tathaa |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;anityam asukham lokam imam praapya bhajasva maam ||Geeta 9.33||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;shankaras bhashya :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kim punar braahmanaa: punyaa: punya-yonayo bhaktaa raajarshayas tathaa&#xA;  raajaana: ca te rshaya: ceti raajarshaya: | yata evam, ato(a)nityam&#xA;  kshana-bhanguram asukham ca sukha-varjitam imam lokam manushya-lokam&#xA;  praapya purushaartha-saadhanam durlabham manushyatvam labdhvaa&#xA;  bhajasva sevasva maam ||9.33||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmins and kshatriyas&lt;/strong&gt; who have taken to austerity are &lt;strong&gt;punya yonaya&lt;/strong&gt;:. Now if you link this verse 33 with verse 32 you will know that while Brahmins and kshatriyas are classified as punya yonaya: vaishyas sudras and women are defined as paapa yonaya: isn’t this quite explicit ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now many scholars have interpret this verse of 9.32 in a different way like this,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O son of Pritha, those who take shelter in Me, though they may be sinners, women, vaishyas [merchants] and shudras [workers]—can attain the supreme destination. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here they have separated &quot;&lt;strong&gt;papayoni&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; as a separate FOURTH category apart from women, vysya, and Shudras. But this does not fit as a meaning because in the preceeding verse, the word &quot;&lt;strong&gt;punya-yoni&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; an antonym of &quot;Papayoni&quot; related to kshatriyas and brahmins is used. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if that is the case then grouping women, shudra, vysya with papayoni is not a good remark either. It equates them to a lower category of sinners or low grade people. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So how do such verses find its place in geeta which brands women and shudras etc as born sinners? Is it a possible interpolation?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2020-06-03T04:39:28.230" LastActivityDate="2023-06-04T14:57:37.723" Title="Does Geeta have gender and caste discrimination verses?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|vedanta|women|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18895" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18893" CreationDate="2017-06-13T16:07:57.093" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;We are not in any kind of loss with these verses, the reason of these verses will fall in any of these three cases.&#xA;&lt;H3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Best case- There is no discrimination.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/H3&gt;&#xA; - Lord Krishna &lt;strong&gt;paused&lt;/strong&gt; while referring women, castes &amp;amp;&#xA;   pāpayonoyah. In written form this translates (his pause) as &lt;code&gt;Even of low origin,&#xA;   women, vaishyas, or sudras, they also attain the highest goal.&lt;/code&gt; So low&#xA;   origins &amp;amp; women or castes are separated by comma. Then low origins&#xA;   are interpreted as animals, birds or outcastes only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;H3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Average case- This was said 5k years ago.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/H3&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Contexts &amp;amp; meanings&lt;/strong&gt; are changed over the time. In that time, &lt;strong&gt;Stri&lt;/strong&gt; used to translate accurately as an uneducated woman &lt;strong&gt;inherently ignorant of Godliness&lt;/strong&gt; not a normal women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;H3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Worst case- There is discrimination.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/H3&gt;&#xA;In this case, āchārya Abhinavgupta says.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word pāpayonoyah refers to beings of low origin. These beings are animals, birds, reptiles etc. Women are included among the creatures of low origin because of not being properly educated. Vaishyas are included because they are always engaged in activities such as agriculture, etc. Shudras are mentioned because they are not entitled to take part in any of the Vedic rituals and because of the fact that they are dependent on others for earning their living. &lt;strong&gt;However, it should be known that even if these creatures take refuge in they also attain the highest abode&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the sayings are although bitter are no doubt the truth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why there have been no Saptrishis other than Brahmins? Why Gautam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Buddha &amp;amp; Mahavir or Janak turned out to be a Kshatriya?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How many women got enlightened? What's the ratio of women getting enlightened to men getting enlightened?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How many Vaishyas or Shudras got enlightened? What's the ratio of them getting enlightened to Brahmin or Kshatriya getting enlightened?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you simply analysing the above questions you will get the explanation of the verse.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said that, note the following points-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For all powerful &amp;amp; Beautiful God, &lt;strong&gt;Brahmins &amp;amp; Kshatriyas&lt;/strong&gt; have nothing special to impress God nor God needs to appease them. Lord Krishna meant to say about Aptitude only. He already declares in previous verses his vision full of equality among all creatures. Kshatriyas have tendencies to fight &amp;amp; aptitude to run kingdom. When the tendency of fight is introverted, they slay the senses &amp;amp; mind to get liberated &amp;amp; aptitude to run kingdom is when introverted they become Jnani Yogi &amp;amp; Karma Yogi. Similarly, self control &amp;amp; right conduct is nature of a Brahmin. Note that one can either take many births to become Brahmin or single birth to become, all depends on intensity of spiritual process. Because only Brahmins are eligible for moksha as I explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18378/8696&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pāpayonoyah word is used in context of Spirituality. Low birth according to Lord Krishna is a birth not interested in God inherently. It doesn't mean an inferior birth. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to āchārya Abhinavgupta, what a Man can achieve in 1 year, same can be achieved by women in 12 days. So, &lt;strong&gt;Women are more capable to get enlightened than men&lt;/strong&gt;. They can enlightened easily &lt;strong&gt;but they don't&lt;/strong&gt;. Because of their inherent nature to involve much into the family, relationships &amp;amp; aversion to non attachments. i.e Women have more emotions comparatively to men. These emotions are usually used in running a family or relationships than to be devotee. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Varna is a state of soul, every soul goes through these states. Many takes many births to cross these states. But few crosses these states in single birth. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also note this finally-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I'm the same in all beings. &lt;strong&gt;None I hate nor particularly like&lt;/strong&gt;. But those who worship me with devotion, they stand in Me &amp;amp; I also in them. BG. 9.30&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note that I'm just representing broader view, &amp;amp; such generalization is not effectively working in Kaliyuga (more precisely, recent centuries). Kaliyuga is less organized, anything happening anywhere.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2020-05-29T10:18:34.953" LastActivityDate="2020-05-29T10:18:34.953" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18896" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-13T17:19:06.990" Score="4" ViewCount="1705" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the South Indian Sri-Vaishnava community of Iyengars, there is a peculiar custom that the bride sits on her father's lap while tying the Mangalya sutra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such custom is not found in any other South Indian or other communities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is the significance behind this?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2021-08-21T16:55:40.533" LastActivityDate="2021-08-21T16:55:40.533" Title="Why do Iyengar brides sit in father's lap during the wedding ceremony?" Tags="|rituals|sri-vaishnava|marriage|customs|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18900" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18910" CreationDate="2017-06-14T04:08:50.643" Score="15" ViewCount="4652" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prajāpati, Anumati, Sinivāli have ordered it. Elsewhere may he effect&#xA;  the birth of maids, but here prepare a boy.-Atharva Veda 6.11.3 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are especial hymns and verses in Vedas which pray for the birth of a son like Atharva Veda  3.23.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Be not divided; dwell ye here; reach the full time of human    life.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  With sons and grandsons sport and play, rejoicing in your happy&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  home, -Atharva Veda 14.1.22; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I cook the offering, I present oblation: only my wife attends the holy service.   A youthful world, a son hath been begotten. Begin a life that    brings success and triumph. -Atharva Veda 12.3.47&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Unmarried men desire to wed; bountiful givers wish for sons. Together may we dwell with strength unscathed for high prosperity. --Atharva Veda 14.2.72&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wise, teaching, following the thought of Order, the sonless gained a grandson from his daughter. Fain, as a sire, to see his child&#xA;  prolific, he sped to meet her with an eager spirit. --Rig Veda 3.31.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above verses only emphasise on son over daughter.  Are there any verses which pray for daughters too? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-15T16:39:05.393" LastActivityDate="2019-06-16T13:48:05.463" Title="Are there any verses which pray for the birth of daughter in Vedas?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|rig-veda|women|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18901" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18903" CreationDate="2017-06-14T05:00:39.090" Score="5" ViewCount="1702" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to read &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtavakra_Gita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Ashtavakra Gita&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I find difficulty in finding the right translations and explanations. Can someone name some widely used translated forms of this book which contain the original shlokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10109" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T07:09:55.763" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T07:09:55.763" Title="Book recommendation for Ashtavakra Gita with original shlokas" Tags="|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18902" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18901" CreationDate="2017-06-14T05:35:25.923" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I havent read this version, but reading the description, &lt;a href=&quot;http://bookstore.sriramanamaharshi.org/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;amp;cPath=168_169&amp;amp;products_id=6276&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; should be good. This is from Ramanasharam and based on a book published by Ramakrishna ashram &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also a free audio download available here &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/resource_centre/audio/ashtavakra-gita/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/resource_centre/audio/ashtavakra-gita/&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may also search Ramakrishna Mission bookstores&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10088" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T05:35:25.923" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18903" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18901" CreationDate="2017-06-14T06:10:31.563" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Advaita Ashrama publishes a lot of books on Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, scriptures etc..Check out &lt;a href=&quot;https://shop.advaitaashrama.org/product-category/books/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt; to browse their books which you can order online.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Books are available in Bengali, English, Hindi, Nepali, Sanskrit, Urdu, English-Bengali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://shop.advaitaashrama.org/product/ashtavakra-samhita/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the direct link of Ashtavakra Samhita which you want to buy. It contains original Sanskrit Shlokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/waqca.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/waqca.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T06:10:31.563" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18904" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16712" CreationDate="2017-06-14T06:15:49.917" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who was that King?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.namboothiri.com/articles/naaduvaazhikal.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.namboothiri.com/articles/naaduvaazhikal.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purakkaadu had Roman trade connections as early as the first century.&#xA;  A Namboothiri aristocracy from Kumaranalloor (near.Kottayam) took over&#xA;  the rule of Purakkaadu (present Ambalapuzha and part of the&#xA;  Kuttanaadu). They had a strong naval power with a huge collection of a&#xA;  special type of boat known as Chembaka and so they came to be also&#xA;  known as Chembakasseri Raja. After the construction of the Ambalapuzha&#xA;  temple, their kingdom came to be known as Ambalapuzha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The link name naaduvaazhikal basically means ruler of the land. These are also title given for local cheftains rather than a large kingdom&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://travancoredevaswomboard.org/temples/ambpzhagp/ampalapzhakrishnaswami/ambalappuzha-sree-krishnaswami-temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://travancoredevaswomboard.org/temples/ambpzhagp/ampalapzhakrishnaswami/ambalappuzha-sree-krishnaswami-temple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name of the king is Chembakasserry Pooradam Thirunal Devanarayanan Thampuran.&#xA;This is also the official page of the organization that manages most of the temples in Kerala&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As these links (or any other) do not mention any references to&#xA;  Scriptures or Purans. I'm curious to know the actual story according&#xA;  to Hindu Scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the second link, the construction of the temple is around 15-17 century and much recent than the period when any scriptures or puranas were written. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also most of the famous temples in Kerala has a local legend associated with it. This can be a similar one&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Also Why Krishna played this Leela?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have to guess for this part. May be the king deserved the Lords Darshan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10088" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T06:15:49.917" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18905" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-14T06:34:31.520" Score="16" ViewCount="602" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many questions asked on this site, I frequently &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/search?q=principles+of+Vaishnavism+to+four+disciples&quot;&gt;see a line&lt;/a&gt; about Vishnu teaching principles of Vaishnavism to his four disciples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four disciples: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara.&lt;/strong&gt; And in turn they started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Sampradayam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know which scriptures mention this thing? I know it&amp;apos;s not mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana and Mahabharata of Vyasa. Neither it&amp;apos;s mentioned in Srimad Bhagavata, Vishnu and Padma Purana as far as I know There is possibility that it&amp;apos;s mentioned in other Puranas like Varaha and Narada.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Most probably it's mentioned in Pancharatra Agamas. If it&amp;apos;s mentioned, I want to know which Samhita and Chapter of Pancharatra Agamas mention it? Also when did Lord Vishnu do this teaching?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-06-18T05:07:18.400" LastActivityDate="2022-02-10T12:31:19.233" Title="Which scriptures state Vishnu teaching principles of Vaishnavism to his four disciples?" Tags="|scripture|vishnu|puranas|vaishnavism|agamas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18906" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18883" CreationDate="2017-06-14T06:39:02.743" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, there is no mention in Valmiki Ramayana that Ravana has been defeated by either Kalakeyas or Nivatakavachas. In fact, there is no mention of Nivatakavachas in Valmiki Ramayana. Though there is mention of Kalakeyas who have been defeated by Ravana. Ravana defeating Kalakeyas has been mention in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Uttara Kanda, Chapter 29&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereat that Rakshasi, having blood red eyes, closed with tears, said &quot;O king, by thee, powerful as thou art, I have forcibly been made a widow. &lt;strong&gt;Fourteen thousand Daityas, under the name of Kalakeyas, have been destroyed by thee&lt;/strong&gt;, O king, in the battle and amongst them was my highly power ful husband dearer than my life. He has been slain by thee, O dear one, an enemy a brother only in name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T06:48:18.927" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T06:48:18.927" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18907" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18912" CreationDate="2017-06-14T06:49:37.907" Score="5" ViewCount="945" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am planning to read Mahabharata. Can anyone tell me a good book written in Hindi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2314" LastEditorUserId="2314" LastEditDate="2019-10-17T06:05:42.770" LastActivityDate="2019-10-17T13:00:41.620" Title="Book recommendation for Mahabharata in Hindi" Tags="|mahabharata|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18908" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18893" CreationDate="2017-06-14T07:03:53.823" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;In chapter 10, verse 34 Lord Krishna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मृत्यु: सर्वहरश्चाहमुद्भवश्च भविष्यताम् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कीर्ति: श्रीर्वाक्च नारीणां स्मृतिर्मेधा धृति: क्षमा ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: I am the all-devouring Death, and I am the origin of those things that are yet to be. &lt;strong&gt;Amongst feminine qualities I am fame, prosperity, fine speech, memory, intelligence, courage, and forgiveness&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the best qualities of women and Krishna is saying that these qualities are Krishna Himself. Hence, Lord Krishna would never disparage women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the verse 9.32:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मां हि पार्थ व्यपाश्रित्य येऽपि स्यु: पापयोनय: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्त्रियो वैश्यास्तथा शूद्रास्तेऽपि यान्ति परां गतिम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation: All those who take refuge in me, &lt;strong&gt;whatever their birth, race, sex, or caste, even those whom society scorns&lt;/strong&gt;, will attain the supreme destination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/9/verse/32&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This translation is given by Swami Mukundananda&lt;/a&gt;. And His commentary is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are souls who have the good fortune of being born in pious families, where they are educated in good values and virtuous living from childhood. This is a consequence of their good deeds in past lives. Then, there are also souls who have the misfortune of being born in families of drunks, criminals, gamblers, and atheists. This is also the result of sins committed in past lives.&#xA;Here, Shree Krishna states that irrespective of birth, sex, caste, or race, whoever takes complete shelter of him will attain the supreme goal. Such is the greatness of the path of devotion that everyone is eligible for it, whereas in other paths there are strict criteria for eligibility.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After these statements Swami ji explains about the eligibility criteria.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next verse 9.33:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;किं पुनर्ब्राह्मणा: &lt;strong&gt;पुण्या भक्ता&lt;/strong&gt; राजर्षयस्तथा |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अनित्यमसुखं लोकमिमं प्राप्य भजस्व माम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation: How much more this is so of the righteous brahmanas, the devotees and the saintly kings. Therefore, having come to this temporary, miserable world, engage in loving service unto Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, there is no punya-yoni in sanskrit verse. Not sure from where the punya-yoni came here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it a possible interpolation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is an interpolation. At least the word &lt;strong&gt;striyo&lt;/strong&gt; in 9.32 might be added much later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T07:03:53.823" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18909" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18900" CreationDate="2017-06-14T09:18:07.627" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a verse in  &lt;strong&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 6.4.17&lt;/strong&gt; , Which says -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अथ य इच्छेद्दुहिता मे पण्डिता जायेत , सर्वमायु-रियादिति,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;तिलौदनं&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;पाचयित्वा सर्पिम्षन्तमश्रीयाताम् ; इश्वरौ जनयितवै ||१७||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who wishes that daughter to be born to him who would be a scholar&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;and attain a full term of life , should have rice cooked with sesamum.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now its clear from above verses that people from Vedic period   also wish a daughter child to be born to them. And this hymn shows the way to  those who&#xA;Want their daughters to become a scholar and live a long life .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no instance in Rug-Veda  where the birth of a girl  child was considered inferior. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It indicates that the position of a girl in Rig Vedic times was not  considered a low. &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Very few number of verses regarding this matter  perhaps indicative  that society  in need  of larger number of male warriors to ensure its survival.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nexGt.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nexGt.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T09:18:07.627" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18910" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18900" CreationDate="2017-06-14T11:00:48.847" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not that the Vedas only praise the birth of a male child alone. There are instances where female progeny is also praised. Further, it is important to know that the word &quot;putra&quot; does not necessarily mean only male child but could mean child in general. Similarly in many places word &quot;man&quot; does not only indicate men but all of the mankind including men and women. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Brahman, let there be born in the kingdom the Brahman illustrious&#xA;  for religious knowledge; let there be born the Râjanya, heroic,&#xA;  skilled archer, piercing with shafts, mighty warrior; the cow giving&#xA;  abundant milk; the ox good at carrying; the swift courser; the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;industrious woman&lt;/strong&gt;. May Parjanya send rain according to our desire; may&#xA;  our fruit-bearing plants ripen; may acquisition and preservation of&#xA;  property be secured to us. (&lt;strong&gt;Shukla Yajurveda 22.22&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My Sons are slayers of the foe, &lt;strong&gt;my Daughter is a ruling Queen&lt;/strong&gt;:  I am&#xA;  victorious: o’er my Lord my song of triumph is supreme. &lt;strong&gt;Rigveda&#xA;  10.159.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With sons and &lt;strong&gt;daughters&lt;/strong&gt; by their side they reach their full extent of&#xA;  life, Both decked with ornaments of gold. &lt;strong&gt;R.V 8.31.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With many a son, father of &lt;strong&gt;many daughters&lt;/strong&gt;, He clangs and clashes as he&#xA;  goes to battle. Slung on the back, pouring his brood, the Quiver&#xA;  vanquishes all opposing bands and armies. &lt;strong&gt;R.V 6.75.5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some scholars have attempted to prove the daughter as an&#xA;unwelcome member of the family but it’s absolutely against the tenets&#xA;of the Vedas which suggest quite the opposite to these claims. In&#xA;subsequent ages women have been denied the privilege of Upanayana too&#xA;which is not in accordance with the vedic injunctions. See the&#xA;following quotes from the gRhya sUtras: (Which are the practical manuals for conducting the Vedic rites and rituals)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parents desirous of obtaining a &lt;strong&gt;daughter perform the KAmya ShrAddha&lt;/strong&gt; on&#xA;the second day of the moon (&lt;strong&gt;Gobhila ParishiSTa ShrAddha Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;[Calcutta ed.p.186] ## PAraskara GRhya Sutra 1.21 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a husband is &lt;strong&gt;desirous of having a daughter&lt;/strong&gt;, he should touch all&#xA;the fingers of his wife except her thumb during the marriage ceremony.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;(AshvalAyana GRhya SUtra 2:125, Apastamba GRhya SUtra&#xA;यदि कामयेत स्त्रीरेव जनयेयमित्यङ्गुलिरेव गृह्णीयात् 6:12)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wishing for a daughte&lt;/strong&gt;r, the husband shows the bride the Dhruva and&#xA;other constellations ( &lt;strong&gt;kAthaka Grhya Sutra commentary&lt;/strong&gt; जीवन्तीं&#xA;कन्यामिच्छन् ध्रुवादिकं दर्शयेत् 2 :1-2 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is very obvious to a discerning person that the girl child was&#xA;never disliked or unwelcome in the household. In fact special prayers&#xA;and propitiations were conducted to have a girl in the family!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T11:00:48.847" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18911" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18916" CreationDate="2017-06-14T11:29:20.737" Score="2" ViewCount="6515" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to scriptures, if there has to be comparison between &quot;Lord Rama&quot; and &quot;Arjuna&quot;, then who was the better archer among them?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Though both can be considered great in their own way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, Rama was the best archer among all. But according to some other people, Arjuna was the best. But to avoid the personal opinion, kindly provide the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/38099700#38099700&quot;&gt;this chatroom&lt;/a&gt; comments for further info.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-07-12T12:04:46.853" LastActivityDate="2018-04-29T05:08:06.900" Title="Who can be considered the better archer between Lord Rama and Arjuna?" Tags="|mahabharata|rama|arjuna|weapon|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18912" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18907" CreationDate="2017-06-14T11:48:09.713" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gitapress.org&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Geeta Press Gorakhpur&lt;/a&gt; is the most famous version available in Hindi language. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xwzW5.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/xwzW5.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &amp;emsp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mjpju.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mjpju.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &amp;emsp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5zw2w.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5zw2w.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is available in multiple sets and is a huge book. You can directly buy from their &lt;a href=&quot;http://gitapressbookshop.in/books-by-topics-subjects/mahabharat.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt; or store or from some website like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/complete-mahabharata-only-edition-with-sanskrit-text-and-hindi-translation-six-volumes-NZA120/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Alternatively, if you wish to read it online then you can download its pdf version from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/MahabharatYear1Vol.5GitaPressGorakhpur&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Note these are volumes named as &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/MahabharatYear1Vol.5GitaPressGorakhpur&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Year  1 vol.  5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/MahabharatYear3Vol.1GitaPressGorakhpur&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Year 3 vol. 1&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;etc. So searching for necessary Parva / chapter is necessary. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2019-10-17T07:37:05.663" LastActivityDate="2019-10-17T07:37:05.663" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18914" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-14T14:40:26.730" Score="7" ViewCount="163" Body="&lt;p&gt;What happens to a soul if the womb is aborted?  Does the soul take another birth or it attains salvation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T12:24:59.073" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T12:24:59.073" Title="What happens to the soul if a womb is aborted?" Tags="|atma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18916" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18911" CreationDate="2017-06-14T15:24:09.870" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Bhagavadgita, Krishna says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पवनः पवतामस्मि रामः शस्त्रभृतामहम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;     झषाणां मकरश्चास्मि स्रोतसामस्मि जाह्नवी।।10.31।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Among the purifiers (or the speeders) I am the wind; Rama among the warriors am I; among the fishes I am the shark; among the streams&#xA;  I am the Ganga.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Ramayana, Rama himself says,  Mahadeva is his only equal.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अब्रवीच्च तदा रामः सुग्रीवं प्रत्यनन्तरम् |&#xA;  विभीषणं च धर्मात्मा हनूमन्तं च वानरम् || ९३-६-३७&#xA;  जाम्बवन्तं हरिश्रेष्ठं मैन्दं द्विविदमेव च |&#xA;  एतदस्त्रबलन् दिव्यं मम वा त्र्यम्बकस्य वा || ९३-६-३८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, the virtuous Rama spoke also to Sugreeva, Vibhishana, Hanuma the&#xA;  monkey, Jambavan, Mainda the foremost of monkeys and even Dvivida, who&#xA;  were in close proximity to him as follows &quot;Such wonderful power of&#xA;  this missile exists either with me or with the three-eyed Rudra the&#xA;  lord of destruction.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama is the superior warrior. He is undefeated , peerless and incomparable. How can we compare the parama purusha with a lesser being? Eswara is his only peer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T02:40:37.587" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T02:40:37.587" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18917" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="808" CreationDate="2017-06-14T15:36:06.913" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Lord SadaShiva &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17197/what-happens-to-lord-shivas-trishul-during-dissolution-of-universe/17281#17281&quot;&gt;directly manifests&lt;/a&gt; from Sat-Asat state he comes with a form having three eyes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परः पुमानीश्वरः स शिव शम्भुरनीश्वरः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शीर्षे मन्दाकिनीधारी भालचन्द्रस्त्रिलोचनः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पञ्चवक्त्र प्रसन्नात्मा दशबाहुस्त्रिशुलधृक् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कर्पुरगौरः सुसितो भस्मोद्धुलितोविग्रहः ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thereafter Parama Purusha Shiva also known as Ishwara having no Lord over him, who holds Mandakini on his head. &lt;strong&gt;He has three eyes and crescent moon on his forehead.&lt;/strong&gt; He is five faced, a pleasent soul, holder of a trident, having complexion as white as camphor, keeps on applying white ashes over his body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Lord SadaShiva manifests directly with form of Three-Eyes. It is also stated in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/kaivalya.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaivalya Upanishad:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उमासहायं परमेश्वरं प्रभुं त्रिलोचनं नीलकण्ठं प्रशान्तम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ध्यात्वा मुनिर्गच्छति भूतयोनिं समस्तसाक्षिं तमसः परस्तात् ॥ ७॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Meditating on the highest Lord, allied to Uma, powerful, &lt;strong&gt;three-eyed,&lt;/strong&gt; blue-necked, and tranquil, the holy man reaches Him who is the source of all, the witness of all and is beyond darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Rudra who is born from Lord Brahma also has three eyes as seen through description of Rudra &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15213/how-many-times-has-shiva-opened-his-3rd-eye/15217#15217&quot;&gt;in scriptures.&lt;/a&gt; Third Eye of Lord Rudra might be in invisible form also sometimes as seen from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b105.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The beautiful Uma, with smiling lips and desirous of playing a jest,covered from behind, with her two beautiful hands, the eyes of Mahadeva. As soon as Mahadeva&amp;apos;s eyes were thus covered, all the regions became dark and life seemed to be extinct everywhere in the universe. The Homa rites ceased. The universe became suddenly deprived of the sacred Vashat also. All living creatures became cheerless and filled with fear.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Indeed, when the eyes of the lord of all creatures were thus closed, the universe seemed to become sunless. Soon, however, that overspreading darkness disappeared. A mighty and blazing flame of fire emanated from Mahadeva&amp;apos;s forehead. &lt;strong&gt;A third eye, resembling another sun, appeared (on it). That eye began to blaze forth like the Yuga-fire&lt;/strong&gt; and began to consume that mountain. The large-eyed daughter of Himavat, beholding what occurred, bowed her head unto Mahadeva endued with that third eye which resembled a blazing fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Lord has three eyes Lord is also called by the name &lt;strong&gt;Trayambaka&lt;/strong&gt; in the Vedas. The significance of name Trayambaka is described in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10741/i-want-to-know-the-exact-explanation-of-maha-mrityunjaya-mantra/18185#18185&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;answer here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T15:36:06.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18918" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19013" CreationDate="2017-06-14T15:46:34.623" Score="12" ViewCount="4842" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tantra which refers to the esoteric practices and traditions of Hinduism usually in Shaktism involves taboo activities of meat eating, alcohol consumption and sex. All these activities are perceived to be disliked by most Hindus. However, most Tantra practitioners see it as another way to realise God. Even Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was known to have practiced it. So how are such practices justified? To find the answer of this question, I tried to look up on the Internet and found an &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.krishna.com/tantra%E2%80%94can-sex-be-yoga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; regarding the topic. However, I was still unsatisfied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-03-26T03:41:58.350" LastActivityDate="2018-03-26T03:41:58.350" Title="How is tantric sex, meat eating and alcohol consumption justified?" Tags="|tantra|shaktism|vamachara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18919" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="808" CreationDate="2017-06-14T16:32:18.490" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Three eyes represents the three forms or states. From Shiv Rahasya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O you who are at peace! Reality or  Truth is Eternally One, without a doubt.  Yet in order to manifest Its Eternal Glory, Truth creates the various Worlds out  of Itself.  Therefore It exists  in different States or Forms. &lt;strong&gt;They  are: Spirit, which is like unto Fire; Energy, which is like unto the Sun; and Matter which is like unto the Moon.&lt;/strong&gt; 2.7.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord's 3rd eye on forehead represents spirit ( individual consciousness) . And 1st &amp;amp; 2nd eyes energy &amp;amp; matter respectively. This has been confirmed in the same scripture. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lord was wearing a tiger skin, holding in His mighty hands a blazing trident and a drum, and &lt;strong&gt;having the Sun, Moon and Fire as three eyes.&lt;/strong&gt; 4.19&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note again,  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Fire is spirit (individual soul) here. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sun is energy.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Moon matter. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva having three eyes means he is holding spirit, energy &amp;amp; matter within himself&lt;/strong&gt;. Thus, three eyes represents &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva as the ultimate reality&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is one case, it is impossible to enumerate all cases in single answer. After few chapters, analogy is changed &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;third eye&lt;/strong&gt; is explained in different way again as the eye of wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sleeping Soul is like the Moon  and the Waking Soul like  the Sun. The  Moon which  is the left eye shines by  Night, far off from  the Sun; and when the Sun, the right eye, rises, the Moon is  gone.  &lt;strong&gt;But when  the Fire of Knowledge  which is the Third Eye of Wisdom  burns away both  night  and day, then Sun and  Moon become one and are seen by  no one.&lt;/strong&gt;   When neither  Moon nor Sun are seen then the  eye is not two-sided but one.  By  means of that Single Sight  he who is one sees the True Man in the Sky.  He, verily, beholds Truth as It Is. 5.5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T16:32:18.490" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18920" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-14T17:57:15.863" Score="7" ViewCount="3012" Body="&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana 1.115.64 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;”A barren woman shall be abandoned in the eighth year after marriage;&#xA;  a woman whose children die in infancy shall be abandoned in the ninth&#xA;  year; &lt;strong&gt;a woman who gives birth only to daughters shall be abandoned in&#xA;  the eleventh year&lt;/strong&gt; and a woman who speaks unpleasant words shall be&#xA;  abandoned immediately.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajnavalkya Smriti verse 73&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The liquor drinker, the diseased, the cunning, the barren, the killer&#xA;  of wealth, the unpleasant spoken, &lt;strong&gt;who bears female children should be&#xA;  superseded&lt;/strong&gt;, so also (one) who hates people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manu Smriti 9.81&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A barren wife may be superseded in the eighth year, she whose children&#xA;  (all) die in the tenth, &lt;strong&gt;she who bears only daughters in the eleventh&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  but she who is quarrelsome without delay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Narada Smriti 12.94&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let not a husband show love to a barren woman, or to one who gives birth to female children only,&lt;/strong&gt; or whose conduct is blamable, or who&#xA;  constantly contradicts him; if he does (have conjugal intercourse with&#xA;  her), he becomes liable to censure (himself).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satapatha Brahmana 5.3.1.13&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And on the following day he goes to the house of a discarded (wife),&#xA;  and prepares a pap for Nirriti;–a &lt;strong&gt;discarded wife is one who has no&#xA;  son&lt;/strong&gt;…hail!’ For &lt;strong&gt;a wife that is without a son, is possessed with&#xA;  Nirriti&lt;/strong&gt; (destruction, calamity)…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Bhagavatam 2.6.36-48&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once while he was listening to the religious discourses of the Munis,&#xA;  he heard unmistakeably the Munis telling that the man who is sonless&#xA;  can never go to the Heavens; so he must get a son somehow or other&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Bhagavatam 1.4.15-27&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no prospect in the after birth of the sonless;&lt;/strong&gt; never, never will Heaven be his. Without son, there is none other who can be&#xA;  of help in the next world. Thus in the Dharma S’âstras, Manu and other&#xA;  Munis declare that the man who has sons goes to Heaven and the sonless&#xA;  one can never go to Heaven. The man possessing a son is entitled to&#xA;  the Heavenly pleasures can be vividly seen, rather than imagined. The&#xA;  man with son is freed from sins; this is the word of the Vedas…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T07:45:04.503" LastActivityDate="2019-06-22T13:16:48.193" Title="Why do some Hindu scriptures say sonless women must be abandoned?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|women|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18921" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18905" CreationDate="2017-06-14T19:01:15.293" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is mentioned in the Garga Samhita.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/Commentaries/rudra-intro.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; is what I found:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garga Samhita, Canto 10, chapter 61, verses 23, 24, 25, 26:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vamanas ca vidih sesah sanako visnu-vakyatah &#xA;  dharmartha-hetave caite bhavisyanti dvijah kalau&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;visnusvami vamnangsa-statha madhvastu brahmanah &#xA;  ramanujastu sesanga nimbaditya sanakasya ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ete kalau yuge bhavyah sampradaya-pravartakah &#xA;  samvatsare vikramasya catvarah ksiti-pavanah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sampradaya-vihina ye mantraste nisphalah smritah &#xA;  tasmacca gamanang hyasti sampradaye narairapi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TRANSLATION&#xA;  Vamana, Brahma, Ananta Sesha and Sanaka Kumara will appear as brahmanas by the order of Visnu, for the preservation of eternal righteousness in kali yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Visnu Swami, Madhvacarya, Ramanuja and Nimbaditya will appear respectively as a portion of Vamana, Brahma, Ananta Sesha and Sanaka Kumara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These saviours will be the establishers of the four authorised and empowered spiritual channels of disciplic succession in the period calculated from the reign of King Vikrama in 54 B.C. subsequently through the present era of kali yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These four authorised and empowered spiritual channels of disciplic succession are to be fully accepted by all beings; as any word, combination of words or formulation of sounds frequencies, invoked or addressed, audible or inaudible, secret or revealed, ancient or contemporary, outside their auspices prove to have absolutely no efficacy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fact that they appeared &quot;by the order of Vishnu&quot;, and the fact that only mantras taught in their Sampradayas have any effectiveness, clearly implies that what they taught was taught to them by Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10076" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T14:32:52.447" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T14:32:52.447" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18922" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17309" CreationDate="2017-06-14T21:20:21.933" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Vishista advaita, individual atmas are many in number, and have a sarira-sariri relationship with the Supreme Brahman. (yasya atma sariram - To whom atma forms the body - Subala Upanishad/Brhadaranyaka Upanishad). The Supreme Lord is still advaita, i.e., one without a second, but what makes Him visishta is He is present along with the prakruti and atmas as His body. He is the sariri, or the possessor and the individual atmas and prakruti form His body (sarira). This relationship is called seshatva-jnanam, or knowledge of being the sesha (part) of the seshi (whole). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The prescribed techniques and modes of realizing seshatvam and sustaining this understanding are stated in the Bhagavad Gita. Two popular techniques for realizing this are karma yoga and jnana yoga, and of the two, Krishna favors karma yoga since it is more practical for one who is conditioned to work in a specific way. According to the karma yoga, one must perform one's prescribed duties according to the Vedic injunctions. Such performance should be devoid of three conceptions - that you are the proprietor (sanga), that you are the controller (kartrutva), and that you are the enjoyer of that work (phala). The work should be done simply as a worship of the Supreme Person with the understanding that the injunctions enjoined in the scriptures to different people are His will and by enacting His will, He will be pleased. By this, the Supreme Brahman will be pleased and He will free one from previous sins which stand in the way of sustaining this understanding. By such annulling of sins, one's mind becomes peaceful. Once the mind becomes peaceful, the senses will be controlled. In such a state of mind, it is possible to get to the stage of sthita-prajnata or sustained understanding of this relationship. (This is the essence of the second and third chapters of Bhagavad Gita). To develop further however, one must advance into bhakti yoga, for, only by bhakti one can reach the Supreme.  There are also Sampradaya specific ways, for instance, just chanting certain mantras can help one realize this and sustain this understanding, and for knowing these, one should approach a Guru. Any other way of knowing these may not give good results. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10076" LastEditorUserId="10076" LastEditDate="2017-06-14T21:37:04.443" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T21:37:04.443" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18923" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-14T21:35:02.120" Score="1" ViewCount="323" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/46611/how-does-one-politely-decline-a-handshake-due-to-religious-reasons&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt; on Workplace.SE:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Muslims have some restrictions when it comes to interacting with members of the opposite sex. Usually many people in USA and Europe do not know that, for example, a Muslim man cannot shake hands with a woman. I must not touch members of the other sex at all except my spouse and siblings. This is in fact a law for me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there similar restrictions for Hindu men and women?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-06-14T21:35:02.120" Title="Are there any handshake restrictions for Hindus?" Tags="|scripture|culture|tradition|smriti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18924" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8841" CreationDate="2017-06-15T04:31:15.813" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;When a child's gotra is not known then he will usually adopt the gotra of the person who adopted him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, he can adopt the gotra of his guru who initiates him during upanayana samskara / gayatri deeksha (if done). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, not knowing gotra is not a major criterion in spirituality. Because, as per the legend of Satyakama Jabali, he was not aware of his gotra yet his guru initiated him into brahma vidya because of his genuine aspiration and jijnasa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T04:31:15.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18926" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18920" CreationDate="2017-06-15T05:05:46.117" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No. It's not true. No Hindu scriptures say  sonless women must be abandoned or can be&#xA;abandoned&lt;/strong&gt; .This is just a wrong translation of the verses. These verses do not mean  abandoning , discarding , suspending of women or  wife. Let's see how.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verses you have mentioned are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shounka  counsels on forswearing bad wives in  Verse 64, Achara Kanda, Chapter  115 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/garud-puran/garuda-vol-2/chapter-01/topic-58&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (शौनकोक्तनीतिसारनिरूपणं).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्यजेद्वन्धामष्टेsब्दे नवमे तुं मृतप्रजाम् |&lt;br&gt; एकादशे स्त्रीजननीं&#xA;सद्यच्श्राप्रियवदिनिम् ||६४||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A man is at &lt;strong&gt;liberty to marry a second wife&lt;/strong&gt; in the event of his&#xA;first having had no issue after eight years of wedlock  ; after nine&#xA;years of that of one whose children die in their infancy  ; after&#xA;eleven years of the marriage a wife that has given birth to daughters&#xA;only , and   when the first is &lt;strong&gt;foul-mouthed and to give him a bit of&#xA;her mind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let's look at this verse. Firstly, it says,  &lt;strong&gt;a man can marry second wife ,&lt;/strong&gt; (start of if condition) verse states conditions. It is known and it is quite good belief in our  society  that a son only can liberate his parents. So, other part of verse is only for those  who want a son,  &lt;strong&gt;and only if&lt;/strong&gt; their first wife failed to deliver son.  This does not mean, they are free to have a second wife as they wish, but also when first wife failed to deliver children or when children die in their  infancy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It does not say anything about discarding or abandoning first wife anywhere.&lt;/strong&gt; Now the last part tells us that , one can marry a second wife  instantly  if first wife is foul-mouthed  or if she speaks unpleasantly , again providing a condition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Garuda Purana verse does not in any way permits abandoning , discarding , suspending of women.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now look at the Manu Smiriti verse , translated by  G. Bhular.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_sociology_astrology/buehler.doc&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Documents  site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वन्ध्याष्टमे अधिवेद्या च प्रतिकूला च् या भवेत् |&lt;br&gt; व्याधिता&#xA;वा-अधिवेत्तव्या हिंस्त्रा-अर्थघ्नि च सर्वदा ||९.८१||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A barren wife  may be &lt;strong&gt;superseded&lt;/strong&gt; in the eight year ( by another&#xA;wife ) she whose children (all) , she who bears daughter in the&#xA;eleventh , but she who is quarrelsome without delay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Again,  Manu-Smiriti doesn't say abandoning , discarding , suspending.&lt;/strong&gt; It says “superseded” means to replace in power, authority, effectiveness and acceptance.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now look at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/smrutis/yajnyavalkyasmruti/chapter-03/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajnavalkya Smriti verse 73&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Yajnavalkya Smriti verse 73&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सुरापी व्याधिता धूर्ता वन्ध्यार्थघ्नप्रियंवदा | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्त्रीप्रसूच्श्राधिवेतव्या पुरुषद्वेषिणि तथा  ||७३||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A man can resort to &lt;strong&gt;polygamy&lt;/strong&gt; if his wife is drunkard , a patient of&#xA;incurable disease , shrewd , barren spendthrift , bitter mouth ,&#xA;delivering girl children and envying  her husband continuously .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajnavalkya Smriti also does not say anything about abandoning , discarding , suspending of women. here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, from analyzing verses from  two Smritis and one Purana , we can surely say that this is translation and interpretation problem.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No Hindu Scripture says a barren woman shall be abandoned. What you mentioned in questions is  wrong translation or wrong interpretation.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Garuda Purana shloka &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dOU28.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dOU28.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;code&gt;Yajnavalkya Smriti shloka&lt;/code&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cYWlY.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cYWlY.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/z16a2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/z16a2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Manu smiriti shloka.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T06:59:28.857" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18929" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18930" CreationDate="2017-06-15T05:53:04.133" Score="7" ViewCount="3918" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism has been generally regarded by many western scholars to be supporting male dominance because of texts such as Manusmriti. However, such texts have been found in various versions with some versions saying women should be adorned and worshipped while other versions having sexist remarks. Furthermore, Shakta traditions of Hinduism believe that the Brahman has female gender. So what is the view of Hinduism on gender-equality and feminism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T05:07:06.507" Title="What is Hinduism's view on gender-equality and feminism?" Tags="|women|manu-smriti|shaktism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18930" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18929" CreationDate="2017-06-15T06:10:54.153" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some signs of Kali Yuga as mentioned in Parashara Smriti's 1st chapter touch upo  the issue here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Bwsw3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Bwsw3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;30 &amp;amp; 31. &quot;Religion has been overthrown by irreligion ; and truth&#xA;  indeed by that which is false ; kings have been overpowered by thieves&#xA;  ; &lt;strong&gt;males have been subdued by females&lt;/strong&gt; ; the worship of fire is dying&#xA;  out ; respect to superiors is ceasing to be seen ; &lt;strong&gt;and maidens are&#xA;  becoming mothers : this is what invariably happens in the age of Kali&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general , in Hinduism, male and female are considered as one whole entity with one being incomplete and incompetent to do any good without the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the divine couple, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/soundaryalahari.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva- Shakti&lt;/a&gt;, its being said that Shiva is simply like a corpse without Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shivah shakthya yukto yadi bhavati shaktah prabhavitum Na chedevam&#xA;  devo na khalu kusalah spanditumapi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva, only becomes able. To do creation in this world. along&#xA;  with Shakthi &lt;strong&gt;Without her, Even an inch he cannot move&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ananda Lahari.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the ordinary couple too the same has also been said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The god Brahma cleft his body in two, of yore, &lt;strong&gt;Out of one part sprang&#xA;  the husbands, and out of the other the wives.&lt;/strong&gt; This is what the S'ruti&#xA;  relates. (13)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A man, so long he does not take a wife, is but (a) half (incomplete)&#xA;  being.&lt;/strong&gt; A half (thing) can not beget. A whole (thing) only can beget.&#xA;  This is the dictum of the S'ruti. (14)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vyasa Smriti, Chapter 2.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this is in general the view of Hinduism on the issue. They are to work as a whole unit to produce something auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, what the verses from Parashara Smriti say  can also be empirically verified as we can see those things happening in our society today. So, they are also true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T05:07:06.507" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T05:07:06.507" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18933" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18949" CreationDate="2017-06-15T08:53:26.330" Score="4" ViewCount="1833" Body="&lt;p&gt;Be it shiva purana or Bhagavadam , the praises for most of the gods begin with similar kind of line like &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Brahmins! I bow down to the gentle lotus feet, known in the three&#xA;  Lokas, of the Devî Bhagavatî, praised by Brahmâ and the other devas&#xA;  Visnu, Mahes’a and others&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why does feet of gods/goddess gets special attention for their worship in puranas ? what is the story or significance behind it, does it mean we have to worship them by remembering their feet ? instead of their face. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10063" LastEditorUserId="10063" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T09:13:19.450" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T18:39:02.893" Title="Why is this line &quot; Worshipping thy lotus feet &quot; present in all puranas?" Tags="|puranas|shiva-purana|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18935" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18754" CreationDate="2017-06-15T10:03:19.100" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Charak Samhita Chapter 27 -Sutra Sthana – Annapana Vidhanam  (सूत्र स्थान , अन्नपान विधानं )&lt;/strong&gt; is dedicated to food items. This chapter discuss about various food items  and their types. We can also find various characteristics of food items in this chapter .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कृमिवातातपहतं शष्कं जीर्णमनार्तवम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   शाकं नि:स्नेहसिद्धं च वर्ज्यं यथापरिस्रुतम ||314||&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;   पुराणमामं संकिष्टं कृमिव्यालहिमातपै : |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   अदेशकालजं किन्नं यत्सात्फ़लम्साधु तत ||315||&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &#xA;   हरितानां यथाशाकं निर्देशा: साधनाष्टते |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   माधम्बुमोर सदिनां स्वे स्वे वर्गे विनिश्चय:||316|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vegetables to be avoided:&lt;/strong&gt;  Vegetables which became dried because of worms, air and sun's heat , too much dried, old and which are not grown in the same season &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fruits to be avoided:&lt;/strong&gt; The fruits which are old, too much ripened ,&#xA;  which are half-ripen , eaten by snakes , fruits which are not grown in&#xA;  good land , which are in very bad state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Charaka Samhita tells us about which meat to be avoided.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मृतं कृशतिमेच्यं च वृद्धं बालं विषैर्हतम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   अगोचरभृतं व्याडसुदितं मांसमुस्तृजेत ||३०९||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meat to be avoided:&lt;/strong&gt;  Dead animal, weak animal, too much fatty animal, old animals, very young animals, animals killed by poison, animals  which are  raised in different country than its origin, animal which is killed by lion , snake , jackal ,or wild animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the text says about water – &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पिच्छिलं कृमिळम् किन्नं पर्णशैवालकर्दमै: |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    विवर्णं विरसं सान्द्र दुर्गन्धिं न हितं जलं ||२१३||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Water which is not fit to drink:&lt;/strong&gt; Which is having fatty layer on it , the color of which has changed , which smells bad , which does not taste good or which is full of fallen leafs and which is mixed with mud.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further Charak Samhita Chapter 27 , Verse – 306 declares that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहर्योगिनां भक्तिनिश्चयो न तु विद्यते |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    समाप्तो द्वादशच्श्रायं वर्ग आहारयोगिनाम् -  ||३०६||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It’s very  difficult to  determine which food materials to be included or which one are not. No single law can be established, because everybody’s eating interests are different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from  the primary analysis of the text ,  it seems that  Charaka Samhita isn’t  talking much  or  concluding  definitively about  “which food items to be accepted or to be forbidden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's just telling us that which types of foods to be avoided. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE - I will update the Answer with Sushruta Samhita as well in time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T14:26:57.003" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T14:26:57.003" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18937" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-15T10:46:46.567" Score="3" ViewCount="1384" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know how do we determine that a person or his tribe belongs to this particular &quot;Gotra&quot;.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it fixed based on the kuldevis they are worshipping or it differs from community to community. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I myself am a Dasnam-Goswami (brahmin), we have 10 different suffixes like Pari, Giri, Bharthi, Nath, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the words of my elders I came to know that the gotra for us is decided by the &quot;Dasnam&quot; , whereas in others it is based on the kuldevi they are worshipping.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone clear the doubt here.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3274" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T10:27:44.827" Title="How is the gotra determined" Tags="|gotra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18938" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18888" CreationDate="2017-06-15T11:36:54.800" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu belonged to the disciplic succession from Madhvacharya. The followers of the Chaitanya Mahaprabhu formed a separate sect called&#xA;Gaudiya Vaaishnavas. As you have said in the question, the Brahma&#xA;sampradaya of Vaishnavism has two major divisions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Madhva sect.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Gaudiya Vaishnavism(followers of Chaitanya).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srila Prabhupada in his purport to Chaitanya Charitamrita to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/1/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ādi-līlā&#xA;1.19&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted the chain of disciplic&#xA;succession from Madhva Ācārya, but the Vaiṣṇavas in His line do not&#xA;accept the Tattva-vādīs, who also claim to belong to the&#xA;Madhva-sampradāya. &lt;strong&gt;To distinguish themselves clearly from the&#xA;Tattva-vādī branch of Madhva’s descendants, the Vaiṣṇavas of Bengal&#xA;prefer to call themselves Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas. Śrī Madhva Ācārya is also&#xA;known as Śrī Gauḍa-pūrṇānanda, and therefore the name&#xA;Madhva-Gauḍīya-sampradāya is quite suitable for the disciplic succession&#xA;of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas&lt;/strong&gt;. Our spiritual master, Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Śrīmad&#xA;Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, accepted initiation in the&#xA;Madhva-Gauḍīya-sampradāya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence it is known that the followers of Chaitanya revere Madhvacharya.&#xA;Most of the principles of Gaudiya Vaishnavism written by Rupa Goswami&#xA;and Jiva Goswami were derived from the works of Madhvacharya only. But&#xA;do not agree with some of the principles in it. It is not their free&#xA;will. They derived it from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu itself. Here is the&#xA;relevant incident from his life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has toured throughout the country and visited many holy places. During those visits, he also visited Udupi, the place of Madhvācārya. He saw the deity of Krishna there and danced in ecstasy. He met the residents of that place who were the Madhvācārya(Madhva sect also known as Tattvavādīs).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An argument took place between between Chaitanya and the head of the Tattvavādīs. It is described from Madhya līlā 9.253.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tattvavādī: The Tattvavādī ācārya replied, “What You have said is certainly factual. It is the conclusion of all the revealed scriptures of the Vaiṣṇavas. “Still, whatever Madhvācārya has established as the formula for our party we practice as a party policy.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “&lt;strong&gt;Both the fruitive worker and the speculative philosopher are considered nondevotees. We see both elements present in your sampradāya. The only qualification that I see in your sampradāya is that you accept the form of the Lord as truth.&lt;/strong&gt;(Madhya &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/9/277&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;9.276-277&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above statement it is clear that Chaitanya accepts only some of the principles of the Madhvācārya. He rejected the Varnashrama principles which were said by scriptures and also which Madhvācārya supported in his works.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/9/277&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;purport&lt;/a&gt; to the above verse Srila Prabhupada says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Caitanya Mahāprabhu was pleased that the Madhvācārya-sampradāya, or the Tattvavāda sampradāya, accepted the transcendental form of the Lord. This is the great qualification of the Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chaitanya Mahaprabhu revered Madhvācārya sampradāya and accepted it because it accepted the transcendental form of the Lord, accepts world as real and he supported that Krishna/Vishnu is the supreme Lord. But he didn't agree with strict rules like Varnashrama dharma etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-01-31T09:08:42.867" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18939" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18937" CreationDate="2017-06-15T12:23:58.803" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can't go much deeper in this cuz of my lesser knowledge to my references. But what I can help you with deciding what Gotra is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Gotra&lt;/strong&gt; is a Sanskrit word made by the combination of two other Sanskrit words named &lt;strong&gt;Gau&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Tra&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'Gau'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; mean &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'Cow'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'Tra'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; means &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'To Protect'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming over to the main story, Gotra was defined according to how many or what number of cows a family is protecting. Depending on the number of Cows protected or inherited by the generations the specific nomenclature was allotted to people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have not much information on what names represent for what number, but the higher your Gotra is meant you are( or your ancestors were ) the protector of a higher number of Cows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="499" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T12:23:58.803" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18940" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10649" CreationDate="2017-06-15T13:24:56.330" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva granted boon to Jayadratha because he has practiced the severest of ascetic austerities as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07039.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata ,Drona Parva, Abhimanyu-badha Parva, SECTION XL&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From a keen sense of his humiliation, &lt;strong&gt;the king practised the severest of ascetic austerities, desirous of a boon&lt;/strong&gt;. Restraining his senses from all objects dear to them, bearing hunger, thirst and heat, he reduced his body till his swollen veins became visible. Uttering the eternal words of the Veda, he paid his adoration to the god Mahadeva. &lt;strong&gt;That illustrious Deity, always inspired with compassion for his devotees, at last, became kind towards him&lt;/strong&gt;. Indeed, Hara, appearing in a dream unto the ruler of the Sindhus, addressed him, saying 'Solicit the boon thou desirest. I am gratified with thee, O Jayadratha! What dost thou desire?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T13:24:56.330" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18941" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18964" CreationDate="2017-06-15T13:29:00.757" Score="7" ViewCount="3271" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many people say that Varna is determined by birth, and others say Varna is determined by qualities.  But I've seen some websites which claim that Varna is based on Rashi(our birth constellation/star).  My question is, are there any scriptures which claim that Varna is determined by Rashi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-03-19T20:51:52.637" LastActivityDate="2018-03-19T20:51:52.637" Title="Do any scriptures say that Varna is determined by Rashi?" Tags="|identification-request|astrology|varna|rashi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18943" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-15T13:50:39.007" Score="2" ViewCount="802" Body="&lt;p&gt;Were chaturashram (4 stages of life) applicable for all the 4 castes (Brahmin, Vaishya, Kshatriya, Shudra)? Did lower castes really get the chance to observe bramhacharya, i.e. to be educated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-23T11:59:11.683" LastActivityDate="2020-01-19T15:55:46.387" Title="Was Chatur-ashram applicable for all the different castes?" Tags="|caste-system|bramhacharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18944" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-15T15:35:15.473" Score="9" ViewCount="453" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10174/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four disciples: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara. And they in turn started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Sampradayam.  Now in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/antya/2/95&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the ISKCON commentary on the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Srila Prabhupada discusses commentaries on the Brahma Sutras produced by the four Vaishnava Sampradayas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The commentary by Śrīla Rāmānujācārya, known as Śrī-bhāṣya, establishes the viśiṣṭādvaita-vāda philosophy. Similarly, in the Brahma-sampradāya, Madhvācārya’s Pūrṇaprajña-bhāṣya establishes śuddha-dvaita-vāda. In the Kumāra-sampradāya, or Nimbārka-sampradāya, Śrī Nimbārka establishes the philosophy of dvaitādvaita-vāda in the Pārijāta-saurabha-bhāṣya. &lt;strong&gt;And in the Viṣṇu-svāmi-sampradāya, or Rudra-sampradāya, which comes from Lord Śiva, Viṣṇu Svāmī has written a commentary called Sarvajñabhāṣya, which establishes śuddhādvaita-vāda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I'm familiar Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya, Madhvacharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya, and Nimbarkacharya's Vedanta Parijata Saurabha; I've read all three in large part.  But I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, did Vishnuswami write a commentary on the Brahma Sutras called the Sarvajna Bhashya?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Vishnuswami was an ancient Acharya of the Rudra Sampradayam.  Vallabhacharya, the founder of the Pushtimarga sect, is said to have been in the Parampara of Vishnuswami, which is why the Pushtimarga sect traces its origins to the Rudra Sampradyam.  Now I assumed that Vallabhacharya's Anubhashya was the oldest Rudra Sampradayam commentary on the Brahma Sutras, but maybe it's the oldest surviving one.  (I posted a question about surviving Rudra Sampradayam works prior to Vallbhacharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18393/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) Do have any records, like works of Acharyas or modern scholarly works, that mention Vishnuswami's commentary, and if so what is the earliest reference to Vishnuswami's commentary?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the Dvaita philosopher Narayana Panditacharya said that 21 commentators on the Brahma Sutras preceded Madhvacharya, and he gave a list of them which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=FVtpFMPMulcC&amp;amp;lpg=PP1&amp;amp;dq=bnk%20sharma%2021%20commentators&amp;amp;pg=PA98#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  As you can see, Vishnuswami is not mentioned, unless he's mentioned under a different name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T17:16:52.650" LastActivityDate="2017-06-15T17:16:52.650" Title="Did Vishnuswami write a commentary on the Brahma Sutras?" Tags="|history|vedanta|vaishnavism|brahma-sutras|pushti-marga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18945" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18999" CreationDate="2017-06-15T15:41:54.063" Score="13" ViewCount="10125" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tantra exists in 2 types- The orthodox Dakṣiṇācāra followed by āstika sects and the unorthodox and extreme Vamachara followed by nāstika sects. So what are the differences between the practices of these 2 types of Tantra? Do both these paths involve meat eating, alcohol consumption and sex? Is Vamachara only practiced in Shakta traditions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-03-26T03:30:33.453" LastActivityDate="2018-03-26T03:30:33.453" Title="What is the difference between Dakṣiṇācāra and Vamachara Tantrism?" Tags="|tantra|shaktism|vamachara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18946" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22911" CreationDate="2017-06-15T16:18:59.660" Score="16" ViewCount="1733" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know typically there are three paths towards Moksha: Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga &amp;amp; Karma Yoga. Sri Vaishnava sampradaya, the famous Vaishnava sampradaya, the basic tenets of which are said to be founded by the Alwars and further expanded by Acharyas like NathaMuni, Yamunacharya &amp;amp; Ramanujacharya, believes in &lt;strong&gt;Sharanagati (शरणागति)&lt;/strong&gt; which simply means complete surrender to Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhakti Yoga also appears conceptually similar: worshipping &amp;amp; surrendering to Bhagavan/Ishwar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to post one question regarding a comparison of both the paths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the difference between Bhakti Yoga &amp;amp; Sharanagati?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What are the advantages of Sharanagati over Bhakti Yoga according to Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="10076" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T02:50:06.903" LastActivityDate="2017-12-23T05:04:21.560" Title="What is the difference between Bhakti Yoga &amp; Sharanagati?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|bhakti|sharanagati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18947" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-15T16:31:34.663" Score="2" ViewCount="6765" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna Paramahamsa known as a very well Shakta mystic and yogi. Most of his followers consider him as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. However, Lord Vishnu is known to be a vegetarian. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is said to have taken fish. So why would he take fish if he was Vishnu avatara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-03-16T15:37:02.547" LastActivityDate="2018-03-16T15:37:02.547" Title="Why did Ramakrishna Paramahamsa eat fish if he was Vishnu avatara?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|non-vegetarian|ramakrishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18948" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-15T16:32:05.937" Score="10" ViewCount="1168" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I've discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18946/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question, Sri Vaishnavas believe that Saranagati the most appropriate way towards Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know the eligibility &amp;amp; procedure for Sharanagati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who is considered to be qualified for Sharanagati?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the procedure of Sharanagati? Are there any daily practices or rituals to be followed?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-06-15T18:40:03.150" LastActivityDate="2018-09-08T06:19:31.087" Title="Eligibility and Procedure for Saranagati" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|sharanagati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18949" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18933" CreationDate="2017-06-15T16:49:17.893" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It must have to do with the generation of devotion, surrender etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the following nirukti of Purana (why it is so called), as given by Lord Shiva in the Kularnava Tantram (which is a Shakta Agama text), one of the major features of Puranas is their devotion or bhakti aspect. They serve to build devotion in the readers or hearers' minds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pu&lt;/strong&gt;nya PApAdi KathanaAd &lt;strong&gt;RA&lt;/strong&gt;kshashA DinibAranAt| &lt;strong&gt;Na&lt;/strong&gt;vabhaktyAdi JananAt PurAn Iti Kathyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because it tells of merit and demerit (Punyapapa), because it dispels&#xA;  evil beings like Raksasas, and &lt;strong&gt;because it generates nine-fold&#xA;  devotion, (Navabhakti) and the like, it is called Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 17.39.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the feet is surely the place for surrender which in turn is related to devotion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this is why i think the concept of surrendering to/worshiping the lotus feet of God is extensively found in all the Puranas as the very nature of those texts is certainly bhakti pradhana and one of their purposes too is to generate bhakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T05:48:16.183" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T05:48:16.183" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18950" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-15T19:49:40.417" Score="3" ViewCount="315" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;Vedic Mathematics&quot; is a book by Bharati Krishna Tirthaji, who served as the Shankaracharya of Sringeri Mutt from 1921-1925, and as the Shankaracharya of Govardhana Mutt from 1925 until his death in 1960.  It was during his time in the latter position that he gave a series of lectures in which he claimed to have discovered a set of 16 Sutras in the Parishishta (appendix) of the Atharvana Veda which describe advanced mathematical techniques.  He then wrote a book on the same subject, known as &quot;Vedic Mathematics&quot;, which was published posthumously in 1965.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But most scholars don't accept the authenticity of the book, for reasons described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tifr.res.in/~vahia/dani-vmsm.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;journal paper&lt;/a&gt;.  For one thing, published editions of the Parishishta of the Atharvana Veda do not contain these 16 Sutras.  Also, the mathematical techniques that Bharati Krishna Tirthaji describes are reminiscent of European arithmetic tricks.  (See &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mathematics#Vedic_period&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for the real mathematics of the Vedic period.). But my question is, what does Govardhana Mutt believe about the authenticity of the book, given that Bharati Krishna Tirthaji was one of their Shankaracharyas?  I would ask about Sringeri Mutt as well, except that Bharati Krishna Tirthaji lectured on this subject while he was the Shankaracharya of Govardhana Mutt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharati Krishna Tirthaji's shishya Manjula Tirvedi says this in her introduction to the &quot;Vedic Mathematics&quot; book:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Obviously these formulas are not to be found in the present recessions of Atharvaveda; they were actually reconstructed, on the basis of intuitive revelation, from materials scattered here are there in the Atharvaveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But have any Shankaracharyas of Govardhana Mutt who came after Bharati Krishna Tirthaji's time discussed the book?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T19:20:55.133" Title="Does Govardhana Mutt accept the authenticity of Bharati Krishna Tirthaji's &quot;Vedic Mathematics&quot;?" Tags="|vedas|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|science|mathematics|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18953" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18929" CreationDate="2017-06-16T01:58:19.827" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism view spans all jeevas, in various stages of their lives. So, there are defined dharmas for men, for women, and for various varnas and asramas. Such dharmas again take into account time and space (kAla and dEza). Dharmas are defined for activities that are transactional in nature as well as those that have far-reaching consequences. The basis of defining all these dharmas is that life and the universe are not limited to the here and the now. There are rules that must be followed if life as a whole must endure , thrive and advance across millennia. In addition, each individual jeeva must attain moksha at the end of it all. This is the ultimate goal of Hinduism. So dharma is defined keeping in mind the goals of moksha plus harmonious living during a particular janma/lifetime. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If certain dharmas  at times seem biased in favour of one gender or the other, that is because one is not looking at the larger goals stated above. Having said that, Hinduism holds women superior in many ways some of which are mentioned already in the Question ; men are held superior in some other ways. &#xA;The takeaway is that, there is a balance of reward and responsibility, a division of labour, a sharing of duty to uphold the laws of the universe,  and guidance towards achieving the ultimate goal of moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T04:34:50.377" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T04:34:50.377" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18955" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18956" CreationDate="2017-06-16T04:53:57.917" Score="5" ViewCount="3614" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to many Vaishnava Puranas such as the Padma Purana and the Garuda Purana, people who have taken tamasic food must perform the Candrayana vrata but not much details are given about it. So how is this vrata to be performed then?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Padma Purana states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;palandu lasunam sigrum alambum grjanam palam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhunkte yo vai naro brahman vratam candrayanam caret&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O sages, one who eats garlic, onions, sigrum (a kind of plant), turnips, bottle gourd and meat, that person should observe a &lt;strong&gt;candrayana fast&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;(Padma Purana, Brahma Khanda 19.10, spoken by Suta Gosvami)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By eating garlic and onion one becomes sinful and as atonement one should perform &lt;strong&gt;candrayana&lt;/strong&gt;. (Garuda Purana 1.97.3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Padma Purana also states that true Vaishnavas perform Chandrayana Vrata regularly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who are free from devotion to heretics, who are highly devoted to Siva, &lt;strong&gt;who are engaged in (observing) the vow of Caturdasi&lt;/strong&gt;, should be known to be Vais- navas. (Padma Purana, Chapter 10, Section 7, Chapter 2, Verse 111)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-04-26T17:08:13.240" Title="How to perform the Candrayana Vrata?" Tags="|vaishnavism|garuda-purana|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18956" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18955" CreationDate="2017-06-16T05:34:46.397" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The ChaAdrAyana vrata is one of the most difficult vratas to perform. Usually, the doer gets rid of almost all the possible sins he has committed. There are many difficult rules to be followed during this vrata hence very few people are actually take up this vrata. It is considered of great merit to perform this vrata. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During the krShNa-pakSha, the one undertaking this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=1017&amp;amp;more=1&amp;amp;c=1&amp;amp;tb=1&amp;amp;pb=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;vrata&lt;/a&gt; or&#xA;  penitential rite will decrease food consumed, by one mouthful each&#xA;  day; similarly, with growing kalA of the chandra in shukla-pakSha, one&#xA;  increases the quantity of food consumed. On the day of amAvAsyA, one&#xA;  keeps a complete fast. Alternately, some smrtis talk of consuming 240&#xA;  kabalas during the entire month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Also, one is required to take a bath at every sandhyA (prAtaH,&#xA;  madhyAhna and sAyam). This is the general description of the&#xA;  chAndrAyaNa vrata. There are variations such as shishu chAndrAyaNa,&#xA;  yati chAndrAyaNa etc for specific circumstances and adhikAra bheda.&#xA;  The amount of food consumed is measured in terms of kabala or balls of&#xA;  cooked rice, the size of which is required to be of the size of a&#xA;  hen’s egg. The food consumed should be sanctified through gAyatrI&#xA;  mahAmantra. Alternately, VaiShNava commentators on dharma shAstras&#xA;  explain that the vrata starts with consumption of fourteen kabalas,&#xA;  decreasing each day by one till ekAdashI, on which day one keeps a&#xA;  full fast. On dvAdashI, fast is broken by consuming a single kabala,&#xA;  gradually increasing the same by one every day during shukla pakSha.&#xA;  While not always followed, traditionally it is said that one needs to&#xA;  offer unhusked rice to a cow with suitable qualities and from the&#xA;  undigested grains collected from the cow dung, cooked rice is prepared&#xA;  for consumption during the vrata. Vrddha parAshara declares the vrata&#xA;  as futile if such rice is not consumed during the vrata. ParAshara&#xA;  also instructs one to begin the vrata from shukla pakSha and conclude&#xA;  the same with brAhmaNa-santarpaNa. Based on whether the vrata begins&#xA;  with increasing or decreasing chandrakalA, there are classifications&#xA;  such as yavamadhya and pipilika chandrayana (Yajnavalkya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among the most auspicious times for fasting are the days of Full and&#xA;  New Moon as well as the eighth and the twenty-third of each month&#xA;  (counting from the first day after New Moon). New Moon Day (Amavasya)&#xA;  is that day of the lunar month which begins when the last crescent of&#xA;  the Moon becomes invisible at dawn - for which reason it may&#xA;  accurately be called No Moon Day. The night before this, that is, New&#xA;  Moon's Eve, is the Sacred Night of Shiva (Shiva Ratri) which is also&#xA;  known as The Fourteenth Day of Shiva and The Dark Night of Shiva&#xA;  (Shiva Kalaratri). Fasting during the day and night on this auspicious&#xA;  occasion is particularly meritorious, and is observed for the&#xA;  expiation of sins as well as for acquiring religious merit. (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/chandrayana-vrata-an-austerity-6973496612.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T05:34:46.397" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18957" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18947" CreationDate="2017-06-16T05:47:26.423" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Avatarahood has nothing to with eating habits or vegetarianism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are various rituals which involve partaking small quantities of meat. We can find description of these in rituals related to yajnas as well as in the grhya and shrauta sutras. So meat eating is not something alien to hinduisn. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the famous avatar was Sri Rama. There are plenty of references in the Ramayana about his meat consumption. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;suraaghaTasahasreNa maamsabhuutodanena cha |  yakshye tvaam prayataa&#xA;  devi puriim punarupaagataa || 2-52-89&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;devii= “Oh, goddess! Upaagata= After reaching; puriim= the city&#xA;  (Ayodhya); punaH= again; yakshhye= I shall worship (you); suraaghata&#xA;  sahasreNa= with thousand pots of spirituous liquor; maamsa&#xA;  bhuutodanena cha = and jellied meat with cooked rice; prayataa=&#xA;  well-prepared for the solemn rite.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Oh, goddess! After reaching back the city of Ayodhya, I shall worship&#xA;  you with thousand pots of spirituous liquor and jellied &lt;strong&gt;meat&lt;/strong&gt; with&#xA;  cooked rice well prepared for the solemn rite.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;samaashvasa muhuurtam tu shakyam vastum iha tvayaa || 3-47-22&#xA;  aagamiSyati me bhartaa vanyam aadaaya puSkalam | ruruun godhaan&#xA;  varaahaan ca hatvaa aadaaya amiSaan bahu || 3-47-23&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;22b, 23. muhuurtam samaashvasa= for a moment, be comfortable; tvayaa&#xA;  iha vastum shakyam= by you, here, to take rest, possible; me bhartaa=&#xA;  my, husband; ruruun= stag with black stripes; godhaan= mongooses like&#xA;  [civet-like mammals of the family Viverridae, esp. of the genus&#xA;  Herpestes, Marathi manguus]; varaahaan ca= wild-boars, also; hatvaa=&#xA;  on killing; bahu amiSaan aadaaya= aplenty, meat, on taking; puSkalam&#xA;  vanyam aadaaya= plentiful, forest produce, on taking; aagamiSyati=&#xA;  will be coming [soon.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Be comfortable for a moment, here it is possible for you to make a&#xA;  sojourn, and soon my husband will be coming on taking plentiful forest&#xA;  produce, and on killing stags, mongooses, wild boars he &lt;strong&gt;fetches meat&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  aplenty. [3-47-22b, 23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तां तदा दर्शयित्वा तु मैथिली गिरिनिम्नगाम् ।निषसाद गिरिप्रस्थे सीतां&#xA;  मांसेन छन्दयन् ।। इदं मध्यमिदं स्वादु निष्टप्तमिद मग्निना ।एवमास्ते स&#xA;  धर्मात्मा सीतया सह राघवः ।। (वाल्मीकि रामायण, अयोध्या काण्ड, 96, 1 व&#xA;  2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having shown to Sita the mountain-river Mandakini and gratifying her&#xA;  with meat, Rama sat on the mountain slope. Righteous Rama was seated&#xA;  in Sita's company and remarked saying &quot;&lt;strong&gt;This meat is sacred&lt;/strong&gt;. This is&#xA;  savoury roasted in fire&quot;. (Valmiki Ramayan, Ayodha Kand 96:1-2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, there are no rules that an avatar should not eat meat or should have a particular diet. Avatar is beyond all these aspects. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T05:47:26.423" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18958" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18937" CreationDate="2017-06-16T06:13:22.750" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gotra, or lineage is determined through one's father (biological), which is an unbroken line of men going back to Rishis (sages) who started them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E.g. If a person belongs to Vishvamitra gotra today, it means, Vishvamitra (who lived hundreds of thousands of years ago)'s son's son's son's ....... son is that person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T06:13:22.750" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18959" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="35218" CreationDate="2017-06-16T06:29:19.610" Score="19" ViewCount="4121" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama, the seventh avatara of Vishnu is known as a personality who always keeps His word. However, the following verses from the Valmiki Ramayana struck me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चतुर्दश हि वर्षाणि वत्स्यामि विजने वने ।&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  मधुमूलफलैर्जीवन्हित्वा मुनिवदामिषम् ॥ २-२०-२९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I shall live in a solitary forest like a sage for fourteen years, leaving off meat and living with roots, fruits and honey.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verse was said by Lord Rama to Kausalya before going into exile. However, after this we find these verses which contradicts the above verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तौ तत्र हत्वा चतुरो महामृगान्_ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वराहमृश्यम् पृषतं महारुरुम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आदाय मेध्यं त्वरितं बुभुक्षितौ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वासाय काले ययतुर्वनस्पतिम् ॥ २-५२-१०२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having hunted there four deer, namely Varaaha, Rishya, Prisata; and Mahaaruru (the four principal species of deer) and taking quickly the portions that were pure, being hungry as they were, Rama and Lakshmana reached a tree to take rest in the evening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समाश्वस मुहूर्तं तु शक्यं वस्तुमिह त्वया ॥ 3-47-22 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आगमिष्यति मे भर्ता वन्यमादाय पुष्कलम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रुरून्गोधान्वराहांश्च हत्वाऽऽदायाऽमिषान्बहून् ॥ 3-47-23 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Be comfortable for a moment, here it is possible for you to make a sojourn, and soon my husband will be coming on taking plentiful forest produce, and on killing stags, mongooses, wild boars he fetches meat, aplenty. [3-47-22b, 23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So these verse appear to be very contradictory to the promise made by Lord Rama to His mother. But it is highly unlikely that He would not keep his word. Is the translation wrong? Or is it that Lord Rama did take meat in the forest? If so why? Apologies to anyone offended by my question including to Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-01-21T01:01:44.587" LastActivityDate="2023-08-26T15:24:36.880" Title="Did Lord Rama break His promise to his mother Kausalya and if so why?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="14" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18960" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18941" CreationDate="2017-06-16T06:40:35.530" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Vedic astrology the varna is determined by the chandra rasis. Or it depends on where the moon was placed during the time of birth of a native.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are four varnas- Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Different natives, depending on the moon's placement in their natal charts, are assigned one of these four varnas as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Varna&lt;/strong&gt; -------&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Moon signs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmin ------&gt;            Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kshatriya  --------&gt;          Aries, Leo, Sagitarius.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaishya ----------&gt;             Taurus, Virgo, Capricon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shudra  -----------&gt;           Gemini, Libra, Aquarius.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/bphspage1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra&lt;/a&gt; mentions this as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ema3h.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ema3h.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AQUARIUS DESCRIBED .' The sign Aquarius represents a man holding a&#xA;  pot. Its complexion is deep-brown. It has a medium build and a biped&#xA;  sign. It is very strong in day time. It resorts to deep water and is&#xA;  airy. It rises with its head &lt;strong&gt;and is Tamasic. It rules Sudras,the 4th&#xA;  Varna&lt;/strong&gt; and the west. Its lord is Saturn,the Sun's offspring.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6HiYF.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6HiYF.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;LIBRA AND SCORPIO DESCRIBED : Libra is a Seershodaya sign rising with&#xA;  its head and is strong in day time. It is black in complexion and is&#xA;  predominant with RaJoguna. It relates to tho western direction and&#xA;  resorts to land. It is destructive or mischievous. &lt;strong&gt;It represents&#xA;  Sudras or the 4th Varna&lt;/strong&gt; and has a medium build and is a biped sign.&#xA;  Its lord is Venus. Scorpio has a slender physique and is a centipede&#xA;  sign. &lt;strong&gt;It denotes Brahmins&lt;/strong&gt; and resides in holes. Its direction is&#xA;  north and is strong in day time. It is reddish-brown and resorts to&#xA;  water and land. It has a hairy physique and is very sharp(or&#xA;  passionate). Mars is its ruler.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, so on for the other rashis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T06:40:35.530" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18961" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18983" CreationDate="2017-06-16T06:42:29.990" Score="1" ViewCount="1193" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahmastra is debated to be similar in nature to Atom/Nuclear bomb. But my question is, do scriptures describe the effects of Brahmastra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T14:14:10.587" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T19:24:12.073" Title="Do scriptures describe the effects of Brahmastra?" Tags="|scripture|weapon|brahmastra|itihasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18962" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19015" CreationDate="2017-06-16T07:01:48.597" Score="9" ViewCount="1725" Body="&lt;p&gt;Devi Bhagavatam 2.6.46  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपुत्रस्य गतिर्नास्ति स्वर्गे गन्तुं परन्तप। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येन केनाप्युपायेन पुत्रस्य जननं चरेत्॥ ४६ ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pandu, living in ascetics' Hermitage, heard mistakenly thus- A sonless person has no chance to go to heaven.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Therefore, by any or the other mean, bring into effect the birth of a son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Bhagavatam 1.4.15-16  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपुत्रस्य गतिर्नास्ति स्वर्गो नैव च नैव च।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुत्रादन्यतरन्नास्ति परलोकस्य साधनम् ॥ १५ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मन्वादिभिश्च मुनिभिर्धर्मशास्त्रेषु भाषितम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुत्रवान्स्वर्गमाप्नोति नापुत्रस्तु कथञ्चन ॥ १६ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no prospect in the after birth of the sonless; never, never&#xA;  will Heaven be his. Without son, there is none other who can be of&#xA;  help in the next world. Thus in the Dharma S’âstras, Manu and other&#xA;  Munis declare that the man who has sons goes to Heaven and the sonless&#xA;  one can never go to Heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Bhagavatam 1.15.18-20  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जलूकेव सदा नारी रुधिरं पिबतीति वै ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मूर्खस्तु न विजानाति मोहितो भावचेष्टितैः ॥ १८ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भोगैर्वीर्यं धनं पूर्णं मनः कुटिलभाषणैः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कान्ता हरति सर्वस्वं कः स्तेनस्तादृशोऽपरः ॥ १९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निद्रासुखविनाशार्थं मूर्खस्तु दारसङ्ग्रहम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  करोति वञ्चितो धात्रा दुःखाय न सुखाय च ॥ २० ॥  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The fools do not understand how the women suck the blood out of&#xA;  persons like leeches,&lt;/strong&gt; for they get themselves deluded by their&#xA;  gestures and postures! The lady of the house, whom the people call&#xA;  kântâ, the beautiful one, steal away the semen virile, the strength&#xA;  and energy in the way of giving them happiness as sexual intercourse,&#xA;  and their minds and wealth and everything by their crooked love&#xA;  conversations; so see what greater thief can there be than a woman? &lt;strong&gt;In&#xA;  my opinion, those that are ignorant are certainly deluded by the&#xA;  Creator; they accept wife to destroy their own pleasure of happiness.&#xA;  They can never understand that the women can never be the source of&#xA;  pleasure; they are the source of all miseries&lt;/strong&gt;…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Bhagavatam 9.38.4  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्त्वज्ञानविहीना च स्त्रीजातिर्विधिनिर्मिता । &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Bhagavân! &lt;strong&gt;The woman kind has been created by the Creator as devoid&#xA;  of any Tattvajñâna or true knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Bhagavatam 9.1.142-143  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अधमास्तमसश्चांशा अज्ञातकुलसम्भवाः ॥ १४२ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दुर्मुखाः कुलहा धूर्ताः स्वतन्त्राः कलहप्रियाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पृथिव्यां कुलटा याश्च स्वर्गे चाप्सरसां गणाः ॥ १४३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Those that are sprung from Tamo Guna are&lt;/strong&gt; recognised as worst and&#xA;  belonging to the unknown families. They are very &lt;strong&gt;scurrilous, cheats,&#xA;  ruining their families, fond of their own free ways, quarrelsome and&#xA;  no seconds are found equal to them. Such women become prostitutes in&#xA;  this world and Apsaras in the Heavens&lt;/strong&gt;…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Bhagavatam 9.35.18-21  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रकोपवदना कोपात् स्वामिनं या च पश्यति ॥ १८ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कटूक्तिं तं प्रवदति सोल्मुकं सम्प्रयाति हि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उल्कां ददाति तद्वक्त्रे सततं मम किङ्‌करः ॥ १९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दण्डेन ताडयेन्मूर्ध्नि तल्लोमाब्दप्रमाणकम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततो भवेन्मानवी च विधवा सप्तजन्मसु ॥ २० ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सा भुक्त्वा चैव वैधव्यं व्याधियुक्ता ततः शुचिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  या ब्राह्मणी शूद्रभोग्या चान्धकूपे प्रयाति सा ॥ २१ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If any &lt;strong&gt;woman, being very furious with anger, chastises and uses harsh&#xA;  words to her husband, she goes to Ulkâmukha Kunda&lt;/strong&gt; for as many years as&#xA;  there are hairs on his body. My servants put fiery meteors or torches&#xA;  in her mouth and beat on her head. At the end of the term, she becomes&#xA;  a human being but she has to bear the torments of widowhood for seven&#xA;  births. Then she is again born as diseased; when at last she gets&#xA;  herself freed. &lt;strong&gt;The Brâhmana woman, enjoyed by a S’ûdra, goes to the&#xA;  terrible dark Andhakûpa hell&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Bhagavatam 1.5.83  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनृतं साहसं माया मूर्खत्वमतिलोभता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अशौचं निर्दयत्वं च स्त्रीणां दोषाः स्वभावजाः ॥ ८३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Falsehood, vain boldness, craftiness, stupidity, impatience,&#xA;  over-greediness, impurity, and harshness are the natural qualities of&#xA;  women.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-06-17T08:15:41.550" LastActivityDate="2020-06-15T17:16:07.020" Title="Why Devi Bhagavata Purana, being a Purana for feminine deity, insults women?" Tags="|puranas|women|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18963" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18933" CreationDate="2017-06-16T07:05:16.230" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is very interesting and good question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We often see the term “Lotus feet” in all our Puranas, Bhakti literature and in various other spiritual books. The term lotus feet represents the Divine feet of Gods, Saints,  Gurus, Acharyas  and other Spiritual beings.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The feet of the Gods , Saints, Gurus, Acharya etc. are compared to the lotus .The concept is  the  softness  , divinity of the feet can be only compared with the delicate lotus petals.The lotus is soft , sublime and also sacred so are the lotus feet of these.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in Hinduism lotus is a spiritual symbol , the actual meaning of which is Spiritual progress, pureness, knowledge etc. The another meaning of the lotus Feet is also transcendental , or very deep , and beyond our understanding.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A student , devotee or a disciple expresses his devotion , surrender dedication and love  , humility etc towards his chosen God , Guru , spiritual master etc. By touching , meditating at their  Its Lotus feet. In this way a relation with all these also gets established. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another concept which is called “Sharanagati” means falling upon the lotus feet of the God , Guru , OR Spiritual masters ,to illuminate our soul and to attain the state of Moksha. This also signifies giving away all our ego and completely taking shelter at feet of these. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We here can see the softness of the feet of Shree Rama is compared with that of lotus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गुर्वर्थे त्यक्तराज्यो व्यचरदनुवनं  पद्मपद्मपद्भ्यां प्रियाया:।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पाणिस्पर्शाक्षमाभ्यां मृजितपथरुजो यो हरीन्द्रानुजाभ्याम ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gurv-arthe tyakta-rājyo vyacarad  anuvanaṁ padma-padbhyāṁ priyāyāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pāṇi-sparśākṣamābhyāṁ mṛjita-patha rujo yo harīndrānujābhyām&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To keep the promise of His father intact, Lord Rāmacandra immediately&#xA;  gave up the position of king and, accompanied by His wife, mother&#xA;  Sītā, wandered from one forest to another on His lotus feet, which&#xA;  were so delicate that they were unable to bear even the touch of&#xA;  Sītā’s palms.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/10/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 9.10.4 &lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्सर्वश्रुतिशिरोरत्नविराजित पदाम्बुजः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   वेदान्ताम्बुजसूर्योयः तस्मै श्रीगुरवे नमः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tsarvashrutishiroratnaviraajita padaambujaH&lt;br&gt; vedaantaambujasuuryoyaH&#xA;  tasmai shriigurave namaH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Salutation to the noble Guru, whose lotus feet are radiant with (the&#xA;  luster of) the crest jewel of all Srutis and who is the sun that&#xA;  causes the Vedanta Lotus (knowledge) to blossom.&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskrit.samskrutam.com/en.literature-shloka-guru-vandanaa.ashx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are some quick  examples of lotus feet concept you want to know.&#xA;There are  literally thousands of such  example scattered in our vast literature. Some of which I will add later on in my answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-25T18:39:02.893" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T18:39:02.893" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18964" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18941" CreationDate="2017-06-16T07:23:40.713" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Varna koota is factor in Vedic astrology which is used for match making purpose. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Four signs each are divided into 4 categories of a varna each. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Totally there are 8 such factors to be considered during match making which is called as Ashta Bhakoota. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also another section which is called &quot;yoni&quot; under which people are classified under yonis such as mooshaka, mahisha, sarpa, ashwa etc. Now this does not mean that the person will have characteristics like these animals. But it is just a classification for ascertaining the compatibility between two birth charts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are several factors used for this which includes graha maitri, nadi, vashya etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one should not confuse this Varna with the actual varna of the person. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saravali.de/articles/astakoota.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this is to be considered then all those who are of libra, gemini, and aquarius sign are shudras irrespective of where they are born! Further, nowehere they consider the rashi during the upanayana ceremony for deciding the eligibility of the candidate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the famous examples of great saints who were born in these rashi are,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (Aquarius moon sign)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja acharya (Gemini moon sign) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this is just for matchmaking purpose and has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ACTUAL VARNA. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-11T05:12:28.330" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T05:12:28.330" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18966" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="599" CreationDate="2017-06-16T10:27:27.040" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In fact I would say that it is highly recommended for one to get married in the sanatana dharma. Anyone who follows a Vedic life is supposed to get married. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the reason  why you will see that our vedic rishis were all married and householders lifelong. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AykAshramyam tvacAryA: pratyakshavidhAnAt gArhasthasya | (Apasthamba&#xA;  Sutram)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - There is only one Ashramam and that is Grahastha dharma.&#xA;  Thus, the only Ashramam advocated by the vedAs is the eternal&#xA;  gArhastyAshramam and none other. This is the reason why all our seers&#xA;  (cause for our gotrAs) like atri , vasishta ,agastya , bharadvAja ,etc&#xA;  led a lifestyle of jaDa, maravuri, living with consort in the forest,&#xA;  doing penance, performing daily rituals (nitya karmA) , upAsana&#xA;  (worship) of agni , yagnyA and chanting of vedAs until their last&#xA;  breath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It should be understood that there is no virtue that is superior to&#xA;  &quot;Daampatya-dharma’, the path of married life. Every one should follow&#xA;  this advice of wisdom-Incarnate throughout their life time as wedlock&#xA;  is the way to salvation. One can never experience the fruit of&#xA;  creation without Wedlock. Male and Female species in creation are&#xA;  complementary to each other. One can become whole and complete only&#xA;  after Wedlock. Without Wedlock neither man nor woman can attain&#xA;  fulfillment- they will remain incomplete.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The cause of this universe and the basis for all existence is the&#xA;  penance of Brahman. The result of unswerving penance is knowledge&#xA;  (vidya), gnyAnam , satyam (truth) , sukham (Happiness). This world,&#xA;  created by, and resulting from unswerving penance, has these aspects&#xA;  of form: vidyArUpam , gnyAnarUpam , satyarUpam , sukharUpam . The same&#xA;  is bestowed upon us by the vedAs. Vedas have provided a platform for&#xA;  every soul (being in their respective states) to experience this&#xA;  'Brahman'. ( the ultimate power)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The main objective of all the Vedas is ‘garhastyashramam’ i.e, family&#xA;  life (dampatya). ‘Brahmacharyam’ is instrumental and the preliminary&#xA;  practice for ‘garhastyashramam’. Brahmacharyam is the life of Veda&#xA;  adyayanam, enjoying all sorts of happiness, well being, etc i.e.&#xA;  Shastric veda adyayanam is brahmacharyam. Brahmacharyam is also known&#xA;  as ‘garhasyta sadhanam’ as it is preliminary and part of the&#xA;  garhastyashramam referred to in the Vedas. Brahmacharyam which is the&#xA;  life of Veda adyayanam and Gayathri upasana is applicable for all,&#xA;  irrespective of their sex and creed. The regulated proper method of&#xA;  mastering Vedas etc., helps one lead Dhampathya life successfully.&#xA;  This is applicable to woman also. Women are entitled to all ceremonies&#xA;  like Upanayanam, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mastering the Vedas as ordained is itself a Tapas (Penance). It must&#xA;  be noted that Karma (or action) and Jnana (or knowledge) are not two&#xA;  separate entities. Therefore there is no separate path for Jnanamarga.&#xA;  There is only one path, and that is Vedamarga, the path of the Vedas.&#xA;  Its culmination is in Dhampathya life. The Maharshi couple led the&#xA;  Dhampathya life throughout their lives. Remaining in that Dhampathya,&#xA;  one should desire good progeny, beget ideal children and bring them up&#xA;  with great care. They are the true wealth for ‘the here’ and ‘the&#xA;  hereafter.’ Immortals are fortunate enough to hear the lisping of&#xA;  their children. In a sense, one can attain immortality, if, being of&#xA;  good character, one is born as his/her own progeny. The Vedas state&#xA;  this explicitly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a man and a woman of pure conduct, bound by mutual love,&#xA;  consummate their marriage, all elements like form, etc., get totally&#xA;  absorbed in the fire of their union. This absorption creates an&#xA;  intoxicating light radiating from them. When this intoxicating light&#xA;  is also absorbed, Ananda, or Bliss arises and shines forth. The light&#xA;  is absorbed in itself, and Ananda shines. From that, issues forth a&#xA;  child, the sum total of all elements. The Maharishis advised- Always&#xA;  live in the state of Vedic Dampatya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahashakthi who created the whole universe, laid down the vedic&#xA;  path so that all mankind could live happily enjoying all comforts-&#xA;  temporal and spiritual. The Vedic path is nothing but the life lived&#xA;  by the Maharshis: the eternal dhampathya life enjoined by the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“uthishtatha maaswapta agni michadhvam bharataaha” (YV)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This means “ O Bharathiyas! Awake and yearn for fire”, Bha in Sanskrit&#xA;  means light. One who worships light is a Bharateeya. That India is&#xA;  called Bharat clearly conveys that all Indians were following the&#xA;  Vedas and leading a life as prescribed by the Vedas. It extols all to&#xA;  worship fire which is the primordial energy behind all creation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedic path refers to the three stages of a person:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The initial stage, which is Brahmacharya: the study and learning of&#xA;  Vedas and Gayathri Upasana, and worship of Agni through oblations&#xA;  twice a day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The next stage is the Grihastashrama (getting into marital life) and&#xA;  offering oblations to Agni by performing Agni upasana , Yagas , etc.&#xA;  along with the life partner which are meant for the evolution of one’s&#xA;  self in the spiritual realm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The final stage is offering one’s body after death to the Agni that&#xA;  was worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It should be understood that vanaprastha is the continuation of&#xA;  grahastha stage after discharging the duties and retiring along with&#xA;  the wife and continuing agni upasana, penance, and nitya karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To lead a life as prescribed by the Vedas, here is the system to be&#xA;  followed by one and all:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Initiation into Gayathri Upasana Study of the Vedas or understanding&#xA;  the messages given in them. Agni upasana as part of Gayathri Upasana&#xA;  and vedic study (BRAHMACHARYA). Getting into married life and&#xA;  continuing Agni Worship as a couple – Grahastha Dharma. Offering one’s&#xA;  body in the fire worshipped by the couple (The concept behind the&#xA;  ritual followed for cremation in the present day)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T11:13:11.473" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T11:13:11.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18967" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18937" CreationDate="2017-06-16T10:27:44.827" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gotra name is the name of the person who has been saint or Rishi(sages) first in community. First person to become saint in unbroken line of men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eg. If a person belongs to Gautam Gotra then Gautam Rishi was first person who become Saint or Rishi(sages) in the unbroken chain of the men. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T10:27:44.827" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18968" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="954" CreationDate="2017-06-16T10:35:18.240" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;For men and women the stages of life are similar. Both have to undergo the same levels of life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sridevinatha.org/vedic.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedic path&lt;/a&gt; refers to the three stages of a person:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;initial stage&lt;/strong&gt;, which is Brahmacharya: the study and learning&#xA;  of Vedas and Gayathri Upasana, and worship of Agni through oblations&#xA;  twice a day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;second stage&lt;/strong&gt; is the Grihastashrama (getting into marital life)&#xA;  and offering oblations to Agni by performing Agni upasana , Yagas ,&#xA;  etc. along with the life partner which are meant for the evolution of&#xA;  one’s self in the spiritual realm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vanaprastha is the continuation of Grihastha stage along with the wife in a secluded place and continuing agni and other worship. After completing the houshold duties the couple may retire to a forest. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;final stage&lt;/strong&gt; is offering one’s body after death to the Agni&#xA;  that was worshiped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It should be understood that vanaprastha is the continuation of&#xA;  grahastha stage after discharging the duties and retiring along with&#xA;  the wife and continuing agni upasana, penance, and nitya karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To lead a life as prescribed by the Vedas, here is the system to be followed by one and all:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Initiation into Gayathri Upasana Study of the Vedas or understanding&#xA;  the messages given in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agni upasana as part of Gayathri Upasana and vedic study&#xA;  (BRAHMACHARYA).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Getting into married life and continuing Agni Worship as a couple –&#xA;  Grahastha Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Offering one’s body in the fire worshipped by the couple (The concept&#xA;  behind the ritual followed for cremation in the present day)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T10:35:18.240" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18969" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7892" CreationDate="2017-06-16T10:44:40.643" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In general, Hinduism supports household life over other. In the smriti and Vedic literature the household life is praised over renunciation. But if someone has some kind of health problem or some aversion then you have to make a decision based on that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AykAshramyam tvacAryA: pratyakshavidhAnAt gArhasthasya | (Apasthamba&#xA;  Sutram)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - There is only one Ashramam and that is Grahastha dharma.&#xA;  Thus, the only Ashramam advocated by the vedAs is the eternal&#xA;  gArhastyAshramam and none other. This is the reason why all our seers&#xA;  (cause for our gotrAs) like atri , vasishta ,agastya , bharadvAja ,etc&#xA;  led a lifestyle of jaDa, maravuri, living with consort in the forest,&#xA;  doing penance, performing daily rituals (nitya karmA) , upAsana&#xA;  (worship) of agni , yagnyA and chanting of vedAs until their last&#xA;  breath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It should be understood that there is no virtue that is superior to&#xA;  &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Daampatya-dharma&lt;/strong&gt;’, the path of married life. Everyone should follow&#xA;  this advice of wisdom-Incarnate throughout their lifetime as wedlock&#xA;  is the way to salvation. One can never experience the fruit of&#xA;  creation without Wedlock. Male and Female species in creation are&#xA;  complementary to each other. One can become whole and complete only&#xA;  after Wedlock. Without Wedlock neither man nor woman can attain&#xA;  fulfillment- they will remain incomplete.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The cause of this universe and the basis for all existence is the&#xA;  penance of Brahman. The result of unswerving penance is knowledge&#xA;  (vidya), gnyAnam , satyam (truth) , sukham (Happiness). This world,&#xA;  created by, and resulting from unswerving penance, has these aspects&#xA;  of form: vidyArUpam , gnyAnarUpam , satyarUpam , sukharUpam . The same&#xA;  is bestowed upon us by the vedAs. Vedas have provided a platform for&#xA;  every soul (being in their respective states) to experience this&#xA;  'Brahman'. ( the ultimate power)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The main objective of all the Vedas is ‘garhastyashram’ i.e, family&#xA;  life (dampatya). ‘Brahmacharyam’ is instrumental and the preliminary&#xA;  practice for ‘garhastyashram’. &lt;strong&gt;Brahmacharyam&lt;/strong&gt; is the life of Veda&#xA;  adyayanam, enjoying all sorts of happiness, well being, etc i.e.&#xA;  Shastric veda adyayanam is brahmacharyam. Brahmacharyam is also known&#xA;  as ‘garhasyta sadhanam’ as it is preliminary and part of the&#xA;  garhastyashramam referred to in the Vedas. Brahmacharyam which is the&#xA;  life of Veda adyayanam and Gayathri upasana is applicable for all,&#xA;  irrespective of their sex and creed. The regulated proper method of&#xA;  mastering Vedas etc., helps one lead Dhampathya life successfully.&#xA;  This is applicable to woman also. Women are entitled to all ceremonies&#xA;  like Upanayanam, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mastering the Vedas as ordained is itself a Tapas (Penance). It must&#xA;  be noted that Karma (or action) and Jnana (or knowledge) are not two&#xA;  separate entities. Therefore there is no separate path for Jnanamarga.&#xA;  There is only one path, and that is &lt;strong&gt;Vedamarga&lt;/strong&gt;, the path of the Vedas.&#xA;  Its culmination is in Dhampathya life. The Maharshi couple led the&#xA;  Dhampathya life throughout their lives. Remaining in that Dhampathya,&#xA;  one should desire good progeny, beget ideal children and bring them up&#xA;  with great care. They are the true wealth for ‘the here’ and ‘the&#xA;  hereafter.’ Immortals are fortunate enough to hear the lisping of&#xA;  their children. In a sense, one can attain immortality, if, being of&#xA;  good character, one is born as his/her own progeny. The Vedas state&#xA;  this explicitly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a man and a woman of pure conduct, bound by mutual love,&#xA;  consummate their marriage, all elements like form, etc., get totally&#xA;  absorbed in the fire of their union. This absorption creates an&#xA;  intoxicating light radiating from them. When this intoxicating light&#xA;  is also absorbed, Ananda, or Bliss arises and shines forth. The light&#xA;  is absorbed in itself, and Ananda shines. From that, issues forth a&#xA;  child, the sum total of all elements. The Maharishis advised- Always&#xA;  live in the state of Vedic Dampatya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahashakthi who created the whole universe, laid down the vedic&#xA;  path so that all mankind could live happily enjoying all comforts-&#xA;  temporal and spiritual. The Vedic path is nothing but the life lived&#xA;  by the Maharshis: the eternal dhampathya life enjoined by the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“uthishtatha maaswapta agni michadhvam bharataaha” (YV)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This means “ O Bharathiyas! Awake and yearn for fire”, Bha in Sanskrit&#xA;  means light. One who worships light is a Bharateeya. That India is&#xA;  called Bharat clearly conveys that all Indians were following the&#xA;  Vedas and leading a life as prescribed by the Vedas. It extols all to&#xA;  worship fire which is the primordial energy behind all creation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedic path refers to the three stages of a person:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The initial stage, which is Brahmacharya: the study and learning of&#xA;  Vedas and Gayathri Upasana, and worship of Agni through oblations&#xA;  twice a day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The next stage is the Grihastashrama (getting into marital life) and&#xA;  offering oblations to Agni by performing Agni upasana , Yagas , etc.&#xA;  along with the life partner which are meant for the evolution of one’s&#xA;  self in the spiritual realm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The final stage is offering one’s body after death to the Agni that&#xA;  was worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It should be understood that vanaprastha is the continuation of&#xA;  grahastha stage after discharging the duties and retiring along with&#xA;  the wife and continuing agni upasana, penance, and nitya karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To lead a life as prescribed by the Vedas, here is the system to be&#xA;  followed by one and all:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Initiation into Gayathri Upasana Study of the Vedas or understanding&#xA;  the messages given in them. Agni upasana as part of Gayathri Upasana&#xA;  and vedic study (BRAHMACHARYA). Getting into married life and&#xA;  continuing Agni Worship as a couple – Grahastha Dharma. Offering one’s&#xA;  body in the fire worshipped by the couple (The concept behind the&#xA;  ritual followed for cremation in the present day)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sridevinatha.org/vedic.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T10:44:40.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18970" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-16T10:49:31.953" Score="6" ViewCount="7866" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the scriptures, there are yugas in these worlds. After completion of one yuga, the world collapses even an ant cannot escape from death but according to the history we find so many temples today in India which are built in dwapara yuga and also in thretha yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As an example 'Kedharnath temple' was built by Pandavas i.e in the Dwapara yuga. Then how come these temples exist even till today? Can anyone please explain?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10138" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T04:47:58.727" LastActivityDate="2022-01-15T12:59:54.280" Title="What happens between the transition of yugas?" Tags="|history|yuga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18972" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="29702" CreationDate="2017-06-16T12:16:50.750" Score="7" ViewCount="1999" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Mahabharata, it seems that all the eighteen Puranas were compiled by Rishi Vyasa before the Mahabharata itself was written:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aṣṭādaśapurāṇānāṃ śravaṇād yat phalaṃ bhavet |&#xA;  tat phalaṃ samavāpnoti viṣṇoḥ nātra saṃśayaḥ ||” (MBH 18:06:97)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One devoted to Vishnu acquires (through reading this Mahabharata) that merit which is acquired by listening to the eighteen Puranas. There is no doubt in this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, in the Srimad Bhagavatam (which is one of the eighteen Puranas), it is said that Vyasa even after compiling the Vedas and writing the Mahabharata was still sad and Narada visits him to write the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jijñāsitaṁ susampannam api te mahad-adbhutam |&#xA;  kṛtavān bhārataṁ yas tvaṁ sarvārtha-paribṛṁhitam || (SB 1:5:3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Narada said]: Your inquiries were full and your studies were also well fulfilled, and there is no doubt that you have prepared a great and wonderful work, the Mahābhārata, which is full of all kinds of Vedic sequences elaborately explained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śrī-nārada uvāca | bhavatānudita-prāyaṁ yaśo bhagavato ’malam |&#xA;  yenaivāsau na tuṣyeta manye tad darśanaṁ khilam || (SB 1:5:8)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Nārada said: You have not actually broadcasted the sublime and spotless glories of the Personality of Godhead. That philosophy which does not satisfy the transcendental senses of the Lord is considered worthless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yathā dharmādayaś cārthā muni-varyānukīrtitāḥ |&#xA;  na tathā vāsudevasya mahimā hy anuvarṇitaḥ || (SB 1:5:9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although, great sage, you have very broadly described the four principles beginning with dharma, you have not described the glories of, Vāsudeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tvam apy adabhra-śruta viśrutaṁ vibhoḥ |&#xA;  samāpyate yena vidāṁ bubhutsitam |&#xA;  prākhyāhi duḥkhair muhur arditātmanāṁ |&#xA;  saṅkleśa-nirvāṇam uśanti nānyathā || (SB 1:5:40)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Please, therefore, describe the almighty Lord’s activities which you have learned by your vast knowledge of the Vedas, for that will satisfy the hankerings of great learned men and at the same time mitigate the miseries of the masses of common people who are always suffering from material pangs. Indeed, there is no other way to get out of such miseries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This discrepancy in the timeline of compilation of the Mahabharata and the Srimad Bhagavatam has been often used by Shaktas to claim that Devi Bhagavatam is the true Bhagavata Purana and not the Bhagavatam dedicated to Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does it prove the Shakta claim of Srimad Bhagavatam being inauthentic? If not, what is the possible reason for this discrepancy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-01-22T19:54:03.520" LastActivityDate="2019-01-22T23:49:27.077" Title="Discrepancy in the timeline of compilation of the Srimad Bhagavatam and the Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavata-purana|vyasa|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18973" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-16T12:23:59.470" Score="5" ViewCount="916" Body="&lt;p&gt;All the characters of the MHB cast and reap karma--whether from a past life, or their present; but I cannot find a reason that Gandhari should have to suffer so much when she was the ideal wife and incarnate of Mati--who by a thin thread, I see is another name for Saraswati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One theory-she was &quot;Zinging&quot; Dritarastra with a &quot;see how YOU like being married to a blind woman&quot; bad attitude, and also she felt envy that Kunti delivered while she had to carry her baby for 2 years- I just don't see why her impatience or irritation at finding out her future husband was blind, could cause her to suffer such a horrible life of having envious sons (like her) and watching them get killed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Three questions: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is Mati another name for Saraswati? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why would such a model mother be punished so severely? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there any stories about Mati that would explain her karma? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9772" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-23T11:53:57.737" LastActivityDate="2023-07-18T09:04:30.620" Title="Why did Gandhari, a re-incarnation of Mati and a model wife, have to suffer so much?" Tags="|mahabharata|karma|rebirth|gandhari|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18974" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="18976" CreationDate="2017-06-16T13:28:35.800" Score="3" ViewCount="1211" Body="&lt;p&gt;We see that the Soma (plant and its extract) is one of the chiefly mentioned subjects in the Vedic literature. Especially in the rig veda there are many mantras and hymns dedicated to soma and its extraction and related rituals. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How many hymns are there in the vedas (rig veda or other) which are exclusively dedicated to soma?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-22T04:40:59.847" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T04:40:59.847" Title="How many Vedic hymns are attributed to Soma?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|chandra|soma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18975" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18970" CreationDate="2017-06-16T15:38:06.203" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;World does not collapse after every Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The collapse of earth &amp;amp; solar system only occurs at end of 1000 Chatur-Yugas (1 chatur yuga = krita    + treta + dwapara + kali yuga = 4.32 million years)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that too is only partial because higher worlds like Satya loka will still exist as long as Brahma lives, whose life-span is 100 years, where each year has 360 days, and each day = 2000 Chatur-Yugas (1000 daytime, 1000 nighttime)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Kali Yuga ends (4 lakh+ years from now), there will be a period of prolonged rains, and then Krita Yuga will start all over again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The age of earth can be easily calculated as one-daytime of Brahma = 1000 * 4.32 million, or 4.32 billion years.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Scientific analysis of carbon dating rocks comes pretty close to this value (4.54 ± 0.05 billion years). Over time science might get more refined and arrive at same answer as given in our ancient scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/vedic-time-system&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://veda.wikidot.com/vedic-time-system&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T15:38:06.203" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18976" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18974" CreationDate="2017-06-16T15:43:14.533" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;115 Hymns of the Rig Veda.&lt;/strong&gt; Chandra the moon god, aka Soma, was an important Vedic god because he is the god of the Soma drink, which is vital to many Yagnaas.  In any case, Rishis and Devatas of the hymns of the Rig Veda are given in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2429/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  As per your specifications, I'm excluding hymns that are partially addressed to Chandra and partially addressed to some other god or gods.  So here are the hymns of the Rig Veda that are entirely addressed to him:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 1 Hymn 91&lt;/a&gt;, which was heard by the sage Gautama.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv08048.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 8 Hymn 48&lt;/a&gt;, which was heard by the sage Pragatha Kanva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv08068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 8 Hymn 68&lt;/a&gt;, which was heard by the sage Kritnu Bhargava, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;111 of the hymns of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rvi09.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 9&lt;/a&gt;, known as the Soma Mandala, praise Chandra as Soma Pavamana or the clear-flowing form of Soma.  Book 9 consists of 114 hymns, but three of them are either not addressed to Chandra at all, or only partially addressed to Chandra: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv09005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hymn 5&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv09066.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hymn 66&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv09067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hymn 67&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, the hymns of Book 9 were heard by a variety of different sages.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 10 Hymn 25&lt;/a&gt;, which was heard by either Vimada Aindra, Vimada Prajapatya, or Vasukrit Vasukra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a point of comparison, there are 1028 hymns in the Rig Veda Samhita.  So it's over 11% of the total number of hymns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-17T07:28:59.210" LastActivityDate="2017-06-17T07:28:59.210" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18977" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-16T16:20:10.917" Score="6" ViewCount="1848" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though it is easy to find the translations of all the 18 major Puranas in English, I haven't still found the complete English translations of the Upapuranas. So where can I find the complete English translations of the upapuranas specifically of the following: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnudharma Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnudharmottara Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Narasimha Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kriyayogasara Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mudgala Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ganesha Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhavishyottara Purana (not to be confused with Bhavishya Purana)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kapila Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Saura Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Samba Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brihannaradiya Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brihaddharma Purana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T16:35:57.757" LastActivityDate="2018-06-15T02:08:45.973" Title="Where can I get the complete English translations of the Upapuranas?" Tags="|translation-request|upapuranas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18978" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18821" CreationDate="2017-06-16T16:20:20.677" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;These things many not be fully related to official scriptures but mainly folklore. Temple history etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Snana Yatra (Odia: ସ୍ନାନ ଯାତ୍ରା) is a bathing festival celebrated&#xA;  on the Purnima (full moon day) of the Hindu month of Jyeshtha. It is&#xA;  an important festival of the Jagannath devotees. It is the birth day&#xA;  of lord Jagannath.This is the first occasion in the year as per the&#xA;  Hindu calendar, when the deities Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra,&#xA;  Sudarshan, and Madanmohan are brought out from the Jagannath Temple&#xA;  (Puri) and taken in a procession to the Snana Bedi. There they are&#xA;  ceremonially bathed and decorated for a public audience with the&#xA;  devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is a belief among devotees of Lord Jagannath that if they make a&#xA;  pilgrimage to see the deity on this day, they would be cleansed of all&#xA;  of their sins. Hundreds of thousands of devotees visit the temple on&#xA;  the occasion. The Skanda Purana mentions that King Indradyumna&#xA;  arranged this ceremony for the first time when the idols of the&#xA;  deities were first installed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the eve of the Snana Yatra (which means the Bathing festival, in&#xA;  Sanskrit), the idols of the deities are brought out in a grand&#xA;  procession from the garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) to the Snana Bedi&#xA;  (bathing platform). Devotees come to view the deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the day of the Snana Yatra, the deities are bathed with &lt;strong&gt;108 pots&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  of ritually purified water drawn from the northern well of the temple&#xA;  to the accompaniment of religious incantations. In the evening, at the&#xA;  conclusion of the bathing ritual, Jagannath and Balabhadra are dressed&#xA;  up in elephant headgear representing the God Ganesh. This form of the&#xA;  God is called the 'Gajavesha'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the Snana Yatra the Gods are traditionally believed to fall ill&#xA;  and are kept in a sick room to recuperate in privacy under the care of&#xA;  the Raj Vaidya. During this period known as Anasara the Gods cannot be&#xA;  seen by devotees. At this time three pata chitra paintings are&#xA;  displayed for devotees to view instead It is said that with the&#xA;  Ayurvedic medication ('pnachan') administered by the Raj Vaidya the&#xA;  Gods recover in a fortnight and resume giving an audience to their&#xA;  devotees. (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snana_Yatra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XeZVG.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XeZVG.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Snana Yatra&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Until amavasya Lord Jagan natha, brother Balabhadra, and sister Subhadra will undergo fever. Next Shukla paksha pratipada they will get well. After this, they will ride their ratha on Shukla Dwitiya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The period of illness is known as &quot;anasara&quot;. They will be given special herbs like Dasa-moola and special diet during the illness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They will be offered a special decoction of black pepper, cinnamon, fennel, liquorice etc. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.livehindustan.com/uttar-pradesh/hathras/story-lord-jagannath-gets-freedom-from-fever-today-1154317.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bells, mridangam etc. will be stopped in order to give rest to the lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Different oils and resins along with musk will be applied to the vigrahas for rejuvenation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No darshan will be allowed in the temple till the shukla pratipada of Ashadha. Some priests will do pooja secretly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T10:25:48.763" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T10:25:48.763" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18981" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-16T17:51:26.710" Score="0" ViewCount="78" Body="&lt;p&gt;If one attains Moksha -That is what frees a person from samsara. So it wont matter if you lie,steal or doing anything like that since you have already freed yourself so you wont get reborn hence the law of karma will be absolved from you since it only applies to our physical body/the material world. If one is self realized (has attained moksha/enlightenmet/samadhi/jnana or whatever you want to call it), then you wont get reborn, so Karma wont effect you after this body dies, rather it will ONLY affect you NOW in this life because you wont be reborn so it cant wait until next life but rather has to act upon you during this life since this is the last time you will be trapped in this world, yes or no?&#xA;Simply put what I am asking is related to antinomianism. That is its by grace(knowledge) we are saved and not by deeds, yes or no?&#xA;so if grace(knowledge) has already saved us, we cant erase that and become unsaved again through our actions even if the action is &quot;bad&quot; or what christians would call it a &quot;sin&quot;, because we are already &quot;saved&quot; by knowledge, thats why Karma cant make you get reborn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10144" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T17:51:26.710" Title="Can you ever get trapped in samsara again after Moksha because of Karma?" Tags="|moksha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-06-16T19:09:56.213" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18983" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18961" CreationDate="2017-06-16T18:56:17.857" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmastra (Sanskrit: ब्रह्‍मास्‍त्र, Brahmāstra)&lt;/strong&gt; was a weapon created by the creator Brahma, for the purpose of &lt;strong&gt;upholding Dharma and Satya (truth).&lt;/strong&gt; When the Brahmastra was discharged, there was neither a counterattack nor a defense that could stop it, except by Brahmadanda, a stick also created by Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two great ancient epics of India, &lt;strong&gt;Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt; explained about Brahmastra like below: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“It was a weapon, so powerful that it could destroy the earth&#xA;in an instant  A great soaring sound in smoke and flames &#xA;And on its sits death…” — The &lt;strong&gt;Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Dense arrows of flame, like a great shower, issued&#xA;forth upon creation, encompassing the enemy…&#xA;A thick gloom swiftly settled upon the Pandava hosts.&#xA;All points of the compass were lost in darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fierce wind began to blow upward, showering dust and gravel.&#xA;Birds croaked madly… the very elements seemed disturbed.&#xA;The earth  shook,  scorched  by the terrible violent heat of this weapon.&#xA;Elephants burst into flame and ran to and fro in a frenzy…&#xA;over a vast area, other animals crumpled to the ground and died.&#xA;From all  points  of  the compass  the  arrows  of  flame  rained&#xA;continuously and fiercely. — The &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Ahirbudhnya Samhita of the Pancharatra Agama volume 1 and ValmikiRamayana, both explained same Effects of Brahmastra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) The nature of some astra-s - missiles&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some verses that depict the nature of these astra-s. A few of them are given under. Though we may not actually acquire a projectile power with these verses, they may at least detail what these missiles are. The source of these verses is untraceable, but they are said to be in puraaNaa-s, and Shiva informs Sage Narada, about the missiles as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmaastram&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;vaantam vahni samaayuktam vyomahaalaa samanvitam |&#xA;  meSha dvayam danta yutam haalaahalam ataH param |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ghana aadyam vaayu puurvam ca danta yuktam athaanvitam |&#xA;  saram R^ikSha poaryaayam bhaantam bhR^igu mataH param ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ambaram vaayu sa~NyuktaH ari mardanam apyutaH |&#xA;  pradiiptam atha avaktavyam paramam ca padam tataH |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tat ete pade prayoktavye gaayatryaa madhyamam tataH |&#xA;  pada trayam prayoktavyam etat brahma astram iiritam ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;It contains air, fire and cosmic poison, two goat-like fangs, full of poison, weighty, emits air, contains mercury, fiery, sparkling, sky is filled with air, enemy-killing, greatly radiant and it is projected with three hymns, Gayatri at its centre, it is known as &lt;strong&gt;Brahma-astra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda&lt;/strong&gt; has proved that mantras can change weather, bring rainfall, produce heat, change thoughts in human minds around us, control animals and birds etc&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) Ahirbudhnya Samhita of the Pancharatra Agama volume 1:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;phantam vahnisamayuktam vyoma halasamanvitam | mesadvayam dantayutam halahalamatah param || 34-5 ||&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ghanadyam vayupurvam ca dantayuktamathantimam | sarasam carksaparyayam bhantam bhrgumatahh param || 34-6 ||&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ambaram vayusamyuktamarimardanamapyatah |&#xA;  pradIptamatha vaktavyam paramam ca padam tatah || 34-7 ||&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tatte pade prayoktavye gayatryaA madhyamam tatahH |&#xA;  padatrayam prayoktavyametad brahmastramIritam || 34-8 ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“It contains air, fire and cosmic poison, two goat-like fangs, full of poison, weighty, emits air, contains mercury, fiery, sparkling, sky is filled with air, enemy killing greatly radiant and it is projected with three hymn, Gayatri at its centre, it is known as &lt;strong&gt;brahmastra&lt;/strong&gt;”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-16T19:24:12.073" LastActivityDate="2017-06-16T19:24:12.073" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18985" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-16T20:06:37.920" Score="8" ViewCount="1096" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read that King Kakudmi with his daughter Revati reached Brahma Loka experiencing time-dilation. Can anyone tell me how &lt;strong&gt;they&lt;/strong&gt; managed to travel?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10145" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-10-13T15:07:15.617" LastActivityDate="2022-05-22T13:25:30.673" Title="How did King Kakudmi reach Brahma Loka with his daughter Revathi?" Tags="|brahma|lokas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18987" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-17T04:12:51.303" Score="5" ViewCount="355" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is stance of Vedanta on the concept of avatara? Does Vedanta support that god comes to earth in form of a human?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T11:03:10.893" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T12:06:55.367" Title="Avataravaada and vedanta, are there any contradiction?" Tags="|puranas|avatars|vedanta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18988" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-17T06:18:47.857" Score="5" ViewCount="302" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  here.)  Now presently the oldest surviving commentary on the Brahma Sutras is the Brahma Sutra Bhashya composed by the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya.  But that is by now means the oldest commentary on the Brahma Sutras; there used to be many pre-Shankara commentaries which are now lost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Ramanujacharya felt that Adi Shankaracharya had distorted the meaning of the Brahma Sutras, so in writing his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, known as the Sri Bhashya, he relied on the works of as many pre-Shankara commentators as could find.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books/content?id=18caAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;output=text&amp;amp;pg=PA629&amp;amp;img=1&amp;amp;zoom=3&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;q=vamana+tikakara&amp;amp;cds=1&amp;amp;sig=ACfU3U0MTY4mwP5Hp0A1tZ2H5basAGrlXw&amp;amp;edge=0&amp;amp;edge=stretch&amp;amp;ci=0,0,998,1520&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from a journal paper lists some of them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bodhayana, the Vrittikara, was the first commentator on the Brahma Sutras, a well-known Rishi and a contemporary of Vyasa, from whom Sri Ramanuja makes quotation here and there. Then come Brahmanandi, the Vakyakara and Dramidacharya - the Bhashyakara, &lt;strong&gt;Vamana - the Tikakara on Dramida Bhashya&lt;/strong&gt;, about whom references are made not only by Sri Ramanuja but also by Yamunacharya his predecessor and Sudarshanacharya who wrote an every wide and brilliant commentary on [Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I'm aware of references in the works of Sri Vaishnava Acharyas and others to most of these figures.  I provide quotes from Baudhayana/Upavarsha, the Vrittikara, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14550/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. I provide a quote from Tanka/Brahmanandi, the Vakyakara, in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9325/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And I provide a  quote from Dramidacharya, the Bhashyakara who wrote a commentary on Tanka's Vakya, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16560/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But my question is, what references are there to Vamana, the Tikakara who wrote a commentary on Dramidacharya's Bhashya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Dvaita philosopher Narayana Panditacharya lists Vamana as one of the 21 commentators who lived before the time of Madhvacharya, as you can see &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=FVtpFMPMulcC&amp;amp;lpg=PP1&amp;amp;dq=bnk%20sharma%2021%20commentators&amp;amp;pg=PA98#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But do the Sri Vaishnaava Acharyas Ramanujacharya, Yamunacharya, or Sudarshana Suri make any reference to Vamana's Tika as the journal paper suggests?  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3nakH.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; the Vedartha Sangraha, Ramanujacharya lists various pre-Shankara Vedantic philosophers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The philosophical approach herein is one that has been presented by the Vedas, whose import has been clearly revealed by the ancient commentaries on the Vedas and Vedanta and has been unanimously adopted by the great ones like Bhagavan Bodhayana, Tanka, Dramida, Guhadeva, Kapardin and Bharuchi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vamana isn't mentioned, unless he's mentioned under a different names.  By the way, are there any surviving quotes from Vamana's Tika, just as the surviving quotes from Baudhayana's Vritti, Tanka's Vakya, and Dramidacharya's Bhashya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-17T09:23:52.280" LastActivityDate="2017-06-17T09:23:52.280" Title="What references are there to Vamana's ancient Tika on the Brahma Sutras?" Tags="|history|vedanta|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18989" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19438" CreationDate="2017-06-17T10:38:55.287" Score="10" ViewCount="1697" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is believed that the Vedas are the &lt;strong&gt;revelations from the Almighty&lt;/strong&gt; to the seers in exalted states of consciousness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, it is also believed that the &lt;strong&gt;Vedas are authorless&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Keeping these definitions in mind, &lt;strong&gt;what actually constitutes the Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it the Samhita portion of the Vedas where each &lt;strong&gt;mantra has it own seer to whom it was revealed and the particular deity of that mantra?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from these, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads are also considered to be the parts of the Vedas. However, these do &lt;strong&gt;not have a specific seer&lt;/strong&gt; to whom it was revealed nor they have any deity to which it is dedicated. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In that case, the above three sections do not fulfill the basic definition of being a direct revelation and authorless. Then &lt;strong&gt;how can they be called as Vedas?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also known that there are Upanishads and other sections where Vedic mantras are present partly or fully. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in Isha Upanishad of Shukla Yajurveda, the verses are nothing but some of the mantras of Samhita itself. There is no confusion about such sections as it is fully taken from the Samhita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there are other Upanishads, brahmanas, and aranyaka where some of the Vedic mantras are &lt;strong&gt;partly mixed with other verses&lt;/strong&gt; to constitute the scripture. There are also many of these which do not have any Vedic mantra at all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the question arises here, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose an Upanishad is having 100 verses out of which 80 are Vedic mantras and 20 are other verses. Then how can it be called as a part of Veda where some of the portions is not a revelation nor have any specific deity? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On what basis do Vedantins declare Upanishads are the Vedas or concluding parts of the Vedas? &lt;strong&gt;Are they Vedas in actual sense?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T17:07:23.683" LastActivityDate="2021-06-19T17:26:15.050" Title="What are the Vedas technically? How can Upanishads be called Vedas when some parts are neither revelations nor hymns dedicated to any specific deity?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|vedanta|upanishads|rishi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18991" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7142" CreationDate="2017-06-17T16:13:28.110" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntingia&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntingia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Muntingia calabura&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/41Idx.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/41Idx.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Muntingia calabura is a shrub or tree up to 12 m tall with spreading branches. The leaves are alternate, distichous, oblong or lanceolate, 4–15 cm long and 1–6 cm wide, with toothed margin and covered in short hairs. The flowers are small (up to 3cm wide), solitary or in inflorescences of 2-3 flowers; with 5 lanceolate sepals, hairy; 5 obovate white petals; many stamens with yellow anthers and a smooth ovoid ovary.Fruit, an edible berry, red at maturity, about 1.5 cm wide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10155" LastActivityDate="2017-06-17T16:13:28.110" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18992" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-17T16:54:05.113" Score="4" ViewCount="417" Body="&lt;p&gt;In some answers, I read that Pancharatra agama originated from some of the shakha of Shukla Yajurveda which is extinct today. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is which are the acharyas of their sri vaishnava tradition who belonged to Shukla yajurveda and their related sutras? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-17T16:54:05.113" Title="Which Vishisthadvaita acharyas belonged to shakha of Shukla Yajurveda?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|agamas|pancharatra|shukla-yajurveda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18993" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-17T17:23:15.293" Score="13" ViewCount="1764" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedantins consider Sanyasa the path of liberation and most of their acharyas have taken up sanyasa in order to attain jnana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so then are shudras also allowed to take up sanyasa for the pursuit of moksha? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes then which are the vedanta schools/ sects which allow shudras for sanyasa &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;if no, what are the reasons behind it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2024-01-07T05:32:04.640" Title="Are shudras allowed to take up sanyasa?" Tags="|vedanta|moksha|sannyasa|shudra|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18994" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2517" CreationDate="2017-06-17T18:01:08.010" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TL;DR&lt;/strong&gt;  No, this is inappropriate. However, according to the Vedas, you certainly can worship a deity/devatha of your choice. It must be noted that madhurya bhava is not something one can imitate. It is something that occurs naturally towards one's ishta devata when one is in advanced stages of devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below, I am going to present what the Vaishnava perspective (that I am familiar with) is describing the position of different gods in relation to the Supreme Atma. The Supreme Atma is identified to be Narayana, for He alone is the Paramatma of all living entities including the gods and goddesses and He alone has a śarīra-śarīri relationship with all living entities. For instance, the Subala Upanishad, as well as the Bruhadaranyaka Upanishad declare &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasyātmā śarīram. &#xA;  &quot;He for whom the ātmā is the body&quot; (Madhyandina recension of Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 3.7.22). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, all jivāthmas (including various gods and goddesses) form the body of Paramāthma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This idea is supported in the Ramayana, wherein we find Lord Brahma declaring to Lord Rama that the entire cosmos consisting of all sentient and non-sentient beings is His body: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jagat sarvam śarīram the (Ramayana 6.117.26) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and he mentions that he himself, his consort Saraswati, and the other gods created by him form His body:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aham te hṛdayaṁ rāma &#xA;   jihvā devī saraswatī&#xA;   deva romāṇi gātreṣu&#xA;   brahmaṇā nirmitāḥ prabho (6.117.24)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tat sarvam vai hares tanuḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;also supporting the same idea that everything is the body of Lord Hari&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, further references from Bhagavad Gita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pitāham asya jagato mātā dhātā pitāmahaḥ vedyaṁ (9.17)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Know Me to be the Father, Mother, the Supporter and the Grandfather of the entire cosmos&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gatir bhartā prabhuḥ sākṣī nivāsaḥ śaraṇaṁ suhṛt (9.18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I am the Goal, the Maintainer, the Master, the Witness, the Resting Place, the Refuge and the Best Friend&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Acharyas and Azhwars such as Kulasekhara have also talked about the nine types of relationship between the jivatma and the Paramatma. For instance, see &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramanuja.wikifoundry.com/page/Nine+Relationship+between+Sriman+Narayana+and+you&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is appropriate to develop such feelings only toward Him. For, it is said by Narada to Yudhistira,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;tasmād vairānubandhena&#xA;  nirvaireṇa bhayena vā&#xA;  snehāt kāmena vā yuñjyāt&#xA;  kathañcin nekṣate pṛthak&quot; (7.1.26)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manifesting such feelings toward other gods is artificial and improper for the following reasons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The gods are eternally parts and parcels of Narayana and do not have an independent existence. For instance, we find the following statements in the Upanishads and Puranas: &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ&quot; - Bhagavad Gita 15.7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;All jivas (including gods) are His amśas.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yathā taror mūla-niṣecanena&#xA;   tṛpyanti tat-skandha-bhujopaśākhāḥ&#xA;   prāṇopahārāc ca yathendriyāṇāṁ&#xA;   tathaiva sarvārhaṇam acyutejyā (Bhagavatam 4.31.14)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Just as by watering the root of a tree, one satisfies its branches, twigs and leaves, and by supplying food to the stomach one satisfies all the senses of the body, similarly, by engaging in the service of the Supreme Lord one automatically satisfies all the gods and all other living entities.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Antaryami Brahmana (3.7.2 to 3.7.23 or so) of the Brhadarnayaka Upanishad gives many statements of the type  - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“yaṁ pṛthivyām tiṣtan prithivyāntaro yaṁ pṛthivī na vedā&quot;&#xA;  &quot;yasya pṛthivī śarīram yā pṛthivīm antaro yamayati sa ta ātmā antaryāmi amrtā” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;which all essentially convey the idea that He, Narayana, exists as the inner controller of all these elements such as the sun, the earth, the eye, the fire, the water, the organs, the intellect etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, all worships of gods go to Him alone (but that is indirect), as stated in:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;ye 'py anya-devatā-bhaktā&#xA;  yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ&#xA;  te 'pi mām eva kaunteya&#xA;  yajanty avidhi-pūrvakam&quot; - 9.23 Bhagavad Gita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Because the gods do not have an independent existence, they cannot sanction anything independently. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever is requested of them by a candidate worshiping them, is only sanctioned ultimately by Narayana but through their agency.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;mayaiva vihitān hi tān&quot; - Bhagavad Gita 7.22  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;By such worship of gods for desires, will eventually take one to the worlds of the gods.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;yānti deva-vratā devān&quot; (Those who worship the gods go to the gods) - BG 9.25&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;but all such planets will get destroyed all the way until Brahma's at the time of total dissolution (maha-pralaya). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna..&quot; (Bhagavad Gita 8.16)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neither the gods themselves nor their abodes are therefore permanent and an intelligent person is not after temporary things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido&#xA;  na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ&quot; (Bhagavatam 1.5.18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;gods are different appointed agents of God for universal administration and each of them is in charge of a particular department. For a good wife, or good husband, or good health, or good wealth, or good knowledge, for success, etc. one worships a particular god. The Supreme Being, Sriman Narayana is like the CEO. Worship of gods is usually for some material benefit and is usually for selfish fulfilment of selfish desires.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ prapadyante 'nya-devatāḥ&quot; - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;those whose intelligence is stolen by material desires of various types surrender to other gods (instead of Me, says Krishna) - (Bhagavad Gita - 7.20)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the fruits given by them are also temporary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ&#xA;  tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām&#xA;  devān deva-yajo yānti&#xA;  mad-bhaktā yānti mām api&quot; (Bhagavad Gita 7.23)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Men of small intelligence worship the gods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the gods go to the worlds of the gods, but My devotees reach My supreme planet.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One might then ask why worship of various gods and goddesses is mentioned in the Vedas. Because people of this world don't always desire the highest goal of liberation. They are more interested in temporary benefits of one kind or another. This squarely summarizes &quot;conditioned existence&quot;. Because the Vedas are broad-minded and are said to have the compassion of a million mothers (Gita Bhashyam, Ramanujacharya, 2.46 purport), they sanction such approaches as mentioned in this verse of Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;yāvān artha udapāne&#xA;  sarvataḥ samplutodake&#xA;  tāvān sarveṣu vedeṣu&#xA;  brāhmaṇasya vijānataḥ (2.46)&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;For a person who knows the self, all the Vedas are only of so much use as a flooded water reservoir is for a thirsty person.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Purport by Ramanujacharya for this verse): All that is taught in the Vedas is not suitable to be practiced by everyone. A reservoir, which is completely overflowing with water is constructed for all kinds of purposes like irrigation etc. The thirsty person will only use enough to quench his thirst and not the entire content. Likewise, an enlightened aspirant seeking liberation will only take from the Vedas that which contributes directly to Liberation, and nothing else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one need not aspire for other benefits or forms of worship just because they exist.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The proper feeling toward other gods is one of reverence. One must respect them and offer due regards and obeisances to them, by all means. Daksha failed to offer proper regards to Lord Shiva and offended both Lord Shiva and Sati Devi, and got himself beheaded because of his attitude.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even toward Narayana, feelings of madhurya bhava are artificial to manifest immediately unless one has advanced by leaps and bounds in devotional service in previous lives. Souls such as Mirabai, Godadevi, etc are exceptions. One should not imitate but begin with reverential devotional service which will naturally, in course of time, if properly applied, mature according to one's application in a particular way. This is what authoritative acharyas in all sampradayas have taught.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Putting it all together, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Stage 1) one can go to the gods to fulfill one's material desires. That is okay, and allowed according to the Vedas. But manifesting madhurya bhava toward Radha or Lakshmi or Parvati is not appropriate. Ravana had so much lust that he was not satisfied after getting any number of good looking women. He went all the way to the Goddess of Fortune. He got himself destroyed. So, it might even be better to be an atheist and not have any faith in any form of God than lust after goddesses artificially. That is extremely injurious. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Stage 2) If one recognizes Narayana as the Supreme Overlord of everything and directly go to Him for material desires, that is better. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Stage 3) If one goes to Him only for liberation, giving up material desires altogether that is even better. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Stage 4) If one goes to Him desiring Him alone and relationship with Him, that is the best.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one is still attached to a particular god, but willing to move forward toward liberation, one can pray to that god to increase their devotion to Narayana. They would feel quite fulfilled by your desire and bless you with all their hearts to move forward. Vaishnava acharyas, in particular, have disallowed their followers from the adoration of other gods and goddesses because they did not want their followers to lose track of the goal of life, namely, liberation. But they never recommended disrespect of anyone. For instance, Madhvacharya says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pūjyā devās tataḥ sadā: &quot;the gods are always to be offered respect&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People in the Sampradaya of Shankaracharya even worship all gods but with the understanding that they are, indeed, worshiping the Inner Soul within of all these gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now regarding your specific question of Radha, Lakshmi or Parvati, Lakshmi or Radha are compassion potencies of the Lord and are often portrayed as mediatrices between the Lord and the jiva i.e., one takes shelter of Lakshmi/Radha to attain Narayana/Krishna. The way one takes shelter is, by considering them as a mother. If you've wronged against your father, you first try to go to your mother and then through your mother, reach the father. For example, Ramanujacharya prays in the Saranagati Gadya (verse 1):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;akhila jagan mātaram asman mātaram.. saraṇam aham prapadye.&quot; - O mother of the entire universe, my own mother, I surrender to thee (to reach the Supreme Father).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An acharya is, however, to be worshiped even greater than God because he is the one who gives access to God. He reconnects everyone to God.  Therefore, we still worship Sankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, etc. But such sad-acharyas are also extremely rare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have presented what I have learned from acharyas. In my attempt to present this picture, I hope I have not offended anyone's feelings. My due apologies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10076" LastEditorUserId="10076" LastEditDate="2018-06-16T17:22:44.997" LastActivityDate="2018-06-16T17:22:44.997" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="18996" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-17T18:40:51.773" Score="14" ViewCount="306" Body="&lt;p&gt;Narayana Panditacharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=FVtpFMPMulcC&amp;amp;lpg=PP1&amp;amp;dq=bnk+sharma+21+commentators&amp;amp;pg=PA98&amp;amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;gave&lt;/a&gt; a list of 21 commentators on the Brahma Sutras who preceded Madhvacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the screenshot of 21 commentators:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/o4opj.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/o4opj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know who is this commentator &lt;em&gt;Pishacha&lt;/em&gt;? The name is interesting because Pishachas are a race of demons described in Hindu scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-17T18:49:40.950" LastActivityDate="2019-01-19T05:42:39.900" Title="Who is commentator Pishacha on Brahma Sutras?" Tags="|history|vedanta|brahma-sutras|dvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18997" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-18T02:12:17.450" Score="2" ViewCount="52" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard many times that Lord Vishnu's incarnation as Lord Ram was to teach people how to live life. But it is not possible for me to understand this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could any one Please help me in understanding the exact teaching of Lord Ram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastActivityDate="2017-06-18T02:12:17.450" Title="What did Lord Ram tried to Teach?" Tags="|vishnu|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-06-18T05:24:18.537" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18998" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18301" CreationDate="2017-06-18T05:20:26.003" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Upon doing bad karmas the jeeva first suffers the torments in hell and then , with the remnant karmas, gets born into animal or plant's yoni. Or, if it gets a human birth, then the body or mind will be diseased or deformed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A sin, committed in a previous birth, assails people in the shape of a&#xA;  disease&lt;/strong&gt; after the termination of the sufferings in a hell. It is&#xA;  dissipated by recitation etc., (5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Leprosy, consumption, gonorrhoea, diarrhea, ob- struction in&#xA;  urination, stone, cough, dysentery, fistula, obstinate ulcers,&#xA;  inflammation of the glands, paralysis, loss of eyes, these diseases,&#xA;  says the Smritis originate from the perpetration of heinous crimes. (6&#xA;  7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dropsy, liver, spleen, colic, ulcer, short-breathing, dyspepsia,&#xA;  fever, cold, forgetfulness, distraction of the senses, Galagraha (a&#xA;  kind of disease), bloody tumour, dry spreading itch, are the diseases&#xA;  begotten of minor sins ;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;convulsive fits, appearance of circular figures of various sizes on&#xA;  the body, trembling of the body, itches, elephantisis, Poondarika (a&#xA;  kind of leprosy), and other diseases, originate from Unupata-sins. The&#xA;  diseases of mankind, heard by [the name of] piles, originate from&#xA;  Atipapa (heinous crimes). (8 la)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Various other diseases originate from the combination of sins. Their&#xA;  symptoms and penitentiary rites should be spoken of in due order,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satatapa Smriti, Chapter 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, that many of these diseases can shorten lives is well-known. So, most definitely bad karmas done in our previous lives affect or influence the longevity of our current life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But determine is not entirely the correct word to use. Because, we can do many things in our present life itself that will affect our longevity in either ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, if an ignorant (unworthy of receiving gifts) person accepts gifts of food or gold he thereby shortens his life. Also it is well known (from various scriptures) that committing adultery with another person's wife also shortens once lifetime.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.189. &lt;strong&gt;Gold and food destroy his longevity&lt;/strong&gt;, land and a cow his body, a horse his eye (sight), a garment his skin, clarified butter&#xA;  his energy, sesamum-grains his offspring.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.237. By falsehood a sacrifice becomes vain, by self-complacency (the reward for) austerities is lost, &lt;strong&gt;longevity by speaking evil of&#xA;  Brahmanas,&lt;/strong&gt; and (the reward of) a gift by boasting&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.134. For in this world there is &lt;strong&gt;nothing so detrimental to long life as criminal conversation with another man’s wife.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manu Smriti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, on the other hand, one can increase his longevity by following good conduct too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 4.156. &lt;strong&gt;Through virtuous conduct he obtains long life,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  through virtuous conduct desirable offspring, through virtuous conduct&#xA;  imperishable wealth; virtuous conduct destroys (the effect of)&#xA;  inauspicious mark&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is more appropriate to use &lt;strong&gt;influence or affect&lt;/strong&gt; instead of &lt;strong&gt;determine&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-18T05:31:59.437" LastActivityDate="2017-06-18T05:31:59.437" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="18999" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18945" CreationDate="2017-06-18T07:15:30.790" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sadhana of panchamakara is very a deep, secret and extensive subject. But since you don't have any backgrounds i am keeping my answer elementary and short.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the levels of advancement a Tantra sadhaka has the seven paths or stages (called as the AchAras in scriptures).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the lowest (level of difficulty) to the highest (the highest is to be followed by the most advanced level devotee) they are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VedAchAra, VaishnavachAra, ShaivachAra, DakshinAchAra, VAmAchAra,&#xA;  SiddhAntachAra and KulAchAra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of these seven stages , its &lt;strong&gt;only in the last three stages ( VAma, SiddhAnta and Kula) the use of panchatattva (or pancha makara ) is prescribed.&lt;/strong&gt; For the &lt;strong&gt;first four stages it is not allowed or prescribed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SarvevyashchottamA VedA Vedebhyo Vaishnvam Param | Vaishnvaduttamam&#xA;  Shaivam ShaivAddakshinmuttamam || DakshinAduttamam VAmam VAmAth&#xA;  SiddhAntamuttamam | SiddhAntAduttamam Kaulam KaulAth Parataram Na Hi&#xA;  ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VedAchara is the most excellent. But better than VedAchAra is the&#xA;  VaishnavAchAra. Better than VaishnavAchAra is ShaivAchAra. Better than&#xA;  ShaivAchara is DakshinAchAra. Better than Dakshinachara is VAmAchAra. Better&#xA;  than VAmachAra is SiddhantAchAra. Better than SiddhantAchAra is KaulAchAra.&#xA;  And there is nothing superior to KaulAchara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Ullasha 2, Verses 7,8.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is in very brief the descriptions of these seven acharas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;VedAchAra&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this achara the devotee performs sakAma (with desire of achieving&#xA;  some specific goals) Puja of the Aradhya Devata by following the methods prescribed&#xA;  in Vedas and other Veda mulak scriptures like Smritis, Puranas etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;VaishnAvachara&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this achara the devotee follows the rules laid down in the Vedachara and&#xA;  worships Vishnu. He offers all his karmas to Vishnu and always visions&#xA;  Vishnu in everything. In this achara the sadhaka has to follow some&#xA;  rather strict purity-impurity rules.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;ShaivAchAra&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this achara the devotee follows the Vedachara rules to worship&#xA;  Shiva-Shakti. Here the devotee sees Shiva in everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;DakshinAchAra&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are more than one definitions for this particular achara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) In ancient times Dakshninamurthy Muni adopted this path and that's why&#xA;  its so called.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) Dakshina means favorable. So, Dakshinachara is the favorable&#xA;  conduct. In other words, by following the conduct , the Devas and Pitrus&#xA;  become favorable to us, Devi is pleased and becomes favorable to us is the&#xA;  Dakshinachara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This achara is the first propounder of Vira &amp;amp; Divya bhava. In this&#xA;  achara, following the rules of Vedachara, the devotee worships&#xA;  Parameswari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;VAmAchAra&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are again many explanations for this achara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) One famous and adept Yogi's name was VAma. From him VAmAchAra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) In Parashurama Kalpasutra's commentary, Kaundilya assigns the&#xA;  meaning Sreshta or the best to VAma. So, the path followed by the best&#xA;  Yogis or sadhakas is the VAmAchAra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3) Again VAma's one meaning is Viparita or the opposite. In traditional&#xA;  doctrines Nivritti (or renouncing objects of pleasures) is believed to&#xA;  be the path to moksha or liberation. The path which believes in just&#xA;  the opposite doctrine (that is that moksha can be achieved by&#xA;  indulging in pravrittis too, in a prescribed manner) is called&#xA;  VAmAchAra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4) A deeper Yogic explanation- The Shakti which lies latent in the&#xA;  Muladhara when awakened and made to move up , it,  on its way of uniting&#xA;  with Parashiva situated in the highest chakra, or the sahsrara chakra,&#xA;  encircles each of the six chakras in &lt;strong&gt;VAmAvarta&lt;/strong&gt; (that is in an anti&#xA;  clockwise fashion) and assimilates in itself all the varnas which are situated&#xA;  on those chakras. After samadhi, the kundalini shakti, again comes down ,&#xA;  and now it encircles each of the chakras in Dakshinavarta (or in a&#xA;  clock wise fashion). And the achara that teaches us the method of moving&#xA;  the kundalini shakti upwards towards Parashiva in Vamavarta is called&#xA;  VAmAchara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;SiddhantAchAra&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this stage the devotee tries to arrive at a fixed opinion (or&#xA;  decision) by making a comparative analysis of Bhoga &amp;amp; TyAga. That's&#xA;  why it is called Siddhantachara. Here the devotee performs the sadhana as&#xA;  prescribed in the previous achara i.e the Vamachara but here more&#xA;  importanace is laid on Anataryoga (or inner Yajna). As a part of Antaryoga&#xA;  BahirYoga (or external worship) is also conducted. Here the devotee always&#xA;  contemplates on nityasuddha (ever pure) Atma or the self. The devotee&#xA;  of this achara has already seen both the Dakshina (Nivritti) and Vama&#xA;  (Pravritti) paths. Upon reaching this stage the devotee's mind becomes&#xA;  more calm and stable and he nears the Kulagyana or Brahmagyana stage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;KulAchAra&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Akulam Shiva Ityuktam Kulam Shakti PrakirtithA |&#xA;  KulAkulanusandhAnAnnipunAha KaulikAh Priye ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shiva is AKula. Shakti is Kula. One who is adept in investigating the&#xA;  relation (Samarasya) between Kula and Akula (i.e between Shiva &amp;amp;&#xA;  Shakti) is a Kaulika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Ullasha 17, Verse 27.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This the highest path in Tantra. In Mahanirvana Tantram its stated that&#xA;  Jiva, Prakiti Tattva, Dik, KAla AkAsha, VAyu, Teja, Apa and Kshiti are&#xA;  called Kula. The achara that teaches us to have Nirvikalpa Buddhi ( a&#xA;  state of non dual one-ness) in the Kula is Kulachara or Kaulachara. It is the provider of Brahma Gyana and giver of both bhoga and moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Tantra there are three kinds of devotees- the Pashu ( animal or the one in bondage), the Vira (heroic) and the Divya (divine).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sadhana of pancha makaras is strictly prohibited for the Pashus. Pashus are the ones who are still engrossed in good-bad, purity-impurity like dualities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clearly stated in many Tantra texts that if a Pashu, who discrimantes and is Tamasik, does sadhana of panchamakra, then that invariably brings about his downfall.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pancha Tattva sadhana is only suitable for advanced level Tantrikas who are jitendriya (won over senses), have mind fixed on Adavita and free from all kinds of dualities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand the basic difference between a Pashu and the other two, i quote the following verse spoken by Lord Shiva in Sri MAtrikA Bheda Tantram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jivasya Bhojanam Devi BrAntireva Na Samsayaha..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That the Jiva does the bhoga is a myth without doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the Pashu is the one who believes that its the Jiva who does the bhoga and eats etc and that it is different from Shiva (or the self). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, both the Vira and Divya know that its the Kundalini Shakti who feels all the pleasures and not the Jiva. They imagine the Kundalini Devi extended from the mulAdhara to the tip of their tongue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A, similar idea is embedded in the following Veda mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No eva aham odanam, no mam odanah, odanaha eva prAshit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have not eaten the food (odana), nor the odana me. &lt;strong&gt;Odana has eaten&#xA;  the odana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 11.3.30-31.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Divya and Vira devotees have likewise beliefs. They thus obtain liberation. And, they are the only ones who are fit to perform the pancha makara sadhana. Pashus are not. Pashus get janmantara or births after births. They can be born in heavens too but they don't get moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-18T17:16:31.177" LastActivityDate="2017-06-18T17:16:31.177" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19000" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18962" CreationDate="2017-06-18T07:28:24.377" Score="14" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपुत्रस्य गतिर्नास्ति स्वर्गो नैव च नैव च।&lt;br&gt; पुत्रादन्यतरन्नास्ति&#xA;  परलोकस्य साधनम् ॥ १५ ॥&lt;br&gt; मन्वादिभिश्च मुनिभिर्धर्मशास्त्रेषु भाषितम्&#xA;  ।&lt;br&gt; पुत्रवान्स्वर्गमाप्नोति नापुत्रस्तु कथञ्चन ॥ १६ ॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no prospect in the after birth of the sonless; never, never&#xA;  will Heaven be his. Without son, there is none other who can be of&#xA;  help in the next world. Thus in the Dharma S’âstras, Manu and other&#xA;  Munis declare that the man who has sons goes to Heaven and the sonless&#xA;  one can never go to Heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am trying to answer the point raised by you in your question , about  above verse given  devi Bhagvata.  Now first of all its not only stated  of Devi-Bhagvata  ,other puranas also say quite the same thing.  But the meaning  of the word son is not only to be taken as male child but as either Boy or a girl. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So let's see why Ved-Vyasa who wrote these  puranas said so in them.&#xA;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk01ch04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi-Bhagvatam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  FIRST BOOK- Chapter IV - On the excellency of the Devî ,  there is a story about Ved-Vyasa and Narada about this. Below is the brief.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day ved-Vyasa  was greatly wondered to see a pair of Châtakas (Sparrows) caring   to nurture their young one wonderful affection. &#xA;Seeing this wonderful affection of the two sparrows towards their young Ved-Vyasa thought that these birds are showing similar characteristics like we humans in raising their children. The birds will not perform the  marriage of  bird  child , nor will see the face of their grandchildren , nor their son will perform their last rites , yet the pair of sparrows have so much affection towards their young one! . And thought  Oh! in this world to touch the body of the son, especially to nurture the sons, is the highest happiness in life.&#xA;At that time Ved-Vyasa  didn’t have any children so he got upset and decided to perform perform Tapasyâ. And on the way he meets with Narada. Narada then tells Vyasa that the similar question was asked by my father to  Nârâyana &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the excerpts - :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In long-past days, Satyavati's son &lt;strong&gt;Vedas Vyâs, while in his own&#xA;  hermitage on the banks of the river Sarasvati, was greatly wondered to&#xA;  see a pair of Châtakas (Sparrows).&lt;/strong&gt; He saw the pair putting  the beak&#xA;  of their young one, just born of the egg, of beautiful body, red&#xA;  mouth, and greasy body. They do not care at all for their own hunger&#xA;  and toil; all they are caring for is to nurture their young one. He&#xA;  said also that the pair are rubbing their bodies over the body and&#xA;  kissing lovingly the mouth of the young one and feeling the highest&#xA;  pleasure. Seeing this wonderful affection of the two sparrows towards&#xA;  their young, &lt;strong&gt;Veda Vyâs became very anxious and thought over the&#xA;  following in his mind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9-14.&lt;/strong&gt; Oh! What wonder is there, when the birds have so much filial&#xA;  affection towards their child, that men, who want services from their&#xA;  sons, would show their affection towards their sons! This pair of&#xA;  sparrows will not perform the happy marriage of their young one and&#xA;  will not see the face of their son’s wife; nor when they will grow&#xA;  old, that their child would become very religious and serve them to&#xA;  attain great merits in Heaven. Nor do they expect that their child&#xA;  would earn money and satisfy them nor the child would perform when&#xA;  they die, their funeral obsequies duly and help them in their sojourn&#xA;  in the next world; nothing of all these. Nor will the child perform&#xA;  the S’râdh ceremony at Gayâ; nor will the child offer the oblation of&#xA;  a blue bull on the day of offering the sacrifice to its ancestor (the&#xA;  bull is then let loose and held sacred); yet the pair of sparrows have&#xA;  so much affection towards their young one! Oh! in this world to touch&#xA;  the body of the son, especially to nurture the sons, is the highest&#xA;  happiness in life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;15-27.&lt;/strong&gt; There is no prospect in the after birth of the sonless; never,&#xA;  never will Heaven be his. Without son, there is none other who can be&#xA;  of help in the next world. &lt;strong&gt;Thus in the Dharma S’âstras, Manu and other&#xA;  Munis declare that the man who has sons goes to Heaven and the sonless&#xA;  one can never go to Heaven.&lt;/strong&gt; The man possessing a son is entitled to&#xA;  the Heavenly pleasures can be vividly seen, rather than imagined. The&#xA;  man with son is freed from sins; this is the word of the Vedas. &lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;  sonless man becomes very much distressed even at the time of death and&#xA;  while lying on bed that is ground at that time, mournfully thinks.&#xA;  “This all my vast wealth, various things, this my beautiful house, who&#xA;  will enjoy all these?”  When the sonless man is thus perplexed in his&#xA;  mind at the time of his death and becomes restless, then it is sure&#xA;  that his future career is full misfortunes; unless one’s mind is calm&#xA;  and serene at the time of death, can never attain a good goal.&lt;/strong&gt; Thus&#xA;  thinking variously, the Satyavati's son Veda Vyâs sighed heavily and&#xA;  became unmindful. He thought of various plans and at last, coming to a&#xA;  definite conclusion, went to the Sumeru mountain to perform Tapasyâ.&#xA;  On  reaching there, he thought which Deva he will worship! Visnu,&#xA;  S’iva, Indra, Brahmâ, Surya, Ganes’a, Kârtikeya, Agni, or Varuna? Who&#xA;  will grant him boon quickly and thus satisfy his desires. While thus&#xA;  cogitating in his mind, came there the Muni Nârada, of one mind with&#xA;  lute in hamd, accidentally in his course of travels. Seeing Nârada,&#xA;  the Satyavati’s son Veda Vyâsa gave him a hearty welcome, with great&#xA;  gladness, offering him Arghya and Âsan (seat) and asked about his&#xA;  welfare. Hearing this question of welfare, Nârada Muni spoke :-- “O&#xA;  Dvaipâyan! Why do you look so care worn! First speak this out to me”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;28-30.&lt;/strong&gt; Veda Vyâsa said :-- “ &lt;strong&gt;The sonless man has no goal; therefore&#xA;  there is no happiness in my mind; I am always anxious to get a son&lt;/strong&gt; and&#xA;  therefore I am very sorry. To-day my mind is sorely troubled with the&#xA;  one idea, which Deva I may satisfy by my tapasyâ, who will grant me my&#xA;  desires; now I take your refuge. O merciful Maharsi! You are&#xA;  omniscient; say this quickly; which Deva I will take for my refuge,&#xA;  who will grant me a son”.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So its clear from the above story that the shloka  you mentioned in question is just a thought came to the mind of Vyasa . Because he desired as son and didn’t have any at that time.And &lt;strong&gt;its almost clear that why Vyasa thought so. He Thought so because he feel that a sonless man will be at no rest at his death-bed thinking only about children , if dies ,, will not attain higher words.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It should be noted that the word son here does not mean boy child only&lt;/strong&gt;  , it could be either a boy or a girl , because Vyasa in his thought wondered about funeral. Its clear from below shloka of Garuda Purana  -Preta Kalpa – Chapter 8  ,that women can also perform last rites – &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;षामभावे सर्वेषां समानोदकसन्ततिः ।&lt;br&gt; कुलद्वयेऽपि चोच्छिन्ने स्त्रीभिः&#xA;  कार्याः क्रियाः खग ॥ ३ ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;teṣāmabhāve sarveṣāṃ samānodakasantatiḥ ।&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;kuladvaye'pi cocchinne strībhiḥ kāryāḥ kriyāḥ khaga ॥ 3 ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In their absence, samānodaka progeny can perform the rite. If both the&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;families are maleless the women should perform the obsequies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vyasa desire was to have a child either Boy Or Girl. So the meaning of the word son here only means a child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So Devi Bhagavatam 1.4.15-16 isn’t insulting women as it is in context of a story.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-18T07:37:21.557" LastActivityDate="2017-06-18T07:37:21.557" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19001" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18993" CreationDate="2017-06-18T07:42:34.650" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Exception&lt;/strong&gt; - Nothing can prevent a true brahma jnani from renouncing everything (including his body, food to nourish the body, medicine to preserve it, or any relationships arising from the body), irrespective of his varna, if he is simply going to sit under a tree as aja-gara vritthi and let his body drop off like a dried leaf. That means he has reached stage of stitha-pragna, and no rules are going to stop him e.g. Jada Bharatha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rule&lt;/strong&gt; - for normal people, if they live in a society and are a brahma jignasa and want to take up sanyasa for path of liberation, &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/pt2sacredlawsof14bhuoft#page/272/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Baudhayana smriti&lt;/a&gt; gives the rituals that a brahmachari or gruhastha needs to perform in order to renounce. These are all Veda mantras and rituals, which imply that the doer must be a dvija.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, from personal experience, there are complex pre-requisites for sanyasa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;ensure 3 runas (deva,pitru,manushya) are repaid&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;take permission from one's dharmapatni before renouncing (or permission from mother in case of brahmachari renouncing - you might have heard Adi Shankara story)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;extinguish the aupasana agni that they have been kindling since marriage&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;symbolically perform one's own shraddha ceremony, thereby declaring that they are dead to the world&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Detailed rules here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu06.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since these rites are only prescribed for those who know Vedas, one can infer that Shudras are not allowed. Nowadays almost nobody does this or wants to, so not much point in talking about who can or cannot renounce.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Vivekananda took up sanyasa, brahmanas questioned his practice since he was not a dvija. He replied saying that his lineage traced back to Chitragupta (Yama's assistant), and since he is the rule-keeper, he has as much right to renounce as the people whose rules were being overseen. But I'm not aware of any Shastras that explicitly allow it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2020-10-06T00:11:01.700" LastActivityDate="2020-10-06T00:11:01.700" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19002" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18989" CreationDate="2017-06-18T14:53:19.033" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I've mentioned in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14428/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, Though Brahmana, Aranyaka &amp;amp; Upanishads are not hymns heard (or seen) by ancient Rishis in Tapasya, they are considered to be forming the part of Vedas. Actually Samhitas &amp;amp; Brahmanas are said to be KarmaKanda part and Aranyanaka &amp;amp; Upanishads said to be JnanaKanda part of Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me quote closely relevant text from &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A3_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahman Sahitya&lt;/a&gt; article on Bharatdiscovery (Translated into English by me):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;###Shruti Similitude/Feature:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Along with Mantra part, Acharya Apastamba has also considered Brahmana part as Veda. &lt;strong&gt;मन्त्रब्राह्मणयोर्वेदनामधेयम्&lt;/strong&gt; (Yajna-Defination). Following this, Shabarswami Pitrubhooti, Shakaracharya, Bhatta Kumarila, Bhavaswami, Devaswami, Vishwarupa, Meghatithi, Karka, Dhurtaswami, Devatrat, Vachaspati Mishra, Rajshekhar, Ramanuja, Uvat, Maskari, Sayanacharya and numerious Acharyas and Bhasyakara has emphasized on Brahmanas' similitude as Veda along with Samhita. Panini and Patanjali has also this view/concept.&lt;sup&gt;[13]&lt;/sup&gt; Another primary purpose of this faith is that Aranyaka and majority of Upanishads are ending part of Brahmana and the huge extract of Darshan (philosophy) is formed on Upanishads' base/foundation. Brahman Sutra, Gita and other philosophical treatise are dependent upon the authenticity of this on every foot. In this standing, presenting the citation of Tandya Brahmana as 'ताण्डिनां श्रुति:' by Shankaracharya is natural. Today also huge class of scholars reveals upon this reverence/faith.&lt;sup&gt;[14]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[13]  Some statements regarding this are:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(क) मन्त्रब्राह्मणयोर्वेद इति नामधेयं षडंगमेके। 'तन्त्रवार्तिक' 1.3.10&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(ख) वेदों मन्त्रब्राह्मणाख्यो मन्त्रराशि:।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(ग) तत्र ब्राह्नणात्मको वेद:। 'तैत्तिरीय संहिता, सायण-भाष्योपक्रमणिका।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[14] Acharya Pundit Baladeva Upadhyaya has though in detail in Vedic literature and culture on Shruti similitude of Brahmana Grantha. In that he has done tactic inductance of Vedic similitude of Brahmanas with doiung vivid theology on views of Manusmriti, philosophical sutras, Panini's Ashtadhyayi, Vyakarana Mahabhashya and other Acharyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting scriptural statements:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to Apastamba Srauta Sutra, &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%82_%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8C%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D/%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%83_%E0%A5%A8%E0%A5%AA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prashna 24&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मन्त्रब्राह्मणयोर्वेदनामधेयम् ३१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantra and Brahmana (aggregate) impart the Veda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritworld.in/public/assets/book/book_50fd63d610eca.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gautama Grihya Sutra&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इदानीं सूत्रं विब्रीयते-तत्र &lt;strong&gt;वेदो मन्त्रब्राह्मणाख्यो ग्रन्थराशिः&lt;/strong&gt; ।&#xA;विद ज्ञाने, ज्ञायतेऽनेन धर्मादिस्वरूपमिति वेदः ।&#xA;यद्यपि स्मृत्यादेरेतत्तुल्यत्वम् ।&#xA;तथापि परिव्राजकादिवद्रूढत्वाददोषः ।&#xA;तथा च स्मृत्यन्तरं-श्रुतिश्तु वेदो विज्ञेयो धर्मशास्त्रं तु वै स्मृतिः ॥&#xA;इति ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sayanacharya&lt;/a&gt; in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ASS042KrishnaYajurvediyaTaittiriyaSamhitaPart1KasinathSastriAgase1940/ASS_042_Krishna_Yajurvediya_Taittiriya_Samhita_Part_1_-_Kasinath_Sastri_Agase_1940/page/n8/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;his commentary on Taitariya Samhita&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यद्यपि &lt;strong&gt;मंत्र ब्राह्मणात्मको वेद&lt;/strong&gt; तथापि ब्राह्मणस्य मंत्र व्याख्यान स्वरुपत्वाद् मन्त्रा एवादौ समाम्नताः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though Mantra and Brahmana both are named Veda but because of having expatiation form of Brahmanas, Veda-Mantra is only eternal/original.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to Madhusudan Saraswati, &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_major_works/prasthAnabheda.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prasthana Bheda&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्र धर्मब्रह्मप्रतिपादकमपौरुषेयं प्रमाणवाक्यं वेदः । स च मन्त्रब्राह्मणात्मकः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas are the authoritative texts, not of human composition, which enlighten about Brahman and dharma. &lt;strong&gt;They are composed of mantras and brahmanas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interesting discussion from &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_5/epistles_first_series/076_mr_.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Epistles of Swami Vivekananda&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The objections you show about the Vedas would be valid if the word Vedas meant Samhitâs. The word Vedas includes the three parts, the Samhitas, the Brâhmanas, and the Upanishads, according to the universally received opinion in India. Of these, the first two portions, as being the ceremonial parts, have been nearly put out of sight; the Upanishads have alone been taken up by all our philosophers and founders of sects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea that the Samhitas are the only Vedas is very recent and has been started by the late Swâmi Dayânanda. This opinion has not got any hold on the orthodox population.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason of this opinion was that Swami Dayananda thought he could find a consistent theory of the whole, based on a new interpretation of the Samhitas, but the difficulties remained the same, only they fell back on the Brahmanas. And in spite of the theories of interpretation and interpolation a good deal still remains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if it is possible to build a consistent religion on the Samhitas, it is a thousand times more sure that a very consistent and harmonious faith can be based upon the Upanishads, and moreover, here one has not to go against the already received national opinion. Here all the Âchâryas (Teachers) of the past would side with you, and you have a vast scope for new progress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion: Acharyas have declared Vedas consisting of (two divisions) Mantra/Samhita and Brahmana and numerous scholars have this standing. This is also appropriate and proper according to Vyakarana. You'll also find Acahryas like Adi Shankaracharya says Shruti while discussing verses of Upanishads. Thus, Brahmanas with Aranyaka &amp;amp; Upanishads should be considered part of Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;I'll also include works of Acharyas and arguments/explanation regarding this after finding.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-06-19T17:26:15.050" LastActivityDate="2021-06-19T17:26:15.050" CommentCount="24" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19004" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18821" CreationDate="2017-06-18T20:26:25.757" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wSbJZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wSbJZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the day of Jyestha Purnima , Dev snana is performed. In this the Lord is taken to a place inside the Jagannath temple known as “Snana Mandap” by performing Pahandi (the swinging motion travel of God from one place to another). He is made to have a bath with 108 vessels of water taken from a specific well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Right after the bath, Lord Jagannath suffers from fever. According to the rituals, the temple is closed for 15 days since he is unwell. These 15 days become a matter of concern for the ardent devotees who want to see him. This period is known as ‘Anabasara’ or ‘Anasara’ in the local language. After this period, people get the first glimpse of their deities on the day before Rath Yatra, on this day the deities are re-painted and brought to the main platform for the devotees to see and pay homage which is called ‘ Nava Yauvana Darshan’. This is also known as ‘Netrotsava’. Next day, the Ratha Yatra Festival is observed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is believed that during these 15 days the Lord resides in a place about 20-25 km’s away from Puri known as Brahmagiri. The form of Lord Jagannath worshiped here is known as Alarnath. In these 15 days, authentic food is prepared similarly to Puri Mahabhog. People come in huge numbers to seek the blessing of the God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastActivityDate="2017-06-18T20:26:25.757" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19005" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19008" CreationDate="2017-06-18T21:42:37.077" Score="6" ViewCount="4783" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharatha, I heard two different stories on Dronacharya's Death: One which says that Arjuna with a heavy heart shoots an arrow at Dronacharya and kills him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another one is Yudhishtira spreading a news that 'Aswattama' (An Elephant name) is dead. But Dronacharya think Ashwatthama (his son) died, with broken heart he dies by letting Dhrishtadyumna kill him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which one was true here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &quot;Lord Krishna hold a thread in his hand during the death of Dronacharya&quot;, Why and What is the significance of holding thread at that time?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-19T03:58:49.273" LastActivityDate="2017-06-19T04:19:58.737" Title="How Dronacharya (Royal Guru) died in Kurukshetra?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|kurukshetra|dronacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-06-19T05:46:24.217" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19006" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-18T22:24:06.550" Score="3" ViewCount="322" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is an English translation/reference to the German publication available? It refers to work by Dr. V. Raghavan Emeritus Sanskrit Professor of Madras University.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rI4Gv.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rI4Gv.png&quot; alt=&quot;SriRangamTempleVimana&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It appears these are &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;detachable flying  parts&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; of temple Gopurams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://transinformation.net/vimanas-die-fliegende-objekte-aus-den-altindischen-schriften/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vimanas:Flying Objects from Ancient Indian Scriptures &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Four strong liquid mercury vessels must be installed in the inner structure. When heated by Sun's rays or by other means the Vimana (aircraft) develops a powerful thrust from the mercury.&lt;/em&gt;... etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDITS 1/2/3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not totally incredible because &lt;em&gt;mercury is the heaviest known fluid&lt;/em&gt; that flows and can transfer kinetic energy in a flying machine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Several related  YouTube videos (Hindi) are appearing nowadays, we have no means to authenticate them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/KacgszbdOKE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://youtu.be/KacgszbdOKE&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Updated on Vimanas regarding similar wider context of Srirangam and Padmanabha temple cultures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeycaiUWKbA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ancient Vimana Discovered in Secret Underground Chamber? Srirangam Temple, India&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;( 6 min 00 secs to 11 mins 58 secs ) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More evidence of this past technology is appearing recently  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeycaiUWKbA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SriRangam Vimana by Praveen Mohan YouTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2020-05-14T17:35:11.143" LastActivityDate="2020-05-14T17:35:11.143" Title="English / Indian references to temple Vimanas in relation to Flight" Tags="|translation-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19007" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-19T03:49:37.627" Score="3" ViewCount="2137" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://httphttps://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201375.html://&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manusmriti 9:17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शय्याऽऽसनमलङ्कारं कामं क्रोधमनार्जवम् ।  द्रोहभावं कुचर्यां च&#xA;  स्त्रीभ्यो मनुरकल्पयत् ॥ १७ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śayyā''sanamalaṅkāraṃ kāmaṃ krodhamanārjavam |  drohabhāvaṃ kucaryāṃ&#xA;  ca strībhyo manurakalpayat || 17 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu assigned to women sleep, sitting, ornament, lust, anger,&#xA;  dishonesty, malice and bad conduct.—(17)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata 13.40&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Kunti, women were all virtuous. Those, however, that sprang&#xA;  from this creation by Brahman with the aid of an illusion became&#xA;  sinful. The grandsire bestowed upon them the desire of enjoyment, all&#xA;  kinds of carnal pleasure. Tempted by the desire of enjoyment, they&#xA;  began to pursue persons of the other sex. The puissant lord of the&#xA;  deities created Wrath as the companion of Lust.  Women have no especial acts prescribed for them. Even this&#xA;  is the ordinance that was laid down. The Shruti declares that &lt;strong&gt;women&lt;/strong&gt; are&#xA;  endued with senses the most powerful, that they have no scriptures to&#xA;  follow, and that they &lt;strong&gt;are living lies&lt;/strong&gt;. B&lt;strong&gt;eds and seats and ornaments&#xA;  and food and drink and the absence of all that is respectable and&#xA;  righteous, indulgence in disagreeable words, and love of sexual&#xA;  companionship,--these were bestowed by Brahman upon women. Men are&#xA;  quite unable to restrain them within bounds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastEditorUserId="10008" LastEditDate="2017-06-25T11:15:29.250" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T11:15:29.250" Title="Why Manusmriti and Mahabharata say women are living lies?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|women|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19008" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19005" CreationDate="2017-06-19T04:19:58.737" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, Arjuna did not kill Dronacharya.&lt;/strong&gt;. You might be thinking of Bhishma.  In any case, here's how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07187.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva of the Mahabharata describes Yudhishthira's lie:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing those words of Bhima and induced by the counsels of Krishna, and owing also to the inevitability of destiny, O monarch, Yudhishthira made up his mind to say what he desired. Fearing to utter an untruth, but earnestly desirous of victory, Yudhishthira distinctly said that Aswatthaman was dead, adding indistinctly the world elephant (after the name), Before this, Yudhishthira's car had stayed at a height of four fingers' breadth from the surface of the earth; after, however, he had said that untruth, his (vehicle and) animals touched the earth. Hearing those words from Yudhishthira, the mighty car-warrior Drona, afflicted with grief, for the (supposed) death of his son, yielded to the influence of despair. By the words, again, of the Rishis, he regarded himself a great offender against the high-souled Pandavas. Hearing now about the death of his son, he became perfectly cheerless and filled with anxiety; upon beholding Dhrishtadyumna, O king, that chastiser of foes could not fight as before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this later chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva describes Dronacharya's death:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Bhima, of great wrath, holding the car of Drona, O monarch, slowly said these words unto him: If wretches amongst Brahmanas, discontented with the avocations of their own order, but well-versed in arms, did not fight, the Kshatriya order then would not have been thus exterminated. Abstention from injury to all creatures hath been said to be the highest of all virtues. The Brahmana is the root of that virtue. As regards thyself, again, thou art the foremost of all persons acquainted with Brahma. Slaying all those Mlecchas and other warriors, who, however, are all engaged in the proper avocations of their order, moved thereto by ignorance and folly, O Brahmana, and by the desire of wealth for benefiting sons and wives; indeed, for the sake of an only son, why dost thou not feel ashamed? He for whom thou hast taken up weapons, and for whom thou livest, he, deprived of life, lieth today on the field of battle, unknown to thee and behind thy back. King Yudhishthira the just hath told thee this. It behoveth thee not to doubt this fact.' Thus addressed by Bhima, Drona laid aside his bow. Desirous of laying aside all his weapons also, Bharadwaja's son of virtuous soul said aloud, 'O Karna, Karna, O great bowman, O Kripa, O Duryodhana, I tell you repeatedly, exert yourselves carefully in battle. Let no injury happen to you from the Pandayas. As regards myself, I lay aside my weapons.' Saying these words, he began loudly to take the name of Aswatthaman. Laying aside his weapons then in that battle, and sitting down on the terrace of his car, he devoted himself to Yoga and assured all creatures, dispelling their fears. Beholding that opportunity, Dhrishtadyumna mustered all his energy. Laying down on the car his formidable bow, with arrow fixed on the bow-string, he took up a sword, and jumping down from his vehicle, rushed quickly against Drona. All creatures, human beings and others, uttered exclamation of woe, beholding Drona thus brought under Dhrishtadyumna's power. Loud cries of Oh and Alas were uttered, as also those of Oh and Fie. As regards Drona himself, abandoning his weapons, he was then in a supremely tranquil state. Having said those words he had devoted himself to Yoga. Endued with great effulgence and possessed of high ascetic merit, he had fixed his heart on that Supreme and Ancient Being, viz., Vishnu. Bending his face slightly down, and heaving his breast forward, and closing his eyes, and resting ort the quality of goodness, and disposing his heart to contemplation, and thinking on the monosyllable Om, representing. Brahma, and remembering the puissant, supreme, and indestructible God of gods, the radiant Drona or high ascetic merit, the preceptor (of the Kurus and the Pandavas) repaired to heaven that is so difficult of being attained even by the pious. Indeed, when Drona thus proceeded to heaven it seemed to us that there were then two suns in the firmament. The whole welkin was ablaze and seemed to be one vast expanse of equal light when the sun-like Bharadwaja, of solar effulgence, disappeared. Confused sounds of joy were heard, uttered by the delighted celestials. When Drona thus repaired to the region of Brahman, Dhrishtadyumna stood, unconscious of it all, beside him. Only we five amongst men beheld the high-souled Drona rapt in Yoga proceed to the highest region of blessedness. These five were myself, Dhananjaya, the son of Pritha, and Drona's son, Aswatthaman, and Vasudeva of Vrishni's race, and king Yudhishthira the just, the son of Pandu. Nobody else, O king, could see that glory of the wise Drona, devoted to Yoga, while passing out of the world. In fact, all human beings were unconscious of the fact that the preceptor attained to the supreme region of Brahman, a region mysterious to the very gods, and one that is the highest of all. Indeed, none of them could see the preceptor, that chastiser of foes, proceed to the region of Brahman, devoted to Yoga in the company of the foremost of Rishis, his body mangled with arrows and bathed in blood, after he had laid aside his weapons. As regards Prishata's son, though everybody cried fie on him, yet casting his eyes on the lifeless Drona's head, he began to drag it. With his sword, then, he lopped off from his foe's trunk that head,--his foe remained speechless the while. Having slain Bharadwaja's son. Dhrishtadyumna was filled with great joy, and uttered leonine shouts, whirling his sword. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as you can see, Dronacharya already left his body before Drupada's son Drishtadyumna cut off his head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-06-19T04:19:58.737" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19012" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-19T07:55:08.507" Score="4" ViewCount="2279" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu texts contain instances about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakudmi#Meeting_with_Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;space-time relativity&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salwa_Kingdom#Salwa_king_contemporary_to_Krishna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;space vehicles&lt;/a&gt; and many others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In present day world, the rising of Artificial Intelligence is phenomenal. It will become major part of human life in future. In some areas it is performing better than humans &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_(chess_computer)#Deep_Blue_versus_Kasparov&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaGo_versus_Lee_Sedol&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any mention of such intelligent machines in Hindu ancient texts (For example: Pushpaka Vimana, Saubha Vimana etc.,)  or any indication/ prediction about such intelligent systems in Kaliyuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In concise, Are there any slokas supporting or condemning the generation of intelligence by non-living systems?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2018-12-18T05:28:35.700" LastActivityDate="2018-12-18T05:28:35.700" Title="Artificial intelligence in Hindu texts" Tags="|scripture|science|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19013" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18918" CreationDate="2017-06-19T07:56:06.030" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;As explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18999/4732&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Tantra is quite a deep subject and is meant to be kept as top secret too. Neither i will be able to explain to you its secrets nor you will be able to grasp what is being said in its entirety but still here are few inputs from my side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Why use panchamakara in sadhana and how is it justified?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is justified because it is prescribed in the scriptures. That is reason enough. For example, if someone asks how are animal sacrifices justified? then the answer is simple- They are allowed in the scriptures, that's why. Similarly here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures that prescribe them in sadhana, prescribe them for attaining moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Panchatattvamidam Devi &lt;strong&gt;NirvAnamuktihethave.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The use of panchatattva &lt;strong&gt;is for nirvana mukti or moksha&lt;/strong&gt;. (hetu means&#xA;  reason)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NirvAna Tantra, Patala 9.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;YathA Toyam Toyamadhye Liyathe Parameswari |&lt;br&gt; Tathaiva TattvasevAyAm&#xA;  Liyathe ParamAtmani ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as water dissolves (or disappears) into water, &lt;strong&gt;likewise by the use of&#xA;  panchatattva the sadhaka merges into paramatma.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The basic principle behind using pancha tattva in sadhana is this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AnAndam Brahmano Rupam Taccha Dehe VibhAvayeth |&lt;br&gt; Tasya AbhibyAnjakAh&#xA;  PanchamakArAdya PrakirtithAhA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ananda or bliss is the very form of Brahman. And it is located in our&#xA;  body. &lt;strong&gt;And the panchamakaras are nothing but its external manifestation&lt;/strong&gt;s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gandharva Tantram, Chapter 27, Verses 36-37.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Who are allowed to do panchatattva sadhana?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As i have told in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18999/4732&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, there are three kinds of Tantra sadhakas: Pashu (or the animal or one who is in bondage), Vira (the heroic) &amp;amp;  Divya (or the divine).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And among these, only the last two types of sadhakas are  allowed to do panchamakara sadhana. For the Pashus this sadhana is prohibited.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madyam MAmsam TathA Matsyam MudrAmaithunamevacha |&lt;br&gt; IdamAcharanam Devi&#xA;  Pasorna Divyvirayoh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The use of pancha tattva &lt;strong&gt;is strictly prohibited for the pashus.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yogini Tantram, Patala 9.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MakArapanchakairdevim NArchayeth Pashusannidhou |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Puja using panchamakara &lt;strong&gt;is prohibited in the presence of Pashus&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KaulAvali Nirnaya, Patala 5.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, its not for the common man who is still discriminating and is deluded in dualities. Even for the Yogis though the path is extremely difficult to tread upon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The features of the Vira and Divya bhava sadhakas are described in many Tantras in details. In brief they are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They are Vishuddha chitta (of clean conscience), Jitendriya (won over&#xA;  senses), Nirvikara (unaffected), Advaitaparayan (free from&#xA;  discriminations (good-bad, holy-unholy etc) and all kinds of dualities) and Brahmanistha (mind fixed on the Brahman, the ultimate reality). Only&#xA;  sadhakas having these features are fit to perform sadhana of&#xA;  panchamakara and not the ordinary Pashu sadhakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;What is the real purpose behind using the panchamakaras and how to use them in sadhana?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Tantra terminology this is called the &lt;strong&gt;VAsana&lt;/strong&gt;. VAsana is the real purpose behind using the five objects in sadhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures are somewhat vague on this point. So, i think the message is quite clear. The real purpose of the five objects and how to utilize them in sadhana is something that should be learned from the Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If some devotee starts using the five objects without knowing their vasanas then that is sure to bring about his downfall.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Guroh KulashAstrebhyah Samyag Vigyaya VAsanAm |&lt;br&gt; PanchamudrA&#xA;  Nishavetha &lt;strong&gt;ChAnyathA Patito Bhaveth&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only after knowing the Vasana (or purpose) from Sri Guru and Kula&#xA;  Shastras, the devotee should indulge in panchamakara. &lt;strong&gt;Otherwise,&#xA;  downfall is inevitable.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 5, Verse 91.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Level of difficulty&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As already mentioned above,  this sadhana is not suited for the ordinary sadhakas. Also, as you can see from my other answer that is already linked , that only in the last three stages of sadhana, a devotee is allowed to use the five objects and not before that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But how much difficult in truth is this sadhana ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nisargadurgamah&lt;/strong&gt; Kaula Sugam Iva BhAtasou |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This path is nisarga durgama or extremely difficult to follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gandharva Tantram 40|30.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaula Dharmah Paramgahano &lt;strong&gt;YoginAmpyagamyaha&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Kaula path is full of great difficulties. It is difficult to&#xA;  follow even for the Yogis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KaulAvalinirnaya, Patala 5.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kularnava Tantram is even more explicit on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KripAnadhArAgamanAth VyAghrakathAvalamvanath |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BhujangadhArnAnnunamashakyam Kulavartanam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Walking upon the sharp edges of swords,  embracing a tiger,  wearing&#xA;  snakes on ones body; Following the Kula patha is far more difficult&#xA;  than doing all these aforementioned acts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 2, Verse 123.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Deeper and actual meanings of the panchamakaras&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following are the real meanings of some of the the five objects. Obviously this will only be known to the most advanced level sadhakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Madya (Wine):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AmulAdhAramabrahmarandhram Gatva Punah Punah|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ChicchandrakundalishaktisAmrasya Sukhodayoh ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  VyompankajanisyandasudhApAnarato Narah |&lt;br&gt; SudhapAnmidam Proktamitare&#xA;  MadyapAyinaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[The Kundalini Shakti of the devotee] travels again and again from the&#xA;  mulAdhara to the brahmarandhra (in sahasrara). There the the shakti&#xA;  unites with Chitchandra or Parashiva. The amrita (nectar) like bliss&#xA;  flows out of the sahasrara as a result of this union. One who drinks&#xA;  this amrita, flowing out of the vyompankaja, is the real madyapAyi as&#xA;  prescribed in scriptures. Those who do otherwise are just mere&#xA;  drinkers of wine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mamsa (Meat):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PunyApunyapashum HatvA GyAnakhargena Yogavith |&lt;br&gt; Pare Layam&#xA;  Nayecchittham PalAshi Sa Nigadyathe ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yogi-sadhaka kills the animal (pashu) , which is of the form of&#xA;  punyapunya  (merit and demerit), using the sword which is of the form&#xA;  of knowledge (Gyanakharga), and dissolves his chitta in paratattva&#xA;  (Shiva), This is the real meat eating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Matsya (Fish):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ManasA Chendriyaganam SamyamyAtmAni YojAyeth |&lt;br&gt; MatsyAshi Sa Bhaveddevi&#xA;  SheshAh Syuh PrAnihimsakAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sadhaka controls his senses with his mind and dissolves it into&#xA;  the self (atma). One who does that is the only real matsyAshi , others are&#xA;  just mere killers of beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maithuna (Intercourse):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ParAshaktyAtmamithunasamyogAnandanirvarah |&lt;br&gt; Ya Asthe Maithunam Tath&#xA;  SyAdapare StreenishevakAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The union of Parashakti and Paramatma or Parashiva (in sashrara) is&#xA;  the real maithuna. One who is capable of remaining engrossed (in&#xA;  samadhi) in that bliss (that arises out of that union) is the real &#xA;  maithunakari. Others are just doing ordinary sexual congress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantra, Chapter 5 verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Use of substitutes (like ginger etc for meat) is also prescribed in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, i don't think people of our times (with minds filled with lust and without having any control over the senses), are mentally and physically well equipped to follow this path. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, i have read too, that this path is already kind of extinct hundreds of years ago in India due to lack of Sath Gurus and Sath Shishyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-03-20T06:13:59.520" LastActivityDate="2018-03-20T06:13:59.520" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19014" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3003" CreationDate="2017-06-19T08:29:02.087" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not clear about your question completely, but here is my answer of  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;there is any worshipping of water, or traditions involving water?.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt; there is concept of water worship in Hinduism from Rug-Vedic times. There is Apah Suktam (water Hymn ) in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv10009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rug-Veda 10.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  .Where water is revered. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आपो हि ष्ठा मयोभुवस्ता न ऊर्जे दधातन ।&lt;br&gt; महे रणाथ चक्षसे ॥१॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;āpo hi ṣṭhā mayobhuvastā na ūrje dadhātana ।&lt;br&gt; mahe raṇāya cakṣase ॥1॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;   O Water, because of your presence, the Atmosphere is so refreshing, and imparts us with vigour and strength. &lt;strong&gt;We revere you who gladdens us by your Pure essence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ईशाना वार्याणां क्षयन्तीश्चर्षणीनाम् ।&lt;br&gt; अपो याचामि भेषजम् ॥५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;īśānā vāryāṇāṃ kṣayantīścarṣaṇīnām ।&lt;br&gt; apoyācāmi bheṣajam ॥5॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning:&#xA;   O Water, may the divinity in Water dwell in the Farm lands, O Water, &lt;strong&gt;I implore you to give nutrition (to the crops).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism there is a tradition worshiping gods with water.&#xA;Tarpana  OR Arghya means  offering , this is given to all the gods . So gods are worshiped with water by offering water to them.  &lt;strong&gt;Surya Arghya&lt;/strong&gt; or worshiping the Sun with water is widely practiced in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a step  of this  Arghya pradanam (offering ) in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhyavandanam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sandhyavandan&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;– which is  mandatory religious ritual performed, traditionally, by Dvija communities of Hindus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-19T08:53:51.053" LastActivityDate="2017-06-19T08:53:51.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19015" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18962" CreationDate="2017-06-19T10:59:44.133" Score="12" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi-Puraanam 1.4.4-16  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सूत उवाच&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुरा सरस्वतीतीरे व्यासः सत्यवतीसुतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आश्रमे कलविंकौ तु दृष्ट्वा विस्मयमागतः ॥ ४ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जातमात्रं शिशुं नीडे मुक्तमण्डान्मनोहरम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ताम्रास्यं शुभसर्वाङ्गं पिच्छांकुरविवर्जितम् ॥ ५ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तौ तु भक्ष्यार्थमत्यन्तं रतौ श्रमपरायणौ ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिशोश्चंचुपुटे भक्ष्यं क्षिपन्तौ च पुनः पुनः ॥ ६ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अङ्गेनाङ्गानि बालस्य घर्षयन्तौ मुदान्वितौ ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चुम्बन्तौ च मुखं प्रेम्णा कलविंकौ शिशोः शुभम् ॥ ७ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वीक्ष्य प्रेमाद्‌भुतं तत्र बाले चटकयोस्तदा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  व्यासश्चिन्तातुरः कामं मनसा समचिन्तयत् ॥ ८ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तिरश्चामपि यत्प्रेम पुत्रे समभिलक्ष्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  किं चित्रं यन्मनुष्याणां सेवाफलमभीप्सताम् ॥ ९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  किमेतौ चटकौ चास्य विवाहं सुखसाधनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विरच्य सुखिनौ स्यातां दृष्ट्वा वध्वा मुखं शुभम् ॥ १० ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अथवा वार्धके प्राप्ते परिचर्यां करिष्यति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुत्रः परमधर्मिष्ठः पुण्यार्थं कलविंकयोः ॥ ११ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अर्जयित्वाथवा द्रव्यं पितरौ तर्पयिष्यति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अथवा प्रेतकार्याणि करिष्यति यथाविधि ॥ १२ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अथवा किं गयाश्राद्धं गत्वा संवितरिष्यति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नीलोत्सर्गं च विधिवत्प्रकरिष्यति बालकः ॥ १३ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  संसारेऽत्र समाख्यातं सुखानामुत्तमं सुखम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुत्रगात्रपरिष्वंगो लालनञ्च विशेषतः ॥ १४ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अपुत्रस्य गतिर्नास्ति स्वर्गो नैव च नैव च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुत्रादन्यतरन्नास्ति परलोकस्य साधनम् ॥ १५ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मन्वादिभिश्च मुनिभिर्धर्मशास्त्रेषु भाषितम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुत्रवान्स्वर्गमाप्नोति नापुत्रस्तु कथञ्चन ॥ १६ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning- ShriSuta said- One day Vyasa was awestruck seeing a pair of sparrows near the bank of Saraswati river. The sparrows were feeding their delicate young ones by putting beak in their beaks; the sparrows were anxious only about caring their children and did not care even about themselves. They sometimes kissed the young ones doing which their body was rubbing lightly with the young ones. Thus they were experiencing the most beautiful pleasures of affection towards children.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Seeing this Vyasa got extremely agitated and thought this&lt;/strong&gt;-  O! see this pair of sparrows. They are having this much affection to their children. &lt;strong&gt;Then how can a human being, who likes to be served by sons, not feel longing for sons?&lt;/strong&gt; The child of these sparrows never will serve the parents, nor will he do rituals and good merits to establish his parents in the heaven. But even then, these sparrows are so amorous towards their children. So how can human being not want this.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The pleasure derived from touch of sons body, especially nurturing a son, is the foremost pleasure.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Therefore it is said- that sonless never reaches heaven as only a son effects attainment of heavens. Thus Manu et cetera Rishis say- only one having son reaches heaven.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vyasa wanted to have a son, that's why He said so. And later in this story, Vyasa was anxious how to get son as He was an ascetic and could not marry a woman. However, he gets a son named &lt;strong&gt;Shuka&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As SwiftPushkar said, it is not meant necessarily for son only. It means for daughters also.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DeviBhagwatam 2.6.40-46&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मृगयां रममाणस्तु वने पाण्डुर्महाबलः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जघान मृगबुद्ध्या तु रममाणं मुनिं वने ॥ ४० ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शप्तस्तेन तदा पाण्डुर्मुनिना कुपितेन च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्त्रीसङ्गं यदि कर्तासि तदा ते मरणं धुवम् ॥ ४१ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इति शप्तस्तु मुनिना पाण्डुः शोकसमन्वितः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्यक्त्वा राज्यं वने वासं चकार भृशदुःखितः ॥ ४२ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कुन्ती माद्री च भार्ये द्वे जग्मतुः सह सङ्गते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सेवनार्थं सतीधर्मं संश्रिते मुनिसत्तमाः ॥ ४३ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गङ्गातीरे स्थितः पाण्डुर्मुनीनामाश्रमेषु च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शृण्वानो धर्मशास्त्राणि चकार दुश्चरं तपः ॥ ४४ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कथायां वर्तमानायां कदाचिद्धर्मसंश्रितम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अशृणोद्वचनं राजा सुपृष्टं मुनिभाषितम् ॥ ४५ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अपुत्रस्य गतिर्नास्ति स्वर्गे गन्तुं परन्तप ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येन केनाप्युपायेन पुत्रस्य जननं चरेत् ॥ ४६ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning- Pandu was married to Kunti. One day, the great warrior Pandu went into forest for hunting. There a Muni was in act of co-habitation. Pandu mistaking that Muni as a deer, killed him. The dying Muni inflated with wrath cursed Pandu- if you ever co-habit, you will die. Thus cursed, Pandu forsook all kingdom and materialism and lived in Hermitage of Munis. Madri and Kunti, also went with him as chaste wives. One day, the Munis in hermitage were doing Shastrartha(talking about Shaastras) then, &lt;strong&gt;Pandu mistakenly heard the Munis saying- a sonless never attains Heavens and thus in any or other how birth of son is to be effected.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it was heard by Pandu(father of Pandavas). Later in story, Pandu asks her wife Kunti for co-habitation with excellent Muni to beget a son(as Pandu could not co-habit due to curse). So, Kunti told Pandu that she has a Siddha Mantra, by which she can call any Deva on earth. &lt;strong&gt;Then Kunti co-habited with Indra, Vayu and Dharma and begot Arjuna, Bheema and Yudhishthira respectively.&lt;/strong&gt; Madri was sad and asked Pandu what to do, so Kunti felt extremely compassionate towards her and gave her the mantra. And &lt;strong&gt;Madri thus co-habited with Ashwini-Kumaras and begot Nakula and Sahadeva.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So all above happened to bring the birth of five Pandavas.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;  &#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DeviBhagwatam 1.15.18-20  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जलूकेव सदा नारी रुधिरं पिबतीति वै ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मूर्खस्तु न विजानाति मोहितो भावचेष्टितैः ॥ १८ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भोगैर्वीर्यं धनं पूर्णं मनः कुटिलभाषणैः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कान्ता हरति सर्वस्वं कः स्तेनस्तादृशोऽपरः ॥ १९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निद्रासुखविनाशार्थं मूर्खस्तु दारसङ्ग्रहम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  करोति वञ्चितो धात्रा दुःखाय न सुखाय च ॥ २० ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The wife drinks blood out of a man and steals away their strength(semen virile). The men long only for sexual intercouses and are deluded by creator that they do not understand that women are source of misery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, &lt;strong&gt;the above words were said by Shuka Deva&lt;/strong&gt; to his father Vyasa. As discussed above, Vyasa wanted a son. So Vyasa got a son named 'Shuka'. Now, &lt;strong&gt;Shuka Deva was renunciate from his very birth.&lt;/strong&gt; Right when he was born, Shuka Deva spoke the Shaastras and wanted to live a life of ascetic. &lt;strong&gt;But Vyasa wanted that his son may experience all pleasures of life(material as well as spiritual)&lt;/strong&gt;, so he was asking Shuka Deva to marry and beget children.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now, &lt;strong&gt;Shuka did not want to marry &lt;em&gt;(as he was ascetic from very birth)&lt;/em&gt;, so he said that only fools marry and hanker behind the sexual intercourse. &lt;em&gt;[To depart detachment from these sexual longings]&lt;/em&gt; .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Shuka further said that &lt;strong&gt;women are the theives who steal semen from men and make them forget their path of renunciation and righteousness.&lt;/strong&gt; From women, it is meant for sexual desires, which are one of great difficulties preventing one from salvation.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later in story, &lt;strong&gt;Shuka was determinedly reluctant to marry&lt;/strong&gt;, so he said these words. &lt;strong&gt;Vyasa&lt;/strong&gt; was anxious for happiness of his son, so He &lt;strong&gt;asked Shuka to meet Janaka&lt;/strong&gt;(who was a Vi-Dehi JeevanMukta Raja, id est a king who was liberated while still living). &lt;strong&gt;Janaka taught Shuka that one can first enjoy material life and gradually by and by raise his spiritual level&lt;/strong&gt;. So, Shuka then married and lived a life of householder. Then Shuka, at a right age, took up to Vairagya and was liberated.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi Bhagavatam 9.38.4  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्त्वज्ञानविहीना च स्त्रीजातिर्विधिनिर्मिता ।  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Bhagavân! The woman kind has been created by the Creator as devoid of any Tattvajñâna or true knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above is just one half-verse. The full context is below.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now read this-  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DeviBhagwatam 9.38.1-6  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सवित्र्युवाच।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवीभक्तिं देहि मह्यं साराणां चैव सारकम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुंसां मुक्तिद्वारबीजं नरकार्णवतारकम् ॥ १ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कारणं मुक्तिसाराणां सर्वाशुभविनाशनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दारकं कर्मवृक्षाणां कृतपापौघहारणम् ॥ २ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मुक्तिश्च कतिथाप्यस्ति किं वा तासां च लक्षणम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवीभक्तिं भक्तिभेदं निषेकस्यापि खण्डनम् ॥ ३ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;तत्त्वज्ञानविहीना च स्त्रीजातिर्विधिनिर्मिता ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  किञ्चिञ्ज्ञानं सारभूतं वद वेदविदां वर ॥ ४ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वं दानं च यज्ञश्च तीर्थस्नानं व्रतं तपः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अज्ञानिज्ञानदानस्य कलां नार्हन्ति षोडशीम् ॥ ५ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पितुः शतगुणा माता गौरवे चेति निश्चितम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मातुः शतगुणः पूज्यो ज्ञानदाता गुरुः प्रभो ॥ ६ ॥  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Savitri said to DharmaRaaja Yamaraja, the Lord of righteousness-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O YamaRaja! Give me devotion to Devi, which effects the Liberation of human beings. Only devotion destroys all inauspicious things. So O foremost knower of Vedas! tell me what is Liberation? How is it effected? What are kinds of Devotion? What is true devotion? Tell me all this. &lt;strong&gt;I am a woman, so I know that Creator has made women void of any TattvaGyaan(knowledge of truth). So you must give me that knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt; Doing charities, bathing in Teerthas, doing Yagya, following hard vows and doing asceticism; all these are highly virtuous. But even all these combined are not able to give 1/16 th of the virtue of imparting knowledge to ignorants(id est giving knowledge is highest good karma). So O YamaRaja! give me knowledge. The Mother is 100 times better than father. But a Guru is 100 times better than a Mother. So O Yama! you are my Guru and give me knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the above was asked by Savitri to YamaRaja when YamaRaja had come to take Savitri's husband SatyaVaan. So, &lt;strong&gt;Savitri only as a figure of speech(exaggeration)&lt;/strong&gt; says we females are void of knowledge. &lt;strong&gt;This kind of figure of speech(here, exaggeration) is found throughout literature.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For example- &lt;strong&gt;Sudarshana was an extremely great devotee of Devi&lt;/strong&gt;, whose story is in &lt;strong&gt;Third Skanda of DeviPuraana&lt;/strong&gt;. But once when Devi came to save Sudarshana from his enemy step grandfather Yudhajit, then Sudarshana praises Devi this way-  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथो सुदर्शनस्तत्र समागत्य मुदान्वितः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रणम्य परया भक्त्या तुष्टाव जगदम्बिकाम् ॥ १२ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुदर्शन उवाच।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहो कृपा ये कथयाम्यहं किं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;            &lt;strong&gt;त्रातस्त्वया यत्किल भक्तिहीनः&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भक्तानुकम्पी सकलो जनोऽस्ति&lt;br&gt;&#xA;          &lt;strong&gt;विमुक्तभक्तेरवनं व्रतं ते&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ १३ ॥  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On seeing the Divine Empress of Universe, the extremely devoted Sudarshana came there gladly and sang eulogies to Devi-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sudarshana said- O! It is indisputably seen that everyone in this world shows mercy to those who are devout to him. But what say, O Mother! you have taken this thing as if a bounden duty to save those who are &lt;strong&gt;void of any devotion to you&lt;/strong&gt;. What say I of your mercy, O Devi! &lt;strong&gt;today is saved I, who is devoid of any trace of devotion to you&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;DeviBhagwatam 3 Skanda, chapter 24, verse 12-13&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Sudarshana who was every single second meditating on Devi, who had attained Siddhi of Kleem(Kaama Beejam of Devi), who saw only Devi everywhere, &lt;strong&gt;said that he was not at all devoted to Devi&lt;/strong&gt;. He actually was not void of devotion. He said this only as a part of his prayer that- O Mother! you bless even those who do not worship you. So how can he who is devoted to you, have any afflictions in world.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Muni! teach me, who is ignorant, how to do this Yagya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;O Best of Devas! I have no devotion in you, give me devotion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;O Great Guru! I am afflicted by conflagration of doubts, so pour unto me the nectar of divinity to tranquilise me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Et cetera.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is called &lt;strong&gt;&quot;exaggeration&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;(figure of speech) which is &lt;strong&gt;used throughout literature&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Savitri merely said women are void of knowledge. In fact, YamaRaja was giving Savitri various kinds of knowledge in a whole of &lt;strong&gt;12 full Chapters&lt;/strong&gt; in  DeviPuraana 9th Book, &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 27-38&lt;/strong&gt;. So that above part of Savitri-Yamaraaja conversation and one more example below are just small parts of that huge 12 Chapter knowledge.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi Bhagavatam 9.35.18-21  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रकोपवदना कोपात् स्वामिनं या च पश्यति ॥ १८ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कटूक्तिं तं प्रवदति सोल्मुकं सम्प्रयाति हि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उल्कां ददाति तद्वक्त्रे सततं मम किङ्‌करः ॥ १९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दण्डेन ताडयेन्मूर्ध्नि तल्लोमाब्दप्रमाणकम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततो भवेन्मानवी च विधवा सप्तजन्मसु ॥ २० ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सा भुक्त्वा चैव वैधव्यं व्याधियुक्ता ततः शुचिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  या ब्राह्मणी शूद्रभोग्या चान्धकूपे प्रयाति सा ॥ २१ ॥  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;YamaRaja tells Savitri- if a women chastises her husband she goes to Ulka hell, where she is beaten by meteors. Then she gets human female life and becomes a widow for seven births. Then only she is free of her sin. A Brahman-woman if conjugates with Shudra, she goes to AndhaKoopa hell.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, &lt;strong&gt;above is just one part&lt;/strong&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch35.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 35 of Ninth book of Devi Puraana&lt;/a&gt; . This 35th chapter describes various sins and their punishment. &lt;strong&gt;The above punishment is only one of the many punishments described in the 35th chapter.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    1. He who eats food during solar lunar eclipse goes to Aruntuda hell for as many years as are particles in that food.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    2. If anybody sells his daughter, he sleeps on a bed of arrows in Pamshuvesta Kunda for one hundred years, chastised and beaten by Yama's messengers.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    3. He who goes to various kind of prostitutes(described in chapter) goes to various hells(described in chapter).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Et cetera.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That was just one of punishment for women. There are several other punishments for both women and men, described in the above chapter.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, &lt;strong&gt;explanations for DeviBhagwatam 9.1.142-143(9th book, 1st chapter, verse 142-143).&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अधमास्तमसश्चांशा अज्ञातकुलसम्भवाः ॥ १४२ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दुर्मुखाः कुलहा धूर्ताः स्वतन्त्राः कलहप्रियाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पृथिव्यां कुलटा याश्च स्वर्गे चाप्सरसां गणाः ॥ १४३॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Those that are sprung from Tamo Guna are recognised as worst. &lt;strong&gt;They belong to unknown family, are foul mouthed, brute, quarrelsome et cetera. These women become prostitute and Apsaraas in heaven.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch01.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1st chapter of 9th book&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;describes how various females are wives of various Gods&lt;/strong&gt;(Indra, Vayu, Vishnu, Shiva, Agni, YamaRaja, et cetera). The Chapter says that these all wives and &lt;strong&gt;all the females of world are part of Parama-Prakriti&lt;/strong&gt;(Supreme Nature of Universe), and &lt;strong&gt;thus insulting them is insult of this Supreme Prakriti.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See here-  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DeviBhagwatam 9.1.138-145  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;योषितामवमानेन प्रकृतेश्च पराभवः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्राह्मणी पूजिता येन पतिपुत्रवती सती ॥ १३८ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रकृतिः पूजिता तेन वस्त्रालङ्‌कारचन्दनैः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कुमारी चाष्टवर्षीया वस्त्रालङ्‌कारचन्दनैः ॥ १३९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पूजिता येन विप्रस्य प्रकृतिस्तेन पूजिता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;सर्वाः प्रकृतिसम्भूता उत्तमाधममध्यमाः ॥ १४० ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सत्त्वांशाश्चोत्तमा ज्ञेयाः सुशीलाश्च पतिव्रताः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मध्यमा रजसश्चांशास्ताश्च भोग्याः प्रकीर्तिताः ॥ १४१ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सुखसम्भोगवश्याश्च स्वकार्ये तत्पराः सदा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अधमास्तमसश्चांशा अज्ञातकुलसम्भवाः ॥ १४२ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दुर्मुखाः कुलहा धूर्ताः स्वतन्त्राः कलहप्रियाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पृथिव्यां कुलटा याश्च स्वर्गे चाप्सरसां गणाः ॥ १४३ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रकृतेस्तमसश्चांशाः पुंश्चल्यः परिकीर्तिताः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एवं निगदितं सर्वं प्रकृते रूपवर्णनम् ॥ १४४ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ताः सर्वाः पूजिताः पृथ्व्यां पुण्यक्षेत्रे च भारते ।    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narayana tells Naarada-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;So all females are part of this Prakriti. So to insult any woman is to insult the Prakriti.&lt;/strong&gt; Worship of Chaste Brahmin Woman, is worship of Prakriti itself. If any Pious person worships an eight year old virgin girl, O Narada! know that he has worshipped the Prakriti Devî. The &lt;strong&gt;best, middling, and worst females are all sprung from Prakriti&lt;/strong&gt;. Now, I am describing these three types-  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verse 141 first-half: &lt;strong&gt;THE BEST FEMALES&lt;/strong&gt;- Those women that are sprung from Sattva Guna(quality of goodness and purity) are all very good natured and chaste.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verse 141 second half- verse 142 first half: &lt;strong&gt;THE MIDDLING &lt;em&gt;(both good and bad)&lt;/em&gt; FEMALES&lt;/strong&gt;- Those that are sprung from Rajo Guna(quality of passion and desire) are middling and very much attached to worldly enjoyments and do their selfish ends.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verse 142 second half- verse 143- THE WORST FEMALES- Those that are sprung from Tamo Guna(quality of darkness and badness) are recognised as worst and belonging to the unknown families. They are very scurrilous, cheats, ruining their families, fond of their own free ways, quarrelsome and no seconds are found equal to them. Such women become prostitutes in this world and Apsarâs in the Heavens.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Hermaphrodites are parts of Prakriti but they are of the nature of Tamo Gunas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus O Narada! I have told you the various forms of Prakriti. These all are to be worshipped on this Divine Land of Bharatavarsha, where these forms are always worshipped as form of Devi.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So above was just an explanation of bad type of women. It was not that- all women are bad, go to become prostitute.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the last one-  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनृतं साहसं माया मूर्खत्वमतिलोभता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अशौचं निर्दयत्वं च स्त्रीणां दोषाः स्वभावजाः ॥ ८३ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Falsehood, vain boldness, craftiness, stupidity, impatience, over-greediness, impurity, and harshness are the natural qualities of women.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;DeviBhagwatam 1st Book, Chapter 5, Verse 83&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above is part of 5th chapter of 1st book of Devi-Puraanam.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Read this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk01ch05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 5, of 1st book of Devi-Puraanam&lt;/a&gt; .  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This chapter describes how Maha-Vishnu became Hayagreeva.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suta narrates story of Hayagreeva to Rishis-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Once, after a terrible fight of 10,000 years, &lt;strong&gt;Hari went to peaceful place and placed his bow on ground with its string fast erected. Near the bow, Narayana placed his head and fell fast asleep.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  By coincidence, the Devas were doing a Yagya, and needed Krishna's presence. But Vishnu was asleep. So the &lt;strong&gt;Devas asked some insects to cut the rope of bow.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  When the string was cut, the bow jumped high due to pressure, and &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu's head was separated from body.&lt;/strong&gt; All the Devas anxious, prayed to Devi.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The Devi told them this- do not fear. Does anything occur without a cause? Now hear- Once Hari looking at Lakshmi laughed(out of love), but Lakshmi thought Hari has brought a co-wife, and cursed Him- &lt;em&gt;&quot;let Thy head fall&quot;&lt;/em&gt; .&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Falsehood, vain boldness, craftiness, stupidity, impatience, over-greediness, impurity, and harshness are the natural qualities of women.&lt;/strong&gt; (so you must not think about it too much)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Devas! &lt;strong&gt;The main reason behind Vishnu's head cutting&lt;/strong&gt; is this- A Daitya named &lt;strong&gt;Hayagreeva&lt;/strong&gt; has attained a boon from Me by doing My penance, that he shall be killed only by someone &lt;strong&gt;Horse-Faced&lt;/strong&gt;. Only Narayana can kill him.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suta said- Then Vishwakarma attached a horse head to Hari's body. And &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu HayaGreeva killed the demon Hayagreeva&lt;/strong&gt;(the demon too had the name Hayagreeva).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, as is seen, &lt;strong&gt;all above incident was a Divine Leela (pastime) of ShriNarayana and MahaDevi.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, &lt;strong&gt;Devi says women are false et cetera. It is a mere statement describing some common characteristics of common women.&lt;/strong&gt; Common women usually are very hasty, and excited. Usually do not think very much before doing something(and are thus impatient and stupid i.e. ignorant). This is not necessarily the quality of &lt;strong&gt;&quot;all the females&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, it is just a general characteristics. In fact, &lt;strong&gt;many males also have these characteristics&lt;/strong&gt;, this does not mean the males become females. So we must understand the meaning of words, rather than sticking to the words by word. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T11:00:47.850" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T11:00:47.850" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19016" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-19T13:17:35.687" Score="4" ViewCount="2774" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard many people saying &lt;strong&gt;Lord Ram is Maryada Purshottam and Lord Krishna is Purna Purshottam&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could any one please tell me why is it so. and what is the difference between &lt;strong&gt;Maryada Purshottam and Purna Purshottam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastActivityDate="2023-02-24T14:05:15.707" Title="Why Lord Ram is called Maryada Purshottam and Lord Krishna Purna Purshottam?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|rama|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19018" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-19T18:51:05.047" Score="0" ViewCount="764" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why there are similarities between Greek and Hindu mythology? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-17T17:04:08.663" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T17:04:08.663" Title="Similarities between Hindu and Greek Mythology" Tags="|history|india|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-06-21T06:03:16.000" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19019" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-19T20:06:35.223" Score="3" ViewCount="160" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 7 higher Lokas and 7 lower Lokas. I want to know about what scriptures describe each Loka and how it is decided which person goes to which Loka after death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10145" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T14:25:28.617" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T14:26:05.147" Title="What scriptures describe Lokas and who goes to them after death?" Tags="|scripture|lokas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19020" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8531" CreationDate="2017-06-19T21:57:42.497" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't agree that Teg bahadur saved Hindus. Hindus are just not handful number of pundits that been saved by Teg Bahadur from been converted to Islam. Hindus and Hinduism is very diverse and wide and Teg bahdur was a hindu himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10168" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T02:01:28.780" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T02:01:28.780" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19022" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19018" CreationDate="2017-06-20T00:31:50.817" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The proof is in the pudding, as the expression goes. However, your question is on Vedic &amp;amp; Greek mythology (about gods) whereas in your description you ask about Aryan migration (about people). These are two different questions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From reading the Adi Parva of Vyasa Mahabharata (or from Bala Kanda or Aranya Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana), we come to know that the Creator created Prajapatis first and asked them to procreate and fill the planet with life. Sanskrit 'Prajaapati' means 'Lord of people' in English. Then, Vedic theology is all about the descendants of 'Kashyapa' Prajapati, son of Maareechi Prajapati, who is son of Creator. Kashyapa prajapati had 28 wives that we know of. Most important of his children were called 'Aadityaas' (12 in number), 'Rudraas' (11 in number), Vasus (8 in number) and Ashwins (2 in number). These 33 gods and all their descendants are collectively referred to as the '330,000' gods or '33,000,000' gods or '3,3000,000' gods in Hinduism.  These great grandsons (sons of Creator's grandson, Kashyapa) and their step brothers (brother from another mother) and their cousins are all collectively called in puranas as 33 crore devas. 33 crore and not 31 crore or 45 crore because these 33 were the most important ones among all of them, most important to vedic peoples actually. And crore because no one could count all of them (as you can imagine they wouldn't be in living in 1 spot and were dispersed making humans counting them impossible). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most important of the 'Adityaas' was Indra, and he was crowned as King of gods some where in modern Armenia region and his kingdom existed somewhere in modern Siberia and Northern America (per Kishkanda Kaanda - SUgreeva's instructions to his commanders in Vaalmiki Ramayana). The other most important 'Adityas' were Vayu (wind god), Varuna (god of justice and waters and oceans), Agni (god of fire and volcanos and heat and the primordial Sun).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Per Homer's Illiad and Hesoid's poems we learn that their gods descended from Uranus and Gaea (pronounced Geya). The pantheon of ancient Greek gods starts with their children. Uranus or Ouranos is believed to be the 'Varuna' of the Adityas by mythologists and historians, i.e. Varuna was called as 'Uraanus' and 'Ouraanus' in the west, and per vedas Varuna is the lord of the western direction. The ancient Greek pantheon begins with Uranus/Varuna and his wife Gaea, and their children (called Titans) who were later supplanted by Titans' children, called Olympians. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So imho, our 33 vedic gods were great-uncles of Greek Olympians, i.e. their were the grandchildren of one of the 33 primary vedic gods Varuna. Naturally, they ruled and lived in those western lands, whereas the 33 vedic gods ruled other lands, Indra ruled east, Agni ruled south east, Vayu ruled north west, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also the reason why all Vedic concepts are found in the greek mythology (cremations &amp;amp; not burials, animal sacrifices, linga worship as 'Omphallus' stones, etc.), but all greek concepts are not found in Vedic mythology (ex: ancient greeks' obsession with anal sex, sons killing fathers is not a sin, ancient greeks' obsession with maternal incest, no importance given to businessmen and vocational folk, etc.). Obviously, if vedic gods are plagiarized from Greek ones, we would have imported all these missing greek concepts also. But they are missing in our ancient religion. That is because there was no plagiarizing between ancient vedic and ancient greek religions. The author of your article is incorrect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, subsequent to Alexander's loss to Porus and his vengeful return back to Persia, several historians hypothesize that several vedic concepts such as vedic astronomy, concepts of vegetarianism (look up Pythagoros), etc. were imported by the greeks. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10158" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T00:31:50.817" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19023" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-20T03:59:02.940" Score="9" ViewCount="292" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the reasons specified in scriptures, behind the traditional funeral? are those reasons not fulfilled by Electric cremation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T10:15:55.817" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T05:31:38.673" Title="Can electric cremation be considered as a valid substitute for the funeral pyre?" Tags="|scripture|funeral|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19024" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="277" CreationDate="2017-06-20T05:37:56.613" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna didn't marry Radha because &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Krishna wanted her to remain his sacred fire.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;She would never have been able to find her Kanha in Krishna Vasudev. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This has been beautifully mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.surasa.net/lust_vs_love.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri K.M.Munshi's Krishnavatara&lt;/a&gt;. Lord Krishna said-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Uddhava, both you and my Big Brother have always upbraided me for leaving Radha behind in Vrindavan. &lt;strong&gt;But I did it because I want her to be my sacred fire.&lt;/strong&gt; I would never have loved Radha had I not felt sure that I was going to be in Vrindavan as a cowherd for ever. But when I was called to Mathura as Vasudeva's son, it would have been wicked to bring her with me. &lt;strong&gt;She was born to be an exquisite flower in the spring and would never have survived the hot winds of the life I was called upon to face. She would have never found her &quot;Kahn&quot; in Krishna Vaasudeva&lt;/strong&gt;. And I, with my mission to fulfil, could not have played the gay cowherd, who was the very breath of her life. So I parted from her. &lt;strong&gt;She has always remained an altar fire for me and I have remained the altar fire for her&lt;/strong&gt;. It was the only way,' said Krishna, a little sadly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also says further, which should be noticed especially in today's time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Man and wife, Uddhava, living in mutual lifelong devotion, are at the root of Dharma. The creation springs from them. &lt;strong&gt;Don't destroy Dharma for a fleeting comfort at a wayside fire&lt;/strong&gt;.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna made Radha his altar fire of Yajna. Krishna being full of wisdom, converted his Love(oblation) for Radha into a Yajna. He teaches Uddhav to do so to get strength, warmth &amp;amp; blessings. He asked Uddhav to &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Keep the warmth, but stay away from the flames.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The conversation goes like this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'You can weave any women into your life - may be not as you wish - &lt;strong&gt;if you convert the wayside fire into the sacrificial fire on a vedi, an altar (a devata for aaraadhana/worship)&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  'Why a wayside fire?' asked Uddhava.&#xA;  'Because you don't wait to inquire of what it is made; you don't care who warmed himself at it before you did, or what will happen to it after you have left. You are only selfish; you want a passing warmth. You don't consider how it will affect you later. You don't want it to lead you to strength,' said Krishna. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  'A passing fancy for a wayside fire will only singe (i.e., burn superficially or lightly, scorch); lifelong worship at the altar will give warmth - always.' Build an altar of devotion around her; offer her the most precious thing you can offer; then she will give you the warmth and strength of the sacrificial fire,' said Krishna. I do it with every woman who enters my life. I did the same with Mother Yashoda, with the Gopis, with Vishakha, with Radha, with Mother Devaki, and even with Trivakra (Kamsa's palace maid whom Krishna cured of disfigurement),' said Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At last, Krishna describes the significance of this type of Yajna, where devotion, love &amp;amp; attraction becomes oblation &amp;amp; women fire. This Yajna gives us strength, divinity &amp;amp; courage to be on the path of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Remember what the Gods did in the days of old,' continued Krishna. 'They had to offer sacred Purusha to make creating possible. &lt;strong&gt;Without a sacrificial offering, you cannot create anything,'&lt;/strong&gt; said Krishna as if speaking to himself.'If you want a woman, you have to offer something: a present, a house to live in, lifelong protection. But in that way you will only get a woman, her body, her services. The offering however is like sacrificing ghee or barley or a lamb to obtain a place in heaven. If you want a divinity to inspire you to Dharma and multiply your strength a hundredfold, you must offer something vastly greater. Have not the Gods said: 'By the spirit of sacrifice alone shall sacrifice prosper?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T10:56:02.590" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T10:56:02.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19025" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19038" CreationDate="2017-06-20T05:38:40.400" Score="12" ViewCount="14758" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Mahabharata is story of 5 generations, then how Maharshi Vyasa knew all the story of Mahabharata, did he survive through all 5 generations?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9437" LastEditorUserId="9437" LastEditDate="2022-04-07T07:35:37.167" LastActivityDate="2022-04-07T07:35:37.167" Title="How Maharshi Vyasa knew all the story of Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|vyasa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19026" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19007" CreationDate="2017-06-20T06:40:07.667" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Why Mahabaharata says Women are living lies ?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First Of  all lets look at the whole context in which these sentences were written. Now if we look at the previous chapters which describes the whole story , we can see that-:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1)&lt;/strong&gt; In Mahabharata Yudhishthira once asked  Bhishma about discourse on women.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;2)&lt;/strong&gt; Then Bhishma told  Yudhishthira a old story of Rishi Narada and Apsara Panchachuda in this  connection.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So Basically this is  a conversation between Narada and the Apsara  and  the words are description of women by  an Apsara (celestial nymph)&lt;/strong&gt; .Upon enquiry by the Narada Apsara said this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Hearing these words of the celestial Rishi, that foremost of Apsaras&#xA;replied unto him, saying, 'I am unable, being myself a woman, to speak&#xA;ill of women. &lt;strong&gt;She then addressed herself to mention&lt;/strong&gt; what the true and&#xA;eternal faults of women are!.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So she is telling  all this by addressing herself i.e. looking at her own. Now note that she is Apsara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I shall also tell thee, O king, how women were created by the&#xA;Grandsire Brahman and the object for which they were created by Him.&#xA;There is no creature more sinful, O son, than women. Woman is a&#xA;blazing fire. She is the illusion, O king, that the Daitya Maya&#xA;created. She is the sharp edge of the razor. She is poison. She is a&#xA;snake. She is fire. She is, verily, all these united together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now here Bhishma is actually saying good about women – i.e she is -  Blazing fire , illusion , shapr edge of the razor , snake ,  fire . That to say Bhishma is portraying her  as equally powerful as males and not a weak  or fearful one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Bhishma said, 'In this connection is cited the old history of the&#xA;discourse between the celestial &lt;strong&gt;Rishi Narada&lt;/strong&gt; and the (celestial)&#xA;courtezan Panchachuda. Once in ancient times, the celestial Rishi&#xA;Narada, having roamed over all the world, met the &lt;strong&gt;Apsara Panchachuda&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;of faultless beauty, having her abode in the region of Brahman.&#xA;Beholding the Apsara every limb of whose body was endued with great&#xA;beauty, the ascetic addressed her, saying, 'O thou of slender waist, I&#xA;have a doubt in my mind. Do thou explain it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I shall also tell thee, O king, how women were created by the&#xA;Grandsire Brahman and the object for which they were created by Him.&#xA;There is no creature more sinful, O son, than women. Woman is a&#xA;blazing fire. She is the illusion, O king, that the Daitya Maya&#xA;created. She is the sharp edge of the razor. She is poison. She is a&#xA;snake. She is fire. She is, verily, all these united together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It has been heard by us that all persons of the human race are&#xA;characterised by righteousness, and that they, in course of natural&#xA;progress and improvement, attain to the status of deities. This&#xA;circumstance alarmed the deities. They, therefore, O chastiser of&#xA;foes, assembled together and repaired to the presence of the&#xA;Grandsire. Informing Him of what was in their minds, they stood silent&#xA;in his presence, with downcast eyes. The puissant Grand sire having&#xA;ascertained what was in the hearts of the deities, created women, with&#xA;the aid of an Atharvan rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now here we can see that what Mahabahrata  is saying  - seeing that all humans were capable of becoming  like them the deities got alarmed and went to Brahma with their concern and then Brahma created women ,  as a solution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a former creation, O son of Kunti, &lt;strong&gt;women were all virtuous. Those,&#xA;however, that sprang from this creation by Brahman with the aid of an&#xA;illusion became sinful.&lt;/strong&gt; The grandsire bestowed upon them the desire of&#xA;enjoyment, all kinds of carnal pleasure. Tempted by the desire of&#xA;enjoyment, they began to pursue persons of the other sex.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now This is Important&lt;/strong&gt; – :  Bhishma says all women are virtuous , but the women who are created by   Maya (illusion ) are only sinful. And Brahma bestowed upon them desire of enjoyment of every kind. And endued with senses the most powerful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The puissant lord of the deities created Wrath as the companion of&#xA;Lust. Persons of the male sex, yielding to the power of Lust and&#xA;Wrath, sought the companionship of women. Women have no especial acts&#xA;prescribed for them. Even this is the ordinance that was laid down.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The Sruti declares that women are endued with senses the most&#xA;powerful, that they have no scriptures to follow&lt;/strong&gt;, and that they are&#xA;living lies. Beds and seats and ornaments and food and drink and the&#xA;absence of all that is respectable and righteous, indulgence in&#xA;disagreeable words, and love of sexual companionship,--these were&#xA;bestowed by Brahman upon women. Men are quite unable to restrain them&#xA;within bounds. &lt;strong&gt;The Creator himself is incapable of restraining them&#xA;within the limits that are proper:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;what need then be said of men?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;This, O chief of men,&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I.e. the senses of women are  are so powerful that all the women do not necessarily follow the scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now let us assemble all the above points and try to reach conclusion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a) This is enquiry about nature of women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;b) This is the description of women by an Apsara by looking at herself and her own opinion. And not of any earthly women , so she might be telling description of celestial women who are unlike women on earth created for illusion purpose and no scriptures describes sespecial acts prescribed for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;c) Only the women who are created for Maya (illusion) are sinful and specially created by Brahma to allude Humans. He himself got alluded by his  powerful  Maya (illusion)&#xA;So not all women are addressed here.&#xA;But only some selective and the apsara is giving description of them. And just a description of qualities of some illusive women. Again this is not description of all women&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;d) All Women are described virtuous , except some specially created for illusion .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e) At that time, again, O Narada, when women were created, these faults that I have enumerated were planted in them! &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;Some Women are created By Brahma with all these faults i.e. they were planted in them for special purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;`Conclusion - &lt;strong&gt;So this quotes of yours isn't  addressed towards all the women and does not apply to all  ,  again being in the context of the story the living lies word is used for only some women who are  created with Maya or Illusion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शय्याऽऽसनमलङ्कारं कामं क्रोधमनार्जवम् । &lt;br&gt; द्रोहभावं कुचर्यां च&#xA;स्त्रीभ्यो मनुरकल्पयत् ॥ १७ ॥&lt;br&gt; śayyā''sanamalaṅkāraṃ kāmaṃ&#xA;krodhamanārjavam | &lt;br&gt; drohabhāvaṃ kucaryāṃ ca strībhyo&#xA;manurakalpayat || 17 ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu assigned to women sleep, sitting, ornament, lust, anger,&#xA;dishonesty, malice and bad conduct.—(17)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now looking at the Mahabhrata answer , I have provided its clear that , &lt;strong&gt;while creating women Prajāpati gave these qualities / characteristics to women.That mean he created women with these faults.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manusmiriti only listing them.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;The reference to this quotes with reason can be found  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my Mahabhrata answer also gives answer to your manu-smiriti quotes.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201375.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;See here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T08:26:22.803" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19027" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19049" CreationDate="2017-06-20T09:02:28.570" Score="12" ViewCount="13810" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know that Lord Indra is the most important Vedic deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to ask if there is literature available for Lord Indra's worship. (except Vashitha Ganapati muni books)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there &lt;strong&gt;mantras&lt;/strong&gt; (vedic/tantric/puranic) available for worship of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Indra&lt;/strong&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T15:51:02.270" LastActivityDate="2019-06-07T11:53:36.607" Title="What are some mantras which are dedicated to Lord Indra?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|rituals|mantras|indra|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19028" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-20T11:34:07.987" Score="2" ViewCount="913" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hi hope someone can help me understand the meaning of my dream I am not able to understand why did I see this particular act in my dream last night. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I dreamt of pouring water on the Lord Ganesha's idol which was made of black rock and there were two idols one is 12 inches and the other idol was of six and a half feet tall. I was shocked by the amount of water it took to pour on these two idols from 5-liter water pot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10171" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T12:49:04.367" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T12:49:04.367" Title="Pouring Water on Lord ganesha in the dream" Tags="|scripture|dream|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-06-20T15:14:03.360" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19029" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12329" CreationDate="2017-06-20T11:38:59.227" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gaud Saraswat and Saraswat Brahmins who originated from Saraswathi River banks in Kashmir region, and then migrated south due to seismic upheavals to Gaud ( Pataliputra), Dwaraka and later to Goa and Konkan region of Maharashtra, maintained their tradition of Kuladevatha worship. Later during Portuguese invation, torture and inquisitions, they moved to Karnataka and Cochin, along with their dieties. Many moved their dieties to the Hills of Goa (Ponda) which at that time was ruled by the Hindu kings of Maharashtra . Even to this day, this community makes frequent pilgrimages to their own family Kula Devatha temples in North Canara and beautifuly rebuilt temples of Goa. So the tradition goes on for over two thousand years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10172" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T11:38:59.227" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19030" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19023" CreationDate="2017-06-20T12:01:17.457" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The concept of a funeral in Hinduism is based on agni worship. Fire is of prime importance in the vedic life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a student one performs agniadhana as a preparatory practice for the post-marital fire worship of Agnihotra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the sacred fire, the fire of marriage ceremony is ignited. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This sacred fire of marriage is preserved by the couple in 3 sections throughout their life without letting it extinguished. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To this fire, they offer daily oblations of the Agnihotra and bi-monthly and quarterly sacrifices and special sacrifices. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end when one dies, his body is offered as an oblation to the sacred Agni which had been worshiped throughout their life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sridevinatha.org/vedic.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cremation of the body is also a sacrifice, the final offering: it is called&#xA;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;antyesti&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; and it is also to be performed with the chanting of mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the concept for the funeral in Vedic tradition. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, in the past, the population was limited and people were more environment-friendly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in the present time. The population has crossed billions and thus it would need a very high amount of wood and fuel for burning. This will cause more trees to be used up. Further, the ashes and half burnt bodies are offered to rivers like Ganges which is increasing water pollution. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Today's time an electric cremation is also a good option because it also uses heat for generating high temperature. Further, there is a less risk of transmission of endemic diseases. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T05:31:38.673" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T05:31:38.673" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19031" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19027" CreationDate="2017-06-20T12:09:06.893" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Are there mantras (vedic/tantric/puranic) available for worship of Lord Indra?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found one Mantra in the Paushya Parva of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabhrata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;   , &lt;strong&gt;Which is hymn in praise of Indra -  Indra stuti (इन्द्र स्तुति). See P.41&lt;/strong&gt;. &#xA;You can read  the story from above link.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;150 तरीण्य अर्पितान्य अत्र शतानि मध्ये; षष्टिश च नित्यं चरति धरुवे&#xA;  ऽसमिन&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      चक्रे चतुर्विंशतिपर्व यॊगे षड; यत कुमाराः परिवर्तयन्ति&lt;br&gt; 151 तन्त्रं चेदं विश्वरूपं युवत्यौ; वयतस तन्तून सततं वर्तयन्त्यौ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      कृष्णान सितांश चैव विवर्तयन्त्यौ; भूतान्य अजस्रं भुवनानि चैव&lt;br&gt; 152 वज्रस्य भर्ता भुवनस्य गॊप्ता; वृत्रस्य हन्ता नमुचेर निहन्ता&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      कृष्णे वसानॊ वसने महात्मा; सत्यानृते यॊ विविनक्ति लॊके&lt;br&gt; 153 यॊ वाजिनं गर्भम अपां पुराणं; वैश्वानरं वाहनम अभ्युपेतः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      &lt;strong&gt;नमः सदास्मै जगद ईश्वराय; लॊकत्रयेशाय पुरंदराय&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;trINy-arpitAn-yatra shatAni madhye ShaShTishcha nitya.n charati dhruve&#xA;  .asmin .&lt;br&gt; chakre chatur-viMshati parva yoge ShaD yat-kumArAH&#xA;  parivartayanti ..&lt;br&gt; tantra.n cheda.n vishvarUpaM yuvatyau&#xA;  vayatas-tantUn-satata.n vartayantyau .&lt;br&gt; kR^iShNAnsitAMsh chaiva&#xA;  vivartayantyau bhUtAnyajasraM bhuvanAni chaiva&lt;br&gt; vajrasya bhartA&#xA;  bhuvanasya goptA vR^itrasya hantA namuchernihantA .&lt;br&gt; kR^iShNe&#xA;  vasAno vasane mahAtmA satyAnR^ite yo vivinakti loke&lt;br&gt; yo vAjina.n&#xA;  garbham-apAM purANaM vaishvAnara.n vAhanam-abhyupetaH .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;namaH sadAsmai jagadIshvarAya lokatrayeshAya purandarAya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - &quot;This wheel whose circumference is marked by twenty-four&#xA;  divisions representing as many lunar changes is furnished with three&#xA;  hundred spokes! It is set in continual motion by six boys (the&#xA;  seasons)! These damsels representing universal nature are weaving&#xA;  without intermission a cloth with threads black and white, and thereby&#xA;  ushering into existence the manifold worlds and the beings that&#xA;  inhabit them! &lt;strong&gt;Thou wielder of the thunder&lt;/strong&gt;, the protector of the&#xA;  universe, the slayer of Vritra and Namuchi, thou illustrious one who&#xA;  wearest the black cloth and displayest truth and untruth in the&#xA;  universe, thou who ownest for thy carrier the horse which was received&#xA;  from the depths of the ocean, and which is but another form of Agni&#xA;  (the god of fire), &lt;strong&gt;I bow to thee, thou supreme Lord, thou Lord of&#xA;  the three worlds, O Purandara!'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is mantra uttered by Rushi  Utanka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The &lt;strong&gt;Brahmana Rishi Utanka&lt;/strong&gt; having saluted the chief serpents in this&#xA;  manner, obtained not, however, the ear-rings. And he thereupon became&#xA;  very thoughtful. And when he saw that he obtained not the ear-rings&#xA;  even though he had adored the serpents, he then looked about him and&#xA;  beheld two women at a loom weaving a piece of cloth with a fine&#xA;  shuttle; and in the loom were black and white threads. And he likewise&#xA;  saw a wheel, with twelve spokes, turned by six boys. And he also saw a&#xA;  man with &lt;strong&gt;a handsome horse. And he began to address them the following&#xA;  mantras:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read Sanskrit shlokas here -&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs01003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T12:19:19.920" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T12:19:19.920" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19032" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19019" CreationDate="2017-06-20T13:04:43.323" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I cant give more information about scriptures describe each Loka. But hope his might help you a little bit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There 7 higher lokas as mentioned&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;भूलोक, भुवलोक, स्वर्गलोक, महालोक, जनलोक, तापलोक, सत्यलोक&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and 7 patals as mentioned&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;अतल, वितल, नितल, गभस्तिमान, महातल, सुतल, पाताल&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you read Gyatri Mantra then you will notice 3 higher lok mention in it&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ &lt;strong&gt;भू र्भुवः स्वः&lt;/strong&gt; ।   तत्स॑वि॒तुर्वरेण्यं॒&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भर्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑ धीमहि ।   धियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त् ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भू meaning भूलोक, र्भुवः meaning भुवलोक and  स्वः meaning स्वर्गलोक.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And about how it is decided which person goes to which Loka after death is totally depended on the karma done by a individual person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;You reap what you sow.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope this might help a little bit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T14:26:05.147" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T14:26:05.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19033" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19035" CreationDate="2017-06-20T13:09:09.597" Score="19" ViewCount="3314" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which Vedic verses describe Indra as Brahman? Or as creator of universe or as source of universe or as someone who pervades whole universe? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T16:04:52.393" LastActivityDate="2023-07-17T02:17:23.810" Title="Which Vedic verses describe Indra as Brahman?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|brahman|indra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19034" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6910" CreationDate="2017-06-20T14:52:32.603" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;em&gt;Dig Vijaya&lt;/em&gt; means a victory campaign. A king along with his forces invades their foes. The defeated king should pay a great amount of gold, taxes and tribute and should accept the victorious king as monarch. When Yudhushtira was a monarch before the exile, his brothers toured all the directions and conquered kingdoms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna started his victory campaign on behalf of Duryodhana when Pandavas were living in the forests. This happened after the ghosha yatra in which Duryodhana was liberated from the Gandharvas by the Pandavas. After that incident, Duryodhana had returned to Hastinapura. Bhishma Pitamaha speaks some harsh words against Karna and advises Duryodhana to make peace with the Pandavas. Duryodhana laughs at Bhishma and leaves that place along with his counsellors. Karna who was unhappy with Bhishma Pitamaha's words &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03251.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'O Kuru's son, Duryodhana, do thou lay to heart tie words that I say. Bhishma always blameth us, and praiseth the Pandavas. And from the ill-will he beareth towards thee, he hateth me also. And, O lord of men, in thy presence he ever crieth me down. I shall never, O Bharata, bear these words that Bhishma had said in thy presence in relation to this matter, extolling the Pandavas, and censuring thee, O represser of foes! Do thou, O king, enjoin on me, together with servants, forces, and cars. I shall, O monarch, conquer the earth furnished with mountains and woods and forests. &lt;strong&gt;The earth had been conquered by the four powerful Pandavas. I shall, without doubt, conquer it for thee single-handed. Let that wretch of the Kuru race, the exceedingly wicked-minded Bhishma, see it,&lt;/strong&gt;--he who vilifies those that do not deserve censure, and praises those that should not be praised. Let him this day witness my might, and blame himself. Do thou, O king, command me. &lt;strong&gt;Victory shall surely be thine.&lt;/strong&gt; By my weapon, O monarch, I swear this before thee.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By hearing the words of Karna, Duryodhana replies with great delight:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'I am blessed. I have been favoured by thee,--since thou, endued with great strength, art ever intent on my welfare. My life hath borne fruit, to-day. &lt;strong&gt;As thou, O hero, intendest to subdue all our enemies, repair thou&lt;/strong&gt;. May good betide thee! O subduer of foes, having been thus addressed by Dhritarashtra's intelligent son, Karna ordered all the necessaries for the excursion. And on an auspicious lunar day, at an auspicious moment, and under the influence of a star presided over by an auspicious deity, that mighty bowman, having been honoured by twice-born ones, and been bathed with auspicious and holy substances and also worshipped by speech set out, filling with the rattle of his car the three worlds, with their mobile and immobile objects.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The details of his victory campaign are explained in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03252.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 252&lt;/a&gt; of Vanaparva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He toured all the directions &lt;em&gt;viz&lt;/em&gt;  east, west, north and south to complete the Digvijaya yatra and he conquered all his enemies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana continued, &quot;Then, O bull among the Bharatas, that mighty bowman, Karna, surrounded by a large army, besieged the beautiful city of Drupada. And he, after a hard conflict, brought the hero under subjection, and, O best of monarchs, made Drupada contribute silver and gold and gems, and also pay tribute. And, O foremost of kings, having subdued him, (Karna) brought under subjection those princes that were under him (Drupada) and made them pay tribute. Then going to the north, he subdued the sovereigns (of that quarter) and having effected the defeat of Bhagadatta, Radha's son ascended that mighty mountain Himavat, all along fighting his foes. And ranging all sides, he conquered and brought under subjection all the kings inhabiting the Himavat, and made them pay dues. Then descending from the mountain and rushing to the east, he reduced the Angas, and the Bangas, and the Kalingas, and the Mandikas, and the Magadhas. the Karkakhandas; and also included with them the Avasiras, Yodhyas, and the Ahikshatras. Having (thus) conquered the eastern quarter Karna then presented himself before Batsa-bhumi. And having taken Batsa-bhumi, he reduced Kevali, and Mrittikavati, and Mohana and Patrana, and Tripura, and Kosala,--and compelled all these to pay tribute. Then going to the south, Karna vanquished the mighty charioteers (of that quarter) and in Dakshinatya, the Suta's son entered into conflict with Rukmi. After having fought dreadfully, Rukmi spake to the Suta's son saying, 'O foremost of monarchs, I have been pleased with thy might and prowess. I shall not do thee wrong: I have only fulfilled the vow of a Kshatriya. Gladly will I give thee as many gold coins as thou desirest.' Having met with Rukmi, Karna, repaired to Pandya and the mountain, Sri. And by fighting, he made Karala, king Nila, Venudari's son, and other best of kings living in the southern direction pay tribute. Then going to Sisupala's son, the son of the Suta defeated him and that highly powerful one also brought under his sway all the neighbouring rulers. And, O bull of the Bharata race, having subjugated the Avantis and concluded peace with them, and having met with the Vrishnis, he conquered the west. And, having come to the quarter of Varuna, he made all the Yavana and Varvara kings pay tribute. And, having conquered the entire earth--east, west, north and south--that hero without any aid brought under subjection all the nations of the Mlechchhas, the mountaineers, the Bhadras, the Rohitakas, the Agneyas and the Malavas. And, having conquered the mighty charioteers, headed by the Nagnajitas, the Suta's son brought the Sasakas and the Yavanas under his sway. Having thus conquered and brought under his subjection the world, the mighty charioteer and tiger among men came (back) to Hastinapura. That lord of men, Dhritarashtra's son, accompanied by his father and brothers and friends, came to that mighty bowman, who had arrived, and duly paid homage unto Karna crowned with martial &#xA;  merit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above way, Karna conquered all the kingdoms and submitted all the gold and tribute gained in the invasion to the Monarch Duryodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-20T14:57:48.667" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T14:57:48.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19035" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19033" CreationDate="2017-06-20T15:47:13.093" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra is called as the Lord of the Universe, the all pervader and the Supreme Lord in many Vedic verses. Here are some examples from RigVeda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रूपं-रूपं परतिरूपो बभूव तदस्य रूपं परतिचक्षणाय |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इन्द्रो मायाभिः पुरुरूप ईयते युक्ता हयस्य हरयःशता दश || (RigVeda 6.47.18)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In every figure &lt;strong&gt;he hath been the mode: this is his only form for us to look on. Indra assumes many form by his Maya,&lt;/strong&gt; for his Bay Steeds are yoked, ten times a hundred.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यो विश्वस्य जगतः पराणतस पतिर्यो बरह्मणे परथमो गा अविन्दत | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इन्द्रो यो दस्यून्रधरानवातिरन म... || (RigVeda 1.101.5)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He who is Lord of all the world that moves and breathes,&lt;/strong&gt; who for the Brahman first before all found the Cows; Indra who cast the Dasyus down beneath his feet,—him girt by Maruts we invoke to be our Friend.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Let us praise him who made these worlds and creatures, all things that after him sprang into being.&lt;/strong&gt; May we win Mitra with our songs, and Indra, and. wait upon our Lord with adoration. (RigVeda 8.85.6)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Carrying your power, &lt;strong&gt;bear your hymns of affirmation to Indra as the Truth,&lt;/strong&gt; if in truth he exists. ” There is no Indra, some say to you. Who has seen him? Why should we praise him. ” I am here, O singer, perceive me here. &lt;strong&gt;I transcend all Beings by my greatness, the directions of truth increase me, as the one who breaks things open,&lt;/strong&gt; I break open the worlds.” (Rig Veda 8.89.3-4)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Indra extends beyond heaven and earth. Half of him is equal to both the worlds. That is the truth Indra there is no other God or mortal greater than you.&lt;/strong&gt; You are the king of the creatures of the world. You generated together the Sun, heaven and the Dawn. –(Rig Veda 6.30.1,4,5.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, in the Taittariya Aranyaka of Krishna YajurVeda (in the part of MahaNarayaniya) it is stated:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VIII-1: &lt;strong&gt;The Supreme Being, Indra, who is the most excellent Pranava taught in the Vedas, who ensouls the entire universe, who leads the collection of Vedic utterances in Gayatri and other metres standing in their beginning, who is capable of being attained by the worshippers and who is the first in the causal link,&lt;/strong&gt; taught the contemplative sages the sacred wisdom of the Upanishad, Himself being the subject-matter &#xA;  of them, in order to strengthen them with the power of knowledge. I salute the gods for removing the obstacles in my path to illumination. For the same I also reverence the Manes. The triple regions of Bhuh, Bhuvah and Suvah and the entire Veda are comprised in Om.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in the Kaushitki Aranyaka of RigVeda (where there is Kaushitki Brahmana Upanishad) it is told:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To him then Indra said: A superior verily chooses not for an inferior. Do you yourself choose. ‘No boon verily then is it to me’ said Pratardana. But Indra did not depart from &#xA;  the truth, for Indra is truth. &lt;strong&gt;To him then Indra said: ‘Understand me only.&lt;/strong&gt; This indeed I deem most beneficent to man, namely that one should understand me. I slew the three-headed Tvastir; I delivered the Arunmukhas, the ascetics, to the wolves. Transgressing many compacts I killed the people of Prahlada in the sky, the Paulomas in the &#xA;  atmosphere, the Kalakanjas on the earth. Of me, such as I was then, not a single hair was injured. So he knows me thus – by no deed whatever of his is his world injured, &#xA;  not by stealing, not by killing an embryo, not by the murder of his mother, not by the murder of his father. If he has done any evil, the dark colour departs not from his face.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  III-2. &lt;strong&gt;Then he (Indra) said: I am the Spirit of the vital breath, the intelligent Self. As such, worship me as life, as immortality. Life is the vital breath: the vital breath is life. For as long as the vital breath remains in the body so long is there life. For indeed with the vital breath one obtains immortality in this world; with intelligence, true conception. So he who worships me as life, as immortality, reaches the full term of life in this world; he obtains immortality and indestructibility in the heavenly world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a sidenote regarding the interpretation of such verses in the Vedanta, it is discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/a&gt; as;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Topic-11: Pratardana&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 28. Prana is Brahman, because it is comprehended thus.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 29. If it be argued that Prana is not Brahman, since the instruction is about the speaker’s own self, (then we say, no), for here is an abundance of reference to the inmost Self.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 30. But the instruction proceeds from a seer’s vision agreeing with scriptures, as in the case of Vamadeva.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 31. If it be argued that Brahman is not spoken of here on account of the indications of the individual soul and the chief vital force, then that cannot be so, since this will lead to a threefold meditation. (Besides, Prana) is accepted (elsewhere) as meaning Brahman (because of the presence of Brahman’s characteristics), (and these are) in evidence here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The passage being discussed in the Brahma Sutra above is the same passage of Kaushitki Brahmana Upanishad which says Indra is Brahman. Here is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya on that part:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The individual divine Self called Indra perceiving by means of rishi-like intuition 1--the existence of which is vouched for by Scripture--its own Self to be identical with the supreme Self, instructs Pratardana (about the highest Self) by means of the words &amp;apos;Know me only.&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  By intuition of the same kind the rishi Vâmadeva reached the knowledge expressed in the words, &amp;apos;I was Manu and Sûrya;&amp;apos; in accordance with the passage, &amp;apos;Whatever deva was awakened (so as to know Brahman) he indeed became that&amp;apos; (Bri. Up. I, 4, 10). &lt;strong&gt;The assertion made above (in the pûrvapaksha of the preceding Sûtra) that Indra after saying, &amp;apos;Know me only,&amp;apos; glorifies himself by enumerating the slaying of Tvashtri&amp;apos;s son and other deeds of strength, we refute as follows.&lt;/strong&gt; The death of Tvashtri&amp;apos;s son and similar deeds are referred to, not to the end of glorifying Indra as the object of knowledge--in which case the sense of the passage would be, &amp;apos;Because I accomplished such and such deeds, therefore know me&amp;apos;--but to the end of glorifying the cognition of the highest Self. For this reason the text, after having referred to the slaying of Tvashtri&amp;apos;s son and the like, goes on in the clause next following to exalt knowledge, &amp;apos;And not one hair of me is harmed there. He who knows me thus by no deed of his is his life harmed.&amp;apos;--(But how does this passage convey praise of knowledge?)--Because, we reply, its meaning is as follows: &amp;apos;Although I do such cruel deeds, yet not even a hair of mine is harmed because I am one with Brahman; therefore the life of any other person also who knows me thus is not harmed by any deed of his.&amp;apos; &lt;strong&gt;And the object of the knowledge (praised by Indra) is nothing else but Brahman which is set forth in a subsequent passage, &amp;apos;I am prâna, the intelligent Self.&amp;apos; Therefore the entire chapter refers to Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacharya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary&lt;/a&gt; on the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the Rishi Vâmadeva perceiving that Brahman is the inner Self of all, that all things constitute its body, and that the meaning of words denoting a body extends up to the principle embodied, denotes with the word &amp;apos;I&amp;apos; the highest Brahman to which he himself stands in the relation of a body, and then predicates of this &amp;apos;I&amp;apos; Manu Sûrya and other beings--&amp;apos;&lt;strong&gt;Seeing this the Rishi. Vâmadeva understood, I am Manu, I am Sûrya&amp;apos; (Bri. Up. I, 4, 10). Similarly Prahlâda says, &amp;apos;As the Infinite one abides within all, he constitutes my &amp;quot;I&amp;quot; also; all is from me, I am all, within me is all.&amp;apos; (Vi. Pu. I, 19, 85.)&lt;/strong&gt; The next Sûtra states, in reply to an objection, the reason why, in the section under discussion, terms denoting the individual soul, and others denoting non-sentient things are applied to Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Srikantha Shivacharya in his commentary states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sutrakara quotes an example, &amp;quot;like Vamadeva.&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;Vamadeva saw that Paramesvara was none but his own Atma and exclaimed &amp;quot; I have become Manu and Surya.&amp;quot; Just so is Indra&amp;apos;s declaration.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Or thus : When, by the contemplation of the harmonious nature of Brahman and Atman brought about by Vedantic knowledge, Vamadeva attained to the state of Brahman and was freed from all the imaginary limitations due to the identifying of himself with the human body and so on, and his mighty ego expanded so as to embrace the whole universe, &lt;strong&gt;he saw that he was present everywhere and accordingly spoke of himself as one with the whole univierse including Manu and Surya. So, it maybe concluded, it was in the case of Indra.&lt;/strong&gt; In the passage &amp;quot; I am prana, the conscious Atman,&amp;quot; Prana refers to Para-Brahman, in as much as He , blissful by nature, is the cause of all life, as said in the sruti &amp;quot; Prana is the &#xA;  conscious self, the Bliss, undecaying and immortal.&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;Accordingly it is from the standpoint of Brahman that Indra taught &amp;quot; I am Brahman,&amp;quot; &amp;quot; me do thou worship &amp;quot; So, too, Krishna taught to Arjuna, and so several others.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T15:47:13.093" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19037" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-20T16:16:15.873" Score="1" ViewCount="168" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to learn and chant some mantras to control my stress,fear and to control my sensual feelings(I am also planning to do meditation to control my stress). From where should I start ? Is it okay if I misspell the mantras ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10177" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T03:09:04.840" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T09:49:31.580" Title="Is it ok if I misspell the mantras as I am a beginner?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19038" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19025" CreationDate="2017-06-20T16:52:07.420" Score="12" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We believe the Great epic &lt;code&gt;Mahabharatha&lt;/code&gt; was written by the great &lt;code&gt;sage Veda Vyasa&lt;/code&gt;. He was the grandfather of the &lt;code&gt;Pandavas&lt;/code&gt; and the &lt;code&gt;Kauravas&lt;/code&gt;. He had &lt;code&gt;great powers of meditation&lt;/code&gt; and hence lived a very long life (One of the Immortals). He lived even after all his grandchildren – the Pandavas and the Kauravas had died.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;अश्वत्थामा बलिव्र्यासो हनूमांश्च विभीषण:। कृप: परशुरामश्च सप्तएतै चिरजीविन:॥&#xA;&#xA;सप्तैतान् संस्मरेन्नित्यं मार्कण्डेयमथाष्टमम्। जीवेद्वर्षशतं सोपि सर्वव्याधिविवर्जित॥&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ashwathaama Balirvyaaso Hanumanshcha Vibheeshanaha Krupaha Parshuramascha Saptaitey Chiranjivinaha Saptaitaan Samsmareynnityam Markandeymathaashtamam Jivedvarshshatam Sopi Sarvavyadhivivarjit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above lines mean that by daily remembering these 8 immortals (Ashwatthama, King Bali, &lt;strong&gt;Veda Vyasa&lt;/strong&gt;, Hanuman, Vibhishan, Kripacharya, Parashuram and Rishi Markandaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Veda Vyasa is one of eight Immortals according to our Hindu Scriptures. He lived through all the 5 generation&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is real story behind Who wrote the Mahabharatha?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once when Veda Vyasa was meditating in the Himalayas, the God of creation – &lt;code&gt;Lord Brahma&lt;/code&gt; appeared before him. Brahma asked Veda Vyasa to write the story of Mahabharatha. Brahma told Veda Vyasa that as he had seen the entire story and knew all the characters intimately, he was the best person to write the story.&#xA;  However Veda Vyasa was perturbed when he heard this. He knew that the Mahabharatha was a very complex story. He could not compose and write such a huge story at the same time. He needed somebody's help to write the story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma told Veda Vyasa to ask &lt;code&gt;Lord Ganesha&lt;/code&gt; – the elephant headed God, for help. He knew that Vyasa was capable of composing the epic at a very fast pace. In order to test Vyasa, he imposed a very novel condition. Veda Vyasa knew that &lt;code&gt;Lord Ganesha&lt;/code&gt; being the &lt;code&gt;God of Knowledge&lt;/code&gt; would take down the narration very fast. He smiled and asked a favour of Lord Ganesha. He said that Lord Ganesha was not to write anything unless he understood the meaning of what was narrated to him. Lord Ganesha smiled and accepted the condition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4AtNJ.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4AtNJ.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus Veda Vyasa began narrating the story and Lord Ganesha wrote down the story accurately. Whenever the sage needed some rest, he would compose a stanza (a verse) with a very difficult meaning. Lord Ganesha would ponder over the meaning of the stanza, while the sage refreshed himself, or composed more stanzas. The 'pen' with which Lord Ganesha started writing the story was not able to keep up with the pace of the two of them. Lord Ganesha was writing the story so fast that the pen broke!  However Lord Ganesha did not stop writing, he just broke one of his tusks and started writing with it. That is the reason Lord Ganesha is seen in most of the pictures with only one tusk and the &lt;code&gt;broken tusk in his hand&lt;/code&gt;. Thus, though the &lt;code&gt;Mahabharatha&lt;/code&gt; was the longest story ever written, it was written in a total of three years! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T16:52:07.420" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19039" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-20T17:22:51.480" Score="10" ViewCount="1556" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know that Vishnu incarnated as Kurma the tortoise during the Churning of the Ocean.  What is less well-known however, is that at least three forms of Vishnu were involved in the Churning of the Ocean; as Kurma the tortoise he held up Mount Mandara, in a thousand-armed form he stood on the top of Mount Mandara and held it, and as the Deva Ajita he was instrumental in pulling the serpent Vasuki to churn the ocean.  (Vishnu also appeared as the twin sages Nara and Narayana, the god of medicine Dhanvantari, and the enchantress Mohini in the course of the story.). Here's how &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/7/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam describes it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QKpBH.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QKpBH.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of the Pāṇḍu dynasty, when Mandara Mountain was thus being used as a churning rod in the Ocean of Milk, it had no support, and therefore although held by the strong hands of the demigods and demons, it sank into the water. Because the mountain had been sunk by the strength of providence, the demigods and demons were disappointed, and their faces seemed to shrivel. Seeing the situation that had been created by the will of the Supreme, the unlimitedly powerful Lord, whose determination is infallible, took &lt;strong&gt;the wonderful shape of a tortoise, entered the water, and lifted the great Mandara Mountain&lt;/strong&gt;.... Thereafter, Lord Viṣṇu entered the demons as the quality of passion, the demigods as the quality of goodness, and Vāsuki as the quality of ignorance to encourage them and increase their various types of strength and energy. &lt;strong&gt;Manifesting Himself with thousands of hands, the Lord then appeared on the summit of Mandara Mountain, like another great mountain, and held Mandara Mountain with one hand.&lt;/strong&gt; In the upper planetary systems, Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, along with Indra, King of heaven, and other demigods, offered prayers to the Lord and showered flowers upon Him.... When nectar did not come from the Ocean of Milk, despite so much endeavor by the best of the demigods and demons, &lt;strong&gt;the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ajita, personally began to churn the ocean&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the second form.  My question is, what is the thousand-armed form of Vishnu, who stood on the top of Mount Mandara and held it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it Vishnu's Vyuha form Aniruddha?  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7661/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, that is the form of Vishnu which has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet.  That's the form of Vishnu described in the Purusha Sukta of the Rig Veda, and that's the form which Krishna showed to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he's not Vishnu's Vyuha form Aniruddha, do we know anything further about him?  Does he have a name? Is he described in other scriptures, and did he ever appear anywhere other than the top of Mount Mandara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-12-15T08:35:35.797" LastActivityDate="2020-02-27T12:03:26.357" Title="What form of Vishnu held Mandara at the top during the Churning of the Ocean?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|bhagavata-purana|samudra-manthan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19040" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19025" CreationDate="2017-06-20T20:35:54.570" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, it is true that Vyasa lived through all the generations of the Mahabharata.  He was the son of Satyavati and the sage Parashara, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Satyavati gratified with having obtained the excellent boon in consequence of which she became sweet-scented and her virginity remained unsullied conceived through Parasara's embraces. And she brought forth the very day, on an island in the Yamuna, the child begot upon her by Parasara and gifted with great energy. And the child, with the permission of his mother, set his mind on asceticism. And he went away saying, 'As soon as thou rememberest me when occasion comes, I shall appear unto thee.' And it was thus that Vyasa was born of Satyavati through Parasara. And because he was born in an island, he was called Dwaipayana (Dwaipa or islandborn). And the learned Dwaipayana, beholding that virtue is destined to become lame by one leg each yuga (she having four legs in all) and that the period of life and the strength of men followed the yugas, and moved by the desire of obtaining the favour of Brahman and the Brahmanas, arranged the Vedas. And for this he came to be called Vyasa (the arranger or compiler).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Satyavati later went on to become the wife of the king Shantanu, who was the father of Bhishma, Vichitravirya and Chitrangada.  When Vichitrayirya and Chitrangada died, Vyasa fathered children with Vichitravirya's wives Ambika and Ambalika, through the practice of Niyoga, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata.  These children were Pandu and Dhritarashtra.  Pandu was the adopted father of the Pandavas, and Dhritarashtra was the adopted father of the Kauravas.  So Vyasa's Mahabharata is essentially an epic poem about Vyasa's own grandchildren.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But we need not even stop at the Pandavas and the Kauravas; Vyasa met Arjuna's great-grandson Janamejaya, as described in this chapter of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Formerly, the spirited and virtuous Krishna-Dwaipayana, by the injunctions of Bhishma, the wise son of Ganga and of his own mother, became the father of three boys who were like the three fires by the two wives of Vichitra-virya; and having thus raised up Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura, he returned to his recluse abode to prosecute his religious exercise.  It was not till after these were born, grown up, and departed on the supreme journey, that the great Rishi Vyasa published the Bharata in this region of mankind; when being solicited by Janamejaya and thousands of Brahmanas, he instructed his disciple Vaisampayana, who was seated near him; and he, sitting together with the Sadasyas, recited the Bharata, during the intervals of the ceremonies of the sacrifice, being repeatedly urged to proceed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there are even stories of Adi Shankaracharya and Madhvacharya meeting Vyasa!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it is not through his longevity of life that Vyasa was able to compose the Mahabharata, but rather through divine vision obtained through Tapasya, s described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Satyavati having, by penance and meditation, analysed the eternal Veda, afterwards composed this holy history, when that learned Brahmarshi of strict vows, the noble Dwaipayana Vyasa, offspring of Parasara, had finished this greatest of narrations, he began to consider how he might teach it to his disciples. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In that respect Vyasa is similar to Valmiki, who lived through the events of the Ramayana but composed the Ramayana through divine vision as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/760/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-06-20T20:35:54.570" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19041" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-21T01:24:46.827" Score="7" ViewCount="1498" Body="&lt;p&gt;In tantrokta devi suktam, (durga saptashati) it has been mentioned as &quot;Ya devi sarva bhuteshu Vishnumayeti shabdita....&quot;. What is &quot;Vishnu maya&quot; here?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10180" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T11:06:25.097" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T11:06:25.097" Title="What is the meaning of Vishnu maya in Tantrokta Devi Suktam?" Tags="|devi|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19042" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-21T04:32:59.287" Score="1" ViewCount="855" Body="&lt;p&gt;We are told right from childhood that one shouldn't read or watch &lt;strong&gt;'Mahabharata'&lt;/strong&gt; in the form of book or teleserial, as it might cause fights among the family members. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this right &amp;amp; applicable today as well ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9872" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T04:32:59.287" Title="Why one shouldn't read or watch 'Mahabharata' in the form of book or teleserial?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-06-21T04:37:01.187" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19043" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19037" CreationDate="2017-06-21T04:50:44.687" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the process of learning the beginner is bound to make mistakes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if one learns from a guru in the gurukulam he is bound to make mistakes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No one can do correct chanting from the word go. Hence there should not be any guilt about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But efforts should be made to minimize the mistakes by careful observation of chanting and pronunciation. One should try not to repeat same mistakes again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are wishing to learn the Vedas and wondering where to learn from then you can see the list of paathashalas &lt;a href=&quot;http://msrvvp.ac.in/Annual_Report_english_2011_12.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (from page no. 40 onwards) and see which is nearest to your place. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T04:50:44.687" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19044" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-21T05:12:29.710" Score="4" ViewCount="2286" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any temples in India which are exclusively dedicated to Lord Indra? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, then where are those temples located?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If no, what are the reasons for Lord Indra not having temples dedicated to him? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T05:17:34.837" LastActivityDate="2017-12-21T13:14:26.620" Title="How many Lord Indra temples are there in India?" Tags="|temple|indra|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19045" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-21T05:26:42.360" Score="4" ViewCount="149" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kho_kho&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kho Kho&lt;/a&gt; as a game played during the times of Mahabharatha or Ramayana? Are there any real references?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=S7QxypIW-KUC&amp;amp;pg=PA96&amp;amp;lpg=PA96&amp;amp;dq=kho+kho+hanuman&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=w_x5FAZXLY&amp;amp;sig=0eDOn7vGc5BAiYYhyEdjfa8VBqE&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwilicbwls7UAhUgSI8KHYo5Dx84ChDoAQgnMAE#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=kho%20kho%20hanuman&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This book&lt;/a&gt; mentions so and also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indianetzone.com/58/history_kho_kho.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This blog&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10088" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T05:28:46.697" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T05:28:46.697" Title="Was Kho Kho played during the times of Ramayana and Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-06-22T13:00:43.877" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19047" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-21T05:50:28.930" Score="13" ViewCount="2258" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do Vedas talk of temples? Were there any temples in the Vedic era? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes what are some of the references? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If no then is temple worship a post Vedic concept? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2020-05-14T14:28:21.997" Title="Is there temple worship in the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|temple|agamas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19048" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-21T05:57:52.783" Score="6" ViewCount="230" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a list of seers and devatas of the mantras of krishna yajurveda? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any online reference which details the chapters of Krishna Yajurveda and its related rishis and devatas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-27T05:40:42.233" LastActivityDate="2017-06-27T05:40:42.233" Title="Is there any online Anukramanika (Index of Sages and deities) for Krishna Yajurveda?" Tags="|rishi|vedic-gods|krishna-yajurveda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19049" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19027" CreationDate="2017-06-21T06:16:07.347" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is an Agamic mantra (or Tantric mantra) dedicated to Lord Indra taken from the &lt;strong&gt;Mantradeva Prakashika&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Im IndraYa Hrith | asya Brahmarishi Pangtischandaha Indro DevatA Im&#xA;  Bijam Ayethi Shaktihi |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Im Indraya namaha&lt;/strong&gt;, for this mantra the Rishi is BrahmA, Chandah is&#xA;  Pangti, Devata is Indra, Bija is Im, and Aya is the Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nyasa Vidhi:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rishi Nyasa and KarAnga Nysas are done like - Sirasshi Brahmane&#xA;  Rishayae namha...., Im Angushthabhyam namaha, Im Tarjanibhyam SwahA,&#xA;  ...  Im ShikhAyai Vaushat, Im KavachAya Hum etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DhyAnam:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhyanam for Lord Indra for this particular mantra is to be done like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pitavarnam sahasrAksham Vajrapadmakaram Vibhum | Sarvalankarasamyuktam&#xA;  Naumindram Dikpatiswaram ....||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra Deva is having a yellowish body. He has thousand eyes. His one&#xA;  hand holds his weapon, the vajra and in his other hand he holds a lotus.&#xA;  Prostration to that Indra who is decked with varied and many ornaments&#xA;  and who is the lord of directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next to be done is the Shadanga Puja  which i am not giving the details of. Ayudha Puja (i.e Puja of the Vajra) is also to be done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purascharana of this mantra is done upon completing 1 lakh japa and doing 10 thousand homa with ghee mixed sesame seeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Asya Purascharanam Lakshyajapam&lt;/strong&gt;, Ajyena Tilairayuhomoho&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prayoga:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chatushkonasthapadme Navavastraveshtitam SthApayitvA Gandhodakena&#xA;  Sampurya Tatra Tatra SaparivAramindramAradhya Sahsram JaptA&#xA;  Tajjalobhishekam Brastarajasya RAjyaprAptiranyeshAm Parama&#xA;  Srirbhavati...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In a square mandala an eight-petaled lotus is to be drawn. On that&#xA;  lotus a kalash (pot) decked with the nine jewels is to be placed. The&#xA;  kalash is then filled with gandha mixed water (sandal paste mixed with&#xA;  water). Thereafter, Indra has to be invoked, along with his family, in&#xA;  that pot and worshiped by doing a thousand japa of the mantra. Now the&#xA;  devotee should bath in that water. This is called IndrAbhisheka. The&#xA;  person on whom such an abhisheka is performed can even get back his&#xA;  lost kingdom and gets many other priced belongings and etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also  following is the gayatri mantra for Lord Indra &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/lingapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=26&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;as given in the Linga Purana.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devaraajaaya vidmahey vajrahastaaya dhimahi, Tannah Shakrah&#xA;  prachodayaat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T06:16:07.347" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19051" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19052" CreationDate="2017-06-21T09:00:34.740" Score="4" ViewCount="1964" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the well-known name in the South Indian Sri Vidya tradition is Sri Bhuvanananda Natha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any brief info about his life events and upasana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2018-01-08T18:52:15.477" LastActivityDate="2021-07-23T16:35:52.967" Title="Who was Srividya upasaka Sri Bhuvanananda Natha?" Tags="|worship|guru|saint|sri-vidya|upasana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19052" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19051" CreationDate="2017-06-21T09:00:34.740" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;He was a well known name in the upasana mandalis of Sri Vidya in the southern india. He was also the guru of Kanchi Paramacharya before his sanyasa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many people from his parampara has become well known upasakas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the information regarding his life is given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7aoBU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7aoBU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;SRI KAAMESHWARYAMBA SAMETA SRI BHUVANA-ANANDA-NAATHA&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.reocities.com/Athens/thebes/2257/Sri_Bhuvananandanatha_Gurumandala_SS.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmasri Krishnamoorthy Saastry&lt;/a&gt; alias Krishna Sastrigal was the son&#xA;  of Sri Bhaskara Saastry &amp;amp; Smt. Lakshmi Ammal of Tipparaajapuram Near&#xA;  Valangaimaan, Kumbhakonam. He is both a reputed Samskrit &amp;amp;Vedic&#xA;  Scholar. He &amp;amp; his wife Smt. Meenaakshi Ammal of Soolamangalam,&#xA;  Thiruvaaroor got Srividya Poornabhisheka Deeksha from Sri&#xA;  Divyaanandanaatha of Valangaiman and became very famous as Sri&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Bhuvanaanandanatha&lt;/strong&gt; the Deeksha naama conferred on him. He stayed for&#xA;  about 7 years at Shankara Mutt, Kumbhakonam and was the “Manthra Guru”&#xA;  to Jagadguru Sri Sri &lt;strong&gt;Sankaraachaarya (Paramacharya) of Kanchi&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Kaamakoti Peetam when the Achaarya was young. He was honoured with the&#xA;  title of  “&lt;strong&gt;Mantra Moorty&lt;/strong&gt;”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He did “Tapasya” for 8 years at Oottuppaarai, Kerala  &amp;amp; Gwalior and he&#xA;  performed miracles spontaneously. He spent his later portion of his&#xA;  life in doing Sisroosha (service) &amp;amp; seva to his Guru&#xA;  Divyaanandanaatha. At his guru’s demise he performed the last rites in&#xA;  a fitting manner worthy of a great Srividya Upaasaka &amp;amp; Guru as laid down in the scriptures. He&#xA;  showed his devotion &amp;amp; high regard for his Guru by constructing an&#xA;  imposing *Adhishtaana Aalayam (Temple) at his Samaadhi in Valangaiman&#xA;  and installed Siva Linga there. He lived a life of an ascetic and was&#xA;  personally looking after the Temple doing poojaas to the Adhishtaanam.&#xA;  He attained Sripura Sayujya in the year “Sarvadhaari”, Uttharaayanam,&#xA;  Makara (Thai) Maasam, Sukla Paksha Navami (passed away on 26-1-1949).&#xA;  His Adhishtaanam also was built near his Guru in the same Temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T09:00:34.740" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19053" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-21T09:18:54.453" Score="3" ViewCount="969" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a popular belief that the Vedas have section like jnana kanda and karma kanda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any such statement in the Vedas which talks of such kAndams?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2018-01-17T03:39:57.483" Title="Do the Vedas themselves talk about the jnAna and karma kAnda?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|karma|vedanta|upasana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19054" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-21T09:45:42.887" Score="7" ViewCount="4796" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that the heart of Lord Krishna which was unburnt is kept inside the idol of Lord Jagannath in Puri. Is it True???? Probably the heart is termed as 'Daru Brahma'. Does anyone know the true story behind?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10184" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T10:07:14.387" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T06:43:30.330" Title="What actually is the Daru Brahma In the idol of Lord Jagannath?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|gods|temple|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19055" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19037" CreationDate="2017-06-21T09:49:31.580" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mantras are well thought and powerful words compiled by out intellectual ancestors. These words have the power to pull in the positive vibrations from the universe and hence bring us closer to peace and happiness. Mantras are great only if spelled properly. So, practice till you are a perfectionist! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chant Life are magical mantras for a better life! Every Hindu should chant them regularly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10184" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T09:49:31.580" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19056" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-21T14:41:38.270" Score="6" ViewCount="116" Body="&lt;p&gt;When self realized,you understand the illusion and rise above the illusion. It wont matter if you do good or evil since the concept of good and evil is something that is bound to the illusion and the material, hence it wont affect you when you are freed from the illusion. Good and evil are just 2 sides of same coin, yes or no?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS!: Dont bother saying things like there is no &quot;I&quot; or similiar statements or explanations, since if I dont use these specific words no one would understand what I am asking. LOL! Just answer my question directly, please. Thanks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10144" LastEditorUserId="10144" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T14:45:26.233" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T05:57:33.873" Title="Doing &quot;evil&quot; or &quot;good&quot; after being self-realized wont affect such an &quot;individual&quot; because he is not bound to the illusion of the material, yes or no?" Tags="|karma|practice|moksha|maya|mukti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19057" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19056" CreationDate="2017-06-21T15:08:55.077" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Asking whether Self realized being does good or evil is like asking whether a stone perceives past or present. Self realized being is &lt;strong&gt;no more doer, he is awareness only.&lt;/strong&gt; He has transcended the doership. From Ashtāvakra Geeta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Surely one who knows &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;That is not touched by virtue or vice&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;BR&gt;  just as space is not touched by smoke, though it seems to be. 4.3 &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also from the same,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Doing and not-doing &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  both arise from ignorance. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;   I know this. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;   And I am here. &lt;BR&gt; 12.6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So your question - &lt;code&gt;Doing evil or good after being self realized has affects or not?&lt;/code&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;is a flawed &amp;amp; self contradictory question, simply because&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How can he be self realized until he is doer?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XKcyr.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XKcyr.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T16:12:52.733" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T16:12:52.733" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19059" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19060" CreationDate="2017-06-21T15:50:31.190" Score="7" ViewCount="2640" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman is an important character in the epic Ramayana. He is called as the son of the wind God as he was born by the grace of the wind-God. His mother was Anjani and father was Kesari. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman himself describes it in Sundara Kanda &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga35/sundara_35_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 35&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कौरजो नाम वैदेहि गिरीणाम् उत्तमो गिरिः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततो गच्छति गो कर्णम् पर्वतम् केसरी हरिः || 5-35-80&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O Seetha! There is a mountain called Malyavan, which is the best among mountains. From there, a monkeys called Kesari went to another mountain called Gokarna.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्य अहम् हरिणः क्षेत्रे जातो वातेन मैथिलि |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हनूमान् इति विख्यातो लोके स्वेन एव कर्मणा || 5-35-82&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Seetha! I am born in the womb of the wife of that Kesari the monkey, by the grace of the wind-god. By my activity alone, I am renowned as Hanuma in this world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other details are not described in this chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga28/yuddha_28_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yuddhakanda chapter 28&lt;/a&gt;, when the messengers of Ravana, Shuka and Sambada describe the strength of army of Vanaras, Shuka explains about Hanuman as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ज्येष्ठः केसरिणः पुत्रो&lt;/strong&gt; वात आत्मज इति श्रुतः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हनूमान् इति विख्यातो लन्घितो येन सागरः || ६-२८-१०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;jyeṣṭhaḥ kesariṇaḥ putro&lt;/strong&gt; vāta ātmaja iti śrutaḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  hanūmān iti vikhyāto langhito yena sāgaraḥ || 6-28-10   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This monkey, by whom the ocean was traversed, &lt;strong&gt;is the eldest son of Kesari.&lt;/strong&gt; He is known as the son of wind-god and famously called as Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse implies that he had siblings. Generally, people tend to think that Bhima is the brother of Hanuman. Yes, he is but he was not the son of Kesari as mentioned in the Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did Hanuman have any siblings? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is their story?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-06-21T16:00:24.233" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T16:00:24.233" Title="Did Lord Hanuman have any siblings?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-06-21T16:18:04.477" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19060" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19059" CreationDate="2017-06-21T15:59:24.410" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Hanuman had siblings.  Matiman, Srutiman, Ketuman and Drtiman were his siblings. Hanuman was eldest son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 7 Upodgatapaada of Brahmanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;  says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;223-227. The fierce (Sugriva) stayed with his brother for many years&#xA;  like a Deva (a god) .  Kesari married the daughter of Kuåjarä named&#xA;  Aijanä. That lady of great purity and good fortune went to a park&#xA;  named Pumsavana. Väyu (the wind-god ) made advances to the lady who&#xA;  was proudof her youth. Hanumän was born of her by her union with Väyu&#xA;  the (source Of) life into the entire  universe. The sons of Kesari&#xA;  were well known here as well as in the heaven.  '&lt;strong&gt;The eldest among them&#xA;  all was Hanumån. Matimän is  remembered as the son after him. Others&#xA;  were Srutimän Ketumän and the intelligent Dhrtimän.&lt;/strong&gt; All the brothers&#xA;  of  Hanuman were well established along with suitable and befitting &#xA;  wives. The sons were thus established by their father. They  were&#xA;  blessed with sons and grandsons. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;228-230. Hanumän was a Brahmacärin (observer of the  vow of celibacy).&#xA;  He was not joined in wedlock with any woman.  He was like another&#xA;  Garuda in speed and extensive expedition. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T15:59:24.410" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19063" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-21T20:12:36.637" Score="7" ViewCount="119" Body="&lt;p&gt;How many or I can say which &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Vaishnavism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vaishnava&lt;/a&gt; works(literature) are lost or exist as citations in other literature?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2017-06-21T20:12:36.637" Title="Lost Sri Vaishanva Literature/Works" Tags="|scripture|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19064" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-22T00:44:22.647" Score="2" ViewCount="131" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard or read long time back that there are 6 sagun swarup and 4 nirgun swarup of Narayan. in the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aniruddha, Pradyumna, Sankarshana, Brahama, Vishanu, Mahesh. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And 4 Nirgun swarup:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NarNarayan, LakhamiNarayan, I don't remember other 2 names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to know what are the duties of Sankarshana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha. and Also the name of other 2 Nirgun swarup.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3880" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T00:44:22.647" Title="What are the duties of 6 sagun swarup of Narayan and 4 Nirgun Swarup" Tags="|puranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19065" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-22T01:05:20.893" Score="2" ViewCount="1176" Body="&lt;p&gt;Who is Bhuma Purush? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is mention of Bhuma Purush in Bhagavat, at the time Arjun and SriKrushn goes in the lok of Bhuma Purush to rescue the son of Bramin. Where BhumaPurush tells Krishna to complete all the task soon. and reminds him time has come for you to leave the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do we have any other reference of Bhuma Purush in other scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3880" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T13:40:43.557" Title="Who is Bhuma Purush?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19066" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-22T03:28:20.053" Score="7" ViewCount="166" Body="&lt;p&gt;My Pujari told me never to put the dust pan and broomstick together in house &amp;amp; he also told me to inform my maid about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any reason for this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10194" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-17T09:03:01.507" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T09:03:01.507" Title="Is it a sin to keep dust pan and broomstick together?" Tags="|belief|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19067" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19072" CreationDate="2017-06-22T04:48:25.493" Score="26" ViewCount="15303" Body="&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;In Ancient India Yogis used to float in the Air&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; I am not sure about this statement but I heard people who have more concentration (possibly through Yoga) floated wherever they wanted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, &lt;strong&gt;is it true that ancient Yogis floated in the Air?&lt;/strong&gt; If Yes, what are the methods used to float in the air?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2021-02-07T10:06:28.063" LastActivityDate="2021-02-07T10:06:28.063" Title="Did ancient Yogis float in the air and what is the method to do it?" Tags="|history|philosophy|yoga|siddhi|yogi|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19069" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19066" CreationDate="2017-06-22T05:06:08.180" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The only reason i can think of is this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dusts that are still on the broomstick are considered as pure. Whereas the dusts that are collected by the broomstick in a separate container like the dustpan (as you said) are considered as impure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,  the Pujariji must have said that in order to prevent the contamination of something that is pure with something that is not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The dust, raised by the ends of a broomstick&lt;/strong&gt;, and happening to defile&#xA;  the bathing or drinking water of a person kept in a vessel, or&#xA;  touching his bathing apparel, &lt;strong&gt;tends to destroy bis religious merit on&#xA;  the moment of such contact or defilement.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Likhita Smriti's last chapter.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He, who is covered with the broomstick dust&lt;/strong&gt; and the water sprinkling&#xA;  from hairs, [both] originating from a temple, &lt;strong&gt;is [said to be]&#xA;  sprinkled with the Ganges water.&lt;/strong&gt; (313)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-22T05:15:15.703" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T05:15:15.703" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19070" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19090" CreationDate="2017-06-22T05:14:56.753" Score="5" ViewCount="868" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read somewhere that a heroic warrior killed in the Mahabharata war was revived for one night. Is it true? Who was he?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10181" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2017-06-22T10:18:31.320" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T12:18:28.267" Title="Were the warriors who were killed in the Mahabharata war revived for one night?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19071" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19067" CreationDate="2017-06-22T05:29:34.050" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, In Ancient India Yogis Floated in the Air&lt;/strong&gt;, here is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduismfacts.org/hindu-science/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;explanation&lt;/a&gt; what I got: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hindu mythologies some Yogis possess the power of floating in the air while meditating. This can be explained with the phenomenon of superconductivity. This is a possible scientific explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Superconductivity is a phenomenon in which the electrical resistance of certain materials becomes exactly zero, below a characteristic temperature, usually well below 0 degrees Celcius. For example, some cuprate-perovskite ceramic materials become superconductors at -183 degrees Celcius. When the &lt;strong&gt;material becomes superconductor, magnetic lines do not pass through them and they float in the air.&lt;/strong&gt; This can be easily demonstrated in the lab using liquid nitrogen and the superconductor material. The same principle applies to the body of the Yogi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saint Dnyaneshwar experience:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Dnyaneshwari&lt;/strong&gt;, written by &lt;strong&gt;Saint Dnyaneshwar&lt;/strong&gt;, he has described his experience of what happens when &lt;strong&gt;Kundalini Shakti arises in the body&lt;/strong&gt;. He has mentioned that it feels like Kundalini power drinks all the blood and eats up all the flesh in your body and your body becomes very, very cold. After some time, it again regenerates everything and your body becomes as fresh as a newborn. &#xA;  It is quite possible that when the &lt;strong&gt;temperature of Yogi's body decreases, it reaches to a point where Yogi's body becomes a superconductor and hence, the gravitational lines do not pass through his body and he floats in the air.&lt;/strong&gt; Though, there is no proof for this but it is quite possible. Hence, it is not a superstition that Yogis float in the air. So Yogis who floating in the air was based on some science knowledge and it moves from generations to generations as a practice/tradition. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: If someone got any other Principles or Scientific explanation please don't hesitate to share your answers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="10077" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T03:01:11.497" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T03:01:11.497" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19072" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19067" CreationDate="2017-06-22T05:52:58.257" Score="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;First we should know our body is not just physical body, but has &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3075/3500&quot;&gt;five sheaths&lt;/a&gt; (Pancha Kosha). What we see externally is Annamaya Kosha (food sheath). After death we shed Annamaya kosha and jiva with other four koshas (Sookshma Sareera or Subtle body) go to other realms, hell or heaven depending of Karma and Sukshma Sareera takes new physical body (rebirth) as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/5489/3500&quot;&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yogis who know they are pure Consciousness (Atman) will never be subjected to laws of Space and Time and to laws of other four sheaths. They are no longer subjected to laws of physical body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yogananda explains the reason for all Siddhis or miracles in his book &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Autobiography of a Yogi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (published in 1946). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhaduri Mahasaya&lt;/strong&gt; was one such levitating sage described in chapter 7 of same book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JRZ5m.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JRZ5m.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Indeed it is true! He has lived indoors for the past twenty years. He&#xA;  slightly relaxes his self-imposed rule at the times of our holy&#xA;  festivals, when he goes as far as his front sidewalk! The beggars&#xA;  gather there, because Saint Bhaduri is known for his tender heart.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;How does he remain in the air, defying the law of gravitation?&quot; (asks Upendra)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Yagananda/Mukunda says) &quot;A yogi's body loses its grossness after use of certain pranayamas.&#xA;  Then it will levitate or hop about like a leaping frog. Even saints&#xA;  who do not practice a formal yoga  have been known to levitate&#xA;  during a state of intense devotion to God.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yogananda further says their consciousness becomes mass free and they see whole cosmos as undifferentiated mass of light. Read &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 30&lt;/strong&gt; completely to get an overview of laws of miracles. I quote a few words of Yogananda to explain it in brief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The consciousness of a perfected yogi is effortlessly identified, not&#xA;  with a narrow body, but with the universal structure. &lt;strong&gt;Gravitation,&#xA;  whether the &quot;force&quot; of Newton or the Einsteinian &quot;manifestation of&#xA;  inertia,&quot; is powerless to compel a master to exhibit the property of&#xA;  &quot;weight&quot; which is the distinguishing gravitational condition of all&#xA;  material objects.&lt;/strong&gt; He who knows himself as the omnipresent Spirit is&#xA;  subject no longer to the rigidities of a body in time and space. Their&#xA;  imprisoning &quot;rings-pass-not&quot; have yielded to the solvent: &quot;I am He.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A yogi who through perfect meditation has merged his consciousness&#xA;  with the Creator perceives the cosmical essence as light; to him there&#xA;  is no difference between the light rays composing water and the light&#xA;  rays composing land. Free from matter-consciousness, free from the&#xA;  three dimensions of space and the fourth dimension of time, a master&#xA;  transfers his body of light with equal ease over the light rays of&#xA;  earth, water, fire, or air. &lt;strong&gt;Long concentration on the liberating&#xA;  spiritual eye has enabled the yogi to destroy all delusions concerning&#xA;  matter and its gravitational weight; thenceforth he sees the universe&#xA;  as an essentially undifferentiated mass of light.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-07-12T00:41:38.943" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T00:41:38.943" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19073" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19067" CreationDate="2017-06-22T06:00:53.390" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;By practicing Yoga and pranayama (control of prana vayu) a Yogi can float in the air, walk in air. This is called Vayu-Siddhi or mastery over air. It can be achieved in the third stage of pranayama sadhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Samhita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Samhita&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the first stage of pranayama the body of the Yogi begins to&#xA;  prespire. When it prespires, he should rub it well, otherwise the body&#xA;  of the Yogi loses its dhatu (humours).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c4RHk.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c4RHk.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the second stage, there takes place the trembling of the body. In&#xA;  the third, jumping about like a frog; &lt;strong&gt;and when the practice becomes&#xA;  greater, the adepts walk in the air.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9oEim.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9oEim.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the Yogi, though remaining in Padmasana, &lt;strong&gt;can rise in the air and&#xA;  leave the ground, then know he has gained Vayu-Siddhi&lt;/strong&gt; (success over&#xA;  air), which destroys the darkness of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many siddhis (perfections) that are obtained by the adept Yogi and among which floating (or walking ) in the air is one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The Yogi acquires the following powers:- Vakya siddhi (prophecy),&#xA;    transporting himself everywhere at will (Kamachari), clairvoyance&#xA;    (duradrishti), clairaudience (durasruti), subtle-sight (sukshma&#xA;    drishti) and the power of entering another's body (parakayapravesha),&#xA;    turning base metals into gold them with his excrements and urine and&#xA;    the power of becoming invisible and &lt;strong&gt;lastly, moving in the air&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, among the six chakras, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anahata&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Anahata Chakra&lt;/a&gt; is ruled by the Vayu Tattva&#xA; . An adept Yogi, by contemplating on this chakra &amp;amp; by mastering it, can&#xA; achieve mastery over vayu or air. Then he can walk in air&#xA; successfully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the heart, is the 4th chakra, the Anahata. It has twelve&#xA;  petals....He who always contemplates on this lotus of the heart is&#xA;  eagerly desired by celestial maidens.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He gets immeasuarable knowledge, knows the past, present and future&#xA;  time ; has clairaudience, clairvoyance &lt;strong&gt;and can walk in air whenever he&#xA;  likes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/h02ro.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/h02ro.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He sees the adepts and the Goddesses known as Yoginis; obtains the&#xA;  power known as Khechari, and conquers all who move in the air.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1RKNB.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1RKNB.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He contemplates daily on the Banalinga &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18837/what-are-the-three-shivalingas-itara-bana-and-swayambhu-mentioned-in-some-ag&quot;&gt;[which is situated in the&#xA;  Anahata Chakra]&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong&gt;undoubtedly obtains the perfections called Khechari&#xA;  (moving in air)&lt;/strong&gt; and Bhuchari (going at will all over the world).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, a highly adept Yogi can float or walk on air.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-24T05:43:33.110" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T05:43:33.110" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19074" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19054" CreationDate="2017-06-22T06:43:30.330" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know that the idol of Lord Jagan Natha is reconstructed before every 19 years. This wooden covering is outer shell which is called &quot;Kalevara/kalebara&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence during every new wooden body there must be the transfer of &quot;core inner material&quot; from old to new wooden shell (nabakalevara). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This happens in very secret manner in the dark new moon midnight. Only selected priests are allowed during this ritual. Some of them cover their eyes with a cloth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The inner substance is called &quot;&lt;strong&gt;brahma padartha&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. This is the core of the idol. There are many possible candidates for this brahma padartha as per many folktales and myths. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nabakalebara.gov.in/newsDetails/In-News/62&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;secret ritual&lt;/a&gt;. The deities have been given 'Golaka Bishrama'&#xA;  (eternal rest), after their 19 years play (leela) in universe in&#xA;  'Koili Baikuntha' (Burial ground cum garden of the temple), followed&#xA;  by '&lt;strong&gt;Brahma Paribartana&lt;/strong&gt;'. It is also called 'Ghatantara' (change of&#xA;  body) because 'Brahma Padartha' (Supreme matter) has already been&#xA;  transferred to the newly carved deities from the bellies' of old&#xA;  deities. In the dead of the night, the 'Badagrahis' (particular&#xA;  servitors assigned with this special task) had performed this strictly&#xA;  confidential rite. Besides, all the used utensils and materials&#xA;  associated with the deities and their rituals such as cots, beds,&#xA;  pillows, Sarathis of old chariots, Dwarapalas (Body Guards), Ghotak&#xA;  (horses), Parswa Devata (deities placed at sides), Sua (parrots) and&#xA;  Dhwaja Danda (Flag bearing clubs) have also been given final respite&#xA;  in the burial ground. The deities have taken their eternal rest in the&#xA;  'Mahagarbha' (great hole, specially dug for this purpose in the&#xA;  garden) in the temple premises.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Before 'Brahma Paribartan', &quot;Purnahuti&quot; (ultimate offering) in the&#xA;  Yanja (fire sacrifice) which was continued for last 11 days in 'Koili&#xA;  Baikuntha' had been performed by Gajapati Maharaja of Puri (The king&#xA;  of Puri, the first servitor of the Lords). The king entered the Yanja&#xA;  Pedestal in 'Koili Baikuntha'  through the south gate of the temple,&#xA;  accompanied with other servitors who were assigned to work as&#xA;  'Bidyapati', 'Biswabasu' and 'Brahma' etc in the process of&#xA;  &quot;Purnahuti&quot;. Followed by a series of rituals and conventional&#xA;  worships, the temple was made 'Sodha' (Cleansed) and then the 'Brahma&#xA;  Paribartan' was started. During the process, four walls of the temple&#xA;  were closed and nobody was allowed to remain present, except the&#xA;  assigned and authorised servitors. Energy supply was also stopped,&#xA;  while shops and markets were closed to make the process entirely&#xA;  invisible. 'Deula Karana' watched the situation with sword in his&#xA;  hand, standing at the 'Gumuta' (small pathway for entry) where&#xA;  'Patitapabana' (representative of Lord Jagannath) is placed. The&#xA;  deities in 'Anasara' (hibernation) were offered Bhoga. Daitapatis made&#xA;  a 'Mahasnana' (great bath) of 'Chaturdhamurtis' (four idols, newly&#xA;  built). Then the new images are given 'Khandua' and 'Senapata'&#xA;  (dressing and decoration) and were brought to the 'Anasara Pindi'&#xA;  (temporary pedestal). Only four selected servitors performed the&#xA;  secret rituals of 'Brahama Paribartan', being made completely&#xA;  blindfolded, their hands and feet wrapped with layers of thick silk&#xA;  ribbons, so that they could not see or feel the matter. The supreme&#xA;  matters were brought from the old deities and were placed on a silver&#xA;  pot which was stationed on a 'Khatuli' (small cot). The supreme matter&#xA;  was offered perfumes, sandalwood paste, musk and other fragrant&#xA;  flowers. Finally it was placed in the bellies of newly carved idols.&#xA;  Followed by the 'Brahma Paribartan', the old idols were brought to&#xA;  'Koili Baikuntha' for 'Patali' (sacred burial) in 'Mahagarva' (great&#xA;  hole).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Any unsolved mystery inevitably gives rise to speculations, myths as&#xA;  well as absurdities. There are several theories regarding the identity&#xA;  of ‘&lt;a href=&quot;http://archive.odishasuntimes.com/2015/07/17/brahma-padartha-the-unsolved-mystery-of-nabakalebara/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma padartha&lt;/a&gt;’, several of them based on myths. Many believe&#xA;  ‘Brahma padartha’ to be the mortal remains of Lord Sri Krishna. This&#xA;  belief is rooted in an episode in Odia Mahabharat written by Adikabi&#xA;  Sarala Das. Some western researchers have also quoted this theory.&#xA;  According to this belief, the body of Sri Krishna did not burn up&#xA;  completely despite repeated efforts. Legend has it that the unburnt&#xA;  mortal remains of Sri Krishna were flown in the sea and reached the&#xA;  Puri coast to be used as ‘Brahma padartha’ of ‘daru’ idols. But this&#xA;  belief has no historical basis and is completely based on mythology.&#xA;  Moreover, it is quiet illogical to accept that something thrown into&#xA;  sea near Dwaraka on the western coast of India could circumnavigate&#xA;  around the Indian peninsula to reach the Puri coast on the eastern&#xA;  side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some others claim ‘Brahma padartha’ may be a tooth of Goutama Buddha.&#xA;  As per Buddhist history, a tooth of Buddha collected from his funeral&#xA;  pyre by a ‘ther’ named Kshyema. This tooth had reached Kalinga where&#xA;  it was worshipped in a city named Dantapura. Historians say this tooth&#xA;  is now being worshipped at the ‘Dantamandir’in Kandy in Sri Lanka.&#xA;  Kalinga had faced several invasions because of this tooth. Its king&#xA;  Guhashiva had been killed in battle. His daughter Hemamala and&#xA;  son-in-law Dantakumar had managed to escape to Sri Lanka along with&#xA;  the tooth of Buddha. So, this tooth cannot be the ‘Brahma padartha’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some claim ‘Brahma padartha’ is actually a ‘shaligram’. To escape the&#xA;  devastation caused by sea waves and attacks of Raktabahu, the idols of&#xA;  Sri Jagannath temple had been whisked away to Sonepur area in western&#xA;  Odisha. Idols were buried deep down the ground. Later king&#xA;  Jajatikeshari had recovered remnants of these idols and new idols had&#xA;  been constructed to replace them. On the instructions of&#xA;  Sankaracharya, a monk named Bharati Acharya had visited Nepal to&#xA;  procure two shaligrams. These are thought to be ‘Brahma padartha’. But&#xA;  analysts of rituals of Sri Jagannath temple are of the opinion that&#xA;  worship of shaligram does not need ‘prana pratistha’ or invocation of&#xA;  life. But ‘prana pratistha’ is an integral ritual for deities of Sri&#xA;  Jagananth temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another myth regarding ‘Brahma padartha’ is related to Sati and Lord&#xA;  Shiva. Shiva was doing tandav carrying corpse of Sati on his&#xA;  shoulders. Lord Vishnu cut down Sati’s body into many parts by his&#xA;  Sudarshan chakra. Its naval portion fell at Jajpur and was carried by&#xA;  river to sea. It was collected from Puri coast and was divided into&#xA;  four parts to become ‘Brahma padartha’ of four idols. This again has&#xA;  mythological overtones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Several other objects have been assumed to be ‘Brahma padartha’. They&#xA;  include mercury kept in small caskets, miniature idol of a couple in&#xA;  sleeping position, tulsi leaves crafted from gold or ‘ashtadhatu’&#xA;  alloy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another assumption based on circumstantial evidence claims the ‘Brahma&#xA;  padartha’ inside idol of Sri Jagannath is  shaligram and a Shri Gopal&#xA;  Yantra drawn on gold leaf. Idol of Sri Balabhadra does contain gold&#xA;  Shivalinga along with ‘Shaiva Yantra’ as ‘Brahma padartha’. Core&#xA;  material in Devi Subhadra is a ‘Bhuvaneswari Yantra’ drawn on gold&#xA;  plate and ‘Brahma padartha’ of Sri Sudarshan is a shaligram and ‘Sri&#xA;  Nrusimha Yantra’ made up of gold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Overall, it is not possible to say what exactly is the brahma padartha. But from majority of claims and stories it looks like it is a combination of special &quot;shaligram&quot; along with a sacred &quot;yantra&quot; (sigil).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T06:43:30.330" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19076" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19056" CreationDate="2017-06-22T06:50:51.640" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer to your question is &lt;strong&gt;Yes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Lord Shiva says in KulArnava Tantram's 9th chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aswamedhayutenapi BrahmahatyAtena Cha | &lt;strong&gt;PunyapApairna Lipyante&#xA;  YeshAm Brahma Hridi StithAm ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who have realized self (or Brahman) are neither affected by the&#xA;  performance of thousands of Aswamedha yajna nor by the sins of killing&#xA;  numerous Brahmins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this verse, performance of Aswamedha is taken as an example of an act of high merit (punya) and killing Brahmins is taken as an example of an act of great demerit (papa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One, who has attained self, is unaffected by both. This is the purport of the verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tattvanishtashya Cha KarmAni PunyApunyAni Samkshyam | &lt;strong&gt;PrayAnti Naiva&#xA;  Lipyante KriyamAnAni VA Punaha ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The person who has attained tattva gyana (or the knowledge of self)&#xA;  has  all his karmas (both good and bad) destroyed. &lt;strong&gt;And he&#xA;  is not affected even if he performs those karmas again.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 9-128.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shiva Samhita also says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pjju4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pjju4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who contemplates on this [the lotus at the Ajna Chakra or on the&#xA;  Itara Shiva linga that is situated there], standing or walking,&#xA;  sleeping or waking, &lt;strong&gt;is not touched by sins, even it were possible&#xA;  for him to do the sinful works.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-24T05:57:33.873" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T05:57:33.873" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19079" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-22T08:21:14.227" Score="12" ViewCount="549" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7941/661&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, it is clear that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The objects seen in the dream state are impressions from the waking state. They are nothing but the internal workings of the mind. They are nothing more than internal mental states.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18763/661&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, it is clear that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adharmas or Acts of Sin are mainly of three categories: ‘Sthuula’ (in Gross Form), ‘Sukshma’ (Small in content) and ‘Athyantha Sukshma’ (Minute). These sins are performed by Mind (Manas), Tongue (Vani) or Karma (Action). &lt;strong&gt;The Manasik type is four-fold: Thinking of other’s women, wealth, material loss and difficulties.&lt;/strong&gt; ‘Vachik Paap karma’ (Sinful Utterances) like lies, unpalatable sayings, blaming others and using provocative language&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, it is clear that dream contains internal thoughts and some thoughts listed above are sinful. Now my doubt is that &lt;strong&gt;if a person performs an Adharma in his/her dream, is he/she to be considered a sinner due to that act(in dream)&lt;/strong&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example : Dream on thinking/stealing other's wealth, other's women, talking lies, blaming others etc.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-12-16T12:02:30.627" LastActivityDate="2020-04-23T16:05:09.057" Title="Are sinful activities performed in dreams considered as sins?" Tags="|sin|dream|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19082" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19079" CreationDate="2017-06-22T08:48:44.293" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a person create or imagine himself/herself doing Adharma in his/her dream then it can be a form of sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it is not created by a person and happened naturally then it is just a thought and not a sin. But if it is happening regularly then it is necessary to check or search meaning. &#xA;If you read Sai Satcharitra &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saibabaofshirdi.net/satcharita/sai49.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 49&lt;/a&gt; then there is a reference for it&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only we should never entertain evil thoughts. Making the mind desireless, observe God's works of beauty. In this way the senses will be easily and naturally controlled and even in enjoying objects you will be reminded of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;If the outer senses are not held in check and if the mind be allowed to run after objects/materialistic things and be attached to them, our cycle of births and deaths will not come to an end.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2019-11-05T16:21:21.403" LastActivityDate="2019-11-05T16:21:21.403" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19083" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19067" CreationDate="2017-06-22T08:52:08.197" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, a Yogi can float in the air by using yogic power. Their are &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8264/what-is-ashta-siddhi-and-nav-nidhi&quot;&gt;eight type of siddhis&lt;/a&gt; also known as &lt;code&gt;ashta aishwarya&lt;/code&gt; can be attained by yoga as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimada Bhagavatam, Chapter 11.15&lt;/a&gt;. Yogi can float in water or hang in air by &lt;code&gt;Laghima&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;aṇimā mahimā mūrter&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;laghimā prāptir indriyaiḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;prākāmyaṁ śruta-dṛṣṭeṣu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śakti-preraṇam īśitā (11.15.4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;guṇeṣv asaṅgo vaśitā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yat-kāmas tad avasyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etā me siddhayaḥ saumya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;aṣṭāv autpattikā matāḥ (11.15.5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among the eight primary mystic perfections, the three by which one transforms one’s own body are aṇimā, becoming smaller than the smallest; mahimā, becoming greater than the greatest; and &lt;strong&gt;laghimā, becoming lighter than the lightest&lt;/strong&gt;. Through the perfection of prāpti one acquires whatever one desires, and through prākāmya-siddhi one experiences any enjoyable object, either in this world or the next. Through īśitā-siddhi one can manipulate the subpotencies of māyā, and through the controlling potency called vaśitā-siddhi one is unimpeded by the three modes of nature. One who has acquired kāmāvasāyitā-siddhi can obtain anything from anywhere, to the highest possible limit. My dear gentle Uddhava, these eight mystic perfections are considered to be naturally existing and unexcelled within this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In purport it is given that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;through laghimā one becomes so light that one can ride on the sun’s rays into the sun planet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vayu Purana, Chapter 13 also mention that hanging and floating is possible through &lt;code&gt;Laghima&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अणिमा लघिमा चैव महिमा प्रातिरेव च। प्राकाम्यं चैव सर्वत्र ईशित्वं चैव सर्वतः॥३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वशित्वमथ सर्वत्र यत्र कामावसायिता। तच्चापि विविधं ज्ञेयमैश्वर्यं सार्वकामिकम्।।४।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anima (the superhuman power) of becoming as small as an atom, one of the eight powers or Siddhis, atomic nature Laghima (the Supernatural power of assuming excessive lightness at will), Mahima (power of increasing size at will), Prapti (power of obtaining everything), Prakamya (irresistible will) and Isitva (superiority) everywhere and all over, Vasitva (the supernatural power of subduing to one's own will) everywhere, wherein (abides) Kamavasdyita (suppression of passions) that even should be considered as varied one, the supremacy of all cherished ends (fulfilment).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लम्बनं प्लवनं योगे रूपमस्य सदा भवेत्। शीघ्रगं सर्वभूतेषु द्वितीयं तत्पदं स्मृतम्।।१२।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanging and floating in Yoga may be its perennial form. The Swift movement normed may be its second pre-requisite among all the beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T08:52:08.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19084" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19108" CreationDate="2017-06-22T08:53:14.077" Score="10" ViewCount="672" Body="&lt;p&gt;Now a days many people claim to be a saint. Is there any method to differentiate real saint and fake saint.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;UPDATE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person can have only 1 Guru in his lifetime. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if I come to know there is a saint and i want to go for his/her darshan then is it possible for me to identify that the person is saint or not.&#xA;Because if that saint is not true then then I am wasting my time &amp;amp; energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="10089" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T03:16:00.943" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T05:01:14.407" Title="How to identify saint/sage?" Tags="|rishi|saint|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19090" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19070" CreationDate="2017-06-22T12:18:28.267" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, the dead were revived for one night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana said, 'When night came, all these persons, having&#xA;  finished their evening rites, approached Vyasa. Dhritarashtra of righteous &#xA;  soul, with purified body and mind solely directed towards it, sat&#xA;  there with the Pandavas and the Rishis in his company. The ladies of&#xA;  the royal household sat with Gandhari in a secluded spot. All the&#xA;  citizens and the inhabitants of the provinces ranged themselves,&#xA;  according to their years. Then the great ascetic, Vyasa, of mighty&#xA;  energy, bathing in the sacred waters of the Bhagirathi, summoned all&#xA;  the deceased warriors, viz., those that had fought on the side of the&#xA;  Pandavas, those that had fought for the Kauravas, including highly&#xA;  blessed kings belonging to diverse realms. At this, O Janamejaya, a&#xA;  deafening uproar was heard to arise from within the waters, resembling&#xA;  that which had formerly been heard of the forces of Kurus and the&#xA;  Pandavas. Then those kings, headed by Bhishma and Drona, with all&#xA;  their troops, arose by thousands from the waters of Bhagirathi. There&#xA;  were Virata and Drupada, with their sons and forces. There were the&#xA;  sons of Draupadi and the son of Subhadra, with the Rakshasa&#xA;  Ghatotkacha. There were Karna and Duryodhana, and the mighty&#xA;  car-warrior Sakuni, and other children, endued with great strength, of&#xA;  Dhritarashtra, headed by Dussasana. There were the son of Jarasandha,&#xA;  and Bhagadatta and Jalasandha of great energy, and Bhurisravas, and&#xA;  Sala, and Salya, and Vrishasena with his younger brother. ........&#xA;  These and many others, who for their number cannot be conveniently&#xA;  named, appeared on that occasion. All of them rose from the waters of&#xA;  Bhagirathi, with resplendent bodies. Those kings appeared each clad in&#xA;  that dress and equipt with that standard and that vehicle which he had&#xA;  while fighting on the field. All of them were now robed in celestial&#xA;  vestments and all had brilliant ear-rings. They were free from all&#xA;  animosity and pride, and divested of wrath and jealousy. .... At that&#xA;  time, through the puissance of his penances, the great ascetic, the&#xA;  son of Satyavati, gratified with Dhritarashtra, gave him celestial&#xA;  vision. Endued with celestial knowledge and strength, Gandhari of&#xA;  great fame saw all her children as also all that had been slain in&#xA;  battle.....'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Asramavasika Parva Section XXXII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T12:18:28.267" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19091" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-22T12:37:50.750" Score="1" ViewCount="302" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read and people say that for being a human before that we need to go for several lives of creature then we got this human life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as another thing that for karma people say if we did something bad to someone in this birth than for next birth he/she will be with you and punish you or help &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is :&#xA;If i did something good/bad with someone today, then that person and me will take several life as different creatures(After various different janm or life) so at that time how karma balance that .. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example -  if i did something bad to x person&#xA;then i am going for several janam or life for be another human &#xA;and that x person also gonna take several life for be another human for revenge&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how does karma balance this thing. for how much time/life x person is going to wait for the next life to get his revenge&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank You&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5367" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T02:47:33.113" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T02:47:33.113" Title="Interesting Question about Karma" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19092" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-22T13:02:57.527" Score="1" ViewCount="69" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that relatives or friends visit our home if crow make sound [caw]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I observed this many times and It happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scriptural reference are there for this ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9976" LastEditorUserId="9976" LastEditDate="2017-06-22T13:37:36.873" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T13:37:36.873" Title="Is it true that relatives or friends visit our home if crow make sound [caw]" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19093" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7187" CreationDate="2017-06-22T13:05:43.460" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;for your second question :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am a huge admirer of Karna, but after reading KMG from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I had to change my opinion on &quot;Karna was the best warrior from Mahabharata&quot;&#xA;because from the war it is clear Karna's first best day as a warrior was the first worst day for Arjuna as a warrior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main reason I am siding with Arjuna is that he's consistent from day 1, whereas Karna lacked consistency be it Gandharva skirmish, Virata war, Karna always had to find excuses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only day I find Karna to be untouchable was during the 14th night and 17th day,but still Arjuna maintained his consistency for instance after Krishna interferes with Nagastra of Karna, Arjuna escapes from sure death, but his comeback after that just humbles Karna, but sure Karna too comes back that day&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in the end who knows what would have happened if Karna had used his Vijaya bow from day one,a different charioteer in the 17th day would have changed everything. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sure Arjuna is a god-like warrior,but someone who's matching that level must also be a god-like warrior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I had to choose the best warrior from Mahabharata, I can either choose Arjuna or Karna (from the 17th day alone) , I don't see any other warriors like Bhisma,Drona taking up these two places, I believe it is reserved for Arjuna and Karna alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10063" LastEditorUserId="10063" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T02:06:19.110" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T02:06:19.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19094" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19091" CreationDate="2017-06-22T13:21:42.830" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As stated in Bhagwata Gita, Karma is about doing your work irrespective of sorrow-happinness, appreciation/insult, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your punishment or other's punishment will be handled by almighty and will be delivered to you at appropriate time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagwata Gita states that how one person should be doing its work. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It doesn't explain on which janaam you will get the punishment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope this helps !! Thankyou&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10212" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T13:21:42.830" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19095" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-22T14:10:33.530" Score="6" ViewCount="1823" Body="&lt;p&gt;Duty of a Shudra is not giving alms to Brahmins, as they are prohibited from having wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a059.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva chapter 59:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Sudra should never amass wealth, lest, by his wealth, he makes the&#xA;  members of the three superior classes obedient to him. By this he&#xA;  would incur sin. A Sudra cannot have any wealth that is his own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu08.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manusmriti 8.417&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Brahmana may confidently seize the goods of (his) Sudra (slave);&#xA;  for, as that (slave) can have no property, his master may take his&#xA;  possessions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu10.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti 10.129&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No collection of wealth must be made by a Sudra, even though he be&#xA;  able (to do it); for a Sudra who has acquired wealth, gives pain to&#xA;  Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, Serving the other three castes by money cannot be done by Shudra, as he is not allowed to have wealth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata 13.136.20-22&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmana who takes his food in the company of Sudras is purged&#xA;  from all impurity by duly observing the ceremonies of purification.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;(Actually Brahmins are not even allowed to eat food of other Brahmins)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b106.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata 13.141.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another duty of the Brahmana consists in avoiding the food prepared by&#xA;  the Sudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, offering food to other three castes is not the duty of Shudra, as it is also prohibited.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, what is the duty of Shudra? In what way he can serve others?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-06-22T18:08:11.660" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T18:08:11.660" Title="Duty of a Shudra" Tags="|scripture|puranas|practice|caste-system|shudra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19096" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19084" CreationDate="2017-06-22T14:24:00.897" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The same question was asked to Lahiri Mahasaya by one of his devotees:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How to identify true saint?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He replied:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Those whose can place the tongue above the soft palate and into the nasal cavity are real saints.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above mudra is known as Khechari Mudra which Paramahansa Yogananda described as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Through the performance of Kechari Mudra, touching the tip of the tongue to the uvula, or &quot;little tongue,&quot; (or placing it in the nasal cavity behind the uvula), that divine life-current draws the prana from the senses into the spine and draws it up through the chakras to Vaishvanara (Universal Spirit), uniting the consciousness with spirit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purana Purusha, Page No. 132&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2EzBW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2EzBW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="3872" LastEditDate="2017-06-22T15:54:59.167" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T15:54:59.167" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19097" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8990" CreationDate="2017-06-22T15:02:17.480" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;What you have read is right. The Valmiki Ramayana mentions the activity Hanuman did during his childhood. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Jambavan narrates the birth story of Hanuman and familiarizes his power and the boons he had received from various celestials. Jambavan narrates how he got the name Hanuman too. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga66/kishkindha_66_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kishkinda Kanda chapter 66&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अभ्युत्थितम् ततः सूर्यम् बालो दृष्ट्वा महा वने |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    फलंचेतिजिघृक्षुस्त्वमुत्प्लुत्याभ्युत्पतोदिवम् - यद्वा -&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    फलम् च इति जिघृक्षुः त्वम् उत्प्लुत्य अभिउत्पतो दिवम् || ४-६६-२१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter, when you were a boy you have see the just risen sun in the vast of forest, and deeming it to be a just ripen reddish fruit, and thinking it to be a best catch, you hopped up and flew towards sun on the sky... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शतानि त्रीणि गत्वा अथ योजनानाम् महाकपे |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    तेजसा तस्य निर्धूतो न विषादम् ततो गतः || ४-६६-२२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even on your flying up three hundred yojana-s, oh, brave monkey, and even when sun's radiation puffed and blown you down, you did not get into any anguish as were indefatigable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्वाम् अपि उपगतम् तूर्णम् अंतरीक्षम् महाकपे |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  क्षिप्तम् इन्द्रेण ते वज्रम् कोप आविष्टेन तेजसा || ४-६६-२३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, mighty monkey, even on seeing you who are coming near the vault of heaven, &lt;strong&gt;Indra is captivated by anger and by his effulgence he catapulted his Thunderbolt at you&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तदा शैलाग्र शिखरे वामो हनुर् अभज्यत |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततो हि नाम धेयम् ते हनुमान् इति कीर्तितम्&lt;/strong&gt; || ४-६६-२४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then, your left cheekbone, zygomatic arch, is broken when you fell down on a highest mountaintop, from thereupon your name-phrase is indeed averred as Hanumaan&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was again repeated in brief in &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga28/yuddha_28_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yuddhakanda chapter 28&lt;/a&gt; when one of the aides of Ravana named Shuka describes Hanuman and his valor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पतितस्य कपेर् अस्य हनुर् एका शिला तले |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  किंचिद् भिन्ना दृढ हनोर् हनूमान् एष तेन वै || ६-२८-१५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;One of the jaws of this monkey who fell down on the head of the rock, was a little fractured. For this reason, because of his strong jaw, he is called Hanuma.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This(trying to eat Sun and faling down on a rock from a great height) was the activity Hanumaan was mentioning to Sita in Lanka while introducing himself in Lanka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T15:02:17.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19099" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9200" CreationDate="2017-06-22T15:19:03.540" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is perfectly acceptable, and what's more, it is desirable for women to chant Gayatri Mantra. How come? &#xA;It is because, the dharma for this Kali Yuga, is not against it. Sanatan dharma is described as the dharma of religion, and Yuga dharma as the dharma of social interaction: law, ethics, etiquette and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://belurmath.org/complete_works_of_swami_vivekananda/volume_3/lectures_from_colombo_to_almora/first_public_lecture_in_the_east_(colombo)_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Vivekananda on Sanatana Dharma&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We know that in our books, a clear distinction is made between two sets of truths. The one set is that which abides for ever, being built upon the nature of man, the nature of the soul, the soul's relation to God, the nature of God, perfection and so on; there are also the principles of cosmology, of the infinitude of creation, or more correctly speaking, projection, the wonderful law of cyclical procession, and so on; these are eternal principles founded upon the universal laws of nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How we pray to God, whether it is ethical or moral etc is governed by Yuga Dharma. The Core concepts of the soul's relation to God, Bhakti, Cycle of birth and death etc are the ones that don't change. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Religious ordination of women is not encouraged in this day and age in any religion. But that doesn't make it invalid.  In the puranic times, women committed Sati. There was a symbolism attached to it. Now if we look at it through the prism of a 21st century mind, it will seem barbaric. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, one must change with the times. Women need to take the initiative for this themselves and not look for man made approval. No need to guilt trip ourselves. Chant without fear and immerse yourself in Bhakti. God is the ultimate authority. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great &lt;strong&gt;Saint Madhvacharya&lt;/strong&gt; in his Mahabharatha Tatparya Nirnaya, describes the&#xA;  scholarly nature of Draupadi, the wife of Pandavas as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Great women should study the Vedas like Krishnaa (Draupadi)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Madhava Samhite on Parashara Smriti says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&gt; &gt; yopanayanam krutwa pashcad vivaham karoti sa brahmavadini | tathaiva&#xA;    ya prathamata upanayanam krutwa sadya eva vivaham vidhaya tato&#xA;    vedamadhite sa sadyovadhuh&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;which means&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She who studies vedas after upanayana and then gets married is&#xA;  brahmavadini, she who gets married immediately after upanayana and&#xA;  then studies vedas is sadyovadhu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This goes on to show that women were eligible to both the sacred&#xA;  threading ceremony as well as the vedic studies in ancient times. This&#xA;  also means that women are also eligible to Gayatri Upadesha and to&#xA;  learn the Gayatri Mantra. Because any person who has undergone the&#xA;  Yajnopavitam ceremony is eligible for Gayatri Upadesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, denying the women rights to study vedic knowledge, to &#xA;  Yajnopavitam Samskara and Gayatri Upadesha is un-vedic. In the vedas&#xA;  there is not a single reference which denies the women these rights.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who still refuse to accept the concept of Yuga Dharma clearly mentioned in Puranas or the smriti texts, never mind. Let's turn our attention to the Vedas. Further References:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Veda is our only authority, and everyone has the right to it.&#xA;  यथेमां वाचं कल्याणीमावदानि जनेभ्यः। ब्रह्मराजन्याभ्यां शूद्राय चार्याय&#xA;  च स्वाय चारणाय॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Thus says the &lt;strong&gt;Shukla Yajur Veda (XXVI. 2)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharvaveda 11.5.18&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Girls should train themselves to become complete scholars and youthful&#xA;  through Brahmcharya and then enter married life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rigveda 10.191.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;God says that O! man and women i am granting you these Mantras for you&#xA;  both So, that you can think and progress together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The “Brahma” in a yajna is the best trained purohit who can correct&#xA;  the others involved in the yajna. BRAHMAA VAA RITVIJAABHMISHAKTAMAHA –&#xA;  Shatapatha brahmana 1.7.4.19.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And.. &lt;strong&gt;A woman can be a brahma as mentioned in Rigveda (8.33.-19).&lt;/strong&gt; “…sthree&#xA;  hi brahmaa vibhoovidhaha” .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A woman who is devoted to God is more highly regarded than a man who&#xA;  has no such devotion, as found in the Rig-Veda: &lt;strong&gt;“Yea, many a woman is&#xA;  more firm and better than the man who turns away from Gods, and offers&#xA;  not.” (Rig-Veda, 5.61.6)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/indian-women-in-vedic-time&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&gt; Stephen Knapp calls this verse, a kind of equality that is rarely&#xA;  found in any other religious scripture.&lt;/a&gt; It is also an indication that&#xA;  in matter of dharma, in the days of Vedic culture, women stood as a&#xA;  decisive force in spirituality and the foundation of moral&#xA;  development. In the Rig Veda, the idea of the family as the hub of&#xA;  religious worship is found. In this context, women were at the heart&#xA;  of the family structure, as wives and mothers who brought worship into&#xA;  the center of the household activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Can you show any authority from this Veda of ours that everyone has not the right to it? The Purânas, no doubt, say that a certain caste has the right to such and such a recension of the Vedas, or a certain caste has no right to study them, or that this portion of the Vedas is for the Satya Yuga and that portion is for the Kali Yuga. But, mark you, the Veda does not say so; it is only your Puranas that do so. But can the servant dictate to the master? The Smritis, Puranas, Tantras — all these are acceptable only so far as they agree with the Vedas; and wherever they are contradictory, they are to be rejected as unreliable. But nowadays we have put the Puranas on even a higher pedestal than the Vedas! The study of the Vedas has almost disappeared from Bengal. How I wish that day will soon come when in every home the Veda will be worshipped together with Shâlagrâma, the household Deity, when the young, the old, and the women will inaugurate the worship of the Veda!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this, please see the multiple references and read the text contained in the link&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/women-can-learn-the-vedas-affirm-vedas/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/women-can-learn-the-vedas-affirm-vedas/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, whichever way we look at it, whether we are basing our beliefs on the sayings of great saints and philosophers, smriti texts or in fact the Vedas, it is perfectly allowed for women to recite Gayatri Mantra. Happy Chanting!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10217" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-06-12T05:50:26.200" LastActivityDate="2018-06-12T05:50:26.200" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19100" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19067" CreationDate="2017-06-22T15:33:14.747" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just to add more - A perfect self realized being who has achieved &lt;strong&gt;Jagadānanda&lt;/strong&gt;, after knowing he is none other than God &amp;amp; uniting individual consciousness with universal consciousness, not only he can float in air rather he can do anything what he wants. He becomes Omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotence etc, by &lt;strong&gt;recognizing&lt;/strong&gt; his true nature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as all knowability, etc., in respect of the body occurs when it is pervaded by that spanda principle, even so when the yogi is established in his essential Self, &lt;strong&gt;he will have omniscience, omnipotence etc. everywhere&lt;/strong&gt;. Spanda Karika 3.7.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T15:33:14.747" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19101" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19095" CreationDate="2017-06-22T18:05:50.383" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Their primary duty is not providing money, rather their duty is physically serving Brahmanas and other Dvijas.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu01.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 1&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Sudra, to serve meekly even these (other) three castes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc145538.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Medhatithi says in his commentary on the Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘The Lord’, Prajāpati, ordained ‘one function, for the Śūdra’; [in the form]—‘Thou shalt perform the ‘service of the said castes,’—i.e., of the Brāhmaṇa, Kṣatriya and Vaiśya;—‘Ungrudging’—i.e., without complaining; no resentment should be felt even in the mind. &lt;strong&gt;‘Service’ stands for attending; i.e., doing of acts conducive to their convenience; such as massage of the body, and the obeying of wishes.&lt;/strong&gt; What is mentioned here is only such function of the Śūdra as leads to visible results (in the shape of livelihood); and in as much as the phrase ‘one only’ is not injunctive, it does not preclude the giving of gifts (and such other acts, leading to invisible results); specially as we shall find later on the actual injunction of these acts (for the Śūdra also). And it will be on that occasion that we shall set forth the classification of sacrifices and other acts (as to which of these should be done by which castes, and so forth). (91).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Vayu says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a071.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmana, O best of kings, has sprung from the mouth of Brahman. The Kshatriya has sprung from his two arms, and the Vaisya from his two thighs. For waiting upon these three orders, O ruler of men, a fourth order, viz., the Sudra, sprung into life, being created from the feet (of Brahman). Originally created thus, the Brahmana takes birth on earth as the lord of all creatures, his duty being the keep of the Vedas and the other scriptures. Then, for ruling the earth and wielding the rod of chastisement and protecting all creatures, the second order, viz., the Kshatriya was created. The Vaisya was created for supporting the two other orders and himself by cultivation and trade, and finally, it was ordained by Brahman that the &lt;strong&gt;Sudra should serve the three orders as a menial&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T18:05:50.383" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19102" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19067" CreationDate="2017-06-22T18:59:36.497" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;By the rise of Kundalini a Yogi with attainment of a disease-free spiritual state.. either as a Siddhi or by any means arriving at a Turiya Avastha feels &lt;em&gt;subjectively&lt;/em&gt; that he is weightless. He is not at all lying about his feeling of his own weightless state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But a physical spring balance measuring weights would not &lt;em&gt;objectively&lt;/em&gt; record any weight change on the Earth. All physical bodies lose part of force of attraction /weight in Space ... far away from influence of heavy planets ...anyone floats in a spaceship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara notes ( that might sound ego-central to many,) that Avidya is subjective but not objective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T05:00:04.287" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T05:00:04.287" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19103" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3704" CreationDate="2017-06-22T19:23:22.083" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some reference said that Once Surya Deva showed he the most powerful Deva in the world. Without Him whole world is priceless. Then His son Shani Deva tried to calm Him and not present Him as great than Lord Shiva. But Surya Deva was so angry that time. Even he stopped his work to give light to the world. Without Surya Light whole world was going to dark space and Asuras are getting powerful. Than Shani put a Rudraksha on the Surya Planet and worshiped to Lord Shiva. Than the Rdraksha give most brighter light than Surya Light. Then Devraj Indra suspended Surya Deva from Divinity and Surya came to a Jangal and He saw two person who worshiped to Lord Shiva. Then Surya tried to kill those two Asuras Mali and Sumali. But they had a boon from Shiva that who would tried to kill them Shiva will totally destroy him. Thats why Shiva killed Surya for attacking to the Asuras. After geting this news to Surya's father Rishi Kashyppo cursed Shiva, Oneday The Trishul will kill Shiva's son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10224" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T19:23:22.083" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19104" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-22T19:51:01.200" Score="8" ViewCount="617" Body="&lt;p&gt;The main deity (moolavar) of Ati Vardar Swamy of Swamy Varadaraja Perumal is immersed in nearby pushkarini . It is taken out for public worship every 40 years, next time this is going to happen in 2019 for 48 days. I want to know the story of Ati Varadar moolavar, why is it kept underwater.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="15718" LastEditDate="2019-08-06T06:15:32.013" LastActivityDate="2019-08-06T06:15:32.013" Title="What is story of Ati Varadar Swamy?" Tags="|vishnu|history|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19105" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-22T19:57:18.870" Score="3" ViewCount="185" Body="&lt;p&gt;Varadaraja Perumal Temple is an important site for Sri Vaishnavas, because it is one of the 108 Divya Deshas and Bhagwad Ramanujacharya under guidance of Bhagwan Varadaraja Swamy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the story of the origin of Varadaraja Perumal temple in&#xA;Kanchipuram,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the sthala purana for Varadaraja Perumal temple.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2017-06-22T19:57:18.870" Title="Sthala Purana of Varadaraja Perumal Kanchipuram" Tags="|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19106" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-22T20:13:40.993" Score="3" ViewCount="233" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14153/why-is-thiruman-sacred&quot;&gt;Tiruman&lt;/a&gt; literally means 'Sacred/holy' (Tiru)+ (man)'Sand/Rock/Clay', is used by Sri Vaishnavas for applying Urdhwapundra on body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've heard a story about Garudalwar aka Garuda Swamy bringing Tiruman hills from Vaikuntha and establishing them in Melkote. Which purana/Itihasa etc discuss this story, add the full story in your answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T07:54:09.010" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T07:54:09.010" Title="Which purana(s) mention story of GarudaAlwar carrying Tiruman mountain from Vaikuntha" Tags="|scripture|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19107" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-22T20:44:58.657" Score="8" ViewCount="282" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arthavada is a term associated with the least famous &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6818/was-the-purva-mimansa-an-atheist-school&quot;&gt;Purva Mimansa&lt;/a&gt; established by Rishi Jaimini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is Arthavada and how does &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Uttara Mimansa&lt;/a&gt; counteract against this Arthavada?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-04-21T02:01:19.883" LastActivityDate="2020-04-21T02:01:19.883" Title="What is Purva Mimansa Arthavada" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|terminology|purva-mimamsa|arthavada|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19108" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19084" CreationDate="2017-06-22T21:39:09.417" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;By definition a Saintly person is dear to God so as Bhagwan says in Bhagwad Gita 12.20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ये तु धर्म्यामृतमिदं यथोक्तं पर्युपासते।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रद्दधाना मत्परमा भक्तास्तेऽतीव मे प्रियाः।।12.20।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who follow this imperishable path of devotional service and who completely engage themselves with faith, making Me the supreme goal, are very, very dear to Me. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-12-20/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 12.20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from this we can conclude that a Bhakta is a saintly person or vice versa, from Bhagwad Gita verse 12.13 to 12.19 Bhagwan gives the characteristics of a Bhakta or a Noble man who is dear to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The characteristics/qualities of Noble man or a Saint/Sadhu are as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-12-13-14/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG-12.13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He never hates any being even though they hate him and do him wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is ‘friendly’, evincing a friendly disposition towards all beings whether they hate him or do him wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is free from the ‘feeling of mine’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is free from the feeling of ‘I’, i.e., is free from the delusion that&#xA;his body is the self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;pain and pleasure are the same to him (inference from previous quality).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is ‘enduring’, unaffected even by those two (i.e., pleasure and pain) due to the inevitable contact of sense-objects(refered to as &lt;code&gt;Kshami&lt;/code&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-12-13-14/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG-12.14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is ‘content’(santushta).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He ‘ever meditates,’ i.e., is constantly intent on contemplating on the self as separate from the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is ‘self-restrained’, namely, he controls the activities of his mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is of ‘firm conviction’ regarding the meanings taught in the science of the self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-12-15/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG-12.15&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He does not become the cause of ‘fear to the world’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He has no cause to ‘fear the world’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is not in the habit of showing favour towards someone and intolerance towards others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He has no fear of some or repulsion for others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Refer&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-12-16/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG-12.16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He has no longing for anything except the self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who is ‘pure’, namely, whose body is nourished on the food prescribed by the Sastras(refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-13/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG-3.13&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who is an expert in performing actions prescribed by the Sastras aka Dharma Vetta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who is ‘indifferent’, i.e., not interested in matters other than those enjoined by the Sastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who is free from ‘agony’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who renounces all ‘undertakings,’ i.e., who renounces all undertakings except those demanded by the Sastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-12-17/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG-12.17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He who does not ‘rejoice’, i.e., that Karma Yogin, who, on obtaining things which cause joy to man, does not rejoice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who does not ‘hate’, does not hate on obtaining anything undesriable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who is not ‘grieved’ by common sorrows which cause grief among men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who ‘does not desire’ anything like fortune.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who ‘renounces good and evil,’ i.e., who renounces both merit and demerit because, like demerit, merit also causes bondage, there being no difference between them in this respect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-12-18-19/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG-12.18-12.19&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The absence of hate etc., towards foes, friends etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;he is ‘same even in honour and dishonour.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who is always free from contaminating association.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who has no ‘home’, namely, who is not attached to home, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Always silent and satisfied with anything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who is fixed in knowledge and who is engaged in devotional service.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you ever encounter anyone with aforementioned qualities/characteristics fall onto his feet, and don't leave his feet until he shows you the Moksha Marga, Road that leads to enlightenment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IMO very few gurus/spiritual leaders fall in this category and they are to be worshipped as gods, few examples are Bhagwad Ramanujacharya, Adi Shankaracharya, Vedanta Deshikacharya, Shri Hanuman, Shri Bheeshma, HatiRam Baba, current Sri Vaishnava and Advaita Mathadhipatis(Shankaracharyas) etc and the list goes on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T05:01:14.407" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19109" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19114" CreationDate="2017-06-23T03:51:10.463" Score="1" ViewCount="229" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ram Devbaba (yoga guru) said Muhurtham is not necessary, for example; we see Muhurtham for marriages, which is not necessary according to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatswabhimansamachar.in/i-have-no-believe-on-astrology-said-swami-ramdev/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Hindu Scriptures saying about this matter? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10228" LastEditorUserId="10228" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T04:03:49.020" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T11:06:07.097" Title="Is Muhurtham not necessary in hinduism?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19111" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-23T09:00:12.220" Score="2" ViewCount="268" Body="&lt;p&gt;Fight Between Lord Jagannath And Laxmi at the time of Rath Yatra; known as Hera Panchami. Does anyone know about Hera Panchami mythology and the reason to celebrate it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-24T14:07:04.633" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T14:07:04.633" Title="Does anyone know about Hera Panchami?" Tags="|vishnu|gods|festivals|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19112" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19111" CreationDate="2017-06-23T09:00:12.220" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The rituals of Hera Panchami as an important function of Srimandira finds mention in Skanda Purana. According to the history of the Temple, this &quot;utsav&quot; started during the time of Maharaja Kapilendra Deb. Before his reign, the Hera Panchami function was being observed in a symbolic way with recitation of Mantras.As stated in Madala Panji, Raja Kapilendra Deb substituted this practice with the introduction of an idol of Mahalaxmi mode of gold and making the celebration more realistic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to Legends&lt;/strong&gt; : Lord Jagannath along with his siblings leaves for a vacation to his aunt’s place and his consort Mahalaxmi is left behind in the main temple. While leaving he had promised that he would return back the next day, but time passed by and he never came back, nor did he give any information. After the 5th Day, Goddess Laxmi became impatient and hence decided to visit the Gundicha temple to see if everything was ok.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At night of the 5th day the representative idol of Goddess Mahalaxmi (known as Subarna Mahalaxmi) is made to leave for the Gundicha temple in a beautifully decorated palanquin via Bada Danda (the Grand Road) in a colorful procession in pomp and splendor, accompanied by her servitors, to meet Lord Jagannath and to ask Him why he had not returned yet. The people &amp;amp; servitors who are part of the procession of Goddess Mahalaxmi sing the Hera Panchami song. The Hera Panchami song expresses Goddess Mahalaxmi’s anger towards Her husband. After knowing that Goddess Mahalaxmi is coming to meet him with anger, Lord Jagannath asks his servitors to quickly lock the door of Gundicha Temple. After having a stealthy look at her Lord, she returns to the temple, damaging a part of Jagannath’s chariot in anger and disgust. This is what the crowd witnesses with profuse excitement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastEditorUserId="8538" LastEditDate="2017-06-24T10:14:59.690" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T10:14:59.690" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19113" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-23T09:38:04.650" Score="6" ViewCount="100" Body="&lt;p&gt;Has any ancient non-advaitic acharya/author referred to Shankaracharya by name in his work? For example I understand that Bhaskara in his Brahmasutra bhashya does not refer to Shankara by name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10198" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T09:38:04.650" Title="Ancient reference to Shankaracharya by name" Tags="|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19114" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19109" CreationDate="2017-06-23T10:53:14.530" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Muhurtham is necessary or not is totally depends on your believes. Muhurthams are rules or rituals evolved by our ancestors, and they made these rules to maintain a culture. However, if anyone not believing or maintaining these rules are not wrong, he/she only have a different perspective on it. Muhurthams are not God written golden rules, so they are not going to affect your daily life if you don't follow them. However following these rules makes a society and a culture. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You just listen to your heart and mind, and whatever your instincts are showing you, your soul will follow that-you will follow that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However these are all my way of point, it may differ from yours or others. And also I didn't mean to hurt anybody's feeling, so take it just as a usual talk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10230" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T11:06:07.097" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T11:06:07.097" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19116" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18674" CreationDate="2017-06-23T11:22:28.400" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Shodashaadhaara are situated in our body where a Yogi used to concentrate while meditating. This is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shivashakti.com/siddha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt; written by Guru Gorakshanatha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ntt27.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ntt27.png&quot; alt=&quot;screenshot of source in devanagari script&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The text now mentions &lt;em&gt;16 places&lt;/em&gt; where meditation may be accomplished. On the tip of the big toe of the right foot one should meditate on a steady light. The second base is situated in the root chakra, and a flaming fire should he visualised there. Thirdly is the anus, where the Apana vital breath resides. The fourth is in the penis, where the Brahmagranthis are said to come together. Fifth is the Oddiyana base (see above). Sixthly is the navel centre, in which is Om, where all sound dissolves. The seventh is the heart chakra, where Prana resides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;  The eighth is the throat adhara, the place where Ida and Pingala come together. The ninth base is the Ghantika, at the root of the tongue, whence arises the nectar. The tenth is behind this, identified with the Talu chakra. The eleventh base is at the tip of the tongue. Meditating here one conquers all disease. The twelfth centre is the third eye, where one should meditate on the lunar circle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;  Next and thirteenth is the spot at the root of the nose. Meditating here, one becomes very concentrated of mind. The fourteenth base is behind the root of the nose. The fifteenth is on the forehead, and is said to be the centre of Light. At the sixteenth, above the Brahmarandhra, is the Space Chakra, and here reside the two lotus feet of Shri Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T06:54:31.307" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19117" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-23T11:45:21.620" Score="1" ViewCount="3054" Body="&lt;p&gt;If amavasya(New moon day) falls on two days ,(i.e., from today afternoon to tomorrow after), can I perform tharpanam on the second day morning? Please clarify. This situation comes to everyone's life when first day was missed due to unavoidable reasons? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10236" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T14:00:58.793" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T07:29:37.170" Title="Can we perform amavasya(new-moon day) tharpanam during the second day of amavasya?" Tags="|rituals|tradition|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19120" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-23T13:39:11.683" Score="6" ViewCount="1632" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prince Ram, when banished from court of 14 years travelled south despite knowing that he may have to cross Narmada which was not recommended by Lord Manu. Why did he not simply go North. He could have saved all the troubles of losing Sita and wage war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10178" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T16:44:34.610" Title="Why Prince Ram did not head North when banished.?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19121" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19120" CreationDate="2017-06-23T15:11:35.883" Score="8" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why did he not simply go North?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think the answer is provided in  Valmiki Ramayana itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Long ago Kaikeyi protected King Dasharatha in one battle. After the incidence she received two boons from king Dasharatha as follows -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुरा देव असुरे युद्धे पित्रा ते मम राघव | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    रक्षितेन वरौ दत्तौ सशल्येन महा रणे || 2-18-32&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh, Rama! During a battle and a great war between celestials and&#xA;  demons long ago, I protected your father who was pierced by darts.&#xA;  Then, he gave me two boons.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्र मे याचितः राजा भरतस्य अभिषेचनम् |  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    गमनम् दण्डक अरण्ये तव च अद्य एव राघव || 2-18-33&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Oh, Rama! According to those boons, I asked the king for coronation&#xA;  of Bharata and for &lt;strong&gt;your going to Dandaka forest today itself&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga18/ayodhya_18_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;VR 2-18-33&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Rama decided to go to Dandaka forest &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रसादयन् नर वृषभः स मातरम् |  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    पराक्रमाज्जिगमिषुरेव दोम्डकान् |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    अथ अनुजम् भ्ऱ्शम् अनुशास्य दर्शनम् | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    चकार ताम् ह्ऱ्दि जननीम् प्रदक्षिणम् || 2-21-63&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama, the best of men, decided to go to Dandaka fores&lt;/strong&gt;t fearlessly with&#xA;  his prowess, consoled his mother, advised his brother by good thoughts&#xA;  and made hearty circumbulatory salutation to his mother.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga21/ayodhya_21_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VR 2-21-63&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the time of Ramayana Rama was living in Ayodhya also known as Saketa. It is adjacent to Faizabad city in the central region of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Ramayana describes Dandaka-aranya as a vast forest. Some passages represent it as beginning immediately south of the Yamuna. The present-day identification of the Dandaka forest is debated. According to Bimala Chum Law, it covered almost all of Central India, from Bundelkhand to Krishna River. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dandaka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So he moved in south direction to reach Dandaka forest as he promised to kaikayi. And not in  northward direction.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fWM1E.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fWM1E.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T16:44:34.610" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T16:44:34.610" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19122" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19120" CreationDate="2017-06-23T16:06:13.827" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The one of the key reason of Lord Narayana's avtar (incarnation) is to kill all bad Demons And Lord Rama's avtar was not exception of it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the main reason of Rama's avtar was to kill Ravana (coz he can only be killed by human) and all his supporters. So he had no choice but to head to south to make his birth meaningful by making all loks (worlds) fearless from terror of Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although this is a divine reason But it has logical explanation also because vidhi works in logical way. Means, it's not like that Lord Rama said to Lakshman that let's go south because we need to kill Ravana. &lt;strong&gt;Vidhi (divine planning) make them travel to south Direction. here is HOW...?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here are following steps which make Rama to head towards South as par Daiviya yojna (divine planning).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 1&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It starts from Maharani Kakai's wish to sent Rama to Banvas which was actually a divine planning. When Mantharaa was convincing Maharani Kakai then at that time Devi Saraswati sat on toung of Manthra so that She can effectively convince Kakai to make Ram to go for banwas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 2:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First Lord Rama was stayed at Chitrakut by making kutiya there. They all were started living in chitrakut peacefully. But vidhi has to send them to all adharmi demons. For that living chitrakut was only option. But vidhi has to make Rama to leave Chitrakut by any reason. And Vidhi make Bharata as reason of leaving Chitrakut.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Bharat came to Rama with intention of bring back Rama to Ayodhya and make him King But Rama refused Bharat's request by saying, right now his first duty is to full fill his Father's Promise or boon which was given to Mother Kakai. Bharat has to go back without Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Bharat went back to Ayodhya then after few time Rama decided to leave Chitrakut. When He was preparing to leaving then Saints (who was living in chitrakut) asked to Rama, why you are leaving? You can spend your 14 years of banvas in Chitrakut with us. Then Rama replied &quot;Bharat is very emotional. He might try again to come here to convince me. And since Public (Prajaa) of Ayodhya has come to know that I am living in chitrakut then they will also started to visit here. And like that your peace will get disturbed again and again&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Saints used to live in peace (away from crowed) for tapasya. And Lord Rama didn't want to spoil their peace. So He left Chitrakut.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 3&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During Journey of banwas Rama came to know that demons used to kill saint for their meal. So to protect Saints Rama started to travel more and more in search of demons so that He can make all saints fearless from Demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While his travel, One day They reached to Puchvati, where they found Jatayu and came to know He is friend of his father. So he finally decided to stay in Panchwati to spend their last year of Banwas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 4&lt;/strong&gt;: Shurupnakha came to Rama and rest we all knows what happened next. Because of Shurupnakha Ravana decided to kidnap Mata Sita And Rama has to go deeper in south in search of Mata Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: It was not coincident that Shurupnakha was going from the way in which Lord Rama was staying and her attraction toward Rama was also pre planned incident by vidhi to make Rama to go for Ravana and make Brahma's boon (Only human can kill Ravana) fullfill.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He could have saved all the troubles of losing Sita and wage war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are wrong here. Actually Rama already aware of the fact that Ravana will try to kidnap sita. SO one day Rama said to Sita that &quot;Now the time has come where we have to do a leela. Ravana will come for you and that eventually will become the reason of his death. So now you have to go in protection of Fire God (Agni Deva).&quot;&#xA;Then Rama summons Agni Deva and asked to Keep Sita with him and clone of Sita stayed with Rama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: This was major secret which was not known to anyone. Even Lakshman wasn't aware of it. Rama disclosed this secret at time of Agni Priksha of Mata Sita. When Lakshman came to know that Rama is preparing agni priksha for Mata Sita in which Site has to come to Rama from fire/burning path then Lakshmana got angry and refused to let this happened. Then Rama tell him truth that the meaning of this Agni Pariksha is just to get my Sita back from Agni Deva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the time of Agni Pariksha, Agni Deva appeared with Mata Sita from that fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-06-23T16:12:04.963" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T16:12:04.963" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19124" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-23T17:19:49.453" Score="16" ViewCount="1815" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While the hymns of the Vedas emphasize rituals and the Brahmanas serve as a liturgical manual for those Vedic rituals, the spirit of the Upanishads is inherently opposed to ritual. The older Upanishads launch attacks of increasing intensity on the ritual. Anyone who worships a divinity other than the self is called a domestic animal of the gods in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The Chāndogya Upanishad parodies those, who indulge in the acts of sacrifice by comparing them with a procession of dogs chanting Om! Let's eat. Om! Let's drink.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;- Page 57 of Mahadevan, T. M. P (1956), Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, ed., History of Philosophy Eastern and Western, George Allen &amp;amp; Unwin Ltd.&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now my inquiry into this is;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How can a philosophy whose spirit contradicts, opposes and rejects another philosophy, be part of that philosophy?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And while the Upanishads contradict the Vedas, what could be the reasons for them to be appended to the Vedas? Why were they not kept as separate texts?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any opinion regarding this will be appreciated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am trying to comprehend the history of the Indian religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edited: To provide citations as requested;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which upanishad you feel contradicts Vedas? By upanishads i mean the major upaishads. (genuine one) – Rakesh Joshi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here below is another citation apart from the one given in the comments:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shankara bhashya translated by Swamy Madhavananda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.4.8 page 141&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;This Self is dearer than a son, dearer than wealth, dearer than everything else, and is innermost. Should a person (holding the Self as dear) say to one calling anything else dearer than the Self, ''(What you hold) dear will die' -he is  certainly competent (to say so)-it will indeed  come true. One should meditate upon the Self  alone as dear. Of him who meditates upon the  Self alone as dear, the dear ones are not mortal.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.4.15 page 181&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;(So) these (four castes were projected)- the Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra. He became  Brahmana among the gods as Fire, and among then as the Brahmana (He became) a Kshatriya through the (divine) Kshatriya, a Vaisya through the (divine) Vaisyas and a Shudra through the (divine) Shudra. Therefore people desire to attain the results of their rites among the gods through fire, and among men as the Brahmana. For Brahman was in these two forms. If, however, anybody departs from this, world without realizing his own world (the Self), It, being unknown, does not protect him as the Vedas not studied, or any other work not under- taken (do not). Even if a man who does not know it as such performs a great many meritorious acts in the world, those acts of his are surely exhausted in the end. One should meditate only upon the world of the Self. He who meditates only upon the world called the Self never has his work exhausted. From this very Self he projects whatever he wants.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So these verses clearly suggest to the person, to look into oneself and not towards the outside world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7129" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-03-30T16:56:52.350" Title="Are Upanishad's really parts of the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|vedic-rituals|enlightenment|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19125" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19053" CreationDate="2017-06-23T18:41:23.217" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu philosophy refers to a group of Shad-darshanas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Samkhya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yoga&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nyaya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaisheshika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mimamsa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vedanta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of these six the 'Meemamsa' and 'Vedanta' philosophies contradict each other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The aim of Mimamsa is to provide a philosophical justification for the observance of ritual. Because Mimamsa is concerned with the earlier parts of the Vedas it is also referred to as Purva-Mimamsa (“Prior Study”) or Karma-Mimamsa (“Study of Actions”) or Karmakanda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Codana-laksano 'rtho dharmah: &quot;Duty is that which is indicated by the injunctions of the Vedas.&quot;(Mimamsa Sutra 1.1.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedanta, which deals with the later portion of Vedic literature called the Upanishads, is called Uttara-Mimamsa (“Posterior Study”) or Jnana-Mimamsa (“Study of Knowledge”) or Jnana-kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Through continuous pursuit of Satya (truthfulness), Tapas (perseverance, austerity), Samyajñāna (correct knowledge), and Brahmacharya, one attains Atman (Self, Soul).&#xA;  — Mundaka Upanishad, 3.1.5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what you need to recognise is that; you cannot find distinct sections or texts with headings or titles like Karma-kanda and Jnana-kanda among the Vedas. Basically they are two philosophies that are distinct from one another and contradict each other, which are discussed through out Vedas. Since the two philosophies stand distinct from one another, they are referred to by names that distinguish them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One, the Karma-kanda philosophy advocates the attainment of worldly riches by pleasing the gods through conducting the rituals strictly as suggested in the Vedas and the other the Jnana-kanda philosophy, advocates attaining enlightenment by seeking true knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope that helps resolving your query.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7129" LastActivityDate="2017-06-23T18:41:23.217" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19127" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19392" CreationDate="2017-06-24T04:11:06.333" Score="4" ViewCount="915" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can't understand why Kauravas had to bring their entire star decked warriors to attack Virata, sure they are just helping their allies Trigarta's as their commander-in-chief had been slain, so they are attacking someone who's already weaker still they brought senior warriors like Bhisma,Drona,Kripa,Ashwattama unnecessarily. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given that Pandavas subjugated all the kingdoms by sending each brothers on each direction , and Karna too subjugated all the kingdoms by himself after the Gandharava defeat. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I can't understand the reason behind these much warriors&#xA;participating for a mere Virata attack, aren't they on different level &#xA;to participate on such small tasks .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Virata war was completely different,there were no use of&#xA;celestial weapons,it just looks like raw skirmish with ordinary arrows,&#xA;until Arjuna alone uses one celestial weapon in the end to finish the&#xA;war, which completely contradicts the war scenes from Kuruschestra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing these words of Susarman, Karna addressed the king, saying,&#xA;  'Susarman hath spoken well; the opportunity is favourable and promises&#xA;  to be profitable to us. Therefore, if it pleases thee, O sinless one,&#xA;  let us, drawing up our forces in battle array and marshalling them in&#xA;  divisions, speedily set out. Or, let the expedition be managed as&#xA;  Saradwata's son Kripa, the preceptor Drona, and the wise and aged&#xA;  grandsire of the Kurus may think. Consulting with each other, let us,&#xA;  O lord of earth, speedily set out to attain our end. What business&#xA;  have we with the sons of Pandu, destitute as they are of wealth,&#xA;  might, and prowess? They have either disappeared for good or have gone&#xA;  to the abode of Yama? We will, O king, repair without anxiety to&#xA;  Virata's city, and plunder his cattle and other wealth of diverse&#xA;  kinds.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here it's clear Kauravas didn't plan Virata war to find the Pandavas, they just wanted to help their allies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04030.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10063" LastEditorUserId="10063" LastEditDate="2017-06-24T04:20:12.517" LastActivityDate="2017-12-20T21:03:31.343" Title="Why Kauravas had to deploy all their star warriors for Virata war and Virata war confusion?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|pandavas|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19128" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-24T04:22:41.860" Score="4" ViewCount="511" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajur Veda 19.37&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Cleanse me the Fathers who enjoy Soma! Grandfathers make me clean! May&#xA;  Great-grandfathers cleanse me with a sieve that brings a century. May&#xA;  my Grandfathers cleanse me, may my Great-grand-fathers make me clean.&#xA;  With sieve that brings a century may I obtain full length of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Mantra speaks about Grandfathers and fathers. So, it is written after many generations of humans had passed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastEditorUserId="10008" LastEditDate="2017-06-24T07:08:10.603" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T02:26:33.577" Title="Are the Vedas timeless?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19129" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-24T06:24:06.767" Score="7" ViewCount="1646" Body="&lt;p&gt;In puranas, we frequently see Lord Shiva or Lord Brahma giving boon to some danava or daitya for their austerities which usually causes some problem in future which needs to be solved in some inventive way. Has Lord Vishnu also given such a boon to any danava or daitya which lead to trouble afterwards? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T10:11:29.900" Title="Do any scripture tell us of Lord Vishnu giving boon to asuras?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|asuras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19130" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19128" CreationDate="2017-06-24T06:46:01.983" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas not being eternal is not proved from the above point.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For example: RigVeda 10.129 states Gods coming after the Creation. Now, Veda Samhita contains most of the mantras of Gods. Going by the same logic given above, it also shows Vedas are not eternal.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However above is not the case. It doesn't prove Vedas being non-eternal, because Vedas propound &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14913/where-does-rig-veda-states-about-cyclical-nature-of-creation/14914#14914&quot;&gt;cyclic nature of Universe.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूरय्याचन्द्रमसौ धाता यथा पूर्वमकल्पयत् I&lt;br&gt;&#xA;दिवं च पृथ्वीं  च अंतरिक्षमथो स्वः   II  RigVeda 10.190.3  II&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;The Ordainer created the sun and moon like those of previous cycles.&lt;/strong&gt; He formed in order Heaven and Earth, the regions of the air, and light.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, such things mentioned in Vedas are also eternal due to Cyclic nature of creation.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For example: if Vedas state Vishwamitra heard Gayatri Mantra. Now, objector objects that Vishwamitra has birth and before Vishwamitra there was not that mantra hence Vedas are not eternal. This is wrong because the names mentioned in Vedas are like titles in this case. ie. Gayatri Mantra is heard by person named Vishwamitra in every creation as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11279/sandhyavandanam-before-the-age-of-vishwamitra/11793#11793&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; As quoted in the same answer from Sri Bhasya by Sri Ramanujacharya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As words such as Indra and Vasishtha, which denote gods and Rishis, denote (not individuals only, but) classes,&lt;/strong&gt; and as the creation of those beings is preceded by their being suggested to the creative mind through those words; for this reason the eternity of the Veda admits of being reconciled with what scripture says about the mantras and kândas (sections) of the sacred text having 'makers' and about Rishis seeing the hymns; cp. such passages as 'He chooses the makers of mantras'; 'Reverence to the Rishis who are the makers of mantras'; 'That is Agni; this is a hymn of Visvâmitra.' For by means of these very texts Pragâpati presents to his own mind the characteristics and powers of the different Rishis who make the different sections, hymns, and mantras, thereupon creates them endowed with those characteristics and powers, and appoints them to remember the very same sections, hymns, &amp;amp;c. The Rishis being thus gifted by Pragâpati with the requisite powers, undergo suitable preparatory austerities and finally see the mantras, and so on, proclaimed by the Vasishthas and other Rishis of former ages of the world, perfect in all their sounds and accents, without having learned them from the recitation of a teacher. &lt;strong&gt;There is thus no conflict between the eternity of the Veda and the fact that the Rishis are the makers of its sections, hymns, and so on.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, as discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17831/are-there-any-mantra-or-mantras-in-veda-samhitas-that-confirm-that-vedas-are-apa/18501#18501&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; Vedas themselves also confirm apaureshya nature:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rcho akshare parame vyoman (1) Yasmin devA adhi visve nisheduh (2) yastan na veda kim rchA karishyati (3)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;................&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Riks exist in a supreme ether, imperishable and immutable (1), in which all the Gods are seated (2)&lt;/strong&gt; ; One who knows not that, what shall he do with the RIk ? (3)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;RV 1.164.39&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankaracharya also in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34098.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Brahma Sutra bhasya states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अतएव च नित्यत्वम् || 1|3|29||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;AtaEva cha NityaTvam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And from this very reason there follows the eternity of the Veda.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As the eternity of the Veda is founded on the absence of the remembrance of an agent only, a doubt with regard to it had been raised owing to the doctrine that the gods and other individuals have sprung from it. That doubt has been refuted in the preceding Sûtra.--The present Sûtra now confirms the, already established, eternity of the Veda. &lt;strong&gt;The eternity of the word of the Veda has to be assumed for this very reason, that the world with its definite (eternal) species, such as gods and so on, originates from it.--A mantra also ('By means of the sacrifice they followed the trace of speech; they found it dwelling in the rishis,' Rig-veda Samh. X, 71, 3) shows that the speech found (by the rishis) was permanent.&lt;/strong&gt; --On this point Vedavyâsa also speaks as follows: 'Formerly the great rishis, being allowed to do so by Svayambhû, obtained, through their penance, the Vedas together with the itihâsas, which had been hidden at the end of the yuga.'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;previous Sutra&lt;/a&gt; gives very long reasoning about how mentioning of things like gods, species etc.. by Vedas which have origin and death also doesn't prove Vedas are uneternal:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;28&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If it be said (that a contradiction will result) in respect of the word; we refute this objection on the ground that (the world) originates from the word, as is shown by perception and inference.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Let it then be granted that, from the admission of the corporeal individuality of the gods, no contradiction will result in the case of sacrificial works. Still a contradiction will result in respect of the 'word' (sabda).--How?--The authoritativeness of the Veda has been proved 'from its independence,' basing on the original (eternal) connection of the word with its sense ('the thing signified') 1. But now, although a divinity possessing corporeal individuality, such as admitted above, may, by means of its supernatural powers, be able to enjoy at the same time the oblations which form part of several sacrifices yet it will, on account of its very individuality, be subject to birth and death just as we men are, and hence, the eternal connexion of the eternal word with a non-eternal thing being destroyed, a contradiction will arise with regard to the authoritativeness proved to belong to the word of the Veda.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;To this we reply that no such contradiction exists.--Why?--'On account of their origin from it.' For from that very same word of the Veda the world, with the gods and other beings, originates.--But--an objection will be raised--in Sûtra I, 1, 2 ('That whence there is the origin, &amp;amp;c. of this world') it has been proved that the world originates from Brahman; how then can it be said here that it originates from the word? And, moreover, even if the origin of the world from the word of the Veda be admitted, how is the contradiction in regard to the word removed &lt;strong&gt;thereby, inasmuch as the Vasus, the Rudras, the Âdityas, the Visvedevas, and the Maruts are non-eternal beings, because produced; and if they are non-eternal, what is there to preclude the non-eternality of the Vedic words Vasu, &amp;amp;c. designating them?&lt;/strong&gt; For it is known from every-day life that only when the son of Devadatta is born, the name Yagñadatta is given to him (lit. made for him) 2. Hence we adhere to our opinion that a contradiction does arise with regard to the 'word.'&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This objection we negative, on the ground that we observe the eternity of the connexion between such words as cow, and so on, and the things denoted by them. &lt;strong&gt;For, although the individuals of the (species denoted by the word) cow have an origin, their species does not have an origin, since of (the three categories) substances, qualities, and actions the individuals only originate, not the species. Now it is with the species that the words are connected, not with the individuals, which, as being infinite in number, are not capable of entering into that connexion. Hence, although the individuals do not originate, no contradiction arises in the case of words such as cow, and the like, since the species are eternal. Similarly, although individual gods are admitted to originate, there arises no contradiction in the case of such words as Vasu, and the like, since the species denoted by them are eternal. And that the gods, and so on, belong to different species, is to be concluded from the descriptions of their various personal appearance, such as given in the mantras, arthavâdas, &amp;amp;c.&lt;/strong&gt; Terms such as 'Indra' rest on the connexion (of some particular being) with some particular place, analogously to terms such as 'army-leader;' hence, whoever occupies that particular place is called by that particular name.--The origination of the world from the 'word' is not to be understood in that sense, that the word constitutes the material cause of the world, as Brahman does; but while there exist the everlasting words, whose essence is the power of denotation in connexion with their eternal sense (i. e. the âkritis denoted), the accomplishment of such individual things as are capable of having those words applied to them is called an origination from those words.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;How then is it known that the world originates from the word?--'From perception and inference.' Perception here denotes Scripture which, in order to be authoritative, is independent (of anything else). 'Inference' denotes Smriti which, in order to be authoritative, depends on something else (viz. Scripture). These two declare that creation is preceded by the word Thus a scriptural passage says, 'At the word these Pragâpati created the gods; at the words were poured out he created men; at the word drops he created the fathers; at the words through the filter he created the Soma cups; at the words the swift ones he created the stotra; at the words to all he created the sastra; at the word blessings he created the other beings.' And another passage says, 'He with his mind united himself with speech (i. e. the word of the Veda.--Bri. Up. I, 2, 4). Thus Scripture declares in different places that the word precedes the creation.--Smrti also delivers itself as follows, 'In the beginning a divine voice, eternal, without beginning or end, formed of the Vedas was uttered by Svayambhû, from which all activities proceeded. 'By the 'uttering' of the voice we have here to understand the starting of the oral tradition (of the Veda), because of a voice without beginning or end 'uttering' in any other sense cannot be predicated.--Again, we read, 'In the beginning Mahesvara shaped from the words of the Veda the names and forms of all beings and the procedure of all actions.' And again, 'The several names, actions, and conditions of all things he shaped in the beginning from the words of the Veda' (Manu I, 21). Moreover, we all know from observation that any one when setting about some thing which he wishes to accomplish first remembers the word denoting the thing, and after that sets to work. We therefore conclude that before the creation the Vedic words became manifest in the mind of Pragâpati the creator, and that after that he created the things corresponding to those words. Scripture also, where it says (Taitt. Brâ. II, 2, 4, 2) 'uttering bhûr he created the earth,' &amp;amp;c., shows that the worlds such as the earth, &amp;amp;c. became manifest, i.e. were created from the words bhûr, &amp;amp;c. which had become manifest in the mind (of Pragâpati).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara also while talking about beginningless nature of Samsara also quotes the same quote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For if it had a beginning, the prânas would not exist before that beginning, and how then could the embodied Self be denoted, with reference to the time of the world's beginning, by a name which depends on the existence of those prânas. Nor can it be said that it is so designated with a view to its future relation to the prânas; it being a settled principle that a past relation, as being already existing, is of greater force than a mere future relation.--&lt;strong&gt;Moreover, we have the mantra, 'As the creator formerly devised (akalpaya) sun and moon (Rig Veda. Samh. X, 190, 3), which intimates the existence of former Kalpas. Smriti also declares the world to be without a beginning, 'Neither its form is known here, nor its end, nor its beginning, nor its support' (Bha. Gî. XV, 3). And the Purâna also declares that there is no measure of the past and the future Kalpas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, by all reasonings and scriptual quotations given in the commentary, it is proved that mentioning of such things doesn't make Veda uneternal. &lt;strong&gt;So, if Vedas mention receiving knowledge from grandfathers or ancient scholars, it means that same thing was also told in previous creations and same thing will also be told in  future creations. ie. It is propounding cyclic events which happens in every cycle.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T02:26:33.577" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19131" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19117" CreationDate="2017-06-24T07:29:37.170" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am afraid that once you have missed the day then you may not perform it later. You would have to wait for the next amavasyA for the pitru tarpanam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is advisable to be prepared well in advance with respect to dates and items needed for the tarpanam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this, the mahAlaya paksha is the main time for performing the shraddha to the pitrs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can do some prayashchita for missing the monthly amavasyA tarpanam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Especially, the sarva-pitra amavaya is the main day which should not be missed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, you can also perform the pitru tarpanam during samkranti/sankramana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T07:29:37.170" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19132" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-24T08:15:26.800" Score="12" ViewCount="751" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his Brahma Sutra Bhasya &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1.3.28&lt;/a&gt;, Adi Shankaracharya gives a long commentary while proving about the eternity of Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He quotes about various scriptures there like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus Scripture declares in different places that the word precedes the creation.--Smrti also delivers itself as follows, &amp;apos;In the beginning a divine voice, eternal, without beginning or end, formed of the Vedas was uttered by Svayambhû, from which all activities proceeded. &amp;apos;By the &amp;apos;uttering&amp;apos; of the voice we have here to understand the starting of the oral tradition (of the Veda), because of a voice without beginning or end &amp;apos;uttering&amp;apos; in any other sense cannot be predicated.--&lt;strong&gt;Again, we read, &amp;apos;In the beginning Mahesvara shaped from the words of the Veda the names and forms of all beings and the procedure of all actions.&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt; And again, &amp;apos;The several names, actions, and conditions of all things he shaped in the beginning from the words of the Veda&amp;apos; (Manu I, 21). Moreover, we all know from observation that any one when setting about some thing which he wishes to accomplish first remembers the word denoting the thing, and after that sets to work. We therefore conclude that before the creation the Vedic words became manifest in the mind of Pragâpati the creator, and that after that he created the things corresponding to those words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From where is the quote in bold taken? The Sanskrit of it is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नाम रुपं च भूतानां कर्मणां च प्रवर्तनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वेदशब्देभ्य एवादौ निर्ममे स महेश्वर ।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nāma rupaṃ ca bhūtānāṃ karmaṇāṃ ca pravartanam ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vedaśabdebhya evādau nirmame sa maheśvara ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-06-24T13:58:10.683" LastActivityDate="2023-09-23T19:55:14.647" Title="From which scripture does Adi Shankara quote about Maheswara shaping name and forms of all beings from the words of Veda?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|brahma-sutras|adi-shankaracharya|smriti|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19133" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17646" CreationDate="2017-06-24T08:35:09.123" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am only answering this part:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Is there any expiation for the sin of illicit sex?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Various Dharmashastras declare various expiation for illicit sex. I am quoting some of them as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc202064.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gautama (23.12, 13, 32).&lt;/a&gt;—‘The guilt of one who has intercourse with the wife of a friend, a sister, a female belonging to the same family, the wife of a pupil, a daughter-in-law,—or with a cow—is as great as that of him who violates the Guru’s bed. Some people declare the guilt of such a person to be equal to that of a Student who breaks the vow of continence. For intercourse with a female of one of the lowest castes, one shall perform a Kṛcchra penance during one year.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc202064.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Baudhāyana (2.2.13-14).&lt;/a&gt;—‘Intercourse with females who must not be approached, cohabitation with the female friend of a female Guru, with the female friend of a male Guru, with an Apapātra woman, or with a female outcast,......... the expiation is to live like an outcast for two years.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc202064.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaśiṣṭha (20.15-16).&lt;/a&gt;—‘The expiation for intercourse with the wife of a teacher, of a son, or of a pupil is that, having shaved all his hair and smeared his body with clarified butter, the man shall embrace the heated iron-image of a woman. If he has had intercourse with a female considered venerable in the family, with a female friend, with the female friend of a Guru, with an Apapātra female, or with an outcast,—he shall perform the Kṛcchra penance for three months.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc202064.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Viṣṇu (53.1)&lt;/a&gt;—&lt;strong&gt;‘One who has had illicit sexual intercourse must perform the Prājāpatya penance for one year,—according to the rule of the Mahāvrata, clad in a garment of bark and living in a forest.’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if one repents for his bad Karma and devoted oneself to  their adorable lord all sins will be cleansed, there is no doubt. This is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana, Book 2, Chapter 6&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let any one who repents of the sin of which he may have been culpable have recourse to this best of all expiations, remembrance of Hari: by addressing his thoughts to Náráyańa at dawn, at night, at sunset, and midday, a man shall be quickly cleansed from all guilt: the whole heap of worldly sorrows is dispersed by meditating on Hari; and his worshipper, looking upon heavenly fruition as an impediment to felicity, obtains final emancipation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T08:35:09.123" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19134" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="27168" CreationDate="2017-06-24T08:46:33.857" Score="31" ViewCount="3001" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm witnessing upsurge in sacrileges, such as—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Demolishing idols of devatā-s or devī-s.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Profane acts targeting iconography of devatā-s or devī-s.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Making abusive versions of epics, purāṇa-s, etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wonder, what are the consequences of such actions? or in other words, what are the sins attached to blasphemy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2021-03-24T13:24:04.687" LastActivityDate="2021-03-24T13:24:04.687" Title="What are the after-effects of insulting gods or goddesses?" Tags="|karma|sin|smriti|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19135" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-24T08:54:05.733" Score="1" ViewCount="261" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath is one of the most viewed car festivals of the world. What are the rituals on this multi-day festival and their dates this year?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2018-07-06T08:25:22.073" LastActivityDate="2018-07-06T08:25:22.073" Title="Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra 2017 all rituals with Date" Tags="|vishnu|gods|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2018-09-25T17:13:41.963" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19136" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19135" CreationDate="2017-06-24T08:54:05.733" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rajendrabhisekha – 04.06.2017 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rukmaniharan Ekadashi – 05.06.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Champaka Dwadashi – 06.06.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daitapai Prabesha &amp;amp; Charabandha – 07.06.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chhaturdashi Senapata Lagi – 08.06.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Debasnana Purnima – 09.06.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dashami Chaka Bije – 19.06.2017 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Khalilagi Ekadashi – 20.06.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rajaprasad Bije (Dwadashi) – 21.06.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ghanalagi – 22.06.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Netroutsav &amp;amp; Nabajaubana Darshan – 24.06.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srigundicha – 25.06.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hera Panchami – 29.06.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dakhina Moda – 30.06.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sandhya Darshan – 02.07.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bahuda Yatra – 03.07.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suna Besha – 04.07.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adharapana – 05.07.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Neeladribije – 06.07.2017&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T08:54:05.733" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19137" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19132" CreationDate="2017-06-24T08:56:29.647" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are three variants of this Shloka available: &lt;a href=&quot;http://kjc-sv013.kjc.uni-heidelberg.de/dcs/index.php?contents=texte&amp;amp;IDTextDisplay=400&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana 1.5&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://kjc-sv013.kjc.uni-heidelberg.de/dcs/index.php?contents=texte&amp;amp;PhraseID=290107&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Linga Purana 1.70&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://kjc-sv013.kjc.uni-heidelberg.de/dcs/index.php?contents=texte&amp;amp;IDTextDisplay=350&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma Purana 1.7&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Purana quote is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nāmarūpaṃ ca bhūtānāṃ kṛtyānāṃ ca prapañcanam / (63.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vedaśabdebhya evādau devādīnāṃ cakāra saḥ // (63.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Linga Purana quote is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nāma rūpaṃ ca bhūtānāṃ kṛtānāṃ ca prapañcanam // (258.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vedaśabdebhya evādau nirmame sa maheśvaraḥ / (259.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kurma Purana quote is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nāmarūpaṃ ca bhūtānāṃ kṛtyānāṃ ca prapañcanam / (64.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vedaśabdebhya evādau nirmame sa maheśvaraḥ // (64.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the most closest reference is from Kurma and Linga Purana with slight difference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T16:04:14.133" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19138" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19132" CreationDate="2017-06-24T08:58:08.737" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;This quote with slight variation is present in &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 7, Purvabhaga of Kurma Purana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अव्ययं च व्ययं चैव द्वयं स्थावरजङ्गमम्। &lt;br&gt; तेषां ये यानि कर्माणि&#xA;  प्राक् सृष्टेः प्रतिपेदिरे॥ ६४॥ &lt;br&gt;तान्येव ते प्रपद्यन्ते सृज्यमानाः&#xA;  पुनः पुनः। &lt;br&gt; हिंस्राहिंस्रे मृदुक्रूरे धर्माधर्मावृतानृते।।६५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तद्भाविताः प्रपद्यन्ते तस्मात्तत्तस्य रोचते॥&lt;br&gt; महाभूतेषु&#xA;  नानात्वमिन्द्रियार्थेषु मूर्तिषु।। ६६॥ &lt;br&gt;विनियोगं च भूतानां धातैव&#xA;  व्यदधात्स्वयम्। &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;नामरूपं च भूतानां प्राकृतानां प्रपञ्चनम्॥ ६७॥&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever the deeds had been taken by these craetion in their previous&#xA;  birth, they achieve them created again and again. The violence or&#xA;  non-voilence, softness O harshness, righteousness or unrighteousness,&#xA;  truthness and falsehood, were achieved by them as per their earlier&#xA;  performance and as such they like it. &lt;strong&gt;The creator himself has&#xA;  created all the organs of senses besides the matters concerning them&#xA;  and the other related matters.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वेदशब्देभ्य एवादी निर्ममे स महेश्वरः।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; आर्षाणि चैव नामानि याश्च वेदेषु सृष्टयः॥ ६८॥ &lt;br&gt; शर्वर्यन्ते प्रसूतानां तान्येवैभ्यो&#xA;  ददात्यजः। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Initially Mahesvara created the names and forms of creatures as per&#xA;  the provisions of the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt; That unborn deity gave the names of the&#xA;  sages to those who were born at the close of his night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-06-24T09:38:24.963" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T09:38:24.963" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19139" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-24T09:12:37.430" Score="1" ViewCount="222" Body="&lt;p&gt;Three beautiful chariots are used in Rath Yatra festival for three persisting deities. What are the significance of the chariots of Rath Yatra ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T11:49:32.433" Title="Significance of chariots of Jagannath Rath Yatra?" Tags="|vishnu|gods|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19140" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19132" CreationDate="2017-06-24T09:36:12.627" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a verse that's only found in the Southern recension of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata that's almost identical to the verse given by Adi Shankaracharya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;nānārūpaṃ ca bhūtānāṃ karmaṇāṃ ca pravartanam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vedaśabdebhya evādau nirmimīte sa īśvaraḥ&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  nāmadheyāni carṣīṇāṃ yāś ca vedeṣu sṛṣṭayaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse, if it's authentic, would occur in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b059.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, which says similar things:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the outset the Self-born caused those excellent Vedic sounds, that are embodiments of knowledge and that have neither beginning nor end to (spring up and) flow on (from preceptor to disciple). From those sounds have sprung all kinds of actions. The names of the Rishis, all things that have been created, the varieties of form seen in existent things, and the course of actions, have their origin in the Vedas.  Indeed, the Supreme Master of all beings, in the beginning, created all things from the words of the Vedas. Truly, the names of the Rishis, and all else that has been created, occur in the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, given Adi Shankaracharya came from South India, it wouldn't be surprising if he quoted the Southern recension.  But one difference between Adi Shankaracharya's verse and this one is that this one says īśvaraḥ where Adi Shankaracharya's verse says maheśvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Kurma Purana verse 1.7.64 has the word but differs slightly in the first line:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nāmarūpaṃ ca bhūtānāṃ kṛtyānāṃ ca prapañcanam / &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vedaśabdebhya evādau nirmame sa maheśvaraḥ // (64.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Vishnu Purana verse 1.5.63 is similar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nāmarūpaṃ ca bhūtānāṃ kṛtyānāṃ ca prapañcanam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vedaśabdebhya evādau devādīnāṃ cakāra saḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So out of all of them, the verse from the Southern recension of the Mahabharata comes the closest.  It's possible that the slight difference is due to textual variation in manuscripts of the Southern recession, or it's possible that Adi Shankaracharya is giving a Smriti quote that's now lost to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T09:36:12.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19141" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19139" CreationDate="2017-06-24T09:44:47.350" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rath Yatra is not only celebrated in India, but this auspicious festival celebrated all over the world by Lord Jagannath followers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Name of the three chariots of RATH YATRA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nandighosha :- Chariot of Lord Jagannath&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Padmadhwaja/ Devadalana :- Chariot of Mata Subhadra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Taladhwaja :- Chariot of Balabhadra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess Subhadra’s Chariot: Padmadhwaja/ Devadalana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;the smallest of the chariots&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;canopy color : black and red&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;4 horses of red color&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Height : 43 feet&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No. of wheels : 12&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Flag : Nadambika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The guardian deity of the chariot : Jayadurga and the charioteer is known as Arjuna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The face of the Chariot : Bhakti Sumedha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The weapons : Padma &amp;amp; Kalhar&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;9 Deities present on the chariot :  Chandi, Chamunda, Ugratara, Vanadurga, Shulidurga, Varahi, Shyama Kali, Mangala and Bimala.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Balabhadra’s Chariot: Taladhwaja&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;canopy color : green and red&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;4 horses of black color&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Height : 44 feet&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No. of wheels : 14&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Flag : Unnani&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Emblem: Sudarshana Chakra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The guardian deity of the chariot : Vasudev and the charioteer is known as Matali&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The face of the Chariot : Ketu Bhadra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The weapons : Hala &amp;amp; Musala&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;9 Deities present on the chariot :  Ganesha, Kartikeya, Sarvamangala, Pralambari, Halayudha, Mrutyunjaya, Natamvara, Mukteshwar &amp;amp; Sheshadeva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Jagannath’s Chariot: Nandighosha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Largest among all chariots.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;canopy color : yellow and red&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;4 horses of white color&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Height : 45 feet&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No. of wheels : 16&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Flag : Trailokyamohini&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Emblem: Sudarshana Chakra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The guardian deity of the chariot : Garuda and the charioteer is known as Daruka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The face of the Chariot : Nandi Mukha &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The weapons : Sankha &amp;amp; Chakra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;9 Deities present on the chariot :  Varaha, Govardhana, Krushna, Nrusimgha, Rama, Narayana, Trivikrama, Hanuman, and Rudra. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar information can be found in the temple website &lt;a href=&quot;http://jagannath.nic.in/?q=node/487&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and also in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jagannathdham.in/rath-yatra-festival/details-of-rath-yatra-chariots/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; blog.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8538" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-25T11:49:32.433" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T11:49:32.433" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19143" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-24T12:26:05.963" Score="3" ViewCount="160" Body="&lt;p&gt;Women are not allowed to do several activities during their menstrual period. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from those, are there any activities forbidden for women permanently compared to men?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example: There are very less warriors like Sathyabama for doing wars. less female soldiers etc.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T12:26:05.963" Title="Which activities are forbidden in Hinduism for women compared to men?" Tags="|women|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19144" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18649" CreationDate="2017-06-24T12:53:08.937" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Section 7 of the Mausala Parva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata gives an account of those that survived the Yadu Massacre. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Vasudeva's demise Arjuna takes care of the remaining people and it is he that performs the funeral rites of all the dead. Seven days from then he sets out with the citizens and others to Indraprastha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Partha, more grieved than they, addressed those grieving and&#xA;  cheerless citizens and officers who were more dead than alive, and&#xA;  said these words that were well suited to the occasion: ‘&lt;strong&gt;I shall take&#xA;  away with me the remnants of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.&lt;/strong&gt; The sea&#xA;  will soon engulf this city. &lt;strong&gt;Equip all your cars and place on them all&#xA;  your wealth. This Vajra (the grandson of Krishna) will be your king at&#xA;  Shakraprastha. On the seventh day from this, at sunrise, we shall set&#xA;  out.&lt;/strong&gt; Make your preparations without delay.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's an account of the people that went with him: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Pandu, having next performed duly those sraddha rites that&#xA;  are done to the dead, quickly set out on the seventh day, mounting on&#xA;  his car. &lt;strong&gt;The widows of the Vrishni heroes, wailing aloud, followed&#xA;  the high-souled son of Pandu.&lt;/strong&gt; Dhananjaya, on cars drawn by bullocks&#xA;  and mules and camels. All were in deep affliction. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The servants of the Vrishnis, their horsemen, and their car-warriors&#xA;  too, followed the procession. The citizens and the inhabitants of the&#xA;  country, at the command of Pritha’s son, set out at the same time and&#xA;  proceeded, surrounding that cavalcade destitute of heroes and&#xA;  numbering only women and the aged and the children.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The warriors who fought from the backs of elephants proceeded on&#xA;  elephants as huge as hills. The foot-soldiers also set out, together&#xA;  with the reserves.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The children of the Andhaka and the Vrishni races, all followed&#xA;  Arjuna. The Brahmanas and Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas, and wealthy Sudras,&#xA;  set out, keeping before them the 16,000 women that had formed&#xA;  Vasudeva’s harem, and Vajra, the grandson of the intelligent Krishna.&#xA;  The widows of the other heroes of the Bhoja, the Vrishni, and the&#xA;  Andhaka races, lordless now, that set out with Arjuna, numbered many&#xA;  millions.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, on the path this procession is waylaid by Abhiras who carry off the women and wealth. Arjuna is unable to stop them and here is the final account of the survivors: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The high-souled one, taking with him the remnant of the Vrishni women,&#xA;  and the wealth that was still with them, reached Kurukshetra. Thus&#xA;  bringing with him the remnant of the Vrishnis. he established them at&#xA;  different places. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He established the son of Kritavarma at the city called Marttikavat,&#xA;  with the remnant of the women of the Bhoja king. Escorting the&#xA;  remainder, with children and old men and women, the son of Pandu&#xA;  established them, who were reft of heroes, in the city of&#xA;  Indraprastha.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The dear son of Yuyudhana, with a company of old men and children and&#xA;  women, the righteous-souled Arjuna established on the banks of the&#xA;  Sarasvati.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The rule of Indraprastha was given to Vajra. The widows of Akrura then&#xA;  desired to retire into the woods.&lt;/strong&gt; Vajra asked them repeatedly to&#xA;  desist, but they did not listen to him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rukmini, the princess of Gandhara, Saivya, Haimavati, and queen&#xA;  Jamvabati ascended the funeral pyre. Satyabhama and other dear wives&#xA;  of Krishna entered the woods, O king, resolved to set themselves to&#xA;  the practice of penances.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They began to live on fruits and roots and pass their time in the&#xA;  contemplation of Hari. Going beyond the Himavat, they took up their&#xA;  abode in a place called Kalpa. &lt;strong&gt;Those men who had followed Arjuna from&#xA;  Dwaravati, were distributed into groups, and bestowed upon Vajra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T12:53:08.937" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19146" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5488" CreationDate="2017-06-24T16:45:08.593" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;A person interested to know this has to read some upanishads. It seems there will be 3 types of bodies stula, sukshma and linga.&#xA;I think one is prana. One is  body  and the other is  atma.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I think first the body forms. I think it is called  pinda sareera.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Prana and atma enter in different months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of them enters  through the top of the skull. After that the skull is closed,   then he is sealed.  He will have memory of a previous birth, and then  realise that because of some  sins he was not liberated  and he suffers in his mother's womb  till delivery.  After delivery when  the  naval tube is  cut,  memory of previous birth is lost.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To know  this  briefly  one has to listen  a song  on &quot;manava janma marala radu&quot;, from  the telugu movie  &lt;em&gt;Srimad  virat pothuluri  veera brahmendra swamy vari charitra&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To know one has to read  Shankaracharya's commentaries on some upanishads   and  understand  himself  by listening again and again, reading again and again.  Should have belief in it  but not  doubt in it. As one goes on reading it will be realised  if he is blessed by god.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is not exactly  or 1%  of  what it is.This is what I understood  and  just what I remember. I may be excused if that is not this at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10252" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-25T05:55:13.060" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T05:55:13.060" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19147" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-24T18:03:20.927" Score="1" ViewCount="54" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know Bhagwan Buddh was the incarnation of Great Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaishnav worship Lord Vishnu. Why did then Lord Vishnu created another Dharma? Why did not he rectified Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10109" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T18:03:20.927" Title="Hinduism and Buddhism" Tags="|philosophy|buddhism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-06-25T03:27:08.203" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19149" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11277" CreationDate="2017-06-24T20:40:11.663" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;What time is it now in Brahma's day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 2 Kalpas in Brahma's full day of 24 hours not 1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 kalpa for his 12 hour day&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 kalpa for his 12 hour night&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Catur yuga, Dvipa yuga and Maha yuga - ''A cycle of 4 Yugas''. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Catur-yuga is also known as Divya-yuga or Maha-yuga and is made up of the four yugas - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;''Satya- yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapara-yuga, Kali-yuga''. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What time is it now in Brahma's day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Krishna come in the 28TH Catur-yuga, Divya-yuga or Maha-yuga tn the 7th Vaivasvata Manu (current) Vamanajust &quot;once&quot; in Brahma's 24 hour day &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have already passed through 6 Manvantara's that each have 71 Maha-yugas in them&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So presently we are in the 460th Maha-yuga in Brahma's 12 hour day out of 1000 making it 11.40 am in Brahma's daytime&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manvantara's are created by a particular Manu who are all created by Brahma &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manvantara or Manuvantara or &quot;Manvanter&quot;, or age of a Manu, the Vedic progenitor of humanity, is an astronomical period of time measurement.&#xA;Manvantara is a Sanskrit word, a compound of manu and antara, manu-antara or manvantara, literally meaning the duration of a Manu, or his life span.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each Manvantara is created and ruled by a specific Manu, who in turn is created by Brahma the Creator himself in this single Material Universe called Bhu-Mandala that is deep within our single enormous Brahmanda Egg shaped greater Universe that comes from the pores of Maha Vishnu's Body with billions of other Brahmanda egg shaped Universes .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma creates the this single Material world called Bhu-Mandala however, all the billions of other Brahmanda's also have a similar Bhu-Mandala inner Universe and all have their own individual Brahmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are billions of Brahma's ours has four heads others have 10 or 100 or 1000 or even 10,000 even 10 million! All depending on the size of their material Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also our Brahmanda that is over 44 quadrillion 444 Trillion miles 444 billion miles in diameter and inner Bhu-Mandala 4 billion sized very small Universe is very small compared to other Brahmandas and their inner Bhu-Mandala similar Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Within our Bhu-Mandala Universe each Manvantara lasts the lifetime of a Manu, upon whose death, Brahma creates another Manu to continue the cycle of Creation or Shristi, Krishna's expansion Lord Vishnu on his part manifests a new Avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also a new Indra and Saptarishis are appointed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fourteen Manus and their respective Manvantaras constitute one Kalpa, Aeon, or a ‘Day of Brahma’, according to the Vedic Time Cycles and also the Vedic timeline.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, at the end of each Kalpa, there is a period - same as Kalpa - of dissolution or Pralaya, wherein the world (earth and all life forms, but not the entire universe itself) is destroyed and lies in a state of rest, which is called the, ‘Night of Brahma’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that the creator of this single Bhu-Mandala Universe, Brahma starts his cycle of creation all over again, in an endless cycle of creation followed by absorption (annihilation) for which Shiva, Vedic demigod of Absorption and annihilation of this Universe, and also renewal, is invoked towards the end of each such cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duration of a Manvantara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The actual duration of a Manvantara, according to the Vishnu Purana is seventy one times the number of years contained in the four Yugas, with some additional years, adding up to 852,000 divine years, or 306,720,000 human years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seven Rishis, certain (secondary) divinities, Indra, Manu, the king and his sons, are created and perish in one interval (called a Manvantara) equal to seventy-one times the number of years contained in the four Yugas, with some additional years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the duration of the Manu, the (attendant) divinities, and the rest, which is equal to 852,000 divine years, or to 306,720,000 years of mortals, independent of the additional period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fourteen times this period constitutes a Bráhma day, that is, a day of Brahmá; the term (Bráhma) being the derivative form. The Brahma life span is 100 Brahma varshas. The following table will illustrate clearly the link to our years and Brahma years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sub-divisions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 human year (in Hindu calendar) = 1 Deva Ahoratra for God (1 day and 1 night)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;360 Deva Ahoratras = 1 Deva Vatsara&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12,000 Deva Vatsara = 1 Chaturyuga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(12,000 Deva Vatsaras are defined as, 4,800 Deva Vatsaras of satya yuga, 3,600 Deva Vatsaras of Treta Yuga, 2,400 Deva Vatsaras of Dvapara Yuga and 1,200 Deva Vatsaras of Kali Yuga (which is 1,200 * 360 = 432,000 human years); summing up to 12000)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;71 Chaturyugas = 1 Manvantaram (1 life span of Manu)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;14 Manvantaras = 1 kalpa (1 day of Brahma)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2 Kalpas = 1 day and 1 night 24 hour period + 1 Brahma ratra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;360 days of Brahma = 1 Brahma varsha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Comparison to the Age of the Universe from Modern Astronomy&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Modern scientific astronomy estimates the Age of the Universe as around 13 Billion years (13 * 109 years).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conversion of 1 day-night of Brahma into human years yields 8.58816 * 109 years (derived as 2 kalpas * 14 Manvantaras * 71 Chaturyugas * 12,000 Deva vatsaras * 360 human years).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Vedas, there are 504 000 Manus manifested during the lifetime of one Brahmā (311,040,000,000,000 human Earthly years), 5,040 Manus in one year of Brahma, and 420 Manus in one month of Brahma. (See for more details: List of numbers in Hindu scriptures.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manus of the Śveta Vārāha Kalpa &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manvantara № Name of Manu for manvantara: Manvantara-avatara name:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;01 Svayambhuva Manu Yajna&#xA;02 Svarocisha Manu Vibhu&#xA;03 Uttama Manu Satyasena&#xA;04 Tapasa Manu Hari&#xA;05 Raivata Manu Vaikuntha&#xA;06 Cakshusha Manu Ajita&#xA;07 Vaivasvata Manu (current) Vamana&#xA;08 Savarni Manu Sarvabhauma&#xA;09 Daksha-savarni Manu Rishabha&#xA;10 Brahma-savarni Manu Vishvaksena&#xA;11 Dharma-savarni Manu Dharmasetu&#xA;12 Rudra-savarni Manu Sudama&#xA;13 Deva-savarni Manu Yogesvara&#xA;14 Indra-savarni Manu Brihadbhanu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First Manvantara - the interval of Swayambhu Manu&#xA;Saptarshis (सप्तर्षि): Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulaha, Kratu, Pulastya, and Vashishtha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svayambhuve—in the Svayambhuva-manvantara; yajna—the avatara named Yajna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Svayambhuva-manvantara, the Avatar is named Yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first Manu was Svayambhuva Manu. His two daughters, namely Akuti and Devahuti, gave birth to two sons, named Yajna and Kapila respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Svayambhuva Manu, along with his wife, Satarupa, went into the forest to practice austerities on the bank of the River Sunanda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At some point in time, Rakshasas and asuras attacked them, but Yajna, accompanied by his sons the Yamas and the demigods, killed them. Then Yajna personally took the post of Indra, the King of the heavenly planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second Manvantara - the interval of Swarochisha Manu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Urjastambha, Agni, Prańa, Danti, Rishabha, Nischara, and Charvarivan. In the Svarocisha-manvantara, avatara is named Vibhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second Manu, whose name was Svarocisha, was the son of Agni, and His sons were headed by Dyumat, Sushena and Rochishmat. In the age of this Manu, Rochana became Indra, the ruler of the heavenly planets, and there were many demigods, headed by Tushita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There were also many saintly persons, such as Urjastambha. Among them was Vedasira, whose wife, Tushita, gave birth to Vibhu. Vibhu instructed eighty-eight thousand dridha-vratas, or saintly persons, on self-control and austerity.&#xA;Third Manvantara - the interval of Uttama Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sons of Vashista: Kaukundihi, Kurundi, Dalaya, Śankha, Praváhita, Mita, and Sammita. In the Uttama-manvantara, He (avatara) is named Satyasena.&#xA;Uttama, the son of Priyavrata, was the third Manu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among his sons were Pavana, Srinjaya and Yajnahotra. During the reign of this Manu, the sons of Vashista, headed by Pramada, became the seven saintly persons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Satyas, Devasrutas and Bhadras became the demigods, and Sushanti became Indra. From the womb of Sunrita, the wife of Dharma, the Lord appeared as Satyasena, and He killed all the Yakshas and Rakshasas who were fighting with Satyajit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fourth Manvantara - the interval of Tapasa/Tamasa Manu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jyotirdhama, Prithu, Kavya, Chaitra, Agni, Vanaka, and Pivara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Tapasa-manvantara, He (Vishnu) is named Hari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is named Tapasa because he was born during Tapassu (deep meditation)&#xA;Tapasa/Tamasa, the brother of the third Manu, was the fourth Manu, and he had ten sons, including Prithu, Khyati, Nara and Ketu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During his reign, the Satyakas, Haris, Viras and others were demigods, the seven great saints were headed by Jyotirdhama, and Trisikha became Indra. Harimedha begot a son named Hari by his wife Harini. Hari saved the devotee Gajendra. This incident known as gajendra-mokshana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fifth Manvantara - the interval of Raivata Manu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hirannyaroma, Vedasrí, Urddhabahu, Vedabahu, Sudhaman, Parjanya, and Mahámuni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Raivata-manvantara, the avatara is named Vaikuntha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaikuntha came as Raivata Manu, the twin brother of Tamasa. His sons were headed by Arjuna, Bali and Vindhya. Among the demigods were the Bhutarayas, and among the seven brahmanas who occupied the seven planets were Hiranyaroma, Vedasira and Urdhvabahu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sixth Manvantara - the interval of Chakshusha Manu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sumedhas, Virajas, Havishmat, Uttama, Madhu, Abhináman, and Sahishnnu. In the Chakshusha-manvantara, avatara is named Ajita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ajita came as Chakshsusa Manu, the son of the demigod Chakshu. He had many sons, headed by Puru, Purusa and Sudyumna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the reign of Chakshusa Manu, the King of heaven was known as Mantradruma. Among the demigods were the Apyas, and among the great sages were Havisman and Viraka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The present, seventh Manvantara - the interval of Vaivasvata Manu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kashyapa, Atri, Vashista, Vishvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, Bharadvaja.[9] In the Vaivasvata-manvantara, He (Avatara) is named Vamana &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The seventh Manu, who is the son of Vivasvan, is known as Sraddhadeva &#xA;.&#xA;He has ten sons, named Iksvaku, Nabhaga, Dhrsta, Saryati, Narisyanta, Dista, Tarusa, Prsadhra and Vasuman. In this manvantara, or reign of Manu, among the demigods are the Adityas, Vasus, Rudras, Visvedevas, Maruts, Asvini-kumaras and Rbhus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The king of heaven, Indra, is known as Purandara, and the seven sages are known as Kashyap, Atri, Vashista, Vishwamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni and Bharadwaj. During this period of Manu, Vishnu appears from the womb of Aditi in his incarnation as the son of Kashyap. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eighth (Future) - Savarni Manu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Diptimat, Galava, Parasurama, Kripa, Drauni or Ashwatthama, Vyasa, and Rishyasringa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Savarnya-manvantara, He (avatara) is named Sarvabhauma.&#xA;In the period of the eighth Manu, the Manu is Surya Savarnika Manu. His sons are headed by Nirmoka, and among the demigods are the Sutapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bali, the son of Virochana, is Indra, and Galava and Parasurama are among the seven sages. In this age of Manu, the incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears as Sarvabhauma, the son of Devaguhya and Sarasvati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ninth - Daksa Savarni Manu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Savana, Dyutimat, Bhavya, Vasu, Medhatithi, Jyotishmán, and Satya. In the Daksha-savarnya-manvantara, He (avatara) is named Rishabha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the period of the ninth Manu, the Manu is Daksha-savarni. His sons are headed by Bhutaketu, and among the demigods are the Maricigarbhas. Adbhuta is Indra, and among the seven sages is Dyutiman. In this period of Manu, the incarnation Rishabha is born of Ayushman and Ambudhara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tenth - Brahma Savarni Manu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Havishmán, Sukriti, Satya, Apámmúrtti, Nábhága, Apratimaujas, and Satyaket. In the Brahma-savarnya-manvantara, the avatara is named Vishvaksena.&#xA;In the period of the tenth Manu, the Manu is Brahma-savarni. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among his sons is Bhurishena, and the seven sages are Havishman and others. Among the demigods are the Suvasanas, and Sambhu is Indra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The incarnation in this period of Manu is Vishvaksena, who is a friend of Sambhu and who is born from the womb of Vishuci in the house of a brahmana named Visvasrashta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eleventh - Dharma Savarni Manu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Niśchara, Agnitejas, Vapushmán, Vishńu, Áruni, Havishmán, and Anagha. In the Dharma-savarnya, He (avatara) is named Dharmasetu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the period of the eleventh Manu, the Manu is Dharma-savarni, who has ten sons, headed by Satyadharma. Among the demigods are the Vihangamas, Indra is known as Vaidhrita, and the seven sages are Aruna and others. In this manvantara, the incarnation is Dharmasetu, who is born of Vaidhrita and Aryaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Twelfth - Rudra Savarni Manu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tapaswí, Sutapas, Tapomúrtti, Taporati, Tapodhriti, Tapodyuti, and Tapodhan. In the Rudra-savarnya He (avatara) is named Sudhama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the period of the twelfth Manu, the Manu is Rudra-savarni, whose sons are headed by Devavan. The demigods are the Haritas and others, Indra is Ritadhama, and the seven sages are Tapomurti and others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The incarnation in this manvantara is Sudhama, or Svadhama, who is born from the womb of Sunrita. His father's name is Satyasaha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thirteenth - Raucya or Deva Savarni Manu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirmoha, Tatwadersín, Nishprakampa, Nirutsuka, Dhritimat, Avyaya, and Sutapas. In the Deva-savarnya, He (avatara) is named Yogesvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the period of the thirteenth Manu, the Manu is Deva-savarni. Among his sons is Chitrasena, the demigods are the Sukarmas and others, Indra is Divaspati, and Nirmoka is among the sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The manvantara-avatara is Yogeshwara, who is born of Devahotra and Brihati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fourteenth - Indra Savarni Manu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agnibáhu, Śuchi, Śhukra, Magadhá, Gridhra, Yukta, and Ajita. In the Indra-savarnya-manvantara, the avatara is named Brihadbhanu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the period of the fourteenth Manu, the Manu is Indra-savarni. Among his sons are Uru and Gambhira, the demigods are the Pavitras and others, Indra is Suci, and among the sages are Agni and Bahu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it is said both Lord Krishna in His original form and Lord Caitanya only come ''once'' in a day of Brahma, that ''day'' really means a ''day and night 24 hour period of Brahma'' that together over 24 hours takes 8 billion 640 million human years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then night-time comes which is also 4 billion 320 million human years long.&#xA;At night while Brahma sleeps and creates no Chatur-yuga or Maha-yugas, our Universe is partially annihilated. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the next day-time arrives at sunrise the cycle repeats itself for every day and night of Brahma's life &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are in the 28th Chatur-yugas or Maha-yuga in the ''Vaivasvata Manu'' (current) that has 71 Maha-yugas in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;71 Chatur-yugas = 1 Manvantara (1 life span of Manu)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are in the 460th Maha-yuga also known as a Chatur-yuga &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At night while Brahma sleeps and creates NO Chatur-yuga or Maha-yugas, our Universe is partially annihilated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the next day-time arrives at sunrise the cycle repeats itself for every ''day and night'' of Brahma's life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source of knowledge is the Srimad Bhagavatam also known as the Bhagavat Purnana by Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10241" LastEditorUserId="10241" LastEditDate="2017-06-24T21:09:41.447" LastActivityDate="2017-06-24T21:09:41.447" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19150" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-24T20:42:47.257" Score="7" ViewCount="269" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manu RIshi talks about prohibited food items in Manu Smriti verse 5.5, the original verse is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लशुनं गृञ्जनं चैव पलाण्डुं कवकानि च ।&#xA;  अभक्ष्याणि द्विजातीनाममेध्यप्रभवानि च ॥ ५ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Garlic, leeks and onions, mushrooms and all that proceeds from &lt;strong&gt;impure things&lt;/strong&gt;, are unfit to re eaten by twice-born men. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200379.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti 5.5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200379.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;gloss&lt;/a&gt; by medhatithi does not specify as to what those impure substances/things are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are those impure substances/things discussed in this verse, please provide proper scriptural citations to support your answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastActivityDate="2021-09-10T03:40:24.167" Title="What are the impure substances from which prohibited food grows" Tags="|dharma|food|dharma-shastras|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19151" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-25T06:43:57.980" Score="5" ViewCount="135" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know about Brahmanas (ब्राह्मण ग्रंथ) as described at &lt;a href=&quot;http://bharatdiscovery.org/india/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A3_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BharatDiscovery&lt;/a&gt;, what they are, how they originated, part of Vedas, association with Samhita, Shakha etc. I mentioned them in some of my posts like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15508/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14428/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16340/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;. But I'm missing scriptural sources.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar problem (with having scriptural source) I had about Vedas, how they came into existence, Vedvyasa's division into four Vedas, and how Shakhas formed etc. But recently when I found that information available from Srimad Bhagvatam (12.6) and when I read, I felt contented/happy as having scriptural source!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, I'm looking for scriptural source that mention or describe:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are Brahmanas?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How are they originated? and their association with Samhitas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Inclusion of Aranyaka &amp;amp; Upanishads. (If possible)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recently we have been having some questions viz. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18989/277&quot;&gt;What are the Vedas technically?&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19053/277&quot;&gt;Do the Vedas themselves talk about the jnAna and karma kAnda?&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19124/277&quot;&gt;Are Upanishad&amp;#39;s really parts of the Vedas?&lt;/a&gt;. Though I've posted one &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19002/277&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt; claiming why to consider Brahmanas part of Vedas, but I think we need scriptural source that introduce Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-06-26T08:02:46.267" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T08:02:46.267" Title="Looking for scriptural source that introduce Brahmanas" Tags="|scripture|vedas|vyasa|brahmanas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19152" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-25T12:32:29.047" Score="-1" ViewCount="756" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women are not allowed to worship Shiva in Linga Purana:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/linga-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-20/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Linga Purana 2.20.2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; The Sudras can avail of the performing of the worship through the priest. The ladies are not authorized to worship&#xA;Shiva, there is no doubt about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But here in Shiva Purana:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-24/topic-3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Purana 1.7.134&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; The women devotees of Shiva achieves the form of&#xA;Devi Linga&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T13:59:04.470" Title="Contradictions between Shiva Purana and Linga Purana" Tags="|shiva|practice|shiva-purana|women|linga-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19153" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19152" CreationDate="2017-06-25T13:59:04.470" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not contradicting. The context is continued in the next verses. Also some verses are not translated properly in the translation you have provided.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Linga Purana quote is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वैश्यानां नैव शूद्राणां शुश्रूषां पूजकस्य च |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     स्त्रीणां नैवाधिकारोऽस्ति पूजदिषु न संशयः || 2.20.2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Neither the Vaishyas, nor the Shudras are not eligible for the obedient worship of Shiva. Also the women don't have the eligibility. There is no doubt about it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स्त्रीशूद्राणां द्विजेन्द्रैश्च तत्फलं भवेत्&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    नृपाणामुपकारार्थं ब्राह्मणद्यैर्विशेषतः || 2.20.3 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Women, shudras can avail the worship of Shiva(through priests).&lt;/strong&gt; The worship done through a priest yields results. For the well being of the rulers and others, Brahmanas should worship Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवं संपूजयतेयुवैं ब्राह्मणद्याः सदाशिवं | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    इत्युक्त्वा भगवान् रुद्रन्नस्तन्नैवान्तरधात्स्वयं &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this way, the worship of Shiva should be done through Brahmanas. Having said thus, Lord Rudra disappeared by himself from the scene. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verses were speaking on how the worship should be done through the priests. The verses are speaking about ritual worship. They say Brahmanas are eligible to worship Shiva ritualistically. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the verse 2.30.1, Vaishyas, shudras and women are included. In the verse 2.20.2, Not only sudras, women are also added. This was not provided in your english translation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Linga Purana verses are not stopping women to worship Shiva. It is prescribed through a priest. Brahmanas and kings should worship for the welfare of the others. This was the meaning here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the Shiva Purana verses do not contradict with Linga Purana verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translation of the Shiva Purana verse Visyeshwara Smahita 17.34: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The more an aspirant repeats this mantra, greater is the Shiva's presence in his body. For the woman devotee of Shiva, the symbol of Goddess shall be the form of concentration. (Motilal Banarsi Dass Translation)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear that women are not barred from the worship of Lord Shiva. Linga Purana is speaking about ritualistic worship and worship through priests. It did not stop people to have devotion towards Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;I have provided own english translations for Linga purana quotes 2.20.2,3. If someone has more accurate ones, please notify me. I will improve them.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T13:59:04.470" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19154" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-25T15:58:23.043" Score="1" ViewCount="397" Body="&lt;p&gt;Option like changing my dharma from Hindu to Islam/christian where we can attain heaven even without child and  through only bhakthi....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10259" LastEditorUserId="10259" LastEditDate="2017-06-25T16:37:06.247" LastActivityDate="2017-06-25T16:37:06.247" Title="If child is not born even after several years of trying in marriage....is there anyway to escape from punnama hell?" Tags="|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19155" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-25T16:10:21.620" Score="5" ViewCount="212" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is known that Adi Shankara had presented the view that Pancharatra is not in accordance with the Vedas in his commentaries. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know how many such verses are there in the agama which is directly or indirectly blaming the vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance the following &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34221.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;statement&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Moreover, manifold contradictions are met with in the Bhâgavata&#xA;  system, with reference to the assumption of qualities and their&#xA;  bearers. Eminence of knowledge and ruling capacity, strength, valour,&#xA;  and glory are enumerated as qualities, and then they are in some other&#xA;  place spoken of as Selfs, holy Vâsudevas, and so on.--Moreover, we&#xA;  meet with passages contradictory of the Veda. The following passage,&#xA;  for instance, blames the Veda, &lt;strong&gt;'Not having found the highest bliss in&#xA;  the Vedas Sândilya. studied this sâstra.'-&lt;/strong&gt;-For this reason also the&#xA;  Bhâgavata doctrine cannot be accepted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-06-26T04:59:31.813" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T04:59:31.813" Title="Which Pancharatra text has controversial statements on Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|sri-vaishnava|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19157" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12309" CreationDate="2017-06-26T00:22:01.253" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ajanubahu is a person who hands are long that it reaches the knees of that person when that person stands.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe &quot;Ajanubahu&quot; explains a great personality of extraordinary people physical appearance and this is the deeper meaning in this word. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;जानु = knee | बाहु = arm | आजानुबाहु = one whose arms reach up-to his&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;knees&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shri Rama&lt;/strong&gt; is also called Ajanubahu, since his arms reached upto his knees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama’s limbs have come for description often – Ajanabahu. The &lt;strong&gt;Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt; describes &lt;strong&gt;Sri Rama&lt;/strong&gt; in a verse thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri raghavam dasarathatmajamaprameyam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sitapatim raghukulanvaya ratna dipam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ajanubahu - araivinda dalayataksham&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ramam nisachara vinasakaram namami&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another story in the &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt; says when Uttara, Abhimanyu’s wife was with child, and Ashwattama sought to kill the foetus, it was Krishna’s mercy and divine intervention that saved the baby. There in the womb, yet-to-be-born Parikshit (originally christened as Vishnudatta – gift of Vishnu) saw the divine form of the Lord, golden hued and with arms so long that reached his knees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these naamas (Pleasant) starting from Suvrana (Gold) are a glorification of the beauty of Bhagavan (God), as having beautiful limbs that are pleasing to the eyes as well as which perform actions that are beautiful/pleasing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T00:22:01.253" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19158" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2713" CreationDate="2017-06-26T03:13:39.647" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vigneshwara is vigna hartha meaning the remover of obstacles. Anjaneya is sankat mochan or the remover of calamities. For a spiritual venture or sadhana to be fruitful, one needs a good beginning (ganesha) and a person who helps and sees the job thru completion (anjaneya). Hence they are both present in the temple.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10262" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T03:13:39.647" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19160" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-26T05:37:17.807" Score="3" ViewCount="202" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19154/if-child-is-not-born-even-after-several-years-of-trying-in-marriage-is-there?noredirect=1#comment53365_19154&quot;&gt;If child is not born even after several years of trying in marriage....is there anyway to escape from punnama hell?&lt;/a&gt; says stay in naraka for childless is eternal or at least till pralaya. Which scriptures mention duration of stay? Is stay in any other naraka eternal/till pralaya?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T05:37:17.807" Title="Is stay in any of the narakas eternal?" Tags="|puranas|karma|sin|naraka|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19162" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19124" CreationDate="2017-06-26T07:43:06.067" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, your statement that the Upanishads were 'appended' to the vedas is a misunderstanding. The Upanishads are part of and included in each veda. They are at the end of each veda. 'anta' as is vedanta means the concluding or the culmination - it does not mean append.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My answer is based upon Swami Nikhilananda's comments on pages 2-9 of his Introduction to his translation of the Upanishads, in Volume 1, &lt;em&gt;The Upanishads: A New Translation&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vedas are generally broken up into two different ways. The first is to break them between the Karmakanda and the Jnanakanda. By following the karmakanda one is able to attain material prosperity and the heavens after death. The Jnanakanda leads one to Brahman, to liberation. Not everyone wants liberation, many people want material happiness and to go to the heavens. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each veda has two sections, the mantra (samhita) and the brahmana (dealing with the rules for worship, mantra meanings, etc.). The brahmana section has another part - called the Aranyaka. The Upanishads in general form a part of the end of each Aranyaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vedas can also be broken up into 4 parts, corresponding to the 4 stages of life - the brahmacharya, garhasthya, vanaprastha, and sannyas. A brahmacharya learned the mantra and brahmana sections of the vedas. In the second stage, he performed his duties and performed sacrifices in accordance with the brahmana. After taking to the forest as a vanaprastha, he followed the Aranyakas (sacrifices by symbolic worship and meditation). Finally upon entering sannyas, he followed the Upanishads. Nikhilananda says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In most cases the concluding portion of the Aranyaka is the Upanishad--also called the Vedanta because in it the Vedic wisdom reaches its culmination (anta). It shows the seeker the way to Liberation and the Highest Good. Usually there is a full series, from the Samhita, or Mantra, through the Brahmana and Aranyaka to the culmination in the Upanishad. For example, the Taittiriya Samhita is followed by the Taittiriya Brahmana, at the end of which comes the Taittiriya Aranyaka; and this is concluded by the Taittiriya Upanishad. But in rare instances an Upanishad may come directly at the conclusion of the Samhita, as is the case with the Isa Upanishad. The Taittiriya Upanishad forms the last three chapters of the Taittiriya Aranyaka; the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the last six chapters of the Satapatha Brahmana; the Aitareya Upanishad, the last five chapters of the Aitareya Arankaya; and the Kena Upanishad, the nineth chapter of the Talavakara Brahmana of the White Yajur-Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...One hundred and eight Upanishads are enumerated in the Muktika Upanishad, which is a work belonging to to the tradition of the Yajur-Veda. Among these, the Aitareya Upanishad and Kaushitaki Upanishad belong to the Rig-Veda; the Chandogya and Kena, to the Sama-Veda; the Taittireya, Mahanarayana, Katha, Svetasvatara, and Maitrayani, to the Black Yajur-Veda; the Isa and Brihadaranyaka, to the White Yajur-Veda; and the Mundaka, Prasna, and Mandukya, to the Atharva-Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;FInally, remember it is generally held that it was Vyasa who collated and organized in the Vedas into their systemic different parts. The organization was meant as systemic way for a man to lead his life through its different periods.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T07:43:06.067" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19163" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24450" CreationDate="2017-06-26T09:19:51.680" Score="3" ViewCount="9357" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some years ago I read following story in Bhavishya Purān in wikipedia page which I don't find now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pandavas out of grief, anger &amp;amp; ego because of their dead sons by Ashwathāma&#xA;spoke ill words to Lord Shiva as he didn't protect them. In response&#xA;Lord Shiva cursed all Pandavas to reborn again in Kaliyuga to fight&#xA;2nd Mahabharata war which will be won by Kaliyugi Kauravas. That war&#xA;would be won by evil forces to establish evil establishment in Bharatvarsha (India). All due to&#xA;Pandava's ego of winning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following character reborn as follows :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna (Udal – Uday Singh)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Shiva (Raktabeej)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhrishtrashtra (Prithviraj Chauhan)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Karna (Tarak)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Draupadi (Daughter of Prithviraj – Bela)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yudhishtir (Malkhan – Balkhani)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arjun (Brahmanand)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhima (Veeran)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nakul (Ratna Bhanu)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sehdev (Devsingh)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there was 2nd &lt;strong&gt;minor&lt;/strong&gt; war of Mahabharata which was won by Evil forces &amp;amp; resulted into thousands year of Slavery &amp;amp; spiritual disaster by Muslim invaders, Britishers etc in Āryavarta/Bhāratvarsha . Interestingly, India was independent till Prithviraj Chouhan only. So this story is in accordance with at least this fact. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Where exactly in Bhavishya Purān this mini Mahabharata story is mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who played roles of Pandavas &amp;amp; Kauravas respectively? As far as I remember Kauravas' role players were invaders this time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Where was fought?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Provide with verses &amp;amp; chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-09-09T02:00:22.843" Title="Story of 2nd Mahabharata in Kali Yuga which was won by Evil forces?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhavishya-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19164" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19165" CreationDate="2017-06-26T09:30:03.453" Score="3" ViewCount="9548" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whenever I do puja at home I place a small table on which idol is placed. And before placing idol I cover the table with a Red cloth. But recently I came across a Satyanarayana puja and saw that the idol was placed on a white cloth. So I asked the priest is it necessary to place on white cloth, or can we use red cloth also?&#xA;The priest only said for Durga puja we use Red cloth, but for Satyanarayana puja we use White / Yellow clothes.&#xA;I started to find relevance of this argument on internet, but came across no standard answer of Do's and Dont's. Can you please point me to some relevant text from where this can be verified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10270" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T09:41:21.997" Title="What color clothes to use on altar for placing idol in Satyanarayana puja at home?" Tags="|puja|satyanarayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19165" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19164" CreationDate="2017-06-26T09:41:21.997" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As such there are no specific instruction in the katha of Satyanarayana hence we have to go by normal way of worship of Sri Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to use different clothes for every pooja then you should use as per the day of the week. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to use fixed color then yellow would be a better one as Thursday and its rules by Jupiter which is related Lord Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;White color is prescribed for almost all the deities and also for Lord Vishnu as mentioned in the famous verse. शुक्लाम्बरधरं विष्णुं शशिवर्णं चतुर्भुजम् ।प्रसन्नवदनं ध्यायेत् सर्वविघ्नोपशान्तये ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another opinion I found in ISCKON &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iskcondesiretree.com/group/deityworship/forum/topics/colour-of-clothes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sunday - Ruled by the sun.  The Lord is generally dressed in red&#xA;  garment (ruby).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Monday - Ruled by the moon.  Their Lordships wears white on this day,&#xA;  the color of pearl.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tuesday -Ruled by the planet Mars. wears red or pink garments on this&#xA;  day, the color of the coral.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wednesday - Ruled by Mercury. Lord wears green, the color of the&#xA;  emerald.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thursday - Ruled by Jupiter. Lord wear yellow or gold dress, the color&#xA;  of the yellow sapphire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Friday - Ruled by the planet Venus. Lord wears white garments this&#xA;  day, the color of the diamond.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saturday - Ruled by the planet Saturn. Lords wears the black cloth on&#xA;  this day, corresponding to the color of the blue sapphire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Generally in temples we do not strictly follow this routine, but on&#xA;  special days like Ekadasi, the lord is dressed in Red or Pink Colour. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On Purnima, white and Amavasya, Black or dark colors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T09:41:21.997" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19169" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-26T13:38:41.877" Score="3" ViewCount="728" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read in this forum that &quot;Vedanta&quot; if by far the most popular philosophy of Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There many who believe that the Yoga is the most popular one and there are also other philosophies based on Shaivism , Shaktism , Agama etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know which is the most famous hindu philosophy and what are the references for that claim? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-03T06:43:47.403" LastActivityDate="2023-02-11T14:14:52.133" Title="Which philosophy is the most popular in Hinduism?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|yoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19170" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19169" CreationDate="2017-06-26T15:46:59.330" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let's distinguish between two things.  It is clearly not true that the &lt;em&gt;word&lt;/em&gt; Vedanta is more popular than the word Yoga; in modern times even white people in America know the word Yoga, whereas almost no one know what Vedanta is.  What is true, however, if you look at any given major sect of Hinduism, almost all of them subscribe to the Vedanta school, regardless of the ignorance of individual members.  Concerning Patanjali's Yoga school, in contrast, while it is the case that the Ashtanga Yoga procedure given in the Yoga Sutras is quite popular especially in recent times, that does not indicate the popularity of the actual philosophical commitments of the Yoga school; for instance, the Yoga school believed that the supreme being is the efficient cause but not the material cause of the Universe, a belief that most major sects of Hinduism disagree with.  (There are a few sects that do believe that the supreme being is the efficient cause but not the material cause, like the Shaiva Siddhanta sect, but they disagree with the Yoga school for other reasons.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now without further ado, let me illustrate the wide acceptance of the Vedanta school, by enumerating major sects of Hinduism and how they view the Brahma Sutras, the defining text of the Vedanta school:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Accepts Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect subscribes to Adi Shankaracharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and which preaches a Vedantic philosophy called Advaita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Sri Vaishnava sect subscribes to Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and which preaches a Vedantic philosophy called Visistadvaita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Madhwa sect subscribes to Madhvacharya's Brahma Sutra Bhashya, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/BrahmasutraMadhvaEnglish&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and which preaches a Vedantic philosophy called Dvaita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Gaudiya Vaishnava sect subscribes to Baladeva Vidyabhushana's Govinda Bhashya, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Sacred_Books_of_the_Hindus/SBH%2005%20-%20Vedantasutras%20of%20Badarayana%20with%20Baladevabhashya%20English%20Translation%20-%20Srisa%20Chandra%20Vasu%201934#page/n0/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and which preaches a Vedantic philosophy called Achintya Bhedabheda.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nimbarkacharya's sect subscribes to Nimbasrkacharya's Vedanta Parijata Saurabha, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Vedanta-parijata-saurabhaOfNimbarkaAndVedanta-kaustubhaOfSrinivasa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and which preaches a Vedantic philosophy called Dvaitadvaita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Shrauta Shaiva Siddhanta sect, to which Srikantha Sivacharya belonged, subscribes to Srikantha Sivacharya's Srikantha Bhashya, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TheVedantaSutrasWithSriKanthaBhashya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and which preaches a Vedantic philosophy called Shivadvaita or Shiva Visistadvaita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Pushtimarga sect subscribes to Vallbhacharya's Anubhashya, which you can read in Sanskrit and Hindi &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pushtisahitya.org/Anubhasyam.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (I haven't found an English translation), and which preaches a Vedantic philosophy called Shuddhadvaita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Ramanandi sect subscribes to at least five commentaries on the Brahma Sutra, which I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10180/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, which don't seem to have been translated into English, and which preach a Vedantic philosophy called Visistadvaita which is likely quite similar to Ramanujacharya's philosophy of Visistadvaita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Swaminarayan sect subscribes to Muktanand Swami's Brahma Sutra Bhashya Ratnam, which you can read in Sanskrit and Gujarati &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swaminarayangadi.com/publications/eBooks/Brahmsutrabhashyaratnam/Brahmsutrabhashyaratnam-eBook.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (I haven't found an English translation), and which preaches a Vedantic philosophy called Panchatattva Visistadvaita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Veershaiva sect subscribes to Sripati Pandita's Shrikara Bhashya, which you can read in Sanskrit &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TheSrikaraBhashyaOfSripatiPanditacharyaVol.IIC.HayavadanaRao&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; (I haven't found an English translation), and which preaches a Vedantic philosophy called Shakti Visistadvaita, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Vaikhanasa sect subscribes to Srinivasan Dikshitar's Lakshmi-Visistadvaita Bhashya, which I haven't found in either Sanskrit or English as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10187/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and which as the name suggests preaches a Vedantic philosophy called Visistadvaita.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rejects Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The mainstream Shaiva Siddhanta sect rejects the Vedanta school, as can be gleamed from the quote in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10296/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and also from Sadyojyoti's Paramoksha Nirasa Karika, which you can order &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/enquiry-into-nature-of-liberation-bhatta-ramakantha-s-paramoksanirasakarikavrtti-commentary-on-sadyojyotih-s-refutation-of-twenty-conceptions-of-liberated-state-moksa-NAK818/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  (It's interesting to note, by the way, that Sadyojyoti lived a century before Adi Shankaracharya, so he was writing at a time when Advaita was not yet popular in the Vedanta school, as is clear from his characterization of the Vedanta school.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Saiva Siddhanta Church rejects the Vedanta school, as you can see from the personal correspondence quoted in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8919/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Abhinavagupta's Kashmiri Shaivite sect rejects the Vedanta school.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhaskararaya's Sri Vidya sect rejects the Vedanta school.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The mainstream Lingayata sect rejects the Vrdanta school.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user27805" LastEditDate="2023-02-11T14:14:52.133" LastActivityDate="2023-02-11T14:14:52.133" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19172" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19219" CreationDate="2017-06-26T16:15:51.147" Score="9" ViewCount="1309" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nowadays only the Brahmin caste undergoes upanayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, we are Kshatriya Varna (by birth) but we have not undergone upnayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question- Is anyone who has not undergone &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanayana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the upanayana samskara&lt;/a&gt; a Sudra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10259" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-26T17:39:41.733" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T08:04:03.230" Title="What is the criteria for being a dvija? Is anyone who has undergone upanayana a dvija?" Tags="|caste-system|manu-smriti|samskara|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19175" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19053" CreationDate="2017-06-26T22:23:51.407" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The subject matter of the whole Veda is divided into &lt;strong&gt;Karma- Kanda&lt;/strong&gt;, Upasana-Kanda and &lt;strong&gt;Jnana-Kanda&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Karma-Kanda&lt;/strong&gt; or &quot;Ritualistic Section deals with various sacrifices and rituals&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Upasana-Kanda&lt;/strong&gt; or &quot;Worship-Section deals with various kinds of worship or meditation&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Jnana-Kanda&lt;/strong&gt; or &quot;Knowledge-Section deals with the highest knowledge of Nirguna Brahman&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mantras and the Brahmanas constitute -&gt;  Karma-Kanda; the Aranyakas Upasana - Kanda; and the Upanishads Jnana-Kanda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;strong&gt;Sri Sankara&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;[Phala (end result or the objective)]&lt;/strong&gt;: &quot;Karma-kanda aspires for worldly prosperity and heavenly pleasures. The aim of Jnana-kanda, he said, is liberation (Moksha). Further, he pointed out that Brahma Sutra says (3.5.36-37) even those who do not perform rituals are qualified to gain knowledge&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Karma Kanda&lt;/strong&gt; is the section of the Vedas that lists rituals, ceremonies and actions, which, when performed, lead one to enjoyment and power. On the other hand, &lt;strong&gt;Jnana Kanda&lt;/strong&gt;, comprising the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads, deals with the liberating knowledge and disclaims action as a means of attaining liberation. It would appear that these sections are fundamentally contradictory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-06-26T22:23:51.407" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19176" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-27T01:16:37.633" Score="2" ViewCount="46" Body="&lt;p&gt;I do night shift till 4 am so what will be the normal fasting start time . Fast with one time meal I.e only dinner .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10279" LastActivityDate="2017-06-27T01:16:37.633" Title="Fasting time with one time meal" Tags="|culture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19179" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16893" CreationDate="2017-06-27T04:42:07.313" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The inbuilt assumption in Hinduism is that the system works. In other words, there is no difference between birth-based and guNa-based varNa. They are supposed to be the same. One's varNa is a reward or punishment for karmas done in previous births. The karmas done in previous births affect the guNas associated with the soul. The soul or AtmA is reborn into a varNa that is supposed to be consistent with its guNas. Thus, in this system, the Brahmanas should only be populated by souls that are steeped in sattva guNa; the Kshatriyas, similarly, only by those jIvas possessing AtmAs steeped in rajas; the Vaishyas, similarly, only by those jIvas possessing a mixture of rajas and tamas; and the Shudras, only by those jIvas dominated by tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 14, Verse 14, Krishna says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-14-14.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-14-14.html&lt;/a&gt; (all the verses I am quoting, translations, and commentaries are derived from this same website)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;yadA sattvE pravRuddhe tu pralayam yAti dEha-bhRut tadottama-vidAm lokAn amalAn pratipadyatE&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the embodied being transitions death, predominated by the mode of goodness – at that time, the pure worlds with the highest knowledge are attained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Ramanujacharya explains it,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Lord Krishna explains that when the jIva, or embodied being, is in sattva guNa, or mode of goodness, at the time of death, then numerous blessed regions, where the knowers of AtmA tattva, or knowledge of the immortal soul, reside, are reached. The word amalAn means pure, exempt from blemish, and devoid of ignorance. The understanding is that the fate of a jIva, who dies under the influence of sattva guNa, would be that the next birth would take place in the environment of pious and holy people that have realised AtmA tattva; and so, combined with an inner impulse to pursue this way of life, and with opportunity in abundance, one would continue in sattva guNa, purifying one's existence by performing spiritual activities, until one achieves perfection.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, in 14-15, Krishna says that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;rajasi pralayam gatvA karma-sangiShu jAyatE tathA pralInas tamasi mUDha-yOniShu jAyatE&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Succumbing to death in the mode of passion, one takes birth among those beings attached to fruitful activities; similarly, dying in the mode of ignorance, one takes birth from the womb of an animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Shridhara Swami explains it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Continuing, Lord Krishna explains that the result of raja guNa, or mode of passion, being predominant at the time of death is that the jIva, or embodied being, is born into families that are involved in vigorous activity. Likewise, the result of tama guNa, or mode of ignorance, being predominant at the moment of death is that the jIva is born in the wombs of irrational species as animals.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, Ramanujacharya explains this verse thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Now Lord Krishna explains that when a jIva, or embodied being, dies while in raja guNa, or the mode of passion, one takes birth among those who perform activities out of desire for rewards; and having been born as such, will endeavour mightily to accomplish works that would be rewarded by immense wealth and power, even up unto the heavenly spheres. Similarly, if one dies while under the influence of tama guNa, or the mode of ignorance, then such jIvas will be born from the wombs of animals such as pigs and dogs, where one would be completely incapacitated to perform any activity that would give any spiritual benefit.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise, Acharya Keshava Kashmiri explains this verse thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Lord Krishna states that if death comes upon a jIva, or embodied being, while predisposed to raja guNa, or the mode of passion, then one takes birth next from those who are obsessed to perform actions in anticipation of rewards. Also, a jIva dying while under the influence of tama guNa, or mode of ignorance, is forced to take birth as an animal in the next life.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Shankaracharya explains the verse thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;If he meets death when rajas is predominant, he is born among men, who are attached to action. The “irrational” refers to cattle and the like.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&quot;mUDha-yOnishu&quot; means &quot;womb of irrational being,&quot; i.e., animal.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one's varNa in a future birth (as a sattva-dominant, rajas-dominant, or tamas-dominant soul is determined by the guNa in which one dies. This guNa is the result of one's actions in millions of past births. As is seen in Chapter 18, those who are steeped in sattva guNa are the Brahmana varNa; those who are steeped in rajas guNa are the Kshatriya varNa, and those who are steeped in tamas guNa are the Shudra varNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance, 18-42 says about the Brahmana varNa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;shamO damas tapaha shaucam kshAntir Arjavam Eva ca jnAnam vijnAnam Astikyam brahma-karma svabhAva-jam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The actions of a Brahmana, arising from his own nature, are serenity, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge of the Vedas, wisdom, and firm faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that this arises from birth (&quot;arising from his own nature&quot;), not nurture. This is the link between guNa and varNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why doesn't this system seem to correspond to reality?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, when there is a contradiction, one of the assumptions must be wrong. Maybe the system is wrong?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9778" LastActivityDate="2017-06-27T04:42:07.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19180" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-27T05:13:54.817" Score="6" ViewCount="630" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman was the child of Añjanā and Kesari. Both Anjana and Kesari belonged &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;to the  Vanara clan.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the Varna System mentioned in our scriptures applicable only to human beings or is it applicable to Vanaras as well? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, what is the varna (caste) of Hanuman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise, what is the varna of Jambavan (father of Krishna's third most important wife Jambavathi)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-06-19T15:18:42.083" LastActivityDate="2018-06-19T15:18:42.083" Title="What are the varnas (castes) of Lord Hanuman and Jambavan?" Tags="|hanuman|caste-system|varna|vanaras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19183" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8028" CreationDate="2017-06-27T09:22:05.140" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The closest scripture describing the death of Ekalavya, is in the previous &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07178.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter of Drona Parva&lt;/a&gt; quoted in the question. He was supposedly killed using &lt;strike&gt;unfair&lt;/strike&gt; &lt;strong&gt;tactics&lt;/strong&gt; (i.e. &lt;code&gt;contrivances&lt;/code&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasudeva said ... O Arjuna, for thy good, &lt;strong&gt;with the aid of diverse &lt;em&gt;contrivances&lt;/em&gt; I have slain&lt;/strong&gt;, one after another, Jarasandha and the illustrious ruler of the Chedis and the mighty-armed Nishada of the name of &lt;strong&gt;Ekalavya&lt;/strong&gt;...  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did he look like after being killed &amp;amp; why was he killed, is already present in the Qn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-08-22T07:34:09.053" LastActivityDate="2019-08-22T07:34:09.053" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19184" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19185" CreationDate="2017-06-27T11:54:04.050" Score="2" ViewCount="601" Body="&lt;p&gt;In other religions, they are get to know what they can do and don't during prayer meetings.In Islam most of them perform their Nithya karma without any fail...even if they have doubts they can ask ustad in palli. In Hinduism except Brahmins (minor in numbers), others even don't know their Nithya karma. Even no one is available to guide. It is upto our interest, to read scripture and learn nithyakarma. Is that not strictly mentioned in our scriptures to follow Nithya karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10259" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-06-27T12:14:48.730" LastActivityDate="2017-06-27T12:17:41.697" Title="How to live a life according to our scripture?" Tags="|practice|dharma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2017-06-30T14:16:45.600" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19185" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19184" CreationDate="2017-06-27T12:17:41.697" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedic Nitya karma is for all the Dwijas, they certainly include 3 varnas. In my other answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6667/rules-for-wearing-yagyopavit-by-women-yes-it-is-possible/17134#17134&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;  I have also discussed that even Women are allowed for Vedic nitya karma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedic life involves following the tenets of Vedas which mainly involves fire worship and other Vedic karmas. Further, Samskaras are also part of Vedic life. Along with that one has to contemplate on the supreme lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our Vedic rishis and maharshis have set an example for us towards leading a life according to Vedic injunctions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before marriage the bachelor learns the Vedas and after marriage continues to follow the Vedic life along with the spouse which involves agni upasana (agni hotra) and other nitya karmas like sandhya vandana, bali vishvedeva, tarpanam etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AykAshramyam tvacAryA: pratyakshavidhAnAt gArhasthasya&lt;/strong&gt; | (Apasthamba&#xA;  Sutram)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - There is only one Ashrama and that is Grahastha dharma.&#xA;  Thus, the only Ashrama advocated by the vedAs is the eternal&#xA;  gArhastyAshramam and none other. This is the reason why all our seers&#xA;  (cause for our gotrAs) like atri , vasishta ,agastya , bharadvAja ,etc&#xA;  led a lifestyle of jaDa, maravuri, living with consort in the forest,&#xA;  doing penance, performing daily rituals (nitya karmA) , upAsana&#xA;  (worship) of agni , yagnyA and chanting of vedAs until their last&#xA;  breath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It should be understood that there is no virtue that is superior to&#xA;  &quot;Daampatya-dharma’, the path of married life. Every one should follow&#xA;  this advice of wisdom-Incarnate throughout their life time as wedlock&#xA;  is the way to salvation. One can never experience the fruit of&#xA;  creation without Wedlock. Male and Female species in creation are&#xA;  complementary to each other. One can become whole and complete only&#xA;  after Wedlock. Without Wedlock neither man nor woman can attain&#xA;  fulfillment- they will remain incomplete.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The cause of this universe and the basis for all existence is the&#xA;  penance of Brahman. The result of unswerving penance is knowledge&#xA;  (vidya), gnyAnam , satyam (truth) , sukham (Happiness). This world,&#xA;  created by, and resulting from unswerving penance, has these aspects&#xA;  of form: vidyArUpam , gnyAnarUpam , satyarUpam , sukharUpam . The same&#xA;  is bestowed upon us by the vedAs. Vedas have provided a platform for&#xA;  every soul (being in their respective states) to experience this&#xA;  'Brahman'. ( the ultimate power)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The main objective of all the Vedas is ‘garhastyashrama’ i.e, family&#xA;  life (dampatya). ‘Brahmacharyam’ is instrumental and the preliminary&#xA;  practice for ‘garhastyashram’. Brahmacharyam is the life of Veda&#xA;  adyayanam, enjoying all sorts of happiness, well being, etc i.e.&#xA;  Shastric veda adyayanam is brahmacharyam. Brahmacharyam is also known&#xA;  as ‘garhasyta sadhanam’ as it is preliminary and part of the&#xA;  garhastyashramam referred to in the Vedas. Brahmacharyam which is the&#xA;  life of Veda adyayanam and Gayathri upasana is applicable for all,&#xA;  irrespective of their sex and creed. The regulated proper method of&#xA;  mastering Vedas etc., helps one lead Dhampathya life successfully.&#xA;  This is applicable to woman also. Women are entitled to all ceremonies&#xA;  like Upanayanam, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mastering the Vedas as ordained is itself a Tapas (Penance). It must&#xA;  be noted that Karma (or action) and Jnana (or knowledge) are not two&#xA;  separate entities. Therefore there is no separate path for Jnanamarga.&#xA;  There is only one path, and that is Vedamarga, the path of the Vedas.&#xA;  Its culmination is in Dhampathya life. The Maharshi couple led the&#xA;  Dhampathya life throughout their lives. Remaining in that Dhampathya,&#xA;  one should desire good progeny, beget ideal children and bring them up&#xA;  with great care. They are the true wealth for ‘the here’ and ‘the&#xA;  hereafter.’ Immortals are fortunate enough to hear the lisping of&#xA;  their children. In a sense, one can attain immortality, if, being of&#xA;  good character, one is born as his/her own progeny. The Vedas state&#xA;  this explicitly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a man and a woman of pure conduct, bound by mutual love,&#xA;  consummate their marriage, all elements like form, etc., get totally&#xA;  absorbed in the fire of their union. This absorption creates an&#xA;  intoxicating light radiating from them. When this intoxicating light&#xA;  is also absorbed, Ananda, or Bliss arises and shines forth. The light&#xA;  is absorbed in itself, and Ananda shines. From that, issues forth a&#xA;  child, the sum total of all elements. The Maharishis advised- Always&#xA;  live in the state of Vedic Dampatya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahashakthi who created the whole universe, laid down the vedic&#xA;  path so that all mankind could live happily enjoying all comforts-&#xA;  temporal and spiritual. The Vedic path is nothing but the life lived&#xA;  by the Maharshis: the eternal dhampathya life enjoined by the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“&lt;strong&gt;uthishtatha maaswapta agni michadhvam bharataaha&lt;/strong&gt;” (YV)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This means “ O Bharathiyas! Awake and yearn for fire”, Bha in Sanskrit&#xA;  means light. One who worships light is a Bharateeya. That India is&#xA;  called Bharat clearly conveys that all Indians were following the&#xA;  Vedas and leading a life as prescribed by the Vedas. It extols all to&#xA;  worship fire which is the primordial energy behind all creation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedic path refers to the three stages of a person:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The initial stage, which is Brahmacharya: the study and learning of&#xA;  Vedas and Gayathri Upasana, and worship of Agni through oblations&#xA;  twice a day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The next stage is the Grihastashrama (getting into marital life) and&#xA;  offering oblations to Agni by performing Agni upasana , Yagas , etc.&#xA;  along with the life partner which are meant for the evolution of one’s&#xA;  self in the spiritual realm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The final stage is offering one’s body after death to the Agni that&#xA;  was worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It should be understood that vanaprastha is the continuation of&#xA;  grahastha stage after discharging the duties and retiring along with&#xA;  the wife and continuing agni upasana, penance, and nitya karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To lead a life as prescribed by the Vedas, here is the system to be&#xA;  followed by one and all:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Initiation into Gayathri Upasana Study of the Vedas or understanding&#xA;  the messages given in them. Agni upasana as part of Gayathri Upasana&#xA;  and vedic study (BRAHMACHARYA). Getting into married life and&#xA;  continuing Agni Worship as a couple – Grahastha Dharma. Offering one’s&#xA;  body in the fire worshipped by the couple (The concept behind the&#xA;  ritual followed for cremation in the present day)&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sridevinatha.org/vedic.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-27T12:17:41.697" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19186" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19856" CreationDate="2017-06-27T12:21:38.053" Score="9" ViewCount="2943" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shantanu was king of Hastinapura. So, clearly, he is Kshatriya by both caste and Varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to Satyavati, she was the daughter of Chedi king Vasu and cursed apsara-turned-fish Adrika and brought up as the adopted daughter of a fisherman-chieftain Dusharaj on the banks of the river Yamuna. So, Satyavati is Kshatriya by Varna and non-Kshatriya by caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the above two statements are true, then their marriage is inter-caste. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Otherwise, how can they belong to the same caste?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-01-14T09:17:46.777" LastActivityDate="2022-01-14T09:17:46.777" Title="Did Satyavati and Shantanu belong to same caste?" Tags="|mahabharata|caste-system|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="17" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19187" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18394" CreationDate="2017-06-27T13:01:23.697" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11024.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Section 25 of Stri-Parva&lt;/a&gt; gives details of Gandhari's curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Gandhari said, ‘The Pandavas and the Dhartarashtras, O Krishna, have&#xA;both been burnt. Whilst they were thus being exterminated, O&#xA;Janardana, why wert thou indifferent to them? Thou wert competent to&#xA;prevent the slaughter, for thou hast a large number of followers and a&#xA;vast force.&lt;/strong&gt; Thou hadst eloquence, and thou hadst the power (for&#xA;bringing about peace). &lt;strong&gt;Since deliberately, O slayer of Madhu, thou&#xA;wert indifferent to this universal carnage, therefore, O mighty-armed&#xA;one, thou shouldst reap the fruit of this act.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the little merit I have acquired through waiting dutifully on my&#xA;husband, by that merit so difficult to attain, I shall curse thee, O&#xA;wielder of the discus and the mace! &lt;strong&gt;Since thou wert indifferent to the&#xA;Kurus and the Pandavas whilst they slew each other, therefore, O&#xA;Govinda, thou shalt be the slayer of thy own kinsmen!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the thirty-sixth year from this, O slayer of Madhu, thou shalt,&#xA;after causing the slaughter of thy kinsmen and friends and sons,&#xA;perish by disgusting means in the wilderness. The ladies of thy race,&#xA;deprived of sons, kinsmen, and friends, shall weep and cry even as&#xA;these ladies of the Bharata race!’&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Section I of the Mausala Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; gives details of the sages curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rishis that cursed Samba were Vishwamitra Kanva and Narada. Samba and his friends ridiculed the rishis and they cursed the boys in anger.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaishampayana continued: &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;One day, the Vrishni heroes numbering&#xA;Sarana amongst them, saw Vishvamitra and Kanwa and Narada arrived at&#xA;Dwaraka.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Afflicted by the rod of chastisement wielded by the&#xA;deities, &lt;strong&gt;those heroes, causing Samva to be disguised like a woman,&#xA;approached those ascetics and said, ‘This one is the wife of Vabhru of&#xA;immeasurable energy who is desirous of having a son. Ye Rishis, do you&#xA;know for certain what this one will bring forth?’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three rishis, annoyed at the boys trying to decieve them thus curse them as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Hear now, O king, what those ascetics, attempted to be thus deceived,&#xA;said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;‘This heir of Vasudeva, by name Samva, will bring forth a&#xA;fierce iron bolt for the destruction of the Vrishnis and the&#xA;Andhakas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ye wicked and cruel ones, intoxicated with pride,&#xA;through that iron bolt ye will become the exterminators of your race&#xA;with the exception of Rama and Janarddana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The blessed hero armed with the plough will enter the ocean, casting off his body, while a hunter of the name of Jara will pierce the&#xA;high-souled Krishna while lying on the ground.’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Endeavoured to be deceived by those wicked ones, those ascetics, with&#xA;eyes red in wrath, looked at each other and uttered those words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this Samba gives birth to an iron pestle. Ugrasena the old king, being terrified of the consequences orders the pestle to be ground into powder and thrown into the sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Section III&lt;/a&gt; of the same parva details how Yadu race exterminates itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the Andhakas and the Bhojas, the Saineyas and the Vrishnis, urged&#xA;by Time, struck one another in that fearful mêlée. Indeed, O king,&#xA;whoever amongst them took up in wrath a few blades of the Eraka grass,&#xA;these, in his hands, became soon converted into a thunderbolt, O&#xA;puissant one. &lt;strong&gt;Every blade of grass there was seen to be converted&#xA;into a terrible iron bolt. All this, know, O king, was due to the&#xA;curse denounced by Brahmanas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same Section describes the fulfillment of Gandhari's curse, that Krishna shall slay his own children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The delighter of the Yadus, beholding his own son, and the son of Sini&#xA;too, slain, took up, in wrath, a handful of the Eraka grass that grew&#xA;there. That handful of grass became a terrible bolt of iron endued&#xA;with the energy of the thunderbolt. &lt;strong&gt;With it Krishna slew all those&#xA;that came before him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Section IV&lt;/a&gt; details how Krishna and Balarama gave up their incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Proceeding then to the forest, Keshava beheld Rama sitting in a&#xA;solitary spot thereof.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also saw that Rama had set himself to Yoga and that from out his&#xA;mouth was issuing a mighty snake. The colour of that snake was white.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Leaving the human body (in which he had dwelt so long), that high-souled naga of a 1,000 heads and having a form as large as that&#xA;of a mountain, endued besides with red eyes, proceeded along that way&#xA;which led to the ocean.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here before leaving his incarnation Krishna even thinks about Gandhari's curse. He meets his end in the forest just as Gandhari had cursed &amp;quot;you will perish in the wilderness&amp;quot;. We can also see that he departs in the same way as the sages cursed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;After his brother had thus departed from the (human) world, Vasudeva of celestial vision, who was fully acquainted with the end of&#xA;all things, wandered for some time in that lonely forest&#xA;thoughtfully.&lt;/strong&gt; Endued with great energy he then sat down on the bare&#xA;earth. &lt;strong&gt;He had thought before this of everything that had been&#xA;fore-shadowed by the words uttered by Gandhari in former days.&lt;/strong&gt; He&#xA;also recollected the words that Durvasas had spoken at the time his&#xA;body was smeared by that Rishi with the remnant of the Payasa he had&#xA;eaten (while a guest at Krishna’s house). The high-souled one,&#xA;thinking of the destruction of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas, as also&#xA;of the previous slaughter of the Kurus, concluded that the hour (for&#xA;his own departure from the world) had come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;A fierce hunter of the name of Jara then came there, desirous of deer. The hunter, mistaking Keshava, who was stretched on the earth in&#xA;high Yoga, for a deer, pierced him at the heel with a shaft and&#xA;quickly came to that spot for capturing his prey.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as to why two curses it does not say but I'm giving my opinion based answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Gandhari curses Krishna this is what he says in reply.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaishampayana continued, &amp;quot;Hearing these words, the high-souled&#xA;Vasudeva, addressing the venerable Gandhari, said unto her these&#xA;words, with a faint smile, &lt;strong&gt;‘There is none in the world, save myself,&#xA;that is capable of exterminating the Vrishnis. I know this well. I am&#xA;endeavouring to bring it about. In uttering this curse, O thou of&#xA;excellent vows, thou hast aided me in the accomplishment of that task.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;The Vrishnis are incapable of being slain by others, be they human&#xA;beings or gods or Danavas. The Yadavas, therefore shall fall by one&#xA;another’s hand.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says that he is 'endeavouring' or trying to bring about the destruction of his own race. And he also says that Gandhari has 'aided' or helped him in the accomplishment of that task.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gitabase.com/eng/SB/11/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam Canto 11 Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt; there is this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krsna thought, “No outside force could ever bring about the&#xA;defeat of this family, the Yadu dynasty, whose members have always&#xA;been fully surrendered to Me and are unrestricted in their opulence.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;But if I inspire a quarrel within the dynasty, that quarrel will act&#xA;just like a fire created from the friction of bamboo in a grove, and&#xA;then I shall achieve My real purpose and return to My eternal abode.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My dear King Pariksit, when the supreme almighty Lord, whose desire&#xA;always comes to pass, had thus made up His mind, He withdrew His own&#xA;family on the pretext of a curse spoken by an assembly of brahmanas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gandhari's curse and the words spoken by her gave him an idea and that was to eliminate his race through a curse that creates a fight amongst his family. Gandhari also says that he he shall cause slaughter of his family which means both in the real sense where Krishna physically kills his children and in the causative sense as well where Krishna ends his family through the sages' curses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Narayana says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c039.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shanti Parva&lt;/a&gt; here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I am, O Narada, the Doer, I am Cause, and I am Effect.&lt;/strong&gt; I am the&#xA;sum-total of all living creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T18:39:17.790" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19189" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17146" CreationDate="2017-06-27T14:47:38.307" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This section of the &lt;strong&gt;Sambhava Parva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in the &lt;strong&gt;Adi-Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt; narrates how/why Dhritarashtra had the power of 10,000 elephants. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is known that Vyasa was the father of Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura. After Vyasa begets a child on Ambalika, Satyavati asks him how the child will be and what accomplishments he will possess. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Rishi, from desire of accomplishing his mother's wishes, however&#xA;  knew her. But the latter, struck with fear, opened not her eyes even&#xA;  once to look at him.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And when Vyasa came out, he was met by his mother, who asked him,&#xA;  'Shall the princess have an accomplished son?'&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hearing her, he replied, 'The son of the princess she will bring forth&#xA;  shall be equal in might unto ten thousand elephants.&lt;/strong&gt; He will be an&#xA;  illustrious royal sage, possessed of great learning and intelligence&#xA;  and energy. The high-souled one shall have in his time a century of&#xA;  sons. But from the fault of his mother he shall be blind.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So you could say that Vyasa gave this power to Dhritarashtra as a boon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-06-27T14:47:38.307" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19190" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15246" CreationDate="2017-06-27T15:30:22.370" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/mbtntrans/mbtn_dhr_chapter11.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This section of the Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, which is a commentary on the Mahabharata by Madhavacharya gives an account of Bhishma's previous birth as Vasu Dyu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TLDR; The Karmic reason why Bhishma had to suffer a death on a bed of arrows is because in his previous life as Vasu Dyu he stole Vasistha's cow for his wife Vaaranagi and was cursed by Vasistha/Brahma for it.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dyu gets cursed by Brahma (who was in Sage Vasistha's body) for stealing the cow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tayA dyu nAmA sa vasuH prachoditaH bhrAtR^i snehAt saptabhiH anvitaH&#xA;  aparaiH  |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;babandha tAM gAm atha tAn shashApa  vasishhTha saMsthaH kamala&#xA;  udbhavaH prabhuH  || 11 .22||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then dyu named vasu, one of the eight vasu-s, instigated thus by his&#xA;  wife, and accompanied by the other seven vasu-s, went to the hermitage&#xA;  of vashiShTa and tried to tether that sage’s divine cow nandini. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, brahma abiding in the form of sage vashiSTha hurled a curse at&#xA;  them who are trying to make away with the cow. [11-22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;adharma vR^ittAH pratiyAta mAnushhIM yoniM drutaM yat kR^ite sarva eva&#xA;  |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;dharmAt chyutAH sa tathA ashhTa aayur ApyatA manye punaH xipram ato&#xA;  vimoxyatha  || 11 .23||&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“You who resorted to tread the path of unrighteousness shall take&#xA;  birth in human wombs... and, for which dyu named vasu you all have&#xA;  undertaken this unrighteous deed, that vasu, namely dyu, shall get the&#xA;  lifespan of eight people in his human life... and others discard their&#xA;  bodies as soon as they take birth...” so cursed brahma... [11-23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also curses Dyu's wife Varaangi to be reborn as Amba/Shikhandi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;prachodayAmAsa cha yA ku mArge patiM hi sA.amba iti nareshhu jAtA  |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;abhartR^ikA pu.mstva samAshrayeNa patyuH mR^itau kAraNatvaM vrajeta &#xA;  || 11 .24||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“And she who instigated her husband into this wrong path, that&#xA;  varaangi, the wife of dyu, shall take birth in humans by the name of&#xA;  amba... she becomes destitute of a husband, and by bracing herself to&#xA;  maleness she becomes the cause for the death of her husband... [11-24]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And finally there's this additional verse where Dyu is doomed to remain a celibate and die at the hands of his wife suffering eight deaths in agony on a bed of arrows. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;bhavatu asau brahma charya eka nishhThaH mahAn virodhaH cha tayoH&#xA;  bhaveta  |&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sa garbha vAsa ashhTaka duHkham eva  samApnutAM shara talpe shayAnaH &#xA;  || 11 .25||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&gt; mR^iti ashhTakotthAm api vedanAM saH prApnotu shastraiH bahudhA&#xA;  nikR^ittaH  | [11-26 a]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“And he will be steadfast in his celibacy, [i.e. void of marital&#xA;  bliss...] and there will bitter animosity between those two, himself&#xA;  and his wife, namely dyu and varaangi, &lt;strong&gt;in the forthcoming births...&#xA;  and he undergoes the agony of eight births – aShTa garbha vaasa&#xA;  duHkham – enceinte; and diversly gashed with weapons he even undergoes&#xA;  the agony of eight deaths – all while he is laid up on the bed of&#xA;  arrows... [11-25, 26 a]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-06-27T15:30:22.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19191" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19186" CreationDate="2017-06-27T15:38:13.223" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;i don't see a clear difference here between varna and caste here. the vedas are filled with examples of people of all castes/varnas being cursed into abominable life forms but they always kept their caste. in fact, the higher caste personality being forced to hang out with the lower caste society was the pain that came with the curse.[Ref: Society and Religion: From Rugveda to Puranas&#xA;By Jayant Gadkari]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remember, Sage Parashar( the sage who could look into the skies and mentally calculate your Kundali in his mind and give perfect astro-predictions) saw Satyavati, he decided to produce Vyas with her because of her high caste(varna) hidden behind her fisher-women body smell.[Ref :Bhattacharya, Pradip (May–June 2004). &quot;Of Kunti and Satyawati: Sexually Assertive Women of the Mahabharata&quot;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10285" LastEditorUserId="10285" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T18:16:47.913" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T18:16:47.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19195" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19186" CreationDate="2017-06-28T00:54:12.340" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is allowed for a female to marry a male of a higher caste as per the Manusmriti. It is not allowed for a female to marry into a lower caste and thereby reduce her caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;12&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;For the first marriage of twice-born&#xA;  men (wives) of equal caste are recommended; but&#xA;  for those who through desire proceed (to marry again)&#xA;  the following females, (chosen) according to the (direct)&#xA;  order (of the castes), are most approved.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;It is declared that a Sudra woman alone (can be) the wife of&#xA;  a Sudra, she and one of his own caste (the wives) of a&#xA;  Vaisya, those two and one of his own caste (the wives)&#xA;  of a Kshatriya, those three and one of his own caste (the&#xA;  wives) of a Brahmana. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it was valid for Draupadi (a Kshatriya) to marry those who were considered Brahmins (and there are many such cases of Sages marrying daughters of Kings).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly it was considered valid for Satyavati (as long as she's not a Brahmin) to marry Shantanu, a Kshatriya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: essentially any translation of Manusmriti. I used &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindubooks.org/manusmriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hindubooks.org/manusmriti.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastEditorUserId="4133" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T02:40:43.937" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T02:40:43.937" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19196" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19186" CreationDate="2017-06-28T02:39:23.667" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Satyavati was born to a King, so she was Kshatriya woman brought up by a fisherman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyavati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Daughter of the Chedi king Vasu (also known as Uparichara Vasu) and a&#xA;  cursed apsara (celestial nymph)-turned-fish Adrika, Satyavati was&#xA;  brought up as a commoner – the adopted daughter of a&#xA;  fisherman-chieftain Dusharaj(who was also a ferryman) on the banks of&#xA;  the river Yamuna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T02:39:23.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19198" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19200" CreationDate="2017-06-28T05:45:26.080" Score="7" ViewCount="623" Body="&lt;p&gt;There &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/srividya.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;is a famous saying&lt;/a&gt; associated with Sri Vidya which goes like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Your head can be given, your soul can be given but the Shodashi&#xA;  Vidya of the Devi can not be given&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here reference is to a powerful and secret mantra of Mother Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recently, i have found the original sloka,  translation of which is the above saying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AsyA MahAtyamtulam Jihvakotisatairapi | Vaktum Na Sakyate Devi Kim&#xA;  Punah Panchabhinarmukhaih || Api Priyatamam Deyam SutadAradhanAdhikam&#xA;  | &lt;strong&gt;Rajyam Deyam Siro Deyam Na Deyo ShodhashAkshari ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva says to Devi] Its unmatched greatness can not be described&#xA;  even if someone has hundred crores of tongues. How can my five faces &#xA;  describe its greatness then? &lt;strong&gt;The most loved objects of someone, son,&#xA;  wife, wealth, kingdom and even one's head can be given, but&#xA;  shodakshari can't be given&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By studying the verses that are found along with these verses, i am guessing that the verses are from one of the Yamala Texts (like Rudra Yamala, Brahma Yamala, Vishnu Yamala etc). Or it can be present in some other Agamas as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question- Which Agama is the source of the verses in question?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T06:00:16.640" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T05:12:45.330" Title="What is scriptural source of the verse whose translation is &quot; Your head can be given, ..but the Shodashi Vidya of the Devi can not be given&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|agamas|shloka|sri-vidya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19199" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19198" CreationDate="2017-06-28T06:14:09.023" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The closest verse I could find is the last verse of the Samayachara Tantra, quoted on page 43 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=Lcm7AAAAIAAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PA43&amp;amp;ots=NX6FGXkIdQ&amp;amp;dq=%22rajyam%20deyam%22&amp;amp;pg=PA43#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rajyam deyam siro deyam na deyam&lt;/strong&gt; tantram adbhutam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  shadamnayeshu kathitam tantram paramadurlabham. &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  Yad idante vararohe maya sarva (sic) prakasitam &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  yatha (sic) gopyam ca subhage matrijarapadam yatha. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Iti (sic) Srisamayacaryatantre (sic) Haragaurisamvade caturdasu- &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    patalah. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what it says is that one should rather give up one's kingdom and head than give up &quot;this wonderful Tantra&quot;, not the Shodashakshari mantra.  But considering that the Samayachara Tantra is part of the Sri Vidya tradition, it likely contains the Shodakashari mantra, so this admonition would apply to that too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T06:14:09.023" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19200" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19198" CreationDate="2017-06-28T06:25:20.350" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The second half of this sloka is the tenth sloka of the Lalitatrishati stotra, in the Lalitopakhyana part of the Brahmanda Purana. This occurs before the actual stotra, when Sri Hayagriva meditates upon Lalitambika and Kameshvara so that he can impart the Trishati to Agastya who has been waiting for three years in the same position. In regard to what is to be imparted, the quoted sloka was given as a command from Devi Lalitambika to Hayagriva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Devi Uvacha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashvananaavayoh Pritih Shaastra Vishvaasine Tvayi|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Rajyam Deyam Shiro Deyam Na Deyaa Shodashakshari&lt;/strong&gt; ||10||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Oh Hayagriva, we (Kameshvara and myself) are pleased with you, the repository of Scripture. A Kingdom can be given, your head can be given, but the Shodashakshari mantra is not to be given.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So. there is a scriptural source for the actual injunction, but I am not sure of the source of the dialogue between the divine couple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T05:12:45.330" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T05:12:45.330" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19201" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-28T07:01:28.987" Score="7" ViewCount="2147" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is already a question about the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/158/what-is-the-significance-of-the-swastika&quot;&gt;significance of the swastika&lt;/a&gt; and Pandya's answer describes it in detail, but one part of it says :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Note: only right Swastika is almost used and reverse (left) Swastika is believed inauspicious sometimes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have also heard this too. Right swastika is this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qkksc.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qkksc.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And this is the left swastika/mirrored image swastika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JPsI6.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/JPsI6.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any indication in scripture itself that what we call the mirrored image swastika is inauspicious or forbidden?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T07:16:18.877" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T08:09:48.960" Title="Is the mirrored image Swastika forbidden or inauspicious?" Tags="|scripture|symbolism|symbols|resource|swastika|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19202" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19239" CreationDate="2017-06-28T07:50:17.773" Score="9" ViewCount="313" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the pre-historic time, India is known for the spiritual prosperity. No where in the planet produced this many rishis, Yogi's, jnani's. From the material perspective we were backward. There were theories that India was the richest economy before outsiders arrive here. But still we were not able to guard our wealth. We have yajnas for creating material well beings but still we were not able to achieve the wealth that is achieved in West. Even without vedas, other countries were able to progress materially. But when it comes to inner evolution/spiritual progress, Indians are much ahead of them. In every century we are producing numerous enlightened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this show that Vedas objective is spiritual growth not material growth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10259" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T08:16:55.627" LastActivityDate="2021-05-19T03:23:33.390" Title="Is the objective of vedas spiritual prosperity or material prosperity?" Tags="|vedas|india|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19203" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19201" CreationDate="2017-06-28T07:51:23.627" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Any form of Swastika or its mirror image cannot be looked upon as inauspicious. This symbol is found in many of ancient civilizations in different forms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Eastern religions like Buddhism which are close to Hinduism also it is used as a sign of auspiciousness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In various civilizations across the world. Right, left, and tilted forms of swastika are used widely. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism also there is no reference of any swastika being inauspicious. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below are some of the ancient forms of swastika used in various places of the world. All of them are used as symbol of auspiciousness. Especially in Buddhism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Indus Valley civilization also there is one ancient reverse swastika mark which suggests its association with Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though in the present day hinduism and Jainism the mirror image is rarely used. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Image source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indus Valley Swastika &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1rQEB.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1rQEB.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Indus Valley Swastika&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Byzantine Swastika &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IB3I5m.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IB3I5m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Byzantine Swastika&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Japanese Swastika &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IEOjBm.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IEOjBm.png&quot; alt=&quot;Japanese Swastika&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ethiopian Swastika &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NEjUEm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NEjUEm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Ethiopian Swastika&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Lanka Swastika &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/G37FR.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/G37FR.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Sri Lanka Swastika&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Greek Swastika &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2mJBOl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2mJBOl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Greek Swastika&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T08:09:48.960" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T08:09:48.960" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19206" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-28T09:29:01.453" Score="6" ViewCount="227" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the important worship forms of the Vaishnava are ShaligrAmas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I am asking this question because they are not normal stones which are used for idols. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Actually, these are the fossilized shells of extinct species of marine animals. (marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is it allowed in general for hindus to worship fossils (dead objects) ?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any reference of such fossils worship in ancient scriptures other than shaligrama? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On what basis are these included in the mainstream worship? what is its significance?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T17:17:35.933" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T17:17:35.933" Title="What is the reason behind ShaligrAma worship?" Tags="|worship|vaishnavism|shaligrama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19207" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19209" CreationDate="2017-06-28T09:32:35.653" Score="5" ViewCount="57439" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am doing Lord Hanuman's fast (vrata) since long. I know some rules of fast but day by day new rules I am hearing by different persons (don't know how much they are currect). Here are rules which I use to follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I eat meal at evening or night (one time a day).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As per my knowledge, taking service or help from a lady is forbidden.&#xA;That's why, I don't ask my mother to prepare meal for me on Tuesday. I&#xA;prepare it by myself. But my mother says it's fine if she will make&#xA;meal for you because Hanuman ji also used to eat meal prepared by his&#xA;mother(Anjana). So mother can cook food. But still I prepare by myself&#xA;because I am not clear on this point, Why taking unnecessary risk.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I use to do Kathaa at evening. In morning I do nothing. Mother told&#xA;me earlier that we should not pray to Lord Hanuman in morning because&#xA;in morning he himself busy in praying Lord Rama. So our prayer might&#xA;disturb him. This is the reason we visit Hanuman's temple in&#xA;evening instead of morning (like others Lords) to offer food (&lt;em&gt;Boondi&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;as &lt;em&gt;prashad&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this is the things that I use to take care (don't know how much I am right on those points). But I have heard some other rules also by some persons like&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One said that in Lord Hanuman's fast we can't sleep on bed but&#xA;instead we have to sleep on floor. He said there are some wreslers&#xA;live near his house who also use to do Hanuman's fast and they don't&#xA;sleep on bed on Tuesday.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In hurry of going to work, sometimes I don't drink water in morning. And&#xA;in office I don't drink water (just for extra care). So like that I&#xA;only drink water after reaching home in evening (more like night)&#xA;after doing kathaa. But someone says if I won't drink water till&#xA;night then it will become roza (Muslim's fast) instead. It will no&#xA;longer be a Lord Human's fast.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;My mother says it is compulsary to have bath on next day of fast so&#xA;the fast can be complete. As per my understanding, bathing is&#xA;necessary on starting fast in morning but it is also mandatory to&#xA;have bath on next day to end a fast? I am not sure.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not sure how much these points are correct. Please let me know all mandatory rules (without whome fast can't be complete) of Lord Hanuman's fast.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T09:47:55.630" LastActivityDate="2019-10-15T20:10:56.953" Title="Things that we need to take care on Lord Hanuman's fast" Tags="|hanuman|fasting|vrata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19208" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-28T10:05:55.447" Score="3" ViewCount="3868" Body="&lt;p&gt;In griha pravesh(house warming ceremony) for new house I always heard about doing a Satyanarayana Puja. But why? Why only Satyanarayan Puja and is there any significance over any other type of puja? Is it mentioned in any scripture that we should do Satyanarayana Puja for griha pravesh? Is there any story behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T12:36:46.243" LastActivityDate="2019-05-03T08:02:40.560" Title="Why Satyanarayan Puja is preferred for griha pravesh (house warming ceremony)?" Tags="|scripture|vishnu|rituals|resource|satyanarayana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19209" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19207" CreationDate="2017-06-28T10:11:50.500" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your mother is right about almost every point she told you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I eat meal at one time a day.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is necessary to eat food on Hanuman ji's fast. You can eat fruits through out the day as Hanuman ji was a fruitarian himself. Make sure that before the dinner you offer some sweet to Shri Raam ji and Hanuman ji.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Taking service or help from a lady is forbidden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, it is not, especially when the woman is your mother. You can eat food she makes for you. On the day of vrata, treat as if your body is home for Hanuman ji and she is Maata Anjana. The only prohibition is that you must not consort any girl, not have ill thoughts about any woman, as Hanuman ji was a celibate(&lt;em&gt;brahmachaari&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I do Kathaa at evening. In morning I do nothing. Mother told&#xA;     me earlier that we should not pray to Lord Hanuman in morning because&#xA;     in morning he himself busy in praying Lord Rama. So our prayer might&#xA;     disturb him. This is the reason we visit Hanuman's temple in&#xA;     evening instead of morning (like others Lords) to offer food (&lt;em&gt;Boondi&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;     as &lt;em&gt;prashad&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Try reading &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramcharitmanas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Raamcharitmaanas&lt;/a&gt; during the day. In the evening you can pray by &#xA;reading &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundara_Kanda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sundarkaand&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_axSlApc98&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ram Raksha Strotam&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AETFvQonfV8&amp;amp;list=PLFkMg1BXn_2NYpWpAI2hRdz9Q9U_ry5nI&amp;amp;index=4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hanuman Chalisa&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeaVRC453M0&amp;amp;list=PLFkMg1BXn_2NYpWpAI2hRdz9Q9U_ry5nI&amp;amp;index=20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hanumanashtak&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Go to a Hanuman temple, offer him fruits, boondi and then meditate upon Raam ji.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One said that in Lord Hanuman's fast we can't sleep on bed but&#xA;     instead we have to sleep on floor. He said there are some wrestlers&#xA;     live near his house who also use to do Hanuman's fast and they don't&#xA;     sleep on bed on Tuesday.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is not necessary, fast is not meant to cause discomfort but release all the tension in the body the doing a cleansing, both a physiological and spiritual level. One thing is that, you should try to sleep during the day, but do not force it upon you, if you do a sleep during meditating upon Lord Rama, it is ok. Raam ji forgives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In hurry of going to work, sometimes I don't drink water in morning. And&#xA;     in office I don't drink water (just for extra care).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can drink water, eat fruits. Remember, this fast is not the &lt;em&gt;nirjala&lt;/em&gt; fast, but a path for setting a path of enlightenment. This fast will help you to get rid of any future &lt;em&gt;kasht&lt;/em&gt; of life. Don't over-burden your conscience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My mother says it is compulsory to have bath on next day of fast so&#xA;     the fast can be complete. As per my understanding, bathing is&#xA;     necessary on starting fast in morning but it is also mandatory to&#xA;     have bath on next day to end a fast? I am not sure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is right, you should take bath on the Tuesday morning, then if you, chant &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shri_Ramachandra_Kripalu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Raam stuti&lt;/a&gt;. And on the next day, bathing is necessary.&#xA;Just keep chanting Raam naam in everything you do.&lt;br&gt;&#xA; &lt;em&gt;tera, Raam ji karenge beda paar, udaasi mann kaahe ko kare&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;source: I had taken Hanuman ji's fast as told by my family &lt;em&gt;Pundit&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="314" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T10:17:48.867" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T10:17:48.867" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19210" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19202" CreationDate="2017-06-28T13:04:53.100" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The main four objectives of Hindu way of life are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dharma (righteousness, morality)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Artha (prosperity, wealth)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kama (pleasures, marital bliss etc)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moksha (spiritual pursuit)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From this, it can be understood that materialistic prosperity is not something opposed to spiritual prosperity. They both can coexist in the Vedic way of life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism also does not preach extreme materialism like lokayata system or extreme nihilism like that of the buddhist sects. There is balance among these in the Vedic life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the reason these are four important points of our lives. Righteousness is the most important value. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;India was once very rich in both wealth and spirituality. But later on people started thinking wealth and power as evil and poverty as saintly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was reason for decline in the last 1000 years or so. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Talking about the Vedas, we find both materialistic and spiritualist subjects and hence they are not opposed to each other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are n number of Vedic hymns which prays for wealth, affluence, cattle, domestic pleasures, spouse, progeny, healthiness, longevity, victory, fame etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the same time there are also portions which talk of spiritual progress and inward journey towards the own self. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the examples of hymns for materialistic prosperity are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rig Veda &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Suktam (hymn for abundance and affluence)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/athar/avbook03.asp#av03017&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hymn 17: A farmer's song and prayer to speed the plough&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/athar/avbook03.asp#av03015&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hymn 15: A merchant's prayer for success in his business&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/athar/avbook04.asp#av04033&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hymn 33: A prayer to Agni for protection and prosperity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/athar/avbook05.asp#av05004&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hymn 4: A charm against fever and other ailments&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/athar/avbook07.asp#av07017&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hymn 17: A prayer for wealth and children&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same way there are verses and hymns for related to spirituality as well. If materialistic prosperity is obtained and enjoyed in a righteous way then there is nothing wrong about it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T13:04:53.100" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19212" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19841" CreationDate="2017-06-28T14:03:03.627" Score="6" ViewCount="8082" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know whether Bipodtarini puja observed outside Bengal or not. Some Hindu Bengalis also not follow this. I have a question on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question: In this puja who observe fast are have to eat 13 luchi( Puri) at a time and nothing else on the day. From where this ritual came?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T15:25:50.117" Title="Bipodtarini puja rituals" Tags="|rituals|puja|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19213" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19249" CreationDate="2017-06-28T15:19:52.667" Score="4" ViewCount="1031" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.news18.com/news/politics/vedas-order-killing-of-sinners-who-slaughter-cows-says-rss-mouthpiece-1153353.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;New18&lt;/a&gt; quotes from RSS Panchjanya Magazine:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vedas order killing of the sinner who kills a cow. Cow slaughter is an issue of honour for Hindus. The Dadri victim perhaps slaughtered a cow under the influence of bad deeds.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do the &quot;Vedas order killing of the sinner who kills a cow&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5395" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-06-28T15:51:00.230" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T16:50:59.107" Title="Do the Vedas order killing of the &quot;sinner&quot; who kills a cow?" Tags="|vedas|cows|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19214" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19206" CreationDate="2017-06-28T15:27:13.040" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it is allowed for Hindus to worship Shaligrama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adishankaracharya referenced the Shaligrama being the abode of Vishnu twice. Once in in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79780.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sixth Anuvaka of Taittirya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the śruti declares that the hridaya-ākāśa, the bright space in the&#xA;heart, is the proper place for the contemplation and immediate&#xA;perception of that Brahman whose limbs the other Gods are, &lt;strong&gt;just as the&#xA;sālagrāma stone is the proper place for the contemplation of Visnu.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Indeed, when contemplated there, that Brahman is immediately perceived&#xA;in all His attributes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And once in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bharatadesam.com/spiritual/brahma_sutra/brahma_sutra_sankara_34083.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhasyas (pg 178)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.'--Or else (taking brahmapura to mean gîvapura) we may understand the&#xA;passage to teach that Brahman is, in the city of the individual soul,&#xA;near (to the devout worshipper), &lt;strong&gt;just as Vishnu is near to us in the&#xA;Sâlagrâma-stone.--&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of Vishnu becoming a Salagrama stone is narrated in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/brahmavaivarta-purana/vol-i/chapter-51/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 21&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Prakriti Khanda of Brahma Vaivarta Purana&lt;/strong&gt; where Vishnu becomes a stone due to the curse of Shankachuda's wife Tulasi. (The entire story is quite long so I'm linking only specific parts)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;हे नाथ ते दया नास्ति पाषाणसदृशस्य च। छलेन धर्मभङ्गेन मम स्वामी त्वया&#xA;हतः।। २३॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulasi said-O lord, you are heartless, having no compassion. &lt;strong&gt;You are&#xA;hard like a stone.&lt;/strong&gt; You have defiled my chastity deceitfully and have&#xA;killed my husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पाषाणसदृशस्त्वं च दयाहीनो यत: प्रभो। तस्मात्पाषाणरूपस्त्वं भूवि देव&#xA;भवाधुना। २४।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O lord, therefore you are stone-hearted and devoid of compassion. You&#xA;will therefore take the form of a stone on earth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu accepts this curse of Tulasi and assumes the shape of a mountain near the River Gandaki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अहं च शैलरूपेण गण्डकीतीरसंनिधौ। अधिष्ठानं करिष्यामि भारते तव शापत:॥&#xA;५८॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of the curse pronounced by you I shall appear in the form of a&#xA;mountain near the river Gandaki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वज्रकीटाश्च कृमयो वज्रदंष्टश्च तत्र वै। तच्छिलाकुहरे चक्र करिष्यन्ति&#xA;मदीयकम्॥ ५९॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The insects will carve or cut the stones with their teeth besides my&#xA;cakra on the stones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सद्यस्तद्देहजाता च बभूव गण्डकी नदी। हरेरंशेन शैलश्च तत्तीरे पुण्यदो&#xA;नृणाम्।। १०३।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the body of Tulasi at once appeared the river Gandaki. At the&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;bank of the said river a huge mountain appeared from the amsa of lord&#xA;Visnu, which was quite sacred for the humans.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कुर्वन्ति तत्र कीटाश्च शिलां बहूविधा मुने। जले पतन्ति या याश्व जलदाभाव&#xA;निश्चितम्। १०४॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Sage, the insects make many types of stones there. The stones of&#xA;dark complexion fall into the river daily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As for the significance of the Shaligrama, its worship provides great merit and destroys sins enabling the devotee to ascend to Vaikuntha. The Shaligrama is also a residence of Vishnu and Lakshmi which is why it is auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शालग्रामशिला यत्र तत्र संनिहितो हरिः। तत्रैव लक्ष्मीर्वसति&#xA;सर्वतीर्थसमन्विताः।।७७।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यानि कानि च पापानि ब्रह्महत्यादिकानि च। तानि सर्वाणि नश्यन्ति&#xA;शालग्रामशिलार्चनात्॥७८॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wherever the stone of Salagrama is kept, lord Visnu with Laksmi also&#xA;resides there.&lt;/strong&gt; By adoring the stone of Salagrama one is relieved of&#xA;all the sins including that of Brahmahatya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पाठे चतुर्णा वेदानां तपसां करणे सति। तत्पुण्यं लभते नूनं&#xA;शालग्रामशिलार्चनात्॥८५॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One derives the merit of reciting all the Vedas by worshipping the&#xA;Salagrama stone undoubtedly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शालग्रामशिलातोयं नित्यं भुङते च यो नरः। सुरेप्सितं प्रसादं च&#xA;जन्ममृत्युजराहरम्।।८६।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तस्य स्पर्श घ वाञ्छन्ति तीर्थानि निखिलानि च। जीवन्मुक्तो&#xA;महापूतोऽप्यन्ते याति हरेः पदम्।।८७।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The one who sips the water of the Salagrama stone and also consumes&#xA;the prasada of the god, he remains without old age and is freed from&#xA;birth and death.&lt;/strong&gt; All the sacred places become desirous of touching&#xA;such a person. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore the one having been relieved of birth and&#xA;death gets purified and moves on to the abode of Visnu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as Swami Vishwananda pointed out in the comments, Shaligrama is also worshipped by the Shaktas and one example of that is the consecration of the Bhavani at Pratapgad by Shivaji Maharaj.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/sivachhatrapatib00krshrich#page/26/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siva Chhatrapati Bakhar of Sabhasad (pg 27)&lt;/a&gt; summarizes it thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the Raje loaded a cart with money, &lt;strong&gt;sent it to the Gandaki,&#xA;brought a stone of that river, made an image of Sri Bhavani with it&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;and established the goddess at Pratapgad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T15:27:13.040" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19215" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19213" CreationDate="2017-06-28T15:58:48.860" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, killing a cow does not warrant a death penalty.&lt;/strong&gt; But it is a sin (under normal circumstances), and Prayaschitta or expiation for it is laid out in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu11.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;109&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He who has committed a minor offence by slaying a cow (or bull) shall drink during (the first) month (a decoction of) barley-grains; having shaved all his hair, and covering himself with the hide (of the slain cow), he must live in a cow-house.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;During the two (following) months he shall eat a small (quantity of food) without any factitious salt at every fourth meal-time, and shall bathe in the urine of cows, keeping his organs under control.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;During the day he shall follow the cows and, standing upright, inhale the dust (raised by their hoofs); at night, after serving and worshipping them, he shall remain in the (posture, called) virasana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Controlling himself and free from anger, he must stand when they stand, follow them when they walk, and seat himself when they lie down.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(When a cow is) sick, or is threatened by danger from thieves, tigers, and the like, or falls, or sticks in a morass, he must relieve her by all possible means:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In heat, in rain, or in cold, or when the wind blows violently, he must not seek to shelter himself, without (first) sheltering the cows according to his ability.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Let him not say (a word), if a cow eats (anything) in his own or another's house or field or on the threshing-floor, or if a calf drinks (milk).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The slayer of a cow who serves cows in this manner, removes after three months the guilt which he incurred by killing a cow.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But after he has fully performed the penance, he must give to (Brahmanas) learned in the Veda ten cows and a bull, (or) if he does not possess (so much property) he must offer to them all he has.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fact that Prayaschitta is laid out for it implies that the person will be alive to do it, and so it is not punishable by death. But bottom line, don't kill cows!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T15:58:48.860" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19216" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14421" CreationDate="2017-06-28T16:56:12.680" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vastu Pooja or Griha pravesha pooja is a common procedure for house warming ceremony in India. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The basic principle lies in the worship and propitiation of various deities of different direction and places of the house. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also involves worship of Ganesha as a mark of auspiciousness and removal of obstacles along with Nava graha pooja for shanti of planet related doshas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vastu mandala pooja is performed along with yogini poojas and many others. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hindu cosmology the surface of the earth is represented as a&#xA;  square, the most fundamental of all Hindu forms. The earth is&#xA;  represented as four-cornered in reference to the horizon's&#xA;  relationship with sunrise and sunset, the North and South direction.&#xA;  It is called Chaturbhuji (four cornered) and represented in the form&#xA;  of the Prithvi Mandala. The astrological charts or horoscopes also&#xA;  represent in a square plan the positions of the sun, moon, planets and&#xA;  zodiac constellations with reference to a specific person's place and&#xA;  time of birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/u8wzS.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/u8wzS.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The legend of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://sites.google.com/site/caroluschess/da-vinci-code/checkered-church-stones/heavenly-jerusalem/vastu-purusha-mandala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vastu Purusha&lt;/a&gt; is related thus. Once a formless being&#xA;  blocked the heaven from the earth and Brahma with many other gods&#xA;  trapped him to the ground. This incident is depicted graphically in&#xA;  the Vastu Purusha Mandala with portions allocated hierarchically to&#xA;  each deity based on their contributions and positions. Brahma occupied&#xA;  the central portion - the Brahmasthana- and other gods were&#xA;  distributed around in a concentric pattern. There are 45 gods in all&#xA;  including 32 outer deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence it is a pooja of various deities inside and outside the mandala before beginning the official stay in the house/plot. It helps in warding off the negative energies and also for appeasing the deities and planets. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-06-28T16:56:12.680" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19217" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19218" CreationDate="2017-06-28T22:16:58.300" Score="5" ViewCount="8290" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read different stories in articles about Arjuna death (&lt;strong&gt;Killed by Yama&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Killed by Babruvahana&lt;/strong&gt; during Ashwamedha Yagya and Arjuna finally &lt;strong&gt;died during his journey to Swargaloka&lt;/strong&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Wiki sources: &#xA;&quot;It is also to be noted that the listener of the Mahabharata is Janamejaya, Parikshit's son. Except for Yudhishthira, all of the Pandavas grew weak and died before reaching heaven (only Yudhishthira is allowed to keep his mortal body). Arjuna was the fourth one to fall after Draupadi, Sahadeva and Nakula&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All stories apart, So My question was there are any Scripture describe exact reason or Curse behind Arjuna death? If Arjuna killed or weak why didn't Krishna help him for journey to Swargaloka (Heaven)? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T05:42:39.770" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T05:42:39.770" Title="How did Arjuna die in Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19218" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19217" CreationDate="2017-06-29T01:42:43.687" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arjuna died twice.&lt;/strong&gt;  Let me address each of the three stories you mentioned:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;During the end of their time in the forest, all the Pandavas except Yudhishthira temporarily died after drinking water from a lake.  Here's how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03310.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata describes Arjuna's temporary death:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus addressed, the intelligent Gudakesa, taking his bow and arrows and also his naked sword, set out tor that lake of waters. And reaching that spot, he whose car was drawn by white steeds beheld those tigers among men, his two younger brothers who had come to fetch water, lying dead there. And seeing them as if asleep, that lion among men, exceedingly aggrieved, raised his bow and began to look around that wood. But he found none in that mighty forest. And, being fatigued, he who was capable of drawing the bow by his left hand as well, rushed in the direction of the water. And as he was rushing (towards the water), he heard these words from the sky, 'Why dost thou approach this water? Thou shalt not be able to drink of it by force. If thou, O Kaunteya, can answer the question I will put to thee, then only shalt thou drink of the water and take away as much as thou requirest, O Bharata!' Thus forbidden, the son of Pritha said, 'Do thou forbid me by appearing before me! And when thou shalt be sorely pierced with my arrows, thou wilt not then again speak in this way!' Having said this, Partha covered all sides with arrows inspired by mantras. And he also displayed his skill in shooting at an invisible mark by sound alone. And, O bull of the Bharata race, sorely afflicted with thirst, he discharged barbed darts and javelins and iron arrows, and showered on the sky innumerable shafts incapable of being baffled. Thereupon, the invisible Yaksha said, 'What need of all this trouble, O son of Pritha? Do thou drink only after answering my questions! If thou drink, however, without answering my questions, thou shalt die immediately after.' Thus addressed, Pritha's son Dhananjaya capable of drawing the bow with his left hand as well, disregarding those words, drank of the water, and immediately after dropped down dead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this just a test of Yudishthira by his father Yama the god of death, who revived the rest of the Pandavas once Yudhishthira passed the test as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03312.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;another chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then agreeable to the words of the Yaksha the Pandavas rose up; and in a moment their hunger and thirst left them.... Having said these words, the worshipful Lord of justice, who is the object of contemplation of all the worlds, vanished therefrom; and the high-souled Pandavas after they had slept sweetly were united with one another. And their fatigue dispelled, those heroes returned to the hermitage, and gave back that Brahmana his firesticks. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When Arjuna fought his son Babruvahana in the course of defending the horse in Yudhishthira's Ashwamedha Yagna,  Babruvahana hit Arjuna with an arrow, and Arjuna fainted and appeared dead as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m14079.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Ashwamedha Parva of the Mahabharata &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The mighty Vabhruvahana, thinking that his father was no longer able to face him, again afflicted him with many shafts resembling snakes of virulent poison. From a spirit of boyishness he then vigorously pierced his father in the breast with a whetted shaft equipt with excellent wings. That shaft, O king, penetrated the body of Pandu's son and reaching his very vital caused him great pain. The delighter of the Kurus, Dhananjaya, deeply pierced therewith by his son, then &lt;strong&gt;fell down in a swoon&lt;/strong&gt; on the Earth, O king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then the Naga princess Ulupi, who was another wife of Arjuna (as opposed to Babruvahana's mother Chitrangada), explained to Babruvahana that she had just used her magical powers to make Arjuna appear dead, and then she gave him a gemstone to revive his father, as described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m14/m14080.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Ashwamedha Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The daughter of the prince of snakes taking it up, uttered these words that highly gladdened the combatants standing on the field. 'Rise up, O son. Do not grieve. Jishnu has not been vanquished by thee. This hero is incapable of being vanquished by men as also by the deities with Vasava himself at their head I have exhibited this illusion, deceiving your senses, for the benefit of this foremost of men, viz., thy illustrious sire. O thou of Kuru's race, desirous of ascertaining the prowess of thyself, his son, this slayer of hostile heroes, O king, came here for battling with thee. It was for that reason, O son, that thou wert urged by me to do battle. O puissant king, O son, do not suspect that thou hast committed any, even the least, fault, by accepting his challenge. He is a Rishi, of a mighty soul, eternal and indestructible. O dear son, Sakra himself is incapable of vanquishing him in battle. This celestial gem has been brought by me, O king. It always revives the snakes as often as they die. O puissant king, do thou place this gem on the breast of thy sire. Thou shalt then see the son of Pandu revived.' Thus addressed, the prince who had committed no sin, moved by affection for his sire, then placed that gem on the breast of Pritha's son of immeasurable energy. After the gem had been placed on his breast; the heroic and puissant Jishnu became revived. Opening his red eyes he rose up like one who had slept long. Beholding his sire, the high-souled hero of great energy, restored to consciousness and quite at his ease, Vabhruvahana worshipped him with reverence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as you can see, Arjuna did not actually die in this story.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna finally died once and for all after Krishna departed the Earth, while the Pandavas were trying to climb to Swargarohini mountains in an attempt to go to Swarga in their own body.  Other then Yudishthira, each of the remaining Pandavas fell off the Swargarohini mountains due to some personal failing that rendered them unworthy of going to Swarga in their own body.  In particular Arjuna fell off because he was too arrogant concerning his prowess in battle, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m17/m17002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Swargarohanika Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beholding Nakula and the others fall down, Pandu’s son Arjuna of white steeds, that slayer of hostile heroes, fell down in great grief of heart. When that foremost of men, who was endued with the energy of Shakra, had fallen down, indeed, when that invincible hero was on the point of death, Bhima said unto the king, ‘I do not recollect any untruth uttered by this high-souled one. Indeed, not even in jest did he say anything false. What then is that for whose evil consequence this one has fallen down on the Earth?’ Yudhishthira said, ‘Arjuna had said that he would consume all our foes in a single day. Proud of his heroism, he did not, however, accomplish what he had said. Hence has he fallen down. This Phalguna disregarded all wielders of bows. One desirous of prosperity should never indulge in such sentiments.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, you asked why Krishna didn't prevent the death of Arjuna.  Krishna had already departed he Earth by that point.  That is the whole reason the Pandavas decided to depart the Earth as well.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So out of the three stories, only two involve actual death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T04:31:35.703" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T04:31:35.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19219" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19172" CreationDate="2017-06-29T02:51:07.610" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;(This answers the question in the title. I think there must be another question for the rest)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The literal meaning of the word 'Dvija' means a twice-born. So at the moment the upanayana is performed, a person becomes a 'Dvija'. This is because the person is considered to be born again at the end of upanayana. Note that even birds are called 'dvija' since they have two births (once as an egg and once from the egg). I don't have the exact source of this but a reference to any sanskrit dictionary will reveal that any oviparous animal or bird is referred to as a dvija. (Example: &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/?q=dvija&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://sanskritdictionary.com/?q=dvija&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the word 'Brahmana' is used to denote a person who performs the required religious acts and tries to understand 'Brahman'. In the Chandogyopanishad, Uddalaka mentions to Shvetaketu that a person who does not know 'Brahman' is called a 'Brahma Bandhu', or a relative of a 'Brahmin' (in that context), and not a 'Brahmana'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;॥ षष्ठोऽध्यायः ॥&#xA;  ॥ प्रथमः खण्डः ॥&#xA;  श्वेतकेतुर्हारुणेय आस तँ ह पितोवाच श्वेतकेतो&#xA;  वस ब्रह्मचर्यं न वै सोम्यास्मत्कुलीनोऽननूच्य&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ब्रह्मबन्धुरिव&lt;/strong&gt; भवतीति ॥ ६.१.१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: There was a son of Aruneya (Uddalaka) who was known as Shvetaketu. The father said 'Shvetaketu, live in Brahmacharya just as the rest of our 'kula' else you will be a ब्रह्मबन्धु.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastEditorUserId="4133" LastEditDate="2017-07-04T06:58:58.367" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T06:58:58.367" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19220" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-29T04:00:54.570" Score="3" ViewCount="4769" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gita 9:32&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Prtha, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of &lt;strong&gt;lower birth-women&lt;/strong&gt;, vaisyas [merchants], as well as sudras [workers]-can approach the supreme destination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is correct interpretation of Bhagavad gita 9:32?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9930" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T04:16:14.423" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T08:38:52.647" Title="What is correct interpretation of Bhagavad gita 9:32?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-06-29T07:41:49.687" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19221" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-06-29T04:18:47.730" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T04:18:47.730" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T04:18:47.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19222" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-06-29T04:18:47.730" Score="0" Body="Use this tag for questions regarding other gitas like Shiva Gita, Rama Gita, etc., For bhagavad Gita, use [bhagavad-gita] " OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T04:18:47.730" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T04:18:47.730" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19223" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19220" CreationDate="2017-06-29T04:53:19.100" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मां हि पार्थ व्यपाश्रित्य येऽपि स्युः पापयोनयः।&lt;br&gt;  स्त्रियो&#xA;  वैश्यास्तथा शूद्रास्तेऽपि यान्ति परां गतिम्।।9.32।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye ’pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ&lt;br&gt;  striyo vaiśyās&#xA;  tathā śūdrās te ’pi yānti parāṁ gatim&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Pṛthā, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower&#xA;  birth – women, vaiśyas [merchants] and śūdras [workers] – can attain&#xA;  the supreme destination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clearly declared here by the Supreme Lord that in devotional service there is no distinction between the lower and higher classes .&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Everyone is eligible for the supreme destination(moksha).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the different modes of material nature, men are classiﬁed as&#xA;brāhmaṇas , kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras.&#xA;Those lower than them are called caṇḍālas, and they are born in sinful families.&lt;strong&gt;But the process of devotional service is so strong that the pure devotee of the Supreme Lord can enable people of all the lower classes to attain the highest perfection of life.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the actual  meaning and purpose of this shloka is those   who are sinners  among Women , Vaishya and shudras  and even those who are lower than them can attain the highest perfection through pure devotion of god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T05:38:05.493" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T05:38:05.493" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19224" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="27818" CreationDate="2017-06-29T05:33:22.487" Score="5" ViewCount="1081" Body="&lt;p&gt;From how to perform achamana &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk11ch16.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;as found in the Devi Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Firstly make the ordinary Âchaman three times, and, while inhaling, drink a little of the water of Âchaman, repeating “Om&#xA;  Kes’avâya Svâhâ, Om Nârâyanâya Svâhâ, Om Mâdhavâya Svâhâ.” Then wash&#xA;  your two hands, repeating “Om Gobindâya Namah, Om Visnave Namah.” Then&#xA;  by the root of the thumb rub the lips repeating “Om Madhû sûdanâya&#xA;  Namah, Om Trivikramâya Namah.” So rub the mouth, repeating “Om&#xA;  Vâmamâya Namah, Om S’rîdharâya Namah.” Then sprinkle water on the left&#xA;  hand, saying “Om Hrisîkes’âya Namah.” Sprinkle water on the legs,&#xA;  saying “Om Padmanâbhâya Namah.” Sprinkle water on the head, saying “Om&#xA;  Dâmodarâya Namah.” Touch the mouth with the three fingers of the right&#xA;  hand, saying “Om Samkarsanâya Namah.” Touch the nostrils with the&#xA;  thumb and forefinger saying “Om Vâsudevâya Namah, Om Pradyumnâya&#xA;  Namah.” Touch the eyes with the thumb and ring-finger, saying “Om&#xA;  Aniruddhâya Namah, Om Purusottamâya Namah.” Touch the ears with the&#xA;  thumb and ringfinger saying “Om Adhoksajâya Namah, Om Nârasimhâya&#xA;  Namah.” Touch the navel with the thumb and little finger saying “Om&#xA;  Achyutâya Namah.” Touch the breast with the palm, saying “Om&#xA;  Janârdanâya Namah.” Touch the head saying “Om Upendrâya Namah.” Touch&#xA;  the roots of the two arms saying “Om Haraye Namah, Om Krisnâya Namah.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While sipping the Âchaman water on the right hand, touch the right hand with your left hand; otherwise; the water does not become pure.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;While doing Âchaman, make the palm and the fingers all united and close, of the form of a Gokarna (the ear of a cow) and spreading the&#xA;  thumb and the little finger, drink the water of the measure of a&#xA;  pea.&lt;/strong&gt; If a greater or less quantity be sipped, then that would amount&#xA;  to drinking liquor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Till date, i have found a variety of descriptions of this particular mudra called the Gokarna Mudra. Varoius websites provide different descriptions and one does not match with the other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The latest picture i found is from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hindujagruti.org/hindi/hinduism/hinduism-practices/hindu-temple/tirth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0sSJg.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0sSJg.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, this picture is not quite matching with textual description given in the above Purana passage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I am looking for the accurate pictorial description of the so called Gokarna Mudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will accept the answer provided the reference in it is from a website or a book which i consider as trustworthy and authentic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I myself have books that discuss several mudras used in worship like Leliha, Galini, Ankusha, Grasa etc but none provide anything on the Gokarna mudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T05:39:25.787" LastActivityDate="2018-06-03T17:16:10.650" Title="I am looking for an accurate pictorial description of the so called Gokarna Mudra" Tags="|rituals|devi-bhagavata-purana|mudra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19228" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19220" CreationDate="2017-06-29T06:49:42.597" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मां हि पार्थ व्यपाश्रित्य येऽपि स्युः &lt;strong&gt;पापयोनयः&lt;/strong&gt;।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   स्त्रियो वैश्यास्तथा शूद्रास्तेऽपि यान्ति परां गतिम्।।9.32।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This shloka is mostly misinterpreted by many people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word pāpa-yonayaḥ (पापयोनयः) indicates to unholy union and a baby born from unholy union is a sinner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word स्त्रियो means women. Women tends to be attracted towards materialistic thing. A women will love her child and her family the most in this world. These are all materialistic things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word वैश्याः is referring to vaishyas. Vaishyas are people who live to make profit because they are business minded people. They will lie to earn profit. Vaishyas are also attracted towards materialistic things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word शूद्रा (shudras) refers to fourth traditional varna (social class). Shudras are people who work for people of higher social class like brahmanas. They do work like cleaning, picking wastes etc., as a result sudras are not very clean.&#xA;The reason why Shudras work hard is because they are attached to the fruits of their own efforts and as a result shudras are also attracted towards materials.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Lord Krishna says those who are born from unholy union, those who are attracted towards materialistic &lt;strong&gt;(pointing to women, vaishyas, shudras)&lt;/strong&gt; thing can attain their supreme destination through pure devotion of god. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10303" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T08:38:52.647" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T08:38:52.647" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19230" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8164" CreationDate="2017-06-29T07:00:08.043" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;That's the only difference between him and us &#xA;We are also a part of him but we don't realise it &#xA;First chapter of Bhagwadmahapuran says that bhagwan Vishnu divided and started life on earth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Tulsidas jis Ramcharitmanas Raam ji calls Agni devta and hands over Sita to him &#xA;And Ravan abducted shadow of Sita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10304" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T07:00:08.043" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19233" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-29T07:25:01.573" Score="1" ViewCount="57" Body="&lt;p&gt;Niradri Bije is a Post Ritual of Jagannath Rath Yatra .What is the mythological Significance of this ritual and how is it celebrated ?&#xA;What is the Story behind Niradri Bije ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10200" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T10:37:43.043" Title="What is the Story behind Niradri Bije?" Tags="|vishnu|gods|rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19234" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-29T07:45:08.317" Score="7" ViewCount="4363" Body="&lt;p&gt;At the time when Lord Rama was on his way to Lanka, he asked the sea god (sagara) for help and to make way for his journey , but the sea god didn't offer any help. Then Shree Rama activated brahmastra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this  when sea begged for forgiveness Shree  Raam ji shot brahamastra at someplace making that place  a desert.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know the place or the name of the region, where the brahmastra fell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10304" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T07:02:31.967" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T18:55:14.210" Title="Where did the Brahmastra, which Bhagwan Rama launched to dry up the sea, eventually fall?" Tags="|ramayana|weapon|brahmastra|itihasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19235" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19234" CreationDate="2017-06-29T08:23:29.807" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The place name is Drumatulya. It is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga22/yuddha_22_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda, Sarga 22&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रामस्य वचनम् श्रुत्वा तम् च दृष्ट्वा महाशरम् || २-२२-३० &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   महोदधिर्महातेजा राघवम् वाक्यमब्रवीत् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing Rama's words and seeing that powerful arrow, the large splendid Ocean spoke the following words to Rama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उत्तरेणावकाशोऽस्ति कश्चित्पुण्यतरो मम || २-२२-३१&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;द्रुमकुल्य इति ख्यातो&lt;/strong&gt; लोके ख्यातो यथा भवान् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Towards my northern side, there is a holy place. It is well known as Drumatulya&lt;/strong&gt;, in the same way as you are well known to this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उग्रदर्शनकर्माणो बहवस्तत्र दस्यवः || २-२२-३२&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आभीरप्रमुखाः पापाः पिबन्ति सलिलम् मम |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Numerous robbers of fearful aspect and deeds, having the sinful Abhiras as their chief, drink my waters there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तैर्न तत्स्पर्शनम् पापम् सहेयम् पापकर्मभिः || २-२२-३३&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अमोघः क्रियताम् राम तत्र तेषु शरोत्तमः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am not able to bear that touch of those wicked people, the evil doers, O, Rama! Let this excellent arrow with out vain be released over them there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्य तद्वचनम् श्रुत्वा सागरस्य महात्मनः || २-२२-३४&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मुमोच तम् शरम् दीप्तम् परम् सागरदर्शनात् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing those words of the high-soled Ocean, Rama released that excellent and splendid arrow towards that place as directed by the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेन &lt;strong&gt;तन्मरुकान्तारम्&lt;/strong&gt; प्^इथिव्याम् किल विश्रुतम् || २-२२-३५&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विपातितः शरो यत्र वज्राशनिसमप्रभः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The place where the arrow, whose splendor was akin to that of a thunder and a thunder bolt, was descended by Rama- &lt;strong&gt;that place is indeed famous as desert of Maru* on this earth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Maru�Malwar in Rajastan (India)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T11:27:40.280" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T11:27:40.280" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19238" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19242" CreationDate="2017-06-29T14:03:48.760" Score="7" ViewCount="873" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPALANTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sage Vishvamitra is one of the great sages and was &lt;strong&gt;seduced by Menaka&lt;/strong&gt; who was sent by Lord Indra to break his penance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He was the &lt;strong&gt;only Sage&lt;/strong&gt; (AFAIK) who was &lt;strong&gt;seduced by lust or women&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Self-realized beings know everything and will be in &lt;strong&gt;great spiritual bliss&lt;/strong&gt; in each moment and they will not be interested in &lt;strong&gt;material pleasure&lt;/strong&gt;     &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Was Sage  Vishvamitra &lt;strong&gt;Self - realized&lt;/strong&gt; while falling for Menaka's beauty ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can &lt;strong&gt;Self - realized&lt;/strong&gt; beings also be affected by (or fall for) lust ? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T17:29:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T17:29:21.743" Title="Was Sage Vishvamitra self -realized when he fell for Menaka's beauty?" Tags="|puranas|rishi|vishwamitra|desire|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19239" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19202" CreationDate="2017-06-29T15:16:49.687" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The ultimate purpose of the Vedas can be understood by reading the Bhagavad Gita.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In 15.15 Lord Krishna says:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto&lt;br&gt;&#xA;mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo&lt;br&gt;&#xA;vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. &lt;strong&gt;By all the Vedas am I to be known&lt;/strong&gt;; indeed I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By reading this verse, one can very easily understand that the actual purpose of the Vedas is to understand Krishna. The Vedas primarily deal with Dharma (religiosity), Artha (Wealth), Kama (Pleasure) and Moksha (Liberation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, from the Bhagavad Gita we can understand that if one is following the Vedic way of life to the tee, but has still not understood that the ultimate goal is Krishna, all his endeavours are in vain.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Actually, this is the real secret teaching of the Vedas - understanding Krishna. It is very secret and hence not many people understand or realize it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact Krishna himself says in the Gita (7.3):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;manusyanam sahasresu&lt;br&gt;&#xA;kascid yatati siddhaye&lt;br&gt;&#xA;yatatam api siddhanam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;kascin mam vetti tattvatah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, &lt;strong&gt;hardly one&lt;/strong&gt; knows Me in truth.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And how can one know Krishna?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna can only be known through devotional service, i.e., Bhakti. Knowledge, Karma, Charity, Austerity in themselves are not enough to understand, unless they are anointed with Bhakti.&#xA;So, if one somehow gets to know about this secret of the Vedas then one should take to the process of devotional service to Krishna with great faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2488" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2021-05-19T03:23:33.390" LastActivityDate="2021-05-19T03:23:33.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19242" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19238" CreationDate="2017-06-29T17:15:11.767" Score="7" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Was Vishvamitra Self - Realized while falling in Menaka's Beauty ?&#xA;Can Self - Realized beings can also fall in Lust ?&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We find the he answers of above questions given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga63/bala_63_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; Bal-Kanda.Chapter [Sarga] 63. Where the whole story of Sage Vishwamitra is narrated in greate detail .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background -:&lt;/strong&gt; on Vishvamitra's performing severe ascesis Brahma accords the sageship of 'Great-sage' to him, whereas Vishvamitra's&#xA;  ambition is to acquire the sageship of a 'Brahma-sage'&#xA;  Absolute-sageship. In the meanwhile, the celestial wench Menaka&#xA;  arrives at that place and Vishvamitra is enticed by her beauty and&#xA;  spends some years with her. Later, on realising the he should have won&#xA;  over lust, he further undertakes severe ascesis, by which gods are&#xA;  perturbed&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is brief of the story -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On seeing  Menaka  and falling in love with her Vishvamitra  asks her&#xA;  to stay at her hermitage   &lt;strong&gt;[1-63-6, 7a]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Then after the lapse of ten year period a thought occurred  to&#xA;  Vishvamitra  that , these  ten years just passed by like a single  day&#xA;  , during which I lost may tapas and he felt humiliation. &lt;strong&gt;[1-63-9b,&#xA;  10]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He sent Menaka  away with pleasant words went to the northern&#xA;  Himalayan mountain for again doing ascesis. [1-63-12b, 13, 14a]&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because of  Vishvamitra's  ascesis for a thousand years  fear occurred&#xA;  to gods. &lt;strong&gt;[1-63-15b, 16a]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All gods coming together with assemblages of sages have approached&#xA;  Brahma and conveyed that, 'this Vishvamitra, the son of Kushika, may&#xA;  duly be given the epithet of 'Maharshi, Exalted Sage.' &lt;strong&gt;[1-63-16b,&#xA;  17a]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Brahma gives Vishvamitra title of  Brahma-sage (Brahmarshi) &quot;&#xA;  'Oh, exalted sage, I welcome you my dear, as I am gladdened by your&#xA;  stern ascesis, oh, Kaushika, I bestow upon you the sublimity and&#xA;  supremacy among sages.' &lt;strong&gt;[1-63-18b, 19a]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Viswamitra says to Brahma that he may have been called self-Realized by his tapas .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मर्षि शब्दम् अतुलम् स्व अर्जितैः कर्मभिः शुभैः || १-६३-२०&lt;br&gt; यदि&#xA;  मे भगवान् आह ततो अहम् विजित इन्द्रियः |&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot; 'If your Godhead had said that I am a Brahma-sage, a sageship&#xA;  acquired personally by my pious deeds, rather than an exalted sage,&#xA;  then &lt;strong&gt;I would have become one who is really self-conquered.&lt;/strong&gt;' Thus&#xA;  Vishvamitra said to Brahma. [1-63-20, 21a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then Brahma tells Vishvamitra  that he has not yet reached to that position because he has not conquered his sences &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तम् उवाच ततो ब्रह्मा न तावत् त्वम् जित इन्द्रियः || १-६३-२१&lt;br&gt; यतस्व&#xA;  मुनि शार्दूल इति उक्त्वा त्रिदिवम् गतः |&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &quot;Brahma then said to him,&#xA;  '&lt;strong&gt;your senses remain unconquered&lt;/strong&gt; as such, oh, tigerly sage, make an&#xA;  effort for it.' Saying so Brahma went heavenward. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga63/bala_63_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;VR [1-63-21b,&#xA;  22a&lt;/strong&gt;] &lt;/a&gt;[1-63-21b, 22a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So its clear from the above story from Valmiki Ramayana that Sage Vishvamitra was not self-realised one at the time of he fell in love with Menaka the celestial wench.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now lets look at how one can achieve self realization from The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mundaka-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145136.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Mundaka Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नायमात्मा बलहीनेन लभ्यो न च प्रमदात्तपसो वप्यलिङ्गात |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एतैरुपायैर्यतते यस्तु विद्वां-स्त्यैष आत्मा विशते ब्रह्मधाम ||4|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nāyamātmā balahīnena labhyo na ca pramādāttapaso vāpyaliṅgāt | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  etairupāyairyatate yastu vidvāṃstasyaiṣa ātmā viśate brahmadhāma || 4&#xA;  ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This Atman cannot he attained by one devoid of strength or by excitement or by tapasdevoid of linga. But of the knower who strives&#xA;  with these aids, the Atman enters into the Brahman.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shankara’s Commentary:&#xA;Com.&lt;/strong&gt;—Combined with the wish to realise the Atman, strength, absence of excitement, and &lt;strong&gt;knowledge coupled with Sanyasa are helps&lt;/strong&gt;; because this Atman cannot be attained by one devoid of strength produced by concentration on the Atman or by excitement caused by associating with objects of the world, as son, cattle and the rest, or by tapas devoid of linga. ‘Tapas’ here means ‘knowledge.’ “Linga,” means “Sanyasa.” The meaning is that the Atman cannot be attained by knowledge without Sanyasa. &lt;strong&gt;But of the knower who, with these aids, strength, absence of excitement, Sanyasa&lt;/strong&gt; and knowledge—strives intent after the Atman, the Atman enters its abode, the Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt; - So self realization is not possible without control over senses , which at the time Vishvamitra did not achieve.And in my opinion Self - Realized beings do not  fall in Lust because they do not differentiate between anything and they have gained full control over their senses. They became Brahman. &lt;strong&gt;Self - realized beings do not get affected by  lust&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T17:22:48.617" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T17:22:48.617" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19243" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8439" CreationDate="2017-06-29T17:58:54.587" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;God instils reasoning in humans after death soul travels with this virtue and takes birth entering in another human. Once born as human,  after death they should born as humans,  not as ant,  horse,  fly, fox, dog etc. Because human have IQ.  They can add 2 +2 =4. They can distinguish wrong and right. They can say this is computer.  This is vegetable,  this is market,  this is movie,  this is algebra,  this is political science,  this is museum,  this is zoo,  this is court where judgement is given etc etc....... Once you realise all these things with the help of IQ.... Which was endowed by God once you are born as human,  how after death there  is a chance of going again into yoni of cow,  goat, fly,  snake. Not at all.  Once IQ was retained by human in the mind,  howsoever his death may cause due to wrong Karma,  but he will again born as human though in  inferior class  and community but not as animal. It is therefore logically derived that human after death takes birth as human and not goes  into lower yoni. As you did karma you will take birth in lower instinct people or high intellectuals being decided  according to prarabdha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10314" LastEditorUserId="10314" LastEditDate="2017-06-29T18:56:08.063" LastActivityDate="2017-06-29T18:56:08.063" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19244" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-29T19:10:29.157" Score="4" ViewCount="3577" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to our scriptures, a man can have more than one wife. May be this is one of the reasons many Gods have two or more wives. Does any scripture mention what is the reason for men having multiple wives and is it applicable for women also? (other than Draupadi) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygamy_in_India&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki Source&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Polygamy became illegal in India in 1956, uniformly for all of its citizens except for Hindus in Goa where polygamy is legal, and for Muslims, who are permitted to have four wives. After that Hindu Marriage Act that a Hindu can marry only one. Otherwise before that polygamy was allowed &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T06:20:08.500" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T07:52:05.957" Title="How many husbands are permitted to a woman (polyandry) in ancient history?" Tags="|scripture|history|women|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19249" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19213" CreationDate="2017-06-30T06:00:18.230" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are no mantras in the Vedas (at least not in the portions that exist now) which explicitly state that the killer of a Cow should also be killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, cows have been repeatedly mentioned as &lt;strong&gt;not to be be killed&lt;/strong&gt; in Rig Veda mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Cows should not be killed as per the Vedas&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;RV 1.37.5&lt;/strong&gt;, it's specifically stated, that cows should not be killed. The words used are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;goshu aghnayam&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word for killing in Vedas is &quot;ghna&quot;. So, aghna means non-killing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;strong&gt;aghnayAh&lt;/strong&gt; (not to be killed) or their variants also appear in many other mantras like &lt;strong&gt;RV 4.1.6, RV 1.164.27, RV 1.164.40&lt;/strong&gt; and there they refer to the Cows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;strong&gt;goghna&lt;/strong&gt; (killing a Cow), on the other hand, occurs &lt;strong&gt;only once&lt;/strong&gt; in the whole Rig Veda, namely in &lt;strong&gt;RV 1.114.10&lt;/strong&gt; which is a prayer to Lord Rudra not to harm the animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Cows are equated to the supreme Vedic deities like Indra in the Vedas&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedas the cows are indicated by words like gau or gavah, vasah (the barren cow), pashu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, there are mantras in Rig Veda which equate Cows to Amrita (nectar of immortality). There are also mantras in the Vedas that equate Cows to the most prominent Vedic deities like Indra. I give below two such mantras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VasAm Eva Amritam Ahuh&lt;/strong&gt;, VasAm Mrityumupasate, Vasedam sarvamavad, DevA&#xA;  ManushyA AsurAh Pitara Rishayah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vasha (the barren cow) they call as immortality&lt;/strong&gt; (amrita), vasha they&#xA;  worship (upAsate) as death, vasha became all this (sarvam abhavat),&#xA;  Gods, men, asuras, fathers and rishis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 10.10.26&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GAvo Bhago, GAvo Indro,&lt;/strong&gt; Ma IcchAd GAvah Somasya Prathamasya Bhakshah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To me the Cows (gavah) are Bhaga, they are Indra&lt;/strong&gt;, they are a portion&#xA;  of the first poured Soma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 4.21.5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, in Smritis there are verses which say that we should even give up our lives in order to save the Cows. So, these verses indicate (and encourage) us in engaging in some form of combat to save Cows from being killed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.62. Dying, without the expectation of a reward, for the&#xA;  sake of Brahmanas and of cows, or in the defence of women and&#xA;  children, secures beatitude to those excluded (from the Aryan&#xA;  community, vahya.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.79. &lt;strong&gt;He who unhesitatingly abandons life for the sake of&#xA;  Brahmanas or of cows&lt;/strong&gt;, is freed from (the guilt of) the murder of a&#xA;  Brahmana, and (so is he) who saves (the life of) a cow, or of a&#xA;  Brahmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;47&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When spectators keep aloof, and refrain from giving help to cows or bulls in distress they are affected by sin&lt;/strong&gt;. (Parashara Smriti).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, these verses are likely to be the ones which might have encouraged the organization to say whatever they have said. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, in Vedas there are no such explicit orders. But as i have said, Vedas also clearly mention that Cows should not be killed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abbreviations used&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RV 4.21.5-------&gt; Rig Veda Mandala 4, Sukta 21, Mantra 5 etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T16:50:59.107" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T16:50:59.107" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19251" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19321" CreationDate="2017-06-30T07:25:29.853" Score="11" ViewCount="6425" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shivalinga is said to be the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form&quot;&gt;Formless Brahman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and is worshiped from the beginning.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is also a story of &lt;strong&gt;Bhirgu rishi cursing Lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; when he visited Kailash.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It was &lt;strong&gt;misunderstood&lt;/strong&gt; that because of Bhrigu rishi's curse Lord Shiva is worshiped in the Linga form.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhrigu rishi would have been fully aware of the fact that Shiva Linga was worshiped from the &lt;strong&gt;beginning&lt;/strong&gt; and there is &lt;strong&gt;no chance&lt;/strong&gt; of cursing Lord Shiva to be worshipped in Linga Form &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If Shiva Linga is worshiped in all yugas and if Bhrigu rishi didn't curse Shiva to be worshiped in the  Linga form,  then what was the curse?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-07-03T05:36:52.007" LastActivityDate="2018-07-29T11:01:43.167" Title="If Shiva Linga is worshiped in all yugas then what curse did Rishi Bhrigu give to Lord Shiva?" Tags="|scripture|shiva-lingam|rishi|curse|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19253" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19251" CreationDate="2017-06-30T07:40:19.110" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiva Linga comes from Sanskrit word (Shiva + Linga) where Shiva means Lord Shiva and Linga means Symbol. Hence Shiva Linga means &lt;strong&gt;Symbol of Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;. Shivling is symbol of Shiv, Symbol of formless (niraakar) shiva who don't have any body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Dq0WB.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Dq0WB.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if Mahaarishi Bhrigu did put curse of shiva that he won't be worshiped in your body form but instead in your bodyless form (nirakar). Shiva already had two forms to be worshiped. If one formed is being cursed then second is open still.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the curse that Shiva got from Maharishi bhrigu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The disciples of Lord Siva “Nandeeshwara, Bringeeswara, Chandeeswara, along with other disciples were absorbed in chanting the name of ‘Siva’ in the Silver Mountain of Kailash – The Abode of Lord Siva. Maharishi Bhrigu who reaches Mount Kailash, directly enters Lord Siva’s private room without heeding to the guards warning. Lord Siva who was with his wife Goddess Parvati, on seeing Bhrigu becomes angry. He says to Bhrigu “you are the learned man, who know the Vedas. By great penance you have acquired great powers, yet you do not have manners. It is shame on your part. Angry Lord Siva aims this trishul towards Bhrigu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharishi Bhrigu turns angry and says to Lord Siva: Siva, without trying to understand why I have come here, you aimed your trishul towards me. I curse you that “you will be worshipped in the temples only in the shape of ‘Linga’ and not in your real shape.” Thus cursing Lord Siva, Bhrigu leaves to Vaikuntam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AotGmmIZ3Q&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AotGmmIZ3Q&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://thehindugod.blogspot.in/2012/05/maharishi-bhrigu-curses-lord-brahma-and.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://thehindugod.blogspot.in/2012/05/maharishi-bhrigu-curses-lord-brahma-and.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vipasana-vidushika.blogspot.in/2013/06/the-curses-lord-vishnu-endured.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://vipasana-vidushika.blogspot.in/2013/06/the-curses-lord-vishnu-endured.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can posts many more links and all says only one thing that Actual curse of Bhrigu Rishi was to worship shiva in linga form only. A simple google search will show you tons of articles and all describes same curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T12:08:04.673" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19254" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19244" CreationDate="2017-06-30T07:52:05.957" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Polyandry can have 2 meanings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Society&lt;/strong&gt;: A woman &lt;em&gt;marrying&lt;/em&gt; multiple men&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Zoology&lt;/strong&gt;: A female &lt;em&gt;mating&lt;/em&gt; multiple males&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Human (objectified as animal) is part of both of the above terminologies. Society is more related to mentality and Zoology is more related to physicality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to scriptures (MahAbhArata based), &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Multiple &quot;marriages&quot; were &lt;strong&gt;Not allowed&lt;/strong&gt; for women&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Multiple &quot;matings&quot; were &lt;strong&gt;acceptable&lt;/strong&gt; upto &lt;strong&gt;3&lt;/strong&gt; for a female, with her male's consent, typically for procreation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01124.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt; PAndu &amp;amp; Kunti themselves referred the scripture!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Woman should marry to 1 husband&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In below highly edited passage, it's explained that Women were allowed in ancient times to choose multiple men for mating. However a Rishi named Uddalaka's son Swetaketu stopped this practice when a Brahman took away his mother for mating. From thereon, it was a custom for Woman to be obedient to her husband. Certain cultures still allowed this practice though. PAndu has also mentioned liberalism of women part, which are removed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;King Pandu well-acquainted with all rules of morality, replied ... But I shall now tell thee about the practices of old indicated by illustrious Rishis, fully acquainted with every rule of morality... women formerly were not immured within houses and dependent on husbands and other relatives. They used to go about freely, enjoying themselves as best as they liked ... they did not then adhere to their husbands faithfully, and yet, O handsome one, they were not regarded sinful, ... &lt;strong&gt;The present practice, however (of women's being confined to one husband for life)&lt;/strong&gt; hath been established but lately. Women transgressing the limits assigned by the Rishi became guilty of slaying the embryo.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Woman can mate upto 3 Men (with husband's consent)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King PAndu allowed both of his wives to mate with various deities for begetting sons. He wanted more from Kunti after 3rd son. She politely asserted him that why she can't go further.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The celebrated Pandu, tempted by the desire of having more children wished to speak again unto his wedded wife (for invoking some other god). But Kunti addressed him, saying, 'The wise do not sanction a fourth delivery even in a season of distress. &lt;strong&gt;The woman having intercourse with four different men is called a Swairini (heanton), while she having intercourse with five becometh a harlot&lt;/strong&gt;. Therefore, O learned one, as thou art well-acquainted with the scripture on this subject, ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&quot;&lt;em&gt;Swairini&lt;/em&gt; (heanton)&quot; means &quot;Unbound&quot; &amp;amp; Harlot means &quot;prostitute&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T07:52:05.957" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19255" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6741" CreationDate="2017-06-30T09:21:25.510" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;In general Polyandry was allowed, but it may not be in a &quot;marriage&quot; form (e.g. Draupadi's case). However the women were much more liberal prior to MahAbhArata. Even during Kuru race's time, certain regions were liberal towards women's sexuality. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19254/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;&quot;... I want to know whether this story is correct&quot;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva - SAmbhava Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O thou of eyes like lotus-petals, the present virtuous practice hath been established by that Swetaketu from anger. Hear thou the reason. One day, in the presence of Swetaketu's father &lt;strong&gt;a Brahmana came and catching Swetaketu's mother by the hand, told her, 'Let us go.'&lt;/strong&gt; Beholding his mother seized by the hand and taken away apparently by force, the son was greatly moved by wrath. Seeing his son indignant, Uddalaka addressed him and said, '&lt;strong&gt;Be not angry. O son! This is the practice sanctioned by antiquity. The women of all orders in this world are free&lt;/strong&gt;, O son; men in this matter, as regards their respective orders, act as kine.' The Rishi's son, &lt;strong&gt;Swetaketu, however, disapproved&lt;/strong&gt; of the usage and established in the world the present practice as regards men and women. It hath been heard by us, O thou of great virtue, that the existing practice dates from that period among human beings but not among beings of other classes. Accordingly, since the establishment of the present usage, it is sinful for women not to adhere to their husbands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;&quot;were there any other examples of Polyandry prior to this story.&quot;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;. From the same chapter, PAndu states below examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O princess, who is devoted to her husband, it hath also been said by those acquainted with the rules of morality that a wife, when her monthly season cometh, must ever seek her husband, though at other times she deserveth liberty. ... Thus, O timid one, was the existing usage established of old by Swetaketu, the son of Uddalaka, in &lt;strong&gt;defiance of antiquity&lt;/strong&gt;. O thou of taper thighs, it hath also been heard by us that &lt;strong&gt;Madayanti, the wife of Saudasa, commanded by her husband to raise offspring went unto Rishi Vasishtha&lt;/strong&gt;. And on going in unto him, the handsome Madayanti obtained a son named Asmaka. She did this, moved by the desire of doing good to her husband. O thou of lotus-eyes, thou knowest, O timid girl, how &lt;strong&gt;we ourselves&lt;/strong&gt;, for the perpetuation of the Kuru race, &lt;strong&gt;were begotten by Krishna-Dwaipayana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and also from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01199.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva - Vaivahika Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira then spoke, saying, 'My tongue never uttereth an untruth and my heart never inclineth to what is sinful. When my heart approveth of it, it can never be sinful. I have heard in the Purana that &lt;strong&gt;a lady of name Jatila, the foremost of all virtuous women belonging to the race of Gotama had married seven Rishis. So also an ascetic's daughter, born of a tree, had in former times united herself in marriage with ten brothers&lt;/strong&gt; all bearing the same name of Prachetas and who were all of souls exalted by asceticism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;&quot; who were Rishi Shwetaketu and Rishi Ullapad. Have they did any major work.&quot;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;. They must be indeed of great merit. The substantial info I could find in the same page is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It hath been heard by us that there was a great Rishi of the name of Uddalaka, who had a son named Swetaketu who also was an &lt;strong&gt;ascetic of merit&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other references are also found, like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03132.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vana Parva - Tirtha YAtra Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the sacred hermitage of &lt;strong&gt;Swetaketu, son of Uddalaka, whose fame as an expert in the sacred mantras is so widely spread on earth&lt;/strong&gt;. This hermitage is graced with cocoanut trees. Here &lt;strong&gt;Swetaketu beheld the goddess Saraswati in her human shape&lt;/strong&gt;, and spake unto her, saying, 'May I be endowed with the gift of speech!&quot; In that yuga, Swetaketu, the son of Uddalaka, and Ashtavakra, the son of Kahoda, who stood to each other in the relation of uncle and nephew, were the &lt;strong&gt;best of those conversant with the sacred lore&lt;/strong&gt; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Related: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19244/1049&quot;&gt;How many husbands are permitted to a woman (polyandry) in ancient history?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-13T05:46:02.223" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T05:46:02.223" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19256" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-30T09:31:10.393" Score="7" ViewCount="3665" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna grew up with his people at Mathura (U.P). But why did he move with all his people to Dwaraka? Dwaraka is almost 1300 Kms from Mathura. Was there any logical reason for Krishna to set up his kingdom at Dwaraka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10178" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T10:08:00.203" LastActivityDate="2021-11-13T18:31:11.820" Title="Why did Lord Krishna settle at Dwaraka?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19258" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-30T10:08:47.793" Score="4" ViewCount="45" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shastras are nothing but a set of rules which a 'manava' should follow or else he can not be termed as 'manava'. In our urban life style we skip many of these rules, so I wanted to know some of the basic ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10320" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T10:08:47.793" Title="What all should we do (which we are not doing) according to shastras?" Tags="|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-06-30T18:47:00.027" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19259" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-30T10:49:04.137" Score="2" ViewCount="362" Body="&lt;p&gt;Administration belongs to the Kshatriyas,  business or trading is allowed for the Vaishyas, can we classify software engineer's job as a sudra's job?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10259" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T17:19:35.777" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T17:19:35.777" Title="Is software engineering a sudra's job?" Tags="|dharma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="17" ClosedDate="2017-07-03T14:28:28.083" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19260" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19256" CreationDate="2017-06-30T11:07:12.147" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Was there any logical reason for Krishna to set up his kingdom at Dwaraka?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt; there is a specific reason behind Lord Krishnas setting up his kingdom at Dwaraka.. Which is discussed in this chapter of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/50/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhgavatam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;SB 10.50: Kṛṣṇa Establishes the City of Dvārakā&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&lt;/strong&gt; – After Shree Krisha killed Kamsa , his two wives “Asti &amp;amp; Prapti” went to their father “Jarasandha” .After hearing the&#xA;  incident Jarasandha got very angry with yadavas. And he decided  to&#xA;  make the earth free of Yadavas. And he then prepared  for war.He&#xA;  seized the Mathura with his 23 Akshhouni warrior force or army . But&#xA;  was defeated by Krishna-Balarama. After that he repeatedly attacked&#xA;  Mathura for next 17 times , but due to the power of Shree Krisha got&#xA;  defeated all the times.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवं सप्तदशकृत्वस्तावत्यक्शौहिणिबल: |&lt;br&gt; युयुधे मागधो राजा यदुभि:&#xA;  कृष्णपालितै: ||  41 ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;evaṁ saptadaśa-kṛtvas tāvaty akṣauhiṇī-balaḥ  yuyudhe māgadho rājā&#xA;  yadubhiḥ kṛṣṇa-pālitaiḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Seventeen times the King of Magadha met&#xA;  defeat in this very way.&lt;/strong&gt; And yet throughout these defeats he fought on&#xA;  with his akṣauhiṇī divisions against the forces of the Yadu dynasty&#xA;  who were protected by Śrī Kṛṣṇa.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/50/41&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.50.41&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when 18th  time the war Between Yadavas and Jarasandha  was about to start ,A another warrior called  &lt;strong&gt;“Kalavayan” also joined Jarasandah&lt;/strong&gt; in his fight against Yadavas.  Kalavayana brought  3 core  foreign warriors  and sieged  Mathura . So Krishana and Balarama thought that this time we are facing two very strong armies  and  If we  fought with “kalvayana” this time  , the “Jarasandha” will also attack us and will kill the people of mathura. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आवयोर्युध्यतोरस्य यद्यगन्ता जरासुत |&lt;br&gt; बन्धून् वधिष्यत्यथवा नेष्यते&#xA;  स्वपुरं बली ||48|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;āvayoḥ yudhyator asya yady āgantā jarā-sutaḥ&lt;br&gt; bandhūn haniṣyaty&#xA;  atha vā neṣyate sva-puraṁ balī &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“If powerful Jarāsandha comes &lt;strong&gt;while We two are busy fighting&#xA;  Kālayavana, Jarāsandha may kill Our relatives or else take them away&#xA;  to his capital.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/50/47&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.50.47&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And because of this reason Krishna decided to build Safe fort kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्माददय विधास्यामो दुर्गं द्विपददुर्गमम |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्र ज्ञातीन् समधाय यवनं घातयामहे ||48||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasmād adya vidhāsyāmo durgaṁ dvipada-durgamam &lt;br&gt; tatra jñātīn samādhāya&#xA;  yavanaṁ ghātayāmahe &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Therefore We will immediately construct a &lt;strong&gt;fortress that no human&#xA;  force can penetrate.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Let Us settle our family members there&lt;/strong&gt; and then&#xA;  kill the barbarian king.”&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/50/48&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.50.48&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt; इति सम्मन्त्र्य&#xA;  भगवान् दुर्गं द्वादशयोजनं | &lt;br&gt; अन्त:समुद्रे नगरं कृत्स्नाद्भुतमचिकरत&#xA;  ||49||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;iti sammantrya bhagavān durgaṁ dvādaśa-yojanam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  antaḥ-samudre nagaraṁ kṛtsnādbhutam acīkarat &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After thus discussing the matter with Balarāma, the &lt;strong&gt;Supreme&#xA;  Personality of Godhead had a fortress twelve yojanas in circumference&#xA;  built within the sea. Inside that fort He had a city built containing&#xA;  all kinds of wonderful things.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/50/49&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.50.49&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the logical reason of Shree –Krishna to set up his kingdom at Dwarak was to &lt;strong&gt;safeguard the his people (yadavas) and to protect them from “Kalavayana” and “ Jarasandah”.&lt;/strong&gt; And after their departure to Dwaraka ,fighting and killing these two. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-07-02T09:20:29.267" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T09:20:29.267" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19263" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19277" CreationDate="2017-06-30T13:04:29.870" Score="5" ViewCount="1244" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Paramatma&lt;/strong&gt; is said to be one is Eternal,Formless and etc,... &lt;strong&gt;Source of Creation&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We also know Adi Parashakthi and is said to be the &lt;strong&gt;Divine Mother&lt;/strong&gt; and source of Energy.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Also said to be &lt;strong&gt;Creator of Trimurthi's&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;BR/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who is &lt;strong&gt;Adi Parashakthi&lt;/strong&gt;? Is this the creator of the Trimurtis?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T02:30:42.623" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T12:12:04.697" Title="Who is Adi Parashakthi? Is this the creator of the Trimurtis?" Tags="|devi|goddess|shakti|shaktism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19265" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16736" CreationDate="2017-06-30T15:45:56.443" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think Kumarila Bhatta did not actually believe that souls are always reborn into the same species.  Because in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/zA8T&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Tantra Vartika, in the course of refuting the Jain theory that the soul is the same size as the body, Kumarila Bhatta says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How too, is it possible for the particles of the same Soul to expand or contract within the limits of the Body of an elephant or an insect (which the Soul inhabits during different lives on the Earth)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He's saying that Jains would have to explain how the soul changes size as it's reborn in different species, whereas the Purva Mimamsa theory of multiple omnipresent souls requires no such explanation.  So he clearly seems to be acknowledging the notion of rebirth into different species.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T15:45:56.443" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19266" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19276" CreationDate="2017-06-30T16:56:08.567" Score="4" ViewCount="474" Body="&lt;p&gt;In some of the Vedanta Acharya's talks, I have heard that the objective of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shraddha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shraddha&lt;/a&gt; is  chitha sudhi of the performer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is prescribed for our benefits, like our chitta will get purified...and even  if you don't do Shraddha the departed soul will take next body...is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10259" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T17:25:34.253" LastActivityDate="2018-05-03T17:53:02.317" Title="What is the objective of Shraddha for the departed?" Tags="|rituals|dharma|customs|pitru|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19267" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19259" CreationDate="2017-06-30T17:03:37.170" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I can say Big NO, One who working as a Software/Hardware engineer or any other profession is based on their interest and it depends on person to person&lt;/strong&gt;. @Destroyer Thanks, &quot;Even Software engineers use brain and even some do administrative work. So, &lt;strong&gt;those who do administrative work is Kshatriyas?&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the ancient system of Varnashrama, each individual was considered a professional, depending on his area of specialization, and the society was broadly divided into 4 categories of professions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to the openness &amp;amp; flexibility, there was free flow of professionals across different varnas, as and when they acquired the relevant skillsets. Moreover, since varnas represented professions only, it meant that in a single lifespan, a person could be a Brahmin at one point, and a Shudra in another point and so on. For the purpose of illustration, consider the case of a cobbler, whose profession falls under the category of “Shudra” since his role in the society is to serve the rest of the system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Talking about the word “Shudra” itself. It is one of the most beautiful words because its etymology in Sanskrit language signifies its wonderful manifestation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The syllable “Sh” is actually prefixed for something which is&#xA;  auspicious. For example “Shubh”.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The syllable “U” represents generation, growth &amp;amp; upward-ness. For&#xA;  example, “Utpatti”, “Udghosh”.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The syllable “Dra” represents movement. For example “Rudra” (Rudra&#xA;  means the movement of roar).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we combine the above syllables, it becomes “Shudra”, which means an entity which is auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And What I want to tell you was, If we call all Software engineers &quot;Sudra&quot; no issue, However those all use brains to &lt;strong&gt;helps in moving the society in upward direction (direction of growth &amp;amp; prosperity)&lt;/strong&gt; but not like Slave &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: This answer is fully based on my opinion, it may differ (No Offence) and I feel this question is fully opinion based. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T17:03:37.170" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19268" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19301" CreationDate="2017-06-30T17:09:23.020" Score="3" ViewCount="2484" Body="&lt;p&gt;How Yudhishtr had the right to bet a woman’s honour, dignity and character in front of devils like Duryodhan and Dushashan? If he really had the guts to do that, can you really blame Duryodhan for Draupadi’s infamous vastraharan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10181" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T19:22:42.043" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T09:35:38.833" Title="Who was at Fault for Draupadi Vastraharan – Duryodhan Or Yudhishthir?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19269" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-30T17:49:55.453" Score="-7" ViewCount="526" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sky can fall on Earth:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda II.17.5&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fast (Indra) upheld the earth that nourisheth all life, and stayed the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;heaven from falling by his wondrous skill&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cooked articles causes rain:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajur Veda III.49&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The oblation full of cooked articles put into the fire, goes up to the&#xA;  sky. And returns there from full of rain.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajur Veda II.16&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;”We perform the yajna for Vasus, Rudras and Adityas…The desired&#xA;  oblation (Ahuti) reaches the space, comes in contact with air and the&#xA;  light of that sun. It thence brings down rain for us…”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Earth has ends:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda X.58.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thy spirit, that went far away, away to the &lt;strong&gt;four-cornered earth&lt;/strong&gt;, We&#xA;  cause to come to thee again that thou mayst live and sojourn here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Earth is flat:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda III.6.5&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Great are the deeds of thee, the Great, O Agni: thou by thy power hast&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;spread out earth and heaven.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastEditorUserId="10008" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T03:36:59.863" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T03:36:59.863" Title="Do Vedas contain scientifically inaccurate verses?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|yajur-veda|science|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-07-01T03:21:40.900" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19270" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-30T19:07:51.387" Score="2" ViewCount="125" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) But the Vedanta school didn't always have the dominant position in Hindu philosophy; before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now unlike the Vedanta school, which believes that Brahman dispenses rewards and punishments based on people's actions, the Purva Mimamsa school believed that actions create an Apurva or unseen entity, and then that Apurva later brings about a positive or negative result for the person who did the action.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Pjr7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Shabara's commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa school, Shabara argues that Apurvas must exist, because actions no longer exist after they're finished so they cannot directly lead to a result:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it be argued that &quot;on the strength of the declaration of a certain result following from a certain sacrificer, it may be presumed that the act of sacrifice itself does not perish&quot;, the answer is that such a presumption cannot be right; because of the Act itself we do not perceive any other form[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/zA8T&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Kumarila Bhatta's Tantra Vartika, a subcommentary on part of Shabara's Bhashya, Kumarila Bhatta responds to the objection that Shabara's statement that actions are not perceived is incorrect, since actions are by their very nature perceptible to the senses.  Kumarila Bhatta clarifies that Shabara simply means that we do not perceive the action at the time when it bears fruit, not that the action is never perceived:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[In reply to this theory, the Bhashya says - 'we do not perceive any shape of the Action', and against this it is urged that] &quot;This assertion is not quite correct, &lt;strong&gt;because Action has been distinctly mentioned as perceptible  by the Senses, under Sutra 'Rupashabdavibhagacha'&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot; ... What is meant by the assertion that no shape of Action is perceived is that we are not cognizant of any such form of Actions that would enable them to function at a future time, and as for the impermanent forms of Actions that are perceived, these can be of no use in the bringing about of the final Result.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, what scripture contains the Sutra &quot;Rupashabdavibhagacha&quot;?  This Sutra apparently signifies that action is perceptible to the senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In principle this Sutra could be from the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, but I don't think the Purva Mimamsa Sutras contain any such statement.  So I'm thinking that it's most likely from one of the other Darshana Sutras, like the Nyaya Sutras, Vaisheshika Sutras, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-09-08T01:12:31.157" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T01:12:31.157" Title="What scripture contains the verse &quot;Rupashabdavibhagacha&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|vedanta|purva-mimamsa|shad-darshana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19271" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-06-30T20:56:33.380" Score="-2" ViewCount="760" Body="&lt;p&gt;'Shiva linga' is  a form , a symbol of our origin. Form is tangible and objective, thought is intangible and subjective.&#xA;&quot;When 'linga' meets with 'yoni'  we come in this universe, we born ,  we incarnate,  it's a symbol, how we came in existence, how we originated.&quot; If linga and yoni doesn't meet we never born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Someone give me the reason to worship it. It creates more questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;So how the first man and women come to existence?    &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And what is the role of GOD if we need to worship to our body parts?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4061" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T22:42:29.113" Title="Why people worship shiv-ling?" Tags="|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-07-01T05:50:32.930" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19272" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19271" CreationDate="2017-06-30T22:36:28.567" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No one &lt;em&gt;knows for sure&lt;/em&gt; how life began. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scientifically speaking it has been reasoned that very primitive forms of life like amoeba originated and  gradually became organized, became more complex evolving into life forms that evolved in stages like a fish, an animal and man in several avatars with increased function of mind action over the body. Darwin has a popular theory of evolution based on competition,survival and adaptation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Males and females of every species know well how they can initiate life but know almost nothing beyond that.. The male earns or hunts food and provides protection against the elements, the female cares until the young acquire their own capacity to care for themselves.In no other way they know how by artificial means can new life be created or controlled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Spiritually it is believed in many faiths that life is given in and taken out by a Superior composite form that is &lt;em&gt;structured both ways&lt;/em&gt;, integrated in all living entities and at the same time contained within every life form.This spiritual awareness varies across all life forms in many cultures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worship of Shiv-Ling including yoni form is a Bhakthi addressal to the Superior form contained in us about the mysterious cyclic process of creation,sustenance and eventual amalgamation with myriad individual and social group connections.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not worship of the likeness of our own body parts meant for duplication.It is the nature of connection to the Supernatural regarding Adwaithic identity designed to removes ego-centrality. Main difficulty is due to extreme  variance in modes of dependence to God manifested in such vagueness and awareness amongst us. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-06-30T22:42:29.113" LastActivityDate="2017-06-30T22:42:29.113" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19274" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19269" CreationDate="2017-07-01T01:29:01.910" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas are very poetic and the same words could mean very different things in different contexts. I will try to answer some of the points made here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Cooked articles causes rain:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 'cooked articles causing rain' is not very unusual and could mean convection. For example, acid rain is caused as an after-effect of burning coal. If someone mentions that the fumes caused by burning coal goes up and precipitates and comes down as rain, it's quite scientific. Likewise convection rainfall cycle does mention that water vapor rises, cools down into clouds and then due to pressure differences precipitates, so the sun is definitely involved. So the fact that cooked food burning would affect the quality of rainfall is not unscientific.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Earth has ends&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fact that boundaries of the earth have been measured means that the earth has bounds and ends. It's your interpretation that a boundary is two dimensional. And of course, the earth is bounded, it's not endless as your unscientific mind thinks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Earth is Flat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word 'spread out' earth and heaven can mean many many things. It doesn't necessarily mean that the Earth is flat. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In short, it would be useful to paste the exact Sanskrit verses along with your question so that we can eliminate the (European etc) interpretation which is usually poetic and try to derive a more accurate meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastEditorUserId="4133" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T03:20:50.817" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T03:20:50.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19275" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-01T02:16:11.097" Score="9" ViewCount="230" Body="&lt;p&gt;Our Puranas and stories don't mention too much about them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is fate or bhagya inevitable or can it be overcome with karma ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is it just that people try to justify their problems via jyotisha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10304" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T05:01:28.877" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T13:46:16.580" Title="How much effect do Jyotisha and the planets have in human life?" Tags="|karma|astrology|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19276" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19266" CreationDate="2017-07-01T04:29:18.577" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The objective , Purpose and importance of Shradha is greatly discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/garud-puran/garuda-vol-1/chapter-01/topic-13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; -– Preta Kanda – Chapter 10 –Discussion between Krishna and Garuda on Shradha. (श्रीकृष्णगरुड संवादे श्राद्धस्य तृप्तिदत्वनिरूपणं).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In which Garuda asks Shree Krishna questions about Shradha , Importance of it , Why one should perform Shradha ceremony regularly  at Amavsaya day. Objective of it and the benefits etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some of the important varses. -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garuda Uvach  (गरुड उवाच)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मृतानामपि जन्तूनां श्राद्धमाप्यायनं यदि |&lt;br&gt; निर्व्वाणस्य प्रदीपस्य&#xA;तैलं संवद्धयेच्छीस्वाम ||9||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How can a Shraddha gratify the dead ?&lt;/strong&gt; Can oil in the blown out lamp light the wick?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मृताश्च पुरुषा: स्वमिन् स्वकर्मजनिता गतिम् |&lt;br&gt; गाहन्त: के कथं स्वस्य&#xA;सुतस्य श्रेय आप्नुयु ||10||&lt;br&gt; Tell me O Lord ! How does the&#xA;deceased enjoy the fruits of the deeds such as rites of obsequy&#xA;performed by his son ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then Shree Krishna tells him all about  it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्री भगवान उवाच &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रुते: प्रत्यक्षस्ताक्षर्य प्रामाण्यं बलवत्तरम् | &lt;br&gt; श्रुत्या तु&#xA;बोधितार्थस्य पीयुषत्वादिरुपता ||11|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The validity of the tradition ,O lord , is more powerful than the&#xA;validity of of direct perception . The Shruti declares that the food&#xA;served to the Brhamnas in the Shraddha turns into nectar  etc. for the&#xA;departed souls.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नामगोत्रं पितृणाम वै प्रापकं हव्यकव्य यो: |&lt;br&gt; श्राद्धस्य&#xA;मन्त्रास्तद्वत्तु प्रापाकाश्चैव भक्तित: ||12||  &lt;br&gt;  By their names&#xA;and gotras the &lt;strong&gt;manes receive the offering made by the relatives.&lt;/strong&gt; The&#xA;mantras carry same when they are recited with devotion and faith.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अपि योनिशतं प्राप्तांस्तांस्तुप्तिरूपतिष्ठति ||&lt;br&gt; तेषां&#xA;लोकान्तरस्थानां विविधैरर्नाम गोत्रके ||16|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even they assume different species arid reach different worlds  , with&#xA;different names and gotras , they receive the offerings made in their&#xA;favor by their kins.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Shree Krisha tells us why one should perform Shradha regularly on Sarva-Pitri Amavasya day ,without fail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्माच्छाद्भं प्रयत्नेन अमायां कर्तुमर्हति |&lt;br&gt; यदि श्राद्भं&#xA;प्रकुर्वन्ति पुत्राद्यास्य बान्धवा: ||54||  &lt;br&gt; उद्भता ये गयाश्राद्धे&#xA;ब्रह्मलोकंच तै सह ||&lt;br&gt; भजन्ते क्षुप्तिपासा वा न तेषां जायते क्वचित&#xA;||55||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore  , one should carefully perform shradha on the Amavasya day.&#xA;If son or relatives perform shardha at Gaya , &lt;strong&gt;they uplift their&#xA;ancestors from lower regions and themselves enjoy Brahmaloka together&#xA;with the manes. They never suffer from thirst and hunger.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a story in Preta-Kanda Of Garuda purana about a person turned into Ghost , because of non performance of Shradha by his relatives etc. And he then requests a king of that country to perform Shradha for him so that he can be librated from the form he Is assuming.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So even if ancestors are assuming another form they will not get liberated without the Shradha , its believe that they get stuck in whichever form they are.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also  a intresting story of Sita , seeing ancestors of Shree Rama in Chapter 9 &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are lots of verses describing the objective in the chapter , here I am summarizing the objective of Shradha from then.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The performance of Shraddha by a son during Pitru Paksha is regarded as compulsory.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Its believed that our pitras (ancestors suffer from hunger and thirst , wherever and which ever form in they may be , the Shradha&#xA;satisfies their thirs&#xA;t and hunger , they receive the food offered&#xA;during shradha ceremony.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;By performing Shradha by son all the deceased ancestors gets librated , even if they are present in different yonies and the&#xA;performer also gets librated with them.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ancestors gets satisfied by the food offerings and bless the performer with satisfaction.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shradha has to be performed ensure that the soul of the ancestor goes to heaven. . ancestors are content with the shraddhas, they will&#xA;bestow health, wealth, knowledge and   longevity, and ultimately&#xA;heaven and salvation (moksha) upon the performer.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And this is the objective of the Shradha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2018-05-03T17:53:02.317" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19277" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19263" CreationDate="2017-07-01T05:10:41.517" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there are many references in Puranas and agamas (shaiva and shakta) about the actual origin of the creation. Without her creative force nothing else is possible. All the living and non living objects are due to her creative energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Regarding Adi parA shakti:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-50. The Devî said :-- &quot;Hear, Ye Immortals! My words with attention,&#xA;  that I am now going to speak to you, hearing which will enable the&#xA;  Jîvas to realise My Essence. Before the creation, I, only I, existed;&#xA;  nothing else was existent then. My Real Self is known by the names&#xA;  Chit, Sambit (Intelligence), Para Brahma and others. My Âtman is&#xA;  beyond mind, beyond thought, beyond any name or mark, without any&#xA;  parallel, and beyond birth, death or any other change or&#xA;  transformation. My Self has one inherent power called Mâyâ. This Mâyâ&#xA;  is not existent, nor non-existent, nor can it be called both. This&#xA;  unspeakable substance Mâyâ always exists (till the final emancipation&#xA;  or Moksa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am Nirguna. And when I am united with my S'aktî, Mâyâ, 1 become&#xA;  Saguna, the Great Cause of this world. This Mâyâ is divided into two,&#xA;  Vidyâ and Avidyâ. Avidyâ Mâyâ hides Me; whereas Vidyâ Mâyâ does not.&#xA;  Avidyâ creates whereas Vidyâ Mâyâ liberates. (Devi Bhagvatam)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति; from Sanskrit shak, &quot;to be&#xA;  able&quot;), also spelled as Sakthi, meaning &quot;power&quot; or &quot;empowerment&quot; is&#xA;  the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that&#xA;  are thought to move through the entire universe. Shakti is the&#xA;  concept or personification of divine feminine creative power,&#xA;  sometimes referred to as 'The Great Divine Mother' in Hinduism. As the&#xA;  mother she is known as Adi Parashakti or Adishakti. On the earthly&#xA;  plane, Shakti most actively manifests through female embodiment and&#xA;  creativity/fertility, though it is also present in males in its&#xA;  potential, unmanifest form. (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Shaktism and Hindu mythology, Adi Para Shakti—the&#xA;  Goddess, Devi—is the Supreme Being. She is also popularly referred to&#xA;  as &quot;Adi Shakti&quot;, &quot;Parama Shakti&quot;, &quot;Maha Shakti&quot;, &quot;Mahadevi&quot;, or even&#xA;  simply as &quot;Shakti&quot;. &quot;Parama&quot; means absolute, &quot;Satya&quot; means the Truth&#xA;  as per many Shakta texts.&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; The Devi Bhagawata Mahapurana states that&#xA;  Adi Parashakti is the original creator, observer and destroyer of the&#xA;  whole universe. (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Parashakti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Regarding Tri-murtis:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;38-43. O Lord of Rama! I am sprung from the lotus from thy navel and&#xA;    have become the Lord of this whole universe; &lt;strong&gt;who is there in this&#xA;    universe that is superior to Thee; kindly say this to me.&lt;/strong&gt; O Lord of&#xA;    the world? Thou art the Origin of all, the Cause of all causes, the&#xA;    Creator, Preserver and Destroyer and the capable Doer of all actions.&#xA;    O Maharaja! at Thy will, I create this whole universe and Rudra&#xA;    destroys iu due time this world. He is always under Thy command. O&#xA;    Lord! By Thy command the Sun roams in the sky; the wind blows in&#xA;    various auspicious or inauspicious ways and the fire is giving heat&#xA;    and the cloud showers rain. I don’t see in the three Lokas any one&#xA;    superior to Thee. Then whom art Thou meditating while being questioned&#xA;    by his very intelligent son S’uka Deva! not born in the usual way from&#xA;    womb, Dvaipâyana expounded all the secret excellent meanings of the&#xA;    Purâna and thereby I also came to know them also. O saintly persons!&#xA;    Thus S’uka Deva, sincerely earnest to cross this endless bottomless&#xA;    ocean of S’amsara, tasted of the wonderful traits of the Veda, the&#xA;    Kalpa tree, this S’rimad Bhâgavata with its numerous stories and&#xA;    anecdotes with great eagerness and intense pleasure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;44-50. Thus hearing Brahmâ's words, Bhagavan Nârâyana spoke :-- “O&#xA;  Brahmân! I now speak out my mind to you; listen carefully. Though the&#xA;  Devas, Dânavas and men and all the Lokas know that You are the&#xA;  Creator, I am the Preserver and Rudra is the Destroyer, &lt;strong&gt;yet it is to&#xA;  be known that the saints, versed in the Vedas, have come to this&#xA;  conclusion by inference from the Vedas that the creation,&#xA;  preservation, and destruction are performed by the creative force,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  preservative force and destructive force. The Rajasik creative force&#xA;  residing in you, the  Sattvik preservative force residing in me, and&#xA;  the Tamasik destructive force residing in Rudra are the all-in-all.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;When these Saktis become absent, you become inert and incapable to&#xA;  create, I to preserve and Rudra to destroy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O intelligent Suvrata! &lt;strong&gt;We all are always under that Force directly or&#xA;  indirectly; hear instances that you can see and infer.&lt;/strong&gt; At the time of&#xA;  Pralaya, I lie down on the bed of Ananta, subservient to that Force;&#xA;  again I wake up in the time of creation duly under the influence of&#xA;  Time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;51-54. &lt;strong&gt;I am always subservient to that Maha S’akti; (under Her&#xA;  command) I am engaged in Tapasyâ for a long time;&lt;/strong&gt; (By Her command)&#xA;  some time I enjoy with Lakshmî; some time I fight battles, terrible to&#xA;  all the Lokas, with the Dânavas, involving great bodily troubles. O&#xA;  Know of Dharma! It was before Your presence that I fought hand to hand&#xA;  fight for five thousand  years before&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;55-61. O highly fortunate one! &lt;strong&gt;you realised then the great S’akti,&#xA;  higher than the highest and the cause of all causes&lt;/strong&gt;; then why are you&#xA;  asking again and again that question. By the will of that S’akti, I&#xA;  have got this idea of man and roam on the great ocean; &lt;strong&gt;in yuga after&#xA;  yuga, I assume by Her will, the Tortoise, Boar, Man-Lion, and Dwarf&#xA;  incarnations. No one likes to take birth in the womb of inferior&#xA;  animals (especially birds). Do you think that I willingly take&#xA;  unpleasant births as in the womb of boars, tortoise, i.e., certainly&#xA;  not.&lt;/strong&gt; What independent man is there who abandons the pleasurable&#xA;  enjoyment with Laksmi and takes birth in inferior animals as fish,&#xA;  etc. or leaves his seat on the seat of Gaduda and becomes engaged in&#xA;  great war-conflicts. O Svayambhu! In ancient days you saw before your&#xA;  eyes that my head was cut off when the bowstring suddenly gave way;&#xA;  and then you, brought a horse's head and by that help, the divine&#xA;  artist Visvakarma, stuck that on to my headless body. O Brahmâ! Since&#xA;  then I am known amongst men by the name of  “Hayagrîva”. This is&#xA;  well-known to you. Now say, were I independent, would such an ignominy&#xA;  have happened to me? Never. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore I am not independent; I am in&#xA;  every way under that S’akti. O Lotus-born! I always meditate on that&#xA;  S’akti; and I do not know any other than this S’akti&lt;/strong&gt;”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk01ch04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagvat Purana 4.1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T12:12:04.697" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T12:12:04.697" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19279" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-01T06:20:38.087" Score="5" ViewCount="2041" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muchukunda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Muchukunda&lt;/a&gt; was an ancient solar dynasty king who was the son of Vishnu's incarnation Mandhata, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7221/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and the brother of Vishnu's devotee Ambarisha I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2648/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Before the birth of Kartikeya, Muchukunda briefly served as the general of the gods in their battle against the demon Tarakasura.  But similar to the story of Kakudmi, during that brief time a great deal of time had passed on Earth, during which all his family, friends, and citizens had perished.  Since everyone he knew was gone, Muchukunda went inside a mountain cave and slept for eons.  Finally he was awoken during the time of Krishna by the  Greek king Kalayavana, who along with Jarasandha had just attacked Mathura (leading to the Yadavas going to Dwaraka.  Angered by being awoken, Muchukunda burnt Kalayavana to ashes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's all that most people know about Muchukunda, but I'm interested in what happened after that.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/51/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam describes how after Kalayavana was killed, Vishnu appeared before Muchukunda and granted him the following boon:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O emperor, great ruler, your mind is pure and potent. Though I enticed You with benedictions, your mind was not overcome by material desires. Understand that I enticed you with benedictions just to prove that you would not be deceived. The intelligence of My unalloyed devotees is never diverted by material blessings. The minds of nondevotees who engage in such practices as prāṇāyama are not fully cleansed of material desires. Thus, O King, material desires are again seen to arise in their minds. Wander this earth at will, with your mind fixed on Me. May you always possess such unfailing devotion for Me. Because you followed the principles of a kṣatriya, you killed living beings while hunting and performing other duties. You must vanquish the sins thus incurred by carefully executing penances while remaining surrendered to Me. &lt;strong&gt;O King, in your very next life you will become an excellent brāhmaṇa, the greatest well-wisher of all creatures, and certainly come to Me alone.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, what was the next birth of Muchukunda as an &quot;excellent Brahmana&quot;?  Did this birth already happen, or is it going to happen in future?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/52/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam says that Muchukunda subsequently went to Badarikashrama to engage in Tapasya, but it doesn't say when or how he died. In any case, there are claims that Prahlada was reborn as the Dvaita philosopher Raghavendra, that Arjuna was reborn as the Shaivite poet Kannappa, etc.  Are there any claims that some Kali Yuga figure was a rebirth of Muchukunda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T10:13:07.330" LastActivityDate="2023-01-19T21:15:09.610" Title="What was Muchukunda's next birth?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|krishna|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19280" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-01T06:36:33.480" Score="1" ViewCount="368" Body="&lt;p&gt;Suppose, Jupiter or Brihaspati Graha is placed in the 6th house from the ascendant in some chart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this placement considered good for bad for the native?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some say it's not good but some others say that, since Guru is always a beneficial planet, it's good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10304" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T06:51:01.693" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T13:44:06.830" Title="Is the placement of Jupiter (Guru) in the sixth house good or bad?" Tags="|astrology|brihaspati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19282" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16874" CreationDate="2017-07-01T09:16:38.120" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva exists in Ardhanaarishwara(pronounced as Arthanārīśvara in IAST) from the beginning of time because Shiva and Shakti are inseparable. But the story of Lord Shiva appearing as Ardhanaarishwara is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-82/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Mahapurana, Shatarudra Samhita, Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt;. The story goes like this: At the beginning of creation when Lord Brahma was creating people but they were very less in number. Then he became frustrated and then the a divine sound from sky said him to continue production by couples. Then Lord Brahma meditated on Lord Shiva united with Shakti. Then Lord Shiva pleased with him and take the form of Ardhanaarishwara and appeared before Lord Brahma and guided him to increase progeny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नन्दीश्वर उवाच&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रृणु तात! महाप्राज्ञ! विधिकामप्रपूरकम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अर्द्धनारीनराख्यं हि शिवरूपमनुत्तमम्॥ १॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nandisvara said, “O Great intellectual one, O Dear one, you kindly describe the excellent Siva's form of Ardhanarisvara which fulfilled the desires of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यदा सृष्टाः प्रजाः सर्वा न व्यवर्द्धन्त वेधसा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तदा चिन्ताकुलोऽभूत्स तेन दुःखेन दुःखितः ॥ २॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When there had been little evolution of the people created by Brahma, he felt extremely painful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नभोवाणी तदाऽभूद्वै सृष्टिं मिथुनजां कुरु।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तच्छ्रुत्वा मैथुनीं सृष्टिं ब्रह्मा कर्तुममन्यत॥ ३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then there was a divine sound from the sky said, &amp;quot;Carry on the creation produced by the couples' (i.e. the male and the female). Then Brahma thought of the creation based on the sexual relations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नारीणां कुलमीशानान्निर्गतं न पुरा यतः।&lt;br&gt; ततो मैथुनजां सृष्टिं कर्तुं शेके न पद्मभूः॥४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earlier to that the race had not appeared out of the sexual intercourse with the females. Therefore Brahma could not create the world based on sexual relationship earlier.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रभावेणा विना शम्भोर्न जायेरन्त्रिमाः प्रजाः।&lt;br&gt; एवं सञ्चिन्तयन्ब्रह्मा तपः कर्तुं प्रचक्रमे॥ ५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma thought that the creation cannot be progressed without the influence of Šiva. Therefore he started performing tapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिवाय परया शक्त्या संयुक्त परमेश्वरम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सञ्चिन्त्य हृदये प्रीत्या तपेशं परमं तपः।। ६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then he meditated upon Siva united with the great Sakti called Siva in a combined way performing severe tapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तीव्रेण तपसा तस्य संयुक्तस्य स्वयम्भुवः।&lt;br&gt; अचिरेणैव कालेन तुतोष स शिवो द्रुतम्॥७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Observing the severe austerities of Brahma, lord Siva was rapidly pleased with him within no time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ततः पूर्णचिदीशस्य मूर्तिमाविश्य कामदाम्।&lt;br&gt; अर्द्धनारीनरो भूत्वा ततो ब्रह्मान्तिकं हरः॥८॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Isvara- the form of complete consciousness, entered into the Ardhanarisvara form, representing half male and half female and he appeared before Brahmā.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar kind of story with slight variation is also mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp041.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana, Book 1, Chapter 7&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PARÁŚARA.--From Brahmá, continuing to meditate, were born mind-engendered progeny, with forms and faculties derived from his corporeal nature; embodied spirits, produced from the person of that all-wise deity. All these beings, front the gods to inanimate things, appeared as I have related to you, being the abode of the three qualities: but as they did not multiply themselves, Brahmá created other mind-born sons, like himself; namely, Bhrigu, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Angiras, Maríchi, Daksha, Atri, and Vaśisht́ha: these are the nine Brahmas (or Brahma rishis) celebrated in the Puráńas. Sanandana and the other sons of Brahmá were previously created by him, but they were without desire or passion, inspired with holy wisdom, estranged from the universe, and undesirous of progeny. This when Brahmá perceived, he was filled with wrath capable of consuming the three worlds, the flame of which invested, like a garland, heaven, earth, and hell. &lt;strong&gt;Then from his forehead, darkened with angry frowns, sprang Rudra, radiant as the noon-tide sun, fierce, and of vast bulk, and of a figure which was half male, half female&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T14:25:58.353" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19284" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-01T09:50:30.580" Score="3" ViewCount="1468" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/brahmandapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;LalitA sahasranAma&lt;/a&gt; is one of the popular hymns in Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a verse in it which says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Karanguli nakhotpanna narayana dashakrutih Mahapashu patastragni&#xA;  nirdagdhasura sainika&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it mean that the 10 incarnations of Vishnu have come from the fingernails of Sri lalitA or there are any other meanings of this verse? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my another &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19277/7853&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;answer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; I have shared similar idea of &lt;strong&gt;Trimurtis&lt;/strong&gt; and 10 incarnations emerged from the &lt;strong&gt;goddess&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-04T05:41:10.793" LastActivityDate="2019-02-05T07:42:59.410" Title="What is the actual meaning of &quot; Karanguli nakhotpanna narayana dashakrutih&quot; of Lalita Sahasranama?" Tags="|vishnu|shaktism|lalita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19285" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19275" CreationDate="2017-07-01T09:53:52.600" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a passage that might be considered a partial answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grahas in Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Markandeya answered, ‘There are three kinds of purity, viz., purity in&#xA;  speech, purity in deed, and purity achieved by use of water. He that&#xA;  has recourse to these three kinds of purity, attains, without doubt,&#xA;  to heaven. That Brahmana who adoreth the goddess Sandhya in the&#xA;  morning and the evening, and who recites meditatively the sacred&#xA;  goddess Gayatri who is the mother of the Vedas, sanctified by the&#xA;  latter, is freed from all his sins. Even if he accepts in gift the&#xA;  entire earth with her oceans, he doth not, on that account, suffer the&#xA;  least unhappiness. &lt;strong&gt;And those heavenly bodies in the sky including the&#xA;  sun that may be inauspicious and hostile towards him soon becomes&#xA;  auspicious and favorable towards him in consequence of these acts of&#xA;  his, while those stars that are auspicious and favorable become more&#xA;  auspicious and favorable in consequence of such conduct of his&lt;/strong&gt;.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata, Vana Parva, Section CLXLIX&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T09:53:52.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19286" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19275" CreationDate="2017-07-01T12:25:41.413" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your karmas decide your future therefore, perform your duty without any attachment, this is what Sri Krishna taught in Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In London, a young man used to come to me and ask me, “What will become of me next year?” I asked him why he asked me so. “I have lost all my money and have become very, very poor.” Money is the only God of many beings. Weak men, when they lose everything and feel themselves weak, try all sorts of uncanny methods of making money, and come to astrology and all these things. &lt;strong&gt;“It is the coward and the fool who says, ‘This is fate'”&lt;/strong&gt; – so says the Sanskrit proverb. But it is the strong man who stands up and says, “I will make my fate.” It is people who are getting old who talk of fate. Young men generally do not come to astrology. We may be under planetary influence, but it should not matter much to us. &lt;strong&gt;Buddha says, “Those that get a living by calculation of the stars by such art and other lying tricks are to be avoided”&lt;/strong&gt;; and he ought to know, because he was the greatest Hindu ever born. Let stars come, what harm is there? If a star disturbs my life, it would not be worth a cent. You will find that astrology and all these mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind; therefore as soon as they are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food and rest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Be strong, don't dwell on planetary positions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is fate or bhagya inevitable or can it be overcome with karma ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, fate can be overcome with karma. There is a type of karma known as prarabdha karma. You can't overcome Prarabdha entirely but you can change the intensity of the effect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Sarada Devi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One has to suffer the consequences of one’s deeds. But by repeating the Name of God, you can lessen its intensity. If you were destined to have a wound as wide as a ploughshare, you will get a pin-prick at least. The effect of Karma can be counteracted to a great extent by Japa and austerities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T12:25:41.413" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19287" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-01T13:28:34.823" Score="15" ViewCount="8255" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can a younger sibling marry before elder sibling in Hinduism?(Especially girls)What do sastras say about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T14:09:20.800" LastActivityDate="2023-01-24T16:47:25.077" Title="Can a younger sibling marry before elder sibling in Hinduism?" Tags="|marriage|women|smriti|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19288" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19268" CreationDate="2017-07-01T13:35:31.187" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's hardly a opinion based question, as critical editions removes Draupadi's disrobing events considering it to be a later addition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Take a look at the two conversation's below from KMG : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhistir admits that he tried to snatch the kingdom from Duryodhana :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira to Bhima-&quot;I sought to cast the dice desiring to snatch&#xA;  from Dhritarashtra's son his_kingdom with the sovereignty. It was&#xA;  therefore that, that cunning gambler--Suvala's son--played against me&#xA;  on behalf of Suyodhana. Sakuni, a native of the hilly country, is&#xA;  exceedingly_artful. Casting the dice in the presence of the assembly, unacquainted as I am with artifices of any kind, he&#xA;  vanquished me artfully.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/&lt;/a&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Yudhisthira himself accepted that Sakuni defeated him artfully in dice. Yudhisthira called Sakuni artful (skilled) in dice. He also accepted that he was unacquainted with the artifices [unskilled] in dice and that's why he was defeated [vanquished].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;View of Balarama about Yudhistir :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Yudhishthira, though not skilled in dice and though dissuaded by all&#xA;  his friends, challenged the son of the king of Gandhara, an adept at&#xA;  dice, to the match. There were then at that place thousands of&#xA;  dice-players whom Yudhishthira could defeat in a match. Taking&#xA;  however, no notice of any of them, he challenged Suvala's son of all&#xA;  men to the game, and so he lost. And although the dice constantly went&#xA;  against him, he would still have Sakuni alone for his opponent.&#xA;  Competing with Sakuni in the play, he sustained a crushing defeat. For&#xA;  this, no blame can attach to Sakuni&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So even the characters from Mahabharata couldn't decide correctly about  who's wrong in case of the dice game.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as per the deal Kauravas should have given Pandavas their land, when they decided no to, we can say Kauravas were at fault .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if we consider Yudhistira was at fault for the dice game they paid for it in the 13-year exile, also we should remember war didn't occur for Draupadi, it broke loose only when Duryodhana refused to offer 5 villages to Pandavas, so the dice game incident doesn't change the outcome .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10063" LastEditorUserId="10063" LastEditDate="2017-07-03T09:35:38.833" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T09:35:38.833" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19290" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19275" CreationDate="2017-07-01T13:46:16.580" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many think that believing in astrology make one believe in fatalism and conclude that it is hindrance to progress. But this is pessimistic call, in my personal experience in this field for 40 years, astrology is other way i.e. astrology helped many individual to take better decision based on their inherent strength. To explain this with an analogy seeking astrologer’s guidance is like taking map with you during your travel which helps to reach the destination quickly with less confusion. One has to understand Karma theory to appreciate this aspect of astrology, I will touch up some portion of karma today, please refer our previous post here to know how Karma theory relates to astrology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are three types of Karma viz., Sanchita, Parabdha and Agami. For the present topic of interest we will consider Sanchita &amp;amp; Parabdha and leave Agami for now. Sanchita is stored karma based on our past acts whereas Parabdha is what we do with our present state of existence. Planetary position in the horoscope are simply indicating the karmic results that are stored based on previous karma, one can augment or minimize the past karmic results by Parabdha karma by the aid of will power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me explain with a simple mathematical equation, let us consider person A is bestowed with equation 5X2+10X in one aspect of life. What outcome that person would get based on his equation is purely depend on what he substitutes to X which is complete free will of person A. Thus to conclude astrology is not about fate or destiny, it simply indicates the good or evil effects of previous karma and leaves it to man to build his future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please read our article &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.innovativeastrosolutions.com/single-post/2014/05/17/Astrology-and-Fatalism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Astrology and Fatalism&lt;/a&gt;&quot; for more details&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9237" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T13:46:16.580" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19292" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8113" CreationDate="2017-07-01T13:58:09.097" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Astrology considers seven planets Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and two nodes Rahu and Ketu. Since astrology is study of planetary influence viewing them from earth constellation or Zodiac becomes reference frame. Each constellation consists of group of stars called Nakshatra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedic astrology Moon sign is calculated based on Moon transition through different constellation, so based on placement of Moon on a particular nakshatra Moon sign will be calculated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please read our article &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.innovativeastrosolutions.com/single-post/2014/04/04/Zodiac---Frame-of-Reference-in-Astrology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Zodiac - Frame of Reference in Astrology&lt;/a&gt;&quot; for more understanding&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9237" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T13:58:09.097" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19294" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12194" CreationDate="2017-07-01T14:11:15.990" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In astrology 6th house indicates disease and 12th house indicates hospital. Planets Sun indicates soul and health of the person. Mars is Roga karaka and Saturn is Roga bhavathipathi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ancient Indian culture it is considered world have five forms of energy Earth (prithvi), water, fire, Air, ether(akash). Earth is what we live upon and ether is above us so leaving these 2 human body primarily have 3 form of energy Water, Air and Fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any disease is mere indication of these 3 energy imbalance. Now from astrological chart we can easily find out what imbalance can a person get during particular dasha bukti. Mars and Sun are fiery planets, Venus &amp;amp; Moon are watery and Saturn airy planet. Signs Aries, Leo and Sagittarius are fiery signs. Sign Cancer, Scorpio and Pieces are watery signs. Signs Gemini, Libra and Aquarius are Airy signs. Based on above planetary and Sign relationship with 6th house one can logically conclude the ailment a person will have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Sun rules modern medicine and Saturn rules traditional medicine. Based on relationship of 6th lord or 6th house with Sun or Saturn we can logically conclude the person is suitable for modern medicine or traditional medicine(Ayurveda or homeopathic medicine).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9237" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-02T05:01:32.167" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T05:01:32.167" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19295" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19279" CreationDate="2017-07-01T14:39:56.303" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Past life of Pundalik – Story of Muchukunda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Ikshvaku&lt;/strong&gt; (Suryavamsha) dynasty, there lived a King named &lt;strong&gt;Mandhata&lt;/strong&gt;, who had a son named &lt;strong&gt;Muchukunda&lt;/strong&gt;, whom he later crowned King. Once, in a battle between the &lt;strong&gt;Gods and the demons&lt;/strong&gt;, the Gods were defeated. They rushed to King Muchukunda and asked for his help. He assumed the role of an able commander and protected the Gods until &lt;strong&gt;Kartikeya, the son of Lord Shiva,&lt;/strong&gt; could assume the mantle. &lt;strong&gt;Lord Indra&lt;/strong&gt; and the other Gods then thanked King Muchkunda, who had spent time in heaven, where one year equalled three hundred and sixty years of earth. In the meantime, his kingdom and family had all gone due to the passage of time. Indra, then pleased with him, granted him to select any boon (except liberation). Muchukunda was very tired as he had been on guard all the time and unable to get any sleep so he requested the boon for unlimited sleep with the clause that if disturbed, the person who disturbed him would be burnt to ashes. Indra granted him his boon and Muchukunda descended to earth and selected a cave where he could sleep without disturbance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, there was a great Yavana warrior king named &lt;strong&gt;Kalayavan&lt;/strong&gt;, who became vain and cruel as he was unmatched in battle. He learnt that &lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; was the only person who could defeat him in battle and hence challenged him to war. When they faced each other in battle, Krishna dismounted from his chariot and proceeded to the cave where Muchukunda was sleeping. Kalayavan was surprised and began to follow him. Entering the dark cave, he mistook Muchukunda for Krishna in the darkness and attacked him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Muchukunda was rudely disturbed, and his gaze fell on Kalayavan, who was immediately burnt to ashes. He then saw Lord Krishna, and was thrilled by this sight. Krishna blessed him and advised him to observe penances to cleanse himself of all sins, and promised him that his next birth would be his last one after which he would get liberation (Moksha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Muchukunda&lt;/strong&gt; was reborn as &lt;strong&gt;Pundalik&lt;/strong&gt; which was his &lt;strong&gt;last birth&lt;/strong&gt;, after which he achieved &lt;strong&gt;Moksha&lt;/strong&gt; at the feet of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vithoba of Pandharpur&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Legend of Pundalik&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are &lt;strong&gt;three&lt;/strong&gt; versions of the legend of Pundalik with two of them mentioned in the Skanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;first&lt;/strong&gt; version states that ascetic Pundarika (Pundalik) was a &lt;strong&gt;great devotee of Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; and a dutiful son who served his aged parents well. Lord Krishna came as a cowherd to meet Pundarika and enraptured with his divine form Pundarika asked him to sanctify the place and make it a holy &lt;strong&gt;Thirtha Kshetra&lt;/strong&gt;, or pilgrimage site by remaining there in the same beautiful form, on the &lt;strong&gt;banks of the river Bhima&lt;/strong&gt;. This image is said to be the present day image of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vithoba and the holy place is identified as the modern day Pandharpur.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;second&lt;/strong&gt; version of this legend states that Lord Vithoba appeared before Pundalik in the &lt;strong&gt;form of infant Krishna (Bala Krishna)&lt;/strong&gt; which is found in some of the manuscripts of the Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;third&lt;/strong&gt; version is the most popular legend which stated that Pundalik was the son of &lt;strong&gt;Janudev and Satyavati&lt;/strong&gt;. They lived in a forest called &lt;strong&gt;Dandirvan&lt;/strong&gt; and he looked after them well. However, after his marriage, he spent all his time with his wife and began neglecting his aged parents. His parents decided to leave for &lt;strong&gt;Kashi in order to attain salvation&lt;/strong&gt; as was believed by many devout Hindus. Pundalik and his wife too decided to accompany them. They made their journey comfortable by riding horses, but his parents were made to walk and perform all the chores during the journey. On the way they reached the ashram of a revered sage named &lt;strong&gt;Kukkuta&lt;/strong&gt;, who hospitably gave them shelter. That night when they were all asleep, Pundalik had a remarkable vision. He saw a group of beautiful women in soiled clothes entering the ashram and after performing chores for the sage like cleaning the ashram, washing his clothes and fetching water they entered the prayer room and after prayer they emerged with clean clothes and disappeared. Pundalik remained as if in a trance with a great sense of calm and decided to witness it the next night too. He approached the women and asked them who they were and the significance behind their actions. They informed him that they were the holy rivers of India, who were defiled when people took a holy dip in their waters to wash away their sins.  They then stated that he was the greatest sinner due to his ill treatment of his parents. Pundalik was shocked and suddenly there was an inner transformation in him. He then began to serve his parents dutifully and lovingly. Impressed with him, Lord Vishnu decided to test him and approached him, but Pundalik wished to complete his duties first and &lt;strong&gt;throwing a brick&lt;/strong&gt; he requested &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu to stand on it&lt;/strong&gt; and wait for him until he finished his service. Some legends state that &lt;strong&gt;Rukmini was displeased with Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; and left him, so Lord Krishna had come searching for her. After he had found her, they reached Pundalik’s house, where he asked them to wait while he served his parents. He then rushed to the Lord, thinking that the Lord would be angry at the tardy reception but the Lord impressed with his unflinching attitude of service and devotion to his parents granted him a boon. Pundalik requested him to stay back on earth and bless all his devotees. The Lord agreed and the temple of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vithoba&lt;/strong&gt; came up there along with his consort &lt;strong&gt;Goddess Rakhumai&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ancient texts&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pundalik is credited with the bringing of Lord Vithoba to &lt;strong&gt;Pandharpur&lt;/strong&gt;. He is also said to be the &lt;strong&gt;founder of the Varkari sect&lt;/strong&gt; which &lt;strong&gt;propagates the worship and devotion of Lord Vithoba.&lt;/strong&gt; The legends are classified into &lt;strong&gt;three&lt;/strong&gt; traditions, namely the &lt;strong&gt;Varkari&lt;/strong&gt; tradition, the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmin&lt;/strong&gt; tradition and the &lt;strong&gt;third&lt;/strong&gt; which is an &lt;strong&gt;amalgamation&lt;/strong&gt; of both traditions. The Varkari texts are &lt;strong&gt;Bhaktalilamrita, Bhaktavijaya, Pundalika Mahatmya and Namdev abhanga&lt;/strong&gt; written in &lt;strong&gt;Marathi&lt;/strong&gt;, the Brahmin texts are &lt;strong&gt;Panduranga Mahatmya&lt;/strong&gt; from the &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, another &lt;strong&gt;Panduranga Mahatmya and Bhima Mahatmya&lt;/strong&gt; from the &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; and another &lt;strong&gt;Panduranga Mahatmya&lt;/strong&gt; from &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt; in &lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;third&lt;/strong&gt; tradition are written by Brahmins &lt;strong&gt;Sridhara and Prahlad Maharaj&lt;/strong&gt; but in &lt;strong&gt;Marathi&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference in scriptures&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; contain references to &lt;strong&gt;Panduranga Kshetra&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Paundarikakshetra&lt;/strong&gt;. There are stories related to various places in Pandharpur. Some archaeological excavations show similarities between &lt;strong&gt;Shri Venkatesha&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Shri Vithoba&lt;/strong&gt;. Both the &lt;strong&gt;icons&lt;/strong&gt; have their &lt;strong&gt;hands&lt;/strong&gt; on their &lt;strong&gt;waist (Katinyasta Kara)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/sacred-places/temples/pandharpur-vittal-temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/sacred-places/temples/pandharpur-vittal-temple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8955" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T14:39:56.303" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19296" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24845" CreationDate="2017-07-01T15:02:00.990" Score="7" ViewCount="495" Body="&lt;p&gt;I always wondered, why Gita contains 1&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; chapter, which doesn't have much of sermons unlike other chapters!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or for that matter why Gita doesn't start with Krishna commencing on divine teachings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10330" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T15:09:51.953" LastActivityDate="2018-03-05T17:27:54.430" Title="What is the importance of 1st chapter in Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|scripture|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19297" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-01T16:11:53.333" Score="2" ViewCount="53" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virata_Parva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;virAta parva&lt;/a&gt; of MahAbhArata. There was a great battle of Virata where Arjuna defeated the whole of Kuru army single handedly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If he did not have any guilt, fear, sorrow in fighting with his own people in Virata then why he had such issues only during the final Kurukshetra battle? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T16:11:53.333" Title="Why did Arjuna not have any issues fighting with the Kurus in VirAta battle?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|kurukshetra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-07-02T04:02:01.123" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19298" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19299" CreationDate="2017-07-01T16:28:35.947" Score="8" ViewCount="1458" Body="&lt;p&gt;Even after the death, only shrAdha ceremony will help the soul to reach heaven. The soul will mostly reincarnate in same blood line so can we conclude the relationship between father and son is eternal. Can we say relationship with son is only going to help even after death and that is the way to attain immortality, so it is &lt;em&gt;eternal&lt;/em&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10259" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2019-03-22T05:23:31.480" LastActivityDate="2019-03-22T13:50:13.607" Title="Is relationship between father and son eternal?" Tags="|dharma|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19299" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19298" CreationDate="2017-07-01T16:44:24.387" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a way yes. Their relation is eternal because son is said to be the own self of the father, his atma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;angad angat sambhavasi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt; hrdayad abhijayase&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atma vai putra-namasi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt; sañjiva saradah satam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“You have taken birth from my various limbs and have arisen from my&#xA;  very heart. You are my own self in the form of my son. May you live&#xA;  through a hundred autumns.” This verse appears in the &lt;strong&gt;Satapatha&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt; (14.9.8.4), &lt;strong&gt;Kaushitaki brahmana&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad&lt;/strong&gt; (6.4.8).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.78.36&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sri-bhagavan uvaca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atma vai putra utpanna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt; iti vedanusasanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasmad asya bhaved vakta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt; ayur-indriya-sattva-van&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Lord said: The Vedas instruct us that one’s own self takes&#xA;  birth again as one’s son. Thus let Romaharsana’s son become the&#xA;  speaker of the Puranas, and let him be endowed with long life, strong&#xA;  senses and stamina.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatamclass.com/srimad-bhagavatam-canto-10-chapter-78-text-36/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, there are some injunctions in the shastras which show that the self itself takes birth as a son. Hence the relation is of soul and not of flesh alone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2019-03-22T13:50:13.607" LastActivityDate="2019-03-22T13:50:13.607" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19300" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14971" CreationDate="2017-07-01T16:49:08.357" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Intention of setting fire to Hanuman's tail at Ravana's behest was to avoid killing a Doota but to cause a minor hurt in order to to teach him and Rama a lesson. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setting fire to Lanka using tail as a the fire-torch device was an act of defiance by Hanuman towards Ravana to show that such action cannot hurt him. He in retaliation decided to cause only  property destruction in order to teach back a lesson.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-07-01T20:56:47.520" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T20:56:47.520" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19301" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19268" CreationDate="2017-07-01T17:34:19.647" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;After reading  above comments and answer just my opinion is, i don't think only Kauravas were responsible for draupadi’s fate ,i think all the people who was presented in raj sabha are equally responsible.&#xA;Because, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wasn’t it the mistake of Yudhishtir to bet Draupadi, his wife in the very first place? Well, if Yudhishtir considers Draupadi as an object and bets her in a game of dice, then Duryodhan being the winner of the game as well as the object don’t you think so had every right to do anything to the winning thing ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma Pitama, Vidur and Guru Drona crying and almost begging in front of Duryodhan for leaving Draupadi alone.&#xA;I still don’t understand Why they did not request Yudhishtir to stop the game when the question of betting Draupadi was raised in a game of dice ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhan was a adharmi so obvious he didn’t listen to them but Yudhishtir for them was a dharmi. Don’t you think they should have asked Yudhishtir to stop his nonsense of betting people in the game of dice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10181" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T17:34:19.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19302" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19268" CreationDate="2017-07-01T17:54:19.600" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, whatever opinion we will give here that will be based on today's mentality/culture/thinking instead of Dwapar yuga's. Time changed a lot now, so our thoughts towards various incidents also changed. We sees world with different views than people used to see in Dwapar yuga. If you think any incident is wrong then it's just your thinking (based on today's teachings/observation) But people of Dwapar yuga might see same incident with different point of view than us. So our opinion will be kaliyuga's opinion which can't judge properly every deeds of Dwapar yuga because we don't know how they use to see world that time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now lets come to the question&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although I am not going to give my personal opinion (already told u why) BUT you should have known one thing that Yudhishtir was Dharmaraaj. He had full knowledge of Dharma. He knew the brief difference between good and bad. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his lifespan no sin has done by his hand and proof of this can be seen in a story where Pandwas try to go heaven with their body But only Yudhishtir was able to reach heaven with his body, only because of one reason that he was sinless. More brief story I have read earlier in this site also but don't remember what was that post (where pandwas try to go heaven) else I wanted to attach link of that post but couldn't find it here right now (I will update when I will find it).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishtir did only one sin (which was necessary that time) in his life which was at Mahabharat war when he try to show fake death of Ashwathama to Draunacharya. And He got punishment for his that sin in Narka in form of maya (Illusion). No other sin has done by Yudhishtir, Hence it's proved that Draupadi's vastraharan's culprit was not Yudhishtir. Mahabharat story Itself gives the answer of that at the end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastActivityDate="2017-07-01T17:54:19.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19303" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18950" CreationDate="2017-07-01T21:42:24.200" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not Govardhan Mutt in particular, but Kanchi Peeth and others also had acquaintance of these, most probably Baudhayana's Sulbasutras for accurately computing among other computational requirements diagonals of square shape enclosures for sacrificial Homas etc. Authenticity of Vedic maths exists in all the Maths. I suppose they were all expected to know these mathematics as part of ancient Vedic ritual knowledge and training. Sulvasuthras are mentioned in the cited article also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a short email exchange with Cornell University NY Mathematics professor D.W.Henderson informed me about his visit to India. The linked article grew out of researches which were started during his January 1990 visit to the Sankaracharya Mutt in Kanchipuram Tamil Nadu, India where he was given access to the Mutt's library. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above is about the mental calculations and ability to do so known widely as a matters of known fact from earlier times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_Mathematics_(book)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki Govardhan Mutt version of VM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sankaracharya may have in his meditative and metal states (as did also Ramanujan) just filled up the blanks and established connections to state the 16 techniques with clarity.The point of contention here seems  to be that the Sankaracharya had no authority to state them using other words to convey identity of process content  that was to his mind quite obviously the same as what was implied from Atharvana Veda! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Indian or Hindu philosophy values the content over format, values  the &lt;em&gt;what?&lt;/em&gt; over the &lt;em&gt;how?&lt;/em&gt;. When the content is same, it is no more &quot;another version&quot; (The Trachtenberg techniques form a subset).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To my mind he did not at all plagiarize nor outstep his authority nor taken any  part of the Vedic Law in this respect into his own hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However it is to be not viewed as blasphemous to respectfully question any figure of authority.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.math.cornell.edu/~dwh/papers/sulba/sulba.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prof Henderson  Visit to Kanchi Kama Koti Peetham&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-07-02T19:20:55.133" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T19:20:55.133" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19304" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-02T03:15:18.197" Score="1" ViewCount="91" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know about mythical bows and weapons like Brahmastra, etc. So please tell which scripture talks about divine weapons, etc.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10332" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-02T03:37:43.410" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T03:37:43.410" Title="Which Hindu scripture talks about weapons and mythical objects? Please guide me with links to apt books" Tags="|weapon|brahmastra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19305" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19308" CreationDate="2017-07-02T06:02:52.780" Score="6" ViewCount="1252" Body="&lt;p&gt;Idol:- An image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God:- The creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the supreme being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question was, What is difference between Worshiping God and Idol? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T11:55:42.723" Title="What is the difference between worshiping an idol or image and worshiping God?" Tags="|gods|worship|idols|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19306" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19284" CreationDate="2017-07-02T06:39:46.757" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Sri Vidya Acharya Bhaskararaya gives two interpretations of the name in &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/nk975F/IMG_1558.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Lalita Sahasranama Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Nails&quot;, joints of the nails or fingertips.  Ten forms of Narayana are the ten incarnations of Vishnu, viz., Fish, Tortoise, Boar, Man-Lion, Dwarf, Parashurama, Rama, Balarama, Krishna, Kalki.... Or, &quot;Ten forms&quot;: the word in the text is Dashakritih, which may also be taken to mean the five states of Jiva and the five functions of Ishvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the worldview of the Shaiva and Shakta Agamas, the Jiva is said to have five states, namely waking, dreaming, deep sleep, Turiya, and Turiyatita.  And Ishwara is said to perform five functions, namely creation, preservation, destruction, obscuration, and liberation.  So Bhaskararaya is suggesting that these may be the ten forms being referred to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-02T16:24:17.403" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T16:24:17.403" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19307" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-02T06:45:11.783" Score="11" ViewCount="2110" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Movies and Serials say Lord Muruga was &lt;strong&gt;Student of Lord Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; and  asked for &lt;strong&gt;Explanation of OM&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Then &lt;strong&gt;Lord Brahma tried to give Explanation of OM&lt;/strong&gt;  but Lord Muruga was not satisfied with his explanation.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After that &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva tried to give the explanation of OM&lt;/strong&gt; even after that Lord Muruga was Not Satisfied. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Finally Lord Muruga became a &lt;strong&gt;Guru to Lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; and taught him the Complete Explanation of OM .&lt;BR/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Was Lord Muruga &lt;strong&gt;Guru&lt;/strong&gt; to Lord Shiva and gave the complete explanation of OM ?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Did Lord Muruga gave OM explanation in &lt;strong&gt;2 Crore verses&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-07-08T10:51:15.930" LastActivityDate="2023-04-26T13:07:01.667" Title="Was Lord Muruga Guru to Lord Shiva and taught him the complete explanation of OM?" Tags="|shiva|gods|guru|kartikeya|om|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19308" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19305" CreationDate="2017-07-02T08:50:26.350" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My question is, What is difference between Worshiping God and Idol?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no difference at all. Worshiping God in an idol is one of the many methods of worshiping him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;There are many methods of worshiping God, with worshiping in idols just being one among them&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agnou Tishtathi ViprAnam Hrudi Devo ManishinAm |&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;PratimAswapravuddhAnAm&lt;/strong&gt; Sarvatra ViditAtmanAm ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the Brahmins God resides in fire, for the manishi (or mahatma) God&#xA;  resides in his heart, &lt;strong&gt;for the unintelligent (apravuddha) he resides in idols&lt;/strong&gt; but&#xA;  for the self-realized he resides everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 9-44.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, by saying &quot;for Brahmins God resides in fire&quot; Lord Shiva is referring to the fire rituals or the yajnas, where God is invoked in the fire. And, which is one of the ways of worshiping God. Similarly, for the &quot;not so adept&quot; ones, worshiping in idols is recommended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;If God is present everywhere why worship him in some specific objects?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For most us, imagining things that are formless , shapeless are hard things to do. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, for the benefit of us , the method of invoking and worshiping Gods in images and idols (which have forms that we can easily relate to) is prescribed in scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ChinmayasyAprameyasya NirgunasyAsaririnaha| &lt;strong&gt;SAdhakAnAm HitArthAya&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Brahmano Rupakalpana ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For the benefit of the sadhaka&lt;/strong&gt; the pure consciousness called &lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; , which is unfathomable (aprameya), without attributes (nirguna) and without any physical form (asariri) &lt;strong&gt;is imagined to&#xA;  have a form (rupakalpana).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kularnava Tantram 6-73.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For that very reason we assign form (rupa) to the formless (arupa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;arupAm Rupinim KritvA&lt;/strong&gt; KarmakandaratA NarAh |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahamayi Shakti which is without form (arupa) is given a form and then &#xA;  worshiped at various places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 6-75.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;GavAm sarvAngajam Kshiram Sravet StanamukhAt YathA | TathA Sarvagato&#xA;  Devah PratimAdishu RAjate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as though milk is formed from the constituents all over the body&#xA;  of the cow, it flows out only through the teats of its udder,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;similarly the Divine who is all pervading shines specially resplendent&#xA;  in Images and the like.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KUlArnava Tantram 6-76.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;We worship Gods in idols and not just lifeless objects.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The process of invoking the presence of Gods in idols is called the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prana_Pratishtha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pranapratishtha ceremony&lt;/a&gt;. It involves the use of mantras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, unless prana pratishtha is done on the idol (or image),  worship does not bear any fruits as the following verse says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sakalikritya &lt;strong&gt;TathprAnAn SamuddipyendriyAni Cha |&#xA;  PratishthA&lt;/strong&gt;pyArchayeddevi &lt;strong&gt;ChAnyathA Nishphalam Bhavet&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Sakalikaran (a ritual which uses mantras), and after installing&#xA;  life-force (prana) and senses (indriya) of the Gods, worship should be&#xA;  commenced. &lt;strong&gt;Otherwise the act is fruitless.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 6-80.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Mantra is not different from the respective Deity&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For some people it might appear as strange how mantras (which will appear to the naive) as just combinations of some varnas (alphabets) have the power to invoke life force in the lifeless. Then for them, we have the following verse which says that a mantra is not different from the God. The Mantra itself is God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yantram Mantramayam Proktam &lt;strong&gt;Devata Mantrarupini&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Yantra is full of (or endowed with) Mantras and God is of the form&#xA;  of Mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 6-85.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in a nutshell, worshiping Gods, after invoking his presence in an object, through the use of mantras, is the first step in worshiping God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, as we progress more and more in our sadhana, we can do away with it completely and resort to mere internal modes of worship (antar yajna) in which nothing external is required.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-02T11:55:42.723" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T11:55:42.723" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19309" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-02T11:40:04.933" Score="3" ViewCount="157" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his texts the great Sri Vidya guru &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaskararaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhaskara raya&lt;/a&gt; says &quot;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;kaulAt parataram nAhi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. &#xA;In association to the glory of kaula path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In which text is it found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is its meaning and context? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-02T11:50:29.650" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T11:50:29.650" Title="In which of his books did Bhaskara Raya say &quot;kaulaat parataram nahi&quot;?" Tags="|tantra|sri-vidya|kaulam|bhaskararaya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19310" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15936" CreationDate="2017-07-02T11:44:18.903" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Birth-wise Krishna was a &lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (the 3rd division), though he lived a princely life like a &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt;.&#xA;Krishna's caste was &lt;strong&gt;Yadu / YAdava or Vrushni&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The castes are like family names, which are carried by a person to his son. Probably you meant classes/divisions, which are only 4, based on qualities: i.e. &lt;em&gt;Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra&lt;/em&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A son/daughter's birth-wise class/division is considered according to their father's lineage. For daughters, it changes after marriage &amp;amp; for sons it may change based on merits &amp;amp; virtues.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However son always carries his father's caste (viz. surname) throughout his life.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Krishna's mother Devaki might [or might not] be of &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt; lineage, however his father Vasudeva was from &lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt; (business) category. To be very specific, in such case the division is decided as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son begotten by a Vaisya upon a Kshatriya woman becomes a &lt;strong&gt;Vandi or Magadha&lt;/strong&gt;. The duties assigned to him are eloquent recitations of praise. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/22134/1049&quot;&gt;[this answer]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is how Krishna's class can be considered &lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vasudeva was a (real or cousin) brother of Nanda-baba (foster father of Krishna), who was the &lt;strong&gt;chief among the cowherds&lt;/strong&gt;. Same thing is true for many Yadu-s. Moreover it was not unusual in many regions to have a &lt;em&gt;Brahmana&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt; kings as well. Vasudeva's father Sura also could have been a &lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt; king.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasudeva was yadhava king. He was the brother of cowherds tribe chieftain Nanda Baba who was a Surasena.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasudeva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Wikipedia]&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhritarashtra said, 'Hear, O Sanjaya, the celestial feats of &lt;strong&gt;Vasudeva&lt;/strong&gt;, feats that Govinda achieved and the like of which no other person hath ever been able to achieve. Whilst being &lt;strong&gt;brought up, O Sanjaya, in the family of the cowherd (Nanda)&lt;/strong&gt;, that high-souled one, while yet a boy, made the might of his arms known to the three worlds. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07011.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Dronabhisheka Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another strong reference, is that Kunti was a &quot;real sister&quot; of Vasudeva from same father Sura (or Surasena). Now MAdari refers Kunti as of lower division based on birth.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was amongst the Yadavas a chief named &lt;strong&gt;Sura&lt;/strong&gt;. He was the father of Vasudeva. And he &lt;strong&gt;had a daughter called Pritha&lt;/strong&gt;, ... gave from friendship this his firstborn daughter unto his childless cousin and friend, the illustrious Kuntibhoja--the son of his paternal aunt &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01112.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Sambhava Parva]&lt;/a&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... [Madari,] the daughter of the king of the Madras privately addressed Pandu, saying, 'O slayer of foes, I have no complaint even if thou beest unpropitious to me. I have, O sinless one, also no complaint that though &lt;strong&gt;by birth I am superior to Kunti&lt;/strong&gt; yet I am inferior to her in station. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01125.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Sambhava Parva]&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When a &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt; begets a child with a &lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt; woman, the &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt; order is usually maintained for that child. However the son born under such circumstances, is also referred as &lt;em&gt;&quot;Karna&quot;&lt;/em&gt;.  Kunti's son from Sun before marriage, was actually named as &quot;RAdheya&quot;, was also later known as &quot;Karna&quot;. It's quite likely that Karna would have been named/referred so, by some intelligent people (like Bhishma, Vidura), finding similarity of his face with Kunti. This further solidifies that Kunti was from &lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt; background, so was her brother Vasudeva, Krishna's father.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During that year, O king, was begotten upon her by the illustrious Dhritarashtra a son endued with great intelligence who was afterwards named &lt;strong&gt;Yuvutsu. And because he was begotten by a Kshatriya upon a Vaisya woman, he came to be called Karna.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01116.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Sambhava Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even the Krishna's Narayani army, consisting mainly of Yadava-s, was referred as the army of cowherds. The profession of cowherd is considered for &lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt; division as per BG 18.44.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the left foot, O monarch, was stationed Kritavarma accompanied by the &lt;strong&gt;Narayana troops&lt;/strong&gt;, and those invincible warriors, &lt;strong&gt;the gopalas&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/26699/1049&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Usually a person with non-&lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt; quality used to take the top ministry under the Kshatriya king, e.g. Vidura, who was born to a &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt; maid or Yuyutsu, born to a &lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt; queen. Similarly Vasudeva was also a prime minister under Kamsa's kingship. Moreover many times Krishna has been referred belonging to cowherd tribe, even though his time with his foster father Nandababa was reasonably less:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Duryodhana began to afflict Vasudeva with keen and bitter words, &quot;O son of Kansa's slave, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09061.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Shalya Parva]&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhurisravas said, ... thou hast, unseen by me, cut off my arm ... A man quickly catches the behaviour of those with whom and amongst whom he moves. This is seen in thee, O Partha! Being of royal lineage especially, in Kuru's race, how hast thou fallen off from the duties of a Kshatriya, ... Who else, unless he were a friend of Krishna's, would inflict such a wrong ... &lt;strong&gt;The Vrishnis and the Andhakas are bad &lt;em&gt;Kshatriyas&lt;/em&gt;, ever engaged in sinful deeds, and are, by nature, addicted to disreputable behaviour&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07139.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Jayadratha-Vadha Parva]&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kansa: I will put to death Vasudeva himself, the cowherd Nanda, and my foolish father, Ugrasena, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp132.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Vishnu Purana]&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;An indirect reference: Krishna's one of the name &quot;&lt;em&gt;Rannchhod&lt;/em&gt;&quot; is due to him &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19313/1049&quot;&gt;running away from the battlefield&lt;/a&gt;. This is least likely to be a &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt; like quality as per Gita:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=18&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=43&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.43&lt;/a&gt; - The natural duties of the &lt;strong&gt;Kshatriyas&lt;/strong&gt; are heroism, boldness, fortitude, capability, and &lt;strong&gt;also not retreating from battle&lt;/strong&gt;, generosity and lordliness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Traditionally the &quot;cowherds&quot; community belonged to the &quot;Vaishya&quot; (business) class. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/44&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.44&lt;/a&gt;. Now there are few references, which again suggests Krishna's lineage towards that:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the king of Chedi (Shishupala) could bear no more, He then replied in rage unto Bhishma in these words...  O Bhishma, in unceasingly praising with devotion, from ignorance alone, &lt;strong&gt;Kesava&lt;/strong&gt; so unworthy of praise. How dost thou, from thy wish alone, establish the whole universe in the servitor and &lt;strong&gt;cowherd of Bhoja (Kansa)&lt;/strong&gt;?  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Sisupala-badha Parva]&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course being a living symbol of supreme reality, the divisions don't bind to the lord Krishna. However, I am just being in the scope of the Qn and discussing Krishna's &quot;birth based division&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-09-06T09:12:51.163" LastActivityDate="2018-09-06T09:12:51.163" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19311" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-02T12:58:25.817" Score="2" ViewCount="81" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my village of south india, During days of Maha Shivaratri (Month: Feb).&#xA;Devotees choose one &lt;strong&gt;Mentally disabled person(Males only)&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; decorate him as Kala Bhairava &amp;amp; his hand holding sword with lemon pin at the top. They roam him around the streets. People pour yellow water at his feet when he reach their houses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not sure name of the Avatar here, but definitely one of avatars of Lord Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10336" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T12:58:25.817" Title="Why they choose mentally disabled person to disguise as Kala Bhairava?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19312" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19314" CreationDate="2017-07-02T15:57:39.903" Score="10" ViewCount="1684" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindus believe in rebirth. We have several ancient stories on that. In many of our stories, if a male or a female dies, he or she takes rebirth in the same sex.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any story in our mythology in which individuals are born in the opposite sex in their rebirth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9985" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-03T08:41:57.993" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T08:41:57.993" Title="Is there any ancient story in which individuals are born in the opposite sex in the rebirth?" Tags="|puranas|rebirth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19313" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12299" CreationDate="2017-07-02T17:16:58.117" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Rann&quot;&lt;/em&gt; means &quot;battlefield&quot; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;&quot;chhod&quot;&lt;/em&gt; means &quot;abandon&quot;. The one who abandons a battlefield usually out of fear or other concerns can be termed as &lt;em&gt;&quot;Rannchhod&quot;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Krishna lived his majority of life as &lt;em&gt;Leela&lt;/em&gt;, where he showed various colors (&lt;em&gt;Rasa&lt;/em&gt;-s). &quot;Fear&quot; was one of them. Krishna was Not a freak (&lt;em&gt;ghora&lt;/em&gt;/extreme) of any particular good/bad virtue; he had it all balanced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This derogatory name &lt;em&gt;might&lt;/em&gt; have been coined because of Krishna along with other Yadu-s running away [from a possible battle] against JarAsandha (father in law of Kansa). There can be other stories too, but not find-able in current version of MahAbhArata.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In Krishna's words from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sabha Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the widow of Kansa and the daughter of Jarasandha, that handsome woman with eyes like lotus-petals, grieved at the death of her lord, went unto her father, and repeatedly urged, O Monarch, the king of Magadha, saying,--O slayer of all foes, kill thou the slayer of my husband.--Then, O great king, remembering the conclusion to which we had come of old &lt;strong&gt;we became exceedingly cheerless and fled from Mathura&lt;/strong&gt;. Dividing our large wealth into small portions so as to make each portion easily portable, &lt;strong&gt;we fled from fear of Jarasandha, with our cousins and relatives&lt;/strong&gt;. Reflecting upon everything, we fled towards the west.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later they all landed &amp;amp; settled in Dwaraka, Gujarat. This &quot;insulting&quot; name is also celebrated as part of his colourful life! Other such names, which were derogatory but now celebrated are: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Makhhan-chor&lt;/em&gt; (&quot;butter stealer&quot;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Gau-pal&lt;/em&gt; (&quot;cowherd&quot;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Even &lt;em&gt;Krishna&lt;/em&gt; (&quot;dark&quot;) itself may be considered racist in today's&#xA;time&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Note: Now I recall that, I had observed this passage in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16250/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; a long time back. Not sure if these 2 Qn-s can be duplicates or independent.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-07-03T06:29:36.507" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T06:29:36.507" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19314" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19312" CreationDate="2017-07-02T18:20:41.097" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any story, about born on opposite sex?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is a story of King &lt;strong&gt;Puranjana&lt;/strong&gt; in Shreemad Bhagvat purana, where the King Puranjana was reborn as women- &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/28&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SB 4.28&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;: Purañjana Becomes a woman in the next Life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is an ancient story told by Narada to king Prachinbarhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&lt;/strong&gt; - This is a story of King Puranjana who was engaged in sense gratification throughout his life. Unkind king, Purañjana, had killed many animals in various sacrifices. Now, taking advantage of this opportunity, all these animals began to pierce him with their horns.  Due to his contaminated association with women King Purañjana suffered very much and lost his kingdom.And at the end he died remembering his wife , so he was reborn as a women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it is believed that whatever a man constantly thinks in his death bed or while dying, he gets rebirth according to his last thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So king Puranjana died thinking of his wife and reborn as a woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तामेव मनसा गृह्यन बभूव प्रमदोत्तमा ।&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    अनन्तरं विदर्भस्य राजसिंहस्य वेश्मनि ।।28।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tām eva manasā gṛhṇan babhūva pramadottamā&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    anantaraṁ vidarbhasya rāja-siṁhasya veśmani&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;King Purañjana gave up his body while remembering his wife, and consequently in his next life he became a very beautiful and&#xA;  well-situated woman&lt;/strong&gt;. He took his next birth as the daughter of King&#xA;  Vidarbha in the very house of the King.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/28/28&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 4.28.28&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-03T08:12:40.653" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T08:12:40.653" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19315" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19287" CreationDate="2017-07-02T20:12:47.257" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Manusmriti forbids such an act for males:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;172&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The elder brother&#xA;  who marries after the younger, the younger brother who&#xA;  marries before the elder, the female with whom such a&#xA;  marriage is contracted, he who gives her away, and the&#xA;  sacrificing priest, as the fifth, all fall into hell.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is nothing much said for females in this regard in Manusmriti. However we see in the case of the three sisters Amba, Ambika and Ambalika, the first was the eldest, did not marry, and was reborn (i.e., did not depart to hell). So I doubt this holds for women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources: Any translation of Manusmriti in the section of description of punishments in Hell. And any authentic description of Mahabharatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastActivityDate="2017-07-02T20:12:47.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19316" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-03T03:10:51.160" Score="7" ViewCount="191" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a person falls in dangerous situations such as in front of dangerous animals, then if such person says &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;, then the total situation comes under control and the animals don't harm that person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which Hindu scripture contains this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2018-10-03T12:28:09.593" LastActivityDate="2018-10-03T12:28:09.593" Title="Which shloka explains this statement related to Shiva" Tags="|shiva|identification-request|shloka|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19317" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19334" CreationDate="2017-07-03T04:20:17.090" Score="18" ViewCount="1823" Body="&lt;p&gt;In bhuloka, it is possible to achieve mukthi by doing several Sadhana. When we go to naraka or swarga, our sukshma Sarira(subtle body) will be there only sthoola Sarira(Gross body) is dropped during death. Japam, meditation all are done using manas which is part of sukshma Sarira. So, are we able to perform Sadhana like remembering bhagawan's nama and attain Mukthi in that loka also?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10259" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-03T08:05:00.450" LastActivityDate="2021-02-01T12:05:37.120" Title="Is mukthi possible from world's other than bhuloka(ie. From swarga and naraka)" Tags="|lokas|mukti|naraka|swarga|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19318" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19287" CreationDate="2017-07-03T05:02:17.710" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Smritis, such an act (in case of brothers) is considered as a sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.171. He must be considered as a Parivetti who marries or begins the performance of the Agnihotra before his elder brother, but the latter&#xA;  as a Parivitti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.172. The elder brother who marries after the younger, the younger brother who marries before the elder, the female with whom such a&#xA;  marriage is contracted, he who gives her away, and the sacrificing&#xA;  priest, as the fifth, all fall into hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.60. Allowing one’s younger brother to marry first, marrying before one’s elder brother, giving a daughter to, or sacrificing for, (either&#xA;  brother),..are upapatakas (minor crimes).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verses from Manu Smriti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, in certain circumstances a younger brother can marry before the elder without committing any sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The younger brother can marry before if the elder brother is&#xA;  hunchback, dwarf, eunuch, or idiot,  &lt;strong&gt;A man commits no sin by&#xA;  marrying before his elder brother - where the latter is either a&#xA;  hunch-deaf, dumb bornblind, or of indistinct speech&lt;/strong&gt;. (75)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On one's elder brother happening to loose his virility, or to have&#xA;  resorted to the practice of yoga, or to a life of asceticism, or to be&#xA;  degraded in life on account of a sojourn to a country a residence&#xA;  wherein is considered degrading (i.e., supposed to degrade a man in&#xA;  society), &lt;strong&gt;one is at liberty to marry even before the marriage of such&#xA;  an elder brother&lt;/strong&gt;. (76)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Likhita Smriti's chapter 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one's father, maternal grandfather or elder brother [does not&#xA;  perform] the Tapas and the Agnihotra, &lt;strong&gt;there is no sin in the younger&#xA;  brother's marrying before the elder.&lt;/strong&gt; (104) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Usana Smriti's last chapter.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, i have not found anything about sisters. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-03T06:48:51.037" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T06:48:51.037" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19319" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-03T05:30:23.683" Score="3" ViewCount="112" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.  But before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now almost all members of the Vedanta school other than Advaitins believe that the Jivatma or individual soul is atomic in size, in contrast to Brahman who is omnipresent.  And the only reason Advaitins differ is they see the Jivatma and Brahman as the same, and Brahman is omnipresent.  Still, all members of the Vedanta school can at least agree that there's only one Atma which is omnipresent.  But the Purva Mimamsa school had a very different view.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shabaraswami's Bhashya is the canonical commentary on Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa Sutras, the defining text of the Purva Mimamsa schools. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Pjr7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Bhashya, Shabaraswami argues that since actions no longer exist when they're finished, it follows that actions create an Apurva or unseen entity which later brings about a positive or negative result.  But then an objection is raised, what if actions continue to exist in the souls of the people who did them?  Shabaka responds that this is impossible, because actions require motion and souls cannot move because they are omnipresent:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it be argued that &quot;on the strength of the declaration of a certain result following from a certain sacrificer, it may be presumed that the act of sacrifice itself does not perish (but continues to exist till the appearance of the result)&quot;, - the answer is that such a presumption cannot be right; because of the Act itself we do not perceive any other form; as a matter of fact, that alone is called an &quot;act&quot; which transposes its substratum from one place to another; and no such transposition is possible for the Soul, - because the Soul is omnipresent; that the Soul is present in all places is indicated by the fact that its functioning is found everywhere (in the shape of experiencing pleasure, pain, etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shabaraswami, and the Purva Mimamsa philosophers who came after him, believed in a theory of multiple omnipresent souls.  For more elaboration on this theory along with logical arguments for it, see &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Pjr7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Kumarila Bhatta's Tantra Vartika.  In future I may post a question examining these arguments, but for now I'd like to ask something a bit more concrete.  My question is did Shabaraswami invent this theory of multiple omnipresent soul?  Did any philosophers before Shabaraswami, inside or outside of the Purva Mimamsa school, mention or support this theory? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it helps, &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=g6FsB3psOTIC&amp;amp;lpg=PA616&amp;amp;dq=shabara%20century&amp;amp;pg=PA616#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=shabara%20century&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says that Shabaraswami lived somewhere between the 1st century BC and the 6th century AD.  But the traditional Hindu dating may differ from this Western dating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-03T18:28:56.303" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T18:28:56.303" Title="Did Shabaraswami invent the Mimamsa theory of multiple omnipresent souls?" Tags="|history|philosophy|vedanta|atma|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19320" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19317" CreationDate="2017-07-03T05:36:11.317" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apparently not possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma Sadhana or Moksha sadhana is possible only in this world or the Ihaloka. It is not possible to do the same in Paraloka or in afterlife that is in either Swarga or Naraka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a relevant verse from a Shakta Agama called KulArnava Tantram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ihaiva NarakavyAdheshchikitsAm Na Karoti Yah | (1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;GatvA &lt;strong&gt;Niraushadham SthAnam&lt;/strong&gt; VyAdisthah Kim KarishyAti|| (2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One who does not treat the ailment called naraka in ihaloka itself&#xA;(i.e on earth) (1). What will he do with that ailment in that place&#xA;(i.e in paraloka) &lt;strong&gt;where medicines themselves are not available.&lt;/strong&gt; (2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 1, Verse 24.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, &lt;strong&gt;Niraushadham SthAnam&lt;/strong&gt; is where we go after shedding our body. That is afterlife or Paraloka. Here Lord Shiva says that in Paraloka there is no way to treat the disease called Naraka. So, Mukti is not possible by any means while staying in Paraloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purport of this verse is, Moksha sadhana is possible only on Ihaloka as long as we have our body fit and intact. That's why we should be ever careful for atmaraksha (self protection) and keeping our body healthy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to another Shakta Agama, the four purusharthas can only obtained as long as we have the human body and not after we shed it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sariram Tu ManushyanAm PurushArthaikasAdhanam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The human body is the tool of obtaining the four goals (Dharma, Artha,&#xA;Kama and Moksha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gandharva Tantram 34-15.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT 1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the Vedas say that we have to achieve liberation in this life only. Given below are the relevant Mantras from the Purusha Suktam (which appears in all the 4 Vedas):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;VedAhametam purusham mahAntam (1) Adityavarnam tamasah parastAt (2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tam evam vidvAn amrita iha bhavati (3) NAnyah panthAvidyate ayanAya&#xA;(4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have known the mighty Purusha (1) Who is refulgent as the Sun beyond&#xA;darkness. (2) &lt;strong&gt;Knowing Him thus in this life itself, one transcends&#xA;death (3). There is no other path leading to the attainment of&#xA;liberation. (4).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taitiriya Samhita 3.12.17.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT 2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda also says the same. That it is possible achieve liberation or Mukti only from Bhuloka or Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There will be thousands of Indras. Nahusha was a great king, and when&#xA;he died, he became Indra. It is a position; one soul becomes high and&#xA;takes the Indra position and remains in it only a certain time; he&#xA;then dies and is born again as man. But the human body is the highest&#xA;of all. Some of the gods may try to go higher and give up all ideas of&#xA;enjoyment in heavens; but, as in this world, wealth and position and&#xA;enjoyment delude the vast majority, so do most of the gods become&#xA;deluded also, and after working out their good Karma, they fall down&#xA;and become human beings again. &lt;strong&gt;This earth, therefore, is the Karma&#xA;Bhumi; it is this earth from which we attain to liberation. So even&#xA;these heavens are not worth attaining to.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is then worth having? Mukti, freedom. Even in the highest of&#xA;heavens, says our scripture, you are a slave; what matters it if you&#xA;are a king for twenty thousand years?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_3/Lectures_from_Colombo_to_Almora/Vedantism(1)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_3/Lectures_from_Colombo_to_Almora/Vedantism(1)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2021-02-01T12:05:37.120" LastActivityDate="2021-02-01T12:05:37.120" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19321" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19251" CreationDate="2017-07-03T05:42:18.760" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Firstly, &lt;em&gt;Can anyone really Curse Lord Shiva?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Do the sages who come for fractions of time in the Universe have power to curse the Lord Shiva? No, it isn&amp;apos;t possible. When in a story we see that someone curses Shiva and Shiva suffers from it, it is not that Shiva suffers because of effect of that curse, it&amp;apos;s because Shiva wishes to do so. Tapa Shakti of Rishis are of no comparison to curse Lord Shiva who has infinite powers. For eg. When Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu went to Daruvana taking the form of man and women then sages curse Lord Shiva there, but he is totally unaffected by the curse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अतिवपरुषं वाक्यं प्रोचुर्द्देवं कपर्द्दिनम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शेपुश्च विविधैर्वाक्यैर्मायया तस्य मोहिताः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तपांसि तेषां सर्वेषां प्रत्याहन्यन्त शंकरे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथादित्यप्रतीकाशे तारका नभसि स्थिताः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तं भत्स्यं तपसा विप्राः समेत्य वृषभध्वजम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  को भवानिति देवेशं पृच्छन्ति स्म विमोहिता ।। [Kurma Purana II.38]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then the sages spoke extremely harsh words to Siva, having the matted locks of hair over the head and under the influence of Maya, &lt;strong&gt;they started pronouncing curses on Shiva. But all the words spoken by the sages as well as the curses, became infructuous before lord Siva,&lt;/strong&gt; in the same as the stars disappear on the rising of the sun. Thus finding their tapas being of no consequence, the confused sages, went close to the bull-bannered Siva and asked him, “Who are you Sir?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, curse on Shiva only works when he wishes it work. Thus all curses which Shiva will receive are already pre-planned and those curses also act to serve as something good. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, it isn&amp;apos;t necessary that how powerful a sage maybe he is all aware of Shiva-Tatwam. For eg. In the Daksha Yajna episode many sages and Gods were &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16778/did-the-destruction-of-dakshas-sacrifice-also-happen-in-present-vaivasvata-manv/16779#16779&quot;&gt;deluded by Maya of Uma&lt;/a&gt; and they forgot that it is impossible to perform a Yajna without invocation of Parameswara. Only Dadhichi was the sage there who had known that it is impossible to perform Yajna without invocation of Lord Isha. Sage Bhrigu was also there and he too was deluded. When Sati died he even created Army of Ribhus to fight against Shiva Ganas and he was latter punished by Virabhadra and Manibhadra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He (Virabhadra) strucked and smashed Bhrigu while the valorous Manibhadra kicked him on his chest and plucked of his moustaches.&lt;/strong&gt; [Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita chapter 37]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, being deluded by Maya sages and even gods can forget things like invocation of Parameswara. So, it isn&amp;apos;t surprising that Bhrigu gave a similar curse which was not actually a curse at all. So the thing like Shiva being worshipped in Linga form from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;time beginning&lt;/a&gt; can be forgotten by sages too in the influence of Maya. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thirdly, entire Universe is just play of Shiva. He takes everyform which exists here and plays with himself. Svetasvatara Upanishad says &amp;apos;Sarvãnana Shirogriva&amp;apos; / &amp;apos;All necks his necks, all heads his heads... &amp;apos; and Vedas also say &amp;apos;Sarvo vai Rudrastasmai Rudrãya namo aastu&amp;apos; / &amp;apos;Rudra is everything that exists, Salutations to him who is such.&amp;apos; And the SataRudriya of Yajurveda also talks of Lord Shiva being in the form of each and every form of Universe. Some verses I also discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11529/i-want-scripture-based-explanation-for-god-is-everywhere/15705#15705&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt; So, the sages like Bhrigu are none other than Shiva. In the Mahabharata also in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anushashana Parva&lt;/a&gt; it is stated:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He assumes the forms of tigers and lions and deer, of wolves and bears and birds, of owls and of jackals as well. &lt;strong&gt;He it is that assumes the forms of swans and crows &#xA;  and peacocks, of chameleons and lizards and storks.&lt;/strong&gt; He it is that assumes the forms of cranes and vultures and Chakravakas. Verily, he it is that assumes the forms of Chasas and of mountains also. O son, it is Mahadeva that assumes the forms of kine and elephants and horses and camels and asses. He assumes also the forms of goats and leopards and diverse other varieties of animals. It is Bhava who assumes the forms of diverse kinds of birds of beautiful plumage. It is Mahadeva who bears the forms of persons with sticks and those with umbrellas and those with calabashes among Brahmanas. He sometimes becomes six-faced and sometimes becomes multifaced. He sometimes assumes forms having three eyes and forms having many heads. And he sometimes assumes forms having many millions of legs and forms having innumerable stomachs and faces and forms endued with innumerable arms and innumerable sides. He sometimes appears surrounded by innumerable spirits and ghosts. &lt;strong&gt;He it is that assumes the forms of Rishis and Gandharvas, and of Siddhas and Charanas.&lt;/strong&gt; He sometimes assumes a &#xA;  form that is rendered white with the ashes he smears on it and is adorned with a half-moon on the forehead. Adored with diverse hymns uttered with diverse kinds of voice and worshipped with diverse Mantras fraught with encomiums, he, that is sometimes called Sarva, is the Destroyer of all creatures in the universe, and it is upon him, again, that all creatures rest as on their common foundation. Mahadeva is the soul of all creatures. He pervades all things. He is the speaker of all discourses (on duties and rituals). He resides everywhere and should be known as dwelling in the hearts of all creatures in the universe. He knows the desire cherished by every one of his worshippers. He becomes acquainted with the object in which one pays him adorations. Do thou then, if it pleases thee, seek the protection of the chief of the deities. He sometimes rejoices, and sometimes yields to wrath, and sometimes utters the syllable Hum with a very loud noise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Shiva himself reducing his consciousness is in the form of sages like Bhrigu also. So, curse of Bhrigu is like Shiva playing with himself. But whatever Shiva does it always results in good as also discussed &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13649/what-names-of-lord-shiva-used-today-are-from-vedas/13650#13650&quot;&gt;here:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Since by all his acts he performs sacrifices for all and seeks the good of every creature, therefore he is called Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt; [Anushasana Parva clxi]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The episode of Bhrigu cursing Shiva happened near beginning of present Kali-Yuga which is also continued with Lakshmi being angry and Vishnu coming in the form of Venkateshwara. In the Kali-Yuga the path of Vedas is distorted and people have low intellect. So, worship through Shiva-Linga can be the best method to worship Shiva. Through Shiva Linga one can worship without knowing mantras too, ie. by offering water only too. And in this sinful age of Kali worship through Linga has immense merits. &lt;strong&gt;So, we can say that curse of Bhrigu is just plan of Shiva to reinforce his worship through Linga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T05:42:18.760" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19322" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19317" CreationDate="2017-07-03T06:08:46.073" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It doesn't look like liberation is possible other than &lt;code&gt;Bhuloka&lt;/code&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp060.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana, Book 2, Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt; says that world of acts is not the title of any other portions of the universe means only fruits of &lt;code&gt;Karma&lt;/code&gt; can be obtained in &lt;code&gt;Bhuloka&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;THE country that lies north of the ocean, and south of the snowy mountains, is called Bhárata, for there dwelt the descendants of Bharata. It is nine thousand leagues in extent, and &lt;strong&gt;is the land of works, in consequence of which men go to heaven, or obtain emancipation&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From this region heaven is obtained, or even, in some cases, liberation from existence&lt;/strong&gt;; or men pass from hence into the condition of brutes, or fall into hell. &lt;strong&gt;Heaven, emancipation, a state in mid-air, or in the subterraneous realms, succeeds to existence here, and the world of acts is not the title of any other portion of the universe&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T06:08:46.073" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19324" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19298" CreationDate="2017-07-03T07:17:49.017" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti also says the same. That the father himself gets born again as his own son. So, in that way the father-son relationship is eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.8. &lt;strong&gt;The husband&lt;/strong&gt;, after conception by his wife, &lt;strong&gt;becomes an&#xA;  embryo and is born again of her&lt;/strong&gt;; for that is the wifehood of a wife&#xA;  (gaya), that he is born (gayate) again by her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, similarly the husband-wife relationship can also be considered as an eternal one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 4.184. Infants, aged, poor and sick men must be considered&#xA;  as rulers of the middle sphere, the eldest brother as equal to one’s&#xA;  father, &lt;strong&gt;one’s wife and one’s son as one’s own body&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-03T17:11:22.923" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T17:11:22.923" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19325" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9371" CreationDate="2017-07-03T07:18:40.277" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda meant that playing football needs full devotion towards the game. While you are at it, you can't think of anything else or can't do anything else. You have to stay focused, and use your skills to score . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He compares this devotion to that of reading a religious text, and he has a point. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/sadhguru/masters-words/stories-swami-vivekananda-life-inspired/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Quoting&lt;/a&gt; from Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's stories on Swami Vivekananda: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In a soccer game, you have to learn to use your feet like a surgeon’s&#xA;  scalpel. This is a game which particularly demands a certain level of&#xA;  involvement because the limbs with which you handle the ball and the&#xA;  limbs with which you transport yourself at full speed are the same,&#xA;  and you have to avoid the ten other people who are trying to do&#xA;  everything that they can do with you. You have to dodge people, you&#xA;  have to take the ball, you have to be running at full speed; your feet&#xA;  must be as efficient as a surgeon’s scalpel because at that speed, at&#xA;  that activity, to direct the ball takes a phenomenal amount of skill.&#xA;  It takes a certain level of involvement where you are almost mindless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you do something with total involvement, you will see, there is&#xA;  just  action, the mind is somewhere else. So in a soccer game, the&#xA;  players reach that kind of  a state very often because it is all in&#xA;  one thing. That is the reason why it grabs half the world  when things&#xA;  are being played intensely. There is a certain kind of transcendence –&#xA;  it is not really a spiritual transcendence,  but there is a certain&#xA;  going beyond one’s limitations which sets fire to everybody else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10338" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-03T07:34:34.573" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T07:34:34.573" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19327" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19328" CreationDate="2017-07-03T08:47:53.987" Score="3" ViewCount="379" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.  But before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now almost all members of the Vedanta school other than Advaitins believe that the Jivas or individual souls are atomic in size, in contrast to Brahman who is omnipresent; see Adhyaya 2 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras. But as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19319/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Purva Mimamsa school believed in a theory of multiple omnipresent souls. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Pjr7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Tantra Vartika, the Purva Mimamsa philosopher Kumarila Bhatta presents three main arguments for the multiple omnipresent souls theory and against the Vedanta school's atomic-sized souls theory:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He argues that there's no way for the soul to move along with the body, because the soul is immaterial and the body is material, so they can't interact with each other:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Soul being itself immaterial, it can never be mixed up with material elements, and being untouched by these elements, it cannot be taken from one place to another. That is to say, even in the case of extremely subtle particles of matter, - such as the light emanating from the Sun or the Moon, - we find that they ale not milxed up with grosser materials, like lumps of Earth, etc., or are carried about along with these, how then can such mixture ol movement be postulated with regard to the Soul, which is in its very nature purely immaterial, or a mere series of Ideas (as held by the Bauddha)? ... Thus then, the Soul being something different from the Body, and not in material contact with it, - it cannot, on account of this absence of contact, be carried along with it, and hence when the Body would be moving from one place to another, the Soul (if an entity limited In space) would be left behind, exactly like the portion of space vacated by the moving Body, specially as the Soul cannot be wafted along eithel by Air or by Earth, etc., and as such it is absolutely incapable of being carried about, either by itself or by anything else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He argues that if the soul were atomic in size, then it could not experience pleasures and pains at other parts of the body except for the part of the body it happens to be located in:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Soul being eternal, and located within the Body, if it were extremely small, then it could not extend over the whole Body, and in that case, it would be absolutely impossible for us to have any experiences of pleasure or pain, throughout the Body. That is to say, if the Soul is extremely small, then it would be possible to have experiences of pleasure and pain of only that part of the Body, where the Soul would be located, and hence it would not be possible, at one and the same tıme, to have an experience of pain in the head and in the foot. If it be urged that, “being extremely mobile, the Soul would swiftly move from one part of the Body to the other, and would thereby make such varied experiences possible,&amp;quot;- then, all that we can say is that there are no grounds for believing in such mobility of the Soul, specially as we are not cognisant of any difference in the point of time of the pain. In the head and that in the foot, and further, if the Soul would be constantly moving, there would be no point of time at which we could afford to have any sensation, and hence there would be no sensation an any part of the Body. Consequently we cannot but reject the offered explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He argues that it's the soul that strengthens the limbs of the body, and that if the soul was atomic in size then all the parts of the body where the soul is not located would wither away:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And again, the various limbs of the Body are strengthened, and do not wither away, simply because of their being pervaded over by the Soul, because at death we find that they wither away quickly. Hence, if the Soul were something very small, that poınt of the Body, wherefrom it would be absent, would be liable to instant decay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also presents arguments against the Jain theory that the soul is the same size as the body, but they need not concern us here as the Vedanta school anyway rejects this Jain theory (as you can see in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18850/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).  My question is, what refutations has the Vedanta school given of Kumarila Bhatta's arguments for the Purva Mimamsa school theory of multiple omnipresent souls?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T14:24:13.867" Title="How has the Vedanta school refuted Mimamsa arguments for multiple omnipresent souls?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|atma|brahma-sutras|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19328" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19327" CreationDate="2017-07-03T08:47:53.987" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;At least argument 2 has been refuted.&lt;/strong&gt; Vyasa discusses the size of the Jivatma in Adhyaya 2 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras (which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Topic-13: Soul’s Dimensions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;19&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;(The individual soul must be atomic in dimension owing to the mention in the Vedas) of its departure from the body, going (to the next world by following a course) and coming back (from there).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;(The soul’s atomicity stands confirmed) owing to the relation of one’s own soul with the latter two facts (viz., following of a course and coming back).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If it be objected that the soul is not atomic because its size is heard of as not being so, we reply, no, since that context relates to the other (i.e., the supreme Self).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And the individual soul is atomic because of the direct Upanishadic use of the word as well as mention of infinitesimality.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(The soul’s atomicity and its feeling over the whole body involve) no contradiction, just as in the case (of a drop) of sandal paste.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If it be objected that (the argument holds good in the case of sandal paste) owing to its peculiarity of position, (but that is not evident in the case of the soul), then we say, no, (a peculiar location) for the soul is admitted in the Upanishads, for it exists in the heart.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Or on the analogy of what is seen in the world, (the soul may pervade the whole body) through its attribute (of sentience).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;(The quality of sentience can have) separate existence like smell.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And the Upanishad also show this.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;(The soul and its intelligence are separate), since they are taught separately (in the Upanishads).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;But the soul comes to have such appellations because of the dominance of the modes of that intellect; this is just as in the case of the supreme Self.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And because the contact between the soul and the intellect persists so long as the worldly state of the soul continues, there can be no defect, for this is what is met with in the scriptures.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rather because that contact (with the intellect etc.,) which remains latent (in sleep and dissolution) can become manifest (during waking and creation) like manhood etc., (from boyhood etc.,).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Else (if the existence of the internal organ be not admitted) there will be the possibility of either constant perception or non-perception or it will have to be admitted that either of the powers (of the soul or of the organs) becomes (suddenly) debarred (or delimited or lost).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This translation is written from the viewpoint of the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, who interpreted these verse as saying that the Jivatma is the same as Brahman, who (everyone agrees) is omnipresent.  But most other commentators interpreting these verses as saying that the Jivatma is atomic in size.  And specifically, Sutras 23-25 refute Kumarila Bhatta's argument 2, i.e. the notion that the atomicity of the soul contradicts the ability to perceive sensations in all parts of the body.  I could quote almost commentary on the Brahma Sutras and the content would be more or less the same, but let me quote Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya (starting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48269.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt;) as a good representative:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this conflicts with the fact that sensation extends over the whole body. - This objection the next Sûtra refutes by means of an analogous instance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;24&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There is no contradiction, as in the case of sandal-ointment.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a drop of sandal-ointment, although applied to one spot of the body only, yet produces a refreshing sensation extending over the whole body; thus the Self also, although dwelling in one part of the body only, is conscious of sensations taking place in any part of the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;25&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Should it be said (that this is not so) on account of specialisation of abode; we say no, on account of the acknowledgment (of a place of the Self), viz. in the heart.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a difference. The drop of ointment can produce its effect as at any rate it is in contact with a definite part of the body. But we know of no such part in the case of the soul!--Not so, we reply. Scripture informs us that the Self abides in a definite part of the body, viz. the heart. 'For that Self is in the heart, there are a hundred and one veins.' And in reply to the question 'What is that Self?' the text has 'He who is within the heart, surrounded by the Prânas, the Person of light, consisting of knowledge' (Bri. Up. IV, 3, 7).--The parallel case of the sandal-ointment is referred to in order to point out that the Self abides in some particular part of the body; while the ointment is not bound to any special place.--In the next Sûtra the Sûtrakâra proceeds to state how, according to his own view, the Self, although abiding in one spot only, gives rise to effects extending over the whole body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;26&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Or on account of its quality as light.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 'or' is meant to set aside the view previously stated. The Self extends through the whole body by means of its quality, viz. knowledge or consciousness. 'As light.' As the light of things abiding in one place--such as gems, the sun, and so on--is seen to extend to many places, so the consciousness of the Self dwelling in the heart pervades the entire body. That the knowledge of the knowing subject may extend beyond its substrate, as the light of a luminous body does, we have already explained under the first Sûtra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that there are slight differences in Sutra numbering in different commentaries on the Brahma Sutras, which is how Sutras 23-25 became Sutras 24-26.  In any case, this refutes Kumarila Bhatta's argument 2, but I'm not sure if the Vedanta school has also produced refutations against arguments 1 and 3 as well.  If I find any I can update my answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T14:24:13.867" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19329" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-03T08:48:02.020" Score="4" ViewCount="189" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many times I have heard from Christian people this saying, when you are going through a difficult situation (that is your cross) and that God would never give you a cross that you would not be able to carry.&#xA;So you should have faith and patience and acceptance of the will of God, and ... surrender to Him (as Arjuna did in the Bhagavad Gita).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wonder if there would be a similar analogy in the Vedic scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One thing that comes to my mind is the battle of Kurukshetra. Krishna took Arjuna to the front of the opposing army so that he could see those he would shortly face in battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so question is:&#xA;how I would &lt;code&gt;translate&lt;/code&gt; the cross saying into something from the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3294" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T08:48:02.020" Title="God will never give you a cross that you cannot carry" Tags="|scripture|krishna|philosophy|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19330" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17569" CreationDate="2017-07-03T09:05:00.127" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07027.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Drona Parva (Book 7), SECTION XXVII&lt;/a&gt;, it was said by Lord Krishna that &lt;code&gt;Vaishnava&lt;/code&gt; weapon is most powerful and unconquerable. It was the weapon given by Lord Narayana to Goddess Earth for the protection of Narakasura. Bhagadatta received that weapon from Narakasura. When Bhagadatta had used it against Arjuna, Lord Krishna came in between and the astra turned into garland.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus pierced, he was excessively pained. Filled then with rage, he with Mantras, turned his hook into the Vaishnava weapon and hurled it at Arjuna's breast. That all-slaying weapon, hurled by Bhagadatta, Kesava, covering Arjuna, received on his breast. Thereupon, that weapon became a triumphal garland on Kesava's breast.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Arjuna asked Lord Krishna that why he has done this because he himself was capable to neutralize that weapon but he was told by Lord Krishna that it was not possible by him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna then cheerlessly addressed Kesava, saying, 'O sinless one, without battling thyself, thou art to only guide my steed! Thou hadst said so, O lotus-eyed one! Why then dost thou not adhere to thy promise? If I sink in distress, or become unable to baffle, or resist a foe or weapon, then mayst thou act so, but not when I am standing thus. Thou knowest that with my bow and arrows I am competent to vanquish these worlds with the gods, the Asuras, and men.' Hearing these words of Arjuna, Vasudeva replied unto him, saying, 'Listen, O Partha, to this secret and ancient history as it is, O sinless one! I have four forms, eternally engaged as I am in protecting the worlds. Dividing my own Self, I ordain the good of the worlds. One form of mine, staying on the earth, is engaged in the practice of ascetic austerities. Another beholdeth the good and the evil deeds in the world. My third form, coming into the world of men, is engaged in action. My fourth form lieth down in sleep for a thousand years. The form of mine which awaketh from sleep at the end of a thousand years, granteth, upon awakening, excellent boons to persons deserving of them. &lt;strong&gt;The earth, knowing (on one occasion) that that time had come, asked of me a boon for (her son) Naraka. Hear, O Partha, what that boon was. Possessed of the Vaishnava weapon, let my son become incapable of being slain by the gods and the Asuras. It behoveth thee to grant me that weapon. Hearing this prayer, I then gave, in days of old, the supreme and infallible Vaishnava weapon to the Earth's son. I said also at that time these words, 'O Earth, let this weapon be infallible for the protection of Naraka. None will be able to slay him. Protected by this weapon, thy son will always, in all the worlds, be invincible and crush all hostile hosts.'Saying, So be it! the intelligent goddess went away, her wishes fulfilled. And Naraka also became invincible and always scorched his foes. It was from Naraka, O Partha, that the ruler of the Pragjyotishas got this weapon of mine. There is none, in all the world, O sire, including even Indra and Rudra, who is unslayable by this weapon. It was for thy sake, therefore, that I baffled it, violating my promise&lt;/strong&gt;. The great Asura hath now been divested of that supreme weapon. Slay now, O Partha, that invincible foe of thine, viz., Bhagadatta, enemy of the gods, even as I formerly slew for the good of the worlds, the Asura Naraka.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Please note that this answer is based on Mahabharata and I don't want to demean any gods (though it may look like in first glance) including Lord Indra or Lord Rudra.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-07-04T17:10:52.500" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T17:10:52.500" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19331" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-03T09:13:08.547" Score="0" ViewCount="45" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is my common observation. In all the temples one finds a notice&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Photography inside temple is not allowed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, photography of the temple or deity is prohibited. I fail  to understand its reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10339" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-03T10:00:58.903" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T10:00:58.903" Title="Temple rules and regulations" Tags="|temple|worship|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-07-03T13:27:59.640" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19332" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19317" CreationDate="2017-07-03T09:18:12.923" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Beings higher than human beings are eligible for Jnana and Moksha.&lt;/strong&gt;  Most prominently, the Devas, who dwell in Swarga.  Vyasa discusses this in Adhyaya 1 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Topic-8: Gods&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;26&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Badarayana thinks that beings higher than those (men) (are also qualified for knowledge), for that is possible.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If it be objected that this (corporeality of the gods) wilt give rise to a contradiction (in the matter of the gods being associated) in rites, then we reply: Not so, for in the Vedas are noticed the assumption of many bodies.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If it be objected that this contradicts the validity of Vedic words, then not so, for the universe arises from this, which fact is proved by direct revelation and inference.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And from this very fact follows the eternality (of the Vedas).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And there is no contradiction, since similar names and forms are repeated even in the revolution of the world cycles, as is known from the Vedas and the Smriti.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Jaimini asserts (that the gods and others have) no competence (for knowledge of Brahman), owing to the impossibility of their competence for Madhu-vidya etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Because of the occurrence of the words in respect of a sphere of flight.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But Badarayana upholds the existence of competence (for the gods); for (the requisite for competence) exists (in them).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Adi Shankaracharya says about Sutra 26 in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34095.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Brahma Sutra Bhashya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It has been said above that the passage about him who is of the size of a thumb has reference to the human heart, because men are entitled to study and act according to the sâstra. This gives us an occasion for the following discussion.--It is true that the sâstra entitles men, but, at the same time, there is no exclusive rule entitling men only to the knowledge of Brahman; the teacher, Bâdarâyana, rather thinks that the sâstra entitles those (classes of beings) also which are above men, viz. gods, and so on.--On what account?--On the account of possibility.--For in their cases also the different causes on which the qualification depends, such as having certain desires, and so on, may exist. In the first place, the gods also may have the desire of final release, caused by the reflection that all effects, objects, and powers are non-permanent. In the second place, they may be capable of it as their corporeality appears from mantras, arthavâdas, itihâsas, purânas, and ordinary experience. In the third place, there is no prohibition (excluding them like Sûdras). Nor does, in the fourth place, the scriptural rule about the upanayana-ceremony annul their title; for that ceremony merely subserves the study of the Veda, and to the gods the Veda is manifest of itself (without study). That the gods, moreover, for the purpose of acquiring knowledge, undergo discipleship, and the like, appears from such scriptural passages as 'One hundred and one years Indra lived as a disciple with Pragâpati' (Kh. Up. VIII, ii, 3), and 'Bhrigu Vâruni went to his father Varuna, saying, &quot;Sir, teach me Brahman&quot;' (Taitt. Up. III, 1).--And the reasons which have been given above against gods and rishis being entitled to perform religious works (such as sacrifices), viz. the circumstance of there being no other gods (to whom the gods could offer sacrifices), and of there being no other rishis (who could be invoked during the sacrifice), do not apply to the case of branches of knowledge. For Indra and the other gods, when applying themselves to knowledge, have no acts to perform with a view to Indra, and so on; nor have Bhrigu and other rishis, in the same case, to do anything with the circumstance of their belonging to the same gotra as Bhrigu, &amp;amp;c. What, then, should stand in the way of the gods' and rishis' right to acquire knowledge?--Moreover, the passage about that which is of the size of a thumb remains equally valid, if the right of the gods, &amp;amp;c. is admitted; it has then only to be explained in each particular case by a reference to the particular size of the thumb (of the class of beings spoken of).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here is what Ramanujacharya says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48124.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Sri Bhashya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In order to prove that the highest Brahman may be viewed as having the size of a thumb, it has been declared that the scriptural texts enjoining meditation on Brahman are the concern of men. This offers an opportunity for the discussion of the question whether also other classes of individual souls, such as devas, are qualified for knowledge of Brahman. The Pûrvapakshin denies this qualification in the case of gods and other beings, on the ground of absence of capability. For, he says, bodiless beings, such as gods, are incapable of the accomplishment of meditation on Brahman, which requires as its auxiliaries the seven means enumerated above (p. 17)--This must not be objected to on the ground of the devas, and so on, having bodies; for there is no means of proof establishing such embodiedness. We have indeed proved above that the Vedânta-texts may intimate accomplished things, and hence are an authoritative means for the cognition of Brahman; but we do not meet with any Vedânta-text, the purport of which is to teach that the devas, and so on, possess bodies. Nor can this point be established through mantras and arthavâda texts; for these are merely supplementary to the injunctions of actions (sacrificial, and so on), and therefore have a different aim. And the injunctions themselves prove nothing with regard to the devas, except that the latter are that with a view to which those actions are performed. In the same way it also cannot be shown that the gods have any desires or wants (to fulfil or supply which they might enter on meditation of Brahman). For the two reasons above we therefore conclude that the devas, and so on, are not qualified for meditation on Brahman.--This view is contradicted by the Sûtra. Such meditation is possible in the case of higher beings also Bâdarâyana thinks; on account of the possibility of want and capacity on their part also. Want and wish exist in their case since they also are liable to suffering, springing from the assaults, hard to be endured, of the different kinds of pain, and since they also know that supreme enjoyment is to be found in the highest Brahman, which is untouched by the shadow even of imperfection, and is a mass of auspicious qualities in their highest perfection. 'Capability', on the other hand, depends on the possession of a body and sense-organs of whatever degree of tenuity; and that the devas, from Brahma downward, possess a body and sense-organs, is declared in all the Upanishads, in the chapters treating of creation and the chapters enjoining meditation. In the Khândogya, e.g. it is related how the highest Being having resolved on creation, evolved the aggregate of non-sentient matter with its different kinds, and then produced the fourfold multitude of living creatures, each having a material body corresponding to its karman, and a suitable name of its own. Similarly, all the other scriptural accounts of creation declare that there are four classes of creatures--devas, men, animals, and non-moving beings, such as plants--and the difference of these classes depends on the individual Selfs being joined to various bodies capacitating them to experience the results of their works, each in that one of the fourteen worlds--beginning with the world of Brahmâ--which is the suitable place for retribution. For in themselves, apart from bodies, the individual Selfs are not distinguished as men, gods, and so on. In the same way the story of the devas and Asuras approaching Pragâpati with fuel in their hands, staying with him as pupils for thirty-two years, &amp;amp;c. (Kh. Up. VIII, 7 ff.), clearly shows that the devas possess bodies and sense-organs. Analogously, mantras and arthavâdas, which are complementary to injunctions of works, contain unmistakeable references to the corporeal nature of the gods ('Indra holding in his hand the thunderbolt'; 'Indra lifted the thunderbolt', &amp;amp;c.); and as the latter is not contradicted by any other means of proof it must be accepted on the authority stated. Nor can it be said that those mantras and arthavâdas are really meant to express something else (than those details mentioned above), in so far, namely, as they aim at proclaiming or glorifying the action with which they are connected; for those very details subserve the purpose of glorification, and so on, and without them glorification is not possible. For we praise or glorify a thing by declaring its qualities; if such qualities do not exist all glorification lapses. It cannot by any means be maintained that anything may be glorified by the proclamation of its qualities, even if such qualities do not really exist. Hence the arthavâdas which glorify a certain action, just thereby intimate the real existence of the qualities and details of the action. The mantras again, which are prescribed in connexion with the actions, serve the purpose of throwing light on the use to be derived from the performance of the actions, and this they accomplish by making statements as to the particular qualities, such as embodiedness and the like, which belong to the devas and other classes of beings. Otherwise Indra, and so on, would not be remembered at the time of performance; for the idea of a divinity presents itself to the mind only in connexion with the special attributes of that divinity. In the case of such qualities as are not established by other means of proof, the primary statement is made by the arthavâda or the mantra: the former thereby glorifies the action, and the latter proclaims it as possessing certain qualities or details; and both these ends are accomplished by making statements as to the gods, &amp;amp;c., possessing certain qualities, such as embodiedness and the like. In the case, again, of certain qualities being already established by other means of proof, the mantras and arthavâdas merely refer to them (as something already known), and in this way perform their function of glorification and elucidation. And where, thirdly, there is a contradiction between the other means of knowledge and what mantras and arthavâdas state (as when, e.g. a text of the latter kind says that 'the sacrificial post is the sun'), the intention of the text is metaphorically to denote, by means of those apparently unmeaning terms, certain other qualities which are not excluded by the other means of knowledge; and in this way the function of glorification and elucidation is again accomplished. Now what the injunction of a sacrificial action demands as its supplement, is a statement as to the power of the divinity to whom the sacrifice is offered; for the performance which scripture enjoins on men desirous of certain results, is itself of a merely transitory nature, and hence requires some agent capable of bringing about, at some future time, the result desired as, e.g. the heavenly world. 'Vâyu is the swiftest god; he (the sacrificer) approaches Vâyu with his own share; the god then leads him to prosperity' (Taitt. Samh. I, 2, 1); 'What he seeks by means of that offering, may he obtain that, may he prosper therein, may the gods favourably grant him that' (Taitt. Br. III, 5, 10, 5); these and similar arthavâdas and mantras intimate that the gods when propitiated by certain sacrificial works, give certain rewards and possess the power to do so; and they thus connect themselves with the general context of scripture as supplying an evidently required item of information. Moreover, the mere verb 'to sacrifice' (yag), as denoting worship of the gods, intimates the presence of a deity which is to be propitiated by the action called sacrifice, and thus constitutes the main element of that action. A careful consideration of the whole context thus reveals that everything which is wanted for the due accomplishment of the action enjoined is to be learned from the text itself, and that hence we need not have recourse to such entities as the 'unseen principle' (apûrva), assumed to be denoted by, or to be imagined in connexion with, the passages enjoining certain actions. Hence the dharmasâstras, itihâsas, and purânas also, which are founded on the different brâhmanas, mantras and arthavâdas, clearly teach that Brahma and the other gods, as well as the Asuras and other superhuman beings, have bodies and sense-organs, constitutions of different kinds, different abodes, enjoyments, and functions.--Owing to their having bodies, the gods therefore are also qualified for meditation on Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/32/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam describes how the inhabitants of Brahmaloka attain Moksha at the end of the Mahakalpa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Worshipers of the Hiraṇyagarbha expansion of the Personality of Godhead remain within this material world until the end of two parārdhas, when Lord Brahmā also dies. After experiencing the inhabitable time of the three modes of material nature, known as two parārdhas, Lord Brahmā closes the material universe, which is covered by layers of earth, water, air, fire, ether, mind, ego, etc., and goes back to Godhead. The yogīs who become detached from the material world by practice of breathing exercises and control of the mind reach the planet of Brahmā, which is far, far away. After giving up their bodies, they enter into the body of Lord Brahmā, and therefore when Brahmā is liberated and goes to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the Supreme Brahman, such yogīs can also enter into the kingdom of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-03T09:18:12.923" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19333" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19367" CreationDate="2017-07-03T09:33:32.443" Score="4" ViewCount="2042" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Bagalamukhi Parvati's different incarnation or other form of Sakthi? Which scriptures or Puranas has the story of Bagalamukhi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10063" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T05:37:40.853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T16:40:00.820" Title="Who is Bagalamukhi?" Tags="|puranas|parvati|shakti|dasha-mahavidya|bagalamukhi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19334" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19317" CreationDate="2017-07-03T09:36:58.777" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18828/277&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, according to Vedanta, the only way to attain Moksha is to realize Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/upanishads-krishna-yajur-veda/svetasvatara-upanishad/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ShvetaShvatar Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वेदाहमेतं पुरुषं महान्त-&#xA;           मादित्यवर्णं तमसः परस्तात् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तमेव विदित्वातिमृत्युमेति&#xA;           नान्यः पन्था विद्यतेऽयनाय ॥ ८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;III-8: I have realized this Great Being who shines effulgent like the sun beyond all darkness. &lt;strong&gt;One passes beyond death only on realizing Him. There is no other way of escape from the circle of births and deaths.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now one can only know and realize Brahman in either this loka or Brahma Loka. That's why it's recommended to try to know &amp;amp; realize Brahman in this loka before death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/upanishads-krishna-yajur-veda/katha-upanishad/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Katha Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इह चेदशकद्बोद्धुं प्राक्षरीरस्य विस्रसः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततः सर्गेषु लोकेषु शरीरत्वाय कल्पते ॥ ४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2-III-4. If one could know &lt;strong&gt;here prior to the falling of the body&lt;/strong&gt;, (one becomes liberated); (if not), one becomes fit to be embodied in the worlds of creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/katha-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145257.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankaracharya's Bhashya&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If he is able to know and knows even during life, this Brahman} the cause of fear, before the falling of the body, then he becomes freed from the bond of Samsâra. If he is not able to know, then, i.e., from want of that knowledge, he becomes able to take, i.e., he takes a body in earth and other worlds, where those who are fit to be created, are created. Therefore, before the falling of the body, attempt should be made to realise the âtman; for the realisation of the âtman even here will be clearly horrible as that of a face reflected in a mirror; &lt;strong&gt;not in other worlds except the Brahmalôka;&lt;/strong&gt; and that is hard to reach.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it's only possible in either this loka or in BrahmaLoka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथाऽऽदर्शे तथाऽऽत्मनि यथा स्वप्ने तथा पितृलोके ।&#xA;  यथाऽप्सु परीव ददृशे तथा गन्धर्वलोके&#xA;    छायातपयोरिव ब्रह्मलोके ॥ ५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2-III-5. As in a mirror, so in one's intellect; as in a dream, so in the world of manes; as seen in water, so in the world of the Gandharvas; as in the case of shade and light, so in the world of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankraracharya's Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How is explained. As one in the world sees his own image reflected in a mirror very distinctly, so the realisation of the âtman in one's intelligence, when spotless like a mirror, becomes clear. As in dreams, the perception is indistinct and produced, i.e., (obscured) by the reminiscences of the waking state, so indistinct is the realisation of the âtman in the world of the manes, being engrossed in the enjoyment of the fruits of karma. As the image of one's self reflected in water is seen indistinctly, with the various parts not defined, so is the realisation of the âtman in the world of the Gandharvâs certainly indistinct. &lt;strong&gt;Thus, it is inferred from the authority of the sâstrâs, even in other worlds, it is only in one, the Brahmalôka,&lt;/strong&gt; that it is very distinct, as that of light and shadow &lt;strong&gt;and that (Brahmalôka) is hard to attain requiring&lt;/strong&gt; as means, a combination of very special karma and knowledge, i.e., (worship). The drift, &lt;strong&gt;therefore, is that one should attempt to realise the âtman even while here (in this world).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-10-13T08:53:12.913" LastActivityDate="2018-10-13T08:53:12.913" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19335" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19588" CreationDate="2017-07-03T10:18:26.743" Score="1" ViewCount="4174" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any explicit rule in Indian vedas that states Onions should not be used for cooking in temples. I recently had a debate (Personally found it silly) and the research ended in Ayurvedic categorization of food. Now if vedas prohibts the usage of Onions, which are the other Tamasic vegitables in this category? Is this followed by all the temples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10342" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T17:58:02.470" Title="Using Tamasic vegetables(Onion, Garlic mainly of significance here) in temples" Tags="|vedas|practice|food|non-vegetarian|gunas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19338" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-03T12:22:43.960" Score="3" ViewCount="752" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu is said to be the creator of the world and the manager of destiny. He can be seen sitting on the many-headed snake who is said to be the ‘Kalswarup Sheshnag –The king of snakes’. He has a smiling and calm face with a lot of intelligence in his eyes. He is also said to be the kindest God, who immediately fulfills the wishes of his ardent devotees. Keeping in mind his kindness and blessings on us, here is the day on which we should for sure pray Lord Vishnu. The effects will be immediate and fruitful. That day is none other than Devshayani Ekadashi. The day he wakes up is known as Prabodhini Ekadashi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10200" LastActivityDate="2017-07-30T06:15:00.070" Title="What are all Rituals and Benefits of DEVSHAYANI EKADASHI?" Tags="|vishnu|gods|rituals|ekadashi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19341" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-03T17:18:35.937" Score="6" ViewCount="1420" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for the original version of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi-Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt; and (or) other Puranas which has lots of information about Devi Durga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have the short version of it but it does not have anything about mata Durga. That is more like a Bhagvata Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also want &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markandeya_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Markandeya Purana&lt;/a&gt; in its original version. Anybody knows from where to get them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10349" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-24T09:43:58.793" LastActivityDate="2018-04-28T18:36:26.973" Title="Where can i get original versions of the Devi Bhagavata and Markandeya Puranas?" Tags="|puranas|durga|devi-bhagavata-purana|markandeya-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19342" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-03T18:11:08.630" Score="2" ViewCount="355" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Mind is known in Vedas and another scriptures as Manas. Manas is not the same as Mind in modern science?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;when a man sits down to meditate thoughts rush up by dozens. The mind is only a bundle of thoughts&quot; I found this statement and I haven't find the components of Mind details. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any mentions in vedas or scriptures views? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-12-11T07:37:28.070" LastActivityDate="2018-02-17T07:21:25.220" Title="Components of Mind According to Hindu Scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|mind|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19344" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19345" CreationDate="2017-07-03T20:18:06.997" Score="0" ViewCount="90" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know that in Sanskrit, there is nadI shabda for IkArAnthaH. For the name, nalinI, which is also IkArAnthaH strIlinga, would the declensions be the following?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1st - {nalinI, nalinyau, nalinyaH}, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2nd - {nalinIm, nalinyau, nalinIH}, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3rd -{nalinyA, nalinIbhyAm, nalinIbhyaH}, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4th - {nalinyai, nalinIbhyAm, nalinIbhyaH}, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5th - {nalinyAh, nalinIbhyAm, nalinIbhyaH}, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6th - {nalinyAh, nalinyoH, nalinInAm}, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7th - {nalinyAm, nalinyoH, nalinIshu}, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8th - {hey nalinI, hey nalinyau, hey nalinyaH}&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I just want to make sure I am understanding the shabda correctly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5101" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T00:51:54.857" Title="iikArAnthaH shabda declension of nalinI" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-07-04T03:22:50.303" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19345" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19344" CreationDate="2017-07-04T00:51:54.857" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is nearly correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The incorrect ones are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Singular of the Sambodhana-Prathama case (सम्बोधनप्रथमा विभक्ति: एकवचनम्) or the 8th case mentioned above. It should be 'hey nalini' (हे नलिनि) and not 'hey nalinI' (हे नलिनी).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Plural of the Tritiya case (त्रितीया विभक्ति: बहुवचनम्) or the 3rd case mentioned above. It should be 'nalinIbhih(नलिनीभि:)' and not 'nalinIbhyah(नलिनीभ्य:)'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rest are good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T00:51:54.857" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19346" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-04T03:35:00.723" Score="8" ViewCount="1223" Body="&lt;p&gt;The term &quot;Shaivite&quot; is overused nowadays. For instance, Iyer Brahmins are often called Shaivites, but they're actually followers of Adi Shankaracharya's Smartha sect ((which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3796/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2480/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and simply adopt Shiva as their Ishta Devata. True philosophical Shaivism is relatively rare nowadays (in contrast to philosophical Vaishnavism which is pretty common). I discussed one genuine Shaivite sect, the Lingayat sect of Basava, in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6621/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. But my question is related to a more famous sect of Shaivism, known as Shaiva Siddhanta, which is based on the Shaiva Agamas and the poems of the Nayanars just as the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) is based on the Pancharatra Agamas and the poems of the Alwars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, one of the defining works of the Shaiva Siddhanta sect is Meykandar's Siva Jnana Bodham, a commentary on twelve important verses from a Shaiva Agama called the Raurava Agamas. Now Meykandar's shishya Arulnandi Shivacharya wrote a work called the Sivajnana Siddhiyar, which is a commentary on Meykandar's work but also tries to refute rival schools of philosophy. In particular, he refutes the Charvakas, an materialistic atheistic school of Indian philosophy.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FMGEL.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt;, Arulnandi Shivacharya pretends to be a Charvaka and identifies &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamachara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vamachari&lt;/a&gt; people as having a kinship with the Charvakas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O hail to you, O Vami, give me your hand.  You are my real incomparable friend, since you pursue like myself the paths of murder and robbery and vice which the cowards call evil, and [you] are the light of an admiring group of girls with lovely braids of hair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found this interesting, because many Shavite and Shakta sects follow Vamachara practices.  So my question is, do all Shaiva Siddhantins reject Vamachara practices as sinful?  Or do some Shaiva Siddhantins disagree with Arulnandi Shivacharya on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are basically three kinds of Shaiva Siddhantins.  There's the mainstream Shaiva Siddhantins, who follow Meykandar, which would include Arulnandi Shivacharya.  Then there's Shrauta Shaiva Siddhantins, like Srikantha Shivacharya and Appaya Dikshitar.  And then there's the Saiva Siddhanta Church, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8897/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Do all three groups have the same opinion concerning Vamachara practices?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-03-25T23:15:05.583" LastActivityDate="2018-03-25T23:15:05.583" Title="Do all Shaiva Siddhantins reject Vamachara practices as sinful?" Tags="|practice|shaivism|tantra|shaiva-siddhanta|vamachara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19347" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19341" CreationDate="2017-07-04T05:40:49.710" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can get unabridged Devi Bhagavata Purana and Markandeya Purana in Sanskrit and English with verse by verse translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;IndianScriptures site&lt;/a&gt;. Here are links for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/upa-purana/srimad-devibhagavatam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devibhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/markandeya-purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each Chapter is uploaded as separate pdf file on that site.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also read &lt;strong&gt;Lalita Mahatmya&lt;/strong&gt; of Brahmanda Purana which describes glory of Mother Lalita.  You can get Brahmanda Purana in English from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9095/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also visit below question for more resources.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15424/3500&quot;&gt;What are some online sources to get unabridged Hindu Scriptures or to learn Hinduism?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T06:31:10.593" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19348" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19341" CreationDate="2017-07-04T05:54:05.533" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Markandeya Purana;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pushpak.de/markandeya/markandeya_en.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is Markandeya Purana unabridged in English.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801000.us.archive.org/2/items/markandeyapurana/markandeya_purana_hindi.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;And from here&lt;/a&gt; you can get it in Sanskrit-Hindi (Sanskrit original slokas with their Hindi translations).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatamindex.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; you can read it in unabridged English translated by Swami Vijñanananda.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Some other Puranas that have information on Goddess Durga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As is well known Durga Puja is quite famous in Bengal. And here they follow mainly four Puranas for the worship procedures apart from following the Agama scriptures. And, they are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Devi Bhagavata 2) Markandeya Purana 3) Kalika Purana and 4) Brinnandikeswara Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of which , the last two are considered as upapurans. So, apart from the Markandeya Purana and the Devi Bhagavatam, the two upapuranas i mentioned also contain a lot of information on Devi Durga but i think it is hard to find them online.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-04T06:18:05.757" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T06:18:05.757" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19350" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8913" CreationDate="2017-07-04T06:36:19.940" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ParashurAma&lt;/strong&gt; seems the right interpretation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=10&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=31&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 10.31&lt;/a&gt; - Of the purifiers I am air; &lt;strong&gt;among the wielders of weapons I am Rama&lt;/strong&gt;. Among fishes, too, I am the shark; I am Ganga among rivers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This has a solid back-up in MahAbhArata's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sauti said, 'Listen, O ye Brahmanas, to the sacred descriptions I utter O ye best of men, ye deserve to hear of the place known as Samanta-panchaka. &lt;strong&gt;In the interval between the Treta and Dwapara Yugas, Rama (the son of Jamadagni) great among all who have borne arms&lt;/strong&gt;, urged by impatience of wrongs, repeatedly smote the noble race of Kshatriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;There is a difference between &amp;quot;warrior&amp;quot; (as in Qn) &amp;amp; &amp;quot;wielder of weapons&amp;quot; (correct translation). &amp;quot;Wielder&amp;quot; means &amp;quot;[much] conversant&amp;quot;. A person very much conversant with weapons may not win all the wars, because war requires -- tactics, swiftness, strategy -- apart from weapons.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Reasons&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It's believed that &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2384/1049&quot;&gt;ParashurAma was living during Gita&lt;/a&gt; time, while lord &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16049/1049&quot;&gt;RAma had already died&lt;/a&gt; long back. Now most of the people &amp;amp; entities referred in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita's chapter 10&lt;/a&gt; were existent during the discourse of Gita: i.e. Arjuna, VAsudeva, VyAsa, Indra, Kubera, Veda-s, etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Like lord Rama, both ParashurAma &amp;amp; BalarAma were conversant with weapons. All 3 were referred as &amp;quot;RAma&amp;quot; at many placed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;At least few commentators explicitly mention &amp;quot;ParashurAma&amp;quot; in their commentary of this verse: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-10-31/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Vishvanatha Thakur, Sri Sridhara Swami, Sri Keshava Kashmiri&lt;/a&gt;. Many others simply mention &amp;quot;RAma&amp;quot; without further clarification.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord RAma was known for many other things like -- protector of Dharma, marriage with Sita, 14 years in forest, killing RAvana, later life related to Luv-Kusha, chemistry with VAli-Sugriva-Hanumana; The weapons part was a small part of his life;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ParashurAma is primarily known for his hold on weapons, as he killed many of the Kshatriya-s; Moreover, he was also the Guru of other great warriors like -- &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2172/1049&quot;&gt;Bhishma&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9820/1049&quot;&gt;Drona&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16774/1049&quot;&gt;Karna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T09:20:27.603" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19352" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18911" CreationDate="2017-07-04T07:05:25.150" Score="-3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though this is subjective, because every scriptures have their own favourites. But many of the scriptures would favour &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna as the best archer&lt;/strong&gt; over anyone else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18916/1049&quot;&gt;good answer&lt;/a&gt; is already posted by @moonstar2001. Putting some healthy counter arguments:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19350/1049&quot;&gt;BG 10.31 mostly refers ParashurAma&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;BTW, Krishna referred Arjuna also as &quot;Me&quot; in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=10&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=37&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG&#xA;10.39&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Another reference suggests RAma was an equivalent in warring as Rudra.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;With an indirect logic, Arjuna can be considered to have warring power (not any other) beyond Rudra. Because, Arjuna &amp;amp; Krishna were reincarnation of sage Nara &amp;amp; NArAyana, who in their much previous birth were amalgamated into &quot;son of Dharma&quot;. After a lot of ascetic austerities, that incarnation obtained a boon from Rudra himself to be &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7376/1049&quot;&gt;better than Rudra in any standoff&lt;/a&gt;:  &#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The blue-throated God said: ... Thou shalt be &lt;strong&gt;superior to myself&lt;/strong&gt; if thou ever goest to battle against me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;War has many aspects, among them 1 aspect is weapon. Weapons have many types, among them a type is archery (asked by OP). Archery typically happens with bow. Now here is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08072.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;independent scripture reference&lt;/a&gt; talking about &quot;best in archery/bow&quot; in lord Krishna's own words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus addressed, O monarch, by the high-souled Phalguna, Krishna commanded Daruka, saying, &quot;Do all that Arjuna, &lt;strong&gt;that chief of Bharata's race&lt;/strong&gt; and that &lt;strong&gt;foremost of all wielders of the bow&lt;/strong&gt;, hath said.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another aspect of Arjuna that he was known as &lt;em&gt;SavyasAchi&lt;/em&gt;, due to his ability to use both of hands equivalently on his bow: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And since &lt;strong&gt;both of my hands are capable of drawing the Gandiva&lt;/strong&gt;, I am known as Savyasachin among gods and men.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8619/1049&quot;&gt;[here]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-04-29T05:08:06.900" LastActivityDate="2018-04-29T05:08:06.900" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19354" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19338" CreationDate="2017-07-04T07:14:03.773" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;What are the Rituals and Benefits od Dev-Shayani Ekadashi ?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The benefits of keeping ekdashi is  found in &lt;strong&gt;Padma-Purana Part – V , Chapter 15 – The Importance of Ekadashi ,&lt;/strong&gt; where Shaunaka asks Suta about “Parasvaparivartana”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.11 : Suta Said - : A man should observed fast on the auspicious (day of )&#xA;  Ekadashi. Which is best of all vows , should keep awake and highly&#xA;  decorate Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O brahmana the man who worships Vishnu with Tulsi leaves , obtain the&#xA;  fruits of a core of sacrifices. O brahmana  , he who would offer a&#xA;  lamp full of ghee (to Vishnu) on the Vishnu day in the end goes to&#xA;  Vishnu’s place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do not bring to me these meritorious being , who observe fast on (the&#xA;  day of ) Vishnu’s  going to bed  or his turning aside  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That fruit is obtained by him who fasts on an (Ekadasi-) day which is&#xA;  obtained by bathing in Ganga etc. and at holy places or at the (time&#xA;  of) lunar or solar eclipse..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He having worshipped (i.e. who worships) with lotus-garlands lord&#xA;  Visnu after having properly broken the fast, does not have a place in&#xA;  mother's womb (i.e. is not reborn).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no greater means than Ekadasi for (going to) the next world.&#xA;  He who, full of many sins, observes (a fast on) the day of Visnu, is&#xA;  freed from all sins and goes to Visnu's abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rituals are not much discussed in that chapter but from the description we come to know about these things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Keeping fast on Ekadashi day .&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Spending the day with pooja of lord Vishnu with staying awake in the night time with  praying.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Offering Tulasi leaves to lord Vishnu on ekadashi day.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Touching and drinking the water flowing from Lord Vishnu's feet.&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UyDjX.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UyDjX.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;screenshot of source&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-04T07:33:01.920" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T07:33:01.920" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19355" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-04T07:15:13.803" Score="3" ViewCount="239" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I had posted a question on popular philosophies of Hinduism. In one of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19169/which-philosophy-is-the-most-popular-in-hinduism&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt; it is mentioned that Vaikhanasa is associated to Vishishthadvaita vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But when Vaikhanasa itself is called as &quot;agama&quot; how it can be associated with Vedanta which comes under nigama?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Among the Vaikhanasa sutras (grihya, shrauta etc) and related Samhita texts, are there any which acknowledge its association with the Vedanta?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though there could be a commentary on Vedanta sutra by a vaikhanasa &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10187/is-the-vaikhanasa-commentary-on-the-brahma-sutras-available-in-english&quot;&gt;priest&lt;/a&gt;. But I want to know the references directly from their core texts. Because the followers may write commentaries on many subjects which may not be necessarily related to the actual ideology.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T07:15:13.803" Title="Do any of Vaikhanasa text associate itself with Vedanta philosophy?" Tags="|agamas|vishishtadvaita|vaikhanasa|grihya-sutra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19356" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19432" CreationDate="2017-07-04T07:38:06.943" Score="8" ViewCount="531" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many versions of Vedanta available and most of them have drastic differences and contradictions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So is Vedanta is a loosely coined term or does it have a concrete definition?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is its relation to the philosophy?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If veda-anta is something &lt;strong&gt;beyond/other&lt;/strong&gt; than the Vedas then it cannot be called as &lt;strong&gt;vedanta&lt;/strong&gt; at all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Further, there are no divisions such ad Veda-aadi, veda-madhya then how come we have something like veda-anta?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If its a part of the Vedas then these philosophies also form the part of the so called KarmakAnda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T01:12:18.323" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T13:39:01.697" Title="What is the actual definition of Vedanta?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19357" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19172" CreationDate="2017-07-04T08:04:03.230" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt; anyone who has undergone the Upanayana Samskara is a Dvija. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, as per Smritis, only the males belonging to the first three Varnas (i.e Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya) are eligible for the Samskara and hence for Dvijattva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dvi+ Ja literally means who are born twice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For them the first birth is from the mother and the second is through the initiation into the Vedas, through the Gayatri Upadesam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.169. According to the injunction of the revealed texts&#xA;  the first birth of an Aryan is from (his natural) mother, &lt;strong&gt;the second&#xA;  (happens) on the tying of the girdle of Munga grass&lt;/strong&gt;, and the third on&#xA;  the initiation to (the performance of) a (Srauta) sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.170. &lt;strong&gt;Among those (three) the birth which is symbolised&#xA;  by the investiture with the girdle of Munga grass, is his birth for&#xA;  the sake of the Veda; they declare that in that (birth) the Sivitri&#xA;  (verse) is his mother and the teacher his father&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Smritis, Sudras are not even allowed the Upanayana. So, they are by virtue of their birth, not Dvijas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.126. A Sudra cannot commit an offence, causing loss of&#xA;  caste (pataka), &lt;strong&gt;and he is not worthy to receive the sacraments;&lt;/strong&gt; he&#xA;  has no right to (fulfil) the sacred law (of the Aryans, yet) there is&#xA;  no prohibition against (his fulfilling certain portions of) the law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 10.127. (Sudras) who are desirous to gain merit, and know&#xA;  (their) duty, commit no sin, but gain praise, if they imitate the&#xA;  practice of virtuous men &lt;strong&gt;without reciting sacred texts&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;........................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Is anyone who has not undergone the upanayana samskara a Sudra?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By birth alone everyone is just like a Sudra. So, &lt;strong&gt;yes&lt;/strong&gt;. It is only by the purificatory rites that one attains Dvija-hood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.172. &lt;strong&gt;(He who has not been initiated) should not&#xA;  pronounce (any) Vedic text&lt;/strong&gt; excepting (those required for) the&#xA;  performance of funeral rites, &lt;strong&gt;since he is on a level with a Sudra&#xA;  before his birth from the Veda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the Sanskrit words being used are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Sudrena Hi Samas&quot; which means &quot;same as a  Sudra&quot;. So, one who does not have Upanayana is the same as a Sudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17882/which-scripture-is-the-source-of-the-verse-janmana-jayate-sudrah&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; also has the following that answers your question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ saṁskārad bhaved dvijaḥ.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everyone is born as a sudra and  by samskara one upgrades to dvija&#xA;  status.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T08:04:03.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19358" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-04T09:09:17.190" Score="9" ViewCount="2292" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says &quot;nothing is impossible you can do anything and everything, believe in that&quot;. Chanakya (Kautilya) says &quot;fate can't be changed you have to face your bhagya&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interesting thing is that Chanakya picked up a boy playing in the mud and vowed to make him king of whole India and he did . Either he knew the future or says two different things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10304" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-01T05:12:14.603" LastActivityDate="2017-12-03T00:58:18.120" Title="According to Hinduism who is right about free will (Vivekananda or Chanakya)?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19359" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-04T10:31:55.437" Score="2" ViewCount="60" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit word '&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;manuṣya&lt;/a&gt;' ordinarily means 'a man, a human being'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the four Vedas (Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda &amp;amp; Atharvaveda), are there any situations or contexts where the word '&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;manuṣya&lt;/a&gt;' is used to describe, not merely the anatomically '&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_sapiens&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;homo sapiens&lt;/a&gt;' species, but a higher moral character or a higher spiritual mentality?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7335" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T10:31:55.437" Title="In the Vedas, does the word 'manuṣya' ever have a special meaning?" Tags="|vedas|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19361" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="38670" CreationDate="2017-07-04T13:01:39.787" Score="5" ViewCount="2396" Body="&lt;p&gt;I understand that deities are One while seeming distinct in our perception of reality. Yet we &lt;em&gt;do&lt;/em&gt; differentiate between deities (e.g. Hanumān is seen as distinct from Gaṇeśa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, before I read that the Bhāgavata Purāṇa states that Nārāyaṇa is Para Brahman I already understood that they are One. But, the statement itself would be unnecessary if everyone already knew they were One. So, how do/did people see Nārāyaṇa and Brahman as distinct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10329" LastEditorUserId="10329" LastEditDate="2020-03-13T18:29:15.370" LastActivityDate="2020-03-13T20:53:36.373" Title="What is the difference between Narayana and Brahman?" Tags="|vishnu|brahman|satyanarayana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="25" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19362" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-04T15:38:57.133" Score="3" ViewCount="1615" Body="&lt;p&gt;Heard of the Naraka called Punnama. Is there any description of how the Naraka will look like? How the soul in that Naraka can be liberated? What are the ways to avoid that Naraka?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10259" LastEditorUserId="19480" LastEditDate="2020-06-16T11:33:06.180" LastActivityDate="2020-06-16T11:33:06.180" Title="What is Punnama Naraka? How souls will be liberated from that Naraka?" Tags="|naraka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19363" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-04T15:41:57.357" Score="3" ViewCount="96" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EXPLANATION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;People living in Heaven have &lt;strong&gt;Childhood&lt;/strong&gt; and also &lt;strong&gt;Marry and Fight with Humans&lt;/strong&gt;,Vanaras,etc,.this clears that they have &lt;strong&gt;Physical Body&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I didn't know whether we take &lt;strong&gt;Birth in Hell/Heaven&lt;/strong&gt; as like Humans or Different Manner.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do we take Birth with Physical Body in Hell/Heaven ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If yes then do we have &lt;strong&gt;Childhood in Hell&lt;/strong&gt;  ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-07-04T15:53:43.327" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T15:53:43.327" Title="Do we take Birth with Physical Body in Hell/Heaven?" Tags="|karma|atma|lokas|gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19364" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-04T16:04:46.067" Score="2" ViewCount="191" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23350/25F_Chapter_124_1.pdf#page=2&amp;amp;zoom=auto,-37,347&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 124&lt;/a&gt; from Matsya Purana describes the cities of Indra, Varuna, Yama and Chandra surrounding Mount Meru and the Lokaloka mountains where the four guardians of the directions stay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, the Earth has the same measurement as the Heaven. To&#xA;the east of Meru, on the Manasottara mountain, is Vastveka-Sara, the&#xA;city of Mahendra. It is full of gold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To the south of Meru is the city of Dharmaraja, called the Samyamana,&#xA;on the back of the Manasa mountain. Vaivasvata Dharmaraja resides&#xA;there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To the west of Sumeru, on the top of the Manasa mountain, is the fair&#xA;city of Varuna named Susa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;North of the Meru, on the top of the Manasa mountain, is the Vibhavari&#xA;city of Moon (Sirnea). It is like the city of Mahendra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To the north of the Manasa mountain, are the Lokapalas in the four&#xA;directions, for the propagation of virtue and the protection of the&#xA;universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/search?q=vairaja%20abode%20of%20brahma&amp;amp;client=firefox-b&amp;amp;source=lnms&amp;amp;tbm=bks&amp;amp;biw=1600&amp;amp;bih=767&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The description&lt;/a&gt; of this book 'Religion and Philosophy of the Padma Purana' also describes Brahma's abode as Vairaja and ascribes it to the Padma Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there such cities of other gods as well?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And what is the difference between the cities of the gods and the Lokas associated with them? (Like Indraloka, Somaloka, Vishnuloka etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-04T16:04:46.067" Title="Where are the cities of the of the gods?" Tags="|gods|lokas|matsya-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19367" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19333" CreationDate="2017-07-04T17:45:42.713" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is Bagalamukhi Parvati's different incarnation or other form of&#xA;  Sakthi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Bagalamukhi is one among the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;10 Mahavidyas&lt;/a&gt; ( Great Knowledge or Vidya). She is the 8th Mahavidya. When a spiritual aspirant's gross BhogasprihA (desire for pleasures) have been destroyed, Goddess Bagala appears to destroy the inner or the subtle BhogasprihA. And, the symbol of this subtle BhogasprihA is the tongue which she cuts off.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is one form of Sri Adya or Adi Parashakti or the primordial and the supreme Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Shakta Agama called the Mahanirvana Tantram, this what Lord Sadashiva says to his consort Sri AdyA about her different forms or manifestations :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TvamAdyA SarvavidyAnAmasmAkamapi Janmabhuh | Tvam JanAsi Jagath Sarvam&#xA;  Na TvAm JAnAti Kaschana || Tvam KAli TArini DurgA Shodashi&#xA;  Bhuvaneswari| DhumAvati &lt;strong&gt;Tvam Bagala&lt;/strong&gt; Bhairavi ChinnamastakAm ||&#xA;  Tvam Annapurna VAgdevi Tvam Devi Kamalalya | SarvashaktiswarupA Sarva&#xA;  Devamayi||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All knowledge and we all are born of you. You know everything and the&#xA;  whole world but no one knows you. You are Kali, Tarini, Durga, &#xA;  Shodasi, Bhuvaneswari , You are Dhumavati,  &lt;strong&gt;Bagalamukhi&lt;/strong&gt;, &#xA;  Bhairavi,  Chinnamasta. You are Annapurna,  Sarswati and Lakshmi. You&#xA;  are the embodied form of all the Shaktis and that of all the Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MahAnirvAna Tantram, Chapter 4, Verses 11-14.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Bagalamukhi is one of the forms of Sri Adi Parashkati .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 10 MahAvidyas are dealt with great details in  ShAkta Tantras or Agamas. They are defined in Tantras like the &lt;strong&gt;MundamAlA Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;BagalAmukhi Tantram, ViswasAra Tantram&lt;/strong&gt; etc and here i am quoting from the ViswasAra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KAli TArA MahAvidya Shodasi Bhuvaneswari | Bhairavi ChinnamastA Cha&#xA;  Vidya DhumAvati TathA || &lt;strong&gt;BagalA&lt;/strong&gt; SiddhavidyA Cha Matangi&#xA;  KamalAtmikA | Eto DasamahAvidyA SiddhavidyAh PrakirtitAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The 10 Goddesses of great wisdoms are KAli, TArA, Shodashi,&#xA;  Bhuvaneswari, Bhairavi, ChinnamastA, DhumAvati, &lt;strong&gt;BagalAmukhi&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  MAtangi and KamalA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here is a mythological story about how ParAshakti manifested in the form of Bagalamukhi:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story is from an Agama Text called the &lt;strong&gt;Swatantra Tantra&lt;/strong&gt;. I am giving the first few Sanskrit verses only and the translations of the remaining.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atha Vaksyami Devesi BagalotpattikArnam: PurA Kritayuge Devi&#xA;  VAtakshobha Upasthithe | CharAcharavinAshAya VishnuschintAparayanah |&#xA;  TapasyAyA Cha santusthA MahAsritripurAmbikA |.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva says to Devi] In ancient times, during Krita Yuga (or Satya Yuga) there was a time&#xA;  when wind flowed on earth at great speed. Lord Vishnu started worrying&#xA;  that this powerful wind-flow might destroy the whole world. And he&#xA;  began to do a severe Tapasya (penance) to discover a remedy. Pleased&#xA;  by Vishnu's severe penance Goddess MahAtripurA Devi stopped that wind&#xA;  flow. Thereafter the Great Goddess saw a big lake called Haridra and&#xA;  started playing in it. And after that, in a nearby place called&#xA;  Saurastra, an luminous Goddess emerged  from that yellow lake at&#xA;  midnight of Krishna Paksha Chaturdasi ( 14th day of the dark phase of&#xA;  moon) and the day was Tuesday. In Tantra Texts this great night is&#xA;  known by the name of VirarAtri. &lt;strong&gt;And this Goddess is the eighth&#xA;  SiddhavidyA called BagalAmbikA.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among the many Bagalamukhi mantras the most famous is the ShattrimsatAkshara (or the 36-lettered ) mantra of hers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seer (Rishi) of this mantra is Narada and Trishtup is the meter (Chandah). It goes something like this (i have removed all the beejas from it):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....BagalAmukhi Sarvadushtanama vAcham mukham &lt;strong&gt;stambhaya&lt;/strong&gt; jihvAm kilaya kilaya buddhim&#xA;  nasaya...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bagalamukhi Sadhana and her mantras are primarily used for the purpose of &lt;strong&gt;Stambhana&lt;/strong&gt; (which is one of the Tantrik Shatkarmas) and which is nothing but completely paralyzing  one's wicked and evil enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As described by Lord Shiva himself this in brief is the purpose of Bagalamukhi mantras and the main objective of worshiping her:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BrhmAstram SampravkshyAmi Sadya Pratyayakarakam | SAdhakAnAm&#xA;  HitArthAya &lt;strong&gt;StambhanAya Cha VairinAm&lt;/strong&gt; | Yasyah SmaranmAtrena Pavanohapi&#xA;  SthirAyate |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the benefit of the devotees and for paralyzing the evil groups of&#xA;  enemy (vairi) i am telling the Bagalamukhi mantra which is as powerful as the&#xA;  Brahmastra. This mantra can paralyze anyone or anything. Even the&#xA;  movement of air can be stopped by its mere remembrance what to say of others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who don't have mantra diksha can still pray to Goddess using the following &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Dasa_Maha_Vidhya_Sthuthi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;simple sloka&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bagalamukhi has a golden complexion and her dress is yellow. She sits&#xA;  in a golden throne in the midst of an ocean of nectar full of yellow&#xA;  lotuses. A crescent moon adorns her head. She is believed to have the&#xA;  power to remove Kuja Dosha,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.&lt;strong&gt;Pitambara dari shathru bhaya nivarini, Jwalamuki Vaishhnavi nama Vikhyathe , Bagala Mukhi namosthuthe&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Salutations to Goddess BHagalamuki , Who wears yellow silk cloths ,&#xA;  Who removes fear as well as enemies , Who is well known as Jwalamukhi&#xA;  and Vaishnavi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Bagalamukhi is usually depicted as cutting off the evil enemy's tongue and thus paralysing his speech.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this context its said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dushtashya Stambhayetyeva Mukham VAchaspaterapi..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[The mantra] paralyses the face and the speaking ability of the wicked and the evil&#xA;  persons, it  paralyzes even Brihaspati's (who is &#xA;  considered as the Lord of speech or Vachaspati) speech , what to say of others'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rvblY.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rvblY.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yellow is the color associated with her. Here is a brief description of the Goddess's other prominent features from one of his meditative verses (Dhyana Sloka):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Madhye SudhAbdhimanimandaparatnavedisimhAsanopari GatAm&#xA;  PairpitAvarnam| PitambarAbharanamAlyavibhusitAngim Devim SmarAmi&#xA;  DhritamudgaravairijihvAm || JihvAgrAmAdAya Karena Devim VAmena Shatrun&#xA;  Paripirayantim || GadAbhighAtena Cha Dakshinena PitAmbarAdhyAm&#xA;  DvibhujAm NamAmi||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In a ocean of Sudha (nectar) there is mandapa made of precious jewels. On that mandapa&#xA;  there is a throne made of precious stones upon which Goddess&#xA;  Bagalamukhi is seated. Her body is of yellow color. She is wearing&#xA;  yellow colored clothes, and her body is decked with yellow colored&#xA;  ornaments and yellow colored garlands. In one of her hands she holds a&#xA;  Mudgara and in her other hand she holds the tongue of the enemy...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To finish off, in some ShAkta Agamas, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/dasamahavidyas.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;like the Todala Tantram&lt;/a&gt;, each of the 10 MahavidyAs is associated with one of the Dasavataras of Vishnu as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Shri Devi said: Lord of Gods, Guru of the universe, tell me of the&#xA;  ten avatars. Now I want to hear of this, tell me of their true nature.&#xA;  Paramesvara, reveal to me which avatar goes with which Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Shri Shiva said: Tara Devi is the blue form, &lt;strong&gt;Bagala is the tortoise&#xA;  incarnation&lt;/strong&gt;, Dhumavati is the boar, Chinnamasta is Nrisimha,&#xA;  Bhuvaneshvari is Vamana, Matangi is the Rama form, Tripura is&#xA;  Jamadagni, Bhairavi is Balabhadra, Mahalakshmi is Buddha, and Durga is&#xA;  the Kalki form. BhagavatÌ Kali is the Krishna murti.” (Todalatantra,&#xA;  chapter 10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Goddess BagalAmukhi is associated with the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurma Avatara of Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-10T16:40:00.820" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T16:40:00.820" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19368" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-04T18:45:08.947" Score="4" ViewCount="464" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shukracharya was the preceptor of the asuras and was the only one who knew the sanjeevani mantra. Since he commanded such power, I'm wondering if he was a brahma-rishi. The wiki page as well as other sites do not mention this but I just want to make sure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2897" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-29T03:49:10.363" LastActivityDate="2020-06-29T03:49:10.363" Title="Was Shukracharya a Brahmarishi?" Tags="|rishi|shukracharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19369" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="28986" CreationDate="2017-07-04T19:51:13.787" Score="5" ViewCount="482" Body="&lt;p&gt;Alfred Lord Tennyson said &quot;In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.&quot;  Well, in the Summer a Brahmana's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of Avani Avittam!  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upakarma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Avani Avittam&lt;/a&gt;, aka Upakarma, is a ritual performed on the Dakshinayana day in August where Brahmanas change their sacred thread.  That's because traditionally you are supposed to begin Vedic study on the Dakshinayana day in August, and stop it on the Uttarayana day in January.  And then you resume Vedic study in the next August. (Between January and August students would study subjects other than the Vedas.)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Proceeding at this pace, it would take 12 years to learn one Veda, and 48 years to learn all four.  But in the Kali Yuga, students are not willing to wait so long to learn the Vedas, so violating scripture they learn the Vedas all year long.  So the Avani Avittam ritual includes a Prayaschitta where you repent for not taking the mandatory break between January and August.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.samskaaram.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=147:yagyopaveeta-dhaarana-yajur-vaishnava-tenkalai&amp;amp;catid=110&amp;amp;lang=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here's&lt;/a&gt;the procedure for it, from the Avani Avittam ritual I follow:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;harirom tat। śrī govinda। govinda। govinda। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  asya śrī bhagavata: mahāpuruṣasya śrīviṣṇorāgyayā pravartamānasya ādyabrahmaṇa:, dvitīya parārdhe, śrīśvetavarāha kalpe,vaivasvata manvantare, kali yuge, prathame pāde, jambūdvīpe, bhāratavarṣe, bharatakaṇḍe, śakābde, mero: dakṣiṇe pārśve, asmin vartamāne, vyāvahārike prabhavādi ṣaṣṭi saṃvatsarāṇāṃ madhye manmada nāmasaṃvatsare, dakṣiṇāyane, varṣa rutau, simha māse, śukla pakṣe, pourṇamāsyām śubhatithou, sthira vāsara, daniṣṭā nakṣatra yuktāyāṃ, śrī viṣṇu yoga, śrī viṣṇu karaṇa, śubha yoga, śubha karaṇa, evaṃguṇa viṣeṣaṇa viṣiṣṭāyām asyāṃ, pourṇamāsyām śubhatithou śrī bhagavadāgyayā bhagavat kainkarya rūpaṃ taiṣyām pourṇamāsyāṃ adhyāyotsarjana akaraṇa prāyaścittārthaṃ aṣṭottara sahasra/śata sankhyayā kāmokārṣīt manyurakārṣīt mahā mantra japaṃ kariṣye।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then do japa (kāmokārṣit manyurakārśit) कामोकार्षीत् मन्युरकार्षीत् 1008 times or 108 times. After this do &quot;mādhyāhnikam&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as you can see, you are supposed to do Japam or repeated chanting of the mantra &quot;kāmokārṣit manyurakārśit&quot;, which means &quot;Desire did it, anger did it.&quot;  The idea is that you are saying that desire and anger are what led you to commit the sin of not taking the mandatory break between January and August, and you are asking forgiveness for that sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the notion that desire and anger are the causes of sin is mentioned in chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita.  But my question is, what scripture does the mantra &quot;kāmokārṣit manyurakārśit&quot; come from?  It's referred to as a Mahamantra, so I assume it comes from some important scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-08T16:51:31.213" LastActivityDate="2018-09-09T00:30:24.167" Title="What scripture does the Kamokarshit Mantra come from?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|practice|mantras|brahmins|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19370" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19368" CreationDate="2017-07-05T01:51:58.260" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Certainly he was a rishi of great caliber. He did one of the most difficult penance ever and thus obtained the great vidya of immortality directly from lord Shiva. This puts him in the category of highest seers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Shukra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ushanas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is the name of a Vedic rishi with the patronymic Kāvya (descendant of Kavi, AVŚ 4.29.6), who was later identified as&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Ushanas Shukra&lt;/strong&gt;. He is venerated as a seer in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna tells Arjun that among Kavis he is Ushanas. Ushanas is&#xA;also the name of the author of a Dharmashastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this, his contribution to neeti shastra is also phenomenal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was also given the elite status of planet in the saura mandala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;22&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;S’ukrâchârya said :-- I ask for Mantras, O Deva! from you that are not possessed by Brihaspatî, for the defeat of the Devas, and the&#xA;victory of the Asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vyâsa said :-- On hearing his words, the all-knowing S’ankara S’iva began to think what He would do in this matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Certainly, this is with the revengeful object of attacking the Devas, for their defeat and for the victory of the Asuras that this&#xA;Muni has come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Devas ought to be protected by me; thus thinking, S’ankara Mahes’vara advised him an entirely difficult tapasyâ to practise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Full one thousand years he would practise tapasyâ with feet upwards and head downwards, he will have to inhale the smoke of burnt&#xA;husk. Then he will get the Mantra and his desires will be fulfilled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;That would be done; thus saying to S’ankara, S’ukrâchârya practised that excellent vow, peaceful and inhaling the smoke of husk&#xA;to get that Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this way one thousand years passed duly, the God Mahâdeva was very pleased and addressed S’ukrâchârya that He had come to give him&#xA;boons that he desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;36-37. The God Mahâdeva said :-- Whatever there exists in this&#xA;universe, whatever you see with your eyes and whatever cannot be&#xA;described in words, you will be the lord of all these and the&#xA;conqueror of all. There is no doubt in this. You cannot be killed by&#xA;any creature; you will be the ruler of all beings and will be reckoned&#xA;as the best of the Brâhmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T02:01:27.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19371" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19376" CreationDate="2017-07-05T02:19:14.617" Score="0" ViewCount="456" Body="&lt;p&gt;From last few days I am reading Shri Sai Satcharitra. and in Chapter 41 there is something &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Baba Abdul Rahiman is against murti puja or image-worship&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refrence Shri Sai Satcharitra &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saibaba.org/satcharitra/sai41.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 41&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As to do a spiritual practice there are many ways out of which one is accepting Murti Puja and other is not accepting Murti puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found many article on murti puja but can't find any on Not accepting Murti puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What exactly is Not accepting Murti puja?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is difference between Murti Puja and other is Not accepting Murti puja?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What are the steps to be followed in Not accepting Murti puja?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I hope I have explained my question properly. If not please let me know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="10089" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T10:58:19.553" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T13:14:20.743" Title="What does it mean by Not accepting Murti puja? And how to do it" Tags="|sadhana|upasana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19372" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-07-05T05:39:08.377" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagalamukhi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bagalamukhi or Bagala&lt;/a&gt; (Devnagari: बगलामुखी) is one of the ten mahavidyas (great wisdom goddesses) in Hinduism. Bagalamukhi Devi smashes the devotee's misconceptions and delusions (or the devotee's enemies) with her cudgel&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T05:39:08.377" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T05:39:08.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19373" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-07-05T05:39:08.377" Score="0" Body="[Bagalamukhi or Bagala][1] (Devnagari: बगलामुखी) is one of the ten mahavidyas (great wisdom goddesses) in Hinduism. Bagalamukhi Devi smashes the devotee's misconceptions and delusions (or the devotee's enemies) with her cudgel" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T05:39:08.377" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T05:39:08.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19374" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-07-05T05:43:00.350" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahavidyas (Great Wisdoms) or Dasha-Mahavidyas&lt;/a&gt; are a group of ten aspects of Adi Parashakti in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are Kali, Tara, Shodashi, Bhuvaneswari, Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamala. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are worshiped with great zeal in the Agamic or Tantric traditions of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T12:11:12.710" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T12:11:12.710" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19375" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-07-05T05:43:00.350" Score="0" Body="Mahavidyas (Great Wisdoms) or Dasha-Mahavidyas are a group of ten aspects of Adi Parashakti in Hinduism.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are Kali, Tara, Shodashi, Bhuvaneswari, Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamala. &#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;They are worshiped with great zeal in the Agamic or Tantric traditions of Hinduism." OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T12:11:12.710" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T12:11:12.710" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19376" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19371" CreationDate="2017-07-05T06:08:31.647" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nirguna upasana is not about &amp;quot;not accepting&amp;quot; murti puja. You are thinking about it in negative way. Nirguna means without qualities, without form. It is worship of formless aspect of God. It is not about rejecting various forms of God.  It is just different path for people whose personality is not attracted to any of the forms of Lord.  It is done by meditating on immutable, indefinable, changeless, all pervading, unmanifest aspect of God, by practicing control over one's sense organs, by being equanimous and unmoved by ups and downs of life and by doing selfless service of others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12.3 Those, however, who meditate in every way on the Immutable, the Indefinable, the Unmanifest, which is all-pervading, incomprehensible, change-less, immovable and constant.-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12.4 By fully controlling all the organs and always being even-minded, they, engaged in the welfare of all beings, attain Me alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=12&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=3&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=12&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=3&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit:  Control of sense organs practically would mean practice of yama-niyamas given in patanjali yoga sutras. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swamij.com/yoga-sutras-23034.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.swamij.com/yoga-sutras-23034.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meditation on nirguna would involve meditating on Om by mental or verbal japa of Om. Or japa of aham brahmasmi. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swamij.com/om-mantra.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.swamij.com/om-mantra.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand difference in attitude of saguna vs nirguna upasaka may be this article will help. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1442&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1442&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand more about philosophy of nirguna brahman, though not strictly necessary for practice of nirguna upasana, see this video. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reddit.com/r/hinduism/comments/6kevj6/definition_of_god_based_on_taittiriya_upanishad/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.reddit.com/r/hinduism/comments/6kevj6/definition_of_god_based_on_taittiriya_upanishad/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T13:14:20.743" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19377" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-05T07:07:12.943" Score="5" ViewCount="369" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many vedAntins quote the following verse while talking of VedAnta and samnyAsa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na karmana na prajaya dhanena tyagenaike amrutatvamanashuh | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;parena nakam nihitam guhayam vibhrajate yadyatayo vishanti || (&lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120214015644AAz43EU&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaivalya&lt;/a&gt; Up)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Not by work, nor by progeny, nor by wealth, but by renunciation, some&#xA;  attained &lt;strong&gt;immortality&lt;/strong&gt;. Higher than heaven, seated in the cave (Buddhi),&#xA;  that shines, (which) the self-controlled attain – the self-controlled,&#xA;  who being of pure minds have well ascertained the Reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So is immortality and moksha one and the same?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are they related to each other?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is immortality the goal of renunciation?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-05T05:30:26.060" LastActivityDate="2018-10-05T05:30:26.060" Title="Is moksha related to immortality?" Tags="|vedanta|moksha|immortality|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19378" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-05T07:13:46.287" Score="6" ViewCount="536" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is commonly seen that in many Vedanta texts and discourses we hear of moksha. I have also asked a related question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19377/is-moksha-related-to-immortality&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I want to know how does the Vedas describe moksha?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are there any specific statements in the Vedas which talk about  the word moksha and its nature?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;strong&gt;P.S:&lt;/strong&gt; Kindly limit the references from &lt;strong&gt;actual vedas or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukhya_Upanishads&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mukhya upanishads&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; in a direct manner. Please avoid opinion and commentaries of sanyasins/sadhus etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T13:05:37.987" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T13:42:12.350" Title="How do the Vedas describe Moksha?" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|upanishads|moksha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19380" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-05T07:28:43.323" Score="5" ViewCount="1158" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally all Hindus Visit temple for to perform prayers. But according to Hindu ideology why we need temple as we can perform prayers at our home as well?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T09:54:42.133" Title="What is the need of temple in Hinduism?" Tags="|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2017-07-05T13:18:14.773" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19381" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-05T07:29:01.350" Score="8" ViewCount="3531" Body="&lt;p&gt;What does Hinduism say about oneness of god and imagelessness of god? Doesn't it say in the vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Brahmasutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ekam Brahm, dvitiya naste neh na naste kinchan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: there is no god but one&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Svetasvatara upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Na Tasya Pratima Asti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: and of that god there is no image.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10364" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T17:28:49.420" Title="What does hinduism say about oneness of god?" Tags="|vedas|gods|upanishads|brahman|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2017-07-05T17:31:22.330" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19383" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19358" CreationDate="2017-07-05T07:54:53.977" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Both are right in their own way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;We can achieve anything (and this is the most optimistic Hindu thought)&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas clearly say that we have, in our hands, the power of Bhagavan or the Almighty. So, in that way we can achieve virtually anything and everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ayam me hasto Bhagavan; ayam me vishvabeshajo, ayam ShivAbhi&#xA;  marshanaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In my hand is the all-round power of Bhagavan (Shiva), power of&#xA;  healing and power of auspiciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 4.13.6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas also motivate us not to look back but to move forward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MA gatAnam A didhithA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May i not ponder about the past events.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 8.1.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now since fate or destiny is related to our past karmas, this mantra clearly is asking us to ignore them and move forward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is exactly what Swami Vivekananda must have meant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the argument that fate is too powerful is not without merits either.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;The power of fate or destiny is also too strong:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;16&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I do not know how to perform Tapasyâ; what is the use, then, of my attempting to do so? I am of very bad luck, and thus my good resolve&#xA;  will not be crowned with success.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I consider Fate to be the strongest of all; Fie on one’s own prowess! For actions done with effort and hard labour are frustrated&#xA;  entirely by Fate.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Time can never be overstepped; See! Brahmâ, Visnu, Rudra, Indra, and others are all under the influence of the Great Time.&lt;/strong&gt; (Utatthaya's&#xA;  words)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Story of Satyavrata, Devi Bhagavatam, Book 3, Chapter 11.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;21&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O King! If what is laid by God in the womb of futurity (a state of things preordained by God in which it is sure to take place in the&#xA;  fullness of time), be taken as the first-hand proof, then all the&#xA;  other proofs are rendered null and void. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore Fate and human&#xA;  exertion both are to be undoubtedly taken into account to ensure&#xA;  success.&lt;/strong&gt; (Vyasa's words)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Amba Yajna rules Chapter 12, Devi Bhagavatam.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;35&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Though the success depends on Fate, still one should make an earnest effort. If one does not make any effort, fate also remains&#xA;  asleep&lt;/strong&gt;. I will therefore soon make out a plan to save my son. 15 &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(On the battle between Yuddhajita and Vira sena Chapter, Same Purana)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;35&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O kings! No one can cause the death of another. &lt;strong&gt;All this world, moving and unmoving, is under the control of Fate. 36-38. No soul is&#xA;  independent; every one is under the effects of one’s own Karma.&lt;/strong&gt; The&#xA;  Pundits that have realised the Truth, say that Karma is of three&#xA;  kinds, Accumulated, Present, and Prârabdha? This whole world is due to&#xA;  Kâla (Time), Karma (action) and Svabhâva (Nature); &lt;strong&gt;unless the proper&#xA;  time comes, even the Devas cannot kill men. The men are killed on&#xA;  account of some cause, immediate; but the Great Time is the real&#xA;  Destroyer.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8-9. O king! &lt;strong&gt;Everybody, even Brahmâ, Visnu and Mahes'a all under the&#xA;  influence of this Karma!&lt;/strong&gt; And they experience pleasure, pain, old age,&#xA;  disease and death, joy and sorrow, lust, anger, greed and other bodily&#xA;  qualities, &lt;strong&gt;out of the effects of this Karma, which we call ordinarily&#xA;  Fate.&lt;/strong&gt; (Suta's words) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Supremacy of the effects of Karma, chapter 2, same Purana)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;19-20. &lt;strong&gt;Effort, application and manifestation of energy are certainly&#xA;  the duties of man; but their effects are all under the Great Destiny&#xA;  or Fate.&lt;/strong&gt; (Vasudeva's words)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13-16. If all the actions are under the control of Fate, then no&#xA;  effect can come out of any effort; so all efforts are reduced to no&#xA;  effect. If what is ordained by Heaven is to come to pass then what is&#xA;  the use of taking recourse to any action and Agnistoma sacrifices,&#xA;  etc., that are declared to lead to Heavens. Judge! If Heaven or Fate&#xA;  you consider all-in-all, then the whole Vedas, the revelations from&#xA;  God’s mouth turn out false; if the Vedas be false, then there is no&#xA;  reason why the whole Dharma will not be destroyed. ( Devaki's words) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On the killings of the sons of Devaki chapter of the same Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;27-51. Brihaspati spoke :-- O Lord of the Devas! O Venerable One! Be&#xA;  peaceful; have patience; when a difficulty comes, one should not, all&#xA;  on a sudden, lose one's patience. &lt;strong&gt;O Chief of the Immortals! Victory or&#xA;  defeat is completely under the control of destiny: therefore&#xA;  intelligent ones should always be patient.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The power of Destiny is exceedingly great and terrible; its influence&#xA;  cannot be overcome even by the best of the Devas&lt;/strong&gt; (Vyasa's words)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, while fate is seemingly almost impossible to defeat we should also always keep exerting. This is what i have understood as the essence of this rather complicated discussion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T13:40:49.377" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T13:40:49.377" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19384" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19381" CreationDate="2017-07-05T08:03:14.847" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas clearly declare that the ultimate reality is one but we know him by different names. So, yes, oneness of Gods has been discussed in the Vedas themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suparnam viprAh kavyo vachobhir ekam santam bahudhA kalpayanti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The wise seers describe the one existence (ekam santam) in various&#xA;  words (bahudha vachobhih).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.114.5.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ekam sad viprA bahudhA vadanti agnim yamam mAtrishvAnam Ahuh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sages describe &lt;strong&gt;the one existence (ekam sat) in many way&lt;/strong&gt;s. &lt;strong&gt;It is&#xA;  called as Agni, as Yama as Matarishvan.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.184.46.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE- Regarding the Sakara-Nirakara thing i will update this answer later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T08:03:14.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19385" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2304" CreationDate="2017-07-05T08:06:06.240" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If one thinks about &quot;Me&quot; (i.e. nothingness) while death, then one attains Moksha/&quot;Me&quot; [BG 4.32, 5.28]. How do we know that person is thinking about &quot;Me&quot; -- depends on at &lt;strong&gt;what time one leaves the physical body&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Bhagavad Gita describes physical signs of Moksha; If a person dies when,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Day of &lt;em&gt;Deva&lt;/em&gt;-s&lt;/strong&gt; -- The 6 months of UttarAyana; i.e. appx mid-Jan to mid-July (or little before)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Day of &lt;em&gt;Pitru&lt;/em&gt;-s&lt;/strong&gt; -- The 15 days of the month when moon is going from none to full (&lt;em&gt;AmAvasa&lt;/em&gt; to &lt;em&gt;PurnimA&lt;/em&gt;), i.e. &lt;em&gt;Shukla-paksha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Day of Humans&lt;/strong&gt; -- The day should be bright without any clouds&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Agni&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; -- It may mean &quot;south east&quot; direction as well, where Sun rises well; It also means &quot;Fire&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Except the 4th one (if doubtful), all the other attributes are physically verifiable. If there is a &lt;strong&gt;Night&lt;/strong&gt; of anyone of &lt;em&gt;Deva, Pitru&lt;/em&gt; or humans, then the Moksha is not attained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 8.23 - &lt;strong&gt;The time, having departed at, which practitioners (&lt;em&gt;yogi&lt;/em&gt;-s), attain the State of No-return&lt;/strong&gt;, and also [of the time which attains] the state of return, shall be described by me, O best of Bharata-s.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 8.24 - [In presence of] &lt;em&gt;Agni&lt;/em&gt; [AND] bright daytime [AND] the bright fortnight (&lt;em&gt;Shukla-paksha&lt;/em&gt;) [AND] the six months of the Northern solstice (&lt;em&gt;UttarAyana&lt;/em&gt;) -- by following this Path, persons who are knowers of Brahman &lt;strong&gt;attain Brahman when they die&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 8.25 - Smoke [OR] nigh [OR] as also the dark fortnight [OR] the six months of the Southern solstice-following this Path the yogi having reached the lunar light, returns.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 8.26 - These two courses of the world, which are white and black, are verily considered eternal. By the one a man goes to the State of Non-return; by the other he returns again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Since Moksha is rare, I have paid attention to the placing of [AND] &amp;amp; [OR].&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does it mean that &quot;Moksha lovers&quot;, once knowing this knowledge, should strive for deciding the death-day all the time?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Answer is &lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;, ;-) Krishna further says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 8.27 - O son of Prtha, &lt;strong&gt;no yogi whosoever has known these two courses becomes deluded&lt;/strong&gt;. Therefore, O Arjuna, be you steadfast in yoga at all times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10911/1049&quot;&gt;Everything is predetermined&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13950/1049&quot;&gt;all are granted Moksha&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T08:06:06.240" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19386" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19380" CreationDate="2017-07-05T08:06:52.827" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God is eternal, without any form, omnipresent. To think of Him as possessing any form is blasphemy. &lt;strong&gt;But the secret of image worship is that you are trying to develop your vision of Divinity in one thing.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Idolatry in India does not mean anything horrible. It is not the mother of harlots. On the other hand it is the attempt of undeveloped minds to grasp high spiritual truths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Man is to become divine by realising the divine. Idols, or temples or churches or books are only the supports, the helps, of his spiritual childhood; but on and on he must progress.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is difficult for people to think of formless and omnipresent God which is why idol worship was introduced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We may worship anything by seeing God in it, if we can forget the idol and see God there. We must not project any image upon God. But we may fill any image with that Life which is God. Only forget the image, and you are right enough---for &amp;quot;out of Him comes everything&amp;quot;. He is everything. &lt;strong&gt;We may worship a picture as God, but not God as the picture. God in the picture is right, but the picture as God is wrong. God in the image is perfectly right.&lt;/strong&gt; There is no danger there. This is the real worship of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T08:06:52.827" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19387" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19381" CreationDate="2017-07-05T08:19:02.380" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes God is one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is everywhere, the pure and formless One, the Almighty and the All-merciful. &amp;quot;Thou art our father, Thou art our mother, Thou art our beloved friend, Thou art the source of all strength; give us strength. Thou art He that beareth the burdens of the universe; help me bear the little burden of this life.&amp;quot; Thus sang the Rishis of the Vedas. And how to worship Him? Through love. &amp;quot;He is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than everything in this and the next life.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything that has form must have a beginning and an end. &lt;strong&gt;From Him are all name and form; all the animals and men are from Him. He is the one Supreme. He who knows Him becomes free.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T08:19:02.380" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19388" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19380" CreationDate="2017-07-05T09:54:42.133" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;What Is the Need of Temples In Hinduism ?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are thousands of temples all over India and all over the world  of different sizes, shapes  and at different  locations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Hindu temple is a unification of the idea of Arts, Dharma, Beliefs, Values, Devotion  Rituals etc.&lt;strong&gt;Temples are consciously  constructed  to make us families with divinity of god.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;People  visit temples to communicate with gods and offer their prayers. Temples also act  as spiritual centers where discourses, meditations bhajans special poojas  are often arranged , where people &lt;strong&gt;celebrate festivals&lt;/strong&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some temples also serves the purpose of &lt;strong&gt;religious schools&lt;/strong&gt; , where people /students can learn more about Hinduism traditions , scriptures etc.&#xA;Some of them also have their own Ved-Path shalas , where interesting students can  stay and learn Vedas and other texts for some years and can become priests or pundits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Library of manuscripts&lt;/strong&gt; – From ancient times temples are also  used to store manuscripts s well as spiritual books as a library .&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the reason given in Shreemad Bhagvat purana of why wise people started deity worship in temples. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;द्रुष्टवा तेषांमिथो नृणामवज्ञानात्मनां नृप |&lt;br&gt; त्रेतादिषु हरेचर्या&#xA;  क्रियायै कविभि: कृता ||३९||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dṛṣṭvā teṣāṁ mitho nṛṇām avajñānātmatāṁ nṛpa&lt;br&gt; tretādiṣu harer arcā &#xA;  kriyāyai kavibhiḥ kṛtā&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King, when great sages and saintly persons saw mutually&#xA;  disrespectful dealings at the beginning of Tretā-yuga, &lt;strong&gt;Deity worship&#xA;  in the temple was introduced&lt;/strong&gt; with all paraphernalia &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/14/39&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  7.14.39&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here in this chapter SB 11.27: Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Instructions on the Process of Deity Worship. Lord Krisha himself  describes what is the importance of temple building .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मदर्चां संप्रतिष्ठाप्य मन्दिरं कारयेद् दृढम् |&lt;br&gt; पुष्पोद्यानानि&#xA;  रम्याणि पूजायात्रोत्सवश्रितान् ||50||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mad-arcāṁ sampratiṣṭhāpya mandiraṁ kārayed dṛḍham&lt;br&gt; puṣpodyānāni&#xA;  ramyāṇi pūjā-yātrotsavāśritān&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The devotee should more fully establish My Deity by solidly&#xA;  constructing a temple, along with beautiful gardens. These gardens&#xA;  should be set aside to provide flowers for the regular daily worship,&#xA;  special Deity processions and holiday observances. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27/50&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  11.27.50&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रतिष्ठाया सार्वभौमं सद्नना भुवनत्रयं |&lt;br&gt; पूजादिना ब्रह्मलोकं&#xA;  त्रिभिर्मंत्साम्यतामियात् ||52||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pratiṣṭhayā sārvabhaumaṁ sadmanā bhuvana-trayam&lt;br&gt; pūjādinā&#xA;  brahma-lokaṁ tribhir mat-sāmyatām iyāt&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By installing the Deity of the Lord one becomes king of the entire&#xA;  earth, by building a temple for the Lord one becomes ruler of the&#xA;  three worlds, by worshiping and serving the Deity one goes to the&#xA;  planet of Lord Brahmā, and by performing all three of these activities&#xA;  one achieves a transcendental form like My own.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/27/52&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.27.52&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not all the people are having some sort of arrangement of  worshiping gods in their own houses so they also can easily go to the temple for the purpose &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So a temple is a very important aspect of Hindu Dharma where people of al the kind can offer their worship to many gods and can perform  rituals , poojas etc. And can  get the close to divine and can experience the union with the divine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T09:54:42.133" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19390" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-05T10:29:14.753" Score="1" ViewCount="98" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to hinduism , who is the ultimate creator ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i.e who created the god ? then who created the thing which created god ? and so..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus who is the first creator ? And who created the first creator ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10366" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T10:32:08.083" Title="According to hindu religon who is the ultimate creator?" Tags="|identification-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2017-07-05T10:39:14.957" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19392" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19127" CreationDate="2017-07-05T12:45:29.173" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;My answer is this. To clear up some misconceptions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why the Kauravas deployed all of their star warriors: Isn't it obvious? You said it yourself Kishy Nivas that the &lt;strong&gt;Kauravas were very poor warriors.&lt;/strong&gt; They sucked when it came to archery, bow arrow fight etc. They may have been good in other weapons but when it comes to archery (which is used the most 99 percent of the fights in Mahabharata) these people are lackluster fighters at best. They knew that they could not rely solely on Karna's skills, they wanted a complete victory, and Virata was a Maharatha. Kauravas themselves were labelled as just ordinary Rathas. And &lt;strong&gt;they needed some warriors to protect them.&lt;/strong&gt; Remember Duryodhana brought 8,000 Rathas, 30,000 elephants etc with him during the Ghosh-yatra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eight thousand cars, &lt;strong&gt;thirty thousand elephants,&lt;/strong&gt; nine thousand horses, and many thousands of foot-soldiers, and shops and pavilions and traders, bards and men trained in the chase &lt;strong&gt;by hundreds and thousands followed the prince.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03237.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03237.htm&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;So with half Akshauni of army,along with Karna equipped with his Kavach Kundal the 100 sons of Dhritarashtra along with Sakuni and with number of keen warriors difficult to subjugate (as described in chapter 238) THIS WAS ALL DURING A PICNIC.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why Arjuna thought twice before fighting in the kurukshetra war but not in Matsya war: Because in Kurukshetra war he would be forced to kill or be killed, in Matsya war &lt;strong&gt;he only had to worry about his own life&lt;/strong&gt; being lost. As &lt;strong&gt;he was not fighting to kill others,&lt;/strong&gt; and the Kaurava army lost cause they were only fighting against one man, they were unable to use all of their strength on him, their's only so many people who can group attack one man. He's a small target in front of the Lakhs of Kaurava armed forces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their were many celestial weapons used by both sides in the Matsya war IF their were no celestial weapons used then maybe Kauravas warriors like Kripa, Bhishma etc didn't use them out of fear that they would kill their own soldiers.&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2o0B2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2o0B2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10324" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T12:45:29.173" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19393" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19378" CreationDate="2017-07-05T13:04:14.290" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The concept of Moksha in the famous Mahamrityunjaya mantra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Trayambakam YajAmahe sugandhim Pushtivardhanam | UrvArukam Iva&#xA;  BandhanAn Mrityor MukshIya mA AmritAt ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We adore the Father of the three worlds, Trayambaka, bestower of all&#xA;  sided fragrance of grace, increaser of fullness and strength; May i be&#xA;  detached from the bondage of death like a ripe cucumber from the stem,&#xA;  but not from &lt;strong&gt;immortality&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 7.59.12.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Seer here seeks Moksha for himself and for others from Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Concept of Moksha in the Purusha Suktam:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VedAhametam purusham mahAntam (1) Adityavarnam tamasah parastAt (2) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tam evam vidvAn amrita iha bhavati (3) NAnyah panthAvidyate ayanAya&#xA;  (4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have known the mighty Purusha (1) Who is refulgent as the Sun beyond&#xA;  darkness. (2) Knowing Him thus in this life itself, &lt;strong&gt;one transcends&#xA;  death (3). There is no other path leading to the attainment of&#xA;  liberation. (4).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taitiriya Samhita 3.12.17.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These mantras talk about the only method of liberation and which is knowing the Purusha or knowing the self. And they also say that there are no other ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T13:42:12.350" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T13:42:12.350" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19394" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-05T13:05:24.323" Score="5" ViewCount="483" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;16000&lt;/strong&gt; Princess were kidnapped by Narakasura and saved by Lord Krishna. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If a young girl is &lt;strong&gt;out of home for one day, no one will marry her&lt;/strong&gt;. It was a &lt;strong&gt;rule&lt;/strong&gt; in that time and even nowadays.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;So Lord Krishna married 16000 princess*&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna did adharma&lt;/strong&gt; (killing of Drona, Karna and Bhisma) to restore Dharma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In same way, Krishna could have &lt;strong&gt;Changed that rule and allow to marry such women&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DOUBT :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why didn't Lord Krishna Change that rule and allow to marry such women instead of marrying them himself ? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there any &lt;strong&gt;Specific reason for changing the Rule&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T15:59:01.793" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T19:22:30.200" Title="Why Lord Krishna didn't change the Rule when delivering justice to the 16000 princess but married them Himself?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|krishna|dharma|marriage|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19395" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19394" CreationDate="2017-07-05T14:47:23.423" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;NOTE - Your question is not totally clear to me , but i am giving the explanation of Shree-Krishna marring 16,000 princesses here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;•    Why Lord Krishna Didn't Break the Rule to give Dharma to the 16000 princess ?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer of your question and the clarification of Shree-Krishna Marring 16,000 princesses at a time is given in Shreemad-Bhagvat purana. &lt;strong&gt;SB 10.59: The Killing of the Demon Naraka.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/59/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.59&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So From the story we know that shree-Krishna killed Narakasura / Bhaumāsura and librated 16,000 princess , whom  he abducted and kept in his palace. We also can see that , when all these princesses saw Shree-Krishna they got enchanted /attracted towards him and in mind assumed him as husband. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it was the wish of all  the princesses to become wife  of  Shree-Krishna . Knowing their wish Shree-Krishna , Assuming each separate individual form for everyone of them , and then married them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्र रज्कन्यानां षटसहस्स्रधिकायुतम् | &lt;br&gt; भौमाह्यतानां विक्रम्य&#xA;  राजभ्यो ददृशे हरि: ||33||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tatra rājanya-kanyānāṁ ṣaṭ-sahasrādhikāyutam&lt;br&gt; bhaumāhṛtānāṁ&#xA;  vikramya rājabhyo dadṛśe hariḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There Lord Kṛṣṇa saw sixteen thousand royal maidens, whom Bhauma had&#xA;  taken by force from various kings.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/59/33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.59.33&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तं प्रविष्ठं स्त्रियो विक्ष्य नरवीरं विमोहिता: |  &lt;br&gt; मनसा&#xA;  वव्रिरेsष्टम पतिं दैवोपसादितम् ||34||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tam praviṣṭaṁ striyo vīkṣya nara-varyaṁ vimohitāḥ &lt;br&gt; manasā vavrire&#xA;  ’bhīṣṭaṁ patiṁ daivopasāditam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The women became enchanted when they saw that most excellent of males&#xA;  enter. &lt;strong&gt;In their minds they each accepted Him, who had been brought&#xA;  there by destiny, as their chosen husband.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/59/34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.59.34&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भूयात् पतिरयं मह्यं धाता तदनुमोदताम् |&lt;br&gt; इति सर्वा: पृथक् कृष्णे&#xA;  भावेन ह्यदयं दधु: ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhūyāt patir ayaṁ mahyaṁ dhātā tad anumodatām&lt;br&gt; iti sarvāḥ pṛthak&#xA;  kṛṣṇe bhāvena hṛdayaṁ dadhuḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With the thought “May providence grant that this man become my&#xA;  husband,” &lt;strong&gt;each and every princess absorbed her heart in&#xA;  contemplation of Kṛṣṇa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/59/35&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.59.35&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथो मुहूर्त एकस्मिन् नानागरेषु ता: स्त्रिय: | &lt;br&gt; यथोपयेमे&#xA;  भगवांस्तावद्रुपधरोsव्यय: ||42||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atho muhūrta ekasmin nānāgāreṣu tāḥ striyaḥ&lt;br&gt; yathopayeme bhagavān&#xA;  tāvad-rūpa-dharo ’vyayaḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the imperishable Supreme Personality, &lt;strong&gt;assuming a separate form&#xA;  for each bride,&lt;/strong&gt; duly married all the princesses simultaneously, each&#xA;  in her own palace.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/59/42&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.56.42&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is further confirmed in another chapter  no 69 canto 10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चित्रं बतैतदेकेन वपुषा युगपत् पृथक् | &lt;br&gt; गृह्येषु द्वयष्टसाहस्त्रं&#xA;  स्त्रिय एक उदावहत ||2||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;citraṁ bataitad ekena vapuṣā yugapat pṛthak &lt;br&gt; gṛheṣu&#xA;  dvy-aṣṭa-sāhasraṁ striya eka udāvahat &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He thought, “&lt;strong&gt;It is quite amazing that in a single body Lord Kṛṣṇa&#xA;  simultaneously married sixteen thousand women, each in a separate&#xA;  palace.”&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/69/1-6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.69.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion - So marring to all these 16 ,000 princes abducted by Narakasura , was &lt;strong&gt;just one of the Leela’ of Shree Krishna. He assumed separate form  as a husband for each one of these 16,000 princesses , and married them and carried the Ghrustha-Ashrama separately with wach one of them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he did not broke any rule , or nor by  this act  was done  Adharma by marring  all those 16,000 princesses .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Why didn't Lord Krishna Change that rule and allow to marry such women instead of marrying them himself ?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the answer is provided by Harivamsha Purana. Where its said that those 16,000 women were Daughters of Gandharvas , and Seven different classes of Apsaras.&#xA;And some he also abducted some  women. So they were devine women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They were kept in separate city called “Alaka” on Maniparvata. And they were observing Sati –Vrata.) (faithful wife) &lt;strong&gt;So they were already pure&lt;/strong&gt; even staying at palace of Narakasura. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there was no need for Shree-Krishna to change the rule , cause they were pure and &lt;strong&gt;observing the vow of faithful wife (sati).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गन्धर्वाणां च या: कन्या जहार नरको बलि | &lt;br&gt; याश्च्य देवमनुष्याणां&#xA;  सप्त चाप्सरसां गणा: || HP 2.63.12 ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gandharvANAM cha yAH kanyA jahAra narako balI | &lt;br&gt; yAshcha&#xA;  devamanuShyANaM sapta chApsarasAM gaNAH  ||2-63-12||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Narkasura/Bhaumasura abducted many  girls of Gandharvas  , &lt;strong&gt;some&#xA;  of them also were daughters of human beings , and some of them were&#xA;  from seven different classes of Apsaras&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चतुर्दश सहस्राणि एकविंशच्छतानि च | &lt;br&gt; एकवेणीधरा: सर्वा:&#xA;  सतिमार्गमनुव्रता: ||13||&lt;br&gt;   chaturdasha sahasrANi&#xA;  ekaviMshachChatAni cha | &lt;br&gt;ekaveNIdharAH sarvAH satImArgamanuvratAH&#xA;  ||2-63-13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They were fourteen thousand and twentyone hundred women in all. All&#xA;  were with single plait of hair and &lt;strong&gt;observing the vow of faithful&#xA;  wife (sati).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_063.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;HVP 2.63.12-13&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T09:39:12.307" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T09:39:12.307" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19396" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19356" CreationDate="2017-07-05T14:51:53.493" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/?iencoding=iast&amp;amp;q=%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D&amp;amp;lang=sans&amp;amp;action=Search&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anta&lt;/a&gt; in definition of Vedanta stands for multiple means, here Anta = End/Conclusion/Culmination&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14428/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, Vedas constitutes four parts Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka &amp;amp; Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sNEQ8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sNEQ8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yqKAOm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yqKAOm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Upanishads are generally comes at the end of Vedas and Upanishads signifies (spiritual) conclusion i.e extract of Vedas. So, Upanishads themselves are called Vedanta.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse from Upanishads mention/call &lt;strong&gt;Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mundaka Upanishad 3.2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वेदान्त&lt;/strong&gt;विज्ञानसुनिश्चितार्थाः&#xA;  संन्यासयोगाद् यतयः शुद्धसत्त्वाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ते ब्रह्मलोकेषु परान्तकाले&#xA;  परामृताः परिमुच्यन्ति सर्वे ॥ ६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having without doubt well ascertained the significance of the knowledge of &lt;strong&gt;Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt; the seekers, their minds purified by dint of renunciation, attain the worlds of the Brahman and when their body falls, their Atman being one with the highest immortal Brahma n are absolved all round.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shvetashvatar Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;वेदान्ते&lt;/strong&gt; परमं गुह्यं पुराकल्पे प्रचोदितम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नाप्रशान्ताय दातव्यं नापुत्रायाशिष्याय वा पुनः ॥ २२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VI-22: This highest mysticism, expounded in the &lt;strong&gt;Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt; in a former age, should not be taught to one whose passions have not been subdued, nor to one who is not a worthy son, nor to an unworthy disciple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, talking about Vedanta school of philosophy, there are six &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_philosophy#.C4.80stika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Astika schools&lt;/a&gt; of Philosophy associated with primary scripture (Sutra) and Rishi as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sankhya - Sankhya Sutra of Kapila, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhyakarika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sankhya Karika&lt;/a&gt; of Ishvara Krishna&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yoga - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yoga Sutra&lt;/a&gt; of Patanjali&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaisheshika - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vai%C5%9Be%E1%B9%A3ika_S%C5%ABtra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaishesiki Sutra&lt;/a&gt; of Kannad&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nyaya - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ny%C4%81ya_S%C5%ABtras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nyaya Sutra&lt;/a&gt; of Akshpad Gautama&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mimansa - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purva_Mimamsa_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purva Mimansa Sutra&lt;/a&gt; of Jaimini&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vedanta - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutra&lt;/a&gt; of Badarayana&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/m%C4%ABm%C4%81%E1%B9%83s%C4%81/178765/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mimansa&lt;/a&gt; means profound thought or examination/investigation. As Keshav discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14035/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;, three mimansa has done on different part/aspects of Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Samhita Kanda - Devatakanda Sutras - Kasatrisna&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmana (Karma Kanda) - Purva Mimansa (sutra) - Jaimini&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Upanishad (Jnana Kanda) - Uttar Mimansa (Brahma Sutra) - Vyasa&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutra (also called Vedanta Sutra) systematizes and summarizes the philosophical and spiritual ideas in the Upanishads. So, it is considered very important text to understand the preaching of Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedanta school is based on three (source) scriptures called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthanatrayi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prasthanatrayi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shruti Prasthan - Upanishads&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Smriti Prasthan - Bhagvad Gita&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nyaya Prasthan - Brahma Sutra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, Vedanta by definition refers to Upanishads and as a schools, refers to philosophy/doctrine based on Prasthanatrayi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may refer Swami Vivekananda's lecture on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_3/lectures_from_colombo_to_almora/the_vedanta.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding contradiction or differences among different Vedantic philosophy, as I discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14779/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, (in the section &quot;Requirement of Bhashya&quot;), it is due to very subtle nature of Brahma Sutras and difference in interpretation by different Acharyas to prove doctrine. एकं सद्विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति (Rigveda 1.164.46).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T13:39:01.697" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T13:39:01.697" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19397" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19493" CreationDate="2017-07-05T15:26:32.990" Score="3" ViewCount="1622" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19369/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Avani Avittam aka Upakarma, is a ritual performed on the Dakshinayana day in August where Brahmanas change their sacred thread.  At least it usually occurs in August.  But I'm seeing claims on some websites (like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/ceremony/upakarma/yajurveda/yajurveda-upakarma-date-time.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this one&lt;/a&gt;) that this year, it will occur on July 28.  And I'm seeing claims on other websites (like &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.templepurohit.com/festival/yajurveda-upakarma/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this one&lt;/a&gt;) that it will occur on August 7.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, when exactly will Avani Avittam occur this year?  Does it differ between Rig Veda and Yajur Veda?  And does it differ for America and India?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think all this confusion may be due to the fact that there will be a massive lunar eclipse in August this year, so that throws things off.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T06:15:58.337" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T06:31:58.237" Title="When is Avani Avittam (Upakarma) this year?" Tags="|rituals|astrology|festivals|brahmins|calendar|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19399" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-05T16:29:23.213" Score="1" ViewCount="427" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've seen so many questions similar to this and most of the answers are highly opinionated or confusing. So thought of sharing my logic and opinions to all by explaining nature of Sri Vishnu and who wins the battle between lord Rama and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5412" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T16:35:55.177" LastActivityDate="2021-10-20T04:53:34.047" Title="Has lord Rama ever been defeated in battle?" Tags="|vishnu|rama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19400" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19399" CreationDate="2017-07-05T16:29:44.223" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a common perspective, &lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in every other higher/celestial perspective “&lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt;”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scientifically, if every being in earth gets energy from the Sun and the Sun and all another planet (Dev/Devi’s) gets energy from Sri Vishnu (Paramatman).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But first, you need to understand the nature of Rama (Vishnu). We all know Rama is an avatar of Vishnu the one and infinite. Inspired from computers, think of Rama is an upgraded version of program shortcuts we use, it can contain different names, colors, images or styles but its source is the one where is links. He can scale and hold the power from the source to balance the creation, do whatever it takes to eliminate the corrupt or preserving the correct. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is Shiva, Brahma, Hanuman, Lav-Kush and he is everything you’ll ever think of. He is who constantly writes and contains the all imaginary universes, Mayas, energies etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We all know the entity called “Paramatman” which Sri Krishna explained to Arjun in Mahabharata is in every living being. “Aatman” is a part of “Paramaatman”. In every cycle of creation it moves, it wears bodies of different living beings which metaphorically described in holy Gita as similar to our cloth changing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both birth and death is a part of creation, when you are born you take a seat and it vacant when “Aatman” leaves and then some other “Aatman” fills up your space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you think this way, that you are a tiny form of composed energy (which we are) in an infinite sea of energy. Everything changes, so drastically that it leaves a blank in one’s mind. We as energy just moving from one to other, constantly influenced by other energies. Birth and death is just another chemical reaction in an infinite universe tube.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And this theory summarizes the source of all energy who is none other than Paramatman Sri Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But why?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To teach us at our level of understanding. He holds the power and energy to conquer anything. And he does it every avatar. He conquers himself by giving priority to everything other than his name. He chooses to love and devotion before fear. That's why he is greatest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, he is the source of all energy, to which energy he needs to prove his strength? Comparing any fight between &quot;Paramatman&quot; and any other being is like, fighting with your one arm with another and judging who won.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are my thoughts/opinions, just like others. But why I’m so confident about this answer is I’ve given celestial knowledge priority. It's common knowledge, that celestial beings have so much more IQ and the standards of processing such judgments than a mere human.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Modifications:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;* Please suggest modification if need any or add your theory/opinions. &#xA;* I'll add citations in soon edit.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5412" LastEditorUserId="5412" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T19:22:18.550" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T19:22:18.550" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19401" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19202" CreationDate="2017-07-05T17:02:34.227" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedah svasti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas confer all round bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 7.28.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, this bliss is both material and spiritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishve adya maruto vishva uti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May all the Maruts today &lt;strong&gt;increase us in all ways&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishvam astu dravinam vajo asmo.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May all wealth and plenitude be ours&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So aham vAjam saneyam agne.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May i win the plenitude&lt;/strong&gt;, O Agni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 10.35.13.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;YenA sahasram vahasi yenAgne sarvavedasam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Agni, that (path) by which you bear a thousand, by which (you bear)&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;all knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;, (by which you bear) &lt;strong&gt;all wealth&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taitiriya Samhita 4.7.13.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that, in the above mantra wealth and knowledge are mentioned together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mayi deva dravinam AyajantAm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May the Gods bestow wealth upon me&lt;/strong&gt; through sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 10.128&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To sum up, the idea of complete external renunciation is non-Vedic. It is never to be found in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T17:02:34.227" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19402" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-05T17:08:55.673" Score="1" ViewCount="114" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do theistic hindus think of charvaka philosophy and why? What is the reason that it  was not popular among people ? Is charvaka philosophy considered to be under the roof of sanatan dharma? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10372" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-05T17:16:42.660" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T17:16:42.660" Title="What do theistic hindus think of charvaka philosophy and why?" Tags="|philosophy|charvaka|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19404" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19381" CreationDate="2017-07-05T17:28:49.420" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;And you will see all the major religion of the world talks bout the same think about the oneness of God. You pray directly to Him. No Image. God does not change the law everyday. He does not send different law for different tribes. Think Think. This is the most important question in life. In all religion the terms are same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sargh = Jannah = Heaven&#xA;Nark = Jahannam = Hell&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Believing in one God without partners and no idol worship is the right path and common thread in all religions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10373" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T17:28:49.420" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19406" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19412" CreationDate="2017-07-05T17:47:42.997" Score="7" ViewCount="858" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/6/32&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 1.6.32&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada speaking:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देवदत्तमिमां वीणां स्वरब्रह्मविभूषिताम् |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    मूच्छरयित्वा हरिकथां गायमानच्श्रराम्यहम ||32||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;deva-dattām imāṁ vīṇāṁ svara-brahma-vibhūṣitām&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; mūrcchayitvā hari-kathāṁ gāyamānaś carāmy aham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: And thus I travel, constantly singing the transcendental message of the glories of the Lord, vibrating this instrument called a vīṇā, which is charged with transcendental sound and &lt;strong&gt;which was given to me by Lord Kṛṣṇa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purport -: The musical stringed instrument called the vīṇā, &lt;strong&gt;which was handed to Nārada by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is described in the Liṅga Purāṇa,&lt;/strong&gt; and this is confirmed by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī. This transcendental instrument is identical with Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Nārada because all of them are of the same transcendental category &lt;strong&gt;. . .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know the episode from Linga purana which mentions about Lord Krishna giving Veena to Narada muni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-09T13:01:54.063" LastActivityDate="2017-07-09T13:01:54.063" Title="Where does the Linga purana mention Lord Krishna giving veena to Narada muni?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|narada|linga-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19408" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="40940" CreationDate="2017-07-05T18:10:40.097" Score="3" ViewCount="4298" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any incidents of human sacrifice in Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there are none, are there any examples where a human being was initially prepared to be sacrificed but later avoided due to some or other reason?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2020-07-03T15:15:54.947" Title="Examples of human sacrifice in Hindu scripture" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|sacrifice|human|itihasa|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19409" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19408" CreationDate="2017-07-05T18:29:01.263" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Scriptures : Human Sacrifices (Purusha Medha / Nara Bali) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Purusha” and “Nara” = “man/human”&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   “Medha” and “Bali” = “sacrifice”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ocriptures reveal that human sacrifices (Nara Bali or Purusha Medha) is commanded, and even cannibalism exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O Yudhishthira, those that commit sins, can always free themselves&#xA;  from them through penance, sacrifice and gifts. &lt;strong&gt;O king, O foremost of&#xA;  men, sinful people are purified by sacrifice, austerities and charity&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  The high-souled celestials and Asuras perform sacrifices for securing&#xA;  religious merit; and therefore sacrifice are of supreme importance. It&#xA;  is through sacrifices that the high-souled celestials had waxed so&#xA;  wondrously powerful; and having celebrated rites did they vanquish the&#xA;  Danavas. Do thou, O Yudhishthira, prepare for the Rajasuya, and the&#xA;  horse-sacrifice, as well as, O Bharata, for the Sarvamedha and&#xA;  the Naramedha.” &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata 14.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also mentioned in Mahabharata,&#xA;“He then saw him in the &lt;strong&gt;regions of those foremost of men that perform the horse-sacrifice and the sacrifice in which human beings are slaughtered&lt;/strong&gt;.” &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata 9:50&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satapatha Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following verse says that Manu’s wife was sacrificed:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“These two said, 'God-fearing, they say, is Manu: let us two then&#xA;  ascertain!' They then went to him and said: 'Manu! we will sacrifice&#xA;  for thee!' He said: 'Wherewith?' They said: 'With this bull!' He said:&#xA;  'So be it!' &lt;strong&gt;On his (the bull's) being killed the voice went from&#xA;  him.It entered into Manâvî, the wife of Manu; and when they heard her&#xA;  speak, the Asuras and Rakshas were continually being crushed&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  Thereupon the Asuras said to one another: 'Hereby even greater evil is&#xA;  inflicted on us, for the human voice speaks more!' Kilâta and Âkuli&#xA;  then said: 'God-fearing, they say, is Manu: let us then ascertain!'&#xA;  They went to him and said: 'Manu! we will sacrifice for thee!' He&#xA;  said: 'Wherewith?'” Satapatha Brahmana – Part 1, 1 Kanda, 1 Adhyaya, 4&#xA;  Brahmana 1:1:4:15-16&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following verses from Satapatha Brahmana shows how the essence of sacrifice went from man to animals,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Satapatha Brahmana -  Part 1, 1 Kanda, 2 Adhyaya, 3 Brahmana&#xA;   1.2.3.6-7 )  &quot;A man (purusha) he slaughters first, for man is the first of animals; then a horse, for the horse comes after man; then a&#xA;  bull, for the bull (or cow) comes after the horse; then a ram, for the&#xA;  sheep comes after the cow;  then a he-goat, for the goat comes after&#xA;  the sheep: thus he slaughters  them according to their form, according&#xA;  to their excellence.” (Satapatha Brahmana Part 3 – 6 Kanda, 2 Adhyaya,&#xA;  1 Brahmana 6:2:1:18 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“He then lifts up the human head–he thereby exalts it–with, ‘Giver of&#xA;  a thousand thou art: for a thousand thee!’ a thousand means&#xA;  everything: thus, ‘the giver of everything, for everything (I bestow)&#xA;  thee!’. He then puts them (the heads) in (the fire-pan), first (that&#xA;  of) the man–having taken possession of the man by strength he sets him&#xA;  up;–the man in the middle; on both sides the other victims: he thus&#xA;  sets the man, as the eater, in the midst of cattle; whence man is the&#xA;  eater in the midst of cattle. [22-23] These are the victims;&#xA;  separately he puts them down, separately he ‘settles’ them, and&#xA;  separately he pronounces the Sudadohas on them; for separate from one&#xA;  another are those animals. He then offers on the human head, sacrifice&#xA;  is offering: he thus makes man the one among animals fit to sacrifice;&#xA;  whence man alone among animals perform sacrifice.” (Satapatha Brahmana&#xA;  - Part 3, 7 Kanda, 5 Adhyaya, 2 Brahmana 7:5:2:13-14 and 22-23 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Satapatha Brahmana – Part 5, 13 Kanda, 6 Adhyaya, 2 Brahmana 13:6:2:12-13 , men were tied to stakes to be burned as sacrifices.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajur Veda&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“1 OUR sacrifice, God Savitar! speed onward: speed to his share the sacrifice's patron…”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“5 For Brahman (Priesthood) he binds a Brahman to the stake; for Kshatra (Royalty) a Râjanya; for the Maruts a Vaisya; for Penance a&#xA;  Sûdra; for Darkness a robber; for Hell a homicide or a man who has&#xA;  lost his onsecrated fire; for Misfortune a eunuch; for Venality an&#xA;  Ayogû; for Kâma a harlot; for Excessive Noise a Mâgadha…”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“22 Now he ties up the eight following variform men: one too tall, one too short, one too stout, one too thin, one too white, one too&#xA;  black, one too bald, one too airy. These must be neither Sûdras nor&#xA;  Brâhmans, and must be dedicated to Prajâpati.” Yajur Veda 30 :1-22&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T01:44:09.447" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T01:44:09.447" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19410" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11052" CreationDate="2017-07-05T18:50:49.417" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;ShyAmalA is one of the chief Tantric goddesses in the Sri vidya krama. She is also one of the mahA-vidyAs of the shakta tradition as she is the mahAvidyA mAtangi herself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is known with many names like Raja ShyAmalA, Raja mAtangi, matangi, mantriNi etc. All these aspects are similar to goddess Sarasvati. In other words, these are tantric forms of Saraswati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is the goddess of music, arts, dance, speech etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Dhyana Mantra of Raja-matangi from the Purashcharyarnava describes&#xA;  Matangi as green in colour with the crescent moon upon her forehead.&#xA;  She has long hair, a smiling expression and intoxicated eyes, and&#xA;  wears a garland of kadamba flowers and various ornaments. She&#xA;  perspires a little around the face, which renders her even more&#xA;  beautiful. Below her navel are three horizontal folds of skin and a&#xA;  thin vertical line of fine hair. Seated on an altar and flanked by two&#xA;  parrots, she represents the 64 arts.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=1273&amp;amp;more=1&amp;amp;c=1&amp;amp;tb=1&amp;amp;pb=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; The Saradatilaka, adds to this&#xA;  description that Raja-Matangi plays the veena, wears conch-shell&#xA;  earrings and flower garlands, and has flower paintings adorning her&#xA;  forehead (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matangi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lWpvC.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lWpvC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Raja mAtangi&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the sacred Navarātrotsava of &lt;strong&gt;Rājamātaṅgī&lt;/strong&gt;, one worships nine forms of &lt;strong&gt;śyāmalā&lt;/strong&gt; during the nine days:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Day One - Laghu śyāmalā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Day Two - Vāgvādinī&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Day Three - Nakulīśvarī&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Day Four - Kalyāṇaśyāmalā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Day Five - Jagadrañjinī mātaṅgī&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Day Six - Vaśyamātaṅgī&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Day Seven - śārikā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Day Eight - śukaśyāmalā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Day Nine - Rājaśyāmalā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great Mantriṇī of Mahāsiṃhāsaneśvarī can be worshipped in the&#xA;  śrīcakra itself while imagining the seven āvaraṇas within it as taught&#xA;  in parā tantra; or in the Geyacakra composed of bindu - trikoṇa -&#xA;  pañcakoṇa - aṣṭadala - ṣoḍaśadala - aṣṭapatra - caturdala and&#xA;  caturaśra. On each of the nine days, āvaraṇa kramas specific to the&#xA;  said nine forms are performed, followed by japa of the mūlamantra and&#xA;  the mantra of the specific form of mātaṅgī invoked that day. On the&#xA;  ninth day, a suvāsinī belonging to a lower caste is worshiped as&#xA;  verily the Goddess herself and pleased by offering gifts and sweets.&#xA;  Balidāna is of great significance on each of the nine days and is also&#xA;  offerred to Hasantī śyāmala and Kṣetrapāla along with the Mūlavidyā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Through her grace, vaśīkaraṇa of the Trailokya i.e. Kāya, Vāk and&#xA;  Citta (which are already made strong and free from obstacles through&#xA;  the upāsanā of Mahāgaṇapati) can become possible. Thus then becomes&#xA;  possible the ākarṣaṇa of Manas, Prāṇa and Mantra so as to unite them&#xA;  within the field of pristine awareness, leading to mantra siddhi.&#xA;  Mantra siddhi of Mahārājñī is hence difficult without the grace of&#xA;  Mantriṇī who verily is the essence of Vāk and hence of every mantra.&#xA;  She is thus described as creating innumerable Sarasvatī-s with her&#xA;  mere side glance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=1273&amp;amp;more=1&amp;amp;c=1&amp;amp;tb=1&amp;amp;pb=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T18:50:49.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19412" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19406" CreationDate="2017-07-05T19:04:09.473" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Lord Krishna teaching music to Sage Narada is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/linga-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-03&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Linga Purana, Volume 2, Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong&gt;but it doesn't mention Lord Krishna giving Vina to Sage Narada&lt;/strong&gt;. The story goes like this: Sage Narada is a great devotee of Lord Vishnu, so he always wanted to please him. Because of this he used to sing for lord but he was ignored by Lord and other devas because there was another person Tumburu who was more efficient in music. So, Sage Narada decided to learn music and started severe austerities. Then the divine sound told him to go to Mansa lake and meet an Uluka naming Gyanabandhu. Narada went there and learned all type of music from Uluka then again goes to the abode of Lord Vishnu and sing there. There he has been told by Lord Vishnu that now he knows all about music but still he is not better than Tumburu. Lord Vishnu told him that when Lord Krishna will be incarnated he will teach you music and then you will become equal to Tumburu or even better than him. Then when Lord Krishna had taken birth, Sage Narada was taught music by Jambavanti, Satyabhama, Rukmini and at last by Lord Krishna. After that Lord Vishnu was pleased by his singing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आहूय कृष्णो भगवान् स्वयमेव महामुनिम्।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अशिक्षयदमेयात्मा गानयोगमनुत्तमम्॥ १०३॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then lord Krsna, the incomprehensible soul, himself called the great sage and taught him the excellent art of music.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततोऽतिशयमापन्नस्तुंबरोर्मुनिसत्तमः ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततो ननर्त देवर्षिः प्रणिपत्य जनार्दनम्॥१०४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, the sage Narada, surpassed the sage Tumburu. The divine sage Narada, thereafter, danced with joy, bowing to lord Visnu with respect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उवाच च हृषीकेशः सर्वज्ञस्त्वं महामुने।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रहस्य गानयोगेन गायस्व मम सन्निधौ॥१०५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Visnu then laughed and said- &amp;quot;O great sage, you have now attained the perfect knowledge. Having been equipped with the perfect knowledge pretty Well, you now sing in my presence.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T04:38:07.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19413" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19417" CreationDate="2017-07-05T19:15:56.270" Score="6" ViewCount="657" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07027.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;following&lt;/a&gt; excerpt from the Mahabaratha clarifies that &lt;strong&gt;Narakasura was the son of Earth&lt;/strong&gt; and Krishna (in another form) gave him a boon on Earth's request:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vasudeva replied unto him, saying, 'Listen, O Partha, to this secret and ancient history as it is, O sinless one! I have four forms, eternally engaged as I am in protecting the worlds. Dividing my own Self, I ordain the good of the worlds. One form of mine, staying on the earth, is engaged in the practice of ascetic austerities. Another beholdeth the good and the evil deeds in the world. My third form, coming into the world of men, is engaged in action. My fourth form lieth down in sleep for a thousand years. &lt;strong&gt;The form of mine which awaketh from sleep at the end of a thousand years, granteth, upon awakening, excellent boons to persons deserving of them. The earth, knowing (on one occasion) that that time had come, asked of me a boon for (her son) Naraka. Hear, O Partha, what that boon was. Possessed of the Vaishnava weapon, let my son become incapable of being slain by the gods and the Asuras. It behoveth thee to grant me that weapon. Hearing this prayer, I then gave, in days of old, the supreme and infallible Vaishnava weapon to the Earth's son.&lt;/strong&gt; I said also at that time these words, 'O Earth, let this weapon be infallible for the protection of Naraka. None will be able to slay him. Protected by this weapon, thy son will always, in all the worlds, be invincible and crush all hostile hosts.' Saying, So be it! the intelligent goddess went away, her wishes fulfilled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Baghavatham, there are many slokhas stating that Naraka was the son of Earth, but in which slokha of which Purana was the father of Narakasura was stated as Varaha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-06-14T23:36:55.203" LastActivityDate="2023-06-14T23:36:55.203" Title="Which scripture says that Varaha was father of Narakasura?" Tags="|krishna|earth|varaha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19414" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17315" CreationDate="2017-07-05T19:19:41.253" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason is because the respective manuals (grhya sutras) have recommended each shakha/veda to perform the upAkarma on specific day which is followed by the respective veda and shakha people. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per one of the Vaishnava legends, Lord &lt;strong&gt;HayAgreeva&lt;/strong&gt; initiated Lord &lt;strong&gt;BrahmA&lt;/strong&gt; in vedas during these respective days/stars hence we celebrate on specific days. (I do not have reference)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rigveda Upakarma: Should be done on the day in shraavana where&#xA;  shravana is the star and spans at least from sunrise to mid day.But&#xA;  not in Uttara Ashadha if present during sunrise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्रवणे श्रवणायाम् उपाकर्म कुर्वीत आश्वलायन गृह्य सूत्र&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samaveda Upakarma: Should be done on hasta nakshatra on bhadrapada shuklapaksha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रौष्ठपदी हस्तायाम् वा श्रवणे श्रवणायां उपक्रमण= गोभिल गृह्य सूत्र&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna Yajurveda: i.e. Taittiriyas &amp;amp; Maitrayanis should do on&#xA;  shravistha, dhanistha,(avittam in Tamil),on shraavana month,whether it&#xA;  falls on purnima yukta Pratipada (Pratipat)during sunrise (Telugu-&#xA;  paadyami) or prathama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shukla Yajurveda: i.e. Vajasaneyi Kanvas and Madhyandinas do in&#xA;  purnima day if purnima is present up to evening.But if punima and&#xA;  pratipada both are present on next day(para viddha) they should do on&#xA;  previous day when chaturdashi stays in day and then purnima comes&#xA;  after mid day(purva viddha).Under no condition they should do/avoid&#xA;  doing in krishna paksha pratipat or broadly speaking they should&#xA;  finish upakarma before approach of krishna paksha.but they postpone&#xA;  upakarma to the next day if purnima is having Uttara Ashadha&#xA;  nakshatra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;श्रवणे पौर्णमास्यां उपाकर्म =पारस्कर गृह्य सूत्र&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda: They do on the day when purnima lasts during sunrise.(udaya vyapini tithi)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T05:58:42.403" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T05:58:42.403" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19416" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-05T19:49:58.400" Score="1" ViewCount="45" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that many of the jaina tirthankaras were born in the lineage of lord rama, and also some are closely related to hindu deities such as krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10372" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T19:49:58.400" Title="Is it true that many of the jaina tirthankaras were born in the lineage of lord rama" Tags="|rama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2019-12-31T02:35:52.717" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19417" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19413" CreationDate="2017-07-05T20:51:16.303" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/WYWt&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Brahma Purana describes how Narakarasura was born to Vishnu's incarnation Varaha and Bhumidevi goddess of the Earth after Varaha rescued the Pitris at Kokamukha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chaya, the Earth conceived by lord Boar generated asura Naraka known also by the name Bhauma. Lord Vishnu gave him Pragjyotisha, the capital city of Kamarupa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-05T20:51:16.303" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19420" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-06T02:25:05.207" Score="7" ViewCount="1124" Body="&lt;p&gt;On the 12th day of the Mahabharata war, Narakasura's son Bhagadatta, who was fighting on the Kaurava side, launched the Vaishnavastra or weapon of Vishnu at Arjuna, but Krishna covered Arjuna and absorbed the weapon with his chest.  Arjuna asked Krishna why he would break his promise not to fight.  Krishna responded that it's because the Vaishnavastra is an absolutely invincible weapon, capable even of slaying Indra and other gods, and can only be stopped by Vishnu, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07027.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Listen, O Partha, to this secret and ancient history as it is, O sinless one! &lt;strong&gt;I have four forms, eternally engaged as I am in protecting the worlds. Dividing my own Self, I ordain the good of the worlds. One form of mine, staying on the earth, is engaged in the practice of ascetic austerities. Another beholdeth the good and the evil deeds in the world. My third form, coming into the world of men, is engaged in action. My fourth form lieth down in sleep for a thousand years. The form of mine which awaketh from sleep at the end of a thousand years, granteth, upon awakening, excellent boons to persons deserving of them.&lt;/strong&gt; The earth, knowing (on one occasion) that that time had come, asked of me a boon for (her son) Naraka. Hear, O Partha, what that boon was. Possessed of the Vaishnava weapon, let my son become incapable of being slain by the gods and the Asuras. It behoveth thee to grant me that weapon. Hearing this prayer, I then gave, in days of old, the supreme and infallible Vaishnava weapon to the Earth's son. I said also at that time these words, 'O Earth, let this weapon be infallible for the protection of Naraka. None will be able to slay him. Protected by this weapon, thy son will always, in all the worlds, be invincible and crush all hostile hosts.' Saying, So be it! the intelligent goddess went away, her wishes fulfilled. And Naraka also became invincible and always scorched his foes. It was from Naraka, O Partha, that the ruler of the Pragjyotishas got this weapon of mine. There is none, in all the world, O sire, including even Indra and Rudra, who is unslayable by this weapon. It was for thy sake, therefore, that I baffled it, violating my promise. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, what are the four forms of Vishnu listed by Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do they have any relation with Vishnu's four Vyuha forms Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha described in the Pancharatra Agamas, whom I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6923/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;?  The fourth form who sleeps for 1000 years sounds like a description of Vishnu's Vyuha form Aniruddha, who sleeps during the Mahapralaya and then wakes up and creates Brahma from his navel.  (Although a Mahapralaya lasts for a hundred years of Brahma, not a thousand.)  And the third form sounds like Vishnu's Vyuha form Vasudeva, insofar as he dwells in Shwetadvipa in Bhuloka and he engages in actions when the gods go to him seeking help.  But I don't see any correlation with the remaining two Vyuha forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first form who stays on the Earth engaging in Tapasya sounds like Vishnu's incarnation sage Narayana.  And I'm not sure what the second form, who witnesses good and bad deeds, is.  It could be Antaryami Vasudeva, who is present as the indweller in the hearts of all beings and thus observes their actions.  In any case, are there any scriptures or works of Acharyas which shed light on who these four forms are?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-12-15T08:30:26.977" LastActivityDate="2017-12-15T08:30:26.977" Title="What are the four forms of Vishnu mentioned by Krishna in the Drona Parva?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|vaishnavism|agamas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19422" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-06T03:53:03.123" Score="6" ViewCount="758" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://asitis.com/4/13.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Following&lt;/a&gt; statement of Krishna related to Varna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the &lt;strong&gt;four Varnas of human society were created by Me&lt;/strong&gt;. And, although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the non-doer, being unchangeable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedic astrology, there is Varna. It is solely based on the birth Zodiac sign of the person i.e., on birth details as &lt;a href=&quot;http://mokshaastrology.blogspot.in/2009/04/varna-refers-to-caste.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;follows&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;BRAHMIN VARNA : Person whose Birth Rashi is Cancer or Scorpio or&#xA;Pisces is considered Brahmin by Varna in Hindu Vedic Astrology .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;KSHATRIYA VARNA : Person whose Birth Rashi is Aries or Leo or&#xA;Sagittarius is considered Kshatriya by Varna in Hindu Vedic Astrology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;VAISHYA VARNA: Person whose Birth Rashi is Taurus or Virgo or&#xA;Capricorn is considered Vaishya by Varna in Hindu Vedic Astrology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;SHUDRA VARNA : Person whose Birth Rashi is Gemini or Libra or&#xA;Aquarius is considered Shudra by Varna in Hindu Vedic Astrology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The names of Varnas in both cases are same, my doubt is &lt;strong&gt;whether the Varna system told by Krishna is same as the Varna in astrology or not&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: This question is not a duplicate of another question. Please read both and comment or reopen accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2021-05-15T14:18:50.730" LastActivityDate="2021-06-23T10:29:27.137" Title="Is the Varna told by Krishna is same as astrological Varna?" Tags="|krishna|astrology|varna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19423" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-06T04:15:33.760" Score="4" ViewCount="978" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are some military formations and strategies used in Mahabharata war at Kurukshetra? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard Padma Vyuha was a famous one, From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmavyuha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Padmavyūha, is a multi-tier defensive formation that looks like a blooming lotus (padma, पद्म) when viewed from above. Very famous because of the warriors at each interleaving position would be in an increasingly tough position to fight&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who were the warriors capable of fighting in Padma Vyuha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-09T06:28:59.053" LastActivityDate="2021-05-23T20:49:29.257" Title="What are some famous military formations and strategies used in Mahabharata war at Kurukshetra?" Tags="|mahabharata|kurukshetra|war|vyuha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19424" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19397" CreationDate="2017-07-06T05:17:16.773" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Avani Avittam -2017 - It will Fall on 28th July 2017 (Friday)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upakarma means beginning or Arambham and it refers to the ritualistic beginning of learning Veda. Apart from learning Vedas on Upakarma day, Brahmins ritually change their Upanayana thread along with Shrauta rituals. Upakarma which is a Vedic ritual is still practiced by Hindus of Brahmin community.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who follow 'Yajurveda' observe the 'Upakarma' on the full moon day during 'Shravana' month i.e. on 'Shravana Purnima' day. Those who follow 'Rigveda' observe the 'Upakarma' on 'Shravana Nakshatra' day in the month of 'Shravana'. Hence the day to observe 'Upakarma' might differ for the followers of 'Yajurveda' and 'Rigveda'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upakarma is known as Avani Avittam in Tamil Nadu. For those who do their first Upakarma, it is known as Thalai Avani Avittam. In Andhra Pradesh, Upakarma during Shravana Purnima is known as Jandhyala Purnima.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmins choose the day of Shravana Purnima to begin the study of Vedas as the day coincides with Hayagriva Jayanti. Hayagriva Jayanti is the birth anniversary of Lord Hayagriva who is considered the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. It is believed that Lord Hayagriva restored all Vedas to Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main purpose of the Upakarma ritual is to offer prayers and express the gratitude to those Rishis who gave the knowledge of Vedas and revealed Vedic Mantras to the mankind. The next day of Upakarma is known as Gayatri Japam day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who follow Samaveda observe the Upakarma on Hasta Nakshatra day during Bhadrapada month. Samaveda Upakarma day usually falls after fortnight of Yajurveda and Rigveda Upakarma day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10200" LastEditorUserId="10200" LastEditDate="2017-09-22T06:31:58.237" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T06:31:58.237" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19425" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14134" CreationDate="2017-07-06T05:45:56.740" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;MahA-dashA start from the birth and continue until death. They are based on the nakshatra in which moon is progressing. So the dasha during birth will be determined by nakshatra of the moon. The degrees already traveled by the moon in the specific star is already completed period and remaining period will be the balance of the dasha remaining. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the first dasha, the commencing dashas will run in a specific sequence in a specific time frame. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For punarvasu nakshatra the first dasha will be of Jupiter during the birth. The period of dasha will be calculated by degrees of the moon.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The divisional longitude of each of the 27 nakshatras beginning with&#xA;  Ashwini and ending with Revati is 13 degrees and 20 minutes further&#xA;  divided into four quarters or padas. Each of the nine planets presides&#xA;  over a set of three nakshatras situated on the zodiac at a trine from&#xA;  each other. The commencing dasha or mahadasha at the time of birth&#xA;  will be that of the lord of the nakshatra in which the Moon is placed,&#xA;  which particular nakshatra is known as the &quot;Janma nakshatra&quot;. If the&#xA;  Moon is in Taurus in Mrigsira the first dasha will be of Mars, the&#xA;  second will be that of Rahu and so on. The distance already covered by&#xA;  the Moon in Mrigsira will be the portion of the dasha of Mars that has&#xA;  elapsed; the distance yet to be covered will represent the portion of&#xA;  the dasha of Mars that is yet to be experienced. The balance is&#xA;  calculated on the basis of the rule of three only in the case of the&#xA;  first mahadasha; the subsequent mahadashas will have their full quota.&#xA;  The balance mahadasha at birth on the basis of the exact longitude of&#xA;  the Moon can be ascertained by using the ready reckoner provided in&#xA;  all Panchangas. The Antra-dashas or the sub-periods and the&#xA;  Prayantra-dashas of each planet is calculated on pro-rata basis in&#xA;  proportion of the years allotted to them in the 120 years cycle of&#xA;  Vimshottari dasha system.:253 Saravali insists that the sign occupied&#xA;  by the Moon and the influences exercised on it by other planets&#xA;  through aspects etc.; at the time of the commencement of its mahadasa&#xA;  should be noted and examined, the same principle should also be&#xA;  applied to other mahadasa lords. If at the time of the commencement of&#xA;  the mahadasa its lord is in the lagna or in benefic or friendly vargas&#xA;  or in an upachyasthana from the Birth ascendant or if the Moon&#xA;  occupies the friendly sign or exaltation sign of the lord of the&#xA;  mahadasa or is in an upachyasthana from the mahadasa lord and the&#xA;  mahadasa lord is in a trine from the Moon then the mahadasa will give&#xA;  exceptionally good results. (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasha_(astrology)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5H0pz.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5H0pz.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Table &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astroaura.net/dasa-bhukti-periods.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T05:45:56.740" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19427" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-07-06T06:35:03.573" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhinnamasta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chhinnamasta (Sanskrit: छिन्नमस्ता, Chinnamastā, &quot;She whose head is severed&quot;)&lt;/a&gt;, often spelled Chinnamasta, and also called Chhinnamastika and Prachanda Chandika, is a Hindu goddess. She is one of the Mahavidyas, ten goddesses from the esoteric tradition of Tantra, and a ferocious aspect of Devi, the Hindu Mother goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From our site &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17869/questions-about-the-image-of-goddess-chhinnamasta/17887#17887&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ChinnamastA means the one with severed head. In the shAkta tradition, she is the sixth cosmic goddess of the ten &quot;mahAvidyAs&quot;. Her form is very fierce and hence has attracted many controversies over the meaning. Some have even linked it with black magic etc. Let us see the esoteric meaning of the iconography, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most controversial and important feature is the &quot;head&quot;. The head signifies the mind and because the head is severed, it signifies transcending the mind or &quot;mindlessness&quot;. This can also be equated to &quot;turiya&quot; or &quot;turiyAteeta&quot; state where mind is dissolved. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is the giver of yogic powers and enlightenment. There is much importance of this goddess in the Tibetian tantric cult as well. There she is referred as &quot;Vajra yogini&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T12:42:50.160" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T12:42:50.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19428" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-07-06T06:35:03.573" Score="0" Body="Chhinnamasta (Sanskrit: छिन्नमस्ता, Chinnamastā, &quot;She whose head is severed&quot;), often spelled Chinnamasta, and also called Chhinnamastika and Prachanda Chandika, is a Hindu goddess. She is one of the Mahavidyas, ten goddesses from the esoteric tradition of Tantra, and a ferocious aspect of Devi, the Hindu Mother goddess. " OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T06:35:03.573" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T06:35:03.573" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19429" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-06T09:03:52.030" Score="1" ViewCount="1265" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let us consider the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;following&lt;/a&gt; excerpt from Mahabharata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;He also beheld the princess of Pancala, decked in garlands of lotuses. Having attained to Heaven, she was sitting there, endued with a form possessed of solar splendour. King Yudhishthira suddenly wished to question her. &lt;strong&gt;Then the illustrious Indra, the chief of the gods, spoke to him, ‘This one is Sree herself. It was for your sake that she took birth, as the daughter of Drupada, among human beings, issuing not from any mother’s womb, O Yudhishthira&lt;/strong&gt;, endued with agreeable perfume and capable of delighting the whole world. For your pleasure, she was created by the wielder of the trident. She was born in the race of Drupada and was enjoyed by you all. These five highly blessed Gandharvas endued with the effulgence of fire, and possessed of great energy, were, O king, the sons of Draupadi and yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From that, it is clear that the Draupadi is Laskhmi itself in Dvapara like Sita in Treta yuga. Sita is well worshipped and Draupadi is hardly worshipped. Is there any reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2023-01-12T05:56:18.333" Title="Why is Sita worshiped well but not Draupadi?" Tags="|mahabharata|worship|sita|draupadi|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19430" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9440" CreationDate="2017-07-06T10:39:31.133" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have discussed about the picture and iconography of the goddess in my another &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17887/7853&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;. It is well known that she is one of prime goddesses in the shakta tradition. She is one of the cosmic manifestation of parA shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The most popular account of Chinnamasta’s origin appears in the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Pranatosini&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;strong&gt;tantra&lt;/strong&gt;. It states that the goddess Parvati, Siva’s wife,&#xA;  goes bathing with her two attendants, Dakini and Varnini. The two&#xA;  women are hungry and ask Parvati for food. She tells them to wait and&#xA;  they can eat once they are home. However, after further begging from&#xA;  her companions, the merciful goddess and Mother of the Universe,&#xA;  severs her head with her fingernails and her blood nourishes her&#xA;  attendants. Following this event, Parvati is henceforth known as&#xA;  Chinnamasta (Kinsley 1998:147). This origin story emphasizes maternal&#xA;  self-sacrifice in order to satiate her companions. Scholars note the&#xA;  interesting choice of blood instead of maternal milk for nutrients.&#xA;  The nourishment symbolizes renewal of the universe (Kinsley 1998:150).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Public and private worship of Chinnamasta is not very popular due to&#xA;  her aggressive nature and worshipping her is viewed as dangerous. It&#xA;  is said that those who worship her are of three types: yogis, world&#xA;  renouncers, or heroic in nature (Kinsley 1998:164). Tantric practices&#xA;  allow a practitioner to develop siddhis (supernormal powers) and&#xA;  achieve the ultimate goal of liberation. The &lt;strong&gt;Sakta Pramoda&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Tantrasara&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;Sri Chinnamasta Nityarcana&lt;/strong&gt; outline the worship rituals&#xA;  for Chinnamasta. There are nine sections of practice prescribed by the&#xA;  Sakta Pramoda including visualized meditation, drawing of the yantra&#xA;  (sacred diagram), and explication of the mantra (sacred utterance). &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mahavidya.ca/2015/03/10/chinnamasta/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T11:00:26.947" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T11:00:26.947" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19431" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-06T10:47:18.653" Score="3" ViewCount="203" Body="&lt;p&gt;Corruption is a dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. More particularly, &lt;strong&gt;Bribery&lt;/strong&gt; is a specific offence which concerns the practice of offering something, usually money, to gain an illicit advantage and &lt;strong&gt;corruption&lt;/strong&gt; is an abuse of a position of trust in order to gain an undue advantage. For bribery, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15090/is-bribery-a-sin-according-to-hindu-scripture-if-yes-what-is-the-punishment&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is a similar question &amp;amp; answer. But I'm interested in Corruption.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are/is punishment(s) for doing corruption in this life?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are/is punishment(s) reserved for doing corruption in afterlife?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-11T09:08:56.623" LastActivityDate="2018-04-11T09:08:56.623" Title="What is/are the punishment(s) for corruption?" Tags="|dharma|punishment|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19432" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19356" CreationDate="2017-07-06T11:53:39.800" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedanta (or Upanishad) literally means the end of Veda or the concluding portion of Vedas. Now this can have two meanings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) If Veda considered a book then Vedanta it's concluding chapters. In this case, there is virtually no difference between the two. So, there is no need to mention them separately when they are mentioned together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Vedanta are the supplementary texts that are appended to the ends of Veda at a later period. Even saints like Rishi Aurobindo agrees with the Upanishadic period being much later to the Vedic period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The conclusion 2 appears to me as much more reasonable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, while its virtually impossible (IMHO) to prove that Upanishads or Vedanta are also a part of Vedas (i.e they are Sruti or heard by Rishis ) but indications which point to the opposite direction are many.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore the Yogis that want rewards meditate Her, Who is of the&#xA;  nature of Vidyâ and Who is devoid of attributes. The best Munis, the&#xA;  knowers of the truths of Vedanta meditate on Her as formless,&#xA;  immutable, stainless, omnipresent Brahmâ devoid of all Dharma. She is&#xA;  described &lt;strong&gt;in some Vedas and Upanishads&lt;/strong&gt; as full of Light (Tejas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brâhmins, &lt;strong&gt;versed in the Vedas and Vedantas&lt;/strong&gt;, are objects of&#xA;  venerations and must be worshipped. Give, then, them always according&#xA;  to merits, cows, lands, gold, etc. Don’t worship any Brâhmin who is&#xA;  illiterate. Don’t give to illiterates more than their belliful wants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Devi BhAgabatam, Book 3, Chapter 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if Vedanta=Vedas, then there remains no need to mention them separately in the same sentence. Right? But as you can see they are mentioned separately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the &lt;strong&gt;Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; mention &lt;strong&gt;Vedas and Upanishads&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;separately&lt;/strong&gt; while mentioning them together. Following are the relevant verses from the Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;As from a fire kindled with wet fuel various kinds of smoke issue&#xA;  forth, even so, my dear,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;the Rig—Veda, the Yajur—Veda, the Sama—Veda, the Atharvangirasa&lt;/strong&gt;, history (itihasa), mythology (purana), the arts (vidya), &lt;strong&gt;the&#xA;  Upanishads&lt;/strong&gt;, verses (slokas), aphorisms (sutras), elucidations&#xA;  (anuvyakhyanas) and explanations (vyakhyanas) are like the breath of&#xA;  this infinite Reality. From this Supreme Self are all these, indeed,&#xA;  breathed forth. (&lt;strong&gt;4.5.11&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janaka, Emperor of Videha, rose from his lounge, humbly approached&#xA;  Yajnavalkya and said: &quot;Salutation to you, O Yajnavalkya. Please&#xA;  instruct me.&quot; Yajnavalkya said: &quot;Your Majesty, as one who wishes to go&#xA;  a long distance would procure a chariot or a ship, even so you have&#xA;  fully equipped your mind with so many secret names of Brahman. You are&#xA;  also honoured and wealthy; &lt;strong&gt;you have studied the Vedas and heard the&#xA;  Upanishads.&lt;/strong&gt; But do you know where you will go when you are released&#xA;  from this body?&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verses from Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad,(4.2.1) .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vyasa Smriti also does the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then having recited the Gayatri, the twice-born ones should commence&#xA;  the study of the Vedas. &lt;strong&gt;Having studied portion of the Saman, Yajus,&#xA;  and Atharvan&lt;/strong&gt;, they should commence reading the &lt;strong&gt;Itihasas, Puranas and&#xA;  Upanishads,&lt;/strong&gt; either entirely, or in parts, if a complete perusal is not&#xA;  feasible. This should be done every day. (910) (Vyasa Smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;option 2&lt;/strong&gt; is much more reasonable. They are appended later to the Vedas by the teachers so that the students can master the terse content of Vedas easily. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are like appendices to the Vedas but very important texts none the less.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-06T12:25:22.390" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T12:25:22.390" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19433" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18987" CreationDate="2017-07-06T12:06:55.367" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dvaita Vedanta and Vishistadvaita Vedanta accept the concept of Avatara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaita Vedanta does not accept the concept of Avatara. Advaita Vedanta claims that the Avatara is same as a Jnani. Any distinction between Avatara and Jnani would contradict scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D.: The avatars are said to be more glorious than the self-realized&#xA;  Jnanis. Maya does not affect them from birth; divine powers are&#xA;  manifest; new religions are started; and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;M (Sri Ramana).: (1)&quot;Jnani tvatmaiva me matam.&quot;&#xA;                   (2)&quot;Sarvam khalvidam brahma.&quot; &#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;How is an avatar different from Jnani; or how can there be an avatar as distinct from&#xA;  the universe?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D.: The eye (chakshu) is said to be the repository (ayatana) of all&#xA;  forms; so the ear (srotra) is of all sounds, etc. This one Chaitanya&#xA;  operates as all; no miracles are possible without the aid of the sense&#xA;  (indriyas). How can there be miracles at all? If they are said to&#xA;  surpass human understanding so are the creations in dreams. Where then&#xA;  is the miracle? &lt;strong&gt;The distinction between avataras and Jnanis is absurd.&#xA;  &quot;Knower of Brahman becomes Brahman only&quot; is otherwise contradicted.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;M.: &lt;strong&gt;Quite so.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, pg 443-444&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T12:06:55.367" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19434" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19287" CreationDate="2017-07-06T13:19:14.440" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can a younger sibling marry before elder sibling in Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;  ,negotiation of the marriage of a younger brother before that of his elder is considered as a sin according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/garud-puran/garuda-vol-2/chapter-01/topic-49&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; – &lt;strong&gt;Achar kanda –Chapter 105  - Page 245&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गोवधो व्रात्यत्यास्तेयम्रुणानां च परिक्रिया |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;अनहिताग्निताsपण्यविक्रय: परिवेदनं ||12|| &lt;br&gt; भृताचाध्ययनादानं&#xA;भृतकाध्यापनन्तथा ||&lt;br&gt; पारदार्य्यं परिवित्त्यं वार्दुष्यम् लवणक्रिया&#xA;||13||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following sinful acts , viz. , cow killing ,robbing of Brahmana ,&#xA;non repayment of one’s debts and non discharge of one’s monetary&#xA;obligations , non keeping a sacred fire by brahmana , or his engaging&#xA;in any sort of trade or merchandise , &lt;strong&gt;marriage of a younger brother&#xA;in the unmarried state of his elder&lt;/strong&gt; , tutelage under one’s own&#xA;servant , or acceptance of any gift from him , going on to another&#xA;man’s wife ,&lt;strong&gt;negotiation of the marriage of a younger brother before&#xA;that of his elder&lt;/strong&gt; , creating a breach among friends and relations&#xA;for money , tuition for pecuniary considerations , sale of salt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So marriage of younger sibling (male) before elder is not allowed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T13:19:14.440" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19435" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19440" CreationDate="2017-07-06T13:33:43.710" Score="2" ViewCount="15180" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know lord shiva had two wives(actually one). One is Sati and then Parvati(incarnation of Sati). Now in hinduism lots of places we find that Kali is also a wife of lord shiva. However I don't find any good reference about it.There are many confusing articles online.My three questions to you,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the exact relationship between shiva and kali?(reference please)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is Kali was a wife or just unmarried consort?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If wife,when they got married? After Parvati or along with Parvati?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If unmarried consort,how come this possible when Parvati was with him?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank You,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10379" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T00:50:26.420" Title="Exact relation between lord shiva and goddess Kali?" Tags="|shiva|parvati|kali|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19436" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-06T15:00:21.353" Score="16" ViewCount="3723" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know from which scripture this sloka is cited? &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchakanya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; doesn't help much. I've heard this sloka almost everywhere so I'm curious and want to find out it's source. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहल्या द्रौपदी कुन्ती तारा मन्दोदरी तथा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पञ्चकन्याः स्मरेन्नित्यं महापातकनाशिनीः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ahalyā draupadī kuntī tārā mandodarī tathā ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pañcakanyāḥ smarennityaṃ mahāpātakanāśinīḥ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara and Mandodari. One should forever remember the panchakanya who are the destroyers of great sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also why are the names of Ahalya,Draupadi, Kunti, Tara and Mandodari 'sin-destroying'? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="7075" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T08:36:02.720" LastActivityDate="2021-12-15T04:59:20.330" Title="What is the source of the Panchakanya sloka?" Tags="|women|shloka|identification-request|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19437" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20309" CreationDate="2017-07-06T15:20:55.330" Score="9" ViewCount="1846" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/16203/4/Section%202_Chapter%207-11_438-516p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 8&lt;/strong&gt; (pg 47) of the &lt;strong&gt;Upodghatapada of Brahmanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; states the lineage of Atri and Vasistha. It recounts Atri's family and an incident where Atri releases the Sun from it's eclipse. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the narration there's this interesting statement: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Datta is considered to be the eldest, Durvasas was his younger&#xA;  brother. &lt;strong&gt;The youngest of all was a lady who expounded the Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know about Atri's sons Durvasa and Dattatreya are incarnations of Rudra and Vishnu but I didn't know that Atri had a daughter that explained Brahmajnana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anybody shed light on who she is? Do any other scriptures mention her? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T09:01:05.863" Title="Who is the daughter of Atri?" Tags="|rishi|brahmanda-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19438" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18989" CreationDate="2017-07-06T16:01:25.110" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti defines Sruti (that has been heard) and Smriti (that has been remembered) as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Srutis tu Vedo Vijneyo DharmashAstram tu vai Smritihi...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Sruti is meant the Veda, and by Smriti is meant the Dharma&#xA;  ShAstra..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manu Smriti 2.10.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the Parashara Smriti, describes in the following verse, how at the beginning of each Kalpa, the Vedas are revealed and the Smritis are remembered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/k6MwE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/k6MwE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;. &quot; The author of the Veda there is none ; (he) the fourfaced (God),&#xA;  at each succeeding revolution of a Kalpa, recalls to mind the Veda ;&#xA;  and so does Manu remember the law (at each succeeding revolution of a&#xA;  Kalpa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, for the Smritis to be available to us they must be remembered and there must be some persons who will do this job of recalling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, these are the Sages, Deities (like Manu, Yajnavalkya, Brihaspati, ParAshara etc), who recall the laws, whom we know by the name of the Smriti-KartA or the Dharma ShAstra-KartA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The names of 18 such SmritikartAs is mentioned in a Yajnavalkya Smriti verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, for the Srutis to be available to mankind, &lt;strong&gt;there has to be some persons, who hear them from God.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, they are the Vedic Rishis like ViswAmitra, MadhucchandAh, Kanva Ghaura, Gotama etc etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, for Barahmana, Upanishads etc to be also declared as Sruti &lt;strong&gt;they need to be also heard by some Rishis or the other.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, do we have such Rishis? NO.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,  its fair  to call only the Samhitas as Sruti or the Vedas and which is what most people will find reasonable to accept too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part5/chap29.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Paramacharya Sri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati's book The Hindu Dharma&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So far, in speaking of the Vedas, I have dealt mainly with the Samhita&#xA;  part of each sakha or recension. &lt;strong&gt;We have already seen that the&#xA;  Samhitas are the main text of the Vedas.&lt;/strong&gt; Apart from them, each sakha&#xA;  has a Brahmana and an Aranyaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmana lays down the various rites - karma - to be performed and&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;explains the procedure for the same. It interprets the words of the&#xA;  mantras occuring in the Samhita&lt;/strong&gt;, how they are to be understood in the&#xA;  conduct of sacrifices. &lt;strong&gt;The Brahmanas constitute a guide for the&#xA;  conduct of yajnas.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word &quot;Aranyaka&quot; is derived from &quot;aranya&quot;. You must have heard of&#xA;  places like &quot;Dandakaranya&quot; and &quot;Vedaranya&quot;. &quot;Aranya&quot;means a &quot;forest&quot;.&#xA;  Neither in the Samhita nor in the Brahmana is one urged to go and live&#xA;  in a forest. Vedic rites like sacrifices are to be performed by the&#xA;  householder (grhastha) living in a village. But after his mind is&#xA;  rendered pure through such rites, he goes to a forest as a recluse to&#xA;  engage himself in meditation. It is to qualify for this stage of&#xA;  vanaprastha, to become inwardly pure and mellow, that Vedic practices&#xA;  like sacrifices are to be followed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Aranyakas prepare one for one's stage in life as an anchorite.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;They expound the concepts inherent in the mantras of the Samhitas and&#xA;  the rites detailed in the Brahmanas. In other words, they explain the&#xA;  hidden meaning of the Vedas, their metaphorical passages. Indeed, they&#xA;  throw light on the esoteric message of our scripture&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to present-day scholars, the Aranyakas incorporate the&#xA;  metaphorical passages representing the metaphysical inquires conducted&#xA;  by the inmates of forest hermitages&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, from the above passage , it's quite clear why the Brahamanas etc are added to each Veda. They simply serve as supplementary texts (just like appendices or commentaries do) to understand the Vedas which without them would have been impossible to understand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, saints like Rishi Aurobindo does not even subscribe to this line thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per him, Vedas themselves are self-sufficient as far as understanding them is concerned. We don't even need those supplementary texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the BridaranyAkopanishad's  verse that mentions the four Vedas and Upanishads separately:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The King Janaka asks YajnavAlkya &quot;KA prajnata yAjnavalkya|&quot; OR &quot;What is PrajnA, YajnavAlkya?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To that YajnavAlkya replies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VAgeva samrariti hovAchA |&lt;br&gt; VAchA vai samrAr vandhuh prajnAyata&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;rigvedo yajurvedha sAmavedah atharvangirasa&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; itihAsah purAnam vidyA&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; shlokAh sutrAnya anuvyAkhyAnAni ... vAgvai samrAt param&#xA;  brahmam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BrihadAranyakopanishat 4.1.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O king, the vAk is the prajnA. By VAk a firend can be known. By VAk&#xA;  the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the SAma Veda and the Atharva Veda, the&#xA;  ItihAsas, the PurAnas, the VidyAs, the Upanishads, the Shlokas,&#xA;  Sutras, the explanations of them and the supplementary explanations&#xA;  (anu vyAkhyAni) .. etc can be understood. That VAk is the Param&#xA;  Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the Upanishad's 4th adhyAya's 1st BrAhmana (called the ShadAchArya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-03-06T12:56:07.513" LastActivityDate="2018-03-06T12:56:07.513" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19439" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8362" CreationDate="2017-07-06T16:22:27.090" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can one eat meat and still be a devotee ? The answer to this question will be &lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, if the question is whether Lord Shiva approves such an act? (which is what a true devotee will be more concerned about)  then the answer will be &lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva does not approve meat eating unless it is part of some rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what he says to Sri Devi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pitridevatayajneshu VaidahimsA Vidhiyate |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AtmArtham PrAninAm HimsA kadAchinnoditA Priye&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Pitru Yanjna and Deva Yajnas sacrificial killing is allowed. But&#xA;  other than that the Shastras never allow prani himsa (killing) for&#xA;  one's own pleasure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, Chapter 5, Verse 45.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear that Lord Shiva does not like the idea of his devotees eating non-sacrificial meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eating meat is allowed only if it is part of some ritual. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T05:26:25.170" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T05:26:25.170" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19440" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19435" CreationDate="2017-07-06T16:32:24.303" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before coming to your question, a little background understanding is important. Here it is..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before the creation of world Shiva use to be in Ardhanareshwara (Half body is of woman and half is of man) form. Brahma starts creation of world but at one point Lord Brahma got lack in energy/power to complete the work of srijan (creation). Then he went to Shiva and ask for help. Then Shiva gave his half form (woman form) in form of energy to Lord Brahma. That woman form of Shiva is knows as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Parashakti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;AAdi Shakti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Brahma used that energy to complete the creation work of world. He created all living and non living things which includes plants, animals, humans, Gods and stones sand and so on. Means everything is created by Lord Brahma with the help of power of Aadi Shakti. That means Aadi Shakti is present in Planets, stars, in every living thing and in everything that one can and can't feel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Creation works got complete and life started in world then Aadi Shakti need to get back to Lord Shiva (It has saperate long story but I will not gonna describe here). But the problem was that She can't come to Shiva directly and become part of Shiva like before (Ardhnareshwar form) Because Aadi Shakti is being used to create world. Nature (plants and other living things) on earth is the result of Aadi Shakti. Means Aadi shakti is Nature herself. If she went back to Lord Shiva then Nature will get End. Here is why...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why Adi Sakti Can't go back to Lord Shiva?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The whole galaxy will suffer a lot if Aadi shakti leave all her duties and goes back to Shiva here is how...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[ CONTENTS FROM WIKIPEDIA STARTS ]....&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Association with Navagraha or nine planets&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shakti is regarded as the one who can control all the nine planets. She divides herself to Material Shakti i.e. Durga who splits herself to operate nine planets to maintain cosmic order, Vidya Shakti i.e. Kali as source for 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu and Maya Shakti, to delude the beings to illusion and also promotes the beings to Ultimate God. As Durga Shakti She is the one who splits herself to NavaDurga provides direction and energy to all planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sun is Governed by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushmanda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kushmanda&lt;/a&gt; Shakti.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahagauri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahagauri&lt;/a&gt; operates Rahu.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaalratri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaalratri&lt;/a&gt; governs Shani.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ketu is governed by Goddess &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhidatri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siddhidaatri&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Provider of Knowledge i.e. Bhrasapati is governed by Goddess&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyayini&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Katyayini&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Provider of All Fortunes i.e. Mangal is governed by Goddess&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmacharini&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmacharini&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The effect of moon is overcome by Goddess &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shailaputri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shailaputri&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Budh Planet is governed by Goddess &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandamata&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skandamata&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shukra Planet is operated by Goddess &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandraghanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chandraghanta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By this contrast Goddess Adi Shakti controls Nava Graha. Worshipping the nine goddess in Navaratri or Nine nights of mataji, saves you from dangerous effects of planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;...[ CONTENTS FROM WIKI ENDS ]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This just a very little explanation of role of Aadi Shakti in continuity of flow of life in whole galaxy. But she does many more than that. So you can imagine if she left all her duty and goes back to Shiva then what will happened to the Galxy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the only option to get back to Shiva was through the nature itself. Means Aadi Shakti can be with Shiva in the same way as all other life. Means She has to follow nature to get back to Shiva in which She had to take birth as human Child and then she can get Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For that purpose she first took birth as Sati. But father of Sati used to hate Shiva (It has also a long story that why he hate Shiva, If I will explain all then I might be getting out of topic). SO She couldn't stay with Shiva forever as Sati. Then She again took birth as Parvati to get her Shiva. Then She got married with Shiva again and stays with him till now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE&lt;/strong&gt;: This background Story was important to clear your doubt, Now let's come to you real question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Exact relation between lord shiva and goddess Kali?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[ CONTENTS FROM WIKI STARTS ]....&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shakti has divided herself to Material Shakti (Durga or Parvati), Kali (Vidya Shakti) and Yog Maya (as Mayashakti). As Vidya Shakti she splits herself to 10 kinds of eternal knowledge also known as 10 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavidya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahavidya&lt;/a&gt;. The ten goddesses are known as wisdom goddesses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;....[ CONTENTS FROM WIKI ENDS ]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So now you can understand that Kali and Parvati both are forms of Aadi Shakti. So there is not difference between kali and Parvati. So the exact relationship between Shiva and Kali will be relationship of husband and wife Because Shiva did marry parvati and like that he got married with all 10 Mahavidya (all forms of Aadi shakti which includes Kali also).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some more important points on Aadi Shakti (just for little extra knowledge) by which you will come to know the importance of Aadi shakti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[ CONTENTS FROM WIKI STARTS ]....&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All 10 forms of Aadi shakti are original source of ten incarnation (अवतार) of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhumavati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dhumavati&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Matsya was incarnated&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagalamukhi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bagalamukhi&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Kurma was incarnated&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhairavi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhairavi&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Varaha was incarnated&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhinnamasta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chinnamasta&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Narasimha was incarnated&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripura_Sundari&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tripurasundari&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Vaamana was incarnated&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matangi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matangi&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Parashurama was incarnated&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(Devi)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tara&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Rama was incarnated&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kali&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Krishna was incarnated (You are asking about this form of Aadi Shakti)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamalatmika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kamala&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Buddha was incarnated&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhuvaneshvari&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhuvaneshvari&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Kalki will be incarnated&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;....[ CONTENTS FROM WIKI ENDS ]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE&lt;/strong&gt;: The story that I have told you in my answer is written in my own words which I have learned from TV and news articles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T15:36:20.540" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T15:36:20.540" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19441" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-06T17:12:12.487" Score="2" ViewCount="3399" Body="&lt;p&gt;If animal killing is not good, then why did Lord Shiva cut off an elephant's head for his son Ganesha? Does that mean we may kill animals for our own means as our Lord did?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9447" LastEditorUserId="10329" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T03:58:13.817" LastActivityDate="2018-12-10T12:54:56.690" Title="Why did Shiva cut off an elephant's head in violation of Ahimsa?" Tags="|shiva|animals|sacrifice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19442" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19447" CreationDate="2017-07-06T17:51:49.430" Score="4" ViewCount="5689" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was wondering how to tie a braid(tribraid or others?) and when to keep the shikha, (choti or tuft of hair) or when to tie it and when to leave it as it is. Are there any texts/scripture recommendations I should consult regarding how and when I should do this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10381" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T04:58:07.940" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T08:08:12.677" Title="When and how to tie the shikha शिखा and scripture recommendations regarding it?" Tags="|rituals|practice|brahmins|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19443" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19435" CreationDate="2017-07-06T19:23:56.223" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva and Goddess Kali are husband-wife. Kali is non-different from Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Infact &lt;strong&gt;Kali is Parvati's birth name&lt;/strong&gt;, given to her by her father Himachala due to her complexion as referenced in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/24065/30F_Chapter_102.pdf#page=1&amp;amp;zoom=auto,-40,675&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 7&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Parvati Khanda in Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गतस्तत्र गिरिः प्रीत्या सपुरोहितसद्विजः। ददर्श तनयां तां तु शोभमानां&#xA;सुवाससा।।६।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mountain king accompanied with the priest as well as the Brahmanas&#xA;went to see the girl who was self illumining.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नीलोत्पलदलश्यामा सुद्युर्ति सुमनोरमाम्। दृष्ट्रा च तादृशीं कन्यां&#xA;मुमोदातिगिरीश्वरः।।॥७॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;She had the reflection of the blue lotus flowers&lt;/strong&gt;, looking quite&#xA;charming with beautiful complexion. The mountain king was immensely&#xA;pleased by looking at her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अथो शुभमुहूर्तेऽस्मिन् हिमवान्मुनिभिः सह। नामाकरोत्सुतायास्तु&#xA;कालीत्यादि सुखप्रदम्॥११॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thereafter in the auspicious time, Himacala, in the company of the&#xA;sages, gave the daughter the pleasant name of Kali.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23137/24F_Chapter_84.pdf#page=2&amp;amp;zoom=auto,-44,371&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 84&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Devi-Mahatmya&lt;/strong&gt; recounts how Kali emerges from the body of Durga/Ambika (A manifestation of Parvati)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereat Ambika uttered her wrath aloud against those foes, &lt;strong&gt;and her&#xA;countenance then grew dark as ink in her wrath. Out from the surface&#xA;of her forehead. which was rugged with frowns, issued suddenly Kali of&#xA;the terrible countenance,&lt;/strong&gt; armed with a sword and noose, bearing a&#xA;many-coloured skull-topped staff decorated with a garland of skulls,&#xA;clad in a tiger’s skin, very appalling because of her emaciated ﬂesh,&#xA;exceedingly wide of mouth lolling out her tongue terribly, having&#xA;deep-sunk reddish eyes, and ﬁlling the regions of the sky with her&#xA;roars. She fell upon the great Asuras impetuously, dealing slaughter&#xA;among the host, and devoured that army of the gods’ foes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk03ch06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 6&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Fourth Book of Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt;, Adi-shakti assigns a consort to Brahma Vishnu and Shiva. This is what she says in Lord Shiva's case:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmâ said :-- Saying thus to Vâsudeva, that Higher Prakriti Devî who&#xA;is all of the three Gunas and yet transcending them, began to address&#xA;Mahâ Deva, the Deva of the Devas, in sweet words, thus :-- &lt;strong&gt;O&#xA;Sankara! Accept this beautiful Mahâ Kâlî Gaurî, build a new Kailàsa&#xA;city and live there happily.&lt;/strong&gt; Your primary Gunas will be Tamas;&#xA;Sattva and Rajas will be your secondary Gunas. Have recourse to Rajo&#xA;and Tamo Gunas while you slay the Asuras and thus wander.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O sinless S’ankara! Have recourse to peaceful Satto Guna, when you&#xA;reflect on the Supreme Self and practise austerities. You all are for&#xA;creating, preserving and destroying the Universe and you are all of&#xA;the three Gunas. There is no such thing in this world as are devoid of&#xA;these three Gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-06T19:23:56.223" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19445" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19446" CreationDate="2017-07-07T06:17:25.280" Score="3" ViewCount="3348" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the beeja mantras and what are petal mantras, and what is their relationship with Om/Aum?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In what ways are they helpful in meditation.   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If anyone is going to start on meditation, from where he/she should start.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is their significance in opening the chakras?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10386" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T13:55:48.507" LastActivityDate="2020-11-23T10:06:13.430" Title="What are the beeja mantras and what is their significance in meditation?" Tags="|mantras|agamas|meditation|om|chakras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19446" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19445" CreationDate="2017-07-07T06:54:05.870" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Beejas or Seeds are important single lettered or monosyllabic mantras especially in the tantric or agama tradition. They are extensively used in rituals, processes, and both for internal and external worship. Each mantra or beeja has specific energies contained in it. Once chanted properly the inherent power can be utilized by the sadhaka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Specific beejas are used during meditation on chakras. Each chakra have their beejas which when chanted with focus, helps to activate the chakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example om/aum is very famous single lettered mantra which is used during meditation and it is meditated between the space of the eye brows or in the heart region. Thus, beejas can be visualized and chanted in chakras during meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are easy to chant when compared to long and complex mantras and have very high potency as well. This is one of the reason why beejas have got more popularity among the sadhaka population. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/y3BCo.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/y3BCo.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/bijamantras.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Image source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The whole universe is Shakti and is pervaded by Shakti. Nada, Bindu,&#xA;  Varna are all forms of Shakti and combinations of these, and these&#xA;  combinations only are the Shabda corresponding to the Artha or forms&#xA;  of any particular Devata. The gross lettered sound is, as explained&#xA;  later, the manifestation of sound in a more subtle form, and this&#xA;  again is the production of causal &quot;sound&quot; in its supreme (Para) form.&#xA;  Mantras are manifestations of Kulakundalini (see Chapter on the same)&#xA;  which is a name for the Shabda-Brahman or Saguna-Brahman in individual&#xA;  bodies. Produced Shabda is an aspect of the Jiva's vital Shakti.&#xA;  Kundalini is the Shakti who gives life to the Jiva. She it is who in&#xA;  the Muladhara Cakra (or basal bodily center) is the cause of the&#xA;  sweet, indistinct and murmuring Dhvani which is compared to the&#xA;  humming of a black bee. Thence Shabda originates and, being first&#xA;  Para, gradually manifests upwards as Pashyanti, Madhyama, Vaikhari&#xA;  (see post). Just as in outer space, waves of sound are produced by&#xA;  movements of air (Vayu), so in the space within the Jiva's body, waves&#xA;  of sound are said to be produced according to the movements of the&#xA;  vital air (Pranavayu) and the process of in and out breathing. As the&#xA;  Svarupa of Kundali, in whom are all sounds, is Paramatma, so the&#xA;  substance of all Mantra, Her manifestation, is Consciousness (Cit)&#xA;  manifesting as letters and words. In fact, the letters of the Alphabet&#xA;  which are called Akshara are nothing but the Yantra of the Akshara or&#xA;  Imperishable Brahman. This is however only realized by the Sadhaka,&#xA;  when his Shakti generated by Sadhana is united with Mantra-Shakti.&#xA;  kundalini, who is extremely subtle, manifests in gross (Sthula) form&#xA;  in differing aspects as different Devatas. It is this gross form which&#xA;  is the Presiding Deity (Adishthatri Devata) of a Mantra, though it is&#xA;  the subtle (Sukshma) form at which all Sadhakas aim. Mantra and Devata&#xA;  are thus one and particular forms of Brahman as Shiva-Shakti.&#xA;  Therefore the Shastra says that they go to Hell who think that the&#xA;  Image (or &quot;Idol&quot; as it is commonly called) is but a stone and the&#xA;  Mantra merely letters of the alphabet. It is therefore also ignorance&#xA;  of Shastric principle which supposes that Mantra is merely the name&#xA;  for the words in which one expresses what one has to say to the&#xA;  Divinity. If it were, the Sadhaka might choose his own language&#xA;  without recourse to the eternal and determined sounds of Shastra. (See&#xA;  generally as to the above the Chapter on Mantra-tattva in Principles&#xA;  of Tantra, Ed. A. Avalon.) The particular Mantra of a Devata is that&#xA;  Devata. A Mantra, on the contrary, consists of certain letters&#xA;  arranged in definite sequence of sounds of which the letters are the&#xA;  representative signs. To produce the designed effect, the Mantra must&#xA;  be intoned in the proper way, according to both sound (Varna) and&#xA;  rhythm (Svara). For these reasons, a Mantra when translated ceases to&#xA;  be such, and becomes a mere word or sentence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Mantra, the sought-for (Sadhya) Devata appears, and by Siddhi&#xA;  therein is had vision of the three worlds. As the Mantra is in fact&#xA;  Devata, by practice thereof this is known. Not merely do the&#xA;  rhythmical vibrations of its sounds regulate the unsteady vibrations&#xA;  of the sheaths of the worshipper, but therefrom the image of the&#xA;  Devata appears. As the &lt;strong&gt;Brihad-Gandharva Tantra says (Ch. V)&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shrinu devi pravakshyami bijanam deva-rupatam Mantrochcharanamatrena&#xA;  deva-rupam prajayate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mantrasiddhi&lt;/strong&gt; is the ability to make a Mantra efficacious and to gather its fruit in which case the Sadhaka is Mantra-siddha. As the&#xA;  Pranatoshini (619) says, &quot;Whatever the Sadhaka desires that he surely&#xA;  obtains.&quot; Whilst therefore prayer may end in merely physical sound,&#xA;  Mantra is ever, when rightly said, a potent compelling force, a word&#xA;  of power effective both to produce material gain and accomplish&#xA;  worldly desires, as also to promote the fourth aim of sentient being&#xA;  (Caturvarga), Advaitic knowledge, and liberation. And thus it is said&#xA;  that Siddhi (success) is the certain result of Japa or recitation of&#xA;  Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a Mantra-Shastra, the Tantras have greatly elaborated the Bijas,&#xA;  and thus incurred the charge of &quot;gibberish,&quot; for such the Bijas sound&#xA;  to those who do not know what they mean. Though a Mantra such as a&#xA;  Bija-mantra may not convey its meaning on its face, the initiate knows&#xA;  that its meaning is the own form (Svarupa) of the particular Devata&#xA;  whose Mantra it is, and that the essence of the Bija is that which&#xA;  makes letters sound, and exists in all which we say or hear. Every&#xA;  Mantra is thus a particular sound form (Rupa) of the Brahman. &lt;strong&gt;There&#xA;  are a very large number of these short unetymological vocables or&#xA;  Bijas such as Hrim, Shrim, Krim, Hum, Hum, Phat called by various&#xA;  names. Thus the first is called the Maya Bija, the second Lakshmi&#xA;  Bija, the third Kali Bija, the fourth Kurca Bija, the fifth Varma&#xA;  Bija, the sixth Astra Bija. Ram is Agni Bija, Em is Yoni Bija, Klim is&#xA;  Kama Bija, Shrim is Badhu Bija, Aim Sarasvati Bija and so forth. Each&#xA;  Devata has His or Her Bija. Thus Hrim is the Maya Bija, Krim the Kali&#xA;  Bija.&lt;/strong&gt; The Bija is used in the worship of the Devata whose Mantra it&#xA;  is. All these Bijas mentioned are in common use. There are a large&#xA;  number of others, some of which are formed with the first letters of&#xA;  the name of the Devata for whom they stand, such as Gam for Ganesha,&#xA;  Dum for Durga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Nitya Tantra&lt;/strong&gt; gives various names to Mantra according to the&#xA;  number of the syllables such as Pinda, Kartari, Bija, Mantra, Mala.&#xA;  Commonly however the term Bija is applied to monosyllabic Mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word &quot;Mantra&quot; comes from the root &quot;man&quot; to think. &quot;Man&quot; is the&#xA;  first syllable of manana or thinking. It is also the root of the word&#xA;  &quot;Man&quot; who alone of all creation is properly a Thinker. &quot;Tra&quot; comes&#xA;  from the root &quot;tra,&quot; for the effect of a Mantra when used with that&#xA;  end, is to save him who utters and realizes it. Tra is the first&#xA;  syllable of Trana or liberation from the Samsara. By combination of&#xA;  man and tra, that is called Mantra which, from the religious&#xA;  stand-point, calls forth (Amantrana) the four aims (Caturvarga) of&#xA;  sentient being as happiness in the world and eternal bliss in&#xA;  Liberation. Mantra is thus Thought-movement vehicled by, and expressed&#xA;  in, speech. Its Svarupa is, like all else, consciousness (Cit) which&#xA;  is the Shabda-Brahman. A Mantra is not merely sound or letters. This&#xA;  is a form in which Shakti manifests Herself. The mere utterance of a&#xA;  Mantra without knowing its meaning, without realization of the&#xA;  consciousness which Mantra manifests is a mere movement of the lips&#xA;  and nothing else. We are then in the outer husk of consciousness; just&#xA;  as we are when we identify ourselves with any other form of gross&#xA;  matter which is, as it were, the &quot;crust&quot; (as a friend of mine has&#xA;  aptly called it) of those subtler forces which emerge from the Yoni or&#xA;  Cause of all, who is, in Herself Consciousness (Cidrupini). When the&#xA;  Sadhaka knows the meaning of the Mantra he makes an advance. But this&#xA;  is not enough. He must, through his consciousness, realize that&#xA;  Consciousness which appears in the form of the Mantra, and thus attain&#xA;  Mantra-Caitanya. At this point, thought is vitalized by contact with&#xA;  the center of all thinking. At this point again thought becomes truly&#xA;  vital and creative. Then an effect is created by the realization thus&#xA;  induced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas24.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shakti and shakta --Sir John Woodrofe&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T07:16:20.870" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T07:16:20.870" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19447" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19442" CreationDate="2017-07-07T07:11:01.383" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before doing Nitya karmas (daily rituals) and other Vedic rituals tying the Shikha is mandatory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the importance of tying the Shikha from scriptures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A twice-born, who stands without washing his feet, &lt;strong&gt;or who performs the&#xA;  Achamanam without binding the tuft of his hair on the crown&lt;/strong&gt; or without&#xA;  putting on his sacred thread, &lt;strong&gt;is impure&lt;/strong&gt;. (15) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samvarta Smriti's Chapter 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One must always put on the sacred thread and bind the tuft of hair on&#xA;  the crown : &lt;strong&gt;what one does&lt;/strong&gt; without having the sacred thread on or&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;without binding the tuft of hair on the crown, is equal to an act not&#xA;  done.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Katyayana Smriti's Chapter 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/HindiBookNityaKarmPoojaPrakashCompletebyGitaPress&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nitya Karma Puja PrakAsh&lt;/a&gt; book gives the following relevant mantras or slokas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wVW3Z.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wVW3Z.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never do any of the following acts without tying the shikhA : Bath,&#xA;  Charity, Japa (chanting Mantras), Homa (fire rituals), Sandhya and&#xA;  Devata Puja. (Sloka 1 translation )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[This mantra/sloka to be chanted while tying the shikhA]: Chidrupini !&#xA;  MahAmaye ! Dvijatejo samanvite , Tishtha Devi ShikhAmadhye&#xA;  Tejovriddhim Kurusva me. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey Devi who is Chidrupini, Mahamaya, and who is comprised of the&#xA;  energy of the Dvijas, stay here (in the Shikha) and increase my valor. (Sloka 2 translation)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As, per the book cited, one should do the daily acts in the following order:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Evacuations, Cleansing of teeth, Bathing, , Shikha Bandhana, Achamana, Tilak Dharana etc (Refer to page 52).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, as per the book called the Brihat Vishuddha Nitya Karma Puja Paddhati, that i have, there is a slight variation in the order;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says, first one should do Tilaka first and then do the ShikhA Bandhana. Also, that the Dvijas (twice borns) should chant the Gayatri mantra while tying it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book says, everyone,including the non-initiates also should tie Shikha before holy rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sudras and women should tie their ShikhAs while chanting the following Sloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namo BrahmavAni SahsrAni ShivavAni ShatAni Cha | VishnornAmasahsrena&#xA;  ShikhAbandhanam Karomyaham ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the ShikhA Vimochana mantra ( the shikha to be untied while chanting this mantra) for them is this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gacchantu Sakala DevA Brahma-Vishnu-MaheswarAh | TishthatvatrAchalA&#xA;  Lakshmih Shikhamuktam Karomyaham ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T08:08:12.677" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T08:08:12.677" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19449" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9553" CreationDate="2017-07-07T07:41:19.157" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who were the parents of Ravana?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The parents of Rāvaṇa were Viśravas and Kaikasī. Viśravas is the son of Pulastya Brahma, one of the mind born son of the creator Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What were the names of Ravana's brothers and sisters?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The lineage of Viśravas is explained in detail in Chapter 8 of Upodghata Pada of Brahmanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;38-40: Viśravas married Devavarṇinī, the daughter of Brihaspati, Puṣpotkaṭā and Vākā, the daughters of Mālyavān, Kaikasī, the daughter of  Mālin. Listen to his children begot of these. Devavarṇinī gave birth to Vaiśravaṇa the eldest son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;44-46: On seeing him, his father said &amp;quot;This is Kubera(the ugly bodied one)&amp;quot;. He was Kubera on account of his deformed body. He was thus marked by his name. Since he was the son of Viśravas and also due to his resemblance, he would be known by the name Vaiśravaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;47&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaikasī gave birth to Rāvaṇa, Kumbhakarṇa and śūrpaṇakhā, a daughter. Vibhīṣaṇa is the fourth among her children.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;55-56. Mahodara, Prahasta, Mahāpārśva and Khara were the sons of Puṣpotkaṭā. She had a daughter (named) Kumbhinasī. Also Triśiras Dūṣaṇa and Vidyujjihva the Rākṣasā are remembered as the sons of Vākā. There was a daughter named Anupālikā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;57&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thus these ten Rākṣasās, the descendants of Pulastya, were of very cruel activities. They were of very terrible pursuits ever since their birth. All of these were unassailable even to the devas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence from the above excerpt of Brahmanda Purana, it is clear that Rāvaṇa had thirteen siblings(10 brothers and 3 sisters). They were:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kubera&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kumbhakarṇa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;śūrpaṇakhā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vibhīṣaṇa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahodara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prahasta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahāpārśva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Khara&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kumbhinasī&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Triśiras&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dūṣaṇa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vidyujjihva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anupālikā&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From verse 57, we know that only ten of these are of cruel activity and other four are not. But it is not mentioned who are those cruel descendants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And who is the real king of Lanka? Ravana or Vibhishana?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before Rāvaṇa, Kubera was the king of Lanka. After Rāvaṇa's death in the war, Vibhīṣaṇa &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga112/yuddha_112_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;was installed &lt;/a&gt; as the king of Lanka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-12-15T02:42:47.190" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19450" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17845" CreationDate="2017-07-07T08:49:50.190" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;This information is present in Chapter 7 of Upodghāta Pada, Brahmānda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this chapter, the birth of many creatures is described. Birth of scorpions is also mentioned. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जन्तवस्तुरगादिभ्यो विषादिभ्यस्तथैव च &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   &lt;strong&gt;बहून्यहानि निक्षिप्ते संभवाति च गोमये&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;||431||  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Creatures of born of horses etc. and poisons etc., &lt;strong&gt;If cow dung is put(into pits) and left there for many days, creatures are born of it.&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जायन्ते कृमयो विप्राः काष्ठेभ्यश्चापि सर्वशः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;संस्वेदजाश्च जायन्ते वृश्चिकाः शुष्क गोमयात्&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;nbsp;||432|| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Worms are born, O Brahmanas, wholly from timber and wooden logs. &lt;strong&gt;Scorpions are born of dry cow dung, produced of sweat.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T10:54:23.970" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T10:54:23.970" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19451" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11370" CreationDate="2017-07-07T09:25:34.053" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is the story how these posts are attained. Kaśyapa Prajāpati is not only the progenitor of snakes and reptiles, but also to many creatures like creepers, Daityas, Adityas, Vasus etc.,  After the progeny of the mobile and immobile, the great sage started to assign chief of respective domain. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi śeṣa was the eldest son of Kadrū( also known as Surasā). He is crowned as the king of all the creatures with fangs. Vāsuki is named as the leader of Nāgas(snakes) and Takṣaka the leader of Sarpas(cobras), sarīsṛpa(reptiles) and Pannagas(serpents). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From an excerpt of Chapter 8 of Upodghātapāda, Brahmānda Purāṇa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वेषां दंष्ट्रिणां शेषं &lt;strong&gt;नागानामथ वासुकिम्&lt;/strong&gt; | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;     सरीस्रुपाणां सर्पाणां पन्नगानां च तक्षकं ||13||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He (Kaśyapa Prajāpati) Adi śeṣa the leader of all those who have fangs, &lt;strong&gt;Vāsuki the leader of the Nagas(snakes)&lt;/strong&gt; and Takṣaka the leader of &lt;em&gt;sarīsṛpa&lt;/em&gt;(reptiles), sarpas(cobras) and &lt;em&gt;pannagas&lt;/em&gt;(serpents).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the &lt;em&gt;king of Snakes&lt;/em&gt; is Vāsuki.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr/&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wiki says Hindu texts call Adisesha, Vasuki and Takshaka by this Title.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seems fair because Vāsuki is only the king of Nāgas. Takṣaka is the king of reptiles which is a superset of snakes. Adi śeṣa is crowned as the king of all the fanged creatures. Snakes are also classified as fanged creatures. So, he also can be called king of the snakes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vāsuki is the king only to snakes whereas Takṣaka and Adi śeṣa are the kings to other creatures(reptiles and fanged creatures) too in which snakes(Nāgas) are a subset. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-25T05:24:38.403" LastActivityDate="2017-07-25T05:24:38.403" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19452" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-07T09:45:46.620" Score="0" ViewCount="112" Body="&lt;p&gt;Different cultures/religion give a different story on the origin of Humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Christianity speaks about Adam being the first human.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Greek mythology says Zeus created first human in his form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a similar story to the origin of humans in Hinduism.? Which books deals about it.? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or Does Hinduism support Darwin's theory of humans evolving from monkeys(lower life forms).?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10178" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T09:45:46.620" Title="Origin of Humans in Hinduism" Tags="|human|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-07-07T17:45:48.643" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19453" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-07T09:50:02.947" Score="7" ViewCount="3224" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja, a famous Vaishnava acharya of South India is considered as an avatara (incarnation) by most of his followers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During his life, it is said that he traveled to many places for establishing the pancharatra mode of worship in the temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, I am quoting the following passages from &lt;strong&gt;Nitaaiveda&lt;/strong&gt; (authentic gaudiya vaishnava site) and &lt;strong&gt;KamakotimandAli&lt;/strong&gt; (another famous site for Vedanta)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RAmAnuja’s work in the Puri Temple has been described by &lt;strong&gt;AnantAchArya&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;in &lt;strong&gt;PrapannAmrita&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;[excerpt from &lt;strong&gt;History of Medieval Vaishnavism&lt;/strong&gt; in&#xA;Orissa]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RAmAnuja had the divine service performed by other BrAhmins,&#xA;according to the PAncharAtra rite, which was observed in the&#xA;ShrIrangam temple. Consternation and disgrace stared at the face of&#xA;the priests and at nightfall they assembled before the altar of&#xA;JagannAth. “Hark thee, &lt;strong&gt;O Lord” they cried. “RAmAnuja seeketh to&#xA;introduce changes in the form of Thy worship. We belong to the old&#xA;school and we abhor such changes. Save us, we beseech Thee, from this&#xA;imperious Sannyasi. Otherwise we will die before Thee&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=1170&amp;amp;more=1&amp;amp;c=1&amp;amp;tb=1&amp;amp;pb=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Same story)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanujacarya visited Puri in the twelfth century. Ramanujacarya is the propagator of the Sri sampradaya. He was a great Vaisnava acarya and also famous as very learned personality. He preached the doctrine of visista advaitavad and vigorously opposed the teachings of Sankarcharya At that time King Choda Ganga Deva ruled the state of Orissa. Ramanuja had much influence over the king. Ramanuja recognized Lord Jagannath as Maha-Vishnu. He saw that the Lord was being worshiped with the mixture of different processes. He was&#xA;concerned that low-caste people, such as Daitapatis could take part in offering puja. Ramanuja argued that Lord Jagannath should be worshiped with the Vedic process only. &lt;strong&gt;He wanted to change the process of puja in Jagannath temple.&lt;/strong&gt; He presented many changes to the king and made him agree to his proposals. Jagannaths sevaks objected to the new system. But the King would not listen to their appeals. &lt;strong&gt;Finally the&#xA;date was fixed for Ramanuja to change the puja process in Jagannath temple. The King and all of the brahmanas arrived at the temple in the early morning.&lt;/strong&gt; They announced that from that day, a new system of worship would be introduced by the great acarya, Ramanuja. Everyone, including the king, waited anxiously at the temple for the arrival of Ramanujacarya. But he never showed. After waiting for a long time, the king ordered the pujari to start the worship of Lord Jagannath according to the previous system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the king ordered his minister to find Ramanujacarya. It was discovered that during the previous night while Ramanujacharya was sleeping, Lord Jagannath appeared to him. The Lord chastised him, &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Who are you to change my puja system? Let My devotees worship me as they have been worshiping Me from the beginning. They are my special devotees. I have a special relationship with them. You do not understand this. Do not disturb them. Get out of here!&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Lord flew Ramanuja out of Orissa by the&#xA;help of Garuda. &lt;strong&gt;The next day Ra¬manuja was found in South India in a&#xA;village called Kurma Kshetra&lt;/strong&gt;. (Sri Kurmam/ Andhra Pradesh).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: RAmAnuja is known to have never returned to Puri again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Bhakti_Purushottama_Swami/Lord_Shri_Jagannatha_at_Puri/Ramanujacharya_in_Puri.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another incident where he changed the temple worship in many VaikhAnasa temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Inscriptions from perhaps the eighth century CE identify Vaikhanasas&#xA;as temple priests, and from the end of the tenth century they are&#xA;prominently mentioned in South Indian inscriptions. Vaikhanasas were&#xA;the priests of Vaishnava temples. They were not merely ritual priests,&#xA;but were trusted with administering the temples and their lands.  &lt;strong&gt;With&#xA;the rise of the Shri Vaishnavas the Vaikhanasas declined in their&#xA;temple role. Ramanuja, leader of the Shri Vaishnavas and the first&#xA;organiser of temple administration at Srirangam Temple, replaced the&#xA;Vaikhanasa system of worship with the more liberal Pancaratra system,&#xA;expanded the fivefold division of temple servants into tenfold&lt;/strong&gt;, and&#xA;gave an important part in ritual to sudra, lowest caste, ascetics.&#xA;This change spread to other Vaishnava temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.salagram.net/vaikhanasa-vaishnavas.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on such incidents, my questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What was the need to change the ancient temple worship forms?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What was the need to insist those were were not willing to change?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most &lt;strong&gt;important&lt;/strong&gt; questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If rAmAnuja was an incarnation of the lord then how come he had such an ordeal with Lord Jagannatha himself?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why would Lord Jagannatha deport one of his avataras to Srikurmam?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;If indeed he was an avatara then how come not successful in this mission?&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2021-09-20T17:15:34.697" LastActivityDate="2021-09-20T17:15:34.697" Title="Why did Ramanuja try to impose PAncharAtra mode of worship in all Vaishnava temples?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|ramanujacharya|pancharatra|vaikhanasa|jagan-natha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19454" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-07T10:07:08.737" Score="4" ViewCount="1419" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that Brahma is the creator of Universe and this is why Universe is also called as Bramhand(universe). But why has he created Bramhand? What was the purpose behind? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="130" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T08:32:05.527" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T08:32:05.527" Title="Why did Brahma create Universe?" Tags="|brahma|creation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2017-07-07T17:16:16.453" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19455" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19429" CreationDate="2017-07-07T11:31:47.767" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sita worshiped well but not Draupadi&lt;/strong&gt; is due to the following reason&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A goddess can be worshiped if her husband himself a God(incarnation of one of Trimurthi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Sita was an avatar of Lakshmi and her husband is Rama, who was an avatar of Vishnu. Rama can be worshiped and hence Sita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://nitaaiveda.com/Compiled_and_Imp_Scriptures/Glories_of_Shri_Radha/Meeting_of_Radha_Krishna/Marriage_of_Radha_Krishna.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Radha&lt;/a&gt;, Rukmini can be worshiped because they are wives of Krishna and are also forms of Shakti.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Draupadi was a form of sree Shakti, but her husbands are not ansa of Trimurthi. Hence Draupadi is not worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There exists no goddess worshiped without her husband worshiped.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7966" LastEditorUserId="7966" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T11:36:58.777" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T11:36:58.777" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19456" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19454" CreationDate="2017-07-07T15:29:35.260" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord created Universe and all living and non living things. But why he created us? What was his need that he want to fulfill from us? Most important question is what he want from us? There must be something that Lord want from us that's why he created us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now think, What human possibly can give to Lord. Actually first think what you have that you can offer to Lord. Let's see what you have that you can give to Lord...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You have life, so you can offer your life to Lord. BUT wait... that life is not your because this life of your is given by Lord to you. So it's Lord's gift to you. So there is no way you can gift life to Lord because it's already Lord's.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What more you have... Hmm May be money. You can offer Gold, diamonds and other luxuries items to Lord. But wait, It's Lord who created Diamonds, Golds and all other things and gives it to humans. So whatever you have is because of Lord. So It's already of Lord's, not your. Lord use to give those worldly items to their Devotees. You can return those things (luxuries) back to Lord But that won't be any Gift to Lord because you are giving Lord's thing back to Lord. You are not giving your own thing. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So humans are useless to offer anything to Lord. Because whatever humans have is because of Lord. He gave all to humans. Humans himself has nothing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the main question is... What humans can give to Lord?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer is very simple. One thing that we can offer to Lord is Love. Only this thing is we have which is our and we can give that to Lord. And this is the only thing that Lord want from us (Nothing else). He don't want your money, land Property or your life. Because these all were given to you by Lord. If he wants those items then why Lord give all those to you. Couldn't he just keep all to himself if Lord really wants those things? He don't want your money but he wants your Love.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Humans can't offer to Lord anything except Love. love is the need of Lord because Lord is Love himself. He Loves us that's why he created us and that's the reason he has given so many things to us And in return He only wants us to be nice. He wants us to become pure soul and walk on path of Dharma. Lord wants that, in which sinless or pure form Lord send you on earth, you return to Lord in the same pure Form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T15:29:35.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19457" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-07T15:55:41.460" Score="0" ViewCount="275" Body="&lt;p&gt;I love my parents more than anything in this world. Some days back my father was seriously ill and it seemed that my whole world was shattered. Then this question aroused in my mind,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dose affection towards parents is Maya or worldly affection? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism parents are God. So how affection towards God be Maya? Is it divine affection?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="9914" LastEditDate="2017-07-08T04:56:43.683" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T04:56:43.683" Title="Are parents also maya?" Tags="|maya|parents|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19458" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19454" CreationDate="2017-07-07T16:38:08.317" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No purpose&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&quot;Purpose&quot; is an expected reaction for any action (viz. &lt;em&gt;Karma fala&lt;/em&gt;). When one acts without interest &amp;amp; concern, there is no purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.8 - Keeping My nature (&lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;) under control, I create [&amp;amp; destroy] the world of beings again &amp;amp; again; which are helpless under the nature (&lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 9.9 - And O Arjuna, those actions (&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;-s) don't bind Me, as I am &lt;strong&gt;uninterested &amp;amp; detached&lt;/strong&gt; to them&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also read &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return#Indian_religions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Eternal Return&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T16:38:08.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19459" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8487" CreationDate="2017-07-07T16:44:18.430" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;kAmadeva or ananga is the deity of love, attraction, desire etc. There are many variants of the mantra available. &#xA;The use of the mantra is not limited to attracting opposite gender but also for materializing the materialistic desires of life and creativity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The name is used in Rig Veda (RV 9, 113. 11).[3] Kamadeva is a name of&#xA;  Vishnu in Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana (SB 5.18.15), and of&#xA;  Krishna as well as Shiva. Kama is also a name used for Agni (Atharva&#xA;  Veda 6.36.3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Other names used in reference to Kamadeva are Manmatha/Manmathudu (one&#xA;  who agitates), Atanu (one without a body), Ragavrinta (stalk of&#xA;  passion), Ananga (incorporeal), Kandarpa (inflamer even of a god),&#xA;  Madana(intoxicating),[3][4] &quot;Manmatha&quot; मन्मथ (churner of hearts),&#xA;  Manasija {he who is born of mind}, a contraction of the Sanskrit&#xA;  phrase Sah Manasah jāta), Ratikānta (lord of Rati), Pushpavān,&#xA;  Pushpadhanva, Kusumashara कुसुमशर (one with arrow of flowers),&#xA;  Abhipura (also a name for both Shiva and Vishnu[5]), and simply Kāma&#xA;  (desire, longing). (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamadeva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manmatha Gayatri Mantra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om kAma-devAya vidmahe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;puShpa-vANAya dhImahe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tanno kAma prachodayAt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om, Let me meditate on the God of love, One with flower-arrows&#xA;  (kAma-deva), give me higher intellect, And let the God of love&#xA;  illuminate my mind. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Gayatri_mantras_of_Several_Gods&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T16:44:18.430" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19460" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-07T18:21:47.580" Score="3" ViewCount="430" Body="&lt;p&gt;We are not the body nor the mind, but at the same time we have to be the body and mind since we are the ALL, give me your explanation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maya/the illusion is when someone is bound and emprisoned by the material world and believes it to be the absolute reality separating himself from his true Self. However paradoxally, if you say that you are not the mind nor the body, but the spirit/soul then you are again separating yourself from the all as you make yourself distinct from the Material world. Would it not be more correct to say that we are the ALL which would including being our own mind and body - feelings,thoughts,emotions,memories etc...?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the meaning of detaching from the body and mind, this would just gain the same effect as thinking you are the mind and body hence you separate yourself from one aspect of God once again, ever thought of that one? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10144" LastEditorUserId="10144" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T18:44:17.187" LastActivityDate="2022-07-31T18:05:25.470" Title="You are not the mind nor the body you are the ALL, but at the same time to be the all you have to be the mind and body, this is a paradox?" Tags="|moksha|maya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19461" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9323" CreationDate="2017-07-07T18:31:15.943" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0Y5Ito6ltz_bmg4MDhlZ0toREU&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 21 (pg 82-86)&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Sristi Khanda of Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; recounts how &lt;strong&gt;Brahma killed a demon named Vajranabha and found Puskara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Brahma wanted to perform a sacrifice. He went to earth to select a place for it. He arrived at a forest where the trees request him to stay and bless the place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;15.He meditated on the highest god who created this world. While meditating it came to his mind: 'How shall I perform a sacrifice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;16.Where on the earth—at which place—should I perform the sacrifice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;17.Kasi, Prayaga, Tuiiga and Naimisa and Sriikhala, so also Kafici, Bhadra, Devika, Kuruksetra and SarasvatI, Prabhasa and others are the&#xA;holy places on the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;21.When Brahma was thus thinking, this idea came to his mind: 'I now go to the earth.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;22-24. Reaching the place first, he entered that best forest, full of&#xA;many trees and creepers; adorned with many flowers; filled with the&#xA;notes of many birds; crowded with groups of many beasts; making gods&#xA;and demons fragrant with the perfumes of the abundant flowers of&#xA;trees; its ground was graced with flowers which were as it were&#xA;intentionally placed there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All those rows of trees, seeing god Brahma who had arrived like that,&#xA;and presenting themselves to him with devotion, poured forth their&#xA;wealth of flowers. Accepting the flowers (offered) by the trees Brahma&#xA;said to them, &amp;quot;Welfare to you; ask for a boon.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The trees, free from (any) control, with humility (lit. with their&#xA;palms joined in obeisance) having saluted Brahma said: &amp;quot;If, O god,&#xA;affectionate towards people, who take refuge with you, you are&#xA;granting a boon then always stay by us in the forest.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus Brahma, the granter of boons, favoured the trees.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma remains there for a 1000 years. He throws a lotus on the ground, its impact makes the earth and the heavens shake. The distressed and frightened gods enquire Vishnu of the cause. Vishnu takes them to Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;63.Remaining (there) for a thousand years he threw a lotus on the ground. The earth by its fall trembled upto bottom.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;64-65. Helpless oceans, with agitated waves, crossed their&#xA;boundary.Thousands of mountain-peaks occupied by tigers and vicious&#xA;elephants struck as it were with Indra's bolt, were shattered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;66-67. The mansions of gods and Siddhas (semi-divine beings&#xA;characterized by eight special faculties), the cities of Gandharvas&#xA;shook, tottered and penetrated the earth. The Kapota-clouds, showing a&#xA;collection of sheaths fell (i.e. showered rain) from the sky. There&#xA;were poignant suns, covering the clusters of luminaries.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;68.Due to the great sound of that the three worlds with the mobile and immobile in it, rendered dumb, blind and deaf were frightened.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;69-70. The bodies and minds of all gods and demons sank down and did&#xA;not know what it was. Mustering courage all of them looked for Brahma.&#xA;They did not know where Brahma had gone. (They could not understand)&#xA;why the earth quaked and why the omens and portents appeared.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;71.Visnu just went there where the gods had remained. Gods saluting him said these words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;72-73. &amp;quot;O revered one, why is this appearance of omens and portents by&#xA;which, the three worlds as it were joined with death are made to&#xA;tremble, and the Kalpa has come to an end and the oceans have crossed&#xA;their boundaries? Why have the four steady quarter-elephants become&#xA;unsteady?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;77.&lt;strong&gt;Thus addressed, Visnu, cherished by the supreme, said: &amp;quot;O gods, do not be alarmed; all of you listen to the cause of this.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;78.This I, perceiving (the cause) definitely will tell you as it happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;79.Revered Brahma, the grandsire of the worlds, with a lotus in his hand, settled in an extremely beautiful region—a heap of religious&#xA;merit—on the slope of mountains to perform a sacrifice&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;80.And from his hand the lotus fell on the ground. It made a great sound which caused you to tremble.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;81-84. There, being greeted with the fragrance of flowers by the&#xA;trees, he favoured the forest with beasts and birds, and for favouring&#xA;the world took delight in residing there. The revered one, benefactor&#xA;of the worlds, put up that best holy place (called) Puskara. Going&#xA;there with me propitiate Brahma. The revered one, when pleased, will&#xA;give you excellent boons.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu and the other gods pray to Brahma. Brahma appears to them and explains the cause of the sound.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;122&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahma, the best among those who know the Vedas, thus praised by gods (said to them): &amp;quot;All right, when remembered by you I shall give&#xA;(you what you want); your seeing me will be fruitful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O sons, tell (me) what is desired by you; I shall give you excellent boons!&amp;quot; Thus addressed by the lord, the gods said (these)&#xA;words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;124. &amp;quot;O revered one, this in itself is a great boon which is quite enough, that a good sound was heard by us when you threw the lotus.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;125. Why did the earth tremble? Why were the people distressed? That cannot be without any purpose. Tell (us) the cause of this, O god.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma spoke:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;126. This lotus is held by me for your good and for protecting the gods. Now listen what was the cause.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;127. This demon Vajranabha by name, takes away the life of children. He remains taking shelter in the nether world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;128. Knowing about the arrival of you, remaining in penance, having laid down your weapons, the wicked one wanted to kill (you) the gods&#xA;along with Indra even.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;129. I brought about his destruction by dropping the lotus; he was proud of his kingdom and splendour; so I killed him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;130&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;At this time there are in the world, devotees, brahmanas who have mastered the Vedas. May they not meet with misfortune, but may they&#xA;have good fortune.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O gods, I am equal (i.e. impartial) to gods, demons, men, reptiles, friends, and the entire host of beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;132. I killed the sinner with a spell for your well-being. He has reached the worlds of the religious due to the sight of this lotus.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;133. Since I dropped the lotus (here), therefore this place will be known as Puskara, a great, sanctifying holy place, giving religious merit.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T15:31:18.183" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19462" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19457" CreationDate="2017-07-07T18:37:38.207" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;See first of all you will have to understand what is Maya n what is not... In case of human being&#xA;Leaving ones soul everything is Maya when a soul is born in this world by taking birth in a soul carrying device which is ones body or sharir . So any one born on this earth have to leave or die at one time but the body or sharir die and not the soul cause soul or atma is Amar ...&#xA;But the body which is made up of 5 elements that is jal(water), Agni(fire), vayu(air), bhoomi(earth), and Akash (space ) have to die one day cause it is not Amar and have to go back in its elemental form after it ceases it's functions ...&#xA;So soul takes a rebirth in a new body n have a new different life in that body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So anything leaving soul which the new body have after birth is all Maya...&#xA;N the Maya is all that thing which makes one's soul  attached to it in form of love or lust or care or any kind of bondage through the means of its body..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So yaa ofcourse one's parents too are a kind of Maya .. &#xA;It's all Maya leaving self soul ..&#xA;That's why Shri Krishna had considered each n every attachment to the worldly thing as a Maya . N so he was never attached to any kind of emotional bondage to any thing in his life . Neither parents nor wife . N hence only ,he could follow his aim-mission to clean whole samaj or society of devil n evil.&#xA;If he had  emotionally attached to any Maya or attracted to any Maya then he would not be able to perform his duties his aim of taking birth of cleaning society of evils..&#xA;But for a common man in this world this is not possible as a common man is not with that self controlled emotional power... And also there is not such any restrictions of detaching from all Maya for a human  .&#xA;Cause a common man can't do that n this is d difference between God n great sages n saints  and tapasvis from a common man .&#xA;So for a common man , one can only do one thing that is not getting attached too much to any thing either wife or sexual lust or , ones family or children or any materialistic thing  or ones God like parents ...&#xA;Instead one must do or carry n fulfill his/her duties to the respected person that is study as a child for his parents ,care n wellbeing of his /her parents in his/her adulthood ,love n loyalty to his family n his duties for a good family life n then care n upliftment of his children ,etc &#xA;So one must do All the different duties in ones life according to time . N not get attached too much to any one ...&#xA;Cause if that thing will leave you then you will get in world of sadness , sorrow n difficulties in living a life n carrying your duty towards your life..&#xA;N this is what is Maya .. which when gets apart from you , gives a difficulty in case of materialistic things of joyor pleasure or any kind of ease in Ur life; gives you sadness sorrow hardship in living life in case of loved ones , parents etc..&#xA;So be less attached as less as possible n live a life of carrying out Ur duties toward Ur life n your birth ...&#xA;N the one who r completely gets detached in life with all this things are the ones who we preach  i.e. sages , saadhus, acharya's , etc .&#xA;So by living a normal common life too ucan be detached from the worldly Maya without necessarily  following the path of these tapasvis, saadhus.. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10389" LastEditorUserId="10389" LastEditDate="2017-07-07T18:45:04.250" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T18:45:04.250" CommentCount="3" CommunityOwnedDate="2017-07-08T04:08:51.557" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19464" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19394" CreationDate="2017-07-07T19:22:30.200" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bro Shri Krishna had often accepted that many of those customs rules of that age were wrong n not wise...&#xA;But what could he do , if he had change those laws or rules do everyone accepted that  cause on earth he was just a king n not in form of God . He had taken birth in form of a human...&#xA;N that's why he had dreamed of Destructing the whole unwise n evil custom of that age n destroying the whole evil society n give rise to a new Era or new age of society with just n wise rules n laws by making happpen Mahabharata war  n that's why he made pandavas his weapon of destroying the whole evil society n giving rise to a new complete clean society with wise rules as he believed in yudhishthir n his empire will give a great justice full new empire .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;N also Shri Krishna had not did adharma in killing Dronacharya n bhisma pita ..&#xA;In case of Bhishma pita he had not did any adharma as his death reason was shikhandi..&#xA;N in case of Dronacharya he had just tricked that too was not a false thing also... &#xA;N also if he had did adharma on kurukshetra then he had explained that too ..&#xA;He explained that if the adharma by the evil reaches that level that you have to now end that evil n you can't do it in a Dharm full way but on other side the evil is constantly using adharma then you can make use of adharma (not adharma instead  tricky intelligent way )  in killing of that adharma .. n in this case that adharma did for wellbeing of Dharm ,it will be considered as Dharm n only this can be done in a very last step ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10389" LastActivityDate="2017-07-07T19:22:30.200" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19465" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-07T22:02:49.697" Score="2" ViewCount="82" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why should one choose to do good over evil? Maybe your evil is my good and your good is my evil? There is no ultimate good or evil, so whats the reason to do &quot;good&quot; deeds then?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All ways lead to God, if you deny this you deny the oneness of God and the Unity of God. So doing &quot;evil&quot; should be just as valid as doing &quot;Good&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10144" LastActivityDate="2017-12-29T11:06:55.460" Title="Why choose doing &quot;good&quot; when there is no ultimate good or evil?" Tags="|philosophy|karma|evil|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19466" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-08T05:27:56.080" Score="6" ViewCount="827" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhishma abducted women:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile the son of the ocean-going Ganga heard that king Devaka had a daughter endued with youth and beauty and begotten upon a Sudra wife. Bringing her from her father's abode, Bhishma married her to Vidura of great wisdom. And Vidura begot upon her many children like unto himself in accomplishments.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-- An excerpt of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01115.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva Section CXIV&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna abducted women: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of eyes like the lotus petals, and endued with great bravery, Krishna, vanquishing all the kings at a self-choice, bore away the daughter of the king of the Gandharas. Those angry kings, as if they were horses by birth, were yoked unto his nuptial car and were lacerated with the whip.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-- Excerpt of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07011.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Drona Parva Section XI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana abducted women: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Disregarding all the kings, he commanded the maiden to stop. Intoxicated with the pride of energy, and relying upon Bhishma and Drona, king Duryodhana, taking up that maiden on his car, abducted her with force. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Excerpt of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shanti Parva Section IV&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why was kidnapping such a prevalent custom of marrying women in ancient aryavarta?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10324" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-08-06T21:11:52.153" LastActivityDate="2019-08-06T21:11:52.153" Title="Why was kidnapping such a prevalent custom of marrying women in ancient aryavarta?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|dharma|women|marriage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19467" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-08T05:36:18.600" Score="1" ViewCount="105" Body="&lt;p&gt;Were they different species or just human following adharma?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We read in puranas that they were powerful, mayavi, had body features like animals.   I am confused.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulsidasji says in Ramcharitmanas that who follows adharma is a nishachar ( demon).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the differences between human, Rakshasa and Danava? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10304" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T06:17:53.960" LastActivityDate="2018-01-03T06:17:53.960" Title="Who actually were demons (Rakshash) and Danav mentioned in Ramayana, Mahabharata and other purans?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|ramayana|rakshasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-07-27T00:52:22.170" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19468" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19466" CreationDate="2017-07-08T05:45:58.123" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In scriptures 8 types of marriages are described.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.21. (They are) the rite of Brahman (Brahma), that of the&#xA;  gods (Daiva), that of the Rishis (Arsha), that of Pragapati&#xA;  (Pragapatya), that of the Asuras (Asura), that of the Gandharvas&#xA;  (Gandharva), that of the Rhashasas (Rakshasa), and that of the Pisakas&#xA;  (Paisaka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the following verses describe which marriages are suitable for which Varnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.23. One may know that the first six according to the order (followed above) are lawful for a Brahmana, the four last for a Kshatriya, and&#xA;  the same four, excepting the Rakshasa rite, for a Vaisya and a Sudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.24. The sages state that the first four are approved (in the case) of a Brahmana, one, the Rakshasa (rite in the case) of a Kshatriya,&#xA;  and the Asura (marriage in that) of a Vaisya and of a Sudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, in general,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.25. But in these (Institutes of the sacred law) three of the five (last) are declared to be lawful and two unlawful; the Paisaka and the&#xA;  Asura (rites) must never be used&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gandharva marriage:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.32. The voluntary union of a maiden and her lover one must know (to be) the Gandharva rite, which springs from desire and has sexual&#xA;  intercourse for its purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rakshasha marriage:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.33. The forcible abduction of a maiden from her home, while she cries out and weeps, after (her kinsmen) have been slain or wounded&#xA;  and (their houses) broken open, is called the Rakshasa rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pishacha marriage:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.34. When (a man) by stealth seduces a girl who is sleeping, intoxicated, or disordered in intellect, that is the eighth, the most&#xA;  base and sinful rite of the Pisakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, when both the bride and bridegroom have no problems in marrying, that marriage comes under the Gandharva Rite. This one is acceptable even if kidnapping is involved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the Rakshasa and Pisacha rites, where marriage takes place without the approval of the maiden and with force or stealth being involved, are generally considered as blameable forms of marriages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Kshatriyas, however, the Rakshasa marriage is approved as you can see from one of the verses given above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-08T06:17:34.570" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T06:17:34.570" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19469" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-08T06:14:25.257" Score="3" ViewCount="799" Body="&lt;p&gt;Upanishads says Easwaran is our god and he has no shape and can't feel it on your  senses , we pray lord shiva is our first and almost god,he has shapes and lingam, &#xA;did lord Shiva is creation of Easwaran,if so it is real and exists?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9985" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T06:14:25.257" Title="What is the difference between Eswaran and Sivaperuman?" Tags="|upanishads|shiva-lingam|creation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19470" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19453" CreationDate="2017-07-08T06:36:16.007" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why would Lord Jagannatha deport one of his avataras to Srikurmam?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A possible answer to this question is provided in the following &lt;a href=&quot;https://vaadinen.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/puri-jagannath-and-sri-ramanujacharya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The content is copied here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Emperumaanar had many meetings with the king, holding religious discussions with him. ‘Ananta Varman Choda Ganga Deva’ (Chodaganga) was the king at that time, who earlier had a leaning towards Saivite philosophy. The king developed a strong belief in Vaishnavism in his later years, during which time he had the opportunity of meeting Sri Ramanuja. The king was impressed by his preachings and deep knowledge of Vedic literature. It is believed that king Chodaganga grew deeper in his faith in Vaishnavism by the devotion and brilliance he witnessed in Sri Ramanujacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramanujacharya had a deep interest in establishing proper temple worship procedures wherever he went. He strongly believed in the Pancharatra Agama – school of temple worship, as followed at Sri Rangam. He desired to lay the foundations of the same style of worship in the Puri Jagannath temple. King Chodaganga eagerly supported this move.  The temple priests came to know about Sri Ramanujacharya’s intentions and grew uncomfortable. They were very stiff in their opposition and were not ready to accept any changes in their earlier practices. During the night, the priests grew anxious and prayed to lord Jagannatha to prevent Emperumaanr from changing the customs followed by them. Lord Jagannatha in all his mercy decided to grant the priests their wish. While Emperumaanar was asleep, Sri Jagannatha appeared in his dreams and informed him that his current mission needed to be abandoned due to the requests of His devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meanwhile it is believed that a bunch of people wanted to eliminate Ramanujar and headed to where the Acharya was asleep. The Acharya was oblivious to the danger that was expected to befall him. They brandished their weapons ready to strike. And suddenly, Sri Ramanujacharya disappeared from sight right in front of them!&#xA;  With the rising sun the following day, Sri Ramanujar found himself transported several miles away from Puri, to a place near the town of Srikakulam in the present day Andhra Pradesh. Viewed in the perspective of how difficult it would have been for people to travel distances by foot or by cart in those days, the distance to which he had been transported overnight was phenomenal!It is said that Sri Jagannatha out of His kind mercy sent Garuda to transport Sri Ramanujar away from a problematic situation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Emperumaanar was surprised to be alone in an unknown land and saddened by the separation from his loving disciples. However he could sense that he was in a divine sthala, and noticed that he was near a temple tank. He explored the temple to find out that the inner sanctum housed a black stone which seemed to be Linga. Sri Ramanujar was saddened further as he thought lord Jagannatha had in anger denied the Acharya a glimpse of His form in the temple. As the Acharya would not eat food not offered to the lord (Vishnu), he fasted that day. In his dreams the following night, Sriman Narayana revealed the true identity of the deity at the temple. Emperumaanar woke up the next day and was overjoyed! Lord Jagannath had not sent him here for nothing!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The deity at the sanctum sanctorum was a swayambhu – or naturally occurring stone. It has a distinct shape, of the fossilised structure of a turtle. The lord appeared in the Acharya’s dreams to inform him  that the deity was none other than the manifestation of the Kurma avatara of the lord. Sri Ramanujar also discussed it with the locals and was surprised to note that many of them already considered the stone as Sri Kurma, based on ancient stories. Even from a geological perspective, the temple is not too far from the sea, which supports the fossilised structure of a turtle theory. Interestingly there is also another stone – apaprently a Sudarshana-saligrama which had been placed earlier by Adi Sankara’s disciples at the tail end of the turtle-structure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the fact that the Lord sent his beloved Garuda to transport Ramanuja, and the fact that he went to another puNya-kshetra adds credit to the fact that the Lord did not banish him out of displeasure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another similar story from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimatham.com/uploads/5/5/4/9/5549439/hagiography_of_ramanuja_acharya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;srimatham.com&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Desiring that the priests of the Jagannatha temple adopt the Pancharatrika system of worship, as explained by Narada Muni, Ramanuja appealed to the King of Orissa to arrange a debate between them. Being fearful of the outcome of such a confrontation, all the priests prayed to Lord Jagannatha to save them from inevitable defeat. That very night as Yatiraja was sleeping, he was flung three hundred miles by Lord Jagannatha to the holy dhama of Kurmaksetra. When he awoke, Ramanuja was bewildered to find himself in a completely different place and without any of the disciples who had been accompanying him. At first he thought that the temple nearby was dedicated to Lord Siva, and so he decided to fast for the day as a penance for his inability to worship Lord Narayana. However, when he inquired from some of the local people,  he  was  informed  that  the  Deity  was  in  fact  that  of  Lord  Kurmadeva,  one  of  the incarnations of Lord Visnu. He then went to the temple and happily engaged in the worship of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note: the above are from a few random links from the web just as the question. I will dig up sources that are more authentic when I get a chance.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT:&lt;/strong&gt; Another question has been appended to the same set of questions and am adding another answer so appending this answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;If indeed he was an avatara then how come not successful in this mission?&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't agree or disagree about the fact that Ramanuja is an avatara, but every avatara does follow fate and destiny and Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rama asked for Varuna's 'help' to cross the ocean and got angry and was prepared to dry up the ocean.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rama could have killed Ravana on day one, but got fatigued and needed help and encouragement along with mantras from Agastya etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna and Balarama could have eliminated Jarasandha but instead chose to relocate to Dvaraka.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna left the battlefield and ran into a cave in order to let Muchukunda kill KAlayAvana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Rama needed Agastya's and Vibheeshana's help to kill Ravana, and Hanuman's help to trace the location of Sita, is he an avatara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Krishna needs Bhima's help, Muchukunda's help and Satyabhama's help to kill demons, is he an Avatara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the cases of avataras, there are some cases which are attributed to leela, or the fact that the avatara wants to teach the world something. It should not be attributed to inability.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastEditorUserId="4133" LastEditDate="2017-07-08T18:48:20.313" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T18:48:20.313" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19471" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-08T08:09:45.563" Score="6" ViewCount="3905" Body="&lt;p&gt;Translation of Griffith is only available at sacred texts.com. Arya Samaj translations are also bogus for many mantras. So where can I get true translation of Vedas along with word by word? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-08T08:20:49.250" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T14:24:22.790" Title="Where can I get authentic translation of all four Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|translation-request|resource|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19472" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-08T08:18:55.100" Score="4" ViewCount="11898" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a 22 year old Polish woman, non-hindu. Last night I had a dream about Durga Devi. The world was taken over by demons, it was all on fire, huge fire and flames everywhere. Me and some 2 other people that I've never seen before were asked by Devi if we allow her to fight. We agreed. Durga was tall as a building. She was riding a lion. She started to kill all the demons and put down the huge fire with a single small breath. &#xA;What can it mean? I think this might mean that Durga will be there for me and help me fight even the biggest problem in my life. What you think?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10394" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-10T04:40:44.380" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T05:07:14.660" Title="Durga Devi dream - meaning for woman?" Tags="|durga|devi|dream|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-07-15T16:48:02.727" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19473" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13958" CreationDate="2017-07-08T09:21:45.860" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As these comes under the Agama so it is not possible to discuss about it from Vedic point of view hence the agamic explanations are given below. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, tantra is a mode of worship which is based on the Agamas. There are also scriptures which are referred to as tantras which deal with worship. It is more of a practical approach and less of philosophy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mantra can be a letter or word or groups of words which possess divine powers. When chanted in a proper ways it could invoke deities and hidden faculties of humans. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yantra or sigils are like geometrical figures which may or many not contain letters and numbers inside them. They are used to invoke and worship deities just like idol or a image of god. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For better understanding read this, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The primary Mantra of a Devata is called Mula-Mantra. Mantras are&#xA;  solar (Saura) and masculine, and lunar (Saumya) and feminine, as also&#xA;  neuter. If it be asked why things of mind are given sex, the answer is&#xA;  for the sake of the requirements of the worshipper. The masculine and&#xA;  neuter forms are called specifically Mantra and the feminine Vidya,&#xA;  though the first term may be used for both. Neuter Mantras end with&#xA;  Namah. Hum, Phat are masculine terminations, and &quot;Tham&quot; or Svaha,&#xA;  feminine (see &lt;strong&gt;Sharadatilaka&lt;/strong&gt; II. Narada-pañcaratra VII, Prayogasara,&#xA;  Pranatoshini 70).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Nitya Tantra&lt;/strong&gt; gives various names to Mantra according to the number&#xA;  of the syllables such as &lt;strong&gt;Pinda, Kartari, Bija, Mantra, MAlA&lt;/strong&gt;. Commonly&#xA;  however the term Bija is applied to monosyllabic Mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word &quot;Mantra&quot; comes from the root &quot;man&quot; to think. &quot;Man&quot; is the&#xA;  first syllable of manana or thinking. It is also the root of the word&#xA;  &quot;Man&quot; who alone of all creation is properly a Thinker. &quot;Tra&quot; comes&#xA;  from the root &quot;tra,&quot; for the effect of a Mantra when used with that&#xA;  end, is to save him who utters and realizes it. Tra is the first&#xA;  syllable of Trana or liberation from the Samsara. By combination of&#xA;  man and tra, that is called Mantra which, from the religious&#xA;  stand-point, calls forth (Amantrana) the four aims (Caturvarga) of&#xA;  sentient being as happiness in the world and eternal bliss in&#xA;  Liberation. Mantra is thus Thought-movement vehicled by, and expressed&#xA;  in, speech. Its Svarupa is, like all else, consciousness (Cit) which&#xA;  is the Shabda-Brahman. A Mantra is not merely sound or letters. This&#xA;  is a form in which Shakti manifests Herself. The mere utterance of a&#xA;  Mantra without knowing its meaning, without realization of the&#xA;  consciousness which Mantra manifests is a mere movement of the lips&#xA;  and nothing else. We are then in the outer husk of consciousness; just&#xA;  as we are when we identify ourselves with any other form of gross&#xA;  matter which is, as it were, the &quot;crust&quot; (as a friend of mine has&#xA;  aptly called it) of those subtler forces which emerge from the Yoni or&#xA;  Cause of all, who is, in Herself Consciousness (Cidrupini). When the&#xA;  Sadhaka knows the meaning of the Mantra he makes an advance. But this&#xA;  is not enough. He must, through his consciousness, realize that&#xA;  Consciousness which appears in the form of the Mantra, and thus attain&#xA;  Mantra-Caitanya. At this point, thought is vitalized by contact with&#xA;  the center of all thinking. At this point again thought becomes truly&#xA;  vital and creative. Then an effect is created by the realization thus&#xA;  induced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The same power which manifests to the ear in the Mantra is represented&#xA;  in the lines and curves of the Yantra which, the &lt;strong&gt;Kaulavali Tantra&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  says, is the body of the Devata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yantram mantramayam proktam mantratma devataiva hi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dehatmanor yatha bhedo yantra-devata yoshtatha.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yantra is thus the graphic symbol of the Shakti, indicated by the&#xA;  Mantra with which identification takes place. The Pratima or image is&#xA;  a grosser visual form of the Devata. But the Mantras are particular&#xA;  forms of Divine Shakti, the realization of which is efficacious to&#xA;  produce particular results. As in Kundalini- Yoga, so also here the&#xA;  identification of the Sadhaka with different Mantras gives rise to&#xA;  various Vibhutis or powers: for each grouping of the letters&#xA;  represents a new combination of the Matrika Shaktis. It is the eternal&#xA;  Shakti who is the life of the Mantra. Therefore, Siddhi in Mantra&#xA;  Sadhana is the union of the Sadhaka's&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas24.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T09:21:45.860" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19474" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19472" CreationDate="2017-07-08T09:27:13.673" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dreaming about devtas great people (saints munis) &#xA;Your elderly dead, and god is considered very good &#xA;Something very good is going to happen with you soon &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10304" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T09:27:13.673" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19475" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19472" CreationDate="2017-07-08T10:12:31.197" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is very auspicious to have the dream of the goddess. Fire is also important part of your dream which is also connected with goddess Durga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fire of durgA will protect you from other negativities and difficulties in your life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name durgA itself means the one who is invincible and one who protects from difficulties. So I feel the meaning you have derived from your dream looks good. She is ready to protect her children.&#xA;You can also read more about Durga &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedanet.com/2016/10/09/the-meaning-of-durga/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us see the Durga Suktam (Vedic hymn for goddess durgA)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;जातवेदसे सुनवाम सोममरातीयतो निदहाति वेदः । स नः पर्षदति दुर्गाणि&#xA;  विश्वा नावेव सिन्धुं दुरितात्यग्निः ॥१॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jaatavedase Sunavaama Somam-Araatiiyato Nidahaati Vedah | Sa Nah&#xA;  Parssad-Ati Durgaanni Vishvaa Naave[a-I]va Sindhum Durita-Aty[i]-Agnih&#xA;  ||1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: (We offer our oblations to the Fire of Durga to cross over&#xA;  this very difficult ocean of worldly existence)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.1: To that Jataveda (one from whom the Vedas are born) we press out the Soma (i.e. Invoke Her ardently); (We invoke that Jataveda) Who&#xA;  consumes by Her Fire of Knowledge (Veda) all the Adversities (within&#xA;  and without) (And frees us from the bondage of the world),&#xA;  1.2: May that Agni (Fire of Durga) carry us over this Ocean of the World which is full of Great Difficulties and beset with great Perils;&#xA;  like a Boat (carrying one over a very rough Sea),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तामग्निवर्णां तपसा ज्वलन्तीं वैरोचनीं कर्मफलेषु जुष्टाम् । दुर्गां&#xA;  देवीँशरणमहं प्रपद्ये सुतरसि तरसे नमः ॥२॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Taam-Agni-Varnnaam Tapasaa&#xA;  Jvalantiim Vairocaniim Karma-Phalessu Jussttaam | Durgaam&#xA;  Devii[ngu]m-Sharannam-Aham Prapadye Su-Tarasi Tarase Namah ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: (We offer our oblations to the Fire of Durga to cross over&#xA;  this very difficult ocean of worldly existence)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.1: To Her, Who is of the colour of Fire (Agni Varna) and blazing with Tapas (Tapasa Jwalantim); Who was born of that Fire (of Tapas)&#xA;  (Vairochinim), and Who is worshipped through Fruits of Actions (Karma&#xA;  Phalas) (offered to Her Fire as oblations),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.2: To that Durga, to that Devi, I take Refuge (Sharanam Aham) by falling at Her Feet (Prapadye); (O Mother Durga, I Prostrate before&#xA;  You) Please ferry me mercifully (over this Ocean of the World full of&#xA;  great Difficulties and Perils),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अग्ने त्वं पारया नव्यो अस्मान् स्वस्तिभिरति दुर्गाणि विश्वा । पूश्च&#xA;  पृथ्वी बहुला न उर्वी भवा तोकाय तनयाय शंयोः ॥३॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agne Tvam Paarayaa Navyo Asmaan Svastibhir-Ati Durgaanni Vishvaa |&#xA;  Puush-Ca Prthvii Bahulaa Na Urvii Bhavaa Tokaaya Tanayaaya Shamyoh&#xA;  ||3||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: (We offer our oblations to the Fire of Durga to cross over&#xA;  this very difficult ocean of worldly existence)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.1: O Agni (Fire of Durga), You Who are eulogized (for carrying one across this Samsara); Please ferry us (too), by carrying us (i.e. our&#xA;  Souls) over Your Auspicious Nature, and make us cross this World full&#xA;  of Great Difficulties (Samsara), ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.2: ... (and also spread Your Auspicious Nature over the) Land and Earth, (so that the Earth) becomes abundantly Fertile and Green (and&#xA;  we feel Your presence in external Nature); And fill us, (We who are)&#xA;  Your Children with Your Bliss (so that we feel Your presence&#xA;  internally),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Text to full hymn with translation &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_durga-durga_suktam.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. and audio &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR_N0fGLrzo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-10T05:07:14.660" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T05:07:14.660" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19476" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8224" CreationDate="2017-07-08T10:31:44.397" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usually it varies from path to path about number of initiations and gurus and deeskhas to be taken. But I will focus on tantra path here for the above question of various deekshas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a scope of having multiple gurus until some extent. Hence there is certain scope of having multiple mantra initiations as well. They can be practiced together as a part of daily worship/ saparya paddhati. In tantra the initiations usually follow in a sequence or &amp;quot;krama&amp;quot;. With respect to Sri vidya tradition (kaula) You can take as many initiations and mantras until you reach the final guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kulArNava tantra&lt;/strong&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;madhulubdho yathA brngaH puShpAt puShpAntaraM vrajet | ... jnAna&#xA;lubdhastathA shiShyaH gurorgurvantaram shrayet ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as a honey bee out of greed for honey jumps from flower to&#xA;flower, a disciple who is greedy for knowledge should seek one guru&#xA;after another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as the above verse seems to give a blanket sanction to the&#xA;disciple to change his guru without sticking to one guru in his quest&#xA;for knowledge, it also throws up numerous questions since, in the same&#xA;breath, kulArNava also says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;labdhvA kulagurum samyak na gurvantaramAshrayet&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i.e., after obtaining the kulaguru, one should not further seek&#xA;another guru and stick to the kulaguru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;it also seems to contradict PKS Sutra No. 20 which says&#xA;&amp;quot;ekagurUpAstirasamshayaH&amp;quot; meaning,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no scope for doubt in the worship of one guru. By implication&#xA;this means multiple gurus are not permitted in shrIvidyA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On one hand, while glorifying the attributes of a competent guru, the&#xA;tantras bestow limitless freedom on the guru in the matter of choosing&#xA;the disciple and on the other hand, it also gives limited freedom to&#xA;the shiShya to change his guru under certain circumstances. Is it&#xA;contradictory?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is a shiShya whose true thirst for knowledge cannot be quenched by the&#xA;guru then entitled to change his guru ? (when the guru is not&#xA;competent enough to clear the genuine doubts of the shiShya)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When after initiation, the shiShya finds that the guru is a fake (it&#xA;does happen sometimes, due to ignorance) can he change his guru and&#xA;seek a competent one&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;shaive gurutrayaM proktaM vaiShNave gurupancakam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vedashAstreShu shatasho gururekaH kulAnvaye ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In shaivism three gurus are authorished, in vaiShNavism, five. As far&#xA;as VedashAstra-s are concerned, there can be hundreds of gurus. But in&#xA;kulamArga, there can be only one guru. Thus, it may be seen that the&#xA;word shiShya is used to generally indicate a disciple. But what is&#xA;important is the context. A teacher-student relationship gets&#xA;established in many ways like in a school, wherein you have a teacher&#xA;for various subjects. Viewed in this context, in tantra also, many&#xA;gurus are encountered. They are&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;prerakaH sUcakashcaiva vAcako darshakastathA |   shikShako&#xA;bodhakashcaiva ShaDete guruvaH smRtAH ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pancaite kAryabhUtAH syuH kAraNaM bodhako bhavet |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;prerakaH – who urges an aspirant to take to upasana, sUcakaH – who&#xA;indicates about the path, darshakaH – who shows the path, shikShakaH –&#xA;who teaches about the path and bodhakaH – who awakens. (Its also&#xA;possible that a single guru does all the actions as above) The&#xA;relation with the first five is limited to taking the aspirant to the&#xA;bodhaka guru, i.e. the one who awakens. All these gurus do play&#xA;important role in the journey of the aspirant in this shAstra. But the&#xA;final destination is the pUrNAbhiSheka guru who alone is competent to&#xA;give his pAdukA and therefore qualifies to be worshipped as the&#xA;“&lt;strong&gt;kulaguru&lt;/strong&gt;”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pUrNAbhiShekakarttA yo gurustasyaiva pAdukA |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pUjanIyA maheshAni bahutve'pi na saMshayaH ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The gurupAduka for the disciple is only from the guru who does the&#xA;pUrNAbhiSheka and he alone is to be worshipped among the others,&#xA;without doubt. The ‘others’ here refer to the prerakaH, sUcakaH etc.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the normal course, a shiShya should not change his guru after he&#xA;has obtained a worthy kulaguru according to the dictum “labdhvA&#xA;kulagurum samyak na gurvantaramAshrayet”.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://yamalesha.blogspot.in/2012/09/eka-guru-or-aneka-guru-in-kaula-cont.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T10:31:44.397" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19477" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-08T10:34:47.167" Score="4" ViewCount="423" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ruling Lands of great Kings are said to be complete in Niti , Nyaya and Dharma without any decline.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;While solving problems, these three must be there in judgement and one must only live considering these three.(A common Saying in South) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the relation between Niti , Nyaya and Dharma ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why these three are always said together ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-10T08:54:28.287" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T08:54:28.287" Title="What is the relation between Niti , Nyaya and Dharma?" Tags="|dharma|terminology|nyaya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19479" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-08T11:57:02.943" Score="1" ViewCount="9661" Body="&lt;p&gt;In one of the lecture by Swami Vivekananda, he told:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_3/Lectures_from_Colombo_to_Almora/Reply_to_the_Address_of_Welcome_at_Madura&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Lectures from Colombo to Almora/Reply to the Address of Welcome at Madura&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...There was a time in this very India when, without eating beef no Brahmin could remain a Brahmin...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Does it mean that Brahmins ate beef? or what message does Vivekananda try to convey?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9930" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-18T05:57:08.643" LastActivityDate="2020-02-25T12:40:10.537" Title="Vivekananda said Brahmins ate beef, is this correct?" Tags="|scripture|brahmins|food|cows|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19480" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19346" CreationDate="2017-07-08T12:07:09.423" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tirumular in Tirumantiram condemns Vamachara practises like drinking wine:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;326: &lt;strong&gt;The Wicked Drink In VAma Tantra &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lust and drink, fit for the wicked are they; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In ritual unholy they drink and lose the senses &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  But the wise drink the nectar streaming from his feet, Which destroys egoism and bigotry. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  327: Drinking In Vama Tantra Worship Leads To Perdition &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  They drink and perish, who to the vama sect belong.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The lustful ones in sensual delights are wholly lost; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  But the pure souls find the light of sacrifices in their inner flame; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  They, who his true name chant, approach him fast.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  328: Truth Eludes Drunkards &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  They see not the inner truth, know not the pasu-pasa, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  They dwell not in the bounteous lord&amp;apos;s divine grace; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In the clear light of wisdom, Sivayoga they seek not, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  They, who soak in liquors, truth never can appraise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, since Tirumantiram is considered as authority by all Shaiva Siddhantins, we can say that this is view of all Shaiva Siddhantins. Also the people belonging to Vama sect are specifically condemned above.&#xA;&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;However, the real meaning of drinking wine is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18918/how-is-tantric-sex-meat-eating-and-alcohol-consumption-justified/19013#19013&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; from the Kaula Tantra, Kularnava:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[The Kundalini Shakti of the devotee] travels again and again from the mulAdhara to the brahmarandhra (in sahasrara). There the the shakti unites with Chitchandra or Parashiva. &lt;strong&gt;The amrita (nectar) like bliss flows out of the sahasrara as a result of this union. One who drinks this amrita, flowing out of the vyompankaja, is the real madyapAyi as prescribed in scriptures. Those who do otherwise are just mere drinkers of wine.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Tirumular also agrees that this is the real taking of divine nectar. Just after condemning taking wine Tirumular says that, yogis seek Amborisa (divine nectar) of the cranial moon (ie. Sahasrara):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;332: &lt;strong&gt;True Sakti Worship Seeks Divine Nectar &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sakti seeking, some religious sects ritual drinks consume, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  But Sakti dies when the o&amp;apos;er- powered senses swoon; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  True Sakti, indeed, in Sivajnanan finds its birth, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  To merge in truth-wisdom-bliss - and to other things immune.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  333: Sakthi And Siva Are One &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  If Sakthan his grace imparts, Sakti&amp;apos;s grace we have, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  If Sakti her grace imparts, Sakthan&amp;apos;s grace we gain, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sakti and Siva, if both in heart we hold, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then in us, truly, the siddhis eight do shine. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  334: &lt;strong&gt;Divine Nectar Leads to Siddhis&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  All Tattvas and egoity past, Truth of self realised, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In truest joy immersed, of false penances void, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Rid of worldly lure, drunk full of Heavenly Bliss, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  This indeed is Siddhi true and Sivananda unalloyed. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  335: &lt;strong&gt;Yogis Seek Ambrosia of the Cranial Moon &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The yogis who, breath in control held, yearn for &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The nectared delights of Contemplation&amp;apos;s Moon, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The eight Siddhis they seek; but witless fools are they &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Who to toddy yield and in its heady joys let their senses swoon.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  336: Drink Divine Nectar in Samadhi &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Open and drink deep the nectar that gushes from the spring; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Unfold the petals of the Holy Master&amp;apos;s Lotus Feet; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Lead the Yoga-breath through the spiring channel up &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  And thus in Samadhi ascending, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Reach the Divine Good in holy meet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And regarding use of sexual union also, sexual union just for the purpose of lust is obviously condemned:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;206: &lt;strong&gt;Lust Destroys&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Decoyed into passion&amp;apos;s snare by tender woman&amp;apos;s grace, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  They fell into her arms and swooned in the warm embrace; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;This is life&amp;apos;s crowning glory, fit for the gods to share--&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus speaking, they parted leaving not a trace. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  207: Sweet Beginning, Bitter End &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;What are the joys that in woman&amp;apos;s charms we seek or find?&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The truly wise of heart pronounce thus their course: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;In the hand like the sugary juice from crushing mills, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  But in the body bitterer than bitterest neem.&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  208: &lt;strong&gt;Irretrievable Loss in Lust&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Those unfirm of mind who, in folly vain, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Struggle to plant seeds deep in moss-covered tank-- &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  If such betimes we bind not and restrain, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Irretrievably lost are they in lust of sex, sordid and rank.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However the actual use of sexual union in the way prescribed by Tantra is not condemned. The real meaning of sexual union as described in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18918/how-is-tantric-sex-meat-eating-and-alcohol-consumption-justified/19013#19013&quot;&gt;same answer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The union of Parashakti and Paramatma or Parashiva (in sashrara) is the real maithuna. &lt;strong&gt;One who is capable of remaining engrossed (in samadhi) in that bliss (that arises out of that union) is the real maithunakari. Others are just doing ordinary sexual congress.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The actual use of Sexual Union by highly advanced yogis is called as Pariyanga Yoga in Tirumantiram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;826: &lt;strong&gt;If Breath is Controlled Delicious Enjoyment&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  For Partners in Sex Union Results &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  When they seek enjoyment &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The breath stands still; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The full breasted damsel and the goodly man &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Stand in union exalted; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  As liquid silver and gold &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Their passion&amp;apos;s emissions &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In rapture commingles.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  831: &lt;strong&gt;Successful Practitioners Alone Can Resort to Pariyanga&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Yoga &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Unless it be, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He had in success practised &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Pariyanga yoga &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Of five ghatika length &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  No yogi shall &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  A woman embrace. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  832: &lt;strong&gt;Lord Siva Practised Pariyanga Yoga&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Who may you ask, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Is He that achieved this audacious Yoga; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The lord is He that wears heavenly Ganga on His matted lock; For ghatika five &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He embraced Sakti of speech ambrosial sweetness Thinking and thinking not of the act performed. time span of 24 minutes or nazhi kai&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  1942 &lt;strong&gt;Sublimate Sex Act&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Embrace the damsel, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Your five sense organs with her five conjoining; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  But, detached your passion for the woman be; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Like the senses that are Godward sublimated &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Be calm; excited be not;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Control your breath, senses and mind, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Concentrated be your thought, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus emit your Bindu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, use of Pancha-makAras in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18918/how-is-tantric-sex-meat-eating-and-alcohol-consumption-justified/19013#19013&quot;&gt;Real sense&lt;/a&gt; is not condemned by Shaiva Siddhantins. However use by Pashus like drinking wine, using sex for lust etc.. is surely condemned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-07-08T13:46:21.603" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T13:46:21.603" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19482" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19471" CreationDate="2017-07-08T12:27:15.617" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas are open to multiple interpretations and ancient vedic language is very difficult to grasp. There are quite a few available publications of vedas (samhitas). It is better to opt for Indian authors who can have better understanding and interpretation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Hindi language, you can also read Vedas online &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedpuran.com/#&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-08T14:24:22.790" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T14:24:22.790" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19484" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-08T14:06:10.297" Score="2" ViewCount="936" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/2/28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 4.2.28&lt;/a&gt; — One who takes a vow to satisfy Lord Śiva or who follows&#xA;  such principles will certainly become an atheist and be diverted from&#xA;  transcendental scriptural injunctions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in next verse;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/2/29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 4.2.29&lt;/a&gt; — Those who vow to worship Lord Śiva are so foolish that&#xA;  they imitate him by keeping long hair on their heads. When initiated&#xA;  into worship of Lord Śiva, they prefer to live on wine, flesh and&#xA;  other such things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-09T05:17:30.047" LastActivityDate="2017-07-09T05:17:30.047" Title="Why does Canto 4, Chapter 2 of Bhagavata Purana insult Shiva devotees?" Tags="|shiva|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19485" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19484" CreationDate="2017-07-08T14:47:13.100" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavata Purana has nothing to do here.  It was &lt;strong&gt;Brigu&lt;/strong&gt; who spoke those words. Even Daksha cursed Shiva out of arrogance and ignorance. First Daksha cursed Shiva, as Shiva didn't stand when he came to hall and Nandi cursed Daksha and other Brahmanas. Brigu cursed Shiva and his devotees as a counter curse to Nandi's curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brigu is known for arrogance as he also kicked Vishnu on His chest in Vaikunta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's see before verse. &lt;strong&gt;SB 4.2.27&lt;/strong&gt; (translated by GV Tagore)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्यैवं वदतः शापं श्रुत्वा द्विज-कुलाय वै भृगुः प्रत्यसृजच् छापं&#xA;  ब्रह्म-दण्डं दुरत्ययम् &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing him pronounce this curse upon the Brähmana community ( as a&#xA;  whole ) , Bhrgu uttered a counter-curse which is an irrevocable&#xA;  punishment inflicted by Brahmanical power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also see how GV Tagore translated those verses of Brigu's curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;28&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;' 'Those who observe the vows to propitiate god Siva,  and those that follow them, shall be the heretics and the  opponents of true&#xA;  Sästras. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They shall lose their (sense of) purity, shall be dullwitted. Thcy shall wear matted locks of hair and bones, and smear themselves with&#xA;  ashes. They shall enter the cult of Siva  worship where winc shall be&#xA;  the divinity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are words of Brigu Rishi not words of Vyasa or Vishnu to take as granted. Even Rshis got deluded many times.  As described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19321&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;,  without will of Shiva, no sage can curse Shiva. Many sages and Devas in Daksha Yajna were deluded by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16778/did-the-destruction-of-dakshas-sacrifice-also-happen-in-present-vaivasvata-manv/16779#16779&quot;&gt;Uma's Maya&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later Shiva and His gaNAs punished all sages and Devas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 4.5.19&lt;/strong&gt; says (translated by GV Tagore)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जुह्वतः स्रुव-हस्तस्य श्मश्रूणि &lt;strong&gt;भगवान् भवः&lt;/strong&gt; भृगोर् लुलुञ्चे सदसि यो&#xA;  ’हसच् छ्मश्रु दर्शयन्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Glorious &lt;strong&gt;Virabhadra&lt;/strong&gt; pulled out mustaches and the  beard of Bhrgu,&#xA;  while he was offering the oblations with &lt;em&gt;sruva&lt;/em&gt;  (a ladle) in his hand,&#xA;  as he had laughed derisively in the as-  sembly showing his beard&#xA;  (when Daksa insulted Siva).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 37  Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana&lt;/strong&gt; also says the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding words of Brigu on wine, it looks like they are alluding to esoteric and subtle Vamachara practices as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18918/how-is-tantric-sex-meat-eating-and-alcohol-consumption-justified/19013#19013&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-08T15:25:18.460" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T15:25:18.460" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19487" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-08T19:17:14.257" Score="8" ViewCount="3770" Body="&lt;p&gt;As a follow up to my recent question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19406/where-does-linga-purana-mentions-lord-krishna-giving-veena-to-narada-muni&quot;&gt;Where does Linga purana mentions Lord Krishna giving veena to Narada muni?&lt;/a&gt; Linga purana doesn't mention Lord Krishna giving Veena to Narada but teaching Him music.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19406/where-does-linga-purana-mentions-lord-krishna-giving-veena-to-narada-muni#comment54334_19406&quot;&gt;this comment&lt;/a&gt; also seems to be true:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;deva&quot; is an epithet originally used for mahadeva ( for e.g. ref: sri sUktam upaitumAm dEvasakhaH ). Mahadeva is also the embodiment of nAda and the reigning deity of music/nAda yOga. So it can be interpreted as a vina given to him by Mahadeva/Lord Shiva. Iswara is also an epithet that applies only to Mahadeva as clarified by kanchi paramacharya Chandrasekharendra Saraswati swami.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, now I'm undecided Who gave Him Veena. Is He Lord Krishna or Lord Shiva?&#xA;And why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2017-07-10T16:37:33.550" LastActivityDate="2017-12-16T02:01:38.533" Title="Who gave veena to Narada muni?" Tags="|shiva|krishna|narada|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19488" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8720" CreationDate="2017-07-08T20:24:36.357" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30862/77f_chapter_109_1.pdf#page=2&amp;amp;zoom=auto,-38,244&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 12&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Ganapati Khanda of Brahma-Vaivarta Purana&lt;/strong&gt; describes how Vishnu replaces Ganesha's head with the head of an elephant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a version of the story where Ganesha's head was burnt off by the gaze of Shani. (As for the original head of Ganesha this story says the head was absorbed into the body of Krishna in Goloka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शनेश्व दृष्टिमात्रेण चिच्छिदे मस्तक मुने। चक्षुर्निमीलयामास तस्थौ नम्राननः शनिः॥७॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O sage, at the gaze of Saturn, the head of the child was cut-off and&#xA;Saturn closed his eyes at once, looking downwards and stood there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तस्थौ च पार्वतीक्रोडे तत्सर्वाङ्गं सलोहितम्। विवेश मस्तकं कृष्णे गत्वा गोलोकमीप्सितम्॥८॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;मूच्छा संप्राप सा देवी विलष्य च भृशं मुहुः। मृतेव च पृथिव्यां तु कृत्वा वक्षसि बालकम्॥९॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;विस्मितास्ते सुराः सर्वे चित्रपुक्तलिका यथा। देव्यश्च शैला गन्धर्वाः सर्वे कैलासवासिनः॥ १०॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तान्सर्वान्मूर्च्छितान्दृष्ट्वैवारुह्य गरुडं हरिः। जगाम पुष्पभद्रां स चोत्तरस्यां दिशि स्थिताम्॥ ११॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The head of the child who was lying in the lap of Parvati was severed&#xA;and his body was soaked in blood. &lt;strong&gt;The severed head of the child went&#xA;to Goloka and entered into the body of lord Krsna.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parvati started lamenting and carrying the child in her lap she&#xA;fainted and fell down on earth like dead.  All the gods were surprised&#xA;and were flabbergasted. They stood there like puppets. All the gods,&#xA;the goddesses, the mountains, Gandharvas and all the dwellers of&#xA;Kailasa behaved similarly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, finding all the people fainted Vişņu mounted on Garuda,&#xA;went to the northern direction and reached the bank of Puspabhadra&#xA;river.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu severs the head of a male elephant that is resting surrounded by its wives and children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पुष्यभद्रानदीतीरे ह्यपश्यत्कानने स्थितम्। गजेन्द्रं निद्रितं तत्र शयानं हस्तिनीयुतम्॥ १२॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तथोदक्छिरसं रम्यं मूर्च्छितं सुरतश्रमात्। परितः शावकान्कृत्वा परमानन्दमानसम्॥ १३॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शीघ्र सुदर्शनेनैव चिच्छिदे तच्छिरो मुदा। स्थापयामास गरुडे रुधिराप्तं मनोहरम्॥१४॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reaching the bank of Puspabhadra river, he found an elephant enjoying&#xA;the company of cow elephants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He was resting after enjoying the company of the cow elephants, placing his head toward the north. The elephant-calves surrounded&#xA;him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Visnu delightfully cut-off his head by using Sudarsana-cakra which was soaked in blood and kept it over Garuda and was quite&#xA;pleasant to look at.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The wives and children awaken and begin praying to Lord Vishnu. Becoming pleased with them Vishnu restores the male elephant back to life and bestows a boon of long life upon the elephant family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गजच्छिन्नाङ्गविक्षेपातप्रबोर्ध प्राप्य हस्तिनी। शावकान्बोधयामास चाशुभं वदती तदाः।।१५।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;रुरोद शावकैः साद्ध सा विलप्य शुचातुरा। तुष्टाव कमलाकान्तं शान्तं सस्मितमीश्वरम्।।१६।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शंखचक्रगदापद्मधरं पीताम्बरं परम्। गुरुडस्थं जगत्कान्तं भ्रामयन्तं सुदर्शनम्॥ १७॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the severing of the head of the elephant, the cow elephants were&#xA;awakened and getting panicky made the young elephants to wake up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter the cow elephants with their progeny offered prayer to lord&#xA;Visnu, the husband of Kamala, who was peaceful, wearing a smile on his&#xA;face holding sankha, cakra, gadā and padma in his four hands, clad in&#xA;yellow garments, mounted on Garuda, who was the lord of the entire&#xA;universe and was wielding the Sudarsana cakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;निषेकं खण्डितुं शक्तं निषेकजनकं विभुम्। निषेकभोगदातारं भोगनिस्तारकारणम्॥ १८॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She said, &amp;quot;You are competent to shatter the birth, the creator of the&#xA;birth, glorious, bestower of pleasure, emanating from the birth and&#xA;the one who relieves the people from the worldly pleasures, being the&#xA;soul cause of the same.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रभुस्तत्स्तवनातुष्टस्तस्यै विप्र वरं ददौ। मुण्डातुण्डं पृथक् त्य युयुजेऽन्यगजस्य च॥ १९॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;जीवयामास तं तत्र ब्रह्मज्ञानेन सर्ववित्। सर्वागे योजयामास गजस्य चरणाम्बुजम्।।२०।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;त्वं जीवाकल्पपर्यन्तं परिवारै: समं गज। इत्युक्त्वा च मनोयायी कैलासं ह्याजगाम सः॥ २१॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Brahmana, lord Visnu got pleased with the prayer and getting satisfied granted a boon. He lifted the head of the elephant from the&#xA;trunk.  With the application of the divine knowledge, he brought back&#xA;to the dead elephant life.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The lord who is all knowledgeable, touched the body of the elephant with his lotus-like feet and said, &amp;quot;O elephant, you will remain alive&#xA;with your family for a kalpa.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus speaking lord Visnu reached the peak of the mount Kailasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आहृत्य पार्वतीहस्ताद्बालं कृत्वा स्ववक्षसि। रुचिरं तच्छिरस्सम्यग्योजयामास बालके॥२२॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He took out the trunk of the child from the hand of Parvati, kept him&#xA;in his lap and joined the elephant head with the trunk of the child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-08T20:24:36.357" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19489" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3182" CreationDate="2017-07-08T21:26:42.400" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30901/77f_chapter_143.pdf#page=1&amp;amp;zoom=auto,-35,681&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 46&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Ganapati Khanda of Brahma-Vaivarta Purana&lt;/strong&gt; gives an account of the conversation between Ganesha and Tulsi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It starts with Narada asking Narayana why Tulsi leaves are not used in worship of Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पूजां भगवतश्चक्रे रामो गणपतेर्यदा। नैवेद्यैर्विविधैः पुष्पैस्तुलसीं च विना कथम्॥४॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तुलसी सर्वपुष्पाणां मान्या धन्या मनोहरा। कथं पूतां सारभूतां न गृह्णाति गणेश्वरः।।५।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada said - Parasurama offered puja to Ganesa with all the eatables,&#xA;flowers, etc., but how could his adoration be accepted without the&#xA;Tulasi leaves because of all the flowers, Tulasi is considered to be&#xA;the best; &lt;em&gt;then why Tulasi leaves are not acceptable by Ganesa?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शृणु नारद वक्ष्येऽहमितिहासं पुरातनम्। ब्रहाकल्पस्य वृतान्तं निगूढं च मनोहरम्।६।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana said - O Narada, I am going to tell you an ancient story&#xA;which is contained as an ancient Secret. You listen to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana recites a story where Tulsi meets Ganesha who is engaged in Tapas at the banks of the Ganga. Feeling attracted to the handsome Ganesha Tulsi disturbs his Tapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एकदा तुलसी देवी प्रोद्भिन्ननवयौवना। तीर्थ भ्रमन्ती तपसा नारायणपरायणा।७।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ददर्श गङ्गातीरे सा गणेशं यौवनान्वितम्। अतीव सुन्दरं शुद्धं सस्मितं पीतवाससम्॥८॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Once Tulasi in her youthful age, performing tapas and reciting the name of &amp;gt; Narayana was visiting holy places. Thereafter the youthful&#xA;Ganesa spotted her on the bank of the Ganga.&lt;/em&gt; He was quite beautiful,&#xA;having a spotless mind, wearing a serene smile on his face and was&#xA;clad in a yellow lower garment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गणेशस्य प्रधानाङ्गे दत्त्वा किचिज्जलं मुने। जघान तर्जन्यग्रेण निष्पन्दं कृष्णमानसम्॥ १४।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then she dropped some water on Ganesa and pushed him with the tip of&#xA;her forefinger. Ganesa was engrossed in the devotion of lord Krsna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;बभूव ध्यानभग्नं च तस्य नारद चेतनम्। दुःखं च ध्यानभेदेन तद्विच्छेदो हि शोकद:॥ १५॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Narada, this disturbed his meditation and he felt painful because&#xA;being disturbed in one's meditation is quite painful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha awakes from his meditation to see Tulsi before him he enquires of her lineage and purpose. Tulsi introduces herself and proposes Ganesha for marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ध्यानं त्यक्त्वा हरेिं स्मृत्वा चापश्यत्कामिनीं पुर:। नवयौवनसंपन्नां सस्मितां कामपीडिताम्॥ १६॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having been disturbed in meditation on Hari, he opened his eyes and&#xA;found a beautiful damsel standing before him who was quite youthful&#xA;and was smiling besides being infatuated with passion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गणेश्वर उवाच का त्वं वत्से कस्य कन्या मातर्मा बूहि कि शुभे।&#xA;पापदोऽशुभदः शश्वद्द्ध्यानभङ्गस्तपस्विनाम्॥ १८॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कृष्णः करोतु कल्याणं हन्तु विघ्नं कृपानिधिः। तद्धयानभङ्गजाहोषान्नशुर्भ स्यातु ते शुभे। १९॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ganesvara said - O damsel, who are you? Who is your father? O mother, O auspicious one, you tell me.&lt;/em&gt; It is sinful to disturb a&#xA;person performing the tapas which results in evil. O Virtuous one, let&#xA;lord Krsna bestow welfare on you and also remove all obstructions. Let&#xA;you be free of the sin of disturbing my meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गणेशवचनं श्रुत्वा तमुवाच स्मरातुरा। सस्मितं सकटाक्षं च देवं मधुरया गिरा॥ २०॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Oh hearing the words of Ganesa, the passionate Tulasi laughed and&#xA;casting side glances she spoke in a Sweet voice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तुलस्युवाच धर्मात्मजस्य कन्याऽहमप्रौढा च तपस्विनी। तपस्या मे स्वामिनोऽर्थ त्वं स्वामी भव मे प्रभो। २१॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Tulasi said - &amp;quot;O lord, I am the daughter of Dharmaputra. I am youthful and am an ascetic, I am performing tapas for achieving a&#xA;husband; therefore you be my husband.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha politely dismisses her proposal as he is not interested in getting married and asks her to look for another husband.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulsi feeling hurt by this rejection curses Ganesha that he would get a wicked wife. Ganesha counter-curses Tulsi that she would have to marry a demon and become a plant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गणेश उवाच हे मातर्नास्ति मे वाञ्छा घोरे दारपरिग्रहे। दारग्रहो ही दुःखाय न सुखाय कदाचन॥२३॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ganesa said - O mother, it is terrible for me to accept a spouse. I&#xA;am, therefore not interested in the same. After marriage no one gets&#xA;pleasure but one is sure to get pain.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;निवर्तस्व महाभागे पश्यान्यं कामुकं पतिम्। कामुकेनैव कामुक्याः संगमो गुणवान्भवेत्॥२७॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, O virtuous one, you return and search for another&#xA;passionate husband. Because only a passionate one can be the husband&#xA;of a passionate lady and their union is always beneficial.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;इत्येवं वचनं श्रुत्वा कोपात्सा तं शशाप ह। दारास्ते भविताऽसाध्वी गणेश्वर न संशयः॥ २८॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;इत्याकर्ण्य सुरश्रेष्ठस्तां शशाप शिवात्मजः।देवि त्वमसुरग्रस्ता भविष्यसि न संशयः।। २९॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;On hearing these words she pronounced a curse on him saying, &amp;quot;O&#xA;Ganesvara, you will get a wicked woman, there is no doubt about it.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;On hearing this Ganesa also pronounced a curse on her saying, &amp;quot;O&#xA;goddess, you will be over-powered by a demon. There is no doubt about&#xA;it.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तत्पश्चान्महतां शापाद्वृक्षस्त्वं भवितेति च। महातपस्वीत्युक्त्वा तां विरराम च नारद। ३०॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter with the curse of elders you will have to be turned into&#xA;the form of a tree.&amp;quot; Thus speaking the immensely intelligent Ganesa&#xA;kept quiet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulsi repents for her actions and offers prayers to Ganesha. Ganesha becoming pleased grants her boons that she would always be dear to Narayana but that he (Ganesha) would never accept her leaves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शापं श्रुत्वा तु तुलसी सा रुरोद पुनः पुनः। तुष्टाव च सुरश्रेष्ठं स प्रसन्न उवाच ताम्॥ ३१॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing the curse Tulasi weeping again and again, started offering&#xA;prayer to lord Ganesa. Lord Ganesa was pleased with her and said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गणेश्वर उवाच पुष्पाणां सारभूता त्वं भविष्यसि मनोरमे। कलांशेन महाभागे&#xA;स्वयं नारायणप्रिया।३२।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ganesvara said - O pleasant one, you will be the best of flowers known&#xA;as Tulasi, O virtuous one, because of the rays of lord Visnu, you will&#xA;become the beloved of Narayana.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रिया त्वं सर्वदेवानां श्रीकृष्णस्य विशेषतः॥ पूता विमुक्तिदा नृणां&#xA;मया भोग्या न नित्यशः॥३३॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;You will be loved by all and particularly you would be beloved of lord&#xA;Krsna, you will always remain auspicious and shall bestow salvation on&#xA;the people but I shall never accept your leaves.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पेन गणेशस्य च नारद। सा प्रिया शडुचूडस्य बभूव सुचिरं मुने॥३६॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Narada, O sage, because of the curse of Ganesa, the best of the&#xA;sages, Tulasi remained the wife of Sankhacuda for a long time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-09T11:06:48.880" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19490" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-08T22:12:29.980" Score="1" ViewCount="275" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am getting more calls as a barber about this service. What does it entail? When I do a head shave I usually do a pre shave, 2 hot towels, hot later and the shave. What is the technique for the baby head-shave? I also heard the barber goes to the house for the party.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10400" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T11:23:07.037" LastActivityDate="2018-10-16T11:23:07.037" Title="Shaving the head of a baby outside of India" Tags="|rituals|customs|samskara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19491" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19423" CreationDate="2017-07-09T00:54:02.720" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have found an interesting list of all the strategies used in the twelve days of battle. Usually, one side chose a specific strategy at the start of the day, to which the other side reacted by choosing their counter-strategy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chakra vyuha – formation of concentric circles in layers.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shakata vyuha – formation of a cart wheel&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mandala vyuha – circular formation ( don't know how this is different from the above)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Urmi vuyha – formation resembling ocean’s waves&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sarvatobhadra vyuha – meaning “safe on all sides” – seems to have been a kind of square array in which the troops faced all the points of the compass (as per KMG interpretation)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Garuda vyuha (Garuda – The Mighty Bird).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krauncha vyuha ( Krauncha is bird with a sharp pointed beak)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vajra vyuha ( in the shape of the thunderbolt)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Suchimukha vyuha ( formation in the shape of a needle)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Padma vyuha (formation of a blooming lotus)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sura &amp;amp; Asura vyuha hv been mentioned as well (cant interpret how they were)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ArdhaChandraakara vyuha (crescent shape)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Makara vyuha ( crocodile-shaped)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/indian-religions/hinduism/military-formations-in-mahabharata/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Military Formations in Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-09T05:20:57.777" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19493" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19397" CreationDate="2017-07-09T07:39:56.707" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usual date for krishna and shulka yajurvedas would be 7th August (shrAvana poornima). But because the eclipse is occurring in India. Hence they have pre-poned the event to 28th July , Hasta Nakshatra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So those who living in America do not need to follow this date and should do on the normal date i.e 7th of August. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those living in India, Australia, Africa should do the upAkarma along with Rig veda people i.e 28th July. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there occurs Eclipse and sankranti when sun enters Leo (masa pirrapu/avani 1st in Tamil) during purnima,the people having upakrama for that day should be finished prior to punima when hasta nakshatra is available(generally shravana shukla Panchami/shashti.and for samaveda,if there is sankramana(purattasi 1st) to kanya in bhadrapada then shraavana month's hasta should be considered. (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upakarma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-09T07:39:56.707" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19496" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-09T11:45:31.217" Score="6" ViewCount="260" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm planning for a trip to visit major Shiva temples in Karnataka. I have done some research and there are close to 54 prominent ones. Which are the ones which holds much importance in Puranas or mentioned in the Veda Puranas ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10397" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-09T12:43:49.447" LastActivityDate="2018-02-04T07:25:19.910" Title="What are some of major Shiva temples in Karnataka?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|temple|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19497" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20212" CreationDate="2017-07-09T12:05:21.847" Score="10" ViewCount="570" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some Shavaite scriptures declare Vishnu as supreme in some cases. Is there any mention of Shiva as supreme deity in Vaishnava scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-07-09T15:40:33.860" LastActivityDate="2017-08-12T10:30:50.870" Title="Where do Vaishnava Scriptures declare Shiva as supreme god?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|puranas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19498" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-09T13:15:21.117" Score="4" ViewCount="190" Body="&lt;p&gt;God imposes bondage on us during creation deprive us from exalted state of consciousness. But we are supposed to put our own efforts to liberate. How is this justice? God puts veil of ignorance on us for his own selfishness of creation &amp;amp; we are the ones who supposed to liberate from these bondages? i.e, He is responsible for our bondages &amp;amp; we are supposed to be responsible for liberation. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;Isn't this cosmic injustice? If indeed it is (which seems to be), what is the justification of this injustice.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-07-11T09:13:52.720" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T09:13:52.720" Title="Is creation cosmic injustice?" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19499" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-09T14:56:09.327" Score="10" ViewCount="329" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Every &lt;strong&gt;Life's goal is Moksha&lt;/strong&gt; and it is achieved through various paths.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Penanace were done to get Boons&lt;/strong&gt; from God like Power,Wealth,Strength for his Welfare.&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is Boon for Moksha grantable ?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T10:06:46.693" Title="Is Boon for Moksha grantable?" Tags="|gods|moksha|desire|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19500" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19510" CreationDate="2017-07-09T16:23:43.937" Score="9" ViewCount="522" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Shāstras, if parents give their daughters to the guy whose ultimate aim is to attain Brahman, they attain Brahmāloka which is the second most difficult attainment after Moksha because it is easy to get Moksha in Brahmalok due to its environment. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;Also, husband &amp;amp; wife if devoted to each other are destined to marry in every birth due to concept of &lt;strong&gt;Runanbandha&lt;/strong&gt; until they are devoted to each other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, suppose husband attains Brahman or gets enlightenment, does enlightenment will automatically (if not suddenly, from Brahmāloka) follow to the wife because of inference from the concept of Runanbandha? It seems reasonable because a devoted wife or husband are destined to mingle again &amp;amp; again until devotion last. Wife being devoted to husband won't get any attainment other than Brahman if his husband attains Brahman only as she is supposed to mingle with him only. &lt;BR&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any scriptures which says so directly or indirectly?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This question has been dealt in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gita-society.com/section3/anugita.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;AnugitA&lt;/a&gt; (2nd discourse to Arjun by Lord Krishna) like this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On this, too, O chief of the descendants of Bharata! they relate this ancient story, (in the form of) a dialogue, which occurred, O son of Prithâ! between a husband and wife. A Brâhmana's wife, seeing the Brâhmana her husband, who had gone through all knowledge and experience, seated in seclusion, spoke to him (thus): &lt;strong&gt;'What world, indeed, shall I go to, depending on you as (my) husband&lt;/strong&gt;, you who live renouncing (all) action, and who are harsh and undiscerning. &lt;strong&gt;We have heard that wives attain to the worlds acquired by (their) husbands.&lt;/strong&gt; What goal, verily, shall I reach, having got you for my husband?' UpagitA - Chapter 5.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-10-22T13:38:17.937" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T13:38:17.937" Title="What happens to the devoted wife if her husband gets enlightenment?" Tags="|brahman|lokas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19501" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6931" CreationDate="2017-07-09T16:49:15.663" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/16203/3/Section%202_Chapter%201-6_396-437p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 3 (pg 18-19)&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Upodghatapada&lt;/strong&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; describes the progeny of Dharma. In it there is a mention of Nara and Narayana as Sadhyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4.Twelve Sādhyas were born as the sons of Sadhya and Dharma. Those conversant with the Devas affirm that they are superior to other&#xA;Devas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5.These are the gods called Jaya, created from the mouth of Brahma with a desire for progeny. All are remembered as Devas with Mantras as&#xA;their bodies, in all the Manvantaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6-7. The names of the (special) Yajñas of these (twelve Devas) are&#xA;well-known viz. Darśa, Paurinamäsa, Brhad Rathantara, Vitti Vivitti,&#xA;Äkūti, Kūti, Vijñătr, Vijñāta and Yajña.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8-9. Due to the curse of Brahma, those were born as Jitas in the&#xA;Svayambhuva Manvantara, as Tusitas in the Svarocisa, as Satyas in the&#xA;Uttama, as Devas named Haris in Tamasa Manvantara and as Vaikuņțhas in&#xA;the Raivata Manvantara. In the Caksusa Manvantara, &lt;strong&gt;they were born as&#xA;the Devas named Sādhyas out of their own will.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;10-14. The twelve Devas of great dignity and splendour, sons of Dharma and named Sadhyas, were to have been born in the Caksusa&#xA;Manvantara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Svarocisa Manvantara, they were the Devas of great prowess&#xA;named Tusitas. They spoke to one another-&amp;quot;when there is a little&#xA;balance of Caksusa Manvantara (?) , we shall enter this lady of noble&#xA;dignity (of the) Sadhyá herself and shall be born in the (Caksusa)&#xA;Manvantara. That will be conducive to our excellence (and beatitude)&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After saying thus, those twelve Devas were born of (Sadhya) and&#xA;Dharma, the descendant of the self-born lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nara and Narayana were also born once again therein.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;15.They had originally been Vipascit and Indra, as well as Satya and Hari. Formerly, in the Svarocisa Manvantara, they were the sons of&#xA;Tusita.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;16-17. These names are mentioned when Tusitas had become Sādhyas viz.&#xA;Mana, Anumantr, Prãņa, &lt;strong&gt;Nara&lt;/strong&gt;, Apána of great virility, Viti, Naya,&#xA;Haya, Harinsa, &lt;strong&gt;Nārāyaņa&lt;/strong&gt;, Vibhu and Prabhu. Thus twelve Sādhyas&#xA;were born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/16203/4/Section%202_Chapter%207-11_438-516p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 8 (pg 41)&lt;/a&gt; of the same Purana describes that Narayana was crowned the King of the Sadhyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He made Prahlāda, the delighter of Diti, the king of Daityas, &lt;strong&gt;Narayana, of the Sadhyas&lt;/strong&gt; and the bull-bannered god as the king of&#xA;Rudras.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23482/26F_Chapter_203.pdf#page=1&amp;amp;zoom=auto,-40,678&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 203&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Matsya Purana&lt;/strong&gt; gives a similar enumeration but omits Nara.&#xA;And it mentions Viryavan as a Sadhya but no info on him is given.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मरुत्वत्यां मरुत्वन्तः सर्वे पुत्राः प्रकीर्त्तिताः॥९॥  संकल्पायाश्च मुहूर्त्ताश्च मुहूर्त्तायाः साध्याः साध्यासुताः स्मृताः॥ १०॥  मनो&#xA;मनुश्च प्राणश्च नरोषा नोच वीर्यवान्। चित्तहाय्योंयनश्चैव हंसो&#xA;नारायणस्तथा॥ ११॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Marutván were born of Marutvats. Samkalpa gave birth to Samkalpa,&#xA;Muhürtas to Mahurtas, and Sādhyas gave birth to Sādhyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mana, Manu, Prāņa, Naroșā, Noca, &lt;strong&gt;Vīryavăn&lt;/strong&gt;, Cittahārya, Ayana,&#xA;Harihsa, &lt;strong&gt;Nārāyaņa&lt;/strong&gt;, Vibhu and Prabhu were the twelve Sadhyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12912/6/Chapter4_547-617p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 218 (pg 24)&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Agni Purana&lt;/strong&gt; gives a hymn during the coronation of Kings where Narayana and Viryavan are mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dakşa, Bhurgu, the celestials, Manah Anumantă, Prāņah, Nava, Apána,&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Vīryavån&lt;/strong&gt;, Vītihotra, Naya, Sãdhya, Harihsa and &lt;strong&gt;Narayana&lt;/strong&gt; protect you. May the foremost among the celestials who are devoted to&#xA;the welfare of universe such as Vibhu, Prabhu, and the twelve Suns&#xA;Dhata, Mitra, Aryamá, Pusa,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12976/5/Chapter3_1505-1584p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 121 (pg 2)&lt;/a&gt; of fourth part of the &lt;strong&gt;Narada Purana&lt;/strong&gt; describes a Vrata known as the Sadhya Vrata. Here Nara, Naryana and Viryavan are mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;54a. The excellent holy rite of the Sådhya Vrata' is to be observed on&#xA;the twelfth day in the bright half of the month of Margasirsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sadhyas are twelve in number. They are stated as follows :&#xA;Manobhava, Prana, &lt;strong&gt;Nara&lt;/strong&gt;, Yata (v.l. Apāna) &lt;strong&gt;Vīryavăn&lt;/strong&gt;, Citi,&#xA;Haya, Nrpa (v.l. Naya) Harihsa, &lt;strong&gt;Narayana&lt;/strong&gt;, Vibhu and Prabhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These shall be represented by raw rice grains and worshiped with&#xA;scents, fragrant flowers etc. He should then feed twelve leading&#xA;Brahmanas. Good Daksinas are to be given to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He should then bid farewell to them saying, 'May Narayana be pleased.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And since Nara and Narayana are mentioned as the sons of Dharma in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c034.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt;, it leaves no doubt that they are the same ones quoted in the Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this connection is cited the old history of the discourse between&#xA;Narada and the Rishi Narayana. I heard it from my sire that in the&#xA;Krita age, O monarch, during the epoch of the Self-born Manu, &lt;strong&gt;the&#xA;eternal Narayana, the Soul of the universe, took birth as the son of&#xA;Dharma in a quadruple form, viz., as Nara, Narayana, Hari, and the&#xA;Self-create Krishna.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So far there has been very little info on the Viryavan Sadhya but he has been mentioned as quoted above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-09T16:49:15.663" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19503" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15768" CreationDate="2017-07-09T22:39:53.917" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The meaning of tridandi is one who does not demand respect for one’s self. He is respectful to others, he is tolerant and he glorifies Hari. The Vaisnava is a demigod, yet he does not consider himself as a demigod. A tridandi means nirasir-nirnamas-kriyah – a tridandi does not bless anybody nor does he accept any respects from anyone. But if one does not offer his respects to a tridandi and does not accept his blessing of krsne matirastu (‘May you always remember Krsna’), one must fast as atonement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10408" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-09-13T17:57:15.207" LastActivityDate="2018-09-13T17:57:15.207" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19504" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-10T01:22:32.517" Score="5" ViewCount="1232" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am reading some sections of mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mahabharataonline.com/translation/mahabharata_03250.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Over here&lt;/a&gt;. I am surprised to know certain passages, indicates that , Karna is actually incarnation of Narakasura . It is pretty well known that , Karna is incarnation of Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the passage,where danavas address Duryodhana , when he tries to fast unto death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With respect to the fear that is in thy heart rising from Arjuna, we&#xA;  have already settled the means for slaying Arjuna. The soul of the&#xA;  slain Naraka hath assumed the form of Karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here they indicates that , even bhisma and Drona are possessed&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Other Asuras will also possess Bhishma and Drona and Kama and others.&#xA;  Possessed by those Asuras, these heroes will cast away their kindness&#xA;  and fight with thy foes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indeed, when the Danavas will enter their heart and possess them&#xA;  completely, flinging all affections to a distance, becoming&#xA;  hard-hearted, these warriors will strike every body opposed to them in&#xA;  battle without sparing sons, brothers, fathers, friends, disciples,&#xA;  relatives, even children and old men&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does this mean that , Karna's soul was basically possessed by Narakasura ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-07-11T05:22:34.240" LastActivityDate="2021-12-13T21:16:05.957" Title="Was Karna's soul possessed by Narakasura?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|krishna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19505" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19498" CreationDate="2017-07-10T01:39:47.013" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I cant give any link to  back up my Answers. My knowledge is derived from multiple sources, mostly from Bhagavatam.Actual Answer is pretty vast.I will expand this answer , when I get time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all , God &lt;strong&gt;DOES NOT&lt;/strong&gt; imposes bondage on us. It is us , who left god . We fell down from our eternal place with god , because we wanted to go away from god. We didn't want to serve god. It is like parting from the god to set our own future. But since god is everywhere , there isn't any place , where there is no god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he changed some part of spiritual sky to become material sky(material universes) of lower vibration , in order to feel artificial separation. He created Maya to feel separateness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Innumerable lokas(or universes) are like small cloud in the infinite spiritual sky. All stars , Galaxies and infinite cosmos which are visible with eyes or telescope is just small  fraction of material universes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is infact that , God asked us multiple times explaning what will happen if anyone left him. He warned that, our life would become difficult.But we forced him to let us go, inspite of the warnings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We didnt believe in any of what he said.We set our own course and end up suffering. But God being very merciful , placed form of him in the heart of every soul in the form of paramatma(localized god) , as a key to return back , when we realized the mistake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one can use the key to go back to god , when we realized the mistake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T01:39:47.013" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19507" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-10T06:23:00.470" Score="2" ViewCount="220" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.  But before the time of Adi Shankaracharya the dominant school of Hindu philosophy was the Purva Mimamsa school, which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast to the Vedanta school which is devoted to analyzing the Jnana Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Upanishads, Purva Mimamsa focuses on analyzing the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, i.e. the Samhitas and Brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Purva Mimamsa school was often borderline agnostic/atheist.  But some Mimamsakas, most notably Kumarila Bhatta, acknowledged the existence of a supreme being, although they did not believe that this being was responsible for creating the Universe. (They thought the Universe was uncreated and eternal.). But this excerpt from Kumarila Bhatta's Tantra Vartika sheds light on one role he did envision Brahman as playing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As for the knowledge of Self; both by Conjunction and Disjunction it is found to help the sacrifice as well as the Person; because unless are knows his self (to be something other than the body that perishes) he would never undertake the sacrifices whose results are said to accrue to the man in another birth. And then again, such passages as - &quot;the Self free from all evil...is to be sought after, etc.,&quot; &quot;one should worship the Self&quot; - lay down the knowledge of Self as accomplished by a process accompanied by due reflection, etc.; and then from such knowledge, we find that there accrues to the agents both kinds of result - Happiness as well as final Deliverance, as is shown by the following passages: - &quot;He obtains all worlds and all desires, passes beyond all sorrow, etc., etc.,&quot; - which speaks of all the eight perfections of Yoga accruing to the person knowing the self; and the passage - &quot;passing his life thus he, after death, reaches the regions of Brahma, and from there he never returns&quot; - &lt;strong&gt;which points to the attainment of the Supreme Self (Final Deliverance) also as following from a due knowledge of the Self&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see, Kumarila Bhatta at least relates Moksha to the Jivatma attaining Paramatma.  But my question is, what is the relationship between Jivatma and Paramatma according to Kumarila Bhatta? And which Vedantic philosophy is his view of the Jivatma-Paramatma closest to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as a Mimamsaka, Kumarila Bhatta diagreed with the Vedanta school on many subjects.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19327/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, he believed in a theory of multiple omnipresent Jivatmas, in contrast to most Vedantic philosophies which see the Jivatma as atomic in size.  So there's clearly disagreement about the nature of the Jivatma, but are his beliefs concerning the relationship between the Jivatma and Paramatma similar to any Vedantic philosophy?  I don't think his beliefs had much in common with Advaita, since he believed in a multiplicity of Jivatmas.  But did he believe that Jivatma and Paramatma are absolutely different as Dvaita says, or that they have a body-soul relationship as Visistadvaita says, or what?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-11T17:56:26.037" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T17:56:26.037" Title="What is Kumarila Bhatta's view of the relation between Jivatma and Paramatma?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|purva-mimamsa|jiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19508" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13969" CreationDate="2017-07-10T06:53:49.873" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;This answer is from Bhagavad Gita perspective.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;What is the need of creation? Why Brahma wants to become many?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Neither need nor any reason to create the universe&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Also &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (or &lt;em&gt;Brahma&lt;/em&gt;) should be interpreted as &lt;strong&gt;in one-ness&lt;/strong&gt;, whether it is one or many. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.8 - Keeping &quot;My&quot; nature (&lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;) under control, &quot;I&quot; create [&amp;amp; destroy] the world of beings again &amp;amp; again; which are helpless under the nature (&lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 9.9 - And O Arjuna, those actions (&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;-s) don't bind Me, as I am &lt;strong&gt;uninterested &amp;amp; detached&lt;/strong&gt; to them&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 9.10 - Under &quot;My&quot; supervision, the &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; produces moving &amp;amp; non-moving [beings]; With[out] this purpose the world &lt;strong&gt;repeats&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;What will happen if nothing will exist in this universe? Will it affect Iswara?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;nothingness&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (or &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9A%C5%ABnyat%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ShunyatA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;) is the ultimate reality, which many refer as supreme God or &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Iswara&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, we can deduce that there is nothing really existed, exists &amp;amp; will exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 8.20 - But different from that &quot;unmanifested&quot;, is the another &lt;strong&gt;eternal &quot;unmanifest&quot; reality&lt;/strong&gt;, which is not destroyed when all beings are destroyed.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 13.13 - I shall speak of that which is knowable. Knowing which, one attains immortality. The supreme Brahman devoted to 'Me', is beginning-less. 'That' is said to be &lt;strong&gt;neither existent nor non-existent&lt;/strong&gt;. (existent = being)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like, when we are dreaming, so much time passes and things also look real. Only upon waking up, we find that, less time has passed &amp;amp; it was an imagination. Similarly, whatever is manifesting currently for us, looks &quot;real&quot; to us, can be interpreted as being imagined.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;This is also the core theme of movie &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Inception&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.7 — O son of Kunti, all elementary world becomes &quot;My&quot; nature at end of cycle(Kalpa); Again &quot;I&quot; create them at the beginning of the cycle.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Is there any relation between existence of Supreme Brahma[n], Devas and humans?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The supreme Brahman or &quot;Me&quot; or whatever is the ultimate reality -- is not perceivable as discussed above. Which is depicted as &lt;em&gt;&quot;Nirguna&quot;&lt;/em&gt; (beyond formless). The other aspect is &lt;em&gt;&quot;Saguna&quot;&lt;/em&gt; (formful or formless). That is the cause of everything existent. It keeps happening as part of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return#Indian_religions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Eternal Return&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;Everything&quot; comes into being out of &quot;Nothing&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;All beings keep mutating; This existence remains for &quot;X&quot; duration&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;Everything&quot; vanishes into &quot;Nothing&quot;; This non-existence remains for &quot;X&quot; duration&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 8.18 - On arrival of day, all manifestations originate from &quot;Unmanifest&quot;; On arrival of night they annihilate into [what is] known as &quot;Unmanifest&quot; only.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 8.19 - &lt;strong&gt;This [same] elementary world only happens again &amp;amp; again&lt;/strong&gt;; Annihilates upon arrival of night, [and] originates upon arrival of day.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mainly &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Deva&lt;/em&gt;-s &amp;amp; humans &lt;strong&gt;have a relation of time&lt;/strong&gt;, i.e. &quot;X&quot; duration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a consciousness (&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;) is at the level of:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Me&quot; / &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, then X + X = 0 (no time)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, then X + X = 1 Day + 1 Night of &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Deva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, then X + X = several days of &lt;em&gt;Deva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pitru&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, then X + X = several years of &lt;em&gt;Pitru&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Humans&lt;/strong&gt;, then X + X = several eras of Humans&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There can be intermediate planes as well. Refer the section &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16085/1049&quot;&gt;Q-2 in this answer&lt;/a&gt; for the scripture proof.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;BTW, after humans, there are further lower planes of existence: like animals, insects, bacteria, ... Lower the plane, more the time is spent to realise the supreme reality. Once reached at lowest, again there is a sense of &quot;no time&quot; (i.e. &quot;Me&quot;).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a person has more &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; mode (goodness), it journeys towards &quot;Me&quot; by going to higher regions than humans; with more &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; mode (ignorance), one journeys towards &quot;Me&quot; by going to lower regions than humans. The mode of &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; (passion/desire) only binds to any particular plane.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 14.18 - Those with &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; go higher [regions]; those with &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt; stay in the middle; those with &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;, having despicable actions, go [further] down.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T06:53:49.873" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19510" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19500" CreationDate="2017-07-10T08:43:20.730" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;A wife devoted to husband, depending on her &lt;em&gt;tapasyA&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;, would &lt;strong&gt;follow her husband&lt;/strong&gt; in form of consciousness or subtle body. There is an example in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telugubhakti.com/telugupages/monthly/mahabharat/content1301.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;AnushAsanika Parva&lt;/a&gt;, where a half part of a devoted wife follows her husband to higher regions and remaining half also flows as a river (deity):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the guest appeared in his splendid and glorious form. “O Sudarsana! I am Dharma Devata. (Deity of Dharma). I have come to test your mind and your devotion towards guests. &lt;em&gt;Mruthyu&lt;/em&gt; is waiting to kill you whenever you transgress dharma. But you conquered Mruthyu. You have already conquered the six rivals viz., &lt;em&gt;Kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada and matsarya&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Your wife is your virtuous follower. You both are eligible to go to higher regions with this physical body whenever you wish.&lt;/strong&gt; With half of the power of your Tapas, your &lt;strong&gt;wife Oghavati&lt;/strong&gt; transforms into a holy river and flows on this holy land. With the rest of the power of your Tapas, she remains with you in human form and serves you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This same story is described with different words in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sacred-texts&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... And thou shalt attain to all the worlds in this thy body, and as truly as the science of Yoga is within her control, &lt;strong&gt;this highly blessed lady will follow thee with only half of her corporeal self, and with the other half will she be celebrated as the river Oghavati&lt;/strong&gt;!  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trivia&lt;/strong&gt;: The river &lt;em&gt;OghAvati&lt;/em&gt; is known as &lt;em&gt;Saraswati&lt;/em&gt; today, which is very much near to Kurukshetra, where the MahAbhArata battle happened. The river was/is considered sacred since a long time.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides this, the famous examples are there of MAdari following PAndu to &lt;em&gt;Pitru&lt;/em&gt; regions and GAndhAri following DhritarAshtra to higher regions after their deaths.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From these examples, we can assume that a wife is highly likely attain the &quot;enlightenment&quot; or the similar &quot;&lt;em&gt;loka&lt;/em&gt;&quot; as her husband. Moreover, a form of &lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt; is also -- being in company of enlightened person. A devoted wife fulfils this criteria with flying colours!  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 13.26 - But others who are without [transcendental] knowledge, perform worship by hearing from others [who know], they also surely transcendent the death, being devoted to listening&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Also refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8889/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; for non-devoted wives.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-07-11T04:22:41.597" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T04:22:41.597" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19511" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19499" CreationDate="2017-07-10T08:44:43.377" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all we need to understand the concept of 84 lakhs of Yonis that a Jiva or soul has to travel through before merging back to Brahman again. And, this merging back is called Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chaturashitilakshesu&lt;/strong&gt; Sarireshu SaririnAm | Na Manushyam VinA Annyatra&#xA;  Tatva GyAnantu Labhyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among the &lt;strong&gt;84 lakh of Yonis&lt;/strong&gt; (wombs) Tatva Gyana (Brahma Gyana,or&#xA;  knowledge of the Self) is achieved only in the human body and not in&#xA;  any other bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram,Chapter 1, Verse 14.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, its  said that unless the Jiva completes its destined journey through all this aforementioned number of Yonis, it is not entitled to get liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is, it is not entitled to get liberated before completing the full circle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read the following discussion that occurs between Lord Shiva and Goddess Chandi in Sri MatrikA Bheda Tantram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri ChandiKA UvAcha :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AgrAhyam Tava NirmAlyamgrAhyam Karanam Vibho |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MrishA VAkyam MahAdeva Katham Vadasi Yogabhrith ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri ChandikA Devi said :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[ You yourself have said in other Shastras ] that your nirmalya should not be consumed. Being Yogi yourself, how did you utter that lie?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Shankara Uvacha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chaturasitilaksheshu Yonigarthe Tathaiva Hi |&#xA;   Bhramanam Kuruthe Jeevastato Mokshasya BhAjanam ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Etanmadhye MahA GyAnam Yafi SyAd Veeravandite |&#xA;  Tada MokkshamvApnoti Bhramanam Kena VA Bhaveth ||&#xA;  Ataeva Maheshani Gupta BhAvam MayA Kritam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shankara said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Jiva gets fit for liberation only after traveling through all the 84&#xA;  lakhs of Yonis and not before that.&lt;/strong&gt; Now if Mahagyana (the knowledge of Self) is obtained by it sometime before that&#xA;  then it will be liberated. How will it travel through all the 84 lakhs&#xA;  Yonis then? Hey Devi, that's why i have said that for the purpose of&#xA;  maintaining secrecy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have highlighted the portions that are relevant here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, IMO, in most cases that boon can't be granted. It will depend on whether that Jiva has completed its destined journey through all the Yonis or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God will know very well if the person has completed his destined journey or not. And, if he/she has, only in those cases the boon will be granted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE: I have assumed that you're asking about attaining Moksha in the current birth only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-10T10:06:46.693" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T10:06:46.693" CommentCount="26" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19512" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14040" CreationDate="2017-07-10T09:12:24.527" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;While other two answers are as per story of renuka yellamma, mine would focus on Puranic view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Brahma was bhrigu born in whose clan Jamadagni was born. As per the wish of his father , he married Renuka , the daughter of king Renuka. They both had one daughter and five sons among ram was younger. He was born as avatar of Vishnu to destroy evil kings from earth. He learnt all Vidyas from Lord Shiva who was his teacher. Shiva gave him an axe and named him Parashu Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'll leave out the the story of Renuka Devi's story here to arrive at main story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Kartivirya- arjun visited the Hermitage of jamadagni , the latter welcomed the guests with all its family and provided them with all hospitality due to kamadhenu residing there . The king desired to take away the holy cow with him and on restrictions by sage beheaded him. Thus parshurama decided to kill his family .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He did so and took back the holy cow. But he did not stop there , he vowed that he would kill the Kshatriya clan round the earth sixteen times for his mother beat her chest that much times. He didn't leave the women too. Later the sages made him understand that what he did was wrong so he handed whole earth to Kashyapa and went towards ocean however the ocean moved back . So Parashurama decided to go to Mahendra giri for penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's what is mentioned in different Puranas . The texts focus more on works of Parashurama like slaying of kings etc tan ton his birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9915" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-10T10:13:16.233" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T10:13:16.233" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19513" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-10T12:22:39.153" Score="6" ViewCount="1113" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is one famous story of Mahidasa Aitareya in upanishad/purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which scripture described about him and his life? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suppose it is in Aitariya aranyaka but I am looking for exact reference. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit:&#xA;I had seen a passage which says that Mahidasa was born of a shudra woman &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;3.2. According to Sri Sayana-charya, &lt;a href=&quot;https://sreenivasaraos.com/tag/mahidasa-aitareya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahidasa&lt;/a&gt; was the son of a sage&#xA;  (identified by Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji as Sage Visala) who had many&#xA;  wives, among whom was Mahidasa’s mother Itara. She came from a lower&#xA;  caste. Itara   named her son after her chosen deity Goddess Mahi the&#xA;  Mother Earth. Mahidasa the neglected one was gifted with a natural&#xA;  aptitude for study and learning. By dint of his sheer genius Mahidasa,&#xA;  years later, rose to eminence. Mahidasa called himself Aitareya the&#xA;  son of Itara; and, named the texts compiled by him – Aitareya Brahmana&#xA;  and Aranyaka – in fond memory and in honor of his mother Itara.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So another question is was Mahidasa a Shudra?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T23:25:23.673" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T19:43:34.310" Title="Which scripture contains the story of Mahidasa Aitareya?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|aitareya-brahmana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19514" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17539" CreationDate="2017-07-10T12:51:26.687" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=jUeeAgAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA23&amp;amp;lpg=PA23&amp;amp;dq=panduranga%20mahatmya%20skanda%20purana&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=_aGNgojBcF&amp;amp;sig=RiGOrGKQ_WrsE35ylXFMEFTi3Us&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiE1Kb4yf7UAhVFZFAKHXYvAV8Q6AEINzAD#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=literature%20of%20the%20marathi%20saint%20poets&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rise of a Folk Deity: Vitthal of Pandharpur by R.C Dhere&lt;/a&gt; says that the Panduranga Mahatmya is a text attributed to Skanda Purana, Padma Purana and Vishnu Purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are three extant Puranic style Sanskrit texts about Pandharpur,&#xA;  all entitled &lt;strong&gt;“Panduranga Mahatmya.”&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One of them claims to be part of the &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; another claims to&#xA;  be part of the &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; and the third, the only known copy of&#xA;  which is in my own collection, claims to belong to the &lt;strong&gt;Visnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ﬁrst two of these texts are exceptionally important for the study&#xA;  of Pandharpur and Vitthal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any of the texts in any of the Puranas so it is possible they maybe lost or are mainly in Sanskrit and haven't been translated.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pundalik&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; gives an account of various Panduranga Mahatmyas, from the Varkari sect, the the Sanskrit Brahmins and the Marathi Brahmins, of which the Panduranga Mahatmya by Sridhar is famous. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pg 22 of the book gives an account of names attributed to Pandharpur. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Place names like &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Pandurangaksetra ,” &quot;Pundrikaksetra,&quot; and&#xA;  “Paundarikaksetra”&lt;/strong&gt; occur in both the Panduranga Mahatmya from the&#xA;  Skanda Purana and the one from the Padma Purana. &lt;strong&gt;The Mahatmya from the&#xA;  Padma Purana (chapters 1 and 2) also uses the names “Dindiravana,&quot;&#xA;  “Lohadanda Ksetra,” “Laksmitirtha,” and &quot;Mallikarjunavana.“&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pg 31 gives Four reasons for Panduranga's manifestation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;FOUR REASONS FOR THE MANIFESTATION&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In addition to the story of Krsna’s appearance to Pundalik, the&#xA;  Panduranga Mahatmyas from the Skanda and Padma Puranas cite three&#xA;  other reasons why Lord Vitthal manifested himself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indeed, what these Mahatmyas' story of Vitthal consists of is the&#xA;  narrative of his appearance in Pandharpur for these four reasons. The&#xA;  reasons are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pleased with the way that Pundarik(Or Pundalik) served his mother and father, Krsna carne to his asram in the form of a cowherd in order&#xA;  to give him a boon or a chance to have his darsan (PMSP, chapters 1&#xA;  and 7) This is the reason I have discussed so far.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because Krsna allowed Radha to be close to him even in Dvaraka, Rukmini got angry with him and came sulking to the Dindira Forest&#xA;  (Dindiravan) on the bank of the Bhima. In order to assuage her anger,&#xA;  Krsna carne ﬁrst to Gopalpur along with the cows and cowherds. Then,&#xA;  leaving his whole retinue there, he went alone in the garb of a&#xA;  cowherd to see Rukmini (PMPP, chapter 1).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In order to kill a demon named Dindirava, who had become swollen with arrogance in the Dindirava (or Dindira) forest, Visnu took the&#xA;  form of Mallikarjun Siva. He killed the demon with an iron rod (PMPP,&#xA;  chapter 2).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When a beautiful young woman named Padma had undertaken asceticism in order to get a good husband, God took a form even more beautiful&#xA;  than hers and manifested himself before her. She became infatuated&#xA;  when she saw the god's beauty; her clothes fell away and her hair came&#xA;  loose. By the god’s boon, a tirtha came into being. It was named&#xA;  Muktakesi (“Loose- haired”) in honor of her (PMSP, 3.4of.; 12.32;&#xA;  PMPP, 2114).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additionally this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jstor.org/stable/611710&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;JSTOR article&lt;/a&gt; (you may have to register to read the article I am not sure if I am allowed to directly quote it) on The &quot;Pāṇḍuranga-Māhātmya&quot; of Śrīdhar gives an account of Indra being cursed by Vrtasura to become a brick and Vishnu takes avatar as Panduranga to free Indra by stepping on the brick. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T12:51:26.687" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19515" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19513" CreationDate="2017-07-10T15:36:39.490" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No scriptures describe the life story of Mahidasa Aitareya.&lt;/strong&gt; But he is briefly mentioned in three places in Hindu scripture.  First of all, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01209.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Aitareya Aranyaka of the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Was it water really? Was it water? Yes, all this was water indeed. This (water) was the root (cause), that (the world) was the shoot (effect). He (the person) is the father, they (earth, fire, &amp;amp;c.) are the sons. Whatever there is belonging to the son, belongs to the father; whatever there is belonging to the father, belongs to the son. This was intended. &lt;strong&gt;Mahidâsa Aitareya, who knew this, said: 'I know myself (reaching) as far as the gods, and I know the gods (reaching) as far as me. For these gods receive their gifts from hence, and are supported from hence.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And he's mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01220.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Aitareya Aranyaka of the Rig Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This (nishkevalya-sastra) becomes perfect as a thousand of Brihatîs. It is glory (the glorious Brahman, not the absolute Brahman), it is Indra. Indra is the lord of all beings. He who thus knows Indra as the lord of all beings, departs from this world by loosening the bonds of life - so said Mahidâsa Aitareya. Having departed he becomes Indra (or Hiranyagarbha) and shines in those worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, he's mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01074.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chandogya Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Man is sacrifice. His (first) twenty-four years are the morning-libation... If anything ails him in that (early) age, let him say: 'Ye Prânas, ye Vasus, extend this my morning-libation unto the midday-libation, that I, the sacrificer, may not perish in the midst of the Prânas or Vasus.' Thus he recovers from his illness, and becomes whole. The next forty-four years are the midday-libation....  If anything ails him in that (second) age, let him say: 'Ye Prânas, ye Rudras, extend this my midday-libation unto the third libation, that I, the sacrificer, may not perish in the midst of the Prânas or Rudras.' Thus he recovers from his illness, and becomes whole. The next forty-eight years are the third libation... If anything ails him in that (third) age, let him say: 'Ye Prânas, ye Âdityas, extend this my third libation unto the full age, that I, the sacrificer, may not perish in the midst of the Prânas or Âdityas.' Thus he recovers from his illness, and becomes whole. &lt;strong&gt;Mahidâsa Aitareya, who knew this, said &quot;Why dost thou afflict me, as I shall not die by it?&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; He lived a hundred and sixteen years.He, too, who knows this lives on to a hundred and sixteen years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I said the life story of Mahidasa Airareya isn't described in any scripture, but it is described in Sayana's commentary on the Aitreya Brahmana of the Rig Veda, quoted in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=8mSpQo9q-tIC&amp;amp;lpg=PA7&amp;amp;dq=mahidasa%20itara%20sayana&amp;amp;pg=PA7#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was once a great sage who had many wives.  Among them was one named Itara.  This Itara had a son; the boy was called Mahidasa.  It is said in the part of the Aranyaka: &quot;Mahidasa Aitareya spoke, indeed, such.&quot;  The father of this Mahidasa had greater love towards his son from another wife, than that towards Mahidasa.  Once, in a sacrificial assembly he demonstrated scorn towards Mahidasa, because he took the other son on his lap.  Thereupon his mother, Itara, when she saw the afflicted face of Mahidasa, thought of their family goddess, Earth. Then as it happened the goddess Earth appeared in her celestial form before the sacrificial assembly, presented Mahidasa a heavenly thronelike chair and seated him in it. Then she proclaimed his superiority in knowledge over all other boys and conferred on him as a gift the mental vision of the present Brahmana,.  Through her mercy, the Brahmana consisting of forty chapters was revealed through the mind of Mahidasa.  The Brahmana begins with &quot;Agnir vai devanam avamah&quot; and ends with &quot;Strinute Strinute&quot;.  Further, also the portion of the Brahmana beginning with &quot;atha Mahavratam&quot; and ending with &quot;acharya, acharyah&quot; was revealed to him for the vow of life in the forest.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, earlier than Sayana, the Dvaita philosopher Madhvacharya said in his commentary on the Aitareya Upanishad that Mahidasa Aitreya was an incarnation of Vishnu, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=aI4-AAAAcAAJ&amp;amp;dq=mahidasa%20visala&amp;amp;pg=PA46#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Madhvacharya] state[s] the original speaker of this Upanishad to be Mahidasa, an incarnation of Narayana, proceeding from Visala, son of Abja. He adds, that on the sudden appearance of this deity at a solemn celebration, the whole assembly of gods and priests fainted, but at the intercession of Brahma, they were revived; and after making their obeisance, they were instructed in holy science. This Avatara was called Mahidasa, because those venerable personages (Mahin) declared themselves his slaves (dasa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T19:43:34.310" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T19:43:34.310" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19516" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-10T15:42:47.133" Score="6" ViewCount="284" Body="&lt;p&gt;Have there been any wars fought without involvement of any physical weapons astras, but by using supernatural, divine, or yogic powers only?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, pushing the enemy away with telekinetic powers, hurting them with some kind of energetic power etc, especially among gods and rakshasas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9706" LastEditorUserId="9250" LastEditDate="2018-12-12T11:55:57.283" LastActivityDate="2018-12-22T03:23:47.430" Title="Mythology war fought without any weapons?" Tags="|weapon|war|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19518" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-10T16:23:57.693" Score="5" ViewCount="394" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any invisible places exsist on earth which are not accessible to general humans but restricted or visible  only to few who have the authority to enter into.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes are such places mentioned in our Stories? Can we find details about such places?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9706" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-07-10T16:37:40.977" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T06:57:12.260" Title="Invisible places mentioned in stories?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19519" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-10T18:49:47.953" Score="2" ViewCount="282" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does Hinduism believe divorce and remarriage (while the divorced spouse is still alive) is moral?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9007" LastActivityDate="2017-07-10T18:49:47.953" Title="Does Hinduism believe divorce and remarriage is moral?" Tags="|marriage|divorce|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-07-11T03:17:40.457" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19520" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-11T03:24:06.530" Score="5" ViewCount="1053" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In consequence of the curse of Rama (his preceptor in arms) as also of the words of a Brahmana (who cursed him on another occasion), owing also to his deprivation of the accoutrements of battle, he, in my judgment, is only half a Ratha. Having approached Falguni (in battle), he will not certainly escape with life!' Hearing this, &lt;strong&gt;Drona, that foremost of all wielders of weapons, said, 'It is even so as thou hast said. That is not untrue! He boasteth on the eve of every battle, but yet he is seen to retreat from every engagement. Kind (out of season) and blundering, it is for this that Karna, in my judgment, is only half a Ratha!'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05169.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source Here &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Drona humiliates Karna more than Bhisma itself, yet Karna decided not to fight under Bhisma alone, but took up arms and fought under Drona's command.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is for this that thy heart hath been such. Through pride, and owning also to thy companionship with the low, thy heart hateth even persons of merit! It is for this that I spoke such harsh words about thee in the Kuru camp! I know thy prowess in battle, which can with difficulty be borne on earth by foes! I know also thy regard for Brahmanas. thy courage, and thy great attachment to alms-giving! O thou that resemblest a very god, amongst men there is none like thee! For fear of intestine dissensions I always spoke harsh words about thee. &lt;strong&gt;In bowmanship, in aiming weapon, in lightness of hand and in strength of weapons, thou art equal to Phalguni himself, or the high-souled Krishna!&lt;/strong&gt; O Karna, proceeding to the city of Kasi, alone with thy bow, thou hadst crushed the kings in battle for procuring a bride for the Kuru king! The mighty and invincible king Jarasandha also, ever boastful of his prowess in battle, could not become thy match in fight!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06124.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source here &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Bhisma reveals why he hurt Karna during the tales of Ratha and Atiratha  and says his reason for claiming him to be Half a ratha (during his death bed). Yet Drona with no clue of what's going in the mind of Bhisma, just blatantly agreed to him or is this a hint of Drona too was  aware of Karna's birth secret ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is this a custom way back then, of focusing on the one who started the conversation than the one who joins in the middle ? I don't see how he ignored Drona's comment, but was deeply concerned about Bhisma's comment alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10063" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2019-08-24T09:01:07.203" LastActivityDate="2020-05-20T10:05:50.523" Title="Why did Karna fight under Drona when he too had labelled him as &quot;half a Ratha&quot;?" Tags="|mahabharata|karna|dronacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19521" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19522" CreationDate="2017-07-11T05:12:15.420" Score="5" ViewCount="2753" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story behind the birth of Vidura? Was there any curse for him to be born in the mortal world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T05:15:52.913" Title="How was Vidura born, was it due to any curse?" Tags="|mahabharata|vidura|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19522" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19521" CreationDate="2017-07-11T05:15:52.913" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;When &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19523/1049&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Niyoga&lt;/em&gt; was not successful as expected for 2 widows of Vichitravirya&lt;/a&gt;, named &lt;em&gt;AmbikA&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;AmbalikA&lt;/em&gt;, the queen Satyavati again asked AmbikA to give a second try. The princess refused this time and sent her &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt; maid. The maid remained calm during the Niyoga and hence beget a very good child, Vidura. However Vidura was born out of a curse from Rishi Mandavya. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some time after, when the oldest of Vichitravirya's widows again had her monthly season, she was solicited by Satyavati to approach Vyasa once again. Possessed of beauty like a daughter of a celestial, the princess refused to do her mother-in-law's bidding, remembering the grim visage and strong odour of the Rishi. &lt;strong&gt;She, however, sent unto him, a maid of hers&lt;/strong&gt;, endued with the beauty of an Apsara and decked with her own ornaments. And when the Vyasa arrived, &lt;strong&gt;the maid rose up and saluted him. And she waited upon him respectfully&lt;/strong&gt; and took her seat near him when asked. And, O king, the great Rishi of rigid vows, was well-pleased with her, and when he rose to go away, &lt;strong&gt;he addressed her and said, 'Amiable one, thou shalt no longer be a slave. Thy child also shall be greatly fortunate and virtuous,&lt;/strong&gt; and the foremost of all intelligent men on earth!' And, O king, the son thus begotten upon her by Krishna-Dwaipayana was afterwards known by the name of Vidura. He was thus the brother of Dhritarashtra and the illustrious Pandu. And Vidura was free from desire and passion and was conversant with the rules of government, and &lt;strong&gt;was the god of justice born on earth under the curse of the illustrious Rishi Mandavya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T05:15:52.913" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19523" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7521" CreationDate="2017-07-11T05:17:00.493" Score="5" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Why was Dhritarashtra blind? Was it to do with something in his past life?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Short answer&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any existence of present life can be mapped to the past life. However I could not yet find scripture backup of any curse on DhritarAshtra. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt;, it simply mentions the fault of his mother Ambika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhritarashtra born of the seed of Krishna-Dwaipayana, and gifted with long arms and great energy, also a monarch, of the prophetic eye, &lt;strong&gt;became blind in consequence of the fault of his mother&lt;/strong&gt; and the wrath of the Rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually Vidura was born due to a curse, as discussed &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19522/1049&quot;&gt;in this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Long Answer&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Queen Satyavati had ordered his son VyAsa to beget children to both widows of his deceased son Vichitravirya. When VyAsa visited his mother, he was under the influence of ascetic penace &amp;amp; hence was not ready for the union with a woman who is still under the influence of worldly matters. But his mother Satyavati was adamant about begetting a son from widows, as the HastinApura throne was without any king. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01106.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi parva&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa, hearing this, said, 'O Satyavati, ... Let the ladies then duly observe for one full year the vow I indicate. They shall then be purified. No women shall ever approach me without having observed a rigid vow.'&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Satyavati then said, 'O sinless one, it must be as thou sayest. Take such steps that the ladies may conceive immediately. In a kingdom where there is no king, the people perish from want of protection&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;VyAsa knew that due to his attire and smelly body, a woman might have adverse mindset during the &lt;em&gt;Niyoga&lt;/em&gt; ritual. This would affect the new born child in positive or negative way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa replied, 'If I am to give unto my brother children so unseasonably, then let the ladies bear my ugliness. That in itself shall, in their case, be the austerest of penances. If the princess of Kosala can bear my strong odour, my ugly and grim visage, my attire and body, she shall then conceive an excellent child.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as expected most likely neither of AmbikA or AmbalikA could face the Rishi VyAsa with peaceful mind. Hence whatever were there bodily symptoms at the time of mating, were passed to their sons in their womb:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the Rishi of truthful speech, who had given his promise in respect of Amvika (the eldest of the princesses) in the first instance, entered her chamber while the lamp was burning. &lt;strong&gt;The princess, seeing his dark visage, his matted locks of copper hue, blazing eyes, his grim beard, closed her eyes in fear&lt;/strong&gt;. The Rishi, from desire of accomplishing his mother's wishes, however knew her. But the latter, struck with fear, opened not her eyes even once to look at him. And when Vyasa came out, he was met by his mother, who asked him, 'Shall the princess have an accomplished son?' Hearing her, he replied, '&lt;strong&gt;The son of the princess&lt;/strong&gt; she will bring forth shall be equal in might unto ten thousand elephants. He will be an illustrious royal sage, possessed of great learning and intelligence and energy. The high-souled one shall have in his time a century of sons. But &lt;strong&gt;from the fault of his mother he shall be blind&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additionally, Satyavati had asked to pregnant the 2nd queen AmbAlika. But she became pale seeing the attire of VyAsa. Hence PAndu was born with similar features.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And &lt;strong&gt;Ambalika beholding the Rishi, became pale with fear&lt;/strong&gt; And, O Bharata, beholding her so afflicted and pale with fear, Vyasa addressed her and said, 'Because thou hast been pale with fear at the sight of my grim visage, therefore, &lt;strong&gt;thy child shall be pale in complexion&lt;/strong&gt;. O thou of handsome face, the name also thy child shall bear will be Pandu (the pale).'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: It's doesn't happen always that, if a woman closes her eyes or become pale while sexual congress, then her child will become likewise. But since the VyAsa was of great merit, the severe influence took place. In general it's well known fact that, whatever mother thinks during pregnancy, the child has similar virtues.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-07-12T04:50:48.647" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T04:50:48.647" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19524" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19504" CreationDate="2017-07-11T05:43:19.377" Score="0" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Was Karna's soul possessed by Narakasura?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;. Karna was portion of Surya (deity represented by Sun). From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the &lt;strong&gt;son of Surya&lt;/strong&gt; was at first known in the world by the name of &lt;strong&gt;Vasusena&lt;/strong&gt;. But, for his deeds, he subsequently came to be called &lt;strong&gt;Karna&lt;/strong&gt;. And because that hero of great fame had taken off his natural armour, therefore was he--the first son of Pritha--called &lt;strong&gt;Kama&lt;/strong&gt;. And, O best of kings, the hero began to grow up in the Suta caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Karna's other names (as above) are: &lt;em&gt;Vasusena, KAma, RAdheya&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01112.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source of how Karna was born&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the amiable Kunti (Pritha) became curious, and in her maidenhood summoned the god Arka (Sun) ... Surya (Sun) replied, 'I know that Durvasa hath granted this boon. But cast off thy fears, timid maiden, and grant me thy embraces. Amiable one, my approach cannot be futile; it must bear fruit ... Thus speaking unto the daughter of Kuntibhoja, the illustrious Tapana--the illuminator of the universe--gratified his wish. And of this connection there was immediately born a son known all over the world as Karna accountred with natural armour and with face brightened by ear-rings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may also refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16361/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, on how Karna merged back to &lt;em&gt;Surya&lt;/em&gt; upon his death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other logical &amp;amp; strong reason is that, when Narakasura was killed by Krishna, Karna was already born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-07-11T06:11:35.993" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T06:11:35.993" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19525" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15507" CreationDate="2017-07-11T07:55:56.890" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Satyabhama’s  past life or former birth is also described in &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana – Uttar Kanda –Part  VIII – Chapter 88 &amp;amp; 89 – An account of Satyabham’s former birth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the end of the previous chapter Satymabhama asks Shree-Krishna about her past life .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satya said:&lt;br&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;31-33.&lt;/strong&gt; Formerly (i.e. in my previous existence)&#xA;  which gift (did I give), which vow (did I observe), or which penance&#xA;  did I practise, that I, a mortal, have become like Parvati in this&#xA;  mortal (world), and that I always occupy half (the portion) of your&#xA;  body, always ride Garuda, and went with you to the abode of deities&#xA;  like Indra? Therefore, I desire to ask you, what aus- picious (act) I&#xA;  did in the other (i.e. previous) existence, what (kind of) character I&#xA;  had, and whose daughter I was?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then Shree-Krishna tells her all about her previous existence.Here is the excerpt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;34.45&lt;/strong&gt; At the end of the Krta age in Mayapuri there was an  excellent brahmana of Atri's family, Devasarman by   name, who had&#xA;  mastered the Vedasand the Vedangas. The old man had a daughter,&#xA;  Gunavati by name. Being sonless, he gave his  daughter to his disciple&#xA;  named Candra(sarman).   He (i.e. Devasarman) looked upon him as his&#xA;  (own) son, and he who had controlled his passions. The two,  desiring&#xA;  to collect  kusas and fuel, once went to a forest.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The two then roamed  in  the forest at the foot  of the Himalaya&#xA;  mountain. Then they saw a  fierce demon coming (to them). With their&#xA;  entire body overcome by fear and unable to run , they were killed by&#xA;  demon with death like form.&lt;hr&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chapter 89 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1-4.&lt;/strong&gt;    Then Gunavati, after hearing that the two were  killed by a &#xA;  demon,  being overcome   by grief for  her father and husband, she&#xA;  plunged into the ocean of grief and was overcome by it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She, doing auspicious acts, sold all domestic articles and performed&#xA;  the rites beneficial to the two in the next world.  She, highly&#xA;  devoted to Visnu, calm, truthful, pure and with her senses controlled,&#xA;  lived in that city only and sustained her life.  &lt;strong&gt;From birth till death&#xA;  she properly observed two vows: the vow of Ekadasi and the vow of&#xA;  (i.e. relating to) Kartika.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;15-30&lt;/strong&gt;.   In this way Gunavati, always devoted  to Visnu's followers,&#xA;  and having fixed her mind on him, passed every year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O dear one, once she who was emaciated due to old age and was&#xA;  tormented by fever, slowly, somehow, went to Ganga to bathe. When, &#xA;  after she got into the water , she trembled  and was oppressed by cold&#xA;  and frightened, she saw an aeroplane that came from the sky. From the&#xA;  sky it approached with (beings) having Visnu's form, having conches,&#xA;  discs and maces in their hands, and properly marked with banners&#xA;  having (the pictures of) eagles. She got into the aeroplane served by&#xA;  a bevy of celes- tial nymphs. The attendants took her being fanned by&#xA;  chowries, to Vaikuntha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your father became (i.e. was born as) this king Satrajit. He who was&#xA;  Candrasarman (became) Akrura, and you are that Gunavati, O auspicious&#xA;  one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Since you offered all that vow etc. to Visnu of the from of your&#xA;  husband, therefore, you have become my wife.&lt;/strong&gt; Due to that vow only&#xA;  which you formerly (i.e. in the former existence) observed in Kartika,&#xA;  from birth till death, you will never be separated from me.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c36Hi.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c36Hi.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T07:55:56.890" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19526" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19498" CreationDate="2017-07-11T08:41:50.667" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;But we are supposed to put our own efforts to liberate. ... we are the ones who supposed to liberate from these bondages? ... we are supposed to be responsible for liberation.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The central theme of this question is about &quot;Why should &lt;strong&gt;we&lt;/strong&gt; attempt for liberation, when we are being put into bondage by &lt;strong&gt;someone else&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;IMO, this is already answered in following posts (hence duplicate):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3563/1049&quot;&gt;Who gives Moksha?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/13889/1049&quot;&gt;Why doesn&amp;#39;t Lord Krishna give Moksha to everyone?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another linked post: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6855/1049&quot;&gt;Why does God allow us to suffer?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Making it a community wiki straight away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T08:41:50.667" CommentCount="3" CommunityOwnedDate="2017-07-11T08:41:50.667" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19527" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19553" CreationDate="2017-07-11T08:44:43.160" Score="8" ViewCount="11365" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many great sages wrote Ramayana in different time and yuga. But great Sage Valmiki is the first writer of Ramayana who wrote whole Ramayana even before the story of Ramayana is completed in real life. Means Ramayana (Story of Rama's life) was being written by Valmiki from birth to death even when Rama was alive. He wrote down all incidents of Rama's  life before it actually happened because Valmiki was able to see future. But recently I came to know about a new fact in which it is stated that Hanuman was the first writer of Ramayana. Here is how...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After defeating Ravana, Hanuman went to a mountain (don't remember name right now) and start writing Ramayana with his nails. When he did complete his Ramayana then Great Sage Valmiki saw Hanuman's Ramayana and found that his Ramayana is far more superior and better than Valmiki's (mine) Ramayana. So he got tense by seeing Humaana's version of Ramayana. He got afraid that if world will see Hanuman's far superior Ramayana then no one will even notice his Ramayana and no one will praise his work. So Valmiki politely asked to Hanuman that...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramayana Should only be written by human devotee, not by Lord or incarnation of Lord. Since you are incarnation of Lord Shiva, so you should not write Ramayana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Hanuman got convinced by Valmiki's words and destroyed his version of Ramayana so that no one ever could see his Ramayana and world can only witness Valmiki's Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is it really true that Hanuman wrote Ramayana before Sage Valmiki and his version of Ramayana was more superior than Valmiki's Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-08-27T20:42:18.357" LastActivityDate="2018-08-27T20:42:18.357" Title="Is Hanuman the first writer of Ramayana?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19528" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15222" CreationDate="2017-07-11T13:09:43.377" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;I hope the following answer conveys the idea of why it is non trivial to answer your question briefly. Your question is akin to asking &quot;What is the procedure to worship the Lord&quot; or &quot;What is the procedure to perform Sandhyavandana&quot;. Nothing short of an elaborate manual would suffice to answer your question. I hope the linked videos of Agnihotra practice demonstrate this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;There is a lot of incorrect information being spread about Agnihotra. Much of what can be found on the internet or YouTube about Agnihotra on neo-Hindu websites is pure fiction.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is incorrect that it is simple/easy to perform Agnihotra (well, simple/easy is a perspective). It is also incorrect that anyone and everyone can perform Agnihotra.&lt;/strong&gt; Agnihotra is a Vedic ceremony/lifestyle and thus comes with all rules/eligibility criteria that Vedic yajnas do. For an example of Agnihotra in Shukla Yajur Veda see the recording of &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/vZIyH9wBW54&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ram Prasad Gautam of Nepal&lt;/a&gt;. For an example of Agnihotra in Krishna Yajur Veda, see &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D5QXAXbjsE&amp;amp;t=837s&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; and related recordings of the fortnighly sacrifices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am going to describe Agnihotra in the context of Brahmin performers. It is possible that Kshatriyas and Vaishyas also are eligible to perform it, but I only know about the eligibility of Brahmins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Brahmin student after completing his basic Vedic education (learning to recite the text of his own recension/shakha) tend specialize one of the following paths:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;further studies in Vedic recitation (advanced modes of recitation like Krama and Ghana),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;further studies in one or more Sastras: Tarka, Vyakarana, Mimamsa, Vedanta, Dharma texts, Agama, Veda Bhashya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;further studies in Grihya Sutras and the performance of upAdhyAya or paurohitya (performing domestic rituals for families).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;further studies in Mimamsa/Srauta followed by a commitment to the lifelong performance of Agnihotra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These four paths are not mutually exclusive. E.g. one can learn advanced Vedic recitation, learn Tarka Sastra and perform Agnihotra while also being a family priest. However it is  not typical for people to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other eligibility criteria to pursue the path of Agnihotra. E.g. One must be married with a living wife (the ceremony is jointly performed) and must have a son (jAta-putraH). His hair must still be predominantly black (kRRiShNakeshI). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jātaputraḥ kṛṣṇakeśī agnīnādadhīta (śabara on jaiminī 1.3.2-3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He must either be an eldest son, OR his older brothers must all be practising Agnihotrins, OR he must receive permission from his older brothers to kindle his fires before them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agnihotra is performed in three fires: Garhaptya, Ahavaniya and Dakshinagni. The setting up the the three fires is performed in a ritual called agnyAdhAna. Once lit, the fires must not burn out until the sacrificer, or his wife dies. In practice, the  Dharma Sastras allow some flexibility about this for exceptional circumstances, OR old age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Performing daily agnihotra is accompanied by the fortnightly, monthly and quarterly yajnas. Having performed this for one year, the performer becomes eligible to perform advanced Vedic Yajnas like the Seven Soma sacrifices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I would guess that there are less than one hundred living performers of traditional Agnihotra today!&lt;/strong&gt; Some Kalivarjya texts prohibit the performance of the Agnihotra in the Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;David Knipe's monograph - &quot;Vedic Voices: Intimate Narratives of a Living Andhra Tradition&quot;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The 'Kalivarjyas' or 'Prohibitions in the Kali Age' by Batuknath Bhattacharya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10413" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T13:09:43.377" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19530" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19542" CreationDate="2017-07-11T14:34:37.900" Score="5" ViewCount="252" Body="&lt;p&gt;When ever I try to concentrate in either my breath or a word I am not able to concentrate. Please give me some solution to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I do concentration by ignoring those thoughts than after I open my eyes I don't feel good. So what should I do?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9166" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-13T05:32:51.610" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T06:59:25.127" Title="How to do meditation if I've got negative thoughts?" Tags="|practice|meditation|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19531" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7675" CreationDate="2017-07-11T15:02:51.203" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Valmiki Ramayana, the number of Vānaras in the Sugrīva army fought in the war were plenty. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sugrīva Army:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga28/yuddha_28_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 28&lt;/a&gt;, one of the spies of Rāvaṇa named Shuka gives a number of Vānaras in the Sugrīva's army. That number is unbelievable in today's terms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एषाम् कोटि सहस्राणि नव पन्च च सप्त च |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथा शन्ख सहस्राणि तथा वृन्द शतानि च || 6-28-4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are twenty one thousand crores, a thousand Shankus and a hundred Vrindas of these monkeys.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एते सुग्रीव सचिवाः किष्किन्धा निलयाः सदा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हरयो देव गन्धर्वैर् उत्पन्नाः काम रूपिणः || ६-२८-५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These monkeys, the attendants of Sugrīva born of celestials and celestial musicians, are able to change their form at will and always stay in Kishkindha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now to know, the number corresponding to &lt;em&gt;Vrinda, Shanku&lt;/em&gt; is explained in the later verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शतम् शतसहस्राणाम् कोटिमाहुर्मनीषिणः || 6-28-33 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शतम् कोटिसहस्राणाम् शङ्कुरित्यभिधीयते | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wise men call a hundred lakhs as a crore. A hundred thousand crores is reckoned as a Shanku.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A hundred thousand Shankus are said to be one Maha Shanku. A hundred thousand Maha Shankus are called one Vrindam here. A hundred thousand Vrindas are said to be one Maha vrindam. A hundred thousand Mahavrindas are called one Padmam here. A hundred thousand padmas are said to be one Mahapadmam. A hundred thousand Mahapadmas are called one Kharvam here. A hundred thousand kharvas are said to be one Mahakharvam. A hundred thousand Mahakharvas are called one Samundram. A hundred thousand Samudras are said to be one ogha here. A hundred thousand oghas are acclaimed a one Mahaugha.  [6-28-34,35,36,37,38]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Koti(Crore)  = 10&lt;sup&gt;7&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shanku = 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahashanku = 10&lt;sup&gt;17&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vrindam = 10&lt;sup&gt;22&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;MahaVrindam = 10&lt;sup&gt;27&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Padmam = 10&lt;sup&gt;32&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahapadmam = 10&lt;sup&gt;37&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kharvam = 10&lt;sup&gt;42&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahakharvam = 10&lt;sup&gt;47&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Samundram = 10&lt;sup&gt;52&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahasamundram = 10&lt;sup&gt;57&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ogha = 10&lt;sup&gt;62&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahaugha = 10&lt;sup&gt;67&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Sugrīva, the king of monkeys, having great strength and valour, always surrounded by a colossal army, is approaching you to make war, accompanied by the valiant Vibhishana and the ministers, as also a hundred thousand crores of Shankas, a thousand Mahashankus, a hundred Vrindas, a thousand mahavrindas, a hundred padmas, a thousand Mahapadmas, a hundred kharves, samudras and Mahaughas of the same number, &lt;strong&gt;and a crore of Mahaughas whole army as such is identical of an ocean&lt;/strong&gt;. [6-28-39,40,41,42,43]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the number of Vānaras in the Sugrīva were more than a crore Mahaughas. To sum up, there were a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_10#Positive_powers&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;billion Vigintillion&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;10&lt;sup&gt;72&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rāvaṇa's Army:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When compared with Vānara Army, Rāvaṇa's Army is lesser strong in terms of numbers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga37/yuddha_37_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 37&lt;/a&gt;, an incident is described where Vibhīṣaṇa sends his spies to Lanka to know about enemy's army. He speaks with Rama as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My counsellors named Anala, Panasa, Sampati and Pramati went to the City of Lanka and returned here. Assuming the form of birds, all the four entered that enemy's citadel and observed the measures taken by Ravana closely. [6-37-7,8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The elephants and chariots number some ten thousand each, the cavalry twenty thousand and there are more than a crore foot soldiers. These strong and intrepid demons endeavouring to kill someone in battle have ever been their sovereign's favourites. [6-37-16,17]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O, Rama! In these demons, a retinue of ten lacs each is near at land for each demon. [6-37-18]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O, Rama! When Ravana attacked Kubera in battle, sixty lacs of demons sallied forth with him. All of them were akin to the evil-minded Ravana in prowess, in strength, in courage and in pride. [6-37-2,22] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weapons used by either of the sides&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though the soldiers in the Rāvaṇa army were less in number, they were fierce, powerful and fought with weapons like maces, spears, swords and other weapons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whereas Vānaras fought with their nails, teeth, huge boulders, hilltops and trees. They &lt;em&gt;did not&lt;/em&gt; use any special weapons like maces, etc.,(For more details see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18748/what-is-lord-hanumans-weapon-of-choice-from-scriptures/18885#18885&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer of mine). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-11T18:09:23.377" LastActivityDate="2017-07-11T18:09:23.377" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19534" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-12T04:11:31.447" Score="3" ViewCount="586" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any references to laws of motion in Hindu Scriptures like Vedas, Upanishands, Puranas or elsewhere?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; Answer only from Hindu Scriptures or provide views of Hindu Acharyas on this topic. Don't speculate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2018-03-25T12:49:17.403" LastActivityDate="2018-03-25T12:49:17.403" Title="Is there any mention of law of motions in Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|science|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ClosedDate="2017-07-13T20:52:17.523" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19536" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-12T06:13:11.323" Score="2" ViewCount="426" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is said that Barbarika had Three Arrows which is the &lt;strong&gt;Most powerful ones&lt;/strong&gt; and so he was sacrificed to Mahabharta War.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What are the Three Arrows of Barbarika and how he &lt;strong&gt;Got them&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are these Three Arrows powerful than &lt;strong&gt;Brahmashtra,Pasupathastra and Vaishnavaastra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T06:13:11.323" Title="What are the three Arrows of Barbarika and how he got them?" Tags="|mahabharata|weapon|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19537" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19530" CreationDate="2017-07-12T06:41:47.947" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The important thing is you stop feeding them by worrying or fearing about them. The more you think the more strength they get. Its common for every aspirant so it is natural, you need not worry much about it. Engage your mind in swadhyaya and satsanga whenever you get free time. Give positive suggestions/affirmations whenever you sit for your practice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Watch your mind always very carefully. Be vigilant. Be on the alert.&#xA;  Do not allow waves of irritability, jealousy, anger, hatred and lust&#xA;  to rise from the mind. These dark waves are enemies of meditation,&#xA;  peace and wisdom. Suppress them immediately by entertaining sublime&#xA;  and divine thoughts. Evil thoughts that have arisen may be destroyed&#xA;  by originating good thoughts and maintaining them by repeating any&#xA;  Mantra or the name of the Lord, by thinking on any form of the Lord,&#xA;  by practice of Pranayama, by singing the name of the Lord, by doing&#xA;  good action and thinking of the misery that arises from evil thoughts.&#xA;  When you attain the state of purity, no evil thoughts will arise in&#xA;  your mind. Just as it is easy to check the intruder or enemy at the&#xA;  gate, so also it is easy to overcome an evil thought as soon as it&#xA;  arises. Nip it in the bud. Do not allow it to strike deep root.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the beginning of your practice of thought-control, you will&#xA;  experience great difficulty. You will have to wage war with them. They&#xA;  will try their level best for their own existence. They will say, &quot;we&#xA;  have every right to remain in this palace of mind. We have a sole&#xA;  monopoly from time immemorial to occupy this area. Why should we&#xA;  vacate our dominion now? We will fight for our birthright till the&#xA;  end.&quot; They will pounce upon you with great ferocity. When you sit for&#xA;  meditation only, all sorts of evil thoughts will crop up. As you&#xA;  attempt to suppress, they want to attack you with redoubled force and&#xA;  vigour. But positive always overcomes the negative. Just as darkness&#xA;  cannot stand before the sun, just as the leopard cannot stand before&#xA;  the lion, so also all these dark, negative thoughts, these invisible&#xA;  intruders, enemies of peace, cannot stand before the sublime thoughts.&#xA;  They must die by themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When you are very busy in your daily work, you may not harbour any&#xA;  impure thoughts; but when you take rest and leave the mind blank, the&#xA;  impure thoughts will try to enter insidiously. You must be careful&#xA;  when the mind is relaxed.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1718&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T06:41:47.947" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19538" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19518" CreationDate="2017-07-12T06:57:12.260" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is believed that such places exist in different dimension and plane. Somewhat between physical and astral. This is referred to as Shambhala in buddhist texts, Siddhashrama and gjnana ganja in hindu scriptures and stories. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a fascinating subject and I recommend you to read books like &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/document/205313536/Gyanganja-M-M-Gopinath-Kaviraj&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gyan-ganj&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.courtofrecord.org/archive/Paul-Brunton-A-Search-in-Secret-India.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Search of Secret India&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Gyanganj (Jnanganj) Yogashram – the ancient name of this Yogashram&#xA;  was ‘Indra Bhawan’. This ancient Ashram was renovated and restored to&#xA;  its pristine glory again by Swami Gyananand Paramahans, a disciple of&#xA;  Maharshi Mahatapa. Under his able administration and responsible&#xA;  management it started functioning properly once again under the new&#xA;  name Gyanganj.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gyanganj is an extraordinary spiritual training centre. The&#xA;  Brahmacharis, Brahmacharinis and Paramahansas of this centre, after&#xA;  getting established in the state Aham-Brahmasmi, roam about in the&#xA;  universe as, when and where they like.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Gyanganj (Jnanganj) Yogashram with a perimeter of about 16&#xA;  kilometres, is situated in the western region of Tibet, an upland in&#xA;  the Himalayas to the north of India. This ancient Ashram was renovated&#xA;  and restored to its pristine glory once again by Swami Gyananand&#xA;  Paramhans, a disciple of Maharshi Mahatapa. Under his able&#xA;  administration and responsible management it started functioning&#xA;  properly once again under the new name of Gyanganj. All this&#xA;  renovation took place about seven hundred years earlier, i.e., say&#xA;  about 1225 A.D. Yogiraj Shri Vishuddhanand had eulogised about the&#xA;  eminence of Gyanganj Yogashram in brief at times about the&#xA;  supernatural experiences and powers of the Yogis of this Ashram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;About the name ‘Gyanganj’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now ‘Gyan’ is a Sanskrit word and ‘Gan’j appears to be a Persian word.&#xA;  How come that the words of these two different languages have been&#xA;  joined up to form the word Gyan-ganj? In actual fact Ganj is a word,&#xA;  the root of which is Sanskrit and it travelled from Bharat (India) to&#xA;  Persia: Ganj : Gaji (Bhwadi ganiya Dhatu) + Yan (Pratyaya) The word&#xA;  ‘Ganj’ means ‘Treasury of Jewels’ so ‘Gyanganj’ literally means&#xA;  ‘Treasury of Knowledge of All Kinds’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paramhansa Vishuddhanand Ji Gandh-baba&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Vishuddhananda’s childhood name was Bholanath Chattopadhyaya.&#xA;  Siddha Yogi Swami Nimanand Paramahansa of the secret Gyanganj&#xA;  Yogashram in Tibet took Bholnath to Gyanganj ashram. Yogiraj&#xA;  Vishuddhanand Paramhansadeva was the first Yogi-Saint to introduce and&#xA;  propagate Surya-Vijnan, solar science, into the world for the first&#xA;  time. Up till then this science was confined to the precints of the&#xA;  ancient secrets of Yogashram at Gyanganj in the Himalayas in Tibet and&#xA;  was known only to the ancients. Baba stayed in Gyanganj Ashram for 12&#xA;  years. Surya i.e., Sun or Savita means ‘source of creation’. According&#xA;  to Surya-Vijnan there are 360 rays of the sun which go to form the&#xA;  whole creation of the Universe. Baba converted cotton wool, flowers&#xA;  and leaves into stones, wood, etc. by the incidence of appropriate&#xA;  rays of the Sun. He demonstrated practically how minute particles of&#xA;  ingredients of various objects could be dispersed or assembled and&#xA;  destroyed or created through the proces of Surya-Vijnan. As a result&#xA;  of his adherence to the strict rules of the Brahmacharya period,&#xA;  Bholanath had freed himself from the influence of ego and had also&#xA;  developed the spirit of surrender to the will of the Supreme Power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shivayoga.net/gyanganj-2/gyanganj-jnanganj-yogashram-in-tibet/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T06:57:12.260" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19539" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17109" CreationDate="2017-07-12T08:34:11.297" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vishnu Purana: There is in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/vishnu-purana-wilson/d/doc115968.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter VIII of Book II&lt;/a&gt; which is dedicated to the description of the sun and his chariot:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The chariot of the sun&lt;/strong&gt; is nine thousand leagues in length, and the pole is of twice that longitude; the axle is fifteen millions and seven hundred thousand leagues long; on which is fixed a wheel with three naves, five spokes, and six peripheries, consisting of the ever-during year; the whole constituting the circle or wheel of time. &lt;strong&gt;The chariot&lt;/strong&gt; has another axle, which is forty-five thousand five hundred leagues long.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two halves of the yoke are of the same length respectively as the two axles (the longer and the shorter). The short axle, with the short yoke, are supported by the pole-star: the end of the longer axle, to which the wheel of the car is attached, moves on the Mānasa mountain. &lt;strong&gt;The seven horses of the sun's car&lt;/strong&gt; are the metres of the Vedas, Gāyatrī, Vrihatī, Uṣṇih, Jayatī, Tṛṣṭubh, Anuṣṭubh, and Pankti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interesting side-note, chapter 12 of the same book describes the moon and the moon’s chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Markandeya Purana: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-markandeya-purana/d/doc117198.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 107 (Hymn to the Sun)&lt;/a&gt; has a small reference to the Sun’s chariot:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Sun, so that thou shinest exceedingly with masses of light that calls the three worlds into life. Mounting thy &lt;strong&gt;equally proportioned chariot&lt;/strong&gt; that sways about gracefully and is widely pleasing, with horses that are ever unwearied, O adorable god, thou coursest the broad world for our good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devi Bhagavata Purana: A reference to the color of the chariot’s horses is found in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/devi-bhagavata-purana/d/doc57132.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Devi Bhagavata Purana (Book 2, Chapter 12)&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“At that moment Kadru and Vinatā, the two co-wives of Kaśyapa saw &lt;strong&gt;the horses yoked in the chariot of the sun&lt;/strong&gt; and thus argued with each other :-- Kadru, seeing the sun’s horse, first asked Vinatā “O good one! Tell me soon, what is the colour of this horse?” Vinatā said :-- “O auspicious one! What do you think?” I said, the colour of the horse is white; you also better say before hand what is its colour? We will then lay a wager (and challenge).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus saying, Kadru told her sons that were obedient :-- “Cover by your bodies all the pores of the body of &lt;strong&gt;the horse of the chariot of the Sun&lt;/strong&gt;, so it may look black; go and do it.” At this some snakes replied “That cannot be.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the same text is a more descriptive chapter on the movement of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/devi-bhagavata-purana/d/doc57303.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the chariot of the sun (book 8, chapter 15)&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Nārada! The Moon and the other planets and stars rise and set in the aforesaid manner. Thus the powerful chariot of the Sun travels in a Muhūrta 142,00000 Yojanas. By the force of Pravaha Vāyu (air), the Sun God, the Incarnate of the Vedas travels round the cities, the Zodiac, in one Samvatsara (year). The &lt;strong&gt;wheel of the Sun’s Chariot&lt;/strong&gt; is one year; twelve months are the spokes; three Cāturmāsyas are the nave and the six seasons are the outer ring or circumference of the wheel. The learned men call this chariot as the Samvatsara (one year). The axis or axle points to the Meru on one side and to Mānasottara mountain on the other. The end or circumference of the wheel marks off other divisions of the time as Kalā, Kāṣṭhā, Muhūrta, Yāma, Parahara, day and night, and fortnights. The wheel is fixed on the nave. The Sun goes on this wheel, like an oilman’s on his oil-machine, round and round the Mānasottara mountain. The eastern side of the wheel is on that axis and the other part is fixed on the Pole Star. The dimension of the first axis is (15750000 Yoyanas). The second axis measures one-fourth of the above (3937500 Yoyanas). It resembles the axis of an oil-machine. The upper side of that is considered to belong to the Sun. &lt;strong&gt;The seat of the Sun on his chariot&lt;/strong&gt; measures 36 Lakh Yoyanas wide. The Yuga measures in length one fourth of the above dimensions, that of his seat. &lt;strong&gt;The Chariot is is moved&lt;/strong&gt; by seven horses, consisting of the seven Chandas, Gāyatrī, etc., driven by Aruṇa. The horses carry the Sun for the happiness of all. Though the charioteer sits in front of the Sun, his face is turned towards the west. He does his work as a charioteer in that state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T10:42:39.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19540" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19516" CreationDate="2017-07-12T09:15:53.357" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Wars are usually fought between groups and mostly it will be using weapons or objects to gain quick advantage.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;However there are some famous individual &lt;strong&gt;wrestling battles&lt;/strong&gt; happened during MahAbhArata time, which were &lt;strong&gt;without weapons&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;1. Krishna vs Kansa&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upon arriving at Mathura, Krishna slained Kansa in a 1:1 combat &amp;amp; freed his parents &amp;amp; grandfather Ugrasena.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And so also Kansa of mighty energy, who was, besides, protected by Jarasandha, was, with all his followers, slain in battle by Krishna &lt;strong&gt;aided by his prowess alone&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;sup&gt;[23:2]&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07011.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;23:2 i.e., without weapons of any kind.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW, just before that battle, Krishna-BalarAma had already killed Kansa's 2 Rakshasas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;2. Bhima vs Jarasandha&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A choice was given to Jarasandha to choose his opponent on 1:1 combat. He had chosen Bhima.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna of the Yadava race, addressing king Jarasandha who was resolved upon fighting, said,--'O king, with whom amongst us three dost thou desire to fight? Who amongst us shall prepare himself for battle (with thee)?' Thus addressed, the ruler of Magadha, king Jarasandha of great splendour, expressed his desire for fighting with Bhima.... Then those tigers among men, those heroes of great prowess, &lt;strong&gt;with their bare arms as their only weapons&lt;/strong&gt;, cheerfully engaged themselves in the encounter, each desirous of vanquishing the other.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally Bhima killed him by &lt;strong&gt;breaking his spine&lt;/strong&gt;, &amp;amp; not by splitting his legs like a wood-stick as depicted in some places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhima, that slayer of foes, holding up in the air the powerful Jarasandha, began to whirl him on high. And, O bull of the Bharata race, having so whirled him in the air full hundred times, &lt;strong&gt;Bhima pressed his knee against Jarasandha's backbone and broke his body in twain&lt;/strong&gt;. And having killed him thus,  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02024.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T09:15:53.357" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19541" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2125" CreationDate="2017-07-12T10:24:19.973" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usually the temple construction involves complex processes which starts from selecting a proper site and layout. It involves various subjects like Vastu, Shilpa, Agama etc. for the whole process of temple making. Usually there are not many differences in the basic structure of the temples. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ponds may not be mandatory for shivalayas because there are many temples which do not have ponds. &#xA;Temple tanks are not exclusive for Shiva temples alone. There is pushkarni in Rajagopala Swami temple, Mannargudi also in Venkatesha temple, Tirumala. Even famous temples like Sri Varadharaja of kAnchi and Sri Ranganatha of Srirangam have their own tanks. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Shiva temples too have their own configuration. In a Siva temple,&#xA;  the Shivaliga would be placed at the Brahma sthana, the shrines are&#xA;  dedicated to Parvathi, Ganapati, Subramanya , Veerabhadra  and&#xA;  Candesvara would placed in the surrounding cells of the temples Vastu&#xA;  Purusha Mandala; as illustrated in the following typical layout of the&#xA;  famous Shiva temple at Gangaikondacholapuram(mid 11th century).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vYaVd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vYaVd.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Similarly in the Sri Kailasanathaswamy and Nithyakalyani Amman Temple,&#xA;  Ilayathakudi ( near karaikudi), Shiva shrine is at the Brahmastana,&#xA;  opposite to Shiva is lined Nandi, Bali pita and Dwajasthamba. The&#xA;  shrine of Nitya_kalyani Amman is located independently in the North.&#xA;  In the Mantapa adjoining the Sanctum are Ganapathi, Durga and Skanda.&#xA;  The Saptha Mathrikas, the seven female divinities, have their shrine&#xA;  in the Prakara behind the shrine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One of the main resources for a practicing shilpi is the collection of&#xA;  Dhyana shlokas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Before a shilpi starts on a project to sculpt an image, he needs to be&#xA;  clear in his mind on its form, its aspects, its countenance, the&#xA;  details of its physiognomy, its facial and bodily expressions; its&#xA;  posture, details of the number of arms, heads and eyes; and details of&#xA;  its ornaments, ayudhas (objects it holds in its hands) etc. For this&#xA;  purpose, the Shilpis generally refer to a wonderful collection of most&#xA;  amazingly articulate verses called Dhyana Shlokas, the verses in&#xA;  contemplation. These verses culled from various texts of Shipa&#xA;  Shastra, the Agamas and the Puranas; and also from Buddhist and Jain&#xA;  texts, describe, precisely, the postures (dynamic or static, seated or&#xA;  standing), the Bhangas (flexions – slight, triple, or extreme bends),&#xA;  Mudras (hand gestures), the attitudes, the nature, the consorts and&#xA;  other vital details of each aspect that provides the deity with power&#xA;  and grace. it is said that there are about 32 aspects or forms of&#xA;  Ganapathi, 16 of Skanda, 5 of Brahma, 64 of yoginis, and innumerable&#xA;  forms of Vishnu, Shiva and Devi .Each one of those forms has a Dhyana&#xA;  shloka illustrating  its aspects and attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sukhasana is sitting with one leg bent at the knee and across; and the&#xA;  other leg down and almost touching the ground. The deity is in a&#xA;  relaxed position looking happy, peaceful and joyous. Images of&#xA;  Padmapani , Vishnu, Shiva or Devi in Sukhasana are the most common&#xA;  examples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Tantrasara Vishnu has 19 mudras (shankha, chakra, Gadha,&#xA;  padma etc.), which mean attributes; Shiva has 10 mudras (yoni.&#xA;  Trishula, linga tc.); Ganesha has 7(ankusha, dantha, modaka etc.);&#xA;  Saraswathi has 7(maala, pusthaka, veena, etc.); and Agni has 7&#xA;  (flames, horns etc,) and so on. The Tantrika also include Jata,&#xA;  Tilaka, Bhasma, Chandana etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A. Maps of Madurai and Sri Rangam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By courtesy of Kultur in Indien &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;B.Other pictures from Internet. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;C. Devalaya Vastu by Prof. SKR Rao &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;D. Vastu – Astrology and Architecture &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;E. Stella Kramrisch, The Hindu Temple,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sreenivasaraos.com/2012/09/09/temple-architecture-devalaya-vastu-part-five-5-of-7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-12T12:26:54.273" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T12:26:54.273" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19542" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19530" CreationDate="2017-07-12T11:06:55.857" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;When ever i try to concentrate in either my breath or a word i am not able to concentrate. Please give me some solution to it.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes , the solution of your above problem is given in various Hinduism scriptures like &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Gita  , Patanjali YOG-SUTRAS , Aparokshanubhuti&lt;/strong&gt; ( by adi Shankaracharya ) etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This problem is discussed and possible solutions are also given in below shlokas by various texts.&#xA;&lt;hr&gt; &#xA;Here is what Shree Adi Shankaracharya Says in his book called &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Works_of_Sankaracharya_with_Hindi_Translation/AparokshanubhutiWithDipikaHindiTika-RamswarupDvivedi1908khemraj#page/n13/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aparokshanubhuti&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;   where he describes a method that seekers can follow to directly experience the essential truth of one's one nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समाधौ क्रियमाणे तु विघ्नान्यायान्ति वै बलात । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अनुसन्धानराहित्यमालस्यं भोगलालसम ।।127।। &lt;br&gt; लयस्तमश्च विक्षेपो&#xA;  रसास्वाद्श्च शून्यता । &lt;br&gt; एवं यद्विघ्नबाहुल्यम त्याजं ब्रह्मविदा शनै&#xA;  ।।128।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While practicing Samadhi there appear unavoidably many obstacles, such&#xA;  as lack of inquiry, idleness, desire for sense-pleasure, sleep,&#xA;  dullness, distraction, tasting of joy, and the sense of blankness. One&#xA;  desiring the knowledge of Brahman should slowly get rid of such&#xA;  innumerable obstacles. &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यत्र यत्र मनो याति ब्रह्मण स्तत्र दर्शनात।&lt;br&gt;  मनसो धारणं चैव धारणा&#xA;  सा परा मता॥१२२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yatra Yatea Mano Yaati Brahman StaStra Darshanat &lt;br&gt; Manaso Dharanam&#xA;  Chaiva Dharana Sa Para Mata &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning - &lt;strong&gt;A supreme condition (Dharana) is that , in which one&#xA;  realises that , which ever place his mind goes , that place is&#xA;  Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here what Shree Adi Shakarcharya is saying is let your mind go anywhere ,onto anything (good or bad or on materialistic pleasure's) , one should realise that thing as a Brahman, that is Best Dharana.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what &lt;strong&gt;Patanjali&lt;/strong&gt; advices us on your enquiry in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swamij.com/pdf/yogasutrasinterpretive.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;YOG –SUTRAS&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;  in the first chapter - Stabilizing and clearing the mind (1.33-1.39) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मैत्रीकरुणामुदितोपेक्षणां सुखदु:खपुण्यापुण्यविषयाणां भावनात&#xA;  श्र्चित्तप्रसादनम् ||33||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;maitreekarunamuditopekshanan sukhaduhkhapunyapunyavishayanan&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  bhavanatashchittaprasadanam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Friendship, mercy, gladness, indifference, being thought of in regard&#xA;  to subjects, happy, unhappy, good and evil respectively, pacify the&#xA;  Chitta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.33&lt;/strong&gt; In relationships, the mind becomes purified by cultivating feelings of friendliness towards those who are happy, compassion for&#xA;  those who are suffering, goodwill towards those who are virtuous, and&#xA;  indifference or neutrality towards those we perceive as wicked or&#xA;  evil. (maitri karuna mudita upekshanam sukha duhka punya apunya&#xA;  vishayanam bhavanatah chitta prasadanam) • maitri = friendliness,&#xA;  pleasantness,&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रच्छर्दनविधारणाभ्याम वा प्राणस्य || 34|| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prachchhardanavidharanabhyan va prannasya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.34&lt;/strong&gt; The mind is also calmed by regulating the breath, particularly attending to exhalation and the natural stilling of&#xA;  breath that comes from such practice. (prachchhardana vidharanabhyam&#xA;  va pranayama)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Patanjali is advicing us to calm our mind by improving  and &lt;strong&gt;cultivating good  feelings.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Then with pacified mind no negative thoughts will come in mind while practicing meditation.&#xA;He is also advising us to control negative thoughts coming in mind by &lt;strong&gt;Breathing exercise (Pranayama)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Shreemad Bhagvad gita Lord Shree Krishna tells this - : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यतो यतो निश्चरति मनश्चञ्चलमस्थिरम्।&lt;br&gt; ततस्ततो नियम्यैतदात्मन्येव वशं&#xA;  नयेत्।।6.26।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yato yato niścalati &lt;br&gt; manaś cañcalam asthiram&lt;br&gt; tatas tato&#xA;  niyamyaitad&lt;br&gt; ātmany eva vaśaṁ nayet&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From wherever the mind wanders due to its ﬂickering and unsteady&#xA;  nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the&#xA;  control of the Self. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/26&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 6.26&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शनैः शनैरुपरमेद् बुद्ध्या धृतिगृहीतया।&lt;br&gt; आत्मसंस्थं मनः कृत्वा न&#xA;  किञ्चिदपि चिन्तयेत्।।6.25।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śanaiḥ śanair uparamed&lt;br&gt; buddhyā dhṛti-gṛhītayā&lt;br&gt; ātma-saṁsthaṁ&#xA;  manaḥ kṛtvā&lt;br&gt; na kiñcid api cintayet&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gradually, step by step, one should become situated in trance by means&#xA;  of intelligence sustained by full conviction, and thus the mind should&#xA;  be ﬁxed on the Self alone and should think of nothing else.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG&#xA;  6.25&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion - So from above shlokas its clear that can avoid negative thoughts coming in mind during meditation etc. By&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cultivating good thoughts in mind about others even about bad or evil people.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;By practicing  Breathing exercise OR Pranayama (प्राणायाम).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gradually detaching mind from  Material things or  samsara .&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T11:06:55.857" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19543" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17412" CreationDate="2017-07-12T11:21:39.647" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;tapas can be simply translated to austerity/penance. It includes following the injunctions laid down by guru/shAstra. Performing regular upasana/rituals and doing self study/practice. Which also includes contemplation and other aspects. Rshis too followed agni aupasana and svAdhyAya in order to attain the divine knowledge of Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The vedas are also known as &quot;brahma&quot;. The tripadA gayatri mantra into&#xA;  which one is initiated as a pre-qualification for the veda adhyayana&#xA;  actually denotes this brahman. Hence, having been initiated into this&#xA;  gayatri mantra, the next step is to do the veda adhyayana. The vedas&#xA;  unequivocally advice svAdhyAya which is nothing but &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://yamalesha.blogspot.in/2012/09/what-is-shrividya.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;tapas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; or penance,&#xA;  as a mode of acquiring the knowledge about brahman. For such a tapas&#xA;  to fructify, one has to lead a householder's life and worship the&#xA;  agni. By worshipping the gArhapatyAgni, by being in the&#xA;  grihasthAshrama, when a person realises that there is a greater bliss&#xA;  to be experienced/enjoyed which is different and superior to the&#xA;  enjoyment from the senses, then this is called as brahma jigyAsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So svAdhyAya is a form of tapas or penance. After getting the initiation from the guru one has to get engaged in it practice by self (svAdhyAya) and also in satsanga (company of spiritual people or books etc) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taittiriya&lt;/strong&gt; Upanishad’s hymn 1.9.1 emphasizes the central importance of &lt;strong&gt;Svadhyaya&lt;/strong&gt; in one’s pursuit of &lt;strong&gt;Reality&lt;/strong&gt; (Ṛta),&#xA;  Truth (Satya), Self-restraint (Damah), Perseverance (&lt;strong&gt;Tapas&lt;/strong&gt;),&#xA;  Tranquility and Inner Peace (Samas), Relationships with others,&#xA;  family, guests (Praja, Prajana, Manush, Atithi) and all Rituals&#xA;  (Agnaya, Agnihotram)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In verse 1.11.1, the final chapter in the education of a student, the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Taittiriya&lt;/strong&gt; Upanishad reminds,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सत्यंवद । धर्मंचर । स्वाध्यायान्माप्रमदः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Speak the Satya, follow the Dharma, from Svadhyaya never cease.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One of the earliest mention of Svādhyāya is found in Taittiriya&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Aranyaka&lt;/strong&gt; 2.15: &quot;&lt;strong&gt;svādhyayo-adhyetavyah&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (&quot;svādhyāya &lt;strong&gt;must&lt;/strong&gt; be practiced&quot;). &lt;strong&gt;Śatpath&lt;/strong&gt; Brāhmana also repeats it. &lt;strong&gt;Chandogya&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Upanishad verse 4.16.1-2 recommends both silent (&lt;strong&gt;mānas&lt;/strong&gt;) and vocal&#xA;  (&lt;strong&gt;vāchika&lt;/strong&gt;) types of &lt;strong&gt;svādhyāya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Patanjali's&lt;/strong&gt; Yogasutra, in verse II.44, recommends Svadhyaya as follows&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;स्वाध्यायादिष्टदेवतासंप्रयोगः&lt;/strong&gt;॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Study thy self&lt;/strong&gt;, discover the divine. — Patanjali’s &lt;strong&gt;Yogasutra&lt;/strong&gt;, II.44&#xA;  (&lt;a href=&quot;http://Patanjali&amp;#39;s%20Yogasutra,%20in%20verse%20II.44,%20recommends%20Svadhyaya%20as%20follows%20%20%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%9F%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%AF%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%97%E0%A4%83%E0%A5%A5%20%20Study%20thy%20self,%20discover%20the%20divine.%20%E2%80%94%E2%80%89Patanjali%E2%80%99s%20Yogasutra,%20II.44%20[33]&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kaya Indriya Siddhi Ashuddhi kshyat tapasaha’’ (Patanjali II Sutra 43)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaya = body; Indriya = senses; Siddhihi = strong; Ashuddhi =&#xA;  impurities; Kshayat = eliminated; Tapasaha = by penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“By &lt;strong&gt;penance&lt;/strong&gt; or purifying actions, the body and senses become strong as&#xA;  the &lt;strong&gt;impurities&lt;/strong&gt; are eliminated.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“&lt;strong&gt;Swadhyayadishtadevatasamprayogaha&lt;/strong&gt;’’ (&lt;strong&gt;Patanjali&lt;/strong&gt; II Sutra 44)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swadhyayat&lt;/strong&gt; = by self-study; Ishta = desired; Devata = deity;&#xA;  Samprayogaha = presence is felt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“By &lt;strong&gt;self-study&lt;/strong&gt;, the desired deity’s presence is felt.” &#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.artofliving.org/yoga/patanjali-yogasutra/knowledge-sheet-80&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T11:21:39.647" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19545" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15250" CreationDate="2017-07-12T15:20:37.657" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What food did they eat during Lord Krishna's time?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am trying to answer your question not from Mahabharata itself , but a description of food items given in puranas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We get a little idea about  the food items people were preparing at the time of Krishna OR Mahabharata from description given in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagavata Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a story in Bhagavata Purana about &lt;strong&gt;Krishna lifting Govardhana parvata&lt;/strong&gt; .In that chapter, we find below shloka/verse where Shree Krishna asks His father, Nanda and other senior residents of Vraja to perform sacrifice for the pleasure of the cows, the brāhmaṇas and Govardhana Hill. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पच्यन्तां विविधाः पाकाः सूपान्ताः पायसादयः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  संयावापूप-शष्कुल्यः सर्व-दोहश् च गृह्यताम्&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pacyantāṁ vividhāḥ pākāḥ sūpāntāḥ pāyasādayaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  saṁyāvāpūpa-śaṣkulyaḥ sarva-dohaś ca gṛhyatām&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let many different kinds of food be cooked, from sweet rice to vegetable soups! Many kinds of fancy cakes, both baked and fried, should be prepared. And all the available milk products should be taken for this sacrifice.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/24/26&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.24.26&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Purport:&lt;/strong&gt;  - The word sūpa indicates bean broth and also liquid vegetables. Thus to celebrate the Govardhana-pūjā, Lord Kṛṣṇa called for hot preparations such as soup, cold preparations like sweet rice, and all types of milk products.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Another translation from Gita Press version&lt;/strong&gt; also mentions Dal  (is an Indian dish made from pulses such as chick peas or lentils ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many kinds of cakes, both baked and fried could also include &lt;strong&gt;chapatis , Parathas&lt;/strong&gt;  etc. as shown in the videos provided by you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further the Purana also mentions items like &lt;strong&gt;curd rice&lt;/strong&gt;  and &lt;strong&gt;honey&lt;/strong&gt; which Krishna and his friends used to eat during their child-hood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-13T12:45:58.500" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T12:45:58.500" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19546" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-12T15:50:28.043" Score="1" ViewCount="1064" Body="&lt;p&gt;Using these verses, Muslims often say Muhammad is predicted in Hindu scriptures. I provide Roman transliteration for all of the verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mahamadh ithi khayat, shishya-sakha-samniviyath 5 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mahadev marusthal&#xA;  nivasinam  mahadevthe snanya-pya punch-gavua samnivithya 6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tripurarsur-nashav bahu-maya pravathiney 7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;malech-dharma shav shudhaya sat-chit-anandaya swarupye thva ma hei&#xA;  kinkare vidhii sharanaghatham 8&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;suta uvacha: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ithi shurthiya sthav deva shabadh-mah nupaya tam, gath-vaya&#xA;  bhojraj-ney mahakhaleshwar-sthale 9&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;malech-shu dhushita bhumi-vahika nam-vishritha arya dharma hi&#xA;  nav-vathra vahike desh-darunya 10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vamu-vatra maha-mayi yo-sav dagdho myaa pura tripuro bali-daithyane&#xA;  proshith punaragath 11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ayoni sa varo math prasava daithyo-vrudhan  mahamadh ithi khayath ,&#xA;  paishacha-kruthi thathpar 12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nagathvaya thvya bhup paisachae desh-vartake math prasadhayane bhupal&#xA;  tav shudhii prajayathe 13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;thi shruthva nupshav svadesha-napu maragmath  mahamadh toi sdhav&#xA;  sindhu-thir mupaye-yav 14&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;uchav bhupati premane mahamadh-virshad tva deva maharaja das-tva&#xA;  magath 15&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mamo-chit sabhu jiya-dhatha tatpashya bho nup ithi shruthya ththa hata&#xA;  para vismaya-magath 16&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;malechdhano mathi-shasi-tatsaya bhupasaya darutho 17&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tucha tva kalidas-sthu rusha praah mahamadham maya-thei nirmithi&#xA;  dhutharya nush-mohan-hethvei 18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hanishyami-duravara vahik purusha-dhamum ityak va sa jidh&#xA;  shrimanava-raja-tathpar 19&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;japthya dush-sah-trayach tah-sahansh juhav sa bhasm mutva sa mayavi&#xA;  malech-dev-tva-magath 20&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;maybhithashtu tachya-shyaa desh vahii-kamayuuah guhitva svaguro-bhasm&#xA;  madaheen tva-magatham 21&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;swapiit tav bhu-ghyot-thro-shrumadh-tathpara madaheen puro jath thosha&#xA;  trith sayam smurthaum 22&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rathri sa dev-roop-shav bahu-maya-virshad paisacha deha-marathaya&#xA;  bhojraj hi so trivith 23&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;arya-dharmo hei to raja-sarvoutham smurth ishapraya karinayami&#xA;  paishacha dharma darunbhu 24&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;linga-chedri shikhaheen shamshu dhaari sa dhushak yukhalapi sarva&#xA;  bhakshi bhavishyat jano maum 25 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vina kaul cha pashav-thosha bhakshava matha maum muslanav sanskar&#xA;  kushariv bhavishyat 26&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasman-musal-vanto hi jathiyo dharma dhushika ithi pishacha-dharma mya&#xA;  kruth 27&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English translation of Bhavishya Purana is not available online. Some say this verses mean Muhammad was a reincarnation of a demon. But, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://bhavishyapuran.wordpress.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; website, the author argued that it was due to mistranslation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-12T16:54:23.183" LastActivityDate="2017-07-12T16:54:23.183" Title="Correct translation of Prati Sarga: Part III, 3.3.5-27 of Bhavishya Purana" Tags="|puranas|translation-request|islam|bhavishya-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2019-03-14T04:21:43.907" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19547" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-12T16:29:12.727" Score="5" ViewCount="1163" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Vadiraja Teertha, considered amongst the highest saints in the Madhva hierarchy and next only to Srimad Ananda Teertha(Madhva) and Sri Jayateertha, was an unshakable devotee of SriHayavadana Perumaal(also known as Sri Hayagreeva Perumaal or Thiru Parimuga Perumaal). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GRx18.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GRx18.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;a pic  Sri Vadiraja Teertha offering prasadam&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that Sri Vadiraja Teertha used to offer daily prasadam to Perumaal Hayagreeva by holding the prasadam on his head. Hayagreeva Perumaal is said to appear in the form of a horse and eat the prasadam by kneeling on Vadirajateertha's shoulders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from the above, Sri Vadiraja Teertha famously composed many Stotrams on Hayagreeva Perumaal, some of which are the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hayavadana Astaka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hayagreeva Panchaka&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hayagreeva Dhyana Prakarana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hayagreeva Stuthi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hayagreeva Sampada Stotra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha Hayavadana Stotra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is in two parts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is the list of Stotra on Perumaal Hayagreeva that is given above exhaustive?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there English Translations of the same available?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-07-13T03:15:36.183" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T03:15:36.183" Title="English Translations of Hayagreeva Stotrams by Sri Vadiraja Teertha" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|translation-request|saint|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19548" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19549" CreationDate="2017-07-12T17:22:04.987" Score="6" ViewCount="395" Body="&lt;p&gt;After a yogi enters into the samadhi state by doing concentration on some object, I've heard and read that he enters into such a state where all the physical sensations, sound, and sight goes. And his mind becomes totally silent. &lt;a href=&quot;http://oceanoffruition.blogspot.in/2013/06/essence-of-shrimad-bhagwat-english.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;reference&lt;/a&gt; After this I don't understand logically how should he again progress his concentration, or on what object he should concentrate since all his sensations have gone.&#xA;I am only trying to understand how meditation works logically. I am a little confused with this part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9166" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-05-26T03:31:35.920" LastActivityDate="2022-05-26T03:40:16.440" Title="After a meditator or yogi enters into samadhi state what should he concentrate at?" Tags="|yoga|meditation|samadhi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19549" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19548" CreationDate="2017-07-12T17:50:01.153" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;In samadhi, there is a state of non-duality. When there is &amp;quot;something&amp;quot; to focus on then it is a state of duality. So in the state of samadhi, the object of mediation and meditator are one and the same. Hence there is nothing to focus upon. There is only awareness and bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ता एव सबीजस्समाधिः ॥४६॥ (patanjali yoga sutra)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tā eva sabījas-samādhiḥ ॥46॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All of these states of consciousness are called sabija samadhi. ||46||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tasyāpi nirodhe sarva-nirodhān-nirbījaḥ samādhiḥ ॥51॥ (PY)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirbiija samadhi is attained once even these impressions have become&#xA;tranquil and when everything has become tranquil. ||51||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the book of Yogananda Paramahansa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali defines these states in his classification of the various&#xA;stages of interiorized meditation. In Yoga Sutras 1:17-18, he refers&#xA;to two basic categories of samadhi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) samprajnata and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) asamprajnata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As applied to advanced stages of realization, samprajnata refers to&#xA;savikalpa (&amp;quot;with difference&amp;quot;) samadhi, or divine union in which there&#xA;remains some distinction between the knower and the known, as in the&#xA;realization &amp;quot;Thou and I are One.&amp;quot; In greater or lesser degree, some&#xA;modifications of nature remain. But in asamprajnuta samadhi, all&#xA;differentiations of nature are resolved into the one Spirit. The&#xA;consciousness of &amp;quot;Thou and I are One&amp;quot; becomes &amp;quot;I am He, who has become&#xA;this little form of 'I' and all forms.&amp;quot; This is not the egotist's&#xA;proclamation, &amp;quot;I am God!&amp;quot;—the brass crown of megalomania—but rather&#xA;the full realization of the absolute truth: God is the only Reality.&#xA;Thus asamprajnata, in its absolute definition, is nirvikalpa (&amp;quot;without&#xA;difference&amp;quot;) samadhi, the highest yoga or union manifested by fully&#xA;liberated masters or those on the threshold of soul freedom. (...)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Patanjali divides samprajnata samadhi into four stages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) savitarka (&amp;quot;with doubt or conjecture&amp;quot;): intuitive experience mixed&#xA;with argumentative or doubt-ridden mind;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) savichara (&amp;quot;with reasoning or pondering&amp;quot;): intuitive experience&#xA;mixed with discrimination-guided intellect;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(3) sananda (&amp;quot;with joy&amp;quot;): interiorized intuitive experience&#xA;interpreted by chitta or joy-permeated feeling; and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(4) sasmita (&amp;quot;with 'I-ness'&amp;quot; or individuality): intuitive experience&#xA;mixed with a pure sense of being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These four states, which come after interiorization (pratyahara), are&#xA;the result of deep concentration (dharana), or superconscious&#xA;perception as limited to the body. (Yoga Sutras 1:17)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When these four stages of samprajnata have been resolved one by one&#xA;into the next higher state, the yogi goes beyond them and attains&#xA;asamprajnata samadhi. This comes in deep meditation (dhyana) in which&#xA;concentration (dharana) is continuous, with no flicker of&#xA;interruption; then the object of meditation (i.e., a particular&#xA;concept or manifestation of God) is experienced as manifested not only&#xA;in the body but in omnipresence. Beyond these states, in the advanced&#xA;stages of realization, samprajnata and asamprajnata are understood to&#xA;mean, respectively, savikalpa and nirvikalpa samadhi. Patanjali says&#xA;that attainment of the highest samadhi is possible &amp;quot;by profound,&#xA;devoted meditation on (the Lord) Ishvara (1:23).... His symbol is Aum&#xA;(1:27).&amp;quot; (Chapter I, God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita by&#xA;Paramahansa Yogananda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-05-26T03:32:17.633" LastActivityDate="2022-05-26T03:32:17.633" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19550" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19547" CreationDate="2017-07-13T02:51:21.087" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually the list of kritis is long and these are some of the stotras of his which you have mentioned above. In one of the Madhwa &lt;a href=&quot;https://sites.google.com/site/harshalarajesh/works-of-vadirajatirtha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;blog&lt;/a&gt; there is a list of &lt;strong&gt;all his kritis&lt;/strong&gt; based on categories. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://stotrarathna.blogspot.in/2014/02/hayagreeva-sampada-stotra.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hayagreeva  Sampada Stotra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By&#xA;Vadhi Raja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translated by&#xA;P.R.Ramachander&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dvaita.org/haridasa/songs/vadiraja/dash_stuti.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;dashAvatAra stuti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dvaita.org/haridasa/songs/vadiraja/l_shoba.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Lakshmi Shobhane Introduction&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dvaita.org/haridasa/songs/vadiraja/m_suvali.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Avataratraya Madhva suvali Introduction (Avatara of Srimad Ananda Teertha)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dvaita.org/haridasa/songs/vadiraja/v_varna.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaikunta VarNane Introduction&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T02:51:21.087" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19551" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15341" CreationDate="2017-07-13T03:34:15.350" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;amAvasya&lt;/strong&gt; tarpanam is an important and useful rite for the manes (ancestors). Regular performing of this ritual is for pacifying the pitrs. One also gets rid of doshas like pitra and related doshas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For performing this, you would need to know some of the mantras in sanskrit. Either you can learn them from a learned priest or you can ask a priest to visit your place for performing Tarpanam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Usually, it is performed by only those whose father is not alive. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the important steps of tarpanam procedure are :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Achamanam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganapati Dhyaanam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Praanaayaama&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sankalpam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MAIN TARPANAM&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Avaahanam&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Asanam for Pitru and Matru Vargam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pitru Varga TarpaNam&lt;/strong&gt; (Oblation to father's 3 generations &amp;amp; their wives)x 3 times&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Matru Varga TarpaNam&lt;/strong&gt; (Oblation to ancestors of maternal grand father's 3 generations &amp;amp; their wives)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PradakshiNam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abhivaadanam &amp;amp; Namaskaram&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UdhwAsanam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;prAcheenAveethi&lt;/strong&gt; (put poonal/sacred thread on wrong side)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sarva TarpaNam&lt;/strong&gt; (General oblations)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the major steps to be followed during the amAvasya tarpanam. However, there is a scope of further briefing the ritual if one is not able to perform the detailed version. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the blogs and websites are given below which has the complete procedure with instructions, mantras, and guidelines. Further, video tutorials are also available on Youtube. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saveca.ca/AmmaVasaiTharpanam.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Amavasya Tarpanam Process&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.trsiyengar.com/id149.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srivaishanava Tarpanam&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcNioomMB-0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tarpanam Video&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-13T11:44:59.050" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T11:44:59.050" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19552" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-13T05:47:25.170" Score="1" ViewCount="90" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahamrityunjaya_Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭivardhanam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  urvārukamiva bandhanānmṛtyormukṣīya mā'mṛtāt  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4582" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-07-13T06:01:58.840" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T06:01:58.840" Title="What is the significance or benefit of chanting Maha Mrityunjay Mantra?" Tags="|mantras|culture|spirituality|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-07-13T09:38:51.553" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19553" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19527" CreationDate="2017-07-13T05:47:43.630" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Hanuman wrote &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/kishkindha/sarga66/kishkindha_66_prose.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayan&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another parable is told that Hanuma is the first one to script Ramayana on claytablets, recording each and every detail of what Rama did. Having finished his writing he brought those claytablets to Rama, to bless that work.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conversation with Lord Ram :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama humbly said to Hanuma, &quot;I have not done anything great to be&#xA;  recorded this laboriously... I have done my righteous duty...that's&#xA;  all...&quot; &lt;strong&gt;Then Hanuma was upset. Dejected by the slighting away of&#xA;  'his great deeds as simple acts of duty' by Rama, Hanuma brought those&#xA;  clay tablets to seashore, recited each verse, and broke each tablet on&#xA;  his knee and threw them into sea.&lt;/strong&gt; This writing is called &lt;strong&gt;hanumad&#xA;  ramayana.&lt;/strong&gt; This work is unavailable from that time.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Last Piece of Hanumad Ramayan was found by Mahakavi Kalidas&lt;/strong&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But one tablet came to shore afloat on the sea, which is retrieved&#xA;  during the period of Mahakavi Kalidasa, and hung at a public place to&#xA;  be deciphered by scholars. On that tablet only one foot of a stanza is&#xA;  available That foot says &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Oh! Ravana, those your ten heads, on which you lifted of Mt. Kailah, the abode of Shiva, are now bumped on battlefield by the claws of crows and eagles, know what has happened to your high-headed Decahedral pride, at the hands of virtue...&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kalidasa deciphers this stanza and informs that it is from hanumad ramayana, recorded by Hanuma, but an extinct script.&lt;/strong&gt; And Kalidasa salutes that clayplate for he is fortunate enough to see at least one stanza of hanumad ramaayana. It is said that none can conclusively narrate about Hanuma, for he is many faceted. He is symbolic for unwavering dedication to righteousness, unstinting performance of entrusted duties, unfailing talents in service. So the tradition holds Hanuma dear...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CONCLUSION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Hanuman also wrote Ramayan by himself and was destroyed by himself but there is No Mentioning that he was the First writer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-07-13T07:35:49.823" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T07:35:49.823" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19555" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19530" CreationDate="2017-07-13T06:59:25.127" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I faced the same issue.The solution that I adopted was my friendship with dese thoughts.Do not try to curb them.More you curb them the more they will rise.Whenever you get such thoughts be watchful.Be aware that you got them.Sit with them.Let them occupy your mind.After a while you would discover the intensity of such thoughts have become less.If you keep on practicing then there would a point that these thoughts would get tired.At this point you may not even bother about them.Also try to know the source of these thoughts.For instance why did you get this thought?Who is responsible for it?What would you have done to neglect it? and so on.&#xA;Happy meditation!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5530" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T06:59:25.127" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19556" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-13T10:16:47.870" Score="7" ViewCount="214" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many paintings we see that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wears an exceptionally long garland in his neck during kirtan which extends up to the waist or knees. Also Nityananda (nitaai) is seen with such maala. Now it is a famous custom in Gaudiya vaishnava tradition. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/R7Z74.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/R7Z74.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IfZk4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/IfZk4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is this maala called?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is story behind it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is its significance?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-13T13:59:43.590" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T13:59:43.590" Title="What is the significance of long maalaa (garland) worn by Krishna Chaitanya?" Tags="|gaudiya-vaishnavism|chaitanya|achintya-bheda-abheda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19557" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19558" CreationDate="2017-07-13T10:51:50.823" Score="4" ViewCount="4231" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the modern times, Pujyasri &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaskararaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhaskara Raya&lt;/a&gt; Makhin is well known and respected by all shaktas across the country. His contribution to Shaktism and other shastras is phenomenal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any details about his life and upasana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the granthas written by him? (tantric and non tantric)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2018-04-02T22:25:10.643" LastActivityDate="2020-09-30T01:57:47.617" Title="Who was Sri Vidya guru Pujyasri Bhaskara Raya?" Tags="|guru|tantra|shaktism|sri-vidya|bhaskararaya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19558" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19557" CreationDate="2017-07-13T10:51:50.823" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In most of the Shakta lineages, especially Sri Vidya lineages, Pujyasri Bhaskararaya Makhin is well known and highly revered. His commentaries are today considered as standard in most of the traditions. Apart from his works, even the works of disciples are also followed as a manual by the upasakas. (Nityotsava book). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was adept in almost all the well known shastras and had a very good command over them which had already made him an outstanding scholar of his time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OM7Pl.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OM7Pl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Pujyasri Bhaskara Raya&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brief information about his life is given below,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Birth and early life:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The moolapurusha (First known Ancestor) of Sri Bhaskararaya’s vamsa is&#xA;  Vishwamitra gothreeya Sri Ekanatha. The fact that Sri Gambhiraraya and&#xA;  his wife Smt Konambika (Konamamba) were the parents was confirmed in&#xA;  more than one source. Parents of Sri Bhaskararaya: - Even though Sri&#xA;  Gambhiraraya was the follower of Bhagavatha sampradaya, his wife (Sri&#xA;  Bhaskararaya’s mother) got initiation on Agamashastra through Sri&#xA;  Narayana Pandita, who has contributed, for the interest &amp;amp; study of&#xA;  Agamashastra by Sri Raya. The first son (Sri Narayana) of Sri&#xA;  Gambhiraraya was not so intelligent as compared to his father.&#xA;  Therefore, Smt Konambika prayed to Soorya Bhagavan to get another&#xA;  intelligent son as great as her husband. Accordingly she got a very&#xA;  intelligent son during 1690 A.D or so (Christian era) at Bhagyanagara,&#xA;  (now called Hyderabad) in Andhra Pradesh. But according to his sishyas&#xA;  and persons in his daughter’s lineage the illustrious personality&#xA;  named Bhaskara was believed to have been born on 26th April 1683 in&#xA;  Krittika nakshatra 4th pada in Vaisakha Masa, Sukla paksha tritiya&#xA;  when 4 planets were in their exaltation point. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Education and learning Vidyas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Gambhiraraya initiated Sri Bhaskararaya into worship of Saraswati&#xA;  when he was a mere boy of 5 years. By seventh year he was able to&#xA;  chant the Sarabheshwara stotra in Kashi, which made the pandits&#xA;  excited and forced his father to perform Upanayana. Sri Narasimha Dori&#xA;  - Dhvari (Yajwa) also called Sri Narasimhananda, a great teacher and sadhaka of Lokapalli samsthana (Narayanpet Dist. Mahaboobnagar A.P)&#xA;  had an occasion to visit Sri Raya’s house on the way to Shringeri&#xA;  Sharada Peetha. He was very much impressed by the intelligence of the&#xA;  boy and asked his parents to send him for Adhyayana in his Gurukul at&#xA;  Lokapalli. The parents with due respect sent Sri Raya for study where&#xA;  he was taught Ashtadasa - 18 vidyas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After mastering those vidyas, Sri Raya learnt Gowdataraka under Sri&#xA;  Gangadhara Vajapeyin who settled in Tiruvalankadu on the southern bank&#xA;  of Kaveri in Tanjavur district (therefore Sri Raya also chose a place,&#xA;  which is now called Bhaskararajapuram, for his stay which is on the&#xA;  northern bank of Kaveri). Sri Rukmanapandit taught Sri Raya Chandas&#xA;  and Alankarashastra. He completed all the above education at his age&#xA;  of 16 years. Sri Bhaskararaya wanted to rejuvenate and revive the&#xA;  Atharvana Veda. So he learnt the Atharvana Veda and did Adhyayana&#xA;  (regular chanting) and not only became an expert but also an exponent.&#xA;  He taught it to his disciples and had them chanting it too. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He got married with Anandi at the age of 18 and they got a son named&#xA;  Panduranga. Not much was heard about him or other children. But it is&#xA;  believed Sri Raya had a daughter named Smt. Ambika who was married in&#xA;  Dev family and there is a continuous line of generations through her&#xA;  and even now there are persons living in Bangalore, Hyderabad and&#xA;  elsewhere. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Upasana &amp;amp; Consecration&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While Sri Raya was on tour in Paithan town, several pandits had&#xA;  suggested &lt;strong&gt;Sri Shivadatta Shukla&lt;/strong&gt;’s name for initiation into Sakta &amp;amp;&#xA;  Sri Vidya. Sri Shukla was a great Srividya Upasaka adorned with Sri&#xA;  Vidya Poorna Deeksha having Deeksha Nama of Sri Prakashanandanatha.&#xA;  Therefore Sri Bhaskararaya decided to go to Surat for further study on&#xA;  Sri Vidya and get Deeksha. He chose to meet Sri Shukla as a simple&#xA;  Brahman. He took the job of cleaning vessels and other utensils for&#xA;  pooja, cleaning the house etc. and studied Sri Vidya and practiced&#xA;  Upasana. At that time, so-called vidwans of vallabha sampradaya came&#xA;  there and challenged the Advaita marg (Non-dual theory). The followers&#xA;  of Advaita marg met Sri Shukla who was very old to move out of his&#xA;  house, as there was no alternative among those followers to meet the&#xA;  challenge with vallabha sampradayins. Sri Raya understood the&#xA;  situation and requested Sri Shukla to permit him to lead the group for&#xA;  discussions. Sri Shukla rightly judged the capacity of the boy and&#xA;  permitted him. As already anticipated by Sri Shuklaji, Sri Bhakararaya&#xA;  won the challenge and brought the Vijay Pataka (The Flag of Victory)&#xA;  to Sri Shuklaji. He was very happy and immediately performed&#xA;  Poornabhishekha to Sri Bhaskara Raya and bestowed the Deeksha Nama of&#xA;  “&lt;strong&gt;Sri Bhasuranandanatha&lt;/strong&gt;”. Sri Raya’s wife was also blessed with&#xA;  Poornabhishekha and given Deeksha nama as “Padmavathyamba”. Both of&#xA;  them presented very valuable vastralankara, dakshina etc to their guru&#xA;  Sri Shukla, gurupatni – his wife and their daughter and worshipped. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He also performed &lt;strong&gt;great Vedic Yajnas like the Soma Yaga, jyotiShToma&#xA;  etc&lt;/strong&gt;. in Kashi. In his commentary on Ganesha Sahasranama -&#xA;  &lt;code&gt;Khadyota', Bhaskara himself mentions that he performed a great fire&#xA;  sacrifice in Varanasi. He wrote a commentary on Nityashodashikarnava&#xA;  of Vamakeshwara Tantra called&lt;/code&gt;Setubandha' in Goa. He constructed a&#xA;  Srichakra-shaped temple for his family goddess Sri Chandralamba. His&#xA;  wife established a Shiva and Parvati temple in an Agrahara called&#xA;  &lt;code&gt;Bhaskararajapuram', named after Bhaskaracharya, located near Tanjore.&#xA;  They couple constructed many choultries, fed people and indulged in&#xA;  charities. Chandrasena Jadhav, the commander of the Bhonsle kings was&#xA;  Bhaskracharya's disciple. To cure his son of impotency, Bhaskaracharya&#xA;  did intense Surya Upasana. in this context, he wrote a book called&#xA;  &lt;/code&gt;Tatvabhaskara' dealing with Surya Upasana. Bhaskaracharya's&#xA;  scholarship becomes evident by looking at the number of scriptures and&#xA;  works he quotes in his own works. Since he was basically a follower of&#xA;  the school of Mimamsa, his commentaries on tantras are in the light of&#xA;  Mimamsa. His disciple Jagannatha Shukla [a Konkanastha Brahmana from&#xA;  Maharashtra who took Diksha from Sri Bhaskararaya in Tiruvalankadu]&#xA;  was the chief scholar in the court of Tanjore. He has written a book&#xA;  named `Bhaskara Vilasa' in which he mentions about forty works&#xA;  authored by Bhaskaracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The written works of Bhaskararaya provide an insight into his rare brilliance and scholarship.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mantra Shastra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Khadyota – commentary on Ganapathi Sahasranama.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chandralamba Mahatmya Tika.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nathanavaratnamala Manjusha – a work in praise of Guru with description of many esoteric aspects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhavanopanishad Bhashya – a commentary on the Bhavanopanishad and illustration of its Prayoga, known as the Mahayaga Krama.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Srisukta Bhashya – commentary on the srisukta.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kaulopanishad Bhashya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tripuropanishad Bhashya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Saubhagya Chandrodaya – a commentary on Vidyananda's `Saubhagya Ratnakara'.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tripurasundari Bahya Varivasya – a manual describing the external Pooja of Sri Mahatripurasundari in the Srichakra. Scholars are now&#xA;  trying to find this work. It is now established that Umanandanatha had&#xA;  not shown his Nityotsava to his Guru. And some scholars like Appoji&#xA;  Dikshita and others frequently mention the difference between the two&#xA;  works.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ratnaloka – a Tika on the Parashurama Kalpasutra - commentary on Parashurama Kalpasutras. A copy of this was available with Sri&#xA;  Ramachandra Iyer of Tirunalveli. It differs at many places with&#xA;  Rameshwara's Vartika.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guptavati&lt;/strong&gt; – commentary on Sri Durga Saptashati.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shata Shloki – a work based on Durga Saptashati.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saubhagya Bhaskara&lt;/strong&gt; – a commentary on Sri Lalita Sahasranama Stotra.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Setubandha&lt;/strong&gt; – a commentary on Nityashodashikarnava of Vamakeshwara Tantra.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VarivasyaRahasya&lt;/strong&gt; - with his own commentary named `Prakasha', explaining the higher significance and internal worship of Srividya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chandabhaskara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nilachala Chapetika – both these books were written to refute the claims of the Dvaita text `Prahasta' and uphold the virtues of&#xA;  Advaita.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mimamsa&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vadakautuhala – The compilation of the debate that took place between Bhaskaracharya and his Guru's son Swami Shastry.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhattachandrodaya – the Tika on Khandadeva's Bhattadeepika.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vyakarana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rasikaranjini – Based on Varadaraja's `Madhyasiddhanta Kaumudi'.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nyaya Darshana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya Mandana – a work on the Nyaya Darshana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chanda Shastra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chandabhaskara – commentary on Chandasutras.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chandakaustubha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vrittachandrodaya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vaartikaraaja.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mritasanjivini.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kavya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chandrashaalaa.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Madhuraamla.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhaskara Subhashita.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Smrititatva.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sahasrabhojana Khanda Tika – Tika on Baudhayana's Dharmasutras.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shankhachakrayana Prayashchitta – the purificatory rites for people who have undergone Bharana Nyasa and got Shankha and Chakra Mudras&#xA;  inscribed on their body. This is a Vaishnava custom banned by the&#xA;  Smriti. Sri Bhaskararaya refutes the claims supporting this banned&#xA;  practice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ekadashi Nirnaya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pradosha Nirnaya.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Trika Bhaskara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kunda Bhaskara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stotra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Stava.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Devi Stava.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Dandaka.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Commentary on the Shiva Shatanama Stotra.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/bhaskara.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/bhaskara.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T10:51:50.823" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19559" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15341" CreationDate="2017-07-13T11:35:01.727" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;How we can do pooja on Amavsya to please our pitras &amp;amp; get favor to get down the affect of pitradosha.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE - Here I am discussing about Pitrupaksha and sarva-Pitri amavasya only , i.e.&#xA;yearly Shradha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dark fortnight ( Krishna Paksha) of the Aashwin month in the Hindu calendar is called &lt;strong&gt;Pitri Paksha or Mahaalaya Paksha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pitru Paksha is the period of 15 days when Hindus pay homage to ancestors. It is also known as Mahalaya Paksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last day of the Pitru Paksha is known as &lt;strong&gt;Sarvapitri Amavasya&lt;/strong&gt; where if the death of any deceased person is not known then his/her Shradh can be performed on this day. Tarpan, Shradh, feeding the Brahmin and pind daan are performed in order to please the ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is described in Shreemad Bhgvat Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कुर्यादापरपक्षियं मासि प्रौष्ठपदे द्विज: |&lt;br&gt; श्राद्भं&#xA;पित्रोर्यथावित्तं तद्वन्धुनां च वित्तवान्  ||SB 7.14.19|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kuryād apara-pakṣīyaṁ māsi prauṣṭha-pade dvijaḥ śrāddhaṁ pitror&#xA;yathā-vittaṁ tad-bandhūnāṁ ca vittavān&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A brāhmaṇa who is sufficiently rich must offer oblations to the&#xA;forefathers during the dark-moon fortnight in the latter part of the&#xA;month of Bhādra. Similarly, he should offer oblations to the relatives&#xA;of the forefathers during the mahālayā ceremonies in the month of&#xA;Āśvina.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/14/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 7.14.19&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The procedure involves and  the objective , Purpose and importance of Shradha is greatly discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/garud-puran/garuda-vol-1/chapter-01/topic-13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana -– Preta Kanda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; – Chapter 10 –Discussion between Krishna and Garuda on Shradha. (श्रीकृष्णगरुड संवादे श्राद्धस्य तृप्तिदत्वनिरूपणं).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Feeding the Brahmin&lt;/strong&gt;– It is an important part to complete the Shradh ritual. Offer food to the crows before food is offered to priests.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tarpan–&lt;/strong&gt; It is the offering of the water when mixed with white flours, kusha grass, barley and black sesame&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pind daan&lt;/strong&gt;– It is the offering made to the ancestors in the form of honey, sugar, ghee, cow’s milk and rice bolls with seasum seeds .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नामगोत्रं पितृणाम वै प्रापकं हव्यकव्य यो: |&lt;br&gt; श्राद्धस्य&#xA;मन्त्रास्तद्वत्तु प्रापाकाश्चैव भक्तित: ||GP II. 10.12|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By their names and gotras the manes receive the offering made by the&#xA;relatives. The mantras carry same when they are recited with devotion&#xA;and faith.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;निमन्त्रितास्तु ये विप्रा: श्राद्भपुर्वादिने खग | &lt;br&gt; प्रविश्य&#xA;पितरस्तेषु भुक्त्या यन्ति स्वमालयम् ||GP II .10.26||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whosoever the &lt;strong&gt;Brahmana invited for the feast&lt;/strong&gt;  , they enter his&#xA;body , eat and return to their abode.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अपसव्यं क्षितौ दर्भे दत्ता: पिण्डास्त्रयस्तु वै |&lt;br&gt; यन्ति तास्तं&#xA;र्पयन्तेवं प्रेतस्थानस्तितान्पितृन् ||GP II .10.19||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The three pindas given&lt;/strong&gt; on Darbha or spread over the earth by the nearest relative of the with sacred thread worn over the left shoulder&#xA;, gratify the manes even in their ghosthood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in the same chapter  Shree Krisha tells us why one should perform Shradha regularly on Sarva-Pitri Amavasya day ,without fail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्माच्छाद्भं प्रयत्नेन अमायां कर्तुमर्हति |&lt;br&gt; यदि श्राद्भं&#xA;प्रकुर्वन्ति पुत्राद्यास्य बान्धवा: ||54|| &lt;br&gt; उद्भता ये गयाश्राद्धे&#xA;ब्रह्मलोकंच तै सह ||&lt;br&gt; भजन्ते क्षुप्तिपासा वा न तेषां जायते क्वचित&#xA;||55||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Therefore , one should carefully perform shradha on the Amavasya day.&lt;/strong&gt; If son or relatives perform shardha at Gaya , they uplift their&#xA;ancestors from lower regions and themselves enjoy Brahmaloka together&#xA;with the manes. &lt;strong&gt;They never suffer from thrust and hunger.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;•   Ancestors gets satisfied by the food offerings and bless the performer with satisfaction.They never suffer from thrust and hunger and believed to cure the &lt;strong&gt;Pitru Dosha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Procedure of the Shradh rituals&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;•   The procedure of  ritual requires the eldest member of the family, particularly the eldest son of a family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;•   Bathing  and being clean&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;•   Wear a ring made of kush grass. Kush grass is a symbol of kindness and is used to invoke ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;•   Offering  balls made from barley flour, sesame seeds and rice as a part of Pind Daan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;•   Take a blessings of Lord Vishnu by offering grass known as darbha grass.&#xA;Offer the food, especially prepared for Shradha to Crows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;•   Offer food to priests.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;•   Read holy books like Ganga Avataram, the tales of Nachiketa, Agni Purana and Garuda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T12:14:51.217" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19561" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-13T14:12:18.820" Score="4" ViewCount="139" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do some people naturally get inclination(a quest or sometimes a thirst) on life to know about God?&#xA;Are they any pious activities that leads to this state in life after life?&#xA;Please justify with quotes if necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10257" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-13T14:34:31.860" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T05:10:09.647" Title="How come there are nearly 6 billion people but only few attain perfection(self realization)?" Tags="|other-religions|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19562" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19487" CreationDate="2017-07-13T14:42:10.787" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Veena of Narada Muni was given by &lt;strong&gt;Goddess Sarasvathi&lt;/strong&gt; in &lt;a href=&quot;http://wikikrishna.com/index.php?title=GS_5.21:_The_Story_of_Shri_Narada&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garga Samhita&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Austerity of Narada Muni towards Goddess Sarasvathi :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O queen of Vraja, for one hundred celestial years Narada performed austeries. Fasting from food and water, &lt;strong&gt;he meditated on Goddess Sarasvati&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess Sarasvathi Gives Vina to Sage Narada  :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pleased, Goddess Sarasvati gave to the great saint Narada the &lt;strong&gt;vina named Devadatta&lt;/strong&gt;, which was decorated with spiritual sound. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess Sarasvathi Teaches Narada Muni Music :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Goddess Sarasvati, the dearest beloved of the Lord of Vaikunöha, then &lt;strong&gt;taught Narada the different ragas and raginis&lt;/strong&gt;, their derivitives, the proper times and places for the different kinds of music, the different rhythms, the &lt;strong&gt;five-hundred-and-sixty-million divisions&lt;/strong&gt; and numberless sub-divisions of scales, the various dances, the different musical instruments, and the different kinds of modulation.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CONCLUSION :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hence Goddess Sarasvathi gave Vina to Sage Narada and also became &lt;strong&gt;Guru to Narada Muni and taught him Music&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="8422" LastEditDate="2017-07-13T14:48:08.013" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T14:48:08.013" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19563" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-13T15:00:22.500" Score="5" ViewCount="348" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavatam-katha.com/narada-muni-story-learning-should-not-be-only-book-based/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sites&lt;/a&gt; claim that sage Durvasa was called a donkey by Sage Narada  as his Knowledge was only book based.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MY QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it true that Sage Durvasa was called Donkey by sage Narada?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-18T14:34:29.480" LastActivityDate="2017-07-18T14:34:29.480" Title="Did sage Narada call sage Durvasa a Donkey?" Tags="|scripture|rishi|narada|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19564" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19565" CreationDate="2017-07-13T15:14:57.980" Score="8" ViewCount="1446" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of Kaliyug, the 10th and last incarnation of Vishnu is said to come as Kalki. Are there incarnations after Kalki, at the end of Dwapara yuga after this age? Do the incarnations &quot;start over&quot;, or could they be expected to be completely new ones unlike the ones before? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10438" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T15:57:00.410" Title="Incarnations of Vishnu after Kalki" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|kalki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19565" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19564" CreationDate="2017-07-13T15:43:56.987" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We know at least 7 incarnations of Vishnu after Kalki.&lt;/strong&gt;  Let me explain. Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga together form one Mahayuga.  And 1000 Mahayugas form a Kalpa.  A Kalpa is also divided into 14 Manvantaras, each consisting of 71 Mahayugas.  We are living in the 28th Mahayuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara, which is the 7th Manvantara of the present Kalpa.  Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9454/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, we don't have much information about the future Mahayugas of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  But we do have information about future Manvantaras: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/13/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam lists seven incarnations of Vishnu who will occur in the remaining seven Manvantaras of the present Kalpa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O King, during the eighth manvantara, the great personalities Gālava, Dīptimān, Paraśurāma, Aśvatthāmā, Kṛpācārya, Ṛṣyaśṛṅga and our father, Vyāsadeva, the incarnation of Nārāyaṇa, will be the seven sages. For the present, they are all residing in their respective āśramas. In the eighth manvantara, the greatly powerful Personality of Godhead &lt;strong&gt;Sārvabhauma&lt;/strong&gt; will take birth. His father will be Devaguhya, and His mother will be Sarasvatī. He will take the kingdom away from Purandara [Lord Indra] and give it to Bali Mahārāja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O King, the ninth Manu will be Dakṣa-sāvarṇi, who is born of Varuṇa. Among his sons will be Bhūtaketu, and Dīptaketu. In this ninth manvantara, the Pāras and Marīcigarbhas will be among the demigods. The king of heaven, Indra, will be named Adbhuta, and Dyutimān will be among the seven sages. &lt;strong&gt;Ṛṣabhadeva&lt;/strong&gt;, a partial incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, will take birth from his father, Āyuṣmān, and his mother, Ambudhārā. He will enable the Indra named Adbhuta to enjoy the opulence of the three worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The son of Upaśloka known as Brahma-sāvarṇi will be the tenth Manu. Bhūriṣeṇa will be among his sons, and the brāhmaṇas headed by Haviṣmān will be the seven sages. Haviṣmān, Sukṛta, Satya, Jaya, Mūrti and others will be the seven sages, the Suvāsanas and Viruddhas will be among the demigods, and Śambhu will be their king, Indra. In the home of Viśvasraṣṭā, a plenary portion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead will appear from the womb of Viṣūcī as the incarnation known as &lt;strong&gt;Viṣvaksena&lt;/strong&gt;. He will make friends with Śambhu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the eleventh manvantara, the Manu will be Dharma-sāvarṇi, who will be extremely learned in spiritual knowledge. From him there will come ten sons, headed by Satyadharma. The Vihaṅgamas, Kāmagamas, Nirvāṇarucis and others will be the demigods. The king of the demigods, Indra, will be Vaidhṛta, and the seven sages will be headed by Aruṇa. The son of Āryaka known as &lt;strong&gt;Dharmasetu&lt;/strong&gt;, a partial incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, will appear from the womb of Vaidhṛtā, the wife of Āryaka, and will rule the three worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O King, the twelfth Manu will be named Rudra-sāvarṇi. Devavān, Upadeva and Devaśreṣṭha will be among his sons. In this manvantara, the name of Indra will be Ṛtadhāmā, and the demigods will be headed by the Haritas. Among the sages will be Tapomūrti, Tapasvī and Āgnīdhraka. From the mother named Sunṛtā and the father named Satyasahā will come &lt;strong&gt;Svadhāmā&lt;/strong&gt;, a partial incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He will rule that manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thirteenth Manu will be named Deva-sāvarṇi, and he will be very advanced in spiritual knowledge. Among his sons will be Citrasena and Vicitra. In the thirteenth manvantara, the Sukarmās and Sutrāmas will be among the demigods, Divaspati will be the king of heaven, and Nirmoka and Tattvadarśa will be among the seven sages. The son of Devahotra known as &lt;strong&gt;Yogeśvara&lt;/strong&gt; will appear as a partial incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His mother’s name will be Bṛhatī. He will perform activities for the welfare of Divaspati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name of the fourteenth Manu will be Indra-sāvarṇi. He will have sons like Uru, Gambhīra and Budha. The Pavitras and Cākṣuṣas will be among the demigods, and Śuci will be Indra, the king of heaven. Agni, Bāhu, Śuci, Śuddha, Māgadha and others of great austerity will be the seven sages. O King Parīkṣit, in the fourteenth manvantara the Supreme Personality of Godhead will appear from the womb of Vitānā, and His father’s name will be Satrāyaṇa. This incarnation will be celebrated as &lt;strong&gt;Bṛhadbhānu&lt;/strong&gt;, and He will administer spiritual activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the seven known incarnations of Vishnu after Kalki are Sārvabhauma, Ṛṣabhadeva, Viṣvaksena, Dharmasetu, Svadhāmā, Yogeśvara, and Bṛhadbhānu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer your side question, some incarnations of Vishnu do recur.  For instance I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7210/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; how there have been three Vamana incarnations in the present Kalpa.  And I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8762/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; how Kalki came once before in the present Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-13T15:57:00.410" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19567" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-13T18:36:28.737" Score="5" ViewCount="664" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is a good approximation for how long humankind has been on Earth (as homo sapiens), according to Hinduism/Vedic scripture? I have read some texts on how we came to be, but have not encountered any clues as to how long we have been here, in this current form. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10438" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-22T05:20:04.930" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T05:20:04.930" Title="How long have humans been on Earth?" Tags="|time|creation|human|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19569" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-13T19:24:41.830" Score="2" ViewCount="63" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are so many versions of Ramayan by different authors&#xA;Is there any difference we can't accept?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which one is correct and most accurate?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kin authers ne supernatural power Ke Karan Ramayan likhi...kya other version only modification h ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Ramayan life of RAM is very tough, and even each character's life was tough, is it possible, can we follow their path in today's circumstances, and in which cases?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10420" LastEditorUserId="10420" LastEditDate="2017-07-14T04:14:18.057" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T04:14:18.057" Title="About different ramayna by different authers and different thinking" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-07-14T03:50:24.440" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19570" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19567" CreationDate="2017-07-14T00:21:07.030" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;A part of the universe consisting of 3 lokas (which includes earth, sun, solar system) gets destroyed and created every 4.32 billion years in a cyclical fashion for all eternity (past and future).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma creates Manu (through mental energy or manasa srishti), and from Manu comes Manushya or man. In this 4.32 billion years, which equals one day of Brahma, 14 Manus come and go, each ruling for 71 cyclical ChaturYugas, where each ChaturYuga is 4.32 million years, which again is split into 4 Yugas of decreasing duration in quantity of 4 (Satya),3(Treta),2(Dvapara),1(Kali), where 1 unit kali yuga = 4,32,000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are currently 5000 years into Kali Yuga of the 28th ChaturYuga of day 1 of a 50 year old Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The lifespan and height and strength of humans gets reduced along with the progression of the 4 Yugas. In Treta Yuga, humans were generally ~8 ft tall. In Kali Yuga, they are generally 6ft tall. At the end of Kali, they will be like dwarves. And when Satya Yuga starts again 400K years from now, they will be modern-day giants again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer your question rhetorically, there have always been, and always will be, humans on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In their current form (say average height), about 5000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/vedic-time-system&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://veda.wikidot.com/vedic-time-system&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T00:21:07.030" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19571" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19563" CreationDate="2017-07-14T04:55:27.820" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is described by the Advaita philosopher Vidyaranya in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902605.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/14/items/jivanmuktiviveka00madhiala/jivanmuktiviveka00madhiala_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=jivanmuktiviveka00madhiala_jp2/jivanmuktiviveka00madhiala_0084.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Jivanmukti Viveka, in the context of describing different kinds of Shastra Vasana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Addiction to many subjects of study is similarly of the nature of impure Vasana, inasmuch as it is not the last aim of existence. This is seen in the Kavasheya-Gita. A sage by name Durvasas came with a cart-load of Shastra-books to pay his respects to the god Mahadeva. In the learned assembly of that god, Narada aimed a joke at him in the parable of the ass carrying a load on his back; whereupon he was fired with such anger as led him to throw away all his books in the ocean. The god Mahadeva thereafter initiated him into the mystery of Self-knowledge; for, Self-knowledge never comes from the study of books, to him who has not acquired the faculty of intro-vision nor the favor of a competent teacher.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says it comes from the Kavasheya Gita, a text I had never heard of before, but &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_giitaa/doc_giitaa.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt; says that it's a text &quot;[a]scribed to Brahma Purana, but not found in it&quot;.  Perhaps the Kavasheya Gita is only found in some manuscripts of the Brahma Purana.  Also, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakotimandali.com/misc/gorakshaworks.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt; says that the Kavasheya Gita is quoted in a Nath text called the Goraksha Samhita.  In any case, I assume the name &quot;Kavasheya&quot; is connected to Tura Kavasheya, the priest of Arjuna's great-grandson Janamejaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-14T05:10:38.167" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T05:10:38.167" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19572" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-14T05:13:55.273" Score="3" ViewCount="168" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have listen &lt;strong&gt;Swasthani&lt;/strong&gt; a lot of times. When lord shiva visited earth with dead body of satidevi, The places visited by him are currently in Nepal and India. What's reason behind this, I know hindu is oldest religion. But, at the time Earth belongs to only current Asia ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10392" LastEditorUserId="10392" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T07:34:13.310" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T07:34:13.310" Title="Why most of places Lord Shiva visited during Earth tour belongs to places in Nepal and India?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19573" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19587" CreationDate="2017-07-14T05:48:44.953" Score="5" ViewCount="12295" Body="&lt;p&gt;My teacher is in a very critical condition and i want to pray for his health,  but I don't know which mantras should be chanted at this time for healing him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know about the Mahamritunjaya mantra but how should it be chanted in order to benefit him? Please help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7080" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T05:36:28.427" LastActivityDate="2017-07-30T03:28:26.637" Title="Are there mantras that should be chanted by me for curing a person (not me)?" Tags="|mantras|health|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19574" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19575" CreationDate="2017-07-14T06:08:21.947" Score="5" ViewCount="5617" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/r-Zj6X7_r7Q?list=PLRHEhZaX1F6tMw97r_DybRK31Xg-7eYi8&amp;amp;t=1944&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; from BR Chopara's MahAbhArata, Bhima is seen taking a fierce oath. Earlier he also suggested of cutting Dushasana's hand which dragged Draupadi.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/afENKos4jpM?list=PLRHEhZaX1F6tMw97r_DybRK31Xg-7eYi8&amp;amp;t=777&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this episode&lt;/a&gt;, Bhima is seen acting upon the oath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are these all according to scriptures?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are there further instances in mythology of drinking blood?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T15:50:30.913" Title="What was the real story of Bhima's oath about drinking DushAsana's blood? Are there other such instances in mythology?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|war|bhima|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19575" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19574" CreationDate="2017-07-14T06:11:16.103" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhima's oath shown in the video is almost according to the scripture. After Draupadi's insult, it happens:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Bhima said,--Hear these words of mine, ye Kshatriyas of the world. Words such as these were never before uttered by other men, nor will anybody in the future ever utter them. Ye lords of earth, if having spoken these words I do not accomplish them hereafter, let me not obtain the region of my deceased ancestors. &lt;strong&gt;Tearing open in battle, by sheer force, the breast of this wretch&lt;/strong&gt;, this wicked-minded scoundrel of the Bharata race, if I do not drink his life-blood, &lt;strong&gt;let me not obtain the region of my ancestors&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fight is also according to the scripture. Later during the war, Bhima did act on his oath, however he didn't severe his hand as shown in the video. Rather he decapitates DushAsana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhima, in that dreadful battle, hurled his mace at the prince. With that weapon, Bhimasena forcibly threw Duhshasana down from his car at a distance measured by the length of ten bows. ... Addressing Karna and Suyodhana and Kripa and Drona's son and Kritavarma, he said, &quot;Today I shall slay the wretched Duhshasana. Let all the warriors protect him (if they can).&quot; ... Drawing then his whetted sword of keen edge, and trembling with rage, he placed his foot upon the throat of Duhshasana, and ripping open the breast of his enemy stretched on the ground, quaffed his warm life-blood. &lt;strong&gt;Then throwing him down and cutting off, O king, with that sword the head of thy son&lt;/strong&gt;, Bhima of great intelligence, desirous of accomplishing his vow, again &lt;strong&gt;quaffed his enemy's blood little by little, as if for enjoying its taste&lt;/strong&gt;. ... Indeed, all those that stood around Bhima and beheld him drink the blood of Duhshasana, fled away ... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08083.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However &lt;strong&gt;Bhima didn't really drink the blood&lt;/strong&gt;. He just inacted it for the sake of oath.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;That's a less known story. Here is that clarification in his own words &amp;amp; it's less likely to be due to his real fear of GAndhAri's supposed curse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing these words of Gandhari, &lt;strong&gt;Bhimasena, looking like one in fright&lt;/strong&gt;, said these words for soothing her, ‘Be the act righteous or unrighteous, it was done by me through fear and for the object of protecting my own self. It behoveth thee therefore, to forgive me now. ... &lt;strong&gt;Gandhari said&lt;/strong&gt;, ... he did not deserve such a death. He, however, did all that thou tellest me. ... &lt;strong&gt;thou quaffedst in battle the blood from Duhshasana’s body&lt;/strong&gt;! Such an act is cruel and is censured by the good. ... Bhima replied, saying, ‘It is improper to quaff the blood of even a stranger, what then need be said about quaffing the blood of one’s own self? One’s brother, again, is like one’s own self. There is no difference between them. &lt;strong&gt;The blood, however, (that I am regarded to have quaffed) did not, O mother, pass down my lips and teeth. Karna knew this&lt;/strong&gt; well. My hands only were smeared with (Duhshasana’s) blood...  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other such instance more from the mythology perspective, is blood being drunk of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raktab%C4%ABja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Raktabija&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Raktabīja had a boon that whenever a drop of his blood fell on the ground, a duplicate Raktabīja would be born at that spot. Raktabīja was wounded, but drops of blood falling on the ground created innumerable other Raktabījas, and Durga was in difficulty. At this point, the goddess created Rakteshwari, who stretched her tongue over the earth and licked up each drop of blood pouring from Raktabīja's body and devoured his duplicates into her gaping mouth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali#Slayer_of_Raktabija&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia of Kali as slayer of Raktabija&lt;/a&gt; the story is slightly different though.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In today's world we may consider &quot;Raktabija&quot; as a some kind of disease, which virally infects via blood (e.g. AIDS).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T06:11:16.103" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19576" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-14T07:02:00.003" Score="5" ViewCount="562" Body="&lt;p&gt;The task was assigned to Thurumangai alwar who was then a king turned to thief. He constructed the temple wall by acquiring a gold Buddha idol from srilanka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyone knows the story how he brought the golden idol from heavy security and in which scripture mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-17T15:05:51.307" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T15:05:51.307" Title="How was Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple wall constructed?" Tags="|temple|vaishnavism|alwar|ranganatha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19577" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7714" CreationDate="2017-07-14T07:19:58.570" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mal&lt;/em&gt; (மால்) is a Tamil word for Sriman Narayana who is always seen with a garland and &lt;em&gt;Olan&lt;/em&gt; is a Tamil word meaning single or one.  This word Malolan means One Narayana all words in south India need not be Sanskrit Words as the entire south India was once full of Tamils (Telugu,Kannada &amp;amp; Malayalam are recent languages only).  An example to support this claim is the word &quot;Konkini&quot; is a language spoken by Konkan Region in Karnataka. This was derived from Tamil word &quot;KoN KaNam&quot; meaning very dense/cruel forest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7110" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-14T07:36:37.660" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T07:36:37.660" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19578" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19573" CreationDate="2017-07-14T07:25:35.937" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda [Complete Works/Volume 5/Epistle - First Series/&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_5/Epistles_-_First_Series/IX_Sharat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;IX_Sharat&lt;/a&gt;]:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now I tell you a curious fact. &lt;strong&gt;Whenever anyone of you is sick, let him himself or anyone of you visualise him in your mind, and mentally say and strongly imagine that he is all right. That will cure him quickly.&lt;/strong&gt; You can do it even without his knowledge, and even with thousands of miles between you. Remember it and do not be ill any more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Surya Mantra can also cure diseases and give long life and health. According to Swami Sivananda[&lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=525&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mantra Yoga Sadhana&lt;/a&gt;]:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By constant repetition of the Mantra the Sadhaka imbibes the virtues and powers of the Deity that presides over the Mantra. Repetition of Surya Mantra bestows health, long life, vigour, vitality, Tejas or brilliance. It removes all diseases of the body and the diseases of the eye. No enemy can do any harm. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="3872" LastEditDate="2017-07-14T11:54:16.357" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T11:54:16.357" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19579" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-14T07:28:58.743" Score="0" ViewCount="342" Body="&lt;p&gt;Uddhava was friend of Lord Krishna right from childhood. While departing from earth , Lord Krishna said to Uddhava  that -many  persons has benefitted from me during my  this avatara , by asking I need wealth; I need health  etc. But you have not asked anything. What is in your mind ask me &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Uddhava asked-: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krishna You are saying all the time I am with all the human beings. But why we commit sins if you are around us? What was Krishna's reply for this? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T11:17:05.167" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T07:31:29.653" Title="Why humans commit sins when you are around us Uddhava to Lord Krishna" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19581" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10176" CreationDate="2017-07-14T09:34:05.000" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, Krishna wouldn't have spoken that.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the contradictions of Uddhava Gita (UG) from the version in MahAbhArata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;UG: &lt;em&gt;&quot;Dharmaraj also could have thought similarly and offered that I, his cousin, would play on his behalf.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In reality the invitation was supposed to be sent by DhritarAshtra/Kuru-s to be able to present in the assembly of game. Even if invited, Krishna was already out of his capital DwArika for another battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vasudeva said, O lord of earth, if I had been present at Dwaraka, then, O king, this evil would not have befallen thee! And, O irrepressible one, coming unto the gambling-match, even if uninvited by the son of Amvika (Dhritarashtra), or Duryodhana, or by the other Kauravas, I would have prevented the game from taking place, by showing its many evils, ...  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03013.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;UG: &lt;em&gt;&quot;If Shakuni and I had played the game of dice, who do you think would have won?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shakuni didn't have any match in dice game. Moreover Krishna was not interested in commencing dice game itself due to its inherent evils. He had shown lots of them as seen in above link. The game of dice was known to be of &quot;cheating nature&quot; to all. Still if it would have started then Krishna had other ideas to stop it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..., if he had rejected my gentle counsels offered as medicine, then, O best of the Bharata race, I would have &lt;strong&gt;compelled him by force&lt;/strong&gt;! And, if those who wait at his court, professing to be his friends but in reality his foes, had supported him, then &lt;strong&gt;I would have slain them all, along with those gamblers, there present&lt;/strong&gt;! ... O son of Pandu, on arriving at Dwarka I learnt from Yuyudhana all about thy calamity! &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03013.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;UG: &lt;em&gt;&quot;He tied me with his prayers and did not allow me to get into the hall; I was just outside the hall waiting for someone to call me through their prayers.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not correct. Krishna himself shows disappointment that his absence caused this distress to PAndava-s. Even Yudhishtira expected him to be present in the hall:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira said, '&lt;strong&gt;O Krishna, why wert thou absent&lt;/strong&gt; (from the Anartta country)? And, O descendant of the Vrishni race, while thou wert away, where didst thou dwell? And what didst thou do while out of thy kingdom?'&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Krishna said, 'O bull of the Bharata race, &lt;strong&gt;I had gone for the purpose&lt;/strong&gt; of destroying the (arranging) city Salwa... And searching him here and there, I found him in an island &lt;strong&gt;in the midst of the ocean&lt;/strong&gt;! ... it was &lt;strong&gt;owing to this affair that I could not then come (unto thee)&lt;/strong&gt;! As soon as I heard of the unfair game of dice at Hastinapur, I have come here desirous of seeing ye who have been plunged in distress.'  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;UG: &lt;em&gt;&quot;Even Draupadi did not call me when Dusshasan held her hair and dragged her to fulfil his brother’s order. She was also arguing in the hall, based on her own abilities. She never called me.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seems little doubtful. Draupadi was a wedded wife of PAndava-s, hence firstly she would assume it to be their responsibility. She prayed Krishna only when they couldn't do anything due to they observing &lt;strong&gt;Daasa Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Drupada's daughter Krishna ... eyes bathed in tears, said, ... I was treated as a slave by those sinful wretches. And when the &lt;strong&gt;Pandavas beholding it all sat silent without giving way to wrath, in my heart I called upon thee. O Govinda, saying,--Save me, O save me!&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05082.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Last but not the least, as noted at few places in MB, Yudhishtira played and stacked everything one by one against his own will, bound by an oath:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira said,--'It would seem then that some of the most desperate and terrible gamblers always depending upon deceit are there. This whole universe, however, is at the will of its Maker, under the control of fate. It is not free. O learned one, &lt;strong&gt;I do not desire, at the command of king Dhritarashtra to engage myself in gambling&lt;/strong&gt;. The father always wisheth to benefit his son. Thou art our master, O Vidura. Tell me what is proper for us. &lt;strong&gt;Unwilling as I am to gamble, I will not do so&lt;/strong&gt;, if the wicked &lt;strong&gt;Sakuni&lt;/strong&gt; doth not summon me to it in the Sabha? If, however, he &lt;strong&gt;challengeth me, I will never refuse&lt;/strong&gt;. For that, as settled, is my eternal vow.&quot;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02057.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Arjuna hearing this, said ... The king was summoned by the foe, and remembering the usage of the Kshatriyas, he played at dice against his will.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If above is believed to be true, then the story presented in Uddhava-Gita seems to be an artistic passage by a creative mind – beautiful but imaginary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T15:34:24.790" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T15:34:24.790" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19582" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2237" CreationDate="2017-07-14T10:38:45.607" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's an emphatic NO that Jesus was not the incarnation of Vishnu. Vishnu is so called by Vedic followers but it is the god almighty which is being called in respective names according to their religions. He is god for everybody. Similarly when a realised soul descends on earth, it has to be in a religion and in a specific place. However the motto of that incarnation is for the benefit of mankind who are in need of it. If I don't want it, fair enough but I have no right to pass any comments on such incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8052" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T10:38:45.607" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19583" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19573" CreationDate="2017-07-14T11:24:19.670" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chant Dhanvantari Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhanvantari Mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om namo Bhagavathe Vasudevaya Danvantaraye Amrutha Kalasa Hasthaya sarva aamaya vinachanaya triloka nathaya sri maha vishnavae namah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source-- Tamil slokas compilation and Sambodh.us&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4m28Z5OyFk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Video&lt;/a&gt; for Dhanvantari mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just hear this video imbibe the mantra in your mind and recite near your teacher. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-19T13:00:51.550" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T13:00:51.550" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19585" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19579" CreationDate="2017-07-14T14:56:58.290" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna and Uddhava did not talk about this.&lt;/strong&gt;  The only conversation at length between Krishna and Uddhava is the Uddhava Gita, which occurs in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;11th Skandha&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.  And it contains no discussion along the lines you're describing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T14:56:58.290" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19586" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19618" CreationDate="2017-07-14T15:38:27.620" Score="2" ViewCount="1025" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the story of Ramayana and Mahabharata, I have come to know that Lord Narayana takes incarnation at the end of every era (yuga). And when Lord's incarnation dies then era changes (and new era starts). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example: Lord Narayana took incarnation as Lord Rama  nearly at the end of Treta yuga. When Lord Rama died then new era (Dwapara yuga) started. Similarly,  Lord krishna took birth at the end of Dwapara yuga and on his death Kali yuga started.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus I believe Lord Narayana takes incarnation in every era for following purposes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;To start new era (yuga).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;To kill all bad creatures (including demons, humans and others) so that in new era there will not any obstacle to start over Dharma as another new beginning i.e. yuga.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;To set examples of dharma by their deeds that will teach people of new era about dharma from new perspective. Means as new era is going to start so he use to set new examples (that guide towards dharma) for new people of new era.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Lord Narayana took incarnation to change era or to start new era (according to my learning).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here is my real question&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The thing I want to know the time of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna death. Means whether they died at end of era OR in between the era (not at end of era).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although I believe I am right on my points but I have been asked for proof of my theory. I have proof but that proof is something like this (it is not scriptural reference because I don't read scriptures directly but instead it's from story of incarnation life. Here it is...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna took birth at end of Dwapara yuga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The wife of Bala Rama (incarnation of Sheshanag) is the kind of proof that Lord Krishna took birth at the end of Dwapara yuga. Here is how...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Revati (wife of Balarama) did born in Satya yuga and married in Dwapara yuga with Balarama. At the time of satyayuga, father of Revati couldn't find any perfect husband for his daughter in whole earth since his daughter was not an ordinary lady. So there was no any man that can properly suits Revati (as per her father's thoughts). So his father went to Brahma Loka with Revati. There they did meet Lord Brahma. Revati's father said to Brahma that I have searched whole earth but I couldn't find any suitable husband for my daughter. It seems there is not a man on earth who can marry my daughter. he asked to Brahma that Should I find husband for my daughter in other loka (world) instead of Prithvi Loka (earth)? In which Loka I can find suitable husband from my daughter?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord Brahma replied  &quot;You will find husband for your daughter in prithvi loka (earth). Then her father replied &quot;But I have searched whole earth and couldn't find any suitable husband for her&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma said &quot;The time in which you were searching husband for your daughter, that time has been changed completely now. The speed of time in Brahma loka is extremely fast than Prithvi Loka. The little time that you spend in Brahma loka with you daughter, on that little time on Prithvi loka, 3 eras (Yuga) has been completed. On earth Satya yuga and Treta Yuga already completed (They were from Satya yuga) and &lt;strong&gt;Dwapara yuga is going to end soon&lt;/strong&gt;. Right now in Dawapara yuga Lord Narayana is himself present on earth as his eighth incarnation. Sheshnaag also took incarnation with Lord Narayana as Balarama. And he (Balarama) is suitable husband for your daughter. So, now go to Lord Krishna and Balarama.&quot; So then they went to them and Balarama uses his plough to decrease the height of Revati (Since Revati was from Satyayuga, hence she was very tall. So Balraama decreases her height as per Dwapara yuga).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE:&lt;/strong&gt;  In the above story I have highlighted the Point where Brahma said Dwapara yuga is going to end and Lord Krishna is there. That simply implies that Lord Krishna was on earth at the end of Dwapara yuga. He didn't take birth in between of Dwapara yuga but instead took birth when Dwapara yuga is going to end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence like this I have learned from stories of incarnation of Narayana that they take incarnation at the end of every yuga. Kalki incarnation of Narayana will also appear at the end of Kali yuga, not now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One person claimed this as my personal theory that Lord Narayana takes incarnation at end of every era. He claims that there is no scriptural reference on this. Even if there is not scriptural reference that doesn't mean it is fake theory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This can still be proved that Lord Narayana takes incarnation at the end of every era by finding their time of Death. That's why I am here to ask mainly about time of death of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna because those incarnations of Narayana was era changing incarnation. If they were born at end of era and died at end of era then there will be no doubt that Lord Narayana always takes incarnation at the end of era.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what was the time of death of Rama and Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-17T08:25:46.023" LastActivityDate="2021-05-25T19:02:34.813" Title="Does Lord Narayana take incarnation to change era?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|rama|avatars|yuga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19587" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19573" CreationDate="2017-07-14T15:40:15.393" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mahamrityunjaya mantra is the best choice but it should be chanted in continuous manner accompanied by homam and abhishekam if problem is severe. Along with this, Sri Rudram should also chanted as much as possible. One has to visualize the energy of the mantra entering into the patient and healing him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mrityunjaya mantra is as follows, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2sMgo.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2sMgo.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Mantra-Mahodadhi Chapter 16, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/do7oq.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/do7oq.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Up to three nakshatras from the birth nakshatra, one has to perform homam with samidha (wood) of Guduchi to avoid diseases and untimely death. 46.47 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Performing daily homam with Durva is said to be the best for avoiding untimely death and for fulfilling all the desired. 47-48&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For curing fever, one has to perform homam with samidhA of apAmarga plant. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For fulfilling all desires, one has to perform homam with guduchi pieces soaked in milk for one month. 48-49&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To sum up, homam should be done with guduchi and durva grass. Abhishekam should be done with articles like milk, yogurt, sugarcane juice, water, etc. &#xA;For the homam one has to ideally do 10,000 oblations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-14T15:55:14.607" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T15:55:14.607" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19588" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19335" CreationDate="2017-07-14T16:22:25.987" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no mention of any prohibition of herbs like onion/garlic in Ayurveda. Infact &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/mediawiki-1.28.2/index.php?title=Annapanavidhi_Adhyaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Charaka Samhita (Sutrasthana Chapter 27)&lt;/a&gt; encourages the use of these herbs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्लेष्मलोमारुतघ्नश्चपलाण्डुर्नचपित्तनुत् ।&#xA;आहारयोगीबल्यश्चगुरुर्वृष्योऽथरोचनः॥१७५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SleShmalo mArutaGnaSca palANDurna ca pittanut | AhArayogI balyaSca&#xA;gururvRuShyo&amp;amp;tha rocanaH||175||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The onion/palandu (Allium cepa Linn) promotes kapha and is effective&#xA;in treating vata but not of pitta. It is a good adjuvant for food and&#xA;is a strength-enhancer, heavy, aphrodisiac and appetizing. [175]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;क्रिमिकुष्ठकिलासघ्नोवातघ्नोगुल्मनाशनः।&#xA;स्निग्धश्चोष्णश्चवृष्यश्चलशुनःकटुकोगुरुः॥१७६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;krimikuShThakilAsaGno vAtaGno gulmanASanaH| snigdhaScoShNaSca&#xA;vRuShyaSca laSunaH kaTuko guruH||176||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The garlic/lashuna (Allium sativum Linn.) is effective in treating&#xA;worms, dermatosis including leprosy, vata disorders and gulma. It is&#xA;unctuous, hot, aphrodisiac, pungent and heavy. [176]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शुष्काणिकफवातघ्नान्येतान्येषांफलानिच।&#xA;हरितानामयंचैषषष्ठोवर्गःसमाप्यते॥१७७॥ इतिहरितवर्गः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SuShkANi kaPavAtaGnAnyetAnyeShAM PalAni ca| haritAnAmayaM caiSha&#xA;ShaShTho vargaH samApyate||177|| iti haritavargaH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;These in their dried condition and their fruits are effective in&#xA;curing kapha and vata. Thus, ends the sixth section on greens. [177]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However various Smritis and Puranas ban the usage of onion and garlic along with many other vegetables in everyday meals and naivedya. If it was forbidden in daily life of dvijas it is obvious it is forbidden in temples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200379.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti Section 5 Verse 5&lt;/a&gt; says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लशुनं गृञ्जनं चैव पलाण्डुं कवकानि च ।  &lt;strong&gt;अभक्ष्याणि&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;द्विजातीनाममेध्यप्रभवानि च ॥ ५ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;laśunaṃ gṛñjanaṃ caiva palāṇḍuṃ kavakāni ca |  &lt;strong&gt;abhakṣyāṇi&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;dvijātīnāmamedhyaprabhavāni ca || 5 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garlic, leeks and onions, mushrooms and all that proceeds from impure things, are unfit to be eaten by twice-born men.—(5).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Abhakshya' means 'forbidden' or food that is not meant to be eaten.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/dharma/gautama2.asp#ch17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gautama Sutra 17.32&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.429882/2015.429882.gautama-dharma#page/n253/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(Prasna 2, Adhaya 8, Verse 32)&lt;/a&gt;[in Hindi from where I got the Sanskrit Verse]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;किसलयः पञ्जवोऽग्रप्ररोहः । कयाकु( किम्पाकु)शच्छत्राक: । लशुनं&#xA;प्रसिद्धम् । निर्यासो वृक्षत्वग्भूतो घनोभूतो रसो हिङ्ग्वादिः ।&#xA;किसलयादयोऽप्यभक्ष्याः ।। ३२ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;32. Nor young sprouts, mushrooms, garlic, and substances exuding (from trees)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/apastamba-dharma-sutra/d/doc116249.html#note-t-62062&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apastamba Sutra Prasna 1 Patala 5 Khanda 17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;26. (Likewise) red garlic, onions, and leeks.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;27. Likewise anything else which (those who are learned in the law)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;28. Mushrooms ought not to be eaten; that has been declared in a Brāhmaṇa;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/dharma/vash2.asp#ch14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vasistha (14.33)&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/sbe07053.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu (51.(3 , 34 , 36)&lt;/a&gt; prescribe penances for eating the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;CHAPTER XIV&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.Now, therefore, we will declare what may be eaten and what may not be eaten.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;33.&lt;strong&gt;For eating garlic, onions, mushrooms, turnips, Sleshmântaka, exudations from trees, the red sap flowing from incisions (in trees or&#xA;plants),&lt;/strong&gt; food pecked at by crows or worried by dogs, or the leavings&#xA;of a Sûdra, an Atikrikkhra (penance must be performed).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3.Likewise, if he has (knowingly) eaten garlic, or onions, or red garlic,&#xA;or any plant which has a similar flavour (to that of garlic or&#xA;onions),&lt;/strong&gt; or the meat of village pigs, of tame cocks (and other tame&#xA;birds), of apes, and of cows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;34.&lt;strong&gt;For eating (unawares the mushroom called) Khattrâka, or (the mushroom called) Kavaka, he must perform the Sântapana penance.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;36.Likewise, (for eating unawares) the juice flowing from an incision in a tree, &lt;strong&gt;(plants raised in) unclean substances (such as excrements&#xA;and the like)&lt;/strong&gt;, and the red exudation of trees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/sbe07068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Smriti (66.12)&lt;/a&gt; adds that 'abhakshya' foods may not be offered as naivedya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नाभक्ष्यं नैवेद्यार्थे ।।१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;12. (He must) not (give) forbidden food at the offering of eatables;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pauranic sources forbid similar type of vegetables.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12942/6/Chapter4_1033-1112p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Moksa Khanda Chapter 14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वृन्ताकं चुक्रशाकश्च बिल्वमौदुंवरं तथा । पलाञ्जुर्लशुनं वृन्तं कलञ्जं&#xA;च तथा द्विजा ॥ ३,१४.४३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I shall now tell you of things that have no essence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;42-47. The chaff of gram, Medhyā (a fruit-bearing plant), gruel, the holy basil, parched or fried grain, Upodvaji, gourd, Kosalaki (?) the&#xA;egg plant, tamarind, Bilva fruit, Udumbara fruit, onion, garlic-these&#xA;are essenceless in all times.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kurma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30646/79_chapter_70.pdf#page=1&amp;amp;zoom=auto,-39,682&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vol 2 Chapter 17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वृन्ताकं जालिका शाकं कुसुम्भाश्मन्तकं तथा। १८॥ पलाण्डु लसुनं सूक्तं&#xA;निर्यासं चैव वर्जयेत्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;छन्राकं विड्वराहञ्च शैलं पीयूषमेव च॥ १९॥ विलयं सुमुखजैव कवकानि च&#xA;वर्जयेत्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The brinjals, the vegetables, safflower, asmantaka (a kind of plant), onion, garlic,&lt;/strong&gt; sour articles, the gum of the trees, should&#xA;not be accepted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Similarly, the mushrooms, the village boar, Sleymantaka fruit&lt;/strong&gt;, bee stings, or the milk of a cow during the first seven days of&#xA;calving, &lt;strong&gt;the eatables named Simukha, and the mushroom, should be&#xA;discarded.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana Kasi Khanda&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/26270/53f_chapter_40_1.pdf#page=1&amp;amp;zoom=auto,-101,194&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 40&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Hence I shall tell you what things are prohibited. By avoiding them from afar, a man can prevent his fall in hell.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9. Onion, shit-thriving pigs, Šelu, garlic, carrot, Gopiyusa (milk of a cow before the lapse of ten days from calving), Tanduliya (a&#xA;grain growing in faecal rubbish) and mushrooms all these are to be&#xA;avoided.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Y5Ito6ltz_bmg4MDhlZ0toREU/view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhumi Khanda (pg 788) Chapter 56&lt;/a&gt; [The entire Padma Purana is included in this link]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;19b-24. (But) he should avoid egg-plant, stalks of lotuses, safflower,&#xA;gold or silver, onion, garlic, sour gruel, a thick fluid substance; so&#xA;also chatraka (a kind of mushroom), vidvaraha, greasy milk of a cow&#xA;during the first seven days of calving, vilaya (a particular product&#xA;of milk) and mushrooms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By eating the small red variety of garlic, blossoms of kimsuka, a&#xA;gourd, so also udumbara, bottle-gourd, a twice-born becomes fallen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma Khanda (pg 830) Chapter 19&lt;/strong&gt; says the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O brahmana, a man who eats an onion, garlic, a potherb, bottlegourd, a&#xA;small red variety of garlic and meat, should observe the&#xA;Candrayana-vow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additionally Padma Purana in &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Khanda Chapter 9&lt;/strong&gt; describes how Alakshmi (Jyestha) was asked to reside in onions and garlic and mushrooms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Alaksmi (i.e. Evil Fortune), of a dark face and red eyes, having&#xA;rough and tawny hair, and having an old body, sprang up. She,the&#xA;eldest one, said to the gods: &amp;quot;What should I do?&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O you eldest one, causing filth, your stay will be in the houses of&#xA;those mean men who eat mushrooms and a left-over coconut. &lt;strong&gt;There is no&#xA;doubt that you will stay in the houses of those men of sinful&#xA;thoughts, who eat sesamum-flour, bottle-gourd, garlic, shoots of young&#xA;plants, a species of kadamba (called kalambaka) and onions.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 232 (pg 1622) of Uttara Khanda&lt;/strong&gt; says the same. Perhaps this is the reason why onion garlic and other vegetables are not consumed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jyestha Devi, covered with gems, wreaths and garments came up. When&#xA;the goddess came up, she said: &amp;quot;What should I do?&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O goddess, causing poverty, always live in the house of those who eat&#xA;sesamum, flesh of animals struck with a poisoned weapon, &lt;strong&gt;kalinga,&#xA;pot-herb, garlic, mushrooms, vid-varaha, bilva, kosataki-fruit,&#xA;bottle-gourd, and onions.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-14T17:58:02.470" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19590" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19561" CreationDate="2017-07-15T03:50:47.967" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think it's called 'fate' here in the western world, that which governs life on Earth, look at insurance statistics, that doesn't fluctuate much, but are eerily consistent from year to year, even though life should be purely random to science. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In psychological terms it may be due to curiosity, some wants to see what all this historical stuff is about, others 'to know your enemy' to properly counter argue all these religious people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10447" LastActivityDate="2017-07-15T03:50:47.967" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19592" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16515" CreationDate="2017-07-15T04:13:46.523" Score="4" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Adi Buddha&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adi Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu lived from 1887 BC to 1807 BC born to Mother Anjana and &#xA;    Suddhodana  in&#xA;  (Bodh Gaya). He born in the Same Ikshvaku dynasty in which Rama also born. The Adi Buddha Established the Philosophy of Ahimsa, Non&#xA;  Violence. He preached against ritual Animal Sacrifices that has crept&#xA;  into Vedic Hinduism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Gautama Buddha&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Siddhartha was born in 6th century BC in Royal Family of&#xA;  Suddhodana and Mayadevi in Lumbini in Nepal. Siddhartha received his&#xA;  name Gautama from his Guru Gautama Muni, who belongs to&#xA;  Kapila dynasty. He renounced his palace &#xA;  comforts to find enlightenment. He went to Bodh Gaya to meditate and&#xA;  got enlightenment. He meditated at the birth place of Adi Buddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look at the various arguments, you can say there were two Buddhas. Adi Buddha is the founder of Buddhism with Hindu philosophy. Gautama Buddha is not an avatar of Vishnu and who rejected Vedas and established modern(Neo) Buddhism.That's why you can still find remnants of Hindu thoughts in Buddhism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13623/where-is-buddhism-also-considered-a-valid-path-in-hindu-scriptures/13624&quot;&gt;Adi Shankara&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, who revived Hinduism after destroying the spread of Buddhism, gloried the path of Buddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I worship the spiritual radiance manifested as Buddha, who was&#xA;  all-knowing, who was the conqueror of Mara, who was full of mercy, who&#xA;  was of the nature of Buddhaand who was the adored of those who were&#xA;  opponents of Yajnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stephen-knapp.com/were_there_two_buddhas.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Were There Two Buddhas?  By Stephen Knapp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-02-21T00:37:51.530" LastActivityDate="2018-02-21T00:37:51.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19593" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16515" CreationDate="2017-07-15T05:51:20.893" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;By logic they both can be &quot;The&quot; Buddha, since Lord Vishnu's eternal promise to humanity is that he will manifest himself whenever humanity are in great need.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/vishnu.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/vishnu.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;stated in the Bhagavad gita, whenever evil gains ascendance, God&#xA;  incarnates on earth to restore dharma, punish the evil and protect the&#xA;  weak and the righteous&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10447" LastEditorUserId="10447" LastEditDate="2017-07-15T07:01:31.907" LastActivityDate="2017-07-15T07:01:31.907" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19594" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10057" CreationDate="2017-07-15T12:08:15.653" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aryabhat was taught about zero when he went to a vedic gurukul. The sages who taught him, took the concept of shunya from the vedas. The number system came from shukla yajurved 18/24-25.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10451" LastActivityDate="2017-07-15T12:08:15.653" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19597" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-15T15:21:05.750" Score="2" ViewCount="161" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any resource to learn Sanskrit which uses no other language other than Sanskrit? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It may seem like paradox but I want to learn Sanskrit in most natural way which involves no translations. &#xA;One solution could be the way kids are taught any language in first days by teachers but the case mentioned is different here as I want to learn the language on my own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10452" LastActivityDate="2017-07-15T15:21:05.750" Title="How to learn Sanskrit from scratch?" Tags="|sanskrit|language|resource|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-07-15T16:56:40.440" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19598" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-15T23:24:17.373" Score="6" ViewCount="240" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/feFzxv/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Taittiriya Brahmana of the Yajur Veda, a story is told involving Indra and the sage Bharadvaja.  Bharadvaja spent three successive births practicing Brahmacharya in order to learn the Vedas fully, and wanted to take a fourth birth to do the same, but then Indra told him that this is futile since the Vedas are infinite.  And then Indra taught Bharadvaja something called the Agni Savitra, which led to great results in the afterlife: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bharadvaja lived through three lives in the state of a religious student (brahmacharyya). Indra approached him when he was lying old and decrepit, and said to him: 'Bharadvaja, if I give thee a fourth life, how wilt thou employ it;?' 'I will lead the life of a religious student,' he replied. He (Indra) showed him three mountain-like objects, as it were unknown. From each of them he took a handful: and, calling to him, 'Bharadvaja,' said, 'These are the Vedas. The Vedas are infinite. This is what thou hast studied during these three lives. Now there is another thing which thou hast not studied, come and learn it. This is the universal science.' &lt;strong&gt;He declared to him this Agni Savitra.&lt;/strong&gt; Having known it he (Bharadvaja) became immortal, and ascended to the heavenly world, to union with the sun. He who knows this ascends to heaven, to union with the sun. This is the triple Vedic science. He who knows this conquers a world as great as he would gain by the triple Vedic science.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is this Agni Savitra that Indra taught to Bharadvaja?  The reason I'm interested in it is that the Advaita philosopher Vidyaranya discusses this story in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902605.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/14/items/jivanmuktiviveka00madhiala/jivanmuktiviveka00madhiala_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=jivanmuktiviveka00madhiala_jp2/jivanmuktiviveka00madhiala_0084.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Jivanmukti Viveka, and he says that Indra imparted to Bharadvaja knowledge of Saguna Brahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Shastra Vasana] is of three kinds... The first kind of this vice is seen in Bharadvaja who, though he applied himself to the Veda in three successive lives, began, on being incited by Indra, to study the remainder of Vedic lore even in the fourth.  As this kind of study has no end, and is, therefore, impossible to accomplish, it is set down among impure Vasanah.  Indra, of course, cured Bharadvaja of this vice by &lt;strong&gt;enlightening him into the knowledge of Brahman with character&lt;/strong&gt;. This has been described in the Taittiriya Brahmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That makes the Agni Savitra sound like it's akin to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;32 Brahmavidyas&lt;/a&gt;, lessons found in various Upanishads which can lead you to Brahman if you meditate upon them. So what information about about Saguna Brahman (i.e. the supreme Brahman according to non-Advaitin schools) did Indra impart to Bharadvaja?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-15T23:24:17.373" Title="What is the Agni Savitra Vidya that Indra taught to sage Bharadvaja?" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|brahman|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19599" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19561" CreationDate="2017-07-16T04:15:34.813" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;How come there are nearly 6 billion people but only few attain perfection(self realization)?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because only few try/able to opt for it. This is answered in Gita in straight forward way:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 7.2-7.3 - I shall tell you in detail of this Knowledge which is combined with realisation (special knowledge), after knowing which there remains nothing else here to be known again. &lt;strong&gt;Among several [thousands] of men, a rare one endeavours for perfection. Among [those] perfected ones, rare one knows Me in reality (realisation)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As rightly said in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19561/how-come-there-are-nearly-6-billion-people-but-only-few-attain-perfectionself-r#comment55946_19561&quot;&gt;this comment&lt;/a&gt;, everyone get &quot;liberation&quot;. And few of them attain &quot;self realisation&quot; as quoted in Gita above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Why do some people naturally get inclination(a quest or sometimes a thirst) on life to know about Go; Are they any pious activities that leads to this state in life after life?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is called &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Daivi sampadA&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (divine quality). The opposite is called &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Asuri sampadA&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (demonic quality) which are described in Gita chapter 16. Some of those activities which incline towards divnie qualities are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 16.1-16.3 - The Blessed Lord said Fearlessness, purity of mind, persistence in knowledge and yoga, charity and control of the external organs, sacrifice, (scriptural) study, austerity and rectitude; Non-injury, truthfulness, absence of anger, renunciation, control of the internal organ, absence of vilification, kindness to creatures, non-covetousness, gentleness, modesty, freedom from restlessness; Vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, freedom from malice, absence of haughtiness-these, O scion of the Bharata dynasty, are of one born &lt;strong&gt;destined to have&lt;/strong&gt; the divine nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-16T05:10:09.647" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T05:10:09.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10873" CreationDate="2017-07-16T07:38:11.763" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Garga or Gargacharya or Garga Muni was a celebrated seer in both the Vedic and Puranic domains. There is mention about him in many puranas and Mahabharata. Garga Samhita is attributed to Sage Garga. He was famous in the lineage of Great rishi Bhaaradvaja. Garga had established a gotra in his name. He is the seer of hymn 6.47 of the Rig veda and also for some mantras in Shukla Yajurveda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Garga was one of the greatest sages of Puranic times. He was better&#xA;  known as Garga Muni. He was the family priest of the family of Nanda&#xA;  (the foster-father of Krishna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He named Krishna after receiving the name by meditation. From the&#xA;  Vishnu Purana and other Puranas, one understands that although&#xA;  basically of Kshatriya origin, a branch of Gargas became Brahmins and&#xA;  migrated westwards and joined the Yavanas (Ionians). This could be the&#xA;  reason that later day Indians referred to Greek mathematicians and&#xA;  astronomers as Gargacharyas while maintaining that a Vridha-Garga&#xA;  (Earlier or Older Garga) was the pioneer in astronomy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gargas were warriors and some text indicates they were the descendants&#xA;  of Guru Dronacharya, the legendary character from Mahabharata. The&#xA;  names Gargas and Garg are not the same. Garg are purely vaishya and&#xA;  have no connection to Rishi Gargas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Guru Dronacharya was the son of Rishi Bhardwaj's descendant. The&#xA;  descendants of Bharadwaj Gotra display warrior skills, because sage&#xA;  Bharadwaj married a Kshatriya woman called Suseela. According&#xA;  to Anuloma marriage, those born to a Brahmin father and a Kshatriya&#xA;  woman take the characteristics of Kshatriya though technically being a&#xA;  Brahmin. Hence the Brahmin descandants of Bharadwaj Gotra are referred&#xA;  to as Brahma-Kshatriyas(Warrior Brahmins). He was the son of Rishi Bharadwaja and Susheela.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gargi is celebrated female sage Vachaknavi, born in the family of&#xA;  Garga&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sites.google.com/site/wwwgargacharyathebrahmancom/history&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Garg Samhita&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Garg Samhita has been written by the great Acharya of the Yadu&#xA;  Kul; Maha Muni Shri Garg. This Sanhita is filled with the sweet divine&#xA;  leelas of Shree Krishn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The divinity of these leelas are full of the madhurya bhava of Shree&#xA;  Radha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All that has been described in the Shrimad Bhagvad in sutra, has been&#xA;  elaborated here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is a very important granth for all the bhakti-tradition devotees; the&#xA;  deep tattwa of Shrimad Bhagwad are explained here in a very simple&#xA;  manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This granth fills in details to many other well-known vartaas, it&#xA;  works like a fill in the blanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once when sitting on the Kailash parvat, Parvati wishes to know the&#xA;  detail mystery of that charitra upon whom Shivji meditates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She wants to hear Radha pati Parmatma GopalKrishn's katha, as Shivji&#xA;  continuously praises this sacred granth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During that period Bhagwan Maheshwar narrates the katha written by&#xA;  Garg muni. In sammohan tantra Shivji narrated this to Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.govardhan.org.in/shri-garg-samhita.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note: There is another scripture named Garga Samhita which is related to astronomy and astrology.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-02-01T15:47:11.997" LastActivityDate="2018-02-01T15:47:11.997" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19601" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3091" CreationDate="2017-07-16T08:41:50.580" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is how it's explained about four legs in the original MahAbhArata during &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vana Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, once more asked the great Muni Markandeya about the future course of the government of the Earth. ... Markandeya said, '... O bull of the Bharata race, in the &lt;strong&gt;Krita age&lt;/strong&gt;, everything was free from deceit and guile and avarice and covetousness; and &lt;strong&gt;morality&lt;/strong&gt; like a bull was among men, &lt;strong&gt;with all the four legs complete&lt;/strong&gt;. In the &lt;strong&gt;Treta&lt;/strong&gt; age &lt;strong&gt;sin took away one&lt;/strong&gt; of these legs and &lt;strong&gt;morality had three legs&lt;/strong&gt;. In the &lt;strong&gt;Dwapara, sin and morality are mixed&lt;/strong&gt; half and half; and accordingly morality is said to have &lt;strong&gt;two legs only&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;In the dark age (of Kali)&lt;/strong&gt;, O thou best of the Bharata race, morality &lt;strong&gt;mixed with three parts of sin&lt;/strong&gt; liveth by the side of men. Accordingly morality then is said to wait on men, with &lt;strong&gt;only a fourth part of itself remaining&lt;/strong&gt;. Know, O Yudhishthira, that the period of life, the energy, intellect and the physical strength of men decrease in every Yuga!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this entirely means that, righteousness in the society decreases (due to increase in sin) as you have guessed perfectly in your Qn!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T08:41:50.580" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19602" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12297" CreationDate="2017-07-16T08:47:57.437" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;. According to MahAbhArata, the Kaliyuga ends with possibly total annihilation of mankind and then the mankind is regenerated with the &lt;em&gt;Kritayuga&lt;/em&gt; (or &lt;em&gt;Satyuga&lt;/em&gt;). During &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vana Parva&lt;/a&gt;, Rishi Markendeya explains Yudhishtira about the effects of Kaliyuga. He also provides the signs of end of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... And when those terrible times will be over, the creation will begin anew. And men will again be created and distributed into the four orders beginning with Brahmanas. And about that time, in order that men may increase, Providence, according to its pleasure, will once more become propitious. &lt;strong&gt;And then when the Sun, the Moon, and Vrihaspati will, with the constellation Pushya 1, enter the same sign, the Krita age will begin again&lt;/strong&gt;. And the clouds will commence to shower seasonably, and the stars and stellar conjunctions will become auspicious. And the planets, duly revolving in their orbits, will become exceedingly propitious. And all around, there will be prosperity and abundance and health and peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T08:47:57.437" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19603" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2012" CreationDate="2017-07-16T08:54:24.777" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kalki is supposed to be born in the &lt;em&gt;Kritayuga (Satyuga)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; which would be commenced after a &lt;em&gt;Kaliyuga&lt;/em&gt;. At the end of Kaliyuga most of the humanity will be destroyed and will start afresh. Here is that story from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vana Parva&lt;/a&gt;, during which Rishi Markendeya explains it to Yudhishtira.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... And when those terrible times will be over, &lt;strong&gt;the creation will begin anew. And men will again be created and distributed into the four orders beginning with Brahmanas&lt;/strong&gt;. And about that time, in order that men may increase, Providence, according to its pleasure, will once more become propitious. And then when the Sun, the Moon, and Vrihaspati will, with the constellation Pushya 1, enter the same sign, &lt;strong&gt;the Krita age will begin again&lt;/strong&gt;. And the clouds will commence to shower seasonably, and the stars and stellar conjunctions will become auspicious. And the planets, duly revolving in their orbits, will become exceedingly propitious. And all around, there will be prosperity and abundance and health and peace. &lt;strong&gt;And commissioned by Time, a Brahmana of the name of Kalki will take his birth&lt;/strong&gt;. And he will glorify Vishnu and possess great energy, great intelligence, and great prowess. And he will take his &lt;strong&gt;birth in a town of the name of Sambhala&lt;/strong&gt; in an auspicious Brahmana family. And vehicles and weapons, and warriors and arms, and coats of mail will be at his disposal as soon as he will think of them. And he will be the king of kings, and ever victorious with the strength of virtue. And he will &lt;strong&gt;restore order and peace in this world&lt;/strong&gt; crowded with creatures and contradictory in its course. And that blazing Brahmana of mighty intellect, having appeared, will destroy all things. And he will be the Destroyer of all, and will inaugurate a new Yuga. And surrounded by the Brahmanas, that Brahmana will exterminate all the mlecchas wherever those low and despicable persons may take refuge.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also refer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19602/1049&quot;&gt;When will the Kalyug end? Are there symbols written in scripture&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19601/1049&quot;&gt;What are the four legs of Dharma?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-07-16T14:40:33.760" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T14:40:33.760" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19604" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-16T09:14:39.937" Score="3" ViewCount="2593" Body="&lt;p&gt;If one misses the Yearly Upakarma (sacred thread changing ceremony) rituals on that given day, is there any alternative day one can perform that  ?  After one week or month ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10460" LastEditorUserId="56" LastEditDate="2017-07-16T19:20:02.950" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T06:49:21.723" Title="Alternative day for Upakarma when one misses it" Tags="|vedic-rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19605" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19574" CreationDate="2017-07-16T09:30:49.893" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The real reason Bhima vowed to kill Dussasana had nothing to do with Draupadi. It was because Dussassana mocked, insulted and laughed at the Pandavas while they were going to exile after the 2nd game of dice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Thus did &lt;strong&gt;Dussasana, the son of Dhritarashtra, utter in the hearing of&#xA;  the Pandavas, harsh words of the most cruel import.&lt;/strong&gt; And hearing them,&#xA;  the unforbearing Bhima, in wrath suddenly approaching that prince like&#xA;  a Himalayan lion upon a jackal, loudly and chastisingly rebuked him in&#xA;  these words,--Wicked-minded villain, ravest thou so in words that are&#xA;  uttered alone by the sinful? Boastest thou thus in the midst of the&#xA;  kings, advanced as thou art by the skill of the king of Gandhara. &lt;strong&gt;As&#xA;  thou piercest our hearts hear with these thy arrowy words, so shall I&#xA;  pierce thy heart in battle,&lt;/strong&gt; recalling all this to thy mind. And they&#xA;  also who from anger or covetousness are walking behind thee as thy&#xA;  protectors,--them also shall I send to the abode of Yama with their&#xA;  descendants and relatives.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana continued,--Unto Bhima dressed in deer-skins and uttering&#xA;  these words of wrath without doing any thing, for he could not deviate&#xA;  from the path of virtue, &lt;strong&gt;Dussasana abandoning all sense of shame,&#xA;  dancing around the Kurus, loudly said, 'O cow! O cow!&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhima at this once more said,--&lt;strong&gt;Wretch darest thou, O Dussasana, use&#xA;  harsh words&lt;/strong&gt; as these? Whom doth it behove to boast, thus having won&#xA;  wealth by foul means? &lt;strong&gt;I tell thee that if Vrikodara, the son of&#xA;  Pritha, drinketh not thy life-blood, piercing open thy breast&lt;/strong&gt; in&#xA;  battle, let him not&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;p. 148&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;attain to regions of blessedness, &lt;strong&gt;I tell thee truly that by slaying&#xA;  the sons of Dhritarashtra in battle,&lt;/strong&gt; before the very eyes of all the&#xA;  warriors, I shall pacify this wrath of mine soon enough.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02076.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Now this is &lt;strong&gt;the true incident of Bhima’s pratigya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3xgLz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3xgLz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10324" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-07-16T15:50:30.913" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T15:50:30.913" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19606" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19607" CreationDate="2017-07-16T13:46:27.883" Score="5" ViewCount="4398" Body="&lt;p&gt;After I wrote &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18394/yadava-race-destruction/19187#19187&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; I came across this fact from the Mahabharata about Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Endued with great energy he then sat down on the bare earth. He had&#xA;  thought before this of everything that had been fore-shadowed by the&#xA;  words uttered by Gandhari in former days. &lt;strong&gt;He also recollected the&#xA;  words that Durvasas had spoken at the time his body was smeared by&#xA;  that Rishi with the remnant of the Payasa he had eaten (while a guest&#xA;  at Krishna’s house).&lt;/strong&gt; The high-souled one, thinking of the&#xA;  destruction of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas, as also of the previous&#xA;  slaughter of the Kurus, concluded that the hour (for his own departure&#xA;  from the world) had come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I've read a story on various &lt;a href=&quot;http://sortingdiamondsandpearls.blogspot.in/2012/09/in-holy-book-bhagavat-geetha-god-says.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;blogs&lt;/a&gt; how Durvasa came to dine at Dwaraka and he threw tantrums and made all sorts of scenes regarding the food, causing Krishna and Rukmini much trouble. Durvasa also breaks some things around Krishna's palace and upturns a bowl of hot Payasa on Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna remains silent despite the hardship. Durvasa says that the Payasa was a sort of a kavach/armour due to which Krishna's entire body is impenetrable with the exception of the soles of his feet and that his death will be due to this vulnerability. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My question is, has this story been mentioned in any scriptures? Like in the Harivamsa or the Puranas.&lt;/strong&gt; If Krishna explicitly remembered this act of Durvasa in Mahabharata then it must have happened. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also I would like to know what were the words spoken by Durvasa that Krishna recalled?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T14:32:58.380" Title="What is the story of Durvasa having Payasa in Krishna's house?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|durvasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19607" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19606" CreationDate="2017-07-16T14:32:58.380" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna tells the story to his son Pradyumna in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b124.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of he Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, while discussing how one should treat Brahmanas.  Durvasa used to wander around asking who would invite him as a guest to their house, given that he's so irritable and prone to curse people at the smallest perceived slight.  So Krishna decided to invite him to his house.  Durvasa acted in a very capricious matter, and one day he burnt all the beds he was sleeping on and the girls who were serving him.  He then asked Krishna for Payasa.  Krishna served him Payasa, and then Durvasa told Krishna to smear the remnants of it on himself.  Krishna did so, and then Durvasa smeared Payasa on Rukmini as well, and then he tied Rukmini to a chariot and hit Rukmini with a whip to make her pull the chariot.  Krishna was silent through all of this, and Durvasa was so impressed by Krishna's behavior that he gave him a boon that he would not die through any of the parts of his body that the Payasa had touched.  But he noted that the Payasa had not touched the soles of Krishna's feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Formerly, in my house, O son, dwelt the Brahmana Durvasa whose complexion was green and tawny. Clad in rags, he had a stick made of the Vilwa tree. His beard was long and he was exceedingly emaciated. He was taller in stature than the tallest man on earth. Wandering over all the worlds, viz., that which belongs to human beings and those that are for the deities and other superior beings, even this was the verse which he sang constantly among assemblies and in public squares. 'Who is there that would cause the Brahmana Durvasa to dwell in his house, doing the duties of hospitality towards him? He becomes enraged with every one if he finds even the slightest transgression? Hearing this regarding my disposition, who is there that will give me refuge? Indeed, he that would give me shelter as a guest should not do anything to anger me!' When I saw that no one ventured to give him shelter in his house. I invited him and caused him to take up his residence in my abode. On certain days he would eat the food sufficient for the needs of thousands of persons. On certain other days he would eat very little. On some days he would go out of my house and would not return. He would sometimes laugh without any ostensible reason and sometimes cry as causelessly. At that time there was nobody on earth that was equal to him in years. One day, entering the quarters assigned to him he burnt all the beds and coverlets and all the well-adorned damsels that were there for serving him. Doing this, he went out. &lt;strong&gt;Of highly praiseworthy vows, he met me shortly after this and addressing me, said, 'O Krishna, I wish to eat frumenty without delay!' Having understood his mind previously, I had set my servants to prepare every kind of food and drink. Indeed, many excellent viands had been kept ready. As soon as I was asked, I caused hot frumenty to be brought and offered to the ascetic. Having eaten some, he quickly said unto me, 'Do thou, O Krishna, take some of this frumenty and smear all thy limbs with it!' Without any scruple I did as directed. Indeed, with the remnant of that frumenty I smeared my body and head. The ascetic at that time saw thy mother of sweet face standing near. Laughing the while, he smeared her body also with that frumenty.&lt;/strong&gt; The ascetic then caused thy mother, whose body was smeared over with frumenty, to be yoked unto a car without any delay. Ascending that car he set out of my house. Endued with great intelligence, that Brahmana blazed with effulgence like fire, and struck, in my presence, my Rukmini endued with youth, as if she were an animal destined to drag the cars of human beings. Beholding this, I did not feel the slightest grief born of malice or the desire to injure the Rishi. Indeed, having yoked Rukmini to the car, he went out, desirous of proceeding along the high road of the city. Seeing that extraordinary sight, some Dasarhas, filled with wrath, addressed one another and began to converse in this way, 'Who else is there on earth that would draw breath after having yoked Rukmini to a car! Verily, let the world be filled with Brahmanas only! Let no other orders take birth here. The poison of a virulent snake is exceedingly keen. Keener than poison is a Brahmana. There is no physician for a person that has been bitten or burnt by the virulent snake of a Brahmana, 'As the irresistible Durvasa proceeded on the car, Rukmini tottered on the road and frequently fell down. At this the regenerate Rishi became angry and began to urge Rukmini on by striking her with the whip. At last, filled with a towering passion, the Brahmana leapt down from the car, and fled towards the south, running on foot, over a pathless ground. Beholding that foremost of Brahmanas flying along the pathless ground, we followed him, although we were smeared with frumenty, exclaiming behind him, 'Be gratified with us, O holy one! Endued with great energy, the Brahmana, seeing me, said, 'O mighty-armed Krishna, thou hast subdued wrath by the strength of thy nature? O thou of excellent vows, I have not found the slightest fault in thee! O Govinda, I have been highly gratified with thee. Do thou solicit the fruition of such wishes as thou pleasest! Behold duly, O son, what the puissance is of myself when I become gratified with any one. As long as deities and human beings will continue to entertain a liking for food, so long will every one among them cherish the same liking for thee that they cherish for their food! As long, again, as there will be Righteousness in the several world, so long will the fame of thy achievements last! Indeed, thy distinction will last so long in the three worlds! O Janardana, agreeable thou shalt be to all persons! Whatever articles of thine have been broken or burnt or otherwise destroyed (by me), thou shalt see restored, O Janardana, to their former state or they will reappear even in a better form! &lt;strong&gt;As long, again, O thou of unfading glory, as thou wilt wish to live, so long wilt thou have no fear of death assailing thee through such parts of thy body as have been smeared with the frumenty I gave thee! O son, why didst thou not smear that frumenty on the soles of thy feet as well? By not doing it, thou have acted in a way that is not approved by me!&lt;/strong&gt; Even these were the words that he said, well-pleased with me on that occasion. After he had ceased speaking, I saw that my body became endued with great beauty and splendour. Unto Rukmini also, the Rishi, well-pleased with her, said, 'O beautiful lady, thou shalt be the foremost one of thy sex in fame, and great glory and achievements will be thine. Decrepitude or disease or loss of complexion will never be thine! Every one will see thee engaged in waiting upon Krishna, possessed as thou already art with a fragrant odour which is always present in thee. Thou shalt become the foremost of all spouses, numbering sixteen thousand, O Kesava. At last, when the time comes for thy departure from the world, thou shalt attain to the inseparable companionship of Krishna hereafter!' Having said these words unto thy mother, the Rishi once more addressed me and uttering following words, left the spot. Indeed, the Rishi Durvasa, blazing like a fire, said, 'O Kesava, let thy understanding be always disposed even thus towards the Brahmana!' Verily after uttering these words, that Brahmana disappeared there and then before my eyes. After his disappearance I took to the observance of the vow of uttering certain Mantras silently without being heard by anybody. Verily, from that day I resolved to accomplish whatever behests I should receive from the Brahmanas. Having adopted this vow, O son, along with thy mother, both of us, with hearts filled with joy re-entered our palace, Entering our house I saw that everything which the Rishi had broken or burnt had reappeared and become new. Beholding those new articles, which had besides become more durable, I became filled with wonder. Verily, O son of Rukmini, from that day forth I have always worshipped the Brahmanas in my mind!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it was to make Durvasa's words come true that Krishna chose to depart the Earth in the way he did, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Mausala Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Conversant with the truth of every topic, Vasudeva, though he was the Supreme Deity, wished to die, for dispelling all doubts and establishing a certainty of results (in the matter of human existence), simply for upholding the three worlds and &lt;strong&gt;for making the words of Atri’s son true&lt;/strong&gt;. Having restrained all his senses, speech, and mind, Krishna laid himself down in high Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T14:32:58.380" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19608" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7546" CreationDate="2017-07-16T16:27:08.580" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The two gaṇas named Puṣpadanta and Mālyavān are responsible for bringing the epic poem named Kathāsaritsāgara from heaven to earth. Puṣpadanta secretly overheard Śiva narrating an epic tale to Pārvatī, but learning of his trickery, Śiva cursed both Puṣpadanta and Mālyavān to be incarnated as mortals; Puṣpadanta as Vararuci and Mālyavān as Guṇāḍhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Puṣpadanta (as Vararuci) would be released from the curse if, upon encountering Kāṇabhūti (name of a yakṣa), he would remember this epic tale and narrate it to this Kāṇabhūti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mālyavān (as Guṇāḍhya) would be released from his curse when he would publish this epic tale abroad, after hearing it from Kāṇabhūti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kathāsaritsāgara (‘ocean of story’) in approximately 22,000 ślokas is said to be a derivative work originating from the Bṛhatkathā, the seventh book of a large epic tale containing 700,000 ślokas. This Bṛhatkathā (and previous books) was composed and narrated by Guṇāḍhya (the incarnation of Mālyavān) but originally narrated by Śiva to Pārvatī, as explained above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Further reading / source&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kathasaritsagara-the-ocean-of-story&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The full English translation of the Kathāsaritsāgara&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first book (Kathāpīṭha) explains the origin of this work in detail and contains a much larger narrative introduction, described in short above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T11:47:42.643" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19609" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-16T17:12:46.210" Score="4" ViewCount="152" Body="&lt;h2&gt;In Mahabharata&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08012.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata 8.12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When that host was being thus struck and slain by heroic warriors the&#xA;  Parthas, headed by Vrikodara, advanced against us. They consisted of&#xA;  Dhrishtadyumna and Shikhandi and the five sons of Draupadi and the&#xA;  Prabhadrakas, and Satyaki and Chekitana with the Dravida forces, and&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;the Pandyas, the Cholas, and the Keralas&lt;/strong&gt;, surrounded by a mighty&#xA;  array, all possessed of broad chests, long arms, tall statures, and&#xA;  large eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03088.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharatha 3:88&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And, O Yudhishthira, in the country of &lt;strong&gt;the Pandyas&lt;/strong&gt; are the tirthas&#xA;  named Agastya and Varuna! And, O bull among men, there, amongst the&#xA;  Pandavas, is the tirtha called the Kumaris.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05019.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata 5.19&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And similarly, &lt;strong&gt;Pandya, who dwelt on the coast-land near the sea&lt;/strong&gt;, came&#xA;  accompanied by troops of various kinds to Yudhishthira, the king of&#xA;  kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata 7.23&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Steeds that were all of the hue of the Atrusa flower bore a hundred&#xA;  and forty thousand principle car-warriors that followed that&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Sarangadhwaja, the king of the Pandyas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If they are mentioned, which means Tamil dynasties existed at that time. However &lt;a href=&quot;https://controversialhistory.blogspot.in/2007/10/origin-of-cholas-tamil-myth.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; the author claimed that Cholas didn't exist before some century and has given proof. If they didn't exist, could these verses be an interpolation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T17:12:46.210" Title="Tamil dynasties in Ithihasa" Tags="|mahabharata|smriti|tamil|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19610" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-16T19:14:39.487" Score="3" ViewCount="99" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18271/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, in Hindu philosophy there are three main Pramanas or valid means of knowledge: Pratyaksha or sensory perception, Anumana or inference, and Shabda or scriptural testimony.  And there is hierarchy of these Pramanas, as described in verse 6 of Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sāmānyatastu dṛṣṭādatīndriyāṇāṃ pratītiranumānāt । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tasmādapicāsiddhaṃ paro'kṣamāptāgamāt siddhaṃ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By means of Inference based on Analogy, the objects beyond senses are proved; that which is not proved by this (Inference) and cannot be directly perceived, is proved, by Valid Testimony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Samkhya Karika Bhashya, attributed to the Advaita philosopher Gaudapada, gives some examples of things which cannot be proven through perception or inference, and thus require scripture to establish:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That which is not proved by this (Inference) and cannot be directly perceived, is proved by Valid Testimony. For example:—Indra, the king of gods; &lt;strong&gt;the northern Kurus&lt;/strong&gt;; the nymphs in the Heaven;—all these imperceptibles are proved by Valid Testimony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it's understandable that the existence of Indra and the Apsaras of Swarga cannot be proven through perception or inference.  But my question is, why does Gaudapada say that the existence of the Uttarakurus, who live on the other side of the Himalayas, cannot be proven through perception or inference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is of a piece with a bunch of strange statements that Hindu scripture makes about the Uttarakurus.  For instance the Aitareya Brahmana &lt;a href=&quot;http://tinyurl.com/ndagybv&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;describes&lt;/a&gt; the land of the Uttarakurus as unconquerable by humans.  And in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02027.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata, Arjuna tries to conquer the land of the Uttarakurus but is told this by the guards at the border of the kingdom:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Pritha, this country can be never conquered by thee. If thou seekest thy good, return hence. He that entereth this region, if human, is sure to perish. We have been gratified with thee; O hero, thy conquests have been enough. Nor is anything to be seen here, O Arjuna, that may be conquered by thee. The Northern Kurus live here. There cannot be war here. &lt;strong&gt;Even if thou enterest it, thou will not be able to behold anything, for with human eyes nothing can be seen here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The part in bold is relevant.  I find all this strange, since there are now plenty of humans who live on the other side of the Himalayas.  But regardless, even if it is true that the land of the Uttarakurus cannot be perceived by humans, why is it that their existence cannot be proven by inference?  If you went, like Arjuna, to the border of the kingdom and spoke to the guards, couldn't you infer the existence of the Uttarakurus from the existence of their guards?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-16T19:14:39.487" Title="Why does Gaudapada say the Uttarakurus cannot be proven by perception or inference?" Tags="|philosophy|advaita|sankhya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19611" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-17T00:08:18.267" Score="9" ViewCount="20770" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have come across the term Panch Maha Paap (5 great sins) in colloquial usage and in astrology. What are the Panch Maha Paapas, their astrological indicators and what are the parihara(remedies) for the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-17T00:27:00.363" LastActivityDate="2023-07-09T13:51:20.523" Title="What are the Panch Maha Paap?" Tags="|astrology|sin|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19612" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-17T00:52:11.473" Score="2" ViewCount="115" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vishnudharmottara purana classifies papa into 8 distinct categories in decreasing order of their graveness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MAHANMAHATTARPATAKA,&#xA;SUMAHATTARPATAKA,&#xA;SUMAHAPATAKA,&#xA;MAHAPATAKA, &#xA;PATAKAs, &#xA;UPAPATAKAS,&#xA;Papa and&#xA;Kshudra papa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what are exactly are these 8 papas and patakas and parikaras suggested for the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2362" LastEditorUserId="2362" LastEditDate="2017-07-19T07:44:46.070" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T07:44:46.070" Title="What are the categories of papas in Hinduism?" Tags="|sin|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-07-17T07:59:26.530" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19613" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19611" CreationDate="2017-07-17T04:28:04.530" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti lists only 4 great sins or mahApatakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.235. The slayer of a Brahmana, (A twice-born man) who drinks (the spirituous liquor called) Sura, he who steals (the gold of a Brahmana), and he who violates a Guru’s bed, must each and all be considered as men who committed mortal sins (mahapataka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the Usana Smriti adds another one to the list as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;THE destroyer of a Brahmanas, one who drinks spirituous liquors, a thief, and the violator of the preceptor's bed, and the one who associates with them, are the great sinners,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Usana Smriti, Chapter 8, Verse 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we know what are the five great sins. However, there are many other sins which are considered as equivalent to one or the other of the above five sins. This is also to be noted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.56. Forgetting the Veda, reviling the Vedas, giving false evidence, slaying a friend, eating forbidden food, or (swallowing substances) unfit for food, &lt;strong&gt;are six (offences) equal to drinking Sura.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.58. Carnal intercourse with sisters by the same mother, with (unmarried) maidens, with females of the lowest castes, with the wives of a friend, or of a son, &lt;strong&gt;they declare to be equal to the violation of a Guru’s bed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from the ones given above, we can find more references to these 5 great sins throughout Hindu scriptures. Here is one such reference from an Agama Shastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SriprAsAdaparAmantram Satamashtottaram Jaapet |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  MuchyatebrahmahatyAdi&lt;strong&gt;mahApApaischa Panchabhihi&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..Whoever does Japa of the Sri Paraprasadamantram 108 times dissolves his Brahmahatyadi five great sins (mahApApaishcha panchabhihi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 3.102.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commentator then explains, as given below, what these five mahApApas are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The five great sins are - BrahmahatyA (brahminicide), Nishiddha surApAna (drinking prohibited alcoholic drinks), Chaurya (theft), VimAtrigamana (cohabiting with Guru's wife, one's own mother, elder sister and other such motherly relatives/figures) and associating with those people who have committed one or the other above-mentioned sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ChAndogya Upanishad also mentions about these five kinds of sins/sinners in a verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Steno hiranyasya surAm pivamshacha gurostalpamAvasan brahmahA |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Chaite patanti chatvArah panchamashchAcharamstaih || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who steals gold, who drinks Sura, who cohabits with the Guru's wife and one who slays a Brahmin - these four and the the fifth who associates with these four - all of these five become fallen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ChAndogya Upanishad 5.10.9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-06-15T06:26:54.223" LastActivityDate="2018-06-15T06:26:54.223" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19614" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19604" CreationDate="2017-07-17T06:49:21.723" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my previous answers &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19493/7853&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19414/7853&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; I have given the information related to upAkarma. You can understand that different people belonging to different vedas and shAkhAs do it on different days. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If someone misses the upAkarma, he can perform in the next Poornima / full moon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am adding a message from one Sri Vaishnava &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/aug98/0074.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt;, though it doesn't have scripture reference but this custom is followed by all. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If for any reason you have missed performing the upAkarma on&#xA;  Avani-Avittam (for eg. Grahanam etc.,), you can perform it on the next&#xA;  pournami day. Upakarma is best performed in a river (rather than in a&#xA;  temple).  This year at Buffalo, 20 of us joined together and performed&#xA;  the upAkarma on the Niagara river at the Beaver Island State Park.  It&#xA;  was a great experience and everyone of us enjoyed it.   For a moment I&#xA;  thought the river must have felt thankful for serving the cause of&#xA;  Sanatana Dharma!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T06:49:21.723" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19616" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17665" CreationDate="2017-07-17T08:53:56.727" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are rules in Hinduism. Vaishnavaism one of the denominations in Hinduism, the Gaudiya Vaishnavas AKA hare Krishna's have a very specific set of rules especially if you visit an ashram&#xA;Like attending classes in the temple,&#xA;Mangala arti  and if you don't follow them you will be kicked out!&#xA;Of course there are rules in every organization or community!&#xA;It may seem like other faiths are all about enforcing the rules simple because they live in communities that fully embrace the faith and the culture that comes along with it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If an entire village is populated by Muslims you can expect Sharia to be a reference point for most people since it will govern almost all the aspects of their life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10464" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T08:53:56.727" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19617" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="927" CreationDate="2017-07-17T09:38:33.103" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Supreme lord's reincarnations may not be predictable. They might be happening all the time at many places without our knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During MahAbhArata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c039.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ShAnti Parva&lt;/a&gt;, few of the important reincarnations are described:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Endued with four forms, I shall, in this way, achieve many feats of great prowess, and attain at last to those regions of felicity created by me and honoured by all the Brahmanas. Appearing in the forms of a&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  1. &lt;strong&gt;swan&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2. a &lt;strong&gt;tortoise&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3. a &lt;strong&gt;fish&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O foremost of regenerate ones, I shall then display myself as&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  4. a &lt;strong&gt;boar&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  5. then as a &lt;strong&gt;Man-lion (Nrisingha)&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  6. then as a &lt;strong&gt;dwarf&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  7. then as &lt;strong&gt;Rama of Bhrigu's race&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  8. then as &lt;strong&gt;Rama, the son of Dasaratha&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  9. then as &lt;strong&gt;Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; the scion of the Sattwata race,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  10. and lastly as &lt;strong&gt;Kalki&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  When the auditions in the Vedas disappeared from the world, I brought them back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T09:38:33.103" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19618" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19586" CreationDate="2017-07-17T09:40:11.297" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Does Lord Narayana take incarnation to change era?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not necessarily&lt;/strong&gt;. There are few &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19617/1049&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;AvatAra&lt;/em&gt;-s which are listed for Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;, but there may be many others which are not that much famous. IMO, we cannot define when the lord should take an incarnation. Also not everyone of them were born at the end of an era, as there are only 4 era-s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;The thing I want to know the time of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna death. Means whether they died at end of era OR in between the era&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, &lt;strong&gt;End of the era&lt;/strong&gt;, as you rightly mentioned! This is specific only to RAma &amp;amp; Krishna.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Another &lt;em&gt;AvatAra&lt;/em&gt; of ParashurAma was before Shri RAma and is believed to be long lived.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per MahAbhArata's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c039.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ShAnti parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Treta age I shall take birth as [Parashu]Rama&lt;/strong&gt; in the race of Bhrigu, and exterminate the Kshatriyas who will become proud of their strength and possessions. &lt;strong&gt;Towards the close of Treta and the beginning of Dwapara, I shall take birth as Rama&lt;/strong&gt;, the son of Dasaratha in Iskshaku's royal line. ... &lt;strong&gt;Towards the close of the Dwapara and beginning of the Kali ages&lt;/strong&gt;, I shall again appear in the world taking birth in the city of Mathura for the purpose of slaying Kansa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar thing is said by Krishna himself after the death of Duryodhana during &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09060.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shalya Parva&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna replied&lt;/strong&gt;, saying, &quot;Thou art always described as bereft of wrath, and righteous-souled and devoted to righteousness! Calm thyself, therefore, and do not give way to wrath! &lt;strong&gt;Know that the Kali age is at hand&lt;/strong&gt;. Remember also the vow made by the son of Pandu! ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T09:40:11.297" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19619" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17505" CreationDate="2017-07-17T11:48:28.997" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think that in order to create the universe Lord Brahma needed power. So he meditated Goddess of supreme energy or Adi Para Shakti. That's why mother Adi Shakti and Mahadeva had to be separated from each other. And that's the reason she left her Siddhidatri form and took her energy form and immersed herself to create the universe. Because at that time she had no body she incarnated as a human girl name Sati in Daksha Prajapati's house and married Shiva. And you all know the remaining story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10466" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-17T12:28:23.913" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T12:28:23.913" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19620" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-17T11:52:07.133" Score="6" ViewCount="258" Body="&lt;p&gt;In most of the temples of Karnataka, the Navagrahas are present with their consorts. In contrast at other places in India, only the Navagraha are there - without their consorts. Why is there such a significant difference? Please provide scriptural sources. Mythological explanations are also acceptable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-07-03T06:55:20.290" LastActivityDate="2020-07-03T06:55:20.290" Title="Navagrahas with their consorts" Tags="|temple|navagraha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19622" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-17T14:51:27.300" Score="3" ViewCount="149" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to any scripture, is the process of reincarnation within Samsara always intra-galactic (the self stays on Earth and reincarnates as people or animals), or are there any texts which could be interpreted that the self, possibly, reincarnates upon other worlds? And, are there any verses which may support the idea that there are &quot;higher&quot; and &quot;lower&quot; worlds, other than Earth, which reflect the sum of the dharma of its inhabitants? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10438" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T14:51:27.300" Title="Could reincarnation be intergalactic?" Tags="|rebirth|cosmology|samsara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19624" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12390" CreationDate="2017-07-17T18:06:43.663" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;“The soul is the core of your being. It is eternal. It doesn’t exist in space/time. It’s a field of infinite possibilities, infinite creativity. It’s your internal reference point with which you should always be in touch.” — Deepak Chopra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Srila Prabhupada’s purport to Bhagavad-gita 2.17, this issue is addressed:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The influence of the atomic soul can be spread all over a particular&#xA;  body. According to the Mundaka Upanishad, this atomic soul is situated&#xA;  in the heart of every living entity, and because the measurement of&#xA;  the atomic soul is beyond the power of appreciation of the material&#xA;  scientists, some of them assert foolishly that there is no soul. The&#xA;  individual atomic soul is definitely there in the heart along with the&#xA;  Supersoul, and thus all the energies of bodily movement are emanating&#xA;  from this part of the body. The corpuscles, which carry the oxygen&#xA;  from the lungs, gather energy from the soul. When the soul passes away&#xA;  from this position, the activity of the blood, generating fusion,&#xA;  ceases. Medical science accepts the importance of the red corpuscles,&#xA;  but it cannot ascertain that the source of the energy is the soul.&#xA;  Medical science, however, does admit that the heart is the seat of all&#xA;  energies of the body.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10469" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-17T18:08:49.430" LastActivityDate="2017-07-17T18:08:49.430" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19626" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19641" CreationDate="2017-07-18T03:01:54.537" Score="4" ViewCount="276" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.  (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  Now in Adhyaya 3 Pada 1 Sutra 25 of the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aśuddhamiti cet, na, śabdāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it be argued that rites (invoking killing of animals) are unholy, we say, no, since they are sanctioned by scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7947/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, most commentators on the Brahma Sutras agree that in this Sutra, Vyasa is saying that animal sacrifice in Vedic Yagnas is not a sin.  But while the Vedanta school is unequivocal in its support for animal sacrifice, other schools of Hindu philosophy had different views.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/f2dk7v/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Sarvartha Siddhi, the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan discusses the Samkhya school's view that animal sacrifice is a minor sin:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this regard the Sāṅkhyas think so: “The prescription about the killing of the animal victim in the Agnīṣomīya says that the killing is a subsidiary to the ritual. But the sentence ‘One should not perform any violence’ encompasses also the violence within the Agnīṣomīya because the word ‘violence’ works without any restriction. &lt;strong&gt;And in this way  this violence is the cause of something evil but this is easy to be atoned (parihṛ-), since it is Vedic&lt;/strong&gt;”. In this regard the confutation has  been said in the Śārīrakaśāstra: “Although the killing of the animal victim within the Agnīṣomīya causes a major sufferance, it cannot be said to be ‘violence’. In fact, there is [also] not violence when a physician, etc., cut or cauterise, etc., for the sake of heal a tumour, etc. Nor is the  scolding of one’s child or pupil by the parents, [teachers], etc. a form of violence. Only a violent act not conformable to the Śāstras and performed by someone causing much sufferance is violence. In this regard, by contrast, although there is separation from the vital breaths, there is no violence, because of the compliance to the Śāstra. Instead, there is protection (rakṣā), because through the interruption of the body of the animal victim, which results in evil, [the sacrifice] causes for that very animal the attainment of a a special body which is conform to the enjoyment of upmost pleasure”. Having in mind this all he said Because of the mention of what is beneficial for the animal. With the mention of the mantra ”You do not indeed die, nor are you injured, you go in the divine with easy paths” (na vā u etan mriyase na riṣyasi devāṃ ideṣi pathibhis sugebhis, ṚV 1.162.21, found also in Rāmānuja’s Gītābhāṣya).  it is said that the animal obtains a specific place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shariraka Shastra, by the way, refers to Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya, the Sri Vaishnava commentary on the Brahma Sutras.  But I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, did the Samkhya school believe that animal sacrifice in Vedic Yagnas is a sin &quot;that's easy to be atoned&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's clear that they thought that animal sacrifice was a sin; here is what verse 2 of Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika, the defining work of the Samkhya school, says in the course of describing the flaws of pursuing happiness through Dharma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dṛṣṭavadānuśravikaḥ sa hyaviśuddhi kṣayātiśayayuktaḥ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tadviparītaḥ śreyān vyaktāvyaktajñavijñānāt ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The [means of happiness revealed by the Vedas] is like the evident one, It is linked with &lt;strong&gt;impurity&lt;/strong&gt;, destruction and inequality. Other than that is better,—proceeding from the right cognition of the Manifest, Unmanifest and the Knower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &quot;impurity&quot; refers to the notion that pursuing happiness through Dharma involves killing animals; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universaltheosophy.com/sacred-texts/samkhya-karika/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Gaudapada's Samkhya Karika Bhashya says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Linked with impurity, because of the slaughter of animals. As it is said: “According to the injunction in the aśvamedha, six hundred animals, minus three, are employed (i.e., slaughtered) at midday.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what Samkhya works say that this sin is minor and easily remedied?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-30T04:05:42.080" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T05:04:32.030" Title="Did the Samkhya school believe that animal sacrifice is an easily remedied sin?" Tags="|philosophy|practice|sri-vaishnava|sankhya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19627" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19636" CreationDate="2017-07-18T04:53:53.713" Score="5" ViewCount="248" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17227/can-sanyasins-perform-vedic-rituals-even-after-renunciation&quot;&gt;the answers given here&lt;/a&gt;, a SannyAsi can perform Vedic rituals even after taking SannyAsa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the first purificatory rite that precedes all Vedic rituals is the act of sipping water &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achamana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;called Achamana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, according to the following verses from scriptures, Achamana successfully purifies the performer only when it is performed with the Upavita on and with the SikhA tied. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A twice-born, who stands without washing his feet, &lt;strong&gt;or who performs&#xA;  the Achamanam without binding the tuft of his hair on the crown&lt;/strong&gt; or&#xA;  without putting on his sacred thread, &lt;strong&gt;is impure&lt;/strong&gt;. (15) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samvarta Smriti's Chapter 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One must always put on the sacred thread and bind the tuft of hair on&#xA;  the crown : &lt;strong&gt;what one does&lt;/strong&gt; without having the sacred thread on or&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;without binding the tuft of hair on the crown, is equal to an act not done.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Katyayana Smriti's Chapter 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, a SannyAsi does neither have a Upavita nor a SikhA. Then without them how is he able to perform the first purificatory act?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, there is some Upanishad which says that the Self is the Sacred thread for the SannyAsi. Ok, but what about the SikhA?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question- If Self is the substitute for the Sacred thread, what substitutes for the SikhA for a SannyAsi given that he does not sport one and also given the fact that he is allowed to do Vedic rituals?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-18T06:14:14.960" LastActivityDate="2017-07-18T08:40:19.547" Title="What is the substitute for sikhA for a sannyAsi who wants to perform Vedic rituals?" Tags="|scripture|rituals|vedic-rituals|sannyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19628" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19632" CreationDate="2017-07-18T05:05:31.590" Score="5" ViewCount="952" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, it believes that marriage is a bonding for next 7 lives. Is that mean that he will not attain moksha at least in next 6 lives?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastActivityDate="2017-07-18T06:23:03.197" Title="Marriage and moksha." Tags="|moksha|marriage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19629" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19633" CreationDate="2017-07-18T05:31:37.460" Score="3" ViewCount="798" Body="&lt;p&gt;When, why and at what instance Narada Muni was cursed by Prajapati Daksa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2017-07-18T06:04:10.027" Title="Nārada Muni Cursed by Prajāpati Dakṣa" Tags="|narada|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19630" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-18T05:35:18.817" Score="3" ViewCount="111" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hasta Mudra&lt;/a&gt; done with the left hand affects the right side of the body and vice versa&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramdev&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yogaguru Swami Ramdev&lt;/a&gt; had said that once on TV while taking a Yoga class.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, this is something that we can empirically verify. It really happens like that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But i want verses from Scriptures and (or) Yoga treatises which prove this. This will help me settle an argument elsewhere. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-18T05:40:47.807" LastActivityDate="2017-07-18T05:40:47.807" Title="Hasta Mudra done with the left hand affects the right side of the body and vice versa- I need a scriptural proof for this statement" Tags="|yoga|mudra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19631" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-18T05:38:10.980" Score="4" ViewCount="254" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Bhumi Geetha and what is its effect in the present kali yuga? What is the universal history the special qualities of each age, movement of time, cosmic maintenance influenced in the Bhumi Geetha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T08:35:07.933" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T09:44:47.690" Title="The Bhumi Geetha" Tags="|kali-yuga|cosmology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19632" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19628" CreationDate="2017-07-18T05:42:16.897" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's not true.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If one remains detached with own spouse &amp;amp; family, even while married, then that person is said to have knowledge &amp;amp; is eligible to attain self realisation.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;BTW, &quot;detached&quot; doesn't mean &quot;avoidance&quot; of family. It should be interpreted as &quot;not much excited&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 13.10-12 - Non-attachment and &lt;strong&gt;absence of fondness with regard to children, wives, homes, etc.&lt;/strong&gt;, and constant equanimity of the mind with regard to the attainment of the desirable and the undesirable; And unwavering devotion to 'Me' with single minded concentration; inclination to repair into a clean place; lack of delight in a crowd of people; Steadfastness in the knowledge of the Self, contemplation on the Goal of the knowledge of Reality --- these are &lt;strong&gt;spoken of as Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;. Ignorance is that which is other than this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that in earlier times, polygamy was allowed. If &quot;7 lives bond&quot; was to be true then, the husband will keep taking incarnation after incarnation to finish each wife's 7. Hence it should be considered as a folklore. If it's true, even then marriage itself doesn't stop a person from attaining Moksha. e.g. Sri RAma, Drona, Krishna, ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;This folklore is mainly popular due to various movie songs. For example &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b2ua56GWo8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; it talks about 100 lives!&lt;/sub&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-07-18T06:23:03.197" LastActivityDate="2017-07-18T06:23:03.197" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19633" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19629" CreationDate="2017-07-18T05:53:13.663" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is told in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/5/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.  Daksha had 10,000 sons called the Haryaśvas, and he instructed them to populate creation with more beings.  But then Narada convinced them to become Sanyasis rather than beget children.  Then Daksha had 1000 more sons, giving them the same instruction, but Narada similarly convinced them to become Sanyasis rather than beget children. Daksha was so angered that he put the following curse on Narada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You have made me lose my sons once, and now you have again done the same inauspicious thing. Therefore you are a rascal who does not know how to behave toward others. You may travel all over the universe, but I curse you to have no residence anywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Narada voluntarily accepted the curse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King, since Nārada Muni is an approved saintly person, when cursed by Prajāpati Dakṣa he replied, “tad bāḍham: Yes, what you have said is good. I accept this curse.” He could have cursed Prajāpati Dakṣa in return, but because he is a tolerant and merciful sādhu, he took no action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not to keep you in suspense, Daksha ultimately fulfilled his responsibility as a Prajapati to populate the earth by having a bunch of daughters whom he married off to various gods and sages, as described in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/6/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-18T05:53:13.663" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19634" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19629" CreationDate="2017-07-18T06:04:10.027" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavatha Puranam Canto 6.5 describes how all the sons of Dakṣa were delivered from the clutches of the material energy by following the advice of Nārada, who was therefore cursed by Dakṣa.&#xA;Influenced by the external energy of Lord Viṣhṇu, Prajāpati Dakṣa begot ten thousand sons in the womb of his wife, Pancajanī. These sons, who were all of the same character and mentality, were known as the Haryasvas. Ordered by their father to create more population, the Haryasvas went west to the place where the river Sindhu (now the Indus) meets the Arabian Sea. In those days this was the site of a holy lake named Narayaṇa-saras, where there were many saintly persons. The Haryasvas began practicing austerities, penances and meditation, which are the engagements of the highly exalted renounced order of life. However, when Srīla Narada Muni saw these boys engaged in such commendable austerities simply for material creation, he thought it better to release them from this tendency. Narada Muni described to the boys their ultimate goal of life and advised them not to become ordinary karmīs to beget children. Thus all the sons of Dakṣa became enlightened and left, never to return.&#xA;Prajāpati Dakṣa, who was very sad at the loss of his sons, begot one thousand more sons in the womb of his wife, Pancajanī, and ordered them to increase progeny. These sons, who were named the Savalāśvas, also engaged in worshiping Lord Viṣhṇu to beget children, but Narada Muni convinced them to become mendicants and not beget children. Foiled twice in his attempts to increase population, Prajāpati Dakṣa became most angry at Narada Muni and cursed him, saying that in the future he would not be able to stay anywhere. Since Narada Muni, being fully qualified, was fixed in tolerance, he accepted Dakṣa’s curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2017-07-18T06:04:10.027" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19635" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-18T08:19:37.117" Score="3" ViewCount="99" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana and Mahabharata the two epics were composed in India in ancient times. Afterwards they reached in different parts of the World like Indonesia and Bali.People on those parts accepted and absorbed these hindu texts as part of their culture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like wise are there any hindu sacred texts (about hinduism only) written outside of India in those times and got absorbed or became part of hindu holy texts or grantha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not from recent times but from thousands of years back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9706" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-22T09:25:30.233" LastActivityDate="2017-12-22T09:25:30.233" Title="Hinduism sacred texts written outside India?" Tags="|scripture|history|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19636" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19627" CreationDate="2017-07-18T08:40:19.547" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.celextel.org/upanishads/atharva_veda/parabrahma.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Para-Brahma Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; is one of the 108 Upanishads which deals with Sanyasin. It is said to be included in Atharva Veda. According to Parabrahma Upanishad, &lt;code&gt;Pranava&lt;/code&gt; is the substitute of &lt;code&gt;Shikha&lt;/code&gt; for the Sanyasin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Disregarding the external phenomenal world, tuft and sacred thread he shall hold on to the tuft and sacred thread in the form of the sacred syllable (Pranava) and Brahman (Hamsa) and thus equip himself for liberation. Thus declared the revered sage Saunaka. Thus (ends) the Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-07-18T08:40:19.547" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19637" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19631" CreationDate="2017-07-18T09:14:09.710" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavatham Canto 12-3&lt;/a&gt; is Bhumi Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This chapter describes  how the earth took note of the foolishness of&#xA;  the many kings bent on conquering her. It also describes how even&#xA;  though the Age of Kali is full of faults, the glorification of the&#xA;  name of Lord Hari destroys them all. Nama Sankeertan is the easy way&#xA;  to reach the abode of Lord Narayana.  Chanting Hare Rama Hara Rama&#xA;  Rama Rama Hare Hare   Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare&#xA;  Hare daily at your free time travel time will lead you to a peaceful&#xA;  life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Great kings, who are actually just playthings of death, desire to&#xA;  subdue their six internal enemies — the five senses and the mind — and&#xA;  afterward they imagine they will go on to conquer the earth and all&#xA;  its oceans. Seeing their false hopes, the earth simply laughs, for&#xA;  eventually they all must leave this planet and go elsewhere, as have&#xA;  all the great kings and monarchs of the past. Moreover, after usurping&#xA;  the earth or some part of it — which is actually unconquerable and&#xA;  must in every case be given up — fathers, sons, brothers, friends and&#xA;  relatives quarrel over it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus the study of history naturally leads to the conclusion that all&#xA;  worldly achievements are temporary, and this conclusion should give&#xA;  rise to a sense of renunciation. Ultimately, the highest goal of life&#xA;  for any living entity is pure devotion to Lord Kṛishna which&#xA;  annihilates all inauspiciousness. In the age of Satya, religion was&#xA;  complete, still possessing its four legs of truth, mercy, austerity&#xA;  and charity. With the coming of each succeeding age, starting with&#xA;  Treta, these religious qualities each diminish by one quarter. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Kali-yuga the legs of religion retain only one fourth of their&#xA;  power, and even that will be lost with the progress of the age. The&#xA;  mode of goodness is predominant during Satya-yuga, and the mode of&#xA;  passion is predominant during the Treta-yuga. The mixed modes of&#xA;  passion and ignorance are predominant during Dvapara-yuga, and in the&#xA;  Age of Kali the mode of ignorance is predominant. Atheism, the&#xA;  smallness and inferiority of all things, and devotion to the genitals&#xA;  and belly are very much evident in the Age of Kali. Living entities&#xA;  contaminated by the influence of Kali do not worship the Supreme Lord,&#xA;  Sri Hari, even though they can be freed from all bondage and easily&#xA;  achieve the supreme destination simply by chanting the glories of His&#xA;  name and taking shelter of Him. But if somehow or other the Supreme&#xA;  Personality of Godhead becomes manifest within the hearts of the&#xA;  conditioned souls in Kali-yuga, then all faults of place, time and&#xA;  personality inherent in the age will be destroyed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, but it possesses one great quality:&#xA;  simply by the chanting of the name of Kṛishna, one can be delivered&#xA;  from material association and attain the Absolute Truth. All that was&#xA;  accomplished in the age of Satya by meditation, in the age of Tretā by&#xA;  sacrificial performances and in the age of Dvāpara by temple worship&#xA;  is easily gained during the Kali-yuga by the simple process of&#xA;  hari-kirtana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T09:44:47.690" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T09:44:47.690" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19638" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19639" CreationDate="2017-07-18T09:29:24.740" Score="5" ViewCount="909" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Wikipedia article &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism_in_Bhutan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hinduism in Bhutan&lt;/a&gt; says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Approximately one-quarter of the population of Bhutan is ethnic Lhotshampa who live mainly in the south and practice Hinduism. The Shaivite, Vaishnavite, Shakta, Ganapathi, Puranic, and Vedic schools are represented among Hindus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are the lands of Tibet &amp;amp; Bhutan mentioned in our texts? What were the ancient names of these two countries?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9706" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-18T18:18:57.433" LastActivityDate="2017-07-18T18:18:57.433" Title="Are Tibet and Bhutan mentioned in Hindu texts?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19639" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19638" CreationDate="2017-07-18T11:16:09.383" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tibet was commonly referred to in Sanskrit as &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.nl/books?id=XSZnAgAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA356&amp;amp;lpg=PA356&amp;amp;dq=mah%C4%81c%C4%ABna&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;q=mah%C4%81c%C4%ABna&amp;amp;f=false#v=snippet&amp;amp;q=mah%C4%81c%C4%ABna&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahācīna&lt;/a&gt;, and Bhutan as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan#Etymology&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhoṭānta&lt;/a&gt;. Mahācīna is not to be confused with Cīna which is the name for modern China.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahācīna is often mentioned in connection with the cult of Tārā, both in Hindu and Buddhist tantras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most important however in the alleged Buddhist connection is the story of Vasiṣṭha to be found in the Tantras. He is said to have gone to &lt;strong&gt;Mahācina (Tibet)&lt;/strong&gt;, which, according to popular belief, is half way to heaven. Mahādeva is said to be visible at the bottom of the Manasarova Lake near Kailāsa. Some of the Texts bearing on it have been collected in the Appendix to the edition of the Tārā Tantra which has been published by the Varendra Anusandhāna Samīti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/shakti-and-shakta/d/doc210195.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Tārārahasya-vṛttikā of Śaṅkara Āgamācārya contains details on a ritual pertaining to Tārā called the Mahācīnakrama (“the Tibetan method”) (&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.nl/books?redir_esc=y&amp;amp;id=r2q1h7q-JWMC&amp;amp;q=tararahasya#v=snippet&amp;amp;q=tararahasya&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the following source connects both Mahācīna and Bhoṭa with various Hindu tantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P C Bagchi, on the basis of a sādhanā found in the Sādhanamālā, has tried to establish the identity of &lt;strong&gt;Mahācīnatārā&lt;/strong&gt; with Ekajaṭā whose cult is said to have been recovered by Siddha Nāgārjuna from &lt;strong&gt;Tibet&lt;/strong&gt;. The sādhanā of the goddess Ekajaṭā was discovered by him in the country of &lt;strong&gt;Bhoṭa&lt;/strong&gt;. The description of Ekajaṭā is found in six different sādhanās and closely agrees with that of Mahācīnakramatārā. Corresponding to these goddesses, we find in the Hindu pantheon Tārā, Ugratārā, Ekajaṭā and Mahānīlasarasvatī. The dhyānas of these goddesses as found in the &lt;strong&gt;Hindu Tantras&lt;/strong&gt; literally correspond to those found in the Buddhist sādhanās.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=1374&amp;amp;more=1&amp;amp;c=1&amp;amp;tb=1&amp;amp;pb=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-18T11:22:57.047" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19626" CreationDate="2017-07-18T19:40:43.743" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, the Samkhya school does believe animal sacrifice is a minor sin that's easily remedied.&lt;/strong&gt; Here's what the Advaita philosopher Vachaspati Mishra in &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/bVaaaQ/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Tattva Kaumudi, his commentary on Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[The means of happiness revealed by the Vedas] is &quot;impure&quot; because sacrifices like soma yagna, etc. are performed by the sacrifice of animals and destruction of corn, etc. &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavan Panchashikhacharya says &quot;It is slightly mixed (with impurity), remediable, and bearable.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;Svalpahsankarah&quot; means the admixture of the slight sin, productive of evil, caused by the slaughter of animals etc with the principal merit born of the performance of sacrifices like Jyotishtoma, etc. By &quot;Saparihara&quot; is meant that the evil is removable by certain expiatory rites. But, if due to inadvertence, expiatory rites are not observed, then, it, also bears fruit at the time of the fruition of the principal karma. As long as these evil effects are produced so long they are borne with patience; hence it is qualified as &quot;sapratyavamarsha&quot;. Adepts who are immersed in the huge lakes of heavenly nectar obtained by the performance of virtuous deeds bear patiently the spark of the fire of misery brought about by sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vachaspati Mishra is quoting the ancient Samkhya philosopher Panchashikha, who was Kapila's shishya's shishya.  On a side note, I find the reference to corn interesting; I posted a question on it &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19645/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T05:04:32.030" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T05:04:32.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19642" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-18T20:44:29.387" Score="3" ViewCount="393" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tens/hundreds of thousands of foot soldiers supposed to have participated in Mahabharata war. Usually in historical pre-modern wars of such magnitudes we see foot soldiers being conscripted from ordinary peasantry, they are not professional soldiers. My question is do any of the scriptures mention varna of these foot soldiers? Were they all kshatriyas, part of standing armies of various kingdoms or were they vaishya/sudras temporarily taking up arms and following their kshatriya &quot;officers&quot;?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T11:47:24.313" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T11:47:24.313" Title="What was varna of foot soldiers of Mahabharata war?" Tags="|mahabharata|caste-system|kshatriya|war|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19643" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-19T02:42:11.680" Score="13" ViewCount="1918" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;first chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata describes how Vyasa dictated the Mahabharata to Ganesha, who wrote it down:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma said. 'I esteem thee for thy knowledge of divine mysteries, before the whole body of celebrated Munis distinguished for the sanctity of their lives. I know thou hast revealed the divine word, even from its first utterance, in the language of truth. Thou hast called thy present work a poem, wherefore it shall be a poem. There shall be no poets whose works may equal the descriptions of this poem, even, as the three other modes called Asrama are ever unequal in merit to the domestic Asrama. Let Ganesa be thought of, O Muni, for the purpose of writing the poem.' Brahma having thus spoken to Vyasa, retired to his own abode. Then Vyasa began to call to mind Ganesa. And Ganesa, obviator of obstacles, ready to fulfil the desires of his votarieno sooner thought of, than he repaired to the place where Vyasa was seated. And when he had been saluted, and was seated, Vyasa addressed him thus, 'O guide of the Ganas! be thou the writer of the Bharata which I have formed in my imagination, and which I am about to repeat.' Ganesa, upon hearing this address, thus answered, 'I will become the writer of thy work, provided my pen do not for a moment cease writing.' And Vyasa said unto that divinity, 'Wherever there be anything thou dost not comprehend, cease to continue writing.' Ganesa having signified his assent, by repeating the word Om! proceeded to write; and Vyasa began; and by way of diversion, he knit the knots of composition exceeding close; by doing which, he dictated this work according to his engagement. I am (continued Sauti) acquainted with eight thousand and eight hundred verses, and so is Suka, and perhaps Sanjaya. From the mysteriousness of their meaning, O Muni, no one is able, to this day, to penetrate those closely knit difficult slokas. Even the omniscient Ganesa took a moment to consider; while Vyasa, however, continued to compose other verses in great abundance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what script did Ganesha write the Mahabharata in?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit has been written in numerous scripts over the ages.  Some people have the misconception that Devanagari is the &quot;original&quot; script of the Sanskrit language, or even that it's a divine script.  But in reality it's only called Devanagari because in modern times it's the script that Hindu scripture is written in, not because it's the script of the gods or anything.  Scripts like Brahmi are far older than Devanagari.  And Sanskrit doesn't have an &quot;original&quot; script; it is a divine and eternal language, but what are divine and eternal are the sounds of the language, not its script.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, are there any scriptures or works of Acharyas that shed light on what script Ganesha used? By the way, I'm aware that some people consider this Vyasa and Ganesha to be an interpolation, but I want an answer that takes for granted that Ganesha wrote the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2023-09-12T11:08:31.550" Title="What script did Ganesha write the Mahabharata in?" Tags="|mahabharata|ganesha|sanskrit|vyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19644" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19646" CreationDate="2017-07-19T03:40:33.690" Score="14" ViewCount="5965" Body="&lt;p&gt;If this birth is based on the deeds of our previous life, then our destiny is pre-determined. So, there is no need for god unless prayer offered to him will erase the bad deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-09-08T06:10:14.920" LastActivityDate="2018-09-08T06:10:14.920" Title="Does prayer remove bad deeds of past lives?" Tags="|karma|worship|sin|rebirth|samsara|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19645" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-19T04:15:58.060" Score="2" ViewCount="101" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya.  My question is about the Samkhya school, founded by the sage Kapila.  Verse 2 of Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika, the defining text of the Samkhya school, describes the flaws of pursuing happiness through Dharma, and advocates pursuing happiness through knowledge of Purusha and Prakriti instead:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dṛṣṭavadānuśravikaḥ sa hyaviśuddhi kṣayātiśayayuktaḥ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tadviparītaḥ śreyān vyaktāvyaktajñavijñānāt ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The [means of happiness revealed by the Vedas] is like the evident one, It is linked with &lt;strong&gt;impurity&lt;/strong&gt;, destruction and inequality. Other than that is better,—proceeding from the right cognition of the Manifest, Unmanifest and the Knower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I had assumed the word &quot;impurity&quot; referred to the Samkhya school's belief that animal sacrifice in Vedic Yagnas is a sin, albeit an easily remedied one as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19626/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  (This is in contrast to the Vedanta school which supports animal sacrifice, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7947/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) And indeed, that's exactly the sort of explanation given by the Samkhya Karika Bhashya, attributed to the Advaita philosopher Gaudapada:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Linked with impurity, because of the slaughter of animals. As it is said: “According to the injunction in the aśvamedha, six hundred animals, minus three, are employed (i.e., slaughtered) at midday.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/bVaaaQ/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Tattva Kaumudi, a commentary on the Samkhya Karika by the Advaita philosopher Vachaspati Mishra, suggests that the supposed impurity of Vedic Yagnas is not limited to animal sacrifice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[The means of happiness revealed by the Vedas] is &quot;impure&quot; because sacrifices like soma yagna, etc. are performed by the sacrifice of animals and &lt;strong&gt;destruction of corn&lt;/strong&gt;, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, did the Samkhya school believe that the destruction of plants like corn in Vedic Yagnas is a sin?  Or is this just a belief of Vachaspati Mishra, given that he was an Advaitin and not an actual follower of the Samkhya school?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've never heard a Hindu criticize the destroying of plants in Yagnas before.  I've only heard Charvakas and other non-Hindus criticizing wasting food in Yagnas.  But are there any Samkhya works which discuss this issue?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-09-29T03:19:15.320" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T03:19:15.320" Title="Did the Samkhya school believe that destroying plants in Yagnas is a sin?" Tags="|philosophy|practice|vedanta|plants|sankhya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19646" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19644" CreationDate="2017-07-19T04:39:18.597" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prayer, PujA (worship) etc can remove sins committed in infinite number of our past lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a proof that prayer in the form Mantra Japa can do it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lakshyadwayen &lt;strong&gt;pApAni saptajanmakritAnyapi&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;NAsayet TripurA&#xA;  devi&lt;/strong&gt; sAdhakasya na samsayaha ||&lt;br&gt; JaptvA lakshyatrayam mantri yantrito&#xA;  mantra vigraha |&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;PAtakam nAsayedAsu yadi janmasahasragam&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva said] If the devotee does japa [of the mantra] two lakh times, &lt;strong&gt;Goddess&#xA;  TripurA will destroy all his sins that was accumulated in his past&#xA;  seven lives.&lt;/strong&gt; And one who does japa of the mantra three lakh times,&#xA;  becomes himself the personification of mantra and yantra and &lt;strong&gt;destroys thereby&#xA;  the sins that he has accumulated over his past thousand lives within no time.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NityAshodashikArnava Tantram 5-11,12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a proof that prayer in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Dwadasa_Jyothir_Linga_Stotram&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;form of Stotram&lt;/a&gt; can do it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sourashtre Somanadham, cha Sri Shaile Mallikarjunam, Ujjayinyam Maha&#xA;  Kalam, Omkaram, amaleshwaram, Paralyam Vaidyanatham, cha Dakinyam&#xA;  Bhimasankaram, Sethubandhe thu Ramesam, Nagesam thu Darukavane,&#xA;  Varanasyam thu Viswesam, Trayambakam Gouthami thate, Himalaye thu&#xA;  Kedaram, Ghushmesam cha Shivalaye, Ethani Jyothirlingani sayam pratha&#xA;  paden nara, &lt;strong&gt;Saptha janma krutham papam smaranena vinasyathi&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The twelve Lingas of light are, Somanatha in Sourashtra, Mallikarjuna&#xA;  in Sri Shailam, Mahakala in Ujjain, Omkaram in Amaleshwara,&#xA;  Vaidhyanatha in Parali, Bhimasankara in South, Rameshwara near the&#xA;  bridge in Sethu, Nageswara in Daruka forest, Visweswara in Varnasi,&#xA;  Trayambakeshwara in the shores of Godavari, Kedareshwara in Himalayas,&#xA;  And Ghushmesha in Sivalaya. &lt;strong&gt;He who remembers them, Morning and&#xA;  evening, Would wash away sins, committed in his seven births.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Dwadasa Jyotirlinga Stotram&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, here is a proof that prayer in the form of Puja (worship) can do it as well:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MahApAtakayuktAtmA yadi Devim prapujAyet |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  SamidurvAsahAswatthapallabairathavAharkijah ||&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;MAsen hanti kalusham&#xA;  saptajanma kritam naraha ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva said] The devotee who (even if he is afflicted with mahApatakas or great sins) worships Devi with the leaves of&#xA;  Sami, DurvA, Aswattha or Arka plants &lt;strong&gt;destroys thus his sins&#xA;  accumulated over his past seven lives.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NityAshodasikArnava Tantram 2-66&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, in the commentary of this verse Acharya ShivAnanda interprets the word saptajanma as to mean infinite number of past lives. Usually in such verses the words such as sapta (7), sata (100) or sahasra (1000) are to be interpreted to mean numerous or infinite rather than just a specific number.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-09-08T06:06:14.723" LastActivityDate="2018-09-08T06:06:14.723" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19647" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-19T05:19:40.490" Score="5" ViewCount="401" Body="&lt;p&gt;In today's time, the &quot;wastage&quot; is among the grave issues. For example &lt;strong&gt;wasting food/water&lt;/strong&gt; etc.. e.g. nations like USA alone consume 25% of world resources, despite having 5% population.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do the scriptures have any mention of such &quot;wasteful behaviour&quot;?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;(Mention in form of guidelines or punishment or anything else)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T12:08:15.487" Title="What do the guidelines of ancient scriptures say on &quot;resource wastage&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|food|research|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19648" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19644" CreationDate="2017-07-19T07:54:36.597" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I am a devotee of Rama, I will be elaborating on the supreme infallibility of Naam Japa (name chanting), especially of Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama Nama gets exactly the same importance in Saguna Upasana (worshipping the Absolute Truth as a Being with a form) as does the Pranava ('Om') MantrainNirguna Upasana (worshipping the Absolute Truth as formless).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rishi Manu shows that the Rama Nama has links to all the other mantras that ever exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Syavana Smriti (Syavana is the name of a rishi), Syavana says that&#xA;  the Rama Nama is the essence of all the Vedas, Shastras, Itihasas and&#xA;  Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Vasishta meditated on the Rama Nama for quite a long time. Hence he wanted to name the Almighty with the same Mantra that he had chanted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RELIEVES PLANETARY EFFECTS: Once you start believing in Rama, you should never believe on any propaganda of Planetary systems. Planets are there in the Universe to perform their role but not misguide you. Even if you are suffering from malefic effects, Ram naam is your only savior. Remember, at the end Karma will bite you for your wrong doings and planets are a readable medium for discernment. Ram naam can only divide the problems so that you can handle it better. But it will be always there. If you love God, then you should have no reason to fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The 'sthala purana' of Kasi says that the deity Kasi Viswanatha&#xA;  initiates the Rama Nama to each and every being at the time of their&#xA;  death, in their right ear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva on the other hand mentions to Parvati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama rama rameti rame rame manorame &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sahasra nama tat tulyam rama namo varanane &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“O dear wife, Parvati, one thousand names of Visnu (another name of&#xA;  Narayana) are equal to one name of Rama and three names of Rama are&#xA;  equal to one name of Vishnu.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T07:54:36.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19650" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14204" CreationDate="2017-07-19T09:06:17.717" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is most definitely a theory of Aesthetics in Hinduism. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-natyashastra/d/doc209700.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 6 of the Natyashastra&lt;/a&gt; defines the “rasa” theory on aesthetics. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“No poetic meaning proceeds from speech without any kind of Sentiment (&lt;em&gt;rasa&lt;/em&gt;).”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the following excerpt, the Sanskrit word “rasa” is equated as both the concept of ‘taste’ (as in, tasting delicious food), as well as the concept of ‘sentiment’, or ‘aesthetics’, which the learned people ‘taste’ in their heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now one enquires, “What is the meaning of the word rasa”? It is said in reply [that, rasa is so called] because it is capable of being tasted (āsvādyate). How is rasa tasted? [In reply] it is said that just as well-disposed persons while eating food cooked with many kinds of spice, enjoy (āsvādayanti) its tastes, and attain pleasure and satisfaction, &lt;strong&gt;so the cultured people taste the Durable Psychological States while they see them represented by an expression of the various Psychological States with Words, Gestures and the Sattva, and derive pleasure and satisfaction&lt;/strong&gt;. Thus is explained [the Memorial Verse ending with] tasmān nāṭyarasā iti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For in this connexion there are two traditional couplets:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as connoisseur of cooked food (bhakta) while eating food which has been prepared from various spices and other articles taste it, &lt;strong&gt;so the learned people taste in their heart (manas) the Durable Psychological States (such as love, sorrow etc.)&lt;/strong&gt; when they are represented by an expression of the Psychological States with Gestures. Hence these Durable Psychological States in a drama are called Sentiments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: “Psychological States” translates in Sanskrit to ‘bhāva’, which is discussed in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-natyashastra/d/doc209702.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;following chapter of the Natyashastra&lt;/a&gt;. Accordingly, there are three kinds of states (bhāva) defined:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) &lt;em&gt;sthāyibhāva&lt;/em&gt; (durable psychological states), &lt;br&gt;&#xA;2) &lt;em&gt;vyabhicāribhāva&lt;/em&gt; (complementary psychological states), &lt;br&gt;&#xA;3) &lt;em&gt;sāttvika&lt;/em&gt; (involuntary states).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T09:06:17.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19651" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19647" CreationDate="2017-07-19T09:21:48.193" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;resource-wastage in scriptures&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Food Wastage -: Here The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79856.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  treats Food being the first gateway to the knowledge of Brahman, the śruti enjoins the contemplation of Brahman through the symbol of food. And advices us not to neglect /waste / abandon food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anuvaka VII&lt;br&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्नंन निन्द्यात् |  तद्व्रतं |  प्राणो वा अन्नम् । शरीरमन्नादम् ।&#xA;  प्राणे शरीरं &lt;br&gt;प्रतिष्ठितम् । शरीरे प्राणः प्रतिष्ठितः ।&#xA;  तदेतदन्नमन्ने प्रतिष्ठितम् ॥ २ ॥&lt;bR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Annnm na Nindyaat |&lt;/strong&gt; prāṇo vā annam | śarīramannādam | prāṇe śarīraṃ &#xA;  &lt;br&gt;pratiṣṭhitam | śarīre prāṇaḥ pratiṣṭhitaḥ | tadetadannamanne&#xA;  pratiṣṭhitam || 2 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do not disrespect the food &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Anuvaka VIII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अन्नं न परिचक्षीत । तद् व्रतम् ॥ १ ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He shall not abandon food&lt;/strong&gt;; that his vow. This vow is enjoined on him who contemplates life and the body as taught above. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That his vow: This, as before, is intended to extol food: when &lt;strong&gt;thus&#xA;  one does not abandon food, without making any such distinction as good&#xA;  food and bad food,&lt;/strong&gt; food becomes exalted. The same interpretation&#xA;  should be put on the succeeding passages also, beginning with “Water&#xA;  verily is food.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further more &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200766.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manu smiriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; tells us to use our wealth with care and wisely and one should conserve it . Indirectly advising us not to overspend it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अलब्धं चैव लिप्सेत लब्धं रक्षेत् प्रयत्नतः । &lt;br&gt; रक्षितं वर्धयेच्चैव&#xA;  वृद्धं पात्रेषु निक्षिपेत् ॥ ९९ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;alabdhaṃ caiva lipseta labdhaṃ rakṣet prayatnataḥ | &lt;br&gt; rakṣitaṃ&#xA;  vardhayeccaiva vṛddhaṃ pātreṣu nikṣipet || 99 ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He shall strive to obtain what has not been obtained; what he has&#xA;  gained he shall preserve with care; he shall augment what has been&#xA;  preserved and what has been augmented he shall bestow upon suitable&#xA;  recipients—(99) See the Artha Shashtra commentary &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arthaśāstra (p. 32)—‘The science of Government tends to the acquiring&#xA;  of what has not been acquired, to the saving of what has been&#xA;  acquired, to the augmentation of what has been saved and to the&#xA;  spending of the augmented in proper places.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a interesting story in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&lt;/strong&gt; where mother earth hides the resources inside her just because some people were over utilizing / misusing them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुरा सृष्ट्य: ह्योषधयो ब्रह्मणा या विशाम्पते | &lt;br&gt; भुज्यमाना  मया&#xA;  दृष्टा असद्भिधृतव्रतै ||6|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;purā sṛṣṭā hy oṣadhayo brahmaṇā yā viśāmpate &lt;br&gt; bhujyamānā mayā&#xA;  dṛṣṭā asadbhir adhṛta-vrataiḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King, the seeds, roots, herbs and grains, which were created&#xA;  by Lord Brahmā in the past, are now being used by nondevotees, who are&#xA;  devoid of all spiritual understanding.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/18/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 4.18.6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अपालितानाद्रुता च भवद्भिर्लोकपालकै: |&lt;br&gt; चोरीभूतेsथ लोकेsहं&#xA;  यज्ञार्थेsग्रसमोषधी: ||7||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;apālitānādṛtā ca bhavadbhir loka-pālakaiḥ corī-bhūte ’tha loke ’haṁ&#xA;  yajñārthe ’grasam oṣadhīḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King, not only are grains and herbs being used by nondevotees,&#xA;  but, as far as I am concerned, I am not being properly maintained.&#xA;  Indeed, I am being neglected by kings who are not punishing these&#xA;  rascals who have turned into thieves by using grains for sense&#xA;  gratification. Consequently I have hidden all these seeds, which were&#xA;  meant for the performance of sacrifice.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/18/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 4.18.7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;purport&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although there are immense potencies within the earth for the&#xA;  production of grains, fruits and flowers, this production is checked&#xA;  by the earth itself when it is misused by nondevotees, who have no&#xA;  spiritual goals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moral of the above  Story:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Food is not just something that we eat to satisfy hunger or satisfy our tastes. It is a gift from Bhagavān. Food is precious and holy. We should see food as a means of doing worship and for doing good karma.&#xA;We should take care of mother earth while growing food on her. We should not abuse or over-use our natural resources. Rather, we should conserve them as much as we can.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the whole  story  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 4.17&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; 18 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-07-19T12:08:15.487" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T12:08:15.487" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19653" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19644" CreationDate="2017-07-19T11:17:57.577" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Repeating the name of God is very effective in lessening the effects of past deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Sarada Devi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One has to suffer the consequences of one’s deeds. But by repeating the Name of God, you can lessen its intensity. If you were destined to have a wound as wide as a ploughshare, you will get a pin-prick at least. The effect of Karma can be counteracted to a great extent by Japa and austerities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T11:17:57.577" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19654" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-19T12:03:59.657" Score="6" ViewCount="506" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the famous wars between the Devatas and Dānavas is the Tārakāmaya war.  This war took place when the Soma, the moon god abducted Tāra, the wife of Bṛhaspati. devatas took the side of Bṛhaspati whereas dānavas fought for Soma due to their enmity towards devatas. It is mentioned in various purāṇas. Similarly it is mentioned in Brahma Purāṇa also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What interesting is that Rudra fought against devatas in the war. Following is an excerpt of the chapter from Brahma Purana in which the birth of Soma is described.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स याच्यमानो देवैश्च तथा देवर्षिभिर्मुहुः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    नैव व्यसर्जयत्तारां तस्माऐ त्र्प्रम्गिरसे तदा ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although repeatedly requested by Devas and celestial sages, he(soma) did not handover Tārā to Angiras.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उशना तस्य जग्राह पार्ष्णिमन्गिरसस्तदा | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;रुद्रश्च पार्ष्णि जग्राह गृहीत्वाजगवं धनुः&lt;/strong&gt; || 9.21 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तेन ब्रह्मशिरो नाम परमास्त्रं महात्मना&lt;/strong&gt; | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    उद्दिश्य देवानुत्स्रुष्टं येनैषं नाशितं यशः  || 9.22 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ushanas attacked Angiras from the rear. &lt;strong&gt;Taking his bow Ajagava, Rudra did the same. A miraculous missile named Brahmishiras was launched by that noble deity Rudra against Devas&lt;/strong&gt;. Thereby their fame was destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why did Rudra fight against the devas, sages and support moon god?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is the reason mentioned in any other purāṇa besides Brahma Purāṇa? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-19T14:40:32.037" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T16:19:53.903" Title="Why did Rudra fight against the devatas in the Tārakāmaya war?" Tags="|shiva|puranas|war|chandra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19655" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19654" CreationDate="2017-07-19T12:20:16.137" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Seems to be a difference of interpretation. Unable to find &quot;Rudra&quot; word in the verse 9.22. Suppose a synonym or &lt;em&gt;sandhi&lt;/em&gt; of Rudra is present in 9.22, even then it's likely that the translation might be wrong. As Rudra mostly support Deva-s. It's clarified in other Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp098.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana Chapter VI&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Rudra didn't fight against Deva-s, but supported them&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Atri was &lt;strong&gt;Soma&lt;/strong&gt; (the moon), whom Brahmá installed as the sovereign of planets, of Brahmans, and of the stars. ... he became arrogant and licentious, and &lt;strong&gt;carried off Tárá, the wife of Vrihaspati&lt;/strong&gt;, the preceptor of the gods. n vain Vrihaspati sought to recover his bride; in vain Brahmá commanded, and the holy sages remonstrated; Soma refused to relinquish her. Uśanas, out of enmity to Vrihaspati, took part with Soma. &lt;strong&gt;Rudra, who had studied under Angiras, the father of Vrihaspati, befriended his fellow-student&lt;/strong&gt;. In consequence of Uśanas, their preceptor, joining Soma, Jambha, Kujambha, and all the Daityas, Dánavas, and other foes of the gods, came also to his assistance; whilst Indra and all the gods were the allies of Vrihaspati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is clearer in further story, which suggests that Brahma intervened and stopped Rudra &amp;amp; others to fight for Soma. Soma was asked to return Tara, however she was already pregnant with Soma's child!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this the &lt;strong&gt;gods, led by Rudra&lt;/strong&gt;, hurled their missiles on the enemy; and the Daityas with equal determination assailed the gods. Earth, shaken to her centre by the struggle between such foes, had recourse to &lt;strong&gt;Brahmá&lt;/strong&gt; for protection; on which he interposed, and &lt;strong&gt;commanding Uśanas with the demons and Rudra with the deities to desist from strife&lt;/strong&gt;, compelled Soma to restore Tárá to her husband. Finding that she was pregnant, Vrihaspati desired her no longer to retain her burden; ... both Vrihaspati and Soma, fascinated by his beauty, claimed him as their child. The gods, in order to settle the dispute, appealed to Tárá; but she was ashamed, and would make no answer. ... Brahmá again interfered, and pacified the child; and then, addressing Tárá, said, &quot;Tell me, daughter, is this the child of Vrihaspati, or of Soma?&quot; &quot;Of Soma,&quot; said Tárá, blushing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Note: Answer is corrected as per suggested in comments.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-07-19T16:19:53.903" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T16:19:53.903" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19658" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19659" CreationDate="2017-07-19T16:24:49.213" Score="7" ViewCount="818" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatamclass.com/srimad-bhagavatam-canto-05-chapter-20-text-12/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 5.20.12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[The inhabitants of Salmalidvipa worship the demigod of the moon in&#xA;  the following words.] &lt;strong&gt;By his own rays, the moon-god has divided the&#xA;  month into two fortnights, known as sukla and krsna,&lt;/strong&gt; for the&#xA;  distribution of food grains to the pitas and the demigods. The demigod&#xA;  of the moon is he who divides time, and he is the king of all the&#xA;  residents of the universe. We therefore pray that he may remain our&#xA;  king and guide, and we offer him our respectful obeisances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T03:51:21.517" LastActivityDate="2023-12-14T11:52:28.853" Title="Does Bhagavata Purana say moon has its own light?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|chandra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19659" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19658" CreationDate="2017-07-19T16:57:55.717" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;You misinterpreted the verse. Verse says with Moon light, Soma distributes food to manes and Gods. It also says Moon God divides the month into two fortnights. It doesn't say Moon is self illuminating.  &lt;strong&gt;SB 5.20.12&lt;/strong&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वगोभि: पित्रुदेवेभ्यो विभजन् कृष्णशुक्लयो: |&lt;br&gt; प्रजानां सर्वासां रजान्ध: सोमो न आस्तवीति ||&#xA;   &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;svagobhi: pitrudevebhyo vibhajan kṛṣṇaśuklayo: |&lt;br&gt; prajānāṃ sarvāsāṃ rajāndha: somo na āstavīti || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;May the Moon-god who, dividing (the month into)  dark and bright&#xA;  fortnights, by his rays distributes food to the  manes, gods&#xA;  (respectively in the dark and bright fortnight)  and to all created&#xA;  beings, be our ruler.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translators of verse is Dr. GV Tagare and J. L. Shastri and commentators say their translation and commentary is close to oldest and reputed &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/bhagavata-purana-5-volumes-IDG806/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;commentary of Sridhara Swami&lt;/a&gt;. Commentators give annotations to the verse as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(i) VR. emphasises that but for the division into dark and  bright&#xA;  fortnights by the Moon-god, there would have been no food offerings to&#xA;  the manes and gods'. May the Moon god bring happiness (amrtam = sükham)&#xA;  to us. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(ii) VJ : May the inner controller of the Moon-god whose rays are &#xA;  full of nectar, distribute Soma to manes and gods and food to us all&#xA;  in  both dark and bright fortnights. May he bring happiness (somam =&#xA;  sukham)  to us'.  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(iii) BP. attributes the division in dark and bright fortnight' to &#xA;  the Moon-god. By his rays he distribute: food to the manes (in the&#xA;  dark  fortnight) and to the gods (in the bright fortnight). May that&#xA;  Moon god be  our king and bring us happiness&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in no way this verse says Moon is self illuminating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-19T17:14:39.087" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T17:14:39.087" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19660" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-19T18:28:32.077" Score="2" ViewCount="153" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is only in few country in Asia. Is that mean All God or Goddess born in India only for India ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9947" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T04:20:33.487" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T10:06:22.210" Title="Why there is not Hinduism in Europe, Africa, N.A, S.A, Australia?" Tags="|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-07-20T09:15:36.537" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19661" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-19T20:14:12.933" Score="4" ViewCount="124" Body="&lt;p&gt;My understanding is that some of the earliest references to applied combinatorics come from Vedic sources, for instance the Ayurvedic medical treatises of Charaka and Sushruta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10485" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T05:38:46.987" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T06:21:11.670" Title="What are the early sources of combinatorics in Hindu scripture?" Tags="|vedas|mathematics|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19662" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19660" CreationDate="2017-07-19T21:51:46.570" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Based on my understanding: The main reason why Bhagavan comes on this earth is to fulfill the wishes of his Bhakt. He is capable of killing some evil or making balance without even coming to earth. He does that as part of coming to earth but that is not the main reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavan comes on the earth to perform the lilas, and he takes birth where his devotees reside. If there are true devotees reside in the places you mentioned he'll go there. he's not bound to any country or place. &lt;strong&gt;He is bound to his devotees.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He performs the lila based on the wishes of his bhakt, after comming here he eats with them he play with them, he fight with them, he does all the human like activities. only to fulfil the wishes of bhakt. &lt;em&gt;And for the future generation&lt;/em&gt;. if in the future someone seeks the god, he can feel his presence while reading or talking about him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharat is considered as one of the most spiritual country, where lots of Mumuxu lives. This is the only country where you'll find many people seeking the god or saint.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its an obvious why he comes to Bharat khand, He'll alwasy go where people calles him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank You &amp;amp; Jay Swaminarayan.&#xA;Nixit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3880" LastActivityDate="2017-07-19T21:51:46.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19664" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19665" CreationDate="2017-07-19T22:18:21.370" Score="2" ViewCount="620" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;first chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, Dhritarashtra talks to Sanjaya at the end of the Mahabharata war about various past incidents that had signaled to him that the Kauravas had no hope of success against the Pandavas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hear, O Sanjaya, all that happened thereupon and came to my knowledge. And when thou hast heard all I say, recollecting everything as it fell out, thou shall then know me for one with a prophetic eye. When I heard that Arjuna, having bent the bow, had pierced the curious mark and brought it down to the ground, and bore away in triumph the maiden Krishna, in the sight of the assembled princes, then, O Sanjaya I had no hope of success. When I heard that Subhadra of the race of Madhu had, after forcible seizure been married by Arjuna in the city of Dwaraka, and that the two heroes of the race of Vrishni (Krishna and Balarama the brothers of Subhadra) without resenting it had entered Indraprastha as friends, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Arjuna, by his celestial arrow preventing the downpour by Indra the king of the gods, had gratified Agni by making over to him the forest of Khandava, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the five Pandavas with their mother Kunti had escaped from the house of lac, and that Vidura was engaged in the accomplishment of their designs, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Arjuna, after having pierced the mark in the arena had won Draupadi, and that the brave Panchalas had joined the Pandavas, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Jarasandha, the foremost of the royal line of Magadha, and blazing in the midst of the Kshatriyas, had been slain by Bhima with his bare arms alone, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that in their general campaign the sons of Pandu had conquered the chiefs of the land and performed the grand sacrifice of the Rajasuya, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Draupadi, her voice choked with tears and heart full of agony, in the season of impurity and with but one raiment on, had been dragged into court and though she had protectors, she had been treated as if she had none, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the wicked wretch Duhsasana, was striving to strip her of that single garment, had only drawn from her person a large heap of cloth without being able to arrive at its end, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Yudhishthira, beaten by Saubala at the game of dice and deprived of his kingdom as a consequence thereof, had still been attended upon by his brothers of incomparable prowess, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the virtuous Pandavas weeping with affliction had followed their elder brother to the wilderness and exerted themselves variously for the mitigation of his discomforts, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.  When I heard that Yudhishthira had been followed into the wilderness by Snatakas and noble-minded Brahmanas who live upon alms, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Arjuna, having, in combat, pleased the god of gods, Tryambaka (the three-eyed) in the disguise of a hunter, obtained the great weapon Pasupata, then O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the just and renowned Arjuna after having been to the celestial regions, had there obtained celestial weapons from Indra himself then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that afterwards Arjuna had vanquished the Kalakeyas and the Paulomas proud with the boon they had obtained and which had rendered them invulnerable even to the celestials, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Arjuna, the chastiser of enemies, having gone to the regions of Indra for the destruction of the Asuras, had returned thence successful, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Bhima and the other sons of Pritha (Kunti) accompanied by Vaisravana had arrived at that country which is inaccessible to man then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that my sons, guided by the counsels of Karna, while on their journey of Ghoshayatra, had been taken prisoners by the Gandharvas and were set free by Arjuna, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Dharma (the god of justice) having come under the form of a Yaksha had proposed certain questions to Yudhishthira then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that my sons had failed to discover the Pandavas under their disguise while residing with Draupadi in the dominions of Virata, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the principal men of my side had all been vanquished by the noble Arjuna with a single chariot while residing in the dominions of Virata, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Vasudeva of the race of Madhu, who covered this whole earth by one foot, was heartily interested in the welfare of the Pandavas, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the king of Matsya, had offered his virtuous daughter Uttara to Arjuna and that Arjuna had accepted her for his son, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Yudhishthira, beaten at dice, deprived of wealth, exiled and separated from his connections, had assembled yet an army of seven Akshauhinis, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard Narada, declare that Krishna and Arjuna were Nara and Narayana and he (Narada) had seen them together in the regions of Brahma, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Krishna, anxious to bring about peace, for the welfare of mankind had repaired to the Kurus, and went away without having been able to effect his purpose, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Kama and Duryodhana resolved upon imprisoning Krishna displayed in himself the whole universe, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. Then I heard that at the time of his departure, Pritha (Kunti) standing, full of sorrow, near his chariot received consolation from Krishna, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Vasudeva and Bhishma the son of Santanu were the counsellors of the Pandavas and Drona the son of Bharadwaja pronounced blessings on them, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When Kama said unto Bhishma--I will not fight when thou art fighting--and, quitting the army, went away, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Vasudeva and Arjuna and the bow Gandiva of immeasurable prowess, these three of dreadful energy had come together, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that upon Arjuna having been seized with compunction on his chariot and ready to sink, Krishna showed him all the worlds within his body, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Bhishma, the desolator of foes, killing ten thousand charioteers every day in the field of battle, had not slain any amongst the Pandavas then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Bhishma, the righteous son of Ganga, had himself indicated the means of his defeat in the field of battle and that the same were accomplished by the Pandavas with joyfulness, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Arjuna, having placed Sikhandin before himself in his chariot, had wounded Bhishma of infinite courage and invincible in battle, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the aged hero Bhishma, having reduced the numbers of the race of shomaka to a few, overcome with various wounds was lying on a bed of arrows, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that upon Bhishma's lying on the ground with thirst for water, Arjuna, being requested, had pierced the ground and allayed his thirst, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When Bayu together with Indra and Suryya united as allies for the success of the sons of Kunti, and the beasts of prey (by their inauspicious presence) were putting us in fear, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When the wonderful warrior Drona, displaying various modes of fight in the field, did not slay any of the superior Pandavas, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the Maharatha Sansaptakas of our army appointed for the overthrow of Arjuna were all slain by Arjuna himself, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that our disposition of forces, impenetrable by others, and defended by Bharadwaja himself well-armed, had been singly forced and entered by the brave son of Subhadra, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that our Maharathas, unable to overcome Arjuna, with jubilant faces after having jointly surrounded and slain the boy Abhimanyu, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the blind Kauravas were shouting for joy after having slain Abhimanyu and that thereupon Arjuna in anger made his celebrated speech referring to Saindhava, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Arjuna had vowed the death of Saindhava and fulfilled his vow in the presence of his enemies, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that upon the horses of Arjuna being fatigued, Vasudeva releasing them made them drink water and bringing them back and reharnessing them continued to guide them as before, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that while his horses were fatigued, Arjuna staying in his chariot checked all his assailants, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Yuyudhana of the race of Vrishni, after having thrown into confusion the army of Drona rendered unbearable in prowess owing to the presence of elephants, retired to where Krishna and Arjuna were, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Karna even though he had got Bhima within his power allowed him to escape after only addressing him in contemptuous terms and dragging him with the end of his bow, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Drona, Kritavarma, Kripa, Karna, the son of Drona, and the valiant king of Madra (Salya) suffered Saindhava to be slain, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the celestial Sakti given by Indra (to Karna) was by Madhava's machinations caused to be hurled upon Rakshasa Ghatotkacha of frightful countenance, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that in the encounter between Karna and Ghatotkacha, that Sakti was hurled against Ghatotkacha by Karna, the same which was certainly to have slain Arjuna in battle, then, O Sanjaya. I had no hope of success. When I heard that Dhristadyumna, transgressing the laws of battle, slew Drona while alone in his chariot and resolved on death, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Nakula. the son of Madri, having in the presence of the whole army engaged in single combat with the son of Drona and showing himself equal to him drove his chariot in circles around, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When upon the death of Drona, his son misused the weapon called Narayana but failed to achieve the destruction of the Pandavas, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Bhimasena drank the blood of his brother Duhsasana in the field of battle without anybody being able to prevent him, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the infinitely brave Karna, invincible in battle, was slain by Arjuna in that war of brothers mysterious even to the gods, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Yudhishthira, the Just, overcame the heroic son of Drona, Duhsasana, and the fierce Kritavarman, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the brave king of Madra who ever dared Krishna in battle was slain by Yudhishthira, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the wicked Suvala of magic power, the root of the gaming and the feud, was slain in battle by Sahadeva, the son of Pandu, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Duryodhana, spent with fatigue, having gone to a lake and made a refuge for himself within its waters, was lying there alone, his strength gone and without a chariot, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the Pandavas having gone to that lake accompanied by Vasudeva and standing on its beach began to address contemptuously my son who was incapable of putting up with affronts, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that while, displaying in circles a variety of curious modes (of attack and defence) in an encounter with clubs, he was unfairly slain according to the counsels of Krishna, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard the son of Drona and others by slaying the Panchalas and the sons of Draupadi in their sleep, perpetrated a horrible and infamous deed, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Aswatthaman while being pursued by Bhimasena had discharged the first of weapons called Aishika, by which the embryo in the womb (of Uttara) was wounded, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that the weapon Brahmashira (discharged by Aswatthaman) was repelled by Arjuna with another weapon over which he had pronounced the word &quot;Sasti&quot; and that Aswatthaman had to give up the jewel-like excrescence on his head, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that upon the embryo in the womb of Virata's daughter being wounded by Aswatthaman with a mighty weapon, Dwaipayana and Krishna pronounced curses on him, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a nice encapsulation of most of the major incidents in the Mahabharata.  So my question is, where in the text of the Mahabharata are each of these incidents described?  Are there some incidents that aren't described in the Mahabharata at all?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-23T15:30:05.537" LastActivityDate="2017-07-23T15:30:05.537" Title="Where are all the incidents mentioned by Dhritarashtra in the Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|kauravas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19665" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19664" CreationDate="2017-07-19T22:18:21.370" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me go through the incidents one by one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Arjuna, having bent the bow, had pierced the curious mark and brought it down to the ground, and bore away in triumph the maiden Krishna, in the sight of the assembled princes, then, O Sanjaya I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01191.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 190&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Subhadra of the race of Madhu had, after forcible seizure been married by Arjuna in the city of Dwaraka, and that the two heroes of the race of Vrishni (Krishna and Balarama the brothers of Subhadra) without resenting it had entered Indraprastha as friends, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01223.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 222&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01224.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 223&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Arjuna, by his celestial arrow preventing the downpour by Indra the king of the gods, had gratified Agni by making over to him the forest of Khandava, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01230.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 229&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01231.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 230&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the five Pandavas with their mother Kunti had escaped from the house of lac, and that Vidura was engaged in the accomplishment of their designs, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01150.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 149&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01151.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 150&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Arjuna, after having pierced the mark in the arena had won Draupadi, and that the brave Panchalas had joined the Pandavas, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01191.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 190&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01201.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 200&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Jarasandha, the foremost of the royal line of Magadha, and blazing in the midst of the Kshatriyas, had been slain by Bhima with his bare arms alone, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02024.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 24&lt;/a&gt; of the Sabha Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that in their general campaign the sons of Pandu had conquered the chiefs of the land and performed the grand sacrifice of the Rajasuya, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 25&lt;/a&gt; to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 44&lt;/a&gt; of the Sabha Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Draupadi, her voice choked with tears and heart full of agony, in the season of impurity and with but one raiment on, had been dragged into court and though she had protectors, she had been treated as if she had none, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02066.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 66&lt;/a&gt; of the Sabha Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the wicked wretch Duhsasana, was striving to strip her of that single garment, had only drawn from her person a large heap of cloth without being able to arrive at its end, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 67&lt;/a&gt; of the Sabha Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Yudhishthira, beaten by Saubala at the game of dice and deprived of his kingdom as a consequence thereof, had still been attended upon by his brothers of incomparable prowess, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02078.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 78&lt;/a&gt; of the Sabha Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the virtuous Pandavas weeping with affliction had followed their elder brother to the wilderness and exerted themselves variously for the mitigation of his discomforts, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's unclear exactly what chapter or chapters are being referred to, but somewhere in the Vana Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Yudhishthira had been followed into the wilderness by Snatakas and noble-minded Brahmanas who live upon alms, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Arjuna, having, in combat, pleased the god of gods, Tryambaka (the three-eyed) in the disguise of a hunter, obtained the great weapon Pasupata, then O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03040.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 40&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the just and renowned Arjuna after having been to the celestial regions, had there obtained celestial weapons from Indra himself then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 44&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that afterwards Arjuna had vanquished the Kalakeyas and the Paulomas proud with the boon they had obtained and which had rendered them invulnerable even to the celestials, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03172.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 172&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Arjuna, the chastiser of enemies, having gone to the regions of Indra for the destruction of the Asuras, had returned thence successful, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03164.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 164&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Bhima and the other sons of Pritha (Kunti) accompanied by Vaisravana had arrived at that country which is inaccessible to man then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03160.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 160&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that my sons, guided by the counsels of Karna, while on their journey of Ghoshayatra, had been taken prisoners by the Gandharvas and were set free by Arjuna, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03240.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 240&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03244.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 244&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Dharma (the god of justice) having come under the form of a Yaksha had proposed certain questions to Yudhishthira then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03311.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 311&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that my sons had failed to discover the Pandavas under their disguise while residing with Draupadi in the dominions of Virata, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is an absence of an event, so there's no specific location, but it describes the Virata Parva in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the principal men of my side had all been vanquished by the noble Arjuna with a single chariot while residing in the dominions of Virata, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04065.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 65&lt;/a&gt; of the Virata Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Vasudeva of the race of Madhu, who covered this whole earth by one foot, was heartily interested in the welfare of the Pandavas, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's unclear what chapter or chapters are being referred to, but presumably somewhere in the Virata Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the king of Matsya, had offered his virtuous daughter Uttara to Arjuna and that Arjuna had accepted her for his son, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04071.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 71&lt;/a&gt; of the Virata Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Yudhishthira, beaten at dice, deprived of wealth, exiled and separated from his connections, had assembled yet an army of seven Akshauhinis, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05019.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 19&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard Narada, declare that Krishna and Arjuna were Nara and Narayana and he (Narada) had seen them together in the regions of Brahma, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's unclear what chapter or chapters are being referred to, but presumably somewhere in the Udyoga Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Krishna, anxious to bring about peace, for the welfare of mankind had repaired to the Kurus, and went away without having been able to effect his purpose, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05084.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 84&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05131.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 131&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Karna and Duryodhana resolved upon imprisoning Krishna displayed in himself the whole universe, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05131.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 131&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that at the time of his departure, Pritha (Kunti) standing, full of sorrow, near his chariot received consolation from Krishna, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's unclear what chapter or chapters are being referred to, but presumably somewhere in the Udyoga Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Vasudeva and Bhishma the son of Santanu were the counsellors of the Pandavas and Drona the son of Bharadwaja pronounced blessings on them, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's unclear what chapter or chapters are being referred to, but presumably somewhere in the Udyoga Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Karna said unto Bhishma--I will not fight when thou art fighting--and, quitting the army, went away, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05169.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 169&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Vasudeva and Arjuna and the bow Gandiva of immeasurable prowess, these three of dreadful energy had come together, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's unclear what chapter or chapters are being referred to, but presumably somewhere in the Bhishma Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that upon Arjuna having been seized with compunction on his chariot and ready to sink, Krishna showed him all the worlds within his body, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06035.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 35&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhishma Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Bhishma, the desolator of foes, killing ten thousand charioteers every day in the field of battle, had not slain any amongst the Pandavas then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is an absence of an event, so there's no specific location, but it describes the Bhishma Parva in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Bhishma, the righteous son of Ganga, had himself indicated the means of his defeat in the field of battle and that the same were accomplished by the Pandavas with joyfulness, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 108&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06120.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 120&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhishma Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Arjuna, having placed Sikhandin before himself in his chariot, had wounded Bhishma of infinite courage and invincible in battle, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06120.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 120&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhishma Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the aged hero Bhishma, having reduced the numbers of the race of shomaka to a few, overcome with various wounds was lying on a bed of arrows, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06120.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 120&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhishma Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that upon Bhishma's lying on the ground with thirst for water, Arjuna, being requested, had pierced the ground and allayed his thirst, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 123&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhishma Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Bayu together with Indra and Suryya united as allies for the success of the sons of Kunti, and the beasts of prey (by their inauspicious presence) were putting us in fear, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's unclear what chapter or chapters are being referred to, but presumably somewhere in the Bhishma Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the wonderful warrior Drona, displaying various modes of fight in the field, did not slay any of the superior Pandavas, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is an absence of an event, so there's no specific location, but it describes the Bhishma Parva and Drona Parva in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the Maharatha Sansaptakas of our army appointed for the overthrow of Arjuna were all slain by Arjuna himself, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 25&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that our disposition of forces, impenetrable by others, and defended by Bharadwaja himself well-armed, had been singly forced and entered by the brave son of Subhadra, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07034.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 34&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that our Maharathas, unable to overcome Arjuna, with jubilant faces after having jointly surrounded and slain the boy Abhimanyu, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07046.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 47&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the blind Kauravas were shouting for joy after having slain Abhimanyu and that thereupon Arjuna in anger made his celebrated speech referring to Saindhava, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07046.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 47&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07070.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 73&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Arjuna had vowed the death of Saindhava and fulfilled his vow in the presence of his enemies, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07070.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 73&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07142.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 145&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that upon the horses of Arjuna being fatigued, Vasudeva releasing them made them drink water and bringing them back and reharnessing them continued to guide them as before, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 99&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that while his horses were fatigued, Arjuna staying in his chariot checked all his assailants, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07095.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 98&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 99&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Yuyudhana of the race of Vrishni, after having thrown into confusion the army of Drona rendered unbearable in prowess owing to the presence of elephants, retired to where Krishna and Arjuna were, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07137.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 140&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Karna even though he had got Bhima within his power allowed him to escape after only addressing him in contemptuous terms and dragging him with the end of his bow, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07135.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 137&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Drona, Kritavarma, Kripa, Karna, the son of Drona, and the valiant king of Madra (Salya) suffered Saindhava to be slain, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07142.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 145&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the celestial Sakti given by Indra (to Karna) was by Madhava's machinations caused to be hurled upon Rakshasa Ghatotkacha of frightful countenance, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07176.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 179&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that in the encounter between Karna and Ghatotkacha, that Sakti was hurled against Ghatotkacha by Karna, the same which was certainly to have slain Arjuna in battle, then, O Sanjaya. I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07176.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 179&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Dhristadyumna, transgressing the laws of battle, slew Drona while alone in his chariot and resolved on death, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 193&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Nakula, the son of Madri, having in the presence of the whole army engaged in single combat with the son of Drona and showing himself equal to him drove his chariot in circles around, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's unclear what chapter or chapters this is referring to, but presumably somewhere in the Drona Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When upon the death of Drona, his son misused the weapon called Narayana but failed to achieve the destruction of the Pandavas, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07196.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 200&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07197.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 201&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Bhimasena drank the blood of his brother Duhsasana in the field of battle without anybody being able to prevent him, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08083.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 83&lt;/a&gt; of the Karna Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the infinitely brave Karna, invincible in battle, was slain by Arjuna in that war of brothers mysterious even to the gods, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 91&lt;/a&gt; of the Karna Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Yudhishthira, the Just, overcame the heroic son of Drona, Duhsasana, and the fierce Kritavarman, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's unclear what chapter or chapters this is referring to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the brave king of Madra who ever dared Krishna in battle was slain by Yudhishthira, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 17&lt;/a&gt; of the Shalta Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the wicked Suvala of magic power, the root of the gaming and the feud, was slain in battle by Sahadeva, the son of Pandu, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09028.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 28&lt;/a&gt; of the Shalya Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Duryodhana, spent with fatigue, having gone to a lake and made a refuge for himself within its waters, was lying there alone, his strength gone and without a chariot, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09029.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 29&lt;/a&gt; of the Shalya Parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the Pandavas having gone to that lake accompanied by Vasudeva and standing on its beach began to address contemptuously my son who was incapable of putting up with affronts, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09031.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 31&lt;/a&gt; of the Shalya Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that while, displaying in circles a variety of curious modes (of attack and defence) in an encounter with clubs, he was unfairly slain according to the counsels of Krishna, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09058.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 58&lt;/a&gt; of the Shalya Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard the son of Drona and others by slaying the Panchalas and the sons of Draupadi in their sleep, perpetrated a horrible and infamous deed, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 8&lt;/a&gt; of the Sauptika Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that Aswatthaman while being pursued by Bhimasena had discharged the first of weapons called Aishika, by which the embryo in the womb (of Uttara) was wounded, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10013.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 13&lt;/a&gt; of the Sauptika Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that the weapon Brahmashira (discharged by Aswatthaman) was repelled by Arjuna with another weapon over which he had pronounced the word &quot;Sasti&quot; and that Aswatthaman had to give up the jewel-like excrescence on his head, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 14&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10016.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 16&lt;/a&gt; of the Sauptika Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When I heard that upon the embryo in the womb of Virata's daughter being wounded by Aswatthaman with a mighty weapon, Dwaipayana and Krishna pronounced curses on him, then, O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10016.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 16&lt;/a&gt; of the Sauptika Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whew!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T06:33:42.420" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T06:33:42.420" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19667" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18970" CreationDate="2017-07-20T05:07:19.280" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the scripture, at the transition of every Yuga-s, the &lt;strong&gt;world doesn't collapse&lt;/strong&gt; always. Mainly &quot;Morality&quot; or &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; in general, would become weaker. As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19601/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Morality looses its 1-1 leg with every Yuga change from:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Krita --&amp;gt; Treta --&amp;gt; DwApara --&amp;gt; Kali ...  &amp;lt;morality restored&amp;gt;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, according to a source in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19603/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, at the end of a Kaliyuga, all creation will happen afresh. Hence, the possibility of big annihilation (&lt;em&gt;MahA-pralaya&lt;/em&gt;) is during one particular Kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, it's better to avoid Yuga theory, because there are too many theories around it. The world is so big and diverse that we can't say for sure that which country is living in which Yuga, as per &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;. Some countries practice higher morality and some lower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T05:07:19.280" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19668" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-20T05:10:13.427" Score="5" ViewCount="1009" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/13/4-9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 12.13.4-9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahma Purāṇa consists of ten thousand verses, the Padma Purāṇa of&#xA;  fifty-five thousand, Śrī Viṣṇu Purāṇa of twenty-three thousand, the&#xA;  Śiva Purāṇa of twenty-four thousand and &lt;strong&gt;Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam of eighteen&#xA;  thousand&lt;/strong&gt;. The Nārada Purāṇa has twenty-five thousand verses, the&#xA;  Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa nine thousand, the Agni Purāṇa fifteen thousand four&#xA;  hundred, the Bhaviṣya Purāṇa fourteen thousand five hundred, the&#xA;  Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa eighteen thousand and the Liṅga Purāṇa eleven&#xA;  thousand. The Varāha Purāṇa contains twenty-four thousand verses, the&#xA;  Skanda Purāṇa eighty-one thousand one hundred, the Vāmana Purāṇa ten&#xA;  thousand, the Kūrma Purāṇa seventeen thousand, the Matsya Purāṇa&#xA;  fourteen thousand, the Garuḍa Purāṇa nineteen thousand and the&#xA;  Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa twelve thousand. Thus the total number of verses in&#xA;  all the Purāṇas is four hundred thousand. &lt;strong&gt;Eighteen thousand of these,&#xA;  once again, belong to the beautiful Bhāgavatam&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This clearly states that Srimad Bhagavatam has 18000 verses. But if you count all of the verses, only 14094 verses are there in Bhagavata Purana, even if you add the original Sanskrit verses. Why does Bhagavata Purana contradict itself?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10489" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T05:21:38.637" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T16:53:41.617" Title="Questions regarding the number of verses in the Bhagavtam" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19670" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-20T05:39:34.643" Score="14" ViewCount="2494" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there Vedic Mantras that promote the Hindu concept of sacred cow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2718" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T06:27:38.260" LastActivityDate="2020-09-18T23:36:36.273" Title="Is the concept of &quot;Holy Cow&quot; found in the Vedic literature?" Tags="|vedas|tradition|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19671" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19661" CreationDate="2017-07-20T06:21:11.670" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Hindu scripture does contain combinatorics.&lt;/strong&gt;. Here is what N.L. Biggs says in this excerpt from his journal paper &quot;The Roots of Combinatorics&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It seems that, from a very early time, the Hindus became accustomed to considering questions involving permutations and combinations. A typical example occurs in the medical treatise of Susruta... In chapter LXIII ... We find a discussion of the various kinds of taste which can be made by combining six basic qualities: sweet, acid, saline, pungent, bitter, and astringent. There is a systematic list of combinations: six taken separately, fifteen in twos, twenty in threes, fifteen in fours, six in fives, and one taken all together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Biggs is referring to &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/englishtranslati03susruoft#page/392/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Sushruta Samhita, an important Ayurvedic text.  And the chapter does indeed count the number of combinations obtained taking each tastes individual, combining two together, combining three together, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T06:21:11.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19672" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19670" CreationDate="2017-07-20T06:21:55.610" Score="10" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Holy Cow is from Vedic literature?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes most certainly it is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedas Cows are equated to the nectar of immortality (Amrita) and also to the supreme Vedic deities like Indra etc. It's also stated that Cows become  everything. This gives Cows the supreme stature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VasAm Eva Amritam Ahuh&lt;/strong&gt;, VasAm Mrityumupasate, Vasedam sarvamavad, DevA&#xA;  ManushyA AsurAh Pitara Rishayah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vasha (the barren cow) they call as immortality&lt;/strong&gt; (amrita), vasha they&#xA;  worship (upAsate) as death, &lt;strong&gt;vasha became all this (sarvam abhavat),&#xA;  Gods, men, asuras, fathers and rishis.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 10.10.26&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GAvo Bhago, GAvo Indro,&lt;/strong&gt; Ma IcchAd GAvah Somasya Prathamasya Bhakshah.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To me the Cows (gavah) are Bhaga, they are Indra&lt;/strong&gt;, they are a portion&#xA;  of the first poured Soma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 4.21.5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VasAm devA upa jivanti vasAm manushyA uta (1) vasedam sarvambhavad (2)&#xA;  yAvat suryo vipasayati (3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On this vasha (the barren Cow), the Gods subsist and men also (1),&#xA;  vasha became all this&lt;/strong&gt; (2) so far as the Sun looks over (vipashyati).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 10.10.34&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the Cow here is compared with the supreme light on which even the Gods subsist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Cows are repeatedly mentioned in the Vedas as not to be killed. The word for killing is &lt;code&gt;ghna&lt;/code&gt; And for Cows it's stated &lt;code&gt;Goshu Aghnayam&lt;/code&gt; ( Cows should not be killed). The words &lt;code&gt;Goshu aghnayam&lt;/code&gt; explicitly appear in the mantra &lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.37.5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &lt;code&gt;Goghna&lt;/code&gt; (killing a Cow ) however appears only once in the entire Rig Veda,viz- in &lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.114.10&lt;/strong&gt;, which is a prayer to Lord Rudra asking him not to harm our animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, the word &lt;code&gt;aghnayAh&lt;/code&gt; (not to be killed) or their variants  appear in many other mantras like &lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 4.1.6, Rig Veda 1.164.27, Rig Veda 1.164.40&lt;/strong&gt; and there they refer to the Cows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Cow has been mentioned as the most sacred animal in the Vedas themselves. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that in the Vedas words like &lt;code&gt;gau&lt;/code&gt; or &lt;code&gt;gavah&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;vasah&lt;/code&gt; (the barren cow), &lt;code&gt;pashu&lt;/code&gt; are used to denote a Cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T05:33:45.640" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T05:33:45.640" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19673" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2082" CreationDate="2017-07-20T06:48:06.283" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is just symbolic.  Krishna did not participate in human relations with the gopis (Radha-rani included). The gopis represent human beings - their clothes represent our attachments to this world (and our limited thinking).  By taking away their clothes and asking them to come to him for it - he is is trying to teaches us to put away our worldly attachments and to go to him in a purified state.  Once we surrender to him, the clothes will be given back because we will have understood their limited worth/significance.  Radha-rani is the incarnation of the &quot;Love of God&quot; - that is why Krishna never married her - she was already &quot;married&quot;, in a sense, to him from birth.  That was why (even though she was born before Krishna) she only opened her eyes once she felt his presence - and looked at him (the Lord) before anyone else.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10490" LastEditorUserId="10490" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T20:12:14.473" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T20:12:14.473" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19674" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-20T07:23:06.150" Score="2" ViewCount="683" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dhruva Maharaja fought with Yakshas. When and at what instance did this happen?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T08:17:19.940" LastActivityDate="2020-08-23T09:47:51.037" Title="When and at what instance Dhruva Maharaj fight with Yakshas?" Tags="|dhruva|yakshas|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19675" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-20T07:27:14.223" Score="0" ViewCount="1224" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the four categories of Universal Annihilation? There are four kinds of annihilation  (constant, occasional, material and final) and how it can be stopped?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T19:36:24.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T19:57:36.597" Title="The Four Categories of Pralaya (Annihilation) and how it can be stopped?" Tags="|puranas|universe|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19676" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19670" CreationDate="2017-07-20T07:46:29.297" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes ,The concept of “Holy Cow” is there in Vedas.  There are many verses in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/HindiBookAtharvavedaSanhitaPart1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; which describes the concept of Holy cow by admiring her , and describing her importance in human life as well as Many gods residing in her. Making her holy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva-Veda Kanda Kanda 4   Sukta 21 -:Go Samuha Sukta&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यूयं गावो मेदयथा कृशं चिदश्रीरं चित् कृणुथा सुप्रतिकं | &lt;br&gt; भद्रं&#xA;  गृहं कृणुथ भद्रवाचो बृहद वो वय उच्चते सभासु ||6|| page 132 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yuyam Gavo MedYatha Krusham ChidShriram chid KrunuTha SuPratikam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Bhadram Ghruham KrunuTha Bhadrawacho Bruhad Vo Vaya Ucchate&#xA;  SuBhaSu&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O cows let us make strong / powerful /potent | Make our diseased&#xA;  bodies healthy and beautiful . O cows make our homes pure by your &#xA;  good sound.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here cows are praised because of her milk is vital source of nourishment for healthy as well as sick persons , Ghee can be used to treat various deformities that has arose due to various diseases. &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva-Veda Kanda Kanda 9  Sukta 12  Gou Sukta : Page 384&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here in Atharva Veda we find the Hindu concept of many gods residing&#xA;  in cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रजापतिच्श्र परमेष्ठि च श्रुङ्गे इन्द्र: शिरो अग्निर्ललाटम् यम&#xA;  कृकाटम् ||1||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prajaPatiSchra Paramesthi Ch Shurunge Indra Shiro Agnir Lalatam Yama&#xA;  KuKatam &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prajapati and Parameshthi are the two horns of cow , Indra is head ,&#xA;  Agni is forehead and Yama is bell in her neck.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सोमो राजा मस्तिष्को द्यौरत्तरह्नु: पृथिव्यधरहनु ||2||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Somo Raja Mastishko DyaouRttarHrnu PrithiVyaDharHanu &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;King Soma is her Brain , Duloka is her upper jaw and earth is her&#xA;  lower jaw.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विद्युज्जिव्हा मारुतो दन्ता रेवतिर्ग्रिवा: कृत्तिका स्कन्धा घर्मो वह:&#xA;  ||3||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VidyuJivaa Maruto Danta RevatirGriva Kruttika Skandha Gharmo vaha &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Electricity (Vidyuta) is her tongue , Marut gana are her teeth&#xA;  ,Krittika is her arms and surya (sun) is her horns. &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विश्वं वायु: स्वर्गो लोक: कृष्णद्रं विधरणि निवेष्य ||4||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishwam Vayu Swargo Loka KrushDram VidharNi Niveshya &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All this universal wind (vayu) (prana) , Swarga , Krushnad and&#xA;  Vidharani are her back portion&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देवानां पत्नी: पृष्ठय उपसद: पर्शव ||6||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DevaNaam Patni  Prushta Upasad Parshav    &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Energies of god are her back and Upasad , isthiyan are her bones and&#xA;  Ribs.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एतद वै विश्वरूपं सर्वरूपं गोरूपं ||25||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Etad Vai VishwaRupam SarvaRuupam GoRupam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These are the forms of immense Supreme God , all these are present&#xA;  everywhere in the universe and also the forms of Cow &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here its said this(cow) itself is a another form of Supreme God .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such are the 26 verses in that sukta describing the gods and godly powers residing in cow.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva-Veda Kanda Kanda 4   Sukta 21 -:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न ता नशन्ति न दभिति तस्करो नासामामित्रो व्यथिरा दधर्षति |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवांच्श्र याभिर्यजते ददाति च ज्योगित ताभि: सचते गोपति: सह ||3|| Page&#xA;  No 131 &lt;br&gt;viewer &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Cows are not get harmed by the thieves , the enemy  weapons can’t harm&#xA;  them. Let the keeper of the cows remain prosper those   who Praise /&#xA;  Revere / perform   Yajan with the cows . &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here the importance of Ghee is described. It is said that those who&#xA;  perform Yajna with cows ghee ..May remain prosperous. .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from above verses we get a picture of holy cow Hinduism and come to know that why she  is holy for Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T07:46:29.297" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19677" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23680" CreationDate="2017-07-20T07:52:42.247" Score="4" ViewCount="5376" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know about history of Lord &lt;strong&gt;Vishwakarma&lt;/strong&gt;? please write details about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10160" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-11-20T09:21:44.200" LastActivityDate="2023-05-03T17:05:11.817" Title="Detailed history of Lord Vishwakarma" Tags="|gods|vishwakarma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19678" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-20T07:53:20.717" Score="3" ViewCount="81" Body="&lt;p&gt;In most of places where Hindu religion is believed, Most of the religious activities are not suggested during period of absence of Venus. Can anyone describe reason behind this ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10392" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T08:09:58.570" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T08:09:58.570" Title="Why religious activities aren't suggested during absence of Venus?" Tags="|belief|culture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19679" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19674" CreationDate="2017-07-20T08:19:19.717" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dhruva Maharaja fight with Yakshas is described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 4.10&lt;/a&gt;. He fought because his brother Uttama was killed by a Yaksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;uttamas tv akṛtodvāho&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  mṛgayāyāṁ balīyasā&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  hataḥ puṇya-janenādrau&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  tan-mātāsya gatiṁ gatā (3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhruva Mahārāja’s younger brother Uttama, who was still unmarried, once went on a hunting excursion and was killed by a powerful Yakṣa in the Himālaya Mountains. Along with him, his mother, Suruci, also followed the path of her son [she died].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dhruvo bhrātṛ-vadhaṁ śrutvā&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  kopāmarṣa-śucārpitaḥ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  jaitraṁ syandanam āsthāya&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  gataḥ puṇya-janālayam (4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When Dhruva Mahārāja heard of the killing of his brother Uttama by the Yakṣas in the Himālaya Mountains, being overwhelmed with lamentation and anger, he got on his chariot and went out for victory over the city of the Yakṣas, Alakāpurī&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T08:19:19.717" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19680" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19674" CreationDate="2017-07-20T08:52:04.433" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Continuation to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19679/3500&quot;&gt;Triyugi Narayan Mani's answer&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Dhruva Mahārāja heard of the killing of his brother Uttama by the&#xA;  Yakṣas in the Himālaya Mountains, being overwhelmed with lamentation&#xA;  and anger, he got on his chariot and went out for victory over the&#xA;  city of the Yakṣas, Alakāpurī. Dhruva Mahārāja went to the northern&#xA;  direction of the Himālayan range. In a valley he saw a city full of&#xA;  ghostly persons who were followers of Lord Śiva. As soon as Dhruva&#xA;  Mahārāja reached Alakāpurī, he immediately blew his conchshell, and&#xA;  the sound reverberated throughout the entire sky and in every&#xA;  direction. The wives of the Yakṣas became very much frightened. From&#xA;  their eyes it was apparent that they were full of anxiety.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The greatly powerful heroes of the Yakṣas, unable to tolerate the&#xA;  resounding vibration of the conchshell of Dhruva Mahārāja, came forth&#xA;  from their city with weapons and attacked Dhruva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhruva Mahārāja, who was a great charioteer and certainly a great&#xA;  bowman also, immediately began to kill them by simultaneously&#xA;  discharging arrows three at a time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the heroes of the Yakṣas saw that all their heads were being thus&#xA;  threatened by Dhruva Mahārāja, they could very easily understand their&#xA;  awkward position, and they concluded that they would certainly be&#xA;  defeated. But, as heroes, they lauded the action of Dhruva. The Yakṣa&#xA;  soldiers were 130,000 strong, all greatly angry and all desiring to&#xA;  defeat the wonderful activities of Dhruva Mahārāja. With full strength&#xA;  they showered upon Mahārāja Dhruva, along with his chariot and&#xA;  charioteer, various types of feathered arrows, parighas [iron&#xA;  bludgeons], nistriṁśas [swords], prāsaśūlas [tridents], paraśvadhas&#xA;  [lances], śaktis [pikes], ṛṣṭis [spears] and bhuśuṇḍī weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhruva Mahārāja was completely covered by an incessant shower of&#xA;  weapons, just as a mountain is covered by incessant rainfall.  All the&#xA;  Siddhas from the higher planetary systems were observing the fight&#xA;  from the sky, and when they saw that Dhruva Mahārāja had been covered&#xA;  by the incessant arrows of the enemy, they roared tumultuously, “The&#xA;  grandson of Manu, Dhruva, is now lost!” They cried that Dhruva&#xA;  Mahārāja was just like the sun and that now he had set within the&#xA;  ocean of the Yakṣas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Yakṣas, being temporarily victorious, exclaimed that they had&#xA;  conquered Dhruva Mahārāja. But in the meantime Dhruva’s chariot&#xA;  suddenly appeared, just as the sun suddenly appears from within foggy&#xA;  mist.  Dhruva Mahārāja’s bow and arrows twanged and hissed, causing&#xA;  lamentation in the hearts of his enemies. He began to shoot incessant&#xA;  arrows, shattering all their different weapons, just as the blasting&#xA;  wind scatters the assembled clouds in the sky. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sharp arrows released from the bow of Dhruva Mahārāja pierced the&#xA;  shields and bodies of the enemy, like the thunderbolts released by the&#xA;  King of heaven, which dismantle the bodies of the mountains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt; : Srimad Bagavatham  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;4.10.4 to 4.10.17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T09:40:26.747" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T09:40:26.747" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19682" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19675" CreationDate="2017-07-20T10:35:21.310" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Srimad Bagavatham Canto 12.4 describes the four kinds of annihilation&#xA;  (constant, occasional, material and final) and the chanting of the&#xA;  holy name of Lord Hari, which is the only means of stopping the cycle&#xA;  of material life. One thousand cycles of four ages constitute one day &#xA;  of Brahmā, and each day of Brahmā, called a kalpa, contains within it &#xA;  the lifetimes of fourteen Manus. The duration of Brahmā’s night is the&#xA;  same as that of his day. During his night Brahmā sleeps, and the three&#xA;  planetary systems meet destruction; this is the naimittika, or &#xA;  occasional, annihilation. When Brahmā’s life span of one hundred years&#xA;  is finished, there occurs the prākṛtika, or total material,&#xA;  annihilation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At that time the seven elements of material nature,&gt; beginning with&#xA;  the mahat, and the entire universal egg composed of them are&#xA;  destroyed. When a person achieves knowledge of the Absolute, he&#xA;  understands factual reality. He perceives the entire created &gt;&#xA;  universe as separate from the Absolute and therefore unreal. That is &#xA;  called the ātyantika, or final, annihilation (liberation). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At every  moment time invisibly transforms the bodies of all created&#xA;  beings and all other manifestations of matter. This process of&#xA;  transformation causes the living entity to undergo the constant&#xA;  annihilation of birth and death. Those possessed of subtle vision&#xA;  state that all creatures, including Brahmā himself, are always subject&#xA;  to generation and annihilation. Material life means subjugation to&#xA;  birth and death, or generation and annihilation. The only boat&#xA;  suitable for crossing the ocean of material existence, which is&#xA;  otherwise impossible to cross, is the boat of submissive hearing of&#xA;  the nectarean pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T19:57:36.597" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T19:57:36.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19683" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-20T11:30:32.007" Score="1" ViewCount="197" Body="&lt;p&gt;The supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Vishnu is equal to everyone.How he became partial like a common man for Indra and killing Indra's enemies. How can a person be equal to everyone be partial to someone at some instances?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T13:18:45.357" Title="The Supreme Lord Is Equal to Everyone but he became partial for Indra" Tags="|vishnu|gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19684" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19683" CreationDate="2017-07-20T12:45:09.310" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bagavatham Canto 7.1 states that  in response to a question by&#xA;Mahārāja Parīkṣit, Śukadeva Gosvāmī gives his conclusions concerning&#xA;how the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although the Supersoul, friend&#xA;and protector of everyone, killed the Daityas, the demons, for the&#xA;sake of Indra, the King of heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his statements, he totally  refutes the arguments of people in general who accuse the Supreme Lord  of partiality. Śukadeva Gosvāmī proves that because the body of the  conditioned soul is infected by the three qualities of nature,&#xA;dualities arise such as enmity and friendship, attachment and&#xA;detachment. For the Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, there are&#xA;no such dualities. Even eternal time cannot control the activities of&#xA;the Lord. Eternal time is created by the Lord, and it acts under His&#xA;control.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead, therefore, is always&#xA;transcendental to the influence of the modes of nature, māyā, the&#xA;Lord’s external energy, which acts in creation and annihilation. Thus&#xA;all the demons killed by the Supreme Lord attain salvation&#xA;immediately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second question raised by Parīkṣit Mahārāja concerns&#xA;how Sisupala, although inimical toward Kṛishna from his very childhood&#xA;and always blaspheming Kṛishna, attained salvation in oneness when Kṛishna&#xA;killed him. Sukadeva Gosvamī explains that because of their offenses&#xA;at the feet of devotees, two attendants of the Lord in Vaikuṇṭha named&#xA;Jaya and Vijaya became Hiraṇyakaśipu and Hiraṇyākṣa in Satya-yuga,&#xA;Rāvaṇa and Kumbhakarṇa in the next yuga, Treta-yuga, and Sisupala and&#xA;Dantavakra at the end of Dvapara-yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of their fruitive acts,Jaya and Vijaya agreed to become the Lord’s enemies, and when killed  in that mentality, they attained salvation in oneness. Thus even if  one thinks of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in envy, he attains  salvation. What then is to be said of devotees who always engage in  the Lord’s service with love and faith?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T12:45:09.310" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19685" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19683" CreationDate="2017-07-20T12:52:08.403" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Vishnu is equal to everyone.How he became partial&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt; , it is not true Lord Vishnu  &lt;strong&gt;was never partial to Indra&lt;/strong&gt; , but because Indra became intoxicated with opulence  imagining himself the supreme controller. Lord Vishnu in order to teach him a lesson performed some actions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu took the side of Indra and Killed the two sons of Diti – Hiranyakshapu and Hiranyaksha. as described in this chapter of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shree Shuka Said –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हतपुत्रा दिति: शक्रपार्षाणिग्राहेण विष्णुना |&lt;br&gt; मन्युना शोकदीप्तेन&#xA;  ज्वलन्ति पर्यचिन्तयत् ||23||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hata-putrā ditiḥ śakra-pārṣṇi-grāheṇa viṣṇunā &lt;br&gt; manyunā&#xA;  śoka-dīptena jvalantī paryacintayat   &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: &lt;strong&gt;Just to help Indra, Lord Viṣṇu killed the&#xA;  two brothers Hiraṇyākṣa and Hiraṇyakaśipu.&lt;/strong&gt; Because of their being&#xA;  killed, their mother, Diti, overwhelmed with lamentation and anger,&#xA;  contemplated as follows. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/18/23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 6.18.23&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;When Indra understood that his sacrifice had been put aside, he became furious with Nanda and the other cowherd men, who were accepting Krishna as their Lord. Angry Indra sent forth the clouds of universal destruction, known as Sāṁvartaka and Imagining himself the supreme controller, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गणं सांवर्तकं नामा मेघानां चान्तकारिणाम् |&lt;br&gt; इन्द्र: प्राचोद्यत&#xA;  कृध्दो वाक्यं चाहेशमान्युत ||2||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gaṇaṁ sāṁvartakaṁ nāma meghānāṁ cānta-kārīṇām indraḥ pracodayat&#xA;  kruddho vākyaṁ cāheśa-māny uta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Angry Indra sent forth the clouds of universal destruction, known as&#xA;  Sāṁvartaka. Imagining himself the supreme controller, he spoke as&#xA;  follows.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/25/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.25.2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;See what supreme Lord Says to Indra –&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मया तेsकारि मघवन् मखभङ्गोsनुगृह्यता |&lt;br&gt; मदनुस्मृतये नित्यं&#xA;  मत्तस्येन्द्रश्रिया भृशम ||15||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mayā te ’kāri maghavan makha-bhaṅgo ’nugṛhṇatā mad-anusmṛtaye nityaṁ&#xA;  mattasyendra-śriyā bhṛśam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Indra, it was out of&#xA;  mercy that I stopped the sacrifice meant for you. &lt;strong&gt;You were greatly&#xA;  intoxicated by your opulence as King of heaven, and I wanted you to&#xA;  always remember Me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/27/15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.27.15&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T13:18:45.357" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T13:18:45.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19686" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-20T13:57:15.403" Score="2" ViewCount="500" Body="&lt;p&gt;I saw some videos on YouTube in which mother of Vali did request to Hanuman that if in any case there is any situation of war between you and Vali then promise me Hanuman, you won't kill Vali. Hanuman made that promise to her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day when battle became necessary between Hanuman and Vali, then Lord Hanuman kept his promise and didn't kill Vali. He was able to kill Vali but didn't do so because of his promise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSII1SbY-kE&amp;amp;t=6s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Video link&lt;/a&gt; of this story. I am posting link of one episode but you can also watch other episode of the story also to know in detail. You will find link of next episode in top right corner of that page.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T17:04:45.540" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T17:04:45.540" Title="Did Hanuman make promise to Vali's mother that he won't kill Vali?" Tags="|hanuman|vali|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19687" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-20T14:07:19.210" Score="6" ViewCount="506" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across a page on internet that has a story of Lord Shiva's sister Devi Asavari. The article said that since Devi Parvati felt lonely on Mount Kailash being the only lady there, so she asked Lord Shiva to create a female companion or a sister-in-law for her. Lord Shiva obliged to that on the condition that Devi Parvati has to keep her female companion happy, to which Devi Parvati agreed. Thus, Lord Shiva created a lady similar to him in knowledge and powers who was later came to be known as Devi Asavari. Initially Devi Parvati was happy with her but later she disliked her for her heavy eating habits and rude nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story is given on link :&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://googleweblight.com/i?u=https://www.newsgram.com/know-why-goddess-parvati-asked-lord-shivas-sister-devi-asavari-to-leave-kailasha/&amp;amp;grqid=SaFe96JS&amp;amp;hl=en-IN&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://googleweblight.com/i?u=https://www.newsgram.com/know-why-goddess-parvati-asked-lord-shivas-sister-devi-asavari-to-leave-kailasha/&amp;amp;grqid=SaFe96JS&amp;amp;hl=en-IN&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can anyone please tell me whether is is an authentic story and taken from any puranas or other religious text or its just a folklore. Also, if there is any other story(s) or mention of her anywhere else, then please let me know the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1018" LastEditorUserId="1018" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T17:53:03.690" LastActivityDate="2018-05-15T22:38:21.347" Title="Where is it mentioned about sister of Lord Shiva in religious texts?" Tags="|shiva|parvati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19689" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19668" CreationDate="2017-07-20T15:58:53.367" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The figure 18,000 refers to granthas. A grantha in this context means a verse of 32 syllables. As Monier-Williams says, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An arrangement of words, especially a sloka of 32 syllables.&quot; 32 syllables is the standard verse-length in the Gita (though there are a fair number that are longer, especially in chapt. 11). The Bhagavatam has many verses of more than 32 syllables, and the SB has quite a few long prose passages (especially in the 5th canto) that contain way more than 32 syllables. I haven't done the calculation, but I assume if one counts up all the syllables in the Bhagavatam and divides by 32, one will get 18,000. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Ref: Room conversation with  HG Gopiparanadhana Prabhu  and why we didn't get nearly 18,000 &quot;verses.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10285" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-20T16:53:41.617" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T16:53:41.617" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19690" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19675" CreationDate="2017-07-20T19:40:35.940" Score="1" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nitya - people born and die everyday&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Naimittika - after 1 kalpa (daytime) of Brahma, 3 worlds, including earth are destroyed&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Prakrita - after 1 lifetime of Brahma, entire 14 worlds dissolved into Prakriti&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Atyantika - soul gets Moksha&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-07-20T19:40:35.940" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19691" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-20T19:46:43.770" Score="6" ViewCount="356" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;During Naimittika Pralaya, after 1 kalpa when Brahma sleeps, I've read that 3 worlds (Bhu, Bhuvah, Suvah) are destroyed while higher lokas exist.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What about 7 lower lokas (Atala - Patala)? Do only 3 of them get destroyed &#xA;(Atala, Vitala, Sutala), while other 4 exist?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I've read there are multiple anda-kataha, each with its own Brahma, Rudra, Indra, 14 lokas, Karya Vaikunta - basically replicas of each 'universe'. After lifetime of 'our' Brahma, during Prakrita Pralaya, our Anda gets dissolved in Prakriti.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What happens to other Andas - are all of them created/destroyed at the same time ? If not, is there anytime when absolutely no anda exists anywhere (avyaktam) ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T07:43:12.507" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T07:43:12.507" Title="What Lokas and Andas are destroyed during Naimittika and Prakrita Pralayas?" Tags="|time|pralaya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19692" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-20T21:48:34.510" Score="4" ViewCount="95" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Samkhya school, founded by the sage Kapila. Verse 2 of Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika, the defining text of the Samkhya school, describes the flaws of pursuing happiness through Dharma, and advocates pursuing happiness through knowledge of Purusha and Prakriti instead:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dṛṣṭavadānuśravikaḥ sa hyaviśuddhi kṣayātiśayayuktaḥ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tadviparītaḥ śreyān vyaktāvyaktajñavijñānāt ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The [means of happiness revealed by the Vedas] is like the evident one, It is linked with &lt;strong&gt;impurity&lt;/strong&gt;, destruction and inequality. Other than that is better,—proceeding from the right cognition of the Manifest, Unmanifest and the Knower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the word &quot;impurity&quot;.  As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19626/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Advaita philosopher Gaudapada, interprets &quot;impurity&quot; as referring to the Samkhya school's belief that animal sacrifice in Vedic Yagnas is a sin.  (This is an contrast to the Vedanta school which doesn't see animal sacrifice is a sin, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7947/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.). And as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19645/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Advaita philosopher Vachaspati Mishra interprets &quot;impurity&quot; as referring not just to animal sacrifice, but also to the destruction of plants offered in Vedic Yagns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm interested in the interpretation given by the 17th century Advaita philosopher (and musician) Narayana Tirtha, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/hpGULQ/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Samkhya Chandrika.  Narayana Tirtha agrees with Gaudapada and Vachaspati Mishra that it refers in part to animal sacrifice, but he thinks it also refers to something else:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Impurity&quot;: defect in the performance of some subsidiary act; also injury, from the text “Injure not.” Because at any rate, [there is] &lt;strong&gt;a likelihood of leaves of trees as well as small animals being destroyed through proximity to fire&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence it is a source of pain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found this interesting, because Narayana Tirtha is essentially voicing an environmental concern: he's saying that the fires of Vedic Yagnas is a danger to the local wildlife in the area, and so Vedic Yagnas can be a source of sin.  My question is, are there any other Samkhya works which discuss the danger of Yagna fires to plants and animals in the area?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I ask is that Narayana Tirtha was an Advaitin, not an actual follower of the Samkhya school, so his views may not be representative of what the Samkhya school believed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-08-19T14:14:58.883" LastActivityDate="2017-08-19T14:14:58.883" Title="Did the Samkhya school discuss the danger of Yagna fires to surrounding wildlife?" Tags="|philosophy|practice|animals|yajna|sankhya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19693" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-21T03:25:46.680" Score="4" ViewCount="129" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know practically nothing about Hinduism, which is a problem, considering that more than a billion people believe in it. This strongly suggests there's something going for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a curious agnostic, what English-language books would people recommend for me to understand the basics of what Hindus believe and the evidence for the truth of it? Preferably available as E-books or on Kindle, preferably written in a reasonably straightforward style?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apologies for bothering you with my ignorance. Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10500" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T04:46:42.697" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T04:46:42.697" Title="What would be good books to read to learn the basics?" Tags="|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19694" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-21T04:32:58.483" Score="1" ViewCount="80" Body="&lt;p&gt;Elucidate about Ashta Kona Maharshi's contribution to Hinduism. In Hindu scriptures are his contributions narrated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-13T04:26:23.547" LastActivityDate="2017-12-13T04:26:23.547" Title="What is Ashta Kona Maharshi's contribution to Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|rishi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19695" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19715" CreationDate="2017-07-21T06:12:29.017" Score="2" ViewCount="751" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in this question, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.  (You can read the Brahma Sutras here.) I'm interested in the epistemology of the Vedanta school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Narayana Bhattar was a mathematician, philosopher, and poet who is most famous for the Narayaneeyam, a poem summarizing the Srimad Bhagavatam. But he also wrote a work on the Purva Mimamsa school, the Manemyodaya.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/edkZ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Manameyodaya, Narayana Bhattar discusses the Pramanas or means of valid knowledge accepted by different schools of Indian philosophy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Perception and inference, similarly authority and analogy, presumption and negation - these are the six means of valid knowledge for those who think like us. Charvakas speak of one; the Buddhists and the Vaisheshikas speak of two; Bhasarvajna and the Samkhyas speak of three; Udayana and others speak of four; the followers of Prabhakara speak of five; &lt;strong&gt;we and those well-versed in Vedanta speak of six&lt;/strong&gt;; the Pauranikas, however, speak of eight, adding inclusion and tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lvkqc.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lvkqc.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  The &quot;we&quot; refers to the followers of the Purva Mimamsa philosopher Kumarila Bhatta.  Narayana Bhattar is saying that the Vedanta school accepts the same six Pramanas that Kumarila Bhatta does: Pratyaksha or perception, Anumana or inference, Shabda or authority, Upamana or analogy, Arthapatti or presumption, and Anupalabdhi or negation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now within the Vedanta school, there are numerous philosophies, including Adi Shankaracharya's philosophy of Advaita, Ramanujacharya's philosophy of Visistadvaita, Madhvacharya's philosophy of Dvaita, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's philosophy of Achintya Bheda Abheda, Nimbarkacharya's philosophy of Dvaitadvaita, and Vallabhacharya's philosophy of Shuddhadvaita.  My question is, do all these Vedantic philosophies agree on this list of six Pramanas?  Or do different Vedantic philosophies believe in different numbers of Pramanas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If different Vedantic philosophies do differ on this, then the figure of six Pramanas would probably be for Advaita, since I've heard that Narayana Bhattar may have been an Advaitin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-04-17T14:44:41.943" LastActivityDate="2018-04-17T14:44:41.943" Title="Do all Vedantic philosophies agree on the number of Pramanas?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|advaita|purva-mimamsa|pramana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19696" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19699" CreationDate="2017-07-21T08:01:38.677" Score="1" ViewCount="1064" Body="&lt;p&gt;From where I can read all Vedas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rigveda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Samaveda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yajurveda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atharvaveda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'll prefer &lt;code&gt;PDF&lt;/code&gt; format rather than hard copy, as I  mostly read on my tablet. Please suggest good sources from where I can download or purchase them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2314" LastActivityDate="2018-05-04T06:38:45.093" Title="Book recommendation for Vedas in Hindi" Tags="|vedas|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19697" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-21T08:05:26.763" Score="3" ViewCount="3937" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why Lord Vishnu is mostly seen in Resting or Sleeping position?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other god are not seen in resting or sleeping position like Lord Shiva, Brahmdev, Ganesh or any other God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in many images Lord Vishnu is in resting position or sleeping position and Goddess Mahalakshmi is doing Paadseva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="10089" LastEditDate="2017-07-24T12:38:48.420" LastActivityDate="2017-07-25T03:29:29.777" Title="Why Lord Vishnu is mostly seen in resting or sleeping position?" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19698" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12159" CreationDate="2017-07-21T09:03:29.167" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here I am compiling a brief list of useful books related to astrology both for beginners and for advance users. Some of the books also are in Hindi language, and all the books are directly downloadable  via the link which are in PDF and  MS word format.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/VedicAstrology_201707&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Vedic Astrology by SUVRATSUT&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; - (MS word)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/VedantaJyotishvedicAstrology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedanta Jyotish (vedic Astrology) - by SUVRATSUT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; – (MS word)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/StudyOnVedicAstrology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Study On Vedic Astrology by SUVRATSUT&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;-– (MS word)&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/CompleteJyotishSangraha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Complete Jyotish Sangraha by SHREE PANDIT SYAMLAL DEV&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; -(Hindi PDF)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/BhartiyaJyotishSastraByDixitPart1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhartiya Jyotish Sastra By Dixit Part 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;   – (English PDF)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Jyotish&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Collection of  Jyotish books  - many astrology books&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; -(English PDF)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/nadi_pariksha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nadi Pariksha&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; - (Sanskrit with Hindi Translation)&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hopr that users will find some of these books interesting&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T09:03:29.167" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19699" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19696" CreationDate="2017-07-21T09:22:55.433" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here I would like to suggest a good Hindi translation of &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/HindiBookAtharvavedaSanhitaPart1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda Sanhita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  by ShriRam Sharma Acharya. ,Published by Yug Nirman Yojna. This book is with original sanskrit shlokas and can be downloaded via the link provided in PDF format.&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;As you requested here is the link   ,where this book is avaliable for &lt;strong&gt;online purchase&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.awgpstore.com/gallery/search/init?str=Atharva%20veda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AWGP&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Also here is the Hindi Translation of Rig -Veda Samhita (Hindi),Which you can read online as well as can purchase it also &lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/book/rigveda/v3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig-Veda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Here is &lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/book/samved/v1.1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sama Veda Samhita&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; link from the same Publication - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2018-05-04T06:38:45.093" LastActivityDate="2018-05-04T06:38:45.093" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19700" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-21T09:37:27.360" Score="13" ViewCount="2213" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva do after 1 Kalpa when Brahmadev goes to sleep ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/265/10089&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer a day of Lord Brahma is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4(yuga)*1000.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    4,320,000 years * 1000 = 4,32,00,00,000 years is 1 day of Brahma (1 Kalpa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After which Lord Brahma goes to sleep. When Lord Brahma goes to sleep then every thing turns into dark. Which will exist for same period i.e for 1 kalpa ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When everything goes in dark then what exactly Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva do? Do they go to sleep or something else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="10089" LastEditDate="2017-07-25T11:55:27.250" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T10:56:21.887" Title="What do Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva do after 1 Kalpa when Brahmadev goes to sleep?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19701" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-21T10:10:31.833" Score="4" ViewCount="2272" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone please suggest me some good books on all the four Vedas in English. Books can be either in Hardcover or in Paperback but not ebook. If anyone has good sources or knowledge regarding this please suggest me the books.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10230" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T10:48:02.567" LastActivityDate="2021-01-23T17:03:26.683" Title="What are the good books available on all the Four Vedas in English" Tags="|vedas|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19702" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9404" CreationDate="2017-07-21T11:10:34.047" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mainly answering the Qn in title, from the analytic perspective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According go Swami Sachhidananda from Gujarat (no English or web source for this), the serpent related to the deities or gods have to be interpreted as &lt;strong&gt;possibly awakened &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kundalini&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Different spiritual traditions teach methods of &quot;awakening&quot; kundalini for the purpose of reaching spiritual enlightenment and a range of supernormal powers. Writer Joseph Campbell describes the &lt;strong&gt;concept of Kundalini as “the figure of a coiled female serpent—a serpent goddess&lt;/strong&gt; not of &quot;gross&quot; but of &quot;subtle&quot; substance - which is to be thought of as residing in a torpid, slumbering state in a subtle center, the first of the seven, near the base of the spine: &lt;strong&gt;the aim of the yoga then being to rouse this serpent&lt;/strong&gt;, lift her head, and bring her up a subtle nerve or channel of the spine to the so-called &lt;strong&gt;“thousand-petaled lotus”&lt;/strong&gt; (Sahasrara) at the crown of the head&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini_yoga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kundalini Yoga&lt;/a&gt;:   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit adjective kuṇḍalin means &quot;&lt;strong&gt;circular&lt;/strong&gt;, annular&quot;. It does occur as a noun for &quot;&lt;strong&gt;a snake&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; (in the sense &quot;coiled&quot;, as in &quot;forming ringlets&quot;)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kundalini is believed to be an energy resting inside the bottom of the body in a snake like coiled form. When it is awakened, it starts moving upwards. This is the prime reason, behind drawing the Gods in certain ways with snake &amp;amp; sometimes lotus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt; represented as supreme Brahman in form of entirety. Who rests on [awakened or not] Kundalini energy in form of &lt;em&gt;Adi Shesha&lt;/em&gt;; This is the ultimate Kundalini of the whole universe. As per Gita, all the creation comes out from the nature (&lt;em&gt;SwabhAva&lt;/em&gt;) of the supreme self (&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;/&quot;Me&quot;). Hence, Vishnu at times is shown relaxing on the resting &lt;em&gt;Adi Shesha&lt;/em&gt;; as of the whole universe is being dreamt by Vishnu&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cpFFem.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cpFFem.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess Earth&lt;/strong&gt; is resting on the serpent; This represent's Earth's own Kundalini as a deity&lt;br&gt;&#xA;[no image]&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Shankara&lt;/strong&gt;'s (Rudra from Himalaya) Kundalini is always awakened due to his continuous penance&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UNwux.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UNwux.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; who defeated &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaliya&lt;/a&gt;, was a symbolic story created, to express that, at the tender age of six-seven years, Krishna got his Kundalini energy awaken towards the self realisation&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kk57om.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kk57om.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T11:18:52.717" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T11:18:52.717" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19703" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-21T12:05:54.673" Score="1" ViewCount="144" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are various traditions followed in India like married Indian women wear toe rings. It is worn as a symbol of the married state by Hindu women. Indian tradition says that married women are expected to wear silver made toe-rings on the second toe of both feet. Hence there is a custom in Hindu wedding ceremony to wear toe rings. What benefits do these bring to them according to Hindu scripture?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T21:34:14.963" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T21:34:14.963" Title="Why do Indian women wear Bichhia (Toe Rings)?" Tags="|tradition|women|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19704" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-21T12:19:24.273" Score="8" ViewCount="403" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many religions says that human life is short. Humans are temporary and running behind wealth is waste of time. Are there scriptural evidences in Hinduism saying  that human lives are short?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-07-22T08:15:35.267" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T12:03:28.787" Title="Scriptural reference in Hinduism about shortness of human lives" Tags="|scripture|other-religions|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19705" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19704" CreationDate="2017-07-21T13:04:45.777" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vedas are full of life and joy. They contain the idea of living hundred years. Atharva Veda, Khanda 19, Hymn 67 pray for living 100 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जीवेम शरदः शतम्&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A hundred autumns may we live.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also Vedas have many hymns for obtaining long life and wealth. But short life span of human is discussed in some Puranas especially in the age of Kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimada Bhagavatam, 12th Canto, 2nd Chapter&lt;/a&gt; talks about the degradation of human values, increase of materialism and shortening of human lifespan in &lt;code&gt;Kaliyuga&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tataś cānu-dinaṁ dharmaḥ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  satyaṁ śaucaṁ kṣamā dayā&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  kālena balinā rājan&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  naṅkṣyaty āyur balaṁ smṛtiḥ (1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, O King, religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength and memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the Age of Kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vittam eva kalau nṝṇāṁ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  janmācāra-guṇodayaḥ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  dharma-nyāya-vyavasthāyāṁ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  kāraṇaṁ balam eva hi (2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Kali-yuga, wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man’s good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only on the basis of one’s power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;triṁśad viṁśati varṣāṇi&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  paramāyuḥ kalau nṛṇām (11)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The maximum duration of life for human beings in Kali-yuga will become fifty years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same thing has been said in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp156.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana, Book 6, Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who gives away much money will be the master of men&lt;/strong&gt;; and family descent will no longer be a title of supremacy. Accumulated treasures will be expended on (ostentatious) dwellings. The minds of men will be wholly occupied in acquiring wealth; and wealth will be spent solely on selfish gratifications.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oppressed by famine and taxation, men will desert their native lands, and go to those countries which are fit for coarser grains. The path of the Vedas being obliterated, &lt;strong&gt;and men having deviated into heresy, iniquity will flourish, and the duration of life will therefore decrease&lt;/strong&gt;. In consequence of horrible penances not enjoined by scripture, and of the vices of the rulers, children will die in their infancy. Women will bear children at the age of five, six, or seven years; and men beget them when they are eight, nine, or ten. A man will be grey when he is twelve; and no one will exceed twenty years of life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-07-21T18:24:43.633" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T18:24:43.633" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19706" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19704" CreationDate="2017-07-21T13:33:07.587" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The rigvedic seers prayed for long life of 100 autumns, large (male)&#xA;  progeny who will be brave (suveerAH) and, of course, for wealth, cows&#xA;  and so on. In that respect, I feel that at least our earliest Veda did&#xA;  not consider life in this world as short or chasing material&#xA;  prosperity as bad. There could be isolated instances contrary to the&#xA;  above, in the vast ocean that is rigveda; scholarly members may come&#xA;  forward to correct my impression as above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My impression is that it was the Upanishadic phase of the vedas which&#xA;  started this illusoriness of the worldly life, chasing material wealth&#xA;  as wasting your life, etc. May be, contemplation about human life&#xA;  might have revealed to the Upanishadic sages/seers/rishis, the&#xA;  impermanence of the worldly life and the human intellect's&#xA;  inability/impossibility of knowing about our past (before birth) or&#xA;  our future after death. Given this background, human existence will&#xA;  appear to be transcient and meaningless, so to say. The Upanishads,&#xA;  therefore, give us a mixed picture — following the veda and diverging&#xA;  from the veda. It is the commonly held belief that Adishankara gave&#xA;  his advaita philosophy as the gist of all the Upanishadic advancements&#xA;  in philosophical thoughts and so this was called as Vedanta (end of&#xA;  the Veda/s).  एकं सद्विप्रा नैव जानन्ति ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7154" LastActivityDate="2017-07-21T13:33:07.587" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19708" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19704" CreationDate="2017-07-21T13:46:55.687" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Humans are temporary and running behind wealth is waste of time. Are there scriptural evidences ?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes we can find the scriptural reference of  Humans are temporary and running behind wealth is waste of time and shortness of human life in our &lt;strong&gt;ancient Upanishads.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/katha-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145173.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Katha-Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  there is famous story Nachiketa and Yama , where Nachiketa goes to Yam-Loka , satisfied with him Yama grant Nachiketa 3 boons.Then Nachiketa  and asks one  questions to Yama ( the death god.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When **Nachiketa asks Yama about what happens after death.**Yama says to him that “O child ask anything for of material nature women ,wealth ,power ,long life ,kingship of earth , vehicles ,gold ,horses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Nachiketa    says this to Yama -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्वोभावा मर्त्यस्य यदन्तकैतत्सर्वेंद्रियाणां जरयंति तेजः । &lt;br&gt; अपि&#xA;सर्वं &lt;strong&gt;जीवितमल्पमेव&lt;/strong&gt; तवैव वाहास्तव नृत्यगीते ॥ २६ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śvobhāvā martyasya yadantakaitatsarveṃdriyāṇāṃ jarayaṃti tejaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;api sarvaṃ &lt;strong&gt;jīvitamalpameva&lt;/strong&gt; tavaiva vāhāstava nṛtyagīte || 26 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Nachikêtas says) Ephemeral these; Oh Death, these tend to the decay&#xA;of the fire (vigour) of all the senses in man. &lt;strong&gt;Even the longest life&#xA;is, indeed, short.&lt;/strong&gt; Thine alone be the chariots, the dance and music.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Nachiketa is refusing all the material pleasures offered to him by Yama in substitute of asking questions about death. But wise Nachiketa says ……Life is short …And all this pleasures are temporary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And this is Shankara’s Commentary:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;.—Though thus tempted, Nachikêtas unagitated like a large lake, said: svôbhâvah, enjoyments whose existence the next day is a matter of doubt; the enjoyments enumerated by you are ephemeral; again. Oh Death, they tend to the decline of the vigour of all the organs of man. These nymphs and other enjoyments only tend to harm, because they destroy virtue, strength, intellect, vigour, fame and the rest. As for the longevity that you will give me, hear me on that point. All life, even that of Brahmais, indeed, short. What need be said of our longevity. Therefore, keep the chariots, etc., for thyself alone, as also the dance and music.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;also shortening of human life during kali-Yuga also is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/linga-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-40/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ling-Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; –Purva Bhaga –Chapter 40 – Extent of Caturyugas. – Page 153 –Shloka 33&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रनष्टचेष्टना: पुंसो मुक्तकेशाच्श्र शूलिन: | &lt;br&gt; जना &lt;strong&gt;षोडषवर्षाच्श्र&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;प्रजायंते युगाक्षये ||33||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They would be unable to value the things correctly. They shall have&#xA;disheveled hair.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;During the time of decline of the Kali-Yuga the people will be born with only sixteen years of age.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T08:03:36.317" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19710" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-21T15:46:23.427" Score="1" ViewCount="466" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most prominent thinker associated with the Advaita Vedanta school is Adi Shankaracharaya, but he wasn't the founder of Advaita; Adi Shankaracharaya's guru Govinda and Govinda's guru Gaudapada were also Advaitins.  Now, as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7104/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, according to Advaitin tradition Gaudapada was the student of the sage Shuka, son of the sage Vyasa, and then the Advaita Sampradaya is traced back through Shuka's ancestors: Vyasa, Parashara, Shakti, Vashishta, Brahma, and ultimately Vishnu. But it seems that Advaitins also see a more direct connection between Gaudapada and Vishnu.  Let me explain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7084/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Gaudapada is famous for his Karika or commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.swamij.com/upanishad-mandukya-karika.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In the beginning of chapter 4, Gaudapada says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I bow to the &lt;strong&gt;best among men&lt;/strong&gt;, who, by means of knowledge, which is like akasa and which is non—different from the goal of knowledge, realized the nature of the jivas (dharmas), which, too, are like akasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Adi Shankaracharya, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mandukya-upanishad-karika-bhashya/d/doc143717.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his commentary on Gaudapada's Karika, interprets the words &quot;best among men&quot; as referring to Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first verse has for its purpose the salutation to the promulgator of the philosophy of Advaita, conceiving him as identical with the Advaita Truth.... I bow to the God, known as Nārāyaṇa, who by knowledge, non-different from the nature of Ātman (the object of knowledge) and which resembles Ākāśa, knew the Dharmas which, again, may be compared to Ākāśa. The import of the words “Dvipadām Varam” (Supreme among the bipeds), is that Nārāyaṇa is the greatest of all men, characterised by two legs, that, is to say, He is the “Puruṣottama”, the best of all men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anandagiri's Tika or subcommentary on Adi Shankaracharya's Bhashya explains why Gaudapada is praising Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Nārāyaṇa&quot;—The story runs thus:—In ancient times Gauḍapāda retired to Badarikāśrama, in the interior of the Himalayas, and there worshipped with great austerity the human figure of the Almighty Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Badarikāśrama is the one of the holiest places of Vishnu, being the abode of Vishnu's incarnations Nara and Narayana.  So it seems that Gaudapada went to Badarikāśrama and engaged in Tapasya to propitiate Visshnu.  Now Anandagiri ends things there, but the translator &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mandukya-upanishad-karika-bhashya/d/doc143588.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;provides&lt;/a&gt; an additional detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ānandagiri says in his Ṭīkā on Śaṅkara’s commentary on the Kārikā (4-1) that Gauḍapāda performed great austerities in the Badarikāśrama, in the interior of the Himālayas, in order to propitiate Nārāyana who is worshipped there as the God-Man. &lt;strong&gt;Nārāyana being pleased with his devotion revealed to him the secret of the Advaita Vedānta.&lt;/strong&gt; Gauḍapāda salutes this Nārāyana in the opening verse of the fourth chapter of the Kārikā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, do Advaitins believe that Vishnu appeared before Gaudapada in Badarikāśrama and taught him about Advaita?  Are there any works of Advaita Acharyas which mention this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, the name Narayana refers both to Vishnu and to Vishnu's incarnation sage Narayana.  So given that this is Badarikāśrama, it's possible that Advaitins believe that it was Vishnu's incarnation sage Narayana who appeared before Gaudapada, not the supreme Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2019-01-10T12:52:34.440" Title="Do Advaitins believe that Vishnu appeared before Gaudapada?" Tags="|vishnu|vedanta|advaita|gaudapada|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19711" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-21T16:29:27.980" Score="11" ViewCount="1423" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingayatism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lingayatism&lt;/a&gt; is considered as a Shaivite sect within Hinduism which worship Linga, founded by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basava&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Basava&lt;/a&gt;. This sects seems to reject everything belonging to Hinduism—like the Varna system, the Vedas, and other concepts—and considers only Shiva as god. However, Shiva is a Hindu god and was incarnated as Adi Shankara. Even 63 Nayanmars have attained Lord Shiva. How can this co-exist with Hinduism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastEditorUserId="10329" LastEditDate="2019-12-01T11:53:27.387" LastActivityDate="2024-03-31T03:34:53.687" Title="Can Lingayats be considered as a part of Hinduism?" Tags="|shaivism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19712" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18083" CreationDate="2017-07-21T16:58:51.650" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Among &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavidya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Dasa mahAvidyAs&lt;/a&gt;, the third mahAvidyA is Devi Shodashi or Goddess TripurA or TripurAsundari. Here is how they are mentioned in a verse from the &lt;strong&gt;ViswasAra Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KAli TArA MahAvidya &lt;strong&gt;Shodashi&lt;/strong&gt; Bhuvaneswari | Bhairavi ChinnamastA Cha&#xA;  Vidya DhumAvati TathA || BagalA SiddhavidyA Cha Matangi KamalAtmikA |&#xA;  Eto DasamahAvidyA SiddhavidyAh PrakirtitAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The 10 MahAvidyAs ( or the Goddesses of great wisdom) are KAli, TArA, &lt;strong&gt;Shodashi&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  Bhuvaneswari, Bhairavi, ChinnamastA, DhumAvati, BagalAmukhi, MAtangi&#xA;  and KamalA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the great knowledge pertaining to Goddess TripurA (or Goddess Shodashi) is known as  Sri Vidya , which is famous as the king of all Vidyas in all Tantras and Agamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In, the &lt;strong&gt;KubjikA Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;, which is a part of another major Agama called &lt;strong&gt;VishnukrAnta&lt;/strong&gt;, Lord Shiva explains why Sri VidyA is so-called as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord ShivA said] &lt;strong&gt;SridAtri cha sada vidyA Srividya parikirtitA&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nirguna cha MahAdevi Shodasi parikirtitA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Because it [the VidyA] always provides Sri or&#xA;  prosperity, it is called Sri VidyA&lt;/strong&gt;. And since MahAdevi is NirgunA (attributeless), she is known by the name of Shodashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, there is deep connection between Goddess being NirgunA and she being known by the name Shodashi. But that is not worth discussing here, given the  context of the present question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-22T06:09:33.850" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T06:09:33.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19713" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19717" CreationDate="2017-07-21T18:12:56.307" Score="9" ViewCount="1777" Body="&lt;p&gt;In many scriptures like Puranas, there is mention of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanatkumara&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanat Kumaras&lt;/a&gt;. According to the legend they are believed to be as the mAnasa putras of Lord Brahma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But we get to see the list of 10 mAnasa putras of brahma which is Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Marichi, Pulaha, Kratu, Bhrigu, Vashistha, Daksha and Narada. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So are there more than 10 mAnasa putras?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are there reference and details of Sanat Kumaras other than the Puranas?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-20T11:58:23.203" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T12:14:20.750" Title="Who are the Sanat Kumaras?" Tags="|puranas|brahma|sanatkumara|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19715" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19695" CreationDate="2017-07-22T04:59:44.393" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Most Vedantic philosophies other than Advaita agree on the number of Pramanas.&lt;/strong&gt;  As I suspected, Advaita accepts the same six Pramanas as Kumarila Bhatta; here's what the 17th century Advaita philosopher Dharmaraja Adhavindra says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/kegyFQ/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Vedanta Paribhasha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those means of knowledge are six in number, their divisions being perception, inference, comparison, verbal testimony, presumption and non-apprehension.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also found out from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2015-November/039768.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this forum post&lt;/a&gt; that this is summarized in an Advaita saying &amp;quot;Vyavahare Bhattanayah&amp;quot;, which means that from the relative perspective, Advaitins agree with Kumarila Bhatta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But apart from Advaitins, most if not all other members of the Vedanta school agree on the number of Pramanas.  Specifically, they agree with the Samkhya school's view that there are three Pramanas: Pratyaksha or perception, Anumana or inference, and Shabda or scriptural testimony.  Let me go through various Vedantic philosophies one by one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Visistadvaita&lt;/strong&gt;: Here's what the 17th century Sri Vaishnava Acharya Srinivasadasa says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/ft0m25/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Yatindra Mata Dipika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pramanas or the Means of knowledge are three:- Pratyaksha or Perception, Anumana or Inference, and Shabda or word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dvaita&lt;/strong&gt;: Here's what the 14th century Dvaita philosopher Chalari Sheshacharya says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800305.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/29/items/MadhvaLogicBySusilKumarMaitra/SushilKumarMaitra-MadhvaLogic_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=SushilKumarMaitra-MadhvaLogic_jp2/SushilKumarMaitra-MadhvaLogic_0059.jp2&amp;amp;scale=2&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Pramana Chandrika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anupramana is of three kinds, viz., perception, inference and authoritative communication.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Achintya Bhedabheda&lt;/strong&gt;: Here's what the 18th century Gaudiya Vaishnaava Acharya Baladeva Vidyabhushana says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://nitaaiveda.com/All_Scriptures_By_Acharyas/Baladeva_Vidyabhushana/Prameya_Ratnavali/Ninth_Prameya.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of his Prameya Ratnavali:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Direct Perception, logic and Vedic revelation are three sources of actual knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dvaitadvaita&lt;/strong&gt;: Here's what Surendranath Dasgupta says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/a-history-of-indian-philosophy-volume-3/d/doc209981.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his book &amp;quot;A History of Indian Philosophy&amp;quot; about the followers of Nimbarkacharya, the chief exponent of Dvaitadvaita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The followers of Nimbārka admit only three [pramāṇas] (perception, inference and testimony).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T04:59:44.393" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19716" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19713" CreationDate="2017-07-22T05:39:51.150" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Are there reference of Sanata Kumara in any other scriptures besides&#xA;  the Puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am answering only this part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanat Kumara is mentioned in many Agamas. And there is also an Agama with the name &lt;strong&gt;Sanat Kumara Samhita&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Kaulism he is listed among one of the eleven Siddhaugha Gurus (or the line of enlightened Gurus).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Siddhaughe Sanakaishchaba Sanandashcha SanaAtanah|&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SanatkumArascha&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  SanathsujAtascha Rhibhukshajah ||&lt;br&gt; DattAtreyo Raibtako VAmadevastathaha&#xA;  Param|&lt;br&gt; Tato VyAsah Sukaishchava Ekadasha SmritAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The enlightened Gurus are 11 in number and they are - Sanaka, Sananda,&#xA;  Sanatana, &lt;strong&gt;Sanathkumara&lt;/strong&gt;, Sanath-Sujatha, Rhibhukshaja, Dattatreya,&#xA;  Raivataka, Vamadeva, Vyasa and Suka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 6-65.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-11-14T15:48:00.027" LastActivityDate="2017-11-14T15:48:00.027" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19717" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19713" CreationDate="2017-07-22T08:39:40.007" Score="7" Body="&lt;h3&gt;So are there more than 10 mAnasa putras?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it seems to be there are more than ten &lt;code&gt;Manasaputra&lt;/code&gt; of Lord Brahma. Many Puranas mention it. First Lord Brahma generated some sons but they adopted the path of &lt;code&gt;Nivritti&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanandana and the other sons of Brahmā were previously created by him, but they were without desire or passion, inspired with holy wisdom, estranged from the universe, and undesirous of progeny. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then some other sons had been created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmā created other mind-born sons, like himself; namely, Bhrigu, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Aṅgiras, Marīci, Dakṣa, Atri, and Vaśiṣṭha: these are the nine Brahmas (or Brahma ṛṣis) celebrated in the Purāṇas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/vishnu-purana-wilson/d/doc115942.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana, Book 1, Chapter 7&lt;/a&gt;. There is also an interesting comment given on the same page.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Considerable variety prevails in this list of Prajāpatis, Brahmaputras, Brāhmanas, or Brahmarshis; but the variations are of the nature of additions made to an apparently original enumeration of but seven, whose names generally recur. Thus in the Mahābhārata, Mokṣa Dharma, we have in one place, Marīci, Atri, Aṅgiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, and Vaśiṣṭha, ‘the seven highminded sons of the self-born Brahmā.’ In another place of the same, however, we have Dakṣa substituted for Vaśiṣṭha: ‘Brahmā then created mind-begotten sons, of whom Dakṣa was the seventh, with Marīci,’ &amp;amp;c. These seven sons of Brahmā are also identified with the seven Ṛṣis as in the Vāyu; although, with palpable inconsistency, eight are immediately enumerated, or, Bhrigu, Marīci, Atri, Aṅgiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, and Vaśiṣṭha. The Uttara Khanda of the Padma P. substitutes Kardama for Vaśiṣṭha. The Bhāgavata includes Dakṣa, enumerating nine. The Matsya agrees with Manu in adding Nārada to the list of our text. The Kūrma P. adds Dharma and Saṅkalpa. The Liṅga, Brahmāṇḍa, and Vāyu P. also add them, and extend the list to Adharma and Ruci. The Hari Vanśa in one place inserts Gautama, and p. 50 in another Manu. &lt;strong&gt;Altogether therefore we have seventeen, instead of seven&lt;/strong&gt;. But the accounts given of the origin of several of these, shew that they were not originally included amongst the Mānasa putras, or sons of Brahmā's mind; for even Dakṣa, who finds a place in all the lists except one of those given in the Mahābhārata, is uniformly said to have sprung from Brahmā's thumb: and the same patriarch, as well as Dharma, is included in some accounts, as in the Bhāgavata and Matsya P., amongst a different series of Brahmā's progeny, or virtues and vices; or, Dakṣa (dexterity), Dharma (virtue), Kāma (desire), Krodha (passion), Lobha (covetousness), Moha (infatuation), Mada (insanity), Pramoda (pleasure), Mrityu (death), and Aṅgaja (lust). These are severally derived from different parts of Brahmā's body: and the Bhagāvata, adding Kardama (soil or sin) to this enumeration, makes him spring from Brahmā's shadow. The simple statement, that the first Prajāpatis sprang from the mind or will of Brahmā, has not contented the depraved taste of the mystics, and in some of the Purāṇas, as the Bhāgavata, Liṅga, and Vāyu, they also are derived from the body of their progenitor; or, Bhrigu from his skin, Marīci from his mind, Atri from his eyes, Aṅgiras from his mouth, Pulastya from his ear, Pulaha from his navel, Kratu from his hand, Vaśiṣṭha from his breath, Dakṣa from his thumb, and Nārada from his hip. They do not exactly agree, however, in the places whence these beings proceed; as for instance, according to the Liṅga, Marīci springs from Brahmā's eyes, not Atri, who there proceeds, instead of Pulastya, from his ears. The Vāyu has also another account of their origin, and states them to have sprung from the fires of a sacrifice offered by Brahmā; an allegorical mode of expressing their probable original, considering them to be in some degree real persons, from the Brahmanical ritual, of which they were the first institutors and observers. The Vāyu P. also states, that besides the seven primitive Ṛṣis, the Prajāpatis are numerous, and specifies Kardama, Kaśyapa, Śeṣa, Vikrānta, Susravas, Bahuputra, Kumāra, Vivaswat, Suchisravas, Prācetasa (Dakṣa), Aṛṣṭanemi, Bahula. These and many others were Prajāpatis. In the beginning of the Mahābhārata (A. P.) we have again a different origin, and first Dakṣa, the son of Pracetas, it is said, had seven sons, after whom the twenty-one Prajāpatis were born, or appeared. According to the commentator, the seven sons of Dakṣa were the allegorical persons Krodha, Tamas, Dama, Vikrita, Aṅgiras, Kardama, and Aswa; and the twenty-one Prajāpatis, the seven usually specified Marīci and the rest, and the fourteen Manus. This looks like a blending of the earlier and later notions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though I have not verified all data given above but those seems to be pretty correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Are there reference and details of Sanat Kumaras other than the Puranas?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Sanatkumara are mentioned in other scriptures other than purana like Tezz's commented (in Mahabharata and Chandogya Upanishad), Rickross's answer (Kularnava tantra) and in above source &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c040.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Book 12, SECTION CCCXLI&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Marichi, Angiras, Atri, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, and Vasishtha,--these seven Rishis have been created by a fiat of the will. These will become the foremost of persons conversant with the Vedas. In fact, they will become the preceptors of the Vedas. They will be wedded to the religion of Pravritti, for they have been intended to devote themselves to the act of procreating offspring. This is the eternal path that I disclose of creatures engaged in acts and observances. The puissant Lord who is charged with the creation of all the worlds is called Aniruddha, Sana, Sanatsujata, Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatkumara, Kapila, and Sanatana numbering the seventh,--these seven Rishis are known as the spiritual sons of Brahman. Their knowledge comes to them of itself (without being dependant on study or exertion). These seven are wedded to the religion of Nivritti. They are the foremost of all persons conversant with Yoga. They are possessed also of deep knowledge of the Sankhya philosophy. They are preceptors of the scriptures on duty and it is they that introduce the duties of the religion of Nivritti and cause them to flow in the worlds. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2018-02-20T12:14:20.750" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T12:14:20.750" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19718" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19704" CreationDate="2017-07-22T09:17:11.987" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many verses said by Lord Shiva in KulArnava Tantram's (which is a ShAkta Agama) Ullasa 1 can be used to answer this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He discusses the shortness of human life ( or the shortage of years we have to accomplish our goals) in great details in that chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am posting only four such verses here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Even the full life span of 100 years is not sufficient&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satam jivitamatyalpam&lt;/strong&gt; nidrA swyAdardhshArini | &#xA;  VAlyarogajarAdukkhairardham tadapi nisphalam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The lifespan of even 100 years (which is also known as parama Ayu) is too short&lt;/strong&gt;.  Half of which is&#xA;  taken by sleep. And, the remaining half is rendered fruitless by&#xA;  childhood, diseases and grief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;The temporary and short-lived nature of wealth, longevity and youth&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sampadah swapnasamkAshA yauvanam kusumopamam | TaricchanchalamAyuscha&#xA;  kasya syAjjAnato dhriti ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wealth (Sampada) is [illusive] like dreams. Youth (Yauvanam) is like a&#xA;  flower [that withers within no time]. Longevity (Ayu) is unstable&#xA;  (chanchala) like Vidyut [it comes and goes]. After knowing all that&#xA;  how can one still remain patient&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Don't waste time thinking about petty matters&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Apatyam me kalatram me dhanam me vandhavAscha me | &#xA;  Lapantamiti martyam&#xA;  hi hanti kAlabriko valAt ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My son; my wife; my wealth; my friends;-  Kala forcefully takes his&#xA;  life away who wastes time in thinking like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Death (Kala) does not wait for anyone, so better hurry up&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swayah kAryamadya karttabyam purvAnhe chAparAnhikam |&#xA;  Na hi pratikshate mrityuh kritam vAhasya na vA kritam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is supposed to be done tomorrow has to be done today only. What&#xA;  is supposed to be done in the afternoon should be done in the morning.&#xA;   Mrityu (or death) does not wait thinking what a person has done what he has&#xA;  yet to do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram's Chapter 1 verses&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, that's why we should be ever agile to make life's every moment count.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is one of the essences of Lord Shiva's discourses found in the aforementioned chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-22T12:03:28.787" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T12:03:28.787" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19720" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19704" CreationDate="2017-07-22T10:48:18.390" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scriptures mention the age of humans as 100 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Isha Upanishad, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/isha-upanishad/d/doc122461.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 2&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कुर्वन्नेवेह कर्माणि जिजीविषेत् सतं समाः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एवं त्वयि नान्यथेतोऽस्ति न कर्म लिप्यते नरे&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: In the world, one should desire to live a hundred years, but only by performing actions. Thus, and in no other way, can man be free from the taint of actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas say the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shatāyur vai purushah&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Man lives for 100 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara also says in his commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tavad hi purushashya paramayuh nirupitam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;that long, verily, has been determined to be the length of human life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Brahmacharya ceremony, the boy is blessed with the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/isha-upanishad/d/doc122461.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;words&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May you live a hundred years&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Puranas might say that human lifespan is different or decreases but because Vedas and Upanishads clearly say that human life is 100 years, Puranas should be rejected in this case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T10:48:18.390" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19722" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19723" CreationDate="2017-07-22T14:16:07.303" Score="6" ViewCount="1393" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana, the story of Rama is known to be existing in 300 different versions. Of all the versions of the stories, Valmiki Ramayana is the most accepted. Apart from Valmiki Ramayana; Adhyatma Ramayana, Ramcharitmanas, Ananda Ramayana and Adbhuta Ramayana are also widely accepted. However, there are also texts which have had less scholarly analysis such as the Agastya Ramayana ascribed to Rishi Agastya. There is very limited analysis on this version. So what are the main differences between Agastya Ramayana and Valmiki Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T15:30:42.250" Title="What are the main differences between Valmiki Ramayana and Agastya Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|agastya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19723" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19722" CreationDate="2017-07-22T15:30:42.250" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here's what page 115 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=2_RjAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;q=%22agastya+ramayana%22&amp;amp;dq=%22agastya+ramayana%22&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjT0aGylp3VAhUMVT4KHQeBD10Q6AEIJjAC&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says about the Agastya Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Ramayana, written by Sage Agastya contains sixteen thousand Slokas. It is marked by its description of the tale of Bhanupratapa and Arimardana ; and it says that king Kuntala and Sindhumati are born as Dasharatha and Kaushalya. It resembles Tulsidasa's Ramayana. This Ramayana tells that JanakI is found in a place of sacrifice. It also describes various events such as the creation of the ocean ; the cause of the coming up of Rameshvara ; the existence of Rishyamuka Mountain, the origin of Maya and Dundubhi and Kala-vigraha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here's what page 45 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=oGrXAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;q=&amp;quot;in+agastya+ramayana&amp;quot;&amp;amp;dq=&amp;quot;in+agastya+ramayana&amp;quot;&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjskczxmJ3VAhWGeD4KHTwACH4Q6AEIHTAA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Agastya Ramayana (Sanskrit), two sons of a king are unaware that a sage is an enemy or their farher. The sage tells them to hold a ceremony with many holy men, but prepares food made from the flesh of other sages. When a voice from heaven warns the sages of the meal, they angrily curse the two sons to be reborn as Ravana and Kumbhakarna, and their minister as Vibhishana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here's what page 414 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=mc8oAAAAYAAJ&amp;amp;q=%22agastya+ramayana%22&amp;amp;dq=%22agastya+ramayana%22&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiwtvTEmZ3VAhVIOD4KHaS5A8M4ChDoAQg7MAg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Agastya-Ramayana, I am given to understand, makes Mandodari the adopted daughter of Maya, but the real daughter of Mandukt. This must have been suggested as a myth from the word manda in Mandodari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T15:30:42.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19725" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18900" CreationDate="2017-07-22T16:05:20.480" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharvaveda 12.3.47&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I cook the offering, I present oblation: only my wife attends the holy&#xA;  service. A youthful world, &lt;strong&gt;a son hath been begotten&lt;/strong&gt;. Begin a life that&#xA;  brings success and triumph.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Clearly. the term used in past tense. It does not refer to a thing that is going to happen.So, this cannot be considered as prayer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharvaveda 14.2.72&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Unmarried men desire to have a wife , married men desire for an&#xA;  offspring (child of any gender)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no prayer for son here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 3.23&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read the fourth line first:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With that auspicious general flow wherewith &lt;strong&gt;the bulls propagate&lt;/strong&gt;    their&#xA;  kind,   Do thou obtain thyself a son: &lt;strong&gt;be thou a fruitful! mother-cow.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this look like getting a male child from cow and bull?? Looks wired? Not at all. The male animal here is the spiritual insight reflecting the spiritual eye concept. This is not at all or humans. This is a metaphor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastEditorUserId="10008" LastEditDate="2017-07-22T16:46:06.197" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T16:46:06.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19727" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-22T17:05:02.593" Score="5" ViewCount="1192" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19715/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, apart from Advaitins most members of the Vedanta school believe in three Pramanas or means of valid knowledge: Pratyaksha or perception, Anumana or inference, and Shabda or scriptural testimony.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But non-Vedantic philosophical schools believe in various different numbers of Pramanas, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/bZN29k/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from B.L. Atreya's book &quot;The Elements of Indian Logic&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The number of pramanas (indispensable causes of prama) recognized by thinkers of different schools of Indian thought goes up to ten, ... namely, Pratyaksha (Perception), Anumana (Inference), Shabda (Verbal Testimony of an authority), Upamana (Comparison), Arthapatti (Necssary Assumption)[,] ... Anupalabdhi (Non-apprehension)[,] ... Aitihya (Tradition), Chesta (Gesture), Parishesha (Elimination), and Sambhava (Inclusion).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Charvakas recognize only one pramana, namely, Pratyaksha, as the source of right knowledge.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Vaisheshikas, Jainas and the Buddhists recognize two, namely, Pratyaksha, and Anumana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Sankhya and Yoga schools recognize only three, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana and Shabda.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Naiyayikas recognize only four, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Shabda, and Upamana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Some Mimansakas (followers of Prabhakara) recognize five, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Upamana, Shabda and Arthapatti.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Another group of Mimansakas (followers of Kumarila Bhatta) and the Vedantists of Shankara (Advaita) school recognize six pramanas, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Shabda, Upamana, Arthapatti and Anupalabdhi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The scholars of the Puranas (Historians) recognize eight pramanas, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Shabda, Upamana, Arthapatti, Anupalabdhi, Aitihya, and Sambhava.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Tantrikas (students of the Tantras) recognize nine pramanas, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Shabda, Upamana, Arthapatti, Anupalabdhi, Aitihya, Sambhava, and Chesta.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Some thinkers admit all the ten Pramanas, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Shabda, Upamana, Arthapatti, Anupalabdhi, Aitihya, Sambhava, Chesta and Parishesha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thinkers who recognize a less number of indispensable means of valid knowledge (Pramanas) try to bring the rest under one or the other of those which they admit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, what philosophical school believes in these ten independent Pramanas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This may reduce to the question of which school recognizes Parishesha as an independent Pramana, since that seems to be the distinguishing feature of this school, so it may help to give B.L. Atreya's &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/31/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.142017/2015.142017.The-Elements-Of-Indian-Logic_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=2015.142017.The-Elements-Of-Indian-Logic_jp2/2015.142017.The-Elements-Of-Indian-Logic_0056.jp2&amp;amp;scale=1&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;definition&lt;/a&gt; of Parishesha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parishesha or Elimination is the process of knowing some thing by eliminating from a group of things those which it is not.  For example it happens some time that we know a person to be somebody by eliminating others already known from the group where that person has been told to be present.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To my mind Parishesha clearly seems reducible to Arthapatti at least.  But what philosophical school believes that Parishesha cannot be reduced to any other Pramanas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-30T03:19:56.837" LastActivityDate="2019-01-04T00:00:55.197" Title="Who believes in 10 Pramanas?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|sects|shad-darshana|pramana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19729" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-22T17:41:24.533" Score="1" ViewCount="568" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aloe Vera and Ash gourd are sometimes suspended at the house entrance during &lt;em&gt;Grihapravesam&lt;/em&gt; ceremonies in some parts of India. ls there any spiritual basis or  early references for such tradition/ practice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-12-29T07:17:20.637" LastActivityDate="2017-12-29T07:17:20.637" Title="Plant and Vegetable kept against drishti dosham at house entrances" Tags="|tradition|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19730" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19737" CreationDate="2017-07-22T17:43:16.737" Score="3" ViewCount="1649" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata mentions twice the apsara Tillotama. Once, in the Adi Parva and the other time in the Anusasana Parva. What do these verses say about the apsara Tilottama?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-07-23T15:33:10.873" LastActivityDate="2017-07-23T15:33:10.873" Title="What are the verses of the Mahabharata on the apsara Tilottama?" Tags="|mahabharata|apsaras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19731" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-22T17:47:13.377" Score="7" ViewCount="4756" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parashiva, Paramashiva, Sadashiva, Rudra and Shiva are names referring to Mahadeva. What do these names signify and mean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-06-28T18:09:39.963" LastActivityDate="2022-01-08T03:25:19.347" Title="What are the differences between the names Parashiva, Paramashiva, Rudra, Sadashiva and Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19732" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19927" CreationDate="2017-07-22T17:56:16.927" Score="2" ViewCount="1145" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Srimad Bhagavatam, one of the major 18 puranas and the most popular and controversial purana has been recommended by many saints such as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The purana is very popular in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition and hence too in Bengal. But what was Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's opinion of the Srimad Bhagavatam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-07-23T04:05:24.840" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T04:57:08.540" Title="What did Ramakrishna Paramahamsa say about the Srimad Bhagavatam?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|gaudiya-vaishnavism|ramakrishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19733" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19744" CreationDate="2017-07-22T18:41:20.887" Score="3" ViewCount="332" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like Sri Valmiki Ramayana consists of chapters like bala kanda,sundar kanda etc,so the Taittireya Samhita is a chapter of Yajurveda or a different book?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-07-23T10:13:52.750" LastActivityDate="2017-07-23T10:18:10.233" Title="Is Taittireya Samhita of Yajurveda is a different book or a chapter of Yajurveda?" Tags="|vedas|yajur-veda|krishna-yajurveda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19736" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19730" CreationDate="2017-07-22T19:16:30.780" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The first instance is mentioned in Mahabharata, Adi Parva, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01214.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION CCXIII of English version&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs01203.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 203 of Sanskrit version&lt;/a&gt; where Sage Narada is describing the birth of Tilottama and Lord Shiva's four faces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;17 तिलं तिलं समानीय रत्नानां यद विनिर्मिता&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       तिलॊत्तमेत्य अतस तस्या नाम चक्रे पितामहः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   18 [पितामह]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       गच्छ सुन्दॊपसुन्दाभ्याम असुराभ्यां तिलॊत्तमे&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       परार्थनीयेन रूपेण कुरु भद्रे परलॊभनम&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   19 तवत्कृते दर्शनाद एव रूपसंपत कृतेन वै&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       विरॊधः सयाद यथा ताभ्याम अन्यॊन्येन तथा कुरु&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   20 [नारद]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       सा तथेति परतिज्ञाय नमस्कृत्य पितामहम&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       चकार मण्डलं तत्र विबुधानां परदक्षिणम&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   21 पराङ्मुखॊ भगवान आस्ते दक्षिणेन महेश्वरः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   22 देवाश चैवॊत्तरेणासन सर्वतस तव ऋषयॊ ऽभवन&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       कुर्वन्त्या तु तया तत्र मण्डलं तत परदक्षिणम&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       इन्द्रः सथाणुश च भगवान धैर्येण परत्यवस्थितौ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   23 दरष्टुकामस्य चात्यर्थं गतायाः पार्श्वतस तदा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       अन्यद अञ्चितपक्ष्मान्तं दक्षिणं निःसृतं मुखम&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   24 पृष्ठतः परिवर्तन्त्याः पश्चिमं निःसृतं मुखम&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       गतायाश चॊत्तरं पार्श्वम उत्तरं निःसृतं मुखम&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   25 महेन्द्रस्यापि नेत्राणां पार्श्वतः पृष्ठतॊ ऽगरतः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       रक्तान्तानां विशालानां सहस्रं सर्वतॊ ऽभवत&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   26 एवं चतुर्मुखः सथाणुर महादेवॊ ऽभवत पुरा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       तथा सहस्रनेत्रश च बभूव बलसूदनः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   27 तथा देव निकायानाम ऋषीणां चैव सर्वशः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       मुखान्य अभिप्रवर्तन्ते येन याति तिलॊत्तमा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   28 तस्या गात्रे निपतिता तेषां दृष्टिर महात्मनाम&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       सर्वेषाम एव भूयिष्ठम ऋते देवं पितामहम&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   29 गच्छन्त्यास तु तदा देवाः सर्वे च परमर्षयः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       कृतम इत्य एव तत कार्यं मेनिरे रूपसंपदा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   30 तिलॊत्तमायां तु तदा गतायां लॊकभावनः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;       सर्वान विसर्जयाम आस देवान ऋषिगणांश च तान&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And because she had been created with portions of every gem taken in minute measures, the Grandsire bestowed upon her the name of Tilottama. And as soon as he started it into life, the damsel bowed to Brahman and with joined palms said, 'Lord of every created thing, what task am I to accomplish and what have I been created for?' The Grandsire answered, 'Go, O Tilottama, unto the Asuras, Sunda and Upasunda. O amiable one, tempt them with thy captivating beauty. And, O damsel, conduct thyself there in such a way that the Asura brothers may, in consequence of the wealth of thy beauty, quarrel with each other as soon as they cast their eyes upon thee.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Narada continued, 'Bowing unto the Grandsire and saying, 'So be it,'--the damsel walked round the celestial conclave. The illustrious Brahman was then sitting with face turned eastwards, and Mahadeva with face also towards the east, and all the celestials with faces northwards, and the Rishis with faces towards all directions. While Tilottama walked round the conclave of the celestials, Indra and the illustrious Sthanu (Mahadeva) were the only ones that succeeded in preserving their tranquillity of mind. But exceedingly desirous as Mahadeva was (of beholding Tilottama) when the damsel (in her progress round the celestial conclave) was at his side, another face like a full-blown lotus appeared on the southern side of his body. And when she was behind him, another face appeared on the west. And when the damsel was on the northern side of the great god, a fourth face appeared on the northern side of his body. Mahadeva (who was eager to behold the damsel) came also to have a thousand eyes, each large and slightly reddish, before, behind and on his flanks. And it was thus that Sthanu the great god came to have four faces, and the slayer of Vala, a thousand eyes. And as regards the mass of the celestials and the Rishis, they turned their faces towards all directions as Tilottama walked round them. Except the divine Grandsire himself, the glances of those illustrious personages, even of all of them fell upon Tilottama's body. And when Tilottama set out (for the city of the Asuras) with the wealth of her beauty, all regarded the task as already accomplished. After Tilottama had gone away, the great god who was the First Cause of the Universe, dismissed all the celestials and the Rishis.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the second instance is mentioned in Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b106.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION CXLI of English version&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs13128.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 128 of Sanskrit version&lt;/a&gt; where Lord Shiva himself is talking about Tilottama and his four faces to Mother Uma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 [महेष्वर]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;        तिलॊत्तमा नाम पुरा बरह्मणा यॊषिद उत्तमा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;        तिलं तिलं समुद्धृत्य रत्नानां निर्मिता शुभा&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    2 साभ्यगच्छत मां देवि रूपेणाप्रतिमा भुवि&lt;br&gt;&#xA;        परदक्षिणं लॊभयन्ती मां शुभे रुचिरानना&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    3 यतॊ यतः सा सुदती माम उपाधावद अन्तिके&lt;br&gt;&#xA;        ततस ततॊ मुखं चारु मम देवि विनिर्गतम&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    4 तां देदृक्षुर अहं यॊगाच चतुर्मूर्तित्वम आगतः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;        चतुर्मुखश च संवृत्तॊ दर्शयन यॊगम आत्मनः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The blessed and holy one said, 'In days of yore, a blessed woman was created by Brahman, called Tilottama, by culling grains of beauty from every beautiful object in the universe. One day, that lady of beautiful face, unrivalled in the universe for beauty of form, came to me, O goddess, for circumambulating me but really impelled by the desire of tempting me. In whatever direction that lady of beautiful teeth turned, a new face of mine instantly appeared (so eager did I become to see her). All those faces of mine became agreeable to look at. Thus, in consequence of the desire of beholding her, I became four-faced, through Yoga-puissance, Thus, I showed my high Yoga-power in becoming four-faced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-23T05:16:59.300" LastActivityDate="2017-07-23T05:16:59.300" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19737" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19730" CreationDate="2017-07-22T19:20:01.563" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Apsara Tilottama is, as you say, mentioned in two places in the Mahabharata.  First, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01214.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01215.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All those Rishis were sitting with the Grandsire, when the celestial and other Rishis, approaching Brahman with sorrowful hearts, represented unto him all the acts of Sunda and Upasunda. And they told the Grandsire in detail everything that the Asura brothers had done, and how they had done it, and in what order. Then all the celestials and the great Rishis pressed the matter before the Grandsire. The Grandsire, hearing everything they said, reflected for a moment and settled in his mind what he should do. Resolving to compass the destruction of the Asura brothers, he summoned Viswakarman (the celestial architect). Seeing Viswakarman before him, the Grandsire possessed of supreme ascetic merit commanded him, saying, 'Create thou a damsel capable of captivating all hearts.'  Bowing down unto the Grandsire and receiving his command with reverence, the great artificer of the universe created a celestial maiden with careful attention. Viswakrit first collected all handsome features upon the body of the damsel he created. Indeed, the celestial maiden that he created was almost a mass of gems. &lt;strong&gt;And created with great care by Viswakarman, the damsel, in beauty, became unrivalled among the women of the three worlds. There was not even a minute part of her body which by its wealth of beauty could not attract the gaze of beholders. And like unto the embodied Sri herself, that damsel of extraordinary beauty captivated the eyes and hearts of every creature. And because she had been created with portions of every gem taken in minute measures, the Grandsire bestowed upon her the name of Tilottama.&lt;/strong&gt; And as soon as he started it into life, the damsel bowed to Brahman and with joined palms said, 'Lord of every created thing, what task am I to accomplish and what have I been created for?' The Grandsire answered, 'Go, O Tilottama, unto the Asuras, Sunda and Upasunda. O amiable one, tempt them with thy captivating beauty. And, O damsel, conduct thyself there in such a way that the Asura brothers may, in consequence of the wealth of thy beauty, quarrel with each other as soon as they cast their eyes upon thee.' ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bowing unto the Grandsire and saying, 'So be it,'--the damsel walked round the celestial conclave. The illustrious Brahman was then sitting with face turned eastwards, and Mahadeva with face also towards the east, and all the celestials with faces northwards, and the Rishis with faces towards all directions. While Tilottama walked round the conclave of the celestials, Indra and the illustrious Sthanu (Mahadeva) were the only ones that succeeded in preserving their tranquillity of mind. But exceedingly desirous as Mahadeva was (of beholding Tilottama) when the damsel (in her progress round the celestial conclave) was at his side, another face like a full-blown lotus appeared on the southern side of his body. And when she was behind him, another face appeared on the west. And when the damsel was on the northern side of the great god, a fourth face appeared on the northern side of his body. Mahadeva (who was eager to behold the damsel) came also to have a thousand eyes, each large and slightly reddish, before, behind and on his flanks. And it was thus that Sthanu the great god came to have four faces, and the slayer of Vala, a thousand eyes. And as regards the mass of the celestials and the Rishis, they turned their faces towards all directions as Tilottama walked round them. Except the divine Grandsire himself, the glances of those illustrious personages, even of all of them fell upon Tilottama's body. And when Tilottama set out (for the city of the Asuras) with the wealth of her beauty, all regarded the task as already accomplished. After Tilottama had gone away, the great god who was the First Cause of the Universe, dismissed all the celestials and the Rishis....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile the Asura brothers having subjugated the earth were without a rival. The fatigue of exertion gone, they, having brought the three worlds under equal sway, regarded themselves as persons that had nothing more to do. Having brought all the treasures of the gods, the Gandharvas, the Yakshas, the Nagas, the Rakshasas, and the kings of the earth, the brothers began to pass their days in great happiness. When they saw they had no rivals (in the three worlds), they gave up all exertion and devoted their time to pleasure and merriment, like the celestials. They experienced great happiness by giving themselves up to every kind of enjoyment, such as women, and perfumes and floral wreaths and viands, and drinks and many other agreeable objects all in profusion. In houses and woods and gardens, on hills and in forests, wherever they liked they passed their time in pleasure and amusement, like the immortals. And it so happened that one day they went for purposes of pleasure to a tableland of the Vindhya range, perfectly level and stony, and overgrown with blossoming trees. After every object of desire, all of the most agreeable kind, had been brought, the brothers sat on an excellent seat, with happy hearts and accompanied by handsome women. And those damsels, desirous of pleasing the brothers, commenced a dance in accompaniment to music, and sweetly chanted many a song in praise of the mighty pair.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile Tilottama attired in a single piece of red silk that exposed all her charms, came along, plucking wild flowers on her way. She advanced slowly to where those mighty Asuras were. The Asura brothers, intoxicated with the large portions they had imbibed, were smitten upon beholding that maiden of transcendent beauty. Leaving their seats they went quickly to where the damsel was. Both of them being under the influence of lust, each sought the maiden for himself. And Sunda seized that maid of fair brows by her right hand. Intoxicated with the boons they had obtained, with physical might, with the wealth and gems they had gathered from every quarter, and with the wine they had drunk, maddened with all these, and influenced by wishful desire, they addressed each other, each contracting his bow in anger, 'She is my wife, and therefore your superior,' said Sunda. 'She is my wife, and therefore your sister-in-law', replied Upasunda. And they said unto each other, 'She is mine not yours.' And soon they were under the influence of rage. Maddened by the beauty of the damsel, they soon forgot their love and affection for each other. Both of them, deprived of reason by passion, then took up their fierce maces. Each repeating, I was the first, I was the first,' (in taking her hand) struck the other. And the fierce Asuras, struck by each other with the mace, fell down upon the ground, their bodies bathed in blood, like two suns dislodged from the firmament.  And beholding this, the women that had come there, and the other Asuras there present, all fled away trembling in grief and fear, and took refuge in the nether regions. The Grandsire himself of pure soul, then came there, accompanied by the celestials, and the great Rishis. And the illustrious Grandsire applauded Tilottama and expressed his wish of granting her a boon. The Supreme Deity, before Tilottama spoke, desirous of granting her a boon, cheerfully said, 'O beautiful damsel, thou shalt roam in the region of the Adityas. Thy splendour shall be so great that nobody will ever be able to look at thee for any length of time!' The Grandsire of all creatures, granting this boon unto her, establishing the three worlds in Indra as before, returned to his own region.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And second, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b106.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In days of yore, a blessed woman was created by Brahman, called Tilottama, by culling grains of beauty from every beautiful object in the universe. One day, that lady of beautiful face, unrivalled in the universe for beauty of form, came to me [Shiva], O goddess, for circumambulating me but really impelled by the desire of tempting me. In whatever direction that lady of beautiful teeth turned, a new face of mine instantly appeared (so eager did I become to see her). All those faces of mine became agreeable to look at. Thus, in consequence of the desire of beholding her, I became four-faced, through Yoga-puissance, Thus, I showed my high Yoga-power in becoming four-faced. With that face of mine which is turned towards the east, I exercise the sovereignty of the universe, With that face of mine which is turned towards the north, I sport with thee, O thou of faultless features! That face of mine which is turned towards the west is agreeable and auspicious. With it I ordain the happiness of all creatures. That face of mine which is turned towards the south is terrible. With it I destroy all creatures. I live as a Brahmacharin with matted locks on my head, impelled by the desire of doing good to all creatures. The bow Pinaka is always in my hand for accomplishing the purposes of the deities. In days of yore, Indra, desirous of acquiring my prosperity, had hurled his thunderbolt at me. With that weapon my throat was scorched. For this reason I have become blue-throated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-22T19:20:01.563" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19738" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-22T19:58:54.647" Score="3" ViewCount="280" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)  Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19715/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, apart from Advaitins most members of the Vedanta school believe in three Pramanas or means of valid knowledge: Pratyaksha or perception, Anumana or inference, and Shabda or scriptural testimony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But non-Vedantic philosophical schools believe in various different numbers of independent Pramanas, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/bZN29k/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from B.L. Atreya's book &quot;The Elements of Indian Logic&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Charvakas recognize only one pramana, namely, Pratyaksha, as the source of right knowledge.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Vaisheshikas, Jainas and the Buddhists recognize two, namely, Pratyaksha, and Anumana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Sankhya and Yoga schools recognize only three, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana and Shabda.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Naiyayikas recognize only four, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Shabda, and Upamana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Some Mimansakas (followers of Prabhakara) recognize five, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Upamana, Shabda and Arthapatti.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Another group of Mimansakas (followers of Kumarila Bhatta) and the Vedantists of Shankara (Advaita) school recognize six pramanas, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Shabda, Upamana, Arthapatti and Anupalabdhi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The scholars of the Puranas (Historians) recognize eight pramanas, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Shabda, Upamana, Arthapatti, Anupalabdhi, Aitihya, and Sambhava.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Tantrikas (students of the Tantras) recognize nine pramanas, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Shabda, Upamana, Arthapatti, Anupalabdhi, Aitihya, Sambhava, and Chesta.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Some thinkers admit all the ten Pramanas, namely, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Shabda, Upamana, Arthapatti, Anupalabdhi, Aitihya, Sambhava, Chesta and Parishesha.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I asked about who believes in ten independent Pramanas in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19727/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But now I'm interested in the part in bold.  It seems that the &quot;Tantrikas&quot;, which I assume is a reference to followers of Shaiva or Shakta Agamas, believe in nine independent Pramanas.  In contrast to most other schools of Indian philosophy, Hindu and non-Hindu, they recognize Chesta as an independent Pramana.  Here is B.L. Atreya's definition of Chesta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chesta or gesture is also a source of new knowledge. For example, we know that a dumb follow is hungry by the gestures that he makes.  We also come to know the thoughts and feelings of other people by their gestures and postures, i.e. by their bodily expressions.  The Naiyayikas do not regard it as an independent source of knowledge.  It is a kind of inference in which a sign (linga) gives us a knowledge of something else signified by it, their relation of being the sign and the signified having been discovered through repeated experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I agree with the Nyaya school and others that Chesta is reducible to Anumana or inference.  So my question is, what are the Shaivite or Shakta arguments for Chesta not being reducible to any other Pramanas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the Shaiva Siddhanta philosopher Arulnandi Sivacharya accepts the same three Pramanas as the Vedanta school; see &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601600.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/30/items/SivajnanaSiddhiyar-JMN/Sivajnana%20Siddhiyar-JMN-1913_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Sivajnana%20Siddhiyar-JMN-1913_jp2/Sivajnana%20Siddhiyar-JMN-1913_0064.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Shivajnana Siddhiyar.  So it seems that not all Shaivites and Shaktas believe in nine independent Pramanas.  Does anyone know which Shaivite or Shakta sects do believe it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601904.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/2/items/PasupataSutramHaripadaChakroborti/Pasupata%20Sutram%20-%20Haripada%20Chakroborti_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Pasupata%20Sutram%20-%20Haripada%20Chakroborti_jp2/Pasupata%20Sutram%20-%20Haripada%20Chakroborti_0068.jp2&amp;amp;scale=5.475279106858054&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Kaundinya's commentary on the Pashupata Sutras recognizes the same three Pramanas as the Vedanta school.  So it looks like neither Pashupatas nor Shaiva Siddhantin believe Chesta is an independent Pramana, which makes me all the more curious what Shaivite or Shakta sect believes in Chesta as an independent Pramana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-29T03:23:18.500" LastActivityDate="2017-11-29T03:23:18.500" Title="What are the Shaivite/Shakta arguments for gestures as a Pramana?" Tags="|philosophy|shaivism|agamas|sects|shaktism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19739" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="110" CreationDate="2017-07-23T06:35:16.047" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is there any mention of other religions in any Hindu text?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is. In Veda itself there is a mantra that talks of people living on earth and speaking a variety of languages and having various religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following mantra , found in the Atharva Veda, is a prayer to the all-supporting Earth, who supports everyone irrespective of the language they speak and the religion they follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janam vibhrati vahudhA vivAchas (1) &lt;strong&gt;NAnAdharmAn prithvi&lt;/strong&gt; (2) YathA&#xA;  okasam (3) Sahasram dhArA dravinasya me duhAm (4) Dhruveva dhenuh&#xA;  anapasphuranti (5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Earth has people who speak various tongues (1) &lt;strong&gt;and those who have&#xA;  various religions&lt;/strong&gt; (2), according to their places of abode (3). [ May&#xA;  she, the Earth] pour for me treasures in a thousand streams (4), like&#xA;  a constant Cow that never fails.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 12.1.45&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that, the mantra also mentions that religion will vary according to the places of abodes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-23T07:58:51.763" LastActivityDate="2017-07-23T07:58:51.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19742" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-23T08:24:32.173" Score="6" ViewCount="220" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Manimekalai is a 6th century Tamil epic poem composed by the Buddhist poet Chithalai Chathanar.  It talks about philosophy a lot, which given its early date means that it gives a rare glimpse into what the Vedanta school was like before the time of Adi Shankaracharya.  In any case, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/VSRP&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Manimekalai, various Pramanas or means of valid knowledge are discussed:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Discoursing on the instruments of knowledge as recognized by his school, he pointed out that three teachers were recognized as of authority among them, namely, Vedavyasa, Kritakoti and the faultless Jaimini.  These three have recognized instruments of knowledge to be ten, eight and six respectively.&lt;/strong&gt; Those are (1) direct perception (Pratyaksha), (2) Inference (Anumana), (3) similitude (Upama), (4) authority (Agama), (5) inferential assumption (Atthapatti), (6) appropriateness (Iyalbu or Svabhava), (7) tradition (Aitihya), (8) non-existence or negation (Abhava), (9) inference by elimination or by correlation (Mitchi or Olibu, Sans.: Parishesha) and (10) occurence (Undaneri or Ullaneri, San. Sambhava).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold. Two of these names are easily recognizable: there's the sage Vyasa who founded the Vedanta school, and the sage Jaimini who founded the Purva Mimamsa school. Kritakoti isn't as familiar, but I think it refers to the sage Baudhayana, who wrote a commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras and Brahma Sutras called Kritakoti, as described in this quote from a Purva Mimamsa work called the Prapancha Hridaya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mimamsa Shastra is contained in a text of 20 chapters. Of these, the first 16 chapters constitute the Purva Mimamsa. In this Mimamsa Shastra, the Purvakanda deals on issues of Dharma, and is compiled by Jaimini. The last 4 chapters constitute the Uttara Kanda or the Uttara Mimamsa and are compiled by Vyasa for dealing with the nature of Brahman. On this Mimamsa Shastra of 20 chapters, &lt;strong&gt;Bodhayana wrote a Bhashya that bore the name Krtakoti&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it makes sense that the Manimekalai would say Jaimini believed in 6 Pramanas; that's at least the number of Pramanas accepted by the Purva Mimamsa philosopher Kumarila Bhatta.  But it's strange that it  would say that Vyasa believed in 10 Pramanas and Baudhayana believed in 8 Pramanas.  No existing Vedantic philosophy believe in that many Pramanas; as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19715/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Advaitins believe in 6 Pramanas, and all other members of the Vedanta school believe in 3 Pramanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, is it true that Vyasa and Baudhayana believed in 10 Pramanas and 8 Pramanas respectively? As I said, the Manimekalai was composed by a Buddhist, so it may contain some inaccurate information concerning Hindu beliefs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-23T08:24:32.173" Title="Did Vyasa and Baudhayana believe in 10 Pramanas and 8 Pramanas respectively?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|vyasa|purva-mimamsa|pramana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19743" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17252" CreationDate="2017-07-23T08:24:59.433" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Arjun had Krishna for his charioteer and Hanumanji on his banner. Why then did he require any shield least of all Shikhandin as a shield? It may be recalled that on the 9th day Arjun dissuaded Krishna from slaying Bhishma. If he wanted to use Shikhandin as a shield, then he might as well have let Krishna slay Bhishma on the 9th day of the battle. Both options were disastrous as they would send a message to the Kauravas that Arjun was scared of Bhishma and was cowed down by his might. It would have also sent the message that Arjun was short on confidence. That would have emboldened the Kauravas(even after Bhishma's death) to launch an all-out attack on Arjun. Dont forget that the Kauravas had a star-studded line-up even minus of Bhishma and Bhisma's fall would bring Karna into the action. Instead from Day Nos.11 to 13, we see the Drona-Karna duo were on the backfoot. They wanted Arjun away from the battle-field so as to capture Yudhisthir They were not willing to take on Arjun like Bhishma did on first 9 days with great success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course, Bhishma's success on fist 9 days was partly due to Arjun being reluctant to slay his grandfather. But Bhishma's 9th day ferocious attack changed Arjun's mindset and his own professional reputation as warrior was in tatters. So,Arjun had resolved to put things straight on the 10th day. His 10th day objectives were (i)Slay Bhishma (ii)Undo the damage to the morale of Pandava Army(iii)Severely and irreparably damage the morale of Kauravas through aggression and psycho ops (iv)Undo the damage to own professional reputation and inspire awe in Kauravas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the Pandavas and Sri Krishna met Bhishma on the night of the 9th day, Bhishma suggested that he cant be defeated because of his &quot;Iccha mrityu&quot; boon an suggested use by Arjun of &quot;Shikandin as a shield&quot;. This was a psychological warfare (psycho ops) on Arjun in the guise of helping Yudhishthir and the Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjun saw the ploy of Bhishma for what it was and decided against use of Shikhandin as a shield. Instead Shikhandin moved in his own chariot and Arjun's chariot followed Shikhandin and protected him. Arjun always regarded Bhishma as role model from his childhood.( In fact, he could be considered Bhishma Version 2.0). Arjun emulated his illustrious grandfather's 9th day example in professional soldiering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjun unleashed unprecedented aggression like what wasnt seen from him on the first 9 days and breached Kaurava formation so that he and Shikhandin reached Bhishma. He inspired so much awe in Dronacharya that the latter decided not to attempt to stop Arjun and also advised Ashwatthama against the same. In fact, Arjun's offensive made various supporting warriors and kings abandon Bhishma and only Dusshasana put up decent resistance before being defeated by Arjun&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A plain reading of the 119th Chapter of Bhishma Parva of Mahabharata reveals the following&lt;/strong&gt;:&#xA;Arjun rightly read the &quot;Iccha mrityu&quot; boon correctly as conferring no more than Bhishma being able to choose the moment of his death. **He had decided that after cutting down Bhishma's bow, he would not attempt powerful shots on Bhishma's armour as that would give Bhishma valuable seconds to pick up a fresh bow, string it and start shooting again to neutralise Arjun's arrows. Instead, Arjun just kept shooting down bow after bow of Bhishma without letting Bhishma shoot a single arrow and decided to wait for opportune moment to launch his powerful strikes on vulnerable points on Bhishma's armour.**** Bhishma then hurled fearsome Shaktis at Arjun which he cut to pieces with his arrows. Then Bhishma again picked up bow to shoot at Arjun and again&#xA;Arjun cut down bow after bow without letting Bhishma shoot a single arrow. Bhishma realised that &quot;Iccha mrityu&quot; boon meant no immunity from the present situation he was in. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A resolute Arjun was cutting down his bows without allowing him to shoot a singe arrow. This was humiliating to a legendary bowman like Bhishma. He decided to withdraw his mind from the fight and be felled by Arjun rather than standing and having his bows cut off without being able to shoot a single arrow.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna had said in Bhagavad Gita that for a man of excellence &quot;Apakeerti marnat atirichyate&quot; (disgrace worse than defeat). Bhishma's predicament was precisely that. He was unable to string a bow and shoot an arrow as Arjun was not letting him to!! He decided to bow out honourably (pun intended). He withdrew his mind away from the fight and his decision was hailed by rishis and gandharvas and celestials. A cool breeze blew over the battlefield followed by nectarine rain. Then Arjun who had bid his time patiently cutting bow after bow of Bhishma in quick succession unleashed powerful strikes on Bhishma's armour in vulnerable points. He shot 125 arrows which hit and hurt like thunderbolts. Bhishma turned to Dusshasana and praised these arrows and said they are of Arjun and not of Shikhandin. More arrow strikes followed from Arjun and Bhishma fell headlong and his body didnt touch the ground as he was pierced all over by Arjun's arrows without even two fingers' space between two arrows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fight carried out by Arjun with so much aggression was in itself a pyscho-op crushing the morale of Kaurava Army. Arjun didnt stop at that. When Bhishma said to him &quot;Twam hi shakto maheshwasa datum aapo yatha vidhi&quot; ('O mighty bowman, thou alone can give me the divine water I seek as per proper procedure), Arjun ascended his chariot, strung his Gandiva and twanged it till its twang resonated in all quarters. It was a way of telling the Kauravas &quot;Look you sore losers. See how I humiliated and felled your C-in-C who is a legendary warrior. Still, he asks me(his foe)for water as you guys are worthless and good for nothing. I am using my fearsome bow to provide him water today. From tomorrow, these arrows will drink your blood &quot;. Then riding his chariot he circumambulated (parikrama) the fallen legendary bowman and man of learning Bhishma and invoked Parjanyaastra and shot it near Bhisma's head and brought Ganges and quenched his thirst. Note that Bhishmaparva is also the parva of Bhagavad Gita or the ganges of knowledge. Bhishma was felled by a warrior who was in the same league as him as an archer and as a man of wisdom and learning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From this episode of Arjun felling Bhishma originated the famous Hindi idiom &quot;Acche achhon ko paani pilaana&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kaurav Army was always on the backfoot from the 11th day. Drona wanted Arjun away from battlefield to capture Yudhishthir. THe cowardly slaying on Abhimanyu signalled to Arjun that Kauravas were sacred of him. He vowed to Kill Jayadrath forcing Kauravas even more on the backfoot. On the 14th day as Arjun went after Jayadrath, Kauarava army lost 8 of their 11 Akshuhinis (Dvisions) and 7 of those to Arjun alone. Many great Maharathis were lined up to defend Jaydrath and got killed. Some 30 brothers of Duryodhna were killed by Bhima on the 14th day!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;**Following points emerge: **&#xA;1)Bhishma did no match fixing with Arjun &amp;amp; Krishn. He did not drop weapons on seeing Shikhandin in front of him. He didnot attack Shikhandin but he fought all other Pandava warriors includig Arjun&#xA;2)Bhishma kept fighting Arjun till he ran out of ammunition (bows)/till his strength failed him and then only withdrew his mind from the fight&#xA;3)Arjun did no act of cowardice. If he had done, the star-studded Kaurava Army would not have been on back foot against him on days 11 to 18&#xA;4)Saying Arjun used Shikhandin as shield is incorrect and insults Arjun, SriKrishna and Hanumanji&#xA;5)Let us not insult heroes like Bhishma and Arjun. Bhishma, take a bow. Arjun, take a bow.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11515" LastEditorUserId="11515" LastEditDate="2017-07-24T17:48:57.433" LastActivityDate="2017-07-24T17:48:57.433" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19744" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19733" CreationDate="2017-07-23T10:18:10.233" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Taittariya samhita = Valmiki ramayana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Baala etc kaandas = 8 chapters of kaandas of TS &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So TS is not a chapter of Yajurveda but &lt;strong&gt;TS itself is Yajurveda.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is known as krishna yajurveda and it has samhita and brahmana portion in a mixed form. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Taittiriya Samhita— (TS) which consists of 8 books or kaandas,&#xA;  subdivided in chapters or prapathakas, further subdivided into&#xA;  individual hymns. Some individual hymns in this Samhita have gained&#xA;  particular importance in Hinduism; e.g. TS 4.5 and TS 4.7 constitute&#xA;  the Shri Rudram Chamakam, while 1.8.6.i is the Shaivaite Tryambakam&#xA;  mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Taittiriya Brahmana (having three kaandas). Part of kathaka shakha&#xA;  brahmana is also included in this shakha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the Taittiriya Aranyaka (having seven prashnas)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taittiriya_Shakha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also check this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18989/what-are-the-vedas-technically-how-can-upanishads-be-called-vedas-when-some-par&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt; to know more on the Vedas .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-23T10:18:10.233" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19746" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19761" CreationDate="2017-07-23T14:25:38.520" Score="12" ViewCount="5958" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading from a Shaivite blog (though I am a Vaishnava) of whether the Srimad Bhagavatam or the Devi Bhagavatam is more authentic, I came across an interesting claim of the blogger that Ramanujacharya, prominent acharya of Sri-Vaishnavism and Adi Shankaracharya, the founder of Smartism never referred to the Srimad Bhagavatam. Here is what the blogger says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Brahmasutras of ‘Badarayana’ the first verse is just a namesake verse which only sets forth what the objective of the Brahmasutras is – it says, “athāto brahmajijñāsā || (Brahmasutras 1:1:1)”, which means, “Then therefore the enquiry into Brahman”. Only the subsequent aphorisms deal with all sorts of topics such as – creation, jiva, jagat, brahmna, various schools of darshanas, etc. The very second verse of ‘Brahma sutras’ talks about – the creation, sustenance and dissolution of the world. That sutra is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“janmādyasya yataḥ ||” (Brahmasutras 1:1:2)&#xA;  “(Brahman is that) from which the origin (i.e. the origin, subsistence, and dissolution) of this (world proceed)”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let’s forget about who that ‘cause’ is who creates, sustains and dissolves the world, as the definitions vary across various schools. Advaitins term is ‘brahman’, vaishnavites call it ‘Narayana, Vishnu, Krishna…’, Shaivites call it as ‘Shiva’, Shaktas call it as ‘Devi’. Let’s only focus on the sutra and not on the translation and commentaries for now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sutra simply says, ‘janmādyasya yataḥ (that from which the origin of this world)’. This aphorism gives us a very interesting reasoning tool to us. Interestingly, the very first verse of Srimad Bhagawatam begins with exactly same words of this sutra and elaborates that verse further. The first verse from Srimad Bhagawatam is quoted below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“janmādyasya yato ‘nvayāditarataścārtheṣvabhijñaḥ svarāṭ |&#xA;  tene brahma hṛdā ya ādikavaye muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ |&#xA;  tejovārimṛdāṃ yathā vinimayo yatra trisargo ‘mṛṣā |&#xA;  dhāmnā svena sadā nirastakuhakaṃ satyaṃ paraṃ dhīmahi ||” (SB 1:01:01)&#xA;  “(Translation is unimportant here, hence didn’t provide that)”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the commentaries of Shankara, as well as Ramanuja, we see them quoting extensively from various scriptures, including Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharata, and even Puranas. On this second verse of ‘Brahma-sutras’ neither Shankara nor Ramanuja ever felt a need to cite Srimad Bhagawatam to expound the meaning of this aphorism. Why? If Veda Vyasa was truly the author of ‘Srimad Bhagawatam’ then ‘Srimad Bhagawatam’s very first verse is a ‘natural commentary’ and ‘the most authoritative elaboration ‘ on the very second verse of ‘Brahmasutra’! How could Shankara and Ramanuja dare to insult Vyasa by not cross-referencing Vyasa’s own elaboration of that verse in their commentaries? They had however all the liberty to ‘interpret’ that verse to be in sync with the philosophy they were championing. Then what stopped them from citing that verse from ‘Srimad Bhagawatam’?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Not only for that second verse of ‘Brahmasutras’, in any of the works of Shankara and Ramanuja ‘Srimad Bhagawatam’ has never been quoted. While both these scholars quoted extensively from Vishnu Purana, and other Puranas – Food for thought? Alright! Let’s forget Shankara. Ramanuja was a staunch devotee of Vishnu. He upheld Vishnu’s supremacy all throughout his works. Srimad Bhagawatam is replete with verses proclaiming Vishnu’s supremacy. Then what made Ramanuja not consider this text as worthy of referencing to establish Vishnu’s supremacy? Points to ponder!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The reason is simple – The bogus book called ‘Srimad Bhagawatam’ was a later day creation and was not a work of Veda Vyasa at all. Whosoever the author of Srimad Bhagawatam was – he was no doubt a great devotee of Krishna and a great author, who was inspired by the ‘Brahmasutras’ and considered to begin his work using Brahmasutra. To write a huge volume of thousands of verses mimicking Puranas of Veda Vyasa, is truly a herculean task.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Well, let me extend the arguments in the section to a further level to refute another belief from the ‘Dwaita’ school. It is said that during the times of ‘Madhavacharya (champion of dualistic school)’, ‘Srimad Bhagawatam’ was in circulation. In the legends of life history of  ‘Madhwa’ it is said that Madhwa found that during his time there were in circulation, many mutually contradicting versions of ‘Srimad Bhagawatam’ and many mutually contradicting versions of ‘Mahabharata’ as well. Madhwa came forward as a superhero and without giving much importance to the ‘Mahabharata’ of Vyasa alleging it to had been interpolated extensively, he himself authored a book called ‘Mahabharata tatparya nirnaya’ and inserted many bogus stories in it to glorify Bhima and Vishnu to the skies. Similarly, that superhero had analyzed all those contradictory versions of ‘Srimad Bhagawatam’ and picked one version rejecting others as not authentic, and that version is what is available today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Well, these stories of Madhwa are too fancy to believe, as like as many other stories from Madhwa’s mouth. His scholarly-heroic-deed of chaffing out the so called ‘correct’ version from the available ‘unauthentic’ versions of ‘Srimad Bhagawatam’ will get ‘automatically’ demolished by this article of mine (despite I having no specific agenda or section discussing Madhwa specifically). This article would naturally reveal the truth that – Madhwa is famous for ‘creating’ stories and ‘falsifying facts’ – His chosen book, which he declared as the ‘most authentic’ Bhagawatam would be rendered as ‘bogus scripture’ shortly. That is enough to reveal Madhwa’s lies, and this evidence could be rightfully extrapolated to reject Madhwa’s another self-propagated ‘story’ that Mahabharata was interpolated and his version of Mahabharata was the most authentic one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the blogger right and if not, why did Adi Shankaracharya and Ramanujacharya never refer to the Srimad Bhagavatam in their works?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The website I referred to is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mahapashupatastra.com/2011/12/bhagavatam-of-krishna-is-bogus-devi-bhagavatam-is-authentic.html?subscribe=already#425_Srimad_Bhagawatam_is_definitely_a_post-Ramanuja_work&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-25T16:05:24.267" LastActivityDate="2024-02-14T05:42:54.223" Title="Why did Ramanujacharya &amp; Adi Shankaracharya never refer to the Srimad Bhagavatam in their works?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|adi-shankaracharya|ramanujacharya|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19747" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-23T14:31:05.290" Score="3" ViewCount="73" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question arises from general perspective that one should contemplate and final result is this nothing between God and us. &#xA;Could this be the case with non-living things which seem to concentrate on god more perfectly, and they seem to be super entity whose state humans try to approach. Are they those who have attained their final objective of existence? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To summarize:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Does a human becomes a non living(completely delved in nature) entity at the end of path showed by Hinduism? &#xA;If it is not so then what makes living different from their counterparts? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the state of entity(forgive brevity) which has completed the journey of the path shown by Hinduism? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My beliefs:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please correct me if I'm wrong anywhere. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;I feel at final(at end of journey to God) there's no emotion no sorrows no joy(which I mean different from bliss - which I believe is a state of stillness i.e. absence of any &lt;em&gt;disturbance&lt;/em&gt;). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Please suggest appropriate tags&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10452" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-24T03:18:30.133" LastActivityDate="2017-07-24T03:18:30.133" Title="What is difference between living and non-living?" Tags="|philosophy|moksha|life|mukti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-07-24T12:08:25.597" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19749" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-23T15:30:33.540" Score="8" ViewCount="2355" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most commonly accepted definition of Vaishnavas is people who believe Lord Vishnu to be supreme. But can a person call himself a Vaishnava while believing in Hari-Hara-abheda? What do different Vaishnava Sampradayas say regarding this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-02-27T19:28:35.193" LastActivityDate="2019-02-28T14:50:37.643" Title="Can somebody be a Vaishnava and believe in Hari-Hara-abheda?" Tags="|shiva|vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19754" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19749" CreationDate="2017-07-24T07:40:39.113" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;A true Vaishnava is a devotee of Vishnu. He sees Vishnu in everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So for him Shiva is Vishnu only. So, the question does not even arise in the mind of a true Bhakta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Kurma Purana&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna’s worship to Maha Deva :&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna had Eight Principal Wives viz. Rukmini, Satyabhama,&#xA;  Jambavati, Nagnajiti, Mitravinda, Lakshmana, Kalindi and Maadri, but&#xA;  accepted sixteen thousand maidens released from the prisons of&#xA;  Narakaasura whom he decimated. Rukmini had eight sons viz.&#xA;  Charudeshna, Suchaaru, Chaaruvesha, Yashodhara, Chaarushrava,&#xA;  Charuyasha, Pradyumna and Shankha. Similarly other wives had several&#xA;  sons. But Devi Jambavati longed to get an  exemplary Son like Indra&#xA;  and on realising this wish decided to perform Parama Tapasya to Parama&#xA;  Shiva and left for the Ashram of Maharshi Upamanyu on the banks of&#xA;  Ganges.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Following the rules very strictly, Krishna followed  the ‘Upadesha’ or&#xA;  the teachings and instructions of Upamanyu such as Paashupata Yoga,&#xA;  Paashupata Vrata and Paashupata Jnaana and incessantly recited Rudra&#xA;  Mantras with strict adherence of the formal and required form of &#xA;  worship  to Mahadeva. After considerable effort, Shri Krishna visioned&#xA;  Maha Deva and Devi Parvati on the Sky as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus Krishna had a full ‘darshan’of Shiva accompanied by Parvati, Shri&#xA;  Krishna applauded him as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namostu tey Shashwata Sarvayoney Brahmaadhipam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Twaamrushayo vadanti,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tapascha Satwam cha Rajastamascha Twaameva Sarvam pravadanti Santah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Twam Brahmaa Hariratha Vishwayoniragnih Samhartaa Dinakara&#xA;  mamdalaadhivaasah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Praanastwam Hutavaha Vaasavaadi bhedastwaamekam sharanamupaimi&#xA;  Devameesham/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saamkhyaastwaam Vigunamathaahureka rupam Yogastwaam satatamupaasatey&#xA;  hrudistham,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vedaastwaamabhidadhateeh Rudramagnim twaamekam sharanamu-  paimi&#xA;  Devameesham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My salutations to You Shaaswata! Sarva Mula Kaarana or the Root Cause&#xA;  of the Totality; Rishis affirm that you are the Master of Brahma; they&#xA;  assert that you are the Spring of the Three Gunas of&#xA;  Satwa-Rajasa-Tamasas; indeed you are the one residing in all the Lokas&#xA;  of Brahma, Vishnu, Vishwayoni, Agni, Samharta and also in Surya&#xA;  Mandala; You are the varied Forms of Praana, Hutavaha or Agni, Indra&#xA;  and all other Devaas; I have arrived into the shelter of Maha Deva;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yasyaseshavibhaaga- heenamamalam hridyantaraavasthitam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tatwam Jyotiranantamekamachalam Satyam Param Sarvagam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sthaanam praahuranaadi madhyanidhanam yasmaadidam jaayatey&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nityam twaahu –mupaimi Satyavibhavam Vishweswaram tam Shivam/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Namo Nilakanthaaya Trinetraaya cha ramhasey,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I seek shelter unto the truthfully glorified Vishweshwara Shiva, whom&#xA;  Tatwajnas worship as he is Indivisible, Transparent, Existent in one’s&#xA;  interiors of heart, Luminous, Infinite, Unique, Stable, Truthful,&#xA;  All-Pervasive displayer of Beginning-Central-Terminating points of&#xA;  Life. My sincere salutations to you Pranava Swarupa, Nilakantha,&#xA;  Trilochana, Shakti Rupa, Maha Deva, Ishaana, Pinaaka dhanush dhaari,&#xA;  Munda-Danda Dhaarana, Vajra hasta dhaarana, Digvastra, Kapardini or&#xA;  Jataadhaari with Matted Locks; Bhairava naada, Kaala Swarupa;&#xA;  Naagayajnopaveeta dhari (He who wears Serpents as the Holy Thread);&#xA;  Agni samaana veerya nidhana (He whose semen is like Fire); Gireesha;&#xA;  Swaahaakaara or of the Swarupa of Offerings to Agni in Homas; Mukta&#xA;  -atthahaasa or  He whose maddening voice reverberates...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharshi Markandeya wondered as to why Krishna who himself was worship-worthy and granted boons to his devotees worships Shiva Lingam, Krishna replied smilingly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Markandeya! Whatever you said is in order and the Truth is that I am&#xA;  worship-worthy by others; &lt;strong&gt;but still I worship Ishaana&lt;/strong&gt;; there is&#xA;  nothing that I cannot achieve a thing, nor is unavailable to me; &lt;strong&gt;yet&#xA;  I am aware that I perform Puja to Parama Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;. Those who are unable&#xA;  to overcome Maya or Illusion could never achieve Shiva Darshana; &lt;strong&gt;but&#xA;  I  do realise that my foundation is Shiva and hence I always worship&#xA;  Him.&lt;/strong&gt; There is no better Punya Phala nor fearlessness than what the&#xA;  Sacred Task of Lingaarchana would confer and for accomplishing&#xA;  propitiousness human beings must resort to Shiva Puja, Shri Krishna&#xA;  affirms. Those who realise and experience Vedic Siddhaantaas&#xA;  (Principles) &lt;strong&gt;do  recognise that Shiva Linga is my own Swarupa and&#xA;  that is precisely why I perform my own  worship of the Atma Swarupa of&#xA;  Ishana, says Krishna. He further confirms: I am Shankara’s Parama&#xA;  Murti and I am Shankara myself without doubt. Vedas have emphasised&#xA;  that there is no difference whatsoever and Krishna and Shiva are just&#xA;  the same&lt;/strong&gt;. This is the reason why that one should install Shiva Linga&#xA;  all over&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;in  a different chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the same Purana now Lord Shiva affirms the oneness of Shiva-Vishnu as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the context of the above, Maha Deva emphasised again as in earlier pages about the identity of himself and Vishnu Deva; this was necessary since a seperate ‘Ishwara Gita’in the current Kurma Purana sought to clarify that its contents were in no way contradictory ; even in the description of Shiva Tandava described above, Vishnu too was stated to have joined the Celestial Dance! Maha Deva thus confirmed as follows: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ayam Narayano yohameeshwaro naatra samshayah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Naantaram ye prapashyanti teshaam Devamidam param/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mamaushaa Paramaa Murtirnaaraayana samaahvayaa,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarva Bhutaatmabhutasthaa Shantaa chaakshara sangjnitaa/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ye twanyathaa prapashyanti lokey bheda drusho janaah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na tey maam samprapashyanti jayentey cha punah punah/&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yetwimam Vishnu – mavyaktam maam vaa Devam Maheswaram, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Narayana is Ishwara that is me undoubtedly. There is indeed no&#xA;  difference between us and he too is to be worshipped. Narayana is&#xA;  ‘Shaanti-Akshara’ imprinted in every body’s heart. Some imagine&#xA;  otherwise that we are figured other wise and they continue to get into&#xA;  the cycle of birth and death and could never ever attain Mukti. Those&#xA;  who visualise me and Narayana as just the same would have no rebirth.&#xA;  As such, Vishnu has no beginning or end as in my case, meaning thereby&#xA;  we are both the same. Those who confuse Vishnu as another Deva would&#xA;  for sure reach Narakas. Those who are my bhaktaas being either&#xA;  Murkhaas or Stupids, Panditas or Learned Vidvans or even untouchables&#xA;  should indeed have the possibility of Mukti, provided they do not &#xA;  dislike or distrust him. Hence my  bhaktaas ought to perform puja to&#xA;  Vishnu with all humilty and belief.) Then both Vishnu and Shiva&#xA;  disappeared simultaneously, stated Vyasa Muni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus both Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu (in the form of Krishna) affirm the one-ness of Shiva-Vishnu in the same Purana. So, you can verily be the devotee of one God and see the other God just as another form of your Ishta (favorite Deity).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To sum up, i am quoting  few verses from an Agama called Nila Tantra, which is part of another major Agama called Vishnu KrAnta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TAvat Tantre Bhedabuddhi Stavadeva Prithak KriyA | Harihare&#xA;  BhedabuddhirjAyAte Jagadambike ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KarAlavadana KAli Srimadekajata ShivA | Shodashi Bhairavi BhinnA&#xA;  BhinnA Cha Bhuvaneswari ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva says] As long as Bhedabuddhi ( the feeling of dvaita or&#xA;  duality) is there, the rituals and methods are different for different&#xA;  devotees. [Then] There appear differences between Hari (Vishnu) and&#xA;  Hara (Shiva). It appears [then] as if KAli, TArA (Ekajata), Shodashi,&#xA;  Bhairavi are different different...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nila Tantram 22-9.11&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-07-24T07:40:39.113" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19756" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15842" CreationDate="2017-07-24T08:46:16.903" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Surya Siddhanta is the ancient Indian Astronomical treatises which has a significant importance in Vedic astronomy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was used for knowing the positions of planets in the sky, calculation of eclipses, solstices, sidereal motion, and many other complex mathematical &amp;amp; trigonometric calculations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It was also the main backbone for Indian calendar calculations. The panchAngam was largely based on these siddhantas. However, now a days Drik system is more commonly used in the panchAngas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In a work called the Pañca-siddhāntikā composed in the sixth century&#xA;  by Varāhamihira, five astronomical treatises are named and summarised:&#xA;  Paulīśa-siddhānta, Romaka-siddhānta, Vasiṣṭha-siddhānta,&#xA;  Sūrya-siddhānta, and Paitāmaha-siddhānta. Judging from the epoch dates&#xA;  in the work, Plofker suggests that this Sūrya-siddhānta was composed&#xA;  or revised in the early sixth century&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya_Siddhanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This book has 14 chapters. They arc:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 1 — Of the mean motion of planets, Preface, division of time,&#xA;  measurement of Yugas ( Yugamana), number of days, aharganas,&#xA;  revolutions, Mean of bhagana planets etc., conjunction and node of&#xA;  apsis for planets (Mandocca and sighra), Deshantara and inclination of&#xA;  their path to the ecliptic (parama vikshepa) .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 2 — Of the true places of the planets; Causes of planetary&#xA;  motion, types of motions, determination of sines (jya), declination&#xA;  and finding out the Kendra, determination of circumference from the&#xA;  base and perpendicular and their results of sine and cosine, corrected&#xA;  position of the planets, correction of bases, corrected motion, true&#xA;  latitude (vikshepa), length of day and night, Chara, Tithi,&#xA;  constellations (nakshrata), yoga, karana (portions and halves of lunar&#xA;  days).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 3 — Of direction place and time; Determining east-west&#xA;  meridian, part of solstice, equinoctial shadow, sine of co-latitude,&#xA;  zenith-distance, measure of amplitude, angle of the cone, Niraksha,&#xA;  point upon ecliptic (Lagna) and meridian ecliptic point (Dashama).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 4 — Of eclipses especially of lunar eclipse; corrected&#xA;  longitude of moon, measure of sun and the shadow (chdya), obscuration&#xA;  (Grasa), half-duration of the eclipse (Stithyardha), corrected&#xA;  perpendicular (Kotii), Valanarhsa (degrees of deflection).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 5 — Of parallax in solar eclipse; parallax in longitude of&#xA;  moon (Candra Lambana), parallax in latitude, solar eclipse&#xA;  (Suryagrahana).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 6 — Of the projection of eclipse; Parilekhadhikdra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 7 — Of planetary conjunctions; planetary conjunctions&#xA;  (Grahayutyadhikara), Akshadrikkarma, Ayanadrikkarma, disc of the&#xA;  planet (Grahavimba) viewing of the planets and encounter (Yudha)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 8 — Of the constellations; planet-constellation conjunction&#xA;  (Yutyadhikara), position of the constellations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 9 — Of heliacal rising and setting; containing; rising and&#xA;  setting (Udaydstddhikdra), determination of time, portions of time&#xA;  (Kdldngsa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 10 — Of moon’s rising and setting and elevation of her cusps;&#xA;  sringonnati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 11 — Of certain malignant aspects of sun and moon;&#xA;  Patadhikara, Vyatipdta, Determination of time, Gandaka, Bhasandhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 12 — Of cosmogony, geography, dimensions of the creation;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Spiritual science, Kakshasthiti, Pole, Bhadrasva, Yamakotl Lanka,&#xA;  Ketumala, Polar star, Distance from the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 13 — Of armillary sphere and other instruments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chapter 14 — Of the different modes of reckoning time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vrindavana.net/academy/introduction-to-the-book-the-surya-siddhanta-and-siddhanta-siromani-graha-ganitadhyaya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source of contents&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-29T12:16:20.393" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T12:16:20.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19757" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18309" CreationDate="2017-07-24T08:54:04.893" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Varjyam is a Dur-muhurta or inauspicious time of the day. It occurs everyday based on the nakshatra. It is calculated based on small portion of degrees of every star (nakshatra). The timings are easily available in the panchagams. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nakshatra Thyajyam is quite significant in Tamil Astrology. Nakshatra&#xA;  Thyajyam is an inauspicious time of approximately 1 hour and 36&#xA;  minutes every day. No auspicious Muhurtam is suggested during this&#xA;  time window. Many Panchang, including Drik Panchang, shows Nakshatra&#xA;  Thyajyam as Varjyam in daily Panchangam. Nakshatra Thyajyam is known&#xA;  as Visha Ghatis in North India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prohibited Activities&lt;/strong&gt; Marriage, Chudakaram (Mundan), Annaprasana Samskara, entering into new house, travelling, any other auspicious&#xA;  work should be avoided during Nakshatra Thyajyam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Synonyms&lt;/strong&gt; Varjyam, Visha Ghatis, Vishagatika, Visha Nadi, Vishanadi&#xA;  Dosha, Nakshatra Tyajyam, Nakshatra Thyajya, Nakshatra Thiyajam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/tutorials/panchang-utilities/nakshatra-thyajyam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchanga&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there is no specific mention related to birth in this time. If you still want to get some remedial measures performed then you can contact your local priest for the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-07-24T08:54:04.893" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19758" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7495" CreationDate="2017-07-24T09:49:18.057" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=Dfk2AAAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA78&amp;amp;lpg=PA78&amp;amp;dq=srimad%20bhagavatam%20visrava%20agastya&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=xXMww64QHa&amp;amp;sig=p9xMEfcUfvrOiSkyTFXdNahCKSs&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjW0_vEyaHVAhWDHJQKHfyOACkQ6AEIKTAB#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=srimad%20bhagavatam%20visrava%20agastya&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagvatam Chapter 4 Verse 1.36&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; mentions the following about the birth of Agastya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FzMNk.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FzMNk.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was called Dahragni or Jatharagni in an earlier birth which may relate to the story of Agni being cursed to be born as Agastya as well as the story of his digesting Vatapi (since Jatharagni in Ayurved refers to the digestive fire). The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=FCFC_bdqOPQC&amp;amp;pg=PA24&amp;amp;lpg=PA24&amp;amp;dq=jatharagni%20agastya&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=OB5AEg4WCJ&amp;amp;sig=Nh6FpgGCoAhZKx-mC8JFs7sKjM4&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjHrLOVzqHVAhXMo5QKHbJ-AegQ6AEIMTAD#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=jatharagni%20agastya&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Puran Chapter X&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; also mentions him being born to Pulatsya which would again testify to his kinship with Vishrava:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The wife of Angiras, Smriti, bore daughters named Siniválí, Kuhu, Ráká, and Anumati (phases of the moon). Anasúyá, the wife of Atri, was the mother of three sinless sons, Soma (the moon), Durvásas, and the ascetic Dattátreya. &lt;strong&gt;Pulastya had, by Príti, a son called in a former birth, or in the Swáyambhuva Manwantara, Dattoli, who is now known as the sage Agastya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the birth from Mitra-Varun could be the second birth (just as it was a rebirth of Vasishth) while the first birth of Jatharagni/Dattoli took place in Swayambhu Manvantar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-16T11:11:49.443" LastActivityDate="2018-01-16T11:11:49.443" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19759" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-24T10:55:33.923" Score="6" ViewCount="337" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra, in the Subramanaya invocation is referred to as both Kaushik, one who calls him Gautama as well as the lover of Ahalya (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe26/sbe2614.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatpatha Brahman relevant chapter&lt;/a&gt;). &lt;strong&gt;While the part about Gautam and Ahalya seems straightforward since Indra impersonated the rishi, how does Kaushik fit in?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3:3:4:18. 'Come, O Indra!' Indra is the deity of the sacrifice: therefore he says, 'Come, O Indra!' 'Come, O lord of the bay steeds! Ram of Medhâtithi! Wife of Vrishanasva! Bestriding buffalo! Lover of Ahalyâ!' Thereby he wishes him joy in those affairs of his.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3:3:4:19. 'O Kausika, Brahman, thou who callest thee Gautama.' Just so has this (formula) been devised in these days by Âruni, to wit, 'thou who callest thee Gautama:' he may say it, if he choose, and if he does not choose, he need not attend to it . 'In so and so many days, to the Soma-feast,' (stating) in how many days from hence the pressing is to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Sâyana's commentary, the king Kusika desired to have a son equal to Indra, so the latter was born as Kusika's son Gâthin (Gâdhin). This is corroborated by the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01010.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV Verse 1.10.11&lt;/a&gt; as well:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11 O Indra, Son of Kuśika, drink our libation with delight.&#xA;Prolong our life anew, and cause the seer to win a thousand gifts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Does it imply in any way that Indra, as Gadhi, was married to Ahalya?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-12-21T11:10:29.887" Title="Is there a relation between Gadhi, the Kaushik incarnation of Indra and Ahalya?" Tags="|indra|rishi|shatapatha-brahmana|vishwamitra|chandravansh|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19760" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20864" CreationDate="2017-07-24T11:38:31.137" Score="9" ViewCount="4532" Body="&lt;p&gt;Markandeya Purana mentions the story of a Brahmin named Kaushik who got the following curse from sage Mandavya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;That sinful wretch of a man, by whom, I sorely afflicted and reduced to a miserable plight, have been pushed with feet, shall forsooth be deprived of his life at the sun rise. As soon as he will see the rays of the sun he will meet with destruction.&amp;quot; Kaushika's wife was terrified, so she used her magical powers to stop the sun from rising:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereupon hearing that dreadful curse, his wife, greatly afflicted, said &amp;quot;The sun shall not rise&amp;quot;. Therefore the sun not rising there was a continuous night extending over many days and accordingly the celestials were terrified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To cut the long story short the Devas took the help of Rishi Atri's wife Anasuya who was able to convince Kaushika's wife to allow the sun to rise, in exchange for Anasuya using her magical powers to save her husband's life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is who was this wife who had the power to stop the Sun from rising! Could it be Ahalya as I mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19759/is-there-a-relation-between-the-kaushik-incarnation-of-indra-and-ahalya&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;? If not, who can this powerful woman be?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-04-24T10:02:23.353" Title="Who was the wife of Kaushik who stopped the Sun from rising to save her husband's life?" Tags="|gods|indra|rishi|brahmins|markandeya-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19761" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19746" CreationDate="2017-07-24T11:44:39.087" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a discussion about the date of the Bhagavata Purana in the Introduction to the English translation by Swami Tapasyananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was a view that attributed the authorship of the Bhagavata to&#xA;Vopadeva (13th century). But this theory fails when it is noted that&#xA;Al beruni, the celebrated Arab scholar (1030 AD), refers to Vaishnava&#xA;Bhagavata in his book on India. Prof Siddheswar Bhattacharya in the&#xA;Introduction to his work, &lt;em&gt;The Philosophy of the Bhagavata&lt;/em&gt;, refers to p&#xA;131 of Sachaw's book, &lt;em&gt;Alberuni's India&lt;/em&gt; on this question and states:&#xA;&amp;quot;The question of its composition by Vopadeva melts away by Alberuni's&#xA;reference to the Bhagavata in which, according to his view, Vasudeva&#xA;has been extolled.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prof B. N. Krishnamurti Sarma has something of interest to say on the&#xA;date of Bhagavata Purana, based on his research work on external&#xA;evidence for the same, in his learned work on the subject in the&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute of Poona&lt;/em&gt; Vol XIV,&#xA;1932-33. He states that Gaudapada (7th century) in his commentary on&#xA;Uttara Gita refers to the Bhagavata Purana in the course of his&#xA;commentary on II, 46 of the text, quoting the following hemistich:&#xA;&lt;em&gt;taduktam bhagavate: tesamasau klesa eva sisyate, nanyadyatha&#xA;sthulatusavaghatinam.&lt;/em&gt; This line is to be identified  with the second&#xA;line of Bh X.14.4, which is as follows: &lt;em&gt;tesamasau klesa evasisyate&#xA;nanyadyatha sthulatusavaghatinam.&lt;/em&gt; At the time of publication (1933),&#xA;this was a welcome breakthrough in the quest for the date of the&#xA;Bhagavata as it gives the lie to the very fanciful theory of&#xA;Vopadeva's (13th century) authorship of it, popularized by a set of&#xA;orientalists, Wilson, Macdonell, Colebrooke and Burnouf. The reference&#xA;given by Prof Sharma goes to support the theory now held that the&#xA;Purana must have taken shape in its present form by about the first&#xA;half of the 6th century, after the Alwar movement (5th to 8th century)&#xA;in the South had become powerful. Prof Sarma's quotation from&#xA;Gaudapada, however, gives greater precision. ......................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is, however, an anomalous circumstance that puts a hurdle before&#xA;the acceptance of this or an earlier date for the Bhagavata. No&#xA;quotation from it has been given by Sri Ramanuja, born in 1071 A.D.,&#xA;in his extensive writings. He has taken his quotations only from the&#xA;Vishnu Purana (4th century A.D.) which is much earlier than the&#xA;Bhagavata and in many respects parallel, but much inferior to it as a&#xA;sacred text. ......There are two possible explanations for his&#xA;silence: 1. The hypothesis that the Bhagavata was&#xA;produced in the South between the 5th and the 8th century is wrong. It&#xA;must have been produced in the North and had not yet become known in&#xA;the South by the time of Alberuni (1030 A.D.). Or, 2. Ramanuja avoided&#xA;reference to it for doctrinal reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second alternative is the more probable one. Ramanuja was a great&#xA;propagandist of the Pancharatra Agama and he must have considered the&#xA;Vishnu Purana as offering better support for it than the Bhagavata,&#xA;whose acceptance of Siva almost on a par with Vishnu must have been&#xA;considered as militating against his theology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next, in Ramanuja's system Sriman Narayana in Vaikuntha is the highest&#xA;form of Brahman, whereas the Bhagavata seems to accept  - and it has&#xA;been so interpreted by Vaishnava sects like those of Chaitanya and&#xA;Vallabha - that Sri Krishna is the supreme form of Brahman. Vasudeva a&#xA;name which primarily indicates Sri Krishna, is the most sacred name&#xA;for God in the Bhagavata, whereas Narayana is the most important and&#xA;sacred one for the Pancharatrins. The Bhagavatas and the&#xA;Pancharatrins, though always devoted to Vishnu, seemed to have been&#xA;distinct sectaries at an earlier date, and Ramanuja's preference for&#xA;the Vishnu Purana, which has admittedly more of Pancharatra leaning&#xA;than the Bhagavata, might have been due to this. Further, the&#xA;Bhagavata is non-dualistic in its trend, although what brand of&#xA;non-dualism it represents is disputable. Saktimat and Sakti&#xA;(Powerholder and Power) rather than Sariri and Sarira (soul and body)&#xA;seems to be the relationship envisaged by the Bhagavata between God&#xA;and the world. Ramanuja, however, is committed to the latter view. For&#xA;these reasons Ramanuja might have ignored the Bhagavata ....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Introduction to Srimad Bhagavata Purana translated by Swami Tapasyananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2024-01-21T13:07:46.957" LastActivityDate="2024-01-21T13:07:46.957" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19765" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-24T13:55:52.123" Score="4" ViewCount="464" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa which summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. (You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19715/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, most Vedantic philosophies believe in three Pramanas or means of valid knowledge: Pratyaksha or perception, Anumana or inference, and Shabda or scriptural testimony.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaitins, on the other hand, believe in 6 Pramanas: Pratyaksha or perception, Anumana or inference, Shabda or scriptural testimony, Upamana or comparison, Arthapatti or presumption, and Anupalabdhi or non-apprehension.  Here's what what the 17th century Advaita philosopher Dharmaraja Adhvarindra says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/kegyFQ/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Vedanta Paribhasha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those means of knowledge are six in number, their divisions being perception, inference, comparison, verbal testimony, presumption and non-apprehension.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are, incidentally, the same six Pramanas accepted by the Purva Mimamsa philosopher Kumarila Bhatta and his followers.  (The Purva Mimamsa philosopher Prabhakara and his followers, in contrast, only believed in five Pramanas.) But my question is, what is the earliest Advaita work that references these six Pramanas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found out from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2015-November/039768.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this forum post&lt;/a&gt; that the 13th century Advaita philosopher Chitshuka says in his Tattva Pradipika the following quote: &quot;Vyavahare Bhattanayah&quot;, which means that from the relative perspective (the perspective of someone living under Maya) Advaitins agree with Kumarila Bhatta.  I'm not sure whether Chitshuka was referring to the number of Pramanas though.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, does Adi Shankaracharya reference these six Pramanas in any of his works?  What about any of his disciples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-27T06:12:32.180" LastActivityDate="2017-11-27T06:12:32.180" Title="Who is the earliest Advaitin to mention six Pramanas?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|pramana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19767" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19802" CreationDate="2017-07-24T14:53:59.677" Score="7" ViewCount="2278" Body="&lt;p&gt;There have been numerous biographies on the 19th century mystic saint Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. The biographies written by his direct disciples are stated below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Ramakrishna, The Great Master by Swami Saradananda &amp;amp; Swami Jagadananda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Ramakrishna: The Face of Silence by Swami Nikhilananda &amp;amp; Dhan Gopal Mukerji&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Mahendranath Gupta &amp;amp; Swami Nikhilananda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the above books have been written by Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's direct disciples and so these books are likely to give the most accurate account of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's life. This is why I would like to know whether any of the above books say that Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa ate fish or meat. Most people say He ate fish. However, the following quote from His favourite disciple Swami Vivekananda seems to indicate that Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was a vegetarian:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;About vegetarian diet I have to say this — first, my Master was a vegetarian; but if he was given meat offered to the Goddess, he used to hold it up to his head. The taking of life is undoubtedly sinful; but so long as vegetable food is not made suitable to the human system through progress in chemistry, there is no other alternative but meat-eating. So long as man shall have to live a Râjasika (active) life under circumstances like the present, there is no other way except through meat-eating. It is true that the Emperor Asoka saved the lives of millions of animals by the threat of the sword; but is not the slavery of a thousand years more dreadful than that? Taking the life of a few goats as against the inability to protect the honour of one's own wife and daughter, and to save the morsels for one's children from robbing hands — which of these is more sinful? Rather let those belonging to the upper ten, who do not earn their livelihood by manual labour, not take meat; but the forcing of vegetarianism upon those who have to earn their bread by labouring day and night is one of the causes of the loss of our national freedom. Japan is an example of what good and nourishing food can do.&#xA;  (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 4.486-7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a result, a doubt has come to my mind that perhaps Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was a vegetarian. But I cannot confirm this without checking the biographies written by His direct disciples. I know many people will argue that Bengalis treat fish as vegetarian but the following quote, again from Swami Vivekananda seems to indicate that fish was seen Swami Vivekananda as non-vegetarian.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All liking for fish and meat disappears when pure Sattva is highly developed, and these are the signs of its manifestation in a soul: sacrifice of everything for others, perfect non-attachment to lust and wealth, want of pride and egotism. The desire for animal food goes when these things are seen in a man. And where such indications are absent, and yet you find men siding with the non­killing party, know it for a certainty that here there is either hypocrisy or a show of religion. (Complete works of Swami Vivekananda, 5.403)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So do any of those 3 biographies indicate Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa ate meat or fish?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T04:45:41.540" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T04:45:41.540" Title="Do any of the biographies of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa written by His direct disciples indicate He took fish or meat?" Tags="|non-vegetarian|vivekananda|ramakrishna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19768" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7561" CreationDate="2017-07-24T16:13:02.940" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is yes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/41&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gita 18.41&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras are distinguished by the&#xA;  qualities born of their own natures in accordance with the material&#xA;  modes, O chastiser of the enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Commentary by Sri Ramanujacharya:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The nature of Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras are due to&#xA;  their respective inherent dispositions. &lt;strong&gt;The meaning is that their past&#xA;  Karma has been the cause of determining births as Brahmanas etc. The&#xA;  Sattva and other Gunas are the result of such Karma.&lt;/strong&gt; The Sattva-guna&#xA;  is born from the inherent nature of the Brahmana becoming dominant by&#xA;  suppressing the qualities of Rajas and Tamas. The quality of Rajas&#xA;  originates from the inherent nature of the Ksatriyas becoming dominant&#xA;  by suppressing qualities of Sattva and Tamas. Tamoguna arises from the&#xA;  inherent nature of the Vaisya, becoming dominant in a little way by&#xA;  suppressing Sattva and Rajas. The duties and works assigned to them&#xA;  according to the Gunas constituting their inherent nature, are&#xA;  expounded and allotted by the Sastras in the order described. For the&#xA;  Sastras analyse that the Brahmanas etc., possess such and such&#xA;  attributes and such and such are their duties and occupations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad 5/10/7&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Those whose conduct here on earth has been good will quickly attain&#xA;  some good birth as a brahmin, birth as a kshatriya, or birth as&#xA;  a vaisya. But &lt;strong&gt;those whose conduct here has been evil will quickly&#xA;  attain some evil birth—birth as a dog, birth as a pig, or birth as a&#xA;  chandala.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, why it is difficult to accept caste system?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus and Hindu organisation nowadays think that because of this system only, we lose Hindu population to other religion.So they don't want this system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastEditorUserId="10008" LastEditDate="2017-07-24T16:22:56.883" LastActivityDate="2017-07-24T16:22:56.883" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19769" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16259" CreationDate="2017-07-24T16:58:50.927" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can only say, those are not contradictory at all. you just have to understand some simple concepts. It is easy to get confused as the underlying knowledge is not clearly written and were expected to be taught by the guru only because written knowledge can be misinterpreted unless there is any interactive session. Well, as far as I realized,&#xA;1. God is eternal and formless. As God is formless, He can not have a physical boundary because if he has a boundary, the boundary will define His form. Therefore, He is omnipresent. If He is omnipresent, He lives inside every objects in this universe and beyond (including the idols and pictures). So, there is nothing wrong to assume a stone (or any other object) as the God and worship it. Now the question comes if I worship a random object as God, does it actually connect us with God? Isn't it like sitting inside a pool and thinking of water? then what is the nessecity of idols or temples? the answer is it is not important what form you are thinking about, the important thing is you are thinking about Him. Now if I ask you to think about a formless, propertyless object (even object word is not applicable) you will find it difficult to imagine. So we have to imagine a form. ok, so which form you should imagine? it is easiest to imagine something or someone you can respect. What or whom do you respect most? People you want to be like or objects you desire most. Mother (God), Father (God), teacher (God), Money (God, Laxmi), The wealthiest entity (God, Laxmi), Knowledge and most knowledgeable entity (Saraswati), Most powerful (Shakti). This way every entity you think to be God is connected to your desire. Sounds negative? Not at all. This is the way you and your desires get connected to the God. This is the preliminary step. without it you will think your desires and emotions as something disconnected from God. You may even start thinking them as evil (like buddhism, I am not criticising buddhism, its just another approach). Well, talking about avatars, I think avatars are not born, they are forged. It is a position to gain. People who are the most adept in specific field are the avatars. How do we know? Because one of the avatars was adept in self-realization. Lord Krishna. Read Bibhutiyoga chapter in Bhagbat Gita. Now lets connect the missing link. Moksha. It is not about seeing or meeting God. Its about becoming God. If you can become YOUR God, you got moksha. Say you are a scholar and you imagine God to be a person with infinite knowledge. You may become your God if you gain infinite knowledge. Ya, its impossible (apperently). But if you go enough beyond the imagination of people, to world you are already God. We know lord Rama to be the God. Albert Einstein is an avatar of Saraswati (atleast to me. who knows if Balmiki was present in modern world, he could recognize him). Now if you are too orthodox to accept possibility of this concept, I will request you to re-read the scriptures once with keeping this in your mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11526" LastActivityDate="2017-07-24T16:58:50.927" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19770" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19697" CreationDate="2017-07-25T03:29:29.777" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SHANTAKARAM BHUJANGASHAYANAM PADMANABHAM SURESHAM, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  VISHWADHARAM GAGAN SADRISHAM MEGHAVARNAM SHUBHANGAM | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  LAKSHMIKANTAN KAMALNAYANAM YOGIMIRDHYANA GAMYAM, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  VANDE VISHNUM BHAVA BHAYAHARAM SARVA LOKAIKNATHAM ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;I worship that Lord Vishnu who has a peaceful body&#xA;    (postures); who rests on Sheshanaga (the mighty serpant - cobra); who&#xA;    has a lotus in his navel, who is the base of the world, who is like&#xA;    the sky; who has a colour like cloud, who is the lord of Lakshmi&#xA;    (wealth); who has eyes like lotus; who is seen by yogis in their&#xA;    meditation; who is the remover of all the differences and who is the&#xA;    only Lord of all the three Lokas (Worlds), I worship such Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu rests on Sheshnag because it symbolizes that one who has reached the Ultimate Enlightenment, should be in peace and without tension or stress of mind, knowing that Sheshnag, a snake (allegorical to materialistic troubles) is hovering above him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So one who wants peace, must worship Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why does Lord Vishnu rest on Sheshnag?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma Purana:&#xA;  The second virtue (resting on the Sheshanaga) must be considered as&#xA;  the sub-virtue of the peaceful appearance. Scriptures describe&#xA;  Sheshanaga as Kala also. Sheshanaga is a highly&#xA;  poisonous snake. But Lord Vishnu rests on him without fear or&#xA;  worries. One should not to lose patience even while facing the kala&#xA;  itself; instead strive to ride on it, only then can one&#xA;  remain in peaceful appearance. If the fear overpowers, it may&#xA;  shatter peace. The worshipers who want salvation should be peaceful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why does Vishnu rest on a Sagar (Ksheerodak, Garbhodak or Karanodak). Chanakyaneeti explains it thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KA CHINTA MAM JIVANE YADI HARIIVISHVAMMBHARO GEEYATE, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  NO CHEDARBHAKA JIVANAY JANANISTANYAM KATHM NIRMYET |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ITYALOCHYMUHURMUHURYADUPATE LAKSHMIPATE KEWAL &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  TVATPADAMSHUJASEVANEN SATATAM KALOMAYA NEEYATE ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;If God Hari Vishnu is known as VISHVAMBHAR (feeder of the&#xA;    world) I need not worry for anything in the world. If he were not&#xA;    there, where the milk would come from in the breast of a mother before&#xA;    child's birth. So God filled the breast of a new mother with complete&#xA;    food that is milk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-07-25T03:29:29.777" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19772" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-25T05:10:03.143" Score="4" ViewCount="1160" Body="&lt;p&gt;What was the Shatrughna (Lord Rama last brother) role or Significance in Ramayana? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-07-25T05:19:12.290" LastActivityDate="2021-12-25T08:44:07.627" Title="Role of Shatrughna in Ramayana?" Tags="|ramayana|shatrughna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19774" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9188" CreationDate="2017-07-25T06:00:41.253" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think Rama was verily aware of His divine status. Here is my reason, then I'll quote. Firstly there are many stories present in Valmiki Ramayana which are absent in other Ramayanas. Like the Shabari story, Rama, if He was a humble human wouldn't have accepted Shabari's divine bhakti as a God treats His devotees. He would have been humble enough to point out that He's human, knowing very well that Shabari was a siddha. He points out the 9 ways of Bhakti, which very subtly exposes that Rama was well aware of His divinity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ahalya on the other hand. When Vishwamitra asked Rama to keep His foot and liberate Ahalya, Rama didn't show humane humility in accepting that He wasn't God Himself. Instead He readily liberates Ahalya from her suffering. This is mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayana, so not quoting it here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Adhyatma Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shabari:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Such pure devotion is expressed in nine ways. First is satsang or&#xA;  association with love-intoxicated devotees and righteous people. The&#xA;  second is to develop a taste for hearing &lt;em&gt;My&lt;/em&gt; nectar-like stories. The&#xA;  third is service to the guru (...) Fourth is to sing &lt;em&gt;My&lt;/em&gt; kirtan&#xA;  (communal chorus) (...) Japa or repetition of &lt;em&gt;My Holy name and&#xA;  chanting My bhajans&lt;/em&gt; are the fifth expression (...) To follow&#xA;  scriptural injunctions always, to practice control of the senses,&#xA;  nobility of character and selfless service, these are expressions of&#xA;  the sixth mode of bhakti. Seeing &lt;em&gt;Me manifested everywhere in this&#xA;  world and worshipping My saints more than myself&lt;/em&gt; is the seventh mode&#xA;  of bhakti. To find no fault with anyone and to be contented with one's&#xA;  lot is the eighth mode of bhakti. Unreserved surrender with total&#xA;  faith in &lt;em&gt;My&lt;/em&gt; strength is the ninth and highest stage. Shabari, anyone&#xA;  who practices one of these nine modes of &lt;em&gt;My bhakti pleases Me most and&#xA;  reaches Me without fail.&lt;/em&gt; That which is most difficult for the greatest&#xA;  yogis was easily attained by you, Shabari, because of your sincere&#xA;  devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-07-25T06:00:41.253" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19775" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19779" CreationDate="2017-07-25T06:24:01.043" Score="10" ViewCount="4357" Body="&lt;p&gt;For removal of Drishti the remover should wash his/her hands and legs before entering the home and we believe Mantra can prevent Dhristi Doshas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following Mantra to prevent Dristi Doshas/ Evil eye:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganapathi Moola Mantra:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aum shreem hreem kleem glaum gum ganapathaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vara-varadha sarva janam-mey vasamaanaya swaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question: Which scripture wrote/named &quot;Ganapathi Moola Mantra&quot;? (the one we used to remove obstacles) and what is the meaning of Ganapathi Moola Mantra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-07-26T18:47:47.820" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T18:47:47.820" Title="Which scripture wrote the &quot;Ganapathi Moola Mantra&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|mantras|ganesha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19776" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8164" CreationDate="2017-07-25T08:00:49.153" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Rama knew that he was an avatar of Lord Vishnu during his life time. It is mentioned in detail in the Yuddhakanda of Valmiki Ramayana. He was Lord Vishnu born as a human being. He incarnated to kill Ravana. As Ravana could be slain only by a human or a Vanara, other Gods didn't reveal his divinity even they know about this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After completion of the war with Ravana and slaying him, Rama ignores Sita and asks her to leave him. Sita gives a taunting reply and decides to enter the fire in order to prove her fidelity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing the cries of these who were thus wailing, the virtuous minded Rama then &lt;strong&gt;became thoughtful for a while, afflicted as he was with melancholy, his eyes filled with tears&lt;/strong&gt;. [6.117.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;The bold part shows that even Rama was sad because Sita was entering into the funeral pyre.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the gods approach Lanka in their celestial cars to remind Rama his divinity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereupon, Kubera the King of Yakshas, Yama the lord of death together with the deceased ancestors, Indra the lord of celestials Varuna the lord of waters, the illustrious Shiva the great deity who bears the device of a bull as his banner and having three eyes, Brahma the creator of all the worlds and the best among the knowers of sacred knowledge all these together reaching the City of Lanka in aerial cars, shining like the sun approached Rama.[6-117-2,3,4]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lifting their long arms, their hands decked with ornaments, those excellent gods thereupon, spoke (as follows) to Rama who stood there, making a respectful salutation to them with his folded hands.[6-117-5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They try to remind him his divinity. But Rama couldn't recollect this and considers himself as a human being. He asks them to remind what he forgot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अब्रवित्त्रिदशश्रेष्ठान् रामो धर्मभृतां वरः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    &lt;strong&gt;आत्मानं मानुषं मन्ये रामं दशरथात्मजम्&lt;/strong&gt; || 6-117-11&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   सोऽहं यस्य यतश्चाहं भगवंस्तद्ब्रवीतु मे |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama spoke as follows &quot;&lt;strong&gt;I think of myself to be a human being, by name Rama, the son of Dasharatha&lt;/strong&gt;. You, as a gracious Divinity, tell me that which I as such really am like this.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the creator of the world Brahma explains Rama about his real nature. He says in a verse: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अब्रवीच्छृणु मे वाक्यं सत्यं सत्यपराक्रम |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   &lt;strong&gt;भवान्नारायणो देवः&lt;/strong&gt; श्रीमांश्चक्रायुधः प्रभुः || 6-117-13&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   एकशृङ्गो वराहस्त्वं भूतभव्यसपत्नजित् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma said &quot;Listen to my true word, O the truly brave lord! &lt;strong&gt;You are the Lord Narayana himself&lt;/strong&gt; the glorious god, who wields the discus. You are the Divine Boar with a single tusk, the conqueror of your past and future enemies.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this verse, Lord Brahma explains other avataras of Vishnu too. You can read them in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga117/yuddha_117_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 117 of Yuddhakanda&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear that Rama knew about his divinity during his lifetime. He knew it before returning to Ayodhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-25T09:15:28.413" LastActivityDate="2017-07-25T09:15:28.413" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19777" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18893" CreationDate="2017-07-25T08:18:41.457" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is very mind boggling verse, no doubt. It has haunted me for long. Being a staunch Hindu myself, I found it difficult to reconcile myself to these kind of verses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me share my understanding. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Pritha, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of SINFUL birth — women, vaishyas [merchants] and shūdras [workers] — can attain the supreme destination. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this translation, Krishna is branding &quot;women, shudras, vaishyas&quot; as people of &lt;em&gt;sinful&lt;/em&gt; birth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, what is a SIN ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In christianity, SIN is something that Adam and Eve committed and we being from the same lineage, we all should suffer for that sin. No chance of escape until you surrender to Christ. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, as long as you have &quot;weaknesses in your mind&quot;. When you have weaknesses and not yet perfected mind, you take a SINFUL birth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the qualities of a Sinful birth? You are interested in just 3 time meals and nothing else (Shudra). You are interested in amassing wealth and building businesses that aid your desires (Vaishya). Limitations entrusted by your birth ( women)... why women ? OK. Important question. &#xA;There is a famous Movie dialogue.. &quot;To become a father it takes 3 Minutes.. while to become a mom, it takes 9 months !!! &quot;&#xA;So, if you are into &quot;9 month sabbatical from normal proceedings of life&quot; it will for sure have repercussions. Like... you may have to depend upon somebody... Also, if you become a Queen of a state and you are pregnant. Assume so. Now, if there is a enemy attacking your kingdom, you cant go and fight. Again dependency. These are limitations infused upon one by birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, If somebody is a Man in this birth, for him to look down upon women birth as inferior is not sane because, if that man fails to utilise his birth for attaining the supreme, he may have to take another birth and he could be a woman or an animal !! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, now if these are the natures of Sinful birth,, then what is sinless birth? or a higher-birth ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It simply means, somebody has progressed far in the right direction... That does not mean he has not had SINFUL births in the past. &lt;strong&gt;Because our shastras say everybody starts their journey as a Shudra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this progress, he has become a Bramhana or a Rajarshi (saintly king). Saintly Kings are more interested in establishing sanity in society so that there is no play of evil minds. Similarly, a Bramhin is interested in &lt;em&gt;knowing the eternal truths&lt;/em&gt; ( who am I, Is there anybody behind everything in this universe). Bramhins are less interested in either amassing wealth or establishing empires or anything else except the truth of existence. &#xA;This in no way a guarantee that somebody who is a brahmin will not take a sinful birth again.  As the verse itself says &quot;reach the supreme&quot;. If they fail to reach in that birth and deteriorate themselves to bad thoughts,, they will take a &lt;em&gt;sinful&lt;/em&gt; birth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, here Krishna is saying,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even if you have taken a sinful birth( birth with weaknesses),, that does not stop you from attaining the supreme in this very birth. No limitations of his birth can stop an individual from reaching the &lt;strong&gt;highest ideal although somebody may have taken a lead with a higher birth (less weaknesses), that can be easily bridged by a person of lower birth too&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11529" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-25T08:48:34.453" LastActivityDate="2017-07-25T08:48:34.453" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19778" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5239" CreationDate="2017-07-25T08:24:51.663" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Puranas make Aditi and Kashyap Indra's father but according to Rig Ved &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01164.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 1.164.33&lt;/a&gt; Indra is born of Dyaus and Prithvi - the Sky Father &amp;amp; Earth Mother:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;31 I saw the Herdsman, him who never stumbles, approaching by his pathways and departing. He, clothed with gathered and diffusive splendour, within the worlds continually travels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;32 He who hath made him cloth not comprehend him: from him who saw him surely is he hidden.&#xA;  He, yet enveloped in his Mother's bosom, source of much life, hath sunk into destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;33 Dyaus is my Father, my begetter: kinship is here. This great earth is my kin and Mother.&#xA;  Between the wide-spread world-halves is the birth-place: the Father laid the Daughter's germ within it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again RV &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 4.17.4&lt;/a&gt; mentions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 Hurling his bolt with might he cleft the mountain, while, putting forth his strength, he showed his vigour.&#xA;  He slaughtered Vṛtra with his bolt, exulting, and, their lord slain, forth flowed the waters swiftly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 &lt;strong&gt;Thy Father Dyaus esteemed himself a hero: most noble was the work of Indra's Maker,&#xA;  His who begat the strong bolt's Lord who roareth, immovable like earth from her foundation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01191.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 1.191.6&lt;/a&gt; also mentions the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6 Heaven is your Sire, your Mother Earth, Soma your Brother, Aditi&#xA;  Your Sister: seeing all, unseen, keep still and dwell ye happily.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I personally favor the Puranic version since it is most complete. However, Dyaus and Indra do resemble in many ways both being the rulers of Heaven so the association seems plausible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-07-25T13:13:30.263" LastActivityDate="2017-07-25T13:13:30.263" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19779" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19775" CreationDate="2017-07-25T08:36:02.257" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;It occurs in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/fBkM&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Narada Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The immutable, the consort of Vishnu, the wife of Shambhu, minaketana, smriti, mamsa adorned with indu with manu and with the moon in the crest, Ganapati in the dative, then at the end vara veranda be added, then at the end of sarva one should utter janam, then add me vasham anaya bring them all to my control. The mantra ends in vahnipriya &quot;svaha&quot; wit twenty-eight letters.&lt;/strong&gt; Its sage is Ganaka, the metre nivrit Gayatri etc., the presiding deity is ganesha. The Bija is six shaktis beginning with &quot;a&quot; and the application of it is for the proportion of Mahaganapati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss Ganaka in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8059/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, the part in bold may seem like gobbledygook, but that's because it's in code.  When decoded, here's what it looks like:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om Shrim hrim klim glaum Ganapataye Vara Varada sarvajanam me vashamanaya svaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-25T08:36:02.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19780" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11112" CreationDate="2017-07-25T12:10:10.907" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the Vakratunda incarnation in Mudgal Brahmana but not the mantra. The closest I could come to this mantra is the following line from the Mahaganapati Shastranam Stotra from the Rudrayamala Tantra that contains the first sentence:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nmK3P.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nmK3P.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Verse 99&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vakratuṇḍo mahākāyaḥ koṭisūryasamaprabhaḥ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ekadaṃṣṭraḥ kṛṣṇapiṅgo vikaṭo dhūmravarṇakaḥ ॥ 99॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's the link to the text - &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_ganesha/mahAgaNapatisahasranAmastotra.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;mahAgaNapatisahasranAmastotra&lt;/a&gt;. The entire hymn I couldn't find anywhere so this is the closest I could get.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-07-26T05:04:29.323" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T05:04:29.323" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19781" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-25T13:31:59.597" Score="7" ViewCount="2517" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Rig Ved &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01164.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 1.164.33&lt;/a&gt; Indra is born of &lt;strong&gt;Dyaus and Prithvi&lt;/strong&gt; - the Sky Father &amp;amp; Earth Mother:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;33 Dyaus is my Father, my begetter: kinship is here. This great earth is my kin and Mother. Between the wide-spread world-halves is the birth-place: the Father laid the Daughter's germ within it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again RV &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 4.17.4&lt;/a&gt; mentions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 Thy Father Dyaus esteemed himself a hero: most noble was the work of Indra's Maker, His who begat the strong bolt's Lord who roareth, immovable like earth from her foundation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01191.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 1.191.6&lt;/a&gt; also mentions the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 Heaven is your Sire, your Mother Earth, Soma your Brother, Aditi Your Sister: seeing all, unseen, keep still and dwell ye happily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is interesting to note that Dhara or Prithvi is also one of the Ashta Vasu so my question is - &lt;strong&gt;Is Dyaus Pita the same as the Dyaus mentioned as a Vasu? Additionally, is he the same person who was cursed to have been born as Bhishma?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-22T07:03:49.540" LastActivityDate="2019-01-06T18:42:55.207" Title="Is the Dyaus mentioned in Vedas as Indra's father the same as the Vasu Dyaus?" Tags="|puranas|rig-veda|indra|bhumi|vasu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19782" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="58592" CreationDate="2017-07-25T13:43:11.350" Score="6" ViewCount="2362" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know in Satya yuga people lived for about 1 lakh years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then how many years they spend in childhood, at what age will they become adults?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At what age usually they were married  ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what was the population at that time. because as people average age is 1 lakh years, definitely there will be more population than Kali yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9976" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-30T04:25:33.743" LastActivityDate="2024-03-12T20:31:00.797" Title="How much was the population in Satya yuga?" Tags="|yuga|krita-yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19783" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-25T17:20:20.043" Score="1" ViewCount="2040" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kind, ever gracious be the Earth we tread on, &lt;strong&gt;the firm Earth&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  Prithivī, borne up by Order, mother of plants and herbs, the&#xA;  all-producer---- Griffith Translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10008" LastActivityDate="2017-07-25T22:10:11.477" Title="Does Atharva Veda 12.1.17 says Earth is fixed?" Tags="|science|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-07-25T21:26:39.363" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19784" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19775" CreationDate="2017-07-25T17:27:27.763" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from being present in the NArada PurAna, the mantra is also present in many Agama scriptures. For example, in &lt;strong&gt;Ganesha Vimarshini Tantram, Brihat Srikrama Tantram, ViswasAra Tantram&lt;/strong&gt; etc. In this answer i am quoting the verses from the Viswa SAra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rishi, Chandah etc of the mantra is given in the Viniyoga verses as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asya Sri MaHaganapati mahamantrasya Ganaka Rishih, Nibrt Gayatri&#xA;  Chandaha, Mahaganapatir Devata...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the great mantra of MahAganapati, seer is Ganaka, meter is Nibrit&#xA;  GAyatri, Deity is MahAganapati...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Agamas, usually the mantras are always given in a hidden code and never mentioned in a direct manner. In this case, the mantra uddhAra verses (which when decoded gives the actual mantra) are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri saktismaravubhivighnabijAni prathamam likhet| Yenantam ganapatim&#xA;  paschAdwarAnte varadam padam | uktvA sarvajanam....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First write the Sri beejam (Srim), then Shatki  (Hrim), then Smara&#xA;  (Klim; also known as KAma beejam),then Vighna (Glaum) beejas followed&#xA;  by the Ganapati (Gam)...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantra thus obtained is (without the OM at the beginning) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;shrim hrim klim glaum gam ganapathaye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vara-varadha sarva janam-mey vasamaanaya swaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and, which is known as the 28-lettered MahAmantra of Lord Ganesha (AshtAvimsatyakshara Ganapati mahAmantra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, for the mantra purascharana the total number of japa required is 4 lakh and 44 thousand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asya purascharanajapaschatuschattvArimsatchttvArimsatsahsrakam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-26T08:04:16.160" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T08:04:16.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19785" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19783" CreationDate="2017-07-25T17:55:05.117" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda 12.1.17. Upon the firm, &lt;strong&gt;broad earth&lt;/strong&gt;, the all-begetting&#xA;  mother of the plants, that is supported by (divine) law, upon her,&#xA;  propitious and kind, may we ever pass-our lives!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;------------as translated by Maurice Bloomfield&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May we, in all the ways follow that motherland who produces and&#xA;  possesses all terrestrial objects is the mother of all herbs, &lt;strong&gt;who&#xA;  affords firm stand to all creatures&lt;/strong&gt;, who is upheld by righteousness,&#xA;  and who is auspicious, charming and spacious&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;-------------- Aacharya Vaidhyanath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translation of Vaidyanath clearly says Earth affords firmly stand to all creatures. It doesn't say Earth itself static or fixed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no fixed or immovable earth here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-07-25T18:09:50.603" LastActivityDate="2017-07-25T18:09:50.603" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19786" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19783" CreationDate="2017-07-25T19:01:55.120" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt; Atharva Veda &lt;strong&gt;is not&lt;/strong&gt; saying earth is fixed in 12.1.17. The verse is a prayer for the Mother earth OR Mother Land  , Its said “ Let  the Mother Earth  be broad and stable upon which ample kind of plants and  Medicinal Herbs grow. She is praised the one who bestow us the means of material pleasure. Lets see how …&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विश्वस्वम् मातर्मोषिधिनां ध्रुवां भूमिं पृथिविं धर्मणा धृताम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिवां स्योनामनु चरेम विश्वहा ||17||&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VishvaSwam MatarMoShidhiNaam Dhruvam Bhumim PruthiVim Dharmana&#xA;  DhruTaam &lt;br&gt; Shivaam SyoNaaManu Charem VishVaHa &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let the Mother Earth be stable and broad  Upon which the best of &#xA;  Medicinal plants grow. Let us serve the Motherland  ,  The Mother&#xA;  Earth who bestow us with means of material pleasure which are full of&#xA;  Knowledge ,Bravery ,Truth , Love and other good qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now here Atharva-Veda prays for Mother earth to be stable. What is this “Stable” means ? What is the meaning of stable here. &lt;strong&gt;Here stable word is used for constant , continuous.&lt;/strong&gt; Let her be continuous in her activity of producing plants and medicinal plants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word Stable is not used as fixed  or  Non-Moving because if we look at the &lt;strong&gt;next verse&lt;/strong&gt; , we can find two times  &lt;strong&gt;clearly  mentioning of  earth is moving  in the sky with great velocity.&lt;/strong&gt; So its not possible that the previous shloka is saying  that earth is fixed and the next is saying its moving with great speed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other meaning of this stable word could also be taken as &quot; Not changing its physical form  e.g soil , weather , productivity ,shape  etc.&#xA;We can explain this verse in many such a ways.But I think in that verse of  A.V. all such possible meanings are taken into consideration ,&lt;strong&gt;as to show that how earth is best sutaible planet for habitation&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the next verse- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महत सधस्थं महती बभूविथ &lt;strong&gt;महान वेग&lt;/strong&gt; एजथुर्वेपथुष्टे | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महांस्तेन्द्रो रक्षत्यप्रमादम | सा नो भूमे प्र रोचय |&lt;br&gt; हिरण्यस्येव&#xA;  संदृशि मा नो द्विक्षत कच्श्रन ||18||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahat SadhaStham Mahati BaBhuViTha &lt;strong&gt;Mahaan Vega&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  AjaThruVePaThuSathe&lt;br&gt; MaHaamStenDro  RakShaStyaPramaDam  Sa No BhuMe&#xA;  Pra RoChaYa&lt;br&gt; HiranyaSyeVa SanDrushi Ma No DviKshaTa KaSchRan&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Mother earth |  You give us the place to live. Y&lt;strong&gt;our  speed is&#xA;  tremendous , with which you move in the sky while making lots of&#xA;  vibrations.&lt;/strong&gt; Indra protects you with great care. Your diving glow is&#xA;  like a gold. Please make us lustrous  like you. Let us be  free of&#xA;  envy toward each other . Let us be dear to all .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So its pretty much clear that Av  12.1.17 isn’t saying earth is fixed. In fact the sukta is reveling   that earth is moving in sky with great speed thousands of years before the modern cosmology.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zo8aL.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zo8aL.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-07-25T22:10:11.477" LastActivityDate="2017-07-25T22:10:11.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19789" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-26T05:43:38.340" Score="4" ViewCount="1177" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know the story: Churning the Ocean of Milk (Samudra-manthan) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The churning of the Ocean of Milk was an elaborate process. Mount Mandarachala was used as the churning rod and Vasuki (King of the Serpents) became the churning rope. The asuras demanded to hold the head of the snake, while the devas, taking advice from Vishnu, agreed to hold its tail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://indianstorytime.wordpress.com/indian-story-time/the-churning-of-the-ocean-of-milk/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://indianstorytime.wordpress.com/indian-story-time/the-churning-of-the-ocean-of-milk/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But here my question was from where ocean of milk formed (Kshirasagara)? who created this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We all know life started from water, How valuable treasures like Goddess Lakshmi, Kamadhenu (supernatural animal) and Halahala (Poison) emerged from the Ocean of Milk? Any story behind it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-13T07:22:50.520" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T07:48:02.480" Title="Kshirasagara (the Ocean of Milk) where it comes from?" Tags="|samudra-manthan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19790" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3805" CreationDate="2017-07-26T06:12:26.367" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Looks like more than the current population existed during Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata 11.26.8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jīvatāṃ parimāṇajñaḥ sainyānām asi pāṇḍava &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hatānāṃ yadi jānīṣe parimāṇaṃ vadasva me &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Vaishampayana said, ‘If, O son of Pandu, thou knowest it, &lt;strong&gt;tell me the&#xA;    number of those that have fallen in this battle, as also of those that&#xA;    have escaped with life!’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata 11.26.9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;daśāyutānām ayutaṃ sahasrāṇi ca viṃśatiḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;koṭyaḥ ṣaṣṭiś ca ṣaṭ caiva ye 'smin rājamṛdhe hatāḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Yudhishthira answered, ‘&lt;strong&gt;One billion 660 million and 20,000 men have&#xA;  fallen in this battle. Of the heroes that have escaped, the number is&#xA;  240,165&lt;/strong&gt;.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More than 166 crore men have died in Mahabharata. Many men survived. I think they were soldiers.If soldiers were lived in this huge number, then think about the population. So, your question on why population is high in Kali Yuga is likely invalid.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T06:12:26.367" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19791" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19823" CreationDate="2017-07-26T06:22:53.690" Score="4" ViewCount="3511" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela#Types_of_Kumbh_Melas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purna Kumbh Mela&lt;/a&gt; is celebrated every 12 years. It is also believed that spiritual progress happens in practitioners in the cycle of 12 years  i.e., it takes 12 years of disciplined practice to change a habit. Mantras, Japas and Pranayamas are practiced in multiples of 12.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why we use number 12 and what are the secrets of number 12?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More examples of 12:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A man controlling the seminal fluid for &lt;strong&gt;twelve years&lt;/strong&gt; develops a special power. He grows a new inner nerve called the nerve of memory. Through that nerve he remembers all, he understands all. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/gospel/volume_1/20_rules.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2159&quot;&gt;Where was Arjuna for 12 years when he was exiled?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-05-28T19:56:56.317" LastActivityDate="2019-05-31T08:08:33.483" Title="What is the reason behind considering number 12 as special?" Tags="|belief|practice|symbolism|numerology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19792" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17279" CreationDate="2017-07-26T06:30:36.830" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am adding the definitions of the &lt;code&gt;Prakiti&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;Purusha&lt;/code&gt; as given by Lord Shiva in the Agamas. BTW, there is nothing called Stri tattva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Agama asks the question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atha ka Prakitih?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is Prakiti?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And answers it by saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;GuntrayasAmyavasthaA prakiti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The state where the Gunatraya (the three Gunas; Sattva etc) assume a&#xA;  balanced state of equilibrium is called the Prakriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A more elaborate definition is given by LOrd Shiva in the Shakti Yamala Tantram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sattvam rajastam iti gunatrayamudAhritam | SAmyAvasthi&#xA;  metoshAmavyaktam prakritim viduh || Saiva mula prakritih swAt&#xA;  pradhAnam purshohapi cha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satva, Rajo and Tamo; these are spoken of as the three gunas. &lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;  balanced state of equilibrium (sAmyAvyastha) of the three gunas, is&#xA;  known to the wise, as the Avyakta (unmanifest) Praktiti&lt;/strong&gt;. And, &lt;strong&gt;that is&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  the Mula Prakti, the PradhAna and &lt;strong&gt;the PurushA as well&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shakti Yamala&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, we need to clarify a bit more regarding  this &quot;Gunatraya sAmyAvavasthA&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Due to the Jiva's Bhogadustata (the imbalanced state of being&#xA;  afflicted with desires) the three Gunas attain a discriminated and&#xA;  unstable state (nunyadhikya and vaishamya) where is one is dominant&#xA;  over the other and etc. It is from this unstable and differentiated&#xA;  state of the Gunatraya, the manifested universe emerges. After the&#xA;  desire for Bhoga has ended (BhogA avasana), the manifested universe&#xA;  (Jagat) again dissolves back to its Mula Upadana (main raw material)&#xA;  i.e Prakiti. In this non-differentiable and balanced state, the&#xA;  Gunatrayarupa Prakiti ( Prakiti in the form of Gunatraya) exists&#xA;  simply as the cause (kAranrupa) of everything. And, this state is known as&#xA;  Guntraya's akAryAvastha (non working or inactive state) or sAmyavastha&#xA;  ( balanced state).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva gives yet another definition in the JyAna BhAsya Tantram as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sattvam rajastam iti gunAnAm tritayam priye | YadA sA ParamA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ShaktirgunAdhisthAnamAcharet | Prakititvam bhavet tasyAh Purushah swAt&#xA;  sadAshivah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord says to Sri Devi] Hey Priye ! Sattva, Rajah, Tamah- these are&#xA;  the three Gunas ( Gunatraya). At the time when the Parama Sakti&#xA;  establishes herself (or itself) on the three Gunas, it is then she/it&#xA;  attains Prakiti-hood and it is then the [Nirguna] Purusha (or Shiva)&#xA;   attains SadAshiva-hood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one is looking from the perspective of the 36 tattvas then, the following commentary given on &lt;strong&gt;Prapancha sAra Tantram&lt;/strong&gt; by PadmAcharya will suffice. All tattvas are different manifestations of the same Parama Shakti which is also known as the Mula Prakriti or the Nirguna Purusha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ekaiva shaktih antarmukhatayA vikashanti vidyAditattvarupini&#xA;  vahirmukhatayA samkuchanti mAyAditattvarupini&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The same vimarsha Shakti's inwardly manifestations are the Iswara,&#xA;  VidyA SadAshiva etc tattvas and outwardly contractions are the MAya&#xA;  etc tattvas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whenever Shiva is mentioned as the supreme know that its Shakti vishishta Shiva (Shiva with Shakti) and also when Shakti is mentioned likewise know that its Shiva vishishta Shakti. And, the same applies to Purusha-Prakiti too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-26T08:02:56.317" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T08:02:56.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19793" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19822" CreationDate="2017-07-26T08:29:00.640" Score="5" ViewCount="439" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Shakha-Bhed (inter-Shakha) marriage prohibited? If yes, then explain why and where is it mentioned? Can a Rigvedi Brahmin marry a Yajurvedi Brahmin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8985" LastEditorUserId="4133" LastEditDate="2017-07-26T18:25:45.230" LastActivityDate="2019-02-20T23:04:48.430" Title="Is Shakha-Bhed marriage prohibited? If yes then explain" Tags="|rituals|practice|marriage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19794" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17597" CreationDate="2017-07-26T08:51:49.187" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many other instances mentioned in the scriptures can actually refer to geological events. First is the incident of Indra killing the dragon Vritra and releasing the life-giving waters which could actually be a poetic description of Indra's lightening splitting open a mountain to make way for water that had been till then perhaps dammed in the form of a lake. Check the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10075.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda Verse 1.32.10-12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10 &lt;strong&gt;Rolled in the midst of never-ceasing currents flowing without a rest for ever onward.&#xA;  The waters bear off Vṛtra's nameless body: the foe of Indra sank to during darkness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11 Guarded by Ahi stood the thralls of Dāsas, the waters stayed like kine held by the robber.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;But he, when he had smitten Vṛtra, opened the cave wherein the floods had been imprisoned.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12 A horse's tail wast thou when he, O Indra, smote on thy bolt; thou, God without a second,&#xA;  Thou hast won back the kine, hast won the Soma; &lt;strong&gt;thou hast let loose to flow the Seven Rivers.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7atn9.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 1.51.4&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07095.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1.52&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verses 1.54.1 &amp;amp; 10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; also seem to point to a major geological change resulting from this feat of Indra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.51.4 &lt;strong&gt;Thou hast unclosed the prisons of the waters; thou hast in the mountain seized the treasure rich in gifts.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  When thou hadst slain with might the dragon Vṛtra, thou, Indra, &lt;strong&gt;didst raise the Sun in heaven for all to see.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.52.14 Whose amplitude the heaven and earth have not attained, whose bounds the waters of mid-air have never reached,—&#xA;  Not, when in joy he fights the &lt;strong&gt;stayer of the rain&lt;/strong&gt;: thou, and none else, hast made all things in order due.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.52.15 The Maruts sang thy praise in this encounter, and in thee all the Deities delighted,&#xA;  What time thou, Indra, &lt;strong&gt;with thy spiky weapon, thy deadly bolt, smotest the face of Vṛtra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.54.1 URGE us not, Maghavan, to this distressful fight, for none may comprehend the limit of thy strength.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Thou with fierce shout hast made the woods and rivers roar: did not men run in crowds together in their fear?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.54.10 &lt;strong&gt;There darkness stood, the vault that stayed the waters’ flow:&lt;/strong&gt; in Vṛtra's hollow side the rain-cloud lay concealed.&#xA;  But Indra smote the rivers which the obstructer stayed, &lt;strong&gt;flood following after flood, down steep declivities.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more verses that wax eloquent on this particular feat of Indra and it could certainly be a big geological event:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KLOzQ.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;R.V. 1.62.6&lt;/a&gt; This is the deed most worthy of all honour, the fairest marvel of the Wonder-Worker,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  That, nigh where heaven bends down, &lt;strong&gt;he made four rivers flow full with waves that carry down sweet water.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/VamanaPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;R.V. 2.15.8&lt;/a&gt;8&lt;/strong&gt; Praised by the Aṅgirases he slaughtered Vala, and &lt;strong&gt;burst apart the bulwarks of the mountain.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  He tore away their deftly-built defences. These things did Indra in the Soma's rapture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the Puranas have plenty of references some of whom have been covered in the other answers. I'll share one of the biggest geological events in our history - &lt;strong&gt;Saraswati's arrival on earth&lt;/strong&gt;. The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/67SkandaPurana.Vol.19/(67)%20Skanda%20Purana.%20Vol.%2019_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Section VII.1. 33. 11-100 &amp;amp; Chapter 34 detail the story of how Saraswati was forced to arrive on earth in order to take a terrible devastating fire to the ocean so that it would not destroy the whole world. This fire known as the Vadavagni was generated by Rishi Aurva and the verse also give an idea of the various locations associated with the river:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11-12. Ganga said: O Lord, O master of the worlds, I do not have the strength to carry Aurva. He is huge and terrific in form. This Anala (Fire) burns excessively. Thereupon the liberal-minded Lord spoke to Yamuna first, to Sindhu thereafter, and to various rivers severally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13-15. They were asked by the excellent one among Suras and they proved unable to take (Aurva). &lt;strong&gt;Then Janardana, the Lord of Devas, spoke to Sarasvati: “O auspicious one, you yourself go over to the west of the briny sea.&lt;/strong&gt; If this is carried out, all the Suras will be rid of their fear. Otherwise they will be burned by the Vadava through its refulgence. So, save Vibudhas (Suras) &#xA;  from this terrible fear. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;21-23. On hearing the words uttered by Visnu, the Great- &#xA;  grandfather sniffed the head of his virgin daughter and said &#xA;  lovingly: &lt;strong&gt;“O fair lady, do go. Save all the Devas caught in the &#xA;  midst of fearful danger. Take this Vadava with you and cast it &#xA;  into the salt sea.”&lt;/strong&gt; On hearing her father’s words she said:&#xA;  Sarasvati said: At your instance, O dear father, I am now setting out &#xA;  undoubtedly. &lt;strong&gt;This Vadava fire is very horrendous. He will consume &#xA;  my body.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;24-30. It is the advent of the terrible Kali Age now on the &#xA;  earth. O Lord, folks of evil conduct will be coming into contact &#xA;  with me. What can be more painful than contact with sinners! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next verses actually give the reason why the river disappears at certain places and resurfaces at others:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma said: &lt;strong&gt;If you do not like the earth’s surface fully infested with &#xA;  sinful folks, do take the Vahni (Fire) to the great ocean con- &#xA;  fining yourself to the Patalatala (nether worlds).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;44-48 With the rapidity of her current, she pierced the ground &#xA;  and came to the surface of the Earth. &lt;strong&gt;Whenever she (the river) &#xA;  became weary and got scorched by the Vadava fire, the river &#xA;  became visible in the mortal world.&lt;/strong&gt; Thereupon, Praci (Eastern quarter) became scorched by the Vadava. Thereat all the Tirthas glorified by the ancient &#xA;  seers, O beautiful woman, the Tirthas of heaven, intermediate &#xA;  space and the earth asserted their presence there. &lt;strong&gt;On being &#xA;  consoled by them, the river Sarasvati went over to the nether &#xA;  worlds to the ocean, the abode of sharks and &#xA;  crocodiles.&lt;/strong&gt; O beautiful woman among the Suras, she (river) reached &#xA;  Khadiramoda and there saw the ocean. Afterwards she took up &#xA;  the Vahni and began to proceed onwards. She thought of the fact that it was at the behest of the Lord that she had herself taken up the burden and was there- &#xA;  fore delighted. &lt;strong&gt;With a clear conscience, she went ahead facing &#xA;  the South.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next verses mention how she splits into five channels just before entering the ocean. This is clearly the description of a delta formed by the river before she joins the sea:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;52-56. Thereupon, she began to reflect, ‘How can I attain &#xA;  some merit!’ Further the chaste lady (river) was afraid of the &#xA;  curse (of the sages). &lt;strong&gt;She then turned herself into one of five &#xA;  channels.&lt;/strong&gt; O lady of excellent complexion (Gauri), she propiti- &#xA;  ated each of the sages. Then, she had five different names on &#xA;  the earth. &lt;strong&gt;They are: HarinI, VajrinI, Nyariku, Kapila, and Sarasvati.&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;  The river Sarasvati flowing in five channels shall dispel all the &#xA;  five sins of men if they plunge into it or drink the waters. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next verses even mention the destruction of a mountain standing in its path probably referring to an actual geographical event:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;88-89. “I am alone and isolated. I lament. Still if you are &#xA;  inclined to marry me, hold this Vadava in your hands while I &#xA;  take my holy bath.” 89. When this was said, Krtasmara, the excellent Moun- &#xA;  tain, seized the Vadava handed over by Sarasvatl. Due to its &#xA;  contact, &lt;strong&gt;Krtasmara was reduced to (a heap of) ash insta- &#xA;  ntly.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;91&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After burning Krtasmara and holding the Vadava once &#xA;  again, the divine lady (river) came near the sea and stood &#xA;  there with hairs standing on end due to delight. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I hope these references help you understand some of the geological events from ancient scriptures.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-21T05:49:11.853" LastActivityDate="2018-02-21T05:49:11.853" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19795" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-26T09:23:15.937" Score="1" ViewCount="95" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two ways to attain Moksha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Practice or take attainment in one own's hand. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Surrender or accepting oneself incapable, giving up self striving &amp;amp; surrender the fate to the Lord. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Vaishnavism by Ramanujacharya aims at later one as a sole way to attain Moksha owing to incapability of Kaliyuga's people of self striving (Tapas) which they call Sharangati. I have found the following story based on Sharangati while listening a discourse. Would like to know the story along with the sources. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once In the Vaikuntha, Lord Vishnu suddenly prepared to go for Mrityuloka. On asking the reason by Goddess Lakshmi he told he was about to go there to save his devotee who has surrendered his life unto him. The devotee was  beaten by mob with stones. Within moments he came back. On asking by Goddess whether he saved him or not, Lord Vishnu answered in negation. On further enquiry by Goddess why he didn't went to Mrityulok to save his devotee he answered his devotee &lt;strong&gt;picked up stones to save himself&lt;/strong&gt; so called off his visit.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As evident from the passage this story highlights the meaning of Sharangati. But at the same time, compels me to wonder whether this is inactivity in name of divinity or not? Are we not supposed to even save ourselves? - forms my second question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T09:23:15.937" Title="Story of Sharangati" Tags="|vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19796" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-26T09:42:40.990" Score="5" ViewCount="819" Body="&lt;p&gt;The entire story of Vishwamitra's ascension to Brahmarishi status is dotted with his conflicts with Devas especially Indra. Indra sent Menaka to disturb the rishi's penance and the Satyavrat episode also pitched Vishwamitra &amp;amp; the king of heavens against each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is it then that the Brahmarishi sings verses in praise of Indra in the Rigved like the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv03032.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;below verse (RV 3.32)&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8 &lt;strong&gt;Many are Indra's nobly wrought achievements, and none of all the Gods transgress his statutes.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  He beareth up this earth and heaven, and, doer of marvels, he begot the Sun and Morning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9 &lt;strong&gt;Herein, O Guileless One,&lt;/strong&gt; is thy true greatness, that soon as born thou drankest up the Soma.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Days may not check the power of thee the Mighty, nor the nights, Indra, nor the months, nor autumns.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-18T06:28:20.550" LastActivityDate="2018-02-01T14:05:09.827" Title="Vishwamitra &amp; Indra were enemies so why does the Brahmarishi sing verses in praise of Indra?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|indra|rishi|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19797" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19810" CreationDate="2017-07-26T10:40:02.927" Score="8" ViewCount="3699" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv06020.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 6.20.2&lt;/a&gt; of Rigved says that Indra 'leagued' with Vishnu to destroy Vritra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 Even as the power of Dyaus, to thee, O Indra, all Asura sway was by the Gods entrusted,&#xA;  When thou, Impetuous! &lt;strong&gt;leagued with Viṣṇu, slewest Vṛtra the Dragon who enclosed the waters.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 Indra, Strong, Victor, Mightier than the mighty, addressed with prayer and perfect in his splendour,&#xA;  Lord of the bolt that breaketh forts in pieces, became the King of the sweet juice of Soma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How did Vishnu help Indra in killing Vritra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2019-10-18T11:41:26.420" Title="How did Vishnu help Indra in killing Vritra?" Tags="|vishnu|rig-veda|indra|asuras|gods|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19798" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19800" CreationDate="2017-07-26T11:51:19.773" Score="7" ViewCount="809" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Shanti Parva of Mahabharat &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION CCCXXXVII&lt;/a&gt; the following verse is mentioned:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;King Uparichara, otherwise called Vasu, became a disciple of Vrihaspati and soon became the foremost of his disciples. Admitted as such, he began to study at the feet of his preceptor that science which was composed by the seven Rishis who were (otherwise) known by the name of &lt;strong&gt;Chitrasikhandins&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is who were these rishis? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-22T07:08:01.963" LastActivityDate="2017-12-22T07:08:01.963" Title="Who were the seven rishis called Chitrashikhandins?" Tags="|mahabharata|rishi|saptarshi|vasu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19799" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7686" CreationDate="2017-07-26T12:13:33.170" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe the following passage from the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c039.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shanti Parva SECTION CCCXL&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; of the MAHABHARAT gives us the answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I shall (taking the sovereignty of the three worlds Vali) restore it to Indra of immeasurable splendour, and replace the deities, O Narada, in their respective stations. As regards Vali, that foremost of Danavas, who is to be unslayable by all the deities, I shall cause him to dwell in the nether regions. In the Treta age I shall take birth as Rama in the race of Bhrigu, and exterminate the Kshatriyas who will become proud of their strength and possessions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Towards the close of Treta and the beginning of Dwapara,&lt;/strong&gt; I shall take birth as Rama, the son of Dasaratha in Iskshaku's royal line. At that time, the two Rishis viz., the two sons of Prajapati, called by the names of &lt;strong&gt;Ekata and Dwita, will in consequence of the injury done by them unto their brother Trita, have to take birth as apes,&lt;/strong&gt; losing the beauty of the human form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those apes that shall take birth in the race of Ekata and Dwita, shall become endued with great strength and mighty energy and will equal Sakra himself in prowess. &lt;strong&gt;All those apes, O regenerate one, will become my allies for accomplishing the business of the deities.&lt;/strong&gt; I shall then slay the terrible lord of the Rakshasas, that wretch of Pulastya's race, viz., the fierce Ravana, that throne of all the worlds, together with all his children and followers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-12-15T08:47:15.897" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19800" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19798" CreationDate="2017-07-26T12:28:39.247" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chitrashikhandins are seven great sages &lt;code&gt;(Sapta Maharshi)&lt;/code&gt; viz. Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulah, Kratu, and Vashishtha. It is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://kjc-sv013.kjc.uni-heidelberg.de/dcs/index.php?contents=texte&amp;amp;PhraseID=347787&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Shanti Parva&lt;/a&gt; (12.322.27).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मरीचिरत्र्यङ्गिरसौ पुलस्त्यः पुलहः क्रतुः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वसिष्ठश्च महातेजा एते चित्रशिखण्डिनः ||२७||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;marīcir atryaṅgirasau pulastyaḥ pulahaḥ kratuḥ / (27.1)&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  vasiṣṭhaśca mahātejā &lt;strong&gt;ete citraśikhaṇḍinaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; // (27.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The seven celebrated Rishis, viz., Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, and Vasishta of great energy, who came to be known by the name of Chitra-sikhandins &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c035.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-07-26T13:11:39.157" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T13:11:39.157" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19801" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19797" CreationDate="2017-07-26T13:47:04.177" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The full story is described in Srimad Bhagvata MahaPurana, Skandha 6, Adhyaya 9 to 12.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 6.9: Appearance of the Demon Vṛtrāsura&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 6.10: The Battle Between the Demigods and Vṛtrāsura&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 6.11: The Transcendental Qualities of Vṛtrāsura&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 6.12: Vṛtrāsura’s Glorious Death&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 6.9.18 — That very fearful demon, who was actually the son of Tvaṣṭā, covered all the planetary systems by dint of austerity. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore he was named Vṛtra&lt;/strong&gt;, or one who covers everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 6.9.19 — The demigods, headed by Indra, charged the demon with their soldiers, striking him with their own transcendental bows and arrows and other weapons but Vṛtrāsura swallowed all their weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 6.9.20 — Struck with wonder and disappointment upon seeing the strength of the demon, the demigods lost their own strength. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore they all met together to try to please the Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, by worshiping Him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu guided Indra and other Devas to go to Rishi Dadhichi which will award you his body. By making Astra (wapon) called thunderbolt (Vajra) from his body by Vishwakarma, Indra can kill Vritra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 6.9.54 — When the Aśvinī-kumāras beg for Dadhyañca’s body on your behalf, he will surely give it because of affection. Do not doubt this, for Dadhyañca is very experienced in religious understanding. When Dadhyañca awards you his body, Viśvakarmā will prepare a thunderbolt from his bones. This thunderbolt will certainly kill Vṛtrāsura &lt;strong&gt;because it will be invested with My power.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 6.10.13-14 — Thereafter, King Indra very firmly took up the thunderbolt manufactured by Viśvakarmā from the bones of Dadhīci. Charged with the exalted power of Dadhīci Muni and &lt;strong&gt;enlightened by the power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead,&lt;/strong&gt; Indra rode on the back of his carrier, Airāvata, surrounded by all the demigods, while all the great sages offered him praise. Thus he shone very beautifully, pleasing the three worlds as he rode off to kill Vṛtrāsura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vritrasura also accepted this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 6.11.20 — O Indra, King of heaven, the thunderbolt you carry to kill me has been &lt;strong&gt;empowered by the prowess of Lord Viṣṇu&lt;/strong&gt; and the strength of Dadhīci’s austerities. Since you have come here to kill me in accordance with Lord Viṣṇu’s order, there is no doubt that I shall be killed by the release of your thunderbolt. Lord Viṣṇu has sided with you. Therefore your victory, opulence and all good qualities are assured.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Vishnu helped Indra and for the way of killing Vritra. He guided him how to make Vajra (thunderbolt) that can kill Vritra and he also powered that Astra (weapon) so-that Indra could won Vritra. (&lt;em&gt;It can also be said Indra got Vajra with the help of Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T13:59:16.947" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19802" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19767" CreationDate="2017-07-26T14:50:16.780" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't have the book in English so have no other option than attach the image in Bengali. This is what you wanted. This is from &quot;Astom porichad&quot; of 1st part of kathamrita. In Bengali pdf, it is in page no. 92. Please have a look on kathamrita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0ar2J.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation of the highlighted part:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Sri Ramakrishna says to Balarama] In my present state of my mind &lt;strong&gt;I can eat&#xA;  a little fish soup if it has been offered to the Divine Mother&#xA;  beforehand. I can't eat any meat, even if it is offered to the Divine&#xA;  Mother; but I taste it with the end of my finger lest She should be&#xA;  angry. (Laughter.)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-26T17:10:20.443" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T17:10:20.443" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19803" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19767" CreationDate="2017-07-26T15:31:56.320" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/GospelOfSriRamakrishnaTheMahendranathGupta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gospel Of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/a&gt; is English translation of Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita by Mahendranath Gupta. The book describes conversations of Sri Ramakrishna with his disciples, devotees, and visitors, recorded by Mahendranāth Gupta, who wrote the book under the pseudonym of &quot;M.&quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will provide an answer from this book translated into English by &lt;strong&gt;Swami Nikhilananda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna says he can eat fish soup it was offered Goddess Kali beforehand and jokingly says  he will taste sip of meat, to avoid wrath of Goddess, if it was offered to Kali beforehand. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Swamiji says to his devotees Balaram and M (Mahendranath Gupta).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Swamiji says to Balaram) &quot;A certain person came here the other day. How impudent&#xA;  he was to say to you the other day, 'A paramahamsa came to my father,&#xA;  who fed him with chicken curry!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In my present of my mind I can eat a little &lt;strong&gt;fish soup&lt;/strong&gt; if it has been&#xA;  offered to the Divine Mother beforehand. I can't eat any &lt;strong&gt;meat&lt;/strong&gt;, even if&#xA;  it is offered to the Divine Mother; but I taste it with the end of my&#xA;  finger &lt;strong&gt;lest She should be angry. (Laughter.)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Ramakrishna also says the same to other devotee Adhar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ADHAR (to the Master): &quot;Sir, I have a question to ask. Is it good to&#xA;  sacrifice animals before the Deity? It certainly involves killing.&quot;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MASTER: &quot;The sastra prescribes sacrifice on special occasions. Such&#xA;  sacrifice is not harmful. Take, for instance, the sacrifice of a goat&#xA;  on the eighth day of the full or new moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;I am now in such a state of mind that I cannot watch a sacrifice.&#xA;  Also I cannot eat meat offered to the Divine Mother. Therefore I first&#xA;  touch my finger to it, then to my head, lest She should be angry with&#xA;  me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Again, in a certain state of mind I see God in all beings, even in an&#xA;  ant. At that time, if I see a living being die, I find consolation in&#xA;  the thought that it is the death of the body, the soul being beyond&#xA;  life and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;One should not reason too much; it is enough if one loves the Lotus&#xA;  Feet of the Mother. Too much reasoning throws the mind into confusion.&#xA;  You get clear water if you drink from the surface of a pool. Put your&#xA;  hand deeper and stir the water, and it becomes muddy. Therefore pray&#xA;  to God for devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Behind Dhruva's devotion there was desire. He practised austerities&#xA;  to gain his father's kingdom. But Prahlada's love for God was&#xA;  motiveless-a love that sought no return.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can consider Swami Ramakrishna was &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15640/3500&quot;&gt;following Scriptures&lt;/a&gt; which say one doesn't incur any sin if he/she eats meat offered to Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-26T15:37:31.243" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T15:37:31.243" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19804" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-26T15:34:24.550" Score="2" ViewCount="1219" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many western scholars agree that Puranas were written during 2nd century and so on.but some scholars give date before 200 BC. Like some scholars agree Vishnu Purana to be written in 3rd century, while some scholars give the date before 300 BC? So when exactly they were written?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-07-28T05:01:41.040" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T05:01:41.040" Title="When exactly were the puranas were written?" Tags="|puranas|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19805" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17597" CreationDate="2017-07-26T16:08:05.823" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The tale of King Sagara seems to have support Pangea super-continent and its division into two as Laurasia and Gondwanaland.As per continental drift theory, once only one super continent existed and it was surrounded by oceans all the side:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tat gacchata vicinvadhvam putrakaa bhadram astu vah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;samudra maaliniim sarvaam prithiviim anugacchata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Oh, sons, you may therefore proceed to search for the horse and its&#xA;    thief on this Entire &lt;strong&gt;Earth which is Garlanded by the Ocean&lt;/strong&gt;. Safety&#xA;    upon you all. [Ramayana : 1-39-13]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many years later King Sagara’s descendant, King Bhageeratha brought the Ganges River to the Earth planet in order to liberate the Souls of the Sons of Sagara who had been burnt to Ashes by the Sonic energy of Sage Kapila.&#xA;Bhageeratha is described as guiding the Ganga into the Ocean-like Ditch created by the Sons of Sagara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa gatvaa saagaram raajaa gangayaa anugatas tadaa pravivesha talam&#xA;  bhuumeh yatra te bhasmasaat kritaah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;King Bhageeratha followed by Ganga has gone to the Ocean-like Ditch&#xA;    which was dredged up by the sons of Sagara, and entered the&#xA;    subterranean regions of earth where the sons of Sagara were rendered&#xA;    into ashes. Thus Viswamitra continued his narration about the Descent&#xA;    of river Ganga. [Ramayana : 1-44-1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Ramayana, over 100,000 years earlier, the 60,000 sons of Sagara, had been born from an Egg-like guard. They were then placed for a long duration into test tubes and nurtured within them, clone-like, until they were youths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ghrita puurnesu kumbhesu dhaatryah taan samavardhayan kaalena mahataa&#xA;  sarve yauvanam pratipedire&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;The caretakers brought up those siblings in vessels filled with ghee,&#xA;    clarified butter, and after a protracted [delayed] time all of the&#xA;    children attained youthfulness. [Ramayana : 1-38-18]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Geological Sciences refer to a time when “The Tethys Sea began dividing Pangaea into two super continents, Laurasia and Gondwana.”&#xA;And “The Tethys Sea was an ocean that existed between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia during much of the Mesozoic era, before the opening of the Indian and Atlantic oceans during the Cretaceous period.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Ramayana this dividing of the Single Earth’s landmass and the creation of Ocean-like ditches began when the 60,000 sons of King Sagara embarked on their mission to find their Father King Sagara’s Sacred Horse.&#xA;Indra had taken the guise of a Demon and stolen the sacred horse.&#xA;Their father King Sagara thus ordered his sons :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;eka ekam yojanam putraa vistaaram abhigacchata yaavat turaga&#xA;  sa.ndarshah taavat khanata mediniim tam eva haya hartaaram&#xA;  maargamaanaa mama aajnayaa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;‘Oh, sons, let each prince advance searching one square yojana of the&#xA;    Earth. By my order you dig up the earth until you find the horse, in&#xA;    your search of the thief of that horse’. [Ramayana : 1-39-14b, 15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus after searching the entire Earth, which at the time was a Single Landmass Surrounded by a Single Ocean, the Princes continued seeking the Sacred Horse by digging into the Earth.&#xA;In this way they Divided the Continent into sections thus signifyng the initial separation of the Continents. Based upon this feat of the Princes the Oceans were named after their father King Sagara. And thus the world’s Oceans are referred to as Sagar even today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; I don't know whether humans existed in that time when Pangea is divided into two as per science, but this story seems to have support this view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.booksfact.com/puranas/pangea-supercontinent-map-description-in-ramayana.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-07-27T06:28:47.960" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T06:28:47.960" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19806" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19808" CreationDate="2017-07-26T16:56:39.067" Score="4" ViewCount="969" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sahasra-namnam punyanam, trir-avrttya tu yat phalam;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;ekavrttya tu krsnasya, namaikam tat prayacchati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: If one utters shri-krishna-nama once, one obtains the same&#xA;  result that comes from chanting the pure visnu-sahasranama&#xA;  three times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where is the above verse found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many websites claim the above verse is found in the Brahmanda Purana while some say the Brahma Vaivarta Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-26T17:54:37.720" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T07:27:46.980" Title="Where is the verse ''sahasra-namnam punyanam... prayacchati'' found?" Tags="|shloka|identification-request|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19807" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19772" CreationDate="2017-07-26T17:28:08.407" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is not much highlighted role of Shatrughna in Ramayana but his small role is very illustrious. The story starts with the birth of four brothers where Lakshamana was devoted to Lord Rama so was Shatrughna to Bharata. It is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga18/bala_18_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Sarga 18&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भरतस्य अपि शत्रुघ्नो लक्ष्मण अवरजो हि सः || १-१८-३२&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  प्राणैः प्रियतरो नित्यम् तस्य च आसीत् तथा प्रियः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lakshmana's younger brother Shatrughna is a dear one to Bharata, like that Bharata too held Shatrughna dearer than his own lives. [1-18-32b, 33a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Shatrughna was married to Shrutakiirti, daughter of Kushidhvaja as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga73/bala_73_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda, Sarga 73&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शत्रुघ्नम् च अपि धर्माअत्मा अब्रवीत् मिथिलेश्वरः || १-७३-३२&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  श्रुतकीर्तेः महाबाहो पाणिम् गृह्णीष्व पाणिना |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That honourable king of Mithila even said to Shatrughna, &quot;oh, dextrous Shatrughna, take the palm of Shrutakiirti into yours... [1-73-32b, 33a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वे भवन्तः सौंयाः च सर्वे सुचरित व्रताः || १-७३-३३&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  पत्नीभिः सन्तु काकुत्स्था मा भूत् कालस्य पर्ययः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Oh, Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, Shatrughna ... you all are tender-hearted, well-behaved and well-intentioned brothers from Kakutstha lineage... without lapse of time take up other ceremonies...&quot; So said Janaka to bridegrooms. [1-73-33b, 34a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shatrughna was also devoted to Lord Rama and Lakshamana along with Bharata. When Bharata and Shatrughna returned from their maternal place and heard about the death of Dasharatha and going of Rama, Lakshamana and Seeta to forest, they became very sad and angry. When Shatrughna got to know that Manthara was the main culprit, he punished her. It is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga78/ayodhya_78_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 78&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अत्र यात्राम् समीहन्तम् शत्रुघ्नः लक्ष्मण अनुजः |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  भरतम् शोक सम्तप्तम् इदम् वचनम् अब्रवीत् || २-७८-१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter, Shatrughna the younger brother of Lakshmana spoke the following words to Bharata, who was tormented with grief and who desired to undertake an expedition to Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गतिर् यः सर्व भूतानाम् दुह्खे किम् पुनर् आत्मनः |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  स रामः सत्त्व सम्पन्नः स्त्रिया प्रव्राजितः वनम् || २-७८-२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;When that even-minded Rama is a refuge for all beings, how much more to tell about our seeking solace to him in our grief? He has been abandoned to the forest by a woman.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बलवान् वीर्य सम्पन्नो लक्ष्मणो नाम यो अपि असौ |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  किम् न मोचयते रामम् कृत्वा अपि पितृ निग्रहम् || २-७८-३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Why the so-called Lakshmana, the strong and powerful man, even could not rescue Rama from distress by making our father to restrain from doing it?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While he was talking thus, Manthara came there and then Shatrughna punished her but she was saved by Bharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तीव्रम् उत्पादितम् दुह्खम् भ्रातृऋणाम् मे तथा पितुः |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  यया सा इयम् नृशंसस्य कर्मणः फलम् अश्नुताम् || २-७८-११&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Let this woman, who created serious misfortune to my brothers and my father, receive the fruit of her cruel act.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In anger, Shatrughna also told some harsh words to Kaikeyi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स बली बलवत् क्रोधात् गृहीत्वा पुरुष ऋषभः |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  कैकेयीम् अभिनिर्भर्त्स्य बभाषे परुषम् वचः || २-७८-१९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shatrughna, the strong and the eminent man, thus violently seizing her with rage, sharply rebuked Kaikeyi and spoke harsh words to her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After that Bharata along with Shatrughna went to forest to bring Rama back but didn't succeed. After that Shatrughna played an important role to manage the city of Ayodhya along with Bharata in absence of Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the most heroic work of Shatrughna was defeating Lavanasura, the nephew of Ravana. It is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-vrm:ram7-82&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Uttara Kanda, Sarga 82&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereupon expandiag his bow up to ears, Satrughna, the most accomplished archer, discharged his arrow against the spacious breast of Lavana. And piercing his heat that arrow entered speedily into Rasatala And having entered Rasatala tha arrow, honored by the Devas, again came to the descendant of Raghu. And being pierced by that shaft the night ranger Lavana fell down on earth like a mountain clapped by a thunder bolt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what I get from above verses is Shatrughna was a devoted brother and son, kind hearted husband, knower of Dharma, a good governor and a brave warrior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T17:28:08.407" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19808" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19806" CreationDate="2017-07-26T17:41:01.653" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is 19th verse in &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 36 Upodhgatapada of Brahmanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;. Sesha says this to Dharani (Goddess Earth) (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/BrahmandaPurana_37/BrahmandaPurana-G.v.tagare-Part2#page/n287/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Translated&lt;/a&gt; by GV Tagore)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सहस्रनाम्नां पुण्यानां त्रिरावृत्त्या तु यत्फलम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    एकावृत्त्या तु कृष्णस्य नामैकं तत्प्रयच्छति  १९  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sahasranāmnāṃ puṇyānāṃ trirāvṛttyā tu yatphalam &lt;br&gt;ekāvṛttyā tu kṛṣṇasya nāmaikaṃ tatprayacchati (19) &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By a simple repetition, a single name of Krsna  yields that fruit which is yielded by repeating three times the  thousand holy names. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-27T07:27:46.980" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T07:27:46.980" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19810" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19797" CreationDate="2017-07-26T21:53:14.653" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a slightly different version of the story of Vritra as mentioned in the Mahabharata. There Indra is defeated by Vritra, gets advice from Vishnu, befriends Vritra based on that advice, and later kills Vritra by throwing foam infused with Vishnu's power on him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(All of the following are from K.M. Ganguly's translation of Vyasa's MahaBharata)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MahaBharata Udyoga Parva, Section 9: Indra is defeated by Vritra:&lt;/strong&gt; Long story but Twashta creates Vritra since Indra kills his son. Vritra trounces Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MahaBharata Udyoga Parva, Section 10: Indra asks Vishnu for help and hatches a plan:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Indra said, This whole indestructible universe, O gods, hath been pervaded by Vritra. There is nothing that can be equal to the task of opposing him. I was capable of yore, but now I am incapable. What good betide you, can I do? I believe him to be unapproachable. Powerful and magnanimous, possessing immeasurable strength in fight, he would be able to swallow up all the three worlds with the gods, the Asuras, and the men. Therefore, hear ye dwellers of heaven, this is my resolution. Proceeding to the abode of Vishnu, in company with that high-souled Being must we consult, and ascertain the means of slaying this ruthless wretch.' &quot;Salya continued, 'Indra having thus spoken, the gods with that host of Rishis repaired to the mighty god Vishnu to place themselves under the-protection of that protector of all. And afflicted with the dread of Vritra, they said unto the Supreme Lord of the deities. Thou hadst in former times covered the three worlds with three steps. Thou hadst procured the ambrosial food, O Vishnu, and destroyed the Asuras in battle. Thou didst bind the great Asura Vali and hadst raised Indra to the throne of heaven. Thou art the lord of the gods, and this entire universe is pervaded by thee. Thou art the God, the mighty Deity, saluted by all persons. Be thou the refuge of all the celestials together with Indra, O best of gods. The whole universe, O slayer of Asuras, hath been pervaded by Vritra. &lt;strong&gt;And Vishnu said, 'I am no doubt bound to do what is for your good. I shall, therefore, tell you of a contrivance whereby he may be annihilated. Do ye with the Rishis and the Gandharvas repair to the place where Vritra that bearer of a universal form is and adopt towards him a conciliatory policy. You will thus succeed in overthrowing him. By virtue of my power, victory, ye gods, will be won by Indra, for, remaining invisible, I shall enter into his thunderbolt, that best of weapons. O foremost of gods, depart ye with the Rishis and the Gandharvas. Let there be no delay in effecting a peace between Indra and Vritra.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MahaBharata Udyoga Parva, Section 10: Indra slays Vritra with Vishnu's &#xA;help:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus peace having been concluded, Vritra was very much pleased. And Indra also became pleased though constantly occupied with the thought of killing Vritra. And the chief of the deities passed his time in search of a loophole, uneasy (in mind). And on a certain day when it was evening and the hour awful, Indra caught sight of the mighty Asura on the coast of the sea. And he bethought himself of the boon that was granted to the illustrious Asura, saying, 'This is the awful evening time; it is neither day, nor night; and this Vritra, my enemy, who hath stripped me of my all, must undoubtedly be killed by me. If I do not kill Vritra, this great and mighty Asura of gigantic frame, even by deceit, it will not go well with me.' And as Indra thought of all this, bearing Vishnu in mind he beheld at that instant in the sea a mass of froth as large as a hill. And he said, 'This is neither dry, nor wet, nor is it a weapon; let me hurl it at Vritra. Without doubt, he will die immediately.' &lt;strong&gt;And he threw at Vritra that mass of froth blended with the thunderbolt. And Vishnu, having entered within that froth, put an end to the life of Vritra.&lt;/strong&gt; And when Vritra was killed, the cardinal points were free from gloom; and there also blew a pleasant breeze; and all beings were much pleased.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This leads to Indra getting ashamed and fleeing from the scene and later Nahusha becoming the new Indra and getting cursed by Agastya etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastEditorUserId="4133" LastEditDate="2017-07-27T02:04:49.980" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T02:04:49.980" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19812" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20053" CreationDate="2017-07-26T22:34:57.963" Score="9" ViewCount="18483" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have recited this stotra since I was a child and although I have understood the meaning of some parts of it, I would love to get the meaning of the entire prayer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.voidcan.org/maruti-stotra/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;full text&lt;/a&gt; for reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The language it is written in is Marathi, but anyone with knowledge of any Sanskrit based language may be able to interpret it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11536" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-05T04:40:44.230" LastActivityDate="2024-01-08T09:37:21.190" Title="What is meaning of the Maruti-stotra composed by Ramdas swami?" Tags="|hanuman|language|stotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19813" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13535" CreationDate="2017-07-26T23:45:21.007" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You don't have to know any meaning of any words. You don't have to learn any Sanskrit. Feel the devotion and recite. The more you put in your mind with understanding, the ego grows and thoughts multiply. The aim of this path is to be free from thoughts and not accumulate more. I have learned many mantras without knowing what any of it means, but only my love and deep feeling of devotion. More than your understanding, your feelings have to be there. Recite each line multiple times until you can repeat without reading. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the best to you!&#xA;God's Grace.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11537" LastActivityDate="2017-07-26T23:45:21.007" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19814" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-27T04:33:13.207" Score="12" ViewCount="2252" Body="&lt;p&gt;The gods generally have a humanoid form: one head, two eyes, two ears, two arms, two legs, etc.  Of course some gods have individual variations: Vishnu has four arms, Brahma has four heads, Indra has a thousand eyes, Ganesha has an elephant head, etc. But they're all variations on the standard human form.  My question is, why do the gods, as well as other races like Asuras and Gandharvas, resemble human beings rather than other animals?  Or to put it another way, why is it that humans resemble the gods, Asuras, Gandharvas, etc., and other animals do not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I ask is that critics of religion often use the anthropomorhic appearance of the gods to argue that the gods were invented by humans.  For instance the Greek philosopher Xenophenes said &quot;But if cattle and horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do, horses like horses and cattle like cattle also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies of such a sort as the form they themselves have.&quot; Has Hindu scripture given a response to such critiques?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jews and Christians believe that God created man in his own image.  Does Hinduism suggest a similar explanation for the appearance of humans?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: I'm not looking for symbolic explanations of the appearances of gods, or speculation that the appearances of gods are just how humans conceive of Brahman. I'm looking for answers that take for granted that there really is a thousand-eyed god in Swarga named Indra, a four-headed god in Brahmaloka named Brahma, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-26T04:32:54.840" LastActivityDate="2022-12-04T23:36:42.700" Title="Why do the gods look like human beings?" Tags="|gods|animals|human|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19815" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-27T04:47:25.747" Score="13" ViewCount="3730" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though Krishna and Rama are said to be incarnations of Vishnu, many scriptures tell us that names of Krishna and Rama are superior to the name of Lord Vishnu. In the Padma Purana Lord Shiva tells Mata Parvati the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ishwara uvacha, ''rama rameti rameti, rame rame manorame;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     sahasra-namabhis tulyam, rama-nama varanane''&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ishwara said, &quot;O beautiful one, I chant the holy name of Rama, Rama, Rama and thus constantly enjoy this beautiful sound. This holy name of Rama (Ramachandra) is equal to one thousand holy names of Lord Vishnu.&quot; (&lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana, Uttara-Khanda 71.331&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Padma Purana also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;visnor ekaika namapi, sarva vedadhikam matam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   tadrk nama sahasrena, rama nama samasmrtam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Each Name of Lord Vishnu is greater and more potent than the entire Vedas combined together, and Lord  Rama's Name alone is more superior than a thousand Names of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then in the Brahmanda Purana 2.36.19, Sheshnaga says to Mother Earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;''sahasra-namnam punyanam, trir-avrttya tu yat phalam;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;      ekavrttya tu krsnasya, namaikam tat prayacchati''&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;''If one utters Shri-Krishna-nama once, one obtains the same result that comes from chanting the pure Vishnu-Sahasranama (a thousand Names of Lord Vishnu) three times.''&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why is this that the names of Lord Krishna and Rama are superior to the name of Lord Vishnu if the latter is the source of Lord Krishna and Rama? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-02-12T17:18:30.387" LastActivityDate="2021-10-14T17:30:12.403" Title="Why are the names of Lord Krishna and Lord Rama superior to the name of Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|krishna|rama|name|padma-purana|brahmanda-purana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19816" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19819" CreationDate="2017-07-27T05:00:25.907" Score="7" ViewCount="2578" Body="&lt;p&gt;Goloka Vrindavana, the spiritual abode of Lord Krishna is mentioned in many places in the Srimad Bhagavatam and the Brahma Vaivarta Purana. Are there any other puranas apart from these where Goloka Vrindavana is mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-08-17T19:51:59.467" LastActivityDate="2022-09-15T07:04:13.367" Title="Apart from the Srimad Bhagavatam and the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, is Goloka Vrindavana mentioned anywhere?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavata-purana|brahma-vaivarta-purana|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19817" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17357" CreationDate="2017-07-27T05:11:32.527" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Regarding this, Ramana Maharshi said this (From the book teachings of Bhagwan sre Ramana Maharshi)-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Bhagavan said: “The names and forms which&#xA;  constitute the world continually change and perish and are&#xA;  therefore called unreal. It is unreal (imaginary) to limit the Self to these names and forms and real to regard all as the Self. &lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;  non-dualist says that the world is unreal, but he also says, ‘All&#xA;  this is Brahman’. So it is clear that what he condemns is,&#xA;  regarding the world as objectively real in itself, not regarding it&#xA;  as Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; He who sees the Self sees the Self alone in the&#xA;  world also. It is immaterial to the Enlightened whether the world&#xA;  appears or not. In either case, his attention is turned to the Self.&#xA;  It is like the letters and the paper on which they are printed.&#xA;  You are so engrossed in the letters that you forget about the&#xA;  paper, but the Enlightened sees the paper as the substratum&#xA;  whether the letters appear on it or not&quot;. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is still more succinctly stated as follows:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Vedantins do not say that the world is unreal. That is&#xA;  a misunderstanding. If they did, what would be the meaning of&#xA;  the Vedantic text: ‘All this is Brahman’? They only mean that&#xA;  the world is unreal as world but real as Self.&lt;/strong&gt; If you regard the&#xA;  world as non-self, it is not real. Everything, whether you call it&#xA;  illusion (Maya) or Divine Play (Lila) or Energy (Shakti) must&#xA;  be within the Self and not apart from it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T05:36:20.483" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T05:36:20.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19818" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-27T06:29:32.080" Score="2" ViewCount="283" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was reading a post about cosmic science and I found that &lt;a href=&quot;http://haribhakt.com/cosmic-science-of-today-is-based-on-vedic-hindu-texts-written-thousands-of-years-ago/#Protective_Layers_Ozone_Already_Mentioned_in_Vedas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Protective Layers  Already Mentioned in Vedas&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is- Which Hindu scriptures define this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Please note that, I am not asking about scientific speculation.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10390" LastEditorUserId="10390" LastEditDate="2017-07-27T11:42:53.680" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T11:43:12.437" Title="&quot;Protective Layers&quot; according to Hindu Scriptures" Tags="|scripture|science|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19819" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19816" CreationDate="2017-07-27T06:39:17.720" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, apart from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/27/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimada Bhagavatam 10.27.1&lt;/a&gt;, Goloka is mentioned in many scriptures. While Bhagavatam describes Goloka as a place where the celestial cow Surabhi resides, but some other scriptures describe Goloka as eternal abode of Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way, O son of Kunti, assuming diverse forms do I rove at will through the Earth, the region of Brahma himself, and that other high and eternal region of felicity called Goloka. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Shanti Parva, SECTION CCCXLIII&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'O goddess, at this exhibition of thy freedom from cupidity and desire and at these penances of thine, O thou of beautiful face, I have been exceedingly gratified. I, therefore, grant thee the boon of immortality. Thou shalt dwell in a region that is higher than the three worlds, through my grace. That region shall be known to all by the name of Goloka. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b048.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Anusha Parva, SECTION LXXXIII&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-vii/chapter-48/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana, Vol 7, Chapter 48&lt;/a&gt; describes about Goloka in detail. Some excerpt are here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;12&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Having successively crossed (the sheaths of) the elements, viz. earth, water, fire, wind, and ether, Ego (Aham), Mahat and Prakrti, each of which is ten times (larger) than the previous one, he arrived at the wonderful Goloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was the glorious abode, accessible only to those exclusively devoted to Hari. While going he saw the extensively wide and fathomless river Viraja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A detailed description of Goloka is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/brahmavaivarta-purana/vol-i/chapter-02/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Vol 1, Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T06:39:17.720" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19820" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19981" CreationDate="2017-07-27T06:57:16.203" Score="5" ViewCount="119" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10489/8696&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the reason why we celebrate Naag panchmi. The answerer although embedded the way to celebrate the same very swiftly as - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one remains austere on that day, give us all that is sour in food and bathes the images of Nagas in milk, they become friendly towards him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am interested to be informed the complete ritual to follow on the day. Can anyone impart from a valid source?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T19:51:18.723" Title="How to celebrate Naag panchmi?" Tags="|puranas|naga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19821" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10036" CreationDate="2017-07-27T07:19:42.523" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;He is a great astradhari. He knows the knowledge of many astras including that of the three ultimate weapons of the trimurti's Brahmanda Astra, Vaishnava Astra and the Pashupat Astra. Source : &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indrajit&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indrajit&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10028" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T07:19:42.523" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19822" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19793" CreationDate="2017-07-27T08:00:44.337" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not aware of any such restriction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shakas (and most other Vedic traditions) are the son's responsibility to carry out, not daughters, because that is how lineage propagates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a Rigvedi brahmin man marries Yajurvedi brahmin woman, then the Rigveda tradition is continued by that couple. If it is Rigvedi woman and Yajurvedi man, then Yajurvedi tradition is continued.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, once a brahmin completes study of his birth-Veda, he can study the other Vedas.. so they are not prohibited from learning other Vedas, hence I don't see why they would be prohibited from marrying women born in families whose birth-veda is different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2019-02-20T23:04:48.430" LastActivityDate="2019-02-20T23:04:48.430" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19823" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19791" CreationDate="2017-07-27T08:19:08.143" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;It takes 12 years for Guru (Bruhaspati, Guru of Devas) aka Jupiter to complete &lt;em&gt;its&lt;/em&gt; 1 year (one revolution around sun).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/5/22/15/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam 5.22.15&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Situated 1,600,000 miles above Mars, or 10,400,000 miles above earth, is the planet Jupiter, which travels through &lt;strong&gt;one sign of the zodiac within the period of a Parivatsara.&lt;/strong&gt; If its movement is not curved, the planet Jupiter is very favorable to the brāhmaṇas of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Parivatsara is one of the name of a year. It's stated Jupiter travels one zodiac sign in a year. And as we know, there are toal 12 zodiac signs. So, it takes 12 years for a Jupiter to complete 1 revolution around sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just as humans celebrate birthday every 1 human-year, so we celebrate divine festivals like kumbh-mela every 1 Bruhaspati-year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, see 12's significance in &lt;a href=&quot;https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110418024941AAITTMF&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;comment posted by @Ajay above&lt;/a&gt; which links to yahoo answers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Mahabharata Vana Parva chapter 134, Ashtavakra says importance of each number. In regards to twelve, he says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashtavakra said, Twelve months compose the year; twelve letters go to the composition of a foot of the metre called Jagati; twelve are the minor sacrifices; and twelve, according to the learned, is the number of the Adityas.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above link has more details on importance of number twelve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-05-29T06:53:43.590" LastActivityDate="2019-05-29T06:53:43.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19824" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19826" CreationDate="2017-07-27T12:55:14.700" Score="3" ViewCount="2005" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's biography: Chaitanya Charitamrita is easily available on the web, I have been unavailable to find the complete English translation of the Chaitanya Bhagavata. Can you guys help me to find it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2019-08-12T06:34:30.170" Title="Where can I get the complete English translation of the Chaitanya Bhagavata?" Tags="|translation-request|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19825" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19820" CreationDate="2017-07-27T14:17:55.277" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;@Fire, for every Indian festival celebrated, there are two different directions of reasons or needs. One is of course, what you read in varaha purana. But the second is about fulfilling the day-to-day needs of human being, especially the rural culture needs. Today, we educated and service oriented people do not understand this very essential component of festival celebrations. Example is nag panchami. Snake was, is and will always be good friend of human being. What happens with the shelter places of snakes during monsoon, is the main reason to celebrate this festival. People do not dig the earth this day only to avoid physical harm to snakes who find it difficult to shelter. &#xA;If we can take care of these species, create awareness amongst all to protect snakes that should be the good celebration. The link &lt;a href=&quot;http://jaimaharashtratourism.blogspot.in/2011/08/how-to-do-simple-nag-panchami-pooja-at.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;how to do nag pooja&lt;/a&gt; tells the procedure to follow on this auspicious day. Hope you find this useful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10301" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T14:17:55.277" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19826" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19824" CreationDate="2017-07-27T14:20:25.520" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can read a complete English translation of Vrindavana Dasa Thakura's Chaitanya Bhagavata &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Chaitanya-Bhagavata_972&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Note that the Kandas are out of order; you should read th Adi Kanda, then the Madhya Kanda, then the Antya Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T14:20:25.520" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19827" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-27T14:36:47.917" Score="8" ViewCount="3287" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently heard in &quot;Veda parichaya&quot; in a local channel that the sounds of the alphabet(Sanskrit) originated from Lord Shiva’s ‘damru’. Can anyone elaborate on these sounds and their relation to Sanskrit. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10342" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-07-29T13:41:08.347" LastActivityDate="2017-10-15T16:16:51.227" Title="Sanskrit and Sounds of Lord Shiva" Tags="|shiva|sanskrit|etymology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19830" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-27T16:28:26.193" Score="2" ViewCount="100" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Bhagavata Purana was composed by Vyasa at the end of Dwapara Yuga. In that Purana, all the other major Puranas are mentioned. However, a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-ix/chapter-36&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter&lt;/a&gt; in Skanda Purana seems to have mentioned 12th century Jain king. If a 12th century Jain king is mentioned in Skanda Purana and that Skanda Purana is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/13/4-9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt;, does this all of them are written around 12th century AD?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T17:30:46.343" Title="Regarding some questions on date of composition of Puranas" Tags="|puranas|bhagavata-purana|skanda-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19831" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19835" CreationDate="2017-07-27T18:28:02.853" Score="10" ViewCount="1626" Body="&lt;p&gt;I need any verses from sruti literature that is Vedas, Upanishad, Brahmanas etc to get answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-28T03:27:42.730" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T08:25:53.997" Title="Which Vedic verses depict Lord Shiva/Rudra as the Brahman?" Tags="|shiva|vedas|brahman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19832" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-27T18:58:12.263" Score="3" ViewCount="323" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am planning to read the Srimad Bhagavad Gita in English but I don't know which English version I should read. It would easier for me if somebody gave me the list of all English versions of the Bhagavad Gita. (No need to mention the ''Bhagavad Gita As it is'' version by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Srila Prabhupada) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T18:58:12.263" Title="How many English translations are there of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita apart from the ''The Bhagavad Gita As it is''?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|translation-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-07-31T16:48:42.633" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19833" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19831" CreationDate="2017-07-27T23:21:34.370" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are Some verses from  sruti literature that is Vedas and Upanishad, Mainly from &lt;strong&gt;Rig-Veda  , Shvetashvatara Upanishad and The Atharvashiras Upanishad .&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here &lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/book/rigveda/v6.50&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig-Veda  Mandala 6 –Sukta 49 –Verse 10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;   says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भुवनस्य पितरं गीर्भिराभी रुद्रं दिवा वर्धया रुद्रमक्तौ | &lt;br&gt; बर्हन्तं&#xA;  रष्वमजरं सुषुम्नं रधग घुवेम कविनेषितासः || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rudra by day, Rudra at night we honour with these our songs, the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Universe's Father.&lt;/strong&gt; Him great and lofty, blissful, undecaying let us&#xA;  call specially as the Sage impels us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Rudra is referred as ‘Universe’s Father’. The Sanskrit word used is ‘Bhuvanasya which means pitaH(father) of all Bhuvanas (worlds).  (Lord or Sovereign of the Universe)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here You can also read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv06049.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv06049.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; translation. &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shvetashvatara_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shvetashvatara Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; (श्वेताश्वतरोपनिशद is an ancient Sanskrit text embedded in the Yajurveda. Verses 3.1 through 3.6 of the Svetasvatara Upanishad describe the &quot;Atman, Soul, Self&quot; as the personal God, as the one and only Lord, that resides within, the origin of all gods, calling it the Isha , Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एको हि रुद्रो न द्वितियाय तस्थु-र्य ईमाल्लोकानिशत ईशनीभि: |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रत्यङ् जनांस्तिष्ठति संकुचोचान्तकाले संयुज्य विश्वा भुवतानि गोपा:&#xA;  ||&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/Svetasvatara-Upanishad-~-Chap-3-The-Highest-Reality-1.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SU 3.2&lt;/strong&gt;||&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;eko hi rudro na dvitīyāya tasthe ya imāṃl lokān īśata īśanībhiḥ / &#xA;  &lt;br&gt; pratyaṅ janās tiṣṭhati saṃcukocāntakāle saṃsṛjya viśvā bhuvanāni&#xA;  gopāḥ // 3.2 // &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rudra is truly one; for the knowers of Brahman do not admit the&#xA;  existence of a second, He alone rules all the worlds by His powers. He&#xA;  dwells as the inner Self of every living being. After having created&#xA;  all the worlds, He, their Protector, takes them back into Himself at&#xA;  the end of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahman as the individual and the highest soul – Fourth Adhyāya&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो देवानां प्रभवश्चोद्भ्वश्च विश्वाधिपो रुद्रो महर्षि: |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हिरण्यगर्भ पश्यत जायमानं स नो बुदभ्या शुभया संयुनक्तु &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/Svetasvatara-Upanishad-~-Chap-4-The-One-God-of-the-Manifold-World-2.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;|| SU 4.12&#xA;  ||&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yo devānāṃ prabhavaś codbhavaś ca viśvādhiko rudro maharṣiḥ / &#xA;  hiraṇyagarbhaṃ paśyata jāyamānaṃ sa no buddhyā śubhayā saṃyunaktu //&#xA;  SU  4.12// &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He, the source of the gods and the bestower of their powers, the&#xA;  Support of the universe, Rudra the omniscient, who at the beginning&#xA;  gave birth to Hiranyagarbha-may He endow us with clear intellect!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;This is a prayer to Rudra for obtaining a pure, auspicious and subtle intellect so that one can realize Brahman. Rudra is described as maharshi- the omniscient seer, the creator of lesser cosmic powers such as Agni, Vayu etc., the sustainer of the universe and the creator of hiranyagarbha - &lt;strong&gt;Cosmic seed at the beginning of creation (Brahman).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Atharvashiras Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;   is one of the minor Upanishads of Hinduism. It is among the 31 Upanishads associated with the Atharvaveda. The Atharvasiras Upanishad has been an important text in the Pashupata Shaivism tradition and the Nath Yogi movement founded by Gorakhnath.[29] It contains the vow of those who enter monastic life in these traditions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rudra is the exalted one, is all gods, is universe&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ यो वै रुद्रः स भगवान्यश्च ब्रह्मा तस्मै वै नमोनमः ॥ १॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्म स एकः य एकः स रुद्रः य रुद्रः यो रुद्रः स ईशानः य ईशानः स&#xA;  भगवान् महेश्वरः ॥ ३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(He said): “I am eternal and non-eternal, I am Brahma, I am eastern and western quarters, south and north, up and down, the&#xA;  quarters and cross quarters, I am man and otherwise, woman, I am&#xA;  Gayatri, Savitri, Sarasvati, Trishtup, Jagati, and Anushtup, I am the&#xA;  metre, I am Garhapatya, Dakshina and Ahavaniya fires, I am truth, I am&#xA;  the Cow (the Cow of plenty) Gauri, the first born, superior and best,&#xA;  I am Water and Light, I am the Rik, Yajus, Saman, and Atharvangirasa,&#xA;  I am perishable and imperishable, I am to be protected and kept in&#xA;  secrecy, I am the forest, I am the lotus (universe), I am pure, top,&#xA;  center, out-side and front, and I am the light which is in ten&#xA;  quarters and otherwise.” I alone exist. All are equal to me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Next, why is it called the Supreme Brahman? The mere recitation of it makes him great.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;here is &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/atharvashira.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  Atharvashiras Upanishad and here is &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaivam.org/scripture/English-Translation/1293/atharvashira-upanishat-sastri&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-07-27T23:21:34.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19834" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19827" CreationDate="2017-07-28T00:18:18.760" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Legend has it that when Panini prayed to Shiva and asked for knowledge, Shiva appeared before him and his Damaru (डमरु) made the following 14 sounds representing the MaheshwaraSutrani (माहेश्वरसूत्राणि):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/N3BqI.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/N3BqI.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In all of Panini's grammar, there are a set of sUtras(सूत्राणि) or formulae, which represent particular rules, and in those rules, the above सूत्राणि are the basis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT:&lt;/strong&gt; This looks like a direct ripoff from the wiki page. I took the sutras from there as it was easier to type, but the simple sutra was my contribution. I'll later edit it with the sUtra for वृद्धि​ सन्धि, which is 'वृद्धिरेचि'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a simple example, the सूत्रम् for यण् सन्धि (yan-sandhi) is 'इकोयणचि', expanded as 'इको यण् अचि'. This means then इकः meets अच्, the result is यण्.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; इकः : this is comprised of letters 'इ उ ऋ ऌ' as obtained from the first and second sUtras (note the first and last letters are used to represent the range).&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;   यण् : refers to the solitary letter 'य'&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;   अच् : this is comprised of the letters 'अ इ उ ऋ ऌ ए ओ ऐ औ' from the first to fourth sUtras&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, इति + अपि = इत्यपि is a यण् सन्धि where 'इ + अ = य' is the fundamental operation from the vowels in the ends of the words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the वृद्धि सन्धि, the sUtram is 'वृद्धिरेचि' or 'वृद्धिः एचि' (which itself is a विसर्ग रेफ सन्धि) which indicates:&#xA;एचः : this indicates the letters from the third and fourth sets: 'ए ओ ऐ औ'&#xA;वृद्धि : meaning that they grow, or in this context, go to the next letter (i.e., ए =&gt; ऐ and ओ =&gt; औ)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example: दन्त + ओषठ्रौ = दन्तौष्ठ्रौ (अ + ओ = औ) (meaning tooth and lips) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Notes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Panini did not create Sanskrit or the grammar of Sanskrit. The language existed and was in use, and had a grammar before his. However his grammar is one of the systematic ones. Hence we can see some works predating Panini where there are slight deviations from his grammar. Those deviations are considered okay and acceptable.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is a legend that संस्कृतम् is गीर्वाणभारती, i.e., language of the Gods. Hence, even a डमरु of the high Gods makes sounds in संस्कृतम्. The word संस्कृतम् literally means 'correctly/nicely/well done' (सम्यक् कृतम्).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The legend does not imply that Shiva created the Sanskrit language, only that संस्कृतम् is the commonly spoken language of the Gods. Even if Indra had descended to Panini, he would have likely spoken in Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Needless to say Panini became a well enlightened and learned man after that!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastEditorUserId="10342" LastEditDate="2017-07-28T08:07:03.703" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T08:07:03.703" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19835" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19831" CreationDate="2017-07-28T02:11:55.957" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many many verses and answer would be extremely long to quote it all. I discuss how Lord Rudra is revealed in RigVeda in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17949/how-is-lord-shiva-revealed-in-the-rig-veda/17950#17950&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; and my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14206/what-is-the-vedic-origin-of-lord-shiva/14208#14208&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; also contains many Vedic quotes.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here, I'm just trying to make connection between Samhita, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Lord Rudra as One Without Second:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the main characteristic of Brahman is he is defined as One without Second ie. 'EkaEvadwitiyam'. Taittariya Samhita of YajurVeda 1.8.6.d states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एक एव रुद्र न द्वितीयाय तस्थुर्...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Eka eva rudra na dvitīyāya tasthur...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ie., &lt;strong&gt;Rudra is truly one&lt;/strong&gt; for the knowers of Brahman do not admit the existence of a second.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse is derived in Svetasvatara Upanishad 3.1 as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एको हि रुद्रो न द्वितियाय तस्थु-र्य ईमाल्लोकानिशत ईशनीभि: |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;प्रत्यङ् जनांस्तिष्ठति संकुचोचान्तकाले संयुज्य विश्वा भुवतानि गोपा: ||&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Rudra is truly one; for the knowers of Brahman do not admit the existence of a second,&lt;/strong&gt; He alone rules all the worlds by His powers. He dwells as the inner Self of every living being. After having created all the worlds, He, their Protector, takes them back into Himself at the end of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Atharvasiras too states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एको ह देवः प्रदिशो नु सर्वाः पूर्वो ह जातः स उ गर्भे अन्तः । स एव जातः जनिष्यमाणः प्रत्यङ्जनास्तिष्ठति सर्वतोमुखः । &lt;strong&gt;एको रुद्रो न द्वितीयाय&lt;/strong&gt; तस्मै य इमांल्लोकानीशत ईशनीभिः । प्रत्यङ्जनास्तिष्ठति संचुकोचान्तकाले संसृज्य विश्वा भुवनानि गोप्ता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This god is the one who pervades in all directions. He is the one who came earlier than every thing. He is the one who is in the womb. He is the one who is in all the creatures which have come out till now and all those who are going to be created in future. He is also the one who sees the inside but the one who has a face which looks outside. &lt;strong&gt;Rudra is one and only one. There is none second to him.&lt;/strong&gt; He rules all worlds by his power. He pervades fully in all beings. He is the one who, at the time of deluge, absorbs all beings. He is the one who creates all beings and upkeeps them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Lord Rudra as innate of Everything:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another Characteristic of Brahman is he is described as Antaryami or Innate of everything. Brahman has created and entered the whole Universe.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;YajurVeda Taittariya Samhita 5.5.9i states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो रुद्रो अग्नौ यो अप्सु य ओषधिषु ।&#xA;यो रुद्रो विश्वा भुवना विवेश तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु ।। (YajurVeda 5.5.9) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The Rudra in the fire, in the waters, in the plants, the Rudra that hath entered all beings, to that Rudra be homage.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse has been derived in Svetasvatara Upanishad 2.17 as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो देवो अग्नौ योऽप्सु&lt;br&gt;&#xA;        यो विश्वं भुवनमाविवेश ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;य ओषधीषु यो वनस्पतिषु&lt;br&gt;&#xA;        तस्मै देवाय नमो नमः ॥ १७॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Self—luminous Lord, &lt;strong&gt;who is in fire, who is in water, who has entered into the whole world,&lt;/strong&gt; who is in plants, who is in trees— to that Lord let there be adoration! Yea, let there be adoration!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly as I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17278/does-the-atharvasiras-derives-this-mantra-from-yajurveda-or-quotes-from-other-ve/17495#17495&quot;&gt;discuss here&lt;/a&gt; Atharvaveda Samhita 7.87 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;योऽग्नौ रुद्रो योऽप्स्वन्तर्य ओषधीर्वीरुध आविवेश ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;य इमाविश्वा भुवनानि चक्लृपे तस्मै रुद्राय नमोऽस्त्वग्नये ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;To Rudra in the fire, to him who dwells in floods, to Rudra who hath entered into herbs and plants, To him who formed and fashioned all these worlds, to him this Rudra, yea, to Agni, reverence be paid!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And same verse has been quoted by Atharvasiras Upanishad in 6.1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Lord Rudra as Everything That Exists:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahman is also defined as 'Sarva Khalvidam Brahman' or 'Whole Universe is Brahman.' Thus Brahman is every manifestation of Universe.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Lord Rudra as Everything that exists is clearly shown by the hymn from YajurVeda Samhita ie. Sri Rudram, some verses which I also discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11529/i-want-scripture-based-explanation-for-god-is-everywhere/15705#15705&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt; Some verses from Sri Rudram are as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नमो अस्तु नीलग्रीवाय सहस्राक्षाय.... नमः पाँसव्याय च रजस्याय च । नमः पर्ण्याय च पर्णशद्याय च ....  रथेभ्यो रथपतिभ्यो नमो नम.... नमः सुतायहन्ताय, रथकारेम्यो नमो नमः । .... नमो अश्वेभ्योश्वपतिभ्यश्च वो नमः ।.... नमः स्वपद्भ्यो जाग्रद्भ्यश्च वो नमः ।... नमस्तिष्ठद्भ्यो धावद्भ्यश्च वो नमः ।.... नमो विरूपेभ्यो &lt;strong&gt;विश्वरूपेभ्यश्च वो नमः&lt;/strong&gt; .... नमो ज्येष्ठाय च कनिष्ठाय च । ... नमः श्रवाय च प्रतिश्रवाय च ।... नमो मेघ्याय च विद्युत्याय च ।.... नमस्ताराय ।.... देवानाँ हृदयेभ्यः नमो ।...  (YajurVeda Samhita 16th Chapter)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Salutations to the 1000 eyed (all seeing) blue necked one. Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in speck of dust and who is in the dust from mud.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in green leaves and who is in dried leaves.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutation to him who &lt;strong&gt;is chariot, who is rider of chariot, who is charioteer and who is maker of Chariot.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him who is horse and rider of horse. Salutations to him who is in the form of Swapna (dream) state and Jagrat (awake) state. Salutations to him who stands and who runs. Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is formless and whose form is the whole Universe.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him who is eldest and who is youngest. Salutations to him &lt;strong&gt;who is in the form of Sound and in the reflection/ Echo of the sound.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations to him who is in the form of clouds and lightning. Salutations to him who is in the form of Pranava. Salutations to him who is in the heart of Gods...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly as I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18838/is-lord-shiva-clearly-noted-as-prathama-purusha-in-any-veda/18842#18842&quot;&gt;discuss here&lt;/a&gt; Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सर्वो वै रुद्रस्तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु । पुरुषो वै रुद्रः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सन्महो नमो नमः । विश्वं भूतं भुवनं चित्रं बहुधा जातं जायमानं चयत् । सर्वो ह्येष रुद्रस्तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु ॥ कद्रुद्राय प्रचेतसे मीढुष्टमाय तव्यसे । वोचेम शंतम हृदे । सर्वोह्येष रुद्रस्तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु ॥ (Krishna YajurVeda Taittariya Aranyaka 10.24.1, 10.25.1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;All this verily is Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; To Rudra who is such we offer our salutation. We salute again and again that Being, Rudra, who is Purusha. &lt;strong&gt;The material universe the created beings and whatever there is manifoldly and profusely created in the past and in the present in the form of the world, all that is indeed this Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations be to Rudra who is such. We sing a hymn that confers on us happiness in the highest degree to Rudra who is worthy of praise, who is endowed with the highest knowledge, who rains objects to the worshippers most excellently, who is more powerful and who is dwelling in the heart. Indeed all this is Rudra. Salutations be to Rudra who is such.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shatapatha Brahmana of YajurVeda also states similar things:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;....for Rudra is Agni....for Sarva is the waters....&#xA;for Pasupati is the plants...for Ugra is Vâyu.... for Asani is the lightning... for Bhava is Parjanya... for the moon is Pragâpati, and Pragâpati is Mahadeva.... for Ishana is the Sun...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the forms like Sun, Moon, Prajapati, Fire, Air, Plants, Water etc.. are all forms of Lord Shiva. A group of these Eight are also called AshtaMurti. Similarly 6.4 of Kaushitki Brahmana of RigVeda also illustrates similar thing. Same thing has been stated by Svetasvatara Upanishad in a Single verse as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदेवाग्निस्तदादित्य-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;          स्तद्वायुस्तदु चन्द्रमाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तदेव शुक्रं तद् ब्रह्म&lt;br&gt;&#xA;          तदापस्तत् प्रजापतिः ॥ २॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;That Supreme Self is Agni (Fire); It is Aditya (Sun); It is Vayu (Wind); It is Chandrama (Moon). That Self is the luminous stars; It is Hiranyagarbha; It is water; It is Virat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4) Lord Pashupati is Lord of all Pashus:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss Vedic verses about Lord Pashupati in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16594/why-is-lord-shiva-called-pashupati-who-are-the-pashus/16596#16596&quot;&gt;answer here:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;येषामीशे पशुपतिः पशूनां चतुष्पदामुत च द्विपदम् ।। [YajurVeda 3.1.4]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Which Pashus do the Pashupati rules? He rules both the two footed and four footed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in AtharvaVeda 4.28:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भवाशर्वौ मन्वे वां तस्य वित्तं ययोर्वामिदं प्रदिशि यद्विरोचते।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यावस्येशाथे द्विपदो यौ चतुष्पदस्तौ नो मुञ्चतमंहस ।। (AtharvaVeda 4.28)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Everything that shines is under your control Oh Bhava and Sarva. &lt;strong&gt;Oh Isha you are the lord of all two footed and four footed, Deliver us from grief and trouble.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the bestower of power to the Gods:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यो देवानां प्रथमं पुरस्ताद्विश्वाधिको रुद्रो महर्षिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;हिरण्यगर्भं पश्यत जायमान स नो देवः शुभयास्मृत्या संयुनक्तु ॥ १२॥ (Taittariya Aranyaka 10.12)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;He who is the first among the Gods, that Rudra who is the great seer who is higher than the Universe&lt;/strong&gt; (VishwaAdhik), he is the one who saw Hiranyagarbha being born.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यो देवानां प्रभवश्चोद्भवश्च विश्वाधिपो रुद्रो महर्षिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;हिरण्यगर्भं जनयामास पूर्वं स नो बुद्ध्या शुभया संयुनक्तु ॥ (Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.12)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;He, the creator of the gods and the bestower of their powers, the Support of the universe, Rudra the omniscient,&lt;/strong&gt; who at the beginning gave birth to Hiranyagarbha− may He endow us with clear intellect!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;5) Knowing/ Worshipping him bestows Moksha:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet another thing which is told about Brahman is, knowing Brahman one is freed from all bonds. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Similarly, knowing Shiva automatically all bonds are broken. I discuss verses related to this in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16594/why-is-lord-shiva-called-pashupati-who-are-the-pashus/16596#16596&quot;&gt;answer here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3563/who-gives-moksha/14374#14374&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt; Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.16 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;घृतात् परं मण्डमिवातिसूक्ष्मं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;           ज्ञात्वा शिवं सर्वभूतेषु गूढम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;विश्वस्यैकं परिवेष्टितारं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;           ज्ञात्वा देवं मुच्यते सर्वपाशैः ॥ १६॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;He who knows Brahman, who is Shiva,&lt;/strong&gt; extremely subtle, like the film that rises to the surface of clarified butter and is hidden in all beings−he who knows the radiant Deity, the sole Pervader of the universe, &lt;strong&gt;is released from all his Pãshas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly worshipping the Three Eyed Lord also bestows Immortality. RigVeda 7.59.12, Taittariya Samhita of YajurVeda in 1.8.6.i, Vajasena Samhita of YajurVeda in 3.60 state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;We worship the Three-eyed Lord who is fragrant and who nourishes and nurtures all beings. As is the ripened cucumber freed from its bondage (to the creeper), may He liberate us from death for the sake of immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Atharvasiras Upanishad states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अग्निरिति भस्म वायुरिति भस्म जलमिति भस्म स्थलमिति भस्म व्योमेति भस्म सर्वंह वा इदं भस्म मन एतानि&lt;br&gt;&#xA;चक्षूंषि यस्माद्व्रतमिदं पाशुपतं यद्भस्म नाङ्गानि&lt;br&gt;&#xA;संस्पृशेत्तस्माद्ब्रह्म तदेतत्पाशुपतं पशुपाश&lt;br&gt;&#xA;विमोक्षणाय ॥ ५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;He converts fire, air, water, earth, ether and everything that eexists here in to ash. &lt;strong&gt;He who sees this and mentally realizes it and observes the “penance to Pashupati ”&lt;/strong&gt; and who coats ash all over his body with this ash attains the state of Brahman. &lt;strong&gt;By worshipping “Pasupathi” like this, the ties of bondage of all beings get cut and they attain salvation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, in the Samhitas, in the Brahmanas, in the Aranyakas and in the Upanishads Lord Shiva is revealed as Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T08:25:53.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19836" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-28T02:23:18.110" Score="10" ViewCount="14117" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was wondering what the meaning is behind Shiva's 26 heads and 52 hands in a temple in Tamil Nadu? I have never seen him in this form before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11542" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-07T07:58:01.113" LastActivityDate="2018-02-08T08:44:33.527" Title="What is the meaning behind Shiva with 26 heads and 52 hands?" Tags="|shiva|temple|symbolism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19837" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19827" CreationDate="2017-07-28T04:40:42.577" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Same events happen in different ways. i.e, Lord Shiva indeed played Damru to emanate Sanskrit letters but that was happened during creation as well in different way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the commentary of Kshemeraj on Shiv Sutra on 2.7, we find.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to the process described in Paratrimsaka etc. the first aspect (spanda) of anuttarasakti is the Supreme I-Consciousness which assumes the form of akula i.e. that of which the body (kula) is &lt;strong&gt;'a'&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;अ&lt;/strong&gt;). &lt;strong&gt;(This 'a' is the expression of Cit-sakti of Siva)&lt;/strong&gt;. As there is further expansion of the world manifesting-power of aham or I-consciousness, &lt;strong&gt;ananda sakti (bliss) comes into play which assumes the form of the letter 'a'(आ), then bringing forward iccha sakti (will power), that I consciousness displays 'i'(इ) in the aksubdha state of iccha and i(ई) in its ksubdha state which is an expression of isana or isitri (the power of mastery); then with jhana sakti in its aksubdha state, she displays unmesa (knowledge) which is represented by the letter 'u'(उ)  and in the ksubdha state of jnana sakti displays unata (deficiency in jnana as mere jnana) which becomes the&#xA;  cause of objective appearance. This is represented by the letter 'u' (ऊ)&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(After this there is a slight reverse movement in the progressive&#xA;  manifestation of the universe). Just as in the flash of lightning there is at first merely a faint glimmer, and then there is more bright light, so 'i' of aksubdha iccha sakti combining with 'r' becomes &lt;strong&gt;ऋ&lt;/strong&gt;(r); and 'i' of Ksubdha&#xA;  iccha combining more firmly with 'r' becomes &lt;strong&gt;ॠ&lt;/strong&gt;; 'r' is the seed letter of 'fire'...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The previously mentioned anuttara i.e. the letter 'a' . and ananda i.e. the letter 'aa' combining with 'i' of iccha form the triangular ae (ए) vowel.&#xA;  With the combination of anuttara (i.e. the letter .) ananda (i.e. the letter ) and unmesa (i.e. the letter there is the formation of the letter 'o'(ओ) which denotes the inclusion of kriya sakti.&lt;/strong&gt; With the combination of the previously mentioned two letters (i.e. with or + there is the formation of the hexagonal letter ऐ - and with the combination of 'a' or 'a' and 'o' there is the formation of the trident 'au'(औ). In the formation of the letter there is the union of all the three saktis viz, iccha, jnana and kriya with the predominance of kriya in its clearest form. Then the Supreme I-consciousness expresses the undivided knowledge of the universe in the form of a dot (bindu) in the letter 'am' अं. It shows further the visarga stage in the form of two (perpendicular) dots indicating simultaneously inner and&#xA;  outer manifestation. अः &lt;strong&gt;Thus the creative I in its inner awareness shows the entire panorama of manifestation only as resting within the anuttara state and from the standpoint of outer awareness exhibits the expansion of a group of five tattvas in each group of five letters, through a, i, u, r, i l Saktis. Each group of five letters from ka to ma expresses tattvav from prthivi upto purusa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It continues till the creation of universe. i.e, In short each Sanskrit alphabet corresponds to creation phase. Lord Shiva being the originator of Sanskrit alphabets also mean he created the world (Injustice?). Also, note that, creation follows as a checkpoint which we call tattvas as I explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17292/8696&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer. There are 36 tattvas takes part in course of creation &amp;amp; thus all sanskrit alphabets comes into existence with each such tattvas as shown in the pic. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FvZ9M.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adding all vowels now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HvKDr.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/HvKDr.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-15T16:16:51.227" LastActivityDate="2017-10-15T16:16:51.227" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19838" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20290" CreationDate="2017-07-28T05:02:16.303" Score="3" ViewCount="225" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to listen to some Vishnu bhajans in Hindi, Sanskrit or Bengali. Though I have searched on the web countless times for Vishnu bhajans, I have found only 3:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shreeman Narayana Narayana Hari Hari&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jai Jagadish Hari&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shree Vishnu Amritwani&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It would be very good if someone could provide me with more bhajans especially in Bengali (because I haven't found a single Vishnu bhajan in that language).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-28T05:35:15.787" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T10:07:14.957" Title="Can someone recommend me some Vishnu bhajans in Hindi, Sanskrit or Bengali?" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19839" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19700" CreationDate="2017-07-28T05:40:03.127" Score="1" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;4,320,000 years * 1000 = 4,32,00,00,000 years is 1 day of Brahma ...&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all, as per the original verse found in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/itihaas/mahabharat/text-with-translation/vol-viii/chapter-231/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Moksha Dharma Parva&lt;/a&gt; -- page 177 -- verse 20, there is &lt;strong&gt;no mention of &amp;quot;celestial years&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence 1 cycle of 4 Yuga-s is 4800 + 3600 + 2400 + 1200 = 12000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चत्वार्याहुः सहस्राणि वर्षाणां तत्कृतं युगम्।&#xA;तस्य तावच्छती संध्या संध्यांशश्च तथाविधः ।।२०।।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Four thousand &lt;strike&gt;celestial&lt;/strike&gt; years is the duration of the first or Krita age. The morning of that cycle consists of four hundred years and its evening is of four hundred years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Brahma's day is said to be &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sahastra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; such yuga cycles. Now Sanskrit word &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;sahastra&lt;/em&gt; may mean &amp;quot;thousand&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;so many&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. But &amp;quot;so many&amp;quot; is subjective, it can mean anything less than or more than 1000. If we choose 1000, then the total duration of day/night will be 12000000 = 12 million years.  So Brahma's full cycle will be 24 million years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The learned say that these twelve thousand years constitute what is called a yuga. A thousand such yugas compose a single day of Brahman. The same is the duration of Brahman's night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;What do Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva do after 1 Kalpa when Brahmadev goes to sleep ?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since you haven't tagged your Qn as &amp;quot;mythology&amp;quot;, I am answering this from regular perspective. Trinity of lords -- Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva (not Shankara), should be interpreted as supreme reality -- what is known as &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; in Gita. This &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; is said to be neither existent nor non-existent, yet immutable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The relative &amp;quot;creation&amp;quot; &amp;amp; &amp;quot;destruction&amp;quot; happens during &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;'s day. However, during its night nothing remains. Gita doesn't use word &amp;quot;destroy&amp;quot; for this. It just uses &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Avyakta&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; .. i.e. &amp;quot;unmanifest&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;inexpressible&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer your Qn: Absolutely nothing remains, this includes &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (trinity) itself. However to express this, the word &lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt; is used, which means &amp;quot;inexpressible&amp;quot;. Everything merges back to the truest nature of &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, which is also called liberation (see the combined meaning of BG 9.7 &amp;amp; BG 14.2).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 8.17, 8.18, 8.19 - Knowing that thousand eras constitute a day of Brahman, [and] thousand eras complete a night, are the people who know day, [and] night. On arrival of day, all manifestations originate from &amp;quot;Unmanifest&amp;quot;; On arrival of night they annihilate into [what is] known as &amp;quot;Unmanifest&amp;quot; only. This [same] elementary world only happens again &amp;amp; again; Annihilates upon arrival of night, [and] originates upon arrival of day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16085/10490&quot;&gt;this anwser&lt;/a&gt; for further clarifications.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T09:43:07.213" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19840" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-28T05:54:38.873" Score="9" ViewCount="1410" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedas glorify Indra as a hero but most Puraans show him in a bad light? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Indra's cheating Vritra after befriending him&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Indra's killing of Namuchi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Ahalya episode&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Indra stealing horses from Ashwamedh Yagnyas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was it just a political thing as some western Indologists say or is there a Vedic basis to the stories of Indra's treachery?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2019-10-31T19:54:40.440" Title="Why is the Vedic Indra so different from the Puranic Indra?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|rig-veda|indra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19841" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19212" CreationDate="2017-07-28T06:33:17.737" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have compiled this answer after consulting two books that i have namely &lt;strong&gt;BenimAdhava's Bengali Panchanga&lt;/strong&gt;' and a prayoga book called &lt;strong&gt;Brihat Visuddha Nitya Karma Puja Paddhati&lt;/strong&gt; (this book has all the details of how to do the Vrata Puja &amp;amp; from the panchanga book's description of Vratas chapter i took the Vrata katha and other information).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Who is Goddess VipattArini?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vipad means dangers, calamities. TArana from &lt;code&gt;TrAna&lt;/code&gt;   means to protect or to save. So, VipattArini is the Goddess who protects devotees from dangers and calamities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Godddess VipattArini is actually Goddess DurgA. This  can be confirmed from VipattArini Puja mantras as well as the Sankalpa mantra given below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main mantras used in the PujA are &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Durge durge rakshani swAha or Hrim &lt;strong&gt;vipattArini durgA devyai namaha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and which prove that the Gooddess we are worshiping as VipattArini is Goddess Durga herself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the Avahana mantra viz: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om hrim &lt;strong&gt;VipattArini durgA devi&lt;/strong&gt; ihA gaccha ihA gaccha etc&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;proves the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The DhyAna Sloka used in the PujA also proves that it is Goddess DurgA's pujA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KAlAbhrAbhAm... &lt;strong&gt;DhyAyedurgAm&lt;/strong&gt; JayAkhyAm tidasaparivritAm sevitAm&#xA;  sevitAm siddhikAmyai.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, from the sankalpa mantras used in this vrata we find:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..... YAvAdvipannAshapurvak sasukhAvaidhavyakAmA &lt;strong&gt;SrivipattArini&#xA;  DurgApritikAmA&lt;/strong&gt;..Sri VipattArini vrataham karshyAmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.. For destroying all the dangers and calamities that are looming&#xA;  large on me, for the increment in my happiness , for preventing widowhood&#xA;  (for women) , &lt;strong&gt;for pleasing Goddess DurgA&lt;/strong&gt;, i am performing Sri&#xA;  VipattArini Vrata..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, this sankalpa mantra also depicts the fruits that one achieves upon completing the vrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;When to perform this vrata?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The vrata is to be done in the Hindu &lt;strong&gt;AshAda month&lt;/strong&gt; (which ended just&#xA;  few days back) And, the day has to be either &lt;strong&gt;tuesday&lt;/strong&gt; or&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;saturday&lt;/strong&gt; and it has to be on a day  that falls between &lt;strong&gt;sukla tritiya to suklA navami tithi&lt;/strong&gt; (sukla is bright phase of the moon) of&#xA;  the aforementioned month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Upakarana or ingredients required&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ghata (kalas), mango leaves, coconut, one set of naivedyam, 13 types&#xA;  of flowers (the number 13 is important in this Vrata), 13 types of&#xA;  fruits each sliced into two halves, 13 types of whole fruits, 13 red&#xA;  mauli threads, 13 durvAs , 13 beetle leaves and 13 beetle nuts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Additional rules to be followed&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the day before the vrata, day one should consume only &lt;code&gt;havishaya anna&lt;/code&gt;&#xA;  (vegetarian food without onion, garlic etc). On the vrata day &lt;strong&gt;after&#xA;  the completion of the puja, the vrata katha has to recited and&#xA;  listened to&lt;/strong&gt; by sitting on an asana. After that is done, the &lt;strong&gt;fast&#xA;  must be broken while still sitting on the same asana.&lt;/strong&gt; The foods&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;that are recommended to be consumed to break the fast are fruits, sweetmeats, and/or luchi (puri).&lt;/strong&gt; Thirteen knots are made in the the&#xA;  red mauli threads (with each knot carrying a durva ) and are then&#xA;  worn by the males on their right hand and females on their left.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Puja of Goddess Durga has to be done by appointed Brahmin priests&#xA;  following the prescribed rules like GhatasthApana etc. And, as per one's&#xA;  capability, charity and fees are to be duly given to the priests for&#xA;  successful completion of the vrata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;The Vrata katha&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story, which i have translated from Bengali, has to be listened before breaking the fast. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In ancient times, in the Vidarva kingdom, there was a king whose wife&#xA;  (the queen) was a great devotee of Mother Goddess and was a very&#xA;  faithful wife to her husband too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The queen sincerely took the VipattArni vrata and completed it. At&#xA;  that time she also befriended a muchini (a low caste woman, the wife&#xA;  of a cobbler). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Almost regularly the queen used to gift the muchini with many&#xA;  eatables, fruits etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The muchini was terribly poor but upon receiving daily gifts from the&#xA;  queen, the desire of gifting something to the queen in return also&#xA;  grew big in her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And, when she expressed her desire to the queen , the queen said &quot;Okay&#xA;  i will demand it from you someday&quot;. But many days elapsed still the&#xA;  queen did not demand anything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Finally, on one day, the queen said to the muchini &quot; I have heard that&#xA;  you people cook a meat (that is forbidden  for the Hindus to consume) very well. Why&#xA;  don't you bring some for me. Let me also see how good that meat actually&#xA;  is?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The muchini was very happy thinking that finally she can gift something to the&#xA;  queen. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She, thus, cooked the forbidden meat with great care and brought it to the&#xA;  palace after having covered it with some cloth. The queen will obviously not&#xA;  taste the meat but will only see it ( this the muchini thought in&#xA;  her mind).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although the muchini took great care to hide the meat but servants in&#xA;  the palace somehow still saw it and brought the incident to the king's&#xA;  notice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The king was furious as a result and said to the queen &quot; Show me what that muchini&#xA;  brought for you. If it is something forbidden (the king already heard&#xA;  what it was from his servants) then i will cut your head off (as a&#xA;  punishment).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The queen got pale in fear and started crying and praying to Goddess&#xA;  VipattArini Durga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Unable to bear the devotee's pain and distress,  Goddess came and whispered in the&#xA;  queen's ears &quot; Dekhoge sob phool hoi gece&quot; ( Go and see, all that&#xA;  [forbidden meat] has been converted to flowers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The queen then brought those flowers and showed them to the king. The&#xA;  king reprimanded his servants and the queen's danger was thereby&#xA;  averted. Thus the greatness of VipattArini spread among the masses and&#xA;  the vrata became widely known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-28T15:25:50.117" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T15:25:50.117" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19842" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-07-28T06:44:48.610" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Trika&lt;/a&gt;, a concept of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_Shaivism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kashmir Shaivism&lt;/a&gt;, refers to the 3 goddesses Parā, Parāparā and Aparā which are named in the Mālinivijayottata-tantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This gives Kashmir Shaivism its other name, Trika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-07-28T09:45:21.640" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T09:45:21.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19843" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-07-28T06:44:48.610" Score="0" Body="Trika is the other name of Kashmiri Shiva philosophy. " OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-07-28T08:09:53.740" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T08:09:53.740" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19844" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12145" CreationDate="2017-07-28T06:57:09.797" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can't practice Brahmacharya just by reading books or making vows. You are containing Vasanas or Samskarans from eons into/onto your chitta. There are three layers of mind - conscious, sub conscious &amp;amp; unconscious. By force or temporary Vairagya you can only control your conscious mind but the habits patterns which are present in deep layers of mind (namely in other twos) can't be destroyed so easily without a particular organized method or practice. To eradicate Samskarans from deep mind you will have to practice awareness &amp;amp; equanimity. There are many meditations for this which you can find in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17049/what-is-vigyana-bhairava-tantra/17605#17605&quot;&gt;Vijanabhairava&lt;/a&gt; tantra. Buddhist's techniques Vipassana &amp;amp; satipatthan are also for the same. You can find the way in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18397/8696&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T06:57:09.797" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19845" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16500" CreationDate="2017-07-28T07:17:56.207" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Besides the famous &lt;strong&gt;Putrakameshthi of Ramayan&lt;/strong&gt;, there are other examples as well in the scriptures and every time it has resulted in the birth of sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharat &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a030.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 13 Anushasan Parva Section XXX&lt;/a&gt; mentions Rishi Bharadwaj performing a similar Yagnya for Divodas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Bhishma continued, 'Unto him who pleaded so piteously, Bharadwaja of great energy said, Do not fear! Do not fear! O son of Sudeva, let thy fears be dispelled. I shall perform a sacrifice, O monarch, in order that thou mayst have a son through whom thou shalt be able to smite thousands upon thousands of Vitahavya's party. After this, the Rishi performed a sacrifice with the object of bestowing a son on Divodasa. As the result thereof, unto Divodasa was born a son named Pratarddana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(BTW &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/bharata.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt; also talks about Bharadwaj rishi beng involved in another Yagnya of this kind, the Marut-stoma where King Bharat receives a son.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again in the 26th Chapter of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=clMIAAAAQAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA3&amp;amp;lpg=PA3&amp;amp;dq=putrakameshti%20slokas&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=91LT47pvDy&amp;amp;sig=XgfoDPOEaE1teNY226_iYnRCirQ&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjI1PGAqavVAhUDfiYKHUgvBQo4FBDoAQgtMAI#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=putrakameshti%20slokas&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sahyadrikhanda of the Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; we come across the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qWkqb.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qWkqb.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some may doubt that it could be the translator's bias but further verses give us direct proof:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CwZZx.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CwZZx.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In yet another example from the same book we see:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dSbPN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dSbPN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again in the legend of Devi Meenakshi's birth, her king &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=SNFnCwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT26&amp;amp;lpg=PT26&amp;amp;dq=malayadwaja%20putrakameshthi&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=18DTkKsZVi&amp;amp;sig=ChuiJGOk75Z8OwyX_fQqnrdb9m0&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjpqv6F1ovYAhVHyrwKHX5mD9oQ6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=putrakameshthi&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Malaydhwaj was advised by Indra&lt;/a&gt; to conduct a Putrakameshti for an heir:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jaJBa.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jaJBa.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This resulted in the emergence of a three-year old girl from the Yagnya Vedi but Malaydhwaj was disappointed since he was expecting a male heir:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DbBl1.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DbBl1.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5r5Av.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5r5Av.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Found another example where a daughter emerged from the Yagna instead of a son even though the original intention was to get a male heir. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/devi-bhagavata-purana/d/doc57246.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagwat Puran Book 6, Chapter 21&lt;/a&gt; mentions the story of Ekavali born as a result of a Putrakameshthi Yagna by a king called Rabhya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the queen thus spoke very distressedly, the king called the Brāhmaṇas, versed in the Vedas, and began to perform an excellent sacrificial ceremony, in due accordance with the Vedic rules. &lt;strong&gt;With a desire to get a son, he made many presents in profuse quantities.&lt;/strong&gt; When copious quantities of ghee were offered as oblations, there arose, from the fire, a girl beautiful in all respects and endowed with all auspicious signs.........When the girl arose from the fire, the priest (Hotā) took that lean and thin lady of a nice waist by her arms and presented her to the King and said :-- O King! Accept this daughter, endowed with all auspicious signs. When Homa was being performed, the daughter came up like the garland Ekāvalī; therefore this girl became famous in this world by the name Ekāvalī. O Ruler of the earth! &lt;strong&gt;Take this girl, resembling a son and be happy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O King! Viṣṇu, the Deva of the Devas, has given you this Jewel, this daughter; so be contented. Hearing thus the words of the priest, the King saw this good-looking girl and with gladdened heart took the beautiful daughter from his hands.&#xA;Thus with that lovely daughter he went to his wife Rukmarekhā and said :-- O Beautiful One! Take this daughter. &lt;strong&gt;The queen Rukmarekhā felt the pleasure of having a son when she got in her arms that lotus eyed beautiful daughter.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The King next performed the natal and other ceremonies of the daughter and did all other acts as if she had been a son to him duly in accordance with the rules.&lt;/strong&gt; The King performed his own sacrificial ceremonies and gave away lots of Dakṣiṇās to the Brāhmins and dismissed them and became very glad. &lt;strong&gt;That beautiful girl was nursed and cared after like a son and she grew older day by day.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Judging by these examples I would say that the &lt;strong&gt;Putrakmeshthi Yagnya&lt;/strong&gt; was conducted specifically for obtaining &lt;strong&gt;Putra&lt;/strong&gt; not &lt;strong&gt;Putri&lt;/strong&gt; which kind of makes sense since all these kings were looking for heirs for their kingdoms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2023-01-30T11:24:58.297" LastActivityDate="2023-01-30T11:24:58.297" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19846" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-28T08:23:27.463" Score="3" ViewCount="1193" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rig Ved &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 4 Hymn 18&lt;/a&gt; is really interesting. It begins with the following declaration (quoting from the Griffith translation):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;THIS is the ancient and accepted pathway by which all Gods have come into existence.&#xA;  Hereby could one be born though waxen mighty. Let him not, otherwise, destroy his Mother.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not this way go I forth: hard is the passage. Forth from the side obliquely will I issue.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Much that is yet undone must I accomplish; one must I combat and the other question.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse has been interpreted to imply that Indra was not born through the normal delivery but from the side of his mother. Further verses state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He bent his eye upon the dying Mother:&lt;/strong&gt; My word I now withdraw. That way I follow.&#xA;  In Tvaṣṭar's dwelling India drank the Soma, a hundredworth of juice pressed from the mortar.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What strange act shall he do, he whom his Mother bore for a thousand months and many autumns?&#xA;  No peer hath he among those born already, nor among those who shall be born hereafter.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this imply that his mother died in child-birth? If so which mother are we talking about - Aditi or Prithvi? (Check this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5239/father-of-indra/19778#19778&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; for Indra's different sets of parents)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T13:21:16.907" LastActivityDate="2018-01-03T13:21:16.907" Title="Was Indra born from his mother's side and did she die in child-birth?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|indra|gods|bhumi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19847" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-28T08:40:33.413" Score="5" ViewCount="2107" Body="&lt;p&gt;This verse from Rigved &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 4, Hymn 18&lt;/a&gt; alludes to Indra killing his own father!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.18.12. &lt;strong&gt;Who was he then who made thy Mother widow?&lt;/strong&gt; Who sought to stay thee lying still or moving?&#xA;  What God, &lt;strong&gt;when by the foot thy Sire thou tookest and slewest,&lt;/strong&gt; was at hand to give thee comfort?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कस्ते॑ मा॒तरं॑ वि॒धवा॑मचक्रच्छ॒युं कस्त्वाम॑जिघांस॒च्चर॑न्तम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कस्ते॑ दे॒वो अधि॑ मार्डी॒क आ॑सी॒द्यत्प्राक्षि॑णाः पि॒तरं॑ पाद॒गृह्य॑॥ ४.०१८.१२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another verse from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5239/father-of-indra/19778#19778&quot;&gt;RV Book 6, Hymn 59&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I WILL declare, while juices flow, the manly deeds that ye have done:&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Your Fathers, enemies of Gods, were smitten down,&lt;/strong&gt; and, Indra-Agni, ye survive.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्र नु वो॑चा सु॒तेषु॑ वां वी॒र्या॒३ यानि॑ च॒क्रथु॑।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ह॒तासो॑ वां पि॒तरो॑ दे॒वश॑त्रव॒ इन्द्रा॑ग्नी॒ जीव॑थो यु॒वम्॥ ६.०५९.०१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any Puranic story that describes this more in detail? Also who could this father have been since Kashyap has been mentioned as being alive even in later times? Could it be Dyaus as mentioned in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5239/father-of-indra/19778#19778&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-07-28T10:07:32.187" LastActivityDate="2019-01-05T15:01:25.250" Title="Did Indra kill his father by throwing him down from heaven?" Tags="|puranas|rig-veda|indra|swarga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19850" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-28T15:25:48.320" Score="9" ViewCount="963" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the month of Shravana Lord Shiva is worshiped and many people observe the 16 Somvara Vrata. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now most &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.boldsky.com/yoga-spirituality/faith-mysticism/2013/significance-of-monday-fast-hinduism-033139.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;descriptions&lt;/a&gt; I've read say that Lord Shiva and Parvati had a dice match and Parvati asks a temple priest to predict who will win. The priest gives the verdict in Lord Shiva's favour being his devotee. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Parvati wins the match and curses the priest to become a leper for lying and his partiality. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The priest becomes a leper but does 16 Somavar Vrata and gets released from the curse. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people (like my family) do only 4 Somvaras that fall in Shravana month. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is &lt;strong&gt;do any scriptures mention the story of 16 Somvara Vrata? And is there any story or reason behind worship of Lord Shiva in Shravana?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S I've read this question: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2045/why-do-some-hindus-observe-fast-during-the-month-of-shravan&quot;&gt;Why do some Hindus observe fast during the month of &quot;Shravan&quot;?&lt;/a&gt; but the answer was not satisfactory. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please do not mark mine as a duplicate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2022-08-30T05:40:22.660" Title="What is the story behind the Solah Somavara fast?" Tags="|shiva|rituals|fasting|vrata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19851" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="646" CreationDate="2017-07-28T15:30:36.267" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the BrahmAnda PurAna, Lord Vishnu and Lakshmi Devi have two sons called Bala (strength) and UtsAha (enthusiasm, energy).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The relevant verses are given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhrigoh khyAtirvijajnehatha iswarau sukhadukkhayoh |&#xA;  SubhAsubhapradAtarau sarva prAna VrtAviha || Devau dhAtA vidhAtArau&#xA;  manvantara vichArinau | TayorjyeshthA tu bhagini devi srir loka&#xA;  bhAvini || SA tu nArAyanam devam pati mAsAdya shobhanam |&#xA;  NArAyanatmajau sAddvi &lt;strong&gt;valotsAhou vyajAyat&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhrigu and his wife KhyAti gave birth to two sons named DhAtA and VidhAta and a daughter named Sri or&#xA;  Lakshmi. Lakshmi obtained as her husband NArAyana and thereafter &lt;strong&gt;gave birth to two &#xA;  sons called Bala (strength) and UtsAha (enthusiasm)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BrahmAnda PurAna 29| 1-3.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T15:30:36.267" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19853" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19850" CreationDate="2017-07-28T20:53:58.240" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many stories but one story i know is same as what you have shared in the question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day,  Bhagwan(Lord) Shiva and Parwati went on a tour. They arrived at a temple in a place called Amrawati. Goddess Parwati asked Mahadev to play a game of Chausar (a dice game). When they were about to play the game, a brahman came and started preparing for aarti. Goddess Parwati asked the brahman to forecast the name of the winner. The Brahman said, &quot;Lord Shiva will win the game&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now at this point we have multiple stories.&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;Story 1: Parwati looses the game and she thought it was brahmans prediction that made her loose the game and as a result she cursed the brahman with a disease called leprosy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Story 2: Parwati wins the game and because of the lie told by the brahman she cursed the brahman with a disease called leprosy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day an Apsara of Indra lok found the brahman. The apsara told brahman to worship lord shiva for 16 consecutive mondays. After worshipping for 16 days, the brahman got rid of the diesease. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Parwati then asked the brahman about the transformation. Brahman tells her about the sorah sombaar varta and its procedure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The son of goddess parwati (kartikey) used to be very disobedient, so goddess parwati thought of doing the varta for her son. She did the varta and as a result the god kartikey became obedient.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God Kartikey then asked goddess parwati about the transformation. Goddess parwati told him about the varta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A friend of lord kartikey was not getting married. So, lord kartikey advised his friend to do a sorah somvaar varta. After his friend's varta got finished, his friend heard an announcement. A king of a palace wanted to find a groom for his daughter. The groom shall marry his daughter if he gets a garland from an elephant. Lord Kartikey friend did get a garland and as a result got married to the princess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kartikey's friend tells the his wife about the way he got her. After knowing the procedure, princess thought of getting a good son. She does the varta and after some time gets a wonderful son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the son grew old, he asked her mother about he got born. (Sorry don't know how to put this but i think the son wants to know how an ordinary man (his father) married a princess (his mother)).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the son did a sorah somvaar varta so that he could be a king of a kingdom. He did the varta and after some time a proposal of marriage comes in his doors. The son marries a princess of some other kingdow. Later, the son's father in law dies and since his father in law had no son he then becomes the king of that other kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the new king wanted to visit Lord shiva's temple. So he tells his wife to prepare for materials for puja and asks her to visit the temple. The wife disrespects the puja and decides not to go any where, gives the puja materials  to their servant. Seeing this, the king got unhappy and tells his wife to leave the royal palace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The wife (rather queen) left the royal palace and as time passed she got poor and weak. The queen asked for help from people but every time some kind of mishap would occur and she had to suffer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day the queen decided to take rest under a tree. As soon as she lied under the tree the leaves started to shed. All the leaves were out of the branches. Because of this the whole forest started to become naked. No green trees and as a result no food for animals. One day a priest came by and met the queen. Looking at the the poor lady, The  priest asked her to be in his ashram. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The queen went to the ashram and all the mishaps started to happen. The queen then told her about the reason why all these bad things were happening. So, the priest advised her to do the same things that was done by her husband. She did the sorah somvaar varta and in the 17th day her husband (the king) started to miss his queen. He started searching for her and finally found her. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion: Anyone who worship lord shiva on Monday gets good health, wealth and desires get fulfilled. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OM NAMAH SHIVAAY, HAR HAR MAHADEV.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I got a message that wants me to give a source, that's why putting this update.&#xA;I read a book called &lt;strong&gt;Hindu Vrat Kathayen&lt;/strong&gt; published by Diamond Books. It's a small book but contains nice stories. You can read the chapter &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Sixteen Monday Vrat Katha&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. The only different thing in the book and in my answer is the very first sentence.&#xA;In the book, it says Bhagwan Shiva and Bhagwan parwati wanted to marry in a mortal world and that's why they visited Amrawati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also hear the story that was shown in IBN7 channel. Well, it's actually a daily horoscope show where the story of somvaar varta was told &lt;strong&gt;(and also it's in Hindi)&lt;/strong&gt;. I have presented the youtube link below.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPpTLbVR6sA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPpTLbVR6sA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Found some web links, don't know if it can be used as reference but people can still read it:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indif.com/nri/kathas/Somvar/solahsomkathaeng.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.indif.com/nri/kathas/Somvar/solahsomkathaeng.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wordzz.com/solah-somvar-vrat-katha/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.wordzz.com/solah-somvar-vrat-katha/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE: These are stories so you might not find about it in our holy books.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10303" LastEditorUserId="10303" LastEditDate="2017-07-29T13:21:27.067" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T13:21:27.067" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19854" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19859" CreationDate="2017-07-28T21:16:30.183" Score="2" ViewCount="705" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the story reference of Ravana, who made a loud cry (thus deriving this name ) crushed by Shiva? { When proud Ravana tried to lift and trouble Shiva on the Kailash mountain). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-08-10T23:40:36.350" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T04:46:04.723" Title="Origin of Ravana's name" Tags="|ravana|name|resource|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19855" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-28T22:18:57.797" Score="5" ViewCount="10206" Body="&lt;p&gt;What if a person broke the vow of brahmacharya by indulging in sexual activity like masturbation? Is there a punishment? Something a person would do to clear the sexual sins?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11555" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-30T03:27:25.020" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T04:57:25.637" Title="Is there a punishment for breaking the vow of celibacy? If yes, what are the ways to clear the sin?" Tags="|brahmacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-07-30T03:55:44.677" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19856" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19186" CreationDate="2017-07-28T22:29:03.013" Score="3" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Did Satyavatī and Śantanu belong to the same caste (birth-based varṇa)?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No. Śantanu was a kṣatriya and Satyavatī a śūdra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Satyavatī's biological parents&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Father - Uparicara Vasu (a king, most likely a kṣatriya king)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mother - Adrikā (a fisher-woman, so most likely an outcaste or śūdra)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01064.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;official birth story of Satyavatī&lt;/a&gt; from the Mahābhārata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the king [Uparicara Vasu] became possessed with desire, and he saw not his wife before him. Maddened by desire he was roaming hither and thither, when he saw a beautiful Asoka decked with dense foliage, its branches covered with flowers. And the king sat at his ease in the shade of that tree. And excited by the fragrance of the season and the charming odours of the flowers around, and excited also by the delicious breeze, the king could not keep his mind away from the thought of the beautiful Girika. And beholding that a swift hawk was resting very near to him, the king, acquainted with the subtle truths of Dharma and Artha, went unto him and said, 'Amiable one, carry thou this seed (semen) for my wife Girika and give it unto her. Her season hath arrived.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The hawk, swift of speed, took it from the king and rapidly coursed through the air. While thus passing, the hawk was seen by another of his species. Thinking that the first one was carrying meat, the second one flew at him. The two fought with each other in the sky with their beaks. While they were fighting, the seed fell into the waters of the Yamuna. And in those waters dwelt an Apsara of the higher rank, known by the name of &lt;strong&gt;Adrika, transformed by a Brahmana's curse into a fish&lt;/strong&gt;. As soon as Vasu's seed fell into the water from the claws of the hawk, Adrika rapidly approached and swallowed it at once. That fish was, some time after, caught by the fishermen. And it was the tenth month of the fish's having swallowed the seed. &lt;strong&gt;From the stomach of that fish came out a male and a female child of human form.&lt;/strong&gt; The fishermen wondered much, and wending unto king Uparichara (for they were his subjects) told him all. They said, 'O king, these two beings of human shape have been found in the body of a fish!' The male child amongst the two was taken by Uparichara. That child afterwards became the virtuous and truthful monarch Matsya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the birth of the twins, the Apsara herself became freed from her curse. For she had been told before by the illustrious one (who had cursed her) that she would, while living in her piscatorial form, give birth to two children of human shape and then would be freed from the curse. Then, according to these words, having given birth to the two children, and been killed by the fishermen, she left her fish-form and assumed her own celestial shape. The Apsara then rose up on the path trodden by the Siddhas, the Rishis and the Charanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fish-smelling daughter of the Apsara in her piscatorial form was then given by the king unto the fishermen, saying, 'Let this one be thy daughter.' &lt;strong&gt;That girl was known by the name of Satyavati&lt;/strong&gt;. And gifted with great beauty and possessed of every virtue, she of agreeable smiles, owing to contact with fishermen, was for some time of the fishy smell. Wishing to serve her (foster) father she plied a boat on the waters of the Yamuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if you are like me and find a part of the above story (i.e., a fish getting pregnant by simply swallowing human seed and then delivering a pair of human babies) unbelievable, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/uparichara-vasu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; offers a more rational explanation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This was the strangest myths I could find in Mahabharata. It reveals how imaginative these people were and how they entwine ignorance and imagination into such deadly cocktail. At least some of the ancient people believed that babies are born with the sole contribution from men. They considered women as mere vessels to carry the babies of men. It was unknown to them that to develop an embryo contribution from both man and woman are needed. A fish after swallowing semen delivering babies! Below is a plausible reconstruction of what might have happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adrika was a maiden belonging to the Matsya (fishermen) tribe and Vasu beget two children in her, probably when he was away from his wife Girika.&lt;/strong&gt; Adrika was described as an Apsara, due to her beauty. Apsaras were mentioned as extremely beautiful. The word 'Apsara' can be divided into 'Apa' (water) and Sara (lakes). They were often described as women seen in the vicinity of water-bodies like lakes and rivers. A Matsya lady (fisher-women) too lives close to water-bodies like seas, lakes and rivers. There are also myths about fairies called Matsya-Kanyakas (fish-women / fisher-women) who were half fish and half woman. Such tales were also similar to the tales of Apsaras. Thus Matsya Kanyakas and Apsaras seems to be same. Both these terms later assumed the meaning of fairies living close to water bodies, and Apsaras in particular was formerly their tribal name. Fisher-women were the Apsaras and the Apsaras were the fisher-women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Adrika probably died while delivering the twin babies. Death of women after delivering babies, especially twins, were quite common in those days. &lt;strong&gt;The fishermen after learning about the affair between Adrika and the king might have taken the babies to the palace.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Satyavatī's caste&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Assuming Satyavatī was born to a Kṣatriya father (Uparicara) and a Śūdra mother (Adrikā), she must be an Ugra&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;. And because an Ugra doesn't fit into any of the four castes&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;, she's an outcaste. However, for all practical purposes she can be considered a Śūdra&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; From the Kṣatriya on a Śūdra maiden is born a being called ‘Ugra,’ of the stuff of the Kṣatriya and Śūdra, cruel in his deeds and dealings. [&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201742.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu 10.9&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; The Brāhmaṇa, the Kṣatriya and the Vaiśya are the three twice-born castes; the fourth is the one caste, Śūdra; there is no fifth. [&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201736.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu 10.4&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; Six sons born on women of the same caste and of those of the next lower castes partake of the character of ‘twice-born’ persons. But all those born of violation have been declared to be of the nature of Śūdras. [&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201771.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu 10.41&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Śantanu's caste&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01096.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Śantanu appears to be a pure Kṣatriya (i.e., no intermixing of castes):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Pratipa married Sunanda, the daughter of Sivi, and begat upon her three sons, viz., Devapi, Santanu and Valhika. And Devapi, while still a boy, entered the woods as a hermit. And Santanu became king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-07-28T22:29:03.013" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19857" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9914" CreationDate="2017-07-29T04:55:32.027" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Pratiloma marriage is between a lower caste man and a higher caste woman, hence have provided a story of a marriage between a kshatriya male and a brahmin female, i.e., Yayati and Devayani. There is an expanded discussion about how that marriage would be deemed bad and would lead to half-breeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata recounts (K.M. Ganguly translation, Sambhava Parva, Section 81):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devayani answered, 'With my two thousand damsels and my waiting-maid Sarmishtha, I wait but your commands. Prosperity to thee. &lt;strong&gt;Be thou my friend and lord.&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Yayati, thereupon, replied, 'Beautiful one, I do not deserve thee. &lt;strong&gt;Thou art the daughter of Sukra far superior to me. Thy father cannot bestow thee even on a great king.&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To this Devayani replied, 'Brahmanas had before this been united with the Kshatriyas, and Kshatriyas with Brahmanas. Thou art the son of a Rishi and thyself a Rishi. Therefore, O son of Nahusha,marry me.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yayati, however, replied, '&lt;strong&gt;O thou of the handsomest features, the four orders have, indeed, sprung from one body. But their duties and purity are not the same, the Brahmana being truly superior to all.&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After some amount of back and forth conversation , Yayati says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I cannot hence wed thee, O amiable one, &lt;strong&gt;unless thy father bestoweth thee on me&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later Sukra, the father of Devayani agrees to the marriage. Then Yayati says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yayati then said, '&lt;strong&gt;I solicit the boon, O Brahmana, that by so doing, the sin of begetting a half-breed might not touch me.&lt;/strong&gt;' Sukra, however, assured him by saying, '&lt;strong&gt;I shall absolve thee from the sin. Ask thou the boon that thou desirest. Fear not to wed her. I grant thee absolution&lt;/strong&gt;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Yayati marries her. So there is a documented &lt;em&gt;Pratiloma marriage&lt;/em&gt; which was feared by the groom as sinful, but the divine preceptor of the Asuras absolves the groom of sin in advance, and hence he agrees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that he does not absolve the half-breed children (who were Yadu, the start of the Yadava race and Turvasu). It is not clear if there was any sin attached to them being a half-breed. However Yadu was cursed later and that is another story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T21:42:52.567" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19858" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19855" CreationDate="2017-07-29T05:22:25.377" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all what i will be posting will apply only to a Dvija Brahmachari whose being initiated into Veda study.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a Brahmachari wasting manhood is an offence to start with, whether its voluntary or otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.180. Let him always sleep alone, &lt;strong&gt;let him never waste his manhood; for he who voluntarily wastes his manhood, breaks his vow.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If its involuntary then the prayaschitta (atonement) is rather simple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.181. A twice-born student, who has involuntarily wasted his manly strength during sleep, must bathe, worship the sun, and afterwards&#xA;  thrice mutter the Rik-verse (which begins), ’Again let my strength&#xA;  return to me.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, breaking a vow falls under UpapAtakas or minor sins that lead to jAtibhrahmsa or loss of caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.61. Defiling a damsel, usury, &lt;strong&gt;breaking a vow&lt;/strong&gt;, selling a tank, a garden, one’s wife, or child,.. &lt;strong&gt;(are all) minor offences, causing loss&#xA;  of caste (Upapataka)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atonement for voluntary discharge of seminal fluid for a Brahmachari is as given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.117. Twice-born men who have committed (other) minor offences (Upapataka), &lt;strong&gt;except a student who has broken his vow (Avakirnin)&lt;/strong&gt;, may&#xA;  perform, in order to purify themselves, the same penance or also a&#xA;  lunar penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.118. &lt;strong&gt;But a student who has broken his vow shall offer at night on a crossway to Nirriti a one-eyed ass&lt;/strong&gt;, according to the rule of the&#xA;  Pakayagnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nirrti is a demonness, who also is one the 10 Dikpalas (guardians of directions) and she guards the southwest direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the punishment for discharging semen by a householder, other than in intercourse, is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;63&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If a householder willingly causes the discharge of his virile seed&lt;/strong&gt; otherwise than in sexual intercourse, &lt;strong&gt;he should recite the Gayathri&#xA;  verse one thousand times, and should perform three Pranayamas&lt;/strong&gt;. (ParAshara Smriti 12-63)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the above verse is not related to a Brahmachari (student) but is applicable to a householder, but since its related to masturbation, i included it in my answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another general atonement measure for all sins is the recitation of the Gayatri mantra. So if you have got the Gayatri mantra upadesam you can easily use this method to your benefit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One, by &lt;strong&gt;reciting the Gayatri, for ten thousand times, is freed from&#xA;  all sins&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Usana Smriti's last chapter&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE - All the prayaschitta measures mentioned above can be performed only by those who have been initiated into VEda study. That is by those who have Gayatri mantra initiation. The only prayaschitta that can be performed without Vedic initiation is the pranayama (without using mantra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-05T04:57:25.637" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T04:57:25.637" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19859" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19854" CreationDate="2017-07-29T05:40:53.613" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the info which I learned from TV shows &lt;strong&gt;Devo ke Deva Mahadeva&lt;/strong&gt; And &lt;strong&gt;Sankat Mochan Mahaabali Hanuman&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Ravana try to pick up Kailash Mountain then Lord Shiva push Mountain with his thumb of foot. The force of even one thumb of Shiva's foot is so much massively powerful that it's become impossible for Ravana to carry mountain and his hands got crush under weight of mountain (because of Shiv'a thumb force).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He start crying with pain. The sound of his cry is that high which got spread in all three world (loks). Mountains near him start shivering with his cry.&#xA;He keep crying for long time (may be years but not sure how long). Because of his that high lever of cry he got named as &lt;strong&gt;Ravana&lt;/strong&gt;. Meaning of Ravana is ruddan (ronaa). Finally he got released from his pain when He start singing stuti of Shiva which is created by Ravana himself.&#xA;Shiva liked his stuti so much and released his hands. He appeared in front of him and gave name to his stuti as &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Tandava Srot&lt;/strong&gt;. He also gave him Powerful sword named as &lt;strong&gt;Chandrahaas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T07:34:11.990" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19860" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21992" CreationDate="2017-07-29T05:52:33.160" Score="7" ViewCount="1011" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Shatpatha Brahmana states that Vritra was created by Tvastar to avenge the killing of Trisiras by Indra. However, many verses in RV call Tvastar the creator of Vajra for example &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01032.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rigved 1.32.1&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 I WILL declare the manly deeds of Indra, the first that he achieved, the Thunder-wielder.&#xA;  He slew the Dragon, then disclosed the waters, and cleft the channels of the mountain torrents.&#xA;  2 He slew the Dragon lying on the mountain: &lt;strong&gt;his heavenly bolt of thunder Tvaṣṭar fashioned.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Like lowing kine in rapid flow descending the waters glided downward to the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My question is, why did Tvastar, create the only weapon that could destroy his own son?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-23T05:51:38.243" LastActivityDate="2018-01-23T05:51:38.243" Title="Why did Tvastar, the father of Vritra fashion the Vajra that killed his own son?" Tags="|rig-veda|indra|vedic-gods|shatapatha-brahmana|tvashtar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19861" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19838" CreationDate="2017-07-29T07:06:12.230" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a Hindi &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/lyrics/aarti/lord-narayan/shree-satyanarayan-aarti-hindi.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhajan of Satyanaryana&lt;/a&gt; which starts like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जय लक्ष्मीरमणा श्री जय लक्ष्मीरमणा। सत्यनारायण स्वामी जनपातक हरणा॥ जय&#xA;  लक्ष्मीरमणा।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/lyrics/aarti/lord-narayan/shree-satyanarayan-aarti-hindi.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here is another one&lt;/a&gt; called Purushottama Arati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्री पुरुषोत्तम देव की आरती जय पुरुषोत्तम देवा, स्वामी जय पुरुषोत्तम&#xA;  देवा। महिमा अमित तुम्हारी, सुर-मुनि करें सेवा॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Bhajans are sung during Artis, that is songs which are sung during waving lighted lamps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if you want Bhajans in Hindi for Narasimha, then the same site have them. Do a search.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T07:06:12.230" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19862" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-29T08:05:39.510" Score="6" ViewCount="1114" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brihaspati is DevaGuru, the spiritual Guru of the Gods. More so, He is the planet of Spirituality​. Brihaspati is the God of all knowledge and intellect. So Brihaspati could bring the philosophical or logical thinking sect. But Baarhaspatya thoughts just disregard Spirituality​. How is this possible?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-07-29T08:52:17.477" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T19:31:48.300" Title="Why did Brihaspati establish Charvaka or materialistic philosophical Sect?" Tags="|philosophy|atheism|brihaspati|charvaka|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19864" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19338" CreationDate="2017-07-29T11:47:30.173" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Benefits of Devashayani Ekadashi is mentioned by Lord Krishna to Yudhishthira in &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana, Uttarakhand, Chapter 53.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Srikrsna said: &lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2-8. &lt;strong&gt;I shall tell you (about that Ekadasl) named SayanI which &#xA;  is very auspicious, which gives heaven and salvation, which is &#xA;  great and which removes all sins, merely hearing about which a &#xA;  man would obtain the fruit of a Vajapeya (sacrifice)&lt;/strong&gt;. I have told &#xA;  (you) the truth and the truth (only). Nothing is greater than this &#xA;  for men. O lord of kings, the best one is created by the Creator &#xA;  for the destruction of the sins of sinners. There is no greater &#xA;  (vow) than this which would give salvation. Listen, O king, for &#xA;  this reason that the best position would be obtained by men, the &#xA;  listeners, even by listening to it. Those are the Vaisnavas (i.e. &#xA;  Visnu's devotees) who are greatly devoted to me. In Asadha, the &#xA;  great god Vamana (i.e. Visnu) is worshipped. He who has &#xA;  worshipped with lotuses the lotus-eyed Vamana in the bright half &#xA;  of Asadha on the day of Kamika, has honoured the entire world &#xA;  and has worshipped the three ancient gods (viz. Brahma, Visnu, &#xA;  and Siva); so also, he who has observed the Ekadasl—the day &#xA;  of (i.e. sacred to) Visnu—has honoured the entire world &#xA;  and worshipped the three ancient gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;27-37. A man who observes the vow goes to the best posi-&#xA;  tion. For this reason, O king, it should be carefully observed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rituals are also described in brief in the same chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On that day on which the lord of gods holding a &#xA;  conch, a disc, and a mace sleeps, a man should worship the &#xA;  god holding a conch, a disc, and a mace, and he should especi-&#xA;  ally, with devotion, keep awake at night.&lt;/strong&gt; (Even) Brahma is not &#xA;  able to measure the religious merit of (i.e. due to) it. O king, he &#xA;  who, in this way, observes this best vow of EkadasI, which &#xA;  removes all sins, gives pleasures and salvation, even though a &#xA;  candala, always lives in my heaven doing what is dear to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-07-30T06:15:00.070" LastActivityDate="2017-07-30T06:15:00.070" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19865" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14110" CreationDate="2017-07-29T12:08:48.097" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Devashayani Ekadashi is described by Lord Krishna to Yudhishthira in &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana, Uttarakhand, Chapter 53&lt;/strong&gt; in detail. It describes the ritual and benefits which I have described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19338/what-are-all-rituals-and-benefits-of-devshayani-ekadashi/19864#19864&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devashayani Ekadashi is related to Vamana incarnation of Lord Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then I placed half the step on his head. O king, the demon, my &#xA;  worshipper, went to the lower world. I threw down the demon. &#xA;  What else did I do after it? He was bent with modesty, Visnu &#xA;  was very much pleased. &lt;strong&gt;Kamika in the bright half of Asadha is &#xA;  Visnu's day. On that day one of my forms remains resorting to &#xA;  Bali. Another (form) lies on the back of Sesa in the ocean, O &#xA;  great king, till the coming (EkadasI) in Kartika.&lt;/strong&gt; Till then he &#xA;  would be very religious and devoted to best of all duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T12:08:48.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19866" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11906" CreationDate="2017-07-29T12:30:25.103" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;An English version of the Adhyatma Ramayana is available on &lt;a href=&quot;http://esamskriti.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;e samskriti&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.esamskriti.com/essays/ARamayan-Vol_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyatma Ramayana Volume 1&lt;/a&gt; (Bala Kandam &amp;amp; Ayodhya Kandam) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://esamskriti.com/essays/pdf22.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyatma Ramayana Volume 2&lt;/a&gt; (Aranya Kandam, Kishkinda Kandam &amp;amp; Sundara Kandam)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://esamskriti.com/essays/murti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adhyatma Ramayana Volume 3&lt;/a&gt; (Yuddha Kandam) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-07-29T12:53:18.437" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T12:53:18.437" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19867" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19862" CreationDate="2017-07-29T13:36:41.057" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually, No philosophy is Man created;Every philosophy is already inherently present in the nature. It just manifests according to the demand. &lt;strong&gt;All philosophies are describing the role of consciousness only.&lt;/strong&gt; From Prtyabhijnahridyam of the acharya Kshemraja&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The positions of the various systems of&#xA;  philosophy are only various roles of that (Consciousness&#xA;  or Self). Sutra-7 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It means every philosophy manifests according to the demand. No philosophy dies nor any philosophy ever born, just appears &amp;amp; disappears according to demand. Demand here means consciousness. Existence of people with particular consciousness is demand in nature actually by which some particular philosophy manifest. Now, to manifest it initially a propagator is needed who is fit to propagate. Brihaspati propagated not because he actually believes the philosophy but because of demand as people with such consciousness were prevailing in that time. So philosophies are just the roles of consciousness. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the same Shastra,&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The positions of the various systems of philosophy are, so to&#xA;speak, roles assumed by the Self&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Carvakas, for instance, maintain that the Self is&#xA;identical with the BODY characterised by consciousness.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The followers of Nyaya practically consider BUDDHI to&#xA;be the Self in the worldly condition. After liberation, they&#xA;consider Self as identical with the void.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Mimamsakas also practically consider Buddhi to&#xA;be the Self inasmuch as they believe the I-CONSCIOUSNESS to be&#xA;the Self.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Buddhists also consider only the functions of BUDDHI&#xA;as the Self.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Some Vedantins regard PRANA as the Self.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Some of the Vedantins and the Madhyamikas regard&#xA;'NON-BEING' as the fundamental principle.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The followers of Pancaratra believe Vasudeva to be the&#xA;highest cause.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The followers of Sankhya practically accept the position&#xA;of the Vijnanakalas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Some Vedantins accept ISVARA as the highest principle.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Grammarians consider PASYANTI or SADASIVA to be&#xA;the highest reality.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Tantrikas consider the ATMAN as transcending the&#xA;universe to be the highest principle.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Kaulas consider the UNIVERSE as the Atman principle.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The followers of Trika philosophy maintain that the&#xA;ATMAN is both immanent and transcendent.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T13:36:41.057" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19869" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19846" CreationDate="2017-07-29T17:39:34.643" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is full of twist and turns. I will give the information i know. It is very interesting. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To know more about the story, you should know the god &lt;strong&gt;Tvastar&lt;/strong&gt;. Tvastar is referred as the god who created sky and the earth, created different creatures. He created different objects like the soma cup that was used to drink &lt;strong&gt;soma&lt;/strong&gt; (a vedic ritual drink), created vajra (a weapon) for Indra. He also created an axe for Brihaspati. In the Rig Veda, he is shown as an artist who creates a lot of different and unique things and that's why he is also known as the heavenly builder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But something that was not created by Tvastar is water. Water was already present. I know things have started becoming confusing. This is what i know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sky and the earth were created by Tvastr to be his house. Later sky and earth became parent of lord Indra. Indra told his mother about the way he wants to get borned but the mother earth opposes his request. This is where the hymn 18 comes into play.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;THIS is the ancient and accepted pathway by which all Gods have come into existence. Hereby could one be born though waxen mighty. Let him not, otherwise, destroy his Mother.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mother earth for some reason wanted to abandon Indra.  So, mother earth left Indra but Indra kept following her. While following his mother, Indra reached the place of &lt;strong&gt;Tvastar&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tvastar is the guardian of soma. Now, Indra had to drink soma to become powerful. Some say that Indra stole soma from Tvastar. After drinking soma, Lord Indra became powerful and as a result it was getting hard for mother Earth to hold him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She asks Kusaava ( a river) to take him in her womb. Later the water of Kusava helped Indra to grow. Lord Indra kept on growing. As, I already said Indra wanted to be delivered in an unusual way. He wanted to come from side and he was continuously growing. You can look for Kusava in the Rig veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This made difficult for Kusava to hold him. This is where the other lines come in&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;He bent his eye upon the dying Mother: My word I now withdraw. That way I follow. In Tvaṣṭar's dwelling India drank the Soma, a hundredworth of juice pressed from the mortar.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kusava could not hold Indra and as a result Kusava dies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story is really interesting. I am not 100% clear about one thing and that is if Indra took soma before getting in the womb of kusava or after.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyway, as I said the story is full of twists. As, I said Tvastar was the creator of lot of thing, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we look at &lt;strong&gt;Tvastar&lt;/strong&gt; then it's him who wanted to dethrone &lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt;. To dethrone Indra he created &lt;strong&gt;Trisiras&lt;/strong&gt; (Tvastar three headed son). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tvastar in revenge for his son created Vritra. Vritra was the one who holded all the water and Indra had to kill Vritra to release water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10303" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T17:39:34.643" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19870" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19847" CreationDate="2017-07-29T18:05:28.237" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would ask people to read my answer from the link below which was ofcourse asked by the same OP.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19846/was-indra-born-from-his-mothers-side-and-did-she-die-in-child-birth&quot;&gt;Was Indra born from his mother&amp;#39;s side and did she die in child-birth?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I have said in the answer given in the above link, it's Tvastar who created the sky and earth as his place to live. Tvastar created lots of thing. In fact his own creation started creating new things. Indra was of course created by earth and the sky. &#xA;Indra had to fight Vritra which was a creation of Tvastar. Vritra holded all the water and Indra had to kill Vritra to release water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For this, Indra had to be powerful. So, Indra drank soma. Soma is a drink which was protected by Tvastar. After drinking soma, Indra became powerful and started expanding. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra became so powerful and huge that even Tvastar himself got afraid. His continuous expansion starting creating gaps between the two worlds, (sky and earth) which happens to be his father and mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Earth and Sky were afraid of his expansion and were very small infront of him. The gap created by Indra's expansion never let earth and sky come together.  This is where the below line comes in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;4.18.12. Who was he then who made thy Mother widow? Who sought to stay thee lying still or moving? What God, when by the foot thy Sire thou tookest and slewest, was at hand to give thee comfort?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earth and Sky never united again as a result earth became a widow. Indra did not kill his father. He did gave some center fruit shock to his dad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10303" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T18:05:28.237" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19871" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-29T18:38:20.743" Score="1" ViewCount="95" Body="&lt;p&gt;According  to Vishishta Advaita following are the means for liberation-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Primary - Self Surrender (Sharangati).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Secondary - Devotion (Bhakti). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For now my primary concern is Self surrender. One can't be liberated from birth-death cycle without exhausting one's Karmic seeds, i.e impressions to cause further material events or existence (Sanchita Karmas). God don't (or can't?) exhaust one's sanchita karmas then how &amp;amp; why self surrender work? Can self surrender exhaust Sanchita Karmas? If not, why self surrender is a valid method for liberation? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T18:38:20.743" Title="Can Lord Vishnu exhausts one's Karmic seeds according to Vishishta Advaita?" Tags="|vishishtadvaita|sharanagati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19872" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19885" CreationDate="2017-07-29T19:08:10.437" Score="19" ViewCount="16015" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any verses from Vedas and the Upanishads that show Lord Vishnu as supreme?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-30T13:34:10.053" LastActivityDate="2020-05-06T05:30:12.563" Title="Do any Vedic verses depict Lord Vishnu to be supreme?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19873" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-29T20:18:37.517" Score="1" ViewCount="1290" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a question, if a person who masturbates, more than once after entering Brahmacharya stage, what shall he do ? Will he have to live with the regret or can he do something so that he is back to normal as a Brahmachari?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11558" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-30T03:23:33.737" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T05:07:47.123" Title="What is the expiation for indulging in sexual activities after upanayana?" Tags="|brahmacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-08-05T06:57:46.250" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19874" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18468" CreationDate="2017-07-29T23:21:44.473" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason is theological. Observe the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We have seen that, from the point of view of Islam, the limitation of Christianity is in having to accept the notion, first, that man is totally corrupted by sin and, second, that none but Christ can deliver him from it; and, as we have likewise mentioned, Islam bases itself upon the axiom of the unalterable deiformity of man: there is in him something which, participating as it does in the Absolute—otherwise man would not be man—permits salvation provided he possesses the necessary knowledge, and this is precisely what is provided by Revelation; what man stands in absolute need of is not therefore a specific Revealer, but Revelation as such, that is, Revelation considered from the point of view of its essential and invariable content. And this crucial point could also be brought up: what Islam blames Christianity for—but not the Gospels—is not that it should admit a trinity within God, but that it should place this trinity on the same level as the Divine Unity; not that it should attribute to God a ternary aspect, but that it should define God as triune, which amounts to saying either that the Absolute is triple or else that God is not the Absolute.[11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The quote is from an article by Frithjof Schuon, it can be found here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.com/Public/articles/browse_g.aspx?ID=261&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Form and Substance in the Religions&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The context for the paragraph has to do with some contextual misunderstandings between various world religions (basically Islam and Christianity), and how some partial dogmas can be misunderstood for &quot;absolute&quot; statements (each religion has its way of framing the world and its path to salvation). Claims made by certain religions can be understood only in context, but when made absolute they are taken out of context.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the paragraph, Schuon talks about the trinity in Christianity. Islam does not disagree with stating that God might have a &quot;ternary aspect&quot; (and there are forms of Islam that admit this, like the Alawites), but it disagrees with placing the trinity in place of the Divine Unity, which amounts to saying that God is not the Absolute (since God is triune, i.e. God would not be Himself; &quot;the Oneness&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The footnote says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[11] It is true that God as creator, revealer, and savior is not to be identified with the Absolute as such; it is likewise true that God in Himself, in the full depth of His reality, is not to be reduced to the creative Function.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is essentially the explanation for why Brahma is not worshiped. While Schuon first elucidates how placing the &quot;Trinity&quot; in place of the Absolute, is sort of like making God &quot;not&quot; the Absolute, he qualifies in the footnote that God is not to be identified absolutely with the Absolute. (For you Hindus, this is the distinction between Brahman and Isvara (i.e. as Siva or Visnu).)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the first distinction he makes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second distinction he makes is between &quot;God&quot; and the &quot;creative function.&quot; The &quot;creative function&quot; is Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the reason that Brahma is not worshiped in Hinduism is because God is not solely the creator, or creative function. Identifying God totally with the creative function would amount to worshiping Brahma, which no one does. God as &quot;creator, revealer, and savior&quot; would either be a Saivite or Vaisnava God (i.e. either Visnu or Siva), but the &quot;Absolute&quot; is probably Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope that helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-29T23:21:44.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19875" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19573" CreationDate="2017-07-30T03:28:26.637" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there are countless healing mantras, which can be chanted in order to cure or give relief to someone near and dear to you.&#xA;These are Shabar, Vedic and other devotional mantras from the ramcharitmanas, which work effectively.&#xA;You can check the largest collection here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prophet666.com/2010/09/health-mantras.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot; title=&quot;this text appears when you mouse over&quot;&gt;best healing mantras&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11561" LastActivityDate="2017-07-30T03:28:26.637" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19876" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19878" CreationDate="2017-07-30T04:40:06.777" Score="6" ViewCount="699" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think one need to have the purest heart to get a Darshana of God, let alone a boon from God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But how Mahisasura, Hiranyakashipu and many more Asuras got boons from God with all their evil intensions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-07-30T04:48:05.670" LastActivityDate="2017-07-30T05:47:31.603" Title="How could Asuras get boons from God?" Tags="|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-07-31T04:14:55.937" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19877" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19879" CreationDate="2017-07-30T05:20:01.687" Score="3" ViewCount="625" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scriptures such as the Manusmriti give us the causes of the loss of varna of a person. What are these causes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-07-30T07:07:08.633" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T05:07:05.577" Title="What are the causes of losing your caste?" Tags="|scripture|manu-smriti|varna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19878" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19876" CreationDate="2017-07-30T05:47:31.603" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Irrespective of one's motive, if one does sufficient austerities or tapas then he/she is bound to get the rewards. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever his intention was will not prevent him from getting the rewards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are a few verses from the Manu Smriti which talk about this overwhelming power of austerity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.234. All the bliss of gods and men is declared by the sages to whom the Veda was revealed, &lt;strong&gt;to have austerity for its root, austerity for&#xA;  its middle, and austerity for its end&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.237. Medicines, good health, learning, and the various divine stations &lt;strong&gt;are attained by austerities alone; for austerity is the means&#xA;  of gaining them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.238. &lt;strong&gt;Whatever is hard to be traversed, whatever is hard to be attained, whatever is hard to be reached, whatever is hard to be&#xA;  performed, all (this) may be accomplished by austerities; for&#xA;  austerity (possesses a power) which it is difficult to surpass.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.240. &lt;strong&gt;Insects, snakes, moths, bees, birds and beings, bereft of motion, reach heaven by the power of austerities.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.243. The lord, Prajapati, &lt;strong&gt;created these Institutes (of the sacred law) by his austerities alone&lt;/strong&gt;; the sages likewise obtained (the&#xA;  revelation of) the Vedas through their austerities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, when the intention will also eventually matter in deciding the overall fate of the Asuras but they are not to be deprived of the fruits of performing severe austerities by any means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, they get the boons that they won with their severe tapas. God will always grant boons once he decides that this Asura has done the sufficient amount of austerity required to get the boons he is asking for.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-07-30T05:47:31.603" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19879" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19877" CreationDate="2017-07-30T05:59:47.200" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many many actually. I am giving some of them. In general some minor sins known as upapAtakas result in jAtibhramsa or loss of caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.59. Slaying kine, sacrificing for those who are unworthy to sacrifice, adultery, selling oneself, casting off one’s teacher,&#xA;  mother, father, or son, giving up the (daily) study of the Veda, and&#xA;  neglecting the (sacred domestic) fire,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.60. Allowing one’s younger brother to marry first, marrying before one’s elder brother, giving a daughter to, or sacrificing for, (either&#xA;  brother),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.61. Defiling a damsel, usury, breaking a vow, selling a tank, a garden, one’s wife, or child,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.62. Living as a Vratya, casting off a relative, teaching (the Veda) for wages, learning (the Veda) from a paid teacher, and selling goods&#xA;  which one ought not to sell,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.63. Superintending mines (or factories) of any sort, executing great mechanical works, injuring (living) plants, subsisting on (the&#xA;  earnings of) one’s wife, sorcery (by means of sacrifices), and working&#xA;  (magic by means of) roots, (and so forth),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.64. Cutting down green trees for firewood, doing acts for one’s own advantage only, eating prohibited food,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.65. Neglecting to kindle the sacred fires, theft, non-payment of (the three) debts, studying bad books, and practising (the arts of)&#xA;  dancing and singing,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.66. Stealing grain, base metals, or cattle, intercourse with women who drink spirituous liquor, slaying women, Sudras, Vaisyas, or&#xA;  Kshatriyas, and atheism, &lt;strong&gt;(are all) minor offences, causing loss of&#xA;  caste (Upapataka)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.67. Giving pain to a Brahmana (by a blow), smelling at things which ought not to be smelt at, or at spirituous liquor, cheating, and an&#xA;  unnatural offence with a man, &lt;strong&gt;are declared to cause the loss of caste&#xA;  (Gatibhramsa)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.68. Killing a donkey, a horse, a camel, a deer, an elephant, a goat, a sheep, a fish, a snake, or a buffalo, must be known to degrade&#xA;  (the offender) to a mixed caste (Samkarikarana) and so on...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these verses are from the Manu Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adding some more verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Acceptance of gifts, giving instructions [in the Vedas] selling an&#xA;  article which should not be sold, and officiating as a priest at a&#xA;  sacrifice &lt;strong&gt;the doing of these four, [is described] in the Smritis as&#xA;  outcasting the Kshatriya and the Vaisya&lt;/strong&gt;. (20)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[By selling] meat, shell-lac and salt, [a Brahmana] becomes&#xA;  immediately outcasted. &lt;strong&gt;By selling milk, a Brahmana becomes a S'udra&#xA;  within three days.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti, Chapter 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the Sudra i found the following relevant verse from ParAshara Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;66.By selling Wine and meat,by consuming prohibited foods, cohabiting with prostitutes a shoodra falls from his caste. (Parashara Smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the Manu Smriti also prescribes atonement measures for removing sins leading to loss of caste as follows. Needless to say only Dvijas can perform these remedies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.258. Or if, pure (in mind and in body), &lt;strong&gt;he thrice&#xA;  repeats the Samhita of the Veda in a forest&lt;/strong&gt;, sanctified by three&#xA;  Paraka (penances), &lt;strong&gt;he is freed from all crimes causing loss of caste&#xA;  (pataka).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.259. But if (a man) fasts during three days, bathing&#xA;  thrice a day, and muttering (in the water the hymn seen by)&#xA;  Aghamarshana, &lt;strong&gt;he is (likewise) freed from all sins causing loss of&#xA;  caste.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T05:07:05.577" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T05:07:05.577" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19880" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19873" CreationDate="2017-07-30T06:33:00.373" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is this following atonement prescribed in Manu Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.118. But a student who has broken his vow shall offer&#xA;  at night on a crossway to Nirriti a one-eyed ass, according to the&#xA;  rule of the Pakayagnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Voluntary waste of seminal fluid amounts to breaking of the vow for a Brahmachari student. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT- As shown &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19879/4732&quot;&gt;in this answer&lt;/a&gt; breaking a vow is an upapAtaka or a minor sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And upapAtaks can be atoned by applying the following means as well. IMO, these methods are relatively less cumbersome to perform than the one given above ( donating one eyed ass etc).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.258. Or if, pure (in mind and in body), &lt;strong&gt;he thrice&#xA;  repeats the Samhita of the Veda in a forest&lt;/strong&gt;, sanctified by three&#xA;  Paraka (penances), &lt;strong&gt;he is freed from all crimes causing loss of caste&#xA;  (pataka).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.259. But if (a man) fasts during three days, bathing&#xA;  thrice a day, and muttering (in the water the hymn seen by)&#xA;  Aghamarshana, &lt;strong&gt;he is (likewise) freed from all sins causing loss of&#xA;  caste.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among the two, i think the second one is easier. It just involves fasting, bathing three times in a day and also reciting the Aghamarshana Suktam which is found in the Rig Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T05:07:47.123" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T05:07:47.123" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19881" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-30T07:03:36.950" Score="5" ViewCount="865" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra is described as having killed Trishiras and in revenge Tvastar created Vritra who was also slayed by Indra. But few verse from the Vedas mention someone else as the slayer of Trisiras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Ved &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 10.8.7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 Through his wise insight &lt;strong&gt;Trita&lt;/strong&gt; in the cavern, seeking as ever the Chief Sire's intention, Carefully tended in his Parents' bosom, calling the weapons kin, goes forth to combat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8 Well-skilled to use the weapons of his Father, &lt;strong&gt;Āptya, urged on by Indra, fought the battle. Then Trita slew the foe&lt;/strong&gt; seven-rayed, three-headed, and freed the cattle of the Son of Tvaṣṭar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9 9 Lord of the brave, Indra cleft him in pieces who sought to gain much strength and deemed him mighty. He smote his three heads from his body, seizing the cattle of the oniniform Son of Tvaṣṭar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another Verse &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv08007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 8.7.24&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is extolling Maruts for helping Trita Aptya who was helped by Indra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;24 They reinforced the power and strength of &lt;strong&gt;Trita as he fought, and helped Indra in battle with the foe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01187.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV 1.187&lt;/a&gt; even mentions Trita as the one who killed Vritra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Now will I glorify Food that upholds great strength,&#xA;  By whose invigorating power &lt;strong&gt;Trita rent Vṛtra limb from limb.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So who did actually kill Trishiras &amp;amp; Vritra? If it is Trita who is he? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found who Trita Aptya was in the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana 1.2.3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; which mentions the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Fourfold, namely, was Agni (fire) at first. Now that Agni whom they at first chose for the office of Hotri priest passed away. He also whom they chose the second time passed away. He also whom they chose the third time passed away. Thereupon the one who still constitutes the fire in our own time, concealed himself from fear. He entered into the waters. Him the gods discovered and brought forcibly away from the waters. He spat upon the waters, saying, 'Bespitten are ye who are an unsafe place of refuge, from whom they take me away against my will!' &lt;strong&gt;Thence sprung the Âptya deities, Trita, Dvita, and Ekata.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They roamed about with Indra,&lt;/strong&gt; even as nowadays a Brâhman follows in the train of a king. &lt;strong&gt;When he slew Visvarûpa, the three-headed son of Tvashtri, they also knew of his going to be killed.; and straightway Trita slew him. Indra, assuredly, was free from that (sin), for he is a god.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So according to Shatapatha Brahmana it was indeed Trita who killed Trishiras. The story also helps us make some sense of the earlier Vedic verses regarding him knowing thec 'chief-sire's intention'. &lt;strong&gt;But then how do we reconcile this version with the verses that claim it was Indra who performed the act?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note I am not looking for Puranic versions only what can be gleaned from the Vedic literature like Samhitas, Brahmanas etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-20T10:51:25.923" LastActivityDate="2019-12-14T12:54:12.580" Title="Was it really Indra who killed Trishiras or was it someone called Trita?" Tags="|rig-veda|indra|asuras|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19882" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-30T07:49:17.087" Score="21" ViewCount="1857" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the most famous slokas used for Lord Shiva (Rudra) during &lt;em&gt;arti&lt;/em&gt; or prayer is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कर्पूरगौरं करुणावतारम् &#xA;  संसारसारं भुजगेन्द्रहारम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सदा वसन्तं हृदयारविन्दे&#xA;  भवं भवानीसहितं नमामि || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;karpūragauraṁ karuṇāvatāraṁ&#xA;  sansārsāram bhujagendrahāram | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sadāvasantaṁ hṛdayāravinde&#xA;  bhavaṁ bhavānīsahitaṁ namāmi || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=BmAoDwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT189&amp;amp;lpg=PT189&amp;amp;dq=karpoora%20gauram%20yajurveda&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=BfdfyvalnY&amp;amp;sig=jt61IF30cND_qrkqYExdYGn3j2Y&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwigms6eu7DVAhUHNo8KHcvjD58Q6AEIUjAI#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=karpoora%20gauram%20yajurveda&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Translation&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I bow to Shiva along with Shakti (Parvati),  who resides ever in the&#xA;  lotus of my heart,  Who is the color of camphor, who is filled with&#xA;  kindness,  who is the support of the world and who wears a snake as a &#xA;  garland.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse has word &quot;&lt;strong&gt;bhujagendrahāram&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; which means the one who has Lord of serpents as ornament. This is interesting because i think Rudra in Vedas is not mentioned with Serpents (I can be wrong too).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many sites on internet including &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karpuragauram_Karunavtaaram&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt; say this verse is from &lt;strong&gt;Yajurveda&lt;/strong&gt; and wiki cites Devichand's translation of &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/yajurveda029670mbp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajurveda&lt;/a&gt; but I couldn't find it in that book. Also, I couldn't find it through &lt;a href=&quot;http://kjc-sv013.kjc.uni-heidelberg.de/dcs/index.php?contents=dictionary&amp;amp;limit=20&amp;amp;first_letter=k&amp;amp;text_id=0&amp;amp;limit=20&amp;amp;page=139&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Digital Corpus of Sanskrit&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where exactly  Yajurveda has this verse? Is it from Krishna Yajurveda or Shukla Yajurveda? If from Samhita, who is Rishi and what is meter for this verse? I think Devata must be &lt;strong&gt;Rudra&lt;/strong&gt;, but also mention Devata for this Mantra. If this is from Brahmana or Aranyaka, mention exact verse location. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: I want to know exact location of this verse. Please don't provide some external site which says this verse can be found in Yajurveda.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-12-23T10:23:13.930" LastActivityDate="2019-11-28T21:53:25.717" Title="Where does Yajurveda have &quot;karpūragauraṁ karuṇāvatāraṁ....bhavaṁ bhavānīsahitaṁ namāmi&quot; verse?" Tags="|shiva|yajur-veda|shloka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19883" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19898" CreationDate="2017-07-30T08:01:05.333" Score="5" ViewCount="2280" Body="&lt;p&gt;Panchamrita is a mixture of five foods used in puja which are usually honey, jaggery, milk , yogurt and ghee. However, is there any alternative for honey when making Panchamrita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason I am reluctant to use honey is that it is made by bees to store food for winter and it seems like we, humans are stealing their food. Many scriptures themselves say ''food stolen from others should not be offered to God''.I don't think God would like us to offer stolen food. It seems very unethical and immoral to me. So is there any alternative to using honey in making Panchamrita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-07-30T15:10:40.570" LastActivityDate="2018-01-24T12:47:57.177" Title="Is there any alternative to using honey in making Panchamrita?" Tags="|worship|puja|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19885" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19872" CreationDate="2017-07-30T14:41:41.430" Score="33" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Rig Veda (1.22.20) makes it very clear that it is Vishnu who empowers all the heavenly Devas extolled and glorified in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu occupies the paramount position.&#xA;All the other deities look always to His feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 10.113.2 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu is glorified because of who and what He intrinsically is. Indra, on the other hand, is only glorious circumstantially.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 1.156.2 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu is the most ancient of all, yet also the most recent. Nothing and no one creates Vishnu, yet Vishnu creates everyone and everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Narayana Suktam of the Yajurveda states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana is the Lord of the universe. This master is the ruler of himself. He is the eternally auspicious one and he is constant and unchanging. This Narayana is the highest thing to be known. He is the inner-psyche of all. He is the supreme object and the highest goal of attainment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana is the supreme Brahman. Narayana is the supreme Reality. Narayana is the supreme Light. Narayana is the supreme Self. Narayana is the most excellent meditate and meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Narayana Upanishad states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The supreme person Narayana willed to create beings. From Narayana emerged the life principle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Narayana emerged the mind and all the senses. From Narayana, came Vayu, Surya, Varuna and Prithvi, which became the constituents of the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Narayana came Brahma. From Narayana emerged Maha-Rudra. From Narayana came Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Narayana came all the Prajapatis. From Narayana came the twelve sons, the eight Vasus, the Rudra and all the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All beings emerged from Narayana. Narayana sustains all beings. Every being merges into Narayana. Narayana is the eternal principle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma is Narayana. Shiva is Narayana. Indra is Narayana. Earth and Heaven are Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Time verily is Narayana. Directions are Narayana. The upper world is Narayana. The nether world is Narayana. Narayana forms the inner as well as the outer worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything is a manifestation of Narayana. He is both past, present and future.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana is immaculate, ever blissful, blemishless and non-dual. Narayana is the Supreme Self without a moment. This is declared by the Yajurveda. Narayana, who is also known as Vishnu, pervades the whole universe and it is He alone who exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later on, the same Upanishad also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The seat of Narayana is the lotus of the heart. The knowledge of Narayana alone is the highest form of wisdom. Sri Krishna, the son of Devaki, who is the vanquisher of Madhu is the ultimate Brahman. He alone resides in all beings. He is both the causeless and the cause of everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-05-07T15:35:44.733" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19888" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19883" CreationDate="2017-07-30T18:11:07.097" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;wow, that's very nice of you to say that. I never thought it that way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now PanchAmrit is a syrup made of 5 different things. These five different things are honey, sugar, milk , curd and ghee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Panch in the word &lt;strong&gt;PanchAmrit&lt;/strong&gt; means five and Amrita means nectar that will make you immortal. So, these five components will help you be immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Does consuming PanchAmrit really makes you immortal. Well, it does not make you immortal but it can make you live longer. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now how can it make you live longer. The &#xA;Milk in the panchamrit represents purity,&#xA;Ghee in the panchamrit represnts nourishment of the body,&#xA;Curd in the panchamrit represents prosperity and good luck,&#xA;Sugar in the panchamrit represents sweeetness and bliss,&#xA;honey in the panchamrit represnts unity and hardwork(as it is jointly developed by bees.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, can you replace honey by something in the panchamrit. Well, if what you need is a sweet taste then you can add some other artificial thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason why honey is added in the panchamrit is because it's meant to unite you, meant to make you focused during hard times and continue doing the hard work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think you can represent honey with some artificial nectar as it's purpose is not to give sweet taste in your mouth but to work like a bee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10303" LastEditorUserId="10303" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T02:22:04.267" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T02:22:04.267" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19892" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-30T22:46:24.933" Score="2" ViewCount="125" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that people lived longer in different yugas than Kali yuga and I heard the life expansion decreased and now we can  barely live for 100 years. So why did the life expansion decrease?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11555" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T04:41:01.890" Title="Why did the life expansion(living for many year like 1000 years kept decreasing?" Tags="|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-07-31T16:49:09.460" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19893" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22601" CreationDate="2017-07-31T02:31:27.773" Score="11" ViewCount="2148" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahmaa is a very important figure in Vedic tradition. He is referred to as PrajApatI and hiranyagarbha in the Vedas. As per Puranic tradition he is the part of trimurti's or trinity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, in the present era Lord Brahmaa and his worship has been sidelined. Only the two other gods of the trinity are given more importance. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are puranic stories about brahma being cursed and hence his worship is forbidden in the present era. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like the other Vedic gods (Indra, Varuna, Mitra, Soma etc.) his worship is also sidelined due to some reason or another. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I want to know which verses or hymns of the Vedas declare Lord Brahma as supreme or highest?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When we can venerate Lord Brahma in the Vedic rituals then why not in general regular worship?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-12-07T10:22:35.600" Title="Which Vedic verses declare Lord Brahma as supreme?" Tags="|vedas|worship|brahma|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19894" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-31T04:05:51.617" Score="4" ViewCount="3370" Body="&lt;p&gt;Anuloma marriage means higher Varna men marrying lower Varna women. Pratiloma marriage means lower Varna men marrying higher Varna women. What is the reason behind encouraging Anuloma and discouraging pratiloma marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T04:13:44.880" LastActivityDate="2019-01-17T15:51:03.397" Title="Why Anuloma marriage is encouraged but Pratiloma marriage is discouraged?" Tags="|marriage|caste-system|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19895" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19892" CreationDate="2017-07-31T04:41:01.890" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vana Parva&lt;/a&gt;, Muni Markendeya explains this to Yudhishtira. The morality stands on 4 legs during &lt;em&gt;Krita yuga&lt;/em&gt;, 3 legs in &lt;em&gt;Treta yuga&lt;/em&gt;, 2 legs in &lt;em&gt;DwApara yuga&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; 1 leg in &lt;em&gt;Kali yuga&lt;/em&gt;. There seems to be direct relationship between Morality (read &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;) and the age expectancy of men:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira said, ... O thou foremost of all speakers, O Muni of Bhrigu's race, that which we have heard from thee about the destruction and re-birth of all things at the end of the Yuga, is, indeed, full of wonder! I am filled with curiosity, however, in respect of what may happen in the Kali age. When morality and virtue will be at an end, what will remain there! What will be the prowess of men in that age, what their food, and what their amusements? What will be the period of life at the end of the Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This chapter discusses mainly about &lt;em&gt;Kali yuga&lt;/em&gt;, as it has more extreme relation with &lt;em&gt;Krita yuga&lt;/em&gt;. Here is the relevant part to the Qn:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Markandeya said, 'Listen, O monarch, to all that hath been seen and heard by me, and to all, O king of kings, that hath been known to me by intuition from the grace of the God of gods! O bull of the Bharata race, listen to me as I narrate the future history of the world during the sinful age. O bull of the Bharata race, &lt;strong&gt;in the Krita age, everything was free from deceit and guile and avarice and covetousness&lt;/strong&gt;; and morality like a bull was among men, with all the four legs complete. &lt;strong&gt;In the Treta age sin took away one of these legs and morality&lt;/strong&gt; had three legs. &lt;strong&gt;In the Dwapara, sin and morality are mixed half and half&lt;/strong&gt;; and accordingly morality is said to have two legs only. &lt;strong&gt;In the dark age (of Kali)&lt;/strong&gt;, O thou best of the Bharata race, &lt;strong&gt;morality mixed with three parts of sin&lt;/strong&gt; liveth by the side of men. Accordingly morality then is said to wait on men, with only a fourth part of itself remaining. Know, O Yudhishthira, that the &lt;strong&gt;period of life, the energy, intellect and the physical strength of men decrease in every Yuga&lt;/strong&gt;! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Having said above, still there is no strong scripture basis which says that life expectancy was 1000s of years in earlier yuga-s. Ancient scriptures referred 100+/- years of life expectancy, which may vary with few decades, but not too many. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19705/1049&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19720/1049&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answers. Some scripture translate &lt;em&gt;sahastra&lt;/em&gt; strictly as &quot;thousand&quot;. This might have created the confusion of 1000s of years IMO.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T04:41:01.890" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19896" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19897" CreationDate="2017-07-31T05:06:34.413" Score="4" ViewCount="688" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhishma died on the bed of arrows after several days of completion of the MahAbhArata war.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Among Arjuna &amp;amp; Shikhandi, who can be considered the &quot;slayer of Bhishma&quot; or the reason of Bhishma getting killed ultimately?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T05:57:03.030" LastActivityDate="2021-11-17T02:01:00.357" Title="Which warrior can be considered the reason for the death of Bhishma?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|bhishma|shikhandi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19897" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19896" CreationDate="2017-07-31T05:13:40.983" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shikhandi&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhritarashtra said,--'How hath Bhishma, that bull among the Kurus, been slain by Sikhandin? [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhishma Parva&lt;/a&gt; found in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17300/1049&quot;&gt;this post&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When that lord of the world, the valiant Bhishma, having encountered Shikhandi, met with his death like a lion meeting with his at the hands of a jackal, what can it be but destiny?  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Shalya Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the slayer of Bhishma, the mighty Shikhandi, with all the Prabhadrakas, assailed the hero from every side with diverse kinds of weapons.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m10/m10008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Sauptika Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, it seems less likely that, Arjuna being devoted to Drona &amp;amp; Bhishma would have 'killed' them. This was evident during the discourse of Gita's 1st chapter. Since Bhishma didn't want to kill any of the PAndava, possibly Arjuna might have reciprocated the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17267/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Bhishma indeed would have informed about the way he can be killed to PAndava-s. However, ultimately Shikhandi would have pierced the majority of the arrows to Bhishma's body with some unspecified help from Arjuna as mentioned below (which interprets Arjuna as the slayer).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Viewing his relationship of grandsire unto them, the sons of Pandu, O sire, were spared in dreadful battle by Bhishma for ten successive days! Thyself also having laid aside thy weapons, the valiant Bhishma was slain in great battle by Phalguni with Shikhandi before him!  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08010.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Karna Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T05:47:48.487" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19898" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19883" CreationDate="2017-07-31T05:23:22.540" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The definition of PanchAmritam from Scriptures (took this sloka from Nitya Karma PujA Paddhati book) is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dadhi Dugdham Ghritainchava Sarkara Samyuktam Madhu |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PanchAmritamidam Proktam &lt;strong&gt;Vidhayam Sarva Karmesu&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Curd ( made out of Cow's milk), Cow's milk, Ghee, Sugar (sarkarA) and&#xA;  honey all mixed together is what constitutes the PanchAmrita. &lt;strong&gt;And it is prescribed to be&#xA;  used in all rituals (vidhayam sarvakarmesu).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if procuring honey is really an act of depriving the bees or an act of Adharma then the Scriptures will not prescribe it's use to start with.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, your apprehensions are without any valid reasons IMO.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, substitutes for objects used in rituals are only prescribed when those objects &lt;strong&gt;are expensive, hard to procure or difficult to apply.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, for satiating a malefic Saturn in one's chart, the Scriptures prescribe donation of a black buffalo (which is difficult to procure for some) or donation of blue sapphire (which is expensive). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in such situations, it is rational to expect that there will be substitutes and there is indeed such substitute and which is nothing but offering a minimal amount of money instead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, in this particular case, all the ingredients of the PanchAmrita are easily available, inexpensive and easy to apply as well. They are present in almost every households.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, i don't think there will be any substitutes prescribed in Scriptures because there is no need.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can continue using honey without any negative thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adding a passage from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/varahapurana-11.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha Purana&lt;/a&gt;, which should clear your doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PREPARATION OF ‘MADHUPARK’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;While describing the method of preparing Madhupark, Lord Varaha told&#xA;  Prithvi–“Madhupark” manifested from the right half of my body at the&#xA;  time when the process of creation began. This is the reason why it is&#xA;  so pure.&lt;/strong&gt; Anybody who makes offering of Madhupark in the course of my&#xA;  worship,attains to my abode. &lt;strong&gt;For the preparation of Madhupark honey,&#xA;  curd and ghee are mixed in equal proportion. While preparing it sacred&#xA;  mantras in my praise should be constantly chanted. Giving some&#xA;  Madhupark to a dying man liberates his soul.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there is nothing wrong in using honey, as the scriptures are approving it's use.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-01-24T12:47:57.177" LastActivityDate="2018-01-24T12:47:57.177" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19899" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-31T06:37:19.800" Score="7" ViewCount="3793" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, when Draupadi was being disrobed by Dushasana, why did the Pandava’s sit quiet? Is there any other reason besides the fact that they had already lost in the gambling and had become slaves? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The primary duty of a husband is to protect his wife. How could Yudhisthira fail to understand this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T23:47:48.170" LastActivityDate="2021-05-23T21:12:47.153" Title="Why did the Pandavas sit quiet when Draupadi was being disrobed by Dushasana?" Tags="|mahabharata|pandavas|draupadi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19900" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18199" CreationDate="2017-07-31T06:41:10.983" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;All Tantras and Agamas assume the form of a dialogue between Shiva and Parashakti and as far as the reasons are concerned i have till now found  two of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, both of them are from Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;In order to depict the importance of Guru&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Guru Shishya Pade StitvA Swameva SadAshivah | Prasnottara&#xA;  ParairvAkaistantram SamavatArayat ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SadAshiva himself simultaneously assumes the roles of a Guru (as Shiva&#xA;  as prakasha) and Shishya ( as Shiva's own vimarsha Shakti), and by&#xA;  initiating a question-answer session thus propounds all the Tantra&#xA;  Shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Swachhanda Tantram verse quoted by AchArya Bhaskara Raya while commenting on a verse in NityAshodashikArnava's 1st patala.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse's import is that, in order to show the world that all knowledge is essentially Gurumukhi, Lord SadAshiva propounds all Tantras in the form of a dialogue between he himself and Sri Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To emphasize the fact, that  all Shastras, Agamas are fruitful only when learned from one's Guru, all Agamas assume the form of a dialogue  between Shiva and Shakti who assume the respective roles of a Guru and Shishya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another explanation is also found in Scriptures and which is as given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;To reiterate the fact that all Scriptures are essentially Shiva-Shakti's creations&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shivena Paraya ShaktyA DvAbhyAm Kritsnam Samudhritam |&#xA;  VAchyavAchakabhAvena DvAbhyAm Brahma PrakAsitam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All Shastras are created by the duo- Shiva and ParAshakti. They&#xA;  together,by assuming the forms of an asker and an answerer, there by&#xA;  reveal the supreme (Brahman).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agama SAra Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the fact that, its Shiva (who is of course never separated from Shakti) who propounds all Shastras, by assuming different forms and at different times, is mentioned in many Agamas (for example in MahAnirvana Tantram's 1st chapter or in KulArnava Tantram's 1st chapter).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this is the 2nd explanation as to why all Tantras are always in the form of a dialogue between Shiva and Parashakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T07:16:06.940" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T07:16:06.940" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19901" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="867" CreationDate="2017-07-31T08:05:23.270" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Literally SWAYAM-VAR may refer simply to a girl choosing her own husband, with or without her parent's approval, and Devi Sati's selection of Shiva against her father's wishes may be the earliest instance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if you are asking about the &lt;strong&gt;Swayamvar ritual&lt;/strong&gt; in which a father let her daughter choose her husband, the earliest example could be that of &lt;strong&gt;Satyavati&lt;/strong&gt; mentioned in the Mahabharat. As mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga24/sundarasans24.htm#Verse10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sundar Kaand Shlok&lt;/a&gt; shared by Keshav I am assuming this to be much &lt;strong&gt;before Sita Swayamvar&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03291.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vana Parva SECTION CCLXLI&lt;/a&gt; states that when Savitri has come of age, her father, King Ashwapati of Madra asks her to choose her own husband:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And seeing his own daughter resembling a celestial damsel arrived at puberty, and unsought by people, the king became sad. And the king said, 'Daughter, the time for bestowing thee is come! Yet none asketh thee. &lt;strong&gt;Do thou (therefore) thyself seek for a husband equal to thee in qualities!&lt;/strong&gt; That person who may be desired by thee should be notified to me. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do thou choose for thy husband as thou listest. I shall bestow thee with deliberation.&lt;/strong&gt; Do thou, O auspicious one, listen to me as I tell thee the words which I heard recited by the twice-born ones. The father that doth not bestow his daughter cometh by disgrace. And the husband that knoweth not his wife in her season meeteth with disgrace. And the son that doth not protect his mother when her husband is dead, also suffereth disgrace. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hearing these words of mine, do thou engage thyself in search of a husband.&lt;/strong&gt; Do thou act in such a way that we may not be censured by the gods!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That the practice of Swayamvar was an accepted one is attested to by the Manu Smriti that mentions in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201455.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 9.90&lt;/a&gt; -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रीणि वर्षाण्युदीक्षेत कुमार्यर्तुमती सती । &#xA;  ऊर्ध्वं तु कालादेतस्माद् विन्देत सदृशं पतिम् ॥ ९० ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having reached puberty, the maiden may wait for three years; after that time, she shall procure a suitable husband.—(90)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201456.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 9.91&lt;/a&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अदीयमाना भर्तारमधिगच्छेद् यदि स्वयम् । &#xA;  नैनः किं चिदवाप्नोति न च यं साऽधिगच्छति ॥ ९१ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a maiden, when not given away, herself procures a husband, she incurs no sort of sin; nor does the man whom she weds.—(91)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you're looking for the mention of a proper ceremony where kings had come to attend and test their mettle against each other, it would perhaps be &lt;strong&gt;Damyanti Swayamvar&lt;/strong&gt; though I doubt its timeline in relation to Sita ji's Swayamvar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It may have actually happened later because as per the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy_of_Rama&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;genealogy mentioned in the Puraans&lt;/a&gt;, Nala belonged to the lineage of Rama's son Kush unless he is a different person altogether.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-18T05:42:28.073" LastActivityDate="2017-12-18T05:42:28.073" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19903" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19911" CreationDate="2017-07-31T08:48:35.373" Score="6" ViewCount="1275" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is believed that Ramanuja (Vaishnava philosopher) openly gave out the nArayana ashtAkshari mahAmantra to the common public after climbing the temple gopuram. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;News of this latest attempt on Sri Ramanuja's life spreads to &#xA;  thiruKOttiur and reaches  thiruKOttiur Nambi.Who then teaches him the&#xA;  maha mantram, whispers in  his years and warns him that if he tells&#xA;  anybody , he will derive no benefit from it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After , this koorathazwan and others want him to go back to SriRangam &#xA;  but our acarya instead remembers the &quot;thondar kuzhaam&quot; (the low caste&#xA;  people) climbs on top of  a Gopuram and addresses all people outside:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;People! Hear me carefully! I am giving you the secret mantram which &#xA;  will get you salvation in  this very birth, irrespective of your caste&#xA;  of at birth. Listen! Om namo  naaraayaNaaya!.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/jun98/0138.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my questions are, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Did he actually did this as given the above paragraphs?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If pranava is included in the mantra then why do these acharyas forbid shudras and women from chanting other mantras which also have &quot;om&quot; in it ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Any scripture allows such act of open mass initiation? if yes then what are the references?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-01-11T16:27:13.643" LastActivityDate="2018-01-11T16:27:13.643" Title="Did Ramanuja do a mass initiation of people at Srirangam?" Tags="|vishnu|sri-vaishnava|ramanujacharya|initiation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19904" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3207" CreationDate="2017-07-31T10:08:44.390" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The fasts followed today are somewhat different from those mentioned in the earliest scriptures of Hinduism so I would share what the older scriptures mention about them. The Law Books such as the &lt;strong&gt;Manusmriti&lt;/strong&gt; prescribe elaborate rules and procedures to practice fasting which may either be done to gain some spiritual merit or as a means for atonement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe14/sbe1487.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Sacred Laws of Vasishth &amp;amp; Baudhayan, PRASNA IV, ADHYÂYA 5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; descriptions are given of the Krikkhra &amp;amp; Cândrâyana fasts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Krikkhra&lt;/strong&gt; revealed by Pragâpati lasts twelve days, (which are divided into four separate) periods of three days; (during the first period of three days he eats) in the day-time (only, during the second) at night (only, during the third he subsists on) food given without asking, (and during the fourth) finally (he lives on) air.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(If one eats on) one (day in) the morning (only), and (on the following day) at night (only, on the next day food) given without asking, (and on the fourth day) subsists on air, and repeats this three times, that is called the Krikkhra of children.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(If) one eats one mouthful only at each (meal), following, during (three) periods of three days, the rules given above, and subsists during another period of three days on air, that is called the Atikrikkhra penance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(If) during those (first) three periods of three days one partakes of water only, and subsists afterwards (during three days) on air, that third (variety) must be known to be the most efficacious Krikkhrâtikrikkhra penance.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If one drinks hot milk, (hot) clarified butter, (and a hot) decoction of Kusa grass, each during three days, and fasts during another three days, that is called the Taptakrikkhra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Similarly there are other types of fasts mentioned:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;17&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If he daily adds to his food one mouthful during the bright (half of the month) and diminishes it daily by one mouthful during the dark (half of the month), and keeps two fasts in the two halves of the month, that is called a &lt;strong&gt;Kândrâyana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If, with concentrated mind, a Brâhmana eats four mouthfuls in the morning and four mouthfuls when the sun has set, he will perform the Kândrâyana of children.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If, self-restrained, he daily eats, during a month, at midday eight mouthfuls of food, fit for a sacrifice, he will perform the Kândrâyana of ascetics.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Some alternatives are also mentioned:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If one recites the whole Rig-veda, Yagur-veda, and Sâma-veda, or thrice reads one of these Vedas and fasts, (that is) a most efficient means of purification.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Now if one is in haste to finish, one may live on air during a day, and pass the night standing in water, that is equal (in efficacy) to a Prâgâpatya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti Chapter 5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; details certain punishments where the one repenting was asked to follow the above-mentioned fasts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;19&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A twice-born man who knowingly eats mushrooms, a village-pig, garlic, a village-cock, onions, or leeks, will become an outcast.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He who unwittingly partakes of (any of) these six, shall perform a &lt;strong&gt;Samtapana (Krikkhra)&lt;/strong&gt; or the &lt;strong&gt;lunar penance (Candrayana)&lt;/strong&gt; of ascetics; in case (he who has eaten) any other (kind of forbidden food) he shall fast for one day (and a night).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Mahabharat(( &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b071.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anushasan Parva Section CVI&lt;/a&gt;** Bhishma tells Yuddhishthir:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Angiras said, 'As regards Brahmanas and Kshatriyas, &lt;strong&gt;fasts for three nights at a stretch&lt;/strong&gt; are ordained for them, O delighter of the Kurus. Indeed, O chief of men, a fast for one night, for two nights, and for three nights, may be observed by them. (They should never go beyond three nights). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As regards Vaisyas and Sudras, the duration of fasts prescribed for them is a &lt;strong&gt;single night.&lt;/strong&gt; If, from folly, they observe fasts for two or three nights, such fasts never lead to their advancement. Indeed, for Vaisyas and Sudras, fasts for two nights have been ordained (on certain special occasions). Fasts for three nights, however, have not been laid down for them by persons conversant with and observant of duties. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That man of wisdom who, with his senses and soul under control, O Bharata, fasts, by abstaining from one of the two meals, on the fifth and the sixth days of the moon as also on the day of the full moon, becomes endured with forgiveness and beauty of person and conversance with the scriptures. Such a person never becomes childless and poor. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who observes fasts on the eighth and the fourteenth days of the dark fortnight, becomes freed from maladies of every kind&lt;/strong&gt; and possessed of great energy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The man who abstains from one meal every day throughout the month called Margasirsha,&lt;/strong&gt; should, with reverence and devotion, feed a number of Brahmanas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That man, O son of Kunti, &lt;strong&gt;who passes the whole month of Pausha, abstaining every day from one of two meals, becomes endued with good fortune and agreeable features and great fame.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who passes the whole month of Magha, abstaining every day from one of the two meals, takes birth in a high family&lt;/strong&gt; and attains to a position of eminence among his kinsmen. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who passes the whole month of Bhagadaivata, confining himself every day to only one meal becomes a favourite with women&lt;/strong&gt; who, indeed, readily own his sway. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who passes the whole of the month of Chaitra, confining himself every day to one meal, takes birth in a high family and becomes rich in gold, gems, and pearls. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The person, &lt;strong&gt;whether male or female, who passes the month of Vaisakha, confining himself or herself every day to one meal, and keeping his or her senses under control, succeeds in attaining to a position of eminence among kinsmen.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The person who passes the month of Jyaishtha confining himself every day to one meal a day, succeeds in attaining to a position of eminence and great wealth.&lt;/strong&gt; If a woman, she reaps the same reward. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who passes the month of Ashadha confining himself to one meal a day and with senses steadily concentrated upon his duties, becomes possessed of much corn, great wealth, and a large progeny.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who passes the month of Sravana, confining himself to one meal a day, receives the honours of Abhisheka&lt;/strong&gt; wherever he may happen to reside, and attains to a position of eminence among kinsmen whom he supports. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That man who confines himself to only one meal a day for the whole month of Proshthapada, becomes endued with great wealth&lt;/strong&gt; and attains, to swelling and durable affluence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The man who passes the month of Aswin, confining himself to one meal a day, becomes pure in soul and body,&lt;/strong&gt; possessed of animals and vehicles in abundance, and a large progeny. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who passes the month of Kartika, confining himself to one meal every day, becomes possessed of heroism,&lt;/strong&gt; many spouses, and great fame. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to answer your questions different types of fasting give different types of benefits and one should choose them based on what he/she wants to obtain by performing the fast.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-20T07:02:08.763" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T07:02:08.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19905" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7108" CreationDate="2017-07-31T11:19:34.187" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Various Puraans mention that thirteen of Daksha Prajapati's daughters were married to Dharma but none of those is Ahimsa. For example, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp041.htm#fn_212&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Puran Chapter 8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; mentions the following wives of Dharma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The patriarch Daksha had by Prasúti twenty-four daughters: hear from me their names: Sraddhá (faith), Lakshmí (prosperity), Dhriti (steadiness), Tusht́i (resignation), Pusht́i (thriving), Medhá (intelligence), Kríyá (action, devotion), Buddhi (intellect), Lajjá (modesty), Vapu (body), &lt;strong&gt;Sánti (expiation)&lt;/strong&gt;, Siddhi (perfection), Kírtti (fame): these thirteen daughters of Daksha, Dharma (righteousness) took to wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These seem to be the names of qualities associated with righteousness rather than the names of actual people still out of the given names perhaps &lt;strong&gt;Shanti could come close to Ahimsa.&lt;/strong&gt; Further verses also mention their offspring strengthening our opinion about the abstract nature of these names:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The progeny of Dharma by the daughters of Daksha were as follows: by Sraddhá he had Káma (desire); by Lakshmí, Darpa (pride); by Dhriti, Niyama (precept); by Tusht́i, Santosha (content); by Pusht́i, Lobha (cupidity); by Medhá, Sruta (sacred tradition); by Kriyá, Dańd́a, Naya, and Vinaya (correction, polity, and prudence); by Buddhi, Bodha (understanding); by Lajjá, Vinaya (good behaviour); by Vapu, Vyavasaya (perseverance). Sánti gave birth to Kshema (prosperity); Siddhi to Sukha (enjoyment); and Kírtti to Yasas (reputation). These were the sons of Dharma; one of whom, Káma, had Harsha (joy) by his wife Nandi (delight).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Interestingly, the spouse of Adharma is also mentioned in this verse as Himsa both of which are opposites of Dharma and Ahimsa respectively:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The wife of Adharma (vice) was Hinsá (violence), on whom he begot a son Anrita (falsehood), and a daughter Nikriti (immorality): they intermarried, and had two sons, Bhaya (fear) and Naraka (hell); and twins to them, two daughters, Máyá (deceit) and Vedaná (torture), who became their wives. The son of Bhaya and Máyá was the destroyer of living creatures, or Mrityu (death); and Dukha (pain) was the offspring of Naraka and Vedaná. The children of Mrityu were Vyádhi (disease), Jará (decay), Soka (sorrow), Trishńa (greediness), and Krodha (wrath). These are all called the inflictors of misery, and are characterised as the progeny of Vice (Adharma). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As regard the mention of her being Vishnu's mother, that is explained by a similar list of Dharma's progeny mentioned in the Bhagvat Puraan.&lt;/strong&gt; Following the order observed in the list of Dharma's wives, their children are, Rita (truth), Prasáda (favour), Abhaya (fearlessness), Sukha, Muda (pleasure), Smaya (wonder), Yoga (devotion), Darpa, Artha (meaning), Smriti (memory), Kshema, Prasraya (affection), and the two saints &lt;strong&gt;Nara and Náráyańa, the sons of Dharma by Múrtti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Nar and Narayan are mentioned as Lord Vishnu's incarnations in the Puraans which is also confirmed in the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In days of yore, O Partha, I was, for some reason, born as the son of Dharma, O chief of Kuru's race, and in consequence of such birth of mine I was celebrated under the name of Dharmaja. I took birth in two forms, viz., as Nara and Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the sentence you have quoted in your question may actually be referring to this relationship and consequently it may help us identify the &lt;strong&gt;Goddess Ahimsa with Murti&lt;/strong&gt; the mother of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-20T06:54:31.760" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T06:54:31.760" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19906" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20117" CreationDate="2017-07-31T11:33:20.690" Score="3" ViewCount="865" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a pure hearted soul wished to undertake it, how is a Tapas performed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is a manthric procedure laid down in the scriptures aimed towards visible visitation of deity penanced to grant boons. Is the number of manthra repetitions presribed  for each God? (I know of numbers needed for some desired goals ..ishta kamyardhams recommended by swamis). Are there specific mantras prescribed to propitiate particular Gods ? (Like Beejaksharas included in Gayathri for short /daily prayers)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a normal time for appearance of the God? Is it allowed to take breaks during the tapas? ( because it is not only a spiritual act but also a bodily performed action with concentration). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What recent accounts are there of spiritual persons who saw God or attained peace and internal power transmitted as divine messages? Are there accounts of those who quit in the middle?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know of a religious person about whose integrity I have absolutely no doubt. When he did hear pleasing divine musical sounds he was enthralled and confided to me. At first I thought it as tinnitus or some such medical condition of weakness. Motivation in asking the question is to remove present skepticism in such ancient intensive meditative practices so that in the present times too the practice lives on... Mahesh Yogi had said a certain percentage (square root of 0.1%) of a group meditates, then the entire group is influenced towards peace and harmony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T12:21:42.770" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T04:53:07.547" Title="How is Tapas performed?" Tags="|prayer|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-08-08T05:24:04.057" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19908" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-31T12:31:41.937" Score="1" ViewCount="134" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently I heard that black chandan is being offered to Lord Hanuman or Bhairav or both. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any ritual to offer black chandan to Lord Hanuman or Bhairav?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="577" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T12:31:41.937" Title="Is there any ritual to offer black chandan to Lord Hanuman or Bhairav?" Tags="|shiva|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19909" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19479" CreationDate="2017-07-31T14:07:45.517" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe Swamiji must have been referring to the few verses in Dharma Sutras that do mention consumption of bovine meat. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/doc/82673028/Apastamba-Grihya-Sutras-English-Translation&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apastambh Grihya Sutra&lt;/a&gt; mentions that cattle may be slaughtered when a guest arrives, or at the occasion of marriage or as an offering to the ancestors in the Shraadh ceremony. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9 These are the occasions for killing a cow: (the arrival of) a guest, (the Ashtaka sacrific eoffered to) the Fathers, and marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the same Grihya Sutras ALSO give the option of &lt;strong&gt;letting the cow loose when a guest arrives so that the host does NOT have to sacrifice it&lt;/strong&gt; to entertain the guest. At multiple places they suggest that cow's flesh should be substituted with that of a goat or a ram or even better, cooked grain or payasam (kheer in Hindi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;17 If the guest chooses to let (the cow) loose, he murmurs the next (formulas, II, 10, 8-11) in a low voice (and says) loudly, 'Om! Let it loose!' (II, 10, 12).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18 (In this case) he recites the next (formulas, M. II, 10, 13-17) in a low voice over the food which is announced to him (instead of the cow), (and says) loudly, 'Om! Make it ready!' (II, 10,18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other verses too that mention the sacrifice of bovines but not really cows. For example &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10085.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda verse 10.85&lt;/a&gt; does mention ritual sacrifice of oxen but no cows. I could find only one verse where cow, that too a barren one is supposed to be offered to Agni along with Ram or Oxen &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda verse 10.91.14&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;And again the verse talks about a sacrifice being offered to a god NOT for the consumption of humans.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14 &lt;strong&gt;He in whom horses, bulls, oxen, and barren cows, and rams, when duly set apart, are offered up&lt;/strong&gt;,—&#xA;  To Agni, Soma-sprinkled, drinker of sweet juice, Disposer, with my heart I bring a fair hymn forth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;15 Into thy mouth is poured the offering, Agni,&lt;/strong&gt; as Soma into cup, oil into ladle.&#xA;  Vouchsafe us wealth. strength-winning, blest with heroes, wealth lofty, praised by men, and full of splendour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have seen some other similar verses mentioned but none of them talk about consumption of this meat by humans solely for their sense gratification. In fact the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/dharma/manusmriti_2.asp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti&lt;/a&gt; explicitly states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;62&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dying, without the expectation of a reward, &lt;strong&gt;for the sake of Brahmanas and of cows, or in the defence of women and children, secures beatitude to those excluded (from the Aryan community.)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He who unhesitatingly abandons life for the sake of Brahmanas or of cows,&lt;/strong&gt; is freed from (the guilt of) the murder of a Brahmana, and (so is he) &lt;strong&gt;who saves (the life of) a cow, or of a Brahmana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;But a student who on any occasion eats honey or &lt;strong&gt;meat, shall perform a Krikkhra (penance)&lt;/strong&gt;, and afterwards complete his vow (of studentship).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Presuming that these students were mostly Brahmins this becomes significant for this particular question. It also gives strength to the belief that even &lt;strong&gt;students of other Varnas were not allowed to have meat let alone Beef in Gurukuls run by Brahmins!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;167&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fasting during three (days and) nights shall be (the penance&lt;/strong&gt; for stealing) grass, wood, trees, dry food, molasses, clothes, leather, &lt;strong&gt;and meat&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are also multiple Vedic verses that mention the cow as &lt;strong&gt;Aghnya&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;One who can not be hurt&lt;/strong&gt;. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07056.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda verse 7.56.17&lt;/a&gt; the supplicant equates the lives of men with those of cattle by praying to the Maruts to keep their storms away that kill them both. It is noteworthy that &lt;strong&gt;no other animal has been mentioned except cattle which shows how strong the bond between men and cows.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01164.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda verse 1.164.40&lt;/a&gt; wishes cows good fortune to find great pastures in every season so that the men can also stay healthy and wealthy. Again the word used for cow here is Aghnya or inviolable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10087.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda verse 10.87.16&lt;/a&gt; goes so far as to wish &lt;strong&gt;violent death for those who kill cattle, horses and humans&lt;/strong&gt; showing once again that the lives of each were equally precious. I quote here the Griffith translation - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The fiend who smears himself with flesh of cattle, with flesh of horses and of human bodies.&lt;/strong&gt; Who steals the milch-cow's milk away, O Agni,—tear off the heads of such with fiery fury.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire 28th sukta of Book 6 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv06028.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda 6.28&lt;/a&gt; in fact talks about how cows enjoyed freedom from persecution in the Vedic society - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These are ne’er lost, no robber ever injures them: no evil-minded foe attempts to harass them.... &lt;strong&gt;These Cows, the cattle of the pious worshipper, roam over widespread pasture where no danger is&lt;/strong&gt;.. Never be thief or sinful man your matter, and &lt;strong&gt;may the dart of Rudra still avoid you!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti even mentions that errant cows were not to be punished!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;242&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But Manu has declared that no fine shall be paid for (damage done by) a cow within ten days after her calving, by bulls and by cattle sacred to the gods,&lt;/strong&gt; whether they are attended by a herdsman or not.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the Brahmins writing these scriptures themselves say that the cow is inviolable, how can we conclude that the same Brahmins ate their meat? Perhaps the cow and horse sacrifices were special events that took place once in a blue moon but I strongly oppose the idea that these sacred animals were killed routinely for food! If you wish to read a more holistic article on this issue you can also check this article - &lt;a href=&quot;http://fateinurhands.blogspot.in/2015/10/the-beef-eaters-of-india.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Beef Eaters of India&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T17:32:17.720" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T17:32:17.720" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19910" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19917" CreationDate="2017-07-31T14:35:28.963" Score="6" ViewCount="1704" Body="&lt;p&gt;There have been 12 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvars&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Alvars&lt;/a&gt; who are inseparable from Sri Vaishnavism. I was just wondering whether there can be more Alwars or not? If Not why can't there be? If yes, what is the procedure to become an Alwar? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T17:49:12.957" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T08:24:30.630" Title="Why are there no more Alwars?" Tags="|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19911" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19903" CreationDate="2017-07-31T15:27:21.700" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Did he actually did this as given the above paragraphs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, this is a purely historical question and which i am not answering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will be answering only two of your questions that can be addressed from scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Suppose a Guru chants a mantra (his Ishta mantra in this case) loudly addressed to a mass gathering. Does that mean that all who gathered there are initiated into that mantra?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Absolutely &lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all,  &lt;code&gt;Mantra Diksha&lt;/code&gt; is much a more elaborate process than the mere transfer of mantra, which in technical terms, is known as the &lt;code&gt;Mantra Upadesham&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, a Diksha is an one-to-one process and not one-to-many one,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Loosely speaking, Mantra Upadesa+ Shaktipata+ Abhisekha = Mantra Deeksha if we abide completely by Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in this case we can rule out a full-fledged Diksha rather we can concentrate on only Upadesam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, even for Upadesam, a whole lot rules are there to be followed. I am giving few of them below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before initiating the Guru should tie the Sikha (tuft) of the disciple and then something of this sort happens:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...tatah sishyashya sirasi hastam datvA deyamantramashtottarasatam&#xA;  japTa amukmantran teham dadAmiti shishyahaste jalam dadyAt...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Thereafter, the Guru should the touch the disciple's head with his&#xA;  hand and chant the mantra (which is to be given) 108 times and upon&#xA;  saying &quot;amuk mantra teham dadAmi (i am giving this mantra to you)&quot;&#xA;  shall pour water into the disciple's hand, and the disciple should&#xA;  then say &quot;dadaswa&quot; which shows the approval (or acceptance) of the&#xA;  disciple...&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next, from &lt;strong&gt;Vashishta Samhita&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tatah RishiAdisamyuktam Mantram Gururdakshina karne Trih SrAvayitvA&#xA;  VAma karne Sakrit SrAvayet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter the Guru should speak the mantra, along with Rishi, Devata&#xA;  and other Nyasas, 3 times in the disciple's right ear and 1 time in the&#xA;  left (vAma karne Sakrit).&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Gautamiya Tantram&lt;/strong&gt; also repeats the same procedure:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nyasa jalam tasya dehe Guruh samnyasya jatnatatah | Daksha karne Vaden&#xA;  Mantram TrivAram PurnamAnasaha || Dakshe Iti DvijAtivishayam..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Guru should do Nyasas with care on the disciple's body and &lt;strong&gt;speak&#xA;  mantra into his right ears three times&lt;/strong&gt;. (This rule of speaking unto&#xA;  the right ear is only for the DvijAs).&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Diksha involves the Guru chanting the mantra into disciple's right (or left ear) depending on the varna of the disciple. But, when a mantra is said out loudly (and publicly) this requirement is obviously not met.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;strong&gt;Bhairavi Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Daksha Karne Triso VidyAm EkorchArena ChocchAret |&lt;br&gt; Evam Vidhim&#xA;  DvijAtinAm Stri SudrAnancha VAmatah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Guru &lt;strong&gt;shall speak the mantra into the disciple's right ear 3 times&#xA;  and into his left ear 1 time&lt;/strong&gt;. This is the rule for the Dvijas, &lt;strong&gt;for&#xA;  women and Sudras it's just the opposite i.e 3 times in the left ear&#xA;  and 1 time in the right.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same has been repeated in the &lt;strong&gt;Rudra YAmala Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gurustu PrAngukhobhutva ShishyA Prachi Mukha Stithah |&lt;br&gt; TrivAram&#xA;  Dakshine Karne VAme chaiva TathA Sakrit ||&lt;br&gt; Viparitam Tato Geyam&#xA;  StreesudrAnancha VAmatah |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Guru should face the east and the disciple the west direction. &lt;strong&gt;Guru&#xA;  should then speak the mantra into disciple's right ear 3 times and left&#xA;  ear 1 time.&lt;/strong&gt; For Sudras and women the process will be reversed.&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in a so called, one-to-many, mass initiation, none of these requirements are met. So, what happened can not be called Diksha technically. May be something else, like Satsang etc, but not Diksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Can Sudras be initiated into pranava (OM)?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm planning to post a separate question-answer on this topic based on Agamas only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the time being, i present only one verse from the &lt;strong&gt;Devi YAmala&lt;/strong&gt; which answers the question in the negative.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SwAhA Pranava Samyuktam Sudre Mantram Dadad DvijAh |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sudro NirayagAmi SyAd BrAhamano YAtyadhogatim ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Brahmin who gives to a Sudra a mantra that has the pranava (OM) and swaha in it goes himself downwards and the Sudra too visits hell&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi YAmala Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from all these there occurred another Dosha, that of &quot;Guru Mantra Prakasha&quot; or revealing one's Guru Mantra publicly which is strictly not to be done. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Ramanuja's Guru advised him to conceal the mantra as one can see. And, every Guru does the same, it's common.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Lord Shiva says to Mother Goddess on this topic:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gurum prakAshayed dhimAn mantram yatnen gopayet |&lt;br&gt;AprakAsha&#xA;  prakAshAbhyAm nasyatah sampadAyushi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Guru must always be revealed by the wise, &lt;strong&gt;but the mantra must&#xA;  carefully be kept secret.&lt;/strong&gt; By not doing these two acts- that is, by not&#xA;  revealing the Guru and &lt;strong&gt;by not concealing the mantra&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;decrease&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  respectively, &lt;strong&gt;[the disciple's]&lt;/strong&gt; wealth and &lt;strong&gt;longevity&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kularnava Tantram 11.88&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-12-04T03:27:28.470" LastActivityDate="2017-12-04T03:27:28.470" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19912" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-31T15:31:31.590" Score="2" ViewCount="160" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know where can I find a complete English version of the Mudgala Purana and also the eight forms of Lord Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11574" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T15:44:52.840" LastActivityDate="2017-07-31T15:44:52.840" Title="Where can I know about the eight forms of Lord Ganesh from Mudgala purana?" Tags="|ganesha|resource|upapuranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19913" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19924" CreationDate="2017-07-31T15:46:28.083" Score="4" ViewCount="2359" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindus(mostly Brahmins) usually don't eat, go outside, don't touch any clothes during eclipses. After eclipse, they take bath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, my questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which scripture says so?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the reason behind such practices?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are these practices mandatory?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T18:34:18.637" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T03:52:35.773" Title="What is the reason behind restrictions during eclipses?" Tags="|scripture|belief|practice|eclipse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19914" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21545" CreationDate="2017-07-31T15:59:14.927" Score="5" ViewCount="3101" Body="&lt;p&gt;Certain &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.motidungri.in/lord-ganesha-and-lord-vishnus-conch.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;websites&lt;/a&gt; claim that Lord Vishnu prayed to Lord Ganesha. Now if this story is true, in which scripture is this story written? The following is the story as presented by these websites:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One day Lord Vishnu got annoyed very badly when his conch (Valampuri shankh) got missing. After some time he heard the sound of his conch form the side of Mount Kailash i.e. Lord Shiva’s home. On finding his conch with Lord Ganesha, he requested Lord Shiva to get his conch back from him. Lord Shiva as a solution asked Lord Vishnu to perform a ceremonial activity (Pooja) that can please Lord Ganesha. Lord Vishnu on adhering to the suggestion of Lord Shiva offered prayers to Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesha being pleased with Lord Vishnu returned his conch. After this incident, Lord Ganesha was given the name of Valampuri Ganesh which means Ganesha with the trunk facing the right direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T16:50:31.283" LastActivityDate="2023-09-27T16:57:46.310" Title="Did Lord Vishnu pray to Lord Ganesha? If yes, in which scripture is it written?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|worship|ganesha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19915" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="32599" CreationDate="2017-07-31T16:57:40.770" Score="5" ViewCount="6846" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many ISKCON websites call Adi Shankaracharya, Swami Vivekananda, Buddha and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa ''mayavadis'' and that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu called mayavadis ''greatest of all offenders''. However, I am unable to find the meaning of this term on the internet. What is the meaning of this term and is this term mentioned in any of the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T11:20:09.047" LastActivityDate="2024-02-16T20:50:08.317" Title="What is the meaning of the term ''Mayavadi''? Is the term mentioned in any of the scriptures?" Tags="|adi-shankaracharya|chaitanya|maya|vivekananda|ramakrishna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19916" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-07-31T17:07:07.483" Score="6" ViewCount="927" Body="&lt;p&gt;There have been 63 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayanars&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nayanars&lt;/a&gt; who are inseparable from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaiva_Siddhanta&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shaiva Siddhanta&lt;/a&gt;. I was just wondering whether there can be more Nayanars or not? If Not why can't there be? If yes, what is the procedure to become a Nayanar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-07-31T18:06:35.293" LastActivityDate="2017-09-16T16:56:30.773" Title="Why are there no more Nayanars?" Tags="|shaiva-siddhanta|nayanar|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19917" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19910" CreationDate="2017-07-31T17:42:59.527" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The āḻvārs, also spelt as alwars or azhwars are 12 devotional saints born in the region of south India. These saints wrote devotional poems in Tamil in the praise of Vishnu directly or his incarnations or his deity forms in different places. All these poems were compiled by &lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/nathamunigal/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Nathamuni&lt;/a&gt; around 9th century A.D. This is discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3039/what-is-the-secular-account-of-the-compilation-of-the-alwars-poems&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question. This collection of the poems is regarded as the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naalayira_Divya_Prabhandham&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nālayira Divya Prabhandham&lt;/a&gt;(meaning the divine four thousand collection of verses). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 12 alwars are:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/mudhalazhwargal/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Poigai Alvar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/mudhalazhwargal/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhoothathalvar&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/mudhalazhwargal/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Peyalvar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/thirumazhisai-azhwar/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thirumalisai Alvar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2012/08/18/nammazhwar/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nammalvar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/madhurakavi-azhwar/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Madhurakavi Alvar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/kulasekara-azhwar/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;King Kulasekhara Alvar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/periyazhwar/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Periyalvar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/andal/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Andal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/thondaradippodi-azhwar/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thondaradippodi Alvar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/thiruppanazhwar/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thiruppaan Alvar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/thirumangai-azhwar/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thirumangai Alvar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first three alwars are collectively referred as &lt;em&gt;Mudhal Alwrgal&lt;/em&gt; meaning the first alwars due to following reasons: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They were all born a day after each other in sequence – poigaiyAr, bhuthathAr, pEyar. They were born in the time period between the end of dhvApara yugam and the beginning of kaliyugam (yuga sandhi – transition period – see in the bottom for details).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They were all ayOnijars – one who is not born from a human mother. They all appeared from flowers by the divine mercy of emperumAn.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;They were attached to Lord Vishnu right from their birth – they were fully/divinely blessed by Lord Vishnu and were fully enjoying bhagavath anubhavam throughout their life.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;At some point in their life, they meet each other and from then onwards they stayed together and they travelled together to various dhivyadhesams/kshethrams. They are also called “Odith thiriyum yOgigaL” the yOgis who are always doing pilgrimage.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I was just wondering whether there can be more Alwars or not?  If Not why can't there be?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, there can't be any other alwars. There are only 12 alwars. The meaning of the word Alwar  is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;the &lt;em&gt;ones who are totally immersed in something&lt;/em&gt;. The other word which gives similar meaning is &lt;em&gt;Talasparshi&lt;/em&gt;. Meaning who have immersed very deep and has returned back for us. Here, the Alwars are immersed in the worship of Lord Vishnu. There is nothing important to them than the worship of the Lord and even the welfare of the Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The root of the word Alwar Alughai means &quot;to rule&quot;. The word Alwar means the one who saves. Hence, the great devotees of the Lord Vishnu like Garuda and Vishvaksena are often referred as Garuda Alwar and Vishvaksena Alwar respectively. So, the word alwat also means the one who saves. If this word is said in past tense, it is Andavan(the one who has saved- masculine) and Andal(the lady who has saved - feminine). Similar thing was discussed in brief in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14665/aaalavandars-contribution/17959#17959&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; about YAmunAchArya. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By reading the second point, we may get the doubt,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If there are many great bhaktas immersed in the love and God, then only few are called with such name? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, some others are also called as Alwars in the Sri Vaishnava tradition. One of them is Ramanujacharya who is also known as Ilaya alwar. The suffix &quot;ar&quot; is added in the Tamil language to people who deserve respect. Others are added &quot;an&quot; for younger people. Many great devotees like Anantacharya about whom I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18537/why-lord-venkateshwara-has-a-white-spot-on-the-chin/18541#18541&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer is referred as Ananthalwan since he is the disciple of Ramanujacharya. The same applies to Koorathalwan a staunch devotee of Lord Vishnu and His master Ramanujacharya. These great devotees deserve great respect hence they are identified with alwan name but to show the uniqueness to the 12 alwars, no others are called as alwars. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What makes the alwars special?    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some reasons why these are special.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The main reason they are identified as such is their work. Their works all combine to form the Nālayira Divya Prabhandham. Only these could able to write the prabandham and no one others. They didn't write because they wanted to write but the poems in the works were delivered from the mouths of the alwars in the form of poems and songs when their heart and body were not enough for the due to their love and affection towards the Lord. Many of them came just when they thought of Lord and some poems when they visited the deity forms of the Lord. These were not intentional. Only these 12 alwars could be able to complete the prabandham. This prabandham is the essence of the Vedas. This was compiled for the man kind irrespective of caste, class or gender and hence called DrAvida Veda.  This was one of the main reasons for the birth of the alwars. As the work is completed and there is no incomplete task, there is no need of the incarnations in the future. Hence there will be no alwar in the future. Some commentaries were needed to understand the esoteric meanings of these poems. So, commentaries were written by other great bhaktas. But this doesn't make other alwars. They are Acharyas. When there is need, some great purushas will be incarnated. These are the Acharyas like Sri Nathamuni, Yamunacharya, Ramanujacharya etc.,  These acharyas are not to be disregarded but they are not Alwars. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;These alwars sang the praise of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srivaishnavan.com/upload1/srivaish3.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;five forms of Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; in their poems viz The Para Vasudeva, Vyuha Vasudeva, Vibhava, Antaryami, Archavatara forms of the Lord. The deity forms of the Vishnu in these places were praised in these poems at 108 places. These places are called as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_Desam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Divyadeshams&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The alwars are considered to be the incarnations of the nitya suris of the Paramapada, the highest abode of Lord Vishnu. These are the servants or the attendants of the Lord Vishnu. There are thousands of attendants to Vishnu in the Paramapadam. Each of the alwar is considered as the incarnations of the Lord's weapons or attendants or his ornaments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Poigai Alwar - Vishnu's Panchajanya Shankha&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhoothath Alwar - Vishnu's Kaumodaki mace&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pey Alwar - Vishnu's Nandaka sword&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thirumazhisai Alwar - Vishnu's Sudarshana Chakra&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nammalwar - Vishnu's general Vishvaksena&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Madhurakavi Alwar - Vishnu's bird Garuda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kulasekhara Alwar - Vishnu's Kaustubha gem&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Periyalwar - Vishnu's bird Garuda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Andal - Vishnu's wife Bhumidevi goddess of the Earth&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thondaradippodi Alwar - Vishnu's Vanamala garland&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thiruppan Alwar - Vishnu's Srivatsa mark&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thirumangai Alwar - Vishnu's Sharanga bow&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main aim of incarnation of Alwars is making people aware of the Vishnu's tattva through poems and the &lt;em&gt;making essence of the Vedas available to all irrespective of class, creed, gender or language&lt;/em&gt;. This was already completed when they wrote the Nalayaria divya prabandham. This is called Dravida veda. This is compiled and made famous after their completion of avatars. So, no alwar will be born because the completion of the work has already be made.Even if some great person is born in the future, they will write some other and they will only become an acharya not an alwar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, they completed it. So, their mission is accomplished. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, due to above reasons, there can be no alwar anymore. There is no procedure or anything like that. It is devotion and special qualities in them which earned them the unique respect of Alwars. Hence, there is no procedure for becoming alwar as it is not a status. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-02T08:24:30.630" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T08:24:30.630" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19918" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19928" CreationDate="2017-07-31T20:38:18.810" Score="5" ViewCount="261" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sukra Neethi (followed by Rakshasas Mahabali, Prahlada) it is stated that there are certain circumstances under which lying has a licence (e.g., where women are concerned, where marriages have have to be fixed, when there is a threat for life that &lt;em&gt;needs to be saved&lt;/em&gt;, loss of money or modesty of women). Sukracharya defended lying to protect Mahabali's life right before MahaVishnu as Vamanavathar. (But Bali emperor declined saying life after lying and denying  Vishnu's direct request is worthless ... but that is besides the point).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only glaring case I know is by Dharmaraja when he (half) lied to create a false impression that Ashwathhama already died in Kurukshetra  battle, motive to deactivate/kill  Drona. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maintaining honesty for small things and &lt;em&gt;resorting to lying conveniently when stakes are high&lt;/em&gt; to save the situation as in above serious threat situations sounds &lt;em&gt;contradictory&lt;/em&gt; as regards commitment to absolute integrity... If it has sanction of Dharma then the entire group behavior may be looked down upon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the hoary scriptures untruth has been equated with violence and this has been brought forth as a political force in recent times by Gandhiji.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In WW II  time Goebbelian propaganda and modern times disinformation using the media is resorted to for  political purposes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is there a common guidance in our scriptures where provision is made in extra-ordinary situations when it is okay to utter or propagate untruths?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-08-03T10:17:57.977" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T10:17:57.977" Title="Circumstances sanctioning falsehoods" Tags="|dharma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19921" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19749" CreationDate="2017-07-31T22:29:06.733" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Harivaṃśa has a stotra extolling both the similarity and unified form of Viṣṇu and Śiva. There are even several epithets dedicated to them: Hariharātmaka and Agniṣomātmaka.The following is an excerpt from a stotra from the Harivaṃśa (Viṣṇu-parva) extolling both Viṣṇu and Śiva as identical and Supreme Lords:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chapter 125 - Battle between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and lord Śiva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;125.29 “Mārkaṇḍeya said—I offer my salutation to Śiva in the form of Viṣṇu, and Viṣṇu in the form of Śiva. &lt;strong&gt;I find no difference between the two&lt;/strong&gt;. Observing my feelings, let both of them bestow welfare on me.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;... &lt;em&gt;(more praise and comparing)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;125.39 “The one who recites this stotra daily and the one who listen to it, he achieves te final beautitude by the grace of Viṣṇu and Rudra.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;125.40 “I shall offer prayer to Hari and Hara who are meeting Brahmā. &lt;strong&gt;Both of them are the supreme lords&lt;/strong&gt;, besides being the creator and the destroyer of the world.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;125.41 “Lord Viṣṇu cannot exist without Śiva, and Śiva cannot exist without Viṣṇu. Therefore, in the earlier times, &lt;strong&gt;both of them had unified personality&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;125.42 “I offer my salutation to lord Rudra and Viṣṇu, who roam about in the world individually or collectively.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;... &lt;em&gt;(etc.)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Harivaṃśa (escpecially the Viṣṇu-parva) has been quoted by many Gauḍiya-Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas (according to Bhumipati Dasa) and has been mentioned as an important Vaiṣṇava scripture by both Caitanya Mahāprabhu (in his Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/cc/madhya/23/116/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(source)&lt;/a&gt;) and by his disciple Sanātana Gosvāmī (in his auto-commentary Dig-darśinī on his Śrī Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brihad-bhagavatamrita/d/doc54068.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(source)&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prologue&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The preceding context is interesting and in short relates that, Śiva, while protecting Bāṇāsura, was fighting a war with Śrī Kṛṣṇa. When Śiva was about to fire a weapon at Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa counter-attacked Śiva which overpowered him and he became over-exhausted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After a while, the earth suffered greatly due to the effects of this battle and the earth-goddess (Dhāraṇī-devī) went to Brahmā for a solution:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;125.14 “The Earth goddess said—O lord of gods, of valorous one, I am suffering from the great prowess. Having suffered considerably from the burden of lord Śiva, it appears that I shall have to submerge in the oceanic waters.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmā then meets with Śiva and utters his disapproval of the fighting, giving the first hint of his unity with Viṣṇu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;125.17: “I do not like your fighting with Śrī Kṛṣṇa - the valorous one. You are unable to understand Śrī Kṛṣṇa. In fact &lt;strong&gt;your own soul has been divided into two&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After establishing this inseparable link (which no one was able to identify), Brahmā inquired the sage Mārkaṇḍeya for explaining the reason behind this aspect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mārkaṇḍeya’s answer is in the form of a stotra of which the above is an excerpt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The epithets:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;125.30 “The one who is the begining middle or end, who is indestructible and eternal being Akṣara—Brahma, his form is that of Hari-Hara of Brahman, I shall describe before you the same, &lt;strong&gt;Hari Harātmaka&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;125.35 “Rudra has also been known as the fire, while Viṣṇu has also been known as soma or the moon. Because of this, the entire universe, is also known as &lt;strong&gt;Agniṣomātmaka&lt;/strong&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5384" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-02-28T14:50:37.643" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19922" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16545" CreationDate="2017-08-01T00:31:01.950" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Haridwar is one of the first towns where Ganga emerges from the mountains to touch the planes&lt;/strong&gt;. Holy city situated at the base of Shivalik ranges of high Himalayas as well as on the flow path of revered River Ganga. It is widely believed that by taking a dip in this holy river, one is cleared of all his past sins. Lakhs of devotees from all over India visit Haridwar every year to take a dip in the holy River Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Haridwar presents kaleidoscope of Indian culture and civilization. It is also a point of &lt;strong&gt;entry to Dev Bhoomi and Char Dham&lt;/strong&gt;. Archaeological finding have proved that terracotta culture dating between 1700 B.C. and 1200 B.C. existed in this region.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/E6gpE.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/E6gpE.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Legendary &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiantourservices.com/pilgrimage-centres/haridwar-rishikesh.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;king &lt;strong&gt;Bhagirath&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is said to have brought the river Ganga from heaven to earth to provide salvation to his ancestors. It is also said that Haridwar has been sanctified by the presence of three Gods; Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. God is said to have his &lt;strong&gt;foot print on the stone that is set in the upper wall of Har-Ki-Pauri where the Holy Ganga touches it all the times&lt;/strong&gt;. Devotes feel that they can go to heaven by getting their salvation after a dip in the sacred Ganga at Haridwar. Har-Ki-Pauri in Haridwar was one of the four places where Amrit was sprinkled on earth. As a result, every 12 years Khumbh comes to Haridwar and draws half a million pilgrims.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7Beef.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/7Beef.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wanderlustindia.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=183&amp;amp;Itemid=289&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;History of Haridwar&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The city of Haridwar is an ancient city of India, mentioned in several&#xA;  Upanishads and Puranas with different names such as Gangadwara,&#xA;  Mayapuri and Kapilasthana. The city’s name literally meaning the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;‘Doorway of / to Gods’, is equally important to both Shaivites (Shiva followers) and Vaishnavites (Vishnu followers). Hence it is&#xA;  known as both Hardwar and Haridwar&lt;/strong&gt;. Every six years the Ardh Kumbh&#xA;  Mela is celebrated here with great fervor here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ancient Literature:&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Haridwar has been mentioned in the &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;, in the Vanaparva&#xA;  chapter, where Sage Dhaumya tells Yudhisthira about the ‘Tirthas’&#xA;  (pilgrimages) of India, including Haridwar. The next mention is in the&#xA;  fable of famed King Bhagiratha, who brought Ganga down to purify the&#xA;  souls of his 60,000 ancestors in the Satya Yuga. After this, the first&#xA;  dates in regular history come to &lt;strong&gt;322-185 BC&lt;/strong&gt;, when Haridwar came&#xA;  under Maurya Empire and then Kushana Empire continuously.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://topyaps.com/facts-about-haridwar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Few famous facts about Haridar&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• Haridwar is one of the seven holiest places for Hindus. It literally&#xA;  means ‘&lt;strong&gt;Gateway to God&lt;/strong&gt;,’ and it is the place where the Holy Ganges&#xA;  leaves the mountains to flow down God’s own town. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• &lt;strong&gt;Haridwar is the first place down the mountains that welcomes the&#xA;  holy River Ganga.&lt;/strong&gt; In the Satya Yuga, it was Bhagiratha who brought&#xA;  Ganga to earth to purify the spirits of all his ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• Hundreds of devotees collect around Har ki Pauri and offer the&#xA;  Goddess Ganga their prayers and lit diyas, that float in Ganga’s&#xA;  bosom. &lt;strong&gt;Har ki Pauri, which literally translates into “the footsteps of&#xA;  God,” marks the entry point of the Ganga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• &lt;strong&gt;Haridwar is a globally renowned Mecca for yoga&lt;/strong&gt;. The city boasts of&#xA;  unparalleled yoga ashrams, for which bookings have to be made well in&#xA;  advance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• One of the oldest cities in the world, Haridwar dates back to 1700&#xA;  BC. It has even been mentioned in the chronicles of Huan Tsang (629&#xA;  AD).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• &lt;strong&gt;Ayurveda and Hinduism are deep rooted in Haridwar&lt;/strong&gt;; you can best&#xA;  observe it at Shanti Kunj. &lt;strong&gt;Shanti Kunj&lt;/strong&gt; is known worldwide for its&#xA;  research and development in herbal and Ayurvedic sources. Here, a&#xA;  havan goes on continuously for world peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• &lt;strong&gt;Haridwar is the entry point for the famous Chaar Dham Yatra&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  Devotees, who are keen to undertake this Char Dham Yatra, need to&#xA;  begin their journey from Haridwar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T07:25:30.350" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T07:25:30.350" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19923" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19929" CreationDate="2017-08-01T01:09:42.890" Score="6" ViewCount="1438" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata mentions the Timingila and Makara as being deep within the ocean, along with other huge sea creatures:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;timingilah kacchapasca tatha timi timingilah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     makarascatra drsyante jale magna ivadrayah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“There were seen Timingilas, tortoises, Timi-timingilas and Makaras, that were like great rocks submerged in the water.” (Mahabharata, Vana Parva. 168.3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here what does the Makara mean? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are these type of Sea creatures mentioned in scriptures like Mahabharata and Ramayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T04:42:18.040" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T14:39:13.153" Title="Unknown creature mentioned in the Hindu mythology?" Tags="|scripture|animals|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19924" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19913" CreationDate="2017-08-01T02:43:17.117" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some rules are mandatory if the eclipse is going to be visible. If it is not visible in the given region then there is no need to follow rules. Texts like &lt;strong&gt;Dharma sindhu&lt;/strong&gt; etc. talk in detail about eclipses and do's and don'ts &#xA;In general, activities like sacred bathing, charity, reciting mantras etc. is considered good and it is believed to give manifold results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Grahana Nirnaya: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As long as one could vision Chandra and Surya Grahanaas (Eclipses),&#xA;  one would reckon as the Punya Kaala or the auspicious time. Even if&#xA;  the Grahana were not visible due to the obstruction of clouds or so,&#xA;  even then on the basis of the information available as per the&#xA;  calculation of Shastraasabout the Sparsha( beginning) and Moksha&#xA;  (end), one should observe the required Snaana-Daanaas. Surya Grahana&#xA;  on Sundays and Chandra Grahana on Mondays are called Chudaamani and&#xA;  Daanaadi Karyaas bestow endless Punya. One should take bath for&#xA;  Baahyaantara Shuchi or external and internal cleanliness as soon as&#xA;  the Grahana Sparsha or the First Touch; during the course of the&#xA;  Grahana, one should perform Homa-Devarchana-and Shraaddha. When&#xA;  Grahana is receding, then Daanaas are required to be executed and at&#xA;  the time of Moksha, one should take bath once again; the bath at the&#xA;  Sparsha Kaala and Moksha Kaala are of distinct waters; the Mukti&#xA;  Snaana is defined as follows: Sheetamushnodakaat punyamapaarakyam&#xA;  parodakaat, Bhumishthamudhrataa punyam tata prasravanodakam/&#xA;  Tatopisaara sampunyam tatah punyam Nadi jalam, Tatastirthanadi Gangaa&#xA;  Punyaa punyastombhudhi/ (Cold water bath is more propitious than with&#xA;  hot water; better bathe with ones own water; fresh water from the&#xA;  depths of Bhumi is better from well water exposed and stored; water&#xA;  from a flowing water is better than in a waterbody; Tirtha water like&#xA;  Ganga is better than that of a from a river; and bathing in Samudra&#xA;  water is by far better than even a river like Ganges!). Grahana Snaana&#xA;  should be with the same clothing as during the Grahana and then only&#xA;  the bath would be stated as Mukti Snaana; that bath need not be by&#xA;  reciting Mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Describing the effectiveness of Daana, it is stated: Samanu&#xA;  -braahmaney daanam dwigunam Braahmanbruvey, Shrotriye shata saahasram paatrey chaanantya mashnutey/( Offering greetings / namaskaaraas to a&#xA;  Brahmana by birth might be misplaced but providing charity to a Dwija&#xA;  or twice-born who has the qualification of Samskaaraas like Upanayana&#xA;  or thread marriage and Gayatri Mantra secures better Punya; a Brahmana&#xA;  who has the Samskaaras but devoi d of Vedaadhyayana is called a&#xA;  Brahmanabruva but still charity to him would be worthy of hundred&#xA;  times more; charity to a well read Brahmana Srotriya or he who follows&#xA;  the Brahmana Dharmaas in full spirit and practice would fetch Ananta&#xA;  Punya). Grahana Shraadha should be done with suitable Dakshina and&#xA;  possibly with Ghrita yukta bhojana followed by Mantra Punascharana;&#xA;  the relevant Mantra states: Chandra Suryoparaagey cha snaatwaa&#xA;  purvamuposhitah, Sparshaadi Moksha paryantam Japenmantram samaahitah,&#xA;  Japaadashaam shato homastathatha homaaccha tappanam, Homaashaktou&#xA;  japamkuryaatdhoma sankhyaa chaturgunam/ (One should discard bhojana&#xA;  well before the Grahana , take bath at the Sparsha or touch of the&#xA;  Grahana and its Moksha or termination and perform Japa althrough the&#xA;  Grahana Kaala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do's and Don'ts at the Grahana Kaala:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sleeping during the time of Eclipse leads to illnesses. Passing urine&#xA;  ends up in poverty and bad luck. Easing the stomach (Stools) leads to&#xA;  the life of krimis(worms) in the following birth.&#xA;  Maithuna(intercourse) lands up as a pig in the next birth. Head bath&#xA;  during the Eclipse period leads a person to leprosy and Bhojana in the&#xA;  time paves way to naraka. Eating the remnants of bhojana cooked before&#xA;  or during the Grahana Kaala is prohibited as would lead to stomach and&#xA;  digestive problems and similarly drinking even water would tell upon&#xA;  the system. However,the carry forward storage of curd, milk, butter,&#xA;  ghee, unused oil and such other uncooked stocks might be consumed&#xA;  after the Grahana but should be duly covered by Dharbha Khandaas&#xA;  (kushaa grass) as would be proteceted by the rays of Sun or Moon in&#xA;  grahana. Garbha Stress women during conception ought to protect&#xA;  themselves from the fall of the rays as there had been several&#xA;  evidences of the babies born thereafter suffering from physical&#xA;  deformities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Narada Purana describes as to &lt;strong&gt;how Chandra-Surya Grahanaas take place&lt;/strong&gt;;&#xA;  the Essence of the relevant Chapter on Grahanaas in brief is as&#xA;  follows: Chandra Grahana (Lunar Eclipse) takes place on a Pournami and&#xA;  Surya Grahana (Solar Eclipse) on Amavasya and these are called Parvas.&#xA;  As Grahas rotate on their own axis and perform Pradakshina&#xA;  (circumambulation) around Bhumi, that path is known as the Kasksha or&#xA;  region of that Graha. Prithvi is far away from the Sun path and&#xA;  Chandra is nearer and is in between Surya and Prithvi. In the&#xA;  direction in which Surya travels, the shadow of Prithvi falls in the&#xA;  opposite direction of Surya's path and the length of the rotating&#xA;  shadow is equal to that distance. As Prithi is round, the shadow of&#xA;  Chandra is also rounding, moving six Rashis away from Surya. Chandra&#xA;  rotatating on its own axis moves along with Surya on the Southern&#xA;  Rekha (Line) and that time is known as Darshanta Kaala ie at the&#xA;  junction of the termination of Amavasya and the beginning of Shukla&#xA;  Pratipada; similarly, when Surya reaches six Rashis ahead that time is&#xA;  Pournima.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookview.php?chapnum=5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T03:52:35.773" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T03:52:35.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19925" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19923" CreationDate="2017-08-01T04:10:15.850" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna continued, '&#xA;  -------------------- And like unto flowing cliffs were seen on it heaving&#xA;  billows, now meeting together and now rolling away. And there (were&#xA;  seen) all around barks by thousands filled with gems. And there were&#xA;  seen timingilas and tortoises and &lt;strong&gt;makaras like unto rock submerged in&#xA;  water.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/makara/167274/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Makara&lt;/a&gt; is the word which is used to identify crocodile, shark, dolphin, etc. It doesn't mean dinosaur. Here in &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedabase.com/en/bg/10/31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this verse&lt;/a&gt; of Bhagavad Gita, Makara is translated as shark.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of puriﬁers I am the wind, of the wielders of weapons I am Rāma, &lt;strong&gt;of&#xA;  aquatics I am the shark&lt;/strong&gt;, and of ﬂowing rivers I am the Ganges.---BG 10.31&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T16:50:30.677" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T16:50:30.677" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19926" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19944" CreationDate="2017-08-01T04:44:24.173" Score="2" ViewCount="431" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about Vaisheshika, according to which atoms are the cause of the Universe.  The defining text of the Vaikeshika school is the Vaisheshika Sutras, composed by the sage Kanada Kashyapa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the oldest surviving commentary on the Vaisheshika Sutras?  So far I've only come across one commentary on the Vaisheshika Sutras, at least in English: Shankara Mishra's Upaskara, which was composed in the 15th century or later and which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Are there any older commentaries?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, apart from the Vaisheshika Sutras themselves, the two oldest surviving texts of the Vaisheshika school are Prashastapada's Padartha Dharma Sangraha, which I uploaded &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/prashastapadabhashya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and Chandramati's Dashapadartha Shastra, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/vaisesikaphiloso031602mbp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  But neither of them are actual commentaries on the Vaisheshika Sutras; instead they're independent expositions of the views of the Vaiseshika school.  So what is the oldest surviving verse-by-verse commentary on the Vaisheshika Sutras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T15:41:02.363" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T22:59:53.640" Title="What is the oldest surviving commentary on the Vaisheshika Sutras?" Tags="|history|philosophy|vaisheshika|vaisheshika-sutra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19927" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19732" CreationDate="2017-08-01T04:57:08.540" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Introduction&lt;/em&gt; to &lt;em&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/em&gt;, section heading &lt;em&gt;In Communion With the Divine Beloved&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Nikhilananda writes (available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One day, listening to a recitation of the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavata&lt;/em&gt; on the verandah of the Radhakanta temple, he [Ramakrishna] fell into a divine mood and saw the enchanting form of Krishna. He perceived the luminous rays issuing from Krishna's Lotus Feet in the form of a stout rope, which touched first the &lt;em&gt;Bhagavata&lt;/em&gt; and then his own chest, connecting all three--God, the scripture, and the devotee. &quot;After this vision&quot;, he used to say, &quot;I came to realize that Bhagavan, Bhakta, and &lt;em&gt;Bhagavata&lt;/em&gt;--God, Devotee, and Scripture--are in reality one and the same.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many instances in the Gospel where Ramakrishna reverently repeats this - &quot;Bhagavan, Bhakta, &lt;em&gt;Bhagavata&lt;/em&gt;&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T04:57:08.540" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19928" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19918" CreationDate="2017-08-01T04:59:43.530" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In certain circumstances it is allowed. For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 8.103. &lt;strong&gt;In (some) cases a man who, though knowing (the&#xA;  facts to be) different, gives such (false evidence) from a pious&#xA;  motive, does not lose heaven; such (evidence) they call the speech of&#xA;  the gods.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 8.104. Whenever the death of a Sudra, of a Vaisya, of a&#xA;  Kshatriya, or of a Brahmana would be (caused) by a declaration of the&#xA;  truth, &lt;strong&gt;a falsehood may be spoken; for such (falsehood) is preferable&#xA;  to the truth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from that, we also have the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 8.112. No crime, causing loss of caste, is committed by&#xA;  swearing (falsely) to women, the objects of one’s desire, at&#xA;  marriages, for the sake of fodder for a cow, or of fuel, and in (order&#xA;  to show) favour to a Brahmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, in general, the practice is abhorred thoroughly throughout scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T05:33:32.157" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T05:33:32.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19929" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19923" CreationDate="2017-08-01T04:59:47.867" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Makara means a crocodile or a shark. It might also mean a giant mythical being which carries Ganga devi. Also it is a constellation i nastrology which is the shape of a crocodile. Hence the name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word &amp;quot;Makara&amp;quot; is not only used in the Itihasa Mahabharata, it is used in Ramayana several times to indicate crocodiles and sharks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तन् &lt;strong&gt;नक्र मकर आकीर्णम्&lt;/strong&gt; तिमिम्गिल झष आकुलम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;वायु वेग समाधूतम् पन्नगैर् इव सागरम् || ५-९-७&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That building surrounded by the wives of Ravana, by demonesses, and princesses brought by strength, was like an ocean filled with &lt;strong&gt;crocodiles, big fishes&lt;/strong&gt;, sharks and other fishes, moved by the speed of wind, and together with serpents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, nakra can also mean an alligator or a crocodile (According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/2014/web/webtc/servepdf.php?page=524&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Monier-  williams dictionary&lt;/a&gt; 1899).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Yuddhakanda chapter 21 where Sri Rama aims Brahmastra towards the ocean god, makara is mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अद्य मद् बाण निर्भिन्नैर् मकरैर् &lt;strong&gt;मकर आलयम्&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;निरुद्ध तोयम् सौमित्रे प्लवद्भिः पश्य सर्वतः || ६-२१-१७ (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga21/yuddhasans21.htm#Verse17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;6.21.17&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;O, Lakshmana! Behold now this ocean, having its water made suffocated soon with its &lt;strong&gt;crocodiles&lt;/strong&gt; floated on all sides and broken asunder by my arrows&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes this is identified with a shark. In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, He is the shark among the fishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pavanaḥ pavatām asmi rāmaḥ śastra-bhṛtām aham &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;jhaṣāṇāṁ makaraś cāsmi&lt;/strong&gt; srotasām asmi jāhnavī&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of moving things, I am the wind. Among warriors I am Rama; &lt;strong&gt;among fishes, I am the shark&lt;/strong&gt;, and amongst rivers, I am Ganga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makara_(Hindu_mythology)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Makara&lt;/a&gt; is identified as a mythological creature which is the vehicle of Ganga devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to Makara, other creatures like Timi, Timingala, Jhasha, Śiśumāra are also mentioned. Jhasha, Timi, Timingala are already mentioned in the question. Jhasha is a fish. Timi is a type of fabulous fish like a whale. These type of fishes are mentioned in Harivamsa too. Timingala is a huge whale.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śiśumāra is a porpoise which is the carrier of Varuna, the sea god. This is mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/18305/22F_Chapter_9.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vamana Purana chapter 9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रूद्र कर्णम्लोद्भातः श्यामो जलधिसंज्ञकमः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;शिशुमारो दिव्यगतिः वाहनं वरुणस्य चा ||16||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śiśumāra called jaladhi is the carriage of Varuna.  It was originated from the ear wax of Rudra. It has dark complexion and divine speed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some Rakshasa soldiers rode on these porpoises. There is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Ramayana_201309/Ramayana-VOL-4-Uttara-Kanda#page/n129/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;mention&lt;/a&gt; of it in the Uttara Kanda of Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And all the Rakshasas went covering the sky, some on asses, some on camels, some on horses, &lt;strong&gt;some on quick-coursing porpoises&lt;/strong&gt; and some on huge serpents. And beholding Ravana proceed, hundreds of Daityas, inimical to the celestials, followed him. Having arrived at the city of Madhu and entered there the ten-necked demon did not behold Madhu but espied his sister.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When we take the context of the Mahabharata verse you quoted, the word Makara can mean a crocodile or a shark.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T05:07:32.147" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19930" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19935" CreationDate="2017-08-01T05:43:06.443" Score="9" ViewCount="1882" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading a Jivanmuka Shri Ramana Maharshi I read the following passage (You can/should read more from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19817/8696&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;) -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Vedantins do not say that the world is unreal&lt;/strong&gt;. That is a misunderstanding. If they did, what would be the meaning of the Vedantic text: ‘All this is Brahman’? &lt;strong&gt;They only mean that the world is unreal as world but real as Self&lt;/strong&gt;. If you regard the world as non-self, it is not real. Everything, whether you call it illusion (Maya) or Divine Play (Lila) or Energy (Shakti) must be within the Self and not apart from it. (From the teachings of Shri Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I find this understanding very fascinating, and since Shri Ramana Maharshi was an enlightened master, what he said was not book parroting &lt;strong&gt;but his own experience&lt;/strong&gt;. Personally, I too find this explanation correct. He is just saying: World is unreal as objective point of view but from subjective point of view it is real &amp;amp; Shiva himself. i.e, world has no independent existence, the perception of the world as an independent entity is illusion but it is completely real with the perception of it being identical with Shiva. But I want to know the stance of Advait Vedanta regarding this explanation. They run contrary with this explanation or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T08:14:11.903" LastActivityDate="2019-04-05T11:42:56.093" Title="World is real even according to Advait Vedanta?" Tags="|vedanta|brahman|advaita|guru|maya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19931" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-01T07:00:16.010" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="-1" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T07:00:16.010" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T07:00:16.010" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19932" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-01T07:00:16.010" Score="0" Body="Hindu initiation ceremony is known as Deeksha." OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T07:28:25.727" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T07:28:25.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19934" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8208" CreationDate="2017-08-01T08:42:20.427" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/grihya/asva.asp#intro&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Asvalayana Grihya Sutra KANDIKÂ 6 verse 5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He may marry her, after a &lt;strong&gt;mutual agreement&lt;/strong&gt; has been made (between the lover and the damsel): this (is the wedding called) Gândharva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here we have the type of marriage in which consent is expressly stated. But that doesn't imply the lack of consent in other forms, it just means that besides the groom and the bride other family members are also involved in the decision unlike in the Gandharva Vivah. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a modern Hindu marriage, although there isn't an explicit question asked to either the bride and the groom at any point, yet there are two ceremonies that offer this option:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Panigraham&lt;/strong&gt; - When the groom takes the bride's hand in his own, it signifies the agreement of both of them to the union. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Saptapadi&lt;/strong&gt; in which the bride and the groom give each other seven vows. Each of these is a confirmation of their commitment towards each other and towards making their married life a success.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asvalayana Grihya Sutra KANDIKA 7 Verse 6 mentions the following promise:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Leading her three times round the fire and the water-pot, so that their right sides are turned towards (the fire, &amp;amp;c.), he murmurs, 'This am I, that art thou; that art thou, this am I; the heaven I, the earth thou; the Sâman I, the Rik thou. Come! Let us here marry. Let us beget offspring. Loving, bright, with genial mind may we live a hundred autumns.'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the practice of &lt;strong&gt;Swayam-var where the girl sought out her own partner&lt;/strong&gt; was an accepted one as attested to by the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201455.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti Verse 9.90&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रीणि वर्षाण्युदीक्षेत कुमार्यर्तुमती सती । &#xA;  ऊर्ध्वं तु कालादेतस्माद् विन्देत सदृशं पतिम् ॥ ९० ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having reached puberty, the maiden may wait for three years; after that time, she shall procure a suitable husband.—(90)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201456.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 9.91&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अदीयमाना भर्तारमधिगच्छेद् यदि स्वयम् । &#xA;  नैनः किं चिदवाप्नोति न च यं साऽधिगच्छति ॥ ९१ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When a maiden, when not given away, herself procures a husband, she incurs no sort of sin; nor does the man whom she weds.—(91)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01222.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Subhadra Haran Parva of Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; quotes Krishna as saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vasudeva answered, 'O bull amongst men, self-choice hath been ordained for the marriage of Kshatriyas. But that is doubtful (in its consequences), O Partha, as we do not know this girl's temper and disposition.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All these imply consent from both the girl's as well as groom's side though again it is not in the form of an explicit question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-20T06:51:43.110" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T06:51:43.110" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19935" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19930" CreationDate="2017-08-01T11:07:22.013" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prof. Dr. Chandradhar Sharma gives an excellent writing on this often confusing aspect of Advaita in his book &lt;em&gt;The Advaita Tradition in Indian Philosophy: A Study in Buddhism, Vedanta and Kashmira Shaivism&lt;/em&gt;. He goes through the sometimes technical details over many pages. In one section (pp 181-183) he writes: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some critics have often failed to understand the significance of &lt;em&gt;avidya&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; and have, therefore, charged Shankara with explaining the world away. Shankara himself raised such objections as &lt;em&gt;purvapaksa&lt;/em&gt; and has answered them. It is that most of the critics have not considered his answers. They say: If the world is unreal, unreal means like Vedanta texts cannot lead unreal personalities to attain real liberation; if the world is real, it cannot be &lt;em&gt;maya&lt;/em&gt; (footnote: see Shankara's &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; II.1.14 commentary here - &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&lt;/a&gt;). A philosophy which has nothing better to say than that unreal personalities are unreally striving in an unreal world through unreal means to attain an unreal end, is itself unreal. Verily, one bitten by a rope-snake does not die nor can one use mirage water for drinking or bathing (again &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; II.1.14). The Acharya replies that such objections are based on a confusion between the empirical (&lt;em&gt;vyavahara&lt;/em&gt;) and the transcendental (&lt;em&gt;paramartha&lt;/em&gt;). The opponent is hopelessly confusing the empirical with the transcendental, even as he is confusing the illusory with the empirical. The falsity of the illusory can be realized only when empirical knowledge is attained. The 'rope-snake' generates fear and an attempt to avoid or kill it and is realized as illusory only when the rope is known. The dream-water quenches dream-thirst. The roaring of a dream-tiger generates fear. Dream objects can be discarded as false only when the dreamer gets awake. Similarly, the unreality of this empirical world can be realized only when the Absolute is attained. The Acharya says: We have repeatedly asserted (&lt;em&gt;asakrdavochama&lt;/em&gt;) that as long as the transcendental unity of the self with Brahma[n] is not realized, the entire world must be taken to be true (Again same &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; verse). As long as this knowledge of unity does not dawn, all secular and religious practices stand as real (again same &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; verse). Before Brahma[n]-realization, the world cannot be condemned as unreal. Thought reigns supreme in the empirical realm and its authority cannot be questioned here, otherwise the entire empirical life would be exploded (&lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; II.1.11). It is only when the the unity of Brahma[n] is attained, the Vedanta declares the world to be unreal. This transcendental knowledge cannot be dismissed as subjective or imaginary, for it is directly experienced as unity with the Real, and it results in the total cancellation of &lt;em&gt;avidya&lt;/em&gt; along with its products, and itself cannot be contradicted by any other knowledge (&lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; II.1.14).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the above it is clear that Shankara is emphatic on preserving the empirical validity of the world. Far from taking away the reality of the world, Shankara grants some reality, during appearance, even to illusory objects which according to his opponents are unreal. The words 'real' and 'unreal' are used in Vedanta in their absolute sense. 'Real' means &lt;em&gt;real for all time&lt;/em&gt; and Brahma[n] alone is real in this sense. Similarly, 'unreal' means utterly unreal like a sky-flower, which this world is not. The world is 'neither real nor unreal' and this brings out the indefinable and self-contradictory nature of this world. It has empirical validity, but not ultimate reality. When the '&lt;em&gt;reality&lt;/em&gt;' which is denied to this world means '&lt;em&gt;reality for all time&lt;/em&gt;', the '&lt;em&gt;unreality&lt;/em&gt;' which is attributed to it means '&lt;em&gt;non-eternality&lt;/em&gt;'. Who can say that the world is not 'unreal' if 'unreal' means 'temporal'? It is true for all practical purposes. It will be sublated only when knowledge dawns and not before. This should make us humbly strive after true knowledge rather than engage ourselves in futile quarrels. Acharya Shankara's intention is perfectly clear--none can condemn this world as &lt;em&gt;unreal&lt;/em&gt;; he who does it is not qualified to do so and he who is qualified to do so, will not do so, for he would have risen above language and finite thought. Nobody can make the unreal real or transform the real into unreal. The world is what it is, neither more nor less. Its reality is Brahma[n] which is its underlying ground; its unreality consists in its ascribed characters which are superimposed on Brahma[n]. When Brahma[n] is realized superimposition is rejected and the ground is reinstated. The Real is ever what it is. It is only &lt;em&gt;avidya&lt;/em&gt; that appears and &lt;em&gt;avidya&lt;/em&gt; that vanishes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Swami Vivekananda says (Complete Works, V7, p 33):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The world is God and is real, but that is not the world we see; just as we see silver in the mother-of-pearl where it is not. That is what is known as Adhyasa or superimposition, that is, a relative existence dependent on a real one...&quot;taking a thing for what is not'. We see reality, but distorted by the medium through which we see it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in V6, p 92, he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maya is not illusion as it is popularly interpreted. Maya is real, yet it is not real. It is real in that the Real is behinnd it and gives it its appearance of reality. That which is real in Maya is the Reality in and through Maya. Yet the Reality is never seen; and hence that which is seen is unreal, and it has no real independent existence of itself, but is dependent upon the Real for its existence. &#xA;  Maya then is a paradox-real, yet not real, an illusion, yet not an illusion.&#xA;  He who knows the Real sees in Maya not illusion, but reality. He who knows not the Real sees in Maya illusion and thinks it real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as Krishna says in the Gita 9.4-6 (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Me, in My unmanifested form, are all things in this universe pervaded. All beings exist in Me, but I do not exist in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And yet the beings do not dwell in Me--behold, that is My divine mystery. My Spirit, which is the support of all beings and the source of all things, does not dwell in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the mighty wind blowing everywhere ever rests in the akasha, know that in the same manner all beings rest in Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Ramana Maharishi's statement is correct and in complete agreement with both Shankara and Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T11:07:22.013" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19936" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-01T11:16:28.660" Score="2" ViewCount="152" Body="&lt;p&gt;I understand Vedas talk of four varnas — Brahmana, Vysya, Kshatriya and Sudra. I have seen arguments saying it's a classification based on Karma, Guna, Birth etc. Some say birth is of most importance, some say karma. I read it's solely based on soul somewhere. Vedas have explained lot of rules based on varnas. So it's important to have a proper understanding of varnas to interpret these rules properly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do the vedas say on determining varnas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10342" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T16:33:33.870" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T13:25:09.150" Title="Identifying Varnas based on scriptural sources" Tags="|scripture|vedas|caste-system|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19937" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="29564" CreationDate="2017-08-01T11:51:15.950" Score="9" ViewCount="2912" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rigved &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv05029.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse 5.29.10&lt;/a&gt; talks about an interesting incident:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9 What time ye came with strong steeds swiftly speeding, O Uśanā and Indra, to the dwelling,&#xA;  Thou camest thither -conquering together with Kutsa and the Gods: thou slewest Śuṣṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10 &lt;strong&gt;One car-wheel of the Sun thou rolledst forward, and one thou settest free to move for Kutsa.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Thou slewest noseless Dasyus with thy weapon, and in their home o’erthrewest hostile speakers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is what is the story behind Indra taking away one wheel of the Sun's chariot for his friend Kutsa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2018-10-20T05:31:38.300" Title="Why did Indra steal a wheel from the chariot of Surya?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|indra|surya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19938" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19923" CreationDate="2017-08-01T12:09:56.090" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Makara is considered to be a combination of terrestrial and aquatic animals. In our scriptures there is quite a lot of mentions on makara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Makara, is also shown as carrier of Ganga, the river and also of the sea god Varuna.&#xA;Kamadeva or Manmadha (Cupid)’s flag is called makara-dhwaja, a flag having the Makara drawn on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavata Purana, Makaras and Timingila are described as predators, attacking Markandeya Rishi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ksut-trt-parito makarais timingilair upadruto vici-nabhasvatahatah&#xA;tamasy apare patito bhraman diso na veda kham gam ca parisramesitah&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a lot of information about Makara in the following link.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.booksfact.com/puranas/sea-monster-ramayana-bhagavatam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.booksfact.com/puranas/sea-monster-ramayana-bhagavatam.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just to make a small post,  i won't put other makara information given on the scriptures. This has been done by other answerers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Hanuman sat lanka on fire by his tail, he dipped into a river to relax. While he was in the river,a drop of his perspiration fell into the water and was later consumed by an aquatic animal. The reptile then got fertilized and later Hanuman's son Makardhwaja was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you understand hindi then you can study more about it in the following link&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makara_(Hindu_mythology)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makara_(Hindu_mythology)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amarujala.com/spirituality/religion/hanuman-makardhwaj-story-ramayan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.amarujala.com/spirituality/religion/hanuman-makardhwaj-story-ramayan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides above information, the word makara also means Capricorn zodiac sign. &#xA;In yoga, there is an asan called makara asana which means crocodile pose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In yoga&lt;/strong&gt;, we have two kinds of bodies, one is the physical and tangible body and another is the energetic and subtle body. Along the midline of the subtle body – within the spine – lie seven subtle energy centres, the chakras. There are seven main chakras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second chakra or the SVADHISHTHANA CHAKRA has a circle that represents the element water, is to be colored white. The crescent inside the circle is associated with the moon and so it is colored silver.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the image shown below, the crocodile (rather makara) represents sexual vigor&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The source for above information can be found below.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.oum.ru/literature/yoga/chakras-energy-centers-of-transformation-harish-johari/?sphrase_id=1692571&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.oum.ru/literature/yoga/chakras-energy-centers-of-transformation-harish-johari/?sphrase_id=1692571&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RCYOu.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RCYOu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For some additional info, Makara can also be seen in many other different cultures. Below is an image where multiheaded naga is coming out of a makara's mouth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UnyXz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UnyXz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A lot of different makara pictures and information can be found in the book &lt;strong&gt;Way of the Ancient Healer: Sacred Teachings from the Philippine Ancestral Traditions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This book has a lot of information about makara, makara with respect to hinduism and makara on different cultures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10303" LastEditorUserId="10303" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T14:16:01.697" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T14:16:01.697" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19940" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21938" CreationDate="2017-08-01T12:25:33.780" Score="8" ViewCount="5046" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra is mostly portrayed as a warrior in the Vedas but there is one verse that talks about his domestic troubles in a rather human fashion. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10086.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Ved verse 10.86&lt;/a&gt; gives us this interesting story where &lt;strong&gt;Shachi is fighting with her husband and complaining about his friend Vrishakapi&lt;/strong&gt;. Indra is confused and trying to cool her down asks his wife:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 What hath he done to injure thee, this &lt;strong&gt;tawny beast Vrsakapi,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  With whom thou art so angry now? What is the votary's foodful store? Supreme is Indra over all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shachi is in no mood to relent though and condemns Indra's friend to be attacked by a hound:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 &lt;strong&gt;Soon may the hound who hunts the boar seize him and bite him in the car,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  O Indra, that Vrsakapi whom thou protectest as a friend, Supreme is Indra over all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5 &lt;strong&gt;Kapi hath marred the beauteous things, all deftly wrought, that were my joy.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  In pieces will I rend his head; the sinner's portion shall be woo. Supreme is Indra over all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 No Dame hath ampler charms than 1, or greater wealth of love's delights.&#xA;  None with more ardour offers all her beauty to her lord's embrace. Supreme is Indra over all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9 &lt;strong&gt;This noxious creature looks on me as one bereft of hero's love,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Yet Heroes for my sons have I, the Maruts’ Friend and Indra's Queen. Supreme is Indra over all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These passages suggest that perhaps the Vrishakapi had a teeny bit of a crush on Shachi and perhaps even disturbed her favorite things. However Indra is still supporting his friend and says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12 &lt;strong&gt;Never, Indralni, have I joyed without my friend Vrsakapi,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Whose welcome offering here, made pure with water, goeth to the Gods. Supreme is Indra over all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some online sources are mentioning him as a reference to Hanuman!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So my question is - Who is this Vrishakapi who is causing trouble in Indra's domestic bliss &amp;amp; is there a relation between him and Hanuman?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-11-03T06:31:38.523" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T07:12:19.047" Title="Who is Indra's friend Vrishakapi whom Shachi doesn't like?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|indra|goddess|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19941" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19942" CreationDate="2017-08-01T12:44:30.000" Score="7" ViewCount="470" Body="&lt;p&gt;Supposedly, in the Shiva Purana, Lord Shiva says to Goddess Parvati the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ekam prasamshati yastu sarvAneva prasamshati |&lt;br&gt; Ekam nindati yasteshAm&#xA;  sarvAneva vinindati ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who praises one, praises all and one who censures one thereby&#xA;  censures all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The context here is of condemning &lt;code&gt;Iswara Ninda&lt;/code&gt; ( that is condemning the act of criticism of God).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know where exactly in the Shiva Purana is this verse found.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If by chance it is not there in the Shiva Purana, then the follow up question is- Which scripture contains it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-11-05T05:46:09.540" LastActivityDate="2017-11-05T05:46:09.540" Title="Where in the Shiva Purana does Lord Shiva say &quot; ekam prasamshati yastu sarvAneva prasamshati....&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|shiva-purana|shloka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19942" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19941" CreationDate="2017-08-01T13:16:39.750" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;These verses can be found in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/3_purana/brndp2_u.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt; Upodghatapada of Brahmanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;(&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/BrahmandaPurana_37/BrahmandaPurana-G.v.tagare-Part2#page/n27/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translated&lt;/a&gt; by GV Tagore).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कारणं तु स्मृता ह्येते नानार्थेष्विह देवताः | &lt;br&gt; एकं प्रशंसमानस्तु&#xA;सर्वानेवप्रशसति || ९३ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kāraṇaṃ tu smṛtā hyete nānārtheṣviha devatāḥ | &lt;br&gt;ekaṃ praśaṃsamānastu&#xA;sarvānevapraśasati || 93 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;93.These deities are remembered as the cause of the  different affairs. A person who praises one, praises all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एकं निन्दति यस्त्वेषां सर्वानेव स निन्दति | &lt;br&gt; न प्रद्वेषस्ततः कार्यो&#xA;देवतासु विजानता || ९४ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ekaṃ nindati yastveṣāṃ sarvāneva sa nindati | &lt;br&gt;na pradveṣastataḥ kāryo&#xA;devatāsu vijānatā || 94 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;94.He who censures one censures all. Hence, no one  who knows these, should have hatred towards the deities. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reverse order of verses can be found in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vayu-mahapurana/text-with-translation/vol-ii/chapter-66/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 66&lt;/a&gt; of Vayu Purana&lt;/strong&gt;. (translated by Sudharshan Kumar Sharma)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एकं निन्दति यस्तेषां सर्वानेव स निन्दति। &lt;br&gt; एकं प्रशंसमानस्तु&#xA;सर्वानेव प्रशंसति। &lt;br&gt; एकं यो वेत्ति पुरुषं तमाहुर्ब्रह्मवादिनम्।।&#xA;११४।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ekaṃ nindati yasteṣāṃ sarvāneva sa nindati। &lt;br&gt; ekaṃ praśaṃsamānastu&#xA;sarvāneva praśaṃsati। &lt;br&gt; ekaṃ yo vetti puruṣaṃ&#xA;tamāhurbrahmavādinam।। 114।।  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who censures one among them censures all. He who eulogises one,&#xA;eulogises all of them. They declare him as Brahmavadin (propounder of&#xA;Brahman) who understands one Purusa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in both cases speaker of those verses is &lt;strong&gt;Suta&lt;/strong&gt; not Lord Shiva and Suta explains &amp;quot;Race of Dharma&amp;quot; in those chapters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T14:02:50.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19943" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8944" CreationDate="2017-08-01T14:38:48.340" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Turiyatita state is mentioned in Malinivijay Tantra chapter 2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva said&lt;/strong&gt;:Wise people should know the system of unification (&lt;strong&gt;Sarvavesha krama&lt;/strong&gt;) divided into five states i.e, waking (Jagrat), dreaming sleep (Svapna), dreamless sleep (Sushupti), fourth(turiya) &amp;amp; the state beyond the fourth (&lt;strong&gt;turiyatita&lt;/strong&gt;). 2.2.27&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same chapter describes in details about the respective dwellers of these states which is quite esoteric in nature owing to the concept of Gross- Subtle embodiment relationship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, from the words of Āchārya Abhinavgupta -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unmillana Samadhi is experienced in turyatita and nilanā samadhi is experienced in turya. This is the difference between turya &amp;amp; turyatita. Nimilanā samādhi means absorption of universal consciousness; &lt;strong&gt;when universal consciousness is absorbed in your nature, that is turya. When universal consciousness is expanded everywhere, that is TURYATITA (Unmilanā samādhi).&lt;/strong&gt; Tantrāloka 10.288&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2021-08-30T19:38:55.067" LastActivityDate="2021-08-30T19:38:55.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19944" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19926" CreationDate="2017-08-01T14:50:44.347" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chandrananda's Vritti is the oldest commentary.&lt;/strong&gt; On pages 74-75 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=JyJ--9uUtx0C&amp;amp;lpg=PA74&amp;amp;ots=Hg-sdr8kBp&amp;amp;dq=vaisesika%20commentary&amp;amp;pg=PA74#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;, Bimal Krishna Matilal discusses two commentaries on the Vaisheshika Sutras discovered in the 20th century, Chandrananda's Vritti and Vadindra's Vyakhya, which are both older than Shankara Mishra's Upaskara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thanks to the labour of modern researchers, we now have before us at least two commentaries on the Vaisheshika-sutras, written earlier than the Upaskara.  Perhaps, the earliest available commentary is the Vritti by Chandrananda.... But this is the only commentary available that was written in the pre-Navya-nyaya period.... He might have belonged to the eighth or ninth century A.D.... Another commentary belonging to the twelfth or thirteenth century A.D. has now been discovered and edited by A. Thakur.  Unfortunately the name of this commentary is not known to us.  But Thakur conjectures that it may be from the pen of Vadindra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as far as I can tell, Vadindra's Vyakhya has never been translated into the English.  But the portion of Chandrananda's Vritti commenting on the first two Adhyayas (out of ten Adhyayas) of the Vaisheshika Sutras has been translated into English in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ci.nii.ac.jp/els/contentscinii_20170801225145.pdf?id=ART0000585031&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this journal paper&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be noted that even Chandrananda's Vritti is not as old as Prashastapada's Padartha Dharma Sangraha, but as I said the latter is not an actual commentary on the Vaisheshika Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-08-04T22:13:04.703" LastActivityDate="2017-08-04T22:13:04.703" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19945" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19961" CreationDate="2017-08-01T15:12:08.613" Score="9" ViewCount="1385" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Goddess Tara is shown holding scissors&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hRXOS.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scissors symbolises that the Goddess cuts asunder the attachments to this material worlds, much feared by the spiritual souls.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, scissors looks a bit too modern when thought of to be used by Hindus, especially, the Hindu Gods. Leaving this apart, is it really true that Hindus had scissors? Or is it later addition to Goddess's iconography?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any other mention of scissors, and other more familiar modern tools, which do not suit the Hindu Gods. (Just imagine Narayana using mobile phones. Shiva rejoicing on music on music player. Durga delighting using tablets and laptops. It is so obscene.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T12:51:36.230" Title="Is there any mention of &quot;Scissors&quot; in the Hindu literature?" Tags="|history|culture|tradition|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19946" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-01T15:34:30.130" Score="4" ViewCount="1488" Body="&lt;p&gt;Witchcraft has been one of the most controversial issues in the West. Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Christianity &amp;amp; Islam  consider it a sin against God but what does Hinduism say about it? Can a Hindu indulge in sorcery?         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also certain Wiccans (adherents of the Wicca religion, a Western pagan tradition that developed in the twentieth century that involves the practice of witchcraft) perform spellwork using the deities of various ancient religions including Hinduism (Lord Ganesha and Goddess Kali are the most used deities from Hinduism in Wicca). Is this practice legitimate?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Update: Seeing some of the comments, I wish to clarify Wicca is not black magick. In the &lt;a href=&quot;https://wicca.com/celtic/wicca/rede.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiccan Rede&lt;/a&gt;, it is stated: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An it harm none, do what thou wilt'' (''Do what you will, so long as it harms none''). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-11-18T16:00:28.813" LastActivityDate="2018-11-18T16:00:28.813" Title="Do any Hindu scriptures condemn magick? Is the practice of magick by Wiccans using Hindu deities legitimate?" Tags="|practice|ganesha|other-religions|kali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19947" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8251" CreationDate="2017-08-01T16:03:26.933" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well since you have asked from the perspective of the character let me try and explain from what I understand of Parshurama's life - His story does not begin with his birth. The difficult decisions he took in his life were a result of the circumstances even before he came into this world that were shaping his destiny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/canto9/chapter15.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatm Canto 9 Chapter 15&lt;/a&gt; gives the details of the situation before his birth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(5-6) From Gâdhi there was the daughter Satyavatî who by the brahmin Ricîka was asked to be his wife..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(8) He as a seer was by his wife and his mother-in-law who each wanted a son, requested to cook a preparation which he with mantras offered to them [to his wife with a brâhmana mantra and to his mother-in-law with a kshatriya mantra]. Then the muni went away for a bath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rishi Richik/Ruchik prepared a magic potion after combining the roots, leaves and barks of at least a dozen herbs and mixing them with barley, rice and pulses, adding few berries and milk to the mixture. He divided it into two parts and put one portion in the shade of an Ashwattha tree and the other under a giant Fig, blessing both of them by means of magical incantations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(9) Meanwhile, Satyavatî was by her mother asked to give the oblation that was meant for her, because she thought it was the better one of the two. She handed it over to her while she herself ate her mother's oblation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(10) Learning about this the sage said to his wife: &lt;strong&gt;'You did something very wrong! Now your son will be a fierce, punitive personality while your brother will be a scholar in spiritual science!'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(11) Satyavatî beseeched him that it would not be so and thus the son of Bhrigu said: &lt;strong&gt;'Then the son of your son will be that way!'&lt;/strong&gt; Thereafter Jamadagni was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This son of Jamdagni was Parshurama&lt;/strong&gt; who had inherited the Kshatriya trait even though born a Brahmin. Even with the benediction of Ruchik, his story may have not become so violent had he not come face to face with Kartavirya Arjun the antagonist in his story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Puranas talk highly of this man who is considered an &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Z28re.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;incarnation of Lord Vishnu’s Sudarshan Chakra&lt;/a&gt;! &lt;strong&gt;Kartavirya was the GRAND EMPEROR of the globe and his influence had even corrupted other kings of the world&lt;/strong&gt; and that is why when Parshurama came in confrontation with him, the Avatar did not just stop at killing the emperor but also decided to kill all other corrupt kings. By the time he was done, all evil Kshatriyas had been decimated and new kings were selected from the other castes while some of the original ones also remained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When Lord Rama was born the nature of rulers had changed and Kings like Dashrath and Janak who were taking care of their populace were the norm&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence when Shri Rama confronted the elder Avatar he taught him a lesson that his work as the slayer of Kshatriyas was over.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However again at the time of Mahabharat, Parshurama was called into service by Amba who demanded that he fulfill his promise of rooting off corrupt kings by killing Bhishma. The details are mentioned in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2172/why-did-bhishma-fight-with-lord-parashurama&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt; so am not going to repeat them but by the time the two were done, Parshurama had to be convinced that he had done enough work to tame the errant kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His role as the main protagonist was over when he encountered Lord Rama and now that the next incarnation Lord Krishna was there to take care of these arrogant Kshatriyas it was time for him to stop.&lt;/strong&gt; He is still living though and would become the guru of Kalki, the last Avatar BUT &lt;strong&gt;again he shall not be the one to take up arms.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T06:12:44.820" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19948" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-01T16:08:34.700" Score="1" ViewCount="42" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many stories of creation in our hindu scriptures,the hiryanyagarbha sukta and purusha sukta explains about creation but are there any other stories describe in scriptures like upanishads,vedas brahmanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T16:08:34.700" Title="What are the stories of creation in hindu scrpitures?" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-08-02T08:25:47.280" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19949" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19946" CreationDate="2017-08-01T16:19:14.993" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a verse that says that black magic (using roots) is a punishable offence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 9.290. For all incantations intended to destroy life, for&#xA;  magic rites with roots (practised by persons) not related (to him&#xA;  against whom they are directed), and for various kinds of sorcery, a&#xA;  fine of two hundred (panas) shall be inflicted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also here is a verse that says that performing black magic using roots ( &lt;strong&gt;abhichAro mulakarma cha&lt;/strong&gt; is the sanskrit used in the original verse) is a minor sin:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.63. Superintending mines (or factories) of any sort,&#xA;  executing great mechanical works, injuring (living) plants, subsisting&#xA;  on (the earnings of) one’s wife, sorcery (by means of sacrifices), and&#xA;  working (magic by means of) roots, (and so forth),....  (are all)&#xA;  minor offences, causing loss of caste (Upapataka)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, black magic is condemned, not sure about witchcraft etc. However, using certain forms of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11037/4732&quot;&gt;black magic is present in the Vedas itself&lt;/a&gt;. Where they are used to subdue powerful and evil enemies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T16:19:14.993" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19950" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20065" CreationDate="2017-08-01T16:24:02.200" Score="4" ViewCount="2397" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many websites claim Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu by giving the following story:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nearly 150 years ago, a pious Brahmin named Kshudiram Chattopadhyaya lived there(Kamarpukur). He was poor, but honest and devoted to God. He was greatly respected by the villagers for his austere life, truthfulness and kind treatment of others. His wife, Chandramani, too was very simple and virtuous. She was devoted to the gods and goddesses, and was fond of serving all who came to her house. She would not let anyone go without offering something to eat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Earlier, Kshudiram had lived in another village called Derepur. The rich zamindar there once wanted Kshudiram to tell lies in the court to support him in a suit against a neighbour.&#xA;  Kshudiram refused to do so. In revenge, the Zemindar grabbed all his land and property. Thus Kshudiram had to leave Derepur and settle down in Kamarpukur.&#xA;  Once, while walking to another village, Kshudiram fell asleep on the wayside. He then dreamt that Shri Rama appeared before him and said: ‘Look, Kshudiram, I am lying in yonder field uncared for. Please take me home and serve me.’ Kshudiram replied: ‘Lord, I am a poor man. How can I serve you?’ ‘You needn’t be afraid, Kshudiram. I shall accept whatever you give,’ said the Lord.&#xA;  Kshudiram woke up and, to his surprise, found near by a Shalagrama stone, a symbol of Shri Rama. He took it home. Calling it Raghuvir, he set it up in his house and began the daily worship of it. Chandramani was most happy about the arrival of Raghuvir in their house. She joined her husband in the worship. To the present day, the worship has continued.&#xA;  ​Though Kshudiram and Chandramani were poor, days passed joyfully in their new home at Kamarpukur. They had two sons, Ramkumar and Rameshwar, and a daughter, Katyayani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Early in 1835, Kshudiram started on a long pilgrimage. After visiting Varanasi, he came to Gaya, a holy place both of Hindus and Buddhists. In an ancient temple there, Hindus worship Vishnu under the name of ‘Gadadhar’. Five miles away from this temple is Bodh Gaya, where the Buddha realized Truth under the Bodhi tree.&#xA;  Kshudiram stayed for a few days at Gaya. One day he had been busy with worship all day long. At night, when he fell asleep, he had a strange dream. Gadadhar appeared before him. His complexion was greenish blue and radiant. The Lord said, ‘Kshudiram, I am pleased with your devotion. I am going to be born in your house as your son.’&#xA;  Kshudiram was startled. He said: ‘No Lord, you have blessed me by appearing before me. I am not fit for this favour. I am too poor to serve you.’&#xA;  ‘Do not be worried,’ replied the Lord; ‘I shall be well pleased with whatever you give me.’&#xA;  Kshudiram awoke with joy—and some uneasiness. He started back for Kamarpukur shortly afterwards.Chandramani was a simple-hearted lady. She believed everyone and loved everyone. At the time we are speaking of, she considered even the gods and goddesses as her own children.&#xA;  One day she was standing in front of the Yugis’ Shiva temple and was talking with a friend named Dhani. The little temple was just across the road from her house. Even today it is there at Kamarpukur.&#xA;  Suddenly, Chandramani found a light flowing out of the Shiva image in the temple. The light came in waves, filled the temple, and rushed towards her. Before she could say anything, the light entered her and filled her. She fell down unconscious.&#xA;  When Chandra came to her senses, she felt she was with child. Her friend told her: ‘You are a fool! Don’t tell others about this. They will think you are mad.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Kshudiram returned from Gaya, Chandra told him about the vision. He consoled her and said: ‘Don’t worry, but don’t speak about it to others. I too had a vision at Gaya. A wonderful child will be born to us.’​​We read in the Bhagavata that when Sri Krishna was in the womb of Devaki she became like a goddess herself. Her beauty seemed to fill the prison cell with light. At the time when Krishna was born she saw many gods too. When Sri Ramakrishna was in her womb Chandra Devi too became very beautiful, she too could see so many gods. God was coming to her as her son; so she looked upon and loved not only all men but the gods as well, as her own children.&#xA;  One day when the sun was very hot a god came to her riding on the back of a swan. His face was red. He was Brahma. Chandra Devi had not read the scriptures; so how would she know that the god was Brahma? How would she know that Brahma’s complexion is red? She thought that his face was red from sunburn. So most affectionately she called to him and said: “Dear little god riding on your swan, your face looks burned by the sun. There is some cool rice in the house; do come, eat a little and refresh yourself before you go on.” Brahma heard what she said and then smiled and disappeared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since Chandra Devi loved everyone as her own son, when everybody in the house had eaten, and before she ate her own meal, she went out to see if anyone in the neighbourhood was going hungry. If she found such a person Chandra Devi would bring him to her house and give her own food to him.Months passed. The autumn and the winter were gone. It was spring, 1836. Trees were putting forth new leaves and blossoms. The kokil and other birds were singing.&#xA;  Chandramani was attending to the daily worship of Raghuvir as usual. But that day, the 17th February 1836, she felt different. She felt the new baby would be born very soon. And in the early hours of tne next day, a beautiful child was born to her in the thatched shed where the husking machine and a small oven were kept.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhani, the midwife, was there to help. A few minutes after the child was born, he was not to be seen. Where was he? ‘Oh, my goodness!’ she exclaimed, ‘here he is rolling in the ashes in the oven. And he is not even crying!’ She took an earthen lamp in her hand and looked at the child and thought: ‘O my! He is so big and chubby, like a six-month old child!’&#xA;  The joy of Chandra and Kshudiram knew no bounds. They felt that the Lord had fulfilled His promise. Kshudiram, remembering his dream at Gaya, named the boy ‘Gadadhar’, the name of the Lord at the Vishnu temple there.It was spring. The trees in Kamarpukur had put forth new leaves. Flowers were blooming. Birds were singing. The gentle south wind soothed the body and the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;​​But what is the source of the above story? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-01-13T19:42:35.187" LastActivityDate="2019-01-13T19:42:35.187" Title="Where is it written that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|ramakrishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19951" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-01T16:49:25.033" Score="3" ViewCount="1332" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;kalau śūdra sambhavaḥ&quot; means all humans are Shudras in Kali Yuga. Which scriptures are the source of this verse? Is this found in Bhagavata Purana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-08-01T16:58:39.007" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T16:58:39.007" Title="Which scripture is the source of the verse &quot;kalau śūdra sambhavaḥ&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|caste-system|identification-request|shudra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19953" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2147" CreationDate="2017-08-01T18:18:02.270" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Kali Yuga is praised in the scriptures as incomparably conducive to the salvation of man, for he can now attain the Highest through the mere thought of God and remembering His Name. So of all the Yugas, this Yuga is described as the most holy, the most beneficient. Dhyana (meditation) was prescribed as the means of liberation for men in the Kritha Yuga, Ascetism as the means during the Tretha Yuga and ritual worship for the Dwapara Yuga. But, for people of this Yuga, the simple remedy prescribed is just Namasmarana, the constant awareness of the Name. In spite of this, it is a pity that men do not care for this path and so render their lives barren wastes.&quot; - Sathya Sai Baba&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11584" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-02T03:01:37.417" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T03:01:37.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19954" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19862" CreationDate="2017-08-01T19:31:48.300" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brihaspati created the Charvaka system to deceive the Asuras.&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15118.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the seventh Prapathaka of the Maitrayaniya Upanishads says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;9&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brihaspati, having become Sukra, brought forth that false knowledge for the safety of Indra and for the destruction of the Asuras. By it they show that good is evil, and that evil is good. They say that we ought to ponder on the (new) law, which upsets the Veda and the other sacred books. Therefore let no one ponder on that false knowledge: it is wrong, it is, as it were, barren. Its reward lasts only as long as the pleasure lasts, as with one who has fallen from his caste. Let that false science not be attempted, for thus it is said: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(1) Widely opposed and divergent are these two, the one known as false knowledge, the other as knowledge. I (Yama) believe Nakiketas to be possessed by a desire of knowledge; even many pleasures do not move thee. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(2) He who knows at the same time both the imperfect (sacrifice, &amp;amp;c.) and the perfect knowledge (of the Self), he crosses death by means of the imperfect, and obtains immortality by means of the perfect knowledge. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;(3) Those who are wrapped up in the midst of imperfect knowledge, fancying themselves alone wise and learned, they wander about floundering and deceived, like the blind led by the blind.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/P8Ne&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Padma Purana provides more detail, in the course of a dialogue between Shiva and Parvati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the age of Swayambhuva (Manu) in olden times there were great demons like Namuchi, who were very powerful, very valorous, very strong and great heroes.  All of them were devoted to Vishnu, were pure, and free from all sins.  They followed the practices (laid down) in the triad of the Vedas.  All gods, being frustrated, led by Indra, and overcome by fear, approached Vishnu and sought his shelter....  [Vishnu told Shiva:] &amp;quot;There will be Brahmanas and great sages who have given themselves away to me.  Approaching them through devotion for me, tell the vicious ones: Kanada, Gautama, Shakti, Upamanyu, Jaimini, Kapila, Durvasa, Mrikandu, &lt;strong&gt;Brihaspati&lt;/strong&gt;, Bhargava and Jamadagnya[.] ... By your power increased in viciousness infused into them they will be vicious in a moment.  There is no doubt about it.... Taking to their doctrine all the ancient demons will be averse to me in a moment.&amp;quot; ... O sinless one, having entered through my power, Gautama and other Brahmanas I proclaimed the texts outside the Vedic fold.  Resorting to this doctrine, all the wicked demons became averse to the lord (i.e. Vishnu), and were enveloped in viciousness.... On receiving from me grants of boons, they were haughty with pride of power.  They were very much attached to objects of senses, and were full of lust and anger.  They, void of goodness and powerless, were then defeated by the hosts of gods....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I shall tell you the various texts in a sequence. By merely remembering them even the wise ones would be deluded.  First I myself proclaimed the Shaiva, Pashupata, etc.  Hear about the ones proclaimed by the Brahmanas into whom my power had entered after that: Kanada proclaimed the great Vaisheshika text. Similarly Gautama (proclaimed the doctrine of) Nyaya, and Kapila proclaimed Samkhya. &lt;strong&gt;Dhishana (Brihaspati) in the same way (proclaimed)the much censured Charvaka.&lt;/strong&gt; Vishnu of the form of Buddha proclaimed the false Buddhist doctrine and those of the naked and wearing dark blue garments for the destruction of demons. The doctrine of Maya is a wicked doctrine and said to be pseudo-Buddhist.  I myself, in the form of a Brahmana proclaimed it in Kali (age).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-01T19:31:48.300" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19956" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19959" CreationDate="2017-08-02T05:07:27.090" Score="6" ViewCount="5692" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people think that Vishnu has only 10 avataras. However, the Srimad Bhagavatam says Vishnu incarnated 24 times. So who are the 24 avataras of Lord Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2019-05-01T05:24:05.767" Title="Who are the 24 avataras of Lord Vishnu according to the Srimad Bhagavatam?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19957" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-02T05:29:43.347" Score="1" ViewCount="1821" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna (Sanskrit: कृष्ण) is the god of compassion, tenderness, and love in Hinduism. He is one of the most widely revered and popular Indian divinities, worshiped as the eighth incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu and also as the supreme God in his own right. (&lt;strong&gt;Wiki Source&lt;/strong&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna always assures the world to save from demons and evil force, every time they appear to disturb the earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is my questions: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) What is the purpose of &lt;strong&gt;Lord Krishna holding a flute&lt;/strong&gt; and wear a &lt;strong&gt;peacock feather on crown&lt;/strong&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) What is significance of Favorite Leaf &lt;strong&gt;(Tulasi)&lt;/strong&gt; and Favorite &lt;strong&gt;Color (Yellow)?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-08-02T17:11:02.513" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T17:53:22.387" Title="What is the purpose of Lord Krishna favorite things?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19958" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-02T05:36:46.157" Score="10" ViewCount="701" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kashmiri Shaivism&lt;/strong&gt; : Reason of creation is the proof of existence of Shiva. As heat is inevitable in presence of fire, similarly Shakti is inevitable in presence of Shiva &amp;amp; this Shakti is no different than the world itself. Further, being a completely monistic or Advait philosophy, according to it all sufferings, enjoyments etc are of Shiva only in innumerable forms.E.g, insects, trees, demons etc all are Shiva covered with Malas only. In, short this system argues there is no individual existence or the one who suffers or enjoys, he is Shiva only who suffers or enjoys then what's your problem with creation? Further, creation is an ecstasy or bliss of Shiva in material form which doesn't seems bliss just &lt;strong&gt;due to perception of duality or ignorance that Individual thinks himself separates from Shiva &amp;amp; considers himself different&lt;/strong&gt;. To remove such ignorance, one can liberate in this very life no matter whether one is women or belong to any caste.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Advait Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt; : This is another the most famous Vedantic non dual or monistic system who believes there is no creation at all from absolute point of view, creation is the result of Avidya which Brahman is unaware of. Actually what they say is the perception full of duality is what the creation is &amp;amp; this perception is only due to avidya. So, this system argues Brahman didn't create the world &amp;amp; sufferings (In other words there is no world or sufferings), it is due to avidya only then why to question Brahman/God for sufferings or creations?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shaiva Siddhanta:&lt;/strong&gt; This is dual system which argues Shiva creates the universe to liberate bound souls having Mala/impurity by default since eternity. You can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18237/why-shiva-created-the-universe-for-kshetraj%C3%B1ahah&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Thus, this system shows benevolence of creation &amp;amp; Shiva, &lt;strong&gt;But this system along with other dual or semi dual systems are questionable&lt;/strong&gt; to me as you can see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18172/liberation-according-to-dual-or-semi-dual-schools-is-temporary&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Btw Having stated in short the arguments laid by those systems, Now I am interested to know the arguments given by Vishishta Advaita &lt;strong&gt;regarding the reason of creation&lt;/strong&gt;? i.e, Why Lord Vishnu creates the world? Does this system give the same arguments like Shaiva Siddhant?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T04:38:23.990" Title="What is the reason of creation according to Vishishta Advaita?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19959" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19956" CreationDate="2017-08-02T06:32:23.817" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is explained in the Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Canto 1 chapter 3&lt;/a&gt;. Even though there are innumerable incarnations of the Lord, some of the important ones are mentioned in this chapter. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The four unmarried sons of Brahmā [the Kumāras] also called as Sanat Kumāras. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Varaha avatar (Boar)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Devarṣi Nārada, who is a great sage among the demigods&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nara &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nārāyaṇa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord Kapila, foremost among perfected beings. He gave an exposition of the creative elements and metaphysics to Āsuri Brāhmaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dattatreya, the son of the sage Atri. He was born from the womb of Anasūyā, who prayed for an incarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yajña, the son of Prajāpati Ruci and his wife Ākūti.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;King Ṛṣabha, son of King Nābhi and his wife Merudevī.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;King Pṛthu who cultivated the land to yield various produce, and for that reason the earth was beautiful and attractive.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Matsya, The form of a fish.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kūrma, The form of a tortoise.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dhanvantari.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jaganmohini.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nṛsiṁha - The man lion form.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vāmana, the form of a dwarf brāhmaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Parashu Rama. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama, the son of Dasharatha. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa, the son of Parāshara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Balarāma&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kṛṣṇa. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Buddha, the son of Añjanā, in the province of Gayā. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kalki incarnation and become the son of Viṣṇu Yaśā.   &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are some of the important avataras mentioned in the Bhagavatam in the Canto 1 chapter 3. But his incarnations are innumerable and infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अवतारा हि असङ्ख्येया हरेः सत्त्व-निधेर् द्विजाः &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथाविदासिनः कुल्याः सरसः स्युः सहस्रशः &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;avatārā hi asaṅkhyeyā hareḥ sattva-nidher dvijāḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yathāvidāsinaḥ kulyāḥ sarasaḥ syuḥ sahasraśaḥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O brāhmaṇas, the incarnations of the Lord are innumerable, like rivulets flowing from inexhaustible sources of water. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar thing was said to Arjuna by Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad Gita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बहूनि मे व्यतीतानि जन्मानि तव चार्जुन |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     तान्यहं वेद सर्वाणि न त्वं वेत्थ परन्तप || ५ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bahūni me vyatītāni janmāni tava cārjuna |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    tānyahaṃ veda sarvāṇi na tvaṃ vettha parantapa || 4.5 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Many births of Mine have passed, O Arjuna, and so is it with you also. I know them all, but you do not know them.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T06:32:23.817" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19960" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14273" CreationDate="2017-08-02T06:48:06.223" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01217.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arjun Vanvas Parva SECTION CCXVI&lt;/a&gt; tells us the story of how Arjun and Uloopi got married:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One day that bull amongst the Pandavas, while residing in that region in the midst of those Brahmanas, descended (as usual) into the Ganges to perform his ablutions. After his ablutions had been over, and after he had offered oblations of water unto his deceased ancestors, he was about to get up from the stream to perform his sacrificial rites before the fire, when the mighty-armed hero, O king, was dragged into the bottom of the water by &lt;strong&gt;Ulupi, the daughter of the king of the Nagas,&lt;/strong&gt; urged by the god of desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To cut the long story short Ulupi convinces Arjun to fulfill her desire by spending a night with her:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus addressed by the daughter of the king of the Nagas, the son of Kunti did everything she desired,&lt;/strong&gt; making virtue his motive. The mighty Arjuna, spending the night in the mansion of the Naga rose with the sun in the morning. Accompanied by Ulupi he came back from the palace of Kauravya to the region where the Ganges entereth the plains. The chaste Ulupi, taking her leave there, returned to her own abode. And, O Bharata, she granted unto Arjuna a boon making him invincible in water, saying, 'Every amphibious creature shall, without doubt, be vanquishable by thee.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next Arjun travels to the east reaching the kingdom of Manipur where he met Chitrangada. Desirous of having her as his wife he agreed to her father, king Chitravahan's condition:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All my ancestors (one after another) had each a male child. I, however, have only a daughter to perpetuate my race. But, O bull amongst men, I ever look upon this daughter of mine as my son. O bull of Bharata's race, I have duly made her a Putrika. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore, one amongst the sons that may be begotten upon her by thee, O Bharata, shall be the perpetuator of my race. That son is the dower for which I may give away my daughter. O son of Pandu, if them choosest, thou canst take her upon this understanding.'&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjun agreed and stayed married to Chitrangada in that city for three years. When the princess at last gave birth to a son, Arjuna blessed his son and took his leave from his new family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So this establishes the first part of your question about how Ulupi was the stepmother of Vabhruvahan.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the next part about what happened to Chitrangada - she became the queen mother when her young son as crowned the king according to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01220.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION CCXIX&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Freeing those sacred waters (from the danger for which they had been notorious), and giving the Apsaras leave to go where they chose, &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna became desirous of once more beholding Chitrangada.&lt;/strong&gt; He, therefore, proceeded towards the city of Manipura. Arrived there, &lt;strong&gt;he beheld on the throne the son he had begotten upon Chitrangada, and who was called by the name of Vabhruvahana. Seeing Chitrangada once more,&lt;/strong&gt; Arjuna proceeded, O monarch, towards the spot called Gokarna.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As for the last part Mahabharat doesn't call Vabhruvahana a Vasu but does so for Bhishma.&lt;/strong&gt; Check out this section &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION LXVII of the Sambhava Parva of Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt; that mentions the various gods and demons who came down to earth in the form of various characters of Mahabharat:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And from the curse of Vasishtha and the command also of Indra, the eight Vasus were born of Ganga by her husband Santanu. &lt;strong&gt;The youngest of them was Bhishma&lt;/strong&gt;, the dispeller of the fears of the Kurus, gifted with great intelligence, conversant with the Vedas, the first speakers, and the thinner of the enemy's ranks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-18T06:26:22.647" LastActivityDate="2017-12-18T06:26:22.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19961" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19945" CreationDate="2017-08-02T06:58:53.817" Score="16" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scissors&lt;/strong&gt; symbolises that the Goddess cuts asunder the attachments to&#xA;  this material worlds, much feared by the spiritual souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first thing we need to verify is  whether Goddess TAra is at all described in scriptures as holding scissors or not. If we can prove that she is not , then there is no need to answer your remaining questions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess TAra is the 2nd mAhAvidya. and, here is her dhyAnam from the Nila Tantram :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PratyAlirapadam ghorAm mundamAlA vibhushitAm |&#xA;  KharvAm lambodarim bhimAm vyAghra charmAvritAm katau ||&#xA;  Nava yauvana sampannAm pancha mudrA vibhusiTam |&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;ChaturbhujAm lola jihvAm mahAbhimAm vara pradAm || Khadaga kartri samAyukta savyetara bhujadwAm | KapAlotpala samyukta savyetara&#xA;  bhujadwayAm ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&#xA;  ViswavyApaka toyAntaha swetapadma paristhitAm |&#xA;  Akshobhya devimurddhanya strimurtinAgarupadhrik ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Meaning of only the highlighted verses&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Goddess is lolAjihva (tongue hanging out), chaturbhujA (having four&#xA;  hands), mahAbhimA (terrible or extremely powerful) and baradAyini&#xA;  (granter of boons). &lt;strong&gt;Goddess is holding in her right hands khadga ( a&#xA;  sword) and kartrika ( a weapon similar to sword but not scissors, in&#xA;  Bengali we call it kAtAri). And, in her left hands she holds a kapAla (skull)&#xA;  and a padma (lotus)&lt;/strong&gt;..... In her head, MahAdeva himself (Akshovya)&#xA;  resides in the form of a nAga (serpent).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess TAra's dhyAnam from Nila Tantram, Patala 4.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Goddess TArA is not holding scissors in any of her four hands at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-02T12:51:36.230" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T12:51:36.230" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19962" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14620" CreationDate="2017-08-02T07:09:17.800" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes very much. Your friend and the boy both are Brahmins belonging to the BHARGAV lineage (descended from Bhrigu rishi). The Srivatsa, Vatsasya, Bhargava, Chyaavana, Aapnavaana, Aurva, Jaamadagney are all from the same family that originates from BHRIGU Rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can check out the following link for more on &lt;a href=&quot;http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Brahmin_gotra_system&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmin Gotra System&lt;/a&gt; or download the Gothra Patrika from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/document/178776187/Gothra-Pattika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scribd.com/document/242974594/Gothra-Pattika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6NEj7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6NEj7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-08-02T08:18:17.280" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T08:18:17.280" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19963" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-02T08:25:18.217" Score="2" ViewCount="243" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it advisable to do Grihapravesham (Gruhapravesham - House worming function) immediately after marriage? Some of relatives are telling that it is not good to have another function immediately after marriage? Any specific reason for this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11590" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-03T05:54:42.817" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T05:54:42.817" Title="Gruhapravesam in a week after marriage" Tags="|belief|customs|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19964" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10865" CreationDate="2017-08-02T09:20:21.420" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason he is called because he married Chola king's daughter. This story is associated with &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azhagiya_Manavala_Perumal_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Azhagiya Manavala Perumal Temple&lt;/a&gt;, A divyadesham glorified by Kulasekhara Alwar and Tirumangai Alwar in Nalayira Divya Prabandham. Lord's consort Lakshmi is worshipped as Kamalavalli Nachiyar here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.divyadesam.com/hindu/temples/trichy/tirukozhi-temple.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;'s the legend:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A king by named Dharma Varman lived in Kumbakonam, Chozha Naadu. Once he went out for hunting and found the rishis were being distressed by some demons and sought the help from the king. Dharma Varman said that he will help them from the demons by killing them and he stayed in the forest for sometime. The King was happy for all the reason but only one thing made him worry and disappoint and that is he had no children. He sought the help of the rishis to help him out and to get children. So, to help the king, all the rishis did a Yagam to get a child for the king. At that time, an Asareeri stated that if he want to get a child he should pray towards Sri Lakshmi and as a result, &lt;strong&gt;Sri Lakshmi itself will born as a child to him. Hearing this, he started to pray towards Sri Lakshmi and finally, The king found a girl child in a lotus tank while hunting in a forest&lt;/strong&gt;. Since the child was born out of lotus, she was named Kamalavalli by the king. Time came when Kamalavalli fell in love with Vishnu in the form of Ranganathar, the presiding deity of Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple. &lt;strong&gt;The Chola king readily got her married to Ranganathar&lt;/strong&gt;. He built a temple to commemorate the occasion. The event is celebrated as Serthi Sevai festival every year. Since Vishnu appeared as Azhagiya Manavalan, meaning a beautiful groom, the temple is called Azhagiya Manavalan Temple. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to this reason, Krishna(Ranganatha) is called as Chola Putri priya(The one who loved the daughter of Chola King). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T09:20:21.420" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19965" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20783" CreationDate="2017-08-02T09:29:21.503" Score="6" ViewCount="613" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding, Vritra was a great ascetic and knew all the Shastras. He was the excellent son of Tvashtar, the divine artisan of Gods born of the divine fire of Vishwakarma's Yagya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why is he called an Asura? Which Scriptures say Vritra was an Asura?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-19T07:01:43.317" LastActivityDate="2018-09-24T12:30:48.533" Title="Which scriptures describe Vritra as an Asura?" Tags="|scripture|gods|name|asuras|tvashtar|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19966" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14360" CreationDate="2017-08-02T09:36:20.773" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it would seem that the Avatars of the Lord are more numerous on Earth. But that is only &lt;strong&gt;because the scriptures that we have talk in more detail about our own Loka or the ones that are relevant to us&lt;/strong&gt; rather than the others with whom we have no connection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=OveYh2v-1roC&amp;amp;pg=PT382&amp;amp;lpg=PT382&amp;amp;dq=manvantara%20purana&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=xDp33CXT_j&amp;amp;sig=nR2AT_g6NF5xpJUcjtmfn69kj2k&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiP_oW0kLjVAhVHSiYKHZQ_AH4Q6AEIUTAH#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=manvantara%20purana&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagavatam Canto 8. Chapter 14&lt;/a&gt; clearly mentions that the Avatars in different Manvantars are for the guidance of Manu, the sons of Manu, the rishis and other beings. Even if we just see the list of Manvantars, we can still find some Avatars who were neither born on Earth nor lived here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;VARAH&lt;/strong&gt; incarnation definitely did not happen on Earth but outside it only then the Divine Boar could have lifted the planet Earth on his tusks.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i1mXh.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i1mXh.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;FOUR KUMARS&lt;/strong&gt; again were not born on Earth rather they emerged from Brahma's min in his own Loka. They frequently travel through different worlds as mentioned in many stories from the Bhagvatam.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0EISM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0EISM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sIcF1.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sIcF1.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The horse-headed &lt;strong&gt;HAYAGRIVA AVATAR&lt;/strong&gt; didn't happen on our Loka as its purpose was to return the Vedas that had escaped from Brahma's mouth back to him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;YAJNA AVATAR&lt;/strong&gt; of Lord Vishnu again was not on our Loka rather he was the king of Swarga and became Indra:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cO0WV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cO0WV.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VAMAN AVATAR&lt;/strong&gt; also did not concern itself with our Loka rather he measured all the existing Lokas in his three steps:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ys7Ug.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ys7Ug.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord took the &lt;strong&gt;MOHINI&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;KURMA&lt;/strong&gt; forms at the shore of Ksheer Sagar where the &lt;strong&gt;Samudra Mantha&lt;/strong&gt; was taking place.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OyGSA.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OyGSA.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can see from these examples that the Lord is definitely born in different forms all over his creation wherever he is required &amp;amp; there may be more that are not recorded in our scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T09:36:20.773" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19967" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-02T09:39:21.220" Score="5" ViewCount="627" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pitru Vidhi&lt;/em&gt; mainly deals with doing ceremony for one's own paternal family ancestors. Usually this leads to their peace. If not done properly then these same ancestors will create minor/major family related problems. Such problems are indication of pending &amp;quot;pitru vidhi&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which places [especially in India], the genuine &amp;quot;Pitru Vidhi&amp;quot; happens?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;(Stressing on &amp;quot;genuine&amp;quot; as, this ceremony might be happening at all the cities/towns but mostly they are not up to the mark. Read below passage for more info.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To avoid opinions, kindly provide some reference for that place if possible. For example, &amp;quot;Prachi, Gujarat, India&amp;quot; is so famous for &amp;quot;Pitru Vidhi&amp;quot;, that it is advertised in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowUserReviews-g2282347-d6833564-r389248743-Prachi_Tirth-Somnath_Gir_Somnath_District_Gujarat.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tripadvisor&lt;/a&gt; as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;More info&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a personal note, A best friend of mine had this experience. His family was never having any boy child. If it were born, then would die in short span.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Then they went to a small village called Prachi for this ceremony. A big circle was made &amp;amp; all the families belonging to their lineage were sitting there. The priests started chanting of various Mantra-s since early morning. Slowly towards the noon, a recently wed bride who was very new to the family started showing some symptoms of possession. Within short time she exhibited various &amp;quot;pitru&amp;quot;-s and their talks which she never knew. Few examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One pitru died due to fire accident, but it couldn't scream. So it came to her body &amp;amp; just screamed&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One pitru was not offered water; it possessed her body, drank lot of water and went&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One pitru wanted to give one necklace to an acquaintance; That pitru was convinced somehow &amp;amp; went&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One pitru wanted to treat everyone with a feast; They somehow arranged for everyone and that also went&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later I heard that this issue was resolved to an extent. My friend seeing all these is as good as I am seeing, as we are very close friends for 20+ years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T01:07:13.807" Title="Which places in India does the authentic &quot;pitru vidhi&quot; happen?" Tags="|india|pitru|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19968" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19967" CreationDate="2017-08-02T09:53:46.780" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gaya is believed to be an apt destination for performing shraadha for its supposedly purgation powers. The place has been mentioned in both Ramayan and Mahabharat as Gayapuri. Pind daan is performed with the use of wheat and oat flour and mud balls. There are about 48 places currently in Gaya where pind daan is performed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11592" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T09:53:46.780" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19969" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14620" CreationDate="2017-08-02T10:50:37.230" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There cannot be two different names of a same gotra. However, different gotras may have similar pravaras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;example : Vishvamitra and Kaushika gotras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So pravara may not be confused with gotra. Pravara is name of some famous rishis of that gotra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A rishi has an option of starting his own gotra with his name for his progeny. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gotras like Jamadagni , Srivatsa, Vatula do share some of the same rishis in their pravara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=8&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwj5tfeMr7jVAhUMNI8KHRbBB44QFghTMAc&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fxa.yimg.com%2Fkq%2Fgroups%2F23451465%2F193409882%2Fname%2FGothra-Pattika.&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNHb5tNkIsgpJbPRaKna05MCzyf7Aw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gotra pravara&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T10:50:37.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19970" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19965" CreationDate="2017-08-02T12:07:39.057" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which Scriptures say Vritra was an Asura.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/markandeya-purana/chapter-05/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;– Chapter 5 – Indra’s transformations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Background – In this chapter we find the story of birth of Vritrasura , &lt;strong&gt;here he is called as asura&lt;/strong&gt;. Here in this chapter a bird explaining about five Pandavas   being incarnations of Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra Killed Tvasta’s son , then hearing his son was slain , the Prajapati Tvasta engaged , tearing out a single matted lock of Hair ,sacrificed that lock of hair in the fire then  uprose Vritra , the mighty asura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्युक्ता कोपरक्ताक्षि जटामग्नै जुहावताम् ||5|| &lt;br&gt; ततो वृत्र:&#xA;समुत्तस्थौ ज्वालामाली &lt;strong&gt;महासुरा:&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt; महाकायो महांद्रष्टो&#xA;भिन्नाञ्जनचयप्रभा: ||6||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus having spoken  ,he his eyes red with anger sacrificed that lock&#xA;of hair in the fire. &lt;strong&gt;Then uprose  Vritra, the mighty asura&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;,encircled with flame , huge in  the body , with great teeth ,&#xA;resembling mass of broken collyrium.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T12:07:39.057" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19971" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19967" CreationDate="2017-08-02T12:48:41.970" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Which places in India does the authentic “pitru vidhi” happen?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IMO, while this question can't have answers from the scriptures but the following can have:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Which is the best place for doing pitru related works (like pinda&#xA;  dana)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The best is without doubt Gaya however there are many other places which are considered sacred pitru sthalas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All the departed Manes, afraid of hell, seek it, thinking, ' The son&#xA;  who will go to Gaya would be our rescuer&lt;/strong&gt;.' (20) One should desire for&#xA;  many sons, for if one happens to go to Gaya&quot;, or one happens perform'&#xA;  a Horse-Sacrifice, or to dedicate a Neela Bull. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The deceased, for whom a bull is let loose on the' eleventh day, is&#xA;  released from the region of the dead, and goes to that of the Pitris.&#xA;  (9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Many sons should be sought for, because one of them at least may&#xA;  happen to go to Gaya&lt;/strong&gt;, or celebrate a horse sacrifice, or dedicate a&#xA;  Neela bull. (10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vrihaspati Smriti, Chapter 1 verses&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly from the Likhita Smriti's chapter 1:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one, after entering Beneras, leaves that place on any occasion and&#xA;  goes elsewhere, the Bhutas (spirits) laugh, striking their palms,&#xA;  amongst themselves,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The person naming whom one offers a pinda at&#xA;  Gaya, goes to the celestial region, if stationed in a hell ; and&#xA;  attains to emancipation, if residing in the celestial region.&lt;/strong&gt; (12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One takes him, whether he be his own relative or an out-sider, to the&#xA;  eternal region of Brahman, &lt;strong&gt;by naming whom he offers a pinda at any&#xA;  place in the sacred shrine of Gaya.&lt;/strong&gt; (13')&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another verse from Katyayana Smriti's chapter 29:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some learned men speak of the superiority of the offering of Pindas,&#xA;  for, it is seen that, &lt;strong&gt;at holy places chiefly at Gaya, merely Pindas&#xA;  are offered&lt;/strong&gt;. (9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Greatness of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gaya Tirtha from Kurma PurAna&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gayaa Tirtham param guhyam Pitrunaam chaativallabham,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krutwaa pinda pradaanam tu na bhuyovjaayatey narah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sakrud Gayaabhigamanam krutwaa pidam dadaati yah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Taaritam tarastena yaasyanti Paramaa Gatim&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gaya Kshetra is one of the most beloved Tirthaas of Pitru Devataas and&#xA;  human beings who offer Pindas to Pitras have no rebirth. Even if once&#xA;  the sacred deed of ‘Pinda Pradana’ is executed at Gaya, Pitraas would&#xA;  be freed from Narakaas and are forwarded to Parama Gati.&lt;/strong&gt; At Gaya the&#xA;  most hallowed signs of Rudra Deva’s feet are imprinted on a Stone and&#xA;  offering Pindaas there would most certainly bless the Karta and redeem&#xA;  the Pitraas. Even while a person  is in a position to visit Gaya and&#xA;  perform the Pinda Pradana, he is lazy or careless and  the Pitras&#xA;  would feel disgruntled and dissatisfied. The Pitraas would vow: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yadi syaat paatakopetah swaadharmarati varjitah,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gayaam yaasyati yah kaschit sosmaan santaarayishyati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even if a person in my Vamshaa were highly sinful for any reason and&#xA;  did not observe ‘Swadharama’ but had visited Gaya Tirtha and gave away&#xA;  Pinda Pradana, he would still be liberated!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The PDF &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/ESSENCE-OF-KNOWLEDGE-OF-NUMBERS.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Essence of Knowledge of Numbers hosted by the Kamakoti.org&lt;/a&gt; gives few names of holy Pitru Kshetras apart from Gaya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yatra Shraddhas&lt;/strong&gt;: are specifically related to visits of Punya Tirtha Kshestras like Gaya sheersha, Akshaya Vata, Brahma Kapaala,&#xA;  Gangaasaagara Sangama Kushaavarta, Bilva, Neela Parvata, Prayaga,&#xA;  Kubjaagra, Bhrugutunga, Kedara, Mahaalaya, Amarakataka Narmada,&#xA;  Yamuna, Ganga, 85 Ganga dwara, Lalika, Sugandha, Shakambari, Phalguni&#xA;  Tirtha, Maha Ganga, Tantu vikaashrama, Kumara dharva prabhava,&#xA;  Saraswati, Kuru Kshetra, Naimishaaranya, Varanaasi, Agastya Ahrama,&#xA;  Kanvaashrama, Pushkarini, Gokarna, Narmada, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri,&#xA;  Gomati,Vetravati, Vipasha, Vitasti, Shatadu, Chandrabhaaga, Iravati,&#xA;  Kaanchi, Pancha nadi teera, Kaushaki, Saryu, Shona, Jyoti ratha,&#xA;  Uttara Manasa, Badaba, Saoptarcha, Vishnu Paada, Swarga maga pradesha,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-02T16:59:43.797" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T16:59:43.797" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19972" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7009" CreationDate="2017-08-02T13:08:04.103" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shri krishna said to Duryodhana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indaraprastham,tilprastham,varunam chaivkashikamDehime chturor&#xA;  graman,panchamam HastinaPuram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhan said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indraprastham guror dattam,tilprastham kripasya ch  Varanasito&#xA;  bhismasch,Surya putren varunam.Hastinapur madhye tu a ham tisthami&#xA;  keshav.Suchyagren,sutibren ya wat bhitwa tu medini tawat bhumim na&#xA;  databyam Vina yuddhen keshav&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This chapter is in Vyasa Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11593" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-08-02T13:42:48.273" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T13:42:48.273" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19973" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-02T14:28:06.070" Score="3" ViewCount="271" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which Geeta verse means  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The world isn't bad because of bad people's deed. It's bad because inaction of good people.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The better version could be: In troubled times, those who have ability to do something also has responsibility to do something.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11594" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-01-26T10:56:08.970" LastActivityDate="2018-01-27T01:10:07.553" Title="Which Geeta shlok says thus?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|identification-request|gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-08-04T00:25:05.780" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19974" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19983" CreationDate="2017-08-02T15:41:34.850" Score="15" ViewCount="10641" Body="&lt;p&gt;We are suffering from water problem without rain. Any suggestions about rain generating Mantras are welcomed. This question may appear as a primarily-opinion based, but actually it is not. So, please don't close it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2020-09-05T13:45:04.177" Title="Are there any Mantras to bring rain?" Tags="|scripture|mantras|" AnswerCount="7" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19975" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19973" CreationDate="2017-08-02T15:55:29.067" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;No Bhagvad Gita verse says so. These are just homemade verses disguised as Gita.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10216/1049&quot;&gt;Which verse of the Bhagavad Gita says &amp;quot;If you don&amp;#39;t fight for what you want, don&amp;#39;t cry for what you lost?&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T15:55:29.067" CommentCount="0" CommunityOwnedDate="2017-08-02T15:55:29.067" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19976" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19965" CreationDate="2017-08-02T17:41:23.470" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Vritra is described as an &lt;code&gt;Asura&lt;/code&gt; in Mahabharata many times. I am giving below some of the verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;32 अनायुषः पुनः पुत्राश चत्वारॊ ऽसुर पुङ्गवाः &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  विक्षरॊ बलवीरौ च वृत्रश चैव महासुरः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Danayu also had four sons who were bulls among the Asuras. They were Vikshara, Vala, Vira, and Vritra the great Asura. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01066.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva, SECTION LXV&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;42 वृत्र इत्य अभिविख्यातॊ यस तु राजन महासुरः &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  मणिमान नाम राजर्षिः स बभूव नराधिपः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And, O king, that great Asura who was known as Vritra became on earth the royal sage known by the name of Manimat. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva, SECTION LXVII&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;35 यदि वृत्रं न हन्म्य अद्य वञ्चयित्वा महासुरम&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  महाबलं महाकायं न मे शरेयॊ भविष्यति&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If I do not kill Vritra, this great and mighty Asura of gigantic frame, even by deceit, it will not go well with me.' &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05010.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, SECTION X&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 सॊ ऽबरवीद अर्च्य देवेन्द्रं दिष्ट्या वै वर्धते भवान&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  विश्वरूपविनाशेन वृत्रासुरवधेन च&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Agastya honoured the lord of the gods and said, 'How fortunate that thou art flourishing after the destruction of that being of universal form, as also that of Vritra. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva, SECTION XVII&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vritra, is mentioned as &lt;code&gt;Asura&lt;/code&gt; also in Ramayana. Following are some examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;129 स कुम्भकर्णं सुरसैन्यमर्दनं; महत्सु युद्धेष्व अपराजितश्रमम&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  ननन्द हत्वा भरताग्रजॊ रणे; &lt;strong&gt;महासुरं वृत्रम&lt;/strong&gt; इवामराधिपः &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rys/rys6055.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda, Chapter 55&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though its translation is not available but after analysis it is clear that this verse is saying Vritra as &lt;strong&gt;Great Asura&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9 भद्रं ते ऽसतु गमिष्यामॊ &lt;strong&gt;वृत्रासुर&lt;/strong&gt;वधैषिणः&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  भजस्व परमॊदारवासवं सवेन तेजसा &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rys/rys7076.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana, Uttara Kanda, Chapter 76&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10 ततः सर्वे महात्मानः सहस्राक्षपुरॊगमाः&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  तद अरण्यम उपाक्रामन यत्र &lt;strong&gt;वृत्रॊ महासुरः&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rys/rys7076.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana, Uttara Kanda, Chapter 76&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-03T09:22:20.243" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T09:22:20.243" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19977" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19957" CreationDate="2017-08-02T17:53:22.387" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna holding a flute is the reference to his transcendental beauty and divine radiations. Anyone who is devoted enough can even feel the Lord from thousands of miles apart with mere Bhakti, as allegorical to someone hearing His flute from a distance whenever He plays it. Everybody used to be enchanted by His music, which is again allegorical to Divine Ecstasy/Samadhi etc. The vibrations of Krishna's music is allegorical to the Universal Vibration - Omkara. Hence Krishna denotes the Supreme Reality who is the Ultimate and from Whom is born Om Itself. It is said that sometimes he talked to his dearest spiritual companion Radha through the flute tunes which only she understood. Again a sign that Bhaktas understand the subtle ways of the Lord which no one else does.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once, Lord Krishna asked his devotees what they would like to become in his hands. Some said the lotus, some the conch, some the chakra and so on, but no one mentioned the flute. Krishna advised them to become his flute. In his discourse to his devotees, he said that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the human personality structure, as in the flute, there are 8 main&#xA;  spots: The five organs of perception, mind, intellect, and ego. If you&#xA;  get rid of your ego and become like a hollow reed flute, then the Lord&#xA;  will come to you, pick you up, put his lips and breathe through you&#xA;  and out of the hollowness of your heart, the captivating melody will&#xA;  emerge for all creations to enjoy. But if you will continue your&#xA;  attitude of dislike, hatred and jealousy, the Lord will distance&#xA;  himself from you, since you will be useless for his purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides, the bamboo flute is the only musical instrument which is most natural and does not contain any mechanical parts. This is the reason the flute is very close to Nature and sounds very melodious when played in an atmosphere surrounded by Nature. Flute has been mentioned in the Puranas which were written thousands of years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This body is the flute of Krishna in the microcosm. If you can destroy your egoism and have total self-surrender, unreserved atma-nivedan to the Lord, he will play on the body flute and bring out melodious tunes. You will become merged in his will. He will work unhampered through your instruments – body, mind and senses. You can rest very peacefully then without care, worry or anxiety. You can watch the play of the universe as a sakshi, witness. Then your sadhana will go forward by leaps and bounds because the divine will and grace will work through you. In fact, you need not do any sadhana at all, only practise self-surrender from the very core of your heart, with all your being. Learn the lesson from the flute and follow its ways. If you have offered yourself at the feet of Krishna, you have already reached the goal, you have already attained the realm of peace, the kingdom of immortality. You have found the joy that never fades, a life that never dies. You have reached the other shore of fearlessness, which is beyond darkness, despair, doubt, grief, sorrow, pain and delusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THE FEATHER:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a symbol of beauty and knowledge. The eye in the feather represents the divine wisdom or the third eye of Krishna. It helps one attain the supreme knowledge of the self. It symbolically states that wisdom of the mind and love of the heart makes one existence whole and for this blessed state, it is very important to worship the Lord adorned with his feathers. A peacock feather keeps lizards (predators) away. It also symbolizes the (obvious) power of Krishna over negative harmful energies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The feathers stand for beauty, richness in life, felicity and joy. The dark colors in it stand for sorrow, sadness and the bright colors for happiness, symbolizing that life comes with both happiness and sorrow and when one worships Krishna with peacock feather; one attains equanimity of mind, accepts life and learns to surrender to the Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GhZd4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GhZd4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this picture, there are many strands converging into the egg shaped center of the feather. This symbolizes the convergence of every walks of life into the Ultimate center of Consciousness i.e. the Self. The blue center represents realization of the Absolute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THE STORY OF TULSI&lt;/strong&gt; is very expansive to write down here. You can read it in this site: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.salagram.net/Tulasi.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.salagram.net/Tulasi.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THE COLOUR YELLOW&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, the colour yellow signifies knowledge and learning. It symbolizes happiness, peace, mental development and competence. It is the colour of spring and activates the mind. Lord Krishna might seem very shrewd and cunning when it comes to such; but in reality He isn't such. He is dearest even to someone who worships Him with only one leaf with devotion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita 9:26 - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever a man offers to me, whether it be leaf or flower, fruit or&#xA;  water, I accept it. Because its offered with devotion and purity of&#xA;  mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you commit a mistake, but ultimately realize it and repent by asking for forgiveness from Krishna; then just close your eyes and be assured that He is going to forgive you no matter what. Krishna is all-lovable and all-loving. He is the personification of &quot;prema&quot; itself, as is Rama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact the above goes for any God you wish to choose as your chosen deity - Ishta. With Bhakti, anyone of them can bestow upon you the same liberation which Krishna can. It may not be a flute; it might be a bow and arrow, or a trident (trishul) or even a Goddess with 10 arms holding various weapons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;I call him Rama. You can call him by any other name but have faith in Him, surrender all worldly desires and passions to his will and without effort, become disciplined and principled.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T17:53:22.387" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19978" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19987" CreationDate="2017-08-02T18:03:57.237" Score="6" ViewCount="13410" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am gonna install Lord Vishnu's deity. So I would like to know what is Lord Vishnu's favourite food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-12-12T18:40:26.223" Title="What is Lord Vishnu's favourite food?" Tags="|vishnu|worship|puja|idols|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19979" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-02T18:43:15.557" Score="2" ViewCount="1760" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am really confused about this, please help me!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10066" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T01:41:43.187" Title="Is Prophet Muhhamad mentioned in the Bhavishya Puran? If he is mentioned is he presented as good or evil?" Tags="|bhavishya-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-08-03T01:34:21.463" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19981" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19820" CreationDate="2017-08-02T19:51:18.723" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12976/4/Chapter2_1425-1504p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 114 (pg 28)&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Narada Purana Vol 4&lt;/strong&gt; gives an account on the vratas observed on Panchami tithis. It describes a ritual performed on the Shukla Panchami of Sravana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;27-29. This rite (in propitiation of serpents) is performed on the fifth day in the bright half of the month of Sravana,&lt;/strong&gt; by men firm in&#xA;  their belief in the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On either side of the door-way, figures of poisonous serpents should be drawn in cowdung. He should worship them with scents, etc.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter he should worship Indrani with gold, silver, etc, curds,&#xA;  raw rice-grains, water from Kusa grass, scents, fragrant flowers,&#xA;  incense, lights and hoards of Naivedyas. After circumambulating and&#xA;  bowing down, he should pray with great devotion. He should give the&#xA;  articles of worship to leading Brāhmaņas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;30.“In all my births, may these gold, silver, etc. that have been given to Brahmanas be productive of endless benefit.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;31.O Narada, he who gifts away along with this utterance, the articles with great devotion, will delight Kubera, the presiding deity of&#xA;  wealth, who bestows affluence like gold, upon his devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;32.After observing the holy rite, the man should feed Brahmanas with devotion. Thereafter, he should partake of his food surrounded by his&#xA;  wife, children and friends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;33-34a. The devotee should propitiate serpents with milk on the fifth day in the dark half of the month of Bhadrapada, (thereby) the&#xA;  entire family upto the seventh generation shall be free from the fear&#xA;  of serpents.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=OyMJAAAAQAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA26&amp;amp;dq=skanda%20purana%20kasi%20khanda%20vasuki&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwip5JWSkrnVAhWIv48KHZMbCXgQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=skanda%20purana%20kasi%20khanda%20vasuki&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This book&lt;/a&gt; cites a translation of a passage from &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana Kasi Khanda&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(I wasn't able locate the actual passage from the Purana, but this translation seems to provide the ritual in its entirety which is why I'm linking it here) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I proceed to a translation regarding this festival: it is from the&#xA;  portion of the Skanda Purana, termed Kási Khanda, or the Section&#xA;  relating to Kasi or Benares; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;The fifth lunar day of Srávana is held sacred to the Nagas&lt;/strong&gt;; on that&#xA;  day let ablutions be performed in the pool termed Vasuki, of sacred to&#xA;  Vasuki the Lord of the Nagas: by observing this “ceremony the Nagas&#xA;  are pleased, and the votaries may rest free from “ the dread of&#xA;  Serpents. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;People should collect together for the purpose of amusement and for&#xA;  worship; &lt;strong&gt;the door posts should be smeared with cow dung, and figures&#xA;  should be drawn of deadly poisonous Serpents, and offerings should be&#xA;  made to the Nagas, of ghee, durva grass, kusa and flowers, also of&#xA;  perfumes, garlands, and the like;&lt;/strong&gt; by such observance, whole families&#xA;  reside free from dread of Serpents. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The drawings of the Nagas should represent them armed with scymitars&#xA;  and shields. The upper part of the body from the navel, should be that&#xA;  of a human being, and the lower part that of a Serpent-hoods must be&#xA;  extended over the heads, and entwined with any odd number of snakes;&#xA;  all these must be of a deadly black hue, and painted either in the&#xA;  open highway, or in the house. &lt;strong&gt;This fifth day of Sravana is a day of&#xA;  festival among the Nagas, let their images therefore be bathed in&#xA;  milk.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-08-02T19:51:18.723" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19982" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-02T21:27:21.860" Score="8" ViewCount="1625" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can you help me find scriptural references to the idea we are like a drop or a wave in the ocean unaware that we are the ocean, or that in samadhi we become the ocean?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11596" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T03:42:33.263" Title="A drop in the ocean" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19983" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19974" CreationDate="2017-08-02T22:01:53.613" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rishis of vedic  times stressed on treating nature and one’s environment with total reverence worthy of worship. So they created hymns in honor of every element of nature. Thus we can find prayers /Mantras for rain in different Hindu scriptures like Vedas and Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here  are some of the verses from Fifth Mandala of  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv05083.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig-Veda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; which prays for the rain.Here are &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv05083.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit verses&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अछा वद तवसं गीर्भिर आभि सतुहि &lt;strong&gt;पर्जन्यं नमसा&lt;/strong&gt; विवास | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;कनिक्रदद वर्षभो जीरदानू रेतो दधात्य ओषधीषु गर्भम || 5.83.1||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;achā vada tavasaṃ ghīrbhir ābhi stuhi &lt;strong&gt;parjanyaṃ namasā&lt;/strong&gt; vivāsa |&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kanikradad vṛṣabho jīradānū reto dadhāty oṣadhīṣu gharbham || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SING with these songs thy welcome to the Mighty, with adoration&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;praise and   call Parjanya.&lt;/strong&gt; The Bull, loud roaring, swift to send his bounty, lays in the plants  the seed. for germination.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दिवो नो वर्ष्टिम मरुतो ररीध्वम पर पिन्वत वर्ष्णो अश्वस्य धाराः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;अर्वाङ एतेन सतनयित्नुनेह्य अपो निषिञ्चन्न असुरः पिता नः || 5.83.6||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अभि करन्द सतनय गर्भम आ धा उदन्वता परि दीया रथेन | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;दर्तिं सु कर्ष विषितं नयञ्चं समा भवन्तूद्वतो निपादाः || 5.83.7||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;महान्तं कोशम उद अचा नि षिञ्च सयन्दन्तां कुल्या विषिताः पुरस्तात | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;घर्तेन दयावाप्र्थिवी वय उन्धि सुप्रपाणम भवत्व अघ्न्याभ्यः || 5.83.8||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यत पर्जन्य कनिक्रदत सतनयन हंसि दुष्क्र्तः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;परतीदं विश्वम मोदते यत किं च पर्थिव्याम अधि || 5.83.9||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;divo no vṛṣṭim maruto rarīdhvam pra pinvata vṛṣṇo aśvasya dhārāḥ |&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;arvāṅ etena stanayitnunehy apo niṣiñcann asuraḥ pitā naḥ || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;abhi kranda stanaya gharbham ā dhā udanvatā pari dīyā rathena | &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dṛtiṃ su karṣa viṣitaṃ nyañcaṃ samā bhavantūdvato nipādāḥ || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mahāntaṃ kośam ud acā ni ṣiñca syandantāṃ kulyā viṣitāḥ purastāt |&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ghṛtena dyāvāpṛthivī vy undhi suprapāṇam bhavatv aghnyābhyaḥ || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yat parjanya kanikradat stanayan haṃsi duṣkṛtaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pratīdaṃ viśvam modate yat kiṃ ca pṛthivyām adhi || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;strong&gt;Send down for us the rain of heaven, ye Maruts,&lt;/strong&gt; and let the Stallion's flood descend in torrents. Come hither with this&#xA;thunder while thou pourest the waters down, our heavenly Lord and&#xA;Father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7&lt;/strong&gt; : Thunder and roar: the germ of life deposit. Fly round us on thy chariot water laden. Thine opened water-skin draw with thee&#xA;downward, and let the hollows and the heights be level.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;strong&gt;Lift up the mighty vessel, pour down water&lt;/strong&gt;, and let the liberated streams rush forward.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9&lt;/strong&gt;: When thou, with thunder and with roar, Parjanya, smitest sinners down, This universe exults thereat, yea, all that is upon the&#xA;earth.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अद॑र्द॒रुत्स॒मसृ॑जॊ॒ वि खानि॒ त्वम॑र्ण॒वान्ब॑द्बधा॒नाँ अ॑रम्णाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;म॒हान्त॑मिन्द्र॒ पर्व॑तं॒ वि यद्वः सृ॒जॊ वि धारा॒ अव॑ दान॒वं ह॑न् ॥&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://shaivam.org/daily-prayers-hindu-prayer-hub/vedic-prayer-for-rain-and-wisdom&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5.32.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;adardarutsamasRujO vi khAni tvamarNavAnbadbadhAnA~M aramNAH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;mahAntamindra parvataM vi yadvaH sRujO vi dhArA ava dAnavaM han ||&#xA;5.32.1 || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Breaking open the cloud You create the channels (for rain)! You strike&#xA;fast the mammoth cloud! &lt;strong&gt;Oh Indra! You cast open the mountain of&#xA;cloud making the showers, destroying the darkness!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here  is an excerpt from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;   in which an insight is offered detailing a more scientific and logical approach to the importance of rain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आपो वावान्नाद्भूयस्तस्माद्यदा सुवृष्टिर्न भवति व्याधीयन्ते प्राणा&#xA;अन्नं कनीयो भविष्यतीत्यथ यदा&lt;br&gt; सुवृष्टिर्भवत्यानन्दिनः प्राणा&#xA;भवन्त्यन्नं बहु भविष्यतीत्याप एवेमा मूर्ता येयं पृथिवी यदन्तरिक्षं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;यद्द्यौर्यत्पर्वता यद्देवमनुष्यायत्पशवश्च वयासि च तृणवनस्पतयः&#xA;श्वापदान्याकीटपतङ्गपिपीलकमाप&lt;br&gt; एवेमा मूर्ता अप उपास्स्वेति ॥ ७.१०.१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apo vāvānnād bhūyasyaḥ | tasmād yadā suvṛṣṭir na bhavati vyādhīyante&#xA;prāṇā annaṃ kanīyo `evemā |mūrtā yeyaṃ pṛthivī yad antarikṣaṃ yad&#xA;dyaur yat parvatā yad devamanuṣyā yat paśavaś ca vayāṃsi ca&#xA;tṛṇavanaspatayaḥ śvāpadāny ākīṭapataṅgapipīlakam | āpa evemā mūrtāḥ |&#xA;apa upāssveti |&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Water is greater than food. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore, if there is not sufficient&#xA;rain, living beings fail from fear that there will be less food. But&#xA;if there is sufficient rain, they become happy because there will be&#xA;much food.&lt;/strong&gt; This water, by assuming different forms, becomes this&#xA;earth, sky, heaven, mountains, gods and men, cattle, birds, herbs and&#xA;trees, all beasts down to worms, midges, and ants. Water itself&#xA;assumes all these forms. Meditate on water”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-03T03:48:01.530" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19984" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19978" CreationDate="2017-08-02T22:16:28.840" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu loves food items that are &lt;strong&gt;yellow in colour&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yellow lentils,jaggery, yellow ladoo are considered the favourite foods of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Vishnu likes amla gooseberries too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devotees offer him yellow lentils mixed with jaggery in order to please him. Even yellow laddoos are commonly offered to Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.newsgram.com/guide-to-hindu-gods-favourite-food-items-find-out/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.newsgram.com/guide-to-hindu-gods-favourite-food-items-find-out/&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-08-03T05:47:49.810" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T05:47:49.810" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19985" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19982" CreationDate="2017-08-03T01:47:49.517" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;A related verse is present in Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.70 - Like how the &lt;strong&gt;ocean without getting overflowed remains unchanged [even] when water enters&lt;/strong&gt;; Similarly those [persons] in whom desires enter from everywhere -- attain bliss; Not the one who desires subjects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above verse relates &quot;Ocean&quot; with the &quot;self&quot;. A &quot;desire&quot; relates with a &quot;water body&quot;. Like how the &quot;Ocean&quot; is full of water, similarly the true &quot;self&quot; is already complete (i.e. no desire to be fulfilled).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are not insistent for &quot;Ocean-Drop&quot; analogy in particular, then here is the verse which matches the description in the Qn:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 15.7 - &lt;strong&gt;Among the living world, the living being (&lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;) is &quot;My&quot; (self's) eternal fragment only&lt;/strong&gt;; It (fragment or body) keeps attracting 5 senses &amp;amp; mind as the 6th towards the material nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In BG 12.7, ocean is referred as a continued flow of birth &amp;amp; death. But that doesn't seem suitable for your Qn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;On a personal note I had this similar dream (may be hallucinatory) since childhood, about a huge current of water flowing with loud noise, followed by a small droplet merging into it from somewhere.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-05T04:25:08.427" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T04:25:08.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19986" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-03T06:06:21.813" Score="1" ViewCount="70" Body="&lt;p&gt;God knows everything like present , future and past than why did they not vanish the demons as they take birth. These demons upset the earth by their act like killing , raping , corruption etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From my point of view If any person doing any wrongful act than he/she should die immediately. Than why god do not give punishment at the same time when any thing become wrong  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11582" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T06:06:21.813" Title="Why demons take birth ? And they do not vanished as they do anything wrong?" Tags="|gods|karma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-08-03T08:18:11.437" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19987" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19978" CreationDate="2017-08-03T06:38:51.603" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is nothing like not favourite item to the Lord. Every item is a favourite to Him. The most important thing the Lord sees in us is devotion while accepting an offering. In Bhagavad Gita, He says this explicitly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तद्-अहं भक्त्य्-उपहृतम्-अश्नामि प्रयतात्मनः || ९.२६ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;patraṃ puṣpaṃ phalaṃ toyaṃ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tad-ahaṃ bhakty-upahṛtam-aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ || 9.26 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: Whoever offers to Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or some water, I accept this offering made with devotion by one who is pure of heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् || 27||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yat-karoṣi yad-aśnāsi yaj-juhoṣi dadāsi yat |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yat-tapasyasi kaunteya tat-kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam || 27 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give away, whatever austerity you practice, O Kaunteya, &lt;strong&gt;do that as an offering to Me&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, you can offer anything to Lord Vishnu with a pure heart and devotion. What ever you do, what ever you eat, don't forget to offer it to the Lord. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if you are very much interested in the food item which is favourite to Lord Vishnu, there is a big list for this. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam is one of the world famous temples in the world. The main deity here is Lord Venkateshwara. Many items are offered to the Lord here. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11780/tirupathi-laddu-prasadam/16141#16141&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer of mine, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Venkateshwara is known as naivedya priya meaning who is fond of offerings. Actually, Laddu is not the only prasadam at Tirumala. Besides this many prasadam like different types of rice offerings like pulihora, curd rice, different types of pongali, ravva kesari, butter, curd etc., are offered. In addition to these prasadams, kadambam, dosa made with black gram, ksheerannam, vada, rice made with pepper etc are offered to the lord at different timings starting from suprabhata seva performed early in the morning..... Later many prasadams were introduced at lord's temple like appam, manoharapadi, atirasam, sukheeyam etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is from Tirumala Tirupati devasthanam. In Puri Jagannatha temple wide variety of prasadams are offered. This means they are also favourite items of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there is a huge list of food items you can choose from. But don't forget... &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;offering with devotion is important&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-03T07:01:48.433" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T07:01:48.433" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19988" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12481" CreationDate="2017-08-03T07:25:29.490" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Shiva &amp;amp; Vishnu are each other's greatest devotee &amp;amp; each other's &lt;em&gt;guru&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; each other's deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why Shiva despite representing &lt;em&gt;tamasic guna&lt;/em&gt;, is white in complexion&#xA;while &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt; representing the &lt;em&gt;sattvic guna&lt;/em&gt; is dark in complexion.&#xA;Moreover, despite that, &lt;em&gt;Deví Parvatí&lt;/em&gt; is dark complexioned in her&#xA;form of &lt;em&gt;Mata Kaali&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; she is also the sister of &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;.&#xA;Furthermore, Shiva &amp;amp; Saraswatí, who are siblings are white&#xA;complexioned, &amp;amp;  Lakshmi &amp;amp; Brahma are yellow in complexion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From Durga Saptashati ( Murti &amp;amp; Vaikritika Rahasyam)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But we have Veda Vyasa saying in the &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्मिन्हि पूज्यमाने वै देवदेवे महेश्वरे।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;संपूजितो भवेत्पार्थ देवो नारायणः प्रभुः ॥ (MB.12.328.20)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna continues: If Śiva, the devadeva, maheśvara, is worshiped, Lord Nārāyaṇa stands well worshiped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहमात्मा हि लोकानां विश्वानां पाण्डुनन्दन। (MB.328.21a)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्मादात्मानमेवाग्रे रुद्रं संपूजयाम्यहम् ॥ (MB.328.21c)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am the Self of all the worlds (beings), O Arjuna.&#xA;Therefore, I worship My Self that is Rudra,first.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यद्यहं नार्चयेयं वै ईशानं वरदं शिवम्। (MB.12.328.22a)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आत्मानं नार्चयेत्कश्चिदिति मे भावितं मनः॥ (MB.12.328.22c)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I do not worship Śiva, the Lord, the bestower of boons, no one will worship the Self. Such is my conviction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मया प्रमाणं हि कृतं लोकः समनुवर्तते। (MB.12.328.22e)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रमाणानि हि पूज्यानि ततस्तं पूजयाम्यहम्॥ (MB.12.328.23a)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That which I place as a role model for people, they follow suit. Those which are the ideals are to be worshiped and hence I worship Śiva (who is such an ideal).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यस्तं वेत्ति स मां वेत्ति योऽनु तं स हि मामनु। (MB.12.328.23c)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रुद्रो नारायणश्चैव सत्त्वमेकं द्विधाकृतम् ॥ (MB.12.328.24a)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who realizes Śiva, knows Me and he who realizes Me, realizes Śiva as well. For, Rudra and Nārāyaṇa are one Principle, manifesting as two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;strong&gt;Sridhara Swamin&lt;/strong&gt;, says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;माधवोमाधवावीशौ सर्वसिद्धिविधा यिनौ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वन्दे परस्परात्मानौ परस्परनुतिप्रियौ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[invocation to the commentary to the&#xA;Srimadbhāgavatam]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I bow to Mādhava and Umādhava (Shiva) who are both 'Isha-s' Supreme Lords. They are capable of bestowing all accomplishments (to their devotees). They are both the selves of each other and both love to engage in the &lt;em&gt;stuti&lt;/em&gt; of each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the &lt;strong&gt;Skandopanishad/ Sanda purana&lt;/strong&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिवाय विष्णुरूपाय शिवरूपाय विष्णवे ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;शिवस्य हृदयं विष्णुः विष्णोश्च हृदयं शिवः ॥८॥&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;यथा शिवमयो विष्णुरेवं विष्णुमयः शिवः ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;यथान्तरं न पश्यामि तथा मे स्वस्तिरायुषि ॥९॥&#xA;यथान्तरं न भेदाः स्युः  शिवकेशवयोस्तथा ।&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;[Skandopaniṣat]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Obeisance to Śiva who is of the form of Viḷṣṇu, and to Viṣṇu of the form of Śiva. Śiva's heart (self) is Viṣṇu and Viṣṇu's self is Śiva. Just as Viṣṇu is fully verily Śiva, so too Śiva is fully verily Viṣṇu. As I do not see any difference between them, let me be prosperous and long-lived. Let there be no difference between Śiva and Keśava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;(Sri Upaniṣad Brahma Yogin, an advaita Acharya, has written the commentary for this Upaniṣad as well along with the entire 108 Upaniṣads)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दक्षयज्ञविनाशाय हरिरूपाय ते नमः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.39.76 (हरिरुद्राय)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;[These are the words of Arjuna to Lord Śiva.]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Harivamśa&lt;/strong&gt;, an extension of the Mahabharata, we have Markandeya's words:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मार्कण्डेय उवाच -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिवाय विष्णुरूपाय विष्णवे शिवरूपिणे।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथान्तरं न पश्यामि तेन ते दिशतः शिवम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva is the form of Vishnu &amp;amp; Vishnu is the form of Shiva. Those who do not see any difference between these two, they become one one with  the Supreme Auspiciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Says the Mahabharata:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;रुद्रो नारायणश्चैव सत्त्वमेकं द्विधा कृतम्।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;लोके चरति कौन्तेय व्यक्तिस्थं सर्वकर्मसु।।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Kaunteya, Rudra and Narayana are one principle manifesting as two going about in the world&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11600" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2021-03-15T12:34:24.300" LastActivityDate="2021-03-15T12:34:24.300" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19989" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19918" CreationDate="2017-08-03T07:41:48.287" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is already covered &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7356/1049&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Govinda, knowing that Drona, that foremost of warriors, was capable of sweeping all the Pandavas off the face of the earth, became much distressed. Addressing Yudhishthira he said, 'If Drona fighteth, filled with rage, for even half-a-day, I tell thee truly, thy army will then be annihilated. Save us, then, from Drona. &lt;strong&gt;under such circumstances, falsehood is better than truth. By telling an untruth for saving a life, one is not touched by sin. There is no sin in untruth spoken unto women, or in marriages, or for saving king, or for rescuing a Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Behold, however, truth as practised is exceedingly difficult to be understood as regards its essential attributes.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Truth may be unutterable, and even falsehood may be utterable&lt;/strong&gt; where falsehood would become truth and truth would become falsehood.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;On an occasion of marriage, or of enjoying a woman, or when life is in danger, or when one's entire property is about to be taken away, or for the sake of a BrAhmana, falsehood may be uttered.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T07:41:48.287" CommentCount="0" CommunityOwnedDate="2017-08-03T07:47:09.433" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19990" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19918" CreationDate="2017-08-03T08:28:45.453" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes , another reference about your enquiry  can also be found in &lt;strong&gt;Srimad-Bhagavatam. - Skandha 8 –chapter 19 –Verse 43.&lt;/strong&gt;  As stated by you here Shukracharya is advising Bali  and trying to forbade Bali from to fulfilling Vamana’s request.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the conditional verse -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्त्रीषु नर्मविवाहे च वृत्यर्थे प्राणसंकटे |&lt;br&gt; गोब्राह्मणार्थे&#xA;  हिंसायां नानृतं स्याज्जुगुप्सितम् ||43|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;strīṣu narma-vivāhe ca vṛtty-arthe prāṇa-saṅkaṭe&lt;br&gt; go-brāhmaṇārthe&#xA;  hiṁsāyāṁ nānṛtaṁ syāj jugupsitam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In flattering a woman to bring her under control, in joking, in a&#xA;  marriage ceremony, in earning one’s livelihood, when one’s life is in&#xA;  danger, in protecting cows and brahminical culture, or in protecting a&#xA;  person from an enemy’s hand, falsity is never condemned.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/19/43&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  8.19.43&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अत्रापि बह्वृचैगितं श्रुणु मेSसुरसत्तम |&lt;br&gt; सत्यमोमिति यत् प्रोक्तं&#xA;  यन्नेत्याहानृतं हि तत् ||38| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atrāpi bahvṛcair gītaṁ śṛṇu me ’sura-sattama &lt;br&gt; satyam om iti yat&#xA;  proktaṁ yan nety āhānṛtaṁ hi tat&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One might argue that since you have already promised, how can you&#xA;  refuse? O best of the demons, just take from me the evidence of the&#xA;  Bahvṛca-śruti, which says that a promise is truthful preceded by the&#xA;  word on and untruthful if not.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/19/38&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 8.19.38&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here what Shukra is simply saying is that  Saying “YES” is truth and negation is untruth , which is explained in other verses next to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But this does not mean that Hindu scripture at all giving free pass and sanctioning falsehood  OR  is saying that it is okay to utter or propagate untruths. But highly restricted to some specific conditions as stated above.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T08:28:45.453" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19991" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15343" CreationDate="2017-08-03T11:56:17.723" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;No the injunctions are not just for the Brahmins. &lt;strong&gt;The Grihya Sutras in fact prescribe rules for the first three Varna even though the Parashar Smriti actually mentions the roles and responsibilities of all the four castes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe30/sbe30119.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;ÂPASTAMBA'S YAGÑA-PARIBHÂSHÂ-SÛTRAS&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EAUlZ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EAUlZ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/grihya/sankhayana.asp#1.1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SANKHAYAN GRIHYA SUTRA Khanda 28&lt;/a&gt; states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After one year the Kûdâkarman (i.e. the tonsure of the child's head);&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Or in the third year;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the fifth for a &lt;strong&gt;Kshatriya;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the seventh for a &lt;strong&gt;Vaisya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Having placed the fire (in the outer hall; see chap. 5, 2)—&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again in the ADHYÂYA II, KHANDA 1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the eighth year after the conception let him initiate a &lt;strong&gt;Brâhmana,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;With an antelope-skin,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Or in the tenth year after the conception.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the eleventh year after the conception a &lt;strong&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/strong&gt; with the skin of a spotted deer,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;In the twelfth year after the conception a &lt;strong&gt;Vaisya&lt;/strong&gt; with a cow-hide.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Until the sixteenth year the time has not passed for a Brâhmana,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Until the twenty-second for a Kshatriya,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Until the twenty-fourth for a Vaisya.&#xA;  9 9. After that (time has passed), they become patitasâvitrîka (men who have lost their right of learning the Sâvitrî).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further verses also mention such stuff:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;15&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The girdle of a &lt;strong&gt;Brâhmana&lt;/strong&gt; (shall be) made of Muñga grass,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;That of a &lt;strong&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/strong&gt; (shall be) a bowstring,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;That of a &lt;strong&gt;Vaisya&lt;/strong&gt; a woollen thread.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The staff of a &lt;strong&gt;Brâhmana&lt;/strong&gt; (shall be) made of Palâsa or of Bilva wood,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;That of a &lt;strong&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/strong&gt; of Nyagrodha wood,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;That of a &lt;strong&gt;Vaisya&lt;/strong&gt; of Udumbara wood.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;That of the &lt;strong&gt;Brâhmana&lt;/strong&gt; shall reach the tip of the nose,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;That of the &lt;strong&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/strong&gt; the forehead,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;That of the &lt;strong&gt;Vaisya&lt;/strong&gt; the hair.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Or all (sorts of staffs are to be used) by (men of) all (castes).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Whatsoever (the student) wears at his initiation, is at the disposal of the teacher.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence we can see that the rituals and advice in these scriptures are meant not just for the Brahmins.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-18T05:54:10.973" LastActivityDate="2017-12-18T05:54:10.973" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19994" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-03T15:05:51.487" Score="1" ViewCount="165" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rig veda describes Lord Vishnu as an ally of Indra dev, so is there any story where they have fought battles together or is it an indication to Vamana avatar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-16T11:18:56.183" LastActivityDate="2018-10-16T11:18:56.183" Title="Did Lord Vishnu fight battles in the company of Indra Deva?" Tags="|vedas|vishnu|indra|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="19995" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="19996" CreationDate="2017-08-03T15:24:15.413" Score="2" ViewCount="194" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pandharpur is one of the sacred place for Vaishnavas. &#xA;Is there any Srivaishnava work or some Srivaishnava acharya's injunctions revering Pandharpur as sacred place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-08-05T04:20:32.963" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T04:20:32.963" Title="Srivaishnava scriptures/acharyas mentioning Pandharpur" Tags="|temple|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|vitthal|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19996" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19995" CreationDate="2017-08-03T15:45:22.000" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan mentions Pandharpur as a sacred place of Vishnu in &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/n3KKma/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the the beginning of his play &quot;Sankalpa Suryodaya&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Esteemed Gentry! I am bid by this august assembly composed of saintly men like yourselves, who, in order to witness festivals, have trod far and wide over several holy places like Srirangam, Tirupati, Kanchipura, Tirunarayanapuram, Puroshottama and &lt;strong&gt;Panduranga&lt;/strong&gt; where our (Sarveshvara), the Blezzed Lord is installed, - the Lord before whose lotus feet the gem-set diadems of myriads if Devas and Asuras form, as it were, so many waving lights, - the Lord whose vow always is to protect all who seek refuge of Him, whose duties are right-well done with lotus-born Lakshmi cooperate, - Who like the cloud (rain), quencheth the wild-fire of mundane misery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sacred places of Vishnu named are Sri Rangam, Tirupati, Kanchipuram, Melkote, Puri, and Pandharpur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T15:45:22.000" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19997" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20021" CreationDate="2017-08-03T16:08:22.650" Score="4" ViewCount="1095" Body="&lt;p&gt;Even &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantra_pushpam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; confirms that Mantra Pushpam is taken from Yajur Veda. Where this hymn can be found? Whether in Krishna Yajur Veda or Shukla Yajur Veda or both? And also quote the number of hymn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-08-03T16:35:38.700" LastActivityDate="2017-08-04T10:06:51.840" Title="Where does Yajur Veda have Mantra Pushpam hymn?" Tags="|scripture|yajur-veda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="19998" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20001" CreationDate="2017-08-03T16:11:07.907" Score="-2" ViewCount="320" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would want to read the complete ''Sri Ramakrishna: The Great Master'' translated from Bengali (Sri Ramakrishna Leela Prasanga written by Swami Saradananda) in English (by Swami Jagadananda). Could anyone help me? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T16:37:48.507" Title="Where can I read the complete ''Sri Ramakrishna: The Great Master'' (English) by Swami Saradananda?" Tags="|translation-request|ramakrishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20000" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24618" CreationDate="2017-08-03T16:27:05.740" Score="3" ViewCount="409" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to read a non-ISKCONic translations of the Chaitanya Charitamrita in English. Could anyone suggest me any?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2018-02-26T09:11:18.407" Title="Are there any non-ISKCONic translations of the Chaitanya Charitamrita in English?" Tags="|translation-request|book-recommendation|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20001" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19998" CreationDate="2017-08-03T16:37:48.507" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;For complete &lt;strong&gt;''Sri Ramakrishna: The Great Master''&lt;/strong&gt; by Swami Saradananda translated PDF:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Check this below Link: &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Sri%20Ramakrishna%20-%20The%20Great%20Master%20by%20Swami%20Saradananda%20[1080%20Pages,%20A%20Detailed%20Biography]%20%281%29_r.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Sri%20Ramakrishna%20-%20The%20Great%20Master%20by%20Swami%20Saradananda%20[1080%20Pages,%20A%20Detailed%20Biography]%20%281%29_r.pdf&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Based on comments I posted this link in answer, I hope you enjoy to read this book. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T16:37:48.507" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20002" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20010" CreationDate="2017-08-03T16:39:15.313" Score="15" ViewCount="2108" Body="&lt;p&gt;Raksha Bandhan is a festival that celebrates the love and duty between brothers and sisters celebrated on the full moon day of the Hindu calendar month of Shravana. But what is the origin/story behind this festival? (Please quote from the scriptures if possible.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2023-05-07T20:35:17.757" LastActivityDate="2023-05-07T20:35:17.757" Title="What is the origin of Raksha Bandhan?" Tags="|identification-request|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20003" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20037" CreationDate="2017-08-03T17:02:38.910" Score="3" ViewCount="879" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu lives in Vaikuntha while his poorna avatara Lord Krishna lives in Goloka Vrindavana. Do any of the other Vishnu avataras have their own lokas? If yes, please mention the names of these lokas and their respective Lords.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-09T10:00:32.793" LastActivityDate="2017-08-19T07:02:21.620" Title="If Lord Krishna lives in Goloka Vrindavana where do the other avataras live?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|avatars|lokas|vaikuntha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20004" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-03T17:12:00.710" Score="7" ViewCount="442" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Sankalpa Suryodaya is an allegorical play composed by the Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan.  In &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.92341/2015.92341.Sankalpa-suryodayavol1#page/n149/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Sankalpa Suryodaya, a character representing Vedanta Desikan tells a character representing Ramanujacharya that he looks like Vishnu's incarnation Dattatreya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Divine sire! In the ascetic garb thou seemest a Dattatreya described by the great sages as having defended the Vedas, Dattatreya who was Vishnu himself incarnate bearing the Tridanda, when inroads were made into them by Kanadas, Buddhas and Pashandas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of Dattatreya defending the Vedas from the attacks of &quot;Kanadas, Buddhas and Pashandas&quot;?  Presumably Kanadas refers to members of the Vaisheshika school, Buddhas refers to Buddhists, and Pashandas refer to Jains, Charvakas, etc.  The Vaisheshika school is probably included because even though they accepted the Vedas, did not accept Sabda or scriptural authority as an independent Pramana as you can see in the chart in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19695/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/1984/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, Dattatreya is an incarnation of Vishnu who is the son of the sage Atri and his wife Anusuya.  Dattatreya is a great guru, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sixth incarnation of the puruṣa was the son of the sage Atri. He was born from the womb of Anasūyā, who prayed for an incarnation. He spoke on the subject of transcendence to Alarka, Prahlāda and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/7/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great sage Atri prayed for offspring, and the Lord, being satisfied with him, promised to incarnate as Atri’s son, Dattātreya [Datta, the son of Atri]. And by the grace of the lotus feet of the Lord, many Yadus, Haihayas, etc., became so purified that they obtained both material and spiritual blessings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And he is said to have taught Vishnu's incarnation Parashurama a text called the Tripura Rahasya.  But does anyone know of an scriptures that mention him defending the authority of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/D99G7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Yatidharma Samucchaya, a work by the 11th century Sri Vaishnava Acharya Govinda Jeeyar, gives the following quote from some work composed by Dattatreya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The law contained in the triple Veda was once assaulted by Buddhists, heretics, and the followers of Kanada, and it was protected by Vishnu carrying a triple staff.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This exactly matches what Vedanta Desikan says in the quote above, so Dattatreya may be referring to himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2019-01-25T03:44:28.987" LastActivityDate="2019-01-25T03:44:28.987" Title="What is the story of Dattatreya defending the Vedas?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|dattatreya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20006" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-03T17:43:13.073" Score="0" ViewCount="269" Body="&lt;p&gt;The entire universe came into formation from one god - Lord Vishnu. Then how can we describe the REALM in which all the other gods like Brahma, Shiva, Indra live? Are they too a part of Lord Vishnu or separate entities?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11604" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T09:09:55.793" Title="If we are all Vishnu, where do the Thrimuurthulu live?" Tags="|vishnu|belief|gods|moksha|universe|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20007" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19997" CreationDate="2017-08-03T18:16:15.783" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Pushpam Mantra&lt;/code&gt; is present in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/yajurveda/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;22nd Anuvaka of the 1st Prapathika of Taittiriya Aranyaka of Yajurveda&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A5Nyy.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is its transliteration in English.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A8rV3.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For English translation, please check Rickross's answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-04T10:06:51.840" LastActivityDate="2017-08-04T10:06:51.840" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20009" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-03T20:37:39.543" Score="6" ViewCount="139" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rivers seem to have their own, like Ganga. But what about wells, springs, streams and lakes in general?  Who are their protectors? How would one go about showing gratitude for the existence of - for example - a well or spring.?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9653" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-04T06:19:26.200" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T07:40:34.857" Title="Which deities should be honored for their protection of waters?" Tags="|gods|rituals|worship|nature|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20010" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20002" CreationDate="2017-08-03T21:20:15.447" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;Raksha Bandhan was originally not a brother sister festival. &lt;strong&gt;It has its origins in a rite known as Vedopakarma (the beginning of Vedic Studies).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12976/5/Chapter3_1505-1584p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 124(pg 28)&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Narada Purana Vol 4&lt;/strong&gt; gives a description of this Vrata performed on Sravana Poornima. It involves tying a Raksha on one's wrist to ensure an auspicious beginning of Vedic studies.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;26-28. On the full moon day in the month of Sravana is the holy rite of Vedopakarma' (i.e. inauguration of Vedic studies).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On this day the rite of Tarpana unto the Devas, sages and the Pitrs is&#xA;  to be performed through the Mantras of the Yajurveda. (The followers&#xA;  of the Yajurveda perform this rite of Upākarma on the day). The&#xA;  followers of Rgveda (i.e. Bahvrcas) perform this on the Caturdasi day&#xA;  and the followers of the Samaveda perform this in the month of&#xA;  Bhādrapada (on the Caturthi day). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The worship of the sages is performed in the manner laid down in one's&#xA;  own Sakha (branch of the Vedas). &lt;strong&gt;The Raksa (holy string) should be&#xA;  tied round the hand in accordance with the injunctions.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;29.White Mustard seeds, unbroken raw rice-grains and black mustard are washed in water kept in a bell-metal vessel and then tied in a red&#xA;  silk cloth with a saffron-smeared thread. The devotee then worships&#xA;  Devas and prays to Wisnu and others. Delighted in mind, the devotee&#xA;  should lay down to a Brahmana and get the thread tied round his wrist&#xA;  by him.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;30-31. Thereafter, he gives Daksina to Brahmanas and begins the study&#xA;  of the Vedas. After ritualistically dismissing the seven sages, he&#xA;  should wear a new sacred thread made by himself and coloured with&#xA;  saffron, etc. According to his capacity he should feed the prominent&#xA;  Brahmanas and he himself should take only a single meal on that day. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;32.O Brahmana, if this Vrata is performed, it makes atonement for all omissions and commissions in the Vedic study. If the Vedic rites are&#xA;  forgotten or are performed in contravention of the injunctions, this&#xA;  holy rite rectifies it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/puran_bhavishya/Bhavishya#page/n409/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;adhyaya 137&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Uttara Parva of Bhavishya Purana&lt;/strong&gt; gives an account of how Indra grew powerful against Mahabali and defeated him due to a Raksha tied by Indrani Sachi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story says that the Raksha bestows health, prosperity and progeny to the one that wears it. Here it says that Raksha-bandhana is applicable for all varnas.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gfPTb.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gfPTb.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here is my translation of the Hindi text&lt;/strong&gt; (for those that don't know Hindi). This story is narrated to Yudhisthira by Sri Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In olden times of Deva-Asura conflict Mahabali was defeated by&#xA;  Devendra. An afflicted Mahabali inquired Shukracharya of the cause. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shukracharya said: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Winning and losing is due to the wheel of time. &lt;strong&gt;For now, for upto a&#xA;  year you should be friendly towards Indra for Indrani Sachi tied the&#xA;  Raksha-sutra to Indra due to which he is invincible.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After the period of one year has passed all will be good with you. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna to Yudhisthira: &lt;strong&gt;O king, this is the amazing influence of the&#xA;  Raksha-bandhana rite, that bestows victory, happiness, progeny, health&#xA;  and prosperity.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhistira said: Bhagvan, on which tithi and in what way should the&#xA;  Rakshabandhan rite be performed, please tell me. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna said: O king! &lt;strong&gt;In the month of Sravana on the full moon day&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  one should wake early and by bathing etc purify oneself and through&#xA;  varied shruti and smriti offer water oblation and tarpana to the devas&#xA;  and pitrs. Similarly one should do tarpana towards the sages.&#xA;  Brahmanas should perform sraddha according to the injunctions of the&#xA;  gods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Later in the aparaha-kala &lt;strong&gt;one should make a Raksha using cotton or&#xA;  silk cloth filling it with akshata, white mustard seeds, gold, black&#xA;  mustard, durva grass, sandalwood and tie it into a bundle.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;This should&#xA;  be kept on a copper plate and with due injunctions (as per scriptures)&#xA;  consecrate the Raksha.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the courtyard a square space should be plastered with cowdung and&#xA;  pedestal should be established where the king should be seated by his&#xA;  priest consecrated by mantras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Everyone should be cheerful and auspicious sounds should be made. The&#xA;  foremost of the brahmanas and married women should perform arghya etc&#xA;  and honour the king with an archana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then the purohita should take the consecrated Raksha and tie it to the&#xA;  king's right hand chanting &lt;a href=&quot;http://kalkimantraa.blogspot.in/2009/09/raksha-bandhan.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this mantra&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;येन बद्धो बली राजा दानवेन्द्रो महाबलाः। तेना त्वामभिध्नामि रक्षे मा चल&#xA;    मा चल ॥२०॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;yena baddho baliraja danavendro mahabala, tena twaamabhi badhnaami&#xA;    rakshe naa chala naa chala&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I secure on you the Raksha which was tied on Bali, the King of demons.&#xA;    Therefore O Raksha! Do not ever fail to protect this Follower, do not&#xA;    ever fail.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Afterward the king should worship and satisfy the brahmanas with&#xA;  beautiful garments, food and dakshina.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This rite of Rakshabandhana is recommended to all varnas. The person&#xA;  that performs rakshabandhana so described remains happy for a full&#xA;  year and is blessed with ample progeny and wealth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-08-03T21:20:15.447" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20011" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20012" CreationDate="2017-08-03T23:26:22.400" Score="4" ViewCount="1028" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can someone please give me the English transliteration of this Sanskrit mantra? How do you say it in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3TsXK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3TsXK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11606" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-04T08:05:38.433" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T03:08:53.267" Title="What's the English transliteration of this Sanskrit mantra?" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2019-06-21T03:33:12.537" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20012" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20011" CreationDate="2017-08-04T03:49:01.503" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Om Hreem dharaNendra paarshvanaathaaya namah nidhi darshanam kuru-kuru svaahaa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the English transliteration of the above mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it looks like Jain mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S: There are many variants of Parshvanatha and its consort Sri PadmAvati. It can be found in various agamas (jaina). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-08-04T05:25:07.337" LastActivityDate="2017-08-04T05:25:07.337" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20013" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20011" CreationDate="2017-08-04T04:32:00.420" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, Mantras must be &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16992/3500&quot;&gt;learned from a Guru&lt;/a&gt; or from knowledgeable saints only, especially the one with &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19445/3500&quot;&gt;Bheejas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantra you have given is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ ह्रीं  धरणेन्द्रः पाश्र्वनाथाय नमः निधि दर्शनं कुरु-कुरु स्वाहा ।&#xA;  (Devanagari)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its transliteration in IAST and ITRANS:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;oṃ hrīṃ dharaṇendraḥ pāśrvanāthāya namaḥ nidhi darśanaṃ kuru-kuru svāhā । (IAST)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  OM hrIM dharaNendraH pAshrvanAthAya namaH nidhi darshanaM kuru-kuru svAhA | (ITRANS)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17653/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; for more details on structure of Mantras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="10330" LastEditDate="2017-08-05T03:08:53.267" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T03:08:53.267" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20014" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20009" CreationDate="2017-08-04T06:37:30.147" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;It has to be &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varuna&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Varuna&lt;/a&gt;, who rules over water, water bodies and even the aquatic animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On an auspicious day one should place a pitcher, in the West, covered&#xA;  with a blue cloth and decorated with blue garlands. (9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On it one should place, in a copper vessel, the image of the deity&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Varuna ,the god of water, the lord of aquatic animals&lt;/strong&gt;, made of gold,&#xA;  six Nishkas in weight. (10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satatapa Smriti, Chapter 5.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly from the Manu Smriti, we find:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5.96. A king is an incarnation of the eight guardian deities of the world, the Moon, the Fire, the Sun, the Wind, Indra, &lt;strong&gt;the Lords of&#xA;  wealth and water (Kubera and Varuna)&lt;/strong&gt;, and Yama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.244. Having thrown &lt;strong&gt;such a fine into the water, let him offer it to Varuna&lt;/strong&gt;, or let him bestow it on a learned and virtuous Brahmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last verse says that anything that is offered to water goes to Varuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-04T06:45:29.427" LastActivityDate="2017-08-04T06:45:29.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20015" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19982" CreationDate="2017-08-04T06:43:43.463" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The wave and the ocean are one:&lt;/strong&gt; Though there are numerous waves in the ocean, big and small, rough and gentle, they are all made up of the same material which, is water. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other very common interpretation  is - There is certainly the appearance of waves, as well as foam and spray etc. but these are all simply different forms that we have named specially. There is only water. &lt;strong&gt;Similarly, there is only Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is one of the popular analogy examples that serve to portray the Hindu spiritual teaching.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It means that one's own Self (atman) is identical in nature with&#xA;  Brahman- the two words relate to the same entity or reality.&#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2WxY2.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2WxY2.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am here providing two verses from  two books Of &lt;strong&gt;Shree Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/strong&gt; , which are &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivekachudamani&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aparokshanubhuti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aparokshanubhuti&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कनकं कुण्डलत्वेन &lt;strong&gt;तरङ्गत्वेन वै जलं&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt; विनिर्णिता विमुढेन&#xA;  देहत्वेन तथात्मता || 72|| -&lt;sub&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Aparokshanubhuti&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KanKam KudaLeNa &lt;strong&gt;TarNgaTveNA&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Vai Jalam&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; ViNirNita VimuDheNa&#xA;  DehaTvaeNa TaThaTmata&gt;br&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;just as gold is thought as ear-ring and &lt;strong&gt;water as waves , so the&#xA;  Atman&lt;/strong&gt; etc.  Here Adi Shankaracharya is saying exactly what you are&#xA;  looking for as Ref. Here he is showing oneness of  Atman And Brahman&#xA;  with ocean and wave example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here You can &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Aparoksha-Anubhuti-by-Sri-Shankaracharya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Download PDF File&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; The verse can be found on page no.40&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मय्यखण्डसुखाम्भोधौ बहुधा विश्ववीचय: |&lt;br&gt; उत्पद्यन्ते विलीयन्ते&#xA;  मायामारुतविभ्रमात || 497 || - &lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MayyaKhandaSukhaMbhoDhyou Bhaudha VishwaVichay &lt;br&gt; UpaDdyaNte&#xA;  ViliYnate MayaaMrutViBhraMaat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In me the ocean of infinite bliss the waves of the universe are&#xA;  created and destroyed by the playing of the wind of the maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Adi Shankaracharya is calling self as infinite bliss , which is attribute of Brahman (supreme creator) and thus showing oneness of  Atman And Brahman.  And the &lt;strong&gt;feeling of difference between Self (atman) and Brahman is due to Maya only.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Here Is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/vivekachudamanio00sankrich&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PDF&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; where you can read the above shloka with english translation &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-08-04T06:43:43.463" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20016" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20011" CreationDate="2017-08-04T06:46:13.590" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Devanagari Mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ॐ ह्रीं धरणेन्द्रः पाश्र्वनाथाय नमः निधि दर्शनं कुरु-कुरु स्वाहा&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Google Translation to English:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om hreen dharanendrah paashrvanaathaay namah nidhi darshanan kuru-kuru&#xA;  svaaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By using following site &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/training/transliteration.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://spokensanskrit.de/training/transliteration.php&lt;/a&gt; you can translate like below: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/w3Ywg.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/w3Ywg.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-08-04T06:46:13.590" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20017" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-04T07:04:47.090" Score="2" ViewCount="517" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu received a curse from one of His most loyal devotees. The curse turned Him into a stone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who is he/she? What is the reason for Cursing God? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do any Scriptures mention this Curse? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-08-04T07:26:32.020" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T08:35:37.910" Title="Did a devotee curse Lord Vishnu to turn into a stone?" Tags="|vishnu|bhakti|curse|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20018" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19958" CreationDate="2017-08-04T07:12:38.723" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The cause or reason for creation is addressed in the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;. In Ramanuja's (the founder of modern Vishishtadvaita) commentary on the &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, his &lt;em&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/em&gt;, this is in verses 2.1.32-36. Ramanuja's commentary on these verses is essentially in agreement with Sankara's commentary. Here are the verses and most of Ramanuja's commentary on these verses from his &lt;em&gt;Sri-Bhasya&lt;/em&gt; (Swami Vireswarananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;32&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Brahman is) not (the creator of the world) because (creation appears to have) a motive (behind).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is some motive or purpose at the back of this creation and the Lord has no purpose to gain by such creation. Nobody engages himself in any action without a motive or purpose. This purpose can be twofold. It can be either to satisfy one's own desire or for the sake of others. Brahman being self-sufficient, It has nothing to gain for Itself by the creation of this world. Neither can it be for the sake of the individual souls, for in that case It would have created a world full of happiness, out of pity for the souls, and not this world full of suffering for them. Therefore, as Brahman has no purpose whatsoever to achieve by this creation, It cannot be the cause of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;33&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But (Brahman's creative activity) is mere pastime, as is seen in the world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even as kings engage themselves in activity, like playing with a ball, without a motive but for mere amusement, or even as children playing out of fun, so also Brahman, without any purpose to gain, engages Itself in creating this world of diversity as a mere pastime.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An objection is raised against this view expressed in this &lt;em&gt;Sutra&lt;/em&gt;. The creation of a world in which there is so much suffering would subject Brahman to the charge of partiality and cruelty. So Brahman who is full of pity cannot be the cause of this diabolical world even out of mere sport.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;34&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Partiality and cruelty cannot (be attributed to Brahman) on account of Its taking into consideration (other reasons in that matter), because (the scripture) declares (it to be) so.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some are born as men while others are born as gods; so the Lord is partial to some. He is cruel insomuch as He creates a world full of suffering for the souls. The latter part of the &lt;em&gt;Sutra&lt;/em&gt; refutes these objections and says that on account of the Lord's taking into consideration the past Karma of the various beings before creating them as gods, man, or lower animals, partiality cannot be attributed to Him. Souls are born according to their past Karma in different species. So their Karma accounts for the difference in their condition and not the Lord's partiality. Sruti also declares the same thing: 'A man becomes good by good work, bad by bad work' (Br. III. ii. 13). the Lord is only the operative cause in the creation of beings; the main cause is the past Karma of the beings. Just as rain helps different seeds to sprout, each according to its nature, so the Lord is the general efficient cause in bringing the latent tendencies of each individual to fruition. Hence He is neither partial or cruel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;35&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If it be said (that is) is not (possible) for want of any distinction in work (before creation), (we say) no, because (the world) is beginningless; this is reasonable and is also seen (from the scriptures).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...Moreover, creation is also beginningless, and when the scriptures talk of the beginning of creation they mean only the beginning of a new cycle. This is borne out of texts like, 'the Lord devised the sun and the moon as before' (Rig Veda X. cxc. 3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So partiality and cruelty cannot be attributed to the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;36&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And because the attributes (required for the creation of the world) are possible (only in Brahman, It is the cause of the world).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As all attributes necessary necessary for the creation of the world which were denied in the Pradhana and atoms in &lt;em&gt;Sutra&lt;/em&gt; II. i. 29 are possible in Brahman. It is alone the cause of the world. As the powers of the Pradhana and atoms are limited and as they are of the same nature as things seen in the world, there are any number of objections against against the possibility of their being the cause of the world. But as scriptures alone are the source of knowledge with respect to Brahman, It being quite different in nature from all things experienced, and as scriptures declare that It possesses infinite powers and that It has no other motive than sport in creation and arranges the diversity of creation in accordance with the Karma of the souls, It alone can be the cause of the world.       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-08-05T04:38:23.990" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T04:38:23.990" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20019" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20009" CreationDate="2017-08-04T07:57:17.340" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Lord of all the water bodies is Lord Varuna. He is glorified in the Vedas too. It is mentioned in the Mahabharata Sabha Parva &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 9&lt;/a&gt;. Sage Narada gives the description of the celestial assembly of Lord Varuna to Yudhishtira.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Owned by Varuna, that delightful assembly house of pure white consists of many rooms and is furnished with many seats. There sitteth Varuna attired in celestial robe, decked in celestial ornaments and jewels, with his queen, adorned with celestial scents and besmeared with paste of celestial fragrance. The Adityas wait upon and worship the &lt;strong&gt;illustrious Varuna, the lord of the waters&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the water bodies are present in the assembly of Varuna in their personified form and worship illustrious deity Varuna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And, O king, there are also the four oceans, the river Bhagirathee, the Kalindi, the Vidisa, the Venwa, the Narmada of rapid current; the Vipasa, the Satadu, the Chandrabhaga, the Saraswati; the Iravati, the Vitasta, the Sindhu, the Devanadi; the Godavari, the Krishnavenwa and that queen of rivers the Kaveri; the Kimpuna, the Visalya and the river Vaitarani also; the Tritiya, the Jeshthila, and the great Sone (Soane); the Charmanwati and the great river Parnasa; the Sarayu, the Varavatya, and that queen of rivers the Langali, the Karatoya, the Atreyi, the red Mahanada, the Laghanti, the Gomati, the Sandhya, and also the Trisrotasi--these and other rivers which are all sacred and are world-renowned places of pilgrimage, &lt;strong&gt;as also other rivers and sacred waters and lakes and wells and springs, and tanks, large or small, in their personified form, O Bharata, wait upon and worship the lord Varuna&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you can see in the second paragraph, it is clear that all the water bodies large or small are under the control of Lord Varuna and worship him. So, you can pay your gratitude by worshipping him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also worship Lord Vishnu. He is said to be the lord of waters in the three worlds. Sage Narada asked the same question to Brahma. Brahma replied like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;30&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu is praised in all the worlds as the deity of water&lt;/strong&gt;. Vishnu would do good to him who is purified by water. [Padma Purana Srishti Khanda Chapter 49]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T07:40:34.857" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T07:40:34.857" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20020" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20017" CreationDate="2017-08-04T09:09:15.750" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. It was Tulasi who cursed Vishnu to become &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaligram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Saligrama&lt;/a&gt; Stone and Tulasi became &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandaki_River&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gandhaki River&lt;/a&gt; and Tulasi plant. Saligrama Stone is Swayambhu representation of Lord Vishnu and one gets many virtues by worshiping it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Story of Tulasi and Shamkachuda is described in detail from &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 27 to Chapter 41 of Rudra Samhita (Yuddha Khanda) of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/strong&gt;,  from &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 17 to Chapter 25, Ninth canto of Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt; and  from &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 15 to 22 of Prakriti Khanda of Brahma Vaivartara Purana&lt;/strong&gt; . I will answer this question from Shiva Purana but Devi Bhagavatam and Brahma Vaivartara Purana also says the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tulasi was cowherdess in Golaka (Krishna's Loka) and ardent devotee of Sri Krishna .Radharani cursed Tulasi to get born in country of Bharata and Sudama was born as danava Sankhachuda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samkhachuda performs Tapasya for Brahma and gets Krishna Kavacha. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-48/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 28&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वरं ययाचे ब्रह्माणमजेयत्वं दिवौकसाम्। &lt;br&gt; तथेत्याह विधिस्तं वै सुप्रसन्नेन&#xA;चेतसा।। ५ ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रीकृष्णकवचं दिव्यं जगन्मङ्गलमङ्गलम्। &lt;br&gt; दत्तवाञ्शङ्खचूडाय सर्वत्र&#xA;विजयप्रदम्॥६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He asked for a boon from Brahma, that he should be invincible from the&#xA;gods. Brahma, getting pleased said to him, &amp;quot;Be it so.” For this&#xA;purpose he gave him away the Krsna-kavaca which bestowed welfare on&#xA;the universe and made the holder victorious everywhere. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Samkachuda later marries Tulasi and develops enmity towards Devas listening words of Sukracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During war, divine voice of Brahma (akasavani) says due to kavacha and chastity of his wife Tulasi, Shiva and Devas couldn't kill Samkachuda. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-60/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 40&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यावदस्य करेऽत्युग्रं कवचं परमं हरेः। &lt;br&gt;यावत्सतीत्वमस्त्येव सत्या अप्यस्य&#xA;योषितः ।। १२।। &lt;br&gt; तावदस्य जरा मृत्युः शडुचूडस्य शडूर!। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;नास्तीत्यवितथं नाथ! विधेहि ब्रह्मणो वचः।। १३।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Till such time the demon carries in his hand the kavaca of Visnu, and&#xA;till such time the chastity of his wife is preserved, Samkhacuda could&#xA;neither become old no meet with his death. These are the truthful&#xA;words of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Vishnu turns into a Brahmana and asks Kavacha from Samkhachuda and destroys chastity of Tulasi and thereafter Shiva kills demon Shamkachuda with ease.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Tulasi was lamenting, Shiva manifests there and explains everything to Tulasi. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-61/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 41&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शङ्कर उवाच &lt;br&gt; मा रोदीस्तुलसि! त्वं हि भुङ्क्ते कर्मफलं जनः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;सुखदु:खदो न कोऽप्यस्ति संसारे कर्मसागरे॥ ४०॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siva said, “O Tulasi, do not lament, Everyone has to reap the reward&#xA;of his actions. In the ocean of karmas in this World, there is nothing&#xA;like the pleasure and the pain. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तपस्त्वया कृतं भद्रे! तस्यैव तपसः फलम्। &lt;br&gt; तदन्यथा कथं स्याद्वै जातं&#xA;त्वयि तथा च तत्॥ ४२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Tulasi, you discarding this body shall achieve the divine body. Then&#xA;you taking to the form of Laksmi, would enjoy the company of Visnu&#xA;daily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इदं शरीरं त्यक्त्वा च दिव्यदेहं विधाय च। &lt;br&gt; रमस्व हरिणा नित्यं रमया&#xA;सदृशी भव॥४३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Discarding this body, when you take to the divine form, then you would&#xA;enjoy the company of Visnu, like LakSmi.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तवेयं तनुरुत्सृष्टा नदीरूपा भवेदिह। &lt;br&gt;भारते पुण्यरूपा सागण्डकीति च&#xA;विश्रुता॥४४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When your body comes to an end, then you would be known as the&#xA;auspicious river Gandaki in Bharata. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कियत्काल महादेवि! देवपूजनसाधने। प्रधानरूपा तुलसी भविष्यति वरेण&#xA;मे॥४५॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Great goddess, because of my boon, for a long time you would become&#xA;the means for the adoration of the gods &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;। स्वर्ग मत्यें च पाताले तिष्ठ त्वं हरिसन्निधौ। &lt;br&gt; भव त्वं&#xA;तुलसीवृक्षो वरा पुष्पेषु सुन्दरी।। ४६॥  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You would always keep the company of Visnu in the heaven, earth and&#xA;Patala. O Beautiful one, among the flowering trees, you would become&#xA;the beautiful Tulasi plant. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;हरिवै शैलरूपी च गण्डकीतीरसन्निधौ। &lt;br&gt;सङ्करिष्यत्यधिष्ठानं भारते तव&#xA;शापतः&lt;/strong&gt;।। ४९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Visnu, because of your curse to him, would remain on&#xA;your banks in the form of StOne&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्र कोट्यश्च कीटाश्च तीक्ष्णदंष्ट्रा भयङ्कराः। &lt;br&gt; तच्छिक्त्वा कुहरे&#xA;चक्रं करिष्यन्ति तदीयकम्॥५०॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The crores of terrible sharp-toothed worms shall penetrate and erode&#xA;the stones and carve rings on it. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शालग्रामशिला सा हि तड़ेदादतिपुण्यदा। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;लक्ष्मीनारायणाख्यादिश्चक्रभेदाद्भविष्यति॥५१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of the difference in the cakras, those stone will be termed as&#xA;representing Laksmi-Narayana etc. and will be treated as auspicious&#xA;and the bestower of the merits. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शालग्रामशिला विष्णोस्तुलस्यास्तव सङ्गमः। &lt;br&gt; सदा सादृश्यरूपा या&#xA;बहुपुण्यविवर्धिनी। ५२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Salagrama-sila of Visnu, and the confluence of Tulasi there, the&#xA;place will enhance the merits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तुलसीपत्रविच्छेदं शालग्रामे करोति य:। &lt;br&gt; तस्य जन्मान्तरे भद्रे!&#xA;स्त्रीविच्छेदो भविष्यति॥ ५३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The one who removes the Tulasi-leaf (Holy basil) with Salagrama-sila,&#xA;he will not face separation from his wife in the next birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva also explains greatness of Saligrama stone and merits acquired by worshiping it in subsequent lines.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-08-04T10:04:58.643" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20021" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19997" CreationDate="2017-08-04T09:51:17.223" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As stated in Triyugi Narayan Mani's answer, the Mantra Pushpam is a collection of 10 mantras from the Taitariya Aranyaka (TA) associted with the Yajurveda. Exact location is &lt;strong&gt;TA KAnda 1, Prasna 22| 1-10.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am giving the translations of these 10 mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Yo apam pushpam veda.... ya evam veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who reagrds the water as Pushpa, becomes endowed with Pushpa&#xA;  (abode), successors and knowledge (pashu). He who knows that Moon&#xA;  nourishes the waters, becomes endowed with Pushpa (abode), successors&#xA;  and knowledge (pashu), know thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) yo apAm Ayatanam veda, AyatanavAn bhavati... ya evam veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who knows the abode of waters, becomes possessed of an abode (&#xA;  AyatanavAn bhavati, this phrase is repeated in all mantras). He who&#xA;  knows the waters as the abode of Agni, becomes possessed of an abode.&#xA;  He who knows the abode of Agni, becomes possessed of an abode. He who&#xA;  knows the water as the abode of Agni, becomes possessed of an abode,&#xA;  Know thus. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3) He who knows the abode of waters, becomes possessed of an abode.&#xA;  Know Vayu as the abode of waters, becomes possessed of an abode.&#xA;  (Know) abode of Vayu, becomes possessed of an abode. Know waters as&#xA;  the abode of VAyu, becomes possessed of an abode. Know thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4) He who knows the abode of waters, becomes possessed of an abode.&#xA;  (He who knows) that burning Sun as the abode of waters, becomes&#xA;  possessed of an abode... Know thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5) He who knows the abode of waters, becomes possessed of an abode.&#xA;  Moon is the abode of waters, becomes possessed of an abode. Know the&#xA;  abode of Moon's rays; becomes possessed of an abode. (Know) waters as&#xA;  the abode of Moon's rays; becomes possessed of an abode. Know thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6)He who knows the abode of waters, becomes possessed of an abode. The&#xA;  asterisms are the abode of waters;  becomes possessed of an abode.&#xA;  Know the abode of asterisms; becomes possessed of an abode.(Know)&#xA;  Waters as the abode of asterisms; becomes possessed of an abode; Know&#xA;  thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7)  He who knows the abode of waters, becomes possessed of an abode.&#xA;  Rain in the abode of waters, becomes possessed of an abode. He who&#xA;  knows the abode of Parjanya, becomes possessed of an abode. (Know)&#xA;  Waters as the abode of Parjanya, becomes possessed of an abode. Know&#xA;  thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8) He who knows the abode of waters, becomes possessed of an abode.&#xA;  Time (Seasons) is the abode of waters, becomes possessed of an abode.&#xA;  He who knows the abode of time, becomes possessed of an abode. (Know)&#xA;  Waters as the abode of time, becomes possessed of an abode. Know thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9) Yo apsu nAvam pratishthithAm veda, pratyeva tishthati, ime vai lokA&#xA;  apsu pratishthitAh, tadeshA abhyanuktA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who established firmly in the waters, is able to be established in&#xA;  his own world. The worlds that are seen are established in the waters.&#xA;  This has been declared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10) apAm rasam udayam san.... tam vo grhnAmi uttamam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The essence (rasa) of all rises in the waters. This essence is&#xA;  collected from the pure Sun-World. The water are the essence of the&#xA;  essences. We receive the Supreme essence (rasa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-04T09:58:43.640" LastActivityDate="2017-08-04T09:58:43.640" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20024" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-04T12:50:03.120" Score="10" ViewCount="218" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In South India, especially Tamil Nadu Hanuman Jayanthi is celebrated&#xA;on the Margazhi month of Moola nakshathram. It is said that Lord&#xA;Hanuman was born during that month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Hanuman Jayanthi is celebrated by&#xA;Diksha of 41 days beginning on Chaitra Purnima and&#xA;concluding it on the tenth day during Krishna Paksha in the month of&#xA;Vaishaka...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Maharashtra, Hanuman Jayanti is celebrated on the full moon day&#xA;(pūrnima) of the Hindu lunar month of Chaitra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why all Hindus won't celebrate Hanuman Jayanti on the same day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11611" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2022-05-25T02:17:40.253" LastActivityDate="2022-05-25T02:17:40.253" Title="Why all Hindus won't celebrate Hanuman Jayanti on same day?" Tags="|hanuman|festivals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20025" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17574" CreationDate="2017-08-04T13:57:53.177" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;adiyen dasan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;adiyen. only way in this kaliyuga for attainment of moksha aka srivaikuntham is perform prapatti(bara samarpanam) and lead a life of true prapannan. iN desika sampradayam  prapatti or bara samarpanam  is done separately . where as in tenacharya sampradayam  prapatti(barasamarpanam) is essential part of pancha samskaram or samashrayanam.off course difference exist in how they are conducted . every srivaishnava scriptures starting from 4000 divya prabhandam to vedas and upanishad etc attest prapatti(bara samarpanam) as a means/upaya for moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10146" LastActivityDate="2017-08-04T13:57:53.177" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20026" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-04T14:36:36.730" Score="10" ViewCount="369" Body="&lt;p&gt;Soul is eternal and either part of God(Madhava) or Brahma itself(Advaita).why it comes to this world?&#xA;According to Christians -original sin and apple story.&#xA;But according to Hinduism- Avidya or ignorance?why and how this Avidya comes to omniscient,omnipotent,eternal soul?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your answer would be highly appreciated regarding Avidya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11612" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-12T08:38:09.860" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T04:52:55.483" Title="What causes eternal soul to get embodied into a body and come into material world at all?" Tags="|vedanta|atma|advaita|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20028" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-04T16:47:08.630" Score="6" ViewCount="443" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is practice of walking in fire in temples by devotees. I have a few questions about that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which scripture explains Fire Walking (Themithi) practice in temples?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why specifically wood is used and metals are not used?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2018-02-25T11:21:49.533" LastActivityDate="2018-03-27T11:34:08.010" Title="Which scripture explains Fire Walking practice in temples?" Tags="|scripture|temple|practice|tradition|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20029" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19974" CreationDate="2017-08-04T17:22:12.237" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes there are many mantras in the Vedas which are for rains. In fact yajnas are primarily performed for the well being of all the living creatures. Through the smoke of the yajnas the clouds are invoked and attracted to bring rain. Rain helps the flora and fauna thus creating the necessary balance in the ecosystem.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from&#xA;  rain. Rains are produced by performance of yajna [sacrifice], and&#xA;  yajna is born of prescribed duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Geeta 3.14)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are several &lt;a href=&quot;http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/Rekindling-a-vedic-fire-ritual/articleshow/7352633.cms&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;instances&lt;/a&gt; when rain has came on the last day of grand yajnas like agnistoma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Varuna yaagam is frequently held at the famous Tirumala Tirupati temple. It has brought good rains many times. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/300517/varuna-japa-yagam-begins-in-tirumala.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This year&lt;/a&gt; also Varuna yaga was conducted there. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda mentions that the waters with which Varuna is connected are the waters of the atmosphere. These waters are described&#xA;  as Apah, Maha-salilam the great waters which denote primeval matter&#xA;  from which the manifest world emerges. Aditi the great mother of all&#xA;  gods is also said to give birth to the manifest world. Aditi is thus&#xA;  equated with Apah. As Apah, Aditi is the creative energy which is&#xA;  active (YV.10.7).That is, Aditi the mother of all gods is Prakrti and&#xA;  Shakthi the manifesting or the creative power. The notion of her&#xA;  divinity rests upon her power as a woman, a womb or a mother to give&#xA;  birth to and to bring forth life and existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Varuna (son of Aditi) who resides among these waters (Apah) is&#xA;  therefore called the child of the waters (Apam shishu) in the best of&#xA;  mothers. It is explained; the expression ‘best of mothers’ refers to&#xA;  the protective and nourishing nature of the waters as mothers. They&#xA;  are the gracious guides and protective mothers; and, Varuna is their&#xA;  child.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[It is also said; since Varuna dwells in waters he was also called&#xA;  Apam Napat (Apam = water; Napat = fire), ‘Son of the Waters’&#xA;  (RV.1.2.35). Apam Napat is also referred to as the embryo (garbha) of&#xA;  the waters (RV.7.9.3). It is said; the sun when he sinks into waters –&#xA;  to quench his thirst – becomes Varuna the fire in the waters (Apam&#xA;  Napat).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Yajna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda is the book of Yajnas. During an Yajna,   Varuna along with&#xA;  Mitra is invoked and invited to take seat on the North side of the&#xA;  altar Yajna-vedi and requested to protect Rta the law of nature ; and&#xA;  also to bring good rains (YV. 2.3; 2.16). The invitation to Varuna to&#xA;  occupy the seat on the North is interesting. North is the direction of&#xA;  the gods; it is the direction of Soma initially (as per Brih.&#xA;  Upanishad) and then of Kubera the sub-divine who is friendly with&#xA;  gods. Thus, in Yajur Veda, Varuna was still the major god of the&#xA;  Yajna. In the later texts Varuna was, however, assigned a seat on the&#xA;  West where the sun sinks into sea and into the night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The hymns in Atharva Veda in praise of Varuna ‘the most impressive&#xA;  deity among all the Vedic gods’ are lofty, more devout and ethical in&#xA;  tone. They pray for purity, forgiveness, and release from sins, and&#xA;  for moral strength against sinning further.   The hymns rise to a&#xA;  pitch of exaltation as they sing the splendour of Varuna. In these&#xA;  hymns Varuna, more than any other Vedic god, appears as a mighty and&#xA;  merciful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of the many soulful hymns submitted to Varuna,  the sixteenth hymn in&#xA;  the fourth book of the Atharva Veda  sung by sage Vashista celebrating&#xA;  Varuna’s power and omniscience is often quoted and hailed by scholars&#xA;  as being among the most devote and forceful hymns in the Vedic&#xA;  literature&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While mentioning his connection with waters Varuna is referred to as–&#xA;  Apam-adhipathi the Lord who resides in the primeval waters. These&#xA;  waters are described as of golden hue, pure and purifying; and, they&#xA;  are the material cause for creation (AV.1.33.1-3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmanas, especially the Shatapatha Brahmana (SB) carry elaborate&#xA;  discussions about the relationship that exists between truth (Sathya)&#xA;  and waters. It said; truth is the same as waters for waters are the&#xA;  truth. Hence: ’whereby waters flow that is the form of truth. It is&#xA;  the waters indeed that were first made in the universe. When waters&#xA;  flow everything whatever that exists is produced.”(SB.10.5.4.1).&#xA;  Waters also symbolize the law. Water causes everything to exist and to&#xA;  grow in order. The waters are the reality (SB.7.6.1.4) and represent&#xA;  immortality (Amrtatavam va Apah – SB.1.9.3.7). They are the faith&#xA;  (Shraddaha) in life (Tai.Br.3.2.4.1). All gods and all beings are&#xA;  water; as they are the foundation and the ultimate source of the&#xA;  universe; and everything is contained in them (SB 10.5.4.4.15).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Varuna in Aranyakas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Varuna is briefly discussed in the Aitareya Aranyaka at two places;&#xA;  and both refer to Varuna’s mystical association with waters. There are&#xA;  no allusions to his Vedic glory as the sky-god, or as the king or as&#xA;  the governor of the laws.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The waters referred to in these passages are philosophical suggestions&#xA;  as they denote the primeval waters or the primeval matter. Here, the&#xA;  creation of waters and of Varuna comes about as an expression of the&#xA;  Supreme Being’s will or desire. It is metaphorically said that they&#xA;  were born out of the manas the mind of the Supreme Being. Varuna is&#xA;  the mythical symbol of primeval matter. Thus, philosophically, waters&#xA;  and Varuna stand for Prakrti or the Becoming. It is the first stage of&#xA;  manifest world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sreenivasaraos.com/tag/varuna-in-atharva-veda/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-08-05T04:46:41.093" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T04:46:41.093" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20030" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-04T17:36:45.760" Score="3" ViewCount="515" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Narayana Shabda Sadhararanyam is a work by the 16th century Advaita philosopher Govinda Nayaka which argues that the word Narayana refers to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.  This work was refuted by an anonymous Sri Vaishnava in a work called the Narayana Shabda Niruktih.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/f1NABa/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Narayana Shabda Niruktih refutes certain Puranic citations given by Govinda Nayaka to try to show that Narayana also refers to Shiva.  The author argues that these Puranic verses are interpolations, because not even Shaivites have ever cited them before:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You cited usages of interpretations explaining the term &quot;narayana&quot; as referring to Shiva.  However, these usages are not cited in the &lt;strong&gt;Shaivite texts such as Nilakantha Bhashya, Shivarkamanidipika, Shivastutisuktamalika, Shivatattvaviveka, and Shaivakarnamrita, etc.&lt;/strong&gt;, which are extremely insistent upon establishing that the term &quot;narayana&quot; refers to Shiva.  Our texts, which refute the above texts line by line, also do not cite those passages.... [I]t is inevitable to suspect the existence of interpolations in the very Puranas, such as Shiva Purana, Skanda Purana, etc. The Shiva Purana, Skanda Purana, etc. are generally edited only by the Shaivites. Even narrations of greatness of modern temples are presented as though they belong in the Shiva Purana, Skanda Purana, etc. Therefore, the usages you cited are not at all from the puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  Most of these Shaivite works are recognizable:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Nilakantha Bhashya, aka the Srikantha Bhashya, is Srikantha Sivacharya's Shaiva Siddhanta commentary on the Brahma Sutras.  You can read it in English &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TheVedantaSutrasWithSriKanthaBhashya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Shivarka Mani Dipika is a subcommentary on the Nilakantha Bhasha composed by Appayya Dikshitar, a 16th century philosopher who was both an Advaitin and a member of the Shaiva Siddhanta sect.  As far as I can tell ir's never been translated into English, and I haven't found a Sanskrit version either, but it at least exists in manuscript form.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Shiva Tattva Viveka is Appayya Dikshitar's commentary on his own poem, the Sikharini Mala, and it seeks to show that Shiva is supreme.  You can read it in English &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/UGXS/download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Shiva Karnamrita is another work by Appayya Dikshitar.  I haven't found it in Sanskrit or English, but it at least exists in manuscript form.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what is the &quot;Shiva Stuti Sukta Malika&quot; mentioned in the quote?  Who composed it, does it still exist, and has it been translated into English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My initial thought was that it's yet another work by Appayya Dikshitar, but it's not included in the list of Appayya Dikshitar's works given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaivam.org/devotees/works-of-sri-appaiya-dikshita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this web page&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, I'm guessing that like the other four works, it's a work from th Shaiva Siddhanta sect.  If it helps, the name of the work means &quot;garland of hymns in praise of Shiva&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-01-15T15:58:47.030" LastActivityDate="2023-02-18T08:05:05.607" Title="Who wrote the Shiva Stuti Sukta Malika, and does it still exist?" Tags="|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|shaivism|agamas|shaiva-siddhanta|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20035" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-05T05:04:10.923" Score="2" ViewCount="1405" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard these two terms many times. Karma (deeds) can be considered as either Kartavya or Dharma. But which kind of Karma is Kartavya or which one is Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example: If a son does seva to their parents then it is called that he performed his Putra Dharma. And when some one does any help to unknown person then it is called Manavta Dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earlier I thought Kartavya is usually is like Duty. Means if we are working under someone to earn, i.e.  doing Job then all of our activities in job will be considered as Kartavya. But when I heard term like &lt;strong&gt;Sevak Dharma&lt;/strong&gt; then I got confused again. Sewak is also performs activities like one perform in job. And if Sewak activities towards his/her swami will be considered as Sewak Dharma then what kind of Activities is Kartavya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which kind activities should be called as Kartavya and which one should be called as Dharma. How to differentiate between these two?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T19:22:44.300" Title="Difference between Kartavya and Dharma?" Tags="|karma|dharma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20037" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20003" CreationDate="2017-08-05T05:28:50.080" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are references to various places where the Avataras of Vishnu reside.  Varaha Avatara resides in a sumptuous palace on Mount Meru. There is reference to this Skanda Purana under the Chapter Venkatesha Mahatmyam. I have no idea or reference to the worlds of Narasimha and Vaamana, but Parshurama still resides on the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If more clarifications or references do come to me, I will further update.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T05:28:50.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20038" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="32069" CreationDate="2017-08-05T05:35:11.540" Score="6" ViewCount="2036" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 4.2.28 &amp;amp; 4.2.29 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhava-vrata-dharā ye ca&#xA;  ye ca tān samanuvratāḥ&#xA;  pāṣaṇḍinas te bhavantu&#xA;  sac-chāstra-paripanthinaḥ&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: Those who observe the vows to propitiate god Siva, and those that follow them, shall be the heretics and the opponents of true scriptures. (SB 4.2.28)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;naṣṭa-śaucā mūḍha-dhiyo jaṭā-bhasmāsthi-dhāriṇaḥ viśantu śiva-dīkṣāyāṁ yatra daivaṁ surāsavam&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They shall lose their sense of purity, shall be dullwitted. They shall wear matted locks of hair and bones, and smear themselves with ashes. They shall enter the cult of Siva worship where wine shall be the divinity. (S.B. 4.2.29)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this mean that &lt;strong&gt;ALL&lt;/strong&gt; Shaivites are cursed to follow anti-Vedic principles? Apologies to anyone including to Lord Shiva, offended by my question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-11-18T16:08:09.753" LastActivityDate="2020-05-14T17:29:00.443" Title="Are ALL devotees of Lord Shiva cursed by Rishi Bhrigu to follow anti-Vedic principles?" Tags="|shiva|bhagavata-purana|bhrigu|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20040" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20038" CreationDate="2017-08-05T06:15:57.563" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It appears that the interpretation of the shloka of 4th Canto is not correct.  actually Srimad Bhagavad Mahapurana has at no space criticised Lord Shiva or shaivism.  On the other hand, in the sankalpa for reading of Srimad Bhagavad Mahapurana the prayer clearly states - Vaishnavas please state &quot;Dasoham Tava Keshava&quot; while Smartas (Shaivites) state &quot;Soham Tava Keshava&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore the explanation and interpolation is not in the original text - both Shiva and Vishnu are forms of the same Supreme Being and He manifests Himself as Shankara (Shiva) Narayana (Vishnu).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T06:15:57.563" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20042" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-05T07:25:19.690" Score="5" ViewCount="343" Body="&lt;p&gt;In ancient India, we had world famous educational institutions like Takshsila, Nalanda and Benaras etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How was the education system in ancient India? Institutions willing to provide free education to everyone? or specific group of people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2021-02-07T09:41:08.293" LastActivityDate="2021-02-07T09:41:08.293" Title="Was education free in ancient India?" Tags="|history|india|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20043" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-05T07:35:27.807" Score="10" ViewCount="4530" Body="&lt;p&gt;Saraswati Sloka is a Hindu prayer chanted before beginning a class or at the beginning of one’s studies, so that all learning may resolve in knowledge alone. It is addressed to the &lt;strong&gt;Goddess Saraswatī&lt;/strong&gt;, who symbolizes all forms of knowledge, including the knowledge of the performing arts. Knowledge is a fundamental pursuit of human life, and a life of study and learning provides nourishment and discipline to the human intellect. In the Vedic culture, study is considered as one’s duty. (&lt;strong&gt;Wiki source&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saraswati Sloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यं वरदे कामरूपिणि ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विद्यारम्भं करिष्यामि सिद्धिर्भवतु मे सदा ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is origin for this Sloka? and in Which scripture is it found? Also who composed the sloka? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-05T07:42:47.773" LastActivityDate="2018-01-16T12:56:30.980" Title="What is source of the Saraswati sloka &quot; Saraswati namastubhyam varade kamarupini...&quot;?" Tags="|shloka|saraswati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20044" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20043" CreationDate="2017-08-05T07:48:37.173" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not sure which scriptures contain it or if it is at all part of any scripture or not or simply an independent work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways, it is part of &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/devi_saraswati-ya_kundendu.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;a famous Saraswati stotram composed by sage Agastya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 5th verse of the stotram is the verse you have quoted:&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यं वरदे कामरूपिणि ।&lt;br&gt; विद्यारम्भं करिष्यामि सिद्धिर्भवतु&#xA;मे सदा ॥५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sarasvati Namastubhyam Varade Kaama-Ruupinni |&lt;br&gt; Vidya[a-A]arambham&#xA;Karissyaami Siddhir-Bhavatu Me Sadaa ||5||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5.1: Salutations to Devi Saraswati, Who is the Giver of Boons and Fulfiller of Wishes,&#xA;5.2: O Devi, When I Begin my Studies, Please Bestow on me the capacity of Right Understanding, always.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the concluding verse of the stotram mentions the author as Agastya Muni:&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्थं सरस्वतीस्तोत्रम् &lt;strong&gt;अगस्त्यमुनिवाचकम्&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt; सर्वसिद्धिकरं नॄणां&#xA;सर्वपापप्रणाशणम् ॥२१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ittham Sarasvatii-Stotram &lt;strong&gt;Agastya-Muni-Vaacakam&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt; Sarva-Siddhi-Karam&#xA;Nrrnnaam Sarva-Paapa-Prannaashannam ||21||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;21.1: Thus this Saraswati Stotram &lt;strong&gt;composed by Sage Agastya&lt;/strong&gt;, ...&#xA;21.2: ...Leads to all Accomplishments and Destroys all Sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW, there are few such stotrams which were composed by Mahamunis but may be independently. That is, they may not be linked to a particular scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One such example is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Daridrya_Dahana_Shiva_Stotram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Daridra Dahana Stotram&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As stated:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vasishtena Krutham&lt;/strong&gt; stotram, Sarva sampathkaram param,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also composed by Vashishta Muni but may be independently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-01-16T12:56:30.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20045" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20006" CreationDate="2017-08-05T08:39:07.303" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How can we describe the REALM in which all the other gods like Brahma, Shiva, Indra live?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Trimurthis do exists in all this Universe /space- time, It is difficult to explain the nature of their existence, and their true potentialities since they belong to the very highest realms of creation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Trimurty’s remain in their real aspect as pure energies and consciousness with dimensions / domains beyond our imagination, beyond thought, beyond sense perception, beyond mind and speech, Only handful of yogis  and Rushies envisioned them and their abode’s in deep meditation. &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are they too a part of Lord Vishnu or separate entities?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am herewith presenting some verses which are pointing at your question. Here are they - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a interesting story In Shreemad Bhagvatam related to your enquiry. This story is a of Shree Atri Rushi  and Anusuya . When Brahmadeva ordered Atri rushi to beget children , he performed great Tapasya (severe austerities) . And while doing that he was meditating on the supreme Creator of this universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शरणं तं प्रपद्येSहं य एव &lt;strong&gt;जगदिश्वर&lt;/strong&gt;: |&lt;br&gt; प्रजामात्मसमां मह्यं&#xA;  प्रयच्छत्विति चिन्तयन् ||20||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śaraṇaṁ taṁ prapadye ’haṁ  ya eva jagad-īśvaraḥ|&lt;br&gt; prajām&#xA;  ātma-samāṁ mahyaṁ prayacchatv iti cintayan ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He was thinking: &lt;strong&gt;May the Lord of the universe, of whom I have taken&#xA;  shelter,&lt;/strong&gt; kindly be pleased to offer me a son exactly like Him.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/1/20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  4.1.20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While Atri Muni was engaged in these severe austerities, a blazing fire came out of his head by virtue of his breathing exercise, and that fire was seen by the three principal deities of the three worlds. &#xA;That fire was perceived by the Supersoul, Viṣṇu, and thereby Lord Brahmā and Śiva also perceived it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Atri rushi asked three of them O Lord Brahmā, Lord Viṣṇu and Lord Śiva, I beg to inquire whom of you three I have called by my prayer.?&#xA;The three great deities smiled, and they replied in the following sweet words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देव उवाच – Dev Uvacha &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथा कृथस्ते सङ्कल्पो भाव्यं तेनैव नान्यथा |&lt;br&gt; सतसङ्कल्प्स्य ते&#xA;  ब्रह्मन् यद्वै ध्यायति ते वयम् ||30||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yathā kṛtas te saṅkalpo bhāvyaṁ tenaiva nānyathā&lt;br&gt; sat-saṅkalpasya&#xA;  te brahman yad vai dhyāyati te vayam &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The three deities told Atri Muni: Dear brāhmaṇa, you are perfect in&#xA;  your determination, and therefore as you have decided, so it will&#xA;  happen; it will not happen otherwise. &lt;strong&gt;We are all the same person&#xA;  upon whom you were meditating,&lt;/strong&gt; and therefore we have all come to&#xA;  you. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/1/30&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 4.1.30&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can see a very another similar verse in Shreemad Bhagvatam &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Four –Chapter 7 –Verse 50.&lt;/strong&gt; Which is by Supreme creator himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shree Bhagvan Uvacha –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहं ब्रह्मा च शर्वच्श्र जगत: कारणं परम् |&lt;br&gt; आत्मेश्वर् उपद्रष्टा&#xA;  स्वयंदृगविशेषण ||50||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ahaṁ brahmā ca śarvaś ca jagataḥ kāraṇaṁ param &lt;br&gt; ātmeśvara upadraṣṭā&#xA;  svayan-dṛg aviśeṣaṇaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;**Brahmā, Lord Śiva and I are the supreme cause of the material manifestation. I am the Supersoul, the self-sufficient&#xA;  witness. But impersonally there is no difference between Brahmā, Lord&#xA;  Śiva and Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses tells us  that at the highest level Trimurty’s  are the three aspects of the one and the same supreme Reality. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your question is  whether these gods are part of  Lord Vishnu or separate entities, the answer can be in terms  both Yes and No., From human perspective they  are different because they perform different tasks, have qualities and energies that are different  widely from one another. And from high reality they are one and the same. &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt; –&lt;sub&gt; It’s is not necessary that everybody should believe in their unity .There are different views regarding this topic among different school of thoughts OR Sects .This is my attempt to answer this  questions using verses. There are various ways and total freedom in Hinduism given by supreme god himself to understand the truth and through them to  know and to reach him. &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-08-05T09:09:55.793" LastActivityDate="2017-08-05T09:09:55.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20046" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-05T08:44:08.217" Score="5" ViewCount="1322" Body="&lt;p&gt;It will be extremely useful if some one here can recommend a good translated version of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana, either in English or Kannada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have considered C. Rajagopalachari's edition, but I am not sure if it's Valmiki Ramayana or Kamba Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regards&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11614" LastActivityDate="2024-04-03T13:38:43.403" Title="Book recommendation for Srimad Valmiki Ramayana ( with commentary )" Tags="|ramayana|rama|valmiki|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20050" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-05T10:41:22.720" Score="9" ViewCount="6330" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Ram exiled Mother Sita to follow his Raja Dharma as his peoples doubted Mother Sita's Purity.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Many of the people other than Lord Ram and Lakshmana witnessed Mother Sita's &lt;strong&gt;Agni Pariksha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;King Sugreeva,King Vibishana and Entire Vanara army&lt;/strong&gt; witnessed the Agni Pariksha or Agni Pariksha can be again performed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Those people's can be used to Prove Mother Sita's Purity.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Banning a women who didn't commit any &lt;strong&gt;Sin&lt;/strong&gt; is &lt;strong&gt;Adharma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;QUESTION :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why didn't Lord Ram try to prove Mother Sita's Purity rather exiled her ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why Lord Ram accepted and followed People's doubt as it was &lt;strong&gt;not True and was Adharma&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="290" LastEditDate="2017-08-25T06:05:44.710" LastActivityDate="2018-10-09T05:01:49.600" Title="Why didn't Lord Ram try to prove Mother Sita's Purity but rather chose to exile her?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|dharma|sita|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20053" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19812" CreationDate="2017-08-05T13:02:10.723" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm really surprised there is no English translation to this famous stotra on Hanuman. I searched on the internet but wasn't able to find any, most of the &amp;quot;English&amp;quot; translations were just transliterated Sanskrit texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I decided to translate it on my own since my native language happens to be Marathi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A site where they hosted Samartha Ramadasa's books gave me a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.samarthramdas400.in/literature/bhimrupi.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;PDF&lt;/a&gt; of the stotra with a Marathi explanation that made my job easier. Sanskrit text is taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_otherlang_maraathii/bhiima.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भीमरूपी महारुद्रा वज्र हनुमान मारुती ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वनारि अंजनीसूता रामदूता प्रभंजना ॥ १॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhīmarūpī mahārudrā vajra hanumāna mārutī |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vanāri aṃjanīsūtā rāmadūtā prabhaṃjanā || 1 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The large bodied, the wrathful one, diamond bodied Hanuman, the son of&#xA;Maruta, who lives in the forest.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The son of Anjana, the messenger of Rama, who is like a hurricane.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;महाबळी प्राणदाता सकळां उठवी बळें ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सौख्यकारी  दुःखहारी धूर्त वैष्णव गायका ॥ २॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mahābal̤ī prāṇadātā sakal̤āṃ uṭhavī bal̤eṃ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;saukhyakārī  duḥkhahārī dhūrta vaiṣṇava gāyakā || 2 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The all powerful, giver of life breaths, the one that rouses others by&#xA;his strength.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The bestow-er of happiness, the remover of sorrows, the  shrewd one,&#xA;who is the singer of Vishnu's praises. (Alt: The one who is a devotee&#xA;of Vishnu and a singer)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दीनानाथा हरीरूपा सुंदरा जगदांतरा ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पातालदेवताहंता भव्यसिंदूरलेपना ॥ ३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dīnānāthā harīrūpā suṃdarā jagadāṃtarā |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pātāladevatāhaṃtā bhavyasiṃdūralepanā || 3 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The empower-er of the feeble, the one with an ape's face, who is&#xA;beautiful like the moon, the one that can go to the ends of the world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The destroyer of the lords of Patala, whose gigantic body is smeared&#xA;with Sindura.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लोकनाथा जगन्नाथा प्राणनाथा पुरातना ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुण्यवंता पुण्यशीला पावना परितोषका ॥ ४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;lokanāthā jagannāthā prāṇanāthā purātanā |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;puṇyavaṃtā puṇyaśīlā pāvanā paritoṣakā || 4 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The one who is the lord of the Lokas, who is the lord of the world,&#xA;who is the lord of the life breaths, who is ancient.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The one who is pure in mind, speech and body, who has pure character,&#xA;son of Pavana: the pure one, The one who fulfills the desires of&#xA;his devotees and bestows contentment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ध्वजांगें उचली बाहो आवेशें लोटला पुढें ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;काळाग्नि काळरुद्राग्नि देखतां कांपती भयें ॥ ५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dhvajāṃgeṃ ucalī bāho āveśeṃ loṭalā puḍheṃ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kāl̤āgni kāl̤arudrāgni dekhatāṃ kāṃpatī bhayeṃ || 5 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;With his arms raised like a flag staff he charges forward furiously.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even the fires of Yama, and Kaala tremble on seeing him in such a form.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मांडें माइलीं नेणों आंवळे दंतपंगती ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नेत्राग्नि चालिल्या ज्वाळा भ्रकुटी तठिल्या बळें ॥ ६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;brahmāṃḍeṃ māilīṃ neṇoṃ āṃval̤e daṃtapaṃgatī |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;netrāgni cālilyā jvāl̤ā bhrakuṭī taṭhilyā bal̤eṃ || 6 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The one in whose mouth the universe is composed when he bares(gnashes) his teeth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Whose eyes emit fire as he contracts his brows in forceful rage.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुच्छ तें मुरडिलें माथां किरीटी कुंडलें बरीं ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सुवर्णकटिकांसोटी घंटा किंकिणि नागरा ॥ ७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;puccha teṃ muraḍileṃ māthāṃ kirīṭī kuṃḍaleṃ barīṃ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;suvarṇakaṭikāṃsoṭī ghaṃṭā kiṃkiṇi nāgarā || 7 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The one with his tail coiled on his head as he sports a crown with&#xA;splendid earrings.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The tinkling bells on his golden girdle echo(everywhere).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ठकारे पर्वताइसा नेटका सडपातळू ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चपळांग पाहतां मोठें महाविद्युल्लतेपरी ॥ ८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ṭhakāre parvatāisā neṭakā saḍapātal̤ū |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;capal̤āṃga pāhatāṃ moṭheṃ mahāvidyullateparī  || 8 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stationed like a gigantic mountain, of perfect limbs and slender form.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He is supple and moves in the blink of an eye like a great streak&#xA;of lightning.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कोटिच्या कोटि उड्डणें झेपावे उत्तरेकडे ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मंदाद्रीसारिखा द्रोणू क्रोधें उत्पाटिला बळें ॥ ९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;koṭicyā koṭi uḍḍaṇeṃ jhepāve uttarekaḍe |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;maṃdādrīsārikhā droṇū krodheṃ utpāṭilā bal̤eṃ || 9 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The one that flew crores of distance towards the North and violently&#xA;uprooted the Dronagiri that was like Mandrachal with his strength.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आणिला मागुती नेला आला गेला मनोगती ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मनासी टाकिलें मागें गतीसी तूळणा नसे ॥ १०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;āṇilā māgutī nelā ālā gelā manogatī |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;manāsī ṭākileṃ māgeṃ gatīsī tūl̤aṇā nase || 10 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bringing the mountain (to Lanka) he returned and replaced it at the&#xA;speed of the mind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even the mind was overcome by his pace and none can match his&#xA;velocity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अणूपासोनि ब्रह्मांडायेवढा होत जातसे ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तयासी तुळणा कोठें मेरुमांदार धाकुटें ॥ ११॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;aṇūpāsoni brahmāṃḍāyevaḍhā hota jātase |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tayāsī tul̤aṇā koṭheṃ merumāṃdāra dhākuṭeṃ || 11 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From the size of the atom to the size of the universe, he expands.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where can one equate to his size the Meru and Mandara mountains?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मांडाभोंवते वेढे वज्रपुच्छें करूं शके ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तयासी तुळणा कैंची ब्रह्मांडीं पाहतां नसे ॥ १२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;brahmāṃḍābhoṃvate veḍhe vajrapuccheṃ karūṃ śake |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tayāsī tul̤aṇā kaiṃcī brahmāṃḍīṃ pāhatāṃ nase || 12 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He can siege (circle) the universe with his diamond like tail.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A comparison to him the universe has never seen.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आरक्त देखिलें डोळां ग्रासिलें सूर्यमंडळा ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वाढतां वाढतां वाढे भेदिलें शून्यमंडळा ॥ १३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ārakta dekhileṃ ḍol̤āṃ grāsileṃ sūryamaṃḍal̤ā |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vāḍhatāṃ vāḍhatāṃ vāḍhe bhedileṃ śūnyamaṃḍal̤ā || 13 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Whose eyes glimpsed the reddened sun and he went to swallow it. (For&#xA;that) He grew to such and extent that he pierced the sunyamandala (the solar system).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;धनधान्य पशुवृद्धि पुत्रपौत्र समग्रही ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पावती रूपविद्यादि स्तोत्रपाठें करूनियां ॥ १४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dhanadhānya paśuvṛddhi putrapautra samagrahī |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pāvatī rūpavidyādi stotrapāṭheṃ karūniyāṃ || 14 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wealth, foodgrains, cattle, progeny flourish and one obtains health&#xA;and knowledge when one recites/masters this stotra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भूतप्रेतसमंधादि रोगव्याधि समस्तही ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नासती तूटती चिंता आनंदे भीमदर्शनें ॥ १५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;bhūtapretasamaṃdhādi rogavyādhi samastahī |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;nāsatī tūṭatī ciṃtā ānaṃde bhīmadarśaneṃ || 15 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ghosts, zombies, spirits etc diseases and afflictions all worries are&#xA;destroyed by the darshana of Hanuman and the devotee attains bliss.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हे धरा पंधराश्लोकी लाभली शोभली भली ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दृढदेहो निःसंदेहो संख्या चंद्रकलागुणें ॥ १६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;he dharā paṃdharāślokī lābhalī śobhalī bhalī |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dṛḍhadeho niḥsaṃdeho saṃkhyā caṃdrakalāguṇeṃ || 16 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;These 15 slokas, that provide gainfulness that purify the body and&#xA;bestow serenity to the mind, are like the 15 digits of the moon in&#xA;nature. (Moon is often said to have the quality of Amrita so these&#xA;verses are like nectar)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रामदासीं अग्रगण्यू कपिकुळासि मंडणू ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;रामरूपी अन्तरात्मा दर्शने दोष नासती ॥ १७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;rāmadāsīṃ agragaṇyū kapikul̤āsi maṃḍaṇū |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;rāmarūpī antarātmā darśane doṣa nāsatī || 17 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You are foremost among the devotees of Rama, the bringer of fame to&#xA;the race of the Vanaras(Kapi).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;With the darshana of you, who has the form of Rama in his heart/soul,&#xA;all faults vanish.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;॥ इति श्री रामदासकृतं संकटनिरसनं नाम श्री मारुतिस्तोत्रम् सम्पूर्णम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;|| iti śrī rāmadāsakṛtaṃ saṃkaṭanirasanaṃ nāma&#xA;śrī mārutistotram sampūrṇam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hereby ends the Maruti Stotra which is capable of destroying all&#xA;difficulties, composed by Samartha Ramadas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2024-01-08T09:37:21.190" LastActivityDate="2024-01-08T09:37:21.190" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20055" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20056" CreationDate="2017-08-05T17:38:31.030" Score="7" ViewCount="747" Body="&lt;p&gt;I saw a verse in Shiva Mahapurana that depicts Lord shiva having 5 heads, does any other scripture describe details about 5 heads of Lord Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-08-06T01:48:23.597" LastActivityDate="2021-01-27T05:15:59.227" Title="Which are the Five faces of Lord Shiva?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|shaivism|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20056" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20055" CreationDate="2017-08-06T01:52:22.583" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Taittariya Aranyaka of YajurVeda from 10.17.1 to 10.21.1 contains five mantras and first word of each mantra represents each face of Lord SadaShiva. These Mantras are also in AtharvaVeda Parishista.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सद्योजातं&lt;/strong&gt; प्रपद्यामि सद्योजाताय.....&lt;strong&gt;वामदेवाय&lt;/strong&gt; नमो ज्येष्ठाय नमः ....&lt;strong&gt;अघोरेभ्योऽथ&lt;/strong&gt; घोरेभ्यो घोरघोरतरेभ्यः ।.......&lt;strong&gt;तत्पुरुषाय&lt;/strong&gt; विद्महे महादेवाय धीमहि ।.... &lt;strong&gt;ईशानः&lt;/strong&gt; सर्वविद्यानामीश्वरः सर्वभूतानां&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;sadyojātaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; prapadyāmi sadyojātāya ..... &lt;strong&gt;vāmadevāya&lt;/strong&gt; namo jyeṣṭhāya namaḥ ....&lt;strong&gt;aghorebhyo&amp;apos;tha&lt;/strong&gt; ghorebhyo ghoraghoratarebhyaḥ ।.......&lt;strong&gt;tatpuruṣāya&lt;/strong&gt; vidmahe mahādevāya dhīmahi ।.... &lt;strong&gt;īśānaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; sarvavidyānāmīśvaraḥ sarvabhūtānāṃ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sayana Commentary on Taittariya Aranyaka also says these represents five faces of Lord SadaShiva. Srimad Bhagvatam in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/7/29&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; also states these five mantras represent Five faces of Lord SadaShiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मुखानि पञ्चोपनिषदस्यवेश यैस्त्रिंशदष्टोत्तरमन्त्रवर्ग ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यतच्छिवाख्यं परमात्मतत्त्वं देव स्वयंज्योतिरवास्थितिस्ते।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;O lord, the five important Vedic mantras are represented by your five faces,&lt;/strong&gt; from which the thirty-eight most celebrated Vedic mantras have been generated. Your Lordship, being celebrated as Lord Śhiva, is self-illuminated. You are directly situated as the supreme truth, known as Paramātmā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the five faces of Lord SadaShiva are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Sadyojãta&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2) Vãmadeva&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3) Aghora&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  4) TatPurusha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  5) Ishana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding position of faces and which face represents which direction it&amp;apos;s mentioned in several Puranas like Shiva Purana, Linga Purana etc... &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Manava Shrauta Sutra&lt;/strong&gt; also gives description of direction of faces of SadaShiva also discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9989/does-sadashiva-ride-a-tortoise&quot;&gt;this question.&lt;/a&gt; Manava Shrauta Sutra in the section Rudra Japa Vidhãnam state:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सद्यो जात&lt;/strong&gt; इत्यस्य सद्योजात ऋषिर्ब्रह्मा देवता त्रिष्टुपछन्दः हंसवाहन &lt;strong&gt;पश्चिमवक्त्रः&lt;/strong&gt; पृथिवीतत्त्वः ब्रह्मरुपाय ह्रां पश्चिमवक्त्रवाहने विनियोग: सद्योजातः पश्चिमवक्त्राय नम आ वहयामी । &lt;strong&gt;वाममद्य&lt;/strong&gt; सवितारित्यस्य वामदेव ऋषिः विष्णुर्देवता त्रिष्टुपछन्दो गरुडवाहन &lt;strong&gt;उत्तरवक्त्र&lt;/strong&gt; आपस्तत्त्व विष्णुरुपाय ह्रीमुत्तरवक्त्रावाहने विनियोगो वाममद्य सवितारुत्तरवक्त्राय नम आ वाहयामि &lt;strong&gt;अघोरेभ्य&lt;/strong&gt; इत्यस्याघोर ऋषि रुद्रो देवता बृहतीछन्दो वृषभवाहनो दक्षिणवक्त्रतेजस्तत्त्वो रुद्ररुपाय हूं &lt;strong&gt;दक्षिणवक्त्र&lt;/strong&gt;वाहने विनियोगे अघोरेभ्यो दक्षिणवक्त्राय नम आ वाहयामि। &lt;strong&gt;तत्पुरुषायेत्यस्य&lt;/strong&gt; तत्पुरुष ऋषि सूर्यो देवता गायत्रीछन्दश्ववाहनः &lt;strong&gt;पूर्ववक्त्राय&lt;/strong&gt; नम आ वाहयामि । &lt;strong&gt;तमीशान&lt;/strong&gt;मित्यस्येशान ऋषिः शब्दो देवता बृहतीछन्दः कूर्मवाहन &lt;strong&gt;उर्ध्ववक्त्र&lt;/strong&gt; आकाशतत्त्वः श्वेतरुपाय ह्रौमूर्ध्ववक्त्रावाहने विनियोगस्तमीशानमुर्ध्व वक्त्राय नम आ वाहयामि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  With the following five verses the invitation of Rudra is performed. With the verse: &amp;quot;Newly born etc.&amp;quot; ... &lt;strong&gt;[Sadyojata]&lt;/strong&gt; is the seer, Brahma[] his deity, the trishtubh his metre, the swan his riding animal, &lt;strong&gt;his face westward,&lt;/strong&gt; the earth his element[.]... With the verse: &amp;quot;Wealth today, O Savitr, etc.&amp;quot; ... &lt;strong&gt;Vamadeva&lt;/strong&gt; is his seer, Vishnu his deity, the trishtubh his metre, Garuda his riding animal, &lt;strong&gt;his face northward,&lt;/strong&gt; the water his element[.]... With the verse: &amp;quot;Homage to Rudra...&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;[Aghora]&lt;/strong&gt; is his sage, Rudra his deity, the brihati his metre, the bull his riding animal, &lt;strong&gt;his face downward,&lt;/strong&gt; the heat his element[.]... With the verse &amp;quot;We worship the primeval spirit...&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;[Tatpurusha]&lt;/strong&gt; is his seer, Surya his deity, the gayatri his metre, the horse his riding animal, &lt;strong&gt;his face eastward,&lt;/strong&gt; the wind his element[.] With the verse &amp;quot;Him who rules&amp;quot; ... &lt;strong&gt;[Ishana]&lt;/strong&gt; is his seer, sound his deity, the brihati his metre, the tortoise his riding animal, &lt;strong&gt;his face upward,&lt;/strong&gt; the ether his element[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the direction of Five faces is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sadyojata ➡ &lt;em&gt;West Facing&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vamadeva ➡ &lt;em&gt;North Facing&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Aghora ➡ &lt;em&gt;South Facing&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  TatPurusha ➡ &lt;em&gt;East Facing&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ishana ➡ &lt;em&gt;Upward Facing&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Five representations of Lord SadaShiva are also called PanchaBrahman. I discuss significance of PamchaBrahman in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16553/who-are-pancha-brahmas-lalita-devi-sits-on-and-why-are-they-called-so/16557#16557&quot;&gt;my answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T01:52:22.583" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20057" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20038" CreationDate="2017-08-06T01:59:37.077" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It seems that the curse is affecting only those who indulge in the blaspheming, who indulge in the beliefs and practices that are anti Vedic. This is seen from the text, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavatam canto 4, chapter 2&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 4.2.30 — Bhṛgu Muni continued: &lt;strong&gt;Since you blaspheme the Vedas and&#xA;  the brāhmaṇas, who are followers of the Vedic principles&lt;/strong&gt;, it is&#xA;  understood that &lt;strong&gt;you have already taken shelter of the doctrine of&#xA;  atheism&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  SB 4.2.31 — &lt;strong&gt;The Vedas give the eternal regulative principles&#xA;  for auspicious advancement&lt;/strong&gt; in human civilization which have been&#xA;  rigidly followed in the past. The strong evidence of this principle is&#xA;  the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is called Janārdana, the&#xA;  well-wisher of all living entities.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  SB 4.2.32 — &lt;strong&gt;By blaspheming the&#xA;  principles of the Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;, which are the pure and supreme path of the&#xA;  saintly persons, &lt;strong&gt;certainly you followers of Bhūtapati, Lord Śiva, will&#xA;  descend to the standard of atheism without a doubt&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It doesn't mean all the Shaivas will become heretics. However I'm amazed to see that many Hindus who read the Bhagavatam immediately responded that those verses are interpolation. This is certainly not an interpolation because there is no evidence for that, and the same is said in other scriptures as well. It is said in several scriptures that some followers of Lord Shiva will become heretics. It is even said that Lord Shiva had a job to compose some heretic scriptures with the purpose to delude some people. It seems that the Bhagavatam in the above verses indicates that thing.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The people who do not understand something, and who stumble upon some verses in the scripture that are contrary to their personal belief usually react in such a manner that they proclaim those verses to be an interpolation. That usually just show their ignorance. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2020-05-14T17:29:00.443" LastActivityDate="2020-05-14T17:29:00.443" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20058" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20050" CreationDate="2017-08-06T03:18:00.157" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the 45th Chapter of Uttara Khanda Sri Rama justifies the banishment of Seeta.  He mentions that his doubt on Seeta's chastity was cleared, when at the Agni Pariksha all the Devas and Gandharvas came along with Indra to proclaim Seeta's purity and hand her over to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Incarnation of Sri Ramachandra was of Uttam Maryada Purusha - most superior man who follows the path of Dharma. Raja Dharma lays down that the king is not only the sustainer of his people, but is also governed by their desires. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rumour about Seeta's character was demeaning both of them. No king should live with 'apakirti' - which was what Sri Rama and Seetaa Devi were being subjected to.  To escape from 'apakirti' Sri Rama was willing to give up even his own life - so why not Seeta (Uttara Kandha 45:14).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama was on the horns of a dilemma - under Raja Dharma he had to satisfy his subject's reasonable demands. He was Maryada Purusha and as a king he could not co-habit with a woman whose chastity was in doubt. But as a husband who knew his wife was chaste and it had been proved to him, he could not forsake his wife at the whims and fancies of the public. [As Shakespeare wrote in 'Julius Ceaeser' Ceaser's wife should not only be pure but should also appear so - of some such words to the same effect]. Sri Rama chose to follow Raja Dharma, rather than give up his throne.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;was this right / moral/ etc. is another separate question.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T03:18:00.157" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20059" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20046" CreationDate="2017-08-06T03:20:44.570" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gita Press Gorakhpur has a hard bound edition of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana in Sanskrit with English meaning / commentary in two volumes.  If stocks still exist, the publication is very good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T03:20:44.570" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20060" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19982" CreationDate="2017-08-06T03:42:33.263" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ocean-River analogy has been preached in Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Mundaka Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथा नद्यः स्यन्दमानाः समुद्रेऽ&#xA;  स्तं गच्छन्ति नामरूपे विहाय ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथा विद्वान् नामरूपाद्विमुक्तः&#xA;  परात्परं पुरुषमुपैति दिव्यम् ॥ ८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;II-ii-8: As rivers, flowing down, become indistinguishable on reaching the sea by giving up their names and forms, so also the illumined soul, having become freed from name and form, reaches the self-effulgent Purusha that is higher than the higher (Maya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Prasna Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स यथेमा नध्यः स्यन्दमानाः समुद्रायणाः समुद्रं&#xA;  प्राप्यास्तं&#xA;  गच्छन्ति भिध्येते तासां नामरुपे समुद्र इत्येवं प्रोच्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एवमेवास्य परिद्रष्टुरिमाः षोडशकलाः पुरुषायणाः&#xA;  पुरुषं&#xA;  प्राप्यास्तं गच्छन्ति भिध्येते चासां नामरुपे पुरुष इत्येवं&#xA;  प्रोच्यते स एषोऽकलोऽमृतो भवति तदेष श्लोकः ॥ ५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VI-5: The illustration is this: Just as these flowing rivers that have the sea as their goal, get absorbed after reaching the sea, and their names and forms are destroyed, and they are called merely the sea, so also these sixteen parts (i.e. constituents) of the all-seeing Purusha, that have Purusha as their goal, disappear on reaching Purusha, when their names and forms are destroyed and they are simply called Purusha. Such a man of realisation becomes free from the parts and is immortal. On this point there occurs this verse&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Chhandogya Upanishad (In the context of Mahakavya Tatvamasi):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इमाः सोम्य नद्यः पुरस्तात्प्राच्यः स्यन्दन्ते&#xA;  पश्चात्प्रतीच्यस्ताः समुद्रात्समुद्रमेवापियन्ति स समुद्र&#xA;  एव भवति ता यथा तत्र न विदुरियमहमस्मीयमहमस्मीति&#xA;  ॥ ६.१०.१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवमेव खलु सोम्येमाः सर्वाः प्रजाः सत आगम्य न विदुः&#xA;  सत आगच्छामह इति त इह व्याघ्रो वा सिꣳहो वा&#xA;  वृको वा वराहो वा कीटो वा पतङ्गो वा दꣳशो वा मशको वा&#xA;  यद्यद्भवन्ति तदाभवन्ति ॥ ६.१०.२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स य एषोऽणिमैतदात्म्यमिदꣳ सर्वं तत्सत्यꣳ स आत्मा&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;तत्त्वमसि&lt;/strong&gt; श्वेतकेतो इति भूय एव मा भगवान्विज्ञापयत्विति&#xA;  तथा सोम्येति होवाच ॥ ६.१०.३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VI-x-1-2: 'These eastern rivers, dear boy, flow along to the east and the western ones to the west. &lt;strong&gt;They rise from the ocean and merge in the ocean, and become that ocean itself. And there as these rivers do not know themselves as &quot;I am this river, I am that river&quot;, even so, dear boy, all these creatures, having come from Being, do not know, &quot;We have come from Being&quot;. And whatever these creatures were here, tiger or lion or wolf or boar or worm or flying insect or gad-fly or mosquito, that they become again.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VI-x-3: 'That Being which is this subtle essence (cause), even That all this world has for its self. That is the true. That is the Atman. That thou art, O Svetaketu.' 'Revered sir, please explain it further to me'. 'So be it, dear boy', said (the father).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T03:42:33.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20061" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20042" CreationDate="2017-08-06T03:57:53.163" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;, it wasn't free. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eklavya, who possessed the art of archery (&lt;em&gt;Dhanusha&lt;/em&gt;) from Drona by virtual means, also was held responsible to pay it by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20064/1049&quot;&gt;giving away his thumb&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Drona, O king, addressed Ekalavya, saying, 'If, O hero, thou art really my pupil, give me then my fees.'&lt;/strong&gt; On hearing these words, Ekalavya was very much gratified, and said in reply, 'O illustrious preceptor, what shall I give? Command me; for there is nothing, O foremost of all persons conversant with the Vedas, that I may not give unto my preceptor.' Drona answered, 'O Ekalavya, if thou art really intent on making me a gift, I should like then to have the thumb of thy right hand &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01135.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Adi Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Drona also took the 'fees' from Kuru-s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Drona thought the time had come when he could demand the preceptorial fee&lt;/strong&gt;. And, O king, assembling his pupils one day together, the preceptor Drona asked of them the fee, saying, 'Seize Drupada, the king of Panchala in battle and bring him unto me. That shall be the most acceptable fee.'  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01141.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Adi Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a164.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Santi Parva&lt;/a&gt;, Bhishma suggests that the fees should be given to those Brahmana-s who are in need of it. Others can be given the [Guru] Dakshina:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... to discharge their obligations to preceptors and the Pitris, and pass their days in reciting and studying the scriptures, wealth and knowledge, O Bharata, should be given. &lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; Unto those Brahmanas that are not poor, only the Dakshina, &lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1&lt;/strong&gt; In India, from the remotest times, preceptors are excluded from charging their pupils any fees for the instruction they give. No doubt, a final fee, called Gurudakshina, is demandable, but that is demandable after the pupil has completed his studies. To sell knowledge for money is a great sin. To this day in all the indigenous tols of the country, instruction is imparted free of all charges. In addition to this, the pupils are fed by their preceptors. The latter, in their turn, are supported by the charity of the whole country.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2&lt;/strong&gt; Dakshina is the present or gift made in sacrifices.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there is nothing wrong in it. If a student learns any art from a teacher, then he becomes &lt;strong&gt;indebted&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Guru runa&lt;/em&gt;). This debt was usually paid by &lt;em&gt;Guru Dakshina&lt;/em&gt;, in earlier times when physical currency weren't famous. Moral debt is the most costly thing &amp;amp; hence Kshatriya-s or any self-dignified person should never carry that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-17T05:40:33.860" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T05:40:33.860" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20062" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19710" CreationDate="2017-08-06T04:08:06.037" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Advaitins believe Lord Narayana, the Lord Himself, revealed knowledge of&#xA;Advaita to Gaudapada in Badarikāśrama, as mentioned in the book  &lt;strong&gt;Preceptors of Advaita&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Preceptors of Advaita&lt;/a&gt;&amp;quot; is a book which has articles collected from various sources published by &lt;strong&gt;Kanchi kamakoti Peetam&lt;/strong&gt; on  occasion of diamond jubilee of &lt;strong&gt;Sri Chandraseksharendra Saraswati&lt;/strong&gt;'s &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62844.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;ascension&lt;/a&gt; to the Pitha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62851.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gaudapada's&lt;/a&gt; section, it is mentioned that Lord Narayana himself revealed Advaitic Knowledge to  Gaudapada. Sri Bālakṛṣṇānanda Sarasvatī said Gaudapada did tapasya from beginning of Dwapara Yuga, hence his exact name is not known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ānandagiri in his gloss (ṭīkā) on the Māṇḍūkya-Kārikā-bhāṣya, says&#xA;that the teacher Gauḍapāda in those days spent his time in&#xA;Badrikāśrama, the holy residence of Nara-Nārāyana, in deep meditation&#xA;on the [Page 25] Lord, and that the Lord, Nārāyaṇa, greatly pleased,&#xA;revealed to him the Upaniṣadic wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bālakṛṣṇānanda Sarasvatī (17th&#xA;Century A.D.) writes in his Śārīrakamīmāṃsābhāṣya-vārtika that there&#xA;was in the country of Kurukṣetra a river called Hirarāvati, on whose&#xA;banks there were some Gauḍa people (people of Gauḍadeśa, the modem&#xA;North Bengal); that the pre-eminent of them, Gauḍapāda, was absorbed&#xA;in deep meditation beginning from the Dvāpara age; and so, as his&#xA;proper name is not known to the moderns, he is celebrated by the&#xA;class-name of the Gauḍas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since this is contained in book published by Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam on silver jubilee event of Sri Chandrasekhara Saraswati's ascension to Peeta, we can consider Advaitins believe Lord Narayana Himself revealed it Gaudapada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T04:08:06.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20063" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-06T04:47:26.680" Score="10" ViewCount="392" Body="&lt;p&gt;How can one judge our Graha-dosha by reading only hasth-rekha? &#xA;I think from kundli it can be done but how from hastha-rekha? Probably our groha changes in every ten years but does also hasth-rekha changes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="9914" LastEditDate="2017-08-06T05:57:07.660" LastActivityDate="2021-02-18T20:01:55.173" Title="Is palmistry a part of astrology?" Tags="|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20064" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="574" CreationDate="2017-08-06T06:03:19.387" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though Drona asking Ekalavya's thumb was a consequential &quot;reaction&quot; of Arjuna's jealousy, it was &lt;em&gt;not the reason&lt;/em&gt; of asking Ekalavya for his thumb. The art of warfare was reserved among [certain] Kshatriya-s due to their high moral grounds. PAndava-s lead by justful Yudhisthira were such warriors with highest morality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Drona a Brahman preceptor, was aware that the wars don't happen all the times, but a kingdom made up of society has to be run all the times. So it's better to be in hands of followers of Dharma. For protection of that kingdom, these Dharma people also should be highest among warriors. This was the reason, Drona blessed Arjuna to be the top notch warrior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Ekalavya wanted to learn this art, Drona rejected because though Ekalavya was from lower intellectual section, he had the ability to surpass Drona's higher division pupils.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Drona also instructed Arjuna in fighting with the mace, the sword, the lance, the spear, and the dart. And he also instructed him in using many weapons and fighting with many men at the same time. And hearing reports of his skill, kings and princes, desirous of learning the science of arms, flocked to Drona by thousands. Amongst those that came there, O monarch, was a prince named Ekalavya, who was the son of Hiranyadhanus, king of the Nishadas (the lowest of the mixed orders). &lt;strong&gt;Drona, however, cognisant of all rules of morality, accepted not the prince as his pupil in archery, seeing that he was a Nishada who might (in time) excel all his high-born pupils.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01135.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Adi Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even then, Ekalavya managed to excel Arjuna. So finally he was asked to cut his thumb as &lt;em&gt;Guru dakshina&lt;/em&gt; as destined in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20061/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. However this thumb just reduced the swiftness, but Ekalavya was still indefensible even without thumb. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Drona was right in judgement as Ekalavya later accompanied evil people like Shishupala. Both of them were killed by Lord Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T06:03:19.387" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20065" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19950" CreationDate="2017-08-06T06:27:27.127" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The source of the story is the 1st chapter (Purva Katha O Ballojivan) of the book &lt;a href=&quot;https://istore.chennaimath.org/product/ramakrishna-lilaprasanga-volumes-1-2-bengali/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RAmakrisna LilA Prasange&lt;/a&gt;, which is considered as a comprehensive biography of Sri RAmakrishna Paramhamsa. It was composed by Swami Saradananda, &#xA;a direct disciple of Sri RAmakrishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a screenshot of the relevant pages:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/CebRW.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BOZhU.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-06T06:45:39.050" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T06:45:39.050" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20066" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20257" CreationDate="2017-08-06T06:28:54.500" Score="3" ViewCount="850" Body="&lt;p&gt;The rig veda 2:33:1 discribes Lord shiva father of maruts and maruts are considered storm gods?so is it beacuse lord shiva is father of maruts he is considered as head of storms god?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T08:04:23.307" Title="What is relation of Lord shiva/RUDRA with storms?" Tags="|vedas|shiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20067" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19974" CreationDate="2017-08-06T07:56:03.243" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Veda mantras to bring rain are also to be found in the Atharva Veda (AV).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Suktas, AV 4.15 and AV 7.18, are entirely dedicated to rain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samikshayantu tavishA prudAnvo (1) ApAm rasA oshadhimihi sachantAm (2)&#xA;  Varshasya sargo mahayantu bhumim (3) Prithag jAyantAm oshadhayo&#xA;  viswrupAh (4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the grace of mighty ones and auspicious donors (1), let the essence&#xA;  (rasa) in the waters come to the herbs (2). Let the gushes of rain&#xA;  gladden the earth (3); Let all forms of (medicinal) plants be born&#xA;  here and there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 4.15.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In these Suktas, the Marut Gods, who are the helpers of Indra, are asked to propel the clouds to yield rain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some further mantras are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Apo viddhut abhram varpa sam vo avantu sudhAnava (1) UtsA ajagarA uta&#xA;  (2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let the waters, lightning, cloud, rain favour lavish givers (1), also&#xA;  favour the fountains and serpents (ajagarA).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 4.15.9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pra navasva prithivi bhindri idam divyam navah (1) Udro divyasya no&#xA;  dhAtarishAno vishvA datim (2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Earth is asked to split the cloud of heaven. (1) and release the water&#xA;  in the bag.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 7.18.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet another mantra (only translation given) is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Open and raise up (udacha) the great covering sheath and spribkle&#xA;  abundantly along with the lightning and wind. Let thew sacrifice be&#xA;  extended (tanvata) and released in amny ways. Let the growths of earth&#xA;  (oshadhayah) become full of delight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 4.15.16&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, we should not doubt the fact that Yajnas (if properly done) can bring rains. As the scriptures clearly say that it can:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.76. &lt;strong&gt;An oblation duly thrown into the fire, reaches the&#xA;  sun; from the sun comes rain&lt;/strong&gt;, from rain food, therefrom the living&#xA;  creatures (derive their subsistence).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Veda mantras, God Indra has been appealed to release rain in times of draught and to stop downpour in times of excessive rainfall.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even, in these times, there have been persons who have displayed those powers at times of real need alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One such person was &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganapati_Muni&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Ganapati Muni&lt;/a&gt; (1878-1936), an adept in Vedas and Tantras and the first disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, those who want empirical evidences of experiments comprising of Yajnas bringing out rain in times when it is needed and stopping it when it has been excessive downpour, can read the book &lt;strong&gt;Vedic Metereology by Ravi PrakAsh Arya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This book records over 400 such experiments, performed in various parts of India, over a period some 40 years in this century.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Several of these experiments have been successful and they have the following key features:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(1) Specification of the appropriate atmospheric conditions as&#xA;  relevant to each season; for instance, wind has to blow from a certain&#xA;  direction in a particular season.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(2) Performance of a prticular type of Yajna accompanied by chanting of&#xA;  Veda Mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(3) Spiritual attainment of the person performing the Yjana. Absolute&#xA;  faith in the efficacy of the procedure is essential to its success.&#xA;  There can be no guarantee of the rain pouring down or its stopping,&#xA;  should an unbeleliever follow the procedure casually with meeting its&#xA;  prerequisites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is not as easy as chanting few mantras or performing few Yajnas and rain will start pouring down, but it is not impossible too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-06T08:52:17.190" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T08:52:17.190" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20068" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20017" CreationDate="2017-08-06T07:57:13.277" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of the curse of Tulasi is enumerated in &lt;strong&gt;shlokas 23 -27, Ninth Canto Chapter 24 of Srimad Devi Bhagavatam.&lt;/strong&gt;  This English translation is from the English Translation by Swami Vijnanananda. Tulasi cursed Lord Vishnu as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O Lord! Thou art like a stone. Thou hast no mercy. By hypocrisy Thou&#xA;  hast destroyed my chastity, my virtue and for that reason didst kill&#xA;  my husband. O Lord! Thou had no mercy;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thy heart is like a stone. So Let Thee be turned into a stone. Those&#xA;  who declare Thee as a saint, are no doubt mistaken. Why didst Thou for&#xA;  the sake of others, kill without any fault, another Bhakta of Thine.&#xA;  Thus speaking, Tulasî overpowered with grief and sorrow, cried aloud&#xA;  and repeatedly gave vent to lamentations.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-08-06T08:35:37.910" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T08:35:37.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20069" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8944" CreationDate="2017-08-06T09:24:22.357" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard about the mention of the fifth State Turiyatitam in the Saiva Sidhantha Scripture Sivagnanabodham. The fourth State Turiya is like self realization stage where in the yogi experiences that self Athman is the receiver of the divine grace of Siva and enjoys it. And in the fifth state of Turiyatita the yogi realizes the god, and involves in completely love and bakthi that the yogi does not feels difference between God and self. What ever the Athman does is Gods action and decision. It is like the bondage of body of soul. We Cannot differentiate body and soul when we live. And it clearly states that there exists always Athman and it is not like disappearance of vanishing of the Athma into the Brahman. (It is not like When few air is inside the pot and when the pot breaks the air inside the pot had merged with total air). In Tamil, Pathi(God) , Pashu(Athmas), Pasam(The universe) always exists. Even during maha pralaya, there is no universe, everything has merged into Brahman, It does not means all got Mukthi, but it is like a vacation. All the universe and Athmas according to their karmas restarts from what they have remaining karmas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11634" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T09:24:22.357" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20070" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10661" CreationDate="2017-08-06T09:56:20.220" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Being manifests Himself in three forms Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Preserver) and Shiva (Destroyer).  All three are one and the same and hence we have the Trimurty or the Trinity. Since both Shiva and Vishnu are one and the same person, we have to face the question why was this episode mentioned at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hinduism also talks of the Feminine Creator Adi Parashakti. Hence the Purusha (Shiva / Vishnu) is incomplete and or impotent without their Prakriti (Shakti). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is only when, Purusha and Prakriti unite that creation takes place. Was Mohini the Prakriti of Vishnu -if so there would be nothing wrong in the Purusha of Shiva uniting with the Prakriti of Vishnu - whether this union was symbolic or physical and the Creation that resulted was Ayyappa also known as Dharma Shashtaa or HariHara Putra (son of Hari-Vishnu and Hara-Shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This creation was necessary to kill the demoness Mahishi, sister of Mahishasura, who was blessed with a boon that she could only be killed by a child born of the union of Shiva and Vishnu - and who better to be a woman than Vishnu as Mohini. and Why is Vishnu's form called Mohini - not because it enraptured all the males, but because it was a form of Shriman Jaganmohini - Adi Parashakti - Tripura Sundari i.e Parvati - Shiva's Shakti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T09:56:20.220" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20074" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20213" CreationDate="2017-08-06T11:25:32.423" Score="13" ViewCount="3671" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kalpa is a period of time as per Hindu scriptures - each Brahma Rules over various Kalpas, each Kalpa consisting of 14 Manvantaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can I have the names of all the Kalpas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE: I want the names of the Kalpas from any authentic source like Puranas or Shrutis or any other scripture is fine - &lt;strong&gt;answer not needed if the Purana referenced is Bhavishya Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-12T07:52:57.613" LastActivityDate="2024-03-15T22:10:46.903" Title="What are the names of the Kalpas as mentioned in Srimad Bhagavat Mahapurana or in any other scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|bhagavata-purana|cosmology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20075" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-06T12:35:38.267" Score="3" ViewCount="50" Body="&lt;p&gt;During Pedha Karma, Why Everyone should leave hometown before the lamp off?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example: There is a family, Mother died, After few days family conducted &#xA;Pedha Karma. The Sons &amp;amp; Daughters, who are living abroad came &amp;amp; participate in Pedha Karma. They put main lamp in the house.  Now They should leave hometown before lamp turns off.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why like that ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11636" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-08T09:36:41.290" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T09:36:41.290" Title="Why Everyone should leave hometown before the lamp off?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20076" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19936" CreationDate="2017-08-06T13:25:09.150" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The caste system as we know it has been around for around 1,500 years. The rigid adherence to caste system and prohibition of inter caste marriages was finalized during the period of Later Guptas i.e in the 6th Century CE. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This rigidity was enforced on the basis of a Sanskrit Scripture called &quot;Manu Smriti&quot; (Laws of Manu).  from the usage of language this book appears to be written around 150 to 50 BCE or 2100 years ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The oldest available written scripture of Hinduism is Rig Veda written about 1500 to 1200 BCE or 3250 years ago. The writings are based on oral traditions handed down from about 3000 BCE or more than 5000 years old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Rig Veda, progenitors of the four ranked varna groups sprang from various parts of the body of the primordial man, which Brahma created from clay. Each group had a function in sustaining the life of society-the social body. Brahmans, or priests, were created from the mouth. They were to provide for the intellectual and spiritual needs of the community. Kshatriyas, warriors and rulers, were derived from the arms. Their role was to rule and to protect others. Vaishyas-landowners and merchants--sprang from the thighs, and were entrusted with the care of commerce and agriculture. Shudras-artisans and servants-came from the feet. Their task was to perform all manual labor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was no restriction on inter mingling or on inter-caste marriages.  The varna of the person was decided by their gunas - characterisitics and ability.  No one was a Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya or Sudra by birth.  His skills determined his varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Caste on the basis of birth and prohibition of Inter caste marriage is an abhorrence that was brought about 1500 years ago in the 5000 year old tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T13:25:09.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20077" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19923" CreationDate="2017-08-06T14:39:13.153" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Makara is the Sanskrit word for crocodile / alligator. Giant crocodiles existed in pre-historic times. With their snouts just above the water they could be mistaken for submerged rocks as they stay immobile for hours on end. Makara is the mount (Vahana) of both Ganga and sea god Varuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Timingilaas are giant whales like blue whale, etc.  The Tamil word for whales is 'Timingalams'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Timi refers to other big whales maybe narwhals / killer whales, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All are sea dwellers and aquatic creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T14:39:13.153" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20078" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20082" CreationDate="2017-08-06T14:47:35.767" Score="2" ViewCount="6767" Body="&lt;p&gt;For example, there is a Partial Lunar Eclipse taking place  tomorrow ( 7th August 2017 ).&#xA;Is performing Gayatri Japa during the Lunar Eclipse (10.52 Pm- 12.48 AM tomorrow)  allowed ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regards&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11614" LastEditorUserId="11614" LastEditDate="2017-08-06T15:20:12.223" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T17:21:51.667" Title="is it ok to do Gayatri Japa during a Lunar Eclipse?" Tags="|gayatri-mantra|japa|eclipse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20079" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19916" CreationDate="2017-08-06T15:25:39.750" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Nayanmars (also referred to as Nayanars) written in Tamil as நாயன்மார்கள், means &quot;hounds of Siva&quot;,were a group of 63 saints (also saint poets) in the 6th to 9th century who were devoted to the Hindu god Shiva in Tamil Nadu. They, along with the 12 Alvar saints, (who were Vaishnavites) influenced the Bhakti movement in Tamil Nadu. In the 10th century the head priest of King Raja Raja Chola I of Thanajavur named Nambiyandar Nambi compiled the work of these 63 Nayanmars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Nayanars were from various backgrounds, including Channars, Vellalas, oilmongers, Brahmins, and nobles. Along with the twelve Vaishnava Alvars, they are regarded the important saints from Tamil Nadu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Hindu revivalism which flourished between the 6th and 13th centuries in India produced many saints and scholars. The Nayanmars were among them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no monastic order of Nayanmars, into which one can be initiated.  Also the life of a wandering minstrel is just about impossible in the modern era. since the 9th Century CE there have been no further Nayanmars and the Bhakti Movement of the times of Nayanmars and Alvars no longer exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;to answer your query briefly - there will be no more Nayanmars because they were not a religious sect, but independent saint - Scholar poets devoted to the worship of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T15:25:39.750" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20080" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20089" CreationDate="2017-08-06T16:51:15.790" Score="2" ViewCount="697" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tried googling, couldn't find answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yesterday someone narrated that in Mahabharata days there was a sage (His name was Vishwamitra) was doing Tapasya to be as powerful as Shiva, Vishnu, Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gods wanted to break the Tapasya so one of them sent a beautiful dancer to break his meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tapasya was broken and when Vishwamitra looked at the dancer she became pregnant. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daughter was named Shakuntala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question. According to Hindu scriptures which of the gods devised the plan to send the dancer to break his Tapasya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3378" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-30T04:27:14.133" LastActivityDate="2020-06-30T04:27:14.133" Title="Need to know if Vishnu, Shiva or Indra stopped Vishwamitra's Tapasya(penance)" Tags="|scripture|vishwamitra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20081" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19906" CreationDate="2017-08-06T17:04:10.627" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tapas (penance) is to be performed with concentration. As per Veda Vyasa in Kali Yuga the easiest way to attain liberation is Naama Sankeertana - singing / repeating the Divine Name of the Lord.  In the Fourth Canto of Srimad Bhagavat Mahapurana 8th Chapter: Verses 45 - 53, Maharishi Narada describes the appearance and form of Lord Narayana to the young prince Dhruva and in the 54th verse tells of the mantra that devotedly repeated for seven consecutive nights and day will grant all wish fulfillment and one can see the siddhas traversing the skies and the mantra is &quot;ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय&quot;.  When such an easy way of tapas is available does one need any other beeja mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, neither having done this penance nor even tried it I will not be able to elucidate as to when the Supreme Being will be pleased and appear before the seeker. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T17:04:10.627" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20082" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20078" CreationDate="2017-08-06T17:07:11.753" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I got this from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astropeep.com/hindu-practices/lunar-eclipse-chandra-grahan-2017/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; website which mentions about Do's and Don'ts during eclipses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You should finish your breakfast/lunch/dinner at least 10 hours&#xA;before Eclipse.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Put minimum 2 blades of darba/kusha (grass) on top of each container&#xA;of food items like, rice, atta, dal, raw vegetables, ghee, milk,&#xA;curd, pickle etc. This darba grass is put to prevent the harmful&#xA;radioactive waves generated during the eclipse from making the food&#xA;harmful to us.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Any food which is cooked on fire that day and has been consumed&#xA;like,roti, chapatti, rice, sambar/dal,  curry etc should be thrown&#xA;away and not kept in the fridge.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Uncooked raw items to be used daily/regularly should be protected with&#xA;darba grass blades.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;when the actual Grahan period starts, you should have a head bath&#xA;with clothes on (dhoti and angavastram/uparna) and during the bath&#xA;chant the Grahana protection mantras.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After bath, change to dry clothes (dhoti and angavastra) and sit on a&#xA;mat and start “Mantra Japa”.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Men who have had their upanayan sanskar can do Gayatri Japa. Each&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Gayatri you chant will give you merits or phal of 1 crore Gayatri&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  chanting.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Those who have not had upanayan sanskar/ladies and children can chant&#xA;any mantra of their Ishta devata. Like “Shivaya Namah”, or “Vishnave&#xA;Namaha” or “Durgayay Namaha” or even slokas or Sahasranamas. This&#xA;mantra Japa should continue till the end of Grahana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In case you have some danam (donation) to give then you might have to&#xA;cut short your japa at little before the end of the eclipse and make&#xA;time to give dana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shastras mention you can give gold/silver/rice/clothes/money to a&#xA;needy brahmin.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, this website says as per Dharma Sastras it is okay to chant&#xA;  Gayathri Hymn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-08-06T17:21:51.667" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T17:21:51.667" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20083" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-06T17:11:53.430" Score="2" ViewCount="68" Body="&lt;p&gt;For example, we have partial lunar eclipse on 7.8.2017. With modern technology, it is possible to discover the date and time of eclipses. But without any modern equipment, how did ancient Hindus identify the time of eclipses to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20078/is-it-ok-to-do-gayatri-japa-during-a-lunar-eclipse/20082#20082&quot;&gt;follow the Do's and Don'ts during Grahana?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T17:11:53.430" Title="How did ancient Hindus identify the date and time of Eclipses?" Tags="|history|eclipse|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20084" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20271" CreationDate="2017-08-06T17:25:30.753" Score="3" ViewCount="8309" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know how promiscuity affects us? How it binds? What are the after affects of making many sexual partners? I think Runanbandha sheds light on this? &#xA;I want to know the hinduism point of view?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-08-07T03:22:16.623" LastActivityDate="2018-05-09T16:31:46.427" Title="How sexual relations with multiple partners affect us? What are after effects of promiscuity?" Tags="|dharma|ethics|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20085" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20130" CreationDate="2017-08-06T17:29:59.320" Score="11" ViewCount="5888" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard a lot that Lord Hanuman is immortal but I want to know where he lives? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10497" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-07T03:58:07.087" LastActivityDate="2021-03-14T13:19:42.210" Title="It is said that Lord Hanuman still lives on the earth, If it so where does he live?" Tags="|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20088" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20098" CreationDate="2017-08-06T18:26:41.927" Score="8" ViewCount="46733" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it allowed for pregnant women to go to temples?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it's not allowed, what are the restrictions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And are those restrictions based on scriptures or are they just traditions that have been followed for ages?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1082" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-06-30T13:36:08.003" LastActivityDate="2023-06-30T13:36:08.003" Title="Are pregnant women allowed to go to temples?" Tags="|scripture|temple|women|pregnancy|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20089" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20080" CreationDate="2017-08-06T18:28:02.863" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, the &lt;strong&gt;name of the sage was Vishwamitra&lt;/strong&gt;. Once he was doing a very severe austerities so Lord Indra thought that the sage has an eye on his throne. So, &lt;strong&gt;it was lord Indra who send a damsel Menaka to break his penance&lt;/strong&gt;. It is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01072.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva, SECTION LXXI&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Viswamitra, of old, having been engaged in the austerest penances alarmed Indra, the chief of the celestials, who thought that the mighty ascetic of blazing energy would, by his penances, hurl him down from his high seat in heaven.' Indra, thus alarmed, summoned Menaka and told her, 'Thou, O Menaka, art the first of celestial Apsaras. Therefore, O amiable one, do me this service. Hear what I say. This great ascetic Viswamitra like unto the Sun in splendour, is engaged in the most severe of penances. My heart is trembling with fear. Indeed, O slender-waisted Menaka, this is thy business. Thou must see that Viswamitra of soul rapt in contemplation and engaged in the austerest penances, who might hurl me down from my seat. Go and tempt him and frustrating his continued austerities accomplish my good. Win him away from his penances, O beautiful one, by tempting him with thy beauty, youth, agreeableness, arts, smiles and speech.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second of all it is not just Vishwamitra looked and Menaka became pregnant but they spend a quiet good time to beget Shakuntala as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01073.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;next chapter&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And that best of Munis saw that she was exceedingly handsome, with no marks of age on her person. And beholding her beauty and accomplishments that bull amongst Rishis was possessed with lust and made a sign that he desired her companionship. And he invited her accordingly, and she also of faultless features expressed her acceptance of the invitation. &lt;strong&gt;And they then passed a long time there in each other's company.&lt;/strong&gt; And sporting with each other, just as they pleased, for a long time as if it were only a single day, the Rishi begat on Menaka a daughter named Sakuntala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-08-06T18:28:02.863" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20093" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20084" CreationDate="2017-08-07T05:24:47.327" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sanatana Dharma there is no restriction on multiple partners -  the restriction is only on illicit relationship outside wedlock.  A man can have as many wives as he wants - a perusal of the Puranas reveals the same.  But in ancient Bharatavarsha the union between husband and wife was only at the time of ovulation - sex in Hinduism is not for pleasure - Kamasutra of Vatsayana notwithstanding. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Relations between husband and wife were primarily and mainly for procreation. Promiscuity especially with partners outside marriage is a sin punishable with a stay in any of the 27 narakas depending on the intensity.  This has been highlighted in Garuda Purana where it is stated that a woman selling her vagina (yoni) will suffer the tortures inflicted by the Yamadhootas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Shiva Purana Mahatmyam there is a passing refrence to this in the chapter Chanchula's Vairagya as under:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;योषितां जारसक्तानां नरके यमकिंकरा |&#xA;संतप्तलोहपरिघं शिपन्ति स्मरमन्दिरे || ३५ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning can roughly be as &quot;A licentious woman who has relations with a number of paramours, on her death the messengers of Yama (God of Death) will bind and take her to Hell where a red hot iron pestle would be inserted repeatedly into her vagina.”    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding licentious men this story is silent, except insofar as in verses 28 and 29 the following is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथ विप्रः कुमतिर्बिन्दुगो वृषिलीपतिः |&#xA;कालेन निधनं प्राप्तो जगाम नरकं खलः || २८ ||&#xA;भुक्त्वा नरकदुःखानि बह्वहानि स मूढघीः |&#xA;विन्ध्येsभवत्पिशाचो हि गिरौ पापी भयङ्करः || २९ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning would roughly be as &quot;In due course, with passage of time, death claimed Binduga and he was pushed to Hell. After suffering untold tortures in Hell for many a years, the Brahmin of low intellect became a frightful human flesh eating demon (Pishacha) residing in the Vindhya Mountain.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In due course, I would try to see what details are as per Garuda Purana and update this reply.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should also look up the Upanishads as there are many moral tales therein which may carry a reply to the above question - will try to source the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-07T05:24:47.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20095" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20131" CreationDate="2017-08-07T06:04:39.417" Score="11" ViewCount="2788" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Simulation hypothesis&lt;/a&gt; is a theory which is available in both &lt;em&gt;philosophy&lt;/em&gt; as well as &lt;em&gt;science&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a long philosophical and scientific history to the underlying thesis that reality is an illusion. This skeptical hypothesis can be traced back to antiquity; for example, to the &quot;Butterfly Dream&quot; of Zhuangzi, or &lt;strong&gt;the Indian philosophy of &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At science side it can be called as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Simulated reality&lt;/a&gt;. This Qn intends to know the philosophical side of it.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For uninitiated, this concept has been made popular (not discovered) by a very famous scientist &amp;amp; businessman &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Elon Musk&lt;/a&gt; recently. See the first 2 minutes of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMLqar5wps&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this interview&lt;/a&gt;. To explain in &lt;a href=&quot;http://qr.ae/TbcKgd&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;brief&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;45 years ago, Pong took the world by storm. The high-tech video game&#xA;  was bouncing a white ball between two white paddles. It was that&#xA;  simple and that technologically primitive.   45 years later, in 2017,&#xA;  we have high-tech video games. On 4K screens with intense graphics,&#xA;  video games are becoming more and more lifelike.   Now, imagine how&#xA;  much video games and tech will evolve over the next 10,000 years (when&#xA;  looking at 45 years of progress).   Based on history, we will&#xA;  eventually create a video game that is so lifelike, it is mistaken for&#xA;  reality.   And that video game will be invented. And we will have&#xA;  successfully created a simulation that another group of “things” (I am&#xA;  hesitant to say people) live in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So why do we assume we are the first?   Based on our own progress, we&#xA;  have to assume that someone else did it first. The chances we are &#xA;  the first are one in a billion. &lt;strong&gt;This means another group of “things”&#xA;  created a simulation that we call our lives.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this is believed to be true, then I writing this post &amp;amp; you reading it, is also a simulation!  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On philosophical side, let's not marginalise ourselves as merely a game. However, we can surely theorise ourselves as &quot;simulated ones&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Do we have scriptural references for this phenomenon?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: This concept has been explored in scientific way in the movies like &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix_(franchise)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matrix&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Code&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source code&lt;/a&gt; And philosophically in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Inception&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-similarity&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Self-similarity&lt;/a&gt; patterns which describe it the best. For example, below patterns are similar to the Qn. A simulation inside a simulation inside a simulation inside a simulation ...&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tCzni.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tCzni.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or a tree with a branch, which is a tree with a branch, which is a tree with a branch, ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eLtp4.gif&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/eLtp4.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T07:03:47.527" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T16:42:05.333" Title="Are there Hindu scriptural references for &quot;Simulation hypothesis&quot; or the &quot;theory of simulation&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|science|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20097" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20080" CreationDate="2017-08-07T06:15:02.747" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from Adi Parva of Mahabharata Sambhava Parva Chapters 71 &amp;amp; 72 - Shakuntala's History - Bala Kanda of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana narrates the History of Maharishi Kaushika who subsequently came to be known world over by his name Brahmarishi Vishwamitra in chapters 51 to 65.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmarishi Vishwamitra had approached Emperor Dasharatha to send his sons Rama and Lakshmana with him to his hermitage to protect his yagnas from the rampages of the asuras.  Intially Dashratha refuses, offering to accompany the sage himself and if required with his army, but Vishwamitra was adamant.  On the advice of his preceptor Sage Vasishta, Dashratha allows his sons to accompany the sage.  We all know the stories of the slaying of Tataka, Subahu and sending Marichi with his arrows to a far distant place.  Most of us also know that it was during this expedition that Rama and Lakshmana acquired the knowledge of divine weapons Bala &amp;amp; Atibala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Vishwamitra finished his yagnas and austerities, Rama and Lakshmana accompany him to Mithila, on the way liberating Ahalya from an age old curse to re-unite her with her husband Sage Gautama and they reach Mithila.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There Raja Janaka welcomes Sage Vishmitra and his followers. Amongst the sages in present in Mithila was Maharishi Shatananda, the eldest son of Sage Gautama and Ahalya, and hearing from Sage Vishwamitra about his mother's liberation he welcomes Sri Rama and tells of the greatness of Brahmarishi Vishwamitra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra the king of Devas thought that Raja Kaushika undertook penances to become as powerful as himself and deprive him of his throne and position. Apart from the attempt to seduce him through Menaka, which resulted in the birth of his daughter Shakuntala, Indra once disguised as a poor Brahmana deprived Vishwamitra of the fast breaking food, but by that time Vishwamitra was more in control of his senses and he quitely went back to perform austerities for another 10000 years. Indra tried to seduce Vishwamitra once again through Divine Nymph Rambha, but the infuriated sage cursed her to turn into a rock for 10000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmarishi Vishwamitra undertook severe austerities not to be equal to Shiva or Vishnu, nor was he interested in Indra's throne as Indra feared. Going back Vishwamitra was a noble king Kaushika.  Once on his tours he came to the hermitage of Brahmarishi Vasishta and was entertained to a royal repast. This was possible by the Divine Cow known variously as Nandini, Kamadhenu, etc. gifted to him which could fulfill all the desires of its masters. Kauishka wanted it, but Vasishta would not part with it. In a pitched battle Vaishta easily vanquished the king and his army single handedly.  The desire to own Kamadhenu prompted Kauishka to severe austerities and penances till he overcame his desires, conquered his senses and realized Brahman by becoming a Brahmarishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-07T06:15:02.747" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20098" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20088" CreationDate="2017-08-07T06:28:27.647" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;I will be surprised if one can find direct references to your question in scriptures. At least, there is nothing in the Vedas, Smritis and the Agamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it remains only to see if the PurAnas and the ItihAsas have something in them  or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am answering your question with an indirect reference, which says, &lt;strong&gt;a woman should be allowed to go to temples till the last month of her pregnancy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Bhairvai Tantram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;StrinAm Garbhavatinancha Naivya Dushanam&lt;/strong&gt; Na KuryAddasame MAsi KritvA&#xA;  Cha Naraki Bhavet |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no prohibition for pregnant women [getting initiated (taking&#xA;  mantra dikshA)] but if taken on the tenth month the woman goes to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if a woman is considered pure for the purpose of DikshA (which is the first and foremost among all rituals) for all months of pregnancy except the tenth, then she should be allowed to do any other religious activities like visiting temples, doing daily worship etc in those months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, of course, whether she feels like going to temples (because of her health condition) is another important thing to be taken into account.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;NOTe- This is an indirect answer. So you should wait for more direct answers from scriptures.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-08-07T06:28:27.647" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20099" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-07T06:39:44.183" Score="2" ViewCount="206" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wiki Source:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In recent days Post-independence India held it's first elections. The&#xA;  rest of the India voted only in February–March 1952 for the Lok Sabha&#xA;  and Vidhan Sabha elections. Polling was held between 25 October 1951&#xA;  and 27 March 1952. The very first votes of the election were cast in&#xA;  the tehsil (district) of Chini in Himachal Pradesh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard about &lt;strong&gt;‘Janapada’, It means “People’s Republic, where people come together to choose their leader.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Electoral system does exist in Ancient India Mythology? If Yes, What are the Qualification for contestants? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any Scriptures mention about Election system in Vedas or Ramayana/Mahabharata? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-08-07T06:44:59.483" LastActivityDate="2017-08-07T06:44:59.483" Title="What is the History of Election/Voting system in Ancient India?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|history|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2017-08-08T02:35:09.017" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20100" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20088" CreationDate="2017-08-07T06:52:14.220" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dr. Vaddiparti Padmakar says in &lt;em&gt;Dharma Sandehalu&lt;/em&gt; program:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pregnant women after 5 months should not go to the temples. The reason behind this is health issue.  Many temples used to have steps and are situated on a hill top. If she visits such temples it may effect the health of the mother and baby in the womb. After 5 months, a woman's feet get numb and sometimes they might not be able to walk properly. So, women are not generally not allowed to visit temples due to health problems.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if the woman is healthy and the temple is very near and if there is no problem in going, then she can visit up to 7 months but should not offer oblations, shouldn't perform circumambulations and other actions which involve physical strain. Other reason is that the temples have powerful yantras under the idol. Adults like us doesn't have negative effect but they are too powerful for babies in the womb. Hence, it is not recommended for pregnant women to visit temples after 5 months. They should not visit temples after 7 months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is no restrictions to do simple poojas and listen to religious discourses and purana stories in their home itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says it is said in Shukra Niti that a pregnant woman is not allowed after 7 months and in Brihaspati smriti it is said that a pregnant woman is not allowed after 5 months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/kd6wRe32a6c&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UykXQX6U28&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; video in Telugu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-07T08:06:22.453" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20101" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20095" CreationDate="2017-08-07T07:04:10.517" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17605/8696&quot;&gt;Vijnabhairava&lt;/a&gt; tantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18156/8696&quot;&gt;Bhairava&lt;/a&gt; said:&lt;/strong&gt; Good! Good! Dear one. you have put questions which pertain&#xA;  to the very quintessence of Tantra. Though. the matter is most esoteric, oh auspicious one, yet shall I explain it to you.&#xA;  Whatever has been declared to be the composite form (Sakala)&#xA;  of Bhairava, that oh goddess should be considered as insubstantial&#xA;  (asarataya), &lt;strong&gt;as phantasmagoria (lit. as the net of Indra),&#xA;  as magical illusion (maya), as dream, as the mirage of a town of&#xA;  Gandharvas in the sky&lt;/strong&gt;. The sakal a aspect of Bhairava is taught,&#xA;  as a prop for meditation, to those who are of deluded intellect,&#xA;  who are interested in ostentatious performance of rituals, it has&#xA;  been declared for those people who are a prey to dichotomising&#xA;  thought-constructs. Verse 7-10.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All manifestation from gods down to the mineral is&#xA;known as sakala. Sakala is the sphere of maya tattva. It consists&#xA;of bheda-difference or division. The essential nature of&#xA;Bhairava cannot be known by means of sakala which consists&#xA;of difference and division.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, In Anuttarshtika of Acharya Abhinavgupta on verse 2 says as follow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In reality there is no such thing as birth and death, so how can the question arise of bondage for living beings?&lt;/strong&gt; There never was any such bondage for the one who is entirely free, and therefore, to struggle for liberation is useless and nothing more than delusion–like a dark shadow mistaken for a demon, or a rope seen as a snake. &lt;strong&gt;It is all based on deceitful perception which has no substance.&lt;/strong&gt; Neither abandon nor accept anything, remain as you are, well established in your own Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So he said there is no birth or death, it is just a deceitful perception. Moreover, in the last sentence he asked to remain as you are - neither accept nor reject anything which is nothing but stopping of &lt;strong&gt;simulation&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Stoppage of mental simulation&lt;/strong&gt; is liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-08-08T14:32:59.503" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T14:32:59.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20102" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-07T07:42:39.253" Score="7" ViewCount="776" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is commonly known idea that merit time is a sacred one and it is suggested that one must do good deeds like sacred bathing, charity, japa, homa, etc. during the eclipse. Activities like eating, sleeping, intercourse, and normal rituals are not recommended during this period. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the specialty of this celestial event?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does it help us to gain better results from spiritual deeds? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-08-07T07:42:39.253" Title="What is esoteric meaning behind eclipse timing?" Tags="|rituals|mantras|spirituality|eclipse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20103" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20102" CreationDate="2017-08-07T07:42:39.253" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Eclipse is a special celestial event which takes place either on a full moon (lunar) or a new moon day (solar). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the traditional belief, good deeds done during this time would give manifold fruits. Hence it is considered as very potent time for the sadhana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per astronomy, Sun, Moon, and Earth are in a straight direction during the eclipse. Either Sun's view is blocked by the moon or moon is not seen due to shadow of Earth. In both cases they are in an alignment. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now how does these planets being in the straight line have any impact on us? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the shastrAs, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moon signifies the mind,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चन्द्रमा मनसो जातश्चक्षोः सूर्यो अजायत । श्रोत्राद्वायुश्च प्राणश्च मुखादग्निरजायत ।। 12 (purusha suktam)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;the Sun signifies Soul/AtmA, (cosmic consciousness)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सूर्य आत्मा जगत्स्तथुषश्च - ऋग्वेद&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And the earth signifies physical body.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence during the eclipse tume,  our mind, body, and soul are more in an alignment with each other than the normal time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idA  nAdi signifies the moon, the pingalA nAdi signifies the Sun and when both are in alignment, there is high chances of the central nAdi ShushumnA (the passage of kundalini shakti) to get activated. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When sushumna is active, the person has a better ability to dwell within and contemplate or meditate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Varaha Upanishad (13-16 cc. CE) further describes it as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The &lt;strong&gt;nāḍis&lt;/strong&gt; penetrate the body from the soles of the feet to the&#xA;  crown of the head. In them is prāṇa, the breath of life and in that&#xA;  life abides Ātman, which is the abode of &lt;strong&gt;Shakti&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;creatrix&lt;/strong&gt; of&#xA;  the animate and inanimate worlds.&quot; (VU 54/5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The medieval &lt;strong&gt;Sat-Cakra-Nirupana&lt;/strong&gt; (1520s), one of the later and more&#xA;  fully developed classical texts on nadis and chakras, refers to these&#xA;  three main nadis by the names Sasi, Mihira, and Susumna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the space outside the Meru, the right apart from the body placed on&#xA;  the left and the right, are the two Nadis, Sasi (idA) and Mihira (pingala). The Nadi&#xA;  Susumna, whose substance is the threefold Gunas, is in the middle. She&#xA;  is the form of Moon, Sun, and Fire even water also; Her body, a string&#xA;  of blooming Dhatura flowers, extends from the middle of the Kanda to&#xA;  the Head, and the Vajra inside Her extends, shining, from the Medhra&#xA;  to the Head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadi_(yoga)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence this time is a precious time when there are higher chances for shuhumna naadi to be active. One can use this time to advance in spirituality. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-08-07T07:42:39.253" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20104" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-07T12:24:04.810" Score="3" ViewCount="178" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm looking for a Gita in English to replace the current version we have, which is the Bhagavad-Gita: As It Is by Parabhupāda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm drawn to The Essence of Bhagavad Gita by Paramahansa Yogananda because I love his writing, but I cannot tell from the online descriptions whether this version is a translation or a commentary. If it is only commentary, I will look elsewhere for a Gita translation (likely Ghandi's transition).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11647" LastEditorUserId="11647" LastEditDate="2017-08-12T09:27:33.083" LastActivityDate="2017-08-12T09:27:33.083" Title="Is Gita from Yogananda a translation or commentary?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20105" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20126" CreationDate="2017-08-07T14:06:56.273" Score="6" ViewCount="533" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Sanskrit considered divine language to those of the hindu faith? If so why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not Hindu, but I am interested in this topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11648" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T10:13:35.160" Title="Is Sanskrit considered divine language to those of the Hindu faith?" Tags="|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20107" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20105" CreationDate="2017-08-07T15:20:27.923" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Sanskrit is a divine language. As commented by Rohit, Sanskrit is considered divine because Sanskrit sounds emanated from Lord Shiva's Damru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit is written in devanagari script. The word devanagari can be divided into &lt;strong&gt;deva&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;nagari&lt;/strong&gt; where deva means immortal beings and nagari means city. So, devanagari means city of immortals.&#xA;In Sanskrit, there are no capital letters. Each letter represents one, and only one, sound. In English, the letter 'a' for example, may indicate many sounds (e.g. fat,fare, far), but not so in Sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit is the oldest language living till today. If you will listen to Sanskrit especially the mantras then you might be able to feel the vibration caused by it. Sanskrit is the language spoken by gods. Our Scriptures have been written in Sanskrit language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In most languages you will find words that represent particular objects. For e.g. tree represents an object.&#xA;In Sanskrit words represent properties of an object. So, there is no translation of a tree in Sanskrit. Now ofcourse people might argue that tree in Sanskrit is called as वृक्ष (Briksha). For those, I suggest to read the following article: &lt;a href=&quot;https://uttishthabharata.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/sanskrit/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Features of Sanskrit that make it an extra-ordinary language&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10303" LastEditorUserId="11648" LastEditDate="2017-08-07T15:42:32.330" LastActivityDate="2017-08-07T15:42:32.330" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20108" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20104" CreationDate="2017-08-07T15:49:42.803" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You have made a good decision to explore inner yogic meanings from the books of Yogananda. He has written a commentary on geeta which is named &quot;God talks with Arjuna&quot;.  He has presented many practical aspects of inner rAja yoga in this book. You can slowly read one by one chapters and contemplate on its meanings. He has also described symbolism in this book. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can download it from the below links or  buy from Amazon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.148952/2015.148952.The-Bhagavad-Gitachapter-1-5-Ed-1st#page/n0/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;God talks with Arjuna - Part one&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.463544&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;God talks with Arjuna - Part two&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-08-07T15:49:42.803" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20111" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15617" CreationDate="2017-08-07T17:01:35.570" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Devanagri script (used for Sanskrit) the first alphabet / vowel is 'अ' or 'a'.  If the vowel 'a' is not added to the word, the word is incomplete - Rama without 'a' i.e Ram would be in Devanagri script become 'राम्' and not 'राम'. Similarly for Shiva, Krishna, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second alphabet / vowel is 'आ' or 'aa'. Whenever 'aa' is added to a word it denotes the feminine. Thus 'कृष्णा' is the name of Draupadi and not Sri Hari 'कृष्ण'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this clarifies your query. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-07T17:01:35.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20113" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20105" CreationDate="2017-08-07T17:48:13.807" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit is among best languages, the world has to offer. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Language is never a barrier to communicate with lord in my locality at least. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can say it sacred in sense, in todays world, since it is no more used commonly but used to read scriptures for god only. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Otherwise, &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;It is a good language, easily communicable and expressible to god,  but sacred, nothing like that in sense you think.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We read Hindi translated version, we believe expression matters more than words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reading something incomprehensible is worthless, just express, you dont need words often for that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A language is a tool. It cannot be any sacred entity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/no-abusive-word-in-sanskrit/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit does not have any abusive words, &lt;/a&gt; but still, that just make it highly respectable and not sacred. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5365" LastActivityDate="2017-08-07T17:48:13.807" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20114" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20095" CreationDate="2017-08-08T02:45:04.793" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sankaracharya stated &quot;bramha satyam, jagat mithya&quot;. So yes, the observable universe is a simulation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9960/help-me-to-find-out-the-verse-brahma-satyam-jagat-mithya-jivo-brahmaiva-napa&quot;&gt;Help me to find out the verse : &amp;quot;Brahma satyam jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are also informed that Vishnu in repose is actually dreaming of the whole universe and we are a part of His dream. (Caveat: this is mostly a ISKCON interpretation. Ref: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3887/are-there-any-references-to-the-brahma-samhita-before-chaitanya-mahprabhu&quot;&gt;Are there any references to the Brahma Samhita before Chaitanya Mahprabhu?&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a lighter note, there was a scholar who was giving a discourse in an open space on truth, illusion etc. An elephant ran amok into the crowd and everyone ran away scared. After things got settled down a bit a wise guy asked the scholar humbly &quot; sir, if everything is illusion, then why did you run from the elephant? Isn't elephant also an illusion&quot;. The scholar jokingly replied &quot;gajam mithya, palAyanam mithya&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See also &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Holographic principle&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-09-20T16:42:05.333" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T16:42:05.333" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20115" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-08T03:14:38.323" Score="2" ViewCount="154" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bengal, we have the tradition put forward by Acharyas that Chandipath is not to be chanted at night. Unfortunately I have no sources or references to quote. Could anyone please tell me whether its valid, or is it just one of those unexplained regional traditions put forward by interpolation or modification? Thank you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T03:14:38.323" Title="Recitation of Chandipath" Tags="|devi-bhagavata-purana|vedic-chanting|chandipath|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20116" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-08T04:25:23.387" Score="4" ViewCount="409" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, and Vaisheshika. My question is about the Nyaya school and the Vaishesika school.  In contrast to the Purva Mimamsa school, which believed just as modern science does that sound is a vibration of air, the Nyaya school and the Vaishesika schools believed that sound was a phenomenon of Akasha or space, not a phenomenon of air. Here's what B.N. Seal says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601900.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/23/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.274341/2015.274341.The-Positive_jp2.tar&amp;amp;file=2015.274341.The-Positive_jp2/2015.274341.The-Positive_0389.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the book &quot;The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The early Nyaya writers hold that the sound wave has its substrate in Akasha and not Vayu. Later writers add that sound itself is a phenomenon not to be conceived as a mode of motion, for Akasha, the substrate is, in the Nyaya view, incapable of motion.  At the same time, the propagation of sound must be conceived on the analogy of waves in water Udyotakara in the Vartika, Vachaspati in the Tatparyyatika, and Jayanta in the Nyaya-Manjari controvert the three views current in the Mimansa school,— (1) that Nada, the physical basis of audible sound, is a specific quality of Vayu (air), (2) that sound in its physical aspect, is constituted by a series of air movements of the nature of a current, and (3) that it is not air currents but air waves, series of conjunctions and disjunctions of the air particles or molecules, that constitute the Nada, the sound physical, to which, in the case of significant sounds, the Mimansakas assign the function of manifesting the sphota, 'transcendental ' or 'intelligible' sound. — Against these views, the early Nyaya Doctors maintain that sound is a specific quality of Akasha (ether) and not of Vayu (air). At the same time, they admit that the impact which originates the sound phenomenon in Akasha does so by setting up a vibration in the molecules of the object struck, and that these vibrating molecules impinge against the air molecules in contacts. In other words, though Akasha is the substrate, the efficient cause of sound is to be found in the mechanical impact of vibrating molecules of sonorous bodies against contiguous molecules of air. As to the propagation of sound, the early Nyaya-Vaishesika writers content themselves with stating that the first sound thus produced in the substrate Akasha by the impact of the vibrating molecules against the contiguous molecules of air, produces a second sound in the contiguous Akasha, and the second sound, a third, and so on, in the same way as waves are generated in water, until the last sound sets up a vibration in the ear-drum. Of course, this propagation of sound-wave in Akasha is effected by means of the air-wave as its vehicle. This is the Nyaya-Vaiseshika hypothesis of an independent sound-wave.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what are the arguments of the Nyaya and Vausheshika schools for sound being a phenomenon of Akasha rather than air?  I would check the three Nyaya works mentioned, namely Udyotakara's Nyaya Vartika, Vachaspati Mishra's Tatparya Tika, and Jayanta Bhatta's Nyaya Manjari, but so far as I can tell none of those works have been translated into English.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I'm not looking for scientific speculation, I'm just interested in what arguments are given in Nyaya and Vaisheshika works.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T04:39:39.220" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T04:39:39.220" Title="What are the Nyaya-Vaisheshika arguments against sound as a vibration of air?" Tags="|philosophy|science|nyaya|shad-darshana|vaisheshika|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20117" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19906" CreationDate="2017-08-08T04:35:27.413" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tapasya is usually said to be of 3 types&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;vAcika : of speech (and silence) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;kAyika (aka zArIrika) : of the body&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;mAnasika : of the mind (actually the 4 antaHkaraNAs)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All 3 are attained by the practice of ashtAnga yOga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;If a pure hearted soul wished to undertake it, how is a Tapas performed?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can be performed through bhakti, gnyAna or karma/upAsana paths. The latter two are not for everyone. Bhakti is accessible to all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Is a manthric procedure laid down in the scriptures aimed towards visible visitation of deity penanced to grant boons.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Usually. If your aim, however is Atma sAkSAtkAra, then yOga (such as rAja, ashtAnga etc) is the way to go. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&gt; Yogaat sanjaayatey Jnaanam Jnaanaad Yogah pravartate,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoga jnaanaabhi yuktasya praseedati Maheshwarah/] See&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/kurmapurana/bookview.php?chapnum=18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Is the number of manthra repetitions presribed for each God? (I know of numbers needed for some desired goals ..ishta kamyardhams recommended by swamis).&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Usually. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Are there specific mantras prescribed to propitiate particular Gods ?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes. These necessarily have to be obtained from a guru who has attained siddhi in that particular mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Is there a normal time for appearance of the God? Is it allowed to take breaks during the tapas? ( because it is not only a spiritual act but also a bodily performed action with concentration). &quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The guru who gives the mantra will explain the rules and regulations as well. Also refer to the types of tapas above. Even if one is not chanting the mantra at a particular time, following the 8-limbs of yoga does count as tapasya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;What recent accounts are there of spiritual persons who saw God or attained peace and internal power transmitted as divine messages?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many known and innumerable unknown - Sringeri Jagadgurus, Mouna Swami, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Narayana Teertha, Trilinga Swami, Kanchi Paramacharya etc. etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot; When he did hear pleasing divine musical sounds he was enthralled and confided to me.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are called nAdA. There are &lt;a href=&quot;http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=1721&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;10 types of nAda&lt;/a&gt; that a yogi hears in deep meditation. Hearing nAdAs is a graduation of sorts in sAdhana. I provide the link only because the site mandates references. It is better to not know these things ahead of time as it is very much possible to trick one's mind into &quot;creating&quot; these experiences as opposed to letting them come to one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-08-08T04:53:07.547" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T04:53:07.547" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20118" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-08T05:36:57.367" Score="5" ViewCount="448" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to astrology (Jyotisha), there are nine planets (Graha). Brahma created many planets and among all planets, He made only earth (Prithvi) livable for humans. He established life only on earth, not on any other planet. I want to know why only the current planet is chosen for human beings? Is there any related story or reason described in scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I'm not talking about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loka#Hindu_tradition&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lokas&lt;/a&gt;, I'm talking about planets i,e &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navagraha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Grahas&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-08-15T08:31:42.423" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T08:31:42.423" Title="Why is only Earth (Prithvi) chosen for life of human beings?" Tags="|brahma|life|earth|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="24" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20119" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-08T06:41:40.603" Score="3" ViewCount="437" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu calendar only includes Umbra as an eclipse. Penumbra (here B) can affect a wider area of place and last longer as well. Partial eclipse also occurs in the Penumbra. So why is only Umbra counted as an eclipse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/e9H6P.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/e9H6P.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="871" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-19T09:20:14.183" LastActivityDate="2018-02-19T09:20:14.183" Title="Why do Hindus only count Umbra as the eclipse?" Tags="|astrology|surya|calendar|eclipse|chandra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20120" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-08T07:00:09.013" Score="-1" ViewCount="3519" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the respective Varna what position they would be? Kindly tell me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8390" LastEditorUserId="8390" LastEditDate="2017-08-10T00:55:44.617" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T05:43:48.113" Title="What Varna and caste would work of today's physicians and doctors be classified as according to duty of various varnas?" Tags="|caste-system|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-08-08T15:44:54.350" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20121" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20122" CreationDate="2017-08-08T07:15:48.657" Score="6" ViewCount="526" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramana Maharshi was an enlightened master from the last century, what technique did he prescribe to know the self or become self realized?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-08-08T07:37:56.780" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T18:02:27.707" Title="What liberation technique taught by Shree Ramana Maharshi?" Tags="|moksha|atma|brahman|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20122" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20121" CreationDate="2017-08-08T07:15:48.657" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the book &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/who_am_I.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Who am I&lt;/a&gt;. His technique name is Self inquiry. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Que:10. How will the mind become quiescent?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Ramana:&lt;/strong&gt; By the inquiry ‘Who am I?’. The thought ‘who am I?’ will destroy all other thoughts, and like the&#xA;  stick used for stirring the burning pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed. Then, there will arise&#xA;  Self-realization. &lt;Br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Ques:11. What is the means for constantly holding on to the thought ‘Who am I?’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Ramana:&lt;/strong&gt; When other thoughts arise, one should not pursue them, but should inquire: ‘To whom do they&#xA;  arise?’ It does not matter how many thoughts arise. As each thought arises, one should inquire&#xA;  with diligence, “To whom has this thought arisen?”. The answer that would emerge would be “To&#xA;  me”. Thereupon if one inquires “Who am I?”, the mind will go back to its source; and the thought&#xA;  that arose will become quiescent. With repeated practice in this manner, the mind will develop the&#xA;  skill to stay in its source. When the mind that is subtle goes out through the brain and the senseorgans,&#xA;  the gross names and forms appear; when it stays in the heart, the names and forms disappear.&#xA;  Not letting the mind go out, but retaining it in the Heart is what is called “inwardness” (antarmukha).&#xA;  Letting the mind go out of the Heart is known as “externalisation” (bahir-mukha). Thus,&#xA;  when the mind stays in the Heart, the ‘I’ which is the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self which ever exists will shine. Whatever one does, one should do without the egoity “I”. If one acts&#xA;  in that way, all will appear as of the nature of Siva (God).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/b0Vd0.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/b0Vd0.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-09-03T18:02:27.707" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T18:02:27.707" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20123" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18594" CreationDate="2017-08-08T07:24:27.837" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;By firm knowledge of the self also, a ChAndAla can purify himself. From the inference of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/snsastri/Manishapanchakam.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manisha Panchakam by Adi ShankarAchArya&lt;/a&gt;. The position of Guru is full of purity; calling someone guru implies the purity of the callee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a person has attained the firm knowledge that he is not an&#xA;  object of perception, but is that pure consciousness which&#xA;  shines clearly in the states of waking, dream and deep sleep,&#xA;  and which, as the witness of the whole universe, dwells in all&#xA;  bodies from that of the Creator Brahma to that of the ant, then&#xA;  he is my Guru, irrespective of whether he is a chAndAla or a&#xA;  Brahmana. This is my conviction. Verse-1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T07:24:27.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20124" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20120" CreationDate="2017-08-08T08:05:37.610" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;One can not decide like that. One can not say that since you are such and such by occupation you belong to such and such varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What the scriptures will tell us is simply what the recommended occupations are for a person belonging to a particular varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, for the Vaishya varna the following are the recommended jobs:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;63&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;To invest money on interest, to be a jeweller, to tend cattle, tillage and trade, — these are declared as occupations for the Vaisya&#xA;  caste,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ParAsara Smriti 1-63&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, that does not mean  one can also say that all persons in trading business are Vaishya by varna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly with doctors. Just like a Vaishya can be a doctor, even a Brahmin can be one too. But its a different thing that then he will be considered as degraded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The four [classes of] Vipras&lt;/strong&gt;, who sell sheep, who are painters, &lt;strong&gt;who&#xA;  are physicians,&lt;/strong&gt; and who read the positions of stars, should never be&#xA;  adored, even if they are equal to Vrihaspati in learning. (378)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti's Chapter 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This above verse clearly shows that people belonging to different occupations can belong to one particular varna (Brahmin here). So, ascertaining varna from occupation is not possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T05:43:48.113" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T05:43:48.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20125" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20119" CreationDate="2017-08-08T09:47:41.397" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe the answer lies in your question itself - Total Eclipse occurs only for an observer in the Umbra region. Penumbral Lunar Eclipses are not visible to the naked eye hence no rituals related to Chandra Grahan are generally observed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, if the eclipse is visible then it may be counted. Last night's (Shravan Purnima - 7th August 2017) partial Lunar Eclipse was mentioned even resulted in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/festivals/raksha-bandhan/raksha-bandhan-date-time.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Muhurat for Rakshabandhan&lt;/a&gt; being shortened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RTlVj.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RTlVj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is due to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ndtv.com/food/rakhi-2017-rakshabandhan-muhurat-and-timings-to-tie-rakhi-and-perform-rituals-1733835&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lunar Eclipse&lt;/a&gt; that the time was shortened:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/m5wVY.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/m5wVY.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T09:47:41.397" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20126" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20105" CreationDate="2017-08-08T10:13:35.160" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it is considered divine and is referred to as Dev-bhasha or the 'Language of the Gods'. The following verses from Mahabharat Shanti Parva &lt;a href=&quot;https://brvf.org/2017/04/24/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8C%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B7%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BF/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;महाभारते १२.२३१.५६ and महाभारत १२.२३२.२४&lt;/a&gt; clearly declare its divine status:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अनादिनिधना ह्येषा वागुत्सृष्टा स्वयम्भुवा ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आदौ वेदमयी दिव्या यतस्सर्वाः प्रसूतयः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beginning-less and endless is this vāk manifested on its own,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First as Veda the celestial and from that everything else born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hindi Translation -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आदि-रहिता एवं अन्त-रहिता यह वेदमयी दिव्या विद्यावाणी स्वयम्भू है&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एवं यही प्रथम वेद के रूप में एवं तदनन्तर सर्व वस्तुज्ञान को प्रसवित करती है&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is the confirmation of the belief that the language is of a non-human or divine origin.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T10:13:35.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20128" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20166" CreationDate="2017-08-08T12:10:08.947" Score="12" ViewCount="4146" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like there is a meaning of the word Shiva which is explained &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18851/8696&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, what is the meaning of Indra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-01-07T07:05:46.953" LastActivityDate="2021-08-22T17:15:07.903" Title="What is the meaning of Indra?" Tags="|indra|sanskrit|etymology|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20129" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-08T12:24:15.077" Score="3" ViewCount="3743" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a question out of curiosity:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the approximate age of Hanuman, when Bheema met him in the Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="585" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-09T04:13:01.280" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T18:58:21.823" Title="What was the age of Hanuman when Bheema met him?" Tags="|mahabharata|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20130" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20085" CreationDate="2017-08-08T12:39:38.147" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes Lord Hanuman is still on this planet. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/canto5/chapter19.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimad Bhagvat Puran Canto 5 Chapter 19&lt;/a&gt; mentions that he lives in the &lt;strong&gt;Kimpurush Varsha&lt;/strong&gt; listening to Ramayan being sung by the denizens of the place and himself joining them in&#xA;the singing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;किंपुरुषे वर्षे भगवन्तमादिपुरुषं&#xA;  लक्ष्मणाग्रजं सीताभिरामं रामं तच्चरणसंनिकर्षाभिरतः परमभागवतो- हनुमान् सह किंपुरुषैः&#xA;  अविरतभक्तिरुपासते । &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आर्ष्टिषेणेन सह गन्दर्वैरनुगीयमानं&#xA;  परमकल्याणीं भर्तृभगवत्कथां समुपशृणोति  स्वयं चेदं गायति ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;S'rî S'uka said: &lt;strong&gt;'In the land of Kimpurusha&lt;/strong&gt; the supreme and greatest devotee &lt;strong&gt;Hanumân&lt;/strong&gt; delighting in service at His feet is together with the people always engaged there in worship of the Supreme Lord Râmacandra, the Original Personality who as the elder brother of Lakshmana is so &#xA;  pleasing to Sîtâ.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Together with Ârshthishena [the leader of Kimpurusha] attentively listening to the stories about his most auspicious master and Lordship being chanted by a company of Gandharvas, &lt;strong&gt;he [Hanumân] himself&lt;/strong&gt; prays thus.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the &lt;strong&gt;location of Kimpurush Varsha&lt;/strong&gt;, it is stated to be situated &lt;a href=&quot;http://gitabase.com/eng/SB/1/16/12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;north of the Himalayas&lt;/a&gt; which could refer to the northern range of the mountains since Mansarovar Lake is also associated with it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OJRXH.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OJRXH.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-08-08T16:13:31.607" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T16:13:31.607" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20131" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20095" CreationDate="2017-08-08T12:53:52.727" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17066/where-do-vedas-state-universe-being-a-projection-in-space-time/17067#17067&quot;&gt;answer here,&lt;/a&gt; AtharvaVeda states Universe as like projection in space-time:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पूर्ण कुम्भोदिः काल आहितस्तं वै पश्यामो बहुदा नु सन्तः । [AtharvaVeda 19.53.3]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;A full pot has been placed in Time and it is that which we see manifoldly.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly as I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14913/where-does-rig-veda-states-about-cyclical-nature-of-creation/14914#14914&quot;&gt;discuss here,&lt;/a&gt; RigVeda states the present creation is similar like the past creation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Ordainer created the sun and moon like those of previous cycles.&lt;/strong&gt; He formed in order Heaven and Earth, the regions of the air, and light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And RigVeda also states it is Indras (Gods) form seen as many due to Maya, which I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19033/which-vedic-verses-describe-indra-as-brahman/19035#19035&quot;&gt;discuss here:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रूपं-रूपं परतिरूपो बभूव तदस्य रूपं परतिचक्षणाय |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इन्द्रो मायाभिः पुरुरूप ईयते युक्ता हयस्य हरयःशता दश || (RigVeda 6.47.18)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;In every figure he hath been the mode: this is his only form for us to look on. Indra assumes many form by his Maya,&lt;/strong&gt; for his Bay Steeds are yoked, ten times a hundred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Combining all these three statements at the same time we can get strong hint of Universe being like a simulation type, although this may not exclusively prove that&amp;nbsp; Universe is simulation.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the Yoga-Vasistha there is a story which very much resembles the above description given in the story. In this story Indra enters inside atom and he forms his Kingdom inside that atom through his imagination. But that imagination formed world begins to work like real world and other Indras (his sons) also begin to rule in that place. Book VI chapter 13 of Yoga-Vasistha contains this story and is as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At one time the great Indra, the lord of the gods, lived in that fruit, just like a big mosquito lives in an empty pot as the great leader of its company of small gnats. But this great lord was weakened in his strength and valor by his study and his teacher’s lectures on spiritualism, which made him a spiritually minded person and a seer in all past and future matters. It happened once upon a time, when the valiant god Narayana and his heavenly host had been resting and their leader Indra was weakened in his arms, that the demon asuras rose in open rebellion against the gods. Then Indra rose with his flashing arms and fire and fought for a long time with the strong asuras. &lt;strong&gt;At last Indra was defeated by superior strength and fled from the field.&lt;/strong&gt; He ran in all ten directions, pursued by the enemy wherever he fled. He could find no place to rest, just as a sinner has no resting place in the next world. Then as the enemy lost sight of him for a moment, he made use of that opportunity. He compressed the thought of his big body in his mind and became a minute form on the outside. &lt;strong&gt;Then through his consciousness of his personal minuteness, he entered the womb of an atom which was glittering amidst the expanse of solar rays,&lt;/strong&gt; like a bee entering a lotus bud. He immediately rested in that state and his hope of final bliss in the next. He utterly forgot the warfare and attained the ultimate bliss of nirvana. &lt;strong&gt;In that lotus and instantly in his imagination, he conceived his royal palace.&lt;/strong&gt; He sat in lotus posture as if resting on his own bed. Then Indra, &lt;strong&gt;seated in that mansion, saw an imaginary city containing a grand building in the middle, its walls studded with gems, pearls and coral. From within the city, Indra saw a large country all around containing many hills and villages, pasture grounds for cattle, forests and human dwellings. Then Indra felt a desire to enjoy that country he had formed in his imagination,&lt;/strong&gt; with all its lands and hills and seas. Afterwards Indra conceived a desire to possess the three worlds, together with all the earth and ocean, sky and infernal regions, the heavens, planetary spheres above and mountain ranges below. Thus did Indra remain there as lord of the gods in possession of all abundance for his enjoyments. &lt;strong&gt;Afterwards, a son was born to him named Kunda, of great strength and valor. Then at the end of his lifetime, this Indra of unblemished reputation left his mortal body and became extinct in nirvana,&lt;/strong&gt; like a lamp extinguished for lack of oil. Kunda reigned over the three worlds. Then, having given birth to a boy, he departed to his ultimate state of bliss after the end of his life term. &lt;strong&gt;That son also ruled in his time, then departed at the end of his lifetime to the holy state of supreme bliss.&lt;/strong&gt; He also left a son after him. In this manner a thousand generations of grandsons of the first Indra have reigned and passed away in their time. There is still a prince named Ansaka reigning over the land of the lord of the gods. &lt;strong&gt;Thus generations of the lord of immortals still hold sovereignty over the imaginary world of Indra in that sacred particle of sunbeam in empty air.&lt;/strong&gt; That atomic particle is continually decaying and wasting in this long course of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story clearly gives account of very advanced simulation world formed by Indra.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As a sidenote, Adi Shankara in his &lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_shiva-dakshinamurthy_stotram.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dakshinamurty Stotram&lt;/a&gt; also states that Universe is like a city seen within mirror and happening inside one&amp;apos;s self:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Entire World is Like a City Seen within a Mirror, the Seeing happening within One&amp;apos;s Own Being, It is a Witnessing happening within the Atman, (the Witnessing) of the Externally Projected World; Projected by the Power of Maya; As if a Dream in Sleep,&lt;/strong&gt; One Experiences this Directly (this Play of Maya) during Spiritual Awakening within the Non-Dual Expanse of One&amp;apos;s Own Atman,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-08-09T03:44:01.563" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T03:44:01.563" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20133" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20128" CreationDate="2017-08-08T13:51:07.320" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt; &lt;strong&gt;what is the meaning of Indra?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The exact meaning of word Indra is given in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800306.us.archive.org/3/items/AitareyataittiriyaUpanishadsWithShankaraBhashya-English/05AitareyataittiriyaUpanishadsWithShankaraBhashya-English.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aitareya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; –Khanda 3 –Chapter 1 –Verse 14. - Page no 32-33&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मादिन्द्रो नामेदन्द्रो ह वै नाम | तमिदन्द्रं सन्तमिन्द्र&#xA;  इत्याचक्षते परोक्षेण |&lt;br&gt; परोक्षप्रिया इव हि देवा: परोक्षप्रिया इव हि&#xA;  देवा: ||14||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasmAdidandro nAmedandro ha vai nAma . tamidandra.n santami.ndra &#xA;  ityAchakShate parokSheNa &lt;br&gt; parokShapriyA iva hi devAH parokShapriyA&#xA;  iva hi devAH .. 14..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Therefore He is called Idandra. Idandra is the well known name of the&#xA;  God.&lt;strong&gt;Him ,though Idandra , they call Indra indirectly,&lt;/strong&gt; for the gods&#xA;  are fond of being incognito , as it were.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is Shankara’s commentary -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;: As he saw the all permeating “Brahman”  directly as an object , as&#xA;  “ idam” OR this therefore , the Paramatman is called Idandra.The lord&#xA;  is well known in the world as Idandra. The knowers of Brahman called&#xA;  the “Brahman” who is really Idandra  ,by the name of Indra  , &lt;strong&gt;a word&#xA;  denoting some object beyond the range of vision&lt;/strong&gt; ;  So that it may be&#xA;  freely talked about , by afraid of calling him by his real name as he&#xA;  is regarded as most venerable. For the Devas (deities) are fond of&#xA;  assuming the names denoting invisible objects. Much more so ,should be&#xA;  therefore , the lord of all the deity of all the deities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From the commentary we come to know that  “ Indra “ is actually a short form of name “ Idandra”. Means , a word denoting some object beyond the range of vision ;    and the lord of all the deity of all the deities.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T13:51:07.320" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20134" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18256" CreationDate="2017-08-08T15:19:09.113" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This story and similar stories are not about a pet or just desires, but about the strongest collective impressions when the body ends.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those could be a mix of one or more infinite impressions from infinite lives around some worldly attributes; money, sex, love or your child - If its putra eshna, then you'll &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;likely&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; meet that child soul again in another life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now to explain this further let's think about the following: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are no guarantees of if, when &amp;amp; how. This is not a Samsung fridge with 5 yr warranty. Even that warranty has tons of Fine Print &amp;amp; Disclaimers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Unfathomable is the depth of accounting of Karma (&lt;strong&gt;gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ- BG 4.17&lt;/strong&gt;). It's implications are beyond comprehension. &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Unfathomable is the depth of karma&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2249/does-the-karma-from-the-previous-life-affects-the-current-life&quot;&gt;Does the karma from the previous life affects the current life?&lt;/a&gt; &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2251/3172&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2251/3172&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/4112/when-does-sanchitha-karma-becomes-praarabdha-karma-what-decides-its-transformat?rq=1&quot;&gt;When does Sanchitha Karma becomes Praarabdha Karma? What decides its transformation?&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The impressions that are strongest are what your 'mana-chitta' are larger vectors that carry forward. One may not even know or realize what kind of karmic impressions are being carried. Not remembering your past life is &quot;how things are&quot; E.g. Ram shot Bali with an arrow and 5000 yrs later left Krishna body with an arrow shot on him. Jamwant (warrior) wanted to fight/ wrestle (strong one sided intention/ desire) with Ram, for that to dissolve Krishna fights with him for days &amp;amp; nights until Jamwant realizes how that karmic impression was manifesting. My guess is at that time those impressions tended to dissolve. These stories are to point out how even &quot;Purna Avatar&quot; Krishna has to &quot;deal with karma&quot; and also to indicate, that the when of timeline, can be way way far apart to be set in motion in the world.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, since one may not have memories of past lives, we do carry some data along in the sub-conscious/ super-conscious and some vectors are evident in current life karma as well. There are sciences around Jyotish that can at times help one shed light on current/ past karmic &quot;indicators&quot;. There are past-life regression and related mechanisms, but I am not sure about where they stand and how they work.   &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Karmic impressions are very very subtle. Its not just about good or bad deeds. For example, if you read about Golden Palace chapter of AutoBiography of a Yogi - Even though Saint Lahari Mahasaya had no desire left as a saint, his Param Guru Mahavatar Babaji manifests a golden palace in a forest for one night &amp;amp; tells him to spend 1 night in it. Why? It was a &quot;Latent&quot; desire from one his past lives (he was not aware of in current saintly life), that had to be 'dissolved' as observed by his Param Guru. This story points out how even a close to enlightened master/ saint may have some impressions left to clear out.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does it mean everyone will get their latent desires fulfilled? Not a guarantee. The depth &amp;amp; laws of karma &amp;amp; its operation are not &quot;fathomable&quot; as too many vectors of variety of impressions from various lifetimes could become active or remain inactive until some such time that the universe deems it.     &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is the purpose of meeting someone or repeat a past impression? Your impressions &amp;amp; intentions set in motion karmic butterfly effect. Exact outcome is not some simple scientific chemical reaction - Hence, its recommended to &quot;tyag&quot; worldly desires in old age and focus on divine. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why do you think people meet after life times again &amp;amp; again (enough such stories around it).. Karmic impressions &amp;amp; accounting is left over? You have a girl friend you could not be with in this life, if that impression does not dissolve from your consciousness, the game will &quot;likely&quot; play out again somewhere/ somehow. But it's not a discrete 1 MB file that is clearly there or clearly deleted.. Impressions are subtle, so they may or may not carry forward and may or may not become incident in a specific life.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;So, if you had a desire or impressions around a &quot;vyakti, vasthu or paristhiti&quot; that if not dissolved will tend to manifest itself moving forward. That's why renunciation is not about physical ascetism, but internal dissolving and dropping of such impressions &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let me quote OPs answer here: hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15780/3172 - The impressions of the female / attraction as applicable to the different individuals mentioned in OPs answer - can very subtly affect one, or if the person is &quot;hollow&quot; it can just pass away dissolve with the moment passing away. It was not so much the act of touching the woman to carry her across, but the &quot;impression&quot; or lack there of on their minds in the said story.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;BLOCKQUOTE&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;- &quot;Ram shot Bali with an arrow and 5000 yrs later left Krishna body with an arrow shot on him...until Jamwant realizes how that karmic impression was manifesting&quot; - I no longer consider such stories from scripture as &lt;strong&gt;empirical evidence of karma or rebirth hypothesis&lt;/strong&gt;. Before &lt;strong&gt;you treat anything written in Ramayana and Mahabharata as 'proof'&lt;/strong&gt; you need to be sure they are not &lt;strong&gt;corrupted, interpolated&lt;/strong&gt; and are not merely literary works of the then &lt;strong&gt;Hindu generation&lt;/strong&gt;. 'Karmic impressions are very very subtle' - you mean &lt;strong&gt;karma is undetectable&lt;/strong&gt;? if so, Jaḍa Bharata should not have been born as a deer. – sv. Aug 4 at 16:53&#xA;&lt;/BLOCKQUOTE&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Please find me one person of any faith that can empirically detect the presence of LOVE, a SOUL or God or Divinity?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It is not something me or you or a human can measure 'empirically'. We do not have access to the Karmic Super Computer in the Cosmos  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And there are not facts you have or anyone can provide empirical evidence for him being born or not being born as a deer  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Right now, it seems that you are not interested in Hinduism/ Sanatana Dharma knowledge but your intent indicates to discredit them in the way communists or other religion nay-sayers wishing to attack. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you wish to perform scientific experiments to prove &quot;empirically&quot; then that is beyond the scope of this question and SE. You might wish to go to a Quantum physics lab or a person who is able to communicate with a soul of someone dead and known to you and test out &quot;empirically&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A soul or karma is not an object or physical phenomenon with physical attributes in the 3rd dimension with height, width, weight and color - Not that I know of for you to detect or measure using a lab created instrument.  Maybe Ghost busters or Kirilian photography type of instruments can help you with your 'empirical' experiments.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;BLOCKQUOTE&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;@AlexS &quot;Param Guru Mahavatar Babaji manifests a golden palace in forest for one night &amp;amp; tells him to spend 1 night in it.&quot; - &lt;strong&gt;I don't believe such stories&lt;/strong&gt;. Anyway, I read the whole chapter here. At one place it says: &quot;In the dim past, you once expressed a desire to enjoy the beauties of a palace. Our master is now satisfying your wish, thus freeing you from the bonds of karma.&quot; -- &lt;strong&gt;does this mean if I once expressed a desire to rob a bank and not be caught by police, it will come true?&lt;/strong&gt; ... – sv. Aug 4 at 17:17&#xA;&lt;/BLOCKQUOTE&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;You wish to apply straight uni-dimensional logic to something that has already been discussed as non-deterministic and unfathomable. Since, I (and pretty much no one I can image) don't have a looking glass or dashboard into karmic vectors in motion, &lt;strong&gt;I can neither confirm nor deny&lt;/strong&gt; the possibilities of such an intention of yours.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even if you had Lord Shiva or Krishna or an Enlightened Master who are &quot;tri kaal&quot; darshi, in front of you and you asked them such a question, you will not get a &quot;direct uni lateral answer&quot; to your ku-tark logic/ question. Your karma will be more complex than just &quot;this one vector&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;You are applying ku-tark. The objective of such a story is again to share that every subtle impression collected over time can be a barrier to Mukti.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;BLOCKQUOTE&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;@AlexS &lt;strong&gt;If I want to become the richest person in the world, I will become rich one day by winning several lotteries in a row? If your answer is yes, then how do you solve the contradiction of several people making the same wish ('richest person') - which among them will become the richest person?&lt;/strong&gt; – sv. Aug 4 at 17:19&#xA;&lt;/BLOCKQUOTE&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;You're trying to apply Linear 'deterministic' Logic to laws of Karma. How the universe takes your &quot;remaining&quot; collective karmic impressions and moves it forward after a life is an &quot;unknown&quot; &quot;unfathomable&quot; aspect - non-deterministic. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What these examples simply point out is that &quot;strong &amp;amp; weak impressions&quot; are vectors that do not let you become &quot;free&quot; until they are dissolved (how they tend to dissolve are another set of 'non-deterministic' essay in itself) i.e. Mukti - Freedom - Nirvana - Liberation - from what? All impressions on the manna-chitta, eventually dissolved. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;At no point is there any warranty from me or any scripture of how &amp;amp; when X desire/ impression will cause impact going forward. These are indicators to make you aware, that these are pitfalls.. of Moh-Maya. There is a whole list/ type of Eshnas you can look up if you want. I have conveyed the message, but you seem to not want to receive it. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;End goal is despite impressions to focus on the Divine and you could be released/ freed via your Devotion/ Bhakti:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9091/what-happens-to-a-persons-karma-if-he-attains-salvation-at-the-time-of-his-deat?noredirect=1&amp;amp;lq=1&quot;&gt;What happens to a person&amp;#39;s Karma if he attains salvation at the time of his death?&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3172" LastEditorUserId="3172" LastEditDate="2019-04-23T05:01:01.017" LastActivityDate="2019-04-23T05:01:01.017" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20135" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20128" CreationDate="2017-08-08T15:54:06.340" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra is the king of the Hindu gods. According to Hinduism, Indra is the god of heaven, war and thunder and storm. Indra is also worshiped by followers of Buddhism and Jainism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdictionary.com/indra/33312/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indra means&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;possessing drops of rain&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; from &lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit इन्दु (indu) meaning &amp;quot;a drop&amp;quot; and र (ra) meaning &amp;quot;acquiring, possessing&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. Indra is the name of the ancient Hindu warrior god of the sky and rain. He is the chief god in the Hindu text the Rigveda. (Wiki source and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/5444/indra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yogapedia&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-08-22T17:15:07.903" LastActivityDate="2021-08-22T17:15:07.903" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20136" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-08T16:24:55.943" Score="5" ViewCount="690" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said Vishnu taught Vaishnavism to his prime devotees: Lord Shiva, Mother Lakshmi, the four Kumaras and Lord Brahma. These devotees then in turn taught mankind the principles of Vishnu bhakti. As a result there are 4 main divisions in Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradaya originating from Mother Lakshmi, Rudra Sampradaya originating from Lord Shiva, Nimbarka Sampradaya formed by the four Kumaras and the Brahma Sampradaya from Lord Brahma. Each of these divisions have their own subdivisions. Now coming to the Rudra Sampradaya, it is subdivided into 2 sects:- The common and well known Pushtimarg sect, followers of Vallabhacharya and the less known Vishnuswami sect. Now my question is that how does the Vishnuswami sect differ from Pushtimarg sect in philosophies and practices?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-08-10T00:56:14.757" LastActivityDate="2017-08-10T00:56:14.757" Title="How does the Vishnuswami sect differ from the Pushtimarg sect in philosophies and practices?" Tags="|philosophy|vaishnavism|sects|pushti-marga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20137" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20147" CreationDate="2017-08-08T16:39:09.157" Score="3" ViewCount="1718" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Sadhguru fasting on Poornima is a good idea because whatever food is taken in becomes tamasic as he thinks that things deteriorate faster on such days. Now what are the spiritual and ayurvedic benefits given in the scriptures of fasting on Poornima (full moon)? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-03-15T17:13:01.887" LastActivityDate="2018-03-15T17:13:01.887" Title="What are the spiritual and ayurvedic benefits of fasting on Poornima (full moon)?" Tags="|fasting|ayurveda|poornima|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20138" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3530" CreationDate="2017-08-08T16:45:50.450" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rishi Valmiki who wrote the &lt;strong&gt;Ramayan&lt;/strong&gt; was a contemporary of Shri Rama. The fact that he wrote the entire epic in Sanskrit points to the fact that it was the spoken language in those days. Same logic applies to the &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharat&lt;/strong&gt; as well which was composed by Rishi Ved-Vyas &amp;amp; narrates the life-stories of his grandsons the Kauravs and Pandavs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Pali and Prakrit, the derivatives of Sanskrit didn't come about till much later. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/introductiontopr00woolrich#page/2/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;INTRODUCTON TO PRAKRIT&lt;/a&gt; by Woolner, Alfred C. (Alfred Cooper), 1878-1936 states that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5x3pv.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/5x3pv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KJ7KE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KJ7KE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if Prakrit became the lingua franca close to the 3rd century BCE, we can safely assume that yes &lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit was the spoken language at the time of the epics&lt;/strong&gt; the historical dates for which vary from 5th Millenium to 2nd Millenium BCE (5000 BC to 1500 BC) but not the 3rd century BCE (300 BC). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-19T09:07:23.623" LastActivityDate="2018-02-19T09:07:23.623" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20139" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-08T17:10:51.700" Score="2" ViewCount="56695" Body="&lt;p&gt;We had a big argument y'day at hour house over pooja during Menstrual period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My wife wanted to do Sravan somvar rituals during her 3rd day of period. She cooked Kheer and wanted to put it as a Prasad in front of God. She actually asked my mom to put the prasad in Mandir. Since my mom knew she is on her periods she said this is not right thing to do as its against ritual and not to perform any pooja or put prsad in front of god. This turned into very heated argument between both of them. My mom was very adamant about her not to perform rituals and my wife's response was I never object your ways when you perform pooja so please let me do it my way!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Usually, its not a problem for me as I think as long as you perform pooja with good intentions, you could do it as the way you want. However, my mom is visiting us for couple of months and I understand her point. I took my mom's side and told my wife to skip rituals this week. She could do it the way she wants when mom is not here. My wife was really mad at my behaviour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I was thinking all night if I took the right stand? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My wife was arguing about where in Hinduism its mentioned that Women are not supposed do Pooja during menstruation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Overall, Gist of all my writing is, I would like to know if female is allowed to perform Pooja rituals at home during menstruation period?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11658" LastEditorUserId="11658" LastEditDate="2017-08-10T04:31:58.913" LastActivityDate="2017-08-10T04:31:58.913" Title="Pooja during Menstrual period, Hindu Brahmin" Tags="|brahmins|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-08-10T05:37:12.407" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20140" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20129" CreationDate="2017-08-08T18:02:06.500" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Age? Does one know when Hanuman was born? He was born waaay back, even before Rama. And has completed the entire Treta Yuga into Dwapara. Its impossible to track his age as we do not have a systematic calendar of those times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T18:02:06.500" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20141" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20139" CreationDate="2017-08-08T20:22:39.587" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was about to comment but I don't have privilege to do so..&#xA;You are right at your place but, different people do different things in different situations. Some are dear son some are dear husband. But if you really want to be sure that you are on right side then you should try to find an answer &quot;is it really right to do that ritual or not &quot; in broader perspective that is if it really is okk then take your wife's side and if you think that if it not okk then take your mom's side. So your first task will be to decide whether it is really okk or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And my view is &quot;phle k samay me yagya aur agni se door rhne k liye (qki ese samay me rest ki jarurat hoti h ) to kaam se bhi aram mile isliye ye sab rituals banaye gye per unka roop esa ban gya h ki jese koi galat kaam krne wale ka bahishkaar kr deta h &quot;&#xA;So I myself think that it is not a right thing to do with girls...if they want to .. you should let her do it,and don't oppose her,since for a good prayer you just need a good heart and peaceful mind. :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10420" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T20:22:39.587" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20143" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20139" CreationDate="2017-08-08T21:10:57.130" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your mom was correct, and you took the correct stand by supporting her. Even if your mom is not at your home, that is the correct stand, and you should not ask your wife to do puja during her periods.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During menstruation for 4 days, rituals and puja are not allowed for women - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17620/4435&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17620/4435&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First appreciate your wife's devotion to God. Not many young women nowadays evince much interest in spiritual matters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then ask your wife &quot;Did you see God yourself.. if not, who told you that God exists and that you should do puja for him?&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;She will reply &quot;My parents, elders etc.&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Then tell her &quot;Ask those same people if it is ok to do puja during menstruation&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If your parents say &quot;Krishna existed and he was dark complexion&quot;, and you say &quot;I didn't see Krishna, so I don't believe he exists&quot;, then that is scientific.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if you say &quot;I didn't see Krishna, I believe he exists, but I don't believe he is dark complexsion&quot;, then that is not scientific, because you are choosing to believe part of it based on faith and to disbelieve another part of it based on your own limited intellect. No proper scientist would do that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna, through shastras and acharyas has given us guidelines on how to live life. Playing the game of life according rules set by the referee will give you desired outcomes. If you start to question the referee you'll get red card no matter how much you argue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-08-08T21:19:02.457" LastActivityDate="2017-08-08T21:19:02.457" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20147" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20137" CreationDate="2017-08-09T05:53:36.727" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;All the Tithis have respective over ruling Deities. I am  giving few such over-lordships here as found in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=23&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;VarAha PurAna&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pratipada-Agni&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dwiteeya-Aswini Kumaras&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tritiya-Goddess Gowri&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chaturthi-Lord Ganesha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=12&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Panchami-Nagas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=13&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sashti-Karthikeya or Skanda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;''''''''''''''''''''''''''''&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=23&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purnima-Moon God&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=22&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Amavasya-Pitras&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, fasting on Purnima is generally to appease the Moon God. All round benefits are mentioned in the following passage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One of Lord Brahma's distinguished Manasa Putras named Sage Atri begot&#xA;  Soma (Moon) who too was illustrious. Prajapati Daksha married off all&#xA;  his twenty seven daughters to Soma. But the latter was ignoring all&#xA;  the daughters, excepting Devi Rohini. The rest of them complained to&#xA;  their father Daksha who reprimanded Soma to behave but Soma ignored&#xA;  the repeated warnings of Daksha. Out of exasperation, Daksha cursed&#xA;  Soma to gradually decline and finally disappear. In the absence of&#xA;  Soma, there were far reaching adverse effects in the Universe. Devas&#xA;  including Vanaspati felt Soma's absence and so did human beings,&#xA;  trees, animals and worst of all medicinal plants, herbs and so on. The&#xA;  Sky was dark and the Stars too lost the shine. As Devas approached&#xA;  Vishnu, He advised the solution of Churning the Ocean by both Devas&#xA;  and Danavas and latter too agreed to the proposal for the lure of&#xA;  securing Amrit. In the process of churning, Moon was given birth&#xA;  again. This had brought great relief to Devas, human beings whose&#xA;  Ekadasha Indriyas (Eleven Body parts), Pancha Bhutas (Five Elements),&#xA;  Solah Kshetra Devatas, Trees and Medicines. Even Rudras head was&#xA;  without Soma and so did water. &lt;strong&gt;Lord Brahma blessed Pournima thithi&#xA;  and selected the day for worship to Chandra Deva when fast is viewed&#xA;  propitious along with token amount of money and material as charity.&#xA;  That specific day Yava Bhojan (Barley food) or barley made material is&#xA;  considered to bless a person with Gyan (Knowledge), radiance, health,&#xA;  prosperity, food grains and salvation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW, i am not sure what you meant by &quot;Ayurvedic benefits&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-09T06:37:44.050" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T06:37:44.050" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20148" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2491" CreationDate="2017-08-09T06:03:57.000" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two or so interpretations of why Lord Shiva wears Vasuki around His neck. The Pauranick tale talks of Shiva being impressed with Vasuki's role in the Churning of the Ocean and blessed Him to be ever close to Him and what better way than wearing Vasuki as a necklace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Puranas, during the churning of the ocean of milk (samudra manthan), the deadly poison (halahala) came out which Shiva had to drink to save the world. There were some snakes in the water who drank it with him and Vasuki was one of them. Vasuki also served as the rope that was tied to Mandar mountain during the churning of the ocean of milk. Shiva was impressed by this and hence accepted Vasuki (king of sarpas) around his neck. The Lord wearing the deadly snake like an ornament signifies that He is independent of time and death and as a matter of fact, is in control of the time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is also Pashupathinath - the protector of all animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is also known as Pasupathinath, the lord of all creatures and as another story goes, it is believed that once when the snake species was in danger, they approached Lord Shiva for Shelter. Lord Shiva gave them shelter by letting them stay in Kailasa. But due to cold weather, the snakes used to approach Lord Shiva for warmth of Body. Thus, He as a protector used to wear these snakes as an ornament to provide warmth to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being a Lord of the animals He also has a complete control on their behavior. Since a snake is one of the most feared and dangerous animals in the world, the garland of snakes around the neck firmly establishes this fact that even the snakes fear Him and remain under His control.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further interpretation - logical not paurincal - The snake stands for all the evil and demonical nature in the world. By wearing the snake around his neck, Lord Shiva gives us the assurance that no evil can touch us or destroy us once we surrender to him, seek his protection and worship him with deep devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T06:03:57.000" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20150" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-09T06:48:21.243" Score="3" ViewCount="1352" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm a highschool student studying the 5 Major world religions and I myself am Catholic. However as apart of an assignment I have, I must interview and collate references from people of the practicing faiths on the topic of life after death.&#xA;I'm a bit confused and was wondering whether anyone could provide me with any of the following information;&#xA;- A basic explanation, &#xA;- what the two pathways are that a soul may follow in the afterlife,&#xA;- What is Moksha&#xA;- What is a jiva&#xA;- How karma works&#xA;- Where does the soul go in between death and rebirth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I apologize if I got anything wrong or is misleading, I am trying my best to be respectful.Also I read somewhere that The Vedas and Upanishads have different perspectives of how to escape rebirth, could someone clarify this or explain what that may be.&#xA;Thanks Very Much&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11664" LastActivityDate="2022-08-15T16:37:36.567" Title="What are the Hindu beliefs on life after death?" Tags="|karma|atma|death|life|afterlife|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-08-09T17:04:43.713" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20152" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20150" CreationDate="2017-08-09T08:23:35.690" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism believes in the rebirth and reincarnation of souls. What happens after the soul leaves the body and before it reincarnates again is a great mystery about which we can form an idea after studying the scriptures.&#xA;In Hinduism there are two paths along which souls travel after death. &lt;strong&gt;The Paths of the Sun and the Moon.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Path of the Sun or  the Path of Light  (DEVAYANA) (Archi Marga) or The Uttara Marga&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Path of the Moon  or  the Path of Darkness  (PITRIYANA) (Dhoom Marga).or Dakshin Marga.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt; &#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THE PATH OF LIGHT (DEVAYANA)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Uttara Marga or Devayana path or Northern path or the path of&#xA;light is the path by which the Yogins go to Brahman. This path leads&#xA;to salvation. This path takes the devotee to Brahmaloka. Having&#xA;reached the path of the gods he comes to the world of Agni, to the&#xA;world of Vayu, to the world of Varuna, to the world of Indra, to the&#xA;world of Prajapati, to the world of Brahman. They go to light, from&#xA;light to day, from day to the waxing half of the moon, from the waxing&#xA;half of the moon to the six months when the Sun goes to the North,&#xA;from those six months to the year, from the year to the Aditya. When&#xA;the person goes away from this world he comes to Vayu. Then Vayu makes&#xA;room for him like the hole of a wheel and through it he mounts higher&#xA;till he comes to Aditya. The bright path is the path, to the Devas,&#xA;Devayana, of the devotees; the bright path is open to the devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THE PATH OF DARKNESS (PITRIYANA)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pitriyana path or the path of darkness or the path of ancestors&#xA;leads to rebirth. Those who do sacrifices to gods and other charitable&#xA;works with expectation of fruits go to the Chandraloka through this&#xA;path and come back to this world when their fruits of Karmas are&#xA;exhausted. These two paths are not open to the whole world. The bright&#xA;path is open to the devotees and the dark path to the Karmins. Samsara&#xA;is eternal and so the paths also are eternal. Knowing the nature of&#xA;the two paths and the consequences they lead to, the Yogi never loses&#xA;his discrimination. The Yogi who knows that the path of Devayana or&#xA;the path of light leads to Moksha (Karma Mukti) and the path of&#xA;darkness to Samsara or the world of births and deaths, is no longer&#xA;deluded. Knowledge of these two paths serves as a compass or&#xA;beacon-light to guide the Yogi’s steps at every moment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Prashna%20Upanishad%20-%20Swami%20Sarvanand%20%5BSanskrit-English%5D.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prashna Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  Describing these two paths in detail -:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;संवत्सरो वै प्रजापतिस्तस्यत्यने दक्षिणं चोत्तरं च तद्येह वै&#xA;तदिष्टापूर्ते कृतमित्युपासते ते चान्द्रमसमेव लोकमभिजयन्ते त एव&#xA;पुनरावर्तन्ते तस्मादेत ऋषय प्रजाकामा दक्षिणं प्रतिपद्यन्ते एष ह वै&#xA;रयिर्यः पितृयाणः ||9||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Year is verily Prajapati  and two are his paths The southern and&#xA;the Northern; Now those who perform Ishtapoorta  (sacrifices  and&#xA;charitable works) (thinking them) as works of supreme value , attain&#xA;the world of the Moon and afterwards return (there) again. Therefor&#xA;those Rushies (sage) who desire offspring go by the southern path.&#xA;Matter verily is this path of the Manes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अथोत्तरेणा तपसा ब्रह्मचर्येण श्रद्धया&#xA;विद्यात्मानमन्विष्यादित्यमभिजयन्ते एतद्वै प्राणानामायतनमेतदमृतमभयमेतत्&#xA;परायणमेत्तस्मान्न पुनरावर्तन्त इत्येष निरोधस्तदेष ||10||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But those who sought the Atman by austerity , abstinence , faith and&#xA;knowledge attain Adityas by Northern path.This is the source of all&#xA;the forces , this is immortal and free from danger – this is supreme&#xA;resort , from there they do not return (for) it is the end&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read More about Prashna Upanishad &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prashna_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad-Gita&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; describes two paths along which souls travel after death. One is the path of the sun, also known as the bright path or the path of gods and the other is the path of the moon, also known as the dark path and the path of ancestors. When a soul travels along the path of the sun, it never return again, while those which travel along the path of the moon return again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अग्निर्ज्योतिरहः शुक्लः षण्मासा उत्तरायणम्।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्र प्रयाता गच्छन्ति ब्रह्म ब्रह्मविदो जनाः।।8.24।। &amp;lt;br&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;agnir jyotir ahaḥ śuklaḥ ṣaṇ-māsā uttarāyaṇam&lt;br&gt; tatra prayātā&#xA;gacchanti brahma brahma-vido janāḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who know the Supreme Brahman attain that Supreme by passing away&#xA;from the world during the inﬂuence of the ﬁery god, in the light, at&#xA;an auspicious moment of the day, during the fortnight of the waxing&#xA;moon, or during the six months when the sun travels in the north.&lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/8/24/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG&#xA;8.24&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can see ample description of these two paths in our Puranas also. Here &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavata_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; verse describing one of the  Path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सूर्यद्वारेण ये यन्ति पुरुषं विश्वतोमुखं |&lt;br&gt; परावरेशं&#xA;प्रकृतिमस्योत्पत्यन्तभावनम् ||7||  SB 3.32.7 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sūrya-dvāreṇa te yānti puruṣaṁ viśvato-mukham&lt;br&gt; parāvareśaṁ prakṛtim&#xA;asyotpatty-anta-bhāvanam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And finally they through Surya Marga (Archi Marga OR Deva Yaan Marga )&#xA;attain Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word sūrya-dvāreṇa means “by the illuminated path,” or through the&#xA;sun planet. The illuminated path is devotional service. It is advised&#xA;in the Vedas not to pass through the darkness, but to pass through the&#xA;sun planet. It is also recommended here that by traversing the&#xA;illuminated path one can be freed from the contamination of the&#xA;material modes of nature; by that path one can enter into the kingdom&#xA;where the completely supreme Lord  resides.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Moksha&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Moksha derives from the root verb ‘muk’ = to loose, to let loose, to free, to let go, to slacken, to release, to liberate, through its participle form mokshyati = to be loosed, to be set free, to be released. Moksha thus means emancipation, liberation, release. Two other terms often used as synonyms for Moksha are kaivalya and nirvana,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moksha is the highest of the four legitimate aims (purusharthas) of human existence. However, it is difficult to get clear definitions of Moksha in Hindu scripture. The state of Moksha has been differently conceptualised by various schools of thought, and the Upanishads, the bedrock of Hindu philosophy, often describe Moksha in metaphorical and poetic language that easily lends to different interpretations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However I am providing some definitions of moksha from Vedanta School of thought.&#xA;Here  &lt;a href=&quot;https://consciouslivingfoundation.org/ebooks/13/CLF-mundaka_upanishad.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mundaka  Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; Mundaka 3 -Khanda 2 -Page 8 says&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;किं च मोक्षकाले – What at the time of Moksha ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गता : कला: पञ्चदश प्रतिष्ठा देवाच्श सर्वे प्रतिदेवतासु | &lt;br&gt; कर्माणि&#xA;विज्ञानमयच्श आत्मा परेsव्यये सर्व एकीभवन्ति ||7||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fifteen parts go back to their causes, and all the senses to their&#xA;deities; the actions, and the Atman reflected in the buddhi, become&#xA;one with the highest imperishable Brahman, which is the Self of all.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800302.us.archive.org/2/items/Brihadaranyaka.Upanishad.Shankara.Bhashya.by.Swami.Madhavananda/Brihadaranyaka.Upanishad.Shankara.Bhashya.by.Swami.Madhavananda.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (IV.3.21) Page 660 , however, describes Moksha as the state where all desires and the resultant sorrows have been quelled; “&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तद्भा अस्यैतदतिच्छन्दा अपहतपाम्पाभयं रूपम् |&lt;br&gt; तदयथा प्रियया&#xA;स्त्रिया संपरिव्षक्तो न  बाह्यं किञ्चन वेद नान्तरम् |&lt;br&gt; एवमेवायं&#xA;परुष: प्राज्ञेतात्मा संपरिव्षक्तो बाह्यं किञ्चन वेद नान्तरम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तद्वा अस्यैतदात्पकाममात्मकाममकामं  रूपं शोकान्तरं ||21|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is his form-beyond desires, free from evils, and fearless. As a&#xA;man, fully embraced by his beloved wife~ does not know anything at&#xA;all, either external or internal, so does  this infinite being (self),&#xA;fully embraced by the Supreme Self, not know anything at all , either&#xA;external or internal. That is his form. in which all objects of desire&#xA;have been attained  and are 'but the self, and which is free from&#xA;desires and devoid of grief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now liberation in the form of identity with all, which is the result, devoid of action with its factors&#xA;and results, of knowledge, and in which there is no ignorance, desire, or work,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2022-08-15T16:37:36.567" LastActivityDate="2022-08-15T16:37:36.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20154" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9709" CreationDate="2017-08-09T09:47:26.223" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Venkateshwara was not an incarnation of Mahavishnu, he was Mahavishnu incarnate. As his Mangalacharan states &#xA;श्री वैकुण्ठ विरक्ताय स्वामि पुष्करिणी तटे |&#xA;रमया रममाणाय वेन्कटेशाय मङ्गलम् ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Getting displeased or bored f Shri Vaikunta, the lord came to the shores of Swami Pushkarani (the temple tank) where he frolics with His Consort.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Venkatesh Mahatmyam narrates why Mahavishnu came down to Earth. At the beginning of Kali Yuga the great sages had gathered at Naimisharanya to perform a great Yagya for the benefit of humans. There was a debate as to who should be the Yagya Purusha he main deity, and it fell on the learned but arrogant sage Brighu.  By his austerities Brighu had eyes in the sole of his feet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brihju first went to Satya Loka. Brahma was not there and the arrogant sage sat on Brahma's throne.  When Brahma came he was furious and cursed Brighu. In turn Brighu cursed Brahma that in Kali Yuga there will not be any temples for your worship. In fact the only templf e where Brahma is worshiped is at Pushkar in Rajasthan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brighu the went to Kailasa. Shiva and Parvati were love making - and Nandi stopped Brighu.  An angry Brighu stormed into the inner chambers and cursed Shiva that since you are always only interested in lovemaking, no temple of yours will have your image.  You will be worshipped in the form of a Linga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He then went to Vaikunta where Vishnu was sleeping. Brighu kicked Vishnu on His chest.  Vishnu woke up - O maharishi Brighu, my chest is like hardened rock, but your feet must be hurting.  Massaging Brighu's feet Vishnu pulled out the eyes in the soles of his feet.  Immediately he lost his arrogance, angered beyond sought Vishnu's forgiveness and declared him to be the Yagya Purusha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Lakshmi was angry and she quarreled with Vishnu - you no longer love me - here a good for nothing Brahmin kicks you on your chest where I reside and instead of punishing him you massage his feet and seek his forgiveness. You don't deserve me and so saying Lakshmi left Vaikunta. she came to the Venkatadri Hills and started living as a cowherdess. Without Lakshmi Vaikunta lost its lusture and charm and so following her and searching for her Srinivasa came to Venkatadri Hills. [Some of these aspects are sourced the TTD publication on the Story of Seven Hills]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="11625" LastEditDate="2017-08-10T08:04:09.940" LastActivityDate="2017-08-10T08:04:09.940" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20155" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16081" CreationDate="2017-08-09T11:24:43.157" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me say the answer first.&#xA;It is &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Two basic facts support the answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Lord Vishnu's&lt;/strong&gt; wife &lt;strong&gt;Devi Laxmi&lt;/strong&gt; was one of the ratna(Gem) who was produced from the Samudra(Ocean) during the Samudra manthan(&lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit:&lt;/strong&gt; समुद्रमन्थन, &lt;strong&gt;lit&lt;/strong&gt;. churning of the ocean). And then she accepted Vishnu as her eternal consort.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2)&lt;/strong&gt; And the second one is, &lt;strong&gt;The Samudra Manthan&lt;/strong&gt; process released a number of things from the Ocean. One of them was &lt;strong&gt;Halahala&lt;/strong&gt; ,a deadly poison.This terrified all the creature who participated in that process because the poison  could destroy all of them. Then the gods approached &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; for protection. &lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; consumed the poison in an act to protect the universe, and his consort, &lt;strong&gt;Devi Parvati&lt;/strong&gt;, grabbed Shiva's throat in an effort to prevent the most deadly poison from affecting the universes inside Lord Shiva. As a result, Shiva's throat turned &lt;strong&gt;blue&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So we can conclude that &lt;strong&gt;Devi Parvati&lt;/strong&gt;,the wife of Lord Shiva was already there when &lt;strong&gt;Devi Laxmi&lt;/strong&gt;  came out as a &lt;strong&gt;Ratna(gem)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which implies &lt;strong&gt;Lord Shiva's&lt;/strong&gt; marriage happened first&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source:-&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_manthan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia link of Samudra Manthan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)&lt;strong&gt;The Bhagavata Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3040" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T11:24:43.157" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20157" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20163" CreationDate="2017-08-09T14:47:34.000" Score="8" ViewCount="1422" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that of the Dashavataras, Lord Krishna was the most divine and poorna avatara of Lord Vishnu while Lord Rama's divinity is questioned. But what about Lord Kalki? Will He be aware of his divinity?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T17:01:43.067" Title="Will Lord Kalki be aware that He is Vishnu avatara?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|kalki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20158" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20161" CreationDate="2017-08-09T14:55:25.067" Score="5" ViewCount="1537" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word ''Pasandi'' comes numerous times in the Chaitanya Charitamrita while ISKCON uses the word to describe ''devotees of demigods''. What is the meaning of this word according to the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-10T07:21:05.867" LastActivityDate="2017-08-10T07:21:05.867" Title="Who is a pasandi?" Tags="|scripture|chaitanya|terminology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20160" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20165" CreationDate="2017-08-09T15:04:24.617" Score="5" ViewCount="449" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/1195/moonstar2001&quot;&gt;Moonstar2001&lt;/a&gt; in response to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19815/why-are-the-names-of-shri-krishna-and-rama-superior-to-the-name-of-lord-vishnu&quot;&gt;a question&lt;/a&gt; said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a story that in one of the rama avataras, sage Narada asked Rama for the boon that the name &quot;Rama&quot; be more potent than any other names of the lord. Rama granted him this wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in which scripture is this story mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-12-13T11:57:19.140" LastActivityDate="2017-12-13T11:57:19.140" Title="In which scripture, does Sage Narada ask for the boon that Lord Rama's name be the superior of all names?" Tags="|scripture|rama|padma-purana|vishnu-sahasranama|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20161" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20158" CreationDate="2017-08-09T16:08:04.240" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pashanda (पाषण्ड)&lt;/strong&gt; according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=pASaNDa&amp;amp;script=HK&amp;amp;direction=SE&amp;amp;link=yes&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Dictionary&lt;/a&gt; means one who is heretical or impious or a person who does not follow the Vedas or a person who falsely impersonates a Brahmanical/Vedic persona. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's also a word denoting non-brahmanical ascetics like Buddhists or Jainas. Anybody that follows a false doctrine or is heretical in his views. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since you're asking for scriptural references I'm quoting &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200132.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti Section 4.30&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;पाषण्डिनो&lt;/strong&gt; विकर्मस्थान् बैडालव्रतिकान् शठान् ।  हैतुकान् बकवृत्तींश्च&#xA;  वाङ्मात्रेणापि नार्चयेत् ॥ ३० ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;pāṣaṇḍino&lt;/strong&gt; vikarmasthān baiḍālavratikān śaṭhān |  haitukān&#xA;  bakavṛttīṃśca vāṅmātreṇāpi nārcayet || 30 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He shall not honour, even with speech, &lt;strong&gt;impostors&lt;/strong&gt;, those who follow&#xA;  improper occupations, those who are cat-like in their behaviour,&#xA;  hypocrites, logicians, and those who behave like herons.—(30)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the verse is translated as an &quot;imposter&quot;. The explanatory notes say this: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;‘Pāṣaṇḍinaḥ’&lt;/strong&gt;—‘Ascetics who wander about with external marks, such as&#xA;  nakedness, red-dresses, and so forth’ (Medhātithi, who does not&#xA;  explain the term as ‘non-brahmanical ascetics,’ as asserted by&#xA;  Buhler,—and also Govindarāja);—‘Śākyas, Bhikṣus, Kṣapaṇakas and other&#xA;  ascetics outside the Vedic pale’ (Kullūka and Nārāyaṇa);—‘those who do&#xA;  not believe in the Vedas’&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;‘pāṣaṇḍinaḥ’&lt;/strong&gt; as ‘those-who have recourse to such life-conditions as are opposed to the dictates of the Vedas—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T16:08:04.240" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20162" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20129" CreationDate="2017-08-09T16:21:14.067" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Exact age of Lord Hanuman is hard to find But still we can get estimate age of Hanuman at the time when he met Bheema. Here is how...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As par &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19586/does-lord-narayana-take-incarnation-to-change-era/#answer-19618&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; it's clear that Lord Rama took birth at the end of Treta yuga, So as Hanuman. As par the same answer it is also clear that Lord krishna took birth at the end of Dwapar yuga, so as Bheema.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here 2 pints are clear that Lord Rama and Lord krishna took birth at the end of Treta yuga and Dwapar yuga respectively. Since Hanuman took birth little earlier than Rama. And Bheema was Present when Lord krishna was on earth, So that simply implies that Lord Hanuman born at the end of Treta yuga and met with Bheema at the end of Dwapar yuga Since Bheema was born at the end of Dwapar yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By this calculations we conclude that age of Hanuman was nearly about (if not exact age) 1 yuga when he meet Bheema. How his age is 1 yuga? Because Hanuman born at the end of Treta yuga and met with Bheema at the end of Dwapar yuga, so.... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;End of Trata yuga - End of Dwapar yuga = Dwapar yuga (age of Dwapar yuga)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the estimate age of Hanuman will be equal to the age of Dwapar yuga. Now to get an estimate of Hanuman's age we just need to find out age of Dwapar yuga which in not an tough task to find. Lots of info available on net about age of all yuga and here I am showing wiki's info about age of Dwapar yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As par &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvapara_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; age of Dwapar yuga was 864,000 years. By this info we can conclude that estimate age of Hanuman at the time when he met Bheema should have been nearly about 864,000 years. As I am repeating again it is just an estimate. Exact age is not that easy to find But estimate age is not that tough to find.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-08-09T18:58:21.823" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T18:58:21.823" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20163" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20157" CreationDate="2017-08-09T17:01:43.067" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Lord Kalki will be aware of His divinity. Like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/3/9-10/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Krishna&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Kalki will also take birth with four arms and upon request, He assumes two armed form. Here's how &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 2&lt;/strong&gt; of  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByTCDrDij9HBWVA4VHYzY2g4elU/edit?pref=2&amp;amp;pli=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kalki Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; describes this event (translated  by Bhumipati Das)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18-19.  Lord Brahma, who knew the mystery of the Lord's appearance,&#xA;  hastily called for his servant, Pavana, and told him to immediately go&#xA;  to the maternity home and offer the following prayer to Lord Visnu:&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;О Lord, please consider how this four-armed form of Yours is rarely seen, even by the demigods. Please assume a two-armed form like that&#xA;  of a human being and then carry out Your mission.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;20&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Without delay, Pavana-deva, whose cooling body has a very pleasing aroma, went to the maternity room of Lord Kalki and submitted&#xA;  Brahma'.s appeal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the lotus-eyed Lord heard this request, &lt;strong&gt;He immediately assumed a two-armed form&lt;/strong&gt;. His father and mother were certainly&#xA;  struck with wonder upon seeing this wonderful pastime of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This clearly shows Lord Kalki will be aware of His divinity, like Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 3&lt;/strong&gt;, His guru Parasurama says He is Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Parasurama said: О great soul! Long ago, Brahma prayed to Lord Visnu, the shelter of all living entities and the Supreme Personality&#xA;  of Godhead, to destroy the influence of Kali. I understand that &lt;strong&gt;You&#xA;  are that same Supreme Personality, appearing in the village of&#xA;  Sambhala&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many other incidents in kalki Purana which say Kalki will be aware of His divinity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T17:01:43.067" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20164" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-09T17:29:59.730" Score="5" ViewCount="169" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Hanuman met Bhima for the first time when the latter was going through the 13 year exile period but do scriptures tell anything about the exact year in that period when the two met? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-16T07:05:38.980" LastActivityDate="2018-03-16T07:05:38.980" Title="In which year of exile did Hanuman meet Bhima?" Tags="|mahabharata|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20165" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20160" CreationDate="2017-08-09T18:57:57.313" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Narada asking the above-mentioned boon from Lord Rama is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://cincinnatitemple.com/articles/Sri-Ram-Charit-Manas-Hindi-Text-Eng-Translation.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 126 (pg 723)&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Aranya-Kanda of Ramacharitmanas.&lt;/strong&gt; Sanskrit text taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_otherlang_hindi/manas3_i.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada goes to meet Lord Rama because he feels that he may not get the chance to meet him again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मोर साप करि अंगीकारा। सहत राम नाना दुख भारा ॥  ऐसे प्रभुहि बिलोकउँ&#xA;  जाई। पुनि न बनिहि अस अवसरु आई ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mora såpa kari amgikårå, sahata råma nånå dukha bhårå.3. aise prabhuhi&#xA;  bilokau° jåi, puni na banihi asa avasaru åi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;It is in submission to my curse that the Lord is undergoing many&#xA;  hardships of an oppressive nature. Let me, therefore, go and see such&#xA;  a noble Lord; for such an opportunity may not present itself again&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यह बिचारि नारद कर बीना। गए जहाँ प्रभु सुख आसीना ॥  गावत राम चरित मृदु&#xA;  बानी। प्रेम सहित बहु भाँति बखानी ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yaha bicåri nårada kara binå, gae jahån prabhu sukha åsinå.4. gåvata&#xA;  råma carita mrdu båni, prema sahita bahu bhåti bakhåni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Reflecting thus Nårada went, lute in hand, to the spot where the Lord&#xA;  was sitting at ease. He fondly sang in a soft voice the exploits of&#xA;  Lord Råma dwelling upon them in all detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this welcome, Narada asks Rama for the boon that His name surpass all other names in their potency and destroy thousands of sins. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दो.   नाना बिधि बिनती करि प्रभु प्रसन्न जियँ जानि। &#xA;        नारद बोले बचन तब जोरि सरोरुह पानि ॥ ४१ ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nånå bidhi binati kari prabhu prasanna jiya jåni, nårada bole bacana&#xA;  taba jori saroruha påni.41&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After much supplication and realizing that the Lord was pleased at&#xA;  heart, Nårada joined his lotus palms and spoke as follows:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुनहु उदार सहज रघुनायक। सुंदर अगम सुगम बर दायक ॥  देहु एक बर मागउँ&#xA;  स्वामी। जद्यपि जानत अंतरजामी ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sunahu udåra sahaja raghunåyaka, sundara agama sugama bara dåyaka.&#xA;  dehu eka bara mågau° svåmi, jadyapi jånata antarajåmi.1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Listen, O Lord of Raghus, generous by nature as You are: You confer&#xA;  delightful boons that are unattainable as well as those that are&#xA;  attainable.  &lt;strong&gt;Grant me, my master, only one boon that I ask of You,&#xA;  even though You already know it (even without my asking), indwelling&#xA;  as You do the hearts of all.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जानहु मुनि तुम्ह मोर सुभाऊ। जन सन कबहुँ कि करउँ दुराऊ ॥  कवन बस्तु असि&#xA;  प्रिय मोहि लागी। जो मुनिबर न सकहु तुम्ह मागी ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jånahu muni tumha mora subhåu, jana sana kabahu ki karau duråµu.&#xA;  kavana bastu asi priya mohi lågi, jo munibara na sakahu tumha mågi.2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You know my disposition, dear sage: do I ever hide anything from my&#xA;  devotees? What object do I hold so dear, O chief of sages, that you&#xA;  may not ask it of Me ?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जन कहुँ कछु अदेय नहिं मोरें। अस बिस्वास तजहु जनि भोरें ॥  तब नारद बोले&#xA;  हरषाई । अस बर मागउँ करउँ ढिठाई ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jana kahu kachu adeya nahi more, asa bisvåsa tajahu jani bhore. taba&#xA;  nårada bole harasåi, asa bara mågau karau dhithai.3.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is nothing which I may withhold from my votary: never give up&#xA;  this belief even by mistake.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Nårada gladly said, This is the boon I presume to ask:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जद्यपि प्रभु के नाम अनेका। श्रुति कह अधिक एक तें एका ॥  &lt;strong&gt;राम सकल नामन्ह&#xA;  ते अधिका&lt;/strong&gt;। होउ नाथ अघ खग गन बधिका ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jadyapi prabhu ke nåma anekå, sruti kaha adhika eka te ekå. &lt;strong&gt;råma&#xA;  sakala nåmanha te adhikå,&lt;/strong&gt; hou nåtha agha khaga gana badhikå.4.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even though my lord has many names, each greater than the rest, as the&#xA;  Vedas declare, let the name RÅMA, my lord, surpass all other names in&#xA;  exterminating the whole brood of sins even as a fowler kills an entire&#xA;  flock of birds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दो.  राका रजनी भगति तव राम नाम सोइ सोम। &#xA;        अपर नाम उडगन बिमल बसुहुँ भगत उर ब्योम ॥ ४२(क) ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;råkå rajan∂ bhagati tava råma nåma soi soma, apara nåma uŒagana bimala&#xA;  basahu bhagata ura byoma. 42(A)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May the name RÅMA shine as the moon and the other names as so many&#xA;  stars in the cloudless sky of Your devotees heart during the full-moon&#xA;  night of devotion to You.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवमस्तु मुनि सन कहेउ कृपासिंधु रघुनाथ। तब नारद मन हरष अति प्रभु पद&#xA;  नायउ माथ ॥ ४२(ख) ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;evamastu muni sana kaheu krpåsindhu raghunåtha, taba nårada mana&#xA;  harasa ati prabhu pada nåyau måtha. 42(B)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The all-merciful Lord of Raghus replied to the sage, &quot;So be it&quot;&#xA;  Thereupon Nårada felt much delighted at heart and bowed at the Lord's&#xA;  feet.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-08-09T18:57:57.313" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20166" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20128" CreationDate="2017-08-09T19:24:10.573" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are different meaning of the word Indra is given by Yaska in Nirukta 10.8.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इन्द्र इरां दृणातीति वाँ। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  इरां दद्तीति वा। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  इरां दधातीति वा । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  इरा दारयतैं इति घा। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  इरा धारर्थत इति वा । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  इन्दवे द्रर्वतीति वा । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  इन्दी रमत इति वा । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  इन्धे भूतानीति वा ।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  तद्यदेनं प्राणैः समैनैधंस्तदिन्द्रस्येन्द्रत्वैम् ।। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  इति विज्ञायैते ।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  इदं करणादित्याग्रयणैः । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  इदं दर्शनादित्यौपमन्यवः । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  इन्दतेर्वैश्र्वर्यकर्मणः ! &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  इन्दञ्छत्रूणां दारयितैा वा । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  द्रावयिता वा । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  अादरयिता च यज्वनामं ।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  तस्यैषा भवति ॥ ८ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra is (so called because) he divides food (irâ + dṛ), or he gives food (irâ + dâ), or he bestows food (irâ + dhâ), or he sends food (irâ + dâraya), or he holds food (irâ + dhâraya), or he runs for the sake of soma (indu + dru), or he takes delight in soma (indu + ram), or he sets beings on fire (√indh). It is known: that because they animated him with vital breaths, that is the characteristic of Indra,” “He is (so called) from doing everything (lit. this), says Agrayana. He is (so called) from seeing everything (idam. + dṛś), says Aupamanyava. Or the word is derived from the verb) id., meaning to be powerful, i.e. being powerful he tears the enemies asunder, or puts them to flight. Or he honours the sacrificers. The following stanza is addressed to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4128.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Satapatha Brahmana 6:1:1:2&lt;/a&gt; defines Indra as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This same vital air in the midst doubtless is Indra. He, by his power (indriya), kindled those (other) vital airs from the midst; and inasmuch as he kindled (indh), he is the kindler (indha): the kindler 3 indeed,--him they call 'Indra' mystically (esoterically), for the gods love the mystic. They (the vital airs), being kindled, created seven separate persons (purusha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-10T12:21:55.887" LastActivityDate="2017-08-10T12:21:55.887" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20167" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-09T23:46:44.567" Score="3" ViewCount="64" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am trying to find out details of the pole and the corresponding circle type mandala in the Horse Sacrifice. Did the mandala, where the pole was placed, have orientation to the four cardinal directions? I am doing research for a book on the symbolism of four merging to one such as in the squaring of a circle. Susan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11674" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-10T07:19:51.080" LastActivityDate="2017-08-10T07:19:51.080" Title="Does anyone know the exact details of the first part of the Horse Sacrifice yagna?" Tags="|vedas|ramayana|symbolism|yajna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20168" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8580" CreationDate="2017-08-10T03:47:38.840" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lemuria is an imaginary story.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes. There is no concept of Kumari Kandam aka Lemuria before 1600s. During 17th century, it was &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbYg4uHTfAM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;placed&lt;/a&gt; between Australia and North America. Later it was &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(lost_continent)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;renamed as MU&lt;/a&gt; and another continent was placed below the Indian ocean adjoining with Madagascar. Due to similarities between lands in Madagascar, Australia  and southern India, it is believed that in ancient times, there may be a continent joining India and Africa(Madagascar).It was named as Lemuria. But today we discovered continental drift theory. As per this theory, India, Australia and Africa including Madagascar were joined many millions years ago. As the continents of Africa and India were joined, that's the reason why we have similarities between Africa and India. So, we don't need any continents in-between. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to your question, let's see whether Lemuria is mentioned in texts before 1600s:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Silapadikaram&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kumarikodum kodunkadal kolla.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mighty sea at the end of kumari(kanyakumari,not Kumari Kandam) submerged. Here the author speaks about sea around kumari submerging the puhar(keveri pattinam) port. Silappadikaram'also describes Kadal Vadimpalampa Nindra Pandyan said to have thrown his spear towards the sea. The sea retaliated by swallowing a large area including Pahruli river and Panmalai Adukkam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Manimekalai&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It &#xA;Records the same incident of the puhar being engulfed by sea. Silapathikaram and manimekalai both not being eyewitness accounts and known for gross exageration of facts clearly talk sea engulfing the city of puhar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Kalittogai&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sangam literary work, `Kalithogai' &lt;strong&gt;calls it Kadal vowal.&lt;/strong&gt; The poem says that when tidal waves swept away his land, the Pandyan monarch did not despair, but forged ahead into the territories of Cheras and Chozhas and brought the invaded country under his sway, thus making good the loss of territory due to the sea-swell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Mahavamsa&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It records say sea taking the land (Tsumani, in which a smaller portion of land in Sri Lanka, not Kumari Kandam) in 4th century BC.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look at the various arguments, Lemuria is just another attempt to increase the antiquity of Tamil to pre-historic times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-08-15T18:51:51.080" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T18:51:51.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20169" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="32539" CreationDate="2017-08-10T05:26:02.137" Score="16" ViewCount="1515" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as Mantra japa is concerned, I think everybody knows that the first step towards Mantra Siddhi (mastery over the mantra) is Guru DikshA (taking the mantra from one's Guru) and then we have to do Purasacharana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, for NAma japa, i.e when one is simply reciting some names of Gods (like Shiva, DurgA or any other), does one still require an initiation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One famous instance, from our scriptures, of how NAma japa has entirely transformed a person is the case of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valmiki&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rishi VAlmīki&lt;/a&gt;, who wrote the epic of RAmAyaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his case, however, he was initiated (afaik) into the NAma japa by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narada&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devarshi NArada&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, does that mean even for NAma japa initiation is required?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;NOTE- I want answers that are based on scriptures.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T05:54:21.180" LastActivityDate="2019-02-03T15:13:47.827" Title="Does nAma-japa also require dikshA (initiation)?" Tags="|scripture|guru|initiation|nama-japa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20170" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-10T05:32:42.787" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-10T05:32:42.787" LastActivityDate="2017-08-10T05:32:42.787" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20171" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-10T05:32:42.787" Score="0" Body="Repeating the holy names of Gods. Some Puranic scriptures recommend it as an effective measure of attaining liberation in Kali Yuga." OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-10T05:32:42.787" LastActivityDate="2017-08-10T05:32:42.787" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20172" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-10T05:48:53.400" Score="1" ViewCount="53" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm curious about cultures and religion. As I have been browsing through Wikipedia I have found this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Māyā is also a spiritual concept connoting &quot;that which exists, but is constantly changing and thus is spiritually unreal&quot;, and the &quot;power or the principle that conceals the true character of spiritual reality&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are quotes from western studies, but taken from the page of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(illusion)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Maya (illusion)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. I want to know if one can found proof in the sacred texts that support this vision i.e. &lt;em&gt;that the soul is immutable&lt;/em&gt;.&#xA;I am familiar with the concept of &lt;em&gt;samsara&lt;/em&gt;, but as I view it, a man tries to reconnect with his soul throughout all the reincarnations.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Otherwise, what is the view in hinduism on the evolution of the &lt;em&gt;atma&lt;/em&gt; of a man?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11675" LastActivityDate="2017-08-10T05:48:53.400" Title="Soul evolution in Hinduism" Tags="|atma|maya|samsara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-08-10T07:27:32.810" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20173" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14749" CreationDate="2017-08-10T06:12:45.830" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the major Tantrik scripture is called the &lt;strong&gt;VishnukrAntA&lt;/strong&gt;. It has within itself several other major Tantik scriptures like &lt;strong&gt;Nila Tantram, Niruttara Tantram&lt;/strong&gt; and many others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, AFAIK, it's only in the Niruttara Tantram, that the Shakti Deities are classified into two groups- Sri Kula and KAli Kula.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the relevant verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KAli tArA raktakAli bhuvana mahishamardini |&lt;br&gt; TriputA tvaritA durgA&#xA;  vidyA prtyangirA tathA ||&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;KAlikulam smakhyAtam&lt;/strong&gt; sri kulam cha parama |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sundari bhairavi bAlA bagala kamalApi cha ||&lt;br&gt; DhumAvati cha mAtangi&#xA;  vidyA swapnAvati priye |&lt;br&gt; Madhumati mahAvidyA &lt;strong&gt;sri kulam paribhAshitam&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ten Goddesses famous as being belonging to the KAli Kula (the&#xA;  family or group of KAli) are- KAli, TArA, RaktakAli, Bhuvaneswari,&#xA;  Mahishamardini, TriputA, TvaritA, DurgA, VidyA and PratyangirA. And&#xA;  the ten Goddesses who belong to the Sri Kula are- [TripurA] Sundari, [TripurA] Bhairavi, BAla [Tripura Sundari],&#xA;  Bagalamukhi, KamalA, DhumAvati, MAtangi, SwapnAvati, Madhumati and&#xA;  MahAvidya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Niruttara Tantram Patala 1, Verses 6-8.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, based on this there emerged two different sects. In the KAli Kula, the principle Deities are KAli, TArA, DurgA etc whereas in the Sri Kula they are  Goddess LalitA, TripurA Bhairavi, BAlA TripurA Sundari etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-12T05:54:13.773" LastActivityDate="2017-09-12T05:54:13.773" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2334" CreationDate="2017-08-10T07:04:43.043" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;any people who could have killed Ravana, like Lord Hanuman and Jambavan. But they didn't kill Ravana.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not sure about Jambavana, but Hanuman had the ability of killing RAvana along with his whole army. However, he didn't kill him, because he wanted to give the credit (glory) to the lord RAma as stated in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03149.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Tirth yatra parva]&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then with his down standing erect, the noble-minded Bhima, joining his hands, replied unto Hanuman saying (there), 'O lord, by me have been beheld the vast dimensions of thy body ... Depending on the strength of thy arms, thou wert capable of instantly destroying Lanka, with its warriors, and horses, elephants and chariots. Surely, O son of the wind-god, there is nothing that is incapable of being achieved by thee; and &lt;strong&gt;in fight, Ravana together with his followers was no match for thee single-handed.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hanuman, the chief of monkeys, answered in affectionate words uttered in solemn accents. &quot;O mighty-armed one, O Bharata, it is even as thou sayest. O Bhimasena, that worst of Rakshasas was no match for me. &lt;strong&gt;But if I had slain Ravana--that thorn of the worlds--the glory of Raghu's son would have been obscured;--and for this it is that I left him alone&lt;/strong&gt;. By slaying that lord of the Rakshasas together with his followers, and bringing back Sita unto his own city, that hero hath established his fame among men.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-10T07:04:43.043" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20176" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-10T07:50:04.127" Score="1" ViewCount="541" Body="&lt;p&gt;Boredom &amp;amp; loneliness is the byproduct of lack of inner taste of Self. When one identifies himself with something limited which he is not, one gets such feelings owing to lack of experience of bliss &amp;amp; self completedness. Incompleteness implies boredom or loneliness, hence Someone who is complete can never get bored. Otherwise Parshuram, Hanuman etc all would have got bored so far being still alive. They are complete in themselves, experiencing taste of Brahman in Turiya state is the reason they never get bored or feel lonely. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9709/what-is-the-purpose-of-venkateshwar-incarnation&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; thread claims Lord Vishnu incarnate on earth owing to getting bored in Vaikuntha (one of the reason) what is the use of then aspiring for Vaikuntha if one get even bored there? Further it is hugely conflicting that Lord Vishnu can get bored! &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is what scriptures mention any case where God(s) got bored? I think It may be possible demigods could get bored as they are not enlightened but what about Trinity? Is there any case which tells trinity got bored?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-08-10T10:17:46.843" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T15:32:16.370" Title="Can God(s) get bored?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|gods|trinity|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20178" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20176" CreationDate="2017-08-10T09:08:40.057" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;I think It may be possible demigods could get bored as they are not enlightened but what about Trinity? Is there any case which tells trinity got bored?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's assume that the trinity is one or the other way the &quot;Supreme Brahman&quot;, which is the ultimate 'form' of the true self (&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;/आत्म).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we translate,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;bored = disinterested (a kind of indifference)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then &lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;, the supreme one runs this world in a boring way only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रकृतिं स्वामवष्टभ्य विसृजामि पुनः पुनः। भूतग्राममिमं कृत्स्नमवशं प्रकृतेर्वशात् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न च मां तानि कर्माणि निबध्नन्ति धनञ्जय। &lt;strong&gt;उदासीन&lt;/strong&gt;वदासीनमसक्तं तेषु कर्मसु ।।  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.8, 9.9 - Keeping My nature (prakruti) under control, I create [&amp;amp; destroy] the world of beings again &amp;amp; again; which are helpless under the nature (prakruti); And O Arjuna, those actions (Karma-s) don't bind Me, as &lt;strong&gt;&quot;I&quot; am indifferent (disinterested)&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; detached to those actions&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Typically one gets bored of something when it's repetitive &amp;amp; without any purpose. For Brahman, the &lt;em&gt;leela&lt;/em&gt; of whole universe's creation/destruction is repetitive &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19458/1049&quot;&gt;without any purpose&lt;/a&gt;. It creates the exact same universe again and again with the exact same events and then destroys in exactly same way. Cross reference:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 8.19 - This elementary world only happens again &amp;amp; again; Annihilates upon arrival of night, [and] originates upon arrival of day.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T05:20:05.457" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T05:20:05.457" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20182" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6753" CreationDate="2017-08-10T10:59:42.300" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Could it be &lt;strong&gt;Varun&lt;/strong&gt; who is being referred to as Indra's brother here? I know the term &lt;strong&gt;Upendra&lt;/strong&gt; is used for Vishnu commonly but the verse you have quoted actually just says Indra's brother:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kZSZG.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/kZSZG.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Varun as mentioned in the Vedas itself is an Aditya just like Indra hence his brother. According to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/aitareyabrahmana04hauguoft/aitareyabrahmana04hauguoft_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aitreya Brahman&lt;/a&gt; many verses were sung one of which was to &lt;strong&gt;Indra and one to Varun&lt;/strong&gt; but none to Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He applied to &lt;strong&gt;Prajapati&lt;/strong&gt;, who is the first of the gods, with the verse, liasya ndnam liatamasya. Prajapati answered him, '&lt;strong&gt;Agni&lt;/strong&gt; is the nearest of the gods, go to him.&quot; He then applied to Agni, with the verse, agner vayam prathamasya aviritdndm, Agni answered him, &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Savitar&lt;/strong&gt; rules over the creatures, go to him.&quot; He then applied to Savitar with the three verses beginning with, allii tvd devft Savitar. Savitar answered him, &quot;Thou art bound for Varuna, the King, go to him.&quot; He applied to &lt;strong&gt;Varuna&lt;/strong&gt; with the following thirty-one verses (124, 6-25, 21). Varuna then answered him, &quot;Agni is the mouth of the gods, and the most compassionate of them. Praise him now then we shall release you.&quot; He then praised Agni with twenty-two verses (1, 26, 1, 27, 12). Agni then answered, &quot; Prasise the &lt;strong&gt;Vishve Devas&lt;/strong&gt;, then we shall release you.&quot; He then praised the Vishve Devas with the verse vamo mahaclbhyo namo arbhahebhyo. The Visve Devas answered, &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt; is the strongest, the most powerful, the most enduring, the most true of the gods, who knows best how to bring to an end anything. Praise him, then we shall release you.&quot; He then praised Indra with the hymn yach chid dlii satya somapd, and with fifteen verses of the following one (1, 30, 1-15). Indra, who had become pleased with his praise, presented him with a golden carriage. This present he accepted with the verse, isasvad indra. Indra then told him, &quot;Praise the &lt;strong&gt;Asvins&lt;/strong&gt;, then we shall release you.&quot; He then praised the Asvins, with the three verses which follow the abovementioned (1, 30, 17-19 . The As^vins then answered, &quot;Praise &lt;strong&gt;Usas&lt;/strong&gt; (Dawn), then we shall release you.&quot; He then praised UsAs with the three verses which follow the Asvin verses (1, 30, 20-22). As he repeated one verse after the other, the fetters (of Varuna) were falling off, and the belly of Harischandra became smaller. And, after he had done repeating the last verse, (all) the fetters were taken off, and Harischandra restored to health again. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a verse in the Rig Veda authored by Shunahshep (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ancientvedas.com/chapter/1/book/24/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV Book 1 Hymn 24&lt;/a&gt;) that quite fits the description too:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 WHO now is he, what God among Immortals, of whose auspicious name we may bethink us?&#xA;  Who shall to mighty Aditi restore us, that I may see my Father and my Mother?&#xA;  2 Agni the God the first among the Immortals,—of his auspicious name let us bethink us.&#xA;  He shall to mighty Aditi restore us, that I may see my Father and my Mother.&#xA;  3 To thee, O Savitar, the Lord of precious things, who helpest us&#xA;  Continually, for our share we come—&#xA;  4 Wealth, highly lauded ere reproach hath fallen on it, which is laid,&#xA;  Free from all hatred, in thy hands&#xA;  5 Through thy protection may we come to even the height of affluence&#xA;  Which Bhaga hath dealt out to us.&#xA;  6 Ne’er have those birds that fly through air attained to thy high dominion or thy might or spirit;&#xA;  Nor these the waters that flow on for ever, nor hills, abaters of the wind's wild fury.&#xA;  7 Varuṇa, King, of hallowed might, sustaineth erect the Tree's stem in the baseless region.&#xA;  Its rays, whose root is high above, stream downward. Deep may they sink within us, and be hidden.&#xA;  8 King Varuṇa hath made a spacious pathway, a pathway for the Sun wherein to travel.&#xA;  Where no way was he made him set his footstep, and warned afar whate’er afflicts the spirit.&#xA;  9 A hundred balms are thine, O King, a thousand; deep and wide-reaching also be thy favours.&#xA;  Far from us, far away drive thou Destruction. Put from us e’en the sin we have committed.&#xA;  10 Whither by day depart the constellations that shine at night, set high in heaven above us?&#xA;  Varuṇa's holy laws remain unweakened, and through the night the Moon moves on in splendor&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;11 I ask this of thee with my prayer adoring; thy worshipper craves this with his oblation.&#xA;  Varuṇa, stay thou here and be not angry; steal not our life from us, O thou Wide-Ruler.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  12 Nightly and daily this one thing they tell me, this too the thought of mine own heart repeateth.&#xA;  May he to whom prayed fettered Śunaḥśepa, may he the Sovran Varuṇa release us.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;13 Bound to three pillars captured Śunaḥśepa thus to the Āditya made his supplication.&#xA;  Him may the Sovran Varuṇa deliver, wise, ne’er deceived, loosen the bonds that bind him.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  14 With bending down, oblations, sacrifices, O Varuṇa, we deprecate thine anger:&#xA;  Wise Asura, thou King of wide dominion, loosen the bonds of sins by us committed.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;15 Loosen the bonds, O Varuṇa, that hold me, loosen the bonds above, between, and under.&#xA;  So in thy holy law may we made sinless belong to Aditi, O thou Āditya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Logically also a hymn to Varun would make more sense than that to Vishnu since the former is the one demanding the sacrifice! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-08-22T07:57:05.763" LastActivityDate="2017-08-22T07:57:05.763" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20184" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20201" CreationDate="2017-08-10T14:37:13.510" Score="9" ViewCount="1739" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Atharva Veda Book 15 mentions about Vratya who created this universe and roused Prajapati/Brahma to action. So, is the Vratya described Lord Shiva as 15:1 says he becomes Mahadev Or is it a Supreme  being similar to Purusha or Viraj?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-11-25T17:39:27.087" LastActivityDate="2017-11-25T17:39:27.087" Title="Who is Vratya mentioned in the Atharva Veda?" Tags="|shiva|atharva-veda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20185" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-10T17:49:51.763" Score="3" ViewCount="176" Body="&lt;p&gt;In my local area prabachan guru said pronouncing the mantra's wrongly will not give the desired result and may have bad outcome, also giving one example of that case but I am not able to recall that example maybe from Shrimad Bhagavad Gita (श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता) not sure though.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the answer of user &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3866/10017&quot;&gt;Swami Vishwananda on this question&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantras are based on sound (vibration). If the mantra is pronounced correctly it will create a certain vibration and that vibration sets in motion actions that deliver a certain result.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All mantras must be pronounced correctly to deliver the correct result. If not pronounced correctly, some mantras will not deliver any result. Some mantras if not pronounced correctly will deliver harmful results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I'm interested in knowing some examples of pronouncing the mantra's wrongly from Vedic text with effect (outcome). If it's making question too broad limit your answer to Bhagavad or any famous vedic text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10017" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-10T20:18:22.837" Title="Examples showing effect of pronouncing the mantra's wrongly in Vedic text?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|mantras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20186" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8164" CreationDate="2017-08-10T18:58:39.197" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is NOT TRUE. Raam was unaware that he was an avatar of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VALMIKI RAMAYAN&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me use The Valmiki Ramayan as my source. Unfortunately I cannot use the Hanumad Ramayan as it was destroyed by Hanuman as soon as he carved it on stone with his nails. Valmiki Ramayan is the earliest untainted source, and Valmiki, like Hanuman, has first-hand knowledge as he himself appears after his version of the Ramayan (Valmiki gave shelter to Mother Sita when she was cast out of the palace by Lord Rama, after the Ramayan).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just before Mother Sita's Fire Sacrifice at the end of Valmiki Ramayan she says to Lord Rama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Aryaputra&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt; and sobbed to him for comfort. Lord Rama's face showed a strange transformation of mind. None of those around him could understand him, not even Lakshmana and  Lord Rama said to Mother Sita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have slain the enemy, I have recovered you. I have done my duty as a Kshatrya. My vow is now fulfilled... It gives me no joy to get you back for doubtfulness envelopes you like a dark cloud of smoke&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sita's eyes flashed fire and she shot back &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Unworthy words have you spoken, my ears have heard them and my heart is broken...&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mother Sita calls for the fire to be set and leaps into the fire screaming:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ye Gods, I bow before you. Oh Rishis, I bow to you. Oh Agni, you atleast know my purity and will take me as your own&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agni the God of Fire rose in his own body, lifting Mother Sita in his arms with all her jewels and clothes intact, and presented her Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Who am I? All that I know and can tell you is that I am Rama, son of Dasaratha. You know who I am and whence I came. It is you who must inform me&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Glory Glory Glory&lt;/strong&gt; to the Divine Mother in whose form all women are created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SOURCE: VALMIKI RAMAYANA RETOLD BY C RAJAGOPALACHARI - 1957, BHARATIYA VIDHYA BHAVAN&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11685" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T04:18:05.583" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20188" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19854" CreationDate="2017-08-10T19:55:05.230" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Ravana's name occurs in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/TheRamayanaUttaraKandam/The_Ramayana#page/n65/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 16&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Uttara-Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;. The Sanskrit text has been taken from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/ShrimadValmikiRamayan-SanskritTextWithHindiTranslation-DpSharma10/ShrimadValmikiRamayan-SktHindi-DpSharmaVol09-UttaraKandaPurvardh1927#page/n175/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Valmiki Ramayana Uttar Kanda by DP Sharma&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/ramayana/valmiki.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Documents&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since the story is a bit long I'm only linking specific verses here. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Dashanana usurps Kubera's Alkapuri and Pushpaka Vimana he moves towards Kailasha in the Pushpaka. However his vehicle does not move beyond the foot of the mountain. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rakshasha wonders why this happened (since Pushpaka can move anywhere according to the will of its owner) and Nandi provides an explanation that Lord Shiva and Parvati do not want their privacy to be disturbed at Kailasha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Annoyed at his movements being obstructed by Kailasha Dashanana decides to uproot the mountain to strike fear into the heart of the Lord (Shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अचिन्तयित्वा स तदा नन्दिवाक्यं निशाचरः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    पर्वतं तं समासाद्य वाक्यमेतदुवाच ह ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पुष्पकस्य गतिश्छिन्ना यत्कृते मम गच्छतः |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;   तदेतच्छैलमुन्मूलं करोमि तव गोपते ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;acintayitvā sa tadā nandivākyaṃ niśācaraḥ | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    parvataṃ taṃ samāsādya vākyametaduvāca ha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;puṣpakasya gatiśchinnā yatkṛte mama gacchataḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    tadetacchailamunmūlaṃ karomi tava gopate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But without heeding Nandi's speech, that highly powerful&#xA;  one-Dasanana-coming to the mountain, said,- O Gopati, I will even&#xA;  uproot this mountain, for whom Pushpaka was deprived of its motion as&#xA;  I was journeying. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;केन प्रभावेन भवस्तत्र क्रीडति राजवत् | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    विज्ञातव्यं न जानीषे भयस्थानमुपस्थितम् &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kena prabhāvena bhavastatra krīḍati rājavat&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    vijñātavyaṃ na jānīṣe bhayasthānamupasthitam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It must be known by what influence Bhavaswara sporteth here king-like. He doth not know that an occasion of fear hath presented itself?' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवमुक्त्वा ततो राजन्भुजान्प्रक्षिप्य पर्वते |&lt;br&gt;  तोलयामास तं शैलं समृगव्यालपादपम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;evamuktvā tato rājanbhujānprakṣipya parvate|&lt;br&gt; tolayāmāsa taṃ śailaṃ&#xA;  samṛgavyālapādapam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Having said this, O Rama, Ravana seizing the mountain with his arms,&#xA;  lifted it up at once; and then the mountain trembled greatly.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva as a sport presses down Kailasha over Dashanana's arms, crushing them and Dashanana emits a loud wail that shakes the entire universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततो राम महादेवः प्रहसन्वीक्ष्य तत्कृतम् | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    पादाङ्गुष्ठेन तं शैलं पीडयामास लीलया&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततस्ते पीडितास्तस्य शैलस्याधो गता भुजाः |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    विस्मिताश्चाभवंस्तत्र सचिवास्तस्य रक्षसः ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tato rāma mahādevaḥ prahasanvīkṣya tatkṛtam |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    pādāṅguṣṭhena taṃ śailaṃ pīḍayāmāsa līlayā ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tataste pīḍitāstasya śailasyādho gatā bhujāḥ vismitāścābhavaṃstatra&#xA;  sacivāstasya rakṣasaḥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And then, O Rama, Mahadeva-foremost of the deities-even Hara, as in&#xA;  sport pressed the mount with his great toe.&lt;/strong&gt; And thereat his arms,&#xA;  resembling blocks of stone felt the shock and then there the&#xA;  councilors of that Raksha were struck with amaze. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रक्षसा तेन रोषाच्च भुजानां पीडनात्तथा | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    मुक्तो विरावः सुमहांस्त्रैलोक्यं येन पूरितम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rakṣasā tena roṣācca bhujānāṃ pīḍanāttathā | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    mukto virāvaḥ sumahāṃstrailokyaṃ yena pūritam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And the Raksha, from wrath and the pain felt in his arms, set up a&#xA;  shout that shook the entire triune world.&lt;/strong&gt; And his councillors&#xA;  considered it as the concussion of the thunder at the universal&#xA;  disruption. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dashanana's frightened councillors advise him to pray to Mahadeva for forgiveness and he does so for a 1000 years upon which Mahadeva is gratified and releases him bestowing upon him the name Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेषियख महादेवं नीलकण्ठमुमापतिम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    तमृते शरणं नान्यं पश्यामोऽत्र दशानन &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्तुतिभिः प्रणतो भूत्वा तमेव शरणं व्रज ।&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    कृपालुः शङ्करस्तुष्टः प्रसादं ते विधास्यति&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;teṣiyakha mahādevaṃ nīlakaṇṭhamumāpatim |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    tamṛte śaraṇaṃ nānyaṃ paśyāmo'tra daśānana || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;stutibhiḥ praṇato bhūtvā tameva śaraṇaṃ vraja |&lt;br&gt; &#xA;    kṛpāluḥ śaṅkarastuṣṭaḥ prasādaṃ te vidhāsyati ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Do thou propitiate Uma's lord-the blue-throated Mahadeva; for, O&#xA;  Dasanana, save him thy refuge see we none in this matter, Bowing&#xA;  thyself down, do thou seek him as thy shelter, Then the kind Sankara,&#xA;  on being gratified, will confer on thee his favor.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवमुक्तस्तुदामात्यैस्तुष्टाव तृषभध्वजम् । &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    सामभिर्विविधैः स्तोत्रैः प्रणम्य स दशानन । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    संवत्सरसहस्रं तु रुदते रक्षसाे गतम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;evamuktastudāmātyaistuṣṭāva tṛṣabhadhvajam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    samabhirvividhaiḥ stotraiḥ praṇamya sa daśānana |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    saṃvatsarasahasraṃ tu rudate rakṣaso gatam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus accosted by his councillors, the Ten-faced one, bowing down to&#xA;  him having the bull for his standard, &lt;strong&gt;began to hymn him with various&#xA;  sama hymns; and the Raksha passed away a good thousand years in&#xA;  lamentations&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततः प्रीतो महादेवः शैलाग्रे विष्ठितस्तदा | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    मुक्त्वा तस्य भुजान्राजन्प्राह वाक्यं दशाननम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tataḥ prīto mahādevaḥ śailāgre viṣṭhitastadā |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    muktvā tasya bhujānrājanprāha vākyaṃ daśānanam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And thereat that Lord Mahādeva, pleased, set free the hands of&#xA;  Dasanana stationed at the top of the mount, and O Rama, addressed him,&#xA;  saying,&quot;O Dashanana, pleased am I with thee on account of thy hymns.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रीतेऽस्मि तव वीर्याच्च शौण्डीर्याच्च निशाचर | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;    रवतो वेदना मुक्तः खरः परमदारुणः ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यस्माल्लोकत्रयं त्वेतद्रावितं भयमागतम् |  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    तस्मात्त्वं रावणो नाम नाम्ना तेन भविष्यसि&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prīte.asmi tava vīryācca śauṇḍīryācca niśācara | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ravato vedanā muktaḥ kharaḥ paramadāruṇaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;yasmāllokatrayaṃ tvetadrāvitaṃ bhayamāgatam |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    tasmāttvaṃ rāvaṇo nāma nāmnā tena bhaviṣyasi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And as in consequence of thy arms having been hurt by the mountain,&#xA;  thou hast uttered a terrific yell, which struck horror into the three&#xA;  worlds and put them shaking, therefore, O King, thy name shall be&#xA;  Ravana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देवता मानुषा यक्षा ये चान्ये जगतीतले | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    एवं त्वामभिधास्यन्ति &lt;strong&gt;रावणं लोकरावणम्&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;devatā mānuṣa yakṣā ye cānye jagatītaḻe |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    evaṃ tvāmabhidhāsyanti &lt;strong&gt;rāvaṇaṃ lokarāvaṇam&lt;/strong&gt; || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And deities and men and Yakshas and others living on earth &lt;strong&gt;shall call&#xA;  thee Ravana-terror to creatures.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एवं महेश्वरेणैवं कृतनामा स रावणः&lt;/strong&gt; | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    अभिवाद्य महादेवं विमानं तत्समारुहत् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;evaṃ maheśvareṇaivaṃ kṛtanāmā sa rāvaṇaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    abhivādya mahādevaṃ vimānaṃ tatsamāruhat ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Having thus received his name from Maheswara, Ravana&lt;/strong&gt;, saluting&#xA;  Mahadeva, ascended Pushpaka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T04:46:04.723" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T04:46:04.723" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20189" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20207" CreationDate="2017-08-10T21:17:03.347" Score="6" ViewCount="827" Body="&lt;p&gt;||श्री कृष्णः शरणं मम||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;||श्री कृष्णं शरणं मम||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;||श्री कृष्णाय शरणं मम||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;||श्री कृष्ण शरणं मम||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I see all these various forms online. Which one is correct grammatically? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6830" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T10:07:23.750" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T17:26:20.523" Title="Which one is grammatically accurate krishna saranagati mantra?" Tags="|krishna|mantras|sanskrit|sharanagati|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20190" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8138" CreationDate="2017-08-11T05:37:27.113" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In ancient times rivers are main sources of water and it's being the&#xA;  only sources of water for drinking and for irrigation purposes. Thus,&#xA;  by &lt;strong&gt;throwing copper coins in to rivers our forefathers ensured an&#xA;  adequate intake of copper to the body via drinking water.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Copper is a vital metal very useful to the human body and used to attracting dirt as it is mentioned in Ayurveda that it purifies&#xA;  water&lt;/strong&gt;. Water was Stored in Copper pots which Kills Contaminating&#xA;  Diarrhoeagenic Bacteria and, thus in temples also priests use copper&#xA;  vessels to give thirtha/holy water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Throwing coins in the river was one way our fore-fathers ensured we intake sufficient copper as part of the water as rivers were the only source of drinking water. So if coins remain in rivers for a longer time then it is beneficial for those who drink it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://aumamen.com/practice/throwing-coins-into-a-river-importance-of-religious-practices&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://aumamen.com/practice/throwing-coins-into-a-river-importance-of-religious-practices&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T05:37:27.113" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20192" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-11T05:52:31.110" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T05:52:31.110" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T05:52:31.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20193" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-11T05:52:31.110" Score="0" Body="The process of initiating a person with a mantra by a guru is called initiation. This is called Deeksha in common usage.  " OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T05:52:31.110" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T05:52:31.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20194" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-11T06:02:13.107" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T06:02:13.107" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T06:02:13.107" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20195" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-11T06:02:13.107" Score="0" Body="The continuous repeated chanting of mantras, stotras or even just holy names of Gods. " OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T06:02:13.107" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T06:02:13.107" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20196" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12311" CreationDate="2017-08-11T06:11:13.253" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Indra-Dahnushya? Is Indra-Dhanushya really Bow of Indra&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The exact answer is found In &lt;strong&gt;Atharva-Veda - Kanda -15 –Sukta 1 -  Adhyatma Prakaran Sukta – Verse -6&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;The Devata of this Sukta is Vrtaya. This entire Sukta Is revering deity Vratya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स एकव्रात्यो s भवत् स धनुरादत्त &lt;strong&gt;तदेवेन्द्रधनु:&lt;/strong&gt; ||6||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sa Eka VraTayo Bhavat  Sa DhanuRaDatta  &lt;strong&gt;TaDevendraDhanuhu&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is singularly the leader of the Vratya’s  group (Vratya Samuha) ,&#xA;  He touched the BOW , &lt;strong&gt;which was called Indra-Dhanushya.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read the English translation of the verse  -  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av15001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here it is said that the deity Vratya took a bow , touched it . And that is why the  Bow is called Indra_Dhanushya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Vratya description resembles to Shiva , there are word like Nila-Lohita etc. in that sukta.Which are of Lord shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion - It seems from Atharva-veda that Indra -Dhanushya is bow&#xA;  of vedic deity Vratya.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;hr&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A7Hb3.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/A7Hb3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T09:20:52.677" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T09:20:52.677" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20197" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7442" CreationDate="2017-08-11T06:15:20.507" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Difference should be &lt;strong&gt;~70+/- years&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16040/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Drona died at the age of 85 years. From that, we can assume that Bhishma's age should be of &lt;strong&gt;85-90 years&lt;/strong&gt;, as both Bhishma &amp;amp; Drona were contemporaries along with KripachArya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Abhimanyu's age was &lt;strong&gt;16 years&lt;/strong&gt; as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sambhava Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nara, whose companion is Narayana, will be born as Indra's son and indeed, will be known as &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna&lt;/strong&gt;, the mighty son of Pandu. This boy of mine shall be &lt;strong&gt;his son&lt;/strong&gt; and become a mighty car-warrior in his boyhood. And let him, ye best of immortals, stay on earth for &lt;strong&gt;sixteen years&lt;/strong&gt;. And when he attaineth to his sixteenth year, the battle shall take place in which all who are born of your portions shall achieve the destruction of mighty warriors...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-22T10:28:09.350" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T10:28:09.350" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20199" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-11T08:58:10.500" Score="1" ViewCount="765" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't really understand that Ram's play in Ramayana is true feeling or acting. In some situation he clearly shows his super power and he is a god (described in Situation 1). In some other dangerous situation he is like a normal person (described in Situation 2).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Situation 1:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is an incident at the time of Sita Swayamvar where when he accidently broke Lord Shiva's bow. Lord Rama came forward to calm him down, Parshurama asked Lord Rama to show who he actually is. And then Lord Rama showed him his Vishnu form and thus Parshurama calmed down and returned back. This incident is there in Valmiki's Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In another situation where Lord Yamraj came in disguise of a sage to tell Lord Rama that His time is over on earth and if He wants to stay more or end His life as human being. Following is the extract of what Yamaraj said to Lord Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Situation 2:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While kidnapping Sita he just behaving like a normal human. While he saw that jatayu was killed he showed emotion like normal human.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In few normal situation he shows him as god then why he didn't do that in dangerous situation where its actually required to show his power. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the main intend of his life in earth is not to show him as god and live an exemplary human life then he should not show his power in situation 1 but he doing both the things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11669" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T13:26:15.643" Title="Rama's play in Ramayana is true feeling?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|avatars|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20200" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-11T09:11:06.220" Score="3" ViewCount="1098" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm reading this famous anecdote about KalidAsa, the great Indian poet. However it is written in Sanskrit and so, I have certains gaps in my interpretation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Vix0L.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Vix0L.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's how I've interpreted the story in English to the best of my abilities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once there was a poet in the King's court. His name was KalidAsA:. He,&#xA;  by his skill, was the best among all the poets &lt;strong&gt;(no one else was&#xA;  better?).&lt;/strong&gt; He was the most respected in the King's court. He alone,&#xA;  among the poets, is recognized as the Chakravarti**(Indian word for&#xA;  chief/king/leader).** Another arrogant poet, who, in the absence of other poets,&#xA;  scolded the king &lt;strong&gt;(this is where I'm confused. I'm pretty&#xA;  sure I've misinterpreted this line. Why would another poet who is arrogant be narrating a story about KalidAsa to the king?)&lt;/strong&gt;. Somehow, the king listened to the&#xA;  story with joy: Once there was a king who invited all the poets &lt;strong&gt;(I'm&#xA;  not sure what the 'ka khA ga ghA' signifies)&lt;/strong&gt; and having solved a puzzle,&#xA;  he told them &quot;whoever can solve this puzzle, he alone, will be deemed&#xA;  Chakravarti.&quot; All the poets abandoned what they were doing and became&#xA;  engaged in solving the puzzle. Many solved the puzzle. The next day,&#xA;  having come to King's court with dull faces, they couldn't stand there&#xA;  firmly**(once again, this doesn't make sense. Why would they be embarrassed if many solved it?)** &lt;strong&gt;(Unsure what the last paragraph says even though it is the&#xA;  punchline of the story...)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've translated the text line by line, to the best of my abilities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I'm having trouble understanding this anecdote. What exactly is going on here? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Where have I misinterpreted based on the text. I've translated line for line, so hopefully it is easy to pinpoint exactly which sentence I misunderstood.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If I've slightly misinterpreted a sentence(tense/plurality/etc), but still captured the overall essence, please still correct me. It'll help me get better at reading Sanskrit texts and serve as a source for others to better decode Sanskrit texts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5101" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T09:11:06.220" Title="Anecdote about KalidAsA" Tags="|sanskrit|kalidasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ClosedDate="2017-08-11T13:29:51.263" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20201" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20184" CreationDate="2017-08-11T09:15:55.177" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;So is the Vratya describe is Lord shiva as 15:1 says he become Mahadeva  Or is it a Supreme being similiar to Purusha or Viraj?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we look  at &lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda Kanda 15 – Adhayatma Prakaran Sukta.&lt;/strong&gt; We can see  that the Devata of that Sukta is Vratya. . Here its said that after becoming leader of group of Vratyas he advised Prajapati. This Vratya became Lord of the gods , Ishana , Ishwara . He is singularly became the leader of Vratyas.  group  .The back is of red color and  outer central stomach is of blue color.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the verses from Atharva Veda -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;व्रात्य आसीदीयमान एव स प्रजापतिं समैरयत ||1||&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vratya AsiDiYaMaaNa Eva Sa PrajaPatim SamaiRayat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After acquiring Vratya form , Group leader Vratya advised the best&#xA;superior knowledge to Praja Palak Brahma.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तमेकभवत् तल्ललाममभवत् तन्महदभवत् तज्ज्येजष्ठम्भवत् तद् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;ब्रह्माभवत् तत् तपोsभवत् तत् सत्यमभवत् तेन प्राजायत ||3||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TamekaBhavat TallaLaMaMaBhavt TanMaHyadBhavt TajjYaiJaShthaBhavat Tad&#xA;BrahmaBhavat Tat TapoBhavat Tat SatyaBhavat Tena PrajaYat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whom , the Prajapati  became turned great , amazing ,broad (jeshtha)&#xA;,Brahma (creator) ,became powerful and truthful. From that only one&#xA;this (Vratya) came into existence.  &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सोsवर्धत स महाभवत् स महादेवोsभवत् ||4||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Vardhata Sa MahaBhavata sa MahaDevoBhavat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The which whome is Prajapati (Vratya or Rudra –Shiva)  added /created&#xA;progeny (praja)  and by this growth he became very great (Maha)&#xA;–became Mahadeva.&lt;hr&gt;स देवानामीशां पर्येत् स ईशानोsभवत् ||5||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sa DevaNaMiShaam Paryet sa IshanoBhavat    He Who became revered; as&#xA;Ishwara or Ishana &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नीलमस्योदरं लोहितं पृष्ठम् ।|7||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NilaMasyoUdaram Lohitam Prushtham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His back is of red color and outer central portion of stomach is of&#xA;blue color.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can see here  in this sukta the names like Nila-Lohita which are also stated  in Puranas  which are of Lord Shiva Or Mahadeva Or Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/linga-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-18/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Linga Purana 2.19&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  uses name Nila-Lohita  for Lord Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नीलश्च लोहितश्चैव प्रधानपुरुषान्वयात् । स्कंदस्ते यतः शुक्ल तथा&#xA;शुक्लमपैति च ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is of both Blue and Red colour since both Pradhana and Purusha&#xA;merge in him. Since the semen flows from him, he is known as Shukla.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the puranic verse from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; which is same as verse 4 and 7 - of Atharva veda kanda 15.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्यादिष्ट: स गुरुणा भगवान्नीललोहित: |&lt;br&gt; सत्वकृतिस्वभावेन्&#xA;ससर्जात्मसमा: प्रजा: ||15||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ity ādiṣṭaḥ sva-guruṇā bhagavān nīla-lohitaḥ&lt;br&gt; sattvākṛti-svabhāvena&#xA;sasarjātma-samāḥ prajāḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most powerful Rudra, whose bodily color was blue mixed with red,&#xA;created many offspring exactly resembling him in features, strength&#xA;and furious nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Rudra Or Shiva is said to be of Blue-Red color , this verse is clearly of Rudra Or Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt; – So from carefully looking at the adjacent  verse Of Athrva-Veda and the veres from puranas ,we can say that here most&#xA;probably the deity Vratya  from Atharva veda is Lord Shiva Or Rudra Or&#xA;Maha Deva. We can clearly see the resemblance of the terms used in&#xA;both vedas and Puranas. Here  Vratya is also depicted a supreme&#xA;Ishwara. But  he is not stated as Supreme being similiar to Purusha or&#xA;Viraj ,at least  in this sukta of Atharvaveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T09:15:55.177" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20202" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20189" CreationDate="2017-08-11T09:29:19.343" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;श्री कृष्णः = Shri KRshNa: (subject case). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मम = mine (possessive case)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शरणं = protection/refuge (object case)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शरणं मम = my refuge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this roughly translates KRshna: is my refuge. Since this is in Sholka &quot;अस्ति&quot; is omitted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ideally, if prose, it would read &quot;श्री कृष्णः मम शरणं अस्ति |&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5101" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T09:29:19.343" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20203" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12517" CreationDate="2017-08-11T10:25:22.670" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe Lord Krishna is the Supreme Brahman and Brahma Samhita also describes the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bs/5/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Samhita 5.1&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: Kṛṣṇa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verse describes Lord Krishna is the origin of everything and all the other verses glorifies Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Why do they Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe in Brahma Samhita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because Brahma Samhita is one of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12279/what-exactly-are-pancharatra-texts/12321#12321&quot;&gt;Pancharatra texts&lt;/a&gt; which are most popular among Vaishnavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancharatra#List_of_agamas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;list of Pancharatra agamas from wiki&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agastya-Samhita, Aniruddha-Samhita, Ahirbudhnya Samhita, &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Samhita&lt;/strong&gt;, Brihat-Brahma-Samhita, Isvara-Samhita, Kapinjala-Samhita, Garga Samhita, Gautama-Samhita, Citrasikhandi-Samhita, Jayakhya-Samhita.... (mentioned few from list)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also believed that there were 100 chapters in the Brahma Samhita. This 5th chapter is the only chapter available now and was discovered by Chaitanya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And not only Gaudiya Vaishnavas but Nimbarka sect, Vallabhacharya sect, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.krishnapranami.org/plilosophy.php?pgactive=1&amp;amp;country=&amp;amp;#top&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pranami sect&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radha-vallabha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Radha Vallabha sect&lt;/a&gt; also worship Lord Krishna as Supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T18:14:56.740" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T18:14:56.740" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20204" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20184" CreationDate="2017-08-11T10:35:24.473" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 18 Paryayas (sub-chapters) in the 15th chapter of AtharvaVeda. All the paryayas describe the activity of Vratya. So, in general consideration the Devata of whole chapter is Vratya.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But if we look in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av15005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;5th paryaya&lt;/a&gt; of 15th chapter, the Devata there is mentioned as Lord Rudra:&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/YaRx6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&#xA;So, it is clear that Vratya described in AtharvaVeda is Lord Shiva himself. The reason why Devata of other paryaya is written Vratya and why Devata of 5th paryaya is written Rudra is because 5th parayaya is strongly associated with Ashta-Murti form of Shiva. Although the 5th chapter describes the activity of Vratya but it is in relation with Ashta-Murti form of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhava&lt;/strong&gt; the Archer, a deliverer, delivers him from the intermediate space of the eastern region..... &lt;strong&gt;Sarva&lt;/strong&gt; the Archer his deliverer from the intermediate space of the southern region......&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;Pasupati&lt;/strong&gt; the Archer his deliverer from the intermediate space of the western region...... They made &lt;strong&gt;Rudra&lt;/strong&gt; the Archer his deliverer from the intermediate space of the region of the nadir...... &lt;strong&gt;Mahādeva&lt;/strong&gt; his deliverer from the intermediate space of the region of the zenith..... &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; the Archer,&amp;nbsp; a deliverer, delivers him from all the intermediate regions. (AtharvaVeda 15.5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in the 1st paraya or Birth of the Vratya section, the Devata of 5th Mantra which states &amp;apos;Vratya became Ishana.&amp;apos;, is Rudra.&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uiHcz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स देवानामीशां पर्यैत्स ईशानोऽभवत् ।। 5&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;He gained the lordship of the Gods. He became Ishana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also without looking the Devata also, by the description of birth given in 1st Paryaya, it is clearly known it is Lord Shiva who is described there:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्रात्य आसीदीयमान एव स प्रजापतिं समैरयत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स प्रजापति: सुवर्णमात्मन्नपश्यत्तत्प्राजनयत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदेकमभवत्तल्ललाममभवत्तन्महदभवत्तज्जेष्ठमभवत्तद्ब्रह्माभवत्तत्तपोऽभवत्तत्सत्यमभवत्तेन प्राजायत ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोऽवर्धत स महानभवत्स महादेवोऽभवत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स देवानामीशां पर्यैत्स ईशानोऽभवत् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स एकव्रात्योऽभवत्स धनुरादत्त तदेवेन्द्रधनुः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नीलमस्योदरं लोहितं पृष्ठम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नीलेनैवाप्रियं भ्रातृव्यं प्रोर्णोति लोहितेन द्विषन्तं विध्यतीति&amp;nbsp; ब्रह्मवादिनो वदन्ति ।।&amp;nbsp; [Atharva Veda 15:1]&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  There was Vratya . He roused Prajapati to action. &lt;strong&gt;Prajapati&lt;/strong&gt; beheld gold in himself and &lt;strong&gt;engendered it.&lt;/strong&gt; That became unique, that became distinguished, that became great, that became excellent, that became Brahman, that became Tapas, that became Truth: &lt;strong&gt;through that he (Vratya) was born.&lt;/strong&gt; He grew, he became great, &lt;strong&gt;he became Mahadeva.&lt;/strong&gt; He gained the lordship of the Gods. &lt;strong&gt;He became Ishana.&lt;/strong&gt; He became Eka Vratya. He held a bow, even that Bow of Indra. &lt;strong&gt;His belly is dark-blue, his back is red (Nila Lohitam).&lt;/strong&gt; With dark-blue he envelops a detested rival, with red he pierces the man who hates him: so the knowers of Brahman say.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NilaLohita term in Vedas is used to denote Lord Shiva as I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16375/why-is-lord-shiva-called-nilalohita&quot;&gt;discuss here.&lt;/a&gt; Also the names Mahadeva and Ishana are used to denote Lord Shiva as I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13649/what-names-of-lord-shiva-used-today-are-from-vedas/13650#13650&quot;&gt;discuss here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Vratya described in 15th chapter of AtharvaVeda is Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T10:35:24.473" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20205" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10138" CreationDate="2017-08-11T11:43:26.487" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;lakshmi is durga or adi shakti according to DEVI BHAGWAT as NARAYANA(vishnu) is supreme god acc to GITA. he  is SATYANARAYNA . SHIV BRAHAMA INDRA VAYU and all other gods his mild form means gets their duty and power from vishnu like this LAKHSMI is VISHNU shakti (yognidra OR adi shakti) and PARVATI SARASWATI SHACHI(indra wife) and other goddess her mild form means gets power and duties from her. every girl(human) called and devi thatswhy called 'lakshmi ka roop'AND &quot;HAR NAR ME NARAYAN HAI&gt;when lakshmi got engry became DURGA collect other dev powers given by narayna(DURGA SAPTSHATI) with her powers and first sent parvati giving power of KALI if needed more sent SARASWATI giving power of ambika if more needed comes herself as DURGA THEREFORE said PARVATI IS NOT KALI EVERY TIME BUT KALI APPEARS in Her MEANS KALI PRAKAT HUI THI THEREFORE KALI IS NOT SAID SHIVA WIFE BUT PARAVATI SAID. SITA also turned kali to kill SHAHATRA-RArVAN(ACC TO ADBHUT RAMAYAN). sita is incarnation of lakshmi.Narayna has power of THREE GODS AND lakshmi has THREE DEVIS POWER.in end of world lakhshmi dissapear in narayna and  PRAKRITI and PURUS leads to a new SHRISTI(WORLD).so he is SATYANARAYNA(only true start  and end and all world is VISHU MAYA(LAKSHMI-power,position etc.RAM NAAM SATYA after death called because ram human form of vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11689" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T11:43:26.487" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20206" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20211" CreationDate="2017-08-11T13:17:47.407" Score="1" ViewCount="1508" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe that Hinduism could be regarded as both Atheistic and Animistic / Pantheistic, depending on how one defines the word &quot;God&quot;. From my article &lt;a href=&quot;https://medium.com/@johnslegers/the-atheistic-approach-to-god-5ae3f2b0012b&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Atheistic approach to God… or how to bridge the gap between Atheists and Theists&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;An Atheistic perspective on Consciousness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We know from &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_biology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;evolutionary&#xA;  biology&lt;/a&gt; that&#xA;  multi-celled organisms evolved from single-celled organisms. It is&#xA;  unclear to what degree single-celled organisms gave up their autonomy&#xA;  to be able to act as a single organism and it is reasonable to suggest&#xA;  that our individual cells have maintained some degree of autonomy&#xA;  (consciousness) that we are totally unaware of.    A lot of human&#xA;  behavior is associated with subconscious processes in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefrontal_cortex&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;prefrontal&#xA;  cortex&lt;/a&gt; that&#xA;  psycho-analysts refer to as&#xA;  the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;super-ego&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;  This super-ego reflects the internalization of cultural rules in the&#xA;  form of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;memes&lt;/a&gt;. Such memes often&#xA;  influence human behavior in ways individuals barely realize and can be&#xA;  considered a form of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_consciousness&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;collective&#xA;  consciousness&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;  A group of humans that is connected by means of memes can act as a&#xA;  single conscious organism, much like a cell of our body can act as a&#xA;  single conscious organism. This and many other factoids directly imply&#xA;  that consciousness is not so much a product of our brains but rather&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-theory-of-consciousness/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;a product of complexity and connectivity&lt;/a&gt;.      From that&#xA;  perspective, the concept of consciousness can both be reduced to the&#xA;  molecular level and expanded to the universe as a whole, with the&#xA;  universe as a very complex &lt;a href=&quot;http://motherboard.vice.com/read/there-is-growing-evidence-that-our-universe-is-a-giant-hologram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;holographic&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://cds.cern.ch/record/412531/files/9912088.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;quantum computer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The relationship with Hinduism and Animism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, death is understood as the collapse of&#xA;  the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80tman_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ātman&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  (individual consciousness) and its dissolution into many different&#xA;  other components that make up&#xA;  the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahman&lt;/a&gt; (universal&#xA;  consciousness).    If you look consider&#xA;  the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimurti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Trimurti&lt;/a&gt; (the Hindu&#xA;  triniti), one can clearly see them as anthropomorphic representations&#xA;  of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;nature&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;)&#xA;  and its two fundamental opposite&#xA;  forces: &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;emergence&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma&lt;/a&gt;)&#xA;  and&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;entropy&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;).&#xA;  Similarly, many&#xA;  other &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devas&lt;/a&gt; (Gods) are&#xA;  mere anthropomorphic representations of lesser natural phenomena.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The same applies to&#xA;  the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kami&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kami&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shinto&lt;/a&gt; religion&#xA;  or equivalents in other &quot;polytheistic&quot; religions. One could easily&#xA;  argue that all &quot;polytheistic&quot; religions are&#xA;  really &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Animistic&lt;/a&gt; religions,&#xA;  which are perfectly compatible with the Atheistic framework depending&#xA;  on how one defines concepts like&#xA;  &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Consciousness&lt;/a&gt;&quot; or&#xA;  &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Soul&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pantheism and Shamanism as forms of Animism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pantheism&lt;/a&gt; is a simplified&#xA;  version of animism, which removes all &quot;Gods&quot; from the picture&#xA;  except &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;nature&lt;/a&gt;). &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Advaita&#xA;  Vedanta&lt;/a&gt; is a form of&#xA;  Hinduism that belongs to this category. Many other religions&#xA;  (eg. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_neopaganism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Germanic&#xA;  paganism&lt;/a&gt;) have a&#xA;  Pantheistic variation, although these advanced forms of religion are&#xA;  rarely known beyond a&#xA;  small &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esotericism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;esoteric&lt;/a&gt; circle of&#xA;  initiates. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditionalist_School&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Traditionalist&#xA;  School&lt;/a&gt; is a&#xA;  school of philosophers from the early 20th century that attempted to&#xA;  explore these esoteric religions and discover a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_philosophy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;perennial&#xA;  philosophy&lt;/a&gt; running&#xA;  throughout all religions. Like Animism, Pantheism is also perfectly&#xA;  compatible with Atheism, again depending on how one defines concepts&#xA;  like &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Consciousness&lt;/a&gt;&quot; or&#xA;  &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Soul&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shamanism&lt;/a&gt; is a variation of&#xA;  animism that involves the notion that the chemical modification of&#xA;  one's consciousness provides access to higher knowledge that is&#xA;  otherwise filtered from our perception. Shamanic practices do not&#xA;  require a belief in any &quot;Gods&quot; and are not uncommon among Atheist&#xA;  intellectuals, especially since the popularization of LSD and&#xA;  Mescaline in the '60s. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aldous&#xA;  Huxley&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_J%C3%BCnger&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ernst&#xA;  Jünger&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Shulgin&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Alexander&#xA;  Shulgin&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Timothy&#xA;  Leary&lt;/a&gt;  and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Terence&#xA;  McKenna&lt;/a&gt; are among the&#xA;  more prominent shamans in Western culture, although not all of them&#xA;  would use the term &quot;shamanism&quot; in reference to their chemically&#xA;  induced self-exploratory consciousness expanding sessions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The link between Shamanism and Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Much of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu&lt;/a&gt; belief and&#xA;  practice grew out of the use&#xA;  of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Soma&lt;/a&gt;, a god, plant, and drink&#xA;  which is the focus of&#xA;  the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rigveda&lt;/a&gt;.      The&#xA;  continued entheogenic use of drugs such&#xA;  as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Cannabis&lt;/a&gt; is not&#xA;  uncommon among various Hindu sects. Cannabis is connected with the&#xA;  god &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva&lt;/a&gt; who is said to have&#xA;  rested in the shade of the Cannabis plant on a particularly hot day.&#xA;  In gratitude Shiva gave the plant to mankind.       Often the&#xA;  drink &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhang&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhang&lt;/a&gt; is drunk in Shiva's&#xA;  honor, it is a tea typically cooked with milk, spices, cannabis leaves&#xA;  and flowers. The leaves of&#xA;  the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kratom&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kratom&lt;/a&gt; tree have also been&#xA;  used traditionally as an ingredient in a tea with mild stimulant and&#xA;  opioid properties. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Pantheistic &quot;God&quot; concept from the Atheist's perspective&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Atheistic naturalistic position of the universe as a very complex&#xA;  quantum computer is pretty much the same as the Pantheistic position&#xA;  of the universe as one highly advanced mind. The differences between&#xA;  Atheist naturalism and Pantheism are really more a matter of different&#xA;  semantics and different cultural bias than a difference in concept.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one considers the notion that the clock ticks of a computer and&#xA;  awareness are basicly of the same nature (which is a perfectly&#xA;  reasonable consideration), the following statements would mean the&#xA;  exact same thing :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The universe is God. By being a part of God, all matter and living beings are essentially divine. Time is our perception of his thinking&#xA;  process. God's thinking processes comprise of all our thinking&#xA;  processes and all other processes of the universe combined. Our&#xA;  awareness is a tiny fraction of divine awareness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The universe is a giant computer. By being operating systems somewhat autonomicly operating a part of that computer, all living&#xA;  beings are components of the same computer. Time is our perception of&#xA;  the giant computer sequentially processing information. The computer's&#xA;  sequential processing comprises of all our thinking processes and all&#xA;  other processes in the universe combined. Our awareness is but a tiny&#xA;  fraction of the universe's operating system.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So if time = awareness = clock ticks, I can't distinguish between&#xA;  those two statements. Conceptually they mean exactly the same to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the comment section of an answer somewhere on Philosophy.SE, &lt;a href=&quot;https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/users/3021/swami-vishwananda&quot;&gt;Swami Vishwananda&lt;/a&gt; pointed out there there are some flaws in my description of Hinduism. As I would like to avoid misrepresenting Hinduism, I would ask you kindly if you could please point out any flaws you can find, so I can correct them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2940" LastActivityDate="2020-04-28T04:38:13.340" Title="Hinduism as an Atheistic or Animistic / Pantheistic religion" Tags="|philosophy|gods|other-religions|consciousness|atheism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2020-05-03T14:24:48.130" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20207" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20189" CreationDate="2017-08-11T14:11:07.867" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Note that this question would be more suitable for &lt;a href=&quot;https://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/109951/sanskrit-language&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Language&lt;/a&gt; site which is currently in definition phase.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are 7 cases of Nouns called Vibhakti (विभक्ति). (Quoting useful information regarding this from one &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskrit.samskrutam.com/en.grammar-tutorial-noun-form-cases.ashx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Grammar tutorial site&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following are the 7 different cases of a noun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Case 1 - Nominative -&gt; प्रथमा / prathamaa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Case 2 - Accusative -&gt; द्वितीया / dvitiiyaa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Case 3 - Instrumental -&gt; तृतीया / tRRitiiya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Case 4 - Dative -&gt; चतुर्थी / chaturthii&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Case 5 - Ablative -&gt; पञचमी / paJNamii &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Case 6 - Genitive -&gt; षष्ठी / ShaShThii&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Case 7 - Locative -&gt; सप्तमी / saptamii&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vocative -&gt; सम्बोधन / sambodhana&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्री कृष्णः शरणं मम। means &quot;Lord Krishna is my refuge&quot; or &quot;Shri Krishna is my shelter.&quot; (As already explained by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/5101/jonathan&quot;&gt;Jonathan&lt;/a&gt; in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20202/277&quot;&gt;answer&lt;/a&gt;). Here &lt;strong&gt;Krishna is the subject/nominative in the sentence.&lt;/strong&gt; Now let's see an example for the various forms of Sanskrit according to the case of Noun mentioned above:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Here I'm quoting the forms of Sanskrit based on 7 cases of noun in tabular form for a boy &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskrit.samskrutam.com/en.grammar-tutorial-reference-sabdarupa.ashx#noun_form_vaala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;बाल&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hdOrM.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hdOrM.png&quot; alt=&quot;table&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may also refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit_grammar#a-stems&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia page&lt;/a&gt; on Sanskrit Grammar which provides forms fro Rama (राम​).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;grammatically correct&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Saranagati Mantra is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;॥श्री &lt;strong&gt;कृष्णः&lt;/strong&gt; शरणं मम॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-11T17:26:20.523" LastActivityDate="2017-08-11T17:26:20.523" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20208" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-11T16:32:34.123" Score="2" ViewCount="145" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavat Mahapurana in the Third Canto Chapter VIII narrates the tale of Creation / Birth of Brahma. However I have found no reference there in to the birth / creation of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The detailed reference to Shiva appears for the first time in the Fourth Canto Chapter I when the Trinity appear in person before Maharishi Atri. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following Srimad Bhagavat Mahapurana prior to the creation at the bottom of the ocean lying on the coils of the Serpent Adisesha, Mahavishnu lies in deep slumber Yoga Nidra waiting for the right time to once again commence Creation and His first creation is Brahma. But where or how was Shiva created? There is a reference elsewhere that Shiva is one of the Rudras and hence progeny of Prjapati Kashyapa as is Vishnu one of the twelve Adityas. But this moves away from the concept that the Supreme Being is self manifested.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Shiva also self manifested? Please enlighten with Pauranic and Shruti references.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T05:34:25.833" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T05:34:25.833" Title="Is Shiva self manifested or born? And if born who were His Parents?" Tags="|shiva|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-08-14T05:18:20.373" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20210" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20199" CreationDate="2017-08-11T19:12:46.303" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you are confused and under a misconception. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11986/why-are-there-different-books-on-ramayana/11991#11991&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, Valmiki Ramayana is the original and authentic version of Ramayana. The reason is because it was the unparalleled and unbiased version. So, we have to refer &lt;em&gt;Valmiki Ramayana only rather than any other versions if we want to know the life of Rama&lt;/em&gt;. Many other Puranas also have the story of Rama in brief but they are also based on the Valmiki Ramayana only. &lt;em&gt;If there is a difference between Ramayana and Puranas, it should be understood it is due to Kalpa Bheda&lt;/em&gt; (Time is cyclic and incidents repeat in every kalpa sometimes with a slight variation). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama's life should be divided into two parts if you want to understand whether he was aware of his divinity or not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Before the slaying of Ravana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After the slaying of Ravana. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama was not aware that he was Lord Vishnu himself before slaying Ravana in the battle. He only knew that he was the God after killing Ravana. All the Gods descend to the earth to remind the divinity of Rama.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;There are a few things we have to remember&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri Rama did not break the Shiva's bow accidentally.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama did not break the Shiva's bow accidentally. The bow itself became soft when it came into the hands of Rama. It is because he was an able kshatriya. He wanted to see the bow, lift the bow and aim the bow due to his interest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While many thousands of men are witnessing that right-minded Rama the legatee of Raghu stringed the bow effortlessly. [1-67-16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Further, that dextrous one has stringed that bow with bowstring and started to stretch it up to his ear to examine its tautness, but that glorious one who is foremost among men, &lt;strong&gt;Rama, broke that bow medially&lt;/strong&gt;. [1-67-17]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bow is not broken by itself because of its oldness or dryness. Not to forget it is divine architect Vishvakarma who made the bow. It was maintained by Janaka perfectly. So, there is no point of being broken due to oldness. The reason why it broke was the strength of Rama alone. See the bold part. It was neither broken in the beginning nor the end but in the middle. It is only possible when the arms of the person who is aiming the bow are stronger. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is another instance to show the strength of arms of Rama: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama and Lakshmana, with &lt;strong&gt;two quivers each and two bows in their hands&lt;/strong&gt;, and making all the ten directions of compass lambent followed Vishvamitra, as if three headed serpents followed Vishvamitra, and with their highly dynamic physiques and spiritedness they look as if like the Ashwin twin gods of unequal charm following Brahma, the Forefather. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga22/balasans22.htm#Verse7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1-22-7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama is known to carry two quivers full of arrows onto his shoulders and bows in both the hands. This shows the strength of Rama's shoulders.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The bow was not broken at the Swayamwar&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bow was shown to Vishwamitra and Rama, Lakshmana by Janaka to show them respect. Parashu Rama arrived after the marriage of the Dasharathis(sons of Dasharathas). So, it was after the marriage and not immediately after the Shiva's bow was broken.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parshurama asked Lord Rama to show who he actually is. And then Lord Rama showed him his Vishnu form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dasharatha Rama didn't show his Vishnu form to Parashu Rama.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is being publicised that Rama showed his universal form to Parashu Rama when the latter arrived at Mithila. But Rama of Ikshvaku did not show the universal form to Bhargava Rama. &lt;em&gt;Showing universal form was not at all mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/em&gt;. This story might be part of later versions of Ramayana. It is because Rama was not aware of His divinity. What actually happened was below. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, when Rama is ready to take aim with the arrow on that inscrutable longbow, and when the worlds are being rendered as insentient, then that Rama of Jamadagni is rendered vigourless and he stared up at Rama of Dasharatha. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga76/balasans76.htm#Verse11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[1-76-11]&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama of Jamadagni is calloused as his vitality is &lt;strong&gt;subdued by the radiance of that lotus-petal eyed Rama of Dasharatha&lt;/strong&gt;, and he spoke to Rama of Dasharatha, slowly and softly. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga76/balasans76.htm#Verse12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[1-76-12]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I have realized your touch of nature as that of the Immutable Supreme Being, God of Gods, the Exterminator of the demon Madhu, namely Vishnu, by the touch of your handling that bow&lt;/strong&gt;... oh, enemy-inflamer, blessedness alone betides you... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above verse shows that Bharagava Rama showed realised the divinity of Rama by himself and there was no universal form. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All of these gods who have come collectively are beholding you and your next move, for you are an unequalled one in you achievements and to whom there is no counter-dueller in conflicts...&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga76/balasans76.htm#Verse18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[1-76-18]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, Parashu Rama is trying to finish the unloosening of the arrow from the bow of Vishnu. Becaue all the Devas were watching these two Ramas from the sky. If these are watching for long time, some devata or a danava might know the secret and purpose of the Rama's incarnation. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The purpose of Rama's incarnation is not hiding divinity&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purpose of the incarnation is slaying the evil minded Ravana. This can be only accomplished by either a human or a Vanara. It was a boon to Rava that he will be only slain by these both and not by anyone else. So, Lord Vishnu incarnated as a human in the dynasty of Ikshvaku. If Rama knew that he was god, then it will not be able to kill Ravana and the purpose of incarnation would be failed. Hence, the devatas didn't reveal the secret even when they got the chance. This being the first one and the other instance is from the Yuddha Kanda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mighty eagle Garuda appears in the battle field and heals the wounds of the Vanaras, Rama and Lakshmana caused by the arrows of Indrajit. Rama did not recognise him too. He asks: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Who are you, the one endowed with beauty, having blissful garlands and anointments, wearing clean garments and adorned with divine ornaments? &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga50/yuddhasans50.htm#Verse44&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-50-44]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To this question Garuda replies &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O, Rama! I am your dearest friend Garuda dear as your own breath moving outside I came here for the purpose of helping you, both. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga50/yuddhasans50.htm#Verse46&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-50-46]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O, hero! You need not be so curious to know the cause of my friendship. You will know of it, &lt;strong&gt;once you have accomplished success in battle&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga50/yuddhasans50.htm#Verse57&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-50-57]&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it was intentional that the secret of divinity was kept secret from Rama. The devatas waited until the main goal of the incarnation was completed i.e., the slaying of Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All this was planned even before the birth of Rama. Lord Vishnu asks the Devatas regarding the strategy to kill Ravana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is the idea to eliminate that demon's chief Ravana, oh, gods, adopting which strategy I will have to eliminate that thorn in the side of sages?&quot; Thus Vishnu asked the gods. [1-16-2]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They reply that only a human can kill him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus, on getting boon from the Forefather Brahma he has become arrogant and torturing the three worlds, and he is even abducting women. As such, oh, enemy destroyer Vishnu, &lt;strong&gt;his elimination is envisaged through humans alone&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot; So said gods to Vishnu. [1-16-6b, 7]   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing that speech of gods said that way, &lt;strong&gt;he that kind-hearted Vishnu then chose Dasharatha as his father in human world&lt;/strong&gt;. [1-16-8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the main goal of the incarnation of Rama is eliminating Ravana. As soon as the deed is accomplished, the gods descended to the earth and reminded the divinity of Vishnu and his original nature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lifting their long arms, their hands decked with ornaments, those excellent gods thereupon, spoke (as follows) to Rama who stood there, making a respectful salutation to them with his folded hands.[6-117-5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They try to remind him his divinity. But Rama couldn't recollect this and considers himself as a human being. He asks them to remind what he forgot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अब्रवित्त्रिदशश्रेष्ठान् रामो धर्मभृतां वरः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;आत्मानं मानुषं मन्ये रामं दशरथात्मजम्&lt;/strong&gt; || 6-117-11&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोऽहं यस्य यतश्चाहं भगवंस्तद्ब्रवीतु मे |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama spoke as follows &quot;&lt;strong&gt;I think of myself to be a human being, by name Rama, the son of Dasharatha&lt;/strong&gt;. You, as a gracious Divinity, tell me that which I as such really am like this.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the creator of the world Brahma explains Rama about his real nature. He says in a verse: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अब्रवीच्छृणु मे वाक्यं सत्यं सत्यपराक्रम |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;भवान्नारायणो देवः&lt;/strong&gt; श्रीमांश्चक्रायुधः प्रभुः || 6-117-13&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एकशृङ्गो वराहस्त्वं भूतभव्यसपत्नजित् |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma said &quot;Listen to my true word, O the truly brave lord! &lt;strong&gt;You are the Lord Narayana himself&lt;/strong&gt; the glorious god, who wields the discus. You are the Divine Boar with a single tusk, the conqueror of your past and future enemies.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear that Lord Rama only knew his original form after the battle with Ravana. This is the reason why he was able to recognise the god of death Yama and talked to him normally. He agreed to depart to his own abode as his purpose of incarnation was completed. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the two incidents mentioned Situation 1 should be seen from different perspectives. First one as Rama as human and the second one as Rama as God. The situation 2 took place when Rama didn't know that he was Vishnu. So, he reacted just like how a normal human does.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt; &#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the main intend of his life in earth is not to show him as god and live an exemplary human life then he should not show his power in situation 1 but he doing both the things. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main intention is not hiding his divinity but it was showing how an ideal human and an ideal ruler should be and eliminating Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Numbers in brackets after English translation denote verse number from Valmiki Ramayana. Format - [Kanda-chapter number-verse number]&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-05T13:26:15.643" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T13:26:15.643" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20211" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20206" CreationDate="2017-08-11T19:58:21.047" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;You use the term 'animism' loosely with an outdated understanding of the term. Before reading my response I would suggest you first read the Wikipedia page on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;animism&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Animism is an anthropological term. It is not a philosophical or theological term. Neither philosophers or theologians use the term as all religions are, under a modern interpretation, animistic. No one, even in anthropology, uses the term as you use it which is the 19th century outdated idea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me now address each section of your article. First your section entitled &quot;An Atheistic perspective on Consciousness&quot;. You start with scientific facts and then jump to scientific speculations as if they were established scientific facts. What scientific theory (not hypothesis, but established theory) is the basis for the 'factoids' and memes being a collective consciousness? And a holographic quantum computer is the sky? All speculation, not proven scientific facts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next section 'The relationship with Hinduism and Animism' shows a complete lack of understanding of some basic Hindu beliefs. You write &quot;In Hinduism, death is understood as the collapse of the Ātman (individual consciousness) and its dissolution into many different other components that make up the Brahman (universal consciousness).&quot; No, that is not what occurs at death. Please read my answer to this question - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6758/where-does-a-soul-attach-to-the-body/6787#6787&quot;&gt;Where does a Soul attach to the Body?&lt;/a&gt;. Upon death, the individual subtle body separates from the gross body. The subtle body survives death. The universal 'Atman' (Brahman) when encased in the koshas is referred to as the jiva. There is no concept of 'soul' as in Western theology and to use the term 'soul' leads to a lot of misunderstanding in Hindu theology. If a jiva attains Liberation, then the atman separates from the subtle body, the subtle body dissolves and the individual atman realizes its oneness with the universal Atman. If there is no Liberation then the jiva goes on to its next incarnation, either in the heavens or on the gross material plane. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You next address the trimurti. See the question and answers here - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7787/do-the-trimurti-brahma-vishnu-shiva-cleanly-map-onto-the-3-gunas-sattva-ra/7794#7794&quot;&gt;Do the Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva) cleanly map onto the 3 gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas)?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You then state 'Similarly, many other Devas (Gods) are mere anthropomorphic representations of lesser natural phenomena.' Understand that the word devas as lead many a Westerner to understand that Hinduism is polytheistic. It never was and never is. There is no reference to polytheism in any Hindu scriptures. The translation of the Sanskrit 'deva' as 'god' is a loose translation. A more literal translation is 'shining one'. The devas are more akin to the term governor than the Western concept of god. An individual jiva becomes a 'deva' for a cycle. After that, it is reborn in this world. It is not an eternal god. It is a temporary office. The gods are anthropomorphic - because we are and the highest concept of 'being' we have is of humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rest of this section you again again make references to animism under the outdated 19th century definitions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next section is called 'Pantheism and Shamanism as forms of Animism'. The Wikipedia page referred to previously states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Animism is not the same as pantheism, although the two are sometimes confused. Some religions are both pantheistic and animistic. One of the main differences is that while animists believe everything to be spiritual in nature, they do not necessarily see the spiritual nature of everything in existence as being united (monism), the way pantheists do. As a result, animism puts more emphasis on the uniqueness of each individual soul. In pantheism, everything shares the same spiritual essence, rather than having distinct spirits and/or souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It would seem you have the same confusion. You now say that Advaita is a form of Pantheism. Unequivocally it is not. I would suggest you gather a greater understanding of Advaita and Visistadvaita before making that statement. I would suggest that you read the two beginning sections of the Brahma Sutras I referred to you in my comment on PhilosophySE rather than relying on Wikipedia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next section is entitled 'The link between Shamanism and Hinduism'. It will be a great revelation to Sanskrit scholars and Hindus that the Rig Veda arose out of the consumption of Soma - a drink that no one really knows what it was or how it was made. The scriptural references to soma are few, and to jump to the conclusion that the Rig Veda is a result of it, is a mind boggling jump. You then make it sound like the use of drugs is a common event that is accepted by most Hindus and by many sects - it is not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally your section entitled 'The Pantheistic &quot;God&quot; concept from the Atheist's perspective'. You state that the pantheistic perspective is that God is one highly advanced mind. God is not mind. God has no mind. Mind is derived from consciousness, not the other way around. God has nothing to think of - what is there to think of when you are omnipotent? Brahman, God, is Perception. Swami Vivekananda says (Complete Works V7, p 55 - available here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We cannot say positively what differentiation is. All that we see and feel about things is pure and simple existence, &quot;isness&quot;. All else is in us. Being is the only positive proof we have of anything…Shankara says again, perception is the last proof of existence. It is self-effulgent and self-conscious, because to go beyond the senses we should still need perception. Perception is independent of the senses, of all instruments, unconditioned. There can be no perception without consciousness; perception has self-luminosity, which in a lesser degree is called consciousness. Not one act of perception can be unconscious; in fact, consciousness is the nature of perception. Existence and perception are one thing, not two things joined together. That which needs no cause is infinite; so, as perception is the last proof of itself, it is eternal. It is always subjective; perception itself is its own perceiver. Perception is not in the mind, but perception brings mind. It is absolute, the only knower, so perception is really the Atman. Perception itself perceives, but the Atman cannot be a knower, because a &quot;knower&quot; becomes such by the action of knowledge; but, Shankara says, &quot;This Atman is not I&quot;, because the consciousness &quot;I am&quot; (Aham) is not in the Atman. We are but the reflections of that Atman; and Atman and Brahman are one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, time does not equal awareness. Time is within the causal universe of time and space, within the sensual universe. Brahman is timeless, eternal. Again, Swami Vivekananda says (V7 p 89):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The cardinal features of the Hindu religion are founded on the meditative and speculative philosophy and on the ethical teachings contained in the various books of the Vedas, which assert that the universe is infinite in space and eternal in duration. It never had a beginning, and it never will have an end. Innumerable have been the manifestations of the power of the Spirit in the realm of matter, of the force of the Infinite in the domain of the finite, but the Infinite Itself is self-existent, eternal, and unchangeable. The passage of time makes no mark whatever on the dial of eternity. In its supersensuous region, which cannot be comprehended at all by the human understanding, there is no past and there is no future. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="11648" LastEditDate="2017-08-12T00:32:01.663" LastActivityDate="2017-08-12T00:32:01.663" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20212" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19497" CreationDate="2017-08-12T04:29:36.353" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagvata puran;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 8.7.21 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The prajāpatis said: O greatest of all demigods, Mahādeva, Supersoul&#xA;  of all living entities and cause of their happiness and prosperity, we&#xA;  have come to the shelter of your lotus feet. Now please save us from&#xA;  this fiery poison, which is spreading all over the three worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 8.7.22 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O lord, you are the cause of bondage and liberation of the entire&#xA;  universe because you are its ruler. Those who are advanced in&#xA;  spiritual consciousness surrender unto you, and therefore you are the&#xA;  cause of mitigating their distresses, and you are also the cause of&#xA;  their liberation. We therefore worship Your Lordship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 8.7.23 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O lord, you are self-effulgent and supreme. You create this material&#xA;  world by your personal energy, and you assume the names Brahmā, Viṣṇu&#xA;  and Maheśvara when you act in creation, maintenance and annihilation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 8.7.24 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are the cause of all causes, the self-effulgent, inconceivable,&#xA;  impersonal Brahman, which is originally Parabrahman. You manifest&#xA;  various potencies in this cosmic manifestation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SB 8.7.25 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O lord, you are the original source of Vedic literature. You are the&#xA;  original cause of material creation, the life force, the senses, the&#xA;  five elements, the three modes and the mahat-tattva. You are eternal&#xA;  time, determination and the two religious systems called truth [satya]&#xA;  and truthfulness [ṛta]. You are the shelter of the syllable om, which&#xA;  consists of three letters a-u-m.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/7&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10443" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-08-12T10:30:50.870" LastActivityDate="2017-08-12T10:30:50.870" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20213" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20074" CreationDate="2017-08-12T06:25:39.787" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are thirty Kalpa are described by Lord Matsya in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-290&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matsya Purana, Chapter 290&lt;/a&gt;. Their name are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मत्स्य उवाच&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;कल्पानां कीर्तनं वक्ष्ये महापातकनाशनम्। &lt;br/&gt;यस्यानुकीर्तनादेव वेदपुण्येन युज्यते॥२॥&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;प्रथमंश्वेतकल्पस्तु द्वितीयो नीललोहितः। &lt;br/&gt;त्वामदेवास्तृतीयस्तु ततो राथन्तरोऽपरः॥ ३॥ &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;रौरवः पञ्चमः प्रोक्तः षष्ठो इति स्मृतः। &lt;br/&gt;ससेमार्थं बृहत्कल्पः कन्दर्पोऽष्टम उच्यते॥४॥ &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;सद्योऽथ नवमः प्रोक्त ईशानो दशमः स्मृतः॥ &lt;br/&gt;तम एकादशः प्रोक्तस्तथा सारस्वतः परः॥५॥ &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;त्रयोदश उदानस्तु गारुडोऽथ चतुर्दशः। &lt;br/&gt;कौर्मः पञ्चदशः प्रोक्तः पौर्णमास्यामजायत॥६॥&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;षोडशो नारसिंहस्तु समानस्तु ततोऽपरः। &lt;br/&gt;अाग्नेयोऽष्टादशः प्रोक्तः सोमकल्पस्तथापरः॥७॥ &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;मानवो विंशतिः प्रोक्तस्तत्पुमानिति चापरः। &lt;br/&gt;वैकुण्ठश्वापरस्तद्वल्लक्ष्मीकिलप्लस्तथापर:॥८॥ &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;चतुर्विशतिमः प्रोक्तः सावित्रीकल्पसंज्ञकः। &lt;br/&gt;पञ्चर्विशस्ततो घोरो वाराहस्तु ततोऽपरः॥९॥ &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;सतविंशोऽथ वैराजो गौरीकल्पस्तथा।पर:। &lt;br/&gt;माहेश्वरस्तु स प्रोक्तस्त्रिपुरं यत्र घातितम्॥ १०॥ &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;पितृकल्पस्तशास्ले तु या कुहू ब्रह्मणः पुरा। &lt;br/&gt;इत्येवं ब्रह्मणो मासः सर्वपातकनाशनः॥ ११॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Matsya said- &amp;quot;I shall narrate the description of the Kalpas, the dispeller of all sins. Even by reciting the names of Kalpas, one gets the merit of the study of Vedas. They are&lt;br/&gt;(1) Šveta, &lt;br/&gt;(2) Nīlalohita, &lt;br/&gt;(3) Vāmadeva, &lt;br/&gt;(4) Rāthantrara, &lt;br/&gt;(5) Raurava, &lt;br/&gt;(6) Deva, &lt;br/&gt;(7) Brhat, &lt;br/&gt;(8) Kandarpa, &lt;br/&gt;(9) Sadya, &lt;br/&gt;(10) Iśāna, &lt;br/&gt;(11) Tama, &lt;br/&gt;(12) Sārasvata, &lt;br/&gt;(13) Udāna, &lt;br/&gt;(14) Gāruda, &lt;br/&gt;(15) Kaurma, &lt;br/&gt;(16) Nārasirinha, &lt;br/&gt;(17) Samāna, &lt;br/&gt;(18) Ägneya, &lt;br/&gt;(19) Soma, &lt;br/&gt;(20) Mānava, &lt;br/&gt;(21) Tatpumān, &lt;br/&gt;(22) Vaikuņtha, &lt;br/&gt;(23) Laksmī, &lt;br/&gt;(24) Sāvitrī, &lt;br/&gt;(25) Ghora, &lt;br/&gt;(26) Vārāha, &lt;br/&gt;(27) Vairāja, &lt;br/&gt;(28) Gauri, &lt;br/&gt;(29) Mahesvara, in course of which Tripura was killed, &lt;br/&gt;(30) Pitty, at the end of which occurs Lord Brahma's Kuhl. &lt;br/&gt;These Kalpas form one month of 30 days of Brahma, each Kalpa forming a day; and one who hears them is freed from all sins.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-08-12T06:25:39.787" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20217" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-12T11:37:55.203" Score="2" ViewCount="667" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja attributed this philosophy to the tradition of the Kalamukha(s), the sect of &quot;Black Faces&quot; to which Lakulisha belonged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the reason for referring to it as KAlamukha? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were RAmanuja's views on the KApAlika and Pasupata sects and their doctrines? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-12-10T14:56:33.200" LastActivityDate="2020-05-05T09:03:17.843" Title="Why does Ramanuja refer to the PAshupata sect as the sect of &quot;Black faces&quot;?" Tags="|philosophy|sri-vaishnava|shaivism|ramanujacharya|pashupata-shaivism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20218" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-12T01:02:31.497" Score="3" ViewCount="629" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to below post &quot;Shiva&quot; is different than the &quot;[Lord] Shankara&quot;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2278/1049&quot;&gt;Are Lord Shiva and Lord Shankar two different deities?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Gita &quot;Shankara&quot; is one of the &quot;Rudra&quot;-s:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.23 Among the &lt;strong&gt;Rudras&lt;/strong&gt; [Aja, Ekapada, Ahirbudhnya, Pinaki, Aparajita, Tryam-baka, &lt;strong&gt;Mahesvara&lt;/strong&gt;, Vrsakapi, Sambhu, Harana and Isvara. Different Puranas give different lists of eleven names.-Tr,] I am &lt;strong&gt;Sankara&lt;/strong&gt;, ... (Gambhirananda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However often we see discussions related to these 3, with their names interchangeable. Is this OK?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are these 3 different entities or 2 of them are same or all are same?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: This Qn was earlier asked on Meta, however after learning that this Qn may require scriptures reference, it has been moved to main SE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" OwnerDisplayName="iammilind" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-12T14:00:54.897" LastActivityDate="2017-08-12T14:00:54.897" Title="What's the difference among &quot;Shiva&quot; vs &quot;Shankara&quot; vs &quot;Rudra&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|shiva|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20219" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20217" CreationDate="2017-08-12T13:23:57.843" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramanujacharya does not call Pashupatas as Kalamukhas.&lt;/strong&gt; In fact, he explicitly states that they are different Shaivite sects, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48239.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So far it has been shown that the doctrines of Kapila, Kanâda, Sugata, and the Arhat must be disregarded by men desirous of final beatitude; for those doctrines are all alike untenable and foreign to the Veda. The Sûtras now declare that, for the same reasons, the doctrine of Pasupati also has to be disregarded. &lt;strong&gt;The adherents of this view belong to four different classes--Kâpâlas, Kâlâmukhas, Pâsupatas, and Saivas.&lt;/strong&gt; All of them hold fanciful theories of Reality which are in conflict with the Veda, and invent various means for attaining happiness in this life and the next. They maintain the general material cause and the operative cause to be distinct, and the latter cause to be constituted by Pasupati. They further hold the wearing of the six so-called 'mudrâ' badges and the like to be means to accomplish the highest end of man. Thus the Kâpâlas say, 'He who knows the true nature of the six mudrâs, who understands the highest mudrâ, meditating on himself as in the position called bhagâsana, reaches Nirvâna. The necklace, the golden ornament, the earring, the head-jewel, ashes, and the sacred thread are called the six mudrâs. He whose body is marked with these is not born here again.'--&lt;strong&gt;Similarly the Kâlâmukhas teach that the means for obtaining all desired results in this world as well as the next are constituted by certain practices--such as using a skull as a drinking vessel, smearing oneself with the ashes of a dead body, eating the flesh of such a body, carrying a heavy stick, setting up a liquor-jar and using it as a platform for making offerings to the gods, and the like.&lt;/strong&gt; 'A bracelet made of Rudrâksha-seeds on the arm, matted hair on the head, a skull, smearing oneself with ashes, &amp;amp;c.'--all this is well known from the sacred writings of the Saivas. They also hold that by some special ceremonial performance men of different castes may become Brâhmanas and reach the highest âsrama: 'by merely entering on the initiatory ceremony (dîkshâ) a man becomes a Brâhmana at once; by undertaking the kâpâla rite a man becomes at once an ascetic.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as how Ramanujacharya feels about Pashupatas, Kapalikas, and others, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48239.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Sri Bhashya he discusses how their beliefs and practices are criticized in the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With regard to these views the Sûtra says 'of pati, on account of inappropriateness.' A 'not' has here to be supplied from Sûtra 32. The system of Pasupati has to be disregarded because it is inappropriate, i.e. because the different views and practices referred to are opposed to one another and in conflict with the Veda. The different practices enumerated above, the wearing of the six mudrâs and so on, are opposed to each other; and moreover the theoretical assumptions of those people, their forms of devotion and their practices, are in conflict with the Veda. For the Veda declares that Nârâyana who is the highest Brahman is alone the operative and the substantial cause of the world, 'Nârâyana is the highest Brahman, Nârâyana is the highest Reality, Nârâyana is the highest light, Nârâyana is the highest Self'; 'That thought, may I be many, may I grow forth' (Kh. Up. VI, 2, 3); 'He desired, may I be many, may I grow forth' (Taitt. Up. II, 6, 1), and so on. In the same way the texts declare meditation on the Supreme Person, who is the highest Brahman, to be the only meditation which effects final release; cp. 'I know that great Person of sunlike lustre beyond the darkness. A man who knows him passes over death; there is no other path to go' (Svet. Up. III, 8). And in the same way all texts agree in declaring that the works subserving the knowledge of Brahman are only those sacrificial and other works which the Veda enjoins on men in the different castes and stages of life: 'Him Brâhmanas seek to know by the study of the Veda, by sacrifice, by gifts, by penance, by fasting. Wishing for that world only, mendicants wander forth from their homes' (Bri. Up. XI, 4, 22). In some texts enjoining devout meditation, and so on, we indeed meet with terms such as Pragâpati, Siva, Indra, Âkâsa, Prâna, &amp;amp;c., but that these all refer to the supreme Reality established by the texts concerning Nârâyana--the aim of which texts it is to set forth the highest Reality in its purity--, we have already proved under I, 1, 30. In the same way we have proved under Sû. I, 1, 2 that in texts treating of the creation of the world, such as 'Being only this was in the beginning,' and the like, the words Being, Brahman, and so on, denote nobody else but Nârâyana, who is set forth as the universal creator in the account of creation given in the text, 'Alone indeed there was Nârâyana, not Brahmâ, not Isâna--he being alone did not rejoice' (Mahopanishad I).--As the Pasupati theory thus teaches principles, meditations and acts conflicting with the Veda, it must be disregarded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In subsequent sections of the Sri Bhashya he discusses how the Brahma Sutras refute the belief of these Shaivite sects that Ishwara is the efficient cause but not the material cause of the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-08-12T13:23:57.843" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20220" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-12T16:38:18.317" Score="17" ViewCount="2929" Body="&lt;p&gt;The people of Indus valley did have toilets in their homes, so were  there toilets in the times of Mahabharata or Ramayana? Does any Hindu scripture mention about  toilet system?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-06T03:01:46.263" LastActivityDate="2018-02-07T03:12:59.483" Title="Were there toilets in ancient India i.e., during times of Ramayana and Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|history|culture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20221" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20224" CreationDate="2017-08-13T05:09:38.117" Score="9" ViewCount="1803" Body="&lt;p&gt;How Devraj Indra became the king of all Devas? I mean how and why he was chosen as the king?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-13T05:29:48.777" LastActivityDate="2017-08-13T10:56:39.270" Title="Why Devraj Indra was chosen as the king of the Devas?" Tags="|indra|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ClosedDate="2017-08-13T14:31:52.310" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20222" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20225" CreationDate="2017-08-13T08:08:46.950" Score="4" ViewCount="399" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking to read the Vedanta Sutras along with the commentaries of the 3 great acharyas of all time: Ramanujacharya, Adi Shankaracharaya and Madhvacharya, in English. Can somebody provide me with some links of the Vedanta Sutras along with the commentaries? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-08-15T18:20:46.323" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T06:29:04.833" Title="Where can I read online the Vedanta Sutras along with commentaries of Ramanujacharya, Adi Shankaracharya and Madhvacharya in English?" Tags="|vedanta|translation-request|brahma-sutras|ramanujacharya|madhvacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20224" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20221" CreationDate="2017-08-13T09:09:25.347" Score="8" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How Indra became king of Gods?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually Indra is not the name of any  one person rather it’s a post of King of heaven and  king of demi gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On performing some  sacrifices number of times or penances , any man can go to heaven and can obtain  position of the king of heaven Or king of gods.  For e.g. &lt;strong&gt;doing   Hundred &#xA; Ashwamedha Yajnas  one can attain the post of Indra.&lt;/strong&gt;   He will retain the post of Indra  until   another person  does more Or Same Yajnas  than previous Indra  and becomes eligible for this position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a020.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section -20&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यज्ञाय सृष्टानि धनानि धात्रा; यष्टादिष्टः पुरुषॊ रक्षिता च&lt;br&gt; तस्मात&#xA;  सर्वं यज्ञ एवॊपयॊज्यं; धनं ततॊ ऽनन्तर एव कामः&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;यज्ञैर इन्द्रॊ&#xA;  विविधैर अन्नवद्भिर; देवान सर्वान अभ्ययान महौजाः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; तेनेन्द्रत्वं&#xA;  पराप्य विभ्राजते ऽसौ; तस्माद यज्ञे सर्वम एवॊपयॊज्यम&lt;br&gt; महादेवः&#xA;  सर्वमेधे महात्मा; हुत्वात्मानं देवदेवॊ विभूतः&lt;br&gt; विश्वाँल लॊकान&#xA;  वयाप्य विष्टभ्य कीर्त्या; विरॊचते दयुतिमान कृत्ति वासाः&lt;br&gt; आविक्षितः&#xA;  पार्थिवॊ वै मरुत्तः; सवृद्ध्या मर्त्यॊ यॊ ऽयजद देवराजम&lt;br&gt; यज्ञे यस्य&#xA;  शरीः सवयं संनिविष्टा; यस्मिन भाण्डं काञ्चनं सर्वम आसीत&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हरिश्चन्द्रः पार्थिवेन्द्रः शरुतस ते; यज्ञैर इष्ट्वा पुण्यकृद&#xA;  वीतशॊकः&lt;br&gt; ऋद्ध्या शक्रं यॊ ऽजयन मानुषः संस; तस्माद यज्ञे सर्वम&#xA;  एवॊपयॊज्यम&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yajñāya sṛṣṭāni dhanāni dhātrā; yaṣṭādiṣṭaḥ puruṣo rakṣitā ca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tasmāt sarvaṃ yajña evopayojyaṃ; dhanaṃ tato 'nantara eva kāmaḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;yajñair indro vividhair annavadbhir; devān sarvān abhyayān&#xA;  mahaujāḥ&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; tenendratvaṃ prāpya vibhrājate 'sau; tasmād yajñe sarvam&#xA;  evopayojyam&lt;br&gt; mahādevaḥ sarvamedhe mahātmā; hutvātmānaṃ devadevo&#xA;  vibhūtaḥ&lt;br&gt; viśvāṁl lokān vyāpya viṣṭabhya kīrtyā; virocate dyutimān&#xA;  kṛtti vāsāḥ&lt;br&gt; āvikṣitaḥ pārthivo vai maruttaḥ; svṛddhyā martyo yo&#xA;  'yajad devarājam&lt;br&gt; yajñe yasya śrīḥ svayaṃ saṃniviṣṭā; yasmin&#xA;  bhāṇḍaṃ kāñcanaṃ sarvam āsīt&lt;br&gt; hariścandraḥ pārthivendraḥ śrutas te;&#xA;  yajñair iṣṭvā puṇyakṛd vītaśokaḥ&lt;br&gt; ṛddhyā śakraṃ yo 'jayan mānuṣaḥ&#xA;  saṃs; tasmād yajñe sarvam evopayojyam&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The exercise of the duty of charity after discriminating the deserving&#xA;  from the undeserving is not easy. The Supreme Ordainer created wealth&#xA;  for sacrifice, and He created man also for taking care of that wealth&#xA;  and for performing sacrifice. For this reason the whole of one's&#xA;  wealth should be applied to sacrifice. Pleasure would follow from it&#xA;  as a natural consequence. Possessed of abundant energy, &lt;strong&gt;Indra, by&#xA;  the performance of diverse sacrifices with profuse gifts of valuables,&#xA;  surpassed all the gods. Having got their chiefship by that means, he&#xA;  shineth in heaven.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore, everything should be applied to&#xA;  sacrifices.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also described  in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagavt Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अथादीक्षत राजा तु हयमेधशतेन स : |&lt;br&gt; ब्रह्मावर्तो मनो: क्षेत्रे यत्र&#xA;  प्राची सरस्वती ||1||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;athādīkṣata rājā tu  hayamedha-śatena saḥ&lt;br&gt; brahmāvarte manoḥ kṣetre&#xA;  yatra prācī sarasvatī &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great sage Maitreya continued: My dear Vidura, &lt;strong&gt;King Pṛthu&#xA;  initiated the performance of one hundred horse sacrifices&lt;/strong&gt; at the&#xA;  spot where the river Sarasvatī flows towards the east. This piece of&#xA;  land is known as Brahmāvarta, and it was controlled by Svāyambhuva&#xA;  Manu.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/19/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 4.19.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तदभिप्रेत्य भगवान् कर्मातिशयमात्मन:| &lt;br&gt; शतक्रतुर्न ममृषे&#xA;  पृथोर्यज्ञमहोत्सवम् ||2|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tad abhipretya bhagavān karmātiśayam ātmanaḥ  &lt;br&gt; śata-kratur na&#xA;  mamṛṣe pṛthor yajña-mahotsavam &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the most powerful Indra, the King of heaven, saw this, he&#xA;  considered the fact that King Pṛthu was going to exceed him in&#xA;  fruitive activities. Thus Indra could not tolerate the great&#xA;  sacrificial ceremonies performed by King Pṛthu.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/19/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 4.19.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purport:&lt;/strong&gt; This envy is also found in the personality of the King of heaven, Indra. As evident from revealed scriptures, Indra was several&#xA;  times envious of many persons. He was especially envious of great&#xA;  fruitive activities and the execution of yoga practices, or siddhis.&#xA;  Indeed, he could not tolerate them, and he desired to break them up.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He was envious due to fear that those who performed great sacrifices for the execution of mystic yoga might occupy his seat.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kena-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145062.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Kena Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; – Kahanda -4  - Verse 28 , tells us why Indra became superior to all the gods. By knowing Brahman first. Here is the brief story-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahman won a victory for the Devas and in that victory of the&#xA;  Brahman the Devas attained glory. They thought ‘the victory is ours&#xA;  and this glory is ours alone.’ He knew this notion of theirs and&#xA;  appeared before them. What that Great Spirit was they did not know.&#xA;  The devas addressed the Fire thus “O Jataveda! Find out what this&#xA;  Great Spirit is. - Then That  Brahman placed a straw before him and&#xA;  said: ‘Burn this , but Agni (Jataveda!)  was not able to burn it. Then&#xA;  the devas said Vayu: “Learn O Vayu! what this Great Spirit is” –&#xA;  Brahman  That placed a straw before him and said “Blow it away , but&#xA;  vayu but was not able to blow it.  But afterwards Indra  approached&#xA;  Brahman and he disappeared , then Indra saw Uma (Parvati) and he asked&#xA;  about him to her , then Uma said to Indra  -“It is Brahman indeed.&#xA;  Attain glory in the victory of Brahman.” From her words only, he&#xA;  learned that it was Brahman.” Therefore also does Indra considerably&#xA;  excel other Devas.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्माद्वा इन्द्रोऽतितरामिवान्यान्देवान्स ह्येनन्नेदिष्ठं पस्पर्श स&#xA;  ह्येनत्प्रथमो विदाञ्चकार ब्रह्मेति ॥ २८ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasmādvā&#xA;  indro'titarāmivānyāndevānsa hyenannediṣṭhaṃ pasparśa sa hyenatprathamo&#xA;  vidāñcakāra brahmeti || 28 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;28&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Therefore also does Indra considerably excel other Devas because he approached Brahman nearest and because he first knew the Spirit to&#xA;  be Brahman.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-08-13T10:56:39.270" LastActivityDate="2017-08-13T10:56:39.270" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20225" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20222" CreationDate="2017-08-13T09:47:08.537" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.&lt;/strong&gt; Here is the link of The Vedanta-sutras, with the&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/vedantasutraswit00badaiala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri-bhashya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Shree Ramanujacharya :&lt;/strong&gt; You can Download as&#xA;  well as can read the book Online.  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;2.&lt;/strong&gt; Here is the link of The Vedanta Sutras with the commentary by &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/BrahmasutraMadhvaEnglish&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri Madhvacharya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Same way you can download as well as can&#xA;  read online.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you requested here are some of the links of &lt;strong&gt;Vedanta-Sutras with commentary of  Shree Adi Shankaracharya.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.&lt;/strong&gt; Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wisdom Library&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; link where you can read  “The Vedanta-Sutras”, with the commentary of  Shree Adi&#xA;  Shankaracharya. Here you can read them online.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2.&lt;/strong&gt; Here is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34007.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sacred-texts&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; link for the same&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T06:29:04.833" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T06:29:04.833" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20226" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-13T10:35:58.497" Score="6" ViewCount="5393" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know the panchopchar(पञ्चोपचार​) puja which is offering gandh, pushp, dhoop, deep and naivadya(गंध, पुष्प, धूप, दीप, नैवेद्य​) to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have heard many times about ashtopachar(अष्टोपचार) and shodashopachar(षोडशोपचार) pujan. But don't know how to do it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could somebody  explain&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is ashtopachar(अष्टोपचार) pujan? And how to do it.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is shodashopachar(षोडशोपचार) pujan? And how to do it?&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How many types of puja are there?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-15T13:44:44.803" LastActivityDate="2023-12-06T13:23:57.390" Title="What is ashtopachara and shodashopachara puja? And how to do it?" Tags="|rituals|puja|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20228" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20233" CreationDate="2017-08-13T12:11:57.310" Score="10" ViewCount="4450" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Padma Purana, Uttara Khanda, Chapter 236, Lord Shiva says to Parvati that He would incarnate as Adi Shankaracharya to teach the mayavadi philosophy: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mayavadam asac chastram pracchannam bauddham uchyate&#xA;  mayaiva kalpitam devi kalau brahmana rupina&lt;/em&gt; (Padma Purana 6.236.7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: &quot;Mayavada or Advaita philosophy is an impious, wicked belief and against all the conclusions of the Vedas. It is only covered Buddhism. My dear Parvati, in Kali-Yoga I assume the form of a brahmana (Adi Shankara) and teach this imagined philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;apartham sruti-vakyanam darsayan loka-garhitam&#xA;  sva-karma-rupam tyajya tvam atraiva pratipadyate&#xA;  sarva-karma paribhrastair vaidharma tvam tad ucyate&#xA;  paresa-jiva-paraikyam maya tu pratipadyate&lt;/em&gt; (Padma Purana 6.236.8-9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: &quot;This mayavada advaita philosophy preached by me (in form of Adi Shankara) deprives the words of the holy texts of their acutal meaning and thus it is condemned in the world. It recommends the renunciation of one's own duties, since those who have fallen from their duties say that the giving up of duties is religiosity. In this way, I have also falsely propounded the identity of the Supreme Lord and the individual soul.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;brahmanas caparam rupam nirgunam vaksyate maya&#xA;  sarva-svam jagato py asya mohanartham kalu yuge&lt;/em&gt; (Padma Purana 6.236.10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: &quot;In order to bewilder the atheists, in Kali-yuga, I describe the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Krishna to be without any form and without qualities.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vedante tu maha-sastrera mayavadam avaidikam&#xA;  mayaiva vaksyate devi jagatam nasha-karanat&lt;/em&gt; (Padma Purana 6.236.11)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: &quot;Similarly, in explaining Vedanta scripture, I described the same non-scriptural and inauspicious mayavada philosophy in order to mislead the entire population toward atheism by denying the personal form of my beloved Lord.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any similar verses in other scriptures saying that Lord Shiva would appear as a Brahmana to preach the mayavada philosophy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-05-27T12:38:15.700" LastActivityDate="2019-05-27T12:38:15.700" Title="Apart from the Padma Purana, does any other Purana say that Adi Shankaracharya will teach mayavadi philosophy?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20232" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-13T17:47:17.467" Score="1" ViewCount="129" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmananda_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmananda Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; was the pontiff of jyotir math of Uttarakhand. He had taught yoga to famous personalities like Mahesh Yogi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;which are the books written by him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;where can I download or purchase these ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T05:34:00.467" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T05:34:00.467" Title="Where can I get books written by Brahmananda Saraswati?" Tags="|yoga|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20233" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20228" CreationDate="2017-08-13T18:06:39.380" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following verses are from Garuda Purana, Brahma kanda, 16th Adyaya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;maNimAnnAma daityastu shaN^karAkhyo bhaviShyati |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarveShAM saN^karaM yastu kariShyati na saMshayaH || 3:16:70&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tena shaN^karanAmA.asau bhaviShyati khageshvara |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dharmAn.h bhAgavatAn.h sarvAn.h vinashyati sarvathA || 3:16:71&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Demon by name maNimAn will come into being as Shankara, who will, no doubt, pollute everything. This is why, O King of birds (Garuda), his name will be Shankara; he will pollute and destroy all BhAgavata Dharmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.indiadivine.org/content/topic/1290221-was-adi-sankara-a-demon/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vAyu purANa :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;janayiShyathi Kala: kaScinmaNimAn vidhDhipaarvathi |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;praviSya thathra dhEvESa pracCannam boudhDhamEvahi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;( Rudradeva saying to ParvathiDevi-When Demon by name Maniman will&#xA;  take birth on earth in Kaliyuga, By entering in him, I will preach&#xA;  Advaith Shasthra which is another form of Boudha Shsthra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;skamdha purANa&lt;/strong&gt; :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kAladi grAmake rudhrAvESAjjayathi mOhayan |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;boudhDhaSAsthra parO viprO ya:kaSciththasya SiShyaka: ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sasamkaraSca sanyasya thasmAthsanyAsarUpiNa : ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vEdhAmthaSAsthramithyEthath dhuShtaSAsthram cakArayath ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;( In a Village which will be called as &lt;strong&gt;Kaaladi&lt;/strong&gt;, Demon will take&#xA;  birth with Rudravesha and will be a Disciple of follower of Boudha&#xA;  Shastra and in disguise of a &lt;strong&gt;Sanyasi&lt;/strong&gt; (Yathi) will preach&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Bouddha&lt;/strong&gt; Dharma (Dushta Shasthra) by &lt;strong&gt;misleadingly&lt;/strong&gt; saying that he will teach &lt;strong&gt;Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt; Shasthra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/E5oU4w3uedWIvaEL5A--/xB7NlEjtf9dKIH.uhrPk/name/For_the_Answer_to_the_Question.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Whether these puranas/verses are genuine or added later is another matter. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhaskara (9th Century CE), the propounder of bhedabheda-siddhanta was&#xA;  one of the earliest Indian philosophers to attack Mayavada. In his&#xA;  commentary on Vedanta-sutra, Bhaskara does not mention Sankara by&#xA;  name, nor does he mention the name of his philosophy. However by&#xA;  reviewing his arguments against the monistic doctrine of maya and the&#xA;  Advaitic concept of anirvacaniya, it is obvious who and what he is&#xA;  alluding to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhaskara is positively vitriolic when writing about the Advaitin’s&#xA;  concept of maya, referring to it’s adherents as bauddha-matavalambin&#xA;  (those that cling to Buddhist ideology) and goes on to say that their&#xA;  philosophy reeks of Buddhism (bauddha-gandhin). Bhaskara concludes&#xA;  that, “No one but a drunkard could hold such theories” and that&#xA;  Mayavada is subversive of all sastrika knowledge:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vigitam vicchinna-mulam mahayanika-bauddhagathitam mayavadam&#xA;  vyavarnayanto lokan vyamohayanti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Expanding on the contradictory and baseless philosophy of maya&#xA;  propagated by the Mahayanika Buddhists, the Mayavadis have misled the&#xA;  whole world. (Bhaskara’s Brahma-sutra-bhasya 1.4.25)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In his Siddha-traya, the Vaisnava philosopher Yamunacarya (917–1042&#xA;  CE) stated that Buddhism and Mayavada was essentially the same thing.&#xA;  The only difference he could see was that while one was openly&#xA;  Buddhist (prakata-saugata), the other was simply covered&#xA;  (pracchana-saugata).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Following on from Yamunacarya, his disciple Sri Ramanuja (1017-1137&#xA;  CE) also concurred that Mayavada was another form of Buddhism. In his&#xA;  Sri Bhashya commentary on the Vedanta-sutras, Ramanuja says that to&#xA;  claim that non-differentiated consciousness is real and all else is&#xA;  false is the same as the Buddhist concept of universal void.&#xA;  Furthermore, Ramanuja states that the concepts of such&#xA;  crypto-Buddhists make a mockery of the teachings of the Vedas&#xA;  (veda-vadacchadma pracchana-bauddha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another acarya in the line of Ramanuja, Vedanta Desika (1269–1370)&#xA;  wrote his famous Sata-dusini, a text expounding one hundred flaws&#xA;  found in Mayavada. In that work he refers to Sankara as a&#xA;  rahu-mimamsaka (one who obscures the true meaning of Vedanta), a&#xA;  bhrama-bhiksu (a confused beggar), a cadmavesa-dhari – one who is&#xA;  disguised in false garb, and goes on to assert that, “By memorizing&#xA;  the arguments of the Sata-dusini like a parrot, one would be&#xA;  victorious over the crypto-Buddhists.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In another work, Paramata-bhangam, Vedanta Desika refers to Sankara&#xA;  as, “One who studied the Vedas in the shop of a Madhyamika Buddhist”&#xA;  (referring to Sankara’s param-guru Gaudapada of whom we will speak of&#xA;  later in this article).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gosai.com/writings/mayavada-and-buddhism-are-they-one-and-the-same&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-08-14T08:28:57.300" LastActivityDate="2017-08-14T08:28:57.300" CommentCount="23" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20234" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-13T18:28:19.713" Score="6" ViewCount="2930" Body="&lt;p&gt;What exactly are yakshas? Is it good or bad to worship them? Will they get angry if you stop praying to them? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My point is that should we worship Kubera even if he is a yaksha or is he evil being that would want something in return like jinns,evil minded?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11701" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-08-13T19:21:15.307" LastActivityDate="2019-06-08T08:12:21.590" Title="Should we pray to Kubera a Yaksha?" Tags="|worship|kubera|yakshas|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20235" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20234" CreationDate="2017-08-14T05:58:51.690" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is not that if you worship &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubera&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kubera&lt;/a&gt; you will become evil minded or something just because he is a Yaksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is one of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_directions&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dasha DikpAlas&lt;/a&gt; (ten guardians of directions) too and he guards the northern direction. Now, in all PujAs, worshiping the Dasha DikapAlas is almost mandatory. So, a pujA to Kubera can not be avoided.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, individually too he is worshiped for gaining wealth as he is considered as the lord of wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if he is not worthy of worship at all, then the scriptures would not have  suggested his worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, in Dashami Tithis, he is to be worshiped along with the other DikpAlas as per the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=17&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;VarAha PurAna&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Concerned about the population of the Universe and their mind-set of&#xA;  Directions so that orderliness should prevail to let them realise&#xA;  where they were, Lord Brahma devised a Plan. He created from His ears&#xA;  Six Devis viz. Purvi, Dakshina, Prathichi, Uttara, Urdhva, and Adhara-&#xA;  East, South,West, North, Above and Below respectively. The four other&#xA;  Devis thus created viz. Shobhaniya, Rupavati, Maha Bhagya Shalini and&#xA;  Gambhira Yukta represented the intermittent Four Directions. These&#xA;  virgins who were created requested Lord Brahma to name Lokpals also&#xA;  who would be the male counterparts and Brahma named them too viz.&#xA;  Indra, Agni, Yama, Nirruti, Varun, Vayu, Kubera and Eshana; Brahma&#xA;  Himself agreed to man Urdhva and the remaining Tenth Dasha (Direction)&#xA;  was spare. The Devi-Lokanayak equation was determined by Brahma. He&#xA;  also selected Dashami to observe the day for penance and eat only Dahi&#xA;  or curd to protect human beings from movement of Grahas, changes of&#xA;  Ayanasor Solar Progress and transformations of Ritus or Seasons and&#xA;  astrological and astronomical aberrations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=18&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;as per the same PurAna&lt;/a&gt;, Kubera the lord of wealth, can also be propitiated on the ekAdashi tithis for gaining wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma named the figure as Kubera and assigned him the task of&#xA;  protecting the material prosperity and possessions of all the Deities.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He also made Kubera the Head of the Yaksha Clan to execute the&#xA;  assignment of Brahma. Also, worship of Kubera on Ekadashi day by&#xA;  cooking eats with the help of clean Agni- preferably by the person who&#xA;  eats himself after day-long fast would instantly make him eligible for&#xA;  wealth and also protection of wealth so earned.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, since the worship of Kubera is not prohibited (on the contrary,  recommended) in scriptures, you can very well do it without any apprehensions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, on the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhanteras&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dhana Trayodashi day&lt;/a&gt; (also known as Dhanteras) he is widely worshiped along with MahALakshmi for gaining wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-14T17:18:25.283" LastActivityDate="2017-08-14T17:18:25.283" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20236" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20253" CreationDate="2017-08-14T09:42:51.190" Score="6" ViewCount="123" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can  I learn Vedas through MP3 and Cassette?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can I chant Vedas even if I don't understand the meaning?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T07:13:43.280" Title="Questions regarding rules of chanting Vedas" Tags="|scripture|vedas|practice|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20239" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-14T10:07:09.523" Score="2" ViewCount="211" Body="&lt;p&gt;As already discussed here: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15617/1049&quot;&gt;Why we put &amp;#39;A&amp;#39; after each Hindu name?&lt;/a&gt;, the subsequent &quot;a&quot; in an English transliteration word, is to interpret the Sanskrit word for full pronunciation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;RAma (राम) is neither RAmA (रामा) nor RAm (राम्)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Krushna (कृष्ण) is not KrushnA (कृष्णा)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atma (आत्म) is not AtmA (आत्मा)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, &lt;strong&gt;Is it &quot;भगवद्गीता&quot; or &quot;भगवद्गीत&quot;?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Note: Though in the popular culture including &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;, it seems the 1st one, hardly it's spelled with last word as &quot;A&quot; or &quot;ā&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T04:21:41.007" Title="Is it &quot;Bhagavad (भगवद्)&quot; -- &quot;GitA/Gitā (गीता)&quot; or &quot;Gita (गीत)&quot;?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|translation-request|sanskrit|gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2018-05-01T04:52:07.187" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20241" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-14T11:15:14.417" Score="1" ViewCount="37" Body="&lt;p&gt;People say that there once existed a &quot;Dwarka Nagri&quot; that Sri Krishna had made &#xA;Is temple in Dwarka still visible?&#xA;Are any remains visible under water?&#xA;What is the proof that there once existed a temple&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11707" LastActivityDate="2017-08-14T11:15:14.417" Title="is temple in dwarka still visible" Tags="|krishna|temple|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-08-14T11:57:11.060" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20242" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-14T11:56:01.527" Score="3" ViewCount="227" Body="&lt;p&gt;People say we need to find by ourselves the purpose we came on Earth but what if I never come to know why exactly I have been created by him and what he wants me to do?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone please help me in seeking? I am not patient or knowledgeable enough to go and find by myself!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11707" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-14T12:42:51.117" LastActivityDate="2017-08-14T12:42:51.117" Title="How to know What is the purpose of my life?" Tags="|life|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-08-18T03:49:23.243" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20243" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20242" CreationDate="2017-08-14T12:15:36.357" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the philosophical sense, if one is moving towards self realisation, then there is &lt;strong&gt;absolutely no purpose&lt;/strong&gt; may remain in the life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.17 - But that person who rejoices only in self and is satisfied with the Self, and is contented only in the Self - for them &lt;strong&gt;there is no duty to perform&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 3.18 - &lt;strong&gt;For them there is no purpose&lt;/strong&gt; here at all with performing action; nor any [purpose] with nonperformance. Moreover, for them there is &lt;strong&gt;no dependence on any object to serve any purpose&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not only at macro or micro level but at broader level, the supreme [Brahman] also acts &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19458/1049&quot;&gt;without any purpose&lt;/a&gt;. A person becomes &lt;strong&gt;indifferent&lt;/strong&gt; to the results of the action (&lt;em&gt;Karma phala&lt;/em&gt;) when acts without purpose. We may call it &lt;em&gt;leela&lt;/em&gt; as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in this sense, if you still want to have a purpose, then try to reach at the level of &quot;Indifference&quot;. &lt;strong&gt;Indifference is opposite of all the things.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, but indifference between life and death.&quot; -- Elie Wiesel&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-14T12:15:36.357" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20245" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20246" CreationDate="2017-08-14T15:47:16.347" Score="0" ViewCount="741" Body="&lt;p&gt;During the Gyaras , it is said that we do not take rice because it prohibited during this day.&#xA;Why rice is prohibited on this day even who has not taken fast?&#xA;What should we do or do not do during the Gyaras day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11582" LastEditorUserId="11582" LastEditDate="2017-08-14T16:30:34.077" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T05:40:18.123" Title="Do we get benefit to not take rice during the Gyaras day?" Tags="|vishnu|fasting|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-08-15T03:29:02.640" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20246" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20245" CreationDate="2017-08-14T16:57:21.263" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, i had to do a Google search to know what Gyaras (ekAdashi) actually is. :D&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am using &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=55&amp;amp;more=1&amp;amp;c=1&amp;amp;tb=1&amp;amp;pb=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;KAmakoti website&lt;/a&gt; as my reference here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Why rice is prohibited on this day even who has not taken fast? &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is because on the ekAdashi day the pApa purusha ( the personification of all sins) takes shelter in the grains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yAni kAni cha pApAni brahmahatyAdikAni cha | annamAshritya tiShThanti&#xA;  saMprApte harivAsare | aghaM sa kevalaM bhu~Nkte yo bhu~Nkte&#xA;  harivAsare || [viShNupurANe]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Greatest of sins like brahmahatyA are present in anna or food on the&#xA;  eleventh day of every pakSha. One who eats on this day, ingests these&#xA;  sins and attains great misery.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another reference from Vishnudharmottara PurAna (a minor PurAna) which condemns the act of eating on this day:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekAdashyAM hi bhu~njAno viShNulokAcchyuto bhavet ||&#xA;  [viShNudharmottare]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who eats on the day of ekAdashI is forever banished from vaikuNTha&#xA;  i.e. loses eligibility to attain viShNuloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What not to do during (ekAdashi) fasting?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;upAvR^itasya pApebhyo yastu vAso guNaiH saha | upavAsaH sa vij~neyaH&#xA;  sarvabhogavivarjitaH ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;upavAsa involves getting rid of pApa karma and pApa chintana and&#xA;  embracing good qualities, at least during the period of the vrata, &lt;strong&gt;and&#xA;  renouncing all luxuries including the food.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...........................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gandhAla~NkAravastrANi puShpamAlAnulepanam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Perfumes, jewelry, luxurious clothing, garlands, anointments,&#xA;  collyrium, abhyanga, tAmbUla charvaNa, brushing the teeth, are all&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  considered to be &lt;strong&gt;varjya (to be avoided) during upavAsa&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The same is stated in harivamsha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a~njanaM rochanamchApi gandhAn sumanasastathA | puNyake chopavAse cha&#xA;  nityameva vivarjayet ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gAtrAbhya`NgaM shirobhya~NgaM tAmbUlaM chAnulepanam | vratastho&#xA;  varjayet sarvaM yacchAnyadbalarAgakR^it ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some further not-to-dos which are however the same for all fasting days:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is interesting to note that &lt;strong&gt;brushing the teeth during upavAsa or&#xA;  vrata is banned&lt;/strong&gt; by several other authorities as well. vAchaspati&#xA;  mishra quotes the following pramANa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;upavAse tathA shrAddhe na khAdeddantadhAvanam | dantAnAM&#xA;  kAShThasaMyogo dahatyAsaptamaM kulam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Alternate authorities offer reconciliation by suggesting that the ban&#xA;  here is on danta kAShTha saMyoga and not really on cleaning the teeth!&#xA;  Hence cleaning the teeth with leaves etc without the use of kAShTha is&#xA;  considered acceptable. Now, it is up to an individual if one decides&#xA;  to give up the tooth brush and stick to flossing on the day of&#xA;  upavAsa!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nR^itya, gIta etc are also considered as luxuries and banned during&#xA;  upavAsa, unless it is a part of pUjA and offered to the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sexual activity, gambling and sleeping during the day&lt;/strong&gt; are also&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;prohibited during upavAsa&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;upavAsaH praNashyeta divAsvApAkShamaithunaiH || [devalaH]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Specifically during ekAdashI, maithuna is strictly prohibited&lt;/strong&gt;. One who&#xA;  engages in maithuna during ekAdashI puts seven generations of his in&#xA;  hell:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;upavAse tathA yaunaM hanti saptakulAni vai ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-15T05:40:18.123" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T05:40:18.123" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20247" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-14T17:17:14.967" Score="3" ViewCount="246" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In many local temples it is claimed that snakes can suck venom from  our body.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In one Mahabharata episode too it was shown that Bhima was given poisoned food and was thrown into a lake and a snake sucked the poison from his body.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8422" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-14T17:30:07.817" LastActivityDate="2017-08-14T17:30:07.817" Title="Can snakes suck venom from our body?" Tags="|belief|tradition|superstitions|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20248" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20250" CreationDate="2017-08-14T23:27:16.087" Score="6" ViewCount="177" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the earliest reference available for the fundamental belief in worshiping Prana?&#xA;Where is it documented the belief that Prana created the world?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11710" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-08-15T03:56:55.367" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T03:59:08.657" Title="What is the earliest source available to the worship of Prana?" Tags="|scripture|history|practice|worship|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20249" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20239" CreationDate="2017-08-15T01:20:36.147" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is भगवद्गीता, since it is a sacred song. There are other forms (गीत​/गीतम् etc) which mean song / singer and so on but the word गीता in particular means a sacred song.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Apte dictionary &lt;a href=&quot;http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.2:1:2642.apte&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गीता gītā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गीता [गै कर्मणि क्त] A name given to certain sacred writings in verse (often in the form of a dialogue) which are devoted to the exposition of particular religious and theosophical doctrines; e. g. शिवगीता, रामगीता, भगवद्गीता.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the name appears to be especially confined to the last, the Bhagavadgītā;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गीतासुगीता कर्तव्या किमन्यैः शास्त्रविस्तरैः । या स्वयं पद्मनाभस्य मुखपद्माद्विनिःसृता ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;quoted by Śrīdharasvāmin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that आत्मा is the correct version since it's root is आत्मन् (नकारान्त पुल्लिङ्ग).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also note that the English transliteration people use in this site is only halfway there: they should be spelling गीता as 'g&lt;strong&gt;I&lt;/strong&gt;tA' but rarely does anyone do it (nArAyaNIyam for example). They seem to only care for the आ and nothing else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T04:21:41.007" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20250" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20248" CreationDate="2017-08-15T03:59:08.657" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;AtharvaVeda Samhita contains &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av11004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prana Sukta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in 11.4 which glorifies Prana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Homage to Prāna, him who hath dominion o&amp;apos;er the universe, Who hath become &lt;strong&gt;the Sovran Lord of all, on whom the whole depends!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Prāna is Fever, he is Death. &lt;strong&gt;Prāna is worshipped by the Gods.&lt;/strong&gt; Prāna sets in the loftiest sphere the man who speaks the words of truth.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Prāna is Deshtri, and Virāj &lt;strong&gt;Prāna is reverenced by all. He is the Sun, he is the Moon.&lt;/strong&gt; Prāna is called Prajāpati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T03:59:08.657" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20251" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13854" CreationDate="2017-08-15T05:33:13.083" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said in the PurAnas that the personification of all sins or the pApa purusha resides within the grains like rice on this day. That's why eating all grains including rice is prohibited on the EkAdashi Tithis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=55&amp;amp;more=1&amp;amp;c=1&amp;amp;tb=1&amp;amp;pb=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kamakoti.com website&lt;/a&gt; quotes the Vishnu PurAna in this context as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yAni kAni cha pApAni brahmahatyAdikAni cha | annamAshritya tiShThanti&#xA;  saMprApte harivAsare | aghaM sa kevalaM bhu~Nkte yo bhu~Nkte&#xA;  harivAsare || [viShNupurANe]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Greatest of sins&lt;/strong&gt; like brahmahatyA &lt;strong&gt;are present in anna or food on the&#xA;  eleventh day of every pakSha. One who eats on this day, ingests these&#xA;  sins and attains great misery&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/ekadasi.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt; quotes the Padma PurAna and gives the detailed story of how the pApa purusha got grains as his residence for the EkAdashi Tithis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story is quite long. So, i'm not quoting it. In short, Lord Vishnu said to the pApa purusha to make the grains his residence on the EkAdashi Tithis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[pApa purusha said] Out of fear of Sri Ekadasi I have fled and taken&#xA;  shelter of men; animals; insects; hills; trees; moving and non-moving&#xA;  living entities; rivers; oceans; forests; heavenly, earthly and&#xA;  hellish planetary systems; demigods; and the Gandharvas. I cannot find&#xA;  a place where I can be free from the fear of Sri Ekadasi. O my Master!&#xA;  I am a product of Your creation, so therefore very mercifully direct&#xA;  me to a place where I can reside fearlessly.’”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasadeva then said to Jaimini, “After saying this, the embodiment of&#xA;  all sinful activities (Papa-purusha) fell down at the feet of the&#xA;  Supreme Lord Vishnu, who is the destroyer of all miseries and began to&#xA;  cry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“After this, Lord Vishnu, observing the condition of the Papa-purusha,&#xA;  with laughter began to speak thus: ‘O Papa-purusha, rise up! Don’t&#xA;  lament any longer. Just listen, and I’ll tell you where you can stay&#xA;  on the lunar day of Ekadasi. &lt;strong&gt;On the date of Sri Ekadasi, which is the&#xA;  benefactor of the three planetary systems, you can take shelter of&#xA;  foodstuffs in the form of grains.&lt;/strong&gt; There is no reason to worry about&#xA;  this any more, because My form as Sri Ekadasi will no longer impede&#xA;  you.’ After giving direction to the Papa-purusha, the Supreme Lord&#xA;  Vishnu disappeared and the Papa-purusha returned to the performance of&#xA;  his own activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Therefore, those persons who are serious about the ultimate benefit&#xA;  of the soul will never eat grains on Ekadasi&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-15T05:38:27.093" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T05:38:27.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20252" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22053" CreationDate="2017-08-15T07:06:56.633" Score="5" ViewCount="1750" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm currently visiting India, and I may try to see the Adi Varaha Perumal temple in Mahabalipuram, more commonly known as the Thiruvalavendhai temple.  It's a difficult temple to visit; it's closed most of the time, and only opened rarely by the priests of the nearby Sthalasayana Perumal Vishnu temple.  It's a Lakshmi Varaha temple, featuring Lakshmi sitting on the lap of Vishnu's incarnation Varaha.  That in itself is not unusual; for instance the Thiruvidandai Varaha temple which I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5240/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; also fits that description.  But what makes the Thiruvalaventhai temple unique is that unlike Thiruvidandai and other temples where Lakshmi sits on the left side of Varaha, in Thiruvalavendhai Lakshmi sits on his right.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AIEkB.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/AIEkB.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of the Thiruvalaventhai temple?  Did some incident involving Varaha take place in this location?  And is there a reason Lakshmi sits on his right?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also,  why is it called &quot;Adi Varaha&quot;, meaning the first Varaha?  There's an Adi Vaharaswami temple in Tirupati which I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2086/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Does this bear some relation to that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-08-15T09:46:34.790" LastActivityDate="2017-11-10T16:45:54.757" Title="What is the story of the Thiruvalavendhai Varaha temple in Mahabalipuram?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|lakshmi|varaha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20253" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20236" CreationDate="2017-08-15T07:13:43.280" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;A partial answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Can I chant Vedas even if I don't understand the meaning?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chanting after understanding the meanings is what is recommended.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Knowing the metre and the Rishi (saintly author), one should zealously&#xA;  recite the Mantrams. And &lt;strong&gt;knowing their meaning&lt;/strong&gt;, a twice-born one&#xA;  should mentally recite the Gayatri, day and night&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Harita Smriti, Chapter 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmacharin, who, &lt;strong&gt;understanding its meaning&lt;/strong&gt; daily reads the&#xA;  Gayatri, the mother of the Vedas, comes by the most excellent&#xA;  condition. (53) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O ye twice-born ones, having studied [either] one, or two, or three,&#xA;  of the Vedas, or the [entire] four Vedas&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;and understood their meaning properly,&lt;/strong&gt; the foremost of the twice-born should [celebrate the occasion with the terminating] bath.&#xA;  (86) )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Usana Smriti, Chapter 3.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE: When i find an explicit reference which says reciting Vedas is futile unless the meaning  too is understood, i will add it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-08-15T07:13:43.280" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20255" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-15T09:56:47.503" Score="4" ViewCount="898" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the  Bhavishya Purana, Lord Shiva tells his wife Parvati how Valmiki got a boon from Hanuman to sing the glory of Rama in vernacular language (i.e. Ramcharitmanas) to incarnate in future in the Kali Yuga as Sage Tulsidas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वाल्मीकिस्तुलसीदासः कलौ देवि भविष्यति ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;रामचन्द्रकथामेतां भाषाबद्धां करिष्यति ॥ (Bhavishya Purana, Pratisarga Parva, 4.20.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Transliteration&lt;/strong&gt;: vālmīkistulasīdāsaḥ kalau devi bhaviṣyati ।&#xA;rāmacandrakathāmetāṃ bhāṣābaddhāṃ kariṣyati ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: O Goddess [Parvati]! Valmiki will become Tulsidas in the Kali age, and will compose this narrative of Rama in the vernacular language. (Bhavishya Purana, Pratisarga Parva, 4.20.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other Puranas that talk about Sage Tulsidas apart from the Bhavishya Purana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="20968" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2022-12-19T05:03:18.690" LastActivityDate="2023-02-06T14:16:40.383" Title="Apart from the Bhavishya Purana, are there any Puranas that talk about Sage Tulsidas?" Tags="|puranas|ramayana|smriti|valmiki|ramcharitmanas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20256" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="28194" CreationDate="2017-08-15T13:33:26.307" Score="10" ViewCount="1324" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mlecchas refer to people who are foreign to India and the Vedic tradition, in contrast to Nastikas who are from India but reject the Vedic tradition.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/bOqBcF/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Rahasyatraya Sara, the 13th century Sri Vaishnava Acharya Vedanta Desikan discusses a Garuda Purana verse on the subject of how to treat Mlecchas who have become devotees of Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Bhakti or devotion is of eight kinds.  If this bhakti is found in a mleccha, he should be considered as a devout and knowing Brahmin.  To him giving is proper and from him taking is proper.  He should be treated with the same reverence as I myself.&amp;quot;  &lt;strong&gt;This shloka has been commented upon (by Peria Achan Pillai) as meaning not that girls should be given in marriage to him and the like, but that he may be given the gift of knowledge and such like.&lt;/strong&gt;  &amp;quot;Treatment with reverence&amp;quot; is a general term.  Therefore it means that if a man has devotion to Bhagavan, he should be treated with as much respect as the shastras permit.  Its purport is merely this much, that if a man treats such a devotee in the same way as he would treat others of the same caste, he would go to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  For those who don't know, Periyavachan Pillai was a 12th Sri Vaishnava Acharya famous for his commentaries on the Valmiki Ramayana and the Naalayira Divya Prabandham.  He was a shishya of Nampillai, whose guru's guru was Parashara Bhattar, Ramanujacharya's successor as the head of the Sri Vaishnava sect. My question is, where in his works does Periyavachan Pillai discuss this verse of the Garuda Purana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/periyavachan-pillai/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This web page&lt;/a&gt; lists his works:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his life time, he has done vyAkyAnams for:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;4000 dhiyva prabhandham – He has written vyAkyAnams for all of aruLicheyal. vyAkyAnams for approximately 400 pAsurams for periyAzhwAr thirumozhi was lost and mAmunigaL just wrote those missing pAsura vyAkyAnams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;sthOthra granthams – He has written vyAkyAnams for pUrvAchArya srisUkthis like sthOthra rathnam, chathu slOki, gadhya thryayam, etc and jithanthE sthOthram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;sri rAmAyaNam – He has selected important slOkams from sri rAmAyaNam and written a detailed commentary for those in rAmAyaNa thani slOki. He was named abhaya pradha rAjar for his masterful explanation of vibhIshaNa sharanAgathi episode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He has also written many rahasya granthams such as mANikka mAlai, parantha rahasyam, sakala prAmANa thAthparyam, etc which explains rahasya thrayam in an excellent manner. He was a pioneer in documenting rahasya thrayam – piLLai lOkAchAryar took the essence of nampiLLai and periyavAchAn piLLai’s teachings and wrote his astAdhasa rahasya granthams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I can tell, none of these works have been translated into English, and some may not be available in any form.  But the translator was able to identify the person Vedanta Desikan was referring to as Periyavachan Pillai, so it's probably from some available work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, does anyone know where in the Garuda Purana this verse occurs?  The translator says it's verse &amp;quot;219-6-5&amp;quot;, but I'm not sure what that means; the Garuda Purana has three Kandas, each of which have a bunch of chapters, each of which have a bunch of verses.  So I don't see how you could specify a verse using three numbers none of which is less than or equal to 3.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-09-01T07:39:40.570" Title="Where does Periyavachan Pillai discuss Mleccha devotees of Vishnu?" Tags="|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|caste-system|garuda-purana|vedanta-desika|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20257" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20066" CreationDate="2017-08-15T17:21:59.683" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your question enquires whether Lord Shiva Or Lord Rudra  is the head /Leader of Vedic  Maruts (Storm Gods). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I searched Rig-Veda about your question and found following verses.-:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following  is the verse you quoted in your question ,where Rudra is described as father of Maruts or Storm gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आ ते पितर्मरुतां सुम्नमेतु मा न: सूर्यस्य संदृशो युयोथा : |&lt;br&gt; अभि नो&#xA;  वीरो अर्वति क्षमेत प्र जायेमहि रुद्र प्रजाभि: ||1||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aa Te PitarMarutam SumanMetu Ma Naha SuraySya  SanNdruSho UyoThaHa&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; Abhi No Viro  ArVati KshaMet Pra JayeMahi Rudra PrajaBhi  ||1 || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 : &lt;strong&gt;FATHER of Maruts,&lt;/strong&gt; let thy bliss approach us: exclude us not from&#xA;  looking on the sunlight. Gracious to our fleet courser be the Hero may&#xA;  we transplant us, Rudra, in our children.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv02033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 2.33.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly I found 2  other verses confirming that … here are these  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सत्यं त्वेषा अमवन्तो धवञ्चिदा रुद्रियास: | मिहं कृणवन्त्यवाताम्&#xA;  ||7||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;satyaṃ tveṣā amavanto dhanvañ cid ā rudriyāsaḥ |  mihaṃ kṛṇvanty&#xA;  avātām || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 Truly, &lt;strong&gt;they the fierce and mighty Sons of Rudra&lt;/strong&gt; send their&#xA;  windless Rain e’en on the desert places.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01038.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 1.38.7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  रुद्रस्य ये मीळ्हुषः सन्ति पुत्रा यांश्चो नु दाध्र्विर्भरध्यै | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विदे हि माता महो मही षा सेत पर्श्निः सुभ्वे गर्भमाधात || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rudrasya ye mīḷhuṣaḥ santi putrā yāṃśco nu dādhṛvirbharadhyai | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vide hi mātā maho mahī ṣā set pṛśniḥ subhve gharbhamādhāt || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They who are Sons of the rain-pouring Rudra, whom the long-lasting One&#xA;  had power to foster: The Mighty Ones whose germ great Mother Prsni is&#xA;  known to have received for man’s advantage.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv06066.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 6.66.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 3 makes it clear that Rudra, the “rain-pouring” God is the father of the Maruts and that Prsni is the mother. &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The storm gods –“Maruts”  hold a  prominent position in the Vedas, In Rug-Veda they are represented as friends and allies of Indra. &#xA;There are various origins are assigned to Maruts  They Rudra, sons and brothers of Indra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their birth story is also described in  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But In Rug-Veda Mandala 10 – Skukta – 103 – Verse 8 ,9 , we find mentioning Indra leading the Maruts. Here he is their leader.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इन्द्र आसां नेता बर्हस्पतिर्दक्षिणा यज्ञः पुर एतुसोमः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवसेनानामभिभञ्जतीनां जयन्तीनां मरुतोयन्त्वग्रम || 8||&lt;br&gt; इन्द्रस्य&#xA;  वर्ष्णो वरुणस्य राज्ञ आदित्यानां मरुतांशर्ध उग्रम | &lt;br&gt; महामनसां&#xA;  भुवनच्यवानां घोषोदेवानां जयतामुदस्थात || 9||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;indra āsāṃ netā bṛhaspatirdakṣiṇā yajñaḥ pura etusomaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  devasenānāmabhibhañjatīnāṃ jayantīnāṃ marutoyantvaghram || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  indrasya vṛṣṇo varuṇasya rājña ādityānāṃ marutāṃśardha ughram | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mahāmanasāṃ bhuvanacyavānāṃ ghoṣodevānāṃ jayatāmudasthāt || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8 : &lt;strong&gt;Indra guide these:&lt;/strong&gt; Bṛhaspati precede them, the guerdon, and the&#xA;  sacrifice, and Soma; &lt;strong&gt;And let the banded Maruts march in forefront of&#xA;  heavenly hosts&lt;/strong&gt; that conquer and demolish. 9 Ours be the potent host of&#xA;  mighty Indra, King Varuṇa, and Maruts, and Ādityas. Uplifted is the&#xA;  shout of Gods who conquer high-minded Gods who cause the worlds to&#xA;  tremble.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10103.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 10.103.8,9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mandala VI has several verses that mention the Maruts being accordant with Indra or following Indra. Here is verse 11 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मरुत्वन्तं वर्षभं ... || &lt;br&gt; marutvantaṃ vṛṣabhaṃ ... || 11||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;:  The Bull,&#xA;  whose strength hath waxed, whom Maruts follow, free-giving Indra, the&#xA;  Celestial Ruler, Mighty, all-conquering, the victory-giver, him let us&#xA;  call to grant us new protection.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv06019.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 6.19.11&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Here marutvantaṃ&#xA;  means Indra whom maruts follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Group of Maruts (Storm Gods) is called Marut Ganas .And In Rig-Veda Indra is described as leader of all celestial as well as terrestrial  groups i.e.  Ganas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मखस्य ते तविषस्य पर जूतिमियर्मि वाचमम्र्ताय भूषन | &lt;br&gt; इन्द्र&#xA;  कषितीनामसि मानुषीणां विशां दैवीनामुत पूर्वयावा || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;makhasya te taviṣasya pra jūtimiyarmi vācamamṛtāya bhūṣan | &lt;br&gt; indra&#xA;  kṣitīnāmasi mānuṣīṇāṃ viśāṃ daivīnāmuta pūrvayāvā || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 I stimulate thy zeal, the Strong, the Hero decking my song of praise&#xA;  forth; Immortal. &lt;strong&gt;O Indra, thou art equally the Leader of heavenly&#xA;  hosts and human generations.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv03034.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 3.34.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Conclusion – &lt;strong&gt;So looking at these verses and  by and primary search of&#xA;  Rig-Veds we can see Indra is the leader of Maruts. But we won’t  find&#xA;  any description of Lord Shiva or Lord Rudra being their leader.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Note – This is primary conclusion ,  as the vedic literature is vast , there is also possibility of mentioning Rudra /Shiva as their head /Leader. I will update the answer in future  if I found anything regarding this.  &lt;/sub&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T08:04:23.307" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T08:04:23.307" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20258" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7611" CreationDate="2017-08-15T19:00:35.027" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh Manyu with your help may we conquor both the Aryans and Dasas &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oh lodra with your help may we kill both the Dasas and Aryans.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;—–Rig Veda 10-83-1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse pray for the destruction of both Aryans and Dasas. Should this verse be interpreted to mean that before Aryans invaded India some native ‘Aryan’ variety already existed in India and they were killed by invaded Aryans?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is true that in many places, Rig Veda says Indra protected the Aryan color, but it also says Kanwa, the son of black. This Kanwa Rishi is said to have dark skin. Many Suktas in the 8th Mandala of Rig Veda was written by his descendants.So, these verses like Indra protecting Aryan colour should be taken as metaphorical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T16:12:56.363" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T16:12:56.363" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20259" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-16T03:54:00.167" Score="1" ViewCount="34" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen Every Hindu having a Tulsi plant at home and being worshipped everyday....In Modern days as today why would one need a Tulsi Plant at home?&#xA;Is it useful or just because of rituals&#xA;Why do hindus plant a tulsi tree outside their homes?&#xA;Any scientific reasons?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11707" LastEditorUserId="11707" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T04:18:25.283" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T04:18:25.283" Title="what is the significance of tulsi at homes?" Tags="|rituals|other-religions|science|tulasi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-08-16T04:32:15.803" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20260" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3755" CreationDate="2017-08-16T04:48:20.767" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;None of the (16) verses in the aforementioned hymn occur in either the Khila Bhaga or the Parishishta Bhaga of the Rigveda; this is taking into account the various recessions of the Parishishta in various parts of the country.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Infact they occur in the last portion of the (Brihat-)Rigvidhanam (which is &lt;em&gt;neither&lt;/em&gt; Khila &lt;em&gt;nor&lt;/em&gt; Parishishta). It also seems to be the source of what is repeated in the Rigveda-Brahma-Karma-Samucchaya verbatim.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In total - &lt;strong&gt;This hymn does not occur anywhere in the Rigveda&lt;/strong&gt;. It is also &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; the opening verse of the &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt;. The opening verse of the Vishnupurana is similar to that of the Mahabharata - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नारायणं नमस्कृत्य ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Infact, after the aforementioned mangalacharana, the first chapter of the Vishnu Purana begins so ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पराशरं मुनिवरं कृतपौर्वाह्निकक्रियम् ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and the second chapter -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अविकाराय शुद्धाय नित्याय परमात्मने ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to the question, a few traditional Pauranikas opine that this is to be found in the Srimad Bhagavatam (10th Skandha), in the version commented by Sridhara Svami. I have not yet perused this particular version, and so cannot confirm it nor deny it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11717" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T04:48:20.767" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20261" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-16T05:26:22.233" Score="5" ViewCount="1265" Body="&lt;p&gt;The clothes that we wear can say a lot about our personality. I believe in Vedic period clothing for men and women are different than that of us. If yes, what was the traditional attire for men and women in the Vedic period?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Here I am asking about traditional clothing for men and women in the Vedic period, but not from Scriptures views (&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/326/does-hinduism-have-specific-dress-code-guidelines-in-their-dharma-shastras-scri&quot;&gt;Does Hinduism have specific dress code guidelines in their dharma shastras (scriptures)?&lt;/a&gt;  I'm already read this question there is significant difference). So I hope it might be helpful for people who think this question is already there? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9685" LastEditorUserId="9685" LastEditDate="2017-08-20T01:53:52.820" LastActivityDate="2017-08-20T01:53:52.820" Title="What was the traditional attire for men and women in the Vedic period?" Tags="|vedas|culture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2017-08-20T14:58:07.993" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20262" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="29602" CreationDate="2017-08-16T05:36:43.473" Score="6" ViewCount="2487" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is well known, that a Hindu day has five limbs (the panchAngas) among which the Tithi is one. The panchAngas form the basis for calculations in Jyotisha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tithi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedic timekeeping, a tithi (also spelled thithi) is a lunar day, or&#xA;the time it takes for the longitudinal angle between the Moon and the&#xA;Sun to increase by 12°. In other words, a thithi is a time-duration&#xA;between the consecutive epochs that correspond to when the&#xA;longitudinal-angle between sun and moon is an integer multiple of 12°.&#xA;Tithis begin at varying times of day and vary in duration from&#xA;approximately 19 to approximately 26 hours.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have sixteen Tithis, from pratipada to amAvasyA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, these Tithis are also divided into five groups as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NandA Tithis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pratipada, Shashthi and EkAdashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BhadrA Tithis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;DwitiyA, Saptami and DwAdasi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RiktA Tithis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chaturthi, Navami and Chaturdashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JayA Tithis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TritiyA, Ashtami and Trayodashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PurnA Tithis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Panchami, AmAvasyA and PurnimA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On what basis the above classifications/divisions are made?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What are the reasons behind calling one group RiktA and another group PurnA  and so on for every other groups?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-10-22T12:00:51.937" Title="On what basis the sixteen Tithis are divided into five groups and why are the groups so called?" Tags="|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20263" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9661" CreationDate="2017-08-16T06:54:08.037" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It could be because of the association of Shani Dev with &lt;strong&gt;celibacy or Brahmacharya&lt;/strong&gt;. Even though there are stories of him being married, the most popular story of him and his wife talks about his ignoring his conjugal duties for meditation. This &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.oocities.org/bhagvatjee/shani/4-extra-50-79/75-shani-wife.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;particular legend&lt;/a&gt; is from the time when Shani Dev refused to glance at the newly created Ganesh:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MRLW7.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/MRLW7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the deity here is &lt;strong&gt;Swayambhu&lt;/strong&gt; and without his family unlike some other temples. Perhaps that also reinforced the belief of his Brahmacharya. This may be only a popular belief but since beliefs are important while forming rules and regulations this could be one logical explanation why women were not permitted to enter his most popular shrine at Shingnapur. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T06:54:08.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20264" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-16T07:07:16.590" Score="14" ViewCount="1343" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know about worshipping Shiva in the month of &lt;em&gt;Shravana&lt;/em&gt; (श्रावण), especially on every Monday of that month i.e &lt;em&gt;Shravana Somavara&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What's the significance of worshipping Shiva in &lt;em&gt;Shravana&lt;/em&gt;? In other words, How is the &lt;em&gt;Shravana&lt;/em&gt; month significant or special for Shiva?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Is it described or mentioned in any scripture like Purana? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T07:33:08.560" LastActivityDate="2018-10-30T17:04:45.807" Title="What's the significance of worshiping Shiva in the month of Shravan?" Tags="|shiva|rituals|worship|puja|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20265" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20266" CreationDate="2017-08-16T09:34:13.117" Score="15" ViewCount="9081" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Durga or Agni Suktam is an ancient hymn Of Rig Veda. So is this hymn addressed to Agni deva or Durga maa? If it is addressed to Agni deva then why it calls Agni as destroyer of hurdle as Durga maa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T10:09:31.663" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T07:20:48.427" Title="To whom the Durga suktam Of Rig veda is addressed To?" Tags="|vedas|durga|agni|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20266" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20265" CreationDate="2017-08-16T10:52:39.310" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, the phrase &lt;code&gt;Durga Suktam&lt;/code&gt; is not part of the text (Rig Veda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire DurgA Suktam is found in the &lt;strong&gt;MahAnArAyana Upanishad (MNU), section 2&lt;/strong&gt; and not in the Vedas. It has seven mantras in all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, of the seven mantras, &lt;strong&gt;only five are found in the Rig Veda&lt;/strong&gt;, the remaining two are not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantras that are from Rig Veda are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jAtavedase sunavama somam, arAtiyato ni dahAti vedah, sa nah parshat&#xA;  ati durgAni.... naveva sindhum durita ati agnihi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;to the one who knows all births, we prepare and offer the Soma; may he&#xA;  burn up completely the wealth and knowledge of our foes. May he lead&#xA;  us to happiness overcoming all states of grief; May Agni carry us as&#xA;  in a boart across a river preventing any wrong-doing or stumbling&#xA;  (durita).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.99.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agne tvam pAraya navyo asmAn..... tokaya tanayaya sham yoh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Agni, worthy of praise (navya), lead us beyond (ati) all&#xA;  difficulties (durgA) by happy means (svast); be awide and broad&#xA;  dwelling with many felicities for us. Grant peace and well-doing to&#xA;  our disciples and successors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.189.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The remaining three that i have not given (translations of) are &lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 5.4.9&lt;/strong&gt; (vishvAni na durgahA...), &lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 7.63.1&lt;/strong&gt; ( pritanajitam sahamAnam ugram..) and &lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 8.11.10&lt;/strong&gt; ( pratno hi kam idyo adhvareshu....).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, all these mantras have Agni as their Devatas. &lt;strong&gt;So, they are dedicated to Agni.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among the two mantras that are found in the aforementioned Upanishad i am giving here only one fully:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tAm agni varnAm tapasA jvalantim, vairochanim karma-phalesu jushtAm,&#xA;  durgAm devim sharnam aham prapadye, sutari tarase namaha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I take refuge in Her, Goddess DurgA, who is with lustre of Agni and is&#xA;  radiant from askesis. She is the power belonging to the supreme&#xA;  (virochana) who manifests Himself manifoldy. She is the power in&#xA;  actions rendering their results efficious. You are skilled in saving;&#xA;  you take across the difficulties well. Salutations to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other mantra from MNU gives the DurgA gAyatri mantra viz&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om KatyAnaya Vidmahe kanyAkumari dhimahi tannoh Durgi prachodayath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These seven mantras are popularly chanted together during Pujas as DurgA Suktam, although five of them are dedicated to Agni only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess DurgA is commonly interpreted as &quot;one difficult to attain&quot; or &quot;one who overcomes all difficulties for the devotee&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedas, Agni is often described as the leader in our journey towards perfection. And, the epithets to Goddess DurgA are very similar to those of Agni as mentioned in the given five Rig Veda mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-17T07:20:48.427" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T07:20:48.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20267" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8340" CreationDate="2017-08-16T11:03:35.230" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The grandson of Brahma, Viśravas Brahma had four wives. Devavarṇinī, Puṣpotkaṭā, Vākā and Kaikasī. śūrpaṇakhā is the daughter of  Kaikasī. Kumbhini (who is also known as Kumbhinasī) is the daughter of Viśravas Brahma and Puṣpotkaṭā. Their father is same but the mothers are different. In this way, they are related. They are half-sisters. They had many other siblings. Rāvaṇa, Kumbhakarṇa, Kubera etc., are famous among them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Chapter 8 of Upodghata Pada of Brahmānda Purana,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;38-40: Viśravas married Devavarṇinī, the daughter of Brihaspati, &lt;strong&gt;Puṣpotkaṭā&lt;/strong&gt; and Vākā, the daughters of Mālyavān, &lt;strong&gt;Kaikasī&lt;/strong&gt;, the daughter of Mālin. Listen to his childrn begot of these. Devavarṇinī gave birth to Vaiśravaṇa the eldest son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kaikasī gave birth to Rāvaṇa, Kumbhakarṇa and &lt;strong&gt;śūrpaṇakhā&lt;/strong&gt;, a daughter. Vibhīṣaṇa is the fourth among her children.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;55-56 Mahodara, Prahasta, Mahāpārśva and Khara were the sons of Puṣpotkaṭā. &lt;strong&gt;She had a daughter (named) Kumbhinasī&lt;/strong&gt;.  Also Triśiras Dūṣaṇa and Vidyujjihva the Rākṣasā are remembered as the sons of Vākā. There was a daughter named Anupālikā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The list of children of Viśravas Brahma is given &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9553/ravana-who-were-his-parents-and-siblings/19449#19449&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are classified as the group of Rakshasas with the name of Paulastyas(descendants of Pulastya). Specific characteristics of Kumbhinasī is not listed in the Brahmanda Purana. But the common character of Pulastyas is given.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;57&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Thus these ten Rākṣasās, the descendants of Pulastya, &lt;strong&gt;were of very cruel activities. They were of very terrible pursuits ever since their birth. All of these were unassailable even to the devas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it is not clear whether Kumbhinasī is cruel or not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The physical  characteristics of Rakshasas(including paulastyas is given) is listed in the chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;63-69 They are tawny coloured and have round eyes. They have big bellies and huge bodies. They have eight curved fang like teeth and pikelike ears. Their hairs stand upright. Their mouths appear as though slit open upto the ears(on either side). Their smoke coloured hairs are like Munja grass. They have large thick heads shedding bright lustre. Their thighs and forearms are short. Their faces are copper-coloured. Their lips and tongues hang down. Their brows appear dangling. THeir noses are thick. They have blue(black) limbs with red necks. Their eyes are majestic and appear terrible. Their voice and tone are extremely terrible. Their calves are extremely hideous and rolled up. They are stout and have prominently protruding noses. They are firm and have sturdy bodies like rocks. They are cruel and terrible ever since their birth. Generally they are consistent in their activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They put on ornaments like ear rings, armlets and coronets. They bedeck themselves in diverse kind of ornaments. They wear many kinds of Garlands and use all types of fragrant scents and unguents. They are remembered as habitual eaters of cooked rice, flesh and even human flesh. Thus is remebered the similarity in forms and features of demons by learned men. They are unequalled in strength, intelligence and  ability to fight using the deceptive power of māya.(black magic).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above are the characteristics of the seven classes of Demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T11:03:35.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20268" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20264" CreationDate="2017-08-16T11:21:11.307" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually a great question to answer and think about... Not much facts are known about this. But still the month is holy according to puranas and fortunately even I was born in this month only.:)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few facts (or stories) that I know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;During the Shravan/Sawan month, it is believed that worshiping Lord Shiva is 108 times more powerful than worshipping during normal days.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the legend, &lt;strong&gt;Devi Sati sacrificed her in this month&lt;/strong&gt; and before dying she swore that she would marry Shiva in every succeeding life.Devi Sati was born as Parvati in her next life. She fasted during the month of sawan due to which Lord Shiva was impressed and they used to meet up on Monday. since then,the Monday and fasting has a great importance in the month of Sawan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As described &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindupad.com/significance-and-greatness-of-sawan-month-importance-of-shravan-maas/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; - In Vedas, &lt;em&gt;Shravan&lt;/em&gt; month is described as &lt;strong&gt;Nabhas&lt;/strong&gt;. Shravan purnima coincides with the Nakshatra (Shravan) of &lt;em&gt;Lord Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;. Hence the name. This is also one of the main reasons why this month is important and auspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to hindu mythology, &lt;strong&gt;The story of Amarnath pilgrimage&lt;/strong&gt; where Lord Shiva tells a story of immortality to Goddess Parvati is the most important one. &lt;em&gt;When Lord Shiva began the story of immortality, Goddess Parvati fell asleep. However, a parrot present there at that moment heard the story. After listening to the entire story, the parrot became immortal. The parrot escaped the wrath of Lord Shiva and was born as the Shukdev later&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later in Naimisharanya, Shukdev told - &lt;strong&gt;In the month of Sawan only Shiva consumed poison&lt;/strong&gt;. The Samudra Manthan is a very important episode as per the Puranas. The churning of the milky ocean, i.e. Samudra Manthan in search of the amrit, took place during the month of Shravan. During the churning, 14 different rubies emerged from the ocean. Thirteen rubies were divided among the devas and the asuras, however, Halahal, the 14th ruby remained untouched as it was the deadliest poison which could destroy the whole universe and every living being. Lord Shiva drank the Halahal and stored the poison in his throat. Due to the impact of the poison, his throat turned blue and he came to be called Neelkantha. Since this was the time when Shiva saved everyone from dying, he is worshipped with priority in the month of Sawan only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such was the impact of the poison that Lord Shiva wore a crescent moon on his head and all the devas started offering water from the holy river of Ganges to lord Shiva to reduce the effects of the poison. Both these events took place in the Shravan Maas and therefore, it is considered very auspicious to offer holy Ganga water to Lord Shiva in this month. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to a religious belief, son of Markandu Rishi, Markanday too for long life worshipped Lord Shiva in the month of Sawan only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8476" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T11:21:11.307" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20269" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20265" CreationDate="2017-08-16T11:27:21.977" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Durga suktam - This is a prayer to the Fire God Agni occurring in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Mahanarayana%20Upanishad%20-%20Swami%20Vimalananda%20[Sanskrit-English]c.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maha Narayana Upanishad.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Section two.  Page -93 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Durga is used here as a word for difficult problems in almost all the stanzas. &lt;strong&gt;The salutation to Durga is given only in the second stanza&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जातवेदसे सुनवाम सोममरातीयतो निद्हति वेद : |&lt;br&gt; स न: पर्षदाति दुर्गाणि&#xA;  विश्वा नावेव सिन्धुं दुरितात्यग्नि ||1|   &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jatavedase sunavama soma marathee yatho nidhahadhi veda,&lt;br&gt; Sa na&#xA;  parshadathi durgani viswa naaveva sindhum durithathyagni. 1 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May we offer oblations to soma to jata-vedas. May the all knowing one&#xA;  destroy what is unfriendly to us. May he , the divine fire that leads&#xA;  all , protect us by taking us across all perils even as a captain&#xA;  takes the boat across the sea. May he also saves us from all&#xA;  wrongs.&lt;hr&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तमग्निवर्णा तपसा ज्वलन्तीं वैरोचनिं कर्मफ़लेषु जुष्टाम् |&lt;br&gt; दुर्गा&#xA;  देवीम् शार्ङामहं प्रपद्ये सुतरसि तरसे नमः ||2||&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thaam agni varnaam thapasa jwalanthim vairochanim karma phaleshu&#xA;  jushtam, Durgam devim saranamaham prapadhye, sutharasi tharase nama. 2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I take refuge in her , the goddess Durga ,who is fiery in luster and&#xA;  radiant with ardency , who is the power belonging to the supreme who&#xA;  manifests himself manifoldly  , who is the power residing in actions&#xA;  and their fruits rendering them efficacious (or the power that is&#xA;  supplicated to by the devotee for the  fruition of their work). O&#xA;  though goddess skilled in saving , thou takest us across difficulties&#xA;  excellently well. Our salutations to thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this verse we get a clear reference of Durga the Goddess .According to Sayana  the word Durga literally means inaccessible.In the previous verse the same word in neuter was taken in the sense of a difficult place or difficulty. In this one , the word is in in feminine form as Durga , the name of the goddess Durga is , therefore , the deity who removes difficulties from the path of her votaries. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अग्ने त्वं पारया नव्यो अस्मान स्वस्तिभिरति दुर्गाणि विश्वा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुश्र्च पृथ्वी बहुला न उर्वी भवा तोकाय तनयाय शंयो ||3||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agne thwam paaraya navyo asmaan swasthibhirathi durgani viswa,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Pushscha prithwi bahula na urvee bhava thokaaya thanayaya shamyoh.&#xA;  3&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O fire though art worthy of praise. With happy methods take us beyond&#xA;  all difficulties. May our home town and home land become excessive and&#xA;  may the plot of the earth (for growing the crops) also be ample.&#xA;  Further be thou   pleased to join our children with joy.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विश्वानि नो दुर्गहा जातवेदः सिन्धुं न नावा दुरिताति पर्षि | &lt;br&gt; अग्ने&#xA;  अत्रिवन नमसा गर्णानो ऽसमाकम बोध्य अविता तनूनाम ||4||&lt;br&gt;   viśvāni no&#xA;  durghahā jātavedaḥ sindhuṃ na nāvā duritāti parṣi | &lt;br&gt; aghne atrivan&#xA;  namasā ghṛṇāno 'smākam bodhy avitā tanūnām || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Over all woes and dangers, Jātavedas, bear us as in a boat across a&#xA;  river. Praised with our homage even as Atri praised thee, O Agni, be&#xA;  the guardian of our bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This verse no 3 is also found in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv05004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 5.4.9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Rig-Veda Mandala 5&#xA;  – Sukta -4 – Verse 9 -&#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Explanation&lt;/strong&gt; -&lt;strong&gt;According to Vedic tradition a particular sacrificial&#xA;  fire consecrated for the worship of the divine is called Durga and by&#xA;  extension of the word applies also to the power of creative and&#xA;  evolutionary energy which is associated with fire in many vedic&#xA;  stanzas&lt;/strong&gt;  pertaining to Agni. It is therefore difficult the separation&#xA;  odf conception of durga and fire conceived as universal energy in this&#xA;  sukta. The predominant idea here , however ,is that the supreme&#xA;  represented as “Durga Devi” is the savior of  man in his trouble and&#xA;  mundane life bestower of highest bliss.This idea is fully developed in&#xA;  Puranic works dealing with the deeds and worship of Durga , the divine&#xA;  mother of the universe.&#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  Conclusion – &lt;strong&gt;By looking at the verses and at the commentary , we can&#xA;  see that its pretty much difficult to separate The idea of Divine&#xA;  Mother (creative energy)  Durga and the vedic sacrificial fire called&#xA;  Durga. So we can say that this Sukta can be used as a prayer for Durga&#xA;  Devi as well as particular sacrificial fire consecrated for the&#xA;  worship of the divine is called Durga. So Both are true.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T11:27:21.977" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20270" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16409" CreationDate="2017-08-16T12:11:53.690" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I remember watchin a Ram-lila once that shows an episode where Ravan and Banasur come face to face in Sita ji's Swayamvar. Quoting from a report this is how it generally goes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रामलीला मंचन के दौरान धनुष टूटने के पूर्व रावण एवं बाणासुर जनक के दरबार में पहुंचे। रावण ने जब धनुष खंडित करके सीता से ब्याह रचाने की बात कही तब बाणासुर ने रावण को काफी भला-बुरा कहा।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning both these Asurs have an altercation at the time of the Swayamvar. This entire &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3OG0Uxv7YA&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ravan-Banasur Samvad&lt;/a&gt; is probably based on the &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=5em1y2PczVgC&amp;amp;pg=PA114&amp;amp;lpg=PA114&amp;amp;dq=ravan%20and%20banasur&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=RgAXYZ0c27&amp;amp;sig=uLD5D_uYKowSWsvBJb9s5IpjQhc&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwihxfur0tvVAhUKPI8KHfsIAm84ChDoAQgyMAI#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=banasur&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramcharitmanas&lt;/a&gt; which mentions that both of these Asurs were present in the Swayamvar:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZzAyi.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZzAyi.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's the &lt;a href=&quot;http://googleweblight.com/i?u=http://hindi.webdunia.com/religion/religion/hindu/ramcharitmanas/BalKand/49.htm&amp;amp;grqid=5ZpEmZaL&amp;amp;hl=en-IN&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;original&lt;/a&gt; verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZhLAD.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZhLAD.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I couldn't find any other source where the two come face to face. Perhaps they did meet at the Swayamvar and had a face off even though the Valmiki Ramayan does not record it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T12:11:53.690" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20271" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20084" CreationDate="2017-08-16T13:51:56.770" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have created a separate answer since the question seems to have changed from &quot;Is promiscuity permissible?&quot; to &quot;What are the karmic effects of promiscuity?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because social mores have changed since ancient times, this seems to be a topic which isn't well discussed in the ancient texts. So, below are some excerpts from modern thinkers. In the quotes square brackets &quot;[]&quot; are parentheses from the original text, parentheses &quot;()&quot; are my changes, italics are my addition for words not commonly used in English, and bold emphases are added by me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following passage from Dr. Satya Prakash Choudhary discusses multiple relationships during a single lifetime rather than multiple concurrent relationships.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In each life, we have mother, father, brothers, sisters, spouse, children and so on. We are born in a family as a result of undischarged debts of past lives. Constantly we are creating accounts, debiting and crediting. We are creating Karmic debts with all those with whom we interact. The Karmic debts [&lt;em&gt;rna&lt;/em&gt;] lead to bondage or attachment [&lt;em&gt;bandha&lt;/em&gt;]. These Karmic attachments pull us into the wheel of existence again and again. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rnanubandha&lt;/em&gt; [the bond that results from Karmic debts] is at the root of repeated lives.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karma leads to &lt;em&gt;rna&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;rna&lt;/em&gt; leads to Karma . It works both ways. If you have given something to somebody in some life, the memory is stored in your causal body. That person will be your debtor in this birth. If you have taken in the past, it will be taken from you in some birth. If you have given in the past it will come back to you later. The causal body stores the memory of all of one's &lt;em&gt;rnanubandhas&lt;/em&gt; of countless births. (Until) all the karma stored in the causal body is burnt away or exhausted, there is no liberation from rebirth. Human life is nothing but a memory of &lt;em&gt;rnanubandha&lt;/em&gt;, the story of the countless karmas that we make, and live through. Every relationship reflects some &lt;em&gt;rnanubandha&lt;/em&gt;. The people with whom we have very strong &lt;em&gt;rnanubandha&lt;/em&gt; become our parents, spouse, children and co-borns in this life. In most relationships it is our &lt;em&gt;rna&lt;/em&gt; that ensures a complementary fit, just like a lock and key.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;citta&lt;/em&gt; [unconscious mind] holds these emotional memories or subliminal impressions that drive one to act or seek. They are more like vague impressions rather than clear memories. The memory of Karmic debts may be sweet or bitter. Sweet memories of karmic debts lead to a 'happy' relationship and bitter memories to an 'unhappy' relationship. In reality most of the karmic debts are mixed, a mixture of sweet and bitter memories. That is why most relationships are of a mixed nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Two people can be mutually attracted to one another only if there was some relationship between them in some previous life. &lt;strong&gt;When you meet a person to whom you were related in a previous life, the stored impressions/memories or &lt;em&gt;rnanubandha&lt;/em&gt; stir up your emotions and you may start &quot;feeling&quot; for the person.&lt;/strong&gt; Every longstanding relationship leads to certain deep impressions. Any act when done repeatedly can become a habit. Every habit leaves an impression. These impressions are the &lt;em&gt;samskaras&lt;/em&gt; that are more like an inclination. The very strong ones are the &lt;em&gt;vasanas&lt;/em&gt;, which compel us to act or seek again. But if we have no more debt [&lt;em&gt;rna&lt;/em&gt;] with the other person, it just remains a fleeting thought, an inclination or an impulse only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sometimes even though the karmic debt is discharged, the old &lt;em&gt;samskaras&lt;/em&gt; [the subliminal impressions of past acts] can generate an irresistible inner urge to enter into a relationship. We eventually end up creating a fresh account, a further karmic debt that is not advisable.&lt;/strong&gt; But if there is undischarged karmic debt, it results in a relationship naturally. &lt;strong&gt;When the karmic accounts are settled, once there is no more debt, the relationship ends.&lt;/strong&gt; But if the &lt;em&gt;rnanubandha&lt;/em&gt; is very strong, it results in a long-standing relationship like marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is the cause of every relationship, how it is born and how it ends. But nothing is permanent. No karmic debt can be everlasting. Eventually it has to end when the debt is discharged, when the account is balanced. In this impermanent world change is the law of life. Countless wombs have we passed through. Innumerable mothers, fathers, spouses and children have we been with. It is hard to interact with another being who has not been a parent, brother, sister, spouse, child, friend or associate in some other life. But when a karmic debt is over, the attachment might still be there. We still cling on. When &lt;em&gt;rna&lt;/em&gt; [debt] is over, the relationship has to end, but &lt;em&gt;anubandha&lt;/em&gt; [emotional bondage or emotional attachment] might still make us cling to the person. Like the fan that turns for a while even after the power supply has been switched off, the attachment doesn't die for some time. Once the &lt;em&gt;rna&lt;/em&gt; is over, nothing can sustain the relationship. Hence any further remnants of emotional attachment [&lt;em&gt;anubandha&lt;/em&gt;] are bound to produce only suffering and misery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In some cases, one of the two people involved grows out of the relationship once the &lt;em&gt;rna&lt;/em&gt; [debt] is discharged. But the other refuses to move on, due to emotional attachment [&lt;em&gt;anubandha&lt;/em&gt;]. The second person suffers tremendously because any further attachment leads to misery and suffering only. Sometimes there is bitterness also after separation. This bitterness can sow the seeds for future karma! When the karmic debts are over, when a couple has to part ways, as far as possible, it should be done with the least negative feelings. They should part in an amicable way to avoid further seeds of new karma. Easier said than done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The karma that brings two people together into marriage can also be of many types. I will mention a few below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Bitter enemies can be born as husband and wife and always fight, criticize, deceive one another, block the other's progress and make each others' lives miserable.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Two people who have created negative karma between them come back as man and wife and lead a life of suffering together, fighting with one another.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Two people who have created both positive and negative karma between them come back as man and wife and have a mixed life causing both happiness and unhappiness to one another.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Two people who have created positive karma between them in previous lives come back as man and wife and lead a relatively happy life helping and supporting each other.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;One who has taken a lot in some life has to give in the present life. In such a case, one of them will always be giving [money, love, care, etc.] and the other receiving.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Two souls who are evolving spiritually come as husband and wife, help each other in their evolution and benefit one another. This is the purpose of marriage.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A couple who has been husband and wife may come back as husband and wife again if their &lt;i&gt;rnanubandha&lt;/i&gt; is very strong. If the &lt;i&gt;rnanubandha&lt;/i&gt; is very strong and their destinies [lives] are so strongly interlinked, usually both die almost at the same time. If one dies first, generally the other also dies within a few hours or days or weeks. The souls are so strongly identified with one another that towards the end of a successful married life, they behave as if they are one.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Sometimes [rarely] a very highly evolved being or soul, or spirit or even an avatar [an incarnation of a deity] is born as two people to accomplish a mission. After the accomplishment of the mission, they merge back into one. Though very rare, such a divine couple can take birth at times. Such a high soul may be born as two separate individuals as husband and wife, brothers, guru and disciple, etc.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus the &lt;em&gt;anubandha&lt;/em&gt; [emotional bond] between husband and wife or between any two people can take many forms. The patterns of &lt;em&gt;rna&lt;/em&gt; and karma are myriad, exceedingly intricate and perplexing. It is because of &lt;em&gt;rnanubanda&lt;/em&gt; that you are a child to your parents, spouse to your spouse and parent to your child. A broader understanding of the concept of '&lt;em&gt;rna&lt;/em&gt;' at a cosmic level unravels the interdependence of all life. Whosoever or whatsoever comes to you, comes because of some &lt;em&gt;rna&lt;/em&gt;. So a wise person treats every living being with kindness. As a famous Indian saint remarked, &quot;Without &lt;em&gt;rnanubandha&lt;/em&gt; no creature comes to you. God will be certainly pleased if you give water to the thirsty, bread to the hungry and clothes to the naked. Be kind and considerate to all creatures. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;http://gyandhaara.blogspot.in/2012/01/law-of-karma-runanubandha-parentchild.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Sadhguru, &quot;You pick up &lt;em&gt;runanubandha&lt;/em&gt; in many ways, but sexual relationships have maximum impact in terms of the amount of memory that they leave, compared to any other kind of touch, or any substance you come in touch with.&quot; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/lifestyle/relationships/body-memories-washing-of-runanubandha/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;) More explicitly on the subject of sex blogger Devansh Mittal says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The temptation towards the Sex is not actually for Sex or for a woman’s body or a man’s body. It is for something else. It is actually for the unique experience of “Timelessness”, “Egolessness” and “To stay in Present”. Though in Sex or Orgasm, one experiences it very momentarily, but yes one wants to experience it. This is one’s basic desire to be free from the agonies of the past and the tensions of the future and totally stay in present, which gets fulfilled in Sex momentarily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Living in present for long time is not an easy job. One needs to practice a lot of introspection, understanding of oneself has to be evolved within, a lot of practice of meditation is also required. For this a lot of energy is required within. For Self Evolution a lot of energy is required within and this energy has to be directed in the right direction. Sex is a thing in which one loses maximum amount of energy outside, which otherwise has a possibility to be utilized within for constructive purposes. In Sex one loses so much of energy, to get a very momentary pleasure. If the similar or even more intense and long lasting pleasure is available through some other means and that also without losing energy, then one wouldn’t be ready to lose so much energy in Sex. When one doesn’t know any other way, then one is inclined to lose energy in Sex and then regrets later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When one doesn’t know any other way, this energy keeps boiling inside and keeps coming out in one form or the other. When this energy is not released neither inside nor outside then it has the potential to make you mad as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;a href=&quot;https://devanshmittal.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/kamasutra-sex-matters/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think it is likely to find an authoritative answer in the ancient texts, so hopefully you can harmonize the above with your own understanding &lt;strong&gt;But from above writings it is concluded Promiscuity binds us very ardently that no act can such immensely &amp;amp; thus result in repeated births &amp;amp; sufferings&lt;/strong&gt;. Good luck &amp;amp; namaste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10329" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-08-16T15:11:20.793" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T15:11:20.793" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20272" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9661" CreationDate="2017-08-16T14:21:15.670" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This tradition is now overruled followed by women activists and court orders September 2016 onwards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/shani-shingnapur-temple-lifts-ban-on-womens-entry/article8451406.ece&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/shani-shingnapur-temple-lifts-ban-on-womens-entry/article8451406.ece&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10212" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T14:21:15.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20273" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20284" CreationDate="2017-08-16T14:33:36.023" Score="13" ViewCount="5147" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Rig Veda hymn 10:125 tells about the supreme Goddess. So is this hymn addressed to Goddess DurgA or the female  power Of Universe (Shakti) Or vAk (वाक्), the speech? Who is vAk Goddess described in Rig Veda? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-08-17T06:18:59.293" LastActivityDate="2023-09-11T07:46:18.000" Title="Who is vAk (the speech) in Rig Veda 10:125?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|durga|shakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20275" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8917" CreationDate="2017-08-16T17:39:57.283" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes according to the &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; he does. In the account of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/brahmapurana-4.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lunar Dynasty or Chandravansh&lt;/a&gt; there comes the story of Yayati after which the text says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From Puru was descended King Bharata after whom the land came to be known as Bharatavarsha.&lt;/strong&gt; Also in this line was King Kuru, after whom all the descendants came to be known as Kauravas. The sacred place named Kurukshetra owes its name to King Kuru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sharing the snapshot of the portion that talks about what happened after Yayati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/B4FZO.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/B4FZO.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T17:39:57.283" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20276" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9677" CreationDate="2017-08-16T18:06:33.540" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Considering the geography relevant to Lord Parshu-Raam's time, the 18 islands referred to in the above verse may refer to the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;9 Divisions of &lt;strong&gt;Jambudweep&lt;/strong&gt; out of which &lt;strong&gt;BHARAT&lt;/strong&gt; is one:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Jambudweep is a very large island. &lt;strong&gt;It is sub-divided into nine parts.&lt;/strong&gt; Ilavritvarsh is situated in its central part while Bhadraashvavarsh is situated towards its eastern side...... All these nine Varshas are full of natural beauty. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AND,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;9 divisions of &lt;strong&gt;BHARAT&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bharatvarsh has nine sub-islands.&lt;/strong&gt; All these islands are surrounded by oceans on all sides and it is difficult to go from one island to another. These sub-islands are Indradweep, Kaserumaan, Taamravarna, Gabhastimaan, Naagdweep, Karaaha, Sinhal, Vaarun and Kumar.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sharing the snapshot of the verses from &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/VamanaPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vaman Puran&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mYVJz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mYVJz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KqUSM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/KqUSM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These 9 + 9 = 18 divisions may be what is being mentioned in the Mahabharat verse you have quoted. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2017-08-16T18:06:33.540" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20277" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-16T19:16:56.257" Score="7" ViewCount="6298" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that on ekadashi days &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13861/489&quot;&gt;one should not eat Grains&lt;/a&gt;. So going by strict definitions avoiding rice, wheat, lentils, other pulses etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By that definition we can eat &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapioca&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tapioca&lt;/a&gt; aka Sabudana , so is it suitable to eat Sabudana on Ekadashi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-17T05:15:06.910" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T15:06:47.290" Title="Is Tapioca/Sabudana suitable for consumption on ekadashi" Tags="|vishnu|fasting|ekadashi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20278" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-17T01:51:16.733" Score="2" ViewCount="327" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it possible to get a copy of Guru Goraksha Kimayagar? I have searched about it but no one seems to know. A poet saint shri Malu Narhari ji in 17th century converted it into a Marathi in a poetic form known as Navnath Bhaktisaar. That is is available in different languages today. But is it possible to get the original one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7222" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-17T04:56:59.127" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T04:56:59.127" Title="Guru Goraksha Kimayagar" Tags="|translation-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20283" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3848" CreationDate="2017-08-17T05:18:17.513" Score="1" Body="&lt;h2&gt;What is exactly a lie?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In current time &amp;quot;Lie = wrong information&amp;quot;. If that naive definition has to be believed, then all the computers &amp;amp; machines are truthful. Krishna distinguishes &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;truth&amp;quot; as utterable and &amp;quot;lie&amp;quot; as unutterable&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Is speaking lie &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;. Because truth is effortless &amp;amp; lie requires effort. But there are some special situations, where you already foresee a greater danger, the truth itself will take effort &amp;amp; lie will become effortless. Be aware of such situations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both of above are sourced in the following passage from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08069.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Karna Parva&lt;/a&gt;, when Arjuna was about to kill Yudhishtira (as also &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8134/1049&quot;&gt;discussed here&lt;/a&gt;) &amp;amp; Krishna avoids that situation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will now tell thee, O son of Pandu, this mystery connected with morality, this mystery that was declared by Bhishma, by the righteous Yudhishthira, by Vidura otherwise called Kshatri, and by Kunti, of great celebrity. I will tell thee that mystery in all its details. Listen to it, O Dhananjaya! One who speaks truth is righteous. There is nothing higher than truth. Behold, however, truth as practised is exceedingly difficult to be understood as regards its essential attributes. &lt;strong&gt;Truth may be unutterable, and even falsehood may be utterable where falsehood would become truth and truth would become falsehood&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, one should keep above differentiation (utterable vs unutterable) in mind. e.g.:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A person with terminal illness is often not told about his/her illness to avoid incurring stress for that person&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If a wife/girlfriend, after lot of make-up looks ugly, &amp;amp; if she asks how does she look. Then telling &amp;quot;You indeed look ugly&amp;quot; is not truthful either in most situations!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;In which situation, lie becomes utterable? What do Vedas and Lord Krishna say about this?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Different times have their different classifications of when the lie is utterable. The rule of thumb is, when one foresees greater misery/calamity coming because of so called &amp;quot;truth&amp;quot; (or silence) then one should avoid it. There are many stories around it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma &amp;amp; Krishna agree on these matters as suggested below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On an occasion of marriage, or of enjoying a woman, or when life is in danger, or when one's entire property is about to be taken away, or for the sake of a BrAhmana, falsehood may be uttered. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10951/1049&quot;&gt;[Krishna - Karna Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;A falsehood spoken in jest is not sinful; nor one that is spoken to a woman. O king, nor one that is spoken on an occasion of marriage; nor one spoken for benefiting one's preceptor; nor one spoken for saving one's own life. These five kinds of falsehood in speech, it has been said, are not sinful. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a164.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Bhishma - Santi Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T05:18:17.513" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20284" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20273" CreationDate="2017-08-17T06:59:44.913" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The eight Mantras of the Suktam in question were revealed to a female Rishi (or RishikA) called VAk, the daughter of Rishi Ambhrina. And, that is why it is called the VAk Suktam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another popular name of this Sukta is the &lt;code&gt;Rig Vedokta Devi Suktam&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is customary to recite this Suktam as part of the Sri Chandi PAtha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many Hymns in Rig Veda Mandala 10, where we find that the name of the Rishi is also the name of the DevatA. This Suktam is one such hymn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This can be explained from the fact that in such hymns, the seer is completely one in consciousness with the DevatA. Other examples of such hymns being hymns of Vaikuntha (Rig Veda 10.48.50), Lava (Rig Veda 10.119).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, coming to the main question- Yes the Supreme Goddess is speaking through VAk in these eight mantras. You can call her (the Supreme Goddess) by  names such as ParAshakti, ParamA Prakriti, Adi Shakti Or Sri AdyA or even by popular names like Sri ChandikA or DurgA etc or any other names of Mother Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following is what the famous &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.dharmapedia.net/wiki/Kapali_Shastri&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedic Scholar KapAli ShAstry&lt;/a&gt; writes about this Suktam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here in the case of Devi Sukta, the seer's realization of identity&#xA;  with the Supreme VAk, &lt;strong&gt;the creative word- which in the language of&#xA;  Tantra is ParAshakti-&lt;/strong&gt; may account for the identity of the name (VAk as&#xA;  applied to the RishikA as well as to the DevatA).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It will be more correct to say that the female energy of the Supreme&#xA;  Godhead, ParAdevatA, realizing herself in or choosing the embodiment&#xA;  of VAk Ambhrini, utters the word, the Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From the &quot;Complete works of KapAli ShAstry&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am giving few mantras from the Devi Suktam with their translations below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om aham rudrebhir vasubhih charAmi, aham adityair uta vishvadevaih,&#xA;  aham mitrA- varunobhA bibhrami, aham indrAgni aham ashvinobhA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I walk along with the eleven RudrAs (Alt trans- I walk assuming the form of eleven&#xA;  RudrAs). I walk along with the VAsus (Or i assume the&#xA;  form of all the VAsus). I walk along with Vishnu and other Adityas (OR&#xA;  walk assuming the forms of the twelve Adityas) and the All-Gods&#xA;  (VisvadevA). I [assuming the form of the inner self of all Gods] hold&#xA;  aloft Mitra and Varuna. Even so Indra and Agni i do and the Asvin&#xA;  twins too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.125.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above mantra Devi declares Herself as the inner self of all Gods. She is all pervading and all permeating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aham somam ahanasam bibhrami, aham tvashtAram uta pushanam bhagam,&#xA;  aham dadhAmi dravinam havishmate, supravaye yajamAnaya sunvate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I uphold and cherish the Soma that is pressed out (for the delight of&#xA;  the Gods). I am the upholder (or supporter) of Divine sculptor&#xA;  Twashtri and of Bhaga and Pushan too. I am the giver of the fruits of&#xA;  the sacrifices (that are done for pleasing the Gods). I am the one&#xA;  through whom the pleasing offerings of Soma and Havis reaches the&#xA;  Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 10.125.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this mantra Devi declares herself as all powerful, the Parameswari, who is the only granter of all wishes and fruits of all sacrifices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aham rashtri samgamani vasunam, chikitushi prathamA yajniyAnAm, tAm mA&#xA;  devA vi-adahuh purutrA, bhuristhAtrAm bhuri Aveshayantim ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Queen, I am the sole dispenser of wealth. Conscious, I am the&#xA;  chief or first among the Gods (for whom the sacrifice is meant). Such&#xA;  am i (the One) and the Gods have found me established in the many.&#xA;  permeating and taking possession of the manifold existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.125.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this mantra too, the Supreme Goddess declares Herself to be only dispenser of the riches. She is the most supreme among all Deities. All worship and Havis eventually reaches her. She is only one who is adored in all sacrifices and the eventual receiver of the Havi. One can see here a PurAnic or Agamic connection  where too Goddess LalitA holds the undisputed supremacy among all Deities. She sits on a throne made of Vishnu and other Gods. She creates the Trinities out of Herself. She is constantly served by Lakshmi and Saraswati, the respective consorts of Vishnu and BrahmA and etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;maya so annam atti, yo vipashyati yah prAniti, ya im shrnoti uktam,&#xA;  amantavo mAm ta upa kshiyanti, srudhi shruta shraddvinam te vadAmi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is by Me (the sole power) that one eats his food, one sees,&#xA;  breathes and hears what is said. They that ignore me (with their&#xA;  thought not turned to me) run to ruin. Hear, i declare to thee, the&#xA;  truth of faith, hear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 10.125.5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this mantra Devi declares Herself as the BhoktA (one who eats, enjoys) the DrashtA (one who sees) etc and thereby declares Herself as the ParamAtmAn. It is by Her only one lives, one hears and one speaks. Even in Sri Chandi, Goddess Bhagavati's TAmasi shakti has been declared as being responsible for Mahavishnu's YoganidrA. So, its Goddess Herself who makes Vishnu to sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aham eva svayam idam vadAmi, jushtam devebhir uta mAnushebhih, yam&#xA;  kAmaye tam-tam ugram krnomi, tam bramAnam tam rishim tam sumedhAm ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of my own accord i announce this truth, which the Gods as well as men&#xA;  strive to reach. One whom i love, i make him mighty, I make him&#xA;  BrahmA, Vishnu etc and other Gods , I make him the Rishis and also a man power of pure&#xA;  understanding (sumedhA).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 10.125.5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here also Devi declares Her supremacy and declares Herself as the Sarva Jagat Iswari or the sole controller of all Gods and men. It's She only who grants BrahmAtva Or Vishnutva or Rishi-hood. She is the ultimate abode or goal that all Gods and men strive to achieve.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the remaining mantras Devi declares that its only She who stretches the bow for Bhagavan Rudra to destroy the Veda-haters. Its She only who fights for Shadhu Janas ( the righteous ones) in times of need. Also, that its She who gave birth to AkAsha, the root cause behind the creation of all elements ( Mulakaranaswrupa of Sarva Bhutas) and to the Father of Heaven etc, And that She is independent, creates and dissolves universes out of Her own free will. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Devi is described in these eight mantras as the all powerful, all pervading and all permeating ParamAtAman who has become many from One. One in whom all Gods are situated. Who is the inner soul of all Gods and all beings. This concept is  elucidated in greater details in the Agamas where Devi assumes the three forms viz- VAma, JyesthA and Roudri to accomplice the respective tasks of creation, preservation and destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Relation to Tantra:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Durga saptashati, also known as Sri Chandi, is a litany of 700 verses occuring in the MArkandeya PurAna. The PurAna purports to be a dialogue between the sage MArkandeya and Kroshtuki.It is said that the Devi Sukta provides the Vedic basis for Sri Chandi. We get the clue from a line in the closing verses of the Saptashati where it is stated the Devi Sukta was being used for PujA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devisuktam param japam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can conclude with the following words of KapAli ShAstry:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The reader could ponder over the mighty words of VAk and see if it is&#xA;  not in line with the high spirit and purpose of DurgA Saptashati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, VAk here is the Supreme Goddess, Sri Adi ParAshakti , the sole controller of  Iswaras. The Mother of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As i have already told in the beginning, that it's mandatory (or customary ) to recite the Devi Suktam as a part of reciting Sri Chandi. Now, i have this very fat book called Sri Sri Chandi, which gives the following Sankalpa mantra to be recited before reciting Devi Suktam. And it mentions the DevatA for the Sukta differently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ahamityashtarchasya VAkAmbrni Rishihi &lt;strong&gt;Sacchitasukhatmakah Sarvagata&#xA;  ParamAtmA DevatA&lt;/strong&gt; DvitiyAyA jagati ShishtAnAm Trishtupa Chandah Devi&#xA;  Sukta Jape Viniyogah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Sacchidanada swarupa, all pervading ParAtmA is mentioned as the DevatA for the Devi Suktam and who is of course Sri Adi PArAshakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-17T10:37:52.267" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T10:37:52.267" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20285" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11229" CreationDate="2017-08-17T07:09:10.333" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Perhaps the following &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b123.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION CLVIII from the Anushasan Parva&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahabharat narrated to Yuddhishthir by Bhishma Pitamah is what you are looking for. I am giving accompanying verses also so that the background is clear with the &lt;strong&gt;relevant portions in bold&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know Krishna truly. I know who he is and what his ancient might is. O chief of the Kauravas, Kesava is of immeasurable soul. Whenever doubts arise, it is he who upholds Righteousness then.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is &lt;strong&gt;Krishna&lt;/strong&gt; who created the earth, and sky, and the heavens. Indeed, the earth has sprung from Krishna's body. Of terrible prowess and existing from the beginning of time, it is Krishna who became the mighty Boar and raised the submerged Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is He who created all the points of the compass, together with all the mountains. Below Him are the welkin, heaven, the four cardinal points, and the four subsidiary points.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is from him that the entire creation has flowed. It is He who has created this ancient universe. In His navel appeared a Lotus. Within that Lotus sprang Brahma himself of immeasurable energy. It is He who is the Ancient God. It is He who ruled the Asuras in the form of their Emperor (Valin). It is He who is the Creator of all beings. It is He who is also the future of all created Beings. It is He who is also the protector of this universe fraught with the seed of destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is the Enhancer of Wealth; He is the one victorious Being in the universe. In Sacrifices, eloquent men hymn His praises. &lt;strong&gt;The singers of Samans praise Him by reciting the Rathantaras.&lt;/strong&gt; The Brahmanas praise Him with Vedic Mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is unto Him that the sacrificial priests pour their libations. The deities with Indra at their head hymned His praise when He lifted up the Govardhana mountains for protecting the cow-herds of Brindavana against the incessant showers that Indra poured in rage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is unto Him that people dedicate diverse kinds of food. It is unto Him that the warriors dedicate all kinds of their vehicles at the time of war. He is eternal, and it is under that illustrious one that the welkin, earth, heaven, all things exist and stay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Month after month, the sacrificer ordains Him as a sacrifice. &lt;strong&gt;Regenerate persons conversant with the Vedas sing His praises in sacrifices of all kinds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Section &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b132.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;CLXVII&lt;/a&gt; more supporting lines are given that help understand why he would say so:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Bhishma said, 'O holy one, O god of all gods, O thou that art worshipped by all the deities and Asuras, O thou that didst cover the three worlds with three steps of thine, salutations to thee, O wielder of the conch, the discus, and the mace! Thou art Vasudeva, thou art of golden body, thou art the one Purusha (or active agent), thou art the creator (of the universe), thou art of vast proportions. Thou art Jiva. Thou art subtle. Thou art the Supreme and eternal Soul. Do thou, O lotus-eyed one, rescue me, O foremost of all beings! Do thou, give me permission, O Krishna, to depart from this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-22T07:53:52.437" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20286" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="829" CreationDate="2017-08-17T07:19:53.690" Score="0" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Actually not that difficult to answer. But it depends on individual&#xA;  thoughts and followings. Its up to us whom we worship or follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The way I see it is: In the &lt;strong&gt;Ramayan&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lord Sri Ram&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; explains the nine types of devotion or penance to Shabri:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नवधा भगति कहउं तोहि पाहीं। सावधान सुनु धरु मन माहीं॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and the very first said: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रथम भगति संतन्ह कर संगा। दुसरि रति मम कथा प्रसंगा॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The first step to devotion (Bhakti) is to keep company of the saints (Satsang). The second step is to enjoy listening to legends/discourses pertaining to the Lord&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So yes I follow Sai Baba as he was a saint and also because I completely trust &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lord Sri Ram's&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And about worshiping him, as I said, its up to individual's beliefs. They feel happy/relaxed by worshiping Sai Baba, so be it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And let me complete it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;गुरु पद पंकज सेवा तीसरि भगति अमान। चौथि भगति मम गुन गन करइ कपट तजि गान॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Selfless service to the Guru's lotus feet without any pride is the third step. The fourth step is to earnestly sing praises of the Lord's virtues with a heart clear of guile, deceipt or hypocrisy.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here... Many people also considered/accepted Sai Baba as their Guru and that's also one of the reason they worship him as their Guru. And &lt;strong&gt;Worshiping Guru is not wrong&lt;/strong&gt; because we only chant: &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Guru Brahma... Guru Vishnu...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मंत्र जाप मम दृढ़ बिस्वासा। पंचम भजन सो बेद प्रकासा॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chanting My Name with steadfast faith is the fifth step as the Vedas reveal.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;छठ दम सील बिरति बहु करमा। निरत निरंतर सज्जन धरमा॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The sixth, is to practice self-control, good character, detachment from manifold activities and always follow the duties as good religious person.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सातवँ सम मोहि मय जग देखा। मोतें संत अधिक करि लेखा॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The seventh step is to perceive the world as God Himself and regard the saints higher than the Lord.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;आठवँ जथालाभ संतोषा। सपनेहुं नहिं देखइ परदोषा॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The eighth, is a state (which one arrives at when one travels the first seven steps) where there is no desire left, but the gift of perfect peace and contentment with whatever one has. (In this state) one does not see fault in others, even in a dream.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नवम सरल सब सन छलहीना। मम भरोस हिय हरष न दीना॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In this state, one has full faith in the Lord, and becomes (child-like) simple with no hypocrisy or deceit. The devotee has strong faith in the Lord with neither exaltation or depression in any life circumstance (but becomes equanimous).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नव महुं एकउ जिन्ह कें होई। नारि पुरूष सचराचर कोई॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सोइ अतिसय प्रिय भामिनी मोरें। सकल प्रकार भगति दृढ़ तोरें॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sri Ram adds that Shabri’s Bhakti is perfectly complete. Yet if anyone were to have taken even one step towards devotion, out of all nine, he/she would be very dear to the Lord.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, my question is: &lt;strong&gt;Didn't Sai Baba had all these 9 qualities?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8476" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T07:19:53.690" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20288" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-17T09:20:30.760" Score="3" ViewCount="84" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen idols of Lord Vishnu having the Shankh, Chakra, Gada,Padma(Lotus) at different locations of 4 hands. Are there any logic,myth behind it ? Which position is true and original?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11731" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-17T10:43:05.243" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T10:43:05.243" Title="Sequence of weapons in Vishnu's hands" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|symbolism|weapon|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-08-17T11:20:33.290" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20290" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19838" CreationDate="2017-08-17T10:07:14.957" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here are some audio songs of Hari (Vishnu) in Hindi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://198.15.68.162/35poD/music/bengali/movies/2013/t/the_light_swami_vivekananda/Dukh-Main-Sumiran-Sab-Kare-Sukh-Main-Kare-Na-Koi_(webmusic.in).mp3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Teri beeti umar Hari nAm bina&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://198.15.68.162/35poD/music/bengali/movies/2013/t/the_light_swami_vivekananda/Pile-Pile-Re-Mann-Hari-Naam-Ka-Pyala_(webmusic.in).mp3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Peele re mann hari nAm ka pyAlA&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: These songs are Hindi version of Bengali songs. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T10:07:14.957" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20292" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20226" CreationDate="2017-08-17T11:31:54.790" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shodashopachar (षोडशोपचार) is described in BrahmaVaivarta Purana (ब्रह्मवैवर्त पुराण) 4.8.10. i.e&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Khanda - 4 (Sri Krishna Janma Khanda)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Adhyaya - 8 (Sri Janmastami-vrata-pujopavasa-nirupana Vows Worship and Fasting on Sri Janmastami)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sloka 10 onwards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can go through Sanskrit text with appropriate translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For Sanskrit-English, You can read on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/brahmavaivarta-purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;indianscriptures.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For Sanskrit-Hindi, &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicreserve.mum.edu/puran.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedic Reserve site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is sample of Sankshipt Brahma Vaivarta Purana Hindi interpretation by Gitapress:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/q6AbX.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/q6AbX.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm here quoting text from &lt;a href=&quot;http://brahma-vaivarta-puranam.blogspot.in/2007/08/part-iii.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Text 10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;puja-dravyani caruni&#xA;sopacarani sodasa phalany astau ca mistani&#xA;dravyany eva hi narada&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;puja-dravyani&lt;/strong&gt; - things for worship; caruni - beautiful; &lt;strong&gt;sopacarani&lt;/strong&gt; -&#xA;with worship; &lt;strong&gt;sodasa&lt;/strong&gt; - sixteen; phalany - fruits; astau - eight; ca -&#xA;and; mistani - sweet; dravyany - things; eva - indeed; hi - indeed;&#xA;narada - O narada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;place there O Narada &lt;strong&gt;sixteen articles for worshiping&lt;/strong&gt; the Lord eight&#xA;fruits and candies .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Text 11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;jati-phalam ca kakkolam&#xA;dadimbam sriphalam tatha narikelam ca jambiram&#xA;kusmandam ca manoharam&#xA;jatiphalam - jatiphala; ca - and; kakkolam - kakkola; dadimbam -&#xA;pomegranate; sriphalam - Sriphala; tatha - so; narikelam - coconut; ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;and; jambiram - jambira; kusmandam - kusmanda; ca - and; manoharam - beautiful.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;the &lt;strong&gt;eight fruits and candies being jatiphala kakkola pomegranate&#xA;sriphala coconut jambira kusmanda and manohara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Texts 12 and 13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;asanam vasanam padyam&#xA;madhuparkam tathaiva ca arghyam acamaniyam ca&#xA;snaniyam sayanam tatha&#xA;gandha-puspam ca naivedyam&#xA;tambulam anulepanam dhupa-dipau bhusanam cai-&#xA;vopcarani sodasa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;asanam - a seat; vasanam - garments; padyam - padya; madhuparkam -&#xA;madhuparka; tatha - so; eva - indeed; ca - and; arghyam - arghya;&#xA;acamaniyam - acamana water; ca - and; snaniyam - water for bathing;&#xA;sayanam - a bed; tatha - so; gandha-puspam - fragrances and flowers;&#xA;ca - and; naivedyam - offering of food; tambulam - betelnust;&#xA;anulepanam - ointments; dhupa - incense; dipau - lamps; bhusanam -&#xA;oprnaments; ca - and; &lt;strong&gt;upcarani - articles; sodasa - sixteen.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and the &lt;strong&gt;sixteen articles for worship&lt;/strong&gt; being a sitting place garments&#xA;padya madhuparka arghya water for acamana water for bathing a bed&#xA;fragrances flowers food-offerings betelnuts ointments incense lamps&#xA;and ornaments .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next mantras provides the method for worshiping, quoting only English translation for further text:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;wash his feet put on clean clothes perform acamana say the word svasti&amp;quot; sit on the seat .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;place a pot there worship the five deities invite Sri Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead to appear there .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;invite Vasudeva Devaki Yasoda, Nanda Rohini Balarama Goddess Sasthi Goddess Vasundhara .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rohini Brahma Asthami the Sthana-devata Asvatthama Bali Hanuman Vibhisana .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krpacarya Parasurama Vyasadeva and Markandeya and then meditate on&#xA;Lord Krsna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then a wise person should place a flower to his head and meditate on&#xA;the description of the Lord spoken in the Sama Veda O Narada please&#xA;listen and I will tell you that description which Lord Brahma‘ told&#xA;the Kumaras in ancient times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is an infant boy who&#xA;is splendid as a dark monsoon cloud who is very handsome whose lotus&#xA;face is smiling whom Brahma Siva Sesa and Yama glorified for hou many&#xA;days? whom the kings of sages cannot approach in their meditations&#xA;whom the munis siddhas and sons of Manu cannot attain whom the kings&#xA;of the yogis cannot imagine in their thoughts who is the greatest who&#xA;is without peer who is all-seeing witness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The follower of this vou should thus meditate on the Lord Then&#xA;reciting mantras he should offer the flower and all the other articles&#xA;to the Lord Please hear these mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the mantras O Lord Krsna please accept this all- beautiful&#xA;jewel throne wonderfully decorated with graceful and colorful pictures&#xA;and designs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept these wonderful and colorful garments pure&#xA;as fire and made by Visvakarma‘ from threads of pure gold&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept this golden pot filled with water to wash&#xA;Your feet Please accept this pure padya water and this beautiful&#xA;flower.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept these gold pots of honey ghee yogurt milk&#xA;and sugar.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept this durva‘ grass whole rice white flower&#xA;clear water sandal aguru and musk.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Supreme Lord please accept this clear pure sweet scented acamana&#xA;water.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept this scented Visnu-oil amalaki paste and&#xA;bath water.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept this beautiful bed made of the best of&#xA;jewels and covered with exquisite cloth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept this scented paste made of musk the&#xA;powdered tree-roots.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Supreme Lord please accept this fragrant flower so dear to all the&#xA;demigods and grown from a blossoming tree.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept this offering of ripe fruits sugar-candy&#xA;svastika‘ candy and other candies.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept this laddu modaka ghee milk molasses honey&#xA;fresh yogurt and buttermilk.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept these betelnuts mixed with camphor and&#xA;other things which I offer to You with devotion.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Supreme Lord please accept this beautiful avira powder made with&#xA;sandal aguru musk and kunkuma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept this incense made by cooking the nectars&#xA;of many trees incense very dear to all the demigods.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept this splendid and auspicious lamp that&#xA;destroys the terrible blinding darkness.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna please accept this pure drinking-water scented with&#xA;camphor and other fragrances water that is the life of all living&#xA;entities.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Lord Krsna as an ornament for Your transcendental body please&#xA;accept this garland of many flowers on a fine thread&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Supreme Lord please accept these fruits which are the seeds of&#xA;trees and which make one's dynasty prosper.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way at that place one should offer many appropriate things to&#xA;Lord Krsna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In brief, Shodash Upachara includes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Asan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vasan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Padya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Madhuparka (Panchamrit)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arghya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aachmaniya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Snaniya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shayya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pushpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gandha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Naivaidya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tambool&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Anulepan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhoop Dip&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jalapan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aabhusan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T11:31:54.790" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20293" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14222" CreationDate="2017-08-17T13:40:55.867" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why is Sushupti, the deep sleep state, called Prajnanaghana, &#xA;a “mass of Consciousness”?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer ventured here is from the Vedantic perspective, which is relevant here because the quotation concerned is from Maandookya Upanishad, a Vedantic text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The key to the answer lies in i) taking Sushupti as a simile; and ii) considering the words of the Chandogya Upanishad – sadeva soumya Idam agre aaseet, “before creation, O dear, only Sat or Pure Consciousness existed”. That time  is termed cosmic dissolution (Pralaya) at the macrocosmic level or deep sleep at the microcosmic level. At this time, there is no creation at all; everything has dissolved. There is no gross world and no subtle world, and there are not even the subtle elements (Tanmatras). There is only one “mass of Consciousness”, the Brahman of Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, with Brahman is His power called Maya. The two are inseparable. When Maya is at equilibrium (Shuddha Sattwa), She may be said to be ‘sleeping’ in the lap of Brahman. But as soon as there is the slightest disequilibium (Malina Sattwa or Rajas/Tamas), the projection of the Tanmatras, followed by the subtle and then the gross creation begins. At the cosmic level Consciousness associated with Maya in disequilibrium is called Ishwara; at the individual level, the same Consciousness associatd with Maya (called Avidya in this sense) is called Prajna. In both cases it is now not just a ‘mass of consciousness’, but within that mass there is locked the full potential to produce this entire creation from Ishwara and the full human being from Prajna. This seed condition is called the Causal  Body. It is a dormant state that is symbolised by Sushupti or deep sleep with respect to the individual level. As in actual deep sleep, there is no mind or intellect at this time, no thoughts, no concepts, no senses or body – just the potential to begin a fresh creation. In terms of a human being, this is called PRAJNANAGHANA – wherein there is not only just a “mass of Consciousness” but also the full potential for a human being to emerge from it; it is the causal level of creation of the human being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question of “being in ignorance” or “being full of knowledge” does not even arise when we take Sushupti as being a symbol and not literally. All such ideas arise “after creation”, when thoughts of oneself arise in the mind and intellect. The whole gamut if ignorance and its ramifications begins only “after creation”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11735" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-08-18T03:47:32.987" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T03:47:32.987" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20294" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20277" CreationDate="2017-08-17T15:06:47.290" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;For Vratas, usually grains are avoided throughout the day. Carbohydrate rich diet, fruits, and milk etc. are to be consumed by the devotee. As Sago is a starch hence it is allowed to be consumed for vratas like Ekadashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sago (Metroxylon sagu) starch accumulates in the pith of the sago palm&#xA;  stem from the base upwards. At maturity, the trunk is fully saturated&#xA;  with starch almost to the crown. Apart from sago starch granules, the&#xA;  pith also contained other associated components.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=2&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjOvM-Pxd7VAhUJqY8KHXmNAV4QFggqMAE&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedirect.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fpii%2FS0144861705004546&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNHFnTVb0WfePSWnH-CofTKzGFELMA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am quoting some references and posts from various ISCKON website on this topic, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Srila Prabhupada usually observed the Ekadasi fast in the simplest&#xA;  manner prescribed in scripture, by refraining from eating grains,&#xA;  beans, peas and dahl. Sometimes he observed a half-day fast. Some&#xA;  devotees eat only fruit on Ekadasi, some take only water, and some&#xA;  fully fast, even from water (this latter is called nirjala vrata).&#xA;  Non-grain high carbohydrate foods are often prepared on Ekadasi. Sago&#xA;  (tapioca) is a common example. But sago is sometimes mixed with rice&#xA;  flour, and apparently sometimes even with crushed insects. So unless&#xA;  one is sure about the source, sago should be avoided. In India,&#xA;  preparations resembling capatis and rice are made on Ekadasi from&#xA;  non-grain ingredients.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://iskconbirmingham.org/ekadasi-observance&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekadasyam samayantyam prapunantyam jagattrayam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sthatavyam annam asritya bhavata papa purusa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sansare yani papani tany eva ekadasi dine&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;annam asritya tisthanti sriman narayana ajnaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Padma Purana, Kriya Yogasara 22.46,50)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Ekadasi arrives, at that time, all of the sins from the three&#xA;  worlds reside in grains in the form of a papapurusa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever sins are available in this world, they all together reside in&#xA;  grains on Ekadasi day by the order of Lord Sri Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By eating on Ekadasi one eats sin alone (HBV 12.23) and verily he eats&#xA;  the flesh of a cow (HBV 12.25). By indulging the tongue, a terrible&#xA;  result is attained (HBV 12.21 from Skanda Purana):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;matrha pitrha caiva bhratrha guruha tatha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekadasyam tu yo bhunkte visnu-loka-cyuto bhavet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is a killer of his mother and father, and indeed he is a killer of&#xA;  his brother and his guru. He, who eats on Ekadasi is barred from the&#xA;  abode of Visnu. Gautamiya-tantra cited in Bhakti-sandarbha,&#xA;  Raga-vartma-candrika and HBV 12.32:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaisnavo yadi bhunjita ekadasyam pramadatah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;visnv arcanam vrtha tasya narakam ghoram apnuyat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a Vaisnava becomes so insane as to eat on Ekadasi, his worship of&#xA;  Visnu becomes worthless and he attains a terrible hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The 9th anga of sadhana is harivasara-sammana, &quot;respecting the days of&#xA;  Hari&quot;. In illustration, Rupa Goswami quotes in BRS 1.2.109:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hari-vasara-sammano yatha brahma-vaivarte -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarva-papa-prasamanam punyam atyantikam tatha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;govinda-smaranam nrnam ekadasy amuposanam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Respecting the holy days of Hari, from Brahma-vaivarta Purana:&#xA;  &quot;Ekadasi destroys all a person's sin, bestows limitless piety, and&#xA;  causes them to remember Govinda.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus, there are three aspects mentioned here to following Ekadasi (1)&#xA;  removal of bad karma, (2) gain of good karma, and (3) remembrance of&#xA;  Govinda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekadasi vrata samam vratam nasti jagattraye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;anicchaya'pi yat krtva gatir evam vidha 'vayoh&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekadasi vratam ye tu bhakti bhavena kurvate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na jane kim bhavet tesam vasudeva anukampaya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Padma Purana, Kriya Yogasara 23.172-174)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the three worlds, there is no kind of fasting which is even&#xA;  comparable to the Ekadasi fast. Even if one performs this fast without&#xA;  a proper attitude, he achieves the Supreme Abode. Anyone who fasts on&#xA;  Ekadasi day, with full devotion, what happens to him by the mercy of&#xA;  the Supreme Lord, I can not say (how much merit gets cannot be&#xA;  described).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iskcondesiretree.com/forum/topics/ekadasi-and-scripture-reference&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T15:06:47.290" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20295" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20308" CreationDate="2017-08-17T15:58:53.193" Score="0" ViewCount="104" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to read the Chaitanya Mangala by Lochana Das in English. Can anyone provide me some links to read it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T07:21:21.357" Title="Where can I get the complete English translation of the Chaitanya Mangala?" Tags="|translation-request|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20296" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20312" CreationDate="2017-08-17T16:02:34.277" Score="0" ViewCount="383" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to read the Sri Chaitanya Charitamritam Mahakavyam by Kavi Karnapura and the Sri Krishna Chaitanya Charitamritam by Murari Gupta in English. Can anyone provide me some links for these biographies?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2023-02-25T03:37:00.993" Title="Where can I get the complete English translations of the Sri Krishna Chaitanya Charitamritam &amp; Sri Chaitanya Charitamritam Mahakavyam?" Tags="|translation-request|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20297" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-17T16:20:39.707" Score="7" ViewCount="1558" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am trying to find the key philosophical differences between the Gaudiya Vaishnava Philosophy of Achintya Bheda Abheda &amp;amp; the Sri Vaishnava philosophy of Vishishtadvaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what exactly is the difference between Achintya Bhedabheda and Vishishtadvaita of Shri Ramanujacharya. One uses Krishna and one uses Shri Vishnu. Apart from that there seems to be no difference. Both say that Chit and Achit are also atomic parts of God. So Jeevis are atomic part of God. We are like drops of Ocean. Bheda in Quantity and Abheda Quality. What is the difference?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover what's Achintya or inconceivable about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also the Dvaitadvaita of Nimbarkacharya and Bhedavheda philosophy of Yamunacharya souunds same as Achintya Bhedabheda? What are the key and important philosophical differences?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user22253" LastEditDate="2021-06-16T00:20:07.330" LastActivityDate="2022-01-11T04:04:00.510" Title="What are the key differences between Achintya Bheda Abheda and Vishishtadvaita?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|vishishtadvaita|gaudiya-vaishnavism|achintya-bheda-abheda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20298" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20304" CreationDate="2017-08-17T16:42:41.937" Score="3" ViewCount="688" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of &lt;em&gt;tamasic&lt;/em&gt; food is food that has ''sedative effect on the body''. Now this can mean libido boosting food can be said to be &lt;em&gt;Tamasic&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Tamasic&lt;/em&gt; food such as onions, garlic and meat are indeed libido boosting.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now in ancient India, dark chocolates and fruits such as pomegranates &amp;amp; watermelon were not available and these food are scientifically proven to be libido boosting. So can these foods be considered to be &lt;em&gt;tamasic&lt;/em&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-18T06:45:08.413" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T06:45:08.413" Title="Can food which are proven to increase sexual libido be considered &quot;Tamasica&quot;?" Tags="|food|science|sex|ayurveda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20299" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-17T16:58:53.600" Score="2" ViewCount="1469" Body="&lt;p&gt;I got chicken pox in November, My mother cancelled her whole Karthika Masam pujas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why no one should perform any Puja if someone from their family suffering from Chicken Pox?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11737" LastActivityDate="2017-08-17T16:58:53.600" Title="Why no one should perform any Puja if someone from their family suffering from Chicken Pox?" Tags="|belief|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20301" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-17T20:05:12.910" Score="2" ViewCount="780" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Vaishnavas believe Krishna to be an incarnation of Vishnu. On the other hand, Gaudiya Vaishnavas say Vishnu is an expansion of Krishna and quote certain verses from the Srimad Bhagavatam to support their views. One of these verses are given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;narayanas tvam na hi sarva-dehinam&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;atmasy adhisakhila-loka-saksi&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;narayano ’ngam nara-bhu-jalayanat&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;tac capi satyam na tavaiva maya (Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14.14)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation:&lt;/strong&gt; Are You not the original Narayana, O supreme controller, since You are the Soul of every embodied being and the eternal witness of all created realms? &lt;strong&gt;Indeed, Lord Narayana is Your expansion&lt;/strong&gt;, and He is called Narayana because He is the generating source of the primeval water of the universe. He is real, not a product of Your illusory Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do Sri Vaishnavas interpret the above verse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-05-10T12:45:15.930" LastActivityDate="2024-03-24T01:05:30.653" Title="How do Sri Vaishnavas interpret Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14.14?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|sri-vaishnava|gaudiya-vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20302" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20261" CreationDate="2017-08-18T04:45:00.563" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In vedic period clothes were different according to persons professions and there were variety.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As seen from the Ramayana and Mahabharata Most of the clothes were without stitch.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;People use to wear clothes as whole like Dhoti and sarees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8467" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-18T06:36:56.123" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T06:36:56.123" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20303" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-18T05:13:49.717" Score="5" ViewCount="915" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is Lord Vishnu's avatar 'Narasimha' more popular in South Indian region?&#xA;I've seen in many movies and even when I went to south cities, they name their shops and business on the name Narasimha? Why Narasimha is more popular there?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11741" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-08-18T16:04:41.963" LastActivityDate="2023-02-25T16:28:12.213" Title="Why is Lord Vishnu's Avatar 'Narasimha' more popular in south Indian region?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|narasimha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20304" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20298" CreationDate="2017-08-18T05:27:14.237" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;One of tamasic food is food that has ''sedative effect on the body''. Now this can mean libido boosting food can be said to be Tamasic ... So can these food be considered to be tamasic?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;. The food which &quot;boosts&quot; something (i.e. libido) cannot have &quot;sedating&quot; or dullness effect. The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;tAmasika&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; foods are those which are &lt;strong&gt;stale &amp;amp; smelly&lt;/strong&gt;. Onion, garlic, meat may not be necessarily containing more &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A &lt;em&gt;sAtvika/rAjasika&lt;/em&gt; food kept too long for rotting, would develop &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; quality. BTW certain foods (like fruits, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhebra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;dhebra&lt;/a&gt;) would not possess much &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; quality even if kept for few days. Hence one needs to be judicious among the types of the foods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are the food likings for the people with nature of &lt;em&gt;sattva, rajas &amp;amp; tamas&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 17.8 - Foods that augment life, firmness of mind, strength, health, happiness and delight, and which are succulent, oleaginous, substantial and agreeable, are dear to one endowed with &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 17.9 - Foods that are bitter, sour, salty, very hot, pungent, dry and burning, and which production pain, sorrow and disease, are dear to one having &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 17.10 - Food which is not properly cooked, lacking in essence, &lt;strong&gt;putrid and stale&lt;/strong&gt;, and even leftover and that which is unfit for sacrifice, is dear to one possessed of &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the foods have these 3 modes, in more or less or equal amounts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Libido&lt;/em&gt; (desire for sex) is one of the many desires. &lt;strong&gt;The food which boosts the desires are &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Because the lust/&lt;em&gt;desires&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;kAma&lt;/em&gt;) is born out of the &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.37 - The blessed lord said: &lt;strong&gt;This desire(lust), this anger, born out of &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;(passion)&lt;/strong&gt; -- are great devourers(consumers), great sinners; Know that to be enemy here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence if the foods such as certain chocolates, pickles, spices, chilli etc. (or certain fruits) which may increase libido -- are &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rule of thumb:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; food: Can be eaten regularly to keep the body fit &amp;amp; working; Hence these foods are &lt;em&gt;DhArmika&lt;/em&gt;; i.e. consumable daily without any side effects &amp;amp; satisfying; e.g. All Indian home cooked items which are fresh &amp;amp; easily digestible&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt; food: Strong on taste buds, but bad on stomach; Any artificially tasty food are usually bad for health -- too sweet/spicy/salty/bitter/hot/cold,... e.g. items usually available in food joints &amp;amp; are consumed for fun&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;TAmasika&lt;/em&gt; food: Dull in all aspects; It has neither taste nor freshness nor health; It's consumed in the state of ignorance; e.g. liquor (notebook example), uncooked meat, packaged/refrigerated items; They bring lethargy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T05:27:14.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20305" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20307" CreationDate="2017-08-18T06:05:09.173" Score="4" ViewCount="1011" Body="&lt;p&gt;When a Brahmin boy is 8 years old, he has to go through the &lt;strong&gt;Upanayana Samskara&lt;/strong&gt; and after that he has to wear the &lt;strong&gt;Janeva&lt;/strong&gt; (sacred thread in Marathi) and he is informed to offer Sandhya every day to Sun. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why Brahmins are supposed to offer Sandhya everyday?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8467" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-18T06:41:40.803" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T06:56:42.433" Title="Why Brahmins are supposed to offer Sandhya everyday?" Tags="|rituals|brahmins|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20307" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20305" CreationDate="2017-08-18T06:42:22.640" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having rinsed, the mouth, as laid down in the Mantram, one should&#xA;again rinse it. Then sprinkling one's own self with water, as&#xA;described in the Mantram, one should throw palmfuls of water. (12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By virtue of the boon conferred by Brahma, whose birth is not known,&#xA;the Rakshasas Mandeha fight every morning with the Sun. (13)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The handfuls of water, thrown by the Brahmanas and inspired with the&#xA;mystic verse Gayatri, destroy all the Rakshasas passing under the&#xA;appellation of Mandeha (14)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Harita Smriti, Chapter 6.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The highlighted portion above gives the &amp;quot;reasons&amp;quot; why a Brahmin should offer water each day to Sun at three Sandhya times (sunrise, noon and sunset).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW, Sandhya is a must for all Dvijas i.e compulsory even for any Kshatriya and Vaishya who have gone through the sacred thread ceremony.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, if a Brahmin fails to do Sandhya then that is an offence and he has atone it by doing penances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a householder, out of mistake, does not perform his&#xA;Sandhya-adoration or deviates from the performance of a Snataka-vow,&#xA;he should fast far the day. (66)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In consequence of willfully [neglecting the Sandhya], the foremost of&#xA;the twice-born should perform the distressing penance [of Prajapatya&#xA;for full one year, and should perform the Chandrayana, [if he does so]&#xA;for livelihood. [And] by making a gift of kine, [he is] purged of [his&#xA;sins]. (67)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Usana Smriti, Chapter 9.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He, who out of carelessness fails to perform the Sandhya once, either&#xA;in the morning or in the evening, should, with a concentrated mind,&#xA;recite, after bathing, the Gayatri for a thousand times. (63)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is spoken of as the threefold Sandhya wherein exists the dignity&#xA;of a Brahmana. &lt;strong&gt;He is not called a Brahmana who has no reverence for&#xA;it. (15)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As serpents cannot approach Garuda, so imperfection cannot approach&#xA;him who fears the non-performance of the Sandhya and who is always&#xA;given to bathing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Katyayana Smriti, Chapter 11.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unless badly jeopardised in health, or otherwise incapable, &lt;strong&gt;a&#xA;twice-born one should never neglect the timely performance of his Homa&#xA;and Sandhya rites.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vyasa Smriti's last chapter.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, a Dvija should always perform the Sandhya rites without fail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T06:56:42.433" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20308" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20295" CreationDate="2017-08-18T07:21:21.357" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.krishnapath.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Caitanya-mangala.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the complete English translation of Chaitanya Mangala by  Lochana Das.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.krishnapath.org/library/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krishnapath.org&lt;/a&gt; also offers some literature of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and Srila Prabhupada's books.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T07:21:21.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20309" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19437" CreationDate="2017-08-18T09:01:05.863" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is explained in the later verses of the same chapter(Chapter 8 of Upodghāta Pāda). &lt;strong&gt;Daughter of sage Atri is Arundhatī&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among the descendants of his(i.e., Atri), four are well renowned on the Earth. viz. Śyāvaśvas, Mudgalas, Vāgbhūtakas and Gaviṣṭhiras. ||Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa_2,8.85|| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ete 'trīṇāṃ tu catvāraḥ smṛtāḥ pakṣā mahaujasaḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kāśyapo nāradaścaiva parvato 'rundhatī tathā || Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa_2,8.86 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following four are also remembered as belonging to the side(family) of Atris. They are of very great power. They are Kāśyapa, Nārada, Parvata and &lt;strong&gt;Arundhatī&lt;/strong&gt;. || Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa_2,8.86||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;jajñire mānasā hyete 'rudhatyāstannibodhata &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;nāradastu vasiṣṭhāyārundhatī pratyapādayat&lt;/strong&gt; || Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa_2,8.87 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These were of mental progeny(of Atri). Understand the (progeny of) Arundhatī. &lt;strong&gt;Nārada gave her to Sage Vaśiṣṭa&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By this description, it is clear that she is Arundhatī, the wife of Vaśiṣṭa. Her progeny is also explained in the later verses of the chapter. She is also mentioned in other  Purāṇas and itihāsas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T09:01:05.863" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20310" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17838" CreationDate="2017-08-18T11:02:48.960" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The primary reason for the long lasting strength of idols in most of the temples are the choice of Granite for sculpting the idol. Even though the granites appear to be similar in appearance, their strength and durability are decided by various factors like cracks in outer layer, porosity etc., &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Granite(rocks) of high quality are used for building pillars and supporting beams, where as low quality would be used for pavements. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though the deciding factor of selction of making idols are not clearly known, we can very well say that choice of the Granite is one of the predominant reason for long lasting strength of idols.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More over, the abishegams performed on the idol like thaila-kapu and the choice of abishegam material may also enhance the strength of the idols.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4991" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T11:02:48.960" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20311" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18249" CreationDate="2017-08-18T13:19:22.023" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna's main task was total annihilation of the Kshatriya race that was predestined towards the end of Dwapara and beginning of Kaliyuga. Kshatriya race wielded so much power that Krishna did not want to leave them to misuse that power in kalyuga. The later Kshatriays were conceived with brahmana men and Kshatriya women and were not as powerful as the ones that were annihilated.&#xA;In Stree Parva of Mahabharata of Veda Vyasa, Gandhari is distraught after viewing the dead bodies in Kurukshetra after the battle. In anger and grief over the death of her sons and the Kaurava soldiers, Gandhari curses Krishna with the death of all Yadavas in a manner similar to the death of her sons. She blames Krishna for his inaction and believes that he could have prevented the war and the slaughter of hundreds of millions people who died in the war.&#xA;Krishna's answer is interesting.&#xA;This is from Mahabharata, Book 11, Stree Vilapa Parva, Section 25 (translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli):&#xA; &quot;Hearing these words, the high-souled Vasudeva, addressing the venerable Gandhari, said unto her these words, with a faint smile, ‘There is none in the world, save myself, that is capable of exterminating the Vrishnis. I know this well. I am endeavouring to bring it about. In uttering this curse, O thou of excellent vows, thou hast aided me in the accomplishment of that task. The Vrishnis are incapable of being slain by others, be they human beings or gods or Danavas. The Yadavas, therefore shall fall by one another’s hand.’ After he of Dasharha’s race had said these words, the Pandavas became stupefied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11744" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T13:19:22.023" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20312" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20296" CreationDate="2017-08-18T13:28:28.507" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can read Kavi Karnapura's Chaitanya Charita Mahakavya in English &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.krishnapath.org/Library/Goswami-books/Kavi-Karnapura/Kavi_Karnapura_Sri_Caitanya_Carita.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  And you can read Murari Gupta's Krishna Chaitanya Charitamrita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.krishnapath.org/Library/Goswami-books/Murari-Gupta/Murari_Gupta_Sri_Krsna_Caitanya_Carita_Maha_Kavya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T13:28:28.507" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20313" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-18T13:39:52.637" Score="9" ViewCount="194" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mahabharat &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b046.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anushasan Parva Section LXXXI&lt;/a&gt; mentions Vyas as saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vyasa said, 'Kine constitute the stay of all creatures. Kine are the refuge of all creatures. Kine are the embodiment of merit. Kine are sacred, and kine are sanctifiers of all. &lt;strong&gt;Formerly kine were hornless as it has been heard by us. For obtaining horns they adored the eternal and puissant Brahmana. The puissant, Brahmana, seeing the kine paying their adorations to him and sitting in praya, granted unto each of them what each desired. Thereafter their horns grew and each got what each desired.&lt;/strong&gt; Of diverse colours, and endued with horns, they began to shine in beauty, O son! Favoured by Brahman himself with boons, kine are auspicious and yielders of Havya and Kavya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other scriptures that mention or give more details about this incident?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why were they praying for horns anyways?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-09-11T19:28:23.447" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T19:28:23.447" Title="When did Cows receive the boon of horns from Brahma &amp; why did they want them?" Tags="|mahabharata|brahma|animals|vyasa|cows|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20314" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20313" CreationDate="2017-08-18T14:08:22.200" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prapathaka 5 of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv07.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Seventh Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of the Taittiriya Samhita of the Yajur Veda describes cows performing a Yagna called the Gavam Ayana to obtain horns:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cows performed that Sattra, being hornless, with the desire, 'May horns be born to us.' For ten months they performed it, and then horns were born, and they ceased (the rite), (saying), 'We have obtained (our desire).' Then those whose horns were not born ceased (the rite) after making up the year, (saying), 'We have obtained (our desire).' Both those which obtained horns and those which did not ceased, (saying),'We have obtained (our desire).' The year is the cows' Sattra [1], and those who knowing thus perform the year (sacrifice) are prosperous. Therefore a hornless cow has pleasure during the two months of the rainy season, for that is won for it by the Sattra. Therefore whatever is done in the house of one who performs for a year (a Sattra), that is done completely, successfully, and adequately....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cows performed that Sattra, being hornless and desiring to obtain horns. For ten months they performed it, and then horns appeared. They said, 'We have gained (them), let us cease (the rite), for we have attained the desire for the sake of which we began (the rite).' But others said, either half of them or as many as might be the case, 'Let us perform (the rite) for these months, the eleventh and the twelfth, and when we have made up the year, let us cease' [1]. In their case their horns grew in the twelfth month. Whether by faith, or by lack of faith-that is, those which have no horns-both indeed were prosperous, those which gained horns and those which won strength. He who ceases after ten months is prosperous, and he who ceases after twelve also, if he knows thus. They go by their feet, and he who goes by his foot attains (what he seeks). The Ayana is successful, and therefore is it productive of cows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=Vpw-AAAAcAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA287#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; much the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cows being desirous of obtaining hoofs and horns, held (once) a sacrificial session. In the tenth month (of their sacrifice) they obtained hoofs and horns. They said, &amp;quot;wehave obtained fulfilment of that wish for which we underwent the initiation into the sacrificial rites. Let us rise (the sacrifice being finished).&amp;quot; When they arose they had' horns. They, however, thought, &amp;quot; let us finish the year,&amp;quot; and recommenced the session. On account of their distrust, their horns went off, and they consequently became hornless (tupara). They (continuing their sacrificial session) produced vigour (urj). Thence after (having been sacrificing for twelve months and) having secured all the seasons, they rose (again) at the end. For they had produced the vigour (to reproduce horns, hoofs, &amp;amp;c. when decaying). Thus the cows made themselves beloved by all (the whole world), and are beautified (decorated) by all.&#xA;He who has such a knowledge makes himself beloved by every one, and is decorated by every one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The cows may have propitiated Brahma through the Gavam Ayana, resulting in him appearing before them and granting them a boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-18T14:08:22.200" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20315" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20332" CreationDate="2017-08-18T17:39:31.083" Score="4" ViewCount="1064" Body="&lt;p&gt;What was Swami Vivekananda's view on Vedanta? What did He think of Advaita, Dvaita &amp;amp; Vishishtadvaita philosophies?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-08-18T18:32:54.157" LastActivityDate="2017-08-20T14:21:09.360" Title="What was Swami Vivekananda's view on Vedanta?" Tags="|vedanta|advaita|vishishtadvaita|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20317" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-18T19:35:57.117" Score="2" ViewCount="141" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm currently visiting India, and I just went to the Ulagalantha Perumal Vamana temple in Thirukoilur.  It's most famous for being the &quot;Naalayira Divya Prabandha Avatara Sthalam&quot;, meaning the birthplace of the poems of the Alwars.  That's because Thirukoilur is the place where, as I discuss in this answer, the first three Alwars saw Vishnu in the cave.  It is also one of three temples that claim to be the place where Vishnu's incarnation Vamana defeated Mahabali, which is why the main statue of the temple depicts Vamana taking his three steps of land:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ga4XN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ga4XN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Thirukoilur is one of the 108 Divya Desams, the sacred places of Vishnu praised by the Alwars.  But I learned from the priest that it's more than that: he said it's one of the Pancha Krishnaranya Kshetras, the five Divya Desams where the deity of the temple is an incarnation of Krishna, rather than just being an incarnation of Vishnu.  So my question is, is it true that the Vamana deity in Thirukoilur is an incarnation of Krishna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if it is true, what exactly does it mean?  Does it mean that Vamana himself was an incarnation of Krishna? Or does it mean that the Vamana statue in this temple was a manifestation of Krishna?  Or does it mean that it was Krishna who appeared before the first three Alwars?  The latter is a possibility because the Alwars are said to have been born in the Dwapara Yuga, as I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6867/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulagalantha_Perumal_Temple,_Tirukoyilur&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; says that the Pancha Krishnanaranya Kshetras have nothing to do with Krishna other than having an Utsavar or processional idol of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna is not the presiding deity in any of the temples. The processional deity, Krishna, led to the derivation of the names of these places. There are five similar temples located in North India, called Pancha-dvarakas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm not sure whether that's accurate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-08-19T00:37:57.590" LastActivityDate="2017-08-19T00:37:57.590" Title="Is the Vamana deity in Thirukoilur considered an incarnation of Krishna?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|temple|vamana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20320" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20303" CreationDate="2017-08-19T06:13:28.400" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;We can get an astrological connection from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/bphspage1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the Brihat ParAshara Hora ShAstra&lt;/a&gt;, which is one of the most authoritative Jyotisha texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This text links each of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/bphspage1.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Navagrahas&lt;/a&gt; with an incarnation of Lord Vishnu as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3-4. The unborn Lord has many incarnations. He has incarnated, as the&#xA;  9 (Nava) Planets to bestow on the living beings the results due to&#xA;  their 10ths. He is Janardana. He assumed the auspicious form of&#xA;  Planets to destroy the demons (evil forces) and sustain the divine&#xA;  beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5-7. From Sun came the incarnation of Rama, from Moon that of Krishna,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;from Mars that of Narasimha,&lt;/strong&gt; from Mercury that of Buddha, from Jupiter&#xA;  that of Vamana, from Venus that of Parashurama, from Saturn that of&#xA;  Kurma (Tortoise), from Rahu that of Varaha (Pig) and from Ketu that of&#xA;  Pisces (Fish) occurred. Incarnations other than these also are through&#xA;  the Planets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, it is well-known that the direction that is owned by Mars is the South. So, here we get an astrological clue as to why Narasimha might be more popular in the South as opposed to say in the North (a direction which is ruled by Mercury or Budha and who and Mars are Ati Shatru or great enemies).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A similar argument can also be produced for explaining why &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartikeya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord KArthikeya&lt;/a&gt; is more worshiped in South India. KArthikeya is known to be the over ruling Deity of Mars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-19T06:58:42.613" LastActivityDate="2017-08-19T06:58:42.613" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20321" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20323" CreationDate="2017-08-19T06:51:56.900" Score="9" ViewCount="10543" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word Tryambakam is used in Rig Veda 7:59:12 and in Yajurveda and is dedicated to Lord Rudra/Shiva. According to some translations this word means the three eyed one, but according to some scholars the word Ambika in Vedas means Mother and in Mahabharata and Ramayana it means Eye, because in Vedas the word Ambika is used for Goddess Saraswati which means mother. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So does the word Ambika mean mother or eye? If it means mother, then why is Lord Shiva associated with three mothers?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="19480" LastEditDate="2020-01-16T23:30:41.110" LastActivityDate="2023-09-23T13:19:50.087" Title="What does the word &quot;Tryambakam&quot; mean in Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|shiva|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20323" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20321" CreationDate="2017-08-19T08:43:16.910" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda  7:59:12 and Yajur Veda 3.60 are called Mahā mṛtyuñjaya mantra Mantra. If we divide the word Tryambaka, it is Tri+ambaka. त्र्यंबक = त्रि + अम्बक. The two words are joined based on यणादेश संधि (Yaṇādeśa sandhi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantra is: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ &lt;strong&gt;त्र्यम्बकं&lt;/strong&gt; यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Oṃ &lt;strong&gt;tryambakaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭivardhanam |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     urvārukamiva bandhanānmṛtyormukṣīya mā'mṛtāt ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meanings: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas/sri_shiva-mahamrityunjaya_mantra.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;. Om, We Worship the &lt;strong&gt;Three-Eyed One&lt;/strong&gt; (Lord Shiva), Who is Fragrant (Spiritual Essence) and Who Nourishes all beings. May He severe our Bondage of Samsara (Worldly Life), like a Cucumber (severed from the bondage of its Creeper),  and thus Liberate us from the Fear of Death, by making us realize that we are never separated from our Immortal Nature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahamrityunjaya_Mantra#Literal_Meaning_of_the_Maha_Mrityunjaya_Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;. Om, We Worship the &lt;strong&gt;Three-Eyed One&lt;/strong&gt; (Lord Shiva), Who is Fragrant (Spiritual Essence) and Who Nourishes all beings. May He severe our Bondage of Samsara (Worldly Life), like a Cucumber (severed from the bondage of its Creeper), and thus Liberate us from the Fear of Death, Give me some life rejuvenating nectar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahamrityunjaya_Mantra#Literal_Meaning_of_the_Maha_Mrityunjaya_Mantra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;. Om, We Worship the &lt;strong&gt;Three-Eyed One&lt;/strong&gt; (Lord Shiva), Who is Fragrant (Spiritual Essence) and Who Nourishes all beings. May He sever our Bondage of Samsara (Worldly Life), like a Cucumber (severed from the bondage of its Creeper), and thus Liberate us from the Fear of Death,  Free me from certain death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Differences in the translations is due to the different interpretation of &quot;माऽमृतात्&quot; at the end of the mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ambaka &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.org/index.php?mode=3&amp;amp;script=hk&amp;amp;tran_input=ambaka&amp;amp;direct=au&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;means an eye&lt;/a&gt; in Sanskrit whereas Ambika is an epithet of a mother. Ambika is also a character in Mahabharata who is the mother of Dhritarashtra. Ambaka and Ambika are different words. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is known to have three eyes. Hence, &lt;strong&gt;Tryambaka means the one who has three eyes&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, The consort of Shiva, Lalita Devi is also known as Tryambakā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Lalitā sahasra nāma,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;trivarga dhātrī śubhagā &lt;strong&gt;tryaṃbakā&lt;/strong&gt; triguṇātmikā &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She who gives dharma, Assets and pleasure, She who is pleasing to look at&#xA;   &lt;strong&gt;She who has three eyes&lt;/strong&gt;, She who is personification of three gunas viz Thamo, Rajo and Sattva  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="9250" LastEditDate="2017-08-20T12:05:51.723" LastActivityDate="2017-08-20T12:05:51.723" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20324" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="31810" CreationDate="2017-08-19T09:20:01.073" Score="8" ViewCount="10472" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard a story about Lord Vishnu getting a curse of 100 years of separation from Mahaa Lakshmi. One Mahaa Rishi did put this curse on Vishnu when his wife was being killed by Vishnu. He said in his curse that &quot;like I am suffering from separation from my wife, in the same way you will also suffer from separation with Mahaa Lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To complete this curse Lord Vishnu has to suffer from separation of 100 years. As per my knowledge, Lord Vishnu did complete this curse in his eighth incarnation. He took incarnation as Krishna and Mahaa Lakshmi took incarnation as Radhaa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both spent their childhood together but they had to separate from each other because of the curse. So one day they got separate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the confusing part for me here is, Krishna lived on earth for nearly 125 years. He had to separate for 100 years. Out of remaining 25 years, He spent some years with Radhaa And later got married to Rukmini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I heard that Radhaa and Rukmani are the same. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMz5B0PmF8c&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;In this video&lt;/a&gt; it is explained in brief how both of them are the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the question is, if Krishna actually married Radhaa herself who was later known as Rukmini, then how did he complete the 100 years of separation since he lived only 125 years? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I mean, out of the remaining 25 years, how many years Krishna did spend with Radhaa in his childhood and for how many years Krishna was the husband of Rukmini/Radhaa? It is not like that He married Rukmini (Radhaa) after he was 100 years old and spent the married life for few years only. Did they get rid of the curse by any way?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="4133" LastEditDate="2017-08-20T01:33:24.140" LastActivityDate="2019-01-09T03:41:18.617" Title="How did Lord Vishnu complete the curse of 100 years of separation from Mahaa Lakshmi?" Tags="|krishna|radha|curse|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20325" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20321" CreationDate="2017-08-19T09:30:48.363" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reciting the Trayambaka Mantra in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14316/sanskrit-examples-of-ghanapatha-recitation/14317#14317&quot;&gt;Ghana Patha&lt;/a&gt;, the word 'Trayambakam' is chanted as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रि अम्बकं इति त्रयम्बकं &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  triambakamiti trayambakam &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  three eyed one is &lt;em&gt;trayambaka&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Ambaka' means &quot;eye&quot; and &quot;one having Three Ambaka&quot; is known as &quot;Trayambaka&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though the primary meaning is 'having three eyes' it also represents that the Lord is the Lord of everything which exists in triad as I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10741/i-want-to-know-the-exact-explanation-of-maha-mrityunjaya-mantra/18185#18185&quot;&gt;discuss here:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रयम्बकं यजामहे च त्रैलोक्यपितरं प्रभुम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्रिमण्डलस्य पितरं त्रिगुणस्य महेश्वरम् ।। (Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita chapter 38)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  We worship &lt;strong&gt;lord Shiva having three eyes, who is the lord of three worlds and the master of three gunas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्रयाणामपि लोकानां गुणानामपि यः प्रभुः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वेदानामपि देवानां ब्रह्मक्षत्रविशामपि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अकारोकारमकाराणां मात्राणामपि वाचक ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथा सोमस्य सूर्यस्य वह्नेरग्नित्रयस्य च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अंबा उमा महादेवो ह्यंबकस्तु त्रियंबक ।। (Linga Purana II.54)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The word ‘Tryambaka’ has been defined as the one, &lt;strong&gt;who happens to be the lord of the three worlds, three gunas, three Vedas, three gods, three castes— He is revealed by the three syllables ‘a’, ‘u’, ‘m’.&lt;/strong&gt; He is the lord of three fires, Viz. : the sun, the moon and the fire. He represents Amba, Uma and Mahadeva. &lt;strong&gt;Thus, the lord of all the sets of three is known as Tryambaka.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-19T16:09:12.463" LastActivityDate="2017-08-19T16:09:12.463" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20326" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-19T09:48:59.433" Score="6" ViewCount="343" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several posts on the internet that mention that Duryodahan once received 5 arrows that were charged by Bhishma to kill the Pandavas, which Arjuna took away from Duryodhana at the advice of Sri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where does this happen in the Mahabharatha? I believe it will be a part of the Bhishma Parva, Can someone please help me with chapter number?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11754" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-20T05:38:35.073" LastActivityDate="2020-10-14T10:23:34.307" Title="In which chapter of the Mahabharatha the story of Bhisma giving five arrows to Duryodhana for killing the Pandavas is found?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20328" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-19T20:59:53.510" Score="9" ViewCount="9780" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do some Hindus say &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;ram ram&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; twice? why not only once like &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;ram&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; or thrice like &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;ram ram ram&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;? What is the actual reason behind that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10049" LastEditorUserId="27396" LastEditDate="2023-03-02T14:28:29.300" LastActivityDate="2023-03-02T14:28:29.300" Title="Why do some Hindus say &quot;ram ram&quot; twice?" Tags="|belief|rama|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20329" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20330" CreationDate="2017-08-20T08:37:42.010" Score="3" ViewCount="1414" Body="&lt;p&gt;In which scripture are the following verses found: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aham brahmasmi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; I am Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shivoham&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; I am Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-09-18T17:23:49.503" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T17:23:49.503" Title="In which scriptures are the verses ''aham brahmasmi&quot; and ''shivoham'' found?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|brahman|advaita|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20330" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20329" CreationDate="2017-08-20T09:18:08.750" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The first one is an Vedantic verse taken from an upanishad. Another is probably non Vedic and appears in famous &quot;NirvAna shatakam&quot; stotra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tat Tvam Asi (Sanskrit: तत् त्वम् असि or तत्त्वमसि, &quot;Thou art that,&quot;&#xA;  &quot;That thou art,&quot; or &quot;You are that&quot;) — is one of the Mahāvākyas (Grand&#xA;  Pronouncements).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It originally occurs in the Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7, in the dialogue&#xA;  between Uddālaka and his son Śvetaketu; it appears at the end of a&#xA;  section, and is repeated at the end of the subsequent sections as a&#xA;  refrain. The meaning of this saying is that the Self - in its&#xA;  original, pure, primordial state - is wholly or partially identifiable&#xA;  or identical with the Ultimate Reality that is the ground and origin&#xA;  of all phenomena. The knowledge that this is so characterises the&#xA;  experience of liberation or salvation that accompanies the Unio&#xA;  Mystica.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://veda.wikidot.com/tat-tvam-asi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न च व्योम भूमिर्न तेजो न वायुः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥१॥ Nirvana shatakam.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;however, Soham and other similar phrases are found in yogic and agamic literature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This sentence appears in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad when the sage,&#xA;  in the context of meditation on the Self, in reply to the query – What&#xA;  did that Brahman know by which It became all? - states:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;ब्रह्म वा इदमग्र आसीत्, तदात्मनामेवावेत्, अहं ब्रह्मास्मीति |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मात्तत्सर्वमभवत्; तद्यो यो देवानां प्रत्यबुध्यत स एव तदभवत्,&#xA;  तदषीर्णाम् तथा मनुष्याणाम्,...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;This (self) was indeed Brahman in the beginning; It knew only Itself&#xA;  as, &quot;I am Brahman&quot;. Therefore It became all; and whoever among the&#xA;  gods knew It also became That; and the same with sages and men…” -&#xA;  (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad I.iv.10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aham_Brahmasmi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are multiple interpretations of these phrases. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-08-20T09:18:08.750" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20332" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20315" CreationDate="2017-08-20T14:21:09.360" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Swami Vivekananda, the first step is Dvaita, second is Vishishtâdvaita and the final is Advaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Complete Works/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_1/Lectures_And_Discourses/The_Vedanta_Philosophy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Vedanta Philosophy&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedanta philosophy, as it is generally called at the present day, really comprises all the various sects that now exist in India. Thus there have been various interpretations, and to my mind they have been progressive, beginning with the dualistic or Dvaita and ending with the non-dualistic or Advaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedanta, then, practically forms the scriptures of the Hindus, and all systems of philosophy that are orthodox have to take it as their foundation. Even the Buddhists and Jains, when it suits their purpose, will quote a passage from the Vedanta as authority. All schools of philosophy in India, although they claim to have been based upon the Vedas, took different names for their systems. The last one, the system of Vyâsa, took its stand upon the doctrines of the Vedas more than the previous systems did, and made an attempt to harmonise the preceding philosophies, such as the Sânkhya and the Nyâya, with the doctrines of the Vedanta. So it is especially called the Vedanta philosophy; and the Sutras or aphorisms of Vyasa are, in modern India, the basis of the Vedanta philosophy. Again, these Sutras of Vyasa have been variously explained by different commentators. In general there are three sorts of commentators in India now; from their interpretations have arisen three systems of philosophy and sects. &lt;strong&gt;One is the dualistic, or Dvaita; a second is the qualified non-dualistic, or Vishishtâdvaita; and a third is the non-dualistic, or Advaita. Of these the dualistic and the qualified non-dualistic include the largest number of the Indian people. The non-dualists are comparatively few in number.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He very clearly explained the differences between different schools of thought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Sankhya philosophy, the reactive state of the mind called Buddhi or intellect is the outcome, the change, or a certain manifestation of the Mahat or Cosmic Mind. The Mahat becomes changed into vibrating thought; and that becomes in one part changed into the organs, and in the other part into the fine particles of matter. Out of the combination of all these, the whole of this universe is produced. Behind even Mahat, the Sankhya conceives of a certain state which is called Avyakta or unmanifested, where even the manifestation of mind is not present, but only the causes exist. It is also called Prakriti. Beyond this Prakriti, and eternally separate from it, is the Purusha, the soul of the Sankhya which is without attributes and omnipresent. The Purusha is not the doer but the witness. The illustration of the crystal is used to explain the Purusha. The latter is said to be like a crystal without any colour, before which different colours are placed, and then it seems to be coloured by the colours before it, but in reality it is not. The Vedantists reject the Sankhya ideas of the soul and nature. They claim that between them there is a huge gulf to be bridged over. On the one hand the Sankhya system comes to nature, and then at once it has to jump over to the other side and come to the soul, which is entirely separate from nature. How can these different colours, as the Sankhya calls them, be able to act on that soul which by its nature is colourless? So the Vedantists, from the very first affirm that this soul and this nature are one. &lt;strong&gt;Even the dualistic Vedantists admit that the Atman or God is not only the efficient cause of this universe, but also the material cause. But they only say so in so many words. They do not really mean it&lt;/strong&gt;, for they try to escape from their conclusions, in this way: They say there are three existences in this universe — God, soul, and nature. Nature and soul are, as it were, the body of God, and in this sense it may be said that God and the whole universe are one. But this nature and all these various souls remain different from each other through all eternity. Only at the beginning of a cycle do they become manifest; and when the cycle ends, they become fine, and remain in a fine state. &lt;strong&gt;The Advaita Vedantists — the non-dualists — reject this theory of the soul, and, having nearly the whole range of the Upanishads in their favour, build their philosophy entirely upon them. All the books contained in me Upanishads have one subject, one task before them — to prove the following theme: &amp;quot;Just as by the knowledge of one lump of clay we have the knowledge of all the clay in the universe, so what is that, knowing which we know everything in the universe?&amp;quot; The idea of the Advaitists is to generalise the whole universe into one — that something which is really the whole of this universe. And they claim that this whole universe is one, that it is one Being manifesting itself in all these various forms.&lt;/strong&gt; They admit that what the Sankhya calls nature exists, but say that nature is God. It is this Being, the Sat, which has become converted into all this — the universe, man, soul, and everything that exists. Mind and Mahat are but the manifestations of that one Sat. But then the difficulty arises that this would be pantheism. How came that Sat which is unchangeable, as they admit (for that which is absolute is unchangeable), to be changed into that which is changeable, and perishable? The Advaitists here have a theory which they call Vivarta Vâda or apparent manifestation. &lt;strong&gt;According to the dualists and the Sankhyas, the whole of this universe is the evolution of primal nature. According to some of the Advaitists and some of the dualists, the whole of this universe is evolved from God. And according to the Advaitists proper, the followers of Shankaracharya, the whole universe is the apparent evolution of God. God is the material cause of this universe, but not really, only apparently.&lt;/strong&gt; The celebrated illustration used is that of the rope and the snake, where the rope appeared to be the snake, but was not really so. The rope did not really change into the snake. Even so this whole universe as it exists is that Being. It is unchanged, and all the changes we see in it are only apparent. These changes are caused by Desha, Kâla and Nimitta (space, time, and causation), or, according to a higher psychological generalization, by Nâma and Rupa (name and form). It is by name and form that one thing is differentiated from another. The name and form alone cause the difference. In reality they are one and the same. Again, it is not, the Vedantists say, that there is something as phenomenon and something as noumenon. The rope is changed into the snake apparently only; and when the delusion ceases, the snake vanishes. When one is in ignorance, he sees the phenomenon and does not see God. When he sees God, this universe vanishes entirely for him. Ignorance or Mâyâ, as it is called, is the cause of all this phenomenon — the Absolute, the Unchangeable, being taken as this manifested universe. This Maya is not absolute zero, nor non-existence. It is defined as neither existence nor non-existence. It is not existence, because that can be said only of the Absolute, the Unchangeable, and in this sense, Maya is non-existence. Again, it cannot be said it is non-existence; for if it were, it could never produce phenomenon. So it is something which is neither; and in the Vedanta philosophy it is called Anirvachaniya or inexpressible. Maya, then, is the real cause of this universe. Maya gives the name and form to what Brahman or God gives the material; and the latter seems to have been transformed into all this. &lt;strong&gt;The Advaitists, then, have no place for the individual soul. They say individual souls are created by Maya. In reality they cannot exist. If there were only one existence throughout, how could it be that I am one, and you are one, and so forth? We are all one, and the cause of evil is the perception of duality.&lt;/strong&gt; As soon as I begin to feel that I am separate from this universe, then first comes fear, and then comes misery. &amp;quot;Where one hears another, one sees another, that is small. Where one does not see another, where one does not hear another, that is the greatest, that is God. In that greatest is perfect happiness. In small things there is no happiness.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what he said on Ramanuja and Vishishtadvaita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja's theory is that the bound soul or Jiva has its perfections involved, entered, into itself. When this perfection again evolves, it becomes free. The Advaitin declares both these to take place only in show; there was neither involution nor evolution. Both processes were Maya, or apparent only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja is the leading dualistic philosopher of later India, whom all the other dualistic sects have followed, directly or indirectly, both in the substance of their teaching and in the organization of their sects even down to some of the most minute points of their organization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to Ramanuja, these three entities are eternal — God, and soul, and nature. The souls are eternal, and they will remain eternally existing, individualised through eternity, and will retain their individuality all through. Your soul will be different from my soul through all eternity&lt;/strong&gt;, says Ramanuja, and so will this nature — which is an existing fact, as much a fact as the existence of soul or the existence of God — remain always different. And God is interpenetrating, the essence of the soul, He is the Antaryâmin. In this sense Ramanuja sometimes thinks that God is one with the soul, the essence of the soul, and these souls — at the time of Pralaya, when the whole of nature becomes what he calls Sankuchita, contracted — become contracted and minute and remain so for a time. And at the beginning of the next cycle they all come out, according to their past Karma, and undergo the effect of that Karma. Every action that makes the natural inborn purity and perfection of the soul get contracted is a bad action, and every action that makes it come out and expand itself is a good action, says Ramanuja. Whatever helps to make the Vikâsha of the soul is good, and whatever makes it Sankuchita is bad. And thus the soul is going on, expanding or contracting in its actions, till through the grace of God comes salvation. And that grace comes to all souls, says Ramanuja, that are pure and struggle for that grace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-20T14:21:09.360" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20333" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-20T15:19:31.970" Score="8" ViewCount="441" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rigved &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01133.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 1.133&lt;/a&gt; mentions this curious story:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;WITH sacrifice I purge both earth and heaven: I burn up &lt;strong&gt;great she-fiends&lt;/strong&gt; who serve not Indra, Where throttled by thy hand the foes were slaughtered, and in the pit of death lay pierced and mangled.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O thou who castest forth the stones crushing the sorceresses’ heads,&#xA;  Break them with thy wide-spreading foot, with thy wide-spreading mighty foot.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do thou, O Maghavan, beat off &lt;strong&gt;these sorceresses'&lt;/strong&gt; daring strength.&#xA;  Cast them within the narrow pit. within the deep and narrow pit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is who were these she-fiends or sorceresses? Is this event mentioned in any other scripture in detail?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-10-31T06:58:17.900" LastActivityDate="2024-03-11T17:04:45.563" Title="Who were the witches whom Indra crushed to death?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|rig-veda|indra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20334" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-20T15:56:43.123" Score="2" ViewCount="178" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Hindu Mythological literature speaks that the color of Lord Brahma is red, the color of Lord Vishnu is blue (black in kaliyuga) while the color of Lord Shiva is white. The color of Goddess Mahakali (Consort of Lord Shiva)  is black, the color of Goddess Lakshmi (Consort of Lord Vishnu) is red while the color of Goddess Saraswati (Consort of Lord Brahma) is white. What is the secret of the colors and what is the secret of this combination?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11756" LastActivityDate="2017-08-20T15:56:43.123" Title="Colour of Gods and Godesses" Tags="|philosophy|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-08-21T05:32:57.960" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20335" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20338" CreationDate="2017-08-20T16:21:30.800" Score="8" ViewCount="2212" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Chaitanya Charitamrita, a true Vaishnava has to have the following 26 qualities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is very kind to everyone&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He does not make anyone his enemy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is truthful&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is equal to everyone&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;No one can find any fault in him&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is magnanimous&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is mild&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is always clean&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is without possessions&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He works for everyone's benefit&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is very peaceful&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is always surrendered to Krishna/Vishnu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He has no material desires&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is very meek&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is steady&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He controls his senses&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He does not eat more than required&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is not influenced by the Lord's illusory energy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He offers respect to everyone&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He does not desire any respect for himself&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is very grave&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is merciful&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is friendly&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is poetic&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is expert&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He is silent&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any other scriptures that talk about the qualities of a true Vaishnava? What about Vaishnava saints and acharyas? What do they say regarding this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-02-27T19:31:49.657" LastActivityDate="2019-02-27T20:26:15.523" Title="What are the qualities of a true Vaishnava?" Tags="|vaishnavism|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20336" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-20T16:39:58.110" Score="10" ViewCount="1810" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many schools of thought like VisistAdvaita, Achintya Bheda Abheda and Dvaita which are followed by different sects of Vaishnavites. Most of these Vaishnava sects seem to be very critical of Advaita as they see it alien to their beliefs. However, I am a Vaishnava myself and attracted to Advaita Vedanta. Can I be both an Advaitin and Vaishnava?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-15T07:55:15.893" LastActivityDate="2021-06-28T14:32:18.570" Title="Is Shankaracharya's Advaita Vedanta philosophy compatible with Vaishnavism?" Tags="|vaishnavism|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20338" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20335" CreationDate="2017-08-20T17:36:59.200" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Qualities of a Vaishnava is described by Lord Vishnu himself in &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana, Part 10, Section 7 (KRIYAYOGASARAKHANDA), Chapter 2&lt;/strong&gt; as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;83-103. Those who are without lust and anger, who are free &#xA;  from harmfulness and hypocrisy, who are free from'greed and &#xA;  folly, should be known to be Visnu's devotees. Those who are not &#xA;  jealous, who are kind, who desire the good of all beings, who &#xA;  speak the truth, should be known to be Visnu's devotees. Those &#xA;  who advise pious acts, who practise pious acts, who serve their &#xA;  preceptors (and elders), should be known to be Visnu's devotees. &#xA;  Those who look upon you, me and Sankara as equal, and who &#xA;  honour a guest, should be known to be Visnu's devotees. Those &#xA;  who have expounded the Vedic learning, who are always devoted to brahmanas, who are impotent to other women (i.e. women &#xA;  who are not their wives), should be known to be Visriu's devo-&#xA;  tees. Those who devoutly observe the Ekadasi-vow, who sing my &#xA;  names, should be known to be Visnu's devotees. Those who put &#xA;  up temples of deities, who wear tulasi-garlands, who wear lo-&#xA;  tuses and aksa-seeds, should be known to be Visnu's devotees. &#xA;  O Brahman, those whose bodies are marked with (the signs of) &#xA;  my weapons like the conch, the disc, the mace, the lotus, should &#xA;  be known to be Visnu's devotees. O Lotus-seated (Brahman), those &#xA;  around whose necks are (worn) the garlands of dhatrl-fruits, and &#xA;  who worship me with the leaves of dhatrl, should be known as &#xA;  Visnu's devotees. Those who put marks (on their body) with the &#xA;  clay from the root of the tulasi-tree and with the mud of tulasi-&#xA;  wood, should be known to be Visnu's devotees. Those who are &#xA;  devoted to a bath in Ganga, to (repeating) the name of Ganga, and &#xA;  describe the greatness of Ganga, should be known to be Visnu's &#xA;  devotees. Those in whose house the iSalagrama-stone always &#xA;  remains, so also remains the holy text of Bhagavata, should be &#xA;  known to be Visnu's devotees. O best one, those who everyday &#xA;  clean my places, who offer me lamps, should be known to be Visnu's &#xA;  devotees. Those who again make new (i.e. repair) my shattered &#xA;  temple, and put there decorations, should be known as Visnu's &#xA;  devotees. O you Four-faced (Brahma), those who grant secu-&#xA;  rity to the timid, who give knowledge to the brahmanas, should &#xA;  be known to be Visnu's devotees. Those whose heads are sprink-&#xA;  led with the water (flowing) from my feet, and who eat the offer-&#xA;  ings of eatables presented to me, should be known to be Visnu's &#xA;  devotees. Those who offer food and water to those oppressed by &#xA;  hunger and thirst, and those who take to devout deeds, should be &#xA;  known to be Visnu's devotees. Those who construct gardens &#xA;  and plant the pippala-trees, those who serve cows, should be &#xA;  known to be Vaisnavas. O Brahman, those great devotees who &#xA;  make offering of libations of water everyday to the deceased &#xA;  ancestors, who serve the distressed, should be known to be &#xA;  Vaisnavas. Those who construct lakes and put up villages, who &#xA;  are engaged in offering their daughters (in marriage), who serve &#xA;  their parents-in-law, should be known to be Vaisnavas. Those &#xA;  who wait upon their eldest sister and eldest brother and who do &#xA;  not censure others, should be known to be Vaisnavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;104-111- All virtues are present in Visnu's devotees. (Even) &#xA;  a particle of blemish is not present in them. Therefore, O Four-&#xA;  faced (Brahman), you now be a Vaisnava. O lord of the beings, &#xA;  always propitiate me with the employment of devout deeds. Un-&#xA;  doubtedly everything will be good for you. O four-faced (Brah-&#xA;  man), those who look upon the wealth of a deity, the wealth of &#xA;  a brahmana, and the wealth of others as poison, should be &#xA;  known to be Vaisnavas. Those who are free from devotion to &#xA;  heretics, who are highly devoted to Siva, who are engaged in &#xA;  (observing) the vow of Caturdasi, should be known to be Vais-&#xA;  navas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-08-20T17:36:59.200" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20340" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19749" CreationDate="2017-08-20T17:59:23.973" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, a true Vaishnava do not differentiate between Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva and Lord Brahma. It has been described by Lord Vishnu himself to Lord Brahma in &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana, Part 10, Section 7 (KRIYAYOGASARAKHANDA), Chapter 2&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who look upon you, me and Sankara as equal, and who honour a guest, should be known to be Visnu's devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who are free from devotion to heretics, who are highly devoted to Siva, who are engaged in (observing) the vow of Caturdasi, should be known to be Vais- navas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana 5.33.47-49&lt;/strong&gt;, it was said by Lord Krishna that only deluded person see difference in Me and Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्वया यदभयं दत्तं तद्दत्तमग्विलं मया ।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  मत्तो विभिन्नमात्मानं द्रष्ट्रं नार्हसि शंकर ।।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  योऽहं स त्वं जगच्चेदं स देवासुरमानुषम् ।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  अविद्यामोहितात्मानः पुरुषा भिन्नदर्शिन ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Abhaya which was given by you was also given by me. Oh Shankara do not see yourself different from me. That which is me the same is you, this entire creation, Devas, Manyushyas and Asuras. Only those who are deluded by Avidya see me and you as different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-21T11:39:18.427" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T11:39:18.427" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20343" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-20T22:46:54.367" Score="9" ViewCount="642" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why does not the soul, that is so powerful, stop the intellect from choosing the wrong path/decision/karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How does the soul control the intellect (buddhi)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11764" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-21T06:55:34.527" LastActivityDate="2023-06-03T07:23:12.950" Title="How does the soul control the intellect (buddhi)?" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20344" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-20T23:06:49.650" Score="8" ViewCount="3783" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2892/is-janeva-yaj%C3%B1opav%C4%ABtam-or-sacred-thread-limited-to-brahmins-only/&quot;&gt;Manusmriti&lt;/a&gt; that the first three Varnas (Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas) are obligated to wear the Yajnopavitam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nowadays, it seems only Brahmins wear the thread and so it's even referred to as the &quot;Brahmin thread&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I'm wondering, are there any Kshatriya or Vaishya communities today who still wear it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-21T05:26:23.897" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T05:35:40.443" Title="Which Kshatriya and Vaishya communities continue to wear the Yajnopavitam today?" Tags="|practice|caste-system|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20346" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-21T02:25:48.843" Score="3" ViewCount="2397" Body="&lt;p&gt;Refer this &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindufaqs.com/prajapatis-the-10-sons-of-lord-brahma/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prajapatis – the 10 sons of Lord Brahma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that Prajapatis are believed to be the fathers of the human race. Since all these sons were born out of his mind rather than body, they are called Manas Putras or mind-sons or spirits. So Brahma had ten mind sons and one daughter born from various parts of his body - Shatrupa. And Shatrupa's husband is Svayambhuva Manu who is also Brahma's mind son but none of the ten sons is named Svayambhuva Manu. So who is Svayambhuva Manu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11767" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-08-21T04:37:56.023" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T09:07:21.867" Title="Who is Svayambhuva Manu's mother?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|brahma|manu-smriti|manu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20347" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20343" CreationDate="2017-08-21T05:39:08.673" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &quot;soul&quot; has different interpretations in different places and even in this site. Since you termed it as powerful than intellect, I am assuming that you mean &quot;soul = &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Gita, soul is beyond the intellect. Some may term &quot;beyond&quot; as &quot;powerful&quot;. But that is one way of interpreting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.42 — Senses are said to be &lt;strong&gt;beyond&lt;/strong&gt; (to body), Mind is &lt;strong&gt;beyond&lt;/strong&gt; Senses, Intellect is even &lt;strong&gt;beyond&lt;/strong&gt; Mind, &quot;That&quot; is even &lt;strong&gt;beyond&lt;/strong&gt; Intellect.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sub&gt;&quot;That&quot; -- may interpret &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;/soul&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now on main Qn, &lt;em&gt;&quot;Why doesn't soul control the intellect?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because, &lt;strong&gt;soul is not the doer&lt;/strong&gt; of anything, it's just an observer. Under the influence of the illusion/&lt;em&gt;mAyA&lt;/em&gt; of &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, one may believe that 'I am the doer'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.27 — All actions (karma-s) are enacted in Prakruti by [3] modes (guna-s). Bewildered with ego(false identity), the self(Atma) &lt;strong&gt;believes&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;'I' am the doer&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 5.8, 5.9 — &quot;&lt;strong&gt;'I' certainly don't do anything&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; is believed by knower of fundamentals (&lt;em&gt;tattva gyAna&lt;/em&gt;) - even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, dreaming, breathing, talking, discarding, accepting, opening, closing; -- &quot;Senses only are acting in the subjects of senses&quot; - is understood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, from the &quot;soul&quot;'s perspective, there is neither right nor wrong. Neither choice nor indecisiveness, neither &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; nor &lt;em&gt;akarma&lt;/em&gt;. It's just a witness(&lt;em&gt;sAkshi&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Performing right, wrong etc. is handled by the intellect(&lt;em&gt;buddhi&lt;/em&gt;) only. Under the influence of &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt;, the intellect makes the right decisions. This is clarified in further verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.30 — The one who knows activity &amp;amp; retirement, duty &amp;amp; non-duty, fear &amp;amp; boldness and bonding &amp;amp; liberation properly, has &lt;em&gt;SAtvika Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 18.31 — The one who doesn't know Dharma &amp;amp; Adharma, duty &amp;amp; non-duty as it is, has RAjasi Buddhi.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 18.32 — Covered by darkness (Tamas), the one who believes Adharma as Dharma and believes other [thing]s also wrongly, has TAmasi Buddhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when the influence of &lt;em&gt;sattva/rajas/tamas&lt;/em&gt; will be upon a person -- is unspecified. It's purely destiny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-21T16:24:38.860" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T16:24:38.860" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20348" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20346" CreationDate="2017-08-21T06:58:14.090" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There seems to be more than ten &lt;code&gt;Manasa Putra&lt;/code&gt; of Lord Brahma as I have described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19713/who-are-the-sanat-kumaras/19717#19717&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. Some &lt;code&gt;Puranas&lt;/code&gt; include Svayambhuva Manu and Shatarupa also in the list of Lord Brahma's mind-born children. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Vishnu Purana and Shrimada Bhagavatam, Lord Brahma divided himself into two parts. Male part is Svayambhuva Manu and female part is Shatarupa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Brahmā created himself the Manu Svāyambhuva, born of, and identical with, his original self, for the protection of created beings; and the female portion of himself he constituted Śatarūpā, whom austerity purified from the sin (of forbidden nuptials), and whom the divine Manu Svāyambhuva took to wife. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/vishnu-purana-wilson/d/doc115942.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana, Book 1, Chapter 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimada Bhagavatam, Chapter 3.12&lt;/a&gt; also describes the same story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aho adbhutam etan me&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  vyāpṛtasyāpi nityadā&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  na hy edhante prajā nūnaṁ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  daivam atra vighātakam (3.12.51)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmā thought to himself: Alas, it is wonderful that in spite of my being scattered all over, there is still insufficient population throughout the universe. There is no other cause for this misfortune but destiny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;evaṁ yukta-kṛtas tasya&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  daivaṁ cāvekṣatas tadā&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  kasya rūpam abhūd dvedhā&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  yat kāyam abhicakṣate (3.12.52)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While he was thus absorbed in contemplation and was observing the supernatural power, two other forms were generated from his body. They are still celebrated as the body of Brahmā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tābhyāṁ rūpa-vibhāgābhyāṁ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  mithunaṁ samapadyata (3.12.53)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The two newly separated bodies united together in a sexual relationship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yas tu tatra pumān so ’bhūn&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  manuḥ svāyambhuvaḥ svarāṭ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  strī yāsīc chatarūpākhyā&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  mahiṣy asya mahātmanaḥ (3.12.54)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Out of them, the one who had the male form became known as the Manu named Svāyambhuva, and the woman became known as Śatarūpā, the queen of the great soul Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, from above two sources it is clear that Svayambhuva Manu sprang from Lord Brahma's body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-21T09:07:21.867" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T09:07:21.867" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20349" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-21T09:10:05.877" Score="1" ViewCount="1328" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that, when Sita Devi gave Hanuman a pearl necklace, Hanuman said that its of no use to him as Lord Ram is not inside of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when asked whether Lord Ram is inside him, Hanuman torn his chest apart to show that Lord Ram and Sita devi were inside him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what happened after this incident? What happened to Hanuman? Did he live the rest of his life  with a torn chest or did he undergo some surgery to fix it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe all these incidents took place in real, it is not meant to disrespect Hanuman or Lord Ram but to know the real incident fully, so please answer it correctly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11768" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-21T09:50:17.187" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T12:57:25.810" Title="Did Hanuman undergo a surgery after he pierced his chest to show that Lord Ram was inside him?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-08-22T04:44:50.340" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20350" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20349" CreationDate="2017-08-21T09:54:15.273" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usually bodies of Gods are having super human capabilities. Apart from the fact you mentioned in your question, as per the legend book, &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7T0zBCVuV7cR055dEFfNFRNQ28/view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ram Charit Manas,  written by Tulsidas.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Even as Surasa expanded her jaws Hanuman manifested a form twice as&#xA;  large as her mouth.When she further expanded her mouth eight hundred&#xA;  miles wide, Hanuman assumed a very minute form&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sundar Kanda, page 820, sloka 5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Hanuman's body was not a normal human body which we can think of and make interpretations with our senses. These are kind of mystical powers which we ordinary mortals don't have. That's why they are given the status of God in mythology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in my opinion Hanuman ji did not need any surgery, he showed by his powers that only lord lives in his heart and to prove his point he had to open his chest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In our present age there has been a great saint who with the help of Hanuman ji was able to do miracles though he never claimed himself to do any thing and mentioned always it is Hanuman ji who is doing all this. He is known as Neem Karoli Baba you may read more about him on google for a starting I am giving below a couple of links.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://%20neemkarolibaba.blogspot.in/2007/04/chamatkari-baba-babajis-miracles-were.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Neem Karoli Baba&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.maharajji.com/Miracle-of-Love/address-to-maharajji-s-photo.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;www.maharajji.com/Miracle-of-Love/address-to-maharajji-s-photo.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many ascetics in Himalaya are able to develop such powers so it is no wonder that Hanuman ji had the power to heal himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To have an understanding of how siddhi's work is important to understand the answer &#xA;you may consider reading a couple of books to understand&#xA;1) www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Self-Realization-Fellowship-Paramahansa-Yogananda/dp/0876120796/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1503311391&amp;amp;sr=1-1&amp;amp;keywords=autobiography+of+a+yogi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&amp;amp;field-keywords=living+with+himalayan+masters+&amp;amp;rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Aliving+with+himalayan+masters+&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;an understanding of Kriya yog  googling about Kriya Baba and Kriya yog may act as starting point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11770" LastEditorUserId="11770" LastEditDate="2017-08-21T10:33:46.390" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T10:33:46.390" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20351" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-21T10:31:11.913" Score="5" ViewCount="11946" Body="&lt;p&gt;a) If someone is really depressed and want to commit suicide, are there any punishments for this also in garuda-purana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;b) Doesn't it means that they have more pain than they could bear so it's not entirely their fault to commit suicide.&#xA;(Assuming these pains are so severe that no one in that person's place could bear it, and without support and encouragement)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;c) We have pain and bad incidents according to our deeds (karma) in this life and from past lives, so don't you think all these should be in a particular limit (more punishment than that shifted to next life?) so that no one commits suicide, and be able to bear their punishments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edit: I read a story in which the person steals some food and give to a poor family with which he has no relation then since his intention was good, INDRA himself came to take him to Swarg.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So I think reasons should also be seen for any punishments , since there are reasons for everything we do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10420" LastEditorUserId="10420" LastEditDate="2017-08-27T15:59:33.670" LastActivityDate="2019-03-17T16:01:27.340" Title="Punishment in garuda-purana" Tags="|belief|karma|death|life|garuda-purana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20352" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20349" CreationDate="2017-08-21T10:34:59.537" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no such incident happened. Link to the answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/450/why-is-lord-hanuman-portrayed-as-splitting-his-chest-and-showing-that-lord-rama&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The chest-tearing story does not seem to actually be there in the Ramayana, which just says this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama presented to Seetha, an excellent string of pearls, furnished with superior gems, shining like a beam of moon-light; two clean and beautiful raiment and lovely ornaments. Looking towards Hanuman the monkey, Seetha, daughter of Janaka, having taken off the pearl-string from her neck, repeatedly caught the glimpse of all the monkeys. Looking at her, Rama who was acquainted with the gesture of another, spoke to Seetha as follows: &amp;quot;Dear Seetha! Give the pearl-necklace to a person, with whom you are pleased and in whom the following viz. sharpness, firmness, renown, dexterity, competence, modesty, prudence, virility, prowess and intelligence are ever present.&amp;quot; The black-eyed Seetha gave that pearl necklace to Hanuman. Hanuman, the foremost among the monkeys, by wearing that necklace, which was as white as a heap of moonlight-beams, shone brilliantly as a mountain silvered by a white cloud.&#xA;So it looks like Hanuman just accepts the necklace. Now it's possible that that the chest-tearing story is described in some Purana or other scripture, but so far I haven't found any.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11768" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T10:34:59.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20353" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20373" CreationDate="2017-08-21T10:41:36.723" Score="2" ViewCount="182" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to astrologers, each and every second of incidents of a person takes place according to his planetary positions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If that is the case, we do bad and good actions, that is also caused by the planetary positions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, why are we punished in hell if our actions are corresponding to planets and not on our own? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11768" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T10:06:40.773" Title="Why are we getting punished in hell?" Tags="|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20354" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-21T11:07:51.240" Score="14" ViewCount="2771" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20338/8696&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; thread we find the definition &amp;amp; qualities of a Vaishnava, I would like to know the same for the Shaiva as well. What is the definition or qualities of a Shaiva or Shaivite. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-28T17:07:09.547" LastActivityDate="2019-08-25T11:22:41.023" Title="Who is a Shaivite or Shaiva? What are his/her supposed qualities?" Tags="|shiva|philosophy|shaivism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20356" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20351" CreationDate="2017-08-21T12:58:20.850" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Suicide is considered to be highest of all sins as per the Srimad Bhagvatam. We do not have the right to take the life which we did not create. Taking birth in a human form is an achievement on it's own, hence the punishment involves going into a infinite ghost state, coming back from which might take a millions of years to the human form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Check out the following link:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://vaniquotes.org/wiki/One_who_commits_suicide,_he_becomes_a_ghost&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://vaniquotes.org/wiki/One_who_commits_suicide,_he_becomes_a_ghost&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11776" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T12:58:20.850" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20357" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="27303" CreationDate="2017-08-21T14:07:36.153" Score="9" ViewCount="4905" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/799/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, the Sri Vaishnava sect (of which I'm a member) is divided into two sub-sects, Thenkalai and Vadakalai.  Now each of these sub-sects has a bunch of Mathams belonging to it, and each Matham is headed by a Sri Vaishnava Acharya, just like the four Shankaracharya Mathams in Advaita.  Most Sri Vaishnavas belong to one of these Mathams; for instance my Dad's family belongs to Vanamamalai Matham and my Mom's family belongs to Ahobilam Matham.  But there are some Sri Vaishnavas who don't belong to any Matham at all, known as Swayamacharya people.  For them their father functions as their Acharya. Swayamacharya people are rare; usually only the families descended from famous Sri Vaishnava Acharyas are Swayamacharya people.  For instance my maternal grandmother comes from the Swayamacharya family of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnihotram_Ramanuja_Tatachariar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Agnihotram Tathachariar&lt;/a&gt;, a descendant of Nathamuni, the founder of Sri Vaishnavism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I have noticed a pattern among Swayamacharya people, or at least among Vadakalai Swayamacharya people.  Most of them seem to belong to Munitrayam.  For those who don't know, the term Munitrayam, which means &quot;the three sages&quot;, refers to three Vadakalai Acharyas who were all disciples of Gopala Desikan, an 18th century Vadakalai Acharya.  The most prominent of the three is Ranga Ramanuja, the Sri Vaishnava commentator on the Upanishads.  In any case, two Vadakalai Mathams, Sri Rangam Andavan Ashram and Poundarikapuram Andavan Ashram, trace their Guru Parampara to Munitrayam.  But my question is, what is the connection between Swayamacharyas and Munitrayam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most Vadakalai Swayamacharya people I know belong to Munitrayam, and it's not just anecdotal evidence; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Vaishnavism#Guru_Parampara&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Wikipedia article&lt;/a&gt; says the same thing:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Munitraya – Followers of Srimad Andavan of Andavan Ashramams, and Swayamacharyas.The Srirangam Srimad Andavan Ashramam, Poundarikapuram Andavan Ashramam, and most of the present-day Vadagalai 'svayam-acharya purusha' families are directly connected to this acharya parampara, and follow the worship and ritual patterns outlined by Sri Gopalarya Mahadesikan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But how can Swayamacharyas be connected to the Munitraya Parampara?  By definition the Guru Parampara of a Swayamacharya is just his line of biological ancestors.  For instance if you look at my maternal grandmother's relative Agnihotram Tathachariar, his guru was his father, whose guru was his father, etc., all the way back to Nathamuni.  So where would Munitrayam enter the picture?  Or is it that Swayamacharya people don't trace their Guru Parampara to Munitrayam, but rather they just &quot;follow the worship and ritual patterns&quot; of Munitrayam as Wikipedia suggests?  I'm not even sure what these worship and ritual patterns are, but if that's the case what is the reason why so many Swayamacharya people follow Munitrayam?  Is there some historical event or circumstance which led to this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-23T04:11:30.883" LastActivityDate="2018-08-16T20:17:10.200" Title="What is the connection between Munitrayam and Swayamacharyas in Sri Vaishnavism?" Tags="|history|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|vadakalai|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20358" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-21T15:04:47.043" Score="4" ViewCount="855" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several websites that mention uttara Gita (not to be mistaken with Uddava Gita from Srimad Bhagavatha), which is another conversation between Sri Krishna and Arjuna. Can someone help with the source of that Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11754" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T15:04:47.043" Title="What is the source of Uttara Gita" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20359" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20343" CreationDate="2017-08-21T15:15:34.387" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is what Ramanujacharya has to say about it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavadgitausa.com/Nature%20of%20the%20Jiva.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am now summarizing/paraphrasing the contents of the article here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The soul is not just a &quot;mute witness&quot;, but also a &quot;doer/agent&quot;, because it has free will to make decisions, and reaps the good and bad rewards for its actions. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;This Purusa ever knows. He is indeed a seer, hearer, smeller, taster,&#xA;  thinker, knower, &lt;strong&gt;doer&lt;/strong&gt;, a shiningātmā, a purusa&quot; (Prasna Upanishad&#xA;  IV-9).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the soul were merely a knower and not a doer, then it should not be responsible for its actions, yet it is. Also, this would imply complete determinism and Shastras, which prescribe instructions and dharma, would be useless. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the soul being pure consciousness and a knower, cannot do anything by itself, so it needs a material body as an instrument to carry out actions. But because it became deluded by Maya and thought it was the body itself, it thus became under the influence of the 3 gunas and thought that itself was the doer and not Prakriti being used as an instrument.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Insentient matter cannot be a &quot;doer&quot; but merely a &quot;compeller&quot;, it influences the soul to act in a particular way. So a  person with Tamas guna will be inclined to sleep. However, the decision to sleep or not is up to the soul, and the soul can also make the decision to become Sattvik.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, one who realizes he is Atma and not Prakriti, is not controlled by Prakriti, but becomes the controller of it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2017-08-21T17:29:53.997" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T17:29:53.997" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20360" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20363" CreationDate="2017-08-21T15:38:17.757" Score="6" ViewCount="1714" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to most scholars, atheism is a part of Hinduism. However, are there any verses in the Puranas or the Mahabharata that condemn atheism?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-08-22T03:20:01.733" LastActivityDate="2017-08-22T03:20:01.733" Title="Do any scriptures condemn atheism?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|puranas|identification-request|atheism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-08-22T05:53:06.097" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20362" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20364" CreationDate="2017-08-21T15:56:43.730" Score="3" ViewCount="1589" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the age limit as per the scriptures of getting a Yajnopavita for the various varnas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-22T06:33:54.813" LastActivityDate="2017-08-22T06:33:54.813" Title="What is the age limit of getting a yajnopavita for various castes?" Tags="|scripture|caste-system|yagnopavitam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20363" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20360" CreationDate="2017-08-21T16:08:36.050" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Atheism and atheists are condemned in all scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.33. Covetousness, sleepiness, pusillanimity, cruelty, &lt;strong&gt;atheism&lt;/strong&gt;, leading an evil life, a habit of soliciting favours, and&#xA;  inattentiveness, are the marks of the quality of Darkness (Tamas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.163. &lt;strong&gt;Let him avoid atheism&lt;/strong&gt;, cavilling at the Vedas, contempt of the gods, hatred, want of modesty, pride, anger, and harshness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.66. Stealing grain, base metals, or cattle, intercourse with women who drink spirituous liquor, slaying women, Sudras, Vaisyas, or&#xA;  Kshatriyas, and &lt;strong&gt;atheism, (are all) minor offences, causing loss of&#xA;  caste (Upapataka).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.11. Every twice-born man, who, relying on the Institutes of dialectics, treats with contempt those two sources (of the law), must&#xA;  be cast out by the virtuous, &lt;strong&gt;as an atheist&lt;/strong&gt; and a scorner of the Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.150. Manu has declared that those &lt;strong&gt;Brahmanas who are&lt;/strong&gt; thieves, outcasts, eunuchs, &lt;strong&gt;or atheists&lt;/strong&gt; are &lt;strong&gt;unworthy (to partake) of oblations&#xA;  to the gods and manes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.22. That kingdom where Sudras are very numerous, &lt;strong&gt;which is infested by atheists&lt;/strong&gt; and destitute of twice-born (inhabitants), &lt;strong&gt;soon entirely&#xA;  perishes, afflicted by famine and disease.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.309. Know that a king who heeds not the rules (of the law), &lt;strong&gt;who is an atheist&lt;/strong&gt;, and rapacious, who does not protect (his subjects, but)&#xA;  devours them, &lt;strong&gt;will sink low (after death)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All Verses from Manu Smriti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In all these verses given above &lt;code&gt;NAstikyam&lt;/code&gt; is the original Sanskrit word, translation of which is given as atheism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One, who is given to the vilification of the Vedas ,  one who is given&#xA;  to speaking against the Deities ; one, who is given to speaking ill of&#xA;  the twice-born ; [all these] should be avoided in all rites&#xA;  appertaining to a S'raddha. (34)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;An ungrateful person ; a deceitful person ; a wicked soul ; &lt;strong&gt;an atheist&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  ; one, who speaks against the Vedas ; one, who slays a friend ; one,&#xA;  who knows another's wife ; one, who falsely accuses a learned person ;&#xA;  [&lt;strong&gt;should, also, be avoided&lt;/strong&gt;.] (35)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Usana Smriti verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[An ideal wife] She should not be prodigal in her purse, nor hostile to the spirit of&#xA;  piety or gain. Carelessness, fickleness of mind, anger, envy,&#xA;  deception, vanity, rivalry, mischievousness, cruelty, inordinate&#xA;  pride, cunningness,. &lt;strong&gt;atheism&lt;/strong&gt;, daringness, discontent, and&#xA;  dissimulation are the fifteen vices which &lt;strong&gt;a chaste wife should always&#xA;  try to renounce.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VyAsa Smriti chapter 2 verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T16:08:36.050" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20364" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20362" CreationDate="2017-08-21T16:16:33.433" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ideal time to perform the sacred thread ceremony:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.36. In the eighth year after conception, one should&#xA;  perform the initiation (upanayana) of a Brahmana, in the eleventh&#xA;  after conception (that) of a Kshatriya, but in the twelfth that of a&#xA;  Vaisya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The maximum age limits till which sacred thread ceremony can still be performed for the three varnas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.38. The (time for the) Savitri (initiation) of a&#xA;  Brahmana does not pass until the completion of the sixteenth year&#xA;  (after conception), of a Kshatriya until the completion of the&#xA;  twenty-second, and of a Vaisya until the completion of the&#xA;  twenty-fourth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And if Upanayana is not performed even within those prescribed time limits, then this is what happens as per Manu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2.39. &lt;strong&gt;After those (periods men of) these three (castes) who have not received the sacrament at the proper time, become Vratyas (outcasts)&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  excluded from the Savitri (initiation) and despised by the Aryans&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-21T16:21:41.407" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T16:21:41.407" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20365" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20360" CreationDate="2017-08-21T16:32:40.567" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Atheism also means not following the path of Vedas as per Hindu scriptures. Vishnu Purana strongly condemn atheism(rejecting Vedas) and even declare death penalty for rejecting Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;VP 3.17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the mighty Vishńu heard their request, he emitted from his body&#xA;an illusory form, which he gave to the gods, and thus spake This&#xA;deceptive vision shall wholly beguile the Daityas, so that, &lt;strong&gt;being&#xA;led astray from the path of the Vedas, they may be put to death;&lt;/strong&gt; for&#xA;all gods, demons, or others, who shall be opposed to the authority of&#xA;the Veda, shall perish by my might, whilst exercised for the&#xA;preservation of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu scriptures also say one shouldn't have contact with unbelievers of god:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/brahmavaivarta-purana/vol-ii/chapter-111/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmavaivarta Purana 2.111.15&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The company of non-believers should be left in the same way, as the&#xA;person runs away in panic at the sight of a terrible snake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T16:32:40.567" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20366" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20367" CreationDate="2017-08-21T16:38:55.923" Score="9" ViewCount="4155" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is chanting any mantra without initiation a sin? What do scriptures say about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-11-28T09:45:47.510" Title="Is it a sin to chant mantras without initiation?" Tags="|mantras|initiation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20367" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20366" CreationDate="2017-08-21T16:56:48.180" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Agamas DikshA or initiation is given utmost importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mantras should be taken from a bonafide Guru only. If one chants mantra by obtaining it through some other sources (like books etc) then that is regarded as an offence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, the KriyAsAra Tantram says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kalpe drishtA tu yo mantram japed gurumanAsritaha |&lt;br&gt; SutanAsho bhavet&#xA;  tasya phalam kinchinna vidyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The person who, without depending on a Guru ( Gurumanasitaha), chants&#xA;  mantras by taking them from a book, gets his progeny destroyed [by doing so]&#xA;  (sutanasho) and does not get any benefits [of the chant] either.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The KulArnava Tantram is even more strict on this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pushtake likhitAnmantrAn vilokya prajapanti ye |&lt;br&gt; BrahmahatyAsamam&#xA;  teshAm pAtakam parikirtitam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One, who chants mantras by seeing them from books [that is not&#xA;  obtained duely from a sampradaya Guru] commits, thereby, sin as grave&#xA;  as BrahmahatyA (Brahminicide).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, UlAsaha 5, Verse 22.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, its always better to go for Guru dikshA if you are interested in mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T05:48:45.513" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T05:48:45.513" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20368" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21948" CreationDate="2017-08-21T16:57:58.783" Score="14" ViewCount="1398" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is a definition of a sin? What are the criteria by which an act becomes  sinful? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="290" LastEditDate="2017-08-25T03:09:52.447" LastActivityDate="2021-07-12T15:32:10.520" Title="What is the definition of sin according to Hinduism?" Tags="|dharma|sin|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20369" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15417" CreationDate="2017-08-21T19:49:55.670" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The śivāṣṭottara śatanāma stotram is from Śiva Rahasya Khaṇḍa of Śaṅkara Saṃhitā of Skanda Purāṇam. Nilakantha Diskshita wrote a commentary on śivāṣṭottara śatanāma stotram called &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/Sivatattvarahasya_Commentary_on_108_Names_of_Siva_by_Nilakantha_Dikshita_1915&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Śiva Tattva Rahasyam&lt;/a&gt;. In that he writes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आद्या सनत्कुमारीया द्वितीया सूतसंहिता । ब्राह्मी तु संहिता&#xA;  पश्चात्तुरीया वैष्णवी मता ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पञ्चमी शाङ्करी ज्ञेया सौरी षष्ठी तु संहिता इति । &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्र पञ्चम्यां शङ्करसंहितायां शिवरहस्यखण्डे गौरीनारायणसंवादे गौर्यै&#xA;  विष्णुनोपदिष्टं शिवनामाष्टोत्तरशतं व्याख्यायते ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Skanda Purāṇa, first is Sanatkumāra Saṃhitā, second is Sūta Saṃhitā,&#xA;  third is Brahma Saṃhitā, fourth is Vaishṇava Saṃhitā, fifth is Sankara&#xA;  Saṃhitā and sixth Saura Saṃhitā. In that fifth Sankara Saṃhitā's Siva&#xA;  Rahasya Khanda, I am commenting on the 108 names of Siva which were&#xA;  given as a dialogue between Narayana and Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The stotra starts as &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पार्वत्युवाच - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शरीरार्धमहं शंभोर्येन प्राप्स्यामि केशव । तदिदानीं ममाचक्ष्व स्तोत्रं&#xA;  शीघ्रफलप्रदम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parvati said -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Narayana how do I obtain one half of Siva's body? Tell me that&#xA;  stotra which gives me this result as quick as possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नारायण उवाच - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अस्ति गुह्यतमं गौरि नाम्नामष्टोत्तरं शतम् । शंभोरहं प्रवक्ष्यामि पठतां&#xA;  शीघ्रकामदाम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narayana said -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Gauri, I will tell you the most secret  Ashtottara Nāmas of Shambhu&#xA;  which gives quick results upon reciting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The stotra is &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नारायण ऋषिः । अनुष्टुप्छन्दः । सदाशिवो देवता ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ध्यानम् - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धवलवपुषमिन्दोर्मण्डले संनिविष्टं &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भुजगवलयहारं भस्मदिग्धङ्गमीशम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हरिणपरशुपाणिं चारुचन्द्रार्धमौलिं&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ह्रदयकमलमध्ये संततं चिन्तयामि ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिवो महेश्वरश्शम्भुः पिनाकी शशिशेखरः । वामदेवो विरूपाक्षः कपर्दी&#xA;  नीललोहितः ॥ १॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शङ्करश्शूलपाणिश्च खट्वाङ्गी विष्णुवल्लभः । शिपिविष्टोऽम्बिकानाथः&#xA;  श्रीकण्ठो भक्तवत्सलः ॥ २॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भवश्शर्वस्त्रिलोकेशश्शितिकण्ठश्शिवाप्रियः । उग्रः कपाली कामारिः&#xA;  अन्धकासुरसूदनः ॥ ३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गङ्गाधरो ललाटाक्षः कालकालः कृपानिधिः । भीमः परशुहस्तश्च&#xA;  मृगपाणिर्जटाधरः ॥ ४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कैलासवासी कवची कठोरस्त्रिपुरान्तकः । वृषाङ्को वृषभारूढो&#xA;  भस्मोद्धूलितविग्रहः ॥ ५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सामप्रियस्स्वरमयस्त्रयीमूर्तिरनीश्वरः । सर्वज्ञः परमात्मा च&#xA;  सोमसूर्याग्निलोचनः ॥ ६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हविर्यज्ञमयस्सोमः पञ्चवक्त्रस्सदाशिवः । विश्वेश्वरो वीरभद्रो गणनाथः&#xA;  प्रजापतिः ॥ ७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हिरण्यरेता दुर्धर्षः गिरीशो गिरिशोऽनघः । भुजङ्गभूषणो भर्गो गिरिधन्वा&#xA;  गिरिप्रियः ॥ ८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कृत्तिवासा पुरारातिर्भगवान् प्रमथाधिपः ।&#xA;  मृत्युञ्जयस्सूक्ष्मतनुर्जगद्व्यापी जगद्गुरुः ॥ ९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्योमकेशो महासेनजनकश्चारुविक्रमः । रुद्रो भूतपतिः स्थाणुरहिर्भुध्न्यो&#xA;  दिगम्बरः ॥ १०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अष्टमूर्तिरनेकात्मा सात्त्विकश्शुद्धविग्रहः । शाश्वतः खण्डपरशुरजः&#xA;  पाशविमोचकः ॥ ११॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मृडः पशुपतिर्देवो महादेवोऽव्ययो हरिः । पूषादन्तभिदव्यग्रो &#xA;  दक्षाध्वरहरो हरः ॥ १२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भगनेत्रभिदव्यक्तो सहस्राक्षस्सहस्रपात् । अपवर्गप्रदोऽनन्तस्तारकः&#xA;  परमेश्वरः ॥ १३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एतदष्टोत्तरं नाम्नां शतमान्नायसंमितम् । शंकरस्य प्रिया गौरी जप्त्वा&#xA;  शंभुप्रसाददम् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रैलोक्यमन्वहं देवी वर्षमेकं प्रयत्नतः । अवाप सा शरीरार्धं&#xA;  प्रसादाच्छूलपाणिनः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्त्रिसंध्यं पठेन्नित्यं नाम्नामष्टोत्तरं शतम् ।&#xA;  शतरुद्रत्रिरावृत्त्या यत्फलं लभते नरः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्फलं प्राप्नुयान्नित्यमेकावृत्त्या न संशयः । सकृद्वा नामभिः पूज्य&#xA;  कुलकोटिं समुद्धरेत् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बिल्वपत्रैः प्रशस्तैश्च  पुष्पैश्च तुलसीदलैः । तिलाक्षतैर्यजेद्यस्तु&#xA;  जीवन्मुक्तो न संशयः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="6986" LastActivityDate="2017-08-21T19:49:55.670" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20371" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20368" CreationDate="2017-08-22T02:01:23.453" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sin&lt;/strong&gt;: Actions performed out of desire or anger.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;If the One (&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; / consciousness) &lt;strong&gt;is attached to the actions performed under the influence of &lt;em&gt;rajas guna&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (mode of passion), would incur sin.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; is directly related to &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.36 - Arjuna said, O scion of the Vrsni dynasty (Krsna), impelled by &lt;strong&gt;how does this person(&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;) commit sin&lt;/strong&gt; even against wish, as of constrained by force?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 3.37 - The blessed lord said: This &lt;strong&gt;desire&lt;/strong&gt;(&lt;em&gt;kAma&lt;/em&gt;), this &lt;strong&gt;anger&lt;/strong&gt;(&lt;em&gt;krodha&lt;/em&gt;), born out of passion(&lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;) -- are great devourers(consumers), &lt;strong&gt;great sinners&lt;/strong&gt;; Know that to be enemy here.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 14.7 - &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; is the nature of passion&lt;/strong&gt;, which is produced from lust &amp;amp; attachment; That binds the embodied [soul] through attachment to action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The result of sin / &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; is sorrow(&lt;em&gt;dukha&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.38 - From the combinations of sense subjects (desires), which appears nectar in the beginning, &lt;strong&gt;but results in poison&lt;/strong&gt;, -- that enjoyment is considered from &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Important to note that, one has to be &lt;strong&gt;attached&lt;/strong&gt; to the actions of &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;, to be able to incur sin, not otherwise.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To extend further, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15949/1049&quot;&gt;all initiations (&lt;em&gt;Arambha&lt;/em&gt;) are faulty&lt;/a&gt;, one way or the other way. Hence one should act, depending on own nature &amp;amp; circumstances. Because outside the context of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, the supreme reality doesn't care about sins &amp;amp; good deeds:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.48 — O son of Kunti, trivial(natural) Karma should never be given up, even though [it is] faulty; &lt;strong&gt;All initiations [of Karma] are faulty&lt;/strong&gt;, like how smoke covers the fire.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 5.15 - The &lt;strong&gt;Omnipresent neither accepts anybody's sin nor even virtue&lt;/strong&gt;. Knowledge remains covered by ignorance. Thus the creatures become deluded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-25T12:09:58.657" LastActivityDate="2017-08-25T12:09:58.657" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20373" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20353" CreationDate="2017-08-22T09:17:32.370" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are right about the assumption that every moment is determined by planetary positions. To extend further, planetary positions themselves are also predetermined within universe. So all we do &amp;amp; experience is destiny. Hence, there is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10911/1049&quot;&gt;no existence of free will&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One suffers in hell or enjoys in heaven due to those planetary positions or destiny.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Q: How is such suffering justified?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A: The philosophical reason is: &lt;strong&gt;We(our consciousness) want the suffering [&amp;amp; enjoyment]&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 13.22 - &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; being seated(situated) in &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, experiences the [&lt;em&gt;sattva, rajas, tamas&lt;/em&gt;] modes born of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Contact with the these modes, is the cause of its births in good and evil wombs&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's take an Example:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Consider, audience as &quot;Purusha&quot; (enjoyer/witness/consumer). Consider movie as &quot;Prakruti&quot; and all the emotional aspects in a movie as 3 modes of &quot;Prakruti&quot;.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why do we see a horror movie -- to get horrified, tragic movie -- to get pained, comic movie -- for amusement. Similarly, the so called punishment in hell or rewards in heaven are all categorised under &quot;enjoyment&quot; (or &quot;consumption&quot;) for the &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The movie playing in front of the audience is already shoot in reels &amp;amp; hence predetermined. Similarly one's births and actions are also destined.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The movie won't change its course depending on audience's mood. Same as &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; won't change its destiny depending on &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When audience gets &quot;bored&quot; of movie regardless of its sad/funny/romantic emotions, they leave theatre in between. Exactly same, when &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; becomes indifferent to the &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, it gets realised &amp;amp; then liberated. In either cases, there is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20243/1049&quot;&gt;no purpose left, to continue&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the movie gets over, everyone has to leave the theatre. Exactly same, when the &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;'s cycle finishes, all are liberated (see the combined meaning of BG 9.7 &amp;amp; BG 14.2).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-22T09:17:32.370" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20374" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="40329" CreationDate="2017-08-22T09:48:38.720" Score="5" ViewCount="6466" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ishwar is Saguna Brahman who has created the world out of Maya according to Advait Vedanta. Although Ishwar too is illusion according to it, who is Ishwar actually - Lord Shiva or Vishnu as both can not be Ishwar of same creation.  Or none of them is Ishwar?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: whenever Advait of Lord Vishnu or Shiva is established, it is established as Nirguna Brahman only. I want clear explanation on the level of Ishwar or Saguna Brahman as there can not be 2 Ishwar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-08-22T10:37:11.787" LastActivityDate="2020-05-08T15:26:40.390" Title="Who is Ishwar according to Advait Vedanta - Lord Shiva or Vishnu?" Tags="|vedanta|brahman|advaita|adi-shankaracharya|maya|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="11" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20375" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20439" CreationDate="2017-08-22T10:16:51.810" Score="5" ViewCount="639" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the crimes for which people become ghosts, and for how long do they stay so? (I got this part &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14961/reasons-for-attaining-preta-janma-and-how-to-get-relieved&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), but for how much &lt;em&gt;time&lt;/em&gt; will they stay as ghosts? (references are better than personal opinions)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read a story in which the person steals some food for a family with which he doesn't have any relations and then since his intention was good, Indra himself came to take him to Swarga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main thing is that those reasons matter a lot...if someone steals something, then the rules are the same but in God's eye, I think there must be some sort of &amp;quot;if someone commits any of those crimes for &amp;quot;________&amp;quot; reasons,&amp;quot; then it's ok and they don't become ghosts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is that the case?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10420" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-05-30T12:37:30.420" LastActivityDate="2023-05-30T12:37:30.420" Title="What are the crimes for which people become ghosts, and for how long do they stay so?" Tags="|karma|sin|ghosts|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-08-25T12:57:14.233" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20376" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20374" CreationDate="2017-08-22T10:53:04.220" Score="10" Body="&lt;h3&gt;What is Ishwara?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_shankara/ved.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sarva Vedanta Siddhanta Saara Sangraha&lt;/a&gt; (You can get Sanskti-Hindi version from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/SarvaVedantaSiddhantaSaraSangraha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Internet Archive&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;verses 310-317 &lt;strong&gt;Ishvara&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  ॥ १४ &lt;strong&gt;॥ ईश्वरः॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मायोपहितचैतन्यं साभासं सत्त्वबृंहितम् ।&#xA;  सर्वज्ञत्वादिगुणकं सृष्टिस्थित्यन्तकारणम् ॥ ३१०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अव्याकृतं तदव्यक्तमीश इत्यपि गीयते ।&#xA;  सर्वशक्तिगुणोपेतः सर्वज्ञानावभासकः ॥ ३११॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स्वतन्त्रः सत्यसङ्कल्पः सत्यकामः स ईश्वरः ।&#xA;  तस्यैतस्य &lt;strong&gt;महाविष्णोर्महाशक्तेर्महीयसः&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ ३१२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वज्ञत्वेश्वरत्वादिकारणत्वान्मनीषिणः ।&#xA;  कारणं वपुरित्याहुः समष्टिं सत्त्वबृंहितम् ॥ ३१३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आनन्दप्रचुरत्वेन छादकत्वेन कोशवत् ।&#xA;  सैषानन्दमयः कोश इतीशस्य निगद्यते ॥ ३१४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वोपरमहेतुत्वात्सुषुप्तिस्थानमिष्यते ।&#xA;  प्राकृतः प्रलयो यत्र श्राव्यते श्रुतिभिर्मुहुः ॥ ३१५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अज्ञानं व्यष्ट्यभिप्रायादनेकत्वेन भिद्यते ।&#xA;  अज्ञानवृत्तयो नाना तत्तद्गुणविलक्षणाः ॥ ३१६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वनस्य व्यष्ट्यभिप्रायाद्भूरुहा इत्यनेकता ।&#xA;  यथा तथैवाज्ञानस्य व्यष्टितः स्यादनेकता ॥ ३१७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Note:Adding English translation&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/adi-sankara/sata-sloki/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shata Sloki&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Shankaracharya,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6. This Maya has four great qualities. It is ever youthful and ever new. It has the capacity to make what is impossible happen. Every action undertaken as a result of this Maya is sweet in the beginning. Maya conceals the knowledge about Brahman contained in the Srutis. &lt;strong&gt;Isvara and Jiva both dwell in this Maya like two birds on a tree.&lt;/strong&gt; The Jiva experiences external objects through the sense organs and feels happiness or misery, while Isvara is not affected by them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This verse is based on the Rigveda, 8.6.16.3. There Maya is described as a girl having the above four qualities. Maya has two powers, the veiling power (Avarana sakti) and the projecting power (Vikshepa sakti). Maya veils Brahman and projects the universe. It thus makes the impossible happen. &lt;strong&gt;Brahman reflected in pure (Sattvic) Maya is Isvara (God).&lt;/strong&gt; The Jiva or individual is Brahman reflected in Avidya, which is impure Maya because of the admixture of Rajoguna and Tamoguna. It is therefore stated in this verse that both Isvara and Jiva dwell in Maya. The comparison with two birds on the same tree is based on Mundakopanishad, III.i.1, which says: - &quot;Two birds that are ever associated with each other reside on the same tree (standing for the body). One of them, (the Jiva), eats the fruits (i.e. experiences the results, good and bad, of its karma) because of identification with the body. The other, Isvara, looks on without eating. Isvara has no karma to be experienced and no identification with the body. Isvara controls Maya, while the Jiva is under the control of Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All actions undertaken are sweet in the beginning - The Jiva undertakes various actions with the object of attaining happiness, prompted by Maya or ignorance of the truth that he is Brahman. He feels happy when he starts such action, only to realize ultimately that all such actions ultimately lead only to sorrow, because nothing obtained by action can give everlasting happiness. Only the realization that one is in reality Brahman will give eternal happiness unmixed with the slightest trace of misery. This knowledge, which is contained in the Upanishads, is concealed by ignorance and so the Jiva looks upon himself as a limited individual. See Gita, 5.16.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maya makes the impossible happen - Sri Sankara gives, in Mayapanchakam, some instances of this. It imposes on Brahman, which is eternal and devoid of parts and which is pure Consciousness, the false distinctions as the world, individual souls and God. It makes even those who have mastered all the scriptures no different from animals by tempting them with wealth and the like. It makes Brahman which is infinite bliss, pure consciousness and non-dual, struggle in the ocean of samsaara by associating it with the body made up of the five elements. It imposes on Brahman which is devoid of qualities, the distinctions of colour, caste, etc, and attachment to wife, son, possessions and the like. It creates even in non-dual Brahman distinctions such as Brahmaa, Vishnu and Siva and deludes even the learned into thinking that they are different from one another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/15189/conversation/note&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-11-02T09:07:58.000" LastActivityDate="2018-11-02T09:07:58.000" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20378" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14961" CreationDate="2017-08-22T11:22:51.820" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Bhagavad Gita, when the mode of &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tamas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (ignorance) is predominant, one tends towards &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;bhuta-preta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, &amp;amp; hence would eventually be born or exist as &lt;em&gt;bhuta-preta&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यजन्ते सात्त्विका देवान्यक्षरक्षांसि राजसाः। &lt;strong&gt;प्रेतान्भूतगणांश्चान्ये&lt;/strong&gt; यजन्ते तामसा जनाः&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 17.4 - Those with &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt;, worship the gods; those having &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;, worship the demons and ogres; Other people &lt;strong&gt;possessed of &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;, worship ghosts and the spirits&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यान्ति देवव्रता देवान् पितृ़न्यान्ति पितृव्रताः। &lt;strong&gt;भूतानि यान्ति&lt;/strong&gt; भूतेज्या यान्ति मद्याजिनोऽपि माम्&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 9.25 - Those go to divine, who worship divine; Those go to ancestors (normal &lt;em&gt;pitru&lt;/em&gt;-s or demons), who worship ancestor; &lt;strong&gt;Those go to ghosts, who worship ghosts&lt;/strong&gt;; Those come to &amp;quot;Me&amp;quot;, who worship &amp;quot;Me&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Worship doesn't necessarily mean -- hand folded, eyes closed, head down. One may worship by remembering or being in that aura. For example, if one keeps thinking about past (&lt;em&gt;bhuta kAla&lt;/em&gt;), then one is said to be worshiping of &lt;em&gt;bhuta&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Following are the ways towards &lt;em&gt;bhuta-preta&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 18.28 - The agent who is &lt;strong&gt;unsteady, naive, unbending, deceitful, wicked, lazy, morose and procrastinating&lt;/strong&gt; is said to be possessed of &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; (ignorance).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once the mode of &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; becomes predominant, the consciousness lifts up from the lower planes and move towards higher planes [towards self realisation].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 14.18 - Those with &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt;(goodness) go higher [regions]; those with &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;(passion) remain in the middle [regions]; those with &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;(ignorance), who conform to the lowest actions, go down [regions].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no timeline for how long one remains in any &lt;em&gt;loka&lt;/em&gt;(region). Until one is attached to certain mode among 3, one remains in that or intermediate region.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 14&lt;/a&gt; and several verses in chapter 18 are dedicated to explaining &lt;em&gt;sattva [rajas, tamas]&lt;/em&gt; qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-22T11:22:51.820" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20379" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20397" CreationDate="2017-08-22T14:14:01.633" Score="8" ViewCount="13290" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kayasthas are said to be descendants of Chitragupta, the deity responsible for recording sins or merits of every living being. Kayasthas are usually referred as the scribe class. Their varna however is very disputed. In Bengal however, Kayasthas are said to be separate to of Brahmins as Bengali Brahmins do not consider themselves as Kayasthas. Nevertheless, even this is disputed. So which varna do Kayasthas especially Bengali ones belong to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2024-03-24T07:30:32.427" Title="What is the varna of a Kayastha?" Tags="|varna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20380" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20374" CreationDate="2017-08-22T14:17:09.527" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Pure Advaita considers forms of God as unreal. Thus it does not matter what name the unreal Ishvara is called.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankara considers Isvara or Brahman with attributes as ultimately unreal. He writes in his commentary on Brahma Sutra Bhasya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since this Self is by nature Consciousness Itself, distinctionless,&#xA;  beyond speech and mind, and can be taught by way of negating other&#xA;  things, hence in the scriptures dealing with liberation an&#xA;  illustration is cited by saying that it is &quot;like the sun reflected in&#xA;  water&quot;. &lt;strong&gt;Here the aspect kept in view is the one with attributes,&#xA;  which is not real and which is created by limiting adjuncts, as it is&#xA;  done in such texts,&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;As this luminous sun, though one in itself,&#xA;  becomes multifarious owing to its entry into water divided by&#xA;  different pots, similarly this Deity, the birthless, self-effulgent&#xA;  Self, though one, seems to be diversified owing to its entry into the&#xA;  different bodies, constituting its limiting adjuncts.&quot; Similarly,&#xA;  'Being but one, the Universal Soul is present in all beings, though&#xA;  One, It is seen as many, like the moon in water&quot; (Amritabindu, 12) and&#xA;  other texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sri Sankaracharya, III.II.18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-08-22T14:17:09.527" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20382" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-22T15:14:29.160" Score="5" ViewCount="656" Body="&lt;p&gt;Like Aditi, the mother of Adityas (including Indra), Danu is one of the wives of Kashyap Rishi who is the mother of Danavs. This &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01032.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rigvedic Verse&lt;/a&gt; that describes the killing of the dragon Vritra by Indra says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8 There as he lies like a bank-bursting river, the waters taking courage flow above him.&#xA;  The Dragon lies beneath the feet of torrents which Vṛtra with his greatness had encompassed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9 Then &lt;strong&gt;humbled was the strength of Vṛtra's mother: Indra hath cast his deadly bolt against her.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  The mother was above, the son was under and &lt;strong&gt;like a cow beside her calf lay Danu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10 Rolled in the midst of never-ceasing currents flowing without a rest for ever onward.&#xA;  The waters bear off Vṛtra's nameless body: the foe of Indra sank to during darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this imply that Danu was killed or is she just lying by her dead son's side? Are there any scriptures that elaborate on this? If Danu was dead would that mean there were no more Danavs born after Vritra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-09-01T09:34:05.210" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T08:31:17.377" Title="Did Indra kill his step-mother Danu, the mother of Danavs?" Tags="|vedas|gods|rig-veda|indra|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20387" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20394" CreationDate="2017-08-22T19:43:00.577" Score="6" ViewCount="1265" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit word ''mleccha'' is used to describe foreigners. In various Puranas we find verses anti-mleccha verses. One such example is from the Kalki Purana where Lord Kalki is predicted to kill ''mlecchas'':&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;adhuna kahkula ndsavatdro bauddha pdsanda &lt;strong&gt;mlecchadindnca&lt;/strong&gt; vedadharma setu panpdlandya krtavatarah kalh mpendsman stntva nirayddudhrta vanasi tavdnukampam kimiha kathaydmah (Kalki Purana Chapter 10 Text 30)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: Recently, You appeared as Lord Kalki in order to eliminate the dynasty of Kali by destroying the Buddhists, atheists, and &lt;strong&gt;mlecchas&lt;/strong&gt;,thereby protecting the true path of religion What more can we say about Your causeless mercy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the is the word ''mleccha'' used to describe foreigners. Is Lord Kalki going to eliminate mlecchas? Or is the word in this context used to describe a different set of people as Sanskrit words can have multiple meanings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T06:15:50.950" LastActivityDate="2018-05-03T18:59:51.033" Title="Is Hinduism anti-foreigner?" Tags="|puranas|sanskrit|kalki|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20388" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-22T20:00:40.147" Score="10" ViewCount="765" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Shankaracharya, &lt;em&gt;Ishvara&lt;/em&gt;, the world, and &lt;em&gt;Saguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, are ultimately unreal. Only &lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt; is real. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what does it mean to be &lt;em&gt;Nirguna&lt;/em&gt; or &quot;without qualities&quot;? Something that has no attributes or qualities is something that doesn't even exist, because it cannot be proven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-08-23T10:27:16.067" LastActivityDate="2018-01-30T07:41:34.260" Title="How can Advaita Vedanta's Nirguna Brahman even exist?" Tags="|vedanta|brahman|advaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="17" ClosedDate="2018-02-12T15:05:16.440" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20389" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-23T01:57:28.380" Score="1" ViewCount="1244" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Bhagvat Geeta was told by Shri Krishna to Arjuna. And there were total 4 people involved in it Shri Krishna, Arjuna, Sanjay and Dhritrashtra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna was telling Bhagvat Geeta to Arjuna. Sanjay was narrating everything to Dhritrashtra in kurukshtra war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My Question is who was writing all of the shlok/conversation of Shri Krishna and Arjuna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we know that Mahabharata was narrated by Mahrashi Vyas and written by Lord Ganpati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who wrote Bhagvat Geeta when Shri Krishna was narrating it to Arjuna?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastActivityDate="2017-08-23T01:57:28.380" Title="Who has written Bhagvat Geeta?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="14" ClosedDate="2017-08-24T03:20:16.057" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20390" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3078" CreationDate="2017-08-23T03:13:59.613" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I studied about cocept of kalpa concept.but it is more projected for any human one life is one kalpa.because all this concept healing a man to make good awakening for understand entire universe and quantom physics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our body is main base to understand about it. actually no meaning to longing time as apart from our mind and body whatever there is time lesser or more.Infact human body is very mesterious itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the scientific time concept and vedic concept if we make base our body and mind over than it is clear that to know all these fact.we are taking very short period life even not bramha life time but surya one year galaxy round than also it will pass near to four yug of human life one year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if we go to moon 36 days pass than only here is only one day.if we go to than inner quatasize we became ourself one bhrama on their lifeone circle rotataion.so it is too  vast to analysis about time whether it is or not.human conciousness comes on one tik time obesrbation who should ego has to leave to ionized himself.in this without condition man realize it outo system on vibration of throughout strings to universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11791" LastActivityDate="2017-08-23T03:13:59.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20391" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20387" CreationDate="2017-08-23T05:22:45.853" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;SanAtana Dharma&lt;/em&gt; &quot;cannot&quot; be anti-foreigners.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It's without a choice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;SanAtana&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &quot;Foreign&quot; are contradicting with each other. Let's evaluate each word:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;SanAtana&lt;/em&gt; = eternal; That which always existed irrespective places, humans, planets etc.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; - [righteous] tendency; A bird tend to fly, a human tend socialise, a predator tend to kill its prey, a machine tend to work without emotions ...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Foreign - unfamilier (or alien); Something which is not part of our own XYZ;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;SanAtana Dharma&lt;/em&gt; can have believers or non-believers. So it's localised by faith, but not by places.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Just imagine what will happen if we start localising something with respect to places. e.g. In context of world, we may say &lt;em&gt;MahAbhArata&lt;/em&gt; belongs to Indian subcontinent, in context of India it belongs to norther belt, in context of north it belongs to Haryana, in context of haryana it belongs to Kurukshetra ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Current Indian subcontinent is hardly 70 years old in its present borders. In today's time &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hinduism&lt;/a&gt; has become a synonym of &lt;em&gt;SanAtana Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, but in overall time span, it can be considered just the preserver of teachings of this eternal way of life, not an inventor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a Muslim or a Christian or an atheist, can follow the Vedic lifestyle, without praying to the popular deities of Hindus, then they are &lt;em&gt;sanAtana dharmi&lt;/em&gt;-s.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;On a lighter note, the computer/mobile we are using to compose this post, the internet which carries this information, the English we write to conversate with each other and even one of the diamond Moderators of this site -- all are foreigners. Yet we are able to discuss &lt;em&gt;sanAtana Dharma&lt;/em&gt; flawlessly, as of it belongs here. :-)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding the passage you referred for Kalki, can be considered interpolated or just a by product of some crazy mind. There are lots of speculation of Kalki. It has a mention in MahAbhArata as well, when Budhhist didn't exit. Refer below post, which states that Kalki will be born during the next &lt;em&gt;Satyuga&lt;/em&gt;!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19603/1049&quot;&gt;When will the Kalki avatar be born?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-23T05:22:45.853" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20393" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3329" CreationDate="2017-08-23T05:43:05.127" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It seems that the thoughts during the sexual union for conceiving a child &amp;amp; later during the pregnancy, are important for the mental &amp;amp; physical healths of that child.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/tmu/tmu18.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garbha Upanishada&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Action corresponds to the mental state (of the actor). Hence the child (born) takes after (the thought of) the parents. From parents with minds full of anxieties (at the time of union) are born the blind, the lame, the hunchback, the dwarf, and the limbless. &lt;strong&gt;(From impregnation) during the eclipses of the sun and the moon, children are born with defective limbs.&lt;/strong&gt; Increase or decrease, similarities or dissimilarities of bodies arise (in children) through the &lt;strong&gt;influence of time, place, action, ḍravya (substance), and enjoyment&lt;/strong&gt;. From a well-conducted intercourse (or union), the child being born with the form of the father possesses, his qualities, just as the image in a glass reflects truly the original.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the state of &quot;impregnation&quot; as described above, also could be extended to the state of &quot;pregnancy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-23T05:43:05.127" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20394" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20387" CreationDate="2017-08-23T06:29:35.480" Score="14" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is Sanatana Dharma anti-foreigners?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, most certainly not&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, the following mantra from Shukla Yajur Veda clearly states that the holy mantras should be spoken among all men including strangers. Here, the word stranger denotes people who are alien to our Vedic culture. So, the Vedic knowledge should be spread among them too. No question of discrimination or hostility towards those who are unfamiliar with our culture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;YathA imAm vAcham kalyAnim AvadAni janebhyah (1) BrahmarAjanyAbhyAm&#xA;  sudrAya cha AryAya cha (2) SwAya cha aranAya cha (3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May i speak the sacred word to&lt;/strong&gt; the masses of the people (janebhya) (1)&#xA;  to the brahmana, kshatriya, to the sudra and the Arya (2) and to our&#xA;  own men and &lt;strong&gt;the strangers (3)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shukla Yajur Veda 26.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the following mantra from Atharva Veda acknowledges the fact that on earth there will be people who will be having a variety of religions and who will speak a variety of languages. The mantra then asks from Mother Earth to be benign to and resourceful for every such people and community irrespective of where they live.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janam vibhrati vahudA vichasam (1) NAnAdharmAn prithvi (2) YathA&#xA;  okasham (3) Sahasram dhArA dravinasya me duhAm (4) Dhruveva dhenuh&#xA;  anapasphuranti (5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Earth has people who speak various tongues (1) and those who have&#xA;  various religions (2), according to their places of abode (3), [May&#xA;  she] pour for me treasures in a thousand streams (4), like a constant&#xA;  cow that never fails (5).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 12.1.45.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Concord among nations is also something being spoken of in the Vedas. One such mantra is the following.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SamjyAnam nah svebhih (1) SamjyAnamaranebhih (2) SamjyAnamashivanA&#xA;  yuvamihAsmAsu ni yacchatam (3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let us have concord with our own people (1), and concord with people&#xA;  who are strangers to us&lt;/strong&gt; (2); Asvins, &lt;strong&gt;create between us and the&#xA;  strangers a unity of hearts (3).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 7.52.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, whenever we pray through Vedas, we pray for not only us but we pray for everyone. That's why mantras have the plural (nah) in them as opposed to the singular I (aham).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sham no Mitrah sham Varunah sham Vishnuh sham PrjApatih (1), Sham na&#xA;  Indro Brihaspatih sham no BhavatvaryamA (2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May Mitra, Varuna, Vishnu, PrajApati (1), Indra, Brihaspati and Aryama&#xA;  bestow bliss (sham) &lt;strong&gt;on us&lt;/strong&gt; (2).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 19.9.6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On us here means on everyone of us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the following mantra clearly asks for all round peace for every possible creatures that exist in the three worlds. Foreigners and everyone else are obviously included in that huge list.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ShantA dhauh shantA prithvi shAntamidamurva antariksham (1), shAntA&#xA;  udanvatirapah shAntA nah santvoshadhi (2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May the powers of peace enevelop the earth, heaven, midregion (1),&#xA;  waters and herbs or the growths of earth (oshadhi) (2).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 19.9.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the word &lt;code&gt;Mleccha&lt;/code&gt;, loosely speaking, can mean a barbaric person, who consumes forbidden meat, who consumes non sacrificial meat, who does not follow the ethics of SanAtana Dharma and etc. It may not indicate just a foreigner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it can also mean someone that you have never thought of. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Atri Smriti, for example, presents a classification of Brahmins , according to their nature and deeds, into ten groups. And one of them is called the Mleccha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He, who daily studies the Vedanta, gives up companionship, and&#xA;  discusses the SAnkhya-Yoga, is called a Dwija. (367)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Vipra, who, in the very beginning of a battle and before all,&#xA;  strikes all holders of bow with weapons and defeats [them], is called&#xA;  a Kshtra. (368)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Vipra, who is given to agriculture, who tends kine, and who&#xA;  drives a trade, is called a Vaisya. (369)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Vipra, who sells shell-lac, salt, saffron, milk, clarified&#xA;  butter, honey, or meat, is called a Sudra. (370)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Vipra, who is a thief or a robber, or who is ever prone to give bad&#xA;  advice or give vent to harsh words, and who is always fond of fish and&#xA;  flesh, is called a Nishada. (371)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Vipra who does not know the true nature and being of Brahman but is&#xA;  always proud of his sacrificial thread, is for that sin called a Pasu&#xA;  (beast). (372)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Vipra, who unhesitatingly obstructs [the use of] tanks, wells,&#xA;  watery expanses, pleasure-grounds and lakes, is called a Mlechchha.&#xA;  (373)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Vipra, who is devoid of all religious rites, is ignorant, innocent&#xA;  of all forms of religions and is cruel to all creatures, is called a&#xA;  Chandala. (374)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-23T17:32:18.670" LastActivityDate="2017-08-23T17:32:18.670" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20396" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20374" CreationDate="2017-08-23T11:00:23.843" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The SAME Paramatman (Saguna Brahman) is called as (acknowledged as) Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva depending on the context. Just like the same person in the world can be a Father, Son, Husband etc..depending on who is addressing him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4350" LastActivityDate="2017-08-23T11:00:23.843" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20397" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20379" CreationDate="2017-08-23T11:10:13.400" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedic Origin&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Kayasth trace their genealogy from Adi Purush Shri Chitraguptaji Maharaj. It is said that after Lord Brahma had created the four Varnas (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras), Yama snonym Dharamraj requested Lord Brahma to help him record the deeds, good and evil, of men, and administer justice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma went into meditation for 11000 years and when he opened his eyes he saw a man holding pen and ink-pot in his hands and a sword girdled to his waist. Lord Brahma spoke: Thou hast been created from my body (Kaya), therefore shall thy progeny be known as the Kayasthas. Thou hast been conceived in my mind (Chitra) and in secrecy (gupta), thy name shall also be Chitragupta. Brahma then enjoined him to dispense justice and punish those who violated the dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, the Kayasth's were accorded a dual caste, Brahmin as well as Kshatriya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the legends of Shree Chitraguptaji Maharaj, he is referred to as the greatest King, while the rest are rajakas or little kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चित्र इद राजा राजका इदन्यके यके सरस्वतीमनु ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पर्जन्य इव ततनद धि वर्ष्ट्या सहस्रमयुता ददत ॥ RIG VEDA 8/21/18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Garud Puran, Chitragupta is hailed as the first man to give the script.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“Chitragupta namastubhyam vedaksaradatre”&#xA;(Obeisance to Chitragupta, the giver of letters)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ka_yastha, ka_yata a man belonging to the writer-caste; a tribe of bra_hman.as whose employment is writing (Ka.)(Ka.lex.) Sanskrit Dictionary at &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindunet.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Hindu Universe - Hindu Resource Center&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Bengali Kayasth&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_Kayastha&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to André Wink, another historian, the caste is first referred to around the 5th–6th century CE, and may well have become so identified during the period of the Sena dynasty. Between that time and the 11th–12th century, this category of officials or scribes was composed of &amp;quot;putative&amp;quot; Kshatriyas and, &amp;quot;for the larger majority&amp;quot;, Brahmins, who retained their caste identity or became Buddhists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But there is one more fact&lt;/strong&gt; (Not Completely sure about this part):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Parshurama wiped off the Kshatriyas twenty one  times from the face of the  world. During his last crusade, a &lt;strong&gt;Kshatriya king&lt;/strong&gt; named &lt;strong&gt;Bhadrasen&lt;/strong&gt; and his pregnant queen took &lt;strong&gt;refuge in the Ashram of sage Talavaya&lt;/strong&gt; who took them in his shelter and did not allow Lord Parshurama to kill them, being his “&lt;strong&gt;Sharnagat&lt;/strong&gt;” guests. An agreement was reached that :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A child born to the queen, if male, will not follow the Dharma of a &amp;gt;Kshatriya, give up the sword and take to pen for his livelihood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In course of time the queen delivered a son and his descendent's were called Kayasth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to a similar version, while Lord Parshuram extirpated all the Kshatriyas, he spared all the pregnant women as an act of mercy with a &lt;strong&gt;warning&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;that they (now widowed) would not allow their offspring, if male, to touch &amp;gt;sword or act in any way like a Kshatriya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was the women’s pledge while the unborn child was still in the mother’s KAYA (body), i.e., in the womb. So, the unborn child was KAYA-ISTITH, i.e, residing in the Kaya, (the mother’s body)  when the pledge was given &lt;em&gt;These children, after birth came to be called as “KAYASTH”, a slightly corrupted form of “Kaya-Isthith”.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;**Descendants of King Chandrasen or CKP **, his son Kayastha and Kayastha's son Somraj ruled Kashmir &amp;amp; most of central India. For people these kings were nice &amp;amp; next to god and hence were called as Prabhu. Chandrasen, son of great King Sahastrararjun, was killed by Lord Parshuram (The great warrior, in order to fulfill his wish to kill every Kshtriya on earth). Chandrasen's pregnant wife Ganga / Kamala took asylum with Dalabhya mooni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Parshuram demanded mooni to hand over Ganga, but the mooni very wisely asked him to spare this pregnant women. Lord Parshuram agreed to Mooni's request and blessed her that the child born from her ' KAYA &amp;quot; would be called KAYASTHA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parshuram said as his father's kingdom has been destroyed; he and his ascendant would live with the help of sword and ink (Asijivi/Masijivi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a mythological story but all agree in saying that it means the descendents of the king Chandrasen who was the Kshatriya (warrior by profession) king, the son of Sahastrararjun of the Haiyaya family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another point is tribes of kaya province are Kayastha. The province kaya means Ayodhaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8476" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2020-05-29T09:58:00.420" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20398" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20399" CreationDate="2017-08-23T13:30:30.277" Score="6" ViewCount="559" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Matsya Purana states that the Srimad Bhagavatam was written in the Saraswati Kalpa? Does the Devi Bhagavatam mention in which Kalpa was it written?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T05:11:56.397" Title="Does the Devi Bhagavatam mention in which Kalpa was it written?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|devi-bhagavata-purana|matsya-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20399" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20398" CreationDate="2017-08-23T18:36:30.057" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it mentions. It was composed in the SArasvat Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;26-40. Vyâsa said :-- O King! Maharsi Nârada thus kindling knowledge&#xA;  in me, went away; I also thought over his words. On the banks of the&#xA;  river Sarasvatî, &lt;strong&gt;I composed this Devî Bhâgavat to pass away my time&#xA;  during the excellent period of Sârasvata Kalpa.&lt;/strong&gt; This Purânam is&#xA;  excellent; it is composed on the authority of the the Vedas; all&#xA;  doubts are removed by it; many nice events are narrated here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/devibhagavatam31-6.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;31st chapter of the 6th book, named the &quot;Glory of MahAmAyA&quot; in the Devi BhAgavatam.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-24T05:11:56.397" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T05:11:56.397" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20400" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-23T18:59:36.537" Score="0" ViewCount="119" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to read the Muvāyirappaṭi Guruparamparāprabhāva, the biography of the great Vaishnava acharya, Sri Ramanujachaya, in English. Can anyone provide me a link for it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-02-21T04:29:09.183" LastActivityDate="2019-02-21T04:29:09.183" Title="Where can I read Muvāyirappaṭi Guruparamparāprabhāva in English?" Tags="|ramanujacharya|resource|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20401" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2776" CreationDate="2017-08-24T00:27:32.847" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Coconut and Banana are 'pure' fruits - They do not grow from seed discarded after eating (which is ucchishtam, or remains of mouth of humans).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coconut tree only grows from full unopened coconut planted in ground.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Banana tree only grows at foot of another banana tree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So these are offered to God, as pure/virgin/unblemished items.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When offering something to Bhagavan, aradhaka (priests) think of him like a child - the banana is peeled (can you eat skin of banana), the hot milk is cooled down, the food is not smelled by anyone (smelling = tasting = ucchistam), and coconut is broken (how can anyone eat outer shell of coconut) ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - elders/upanyasam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-08-24T05:01:42.900" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T05:01:42.900" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20402" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-24T01:46:58.620" Score="7" ViewCount="151" Body="&lt;p&gt;I thought of this question after reading about &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14189/290&quot;&gt;day-wise restrictions on shaving/haircut&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These weekly day-wise restrictions must have started after a 7 day week was established.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which is the oldest known reference to a 7 day week (or a particular day of the week) in Hindu scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15646/absence-of-names-of-days-in-scriptures-why&quot;&gt;This question&lt;/a&gt; lists some (not all) scriptures with references to &lt;code&gt;the week&lt;/code&gt; or &lt;code&gt;weekdays&lt;/code&gt;, but it  does it mention which one is the oldest)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="290" LastEditorUserId="290" LastEditDate="2017-08-24T04:25:57.437" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T04:25:57.437" Title="Which is the oldest known reference to a 7 day week in Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20403" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-24T04:43:09.467" Score="1" ViewCount="1865" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I asked my parents, what is our gotra, they told me &lt;strong&gt;Shukracharya&lt;/strong&gt; is our gotra. I tried searching over the internet but could not find about Shukracharya gotra. It is not present &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gotras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;under the list of gotra on Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the origin of Shukracharya gotra? &#xA;Is it related to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shukra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shukracharya, the Guru of Asuras&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11741" LastEditorUserId="290" LastEditDate="2017-08-24T05:30:43.660" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T08:25:13.490" Title="What is the origin of Shukracharya gotra?" Tags="|gotra|shukracharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20404" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24837" CreationDate="2017-08-24T04:50:21.447" Score="5" ViewCount="6860" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3MAYwTVDDQ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; theme for Karna was used in Star Plus Mahabharata which is in &lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt;. Can anyone tell the meaning of the &lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit&lt;/strong&gt; shloka. Also primarily, I want to know where the verse is actually from &amp;amp; who said that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suto va sut putro vayo&#xA;  Vakova bhavamyaham..&#xA;  Daiva yettam kule janm&#xA;  Madayettam tu paurusham&#xA;  Paurusham paurusham..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-03-05T11:39:40.607" LastActivityDate="2019-01-22T18:46:06.897" Title="Who said this &quot;suta putra&quot; quote about Karna and what does it mean?" Tags="|mahabharata|identification-request|translation-request|karna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20405" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20412" CreationDate="2017-08-24T05:23:15.980" Score="7" ViewCount="412" Body="&lt;p&gt;Today I learn something about a monster Kalakanja . All I know right now is that he is the son of sage Kashyapa and Kalaka. I try to search some more information about his life time and achievement that he gain in his life time but not find anything. Can anyone give me some information on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11797" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-24T11:25:34.510" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T11:25:34.510" Title="Who is Kalakanja?" Tags="|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20406" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17882" CreationDate="2017-08-24T06:03:04.217" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The full Verse as I read(Source not known exactly, but I think Manu Samhita).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जन्मना जायते शूद्रः संस्कारात् द्विज उच्यते।&lt;br&gt; वेदाभ्यास भवति विप्र ब्रह्मम जानति ब्राह्मणः||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Seeking correction and clarification)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11798" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-24T06:32:56.003" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T06:32:56.003" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20407" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20403" CreationDate="2017-08-24T07:03:56.417" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not much information available on this but still... Usually gotra means either you belong to that rishi's clan or your clan would have accepted him as guru/kulguru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I got from &lt;a href=&quot;http://brishpati.tripod.com/id20.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SHUKRACHARYA IS SON OF MAHARISHI BRIGHU (one of the saptrishis) AND USHANA.HE WAS BORN IN YEAR PAARTHIVA ON FRIDAY ON SHRAVAN SUDHA ASHTAMI WHEN SWATI NAKASHTRA WAS ASCENDING. HIS GOTRA IS BHARGAVA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also referring &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.jatland.com/home/Shukra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shukra (शुक्र) was the name of the son of Bhrigu, and preceptor of the Daityas, and the guru of the Asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhavsarsamaj.com/gotra-list/shukracharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this is helpful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8476" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T07:03:56.417" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20408" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13872" CreationDate="2017-08-24T07:30:25.073" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijaya_(bow)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vijaya bow&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; was created by &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vishvakarman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, the royal architect of gods or deva's as per the order of Lord Shiva for the purpose of killing demons called Tripurasuras. Lord Shiva  defeated demons by using arrows fired from Vijaya Page on bow.as the Sanskrit  name Vijaya means Victory, this bow is said to give sure victory to the  possessor. Later Lord Shiva gifted this bow to Lord Indra, the ruler of heaven.Lord Indra gifted this bow to Parasurama and later Parasuram gave Vijaya to his student Karna,who already had terriffic skill, making him virtually invincible. Lord Krishna devised a plan to kill karna, and asked Arjun to kill Karna when he was weaponless trying to lift his sunken chariot wheel, even  though it was highly prohibited or against the rules of engagements in  war, to kill an unarmed warrior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to a misunderstanding, Lord Parasharam cursed Karna to forget the  mantra to invoke Brahmastra at the time of his greatest need. But repenting about the curse and Karna being a diligent and worthy student Lord Parasuram blessed Karna. Lord Parasuram gifted him a unique and of the most powerful of celestial weapons, which nobody else possessed called Bhargavastra and his personal bow called Vijaya. The Bhargavastra along with Vijaya and Kavach-Kundal makes Karna one of the most fearsome and  powerful warrior in the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And here comes the most interesting part:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Karna only used Vijaya bow once in lifetime during the Kurukshetra war as per the instruction given by his guru, Lord Parshuram.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With this bow Karna overpowered equally skilled Arjuna. Learning that  Karna with Vijaya bow is invincible Lord Krishna advised Arjun to kill  Karna when he put down Vijaya bow to lift his sunken chariot wheel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anticipating a likely battle to the death between Karna and Arjuna,  Krishna warned Arjuna calling Karna to be the foremost of the heroes.&#xA;“ Hear in brief,  O son of Pandu! I regard the mighty car-warrior Karna as thy equal, or  perhaps, thy superior! . In energy he is equal to Agni. As regards  speed, he is equal to the impetuosity of the wind. In wrath, he  resembles the Destroyer himself. Endued with might, he resembles a lion  in the formation of his body. He is eight ratnis in stature. His arms  are large. His chest is broad. He is invincible. He is sensitive. He is a  hero. He is, again, the foremost of heroes. He is exceedingly handsome.  Possessed of every accomplishment of a warrior, he is a dispeller of  the fears of friends. No one, not even the gods with Vasava at their  head, can slay the son of Radha, save thee, as I think. No one possessed  of flesh and blood, not even the gods fighting with great care, not all  the warriors (of the three worlds) fighting together can vanquish that  car-warrior. ”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After the death of Karna, Vijaya bow went back to its original owner, Lord Parasuram.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8476" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T07:30:25.073" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20409" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20403" CreationDate="2017-08-24T07:34:16.263" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sriguru Shukraacharya was from the lineage of Great Maharshi Bhrigu. Hence he was called &quot;bhArgava&quot;. Bhargava pravara is related to many gotras. I am posting the gotras which have bhargava pravara so that it can help you in finding the right gotra. Bold are the gotras and next to them are the pravara. Most probably the first one would be your gotra. But please verify the information from elders before accepting it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhargava&lt;/strong&gt;: Bhargava ,Tvashta,Vishvarupa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jamadagni&lt;/strong&gt;: Bhargava, Chyavana, Aapnavaana, Aurava, Jaamadagneya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vatsa&lt;/strong&gt;: Orva,Bhardwaj,Bhargava, Chyavana, Aapnavan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vatula/Vadula&lt;/strong&gt;: Bhargava,Vaitahavya,Saavedasa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srivatsa/Vatsasya&lt;/strong&gt;: Bhargava,Chyaavana,Aapnavaana,Aurva,Jaamadaghneya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Brahmin_gotra_system&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;P.S: The above mentioned gotra are mostly brahmin gotra. But for non brahmin's the apt gotra would be brArgava. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-08-24T08:25:13.490" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T08:25:13.490" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20410" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-24T07:36:17.663" Score="3" ViewCount="44" Body="&lt;p&gt;So can anybody tell me if the lokas can communicate with one another? Are they only separated by space and/or time or are living inside a high-dimensional world, each one entirely on its own?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks in advance!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11800" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T07:36:17.663" Title="Question about the lokas" Tags="|philosophy|lokas|universe|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-08-24T14:49:30.890" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20411" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-24T07:46:45.123" Score="1" ViewCount="1115" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'd like to know the meaning of the &quot;Shiva Shiva Shiva Shambho&quot; mantra, which is the effect in the mind as well as its history. Is it part of some ancient text?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any information about this mantra is highly appreciated!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've been researching over the internet and the information available is not much, practically none.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11801" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T07:46:45.123" Title="Meaning &amp; Information about Shiva Shiva Shiva Shambho" Tags="|shiva|mantras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20412" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20405" CreationDate="2017-08-24T08:38:49.257" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kalakanja is not a single Danava but they are group of Danavas and are are known as Kalakanjas. They were the sons of Sage Kashyapa and Kalaka as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp056.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana, Book 1, Chapter 21&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaiswánara had two daughters, Pulomá and Káliká, who were both married to Kaśyapa, and bore him sixty thousand distinguished Dánavas, called Paulomas and Kálakanjas, who were powerful, ferocious, and cruel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please note that, in footnotes of the same chapter, it is given that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word is also read Kúlakas and Kálakeyas: the Mahábhárata, I. 643, has Kálakanjas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also identified in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/6/6/33-36&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shrimada Bhagavatam, 6.6.33-36&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaiśvānara-sutā yāś ca&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  catasraś cāru-darśanāḥ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  upadānavī hayaśirā&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  pulomā kālakā tathā&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  upadānavīṁ hiraṇyākṣaḥ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  kratur hayaśirāṁ nṛpa&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  pulomāṁ kālakāṁ ca dve&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  vaiśvānara-sute tu kaḥ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  upayeme ’tha bhagavān&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  kaśyapo brahma-coditaḥ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  paulomāḥ kālakeyāś ca&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  dānavā yuddha-śālinaḥ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  tayoḥ ṣaṣṭi-sahasrāṇi&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  yajña-ghnāṁs te pituḥ pitā&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  jaghāna svar-gato rājann&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  eka indra-priyaṅkaraḥ&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaiśvānara, the son of Danu, had four beautiful daughters, named Upadānavī, Hayaśirā, Pulomā and Kālakā. Hiraṇyākṣa married Upadānavī, and Kratu married Hayaśirā. Thereafter, at the request of Lord Brahmā, &lt;strong&gt;Prajāpati Kaśyapa married Pulomā and Kālakā, the other two daughters of Vaiśvānara. From the wombs of these two wives of Kaśyapa came sixty thousand sons, headed by Nivātakavaca, who are known as the Paulomas and the Kālakeyas&lt;/strong&gt;. They were physically very strong and expert in fighting, and their aim was to disturb the sacrifices performed by the great sages. My dear King, when your grandfather Arjuna went to the heavenly planets, he alone killed all these demons, and thus King Indra became extremely affectionate toward him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Paulamas and Kalakanjas were defeated by Arjuna when he was on the way to Svargaloka. It is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03172.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Vana Parva, SECTION CLXXII&lt;/a&gt;. The name of the city where they were living was known as Hiranyapura, that was created by lord Brahma himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once on a time a Daitya's daughter, named Pulama and a mighty female of the Asura order, Kalaka by name, practised severe austerities for a thousand celestial years. And at the end of their austerities, the self-create conferred on them boons. And, O king of kings, they received these boons,--that their offspring might never suffer misfortune; that they might be incapable of being destroyed even by the gods, the Rakshasas and the Pannagas; and that they might obtain a highly effulgent and surpassingly fair aerial city, furnished with all manner of gems and invincible even by the celestials, the Maharshis, the Yakshas, the Gandharvas, the Pannagas, the Asuras and the Rakshasas. O best of the Bharatas, this is that unearthly aerial city devoid of the celestials, which is moving about, having been created for the Kalakeyas, by Brahma himself. And this city is furnished with all desirable objects, and is unknown of grief or disease. And, O hero, celebrated under the name of Hiranyapura, this mighty city is inhabited by the Paulamas and the Kalakanjas; and it is also guarded by those mighty Asuras. And, O king, unslayed by any of the gods, there they dwell cheerfully, free from anxiety and having all their desires gratified, O foremost of kings. Formerly, Brahma had destined destruction at the hands of mortals. Do thou, O Partha, in fight, compass with that weapon--the thunder-bolt--the destruction of the mighty and irrepressible Kalakanjas.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T08:38:49.257" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20413" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20422" CreationDate="2017-08-24T08:47:54.270" Score="6" ViewCount="549" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is question about pictorial representation of various gods, especially their facial hair.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma has a full beard &amp;amp; moustache. But Vishnu (including RAma, Krishna incarnations) and Shankara are picturized clean shaven. Was there any puranic reference to their appearance or may be classical painters like Ravi Varma imagined in a certain way and it caught on?&lt;br&gt;&#xA; In case of Ganesha or Hanuman, who are also without facial hair,  the ancient descriptions are so vivid that deity's swaroopa visualization has never been a problem to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-03-08T02:30:42.963" LastActivityDate="2019-02-16T13:13:39.887" Title="Physical appearance of various Gods for worship" Tags="|gods|belief|culture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20414" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20328" CreationDate="2017-08-24T09:14:37.577" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Certain sounds are associated with some vibrations which enhance the functioning of Chakras of body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following text was taken from &lt;a href=&quot;http://sciencebehindmantras.blogspot.in/2013/01/beej-mantras.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For example, Ram is the mantra for manipura chakra (navel centre) and if it &#xA;  is chanted in kirtan or repeated in japa, it will stimulate the abdominal &#xA;  area benefiting complaints such as peptic ulcer, constipation, diarrhoea and other digestive disorders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mantras Chakra Physical location&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Lam Mooladhara Perineum&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Vam Swadhisthana Base of the spine &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Ram Manipura Navel centre&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Yam Anahata Heart centre &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Ham Vishudhi Throat&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Om Ajna Eyebrow centre &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11776" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T02:33:04.243" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T02:33:04.243" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20415" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20417" CreationDate="2017-08-24T09:56:59.337" Score="4" ViewCount="1198" Body="&lt;p&gt;When an day ends for Brahma there are no living beings and when a new day starts everything is recreated. My question is - does the same chain of events take place in the new day of Brahma? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, Shree Ram Avatar event that happened in this day (24th treta yug, Sita abduction, How Shree Ram get vanvaas etc) do the same events repeat on the next brahma day? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Events of Mahabharata (28th Dwapar yug how Shree Krishna tells bhagvad Gita to Arjun in the middle of the battlefield) does the same event happen in next day of Brahma? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4457" LastEditorUserId="290" LastEditDate="2017-08-25T03:10:12.960" LastActivityDate="2017-08-25T03:10:12.960" Title="When Brahma's day ends and a new day starts does the previous day repeat itself?" Tags="|avatars|brahma|yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-08-24T10:53:40.457" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20417" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20415" CreationDate="2017-08-24T10:45:47.737" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, exactly same events repeat&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;Also discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10911/1049&quot;&gt;Does &amp;quot;Free Will&amp;quot; really exist, even if universe repeats itself in perfect pattern?&lt;/a&gt; and other related Qn-s.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 8.17 - Knowing that thousand eras constitute a day of Brahman, [and] thousand eras complete a night, are the people who know day, [and] night.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 8.18 - On arrival of day, all manifestations originate from &quot;Unmanifest&quot;; On arrival of night they annihilate into [what is] known as &quot;Unmanifest&quot; only.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 8.19 - &lt;strong&gt;This world of beings only happens again &amp;amp; again&lt;/strong&gt;; Annihilates upon arrival of night, [and] originates upon arrival of day.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 9.10 - Under &quot;My&quot; supervision, the Prakruti produces moving &amp;amp; non-moving [beings]; Due to this reason &lt;strong&gt;the world revolves&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That means, whatever Shri Rama, Krishna, Shankara, Ganesha did during their live, exactly same things they will do in the next day of Brahma as well.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Not only them, you will be asking this same Qn and I will be writing this same answer.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This philosophy of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return#Indian_religions&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Eternal Return&lt;/a&gt; is also known as &quot;&lt;em&gt;kAla chakra&lt;/em&gt;&quot; by few.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the rational side you may think like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The time is flowing continuously; Infinite time has passed before this moment and infinite time will pass after this moment&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;We are present in the current moment. How is that possible, if there is infinite time to be passed before current moment?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;That means, there has to be a &quot;timespan&quot; (i.e. collection of finite events), which is repeating infinitely&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;With point 3, the time also becomes infinite (timespan x infinite) and we can also be present as current moment in the timespan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This &quot;timespan&quot; can be called the day of Brahma; The night of Brahma will be equally long, but nothingness pervades during that duration&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why Shri Krishna told to Arjuna in the beginning of Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.12 - But certainly never was a time, when I did not exist, nor you, nor these rulers of men. And surely it is not that we all shall cease to exist after this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which means that all had existed in past cycles and will continue to exist in future cycles as well.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-24T10:55:03.067" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T10:55:03.067" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20418" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-24T11:03:38.880" Score="2" ViewCount="200" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scientists discovered 8 planets till now. Other than earth, did people in other Yugas like satya yuga, trethayuga &amp;amp; dwaparayuga live on any other planet?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9976" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-08-24T13:17:11.960" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T13:17:11.960" Title="Did people in other Yugas live on any other planet(s)?" Tags="|yuga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20420" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9610" CreationDate="2017-08-24T13:29:19.590" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chandogya Upanishad declaration on Ghora Angirasa and Devaki Putra Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;taddhaitadghor āṅgirasaḥ kṛṣṇāya devakīputrāyoktvovācāpipāsa eva sa babhūva so'ntavelāyāmetattrayaṃ pratipadyetākṣitamasyacyutamasi prāṇasam̐śitamasīti tatraite dve ṛcau bhavataḥ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning of this mantra as given by shrI shankara and shrI madhva differs from that of shrI rAmAnuja. shrI shankara says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Ghora Angirasa, after having communicated this (view of the sacrifice) to Krishna, the son of Devaki -- and he never thirsted again (after other knowledge)--said: 'Let a man, when his end approaches, take refuge with this Triad: &quot;Thou art the imperishable,&quot; &quot;Thou art the unchangeable,&quot; &quot;Thou art the edge of Prâna.&quot;' (source: net translation of shankara bhAshya)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that here, &quot;Krishna, the Son of Devaki&quot; is considered a student of Ghora Angirasa according to this interpretation. shrI madhva gives the same interpretation and he adds, &quot;Vasudeva’s son, Krishna was the resplendent Lord himself, while there was some one else who was the son of one named Devaki, with the same name who was an ascetic. &quot; (Source: Sonde's publication of mAdhva bhAshya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While shrI shankara does not identify who &quot;devaki putra krishNa&quot; is, it is possible he regarded him as saguNa brahman krishNa himself. Because krishNa being a student does not reduce his brahmatva. Or, maybe shankara thought he was someone else. The fact that he didn't comment shows the acharya's lack of interest in the issue anyway. madhva sampradaya strongly hold the view that it was some rishi of the same name as bhagavAn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, shrI ranga rAmAnuja muni, who belongs to the vishishtadvaita school and who has faithfully adhered to the view of shrI rAmAnuja, disagrees with both the interpretation of the upanishad by the other two gurus and also the idea that &quot;devaki putra krishNa&quot; is someone other than bhagavAn. There is really no need to take it as any other person considering that the theme of the upanishad is &quot;upAsaNa&quot; and the reference to &quot;devaki putra&quot; could easily be interpreted as an indication of the auspicious guNas like sousIlya, saulabhya, etc of the Lord which are important for upAsaNa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;srI ranga rAmAnuja muni derives the meaning another way as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The rishi Ghora Angirasa practiced this Purusha Yajna with the dedication as &quot;This is sub-servient to Krishna, the Son of Devaki&quot;. That Ghora Angirasa had not thirst, as he came upon BrahmavidyA through this. At the last moment of his life, he said to Brahman, &quot;you are eternal, you are full of auspicious qualities, you are the subtle truth enlivening this universe&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The acharyan explains &quot;KrishnAya&quot; as &quot;KrishnaseshabhUta&quot; - for the sake of Krishna (the essential nature of the jIvAtmAn is seshatva or servitude to devaki putra krishNa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One must note that even in mantrAs, the &quot;Aya&quot; shabda denotes &quot;for the sake of-&quot;, or service performed for the deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ityuktvA means anusandhAna, which is upAsaNa. Constant meditation on devaki putra krishNa and oneself as being his dAsabhUta by nature is thus recommended. Jiva Goswami also alludes to this interpretation in his commentary on Brahma Samhita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11805" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-12-31T13:45:54.317" LastActivityDate="2018-12-31T13:45:54.317" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20422" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20413" CreationDate="2017-08-24T15:10:36.110" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The appearance of various deities is divined by RSi's and described in dhyAna zlOkAs of various mantrAs/stOtrAs and vedic verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For e.g., viSNu is described as &quot;zAntAkAram bhujaga zayanam, padmanAbham gagana sadRzam&quot; and &quot;mEgha zyAmam, pIta kauzEya vAsam, zrIvatsAnkam, punDarIkAkSam&quot; etc., You will find these descriptions in the beginning of viSNu sahasranAma stOtram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, ziva in his dakSiNAmurti form is described as &quot; mauna vyAkhyA prakaTita parabramha tatvam, yuvAnam, karakalita cinmudram, mudita vadanam &quot; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also the vedic mantra &quot;trayambakam yajAmahe&quot; describes the appearance of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many purANAs also that describe the appearance of the divine. For e.g., the form of nArAyaNa that appeared to dhRva is described in detail in the bhagavata purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The hymn to mahAlakSmi composed by Indra, viz, &quot;namastEstu mahAmAye&quot; describes the goddess in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, rishis' and devatas' compositions expound and extol the rupa ( form), guna (attributes) and lIla (divine sport) of the deities and are a result of their visualisation which in turn in the result of their penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T00:40:29.900" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T00:40:29.900" CommentCount="22" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20423" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-24T16:09:00.717" Score="5" ViewCount="2767" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following extract is from the introduction to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.in/Mahabharata-1-Bibek-Debroy/dp/0143425145/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Mahabharata: Volume 1 by Bibek Debroy&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There are many different versions or recensions of the Mahabharata. However, &#xA;  between 1919 and 1966, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bori.ac.in/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI)&lt;/a&gt; in &#xA;  Pune produced what has come to be known as the critical edition. This is an &#xA;  authenticated text produced by a board of scholars and seeks to eliminate later &#xA;  interpolations, unifying the text across the various regional versions. This is the text followed in this translation. One should also mention that the critical &#xA;  edition's text is not invariably smooth. Sometimes, the transition from one &#xA;  shloka to another is abrupt, because the intervening shloka has been weeded out. &#xA;  With the intervening shloka included, a non-critical version of the text &#xA;  sometimes makes better sense. On a few occasions, I have had the temerity to &#xA;  point this out in the notes which I have included in my translation. On a slightly different note, the quality of the text in something like Dana Dharma Parva is clearly inferior. It couldn't have been 'composed' by the same person. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It took a long time for this critical edition to be put together. The exercise &#xA;  began in 1919. Without the Hari Vamsha, the complete critical edition became &#xA;  available in 1966. And with the Hari Vamsha, the complete critical edition &#xA;  became available in 1970. Before this, there were regional variations in the text and the main versions were available from Bengal, Bombay and the south. &#xA;  However, now, one should stick to the critical edition, though there are &#xA;  occasional instances where there are reasons for dissatisfaction with what the &#xA;  scholars of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute have accomplished. But &#xA;  in all fairness, there are two published versions of the critical edition. The first one has the bare bones of the critical edition's text. &lt;strong&gt;The second has all the regional versions collated, with copious notes.&lt;/strong&gt; The former is for the ordinary &#xA;  reader, assuming he/she knows Sanskrit. And the latter is for the scholar. &#xA;  Consequently, some popular beliefs no longer find a place in the critical edition's text. &lt;strong&gt;For example, it is believed that Vedavyasa dictated the text to Ganesha, who wrote it down.&lt;/strong&gt; But Ganesha had a condition before accepting. Vedavyasa would have to dictate continuously, without stopping. Vedavyasa threw in a counter-condition. Ganesha would have to understand each couplet before he wrote it down. To flummox Ganesha and give himself time to think, Vedavyasa threw in some cryptic verses. &lt;strong&gt;This attractive anecdote has been excised from the critical edition's text.&lt;/strong&gt; Barring material that is completely religious (specific hymns or the Bhagavad Gita), the Sanskrit text is reasonably easy to understand. Oddly, I have had the most difficulty with things that Vidura has sometimes said, other than parts of Anushasana Parva. Arya has today come to connote ethnicity. Originally, it meant language. That is, those who spoke Sanskrit were Aryas. Those who did not speak Sanskrit were mlecchas. Vidura is supposed to have been skilled in the mlechha language. Is that the reason why some of Vidura's statements seem &#xA;  obscure? In similar vein, in popular renderings, when Droupadi is being &#xA;  disrobed, she prays to Krishna. Krishna provides the never-ending stream of &#xA;  garments that stump Duhshasana. The critical edition has excised the prayer to &#xA;  Krishna. The never-ending stream of garments is given as an extraordinary &#xA;  event. However, there is no intervention from Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What reasons did the Bhandarkar Institute offer to edit out the Vyāsa-Gaṇeśa conversation from its &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bori.ac.in/mahabharata_project.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;critical edition of the Mahābhārata?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-08-24T18:08:07.420" LastActivityDate="2019-11-26T01:10:18.977" Title="Why did BORI excise the Vyāsa-Gaṇeśa conversation from its critical edition of the Mahābhārata?" Tags="|mahabharata|sanskrit|indology|critical-edition|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20424" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20433" CreationDate="2017-08-24T16:14:36.473" Score="13" ViewCount="1323" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to scripture(s), how difficult or rare is it to get human life? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="290" LastEditDate="2017-08-25T05:58:36.693" LastActivityDate="2018-08-19T07:25:15.347" Title="How difficult or rare is it to get human life?" Tags="|scripture|human|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20425" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20116" CreationDate="2017-08-24T18:11:35.657" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found one argument from the Vaisheshika school.  It occurs in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801503.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/22/items/prashastapadabhashya/7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_jp2/7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_0069.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; Prashastapada's Padartha Dharma Sangraha, the second-oldest work of the Vaisheshika school.  Prashastapada doesn't just try to show that sound is a phenomenon of Akasha, he tries to prove the existence of Akasha using the existence of sound.  He argues that sound cannot be a phenomenon of any substance which can be perceived by touch, and air can be perceived by touch, so there must exist some other substance called Akasha which is the cause of sound:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sound cannot be the property of those substances that can be touched: - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;because being perceptible, its production is not preceded by any quality in the material cause of the substance (to which it belongs);&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;because it does not pervade over, and is not coeval with, the substance to which it belongs;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;because it is perceived elsewhere than in the substratum wherein it is produced&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more details see &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/M5vn&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Sridhara's commentary on the Padartha Dharma Sangraha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, I assume this argument is fallacious, since I think there can be little doubt that sound is a phenomenon of air.  But I haven't examined the argument (as elaborated by Sridhara) sufficiently closely to pinpoint the flaw.  Also, I'm not sure whether there are other Nyaya and Vaisheshika arguments on this subject.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T18:11:35.657" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20427" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20368" CreationDate="2017-08-24T19:40:38.137" Score="6" Body="&lt;h3&gt;What is the criteria by which an act becomes a sin?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There cannot be an exact criteria for sin (pāpa) simply because there isn't exact criteria for dharma (righteous action). According to the Mahābhārata (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a015.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Arjuna speaking to Draupadī&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no act that is wholly meritorious, nor any that is wholly wicked. Right or wrong, in all acts, something of both is seen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've tried to explain in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16526/2995&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; how using a knife on someone, depending on the context, can be considered dharmic (righteous) or adharmic (sinful).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramana Maharshi&lt;/a&gt;, however, &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=xf9MBwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PR2&amp;amp;dq=isbn%3A1571747338&amp;amp;pg=PA50#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%22birth%20of%20thought%20itself%20is%20sin%22&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;suggests&lt;/a&gt; everyone is born in sin because mere thoughts give rise to sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devotee: What is yoga? &lt;br/&gt; Bhagavan: Yoga (union) is necessary for one who is in&#xA;  a state of viyoga (separation). But really there is only One. If you&#xA;  realize the Self there will be no difference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D: Is there any efficacy in bathing in the Ganges? &lt;br/&gt; B: The Ganges&#xA;  is within you. Bathe in this Ganges; it will not make you shiver with&#xA;  cold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D: Should we sometimes read the Bhagavad Gita? &lt;br/&gt; B: Always.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D: May we read the Bible? &lt;br/&gt; B: The Bible and the Gita are the&#xA;  same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D: The Bible teaches that man is born in sin. &lt;br/&gt; B: Man is sin.&#xA;  There is no feeling of being man in deep sleep. The body-thought&#xA;  brings out the idea of sin. &lt;strong&gt;The birth of thought itself is sin.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D: The Bible says that the human soul may be lost. &lt;br/&gt; B: The 'I'&#xA;  thought is the ego and that is lost. The real 'I' is 'I am that I am.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=xf9MBwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;lpg=PR2&amp;amp;dq=isbn%3A1571747338&amp;amp;pg=PA50#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%22birth%20of%20thought%20itself%20is%20sin%22&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;True Happiness: The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-08-24T19:50:34.663" LastActivityDate="2017-08-24T19:50:34.663" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20428" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20437" CreationDate="2017-08-24T22:58:57.930" Score="4" ViewCount="746" Body="&lt;p&gt;How and why did Shiva create Veerbhadra and MahaKali. Who were the nine Durgas accompanying MahaKali?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10397" LastEditorUserId="10397" LastEditDate="2017-08-25T07:27:00.497" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T01:19:53.323" Title="How did Lord Shiva create Veerbhadra and Mahakali" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|kali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20430" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-24T10:30:29.837" Score="2" ViewCount="769" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Ganesha created based on Gautama Buddha? I have read in many articles from several social platforms that the concept of Ganesha is derived from Buddhism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Various names such as &lt;em&gt;vighnaharta&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;dukhharta&lt;/em&gt; are taken from the principles of Buddhism, not sure about the authenticity of such articles, just curious if someone could shed some light on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="Rajiv" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-08-25T21:26:38.987" LastActivityDate="2021-10-17T16:42:16.107" Title="Is Ganesha created based on Gautama Buddha?" Tags="|ganesha|other-religions|buddhism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20431" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-25T04:31:12.563" Score="3" ViewCount="377" Body="&lt;p&gt;I just bought a Ganesha idol from market to my home for Ganesh chaturadhi puja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found this &lt;strong&gt;small hole&lt;/strong&gt; behind the idol. What does it indicate?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hylRr.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hylRr.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11813" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-08-26T11:52:54.457" LastActivityDate="2017-08-26T11:52:54.457" Title="Why do they put a hole behind some Ganesha idols?" Tags="|ganesha|symbolism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20432" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20424" CreationDate="2017-08-25T05:16:43.253" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara's &lt;a href=&quot;http://hpb.narod.ru/tph/TPH_VIVE.HTM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जन्तूनां नरजन्म दुर्लभमतः पुंस्त्वं ततो विप्रता&#xA;  तस्माद्वैदिकधर्ममार्गपरता विद्वत्त्वमस्मात्परम् ।&#xA;  आत्मानात्मविवेचनं स्वनुभवो ब्रह्मात्मना संस्थितिः&#xA;  मुक्तिर्नो शतजन्मकोटिसुकृतैः पुण्यैर्विना लभ्यते ॥ २॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;jantuunaam nara-janma dur-labhamatah punstvan tato viprataa&#xA;tasmaad vaidika-dharma-maarga-parataa vidvattvam asmaat param.&#xA;aatmaan'aatma-vivechanam svanubhavo brahm'aatmanaa samsthitih&#xA;muktir no shata-janma-koti-su-kr^taih punyair vinaa labhyate&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among sentient creatures birth as a man is difficult to attain, among human beings manhood, among men to be a Brahmana, among Brahmanas desire to follow the path of Vedic Dharma, and among those, learning. But the spiritual knowledge which discriminates between spirit and non-spirit, the practical realization of the merging of oneself in Brahmatman and final emancipation from the bonds of matter are unattainable except by the good karma of hundreds of crores of births.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दुर्लभं त्रयमेवैतद्देवानुग्रहहेतुकम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मनुष्यत्वं मुमुक्षुत्वं महापुरुषसंश्रयः ॥ ३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;durlabham trayam evaitad devaanugrahahetukam&#xA;manushyatvam mumukshhutvam mahaapurushhasamshrayah&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These three things are rare and attained only by the grace of God - human nature (birth), desire for liberation, and refuge under great sage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Non-scriptural, common-sense calculation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7 billion (10^9) humans on earth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+insects+in+the+world&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;10 quintillion insects&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who knows how many more bacteria, worms, fish, plants, animals etc. Let just say 100 quintillion living beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chance of being born as human = 10^9 / 10^20 = 10^-11 = &lt;strong&gt;0.00000000001&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That means, if you die now, assuming average age of 1 year of life per rebirth (insects live very short lives, trees have very long lifespan, so average it out), it would take you another Billion years to be reborn as human again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, this is just on earth - if you include Devas, Asuras etc in other 13 worlds, whole life might be spent just in calculating this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But above is based on random/Normal distribution, whereas actually your birth is in your hands, based on your karma.&#xA;As humans, we have choice to use brain to control our senses, do charity, follow shastras, bhagavad-nama-japa, and get rid of samsara cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-08-25T18:14:00.263" LastActivityDate="2017-08-25T18:14:00.263" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20433" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20424" CreationDate="2017-08-25T05:32:02.667" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The scriptures definitely say that human life is rare or difficult to get. But IMO it will be hard to answer the &quot;how much&quot; part in your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given below are a few relevant verses, which are the words of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atra janma sahasreshu sahasrairapi&lt;/strong&gt; PArvati |&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;KadAchit labhate jantur mAnushyam&lt;/strong&gt; puntyasanchayAt ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva says to Goddess PArvati] Thousands and thousands of jivas&#xA;  are getting equally numerous births, but among them only rarely (kadAchit) one&#xA;  gets a human birth due to its accumulated merits (punyasanchaya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SopAnabhutam mokshashya mAnushya, &lt;strong&gt;prApya durlabham&lt;/strong&gt; |&#xA;  YastArayati nAtmAnam tasmat pApatarohatra kah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Human life, which is like a staircase to liberation (moksha), is rare&#xA;  (durlabham) to achieve. Who is more sinner than the one who gets it but fails to&#xA;  utilize it [to the fullest].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram, UllAsah 1, Verses 15,16.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another relevant verse is the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chaturvida sarirAni dhritvA sahasrashah | SukritAnmAnavo bhutvA jyAni&#xA;  chenmokshamApluyAt ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The jiva upon obtaining the four kinds of bodies, repeatedly and for&#xA;  numerous times finally obtains the life of a human, and if in that&#xA;  life he attains knowledge [of the Self or atma jyAna], he attains&#xA;  liberation (moksha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 1-14&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentary on the &lt;code&gt;chaturvidhasarirAni&lt;/code&gt; is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;JarAyujAndajAtAni SvedajAnyudvidAni cha&quot;- Plants, Svedaja (born from&#xA;  Sveda?), Andaja (born of eggs) and JarAyuja (born of a Yoni) are the four kinds of bodies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The KulArmava Tantram and several other Agamas also talk about the 84 lakhs of bodies viz &lt;code&gt;&quot;chaturshitilaksheshu sarireshu&quot;&lt;/code&gt; but even with that info we can't seem to answer the &quot;how much&quot; part.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-25T05:57:11.650" LastActivityDate="2017-08-25T05:57:11.650" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20434" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20050" CreationDate="2017-08-25T05:35:54.193" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rama never had any doubt. Even layman's doubt was already long-ago cleared by Agni Pariksha. People thinking it was some easy drama. Just put your hand on top of candle for 5 seconds, and see if you can bear it. Only people who have done agni pariksha themselves have right to comment about Sita devi or Draupadi (who does Agni snanam before entering house of other husband). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People keep on questioning all the time. These people will also question Rama as why he killed Vali from hiding. Vali himself asked Rama 6 questions, and after Rama satisfactorily answered, Vali gave his son Angada to Rama for guardianship. Still, even today, there is debate, because they don't listen to Ramayana upanyasam from elders fully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama wanted his wife who was garbhavati, to be under Rishi's care. Because during garbham, all good things must be heard by embryo/foetus.&lt;/strong&gt; And who better than Valmiki muni to impart this knowledge. And after they are born, Lava &amp;amp; Kusha learn Ramayana from Valmiki.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, as a king, and as Dharma incarnate (ramo vigrahavaan dharmah), he is not supposed to ignore his subjects, however varied their opinions might be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as '2 mango with 1 stone', he sent Sita devi to Valmiki ashrama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2017-08-25T06:00:00.513" LastActivityDate="2017-08-25T06:00:00.513" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20435" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-25T05:40:59.500" Score="2" ViewCount="7436" Body="&lt;p&gt;Almost every vegetarian food is valid in at least one fast. Meaning, if one food is not allowed in a particular fast then the same food will be allowed in some other fast. For example, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In Hanuman's fast salty food is forbidden But we can eat salt in&#xA;Navratra's fast.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Normal rice is forbidden in Navratra's fast but we can eat it in&#xA;Hanuman's fast and in some others also.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And almost everything is eatable in Satya Narayana's fast except&#xA;onion and garlic.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By above examples I came to know that if one God rejects one food then some other God accepts the same food. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Onion (and may be garlic also) is the food which is not allowed in any of the fasts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why do all Gods reject onion?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why is onion rejected in every fast?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="290" LastEditDate="2017-08-25T05:49:27.683" LastActivityDate="2018-03-03T04:31:43.723" Title="Why is onion forbidden in every fast?" Tags="|food|fasting|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20436" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20435" CreationDate="2017-08-25T06:19:27.343" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;That's because eating onions is forbidden not just during fasts, but at all times.  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;laśunaṃ gṛñjanaṃ caiva palāṇḍuṃ kavakāni ca | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  abhakṣyāṇi dvijātīnāmamedhyaprabhavāni ca ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Garlic, leeks and onions, mushrooms and (all plants), springing from impure (substances), are unfit to be eaten by twice-born men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Here's another verse from the same chapter of the Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;chatrākaṃ viḍvarāhaṃ ca laśunaṃ grāmakukkuṭam | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  palāṇḍuṃ gṛñjanaṃ caiva matyā jagdhvā pated dvijaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A twice-born man who knowingly eats mushrooms, a village-pig, garlic, a village-cock, onions, or leeks, will become an outcast.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prayaschitta for this sin is laid out in chapter 11 of the Manu Smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-08-25T07:11:59.903" LastActivityDate="2017-08-25T07:11:59.903" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20437" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20428" CreationDate="2017-08-25T09:19:59.157" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Birth of Virabhadra is described in &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 32 Rudra Samhita Sati Khanda of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/strong&gt;. The same legend can also be found in other Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Sati immolated Herself in Yajna fire, Shiva ganas and divine sage Narada informed everything that happened at Yajna to Lord Shiva. Shiva then threw a lock of his &lt;em&gt;Jata&lt;/em&gt;/hair and Veerabhadra with Bhadrakali were born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उत्पाटयौकां जटां रुद्री लोकसंहारकारक:। &lt;br&gt;  अास्फालयामास रुषा&#xA;पर्वतस्य तदोपरि।।२० ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Rudra, the destroyer of the universe, plucked a lock of hair from&#xA;his head and threw it over the mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तोदनाच द्विधा भूता सा जटा च मुने! प्रभो!। &lt;br&gt; सम्बभूव महारावो&#xA;महाप्रलयभीषणः।।२१।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Master, with the throwing of the lock of hair, it was turned into&#xA;two pieces and the deafening sound resembling the sound of the time of&#xA;dissolution was heard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तञ्जटायाः समुद्भूतो वीरभद्री महाबल:। &lt;br&gt;पूर्वभागेन देवर्षे महाभीमो&#xA;गणाग्रणीः॥२२।।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Divine sage, from the fore-part of the matted lock of hair, the&#xA;immensely terrific and great warrior who was the leader of his force,&#xA;known as Virabhadra was born.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स भूमिं विश्वतो वृत्य चात्यतिष्ठद्दशाङ्गुलम्। &lt;br&gt; प्रलयानलसङ्काशः&#xA;प्रोन्नतो दोः सहस्रवाम्।।२३।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He looked like the flames of the fire of the time of dissolution,&#xA;having two thousand hands. He enveloped the world all around and&#xA;towered over it ten inches more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कोपनिःश्वासतस्तत्र महारुद्रस्य चेशितुः।&lt;br&gt; जातं ज्वराणां शतक&#xA;सन्निपातास्त्रयोदश।२४।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At that time with the enraged breathing of Siva, a hundred types of&#xA;fevers, and thirteen types of mental humours came Out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;महाकाली समुत्पन्ना तञ्जटापरभागत:।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; महाभयङ्करा तात !&#xA;भूतकोटिभिरावृता।।२५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From the other part of the matted lock of hair, Mahakali was born&lt;/strong&gt;. O&#xA;Dear one, she was terrible to look at, and was Surrounded by crores of&#xA;goblins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord Shiva orders Virabhadra and Bhadrakali to destroy Yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रहोवाच &lt;br&gt; इत्युक्तं तद्वचः श्रुत्वा सन्तुष्टो मङ्गलापतिः।&#xA;&lt;br&gt;वीरभद्र! जयेति त्वं प्रोक्ताशीः प्राह तं पुनः।।४५।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma Said, “Thus listening to the words of Virabhadra, Lord Siva,&#xA;the spouse of Sati, felt delighted and said, 'O Virabhadra, by&#xA;victorious.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;महेश्वर उवाच&lt;br&gt; शृणु मद्वचनं तात! वीरभद्र! सुचेतसा। &lt;br&gt;करणीयं&#xA;प्रयतेन तद्द्भुतं मे प्रतोषकम्।।४६।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You listen to me, whatever has to be done by youthere, which would&#xA;delight me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यागं कर्तुं समुद्युक्तो दक्षो विधिसुतः खलः।। &lt;br&gt;मद्विरोधी विशेषेण&#xA;महागर्वोऽबुधोऽधुना।।४७।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Presently, Daksa Prajapati, the son of Brahma, is getting ready to&#xA;perform a yajna. He is my adversary besides being a wicked, unwise and&#xA;conceited person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तन्मर्ख भस्मसात्कृत्वा सयागपरिवारकम्। &lt;br&gt;पुनरायाहि मत्स्थानं सत्वरं&#xA;गणसत्तम!।।४८।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You reduce his yajna as well as those present there to ashes.&#xA;Thereafter, O VĨrabhadra, the best of my ganas, you return to me&#xA;quickly. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सुरा भवन्तु गन्धर्वा यक्षा वान्ये च केचना तानप्यद्यैव सहसा&#xA;भस्मसात्कुरु सत्वरम्॥४९ ।।  &lt;br&gt; तत्रास्तु विष्णुर्ब्रह्मा वा शचीशो वा&#xA;यमोऽपि वा। अपि चाद्यैव तान्सर्वान्पातयस्व प्रयत्नतः ।।५०।। &lt;br&gt;सुरा&#xA;भवन्तु गन्धर्वा यक्षा वान्ये च केचना तानप्यद्यैव सहसा भस्मसात्कुरु&#xA;सत्वरम्।।५१।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gods, Gandharvas, Yaksas and others, whosoever be present there&#xA;should be reducedto ashes. Even if Visnu, Brahma, Indra or Yama are&#xA;present there, fell them to the ground making all the strenuous&#xA;efforts. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;chapter 33&lt;/strong&gt;, various Goddesses accompanied by Mahakali are mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तुष्टुवुश्च गणा वीरं शिपिविष्टे प्रचेष्टितम्। &lt;br&gt; चक्रुः कुतूहलं&#xA;सर्वे तस्मिश्च गमनोत्सवे।।१०।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having he same features and&#xA;costumes as Siva, the ganas of the great warrior, offered prayers at&#xA;the time of start and they displayed their enthusiasm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;काली कात्यायनीशानी चामुण्डा मुण्डमर्दिनी। &lt;br&gt; भद्रकाली तथा भद्रा&#xA;त्वरिता वैष्णवी तथा।११।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एताभिर्नवदुर्गाभिर्महाकाली समन्विता। &lt;br&gt; ययौ दक्षविनाशाय सर्वभूतगणैः&#xA;सह।।१२।।&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The goddesses like Kālī, Kātyāyanī, šānī, Cămundă, Mundamardinī,&#xA;Bhadrakālī, Bhadrā, Tvaritā, Vaisņavī, Mahākālī, Bhairava, and&#xA;KSetrapalas, at the command of Siva, quickly marched on for the&#xA;destruction of the yajnia of Daksa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;डाकिनी शाकिनी चैव भूतप्रमथगुह्यका:। &lt;br&gt; कूष्माण्डाः पर्पटाश्चैव चटका&#xA;ब्रह्मराक्षसाः।।१३।। &lt;br&gt; भैरवाः क्षेत्रपालाश्च दक्षयज्ञविनाशकाः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;निर्ययुस्त्वरितं वीराः शिवाज्ञाप्रतिपालकाः।।१४।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides the Dākinīs, Sakinis, pramathaganas, Guhyakas, Kasmandas,&#xA;Parpatas, Catakas, Brahmarāksas, Bhairvas and KSetrapalas, obeying the&#xA;command of Siva started for the destruction of Daksa's sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तथैव योगिनीचक्रं चतुःषष्टिगणान्वितम्।  &lt;br&gt; निर्ययौ सहसा क्रुद्धं&#xA;दक्षयज्ञं विनाशितुम्।।१५।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly the sixty four yoginis marched on for the destructions of&#xA;the yajna of Daksa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next verses mention total strength of ganas assigned to each Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-25T09:27:51.497" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20439" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20375" CreationDate="2017-08-25T12:54:09.117" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Reason for obtaining an existence among &lt;em&gt;bhuta-preta&lt;/em&gt; is already discussed in my answer to:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14961/1049&quot;&gt;Reasons for attaining preta janma and how to get relieved&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As also mentioned there, the amount of time one remains in this situation is not specified. As a rule of thumb, one goes in the upward regions if &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; increases, one goes to lower regions if &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; increases. One sticks in the same region, if &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; is predominant. Hence if an entity has to come out of the ghost life then it requires &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt;, which is illuminating by nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding &quot;Suicide&quot;, it's English definition is &quot;the act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally&quot;. Now if this meaning has to be believed then &quot;suicide&quot; is not necessarily ghost creator in all the instances. For example, as I have discussed already in the comment to your Qn, Drona &amp;amp; Bhishma gave up their life voluntarily in the state of Yoga. They did not become ghosts. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16361/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 8.6 — Also [when] the body is left remembering this or that &quot;Nature&quot; at the end, O son of Kunti, [it] always approaches towards establishing those nature(s) only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The time of the death is also important. You may further read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19385/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-25T12:54:09.117" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20440" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8595" CreationDate="2017-08-25T18:53:49.170" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;12th Adhyaya of the 1st Khanda&lt;/strong&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0Y5Ito6ltz_LTdseF9lVUZOYW8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganesha Purana&lt;/strong&gt;(pg 83 to 88 in Hindi)&lt;/a&gt; gives a story of Ganesha's curse to Chandrama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A brief summary of the story is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once when all the gods are gathered around Brahma, Shiva Parvati were&#xA;also there along with their two sons Kumara (Kartikeya) and Ganesha.&#xA;Lord Shiva had a divine fruit which Ganesha and Kartikeya demanded&#xA;together. Lord Shiva being confused asks Brahma for advice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma tells him to give it to Kumara as Kumara is older in age. Lord&#xA;Shiva does so and then the family returns home. Brahma begins to&#xA;perform creation. Ganesha is angry with Brahma's decision and he&#xA;plants obstacles during Brahma's creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He finally appears before Brahma assuming a fierce form. Brahma&#xA;trembles on seeing Ganesha's wrath. On seeing Brahma's fear at&#xA;Ganesha's form Chandra laughs at him along with his attendants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha is furious at this mockery and curses Chandra, &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;O fool, by&#xA;mocking me thus you have shown your indecency, henceforth no one will&#xA;see your face and those who do would reap sin.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was problematic for the people on earth so the gods advise&#xA;Chandra to propitiate Ganesha and ask for his forgiveness. Chandra&#xA;does so and &lt;strong&gt;Ganesha modifies the curse to apply on only one day i.e.&#xA;Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story is very clear on the curse affecting people regardless of if they know about it or if they don't know.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So yes even other people on earth who do not know about the story or curse would be affected by it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Dgr7S.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Dgr7S.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Translation:&lt;/em&gt; On Shukla Chaturthi of Bhadrapada, &lt;strong&gt;knowing or unknowingly&#xA;if one views the moon&lt;/strong&gt; one is cursed with frequent/great sorrows, there&#xA;is no doubt about this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-27T11:37:44.490" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20443" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20444" CreationDate="2017-08-26T05:01:09.277" Score="7" ViewCount="1418" Body="&lt;p&gt;I use to meditate properly in a sitting posture, But recently my physical health got worse and it restricts me from sitting for a long time. hence I started meditating lying down, But I have observed that it is difficult to maintain concentration in lying posture due to sleepiness as compared to the sitting posture. how can I practice meditation in lying posture with full concentration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2314" LastActivityDate="2017-08-26T18:01:50.460" Title="How to meditate lying down" Tags="|meditation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20444" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20443" CreationDate="2017-08-26T05:12:32.437" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavasana&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shavasana&lt;/a&gt; is the most famous way of meditating while lying down. The only restriction is that one may not lie in left or right side. The posture has to be facing the sky:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vKplBm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/vKplBm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To perform Shavasana, lie on the back with the legs spread as wide as the yoga mat and arms relaxed to the side. The eyes are closed and the breath is deep with the use deergha (long) pranayama. The whole body is relaxed on the floor with an awareness of the chest and abdomen rising and falling with each breath. During Shavasana, all parts of the body are scanned for muscular tension of any kind. Any muscular tension the body finds is consciously released as it is found. All control of the breath, the mind, and the body is then released for the duration of the asana, typically 20–30 minutes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The asana is released by slowly deepening the breath, flexing the fingers and toes, reaching the arms above the head, stretching the whole body, and exhaling while bringing the knees to the chest and rolling over to the side in a fetal position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-26T05:12:32.437" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20445" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20443" CreationDate="2017-08-26T08:29:57.530" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But I have observed that it is difficult to maintain concentration in lying posture due to sleepiness as compared to the sitting posture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You don't need to worry about this. In fact, you can use such condition as meditation as well! From VijnAnaBhairava Tantra- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When sleep has not yet fully appeared i.e. when one is about&#xA;  to fall asleep, and all the external objects (though present) have&#xA;  faded out of sight then the state (between sleep and waking) is&#xA;  one on which &lt;strong&gt;one should concentrate&lt;/strong&gt;. In that state the &lt;strong&gt;Supreme&#xA;  Goddess&lt;/strong&gt; will reveal Herself. Verse 75.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, how to concentrate? &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;For concentration there are many ways one has been described &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20122/8696&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Another is repeatedly direct mind towards your present condition as whatever you practice repeatedly it becomes habit of mind whether concentration or distraction (Watch &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O2JK_94g3Y&amp;amp;list=LLrKnX-JHA5p4lHeVGngFU5A&amp;amp;index=34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;). So, for concentration only you can do is you can put right efforts. You can also witness flow of your breath while lying down. When you are distracted concentrate again. repeat this concentration repeatedly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qTThL.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/qTThL.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-08-26T18:01:50.460" LastActivityDate="2017-08-26T18:01:50.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20447" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20344" CreationDate="2017-08-26T14:16:43.307" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kamma Kshatriyas are still wearing in many areas. I have a friend from Kamma caste. He wears it. Kamma is a Telugu caste.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11822" LastActivityDate="2017-08-26T14:16:43.307" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20448" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="26557" CreationDate="2017-08-26T14:51:59.617" Score="10" ViewCount="567" Body="&lt;p&gt;Living one's dharma seems to be paramount, but first I must discover what my &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; is. I was born and reared in the West, so how can I discover my &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have read the Gita and it helped me understand different paths, but how can I know what is proper for me? I don't have a caste or any other similar societal role. Do I simply do something I am interested in and then it will become clear?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IOW, &lt;strong&gt;how may one discover their specific &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt; How should one spend their days without knowing this? Or am I missing the point and discovering one's dharma is a part of the process?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it helps to know, &lt;em&gt;Advaita&lt;/em&gt; appeals to me the most, but I am always open to new understandings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10329" LastEditorUserId="10329" LastEditDate="2018-04-08T19:44:21.307" LastActivityDate="2018-04-29T13:22:28.410" Title="How can one know their dharma?" Tags="|vedanta|dharma|advaita|purushartha|artha|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20451" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-27T06:55:05.630" Score="8" ViewCount="3624" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently while revising the Srimad Bhagavad Geeta, the following verse inspired me to think and search:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्सदिति निर्देशो ब्रह्मणस्त्रिविधः स्मृतः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;ब्राह्मणास्तेन वेदाश्च यज्ञाश्च विहिताः पुरा&lt;/strong&gt;।।17.23।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here ब्राह्मणा can be interpreted as either Brahmanas (considered to be part of Veda) or Brahmins (one of the 4 Varna). Actually I was going through Sanskrit-Gujarati book I have and I used to interpret it as Brahmins:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UeIpJm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UeIpJm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read Sansrit-Hindi (of Gita press)version from &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7T0zBCVuV7cRnNNTG5NT1VPTkk/view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; where you'll find ब्राह्मण​ can mean both. I've gone through English translation because I thought that it would be clearly interpreted as either Brahmanas or Brahmins (in English).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OM, TAT and SATóthis has been declared as&#xA;the triple appellation of Brahma, who is Truth,&#xA;Consciousness and Bliss. By that were the&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Brāhmanas&lt;/strong&gt; and the Vedas as well as sacrifices&#xA;created at the cosmic dawn. (23).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I surprised a little bit to find that it is interpreted as Brahmanas (part of Veda). So, I want to make sure &lt;strong&gt;Whether the verse 17.23 refer to Brahmanas or Brahmins?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because if it is about Brahmanas (the part of Vedas), then it may help with some related post like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19151/277&quot;&gt;Looking for scriptural source that introduce Brahmanas&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19002/277&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I've earlier &lt;a href=&quot;https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/38624646#38624646&quot;&gt;discussed&lt;/a&gt;, there can be three different opinions regarding parts of Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmanas (including Aranyaka &amp;amp; Upanishads) Apaurusheya, Shruti/Veda!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Considering Brahmanas (including Aaranyaka &amp;amp; Upanishads) Vedas/Shruti but only Samhita part is actually Apaurusheya.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Only Samhita of Vedas are Veda and Shruti. Brahmanas and other parts are expansion and interpretation but not Vedas. -- This is introduced by Swami Dayananda Saraswati and Arya Samaj following.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if BG is talking about Brahmanas (part of Veda), I think it may &lt;em&gt;prove Brahmanas Apaurusheya&lt;/em&gt; like Samhita of Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-27T07:12:37.647" Title="Does Bhagavad Gita Sloka 17.23 refer to Brahmanas or Brahmins?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|brahmins|sruti|brahmanas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20452" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20451" CreationDate="2017-08-27T06:55:05.630" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though Bhashya of Adi Shankaracharya on this verse of BG doens't elaborate much, according to Sri Ramanujacharya, Brahmanas means the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting Sri Ramanujacharya's Bhashya on mentioned verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation of Ramanuja's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Adidevananda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;17.23 &lt;strong&gt;Here Brahman means the Veda. It is the secondary meaning of the expression, especially of the ritualistic portion of the Veda.&lt;/strong&gt; The three-fold expression Om Tat Sat is connected with the Brahman or the Veda. Sacrifices and similar rituals are prescribed in the Vedas. These expressions Om Tat Sat are used in these Vedic rites. The connection of Om is that it should be invariably used at the commencement of the recitation of Vedic hymns. The syllable Tat and Sat indicate that these rituals are worthy of honour. &lt;strong&gt;The Brahmanas are those who are to preserve Vedic study as also the Vedas and the sacrificial rites ordained in them.&lt;/strong&gt; All these were created by Me in the past. Sri Krsna elaborates in the next verses the nature of the connection of these syllables with the Vedic rituals, beginning first with Om.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the emphasized text mean Brahmanas the portion of Vedas and also those who preserve Vedic study may mean Brahmins I think. So, Brahmanas should be the Brahmanas (part of Vedas) rather than Brahmins. Although I'm still looking for clear understanding and appropriate/correct interpretations, so, looking for well researched answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-27T06:55:05.630" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20453" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-27T08:26:23.710" Score="10" ViewCount="275" Body="&lt;p&gt;As a mathematics student, I know that Vedic mathematics is elementary level mathematics and mainly consists of some calculation techniques.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How much of it is related to Vedas? In which Veda can it be found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastEditorUserId="290" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T04:25:41.587" LastActivityDate="2019-11-23T23:13:43.963" Title="How much of Vedic Mathematics is related to Veda?" Tags="|vedas|mathematics|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20454" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-27T09:24:32.603" Score="6" ViewCount="537" Body="&lt;p&gt;If the gods are reluctant to give the vardan or boon of amaratva (immortality) then why are certain personalities like Ashwasthhama and other chiranjivis immortal?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11830" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-27T11:50:51.043" LastActivityDate="2021-11-06T17:52:56.990" Title="How can we explain the 'vardan (boon)' of 'amaratva (immortality)'?" Tags="|gods|ashwatthama|life-span|chiranjivi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20456" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-27T12:56:24.113" Score="5" ViewCount="757" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu has 2 wives: one is Shree Mahalakshmi and the other is Bhumi Devi, as mentioned in the following shlok which many people say in the morning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;॥ विष्णुपत्नि नमस्तुभ्यं पादस्पर्शं क्षमस्वमे ॥&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;meaning&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot;|| O consort of Lord Vishnu, forgive me for stepping on you ||&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/How-many-wives-did-Lord-Vishnu-have-Is-Vaishno-devi-Vaishnavi-also-a-wife/answer/Sathish-K-Samy?srid=Ie9p&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; it is explained that Lord Vishnu has two wives, Sri Devi (श्री देवी) and BhooDevi (Earth Goddess)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Goddess Sita is the daughter of Bhumi Devi then how can we say Lord Ram is Incarnation of Lord Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it is true, then in the form of Lord Vishnu, Bhumi Devi is his wife, and in the form of Lord Ram, Bhumi Devi is his mother in law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could somebody please explain this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="17833" LastEditDate="2021-03-10T17:57:28.870" LastActivityDate="2023-10-05T12:07:00.857" Title="If Goddess Sita is the daughter of Bhumi Devi, then how can we say Lord Ram is an Incarnation of Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|rama|sita|bhumi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20457" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20569" CreationDate="2017-08-27T13:51:09.093" Score="10" ViewCount="758" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Buddhism, the two main sects: Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism is divided on what kind of food can be accepted by monks as bhiksha. The Theravada sect believes that Buddha sanctioned the monks that they can accept meat provided the following three conditions are met:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;meat should not be eaten under three circumstances: when it is seen or heard or suspected (that a living being has been purposely slaughtered for the eater); these, Jivaka, are the three circumstances in which meat should not be eaten, Jivaka! I declare there are three circumstances in which meat can be eaten: when it is not seen or heard or suspected (that a living being has been purposely slaughtered for the eater); Jivaka, I say these are the three circumstances in which meat can be eaten.&lt;/strong&gt; —Jivaka Sutta&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mahayana sect, on the other hand, believes in a zero-tolerance attitude towards meat. The following excerpt is a conversation between Buddha and Manjushri from the Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra, a Mahayana text:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mañjuśrī asked, “Do Buddhas not eat meat because of the tathāgata-garbha ?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Blessed One (Buddha) replied, “Mañjuśrī, that is so. There are no beings who have not been one’s mother, who have not been one’s sister through generations of wandering in beginningless and endless saṃsāra. Even one who is a dog has been one’s father, for the world of living beings is like a dancer. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore, one’s own flesh and the flesh of another are a single flesh, so Buddhas do not eat meat. “Moreover, Mañjuśrī, the dhātu of all beings is the dharmadhātu, so Buddhas do not eat meat because they would be eating the flesh of one single dhātu.”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coming to Hinduism, in Bengal, Eka-dandi Sannyasis (mainly from Ramakrishna Mission) are often seen accepting meat as bhiksha. Many justify Swami Vivekananda's eating habits by claiming Sannyasis must accept any type of food as bhiksha.So I would want to know what do scriptures say about Sannyasis eating meat? Are Sannyasis allowed to accept meat as bhiksha according to the scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user17294" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-04-07T18:03:48.867" Title="Can Sannyasis accept meat as bhiksha?" Tags="|non-vegetarian|sanyasi|sannyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20460" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20435" CreationDate="2017-08-27T15:52:36.583" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Onion and garlic contain  sulphone hydroxyl ions which are brain stimulants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be pointed out that garlic and onion are avoided by spiritual adherents because they stimulate the central nervous system, and can disturb vows of celibacy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user11714" LastEditorDisplayName="user11655" LastEditDate="2017-08-27T16:40:21.103" LastActivityDate="2017-08-27T16:40:21.103" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20461" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20454" CreationDate="2017-08-27T18:11:11.757" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Those who are born are certain to die. Only beginningless doesn't have end for the obvious reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.27 - &lt;strong&gt;Those who have a birth, it's certain [for them] to die&lt;/strong&gt;, Hence you don't have to grieve about inevitable&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ashwathama, shri Hanuman &amp;amp; all others are born with certain attributes. Though they are &lt;em&gt;Chiranjivi&lt;/em&gt;(long lived), they are not immortal from their physical body perspective. However should [any of] they, become &lt;strong&gt;indifferent&lt;/strong&gt; to various qualities &amp;amp; tastes of &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, their subtle bodies would surely identify/unify with the &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;, which is beginningless &amp;amp; hence immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.15 - O foremost of men, surely all these don't distress to that person(&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;); that wise person &lt;strong&gt;to whom sorrow and happhiness are the same -- is fit for immortality&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also refer:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2034/1049&quot;&gt;Who are the seven immortals (Chiranjeevi)?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2388/1049&quot;&gt;Ashvatthaman&amp;#39;s immortality?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-27T18:11:11.757" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20462" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-27T18:26:05.637" Score="7" ViewCount="933" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manusmriti has &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manusmriti#Commentaries&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;more than six&lt;/a&gt; commentaries so far (Bhāruci, Medhātithi, Govindarāja, Kullūka, Nārāyana, Sarvajnanarayana, Nandana, Raghavananda, Ramacandra). Only Medhatithi's commentary which has been translated to English is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;available online&lt;/a&gt; as per my knowledge. Where can I read the other commentaries in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-02-21T22:42:44.360" LastActivityDate="2019-02-21T22:42:44.360" Title="Where can I read Manusmriti along with all its commentaries in English?" Tags="|scripture|translation-request|manu-smriti|resource|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20465" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20471" CreationDate="2017-08-28T02:13:52.480" Score="5" ViewCount="366" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was thinking that do gods really exist in the same form as they are shown in pictures. &#xA;Or this is creation of some intelligent mind to give common man a subject to worship. &#xA;There are several things which depicts this :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;99% gods are in human form.   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;People like to worship those who are powerful than them. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gods are for everyone and hence should be some abstractness. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11830" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-08-28T06:43:06.043" LastActivityDate="2017-08-28T07:52:44.760" Title="About depiction of gods" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-08-28T12:14:35.113" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20467" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20584" CreationDate="2017-08-28T04:46:38.970" Score="14" ViewCount="18637" Body="&lt;p&gt;If any person unconsciously consumed non-vegetarian food and later learned that he/she has done so, is there any provision in Hindu religion to wash that sin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8467" LastEditorUserId="290" LastEditDate="2017-08-28T06:22:19.333" LastActivityDate="2018-08-02T16:24:33.613" Title="How to wash away sin after unconsciously consuming non-vegetarian food?" Tags="|sin|food|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20470" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7472" CreationDate="2017-08-28T06:50:33.687" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In addition to Uttara Kānda of Rāmāyaṇa, the story of Vāli defeating Rāvaṇa is also mentioned in Chapter 7 of Upodghāta pāda Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa Upodghāta pāda. It is mentioned how Vāli defeated Rāvaṇa effortlessly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;raṇe nigūṅya vāmena bhujena sa mahābalaḥ || BndP_2,7.247 || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  viṣṭabhya pārśvesaṃsthāpya rāvaṇandhyānamasthitaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vānara king Vāli once defeated Rāvaṇa. He caught hold of him with his left hand. Placing him at his side, he pressed him hard and he went on meditating.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mauhūrtikīṃ gatiṃ gatvā catuḥ paraśarvānupaspṛśan || BndP_2,7.248 || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  samudraṃ dakṣaṇaṃ pūrvapaścimaṃ ca tathottaram | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  manovāyugatirbhūtvā vālī vyapagatakramaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the course of a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MW72Scan/2014/web/webtc/indexcaller.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;muhūrta&lt;/a&gt;, he went to the four oceans, the southern, the eastern, the western and the northern, meanwhile touching all the four sides. He had the speed of wind but he was not exhausted (He did not feel strain of the long travel.). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to the firm grip of Vāli, Rāvaṇa fell unconscious. Vāli put him under a tree and sprinkled some water on the body of Rāvaṇa(from head to feet) and pretended to be surprised when Rāvaṇa regained consciousness(but he was proud of his strength).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you read the above incident, you will understand that this was totally one-sided. This wasn't a duel. Rāvaṇa didn't compete at any stage. Vāli didn't use any of his weapons. He just used his physical strength. No weapon is used by Vāli. In fact, he never used any weapon in the combat with his brother Sugrīva.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He then speaks to Rāvaṇa in a surprised manner and reminds him of his past achievements. He asks how and why he was defeated by a Vānara like him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nirvikāro jayaprepsuḥ smayamāno balādbalī | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  durbalena mayā krānto vānareṇa viśeṣataḥ || BndP_2,7.260 || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kimarthamīdṛśaṃ śapto balavānapi durjayaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  prabrūhi hetunā kena brahmanrākṣasapuṅgava || BndP_2,7.261 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are a Mahāratha(a great warrior who can withstand an attack of thousands of archers). You are free from excitement and eager to gain the victory. In spite of that, a powerful warrior have been overwhelmed by me, a weak one and a monkey in particular. ||2,7.260||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How is it that you, in spite of being an unconquerable hero, have been condemned by to such a plight as this. Tell me, O leading rākṣasa of Brāhmaṇa caste, what is the reason hereof?  ||2,7.261||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;abhayaṃ te mayā dattaṃ viśvasto bhava te na bhīḥ |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vayanaṃ vālinaḥ śrutvā daśagrīvaḥ pratāpavān || BndP_2,7.262 ||   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Freedom from fear has been given unto you by me. Rest assured. You have nothing to fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing these words from Vāli, Rāvaṇa spoke in a hostile voice and said &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is true that I have defeated Devas and asuras. But I have never come across a powerful man of this sort(like you). I wish to make a friendly alliance with you, devoid of fear of every sort. O heroic warrior, never will a fight ensue with you from my side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vāli also agreed with this and they entered a treaty. This made Rāvaṇa happy. He returned to Lanka along with his hordes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way, the fight between Rāvaṇa and Vāli took place and pride of Rāvaṇa has been broken.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-08-28T06:50:33.687" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20471" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20465" CreationDate="2017-08-28T07:24:04.143" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;God has two forms subtle (which is without form) and gross (which has form). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Brahman (or God) is undivided, unimaginable, without form, without body etc worshiping it is not possible in that abstractness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, God does not give Bhukti (enjoyment) and Mukti (liberation) without upAsana (worsjip) either.That's why forms (that we are acquainted with) are assigned to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Viz-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VinA ChopAsanAm Devi na dadAti phalam nrinAm and also DhyAtah smritah&#xA;  pujito vA stuto vA namitohapi vA.. (a KulArnava Tantram verse)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Without worship, Devi does not give sAdhaka the fruits. One has to&#xA;  meditate upon her, remember her, worship her or please her (with&#xA;  stotrams) or offer prostrations to her..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, this is (God's murti kalpana) done for our benefits. This is what the Shastras say.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The KulArnava further says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;UpAsakAnAm karyArthAm brahmano rupakalpnA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the benefits of the upAsaka the formless Brahamn has been assigned&#xA;  a form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly the NArada PurAna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BhaktAnam mokshadAnaya bhavato murtikalpana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Murtikalpana (assigning definite human-like forms) of God has been&#xA;  thought of for the purpose of giving moksha to the devotee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the Garura PurAna says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Amurtyeschat sthiro na swAt tato murtim vichintayet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If God is without a definite form, his meditation is impossible.&#xA;  That's why imagine a form of God (murti chintA).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the murti kalpanA of God is part of the scriptures only and not our imaginations. How a deity looks, where it is standing/sitting , what is it wearing, what are it's weapons etc are contained in the so-called DhyAna sloka of that respective deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In YAmala Tantra, Lord Shiva elaborates this (two-fold Murtis of God) further as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sthulasukshma vivedena dhyanantu dvividam bhavet | Suksham&#xA;  mantravapurjyAnam sthulam vigrahachintanam || KarapAdodaRasyAdi rupam&#xA;  yat sthula vigraham | Sukshamcha prakrite rupam param jyAnamayam&#xA;  smritam || SukshmadhyAnam maheshAni ! kadAcinna hi jAyate |&#xA;  SthuladhyAnam maheshAni kritvA mokshmavApnyAt ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sthula (gross) and Sukshma (subtle)- DhyAna are of two kinds. Thinking&#xA;  of the mantra-body of the deity is Sukshama dhyAna and thinking of the&#xA;  gross body of the deity is Sthula DhyAna. Gross body (Sthula Vigraha)&#xA;  of the deity is its form that is having limbs, torso, face etc. And, the subtle&#xA;  form, that is beyond Prakriti (beyond the three gunas that is), jyAnamaya is&#xA;  the Sukshma Vigraha. Hey MaheshAni, without Sthula dhyAna Sukshma&#xA;  dhyAna can never be achieved. The spiritual aspirant attains&#xA;  liberation by Sthula dhyAna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more verse from Vishnu YAmala, which explicitly mentions the reason why gross form of the deity is necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MAtastat paramam rupam tanna janati kaschana | KAlyAdyah sthula yad&#xA;  rupam tadarcchanti divyaukasah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Vishnu says to Adi Shakti] Mother, No one knows your subtle&#xA;  (Sukshma) and supreme form, That's why the Gods worship your gross form which is&#xA;  endowed with hands-feet etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu YAmala.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many aspirants who want vision of God. For that they do purascharana of any particular mantra related to that deity. Now, if successful, then God will appear before him/her in his/her gross form i.e with human like features and not in the subtle form which is beyond senses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-28T07:52:44.760" LastActivityDate="2017-08-28T07:52:44.760" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20477" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20328" CreationDate="2017-08-28T11:47:56.453" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;For marathi people &lt;em&gt;&quot;Ram Ram&quot;&lt;/em&gt; was Started by &lt;strong&gt;Samartha Ramdas&lt;/strong&gt; in 1600. You can find the discription of these things in  &lt;strong&gt;Dasabodha&lt;/strong&gt; which is written by &lt;strong&gt;Swami Ramdas&lt;/strong&gt;.So Whenever two person meet they greet as  &lt;em&gt;&quot;Ram Ram&quot;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8467" LastActivityDate="2017-08-28T11:47:56.453" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20478" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18728" CreationDate="2017-08-28T11:55:33.330" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Polygamy was allowed&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence a man may marry multiple women.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rule of thumb is -- &lt;strong&gt;A man can marry only to his equal or lower intellectual order women.&lt;/strong&gt; All other forms are disallowed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In below passage, it has been said by Bhishma that, &lt;em&gt;Brahmana&lt;/em&gt; can marry all the other divisions, &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt; can marry all but &lt;em&gt;Brahamana&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt; can marry &lt;em&gt;Vaishya &amp;amp; Shudra&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt; can marry only &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt;. In general, for the &lt;em&gt;Dvija&lt;/em&gt; divisions, marrying a &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt; is not preferred and may result in expiation [particularly to &lt;em&gt;Brahamana&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Brahmana can take three wives. A Kshatriya can take two wives. As regards the Vaisya, he should take a wife from only his own order.&lt;/strong&gt; The children born of these wives should all be regarded as equal. 2 Of the three wives of a Brahmana, she taken from his own order should be regarded as the foremost. Similarly, of the two wives permitted to the Kshatriya, she taken from his own order should be regarded as superior. Some say that persons belonging to the three higher orders may take, only for purposes of enjoyment (and not for those of virtue), wives from the lowest or the Sudra order. Others, however, forbid the practice. The righteous condemn the practice of begetting issue upon Sudra women. A Brahmana, by begetting children upon a Sudra woman, incurs the liability of performing an expiation.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[AnushAsana parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above passage states the eligibility of a man belonging to particular division to marry a woman of certain division. But IMO, it implicitly also suggests that, multiple wives are allowed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Opposite form, i.e. the &quot;polyandry&quot; is forbidden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-28T11:55:33.330" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20479" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10018" CreationDate="2017-08-28T12:02:34.357" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't have any opinion for this Qn. Just to be clear that, &quot;marriage&quot; doesn't necessarily mean &quot;sex&quot; with a girl. It's more of a mental bonding, where girl starts seeing her husband as her protector and master.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Presenting a reference from Mahabharata &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b009.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;AnushAsana parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A person of thirty years of age should &lt;strong&gt;wed a girl of ten years of age called a Nagnika&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; Or, a person of one and twenty years of age &lt;strong&gt;should wed a girl of seven years of age&lt;/strong&gt;. That girl who has no brother nor father should not be wed, O chief of Bharata's race, for she may be intended as Putrika of her sire.&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; &lt;strong&gt;After the appearance of puberty, the girl (if not married) should wait for three years&lt;/strong&gt;. On the fourth year, she should look for a husband herself (without waiting any longer for her kinsmen to select one for her). The offspring of such a girl do not lose their respectability, nor does union with such a girl become disgraceful. If, instead of selecting a husband for herself, she acts otherwise, she incurs the reproach of Prajapati herself. One should wed that girl who is not a Sapinda of one's mother or of the same Gotra with one's father. Even this is the usage (consistent with the sacred law) which Manu has declared.'&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1: Nagnika is said to be one who wears a single piece of cloth. A girl in whom the signs of puberty have not appeared does not require more than a single piece of cloth to cover her. The mention of Nagnika, the commentator thinks, is due to an interdiction about wedding a girl of even ten years in whom signs of puberty have appeared.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sup&gt;2 When a father happens to have an only daughter, he frequently bestows her in marriage upon some eligible youth on the understanding that the son born of her shall be the son, for purposes of both Sraddha rites and inheritance, not of the husband begetting him but of the girl's father. Such a contract would be valid whether expressed or not at the time of marriage. The mere wish of the girl's father, unexpressed at the time of marriage, would convert the son into a son not of the father who begets him but of the father of the girl herself. A daughter reserved for such a purpose is said to be a putrikadharmini or 'invested with the character of a son.' To wed such a girl was not honourable. It was in effect an abandonment of the fruits of marriage. Even if dead at the time of marriage, still if the father had, while living, cherished such a wish, that would convert the girl into a putrikadharmini. The repugnance to wedding girls without father and brothers exists to this day.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;sup&gt;3 For understanding the meanings of Sapinda and Sagotra see any work on Hindu law civil or canonical.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-28T12:02:34.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20481" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-28T16:16:12.613" Score="7" ViewCount="14922" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why are householders advised not to venerate fierce forms of Kali? I was told by those who follow the shakti tradition that householders should not honor the angry forms of Kali. Why is this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11845" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-01T17:25:20.670" LastActivityDate="2020-05-09T08:13:04.250" Title="Why householders are advised not to worship fierce forms of Kali?" Tags="|worship|kali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20482" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-28T17:59:39.847" Score="6" ViewCount="4114" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is the complete English translation of the Brahma-vaivarta Purana available for download?&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The complete English translation is available at the website&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/brahmavaivarta-purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;indianscriptures.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;but is it available for download?&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Is some other complete translation available from some other place?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2020-02-20T06:02:05.267" Title="English translation of the Brahmavaivarta Purana" Tags="|translation-request|brahma-vaivarta-purana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20483" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16112" CreationDate="2017-08-28T19:45:24.237" Score="12" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;If Rāma could sacrifice his kingdom to Bharata, why couldn't Yudhiṣṭhira do it for &#xA;Duryodhana?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Because Bharata was righteous while Duryodhana was unrighteous&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It can be observed from many events of life of these two. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Bharata&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharata was born from the portion of Lord Vishnu who always incarnates to establish Dharma. It is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga18/bala_18_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana, Bala Kanda, Sarga 18&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भरतो नाम कैकेय्याम् जज्ञे सत्य पराक्रमः |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  साक्षात् विष्णोः चतुर्थ भागः सर्वैः समुदितो गुणैः || १-१८-१३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Queen Kaikeyi gave birth to Bharata, one embodied with all merits, and whose truthfulness itself is his valour and who is fourth component of manifest Vishnu, namely Rama. [1-18-13]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also Lord Rama has described some characteristics of Bharata in the same chapter of Ayodhya Kanda which you have mentioned in your question, i.e., &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga97/ayodhyasans97.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 97&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मन्येऽहमागतोऽयेध्यां भरतो भ्रातृवत्सलः |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  मम प्राणात्र्पियतरः कुलधर्ममनुस्मरन् || २-९७-९&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  श्रुत्वा प्रव्राजितं मां हि जटावल्कलधारिणम् |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  जानक्यासहितं वीर त्वया च पुरुषर्षभ || २-९७-१०&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  स्नेहेनाक्रान्तहृदयः शिकेनाकुलितेन्द्रियः |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  द्रष्टुमभ्यागतो ह्येष भरतो नान्यथऽऽगतः || २-९७-११&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;I think Bharata was back to Ayodhya, with full of affection for his brothers. He is dearer to me than my life- he who is mindful of the duties of his race. Hearing of my exile and that I was wearing matted locks and the antelope skin, accompanied by Seetha and you, O most valiant of warriors, in his devotion towards me and due to the distress that troubles his mind, Bharata has come to see me. He has not come with any other motive.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अम्बाअं च कैकयीं रुष्य परुषं चाप्रियं वदन् |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  प्रसाद्य पितरं स्रीमान् राज्यं मे दातुमागतः || २-९७-१२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Getting angry with Kaikeyi his mother and speaking unkind and harsh words to her, the glorious Bharata after getting permission from our further, came here to bestow kingdom to me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विप्रियम् कृत पूर्वम् ते भरतेन कदा न किम् |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  ईदृशम् वा भयम् ते अद्य भरतम् यो अत्र शन्कसे || २-९७-१४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Has Bharata at any time done any harm to you previously? What so the reason for you to be so apprehensive of Bharata now?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उच्यमानो हि भरतो मया लक्ष्मण तत्त्वतः |&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  राज्यम् अस्मै प्रयग्च्छ इति बाढम् इत्य् एव वक्ष्यति || २-९७-१८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O, Lakshmana! When Bharata receives this command from me, &quot;Cede the empire to him&quot;, he will answer, So, be it.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are still more verses to support his righteousness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Duryodhana&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva, SECTION LXVII&lt;/a&gt;, Duryodhana was the incarnation of Kali demon. Hence he had some inherent properties of Kali. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The evil-minded and wicked king Duryodhana, the destroyer of the fair fame of the Kurus, was born of a portion of Kali on earth. He it was who caused all creatures to be slain and the earth to be wasted; and he it was who fanned the flame of hostility that ultimately consumed all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana was jealous of Pandava-s, especially Bhima. He even tried to poison Bhima in food, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01129.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva, SECTION CXXVIII&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile the wicked Duryodhana had mixed a powerful poison with a quantity of food, with the object of making away with Bhima. That wicked youth who had nectar in his tongue and a razor in his heart, rose at length, and in a friendly way fed Bhima largely with that poisoned food, and thinking himself lucky in having compassed his end, was exceedingly glad at heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana attempted to kill all the Pandavas. He had almost burned them in Lakshagriha as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01147.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva, SECTION CXLVI&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pandavas have, by Dhritarashtra, been sent to Varanavata, where they will, at Dhritarashtra's command, enjoy themselves during the festivities. Do that by which thou mayest this very day reach Varanavata in a car drawn by swift mules. Repairing thither, cause thou to be erected a quadrangular palace in the neighbourhood of the arsenal, rich in the materials and furniture, and guard thou the mansion well (with prying eyes). And use thou (in erecting that house) hemp and resin and all other inflammable materials that are procurable. And mixing a little earth with clarified butter and oil and fat and a large quantity of lac, make thou a plaster for lining the walls, and scatter thou all around that house hemp and oil and clarified butter and lac and wood in such a way that the Pandavas, or any others, may not, even with scrutiny behold them there or conclude the house to be an inflammable one. And having erected such mansion, cause thou the Pandavas, after worshipping them with great reverence, to dwell in it with Kunti and all their friends. And place thou there seats and conveyances and beds, all of the best workmanship, for the Pandavas, so that Dhritarashtra may have no reason to complain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Last but not least, &lt;strong&gt;Yudhishthira had asked for only five villages for the livelihood instead of whole kingdom&lt;/strong&gt;, but that request was also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05082.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;declined by Duryodhana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou hast also heard all that was said unto Sanjaya. O thou of great effulgence, these words were even these, 'Let only five villages be granted to us, viz., Avishthala, and Vrikasthala, and Makandi, and Varanavata, and for the fifth, any other,--O thou of mighty arms, O Kesava, even this was the message that was to have been delivered to Duryodhana and his counsellors. But, O Krishna, O thou of Dasarha's race, hearing those words of Yudhishthira, endued with modesty and anxious for peace, Suyodhana hath not acted according to them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Duryodhana disrespected his elders like Bhishma, Drona, Vidura. He also ill-treated lord Krishna when he was a peace keeper on behalf of Pandavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Lord Rama knew that Bharata can be a good king because of his good qualities. Similarly, Yudhishthira also knew that Duryodhana cannot be a good king due to his wicked qualities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-08-29T11:16:44.650" LastActivityDate="2017-08-29T11:16:44.650" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20485" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20494" CreationDate="2017-08-28T22:20:50.900" Score="5" ViewCount="437" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mother Durga was reborn as Parvathi, the daughter of Mena and Himalaya. So why did the Gods including Vishnu pray to mother Durga to be reborn as Parvathi. Why were they happy of the marriage of Mena and Himalaya. &#xA;Was Sati also a reincarnation of mother Durga ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10397" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T10:46:37.500" Title="Who is mother Durga, why was she prayed by all gods including Vishnu to be reborn as Parvathi?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-purana|durga|parvati|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20486" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20485" CreationDate="2017-08-29T02:18:39.907" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;First sati came and after that she reborn as parvathi. Obviously world needed ma parvathi since if she is not there then shivji would not do anything in world and be a Sannyasi without Devi parvati &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/are-sati-and-parvati-the-same-person/m-lite&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; . from wiki &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;When Lord Shiva gave away his consort Adi-Shakti to the world for its welfare, Brahma ordered Daksha Prajapati to pray to mother Adi Parashakti-Durga for her to take birth as Daksha Prajapati`s Daughter. So the Goddess took human birth at the bidding of the god Brahma. Sati was born as a daughter of Daksha Prajapati and his wife Prasuti.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;All God's are prayed ..I have sort of confusion some says in starting there only one God shrihari Vishnu..some says Shiva..some says Adi parashakti...but one thing is clear whoever it is all the other gods prayed that God ...and why she was asked to reborn as parvathi ?? Ma durga herself said that in next janma she want to be born from  parents and father she could respect..so she was going to born anyways (this is in that link). But it's clear that the first time she born and the second time she born ..one reason is quite similar, that is Shiva need shakti in all aspects to do &lt;em&gt;sanchalan&lt;/em&gt; of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10420" LastEditorUserId="10420" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T02:37:33.990" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T02:37:33.990" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20487" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11279" CreationDate="2017-08-29T06:52:28.770" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Sandhya vandhanam many slokas  are taken from Lord Krishna's period .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prathar narmadayai namo nisi &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Namosthu narmadhe thubhyam trahi maam visha sarpatha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Apa sarpa sarpa bhadram the Dooram gacha&#xA;maha yasa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Janamejayasya yagnanthe aasthika vachanam smaran&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;Jarath karer Jarath karvam samuthpanno maha yasa&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Aasthika Sathya santho maam pannagebhyo abhi rakshathu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above shloka is cited during the Sandhyavandanam ritual as a part of Harihara Vandanam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://tamilbrahmins.ucoz.org/sandyavandanam_english.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I think Sandhya vandhanam is just after Dvaapara yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11849" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-29T07:50:10.220" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20488" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-29T09:23:14.913" Score="7" ViewCount="244" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently after the conviction of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurmeet_Ram_Rahim_Singh&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh&lt;/a&gt;, I was wondering if the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dera_Sacha_Sauda&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dera Sacha Sauda&lt;/a&gt; is merely a cult or a part of Hindu religion?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What kind of philosophy do they believe in?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T07:39:31.970" Title="Is &quot;Dera Sacha Sauda&quot; part of Hinduism or a different religion?" Tags="|other-religions|guru|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20490" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20485" CreationDate="2017-08-29T10:20:02.857" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;World not only need Tridev But also need Tridevis. Tridev is incomplete without Tridevis. And Shiva is incomplete without AAdi Shakti (Sati/Parvati).&#xA;System of world can't work properly until all Tridev won't perform their duties with Tridevis. Here is how..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What's role of Tridevis with Tridevs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tridevs perform specific duties towards world and Tridevis helps Tridevs in their duties, Here is how..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma creates life and his wife (Sarsvati) gives knowledge to the&#xA;life. Withought knowledge, life is meaningless. She is Goddess of&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu takes care of world from begining of life till death (Because&#xA;he is palana karta). And his wife (Lakshami) helps in his duty (duty&#xA;of paalan) by providing wealth to the humans. Because providing&#xA;living standars is very important. All wealth or luxuries which includes&#xA;cloths, homes, money is all provided by Goddess Lakshmi. She is&#xA;Goddess of &lt;strong&gt;wealth&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shiva is Lord of distruction. Whatever has been made by Brahma, that&#xA;need to be destroy one day. And that destruction is duty of Shiva.&#xA;Shiva is Lord of death (Mahaakaal). And his wife Parvati helps in his&#xA;duty of destruction by eleminating all bad demons by taking many&#xA;different forms like Durga, kaali etc. She is Goddess of&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;power/strength.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So by this explanation we can conclude that Tridev's duties is incomplete without Tridevis. Hence Tridevi also need to be there so that life process can be done flaslessly, without any compormises. Hence, Aadi Shakti need to take birth to make Shiva complete Since both Shiva and Parvati are no differ from each other and &lt;strong&gt;Ardha Nareshwar&lt;/strong&gt; roop (form) of Shiva and Parvati is proof of that. So all Gods did pray to AAdi Shakti to take birth again. But Shiva didn't want her to take birth and also didn't want to marry with Aadi Shakti again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was just reason of needs towards world. But there is another reason also which is related to Shiva directly. Shiva loves his wife so much. We all know what happened with Shiva when Sati commit sucide, how much grief Shiva felt on death of Sati. Grief of saperation from Sati was unbearable for Shiva. So all Gods wanted to remove this grief of Shiva. So they all Prayed to Aadi Shakti to take birth again for Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastActivityDate="2017-08-29T10:20:02.857" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20491" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20488" CreationDate="2017-08-29T10:50:41.133" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The deras follow the path of Bhakti and cater to the religious needs of the Sikh and Hindu Dalits. Sikh orthodoxy considers Deras run by Sikhs as apostates. There have been attempts to kill some of the Dera chiefs by Sikh fanatics. Muslims are not part of the Deras. There is a great deal of casteism in the Punjab.Christian missionaries have converted about 1 million Sikhs in the last 30 years. Since the Sikh Dalit population and to some extent the Hindu Dalit population do not get respect in society they are either veering towards conversion to Christianity or they are joining the Deras where they are treated with respect. At least that is the opinion of some people. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://swarajyamag.com/politics/why-people-are-willing-to-die-for-gurmeet-ram-rahim-singh-&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://swarajyamag.com/politics/why-people-are-willing-to-die-for-gurmeet-ram-rahim-singh-&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are they part of Hinduism?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They claim to be the confluence of all religions. So the answer to the above question is both yes or no. A Hindu follower can take it as part of Hinduism while a Sikh follower can think it as a Sikh organization. &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.derasachasauda.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.derasachasauda.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T09:57:03.520" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T09:57:03.520" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20492" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-29T11:35:21.983" Score="5" ViewCount="3211" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahmadev has a lifespan of 100 years and after that he dies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have certain questions about his death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How does he die?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What happens to his wife Devi Saraswati after death of Brahmdev?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If Brahmdev life span is 100 years then is it true for Devi Saraswati?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;As there is new Brahmdev after 100 years likewise is there new Devi Saraswati.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="10089" LastEditDate="2017-09-01T01:54:30.900" LastActivityDate="2018-02-01T12:05:11.600" Title="How do Brahma and Saraswati die?" Tags="|gods|brahma|saraswati|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20493" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20496" CreationDate="2017-08-29T12:45:53.277" Score="3" ViewCount="925" Body="&lt;p&gt;I need to know the details about the birth  story of &lt;code&gt;Radhaji&lt;/code&gt;. Yesterday I have heard from one of my relatives that &lt;code&gt;Radhaji&lt;/code&gt; was born from &lt;code&gt;Yagna Kunda&lt;/code&gt; like &lt;code&gt;Draupadi&lt;/code&gt;. So Is this true or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also want to know the names  of &lt;code&gt;Radhaji&lt;/code&gt;'s father and mother. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11773" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-29T16:58:56.097" LastActivityDate="2017-08-29T16:58:56.097" Title="How was Radhaji born? What are the names of her father and mother?" Tags="|puranas|radha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20494" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20485" CreationDate="2017-08-29T12:48:07.187" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since you asked &lt;strong&gt;Was Sati also a reincarnation of mother Durga ?&lt;/strong&gt;, you should also understand why Durga Devi was born as Sati Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Brahma created beings initially, they couldn't multiply or reproduce sexually. Lord Brahma wanted female energy or Shakti to make sexual reproduction possible (so that beings would be able to reproduce) and did Tapasya for Parameswara (Shiva with Shakti) and Lord Shiva appeared before him in Ardhanareswara form and gave female energy (shakti) needed for creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is described in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-82/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt;, Satarudra Samhita of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यदा सृष्टाः प्रजाः सर्वा न व्यवर्द्धन्त वेधसा। &lt;br&gt; तदा&#xA;चिन्ताकुलोऽभूत्स तेन दुःखेन दुःखितः ॥ २॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When there had been little evolution of the people created by Brahma,&#xA;he felt extremely painful.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नभोवाणी तदाऽभूद्वै सृष्टिं मिथुनजां कुरु। &lt;br&gt; तच्छ्रुत्वा मैथुनीं&#xA;सृष्टिं ब्रह्मा कर्तुममन्यत॥ ३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then there was a divine sound from the sky said, &amp;quot;Carry on the&#xA;creation produced by the couples' (i.e. the male and the female). Then&#xA;Brahma thought of the creation based on the sexual relations. &lt;br&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नारीणां कुलमीशानान्निर्गतं न पुरा यतः। &lt;br&gt; ततो मैथुनजां सृष्टिं&#xA;कर्तुं शेके न पद्मभूः॥४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earlier to that the race had not appeared out of the sexual&#xA;intercourse with the females. Therefore Brahma could not create the&#xA;world based on sexual relationship earlier. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रभावेणा विना शम्भोर्न जायेरन्त्रिमाः प्रजाः। &lt;br&gt; एवं&#xA;सञ्चिन्तयन्ब्रह्मा तपः कर्तुं प्रचक्रमे॥ ५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma thought that the creation cannot be progressed without the&#xA;influence of Šiva. Therefore he started performing tapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिवाय परया शक्त्या संयुक्त परमेश्वरम्।  &lt;br&gt; सञ्चिन्त्य हृदये प्रीत्या&#xA;तपेशं परमं तपः।। ६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then he meditated upon Siva united with the great Sakti called&#xA;Parameswara (Siva) in a combined way performing severe tapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तीव्रेण तपसा तस्य संयुक्तस्य स्वयम्भुवः। &lt;br&gt; अचिरेणैव कालेन तुतोष स&#xA;शिवो द्रुतम्॥७॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Observing the severe austerities of Brahma, lord Siva was rapidly&#xA;pleased with him within no time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततः पूर्णचिदीशस्य मूर्तिमाविश्य कामदाम्। &lt;br&gt; अर्द्धनारीनरो भूत्वा ततो&#xA;ब्रह्मान्तिकं हरः॥८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Isvara- the form of complete consciousness, entered into the&#xA;Ardhanarisvara form, representing half male and half female and he&#xA;appeared before Brahmā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma eulogized Him and Shiva gave His Shakti to Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इत्युक्त्वा परमोदारं स्वभावमधुरं वचः। &lt;br&gt;पृथक्चकार वपुषो भागाद्देवीं&#xA;शिवां शिवः॥ १३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Siva extremely large hearted, and Sweet tempered one, separated&#xA;his body from that of Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तां दृष्ट्रा परमां शक्ति पृथग्भूतां शिवागताम्। &lt;br&gt; प्रणिपत्य&#xA;विनीतात्मा प्रार्थयामास तां विधिः॥ १४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Looking at the Supreme Sakti, having been separated from the body of&#xA;Siva, Brahma offered his salutation to her and then eulogised her.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma then eulogized &lt;em&gt;Adi Shakthi&lt;/em&gt;, the source of all &lt;em&gt;Shaktis&lt;/em&gt; (female energy) in cosmos.  After Brahma's prayer, Shiva gave Her Shakti to Brahma and said She would born as daughter of Daksha Prajapati (as Sati Devi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिव उवाच &lt;br&gt; तपसाराधिता देवि! ब्रह्मणा परमेठिना। &lt;br&gt; प्रसन्ना भव&#xA;सुप्रीत्या कुरु तस्याखिलेप्सितम्॥ २६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Siva said, “Brahma has adored you (Shakti or Sivaa) performing the tapas. Therefore&#xA;getting pleased, you better fulfil his desires.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तामाज्ञां परमेशस्य शिरसा प्रतिगृह्य सा। &lt;br&gt; ब्रह्मणो वचनाद्देवी&#xA;दक्षस्य दुहिताऽभवत्॥ २७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The goddess Paramesvari, accepting his command, according to the words&#xA;of Brahma, she became the daughter of Daksa Prajapati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दत्त्वैवमतुलां शक्तिं ब्रह्मणे सा शिवा मुने!। &lt;br&gt; विवेश देहं&#xA;शम्भोर्हि शम्भुश्चान्तर्दधे प्रभुः॥ २८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Sage, then Sivaa (Shakti), giving the unique Śakti to Brahma, entered the body&#xA;of Siva, who disappeared from the scene.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदाप्रभृति लोकेऽस्मिन्स्त्रिया भागः प्रकल्पितः। &lt;br&gt; आनन्दं प्राप स&#xA;विधिः सृष्टिर्जाता च मैथुनी॥ २९ ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From that day onwards the share of the Woman, started to be given&#xA;separately. Brahma then felt delighted and the creation based on&#xA;sexual union started.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Sada Shiva then took as Saguna form of &lt;em&gt;Rudra&lt;/em&gt; (who dwells on Kailasa) and Durga or Adi Shakti (source of all Shaktis) born as Sati and Parvati in Saguna forms in different kalpas. The invisible form of Shakti (which mingled with Shiva) was born as Sati Devi first and then as Parvati and again will be born as Sati and this cycle repeats, which you can read in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14868/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma prayed to Durga to born as shakti in Saguna form for Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-32/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 10&lt;/a&gt; Rudra Samhita (Sati Khanda) of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/strong&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मद्रूपं परमं विष्णो ! ईदृशं ह्यङ्गतो विधेः। &lt;br&gt; प्रकटीभविता लोके&#xA;नाम्ना रुद्रः प्रकीर्तितः।।५४।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&amp;quot;Visnu is my form. Similarly&#xA;Rudra would be manifested from Brahma and shall be well known in the&#xA;world by the same name. He will be my form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पूर्णरूपः स मे पूज्यः सदा वां सर्वकामकृत्। &lt;br&gt; लयकर्ता गुणाध्यक्षो&#xA;निर्विशेषः सुयोगकृत्।॥५५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is my complete form and lord of all the gunas and is worthy of&#xA;being Worshipped by you. He will fulfil all your desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्रिदेवा अपि मे रूपं हरः पूर्णो विशेषतः। &lt;br&gt; उमाया अपि रूपाणि&#xA;भविष्यन्ति त्रिधा सुतौ।५६।  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmā, Visnu and Siva are my forms. Hara is especially my complete&#xA;form. Similarly Uma shall also have three forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लक्ष्मीनर्गम हरे: पत्री ब्रह्मपत्री सरस्वती। &lt;br&gt; पूर्णरूपा सती नाम&#xA;रुद्रपत्नी भविष्यति।॥५७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Laksmi, she would be the spouse of Visnu, as Sarasvati, the spouse&#xA;of Brahma, and as Rudra Patni (as Sati)- having the complete form,&#xA;would be the spouse of Rudra.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daksha, at command of Brahma, prayed to Durga and got Her as daughter. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-33/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 11&lt;/a&gt; Rudra Samhita (Sati Khanda)&lt;/strong&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यदुक्तं भवथा ब्रह्मन्! समस्तं सत्यमेव तत्। &lt;br&gt; मदृते मोहयित्रीह&#xA;शङ्करस्य न विद्यते।।४२।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Durga said, &amp;quot;O Brahma, whatever has been spoken by you, is utterly&#xA;true. There is none else in the world to captivate Siva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हरेऽगृहीतदारे तु सृष्टिर्नैषा सनातनी। &lt;br&gt; भविष्यतीति तत्सत्यं भवता&#xA;प्रतिपादितम्।।४३।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have spoken a great truth that if Siva does not take a wife unto&#xA;Himself, the creation cannot continue long.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ममापि मोहने यन्नो विद्यतेऽस्य महाप्रभोः। &lt;br&gt; त्वद्वाक्याद्द्वगुणो&#xA;मेऽद्य प्रयत्नोऽभूत्स निर्भरः॥४४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I had also not been able to captivate the great lord, but at your&#xA;Words my mind has been filled with double the enthusiasm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहं तथा यतिष्यामि यथा दारपरिग्रहम्।। &lt;br&gt; हरः करिष्यति विधे ! स्वयमेव&#xA;विमोहितः॥४५ ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Brahma, I shall do something by which - Siva getting captivated&#xA;would himself accept a spouse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सतीमूर्तिमहं धृत्वा तस्यैव वशवर्तिनी। &lt;br&gt; महाभागा&#xA;लक्ष्मीर्विष्णोर्यथाप्रिया।।४६।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Laksmi is the beloved of Visnu, similarly, I taking to the form of&#xA;Sati shall obey the command of Siva. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Marriage, Daksha didn't invite Shiva to Yajna and Sati immolated Herself and mingled with Adi Shakti or Durga .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now all other Gods with Vishnu again wanted to make Durga Devi born in Saguna form for Rudra who was left without wife and became detached from wordly activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-98/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt;, Rudra Samhita (Parvati Khanda) says:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रहोवाच &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इति श्रुत्वा महीधरस्य वचनं ते सुरास्तदा। &lt;br&gt; ऊचुर्हर्यादयः प्रीताः&#xA;सिद्धि मत्वा स्वकार्यतः।।१७।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said, &amp;quot;Listening to the words of Himacala, Visnu and other&#xA;gods, felt delighted, expecting the Success of their mission and they&#xA;spoke.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवा ऊचुः &lt;br&gt; हिमाचल! महाप्राज्ञ! शृण्वस्मद्वचनं हितम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;यदर्थमागताः सर्वे तद्ब्रूमः प्रीतितो वयम्।।१८।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gods said, “O immensely wise Himacala, listen to our benevolent&#xA;words. We shall now reveal the purpose for which we have arrived here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;या पुरा जगदम्बोमा दक्षकन्याऽभवद्रगिरे!। &lt;br&gt; रुद्रपत्री हि सा भूत्वा&#xA;चिक्रीड सुचिरं भुवि।१९।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sati, the daughter of Daksa and the wife of Siva in earlier times, had&#xA;been enjoying sports on earth in the form of Uma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पितृतोऽनादरं प्राप्य संस्मृत्य स्वपणं सती। &lt;br&gt; जगाम स्वपदं त्यक्त्वा&#xA;तच्छरीरं तदाम्बिका।२०। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having been insulted by her father, remembering her pledge, getting&#xA;rid of her human body, she achieved the supreme position.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सा कथा विदिता लोके तवापि हिमभूधरः। एवं सति महालाभो भवेद्देवगणस्य&#xA;हि।२१।। &lt;br&gt;सर्वस्य भवतश्चापि स्युः सर्वे ते वशाः सुराः।।२२।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The relevant story, O Himacala is well known to you. The gods too will&#xA;be under your control.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ब्रहोवाच  &lt;br&gt; इत्याकण्र्य वचस्तेषां हर्यादीनां गिरीश्वरः।  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;तथास्त्विति प्रसन्नात्मा प्रोवाच न च अादरात्।।२३।।  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said, &amp;quot;On hearing the words of Visnu and other gods, the&#xA;delighted lord Himacala said, &amp;quot;Be it so.' Then he adored them with&#xA;respect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter Gods paryed to Durga Devi and Durga Devi agreed to born as daughter to couple of Menaka and Himachala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-99/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 4&lt;/a&gt; Rudra Samhita (Parvati  Khanda)&lt;/strong&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;उमोवाच हे हरे! विधे! देवा! मुनयश्च गतव्यथा:।  &lt;br&gt; सर्वे शृणुत&#xA;मद्वाक्यं प्रसन्नाऽहं न संशयः।।२३।।  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Uma said, &amp;quot;O Visnu, O Brahma, O other gods, let all of you be&#xA;comfortable. Listen to my words. I am undoubtedly pleased with all of&#xA;you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चरितं मम सर्वत्र त्रैलोक्यस्य सुखावहम्॥  &lt;br&gt; कृतं मयैव सकलं&#xA;दक्षमोहादिकं च तत्।।२४।।  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My performance always provides comforts to all the three worlds. The&#xA;sport relating to the yajna of Daksa, was performed by me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अवतारं करिष्यामि क्षितौ पूर्णं न संशयः।   &lt;br&gt; बहवो हेतवोऽप्यत्र&#xA;तद्वदामि महादरात्।।२५।।  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I shall surely appear on earth, with full incarnation. There are&#xA;several reasons for the same, which I am going to highlight with&#xA;respect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुरा हिमाचलो देवा मेना चातिसुभक्तितः। सेवां मे चक्रतुस्तात!&#xA;जननीवत्सतीतनोः।।२६।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Gods, earlier when I was born as Sati, then both Himalaya and Mena&#xA;had served me lovingly as parents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;इदानीं कुरुतः सेवां सुभक्त्या मम नित्यशः।  &lt;br&gt; मेना विशेषतस्तत्र&#xA;सुतात्वे नात्र संशयः।।२७।।  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even presently both of them are serving me with utmost devotion. Out&#xA;of both of them, Menaka, serves me particularly as a daughter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Later Tarakasura performed Tapasya and got a boon from Brahma that only son born from Seed of Shiva  can kill him. This made Gods to speed up their marriage related works.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T10:46:37.500" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20495" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20050" CreationDate="2017-08-29T13:52:01.233" Score="12" Body="&lt;h1&gt;Why-didnt-lord-ram-try-to-prove-mother-sitas-purity-but-rather-chose-to-exile her? was Adharma  ?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The exact answer why shree Rama sent Sita  on exile in the forest  and not again took her Agni Pariksha is given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Tcco/download&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;– &lt;strong&gt;Volume 5- PATALAKHANDA - Chapter No. 57 -The Washerman's Former Birth  . Page no. 1879 –Motilal _Banasirdass version.&lt;/strong&gt; The whole chapter is fully dedicated just for answering this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Padma Purana once  when Sita  was young and still unmarried was playing in the grove of her garden .She  heard the discussion of two parrots. about her and Shree Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3-11&lt;/strong&gt; That pair, enjoying (each other's company), quickly flew in the&#xA;  sky, settled on the lap of a mountain, and spoke (to each other): and&#xA;  spoke (to each other): &quot;On the earth, charming Rama will be the king.&#xA;  His wife will be (a woman) by name Sita. The intelligent, powerful&#xA;  king, vanquishing (his enemies), will rule (over eleven thousand&#xA;  years. Blessed is that queen Janaki, and blessed the earth) along with&#xA;  her for is he, named Rama, who having approached each other, will&#xA;  gladly enjoy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the couple of parrots was conversing in this way, Sita understood that they are talking about her and realized that this is a divine couple. &lt;strong&gt;She then said to her friends: ''Slowly catch this charming pair of the birds.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; The friends just then went to the mountain, and caught the excellent pair of the birds. Then Sita asked them about what they were discussing. Who are they and two where they came from? Who is Rama, and who is&#xA;Sita? From where  did they got the information about them!! ?&#xA;The pair of birds said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;19-26&lt;/strong&gt;. There is a very great sage Valmiki who is the best among those who know dharma. That sage made his disciples sing the future&#xA;  adventures of Rama. He, engrossed in the wellbeing of all beings,&#xA;  everyday remembered its words. All those future adventures of Rama,&#xA;  being sung repeatedly, were heard by both of us; they came to us (i.e.&#xA;  were mastered by us) due to repetition. Listen to them. In the end we&#xA;  shall tell who that Rama is and who that Janaki is and what will&#xA;  happen to her with Rama of a playful nature. Glorious Visnu, good&#xA;  stories about whom are sung by celestial women, will, having divided&#xA;  himself into four, come up at the sacrifice performed by Rsyasrnga.&#xA;  He, having a bow in his hand, will come along with Visvamitra and his&#xA;  own brothers to Mithila. Then there seeing a bow difficult to be taken&#xA;  (i.e. wielded) by other kings, he will break it, and will obtain the&#xA;  very charming daughter of Janaka. O excellent one, we have heard that&#xA;  with her he will rule over a large kingdom. O you of a beautiful body,&#xA;  we who had flown there, heard this and other (things) about you, told&#xA;  by those who lived there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the pair of birds asked Sita to let them go where they are living.&#xA;Hearing these words, Janaki  reveled her identity and  said to them: I am that Janaki. the daughter of Janaka, which you are menrioning. And told them that  shall truly release you when that very charming Rama comes to me; not otherwise&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;41-53&lt;/strong&gt; Hearing these words they trembled and were frightened. They were mutually (i.e. both) afraid; (and) said this to Janakt: &quot;O good&#xA;  lady, we are birds, living in forests and resorting to trees. We&#xA;  wander everywhere. We would not get happiness (merely by staying) at&#xA;  home. &lt;strong&gt;I am pregnant. Having gone to my place and having given birth to&#xA;  sons (i.e. young ones) I shall come (back). I have told you the&#xA;  truth.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Though) thus addressed by the female parrot, &lt;strong&gt;Sita did not release her.&lt;/strong&gt; Then her husband (i.e. the male parrot), eager,&#xA;and with his face hung down spoke to her: &quot;Sita, release my wife. My charming wife would be (i.e. is) pregnant. Having performed her (i.e. after her) delivery I shall come to you, .Thus,, addressed, Sita  said to male  parrot  &quot;O you very intelligent one, you can gladly go. I shall keep this happy one, doing what is dear to me,' near me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;57-66&lt;/strong&gt;. Though admonished with various words, she did not release her. &lt;strong&gt;The (parrot's) wife, who was angry, and miserable, then cursed&#xA;  Janaka's daughter: &quot;As you are separating me from my husband, in the&#xA;  same way you will be, when pregnant, separated from Rama.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; When she,&#xA;  the afflicted one, was repeatedly saying like this, her life departed&#xA;  due to misery, full of the distress of her husband. For her who was&#xA;  repeatedly remembering Rama and uttering (the name) Rama, a divine car&#xA;  properly arrived. The female parrot became luminous when she had gone&#xA;  to heaven. When she died, her husband, that lord of birds, was&#xA;  extremely angry, and being distressed, fell into Gariga: ''In Rama's&#xA;  city, full of people, I will be born as (a sjjdra so) that due to my&#xA;  words she will be dejected, and extremely unhappy due to separation&#xA;  (from her husband).&quot; Saying so, he who was distressed, angry,&#xA;  frightened and shaking due to separation  from her, fell into the&#xA;  water of Ganga graced with eddies. Due to his being angry, due to his&#xA;  being distressed, and due to his having insulted SIta, he obtained&#xA;  very (mean) sudrahood (as he was born as) a washerman named Krodhana.&#xA;  That best bird (or best brahmana) who, doing ill to the great,&#xA;  abandons his life through anger, obtains sudrahood after he dies. That&#xA;  took place. Due to the words of the washerman she was censured and&#xA;  separated. On account of the curse of the washerman, she was separated&#xA;  (from Rama), and she went to the forest.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;Hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Conclusion – So from this story of Padama Purana ,we come to know&#xA;  that  Sita faced exile in the forest and separated from Shree Rama&#xA;  while she  was pregnant because of curse of divine Parrots. And just&#xA;  because of the curse  Lord Ram didn’t try to prove Mother Sita's&#xA;  Purity again by  Agani–Pariksha but  rather exiled her.  And after&#xA;  all this was just divine  LEELA of Lord Vishnu’s avatara shree Rama so it’s&#xA;  not considered  adharma cause we don’t fully understand divine&#xA;  leelas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2018-10-09T05:01:49.600" LastActivityDate="2018-10-09T05:01:49.600" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20496" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20493" CreationDate="2017-08-29T14:18:13.603" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/brahmavaivarta-purana/vol-i/chapter-79/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 49&lt;/a&gt;, Prakriti Khanda of Brahmavaivartara Purana&lt;/strong&gt; describes birth of Radharani  in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Cosmic Radharani, who lives eternally with Sri Krishna in Goloka Vrindavana, was cursed by Sudama to born as human.  Sri Krishna was once enjoying &lt;em&gt;Rasamandalam&lt;/em&gt; with cowherdess Viraja in secluded place in cosmic Goloka and lakh of Manavatras passed away. Radharani got angry and went to that place. Sudama informed them arrival of Radharani before hand and Viraja escaped from there turing into streams and all oceans in universe are sons of Viraja. Sudama then spoke something which enraged Radhika and cursed him. Sudama also pronounced a counter curse on Her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न दूट्रा विरजां कृष्ण स्वगृहं च पुनर्ययौ। &lt;br&gt; जगाम कृष्णस्तां राधां&#xA;गोपालैरष्टभिः सह।। २७॥  &lt;br&gt;गोपीभिर्द्वारि युक्ताभिर्वारितोऽपि पुनः&#xA;पुनः। &lt;br&gt; दृष्ट्रा कृष्णं च सा देवी भत्र्सयामास तं तदा॥ २८॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;सुदामा भत्र्सयामास तां तथा कृष्णसंनिधौ। &lt;br&gt; कुद्धा शशाप सा देवी&#xA;सुदामानं सुरेश्वरी। २९॥ &lt;br&gt;गच्छ त्वमासुरीं योनिं गच्छ दूरमतो द्रुतम्।&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the  oceans in the universe are the sons of Viraja around.&#xA;Thereafter when Radha the great goddess arrived there, she could not&#xA;find Viraja or Krsna there. She ultimately returned to her abode.&#xA;Thereafter lord Krsna together with eight cowherds reached the abode&#xA;of Radhika. Inspite of the gate-keepers of the palace of Radha the&#xA;entry of the lord inside the palace was prevented, Krsna forcibly&#xA;entered it. At the sight of Krsna, Radhika however denouncing him. At&#xA;the same time she found Sudama standing beside Krsna who spoke to&#xA;Radha something, which enraged Radha, who pronounced a curse on him,&#xA;&amp;quot;At a place far away from here, you will be turned into the form of a&#xA;demon.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शशाप तां सुदामा च त्वमितो गच्छ भारतम्॥ ३०॥ &lt;br&gt; भव गोपी गोपकन्या&#xA;मुख्याभि: स्वाभिरेव च। &lt;br&gt; तत्र ते कृष्णविच्छेदो भविष्यति शतं समाः॥&#xA;३१॥ &lt;br&gt; तत्र भारावतरणां भगवांश्च करिष्यति। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In his turn Sudama also pronounced a curse on her saying, “You go to&#xA;the land of Bharata and turn yourself into a cowherdesses getting&#xA;Separated from Krsna for a hundred years. Lord Krsna will incarnate on&#xA;earth in order to relieve her burden.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When both of them felt bad about mutual cursing, Lord Krishna assures them saying details of their births as humans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कृष्णस्तां बोधयामास विद्यया च कृपानिधिः शीघ्रं संप्राप्स्यसि सुतं मा&#xA;रुदस्त्वं वरानने॥३४॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter the merciful lord Krsna cautioned them both with the divine&#xA;knowledge and said: &amp;quot;O damsel don't cry, you will get back your son&#xA;quite soon. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स चासुरः शङ्खचूडो बभूव तुलसीपतिः।  &lt;br&gt; मच्छूलभिन्नकायेन गोलोकं वै&#xA;जगाम सः॥ ३५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same Sudama was reborn as Samkhacuda who happened to be a demon&#xA;king and became the husband of Tulasi, who after meeting with this end&#xA;at the sight of a trident went back to Goloka.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna said Radharani would be born without human contact and her parents would be  Vrshabhanu and Kalavati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;राधा जगाम वाराहे गोकुल भारतं सती। &lt;br&gt; वृषभानोश्च वैश्यस्य सा च कन्या&#xA;बभूव ह॥ ३६॥ &lt;br&gt; अयोनिसंभवा देवी वायुगर्भा कलावती। &lt;br&gt; सुषुवे मायया&#xA;वायुं सा तत्राविर्बभूव ह।। ३७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Vardha-kalpa, Radhika was born in the village of Gokula in the&#xA;family of a Vaisya cowherd. She was born without any human contact.&#xA;Her mother during pregnancy carried only the wind. At the time when&#xA;the mother was giving birth to the wind, in the meantime Radhika&#xA;appeared as her daughter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अतीते द्वादशाब्दे तु दृष्ट्रा तां नवयौवनाम्। &lt;br&gt; सार्धं रायणावेशयेन&#xA;तत्संबन्धं चकार सः॥ ३८ ।। &lt;br&gt; छायां संस्थाप्यं तदेहे सान्तर्धानमवाप&#xA;ह। &lt;br&gt; बभूव तस्य वैश्यस्य विवाहश्छायया सह॥३९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the expiry of twelve years, finding her becoming youthful, she&#xA;was married to a trader named Rayana, at the time of marriage only a&#xA;shadow Radha was married to the trader while the real Radha herself&#xA;disappeared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गते चतुर्दशाब्दे तु कंसभीतेश्छलेन च। &lt;br&gt; जगाम गोकुलं&#xA;कृष्णः शिशुरूपी जगत्पतिः॥४०॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the expiry of fourteen years Krsna, the lord of the universe&#xA;appeared there as an infant. He was brought to Gokula deceitfully&#xA;because of the danger from Kamsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कृष्णामातुर्यशोदाया रायणस्तत्सहोदरः। &lt;br&gt; गोलोके गोपकृष्णांशः&#xA;संबन्धात्कृष्णमातुलः॥४१॥ &lt;br&gt; कृष्णेन सह राधाया: पुण्ये वृन्दावने वने।&#xA;&lt;br&gt; विवाहं कारयामास विधिना जगतां विधिः॥ ४२ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Rayana was the real brother of Yasodha the mother of Krsna who&#xA;happened to be an amsa of Krsna in Goloka and was his maternal uncle&#xA;in the sacred forest of Vrndavana. Brahma the creator of the universe&#xA;had performed the marriage of Radha with Krsna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्वप्ने राधापदाम्भोज नहि पश्यन्ति बल्लवा:। &lt;br&gt; स्वयं राधा हरेः क्रोडे&#xA;छाया रायणमन्दिरे॥४३॥  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Radha whose lotus-like feet were beyond the sight of cowherds even in&#xA;dream, the same Radha enjoyed the lap of lord Krsna and her shadow was&#xA;very much present in the house of Rāyaņa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;किंचित्काल स वै कृष्ण: पुण्ये वृन्दावने वने। &lt;br&gt; रेभे गोलोकनाथश्च&#xA;राधया सह भारते॥४६॥ &lt;br&gt; ततः सुदामशापेन विच्छेदश्च बभूव ह। &lt;br&gt; तत्र&#xA;भारावतरणं भूमेः कृष्णश्चकार सः॥४७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the sacred forest of Vrndavana in the land of Bharata, Krsna the&#xA;lord of the cowherds enjoyed the company of Radha in Vrndavana for a&#xA;short duration. Thereafter because of the curse of Sudama both of them&#xA;were separated from each other. At that point of time lord Krsna&#xA;relieved the earth of her burden.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शताब्दे समतीते तु तीर्थयात्राप्रसङ्गत:।। &lt;br&gt; ददर्श कृष्णं सा राधा स च&#xA;तां च परस्परम्॥४८॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the lapse of a hundred years, both Krsna and Radha met each&#xA;other while on a pilgrimage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततो जगाम गोलोकं राधया सह तत्त्ववित्।  &lt;br&gt; कलावती यशोदा च पर्यगाद्वधया&#xA;सह॥४९॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter lord Krsna who was well-versed the knowledge of tattva went&#xA;back to Goloka together with Radhika and her mother named Kalavati,&#xA;besides all the cowherdesses and Yasodha the mother of Krsna. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Previous births of their parents are also described in the same chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवमाता देवपिता प्रतिकल्पे स्वभावतः॥५४॥ &lt;br&gt; पितृणां मानसी कन्या&#xA;राधामाता कलावती। &lt;br&gt; वसुदामाऽपि गोलोकाद् वृषभानुः समाययौ॥५५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kaśyapa was reborn as Vasudeva and Aditi reappeared as Devaki in each&#xA;and every kalpa, the parents of the god are reborn according to their&#xA;nature. Kalavati the mind born daughter of the manes became the mother&#xA;of Radha and reaching from Goloka Vasudama to birth in form of&#xA;Vrsbhanu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Story of previous birth of mother of Radhika, Kalavati, is  mentioned in detail in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/siva-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-97/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt; Rudra Samhita (Parvati Khanda) of Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kalavati was daughter of Kashyapa and Svadha who was daughter of Daksha Prajapati. Svadha had three daughters Mena, Dhyana and Kalavati. Once they went to Sweta Dvipa, place of Lord Vishnu, and didn't stand when Sanatkumaras came there. Sanatkumaras cursed them to born as humans and Parvati Devi was born from Mena, Sita from Dhyana aka Yogini  and Radha from Kalavati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सनत्कुमार उवाच &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पितृणां तनयास्तिस्रः शृणुत प्रीतमानसाः। &lt;br&gt; वचनं मम शोकध्नं सुखदं&#xA;सर्वदैव व:।।२७।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanatkumara said, “O three daughters of the manes, be pleased and&#xA;listen to my words which will destroy the grief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विष्गोरंशस्य शैलस्य हिस्राधारस्य कामिनी॥ &lt;br&gt; ज्येष्ठा भवतु तत्कन्या&#xA;भविष्यत्येव पार्वती।।२८।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will be born as Parvati, Himalaya, as his eldest daughter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;धन्या प्रिया द्वितीया तु योगिनी जनकस्य च। &lt;br&gt; तस्याः कन्या&#xA;महालक्ष्मीनर्माम्ना सीता भविष्यति।।२९।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second daughter named Dhanya who is also called the yogini, would&#xA;be the wife of the king Janaka. She will, (in due course of from time)&#xA;have Sita as her daughter, like Mahālakşmī.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वृषभानस्य वैश्यस्य कनिष्ठा च कलावती। &lt;br&gt; भविष्यति प्रिया राधा तत्सुता&#xA;द्वापरान्ततः।।३०।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The youngest one, at the end of Dvapara, shall be the wife of&#xA;Vrsabhana- a merchant and daughter will be known as Radha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-08-29T16:53:37.240" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20498" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-29T15:03:52.373" Score="7" ViewCount="3200" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am confused about Goddess Radha's existence in the Hindu Puranas. A few books that I read mention her as Lord Krishna's lover and that she is an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi while some others offer contradictory information. I hope not to offend anyone, but I am genuinely intrigued by this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could any one offer me an explanation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11854" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-15T06:12:34.303" LastActivityDate="2018-02-15T06:12:34.303" Title="Is Radha really a Hindu goddess or not?" Tags="|puranas|krishna|devi|goddess|radha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2018-02-19T07:20:49.070" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20502" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:16:13.240" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The study of Indian history, literature, philosophy, and culture.&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/indology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:16:13.240" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:16:13.240" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20503" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:16:13.240" Score="0" Body="The study of Indian history, literature, philosophy, and culture." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:16:13.240" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:16:13.240" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20504" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:19:14.920" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:19:14.920" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:19:14.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20505" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:19:14.920" Score="0" Body="Mind-born son of Lord Brahma." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:19:14.920" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:19:14.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20506" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:22:33.927" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:22:33.927" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:22:33.927" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20507" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:22:33.927" Score="0" Body="Son of King Dasharatha and Queen Sumitra and brother of Lord Rama." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:22:33.927" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:22:33.927" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20508" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:30:15.263" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:30:15.263" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:30:15.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20509" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:30:15.263" Score="0" Body="Devotee of Lord Vishnu and son of King Uttanapada and Queen Suniti." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:30:15.263" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:30:15.263" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20510" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:31:54.407" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:31:54.407" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:31:54.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20511" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:31:54.407" Score="0" Body="A sage, partial incarnation of Lord Shiva." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:31:54.407" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:31:54.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20512" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="952" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:33:43.760" Score="1" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Is there heaven/hell in between death and rebirth?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Gita, it seems that &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; may have an afterlife which is heavenly or hellish depending on one's Karma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.20 - Those who are versed in the Vedas, who are drinkers of Soma and are purified of sin, pray for the heavenly goal by worshipping Me through sacrifices. Having reached the place (world) of the king of gods, which is the result of righteousness, &lt;strong&gt;they enjoy in heaven the divine pleasure of gods&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 16.16 - Bewildered by numerous thoughts, caught in the net of delusion, (and) engrossed in the enjoyment of desirable objects, they &lt;strong&gt;fall into a foul hell&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it doesn't imply that the realms such as &quot;heaven&quot; &amp;amp; &quot;hell&quot; exists. They are the layers of 3 modes of material nature.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;When a consciousness is under influence of &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt;, it travels upwards to &lt;em&gt;deva&lt;/em&gt;-s which are &lt;em&gt;heavenly&lt;/em&gt; regions; under &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;, it stays at wherever it is; under &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt;, it falls downwards to &lt;em&gt;Asura&lt;/em&gt;-s, which are hellish regions. See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20378/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Does the soul go to heaven/hell in between?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A consciousness which holds mind &amp;amp; senses would navigate to the regions of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; which are imprinted inside the mind during the death. And the mind may imprint things, which it has accumulated by learning throughout the life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 8.6 — Also [when] the body is left remembering this or that &quot;Nature&quot; at the end, O son of Kunti, [it] always approaches towards establishing those nature(s) only.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 13.22 - Purusha being seated(situated) in Prakruti, experiences the [&lt;em&gt;sattva, rajas, tamas&lt;/em&gt;] modes born of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. Contact with these modes, is the cause of its births in good and evil wombs&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;If so, does rebirth occur irrespective of whether the soul went to heaven or hell?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only in the case of Moksha, the rebirth doesn't occur. In all the other cases, the rebirth keeps occurring.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.21 - After having enjoyed that vast heavenly world, &lt;strong&gt;they enter into the human world on the exhaustion of their merit&lt;/strong&gt;. Thus, those who follow the rites and duties prescribed in the three Vedas, and are desirous of pleasures, attain the state of going and returning.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 16.20 — Those fools being born among the demoniacal species in &lt;strong&gt;births after births&lt;/strong&gt;, without ever reaching Me, O son of Kunti, attain conditions lower than that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:33:43.760" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20513" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:34:14.763" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Shatapatha Brahmana (IAST: Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, &quot;Brāhmaṇa of one hundred parts&quot;) is a prose text describing Vedic rituals, history and mythology associated with the Śukla Yajurveda.&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatapatha_Brahmana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;from wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:34:14.763" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:34:14.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20514" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:34:14.763" Score="0" Body="The Shatapatha Brahmana is a prose text describing Vedic rituals, history and mythology associated with the Śukla Yajurveda." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:34:14.763" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:34:14.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20515" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:35:41.117" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:35:41.117" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:35:41.117" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20516" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:35:41.117" Score="0" Body="Questions related to thousands name of Lord Vishnu." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:35:41.117" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:35:41.117" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20517" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:37:25.480" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:37:25.480" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:37:25.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20518" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:37:25.480" Score="0" Body="Questions related to Lord Brahma's weapon, i.e., Brahmastra." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:37:25.480" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:37:25.480" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20519" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:55:13.190" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:55:13.190" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:55:13.190" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20520" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:55:13.190" Score="0" Body="Questions related to god Varuna (god of water)." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:55:13.190" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:55:13.190" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20521" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:56:56.090" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:56:56.090" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:56:56.090" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20522" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:56:56.090" Score="0" Body="Questions related to Vidura." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:56:56.090" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:56:56.090" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20523" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16521" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:57:04.690" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mayureshwar is the most important temple in the tour of Ashta Vinayak. The route of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtavinayaka&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashta Vinayaka&lt;/a&gt; pilgrimage &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtavinayaka#The_eight_temples&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;starts&lt;/a&gt; from this temple.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The summary of the legend goes like this: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This happened in the Treta yuga. There was a king named Cakrapāṇi who ruled a city named Gaṇḍakī. He was righteous king. He remained childless for many years. He did many pujas, vratas, Yāgas and gave donations to beget a child but remained fruitless. One day sage Śaunaka arrived. He told a way of vrat for pleasing Lord Sūrya. The royal couple followed the procedure. After following the procedure, a child was born with three eyes, a big head and an ugly body. The couple felt happy that they have a child now. They named the child Ugrekṣaṇa, Sindhu and Viprasādan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;The child was very cruel since from his childhood. He fought with other humans and elephants in his childhood. After some years, he wanted to conquer the three worlds and become the ruler of the world. He started a penance to please Lord Sūrya(because he was the reason of his birth). After a severe penance, Lord Sūrya was satisfied with penance and appeared before Sindhu. Sindhu asked for a boon of lack of death. Lord Sūrya granted it by handing him a bowl of nectar. He said &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; Keep this bowl in your throat. As long as this is in your throat, you will be invicible and no one will be able to kill you. If this is removed or destroyed, your death time arrives.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;amp;nbsp Due to the power of his boons, he conquered the heaven and imprisoned devatas. He ordered the people to worship him instead of devatas. Donations, sacrifices were stopped in his kingdom. The devatas prayed to Ganesha to remove their problems. He promised that he will incarnate to slay that rakshasa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; Ganesha took birth in the womb of Parvati. This came to know to Sindhu by his spies. He summons his ministers for an advice. They advice to send other asuras to slay that child. But all the asuras fail to accomplish the mission. Finally. the devatas wanted Ganesha to kill Ugrekṣaṇa. Hence, they send Nandi as a messenger of the Gods to release the women belonging to devatas and surrender the svarga nad other lokas to them. But Ugrekṣaṇa doesn't listen to Nandi's advice. Ganesha took oath of slaying Sindhu. Then a fierce battle between Ugrekṣaṇa and Rudra Ganas started. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ugrekṣaṇa was defeated by Ganesha twice in the battle. Ganesha cut off Ugrekṣaṇa's ears. Embarrassed by the defeat, the rakshas returned to his palace. On the last day of the battle, it was Rudra Ganas who took the advanced step to attack Sindhu. They marched towards the city of the rakshas from all the sides. Ganesha reached there on &lt;strong&gt;his vehicle peacock&lt;/strong&gt;. Then Ganesha did āchamana with sacred water and with his divine axe, he hit Sindhu. By his blow, the bowl with nectar was destroyed. In turn, Sindhu is also dead. The devatas exalted Ganesha for his act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesha is always referred to as Mayureshwar in the chapters. The place where Ganesha slain the rakshas Ugrekṣaṇa AKA Sindhu AKA Viprasādana became famous as Mayureshwar templeThe locals refer this temple as Moreshwar and village as Moregaon meaning the village of peacocks. This story could be a strong reason for the name. The incarnation is called as Mayureshwar because &lt;strong&gt;the lord has ascended to the earth on his vehicle peacock&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a summary of &lt;strong&gt;Ganesha Purana Sixth Kanda Chapters 1 to 7&lt;/strong&gt;. (Of these chapters 3,4 describe the slaying of various rakshasas.) The related story in Hindi version can be found &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Y5Ito6ltz_ZjR0MTQ1dkFfb0k/view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. [Page 8 to 58]. Compete Ganesha Purana in Hindi is available here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GMIt8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GMIt8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Ganesha at Moreshwar temple. &quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The consorts of Lord Ganesha Siddhi and buddhi are seen along with him in this temple. It is because they are married to him just after the slaying the Sindhu.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-28T17:49:54.803" LastActivityDate="2018-03-28T17:49:54.803" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20524" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:57:58.093" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:57:58.093" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:57:58.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20525" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T06:57:58.093" Score="0" Body="Questions related to Bhima, one of the Pandavas." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T06:57:58.093" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T06:57:58.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20526" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T07:00:18.870" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Aitareya Brahmana (Sanskrit: ऐतरेय ब्राह्मण) is the Brahmana of the Shakala shakha of the Rigveda, an ancient Indian collection of sacred hymns. This work, according to the tradition, is ascribed to Mahidasa Aitareya. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aitareya_Brahmana&amp;amp;oldid=782963946&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;from wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T07:00:18.870" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T07:00:18.870" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20527" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T07:00:18.870" Score="0" Body="The Aitareya Brahmana is the Brahmana of the Rigveda, an ancient Indian collection of sacred hymns." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T07:00:18.870" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T07:00:18.870" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20528" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T07:01:55.473" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T07:01:55.473" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T07:01:55.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20529" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T07:01:55.473" Score="0" Body="Questions regarding Kaikeyi, mother of Bharata and Queen of Dasharatha." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T07:01:55.473" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T07:01:55.473" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20530" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-30T07:03:51.110" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T07:03:51.110" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T07:03:51.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20531" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-30T07:03:51.110" Score="0" Body="Questions regarding Indrajit a.k.a Meghanada, the son of Ravana." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T07:03:51.110" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T07:03:51.110" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20532" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7418" CreationDate="2017-08-30T07:32:45.117" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;BrahmAstra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, which blazed RAvana &amp;amp; his chariot with fires. This also could be the reason of &quot;Dussera&quot; being celebrated in certain way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And beholding that terrible form of illusion displayed by the Ten-necked Rakshasa, the monkeys fled in fear in all directions. Then the descendant of Kakutstha, taking out of his quiver an excellent arrow furnished with handsome wings and golden feathers and a bright and beautiful head, fixed it on the bow &lt;strong&gt;with Brahmastra mantra&lt;/strong&gt;. And beholding that excellent arrow transformed by &lt;strong&gt;Rama, with proper mantras into a Brahma weapon&lt;/strong&gt;, the celestials and the Gandharvas with Indra at their head, began to rejoice. And the gods and the Danavas and the Kinnaras were led by the display of that Brahma weapon to regard the life of their Rakshasa foe almost closed. Then Rama shot that terrible weapon of unrivalled energy, destined to compass Ravana's death, and resembling the curse of a Brahmana on the point of utterance. And as soon, O Bharata, as that arrow was shot by Rama from his bow drawn to a circle, &lt;strong&gt;the Rakshasa king with his chariot and charioteer and horses blazed up, surrounded on all sides by a terrific fire&lt;/strong&gt;. And beholding Ravana slain by Rama of famous achievements, the celestials, with the Gandharvas and the Charanas, rejoiced exceedingly. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03288.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[MahAbhArata, Vana Parva -- as said by sage Markendeya]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T07:32:45.117" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20533" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-30T08:19:12.970" Score="1" ViewCount="726" Body="&lt;p&gt;If Vibhishan is not in the Rama's side . What is a chance of Ravan to defeat Ram in the war. As we can see that Vibhishan has pretty good impact in the war. like;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) He told Ram about real Makarakhsha's(&lt;em&gt;Son of Khar&lt;/em&gt;) identity among all clones or fake Makarakhsha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) When Laxman(&lt;em&gt;Ram's Brother&lt;/em&gt;) had severe injury cause by the dagger of Indrajeet(&lt;em&gt;Son of Ravana&lt;/em&gt;) He gave the idea to consult &lt;em&gt;Raj-Vaidhya&lt;/em&gt;(&lt;em&gt;Royal Physician&lt;/em&gt;) of Lanka (I think his name is Shushurna) which gave the idea of &lt;em&gt;Mrit-Sanjeevani&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Some kind of shrub which has property to give life to person who is dead or about to die&lt;/em&gt;) which eventually save Laxman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3) He told Ram about Indrajeet worshipping Nikumbla to get Chariot and If he ride that Chariot, He will be Invincible and hence Laxman with the help of &lt;em&gt;vanaras&lt;/em&gt; failed Yagna in between.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4) He told Ram that Ravan has amrit in his belly that is why he cant be kill until you dry amrit from his belly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is very important information provided by Vibhishan to Ram. &lt;em&gt;Is Vibishan is actually a cause for defeat of Ravana ?&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note : All information is gathered from Ramanand Sagar's Television Series Ramayan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11797" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T08:19:12.970" Title="Chance of Ravana to win the war against Ram" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ravana|vibhishana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-08-30T08:38:55.373" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20534" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20050" CreationDate="2017-08-30T08:59:00.607" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shri RAma himself was not convinced to accept Sita at first, irrespective of whether she was chaste (pure) or not.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And he was very much right in that. According to the &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; [at least during RAmAyana times], a wife is not acceptable &amp;amp; ought to set free if another man takes her, for whatever reasons. Shri RAma was aware of this morality. Besides, abduction of Sita happened because of her own mistakes (sending RAma, sending Lakshmana, crossing &lt;em&gt;rekha&lt;/em&gt;). Hence, after &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20532/1049&quot;&gt;killing RAvana&lt;/a&gt;, he followed the same Dharma towards Sita irrespective of her purity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story is described as part of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03288.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;MahAbhArata - Vana Parva&lt;/a&gt; by sage Markendeya to Yudhishtira:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And having slain the Ten-necked Rakshasa, the lord Rama of worldwide fame, that conqueror of hostile cities, bestowed Lanka on Vibhishana. Then that old and wise counsellor (of Ravana) known by the name of Avindhya, with Sita walking before him but behind Vibhishana who was at the front, came out of the city. And with great humility Avindhya said unto the illustrious descendant of Kakutstha, '&lt;strong&gt;O illustrious one, accept thou this goddess, Janaka's daughter&lt;/strong&gt; of excellent conduct!' Hearing these words, the descendant of Ikshwaku's race alighted from his excellent chariot and beheld Sita bathed in tears. And beholding that beautiful lady seated within her vehicle, afflicted with grief, besmeared with filth, with matted locks on head, and attired in dirty robes, &lt;strong&gt;Rama, afraid of the loss of his honour, said unto her, 'Daughter of Videha, go withersover thou likest! Thou art now free!&lt;/strong&gt; What should have been done by me, hath been done! O blessed lady, owning me for thy husband, it is not meet that thou shouldst grow old in the abode of the Rakshasa! It is for this I have slain that wanderer of the night! &lt;strong&gt;But how can one like us, acquainted with every truth of morality embrace even for a moment a woman that had fallen into other's hands? O princess of Mithila whether thou art chaste or unchaste, I dare not enjoy thee&lt;/strong&gt;, now that thou art like sacrificial butter lapped by a dog!' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the discussion of RAma following common people's doubts &amp;amp; asking Sita to perform &lt;em&gt;Agni Pariksha&lt;/em&gt; -- becomes moot. The morality of those times were not allowing such act (i.e. accepting Sita after being abducted by RAvana). Shri RAma was conversant with all truths of Morality &amp;amp; hence followed the scripture prescribed path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The subsequent story states that how Sita, several deities &amp;amp; Brahma-deva himself asked RAma to accept Sita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the divine and pure-souled Brahma of four faces, that Creator of the Universe himself sprung from a lotus, showed himself on his car to Raghu's son. And Sakra and Agni and Vayu, and Yama and Varuna and the illustrious Lord of the Yakshas, and the holy Rishis, and king Dasaratha also in a celestial and effulgent form and on car drawn by swans, showed themselves ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -- princess of Videha spoke ... 'O prince, I impute no fault to thee, for thou art well acquainted with the behaviour that one should adopt towards both men and women....  have never, even in my dreams, cherished the image of any other person, so be thou my lord as appointed by the gods.'&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -- And the Wind-god was heard to say ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -- And the god of Fire said, ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -- And Varuna then said, ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -- And Brahma himself then said, ... 'O son, in thee that art honest and pure and conversant with the duties of royal sages, this conduct is not strange. Listen, however, ... ' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, RAma was finally commanded by the soul of his father Dasaratha &amp;amp; he gladly accepted (again showing the reverence to his father, a proper following Dharma):  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;-- Dasaratha said, 'I have been gratified with thee, O child! Blessed be thou, I am thy father Dasaratha! I command thee to take back thy wife, and rule thy kingdom, O thou foremost of men!'&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  -- Rama then replied, 'If thou art my father, I salute thee with reverence, O king of kings! I shall indeed, return, at thy command, to the delightful city of Ayodhya!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further story doesn't state of any &lt;em&gt;Agni Pariksha&lt;/em&gt;. However, even if that had happened, that was not because &lt;em&gt;RAma&lt;/em&gt; earlier thought Sita as chaste and then doubted due to public pressure. But that would have been due to a moral responsibility towards his citizens about proving the chastity of the queen, they revere. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T08:59:00.607" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20535" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17014" CreationDate="2017-08-30T09:08:09.613" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;RAvana had a curse from &lt;em&gt;Nalakuvera&lt;/em&gt;, according to which he cannot approach an unwilling woman. Upon doing so, his head would burst. This refrence was used by lord Brahma to prove Sita's purity to Shri RAma, who was &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20534/1049&quot;&gt;unwilling to accept Sita&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Brahma himself then said, '... The wretch, however, abducted Sita for his own destruction. &lt;strong&gt;And as regards Sita, I protected her through Nalakuvera's curse. For that person had cursed Ravana of old, saying, that if he ever approached an unwilling woman, his head should certainly be split into a hundred fragments&lt;/strong&gt;. Let no suspicion, therefore, be thine! O thou of great glory, accept thy wife!  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03289.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[MahAbhArata - Vana Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T09:08:09.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20536" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2094" CreationDate="2017-08-30T09:30:33.937" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03289.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[MahAbhArata - Vana Parva]&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Those monkeys (&lt;em&gt;VAnara&lt;/em&gt;s) got killed during the war were brought back&#xA;to life&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Lord Hanuman got the boon of living as long as the fame of RAma lives; He also acted as an envoy (messenger) to Bharata about giving good news of Shri RAma's return&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Other monkey chiefs were worshipped &amp;amp; pleased by RAma &amp;amp; they left to their kingdoms&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Angada was installed as king of &lt;em&gt;Kishkindhya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sugriva accompanied with RAma till Ayodhya and then took his leave towards his kingdom&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama, thereupon, prayed them to grant him firm adherence to virtues and invincibility in respect of all foes. And he also asked for the restoration to life of all those monkeys that had been slain by the Rakshasas, and after &lt;strong&gt;Brahma had said--So be it, those monkeys, O king, restored to life, rose up from the field of battle&lt;/strong&gt;, and Sita too, of great good fortune, &lt;strong&gt;granted unto Hanuman a boon, saying, 'Let thy life, O son, last as long as (the fame of) Rama's achievements&lt;/strong&gt;! And, O Hanuman of yellow eyes, let celestial viands and drinks be ever available to thee through my grace! ...  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the virtuous king, with all the monkeys, pitched his temporary abode. And the son of &lt;strong&gt;Raghu then, bringing the monkeys before him in due time, worshipped them all, and gratifying them with presents of jewels and gems, dismissed them one after another&lt;/strong&gt;. And after all the monkey-chiefs, and the apes with bovine tails, and the bears, had gone away, &lt;strong&gt;Rama re-entered Kishkindhya with Sugriva&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And having arrived at &lt;strong&gt;Kishkindhya&lt;/strong&gt;, Rama, that foremost of all smiters, &lt;strong&gt;installed the successful Angada as prince-regent&lt;/strong&gt; of the kingdom. ... And having reached the city of Ayodhya, the king despatched Hanuman thence as envoy to Bharata.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And after his installation was over, &lt;strong&gt;Rama gave leave to well-pleased Sugriva&lt;/strong&gt; the king of the monkeys, along with all his followers, as also to rejoicing Vibhishana of Pulastya's race, to return to their respective abodes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T09:30:33.937" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20537" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-30T10:11:48.740" Score="3" ViewCount="857" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it true that it is mentioned in the Linga Puranas, that originally there were 64 Jyotirlingas in the world?  If yes, then in which chapter is it mentioned? Can anyone please enlighten me on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11858" LastEditorUserId="4459" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T10:28:15.837" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T10:28:15.837" Title="Were there originally 64 Jyotirlingas in the world?" Tags="|shiva|shiva-lingam|jyotirlinga|linga-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20539" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6546" CreationDate="2017-08-30T11:46:27.730" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesha is married to Siddhi and Buddhi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मा उवाच:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एतस्मिन्नन्तरे तत्र विश्वरुपः प्रजापति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदुद्योगं संविचार्य सुखमाप प्रसन्नधि ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विश्वरुपप्रजेशस्य दिव्यरुपे सुते उभे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सिद्दिबुद्धिरिति ख्याते शुभे सर्वांगशोभने।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ताव्या चैव गणेशस्य गिरिजा शंकरौ प्रभू ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महोत्सावं विवाहं च कारयामासतुर्मुदा ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सन्तुष्टा देवता सर्वास्ताद्विवाहे समागमन् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथा चैव शिवस्यैव गिरिजाया मनोरथ ।। ( Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita chapter 20)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Brahma said &amp;quot;In the meantime Prajapati Vishwarupa had two daughters possessing divine features known as &lt;strong&gt;Siddhi and Buddhi.&lt;/strong&gt; All the limbs of their body were extremely beautiful. &lt;strong&gt;The marriage of Ganesha was fixed with them by Shankara (Shiva) and Girija (Parvati). All the Gods joined the marriage party delightfully,&lt;/strong&gt; in the same way as desired by Shiva and Girija (Parvati).&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T11:46:27.730" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20540" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-30T12:19:50.777" Score="8" ViewCount="790" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have been told that the Rudras were the incarnation of Lord Rudra (Shiva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who they actually were and how many were they ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were their duties ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and will they come again in future?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3274" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-08-30T15:23:25.500" LastActivityDate="2022-03-02T06:54:20.457" Title="How many Rudras have been actually born?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20541" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20540" CreationDate="2017-08-30T13:20:39.373" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are &lt;strong&gt;eleven &lt;em&gt;Rudra&lt;/em&gt;-s&lt;/strong&gt;. See their names in the translation from Gambhirananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 10.23 - Among the Rudras [&lt;strong&gt;Aja, Ekapada, Ahirbudhnya, Pinaki, Aparajita, Tryam-baka, Mahesvara, Vrsakapi, Sambhu, Harana and Isvara&lt;/strong&gt;. Different Puranas give different lists of eleven names.-Tr,] I am Sankara, ... (Gambhirananda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord &lt;strong&gt;Shankara&lt;/strong&gt; is probably supreme among them, yet different from other Rudra-s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Rudra-s are existent in every cycle of Brahma.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I am not aware of their duties though.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T13:20:39.373" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20542" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-30T13:57:12.357" Score="3" ViewCount="399" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jyotirlinga.com/64---stories-of-lord-shiva.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Why did sage bringi only worship only shiva and not shakti&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;What happened with rishi bringi after shakti took shakti(power ) from sage bringi's body.&#xA;In durga chalisa there is a line&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Nishidin dhyan dharo shekar ko&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kahu kaal nhi sumiro tumko&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;shakti roop ko maran na payo&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;shakti gayi tab man pachitayo&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;sharnagat Hui Kirti bakhani&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jay Jay Jay jagdamb bhavani&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bhai prasann aadi jagdamba&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;dai shakti nahi kin vilamba&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this who is that person &amp;quot;kaal&amp;quot; is it same rishi bringi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10420" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T13:57:12.357" Title="Why did sage bringi only worship shiva" Tags="|shiva|shakti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20543" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20498" CreationDate="2017-08-30T14:15:47.537" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Radharani is Krishna’s Eternal Consort and Pleasure Potency. Radharani is actually Krishna Himself who have expanded himself. They both live in Supreme Spiritual Abode ‘Goloka Vrindavana’. Besides Protection of dharma,They both appear in this material world to taste different types of rasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://prabhupada.krishna.com/internal-potency-radharani&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; website:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Radharani, Pleasure Potency of Krishna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Aacharya of Brahma Sampradaya says —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Festival Lectures, London, 29 August, 1971.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So today, this evening, we are talking about Radhastami. We are trying to understand the chief potency of Krishna. Radharani is the pleasure potency of Krishna. As we understand from Vedic literature, Krishna has many varieties of potencies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parasya shaktir vividhaiva shruyate [Chaitanya-charitamrita Madhya-lila 13.65, purport].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just like the same example, as a big man has got many assistants and secretaries so that he hasn't got to do anything personally, simply by his will everything is done, similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has got varieties of energies, and everything is being done so nicely. Just like this material energy. This material world, where we are now living… This is called material energy.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   Bahir-anga-shakti. The Sanskrit name is &#xA;  bahir-anga, external energy of Krishna. So how nicely it is being done, everything in the material energy. That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gita, mayadhyakshena prakritih suyate sa-characharam: [Bhagavad-gita 9.10] &quot;Under My superintendence the material energy is working.&quot; The material energy is not blind. It is… On the background there is Krishna. Mayadhyakshena prakritih [Bhagavad-gita 9.10]. Prakriti means this material energy.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Similarly… This is external energy. Similarly, there is another energy, which is internal energy. By the internal energy the spiritual world is being manifested. Paras tasmat tu bhavah anyah [Bhagavad-gita 8.20]. Another energy, para, superior, transcendental, the spiritual world. As this material world is being manipulated under the external energy, similarly, the spiritual world is also conducted by the internal potency. That internal potency is Radharani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Radharani…, today is Radharani's appearance day. So we should try to understand Radharani's feature. Radharani is the pleasure potency, hladini-shakti. Anandamayo 'bhyasat (Vedanta-sutra 1.1.12). In the Vedanta-sutra the Absolute Truth is described as anandamaya, always in pleasure potency. That anandamaya potency… Just like ananda. When you want ananda, pleasure, you cannot have it alone. Alone, you cannot enjoy. When you are in the circles of friend or family or other associates, you feel pleasure. Just like I am speaking. The speaking is very pleasing when there are many persons here. I cannot speak alone here. That is not ananda. I can speak here at night, dead of night, nobody here. That is not ananda. Ananda means there must be others. So because Krishna, the Absolute Truth, is anandamaya, therefore eko bahu syam, He has become many. We are also Krishna's part and parcel, to give pleasure to Krishna. And the chief pleasure potency is Radharani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;radha-krishna-pranaya-vikritir hladini-shaktir asmad&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   ekatmanav api bhuvo (pura) deha-bhedo-gatau tau&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   chaitanyakhyam prakatam adhuna tad-dvayam chaikybram aptam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   radha-bhava-(dyuti)-suvalitam naumi krishna-svarupam [Chaitanya-charitamrita Adi-lila 1.5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So Krishna is Param Brahman, as you know from the Bhagavad-gita. When Arjuna understood Bhagavad-gita, he affirmed Krishna, param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan [Bhagavad-gita 10.12]. So Krishna is Param Brahman. So in this material world we see that a great, saintly person, simply to enjoy brahmananda, he gives up everything of material enjoyment. He becomes sannyasi. Aham brahmasmi. Just to understand that he is in Brahman realization. So if one has to give up everything material for Brahman realization, do you think that Param Brahman, the Supreme Brahman, can enjoy anything material? No. Krishna's enjoyment is nothing material. This point should be understood. For Brahman realization we are giving up everything material. And how Param Brahman can enjoy anything material? This question has been very much nicely discussed by Jiva Gosvami.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So when the Param Brahman… First of all, the Param Brahman information is not there in this material world. Little Brahman information is there. Or little Paramatma information is there. But not Param Brahman, or Bhagavan, information. Therefore it is said, manushyanam sahasreshu kashchid yatati siddhaye [Bhagavad-gita 7.3]. Siddhaye means to understand Brahman or Paramatma. But out of many such persons who have realized Brahman and Paramatma, hardly a person can know Krishna. And that… First of all…what we can understand about Krishna's pleasure potency? If I want to know some big man. That is one process. And without knowing that big man, how I can understand about his internal affairs? Similarly, if we do not understand Krishna, how we can understand how Krishna is enjoying? That is not possible. But the Gosvamis, they're giving us information what is the pleasure potency of Krishna. That is Srimati Radharani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/277/why-didnt-lord-krishna-marry-radha/393#393&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; answer by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/38/be-happy&quot;&gt;Be happy&lt;/a&gt; explains why Radha didn't marry Krishna. Quoting from that answer: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So as per BrahmaVaivarta Purana, in &lt;em&gt;Goloka&lt;/em&gt;, before the manifestation of their pastime on earth, on one occasion Radharani had a heated argument with Shridama, the personal attendant of Krishna.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In course of their conversation Radharani got angry and cursed Shridama to take birth as a demon. So Shridama also in return &lt;strong&gt;cursed Radharani&lt;/strong&gt; to be born as a human, and after spending pastime with Krishna in Gokula &lt;strong&gt;She will get separated for 100 years from Her beloved lover Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;manuṣyā iva kopaste tasmātvaṃ mānuṣī bhubi&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     bhaviṣyāsi na saṃdeho mayā śaptā tvamambike&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 4.3.103]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are getting angry like a human, hence you'll become a human. Mother! you'll become a human without any doubt due to my curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;gokule prapya taṃ kruṣṇaṃ vihariṣyasi kānane&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;bhavitā te varṣaśataṃ vicchedo hariṇā saha&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;punaḥ prapya tamīśaṃ ca golokamājamiṣyasi&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 4.3.105,106]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In Gokula getting the company of Krishna you will enjoy pastimes in the forest. Then you'll experience a separation of hundred years from Hari. After that you'll again get His company and return to &lt;em&gt;Go-loka&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hence, even though Krishna's love for Radha was eternal, due to the effect of the curse He couldn't marry Radha socially or openly. Instead, as per the curse, on Earth Radha had to marry Rayana of Vrindavan who was also Kirshna's partial incarnation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;mūḍhā rāyaṇapatnīṃ tvāṃ vakṣanti jagatitale&lt;br&gt;&#xA;     rāyaṇaḥ śrīhareraṃśo vaiśyo vrundāvane vane&lt;/em&gt; [BVP - 4.3.104,105]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  On Earth fools will say you to be the wife of Rayana. Rayana will be the partial incarnation of Hari in Vrindavan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more details, see the below posts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20493/how-was-radhaji-born-what-are-the-names-of-her-father-and-mother&quot;&gt;How was Radhaji born? What are the names of her father and mother?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15167/what-happened-to-radha-when-she-grew-up/15171&quot;&gt;What happened to Radha when she grew up?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Nimbarka Sampradaya, Radha's relationship with Krishna is characterised by the svakiya-rasa, based on texts in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana and the Garga Samhita describing the wedding of Radha and Krishna. The Gaudiya tradition focuses upon parakiya-rasa as the highest form of love, wherein Radha and Krishna share thoughts even through separation. The love the gopis feel for Krishna is also described in this esoteric manner as the highest platform of spontaneous love of God, and not of a sexual nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10420" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-02T05:12:51.573" LastActivityDate="2017-09-02T05:12:51.573" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20545" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20540" CreationDate="2017-08-30T15:23:32.233" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer is there are infinite Rudras. In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/stotra/Sri%20Rudram%20Anuvakam1.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SataRudriya section&lt;/a&gt; of YajurVeda (16th chapter) there is mention of various forms of Lord Rudra which are present in Heavens, in Earths, in Trees, in Antariksha, in heart of Gods etc.. etc..&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Specially in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/stotra/Sri%20Rudram%20Anuvakam11.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;11th Anuvaka&lt;/a&gt; various Rudra ganas are talked of which are identical to Rudra. Also in the 11th Anuvaka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमो रुद्रेभ्यो ये पृथिव्यां येऽन्तरिक्षे ये दिवि येषामन्नं वातो वर्षमिषवस्तेभ्यो दश प्राचीर्दश दक्षिणा दश प्रतीचीर्दशोदीचीर्दशोर्ध्वास्तेभ्यो नमस्तेनो मृडयन्तु ते यं द्विष्मो यश्च नो द्वेष्टि तं वो जम्भे दधामि ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  We render &lt;strong&gt;obescience to those myriad manifestations of Rudra whose weapons are food, air and rain; who exists in earth sky and heaven.&lt;/strong&gt; Prostrations to the east, to the south, to the east and to the north and upwards. Let them render us happy, whoever hates us and whosoever we hate consign in your wide open mouth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same thing is also confirmed by Grihya Sutras. For eg. Paraskara Grihya Sutra states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;12&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A forest (through which he is wandering) he addresses: &amp;apos;Adoration to &lt;strong&gt;Rudra who dwells in the forests.&lt;/strong&gt; Make me arrive safely.&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A mountain (which he is going to cross) he addresses: &amp;apos;Adoration to &lt;strong&gt;Rudra who dwells on the mountains.&lt;/strong&gt; Make me arrive safely.&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A burial-ground he addresses: &amp;apos;Adoration to &lt;strong&gt;Rudra who dwells among the Fathers.&lt;/strong&gt; Make me arrive safely.&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A cow-stable he addresses: &amp;apos;Adoration to &lt;strong&gt;Rudra who dwells among the dung-heaps.&lt;/strong&gt; Make me arrive safely.&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And wheresoever else it be, let him always say, &amp;apos;Adoration to Rudra.&amp;apos; &lt;strong&gt;For the Sruti says, &amp;apos;Rudra is this universe.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He was clad in a tiger-skin, had matted locks on his head, and bore the staff in one of his hands. He was armed, besides with his Pinaka and the thunderbolt. His teeth was sharp-pointed. He was decked with an excellent bracelet for the upper arm. His sacred thread was constituted by a snake. He wore an excellent garland of diversified colours on his bosom, that hung down to his toes. Verily, I beheld him like the exceedingly bright moon of an autumnal evening. Surrounded by diverse clans of spirits and ghosts, he looked like the autumnal Sun difficult of being gazed at for its dazzling brightness. &lt;strong&gt;Eleven hundred Rudras stood around that Deity of restrained soul and white deeds, then seated upon his bull. All of them were employed in hymning his praises.&lt;/strong&gt; The Adityas, the Vasus, the Sadhyas, the Viswedevas, and the twin Aswins praised that Lord of the universe by uttering the hymns occurring in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in the Kurma Purana in the chapter &amp;apos;Creation by Rudra&amp;apos; Lord Rudra begins to create himself and there becomes billions and billions of his forms.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus there are uncountable, billions and billions forms of Rudra. However there are special groups of Rudras which have special tasks some of which I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7954/why-did-lord-shiva-take-44-avatars-if-his-primary-role-is-to-be-the-destroyer/16687#16687&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The famous groups are groups of Ekadash Rudras and groups of AshtaMurti Rudras;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ekadash Rudras are:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They were &lt;strong&gt;Mrigavayadha, Sarpa, Niriti&lt;/strong&gt; of great fame: &lt;strong&gt;Ajaikapat, Ahivradhna, and Pinaki,&lt;/strong&gt; the oppressor of foes; &lt;strong&gt;Dahana and Iswara, and Kapali&lt;/strong&gt; of great splendour; and &lt;strong&gt;Sthanu, and the illustrious **Bharga. These are called the eleven Rudras.&lt;/strong&gt; [Adi Parva, Sambhava Parva chapter 66]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AshtaMurti Rudras are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are &lt;strong&gt;Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Sarva.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Pasupati.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Ugra.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Asani.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Bhava.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Mahadeva.&lt;/strong&gt; You are &lt;strong&gt;Ishana.&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yajurveda Shatapatha Brahmana&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss significance of them in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7954/why-did-lord-shiva-take-44-avatars-if-his-primary-role-is-to-be-the-destroyer/16687#16687&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus there are uncountable very large no. Of Rudras of which 11 Rudras and 8 Rudras are quite famous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T15:23:32.233" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20548" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-30T20:23:49.433" Score="5" ViewCount="326" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hi my question is regarding one shloka from Bhagavad Gita.&#xA;It states that the universe has come from the unmanifest (avyakta) and manifested (vyakta) itself.&#xA;Where in the Vedas is this process explained in detail?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9068" LastActivityDate="2017-08-30T20:23:49.433" Title="How does Avyakta turn into Vyakta" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20550" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-31T02:10:10.753" Score="1" ViewCount="30" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read that kaliyuga is the last yuga which will end with catatrophism, and then again satyuga will start, &#xA;Now my question is is this tetrad (of satyuga, tretayuga, dwaperyuga, kalyuga) was the first one or there were early kaliyugas also &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11830" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T02:10:10.753" Title="The yuga's- their repetition" Tags="|yuga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-08-31T03:40:38.457" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20551" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-31T04:50:32.007" Score="7" ViewCount="5328" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many of us here claims that Lord Hanuman was one of the Rudra (especially people say Hanuman is 11th Rudra).As it is said in many of our scriptures and puranas that Hanuman was an incarnation/avatar of Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But on the other side, in an answer to my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20540/how-many-rudras-have-been-actually-born/20545#20545&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Tezz refers to the Ekadasha Rudras and Ashta Murti Rudras, none of them has Hanuman's name mentioned. So, what is relation between Rudra and Hanuman?  If this was not the case, if Hanuman was not the Rudra, then who was he ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3274" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-01T05:15:19.860" LastActivityDate="2019-05-03T13:29:29.383" Title="Is Hanuman the 11th Rudra?" Tags="|shiva|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20552" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20551" CreationDate="2017-08-31T05:39:47.110" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Hanuman isn&amp;apos;t among the 11 Rudras. I discuss 11 Rudras and their significances in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7954/why-did-lord-shiva-take-44-avatars-if-his-primary-role-is-to-be-the-destroyer/16687#16687&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The 11 Rudras are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They were &lt;strong&gt;Mrigavayadha, Sarpa, Niriti&lt;/strong&gt; of great fame: &lt;strong&gt;Ajaikapat, Ahivradhna, and Pinaki,&lt;/strong&gt; the oppressor of foes; &lt;strong&gt;Dahana and Iswara, and Kapali&lt;/strong&gt; of great splendour; and &lt;strong&gt;Sthanu, and the illustrious Bharga. These are called the eleven Rudras.&lt;/strong&gt; [Adi Parva, Sambhava Parva chapter 66]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in the Harivamsha Parva of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुरभी कश्यपात् रुद्रान् एकादश विनिर्ममे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महादेव प्रसादेन तपसा भाविता सती ॥१-३-४९&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अजैकपाद् अहिर्बुध्न्यः त्वष्टा रुद्राः च भारत ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वष्टुः चैव आत्मजः श्रीमान् विश्वरूपो महायशाः १-३-५० &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;हरः च बहु-रूपः च त्र्यम्बकः च अपराजितः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वृषा-कपिः च शम्भुः च कपर्दी रैवतः तथा ॥&lt;/strong&gt; १-३-५१&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मृग-व्याधः च सर्पः च कपाली च विशांपते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एकादश एते कथिता रुद्राः त्रि-भुवन-ईश्वराः ॥१-३-५२&amp;nbsp; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्शतं तु एवं समाख्यातं रुद्राणाम् अमित-औजसाम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुराणे भरतश्रेष्ठ यैः व्याप्ताः स चर-अचराः ॥१-३-५३&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hallowed by her own ascesis and by the grace of mahadeva, the daughter of daskha prajApati, and the wife of kashyapa prajApati, lady surabhi, moulded eleven rudrA-s. Apart from those eleven rudrA-s, Ajaika-pAd, Ahir-budhnya, TwaShTa, and ruda are also the progeny of surabhi, and tvaShTA&amp;apos;s son is the highly glorious vishva-rUpa. Oh, king, &lt;strong&gt;the eleven rudrA-s are: Hara, Bahu-rUpa, Tryambaka, AparAjita, Vrishakapi, Shambhu, Kapardi, Raivata, MrigavyAdha, Sarpa, and KapAli.&lt;/strong&gt; Oh, king, purANA-s tell that these eleven highly resplendent rudrA-s, on &lt;strong&gt;manifesting themselves manifoldly, are pervading the subtle bodies of all sessile and mobile beings, and thus they became the controllers of three worlds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Hanuman is not among the 11 Rudras. But what is the relation between Rudra and Hanuman? The relation is through the AshtaMurti form of Rudras. Hanuman is son of Vayu. And Vayu (Air) is one among the Eight form (AshtaMurti Roopam) of Shiva. I discuss it &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10524/whats-the-relation-between-lord-shiva-and-lord-shani-dev/17075#17075&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सुवर्चला तथैवोमा सुकेशी चापरा शिवा। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्वाहा दिशस्तथा दीक्षा रोहणी च यथाक्रमम् ॥८॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सूर्यादीनां नरश्रेष्ठ रुद्राधैर्नामभिः सह। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पत्न्यः स्मृता महाभाग तदपत्यानि मे शृणु। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येषां सूतिप्रसूतैर्वा इदमापूरितं जगत् ॥ ९ ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शनैश्चरस्तथा शुक्रो लोहिताङ्गो मनोजवः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्कन्दः खर्गोऽथ सन्तानो बुधश्चानुक्रमात् सुताः॥ १०॥ (Vishnu Purana 1.8) &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The wives of the Sun and the other manifestations, termed Rudra and the rest were respectively, Suvercalā, Uma, Vikesi, Sivā, Svāhā, Dišā, Diksā and Rohiņī. Now hear an account of their progeny, by whose successive generations this world has been peopled. &lt;strong&gt;Their sons,&lt;/strong&gt; then, were severally, Sanaiśocara (Saturn), Sukra (Venus), the fiery bodied Mars, &lt;strong&gt;Manojava (Hanumān),&lt;/strong&gt; Skanda, Swarga, Santana, and Budha (Mercury).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in Markandeya Purana chapter 52:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sun, the water, the earth, the fire, the ether, the initiated Brahman, and the moon, these became respectively their abodes. Suvarchala and similarly Uma, Vikeshi and another, Swadha, Swaha, and likewise Disha, Diksha, Rohini these respectively, O thou superior among the twice-born, became with the sun &amp;amp;c., the possession of the holders of the names commencing with Rudra &amp;amp;c.,. &lt;strong&gt;Their sons&lt;/strong&gt; respectively were Shanaishchara, Shukra, Lohitanga, &lt;strong&gt;Monajava,&lt;/strong&gt; Skandha, Sarga, Santana, and Budha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, in this way Hanuman is son of Shiva through his Ashtamurti form of Vãyu (Air). However in Shiva Purana there is a chapter called &amp;apos;The incarnation of Hanuman&amp;apos;, it is told Hanuman is also direct incarnation of Shiva. But in any case Hanuman isn&amp;apos;t 11th Rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T05:45:36.693" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T05:45:36.693" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20553" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:10:28.597" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:10:28.597" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:10:28.597" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20554" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:10:28.597" Score="0" Body="One of the principal Upanishads, embedded as the last chapter inside the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Shukla Yajurveda." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="20129" LastEditDate="2021-09-11T16:10:40.223" LastActivityDate="2021-09-11T16:10:40.223" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20555" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:11:40.050" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:11:40.050" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:11:40.050" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20556" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:11:40.050" Score="0" Body="Question related to cows regarding Hinduism." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:11:40.050" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:11:40.050" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20557" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:14:52.567" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:14:52.567" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:14:52.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20558" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:14:52.567" Score="0" Body="Questions regarding Drona, preceptor of Pandavas and Kauravas." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:14:52.567" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:14:52.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20559" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:15:53.477" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:15:53.477" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:15:53.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20560" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:15:53.477" Score="0" Body="Wife of Pandavas, also known as Panchali." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:15:53.477" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:15:53.477" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20561" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:17:47.653" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:17:47.653" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:17:47.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20562" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:17:47.653" Score="0" Body="Eldest son of Dhritarashtra and Gandhari." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:17:47.653" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:17:47.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20563" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:19:22.853" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:19:22.853" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:19:22.853" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20564" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:19:22.853" Score="0" Body="The Linga Purana, one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, related to Lord Shiva." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:19:22.853" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:19:22.853" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20565" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:20:15.397" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:20:15.397" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:20:15.397" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20566" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:20:15.397" Score="0" Body="Questions regarding various curses in Hinduism." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:20:15.397" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:20:15.397" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20567" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:24:18.817" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:24:18.817" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:24:18.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20568" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-08-31T06:24:18.817" Score="0" Body="Questions regarding the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T06:24:18.817" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T06:24:18.817" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20569" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20457" CreationDate="2017-08-31T07:39:37.730" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a rule for begging alms. This applies to the Brahmins and it should apply to anyone who is entitled to beg alms and receive them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.247. He may accept from any (man), fuel, water, roots, fruit, food offered without asking, and honey, likewise a gift (which consists in)&#xA;  a promise of protection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.248. The Lord of created beings (Prajapati) &lt;strong&gt;has declared that alms freely offered and brought (by the giver himself) may be accepted even&#xA;  from a sinful man, provided (the gift) had not been (asked for or)&#xA;  promised beforehand.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.249. &lt;strong&gt;During fifteen years the manes do not eat (the food) of that man who disdains a (freely-offered gift), nor does the fire carry his&#xA;  offerings (to the gods).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.250. A couch, a house, Kusa grass, perfumes, water,&#xA;  flowers, jewels, sour milk, grain, &lt;strong&gt;fish&lt;/strong&gt;, sweet milk, &lt;strong&gt;mea&lt;/strong&gt;t, and&#xA;  vegetables &lt;strong&gt;let him not reject, (if they are voluntarily offered.&#xA;  )&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, a Sannyasi or a Bhikshu should accept the gift of meat or fish if voluntarily offered. He can not reject them. Also, i don't think a Sannyasi can demand. He has to silently accept what has been offered voluntarily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But probably he must not partake them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;NOTE- All the above verses are from Manu Smriti.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[A Bhikshu'} should collect alms by begging from door to door, as a&#xA;  bee collects honey from flower to flower, even from amongst the&#xA;  Mlechchha- families.&lt;/strong&gt; But food, collected from one house, should not be&#xA;  partaken of even in Vrihaspati's house. (159)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti Verse&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, from a mleccha family a Sannyasi is likely to get offering of meat etc which he should not reject.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, i have not understood what this sentence means &quot; But food, collected from one house, should not be partaken of even in Vrihaspati's house.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-08-31T08:01:36.420" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T08:01:36.420" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20573" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-31T12:02:00.513" Score="6" ViewCount="746" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the Dash Mahavidyas - Chhinnamasta - is known as &lt;strong&gt;Vajra-Vairochini&lt;/strong&gt;. How did she get to be associated with the Vajra that is exclusively shown in the hands of Indra? Indra is also associated with the episode of killing the demon named Virochan and 'Vairochinia' suggests an association with that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, there is also a form of Buddha known as the Vairochana &amp;amp; given the relationship between Tantra and Vajrayana Buddhism, could it be that the goddess is actually related to this form of Buddha and not Indra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-11-03T06:38:16.710" LastActivityDate="2017-11-03T06:38:16.710" Title="Is their an association between Chhinnamasta &amp; Indra and/or Vairochan Buddha?" Tags="|indra|devi|buddhism|dasha-mahavidya|chinnamasta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20574" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-31T12:19:33.097" Score="4" ViewCount="642" Body="&lt;p&gt;I need to know the detailed story of Makardhwaja the son of Hanuman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that he was born from sweat of Hanuman. Hanuman and Makardhwaja both  met in Patala when Hanuman was searching for Rama and Lakshmana in Patala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And after that Rama advised  Hanuman to announce him as the king of patala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I need to know what happened with Makardhvaja after he became the king of Patala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If there is any reference then please share it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11773" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-01T05:17:44.510" LastActivityDate="2017-09-01T05:17:44.510" Title="What happened to Hanuman's son Makardhwaja after he became the king of Patala?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20575" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-31T12:30:46.257" Score="2" ViewCount="411" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can a woman take the deeksha for Thaptha mudra after menopause?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9136" LastEditorUserId="9136" LastEditDate="2017-09-14T10:40:14.297" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T10:40:14.297" Title="Can a woman take the deeksha for mudra (applied on daily basis just like men - but only on hands and face) after or before menopause?" Tags="|vaishnavism|women|madhvacharya|initiation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20578" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-08-31T17:08:06.087" Score="1" ViewCount="127" Body="&lt;p&gt;Karna and arjuna are the two greatest warriors of the  mahabharat,there have been often many debates on this topic,But is there any refrences in Mahabharat which show that a particular character like bhisma saying that this warrior is greater than that or who can be consider more greater warrior are there any examples in mahabharata? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T17:08:06.087" Title="Who can be considered a better warrior Arjuna or karan in mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|karna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-08-31T17:13:18.010" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20580" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3888" CreationDate="2017-08-31T18:33:42.170" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parvati devi just called Him &amp;quot;son&amp;quot; (&lt;em&gt;Putra&lt;/em&gt;). There are many birth stories of Ganesha described in Puranas. Each Purana describes story of a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11077/3500&quot;&gt;particular Kalpa&lt;/a&gt; and Shiva severing head happened in &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Sveta Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; which is mentioned in Shiva Mahapurana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the Puranas in which birth stories of Ganesha are mentioned are, &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Mahapurana&lt;/strong&gt; (from &lt;em&gt;Chapter 13 to Chapter 18 of Rudra Samhita- Kumara Khanda&lt;/em&gt;), &lt;strong&gt;Linga Purana&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Chapter 105 of Part 1&lt;/em&gt;), &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Chapter 27 of Kaumarika Khanda of Maheswara Khanda&lt;/em&gt;) and &lt;strong&gt;Varaha Purana&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Chapter 23&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Linga Purana and Varaha Purana, Shiva directly creates Ganesha and in Skanda Purana, Parvati makes a boy with elephant head and Shiva immediately grants Him boons and makes Him leader of Ganas (Ganesha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, i will mention what Parvati Devi calls the boy in Shiva Mahapuarana which is of Sveta Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After creating boy out of Her body dirt, she spoke to the boy following, in &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 13 Rudra Samhita Kumara Khanda&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मत्पुत्र&lt;/strong&gt;स्त्वं मदीयोऽसि नान्यः कश्चिदिहास्ति मे। &lt;br&gt; एवमुक्तः स&#xA;पुरुषो नमस्कृत्य शिवां जगौ।। २३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then she said to him, “&lt;strong&gt;You are my son&lt;/strong&gt;, you belong to me, there is no&#xA;one else who could be called as mine, except you.” At these words of&#xA;Parvati, the person, bowed in reverence to Pârvati and praised her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिवोवाच &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;हे तात!&lt;/strong&gt; श्रृंणु मद्वाक्यं द्वारपालो भवाद्य मे। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;मत्पुत्रस्त्वं मदीयोऽसि नान्यथा कश्चिदस्ति मे॥ २५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parvati (Sivaa) said, &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;O Son&lt;/strong&gt;, you listen to my Words. You function as&#xA;my gate-keeper today. You are my son. No one else, except you, belongs&#xA;to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विना मदाज्ञां &lt;strong&gt;सत्पुत्र&lt;/strong&gt;! नैवायन्मद्गृहान्तरम्। &lt;br&gt; कोऽपि कृतापि&#xA;हठात्तात ! सत्यमेतन्मयोदितम्॥ २६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O &lt;strong&gt;Son&lt;/strong&gt;, no one should enter my house without my command, even forcibly.&#xA;I have spoken truthfully to you.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She used &amp;quot;putra&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;tAta&amp;quot;. TAta is term of affection addressed to any person who is younger, which means &amp;quot; O child - hey tAta&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Ganesha fought with Shiva and other Ganas, devi Parvati thought in mind as follows, as mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 14&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिवोवाच &lt;br&gt; अहो क्षणं स्थितो नैव हठात्कारः कथं कृतः । &lt;br&gt; कथं&#xA;चैवात्र कर्त्तव्यं विनयेनाथवा पुनः॥४२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parvati thought, “He has not delayed for a while, when these people&#xA;have started using the force. Now my humility would be of what use?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भविष्यति भवत्येन कृतं नैवान्यथा पुनः। इत्युक्त्वा तु सखी तत्र प्रेषिता&#xA;प्रियया तदा॥४३॥ समागत्याब्रवीत्सा च प्रियया कथितं हि यत्। समाचष्ट&#xA;गणेशं तं गिरिजातनयं तदा।४४।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever has been destined to happen let it happen, but no adversity&#xA;would happen.&amp;quot; Thus thinking Parvati sent her sakhya to that place,&#xA;who reaching there conveyed the words of Girijā to Gaņeša.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Shiva cut the head of the boy, She used the word Putra to mention the boy which is mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 17&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;किं करोमि क्क गच्छामि हा हा दुःखमुपागतम्। &lt;br&gt; कर्थ दु:ख&#xA;विनश्येतास्यातिदु:ख ममाधुना॥५॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She thought within herself, “What should I do? Where should I go, alas&#xA;I feel extremely painful. How could I be relieved of the pain of his&#xA;death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मत्सुतो&lt;/strong&gt; नाशितश्चाद्य देवैः सर्वैर्गणैस्तथा। &lt;br&gt; सर्वास्तान्नाशयिष्यामि प्रलयं वा करोम्यहम्॥ ६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My son&lt;/strong&gt; has been killed by all the god and the ganas of Šiva. Either I shall destroy them all or shall resort to dissolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parvati devi changes her form to Chandika and says later she will be pleased only when Her son is resurrected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देव्युवाच &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;मत्पुत्रो&lt;/strong&gt; यदि जीवेत तदा संहरणं न हि। &lt;br&gt; यथा हि भवतां मध्ये पूज्योऽयं च भविष्यति॥४२॥ &lt;br&gt; सर्वाध्यक्षो भवेदद्य यूयं कुरुत तद्यदि।&#xA;&lt;br&gt; तदा शान्तिर्भवेलिोके नान्यथा सुखमाप्स्यथ।४३।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The goddess said, “There would be no destruction, in case &lt;strong&gt;my son&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;is brought back to life and becomes adorable by all of you. In case&#xA;you agree to make him the chief of all the gods, only then the world&#xA;would be peaceful and enjoy comforts, otherwise not.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter elephant head is attached  and Lord Shiva and other Devas granted Him boons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-08-31T18:33:42.170" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20582" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-01T02:01:30.520" Score="6" ViewCount="343" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma has a lifespan of 100 Brahma years (one day of Brahma is 1000×1 MahaYuga) and after that he dies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is time interval between the death of the old Brahma and the birth of a new Brahma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-09-30T15:46:12.030" LastActivityDate="2017-09-30T15:46:12.030" Title="What is time interval between the death of the old Brahma and the birth of a new Brahma?" Tags="|brahma|time|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20583" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-01T04:05:34.347" Score="5" ViewCount="680" Body="&lt;p&gt;Tell me where it is being said &amp;amp; by whom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fragrance of the flower is never borne against the breeze;but the fragrance of human virtues diffuses itself everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4jVgU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Image with the quote&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-09-01T05:11:15.103" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T05:24:54.997" Title="Where in the Rāmāyaṇa does this quote appear? Who said this?" Tags="|ramayana|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20584" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20467" CreationDate="2017-09-01T05:48:49.507" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, in general, consumption of non-veg food items, by all people, under all circumstances is not a sin that scriptures will prescribe atonement measures for the act.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As clearly said in the following verse, giving up meat eating is greatly rewarding and is recommended too, but eating meat is &quot;not that bad&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.56. &lt;strong&gt;There is no sin in eating meat&lt;/strong&gt;, in (drinking)&#xA;  spirituous liquor, and in carnal intercourse, &lt;strong&gt;for that is the&#xA;  natural way of created beings, but abstention brings great rewards&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, this should not be understood as scriptures allowing unrestricted consumption of meat. Generally speaking, only sacrificial meat (i.e meat which is already offered to the Manes or the Gods first) is allowed (or recommended) to be eaten.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.32. &lt;strong&gt;He who eats meat, when he honours the gods and&#xA;  manes, commits no sin,&lt;/strong&gt; whether he has bought it, or himself has&#xA;  killed (the animal), or has received it as a present from others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even a Brahmin can eat meat, if he wishes, but only after sanctifying it with water infused with Vedic mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.36. A Brahmana must never eat (the flesh of animals&#xA;  unhallowed by Mantras; but, obedient to the primeval law, &lt;strong&gt;he may eat&#xA;  it, consecrated with Vedic texts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, one can not refuse  meat either if its offered to one on a sacred occasion (like say Shraddha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.35. But a man who, being duly engaged (to officiate or&#xA;  to dine at a sacred rite), refuses to eat meat, becomes after death an&#xA;  animal during twenty-one existences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, not every non-veg food items are forbidden from consumption. Some are but not all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.16. (But the fish called) Pathina and (that called)&#xA;  Rohita may be eaten, if used for offerings to the gods or to the&#xA;  manes; &lt;strong&gt;(one may eat) likewise Ragivas, Simhatundas, and Sasalkas on&#xA;  all (occasions).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.17. Let him not eat solitary or unknown beasts and&#xA;  birds, though they may fall under (the categories of) eatable&#xA;  (creatures), nor any five-toed (animals).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.18. The porcupine, the hedgehog, the iguana, the&#xA;  rhinoceros, the tortoise, and the hare &lt;strong&gt;they declare to be eatable&lt;/strong&gt;;&#xA;  likewise those (domestic animals) that have teeth in one jaw only,&#xA;  excepting camels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it depends on what non-veg food one has consumed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the atonement measures in scriptures are prescribed based on the Varna system. So, you should specify who has consumed the non-veg food item. We need to know his Varna, whether he wears the sacred thread (a twice born) or he if he does not wear it ( a Sudra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, one can do like given in the following verse once he realizes that he has taken something forbidden:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.160. He who desires to be pure, must not eat forbidden&#xA;  food, &lt;strong&gt;and must vomit up such as he has eaten unintentionally&lt;/strong&gt;, or&#xA;  quickly atone for it by (various) means of purification.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, for unintentional crimes, in general, the remedy is recitation of Vedic mantras. For intentional ones, atonement involves more severe penances that involve fasting for many days (like Chandrayana, Samtapana, Tapta Krikkhara, Prajapatya etc).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.46. &lt;strong&gt;A sin unintentionally committed is expiated by the&#xA;  recitation of Vedic texts,&lt;/strong&gt; but that which (men) in their folly commit&#xA;  intentionally, by various (special) penances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, again, it depends on whether one is initiated into the Vedas or not. If he is, then he can recite Vedic mantras like the Gayatri, which is known to clear all sort of sins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Being clad in a pure cloth, seated on the ground and on a pure spot,&#xA;  and self-restrained, and by performing the achamanam with a pure hand,&#xA;  one should begin the recitation of the Gayatri. (212)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By the recitation of the Gayatri, all the sins, both of this world and&#xA;  of another, are dissipated in five nights.&lt;/strong&gt; (213)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no purification of iniquitous deeds superior to the Gayatri&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  (214)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verses from Samvarta Smriti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways, few penances are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.152. But he who has eaten the food of men, whose food&#xA;  must not be eaten, or the leavings of women and Sudras, or forbidden&#xA;  flesh, shall drink barley (-gruel) during seven (days and) nights.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 11.156. The atonement for partaking of (the meat of)&#xA;  carnivorous animals, of pigs, of camels, of cocks, of crows, of&#xA;  donkeys, and of human flesh, is a Tapta Krikkhra (penance)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Sudras (one who's not wearing the sacred thread), however, the only remedy prescribed in scriptures is charity. The other atonement measures are not prescribed for him in the Smritis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, you need to understand that not all non-veg food items are forbidden. Even many vegetarian food items are equally forbidden. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we need to first find out if that non-veg food item you are talking about is at all forbidden or not. Then we can look for penances but not before that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from the book &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/dharmasindhu/bookindex.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Essence of Dharma Sindhu&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On Nanda tithis viz. Pratipaada, Shashthi, and Ekadashi, oil-baths sho&#xA;  uld not be resorted to; on Rikta Tithis viz. Chaturthi, Navami and&#xA;  Chaturdashis, hair cuts are disallowed; &lt;strong&gt;on Jaya Tithis viz. Triteeya,&#xA;  Ashtami and Trayodashi meat-eating is forbidden&lt;/strong&gt; and on Purna Tithis&#xA;  viz.Panchami, Dashami and Purnimas copulation is barred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purnima Darsha Sankraanti C haturdashyashtameeshucha, Naraschandaala&#xA;  -yonousya athaila Stree maamsa sevanaat |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a person takes up oil-woman-meat on Purnima-Darsha-Sankraanti-Dw&#xA;  adashi or a Shraaddha day, then he is bound to become a chandala in&#xA;  his next birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if consumption of meat is forbidden for all on all days, why would scriptures impose restrictions only on some particular days?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-01T08:35:29.897" LastActivityDate="2017-09-01T08:35:29.897" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20585" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19358" CreationDate="2017-09-01T06:10:09.603" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The one who understands that, the &lt;em&gt;&quot;fate can't be changed&quot;&lt;/em&gt; is right.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sup&gt;Unsure, if Chanakya &amp;amp; Vivekananda have really said as stated in the Qn.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Those who are &quot;go-getters&quot; (&quot;nothing is impossible&quot;, &quot;you can do&#xA;everything&quot; etc.), typically believe that what one does as an action&#xA;(&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;), is in control. But what one achieves as a reaction&#xA;(&lt;em&gt;Karma-phala&lt;/em&gt;), is not in complete control, but can be manipulated by those controlled actions&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Those who are &quot;fate&quot; believers, would believe that whatever we do is&#xA;destined, and whatever attained as a result, is also destined. No&#xA;concept of &quot;do-ership&quot; and hence no differentiation between &lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Karma-phala&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything is destined by &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. But in the bound (&lt;em&gt;baddha&lt;/em&gt; / बद्ध) state by &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, people think that they can do something/anything/everything, as stated below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.27 — All actions (&lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;-s) are enacted in &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; by [&lt;em&gt;sattva, rajas, tamas&lt;/em&gt;] modes; Bewildered with ego, the one(self) believes &quot;'I' am the doer&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the wise people (&lt;em&gt;buddha&lt;/em&gt; / बुद्ध) believe that absolutely nothing can be done by them. It's all destiny which pervades:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 5.8, 5.9 — &quot;'I' certainly don't do anything&quot; is believed by the wise knowers (&lt;em&gt;tattva gyAni&lt;/em&gt;); Even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, dreaming, breathing, talking, discarding, accepting, opening, closing; -- &quot;Senses only are acting in the subjects of senses&quot; - is understood [by them].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the famous quotes from the intellectuals across the world, who &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillysutras.com/einsteins-mystical-views-quotations-on-free-will-or-determinism/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;reject &quot;free will&quot;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;”All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.” ~ &lt;strong&gt;[Gautam] Buddha&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Everything is predetermined.” ~  &lt;strong&gt;Sri Ramana Maharshi&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“There is no such thing as free will. Will is bondage.&#xA;  You identify yourself with your desires and become their slave.” ~ &lt;strong&gt;Nisargadatta Maharaj&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“In the mind there is no absolute or free will; “ ~ &lt;strong&gt;Baruch Spinoza&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“We must believe in free will, we have no choice.”~ &lt;strong&gt;Isaac Bashevis Singer&lt;/strong&gt; (tongue in cheek humour)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” [&lt;strong&gt;Albert Einstein&lt;/strong&gt;: The Life and Times, Ronald W. Clark, Page 422.]  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Predetermined nature of destiny is also discussed in various posts below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10911/1049&quot;&gt;Does &amp;quot;Free Will&amp;quot; really exist, even if universe repeats itself in perfect pattern?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/20415/1049&quot;&gt;When Brahma's day ends and a new day starts does the previous day repeat itself?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10744/1049&quot;&gt;Is Moksha a permanent state?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20178/1049&quot;&gt;How does the soul control the intellect (buddhi)?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-01T06:37:35.470" LastActivityDate="2017-09-01T06:37:35.470" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20587" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20742" CreationDate="2017-09-01T06:57:43.583" Score="20" ViewCount="4417" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavidya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dash Mahavidyas&lt;/a&gt; are an enigmatic group of goddesses worshiped majorly in the Tantrik disciplines but except Kali, the origins of most are unclear. In which scriptures can we find more about the other nine Mahavidyas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-13T06:48:54.823" LastActivityDate="2022-09-17T01:39:54.363" Title="In which scriptures can we find the original stories of the Mahavidyas?" Tags="|scripture|devi|tantra|kali|dasha-mahavidya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20588" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20589" CreationDate="2017-09-01T08:47:52.690" Score="19" ViewCount="1143" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedanta holds an important place in the philosophies of Hinduism. However, some of the lesser known philosophies of Agama too subscribe to non-dualism or advaitavAda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If so what are the main differences between both non dual philosophies? Especially with respect to Non dual Shaivism of Kashmir ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-01T18:28:35.283" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T10:41:33.307" Title="What is the philosophical comparison between non-dualism of Vedanta and Agama?" Tags="|philosophy|advaita|agamas|kashmiri-shaivism|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20589" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20588" CreationDate="2017-09-01T08:47:52.690" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a beautiful philosophical explanation of absolute reality and its relation to the world in the Agamas of Kashmir Shaivism. However, it is not very popular like other philosophical schools in hindusim. Yet it is important to understand this aspect of agama and its view towards non duality. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is a classical comparison by revered scholar MahamahopadhyAya Sri Gopinath Kaviraj of Benaras (who is well respected by all the sankara mutts and advaitins) which is presented by Sri N C Rastogi one of the scholars of Kashmir Shaivism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaviraj-ji once remarked “in spite of the antiquity of śākta Culture&#xA;  and of its philosophical traditions, the reason why no serious attempt&#xA;  was made is said to have been that it was deemed improper to drag down&#xA;  for rational examination truths inaccessible to the experience of&#xA;  ordinary man. This reason is not convincing enough, for if the&#xA;  Upaniṣads could be made the basis of philosophical system, there is no&#xA;  reason why the śākta āgamas could not be similarly utilized. For the&#xA;  function of philosophy is, as Joad rightly remarks, to accept the data&#xA;  furnished by the specialists who have worked in the field and then to&#xA;  assess their meaning and significance”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A comparative estimate of Advaita Vedānta and Kashmir Shaivism by&#xA;  Kaviraj is a classical example of philosophical insight and assumes&#xA;  enormous significance for proper appraisal of the Shaiva absolutism of&#xA;  Kashmir. This has in fact helped to bring about distinctive character&#xA;  of the two excellent systems of thought. the main distinctions may be&#xA;  recounted as under: &lt;strong&gt;Brahmavāda describes Māyā as different from both&#xA;  real and unreal, and indescribable. The Shaivas hold that this does&#xA;  not totally eliminate the impression of duality.&lt;/strong&gt; It is admitted that&#xA;  Māyāis non-entity, unreal when viewed from the Absolute’s angle and&#xA;  also that the reality of empirical level has no bearing on the&#xA;  transcendental principle of Brahman. But the question is: why does&#xA;  duality appear at all, if there is only one non-dual conscious&#xA;  principle? To the Vedāntin, pure Brahman is simply the substratum of&#xA;  the begginingless world-order whose appearance is rooted in the&#xA;  illusory transformation aka vivarta. To assert that the properties&#xA;  such as creativity etc., are superimposed upon Brahman, makes it all&#xA;  the more difficult to grasp as to how the Absolute becomes the finite&#xA;  being, world or God? There is no denying the fact that there too is&#xA;  ignorance, Māyā, in the Shaiva absolutism, but its appearance is not&#xA;  contingent. It represents an Absolute mode occasioned by voluntary&#xA;  exercise of the Absolutic freedom. &lt;strong&gt;By fully exploiting the analogy of&#xA;  cloud and sun, Kaviraj emphasizes that there is no deviation from its&#xA;  unobscured nature even when it veils itself by its own power. The&#xA;  worldly variety is nothing but the reflection or awareness (vimarśa)&#xA;  of its own being. The manifestation of variety constitutes the nature&#xA;  i.e., self-being (svabhāva) of the Absolute.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmavādins too admit that the Self has its own nature. &lt;strong&gt;In their&#xA;  view, however, the Self is pure witness or constitutes locus&#xA;  consciousness (adhiṣṭhāna caitanyātmaka), while īśvaravādins subscribe&#xA;  to its nature as consisting of freedom, and as agency. Here lies the&#xA;  major disagreement between the two - a feature proudly noted by&#xA;  Kṣēmarāja.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;svatantraśabdō brahmavādavailakṣaṇyamācakṣāṇaścitō māhēśvaryasāratāṁ&#xA;  brūtē |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In fact, the description of the Absolute in both the systems admits of&#xA;  similar terminology except that Brahman is devoid of Kartr̥tva&#xA;  (agency), whereas Vimarśa or Kartr̥tva constitutes the Absolute&#xA;  essence of Paramashiva. The Shaiva absolutists never try to conceal&#xA;  their attitude towards Brahmavādins. The description of Vedāntin’s&#xA;  position as Nirvimarśabrahmavāda or Shāntabrahmavāda does not appear&#xA;  to be laudatory. Shaivas assign Sāmkhya’s Puruṣa and Vedānta’s Brahman&#xA;  to the lower state of aparāvasthā of the Self. They are not even&#xA;  prepared to accommodate them in the penultimate (parāparā) state, not&#xA;  to the talk of the ultimate state of the Self. According to Shaiva&#xA;  texts, such state has never come up for discussion in the Vedānta&#xA;  texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The absence of vigorous affirmation of freedom in the Vedāntic&#xA;  Absolute compels Kaviraj to conclude, hesitantly though, that&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;appearance of duality is not actually eliminated from Shankara’s&#xA;  Vēdānta&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Shaiva monistic tradition the term Advaita denotes eternal&#xA;  synthesis of the two. In Shankara’s view, Advaita means negation of&#xA;  the two. Shankara describes Brahman as real and Māyā as indefinable.&#xA;  He cannot accept Mayā to be real or treat it at par with the Absolute.&#xA;  That is why the Vedāntic absolutism, according to Kaviraj, is&#xA;  exclusive and based on renunciation or elimination. Unlike the āgamas,&#xA;  it fails to become inclusive or all-embracing. In the āgamic view, the&#xA;  identity of the Absolute and Mayā is automatically established by&#xA;  showing Māyā as stemming from Brahman and also as real. If we adhere&#xA;  to the logic of Shankara’s Vedānta, we will have to concede that&#xA;  Brahman too is unreal and indefinable, because in the condition in&#xA;  which Māyā is stated to be unreal/indefinable, the knowledge of&#xA;  Brahman in that stage will be a byproduct of Māyā. Even while assuming&#xA;  the correctness of Shankara’s premise, ‘of the two opposed to another&#xA;  like darkness and light’, it may be stated that darkness arises from&#xA;  light by friction and it is darkness again that culminates in light by&#xA;  friction. Both are eternally united, both exist totally integrated in&#xA;  their being. This is what has been pronounced time and again as&#xA;  Sāmarasya of Shiva-Shakti or attainment of Cit-ananda which marks a&#xA;  unique feature of Kashmir Shaivism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jnāna-Bhakti Synthesis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaviraj goes on enlarging the equation of Cidānanda synthesis.&#xA;  According to him, &lt;strong&gt;the additional peculiarity of the Shaiva absolutism&#xA;  lies in the fact that it neither advocates the path of ‘dry’&#xA;  knowledge, nor the path of devotion bereft of knowledge, rather it&#xA;  lays down a path that integrates knowledge and devotion both&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  Logically &lt;strong&gt;Bhakti has no place in the ultimate stage&lt;/strong&gt; of the absolutism&#xA;  propounded by Shankara. According to him, devotion is basically&#xA;  duality-centric, and as such does not exist in the Absolutic state on&#xA;  attainment of knowledge. Needless to say, this devotion is&#xA;  ignorance-based and instrumental in character.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But, on the contrary, in the Trika philosophy Mōkṣa has been portrayed&#xA;  as Cidānanda lābha (attainment of Consciousness-Bliss) or&#xA;  Pūrṇāhaṁtācamatkāra (self-relish flowing from perfect I-hood). Now the&#xA;  aspect of consciousness (cidamśa) is knowledge and that of bliss&#xA;  (ānandāmśa) devotion. The perfect I-hood or self-relish which marks&#xA;  the limit of knowledge, also marks the limit of love or devotion.&lt;/strong&gt; It&#xA;  is why it offers congenial ground for synthesis. Here the element of&#xA;  consciousness i.e., Shiva-state, and that of bliss i.e., Shakti-state,&#xA;  stand fused together instantly turning it into synthesis of&#xA;  devotion-knowledge or equipoise of Shiva-Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Synthesis of the efficient and material causes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By expounding the analogies of Yogin and Māyāvin employed in Tripurā&#xA;  and Pratyabhijñā, Kaviraj has drawn our attention of the creation of&#xA;  world as being rooted in the Absolutic will or as being totally&#xA;  independent of the material cause. Citing a kārikā from &lt;strong&gt;Utpala&lt;/strong&gt;, he&#xA;  says creation means externalization of the inner content.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;cidātmaiva hi dēvō’ntaḥsthitamicchāvaśādbahiḥ |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yōgīva nirupādānamarthajātaṁ prakāśayēt ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The objective totality exists in the consciousness-Self (cidātmā),&#xA;  only part of it occasionally gets manifested due to its Will. In the&#xA;  creation of this kind, the material cause is rendered irrelevant. This&#xA;  independence from the material cause in the Shaiva absolutism is very&#xA;  well known in the form of the doctrine of the unity between efficient&#xA;  and material causes (abhinna nimittōpādānavāda) in Shankara’s Advaita.&#xA;  Indeed, belief in absolutism presupposes the rejection of distinction&#xA;  between the efficient and the material. But, since Shankara’s Advaita&#xA;  hesitates to admit the real agency in the Absolute, the creation turns&#xA;  out to be an offspring of ignorance, instead of Self-will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=1520&amp;amp;more=1&amp;amp;c=1&amp;amp;tb=1&amp;amp;pb=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-09-01T17:01:53.030" LastActivityDate="2017-09-01T17:01:53.030" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20591" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20583" CreationDate="2017-09-01T11:27:46.207" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Possibly &lt;strong&gt;Nowhere&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To me, this seems to be from some creative mind, who wanted to let the fragrance of his/her own thoughts diffuse over the internet if not air. My analysis is based on Google search for this quote, partially &amp;amp; fully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To gauge the authenticity of a quote, we need to check the source of that quote. If we see such quote in Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, other social media-s, then the genuineness of the quote will be equivalent to that site, which is least. In social media anyone can upload anything without backup -- whether true or false.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may find your quote as an image in &lt;a href=&quot;https://in.pinterest.com/pin/380061656035246380/?lp=true&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For example, the same link also contains following image. As expected, it's not present in Gita either (see the spelling of &quot;Bhagavad&quot;). There are few other quotes from Ramayana as well in that link, which also can be non-existent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gcet8s.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gcet8s.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As already discussed in following post, there are many homemade quotes flowing in social media on the names of Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Veda, Purana etc. They ought of be ignored.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10216/1049&quot;&gt;Which verse of the Bhagavad Gita says &amp;quot;If you don&amp;#39;t fight for what you want, don&amp;#39;t cry for what you lost?&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-06T05:24:54.997" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T05:24:54.997" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20594" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17248" CreationDate="2017-09-01T12:31:30.903" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No Vedas never say to sacrifice innocent animals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atharva-veda 7.5.5 says:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मुग्धा देवा उत शुनायजन्तोत गौरडैः पुरुधायजन्त&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning:  &amp;quot;Those are foolish who use meat of Dog and other animals in Yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahabharat, Anusana parva 115.43: 116.45 says that those wretch people will go to hell those who slaughter creatures in the Yajna’s.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11871" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-02T05:36:13.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20597" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20481" CreationDate="2017-09-01T17:23:55.197" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That is not true&lt;/strong&gt;. There are no such fierce forms of Goddess KAli. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She is fierce apparently but at the same time endowed with motherly affection. So, she can perfectly worshiped by everyone irrespective of whether one is a householder or a sannyAsi. She is a perfect deity for the householders in fact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have done a preliminary study of the Dasha MahAvidyAs and still doing so. She is the first MahAvidya in the group. &lt;strong&gt;And, she does not have Murtibhedas (that is different forms of the one principle Deity).&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, there are no such classifications such as- pleasant forms KAli, fierce forms of KAli etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second MahAvidyA, Goddess TArA, however has Murtibhedas. But all her forms are Bhoga-Moksha pradA and can be worshiped by all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TArA chogrA mahogrAcha vajrA nilA sarswati | KAmeswari bhadrakAli&#xA;  ityashtau tArini smritAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TArA, Ugra, MahAugra, Vajra, NilA, Saraswati, KAmeswari, BhadrakAli;&#xA;  These are the eight Murtibhedas of Goddess TArA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nila Tantram.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, apparently Goddess KAli will seem as terrifying but that will be only for persons who are at their lowest level of spiritual evolution. The scriptures say that she is known as MahAkAlki since she devours even MahAkAla, who himself devours everything at the time of dissolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tava rupam mahAkalo  jagat sanhAra kArakaha | KalanAt sarva bhutAnAm&#xA;  mahAkAlah prakirtitAh || MahAkAlasya kalanAt tvamAdyA kAlikA parA ||..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Sadashiva says to Sri AdyA] Your form, MahAkAla, devours everything at the time of dissolution of&#xA;  the universe (samhAra). Since he devours (kalan) everything and every&#xA;  being during samhAra he is known as MahAkAla. And, since you devour&#xA;  even MahAkala, you are known as the primordial (AdyA) and supreme KAlikA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MahAnirvAna Tantram 4-30,31.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, because of this terrible samhAra murti, she is bound to terrify the weak minded. But for the higher level sadhAkas, she is appears as the affectionate Mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Her Dhyana Sloka that's why mentions her both as terrible (viz-KAli karAla VadanA) and at the same time as the affectionate Mother ( viz-Hasnmukhim, SmerAnana saroruhAm; having a smiling, affectionate and pleasant face).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, coming to the overwhelming importance of KAli worship in Kali Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ShadAmneshu deveshi bhuyashyah sashti devatAh | TAsu kAshchit&#xA;  kritayuge tretAyAm kAshchidiritAh || DwApare phaladAh kAshchit kalau&#xA;  kAshchit phalapradAh | Chaturyugeshu phaladA dasha vidyA mayeritAh ||&#xA;  TAsu tisro vishishyante kAli tArA cha sundari | Tisrishvapi shive tAsu&#xA;  kalau kAli vishishyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the six amnAyas (Simply put, AmnAya is the original source of all&#xA;  Tantras spoken by Lord Shiva, from his six faces came six AmnAyas&#xA;  which is the source of all Tantras and Agamas) there are numerous deities&#xA;  Among them some  gives fruits in Satya Yuga while some&#xA;  others give fruits in Kali Yuga. The Deities who give fruits in all&#xA;  the four Yugas are the Dasha MahAvidyAs. &lt;strong&gt;Among the MahAvidyA deities,&#xA;  KAli, TArA and Tripura Sundari are specially significant. And among these three,&#xA;  KAli is particularly effective in Kali Yuga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MahAkAla Samhita's Anusmriti prakalpa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, needless to say, such an important deity can not have such restrictions over its worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, your friends must have talked about another MahAvidya, the 6th one, Goddess ChinnamastA or Prachanda ChandikA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The scriptures do say that there is no difference between KAli and ChinnamastA, &lt;strong&gt;so your ShAkta friends must have meant ChinnamastA as the &quot;fierce form of KAli&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;YathA chinnA tathA kAli&lt;/strong&gt; tathaiva sundariparA | Tathaiva tArA samdishta&#xA;  chaturanAm nahi bhinnatA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who is Chinnamsta, is KAli&lt;/strong&gt;, she is [Tripura] Sundari and she is TArA&#xA;  as well. There is no difference between the four Deities &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shakti Samgama Tantra 4-51.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, as far as Goddess ChinnamastA is concerned, there are certainly some serious apprehensions. The scriptures clearly say &lt;strong&gt;that she is an extremely fierce deity and that there is no deity who is more fierce than her.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NAtah paratarA kAchidugrA devi bhavisyati&lt;/strong&gt; | TasmAd sattairmurjaina&#xA;  grAhyeyam kathanchana || &lt;strong&gt;Siddhirva mrityurapi vA dwayorekataram bhavet&#xA;  ||&lt;/strong&gt;  ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no deity which is more fierce than ChinnamastA&lt;/strong&gt;. That's why&#xA;  faint hearted and weak person should not receive her mantra. In her&#xA;  sAdhana either Siddhi is achieved or Mrityu (death). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ViswasAra Tantram verse quoted in PurashcharjAnava's Taranga 9.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet another verse depicting the terrible nature of Goddess is the following one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PrachandachandikAmevadhyAtvA yastu na pujayet | Sadyastasya&#xA;  ShirashchitvA devi pivati shonitam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who worships Chinnamasta or PrachandachndikA without her&#xA;  meditative verse, Devi cuts his head off.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The significance of this verse is that, while other deities can still be worshiped without employing their DhyAna Slokas, ChinnamastA simply can not be. Such is her fierce nature. &lt;strong&gt;So, a ritualistic worship of Goddess ChinnamstA is not safe to practise in homes on ones own without the guidance of an able Guru.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, as far as Devi's DhyAna Slokas are concerned, there are indeed many of them. And more importantly, &lt;strong&gt;there are separate DhyAnas for Yatis (sannyAsi) and for Grihastas (householders).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The DhyAna for sannyAsis starts like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SvanAbhounirajam dhyAyet bhanu mandala sannibham | Yonichakra&#xA;  samAyuktam gunatritraya samgitam || Tatra madhye mahAdevim&#xA;  chinnamastAm &lt;strong&gt;smared yatihi&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the DhyAna for the householders starts like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PratyAlirapadAm sadiava dadhatim chinnam sirah katrikAm....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, as far as goddess MahAkAli is concerned, there are no such restrictions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bengal, plenty of homes even have MahAkAli Temples within the premises of their homes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-02T08:46:53.943" LastActivityDate="2017-09-02T08:46:53.943" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20598" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20602" CreationDate="2017-09-01T17:48:19.553" Score="10" ViewCount="2119" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not sure if there is an explanation to this question in Vedas or not but it came to my mind because we have often heard about 'KaamDeva' in mythological stories and what was expected of him when he was called upon. Also what do his bow &amp;amp; arrow portray?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another reason for asking this was because what we normally hear &amp;amp; read is that not all men or women are sexually active/ To some extent, it proves that it is not the need of the body because all of us (even animals etc) have a body so it has something to do with soul, but then all of us have souls too, hence the confusion!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are the carnal desires being needed by the body or the soul?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(Are there any references present in Veda-s.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-02T05:27:27.950" LastActivityDate="2021-05-21T13:21:08.230" Title="Is Sambhoga (sex) the need of the body or soul as per Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|symbolism|sex|body|kamadeva|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20599" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20600" CreationDate="2017-09-02T05:00:56.830" Score="6" ViewCount="1871" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahma is typically depicted as an ancient deity with multiple heads&#xA;[&amp;amp; hands] in various directions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu is depicted in form of a deity sleeping in the midst of an&#xA;ocean over a big snake (&lt;em&gt;Shesha nAga&lt;/em&gt;) or sometimes as a person&#xA;spread in the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maheshwara (Shiva) is depicted in form of &quot;&lt;em&gt;Shiva Linga&lt;/em&gt;&quot;, where a male penis penetrates a female vagina&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any accurate or approximate scriptural references for displaying these trinity the way they are, in the popular culture?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Partial answers are also welcome.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2018-02-11T12:35:56.763" Title="Are there any scriptural references of the trinity &quot;Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh(Shiva)&quot; as depicted in popular culture?" Tags="|scripture|vishnu|shiva|brahma|culture|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20599" CreationDate="2017-09-02T05:56:09.253" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, we have scriptual refrences for the representation of Trinities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Lord Brahma:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scriptual refrences are avaliable in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6789/what-is-the-origin-of-brahmas-four-heads/6793#6793&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing Brahma in such a condition, Satarupa went to heaven with the Manas sons of the Creator, and as she was travelling towards heaven, Brahma put on a fifth head right on top which afterwards He covered with His long matted hair. &lt;strong&gt;This is how Brahma came to have five heads.&lt;/strong&gt; After this, Brahma lost his powers that He had acquired by practising acesticism, owing to His not controlling His mind and falling into the snares of Cupid. Then Brahma dispersed His sons, after directing them to carry on the work of Creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Lord Vishnu:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many many refrences. For eg. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp159.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The creator, Hari, sleeps upon the ocean,&lt;/strong&gt; in the form of Brahmá--glorified by Sanaka And the saints who had gone to the Janaloka, and contemplated by the holy inhabitants of Brahmaloka, anxious for final liberation--involved in mystic slumber, the celestial personification of his own illusions, and meditating on his own ineffable spirit, which is called Vásudeva. This, Maitreya, is the dissolution termed incidental, because Hari, in the form of Brahmá, sleeps there, as its incidental cause. When the universal spirit wakes, the world revives; when he closes his eyes, all things fall upon the bed of mystic slumber. In like manner as a thousand great ages constitute a day of Brahmá, so his night consists of the same period; during which the world is submerged by a vast ocean. &lt;strong&gt;Awaking at the end of his night, the unborn, Vishńu,&lt;/strong&gt; in the character of Brahmá, creates the universe anew, in the manner formerly related to you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Lord Maheswara:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I discuss scriptual refrences about Shiva Linga in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/101/why-is-shiva-primarily-worshipped-in-a-linga-form/14214#14214&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विशोध्य स्थापत्येद्भक्त्या सवेदिकमनुत्तमम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;लिंगवेदी उमा देवी लिंगं साक्षान् महेश्वर ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Devotee shall clean Linga along with the pedestal and then devoutly install it. &lt;strong&gt;The pedestal of the Linga is Godess Uma and the Linga is Maheswara himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;रुपित्वात्सकलस्तद्वत्तस्मात्सकलनिष्कल ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;निष्कलत्त्वान्निराकारं लिंगं तस्य समागतम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;He is also Sakala as he has an embodied form. He is both Sakala and Niskala (formless/Nirguna). &lt;strong&gt;It is in his Niskala aspect that the Linga is appropriate as it represents formless aspect.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;दहत्यूर्ध्वं स्थितो यच्म प्राणेत्पतिस्थितश्चयत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;स्थितलिङ्गस्य पन्नित्यं तस्मात्स्थाणुरिति स्मृतः ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Since he is great and ancient and is the source of the life and it's continuence and &lt;strong&gt;since his Linga form is everlasting, he is for that reason called Sthanu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus we have plenty of refrences for representation of Trinities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-02T05:56:09.253" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20601" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20605" CreationDate="2017-09-02T07:24:28.620" Score="6" ViewCount="639" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matsya avatara&lt;/a&gt; is usually considered as an avatara of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the Shatapata Brahmana and the Mahabharata both describe Matsya as an avatara of Prajapati Brahma. While the Puranas describe Matsya as an avatar of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do some scriptures, other than the Puranas, describe Matsya as an avatar of Lord Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-02T18:31:41.530" LastActivityDate="2018-05-22T19:17:31.397" Title="Was matsya of Lord brahma transferred to Lord vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|mahabharata|avatars|brahma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20602" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20598" CreationDate="2017-09-02T07:30:40.923" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Are the carnal desires being needed by the body or the soul?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No Clearly carnal desires are not needed by soul&lt;/strong&gt; , nor it is attached by it. It's also said in our Upanishads that  he (soul)  is pure one, without a (subtle) body, without blemish, without muscles (a gross body) . Himself devoid of senses, He shines through the functions of the senses. But  three  gunas, are responsible for the bondage of the soul.&#xA;The soul is free, because it has no bonds of attachment. The soul is serene, because it cannot suffer or fear suffering.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The soul is free, because it has no bonds of attachment. Here is what&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc122058.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; Verse 22  says -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स एष नेति नेत्यात्मा, अगृह्यो नहि गृह्यते, अशीर्यो नहि शीर्यते, असङ्गो&#xA;  |&lt;br&gt;  नहि सज्यते, असितो न व्यथते, न रिष्यति; एतमु हैवैते न तरत इति&#xA;  ||22||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa eṣa neti netyātmā, agṛhyo nahi gṛhyate, aśīryo nahi śīryate,&#xA;  asaṅgo&lt;br&gt;  nahi sajyate, asito na vyathate, na riṣyati; etamu&#xA;  haivaite na tarata iti&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It never decays; &lt;strong&gt;unattached&lt;/strong&gt;, for It is never attached; unfettered—It&#xA;  never feels pain, and never suffers injury. (It is but proper) that&#xA;  the sage is never overtaken by these two thoughts. &#xA;  &lt;hR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Self in us functioning through the sense organs looks as though It possesses all sense organs.&lt;/strong&gt; But the sense organs decay and perish while the Consciousness which functions through them and which provides each of them with its own individual faculty is Eternal &#xA;Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://esamskriti.com/essays/Svetasvatara-UP-TNS-Complete.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Svetasvatara Upanisad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  - Page No.  33  says -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासं सर्वेन्द्रियविवर्जितम् |&lt;br&gt; सर्वस्य प्रभुमीशानं&#xA;  सर्वस्य शरणं बृहत ||१७||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarvendriyaguṇābhāsaṃ sarvendriyavivarjitaṃ &lt;br&gt; sarvasya prabhum&#xA;  īśānaṃ sarvasya śaraṇaṃ suhṛt   3.17 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Himself devoid of senses,&lt;/strong&gt; He shines through the functions of the&#xA;  senses. He is the capable ruler of all; He is the refuge of all. He is&#xA;  great.&lt;hr&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Considering the individual soul and the universal soul are two sides of the same reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/isha-upanishad/d/doc122465.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Isha-Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; verse -8 is said that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स पर्यागच्छुक्रकायमव्रणस्नाविरं शुद्धमपापविद्धम् ।&lt;br&gt; कविर्मनीषि&#xA;  परिभूः स्वयम्भूर्यथातथ्यतोऽर्थान् &lt;br&gt; व्यदधाच्छाश्वतीभ्यः समाभ्यः ॥ 8&#xA;  ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa paryāgacchukrakāyamavraṇasnāviraṃ śuddhamapāpaviddham |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kavirmanīṣi paribhūḥ svayambhūryathātathyato'rthān &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vyadadhācchāśvatībhyaḥ samābhyaḥ ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He, the self-existent One, is everywhere-the pure one, &lt;strong&gt;without a&#xA;  (subtle) body, without blemish, without muscles (a gross body),&lt;/strong&gt; holy&#xA;  and without the taint of sin; the all seeing, the all knowing, the&#xA;  all-encompassing One is He. He has duly assigned their respective&#xA;  duties to the eternal Prajapatis (cosmic powers). &lt;hr&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &#xA;When individual souls encounter Nature and enter her &lt;strong&gt;net of maya (illusion),&lt;/strong&gt; she weaves her materiality around them and binds them to corporeality. For the soul the body becomes the field. Since the body is subject to the gunas, it engages in desire-ridden actions and becomes bound to karma and the cycle of births and deaths. The embodied souls also come under the influence of ego (ahamkara), which is a reality or a modification (tattvas) of Nature&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Desire-ridden actions, which are induced by the triple gunas, are responsible for the bondage of the soul.&#xA;Apart from the senses, the gunas or modes namely sattva (purity), rajas (activity) and tamas (inertia) play an important role in the bondage of the soul. When a soul is drawn into the body by the power of Shakti or Prakriti, it becomes bound to it and to the objective world through desires and attachment as part of the interplay of the triple gunas Thereby the mind and the intellect become clouded and the ego takes control of them. The ego is the false self or the not Self. &lt;strong&gt;It is a shadow or an illusion that survives by the power of Prakriti and acts as if it is the real Self to prevent the beings from knowing who they are.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvad Gita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 14.5 Says –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसंभवाः। &lt;br&gt;निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे&#xA;  देहिनमव्ययम्।।14.5।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sattvaṁ rajas tama iti guṇāḥ prakṛti-sambhavāḥ &lt;br&gt;nibadhnanti mahā-bāho&#xA;  dehe dehinam avyayam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Material nature consists of three modes – goodness, passion and&#xA;  ignorance. &lt;strong&gt;When the eternal living entity comes in contact with&#xA;  nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he becomes conditioned by these modes.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Conclusion -So by looking at the above  verses from Vedas , and&#xA;  looking at nature of soul (Atman)  &lt;strong&gt;we can conclude that Sambhoga or&#xA;  Carnal desires are needed by Body and not by soul .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T12:47:44.137" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T12:47:44.137" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20604" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20598" CreationDate="2017-09-02T08:35:02.993" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The soul does not have a gender like male, female etc. And, sexual needs are based on genders. So, needless to say, that the Soul can't be affected by sexual desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's a verse from the Upanishads:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Naiva stri Na PumAnesha Na ChaivAyam Napumsakaha |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[The Soul or Brahman or the Self] is neither female, nor male not even&#xA;  a Kliva or a sexless being. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ShwetAshataropanishad 5-10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sexual desires, hunger, thirst etc are innate &lt;code&gt;pravrittis&lt;/code&gt; of human bodies as acknowledged by Ayurveda in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sharire Na JAyate Nityam VAnchAh NrinAm ChaturvidhA | VubhukshA Cha&#xA;  PipAsA Cha SushupsA Cha RatisprihA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On a daily basis the following four-fold desires are born in a human&#xA;  body- Hunger (VubhukshA), thirst (pipAsA), desire for sleep (SushupsA) and the desire for sex&#xA;  (RatisprihA).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BhAva PrakAsha 1.110&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the Soul does not need sex, its the body which have such needs. However, i could not find anything directly from the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-02T10:23:53.553" LastActivityDate="2017-09-02T10:23:53.553" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20605" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20601" CreationDate="2017-09-02T09:24:45.230" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;  , you are right . The  earliest account of what was afterwards regarded as an incarnation of Vishnu is found in the &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Satapatha Brāhmana.&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; It will be noticed that though in this passage a wonderful fish is described, it is not said to have been an incarnation of any of the gods. The &lt;strong&gt;Mahābhārata&lt;/strong&gt; says that Brahmā assumed this form; whilst the Purānas teach that the fish here spoken of was Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But As described here &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp19.htm#fn_141&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This transfer of work from one deity to another is not a matter of&#xA;  much surprise, when we remember how frequently it is declared that all&#xA;  the various gods are but forms of one supreme being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is clear from the below verses from Shreemad Bhagvat Purana.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रीभगवानुवाच अहं ब्रह्मा च शर्वश्च जगतः कारणं परम् । &lt;BR&gt; आत्मेश्वर&#xA;  उपद्रष्टा स्वयन्दृगविशेषणः ॥५०॥ &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ahaḿ brahmā ca śarvaś ca jagataḥ kāraṇaḿ param&lt;BR&gt; ātmeśvara&#xA;  upadraṣṭā svayan-dṛg aviśeṣaṇaḥ&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Viṣṇu replied: Brahmā, Lord Śiva and I are the supreme cause of&#xA;  the material manifestation. I am the Supersoul, the self-sufficient&#xA;  witness. &lt;strong&gt;But impersonally there is no difference between Brahmā, Lord&#xA;  Śiva and Me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/7/50&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 4.7.50&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  आत्ममायां समाविश्य सोऽहं गुणमयीं द्विज । &lt;BR&gt; सृजन्रक्षन्हरन्विश्वं&#xA;  दध्रे संज्ञां क्रियोचिताम् ॥५१॥&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ātma-māyāḿ samāviśya so 'haḿ guṇamayīḿ dvija&lt;BR&gt; sṛjan rakṣan&#xA;  haran viśvaḿ dadhre saḿjñāḿ kriyocitām&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lord continued: My dear Dakṣa Dvija, I am the original Personality&#xA;  of Godhead, but in order to create, maintain and annihilate this&#xA;  cosmic manifestation, I act through My material energy, and according&#xA;  to the different grades of activity, &lt;strong&gt;My representations are&#xA;  differently named.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/7/51&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 4.7.51&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So considering above references and assuming that all the Tri-Murties are forms of one supreme being. It makes not much difference. Just Transferring of the credit ,  Just the name change.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-09-02T09:24:45.230" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20606" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20573" CreationDate="2017-09-02T09:38:29.337" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no direct connection between Sri Chinnamasta (vajra-vairochani) and Lord Sri Indra. But Vajra has meaning apart from the powerful weapon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vajra is a Sanskrit word meaning both thunderbolt and diamond. Additionally, it is a weapon won in battle which is used as a ritual object to symbolize both the properties of a diamond (indestructibility) and a thunderbolt (irresistible force).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vajra is the weapon of the Vedic rain and thunder-deity Indra, and is used symbolically by the dharma traditions of Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, often to represent firmness of spirit and spiritual power. The use of the vajra as a symbolic and ritual tool spread from India along with Indian religion and culture to other parts of Asia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Buddhism the vajra is the symbol of Vajrayana, one of the three major branches of Buddhism. Vajrayana is translated as &quot;Thunderbolt Way&quot; or &quot;Diamond Way&quot; and can imply the thunderbolt experience of Buddhist enlightenment or bodhi. It also implies indestructibility, just as diamonds are harder than other gemstones.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajra&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus chinnamastA does not essentially carry a vajra like indra but yes she is associated with thunderbolt, lightning, brilliance, electric energy (vidyuta shakti) etc. Chinnamasta is the thunder goddess. With a flash of lightning and thunder she destroys ignorance, severs identity with the physical body.She is about direct perception and regaining freedom. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The name vajra vairochani and prachanDa/mahA ChanDa chaNDikA are related to her fierce and lightening personality. The reference of these names can be found in &lt;strong&gt;Sri Chinnamasta ashtottara shata nAma of Shakta pramoda&lt;/strong&gt; which are given below. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mahAchaNDA chaNDa-rUpA chaNDikA chaNDa-khaNDinI /&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;krodhinI krodha-jananI krodha-rUpA kuhU kalA // 5 //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most terrifying, of terrible form, the terrifying one, the slaughterer of chaNDa; the wrathful one, the generator of wrath, of form of wrath, of form of the new-moon phase&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kopAturA kopayutA kopa-saMhAra-kAriNI /&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vajra-vairochanI vajrA vajra-kalpA cha DAkinI // 6 //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;inciter of fury, conjoined with fury, the destroyer of fury;&#xA;vajra-vairochanI, of the form of the thunderbolt, a manifestation of the thunderbolt and a DAkini (a companion of the goddess)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-09-02T09:38:29.337" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20607" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-02T12:24:23.030" Score="1" ViewCount="46" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am really interested in understanding that where did all the ultramodern concepts like 'Brahmastra' (today's nukes) or the vimanas (today's aeroplane and space shuttles) etc, which were literally ages ahead of those times suddenly vanish into thin air. I don't intend to delve into all the god and reincarnation debate but more interested in the knowledge and know-how bit that is supposedly described during those times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8312" LastActivityDate="2017-09-02T12:24:23.030" Title="What are the various scientific proofs that Ramayana and Mahabharata describe real events in history and are not just mythical tales?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-09-02T18:33:24.233" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20608" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20598" CreationDate="2017-09-02T12:49:00.913" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Bhagwad Geeta, Shree Krishna said: Our life is like a  CHARIOT (रथ). It has 5 horses that pulls it. All horses are senses (इन्द्रिया). Saarthi (driver) is the mann (invisible part of body who is responsible of all desires). And traveler in the chariot is soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Lord Krishna, mann gets attracted to the materialistic items like money, fame, person (man or woman) etc. mann is responsible for all attraction that human feel towards any object. And mann also forces person to do anything that is needed to get desired object. It is mann who force person to do any crime to fulfill his desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since mann is saarthi of chariot (pulled by all senses/horses), it(mann) will drive chariot to the materialistic items only. And all senses has no choice but to follow the order of mann. Mann controls the senses and leads chariot as per desires. Thus mann create more distance between moksha and person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Traveler(soul) in the chariot sleeps all the time. One needs to awake his soul so that he can put control on mann. If mann try to move chariot as per his desires then it's soul's responsibility to stop mann and give order to mann to move chariot in path of devotion instead of materialistic items.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So by this teaching of Lord Krishan we come to know that all feelings and desires are because of mann. Mann is the one who got attracted by objects, not soul. &lt;strong&gt;So soul is free of any attraction and desires&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2021-05-21T13:21:08.230" LastActivityDate="2021-05-21T13:21:08.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20610" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7735" CreationDate="2017-09-02T17:19:39.600" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to our Shastras, any act done  after  crossing the seas  would  yield no fruit. That is why, &quot;strictly&quot; orthodox people  would hesitate  to take foreign tours/stay there and make it their  homes.Further Bharata  Kanda is considered as &quot;Karma Bhoomi&quot;,where any one is rewarded for any religious  act done  as followed by his elders. If however one is particular in observing   rituals, he could  recite the same Mantras  as we believe that the Gods/rivers etc which are invoked  immediately make Their presence .(Gange cha yamunechaive  -----Jaleasmin sannidhim kuru)Only the rivers flowing in / mountains  etc in India are considered  auspicious  and are capable of answering to the prayers of the devout.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11886" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-02T18:41:00.677" LastActivityDate="2017-09-02T18:41:00.677" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20611" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-02T17:45:51.613" Score="1" ViewCount="1231" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen murti sthapana puja for common festivals like Ganapati.&#xA;Do we need to do Murti Sthapana for all the Gods we have in our home-temple?&#xA;Is it like we don't need to do Sthapana for photo-frame in the temple?&#xA;If we wish to bring in new Idol in our home-temple, is there anything specific we need to do? Like sthapana or anything else?&#xA;Can someone explain me the importance, conditions and requirements of such puja?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11887" LastActivityDate="2017-09-02T17:45:51.613" Title="Murti Sthapana - why, what and when to do" Tags="|puja|idols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20612" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16327" CreationDate="2017-09-02T20:03:07.027" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Lord Rama really use the Brahmastra on Ravana to kill him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, he did. He used the Brahmastra given by sage Agastya. He used Brahmastra by the advice of Matali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, the valiant Rama, who was reminded thus by Matali, took hold of a &lt;strong&gt;blazing arrow, which was given by Brahma&lt;/strong&gt; and which in turn was given to him by the glorious sage, Agastya earlier in the battle-field and which looked like a hissing serpent.&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddhasans108.htm#Verse3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-108-3]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above shloka shows that Rama used a Brahmastra against Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It would have even created a major natural disaster in the sky and on land as Brahmastra's power is just too great.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, some disasters did happen when Rama aimed that Brahmastra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While that excellent arrow was being fixed by Rama, &lt;strong&gt;all the beings were frightened and the earth trembled&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddhasans108.htm#Verse15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-108-15]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That arrow, which was capable of causing death to the body, after taking away the life of Ravana and having been anointed with blood, &lt;strong&gt;penetrated the earth&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddhasans108.htm#Verse19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-108-19]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lakshmana and the entire army was safe too and Lord Rama's chariot was not scratched a tiny bit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, they were safe because Rama only used it on Ravana and not others. Brahmastra is a divine astra which is invocated through mantras. It only destroys the enemy and bestows joy to the person who invokes it and the astra behaves as per the will of the person who aimed it. This was the reason Sri Rama controlled the power of the Brahmastra which was fired at Jayanta. It diluted the power to destroy an eye of Jayanta instead of his life (that was also a Brahmastra but it is Aishiika missile a grass blade missile. One needs to have the knowledge of the Aishiika missile to invoke divyastras into a grass blade. But this time against Ravana, a rod given by Brahma is used.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That arrow &lt;strong&gt;bestowed joy on the monkey-leaders and destroyed the demons&lt;/strong&gt;. It was made speedy, by tying various kinds of beautiful coloured feathers of Garuda, the king of eagles, to it. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddhasans108.htm#Verse12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-108-12]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Making it sacred by a special formula as per the procedure specified in scriptures, Rama who was endowed with an extraordinary strength then fixed that arrow which was the foremost among the three worlds, capable of removing the fear of Ikshwaku dynasty, &lt;strong&gt;taking away the glory of the enemies and bestowing joy to one's own self on his bow&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga108/yuddhasans108.htm#Verse13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-108-13]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama didn't want Lakshmana and others to be harmed so the missile obeyed the order by Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Ravana's body was still there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Ravana's body was still there. Vibhishana performed the funeral rites to his brother after Sri Rama convinced him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Mahabharata says this differently. Sage Markandeya narrates the story of Ramayana to Yudhishtra during the exile. This occurs in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03288.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Vana Parva Chapter 288&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the descendant of Kakutstha, taking out of his quiver an excellent arrow furnished with handsome wings and golden feathers and a bright and beautiful head, fixed it on the bow with Brahmastra mantra. And beholding that excellent arrow transformed by Rama, with proper mantras into a Brahma weapon, the celestials and the Gandharvas with Indra at their head, began to rejoice. And the gods and the Danavas and the Kinnaras were led by the display of that Brahma weapon to regard the life of their Rakshasa foe almost closed. Then Rama shot that terrible weapon of unrivalled energy, destined to compass Ravana's death, and resembling the curse of a Brahmana on the point of utterance. And as soon, O Bharata, as that arrow was shot by Rama from his bow drawn to a circle, &lt;strong&gt;the Rakshasa king with his chariot and charioteer and horses blazed up, surrounded on all sides by a terrific fire&lt;/strong&gt;. And beholding Ravana slain by Rama of famous achievements, the celestials, with the Gandharvas and the Charanas, rejoiced exceedingly. And deprived of universal dominion by the energy of the Brahma weapon, the five elements forsook the illustrious Ravana. And were consumed by the Brahma weapon, the physical ingredients of Ravana's body. &lt;strong&gt;His flesh and blood were all reduced to nothingness,--so that the ashes even could not be seen&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the narration of Sage Markandeya in the Mahabharata, there was no physical ingredient left of Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Lord Rama used the Brahmastra then Ravana &lt;strong&gt;would have been fully aware of it&lt;/strong&gt; then why didn't Ravana launch his own Brahmastra to counter it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think the answer lies in the question itself. Because we are not sure that Ravana had the Brahmastra. It is not mentioned in the Valmiki Ramyana or any other puranas that he used the Brahmastra prior to the war with Rama. We can only speculate. Even if possessed, to invoke a Brahmastra, there is a process. It would be not possible to invoke a Brahmastra if he doesn't remember the proper mantras (remember the case with Karna. At a point of time, he couldn't invoke a Brahmastra but later after recovering, he used it against Arjuna). This could be the possible reason that Ravana didn't use Brahmastra if he possessed the weapon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-05-02T04:17:15.503" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20613" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-02T23:03:18.273" Score="5" ViewCount="2452" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read online that this mantra translates into &quot;I bow to Shiva, who represents the inner self&quot; and helps the chanter attain realization of the inner self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can this mantra also be used as a general prayer for the help and protection of Shiva? For example, can chanting this mantra call on Shiva to reduce a particular source of suffering or ignorance in one's life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11888" LastEditorUserId="11888" LastEditDate="2017-09-02T23:38:00.997" LastActivityDate="2023-12-31T04:36:10.067" Title="Can the mantra Om Namah Shivaya be chanted as a general prayer to Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|mantras|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20614" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-03T01:47:36.463" Score="5" ViewCount="1021" Body="&lt;p&gt;In today's time the Indian government offices are full of holidays, so are many western corporations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;How were the weekly/monthly/yearly Holidays in earlier times?(e.g. Weekends, Seasonal holidays, Vacation)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Were there specific Hindu &lt;em&gt;tithi-s&lt;/em&gt; for them?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;Extra Qn&quot; -- Any specific activity during those days apart from resting &amp;amp; enjoying?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-03T07:39:34.690" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T07:39:34.690" Title="Which were the Holidays in ancient Indian culture?" Tags="|history|culture|tradition|festivals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20616" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20614" CreationDate="2017-09-03T03:48:11.470" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ancient Indian culture was inextricably tied to Hindu religion, observance of dharma, the agrarian way of life and the time of the year. Even if there were days where regular occupations were put on hold, such &quot;holidays&quot; mandated other observations. For e.g., pitR tarpanas on amavasya, upavaasa  on ekadasi etc. And then there are some activities that must be performed everyday; for e.g., there is no holiday for sandhya worship. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus regularly had harvest festivals / celebrations. Grains were stored in anticipation of rainy and winter seasons. The rainy season was meant for limiting travel, and scholarly undertakings. This is also called chaturmasya and while sanyasis observe chaturmasya, non-sanyasis worship them and seek tutelage/deekshas during this season. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Winter coincides with kaartika maasa and dhanurmaasa which have their own set of observations such as snaana, upavaasa, etc. Winter ends with the observation of mahaashivaraatri. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A lot of these holiday rituals still continue to this day. Dakshinayana was/is seen as a period for spiritual sadhana and uttarayana is ideal for worldly undertakings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your Q's&#xA;&quot; How were the weekly/monthly/yearly Holidays in earlier times? &quot;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Not sure I follow. Astrology and panchaanga are ancient subjects and all kaala maana was done based on these. There are primarily 3 siddhaantas /calendars followed in different parts of the country - brhaspati (mostly north India), chaandramaana (mostly south) and souramaana (I believe this is what is followed in the deep south - tamil nadu etc. their calendar is slightly off from that of AP/karnataka)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Where there specific Hindu tithy for them? &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Almost all tithis in the Hindu calendar have some specialty attached to them. However, cessation of work is associated with tithis like ekaadasi,  amavasya, eclipses etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;&quot;extra Qn&quot; -- Any specific activity during those days apart from resting &amp;amp; enjoying?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answered briefly above. The specific activity depends on the tithi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion : No holiday for dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Further to your comment on &quot; How were the weekly/monthly/yearly Holidays in earlier times? &quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The western world determined their holidays based on their theories of how the world came into being. Christianity chose Sunday as holiday because according to them, God rested from creation on this day (see Sabbath). Summer vacations usually apply to schools and colleges. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ancient India, veda pathanam started or resumed with upakarma (typically in the month of Shravana). Vedic studies are paused in the month of Pushya (references needed). Note that studies again coincide with dakshinayana and pause coincides with uttarayana. There was no concept of weekend and cessation of activity in Hindu culture. We did have fortnightly breaks in the form of ekadasi; however a different set of activities are prescribed for ekadasi (stated above). [Our uttarayana and dakshinayana nirnaya coincides with Narayana &quot;going to sleep&quot; and &quot;waking up&quot;. However, the difference between Hinduism and other religions/cultures is that there are different activities prescribed for each block of time. There is no actual shirking of dharma and holidaying.] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-09-03T04:14:16.010" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T04:14:16.010" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20617" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20622" CreationDate="2017-09-03T04:59:29.327" Score="9" ViewCount="922" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_philosophy&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindu philosophy&lt;/a&gt; refers to Shad Darshana viz. Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimansa and Vedanta. These Darshan/philosophies are based on various Darshan Sutras witten by Rishis. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;most popular&lt;/a&gt; Vedanta school is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14779/277&quot;&gt;further classified&lt;/a&gt; as Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, Dvaita, Achintya Bhedabheda, Suddhadvaita etc. These are classification is based on the different interpretation or Bhashya written by Acharyas on Brahma Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among various Shruti &amp;amp; Smriti scriptures, Agamas are those scripture not so popular or say people usually don't know much about them. That was the primary purpose of asking the question - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/12282/277&quot;&gt;What are the Agama scriptures? Are they related to Shruti/Vedas?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now I want to know is there any &lt;strong&gt;philosophy or Darshana based on Agamas?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-09-03T05:06:35.143" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T13:15:35.813" Title="Is there a Darshana/Philosophy based on Agamas?" Tags="|philosophy|agamas|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20619" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20344" CreationDate="2017-09-03T05:35:40.443" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The raju(Kshatriya) and komati(vysya) communities of andhra continue to wear sacred thread. The kammas are shudras and they do not wear&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11892" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T05:35:40.443" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20620" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20617" CreationDate="2017-09-03T06:00:52.217" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Agamas are mainly practice oriented and hence not much of philosophy given therein. Especially, the philosophy is not usually mentioned separately like other sects. Sometimes philosophy is derived from its core teachings and practices. Though there are many sects of agamas like shaiva, shAkta, saura, ganapatya etc. I am posting about agamas related to shaiva/shakta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shaiva Siddhantam is the system of Saivism which is the pre-historic&#xA;  religion of India. This system is not only logical but also&#xA;  scientific. The basic concepts of Saiva Siddhanta philosophy are&#xA;  already found in the Vedas and the Sivagamas have elaborated them&#xA;  further. It was not founded by any particular person and has no&#xA;  particular date of origin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Saivism has been recognised as the most ancient religion which is&#xA;  living in the world” - Sir John Marshall&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The term Siddhantam was first used by great &lt;strong&gt;Saint Tirumular&lt;/strong&gt; in his&#xA;  great work,Tirumantiram verse 1421.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Having learned all that learned must be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having practised all yoga that have to be,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They, then, pursue the path of Jnana in graduation sure,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And so pass into the world of Formless Sound beyond;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And there, rid of all impurities,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Envision the Supreme, the Self-created;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They, forsooth, are the Saiva Siddhantis true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is stated here that the goal of Saiva Siddhantam is to get rid of&#xA;  all impurities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Universal&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the name of God and religion, it does not divide or dissect people.&#xA;  The founders and propagators of the Saiva religion and philosophy are&#xA;  broad minded and noble hearted. They taught us that God is LOVE and&#xA;  LOVE is God – ANBE SIVAM.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Thennadudaiya Sivane potri; Ennattavarkkum iraiva potri&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The proclaimation of Saint Sundarar,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Appalukkum adisarnthar; adiyarkum adiyen....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The profound comment of Sekkilar on that sacred line of Sundarar,&#xA;  would indisputably uphold the the universality of Saiva religion and&#xA;  philosophy. Saivism is a living and popular faith followed by more&#xA;  than 250 million people around the world today but its traditional&#xA;  bases are in India, particularly in South India. But historical fact&#xA;  shows that Sivalinga worship goes back to the period of Indus&#xA;  civilization 5000 B.C and even beyond.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saiva Siddhantam explains the triple realities. GOD, SOUL and its&#xA;  BONDAGE. It also elaborates spiritual matters involving the soul. What&#xA;  is God?, His nature?, What is the purpose of this life? What is the&#xA;  reason of creation? Who am I? What is our relationship to God?. These&#xA;  are some of the questions answered in this philosophy. Not only it&#xA;  gives logical explanations but also gives us the strength to think and&#xA;  ‘rebuild’ our current faith and understanding about GOD. Its is&#xA;  therefore, necessary and useful to understand this great philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saiva Siddhantam does not consider God as the only eternal entity&#xA;  which is refered to as Pathi. Like God, souls or Pasu is also eternal&#xA;  that has neither beginning nor end. Souls are many and have their own&#xA;  limitations. Its capabilities are limited due to the bondage or Pasam.&#xA;  Ths is also eternal like God and souls. The soul is known as Pasu due&#xA;  to its nature of being under Pasam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Existence of FIVE elements:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The triple realities or Mupporul Unmai ( Pathi, Pasu and Pasam) are&#xA;  God, Soul and its Bondage which consist of Anavam, Karmam and Mayai.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;GOD is Supreme Being and all knowing&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SOULS are capable of knowing anything is they are taught only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ANAVAM creates ignorance and egoism to the souls&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KARMAM is giving experience to the souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MAYAI helps the souls to get away from ignorance. It is the source of&#xA;  the cosmos which includes world and all living entities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Perception of truth&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PRAMANAM or perception of truth is how Saiva Siddhantam maintains many&#xA;  more logical evidences to ensure the existence of the five eternal&#xA;  elements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;i. Direct experience by the five senses called pulan arivu  Knowledge&#xA;  of things directly by five senses; this knowledge is free from error&#xA;  and doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ii. Inference by mind called anthakarna arivu  With our previous&#xA;  knowledge of things, we can infer the cause while the effect is&#xA;  present in the cause itself. Fire and smoke theory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;iii. Verbal testimony of Sacred books of Saivism called Nool Arivu &#xA;  Verbal testimony of Sacred books, the words of Saints sent by Lord&#xA;  Siva. These are taught by Lord to enlighten souls. Behind all&#xA;  evidences, the intelligence of the individual soul is highly&#xA;  considered to be the means of valid knowledge. The real evidence of&#xA;  truth is in the enquiry of each individual to find out the truth for&#xA;  himself. It is proved beyond doubts that Saiva Siddhanta has bestowed&#xA;  the right to the respective individual soul to decide the existence of&#xA;  categories on the validity of their own knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Concept of GOD in Saiva Siddhantam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saivism believes in the existence of God or Pathi. Pathi means Lord of&#xA;  the souls. Saivism proves His existence in many ways. Saiva scriptures&#xA;  and the words and deeds of Saiva Saints provide proof of His&#xA;  existence. Saivism also gives logical explanations to support this&#xA;  fact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All things goes through the process of beginning, existence and decay&#xA;  which is certainly been created or made by someone. From this physical&#xA;  body to the entire cosmos, it has a beginning and obviously will come&#xA;  to an end. Hence this also should have a maker, who commonly we&#xA;  believe to be God.Concept of God existed based on the need for soul.&#xA;  What are the elements that we cant live without was established as God&#xA;  and since we cant live without food ( annam ), so food was considered&#xA;  Supreme or Paramporul. Then soul’s intelligence made a conclusion that&#xA;  food will not exist without soil, which depends on rain. Rain depends&#xA;  on air, sun (fire) and finally all on space; the fifth and highest&#xA;  element after air, earth, fire and water. Pancha bootha to Athidevas;&#xA;  to Indra; to Brahma and to Vishnu in the end. But truth in Siddhanta&#xA;  is; He who performs a Mahasankaram can be the supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saivites believe Lord Siva as the supreme God, who is worshipped as&#xA;  SIVAM ( Aruvam or formless state), SADASIVAM ( Aruruvam or formless&#xA;  form state) and MAHESWARA ( Uruvam or form state ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The formless form refered here is the Sivalingam which is seen in all&#xA;  Siva temples. The form or Uruvam is refered to the 25 Muhurtams or&#xA;  forms of Lord Siva used for worship. It is stated in Sivagamas, other&#xA;  than these 25 Muhurtams or forms, worship to other forms are&#xA;  prohibited. Although there are more than 25 forms of Lord Siva which&#xA;  is mentioned in the Agamas but these forms are the elaborated forms of&#xA;  the 25 main forms. It is mentioned that there are 64 forms in total.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.saivasiddhanta.in/saivsidphi.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-09-03T06:10:41.367" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T06:10:41.367" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20621" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20617" CreationDate="2017-09-03T06:10:23.277" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Agamas are mainly practice oriented and hence not much of philosophy given therein. Especially, the philosophy is not usually mentioned separately like other sects. Sometimes philosophy is derived from its core teachings and practices. Though there are many sects of agamas like shaiva, shAkta, saura, ganapatya etc. I am posting about agamas related to shaiva/shakta. In &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20588/what-is-the-philosophical-comparison-between-non-dualism-of-vedanta-and-agama&quot;&gt;another post&lt;/a&gt; I have shared about important differences between Vedantic Non dual philosophy and agamic non dual philosophy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kashmiri Shaiva Philosophy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is commonly called “Kashmiri Shaivism” is actually a group of&#xA;  several monistic and tantric religious traditions that flourished in&#xA;  Kashmir from the latter centuries of the first millennium C.E. through&#xA;  the early centuries of the second. These traditions have survived only&#xA;  in an attenuated form among the Brahmans of Kashmir, but there have&#xA;  recently been efforts to revive them in India and globally. These&#xA;  traditions must be distinguished from a dualistic Shaiva Siddhānta&#xA;  tradition that also flourished in medieval Kashmir. The most salient&#xA;  philosophy of monistic Kashmiri Shaivism is the Pratyabhijnā, or&#xA;  &quot;Recognition,&quot; system propounded in the writings of &lt;strong&gt;Utpaladeva&lt;/strong&gt; (c.&#xA;  925-975 C.E.) and &lt;strong&gt;Abhinavagupta&lt;/strong&gt; (c. 975-1025 C.E.).&#xA;  Abhinavagupta's disciple &lt;strong&gt;Kshemarāja&lt;/strong&gt; (c. 1000-1050) and other&#xA;  successors interpreted that philosophy as defining retrospectively the&#xA;  significance of earlier monistic Shaiva theology and philosophy. This&#xA;  article will focus on the historical development and basic teachings&#xA;  of the Pratyabhijnā philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tantra and Kashmiri Shaivism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While tantrism is a complex and controversial subject, one of its most&#xA;  definitive characteristics for contemporary classifications—if not its&#xA;  most definitive one—is the pursuit of power. Tantric traditions are&#xA;  thus those that aim at increasing the power of the practitioner. The&#xA;  theological designation for the essence of such power is Shakti (the&#xA;  female counterpart to the male divine principle, whose essence is&#xA;  power). The manifestations of Shakti that the practitioner of tantra&#xA;  aspire after vary greatly, from relatively limited magical&#xA;  proficiencies (siddhis or vibhūtis), through royal power, to the&#xA;  deindividualized and liberated saint's omnipotence to the performance&#xA;  of God’s cosmic acts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trika&quot; Sub-tradition of Shaivism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The tradition of monistic Shaivism called “Trika” (referring to its&#xA;  emphasis on various triads of modalities of Shakti and cosmic levels)&#xA;  produced the first work of full-fledged scholastic philosophy. This&#xA;  was the Shivadrishti, &quot;Cognition of Shiva,&quot; by Somānanda (c. 900-950&#xA;  C.E.). (See the summary of themes of the Shivadrishti below.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Utpaladeva, a student of Somānanda, wrote a commentary on the&#xA;  Shivadrishti, the Shivadrishtivritti. He also wrote several other&#xA;  works interpreting and furthering the work of Somānanda with much&#xA;  greater sophistication. Those texts are the foundational works of the&#xA;  Pratyabhijnā philosophy of focus in this article. The most&#xA;  comprehensive of these texts are the Īshvarapratyabhijnākārikā,&#xA;  &quot;Verses on the Recognition of the Lord,&quot; and two commentaries on the&#xA;  Verses, the short Īshvarapratyabhijnākārikāvritti, and the more&#xA;  detailed Īshvarapratyabhijnāvivriti. (The latter text has been&#xA;  accessible to contemporary scholars only in fragments.) Utpaladeva&#xA;  also wrote a trilogy of more specialized philosophical studies, the&#xA;  Siddhitrayī, &quot;Three Proofs&quot;—Īshvarasiddhi, &quot;Proof of the Lord;&quot;&#xA;  Ajadapramātrisiddhi, &quot;Proof of a Subject who is not Insentient;&quot; and&#xA;  Sambandhasiddhi, &quot;Proof of Relation.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abhinavagupta, widely recognized as one of the greatest philosophers&#xA;  of South Asia, was a disciple of a disciple of Utpaladeva. Abhinava&#xA;  profoundly elaborated and augmented Utpaladeva's arguments in long&#xA;  commentaries, one directly on the Verses, the&#xA;  Īshvarapratyabhijnāvimarshinī; and the other on Utpaladeva's longer&#xA;  autocommentary, the Īshvarapratyabhijnāvivritivimarshinī.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While Abhinavagupta's Pratyabhijnā commentaries are of paramount&#xA;  philosophical importance, this thinker's greatest significance in the&#xA;  history of tantrism is probably his effort, in his monumental&#xA;  Tantrāloka and numerous other works, to systematize and provide a&#xA;  critical philosophical structure to non-philosophical tantric&#xA;  theology. Abhinava utilized categories from the Pratyabhijnā&#xA;  philosophy to interpret and organize the diverse aspects of doctrine&#xA;  and practice and Shaiva symbolism from the “Trika” sub-tradition; and&#xA;  he synthesized under the rubric of this philosophically rationalized&#xA;  Trika Shaivism an enormous range of symbolism and practice from other&#xA;  Shaiva and Shākta traditions as well. Abhinavagupta is also renowned&#xA;  for his works on Sanskrit poetics—in which he interpreted aesthetic&#xA;  experience as homologous to, and practically approaching the monistic&#xA;  Shaiva soteriological realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Basic Themes of Somānanda's Shivadrishti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While the focus of this article is on Utpaladeva's and Abhinavagupta's&#xA;  Pratyabhijnā philosophy, mention should be made of some of the basic&#xA;  themes of Somānanda's precursory Shivadrishti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Somānanda's broadest concern is to explain how Shiva through the&#xA;  various modalities of his Shakti emanates a real universe that remains&#xA;  identical with himself. In establishing the Shaiva doctrine he refutes&#xA;  a number of alternative views on ultimate reality, the self, God and&#xA;  the metaphysical status of the world. He devotes the greatest&#xA;  polemical efforts against the theories of the 4th-6th century&#xA;  Vaiyākarana (or &quot;Grammarian&quot;) philosopher Bhartrihari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Bhartrihari, the ultimate reality is the Word Absolute&#xA;  (shabdabrahman)—a super-linguistic plenum, which fragments and&#xA;  emanates into the multiplicity of forms of expressive speech and&#xA;  referents of that speech. Somānanda repudiates the view that a&#xA;  linguistic entity could be the ultimate reality, while at the same&#xA;  time identifying the true source of language as the Sound (nāda)&#xA;  integral to Shiva's creative power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Somānanda takes a less polemical approach towards Shāktism. He argues&#xA;  that there is ultimately no difference between Shakti and Shiva, who&#xA;  is the possessor of Shakti. He supports this contention with the&#xA;  analogy of the inseparability of heat from fire, which is the&#xA;  possessor of heat. Nevertheless, he asserts that it is more proper to&#xA;  refer to the ultimate reality as Shiva rather than Shakti. Other Hindu&#xA;  schools criticized by Somānanda include the Pancarātra as well as the&#xA;  Vedānta, Sāmkhya and Nyāya-Vaisheshika systems.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purposes and Methods of Utpaladeva's and Abhinavagupta's Pratyabhijnā System&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta ambitiously conceive the Pratyabhijnā&#xA;  system as both a philosophical apologetics (which follows Sanskritic&#xA;  standards of scholastic argument) and an internalized form of tantric&#xA;  ritual that leads students directly to identification with Shiva. They&#xA;  explain the basic means by which the system conveys Shiva-identity&#xA;  according to the same basic ritual pattern described above, as&#xA;  shaktyāvishkarana, &quot;the revealing of Shakti.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pratyabhijnā philosophers, however, also frame Shakti as the&#xA;  reason of a publicly assessable inference, or &quot;inference for the sake&#xA;  of others&quot; (parārthānumāna). According to the scholastic logic, the&#xA;  reason identifies a quality in the inferential subject &quot;I&quot; known to be&#xA;  invariably concomitant with the predicate, &quot;Shiva.&quot; Thus I am Shiva&#xA;  because I have his quality, that is, Shakti, the capacity of emanating&#xA;  and controlling the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Pratyabhijnā Epistemology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In order to address debates on epistemology that were then current,&#xA;  Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta further explain the mythic and ritual&#xA;  pattern of Shiva and Shakti in terms of recognition. The specific&#xA;  problem the writers address had been formulated by the Buddhist logic&#xA;  school of Dignāga and Dharmakīrti, which flourished in medieval&#xA;  Kashmir. Contemporary interpreters have characterized the philosophy&#xA;  of Buddhist logic as a species of phenomenalism akin to that of David&#xA;  Hume. According to this school, the foundation of knowledge is a&#xA;  series of momentary and discrete perceptual data (svalakshana). There&#xA;  are no grounds in those data for the recognitions of any enduring&#xA;  entities through ostensible cognitions utilizing linguistic or&#xA;  conceptual interpretation (savikalpaka jnāna). In debates over several&#xA;  centuries, the Buddhist logicians had propounded arguments attacking&#xA;  many concepts that seemed commonsensical and were religiously&#xA;  significant to the various orthodox Hindu philosophical schools—such&#xA;  as ideas of external objects, ordinary and ritual action, an enduring&#xA;  Self, God, and revelation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pratyabhijnā philosophers' response to the problematic posed by&#xA;  Buddhist logic revolutionized earlier approaches of the Nyaya&#xA;  philosophers, the Shaiva Siddhāntin Sadyojyoti and even Utpaladeva's&#xA;  teacher Somānanda, and may be characterized as a form of&#xA;  transcendental argumentation. Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta interpret&#xA;  their central myth of Shiva's emanation and control of the universe&#xA;  through Shakti as itself an act of self-recognition&#xA;  (ahampratyavamarsha, pratyabhijnā). Furthermore, abjuring Somānanda's&#xA;  agonistic stance towards Bhartrihari, they also equate Shiva's&#xA;  self-recognition (Shakti) with the principle of Supreme Speech&#xA;  (parāvāk), which they derive from the Grammarian. They thereby&#xA;  appropriate the Grammarian's explanation of creation as linguistic in&#xA;  nature. Thus the Kashmiri Shaiva philosophers ascribe to Speech a&#xA;  primordial status, denied by the Buddhist logicians.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Utpaladeva's and Abhinavagupta's epistemology may best be illustrated&#xA;  by its approach to perceptual cognition. The Pratyabhijnā arguments on&#xA;  this subject may be divided into those centered around two sets of&#xA;  terms: prakāsha; and vimarsha and cognates such as pratyavamarsha and&#xA;  parāmarsha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prakāsha is the &quot;bare subjective awareness&quot; that validates each&#xA;  cognition, so that one knows that one knows. The thrust of the&#xA;  arguments about prakāsha is analogous to George Berkeley's thesis of&#xA;  idealism that esse est percipi. The Shaivas contend that, as no object&#xA;  is known without validating awareness, this awareness actually&#xA;  constitutes all objects. There is no ground even for a&#xA;  &quot;representationalist&quot; inference of objects external to awareness that&#xA;  cause its diverse contents, because causality can be posited only&#xA;  between phenomena of which one has been aware. Furthermore, the&#xA;  Kashmiri Shaivas argue that there cannot be another subject outside of&#xA;  one's own awareness. They conclude, however, not with solipsism as&#xA;  usually understood in the West, but a conception of a universal&#xA;  awareness. All sentient and insentient beings are essentially one&#xA;  awareness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vimarsha and its cognates have the significance of apprehension or&#xA;  judgment with a recognitive structure, and may be glossed as&#xA;  &quot;recognitive apprehension.&quot; (The recognitive is the act of recognizing&#xA;  or an awareness that something perceived has been perceived before.)&#xA;  Utpaladeva's and Abhinavagupta's arguments centering on these terms&#xA;  develop earlier considerations of Bhartrihari on the linguistic nature&#xA;  of experience. Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta refute the Buddhist&#xA;  contention that recognition is a contingent reaction to direct&#xA;  experience by claiming that it is integral or transcendental to all&#xA;  experience. Some of the considerations they adduce to support this&#xA;  claim are the following: that children must build upon a subtle,&#xA;  innate form of linguistic apprehension in their learning of&#xA;  conventional language; that there must be a recognitive ordering of&#xA;  our most basic experiences of situations and movements in order to&#xA;  account for our ability to perform rapid behaviors; and that some form&#xA;  of subtle application of language in all experiences is necessary in&#xA;  order to account for our ability to remember them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The two phases of argument operate together. The idealistic prakāsha&#xA;  arguments make the recognition shown by the vimarsha arguments to be&#xA;  integral to all epistemic processes, constitutive of them and their&#xA;  objects. Moreover, on the radical logic of the Kashmiri Shaiva&#xA;  idealism, the recognition generating all things belongs to one&#xA;  subject. It must therefore be his self-recognition. As it is through&#xA;  the monistic subject's self-recognition that all phenomena are&#xA;  created, the Pratyabhijnā thinkers have ostensibly demonstrated their&#xA;  cosmogonic myth of Shiva's emanation through Shakti in terms of&#xA;  self-recognition. The student, by coming to see this self-recognition&#xA;  as the inner reality of all that is experienced, is led to full&#xA;  participation in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pratyabhijnā Ontology: The Syntax of Empowered Identity&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta appropriate Bhartrihari in&#xA;  equating self-recognition with Supreme Speech and thereby interpreting&#xA;  recognitive apprehension as linguistic in nature, they also follow the&#xA;  Grammarian school in interpreting being or existence (sattā) (the&#xA;  generic referent of language) as action (kriyā). The Grammarian view&#xA;  itself originated in Brahmanic interpretations of the Veda as&#xA;  expressing injunctions for sacrifice. The Kashmiri Shaivas further&#xA;  agree with much of Vedic exegetics in conceiving being as both&#xA;  narrative and recapitulatory ritual action. Following the account&#xA;  above, it is Shiva's mythic action through Shakti as self-recognition&#xA;  that constitutes all experience and objects of experience, and that is&#xA;  reenacted by philosophical discourse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pratyabhijnā thinkers propound their philosophy of Shiva's action&#xA;  to explain a wide range of topics of ontology. One of their concerns&#xA;  is to describe how Shiva's action generates a multiplicity of&#xA;  relationships (sambandha) or universals (sāmānya) as the referents of&#xA;  discrete instances of recognitive apprehension. With this theory they&#xA;  attempt to subvert the Buddhist logicians' contention that evanescent&#xA;  particulars are ontologically fundamental. For the Shaivas, categories&#xA;  are primitive, and particulars are formed out of syntheses of those&#xA;  categories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iep.utm.edu/kashmiri/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T06:10:23.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20622" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20617" CreationDate="2017-09-03T06:12:55.897" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can answer only based on ShAkta scriptures. I can't elaborate anything on man made philosophies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Agamas are plenty in number. They can be divided into ShAkta, Shaiva and other similar groups.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that, my answer is &lt;strong&gt;only based on the ShAkta Agamas&lt;/strong&gt;, and also on as much as i know about them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 6 Darshanas are first of all condemned in KulArnava Tantram, which is one of the most authoritative ShAkta Agamas, as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva says to Goddess PArvati]&lt;br&gt; Shadadarsana MahAkupe PatitAh&#xA;Pashavah Priye|&lt;br&gt; ParamArtham Na JAnanti PashupAshaniyantritAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pashus are thrown into the giant well (MahAkupa) [which is of the form of the] six&#xA;Darshanas. Bounded by the PAshas, these persons do not know about the&#xA;supreme truth (ParamArtha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 1.87&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;............................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pashu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The man in bondage is a Pashu. It does not indicate anything derogatory. And the PAshas are the bondages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When, the JivA is bounded by the PAshas he is a Pashu, relieved of those PAshas is the Supreme SadAshiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Viz-PAshavadhah Smrito Jivah PAshamuktah SadAshivah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;. So, the basic idea is similar to Advaita Vedanta where Jiva does not know its true nature which is of the nature of Paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;..............................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PAsha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According Shaiva Agamas, Mala (impurity), Karma ( actions) and MAyA (illusion or avidyA) are the three pAshas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again, Mala, Karma, MAyA and Bodhshakti are also known as PAshas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The six Kanchukas (Shatkanchuka) viz- MAya, KAla, Niyati, KalA, VidyA and RAga are also PAshas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Pancha Kleshas viz- AvidyA, AshmitA, RAga, Dvesha, and Abhinibhesha. are also PAshas according to Shaiva scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ShAkta scriptures usually we find mention of eight PAshas viz- GhrinA (disgust), LajjA (shame), Bhaya (fear), ShankA (apprehension), Jugusa ( translation of this and few others pending ), Kula, Shila and JAti. But in some scriptures we also find mention of 52 and 62 PAshas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;..................................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the reason why the six darshanas are condemned becomes clear upon reading the next verse given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pathanti VedashastrAni Vivadanti Parasparam |&lt;br&gt; Na JAnanti Param Tattvam&#xA;Darvi PAkarasam YathA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These persons constantly debate and argue with each other by reading&#xA;Veda and other scriptures. But they don't get a clue of the Supreme&#xA;Truth (Param Tattvam) just like the ladle does not get the taste of&#xA;the food [which is cooked with its help].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 1.94&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, this is actually what you see as happening in reality. All the philosophers claiming their thinking as the correct one and the most superior one argues with each other but all that is in vain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That no such philosophy is capable enough to depict the correct nature of Brahman (the Supreme reality) is made clear by Lord Shiva in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaitam Kecidicchanti Dvaitam icchanti ChApare |&lt;br&gt; Mama Tatvam Na&#xA;JAnanti DvaitAdvaita Vivarjitam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some prefers Advaita (non-dualism), some other prefers Dvaita&#xA;(dualism). &lt;strong&gt;But my true nature (or the nature of the Brahman), which is&#xA;devoid of both Dvaita and Advaita (DvaitAdvaita Vivarjitam) is not&#xA;known to either of them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 1.110.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be frank, here what is condemned is not the 6 philosophies but the nature of unintelligent persons reading them and trying to come into some kind of conclusions and also engaging into debates with each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Philosophies are like &lt;code&gt;VichAras&lt;/code&gt; which arise from mind (Mana) and intellect (Buddhi). When one is merged with the Supreme Being, the mind, intellect and all other faculties are also equally merged. So, then, where is the question of VichAra like Dvaita or Advaita or something else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also that the aforementioned NindA (criticism) of Shad Darshanas is something like Nahi-Ninda (superficial criticism) is also made clear in the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shada DarshanAni MehAngAni Padau Kukshih Karau Sirah |&lt;br&gt; Teshu Bhedantu&#xA;Yah KurjAnmAngam Chedayettu Sah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The six Darshanas are my six limbs viz- two legs, two hands, the torso&#xA;and the head. &lt;strong&gt;One who discriminates between them equivalently cuts my&#xA;limbs (Angachedana).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;YetAnyeva KulasvApi ShadangAni Bhavanti Hi |&lt;br&gt; TasmAd VedAtmak ShAstram&#xA;Viddhi KaulAtmakam Priye ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;These six Darshanas are the six limbs of KulashAstras too&lt;/strong&gt;. That's why know that the Vedatmaka scriptures are also KaulAtamka in nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 2.85,86.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the 6 darshanas are also the philosophies of Kaulism or Shaktism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About why Agamas are not popular like some other Shastras like Veda, PurAna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among various Shruti &amp;amp; Smriti scriptures, Agamas are those scripture&#xA;not so popular or say people usually don't know much about them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The primary reason behind this is that they are meant to be kept secret. This is  per the orders of Lord Shiva who created all of them. Secondarily, Agamic knowledge should only be learned from one's Guru. It flows through Sampradayas and secretly. And, thirdly, Agamas are terse and esoteric in nature. Difficult to understand on ones own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PAramparjya KramAyAtam&lt;/strong&gt; Panchavaktreshu Samshtitham |&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Akathyam PAramArthena TthApi Kathayami Te ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, here Lord Shiva clearly says, that the Agamic knowledge which was originally situated in His five faces are to be propagated through Guru Paramapara. And he also says, that this knowledge can not be given or should not be spoken of (Akathyam) in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Deyam BhaktAya ShishyAya Anyatha Patanam Bhavet |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This knowledge can be passed on to only able disciples otherwise downfall is inevitable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GuhyAd Guhyataram&lt;/strong&gt; Devi SArAt SAram PrAt Param&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OR,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RahasyAtirahasyAni KulashAstrAni&lt;/strong&gt; PArvati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this knowledge should be kept as top most secret. And that's why it is not that popular among the masses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Veda ShAstra PurAnAni PrakAshyAni Kuleswari |&lt;br&gt; Shaiva ShAktAgamAh Sarve&#xA;RahasyAh ParikirtitAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Veda, PurAnas and other Shastras can be made public (or revealed) but&#xA;the Shaiva and ShAkta Agamas are famous as secret and mysterious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 3.4&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T13:15:35.813" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20623" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20617" CreationDate="2017-09-03T06:58:53.287" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First, not all philosophies are man made. Trika tradition was established by Lord Shiva himself. From Shakta - Shaiva Agamas, one of the tradition is Trika containing dual, non dual &amp;amp; semi - dual philosophies, which was started by sage DurvAsa (who was initiated by Lord Shiva in the system of Trika) at the beginning of Kaliyuga (you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=ZM-BlvaqAf0C&amp;amp;lpg=PA14&amp;amp;dq=tryambaka%20amardaka&amp;amp;pg=PA14&amp;amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=tryambaka%20amardaka&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;). This tradition is directly mentioned in VijnAnabhairava tantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhairavi, the sakti of Bhairava says - O deva (divine&#xA;  one) who in manifesting the universe and treating it as your play&#xA;  are my very self, I have heard in to all the scriptures which&#xA;  have come forth from the union of Rudra and his pair saktti or&#xA;  which are the outcome of Rudrayamala Tantra, including the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Trika together with its divisions. I have heard the Trika which&#xA;  is the quintessence of all the scriptures and also all its further&#xA;  essential ramifications&lt;/strong&gt;. &#xA;  But O supreme Lord, even now my doubt has not been&#xA;  removed. Verse 1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-09-03T12:29:33.670" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T12:29:33.670" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20624" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-03T08:33:06.103" Score="3" ViewCount="757" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to know the etymology of the word 'sata-gopuram' (the 'chadari' placed on the head) with respect to the prefix 'sata' (or 'chada')&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11893" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-03T11:02:38.763" LastActivityDate="2020-11-30T16:51:04.617" Title="What is the etymology of the word Satagopuram" Tags="|vaishnavism|etymology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20625" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20613" CreationDate="2017-09-03T09:06:35.643" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Even without the OM prefixed, the five-lettered mantra &quot; namaha Shivaya&quot; is a Veda mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is originally found in the Yajurveda. Its among the most popular and powerful Veda mantras along with the GAyatri and the Tryambaka mantras (another Shiva mantra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namah Shambhave cha mayobhave cha, namah shankaraya cha mayaskaraya&#xA;  cha, &lt;strong&gt;namah shivAya&lt;/strong&gt; cha shivatarAya cha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Salutation to the source of peace and to the source of delight,&#xA;  salutation to one who creates peace and who creates delight,&#xA;  salutation to the auspicious one (Shiva) and to the more auspicious&#xA;  one (or the paramatman or the absolute).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mantras from Yajur Veda, Tattriya Samhita 4.5.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, scriptures (the Smritis for example) will say that only those who have GAyatri mantra DikshA can chant the Veda mantras. Others can not. For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.172. &lt;strong&gt;(He who has not been initiated) should not&#xA;  pronounce (any) Vedic text&lt;/strong&gt; excepting (those required for) the&#xA;  performance of funeral rites, since he is on a level with a Sudra&#xA;  before his birth from the Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if you are a strict follower of scriptures you should not chant it without initiation. But plenty do chant it without doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IMO, it's better to go for simple slokas and stotras instead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now, here's an alternative:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the great saint Sri Ramana Maharshi everyone can chant the mantra &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Arunachala Shiva&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;. I have read that according to him everyone, initiates and non-initiates, can chant this mantra and its also an extremely potent mantra. He says that it is as powerful as the panchAkshari mantra and also note that the word &lt;strong&gt;A-ru-na-cha-la&lt;/strong&gt; is also five-lettered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can learn more about it on &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/portfolio-item/chant-arunachala/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; page and from their website.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T16:13:24.120" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T16:13:24.120" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20626" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-03T11:33:37.757" Score="4" ViewCount="3112" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know that Devi Sati is reborn as Devi Parvati, the daughter of Himavat and Mainavati, and is named Parvati. Which shows King Himavat and Mainavati are parents of Devi Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is no information about parents of Devi Lakshmi. The only thing we know about her is she springs with other precious things from the foam of the ocean of milk when it is churned by the gods and demons for the recovery of Amṛta. I have read it somewhere That she is daughter of Patal.(Can't cite source right now)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know birth, childhood and life story of Devi Parvati. Similarly, do we have any information about Devi Lakshmi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are the parents of Devi Lakshmi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words  I want to have all information about In law's of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T07:08:34.083" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T07:04:59.393" Title="Who are the parents of Devi Lakshmi?" Tags="|vishnu|lakshmi|goddess|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20627" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20626" CreationDate="2017-09-03T11:57:47.973" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The more popular account of Lakshmi Devi's manifestation is the episode of the churning of the ocean. It is mentioned in the MahAbhArata as well as in the PurAnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to MahAbhArata, Lakshmi Devi Or Sri appeared from clarified butter (or Ghee) during Samudra Manthana as sitting on a white lotus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SrirantarmutpannA ghritAt pAnduravAsini ( Adi Parva 18-35 )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PurAnas like the BhAgavata (8.8.14) and the Padma (Srishti Khanda 4-58-59) also repeats the same event.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Lakshmi Devi's parents are also mentioned in not one but many PurAnas as &lt;strong&gt;Maharshi Bhrigu (father) and KhyAti (mother).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhriguh KhyAtAm&lt;/strong&gt; MahAbhAgah PatnyAm PutrAnajijanat |&lt;br&gt; dhAtArancha&#xA;  vidhAtAram sriyancha bhagavatparAm ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From MahabhAg Bhrigu's wife KhyAti's womb were born three children&#xA;  named DhAta, VidhAtA and Bhagavataparayana Sri (or Lakshmi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BhAgavata purANa 4.2.42&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The VishNu purANa says the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devau DhAtA VidhatArau &lt;strong&gt;Bhrigoh KhyAti Rasuyataah&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt; Shriyancha&#xA;  Devadevasya Patni NArAyanasya YA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhrigu's wife KhyAti gave birth to two Devas called DhAtA and VidhAtA&#xA;  and Sri who is the consort of NArAyana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VishNu PurANa's first part, 8.13&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The BrahmAnda purANa also repeats the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhrigoh khyAtirvijajnehatha iswarau sukhadukkhayoh |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  SubhAsubhapradAtarau sarva prAna VrtAviha ||&lt;br&gt; Devau dhAtA vidhAtArau&#xA;  manvantara vichArinau | &lt;br&gt;TayorjyeshthA tu bhagini devi srir loka&#xA;  bhAvini || &lt;br&gt;sA tu nArAyanam devam pati mAsAdya shobhanam | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  NArAyanatmajau sAddvi valotsAhou vyajAyat ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhrigu and his wife KhyAti gave birth to two sons named DhAtA and VidhAtA and a daughter named Shri or Lakshmi. Lakshmi obtained as her husband NArAyana and thereafter gave birth to two sons called Bala (strength) and UtsAha (enthusiasm).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BrahmAnda purANa 29. 1-3.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, that is why MahAlakshmi is also known as &lt;strong&gt;BhArgavi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-05T07:04:59.393" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T07:04:59.393" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20628" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-03T12:20:17.547" Score="2" ViewCount="3115" Body="&lt;p&gt;Devi Sati is reborn as Devi Parvati, the daughter of Himavat and Mainavati, and is named Parvati. To marry to Lord Shiva she did tapasya. Due to Which Lord Shiva accepted her as wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Has Devi Lakshmi done any tapsya of Lord Vishnu to be his consort. Or is it she springs with other precious things from the foam of the ocean of milk when it is churned by the gods and demons for the recovery of Amṛta. She appeared while churning ocean and she choose to be wife of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why Lord Vishnu made Devi Lakshmi as his consort? As we know Devi Parvati did tapasya to be consort of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="10089" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T14:09:32.377" LastActivityDate="2017-12-11T18:45:34.860" Title="Why Lord Vishnu made Devi Lakshmi his consort?" Tags="|vishnu|marriage|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20629" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6548" CreationDate="2017-09-03T13:28:12.147" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question: Where was Karna in the afterlife?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answer: karna was in hell aka patala.&#xA;Yudhishthira told Dharma he did not see Karna in heaven:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Yudhishthira said, ‘Ye deities, &lt;strong&gt;I do not see here Radha’s son of&#xA;  immeasurable prowess&lt;/strong&gt;, as also my high-souled brothers, and Yudhamanyu&#xA;  and Uttamaujas, those great car-warriors that poured their bodies (as&#xA;  libations) on the fire of battle, those kings and princes that met&#xA;  with death for my sake in battle. Where are those great car-warriors&#xA;  that possessed the prowess of tigers? Have those foremost of men&#xA;  acquired this region? If those great car-warriors have obtained these&#xA;  regions, then only do you know, ye gods, that I shall reside here with&#xA;  those high-souled ones. If this auspicious and eternal region has not&#xA;  been acquired by those kings, then know, ye gods, that without those&#xA;  brothers and kinsmen of mine, I shall not live here. At the time of&#xA;  performing the water rites (after the battle), I heard my mother say,&#xA;  ‘Do thou offer oblations of water unto Karna.’ Since hearing those&#xA;  words of my mother, I am burning with grief. I grieve also incessantly&#xA;  at this, ye gods, that when I marked the resemblance between the feet&#xA;  of my mother and those of Karna of immeasurable soul, I did not&#xA;  immediately place myself under orders of that afflicter of hostile&#xA;  ranks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma told Yudhishthira that Karna was in hell:&#xA;Yudhishthira finds Karna in hell:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Hearing those words of beings in woe, Yudhishthira of compassionate heart exclaimed aloud, ‘Alas, how painful!’ And the king stood still. The speeches of those woe-begone and afflicted persons seemed to the son of Pandu to be uttered in voices that he had heard before although he could not recognise them on that occasion.&#xA;  &quot;Unable to recognise voices, Dharma’s son, Yudhishthira, enquired, saying, ‘Who are you? Why also do you stay here?’&#xA;  &quot;Thus addressed, they answered him from all sides, saying, ‘&lt;strong&gt;I am Karna&lt;/strong&gt;!’ ‘I am Sangamitra!’ ‘I am Shona!’ ‘I am Radha!’ ‘I am Adhiratha!’ ‘I am Vrishali!’ ‘I am Vipatha!’ ‘We are the sons of Karna!’ Even thus, O king, did those voices speak.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Svargarohanika Parva&lt;/a&gt; of Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10324" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-09-03T13:40:02.303" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T13:40:02.303" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20630" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-03T14:54:13.290" Score="4" ViewCount="567" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Parikshit and Suka in the Srimad Krishna Bhagavatam is different from that of the Mahabharata. This has made people use the argument of Kalpa Bheda that the Mahabharata occurred in a different Kalpa. Now, the Srimad Bhagavatam states it was written in the present Kalpa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“parimāṇaṁ ca kālasya kalpa-lakṣaṇa-vigraham |&#xA;  yathā purastād vyākhyāsye pādmaṃ kalpamatho śṛṇu ||” (SB 2:10:47)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Translation: O King, I shall in due course explain the measurement of time in its gross and subtle features with the specific symptoms of each, but for the present let me explain unto you the &lt;strong&gt;Pādma-kalpa (i.e. the Svetavaraha Kalpa)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does the Mahabharata state in which Kalpa it was written?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-09-03T15:12:01.667" LastActivityDate="2019-05-28T07:43:39.560" Title="The Mahabharata we have today belongs to which Kalpa?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20631" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-03T16:16:10.840" Score="7" ViewCount="1329" Body="&lt;p&gt;Along with 63 Nayanars, why Manikkavasagar isn't included to make it as 64? He wrote one of the famous literature in Tamil i.e., Thiruvasagam. But he is included in the list of Nalvar(four people) along with Thirugnanasambandar, Thirunavukarasar, Sundharar. Why it is so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2022-06-06T18:01:25.160" Title="Why Manikkavasagar isn't usually included in the Nayanars list?" Tags="|shaivism|nayanar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20632" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17864" CreationDate="2017-09-03T21:09:04.343" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've found the meaning of Dashratha, explained in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sadagopan.org/index.php/component/djcatalog2/?format=raw&amp;amp;task=download&amp;amp;fid=18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gloss&lt;/a&gt; &#xA;(by Swami Sadhagopan) on &lt;a href=&quot;http://anudinam.org/2012/03/31/raghuveera-gadhyam-%E2%80%93-learners-series-audio/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahaveera Vaibhavam&lt;/a&gt; authored by &lt;a href=&quot;http://srivaishnavam.com/desika_life_history.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kavitarkika Simha Swami Vedanta Deshikan&lt;/a&gt; himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sadagopan.org/index.php/component/djcatalog2/?format=raw&amp;amp;task=download&amp;amp;fid=18&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gloss&lt;/a&gt; on Gadya/Passage 6:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hail to thee O Lord, who through your birth liquidated the third debt&#xA;  of your father Dasaratha, who was famous for his help  to Indra in his&#xA;  battles with Asuraas!    Here the reference is to the name of our&#xA;  Lord's father, Dasaratha. &lt;strong&gt;His valor in driving his chariot in all&#xA;  the ten directions to chase the  enemies of Indra  and  to  come  to &#xA;  the rescue of Indra earned him the name DasaraTa (Dasasu Dikshu&#xA;  Aprathihata Ratha:).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-09-03T21:14:20.820" LastActivityDate="2017-09-03T21:14:20.820" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20635" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-04T07:18:43.633" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T07:18:43.633" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T07:18:43.633" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20636" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-04T07:18:43.633" Score="0" Body="Questions regarding Artha, one of the four Purusharthas." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T07:18:43.633" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T07:18:43.633" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20639" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15431" CreationDate="2017-09-04T08:26:03.243" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are plenty of resurrection stories mentioned in Hinduism. Some of them are below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ganesha brought back to life after beheading.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Ganesha's head was chopped off and it was replaced by Lord Vishnu with head of a bull elephant which was sleeping with its head sleeping towards north direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/30862/77f_chapter_109_1.pdf#page=2&amp;amp;zoom=auto,-38,244&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;From Chapter 12, Ganapati Khanda, Brahma Vaivarta Purana&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O sage, &lt;strong&gt;at the gaze of the Saturn, the head of the child was cut off&lt;/strong&gt; and Saturn closed his eyes at once, Looking downwards and stood there. [7]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He (Vishnu )took out the trunk of the child from the lap of Parvati, kept him in his lap and joined the elephant head with the trunk of the child. [22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The lord who has been the form of Brahman applying the divine knowledge uttered humkara &lt;strong&gt;brought back the child back to life&lt;/strong&gt;. [23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way, Lord Ganesha attained was brought back to life by Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The bull elephant whose head is cut off.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the above story, Lord Vishnu beheads a bull elephant's head using his Sudarshana Chakra. That elephant was also brought back to life after being prayed by cow elephants.  This story is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8720/what-happened-to-the-body-of-elephant-whose-head-was-attached-to-lord-ganesha/19488#19488&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/7075/arya&quot;&gt;@Arya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter, finding all the people fainted Vişņu mounted on Garuda, went to the northern direction and reached the bank of Puspabhadra river. [11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reaching the bank of Puspabhadra river, he found an elephant enjoying the company of cow elephants. [12]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Visnu delightfully cut-off his head by using Sudarsana-cakra which was soaked in blood and kept it over Garuda and was quite pleasant to look at. [14]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; There after, the wives and the children of the bull elephant pray Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu pleased with the prayer of the elephants restores the life of the bull elephant and bestows a life for Kalpa.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The lord who is all knowledgeable, touched the body of the elephant with his lotus-like feet and said, &amp;quot;O elephant, you will remain alive with your family for a kalpa.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; [20-21]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The resurrection of Vānaras from the Rāmāyaṇa.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As explained in the other answer to this question, Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa Yuddha Kanda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga120/yuddha_120_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sarga 120&lt;/a&gt; mentions the resurrection of Vānaras. The dead Vānaras were brought back to life by Lord Indra after being asked by Lord Sri Rāma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O the bestower of honour! I wish to see all those monkeys, who for my sake, were removed from their sons and wives, be delighted at heart. They were all valiant, proving their energies and did not take their death into account. They made their strenuous efforts and died. O Indra! Restore their lives to them. Those monkeys - who counted death as nothing and who were fond of doing favour to me - let them get re-united with their near and dear ones by your grace. I seek this boon of you. O bestower of honour! I wish to see the monkeys and bears, free from wounds and pains, with augmented strength and valour. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga120/yuddhasans120.htm#Verse6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-9]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra restores the lives of the Vānaras and bears who have lost their lives in the battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let all those monkeys and bears along with long-tailed monkeys, who have been killed in battle, by the demons and whose heads and arms have been severed, be alive and active again. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga120/yuddhasans120.htm#Verse13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[13]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All of them, full of delight, will get re-united with their friends, relatives, kinsmen and family members. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga120/yuddhasans120.htm#Verse15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[15]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bharata's son Puṣkala brought back to life by Hanuman.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story which is not very famous is also associated with the Rāmāyaṇa. But this is told in the &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 43-44, Patala Khanda of Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt;. This happens when Sri Rāma sets his sacrificial horse loose when he performed a horse sacrifice. Sri Rāma appoints his younger brother Shatrughna as the protector of the horse. A huge army is also sent along with the horse. Bharata's son Puṣkala is also one of the warriors who is sent along with the horse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a part of its journey, the horse enters the kingdom of King Viramani. He doesn't agree to surrender the kingdom to Sri Rāma. Finally Puṣkala, son of Bharata resolves to fight with him. He wins the battle. But the king Viramani is a devotee of Shiva. So, he himself has arrived at the battle field along with his forces.  He sends Virabhadra to fight with Puṣkala.  He is killed by Virabhadra after a fierce fight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Virabhadra, with the Khatvanga in his hand cut off became extremely angry and shattered the warrior's chariot. Having broken the chariot of the warrior and having (thus) made him a foot-soldier, he fought with the magnanimous Puṣkala in a close fight. That very mighty Puṣkala abandoning the chariot shattered to pieces by him (i.e. Virabhadra), hit Virabhadra with his fist. [---------] Then Puṣkala who was extremely angry seizing Virabhadra by the neck struck (i.e. threw) him on the ground. The very mighty Virabhadra distressed by that stroke seized Puṣkala by the foot and repeatedly shaking him and throwing him on the ground the &lt;strong&gt;very mighty one cut off his head with blazing ear-rings with his trident. The very strong Virabhadra having killed Puṣkala roared&lt;/strong&gt;. That roaring follower of Siva frightened great warriors. When Puṣkala fell in the battle, there was a very great wailing. All the very proficient men became frightened on the battlefield. They informed Satrughna that Puṣkala killed by Virabhadra, the attendant of Siva, had fallen on the battlefield. The great hero, the mighty (Satrughna) having thus heard about Puṣkala's being killed in the battle, was very much grieved and due to great grief trembled. [28b-42a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter Shatrughna also fights with Lord Shiva but falls unconscious in the battle. Enraged with the fall of the devotees of Sri Rāma, Hanuman starts a fight with Shiva. He destroys the chariot, flags, trident of Lord Shiva. He hits Shiva with trees and mountains. By this act, Shiva enrages and said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(He said): &amp;quot;O mean monkey, you are (now) killed. Flee and go (away) from the battle. In a moment I shall destroy your life with (this) pestle.&amp;quot; Seeing the pestle discharged by the angry Siva the monkey remembering Visnu (i.e. Rāma) avoided it very speedily. That pestle made of strong iron and discharged by Siva, fell down. Having torn off the entire earth it went to the nether world. Hanumat, the servant of Rāma, was extremely angry at that time. Taking a mountain in his hand he hit it on the chest (of Siva). While the lord of SatI (i.e. Shiva) was thinking of cutting off the mountain he was struck by the lord of monkeys with a tree having many branches. When he (i.e. Siva) was intent on cutting it off, he was hit with rocks (by Hanumat). The persevering Siva made up his mind to break those rocks. Just then he showered him (i.e. Siva) with trees and mountains. Having encircled the protector of the beings (i.e. Siva) with his tail he struck him again and again with stones, mountains, trees and strokes of his tail. Nandin was very much frightened, and even the moon was reduced to pieces. The very angry great god got very much confused. [22-29a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He said to the lord of monkeys who every moment&#xA;made him very much disquieted: &amp;quot;O follower of the protector of&#xA;Raghus, you are blessed. You have today done a great feat, so&#xA;that I am very much pleased with you. O you, having a great&#xA;speed, I am not easily obtainable by means of charity or sacrifice&#xA;or a little penance. Therefore, ask for a boon from me. [29b-32]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman laughing and speaking in fearless words, spoke to Shiva who was speaking like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O great god, by Ragunatha's grace I have everything. Yet I ask for a boon from you who are pleased with the battle. This our (hero) named Puṣkala has fallen down dead. So also Shatrughna, Rāma's younger brother, became unconscious in the battle. Many other heroes wounded with arrows have also fallen. Some are unconscious, some have sunk; (please) protect them&#xA;along with your own attendants. Do that by which big ghosts, vampires and fiends, so also foxes and others, will not take them away and eat them up; and (do that by which) their bodies will not be split. By all means preserve all of them, till, having conquered the attendants of Indra, I bring (either) the Drona mountain or the herbs thereon, and bring back, per force, to life these heroes kept under (your) control. Here I go to take that Drona&#xA;mountain on which life-restoring herbs exist. [34-40]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman goes to Drona mountain which is guarded by the attendants of Lord Indra. He goes and uproots the Drona mountain. Devatas were frightened by this act of Hanuman. Then Indra bows to him asks him why he arrived there and allows him to take required herbs. The devatas bow to Hanuman and he takes leave from there. He brought the medicine back to the battlefield. He joined the head and body of the dead Puṣkala and said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If I recognise (only) lord Raghava (i.e.Rāma) by the deeds of my mind, body and speech, then let him quickly revive by means of the medicine.&amp;quot;. Puṣkala came back to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman then went to Shatrughna, put the medicine on his chest and said&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O best Satrughna, revive. O you of great might and valour, why (i.e. due to what) did you become unconscious on the battlefield? If I being&#xA;diligent (i.e. diligently) keep celibacy till (the end of) my life,&#xA;then let this hero Satrughna revive in a moment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No sooner did he utter these words then Satrughna came back to consciousness in a moment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way, Hanuman revived Puṣkala, the son of Bharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma rescuing their teacher  Sāndīpani's son.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa studied at the ashrama of Sāndīpani. They served him with great obedience. They learned all the topics in a very short period of time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/45/35-36&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.45.35-36&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;— O King, those best of persons, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, being Themselves the original promulgators of all varieties of knowledge, could immediately assimilate each and every subject after hearing it explained just once. &lt;strong&gt;Thus with fixed concentration They learned the sixty-four arts and skills in as many days and nights&lt;/strong&gt;. Thereafter, O King, They satisfied Their spiritual master by offering him guru-dakṣiṇā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/45/37&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.45.37&lt;/a&gt; O King, the learned brāhmaṇa Sāndīpani carefully considered the two Lords’ glorious and amazing qualities and Their superhuman intelligence. Then, after consulting with his wife, he chose as his remuneration the return of his young son, who had died in the ocean at Prabhāsa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They go to Yamaloka and ask Yamarāja to send their teacher with them. Yama rāja worships them elaborately and agrees with them. He sends the boy with them. They bring their teacher's son back to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/45/45&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 10.45.45&lt;/a&gt; — The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Suffering the bondage of his past activity, My spiritual master’s son was brought here to you. O great King, obey My command and bring this boy to Me without delay.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They take him to their teacher's ashrama and fulfill their guru-dakṣiṇā.  Sāndīpani gives them permission to return to their home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma brought their teacher's son back to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bali Chakravarti brought back to life by Śukrācārya.&#xA;Bali chakravati was brought back to life when he was killed in a war with Indra. Śukrācārya brought him back to life. Due to this, Bali became faithful to Śukrācārya. Many Rakshasas were revived by Śukrācārya using Mrita Sanjivani vidya but all of them were slain  by Vishnu. Bali Chakravarti was not slain. He is in Sutala loka along with his friends and allies.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;parājita-śrīr asubhiś ca hāpito&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;hīndreṇa rājan bhṛgubhiḥ sa jīvitaḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;sarvātmanā tān abhajad bhṛgūn baliḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;śiṣyo mahātmārtha-nivedanena&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: O King, when Bali Mahārāja lost all his opulence and died in the fight, Śukrācārya, a descendant of Bhṛgu Muni, brought him back to life. Because of this, the great soul Bali Mahārāja became a disciple of Śukrācārya and began to serve him with great faith, offering everything he had. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/15/3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[SB 8.15.13]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above are some of the incidents of resurrection mentioned in the Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T08:13:05.717" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18370" CreationDate="2017-09-04T09:47:53.943" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This all is copied from a muslim sources.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the vedas aren't contains the verses like Qur'an or Bible. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These all are the hymns with which we pray to god. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And If you read the names of the hymns from  Vedas, the subject of them are given in their title. And those meanings are also very clear. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not a single verse from any vedas commands to kill any living creature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They all are the hymns. For example&#xA;atharva veda 12:2:23&#xA;Which means, Atharva veda book-12 - hymn-2. &#xA; The name of hymn-2 is &lt;strong&gt;A funeral hymn, and deprecation of Agni the Consumer of corpses&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11905" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T11:54:44.097" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T11:54:44.097" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20642" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-04T11:18:05.657" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. One definition of a hymn is &quot;...a lyric poem, reverently and devotionally conceived, which is designed to be sung and which expresses the worshipper's attitude toward God or God's purposes in human life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T11:18:05.657" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T11:18:05.657" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20643" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-04T11:18:05.657" Score="0" Body="A religious song or poem of praise to God or a god." OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T11:18:05.657" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T11:18:05.657" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20644" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19894" CreationDate="2017-09-04T12:18:31.220" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have Varna system. As per this, Apastamba Dharmasutra 1.1.1.4-5 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[There are] four castes Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishya, and Shudra.&#xA;  Among these, each preceding (caste) is superior by birth to the one&#xA;  following.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For a Shudra, preceding varna Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaishya are&#xA;superior.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;For a Vaishya, Preceding varna Kshatriya and Brahmana are superior.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For a Kshatriya, Preceding varna Brahmana is superior.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And among husband and wife, husband has the superior authority. But if Pratiloma marriage and takes place, we don't know who is superior(The girl is because she belongs to higher Varna or the boy is because he is the husband). So Anuloma marriage is recommended and Pratiloma marriage is discouraged. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-18T14:33:18.647" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T14:33:18.647" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20645" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-04T12:26:12.237" Score="10" ViewCount="919" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Parashar Samhita is an interesting book that chronicles the life of Lord Hanuman as narrated by &lt;strong&gt;Rishi Parashar&lt;/strong&gt;, the author of Parashar Smriti and the Parashar Hora Shastra. I found the Sanskrit version of the text but am not able to find a verse by verse &lt;strong&gt;English translation&lt;/strong&gt;. Does anyone know of a credible source?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4Kpy8.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4Kpy8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-10-22T09:42:34.237" LastActivityDate="2021-06-14T11:00:15.133" Title="Are any English translations of the Parashar Samhita available online?" Tags="|scripture|hanuman|translation-request|resource|parashara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20646" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20655" CreationDate="2017-09-04T13:18:56.170" Score="8" ViewCount="5110" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have heard that Lord Parashurama killed Kshatriya kings one by one. He was a very angry  person. So, I want to know why he killed many Kshatriya kings?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was he alive during Ramayana and as well as Mahabharata times? Because I have heard that he did fight with the Pandava sons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4172" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-05T04:08:42.810" LastActivityDate="2019-05-29T05:13:25.120" Title="Why did Lord Parshurama kill the Kshatriya kings?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|parashurama|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20648" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-04T13:39:08.103" Score="1" ViewCount="20" Body="&lt;p&gt;What I would consider an unreliable source (and not a Hindu) wrote about an ancient initiation ritual he called Yoga Sleep that took place in a sepulchre and involved a hierophant taking a pupil into a higher state of consciousness (which left his body lie inert in a kind of deep slumber) for three days where his soul was led through the spheres of the spiritual world.  The pupil was then called 'back into life' by the hierophant where he would utter certain words.  There is more detail but I thought this would do for starters.  I'm not asking if this is possible but if this is something that is recorded as happening in history or even mythology or whether it's someone getting creative with someone else's religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11909" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T13:39:08.103" Title="Was/is there such a thing as Yoga Sleep as an initiation ritual?" Tags="|rituals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20649" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-04T16:03:50.063" Score="3" ViewCount="700" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that in the Vedic Dharma the SikhA and the Upavita (the sacred thread) are indispensable. Without tying SikhA, for example, no Vedic ritual can be successfully completed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We also know that the SikhA should be sported on the head. But at what part of the head? At the top of it? Like Lord Shiva and others shown below has done:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EPQO6.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EPQO6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1xDWN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1xDWN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RCGyV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/RCGyV.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or at the back part of the head like the following modern day Brahmin has done:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2ns7m.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/2ns7m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q- As per scriptures at what part of one's head one should tie SikhA knot? At the top or at the back of it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-07T03:36:43.080" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T03:36:43.080" Title="As per scriptures at what part of the head one should tie the sikha? at the back or at the top of it?" Tags="|scripture|vedic-rituals|shikha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20650" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-04T16:23:19.157" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T16:23:19.157" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T16:23:19.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20651" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-04T16:23:19.157" Score="0" Body="The sikha or shikha (Sanskrit: शिखा; IAST: śikhā; &quot;crest&quot;; Hindi चोटी (choTi)) means flame, powerful, ray of light, peak of a mountain. It is a name of Hindu / Indian origin, and is commonly used for females. It also means long tuft, or lock of hair, left on top or on the back of the shaven head of a male Orthodox Hindu. Though traditionally all Hindus were required to wear a śikhā, today it is seen mainly among Brahmins and temple priests." OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T16:23:19.157" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T16:23:19.157" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20652" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23184" CreationDate="2017-09-04T17:38:06.830" Score="7" ViewCount="2732" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following image is of an unknown &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dqfoM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;goddess&lt;/a&gt;. Does anyone know the name of this goddess?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dqfoM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dqfoM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Unknown goddess&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sitting on the shoulder of Vetala with a sickle in right hand and a severed head in left hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11900" LastEditorUserId="11900" LastEditDate="2017-09-05T23:31:36.083" LastActivityDate="2022-07-05T00:52:53.787" Title="Does anyone know the name of this goddess?" Tags="|goddess|identification-request|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20653" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20652" CreationDate="2017-09-04T17:56:21.260" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This image closely resembles Goddess Kaalaraatri. She is mentioned in famous texts like Sri Durga Saptashati. But she is on VetAla which is not a common vehicle for goddesses. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kaalratri (sometimes spelled Kalaratri) is the seventh form amongst the Navadurga (ie. the nine forms of Hindu Mother Goddess referenced in Durga Saptashati, Chapters 81-93 of the Markandeya Purana, the earliest known literature on Goddess Durga). Goddess Kaalratri is widely regarded as one of the many destructive forms of Mother Goddess - Kali, Mahakali, Bhadrakali, Bhairavi, Mrityu, Rudrani, Chamunda, Chandi and Durga.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaalratri&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another possibility is Goddess Sri Dhoomavati which is one of 10 mahAvidyAs. She is also very famous among the shakta tradition. &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhumavati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-09-04T18:06:11.573" LastActivityDate="2017-09-04T18:06:11.573" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20655" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20646" CreationDate="2017-09-04T18:32:19.513" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Story of Parashurama is mentioned in many Puranas and in the Mahabharata. I'm quoting a section of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03116.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 116&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03117.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;117&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Vana Parva of Mahabharata.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashurama was the son of Rishi Jamadagni and Renuka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was once a King named Kartavirya Arjuna of the Haihaya dyanasty. Rishi Jamadagni and Renuka offered hospitality to Kartavirya Arjuna and his army at their ashram. Jamadagni had a Kamadhenu (wish fulfiling) cow that produced food etc for the King and his army. Kartavirya on seeing the cow's utility stole her away from the sage and his wife. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once, however, O lord, when his sons had gone out as before, &lt;strong&gt;the&#xA;  valourous son of Kartavirya,&lt;/strong&gt; the lord of the country near the shore&#xA;  of the sea, came up to the hermitage. &lt;strong&gt;And when he arrived at that&#xA;  hermitage, the wife of the saint received him hospitably.&lt;/strong&gt; He,&#xA;  however, intoxicated with a warrior's pride, was not at all pleased&#xA;  with the reception accorded to him, and by force and in defiance of&#xA;  all resistance, &lt;strong&gt;seized and carried off from that hermitage the chief&#xA;  of the cows whose milk supplied the sacred butter, not heeding the&#xA;  loud lowing of the cow.&lt;/strong&gt; And he wantonly pulled down the large trees&#xA;  of the wood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Parashurama came to know he went to Haiheya and attacked the King and decimated his army. After killing Kartavirya, by cutting off his 1000 arms Parashurama brought the cow back to the ashram. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Rama came home, his father himself told him all that had&#xA;  happened. Then when Rama saw how the cow was lowing for its calf,&#xA;  resentment arose in his heart. &lt;strong&gt;And he rushed towards Kartavirya's&#xA;  son, whose last moments had drawn nigh. Then the descendant of Bhrigu,&#xA;  the exterminator of hostile heroes, put forth his valour on the field&#xA;  of battle, and with sharpened arrows with flattened tips, which were&#xA;  shot from a beautiful bow, cut down Arjuna's arms, which numbered a&#xA;  thousand, and were massive like (wooden) bolts for barring the door.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  He, already touched by the hand of death, was overpowered by Rama, his&#xA;  foe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kartavirya's sons were enraged at the murder of their father so they attacked a defenseless Jamadagni at his ashram when Parashurama and his other sons were away. They killed the rishi and stole the cow and its calf. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then the kinsmen of Arjuna, their wrath excited against Rama, rushed at Jamadagni in his hermitage, while Rama was away.&lt;/strong&gt; And they slew&#xA;  him there; for although his strength was great, yet being at the time&#xA;  engaged in penances, he would not fight. &lt;strong&gt;And while thus attacked by&#xA;  his foes, he repeatedly shouted the name of Rama in a helpless and&#xA;  piteous way. And, O Yudhishthira, the sons of Kartavirya shot&#xA;  Jamadagni, with their arrows, and having thus chastised their foe,&#xA;  went their way.&lt;/strong&gt; And when they had gone away, and when Jamadagni had&#xA;  breathed his last, Rama, the delight of Bhrigu's race, returned to the&#xA;  hermitage, bearing in his arms, fuel for religious rites. &lt;strong&gt;And the&#xA;  hero beheld his father who had been put to death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashurama on seeing his father dead made a vow to kill all Kshatriya generations as they sprung up. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And Rama, the conqueror of hostile cities, cremated his father on the funeral pyre, and vowed, O scion of Bharata's race, the slaughter&#xA;  of the entire military caste,&lt;/strong&gt; and of exceeding strength in the field&#xA;  of battle, and possessed of valour suited to a heroic soul, and&#xA;  comparable to the god of death himself, &lt;strong&gt;he took up his weapon in&#xA;  wrathful mood, and singlehanded put Kartavirya's sons to death. And, O&#xA;  chieftain of the military caste, Rama, the leader of all capable of&#xA;  beating their foes, thrice smote down all the Kashatriya followers of&#xA;  Kartavirya's sons. And seven times did that powerful lord exterminate&#xA;  the military tribes of the earth. In the tract of land, called&#xA;  Samantapanchaka five lakes of blood were made by him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Canto 9 Chapter 15&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam&lt;/strong&gt; gives reasons why Parashurama killed the kshatriyas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.15.14 — Learned scholars accept this Paraśurāma as the celebrated&#xA;  incarnation of Vāsudeva who annihilated the dynasty of Kārtavīrya.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Paraśurāma killed all the kṣatriyas on earth twenty-one times.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SB 9.15.15 — &lt;strong&gt;When the royal dynasty, being excessively proud because&#xA;  of the material modes of passion and ignorance, became irreligious&lt;/strong&gt; and&#xA;  ceased to care for the laws enacted by the brāhmaṇas, &lt;strong&gt;Paraśurāma&#xA;  killed them.&lt;/strong&gt; Although their offense was not very severe, &lt;strong&gt;he killed&#xA;  them to lessen the burden of the world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/bala/sarga74/bala_74_prose.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapters 74-76&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Bala Kanda of Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt; describes a meeting between Rama and Parashurama. After Rama breaks the bow of Shiva at Sita Swayamvar, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashurama accosts the wedding party and challenges Rama to string the bow of Vishnu. Rama does so and asks Parashurama what should be his target as an arrow stretched on the bow should not be wasted. Parashurama allows him to destory his tapasya merit and returns to Mt Mahendra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In that catastrophic darkness, that sand-muffled military of king&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Dasharatha has seen the son of Sage Jamadagni, namely Bhaargava Rama,&#xA;  the subjugator of kings of kings.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Oh, valiant Rama of Dasharatha, your valour is bruited as a&#xA;  sensational valour, and sensational is your smashing of Shiva's bow,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That way, smashing of that particular bow of Shiva is wondrous and&#xA;  even unimaginable... on hearing that alone I happened upon you,&#xA;  bringing another outranking bow... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This alone is that catastrophic bow received through Sage Jamadagni...&#xA;  flex it with an arrow on bowstring stretching up to your ear, and in&#xA;  that way show your capability...&lt;/strong&gt; Thereby, on examining your strength&#xA;  in your taking aim with this bow, and should you be deservedly&#xA;  valorous, I will give you a combative duel...&quot; So said Parashu Rama to&#xA;  Dasharatha Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Raghava, the nimble-handed vanquisher of his opponents, speaking thus&#xA;  in high dudgeon expropriated that estimable weapon, namely the longbow&#xA;  of Vishnu, from the hand of Bhaargava Rama, along with the long-arrow&#xA;  that is already fitted on it...&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, when Rama is ready to take aim with the arrow on that&#xA;  inscrutable longbow, and when the worlds are being rendered as&#xA;  insentient, then that Rama of Jamadagni is rendered vigourless and he&#xA;  stared up at Rama of Dasharatha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rama of Jamadagni is calloused as his vitality is subdued by the&#xA;  radiance of that lotus-petal eyed Rama of Dasharatha, and he spoke to&#xA;  Rama of Dasharatha, slowly and softly.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Once, when I donated entire earth to Sage Kashyapa, Kashyapa told me&#xA;  'uninhabitable is my domain, viz., this earth for you...' thus...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Such as I was, in my observance of my mentor Kashyapa's order I do&#xA;  not spend nights on this earth from then afterwards, oh, Kakutstha&#xA;  Rama, as I made over this earth for Kashyapa, indeed... Thereby oh,&#xA;  valiant one, it will be inapt of you to impair this motility of mine,&#xA;  oh, Raghava, I will depart with the speed of cerebration to Mt.&#xA;  Mahendra, a par excellent mountain... &lt;strong&gt;But I triumphed over matchless&#xA;  realms of heavens with my ascesis, oh, Rama, you may hash them up with&#xA;  that irreversible arrow... let there be no time-lag...&lt;/strong&gt; I have realized&#xA;  your touch of nature as that of the Immutable Supreme Being, God of&#xA;  Gods, the Exterminator of the demon Madhu, namely Vishnu, by the touch&#xA;  of your handling that bow... oh, enemy-inflamer, blessedness alone&#xA;  betides you... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;While Rama of Jamadagni is speaking that way, that venturesome and&#xA;  blessed Rama of Dasharatha shot off that nonpareil arrow from that&#xA;  longbow of Vishnu. On seeing all of his realms of heavens are&#xA;  shot-blasted by Rama of Dasharatha, Rama of Jamadagni vanished in a&#xA;  trice to Mt. Mahendra, the heavenly mountain.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashurama is referenced numerous times in Mahabharata. He was the guru of Bhishma, Drona and Karna. He also fought with Bhishma which is described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2172/why-did-bhishma-fight-with-lord-parashurama&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adi Parva&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ch 101&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Ganga said, 'O tiger among men, that eighth son whom thou hadst&#xA;  some time before begat upon me is this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And all the weapons known to the powerful and invincible Rama, the son of Jamadagni are known to this thy illustrious son of mighty&#xA;  arms.&lt;/strong&gt; O king of superior courage, take this thy own heroic child&#xA;  given unto thee by me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adi Parva&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01132.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 132&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O king, it was about this time that Drona heard that the illustrious Brahmana Jamadagnya, that slayer of foes, that foremost one among all&#xA;  wielders of weapons, versed in all kinds of knowledge, had expressed a&#xA;  desire of giving away all his wealth to Brahmanas. Having heard of&#xA;  Rama's knowledge of arms and of his celestial weapons also, Drona set&#xA;  his heart upon them as also upon the knowledge of morality that Rama&#xA;  possessed.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'O thou of ascetic wealth, returned Rama, 'My gold and whatever other&#xA;  wealth I had, have all been given away unto Brahmanas! I have now my&#xA;  body only and my various valuable weapons left. I am prepared to give&#xA;  either my body or my weapons. Say, which thou wouldst have! I would&#xA;  give it thee! Say quickly!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Drona answered, O son of Bhrigu, it behoveth thee to give me all thy weapons together with the mysteries of hurling and recalling&#xA;  them.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Saying, 'So be it,' the son of Bhrigu gave all his weapons unto Drona,--indeed, the whole science of arms with its rules and&#xA;  mysteries.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Santi Parva&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Drona had answered thus, &lt;strong&gt;Karna, having worshipped him,&lt;/strong&gt; obtained&#xA;  his leave, and proceeded without delay to &lt;strong&gt;Rama then residing on the&#xA;  Mahendra mountains.&lt;/strong&gt; Approaching Rama, he bent his head unto him and&#xA;  said, 'I am a Brahmana of Bhrigu's race.' This procured honour for&#xA;  him. With this knowledge about his birth and family, Rama received him&#xA;  kindly and said, 'Thou art welcome!' at which Karna became highly&#xA;  glad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashurama was present in the Kaurava court when Krishna came to arrange a peace treaty with Duryodhana. He tried to counsel Duryodhana and narrated the story of Nara Narayana as referenced in &lt;strong&gt;Udyoga Parva&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05128.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ch 128&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vaisampayana said, 'Hearing these words uttered by the high-souled&#xA;  Kesava, all the persons who sat in that assembly remained silent,&#xA;  their hair standing on their ends. And all the kings thought within&#xA;  themselves that there was no man who could dare reply to that speech.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;And seeing that all the kings sat silent, Jamadagni's son (addressing Duryodhana) then said these words in that assembly of&#xA;  Kurus,&lt;/strong&gt; 'Listen confidingly to my words illustrated by an example,&#xA;  and seek thy own good if my speech recommends itself to thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_039.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 39&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Harivamsa Parva of the Harivamsa&lt;/strong&gt; describes a meeting between Krishna Balarama and Parashurama when they are fleeing from Jarasandha. I am only quoting the paragraph when they see him. The entire story is given in the link.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(vaishampAyana said) Saying this, both sa~NkarShaNa (balarAma) and&#xA;  kR^iShNa, competent, proceeded on the southern route, without any&#xA;  anxiety.&lt;/strong&gt; Those two, capable of taking forms they desire, traveled in&#xA;  many countries in the southern direction. The south bound valiant&#xA;  balarAma and kR^iShNa happily went along the beautiful places behind&#xA;  the sahya mountains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Under that tree, ( both together saw) the sage, sparkling with the&#xA;  wealth of penance, carrying the axe on his shoulder, wearing twisted&#xA;  locks of hair and bark garments. (Both together saw) the sage,&#xA;  sparkling like yellow flames of fire, with a splendour similar to sun,&#xA;  who caused the death of kShatriya-s, imperturbable, appearing like&#xA;  ocean, personified. (Both together saw the sage) seated in a posture,&#xA;  having worshipped the sacred fire and taken ritual bath thrice as&#xA;  ordained, like the preceptor of deva-s. (Both together saw the sage)&#xA;  residing on the mahendra mountain, preparing to milk the white&#xA;  kAmadhenu, the divine cow with its calf. &lt;strong&gt;Both together saw rAma,&#xA;  bhArgava, the tireless, eternal sage without any decline seated like&#xA;  the sun on mount mandara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seeing the sage, both the valiant sons of vasudeva, sparkling like the&#xA;  sacrificial fire, worshipped his feet as ordained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashurama was seen by the Pandavas and some sages on Mt Mahendra when the latter were on their Tirtha Yatra. However I can't find any references of him having fought the Pandavas sons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Vaisampayana said, 'Then on the fourteenth day of the moon, the mighty-souled Rama at the proper hour showed himself to those members&#xA;  of the priestly caste and also to the virtuous king (Yudhishthira) and&#xA;  his younger brothers.&lt;/strong&gt; And, O king of kings, the lord together with&#xA;  his brothers, worshipped Rama, and, O most righteous of the rulers of&#xA;  men, the very highest honours were paid by him to all those members of&#xA;  the twice-born class. And after worshipping Jamadagni's son and having&#xA;  received words of praise from him, at his direction he spent the night&#xA;  on the Mahendra hill, and then started on his journey towards the&#xA;  southern regions.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="7075" LastEditDate="2017-09-08T17:09:33.310" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T17:09:33.310" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20657" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="44397" CreationDate="2017-09-05T05:19:16.600" Score="9" ViewCount="471" Body="&lt;p&gt;The book Nitya Karma Puja Prakasha (Gita Press) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In a house, &lt;strong&gt;if two Shiva Lingas (linga dvayam)&lt;/strong&gt;, three Ganeshas, two conch shells&#xA;  (Shankha), two Suryas, three Durga Murtis (or three Shakti Murtis),&#xA;  two &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomti_Chakra&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gomati Chakras&lt;/a&gt; or two &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaligram&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shaligramas&lt;/a&gt; are worshiped, then that causes&#xA;  tension in the household.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following is the screenshot from page 122 of the book:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/p0XUo.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/p0XUo.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although it gives the name of the books (Acharendu, Achara Prakasha) which quote this verse but i want to know the name of the scripture. Possibly its from one of the Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW, the same thing is also mentioned in the Nitya Karma Puja Paddhati (Bengali) book that i have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q1) As per which scriptures worshiping two Shiva Lingas in one house is not considered good?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q2) Also, what are the instructions if the number of Shiva Lingas is more than two say three or four?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, an additional (and optional) question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q3) Why is it not considered good?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-05T05:55:05.893" LastActivityDate="2021-02-03T10:15:46.157" Title="As per which scriptures worshiping two Shiva Lingas in one house is not considered good?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|worship|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20658" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="49785" CreationDate="2017-09-05T05:28:46.950" Score="12" ViewCount="6159" Body="&lt;p&gt;Various Tantrik texts like Mundamala Tantra and Todal Tantra mention the Dash Mahavidyas in respect to the Dashavatar. For example in &lt;strong&gt;Todal Tantra CHapter 10&lt;/strong&gt; we find the following declaration:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Shri Shiva said: Tara Devi is the blue (fish) form, Bagala is the tortoise incarnation, Dhumavati is the boar, Chinnamasta is Narisimha, Bhuvaneshvari is Vamana, Matangi is the Rama form, Tripura is Jamadagni, Bhairavi is Balabhadra, Mahalakshmi is Buddha, and Durga is the Kalki form. BhagavatÌ Kali is the Krishna murti.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any logic to these comparisons? Also, if Kali is equivalent to Krishna where does Shiva come into the picture?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-09-05T13:34:25.203" LastActivityDate="2023-05-15T23:05:50.243" Title="What is the relation between Dash Mahavidyas and Dashavatar?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|tantra|kali|dasha-mahavidya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20659" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20498" CreationDate="2017-09-05T06:44:12.123" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes most definitely she is a Hindu Goddess. She is mentioned in PurAnas as well as in the Tantras i.e Agamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Brahma Vaivarta PurAna's Prakriti Khanda, it is mentioned that a beautiful and resplendent Devi appeared from Lord Krishna's left shoulder into the RAsamandala:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi vAmAmsha sambhutA vabhuva rAsamandale&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Devi or Goddess later got divided into two Goddesses as per Krishna's wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SA devi dvivida bhutA sahasaivesvarecchaya || TadvAmAmsAn mahAlakshmir&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;dakshinAmsAccha rAdhikA&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Devi suddenly got divided into two according to the wish of&#xA;  Iswara (here Krishna). The left half is Lakshmi &lt;strong&gt;and the right is&#xA;  RAdhikA&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bramha Vaivarta PurAna, Prakriti Khanda 35-7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Agamas too she is mentioned. In the &lt;strong&gt;NArada PancharAtra&lt;/strong&gt; too we find the RAdhA Stotram comprised of her 37 names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few names are like give below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rasodbhva krishnakAnta krishnavaksha sthala stithA.... VrindAvaneshA&#xA;  vijayA yamunAtata-vAsini&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which mentions her as the one situated within the heart of Krishna, as the one who presides over VrindAvana and one who lives on the banks of Yamuna river etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Her parents' names are also mentioned in that Stotram as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VrishabhAnusutA shAntA purnatamasya cha kAmyA kalAvati kanyA ....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;VrishabhAnu and KalAvati are the father and mother to whom RAdhA was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From NArada PurAna we also get the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/stotras/stotra40.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;RAdhA-Krishna Yugala Sahasranamas&lt;/a&gt;. Of which 500 names are of RAdhA and 500 of Krishna. Few of her names from that list are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;618) Govadhanakritalaya (Resident of Govardhana Mountain); 619) Yamuna&#xA;  teera nilaya ( stays on at the banks of River Yamuna ); 620) Shashvat&#xA;  Govinda japshini (Endlessly chanting the name of Govida); 621)&#xA;  Shaswata -maanavati (Eternally respectful); 622) Snigdha (Snehamayi);&#xA;  623) Shri Krishna parivandita (esteemed by Shri Krishna); 624) Krishna&#xA;  stuta (As eulogised by Krishna); 625) Krishna vrataa&#xA;  (Krishna-centric); 626 ) Shri Krishna hridayalaya ( Resident of&#xA;  Krishna’s heart); 627) Devadruma phala (Fulfiller of all desires like&#xA;  Kalpa Vriksha); 628) Sevya (worthy of worship) 629) Vrindavana&#xA;  Rasaalaya (Immersed in the juice of Vrindavana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aapart from that there is one whole Agama dedicated to her name. It's called the RAdhA Tantram. In that text she is described as Supreme Goddess Tripura's Duti (emissary). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri rAdhA tripura duti&lt;/strong&gt; (RAdhA Tantram Patala 7 verse)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess says that RAdhA is her own amsa and will be born in VrindAvana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;KAtyAnyani Uvacha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gacchagaccha mahAvAho padmini samgamAcharo |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Padmini mama devesha&#xA;  vraje rAdhA bhavishyati ||&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Goddess said to VAsudeva] Go soon to mathura and meet Padmini. My own&#xA;  amsa Padmini will be born in Vraja as RAdhA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RAdhA Tantram, 6th Patala verse.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Text talks about the greatness of Vrajamandala and Mathruamandala in some details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-07T06:15:42.140" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T06:15:42.140" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20660" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20662" CreationDate="2017-09-05T08:01:20.093" Score="6" ViewCount="3414" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vidura already know about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshagraha#Plot&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lakshagraha&lt;/a&gt; before Pandavas go varnavat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He also warns the pandvas with different Mleccha language. From &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshagraha#Plot&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;A weapon not made of steel or any other material element can be more than sharp to kill an enemy, and he who knows this is never killed.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fire cannot extinguish the soul but can annihilate the material body.&#xA;  But one who protects the soul lives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The conflagration that devastates a forest cannot hurt a rat which shelters itself in a hole or a porcupine which burrows in the earth. The wise man knows his bearings by looking at the stars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why he keep silent and don't talk to anyone about this thing, if he do something and stop Pandavas to go Lakshagraha, then pandvas will never go to there and Yudhishthira will still remain as Yuvraj, OK may be Shakuni and Yudhisthar does not give him a chance to speak and hence he said in different language. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why does he keep silent When King Dhutrashtra, Bhisma, Sage Drona and Sage Krupacharya make Duryodhana as Yuvraj. OK now your answer is may be he is not there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why does he keep silent on Pandavas dies as well, if Pandavas go back to Hastinapur, then Yudhishthira will remain Yuvraj again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My main question: Was Vidura not aware that if Duryodhana become Yuvraj then whole thing become more complex later, why does he remain silent and does not talk about that thing to anyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10405" LastEditorUserId="10405" LastEditDate="2017-09-20T06:19:33.033" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T06:19:33.033" Title="Why was Vidura silent on Lakshagraha?" Tags="|mahabharata|vidura|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20661" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="35937" CreationDate="2017-09-05T08:57:34.700" Score="6" ViewCount="443" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that Lakshmi Devi is the consort of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, at one place the MahAbhArata mentions Lakshmi as the consort of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;NAmato dharma patnyastAh kirtyamAnA nivodh me |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kirti &lt;strong&gt;lakshmi&lt;/strong&gt; dhritirmedhA pushti shraddhA kriyA tathA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BuddhirlajjA matishchaiva &lt;strong&gt;patnau dharmasya ta dasha&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MahAbhArata Adi Parva 18-35&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ten daughters of Daksha who are all wedded to Dharma are mentioned here as- Kirti, Lakshmi, Dhriti, MedhA, Pushti, SraddhA, KriA, Buddhi, LajjA and Mati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Lakshmi is mentioned as Daksha's daughter and Dharma's wife. Why is it so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this Lakshmi the same as the consort of Lord Vishnu or is she someone else? Can someone clarify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2019-08-08T10:58:26.763" Title="Why does the Mahabharata mention Lakshmi as the consort of Dharma?" Tags="|mahabharata|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20662" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20660" CreationDate="2017-09-05T10:30:32.907" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vidura helped PAndava at every chance. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The wicked Duryodhana, beholding Bhimasena surpass (everybody) in strength and Arjuna highly accomplished in arms became pensive and sad. Then Karna, the offspring of the Sun, and Sakuni, the son of Suvala, endeavoured by various means to compass the death of the Pandavas. &lt;strong&gt;The Pandavas too counteracted all those contrivances one after another, and in obedience to the counsels of Vidura, never spoke of them afterwards&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01144.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can very well derive the then dynamics of the palace politics. The reason for keeping quiet can be many:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vidura may loose his post, had he openly condemn those techniques; Then no secret saviour of PAndava-s&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Even had he condemned openly, that would have brought infamy to the whole Kuru race (including PAndava), because such things spread quickly among the citizens, which would reduce the trust towards their rulers&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vidura was aware of Dhritarashtra sanctioning the wicked plan of burning them alive; Being an obedient minister, he couldn't openly oppose his own elder brother  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the son of Suvala (Sakuni), king Duryodhana, Duhsasana and Kama, in consultation with one another, formed an evil conspiracy. With the sanction of Dhritarashtra, the king of the Kurus, they resolved to burn to death Kunti and her (five) sons.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01144.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vidura was not a real threat to Duryodhana &amp;amp; co.. This is how the plan of &quot;Varnavrata&quot; itself got materialise&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Duryodhana answered, '... Kshattri (Vidura) is dependent on us for his means of life, though he is secretly with the foe. It he sides the Pandavas, he alone can do us no injury, Therefore, exile thou the Pandavas to Varanavata (place of house of lac) without any fear.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01145.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, &lt;strong&gt;Vidura didn't remain silent towards Kunti; He informed them about the treachery &amp;amp; also helped by letting Kunti &amp;amp; sons escape, beforehand&lt;/strong&gt;. He just kept mum towards DhritarAshtra &amp;amp; sons, as there was no use of preaching them when they were devoid of morality already.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here how the story of &lt;em&gt;LAkshyagruha @ Varnavrata&lt;/em&gt; happened in very brief:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the sinless &lt;strong&gt;Vidura&lt;/strong&gt;, of soul enlightened by true knowledge, and &lt;strong&gt;devoted to the good of the Pandavas&lt;/strong&gt;, came to the conclusion that Kunti with her children should fly away from her foes. And providing for that purpose a boat strong enough to withstand both wind and wave, he addressed Kunti and &lt;strong&gt;said, 'This Dhritarashtra hath been born for destroying the fame and offspring of the (Kuru) race. Of wicked soul, he is about to cast off eternal virtue. O blessed one, I have kept ready on the stream a boat capable of withstanding both wind and wave. Escape by it with thy children from the net that death hath spread around you.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kunti was deeply grieved, and with her children, O bull of Bharata's race, stepped into the boat and went over the Ganges. &lt;strong&gt;Then leaving the boat according to the advice of Vidura, the Pandavas took with them the wealth that had been given to them (while at Varanavata) by their enemies and safely entered the deep woods.&lt;/strong&gt; In the house of lac, however, that had been prepared for the destruction of the Pandavas, an innocent Nishada woman who had come there for some purpose, was, with her children burnt to death. And that worst of Mlechchhas, the wretched Purochana (who was the architect employed in building the house of lac) was also burnt in the conflagration. And thus were the sons of Dhirtarashtra with their counsellors deceived in their expectations. And thus also were the illustrious Pandavas, by the advice of Vidura, saved with their mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you see, the help from Vidura here was quite explicit. It was merely a lucky coincidence for him that Duryodhana etc. got deceived due to circumstances. Else upon inquiry, Duryodhana might have found out some insider's help in escaping of PAndava-s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The language used by Vidura to Yudhishtira can be found in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01148.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;. Due to it's length, I am just putting its meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kunti approached Yudhishthira and said, 'The words that Kshattri said unto thee in the midst of many people so indistinctly as if he did not say anything, and thy reply also to him in similar words and voice, we have not understood. ... Yudhishthira replied, 'The virtuous Vidura said unto me that we should know that the mansion (for our accommodation at Varanavata) hath been built of inflammable materials. He said unto me, 'The path of escape too shall not be unknown to thee,'--and further,--'Those that can control their senses can acquire the sovereignty of the whole world.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-05T10:38:23.303" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T10:38:23.303" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20663" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20696" CreationDate="2017-09-05T12:35:37.893" Score="3" ViewCount="551" Body="&lt;p&gt;Scriptures and saints have unanimously criticized suicide as it ends human life which is very rare to get. As &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2967/3872&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; says, those who commit suicide become ghosts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But because suicide involves death, it must be part of prarabdha and that which is prarabdha is bound to happen. So why is suicide criticized?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T06:01:23.620" Title="Why is suicide criticized in scriptures when it is part of the prarabdha?" Tags="|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20664" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-05T12:54:25.390" Score="16" ViewCount="947" Body="&lt;p&gt;Once I debated with someone regarding the superiority of Darshana Sutras vs Puranas. Because of my interest in philosophical scripture, I argued that Mimansa Sutras are written/based on Samhita &amp;amp; Brahmana part of Vedas which are most authoritative but he argued that Puranas are more authoritative than Darshan Sutras. So, I &lt;a href=&quot;https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/38624952#38624952&quot;&gt;got the idea of asking this question&lt;/a&gt;, let me frame it: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know that &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15772/277&quot;&gt;Hindu Scriptures&lt;/a&gt; are classified as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14428/277&quot;&gt;Shruti &amp;amp; Smriti&lt;/a&gt;, but more precisely, Scriptures can be classified as follows (related &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16226/277&quot;&gt;Ashtadash Vidya&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shruti (Including Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyaka &amp;amp; Upanishads)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Upaveda (Ayurveda, Dhanurveda, Gandharvaveda, Arthashashtra)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vedanga (Shiksha, Vyakaran, Nirukta, Chhand, Jyotish, Kalp)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalpa Sutra, Grihya Sutra, Srauta Sutra etc. Sutras&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Darshana Sutras (Shada Darshana Sutras viz. Yoga Sutra, Brahma Sutra etc.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dharma Sharshtras (i.e Manu Smriti, Yajnavalkya Smriti etc.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Puranas (18 Puranas and Upapuranas)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Itihasa (epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata etc.)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Agamas and Tantras&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Works of Acharyas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know that Shruti is more authoritative than Smriti, but I want to know the hierarchy of these broadly classified Scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, is there any scripture that gives the hierarchy of these scriptures? Or (as these scriptures have been written over yugas e.g Vedas are ancient and Works of Acharyas are comparatively recent) is there any work of any Acharya (may be recent like Vivekananda) discuss it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Note that I'm not looking for hierarchy in deeper level (i.e between Dharma Shashtras or between Puranas) just want to know the hierarchy of different levels/categories mentioned above or as possible as available.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="9250" LastEditDate="2019-04-19T02:42:34.843" LastActivityDate="2019-08-18T09:10:42.153" Title="Is the hierarchy of scriptures discussed in any scripture or in the works of Acharyas?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20665" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20670" CreationDate="2017-09-05T13:37:55.463" Score="3" ViewCount="519" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to understand what is the correct way of doing meditation according to Hinduism (esp. Vedas)? Plus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the right posture?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What should the person concentrate on (thoughts) before and after initiating meditation?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any time limit?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any right time of doing it or we can do it anytime?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Can we meditate in a place where there is too much noise?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another important fact I would like to understand: &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Through meditation do we activate our sub-conscious mind?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-09-05T17:41:45.833" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T21:04:52.343" Title="What is the correct way of doing meditation?" Tags="|vedas|practice|yoga|meditation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20667" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20664" CreationDate="2017-09-05T15:32:06.010" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as Vedas (Sruti), Smritis and PurAnas are concerned, the order is known from scriptures. I don't think, however, any scriptures will discuss the authority status of the Darshana Sutras (other than may be they themselves).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nârada said :-- “O Muni! The S’âstras are not one, they are many and&#xA;  they lay down different rules and contradictory opinions, How then&#xA;  Dharma is to be followed? And according what Dharma S’âstra?” Nârâyana&#xA;  said :-- S’ruti and Smriti are the two eyes of God; the Purânam is His&#xA;  Heart. Whatever is stated in S’ruti, the Smriti and the Purânams is&#xA;  Dharma; whatever else is written in other S’âstras is not Dharma.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Where you will find differences between S’ruti, Smriti and Purânas,&#xA;  accept the words of the S’rutis as final proofs. Wherever Smriti&#xA;  disagrees with the Purânas, know the Smritis more authoritative. And&#xA;  where differences will crop up in the S’rutis themselves, know that&#xA;  Dharma, too, is of two kinds. And where the differences will crop up&#xA;  in the Smritis themselves, consider, then, that different things are&#xA;  aimed at.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi BhAgavatam, Book 11, Chapter 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/pdfs/DevanagariFiles/02Vyasa_Smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;VyAsa Smriti&lt;/a&gt; also confirms the same order:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EMcbK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EMcbK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In matters of discrepancy between the S'rutis, Smrit'is, and Puranas,&#xA;  the former should be held as decisive, &lt;strong&gt;whereas the Smritis should have&#xA;  preference in all topics where there would be a difference of opinion&#xA;  between them and the Puranas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VyAsa Smriti 1-4&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other than this, i don't think we can get any thing more specific from the scriptures. May be some AchAryas work can shed some light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW, on a side note, what i have posted clearly proves that the idea &quot; All Hindu scriptures can be classified into Sruti and Smriti&quot; is a myth. Because, PurAnas are PurAnas, neither Sruti nor Smriti. And what are Sruti and Smriti is clearly defined in Manu Smriti as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Srutis tu Vedo Vijneyo DharmashAstram tu vai Smritihi...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Sruti is meant the Veda, and by Smriti is meant the Dharma&#xA;  ShAstra..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manu Smriti 2.10.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-05T15:45:31.903" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T15:45:31.903" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20668" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20664" CreationDate="2017-09-05T16:15:26.387" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I like this question. The purpose of all Hindu scripture is two-fold:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;document the mysteries of the universe (macrocosm)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;provide an authoritative and result-oriented methodology for perfectly understanding the mysteries of the universe. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now this understanding (of the macrocosm) is achieved through various means including the understanding of the self (microcosm) and its relation to the universe. It is further enhanced by methodically diminishing the distance between the two and experiencing the bramhAnDa in the microcosm.  Now until such time that the oneness is achieved, life in its various shapes, forms, colors and flavors goes on. Correspondingly, there is a surfeit of literature that studies life and universe in these intermediary stages and offers guidance for a better life within those intermediary stages as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This broad purpose of scripture is organised hierarchically as :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;zruti (vEda including all limbs which in turn have a well-defined hierarchy)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;smRti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;purANa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All further work is based on and is an exposition and/or a celebration of the above. Expositions are in the form of commentaries, philosophical treatises, sUtras, samhita granthAs etc and celebrations are in the form of itihAsa and stOtra. As an example, Sankaracharya's body of work is primarily classified as bhASya (commentary), prakaraNa (philosophical work) and stOtra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So primarily, the hierarchy is sruti, smriti and purana. As for hierarchy of scripture that is &quot;in-between&quot; such as darzanas, I do not believe there is one answer just as there is no single answer to &quot;which is superior bhakti, gnyAna or karma yoga?&quot;. The answer is &quot;it depends&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the question is &quot;where do I start&quot;, the answer is to start from the bottom and work one's way up. So stotras are a good place to start.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-09-06T04:13:36.147" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T04:13:36.147" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20669" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6889" CreationDate="2017-09-05T17:54:20.460" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the best exposition of Vijnana Bhairava tantra in English language is by Sri Jaideva Singh. It is also very famous book on the subject. It is one of the prime texts of Kashmir Shaivism/Shiva absolutism &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can download it &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/VijnanaBhairavaOrDivineConsciousnessJaidevaSingh&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It deals with 100+ methods of meditation which is believed to be directly revealed by Lord Maheshwara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T17:54:20.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20670" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20665" CreationDate="2017-09-05T21:04:52.343" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dhyana, is the Sanskrit term for meditation used in Hinduism. Vedanta is a philosophy of Self-realization, and its practice is a way of Self-realization through yoga and meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Svetasvatara_Upanishad%20-%20Swami%20Tyagisananda%20%281949%29%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shvetashvatara Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Page -47-50 – Tells us about Right place , Right posture and other essentials one should do before  meditation like Pranayama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The right posture -:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्रिरुन्नतं स्थाप्य समं शरीरं हृदीन्द्रियाणि मनसा संनिवेश्य | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्रह्मोडुपेन प्रतरेत विद्वान् स्त्रोतांसि सर्वाणि भयावहानि ||8||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Placing the body in straight posture , holding the chest throat and&#xA;  head erect , and drawing the senses and the mind into the heart , the&#xA;  knowing  one should cross over all the fearful  currents by means of&#xA;  raft of Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This verse tells us about the right posture in which one should be for&#xA;  practicing both Pranayama and Dhyana (meditation). &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  प्राणान्प्रपीड्येह संयुक्तचेष्ट: क्षीणे प्राणे नासिकयोच्छवसीत |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दृष्टाश्वयुक्तमिव वाहमेनं विद्वान्मनो धरयेताप्रमत्त: ||9||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Controlling the senses with an effort , and regulating the activities&#xA;  in the body  one should breathe out with nostrils when the vital&#xA;  activities become gentle . Then the knowing one , without being in the&#xA;  least distracted should keep his hold on mind as the reins attached to&#xA;  restive horses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This verses is telling us the &lt;strong&gt;importance of pranayama before&#xA;  starting of meditation.&lt;/strong&gt; Because its believed that better mental&#xA;  stability and concentration can be achieved through Pranayama , which&#xA;  is essential for Dhyana or Mediation . So its recommended to practice&#xA;  Pranayama before starting meditation in Shankkara bhashya of this&#xA;  Upanishad. &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The right place - :&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समे शुचौ शर्करवहिनवालुका-विवर्जिते शब्दजलाश्रयादिभि : |&lt;br&gt; मनोSनुकुले&#xA;  न तु चक्षुपीडने गृहानिवाताश्रयणे प्रयोजयेत् ||१०||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One should&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;perform one’s exercises in concentration resorting to the caves and such other pure places helpful to its practice –Place&#xA;  where ground is level without pebbles and scenery pleasing to the eyes&#xA;  ; when there is no wind ,dust, fire ,dampness , disturbing noises.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mundaka-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145115.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Mundaka Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; Verse 2.2.6 tells us the way of doing meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अरा इव रथनाभौ संहता यत्र नाड्यः स एषोऽन्तश्चरते बहुधा जायमानः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ओमित्येवं ध्यायथ आत्मानं स्वस्ति वः पाराय तमसः परस्तात् ॥ ६ ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;arā iva rathanābhau saṃhatā yatra nāḍyaḥ sa eṣo'ntaścarate bahudhā&#xA;  jāyamānaḥ | &lt;br&gt; omityevaṃ dhyāyatha ātmānaṃ svasti vaḥ pārāya tamasaḥ&#xA;  parastāt || 6 ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 Where the nerves of the body meet together as the spokes in the nave&#xA;  of a wheel, &lt;strong&gt;this Atman is within it variously horn; meditate upon&#xA;  “Om” as the Atman.&lt;/strong&gt; May there be no obstacle to your going to the&#xA;  other side beyond darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English#page/n19/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 1.1  -Page No-  5 -tells us that one should &lt;strong&gt;meditate upon the syllabus Om.&lt;/strong&gt;  We also find more description regarding   meditation in next verses of this Upanishad. &#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://geocities.ws/metteyyaproject/TheOfficeofTheFourArms/MAITRAYANA.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maitri Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; this meditation techniques are also described in very detail.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;21&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And thus it has been said elsewhere: The artery, called Sushumna, going upwards (from the heart to the Brahmarandhra), serving as the&#xA;  passage of the Prana, is divided within the palate. Through that&#xA;  artery, when it has been joined by the breath (held in subjection), by&#xA;  the sacred syllable Om, and by the mind (absorbed in the contemplation&#xA;  of Brahman), let him proceed upwards, and after turning the tip of the&#xA;  tongue to the palate, without using any of the organs of sense, let&#xA;  greatness perceive greatness. From thence he goes to selflessness, and&#xA;  through selflessness he ceases to be an enjoyer of pleasure and pain,&#xA;  he obtains aloneness (kevalatva, final deliverance). And thus it is&#xA;  said: &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;'Having successively fixed the breath,&lt;/strong&gt; after it had been restrained, in the palate, thence having crossed the limit (the life),&#xA;  let him join himself afterwards to the limitless (Brahman) in the&#xA;  crown of the head.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;22&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And thus it has been said elsewhere: &lt;strong&gt;Two Brahmans have to be meditated on, the word and the non-word.&lt;/strong&gt; By the word alone is the&#xA;  non-word revealed. Now there is the word Om. Moving upward by it&#xA;  (where all words and all what is meant by them ceases), he arrives at&#xA;  absorption in the non-word (Brahman). This is the way, this is the&#xA;  immortal, this is union, and this is bliss. And as the spider, moving&#xA;  upward by the thread, gains free space, thus also he who meditates,&#xA;  moving upward by the syllable OM, gains independence. Other teachers&#xA;  of the word (as Brahman) think otherwise. They listen to the sound of&#xA;  the ether within the heart while they stop the ears with the thumbs.&#xA;  They compare it to seven noises, like rivers, like a bell, like a&#xA;  brazen vessel, like the wheels of a carriage, like the croaking of&#xA;  frogs, like rain, and as if a man speaks in a cavern. Having passed&#xA;  beyond this variously apprehended sound, and having settled in the&#xA;  supreme, soundless (non-word), unmanifested Brahman, they become&#xA;  undistinguished and undistinguishable, as various flavours of the&#xA;  flowers are lost in the taste of honey. And thus it is said: 'Two&#xA;  Brahmans are to be known, the word-Brahman and the highest Brahman; he&#xA;  who is perfect in the word-Brahman attains the highest Brahman.' 23.&#xA;  And thus it has been said elsewhere: The syllable Om is what is called&#xA;  the word. And its end is the silent, the soundless, fearless,&#xA;  sorrowless, joyful, satisfied, firm, unwavering, immortal, immovable,&#xA;  certain (Brahman), called Vishnu. Let him worship these two, that he&#xA;  may obtain what is higher than everything (final deliverance). For&#xA;  thus it is said:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Essene of above verses&lt;/strong&gt;   – Contemplation upon Om by allowing the mind&#xA;  to &lt;strong&gt;follow the breath&lt;/strong&gt; that travels upward along the Susumna Nadi (Nerve &#xA;  Strand ) into head region where the top most chakra is located .&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Meditate upon the Shabda Brahman chanting OM and meditation upon&#xA;  Ashabda Brahman (non sound ) with complete silence . Concentration and&#xA;  meditation upon the space in the heart which is the physical location&#xA;  of the self in the body. -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meditation techniques are also described in Puranas for instance &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. SB 11.14: Lord Kṛṣṇa Explains the Yoga System to Śrī Uddhava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सम आसन आसीनः समकायो यथासुखम्&lt;br&gt; हस्तावुत्सङ्ग आधाय&#xA;  स्वनासाग्रकृतेक्षणः ॥32॥&lt;br&gt; प्राणस्य शोधयेन्मार्गं पूरकुम्भकरेचकैः&#xA;  |&lt;br&gt; विपर्ययेणापि शनैरभ्यसेन्निर्जितेन्द्रियः ॥33||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sama āsana āsīnaḥ sama-kāyo yathā-sukham &lt;br&gt; hastāv utsańga ādhāya&#xA;  sva-nāsāgra-kṛtekṣaṇaḥ&lt;br&gt; prāṇasya śodhayen mārgaḿ&#xA;  pūra-kumbhaka-recakaiḥ&lt;br&gt; viparyayeṇāpi śanair abhyasen&#xA;  nirjitendriyaḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: &lt;strong&gt;Sitting on a level seat&#xA;  that is not too high or too low, keeping the body straight&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;and&#xA;  erect yet comfortable, placing the two hands on one’s lap and focusing&#xA;  the eyes on the tip of one’s nose, one should purify the pathways of&#xA;  breathing by practicing the mechanical exercises of pūraka, kumbhaka&#xA;  and recaka,&lt;/strong&gt; and then one should reverse the procedure (recaka,&#xA;  kumbhaka, pūraka). Having fully controlled the senses, one may thus&#xA;  practice prāṇāyāma step by step.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/14/32-33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.14.32-33&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  हृद्यविच्छिनमोङ्कारं घण्टानादं बिसोर्णवत्| &lt;br&gt; प्राणेनोदीर्य तत्राथ&#xA;  पुनः संवेशयेत्स्वरम् ॥34||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hṛdy avicchinam oḿkāraḿ ghaṇṭā-nādaḿ bisorṇa-vat&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  prāṇenodīrya tatrātha punaḥ saḿveśayet svaram&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beginning from the mūlādhāra-cakra, one should move the life air&#xA;  continuously upward like the fibers in the lotus stalk until one&#xA;  reaches the heart, where the sacred syllable om is situated like the&#xA;  sound of a bell. One should thus continue raising the sacred syllable&#xA;  upward the distance of twelve aṅgulas, and there the oṁkāra should be&#xA;  joined together with the fifteen vibrations produced with&#xA;  anusvāra.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/14/34&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.14.34&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  हृत्पुण्डरीकमन्तःस्थमूर्ध्वनालमधोमुखम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ध्यात्वोर्ध्वमुखमुन्निद्रमष्टपत्रं सकर्णिकम् ॥ 36|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;hṛt-puṇḍarīkam antaḥ-stham ūrdhva-nālam adho-mukham &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dhyātvordhva-mukham unnidram aṣṭa-patraḿ sa-karṇikam &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keeping the eyes half closed and fixed on the tip of one’s nose, being enlivened and alert, one should meditate on the lotus flower&#xA;  situated within the heart.&lt;/strong&gt; This lotus has eight petals and is&#xA;  situated on an erect lotus stalk. One should meditate on the sun, moon&#xA;  and fire, placing them one after the other within the whorl of that&#xA;  lotus flower. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/14/36-42&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.14.36-42&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedanta recommends regular meditation for everyone, &lt;strong&gt;particularly during the hour or two before dawn, which it calls Brahma Muhurta&lt;/strong&gt; or the hour of God. Sunrise and sunset are other important times for meditation because at these transitional periods in nature, energy can be more easily transformed. The times of the new, full and half moons are also excellent, as are the solstice and equinoctial points. &#xA;The above things can be found in &lt;strong&gt;Adi Shankaracharya’s commentary on Shvetashvatara Upanishad.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T21:04:52.343" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20671" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20613" CreationDate="2017-09-05T21:34:41.233" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a tricky question because this mantra is also Vedic as well as Puranic. But a little careful analysis makes it easy to understand. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mantra is panchAkshari mantra and not shaDAkshari i.e five syllabled mantra. Hence there is no &quot;om&quot; in the beginning of the mantra. While chanting the vedas, this is not chanted with omkaara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Om is usually added to mantras to make it more powerful and sacred. It is not a mandatory practice though. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mantra appears in the Krishna Yajurveda in 8th anuvAka of the famous &quot;chamakam&quot; section. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नमः साेमाय च रुद्राय च नमस्ताम्राय चारुणाय च नमः शड़्गाय च पशुपतये च नम उग्राय च भीमाय च नमाे अग्रेवधाय च दूरेवधाय च नमाे हन्त्रे च हनीयसे च नमाे वृक्ष्यभ्यो हरिकेशेभ्याे नमस्ताराय नमः शंभवे च मयाेभवे च नमः शंकराय च मयस्कराय च नमः शिवाय च शिवतराय च ॥ ८ -१॥&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this prayer there are many words which are also having &quot;namah&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we see its viniyoga, the rishis here is &quot;aghora&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अस्य श्री रुद्राध्याय प्रश्न महामन्त्रस्य, अघोर ऋषिः, अनुष्टुप् चन्दः, सङ्कर्षण मूर्ति स्वरूपो यो﻿‌உसावादित्यः परमपुरुषः स एष रुद्रो देवता । नमः शिवायेति बीजम् । शिवतरायेति शक्तिः । महादेवायेति कीलकम् । श्री साम्ब सदाशिव प्रसाद सिद्ध्यर्थे जपे विनियोगः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This mantra also also in the Shukla Yajurveda Samhita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c6hE9.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/c6hE9.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the rishi is ParameshThi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, this mantra is also available in purAnas/agamas where, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Linga puranam, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guhyaadguhyataram saakshaanmoksha Jnaanamanuttamam, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asya Mantrasya vakshyaami Rishicchandodhi Daivatam/ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beejam Shaktih Swaram varnam sthaanam  chaivaaksharam prati, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vamadevo naama Rishih Panktiscchanda udaatdhrutah/&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devataa Shiva yevaaham Mantrasyaasya varaananey, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here, the Rishi is Sri vAmadeva and chhandas is pankti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, technically the mantra is given to different people at different times. It also appears in Vedas as well as puranas and tantra. It has different rishis when it comes to agama and puranas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence in that way, it is NOT ONLY a Vedic mantra but also puranic mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, it also appears in many stotras such as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नागेन्द्रहाराय त्रिलोचनाय भस्मांगरागाय महेश्वराय।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नित्याय शुद्धाय दिगम्बराय तस्मै ‘न’काराय नम: शिवाय।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मन्दाकिनी सलिलचन्दनचर्चिताय नन्दीश्वर प्रमथनाथ महेश्वराय।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मन्दारपुष्पबहुपुष्प सुपूजिताय तस्मै ‘म’काराय नम: शिवाय। (shiva panchAkshara stotram) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence there is no hard and fast rules with respect to initiation because it is also part of Non Vedic literature as well as stotras which usually does not need initiation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But it is always the best to get it from a Sadguru.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-09-05T21:34:41.233" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20672" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-06T04:57:23.777" Score="8" ViewCount="3945" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am 26 years old and although I got my upanayanam done when I was 13, I never took professional education studying the Vedas. I am interested in learning to chant them starting from the scratch. I understand that it normally takes 18 years of full time schooling in the patashalas to complete professional vedic study. But do they generally admit working men willing to devote only a few hours for vedic study every day into the patashala? And if so, how does the learning process generally go? If I am a Yajur vedi from a certain sampradaya, does that mean I get to learn only the Yajur samhitas? Or do they teach more?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11922" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-06T05:05:36.610" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T05:40:32.853" Title="Would someone in their 20s be admitted into a Veda Patashala to start learning the vedas afresh?" Tags="|vedas|vedic-chanting|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20673" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20672" CreationDate="2017-09-06T05:40:32.853" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is very nice to know that you have developed interest in Vedic studies so I congratulate you for that. As less people are now interested in this field. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have already got the sacred which is a good thing. Now you can commence your Vedic studies there is no harm in it. Before that you can do some prAyashchita (if you have not done gAyatri and sandhya etc.) and start doing sandhyA vandana along with gAyatri again. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, in the pAthshAlAs, they teach you mainly the samhitA portion of the Veda. In your case it will be Shukla yajurveda samhitA. (Because you sound like a north Indian). Yajurveda has two classifications viz. Shukla and Krishna yajurveda. Shukla yajurveda is mostly followed in north and its samhitA is called &quot;vAjasneyi samhita&quot;  and KY is followed more in south and its samhita is &quot;taittiriya samhita&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Usually, the dwija has to first learn his own Veda shakha (Shukla yajurveda/ mAdhyandina shakha in your case most probably). After studying your veda if interested you can study other vedas as well. But first you should learn your own veda else you may incur shAkhAranda dosha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the yajurveda has about 1800 mantras, it usually does not take a very long time to learn it unlike the Rigveda which has 10000 plus mantras. So do not worry that the studies would take 18 years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The basic learning  of veda is the samhita. That is learning to chant the samhita with the right swaras. However, there are multiple levels of chanting the veda samhita for the advanced student. These have repetitions of syllables and chanting in forward or backward manner. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The various pathas or recitation styles are designed to allow the complete and perfect memorization of the text and its pronunciation, including the Vedic pitch accent. Eleven such ways of reciting the Vedas were designed - Samhita, Pada, Krama, Jata, Maalaa, Sikha, Rekha, Dhwaja, Danda, Rathaa, Ghana, of which Ghana is usually considered the most difficult.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The students are first taught to memorize the Vedas using simpler methods like continuous recitation (samhita patha), word by word recitation (pada patha) in which compounds (sandhi) are dissolved and krama patha (words are arranged in the pattern of ab bc cd ...); before teaching them the eight complex recitation styles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A pathin is a scholar who has mastered the pathas. Thus, a ghanapaathin has learnt the chanting of the scripture up to the advanced stage of ghana. The Ghanapatha or the &quot;Bell&quot; mode of chanting is so called because the words are repeated back and forth in a bell shape. The sonority natural to Vedic chanting is enhanced in Ghana. In Jatapatha, the words are braided together, so to speak, and recited back and forth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The samhita, pada and krama pathas can be described as the natural recitation styles or prakrutipathas. The remaining 8 modes of chanting are classified as complex recitation styles or Vikrutipathas as they involve reversing of the word order. The backward chanting of words does not alter the meanings in the Vedic (Sanskrit) language. &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_chant&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wiki&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So basic vedic chanting wont take you so many years. If you are sincere then you can learn in 2-3 years. Then if you wish you can learn the advanced chanting and go up to the ghana patha which is the last chanting level. After completing ghana the vedapathi is considered to be an expert in this area. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are not having enough time to enroll in full time vedic studies then you can also learn it part time. Some people learn it during weekends. This option is also available. Instead of going to a pAthashAlA you can also learn from a tutor who is a good veda pathi himself. So personal/individual coaching is also another way. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now if you are wondering where to find the veda pAthis and gurukul then you may have a look at &lt;a href=&quot;http://msrvvp.ac.in/Annual_Report_english_2011_12.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this list&lt;/a&gt; and approach the nearby gurukul or veda pathis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T05:40:32.853" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20674" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20676" CreationDate="2017-09-06T06:17:36.103" Score="9" ViewCount="7190" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumantiram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tirumantiram&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; Verse No. 337 that Lord Shiva corrected the balance of the earth through Agastya. This is the excerpt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hail our Lord Supreme!&#xA;   This earthly orb from its epicentre sways,&#xA;   And dangerous on its side swerves&#xA;   Thus they bewailed, the Beings&#xA;   Celestial&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the Lord spoke:&#xA;  Agastya!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;You that sit in tapas hard Amidst the blazing sacrifice--fire Hasten to the globe's swerving side And there be seated, its balance to redress.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here we can download &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.himalayanacademy.com/view/tirumantiram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;English PDF&lt;/a&gt; of the above book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also came to know from searching that - The Purana state that Agastya moved towards the South twice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once when Lord Shiva ordered him to move over to South to stabilize&#xA;  the earth, when the North end came down, South rose because of overcrowding by people who came to witness Shiva’s wedding with Uma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He moved again to South to tame the Vindhya mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In which other scriptures do we find this story of Agastya moving towards south and Lord Shiva ordering him to correct the balance of the earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="245" LastEditDate="2017-09-06T17:19:50.970" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T17:19:50.970" Title="Story of Agastya Rishi correcting balance of the earth" Tags="|shiva|puranas|shaiva-siddhanta|agastya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20675" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10550" CreationDate="2017-09-06T06:29:55.297" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki article&lt;/a&gt; says that all Vedic rituals begin with the chanting of OM. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it's actually more than that. Not only all Vedic recitations must begin with the Pranava (OM) but it should also end with its recitation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, this concept of sanctifying the main mantra body, by applying OM both at the start and the end of the body, is widely known in the Agamas or the Tantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, for Vedic mantras too, i found a similar evidence from the Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/iJoLD.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/iJoLD.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti &lt;strong&gt;2.74. Let him always pronounce the syllable Om at the&#xA;  beginning and at the end of (a lesson in) the Veda;&lt;/strong&gt; (for)&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;unless the syllable Om precede (the lesson) will slip away (from him), and unless it follow it will fade away.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, not only all Vedic recitals must begin with the chanting of OM but they should also end with its chanting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-06T06:37:07.360" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T06:37:07.360" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20676" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20674" CreationDate="2017-09-06T06:46:13.907" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Sage Agastya going towards south is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-iv/chapter-31/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana, Book II: Vaishnavakhanda, Section I: Venkatcala Mahatmya, Chapter 31&lt;/a&gt;. It was narrated by Sage Bharadvaja to Arjuna. This incident happened when all the Devas, Bhutas and other living beings went to see Lord Shiva marriage on Himalaya. Because of that, Earth became unbalanced, so Lord Shiva asked sage Agastya to go to south to balance the Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;14&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Formerly the Goddess, the daughter of Daksa, was subjected to insult by her father. After forsaking that body she became the daughter of the Snow-clad Mountain (Himalaya).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;15&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Mountain (Himalaya) was approached and requested by the Seven Sages. Hence he was ready to give his daughter in marriage to Mrtyunjaya (Siva).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;16&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Bull-emblemed Lord of the universe came to the residence of Himavan, named Osadhiprastha, in order to marry Sarvamangalā (Pārvatī).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;17&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;At his bidding all the living beings, both mobile and immobile, came there to rejoice in the felicity and prosperity of the Lord of Bhutas (goblins).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;18&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The earth in the northern region became heavily burdened with their weight and caved into such an extent that it reached the nether worlds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;19&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The southern region became very light because there was no burden on it. Hence it went up, on seeing which everyone became frightened.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;20&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;On realising this change in the position of the earth, Mahesvara turned towards Agastya and said, “Come here, O highly intelligent one.” Then he spoke these words:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;21-22. “Since all the Bhutas have come down here, the earth has become over-burdened by their weight. It has undergone a great alteration. Hence it behoves you, O highly intelligent one, to level up the earth. How can this be done by anyone other than you?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;23&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indeed you are born of my splendour. You are engaged in the protection of the Worlds. Hence, O my dear one, at my instance level up this earth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;24-26. You must not stay here among all those persons who have come down here eager to witness my marriage celebration. If you stay here, no one will be competent to set right the change in the level of the earth. Hence, O sinless one, you must go. Wherever you stay, I shall reveal unto you this form of mine resplendent in my marriage with the daughter of the Mountain.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;27&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;After saying this Mahesvara embraced him and bade farewell to him. Saying “So be it', the sage bowed down to him and went in the direction of South.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;28&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When Agastya, a tiger among sages, went to the southern region after crossing the Vindhya mountain, the earth became level.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Sage Agastya going to south for breaking pride of Vindhya is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-x&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana, Book IV: Kasi-khanda, Section I: Purvardha Mahatmya, Chapter 1-5&lt;/a&gt;. The story goes like this: Vindhya was growing his size and at one time, he became so large that he was obstructing the path of Sun. So, all became frightened. Then, Sage Agastya along his wife Lopamudra went there and ordered him to bow down until he again came here. So, Vindhya bow down in respect of Sage Agastya. And Agastya never went to North after that. So, Vindhya is still waiting for him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am providing some excerpt from chapter 5.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;52&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The sage went ahead a few steps with sweat drops appearing on his forehead. By then, it appeared as though the ground shrank below with the fear, &amp;quot;I will be doomed for not rising up by way of revering him.'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;53&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Seated as though in the vehicle of his penance, within half the period required for twinkling (of eyes), the sage saw in front of him the lofty Mountain who had blocked the path of the sky.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;54-56. On seeing the sage standing before him along with his wife, the Mountain trembled. The sage who had destroyed Vatapi, the brother of Ilvala, appeared to be blazing like the fire at the time of the final annihilation with three fiery flames, one arising from the separation from Kasi and the other two from the power of penance and the wrath (of the sage). The Mountain became dwarf-like as though he was desirous of going deep into the earth. He said: &amp;quot;Let me be granted the favour of being commanded. I am your servant.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Agastya said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;57&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O wise Vindhya, you are good and you know me factually (i.e. my prowess). Be short in stature till my return.&#xA;58. After saying this, the sage, the storehouse of austerities, made the southern quarter duly possessed of a guardian in the form of his footprints in the company of that chaste lady (in that direction).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;59-60. When the excellent sage had gone, the trembling Mountain anxiously looked in that direction and thought: &amp;quot;If he has gone, well it is. I am reborn today as I have not been cursed by Agastya. There is no one blessed like me.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;61&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;At that time, Aruna, conscious of the opportune moment, drove the horses. When the movement of the Sun was revived as before, the whole world derived great relief and normalcy.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;62&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Mountain remained as though suppressed by the great burden of the thought, &amp;quot;Perhaps the sage may return today, tomorrow or the day after.'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;63&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The sage has not returned till today. Nor has the Mountain increased in size like the tree of wishful thinking of wicked people.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T07:43:27.380" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20677" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20765" CreationDate="2017-09-06T07:32:31.727" Score="8" ViewCount="1239" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two broad stories about the origins of the Mahavidyas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shakta &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_purana/TOC_Purana/TOC_Devi_evam_Mahabhagavata_Purana.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabhagwat Puran&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; states that they emerged from the body of Sati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sati&lt;/strong&gt;, the daughter of Daksha and first wife of god Shiva, feels insulted that she and Shiva are not invited to Daksha's yagna and insists on going there, despite Shiva's protests. Shiva refused and even forbade her from going at which the enraged Sati transforms into the Mahavidyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second, from the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagwat Puran&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; states that they emerged from Devi Parvati when she had to face the demon &lt;strong&gt;Durgam&lt;/strong&gt;, the demon after killing whom she received the name of Durga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Goddess Parvati (who had first turned into Shakambhari) again transformed her appearance and now she looked ferocious. She was well equipped with all sorts of lethal weapons and was mounted on a lion. She thundered loudly and challenged Durgamasur.................At this moment, came out of the body of the Devi, the principal Shaktis named Kali, Tarini, Tripura-Sundari,  Bhuvaneshwari, Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamalatmika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course both Sati and Parvati are different forms of the same goddess and the Mahavidyas may have appeared more than once but &lt;strong&gt;which of these two is more likely to be the original 'origin' story&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-09-06T12:49:22.873" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T16:28:07.580" Title="Are the 10 Mahavidyas an expansion of Goddess Sati or that of Goddess Shakambhari?" Tags="|durga|parvati|sati-goddess|devi-bhagavata-purana|dasha-mahavidya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20678" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9365" CreationDate="2017-09-06T08:13:33.787" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, according to Shakta traditions, &lt;strong&gt;Adi Shakti&lt;/strong&gt; exists before, during and after the existence of everything else so her taking the form of Sati or Parvati is somewhat similar to Lord Vishnu appearing as one of his Avatars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But even if we assume that the goddess left her form and transformed into Parvati, she does return to her original form many times as evidenced by the following episodes from &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagwatam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk05ch23.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagwat Puran Book 5 Chapter 23&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; mentions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1-7. Vyâsa said :-- O King! When the tormented Devas praised thus, the Devî created from&#xA;Her body another supremely beautiful form. This created form, the &lt;strong&gt;Ambikâ Devî&lt;/strong&gt;, became&#xA;known in all the worlds as Kaus’ikî, as She came out of the physical sheath of the Devî&#xA;Parvatî. When Kaus’ikî was created out of the body of Parvatî, the Parvatî’s body became&#xA;transformed and turned out into a black colour and became known as KâIikâ. Her terrible&#xA;black appearance, when beheld, increases the terror even of the Daityas. O King! This Devî&#xA;is now become known in this world as Kâlarâtri, the night of destruction, at the end of the&#xA;world, &lt;strong&gt;identified with Durgâ&lt;/strong&gt;, the Fulfiller of all the desires. The Ambikâ Devî, then, began to&#xA;look splendid, decked with various ornaments; Her beautiful form began to look very lovely.&#xA;The Devî Ambikâ then smiled a little and said, “Better be fearless; I will slay just now your&#xA;enemies. It is My incumbent duty to carry out your purposes; I will therefore slay in battle&#xA;Nis’umbha and others for the sake of your happiness.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk07ch28.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 7 Chapter 28&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Parvati transforms into Shatakshi (one with a thousand eyes) also called &lt;strong&gt;Shakambhari&lt;/strong&gt; who further gets the name of &lt;strong&gt;Durga&lt;/strong&gt; after killing the demon Durgam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There, Goddess Parvati went to Himalayas where Gods were praying to her. Gods informed her about the drought condition over the earth. Seeing the dreadful condition of the earth, she created innumerable eyes within Her body and became visible. That Upholder of the Universe, showed Her form and began to shed waters from Her eyes. For nine nights continuously, the heavy rains poured down out of the waters flowing from Her eyes. Seeing the misery of all the people, out of pity, She showered incessantly tears from Her eyes; and all the people and medicines were satisfied. What more than this, out of those tears, the rivers began to flow. The Gods that remained hidden in the mountain caves, now came out. Then the sages, united with the Gods, began to praise and sing hymns to the Goddess. Then, &lt;strong&gt;Shatakshi&lt;/strong&gt; Devi transformed her appearance into a wonderful form, her eight hands held foods like grains, cereals, vegetables, greens, fruits, meat and other herbs, she wore a beautiful garment, this new form of Goddess is known as &lt;strong&gt;Shakambhari&lt;/strong&gt;. Goddess Parvati transformed her appearance. Now she looked ferocious in her new appearance. She was well equipped with all sorts of lethal weapons and was mounted on a lion. She thundered loudly and challenged Durgamasur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk07ch28.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;in the same episode&lt;/a&gt;, there is also the appearance of many other goddesses from Shakambhari Devi which shows that she is no different from the Adi Shakti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At this moment, came out of the body of the Devi, the principal Shaktis (forces incarnate) named Kali, Tarini, Tripura-Sundari,  Bhuvaneshwari, Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamalatmika. The Navadurgas Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalratri, Mahagauri, Siddhidatri and Matrikas Brahmani, Vaishnavi, Maheshwari, Kaumari, Indrani, Varahi, Narasimhi, Shivadooti, Chamundai also came out of the Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, Devi, Shakti, Adi Shakti, Parameshwari, Gauri, Jagadamba, Maha Shakti, Bhagawati, Bhadrakali, Chandika, Kaushiki, Mahakali, Tridevi, Mahadevi, Ambika, Jagatjanani, Mateshwari, Uma, Narayani, Singhavahini, Aparajita, Vyaghravahini, Bhavani, Yudhadevi, Yogmaya, Mahamaya, Sherawali, Vindhyavasini, Rajarajeshwari, Kalika, Gayatri, Shaambhavi, Bhramari, Jumadi, Akhilandeshwari, Kamakshi, Mahadurga, Prathyangira, Meenakshi, Ramchandi, Ishwari, Gatral, Bahuchara, Hingalaj, Nagbai, Varaki, Dhavdi, Sadhi, Hadkai, Vihat, Vaishnodevi, Santoshi, Mogal, Pithad, Meldi, Umiya, Momai, Amba, Khodiyar, Jagadhatri, Modheshwari, Guhyakali, Shitala and Raktachamunda joined in the war against Durgamasur. Jambhini, Mohini, Tripur and Shodashi came out the Goddess too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some Yoginis named Aditi, Agneyei, Ajita, Aparna, Bhayankari, Bhimachandi, Chandi, Damani, Dhriti, Gandhari, Ganga, Jaya, Kapalini, Kauberi, Medha, Rati, Raudri, Rudrani, Saraswati, Sarvamangala, Shankari, Shanti, Siddhida, Swaha, Swadha, Varuni, Vijaya, Vrishaba Vahana and Yakshini came out from the Goddess as well. Also Mahasaraswati, Chandavigrah, Savitri and Trishi came out. Some other Goddesses named Mrityu Devi, Saranyu, Vayu Devi and Ganeshi came out of the Goddess successfully.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;69-73. The Devas said :-- “O Auspicious One! Thou art the only Cause of this Illusion of this world, presenting an unreal appearance. So Thou art the Lady of all the beings. So, Obeisance to Thee, the S’âkambharî! Hundred-eyed! O Auspicious One! Thou art sung in all the Upanisadas; The Destroyer of the Durgama Asura! We bow down to Thee, the Lord of Mâyâ, the Dweller in the five sheaths Anna, Rasa, etc. We meditate upon Thee, the Lady of the universe, as demonstrated by Pranava Aum, whom the chief Munis meditate with their Nirvikalpa hearts. &lt;strong&gt;Thou art the Mother of the endless crores of universe! Thou assumest the Divine Bodies at times for our welfare! Thou art the Mother of Brahmâ, Visnu and others; we bow down to Thee with all our heart.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T06:15:13.977" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20680" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24770" CreationDate="2017-09-06T11:16:28.267" Score="7" ViewCount="8012" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda was a disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who was married. Swamiji's take on marriage was also positive:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9693/1049&quot;&gt;What was Swami Vivekananda&amp;#39;s take on marriage?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was also an avid reader of Gita, which suggests to consider happiness &amp;amp; sorrow as seasons and renounce their effects to attain liberation (BG 2.14-15). A married person surely doesn't have to look elsewhere for happiness &amp;amp; especially sorrow, to be able to create an indifference between them. It becomes easier. :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Vivekananda ever mention reasons for not getting married himself?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2018-03-02T08:19:37.207" Title="Why did Swami Vivekananda remain unmarried?" Tags="|marriage|vivekananda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20681" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-06T12:12:52.483" Score="1" ViewCount="55" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it wrong to do covers of stotras? I see people talk against music covers of some famous stotras. Some of the common ones are trance covers of shiva stotras and rock cover of arigiri nandini and some videos have head banging and other things which some people find disrespectful. Is it just a bunch of people who can't accept it or are these covers actually doing injustice to the purpose of stotras? Is it breaking any hindhu laws?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10342" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-07T03:28:03.683" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T03:28:03.683" Title="Music Covers of stotras" Tags="|stotra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20682" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10138" CreationDate="2017-09-06T12:31:05.997" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Shakta traditions, &lt;strong&gt;Adi Shakti&lt;/strong&gt; exists before, during and after the existence of everything else but she is most commonly associated with &lt;strong&gt;Parvati&lt;/strong&gt; as evidenced by the various episodes of the Devi Bhagwat Puran. In fact how she gets the title of &lt;strong&gt;Durga&lt;/strong&gt; is also mentioned in one of the episodes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk05ch23.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagwat Book 5 Chapter 23&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; mentions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-7. Vyâsa said :-- O King! When the tormented Devas praised thus, the Devi created from Her body another supremely beautiful form. This created form, the &lt;strong&gt;Ambikâ Devî&lt;/strong&gt;, became known in all the worlds as Kaus’ikî, as She came out of the physical sheath of the &lt;strong&gt;Devî Parvatî&lt;/strong&gt;. When Kaus’ikî was created out of the body of Parvatî, the Parvatî’s body became transformed and turned out into a black colour and became known as &lt;strong&gt;KâIikâ&lt;/strong&gt;. Her terrible black appearance, when beheld, increases the terror even of the Daityas. O King! This Devî is now become known in this world as Kâlarâtri, the night of destruction, at the end of the world, &lt;strong&gt;identified with Durgâ&lt;/strong&gt;, the Fulfiller of all the desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goddess is named Durga&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk07ch28.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagwat Book 7 Chapter 28&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Goddess Parvati transforms into Shatakshi (one with a thousand eyes) &amp;amp; Shakambhari who then faces the demon DURGAM:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There, Goddess Parvati went to Himalayas where Gods were praying to her. Gods informed her about the drought condition over the earth. Seeing the dreadful condition of the earth, she created innumerable eyes within Her body and became visible. That Upholder of the Universe, showed Her form and began to shed waters from Her eyes. For nine nights continuously, the heavy rains poured down out of the waters flowing from Her eyes. Seeing the misery of all the people, out of pity, She showered incessantly tears from Her eyes; and all the people and medicines were satisfied. What more than this, out of those tears, the rivers began to flow. The Gods that remained hidden in the mountain caves, now came out. Then the sages, united with the Gods, began to praise and sing hymns to the Goddess. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, &lt;strong&gt;Shatakshi&lt;/strong&gt; Devi transformed her appearance into a wonderful form, her eight hands held foods like grains, cereals, vegetables, greens, fruits, meat and other herbs, she wore a beautiful garment, this new form of Goddess is known as &lt;strong&gt;Shakambhari&lt;/strong&gt;. Goddess Parvati transformed her appearance. Now she looked ferocious in her new appearance. She was well equipped with all sorts of lethal weapons and was mounted on a lion. &lt;strong&gt;She thundered loudly and challenged Durgamasur.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is after she destroys Durgam that she gets the epithet of Durga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk07ch28.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;in the same episode&lt;/a&gt;, there is also the appearance of many other goddesses from Shakambhari Devi which shows that she is no different from the Adi Shakti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At this moment, came out of the body of the Devi, the principal Shaktis (forces incarnate) named Kali, Tarini, Tripura-Sundari,  Bhuvaneshwari, Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamalatmika. The Navadurgas Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalratri, Mahagauri, Siddhidatri and Matrikas Brahmani, Vaishnavi, Maheshwari, Kaumari, Indrani, Varahi, Narasimhi, Shivadooti, Chamundai also came out of the Goddess. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;69-73. The Devas said :-- “O Auspicious One! Thou art the only Cause of this Illusion of this world, presenting an unreal appearance. So Thou art the Lady of all the beings. So, Obeisance to Thee, the S’âkambharî! Hundred-eyed! O Auspicious One! Thou art sung in all the Upanisadas; The Destroyer of the Durgama Asura! We bow down to Thee, the Lord of Mâyâ, the Dweller in the five sheaths Anna, Rasa, etc. We meditate upon Thee, the Lady of the universe, as demonstrated by Pranava Aum, whom the chief Munis meditate with their Nirvikalpa hearts. &lt;strong&gt;Thou art the Mother of the endless crores of universe! Thou assumest the Divine Bodies at times for our welfare! Thou art the Mother of Brahmâ, Visnu and others; we bow down to Thee with all our heart.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;74-80. Vyâsa said :-- O King! Thus when Brahmâ, Visnu, Hara and the other Devas praised and chanted various hymns to the Devî and worshipped Her with various excellent articles, She became instantly pleased. Then the Devî, graciously pleased, handed over the Vedas to the Brâhmanas. At last, She, the Cuckoo-voiced, made a special address to them. “These Vedas are the excellent parts of My body. So preserve these with your greatest care. The more so, when you all have seen with your own eyes what a great calamity befell on you when these Vedas went away out of your hands! You should all worship and serve Me (the Controller of the Space) always; there is no other thing higher than this that I can advise you for your welfare. Read always these My excellent glorious deeds. I will be pleased thereby and will destroy all your bad calamities and misfortunes. &lt;strong&gt;My name is Durgâ, because I have killed this demon Durgama&lt;/strong&gt;; so he, who will take My name Durgâ and S’atâksî, he will be able to unveil my Mâyâ and walk freely. No use in telling more than this that I tell you now, O Devas, the Essence of all essences :-- Both the Suras and the Asuras would always serve Me and Me, alone.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Lakshmi and Saraswati find representation among the Dash Mahavidyas - &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(Devi)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tara is known as Neel Saraswati&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamalatmika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Goddess Kamala is the Tantrik version of Lakshmi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So going by all these concepts, it would appear that your second option is the most accurate one.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-19T12:10:05.527" LastActivityDate="2017-12-19T12:10:05.527" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20683" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24393" CreationDate="2017-09-06T12:53:01.263" Score="7" ViewCount="2372" Body="&lt;p&gt;I watched the movie the other day named &quot;pataal bhairavi &quot; but in the movie, she looked like Maa Kali. Is there any goddess named Pataal Bhairavi?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11900" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-29T04:31:57.180" LastActivityDate="2018-12-29T17:07:52.727" Title="Is there any goddess named Pataal Bhairavi?" Tags="|goddess|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20684" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9116" CreationDate="2017-09-06T13:29:50.410" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the texts it appears that there is a deep connection between Parvati and Durga and generally we believe that the former has emerged from the latter. However &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk07ch28.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagwat Puran Chapter 28 of Book 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; gives the account of Parvati transforming into Shatakshi and then Shakambhari who was renamed Durga after she killed the demon Durgam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There, Goddess &lt;strong&gt;Parvati&lt;/strong&gt; went to Himalayas where Gods were praying to her. Gods informed her about the drought condition over the earth. Seeing the dreadful condition of the earth, she created innumerable eyes within Her body and became visible. That Upholder of the Universe, showed Her form and began to shed waters from Her eyes. For nine nights continuously, the heavy rains poured down out of the waters flowing from Her eyes. Seeing the misery of all the people, out of pity, She showered incessantly tears from Her eyes; and all the people and medicines were satisfied. What more than this, out of those tears, the rivers began to flow. The Gods that remained hidden in the mountain caves, now came out. Then the sages, united with the Gods, began to praise and sing hymns to the Goddess. Then, &lt;strong&gt;Shatakshi&lt;/strong&gt; Devi transformed her appearance into a wonderful form, her eight hands held foods like grains, cereals, vegetables, greens, fruits, meat and other herbs, she wore a beautiful garment, this new form of Goddess is known as &lt;strong&gt;Shakambhari&lt;/strong&gt;. Goddess Parvati transformed her appearance. Now she looked ferocious in her new appearance. She was well equipped with all sorts of lethal weapons and was mounted on a lion. She thundered loudly and challenged Durgamasur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;69-73. The Devas said :-- “O Auspicious One! Thou art the only Cause of this Illusion of this world, presenting an unreal appearance. So Thou art the Lady of all the beings. So, Obeisance to Thee, the S’âkambharî! Hundred-eyed! O Auspicious One! Thou art sung in all the Upanisadas; The Destroyer of the Durgama Asura! We bow down to Thee, the Lord of Mâyâ, the Dweller in the five sheaths Anna, Rasa, etc. We meditate upon Thee, the Lady of the universe, as demonstrated by Pranava Aum, whom the chief Munis meditate with their Nirvikalpa hearts. &lt;strong&gt;Thou art the Mother of the endless crores of universe! Thou assumest the Divine Bodies at times for our welfare! Thou art the Mother of Brahmâ, Visnu and others; we bow down to Thee with all our heart.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;74-80. Vyâsa said :-- O King! Thus when Brahmâ, Visnu, Hara and the other Devas praised and chanted various hymns to the Devî and worshipped Her with various excellent articles, She became instantly pleased. Then the Devî, graciously pleased, handed over the Vedas to the Brâhmanas. At last, She, the Cuckoo-voiced, made a special address to them. “These Vedas are the excellent parts of My body. So preserve these with your greatest care. The more so, when you all have seen with your own eyes what a great calamity befell on you when these Vedas went away out of your hands! You should all worship and serve Me (the Controller of the Space) always; there is no other thing higher than this that I can advise you for your welfare. Read always these My excellent glorious deeds. I will be pleased thereby and will destroy all your bad calamities and misfortunes. &lt;strong&gt;My name is Durgâ, because I have killed this demon Durgama&lt;/strong&gt;; so he, who will take My name Durgâ and S’atâksî, he will be able to unveil my Mâyâ and walk freely. No use in telling more than this that I tell you now, O Devas, the Essence of all essences :-- Both the Suras and the Asuras would always serve Me and Me, alone.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So going by this account, Durga is Parvati returning to her original form rather than an incarnation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-19T10:13:42.070" LastActivityDate="2017-12-19T10:13:42.070" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20685" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20934" CreationDate="2017-09-06T14:32:01.497" Score="6" ViewCount="2069" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shachi is daughter of an Asura Puloma, and is thus an Asuri. Shakra fights always with the Asuras, yet He married Shachi. And Shachi is now become a Goddess. Why did Maghavat marry daughter of an Asura Puloma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-09-19T13:20:57.070" LastActivityDate="2020-07-17T02:34:09.910" Title="Why did Indra marry Shachi, the daughter of an Asura?" Tags="|indra|asuras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20686" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-06T17:31:29.700" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hindu  mythology, Apsaras are beautiful, supernatural female beings. They are youthful and elegant, and superb in the art of dancing. They are often wives of the Gandharvas, the court musicians of Indra. They dance to the music made by the Gandharvas, usually in the palaces of the gods, entertain and sometimes seduce gods and men. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-06T17:31:29.700" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T17:31:29.700" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20687" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-06T17:31:29.700" Score="0" Body="celestial singers and dancers who, together with the gandharvas, " OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-06T17:31:29.700" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T17:31:29.700" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20688" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20708" CreationDate="2017-09-06T17:50:24.647" Score="14" ViewCount="12228" Body="&lt;p&gt;ISKCON seminars taught me that Krishna was the first form of God and then came Brahma and Vishnu etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I grew up with the knowledge that the trimurthis are the primary Gods of the universe. Hence Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu and not the other way round.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which is true according to the holy books??  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Edit: Title has been changed to better reflect my question and show its not an exact duplicate of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18332/according-to-bhagvad-gita-lord-krishna-is-the-ultimate-god-so-why-are-there-ot&quot;&gt;According to...&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4893" LastEditorUserId="4893" LastEditDate="2017-09-11T12:16:42.627" LastActivityDate="2023-01-12T06:07:28.633" Title="Is Vishnu the incarnation of Krishna or the other way around, according to the Geetha?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20689" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-06T19:05:55.250" Score="4" ViewCount="1848" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Skanda Purana says that Sati was born in the &lt;strong&gt;1st Manvantar of the Pitri Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt; which was the 30th Kalpa in the second Parardha of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4CEaR.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4CEaR.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The text again says that Parvati was born in the Vaivasvat i.e. 7th Manvantar of the present &lt;strong&gt;Varah Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Zo1Tw.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Zo1Tw.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does this imply that the &lt;strong&gt;present Varah Kalpa is the 31st one&lt;/strong&gt; or were there other Kalpas too in between? If there were what is the order of our present Kalpa in Brahma's second Parardha?**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: &lt;strong&gt;Vayu Purana Chapter 21&lt;/strong&gt; mentions 34 Kalpas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The kalpas since the&#xA;original creation were as follows. (1) Bhava. (2) Bhuva. (3) Tapah. (4) Bhava. (5) Rambha. (6)&#xA;Ritu. (7) Kratu. (8) Vahni. (9) Havyavahana. (10) Savitra. (11) Bhuvah. (12) Oushika. (13)&#xA;Kushika. (14) Gandharva. (15) Rishabha. (16) Shadaja. (17) Marjaliya. (18) Madhyama. (19)&#xA;Vairaja. The great Vairaja Manu was born in this kalpa and his son was the great sage&#xA;Dadhichi. (20) Nishada. The race of nishadas (hunters) were created during this period. (21)&#xA;Panchama. (22) Meghavahana. The word megha means cloud and vahana means to bear. In&#xA;this kalpa, Vishnu adopted the form of a cloud and bore Shiva on his back. It is thus that the kalpa received its name. (23) Chintaka. (24) Akuti. (25) Vijnati. (26) Mana. (27) Bhava. (28)&#xA;Vrihat. (29) Shvetalohita. (30) Rakta. (31) Pitavasa. (32) Sita. (33) Krishna (34) Vishvarupa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So then are we in the 35th Kalpa?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-04-26T21:33:54.507" LastActivityDate="2023-04-26T21:33:54.507" Title="What is the order of the present Varah Kalpa in Brahma's life?" Tags="|brahma|yuga|skanda-purana|kalpa|manvantara|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20690" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12376" CreationDate="2017-09-06T19:28:04.603" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;The order of the appearance of different Purans is given in the &lt;strong&gt;Matsya Puran Chapter 53&lt;/strong&gt; as narrated by Suta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/G2wBy.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/G2wBy.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the text the order of the appearance of the Purans is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahma Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Padma Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vishnu Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vayu Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhagvat Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Naradiya Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Markandeya Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Agni Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhavishya Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahmavaivarta Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Linga Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Varah Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Skanda Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vaman Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kurma Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Matsya Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Garud Puran&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahmand Puran &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2017-09-06T19:28:04.603" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20691" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-07T03:36:53.193" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-07T03:36:53.193" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T03:36:53.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20692" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-07T03:36:53.193" Score="0" Body="The sikha or shikha (Sanskrit: शिखा; IAST: śikhā; &quot;crest&quot;; Hindi चोटी (choTi)) means flame, powerful, ray of light, peak of a mountain. It is a name of Hindu / Indian origin, and is commonly used for females. It also means long tuft, or lock of hair, left on top or on the back of the shaven head of a male Orthodox Hindu. Though traditionally all Hindus were required to wear a śikhā, today it is seen mainly among Brahmins and temple priests. " OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-07T03:36:53.193" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T03:36:53.193" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20693" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-07T04:51:11.870" Score="7" ViewCount="92" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that in Hinduism we have the six philosophies (Darshana) collectively known as the Shadadarshana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are- SAmkhya, PAtanjala, NyAya, Vaisheshika, PurvamimAmsA and Uttara MimAmsA (also known as VedAnta).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) Out of these six Darshanas which ones were available in &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Krita&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treta_Yuga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;TretA&lt;/a&gt; yugas ( when the people were more strong both physically and intellectually as well as more righteous)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Also, if more than one were available, do we also know which one among them was the more (or the most) &quot;popular&quot; (one)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T05:52:27.720" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T05:52:27.720" Title="Which Darshana ShAstras were available during the Krita and TretA yugas?" Tags="|yuga|shad-darshana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20694" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20699" CreationDate="2017-09-07T04:53:30.307" Score="4" ViewCount="306" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all knows Vishnu has Virat or Universal form. I came accross with some explanation of Virat Swaroop of Vishnu in Ramayan, When&#xA;Mandodari was trying to convince Ravana about not to make Rama his enemy, then She told about Rama that He is Vishnu himself. He is supreme Lord himself. Patal is feets of him and Swarg (or may said other loka) is head, Clouds are hairs of him, Shiva is ego of him. Don't remember exact description right now. But Mandodari covers whole&#xA;universe as body parts of Vishnu. I don't know if Mandodari's explanation towards Vishnu's universal form was true Or it was just to make Ravana scare so that he gave up on Sita and don't make Rama as enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So is there any description about this universal form of Vishnu in detail i.e. in any Vedas/puranas or in any other Hindu sources? There must be someone who has described Vishnu's universal form in detail in any Puranas or Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T07:13:22.903" Title="Is there any detailed description of Virat(universal) form of Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-10-03T04:37:54.860" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20695" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19937" CreationDate="2017-09-07T05:12:20.557" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Indra aided Kutsa in defeating Shushna, Kuyava, and Dasyus by the help of Lord Surya chariot wheel on a single day. This story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/vedas/rig-veda/mandala-iv/topic-16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig veda, Mandala 4, Hymn 16&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आ द॑स्यु॒घ्ना मन॑सा या॒ह्यस्तं॒ भुव॑त्ते॒ कुत्स॑ स॒ख्ये निका॑मः।&#xA;स्वे योनौ॒ नि ष॑दतं॒ सरू॑पा॒ वि वां॑ चिकित्सदृत॒चिद्ध॒ नारी॑॥ ४.०१६.१०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With a mind resolved on killing the Dasyu, you came (to his dwelling), and Kutsa was eager for your friendship now have you two alighted in his, (Indras), habitation, and being entirely similar in form the truthful woman has been perplexed (to discriminate between you).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यासि॒ कुत्से॑न स॒रथ॑मव॒स्युस्तो॒दो वात॑स्य॒ हर्यो॒रीशा॑नः।&#xA;ऋ॒ज्रा वाजं॒ न गध्यं॒ युयू॑षन्क॒विर्यदह॒न्पार्या॑य॒ भूषा॑त्॥ ४.०१६.११&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You go with Kutsa in the same chariot, determined to defend him (you) who are the tormentor (of foes), the lord of horses (of the speech) of the wind on the, same day wherein, yoking (to the car) the straight-goign steeds, as if to receive food, the sage (Kutsa) has been enabled to cross over (the sea) of calamity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कुत्सा॑य॒ शुष्ण॑म॒शुषं॒ नि ब॑र्हीः प्रपि॒त्वे अह्न॒ कुय॑वं स॒हस्रा॑।&#xA;स॒द्यो दस्यू॒न्प्र मृ॑ण कु॒त्स्येन॒ प्र सूर॑श्च॒क्रं वृ॑हताद॒भीके॑॥ ४.०१६.१२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Kutsa, you have slain the unhappy Susna and in the forepart of the day, attended by thousands (you have slain) Kuyava with thunderbolt you have swiftly destroyed the Dasyus, and you have cut them to pieces in the battle, ,with the wheel (of the chariot of) the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T05:12:20.557" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20696" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20663" CreationDate="2017-09-07T06:01:23.620" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scriptures may condemn suicide, because mostly it's done with a purpose.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anything which is done with a purpose, be it good/bad/ugly -- one has to bear its fruits. If no purpose then no fruits. According to Gita, death has a crucial importance in deciding the next phase, which is based on state of mind. The state of mind is based on what the person has accumulated/learned throughout the life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 8.6 — Also [when] the body is left remembering whatever &quot;Nature&quot; at the end, O son of Kunti, [it] always approaches towards establishing those nature(s) only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If person is in the state of fear, anxiety, escape, craziness (e.g. &quot;blue whale game&quot;), then those emotions would certainly follow in the afterlife or the next birth. The consciousness either gets trapped for a duration as a ghost or creates a very weak minded person, which is a liability for the society.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Upon committing suicide, a person not only kills a body, but also creates distress for those who are associated with. Hence, &quot;suicide&quot; is condemned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are rare scenarios where &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20439/1049&quot;&gt;suicide is not condemned&lt;/a&gt;. This is when a person is left with no purpose. A &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20243/1049&quot;&gt;person without any purpose becomes free&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; realises that the physical body is bound by the 3 modes of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. Whether one lives or dies.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: Tendency to have &quot;no purpose&quot; is also a &quot;purpose&quot;. Repenting or being happy with having &quot;no purpose&quot;, is also a &quot;purpose&quot;. So be careful with the words &quot;no purpose&quot;.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g. After hearing about the death of Ashwathama, Drona was left with no purpose. His body started showing up those signs. He continued to fight for a while with the enemies, but without purpose. He dropped the weapons, without purpose. He sat in the midst of active battle (unlike Arjuna), without purpose. Went into &lt;em&gt;Kriya yoga&lt;/em&gt; and finally didn't find any purpose to breathe. As described &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16361/1049&quot;&gt;in this answer&lt;/a&gt;, after leaving the physical body finally his consciousness merged back to Brahman and attained Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I completely agree that, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20585/1049&quot;&gt;Whole life is &lt;em&gt;prArabhda&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. If we are within the scope of &lt;em&gt;prArabhda&lt;/em&gt;, where we attach doership, then we have to bear the results of such actions, including suicide.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Outside the scope of &lt;em&gt;prArabhda&lt;/em&gt;, one realises that actually there is no doership, it's all fate. Hence sins &amp;amp; virtues don't exist.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 5.14 - Neither &quot;Doership&quot; (Kartutva) nor &quot;Actions&quot; (Karma) nor &quot;Reactions&quot; (result of actions) of the people are created by the Omnipotent; But only their nature [3 modes] pervades.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 5.15 - The Omnipresent neither accepts anybody's sin nor even virtue. Knowledge remains covered by ignorance. Thus the creatures become deluded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T06:01:23.620" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20698" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18145" CreationDate="2017-09-07T06:58:51.337" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am also deeply perplexed by this question. There is one Supreme Bhairava (the one who is speaking the Vijyana Bhairva Tantram for example and several others, and there he is obviously the Supreme Brahman).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, we have Kaala Bhairava and we also have the many Batuka Bhairavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bharatiweb.com/wp-content/uploads/Swarnakarshana-Bhairava-Stotram-Eng-v1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swarnaakarashana Bhairava stotram&lt;/a&gt; found in Rudra Yamala. The very first verse of the stotram is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;om namaste bhairavaaya &lt;strong&gt;brahma vishNu shivaatmane&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, in this verse, Lord Bhairava is described as the sarvagata paramatman who is antaryami (or the inner self) of even the Trinities. So clear distinction has been made between him and Lord Shiva and in other way round.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, IMO, there are &lt;strong&gt;subtle and mysterious differences&lt;/strong&gt; between Lord Shiva and Lord Bhairava which can be known only to the highest level Sadhakas. &lt;strong&gt;The Bhairva Tattva, i think, is intentionally kept secret in all scriptures.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why and strangely we don't have much on Lord Bhairava either except for the above stotram and another stotram composed by the great Kashmiri Acharaya Abhinava Gupta which one can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Bhairava_stotram&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-07T07:53:34.220" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T07:53:34.220" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20699" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20694" CreationDate="2017-09-07T07:28:22.300" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt; there is detail description about this universal form of Vishnu in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; – Second Chapter  Verse 24-39  : SB 2.1: The First Step in God Realization. &lt;strong&gt;Here we can see the description of the gigantic universal form of the Lord Vishnu.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;i.e. Virat Swaroopa ,similar to Purusha-Sukta .&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the exact Purausha-Sukta   Is also there in Shreemad Bhagvat purana apart from this and that is the description of Virat Purusha  we find in Vedas  and Upanishads. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अण्डकोशे शरीरेऽस्मिन्सप्तावरणसंयुते ।&lt;br&gt; वैराजः पुरुषो योऽसौ&#xA;  भगवान्धारणाश्रयः ॥25॥ &lt;br&gt; aṇḍa-kośe śarīre 'smin&#xA;  saptāvaraṇa-saḿyute vairājaḥ puruṣo yo 'sau bhagavān&#xA;  dhāraṇāśrayaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The gigantic universal form of the Personality of Godhead, within the body of the universal shell,&lt;/strong&gt; which is covered by sevenfold&#xA;  material elements, is the subject for the viraṭ conception.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/1/25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  2.1.25&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt; द्वे जानुनी सुतलं विश्वमूर्तेरूरुद्वयं वितलं चातलं च ।&lt;br&gt; महीतलं तज्जघनं महीपते नभस्तलं नाभिसरो गृणन्ति ॥27॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dve jānunī sutalaḿ viśva-mūrter ūru-dvayaḿ vitalaḿ cātalaḿ ca&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mahītalaḿ taj-jaghanaḿ mahīpate nabhastalaḿ nābhi-saro&#xA;  gṛṇanti&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The knees of the universal form are the planetary system of the name&#xA;  Sutala, and the two thighs are the Vitala and Atala planetary systems.&#xA;  The hips are Mahitala, and outer space is the depression of His&#xA;  navel.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/1/27&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 2.1.27&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt; द्यौरक्षिणी चक्षुरभूत्पतङ्गः पक्ष्माणि&#xA;  विष्णोरहनी उभे च । &lt;br&gt; तद्भ्रूविजृम्भः परमेष्ठिधिष्ण्यमापोऽस्य तालू&#xA;  रस एव जिह्वा ॥30॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dyaur akṣiṇī cakṣur abhūt patańgaḥ pakṣmāṇi viṣṇor ahanī ubhe&#xA;  ca&lt;br&gt; tad-bhrū-vijṛmbhaḥ parameṣṭhi-dhiṣṇyam āpo 'sya tālū rasa&#xA;  eva jihvā&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sphere of outer space constitutes His eyepits, and the eyeball is&#xA;  the sun as the power of seeing. His eyelids are both the day and&#xA;  night, and in the movements of His eyebrows, Brahma and similar&#xA;  supreme personalities reside. His palate is the director of water,&#xA;  Varuna, and the juice or essence of everything is His tongue.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/1/30&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  2.1.30&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt; नाड्योऽस्य नद्योऽथ तनूरुहाणि महीरुहा विश्वतनोर्नृपेन्द्र ।&lt;br&gt; अनन्तवीर्यः श्वसितं मातरिश्वा गतिर्वयः कर्म&#xA;  गुणप्रवाहः ॥33॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;nadyo 'sya nāḍyo 'tha tanū-ruhāṇi mahī-ruhā viśva-tanor&#xA;  nṛpendra&lt;br&gt; ananta-vīryaḥ śvasitaḿ mātariśvā gatir vayaḥ karma&#xA;  guṇa-pravāhaḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O King, the rivers are the veins of the gigantic body, the trees are&#xA;  the hairs of His body, and the omnipotent air is His breath. The&#xA;  passing ages are His movements, and His activities are the reactions&#xA;  of the three modes of material nature.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/1/33&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 2.1.33&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  ब्रह्माननं क्षत्रभुजो महात्मा विडूरुरङ्घ्रिश्रितकृष्णवर्णः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नानाभिधाभीज्यगणोपपन्नो द्रव्यात्मकः कर्म वितानयोगः ॥37॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahmānanaḿ kṣatra-bhujo mahatma viḍ ūrur&#xA;  ańghri-śrita-kṛṣṇa-varṇaḥ nānābhidhābhījya-gaṇopapanno&#xA;  dravyātmakaḥ karma vitāna-yogaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The viraṭ-purusa’s face is the brahmanas, His arms are the ksatriyas,&#xA;  His thighs are the vaisyas, and the sudras are under the protection of&#xA;  His feet. All the worshipable &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/1/37&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB2.1.37&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  इयानसावीश्वरविग्रहस्य यः सन्निवेशः कथितो मया ते । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सन्धार्यतेऽस्मिन्वपुषि स्थविष्ठे मनः स्वबुद्ध्या न यतोऽस्ति किञ्चित्&#xA;  ॥38॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;iyān asāv īśvara-vigrahasya yaḥ sanniveśaḥ kathito mayā te&#xA;  sandhāryate 'smin vapuṣi sthaviṣṭhe manaḥ sva-buddhyā na yato 'sti&#xA;  kiñcit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I have thus explained to you the gross material gigantic conception of the Personality of Godhead.&lt;/strong&gt; One who seriously desires liberation&#xA;  concentrates his mind on this form of the Lord, because there is&#xA;  nothing more than this in the material world.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/1/38&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 2.1.38&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T07:28:22.300" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20700" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="28571" CreationDate="2017-09-07T08:30:36.177" Score="3" ViewCount="148" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a Nepalese hindu. So, Sorha Sraddha(सोह्र श्राद्ध) started yesterday. It is given a high importance in Nepal, probably also because it comes just before Dashain(Navaratri + vijaya dashami). But a few research/discussion with my relatives/friends made me feel like there was a spectrum of views about it (for instance: some were restricted themselves to take strict meals(शुद्ध खाना) while others were quite flexible.) So, I was wondering about how vedas (or any holy book) dictate about its importance and rituals expected to be done during these sixteen days. Thank you!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11897" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-08-08T06:08:23.580" LastActivityDate="2018-08-20T11:33:15.640" Title="What are the expected rituals to perform during Sorha Sraddha(सोह्र श्राद्ध)?" Tags="|scripture|rituals|sraddha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20701" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20704" CreationDate="2017-09-07T08:53:49.553" Score="20" ViewCount="2951" Body="&lt;p&gt;My perception was that, &quot;Brahm&quot;(ब्रह्म) in &quot;Brahmacharya&quot;(ब्रह्मचर्य) is the same &quot;Brahm&quot;, which is referred in Gita at many places. In this site, we mainly refer it as &quot;Brahman&quot; (ब्रह्मन्). And &quot;charya&quot;(चर्य) means, &quot;practised&quot; or &quot;acted&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;ब्रह्मचर्य - acting according to supreme one [instructions]&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In other words, forfeiting all the doership of the actions and thinking of &quot;actions&quot; as being done by the supreme one.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;(The other way of saying is that, performing actions without desires (&lt;em&gt;kAma&lt;/em&gt;) born out of &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;.)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;celibacy - abstaining from sex&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why or how is &lt;em&gt;&quot;Brahmacharya&quot;&lt;/em&gt; related to &quot;celibacy&quot;?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For example, this Qn already assumes them as synonyms:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2711/1049&quot;&gt;What is the importance of Brahmacharya (Celibacy) in Hinduism?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna was referred as &quot;आजीवम् ब्रह्मचारिन्&quot; (lifelong &lt;em&gt;BrahmachAri&lt;/em&gt;). How can it be true, when he had 8 main wives &amp;amp; lot of children.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence the Qn in title.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Answer wiki&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the answers are nice in details &amp;amp; echo the same sentiment.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For those, who wants to know in brief:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;&lt;em&gt;Brahmacharya&lt;/em&gt;&quot; means acting towards realisation of &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (supreme One)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Overall it means to stay away from desires which deviates from &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It's not a synonym of &quot;celibacy&quot;, but may include attributes of &quot;celibacy&quot; as a part of it&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;Celibacy&quot; in this context, also doesn't mean &quot;absolute abstinence from sex&quot;; Amorous pleasures enjoyed for conceiving during particular period is allowed&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It's yet unclear, if the sexual congress performed on prescribed days but without intention of conceiving is valid or not&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conformance from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b058.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;AnushAsana Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who has congress with only his wedded wife and that only at her season, is said to be &lt;strong&gt;observant of the vow of Brahmacharya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-13T05:18:39.703" LastActivityDate="2021-06-02T04:42:28.627" Title="What is &quot;Brahm&quot; in &quot;Brahmacharya&quot;? How does it relate to celibacy?" Tags="|scripture|brahman|terminology|brahmacharya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20702" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20754" CreationDate="2017-09-07T09:06:03.860" Score="12" ViewCount="902" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is God doing now, since God created this universe long ago?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does God have daily work to do?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's consider what God is doing at this moment in time... I mean in the past many significant things were happening, like the killing of demons by different gods... so now god is free? Or if not, what might God be doing now? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10366" LastEditorUserId="9250" LastEditDate="2019-03-23T02:49:47.500" LastActivityDate="2019-03-27T16:08:25.580" Title="What work does God do daily?" Tags="|gods|time|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20703" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20701" CreationDate="2017-09-07T09:26:28.730" Score="8" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna was referred as &quot;आजीवम् ब्रह्मचारिन्&quot; (lifelong&#xA;  BrahmachAri). &lt;strong&gt;How can it be true, when he had 8 main wives &amp;amp; lot of&#xA;  children.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the time being i am addressing only the above question. One can be married and enjoying conjugal bliss and still at the same time be a BrahmchAri. For that one just needs to follow certain instructions from scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;LXXIX.—Sixteen nights are the &quot;&quot; Season &quot; of women. &lt;strong&gt;Among these he&#xA;  should approach them during the even nights. Let him avoid the Parvana&#xA;  nights, &amp;amp;c. and the first four nights. By so doing he would be even a&#xA;  Brahmachari.&lt;/strong&gt;—79&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;YAjnvalkya Smriti Verse.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The MitAksAra commentary on this verse as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That period of women, indicative of the state in which they are&#xA;  capable of getting conception, is called *' Season.&quot; And that period&#xA;  is &quot; sixteen days and nights,&quot; counting from the first day of&#xA;  menstruation. In *' such &quot; a season, and during ** even&quot; i.e., equal&#xA;  (and not odd) nights, *' he should approach &quot; or go to his wife for&#xA;  the sake of begetting a son. By specifying &quot;night&quot; day-time has been&#xA;  excluded. &quot; Even nights,&quot; being in the plural number, indicates&#xA;  totality taken separately as well as collectively. So that in one&#xA;  season he may go in all even nights which have not been (otherwise)&#xA;  prohibited. By so doing he is even &quot; like a Brahmachari.&quot; Therefore,&#xA;  when Brahmacharya (abstention from women) is ordained in Sraddha, &amp;amp;c.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;then by going as above, he is not guilty of transgressing the rule of&#xA;  Brahmacharya.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;UPDATE:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;code&gt;Brahm&lt;/code&gt; in BrahmachArya refers to the Brahman or the Self. The conduct that helps us realizing the Brahamn is BrahmachArya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vedas and Smritis, &lt;strong&gt;a BrahmchAri simply means a student&lt;/strong&gt;. The one who after being initiated by the teacher studies the Vedas. In this stage of his life the rules that he need to follow are quite strict. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.177. Let him abstain from honey, meat, perfumes,&#xA;  garlands, substances (used for) flavouring (food), women, all&#xA;  substances turned acid, and from doing injury to living creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So maintaing celibacy is just one aspect of BrahmachArya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this stage, if the BrahmachAri discharges seminal fluid, even if done unintentionally, he needs to perform a penance to purify himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.180. Let him always sleep alone, let him never waste his&#xA;  manhood; for he who voluntarily wastes his manhood, breaks his vow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.181. A twice-born student, who has involuntarily wasted&#xA;  his manly strength during sleep, must bathe, worship the sun, and&#xA;  afterwards thrice mutter the Rik-verse (which begins), ’Again let my&#xA;  strength return to me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that in the above verses, the word used in the original for student is BrahmachAri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, maintaining celibacy is important for the BramachAri &lt;strong&gt;but celibacy is just one aspect of the whole conduct.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For, householders, the word BrahmachArya has an entirely different meaning as shown at the begin of this answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, i am adding few words of Rishi Aurobindo on Vedas and BrahmachArya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Practice of Bramhacharya involves at least three steps:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Learning how to allow the energies like Agni or divine will to&#xA;  manifest in our body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2) Continuously striving to increase in his/her capacities to hold&#xA;  these energies step by step.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3) Expelling the obstructions in our bodies for the manifestation of&#xA;  these energies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Celibacy is only one aspect of Brahmacharya. Some of the greatest&#xA;  Rishis were married.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;code&gt;Retas&lt;/code&gt; is the essence of the energy given to a&#xA;  human being in a material form. The Retas is involved in a hidden&#xA;  manner leading to &lt;code&gt;Tejas&lt;/code&gt;, the heat, light and electricity in man. This&#xA;  energy may be either expanded physically or it can be conserved.All&#xA;  passion, lust, desire and want in general wastes the energy by pouring&#xA;  it out either in a gross or subtle form. Immorality in act throws it&#xA;  out in the gross form; immorality in thought, the unchastity in mind&#xA;  or speech throws it out in subtle form. On the other hand, all&#xA;  self-control conserves the energy in the Retas; conservation and&#xA;  associated practices lead it to increase in range and power. But the&#xA;  needs of the physical body are limited. Excess of energy can be&#xA;  directed for some use other than physical. When we practice&#xA;  self-control, concentration and meditation, both the mind and speech&#xA;  are calmed down. As a first step, the excess of &lt;code&gt;retas&lt;/code&gt; turns into heat&#xA;  or tapas. Tapas stimulates the whole system; it is for this reason&#xA;  that all forms of self-control and austerity are called tapas since&#xA;  they generate the heat or stimulus. From this stimulation retas is&#xA;  transformed into &lt;code&gt;Tejas&lt;/code&gt; or light, the energy which is the source of all&#xA;  knowledge. Next, it turns to &lt;code&gt;Vidyut&lt;/code&gt; or electricity which is the basis&#xA;  of all forceful action, whether intellectual or physical. The final&#xA;  culmination is of the &lt;code&gt;Retas&lt;/code&gt; becoming &lt;code&gt;Ojas&lt;/code&gt; by which man attains perfect&#xA;  spiritual knowledge and spiritual love and faith and spiritual&#xA;  strength. This supreme consumption is mentioned in ( Atharva Veda 11.5.1 and 11.5.7)&#xA;  when student (brahmachAri) is said to equal the Gods and support&#xA;  heaven and earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adapted from Sri Aurobindo complete works.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-10T06:14:45.847" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T06:14:45.847" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20704" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20701" CreationDate="2017-09-07T09:52:23.073" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;This answer is based on teachings of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sivananda_Saraswati&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Sivananda&lt;/a&gt;. Swami Sivananda wrote many books explaining Brahmacharya, such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/brahma_nopic.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Practice of Brahmacharya&lt;/a&gt;. I will quotes some of his words here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sivanada says Brahmacharya literally means Achara or conduct that leads to the realization of &lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; or one’s own Self and &lt;strong&gt;conduct&lt;/strong&gt; is control of semen, the study of the Vedas and contemplation on God.  So, &quot;Brahma&quot; in Brahmacharya is Supreme Brahman or Parabrahman or the Ultimate Truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sivananda explains &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/brahmacharya.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;meaning of Brahmacharya&lt;/a&gt; as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmacharya is a divine word. It is the sum and substance of Yoga.&#xA;  Brahmacharya is the Achara or conduct by which you attain or reach&#xA;  Brahman (God). It is life in the Absolute. It is movement towards God&#xA;  or the Atman (Self).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmacharya is absolute freedom from sexual thoughts and desires. It&#xA;  is the vow of celibacy. It is control of all the senses in thought,&#xA;  word and deed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmacharya is not mere bachelorhood. There should be strict&#xA;  abstinence not merely from sexual intercourse but also from&#xA;  auto-erotic manifestations, from masturbation, from homosexual acts&#xA;  and from all perverse sexual practices. It must further involve a&#xA;  permanent abstention from indulgence in erotic imagination and&#xA;  voluptuous reverie.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In a narrow sense, Brahmacharya is celibacy. In a broad sense, it is&#xA;  absolute control of all the senses. The door of Nirvana (liberation)&#xA;  or perfection is complete Brahmacharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmacharya involves the conduct in which all senses are controlled and sexual energy is sublimed.  Swami Sivanada also &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/brahma_nopic.htm#_Toc441556960&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says the following&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmacharya literally means Achara or conduct that leads to the realization of Brahman or one’s own Self&lt;/strong&gt;.  Brahmacharya is purity in thought, word and deed. It is celibacy and&#xA;  continence. Brahmacharya is the vow of celibacy. The term ‘celibacy’&#xA;  is from the Latin ‘caelebs’, meaning unmarried or single, and&#xA;  signifies the state of living unmarried. But Brahmacharya is not mere&#xA;  bachelorhood. It includes the control, not only of the sex or&#xA;  reproductive Indriya, but also of all other Indriyas in thought, word&#xA;  and deed. This is the definition of Brahmacharya in a broad sense of&#xA;  the term. The door to Nirvana or perfection is complete Brahmacharya.&#xA;  Complete celibacy is the master-key to open the realms of Elysian&#xA;  bliss. The avenue to the abode of supreme peace begins from&#xA;  Brahmacharya or purity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Married people can lead life of &lt;em&gt;Brahmacharya&lt;/em&gt;. They should follow words of Dharma Sastras here. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dlshq.org/download/may_ianswer.htm#207&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Sivananda answers&lt;/a&gt; the same question in his book &quot;May i answer that&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;207. How can a married man practice Brahmacharya? Is it possible especially when the couple are young?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To live and enjoy Grihastha life, with one’s own wife during the &lt;strong&gt;Ritu&#xA;  period&lt;/strong&gt; subject to the imposed restrictions of the Sastras is itself&#xA;  Brahmacharya. Sastras say that the married man should not indulge in&#xA;  sense-satisfaction as and when his senses prompt him to do so. He&#xA;  should subject himself to the various restrictions imposed even on the&#xA;  enjoyment of sense life. For details in this respect, study my book,&#xA;  &quot;Advice to Women&quot;. One who observes these Sastraic injunctions and&#xA;  leads a happy, well-regulated life is a perfect Brahmachari, though&#xA;  technically a Grihastha. Whatever be the natural ebullient impulses of&#xA;  the couple, and however young they be, it is quite possible to observe&#xA;  Brahmacharya on the above lines. Brahmacharya for a Grihastha does not&#xA;  mean absolute abstention from enjoying the conjugal life; but means a&#xA;  well-disciplined, self-restrained, Dharmic life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more details of exact quotes,  see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16061/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; on regulative principle of sex life. So, doing sex for progeny is allowed and Krishna did the same, although it's not proper to apply human rules to Krishna who knows His divinity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-09-07T10:25:07.870" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T10:25:07.870" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20706" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20701" CreationDate="2017-09-07T12:06:58.180" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word Brahmacharya has technically nothing  to do celibacy or abstinence as popularly known.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the advent of samnyasa and related sects, there was heavy importance given to renunciation and abstinence etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THE CONCEPT OF BRAHMACARYA – ITS TRUE MEANING, NATURE &amp;amp; IMPLICATION&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahmacarya as the name signifies, relates to brahman. The word ‘&lt;strong&gt;brahma&lt;/strong&gt;’ derives its meaning from the root bRhmi “&lt;strong&gt;bRhmi dhAtvarthagocaraM vastu&lt;/strong&gt;” (बृह्मि धात्वर्थगोचरं वस्तु) . The more famous term &lt;strong&gt;“brhatvAt bRhmaNatvAcca brahma ityucyate budhaiH” (बृहत्वात् बृह्मणत्वाच्च बृह्म इत्युच्यते बुधैः) neatly explains brahma - Meaning, “In view of its vastness of size or extent and in view of its expansiveness, it is called as brahman by the wise”&lt;/strong&gt;. The brahman is so called because of its inherent ability to &lt;strong&gt;expand&lt;/strong&gt;. It will thus be known that brahman is nothing but the form of supra-conscious shakti (paracit shakti) that is the cause of this creation. viewed in this context, &lt;strong&gt;the real meaning of the word “brahmacarya” would be the religious anuShThAna-s or practices related to shiva-shakti or the experience of brahman in the turIya state or more appropriately, the anusaMdhAna of shiva-shakti /Almighty.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides the above, the vedas are also collectively known as brahma. This can be inferred from the words of shiva in bRhannIlatantra –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ekovedaH caturdhAbhUt yajussAma RgAdayaH |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vedo brahmeti sAkShAdvai jAneham naganandinI ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is thus very clear from the above that the vedas were one and later branched out into four as Rgveda, yajurveda, sAmaveda &amp;amp; atharvaNaveda later.&#xA;The fact that the word brahma refers to the vedas and vice-versa can be inferred from innumerable mantras of the vedas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“yena devA apunata| tena divyena brahmaNA |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;idaM brahma punImahe|” (Y.V)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“mahimAnamagnervihitasya brahmaNA” (A.V. 18-4-8)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“gAtrANi te brahmaNA kalpayAmi” (A.V. 18-4-52)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verses are but a few examples which reveal that brahma is the name for vedas. And hence, veda- adhyayana or learning of the vedas is called “brahmacarya”. Since control of the senses is laid down as a condition for the learning of the vedas, what is popularly known as “CELIBACY” in english has now come to be termed as brahmacarya and the true import of the word “brahmacarya” and its true meaning has been completely obscured.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Today people simply know brahmacarya as abstinence or celibacy ! One should know that true brahmacarya is actually being in marital life. In the grihasthAshrama, the couple involving in conjugal bliss after being totally devoted to each other is known as brahmacarya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Says yAjJavalkya in his smRti on the time favourable for conception&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ShoDashartunishA strINAM tasmin yugmAsu saMvishet |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;brahmacAryeva parvANyAdyAshcatasrashca varjayet ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“ Of the first sixteen nights from the onset of periods in woman, intercourse should be had with them in the even nights avoiding parva-s (amAvAsya &amp;amp; other parva like saMkrAnti) and the first four nights. By doing so, he will verily be a brahmacAri”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While commenting on the above verse, vijJAneshvara observes that the fruit of brahmacarya is attaining of brahmaloka. Hence, the observance of brahmacarya by couple in their marital life is not a bar for intercourse with the wife had with the purpose of obtaining progeny :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“…….. yatra brahmacaryaM coditaM tatra gacchatopi na brahmacaryaskhalanadoShaH….”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is therefore amply clear from the above that brahmacarya has nothing to do with abstinence or celibacy and the union of the husband with his wife is indeed what is known as brahmacarya as it is aimed at begetting progeny. It is in this context that lord Krishna though a much married man, is a nityabrahmacArI and not as sought to be conveyed / confused by the sanyAsimata-s&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;परमादेवता पत्नी संपूज्या गृहमेधिना सदा पत्न्याः शरीरे तु वर्तन्ते सर्वदेवताः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;paramAdevatA patnI saMpUjyA gRhamedhinA sadA patnyAH sharIre tu vartante sarvadevatAH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तथैवाग्निर्गार्हपत्यो ब्रह्मरूपं च वर्तते तस्मात् पत्या सदा पूज्या सेति वेदेषु निश्चयः&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tathaivAgnirgArhapatyo brahmarUpaM ca vartate tasmAt patyA sadA pUjyA seti vedeShu nishcayaH&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यस्तु पत्नीं सुसंपूज्य गार्हपत्यमुपासते सभुक्त्वा सकलान् कामान् ब्रह्मलोके महीयते&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yastu patnIM susaMpUjya gArhapatyamupAsate sabhuktvA sakalAn kAmAn brahmaloke mahIyate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wife is the supreme deity required to be worshipped by the husband who is a gRhamedhin i.e. worshipper of the gArhapatyAgni. In the body of the wife reside all the devatA-s. Likewise, the gArhapatyAgni which is verily brahmarUpa also resides in her body. Hence, she should be worshipped always by the husband. Thus declare the veda-s. Hence whosoever worships his wife &amp;amp; and gArhapatya, attains all one can aspire for in this world and is worshipped in brahmaloka after his death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source : &lt;a href=&quot;https://nrsrini.blogspot.com/2018/08/one-attains-vigor-through-selfaatmanaa.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Compilation for a discourse by N .R. Srinivasan, Nashville, TN, USA, August 2018&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2021-06-02T04:42:28.627" LastActivityDate="2021-06-02T04:42:28.627" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20707" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20720" CreationDate="2017-09-07T13:13:55.510" Score="4" ViewCount="450" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Vedas what is more important Self Realization or Responsibilities towards family?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reason I am asking this is because we have read that Gautam Buddha left everything like his kingdom, his family (wife &amp;amp; newly born kid) in search of truth but if we all start doing that then who will look after our families coz nowadays there are more nuclear families than joint families.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it wise to shirk your responsibilities for self realization? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T06:04:06.290" Title="What is more important Self Realization or Responsibilities towards family?" Tags="|vedas|moksha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20708" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20688" CreationDate="2017-09-07T14:00:38.000" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;Which is true according to the holy books?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, the answer is that both are true! :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some verses in the scriptures which say that Krishna is incarnation of Vishnu, but there are also verses in the scriptures which say the other way round, namely that Vishnu is incarnation of Krishna. So both of those views are true. I don't see any good reason to believe that just one of those group of verses are true, while the other group of verses that tell the opposite is somehow untrue. Both must be true because that what scripture teaches is true!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, sometimes when the Lord appears in this world as an avatara, specifically as Krishna, He is incarnation of Vishnu. But sometimes when the Lord appears in this world as an avatara Vishnu, He is incarnation of Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That what ISKCON devotees have taught you is correct. From the Bhagavad gita we only learn that Vishnu is incarnation of Krishna!, and there are no verses in the Gita that say Krishna is incarnation of Vishnu!  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what we learn from the Gita about who is whose incarnation, ie who is whose avatara:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There is a chapter in the Bhagavad gita titled &lt;em&gt;vibhūti-yogaḥ&lt;/em&gt; &quot;The Opulence of the Absolute&quot;, it's 10th chapter, see at &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In that chapter Lord Krishna is talking about his own opulence or vibhūti. This is seen from the verses 18-19: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.18 — O Janārdana, again &lt;strong&gt;please describe in detail the mystic power of Your opulences&lt;/strong&gt;. I am never satiated in hearing about You, for the&#xA;  more I hear the more I want to taste the nectar of Your words.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  10.19 — The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Yes, I will tell you of &lt;strong&gt;My splendorous manifestations&lt;/strong&gt;, but only of those which are&#xA;  prominent, O Arjuna, for &lt;strong&gt;My opulence&lt;/strong&gt; is limitless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what is remarkable to note is the thing that in the following verses Lord Krishna not only mentions various things and living beings as manifestations of his opulence (vibhūti), but He also mentions several forms of Lord Vishnu, ie several well known incarnations (avataras) of Lord Vishnu, as his own opulence (vibhūti)!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus He clearly indicates that those forms of Lord Vishnu are, indeed, his incarnations (avataras)! Here are those verses: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.21 — Of the &lt;strong&gt;Ādityas&lt;/strong&gt; I am &lt;strong&gt;Viṣṇu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  10.26 — ... among perfected beings I am the sage &lt;strong&gt;Kapila&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  10.29 — Of the many-hooded Nāgas I am &lt;strong&gt;Ananta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  10.31 — ... of the wielders of weapons I am &lt;strong&gt;Rāma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  10.37 — Of the descendants of Vṛṣṇi I am &lt;strong&gt;Vāsudeva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus those five incarnations (avataras) of Lord Vishnu, namely Vishnu Aditya, Kapila, Ananta, Rama (Ramachandra), and Vāsudeva (identified as Balarama), are manifestations of Lord Krishna's opulence (vibhūti), and thus they are Lord Krishna's incarnations (avataras). Here it's worth to mention that Vāsudeva referred to in verse 37 acaryas who commented upon the Bhagavad gita explained as Lord Krishna's brother Balarama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This view about those five forms of Lord Vishnu who are enumerated as Lord Krishna's opulence being His avataras or incarnations is even further strengthened with a verse 41 in the same chapter where Lord Krishna says that all those vibhūti or opulences that He described are just an aṁśa &quot;a part&quot; of his splendor: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yad yad vibhūtimat ...  mama tejo-’ṁśa-sambhavam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mama — My; tejaḥ — of the splendor; &lt;strong&gt;aṁśa&lt;/strong&gt; — &lt;strong&gt;a part&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from&#xA;  but a spark of My splendor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is important to know here that word aṁśa is used throughout Vedic scriptures in the sense of &quot;avatara&quot;, or &quot;incarnation&quot; in English. And thus as a matter of fact Lord Krishna is saying that those five Vishnu forms are his avataras or incarnations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I know there are no verses in the Bhagavad gita which say that Krishna is incarnation (avatara) of Vishnu, but there are only those verses which I explained above that say the other way round. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: I will update my post with additional explanation later when I find some time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="2790" LastEditDate="2017-09-08T02:59:16.727" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T02:59:16.727" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20711" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-07T16:27:36.233" Score="2" ViewCount="93" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that sattva is the highest mode so why should one read a purana of a lower mode?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Am I confusing things?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11935" LastActivityDate="2017-09-07T16:27:36.233" Title="Why should i read any Purana which is not Sattva, like the Bhavishya Parva/Purana?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|bhagavata-purana|vishnu-purana|ignorance|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-09-07T17:01:04.997" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20712" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20074" CreationDate="2017-09-07T19:34:27.937" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Vayu Purana Chapter 21&lt;/strong&gt; also gives the names of Kalpas but they're all different from the ones in Matsya Puran. Also this text mentions 34 Kalpas, 4 more than those in Matsya Puran and I am sharing the whole lot:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fvFKa.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fvFKa.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-09-11T15:02:29.790" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T15:02:29.790" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20714" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20702" CreationDate="2017-09-07T20:32:37.507" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;God is an ambiguous term, it can indicate Supreme Personality of Godhead Bramhan(super soul) or it can indicate gods(devtas) that are merely jeevatmans(atmans subjected to birth and death).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So I will answer this question for both contexts&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bramhan&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Devta's&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA; &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Context Bramhan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we are talking about Bramhan who pervades everything then, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-22/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 3.22&lt;/a&gt; clearly mentions that Bhagwan has no duties, he has no work to do, still he performs actions for setting an idealistic example for the jeevas(souls) to do nitya karmas and discharge their prescribed duties in the samsara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न मे पार्थास्ति कर्तव्यं त्रिषु लोकेषु किञ्चन।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नानवाप्तमवाप्तव्यं वर्त एव च कर्मणि।।3.22।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Pritha, &lt;strong&gt;there is no work prescribed for Me within all the three planetary systems(tri lokas)&lt;/strong&gt;. Nor am I in want of anything, nor have I a need to obtain anything—and &lt;strong&gt;yet I am engaged in prescribed duties&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-3-22/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG-3.22&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Bhagwan has no duties still he is engaged in all prescribed (when person performs swadharma) karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now there is a natural question:&#xA;How can Bhagwan possibly be engaged in prescribed activities while he has none of the prescribed activities for himself?? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagwan can do that because he is the antaryami(true self) inside all souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ईश्वरः सर्वभूतानां हृद्देशेऽर्जुन तिष्ठति।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भ्रामयन्सर्वभूतानि यन्त्रारूढानि मायया।।18.61।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-61/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 18.61&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Please note that 'directing the wanderings' does not indicate that we don't have a free will, every action performed by the performer is controlled by five factors working behind the curtain controlling his/her activities(including his/her free will) &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-14/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG-18.14&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-18-15/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG-18.15&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Context Devta's&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devtas are not independent beings they have their own prescribed duties for example Agni(the fire god) has the work to take all the offerings in the sacrifice(s)(yagnas) to the gods. Similarly different gods(devtas) have different duties and so they discharge their own duties by using their power provided by Bramhan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-09-08T03:02:34.273" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T03:02:34.273" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20717" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-08T03:00:56.793" Score="3" ViewCount="377" Body="&lt;p&gt;Under what circumstances god take an incarnation? How does GOD decide that this the time for his incarnation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like if we consider&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Baba_of_Shirdi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sai Baba&lt;/a&gt;: people consider him incarnation of Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu or Lord Datta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Samarth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swami Samarth&lt;/a&gt;: people consider him Incarnation of Lord Datta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gajanan_Maharaj&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gajanan Maharaj&lt;/a&gt;: people consider him incarnation of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shripad_Shri_Vallabha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shripad Shri Vallabha&lt;/a&gt;: people consider him incarnation of Lord Dattatreya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shri Krishna and Shri Ram are incarnations of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the condition or circumstance that God take an incarnation on the Earth? And on what basis does he decide the place of his incarnation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like Shri Ram was in Ayodhya, Sai baba in Shirdi, Swami Samarth in Akkalkot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2022-09-01T22:41:57.887" Title="Under what circumstances god take an incarnation?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|avatars|dattatreya|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20718" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12376" CreationDate="2017-09-08T03:55:48.337" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana lists sequential order of Puranas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/13/4-9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 12.13.4-8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; consists of ten thousand verses,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; consists of fifty-five thousand verses,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Śrī &lt;strong&gt;Viṣhṇu Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; consists of twenty-three thousand verses, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Śhiva Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; consists of twenty-four thousand verses&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam&lt;/strong&gt; consists of eighteen thousand verses, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Narada Purana&lt;/strong&gt; has twenty-five thousand verses,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; has nine thousand verses,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Agni Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; has fifteen thousand four hundred verses,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Bhaviṣya Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; has fourteen thousand five hundred verses,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; has eighteen thousand verses,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Liṅga Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; has eleven thousand verses,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Varāha Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; contains twenty-four thousand verses,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; contains eighty-one thousand one hundred verses,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Vāmana Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; contains ten thousand verses,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Kūrma Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; contains seventeen thousand verses,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Matsya Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; contains fourteen thousand verses,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Garuḍa Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; contains nineteen thousand verses and&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa&lt;/strong&gt; contains twelve thousand verses.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T03:55:48.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20719" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20717" CreationDate="2017-09-08T05:26:33.127" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though always present as a witness, the supreme &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (God) incarnates explicitly &lt;strong&gt;when there is a decline in &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; increase in &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 4.7 - O scion of Bharata, whenever there is a decline in &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; and influx of &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;, then I manifest myself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; (born of &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt;) is Not limited to humans, it pervades everywhere. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/341/1049&quot;&gt;this post&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Consider &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; as an equilibrium and hence any auto adjustment or auto balance phenomena can be considered as manifestation of God. For example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When a place which deserves greenery, is deprived of water, the god&#xA;incarnates as rain.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When a forest is too much polluted due to various creatures, the god&#xA;may incarnate as fire.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When too much of heat is gathered in earth, the god incarnates as&#xA;volcano&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;God incarnates as change of seasons; i.e. If cold weather or rain or heat wave remains for too long, then it becomes inhabitable; If spring remains for too long, then unwanted insects also develop;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;To counter too much grass, god incarnates as deers; To counter too many deers, god incarnates as lion; To counter too many lions, god incarnates as jealousy among them;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;For bacteria which are causing havoc in a body, God incarnates as antibiotic&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;God incarnates as a punishment given to the wrong doers&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above is generalised meaning of incarnations of God, which includes all. With respect to just humanity (us), God incarnates when there are too many evil people who trouble pious people:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 4.8 - For the protection of the pious, the destruction of the evil-doers, and establishing virtue, I manifest Myself in every age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Trivia&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These 2 verses of Gita combined are probably the most celebrated &amp;amp; popular verses in India and abroad. They were sung by late &amp;amp; great Mahendra Kapoor, as part of title song of BRC Mahabharata, which used to create virtual curfews at &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/iRegyeVD7Tg?t=33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;9:00 am on every Sundays in late 90's&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T10:27:40.187" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20720" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20707" CreationDate="2017-09-08T06:04:06.290" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;This answer is more according to VedAnta.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Self realisation&quot; and &quot;family responsibility&quot; are Not mutually exclusive.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Both can co-exists. But that doesn't mean that both must co-exit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person on the path of &quot;self realisation&quot; starts developing &lt;strong&gt;indifference&lt;/strong&gt; towards various aspects of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. &quot;Family life&quot; is one among them. The person doesn't have attachment towards family. That means, if he/she stays with or without family is exactly same for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 13.8-12 - ... &lt;strong&gt;Non-attachment and absence of fondness with regard to children, wives, homes,&lt;/strong&gt; etc., ... Steadfastness in the knowledge of the Self, contemplation on the Goal of the knowledge of Reality --- these are spoken of as Knowledge. Ignorance is that which is other than this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person with indifference is neither interested towards [family] duties nor non-duties. This neither means one shouldn't perform family duties, nor it means one must perform family duties.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.17, 3.18 - But that person who rejoices only in self and is satisfied with the Self, and is &lt;strong&gt;contented only in the Self - for them there is no duty to perform&lt;/strong&gt;; For them there is no purpose here at all with performing action; nor any [purpose] with nonperformance. Moreover, for them there is no dependence on any object to serve any purpose&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence lord Krishna has &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11178/1049&quot;&gt;described 2 approaches for self realisation&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;sannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;akarma&lt;/em&gt; based)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;karma yoga&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;karma phala&lt;/em&gt; based)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the 1st approach, a person explicitly leaves the family to stay away from various attachments. In 2nd approach, a person implicitly stays away from the attachments, yet being with the family.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Some people have better detachment when they stay without family and some have better detachment when they stay within family. If they try opposite to their mentality, they will likely get bewildered. How can there be only 1 right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since we live in a society, the &lt;em&gt;Karma yoga&lt;/em&gt; is more applicable to larger section of people (hence better), while &lt;em&gt;sannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; (retirement) applies to smaller section of people. Krishna equates both of them to be best in their own ways, yet &lt;em&gt;Karma yoga&lt;/em&gt; is better due to higher relevance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 5.2 — Sri BhagavAna told, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, both are excellent doers&lt;/strong&gt;; but between them, &lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt; is better than &lt;em&gt;Karma SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many saints have lived active family life. Yet, many yogi-s before Budhha (VyAsa, VAlmiki) and after Buddha (VivekAnanda, Ramana Maharshi) have left active family life. They are no lesser yogi-s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Why indifference is important?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For self realisation, between &quot;with family&quot; and &quot;without family&quot;, if we choose &quot;with family&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Then after sometime &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Someone will ask us to choose between keep my spouse happy vs keep my spouse unhappy&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If spouse is happy, then someone will ask no children vs 2 children&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If 2 children, then someone will ask less bank balance vs big bank balance&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;... and this goes on&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the reason why &quot;indifference&quot; is the key to self realisation. Indifference is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19458/1049&quot;&gt;nature of &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. One has to stop seeing opposites among various aspects &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=7&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=27&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;BG 7.27&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T06:04:06.290" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20721" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20694" CreationDate="2017-09-08T07:13:22.903" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Another description of Lord Vishnu Universal Form (Viraata Swaroopa) is given in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavada Gita, Chapter 11&lt;/a&gt;. Arjuna asked Lord Krishna to show his universal form, then Lord Krishna gave him divine eyes so that Arjuna can see his Universal form. Arjuna saw whole universe within Him, everything dissolving in Him. That form was so fierce that Arjuna trembled with fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am providing the English Translation By Swami Sivananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्जुन उवाच&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  पश्यामि देवांस्तव देव देहे&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  सर्वांस्तथा भूतविशेषसङ्घान्।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  ब्रह्माणमीशं कमलासनस्थ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  मृषींश्च सर्वानुरगांश्च दिव्यान्।।11.15।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.15 Arjuna said I see all the gods, O God, in Thy body, and (also) hosts of various classes of beings, Brahma, the Lord, seated on the lotus, all the sages and the celestial serpents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनेकबाहूदरवक्त्रनेत्रं&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  पश्यामि त्वां सर्वतोऽनन्तरूपम्।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  नान्तं न मध्यं न पुनस्तवादिं&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  पश्यामि विश्वेश्वर विश्वरूप।।11.16।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.16 I see Thee of boundless form on every side with many arms, stomachs, mouths and eyes: neither the end nor the middle nor also the beginning do I see, O Lord of the universe, O Cosmic Form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;किरीटिनं गदिनं चक्रिणं च&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  तेजोराशिं सर्वतोदीप्तिमन्तम्।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  पश्यामि त्वां दुर्निरीक्ष्यं समन्ता&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  द्दीप्तानलार्कद्युतिमप्रमेयम्।।11.17।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.17 I see Thee with the diadem, the club and the discus, a mass of radiance shining everywhere, very hard to look at, blazing all round like burning fire and the sun, and immeasurable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्वमक्षरं परमं वेदितव्यं&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  त्वमस्य विश्वस्य परं निधानम्।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  त्वमव्ययः शाश्वतधर्मगोप्ता&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  सनातनस्त्वं पुरुषो मतो मे।।11.18।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.18 Thou art the Imperishable, the Supreme Being, worthy to be known. Thou art the great treasure-house of this universe; Thou art the imperishable protector of the eternal Dhrama; Thou art the Primal Person, I deem.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनादिमध्यान्तमनन्तवीर्य&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  मनन्तबाहुं शशिसूर्यनेत्रम्।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  पश्यामि त्वां दीप्तहुताशवक्त्रम्&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  स्वतेजसा विश्वमिदं तपन्तम्।।11.19।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.19 I see Thee without beginning, middle or end, infinite in power, of endless arms, the sun and the moon being Thy eyes, the burning fire Thy mouth, heating the whole universe with Thy radiance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;द्यावापृथिव्योरिदमन्तरं हि&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  व्याप्तं त्वयैकेन दिशश्च सर्वाः।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  दृष्ट्वाऽद्भुतं रूपमुग्रं तवेदं&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  लोकत्रयं प्रव्यथितं महात्मन्।।11.20।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.20 This space between the earth and the heaven and all the arters are filled by Thee alone; having seen this, Thy wonderful and teriible form, the three worlds are trembling with fear, O great-souled Being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अमी हि त्वां सुरसङ्घाः विशन्ति&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  केचिद्भीताः प्राञ्जलयो गृणन्ति।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  स्वस्तीत्युक्त्वा महर्षिसिद्धसङ्घाः&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  स्तुवन्ति त्वां स्तुतिभिः पुष्कलाभिः।।11.21।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.21 Verily, into Thee enter these hosts of gods; some extol Thee in fear with joined palms; saying 'may it be well', bands of great sages and perfected ones praise Thee with hymns complete.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रुद्रादित्या वसवो ये च साध्या&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  विश्वेऽश्िवनौ मरुतश्चोष्मपाश्च।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  गन्धर्वयक्षासुरसिद्धसङ्घा&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  वीक्षन्ते त्वां विस्मिताश्चैव सर्वे।।11.22।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.22 The Rudras, Adityas, Vasus, Sadhyas, Visvedevas, the two Asvins, Maruts, the manes and the hosts of celestial singers, Yakshas, demons and the perfected ones, are all looking at Thee, in great amazement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रूपं महत्ते बहुवक्त्रनेत्रं&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  महाबाहो बहुबाहूरुपादम्।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  बहूदरं बहुदंष्ट्राकरालं&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  दृष्ट्वा लोकाः प्रव्यथितास्तथाऽहम्।।11.23।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.23 Having seen Thy immeasurable form with many mouths and eyes, O mighty-armed, with many arms, thighs and feet, with many stomachs and fearful with many teeth the worlds are terrified and so am I.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नभःस्पृशं दीप्तमनेकवर्णं&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  व्यात्ताननं दीप्तविशालनेत्रम्।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  दृष्ट्वा हि त्वां प्रव्यथितान्तरात्मा&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  धृतिं न विन्दामि शमं च विष्णो।।11.24।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.24 On seeing Thee (the Cosmic Form) touching the sky, shining in many colours, with mouths wide open, with large fiery eyes, I am terrified at heart and find neither courage nor peace, O Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दंष्ट्राकरालानि च ते मुखानि&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  दृष्ट्वैव कालानलसन्निभानि।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  दिशो न जाने न लभे च शर्म&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  प्रसीद देवेश जगन्निवास।।11.25।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.25 Having seen Thy mouths fearful with teeth (blazing) like the fires of cosmic dissolution, I know not the four arters, nor do I find peace. Have mercy, O Lord of the gods, O abode of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अमी च त्वां धृतराष्ट्रस्य पुत्राः&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  सर्वे सहैवावनिपालसङ्घैः।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  भीष्मो द्रोणः सूतपुत्रस्तथाऽसौ&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  सहास्मदीयैरपि योधमुख्यैः।।11.26।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.26 All the sons of Dhritarashtra, with the hosts of kings of the earth, Bhishma, Drona and Karna, with the chief among our warriors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वक्त्राणि ते त्वरमाणा विशन्ति&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  दंष्ट्राकरालानि भयानकानि।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  केचिद्विलग्ना दशनान्तरेषु&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  संदृश्यन्ते चूर्णितैरुत्तमाङ्गैः।।11.27।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.27 Some hurriedly enter Thy mouths with their terrible teeth, fearful to behold. Some are found sticking in the gaps between the teeth with their heads crushed to powder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथा नदीनां बहवोऽम्बुवेगाः&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  समुद्रमेवाभिमुखाः द्रवन्ति।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  तथा तवामी नरलोकवीरा&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  विशन्ति वक्त्राण्यभिविज्वलन्ति।।11.28।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.28 Verily, just as many torrents of rivers flow towards the ocean, even so these heroes in the world of men enter Thy flaming mouths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यथा प्रदीप्तं ज्वलनं पतङ्गा&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  विशन्ति नाशाय समृद्धवेगाः।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  तथैव नाशाय विशन्ति लोका&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  स्तवापि वक्त्राणि समृद्धवेगाः।।11.29।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.29 As moths hurriedly rush into a blazing fire for (their own) destruction, so also these creatures hurriedly rush into Thy mouths for (their own) destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लेलिह्यसे ग्रसमानः समन्ता&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  ल्लोकान्समग्रान्वदनैर्ज्वलद्भिः।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  तेजोभिरापूर्य जगत्समग्रं&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  भासस्तवोग्राः प्रतपन्ति विष्णो।।11.30।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.30 Thou lickest up, devouring all the worlds on every side with Thy flaming mouths. Thy fierce rays, filling the whole world with radiance, are burning, O Vishnu!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आख्याहि मे को भवानुग्ररूपो&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  नमोऽस्तु ते देववर प्रसीद।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  विज्ञातुमिच्छामि भवन्तमाद्यं&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  न हि प्रजानामि तव प्रवृत्तिम्।।11.31।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.31 Tell me, who Thou art, so fierce of form. Salutations to Thee, O God Supreme: have mercy. I desire to know Thee, the original Being. I know not indeed Thy working.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्री भगवानुवाच&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  कालोऽस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  लोकान्समाहर्तुमिह प्रवृत्तः।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  ऋतेऽपि त्वां न भविष्यन्ति सर्वे&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  येऽवस्थिताः प्रत्यनीकेषु योधाः।।11.32।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.32 The Blessed Lord said I am the full-grown world-destroying Time, now engaged in destroying the worlds. Even without thee, none of the warriors arrayed in the hostile armies shall live.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T07:13:22.903" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20722" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6543" CreationDate="2017-09-08T07:55:11.020" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some pets like dogs, cats, birds are usually kept in houses.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But certain animals are not allowed according to the Shastras.  A verse in the Skanda Purana says people who keep pets like cats, cocks, hens, dogs and birds fall to a river called Vaitarani river which is situated into a hell. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who keeps cats, cocks and hens, dogs and birds&lt;/strong&gt;, one who sets fire to the houses of the deaf and blind as well as grasses and grains and other things in the fields and one who sustains himself by means of stagecraft and stellar calculations(astrology) - all these men go to Vaitarani. [19-20]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above verse occurs in the Skanda Purana, Kaumarika Khanda, Chapter 39 as a part of conversation between Arjuna and Narada. The above verse is said by Sage Narada. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, According to Skanda Purana, keeping above animals as pets leads to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also from the Mahabharata, Indra says to Yudhishtira when he reached heaven. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m17/m17003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of Mahaprasthanika Parva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Indra said, ‘&lt;strong&gt;There is no place in Heaven for persons with dogs&lt;/strong&gt;. Besides, the (deities called) Krodhavasas take away all the merits of such persons. Reflecting on this, act, O king Yudhishthira the just. Do thou abandon this dog. There is no cruelty in this.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said that, Hinduism is &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; against animals or loving them. Perhaps Devarshi Narada's words suggest that we should let the animals and birds free and not cage them for our own entertainment.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the former verse to the above verse, Narada says..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who harasses animals on false pretexts falls into viśasana&lt;/strong&gt;; on who makes weapons illegally falls into Adhomukha. One who sides with and supports evil men and things and takes food in isolation, falls into pūyavāhaka. [18]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it should be noted that we should not harass or punish animals or beings lesser to us. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam further says that we should treat some animals like own children. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should treat animals such as deer, camels, asses, monkeys, mice, snakes, birds and flies exactly like one’s own son. How little difference there actually is between children and these innocent animals. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/14/9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[SB 7.14.19 ]&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T04:52:43.093" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T04:52:43.093" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20723" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6543" CreationDate="2017-09-08T08:21:23.527" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the following verse each household should have at least a black (!) cat and a goat. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;47&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One should keep in his house the following things&lt;/strong&gt; : the wood for striking out a sacrificial fire, &lt;strong&gt;a black cat&lt;/strong&gt;, sandal-wood, a precious&#xA;  stone, ghee, sesamum seed, a black skin, &lt;strong&gt;and a goat&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ParAshara Smriti, Chapter 12, Verse 47.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, those animals should be allowed as pets.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-08T08:28:01.963" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T08:28:01.963" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20724" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-08T08:28:31.750" Score="9" ViewCount="244" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are multiple stories related to the origin of Goddess Mahakali:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Rudra Samhita 2.53&lt;/strong&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Mahapuran&lt;/strong&gt; mentions that when Nandi informed Shiva about Sati's death, he became very furious. He angrily pulled out a locks of hair and dashed it against the mountain, which got divided into two parts. From one part manifested the valiant Veerbharda and from the other part Mahakali. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;strong&gt;Uma Samhita 5.16&lt;/strong&gt; of the same Puran Bhagawati manifested herself in the form of Kali from the mouth and eyes of lord Vishnu at the time Madhu and Kaitabh are born from Vishnu’s ear-wax and attack Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;strong&gt;Matsya Puran&lt;/strong&gt; Kali emerged when Parvati meditated to become fair and a goddess named Koushiki emerged out of her cells.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And then of course are the accounts in &lt;strong&gt;Devi Mahatmya&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Devi Bhagwat Puran&lt;/strong&gt; regarding her emerging from the forehead of Goddess Ambika.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So do these different stories refer to different Kalis or to the different times Kali emerged? Also which of these appearances could be the oldest one?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T08:28:31.750" Title="Are there more than one origins of Ma Kali?" Tags="|puranas|shiva-purana|parvati|devi|kali|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20725" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-08T11:14:04.360" Score="1" ViewCount="67" Body="&lt;p&gt;I had a discussion with my friend that Indian (Hindu) culture is restricted, or one should obey their elders, respect them, and do what elders want not what that individual wants. I was like this is not Indian(Hindu) culture this is pure dogmatic thinking. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want suggestion/opinion on what a Hindu life mean. My thoughts on this topic is, If you are atheist then you have &quot;karma&quot; to serve, if you theism then you have &quot;dharma&quot; to serve. If you believe in &lt;strong&gt;dharma&lt;/strong&gt; then you, if you believe in &lt;strong&gt;karma&lt;/strong&gt; then nature is there for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am in search of that what does actually Indian (specifically Hinduism) is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11667" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-12T07:45:10.997" LastActivityDate="2018-03-12T07:45:10.997" Title="How does Hindu life make different from any other religion?" Tags="|culture|india|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20726" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20688" CreationDate="2017-09-08T12:21:08.613" Score="9" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does the Geetha indicate that Krishna is the primary form of the Supreme Godhead?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, in Bhagavad gita Lord Krishna said that He is the Supreme Godhead. But different acharyas interpreted gita in different ways. So, it's far better to read all these interpretations to understand and decide yourself which is available &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bhagavad-gita.us/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the few verses where Krishna said He is Supreme Godhead:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4.6: Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although &lt;strong&gt;I am the Lord of all living entities&lt;/strong&gt;, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9.11: Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know &lt;strong&gt;My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10.8: &lt;strong&gt;I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds&lt;/strong&gt;. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10.15: Arjuna said: Indeed, You alone know Yourself by Your own internal potency, &lt;strong&gt;O Supreme Person, origin of all, Lord of all beings, God of gods, Lord of the universe!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By seeing the Universal form of Krishna, Arjuna said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11.18: You are the supreme primal objective. You are the ultimate resting place of all this universe. You are inexhaustible, and You are the oldest. You are the maintainer of the eternal religion, &lt;strong&gt;the Personality of Godhead&lt;/strong&gt;. This is my opinion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You said &amp;quot;But I grew up with the knowledge that the trimurthis are the primary Gods of the universe. Hence Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu and not the other way round.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the following verses Arjuna refers Lord Krishna as Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11.24: &lt;strong&gt;O all-pervading Viṣṇu&lt;/strong&gt;, seeing You with Your many radiant colors touching the sky, Your gaping mouths, and Your great glowing eyes, my mind is perturbed by fear. I can no longer maintain my steadiness or equilibrium of mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;11.30: &lt;strong&gt;O Viṣṇu&lt;/strong&gt;, I see You devouring all people from all sides with Your ﬂaming mouths. Covering all the universe with Your effulgence, You are manifest with terrible, scorching rays.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &amp;quot;Which is true according to the holy books?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As @brahmajijnasa said &lt;strong&gt;both are true&lt;/strong&gt;. There are scriptures which says Krishna is Supreme as well as Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;(I think it is better to believe Krishna and Vishnu as one and same. Not only Iskcon but other few sects also believe Krishna as Supreme and other sects who believe Vishnu as Supreme)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T12:21:08.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20727" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20728" CreationDate="2017-09-08T13:45:27.697" Score="8" ViewCount="987" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, when we are going through a certain phase in our life, where we have to make a decision but we are unsure of what is correct &amp;amp; what is wrong; normally, we have two directions/instructions to follow, one from our brain and the other from our heart. So, the question arises which one is supreme &amp;amp; correct guide, and why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mann -&gt; Mind &amp;amp;&#xA;Budhdhi -&gt; Brain&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to cite a simple example here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You go for shopping right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mann -&gt; buy this buy that&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Budhdhi -&gt; before buying check your budget&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mann -&gt; No worries I'll use Credit Card &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Budhdhi -&gt; Who will pay Credit Card bills?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, a simple decision making process in a way shows which one is a better guide. Maybe that's the reason brain (budhdhi) is placed above heart (mann) in a human body!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some say listen to your Atman, but question is how is that message passed on to the person, through Mann or Budhdhi or some other means?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-09-09T20:12:49.083" LastActivityDate="2018-10-23T11:59:53.210" Title="According to Vedas which one is a better guide - Mann or Budhdhi?" Tags="|vedas|mind|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20728" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20727" CreationDate="2017-09-08T14:52:20.857" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Neither.&lt;/strong&gt; One should rely on scripture in making decisions.  While the brain/mind/heart may produce all sorts of &lt;em&gt;beliefs&lt;/em&gt; about morality, i.e. what one should do and should not do, the sole source of &lt;em&gt;knowledge&lt;/em&gt; of morality is scripture.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Adi Shankaracharya says in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, while discussing animal sacrifice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The reasoning criticizing animal sacrifice] is not valid, because our knowledge of what is duty and the contrary of duty depends entirely on scripture. The knowledge of one action being right and another wrong is based on scripture only; for it lies out of the cognizance of the senses, and there moreover is, in the case of right and wrong, an entire want of binding rules as to place, time, and occasion. What in one place, at one time, on one occasion is performed as a right action, is a wrong action in another place, at another time, on another occasion; none therefore can know, without scripture, what is either right or wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a more systematic look at things, we must turn to the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, since they analyze the part of the Vedas which deal with Dharma.  Here is what Jaimini says in Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 Sutra 4 of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;satsaṃprayoge puruṣasyendriyāṇāṃ buddhijanma tatpratyakṣamanimitrta vidyamānopalambhanatvāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That cognition by a person which appears when there is contact of the sense-organs is &amp;quot;sense-perception&amp;quot;, and it is not a means (of knowing Dharma), as it apprehends only things existing at the present time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600202.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/14/items/shabarabhasyavol032868mbp/shabarabhasyavol032868mbp_tif.zip&amp;amp;file=shabarabhasyavol032868mbp_tif/shabarabhasyavol032868mbp_0030.tif&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Shabaraswami says in his commentary on this Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The examination (promised in the preceding Sutra) is as follows:- Sense. perception is not the means (of knowing Dharma), - why?- because the character of Sense-perception is that it is &amp;quot;that cognition by a person, etc.&amp;quot;(sutra); that is, it is that cognition which a man has when his sense-organs are in contact with the object cognised. - Dharma however is something that is yet to come, and it does not exist at the time that it is to be known; - while Sense-perception is the apprehending of an object that is actually present and not non-existent at the time (of cognition); - hence Sense-perception cannot be the means (of knowing Dharma). In the Sutra, no stress is meant to be laid upon either &amp;quot;cognition&amp;quot;, or the &amp;quot;appearance&amp;quot;, or upon mere &amp;quot;contact&amp;quot;; the only factor meant to be emphasised is the fact of its being such as is possible only when there is contact between the sense-organ and the object, and not when there is no such contact between them. If stress were laid upon several factors, then there would be syntactical split. As for (the other means of Cognition.) Inference, Analogy, and Apparent Inconsistency, these also presuppose (are based upon) Sense-perception; hence these also cannot be the means (of knowing Dharma). Nor can Dharma be amenable to “Negation' (i.e. it cannot be regarded as non-existent; because of the reason given in the next Sutra which indicates the real means of knowing Dharma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea is that the ordinary means by which we acquire knowledge about the world, namely Pratyaksha or perception and Anumana or inference, are powerless to tell us anything about morality.  That's because they can only tell us about the world of things which already exist, whereas morality pertains to that which does not yet exist, namely the consequences you will experience for the actions you do.  But what kind of means of knowledge can tell us what actions are linked to what kind of consequence?  Jaimini tells us the answer in Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 Sutra 5 of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;otpattikastu śabdāsyārthenasambandhastasya jñānamupadeśo'vyatirekaścāyeṃ'nupalabdhe tatpramāem̐ bādarāyaṇasyānapekṣatvāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The relation of the word with its denotation is inborn.- [Vedic] instruction is the means of knowing it (Dharma) - infallible regarding all that is imperceptible; it is a valid means of knowledge, as it is independent, according to Badarayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The idea is that the human brain/mind/heart is powerless to find out what is right or wrong, since as I discussed above morality concerns that which does not yet exist, but the Vedas, since they are Apaurusheya or authorless, have the capacity to talk about the imperceptible realm, since they do not depend on the knowledge of a human being. (The authoritativeness of Smriti is derived from the authoritativeness of the Vedas in Adhyaya 1 Pada 3 of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now how do we know that the Vedas actually are authorless and authoritative?  For that I would refer you to Shabara's commentary on the above Sutra and the subsequent Sutras of Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras.  (And if you find it too difficult to understand, I may one day write a book on it; see idea #1 in my Medium post &lt;a href=&quot;https://medium.com/@lugita15/potential-hinduism-related-writing-projects-34a227b4f99c&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T14:52:20.857" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20729" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20741" CreationDate="2017-09-08T15:38:07.700" Score="7" ViewCount="972" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda, which is more important in attaining moksha- Bhakti or Jnana? As far as I know Jnana is more important in Advaita and both were Advaitins. On the other hand, most of the teachings of Ramakrishna seem to stress on Bhakti yoga and most teachings of Swami Vivekananda seems to stress on Jnana. Are their teachings contradicting each other? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T10:55:41.037" Title="According to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda, which is more important in attaining moksha- Bhakti or Jnana?" Tags="|advaita|bhakti|vivekananda|jnana|ramakrishna|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20730" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20736" CreationDate="2017-09-08T16:03:54.270" Score="1" ViewCount="524" Body="&lt;p&gt;What do the Nyaya Sutras say about the existence of God? Does it believe in the existence of God or deny it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-08T16:50:26.847" LastActivityDate="2017-09-09T05:10:36.317" Title="What do the Nyaya Sutras say about the existence of God?" Tags="|philosophy|nyaya|nyaya-sutra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20731" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-08T16:05:06.417" Score="2" ViewCount="218" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duhsala&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; Jayadratha had a split personality disorder. It is mentioned that due to such disorder, he misbehaved with women during his life time. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example: he tried to kidnap and molest Draupadi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does any scripture supports this claim?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T16:05:06.417" Title="Is it true that Jayadratha had split personality disorder?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20733" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20727" CreationDate="2017-09-08T17:22:20.620" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;See the image below. Please ignore the terms you do not understand. And I'll add that this answer is &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; according to Vedas (Maybe it is. I have not verified.).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i9Uup.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/i9Uup.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mann / Mun&lt;/em&gt; is the most superficial rung to make the decisions from. &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt; is the second best rung to take decisions from.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, it is better to take decisions from &lt;em&gt;buddhi&lt;/em&gt; than from &lt;em&gt;mann&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the decisions that will stick, even over to the next life, are those that come from realization... in other words, those that come from &lt;em&gt;Aatma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5373" LastActivityDate="2017-09-08T17:22:20.620" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20734" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20727" CreationDate="2017-09-08T18:24:21.020" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Considering Upanishad as Vedas. Intellect (Buddhi) is superior to the mind (mana). From Katha Upanishad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Beyond the senses there are the objects, beyond the objects there is&#xA;  the mind, beyond the mind there is the intellect, the Great Self is&#xA;  beyond the intellect.' &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15012.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3.10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: There is similar verse in Bhagwat Geeta as well which says the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-09-10T11:36:04.873" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T11:36:04.873" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20736" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20730" CreationDate="2017-09-08T19:05:51.583" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Nyaya Sutras accept the existence of God.&lt;/strong&gt;. Here is what Gautama says in Adhyaya 4 Pada 1 of the Nyaya Sutras (from Ganganatha Jha's &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/GautamasNyayasutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;translation&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;19&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;īśvaraḥ kāraṇaṁ puruṣakarmāphalyadarśanāt&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God is the cause; because we find fruitlessness in the actions of Men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;20&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;na puruṣakarmābhāve phalāniṣpatteḥ&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not so; because as a matter of fact, no fruit appears without man's action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;21&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;tatkāritatvādahetuḥ&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Inasmuch as it is influenced by Him, there is no force in the reason (put forward).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now this translation is written from the viewpoint of Vatsyayana's Nyaya Sutra Bhashya, but all commentators on the Nyaya Sutras agree that these Sutras assert the existence of God.  But different commentators differ on the precise interpretation of these Sutras, as the translator &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601903.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/34/items/GautamasNyayasutras/GautamasNyayasutras_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=GautamasNyayasutras_jp2/GautamasNyayasutras_0439.jp2&amp;amp;scale=1&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; in a footnote:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In regard to this section there is difference among Commentators.  According to the Bhashya, the Vartika and Vishwanatha, it is meant to propound the Naiyayika Siddhanta that the Universe has been created by God; and in accordance with this view, Su. 19 puts forward the final Siddhanta. Su. 20 puts forward an objection against the Siddhanta and Su. 21 answers that objection from the stand-point of the Siddhanta.  It is this interpretation that we have adopted in the translation.... The Tatparya, followed by the Parishudhhi and Prahasha, has taken it as representing the criticism of the Vedanta doctrine that &amp;quot;God is the constituent cause of the Universe.&amp;quot;  By this interpretation Su. 19 represents the Vedanta view, Su. 20 shows the untenability of that view, and Su. 21 puts forward the final Nyaya-Siddhanta that God is the creator, the operative cause, not the constituent cause, of the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as you can see, some commentators think that in these Sutras Gautama discusses the question of whether God exists, and he concludes that a supreme being does exists.  Other commentators think that in these Sutras Gautama discusses the question of whether God is both the efficient cause and the material cause of the Universe, or just the efficient cause, and he concludes that the supreme being is just the efficient cause.  But either way, all commentators are agreed that Gautama's Nyaya Sutras endorse the existence of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, out of the six Astika schools, only Kapila's Samkhya school and Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa school don't unequivocally accept the existence of God.  The Samkhya school rejects God outright, whereas in the case of the Purva Mimamsa school some of its adherents accepted the existence of God and others held agnostic or atheistic views.  On the other hand, Patanjali's Yoga school, Gautama's Nyaya school, Kanada's Vaisheshika school, and Vyasa's Vedanta school all accept the existence of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It may also be worth noting the differences between the Nyaya school and the Vedanta school on the nature of God, since most Hindus today belong to the Vedanta school.  As discussed above, Nyaya school believed that God is only the efficient cause of the Universe, whereas most members of the Vedanta school (other than Madhwas) believes that God is both the efficient cause and the material cause of the Universe.  Also, the Nyaya school believed that the existence of God can be proven through logical arguments, whereas the Vedanta school believes that the existence of a supreme being requires scripture to establish, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11118/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  These two differences are not unconnected; if you try to prove the existence of God through logic, then the kind of God that you'll produce is one who is only the efficient cause of the Universe.  That is why most religious people outside the Vedanta school, both inside and outside of Hinduism, whether Naiyayikas, Vaisheshikas, Shaiva Siddhantins, Christians, Muslims, etc. all believe that God is only the efficient cause of the Universe.  Whereas the Vedanta school, since it says that Brahman is beyond logical argument and the other non-scriptural means of knowledge, arrives at a very different conception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-09T05:10:36.317" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20737" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-08T19:18:24.443" Score="7" ViewCount="512" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was checking out the legends associated with the Pitri Paksh or Shraadh rituals and it led me to the story of Karna which goes like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the legendary donor Karna died in the epic Mahabharata war, his soul transcended to heaven, where he was offered gold and jewels as food. However, Karna needed real food to eat and asked Indra, the lord of heaven, the reason for serving gold as food. Indra told Karna that he had donated gold all his life, but had never donated food to his ancestors in Shraddha. Karna said that since he was unaware of his ancestors, he never donated anything in their memory. To make amends, Karna was permitted to return to earth for a 15–day period, so that he could perform Shraddha and donate food and water in their memory. This period is now known as Pitru Paksha.In some legends, Yama replaces Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;First of all, does that imply there were no Shraads performed before the Mahabharat times?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And secondly, being the son of Surya, &lt;strong&gt;which ancestors would Karna perform Shraadh for&lt;/strong&gt; - if it is Kunti's ancestors, wouldn't other Pandavs perform ceremony for them anyways?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T06:39:16.597" Title="How can Karna, the son of a god, be associated with the origin of Pitri Paksh?" Tags="|mahabharata|karna|surya|sraddha|pitru|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20738" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8303" CreationDate="2017-09-08T21:35:27.557" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yama's wife is mentioned in various Puranas and in the Mahabharata. Now I do not know if Yama had one wife or multiple wives as each Purana ascribes a different name. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata &lt;strong&gt;Udyoga Parva&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05117.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ch 117&lt;/a&gt; gives the name of Yama's wife as Urmila. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the royal sage then sported with her, as Surya with Prabhavati,&#xA;  Agni with Swaha, Vasava with Sachi, Chandra with Rohini, &lt;strong&gt;Yama with&#xA;  Urmila&lt;/strong&gt;, Varuna with Gauri, Kuvera with Riddhi, Narayana with&#xA;  Lakshmi, Sagara with Jahnavi, Rudra with Rudrani, [...there's more of&#xA;  the same comparison]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 1 Chapter 8&lt;/a&gt; lists Yama's wife as Dhumorna. (while establishing the relation between Vishnu and Lakshmi.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lakshmí is the consort of Indra (Indrání); Madhusúdana is Devendra.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The holder of the discus (Vishnu) is Yama (the regent of Tartarus); the lotus-throned goddess is his dusky spouse (Dhúmorná).&lt;/strong&gt; Śrí is&#xA;  wealth; Śridhara (Vishńu) is himself the god of riches (Kuvera).&#xA;  Lakshmí, illustrious Brahman, is Gaurí; and Keśava, is the deity of&#xA;  ocean (Varuna).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnudharmottara&lt;/strong&gt; Part 3 &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/vishnudharmottar031493mbp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 51&lt;/a&gt; says the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 “Yama should have the complexion of a dark rain cloud; his garment&#xA;  should be like heated gold; he should be represented on a buffalo with&#xA;  all kinds of ornaments. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2 Dhumorna (‘Shroud-of-Smoke‘) should have the colour of a dark blue&#xA;  lotus; one should represent her sitting on the left haunch (of Yama).&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Dhumorna should be made with two arms, but Yama with four.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; Part 3(Moksa Khanda) &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12942/5/Chapter3_953-1032p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 5(pg 36)&lt;/a&gt; lists his wife as Syamala. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;50-54-. Born thereafter and inferior to these are the following six -&#xA;  Ganga the wife of Varuna, Vibhavasu the wife of Parjanya, &lt;strong&gt;Syamala&#xA;  the wife of Yama,&lt;/strong&gt; Usa the wife of Aniruddha, Rohini the wife of the&#xA;  moon and Samjnakira the wife of the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The book&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic&lt;/strong&gt; by W.J. Wilkins in it's section on Yama gives an account of his wife named Vijaya who is a human woman. This story is ascribed to Bhavishya Purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the &quot;Bhavishya Purāna&quot; the following legend of Yama's marriage is found. He was exceedingly pleased with a girl named Vijaya, a&#xA;  Brāhman's daughter.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When first she saw him she was greatly alarmed, alike at his&#xA;  appearance and on learning who he was. At length he allayed her fears;&#xA;  and, although her brother tried to dissuade her, she consented to&#xA;  become his wife. On her arrival at Yama's abode, he particularly&#xA;  cautioned her against going into the southern quarter of his kingdom. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After a time, thinking he must have another wife there, her curiosity&#xA;  overpowered her, and going into the forbidden region, she was greatly&#xA;  distressed, as she saw the wicked in torment: Amongst other sufferers&#xA;  was her own mother. Meeting Yama there, she tried to obtain her&#xA;  release. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yama declared that this could not be granted unless some one then&#xA;  living on earth would perform a certain sacrifice, and transfer the&#xA;  merit of the act to the poor woman then suffering. After some&#xA;  difficulty, one was found willing to perform this act of kindness, and&#xA;  Yama's mother-in-law obtained release.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nowhere Yama is described as a Yaksha. He is the god of justice and death and lord of the ancestors in the Puranas and in the Rigveda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rigveda&lt;/strong&gt; Book 10 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hymn 14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.HONOUR the King with thine oblations, Yama, Vivasvān's Son, who gathers men together, Who travelled to the lofty heights above us, who&#xA;  searcbes out and shows the path to many.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 Yama first found for us a place to dwell in: this pasture never can&#xA;  be taken from Us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8 Meet Yama, meet the Fathers, meet the merit of free or ordered acts,&#xA;  in highest heaven. Leave sin and evil, seek anew thy dwelling, and&#xA;  bright with glory wear another body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10 Run and outspeed the two dogs, Saramā's offspring, brindled,&#xA;  four-eyed, upon thy happy pathway. Draw nigh then to the&#xA;  gracious-minded Fathers where they rejoice in company with Yama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14 Offer to Yama holy gifts enriched with butter, and draw near: So&#xA;  may he grant that we may live long days of life among the Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt; Book 1 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp057.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ch 22&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;WHEN Prithu was installed in the government of the earth, the great&#xA;  father of the spheres established sovereignties in other parts of the&#xA;  creation. Soma was appointed monarch of the stars and planets, of&#xA;  Brahmans and of plants, of sacrifices and of penance. Vaisravana was&#xA;  made king over kings; and Varuna, over the waters. Vishnu was the&#xA;  chief of the adityas; Pavaka, of the Vasus; Daksha, of the patriarchs;&#xA;  Vasava, of the winds. To Prahlada was assigned dominion over the&#xA;  Daityas and Danavas; &lt;strong&gt;and Yama, the king of justice, was appointed&#xA;  the monarch of the Manes Pitris.&lt;/strong&gt; Airavata was made the king of&#xA;  elephants; Garuda, of birds; Indra, of the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="7075" LastEditDate="2017-09-09T11:59:48.643" LastActivityDate="2017-09-09T11:59:48.643" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20740" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20790" CreationDate="2017-09-09T00:56:01.130" Score="4" ViewCount="452" Body="&lt;p&gt;First off, I think the source text is the Brahmavaivarta Purana, but I may be wrong, as I couldn't find this excerpt in an online version.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Either way, the way Vishnu describes the impermanence of not only Indra, but of Brahma as well reminds me very much of how the Buddha stirred up Brahmas from the comfort of their long-lived lives. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu, in his boyish avatar, claims that one must stop clinging to both the good or bad, since even the highest incarnations (such as that of Shiva and Brahma) are impermanent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, how does Vishnu differ here? I'm not sure if this is a direct quote, but I found also that a Brahma's life is similarly, the blink of an eye of Vishnu. Is, thus, even Vishnu just a temporary form, be as it may that he has great wisdom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11951" LastActivityDate="2023-01-29T18:31:11.757" Title="Vishnu distresses Indra by pointing out not only his, but Brahma's mortality as well. Is Vishnu likewise, a mortal position?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|puranas|brahma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20741" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20729" CreationDate="2017-09-09T02:16:08.153" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;They're equally important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm here quoting some relevant quotes of Swami Vivekananda from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_3/Bhakti-Yoga/Definition_of_Bhakti&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Bhakti-Yoga/Definition of Bhakti&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is &lt;strong&gt;not really so much difference&lt;/strong&gt; between knowledge (Jnana) and love (Bhakti) as people sometimes imagine. We shall see, as we go on, that in the end they converge and &lt;strong&gt;meet at the same point&lt;/strong&gt;. So also is it with Râja-Yoga, which when pursued as a means to attain liberation, and not (as unfortunately it frequently becomes in the hands of charlatans and mystery-mongers) as an instrument to hoodwink the unwary, leads us also to the same goal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is not given to all of us to be harmonious in the building up of our characters in this life: yet we know that that character is of the noblest type in which all these three — knowledge and love and Yoga — are harmoniously fused. Three things are necessary for a bird to fly — the two wings and the tail as a rudder for steering. &lt;strong&gt;Jnana (Knowledge) is the one wing, Bhakti (Love) is the other&lt;/strong&gt;, and Yoga is the tail that keeps up the balance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is a little difference in opinion between the teachers of knowledge and those of love, though both admit the power of Bhakti. &lt;strong&gt;The Jnanis hold Bhakti to be an instrument of liberation, the Bhaktas look upon it both as the instrument and the thing to be attained. To my mind this is a distinction without much difference&lt;/strong&gt;. In fact, Bhakti, when used as an instrument, really means a lower form of worship, and the higher form becomes inseparable from the lower form of realisation at a later stage. Each seems to lay a great stress upon his own peculiar method of worship, forgetting that with perfect love true knowledge is bound to come even unsought, and that from perfect knowledge true love is inseparable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Btw, it is often interpreted that &amp;quot;Bhakti is an extreme love towards Brahman&amp;quot; &amp;amp; &amp;quot;Jnana is the Brahman itself&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-09T02:16:08.153" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20742" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20587" CreationDate="2017-09-09T05:25:47.580" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all it's a very very long answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;PurAnic accounts of how the DashamahAvidyAs manifested&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following account appears in Devi PurAna, however the same appears also in the BhAgavata PurAna (as per some book that i have):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once the greatest of Yogis, Lord Maheswara worshiped MahAdevi and&#xA;  obtained from her the boon that She will be his wife. Lord Brahma upon realizing &#xA;  that soon MahAdevi will manifest herself as per the boon, &#xA;  orders one of his favorite sons, Daksha, to engage in penance so&#xA;  that the would be consort of Lord Shiva can be his daughter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Daksha thus did a severe tapasyA to MahAdevi and she appeared before&#xA;  him. When asked what boon does he want, Daksha said he wants MahAdevi&#xA;  to be born as his daughter. MahAdevi granted that boon and said when&#xA;  she will descend to be the wife of Lord Shiva she will take birth from&#xA;  Daksha's wife Prasuti's womb. But she also reminded him that once Daksha's&#xA;  merits end or if he somehow disreagrds her, she will leave him&#xA;  instantly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Daksha Yajna episode is well-known so i am not repeating it in&#xA;  full here. When, Lord Shiva saw that Sati was adamant to attend his&#xA;  father's Yajna inspite of his disapproval got a little angry and&#xA;  reprimanded her saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Janami vagvahirbhutAm tvAmaham dakshakanyake |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yatharuchi kuru tvancha mamajyAm ki pratikshase ||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I know that you are not bound by my orders, so do as you please, why&#xA;  are you waiting for my consent?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upon hearing Shiva's strong words Devi got angry. And thought to&#xA;  hersef that Shiva, upon obtaining her as his wife, forgot her real form&#xA;  (which is of Parama Shakti). So let me abandon him and my proud father&#xA;  and stay in my own swarupa and in my own lila for sometime.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tyaktanamapi darpishtham pitarncha prajApatim |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   SamsthAsyAmi&#xA;  kiyatkAlam swasthAnam nijalilAyA ||&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On thinking thus, Devi assumed the terrible form of MahAkAli. Which&#xA;  was of a Goddess who is dark complexioned, digamabari (without&#xA;  clothes), lolajihvA (tongue hanging out and clasped with the teeth), &#xA;  with disheveled hair and wearing garland comprised of slain heads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva was terrified on seeing Goddess's such terrible form and&#xA;  tried to escape from that place immediately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upon seeing her terrified consort Shiva, Devi, out of mercy and in&#xA;  order to block all the ten directions (so that Shiva can not escape&#xA;  through any one of them),  assumed ten different forms with each&#xA;  blocking one direction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Evam patim vikshya bhayAbhibhutakam dayAnvitA tat prati vAranecchayA |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sarvAsu dikshu kshanamAtramadhyataha stithA cha bhutvA&#xA;  dashamurtayastadA |&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whichever directions Lord Shiva tries to escape through, finds one or the&#xA;  other terrible forms of Devi guarding there. So, unable to find an way to&#xA;  escape Lord Shiva closed his eyes out of fear and upon opening them again found&#xA;  the terrible Goddess MahAkAli right in front of him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva asked &quot; Who are you ShyAmA (the dark complexioned one)?&#xA;  Where is my beloved Sati?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi laughingly replied &quot; &lt;em&gt;Can't you recognize me? Iam your own Sati.&#xA;  Im the SrishtistithisamhArakArini SukshmA Parkriti. For being your&#xA;  wife i have become fair complexioned (Gauri). The ten Devis that you&#xA;  see around you are also my forms. Hence, O MahAmati Shambhu, do not&#xA;  fear:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sati said to her husband who was afflicted with fear &quot; &lt;em&gt;The Goddess who&#xA;  is  in your front is BhimanayanA MahakAli, in the sky (or in the&#xA;  antariksha direction) is TArA, on the right side is ChinnamastA, on&#xA;  your left is Bhuvaneswari, behind you is BagalAmukhi, at the&#xA;  south-east corner (Agni Kona) is DhumAvati, in the south-west corner&#xA;  (Nairitkona) there is KamalA, in the north0west corner (VAyukona)&#xA;  there is MAtangi , in the north-east corner (IshAna kona) there is&#xA;  Shodashi (Tripura Sundari) and in your own self i am existing as&#xA;  Bhairavi.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now, if you want i can teach that proud Daksha a lesson by destroying&#xA;  his Yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A different account is given in the Devi BhAgavatam and which is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In ancient times, in the lineage of Hiranyaksha  was born as the son&#xA;  of  Asura Ruru, a valorous, powerful and extremely cruel Asura called&#xA;  Durgama. Once he thought within himself &quot; Since Vedas are the real&#xA;  force sustaining the Gods, if Vedas themselves can be destroyed the&#xA;  Gods can be made extict as well.&quot; Thinking like this he goes to&#xA;  Himalayas and statred meditating upon Lord Brahma in his penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Only feeding on air, Durgama did an extreme penanace which lasted for&#xA;  1000 years.Eventually Lord Brahma appeared before him , and pleased&#xA;  with his penance told him to ask for a boon. The boon that Durgama&#xA;  asked was like this &quot; Hey Lord give me the charity of all the Vedas.&#xA;  Give such boon by power of which may all the Veda mantras, that used&#xA;  to hitherto exist in the hearts of the Dvijas of the three worlds,&#xA;  should from now on be present only in me. That's how i may defeat the&#xA;  Devas&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma granted that boon and disappeared. (&lt;strong&gt;Devi BhAgavatam 7.28-12,14&lt;/strong&gt;) (&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;pujayitvA varam vavre vedAn dehi sureswara .... jagAm satyalokantu&#xA;  chaturvedaswarah parah&lt;/em&gt; ).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Immediately afterwards, as the boon started taking effect, all the Vipras&#xA;  forgot the Veda mantras. All the Vedic rituals, as a result, ceased.&#xA;  Deprived of the fire-oblations that used to be poured in Yajnas the&#xA;  Gods gradually became weak. Taking advantage of the situation, Durgama&#xA;  with his troops took control of Amaravati and the Gods were forced to&#xA;  leave their own place. The Gods went to Sumeru's caves and fort made of&#xA;  rocky mountains and took shelter in them. They started meditating upon&#xA;  MahAshakti. During the same time, the earth was also facing severe&#xA;  lack of rains for some 100 years and there was draught and deaths all round&#xA;  as a result.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The high-souled Brahmins hence went to the sides of the Himalayan&#xA;  range and started praying to Bhagavati ShivAni . They did the peanance without&#xA;  food intake and prayed to Goodess:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Namah kutastharupAyai chidrupAyai namo namaha|&lt;br&gt; Namo vedAntavedyAyai&#xA;  bhuvaneshyai namo namaha ||&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a result of that penance, Goddess was pleased and Devi Bhuvaneswari, Maheswari, PArvati&#xA;  displayed her spectacular form which is endowed with infinite number&#xA;  of eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Iti samprArtitA devi bhuvaneshi maheswari |&lt;br&gt; anantAkshimayam rupam&#xA;  darshyAmAs pArvati || &lt;strong&gt;(Devi BhAgavatam 7.28.31-33)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From those infinite number of eyes of Goddess PArvati, for nine days,&#xA;  continuously flowed tears.And as a result the dry and lifeless earth got&#xA;  rejuvenated. The Gods came out of the caves and started eulogizing&#xA;  Goddess. Durgama got informed of all the happenings from spies and&#xA;  came to fight Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, during this battle from Goddess SatAkshi's body emerged 32&#xA; MahAshaktis and 64 Divyashaktis and numerous Shaktis all equiped with&#xA; many weapons. Among the 32 MahAshati we find the names of all the&#xA; MahAvidyas except DhumAvati and Buvaneswari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;KAlikA tArini bAlA tripurA bhairvai ramA|&lt;br&gt; bagalA chaiva mAtangi tathA&#xA;  tripurAsundari ||&lt;br&gt; KAmAkshi kulajA devi jambhini mohini tathA |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ChinnamastA guhyakAli dashasAhasra bahukA ||&lt;br&gt; DvAtrimshacchayashchAnyA&#xA;  devyah samudbhutAstu sAyudhAh || &lt;strong&gt;(Devi BhAgavatam 7.28.55-57)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To be noted here, that except Bhuvaneswari and DhumAvati, all MahAvidyas&#xA;are mentioned. But the word MahAvidyA is not used explicitly. Also&#xA;names of other well-known Goddesses (like KAmAkshi) are also mentioned along with.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The names of the 10 MahAvidyas are also mentioned in the upapurAna Brihaddharma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;MahAvidyA imAh proktA nAmAnyAsantu varnaye |&lt;br&gt; KAli tArA mahAvidyA&#xA;  shodashi bhuvaneswari ||&lt;br&gt; BhairvaichinnamstA cha sundari bagalamukhi&#xA;  dhumAvati cha mAtangi mahAvidyA dashaiva TAh || &lt;strong&gt;(Brihaddharma PurAna,&#xA;  MadhyabhAga)&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here ends the PurAnic accounts of the MahAvidyAs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Respective origins of MahAvidyAs from Tantras:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I could not find any story for Bhairavi and Bhuvaneswari (who is of course  Goddess PArvati's ShatAkshee form). Also, for MahAkAli i could not find any story either probably because she is AdyA or the primordial.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ChinnamAsta's story:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One such story is found in the &lt;strong&gt;Swatantra Tantram&lt;/strong&gt; and another one in the &lt;strong&gt;NArada PanchrAtra&lt;/strong&gt;. The later story is also quoted in PrAnatoshini Tantra's 5th KAnda's 6th chapter. I am only giving this version. Although i know the other story but i am not posting it here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;EkadA pArvati devi snAnArtham gatavatyapi &lt;br&gt;.......  Evam kritvA tu&#xA;  tAstatra gatAh sarvA yathAgatam |&lt;br&gt; Chinnam tasyA yato mundam&#xA;  chinnamastA tatah smritAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One day Goddess PArvati went, along with her two Sakhis, DAkini and&#xA;  Varnini, to MandAkini to bath. After bathing the two sakhis felt hungry and&#xA;  pleaded Devi for food. Devi asked them to wait for sometime. After&#xA;  few moments has elapsed the sakhis pleaded again by saying &quot; Give us food&quot;. They&#xA;  further said- &quot;You are the mother of the whole world. And a child&#xA;  always asks from its mother. That's why we are asking from you for&#xA;  something to eat&quot;  Devi replied, that she will arrange for food once&#xA;  they reach home. But DAkini and Varnini, afflicted with hunger, pleaded again saying &quot; Hey Mother&#xA;  of the world, we are hungry, please give us some food which satiates&#xA;  our hunger. ,Upon hearing such words Devi immediately severed her own&#xA;  head with the tip of nails of her left hand. The severed head fell on&#xA;  Devi's left hand. Out of the severed head, three streams of blood&#xA;  gushed out. Of which the stream that went towards left was drunk by&#xA;  DAkini, the stream that went to right fed Varnini and Devi herself&#xA;  drank the  middle stream. All these events happened without anyone's&#xA;  notice. After that, Devi along with her sakhis returned home. Since&#xA;  Devi's head was severed she came to be known as ChinnamastA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BagalAmukhi's story:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atha vakshyAmi deveshi bagalotpattikaranam |&lt;br&gt; PurA kritayuge&#xA;  vAtakshobha upastithe ||&lt;br&gt; ....  BrahmAstravidyA samjAtA trailokya&#xA;  stambhini parA..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva says to Devi] In ancient times, during Krita Yuga (or&#xA;  Satya Yuga) there was a time when wind flowed on earth at great speed.&#xA;  Lord Vishnu started worrying that this powerful wind-flow might&#xA;  destroy the whole world. And he began to do a severe Tapasya (penance)&#xA;  to discover a remedy. Pleased by Vishnu's severe penance, which went&#xA;  on for 1000 years, Goddess MahAtripurA Devi stopped that wind flow.&#xA;  Thereafter the Great Goddess saw a big lake called Haridra and started&#xA;  playing in it. And after that, in a nearby place called Saurashtra, an&#xA;  resplendent Goddess emerged from that yellow lake at midnight of Krishna&#xA;  Paksha Chaturdasi ( 14th day of the dark phase of moon) and the day&#xA;  was Tuesday. In Tantra Texts this great night is known by the name of&#xA;  VirarAtri. And this Goddess is the eighth SiddhavidyA called&#xA;  BagalAmbikA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From Swatantra Tantram.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TArA's story:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could not find the complete story. Goddess TarA is also known as Nila Saraswati. The story given below records why she is associated with the blue color:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mere pashchimakule tu cholanAkhyA hrado mahAn |&lt;br&gt;Tatra yajne swayam devi&#xA;  nilasaraswati ||&lt;br&gt; Tatra japantu prajapamstriyugam samavartata |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the west side of Meru there's a lake called Cholana. From this lake&#xA;  arrived Goddess Nilasaraswati or TArA. On the banks of this lake&#xA;  Goddess did japa for three Yugas. beams of light rays fell on the lake&#xA;  from her higher face ( mahordhavaktaro nihsrito tejorAshivinirgato-&#xA;  don't know how to translate this better) and that's how  Goddess&#xA;  obtained blue color&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dhumavati's story:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Daksha prajapateryajne sarvasamhAra chanchala |&lt;br&gt; KruddhA deham&#xA;  vinikshepya tato dhumohabhavanmAhAn ||&lt;br&gt; TasmAddhumAvati jAtA&#xA;  sarvashatruvinAshini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Goddess Sati, terribly enraged and in a mood to destroy all, threw&#xA;  herself into the fire-pit of the Yajna which was arranged by Daksha&#xA;  PrajApati. Consequently, a whole lot of smoke appeared of the&#xA;  fire-pit. Out of that smoke Goddess DhumAvati appeared, who is the&#xA;  destroyer of all enemies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swatantra Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The NArda Pancha RAtra gives another story and which which is like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once in KailAsha Goddess Girija told to Lord Shiva &quot;I am hungry give&#xA;  me something to eat&quot;. Lord Shiva asked her to wait for some while.&#xA;  After some moments have elapsed, Goddess again asked for food from&#xA;  Shiva. Shiva replied &quot; Please wait for some more time&quot;. Goddess got&#xA;  impatient and said to Lord Shiva &quot; Hey Lord of the universe, give me&#xA;  some thing to eat, i can't tolerate any more delay&quot;. Saying thus, she&#xA;  devoured Shiva himself. Then within moments her body began emitting a&#xA;  whole lot of smoke. Out of his own mAyA Lord Shiva obtained another&#xA;  body and said to Goddess &quot; Hey Devi, see with your jyAnachakshu (the&#xA;  inner eyes) , there isn't any male other than me ( in the whole world)&#xA;  neither a female except you. Today you have devoured your own husband&#xA;  and thus you have become a widow. So, hey Oh devoted Wife, abandon all&#xA;  signs of a married woman. Your this supreme murti will be famous as&#xA;  BagalAmukhi and since your body was enwrapped with smoke (dhuma) you&#xA;  will also be known as DhumAvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, note that according to this story BagalAmukhi and DhumAvati are just the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MAtangi's story:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Atha mAtanginim vakshye krurabhuta- bhayankarim&lt;br&gt;... TejorAshirbhuttatra&#xA;  swayam srikAlikAmbikA |&lt;br&gt; ShyAmalam rupamAsthAya rAjamAtangaini bhavet&#xA;  ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In ancient times,in a garden of kadamba flowers which was filled with&#xA;  various trees, Matanga Muni once did tapasyA for obtaining full&#xA;  control over all beings (Vashikarana) for hundreds of thousands of&#xA;  years ( satavarshasahasrAni in original text). as a result of that&#xA;  penanace Goddess Sunadri's eyes emitted light-energy (teja). That&#xA;  tejarAshi thereafter assumed the form of Mother KAlikAmbikA. And that form&#xA;  assumed dark complexion and became the dark-colored RAjamAtangi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swatantra Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KamalA's story:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PurA brahmA jagatsrashtum tapohatapyat dArunam |&lt;br&gt;.....  JAtA tasyAm&#xA;  mahAlakshmih sarva saubhAgya dAyini ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In ancient times, Lord BrahmA, for the purpose of creation, performed&#xA;  a severe penace. Parameswari TArini (or TArA) pleased with that penace&#xA;  herself appeared on the day of Chaitra ShuklA Navami.She has appeared&#xA;  before too during the event of the churning of the ocean. She is RamA ,&#xA;  the one who sits on a lotus-throne and the one who is situated in the heart of&#xA;  Vishnu. In BhAdrapada month's KrishnAshtami Tithi her MahAmatangi form&#xA;  appeared, who is known as the destroyer of KolAsrua. In phAlguna&#xA;  month's tuesday or friday giver of all the fortunes, MahAlakshmi was&#xA;  born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shodashi's story:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From NArada PancharAtra :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once the apsaras from heaven went to see MahAdeva in KailAsha. Lord&#xA;  Shiva , in front of them, called Devi by taking the name &quot;KAli KAli&quot;.&#xA;  Devi felt ashamed and offended and decided that she will get rid of&#xA;  her KAli swarupa and will change it to Gauri swarupa  (or the&#xA;  fair-complexioned one). With this resolve Devi disappeared from&#xA;  KailAsha. Lord Shiva was as a result left alone. During one such days&#xA;  NArada vistted KailAsha. He asked Lord Shiva about Devi. Shiva said&#xA;  that she has left him and disappered from KailAsha. NArada meditated and&#xA;  found out that Devi's location at that point of time was northern side&#xA;  of the Sumeru mountains. NArada immediately went there and started&#xA;  eulogizing Devi with stava-stutis. Devi was pleased thereby and asked NArada&#xA;  about the whereabouts of Lord Shiva. Narada said &quot; O Mother,&#xA;  Maheswara is all geared up for another (the 2nd) marriage. Please come over&#xA;  there and stop the marrige.&quot; Devi returned to KailAsha upon assuming&#xA;  an extremely beautiful appearance, which is unparalled in the three&#xA;  worlds. Devi neared Shiva and found her own image in Shiva's heart.&#xA;  But, thinking that the image is of some one else, she started reprimanding&#xA;  Shiva accusing him to be ungrateful and breaker of vow. Shiva then&#xA;  said &quot; Devi, meditate, and see with your inner eyes (jyAna drishti) ,&#xA;  the shadow or image in my heart is of you only&quot;. Devi did likwise and&#xA;  calmed down upon finding what Lord Shiva said is right. When Devi&#xA;  asked about the mystery of the shadow (chAyA) in the heart, Shiva &#xA;  said in that context:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;YasmAt tribhuvane rupam sreshtham kritavati shive |&lt;br&gt; TasmAt swarge&#xA;  marte cha pAtAlehanyatra pArvati ||&lt;br&gt; SUndari panchami sri cha khyAtA&#xA;  tripurasundari |&lt;br&gt; SadA shodasha varshiyA vikhyAtA shodashi tatah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since you have assumed the most beautiful appearence in the three&#xA;  worlds, you will be known in swarga, martya , pAtAla and everywhere&#xA;  else, as Sundari, Panchami, Sri and Tripurasundari. And since you are&#xA;  always sixteen year old, you are famous as Shodashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But note that there more reasons why Goddess have the names- Tripura and Shodashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;In which scriptures can we find more about the other nine Mahavidyas?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find them in the Agamas. Few of the names of such Agamas are already mentioned in my answer. Few others like KAlikula sarvasya, ViswasAra Tantram, TArA Rahsya, ShyAma Rahasya, Todala Tantram, MahAvidyA Tantram and amny others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways, i am providing a bit more info on the DashAmahAvidyas here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;RAtri- The days on which the MahAvidyAs appeared&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The arrival Tithis are given in Tantras and there they have the name RAtri. This is a Tantrik terminology. For different Deities a different RAtri. Also, just like RAtri is the name of the arrival Tithi it is the name of the Goddess also. For example, Goddess MahAkAli's one name is MahArAtri and her arrival Tithi is also known as MahAratri. Similarly Goddess TArA's one name is KrodharAtri and one of her names is also the same. For the remaing Devis arrival Tithis are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shodashi- DivyarAtri.&lt;br&gt; Bhuvaneswari-SiddharAtri.&lt;br&gt; ChinnamastA- VirarAtri&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Bhairvai- KAlArAtri&lt;br&gt; DhumAvati- DarunarAtri&lt;br&gt; Bagalamukhi- Viraratri&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  MAtangi- MoharAtri&lt;br&gt; Kamala's- MahAratri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know what those days are from Swatantra Tantram as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PhAlgune cha mahArAtrih krishnaikadashika tithih|&lt;br&gt; ........ Chaturdashi&#xA;  bhaumayuktA makArena samanvitA |&lt;br&gt; KulasmarismAyuktA virarAtri&#xA;  prakirtitA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MahArAtri- Phalguna month, Krishna Paksha, EkAdashi Tithi.&lt;br&gt; DivyarAtri-&#xA;  Jaishtha month, SuklA Dashami if falls on Friday.&lt;br&gt; TArArAtri- Tuesday,&#xA;  AmavasyA, Sun SamkrAnti, and with Kula nakshtara ( Nakstras, Days, Tithis&#xA;  etc are classified into Kula, Akula and KulAkula categories in Agamas,&#xA;  with Kula as being related to Goddess is considered as the most auspicious)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  SiddharAtri- Chaitra SamkrAnti if falls on Ashtami Tithi.&lt;br&gt; DArnurAtri-&#xA;  Vaishakha month, SuklA TritiyA, with Kula Nakshtra.&lt;br&gt; KAlArAtri-&#xA;  DipAnvita Chaturdashi and AmAvasyA.&lt;br&gt; MoharAtri- Krishnajanmashtami.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  VirarAtri- Magha month, Tuesday, Chaturdashi Tithi and with Kula&#xA;  Nakshtra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among these the KAlArAtri is extremely dear to KAli and TArA. viz- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KAlarAtrimaheshAni tArAAkAli priyankari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Bhairava- The consorts of the MahAvidyAs&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we know that the relation between Shiva-Shakti is that of inseparability So, each MahAvidyA also has one aspect of Shiva as her consort. They are called the Bhairavas in Tantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Shaktisamgama tantram the Bhiarava's names are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KAlikAyA mahAkAlah sundaryA laliteswarah.... &lt;br&gt;Mrityunjayastu&#xA;  bagalAvidyAyAh parikirtitah||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KalikA's Bhairva- MahAkAla,&lt;br&gt; TArA's Akshobhya,&lt;br&gt; Tripurasundari's&#xA;  Laliteswara,&lt;br&gt; ChinnamastA's VikarAlaka,&lt;br&gt; Bhuvaneswari's MahAdeva,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Dhumavati's KAlAbhairava,&lt;br&gt; KamalA's NArAyana,&lt;br&gt; Bhairavi's Batuka,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  MAtangi's Matanga&lt;br&gt; and BagalA's Bhairava is Mrityunjaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However as per Todala Tantram the Bhairvas are different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tripura Sundari- Panchavaktra (five-faced) Shiva,&lt;br&gt; Bhuvaneswari-&#xA;  Trryambaka,&lt;br&gt; Bhairavi- DakshinAmurti,&lt;br&gt; chinnamastA- Kavandha Shiva,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  DhumAvati does not have a consort as she is widow,&lt;br&gt; BagalAmukhi-&#xA;  Ekvaktra MahArudra,&lt;br&gt; KamalA- Vishnurupa SadAshiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(KamalAyA dakshinAmshe vishnurupam sadAshivam)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;How many MahAvidyAs- 10 or more?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although 10 is famous. But different opinions in scriptures are also there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Within the major Tantric scripture called Vishnu KrAnta many other scriptures exist. One among them is aclled MundmAla Tantram. Till date, two manuscripts of mundamAla has been found. The first manuscript gives the famous 10 names:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KAli tArA mahAvidyA shodashi bhuvaneswari |&lt;br&gt; Bhairavi chinnamstA cha&#xA;  vidyA dhumAvati tathA ||&lt;br&gt; BagalAmukhi siddhavidyA mAtangi kamalAtmikA |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  EtA dasha mahAvidyA siddhavidyA prakirtitAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 2nd manuscript gives the following names:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;YathA kAli tatha tArA tathA tripurasundari |&lt;br&gt; Bhairavi bhuvana vidyA&#xA;  chinnA cha bagalAmukhi ||&lt;br&gt; DhumAvati chAnnapurnA durgA cha kamalAtmikA&#xA;  |&lt;br&gt; MAtangi dhanadA padmAvati sarvArtha siddhidA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MundamAlA Tantram 1.14-15.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we find some more names here viz- DurgA, AnnapurnA, DhanadA and PadmAvati. Also, note that, as per RAdhA Tantram, Goddess TripurA's emissary PadmAvati is the one who incarnates as the physical RAdhA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from the usual 10, the Niruttara Tantram, also mentions more Deities among MahAvidyAs viz- DurgA, JayadurgA, AnnapurnA, Sarswati, TwaritA, BhadrA, TripurA and Mahishamardini.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The MAlinivijaya Tantram gives the following names:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KAli niilA mahAdurgA twaritA chinnamastakA |&lt;br&gt; VAgvAdini chAnnapurnA&#xA;  tathA pratyAngirA punah ||&lt;br&gt; KAmAkhyAvAsini bAlA mAtangi shailavasini |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Iti AdyAh sakala vidyAh kalau purnaphalapradAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the new names are- MahAdurgA, TwaritA, Saraswati, AnnapurnA, PratyAngirA, KAmAkhyAvAsini and ShailavAsini (or Mahishamradini). In the above verses Goddess TArA has been mentioned as NilA and Goddess Bhairavi as BAlA. The last verse says- All of them are MahAvidyAs, fully functional in Kali Yuga and AdyAswarupa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Shaktisamgama Tantram 6.16-17 the same 10 mAhavidyas (mahAvidyA dashiava tu) are mentioned but at some other place it also mentions about 13 MahAvidyAs viz- Tarayodasha mahAvidyA virupAkshena kirtitA. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to NirvAna Tantram (also part of VishnukrAntA) the mahAvidyAs are 8 in number.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MahAvidya KAli's mind born son is Lord BrahmA. Upon his request,&#xA;  MahAkali created from herself the 2nd MahAvidyA Savitri. And following&#xA;  MahAkAli's orders the duo got engaged in the process of creation. Upon&#xA;  2nd mind born son- Vishnu's request MahAkAli created from within&#xA;  herself  the 3rd MahAvidyA, Sri. And thereafter, the duo (Vishnu-Sri)&#xA;  got engaged in the task of preservation. Upon the 3rd son, SadAshiva's&#xA;  request MahAkAli similarly created from herself Bhuvanasundari or&#xA;  Bhuvaneswari. Alongwith Bhuvaneswari Lord Shiva got engaged in the&#xA;  task of destruction. In this fashion further 4 more MahAvidyas were&#xA;  created. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NirvAna Tantram Patala 1.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, with AdyA MahAkali the number turns out to be 8.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Vaishnava PanchaRAtra text called Lakshmi Tantram, MahAsarswati has been mentioned as a MahAvidyA (in 4th patala) and Niyati Devi too (in 7th patala).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Tantrakaumidi, ChAmundA, Gauri, PratyangirA and KAtyAyani are also MahAvidyAs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In VAravAnaliya Tantram MahAvidyA's Amnaya bhedas are given viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DakshinAkAli, BagalAmukhi, ChinnamastA, TArA, and BhadrA belongs to&#xA;  the Southern Amnaya. MAtangi- Western Amanya. DhumrAvati- Northern&#xA;  Amanya. Shodashi and Bhairvi- Upper (Urdha) Amanya. Bhuvaneswari,&#xA;  Lakshmi, Saraswati and Annapurna are all Devis of the Eastern Amanya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Niruttara Tantram there are 18 MahAvidyas viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KAli tArA tatha chinna matangi bhuvaneswari |&lt;br&gt; AnnapurnA tathA nityA&#xA;  durgA mahishamardini ||&lt;br&gt; TwaritA tripurA putA bhairavi bagalA tathA |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dhumAvati tathA jneya kamala cha saraswati ||&lt;br&gt; JayadurgA tathA bhadre&#xA;  tatha tripurasundari |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Ashtadasha mahAvidya&lt;/strong&gt; tantrAdau kathita priye ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, according to NArada PancharAtra the number of MahAvidyas is 7 crores and upavidyas are equally numerous. Their forms can not be counted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SaptakotirmahAvidyA upavidyAshcha tadrishAh |&lt;br&gt; TAsAm murtimunisreshtha&#xA;  sankhyAtum naiva shakyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there's a significance of the number 10 with respect to the MahAvidyas as told by Lord SadAshiva in MahAnirvana Tantram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just like the number 0 in itself does not have any value and can&#xA;  regarded as indicative of the formless infinite. So is the&#xA;  Parabrahmayi ParAdevi. But just as when prefixed with a 1 it (0) makes the&#xA;  number 10, similarly when the ParAdevi (0) conjoins with her own&#xA;  trigunAtmika prakriti (or 1) she appears as the 10 MahAvidyAs&#xA;   to fulfill the wishes of the devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to personalities (guna) and activity (kriyA) different forms of ParAdevi has been imagined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;GunakriyAnusarena rupam devyAh prakalpitam - &lt;strong&gt;MahAnirvana Tantram&#xA;  13.4&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-09T07:47:33.263" LastActivityDate="2017-09-09T07:47:33.263" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20744" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20727" CreationDate="2017-09-09T06:36:10.580" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;As per VedAnta.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually you have already answered in your Qn.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a way there is no competition or comparison between &lt;em&gt;Mann &amp;amp; Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;. It's like employee &amp;amp; boss respectively.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;From scriptures, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt; is beyond &lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; at absolute level.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.42 — Senses are said to be beyond (to body), Mind is beyond Senses, &lt;strong&gt;Intellect (&lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;) is even beyond Mind (&lt;em&gt;Mann&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/strong&gt;, &quot;That&quot; (&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;) is even beyond Intellect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the detailed differentiation between them:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10784/1049&quot;&gt;What is the difference between Buddhi (बुद्धि) and Mann (मन)?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though Buddhi is beyond Mann, &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt; in itself is not the righteous. Depending on &lt;em&gt;Sattva, Rajas, Tamas&lt;/em&gt;, one takes right (&lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;), wrong (&lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt;), weird (&lt;em&gt;Vidharma&lt;/em&gt;) decisions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.30 — The one who knows activity &amp;amp; retirement, duty &amp;amp; non-duty, fear &amp;amp; boldness and bonding &amp;amp; liberation properly, has SAtvika Buddhi.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 18.31 — The one who doesn't know Dharma &amp;amp; Adharma, duty &amp;amp; non-duty as it is, has RAjasi Buddhi.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 18.32 — Covered by darkness (Tamas), the one who believes Adharma as Dharma and believes other (thing)s also wrongly, has TAmasi Buddhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From your example (a perspective only),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;under &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; a person may not buy something beyond capabilities, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;under &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; a person would try to stretch his/her capabilities to gratify senses, &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;under &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; a person will buy without worrying about credit dues.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However when the influence of &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; would fall upon a person, -- is not controllable, or rather it's destined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-10T04:19:44.243" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T04:19:44.243" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20746" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-09T16:30:56.427" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dharma Shastras are part of the Hindu Smritis constituting divergent commentaries and treatises on duties, responsibilities and ethics to oneself, to family and as a member of society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-09T16:30:56.427" LastActivityDate="2017-09-09T16:30:56.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20747" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-09T16:30:56.427" Score="0" Body="Dharmaśāstra (Sanskrit: धर्मशास्त्र) is a genre of Sanskrit texts, and refers to the treatises (shastras) of Hinduism on dharma. " OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-09T16:30:56.427" LastActivityDate="2017-09-09T16:30:56.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20748" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-09T16:36:12.990" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Agamas are a collection of scriptures of several Hindu devotional schools.&#xA;Agama texts describe cosmology, epistemology, philosophical doctrines, precepts on meditation and practices, four kinds of yoga, mantras, temple construction, deity worship and ways to attain sixfold desires.These canonical texts are in Sanskrit and in south Indian languages such as Tamil (written in Grantha script and Tamil script).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-09T16:36:12.990" LastActivityDate="2017-09-09T16:36:12.990" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20749" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-09T16:36:12.990" Score="0" Body="The term   Agamas literally means tradition or &quot;that which has come down&quot;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-09T16:36:12.990" LastActivityDate="2017-09-09T16:36:12.990" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20750" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20351" CreationDate="2017-09-09T16:55:52.803" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Committing suicide is not recommended in Garuda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suicide leads to a lower birth and a person has to suffer from ghosthood after death. No sraddha or water oblations are made to a person that has committed suicide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12942/3/Chapter1_830-907p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana (pg 5)&lt;/a&gt; II.22.8-13 (Chapters 21-36 are in this PDF)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The lord said :&#xA;3. It is the men of sinful actions actuated by their previous misdeeds who become ghosts after death. Please listen to me, I shall tell you&#xA;in detail.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who meet with foul death such as &lt;strong&gt;committing suicide by hanging&#xA;from a tree&lt;/strong&gt;, by poison or weapon...[there is more of the same]...&#xA;become ghosts and roam over the earth.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; (pg 2) II.21.17-18&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;17-18. &lt;strong&gt;In every birth he takes he will become extremely indigent,&#xA;sick, devoid of progeny and cattle and he may not get proper&#xA;livelihood either.&lt;/strong&gt; The ghosts perpetrate all these things. Then they&#xA;go back to Yama’s abode. &lt;strong&gt;From that place, when their evil actions&#xA;wear off and the appointed time arrives, they get release.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12942/4/Chapter2_908-952p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana (pg 7)&lt;/a&gt; II.40.4-12 (Chapters 37-49 are in this PDF)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4--12. There are people who are dead by fasts, killed by fanged&#xA;animals, dead by strangulation, who are slayer: of preceptors killed&#xA;by wolves, who die of arson or imprecations of brahmins, who die of&#xA;cholera, &lt;strong&gt;who commit suicide&lt;/strong&gt;, who fall from a peak and die, &lt;strong&gt;who&#xA;hang themselves to death&lt;/strong&gt;, who are drowned in tank, river or&#xA;oeean,—listen to their plight. &lt;strong&gt;These go to hell.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[...] who are likely fall into hell by committing sin. or escaping it&#xA;become ghosts—&lt;strong&gt;for such persons there is no rite of cremation, no&#xA;water-libation, no rite of obsequy and no observance of impurity. For&#xA;these people, O Garuda, the rite of Narayana bali should be&#xA;performed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As of suffering, even heaven and hell provide no comfort and a person is bound in the cycle of life. If his merits are exhausted he's sent to Bhuloka again to regain them and the cycle resumes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To kill yourself to escape suffering doesn't work because not only in this world but also the next the soul does not get peace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; (pg 53) II.32.72-81&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;72&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes he goes to heaven, sometimes to hell. In heaven or hell he reaps the fruits of his activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sometimes, when he has exhausted the merit of his actions he descends to the earth by the residue of his merits. Heaven or hell is&#xA;not a permanent abode, this you should know, O best of birds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;People going to hell suffer from extreme tortures which they&#xA;derive from their hellish activities.&lt;/strong&gt; Their tortures increase when&#xA;they see their companions enjoying in heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;76.&lt;strong&gt;Looking at the tortures suffered by the people in hell, the residents of heaven feel that after the expiry of their merit the same&#xA;fate awaits them in hell.&lt;/strong&gt; Thus all the while they remain&#xA;discomfortable in heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;77&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A Jiva in the embryo is put to great suffering. He suffers in childhood and old age as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In youth he suffers from the evil effects of vicious desires, jealousy, rage.&lt;/strong&gt; He is afflicted by had dreams. Old age ends in death which is extremely painful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Being dragged by the emissaries of Yama he is thrust into hell. From hell he descends to the earth to suffer again the utmost pangs of&#xA;birth and death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;80. Thus, on the wheel of this universe, people are made to rotate&#xA;like the potter’s wheel and are tortured incessantly, tangled by the&#xA;noose of their actions.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;81. O bird, there is no pleasure whatsoever in this world abounding in a multitude of sorrows. O son of Vinata, people should endeavour for&#xA;salvation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What then is the point of trying to escape suffering by suicide? When suicide will just lead to a worse stage than the one you already have?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A soul rarely gets a human body, hence if you terminate your life by suicide you have committed a sin and that is why we get various punishments. The human birth is to gain knowledge and achieve moksa. Vishnu tells Garuda one should not waste it. Only in a human body can one realize Parabrahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Garuda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; (pg 35) II.49.12-21&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;12&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Passing through four types of bodies in order of their karman and leaving one body after the other a thousand times, &lt;strong&gt;taking birth in&#xA;human form and acquiring knowledge due to good acts one obtains&#xA;release.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the eightyfour lacs of bodies of creatures one does not acquire true knowledge anywhere unless one is born as man.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here, after thousands of crores of births a creature obtains human form only sometime due to the aggregate of virtue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Having obtained a rare human form he should endeavour for moksa. If he does not endeavour for it, there can be no greater sinner in the&#xA;world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;17.&lt;strong&gt;Without human body it is not possible to obtain the supreme goal.&lt;/strong&gt; One should be, therefore, very cautious to guard wealth in the&#xA;form of his body and perform good actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;18&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One should always protect self which is the receptacle of virtue.&lt;/strong&gt; One should always try to look after the body at any cost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If alive, he may reap the result of his good actions.&lt;/strong&gt; He may get a village, a ﬁeld, a house or a wealth. &lt;strong&gt;But he may not get human&#xA;body again.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A wise man ﬁnds out means to preserve his body. Even a leper does not wish to discard it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Body is useful for Dharma, Dharma in knowledge, knowledge for meditation and meditation for immediate release.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T15:26:30.207" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20751" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20775" CreationDate="2017-09-09T20:06:02.797" Score="3" ViewCount="562" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure of the particulars but I remember someone telling me that Krishna or Vishnu is the very embodiment of the concept of time or something like that. Is it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4893" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T15:43:50.017" Title="Is Lord Vishnu symbolic for time?" Tags="|krishna|vaishnavism|time|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-09-11T12:21:03.340" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20752" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20760" CreationDate="2017-09-10T02:30:11.890" Score="5" ViewCount="1208" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's common to hear that Ganesha himself wrote the Mahabharata dictated by Vyasa muni. But wasn't all these epics passed down generation after generation orally?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They were written down fairly recently (in the broad time scale of Indian history I mean). Since its Kali Yuga how is it possible for God to have appeared?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how can we be sure that it was written down and not dictated?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4893" LastEditorUserId="4893" LastEditDate="2017-09-10T03:56:34.487" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T05:44:49.893" Title="How do we know that Lord Ganesha wrote the Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|ganesha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20754" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20702" CreationDate="2017-09-10T03:26:21.717" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all whatever work Supreme Lord does he has no purpose to do it from absolute level perspective which I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16182/what-exactly-is-a-leela-%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%b2%e0%a4%be-is-there-a-scriptural-definition-of-leela-%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%b2%e0%a4%be/16188#16188&quot;&gt;discuss here&lt;/a&gt; and hence his activity is termed as Leela.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As for daily activity like what do Lord Shiva do daily in Kailash or what do Lord Vishnu do daily in Vaikuntha we can infer their daily activity from various Puranic sources and also from Itihasas. For eg. There are times when Lord Vishnu &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20599/are-there-any-scriptural-references-of-the-trinity-brahma-vishnu-maheshshiva/20600#20600&quot;&gt;sleeps&lt;/a&gt; in the Milky Ocean. There are times when Lord Shiva is engaged in meditation. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here is an example from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13a014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; about what Lord Shiva does:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He has snakes for his belt, and his ears are adorned with ear-rings made of snakes. Snakes form also the sacred thread he wears. An elephant skin forms his upper garment. &lt;strong&gt;He sometimes laughs and sometimes sings and sometimes dances most beautifully. Surrounded by innumerable spirits and ghosts, he sometimes plays on musical instruments. Diverse, again are the instruments upon which he plays, and sweet the sounds they yield. He sometimes wanders (over crematoria), sometimes yawns, sometimes cries, and sometimes causes others to cry. He sometimes assumes the guise of one that is mad, and sometimes of one that is intoxicated, and he sometimes utters words that are exceedingly sweet. Endued with appalling fierceness, he sometimes laughs loudly, frightening all creatures with his eyes. He sometimes sleeps and sometimes remains awake and sometimes yawns as he pleases. He sometimes recites sacred Mantras and sometimes becomes the deity of those Mantras which are recited. He sometimes performs penances and sometimes becomes the deity for whose adoration those penances are undergone. He sometimes makes gifts and sometimes receives those gifts; sometimes disposes himself in Yoga and sometimes becomes the object of the Yoga contemplation of others.&lt;/strong&gt; He may be seen on the sacrificial platform or in the sacrificial stake; in the midst of the cow-pen or in the fire. He may not again be seen there. He may be seen as a boy or as an old man. He sports with the daughters and the spouses of the Rishis. His hair is long and stands erect. He is perfectly naked, for he has the horizon for his garments. He is endued with terrible eyes. He is fair, he is darkish, he is dark, he is pale, he is of the colour of smoke, and he is red. He is possessed of eyes that are large and terrible. He has empty space for his covering and he it is that covers all things. Who is there that can truly understand the limits of Mahadeva who is formless, who is one and indivisible, who conjures of illusions, who is of the cause of all actions and destructive operations in the universe, who assumes the form of Hiranyagarbha, and who is without beginning and without end, and who is without birth. He lives in the heart (of every creature). He is the prana, he is the mind, and he is Jiva (that is invested in the material case). He is the soul of Yoga, and it is that is called Yoga. He is the Yoga-contemplation into which Yogins enter. He is the Supreme Soul. Indeed Maheswara, the purity in essence, is capable of being comprehended not by the senses but through only the Soul seizing his existence. &lt;strong&gt;He plays on diverse musical instruments. He is a vocalist.&lt;/strong&gt; He has a hundred thousand eyes, he has one mouth, he has two mouths, he has three mouths, and he has many mouths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T03:26:21.717" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20755" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13992" CreationDate="2017-09-10T04:13:15.970" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chaitanya is the collection of the chita. Much like the waves of the ocean. Each wave represents a thought,which the self consciousness is experiencing. The persona is a sum collection and displays these attributes in the world.&#xA;A deeper understanding of the manas as compared to the character of the self will enhance the true realization. Chitta is a sub set in to which our desires flow and chaitanya is developed. With passage of time,the currents change and so do the chaithanya, I believe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11961" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T04:13:15.970" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20756" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13992" CreationDate="2017-09-10T04:28:16.440" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As for the soul, it's timeless,is a passive spectator,assumes the role as such,devoid of right or wrong. To even connect it to chaitanya,much less chita,I feel may not be appropriate.chaithanya is confined to one's lifetime. Comparison therefore is not correct. A total of karmas arising out of the waves of chita,are dealt  with as prescribed in scriptures,say like Garuda Puranam.Hindus pray for salvation. Some are not reborn.Do such souls have chaithanya is again a question which is not easy to answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11961" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T04:28:16.440" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20760" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20752" CreationDate="2017-09-10T05:44:49.893" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know it through &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Parva of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Vyasa having gone round him who is called Hiranyagarbha seated on that distinguished seat stood near it; and being commanded by Brahma Parameshthi, he sat down near the seat, full of affection and smiling in joy. Then the greatly glorious Vyasa, addressing Brahma Parameshthi, said, &amp;quot;O divine Brahma, by me a poem hath been composed which is greatly respected. The mystery of the Veda, and what other subjects have been explained by me; the various rituals of the Upanishads with the Angas; the compilation of the Puranas and history formed by me and named after the three divisions of time, past, present, and future; the determination of the nature of decay, fear, disease, existence, and non-existence, a description of creeds and of the various modes of life; rule for the four castes, and the import of all the Puranas; an account of asceticism and of the duties of a religious student; the dimensions of the sun and moon, the planets, constellations, and stars, together with the duration of the four ages; the Rik, Sama and Yajur Vedas; also the Adhyatma; the sciences called Nyaya, Orthœphy and Treatment of diseases; charity and Pasupatadharma; birth celestial and human, for particular purposes; also a description of places of pilgrimage and other holy places of rivers, mountains,, forests, the ocean, of heavenly cities and the kalpas; the art of war; the different kinds of nations and languages: the nature of the manners of the people; and the all-pervading spirit;--&lt;strong&gt;all these have been represented. But, after all, no writer of this work is to be found on earth.&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;Brahma said. &amp;apos;I esteem thee for thy knowledge of divine mysteries, before the whole body of celebrated Munis distinguished for the sanctity of their lives. I know thou hast revealed the divine word, even from its first utterance, in the language of truth. Thou hast called thy present work a poem, wherefore it shall be a poem. &lt;strong&gt;There shall be no poets whose works may equal the descriptions of this poem, even, as the three other modes called Asrama are ever unequal in merit to the domestic Asrama. Let Ganesa be thought of, O Muni, for the purpose of writing the poem.&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;Sauti said, &amp;apos;Brahma having thus spoken to Vyasa, retired to his own abode. Then Vyasa began to call to mind Ganesa. &lt;strong&gt;And Ganesa, obviator of obstacles, ready to fulfil the desires of his votaries, was no sooner thought of, than he repaired to the place where Vyasa was seated. And when he had been saluted, and was seated, Vyasa addressed him thus, &amp;apos;O guide of the Ganas! be thou the writer of the Bharata which I have formed in my imagination, and which I am about to repeat.&amp;quot; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;Ganesa, upon hearing this address, thus answered, &amp;apos;I will become the writer of thy work, provided my pen do not for a moment cease writing.&amp;quot; And Vyasa said unto that divinity, &amp;apos;Wherever there be anything thou dost not comprehend, cease to continue writing.&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt; Ganesa having signified his assent, by repeating the word Om! proceeded to write; and Vyasa began; and by way of diversion, he knit the knots of composition exceeding close; by doing which, he dictated this work according to his engagement. I am (continued Sauti) acquainted with eight thousand and eight hundred verses, and so is Suka, and perhaps Sanjaya. From the mysteriousness of their meaning, O Muni, no one is able, to this day, to penetrate those closely knit difficult slokas. &lt;strong&gt;Even the omniscient Ganesa took a moment to consider; while Vyasa, however, continued to compose other verses in great abundance.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T05:44:49.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20761" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20737" CreationDate="2017-09-10T05:56:21.233" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First of all, does that imply there were no Shraads performed before&#xA;  the Mahabharat times?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, that can not be true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ParAshara Smriti, for example, says that the Manu Smriti is the Smriti to be followed in Krita (or Satya) Yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3F3Oa.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3F3Oa.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krite tu mAnavA&lt;/strong&gt; dharmAs tretAyAm gautamAh smritAhA |&lt;br&gt; DwApare&#xA;  shAnkhalikhitAh kalau parAshArah smritAhA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For the Krita are suited the laws of Manu&lt;/strong&gt; ; for the Treta, those by&#xA;  Gautama (are) prescribed ; for the Dvapara those by Shank and Likhita&#xA;  ; for the Kali, those by Parasara are prescribed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ParAshara Smriti 1.24&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, obviously, Manu Smriti existed during Krita Yuga. And in Manu Smtiti itself, ShrAddha has been prescribed as shown by the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.81. Let him worship, according to the rule, the sages by&#xA;  the private recitation of the Veda, the gods by burnt oblations, the&#xA;  manes &lt;strong&gt;by funeral offerings (Sraddha&lt;/strong&gt;), men by (gifts of) food, and the&#xA;  Bhutas by the Bali offering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.82. Let him daily perform a funeral sacrifice with food,&#xA;  or with water, or also with milk, roots, and fruits, and (thus) please&#xA;  the manes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Note-Here, the original Sanskrit verses has words like &lt;em&gt;Pitrna shrAddhesha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;ShrAddham&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the MahAbhArata happened during the end of DwApara only. So, how can it be true that some ritual which originated with MahAbhArata was already prescribed for people who used to live in Krita Yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-10T06:39:16.597" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T06:39:16.597" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20762" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-10T06:50:02.117" Score="4" ViewCount="135" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that the PurAnas have 5 signs or &lt;code&gt;lakshnas&lt;/code&gt;. If a scripture does not have those 5 signs then it can not be called a PurAna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These 5 signs are shared by all PurAnas i.e by the 18 major (mahA) and the 18 minor (upa) ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the major PurAnas, however, there are additional 5 signs, so in all 10 signs are there for any major PurAna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise, the Tantras also have several lakshanas. The YAmala Tantras too has separate such lakshanas of their own.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I want to know, whether the ItihAshas too have some signs? If yes, what are those and in which scriptures are they mentioned?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-10T10:16:12.990" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T10:16:12.990" Title="Are there any signs (or lakshnas) that determine the ItihAsha scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|itihasa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20765" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20677" CreationDate="2017-09-10T08:21:00.067" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As shown in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20742&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Devi PurAna account gives the widely known 10 MahAvidyAs. The account from the Devi BhAgavatam, on the other hand, does not include the origin of 2 MahAvidyas namely- DhumAvati and Bhuvaneswari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devi PurAna account gives:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva asked &quot; Who are you ShyAmA (the dark complexioned one)?&#xA;  Where is my beloved Sati?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi laughingly replied &quot; Can't you recognize me? I am your own Sati.&#xA;  I'm the SrishtistithisamhArakArini SukshmA Parkriti. For being your&#xA;  wife i have become fair complexioned (Gauri). The ten Devis that you&#xA;  see around you are also my forms. Hence, O MahAmati Shambhu, do not&#xA;  fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sati said to her husband who was afflicted with fear &quot; The Goddess who&#xA;  is in your front is BhimanayanA MahakAli, in the sky (or in the&#xA;  antariksha direction) is TArA, on the right side is ChinnamastA, on&#xA;  your left is Bhuvaneswari, behind you is BagalAmukhi, at the&#xA;  south-east corner (Agni Kona) is DhumAvati, in the south-west corner&#xA;  (Nairitkona) there is KamalA, in the north0west corner (VAyukona)&#xA;  there is MAtangi , in the north-east corner (IshAna kona) there is&#xA;  Shodashi (Tripura Sundari) and in your own self i am existing as&#xA;  Bhairavi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now, if you want i can teach that proud Daksha a lesson by destroying&#xA;  his Yajna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this story mentions all the usual ten names of the MahAvidyAs we find in the Tantras viz:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KAli tArA mahAvidyA shodashi bhuvaneswari |&lt;br&gt; Bhairavi chinnamstA&#xA;  cha vidyA dhumAvati tathA ||&lt;br&gt; BagalAmukhi siddhavidyA mAtangi&#xA;  kamalAtmikA |&lt;br&gt; EtA dasha mahAvidyA siddhavidyA prakirtitAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MundamAlA Tantram.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same names are also mentioned in the Brihaddharma PurAna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MahAvidyA imAh proktA nAmAnyAsantu varnaye |&lt;br&gt; KAli tArA mahAvidyA&#xA;  shodashi bhuvaneswari ||&lt;br&gt; BhairvaichinnamstA cha sundari&#xA;  bagalamukhi|&lt;br&gt; dhumAvati cha mAtangi mahAvidyA dashaiva TAh || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brihaddharma PurAna, MadhyabhAga.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, here the MahAvidya word has been used explicitly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, from the the Devi BHAgavatam we find:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a result of that penance, Goddess was pleased and Devi&#xA;  Bhuvaneswari, Maheswari, PArvati displayed her spectacular form which&#xA;  is endowed with infinite number of eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Iti samprArtitA devi bhuvaneshi maheswari |&lt;br&gt; anantAkshimayam rupam&#xA;  darshyAmAs pArvati || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi BhAgavatam 7.28.31-33&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From those infinite number of eyes of Goddess PArvati, for nine days,&#xA;  continuously flowed tears.And as a result the dry and lifeless earth&#xA;  got rejuvenated. The Gods came out of the caves and started eulogizing&#xA;  Goddess. Durgama got informed of all the happenings from spies and&#xA;  came to fight Goddess.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, during this battle from Goddess SatAkshi's body emerged 32 MahAshaktis and 64 Divyashaktis and numerous Shaktis all equipped with many weapons. Among the 32 MahAshati we find the names of all the MahAvidyas except DhumAvati and Buvaneswari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KAlikA tArini bAlA tripurA bhairvai ramA|&lt;br&gt; bagalA chaiva mAtangi&#xA;  tathA tripurAsundari ||&lt;br&gt; KAmAkshi kulajA devi jambhini mohini tathA&#xA;  |&lt;br&gt; ChinnamastA guhyakAli dashasAhasra bahukA ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  DvAtrimshacchayashchAnyA devyah samudbhutAstu sAyudhAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi BhAgavatam 7.28.55-57&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, not all the 10 traditional names are found in this account. The word MahAvidyA is also not used anywhere. &lt;strong&gt;That's why the 10 MahAvidyas emerging from Goddess Sati's body should be taken the more comprehensive account of their origin IMO.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Interestingly, in the Dasha MahAvidyA Stuthi found &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Dasa_Maha_Vidhya_Sthuthi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Goddess Bhuvaneswari is praised as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She is the goddess of the universe. She is normally depicted with four&#xA;  hands, with goad, rope and the other two showing giving boons and&#xA;  another protection. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pasankusa dari durgam asura samharini,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Shatakshi sakambari nama Vikhyathe &lt;br&gt; BHuvaneswari namosthuthe&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, Goddess PArvati's form, which is endowed with an infinite number of eyes, is Goddess Bhuvaneswari herself. And the Devi BhAgavatam mentions that from Bhuvaneswari or PArvati the remaining MahAvidyAs have emerged (with exception of DhumAvati).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, that's why Goddess Bhuvaneswari's name is not found in the list of the Goddesses who emerged out of Goddess PArvati's body. However, this does not explain why DhumAvati is not mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways, an interesting point to note here, is that apart from KAlikA, the only other Dasha MahAvidya who is also called as AdyA (or the primordial one) is Bhuvaneswari. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the DhyAnam of Goddess Bhuvaneswari's three-lettered mantra we find:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VarAnkushau pAsham bhiti mudrAm karairvahantim kamalAsanasthAm |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BAlArka koti pratimAm trinetrAm bhajeham &lt;strong&gt;AdyAm bhuvaneswarim TAm&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-10T16:28:07.580" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T16:28:07.580" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20766" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-10T11:08:31.687" Score="3" ViewCount="103" Body="&lt;p&gt;Devas are the benevolent and asuras are manevolent. Asuras used to take captive of Devas. Other than this, any historical comparison to devas and asuras?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What are the meanings of these terms?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11964" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-11T00:43:38.920" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T03:18:35.373" Title="What is the difference between Devas and Asuras?" Tags="|history|asuras|gods|terminology|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-09-11T09:31:51.873" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20767" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-10T13:02:17.253" Score="6" ViewCount="398" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've come across multiple scriptures and works of Acharyas which describe a Suryakanta gem, which seems to act like a magnifying glass, using sunlight to produce fire.  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12b045.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Two pieces of wood, rubbed together, produce fire. &lt;strong&gt;The stone called Suryakanta, coming in contact with the rays of the Sun, produces fire.&lt;/strong&gt; Any solid metallic substance, heated in fire, dries up water when coming in contact with it. Similarly, the material body produces the mind and its attributes of perception, memory, imagination, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here's what &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601602.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/18/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.19900/2015.19900.Tantra-Vartika-Of-Kumarila--Bhatta_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=2015.19900.Tantra-Vartika-Of-Kumarila--Bhatta_jp2/2015.19900.Tantra-Vartika-Of-Kumarila--Bhatta_0439.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Kumarila Bhatta's Tantra Vartika, a Purva Mimamsa work, says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word &quot;Nirmanthya&quot; signifying only &quot;the fire produced by friction,&quot; and as such having its sole purpose in the setting aside of the employing of such fires as are produced either from electric sparks or by striking, &lt;strong&gt;or from the solar gem&lt;/strong&gt;, etc. - why should it be taken to mean the fire produced on the spot?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here's what &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800808.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/30/items/prashastapadabhashya/7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_jp2/7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_0163.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Sridhara's Nyaya Kandali, a Vaisheshika work, says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a matter of fact we often find that a single effect has got various kinds of circumstantial accessories for its cause.  For instance, Fire is produced out of the rubbing of two sticks &lt;strong&gt;as well as from the solar gem.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is this Suryakanta gem?  Are there any scriptures or works of Acharyas that describe what the Suryakanta gem looks like, where it is found, etc.?  Is it like the famous Syamantaka gem, which must be divinely obtained, or is it found on Earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I don't want scientific speculation, I just want to know what Hindu scripture and the works of Acharyas have to say.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-15T18:21:40.753" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T18:21:40.753" Title="What is the Suryakanta gem that produces fire from sunlight?" Tags="|mahabharata|philosophy|purva-mimamsa|vaisheshika|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20768" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20777" CreationDate="2017-09-10T13:32:37.507" Score="10" ViewCount="2157" Body="&lt;p&gt;Nyaya and Vaisheshika are one of the six astika schools of thoughts in Sanatana Dharma (the other four being Yoga, Vedanta, Mimamsa and Samkhya). Both schools, according to me, seem to be having similar views on metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics, and soteriology. Then what is the difference between Nyaya and Vaisheshika? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-03-13T05:40:28.870" LastActivityDate="2018-03-13T05:40:28.870" Title="What is the difference between Nyaya and Vaisheshika?" Tags="|nyaya|shad-darshana|vaisheshika|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20770" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20774" CreationDate="2017-09-10T17:33:41.247" Score="11" ViewCount="806" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I asked in this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/20737/5212&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; the story of &lt;strong&gt;Karna from Mahabharat&lt;/strong&gt; is given in many portals for the origin of the ShrAdh ritual but as is apparent from the discussions on it this seems unlikely since the &lt;strong&gt;Manu Smriti&lt;/strong&gt; which is the rule book for the older Satyug already mentions ShrAdh. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is - &lt;strong&gt;What is the story of the origin of the ShrAdh ritual?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2019-03-22T09:05:04.523" LastActivityDate="2019-03-22T18:11:52.437" Title="What is the story of the origin of Sraadha ritual?" Tags="|mahabharata|rituals|vedic-rituals|sraddha|pitru|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20771" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20772" CreationDate="2017-09-10T18:12:11.503" Score="4" ViewCount="648" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to read the Vishnusmriti and Naradasmriti in English along with commentaries online. Can anyone provide me relevant links?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T18:32:19.613" Title="Where can I find the complete English translation of the Vishnusmriti and Naradasmriti along with commentaries if possible?" Tags="|translation-request|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20772" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20771" CreationDate="2017-09-10T18:22:17.467" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu Smriti without commentary is available here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;THE INSTITUTES OF VISHNU, TRANSLATED BY JULIUS JOLLY&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narada Smriti without commentary is available here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe33/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narada Smriti&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T18:22:17.467" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20773" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20771" CreationDate="2017-09-10T18:32:19.613" Score="5" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/naradiyadharmasa021669mbp/naradiyadharmasa021669mbp_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Narada Smriti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://reviewout.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/vishnu-smriti.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Smriti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately commentaries are not available. If I find, i will update my answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T18:32:19.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20774" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20770" CreationDate="2017-09-10T19:22:24.877" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The same question has been asked by Yudhishthira to Bhishma in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b056.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Anushashana Parva, SECTION XCI&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Yudhishthira said, &lt;strong&gt;'By whom was the Sraddha first conceived and at what time&lt;/strong&gt;? What also is its essence? During the time when the world was peopled by only the descendants of Bhrigu and Angiras; who was the muni that established the Sraddha? What acts should not be done at Sraddha? What are those Sraddhas in which fruits and roots are to be offered? What species' also of paddy should be avoided in Sraddhas? Do thou tell me all this, O grandsire!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, Bhishma told him that, there was  a Rishi Atri, who had a son Dattatreya who had a son Nimi whose son was Shrimata. Shrimata died before his father. So Nimi performed purificatory rites and invited seven Brahmana and offered them foods and by mistake he offered food to his dead son. But after that Nimi filled with regret because no one has ever performed this kind of rite. He remembered Sage Atri, so Sage Atri came there and told him that what he has done is right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Bhishma said, 'Listen to me, O ruler of men, as I tell thee how the Sraddha was introduced, the time of such introduction, the essences of the rite, and the Muni who conceived it. From the Self-born Brahman sprang Atri, O thou of Kuru's race. In Atri's race was born a Muni of the name of Dattatreya. Dattatreya got a son of the name of Nimi possessed of wealth of asceticism. &lt;strong&gt;Nimi got a son named Srimat who was endued with great beauty of person. Upon the expiration of a full thousand years, Srimat, having undergone the severest austerities, succumbed to the influence of Time and departed from this world. His sire Nimi, having performed the Purificatory rites according to the ritual laid down in the ordinance, became filled with great grief, thinking continually of the loss of his son. Thinking of that cause of sorrow the high-souled Nimi collected together various agreeable objects (of food and drink) on the fourteenth day of the moon. The next morning he rose from bed. Pained his heart was with grief, as he rose from sleep that day--he succeeded in withdrawing it from the one object upon which it had been working. His understanding succeeded in busying itself with other matters. With concentrated attention he then conceived the idea of a Sraddha.&lt;/strong&gt; All those articles of his own food, consisting of fruits and roots, and all those kinds of staple grains that were agreeable to him, were carefully thought of by that sage possessed of wealth of penances. On the day of the New moon he invited a number of adorable Brahmanas (to his asylum). Possessed of great wisdom, Nimi caused them to be seated on seats (of Kusa grass) and honoured them by going around their persons. Approaching seven such Brahmanas whom he had brought to his abode together, the puissant Nimi gave unto them food consisting of Syamaka rice, unmixed with salt. Towards the feet of those Brahmanas engaged in eating the food that was served unto them a number of Kusa blades was spread out on the seats they occupied, with the top ends of the blades directed towards the south. &lt;strong&gt;With a pure body and mind and with concentrated attention, Nimi, having placed those blades of sacred grass in the way indicated, offered cakes of rice unto his dead son, uttering his name and family. Having done this, that foremost of Munis became filled with regret at the idea of having achieved an act that had not (to his knowledge) been laid down in any of the scriptures. Indeed, filled with regret he began to think of what he had done. 'Never done before by the Munis, alas, what have I done! How shall I (for having done an act that has not been ordained) avoid being cursed by the Brahmanas (as an introducer of strange rites)?' He then thought of the original progenitor of his race. As soon as he was thought of, Atri endued with wealth of penances came there. Beholding him exceedingly afflicted with grief on account of the death of his son, the immortal Atri comforted him with agreeable counsels. He said unto him, 'O Mini, this rite that thou hast conceived, is a sacrifice in honour of the Pitris. Let no fear be thine, O thou that art possessed of the wealth of asceticism! The Grandsire Brahman himself, in days of old, laid it down!&lt;/strong&gt; This rite that thou hast conceived has been ordained by the Self-born&#xA;  himself. Who else than the Self-born could ordain this ritual in Sraddhas? I shall presently tell thee, O son, the excellent ordinance laid down in respect of Sraddhas. Ordained by the Self-born himself, O son, do thou follow it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, according to Mahabharata, Nimi was the first to perform the Shraaddha ritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastActivityDate="2017-09-10T19:22:24.877" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20775" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20751" CreationDate="2017-09-10T20:26:58.787" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it is true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://asitis.com/11/32.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 11&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Krishna says he is Time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śrībhagavān uvāca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kālosmi&lt;/strong&gt; lokakṣayakṛt pravṛddho&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;lokān samāhartum iha pravṛttaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ṛtepi tvāṃ na bhaviṣyanti sarve&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yevasthitāḥ pratyanīkeṣu yodhāḥ 11.32&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TRANSLATION&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Blessed Lord said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Time I am, destroyer of the worlds&lt;/strong&gt;, and I have come to engage all people. With the exception of you [the Pandavas], all the soldiers&#xA;here on both sides will be slain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same thing is said in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://asitis.com/10/30.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 10&lt;/a&gt; Vibhuti Yoga of Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pralhādaś cāsmi daityānāṃ &lt;strong&gt;kālaḥ kalayatām aham&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;mṛgāṇāṃ ca mṛgendrohaṃ vainateyaś ca pakṣiṇām 10.30&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TRANSLATION&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Among the Daitya demons I am the devoted Prahlada; &lt;strong&gt;among subduers I am&#xA;time;&lt;/strong&gt; among the beasts I am the lion, and among birds I am Garuda, the&#xA;feathered carrier of Visnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana&lt;/strong&gt; Book 1 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp036.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt; Parashara says Time (Kala) is a form of Vishnu and it is through his forms of Kala and Purusha (Spirit) does Vishnu perform his actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He then existed in the forms of Purusha and of Kála.&lt;/strong&gt; Purusha (spirit)&#xA;is the first form, of the supreme; next proceeded two other forms, the&#xA;discrete and indiscrete; and Kála (time) was the last.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;These four--Pradhána (primary or crude matter), Purusha (spirit),&#xA;Vyakta (visible substance), and Kála (time)--the wise consider to be&#xA;the pure and supreme condition of Vishnu.&lt;/strong&gt; These four forms, in their&#xA;due proportions, are the causes of the production of the phenomena of&#xA;creation, preservation, and destruction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu being thus discrete and indiscrete substance, spirit, and time,&#xA;sports like a playful boy, as you shall learn by listening to his&#xA;frolics.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T15:43:50.017" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20776" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20368" CreationDate="2017-09-11T04:57:14.163" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;While its very easy to ask such questions but at the same time extremely difficult to answer IMO.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, still i have managed to come up with an extremely short answer :D.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Te hlAdaparitApaphalAh punyApunyahetutvAt &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because Punya (merit) and PApa or Apunya (demerit) are their causes, their&#xA;  effects are respectively Ananda (happiness or bliss) and Dukkha (sadness).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PAtanjala Yoga Sutras, SAdhana PAda-14.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We don't need to know what &quot;they&quot; are in this verse because that's irrelevant here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, going in the reverse order, any act whose effect is Dukkha (sadness) is demerit or sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, if you say that this is highly subjective, then i would say even what's sin and what's not is also highly subjective and changes with person, context etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can also see the following verse from Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.12. The Veda, the sacred tradition, the customs of&#xA;  virtuous men, and one’s own pleasure (or own conscience), they declare&#xA;  to be visibly the fourfold means of defining the sacred law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;VedAh smritih sadAchArah swayasya cha priyam Atmanah&lt;/em&gt;- These are the fourfold means.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) So, anything that's being declared in Vedas or Smritis as sin is a sin. &lt;br&gt; 2) Anything that's not according to the principles of righteous living (sadAchAra) is a sin. &lt;br&gt; 3) Even anything that our own conscience is marking as sin is a sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-11T05:15:06.527" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T05:15:06.527" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20777" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20768" CreationDate="2017-09-11T05:01:15.990" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me start off by saying that it is natural to ask what the differences are between the Nyaya school and the Vaisheshika school are, because of how closely related they are.  First of all, the six Astika schools are often grouped into three groups of two: Samkhya-Yoga, Nyaya-Vaisheshika, and Mimamsa-Vedanta.  That's because the Samkhya and Yoga schools both believe in Purusha and Prakriti, they just differ on the existence of a supreme being.  Similarly the Purva Mimamsa and Vedanta schools are both focused on analyzing the Vedas, they're just focused on different parts of the Vedas.  The Nyaya and Vaisheshika school similarly have much in common: they both believe that the existence of a supreme being can be logically proven, they both believe that the Vedas are authored by that supreme being rather than being authorless, they both believe that the natural elements are eternal rather than arising from either Prakriti or Brahman, etc. They had so much in common, in fact, that eventually they stopped existing as distinct philosophical schools, and merged into a single philosophy, known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navya-Ny%C4%81ya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Navya Nyaya&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But they do have differences.  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/FQpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his book &quot;Conception of Matter According to Nyaya-Vaisheshika&quot;, Umesh Mishra lays out in detail 19 differences between the Nyaya and Vaisheshika. Umesh Mishra's list is summarized in &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/j41hZF/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Encylopedia of Indian Philosophies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya's emphasis on epistemology, Vaisheshika on ontology&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya has 4 Pramanas, Vaisheshika, 2&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya has 5 kinds of perception, Vaisheshika only 1&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;According to Nyaya inherence is perceptible, but not according to Vaisheshika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya is pitharapakavada, Vaisheshika pilupakavada&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya believes that one motion last 3 or 4 moments, Vaisheshika that it lasts 7 moments.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya admits 5 fallacies of the hetu, Vaisheshika, 3&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya believes that in process there are several vegas produced in turn; Vaisheshika says there is only one&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya admits sakhandopadis, Vaisheshika includes them under other categories (this applies only to the later schools)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vaisheshika admits disjunction produced by disjunction, Nyaya does not&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vaisheshika holds that 2 and higher numbers are produced by an apekshabuddhi, Nyaya says that the apekshabuddhi only manifests, does not produce those numbers&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya accepts contact between all-pervading substances,Vaisheshika does not&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The schools differ about the state of the self in liberation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya uses the term artha to cover the 5 sense-qualities, while Vaisheshika uses it to cover all substances, qualities, and motions&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vaisheshika classifies inferences in a fivefold manner (by effect, by cause, by contact, by contradiction, and by inherence), Nyaya thinks this classification useless&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya says tenderness is separate from hardness and both inhere in contact inhering only in earth, while Vaisheshika says they inhere in touch, not contact&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Naiyayika are Saivas, Vaisheshikas, Pasupatas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;There is reputed to be a difference of viewpoint about organisms, although Mishra thinks there is not&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nyaya says dreams may be true or false, but Vaisheshika says they are always false.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whew!  Let me just elaborate on the first two differences, since they're among the most important:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Emphasis&lt;/strong&gt;: The Nyaya school is focused on logical reasoning and argument.  In fact the framework of logical argument that the other Astika schools use in their philosophical works and debates comes from the Nyaya school; if you've encountered terms like Pramana, Prameya, Vishaya, Purvapaksha, Siddhanta, Vitandavada, etc., you can see the great debt we owe to the Nyaya school.  In short the Nyaya is primarily concerned with epistemology, the study of how we know what is true and what is false.  The Vaisheshika school, on the other hand, is focused on ontology, the study of what exists in the Universe.  In particular, it subscribes to atomism and contends that atoms are the ultimate cause of the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the difference of focus is reflected in what these two schools think is required for Moksha.  There isn't much that all the Astika schools agree on apart from the authority of the Vedas, but one of the few things they do agree on is that knowledge of some kind leads to Moksha.  What they differ on is what knowledge is required, how to acquire that knowledge, etc.  The first Sutra of Gautama's Nyaya Sutras describes the knowledge that the Nyaya school thinks is required for Moksha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pramāṇa-prameya-saṃśaya-prayojana-dṛṣṭānta-siddhānt-avayava-tarka-nirṇaya-vāda-jalpa-vitaṇḍā-hetvābhāsa-cchala-jāti-nigrahasthānānī tattva-jñānān niśreyasa-adhigamaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is the knowledge of the real essence (or true character) of the following sixteen categories that leads to the attainment of the Highest Good -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The means of Right Cognition&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The objects of Right Cognition &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Doubt&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Motive&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Example&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Theory&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Factors of Inference&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Cogitation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Demonstrated Truth&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Discussion&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Disputation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Wrangling&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Fallacious Reason&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Casuistry&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Futile Rejoinders&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Clinchers&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the fourth Sutra of Kanada's Vaisheshika Sutras describes the knowledge that the Vaisheshika schools thinks is required:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dharma-viśeṣa-prasūtād dravya-guṇa-karma-sāmānya-viśeṣa-samavāyānāṃ padārthānāṃ sādharmaya-vaidharmyābhyāṃ tattva-jñānān niḥśreyasam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Good (results) from the knowledge, produced by a particular dharma, of the essence of the Predicables, Substance, Attribute, Action, Genus, Species, and Combination by means of their resemblances and differences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two Sutras end in a similar fashion, but in the case of Nyaya the knowledge required for Moksha has to do with the process of logical argument, whereas in the case of Vaisheshika the knowledge required has to do with the various entities that the Vaisheshika school believes in.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's also worth noting that the Vedanta school disagrees with both the Nyaya school and the Vaisheshika school; it says that knowledge of Brahman is what's required for Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Number of Pramanas&lt;/strong&gt;: The Nyaya school believes that there are four Pramanas or means of valid knowedge: Pratyaksha or perception, Anumana or inference, Sabda or scriptural testimony, and Upamana or comparison.  The Vaisheshika school, on the other hand, only believes in two Pramanas: Pratyaksha and Anumana.  In that regard it's similar to Buddhism and Jainism.  But whereas Buddhism and Jainism reject Sabda Pramana because they reject the Vedas, the Vaisheshika school believes that Sabda Pramana can be reduced to Anumana.  They think you can use Anumana to prove that a supreme being exists, then prove that the Vedas were authored by that supreme being, and thereby prove the authority of the Vedas.  Here's what the third Sutra of Kanada's Vaisheshika Sutras says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tadvacanādāmnāyasya prāmāṇyam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The authoritativeness of the Veda (arises from its) being the word of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, most members of the Vedanta school (apart from Advaitins) believe that there are 3 Pramanas: Pratyaksha, Anumana, and Sabda.  That's because Upamana can be reduced to Anumana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T08:33:48.817" LastActivityDate="2018-01-03T08:33:48.817" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20778" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="270" CreationDate="2017-09-11T05:23:13.980" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita has the most precise terms for &lt;em&gt;Deva&lt;/em&gt;-s and &lt;em&gt;Asura&lt;/em&gt;-s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deva&lt;/strong&gt; = the one with &lt;em&gt;Daivi sampada&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;divine&lt;/strong&gt; quality)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Asura&lt;/strong&gt; = the one with &lt;em&gt;Asuri sampada&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;demonic&lt;/strong&gt; quality)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 16.6 — O son of Pṛthā, in this world there are only two [kinds of] created beings. &lt;strong&gt;One is called divine and the other demonic&lt;/strong&gt;. ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Brief&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 16.5 - The divine quality is [for] the Liberation; The demonic [quality] is considered as bondage. ..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Detail&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 16.1-16.3 - The Blessed Lord said Fearlessness, purity of mind, persistence in knowledge and yoga, charity and control of the external organs, sacrifice, (scriptural) study, austerity and rectitude; Non-injury, truthfulness, absence of anger, renunciation, control of the internal organ, absence of vilification, kindness to creatures, non-covetousness, gentleness, modesty, freedom from restlessness; Vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, freedom from malice, absence of haughtiness-these, O scion of the Bharata dynasty, are [the tendencies] of one born destined to have the &lt;strong&gt;divine quality&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 16.4 - O son of Prtha, (tendencies) of one destined to have the &lt;strong&gt;demonic nature&lt;/strong&gt; are religious showoff, pride and superiority complex, anger as also rudeness and ignorance.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 16.7-9 - Neither do the demoniacal persons understand activity and retirement; nor does purity, or even good conduct or truthfulness exist in them. They say that the world is unreal, it has no basis, it is without a God. It is born of mutual union brought about by passion! What other (cause can there be)? Holding on to this view, (these people) who are of depraved character, of poor intellect, given to fearful actions and harmful, wax strong for the ruin of the world.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;sub&gt;...the list goes on within chapter-16....&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning of &lt;strong&gt;Daiva&lt;/strong&gt; is usually as those who have ascended to heaven. From the above perspective, it's those who attained &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;Daivi sampada&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot; (divine qualities).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the natural elements like rains, rivers, mountains, wind are associated with certain deities. They tend to have divine qualities. Hence often they are prayed upon by people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RAkshasa&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; means those who have protective or attachive qualities. The word is originated from &lt;em&gt;Raksha&lt;/em&gt;. Usually these people are high on &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; and hence have more possibility of &lt;em&gt;Asuri sampada&lt;/em&gt; (demonic quality).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 17.4 - Those having the &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt;, worship the &lt;em&gt;deva&lt;/em&gt;-s; &lt;strong&gt;those having &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;, [worship] the &lt;em&gt;raksha&lt;/em&gt;-s &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;yaksha&lt;/em&gt;-s&lt;/strong&gt;; and other people possessed of &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; worship &lt;em&gt;bhuta&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;preta&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T05:23:13.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20779" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-11T07:13:45.663" Score="6" ViewCount="3192" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know Lord Ganesha and Lord Kartikeya are sons of Lord Shiva &amp;amp; Devi Parvati. Every Hindu know this. But there is no source which would tell who are sons of Lord Vishnu and Devi Lakshmi. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/646/10089&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a answers about son of Lord Vishnu and Devi Lakshmi. Bit confusing. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Son of Lord Ram &amp;amp; Devi Sita ⇒ Luv, Kush &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Son of Lord Krishna &amp;amp; Devi Rukmani ⇒ Pradyumna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is no worship for them or son of any other Gods other than Ganesha &#xA;and Kartikeya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why Lord Shiva &amp;amp; Devi Parvati's sons are worshipped? And sons of other Gods are not worshipped like Ganesha and Kartikeya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-12T05:00:13.220" LastActivityDate="2017-12-05T20:02:40.873" Title="Why sons of Lord Shiva &amp; Devi Parvati are only worshipped?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|worship|lakshmi|parvati|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20780" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-11T10:16:46.853" Score="4" ViewCount="494" Body="&lt;p&gt;My mother's first death anniversary is on 19th September 2017. unfortunately my mother's second cousin (their respective grand mothers were sisters) passed away on 9th september.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am getting a lot of conflicting views from my immediate family members and relatives. Most of them say that the annual ceremony should be put off. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding blood line is restricted to immediate family - parents' siblings or my siblings. I also understand that our 1 year is equivalent to one day for the departed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Would be nice to hear from the learned members here as to what I should do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11968" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-11T10:17:46.393" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T14:22:12.113" Title="How do we define who is a Close relative" Tags="|rituals|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-09-15T14:59:52.437" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20781" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20793" CreationDate="2017-09-11T10:22:47.823" Score="7" ViewCount="866" Body="&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in the answer to this &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20770/what-is-the-story-of-the-origin-of-sraadha-ritual/20774?noredirect=1#comment59810_20774&quot;&gt;question&lt;/a&gt; according to the Mahabharat, Lord Dattatreya, the son of Rishi Atri, had a son called Nimi. I have never come across any mention of Datta guru as a householder and neither is he ever shown with his consort.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So my question is, was Dattatreya married or is this son someone he had adopted?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-09-11T12:36:22.197" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T14:38:26.713" Title="Was the Avadhut and Yogi Lord Dattatreya married &amp; did he have a son?" Tags="|mahabharata|avatars|rishi|dattatreya|yogi|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20783" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19965" CreationDate="2017-09-11T11:26:12.407" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well the following verse from &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01032.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rigved 1.32.9&lt;/a&gt; mentions Vritra as the son of Danu&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8 There as he lies like a bank-bursting river, the waters taking courage flow above him.&#xA;  The Dragon lies beneath the feet of torrents which Vṛtra with his greatness had encompassed.&#xA;  9 Then humbled was the strength of Vṛtra's mother: Indra hath cast his deadly bolt against her.&#xA;  The mother was above, the son was under and &lt;strong&gt;like a cow beside her calf lay Danu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This would make him a Danav (sons of Danu) which is a class of Asurs just like Daityas (sons of Diti).&lt;/strong&gt; However, the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1228.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana 1.6.3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; mentions that he was adopted by Danu and is hence called a Danava:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tvashtri was furious, and exclaimed, 'Has he indeed consumed my Soma uninvited?' However, he himself desecrated the sacrifice, for what pure (Soma) there was left in the tub he let flow (into the fire), saying, 'Grow thou, having Indra for thy foe!' &lt;strong&gt;The moment it reached the fire, it developed, or, as some say, it so developed whilst on its way (to the fire). It became possessed of Agni and Soma, of all sciences, all glory, all nourishment, all prosperity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And since it so developed whilst rolling onwards (vrit), it became Vritra; and since he sprang forth footless, therefore he was a serpent. Danu and Danâyû received him like mother and father, whence they call him Dânava.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Danava aspect is explained by this but then &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION LXVII of Sambhava Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; of Mahabharat while describing all the demons who had incarnated on earth also talks about him as an Asur:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And, O king, that great &lt;strong&gt;Asura who was known as Vritra&lt;/strong&gt; became on earth the royal sage known by the name of Manimat. That Asura who was the younger brother of Vritra and known as Krodhahantri became noted on earth as king Danda. That other Asura who was known by the name Krodhavardhana became noted on earth as the monarch, Dandadhara. The eight sons of the Kaleyas that were born on earth all became great kings endued with the prowess of tigers. The eldest of them all became king Jayatsena in Magadha. The second of them, in prowess, like Indra, became noted on earth as Aparajita. The third of them, endued with great energy and power of producing deception, was born on earth as the king of the Nishadas &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is interesting that even though he was called an Asura he was reborn as a Muni. The Bhagvat Puran also mentions him as a great devotee of Vishnu. But in &lt;strong&gt;Chapter XVI of Devi Bhagwat Puran&lt;/strong&gt; again he gets mentioned as an Asur:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tbuZM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/tbuZM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again in &lt;strong&gt;Book 4 Chapter IX&lt;/strong&gt; it is mentioned:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jyWxD.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jyWxD.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Others have given different references in their answers so I will mention a different indirect reference from the &lt;strong&gt;Varah Puran&lt;/strong&gt;. In &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.274474/2015.274474.The-Varaha_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varah Puran 28.2-15&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; the rebirth of Vritra is mentioned in which he sires an Asur son called Vetra who again torments the Devas and is finally killed by the goddess:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5 &lt;strong&gt;In his former birth, he was the son of Tvasta, and being &#xA;  immune against the attack of any weapon, he was killed with &#xA;  foam.&lt;/strong&gt; 6-7. Killed by foam, he was dissolved in it. Then he was &#xA;  born in Brahma’s line as the valiant Sindhudvipa, and he per- &#xA;  formed penance always thinking of his enmity to Indra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.After a long time, the auspicious river Vetravati assumed &#xA;  a beautiful human form and went to the place where the king &#xA;  was engaged in his austerities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13 In Vetravati was born immediately a son named &lt;strong&gt;Vetra&lt;/strong&gt; who was resplendent like the dozen suns, mighty and brilliant, and he became the king of Pragjyotisa. 14-15. In due course he became a powerful and courageous &#xA;  youth, much lucky, and he conquered the whole world consisting of seven islands and then, going up the Meru mountain, conquered Indra, then Agni and then Yama. 16. Indra, when vanquished, went to Agni, Agni when vanquished went to Yama, Yama when vanquished went to Niirti, and Nirrti when vanquished went to Varuna. 17. Varuna with Indra and others went to Vayu, and Vayu went to Kubera with them. 18. Kubera went to his friend Siva. &lt;strong&gt;The Asura was chasing &#xA;  them all with his club, and so he too came to Sivaloka.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;19 Siva, knowing that he could not be easily killed, took &#xA;  the gods to Brahma worshipped by Siddhas and others. 20-21 . There Brahma, having created the world, was engaged in meditating on Gayatri, the Maya of the Supreme Being, within the water which was flowing from Visnu’s feet. At this Devas cried aloud: 22. Brahma, protect all of us Devas and sages, who have &#xA;  now come to you being harassed by the &lt;strong&gt;demon (Vrtra)&lt;/strong&gt;”. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;23 Prayed thus, Brahma looked at Devas and contemplated on Maya by whose prowess there will be no Asuras or Raksasas (left to harass them). 24-26. Then appeared there out of the water the great Goddess, a maiden wearing garlands and crown, clad in white cloth,with eight hands each holding a divine weapon, disc, conch, mace, rope, sword, bell, bow (and arrow) and with a quiver, &#xA;  riding on a lion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;27 She fought with the Asuras with great agility for a thou- &#xA;  sand divine years and with various divine weapons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;28 Finally the &lt;strong&gt;demon Vetrasura&lt;/strong&gt; was killed by her in battle &#xA;  and there was then a great shout of joy in the ranks of Devas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So in conclusion, even if he was a pious soul, it would be Vritra's actions of attacking the Devas that would probably lead him to being called an Asur.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-24T12:30:48.533" LastActivityDate="2018-09-24T12:30:48.533" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20785" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-11T12:13:25.993" Score="4" ViewCount="452" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read an article saying that the Asuras are historically referring to the people of Assyria and so Devas may also be refer to some kind of people historically. What are your thoughts about this. If my case is true, then to whom does Devas may refer to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11964" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T10:10:51.580" Title="About Devas and Asuras" Tags="|vedas|history|asuras|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20786" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15005" CreationDate="2017-09-11T12:13:58.460" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well they are still existing! The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk08ch19.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagwat Puran Book 8 Chapter 19&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; gives the following account of the lower lokas that are the residences of various Asura species. Talking about the region of Vitala it states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vitala&lt;/strong&gt; is situated below the earth. There the Bhagavân Bhava, worshipped by all the Devas, has assumed the name of Hâtakes’vara and is staying there coupled with Bhavânî, surrounded by His attendants specially for the increase of the creation of Brahmâ. The river Hâtaki flows there and has Her origin from the essences of them both. Fire, augmented by the help of the wind, begins to drink it. When the Fire leaves that, making a Phutkâra noise, the gold, named Hâtaka, is created. This gold is very much liked by the Daityas. The &lt;strong&gt;Daitya women use this gold always for their ornaments&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It further mentions the loka called &lt;strong&gt;Sutala&lt;/strong&gt; where the leader of Asurs - Maharaj Bali resides. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Below Vitala is &lt;strong&gt;Sutala&lt;/strong&gt;. It is reckoned as of some special importance. O Muni! The highly meritorious Bali, the son of Virochana lives here. The Bhagavân Vâsudeva, brought down this Bali into Sutala, for the welfare of Indra. He assumed the body of Trivikrama and gave to Bali all the wealth of the three Lokas, all the Laksmî went to him and installed him in the position of the Lord of the Daityas. What more can be said than this, that what prosperity, wealth and riches that Indra could not obtain, that S’rî Laksmî Devî Herself has followed Bali. Bali, as the Lord of Sutala, has become entirely fearless, remains here upto this day and is worshipping Vâsudeva.**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Since Maharaj Bali was blessed by Lord Vishnu to become the next Indra, he is definitely alive. He is also amongst one of the eight Chiranjivis or Immortals in Hindu mythology.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk08ch20.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 20 of the Devi Bhagwat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; continues with the narrative mentioning other Asurs:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1-37. Nârâyana said :-- O Nârada! The cave lower down than Sutala is &lt;strong&gt;Talâtal&lt;/strong&gt;! The Lord of Tripura, (the three cities) the great &lt;strong&gt;Mâyâ Dânava is the Ruler of this region.&lt;/strong&gt; Mahes’vara, the Doer of good to the three Bhuvanas, burnt his three cities; but at last, being pleased with his devotion, He rescued him. Thus Mâyâ, by the favour of that God, has regained his own kingdom and the enjoyments thereof. This Mâyâ Dânava is the Teacher (Âchârya) of the Mâyâvi sect and the cult thereof; and he is skilled in various Mâyâs or all sorts of the magic powers. All the fierce demons, of cruel temper, worship him for their prosperities in their various enterprises. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below the Talâtala is the loka called &lt;strong&gt;Mahâtal&lt;/strong&gt; where the serpents reside so we'll skip the description and move on to the next one &lt;strong&gt;Rasâtal&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Daityas, Dânavas and Pani Asuras live here. Besides these, there live the Nivâta Kavachas of the Hiranyapura city and the Asuras named Kâleyas, the enemies of the Devas. These all are naturally very energetic and brave; their powers are baffled by the Tejas of the Bhagavân and they live like snakes in this region. The other Asuras that were driven and were afraid of the Mantras, uttered by Saramâ, the messenger of Indra, live here too. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the demons are very much there thriving in their own lokas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Coming to the second part of your question&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason they do not appear to interact with us maybe two fold:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Their life spans are much longer than ours so we may just about see a glimpse of one of them sometime if lucky (or unlucky depending on how you take it).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They may be around us and we may not even recognize them! For example, in the Mahabharat times also people didn't realize that Kauravs, Kamsa, Jarasandh etc. were actually Asuras as they appeared as humans. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION LXVII of Sambhava Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; lists all the incarnations of gods as well as demons and no one even knew their truth most of the time!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first of Danavas, who was known by the name of Viprachitti, became that bull among men, noted as &lt;strong&gt;Jarasandha&lt;/strong&gt;. And, O king, that son of Diti, who was known as Hiranyakasipu, was known in this world among men as the powerful &lt;strong&gt;Sisupala&lt;/strong&gt;. He who had been known as Samhlada, the younger brother of Prahlada, became among men the famous &lt;strong&gt;Salya&lt;/strong&gt;, that bull amongst Valhikas. The spirited Anuhlada who had been the youngest became noted in the world as Dhrishtaketu. And, O king, that son of Diti who had been known as Sivi became on earth the famous monarch Druma. And he who was known as the great Asura Vashkala became on earth the great Bhagadatta. The five great Asuras gifted with great energy, Ayahsira, Aswasira, the spirited Aysanku, Gaganamurdhan, and Vegavat, were all born in the royal line of Kekaya and all became great monarchs. That other Asura of mighty energy who was known by the name of Ketumat became on earth the monarch Amitaujas of terrible deeds. That great Asura who was known as Swarbhanu became on earth the monarch &lt;strong&gt;Ugrasena&lt;/strong&gt; of fierce deeds. That great Asura who was known as Aswa became on earth the monarch Asoka of exceeding energy and invincible in battle. And, O king, the younger brother of Aswa who was known as Aswapati, a son of Diti, became on earth the mighty monarch Hardikya. The great and fortunate Asura who was known as Vrishaparvan became noted on earth as king Dirghaprajna. And, O king, the younger brother of Vrishaparvan who was known by the name of Ajaka became noted on earth as king &lt;strong&gt;Salwa&lt;/strong&gt;. The powerful and mighty Asura who was known as Aswagriva became noted on earth as king Rochamana. And, O king, the Asura who was known as Sukshma, endued with great intelligence and whose achievements also were great, became on earth the famous king Vrihadratha. And that first of Asuras who was known by the name of Tuhunda, became noted on earth as the monarch, Senavindu. That Asura of great strength who was known as Ishupa became the monarch &lt;strong&gt;Nagnajita&lt;/strong&gt; of famous prowess. The great Asura who was known as Ekachakra became noted on earth as Pritivindhya. The great Asura Virupaksha capable of displaying various modes of fight became noted on earth as king Chitravarman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first of Danavas, the heroic Hara, who humbled the pride of all foes became on earth the famous and fortunate Suvahu. The Asura Suhtra of great energy and the destroyer of foemen, became noted on earth as the fortunate monarch, Munjakesa. That Asura of great intelligence called Nikumbha, who was never vanquished in battle was born on earth as king Devadhipa, the first among monarchs. That great Asura known amongst the sons of Diti by the name of Sarabha became on earth the royal sage called Paurava. And, O king, the great Asura of exceeding energy, the fortunate Kupatha, was born on earth as the famous monarch Suparswa. The great Asura, O king, who was called Kratha, was born on earth as the royal sage Parvateya of form resplendent like a golden mountain. He amongst the Asura who was known as Salabha the second, became on earth the monarch Prahlada in the country of the Valhikas. The foremost, among the sons of Diti known by the name of Chandra and handsome as the lord of the stars himself, became on earth noted as Chandravarman, the king of the Kamvojas. That bull amongst the Danavas who was known by the name of Arka became on earth, O king, the royal sage Rishika. That best of Asuras who was known as Mritapa became on earth, O best of kings, the monarch, Pascimanupaka. That great Asura of surpassing energy known as Garishtha became noted on earth as king Drumasena. The great Asura who was known as Mayura became noted on earth as the monarch Viswa. He who was the younger brother of Mayura and called Suparna became noted on earth as the monarch, Kalakirti. The mighty Asura who was known as Chandrahantri became on earth the royal sage &lt;strong&gt;Sunaka&lt;/strong&gt;. The great Asura who was called Chandravinasana became noted on earth as the monarch, Janaki. That bull amongst the Danavas, O prince of the Kuru race, who was called Dhirghajihva, became noted on earth as &lt;strong&gt;Kasiraja&lt;/strong&gt;. The Graha who was brought forth by Sinhika and who persecuted the Sun and the Moon became noted on earth as the monarch Kratha. The eldest of the four sons of Danayu, who was known by the name of Vikshara, became known on earth the spirited monarch, Vasumitra. The second brother of Vikshara, the great Asura, was born on earth as the king of the country, called Pandya. That best of Asuras who was known by the name of Valina became on earth the monarch *Paundramatsyaka**. And, O king, that great Asura who was known as Vritra became on earth the royal sage known by the name of Manimat. That Asura who was the younger brother of &lt;strong&gt;Vritra&lt;/strong&gt; and known as Krodhahantri became noted on earth as king Danda. That other Asura who was known by the name Krodhavardhana became noted on earth as the monarch, Dandadhara. The eight sons of the Kaleyas that were born on earth all became great kings endued with the prowess of tigers. The eldest of them all became king Jayatsena in Magadha. The second of them, in prowess, like Indra, became noted on earth as Aparajita. The third of them, endued with great energy and power of producing deception, was born on earth as the king of the Nishadas gifted with great prowess. That other amongst them who was known as the fourth was noted on earth as Srenimat, that best of royal sages. That great Asura amongst them who was the fifth, became noted on earth as king Mahanjas, the oppressor of enemies. That great Asura possessing great intelligence who was the sixth of them became noted on earth as Abhiru, that best of royal sages. The seventh of them became known throughout earth, from the centre to the sea, as king Samudrasena well acquainted with the truths of the scriptures. The eighth of the Kaleyas known as Vrihat became on earth a virtuous king ever engaged in the good of all creatures. The mighty Danava known by the name of Kukshi became on earth as Parvatiya from his brightness as of a golden mountain. The mighty Asura Krathana gifted with great energy became noted on earth as the monarch Suryaksha. The great Asura of handsome features known by the name of Surya, became on earth the monarch of the Valhikas by name Darada, that foremost of all kings. And, O king, from the tribe of Asuras called Krodhavasa, of whom I have already spoken to thee, were born many heroic kings on earth. Madraka, and Karnaveshta, Siddhartha, and also Kitaka; Suvira, and Suvahu, and Mahavira, and also Valhika, Kratha, Vichitra, Suratha, and the handsome king Nila; and Chiravasa, and Bhumipala; and &lt;strong&gt;Dantavakra&lt;/strong&gt;, and he who was called Durjaya; that tiger amongst kings named &lt;strong&gt;Rukmi&lt;/strong&gt;; and king Janamejaya, Ashada, and Vayuvega, and also Bhuritejas; &lt;strong&gt;Ekalavya&lt;/strong&gt;, and Sumitra, Vatadhana, and also Gomukha; the tribe of kings called the Karushakas, and also Khemadhurti; Srutayu, and Udvaha, and also Vrihatsena; Kshema, Ugratirtha, the king of the Kalingas; and Matimat, and he was known as king Iswara; these first of kings were all born of the Asura class called &lt;strong&gt;Krodhavasa&lt;/strong&gt;. There was also born on earth a mighty Asura known amongst the Danavas by the name of &lt;strong&gt;Kalanemi&lt;/strong&gt;, endued with great strength, of grand achievements, and blessed with a large share of prosperity. He became the mighty son of Ugrasena and was known on earth by the name of &lt;strong&gt;Kansa&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I find the second option intriguing and for all we know the terrorists of today may actually be the Asuras in disguise!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-09-11T17:08:39.943" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T17:08:39.943" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20787" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20781" CreationDate="2017-09-11T12:33:37.653" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Dattatreya, the combined incarnation of the Trinity, was a child of five years, many old sages spotted His greatness and started insisting Him to show them the path of Yoga. The child Datta wanted to test them. He disappeared into a pond and remained there for one hundred years. Some of the sages waited for Him on the banks of the pond while the infant Datta was in a state of complete Samadhi for hundred years. Even after coming out of the pond he continued to test the sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dattatreya, who was 105 years old then, brought out His Yogic energy through His Brahma Randhra (an astral orifice found in the center of the skull, through which Yogis can leave the body), and gave it the form of a woman. Because the energy came out from Him, He was its natural owner. &lt;strong&gt;He declared her to be His consort.&lt;/strong&gt; In order to test the sages, she drank wine and started dancing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She was born as a youthful woman. Seeing her drink wine, some of the sages called her Madhumati. Others called her 'Nadee' becuase looking at her dance which resembled the dancing movements of a flooded river. Still others realized that she was none other than the Yogic Energy of Lord and prayed to Him. Some others went away.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Lord Dattatreya came out of Samadhi. She now appeared as an ascetic. Lord Dattatreya named her as Anagha. Those who called her as Madhumati and Nadee had identified her as one who possessed sin. But in reality she was sinless. Therefore Dattatreya had named her as Anagha (Sinless, Pure). Those who had recognized her to be the energy of Dattatreya, obtained the true vision of the Lord and could transcend all sorrows. In other words, because of her their sorrows (Agha or sin and sorrow) disappeared. This was another reason why Dattatreya named her as Anagha (one who removes sorrows).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dycusa.org/dtht/anagha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T12:33:37.653" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20789" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20795" CreationDate="2017-09-11T12:47:37.210" Score="11" ViewCount="787" Body="&lt;p&gt;If someone gives alms (Donation/charity) in form of anything.&#xA;If his intention is to get merit. Then will he actually get merit out of that karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastActivityDate="2017-09-12T05:28:17.410" Title="Giving Alms (Donation/charity) with the intention of getting merit will give me merit?" Tags="|belief|bhagavad-gita|karma|practice|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20790" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20740" CreationDate="2017-09-11T13:03:26.750" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Is Vishnu likewise a mortal position ?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No. Vishnu as preserver and sustainer  of this universe is not a&#xA;Mortal Post.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana , Vasudeva ,  Hari Or Vishnu are the names used for addressing Para-Brahman (Supreme Being)  Vishnu is addressed as the same supreme Lord. He is Supreme Being in  Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Here In   [**Katha-Upanishad**][1] Vasudeva or Vishnu is being called as a &#xA;**Supreme Brahman.**&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विज्ञानसारथिर्यस्तु मनः प्रग्रहवान्नर ।&lt;br&gt; सोऽध्वनः पारमाप्नोति&#xA;तद्विष्णोः परमं पदम् ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vijñānasārathiryastu manaḥ pragrahavānnara |&lt;br&gt; so'dhvanaḥ&#xA;pāramāpnoti tadviṣṇoḥ paramaṃ padam ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He who has vijnāna, buddhi or Reason, for his charioteer and a&#xA;(disciplined) manas as the reins—he verily attains the end of the&#xA;journey, that supreme state of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shankara’s Commentary:&lt;/strong&gt; Com.—What that goal is, is now explained; but the man who has discerning intelligence for the driver, whose mind&#xA;is under control, and who is clean, i.e., the knowing man reaches the&#xA;end of the road of Samsâra, i.e., realises the Supreme; i.e., is&#xA;absolved from all the ties of Samsâra. The man of knowledge attains 1&#xA;the &lt;strong&gt;highest place of Vishnu, i.e., the nature of the all-pervading&#xA;Brahman, the Paramâtman known as Vâsudêva (the Self-luminous).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/narayana-upanishad/d/doc81733.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Narayana-upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; we can see that Lord Vishnu is eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अथ नित्यो नारायण:&lt;/strong&gt; ब्रह्म नारायण: |&lt;br&gt; शिवस्च्य नारायण: शक्र: च नारायण&#xA;||2||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;atha nityo narayanah&lt;/strong&gt; brahma narayanah&lt;br&gt; sivas ca narayanah  sakras&#xA;ca narayanah&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus Narayana is the eternal being.&lt;/strong&gt;  Brahma, Siva, Indra, time, the directions, the subdirections, up and down, inside and outside,&#xA;are all pervaded by Narayana.  Narayana is everything, past present&#xA;and future.  Narayana is the eternal pure effulgent Lord, without a&#xA;second to compare.  He is Visnu, the Supreme Lord says the upanisad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Also &#xA; [**Vishnu Purana**][3] - Book I  -Chapter Two - We can see that Rishi Parashara calling **Lord Vishnu as unchangeable , eternal , imperishable , Undecaying.**&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पराशर उवाच &lt;br&gt; अविकाराय शुद्धाय नित्याय परमात्मने |&lt;BR&gt; सदैकरूपरूपाय&#xA;विष्णवे सर्वजिष्णवे ||1||&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parasara said - : Glory to the &lt;strong&gt;unchangeable, holy ,eternal&lt;/strong&gt; Lord&#xA;Vishnu  ,of one universal nature , the mighty over all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आधारभूतं विश्वस्याप्यणियांसमणियसाम् |&lt;br&gt; प्रणम्य सर्वभूतस्थमच्चुतं&#xA;पुरुषोत्तमम् ||5||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having glorying him who is the supporter of all things ; who is&#xA;smallest of small ;who is in all created things ; the unchanged&#xA;;imperishable ;Purushottama , who is one with true wisdom , as truly&#xA;known ,eternal and ,incorrupt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रणम्य जगतामीशमजमक्षरमव्ययम ||7|| Lord of creation and preservation;&#xA;the ruler of the world ; &lt;strong&gt;unborn ; imperishable , Undecaying.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu is the &amp;quot;preserver&amp;quot; in the Hindu trinity (Trimurti)  takes yoga-nidrā at the time of Prakrutika  Pralaya or devastation of the three worlds. As describes &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/11/32&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Puran.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अन्तः स तस्मिन्सलिल आस्तेऽनन्तासनो हरिः ।&lt;br&gt; योगनिद्रानिमीलाक्षः&#xA;स्तूयमानो जनालयैः ॥33॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;antaḥ sa tasmin salila  antaḥ sa tasmin salila&lt;br&gt;&#xA;yoga-nidrā-nimīlākṣaḥ stūyamāno janālayaiḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, lies down in the water&#xA;on the seat of Ananta, with His eyes closed, and the inhabitants of&#xA;the Janaloka planets offer unto the Lord their glorious prayers with&#xA;folded hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purport:   &lt;strong&gt;In the transcendental stage all activities are always&#xA;present,&lt;/strong&gt; and they are glorified by prayers of great sages like Bhṛgu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion - Thus from above shlokas its clear that the Post of Lord&#xA;Vishnu as a preserver and sustainer is eternal , he himself as Para&#xA;Brahman is not Mortal and his position never changes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T13:03:26.750" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20791" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20789" CreationDate="2017-09-11T14:19:13.433" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whatever one desires, is bound to be achieved at some point of time. Giving charity / alms and desiring returns for the same is one aspect of it. For any action, there is always a specific deity (good or bad). Whenever one does that fruitful action, that's considered equivalent to worshipping that deity. For example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Plowing the farm is equivalent to worshipping the deity of earth (Dharati)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Planting the trees is equivalent to worshipping the deity of rains (Varuna)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Earning the money is equivalent to worshipping the deity of money (Kubera)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Making homa-havana for various purposes is equivalent to worshipping the deity of fire (&lt;em&gt;agni&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From above limited examples, we should understand that the deities etc. are not physical beings like humans. They are merely the consciousness associated with certain aspect of nature. Because they are named as such, we often think them to be human like statures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now you may look at below verse from Gita. It suggests that, whichever deity you worship OR whichever action you perform with the success in mind -- is bound to succeed. The time taken depends on various aspects like perseverance, amount of desires, previous results etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 4.12 - Acting with desirous of success, those who worship the deities here in this human world, the success happens quickly from those actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, these actions are termed as &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt; and they ultimately result in sins and hence &lt;em&gt;dukha&lt;/em&gt; (sorrow). Refer this:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20371/1049&quot;&gt;What is the definition of sin according to Hinduism?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The charity done with fruitful results in mind is said to be &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt; charity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 17.21 - But the charity which is given expecting returns, or again with a desire for its results, and which is given grudgingly,- that is considered to be born of &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-12T05:04:16.623" LastActivityDate="2017-09-12T05:04:16.623" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20792" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20789" CreationDate="2017-09-11T14:27:07.903" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If someone donates with intention of getting merits (punya fal), only then he will get merits. If someone donates with no intention of getting merits then he will get no merits at all said by Lord krishna in Bhagwat Geeta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyone donates to get punya fal then he will get punya fal. To get those punya fal he has to go to heaven. Entry in heaven is not free. One has to pay to get entry in heaven. But problem is, our currency don't work in heaven. In heaven only divine currency (punya fal) works. And we can earn this divine currency only when we are alive. And we can only earn if we want to earn. If we don't want to earn divine currency then we won't get any. Means getting divine currency or not, it's totally in our hand. If we want it then we will get it by doing punya karma. And if we don't want then we won't get it on our punya karma as simple as that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here question arises, if we don't get divine income on our punya karma then what we will get? And one word answer is.... Moksha (Libration). here is how...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we have divine income then we will have to go for heaven And if we have sin income then we have to go for hell. But in case if we don't have neither divine income nor sin income, then where will we go? We can enter in heaven only if we have divine income, and same as hell. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if we hasn't earn any divine income or sin income in our life time then we can't enter in heaven/hell. Forget about heaven or hell, but you can't even enter in bhooloka or mrityu loka again. yes, loka where we dies, even in that loka we can't return without any income. Because this mrityu loka is knows as karma loka. Here people can only born if they have any income to spend here. If in previous birth, you have died empty handed (without divine or sin income) then we can't even take another birth also. SO like this, your entry is forbidden in Heaven, Hell and bhooloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have only one place left to go now, And that place is Vakuntha dham which is the final goal of human life. Reaching on Vakuntha dham is called moksha. If one can reach to the Sheer Sagar then he don't need to go to anywhere else. He/She stays with Narayana once at for all. He get freedom from life and birth cycle. He never gets birth again. This freedom is known as moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; My answer is based on teachings of Bhagwat Geeta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-09-12T05:28:17.410" LastActivityDate="2017-09-12T05:28:17.410" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20793" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20781" CreationDate="2017-09-11T14:38:26.713" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Lord Dattatreya did have a wife. She is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ww.indianscriptures.com/Content/Articles/PDFs/23040/24F_Chapter_16_2.pdf#page=1&amp;amp;zoom=auto,-42,669&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 16&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dattatreya sported with his wife and drank liquor with her in front of the Munis to test their loyalty to him. Inspite of all his acts, the Munis refused to leave him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मुनिपुत्रवृतो योगी दत्तात्रेयोऽप्यसङ्गिताम्।। १०८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अभीप्समानः सरसि निममज्ज चिरं विभुः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तथापि तं महात्मानमतीव प्रियदर्शनम्॥ १०९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्यजुर्न कुमारास्ते सरसस्तीरसंश्रयाः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Surrounded by the sons of Munis, the lordly yogi Dattatreya also,&#xA;desirous of obtaining exemption from all attachments, long immersed&#xA;himself in a lake. Nevertheless those youths, resorting to the bank of&#xA;the lake, did not forsake him, who was magnanimous and exceedingly&#xA;benign.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दिव्ये वर्षशते पूर्णे यदा तेन त्यजन्ति तम्।। ११०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत्प्रीत्या सरसस्तीरं सर्वे मुनिकुमारकाः। ततो दिव्याम्बरधरां सुरूपां&#xA;सुनितम्बिनीम्।। १११॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नारीमादाय कल्याणीमुक्ततार जलान्मुनिः।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स्त्रीसन्निकर्षिणं ह्येते परित्यक्ष्यन्ति मामिति॥ ११२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मुनिपुत्रास्ततो योगे स्थास्यामीति विचिन्तयन्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When after a hundred heavenly years were ended, all those youthful&#xA;Munis, through affection for him, still forsook not the bank of the&#xA;lake, &lt;strong&gt;the Muni, taking his noble wife clothed in heavenly raiment,&#xA;beautiful and plump in form, arose from the water, thinking, If these&#xA;sons of Munis shall forsake me because of the presence of a woman,&#xA;then I will remain free from all attachments.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तथापि ते मुनिसुता न त्यजन्ति यदा मुनिम्।। ११३।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततः सह तया नार्या मद्यपानमथाकरोत्। सुरापानरतं तेन सभार्यं&#xA;तत्यजुस्ततः।। ११४।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गीतवाद्यादिवनिताभोगसंसर्गदूषितम्। मन्यमाना महात्मानं तया सह&#xA;बहिष्क्रियम्॥ ११५।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When nevertheless the sons of the Munis did not forsake him, &lt;strong&gt;he next&#xA;drank intoxicating liquors in company with his wife.&lt;/strong&gt; Thereupon they&#xA;did not forsake him, though he was engrossed in drinking spirituous&#xA;liquor in company with his wife, and though he was rendered impure by&#xA;addiction to singing, musical instruments and Such like, and also by&#xA;intercourse with his wife; deeming that the high-souled Muni when with&#xA;her was detached from religious rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नावाप दोष योगीशो वारुणीं स पिबन्नपि। अन्तावसायिवेश्मान्तर्मातरिश्वा&#xA;स्पृशनिव। ११६।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सुरां पिबन्सपत्नीकस्तपस्तेपे स योगवित्। योगीश्वरश्चिन्त्यमानो&#xA;येागिभिर्मुक्तिकांक्षिभिः।। ११७।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The lord of yogis, although drinking spirituous liquor, incurred no&#xA;fault. Dwelling like Matarisvan within the abodes of candalas,&#xA;drinking strong drink he, skilled in yoga, &lt;strong&gt;the lord of yogis,&#xA;attended by his wife,&lt;/strong&gt; performed austerities, being meditated on by&#xA;yogis who longed for deliverance from mundane existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further on in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23042/24F_Chapter_16_3.pdf#page=1&amp;amp;zoom=auto,-42,670&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;same chapter&lt;/a&gt; Sage Garga asks Kartavirya Arjuna to pray to Dattatreya citing an old story where the Danavas kidnapped Dattareya's wife and met their destruction. Here her name is given as Laksmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the Daityas overpowered the gods Brihaspati advises the gods to pray to Dattatreya and ask for a boon that would destroy the Daityas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;बृहपतिरुवाच&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दत्तात्रेयं महाभागमत्रेः पुत्रं तपोधनम्। विकृताचरण भक्त्या&#xA;सन्तोषयितुमर्हथ। १४०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स वो दैत्य विनाशाय वरदो दास्यते वरम्। ततो हनिष्यथ सुराः&#xA;सहितान्दैत्यदानवान्॥१४१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brihaspati said- &amp;quot;Deign to gratify with your faith Dattātreya, Atri's&#xA;high-souled son, the ascetic, who is occupied in improper practices.&#xA;He the boongiver will grant you a boon for the destruction of the&#xA;Daityas; then, O gods, shall you and your friends slay the Daityas and&#xA;Danavas.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हन्तुं शक्ता न सन्देहो दत्तात्रेयप्रसादतः। इत्युक्तास्ते तदा&#xA;जग्मुर्दत्तात्रेयाश्रमं सुराः॥ १४२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ददृशुश्च महात्मानं क्षान्तं लक्ष्म्या समन्वितम्। उद्गीयमानं गन्धर्वैः&#xA;सुरापानरतं मुनिम्॥ १४३।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus exhorted the gods then went to Dattatreya's hermitage, and they&#xA;beheld the highsouled Muni, &lt;strong&gt;attended by Laksmi&lt;/strong&gt;, hymned by&#xA;Gandharvas, and engrossed in quaffing spirituous liquor.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गर्ग उवाच एवमुक्तस्ततो देवैर्दत्तात्रेयोऽब्रवीदिदम्। प्रहस्य&#xA;त्रिदशान्सर्वान्यद्येतद्भवतां मतम्॥१५५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तदाहूयासुरान्सर्वान्युद्धाय सुरसत्तमाः। इहानयत मद् दृष्टिगोचरं मा&#xA;विलम्ब्यताम्॥१५६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मददुष्टिपातहुतभुक्प्रक्षीणबलतेजस:। येन नाशमशेषास्ते प्रयान्ति मम&#xA;दर्शनात्॥ १५७।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garga spoke&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus accosted by the gods, Dattatreya then with a smile spoke thus to&#xA;all the thirty gods;- &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;If this be your opinion, then summon all the&#xA;Asuras to battle,&lt;/strong&gt; O most virtuous gods and bring them here before my&#xA;view-delay you not-in order that &lt;strong&gt;the glory of their strength may be&#xA;consumed by the fire of my glance, and that they may all perish from&#xA;my sight.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Daityas break into Dattatreya's hermitage and resolve to carry off Laksmi. But as they carried her on their heads she deserts them and the sin of her kidnapping is attached to them and they lose their merits. So the Gods defeat them easily and Laksmi returns to Dattatreya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ददृशुस्तं महात्मानं दत्तात्रेयं मदालसम्। १६०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;वामपार्श्वस्थितामिष्टामशेषजगतः शुभाम्। भार्या चास्य सुचार्वङ्गीं&#xA;लक्ष्मीमिन्दुनिभाननाम्।। १६१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नीलोत्पलाभनयनां पीनश्रोणिपयोधराम्। सुदतीं मधुराभाषां&#xA;सर्वयोषिद्बुणैर्युताम्।। १६२।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even there the Daityas penetrated, driving forward the&#xA;heaven-dwellers, and saw &lt;strong&gt;the highsouled mighty Dattātreya; and&#xA;seated at his left side Laksmi, loved by all the worlds beauteous, her&#xA;shape most graceful, her countenance like the moon, her eyes lustrous&#xA;as the blue water-lily,&lt;/strong&gt; her hips large and breasts full, uttering&#xA;melodious speech, adorned with every womanly virtue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दृष्ट्वाग्रतस्तदा दैत्याः साभिलाषमनोभवाः। न शेकुरुद्धता दैत्या मनस&#xA;बोखुमातुराः॥१६३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;त्यक्ता देवान्स्त्रियं तां तु हर्तुकामा हतौजसः। प्रेरितास्तेन पापेन&#xA;ह्यासक्तास्ते ततोऽब्रुवन्॥ १६४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seeing her before them, the Daityas seized with longing, could not&#xA;bear the intense love with fortitude, and pined in mind to carry her&#xA;off. Desisting from the gods, but desirous of seizing the lady, they&#xA;were shattered in vigour, being bewitched by that sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गर्ग उवाच&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सानुरागास्ततस्ते तु मुनेरन्तिकमागमन्। तस्य तां योषितं साध्वीं&#xA;समुत्क्षिप्य स्मरातुराः।। १६७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिबिकायां समारोष्य सहिता दैत्यदानवा:। शिरः सुशिबिकां कृत्वा&#xA;स्वस्थानाभिमुखा ययुः।। १६८ ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thereupon possessed with longing and thus mutually exhorted afflicted&#xA;by love, the united Daityas and Danavas raised up his virtuous wife,&#xA;mounted her in the palki, and placing the palki on their heads set off&#xA;for their own homes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दत्तात्रेयस्तथा देवान्विहस्येदमथाब्रवीत्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दिष्ट्यां च हन्त दैत्यानामेषा लक्ष्मीः शिरोगता।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सप्तस्थानान्यतिक्रम्य लयमन्यमुपेष्पति।। १६९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereon Dattātreya smiling spoke thus to the gods- &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Bravo! you&#xA;prosper! Here is Laksmi borne on the heads of the Daityas.&lt;/strong&gt; She has&#xA;passed beyond the seven stations, she will reach another,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;देवा ऊचुः&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कथयस्व जगन्नाथ केषु स्थानेष्ववस्थिता। पुरुषस्य फलं किं वा प्रयच्छत्यथ&#xA;नश्यति।। १७०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gods spoke&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Say, O lord of the world, in what stations has she her abode; and what&#xA;result of a man's does she bestow or destroy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मृष्टात्र वाक्यलावण्यमाज्ञामवितथां तथा। मुखस्थिता कवित्वं च&#xA;यच्छत्युदधिसम्भवा।। १७४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शिरोगता सन्त्यजति ततोऽन्यं याति चाश्रयम्। सेयं शिरोगता&#xA;दैत्यान्परित्यजति साम्प्रतम्॥ १७५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When abiding in the countenance, the sea-born goddess bestows beauty&#xA;fashioned according to her word, real command also, and poetic fire.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;When mounted on the head, she forsakes the man and thence resorts to another abode. And here, mounted on their head, she will now desert&#xA;these Daityas,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रगृह्यास्त्राणि वध्यन्तां तस्मादेते सुरारयः। न भेतव्यं भृशं त्वेते&#xA;मया निस्तेजसः कृताः॥ १७६॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;परदारावमर्शाच्च दग्धपुण्या हतौजसः। तस्मादेतेऽभिहन्यन्तां&#xA;भवद्भिरविशंकितैः॥ १७७॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore seize your arms and slay these foes of the gods; nor fear&#xA;them greatly; I have rendered them impotent; &lt;strong&gt;and through touching&#xA;anothers wife their merit is consumed, their might is broken.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गर्ग उवाच&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततस्ते विविधैरस्त्रैर्वध्यमानाः सुरारयः। शिरःसु लक्ष्म्याप्याक्रान्ता&#xA;विनेशुरिति नः श्रुतम्॥ १७८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;लक्ष्मीश्रोत्पत्य सम्प्राप्ता दत्तात्रेयं महामुनिम्। स्तूयमाना सुरैः&#xA;सेन्द्रैर्दैत्यनाशान्मुदान्वितैः॥ १७९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रणिपत्य ततो देवा दत्तात्रेयं महामुनिम्। जय कृष्ण जगन्नाथ दैत्यान्तक&#xA;हरप्रभो॥ १८०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नारायणाच्युतानन्त वासुदेवाक्षयाजर। त्वत्प्रसादात्सुखं लक्ष्मी राज्यं&#xA;सम्पज्जनार्दन॥ १८१॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;शार्ङ्गधन्वंश्चक्रपाणे भक्तानां नित्यवत्सल।। इति स्तुत्वा नाकपृष्ठं&#xA;यथापूर्वं गताः सुराः।। १८२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garga spoke&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereupon those enemies of the gods, being slain by divers weapons and&#xA;their heads being assailed by Laksmi, perished-thus have we heard.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;And Laksmi, flying up, reached the great Muni Dattātreya, being hymned by all the gods who were filled with joy at the slaughter of&#xA;the Daityas&lt;/strong&gt; Thereupon the gods, prostrating themselves before the&#xA;wise Dattātreya, gained as before the uppermost heaven, being freed&#xA;from affliction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T14:38:26.713" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20795" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20789" CreationDate="2017-09-11T16:02:40.907" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, if your intention is getting merit then you will get it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 4.234. For whatever purpose (a man) bestows any gift, for&#xA;  that same purpose he receives (in his next birth) with due honour its&#xA;  (reward).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But you should make sure that the recipient is worthy of receiving gifts. Also, one should never boast of the act after donating something.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 4.237. By falsehood a sacrifice becomes vain, by&#xA;  self-complacency (the reward for) austerities is lost, longevity by&#xA;  speaking evil of Brahmanas, &lt;strong&gt;and (the reward of) a gift by boasting.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T16:02:40.907" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20796" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-11T16:04:32.593" Score="1" ViewCount="224" Body="&lt;p&gt;Cheraman perumal was one among 63 Nayanars and while scrolling through internet, I read that &lt;a href=&quot;http://theislamshow.weebly.com/the-proof-of-splitting-of-moon---witnessed-by-indian-king.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;he witnessed the splitting of the moon&lt;/a&gt;, a miracle claimed to have been made by Muhammad, following which he went to Mecca and embraced Islam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the real story regarding this incident? If he really converted to Islam, then Sekkizhar wouldn't have written about him in Periya Puranam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T06:23:13.387" LastActivityDate="2018-09-05T06:23:13.387" Title="What is the real story of Cheraman Perumal who witnessed the splitting of moon?" Tags="|history|nayanar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20797" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8257" CreationDate="2017-09-11T17:19:40.010" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Interesting question but let me clear one point first - NOT all Asuras live on earth, in fact the residence of most Asuras is the underworld. The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1210.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana 1.2.4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; tells us the reason why they do not live in the same place:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The gods and the Asuras, both of them sprung from Pragâpati,were contending for superiority. &lt;strong&gt;The gods vanquished the Asuras; and yet these afterwards harassed them again.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The gods then said: 'We do, no doubt, vanquish the Asuras, but nevertheless they afterwards again harass us. How then can we vanquish them so that we need not fight them again?'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agni then said: 'By fleeing northwards they escape from us.' By fleeing northwards they had indeed escaped from them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agni said: 'I will go round to the northern side, and you will then shut them in from here;&lt;/strong&gt; and whilst shutting them in, we will put them down by these (three) worlds; and from what fourth world there is beyond these (three) they will not be able to rise again.'&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agni thereupon went round to the northern side; and they (the other gods) shut them in from here; &lt;strong&gt;and whilst shutting them in, they put them down with these(three)worlds; and from what fourth world there is beyond these (three) they did not rise again.&lt;/strong&gt; Now this same (expulsion of the Asuras) is virtually the same act as the flinging away of the grass-bush &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk08ch19.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagwat Puran Book 8 Chapter 19&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; gives the account of the lower lokas that are the residences of various Asura species. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Atala&lt;/strong&gt; is where Danavs live, in &lt;strong&gt;Vitala&lt;/strong&gt; it is the Daityas, in &lt;strong&gt;Sutala&lt;/strong&gt; lives Maharaj Bali and his followers, &lt;strong&gt;Talatala&lt;/strong&gt; is the abode of Maya Danav and his kin and in &lt;strong&gt;Rasatal&lt;/strong&gt; live Daityas, Dânavas and Pani Asuras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Secondly,&lt;/strong&gt; coming to the gods, the 33 gods mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4104.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatpatha Brahman 5.1.2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; handle different spheres of existence and are broadly divided into three sets - ones who rule earth, second who rule the skies and third who rule the heavens. So we see a few on earth while the rest all remain out of sight! There are many gods who did make Earth their home:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even if he lives in Patal as Keshav said, &lt;strong&gt;Varun&lt;/strong&gt; lived in the ocean when Rama incarnated as is evident from the episode of him requesting Shri Rama to make a bridge of stones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Agni&lt;/strong&gt; lives in the homes of people - he is the messenger as well as the witness of the gods for all Vedic ceremonies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dattatreya&lt;/strong&gt; lived on earth all the time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhumi&lt;/strong&gt; is the goddess of earth who is supporting all of us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganga&lt;/strong&gt; is a river-goddess who came down to earth from the heavens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;Parvati&lt;/strong&gt; live on Mount Kailash which is on the planet again. &lt;strong&gt;Kartikeya&lt;/strong&gt; is believed to live in the southern part of India and we have never really heard of him going to any other Loka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Goddess &lt;strong&gt;Durga&lt;/strong&gt; is known as &lt;strong&gt;Vindhyavasini&lt;/strong&gt; which means she lives in the Vindhya mountains - this implies at least one form of her exists on the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Third, Asuras DO COME to Earth in other forms as well just like gods.&lt;/strong&gt; For example, Kauravs, Kamsa, Jarasandh etc. were actually Asuras but they appeared as humans. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01068.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION LXVII of Sambhava Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; lists all the incarnations of gods as well as demons and no one even knew their truth most of the time!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first of Danavas, who was known by the name of Viprachitti, became that bull among men, noted as &lt;strong&gt;Jarasandha&lt;/strong&gt;. And, O king, that son of Diti, who was known as Hiranyakasipu, was known in this world among men as the powerful &lt;strong&gt;Sisupala&lt;/strong&gt;. He who had been known as Samhlada, the younger brother of Prahlada, became among men the famous &lt;strong&gt;Salya&lt;/strong&gt;, that bull amongst Valhikas. The spirited Anuhlada who had been the youngest became noted in the world as Dhrishtaketu. And, O king, that son of Diti who had been known as Sivi became on earth the famous monarch Druma. And he who was known as the great Asura Vashkala became on earth the great Bhagadatta. The five great Asuras gifted with great energy, Ayahsira, Aswasira, the spirited Aysanku, Gaganamurdhan, and Vegavat, were all born in the royal line of Kekaya and all became great monarchs. That other Asura of mighty energy who was known by the name of Ketumat became on earth the monarch Amitaujas of terrible deeds. That great Asura who was known as Swarbhanu became on earth the monarch &lt;strong&gt;Ugrasena&lt;/strong&gt; of fierce deeds. That great Asura who was known as Aswa became on earth the monarch Asoka of exceeding energy and invincible in battle. And, O king, the younger brother of Aswa who was known as Aswapati, a son of Diti, became on earth the mighty monarch Hardikya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great and fortunate Asura who was known as &lt;strong&gt;Vrishaparvan&lt;/strong&gt; became noted on earth as king Dirghaprajna. And, O king, the younger brother of Vrishaparvan who was known by the name of Ajaka became noted on earth as king &lt;strong&gt;Salwa&lt;/strong&gt;. The powerful and mighty Asura who was known as Aswagriva became noted on earth as king Rochamana. And, O king, the Asura who was known as Sukshma, endued with great intelligence and whose achievements also were great, became on earth the famous king Vrihadratha. And that first of Asuras who was known by the name of Tuhunda, became noted on earth as the monarch, Senavindu. That Asura of great strength who was known as Ishupa became the monarch &lt;strong&gt;Nagnajita&lt;/strong&gt; of famous prowess. The great Asura who was known as Ekachakra became noted on earth as Pritivindhya. The great Asura Virupaksha capable of displaying various modes of fight became noted on earth as king Chitravarman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first of Danavas, the heroic Hara, who humbled the pride of all foes became on earth the famous and fortunate Suvahu. The Asura Suhtra of great energy and the destroyer of foemen, became noted on earth as the fortunate monarch, Munjakesa. That Asura of great intelligence called &lt;strong&gt;Nikumbha&lt;/strong&gt;, who was never vanquished in battle was born on earth as king Devadhipa, the first among monarchs. That great Asura known amongst the sons of Diti by the name of Sarabha became on earth the royal sage called Paurava. And, O king, the great Asura of exceeding energy, the fortunate Kupatha, was born on earth as the famous monarch Suparswa. The great Asura, O king, who was called Kratha, was born on earth as the royal sage Parvateya of form resplendent like a golden mountain. He amongst the Asura who was known as Salabha the second, became on earth the monarch Prahlada in the country of the Valhikas. The foremost, among the sons of Diti known by the name of Chandra and handsome as the lord of the stars himself, became on earth noted as Chandravarman, the king of the Kamvojas. That bull amongst the Danavas who was known by the name of Arka became on earth, O king, the royal sage Rishika. That best of Asuras who was known as Mritapa became on earth, O best of kings, the monarch, Pascimanupaka. That great Asura of surpassing energy known as Garishtha became noted on earth as king Drumasena. The great Asura who was known as Mayura became noted on earth as the monarch Viswa. He who was the younger brother of Mayura and called Suparna became noted on earth as the monarch, Kalakirti. The mighty Asura who was known as Chandrahantri became on earth the royal sage &lt;strong&gt;Sunaka&lt;/strong&gt;. The great Asura who was called Chandravinasana became noted on earth as the monarch, Janaki. That bull amongst the Danavas, O prince of the Kuru race, who was called Dhirghajihva, became noted on earth as &lt;strong&gt;Kasiraja&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Graha who was brought forth by Sinhika (&lt;strong&gt;Rahu&lt;/strong&gt;) and who persecuted the Sun and the Moon became noted on earth as the monarch Kratha. The eldest of the four sons of Danayu, who was known by the name of Vikshara, became known on earth the spirited monarch, Vasumitra. The second brother of Vikshara, the great Asura, was born on earth as the king of the country, called Pandya. That best of Asuras who was known by the name of Valina became on earth the monarch *Paundramatsyaka**. And, O king, that great Asura who was known as &lt;strong&gt;Vritra&lt;/strong&gt; became on earth the royal sage known by the name of Manimat. That Asura who was the younger brother of Vritra and known as Krodhahantri became noted on earth as king Danda. That other Asura who was known by the name Krodhavardhana became noted on earth as the monarch, Dandadhara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And, O king, from the tribe of Asuras called Krodhavasa, of whom I have already spoken to thee, were born many heroic kings on earth. Madraka, and Karnaveshta, Siddhartha, and also Kitaka; Suvira, and Suvahu, and Mahavira, and also Valhika, Kratha, Vichitra, Suratha, and the handsome king Nila; and Chiravasa, and Bhumipala; and &lt;strong&gt;Dantavakra&lt;/strong&gt;, and he who was called Durjaya; that tiger amongst kings named &lt;strong&gt;Rukmi&lt;/strong&gt;; and king Janamejaya, Ashada, and Vayuvega, and also Bhuritejas; &lt;strong&gt;Ekalavya&lt;/strong&gt;, and Sumitra, Vatadhana, and also Gomukha; the tribe of kings called the Karushakas, and also Khemadhurti; Srutayu, and Udvaha, and also Vrihatsena; Kshema, Ugratirtha, the king of the Kalingas; and Matimat, and he was known as king Iswara; these first of kings were all born of the Asura class called &lt;strong&gt;Krodhavasa&lt;/strong&gt;. There was also born on earth a mighty Asura known amongst the Danavas by the name of &lt;strong&gt;Kalanemi&lt;/strong&gt;, endued with great strength, of grand achievements, and blessed with a large share of prosperity. He became the mighty son of Ugrasena and was known on earth by the name of &lt;strong&gt;Kansa&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The evil-minded and wicked king &lt;strong&gt;Duryodhana&lt;/strong&gt;, the destroyer of the fair fame of the Kurus, was born of a portion of Kali on earth. He it was who caused all creatures to be slain and the earth to be wasted; and he it was who fanned the flame of hostility that ultimately consumed all. They who had been the sons of Pulastya (the Rakshasas) were born on earth among men of Duryodhana's brothers, that century of wicked individuals commencing with &lt;strong&gt;Duhasasana&lt;/strong&gt; as their first. And, O bull among the Bharata princes, Durmukha, Duhsaha, and others whose names I do not mention, who always supported Duryodhana (in all his schemes), were, indeed, the sons of Pulastya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-20T12:30:56.263" LastActivityDate="2018-09-20T12:30:56.263" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20798" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21430" CreationDate="2017-09-11T17:50:14.403" Score="6" ViewCount="2863" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita 7.24 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;avyaktaḿ vyaktim āpannaḿ&#xA;  manyante mām abuddhayaḥ&#xA;  paraḿ bhāvam ajānanto&#xA;  mamāvyayam anuttamam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Unintelligent men, who do not know Me perfectly, think that I, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, &lt;strong&gt;was impersonal before and have now assumed this personality&lt;/strong&gt;. Due to their lack of knowledge, &lt;strong&gt;they do not know My higher nature, which is imperishable and supreme&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How do Advaitins interpret the above verse? Whatever I have learned so far in Advaita is that all the forms of God are illusory and that only Nirguna Brahman is the Original Brahman (I may be wrong). However, this seems that the forms of God are real. Does Advaita not say that God is originally formless and only later He takes forms (I may be wrong again here as well)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2020-05-13T15:05:33.677" LastActivityDate="2020-05-13T17:13:52.557" Title="How do Advaitins interpret Bhagavad Gita 7.24?" Tags="|krishna|bhagavad-gita|brahman|advaita|maya|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20799" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20798" CreationDate="2017-09-11T18:25:36.380" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;You have to read the subsequent verse to understand verse 7.24&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita, Commentary by Adi Shankara, Translated by Swami Gambhirananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The unintelligent, unaware of My supreme state which is immutable and unsurpassable, think of Me as the unmanifest that has become manifest. || &lt;strong&gt;7.24&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Being enveloped by yoga-maya, I do not become manifest to all. This deluded world does not know Me who am birthless and undecaying. || &lt;strong&gt;7.25&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adi Shankara commentary on verse 7.25:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That yoga-maya, because of My being covered by which the world does not know Me - that yoga-maya, since it belongs to Me, does not obstruct  the knowledge of Me who am God, the possessor of maya, just as the magic of any other magician does not cover his knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-11T18:25:36.380" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20800" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20819" CreationDate="2017-09-11T20:42:24.257" Score="10" ViewCount="397" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu03.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti&lt;/a&gt; Says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sixteen (days and) nights (in each month), including four days which differ from the rest and are censured by the virtuous, (are called) the natural season of women. &#xA;  3.46&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But among these the first four, the eleventh and the thirteenth are (declared to be) forbidden; the remaining nights are recommended.&#xA;  3.47&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who avoids women on the six forbidden nights and on eight others, is (equal in chastity to) a student, in whichever order he may live. &#xA;  3.50 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it is possible for male grihastas to have innocence and chastity similar to that of Bramhacharis&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it possible for women to have similar rules to posses chastity equal to that of a kanya(damsel) after marriage, to be specific marriage followed by loosing virginity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="489" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-09-12T18:56:29.720" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T05:28:13.060" Title="Is there any rule in Shastras for women to be kanyas even after marriage" Tags="|dharma|marriage|dharma-shastras|manu-smriti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20801" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-12T04:34:13.060" Score="3" ViewCount="84" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Vaisheshika school, according to which atoms are the cause of the Universe. As I discuss here, the second oldest work of the Vaisheshika school is Prashastapada's Padartha Dharma Sangraha.  Now in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/FE2a&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Sridhara's Nyaya Kandali, a commentary on Prashastapada's work, Sridhara discusses the nature of Shakti or potency.  For instance, fire has the potency to burn things.  Sridhara argues that potency is a perceptible quality of an object, not some imperceptible entity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We now proceed to consider - what is 'Potency,' Shakti? Some good people have declared that it is something supersensuous, imperceptible by the senses.  But that is not right; as there can be no evidence for the existence of any such supersensuous Potency.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Objection: &amp;quot;We find fire under certain conditions producing the effect of burning; and at another time we find that the same fire under the same conditions does not produce any such effect, &lt;strong&gt;when brought into close touch with certain incantations or medicinal herbs&lt;/strong&gt;; and if the visible form of fire were the cause of the burning, then as the visible form of fire remains the same in the latter case also, there could not be an absence of burning.  As a matter of fact however we do find this absent; and this clearly shows that there is some sort of incapacity in the invisible form of the fire; and thereby proves the fact of potency itself being something quite imperceptible; a potency the suppression of destruction whereof is brought about by the incantation etc. In cases where counter-remedies are found to revive the potency there has been a mere suppression, whereas when there is an absolute absence of the necessary effect, there is destruction of the potency.&amp;quot; ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To the above we make the following reply:- The absence of the proper effects (of fire), in the presence of incantations etc., does not indicate any invisible form.  Because just, just as of burning we regard fire to be the cause, - inasmuch as it has its power of burning fully known by positive as well as by negative concomitance, - so in the same manner is also the prior non-existence of obstacles in the shape of incantation etc. accepted as the cause (of burning); and when this 'non-existence' would be set aside by the reciting of the incantation, it is only natural that there should be no burning for the simple reason that the necessary accessory circumstances in the shape of the non-existence of obstacles would not be presence, - and the absence of burning  thus would also not be due to the absence of due 'potency' in the fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is about the part in bold.  It's understandable that there might be mantras (in the Atharvana Veda for instance) which stop a fire from burning things, and other mantras which restore the burning power of fire.  But my question is, what herbs, &amp;quot;when brought into close touch&amp;quot; with a fire, can stop the fire from burning things?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any scriptures that describe such an herb?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T17:11:52.610" Title="What herbs take away the burning power of fire?" Tags="|philosophy|siddhi|plants|vaisheshika|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20803" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20740" CreationDate="2017-09-12T07:36:43.080" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well Yes. Vishnu also dies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi Bhagawatam, Book 4, Chapter 13&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;शर्वो ब्रह्मा हरिश्चेति इन्द्राद्या ये सुरास्तथा ॥ २७ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मुनयश्च विनिर्माणैः स्वायुषो विचरन्ति हि ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निशावसाने सञ्जाते जगत्स्थावरजङ्गमम् ॥ २८ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  म्रियते नात्र सन्देहो नृप किञ्चित्कदापि च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;स्वायुषोऽन्ते पद्मजाद्या क्षयमृच्छन्ति पार्थिव ॥ २९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रभवन्ति पुनर्विष्णुहरशक्रादयः सुराः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मात्कामादिकान्भावान्देहवान्प्रतिपद्यते ॥ ३० ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vyasa tells Janamejaya- O King! &lt;strong&gt;Shiva, Brahma, Narayana, Indra and other Gods, as well as the Munis and others live up to their ordained age of life.&lt;/strong&gt; This moving and unmoving Universe then dissolves at time of Pralaya and comes into existence again, there is no doubt here, O Lord of Men. &lt;strong&gt;O Ruler of Earth! when the ordained age ends, then Brahma and others die, and again, Vishnu, Shiva, Indra and other all Devas take birth again.&lt;/strong&gt; So, every embodied being(a being having a body) therefore gets all the feelings of lust, anger, avarice et cetera.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So It is clear that Krishna dies as well when His ordained life ends.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BUT&lt;/strong&gt; is this the superlative conclusion?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well the above conclusion was just one of the part of answer given by Vyasa on Janamejaya's asking- &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Why do embodied beings play lust, avarice, anger et cetera?&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;, which can be seen in this chapter- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk04ch13.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 13, Book 4, Devi Puraana&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This does not mean Narayana or Shiva are nothing now. As you see-  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DeviBhagwatam, Book 1, Chapter 4&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;जानाम्यहं जगन्नाथ त्वमादिः सर्वकारणम् ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कर्ता पालयिता हर्ता समर्थः सर्वकार्यकृत् ॥ ३९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इच्छया ते महाराज सृजाम्यहमिदं जगत् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हरः संहरते काले सोऽपि ते वचने सदा ॥ ४० ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Brahma praises Lord Vishnu- &lt;strong&gt;O Lord of Universe! I know Thee verily only Thou art the Origin and the cause of all.&lt;/strong&gt; Thou createst, protectest and destroyest all, and art capable of all actions. O Great Lord! by Thy will I create and Shiva destroy in time by Thy words.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here all the Devas venerate Hari thus-  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi Puraana, Book 10, Chapter 5&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;जय विष्णो रमेशाद्य महापुरुष पूर्वज ॥ २ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दैत्यारे कामजनक सर्वकामफलप्रद ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Devas praise Vishnu- Victory be Thine! &lt;strong&gt;O Vishnu! Thou art beloved of Ramaa and Thou art origin. Thou art the Eternal Purusha, and thou art first born(meaning unborn).&lt;/strong&gt; Thou art enemy of the Daityas, and grantest us all the desires, that Thou Thyself createst.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here the Devas revere Shiva thus-  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DeviBhagwatam, Book 10, Chapter 4&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अहिर्बुध्न्याय मान्याय मनवे मानदायिने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अजाय बहुरूपाय स्वात्मारामाय शम्भवे ॥ ५ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गणनाथाय देवाय गिरिशाय नमोऽस्तु ते&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महाविभूतिदात्रे ते महाविष्णुस्तुताय च ॥ ६ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Devas praise Shiva- O Shiva! obeisances to Thee. Thou art ornamented with Serpents and art honoured by all. Thou art Manu and Thou grantest honour to all. &lt;strong&gt;O Shambhu! Thou art unborn, Thou havest many forms and Thou rejoicest only in Thy bliss.&lt;/strong&gt; Obeisances to Thee! O Lord of Ganas, O Deva, O Lord of Mountains. Obeisances to Giver of great powers and Who art worshipped by the Great MahaVishnu.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore it is to be understood that Narayana, Shiva, Brahma, Devi, Ganesha and all Gods are never born nor they die. It is &lt;strong&gt;their divine Leela&lt;/strong&gt; and it &lt;strong&gt;is so arcane that it is hard to be  comprehended even by Devas, what to speak of mere human beings.&lt;/strong&gt; Narayana takes birth, and dies. Again He is the Unborn supreme Brahma Who cannot be perceived at all. Shiva is born of anger of Brahma, but again Shiva is the ever unborn Whose beginning can never be known. Devi is the Ultimate Soul Who is not know to be ever born, yet at times She takes birth and immolates Herself. Then She is born again. Yet She is the Creatrix of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva Themselves.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We can never know the Nature of God. Narayana can never be understood by anyone. He is Supreme Soul and His Leela is incomprehensible.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-09-13T08:28:50.697" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T08:28:50.697" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20804" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="54408" CreationDate="2017-09-12T09:06:06.000" Score="13" ViewCount="1244" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across a text similar to the Smṛtis or Law Books which is called the &lt;strong&gt;Harita Samhita&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hG2oz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hG2oz.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He seems to be somebody of significance because his laws are repeated by Ṛṣi Markandeya in the book. The Ṛṣis also refer to him as the son of Bhṛgu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/StAXW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/StAXW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This could either imply that he was a direct son of Bhṛgu Ṛṣi or someone who belonged to his lineage. But the only information I could get on him was a vague mention in the &lt;strong&gt;Charak Samhita:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Punarvasu, out of friendliness, and prompted with compassion for all&#xA;creatures, bestowed the virtuous Ayurveda upon his six disciples- Agnivesa, Bhela, Jatukarna, Parasara, &lt;strong&gt;Harita&lt;/strong&gt; and Ksarapani. Su1#30-31&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So my question is - who exactly is this Ṛṣi Harita?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="21895" LastEditDate="2020-11-04T11:54:11.317" LastActivityDate="2023-02-23T11:31:47.853" Title="Who was sage Harita, the son of Bhṛgu?" Tags="|rishi|smriti|samhita|charaka-samhita|bhrigu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20806" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20026" CreationDate="2017-09-12T11:40:08.817" Score="1" Body="&lt;h3&gt;What is &amp;quot;soul&amp;quot;?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As you correctly wrote, &amp;quot;soul&amp;quot; is an eternal fragment of the supreme Brahman or &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; (self).&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; is in oneness&lt;/strong&gt; -- as it's less precise to term it as numerical 'one'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 15.7 - Among the living world, the beings' &lt;em&gt;jiva&lt;/em&gt;-s (souls) are my eternal fragments only; [these beings] keep attracting 5 senses &amp;amp; mind as the sixth towards the material nature.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 13.17 - Though in oneness, it appears to be existing as divided in all beings, and It is the originator, sustainer &amp;amp; consumer of all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Gita's perspective, &amp;quot;soul&amp;quot; can be termed as &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot; is the consciousness, which resides as a consumer or enjoyer within the beings. For this soul, &lt;em&gt;sukha&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;dukha&lt;/em&gt; - both are enjoyable.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The other aspect of &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; (self) is &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot; is under the control of the self and creates various beings using the 3 modes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 13.20 — Know that &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;, both are certainly beginningless; Transformations and &lt;em&gt;Guna-s (sattva, rajas, tamas)&lt;/em&gt; are known to be possible due to &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 13.21 — &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;'s purposes are said to be Activity - Reason - Creation; &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;'s purpose is said to consume happiness(&lt;em&gt;sukha&lt;/em&gt;) &amp;amp; sorrow(&lt;em&gt;dukha&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What makes the soul get embodied?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As stated above, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; its 3 modes make the &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; as embodied&lt;/strong&gt;. This embodied &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; can be referred as the &amp;quot;soul&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The part of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; is termed as 'field/body' (&lt;em&gt;kshetra&lt;/em&gt;) and the embodied soul in it is termed as 'knower of field' (&lt;em&gt;kshetragya / Purusha&lt;/em&gt;). [BG 13.2, 13.3]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 13.22 - &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; being situated in &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, experiences the [&lt;em&gt;sattva, rajas, tamas&lt;/em&gt;] modes born of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. Contact with the these modes, is the cause of its births in good and evil wombs.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 14.5 — O mighty armed, the modes of &lt;em&gt;Sattva, Rajas &amp;amp; Tamas&lt;/em&gt; generated from &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, bind the embodied indivisible [Atman] into a body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may ask, &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Why&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; it happens?&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Then the answer is -- &lt;strong&gt;it just happens&lt;/strong&gt;. There is absolutely &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19458/1049&quot;&gt;no purpose&lt;/a&gt; for it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Analogy&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Imagine an ocean (&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;), which is in oneness of its water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If we fetch a bucket, then the ocean water will assume shape of that&#xA;bucket. Now bucket will deceive us not&#xA;to call it ocean. We will rather call it &amp;quot;bucket&amp;quot; (water/soul's bucket/body).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Later when water gets evaporated (kind of death from previous form), it assumes the form of&#xA;cloud (rebirth with new body). The cloud is still yet another form of ocean's water only. But&#xA;due to its air-like nature, we may call it a cloud (same soul with different body).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Later when it bursts (again death), then it will transform into showers. We may call it rain (rebirth with again a new body). This is&#xA;the same ocean water.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Later that rain will submerged back to the ocean (liberation -- nobody!).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The cycle continues ... forever&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This example is of a small bucket with small loop-back. Imagine how many routes are possible with different shapes and storages!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T04:52:55.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20807" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20816" CreationDate="2017-09-12T12:18:55.887" Score="5" ViewCount="1133" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well I know that 'Hindustan' was called 'Bharat' after the name of king Bharat, but curious to know what was the ancient name prior to that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-12T17:57:06.853" LastActivityDate="2017-09-12T18:14:59.197" Title="What was the name of 'Hindustan' before 'Bharat'?" Tags="|name|india|terminology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20808" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20026" CreationDate="2017-09-12T12:25:25.807" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda has talked in great detail on this subject, i.e, How has the Infinite, the Absolute, become the finite?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Complete Works/Volume 2/Jnana Yoga/&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_2/Jnana-Yoga/The_Absolute_and_Manifestation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Absolute and Manifestation&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8sGL8.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8sGL8.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In asking what caused the Absolute, what an error we are making! To ask this question we have to suppose that the Absolute also is bound by something, that It is dependent on something; and in making this supposition, we drag the Absolute down to the level of the universe. For in the Absolute there is neither time, space, nor causation; It is all one. That which exists by itself alone cannot have any cause. That which is free cannot have any cause; else it would not be free, but bound. That which has relativity cannot be free. &lt;strong&gt;Thus we see the very question, why the Infinite became the finite, is an impossible one, for it is self-contradictory.&lt;/strong&gt; Coming from subtleties to the logic of our common plane, to common sense, we can see this from another side, when we seek to know how the Absolute has become the relative. Supposing we knew the answer, would the Absolute remain the Absolute? It would have become relative.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Complete Works/Volume 2/Jnana_yoga/&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_2/Jnana-Yoga/The_Freedom_of_the_Soul&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Freedom of the Soul&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although all the systems agree so far that we had the empire, and that we have lost it, they give us varied advice as to how to regain it. One says that you must perform certain ceremonies, pay certain sums of money to certain idols, eat certain sorts of food, live in a peculiar fashion to regain that empire. Another says that if you weep and prostrate yourselves and ask pardon of some Being beyond nature, you will regain that empire. Again, another says if you love such a Being with all your heart, you will regain that empire. All this varied advice is in the Upanishads. As I go on, you will find it so. &lt;strong&gt;But the last and the greatest counsel is that you need not weep at all. You need not go through all these ceremonies, and need not take any notice of how to regain your empire, because you never lost it. Why should you go to seek for what you never lost? You are pure already, you are free already. If you think you are free, free you are this moment, and if you think you are bound, bound you will be. This is a very bold statement, and as I told you at the beginning of this course, I shall have to speak to you very boldly. It may frighten you now, but when you think over it, and realise it in your own life, then you will come to know that what I say is true&lt;/strong&gt;. For, supposing that freedom is not your nature, by no manner of means can you become free. Supposing you were free and in some way you lost that freedom, that shows that you were not free to begin with. Had you been free, what could have made you lose it? The independent can never be made dependent; if it is really dependent, its independence was a hallucination.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You should read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18903/3872&quot;&gt;Astavakra Samhita&lt;/a&gt;, it's a good read on such topics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Self is witness, all-pervading, perfect, One, free, Consciousness,&#xA;  actionless, unattached, desireless and quiet. Through illusion It appears as if It is of the world (i.e. subject to the ever-repeating cycle of birth and death). &lt;strong&gt;I.12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Body, heaven and hell, bondage and freedom, as also fear, all these are mere&#xA;  imagination. What have I to do with all these—I whose nature is Pure&#xA;  Consciousness? &lt;strong&gt;II.20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am not this body, nor have I a body. I am not Jiva, I am Pure Consciousness.&#xA;  This indeed was my bondage that I had thirst for life. &lt;strong&gt;II.22&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastEditorUserId="3872" LastEditDate="2017-09-13T04:06:49.900" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T04:06:49.900" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20809" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20814" CreationDate="2017-09-12T12:39:25.183" Score="7" ViewCount="360" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read a story in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.apamnapat.com/entities/Yami.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;blog&lt;/a&gt; of Yama dying and entering the afterlife where he becomes the lord of the dead and Yami mourning over him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gods try to pacify her but she says &quot;Yama died today!&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to help her cope with her grief the gods create the Night (for previously there was only day in the beginning). Another variation of this story says the Gods created the Night and made Yami its deity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anybody know if this story has a scriptural basis? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-09-12T15:40:36.630" LastActivityDate="2017-09-12T16:51:54.840" Title="What scripture has the story of the death of Yama and the creation of the night?" Tags="|scripture|identification-request|yama|yami|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20810" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-12T12:47:28.890" Score="6" ViewCount="3201" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every person in Hindu community is linked to Kuldevi and Kuldev. Everyone in Hinduism have Kuldevi and Kuldev. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What is the purpose of it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What are the rituals for Kuldevi and Kuldev?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If I don't know my Kuldev and Kuldevi, then how to find it?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why every Hindu is associated to Kuldevi and Kuldev?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-13T08:34:51.250" LastActivityDate="2022-07-23T11:06:45.710" Title="Every hindu is associated to Kuldevi and Kuldev. What is the purpose of it?" Tags="|gods|worship|ancestry|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20813" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-12T16:23:46.763" Score="8" ViewCount="9387" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gotra of women will change from her father's Gotra to husband's Gotra. How this will happen? Is there any Mantra? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2023-06-18T10:18:46.840" Title="How the Gotra of a woman is changed during marriage?" Tags="|marriage|women|gotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20814" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20809" CreationDate="2017-09-12T16:51:54.840" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/fRg6wv/image.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; in Kanda 1, Prapathaka 5, Anuvaka 12 of the Maitrayani Samhita of the Yajur Veda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yamo vā amriyata te devā yamyā yamam apābruvaṃs tāṃ yad apṛchant sābravīd adyāmṛteti te 'bruvan na vā iyam imam itthaṃ mṛṣyate rātrīṃ sṛjāmahā ity ahar vāva tarhy āsīn na rātris te devā rātrim asṛjanta tataḥ śvastanam abhavat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yama and Yami (&amp;quot;the twin&amp;quot;) are the first man and woman. Yama died. The gods sought to console Yami for the death of Yama. When they asked her she said, &amp;quot;To-day he died.&amp;quot; They said: &amp;quot;In this way she will never forget him. Let us create night!&amp;quot; Day only at that time existed, not night. The gods created night. Then morrow came into being. Then she forgot him.  Hence, they say, &amp;quot;Days and nights make men forget sorrow.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-12T16:51:54.840" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20815" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-12T18:01:21.007" Score="1" ViewCount="149" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that there were many great Rishi Munis (Sage) who have blessed our motherland and we also know that genes are passed on from one generation to the next one, so would it be correct to assume that among us, some where, we do have lineage of them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any known ones?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-09-12T18:01:21.007" Title="Vanshaj of great Hindu Rishi Munis?" Tags="|rishi|saint|ancestry|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20816" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20807" CreationDate="2017-09-12T18:02:29.080" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The name was &lt;strong&gt;Ajanābha-varṣa&lt;/strong&gt;. This was the name given to the planet earth. But after the activities of the king Bharata, the country is named as Bhārata-varṣa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is said in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/7/3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda 5 chapter 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ajanābhaṁ nāmaitad varṣaṁ bhāratam iti yata ārabhya vyapadiśanti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Formerly this planet was known as Ajanābha-varṣa, but since Mahārāja Bharata’s reign it has become known as Bhārata-varṣa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This country was named after King Nābhi. He is the grandfather of King Bharata. After the reign of Bharata, son of Ṛṣabhadeva,  it is being called as Bhārata-varṣa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-12T18:14:59.197" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20817" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-13T03:46:34.937" Score="4" ViewCount="875" Body="&lt;p&gt;Puranas list a number of kings and dynasties that will rule after Mahabharata. It looks like different Puranas list different kings. So, what happened in the history after Mahabharata in India as per majority of the Puranas? &lt;a href=&quot;http://trueindianhistory-kvchelam.blogspot.in/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pandit Kota Venkatachalam&lt;/a&gt; just provided wrong information if you look at various Puranas.&#xA;For example, he said &lt;a href=&quot;http://trueindianhistory-kvchelam.blogspot.in/2009/09/maurya-dynasty-fifth-dynasty-of-magadha.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mauryas ruled for 316 years&lt;/a&gt;, while Puranas say they ruled for 137 years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T10:52:04.357" Title="Chronological orders of dynasties and kings after Mahabharata as per Puranas" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20818" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-13T04:22:11.687" Score="8" ViewCount="282" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Vaisheshika school, according to which atoms are the cause of the Universe. As I discuss here, the second oldest work of the Vaisheshika school is Prashastapada's Padartha Dharma Sangraha. Now in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600808.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/30/items/prashastapadabhashya/7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_jp2/7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_0125.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; of the Padartha Dharma Sangraha, Prashastapada discusses the nature of numbers:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Number forms the basis of such usages as &amp;quot;one&amp;quot; and the rest.  It inheres in one and many substances.  The number inhering in one substance has its eternal and transient manifestations as those of the color etc. of the atom of water and the rest.  &lt;strong&gt;The number inhering in many substances begins with &amp;quot;Two&amp;quot; and ends with &amp;quot;Parardha&amp;quot; (100,000,000,000,000,000).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  The fact that a Parardha equals 100,000,000,000,000,000, i.e. 100 quadrillions, is a parenthetical note given by the translator, but it's confirmed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp158.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Parárddha, Maitreya, is that number that occurs in the eighteenth place of figures, enumerated according to the rule of decimal notation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, why did the Vaisheshika school believe that 100 quadrillion is the largest number?  The fact that they believed this seems fairly clear.  Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600808.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/30/items/prashastapadabhashya/7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_jp2/7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_0129.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Sridhara's Nyaya Kandali, a commentary on Prashastapada's work, says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The number inherent in more than one substance includes all numbers from two to the highest number. &amp;quot;Parardha&amp;quot; is that at which all limitations of number cease.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what is the reason for this belief?  Now as I said, the Vaisheshika school believed in atomism, so is it possible that they thought that 100 quadrillion was the number of atoms in the Universe, and thus the most significant number?  Do any Vaisheshika works shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2023-02-20T00:25:18.643" LastActivityDate="2023-02-20T00:25:18.643" Title="Why did the Vaisheshika school believe 100 quadrillion is the largest number?" Tags="|philosophy|vaisheshika|mathematics|numbers|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20819" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20800" CreationDate="2017-09-13T05:28:13.060" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Whatever conforms for men to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/20701/1049&quot;&gt;observe the vow of &lt;em&gt;Brahmacharya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, the same applies (vice a versa) for women as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma said, ... As the sacred fire waits for libations to be poured upon it when the hour for Homa arrives, even so a woman, when her functional period is over, expects an act of congress with her husband. &lt;strong&gt;One that never approaches one's spouses at any other time save after the functional period, is said to observe the vow of Brahmacharya&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b127.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Anusasana Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says that, like how the divine drink is offered to the deity of fire when the time of &lt;em&gt;Homa&lt;/em&gt; arrives during &lt;em&gt;Havana&lt;/em&gt;, similarly when woman's menstrual cycle is over, she expects sexual congress with her husband (subduing the fire). If a person (husband or wife) have such congress only during the prescribed period, then he/she is on the path of &lt;em&gt;Brahmacharya&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A woman observing the &lt;em&gt;Brahmacharya&lt;/em&gt; can certainly be considered as chaste, as equivalent as a damsel (&lt;em&gt;kanya&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T05:28:13.060" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20820" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14843" CreationDate="2017-09-13T05:52:14.987" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we are leaving Rama out of contention, the most accomplished of Brahmarishi Vasishth's students would be Harishchandra. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02012.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SECTION XII of Lokapala Sabhakhayana Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; of Book 2 of Mahabharat mentions Harishchandra as the only earthly king who finds a place in the assembly of gods:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmanas gratified with various kinds of food and enjoyable articles, given away unto them to the extent of their desires, and with the heaps of jewels distributed amongst them, began to say,--&lt;strong&gt;King Harischandra is superior to all kings in energy and renown&lt;/strong&gt;.--And know, O monarch, O bull of the Bharata race, it was for this reason that Harischandra shone more brightly than thousands of other kings. The powerful Harischandra having concluded his great sacrifice, became installed, O king, in the sovereignty of the earth and looked resplendent on his throne.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In these verses Devarishi Narad gives Pandu's message to his eldest son asking him to follow the footsteps of Harishchandra and perform the Rajsuya Yagya so that even he can attain heaven:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O king of the Kuru race, O son of Kunti, thy father Pandu, &lt;strong&gt;beholding the good fortune of Harischandra and wondering much thereat, hath told thee something.&lt;/strong&gt; Knowing that I was coming to the world of men, he bowed unto me and said,--Thou shouldst tell Yudhishthira, O Rishi, that he can subjugate the whole Earth inasmuch as his brothers are all obedient to him. And having done this let him commence the grand sacrifice called Rajasuya. He is my son; &lt;strong&gt;if he performeth that sacrifice, I may, like Harischandra, soon attain to the region of Indra, and there in his Sabha pass countless years in continuous joy.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma also mentions to Yuddhishthir in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b080.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anushasan Parva Section CXV&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Do thou always speak the truth. Never speak an untruth. Truth is an eternal duty. **It is by truth that Harischandra roves through heaven like a second Chandramas. **&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since everybody knows about the trials he was made to endure by Brahmarishi Vishwamitra, I am not going to mention them but what happened afterwards clearly shows the regard Vasishth had for his protege. The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=VGPZAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA379&amp;amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Markandeya Puran&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; gives the details of his whole story and also mentions what happened after he had proved himself worthy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dharma said- 'O king! You have satisfied me with your merits like patience, endurance, truthfulness&#xA;  etc.' Indra said- 'Harishchandra, you are very fortunate. You have won our hearts along with your wife&#xA;  and son. You have even won the heaven with your action. I invite you to stay in heaven along with your&#xA;  wife and son.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmarishi Vasishth&lt;/strong&gt; had been undergoing a penance at the time Harishchandra was undergoing these adversities and when he came to know what Vishwamitra had put his protege to, he cursed him to become a bird and they had a huge fight:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The birds say- O great sage Jaimini! &lt;strong&gt;When, King Harishchandra attained his heavenly abode, their&#xA;  family priest, sage Vashishta re-emerged from water. He came to know about the entire development.&#xA;  He was angry at Vishwamitra's stubbornness. He at once cursed Vishwamitra to become a stork.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  On the other hand Vishwamitra cursed Vashishta to become a partridge. Thus both of them turned into&#xA;  birds and began to fight. Their fight caused great panic all around. At last accompanied by the deities,&#xA;  Brahma himself arrived at the scene and dissuaded the birds from fighting. But Brahma could not&#xA;  convince them and they continued to fight.&#xA;  Brahma then destroyed their avian appearances and both the sages regained their original form. Their&#xA;  enemity too ended at the same time. Brahma explained to them that Vishwamitra had not done any&#xA;  harm to Harishchandra. In fact he had felicitated Harishchandra's ascend to the heaven. Both the&#xA;  sages felt ashamed and they embraced each other before leaving for their respective hermitages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We don't see Brahmarishi Vasishth fighting on behalf of any of his other pupils!&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, more than Shakti/Shaktri who frequently lost his cool and first cursed Harishchandra's father Satyavarat and then king Kalmashpada, I would say that according to the scriptures, &lt;strong&gt;Raja Harishchandra was better than all other kings and monarchs.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-19T06:54:42.370" LastActivityDate="2018-02-19T06:54:42.370" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20822" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14945" CreationDate="2017-09-13T06:58:06.910" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well Indra is the title of the leader of the gods and it is not easy to get there. One has to do an intense tapasya or a hundred Aswamedhs to attain the position as mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Section XXXIII of Shanti Parva of Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So anyone who gets the post after so much hard work is naturally wary of others who might be trying to replace him. Sending a beautiful Apsara to seduce a tapasvi and break his penance is one of the ways for Indra to eliminate competition &amp;amp; it is sort of a political strategy to distract the competition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishwamitra&lt;/strong&gt; says the same thing in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga63/bala_63_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayan Baal-Kand&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'All this is the mischief of gods to defraud me of the great merit of my ascesis. Ten years have rolled by as if they are just a day and a night. Furthermore, I who am under the influence of lust and lure had to encounter this hindrance in my ascesis. [1-63-11, 12a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=5nk6DQAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT34&amp;amp;lpg=PT34&amp;amp;dq=skanda%20purana%20dharmaranya&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=kbuBJ3QV1_&amp;amp;sig=jlP4bkfMuVeibkSLxG0dQGSwyJI&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiuiK_HxqHWAhVBvY8KHatbDwIQ6AEIPDAE#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=skanda%20purana%20dharmaranya&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana section titled Dharmaranya Kshetra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; a similar story is told:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once, Sage Vyasa went to meet Yudhisthira, who requested him to describe the significance of Dharmaranya kshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Vyasa replied-- 'O king! Once, Dharmaraj did an austere penance to please Lord Shiva. As usual, &lt;strong&gt;Indra became scared because he thought that Dharmaraj was doing penance with the intention of acquiring Indraloka.&lt;/strong&gt; He and other deities went to seek the help of Lord Brahma, who did not have any clue. So, all of them went to Kailash mountain to seek Lord Shiva's help. Since Shiva was aware of Dharma's motive, he explained to the deities that there was nothing to worry about. &lt;strong&gt;But, Indra was not satisfied and the thought of loosing his kingdom continued to torment him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indra then instructed a beautiful Apsara named Vardhini to go to the place where Dharma was doing penance and disturb him by corrupting his thoughts.&lt;/strong&gt; Vardhini went to the place where Dharma was engrossed in his penance and was successful in disturbing him. When Dharma opened his eyes he found a beautiful Apsara in front of him. Vardhini asked Dharma--'O Lord! What is the objective with which you are doing such an austere penance? Being an embodiment of virtuosity yourself, you prevail in the whole world. So, in a sense you already the lord of the world - what else do you need?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dharma told Vardhini that he was doing penance with the objective of having a divine glimpse of Lord Shiva. &lt;strong&gt;Vardhini informed him that Indra was scared of losing his kingdom and hence had sent her to disturb his penance.&lt;/strong&gt; Dharma was pleased by her truthfulness and wanted to reward her for that. Vardhini expressed her desire of having her abode in Indraloka for eternity and also of having a place of pilgrimage named on her. Dharma blessed her after which she returned to Indraloka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While this seems to be a tried and tested way to make the person performing a penance lose his way, in some episodes Indras have even resorted to stealing the horses meant for the sacrifice as is evident from this &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=IMCxbOezDi4C&amp;amp;pg=PA250&amp;amp;lpg=PA250&amp;amp;dq=indra%20steals%20horse&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=E4I7Kdfec3&amp;amp;sig=fTCoBZm0nQEvUevGETGTMdBoAik&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiflergyaHWAhXBr48KHUVzD7EQ6AEITzAL#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=indra%20steals%20horse&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;incident at&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prithu's Ashwamedh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and again when &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp096.htm#page_378&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;King Sagar performed the same ritual&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-02-19T06:34:06.753" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20823" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19789" CreationDate="2017-09-13T07:24:28.200" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The seven oceans were formed by the impressions of  the chariot wheels of Priyavrata, the eldest son of Swayambhuva Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skandha 5, chapter 1&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While so excellently ruling the universe, King Priyavrata once became dissatisfied with the circumambulation of the most powerful sun-god. Encircling Sumeru Hill on his chariot, the sun-god illuminates all the surrounding planetary systems. However, when the sun is on the northern side of the hill, the south receives less light, and when the sun is in the south, the north receives less. King Priyavrata disliked this situation and therefore decided to make daylight in the part of the universe where there was night. He followed the orbit of the sun-god on a brilliant chariot and thus fulfilled his desire. He could perform such wonderful activities because of the power he had achieved by worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/1/30&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[5-1-30]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, he decided to circumambulate the Sun-god in his chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Priyavrata drove his chariot behind the sun, &lt;em&gt;the rims of his chariot wheels created impressions that later became seven oceans&lt;/em&gt;, dividing the planetary system known as Bhū-maṇḍala into seven islands. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/1/31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[5.1.31]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By doing this, oceans were formed. These oceans divided the earth into seven islands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The names of the islands are Jambū, Plakṣa, Śālmali, Kuśa, Krauñca, Śāka and Puṣkara. Each island is twice as large as the one preceding it, and each is surrounded by a liquid substance, beyond which is the next island. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/1/32&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[5.1.32]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Privarta declared his sons as the lords of these islands. The names of the oceans and their respective lords are given in the next verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kṣārodekṣu-rasoda-suroda-ghṛtoda-kṣīroda-dadhi-maṇḍoda-śuddhodāḥ sapta &lt;br&gt; jaladhayaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; sapta dvīpa-parikhā ivābhyantara-dvīpa-samānā ekaikaśyena &lt;br&gt;yathānupūrvaṁ saptasv api bahir dvīpeṣu pṛthak parita upakalpitās teṣu &lt;br&gt; jambv-ādiṣu barhiṣmatī-patir anuvratānātmajān āgnīdhredhmajihva- &lt;br&gt;yajñabāhu-hiraṇyareto-ghṛtapṛṣṭha-medhātithi-vītihotra-saṁjñān yathā- &lt;br&gt;saṅkhyenaikaikasminn ekam evādhi-patiṁ vidadhe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;seven oceans respectively contain salt water, sugarcane juice, liquor, clarified butter, milk, emulsified yogurt, and sweet drinking water&lt;/strong&gt;. All the islands are completely surrounded by these oceans, and each ocean is equal in breadth to the island it surrounds. Mahārāja Priyavrata, the husband of Queen Barhiṣmatī, gave sovereignty over these islands to his respective sons, namely Āgnīdhra, Idhmajihva, Yajñabāhu, Hiraṇyaretā, Ghṛtapṛṣṭha, Medhātithi and Vītihotra. Thus they all became kings by the order of their father. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/1/33&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[5.1.33]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, King Priyavrata is the reason for the formation of the seven oceans including the ocean of milk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the churning of the ocean took place due to the curse pronounced by Sage Durvāsas on Indra. It was done to restore the treasure of the devatas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The incident is explained in detail in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of Viṣṇu Purāṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Durvāsas gives a garland made of heavenly flowers to Lord Indra. He gives to his favourite elephant Airāvata and wears it on its brow. whose eyes were dim with inebriety, That elephant attracted by the smell throws it down. Knowing this, Sage Durvāsas became angry and pronounced a curse on Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, fool, for that thou hast not infinitely prized the garland that I gave thee, thy sovereignty over the three worlds shall be subverted. Thou confoundest me, Śakra, with other Brahmans, and hence I have suffered disrespect from thy arrogance: but in like manner as thou hast cast the garland I gave thee down on the ground, so shall thy dominion over the universe be whelmed in ruin. Thou hast offended one whose wrath is dreaded by all created things, king of the gods, even me, by thine excessive pride.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra asks for forgiveness but the sage leaves Amarāvati. In this way, all the possessions were gone. On the advise of Lord Hari, devatas and asuras churned the ocean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T07:48:02.480" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20826" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20839" CreationDate="2017-09-13T13:05:40.007" Score="7" ViewCount="846" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do Hindu festivals fall on different dates every year? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How festivals are determined?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10049" LastEditorUserId="10049" LastEditDate="2017-09-14T04:55:52.730" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T08:07:47.070" Title="Why do Hindu festivals fall on different dates every year?" Tags="|festivals|calendar|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20827" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20830" CreationDate="2017-09-13T14:35:35.850" Score="9" ViewCount="14111" Body="&lt;p&gt;In a &lt;a href=&quot;http://nirmalpathak.tumblr.com/post/94668341810/meat-wine&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt;, I found a verse supposedly from the Mahabharata where Lord Krishna drinks alcohol along with Arjuna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उभौ मध्वासवक्षिप्तावुभौ चन्दनरूषितौ ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    स्रग्विनौ वरवस्त्रौ तौ दिव्याभरणभूषितौ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (I saw) both of them (&lt;strong&gt;Krishna and Arjuna&lt;/strong&gt;) &lt;strong&gt;drunk with Madhvâsava (sweet spirituous liquor made from honey)&lt;/strong&gt;, both adorned with sandal paste, garlanded, and wearing costly garments and beautiful ornaments.” (Mahabharata - Udyoga, LVIII. 5) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, I was unable to locate the verse in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05058.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata (translated by K.M. Ganguli) Udyoga Parva LVIII&lt;/a&gt;. Is it truly from the Mahabharata. Is the translation correct? I have heard Sanskrit words can have multiple meanings. If it truly means a liquor and indeed located in the Mahabharata, why would Lord Krishna drink something that is not Satvic? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T12:01:31.623" LastActivityDate="2019-10-03T16:14:49.017" Title="Did Lord Krishna really consume alcohol?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20828" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-13T15:46:59.980" Score="2" ViewCount="81" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that in order to bring a child into this world we need need both a female and a male (not taking into consideration current scientific methodologies), agree that a woman nurtures the baby in her womb for 9 months (god made it that way), but after birth father plays very important role in the up-bringing of the child, so why only mothers get all the credit (normally) why not fathers? Why in our culture is a mother portrayed as if all sacrifices are made by her?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T15:46:59.980" Title="Why Mata given more importance than Pita?" Tags="|culture|children|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20830" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20827" CreationDate="2017-09-13T16:46:41.610" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The verse you're referring to occurs in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05059.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 59&lt;/a&gt; of the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata.  The context is Sanjaya relaying to Dhritarashtra what transpired when he went to the Pandavas to deliver a message before the war:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Listen, O king, as I tell thee the state in which I found Krishna and Dhananjaya. I will also, O Bharata, tell thee what those heroes said; O king, with looks bent down and hands joined together, and with senses well restrained, I entered the inner apartments for conferring with those gods among men. Neither Abhimanyu nor the Twins can repair to that place where are the two Krishnas and Draupadi and lady Satyabhama. &lt;strong&gt;There I beheld those chastisers of foes, exhilarated with Bassia wine, their bodies adorned with garlands of flowers. Attired in excellent robes and adorned with celestial ornaments, they sat on a golden dais, decked with numerous gems, and covered over with carpets of diverse texture and hue.&lt;/strong&gt; And I beheld Kesava's feet resting upon Arjuna's lap while those of the high-souled Arjuna rested upon the laps of Krishna and Satyabhama. Partha then pointed out to me (for a seat) a foot-stool made of gold. Touching it with my hand, I seated myself down on the ground. And when he withdraw his feet from the foot-stool, I beheld auspicious marks on both his soles. Those consisted of two longitudinal lines running from heels to fore-toe, O sire, endued with black complexions, of high statures, and erect like Sala trunks, beholding those youthful heroes, both seated on the same seat, a great fear seized me. They seemed to me to be Indra and Vishnu seated together, though Duryodhana of dull sense knoweth it no consequence of his reliance on Drona and Bhishma and on the loud vaunts of Karna. That very moment, I was convinced that the wishes of Yudhishthira the just, who had those two for obeying his orders, were certain to succeed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And just in case someone thinks Krishna and Arjuna did something sinful, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/bNbd&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Tantra Vartika, the Purva Mimamsa Acharya Kumarila Bhatta makes clear that Krishna and Arjuna drank the kind of alcohol allowed for Kshatriyas, not the kind that is forbidden:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then remains the case of Krishna and Arjuna being drunk with wine, ... being [an] instance[] of [a] direct transgression[] of the law. But it is only the wine distilled from grains, which is called &amp;quot;Sura,&amp;quot; that is prohibited for the three higher castes; says the Smriti: &amp;quot;Sura is the impure essence of the grains at it is spoken of an impure; hence the Brahmana, Kshatriya and the Vaishya should never drink Sura.&amp;quot; As for the particular wines &amp;quot;Madhu&amp;quot; (wine distilled from certain fruits, as grapes and the like), and the &amp;quot;Sidhu&amp;quot; (that distilled from molasses), these are not prohibited for the Kshatriya and the Vaishya, as &amp;quot;all intoxicating drunks&amp;quot; have been prohibited for the Brahmana alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though there as a passage that declares - &amp;quot;all the three kinds of wine, the Gaudi (that distilled from molasses), Paishthi (that distilled from grains) and Madhvi (distilled from fruits), being the same, they should not be drunk by the Brahmavadis,&amp;quot; - yet here the word &amp;quot;Brahmavidi&amp;quot; should be taken as denoting the Brahmanas only, as the word literally means &amp;quot;one who is capable of teaching Brahma&amp;quot;, or &amp;quot;whose duty it is to teach Brahma&amp;quot;, or &amp;quot;whose excellence lies in such teaching&amp;quot;, and as the root &amp;quot;Vada&amp;quot;' is synonymons with &amp;quot;Bru&amp;quot; such duties are distinctly restricted to the Brahmana alone, by such texts as - &amp;quot;from among the three higher castes, the Brahmana, alone should teach&amp;quot;. And it has also been pointed out in connection with the vilificatory Arthavada, that are taken along with the prohıbıtıon of wınes ın general, that the Brahmana, deluded under the influence of wine, might do many such things as should not be done which shows that wine in general is prohibited for the Brahmana only. Hence we take the passage-&amp;quot;All the three kinds of wine, &amp;amp;c.,&amp;quot; to mean that just as the one, Sura distilled from grains, is not drinkable by the three higher castes, so are all the three undrinkable by the Brahmana. Otherwise, if the sample prohibition of wine in general were meant, then the words &amp;quot;Yathaiva, &amp;amp;c.,&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Brahmavadibhih&amp;quot; would be totally redundant. The mention of &amp;quot;the three castes&amp;quot; we shall supply from out of another verse. For this reason, the fact of Krishna and Aruna - both Kshatriyas - being intoxicated with Madhu (grape wine) is in no way a transgression of the law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, as a matter of fact, we have Vedic texts that distinctly show (1) that the prohibition of wine is for others (i. e., Brahmanas), and also (2) that it is distinctly permissible (in the case of others). For instance, (1) &amp;quot;That which was impure came out afterwards, wine is that ampurity, this became attached to the Kshatriya, hence it is that superiors, daughters-in-law, and the father-in-law drink the wine and go on talking; evil indeed is impurity, hence the Brahmana, should not drink the wine; lest he be attached to evil&amp;quot;, and (2) &amp;quot;The Kshatriya should say to the Brahmana - the drinking of wine does no harm to him who knows this&amp;quot;, and this latter is with reference to the &amp;quot;Madhu&amp;quot; and the &amp;quot;Sidhu&amp;quot; (and not the &amp;quot;Sura&amp;quot; which is in no case allowed to anyone else but the Shudra).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And indeed, the Sanskrit verse &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/txt/mbh05.itx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;madhvāsavakṣiptāvubhau&amp;quot;, so Kumarila Bhatta is right about Madhu being the kind of alcohol consumed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-13T17:26:20.780" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20831" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8029" CreationDate="2017-09-13T17:59:55.037" Score="6" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sathya&lt;/strong&gt; means truth. During that age, truth and perfection prevails. So it is called as Sathya Yuga.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Treta&lt;/strong&gt; means collection of three things. As three Avatars happened in Treta Yuga, it is called so.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dwapara&lt;/strong&gt; means two pair, two ahead or after two, which symbolize two yugas already gone and two is there.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kali&lt;/strong&gt; - In Kali Yuga represents Kali Purusha, as he is a demon who is the reason for degraded people and religious practices.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T15:59:31.360" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T15:59:31.360" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20833" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20835" CreationDate="2017-09-13T18:10:53.313" Score="4" ViewCount="2132" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most Vaishnavas refrain from meat and stimulant foods. But is this compulsory by the scriptures? Do any of the scriptures forbid Vaishnavas to take meat and stimulant foods? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T05:55:36.337" Title="Is it forbidden in any scripture for Vaishnavas to refrain from non-vegetarian and stimulant foods?" Tags="|vaishnavism|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20835" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20833" CreationDate="2017-09-14T04:35:24.557" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vaishnavism&lt;/em&gt; is a &lt;em&gt;sampradAya&lt;/em&gt; (sect or doctrine). Anyone who believes in [the supremacy of] lord Vishnu or loves lord Vishnu, can become a &lt;em&gt;Vaishnava&lt;/em&gt;. That person can belong to any of the castes from the 4 divisions: &lt;em&gt;Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Shudra&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/20335/1049&quot;&gt;What are the qualities of a Vaishnava according to the scriptures?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meat eating is altogether a different ball game. It has to do with person's nature &amp;amp; food habits. Hence, &lt;strong&gt;relating meat eating and &lt;em&gt;Vaishnavism&lt;/em&gt; is not proper&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g. Krishna was a form of Vishnu, Arjuna truly loved &amp;amp; surrendered to Krishna, then Arjuna can be termed as Vaishnava [in theory]. Being a Kshatriya, Arjuna could have consumed meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to following thread, &quot;meat eating&quot; itself may not be sin if done under right circumstances:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/20467/1049&quot;&gt;How to wash away sin after unconsciously consuming non-vegetarian food?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And according to following post, in today's time everyone has a moral responsibility to avoid &quot;meat eating&quot; (especially Brahmana-s):&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8206/1049&quot;&gt;Should a Brahmin be vegetarian?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-14T05:55:36.337" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T05:55:36.337" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20836" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20843" CreationDate="2017-09-14T04:51:46.130" Score="2" ViewCount="1718" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want the mantras (Sanskrit) and English translation of Parjanya sukta(mantras which will bring rain). Can somebody provide me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-14T05:59:37.427" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T09:01:38.380" Title="Can somebody provide the Parjanya sukta with English translation?" Tags="|vedas|translation-request|resource|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20838" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3930" CreationDate="2017-09-14T06:23:36.083" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The body as such is taken by soul like a clothing treating diseases and disabilities are like mending the cloth.  The soul form which we experience pain and happiness has no form it is our psychological thought to the extent of pain, fear and happiness.  The body is happy or amazed in certain things it experience for the first time and this fades on repetitions (as realization of maya by soul) however, the same excitement remains for other new things.  So there is a fine body in the existing body taking its decisions but with respect to the laws of the present position.  That is it is not dominant(fine body) and cannot physically and mentally overcome the acquired body by birth.  Over ruling and submitting the body to be sober will help fine body over take the existing birth which when achieved (by submitting oneself to the service of god by prayers, meditation and chanting the name of the lord) will lead to moksha that is conquering the birth by fine body. The body acquires skill through practice and one should follow various methods to practice and acquire the skill to reduce the dominance of body over soul. Barriers are Language and environment.  Some languages do not have the dept of information and some places are too distractive to practice.  The skills required to increase the dominance of soul over body are numerous be it worship (basic level), meditation (next to basic level) and penance (advanced level). Preaching cannot be same as these.  We cannot go beyond worship unless we determine and when you do that regularly the next step will be smooth to follow.  Like graduating from one level to higher.  It should dwell upon an individual to seek such path which will lead them to moksha. If we follow spiritual path we have to be in a spiritual environment then body has to decide whether the purpose for which it is born(which will not be known to it) should be pursued of should the soul take over.  It will be difficult to make a choice as you do not have the knowledge.  To acquire knowledge you have to seek information. Then only of application of the knowledge in the right path it will lead to Wisdom.  Then you can choose whether you will achieve your goal or teach other to achieve the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11988" LastEditorUserId="11988" LastEditDate="2017-09-14T07:07:34.817" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T07:07:34.817" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20839" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20826" CreationDate="2017-09-14T07:04:10.860" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;They do not fall on different dates. It appears as falling on different dates only if we are not following the Hindu calendar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How festivals are determined?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are determined by Hindu months and Tithis etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example this is how when to celebrate &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navratri&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Navaratri festival&lt;/a&gt; is determined:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6-8. O king! The people are very much afflicted with various terrible&#xA;  diseases in these two seasons autumn and spring and many lose their&#xA;  lives during these portions of the year. Therefore the wise should&#xA;  unquestionably worship with great devotion the Chandikâ Devî in these&#xA;  auspicious months of &lt;strong&gt;Chaitra and Âs’vin.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9-11. On the day previous to the commencement of the vow, when the&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Amâvasyâ tithi&lt;/strong&gt; commences, one should collect the materials that will&#xA;  be required in the worship and should eat only once in that tithi what&#xA;  is called Habisyânna (sacred food, boiled rice with ghee) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12-17. One should invite then, those Brâhmins, that observe fully the&#xA;  customs and usages, who are self restrained and versed in the Vedas&#xA;  and Vedângas, especially those who are skilled in the ceremony of&#xA;  worshipping the Devî. Next, in the &lt;strong&gt;Pratipad tithi&lt;/strong&gt; (the first day of&#xA;  the bright half), one should take one’s morning ablutions in a river,&#xA;  or in a lake, tank or a well or in one’s own residence, according to&#xA;  rules, and one should perform one’s every day practices of Sandhyâ&#xA;  Vandanam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From Devi BhAgavatam Book 3, Chapter 26.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in the month of Aswin or Chaitra, the preparations for the festival must begin on the Amavasya Tithi and the actual celebrations should start from the Pratipada Tithi and then continue for nine subsequent days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, in this way, each year these dates remain the same as per the Hindu calendar. Now, if we are following some other calendars, then obviously the dates will vary with year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same argument holds for any other festivals. For, example, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maha_Shivaratri&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;MahAshivarAtri&lt;/a&gt; falls each Hindu year on &lt;strong&gt;Krishna Chaturdashi of the Magha month&lt;/strong&gt;. Now, this day will appear as falling on different dates only if we are following calendars other than the Hindu calendar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-14T08:07:47.070" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T08:07:47.070" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20840" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20847" CreationDate="2017-09-14T07:13:11.667" Score="9" ViewCount="2332" Body="&lt;p&gt;The war between Devas and Demons fought for the custody of Tara, Brihaspati's wife who had been abducted by Chandra is known as the &lt;strong&gt;Tārakāmaya War&lt;/strong&gt; and it is given in detail in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp098.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 6 of the Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I came across a book called &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=z7bFwZhfSOsC&amp;amp;pg=PA321&amp;amp;lpg=PA321&amp;amp;dq=tarakamaya%20war&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=mhWcGuB2ig&amp;amp;sig=PY_nwrJWni6PKLzOz7Xl_3X8wC4&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjquqHFhqTWAhXKro8KHWzDCZwQ6AEIUTAI#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=tarakamaya%20war&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Purana Index&lt;/a&gt; that mentions something interesting about it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FGYDP.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FGYDP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this correct? Indra does kill Virochan however, as mentioned in the &lt;strong&gt;Kedar Kanda of the Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; the circumstances are very different. Virochana is extremely generous, so Indra approaches him in the form of an old beggar and asks him for his head and the Daitya actually obliges! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is - &lt;strong&gt;Did Indra kill Virochana and Vishnu kill Kālanemi at the time of Tārakāmaya war?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-01T12:30:37.000" LastActivityDate="2018-02-01T12:30:37.000" Title="Did Indra kill Virochan in the Tārakāmaya War?" Tags="|vishnu|indra|war|chandra|brihaspati|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20841" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-14T07:22:48.727" Score="7" ViewCount="1306" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where did it actually come from? I have many stories from many friends about how Lord Shiva's trident came. But I want to know the real way that it had formed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11990" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-14T07:25:06.677" LastActivityDate="2019-03-10T07:54:02.323" Title="Where did Lord Shiva's trident come from?" Tags="|shiva|weapon|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20843" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20836" CreationDate="2017-09-14T09:01:38.380" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv05083.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parjanya Sukta&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; is found in Rig-Veda Mandala 5 – Sukta no. 83 .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rishi – Atri-Bhauma  |   Devata –Parjanya | Chhanda –Tristupa ;2-4&#xA;  –Jagati ; 9 Anustupa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The renowned Rish Atri Bhauma, composed a prayer that the Vedic people  would have offered to invoke Parjanya .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Sukta welcomes Rain OR Parjanya  with adoration praise. In this sukta Parjanya is said to be the driving force behind germination of seeds in plants . Its said that with the arrival of the rain plants assume different colors. The earth becomes productive due to it and then  nourishes &amp;amp;  feed  all living creatures. Its quite interesting to know that , here in this Sukta    lightning is said to be the cause of creation of life force in seeds . This Sukta also pray for abundance of rain , so that rivers could flow . Also at the end , after good rain this sukta prays  rain god to stop pouring excess water. So it’s a complete and beautiful Hymn describing necessary of rain for the living beings  and also the  rainy season. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here you can also read this sukta with &lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/book/rigveda/v5.104&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hindi translation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; - Below  is the Sukta.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अछा वद तवसं गीर्भिर आभि सतुहि पर्जन्यं नमसा विवास | &lt;br&gt; कनिक्रदद&#xA;  वर्षभो जीरदानू रेतो दधात्य ओषधीषु गर्भम || 1|| &lt;br&gt; वि वर्क्षान हन्त्य&#xA;  उत हन्ति रक्षसो विश्वम बिभाय भुवनम महावधात | &lt;br&gt; उतानागा ईषते&#xA;  वर्ष्ण्यावतो यत पर्जन्य सतनयन हन्ति दुष्क्र्तः ||2||&lt;br&gt;  रथीव&#xA;  कशयाश्वां अभिक्षिपन्न आविर दूतान कर्णुते वर्ष्य्रं अह | &lt;br&gt; दूरात&#xA;  सिंहस्य सतनथा उद ईरते यत पर्जन्यः कर्णुते वर्ष्यं नभः |3||&lt;br&gt; पर वाता&#xA;  वान्ति पतयन्ति विद्युत उद ओषधीर जिहते पिन्वते सवः | &lt;br&gt; इरा विश्वस्मै&#xA;  भुवनाय जायते यत पर्जन्यः पर्थिवीं रेतसावति ||4|| &lt;br&gt; यस्य वरते&#xA;  पर्थिवी नन्नमीति यस्य वरते शफवज जर्भुरीति | &lt;br&gt; यस्य वरत ओषधीर&#xA;  विश्वरूपाः स नः पर्जन्य महि शर्म यछ || 5||&lt;br&gt; दिवो नो वर्ष्टिम मरुतो&#xA;  ररीध्वम पर पिन्वत वर्ष्णो अश्वस्य धाराः | &lt;br&gt; अर्वाङ एतेन&#xA;  सतनयित्नुनेह्य अपो निषिञ्चन्न असुरः पिता नः || 6||&lt;br&gt; अभि करन्द सतनय&#xA;  गर्भम आ धा उदन्वता परि दीया रथेन | &lt;br&gt; दर्तिं सु कर्ष विषितं नयञ्चं&#xA;  समा भवन्तूद्वतो निपादाः || 7||&lt;br&gt; महान्तं कोशम उद अचा नि षिञ्च&#xA;  सयन्दन्तां कुल्या विषिताः पुरस्तात | &lt;br&gt; घर्तेन दयावाप्र्थिवी वय&#xA;  उन्धि सुप्रपाणम भवत्व अघ्न्याभ्यः ||8||&lt;br&gt; यत पर्जन्य कनिक्रदत सतनयन&#xA;  हंसि दुष्क्र्तः | &lt;br&gt; परतीदं विश्वम मोदते यत किं च पर्थिव्याम अधि&#xA;  ||9||&lt;br&gt; अवर्षीर वर्षम उद उ षू गर्भायाकर धन्वान्य अत्येतवा उ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अजीजन ओषधीर भोजनाय कम उत परजाभ्यो ऽविदो मनीषाम ||10||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;achā vada tavasaṃ ghīrbhir ābhi stuhi parjanyaṃ namasā vivāsa | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kanikradad vṛṣabho jīradānū reto dadhāty oṣadhīṣu gharbham || &lt;br&gt; vi&#xA;  vṛkṣān hanty uta hanti rakṣaso viśvam bibhāya bhuvanam mahāvadhāt |&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; utānāghā īṣate vṛṣṇyāvato yat parjanya stanayan hanti duṣkṛtaḥ ||&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; rathīva kaśayāśvāṃ abhikṣipann āvir dūtān kṛṇute varṣyṛṃ aha |&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; dūrāt siṃhasya stanathā ud īrate yat parjanyaḥ kṛṇute varṣyaṃ&#xA;  nabhaḥ ||  pra vātā vānti patayanti vidyuta ud oṣadhīr jihate pinvate&#xA;  svaḥ | &lt;br&gt; irā viśvasmai bhuvanāya jāyate yat parjanyaḥ pṛthivīṃ&#xA;  retasāvati || &lt;br&gt; yasya vrate pṛthivī nannamīti yasya vrate śaphavaj&#xA;  jarbhurīti | &lt;br&gt; yasya vrata oṣadhīr viśvarūpāḥ sa naḥ parjanya mahi&#xA;  śarma yacha || &lt;br&gt; divo no vṛṣṭim maruto rarīdhvam pra pinvata vṛṣṇo&#xA;  aśvasya dhārāḥ | &lt;br&gt; arvāṅ etena stanayitnunehy apo niṣiñcann asuraḥ&#xA;  pitā naḥ || &lt;br&gt; abhi kranda stanaya gharbham ā dhā udanvatā pari dīyā&#xA;  rathena | &lt;br&gt; dṛtiṃ su karṣa viṣitaṃ nyañcaṃ samā bhavantūdvato&#xA;  nipādāḥ || &lt;br&gt; mahāntaṃ kośam ud acā ni ṣiñca syandantāṃ kulyā&#xA;  viṣitāḥ purastāt | &lt;br&gt; ghṛtena dyāvāpṛthivī vy undhi suprapāṇam&#xA;  bhavatv aghnyābhyaḥ || &lt;br&gt; yat parjanya kanikradat stanayan haṃsi&#xA;  duṣkṛtaḥ | &lt;br&gt; pratīdaṃ viśvam modate yat kiṃ ca pṛthivyām adhi ||&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; avarṣīr varṣam ud u ṣū ghṛbhāyākar dhanvāny atyetavā u | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ajījana oṣadhīr bhojanāya kam uta prajābhyo 'vido manīṣām ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1&lt;/strong&gt; SING with these songs thy welcome to the Mighty, with adoration praise and call Parjanya. The Bull, loud roaring, swift to send his&#xA;  bounty, lays in the plants the seed. for germination.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;2&lt;/strong&gt; He smites the trees apart, he slays the demons: all life fears him who wields the mighty weapon. From him exceeding strong fices e’en&#xA;  the guiltless, when thundering Parjanya smites the wicked.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;3&lt;/strong&gt; Like a car-driver whipping on his horses, he makes the messengers of rain spring forward. Far off resounds the roaring of the&#xA;  lion, what time Parjanya fills the sky with rain-cloud.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;4&lt;/strong&gt; Forth burst the winds, down come the lightning-flashes: the plants shoot up, the realm of light is streaming. Food springs&#xA;  abundant for all living creatures, what time Parjanya quickens earth&#xA;  with moisture.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;5&lt;/strong&gt; Thou at whose bidding earth bows low before thee, at whose command hoofed cattle fly in terror, At whose behest the plants assume&#xA;  all colours, even thou Parjanya, yield us great protection.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;6&lt;/strong&gt; Send down for us the rain of heaven, ye Maruts, and let the Stallion's flood descend in torrents. Come hither with this thunder&#xA;  while thou pourest the waters down, our heavenly Lord and Father.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;7&lt;/strong&gt; Thunder and roar: the germ of life deposit. Fly round us on thy chariot waterladen.&lt;br&gt; Thine opened water-skin draw with thee&#xA;  downward, and let the hollows and the heights be level.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;8&lt;/strong&gt; Lift up the mighty vessel, pour down water, and let the liberated streams rush forward.&lt;br&gt; Saturate both the earth and heaven&#xA;  with fatness, and for the cows let there be drink abundant.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;9&lt;/strong&gt; When thou, with thunder and with roar, Parjanya, smitest sinners down, This universe exults thereat, yea, all that is upon the earth.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;10&lt;/strong&gt; Thou hast poured down the rain-flood now withhold it. Thou hast made desert places fit for travel. Thou hast made herbs to grow for&#xA;  our enjoyment: yea, thou hast won thee praise from living creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T09:01:38.380" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20844" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20841" CreationDate="2017-09-14T09:24:04.537" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There can be multiple stories about the origin of Lord Shiva's trident based on different Kalpa. I know some references where Lord Shiva trident was made by Tvashta (or Vishvakarma) by Vaishnava splendour of Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp076.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana, Book 3, Chapter 2&lt;/a&gt;, Sanjna (wife of Lord Surya) went away from her husband because she was unable to endure the fervours of her lord. But when Lord Surya knew about this, he brought Sanjna back. Then, Vishvakarma (father of Sanjna) grind off some of the effulgence of Lord Surya and reduced the intensity of him. With that Vaishnava part (Lord Surya is said to be the part of Lord Narayana), Vishvakarma created many weapons including Lord Shiva's trident and Lord Narayana's discuss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanjná, the daughter of Viśwakarman, was the wife of the sun, and bore him three children, the Manu (Vaivaswata), Yama, and the goddess Yamí (or the Yamuná river). Unable to endure the fervours of her lord, Sanjná gave him Chháyá as his handmaid, and repaired to the forests to practise devout exercises. The sun, supposing Chháyá to be his wife Sanjná, begot by her three other children, Śanaiśchara (Saturn), another Manu (Sávarńi), and a daughter Tapatí (the Tapti river). Chháyá, upon one occasion, being offended with Yama, the son of Sanjná, denounced an imprecation upon him, and thereby revealed to Yama and to the sun that she was not in truth Sanjná, the mother of the former. Being further informed by Chháyá that his wife had gone to the wilderness, the sun beheld her by the eye of meditation engaged in austerities, in the figure of a mare (in the region of Uttara Kuru). Metamorphosing himself into a horse, he rejoined his wife, and begot three other children, the two Áswins and Revanta, and then brought Sanjná back to his own dwelling. To diminish his intensity, Viśwakarman placed the luminary on his lathe, to grind off some of his effulgence; and in this manner reduced it an eighth, for more than that was inseparable. &lt;strong&gt;The parts of the divine Vaishńava splendour, residing in the sun, that were filed off by Viśwakarman, fell blazing down upon the earth, and the artist constructed of them the discus of Vishńu, the trident of Śiva, the weapon of the god of wealth, the lance of Kártikeya, and the weapons of the other gods: all these Viśwakarman fabricated from the superfluous rays of the sun&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same thing has been said in &lt;strong&gt;Matsya Purana, Chapter 11&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पृथक् चकार तत्तजेश्चक्र विष्णोरकल्पयत्। त्रिशूलं चापि रुद्रस्य वज्रमिन्द्रस्य चाधिकम्॥ २९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With the lustre which was removed from the body of the sun, Tvaşțā, made Sudarśana Cakra for Visnu, a trident for Siva and the Vajra for Indra for the subjugation of the Daityas and Dānavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T09:24:04.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20845" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17040" CreationDate="2017-09-14T10:11:13.417" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Liberation can be attained without Enlightenment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Enlightenment could be a subset of Liberation.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Both of them contains &lt;em&gt;Daivi sampada&lt;/em&gt;, which is acquired via &lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Liberation&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Typically related with death. Getting beyond the 3 modes, leads to liberation &amp;amp; the rebirth doesn't happen:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 14.20 - Having transcended these three modes (&lt;em&gt;sattva, rajas, tamas&lt;/em&gt;) which are the origin of the body, the embodied one, becoming free from birth, death, old age and sorrows, experiences Immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Typically &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; holds back due to its attachive quality. The one who is without desires (born of &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;), eventually would get liberated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 6.27 - That yogi of pacified mind only attains the ultimate happiness, whose &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;(passion) has calmed down&lt;/strong&gt;, identifying with sinless(desireless) &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A thought may generate a desire and hence a sin - &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20427/1049&quot;&gt;Ramana Maharshi&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Thoughtlessness is the way to liberation [BG 6.25]. &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20371/1049&quot;&gt;cause of sins&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Hence we can infer that the liberation might be possible by moving higher in &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; OR lower in &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;. Everything is liberated anyways, at end of the cycle:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 9.7 - O son Kunti, all the beings go back at the end of a cycle to My &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. I project them forth again at the beginning of a cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Examples: ShishupAla, RAvana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Enlightenment&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the above is applicable here.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Plus this state is during when the person is alive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A person becomes free from the bondage in current life itself. It's also called &amp;quot;self realisation&amp;quot;, where one realises &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; (the true self or the ultimate oneness).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Gita, what is referred as &lt;em&gt;GyAna&lt;/em&gt; -- is the enlightenment.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Among many verses, few are listed:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 4.39 - Faithful, Eager [and] controller of senses achieves Knowledge(Enlightenment); Achieving Knowledge, one quickly attains the ultimate bliss&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 6.8 - Who is self satisfied with Knowledge and realisation, unmoved and victor of senses, is called absorbed [in yoga]; Such yogi treats soil, stone &amp;amp; gold equally&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 7.18 - All of these, indeed, are noble, &lt;strong&gt;but Enlightened one (with Knowledge) is like My own Self&lt;/strong&gt; in my opinion. Absorbed in self, that one is certainly situated towards Me as the best destination&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 14.2 - By approaching this Knowledge(Enlightenment), My identity is attained; They neither born during creation, nor distressed during destruction&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Examples: Lord RAma, Lord Krishna, Sage VyAsa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T10:11:13.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20846" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20840" CreationDate="2017-09-14T11:17:04.237" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;Did Indra kill Virochana&lt;/code&gt;    &lt;code&gt;Did  Vishnu kill Kālanemi at the time of Tārakāmaya war?&lt;/code&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;  , Lord Vishnu Killed Kālanemi at Tārakāmaya war. This story is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/hv_1_48.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Harivamsha Purana&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/a&gt; - &lt;strong&gt;chapter  48 - Kaalnemi  Vadha &#xA;eimination of Kaalnemi .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this chapter we find the story of Lord Vishnu Killing Kaalnemi in Tārakāmaya war.The chapters from 42-48 are about Tarakamaya war.&#xA;Here are the shlokas -: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सम्मुष्णन् दानवं तेजं: समरे स्वेन तेजसा |&lt;BR&gt; चिच्छेद बाहुं चक्रेण&#xA;  श्रीधर: कालनेमिन: ||46||&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;saMmuShNan dAnavaM  tejaH samare svena tejasA |&lt;BR&gt; chichCheda bAhuM&#xA;  chakreNa shrIdharaH kAlaneminaH ||1-48-46&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then wiping out the gumption of the &lt;strong&gt;demon kAla-nemi with his own&#xA;  shrIdhara, aka viShNu with his disc severed the hundred arms of&#xA;  kAla-nemi…&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तच्च वक्त्रशतं घोरं साग्निचुर्णाटहासीनम् |&lt;BR&gt; तस्य दैत्यस्य चक्रेण&#xA;  प्रममाथ बलाद्भरि: ||47||&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tat cha vaktra-shataM ghoraM sa agni-chUrNa aTTahAsinam |&lt;BR&gt; tasya&#xA;  daityasya chakreNa pramamAtha balAt hariH ||1-48-47&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Further, shrIhari with that disc sudarshana rived the hundred macabre&#xA;  heads of that demon kAla-nemi that have stentorian laughs like the&#xA;  blaring trebuchets, or catapults that launch glaring fireballs –&#xA;  golaka utkshepaNa yantrA-s; teShAm mahA shabdaH…&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स छिन्नबाहुर्विशारा न प्राकम्पत दानव : |&lt;BR&gt; कवन्धोSवस्थित: संख्ये&#xA;  विशाख इव पादप: ||48||&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa chChinna bAhuH vi-shirA na prAkampata dAnavaH |&lt;BR&gt; kabandho&#xA;  avasthitaH  saMkhye vi-shAkha iva pAdapaH ||1-48-48&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Although his arms are chopped off and his heads are cut off, that&#xA;  dAnava kAla-nemi did not flinch the least but still stood in the&#xA;  battle like the trunk of a tree shorn of all its branches…&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तं वितत्य महापक्षी वायो: कृत्वा समं जवम् |&lt;BR&gt; उरसा पातयामास गरुड:&#xA;  कालनेमिनम् ||49||&lt;BR&gt; स तस्य देहो विमुखोविशाख: खात् परिभ्रमान |&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  निपपात दिवं त्यत्वा क्षोभयन धरणीतलम् ||50||&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;taM vitatya mahA-pakShau vAyoH kR^itvA samaM javam |&lt;BR&gt; urasA&#xA;  pAtayAmAsa garuDaH kAlaneminam || 1-48-49&lt;BR&gt; sa tasya deho vi-mukho&#xA;  vi-shAkhaH khAt paribhraman |&lt;BR&gt; nipapAta divaM tyaktvA shobhayan&#xA;  dharaNI-talam ||1-48-50&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Spreading both of his sweeping wings, assuming the speed of a tempest, garuDa with a single bump of his chest knocked kAla-nemi&#xA;  down… felling that faceless, armless truck of that demon so far&#xA;  vaulting on the sky onto earth in one fell swoop…&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मिन्निपतिते दैत्ये देवाः सर्षिगणास्तदा |&lt;BR&gt; साधु साध्विति वैकुण्ठं&#xA;  समेता: प्रत्यपूजयन ||51|| &lt;BR&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasmin nipatite daitye devAH sa rShigaNAH tadA |&lt;BR&gt; sAdhu sAdhu iti&#xA;  vaikuNThaM sametAH pratyapUjayan ||1-48-51&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When that daitya kAla-nemi is thus eliminated&lt;/strong&gt; all the gods with sages began to praise nArAyaNa saying “Good Lord! Good heavens!&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indra killing  Virochana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra Killing Virochana is also mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=gHNTOjQKTiYC&amp;amp;pg=PA127&amp;amp;lpg=PA127&amp;amp;dq=virochana%20in%20tarakamaya%20war&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=_tHZK0mLMm&amp;amp;sig=bf_2PJhLub9wB5utQ3Qrb-TvZ8Q&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjCifql0qTWAhUDNY8KHUrrA7QQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=virochana%20in%20tarakamaya%20war&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Matsya Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;-&lt;strong&gt;Chapter XLVII -&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the time of churning of the ocean for the nectar &lt;strong&gt;Indra conquered&#xA;  Prahlada.And then he killed the son of Prahlada in Tarakamaya war&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  ;for the latter was always after the life of Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-14T12:39:28.543" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T12:39:28.543" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20847" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20840" CreationDate="2017-09-14T11:28:15.147" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Lord Vishnu Killed Kalanemi and Lord Indra Killed Virochana in Tarakamaya War. It is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/the-brahmanda-purana/vol-iii/chapter-72&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmanda Purana 3.72&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;20-21a. It is he by whom all those Daityas were killed in the battle called Tarakamaya (the war caused by the abduction of Tara by Candra) after adopting a body consisting of (the essential spirit of) all Devas and holding all sorts of weapons. &lt;strong&gt;Kalanemi who was arrogant on account of his great prowess, was killed by him&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This chapter is dedicated in the praise of Lord Vishnu and author is indicating Lord Vishnu by Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;79-80. Prahlada was defeated by Indra in the battle that followed the churning of the ocean for the sake of nectar &lt;strong&gt;Virocana who was the son of Prahlāda and who always attempted to slay Indra was killed by Indra himself by means of his exploits in the Tarakamaya battle&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T13:06:38.400" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20849" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-14T12:14:46.533" Score="3" ViewCount="145" Body="&lt;p&gt;If one of the construction workers died accidentally on the site while building the house, should the house owners postpone the house warming ceremony?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11994" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-16T07:21:26.690" LastActivityDate="2017-09-16T08:07:24.937" Title="Death of a worker on the site during construction- should the house warming ceremony be postponed?" Tags="|death|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20850" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-14T14:24:00.100" Score="2" ViewCount="404" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Yoga school, which had a similar worldview to the Samkhya school except it embraced the existence of a supreme being. The defining text of the Yoga school is Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now according to Hindu philosophy, there are three means of obtaining happiness: the Drishta or evident means, like eating food if you're hungry; the Anushravika or scriptural means, like doing an Ashwamedha Yagna to go to Swarga; and the means of knowledge, i.e. using knowledge to attain Moksha.  (What kind of knowledge is required varies according to different Hindu philosophies.) In any case, in Adhyaya 1 Sutra 15 of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali says that Vairagya or dispassion requires indifference to the rewards obtained by the Drishta and Anushravika means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dr̥ṣṭa-anuśravika-viṣaya-vitr̥ṣṇasya vaśīkāra-saṁjṇā vairāgyam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Desirelessness is the consciousness of supremacy in him who is free from thirst for perceptible and scriptural enjoyments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801608.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/31/items/PatanjalisYogaSutraswithTheCommentaryOfVyasaAndTheGlossOfVachaspatiMisraRamaPrasadTranslation/Patanjali%27s%20Yoga%20Sutraswith%20the%20commentary%20of%20Vyasa%20and%20the%20gloss%20of%20Vachaspati%20Misra%20Rama%20Prasad%20translation_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Patanjali%27s%20Yoga%20Sutraswith%20the%20commentary%20of%20Vyasa%20and%20the%20gloss%20of%20Vachaspati%20Misra%20Rama%20Prasad%20translation_jp2/Patanjali%27s%20Yoga%20Sutraswith%20the%20commentary%20of%20Vyasa%20and%20the%20gloss%20of%20Vachaspati%20Misra%20Rama%20Prasad%20translation_0044.jp2&amp;amp;scale=18.40036231884058&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Vyasa says in his commentary on this Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A mind free from attachment to perceptible enjoyments, such as women, food, drinks, and power, and having no thirst for scriptural enjoyables, such as heaven &lt;strong&gt;and the attainment of the states of the Videha and the Prakritilaya&lt;/strong&gt;, has, when it has come into contact with such divine and worldly objects, a consciousness of its supremacy, due to an understanding of the defects of the objects, brought about by virtue of intellectual illumination. This consciousness of power is the same as the consciousness of indifference to their enjoyment, and is devoid of all desirable and undesirable objects as such.  This mental state is desirelessness (Vairagya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, what scriptures describe the Videha and Prakritilaya states, given that Vyasa says they're &amp;quot;scriptural enjoyments&amp;quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vachaspati Mishra's subcommentary on Vyasa's Bhashya provides some information about what the Videha and Prakritilaya states are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scripture is the Veda. Those that are known from the Veda are scriptural enjoyments, such as heaven, etc. He speaks of desire for them too: such as &amp;quot;heaven, etc.&amp;quot; The Videhas are the disembodied, who live only in the vehicles which serve as instruments (of knowledge and action).  The state of the disembodied (vaidehya) is their state of existence.  Others believe the Prakriti only to be the self. They meditate upon the Prakriti.  They are merged in the functional Prakriti alone. (The functional Prakriti is that in which the state of the equipoise has been disturbed, i.e. not the Mulaprakriti.) The state of the Prakritilaya is the state of their existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vachaspati Mishra specifically defines the scriptural enjoyments as &amp;quot;[t]hose that are known from the Veda&amp;quot;, so does anyone know if the Vedas describe these two states?  The Upanishads may be a good place to look.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that the Videha state may sound similar to the Kaivalya state discussed in my question  &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6686/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but the Yoga school considers Videha to be lower than Kaivalya, which they consider to be Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-02T06:21:17.323" Title="What scriptures describe the Videha and Prakritilaya states of the Yoga school?" Tags="|philosophy|yoga|moksha|yoga-sutras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20851" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-14T15:30:48.087" Score="2" ViewCount="414" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know about writers of all puranas or vedas but when ever I hear about a writer of any purana or veda then it's always a human. Are only humans allowed to write puranas and vedas? Is this a rule, a coincidence or anything else?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more yonies like Deva yoni, Yaksha, Naag, Rakshas (there were some great rakshas also) and many more whose name I don't remember right now. Why they(people of any other yonies or lokas) didn't write any Vedas/Puranas? Does that mean, devotion can be found in humans the most? Or there is another reason? Or may be they have written but I am not aware of it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only non-human example I know is Ravana. I heard he is the one who write all vedas in form of music or song/poem, so that people can (kind of) sing shlokas and that will be helpful for people to easily grab knowledge because when we learn something in musical form then we understand much easily and early.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Ravana did not write all vedas by himself. Vedas already were written, he only translate them in musical form on request of Lord Shiva (that's what I heard).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-09-14T15:48:01.843" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T17:19:27.740" Title="Are all Vedas and Puranas written by humans only?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ClosedDate="2017-09-14T17:08:55.873" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20852" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15619" CreationDate="2017-09-14T18:49:48.413" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The verse which gives the same meaning occurs in the Padma Purana Srishti Kanda Chapter 34. This is said to Sage Pulastya to Bhishma. But the Sanskrit verse has variation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/V4Wus.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/V4Wus.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;327-328  O lord of kings, he would fulfil all his desires with&#xA;  little effort. One should seek knowledge from Sankara, and (good) health from Bhaskara (i.e. the Sun). One should desire wealth from Hutasana (i.e. Fire), and position from Janardana (i.e. Visnu). One should seek Vedic (i.e. sacred&#xA;  knowledge), giving peace to all beings, from the grandsire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-14T19:05:36.277" LastActivityDate="2017-09-14T19:05:36.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20854" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-14T21:43:52.067" Score="3" ViewCount="205" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was there a reason Indra being afraid of Himalaya's devotion to Shiva ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10397" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-02-12T16:46:15.543" LastActivityDate="2018-02-12T16:46:15.543" Title="Why was Indra afraid of Himalaya's devotion to Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|indra|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20856" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-15T05:21:05.923" Score="1" ViewCount="430" Body="&lt;p&gt;Currently, not much information is available about &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11337/1049&quot;&gt;Hypnotism in Hinduism&lt;/a&gt; .SE. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's draw parallels between Krishna granting &lt;em&gt;Divya Drushti&lt;/em&gt; to Arjuna [BG 11.8] and the typical Hypnotism (&lt;em&gt;Vashikarana&lt;/em&gt;) performed on a subject:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Both &lt;em&gt;Divya Drushti&lt;/em&gt; and Hypnotism relates to Eyes&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The subject gets surrendered to the master -- Arjuna got surrendered to Krishna [BG 2.7]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The subject senses something, which is not otherwise sensible to indifferent observers -- In the battlefield, none except Arjuna was able to witness Krishna's universal form with various complexities inside&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The subject sees hallucinatory visions, which is suppressed somewhere in their mind's corner -- Arjuna saw various hands &amp;amp; heads of Krishna, he saw getting several people getting killed including those who he didn't want to kill&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The subject listens to the command of master as a real prophecy, even though it may not turn out to be true -- Krishna was already pursuing Arjuna to take up the arms and fight; During &lt;em&gt;Divya Drushti&lt;/em&gt;, Krishna was heard saying that, Arjuna would kill Drona, Bhishma, Karna, Jayadratha; However later Arjuna didn't kill &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16361/1049&quot;&gt;Drona&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19896/1049&quot;&gt;Bhishma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Often those who are &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWKDFfpdIZI&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;observers, may also get partially or fully hypnotised&lt;/a&gt; just due to keen observation with faith; They may have full or part of sensibility of the subject; -- Sanjaya shared similar feelings of Arjuna and in the last he says that he got goosebumps [BG 18.76-78] witnessing the whole session of Gita and truly feels that the Dharma is on the side of Krishna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The subject doesn't remember anything once the performance is over by the master -- &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18335/1049&quot;&gt;Arjuna later forgot several events&lt;/a&gt; of Gita, especially the &lt;em&gt;Vishwaroopa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Hypnotism&quot; itself is not bad and is used for many curing therapies in modern times. Possibly the outcomes of today's Hypnotism could be a small subset of the outcome of then &lt;em&gt;Divya Drushti&lt;/em&gt;. However they have striking similarities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did Krishna giving &quot;Divya Drushti&quot; to Arjuna was equivalent to what we call &quot;Hypnotism&quot; today Or was it more than that? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-15T06:38:57.603" LastActivityDate="2019-07-19T19:00:53.937" Title="What is the difference between -- &quot;Hypnotism&quot; and &quot;Divya Drushti&quot; granted to Arjuna by Krishna?" Tags="|krishna|belief|bhagavad-gita|arjuna|terminology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20857" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12060" CreationDate="2017-09-15T05:55:25.190" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am surprised Ramana Maharshi's books were not mentioned here.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ramana's &quot;Who am I&quot;, &quot;Forty verses on reality&quot; and other books are the most concise and clear texts on Advaita.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Other books which Ramana himself recommended a lot are &quot;Ribhu Gita&quot; and &quot;Yoga Vasishta&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12001" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-15T07:53:21.137" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T07:53:21.137" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20859" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-15T09:22:13.537" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-15T09:22:13.537" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T09:22:13.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20860" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-15T09:22:13.537" Score="0" Body="Questions related to Yami, daughter of Lord Surya and Sanjna." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-15T09:22:13.537" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T09:22:13.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20861" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-15T09:24:49.563" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-15T09:24:49.563" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T09:24:49.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20862" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-15T09:24:49.563" Score="0" Body="Questions related to Devi Mahatmya of Marakandeya Purana also known as Chandi Patha." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-15T09:24:49.563" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T09:24:49.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20863" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19233" CreationDate="2017-09-15T10:37:43.043" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;‘&lt;strong&gt;Niladri&lt;/strong&gt;’ suggests Lord Jagannath and ‘&lt;strong&gt;Bije&lt;/strong&gt;’ means to enter. This is really interesting as it is all about the continuation of the fight between Lord Jagannath and Goddess Laxmi. Lord Balabhadra and Subhadra entered the temple after they return from the vacation but Lord Jagannath was not allowed to enter.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;A fight happened between Lord Jagannath and Laxmi in front of the temple. Goddess Laxmi was angry on him as he had not taken her along for the vacation to his aunt’s place. He had also closed the door when the Goddess had come to meet him. The angry Goddess Laxmi didn’t want him to enter the temple as he had disrespected her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even after a lot of requests, Lord Jagannath was not allowed to enter the temple premises.  It was only after he offered 'Rasgullas' an Oriya sweet made of curd and cheese to Goddess Laxmi, she calmed down. She then accepted his apology and allowed him to enter the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12005" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T10:37:43.043" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20864" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19760" CreationDate="2017-09-15T10:44:15.053" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-xv/chapter-171&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana, Volume 15, Chapter 171&lt;/a&gt;, her name was &lt;strong&gt;Sandili&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this chapter, Sage Mandavya was ordered by a King to be impaled though he was not in fault. When Sage Mandavya was in such situation, one night a Brahmani Sandili came there with her husband and by mistake she felt on Sage Mandavya. This caused more pain to the sage and he cursed Sandili that her husband will die at sun rise. In return Sandili cursed him that Sun will not rise. But here, there is no mention of Anasuya rather Sandili was pacified by Devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;40-44. &lt;strong&gt;When those leading Brahmanas went out of sight, the female ascetic Sandili came there on the second day. She was carrying her husband on her head and wandering about at night.&#xA;She did not see the sage (Mandavya)&lt;/strong&gt;. O Yudhisthira, she was staggering due to the excess of burden. The Brahmana on the stake was not noticed by her. The chaste lady faltered and slipped down against the knees of the Brahmana on the stake. Due to the fall of the faltering lady much pain was caused to the sage. Along with the previous predicament caused by fate, the present situation became will-nigh intolerable. He said: &amp;quot;A further infliction of the fruit of sin Alas! My pain is great! O sinful lady, I have been further pained by you in a fruitless task. Why? I see you as a wanton woman wandering as you please. Are you a female thief or an ogress?&amp;quot; After saying this and lamenting again and again he fell into a swoon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;45-54. The sages and all the ascetics were agitated in their minds on being aware of the sufferings of the sage (Mandavya). They then asked her, O Yudhisthira:&#xA;“Why do you wander about at night. What is it that you are carrying? Something weighty has been put into this sack. What is the purpose of your arrival here? You have caused pain to this sage, O lady, reeling in misery and going through sorrow after sorrow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sandili said:&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;Know ye all that I am neither an Asuri nor a Gandharvi, neither a Pisac nor a Raksas. Understand that I am a chaste woman loyal to my husband and steadfast in my penance.&#xA;I am not overwhelmed with lust or anger, I have no enmity with anyone, nor am I afflicted by jealousy. I did falter and slip down due to ignorance and due to the fact that my eyes could not see properly. It behoves you to pardon me.&#xA;For the comfort of my husband, I carry him, as at day time he is troubled by his ailment. Please know that he who is always in the sack is my husband. I bear him, feed him, dress him as he is a patient. Know that this sage is the leader of Saunaka clan and that I am his wife Sandili. Please do not get angry with a chaste woman serving my husband righteously. Treat (us) as guest. It behoves you all to pardon me who have come near saintly persons like you.&#xA;The sages said:&#xA;Moving about at will, you appear to be unaware of other people's distress and pain. In the morning as soon as the sun rises your husbad will die. O low-born woman, only your own misery you know and not that of any other person.&#xA;Sandili became chagrined at those terrible words. Afflicted with grief, she was lost in meditation for a short while. Then her eyes became red with anger. Staring at the sages she spoke these words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;55-60. &amp;quot;When a good person visits the house, he should be accorded the adoration due to a guest with gentle and welcoming words. It seems, I have come to the house of you good people in the guise of one committing an offence. This is the type of hospitality accorded to me by you all! The righteous conduct conducive to heavenly pleasures and salvation was not at all noticed by you. I am a Prajapatya (the progeny of a patrichal family) but you see me like a barbarous woman. &lt;strong&gt;May you and the deities in heaven see women's power in me today. My husband will not die. The sun will not rise. The entire universe will be covered with darkness. The night will not come to an end.&lt;/strong&gt;”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-09-16T05:29:15.033" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20865" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20817" CreationDate="2017-09-15T10:52:04.357" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The query can be answered with reference to Srimad Bhagavatam.  Canto XII Chapter I enumerates the dynasties and their kings.  I give below the brief meaning without narrating words like son, brother, etc. I have also ignored the descriptions of the qualities and attributes of the kings as well as references to Kaliyuga and the declining morality and Dharmic qualities of the kings. I have covered verses 2 to 31, but by the 28th stanza I could not find corresponding English terms either in my vocabulary or in internet searches - any clarifications of such terms highlighted below would be most welcome and helpful to me too.                                                            &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;As I have already clarified earlier in the Ninth Canto,in Jarasandha's lineage the last king will be Puranjaya. Puranjaya's  Chief Minister Shunaka will assassinate him and install his own son Pradyota as the ruler of Maghada. Pradyota Dynasty will rule for 138 years. The kings will be Pradyota, Palaka, Vishakayoopa, Rajaka and Nandivardhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter Shishunaga Dynasty will rule for 360 years.  The Kings will be Shishunaga, Kakavarna, Kshamadharma, Kshetragya, Vidhisara (Bimbisara), Ajatashatru, Dharbhaka, Ajaya, Nandivardhana (II) and Mahanandi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahanandi also known as Mahapadma will be the last Kshatriya King. He will beget from his Shudra wife a son named Nanada who will succeed him. Nanda Dynaty will rule for 100 years and the rulers will be Nanda, Sumalya and his seven brothers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nanda dynasty will be destoyed by a Brahmin known variously as Chanakya or Kautilya whowill install the Maurya Dynasty on the throne. The Maurya Dynasty will rule for 137 years. The kings are Chandragupta, Varisara,Ashokavardhana, Suyasha, Sangata,Shalishooka,Somasharma Shatadhanva and Brihadhata. [As per Vishnu Purana Suyasha is succeeded by Dasharatha who in turn is succeeded by Sangata].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commander - in - Chief of Brihadhata, Pushpamitra Shunga will assassinate him and install himself as the king. The Shunga Dynasty will rule for 112 years and its kings will be Pushpamitra, Agnimitra, Sujoyshreshta, Vasumitra, Pulinda, Ghosha, Vrajamitra, Bhagavata and Devabhuti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devabhuti will be assassinated by his minister Vasudeva Kanva who will install himsel the king.  The Kanva Dynasty will rule for 345 years and the rulers will be Vasudeva, Bhoomimitra, Narayana and Susharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bali, a Shudra servant of Susharma will assassinate him and succeed him. The Bali Dynasty will rule for 456 years and its kings will be Bali, Krishna, Shreesantha, Pornamaasa, Lambodara, Chiblik, Meghaswati, Atmana, Anishtakarma, Holaya, Talaka, Purishbhiroo, Sunandana, Chakra, Shivaswati and his eight brothers, Gomtiputra, Purimaana, Medhashira,Shivaskanda, Yagyashree, Vijaya, Chandrayagya and Lomadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thereafter, seven Abhir Kings, ten Gardhabhi Kings, sixteen Kanka Kings, eight Greek Kings, fourteen Turk Kings, ten Garunda Kings and eleven Mauna Kings. These kings other than Maunas will rule for 1099 years, while the eleven Mauna kings will for 306 years.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have not gone into the remaining 12 verses describing the other kings of Kali Yuga.  I hope, this answer is a satisfactory reply to your query.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T10:52:04.357" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20866" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10458" CreationDate="2017-09-15T11:44:19.713" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Puranas are smritis written by men.  Every Purana is a narration by a learned person to a seeker - may be a Maharishi, a common human being or a learned sage. The seeker in Srimad Bhagavatam is Kulapati Shaunaka at his Naimisharanya Hermitage and the question is directed at Maharishi Ugrashrava, the son of the Suta Sage Lomaharshana (Romaharshana).  Maharishi Ugrashrava is commonly referred to as Suta, even though he is not one. Maharishi Shaunaka often addresses him as Sutanandana or son of Suta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Purana was composed by Maharishi Krishna Dwaipayana - the twenty eighth Vyasya (current) of the Vaivatawa Manvantara. He narrated it to his son Mahrishi Suka and his other disciples including Maharishi Maitrayee, Ugrashava (Suta) and others. This tale is the tale narrated by Sukacharya to Maharaja Parikshit after he was cursed to die within a week by Rishi Shringi. And hence there are portions where Maharaja Parikshit asks questions and they are answered.  We are given the rendition of the same by Maharishi Suta at the Naimisharanya hermitage of Maharishi Shaunaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I really do not know of any Purana or Smriti wherein the story of composition of Srimad Bhagavatam is mentioned,but then my learning is limited and is someone enlightens me with the source, I shall be grateful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The source The first paragraph itself makes it clear the source is Simad Bhagavatam itself. In verses 4 and 5 of Chapter 1 of Canto I it is said :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नैमिषेsनिमिषक्षेत्रे ऋषयः शौनकादयः | सत्रं स्वर्गाय लोकाय सहस्त्रसममासत ||&lt;br&gt;            त एकदा तु मुनयः प्रातर्हुतहुताग्नयः | सत्कृतं सूतमासीनं पप्रच्छुरिमादरात् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At Naimisharanya Kshetra Maharishi Shaunaka and others were performing a fire sacrifice lasting 1000 years.  After morning rituals, Maharishi Suta was offered an honoured seat and the assembled sages asked him to elucidate.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Chapter 2 of Canto I verse 1 reads:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;व्यास उवाच : इति सम्प्रश्नसंहृष्टो विप्राणां रौमहर्षणिः | प्रतिपूज्य वचस्तेषां प्रवक्तुमुपचक्रमे ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyaasa says &amp;quot;Hearing these questions from the learned rishis like Shaunaka, the son of Romaharshana Ugrashrava was greatly pleased. Thanking the learned rishis for their beneficial question, he started narrating as follows....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That this Purana was composed by Sri Veda Vyasa himself becomes apparent as one proceeds along Canto I first few chapters which I don't intend to reproduce here in full.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T12:56:33.387" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20867" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-15T13:58:33.517" Score="4" ViewCount="641" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it a fact that Shimla, the capital city of Himachal Pradesh is named after Goddess Shyamala? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the image of the Goddess?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12007" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2020-07-03T06:54:23.447" LastActivityDate="2020-07-03T06:54:23.447" Title="Is it a fact that the city of Shimla is named after Goddess Shyamala?" Tags="|history|goddess|india|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20868" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20780" CreationDate="2017-09-15T14:22:12.113" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chapter 2 of Garuda Purana throws light on the monthly ceremonies to be performed for the departed soul. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fifteen monthly Pindadaan and the unaabdika Pindadaan would have been performed by you for your mother. Her soul has completed her journey to Yamapuri. At this juncture, if the final Pindadaan is not done, the day before the annual ceremonie, then her soul will still be hungry.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is the duty of the son / grandson to perform the ceremonies for the departed soul. Verses 79 to 83 are reproduced below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;सम्पूर्णे तु ततो वर्षे शीताढयं नगरं व्रजेत् | हिमाच्छतगुणं तत्र महाशीतं तपत्यपि ||&#xA;शीतार्तः क्षुधितः सोsपि वीक्षते हि दिशो दश | तिष्ठते बान्धवः कोsपि यो मे दुःखं व्यपोहति ||&#xA;किङ्करास्ते वदन्त्यत्र क्व ते पुण्यं हि तादृशम् | भुक्त्वा च वार्षिकं पिण्डं धैर्यमालम्बते पुनः ||&#xA;ततः संवत्सरस्यान्ते प्रत्यासन्ने यमालये | बहुभीतिपुरे गत्वा हस्तमात्रं समुत्सृजेत् ||&#xA;अङ्गुष्ठमात्रो वायुश्च कर्मभोगय खेचर | यातनादेहमासाद्य सह याम्यैः प्रयाति च || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter the year being completed the soul enters the place named Sheetaadhya, where it is a hundred times colder than the coldest place on earth. Suffering from the extreme cold and weak with hunger, the soul looks around hopefully in all ten directions, that may be there is some relative to help me out of this suffering. The messengers of Yama ask the soul, &quot;Where have you acquired such piety (punya)?&quot; Then seeing the annual offering of the pinda, the soul feasts on it and gets further strength. The soul has now reached Yamapuri, it enters the place called Bahubheetepura, where its recreated body of the first ten days offerings is discarded and it takes on its airy body to bear the fruits of its karma enters Yamapuri with the messengers of Yama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana is the dialouge between Mahavishnu and His mount Garuda.  My understanding is that on no condition, except the death of a very near one in the immediate family, the first annual ceremony should be performed without fail.  I feel that Yama would not be waiting for the performance of this ritual for the departed soul due to deaths of someone in the extended family.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T14:22:12.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20869" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20779" CreationDate="2017-09-15T15:06:42.813" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Stanza 12 of &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sri Suktam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; comprises of these lines:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आपः सृजन्तु स्निग्धानि चिक्लीत वस मे गृहे | नि च देवीं मातरं श्रियं&#xA;  वासय मे खुले ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Chikleeta reside in my house and please bring your mother Sri Devi with all her prosperity to stay with me. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chikleeta is referred to in some scriptures as the son of Sri Devi (Lakshmi) and at Tirupathi Tirumala Devasthanam 'Sri Suktam' is chanted without fail every morning after the Suprabatham. Hence, prayers are sent to Chikleeta, son of Lakshmi, daily. He too is prayed to but not worshipped like Ganesha son of Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly there is no worshipping of Kartikeya per se.  Prayers are offered to him, but there is no worship per se.  Of course there are temples dedicated to him.  but there are no temples dedicated to Chikleeta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some smritis also enumerate Manmatha, God of Love as son of Lakshmi, but this ma be a misconception due the belief, that Pradyumna, the son of Sree Krishna and Rukmini is Manmatha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="8467" LastEditDate="2017-09-15T15:14:20.123" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T15:14:20.123" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20870" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-15T16:08:29.743" Score="3" ViewCount="133" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhishma was a great Dharmatma without any doubt/question. He always follows his dharma. But in war of Mahabharat he was the one who suffer more than anyone else. Even korwas (who was key reason of war) didn't suffer that much as compared to Bhishma. So why a great Dharmatma like Bhishma had to suffer more than anyone else in war? There was many sinful warrior were there but still suffering of Bhishma was greatest!!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earlier I thought it was because of Bhishma's one action which he has done in deeyut sabhaa. He decided to remain silence on Draupadi's vastra harana, hence because of this act of him, He had to suffer so badly in Mahabharat war. But few days ago I read story which was totally different and unheard. Here it is...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भीष्म पितामह रणभूमि में शरशैया पर पड़े थे। हल्का सा भी हिलते तो शरीर में घुसे बाण भारी वेदना के साथ रक्त की पिचकारी सी छोड़ देते। ऐसी दशा में उनसे मिलने सभी आ जा रहे थे। श्री कृष्ण भी दर्शनार्थ आये। उनको देखकर भीष्म जोर से हँसे और कहा.... आइये जगन्नाथ।.. आप तो सर्व ज्ञाता हैं। सब जानते हैं, बताइए मैंने ऐसा क्या पाप किया था जिसका दंड इतना भयावह मिला?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कृष्ण:&lt;/strong&gt; पितामह! आपके पास वह शक्ति है, जिससे आप अपने पूर्व जन्म देख सकते हैं। आप स्वयं ही देख लेते। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भीष्म:&lt;/strong&gt; देवकी नंदन! मैं यहाँ अकेला पड़ा और कर ही क्या रहा हूँ? मैंने सब देख लिया ...अभी तक 100 जन्म देख चुका हूँ। मैंने उन 100 जन्मो में एक भी कर्म ऐसा नहीं किया जिसका परिणाम ये हो कि मेरा पूरा शरीर बिंधा पड़ा है, हर आने वाला क्षण ...और पीड़ा लेकर आता है।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कृष्ण:&lt;/strong&gt; पितामह ! आप एक भव और पीछे जाएँ, आपको उत्तर मिल जायेगा।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भीष्म ने ध्यान लगाया और देखा कि 101 भव पूर्व वो एक नगर के राजा थे। ...एक मार्ग से अपनी सैनिकों की एक टुकड़ी के साथ कहीं जा रहे थे। एक सैनिक दौड़ता हुआ आया और बोला &quot;राजन! मार्ग में एक सर्प पड़ा है। यदि हमारी टुकड़ी उसके ऊपर से गुजरी तो वह मर जायेगा।&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भीष्म ने कहा &quot; एक काम करो। उसे किसी लकड़ी में लपेट कर झाड़ियों में फेंक दो।&quot; सैनिक ने वैसा ही किया।...उस सांप को एक लकड़ी में लपेटकर झाड़ियों में फेंक दिया। दुर्भाग्य से झाडी कंटीली थी। सांप उनमें फंस गया। जितना प्रयास उनसे निकलने का करता और अधिक फंस जाता।... कांटे उसकी देह में गड गए। खून रिसने लगा। धीरे धीरे वह मृत्यु के मुंह में जाने लगा।... 5-6 दिन की तड़प के बाद उसके प्राण निकल पाए।&#xA;  ....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;भीष्म:&lt;/strong&gt; हे त्रिलोकी नाथ। आप जानते हैं कि मैंने जानबूझ कर ऐसा नहीं किया। अपितु मेरा उद्देश्य उस सर्प की रक्षा था। तब ये परिणाम क्यों?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कृष्ण:&lt;/strong&gt; तात श्री! हम जान बूझ कर क्रिया करें या अनजाने में ...किन्तु क्रिया तो हुई न। उसके प्राण तो गए ना।... ये विधि का विधान है कि जो क्रिया हम करते हैं उसका फल भोगना ही पड़ता है।.... आपका पुण्य इतना प्रबल था कि 101 भव उस पाप फल को उदित होने में लग गए। किन्तु अंततः वह हुआ।....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know how much this story is correct(since it's from some random source) and how much my earlier view was correct on it. What was actual reason of Bhishma's this level of suffering?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T16:08:29.743" Title="Why Bhishma had to suffer the most in MahaBharat war?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|bhishma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-09-16T05:09:42.373" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20871" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-15T16:24:41.353" Score="13" ViewCount="2056" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 10.90 says Earth, Sky, heaven, and other creatures were created from Purusha's body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda 14.28 says something different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With one they praised; creatures were produced…With five they praised;&#xA;  beings were created.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rig Veda 10.72 says that the earth was born from the upward-growing tree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you read Indra and Varuna  suktas, there it is written that Indra and Varuna are the creator.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Indra-Varuṇa, as ye created all these creatures of the world by your&#xA;  surpassing might, In peace and quiet Mitra waits on Varuṇa, the Other,&#xA;  awful, with the Maruis seeks renown.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Atharva Veda 13.1.52 says Rohita created Earth:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rohita made the earth to be his altar, heaven his Dakshinā.   Then&#xA;  heat he took for Agni, and with rain for molten butter he    created&#xA;  every living thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you look at Puranas, there Brahma is the creator.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-16T17:06:56.973" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T12:16:35.137" Title="Why there are numerous contradictions about origin of universe and other creations in Hinduism?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|indra|creation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20872" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19916" CreationDate="2017-09-15T17:00:52.367" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periya_Puranam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Periya Puranam&lt;/a&gt;(Epic in which the life history of Nayanars were written),  at Tiruvarur &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundarar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sundaramoorthy Nayanar&lt;/a&gt; recited the names of all sixty-three Nayanars,including those who lived before him, and who will live after him. This recitation is called Tiruttondar-Tokai. In it, he refers to himself as the servant of servants of these saints. There he mentioned only 63, so we don't have more than that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-16T16:56:30.773" LastActivityDate="2017-09-16T16:56:30.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20874" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-15T18:55:46.767" Score="4" ViewCount="796" Body="&lt;p&gt;A story I read in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=uLFmds7elBAC&amp;amp;pg=PA90&amp;amp;dq=the%20previous%20life%20of%20draupadi&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiGyqqU7afWAhULp48KHewpCMIQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=the%20previous%20life%20of%20draupadi&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tales from the Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; speaks of Draupadi being &lt;strong&gt;the previous birth of Daksha Prajapati's daughter Ketaki&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ketaki decides to marry Lord Shiva and starts performing penances to please him. Parvati decides to test her devotion and disturbs her in the form of a cow. Ketaki curses it and tries to shoo it away. Parvati then comes to her real form and curses Ketaki to be born as a mortal and wed five men. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second half of the story goes as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01200.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; of Indra and the golden lotuses but my question is about the first half. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So what scriptures talk of Draupadi being Ketaki, Daksha Prajapati's daughter? And of her penance to Lord Shiva and Parvati's curse?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since most of the stories in the book do have some origin in scriptures I'd like to know if this story is true or not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T18:55:46.767" Title="What scriptures describe Draupadi being the reincarnation of Ketaki?" Tags="|scripture|mahabharata|draupadi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20875" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20867" CreationDate="2017-09-15T20:14:40.023" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a controversy on the origin of the name Shimla. According to many, the capital town of Himachal Pradesh Shimla derive it's name from Goddess Shyamala. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hpshimla.nic.in/sml_hist.htm#Shimla%20Town&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The official website&lt;/a&gt; of district administration, Shimla gives two stories for this origin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The name Shimla was derived from 'Shyamalaya' meaning   blue house said to be the name of house built of blue slate by a faqir on Jakhu. According to one version Shimla takes it name from 'Shamla' meaning a blue female another name for Goddess Kali. The place was on the Jakhu Hillside, there was a temple of Goddess Kali. During the British period the image of the Goddess was shifted to a new place ,now famous Kali Bari Temple. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This temple was originally near Jakhu hill but the British brought the idol of the Goddess to the new place. The present temple is built in 1845 A.D. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This temple is famous in Shimla. Hindus say this reason whereas muslims say the other reason. We can't deny that there is no role of the temple in the naming of a town. So, the temple of Shyamala devi could be a strong reason for the name of the town. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The image of the Goddess in the temple: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sh3U1.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sh3U1.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;goddess image in temple&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Image Source: From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.simlakalibari.org/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; website. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shyamala devi is named such because she has a dark complexion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more details on Shyamala devi, see the below post. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11052/who-is-goddess-shyamala&quot;&gt;Who is Goddess Shyamala?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-09-15T20:14:40.023" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20876" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="289" CreationDate="2017-09-16T05:03:11.470" Score="1" Body="&lt;h2&gt;Does Bhagavad Gita discusses about &amp;quot;What is &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita is said on the pretext of the fact that Arjuna &amp;amp; Krishna already are aware about &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;. Hence &lt;strong&gt;it doesn't discuss about what is &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, but it discusses about how one should follow &lt;em&gt;[Swa]Dharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna was well aware about various kinds of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;-s, so were other PAndava-s. Just that, Arjuna was facing hindrance due to the tough nature of war where he had to kill certain dear ones. He didn't find the war worthy enough.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna also understands that, Arjuna is not bewildered on the path of Dharma, but is confused whether the Dharma which gives such agony, -- should be followed or not?&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Hence Krishna primarily talks about liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Still ... &amp;quot;What is &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot; as per Gita?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only near direct mention of &amp;quot;what is Dharma&amp;quot; is during the last chapter. &lt;strong&gt;The actions performed under the influence of &lt;em&gt;Sattva&lt;/em&gt; is Dharma&lt;/strong&gt;. Under Rajas, one doesn't know &lt;em&gt;Dharma vs Adharma&lt;/em&gt; and under Tamas, one follows &lt;em&gt;Vidharma&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 18.30 — The one who knows activity &amp;amp; retirement, duty &amp;amp; non-duty, fear &amp;amp; boldness and bonding &amp;amp; liberation properly, has &lt;em&gt;SAtvika Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 18.31 — The one who doesn't know &lt;em&gt;Dharma &amp;amp; Adharma&lt;/em&gt;, duty &amp;amp; non-duty as it is, has &lt;em&gt;RAjasi Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 18.32 — Covered by darkness (&lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt;), the one who believes &lt;em&gt;Adharma&lt;/em&gt; as &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; and believes other [thing]s also wrongly, has &lt;em&gt;TAmasi Buddhi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the &lt;em&gt;DhArmik&lt;/em&gt; actions are listed for the &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt; quality in various chapters, especially chapter 14 and 18.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-16T05:03:11.470" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20877" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-16T08:09:37.870" Score="7" ViewCount="562" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Samkhya school, founded by the sage Kapila.  Now in Adhyaya 4 of Kapila's Samkhya Sutras, one of the defining texts of the Samkhya school, Kapila discusses various scriptural stories which illustrate different Samkhya teachings.  In particular, here's what he says in Adhyaya 4 Sutra 2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;piśācavadanyārtheopadeśe'pi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Discrimination results), as in the case of the Pishacha, even though the instruction was for the sake of another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601605.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/30/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.487257/2015.487257.The-Samkhya_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=2015.487257.The-Samkhya_jp2/2015.487257.The-Samkhya_0411.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Vijnanabhikshu interprets this Sutra in his commentary on the Samkhya Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even women, Shudras, and the like may attain their end by hearing the instruction of one Brahmana by another Brahmana; with a view to show this the author exhibits another story.  &lt;strong&gt;Although the instruction in regard to the Tattvas or Principles was being deluged by Shri Krishna for the benefit of Arjuna, discriminative knowledge was produced in a Pishacha standing nearby.&lt;/strong&gt; Similarly it may be in the case of others also.  Such is the meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the story of the Pishacha who overheard Krishna telling Arjuna the Bhagavad Gita?  For those who don't know, Pishachas are a race of demons described in Hindu scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only similar story I've heard is the one told in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=OIgEfwufeHAC&amp;amp;lpg=PA194&amp;amp;ots=L6ZuOwm2Mt&amp;amp;dq=pisacha%20gita&amp;amp;pg=PA194#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; and other places, about Hanuman overhearing the Bhagavad Gita and Krishna cursing him to turn into a Pishacha.  But I'm not sure if that story has a scriptural basis, and in any case the two stories aren't quite the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2022-08-18T13:02:10.307" Title="What is the story of the Pishacha who overheard the Bhagavad Gita?" Tags="|philosophy|bhagavad-gita|hanuman|sankhya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20878" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-16T15:08:17.393" Score="1" ViewCount="41" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm worshiping our family deity Jaganmaate Omshree Gangadevi and I'm the priestess too. I, now want to install Lord Gangadhareshwara in idol form (not the Linga form). What are the steps I need to take.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12014" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-17T09:39:36.980" LastActivityDate="2017-09-17T09:39:36.980" Title="Can I have Gangadhareshwara Idol (not the Linga) to perform Abhyanjana, Abhisheka and pura?" Tags="|shiva|idols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20879" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17882" CreationDate="2017-09-16T16:38:46.047" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The context of the verse is: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Brahmin is compared with Shudra at his birth &lt;strong&gt;(just like a Shudra cannot able to learn Vedas throughout his entire life, a Brahmana also cannot learn until he undergoes Upanayana).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then after he completed his Upanayana, he becomes a dwija, that is &lt;strong&gt;Samskara Bhaved Uchhyate&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, this verse doesn't mean all humans are born Shudras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-16T16:46:56.550" LastActivityDate="2017-09-16T16:46:56.550" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20880" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20871" CreationDate="2017-09-16T18:09:44.523" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is what Adi Shankara says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34125.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;his commentary&lt;/a&gt; regarding the apparent contradictions seen in creation doctrine:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is not possible-- &lt;strong&gt;our opponent says&lt;/strong&gt;--to prove either that Brahman is the cause of the origin, &amp;amp;c. of the world, or that all Vedânta-texts refer to Brahman; because we observe that the Vedânta-&lt;strong&gt;texts contradict one another.&lt;/strong&gt; All the Vedânta-passages which treat of the creation enumerate its successive steps in different order, and so in reality speak of different creations. &lt;strong&gt;In one place it is said&lt;/strong&gt; that from the Self there sprang the ether (Taitt.&#xA;  Up. II, 1); in another place that the creation began with fire (Ch. Up. VI, 2, 3); &lt;strong&gt;in another place, again,&lt;/strong&gt; that the Person created breath and from breath faith (Pr. Up. VI, 4); &lt;strong&gt;in another place, again,&lt;/strong&gt; that the Self created these worlds, the water (above the heaven), light, the mortal (earth), and the water (below the earth) (Ait. Âr. II, 4, 1, 2; 3). There no order is stated at all. &lt;strong&gt;Somewhere else it is said&lt;/strong&gt; that the creation originated from the Non-existent. &amp;apos;In the beginning this was non-existent; from it was born what &#xA;  exists&amp;apos; (Taitt. Up. II, 7); and, &amp;apos;In the beginning this was non-existent; it became existent; it grew&amp;apos; (Ch. Up. III, 19, 1). &lt;strong&gt;In another place, again, the doctrine of the Non-existent being the antecedent of the creation is impugned,&lt;/strong&gt; and the Existent mentioned in its stead. &amp;apos;Others say, in the beginning there was that only which is not; but how could it be thus, my dear? How could that which is be born of that which is not?&amp;apos; (Ch. Up. VI, 2, 1; 2.) &lt;strong&gt;And in another place, again,&lt;/strong&gt; the development of the world is spoken of as having taken place spontaneously, &amp;apos;Now all this was then undeveloped. It became developed by form and name&amp;apos; (Bri. Up. I, 4, 7).--As therefore manifold discrepancies are observed, and as no option is possible in the case of an accomplished matter[240], the Vedânta-passages cannot be accepted as authorities for determining the cause of the world, but we must rather accept some other cause of the world resting on the authority of Smriti and Reasoning. &lt;strong&gt;To this we make the following reply.&lt;/strong&gt; --Although the Vedânta-passages may be conflicting with regard to the order of the things created, such as ether and so on, they do not conflict with regard to the creator, &amp;apos;on account of his being represented as described.&amp;apos; That means: such as the creator is described in any one Vedânta-passage, viz. as all-knowing, the Lord of all, the Self of all, without a second, so he is represented in all other Vedânta-passages also. Let us consider, for instance, the description of Brahman (given in Taitt. Up. II, 1 ff.). There it is said at first, &amp;apos;Truth, knowledge, infinite is Brahman.&amp;apos; Here the word &amp;apos;knowledge,&amp;apos; and so likewise the statement, made later on, that Brahman desired (II, 6), intimate that Brahman is of the nature of intelligence. Further, &#xA;  the text declares that the cause of the world is the general Lord, by representing it as not dependent on anything else. It further applies to the cause of the world the term &amp;apos;Self&amp;apos; (II, 1), and it represents it as abiding within the series of sheaths beginning with the gross body; whereby it affirms it to be the internal Self within all beings. Again--in the passage, &amp;apos;May I be many, may I grow forth&amp;apos;--it tells how the Self became many, and thereby declares that the creator is non-different from the created effects. And--in the passage, &amp;apos;He created all this whatever there is&amp;apos;--it represents the creator as the Cause of the entire world, and thereby declares him to have been without a second previously to the creation. The same characteristics which in the above passages are predicated of Brahman, viewed as the Cause of the world, we find to be predicated of it in other passages also, so, for instance, &amp;apos;Being only, my dear, was this in the beginning, one only, without a second. It thought, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth fire&amp;apos; (Ch. Up. VI, 2, 1; 3), and &amp;apos;In the beginning all this was Self, one only; there was nothing else blinking whatsoever. He thought, shall I send forth worlds?&amp;apos; (Ait. Âr. II, 4, 1, 1; 2.) The Vedânta-passages which are concerned with setting forth the cause of the world are thus in harmony throughout.--On the other hand, &lt;strong&gt;there are found conflicting statements concerning the world, the creation being in some places said to begin with ether, in other places with fire, and so on. But, in the first place, it cannot be said that the conflict of statements concerning the world affects the statements concerning the cause, i.e. Brahman, in which all the Vedânta-texts are seen to agree--for that would be an altogether unfounded generalization;--and, in the second place, the teacher will reconcile later on (II, 3) those conflicting passages also which refer to the world. And, to consider the matter more thoroughly, a conflict of statements regarding the world would not even matter greatly, since the creation of the world and similar topics are not at all what Scripture wishes to teach.&lt;/strong&gt; For we neither observe nor are told by Scripture that the welfare of man depends on those matters in any way; nor have we the right to assume such a thing; because we conclude from the introductory and concluding clauses that the passages about the creation and the like form only subordinate members of passages treating of Brahman. &lt;strong&gt;That all the passages setting forth the creation and so on subserve the purpose of teaching Brahman, Scripture itself declares;&lt;/strong&gt; compare Ch. Up. VI, 8, 4, &amp;apos;As food too is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. water. And as water too is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. fire. And as fire too is an offshoot, seek after its root, viz. the True.&amp;apos; We, moreover, understand that by means of comparisons such as that of the clay (Ch. Up. VI, 1, 4) &lt;strong&gt;the creation is described merely for the purpose of teaching us that the effect is not really different from the cause.&lt;/strong&gt; Analogously it is said by those who know the sacred tradition, &amp;apos;If creation is represented by means of (the similes of) clay, iron, sparks, and other things; that is only a means for making it understood that (in reality) there is no difference whatever&amp;apos; (Gaudap. Kâ. III, 15).--On the other hand, Scripture expressly states the fruits connected with the knowledge of Brahman, &amp;apos;He who knows Brahman obtains the highest&amp;apos; (Taitt. Up. II, 1); &amp;apos;He who knows the Self overcomes grief&amp;apos; (Ch. Up. VII, 1, 3); &amp;apos;A man who knows him passes over death&amp;apos; (Sve. Up. III, 8). That fruit is, moreover, apprehended by intuition (pratyaksha), for as soon as, by means of the doctrine, &amp;apos;That art thou,&amp;apos; &lt;strong&gt;a man has arrived at the knowledge that the Self is non transmigrating, its transmigrating nature vanishes for him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-09-18T12:16:35.137" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T12:16:35.137" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20881" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20882" CreationDate="2017-09-16T21:40:46.000" Score="9" ViewCount="1468" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Samkhya school, founded by the sage Kapila. Now in Adhyaya 4 of Kapila's Samkhya Sutras, one of the defining texts of the Samkhya school, Kapila discusses various scriptural stories which illustrate different Samkhya teachings. In particular, here's what he says in Adhyaya 4 Sutra 2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;viraktasya heyahānamupādeyopāvānaṃ haṃsacāravat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the case of the dispassionate, there is the avoidance of what is to be avoided and acceptance of what is fit to be acquired, - as in the case of the swan and milk.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801605.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/30/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.487257/2015.487257.The-Samkhya_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=2015.487257.The-Samkhya_jp2/2015.487257.The-Samkhya_0428.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Vijnanabhikshu interprets this Sutra in his commentary on the Samkhya Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Perfect development of knowledge takes place in the case only of the dispassionate.  In regard to this the author mentions an illustration.  Of the dispassionate only, there is avoidance of things to be avoided, such as Prakriti, etc., and the acceptance of that which is to be accepted, i.e. the Self.  &lt;strong&gt;Just as, out of milk and water, formed into a mixture, by giving up the inessential water, the taking of the essential milk is possible for the swan only, but not for the crow, etc.&lt;/strong&gt; Such is the meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, what scriptures describe swans separating milk from water?  It must be in some scripture or it presumably wouldn't be in Adhyaya 4 of the Samkhya Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've come across lots of claims that the term &amp;quot;Paramahansa&amp;quot; used for certain saints comes from this property of swans.  For instance &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/9/28&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Srila Prabhupada says in his commentary on the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A paramahaṁsa accepts only the active principle of everything. &lt;strong&gt;Just as a swan accepts only the milk from a mixture of water and milk&lt;/strong&gt;, a paramahaṁsa accepts only the Supreme Personality of Godhead as his life and soul, neglecting all external, material things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But does this notion have a scriptural basis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-05-28T16:39:37.613" Title="What scriptures describe swans separating milk from water?" Tags="|philosophy|animals|saint|sankhya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20882" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20881" CreationDate="2017-09-16T22:00:24.380" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found multiple scriptural references to this phenomenon.  First of all, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/aranya/sarga19/aranyaroman19.htm#Verse8&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Aranya Kanda of the Ramayana, when Surpanakha's brother Khara promises to kill whoever cut off Surpanakha's nose:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;adya aham mārgaṇaiḥ prāṇān ādāsye jīvitāṃtagaiḥ |&#xA;  salile kṣīram āsaktam niṣpiban iva sārasaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now, I will take away the lives of that miscreant with my arrows that are terminators of lives, &lt;strong&gt;as a swan would drink milk to dregs even if it is mingled in water, duly separating milk from water.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second of all, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/gpu18.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Garuda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;'This is known; this must be known,&quot;--he wishes to hear everything. If one lives for a thousand celestial years he cannot reach the end of the Śāstras. The Śāstras are numerous; life is brief; and there are tens of millions of obstacles; therefore the essence should be understood, - &lt;strong&gt;like the swan taking the milk in the water&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-16T22:00:24.380" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20884" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20871" CreationDate="2017-09-17T01:33:24.250" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The origin of universe is possibly not knowable.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As stated in various scriptures, the universe itself is the manifestation of formful(&lt;em&gt;saguna&lt;/em&gt;) Brahman. Various sages have provided various theories around its creation. But since, Brahman itself is sages' own origin, may be due to that it's impossible to accurately define Brahman's own origin.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Similar to infinite recursion which happens when keeping 2 mirrors facing each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 10.2 - Neither the deities nor the great sages know My origin. In every way, I am the origin of the deities and the great sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Overal creation is said analogically to be an upside down pepul tree. Roots (origin) are upwards &amp;amp; the branches where humans existence comes is downwards. Veda-s merely are leaves of these branches:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 15.1 - The Blessed Lord said They say that the peepul Tree, which has its roots upward and the branches downward, and of which the Vedas are the leaves, is imperishable. He who realizes it is knower of the Vedas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 15.2 - The branches of that (Tree), extending downwards and upwards, are strengthened by the 3 modes and have sense-objects as their seeds. Other roots, which are followed by actions, spread downwards in the human world &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet this analogy is also not perfect:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 15.3 - Its form is not perceived here in that way; Neither its end, nor beginning, nor continuance [even] after cutting this Peepul whose roots are well developed, with the strong sword of detachment&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The origin is knowable by none but originator:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 10.15 - O supreme Person, the Creator of beings, the Lord of beings, God of gods, the Lord of the worlds, You Yourself alone know Yourself by Yourself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-17T01:33:24.250" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20885" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-17T04:06:52.923" Score="3" ViewCount="2437" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vegans don't buy milk because of the cruel life dairy cows are subjected to and because they eventually get &lt;a href=&quot;http://ethicalvegan.net/read/the-ethics-of-drinking-milk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;slaughtered&lt;/a&gt;. Given that cows are sacred for Hindus I was wondering if Hindus share the concern with vegans about the treatment and fate of dairy cows, and are required by their religion to buy only milk obtained from milk production facilities or operations whose cows are not sent to be slaughtered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Related questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10701/consuming-milk-and-dairy-causes-bad-karma?rq=1&quot;&gt;Consuming milk and dairy causes bad karma?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/67/eating-beef-as-a-hindu?rq=1&quot;&gt;Eating Beef as a Hindu&lt;/a&gt; (specially enlightening regarding the issue)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12016" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T07:42:30.940" Title="When Hindus buy milk are they required to only buy milk from cows that are not sent to be slaughtered?" Tags="|karma|practice|cows|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20887" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-17T09:12:42.237" Score="0" ViewCount="96" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is he not worshipped widely even after he had always protected mankind from evil powers? Can anyone answer it? I know he is worshipped widely in south India and north Indians think he is responsible for creating widows as he is a war god. But that's not fair because all he ever did was to save mankind from evil powers. So are we not supposed to be thankful to him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12022" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-17T09:32:57.820" LastActivityDate="2017-09-17T09:32:57.820" Title="Is kartikeya married or unmarried? Why is he not worshipped widely even after he had always protected mankind from evil powers?" Tags="|gods|worship|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-09-17T09:37:53.183" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20888" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-17T10:47:04.910" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-17T10:47:04.910" LastActivityDate="2017-09-17T10:47:04.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20889" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-17T10:47:04.910" Score="0" Body="Tripura Sundari (Sanskrit: त्रिपुरा सुंदरी, IAST: Tripura Sundarī), is a goddess and one of the ten Mahavidyas.[2] She is best known as the Devi extolled in the Lalita Sahasranama and as the subject of the Lalitopakhyana in Hinduism.&#xD;&#xA;&#xD;&#xA;According to the Srikula tradition in Shaktism, Tripurasundari is the foremost of the Mahavidyas and the highest aspect of Goddess Adi Parashakti." OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-17T10:47:04.910" LastActivityDate="2017-09-17T10:47:04.910" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20890" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-17T11:46:41.470" Score="3" ViewCount="2759" Body="&lt;p&gt;I respect all human beings, but I did not get their religion, it is more like illusion to me. illusion is something like human can't escape from it, Here is my opinion about how world can end, or how kaliyuga can be end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Man vs Man : In this war people don't fight in the name of religion they just want land and wealth. If they get it what they desire, then any world war will be over, but kaliyuga will not end.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;God vs Man: We all know god can not even punish evil or demon if they don't do anything wrong, we all know the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/8755/10405&quot;&gt;story of tripusura&lt;/a&gt;. So the kaliyuga will be never end, if only good people live here(Without violence), but due to cyclic period of every yuga it should be end, so GOD can do some kind of illusion to make it happen. I know people can get escape from all of this, because &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2147/10405&quot;&gt;kaliyuga is not hard as other three yuga&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Religion vs Religion: As I said to make the end of kaliyuga, god can make illusion of adharma, which will fight with dharma and adharma will conquer the world and then &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;lord kalki&lt;/a&gt;(the avatar of lord vishnu) will kill all adharma people and make the end of kaliyuga and start satyuga again.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know in kali puran it is referenced that people in the end of kaliyuga don't pray to god, they will do more sins and hence kalki will destroy all of them, but for me it is partial true, because if people do more sins then they may take birth in other jivas(like animals), and kaliyuga will never end. So What make sense better is, their(Mleccha) illusion dharma(Adharma) will conquer the whole world and then god kalki will kill all of them, so the cycle of kaliyug will end and satyuga can start again. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Read this Wikipedia article line&lt;/a&gt;(The Padma Purana describes that Kalki will end the age of kali and kill all mlecchas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So do you think this is how the kaliyuga will be end? Do you think other mlecchas religion(Which establish after kaliyuga) are just illusion? like in trupusura case? I know my question is bit off topic, but my intention is not hurt any human belief (since even if it is illusion then it is created by parbramhan to end kaliyuga, so I respect them). I welcome your atman thoughts in comments box as well, if my question is vote to close. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Update: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;My meaning of melleche is only about adharma which is establish outside of arya country, since adharma can't establish with santan dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_(demon)#Family_lineage&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The demon kali family tree is interesting to note&lt;/a&gt;, it indicated that people can born with this characteristics as well.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12021" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-09-30T10:45:33.167" LastActivityDate="2018-03-06T16:09:34.260" Title="Are other religions just an illusion to end kaliyuga?" Tags="|other-religions|kali-yuga|kalki|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ClosedDate="2017-09-19T11:58:57.950" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20893" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5383" CreationDate="2017-09-17T15:11:08.137" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;My grandfather explained why they were told to sprinkle water in entrance. Everything told in age old were scientific but unfortunately lot are outdated practices followed blindly. &#xA;Below is the actual reason :&#xA;In olden days majority were huts &amp;amp; small homes built with wet mud compacted entrance (read entrance flooring)  . So whenever someone sneezes whole passing the entrance.. the vibrations will cause the mud to loose &amp;amp; crack with time.. Hence to maintain its compacted state they were asked to sprinkle water &amp;amp; maintain the moist state. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also the reason why they sprinkle water before putting kolam. Kolam traditionally was put on the mud compacted entrance. So the practice of sprinkling water every morning was to ensure the entrance flooring is well compacted maintained everyday as dry mud may loosen up with time &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12026" LastActivityDate="2017-09-17T15:11:08.137" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20894" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20902" CreationDate="2017-09-17T15:20:50.530" Score="11" ViewCount="1554" Body="&lt;p&gt;In early Vedic books, like Rig Veda (Hiryanyagarbha Sukta), Shatapata Brahmana, the verses of Atharva Veda and in Yajur Veda, Lord Prajapati is the creator.According to Shvetashvatara Upanishad and Mundaka Upanishad, Lord Brahma is praised as the creator.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are Prajapati and Brahma the same with different names? Do any scriptures tell us that they are the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-18T05:00:18.570" LastActivityDate="2019-11-16T12:51:15.717" Title="Are the Vedic Gods Prajapati and Brahma the same?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|brahma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20895" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20885" CreationDate="2017-09-17T19:07:30.373" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Cow's milk is a very satvik food (mode of goodness, per ISKCON terminology).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it is satvik if and only if the cow's OWN calf drank from the mother first.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is satvik if and only if the cow is protected in its olden days when it can no longer give milk.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It is satvik if and only if the first 10 days after birthing colostrum milk is given to calf only, not for human consumption.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically, we must not steal from the cow, it must be a mutual give &amp;amp; take. There are many restrictions for a cow's milk to be very satvik (native indian breeds like those in brindavana, no artificial insemination)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - Ahara Niyama&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a saying: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a woman past her beauty, a soldier past his strength, and a cow past&#xA;  its milch-days must not be cast aside&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i.e. don't adopt use &amp;amp; throw mentality. Because the same fate may befall you one-day, when you're feeble and sick, your own children may not care for you (karma will find its way).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately nowadays in Kali Yuga, it is very hard to find such facilities, even in India. So I try to buy organic milk, or from goshala or local farmer whenever possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-09-17T19:07:30.373" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20896" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-18T01:30:13.997" Score="4" ViewCount="269" Body="&lt;p&gt;If we see God in our dreams telling us the same thing again and again, does that mean anything? Is God in a way trying to say say something through dreams?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12022" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-09-23T09:47:04.407" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T09:47:04.407" Title="Does seeing the same dream several times indicate something?" Tags="|dream|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20897" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20898" CreationDate="2017-09-18T03:50:31.507" Score="2" ViewCount="271" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Samkhya school, founded by the sage Kapila. Now in Adhyaya 4 of Kapila's Samkhya Sutras, one of the defining texts of the Samkhya school, Kapila discusses various scriptural stories which illustrate different Samkhya teachings. In particular, here's what he says in Adhyaya 4 Sutra 16:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tadvismaraṇe'pi bhekīvat&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the forgetting also of the rules (there is the same harm), as (in the story of)  the she-frog.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's how Aniruddha interprets this Sutra in his commentary on the Samkhya Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The author tells us that by reason of the forgetting of the knowledge of the Principles, pain necessarily takes place. A certain king, going out on a hunting excursion, saw a beautiful maid in the woods.  He asked her, &amp;quot;Who are you?&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;I am a king's daughter,&amp;quot; replied she.  The king said, &amp;quot;Marry me.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Very well,&amp;quot; said she, &amp;quot;but make this rule that water must not be shown to me by you.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Let it be so,&amp;quot; - so saying, he took her hand.  In this manner, as time went on, one day, she, being fatigued with sport, asked the king &amp;quot;Where can I get water from?&amp;quot; The king, too, forgetting his promise, through haste, showed her water. And she, who was the daughter of the king of frogs, was, through touch of water, transformed as a she-frog. The king, on the other hand, searching for her by means of nets, etc. and, not regaining her, experienced much pain.  Therefore, interruption of the cultivation of the Principles should not be made.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe this story of a king who fell in love with a frog princess?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story is interesting for two reasons.  First of all, it's reminiscent of the story of Shantanu and Ganga, in that a wife places a condition that the husband breaks.  Second of all, it reminds me of the European story of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frog_Prince&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Frog Prince&lt;/a&gt;.  In fact, it's kind of the mirror image of that story.  In the Frog Prince, a princess keeps a promise to a male frog, and thereby it turns into a human.  In this story, a king breaks a promise to a female human, and thereby she turns into a frog.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-09T13:55:17.753" Title="What scriptures describe the story of the frog princess?" Tags="|philosophy|animals|sankhya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20898" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20897" CreationDate="2017-09-18T03:50:31.507" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the story in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03191.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata.  Markandeya tells the story to the Pandavas to illustrate the power of Brahmanas.  The king in the story is the ancient solar dynasty king Parikshit, not to be confused with Arjuna's grandson Parikshit who belonged to the lunar dynasty.  Here is the part of Markandeya's story that is summarized by Aniruddha's quote above:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was a king, by name Parikshit in Ayodhya and belonging to the race of Ikshvaku. And once upon a time Parikshit went a-hunting.... And the king soon beheld a maiden of great beauty gathering flowers singing all the while, and the maiden soon came before the king, and the king thereupon asked her, 'Blessed one, who art thou and whose?' And she replied, 'I am a maiden.' And the king said, 'I ask thee to be mine.' And the maiden answered, 'Give me a pledge, for then only I can be thine, else not.' And the king then asked about the pledge and the girl answered. 'Thou wilt never make me cast my eyes on water', and the king saying, 'So be it,' married her[.]... [A]nd the king sported with her in that delightful forest, and afflicted with hunger and thirst and fatigued and spent, the king beheld a bower of Madhavi creepers 1 and entering that bower with his dear one, the king beheld a tank full of water that was transparent and bright as nectar, and beholding that tank, the king sat on its bank with her and the king told his adorable wife, 'Cheerfully do thou plunge into this water!' And she, hearing those words plunged into the tank. But having plunged into the water she appeared not above the surface, and as the king searched, he failed to discover any trace of her. And the king ordered the waters of the tank to be baled out, and thereupon he beheld a frog sitting at the mouth of a hole[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Markandeya continues the story far beyond this.  Parikshit, enraged by his wife turning into a frog, decides to exterminate the entire race of frogs, just as Arjuna's great-grandson Janamejaya tried to exterminate the race of Nagas and Vyasa's father Parashara tried to exterminate the race of Rakshasas.  Then Ayu, king of frogs, comes to Parikshit and he explains that it was his daughter Shushobana who had married Parikshit and that she had tricked other kings in the same manner.  Parikshit agrees to stop killing frogs in exchange for getting Shushobana back.  But before Ayu gives Shushobana back, he punishes his daughter for her trickery by putting a curse on her that her sons will be disrespectful to Brahmanas.  Then Parikshit and Shushobana are reunited and have three sons named Sala, Dala, and Vala.  Eventually Parikshit retires to the forest and Sala becomes king, and as prophesied he is disrespectful to Brahmanas: he borrows two great horses from the sage Vamadeva and refuses to give them back.  So Vamadeva creates four Rakshasas who kill Sala.  Then Dala becomes king, and he tries to kill Vamadeva with an arrow, but Vamadeva makes the arrow kill Dala's son.  Then Dala takes another arrow to kill Vamadeva, but Vamadeva prevents Dala from even firing it.  Finally Dala's wife convinces Dala to stop trying to kill Vamadeva, and Vamadeva becomes Dala's priest and Dala finally returns Vamdeva's horses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So bottom line, don't disrespect Brahmanas!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-09T13:55:17.753" LastActivityDate="2017-11-09T13:55:17.753" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20900" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-18T07:47:53.727" Score="2" ViewCount="64" Body="&lt;p&gt;I need to know which oblation maatha Kalratri likes much.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8123" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-19T06:03:03.517" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T06:03:03.517" Title="What is the favorite oblation to matha kaalratri?" Tags="|durga|kali|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20901" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20890" CreationDate="2017-09-18T08:10:16.673" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am just sharing what knowledge i gathered. and what i understand on this. not assumption. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard about a script called &quot;Akilathiratu Ammanai&quot; which was written in tamil by sage who had dharsan of lord vishnu at his age of 3. He mentioned about end of kaliyug in this script. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no point of religion for end of yuga. Just take a example of own religion and this religion people on today date. &#xA; - people chat other in the of God. you can many fake gurus came today. this is the sign of kaliyug. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good question you have pointed, if people do sin, they will get into animal world. so how can kaliyug will end?. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;this is little complicate to explain. but i give some points. just see what is happening today and compare with 500 or 1000 years back.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;even though a soul get animal birth, they were lived as they in the earth. but now a days you can see so much cow slaughters are there. people are very rude to kill dogs. is it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so think, there will be a cosmic imbalance. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and question shouldn't be how many good and bad peoples are here. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;how much good and bad things are happening here. in earlier time also sin people there. but there sins are not like today. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in sexually also, people are very down. today even mother and sons are having sex as i heard. so this is sign of kaliyug. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;these all things are mentioned in that script, 500 years back. so you could sense change in environment and change culture, change in people mind set.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;but today is not end of kaliyug. it has to go more. just think the deviation from 500 years back to till today. then imagine how the socity will be bad after 500 years. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so this is the process for kaliyug. in that time, destruction will be happen. panja poothas destroy the world. like tnusami, earth quake. the land will completely surrounded by sea. so i think, nothing will do with religious. but in that script, there mentioned, when kaliyug end, there will be safforon flag fly in our nation. India centeral to spirtual. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;India is the last country will destroy finnaly. then end will with kanyakumari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8123" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T08:10:16.673" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20902" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20894" CreationDate="2017-09-18T08:14:48.400" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Are Prajapati and Brahma the same?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think the Vedic Brahma and Prajapati  are two different notions. But In Puranas  Brahma is Prajapati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let’s take a look at some verses from Upanishads and Vedas , which are giving us different accounts before reaching at some conclusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a story in The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/chhand/Chhandogya_Upanishad.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chandogya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  4.8  - Page no. 304 - about Prajapati   declaring nature of Atman and then Indra and Virochana&#xA; going to Prajapati to learn about Atman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here  in the verses below we can see that the translator (Swami Krishnananda) translated the word Prajapati as Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Uda-sarava atmanam aveksya yad-atmano na vijanithah, tan me prabrutam&#xA;  iti, tau hoda sarave’veksamcakrate, &lt;strong&gt;tau ha prajapatir-uvaca&lt;/strong&gt; kim&#xA;  pasyatha iti; tau hocatuh, sarvan evedam avam,  bhagavah, atmanam&#xA;  pasyava, a lomabhya a  nakhebhyah pratirupam iti.  ||1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now Brahma said,&lt;/strong&gt; “Please go and look at yourselves in a pan of water and see what is there; if you cannot understand anything about&#xA;  the Atman, then let me know.” They went and saw themselves in a pan of&#xA;  water. &lt;strong&gt;Then Brahma asked them&lt;/strong&gt;, “What do you see?” They immediately&#xA;  gave the answer: “Up to the hair and the nails, everything that we&#xA;  are, we see exactly reflected in this water. This is what we see. We&#xA;  see ourselves as we are.”  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Tau ha prajapatir-uvaca,&lt;/strong&gt; sadhv-alankrtau suvasanau pariskrtau bhutvoda-sarave’veksetham  iti, tau ha sadhvalankrtau suvasanau&#xA;  pariskrtau bhutvoda-sarave’veksam-cakrate,  tau ha prajapatiruvaca,&#xA;  kim pasyatha iti. ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Brahma said,&lt;/strong&gt; “This is the Atman.” Now what Brahma said was highly significant. But the mystery behind the instruction was so deep&#xA;  that it was again grossly misunderstood by the disciples. Whatever we&#xA;  see is God— this is generally what we say. It is a true statement, no&#xA;  doubt. But it is also an untrue statement. The untrue aspect of it can&#xA;  simply take us astray. But the true aspect of it will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in this book &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=BQxXk7pAx0cC&amp;amp;pg=PA147&amp;amp;lpg=PA147&amp;amp;dq=brahma%20as%20prajapati%20in%20upanishads&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=4OR_q7FhdC&amp;amp;sig=PeUGmrtYEX5DXgMRGettblIvwn8&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjD_Y-V1azWAhWBOo8KHdmkAwYQ6AEIdjAR#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=brahma%20as%20prajapati%20in%20upanishads&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Principal Upanishads&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; page no -47 - see what  &lt;strong&gt;Swami Nikhilananda&lt;/strong&gt; is saying - : Some of the oft-repeated epithets of saguna brahman in the upanishads are Brahma ,Prajapati ,Hiranyaghrabha ,Virat ,Prana ,Sutra and Sutrama .they are all in general way denote the world soul ,the cosmic mind , cosmic Person. &#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Also See what Swami-krishnananda saying in the commentary of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/chhand/Chhandogya_Upanishad.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chandogya Upanishad -4.15&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;- Parting Advice to the Pupil 1. - Page no 345 -In the   below verse We can see that he is explaining two terms mentioned in  Vedic literature Brahma and Prjapaties   - &lt;strong&gt;What is meant by saying that Brahma spoke to Prajapati? It may be that the supreme Brahman spoke to the creator Hiranyagarbha also known as Brahma.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taddhaitad brahma prajapataya uvaca&lt;/strong&gt;, prajapatirmanave, manuh&#xA;  prajabhyah acaryakulad-vedam adhitya yatha-vidhanam, guroh karma&#xA;  (krtva) atisesena abhisamavrtya, kutumbe sthitva, sucau dese&#xA;  svadhyayam adhiyanah, dharmikan vidadhat, atmani sarvendriyani&#xA;  sampratisthapya, ahimsan sarva-bhutany-anyatra tirthebhyah, sa&#xA;  khalveam vartayanyavad-ayusam brahma-lokam abhisampadyate, na ca&#xA;  punar-avartate na ca punaravartate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This is what the great Creator Brahma spoke to his children who are&#xA;  called the Prajapatis,—Marichi, Asvini, Kasyapa, Angirasa, and others.&#xA;  This Knowledge has come down through Guru-parampara and not through&#xA;  books. Books cannot give this knowledge. By word of mouth has this&#xA;  knowledge been communicated. &lt;strong&gt;“Brahma spoke to Prajapatis.” Here&#xA;  too, there is difference of opinion in regard to the interpretation of&#xA;  the meaning of the Upanishadic words. What is meant by saying that&#xA;  Brahma spoke to Prajapati? It may be that the supreme Brahman spoke to&#xA;  the creator Hiranyagarbha also known as Brahma.  Or it may be that&#xA;  Narayana spoke to Brahma as we hear it in the Srimadbhagavata, for&#xA;  instance. Or, according to Sankaracharya who has commented on the&#xA;  Upanishad, Brahma, the Creator, spoke to Kasyapa and other progenitors&#xA;  of the family of the universe&lt;/strong&gt; who are known as Prajapatis. And these&#xA;  Prajapatis spoke to Manu, the first man, the Adam of our Creation.&#xA;  Then Manu gave this knowledge to others. So it has gradually come,&#xA;  stage by stage, from Guru to disciple, and finally to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedaIVShriRamSharmaAcharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prajapati sukta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; from Rig Veda Mandala 10 – Sukta 121  - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here it’s said that Hiranyagharbha is also known as “ka” Or Prjapati. &#xA;  which in that hymn heads each line in the question, &quot;&lt;strong&gt;To what god shall&#xA;  we offer with&lt;/strong&gt; “ So it’s unclear from this sukta whether are Prajapati&#xA;  and Brahma the same or different.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=1&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmki Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Prajapati is said to be Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रजापतिसमश्श्रीमान् धाता रिपुनिषूदनः ।&lt;br&gt; रक्षिता जीवलोकस्य धर्मस्य&#xA;  परिरक्षिता ।।1.1.13।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रजापतिसमः equal to Brahma &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Auspicious like Brahma, Sri Rama is the sustainer of this world,&#xA;  destroyer of enemies and protector of all living beings and of the&#xA;  moral code. &lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt; –  By looking at the above verses it looks like the Vedic&#xA;  Brahma and Prajapati are two different notions. In vedic literature&#xA;  Brahma means cosmic Person , Brahman and the Prajapati  is the creator&#xA;  of the worlds. But In puranic accounts  Brahma and Prajapati are same.&#xA;  Also note that it’s also not clear from  Prjapati Sukta that who is&#xA;  the Prajapati. Either Daksha , Vishwakarma OR Brahman OR puranic&#xA;  Brahma. So for time being it’s difficult to definitely say    that&#xA;  Prajapati and Brahma are the same as we have in hand different&#xA;  accounts from different texts about your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt; – It’s also mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=9I62BcuPxfYC&amp;amp;pg=PA145&amp;amp;lpg=PA145&amp;amp;dq=Brahma%20and%20prajapati%20are%20same%20upanishads&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=4YKBUoj0eQ&amp;amp;sig=FT9k8L-QZUmWJTWzwrtibYtebw4&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiu6MqW4KzWAhXMNI8KHQ_yCeMQ6AEINjAC#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=Brahma%20and%20prajapati%20are%20same%20upanishads&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THIS&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; book that Prajapati later Became Brahma. -Page no 145  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2019-11-15T12:09:35.340" LastActivityDate="2019-11-15T12:09:35.340" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20903" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20729" CreationDate="2017-09-18T10:42:41.397" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;nothing complex in it. before going to answer, i just want to say gyan is not knowledge or intellectual. This is something different. when you are learning from outside word, that is knowledge. gyan is about inner world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;one question, any one can gyan easily? probably no. each everyone dont have capacity to attain gyan. very few only the capacity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now i tell the answer. gyan is not needed for moksha. but when a person is preparing for moksha, he will attain gyan. like when i m travelling from one village to another village. i definitely cross over many villages. but those villages are my root , not my destination. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna start from village1. Bhakti. When a person is pure bhakti, it lead to get gyan. He reached village 2. Vivekanda attained gyan from his guru. But both concern was moksha. village 3. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vivekanda knows gyan is a key to moksha. but ramakrishn knew the root of gyan. that's why advised to be in bhakiti.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8123" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T10:42:41.397" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20905" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-18T11:06:15.657" Score="1" ViewCount="257" Body="&lt;p&gt;In some places Mata Parvati has Ashok Sundari as her daughter and in some places Saraswati and Laxmi? Which one is believed more?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12022" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T09:26:10.887" Title="Who is Mata Parvati's daughter?" Tags="|parvati|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20906" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20702" CreationDate="2017-09-18T11:08:19.667" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are asking the question with limited human's buththi. As we are born as physical body, this is body is doing some physical work. can you tell how many your manas do approximately? If you can answer for this sincerely, i hope i can give answer for you. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Human's buthi is limited. Yogis and rishies shared the stories in which they shared the form gods in Cutcamam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Earlier they did war with asur, it is not meaning now they are free. In within us, asur also there, sur also there. still war is happening. if we give space for bakthi, God kills the demon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;simply god is form energy. I think, you should change your question&#xA;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8123" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T11:08:19.667" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20907" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20894" CreationDate="2017-09-18T12:11:03.247" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Prajapati is a common noun which means &quot;swami of the kingdom&quot;. And Brahma is the 1st Prajapati, his son Daksh is the second Prajati. So Brahma in a way is Prajapati and his descendant is the next one &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12022" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T12:11:03.247" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20908" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-18T14:33:57.443" Score="5" ViewCount="840" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is Spiritual awakening? Some say the repetition of numericals like 11111 , 2222 etc is the most prominent and first sign of spiritual awakening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are these things real? Is there any books on the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/spiritual-awakening-signs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/spiritual-awakening-signs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4640" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-18T19:10:18.630" LastActivityDate="2018-08-08T07:42:38.490" Title="What are the signs of spiritual awakening?" Tags="|spiritual-level|spirituality|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20909" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-18T14:47:37.627" Score="4" ViewCount="113" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have been wondering for quite a long time now about the symbol for 'OM' and it's association with 'Shiva'. My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are Om symbol ॐ &amp;amp; Shiva correlated, if yes then how exactly? (the question duplicate of this does not throw any light on why OM symbol is usually used with Shiva while the answer associates it with all 3 Brahma, Vishnu &amp;amp; Mahesh + it says more about A,U,M rather than the symbol itself. For instance why &amp;amp; how did this symbol first appear?)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any association between 'Linga' and Om symbol ॐ ? (the duplicate question doesn't throw any light on this part as well)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Who the first one to use Om symbol ॐ, are there any scriptures that point out to this fact? (answer to this part is there and acceptable)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-09-19T13:26:17.597" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T13:26:17.597" Title="The symbol for 'OM' ॐ" Tags="|shiva|symbolism|om|symbols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-09-19T16:54:16.860" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20911" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20908" CreationDate="2017-09-18T15:04:46.203" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;We are always getting different hints as we go through the ups and downs of life. Each of these hints are signs for awakening the deep spiritual person within us. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As normal human beings, we tend to ignore all these signs till one wakes us up. This awakening sign is different for different people. In my case, it was visions of the future during the period of just waking up, along with an overwhelming sadness that I could not explain, even though life was perfect at that point. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This made me want to go back to a set of spiritual practices that were imbibed in me as a child. I am still on the journey (as are we all) but now am acutely aware of the awakening.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11920" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T15:04:46.203" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20912" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21" CreationDate="2017-09-18T15:36:57.277" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I post the pictures of pages referring to the link between OM and Devanagari script as described in the book 'Hidden Horizons'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Tjm0M.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Tjm0M.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XW8zK.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XW8zK.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QKNww.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QKNww.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WFNrP.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WFNrP.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4640" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T15:36:57.277" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20913" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20916" CreationDate="2017-09-18T15:37:55.793" Score="5" ViewCount="431" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Samkhya school, founded by the sage Kapila. Now in Adhyaya 4 of Kapila's Samkhya Sutras, one of the defining texts of the Samkhya school, Kapila discusses various scriptural stories which illustrate different Samkhya teachings. In particular, here's what he says in Adhyaya 4 Sutra 7:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;chinnahastavadvā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And moreover, like an amputated hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801605.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/30/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.487257/2015.487257.The-Samkhya_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=2015.487257.The-Samkhya_jp2/2015.487257.The-Samkhya_0414.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Aniruddha interprets the Sutra in his commentary on the Samkhya Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A certain Muni, entering the hermitage of his brother, gathered fruits, etc.  And he was told by his brother, &amp;quot;Thou art a thief.&amp;quot; He said, &amp;quot;Tell me what the penance is.&amp;quot; His brother also said, &amp;quot;There exists no penance except the amputation of thy hand.&amp;quot; And he, informing the king, cut off his own hands.  Therefore, (the moral is), prohibited acts should not be done, and, if done through inadvertence, steps must be taken for obtaining freedom from the consequences thereof.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, who is the Rishi who cut off his own hands to make up for the sin of stealing from his brother's Ashram?  That would require quite a noble character.  And what scriptures describe this story?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are probably not a lot of pairs of Rishis who are brothers one of whom has no hands, so his identity may be easy to narrow down!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T18:52:14.623" Title="Who is the Rishi who cut off his own hands for stealing?" Tags="|philosophy|rishi|sankhya|prayaschitta|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20914" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-18T16:44:42.473" Score="6" ViewCount="10691" Body="&lt;p&gt;I came across 2 books one of which said that Ganga is married to Shiva while the other one said she is married to a Gandharva. So what is the correct relation between Ganga and Lord Shiva? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12036" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-14T10:48:45.997" LastActivityDate="2024-03-01T15:48:40.723" Title="How is Ganga related to Lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|goddess|ganga|rivers|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20915" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20908" CreationDate="2017-09-18T17:06:32.323" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The  exact signs of Spiritual Awakening  are precisely   described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://esamskriti.com/essays/Svetasvatara-UP-TNS-Complete.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  – &lt;strong&gt;Chapter two – Verse 13   - Page no 21  -&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लघुत्वमारोग्यमलोलुपत्वं वर्णप्रसादं स्वरसौष्ठवं च |&lt;br&gt; गन्ध: शुभो&#xA;  मूत्रपुरीषमल्पं योगप्रवृत्तिं प्रथमा वदन्ति || 2.13||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;laghutvam ārogyam alolupatvaṃ varṇaprasādaḥ svarasauṣṭhavaṃ ca &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  gandhaḥ śubho mūtrapurīṣam alpaṃ yogapravṛttiṃ prathamāṃ vadanti //&#xA;  2.13 //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The precursors of perfection in yoga, they say, are lightness and&#xA;  healthiness of the body, absence of desire, clear complexion, and&#xA;  pleasantness of voice, sweet odor and slight excretions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The previous Mantra told us that Pranayama awakens the subtle powers in the seeker. &lt;strong&gt;This Mantra gives the details about the effect of such awakening on the body&lt;/strong&gt; such as lightness, clear complexion etc. But it should always be noted that these are only initial stages and Pranayama should not be considered as the final objective. It is only a purification process for the final goal of concentration and self-absorption in Brahman.&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Another Translation from  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.celextel.org/upanishads/krishna_yajur_veda/svetasvatara.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedanta Spiritual Library&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;II-13: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;II-13: It is said that the first signs of entering Yoga are lightness&#xA;  of body, health, thirstlessness of mind, clearness of complexion, a&#xA;  beautiful voice, an agreeable odour and scantiness excretions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T17:06:32.323" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20916" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20913" CreationDate="2017-09-18T18:52:14.623" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The sage who cut off his own hands was &lt;strong&gt;Likhita&lt;/strong&gt; and his elder brother is &lt;strong&gt;Shankha&lt;/strong&gt;. The story of these two sages is said to Yudhishtira by Sage Vyasa to remind his duty of chastising. This story occurs in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;23&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Rajadharmanusasana Parva of Shanti Parva of Mahabharata.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These were two sages named Shankha and Likhita lived in different hermitages. Both of them were at the banks of the river Bahuda. Both the hermitages had beautiful trees with fruits and flowers.  Once on a time Likhita came to his elder brother's hermitage and Shankha was not at that place on no fixed purpose. He was hungry at that time and plucked many ripe fruits. While he was eating them, Shankha arrived at the hermitage. Beholding his brother he said &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Whence have these fruits been obtained and for what reason art thou eating them?' Approaching his elder brother and saluting him, Likhita smilingly replied, saying, 'I have taken them even from this retreat.' Filled with great rage, Sankha said unto him, 'Thou hast committed theft by thyself taking these fruits. Go and approaching the king confess to him what thou hast done. Tell him, O best of kings, I have committed the offence of approaching what was not given to me. Knowing me for a thief and observing the duty of thy order, do thou soon inflict upon me, O ruler of men, the punishment of a thief.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus addressed, Sage Likhita saluted his brother and gone to the Royal sage(Rajarshi like the king Janaka) Sudyumna to get the punishment. Having heard that the sage Likhita had arrived to the king's palace, the King Sudyumna himself advanced along with his ministers. He greeted the king and ask why he has arrived to the king's palace. The sage then replied to the king:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Do thou promise first that thou wilt achieve it. It will then behove thee, after hearing me, to accomplish that promise. O bull among men, I ate some fruits that had not been given me by my elder brother. Do thou, O monarch, punish me for it without delay.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Sudyumna answered &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'If the king be regarded as competent to wield the rod of chastisement, he should be regarded, O bull among Brahmanas, as equally competent to pardon. Purified in respect of thy act, O thou of high vows, consider thyself as pardoned. Tell me now what other wishes thou hast. I shall certainly accomplish those commands of thine!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the sage didn't ask for any other favour. Then the King Sudyumna caused the sage's hands to be cut off. The sage has returned to his brother's hermitage after being punished. He then in great effection spoke to his elder brother:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'It behoveth thee now to pardon this wretch that hath been duly punished (for what he did).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then his brother Shankha answered the sage: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am not angry with thee, nor hast thou injured me, O foremost of all persons conversant with duties. Thy virtue, however, had suffered a shock. I have rescued thee from that plight. Proceed without delay to the river Bahuda and gratify duly, with oblations of water, the gods, Rishis and the Pitris, and never again set thy heart on sin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing this from his brother, Likhita did the same. Now the miracle happened... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing these words of Sankha, Likhita performed his ablutions in the sacred stream and set about for commencing the water-rite. &lt;strong&gt;Upon this, two hands, resembling two lotuses, appeared at the extremities of his stumps&lt;/strong&gt;. Filled with wonder he came back to his brother and showed him the two hands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankha was not surprised at all and said to his brother. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;All this has been accomplished by me through my penances. Do not be surprised at it. Providence hath been the instrument here. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likhita asked his brother why didn't he purify him using his penances before he was punished. Then he answered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I should not have acted otherwise. I am not thy chastiser. The ruler (who has punished thee) has been himself purified, as also thyself, along with the Pitris!. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way, the hands of the sage Likhita were cut off and restored by his brother Shankha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, the stream where Sage Likhita took bath and gave oblations got its name because it gave the sage his arms back (Bahuda - Which gave arms). This river is now popular as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyyeru_River&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Cheyyeru river&lt;/a&gt; in Telugu and is located in the state of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andhra_Pradesh&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Andhra Pradesh&lt;/a&gt;. The Telugu name also derives its name from the same incident. Cheyyi means a hand and eru(long e) means a stream.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-09-18T18:52:14.623" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20917" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20914" CreationDate="2017-09-19T00:44:44.167" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gangs is not married to lord Shiva. She is Goddess parvati's sister.Due to Maharaj Bhagirath's meditation Ganga came down from heaven on earth but her force was so large that if she would directly fall on earth, earth would get destroyed and so Lord Shiva took her in his &quot;jata&quot;, that's why we see ganga coming out of his hair. That's how he allowed ganga to flow on earth slowly.Things like this happened and Ganga's name is taken with shiv at times. Once even Mata Parvati was suspecting Shiv to be loving Ganga not her and she moved out of Kailash and took another form. But Shiv only has one wife and that's Parvati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ganga descends to earth by the extraordinary effort of Bhageeratha. Shiva agrees to the alighting of Ganga on His head and from where she is released into a lake called Bindusarovar, and from there she flows in seven courses. On land Bhageeratha ushers her up to netherworld dug by his ancestors where heaps of ashes of his grandparents are there, and she enters accordingly to inundate those mounds of ashes according salvation to the souls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference-Valmiki Ramayana, Book I : Bala Kanda - The Youthful Majesties&#xA;chapter/Sarga 43&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12022" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-08-29T09:39:01.977" LastActivityDate="2018-08-29T09:39:01.977" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20918" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19435" CreationDate="2017-09-19T00:50:26.420" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parvati has many &quot;avatars&quot; and one of them is Mahakali. Its Shiva's favorite form of Parvati because it is the most powerful one and this is when Parvati got to know about the powers inside her. She took this avatar as Sati first. Shiv is also called Mahakal and his wife Parvati is called Mahakali&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12022" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T00:50:26.420" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20919" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2567" CreationDate="2017-09-19T01:04:27.237" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shiv did not want to marry. He was totally against marriage and love but then one day a demon named Tarkasur asked him for a boon that only Shiv's son can kill him. Shiv did not have a choice but give him the boon. Tarkasur knew that he couldn't ask for amrit. So, he took boon from Shiva as he was a vairagi and couldn't marry and get a child. But then, what has born has to die. So sati was born. Shiva did not want to fall in love with her but couldn't help it. His love is pure towards her.But destiny lied somewhere else and sati decided to die.( why did she is another story). Shiv cried like anything over her death as he loved her. Nobody could separate sati from shiv. So she took another birth to meet her love once again. She was Parvati now. And once again Shiv and shakti were together. Then Kartikeya was born and he killed Tarkasur &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12022" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T01:04:27.237" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20920" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11028" CreationDate="2017-09-19T01:12:22.457" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Bhandasur( asur made from ashes if Kamadev) ran away with Parvati's child Kartikeya to kill him Parvati took the avatar of Tripura Sundari. As bhandasur was made from ashes he couldn't be destroyed. For his death he would need a body. So Tripura Sundari gave him a body( water from her tears,fire from her third eye,air from her nose and sky from her eyes. Bhandasur himself was earth's part). And after the formation of his body she killed him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12022" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T01:12:22.457" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20922" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18805" CreationDate="2017-09-19T03:42:59.463" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I finally found a proponent of the one-Kapila theory: the 15th or 16th century philosopher Vijnanabhikshu, who subscribed to a Vedantic philosophy called Avibhagadvaita.  But Vijnanabhikshu didn't just believe in Vedanta; he was an early proponent what would later be called Hindu Universalism, and he had significant influences on the Neo-Vedanta movement.  He thought all the Astika schools were true in some sense, including the Samkhya school in particular.  In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/SMYw&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what he says in the end of his commentary on Kapila's Samkhya Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This the same Samkhya Shastra was promulgated by the Lord Vishnu, in r form of Kapila, for the benefit of the world.  In regard to this, what a certain so-called Vedantin says, namely, that Kapila, the author of the Samkhya, is not Vishnu, but is a different Kapila who was an incarnation of Agni; since there is the Smriti: &quot;He is Agni, by name Kapila, who is the promulgator of the Samkhya system,&quot; that is merely an illusion caused to mankind, inasmuch as we learn from such Smritis as &quot;This my birth in the world is for the sake of a complete exhibition of Tattvas or Principles, as approved in the Philosophy of the Self, to those who crave for release from a painful state,&quot; that it is the son of Devahuti, the incarnation of Vishnu, that is the teacher of the Samkhya, and also because the supposition of two Kapilas is redundant.  And in the above passage of the Mahabhatatam, the word, Agni, has been used simply because of the appearance or influence of the power called Agni; just as, e.g., in the saying of Sri Krishna, &quot;I am Kala, the destroyer of worlds, aroused,&quot; has been employed the word, Kala, simply because of the appearance of the power of Kala; since otherwise there will be entailed the difference between Krishna, s the Manifestor of the Universal Form, from Krishna, as the incarnation of Vishnu.  Such is the hint.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now you may be wondering, if Vijnanabhikshu thinks that Vishnu's incarnation Kapila is the same as the founder of the Samkhya school, then why would an incarnation of Vishnu found a school that rejects the existence of Ishwara or the supreme being?  Vijnanabhikshu has an explanation for that, namely that Kapila just pretended to reject the existence of Ishwara in order to deceive people.  But this isn't like the case of Vishnu's incarnation Buddha, who deceived the Asuras in order to hurt them.  Rather, Vijnanabhikshu argues that Kapila deceived people for their own benefit. The idea is that if people believe in Ishwara, they will seek to have the Aishwarya or lordliness, i.e. the same powers that Ishwara has, and the pursuit of such powers will distract them from attaining Jnana.  Whereas if people think there's no such thing as Ishwara, they won't be attracted to such powers.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601605.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/30/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.487257/2015.487257.The-Samkhya_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=2015.487257.The-Samkhya_jp2/2015.487257.The-Samkhya_0054.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Vijnana Bhikshu says near the beginning of his commentary on the Samkhya Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[I]t is in this [i.e. Samkhya] Shastra that the exclusion of Ishvara has been made for practical purposes only, and it is, therefore, proper to translate it as designed to produce indifference towards the lordliness of Ishvara. The idea of Samkhya teachers is that should eternal lordliness be not contravened in the manner of the Lokayatika or sensualist doctrines [i.e. Charvaka], then Chitta or the inner sense being drawn away towards it by the vision of perfect, pure and eternal lordliness, there would arise an obstacle to the formation of the habit of Viveka or discrimination between the Self and the Not-Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to sum up, in Vijnanabhikshu's view, atheism is false but is useful for attaining Jnana!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T03:42:59.463" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20923" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20946" CreationDate="2017-09-19T06:20:35.717" Score="5" ViewCount="843" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Samkhya school, founded by the sage Kapila. In Adhyaya 1 Sutra 157 of the Samkhya Sutras, one of the defining texts of the Samkhya school, Kapila refutes the Advaita notion that there's only one Atma by noting that people have attained Moksha in the past and yet Samsara continues, implying that there must be more than one Atma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vāmadevādimukta nādvaitam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vamadeva, as well as others, has been released; (hence) Non-duality (is) not (a fact).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601605.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/30/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.487257/2015.487257.The-Samkhya_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=2015.487257.The-Samkhya_jp2/2015.487257.The-Samkhya_0271.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Aniruddha interprets this Sutra in his commentary on the Samkhya Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The author declares that, for the following reason also, the Selves are many.  &lt;strong&gt;In the Puranas, etc., it is heard, &amp;quot;Vamadeva has been released,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Shuka has been released,&amp;quot; etc.&lt;/strong&gt; If the Self were one and one only, since on the release of one, there would be the release of all, the mention of diversity (as in the case of separate and successive releases) would be contradicted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  Vyasa's son Shuka attaining Moksha is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata (although there's some contretemps regarding that).  But my question is, what scriptures describe the sage Vamadeva attaining Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14343/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the Aitareya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishads discuss Vamadeva attaining Jnana.  And one who has attained Jnana is considered a Jivanmukta according to Advaitins.  But the Samkhya school didn't accept the notion of Jivanmuktas, so I assume there must be some scripture which describes Vamadeva actually dying and attaining Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T14:57:54.950" Title="What scriptures describe sage Vamadeva attaining Moksha?" Tags="|philosophy|upanishads|advaita|sankhya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20924" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20926" CreationDate="2017-09-19T06:43:02.120" Score="11" ViewCount="8939" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;An equation for me has no meaning, unless it expresses a thought of God.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zqzlMs.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zqzlMs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Famous mathematician &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srinivasa Ramanujan&lt;/a&gt; was a very religious person. So much that, despite having health issues in England, he stuck to his vegetarian diet until his death at young age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramanujan's first Indian biographers describe him as a rigorously orthodox Hindu. He credited his acumen to his family goddess, Mahalakshmi of Namakkal. He looked to her for inspiration in his work and said he dreamed of blood drops that symbolised her male consort, Narasimha. Afterward he would receive visions of scrolls of complex mathematical content unfolding before his eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any &lt;strong&gt;specific God / Deity&lt;/strong&gt; for the Mathematics?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;e.g.: &lt;em&gt;&quot;... 'I' am the time among the mathematicians ...&quot;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10923/1049&quot;&gt;[BG 10.30]&lt;/a&gt;. But this is not a specific deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2021-05-19T11:05:13.747" Title="Is there any god / deity for the mathematics?" Tags="|goddess|gods|mathematics|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20925" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20095" CreationDate="2017-09-19T06:59:28.790" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Found an explicit mention in Bhagavad Gita itself! Where lord says that of all the beings are illusioned and are mounted on machines. May be it's an analogy, but may be it's not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ईश्वरः सर्वभूतानां हृद्देशेऽर्जुन तिष्ठति। भ्रामयन्सर्वभूतानि &lt;strong&gt;यन्त्रा&lt;/strong&gt;-रूढानि &lt;strong&gt;मायया&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 18.61 - O Arjuna, the lord resides in hearts of all beings; Through &lt;strong&gt;illusion&lt;/strong&gt;(mAyA), all beings are wandering mounted on a &lt;strong&gt;machine&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T06:59:28.790" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20926" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20924" CreationDate="2017-09-19T07:13:23.653" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vayu-mahapurana/text-with-translation/vol-ii/chapter-70&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vayu Purana, Chapter 70&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Samvatsara is the overlord of Ganita&lt;/strong&gt;. When, everything was created by Prajapati Kashyapa, then he assigned every god their respective domain. In this process Samvatsara was assigned as presiding deity of Ganita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पक्षाणां च विपक्षाणां मुहूर्तानां च पर्वणाम्। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;कलाकाष्ठाप्रमाणाना गतेरयनयोस्तथा। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;गणितस्याथ योगस्य चक्रे संवत्सरं प्रभुम्। १५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He made Sanvatsara as the lord of Ritus (seasons), months and groups of seasons, fortnights, Vipaksas (the day of transition from one half of a lunar month to another), Muhûrtas', Parvans, Kalās’, Kasthas', and Pramănas&amp;quot;, the movement of the solstices, Ganita (mathematical calculations) and Yogas (astronomical divisions of time or combinations of Stars).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T07:33:44.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20927" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20924" CreationDate="2017-09-19T07:20:02.293" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Astrologically planet mercury or Budha is the deity related to mathematics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/horasarapage5-3.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Horasara&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chandra’s Amsh in such case indicates: pearls, carriers run in water,&#xA;  husbandry, water, clothes etc., cows, buffaloes, sugar, female’s&#xA;  company, chanting Mantras, hymns and the like and worship of Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Such Amsh of Mangal denotes: teaching, Mantras, bravery, weapons (or&#xA;  surgery etc.), fire, medicines, selling in marker and through&#xA;  Kshatriyas (i.e. persons of royal scion).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In such Amsh of Budh, the livelihood is through: writings, drawings,&#xA;  literature, mathematics&lt;/strong&gt;, bets, dancing, donations (i.e. the person&#xA;  will receive donations in marriages, Shraddas etc.), education and&#xA;  loving speech.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, since mathematics is also deeply related to intuition and insight (S. Ramanuja himself was the foremost example of an &quot;intuitive mathematician&quot;), the relevant planet i.e Ketu is also the deity linked as per Rishi Parashara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ketu will make one a mathematician and skilful in Jyotish&lt;/strong&gt;. Should Guru&#xA;  be related to the said Ketu, these learnings will be by inheritance.&#xA;  All these as well apply to 2nd and 3rd from Karakāńś and to the&#xA;  Karakāńś itself apart from applying to the 5th from Karakāńś.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, Chapter 33.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-19T07:26:22.633" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T07:26:22.633" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20929" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20908" CreationDate="2017-09-19T08:56:49.783" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not sure how to answer this without the Yoga-perspective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yoga can be of two kinds: &lt;code&gt;Hatha&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;Raja&lt;/code&gt;, where Hatha Yoga mainly focuses on making the body strong and disease free, which provides the platform for further spiritual progress. And Raja Yoga is more of meditation &amp;amp; less of cumbersome physical activities that finally leads to spiritual awakening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But since without a healthy body spiritual advancements can not be made these two are deeply inter-linked. And, as the following verse says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hatham vinā rājayogho rājayogam vinā hathah&lt;br&gt; Na sidhyati tato&#xA;  yughmamānishpatteh samabhyaset||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No success in Râja Yoga without Hatha Yoga, and no success in Hatha&#xA;  Yoga without Râja Yoga. One should, therefore, practise both of these&#xA;  well, till complete success is gained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, first, i am giving the preliminary signs that indicate that the Sadhaka is achieving success in Hatha Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vapuh krśatvam vadane prasannatā&lt;br&gt; Nādasphutatvam nayane&#xA;  sunirmale&lt;br&gt; Aroghatā bindujayoaghnidīpanam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Nādīviśuddhirhathasiddhilakshanam||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the body becomes lean, the face glows with delight, Anâhatanâda&#xA;  manifests, and eyes are clear,  body is healthy, bindu under control, and appetite increases, then one should know that the Nâdîs are purified and&#xA;  success in Hatha Yoga is approaching.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Yoga Sadhana they talk of four Avasthas, that the Sadhaka experiences one after another, with the first such Avastha is the one that gives the preliminary signs of success.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ārambhaścha ghataśchaiva tathā parichayoapi cha&lt;br&gt; Nishpattih&#xA;  sarvayogheshu syādavasthāchatushtayam||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In all the Yogas, there are four states: (1) ârambha or &#xA;  the preliminary, (2) Ghata, or the state of a jar, (3) Parichaya&#xA;  (known), (4) nispatti (consumate.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the signs of the Arambha Avastha are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Divyadehaścha tejasvī divyaghandhastvaroghavān&lt;br&gt; Sampūrnahrdayah&#xA;  śūnya ārambhe yogavānbhavet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the ârambha, a Yogî's body becomes &lt;strong&gt;divine, glowing, healthy, and&#xA;  emits a divine smell.&lt;/strong&gt; The whole of his  heart becomes void.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some, further signs are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the Brahma granthi (in the heart) is pierced through by&#xA;  Prânâyâma, then a sort of happiness is experienced in the vacuum of&#xA;  the heart, &lt;strong&gt;and the anâhat sounds, like various tinkling sounds of&#xA;  ornaments, are heard in the body.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE&lt;/strong&gt;: All these verses are taken from the Yoga Treatise called &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatha_Yoga_Pradipika&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hatha Yoga Pradipika.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some further signs are given below. They are taken from another Yoga Treatise called the Shiva Samhita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But so long as he does not gain it, let him practise observing all the&#xA;  rules and restrictions laid down above. From the perfection of&#xA;  pranayama, &lt;strong&gt;follows decrease of sleep, excrements and urine&lt;/strong&gt; (43)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The truth perceiving Yogi becomes free from disease, and sorrow or&#xA;  affliction. &lt;strong&gt;He never gets (putrid) perspiration, saliva&lt;/strong&gt; and intestinal&#xA;  worms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva Samhita's Chapter 2 verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T08:56:49.783" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20930" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-19T09:10:01.823" Score="13" ViewCount="1111" Body="&lt;p&gt;This particular passage from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b056.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt; pertaining to the Shraadh ritual mentions the names of gods called Vishwedevas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those names at Vala, Dhriti, Vipapa, Punyakrit, Pavana, Parshni, Kshemak, Divysanu, Vivaswat, Viryavat, Hrimat, Kirtimat, Krita, Jitatman, Munivirya, Diptaroman, Bhayankara, Anukarman, Pratia, Pradatri, Ansumat, Sailabha, Parama krodhi, Dhiroshni, Bhupati, Sraja, Vajrin, and Vari,--these are the eternal Viswedevas. There are others also whose names are Vidyutvarchas, Somavarchas, and Suryasri. Others also are numbered amongst them, viz., Somapa, Suryasavitra, Dattatman, Pundariyaka, Ushninabha, Nabhoda, Viswayu, Dipti, Chamuhara, Suresa, Vyomari, Sankara Bhava, Isa, Kartri, Kriti, Daksha, Bhuvana, Divya, Karmakrit, Ganita Panchavirya, Aditya, Rasmimat, Saptakrit, Somavachas, Viswakrit, Kavi, Anugoptri, Sugoptri, Naptri, and Iswara:--these highly blessed ones are numbered as the Viswedevas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I want to know who these gods with even vedic hymns dedicated to them actually are?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-08T05:48:07.320" LastActivityDate="2018-01-08T05:48:07.320" Title="Who are the Vishwedevas?" Tags="|vedas|mahabharata|gods|pitru|vishwedevas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20931" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20890" CreationDate="2017-09-19T09:43:14.740" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, i can answer this question partially.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti clearly states that any doctrines, traditions or philosophical systems that are not based on the Vedas are false and worthless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 12.95. All those traditions (smriti) and those despicable&#xA;  systems of philosophy, &lt;strong&gt;which are not based on the Veda, produce no&#xA;  reward after death; for they are declared to be founded on Darkness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 12.96. &lt;strong&gt;All those (doctrines), differing from the (Veda),&#xA;  which spring up and (soon) perish, are worthless and false&lt;/strong&gt;, because&#xA;  they are of modern date&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, from the perspective of Hinduism (or Manu Smriti to be precise), the other religions can be termed as false or illusion (in your words), assuming that they were not created based on the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, whether they were created to accelerate the process of destruction is something that i can not answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-19T09:49:04.850" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T09:49:04.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20933" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-19T11:43:34.257" Score="13" ViewCount="8456" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Valmiki Ramayana consists of 7 Kandas. The last chapter called the Uttara Kanda is considered an interpolation, added in later time? Does the the Uttara Kanda mentions about sakas or Greeks? Is it really an interpolation or not?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-19T16:54:02.923" LastActivityDate="2022-12-30T11:44:15.403" Title="Is the Uttara Kanda of the Srimad Valmiki Ramayana interpolated?" Tags="|ramayana|interpolation|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20934" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20685" CreationDate="2017-09-19T13:18:30.323" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Interesting question and a valid one. Why should Indra, the ruler of Devas marry an Asura princess? There is no clear cut answer but the Rigved contains one particular hymn that is spoken by &lt;strong&gt;Shachi&lt;/strong&gt; herself and which gives an insight into what could have happened.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10159.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 159, Book 10 of Rigved&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Shachi states that there was some competition for Indra's affections and she beat many &lt;strong&gt;rivals&lt;/strong&gt; to become his queen and even Indra was submissive to her after that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BWESF.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BWESF.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/E4GDE.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/E4GDE.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;YON Sun hath mounted up, and this my happy fate hate mounted high.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;I knowing this, as conqueror have won my husband for mine own.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;I am the banner and the head, a mighty arbitress am I:&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;I am victorious, and my Lord shall be submissive to my will.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;My Sons are slayers of the foe, my Daughter is a ruling Queen:&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;I am victorious: o’er my Lord my song of triumph is supreme.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oblation, that which Indra gave and thus grew glorious and most high,—&#xA;  This have I offered, O ye Gods, and &lt;strong&gt;rid me of each rival wife.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Destroyer of the rival wife, Sole Spouse, victorious, conqueror,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  The others' glory have I seized as ’twere the wealth of weaker Dames.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I have subdued as conqueror these rivals, these my fellow-wives,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  That I may hold imperial sway over this Hero and the folk.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It appears to be sort of a Swayamvar of the opposite kind where many women were vying for Indra's affections but Shachi beat them to become his chief queen. The book &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=leH7AQAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA125&amp;amp;lpg=PA125&amp;amp;dq=Taittiriya%20Brahmana%20indrani&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=CWVhryg0IT&amp;amp;sig=h3nqj9wqe2QftMT-YVRk1My_mkc&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjLuoPrqbHWAhXBLY8KHbPQBc0Q6AEIJTAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=indrani&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; also refers to the Taittirya Brahman stating that Shachi won because she was the most beautiful of all other godesses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jY4GW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jY4GW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T13:18:30.323" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20935" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19065" CreationDate="2017-09-19T13:40:43.557" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The puruṣa you are referring to is Lord Mahā-Viṣṇu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna go to the abode of Mahā-Viṣṇu. They see him seating on the thousand-hooded serpent Ananta. Lord Kṛṣṇa greeted himself who is in the form of Viṣṇu. Then Lord Viṣṇu [said]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I brought the brāhmaṇa’s sons here because I wanted to see the two of you, My expansions, who have descended to the earth to save the principles of religion. &lt;strong&gt;As soon as you finish killing the demons who burden the earth, quickly come back here to Me&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/89/58&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;10.89.58&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although all your desires are completely fulfilled, O best of exalted personalities, for the benefit of the people in general you should continue to exemplify religious behavior as the sages Nara and Nārāyaṇa. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/89/59&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;10.89.59&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Viṣṇu returned the brāhmaṇa’s sons. Lord Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna returned to Dvārakā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, the puruṣa i.e., Lord Viṣṇu is mentioned in many scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T13:40:43.557" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20936" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-19T14:12:07.093" Score="1" ViewCount="142" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Hinduism , what is Atman?&#xA;What is the role of Atman in the birth , life, death , Nirvana cycle of life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastActivityDate="2017-09-19T14:12:07.093" Title="According to Hinduism,what is Atman?" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-09-19T16:36:07.657" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20938" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21232" CreationDate="2017-09-19T20:00:33.090" Score="2" ViewCount="554" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Advaita Vedanta, Nirguna Brahman refers to a formless God without qualities and is the supreme. In Vishishtadvaita, it refers to God without negative qualities. However, I want to know what does Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Achintya Bheda Abheda say about Nirguna Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-09-20T10:28:10.950" LastActivityDate="2019-04-21T09:58:03.427" Title="What are the views of Achintya Bheda Abheda on Nirguna Brahman?" Tags="|brahman|chaitanya|achintya-bheda-abheda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20940" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20423" CreationDate="2017-09-19T23:17:52.297" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;When scholars of the BORI prepared the critical edition of the Mahabharata they excluded from the critical edition those verses which per their opinion do not have enough support in the available manuscripts of the Mahabharata text. For example, if some verses appear in only 1 or 2 manuscripts but they do not appear in the most other manuscripts then in the opinion of the scholars those verses could be an interpolation, and they excluded those verses from the critical edition. This is explained in the paper published by the BORI: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/P1SzB.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/P1SzB.png&quot; alt=&quot;INTERPOLATIONS IN THE MAHĀBHĀRATA - M. A. Mehendale&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See footnote number 2 that tells exactly about the Gaṇeśa-Vyāsa episode:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; &amp;nbsp; It cannot be said when exactly the ms. tradition of the Mbh. began. &lt;strong&gt;There is absolutely no basis for the Brahmā-Gaṇeśa episode in which the latter is represented as the writer of the text of the Mbh. dictated to him by Vyāsa. The passage is found mainly in the Devanāgarī version as an addition to an already added passage&lt;/strong&gt; which occurs, besides the Devanāgarī version, also in some mss. of the Southern recension. &lt;strong&gt;It does not occur at all in Śāradā, Nepali, Maithili and Bengali versions of the northern recension&lt;/strong&gt; (cf. Appendix 1.1, pp. 884-885). But even after the ms. tradition began, there is ample evidence to show that the mss. of different places were compared and additions made in the margins or as additional folios, &quot;...a study of critical apparatus shows that there has intervened a long period in the history of the Mahābhārata in which there was a free comparison of manuscripts and extensive mutual borrowings.&quot; (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Sukthankar_Prolegomena_Mahabharata_Critical_Edition#page/n83/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;V. S. Sukthankar. &quot;Prolegomena&quot; to Adiparvan, p. LXXIX&lt;/a&gt;). The tendency is witnessed even as late as 1931-1933 when the editor of the Mahābhārata, Southern Recension, has quietly inserted stanzas not found in any of the southern mss. utilized by him for his edition but were known to him from some northern version (&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Sukthankar_Prolegomena_Mahabharata_Critical_Edition#page/n89/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;cf. V. S. S. Prolegomena, pp. LXXXV&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But even those excluded verses were included in the second edition of the critical edition with copious notes, as mentioned by Bibek Debroy in the quotation of the question.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can find this paper on the internet with a simple google search: &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.jstor.org/stable/41694638&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;INTERPOLATIONS IN THE MAHĀBHĀRATA - M. A. Mehendale&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of course we can either agree or disagree with that methodology used by the BORI. My personal opinion is that there could be many genuine Mahabharata verses even if they are to be found in just 1 or 2 manuscripts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-07-19T20:56:50.030" LastActivityDate="2019-07-19T20:56:50.030" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20943" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19814" CreationDate="2017-09-20T03:00:29.567" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;why do the gods resemble human beings rather than other animals?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am providing  answer of your question from  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.celextel.org/upanishads/rig_veda/aitareya.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aitareya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; vreses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's said in the Upanishad that In the beginning  the absolute Self was alone.  Then  He thought, &quot;Let Me create the world's&quot;. &amp;amp; then  He created the world's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स ईक्षतेमे नु लोका लोकपालान्नु सृजा इति सोSद्भ्य एव पुरुष&#xA;  समुद्धृत्यामुर्छयत् ||1.1.3||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sa IkshaTeme Nu Loka LokaPaLaaNuu Sruja Iti&lt;br&gt; SoDbhya Eva Purusha&#xA;  SaMuDdhruTyaMurchhayat &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He thought, &quot;These then are the worlds. Let Me create the protectors&#xA;  of the worlds.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;Having gathered up a (lump of the) human form&lt;/strong&gt; from the&#xA;  water itself, He gave shape to it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So It’s said that the creator took lump (like clay) and given the shape to it like Purusha  i.e a humanoid form Or figure - with head , hands  etc. That we call as Virat purusha .&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Then he created the deities. And He subjected Him (i.e. Virat Purusha ) to hunger and thirst. Then the deities asked lord to provide the abode for them ,from where they can eat food. Then..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ताभ्यो गामानयत्ता अब्रुवन्न वै नोSयमलमिति | &lt;br&gt; ताभ्योSश्वमानयत्ता&#xA;  अब्रुवन्न वै नोSयमलमिति ||1.2.2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tabhyo GaaMaaNaYaTta  AbruVaNna Vai NoYamLMiti  &lt;br&gt;  Tabhyo&#xA;  ShawaMaaNaYaTta AbruVaNna Vai NoYamLMiti &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For them He (i.e. God) brought a &lt;strong&gt;cow&lt;/strong&gt;. They said, &quot;This one is not&#xA;  certainly adequate for us.&quot; For them He brought a &lt;strong&gt;horse&lt;/strong&gt;. They said,&#xA;  &quot;This one is not certainly adequate for us.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It’s said here that the lord bought the lump (Pinda) ,creature   shaped like cow and horse. But   the deities said that these shapes are not good for us to have our food in right way Or adequately .&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Then he bought the Virat Purusha in human form to  them and they liked it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ताभ्य: पुरुषमानयत्ता अब्रुवन् सुकृतं बतेति | &lt;br&gt; पुरुषो वाव सुकृतम् |&#xA;  ता अब्रवीद्यथायतनं प्रविशतेति ||3||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For them He brought a man. They said &lt;strong&gt;&quot;This one is well formed; man&#xA;  indeed is a creation of God Himself&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt; To them He said, &quot;Enter into&#xA;  your respective abodes&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now although deities entered into their respective abodes i.e  Indriyas ,but we can’t represent them like organs. Like we can’t graphically represent Prana   Vayu as Or Mind as Chandrama. And even its not appropriate to represent deities like organs also cause then they will not look like divine beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt; - So I think as deities liked this humanoid form because it is indeed the most beautiful creation of lord  and found it&#xA;  appropriate to reside for receiving food I.e prayers etc. &lt;strong&gt;That&#xA;  indirectly means they specifically chosen this form in which they&#xA;  should have to be worshiped ,&lt;/strong&gt; We generally depict them in human&#xA;  form.And that is the reason why gods looks like human beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-09-20T13:24:39.293" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T13:24:39.293" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20945" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21363" CreationDate="2017-09-20T04:24:48.673" Score="12" ViewCount="2129" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's well-known that the Mahabharata and the Srimad Bhagavatam have apparent discrepancies in regard to Vyasa's son Shuka.  In particular, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata describes Shuka attaining Moksha before the Mahabharata war, and yet Shuka is the one who narrated the Bhagavatam to Arjuna's grandson Parikshit, long after the war.  But &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601604.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/10/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.162137/2015.162137.Sri-Venkatachala-Its-Glory_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=2015.162137.Sri-Venkatachala-Its-Glory_jp2/2015.162137.Sri-Venkatachala-Its-Glory_0302.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Tirumala Sthala Purana, the temple scripture of the world-renowned Tirumala Venkateshwara temple in Tirupati, points toward a resolution to this discrepancy:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shuka, son of Vyasa received instructions in the supreme and sacred spiritual knowledge from kudra and became a Jnani while he was yet a boy.  After perfecting himself, he conceived the entire Universe as Brahman, the Supreme Being. Mad with the knowledge, he wondered in the world. At the age of fifteen he shone with lustre like Lord Krishna. &quot;Goddess Kamala is my mother. Lord Janardana is my father. Votaries of Vishnu are my relations. The three worlds are my native place&quot; so saying Shuka once left his father -  proceeded to the Sun.  Finding his son nearing the Sun, Vyasa wept and shouted, &quot;O my son, O my son.&quot; The Sun saw Shuka and said affectionately, &quot;My dear boy, you have no sons.  Go back to the Earth, head hanging downwards.  Beget sons, get yourself redeemed of your debt and obligations to your parents and come here. One without sons cannot have salvation.  Even if one performs Yagnas and does penance, a man with no sons is doomed.  He can never reach heaven.&quot; Listening to the Sun's advice Shuka contemplated on Lord Janardana.  &lt;strong&gt;He created another Shuka resembling himself&lt;/strong&gt; head hanging downwards, and said &quot;You are my son. Redeem my father from distress.&quot; and proceeded.  The new Shuka then approached Vyasa who was lamenting for his son and learned Bhagavata. He married and had sons. By the grace of Lord Krishna, he became a Rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe Shuka creating a duplicate of himself?  As I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/753/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, the Tirumala Sthala Purana consists of quotes from actual Puranas, so this story must be from one of the Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srila Prabhupada discusses this duplicate Shuka story in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/21/25&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his commentary on the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Śuka mentioned here is different from the Śukadeva Gosvāmī who spoke Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the son of Vyāsadeva, is described in great detail in the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa. There it is said that Vyāsadeva maintained the daughter of Jābāli as his wife and that after they performed penances together for many years, he placed his seed in her womb. The child remained in the womb of his mother for twelve years, and when the father asked the son to come out, the son replied that he would not come out unless he were completely liberated from the influence of māyā. Vyāsadeva then assured the child that he would not be influenced by māyā, but the child did not believe his father, for the father was still attached to his wife and children. Vyāsadeva then went to Dvārakā and informed the Personality of Godhead about his problem, and the Personality of Godhead, at Vyāsadeva’s request, went to Vyāsadeva’s cottage, where He assured the child in the womb that he would not be influenced by māyā. Thus assured, the child came out, but he immediately went away as a parivrājakācārya. When the father, very much aggrieved, began to follow his saintly boy, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the boy created a duplicate Śukadeva, who later entered family life. Therefore, the śuka-kanyā, or daughter of Śukadeva, mentioned in this verse is the daughter of the duplicate or imitation Śukadeva. The original Śukadeva was a lifelong brahmacārī.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the Brahma Vaivarta Purana may be a good place to look.  Although I'm not sure if Srila Prabhupada is saying that the duplicate Shuka story is mentioned in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana or just that the story of Shuka refusing to leave his mother's womb is mentioned in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T21:00:06.937" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T14:04:12.630" Title="What scriptures describe Vyasa's son Shuka creating a duplicate of himself?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|bhagavata-purana|vyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20946" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20923" CreationDate="2017-09-20T05:46:16.417" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;It looks like I didn't notice that the Aitareya Upanishad passage quoted in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14343/36&quot;&gt;earlier question&lt;/a&gt; actually says that Vamadeva attained Moksha.  (Thanks to SwiftPushkar for pointing it out.) Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01225.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Aitareya Upanishad says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And this has been declared by a Rishi: 'While dwelling in the womb, I discovered all the births of these Devas. A hundred iron strongholds kept me, but I escaped quickly down like a falcon.' Vâmadeva, lying in the womb, has thus declared this. &lt;strong&gt;And having this knowledge he stepped forth, after this dissolution of the body, and having obtained all his desires in that heavenly world, became immortal, yea, he became immortal.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And I think I've figured out why Aniruddha gives Shuka and Vamadeva as his two examples of people who have attained Moksha.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/varaha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what the Varaha Upanishad says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(The Rishi) Suka is a Mukta (emancipated person). (The Rishi) Vamadeva is a Mukta.&lt;/strong&gt; There are no others (who have attained emancipation) than through these (viz., the two paths of these two Rishis). Those brave men who follow the path of Suka in this world become Sadyo-Muktas (viz., emancipated) immediately after (the body wear away); while those who always follow the path of Vamadeva (i.e., Vedanta) in this world are subject again and again to rebirths and attain Krama (gradual) emancipation, through Yoga, Sankhya and Karmas associated with Sattva (Guna). Thus there are two paths laid down by the Lord of Devas (viz.,) the Suka and Vamadeva paths. The Suka path is called the bird’s path; while the Vamadeva path is called the ant’s path. Those persons that have cognised the true nature of their Atman through the mandatory and prohibitory injunctions (of the Vedas), the inquiry into (the true meaning of) Maha-Vakyas (the sacred sentences of the Vedas), the Samadhi of Sankhya Yoga or Asamprajnata Samadhi and that have thereby purified themselves, attain the supreme seat through the Suka path. Having, through Hatha-Yoga practice with the pain caused by Yama, postures, etc., become liable to the ever recurring obstacles caused by Anima and other (Siddhis) and having not obtained good results, one is born again in a great family and practises Yoga through his previous (Karmic) affinities. Then through the practice of Yoga during many lives, he attains salvation (viz.,) the supreme seat of Vishnu through the Vamadeva path. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Varaha Upanishad is considered by many to be a later text (and this passage provides an excellent illustration why, with its talk of Mahavakyas and Hatha Yoga). But then again Aniruddha lived relatively recently, so the Varaha Upanishad may have existed in his time.  Or perhaps there's some older scripture that also connects Shuka and Vamadeva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-09-20T14:57:54.950" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T14:57:54.950" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20947" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16921" CreationDate="2017-09-20T05:51:43.390" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all you must understand the difference between Brahman/Atman and prakriti. you are soul and not your body. Now first understand what Prakriti is. Prakriti is both higher nature and lower nature(lower nature Prakriti is formed under imbalance of three modes of nature from higher nature). Higher nature is pure energy and lower nature is five elements which make body(five senses,five working senses,form) ,mind,intellect and false ego. Now you consist of Soul/Atman/Brahman which is pervading all this body. Now you should note this all moving and non moving things are combination of all above things including you.All actions are being performed by Prakriti and not by you because you are soul/Atman/Brahman. you do nothing but you are under the influence of Three modes of nature you consider everything done by Prakriti to be done by you.This false ego which is generated as soon as human is born.   Think about this.You are soul and not your Prakriti. The Soul gets blinded by it's own material and mental energy. The soul is sticking to the material and metal energy and because of false ego it is considering itself to be the doer of all the activities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11687" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T05:51:43.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20948" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-20T06:14:47.350" Score="2" ViewCount="767" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sage vyasa said there is nothing like fate, otherwise there is no any meaning of karma, and Lord Krishna said, I know all past and future, so he know that because of kalpa cycle(Which means same thing will repeat after every new kalpa)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People said yogi and god are beyond time and space, but what is meaning of beyond time, you can only said that when time is in linear form and you're out of that line, but god and yogi living in same line. Time is cyclic, and when yogi predict something, then he may see just past kalpa or chaturyug. And hence &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9118/help-me-solve-the-mystery-of-age-of-yugas-and-lord-vishnus-avatars/11145#11145&quot;&gt;Kak Bhusundi&lt;/a&gt; says he had seen Ramayan 11 times and Mahabharat (Krishna) 16 times with &lt;strong&gt;different outcomes&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So here kak bhusandi can also predict like what will happen in the next, because he live on many chaturyuga. Since rama will always kill ravana, but the method and strategy may differ always.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;@iammilind and others - If same thing repeat in same pattern, then how we can sure we are living in 28th kaliyuga, or &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/13635/10405&quot;&gt;Sweta varha kalpa&lt;/a&gt;? because if same thing repeat in same pattern then how you can't add +1 on it. Yuga, Manvanatara and kalpa have identities with names hence it should not repeat in same pattern. You can say that about maha kalpa, since we don't know how many maha kalpa is passed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10405" LastEditorUserId="10405" LastEditDate="2018-01-18T16:52:57.467" LastActivityDate="2018-01-19T05:10:41.313" Title="Does GOD know future because of kalpa cycle?" Tags="|krishna|moksha|vyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20950" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-20T06:44:34.960" Score="1" ViewCount="199" Body="&lt;p&gt;How many years does one need to get darshan of god? And how is correct &quot;tapasya&quot; done?one if my friends told me approximately 10 years are needed. Is it right? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12022" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-09-23T10:15:10.707" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T13:16:20.540" Title="how many years does it take to summon any god?(approx years)" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20951" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16921" CreationDate="2017-09-20T07:25:00.470" Score="8" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Now if I am not the doer and reaper of any action what's the significance of law of karma?&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The law of Karma has significance only if one considers himself/herself as the doer&lt;/strong&gt;. In reality, neither Karma exists, nor the result of Karma, nor the doership. That's the reason, whatever good or bad deeds one does, wouldn't go beyond the material world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 5.14 - &lt;strong&gt;Neither &amp;quot;Doership&amp;quot; (&lt;em&gt;Kartutva&lt;/em&gt;) nor &amp;quot;Actions&amp;quot; (&lt;em&gt;Karma&lt;/em&gt;) nor &amp;quot;Reactions&amp;quot; (&lt;em&gt;Karma-phala&lt;/em&gt;) of the people are created by the Omnipotent&lt;/strong&gt;; But only their nature [3 modes] pervades.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 5.15 - The Omnipresent neither accepts anybody's sin nor even virtue. Knowledge remains covered by ignorance. Thus the creatures become deluded.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Lord Krishna says what is happening with us is the result of our past actions.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says that, depending on good/bad actions, &amp;quot;I&amp;quot; will put that being in good/bad life. In other words, because a being &lt;strong&gt;wants&lt;/strong&gt; good/bad life, he/she 'does' good/bad actions and reap good/bad fruits.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;In brief, the supreme &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt; merely satisfies the &lt;strong&gt;wanting&lt;/strong&gt; (desires) of all beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 13.22 - &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; being seated(situated) in &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, experiences the [&lt;em&gt;sattva, rajas, tamas&lt;/em&gt;] modes born of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. Contact with the these modes, is the cause of its births in good and evil wombs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;So, shouldn't we be taking responsibility of what we are doing instead of saying that we are not the doer?&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's upto individuals. If one wants to enjoy in the worldly matters, then one would automatically take up doership. If one is disinterested in worldly matters then automatically, will surrender the doership.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Am I the doer of my actions or not?&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Either I believe &amp;quot;I am the doer&amp;quot; OR I know &amp;quot;I am not the doer&amp;quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Because, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20417/1049&quot;&gt;everything is predestined&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who are interested in the worldly matters, would themselves accept the illusion of &amp;quot;doership&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 3.27 — All actions (karma-s) are enacted in &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; by [3] modes (guna-s). Bewildered with identity, the self(&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;) &lt;strong&gt;believes&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;'I' am the doer&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who have realised the predetermined nature of the world, would discard the doership themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 5.8, 5.9 — &amp;quot;'I' certainly don't do anything&amp;quot; is thought by &lt;strong&gt;knower&lt;/strong&gt; of elementary (&lt;em&gt;tattva gyAna&lt;/em&gt;) - even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, dreaming, breathing, talking, discarding, accepting, opening, closing; -- &amp;quot;Senses only are acting in the subjects of senses&amp;quot; - is &lt;strong&gt;understood&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Analogy&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Think of this life as a cricket match. Hitting balls &amp;amp; getting runs OR throwing ball &amp;amp; getting OUT -- are Karma-s &amp;amp; Karma-phala-s respectively -- the rules. &amp;quot;Veda&amp;quot;-s are the guidelines for everyone on how to make this win/lose game a gentleman's game.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Gita simply says that, the whole match is spot fixed!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The spectators who want to enjoy this fixed match, would illusion themselves as of the match is not fixed. They will follow the actions of the player of their liking.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The disinterested people will have 2 groups:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;Enlightened&amp;quot; -- They will sit in the match, but indifferent to all the happenings&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&amp;quot;Liberated&amp;quot; -- They will leave the stadium&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T07:25:00.470" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20952" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-20T09:07:26.177" Score="6" ViewCount="3633" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Atman is one's true Self. It remains in existence after we die, for Atman never takes birth nor does it die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is : does Atman hear, speak, taste and see after we die? If yes how? Does it have eyes, ear, mouth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-20T09:40:37.230" LastActivityDate="2019-12-07T16:08:29.600" Title="Does Atman hear, speak, taste and see after we die?" Tags="|atma|death|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20953" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-20T10:50:53.103" Score="6" ViewCount="4996" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01027.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Section XXVI of the Astika Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/a&gt; mentions the incident of Garud and his mother Vinata carrying snakes and their mother Kadru to an island called &lt;strong&gt;Ramaniyaka&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01028.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;next section&lt;/a&gt; describes it thus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Sauti said, 'And then the Nagas drenched by that shower, became exceedingly glad. And borne by that bird of fair feathers, they soon arrived at the island. That island had been fixed by the Creator of the Universe as the abode of the makaras. There they saw the terrible &lt;strong&gt;Lavana Samudra (ocean of salt).&lt;/strong&gt; On arriving there with Garuda, they saw there a beautiful forest washed by the waters of the sea and resounding with the music of winged choirs. And there were clusters of trees all around laden with various fruits and flowers. And there were also fair mansions all around; and many tanks full of lotuses. And it was also adorned with many lakes of pure water. And it was refreshed with pure incense-breathing breezes. And it was adorned with many a tree that grew only on the &lt;strong&gt;hills of Malaya&lt;/strong&gt;, and seemed by their tallness to reach the very heavens. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Given that the salt-ocean is mentioned along with the Malaya hills that form the lower part of the western ghats, is there a way to identify this island?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-13T06:54:15.943" LastActivityDate="2024-03-31T00:09:46.113" Title="Where is the island called Ramaniyak (mentioned in the story of Garuda) located?" Tags="|mahabharata|naga|garuda|geography|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20954" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20952" CreationDate="2017-09-20T11:02:51.223" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No. Because, &lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt; is devoid of senses, it's merely a witness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atman&lt;/em&gt; (or &lt;em&gt;Param Atman&lt;/em&gt;) doesn't have any requirement to hear, speak, taste, listen. Whatever happens with the gross body with mind &amp;amp; senses, it just witnesses it. Formless &lt;em&gt;Atman (Nirguna Brahman)&lt;/em&gt;, when seen from the lenses of &lt;em&gt;mAyA&lt;/em&gt;, appears as formful (&lt;em&gt;Saguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 13.14 - That (&lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;), which has hands and feet everywhere, which has eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, which has ears everywhere, exists in beings by pervading them all.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 13.15 - &lt;strong&gt;Reflecting through the senses, [yet] devoid of all the senses; disinterested;&lt;/strong&gt; the sustainer of all; Without 3 modes, and the consumer of 3 modes&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 13.16 - Existing outside and inside all beings; moving as well as non-moving, It is incomprehensible due to subtleness. It is far away, and yet near.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10799/1049&quot;&gt;Atman is beyond senses, mind and intellect&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, after the death of the body, the Mind which is the controller of senses would tend towards a body with senses, which it still wants to consume. Refer below:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/15350/1049&quot;&gt;According to Hinduism, what do we carry into afterlife and next birth?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T11:02:51.223" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20955" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20952" CreationDate="2017-09-20T13:10:51.067" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hearing, seeing, touching etc. are the functions &amp;amp; activities of gross organs ( Sthula indriyas) of the human body.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But the soul is without a (subtle) body, without muscles (a gross body). So the soul is just a witness, he is free from all the material pleasures or businesses of the world. It is just the sustainer of the activities of living beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/isha-upanishad/d/doc122465.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Isha Upanishad-8th Mantra&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; it is described that the soul is not  made up of Subtle or gross body or Indriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स पर्यागच्छुक्रकायमव्रणस्नाविरं शुद्धमपापविद्धम् ।&lt;br&gt; कविर्मनीषि&#xA;  परिभूः स्वयम्भूर्यथातथ्यतोऽर्थान् | &lt;br&gt; व्यदधाच्छाश्वतीभ्यः समाभ्यः&#xA;  ॥8|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sa paryāgacchukrakāyamavraṇasnāviraṃ śuddhamapāpaviddham |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kavirmanīṣi paribhūḥ svayambhūryathātathyato'rthān &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vyadadhācchāśvatībhyaḥ samābhyaḥ ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He, the self-existent One, is everywhere-the &lt;strong&gt;pure one, without a&#xA;  (subtle) body, without blemish, without muscles (a gross body)&lt;/strong&gt;, holy&#xA;  and without the taint of sin; the all seeing, the all knowing, the&#xA;  all-encompassing One is He. He has duly assigned their respective&#xA;  duties to the eternal Prajapatis (cosmic powers).’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/prashna-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145315.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Prashna Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; mantra which tells us that after death the soul enters into another body with the senses clinging to the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तेजो ह वा उदानस्तस्मादुपशान्ततेजाः । &lt;br&gt; पुनर्भवमिन्द्रियैर्मनसि&#xA;  सम्पध्यमानैः ॥9॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tejo ha vā udānastasmādupaśāntatejāḥ | &lt;br&gt; punarbhavamindriyairmanasi&#xA;  sampadhyamānaiḥ || 9 ||&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  9. The external fire têjas verily is udâna. Therefore the fire being extinguished, &lt;strong&gt;one again enters another body with the senses clinging&#xA;  to the mind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shankara’s Commentary:&lt;/strong&gt; - Therefore, when a man’s natural fire is extinguished, then one should know that his life is spent, i.e., that&#xA;  he is dying; he enters another body. How? along with the senses such&#xA;  as speech, etc., clinging to the mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This means in subtle organs (Sukshma Sharira) still remains after death , but  they are  clinging to the mind. That means they are fully merged with mind and unlike gross organs can’t actively function . Like organs function in living beings i.e. hearing, seeing, touching etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Conclusion – &lt;strong&gt;So by looking at the above verses we can say that even&#xA;  the sukshma indriyas still remain attached with soul after death ,&#xA;  but because they are completely  merged in mind do not function as&#xA;  human organs generally function when alive  , and because they are in&#xA;  subtle form  and not in gross can’t hear, speak, taste and see.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2019-12-07T10:20:26.640" LastActivityDate="2019-12-07T10:20:26.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="20956" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20952" CreationDate="2017-09-20T13:16:36.583" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are you referring to subtle physical body? because as @iammilind said -&quot;Aatman is mere witness - साक्षी&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quantum mechanics has taken this witness concept into modern science - &lt;a href=&quot;http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130812-physics-schrodinger-erwin-google-doodle-cat-paradox-science/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130812-physics-schrodinger-erwin-google-doodle-cat-paradox-science/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So your mind, ego, thoughts all exists because there is something that witnesses their existence. In deep sleep, mind, ego, emotions shut down, and aatman witnesses nothing, which we refer as deep sleep.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are referring to life-after-death experience, then we need to go through different body types.&#xA;Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism is name coined by others to refer civilization east of Sindhu river) points of three primary bodies / शरीर . &#xA;1. स्थूल - your physical body&#xA;2. सूक्ष्म - subtle physical &#xA;3. कारण - astral body (not 100% sure on English name)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When you die, Aatman stops witnessing your current physical body. It starts witnessing subtle physical body. Abilities of subtle physical body depends on how you have developed it. Just like all human physical bodies are not the same, subtle bodies also differ in their capabilities. Santana Dharma points our various spiritual experiments (साधना) through which you can develop capabilities into subtle physical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also श्राध्द विधी is performed with the same goal, to give abilities and energy source for subtle physical body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12056" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T13:16:36.583" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20957" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-20T14:37:57.867" Score="7" ViewCount="4215" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a good book written in English on Divya Prabhandam?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12057" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-20T15:32:02.967" LastActivityDate="2019-04-17T21:44:34.070" Title="Is there a good book in English on Divya Prabhandam?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|translation-request|book-recommendation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20958" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20957" CreationDate="2017-09-20T15:17:38.077" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, for those who don't know, the Naalayira Divya Prabandham is Nathamuni's collection of the 4000 verses of the Alwars.  In any case, I know of two English translations of the entire Naalayira Divya Prabhandham, both of them online:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://4000divyaprabandam.blogspot.com&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://4000divyaprabandam.blogspot.com&lt;/a&gt;, which gives English translations and explanations for all the Alwar pasurams.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://dravidaveda.org&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://dravidaveda.org&lt;/a&gt;, which is a Tamil language website, so if you don't know Tamil you may need to use Google Translate to navigate it.  It's primarily devoted to giving a Tamil translation and commentary for each Alwar pasuram, but the webpage for each Alwar pasuram also contains an English translation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if you're interested in Nammalwar's Thiruvaimozhi, the core part of the Naalayira Divya Prabandham referred to as the Dravida Veda or South Indian Veda, I have more resources for you:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/tvm/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sripedia&lt;/a&gt;, which gives a translation of the Thiruvaimozhi&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;S. Satyamurthi Ayyangar's excellent English translation and commentary on the Thiruvaimozhi, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TiruvaymozhiEnglishCommentary&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  It summarizes what various Sri Vaishnaava Acharyas have said about each poem of the Thiruvaimozhi.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T15:17:38.077" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20959" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="65" CreationDate="2017-09-20T18:00:14.333" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word Hindu is eternal. Modern history says Persians can't able to pronounce Sindhu, they pronounced as &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Hindu&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;as there is no S in their language. But logic is still striking, as there is a S in the word &lt;strong&gt;Persia&lt;/strong&gt;.We can still understand that the word is still &lt;strong&gt;Persian&lt;/strong&gt;, but not &lt;strong&gt;Perhian&lt;/strong&gt;. And the word is not &lt;strong&gt;Hindhu,&lt;/strong&gt; but &lt;strong&gt;Hindu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meru Tantra, a 4th century Sanskrit work comments on the word Hindu as, Hindu is the one who discards the mean and the ignoble.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Brihaspati Agama&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himalayam samarabhya yavadindu sarovaram |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;TaM devanirmitam desha hindusthAnam prachakshate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which means:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;Starting from Himalaya up to Indu waters is this God-created country Hindustan&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brhan Naradiya Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Himalayam samarabhya yavat bindusarovaram&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindusthanamiti qyatan hi antaraksha-rayogatah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which can be translated in English as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The country between Himalayas and Bindu Sarovar (Cape Commorin Sea) is Hindusthan derived by combining the &lt;strong&gt;first letter 'Hi'&lt;/strong&gt; of Himalayas and the &lt;strong&gt;last compound letter 'ndu&lt;/strong&gt;' of the word Bindu.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Madhava DigVijaya&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;One who meditates on Omkar as the primary sound, believes in&#xA;Reincarnation and rebirth, respects cow to the most,and hate evil &lt;strong&gt;can&#xA;be called as Hindu&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T03:37:50.173" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20960" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-20T18:20:32.620" Score="2" ViewCount="253" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anybody post the gayatri of all seven rishis, used in rishi homam. Looking for it since so long&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12059" LastActivityDate="2017-09-20T18:20:32.620" Title="SaptRishi mantras used in rishi homam" Tags="|rituals|practice|puja|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20963" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20492" CreationDate="2017-09-21T00:19:10.020" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The age of Brahma is just a fiction of the Vaishnava agamas which in order to increase the importance of Vishnu consider Shiva and Brahma to be mortals while Vishnu to be immortal. I reality Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are all manifestations of the same Parabrahmam and hence immortals and do not have a beginning or end, though they become latent, dormant or manifest according to the needs of the creation. Hence all three forms of Parashakti (Parvati, Lakshmi and Saraswathi) are Sada Suhagans or Nitya Saubhagyavatis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12060" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T00:19:10.020" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20966" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20933" CreationDate="2017-09-21T02:55:18.813" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer can be both 'yes' and 'no'. The jury of scholars is still out, how can I student take it upon myself to answer the query.  However, by logically analyzing the evidence presented by both schools, the answer tends towards &quot;Yes. Uttara Kaanda is a later interpolation.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on the prime evidence in Chapter IV of Baala Kaanda and Chapter CXXVIII (128) of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana, the following reply is made:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verse 2 of Chapter IV of Baala Kaanda of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana reads as under:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(2) चतुर्विंशत्सहस्त्राणि श्लोकानामुक्तवानृषिः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथा सर्गशतान् पञ्च षट्काण्डानि तथोत्तरम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This epic contains twenty four thousand verses split into five hundred chapters in Six Cantos. (Baala Kaanda: Ch IV:2)  [The six cantos are Baala Kaanda, Ayodhya Kaanda, Aranya Kaanda, Kishkinda Kaanda, Sundara (Lanka) Kaanda and Yuddha Kaanda.] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the interpretation of the last term “तथोत्तरम् ” is explained by many scholars as “thereafter Uttaram”. Hence Uttara Kaanda is an original part of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana. While by usage the term “तथो ”can be interpreted as “thus”, “thereafter” as well as “and”. Though the normal usage allows this interpretation, however the first chapter of Baala Kaanda does not allow such interpretation. The first few stanzas make it clear from the query Maharshi Valmiki addressed to Maharishi Narada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;ॐ तपःस्वाध्यायनिरतं तपस्वी वाग्विदां वरम् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    नारदं परिपप्रच्छ वाल्मीकिर्मुनिपुङ्गवम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;को न्वस्मिन् साम्प्रतं लोके गुणवान् कश्च वीर्यवान् | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;      धर्मज्ञश्च कृतज्ञश्च सत्यवाक्यो दृढव्रतः ||&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;चारित्रेण च को युक्तः सर्वभूतेषु को हितः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विद्वान् कः कः समर्थश्च कश्चैकप्रियदर्शनः ||&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;आत्मवान् को जितक्रोधो ध्युतिमान् कोsनसूयकः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कस्य बिभ्यति देवाश्च जातरोषस्य संयुगे ||&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;एतदिच्छाम्यहं श्रोतुं परं कौतूहलं हि मे | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महर्षे त्वं समर्थोsसि ग्यतुमेवंविधं नरम् ||&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The interpretation of the 5th Verse is “I am desirous of knowing of such a person and you definitely are capable of enlightening me about such a man.” Maharishi Valmiki having enumerated the qualities he desires in his ideal man, tells Sage Narada that he is definitely capable of answering the query.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;बहवो दुर्लभाश्चैव ये त्वया कीर्तिता गुणाः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मुने वक्ष्याम्यहं बुद्ध्वा तैर्युक्तः श्रूयतां नरः ||&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;इक्ष्वाकुवंशप्रभवो रामो नाम जनैः श्रुतः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नियतात्मा महावीर्यो द्युतिमान् धृतिमान् वशी ||&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reply of Sage Narada was “The unique and difficult characteristics you have described to be found in any one person is very difficult – almost impossible – but after much reflection I think that there is one such person.  Please listen attentively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Born in the Ikshvaku dynasty, there is one such person, who is known amongst the people by the name of Rama.  He is renowned for keeping his mind in control, extremely strong, famous and brave, and has conquered his sensual desires.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter in the next ninety verses Sage Narada describes the attributes of Sri Ramachandra and his story in brief and concludes now he is ruling over Ayodhya where his rule will last for&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दशवर्षसहस्त्राणि दशवर्षशतानि च | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रामो राज्यमुपासित्वा ब्रह्मलोकं प्रयास्यति || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ten thousand and ten hundred years (eleven thousand years) before shedding his mortal body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The printed edition of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana in my hands is the Sixteenth Edition printed by M/S Gita Press, Gorakhpur, in the year Samvat 2053 (1996 C.E.) and the details of the shlokas, etc. are from that edition. In this edition, the Six Cantos Baala Kaanda, Ayodhya Kaanda, Aranya Kaanda, Kishkindha Kaanda, Sundara Kaanda and Yuddha Kaanda comprise of 2270 verses in 77 chapters, 4305 verses in 119 chapters, 2414 verses in 75 chapters, 2437 verses in 67 chapters, 2865 verses in 68 chapters and 5843 verses in 128 chapters totalling 20134 verses in 534 chapters (sargas) in six cantos (kaandas). In this edition Uttara Kaanda comprises of 3538 verses in 111 chapters (and it is annotated that six chapters – verses???? Have not been included.) If Uttara Kaanda is included the sargas become 635 plus 6 and then it is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;not “तथा सर्गशतान् पञ्च ” but becomes “तथा सर्गशतान् षष्ट ”&lt;/strong&gt;. Is the second verse of Chapter IV of Baala Kaanda an interpolation to justify the inclusion of Uttara Kaanda as a composition of Valmiki. Chapter IV comprising of 36 verses deals with the story, that Maharshi Valmiki composed the Ramayana consisting of 24,000 verses and taught the same to Lava and Kusha, the twin sons of Seeta Devi. The twins sang the composition in the assembly of sages in the hermitage of Maharishi Valmiki and won great appreciation.  It would appear that the entire Chapter IV is a later interpolation added to justify the claim of Uttara Kaanda being part and parcel of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A perusal of the Sixth Canto Yuddha Kaanda apparently makes one wonder whether the Seventh Canto was indeed Maharishi Valmiki’s original work. Shloka 92 – 93 of Chapter 128 of Yuddha Kaanda states that Sri Rama spoke to his devoted brother Lakshmana stating that as the earlier Kings of our dynasty our father, grandfather and great – grandfather ruled wisely and justly over vast tracts of the Earth assisted by a Crown Prince – Heir Apparent, so shall you assist me as the Crown Prince – Heir Apparent. In spite of Sri Rama’s request, explanations and entreaties, Lakshmana flatly refused to be the Crown Prince – Heir Apparent.  So Sri Rama anointed Bharata as Crown Prince – Heir Apparent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shlokas 107 – 125 enumerates the benefits of reciting, hearing, writing about Srimad Ramayana and benediction to these people. This benediction is usually enumerated at the end of a shruti, song or prayer and thereafter may be a few more verses are sung in conclusion, but definitely not 3,538 or more verses, continuing the main theme / narration. Therefore Uttara Kaanda is most likely not composed by Maharishi Valmiki, but is a later interpolation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The events described and narrated in Uttara Kaanda are definitely from various Puranas and Upa – Puranas of Sanatana Dharma.  But is the Seventh Canto Maharishi Valmiki’s composition?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The jury is still out as the learned scholars still debate this point – but the public at large, especially in heartland of Bharatavarsha have accepted on the basis of faith that Uttara Kaanda is also Maharishi Valmiki’s original composition, strengthened by the work ‘Ramacharitamanas’ by Hindi poet philosopher saint Goswami Tulsidas  which includes Uttara Kaanda. Uttara Kaanda of Ramacharitamanas more or less deals with benefits of reciting, hearing the story of Sri Ramachandra rather than continuing about the life of Sri Ramachandra after his coronation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is not to say that Uttara Kaanda is not a part of Ramayana, it is most likely not an integral part of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nilesh Oak, scholar of Ancient Indian History states - &quot;If one means by ‘later addition’, that ‘Uttar Ramayana” was not part of ‘FIRST EDITION’ of Valmiki Ramayana… then logic is ‘Quite obvious”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, if this logic is used to extend it further, to assume, therefore, that ‘Uttara Ramayana’ in INTERPOLATED, then such a claim is without any basis. It is obvious that in ancient times there were no printed editions and hence there could be no first edition, second edition, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) Phalashruti: It comes at the end or beginning of a ethical or religious works. My response…..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(I am reproducing). If one means by ‘later addition’, that ‘Uttar Ramayana” was not part of ‘FIRST EDITION’ of Valmiki Ramayana… then logic is ‘Quite obvious”.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus I am agreeing that Valmiki completed his first edition in 6 Kandas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now to second sub point..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramayana is ethical (and religious) work alright. But it is more. Both Ramayana and Mahabharata are Itihas and thus logical for a author to add more info in future editions and/or as seen relevant after the completion of book (e.g. Appendices, notes and so on). Ramayana has Uttara Kanda, Mahabharata has ‘Harivamsha’ as Khila-parva (Appendix)&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus Nilesh Oak is also of the opinion the the original Valmiki Ramayana comprised of just six Kaandas and Uttara Kaanda was later created by Valmiki as an appendix. I bow to the wider knowledge and wisdom if Nilesh Oak.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I had also stated that the events in Uttara Kaanda did occur ad it is part of the Itihasa of Ramayana, but it probably is not an composition of Valmiki Ramayana and a later addition - supported by the Sanskrit and Ancient Indian History scholar Nilesh Oak. [Oak's books on history, etc are available on the Amazon].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="11625" LastEditDate="2018-02-19T16:59:24.927" LastActivityDate="2018-02-19T16:59:24.927" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20967" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15249" CreationDate="2017-09-21T03:18:18.200" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Continuing the answer from the verse in Baala Kaanda Chapter IV:&#xA;(2) चतुर्विंशत्सहस्त्राणि श्लोकानामुक्तवानृषिः | तथा सर्गशतान् पञ्च षट्काण्डानि तथोत्तरम् ||&#xA;This epic contains twenty four thousand verses split into five hundred chapters in Six Cantos. (Baala Kaanda: Ch IV:2) [The six cantos are Baala Kaanda, Ayodhya Kaanda, Aranya Kaanda, Kishkinda Kaanda, Sundara (Lanka) Kaanda and Yuddha Kaanda.] With the words 'तथोत्तरम्' it is interperted that Uttara Kaanda is the Seventh Canto.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without Uttara Kaanda the present available editions of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana comprise of 20134 verses in 534 Chapters. This would lead to a conclusion, that twenty four thousand verses would include Uttara Kaanda which comprises of 3538 verses (still below 24,000) but the chapters go up to 635. Further 6 chapters comprising of 'n' number of verses is ignored.  It may be that these six chapters comprise of the balance verses to make up 24000 verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most acceptable conclusion would be that Maharishi Valmiki composed 24,000 verses including Uttara Kaanda, but in the years succeeding the composition and the written version, the Chapters were increased from 534 to 641.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Uttara Kaanda is left out, then Srimad Valmiki Raamayana comprises of 20,134 verses in 534 chapters (sargas). One possible solution is originally Yuddha Kaanda, finished with the death of Raavana and the other verses including the Phalashruti in the later chapters was termed Uttara Kaanda. Still the conundrum of चतुर्विंशत्सहस्त्राणि or 24,000 remains.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T03:18:18.200" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20969" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20972" CreationDate="2017-09-21T06:36:42.757" Score="7" ViewCount="176" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20952/does-atman-hear-speak-taste-and-see-after-we-die&quot;&gt;I have been told that Atman doesn't perform the action of the senses&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;Yet we hear, speak, taste and see things.&#xA;Also I have been told that the Atman is our true self and is only the witness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is : Who performs the actions of the senses(e.g hearing, speaking, tasting, seeing,smelling etc)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-21T07:44:59.577" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T10:10:52.350" Title="Who performs the actions of the senses?" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20970" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20905" CreationDate="2017-09-21T09:26:10.887" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;All are symbolic representation of God's form. Maa Sakthi, Maa lakshmi and Maa Sarasawathi manifested by Maa Aathi Sakthi. From these three mother goddess, there are lot of Goddess manifested. Goddess Asoka Sundari(have some other name manonmani, bala thirupura sundari, vaalai) is form of maa sakthi who is so young(age 9, believed in some place, her age is 12, believed in some places). &#xA;So she is treated as Daughter of Maa Parvathi. It is like incarnation or manifestation. Simply Asoke sundari is child form of maa Shakthi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8123" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T09:26:10.887" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20972" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20969" CreationDate="2017-09-21T10:10:52.350" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;code&gt;Who performs the actions of the senses (e.g hearing, speaking, tasting)?&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahman Or Atman (soul)  is  ultimately  the performer of the actions of the senses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as said earlier   &lt;strong&gt;He&lt;/strong&gt; is just a witness. He is not  the Experiencer of fruit of the action of the senses.  Who is the illuminator of the senses that to say because of this atman all the senses are in action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is explained in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kena-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145039.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Kena Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; -verse 2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;श्रोत्रस्य श्रोत्रं मनसो मनो यद्वाचो ह वाचं स उ प्राणस्य&#xA;  प्राणश्चक्षुषश्चक्षुः । &lt;br&gt; अतिमुच्य धीराः प्रेत्यास्माल्लोकादमृता&#xA;  भवन्ति ||2|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śrotrasya śrotraṃ manaso mano yadvāco ha vācaṃ sa u prāṇasya&#xA;  prāṇaścakṣuṣaścakṣuḥ | &lt;br&gt; atimucya dhīrāḥ pretyāsmāllokādamṛtā&#xA;  bhavanti || 2 ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is the ear of the ear, mind of the mind, tongue of the tongue, and&#xA;  also life of the life and eye of  the eye. Being disabused of the&#xA;  false notion, the wise, having left this body, become immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our Mind is our sixth organ /sense , which is the actual Experiencer of the Pain and pleasure. And under whose direction Our senses work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I.e. &lt;strong&gt;Our Mind is the controller of these senses&lt;/strong&gt;  ,who kept them at bay &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is explained in The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/katha-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145206.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Katha Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; - Verse 1.3.3 with the analogy of Ratha or chariot. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आत्मानँ रथितं विद्धि शरीरँ रथमेव तु । &lt;br&gt; बुद्धिं तु सारथिं विद्धि&#xA;  मनः प्रग्रहमेव च ॥ ३ ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ātmānam̐ rathitaṃ viddhi śarīram̐ rathameva tu | &lt;br&gt; buddhiṃ tu&#xA;  sārathiṃ viddhi manaḥ pragrahameva ca || 3 ||&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know the âtman as the lord of the chariot, the body as only the chariot, &lt;strong&gt;know also intelligence as the driver; know the minds as the&#xA;  reins.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;hr&gt; &lt;code&gt;Shankara’s Commentary:-&lt;/code&gt;  Know also the intelligence to be&#xA;  the driver, furnished with the capacity for determination, &lt;strong&gt;because the&#xA;  body is mainly guided by the intelligence, as the chariot is mainly&#xA;  guided by the driver; for, everything done by the body is generally&#xA;  done by the intelligence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/katha-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145208.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Katha Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  -also &#xA;shows us that Mind is the controller of the senses. i.e. we can control senses through our mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्त्वविज्ञानवान्भवत्ययुक्तेन मनसा सदा । &lt;br&gt; तस्येन्द्रियाण्यवश्यानि&#xA;  दुष्टाश्वा इव सारथेः ॥5॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yastvavijñānavānbhavatyayuktena manasā sadā | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tasyendriyāṇyavaśyāni duṣṭāśvā iva sāratheḥ || 5 || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But of him who is not possessed of discrimination, and &lt;strong&gt;whose mind is&#xA;  always uncontrolled, the senses are not controllable&lt;/strong&gt; as vicious horses&#xA;  of a driver.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although our Mind initiate the senses /organs to perform action and control  senses  and the senses work under our buddhi. But all these senses ultimately function or live just because of presence of Atma itself, without Atman they can’t work , which is in vedanta also equal with  Prana.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Senses perform actions in our body under control of&#xA;  Buddhi ,intellect ,mind , but  this mind and  all the senses   are&#xA;  ultimately illuminated   by Brahman or Atman only. I.e. Our senses&#xA;  perform action guided by Buddhi illuminated by Atman.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T10:10:52.350" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20973" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="295" CreationDate="2017-09-21T10:17:20.020" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is described in Guru Gita the effect of meditating on top of different materials, among them the deer skin, the tiger skin, kuja grass, wool, cotton and so on. Even the colour of it, according to Guru Gita, gives different effects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12068" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T10:17:20.020" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20975" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17811" CreationDate="2017-09-21T12:07:24.183" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The supreme one is comparable to light.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 5.16 - But whose ignorance is destroyed by Knowledge of Self (&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;), their Knowledge, like the sun, reveals that supreme Reality. Like Sun, their Knowledge lightens up the Beyond (&lt;em&gt;param&lt;/em&gt;)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In fact, the Sun has so much importance that, during the death of a person depending on Sun's position, it's determined if the person may attain Moksha or not.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19385/1049&quot;&gt;How can we know that an Aatma got Moksha?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we consider one Sun to be with stupendous light then, the true self of Brahman is equivalent to several such Suns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 11.12 - Should the effulgence of a thousand suns blaze forth simultaneously in the sky, that might be similar to the radiance of that exalted One.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The light is something &quot;existent&quot;. But the supreme one is beyond &quot;existent&quot; and &quot;non existent&quot;; incomprehensible due to non-dual. Hence it can be said as &quot;light beyond light&quot; as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 13.18 - &lt;strong&gt;That is the Light even of the lights; It is spoken of as beyond darkness.&lt;/strong&gt; It is Knowledge, the Knowable, and the Known. It exists [specifically] in the hearts of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Scientifically, light is a thing and the absence of light is known as darkness. Darkness is not a thing. Hence, by this explanation, I would assume that there was darkness before light and that God is darkness.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is another POV of science:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The light is said to be made up of photons. But they are &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-4723,00.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;weightless &amp;amp; sizeless&lt;/a&gt;. They are just name given to a concept. They can't be stopped and since they travel at speed of light, for them the time is permanently stopped. Isn't it more looking like timelessness of &lt;em&gt;Brahman&lt;/em&gt;? :-)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Darkness is believed to be made up of &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;dark matter&lt;/a&gt;&quot; by many scientists;  Keeping that in mind, we can also say that in reality everywhere it's light and it was light. Just that dark matter took some place to cover it!&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again both of above points are mere speculations. But from the scriptures it seems that God is equivalent to light. We naturally get cheerful upon seeing light and sometimes depressed when we don't see sun for a long.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T12:07:24.183" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20976" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21882" CreationDate="2017-09-21T14:12:26.403" Score="5" ViewCount="473" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mitra and Varuna devas are adityas,which is considered different group from Rudras,While Rig Veda book 5 hymn 70 calls Them Rudras.Is it there a specific Reason or they have compared them  both to Rudras or the verse is addressed To Rudras?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastActivityDate="2017-10-29T16:48:28.697" Title="Why Mitra and Varuna devas are also called Rudras In Rig veda book 5 hymn 70?" Tags="|shiva|rig-veda|varuna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20977" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21004" CreationDate="2017-09-21T14:33:07.613" Score="2" ViewCount="177" Body="&lt;p&gt;i want to know about the real Karma of human being in this kaliyug.&#xA;when is someone called a perfect and pure person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;my doubt is what should be a main goal of human being? how can i satisfy with my life that whether i am doing real karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Edited&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The duplicated question marked does not give me answer of this question&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Real Karma of human being in this kaliyug?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;when is someone called a perfect and pure person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorUserId="12071" LastEditDate="2017-10-06T17:20:35.083" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T17:20:35.083" Title="What is the Karma and what karma a human should do to be a perfect?" Tags="|karma|life|human|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20978" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-21T14:49:44.063" Score="1" ViewCount="363" Body="&lt;p&gt;In this extra-ordinary simile from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/katha-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145206.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Katha Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; ,explains the concept of Atman very well:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Know the âtman as the lord of the chariot, the body as only the chariot, know also intelligence as the driver; know the minds as the&#xA;  reins.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us take an example to understand the above simile before I mention the questions. Dheeraj(Atma of Dheeraj) is the lord of the body or the chariot. Dheeraj employs intelligence as the driver. Dheeraj employs mind as the reins.&#xA;Dheeraj may or may not be able to employ the intelligence in a good way. Dheeraj may or may not be able to use the reins properly.Therefore Dheeraj,the Atma, may or may not be the good lord of the chariot or the body.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my questions are : &#xA;can Atma turn out to be good or bad in its ability to control the chariot ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is it that Atma doesn't have any influence over the chariot?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Atma doesn't have any influence over the chariot then why is it called the Lord of the chariot?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T10:43:13.463" Title="Can Atma be good or bad?" Tags="|upanishads|atma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20979" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20988" CreationDate="2017-09-21T15:42:27.747" Score="4" ViewCount="1349" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does lord Ganesh has four hands in reality?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Does lord Ganesh has only one tooth?&#xA;No other god has an animal face. why does Ganesh ji have elephant head?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Does an elephant head fit into his neck in reality ? As elephant head is bigger then any others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorUserId="12071" LastEditDate="2018-01-02T12:39:13.993" LastActivityDate="2018-01-02T12:39:13.993" Title="Why is lord Ganesh also called Ekdant, Char Bhuja Dhari?" Tags="|puranas|ganesha|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20980" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20978" CreationDate="2017-09-21T16:24:20.273" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The chariot analogy is given in the Upanishada to show the supremacy of the &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; and dependency of the other aspects like &lt;em&gt;Buddhi, Mann&lt;/em&gt;, senses and body. Now the supremacy doesn't necessarily mean the controller-ship. Hypothetically, if &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; had to control something, then why would it let anything come out of it in the first place.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The problem is that you perceive &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; as something, but in reality it is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20952/does-atman-hear-speak-taste-and-see-after-we-die/20954#comment60301_20954&quot;&gt;nothing&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the aspects except &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; belongs to &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, which in turn is born from &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; (the traveller) is not good/bad but &lt;em&gt;Buddhi&lt;/em&gt; (the driver) is good/bad. This is already &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20347/1049&quot;&gt;answered here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt; is made up of 3 modes: &lt;em&gt;sattva, rajas, tamas&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; means &quot;illumination&quot;, &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt; is &quot;passion&quot; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; is &quot;ignorance&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every'body' are result of various combinations of these 3 modes (like proton, electron, neutron).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Result of &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; is good &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt; is bad. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20371/1049&quot;&gt;BG 18.37-38&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; (photon?) is beyond these 3 modes, i.e. good/bad/ugly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 7.13 - All this world, deluded as it is by these three things made of the gunas (modes), does not know Me who am transcendental to these 3 and undecaying.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 14.20 - Having transcended these three modes which are the origin of the body, the embodied one, becoming free from birth, death, old age and sorrows, experiences Immortality. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; is Not different for different entities. It's in complete oneness &amp;amp; yet indescribable. It's beyond any dualities like right/wrong, dharma/adharma, manifested/unmanifested, love/hate.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20806/1049&quot;&gt;What is &quot;soul&quot;?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt; doesn't fit in the scope of good &amp;amp; bad&lt;/strong&gt; either.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-22T09:04:47.773" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T09:04:47.773" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20982" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-21T17:40:44.180" Score="2" ViewCount="822" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any writings which give the names of ancient countries like Egypt and Mesopotamia at the time of Mahabharata war? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12076" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-21T18:10:59.407" LastActivityDate="2018-08-19T08:42:32.693" Title="What were the names given to countries like Mesopotamia, Egypt (ancient) at the time of the Mahabharatha war?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20983" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20652" CreationDate="2017-09-21T18:07:09.527" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The weapon she holds and the ornament in her legs indicate that she might belong to the Southern part of India (Dravidian). Maybe Tamilnadu or Andhra And the people on the background looks like asuras, the heads in her hands looks human' she also stores the blood with a cup like thing like the god Muni, and the woman that is lifting her doesn't look human friendly and she has more than eight arms so, I'm guessing that she might be a Goddess to the Asuras.(I may be wrong. It's just my assumption. She might be a Goddess to the humans too). you can find idols like this in South Indian Temples They are old Gods still worshipped today &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bwvDQ.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bwvDQ.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wQmUV.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wQmUV.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12076" LastEditorUserId="12076" LastEditDate="2017-09-21T18:30:11.570" LastActivityDate="2017-09-21T18:30:11.570" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20987" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="20996" CreationDate="2017-09-22T01:09:01.207" Score="1" ViewCount="341" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20969/who-performs-the-actions-of-the-senses&quot;&gt;here ,I ask about&lt;/a&gt; who performs the actions of our senses ?&#xA;In reply I have been told that the Atma performs the actions of our senses but is not the experiencer of the fruits of the actions. He is just a witness. &#xA;However it is also said that when we die, the Witness ceases to be the Witness because there is nothing to be witnessed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is : Can Atma be both the Witness and non-Witness? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T10:14:12.703" Title="Is Atma both the Witness and Non-Witness of existence?" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20988" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20979" CreationDate="2017-09-22T05:11:38.273" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganesha is depicted having one tooth which has a story that one tooth was taken away by the axe of parashurAma. He has four arms hence he is called as Chaturbhuja also. Also another name is danti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly ganesha is not the only god who has animal face of body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is also Sri varAha, Sri HayagrIva, Sri Narasimha etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regarding your last question, it is a logic based question. However, Ganesha was not a human so it is not proper to compare his neck size with that of the human. So fitting of elephant size head into human body is not applicable. His body was divine so such adjustments may be possible. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The following extract from the &quot;Ganapati Upanishad&quot; * is a specimen of&#xA;  the addresses to Ganesa used by the Ganapatyas: † &quot;Praise to thee, O&#xA;  Ganesa! Thou art manifestly the truth; thou art undoubtedly the&#xA;  Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, the Supreme Brahma, the eternal&#xA;  Spirit. I speak what is right and true; preserve me therefore, when&#xA;  speaking, listening, giving, possessing, teaching, learning;&#xA;  continually protect me everywhere. By thee was this universe&#xA;  manifested; for thou art earth, water, fire, air and ether. Thou art&#xA;  Brahmā, Vishnu, and Rudra. We acknowledge thy divinity, O Ekadanta!&#xA;  and meditate on thy countenance; enlighten, therefore, our&#xA;  understanding. He who continually meditates upon thy divine form,&#xA;  conceiving it to be with one tooth, four hands, bearing a rat on thy&#xA;  banner, of a red hue, with a large belly, anointed with red perfumes,&#xA;  arrayed in red garments, worshipped with offerings of red flowers,&#xA;  abounding in compassion, the cause of this universe, imperishable,&#xA;  unproduced and unaffected by creation, becomes the most excellent of&#xA;  Yogis. Praise, therefore, be to thee, O Ganapati. Whoever meditates&#xA;  upon this figure of the 'Atharva Siras' (the name of the Upanishad of&#xA;  which the Ganapati forms a part) never will be impeded by&#xA;  difficulties, will be liberated from the five great sins, and all&#xA;  lesser ones; and will acquire riches, the objects of his desires,&#xA;  virtue and final beatitude.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ganesa has only one tusk, and hence is called Ekadanta. The reason of&#xA;  this is as follows:—Parasurāma, who was a favourite disciple of Siva,&#xA;  went to Kailasa to visit his master. On arriving at the inner&#xA;  apartment, his entrance was opposed by Ganesa, as his father was&#xA;  asleep. Parasurāma nevertheless urged his way, and, after a long&#xA;  dialogue, the two came to blows. Ganesa had at first the advantage,&#xA;  seizing Parasurāma in his trunk, and giving him a twirl that left him&#xA;  sick and senseless. On recovering, Rāma threw his axe at Ganesa, who,&#xA;  recognizing it as his father's weapon—Siva having given it to&#xA;  Parasurāma—received it with all humility upon one of his tusks, which&#xA;  it immediately severed, and hence Ganesa has but one tusk. Pārvati was&#xA;  highly incensed at this, and was about to curse Rāma, when Krishna, of&#xA;  whom he was a worshipper, appeared as a boy and appeased her&#xA;  indignation. Brahmā is said to have promised that her son should be&#xA;  worshipped before the other gods. This result of his contest with Rāma&#xA;  was in consequence of a curse pronounced upon him by the sage Tulasi,&#xA;  with whom he had quarrelled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp35.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-09-22T07:30:44.580" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T07:30:44.580" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20989" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-22T05:32:36.950" Score="6" ViewCount="1333" Body="&lt;p&gt;Each day of Navratri is associated with a different color as mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.india.com/festivals-events/navratri-colours-2017-with-dates-list-of-9-different-coloured-dresses-to-wear-during-navaratri-festival-to-please-goddess-durga-2453351/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How are Navratri colours decided and why do they change every year?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first colour of the Navratri is decided based on the week day when the festival begins or when Ghatsthapna or Pratipada falls. The remaining eight days then follow a fixed cycle of colors. Each day is dedicated to one particular form of Goddess Durga. Here’s a look at nine different colours to be worn on each day of Navratri 2017 festival according to Drik Panchang.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any scriptural basis to this selection?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T06:24:56.007" Title="Why do we wear different colors on different days of Navratri?" Tags="|puranas|festivals|durga|devi|navrathri|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20991" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-22T06:44:42.540" Score="2" ViewCount="298" Body="&lt;p&gt;The traditional Kanjak Puja or Kanya Puja is also an important feature of Navratras. At the time of Pooja, the girl is considered to be an ‘avatar’ of Durga on earth and worshipped. Kanya Pujan or Kanjak Pujan is performed with a belief that young girls are the replica of Goddess Durga. The devotees invite girls at homes and offer ‘bhog’. The faith is that Goddess Durga, who is worshipped in nine avatars during Navratri, gets pleased by `KanyaPujan’. This ritual is celebrated on the eighth and ninth day of Navratri. The nine names of the Goddesses the nine girls can be represented as:-&#xA;1. Kumarika&#xA;2. Trimurti&#xA;3. Kalyani&#xA;4. Rohini&#xA;5. Kali&#xA;6. Chandika&#xA;7. Shanbhavi&#xA;8. Durga&#xA;9. Subhadra&#xA;However, I am not aware of the actual process, rituals &amp;amp; reason of performing Kanya Puja during 'Navratra'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10200" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T12:47:04.883" Title="The Actual Process &amp; Reason Of Performing Kanya Puja during Navratra?" Tags="|rituals|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20992" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-22T06:47:40.510" Score="0" ViewCount="97" Body="&lt;p&gt;If joining elephants head, become alive, why his own head was not joined to alive? Also Shiva is a god, he can do whatever to make him alive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why need to behead other's head?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I got several questions regarding this in this site, but i can't get any answer. so i want to have my own question. Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T06:47:40.510" Title="Why own head of Ganesh ji was not joined to make him alive instead of elephant's head?" Tags="|ganesha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-09-22T11:03:15.950" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20993" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20987" CreationDate="2017-09-22T07:00:23.900" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes &lt;strong&gt;SOUL(ATMA)&lt;/strong&gt; Witness for everything that he has done. And soul has to go through all the consequences of his deed.After death journey of &lt;strong&gt;atma&lt;/strong&gt; begins.&#xA;Reference to this can be found in details in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;GARUD PURANA&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;In this &lt;em&gt;Grantha&lt;/em&gt; you can get details of journey of the soul after death.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda_Purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Find more about GARUDA PURANA here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garuda Purana read Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8467" LastEditorUserId="8467" LastEditDate="2017-09-22T09:53:25.847" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T09:53:25.847" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20994" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-22T07:34:25.067" Score="4" ViewCount="150" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;Democracy&quot; was not famous until last few centuries. Famous political system till then was &quot;Dynastic&quot;. i.e. the dynasty was not only prevalent among the ruler clan (i.e. &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt;), but also intellectuals &amp;amp; priests (&lt;em&gt;Brahmana&lt;/em&gt;), business class (i.e. &lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt;) and the worker or server class (i.e. &lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt;).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In such social systems, generations after generations, people would try to perfect only certain skillset without giving way to their passion towards other fields.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Democracy is different in following ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It gives freedom of speech and action to everyone (limited by constitution)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;It's contagious -- i.e. From topmost system (ruling) to the bottom most system (family), everyone can express their right/wrong views without fear&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Everyone are treated as same; e.g. the vote/opinion of intellectual is not counted higher than the normal worker&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ruler is obliged to people and not the other way around&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ruler is non permanent &amp;amp; volatile; The advantage of his/her genes are not trivially carry forwarded; Their children have to start from 0 to get into power&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above points, if read carefully looks lucrative on face value, but are also detrimental towards basic social system. A good answer may point out nature of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; and how the democracy would satisfy/dissatisfy it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Can democracy naturally uphold &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/strong&gt;  (naturally = without &quot;if&quot;s)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Related: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/13533/1049&quot;&gt;Democracy in Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T07:34:25.067" Title="Is &quot;Democracy&quot; naturally in accordance of &quot;Dharma&quot; (righteousness)?" Tags="|belief|dharma|caste-system|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20995" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20977" CreationDate="2017-09-22T09:16:13.290" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, you need to understand that what karma is not. What I have observed with people, they think karma means some sort of thing which comes back to you one day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thing is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I have learned by reading Bhagavad Gita and Karma Yoga is that karma means ACTION, not Action + Result.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, when you throw a ball to a wall that's karma which you are doing but if that ball comes back to you and hit on your face that's the result, not the karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karma is one-sided travel, SIMPLE ACTION.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good KARMA increases the chances of a good result but no guarantee always. On the other hand, bad KARMA leads you to the bad results but sometimes we don't realize bad result easily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next thing is, there is not fixed KARMA. Good or Bad KARMA changes with situations and your task in hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you think like this: Killing someone is a bad Karma, But, not killing someone in a war is a bad KARMA as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I recommend you to read Karma Yoga by Swami Vivekananda and then Bhagwad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11580" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T09:16:13.290" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20996" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20987" CreationDate="2017-09-22T10:14:12.703" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is necessary to first understand Yoga physiology to answer this question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yoga physiology says that the human body and personality are contained in 5 sheaths or koshas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Annamaya kosha, Pranamaya Kosha, Manomaya Kosha, Vignanamaya Kosha  and Anandamaya Kosha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of these koshas, Annamaya Kosha is the gross body. The word anna means food and the name suggests that our physical body is sustained by food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next three koshas make up the subtle body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word prana means life and is the vital energy that permeates&#xA;all existence. Our physical life is sustained by prana. We die when this prana leaves the body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This pranamaya sheath or kosha is more subtle than annamaya kosha but more gross than the other three sheaths.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word manomaya means mental. This manomaya sheath is the mental sheath. This is where part of our mind resides. This is more subtle than annamaya and pranamaya koshas but more gross than the remaining two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word vijnanamaya means intellect and is the intellectual or discriminating sheath. It is the seat for rational thought and most people mistake it for the self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The last Anandamaya Kosha is the causal body. The word ananda means bliss. This last sheath is blissful because it is very close to the blissful Atman. You may be wondering why this sheath is also called the causal sheath. The reason is that the record of all our karmas is kept in this sheath and since our karmas lead to rebirth this sheath may be thought of as causing rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the center of these 5 koshas lie the Atman. The practice of Yoga in practical terms leads to digging though these 5 barriers and finally reaching the Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A detailed description of these sheatths is in Taittiriya Upanishad II.1.1, II.2.1, II.3.1, II.4.1 and II.5.1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now that we understand Yoga physiology, we can answer your question. After death a person only has the subtle and causal bodies and the Atman. The Atman is always a witness whether in the earth plane or in hell and never suffers and is never a non-witness. It is the subtle body that suffers in hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am adding the following reference that states explicitly the witness role of the Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No act done with the aid of the organs of sensual perception, is ever&#xA;  lost. The five sensual organs and &lt;strong&gt;the immortal soul which is the&#xA;  sixth, remain its witnesses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Anusasana Parva Section VII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T10:14:12.703" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="20999" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-22T10:54:35.047" Score="6" ViewCount="1316" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the famous stories from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramcharitmanas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramcharitmanas&lt;/a&gt; is the story of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2954/who-was-kakabhusundi/2955#2955&quot;&gt;Kaka Bhusundi&lt;/a&gt;. This brahmin Bhusundi was a devotee of Rama was cursed by sage Lomasa to become a crow. After knowing that he was an ardent devotee of Sri Rama, the sage diluted the curse and gave him the knowledge. By this knowledge, this crow has lived through the kalpas and seen different outcomes of Ramayana and Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However this story doesn't appear in the Vālmiki Rāmāyaṇa. I know that this story is also present in Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha which is also known as Vaśiṣṭa Rāmāyaṇa. I'm looking for sources other than this text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is from which purana or scripture did Goswami Tulsidas know the story of Kaka Bhusundi?   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T10:48:34.160" LastActivityDate="2018-11-19T10:34:37.657" Title="Is the story of Kaka Bhusundi mentioned in any puranas?" Tags="|puranas|identification-request|ramcharitmanas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21000" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20729" CreationDate="2017-09-22T10:55:41.037" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Both paths will lead to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhaktiyoga is the religion for this age. But that does not mean that&#xA;  the lover of God will reach one goal and the philosopher (Jnani) and&#xA;  worker (Karmayogi) another. It means that if a person seeks the&#xA;  knowledge of Brahman he can attain It by following the path of Bhakti&#xA;  too. God, who loves His devotee, can give him the knowledge of Brahman&#xA;  if He so desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But the Bhakta wants to realize the Personal God endowed with form and&#xA;  talk to Him. He seldom seeks the knowledge of Brahman. But God, who&#xA;  does everything at His pleasure, can make His devotee the heir to His&#xA;  infinite glories if it pleases Him. He gives His devotee both the love&#xA;  of God and knowledge of Brahman. If one is able to reach Calcutta, one&#xA;  can see the Maidan and the museum and other places too. The thing is&#xA;  how to reach Calcutta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Wednesday, June 25, 1884&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T10:55:41.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21001" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5170" CreationDate="2017-09-22T11:05:15.397" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01062.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt; mentions the time periods that Pandavs spent at different places after they left for Varnavat when they were already adolescents.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sons of Kunti reached the town of Varanavata and lived there with their mother. And, agreeably to the command of Dhritarashtra, those illustrious slayers of all enemies lived in the palace of lac, while in that town. And they &lt;strong&gt;lived in that place for one year&lt;/strong&gt;, protecting themselves from Purochana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After they escaped, Bhima married Hidimba and Arjun won the hand of Draupadi in Panchal where they again stayed for a year.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And having obtained Draupadi (as their common wife) they then dwelt there for &lt;strong&gt;a year&lt;/strong&gt;. And after they became known, those chastisers of all enemies went back to Hastinapura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then they lived in Khandavprasth for some time:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the sons of Pritha dwelt there for &lt;strong&gt;many years&lt;/strong&gt;. And they brought, by force of arms, many a prince under their subjection.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Arjun went on an exile individually for twelve years:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Arjuna, that tiger among men, of firm soul, and gifted with every virtue, lived in the woods for &lt;strong&gt;eleven years and months.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this they had the fateful game of dice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And deceiving Yudhishthira by means of the dice played through the hands of the son of Suvala, Duryodhana sent the Pandavas into the woods for &lt;strong&gt;twelve years and one additional year to be passed in concealment, thus making the period full thirteen.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;And the fourteenth year, O monarch, when the Pandavas returned and claimed their property, they did not obtain it. And thereupon war was declared.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Adding these we get somewhere close 35 odd years account of their life after adolescence. &lt;strong&gt;So I think their age around 50 years would be more accurate rather than it being around 90 years.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T09:44:43.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21003" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20977" CreationDate="2017-09-22T11:29:22.340" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Renunciation of the fruits of Karma leads to a perfect person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira says,’…a perpetrated sin is expiated by auspicious acts,&#xA;  by publishing it wildly, by repentance, by alms-giving, by penances,&#xA;  by trips to tirthas after renunciation of everything, by constant&#xA;  meditation on the scriptures. Of all these, he that has practiced&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;renunciation is believed to be incapable of committing sins anew&lt;/strong&gt;. ‘&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section VII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some wise men say that all action is to be abandoned as evil. Others&#xA;  maintain that good works like worship, charity and practice of&#xA;  austerity are not to be abandoned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 18.3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Works like sacrifice, charity and austerity should not be abandoned.&#xA;  They should be performed; for sacrifice, charity and austerity are&#xA;  indeed purifying for the wise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 18.5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Son of Prtha! &lt;strong&gt;Even these works are to be performed without attachment and desire for their fruits.  This is my settled and decisive view.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 18.6&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T11:29:22.340" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21004" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20977" CreationDate="2017-09-22T12:09:34.913" Score="2" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;**When is someone called a perfect and pure person? &#xA; real Karma of human being in this kaliyug**&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think when a person perfectly follow Dharma or SwaDharma ,  Performs his duties towards all  according to the rules laid out by Shastras and when he completely immerse himself in meditation of Brahman / devotional service /Bhakti , then the person is called a pure person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The qualities of perfect person is described By Shree Krishna In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/16/1-3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagwat Gita&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; -Chapter 16 .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अभयं सत्त्वसंशुद्धिः ज्ञानयोगव्यवस्थितिः।&lt;br&gt; दानं दमश्च यज्ञश्च&#xA;  स्वाध्यायस्तप आर्जवम्।।16.1।।&lt;br&gt; अहिंसा सत्यमक्रोधस्त्यागः&#xA;  शान्तिरपैशुनम्।&lt;br&gt; दया भूतेष्वलोलुप्त्वं मार्दवं&#xA;  ह्रीरचापलम्।।16.2।।&lt;br&gt; तेजः क्षमा धृतिः शौचमद्रोहो नातिमानिता।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भवन्ति सम्पदं दैवीमभिजातस्य भारत।।16.3।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;abhayaṁ sattva-saṁśuddhir jñāna-yoga-vyavasthitiḥ&lt;br&gt; dānaṁ damaś ca&#xA;  yajñaś ca svādhyāyas tapa ārjavam&lt;br&gt; ahiṁsā satyam akrodhas tyāgaḥ&#xA;  śāntir apaiśunam&lt;br&gt; dayā bhūteṣv aloluptvaṁ mārdavaṁ hrīr&#xA;  acāpalam&lt;br&gt; tejaḥ kṣamā dhṛtiḥ śaucam adroho nāti-mānitā&lt;br&gt; bhavanti&#xA;  sampadaṁ daivīm abhijātasya bhārata&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fearlessness; puriﬁcation of one’s existence; cultivation of spiritual&#xA;  knowledge; charity; self-control; performance of sacriﬁce; study of&#xA;  the Vedas; austerity; simplicity; nonviolence; truthfulness; freedom&#xA;  from anger; renunciation; tranquillity; aversion to faultﬁnding;&#xA;  compassion for all living entities; freedom from covetousness;&#xA;  gentleness; modesty; steady determination; vigor; forgiveness;&#xA;  fortitude; cleanliness; and freedom from envy and from the passion for&#xA;  honor – these transcendental qualities, O son of Bharata, belong to&#xA;  godly men endowed with divine nature&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt; &#xA;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-taittiriya-upanishad/d/doc79789.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taittiriya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;Eleventh Anuvāka - The Exhortation-  teaches us the  right karmas Or Duties that are never to be neglected. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सत्यं वद । धर्मं चर ॥ २ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;satyaṃ vada | dharmaṃ cara || 2 ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 &lt;strong&gt;Speak the true. Follow Dharma.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  स्वाध्यायान्मा प्रमदः । आचार्याय प्रियं धनमाहृत्य प्रजातन्तुं मा&#xA;  व्यवच्छेत्सीः । सत्यान्न प्रमदितव्यम् &lt;br&gt;। धर्मान्न प्रमदितव्यम् ।&#xA;  कुशलान्न प्रमदितव्यम् । भूत्यै न प्रमदितव्यम् । स्वाध्यायप्रवचनाभ्यां&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;न प्रमदितव्यम् । देवपितृकार्याभ्यां न प्रमदितव्यम् ॥ ३ ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;svādhyāyānmā pramadaḥ | ācāryāya priyaṃ dhanamāhṛtya prajātantuṃ mā&#xA;  vyavacchetsīḥ | satyānna pramaditavyam | dharmānna pramaditavyam |&#xA;  kuśalānna pramaditavyam | bhūtyai na pramaditavyam |&#xA;  svādhyāyapravacanābhyāṃ na pramaditavyam | devapitṛkāryābhyāṃ na&#xA;  pramaditavyam || 3 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 From study swerve thou not. &lt;strong&gt;Having offered dear wealth to the teacher, cut thou not the progeny’s line. From the true it will not do&#xA;  to swerve, nor from Dharma, nor from welfare. Neither will it do to&#xA;  swerve from well-being, nor from study and teaching, nor from duties&#xA;  to Devas and Pitṛs.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यान्यनवद्यानि कर्माणि । तानि सेवितव्यानि । नो इतराणि ॥ ५ ॥ &#xA;  यान्यस्माकं सुचरितानि । तानि त्वयोपास्यानि । नो इतराणि ॥ ६ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yānyanavadyāni karmāṇi | tāni sevitavyāni | no itarāṇi || 5 || &#xA;  yānyasmākaṃ sucaritāni | tāni tvayopāsyāni | no itarāṇi || 6 ||&#xA;  5 What works are free from fault, they should be resorted to, not others,&#xA;  6 What are good works of ours, they should be done, not others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thou shalt do such other works as are free from blame and sanctioned&#xA;  by śiṣṭāchāra&lt;/strong&gt; or practice of wise men, but not those works which,&#xA;  though practised by the wise, are open to blame.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the upanishad is telling us to maintain śiṣṭāchāra (mannered behaviour) )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to do the right karmas or real Karma of human being in this kaliyuga . See what &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/14&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; –Skanda 7 –Chapter 14 -SB 7.14: Ideal Family Life.  Saying about this .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गृहेष्ववस्थितो राजन्क्रियाः कुर्वन्यथोचिताः ।&lt;br&gt; वासुदेवार्पणं&#xA;  साक्षादुपासीत महामुनीन् ॥2॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gṛheṣv avasthito rājan kriyāḥ kurvan yathocitāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vāsudevārpaṇaḿ sākṣād upāsīta mahā-munīn&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada Muni replied: My dear King, those who stay at home as&#xA;  householders must act to earn their livelihood, and &lt;strong&gt;instead of trying&#xA;  to enjoy the results of their work themselves, they should offer these&#xA;  results to Bhagvanta  ,Supreme Lord&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/14/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 7.14.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is a verse about collecting wealth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यावद् भ्रियेत जठरं तावत् स्वत्वं हि देहिनाम् ।&lt;br&gt; अधिकं योऽभिमन्येत स&#xA;  स्तेनो दण्डमर्हति ॥8॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yāvad bhriyeta jaṭharaḿ tāvat svatvaḿ hi dehinām&lt;br&gt; adhikaḿ yo&#xA;  'bhimanyeta sa steno daṇḍam arhati&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One may claim proprietorship to as much wealth as required to maintain&#xA;  body and soul together, but one who desires proprietorship over more&#xA;  than that must be considered a thief, and he deserves to be punished&#xA;  by the laws of nature.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/7/14/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 7.14.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So all these and a many other scriptures are also suggesting us about the right karmas to be performed in Kaliyuga and doing which one can be perfect and with this can attain Jyana and Moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T12:09:34.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21005" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-22T12:15:24.530" Score="1" ViewCount="3067" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding,Atman is said to be my true self. When I die my gross body dies but my subtle body remains and reaps the fruits of karma in YamLoka. After which I take rebirth. However the Atman is unaffected by fruits of my actions.Atman neither takes birth or rebirth. Atman is self-existent. It is also said that Atman is one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my questions are :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Atman seated within me ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Atman is seated within me then to which dimension of me does it belong to? (for example does Atman belong to body or feelings or perceptions or mind or consciousness or awareness)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true that Atman of every being is actually one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastActivityDate="2019-11-23T16:33:10.907" Title="Where can I find Atma within me?" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-09-23T05:58:28.383" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21006" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21005" CreationDate="2017-09-22T12:28:56.593" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Nature of Atma is  infinite.&lt;/strong&gt;  This infinite nature of Atman is stated  In &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Svetasvatara_Upanishad%20-%20Swami%20Tyagisananda%20%281949%29%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Chapter 3 -Verse 16 Page No.73  .Its said that  Atma is pervading  everything  in the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वत: पाणिपादं तत्सर्वतोsक्षिशिरोमुखम् |&lt;br&gt; सर्वत: श्रुतिमल्लोके&#xA;  सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति ||16||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With hands and feet everywhere , with eyes , mouth everywhere ,with&#xA;  ears everywhere .That exists &lt;strong&gt;pervading  everything  in the universe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as you asked specific question regarding its location , the answers are provided in Upanishads.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here in &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Svetasvatara_Upanishad%20-%20Swami%20Tyagisananda%20%281949%29%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Chapter 3 -Verse 13 -Page 70 -  the exact location of Atma is given – It resides in the space of the Heart. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अङ्गुष्ठमात्र: पुरुषोsन्तरात्मा| &lt;br&gt; सदा जनानां ह्यदये संनिविष्ट:|&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; ह्युदा मन्विशो मन्सभिक्लुप्तो|&lt;br&gt;  य एतद्विदुरमृतास्ते भवन्ति&#xA;  ||13||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Assuming the size of the thumb by virtue of intellect , emotion &#xA;  imagination ad will the infinite &lt;strong&gt;being dwells in the hearts of the&#xA;  creatures&lt;/strong&gt; as their inner self. Those who realize it become immortal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Also see the Answer given by &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/prashna-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145312.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Prashna Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;हृदि ह्येष आत्मा&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt; अत्रैतदेकशतं नाडीनं तासां शतं शतमेकैकस्या द्वासप्ततिर्द्वासप्ततिःप्रतिशाखानाडीसहस्राणि &lt;br&gt;भवन्त्यासु&#xA;  व्यानश्चरति ॥ ६ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;hṛdi hyeṣa ātmā&lt;/strong&gt; | atraitadekaśataṃ nāḍīnaṃ tāsāṃ śataṃ śatamekaikasyā dvāsaptatirdvāsaptatiḥpratiśākhānāḍīsahasrāṇi&#xA;  bhavantyāsu vyānaścarati || 6 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 &lt;strong&gt;This âtman is in the heart. Here, there are a hundred and one&#xA;  nerves. Every one of these has a hundred brandies; again, every one of&#xA;  these has seventy-two thousand sub-branches. In these, vyâna moves.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2019-11-23T16:33:10.907" LastActivityDate="2019-11-23T16:33:10.907" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21007" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20991" CreationDate="2017-09-22T12:47:04.883" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Navaratra was first celebrated long ago by 'Sati' to see if 'Shiv' loved her. That day at night there was celebration and many more girls were worshipping him.Sati was with her dance teacher 'Madhurika' and she told her that 'shiv' loved her. After the night was over Shiva said that day will be celebrated as navaratra from then and all the single girls on that day will find her lover. Since Sati or 'Durga' won her love that day, kanyas today are considered DURGA and worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12022" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T12:47:04.883" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21008" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20979" CreationDate="2017-09-22T12:53:05.477" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganesha is called Ekdant as one of his teeth is broken and the other one is fine. He is called char bhuja dhari as he is seen having four hands. The head on ganesha was of a baby elephant who had asked a boon from lord Shiva that he wanted to stay with him in kailash and Shiva said 'tathastu'. So when the real head of ganesha was separated,Shiva was reminded of the boon he gave and he kept his promise by putting that elephant's head on ganesha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12022" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T12:53:05.477" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21009" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-22T13:15:58.753" Score="3" ViewCount="174" Body="&lt;p&gt;By good books, I am looking for an interpretation of scriptures that is accessible to a normal audience. Does anyone have any suggestions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PS: Please let me know if this is out-of-scope for discussion here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Related questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10996/english-translation-of-complete-garuda-purana&quot;&gt;English translation of complete Garuda Purana&lt;/a&gt; especially &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-garuda-purana-dutt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other resources:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavadgita: 8. The Yoga of Imperishable Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7698" LastEditorUserId="7698" LastEditDate="2017-09-23T09:37:23.877" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T09:37:23.877" Title="What are some good books to read on life, death, afterlife, etc in Hinduism?" Tags="|death|book-recommendation|afterlife|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21011" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21005" CreationDate="2017-09-22T15:25:40.563" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Atman is everywhere not just inside a body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Astavakra Samhita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Self is witness, &lt;strong&gt;all-pervading&lt;/strong&gt;, perfect, One, free, Consciousness,&#xA;  actionless, unattached, desireless and quiet. Through illusion It appears as if It is of the world (i.e. subject to the ever-repeating cycle of birth and death). &lt;strong&gt;I.12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My child, you have long been caught in the noose of body-consciousness. Sever&#xA;  it with the sword of the knowledge “I am Consciousness” and be happy. &lt;strong&gt;I.14&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just as a mirror exists within and without the image reflected in it, &lt;strong&gt;so the&#xA;  Supreme Self exists inside and outside this body.&lt;/strong&gt;  I.19&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the same all pervading space is inside and outside a jar, so the eternal all pervasive Brahman exists in all things. &lt;strong&gt;I.20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2017-09-22T15:25:40.563" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21012" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-22T15:38:30.567" Score="3" ViewCount="185" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Lord Jagannatha banished Lakshmi from home, She went and began to live in various places. Then Lakshmi made Lord Jagannatha and Lord Balbhadra beggars. As a result they stayed without eating anything for many days. Despite the pain, Lakshmi did not help them. I can understand why Lakshmi didn't help him but why did She make Lord Jagannatha suffer? I find this ridiculous. Why would Lakshmi, the ideal example of wives make Lord Jagannatha suffer in this cruel way? Maybe its a misunderstanding from my part. What is the source of this story and why did Lakshmi do this? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please clarify me. &#xA;Thanks...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-07T18:16:10.457" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T18:16:10.457" Title="Why did Lord Jagannatha become a beggar and why His wife Lakshmi did not help him?" Tags="|lakshmi|identification-request|jagan-natha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21013" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-22T15:57:19.417" Score="13" ViewCount="245" Body="&lt;p&gt;Throughout most of its history, the system of government in India was Vedic monarchy (the claims of &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/TheRamayanaPolity&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;P.C. Dharma&lt;/a&gt; notwithstanding).  But in modern times, India has turned into a democracy.  My question is, are there any Acharyas living today who support a return to monarchy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have the heads of any Shankaracharya Mathams addressed this?  What about Sri Vaishnava Acharyas?  If there aren't any Acharyas who support a return to monarchy now, when is the last time an Acharya supported a return to monarchy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that Nepal had a Hindu monarchy until just a few years ago, so there may well be Acharyas who support a return to monarchy in Nepal.  But I'm interested in what they have to say about monarchy in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-03-20T18:09:44.280" LastActivityDate="2018-03-20T18:09:44.280" Title="Do any Acharyas support a return to Hindu monarchy?" Tags="|history|practice|india|kshatriya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21014" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21015" CreationDate="2017-09-22T18:16:25.920" Score="11" ViewCount="7047" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the debated topic related to Hinduism is menstruation and related matters. There are some texts including smritis which seem to depict menstruation with antipathy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some of the regions and communities it is something like a taboo even today. Whereas some communities and regions are liberal about it. &#xA;I want to know what exactly is the overall view of Hinduism on this subject?&#xA;With respect to scriptures as well as traditional, social, and cultural aspects. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are various threads on this forum regarding women and entry in temples during menses and performance of pooja during menses etc. ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the various views on this subject from religions, scriptural and cultural point of view ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-12-03T20:32:49.840" LastActivityDate="2022-10-20T18:48:42.733" Title="What is the overall take of Hinduism on menstruation?" Tags="|scripture|practice|culture|tradition|women|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21015" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21014" CreationDate="2017-09-22T18:16:25.920" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is also a belief that menstruation was not initially happening in women but it started as a result of sin of Indra which was shared by women. However, then a bigger question arises. &lt;strong&gt;What about other mammalian species of animals and birds which exhibit this phenomenon?&lt;/strong&gt; So it looks like menses is not a later day phenomenon but a part of human physiology since the beginning which is also supported by Ayurveda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedas were indeed silent&lt;/strong&gt; on this because, this being a natural phenomenon, nobody thought it fit to raise such issues. But the extra-vedic literatures like smritis and the extra- Upanishads think otherwise. Let us see what the smritis have to say about menses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aangirasa smriti &amp;amp; Aapasthamba smriti (as also quite a few other smritis) say that &lt;strong&gt;Prathamehani caandaali dviteeye brahmaghatini trteeye rajakee proktha caturthe hani shudhyati&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A woman in the first day of her courses is known as an outcaste, in the second day murderer of a Brahmin, in the third day she is known as a washer woman and on the fourth day she gets purified!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You know how a woman should conduct herself during these days? &#xA;Vyaasa smriti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sarvairalakshitaa sheeghram lajjitaantargrhe vaset| &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ekaambaraavrtaa deena snaanaalankaara varjitha || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mouninyadhomukhee chakshushpaani padbhirachanchalaa | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ashneeyaath kevalam bhaktham naktham mrnmaya bhaajane ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Unseen by everybody, she with lajja should at once go to the&#xA;  antargrham (cow shed?). She should wear only one cloth throughout. She&#xA;  should avoid bathing and decorating herself. She should not speak, her&#xA;  face should be downwards looking, her eyes and limbs totally&#xA;  immobilized. She should not eat. Eat she must only in the night, food&#xA;  cooked in an earthen vessel!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Svaped bhoomau apramattaa kshapedevamahastrayam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;snaayeetaa saa triraatraante sachailamuditeravou ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vilokhya bhartrvadanam shudha bhavati dharmatah |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;krtaa shouche puna: karma purvavachhasamaacaret ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She should lie down on the floor and fast for 3 days. After the end of&#xA;  3 nights she should bathe with her dress at sunrise. Thereafter, after&#xA;  seeing her husband’s face, she becomes pure!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Udakyaayah karenaatha bhungtvaa chaandraayanam chareth –  If one&#xA;  happens to eat food cooked by a menstruating women, one should perform&#xA;  the chaandraayana vow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After seeing a women in her courses if one takes his food, he should immediately vomit it and then drink water purified by kusa grass.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let us see other contrary views related to this in the scriptures. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Temples and menstruation:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambubachi_Mela&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ambubachi Mela&lt;/a&gt; is an annual Hindu mela held at Kamakhya&#xA;  Temple in Guwahati, Assam. This yearly mela is celebrated during the&#xA;  monsoon season that happens to fall during the Assamese month Ahaar,&#xA;  around the middle of June when sun transit to the zodiac of Mithuna,&#xA;  when the Brahmaputra river is in spate. It is the celebration of the&#xA;  yearly menstruation course of goddess Kamakhya. It is believed that&#xA;  the presiding goddess of the temple, Devi Kamakhya, the Mother Shakti,&#xA;  goes through her annual cycle of menstruation during this time&#xA;  stretch.&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drnorthrup.com/celebrating-a-girls-first-period/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; It is also believed that during the monsoon rains the&#xA;  creative and nurturing power of the 'menses' of Mother Earth becomes&#xA;  accessible to devotees at this site during the mela. There is no idol&#xA;  of the presiding deity but she is worshipped in the form of a&#xA;  yoni-like stone instead over which a natural spring flows.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is another temple in Kerala, The remarkable aspect of this&#xA;  Bhagwati temple at Chengannur is that the phenomenon of the goddess&#xA;  getting her periods still continues even though the deity is cast in&#xA;  the five metals (panchaloha) The temple therefore follows a unique&#xA;  ritual where the chief priest or his assistant (kizhusanti) on opening&#xA;  the Srikoil early morning removes the nirmalyam (previous day's&#xA;  decoration of the deity) and hands it over to the Varrier attendant&#xA;  along with the white udayada (petticoat) without looking at it. The&#xA;  Varrier examines the dress closely and if there are signs of bleeding&#xA;  sends it to Thazhamon Matham, the traditional residence of the temple&#xA;  Tantri. There the lady of the house scrutinises the cloth again and&#xA;  confirms the menses.The udayada, after the occurrence of the menses is&#xA;  available for sale to the public. Though the rate fixed by the&#xA;  Devaswom is only Rs. 10/- due to its being a rarity it is grabbed by&#xA;  devotees by paying hundreds of rupees who book it well in advance&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cultural and traditional point of view:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In many south Indian and East Indian states, the &lt;strong&gt;first menstruation&lt;/strong&gt; of the girl is celebrated by the family. It is known as &lt;strong&gt;ritushuddhi&lt;/strong&gt; or ritu kaala samskara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritushuddhi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ritushuddhi&lt;/a&gt; is a Hindu samskara associated with a girl’s first&#xA;  menstruation. Hindus in India tend to view first menstruation or&#xA;  menarche, as a positive aspect of a girl's life. This samskara is&#xA;  usually the 13th of hindu samskara. For boys, a similar samskara is&#xA;  conducted which is called keshAnta samskAra (first shaving of the&#xA;  beard). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This milestone in a girl's life is observed by her family and friends,&#xA;  with gifts and her wearing a sari for the ritual.The rite of passage&#xA;  is celebrated, in modern times, as a &quot;half-saree party&quot; where the&#xA;  female relatives and friends of the girl gather, and she receives and&#xA;  wears a half-saree and other gifts. Thereafter, at ceremonious events,&#xA;  she wears the half-sarees, until her marriage when she puts on a full&#xA;  sari. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the state of Orissa, Menstruation and womanhood is celebrated every&#xA;  year in a very grand manner as a four day fest across the state. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Raja or &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raja_(festival)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Raja Parba&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; or Mithuna Sankranti is a three-day-long&#xA;  festival and the second day signifies beginning of the solar month of&#xA;  Mithuna from, which the season of rains starts. It inaugurates and&#xA;  welcomes the agricultural year all over Odisha, which marks, through&#xA;  biological symbolism, the moistening of the sun dried soil with the&#xA;  first showers of the monsoon in mid-June thus making it ready for&#xA;  productivity&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is believed that the &lt;strong&gt;mother goddess Earth&lt;/strong&gt; or the divine wife of&#xA;  Lord Vishnu undergoes menstruation during the first three days. The&#xA;  fourth day is called as Vasumati gadhua or ceremonial bath of Bhudevi.&#xA;  The term Raja has come from Rajaswala (meaning a menstruating woman)&#xA;  and during medieval period the festival became more popular as an&#xA;  agricultural holiday remarking the worship of Bhudevi, who is the wife&#xA;  of lord Jagannath. A silver idol of Bhudevi is still found in Puri&#xA;  Temple aside Lord Jagannatha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During the three days women are given a break from household work and&#xA;  time to play indoor games. Girls decorate themselves with new fashion&#xA;  or traditional Saree and Alatha in feet. All people abstain from&#xA;  walking barefoot on earth. Generally various Pithas are made of which&#xA;  Podopitha,and Chakuli Pitha are main. People play a lot of indoor and&#xA;  outdoor games. Girls play swings tied on tree branches whereas aged&#xA;  ladies play Cards and Ludo. Many villages organise Kabbadi matches&#xA;  among young men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from Indian culture, the first menses are also celebrated in various &lt;strong&gt;cultures of the world&lt;/strong&gt; such as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• The Nootka people of Canada had a big party right after a girl’s&#xA;  first period. Then she underwent an endurance ritual in which she was&#xA;  taken far out to sea and left to make her way home by swimming back to&#xA;  land. When she arrived onshore, she was greeted by her entire village.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• Among the Dagara people of West Africa, the initiation of girls is&#xA;  performed once per year for all the girls who have started to&#xA;  menstruate in the preceding year. This ceremony is the beginning of a&#xA;  long period of mentoring that includes information about sex,&#xA;  intimacy, and the special healing powers of the menstruating woman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• Many Navaho people still practice their puberty ritual for girls,&#xA;  the kinaalda. According to menstrual researcher Lara Owen, this is&#xA;  considered to be the most important of all their rituals because it&#xA;  brings new life to the tribe. In the month after a girl gets her first&#xA;  period, her entire extended family gathers together for a ceremony&#xA;  that takes place over four days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drnorthrup.com/celebrating-a-girls-first-period/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ayurveda&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From Ayurvedic point of view, among various basic principles and&#xA;  physiologies described in Ayurveda &lt;strong&gt;Rutuchakra&lt;/strong&gt; i.e. Menstruation. &#xA;  Various terms are used in classic to denote menstrual blood and ovum&#xA;  at different places ie. Artava, Raja, Shonita, Lohita, &lt;strong&gt;Pushpa&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  Bija. Also has mentioned role of Doshas on menstruation i.e. like all&#xA;  other physiological processes menstruation is also governed by three&#xA;  Doshas viz. Vata, Pitta and Kapha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rutukala- This phase is mainly influenced by Kapha. It is a period of&#xA;  resembling proloferative phase. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• Rutuvyatita-kala- This phase is influenced mainly by Pitta.&#xA;  Therefore this phase resembles the secretory phase. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;• Rajahsrava-kaala- This phase is mainly influenced by Vata. Vata&#xA;  always act through Dhamanees. In the phase of menstruation the spasm&#xA;  in the straight stem arterioles as a causative phenomenon of bleeding&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ayurveda has also given mode of living in menstruation. Right from the&#xA;  beginning of menstrual flow, Woman should observe Brahamacharya&#xA;  (sexual abstinence), She should avoid cold bath, Should not sleep&#xA;  during day time, should avoid exertion. Her diet should be light. The&#xA;  female is also advised to live in a happy calm mood.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ayurlog.com/Archive/january_march/ssac/201502S060.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scriptural point of view:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;LXXI. — Soma gave them &lt;strong&gt;purification&lt;/strong&gt;; the Gandharva, sweet speech;&#xA;  Agni, perfect purity; therefore &lt;strong&gt;verily women are always pure&lt;/strong&gt;. —&#xA;  Yajnavalkaya smriti 71. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Women (possess) an &lt;strong&gt;unequalled means of purification&lt;/strong&gt;; they&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;never&lt;/strong&gt; become (entirely) foul. For month by month their temporary uncleanness removes their sins. (Vashistha Dharmasutra 28.4) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Women belong first to three gods, Soma (the moon), the Gandharva, and&#xA;  Fire, and come afterwards into the possession of men; according to the&#xA;  law &lt;strong&gt;they cannot be contaminated&lt;/strong&gt;. (Vashistha Dharmasutra 28.5)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Soma gave them cleanliness, the Gandharva their melodious voice, and&#xA;  Fire purity of all (limbs); therefore &lt;strong&gt;women are free from stains&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  (Vashistha Dharmasutra 28.6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pure is the mouth of a goat and of a horse, pure is the back of a cow,&#xA;  pure are the feet of a Brâhmana, &lt;strong&gt;but women are pure in all&#xA;  (limbs)&lt;/strong&gt;. (Vashistha Dharmasutra 28.9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/dharma/vash4.asp#ch28&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Scriptures also say that the process of menstruation also cleanses their acquired sins and impurities in this monthly process. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The optional Vedic sacrifices, the Pashuyaga, Soma sacrifice etc. are barred in the absence of wife. If she is absent in the sacrifice due to monthly periods she would get all the fruits of the sacrifice. KAtyAyaya, however, mentions that if she attains menses during the soma sacrifice, she should continue wearing her Deeksha garments, stay in the sand during the emission, and should finally take her baths on the fourth day before the altar during the morning and evening.  (samskAra paddhati 1, 20-21).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SamskAramaYukha quotes vrrdha-gArgya to show that the vrriddhi shraddha may be performed by her &lt;strong&gt;even during the monthly cycles&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, &lt;strong&gt;Agamas (shakta) have a different perspective&lt;/strong&gt; which is quite opposite to those found in some of the smritis and related literature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From shAktagamic point of view, menstruation is not viewd as something inauspicious or impure but is actually celebrated and also considered embodiment of auspiciousness/sanctity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are very clear about their views on woman and their divinity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In both Kulachudamani Tantra and the Brihad Nila Tantra, the Kaula (sAdhaka) is instructed to recite a mantra inwardly whenever he sees a woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;mAtrikabheda tantra&lt;/strong&gt;, the menstrual discharge is looked upon as something very powerful and divine. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Matrikabheda Tantra&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(English translation Indological Book House 1990) describes the different types:--&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Lord Shankara said: The first menses appearing in a woman who has&#xA;  lost her virginity is &lt;strong&gt;Svayambhu&lt;/strong&gt; blood. In a maiden born of a married&#xA;  woman and begotten by another man, that which arises is &lt;strong&gt;Kunda&lt;/strong&gt; menses,&#xA;  the substance causing the granting of any desire. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Deveshi, a maiden begotten by a widow gives rise to Gola menses, which&#xA;  subdues gods. The menses arising in the first period after a virgin&#xA;  becomes a married woman is the all bewildering &lt;strong&gt;Svapushpa&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot;  (MT,&#xA;  Patala 8)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The very first chapter of the MT mentions a substance called &lt;strong&gt;sambal&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  described in the commentary as a woman's menstrual discharge. This&#xA;  substance allows the tantrik adept to perform various sorts of&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;alchemical&lt;/strong&gt; operations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, kankAlamAlini tantra also mentions use of menstrual discharge (swayambhu) for making kavacha (for protection).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scarletwoman.org/scarletletter/v2n4/v2n4_yoni1.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt; &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://divinetantrictouch.com/yoni-tattva-in-kaula-tantra/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;To conclude&lt;/strong&gt;, it looks like as such there is not much in the Vedic literature against menstruation. Further, agamas also do not have any taboo with respect to menstruation. Even cultural festivals and temples have positivity related to menses. So the anti-menses quotes in some extra-vedic scriptures could be later interpolations. It is also a topic of research about the contradicting views of such scriptures. As such the main texts do not criticize menses and participation of menstruating women in social/religious activities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are asked to avoid painstaking activities if they are not comfortable. However, it should be made as a rule that all women should avoid every activity. It should be decided by them if they want to participate or not. If they wish to do something it should not be forbidden. After all, in the present day we have all hygienic measures and sanitation etc.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-09-23T13:01:45.717" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T13:01:45.717" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21016" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-22T19:42:32.293" Score="6" ViewCount="192" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding, after death if I go to hell then my subtle and causal bodies will suffer and not my Atma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Death causes the cessation of gross body or the Annamaya kosha and the Pranamaya Kosha. However  Manomaya Kosha, Vignanamaya Kosha and Anandamaya Kosha remain along with the Atma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do subtle and causal bodies have sense organs like ear, eyes, nose etc..?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If subtle and causal bodies do not have them how do these bodies suffer in hell?&#xA;(In order to suffer one must have gross six sense media which is lost after death.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-24T10:00:57.123" LastActivityDate="2018-10-24T10:00:57.123" Title="Do subtle and causal bodies have sense organs like ears, eyes, etc..?" Tags="|atma|afterlife|naraka|indriyas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21017" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21168" CreationDate="2017-09-22T20:45:10.793" Score="12" ViewCount="1358" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus#Epicurean_paradox&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Epicurean Paradox&lt;/a&gt; or the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEkJJidVjGU&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Riddle of Epicurus&lt;/a&gt; goes something like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If God is willing to prevent evil but not able, then He is not&#xA;  omnipotent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If He is able (to prevent evil) but not willing, then He is&#xA;  malevolent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Is God both able and willing? Then where did evil come from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If God is neither able nor willing, then why call Him God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people also call this &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Problem of Evil&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have any Hindu philosophers attempted to solve this riddle? If yes, how?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-09-22T21:01:46.690" LastActivityDate="2019-05-25T08:23:34.087" Title="Have any Hindu philosophers attempted to solve the Riddle of Epicurus?" Tags="|philosophy|gods|prayer|evil|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21019" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21017" CreationDate="2017-09-23T01:04:17.387" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why do you call it the problem of Evil? Why not call it the blessing of Good?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If God is willing to prevent good, but not able, then He is not Omnipotent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If God is able to prevent good, but not willing, then He is Benevolent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is God both able and willing? Then where did good come from?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If God is neither able nor willing, then why call Him God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once you do this, you realize Good &amp;amp; Evil can be subjective, and the same act might seem evil to one party and good to another party. A man walking on the road might seem evil to the ants that get crushed under his boots, but if he is on the way to a temple to pray or to donate to the poor, it seems good to him and to the poor. If God prevents an evil, he also prevents a good. So, he has written rules, as to what is a smaller evil, and what is a bigger good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc63662.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma sutra 1.34&lt;/a&gt; clearly mention that God does not play favorites, nor is he merciless:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वैषम्यनैर्घृण्ये न सापेक्षत्वात् तथा हि दर्शयति |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaiṣamyanairghṛṇye na sāpekṣatvāt tathā hi darśayati | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The very act of creating the universe might seem like evil to jivas who are forced to experience their bad karma. But it might seem like good to jivas who are forced to experience their good karma. Similarly, the very act of destruction seems evil to some and good to others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So you would say, God shouldn't do anything. Who are we to decide what God should and should not do? Our opinions have no effect. All he does is create a playground. He does not force anyone to play, nor does he force anyone to do good nor bad. If God did everything himself, where is the fun in that? This samsara is called Lila-vibhuthi (playground).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is witness to your actions, but he is also enforcer of results - faithfully and correctly gives out the results of your actions, without bias and with mercy. A just king doesn't force any citizens to fight or to desert, but will reward the fighters and punish the deserters when a war occurs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You alone force yourself to play and get the good/bad results. You can decide to stop playing and be in salvation (Nitya-vihbuthi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2019-01-30T15:17:25.117" LastActivityDate="2019-01-30T15:17:25.117" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21020" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20896" CreationDate="2017-09-23T04:17:57.083" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Abhimanyu's wife was Uttara, daughter of the Matsya king Virata, in whose kingdom the Pandavas spent their year in hiding.  At the end of the year, Virata offered Arjuna his daughter's hand in marriage, but Arjuna refused, saying that he viewed Uttara as his daughter.  So Arjuna accepted her as his daughter-in-law instead.  The marriage of Abhimanyu and Uttara is described in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04072.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;last chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Virata Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And then the nuptial festival set in between the families of the Matsya king and the Pandavas. And then conchs and cymbals and horns and drums and other musical instruments appointed by the Pandavas, began to play in the palace of Virata. And deer of various kinds and clean animals by hundreds were slain. And wines of various kinds and intoxicating juices of trees were profusely collected. And mimes and bards and encomiasts, versed in singing and legendary lore, waited upon the kings, and chanted their praises and genealogies. And the matrons of the Matsyas of symmetrical bodies and limbs, and wearing ear-rings of pearls and gems, headed by Sudeshna, came to the place where the marriage knot was to be tied. And amongst those beautiful females of fair complexion and excellent ornaments, Krishna was the foremost in beauty and fame and splendour. And they all came there, leading forth the princess Uttara decked in every ornament and resembling the daughter of the great Indra himself. And then Dhananjaya, the son of Kunti, accepted Virata's daughter of faultless limbs on behalf of his son by Subhadra. And that great king, Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, who stood there like Indra, also accepted her as his daughter-in-law. And having accepted her, the son of Pritha, with Janardana before him, caused the nuptial ceremonies to be performed of the illustrious son of Subhadra. And Virata then gave him (as dowry) seven thousand steeds endued with the speed of the wind and two hundred elephants of the best kind and much wealth also. And having duly poured libations of clarified butter on the blazing fire, and paid homage unto the twice-born ones, Virata offered to the Pandavas his kingdom, army, treasury, and his own self. And after the marriage had taken place, Yudhishthira, the son of Dharma, gave away unto the Brahmanas all the wealth that had been brought by Krishna of unfading glory. And he also gave away thousands of kine, and diverse kinds of robes, and various excellent ornaments, and vehicles, and beds, delicious viands of various kinds, and cardinal drinks of diverse species. And the king also made gifts of land unto the Brahmanas with due rites, and also cattle by thousands. And he also gave away thousands of steeds and much gold and much wealth of other kinds, unto persons of all ages. And, O bull of the Bharata race, the city of the Matsya king, thronged with men cheerful and well-fed, shone brightly like a great festival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T04:17:57.083" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21022" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20952" CreationDate="2017-09-23T06:32:16.123" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I guess I have found an entirely different answer to the question.&#xA;It is from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kaivalya-upanishad/d/doc120072.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaivalya Upanishad Verse 21&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Without arms and legs am I,  of unthinkable power; I see without&#xA;  eyes,  and I hear without ears.  I know all,  and am different from&#xA;  all.  None can know me.  I am always the Intelligence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore Atman can see without eyes and hear without ears.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T06:32:16.123" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21026" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-23T07:43:15.977" Score="6" ViewCount="514" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kaivalya-upanishad/d/doc120060.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaivalya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He(Supreme Brahman) alone is all that was,  and all that will be,  the&#xA;  Eternal.  Knowing Him,  one transcends death.  There is no other way&#xA;  to freedom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know Supreme Being is God. As stated below from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kaivalya-upanishad/d/doc120059.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kaivalya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He is God,  He is The Absolute,  He is Heaven,  He is Eternal,  the&#xA;  Supreme,  the Self-luminous,  He alone is All,  He is Breath,  He is&#xA;  Time and Fire,  He is the Moon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If God alone is all that was,and all that will be , then isn't every being a God?&#xA;Isn't every act an act of God ? Isn't every speech an speech of God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-09-23T07:55:34.113" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T16:12:49.230" Title="Is every being a God?" Tags="|philosophy|gods|upanishads|brahman|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21027" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21017" CreationDate="2017-09-23T08:26:41.063" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda says in his &lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt;, V1, section &lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This world is neither good nor evil; each man manufactures a world for himself. If a blind man begins to think of the world, it is either as soft or hard, or as cold or hot...Life is good or evil according to the state of mind in which we look at it, it is neither by itself. Fire, by itself, is neither good nor evil. When it keeps us warm we say, &quot;How beautiful is fire!&quot; When it burns our fingers, we blame it. Still, in itself it is neither good nor bad. According as we use it, it produces in us the feeling of good or bad; so also is this world. It is perfect. By perfection is meant that it is perfectly fitted to meet its ends.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And further is Volume 3 pp 10- 14:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...He is Jivanmukta who can live in this world without being attached. He is like the lotus leaves in water, which are never wetted by the water. He is the highest of human beings, nay, the highest of all beings, for he has realised his identity with the Absolute, he has realised that he is one with God. So long as you think you have the least difference from God, fear will seize you, but when you have known that you are He, that there is no difference, entirely no difference, that you are He, all of Him, and the whole of Him, all fear ceases. &quot;There, who sees whom? Who worships whom? Who talks to whom? Who hears whom? Where one sees another, where one talks to another, where one hears another, that is little. Where none sees none, where none speaks to none, that is the highest, that is the great, that is the Brahman.&quot; Being That, you are always That. What will become of the world then? What good shall we do to the world? Such questions do not arise &quot;What becomes of my gingerbread if I become old?&quot; says the baby! &quot;What becomes of my marbles if I grow? So I will not grow,&quot; says the boy! &quot;What will become of my dolls if I grow old?&quot; says the little child! It is the same question in connection with this world, it has no existence in the past, present, or future. If we have known the Âtman as It is, if we have known that there is nothing else but this Atman, that everything else is but a dream, with no existence in reality, then this world with its poverties, its miseries, its wickedness, and its goodness will cease to disturb us. If they do not exist, for whom and for what shall we take trouble? This is what the Jnana-Yogis teach. Therefore, dare to be free, dare to go as far as your thought leads, and dare to carry that out in your life. It is very hard to come to Jnâna. It is for the bravest and most daring, who dare to smash all idols, not only intellectual, but in the senses. This body is not I; it must go. All sorts of curious things may come out of this. A man stands up and says, &quot;I am not the body, therefore my headache must be cured&quot;; but where is the headache if not in his body? Let a thousand headaches and a thousand bodies come and go. What is that to me? I have neither birth nor death; father or mother I never had; friends and foes I have none, because they are all I. I am my own friend, and I am my own enemy. I am Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. I am He, I am He. If in a thousand bodies I am suffering from fever and other ills, in millions of bodies I am healthy. If in a thousand bodies I am starving, in other thousand bodies I am feasting. If in thousands of bodies I am suffering misery, in thousands of bodies I am happy. Who shall blame whom, who praise whom? Whom to seek, whom to avoid? I seek none, nor avoid any, for I am all the universe. I praise myself, I blame myself, I suffer for myself, I am happy at my own will, I am free. This is the Jnâni, the brave and daring. Let the whole universe tumble down; he smiles and says it never existed, it was all a hallucination. He sees the universe tumble down. Where was it! Where has it gone!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Before going into the practical part, we will take up one more intellectual question. So far the logic is tremendously rigorous. If man reasons, there is no place for him to stand until he comes to this, that there is but One Existence, that everything else is nothing. There is no other way left for rational mankind but to take this view. But how is it that what is infinite, ever perfect, ever blessed, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, has come under these delusions? It is the same question that has been asked all the world over. In the vulgar form the question becomes, &quot;How did sin come into this world?&quot; This is the most vulgar and sensuous form of the question, and the other is the most philosophic form, but the answer is the same. The same question has been asked in various grades and fashions, but in its lower forms it finds no solution, because the stories of apples and serpents and women do not give the explanation. In that state, the question is childish, and so is the answer. But the question has assumed very high proportions now: &quot;How did this illusion come?&quot; And the answer is as fine. The answer is that we cannot expect any answer to an impossible question. The very question is impossible in terms. You have no right to ask that question. Why? What is perfection? That which is beyond time, space, and causation — that is perfect. Then you ask how the perfect became imperfect. In logical language the question may be put in this form: &quot;How did that which is beyond causation become caused?&quot; You contradict yourself. You first admit it is beyond causation, and then ask what causes it. This question can only be asked within the limits of causation. As far as time and space and causation extend, so far can this question be asked. But beyond that it will be nonsense to ask it, because the question is illogical. Within time, space, and causation it can never be answered, and what answer may lie beyond these limits can only be known when we have transcended them; therefore the wise will let this question rest. When a man is ill, he devotes himself to curing his disease without insisting that he must first learn how he came to have it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is another form of this question, a little lower, but more practical and illustrative: What produced this delusion? Can any reality produce delusion? Certainly not. We see that one delusion produces another, and so on. It is delusion always that produces delusion. It is disease that produces disease, and not health that produces disease. The wave is the same thing as the water, the effect is the cause in another form. The effect is delusion, and therefore the cause must be delusion. What produced this delusion? Another delusion. And so on without beginning. The only question that remains for you to ask is: Does not this break your monism, because you get two existences in the universe, one yourself and the other the delusion? The answer is: Delusion cannot be called an existence. Thousands of dreams come into your life, but do not form any part of your life. Dreams come and go; they have no existence. To call delusion existence will be sophistry. Therefore there is only one individual existence in the universe, ever free, and ever blessed; and that is what you are. This is the last conclusion reached by the Advaitists. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Krishna says in the Gita 5.14 (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Neither agency nor objects does the Supreme Spirit create for this world, nor does It bring about union with the fruit of action. It is Nature [Prakriti] that does all this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as both Swami Vivekananda and Krishna say, illusion arises from illusion. Illusion does not arise from Brahman. The illusions of good and evil are under the veil of Maya in Advaita. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-09-23T09:47:21.453" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T09:47:21.453" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21028" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21045" CreationDate="2017-09-23T08:29:36.460" Score="2" ViewCount="977" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to know the reason why Brahma asked Vyasa to write Mahabarata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8121" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-23T08:43:42.343" LastActivityDate="2017-09-24T16:16:00.977" Title="Why did Brahma ask Vyasa to write Mahabarata?" Tags="|mahabharata|brahma|vyasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21029" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21026" CreationDate="2017-09-23T08:35:27.557" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in the Gita, chapter 9, verses 4-6 (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Me, in My unmanifested form, are all things in this universe pervaded. All beings exist in Me, but I do not exist in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And yet the beings do not dwell in Me--behold, that is My divine mystery. My Spirit, which is the support of all beings and the source of all things, does not dwell in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the mighty wind blowing everywhere ever rests in the aksha, know that in the same manner all beings rest in Me. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T08:35:27.557" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21030" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-23T08:40:59.103" Score="2" ViewCount="3692" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sometimes it is written in different sites that Parvati slept during the &lt;a href=&quot;https://sites.google.com/site/rajyogikhem/home/festivals/theamarkatha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Amarkatha&lt;/a&gt; and it is said that she is immortal. What is true? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12087" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-23T08:50:56.530" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T17:23:31.160" Title="What is the lifetime of parvati and present age of her?" Tags="|shiva|parvati|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21031" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20979" CreationDate="2017-09-23T09:41:50.260" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Ganesha is narrated in Shiva Purana – Rudra Samhita – Kumara Kaanda – Chapters 13 to 19. The tale is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a query by Sage Narada, Lord Brahma said, “The story of the birth of Ganapati, which I had earlier narrated in which the head of baby Ganesha was shattered by Saturn’s viewing him and then replaced by the head of an elephant occurred at the end of an earlier Kalpa. Now in Shvetavaraha Kalpa, this is the story of Ganesha’s creation. His head was cut off by the kind-hearted benefactor Lord Shambu (Shiva), who is both animate and inanimate and who is the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of the entire Creation. Listen to the full tale.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once two companions of Parvati, Jaya and Vijaya, approached Her and said “Friend! All the ganas are of Rudra. Those whom we consider our own Nandi, Bringhi and others are all bound to obey Shiva’s orders as are all the prime ganas. None of them is ours.  Even when they guard our quarters to give us privacy for our personal requirements, they are doing that on Shiva’s orders. Therefore O Sinless One, you should create a gana of our own, who will be obedient only to your orders and desires.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day, with Nandi guarding Her quarters Parvati was having her bath.  At that time Shiva arrived and threatening Nandi entered Parvati’s quarters. Seeing Her husband the bathing Parvati stood up, naked as she was. At that time Parvati was embarrassed and ashamed of Her nakedness. She then remembered the words of her companions and resolved to have Her own gana. Later removing the sweat and dirt from Her body, She created a boy. The boy was perfect in all respects. Handsome, with well proportioned body, powerful and strong. Parvati then bestowed on the boy many clothes, ornaments, other accourtments and blessed Him saying, “You are my son and there is none other here as lovable as you.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The boy prostrated before Parvati and enquired “Mother, what is your requirement and desire today.  I will fulfil it.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parvati replied, “You are my son. So listen carefully.  From today you guard my palace. Let none enter, whosoever it be, without my permission.” Thus saying she handed Ganesha a stout staff.  Ganesha immediately took up hs post at the gate of Parvati’s palace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having placed Ganesha as the guardian of Her palace gates, Parvati alongwith her companions went to have Her bath.  At that time Shiva came there and wanted to enter the palace.  Not ever having met Shiva, the boy barred His way and said, “Lord, without specific permission from Mother you cannot enter the palace.  She has gone to bathe and hence you may now go and return later.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva got angry and said, “Don’t you know who I am. I am Shiva”. Shiva’s ganas tried to explain who He was to Ganesha, but the boy was unmoved. The ganas went to Shiva and narrated that the boy had reprimanded them for interfering in his duties. Shiva upbraided His ganas, “Are you impotent eunuchs that you come back and report to me thus. Find out who he is and remove him.” The ganas found out and returned to Shiva saying, “He is the son of Girija (Parvati) and is guarding the entrance as per Her instructions.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva then called all the Devas and with His ganas attacked Ganesha, who very easily defeated them. Then Shiva himself came and with the trident of cut off Ganesha’s head. When Parvati heard this she was wroth.  Using all her energies, she created many Shaktis and instructed them to commence the destruction of the entire universe. The Shaktis then released their furies and in all directions destructive fires and floods started occurring. In front of the unleashed furies, the Shiva ganas tried to escape and run away as far as possible. At that time Devarishi Narada reached there and advised the gods to approach Shiva for the solution of this problem. It became apparent that the only way to quell the furies was to please Girija and seek her forgiveness. With this in mind the gods and sages started singing praises of Devi Girija, but her anger was still not calmed and she continued to be in her fury form of Chandika. The gods and rishis continued to sing praises of Parvati.  At last she was appeased and said “If my son comes back to life and he is made the prime one amongst you, then and only then will I recall my furies and cease the destruction.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gods and the rishis then went back to Shiva who advised them to give the ritual purificatory bath to the body of the boy, and then proceed northward and bring the head of the first living creature they come across.  The gods and sages did accordingly and while proceeding northward came across a one tusked elephant, whose head they cut off and conjoined to the body of the boy. The assembled sages and gods then empowered the purified waters in a vessel.  When this water was sprinkled on the body of the boy with elephant’s head he came to life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The gods worshipped him and anointed his body with water (abhishekam). Thereafter Parvati gave him her blessings, showered him with quality clothes and ornaments, and said “Son, you had to suffer much pain for my sake, henceforth you will suffer no more pain. All the gods will henceforth worship you first.  And since you are wearing sindoor (vermillion, which married women wear without fail) right now, your worship will not be full unless it is done with sindoor.” On uttering this benediction the minds of gods and Shivaganas once again became peaceful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thereafter Parvati placed Ganesha on Shiva’s lap who blessed him to be the destroyer of all obstacles and the lord of all his ganas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Amongst the various tales of how Ganesha got to be one tusked, are legends of destruction by Parashurama's axe, while writing the Mahabharata the quill broke and since His hand could not stop, Ganesha broke one of his tusks and continued writing, while more quills were brought, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T09:41:50.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21032" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21017" CreationDate="2017-09-23T11:19:39.707" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer to the riddle has been given in the Gita. Brahman is unattached and it's primordial nature, the shakti of Brahman, which brings forth the creation. Brahman does not interfere in the creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Resorting to Prakrti, Nature, which is My own Power, I send forth&#xA;  again and again this multitude of beings that are without any freedom,&#xA;  owing to Nature's sway over them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 9.8&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These activities do not in any way bind Me, &lt;strong&gt;because I remain detached&#xA;  like one unconcerned in their midst.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 9.9&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is, however, one exception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whoever, being devoted to me solely, engage themselves always in&#xA;  contemplation and worship of Me - to such ever-steadfast devotees I&#xA;  ensure the procurement of all their wants (Moksha) and the&#xA;  preservation of their assets (worldly interests).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 9.22&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God helps only His devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T11:19:39.707" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21033" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-23T11:23:13.603" Score="12" ViewCount="4330" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have spent good time understanding what is Atma or Self. Scriptures say Self is in every being and every being is in Self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However if someone asks me &quot;Who am I?&quot; then what should be my response?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or similarly if I ask you &quot;Who are you?&quot; then what will you say?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="290" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T09:35:40.813" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T09:35:40.813" Title="According to Hinduism, who am I?" Tags="|upanishads|atma|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21034" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21026" CreationDate="2017-09-23T11:29:49.713" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Every being infact every thing is Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;You are the woman, You are the man, You are the boy, (and) You are&#xA;  the girl too. You are the old man tottering with a stick. Taking&#xA;  birth, You have Your faces everywhere.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;You, indeed, are the blue bee; You indeed are the green  parrot&#xA;  having red eyes; You indeed are possessed of lightning  in Your womb.&#xA;  You indeed are the seasons and the seas. You  indeed are without&#xA;  beginning; You exist as the Omnipresent,  from whom have sprung all&#xA;  the worlds. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T11:29:49.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21035" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21030" CreationDate="2017-09-23T11:46:04.657" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes Devi  Uma or Devi Parvati is eternal goddess – She is ever present  with Lord Shiva the eternal god - as his consort/companion .&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the commentary of the verse No . 25  from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kena-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145058.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Kena Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;, Adi Shankaracharya wrote that Uma the daughter of Himalaya is ever associated with the Lord (Siva).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स तस्मिन्नेवाकाशे स्त्रियमाजगाम बहुशोभमानामुमाँहैमवतीं ताँहोवाच&#xA;  किमेतद्यक्षमिति ॥ 25 ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;25  He beheld in that very spot a woman, Uma, very beautiful and of&#xA;  golden hue, daughter of Himavat. He said to her “What is this Great&#xA;  Spirit?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shankara’s Commentary: This epithet is very appropriate in the&#xA;  particular context-as if adorned in gold. &lt;strong&gt;‘Himavatim’ may mean ‘the&#xA;  daughter of Himalaya’ and being ever associated with the Lord (Siva)&#xA;  the omniscient&lt;/strong&gt;, and having approached her, asked: “Who is this&#xA;  Spirit that showed itself and vanished?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And this verse from  &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Svetasvatara_Upanishad%20-%20Swami%20Tyagisananda%20%281949%29%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; page No. 62, declares that Rudra Or Shiva is the eternal god - Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो देवानां प्रभवश्रोच्वश्रच्  विश्वाधिपो रुद्रो महर्षि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हिरण्यगर्भं जनयामानस पूर्वं स नो बुद्धया शुभया संयुनक्तु।।4||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He, the omniscient Rudra, the creator of the gods and the bestower of&#xA;  their powers, the support of the universe, He who, in the beginning,&#xA;  gave birth to Hiranyagarbha−may He endow us with clear intellect!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4&lt;/strong&gt; That God is eternal is subject is also implied.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;It’s also said in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/rudrahridayaupanishad.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rudra-Hridaya Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  that the Vyakta is Sri Uma, and the Avyakta is Lord Siva i.e  Prakriti and Purusha. Although   Uma and Shiva are not separable from each other Uma being Prakriti (nature) dies and reborn again due to various causes and reborn again, yet being the eternal part of Supreme Purusha.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="7698" LastEditDate="2017-09-23T12:08:29.523" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T12:08:29.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21036" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20950" CreationDate="2017-09-23T13:16:20.540" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;One has to attain mental purity to succeed in sadhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the attainment of &lt;strong&gt;mental purity&lt;/strong&gt;, spiritual aspirants (Yogins)&#xA;  perform action, devoid of attachment, with their body, mind,&#xA;  intellect, or even merely with their senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 5.11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The speed of attaining the necessary mental purity depends on the intensity of one's effort, the intensity of vairagya or renunciation and the state of one's mind, i.e., on the past karma. So one can not give in general any estimate of the time needed to succeed in sadhana or spiritual practice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T13:16:20.540" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21037" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21033" CreationDate="2017-09-23T13:33:41.740" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am posting Sri Ramakrishna's discussion about the nature of one's 'I'. Usually one confuses one's 'I' with the ego.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, as a shoreless&#xA;  ocean. Through the cooling influence as it were, of the bhakta's love,&#xA;  the water has frozen at places into blocks of ice. In other words, God&#xA;  now and then assumes various forms for His lovers and reveals Himself&#xA;  to them as a Person. But with the rising of the sun of knowledge, the&#xA;  blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn't feel any more that God is a&#xA;  Person, nor does one see God's forms. What He is can not be described.&#xA;  Who will describe Him? He who would do so disappears. He cannot find&#xA;  his 'I' anymore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If one analyzes oneself, one doesn't find any such thing as 'I'. Take&#xA;  an onion, for instance. First of all peel off the red outer skin; then&#xA;  you find thick white skins. Peel these off one after the other, and&#xA;  you won't find anything inside.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In that state a man no longer finds the existence of his ego. And who&#xA;  is there left to seek it? Who can describe how he feels in that state&#xA;  - in his own Pure Consciousness - about the real nature of Brahman? There is a sign of Perfect Knowledge. Man becomes silent when It is&#xA;  attained. Then the 'I', which may be likened to the salt doll, melts&#xA;  in the ocean of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute and becomes one&#xA;  with It. Not the slightest distinction is left. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, October 28, 1882]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If 'I' as the ego vanishes then what is our 'I'?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The younger Naren:&quot;Sir, have we any free will?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna:&quot;Just try to find out who this 'I' is. While you are&#xA;  searching for 'I'. 'He' comes out. 'I am the machine and He is the&#xA;  operator.' You have heard of a mechanical toy that goes into a store&#xA;  with a letter in its hand. You are like that toy. God alone is the&#xA;  Doer. Do your duties in the world as if you were the doer, but knowing&#xA;  all the time that God alone is the Doer and you are the instrument.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, July 14, 1885&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our 'I' is really the Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is one word of caution here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But in the Kaliyuga, man, being totally dependent on food for life,&#xA;  cannot altogether shake off the idea that he is the body. In this&#xA;  state of mind it is not proper for him to say, 'I am He'. When a man&#xA;  does all sorts of worldly things, he should not say,'I am Brahman'.&#xA;  Those who cannot give up attachment to worldly things and who find no&#xA;  means to shake off the feeling of 'I', should rather cherish the idea,&#xA;  'I am God's servant; I am His devotee'. One can also realize God by&#xA;  following the path of devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, August 5, 1882&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T13:33:41.740" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21038" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21033" CreationDate="2017-09-23T13:58:11.153" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atman_(Hinduism)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Atman&lt;/a&gt;. You've already said you've spent good time in understanding what is Atman or the self and the answer of &quot;Who am I?&quot; is already hidden in that thing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, since you've started to learn spiritual concepts like Atman, the question &quot;According to Hinduism&quot; would be more suitable if you ask &quot;According to &amp;lt;specific philosophy like Vedanta&amp;gt;&quot; Because Atman immediately refers to the self of being, the more subtle meaning of Atman and it's interpretation is now important to know &amp;amp; understand which can be specific (or say varies) according to particular philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The question &quot;Who am I?&quot; is considered to be very important and essential in the &lt;strong&gt;self inquiry&lt;/strong&gt; and the knowledge attained by this is called self-realization (Atma Jnana). Let me make it clear to you that when you say Atman, it can have two different meanings 1. Jivatma (individual soul), 2. Paramatma (supreme soul). Now in Vedanta (one of the six Astika Darshan i.e Hindu Philosophy), there are several sub classifications like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14779/277&quot;&gt;Advaita, Vishishtadvaita etc.&lt;/a&gt; which interprets the relationship between individual soul and supreme soul differently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, if a spiritual person ask you &quot;Who are you?&quot; you can say based on what Adi Shankaracharya chanted (which is known as Atma Shatkam or nirvANa ShaTkam) while the similar question asked him. (Note that this is more suitable with Advaita):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting only English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_shankara/aatmasha.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit documents&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am not the intellect, ego, mind .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Neither am I hearing, taste, smell, sight . &#xA;  Nor am I space, earth, light, air, &#xA;  field of consciousness.&#xA;  I am the pure consciousness of bliss -&#xA;  I am Shiva . Shiva am I . .. 1..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am not prana, nor the five vital forces.&#xA;  I am not the seven elements of the body,&#xA;  or the five sheaths forming the body.&#xA;  I am not the organ of speech, hand, foot,&#xA;  the organ of procreation or excretion.&#xA;  I am the pure consciousness of bliss -&#xA;  I am Shiva, I am Shiva . .. 2..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have nor attachment or aversion;&#xA;  No greed or delusion, not envy or vain;&#xA;  duty, acquisition, desire nor liberation do I aspire -&#xA;  since I am the embodiment of knowledge and bliss -&#xA;  I am Shiva, I am Shiva .. 3..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am neither virtue nor vice,&#xA;  Pleasure or pain that is experienced, no, no;&#xA;  A chant, a holy place, a scripture &#xA;  nor the sacrificial fire;&#xA;  I am neither the enjoyment, enjoyable nor the enjoyer&#xA;  I am the embodiment of knowledge and bliss -&#xA;  I am Shiva, I am Shiva .. 4..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no death or fear,&#xA;  No one to distinguished by class or caste&#xA;  No father, no mother, no birth at all;&#xA;  No friend, no kith or kin, guru or shishya -&#xA;  I am the embodiment of knowledge and bliss -&#xA;  I am Shiva, I am Shiva .. 5..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am Changeless, formless, enveloping all,&#xA;  Untouched by senses, I am omnipresent,&#xA;  Unfathomable, I am beyond freedom -&#xA;  I am the embodiment of knowledge and bliss -&#xA;  I am Shiva, I am Shiva .. 6..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me tell in the brief that the answer to Who am I is Ultimate Reality called Brahman in absolute level according to Advaita, however the answer would be just individual self which has qualified non-dualism with Brahman according to Vishishtadvaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You can look for some books/works written by Acharyas or spiritual scholars like Adi Shankaracharya, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Vivekananda etc. Knowing the attributes of Atman and Brahman can help you.&lt;/strong&gt; e.g &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/who_am_I.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Who am I?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also note that the path/journey of spirituality is not speedy i.e you should not hurry to understand various philosophies in short time. It's recommended to learn/read gradually with great patience. In this way your intellect will develop to understand such subtle and spiritual concepts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T04:40:47.577" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T04:40:47.577" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21039" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21030" CreationDate="2017-09-23T17:23:31.160" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parvati's lifetime is 6 months in the life of Brahma.&lt;/strong&gt; Here is what Shiva tells Parvati in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27478/62f_chapter_19_2.pdf#toolbar=0&amp;amp;pagemode=none&amp;amp;view=FitBH&amp;amp;page=1%22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Prabhasa Khanda of the Skanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this Varaha Kalpa, O goddess, you became Parvati obtained by Himavan through his penance, when the Chakshusha Manvantara has passed off. O beautiful lady, due to the anger of Daksha you had to be separated from me for the duration of a day of Brahma. Your span of life is the period of his six months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says Shiva and Parvati got married &amp;quot;when the Chakshusha Manvantara has passed off&amp;quot;, so she was either born close to the end of the Chakshusha Manvantara or the beginning of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  And she'll live for 6 months of Brahma, which means 180 Kalpas. So Parvati's lifetime is 200 times less than Brahma's lifetime.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, before she was Parvati, she was Shiva's first wife Shakti, and she lived in the Pitri Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-09-23T17:23:31.160" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21040" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-23T18:04:23.940" Score="15" ViewCount="1305" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only about how Vishnu's Avataras or incarnations are classified into two categories: Purna Avataras who have all six Kalyana Gunas of Vishnu, and Amsha Avataras who only have some of his Kalyana Gunas.  But there's another way to classify them: Avesha Avataras and non-Avesha Avataras.  An Avesha Avatara, also known as a Shakti Avesha Avatara, is a person who has both Vishnu and an ordinary Jiva dwelling inside them.  A non-Avesha Avatara, on the other hand, only has Vishnu as their soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the founder of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sect, lists some Avesha Avataras of Vishnu in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/20/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chaitanya Charitamrita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some śaktyāveśa-avatāras are the four Kumāras, Nārada, Mahārāja Pṛthu and &lt;strong&gt;Paraśurāma&lt;/strong&gt;. When a living being is empowered to act as Lord Brahmā, he is also considered a śaktyāveśa-avatāra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what scriptures describe Parashurama as an Avesha Avatara of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, if he is an Avesha Avatara, that means that there's a Jiva dwelling within him.  So do any scriptures describe Parashurama's previous birth, which caused him to deserve to be reborn as an Avesha Avatara?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2019-10-16T16:34:02.103" Title="What scriptures describe Parashurama as an Avesha Avatara of Vishnu?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|parashurama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21042" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21033" CreationDate="2017-09-24T01:50:10.370" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two more ways to understand Atman or the Self. It helped me a lot in understanding Atman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;From Kena Upanishad (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kena-upanishad/d/doc122448.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Spiritual Character of the Absolute&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That which cannot be expressed by speech, but by which speech is&#xA;expressed—That alone know as Brahman and not that which people here&#xA;worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That which cannot be apprehended by the mind, but by which,&#xA;they say, the mind is apprehended—That alone know as Brahman and not&#xA;that which people here worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That which cannot be perceived by the&#xA;eye, but by which the eye is perceived—That alone know as Brahman and&#xA;not that which people here worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That which cannot he heard by the&#xA;ear, but by which the hearing is perceived—That alone know as Brahman&#xA;and not that which people here worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘What smell does not reveal,&#xA;but what reveals smell— know thou That alone as Brahman, and not this&#xA;that people worship here.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.From Katha Upanishad (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/katha-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145206.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 1.3.3&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Know the âtman as the lord of the chariot, the body as only the chariot, know also intelligence as the driver; know the minds as the&#xA;reins.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The senses, they say, are the horses; the objects which they perceive, the way; the âtman, the senses and the mind combined, the&#xA;intelligent call the enjoyer.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-24T01:50:10.370" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21044" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-24T06:24:01.993" Score="8" ViewCount="2511" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is always name of female before male like Siya Ram, Radheshyam then &#xA;we say Shiv Parvati not Parvati Shiv.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12098" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-24T12:59:10.827" LastActivityDate="2024-01-20T15:51:03.433" Title="We say Siya Ram and Radheshyam why we say Shiv Parvati why don't we say Parvati Shiv?" Tags="|shiva|name|parvati|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21045" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21028" CreationDate="2017-09-24T06:56:25.877" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Brahma had not asked Maharshi Vyasa to write Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;. Maharshi Vyasa by his penance analysed all Vedas and also composed Mahabharta. But he had a doubt that by what means he can present that holy history to mankind. Seeing Vyasa in dilemma, Lord Brahma came there and suggested that Lord Ganesha can help him in writing the Epic. So Maharshi Vyasa, meditated upon Lord Ganesha and Lord Ganesha pleased by him, wrote The Great Epic Mahabharata. This story is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Adi Parva, Section 1&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The son of Satyavati having, by penance and meditation, analysed the eternal Veda, afterwards composed this holy history, when that learned Brahmarshi of strict vows, the noble Dwaipayana Vyasa, offspring of Parasara, had finished this greatest of narrations, he began to consider how he might teach it to his disciples. And the possessor of the six attributes, Brahma, the world's preceptor, knowing of the anxiety of the Rishi Dwaipayana, came in person to the place where the latter was, for gratifying the saint, and benefiting the people. And when Vyasa, surrounded by all the tribes of Munis, saw him, he was surprised; and, standing with joined palms, he bowed and ordered a seat to be brought&lt;/strong&gt;. And Vyasa having gone round him who is called Hiranyagarbha seated on that distinguished seat stood near it; and being commanded by Brahma Parameshthi, he sat down near the seat, full of affection and smiling in joy. Then the greatly glorious Vyasa, addressing Brahma Parameshthi, said, &amp;quot;O divine Brahma, by me a poem hath been composed which is greatly respected. The mystery of the Veda, and what other subjects have been explained by me; the various rituals of the Upanishads with the Angas; the compilation of the Puranas and history formed by me and named after the three divisions of time, past, present, and future; the determination of the nature of decay, fear, disease, existence, and non-existence, a description of creeds and of the various modes of life; rule for the four castes, and the import of all the Puranas; an account of asceticism and of the duties of a religious student; the dimensions of the sun and moon, the planets, constellations, and stars, together with the duration of the four ages; the Rik, Sama and Yajur Vedas; also the Adhyatma; the sciences called Nyaya, Orthœphy and Treatment of diseases; charity and Pasupatadharma; birth celestial and human, for particular purposes; also a description of places of pilgrimage and other holy places of rivers, mountains, forests, the ocean, of heavenly cities and the kalpas; the art of war; the different kinds of nations and languages; the nature of the manners of the people; and the all-pervading spirit;--all these have been represented. But, after all, no writer of this work is to be found on earth.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Brahma said. 'I esteem thee for thy knowledge of divine mysteries, before the whole body of celebrated Munis distinguished for the sanctity of their lives. I know thou hast revealed the divine word, even from its first utterance, in the language of truth. Thou hast called thy present work a poem, wherefore it shall be a poem. There shall be no poets whose works may equal the descriptions of this poem, even, as the three other modes called Asrama are ever unequal in merit to the domestic Asrama. Let Ganesha be thought of, O Muni, for the purpose of writing the poem.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Sauti said, 'Brahma having thus spoken to Vyasa, retired to his own abode. Then Vyasa began to call to mind Ganesha. And Ganesha, obviator of obstacles, ready to fulfil the desires of his votaries, was no sooner thought of, than he repaired to the place where Vyasa was seated. And when he had been saluted, and was seated, Vyasa addressed him thus, 'O guide of the Ganas! be'est thou the writer of the Bharata which I have formed in my imagination, and which I am about to repeat.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Ganesha, upon hearing this address, thus answered, 'I will become the writer of thy work, provided my pen does not for a moment cease writing.&amp;quot; And Vyasa said unto that divinity, 'Wherever there be anything thou dost not comprehend, cease to continue writing.' Ganesha having signified his assent, by repeating the word Om! proceeded to write; and Vyasa began; and by way of diversion, he knit the knots of composition exceeding close; by doing which, he dictated this work according to his engagement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-24T16:16:00.977" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21046" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="557" CreationDate="2017-09-24T12:15:04.243" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Three mantras of Rig Veda, 1.124.7, 4.3.2 and 10.71.4 contain “Jaayeva Patya Ushatee Suvaasaah”. This means that knowledge comes to the scholar in same manner as a dedicated joyous wife comes only to her husband. “Jaaya” means wife and “Pati” means husband. Both appearing in singular implies that only one husband-one wife relation is considered ideal&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12100" LastActivityDate="2017-09-24T12:15:04.243" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21050" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-24T17:06:48.927" Score="5" ViewCount="269" Body="&lt;p&gt;I remember reading in some book related to Upanishad, probably one by Swami Sivananda of Rishkesh a quote something to the effect of this :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Whichever is the object/source of pleasure today, will turn later into an object/source of pain/suffering later.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which verse(s) from any of the Upanishads mentions this ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4070" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T10:48:15.580" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T11:05:26.887" Title="Which Upanishadic verse says that the very object of pleasure/beauty will turn into a object of pain or frustration?" Tags="|scripture|vedanta|upanishads|identification-request|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21051" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21050" CreationDate="2017-09-25T01:11:18.920" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Original Qn has &lt;a href=&quot;/questions/tagged/vedanta&quot; class=&quot;post-tag&quot; title=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;vedanta&amp;#39;&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;vedanta&lt;/a&gt;. If OP mistakenly added that, then this answer can be referred as an additional info.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Bhagavad Gita (if it also fits as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the source of Upanishada&lt;/a&gt;) such verse appears:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.38 - From the combinations of sense subjects (desires), which &lt;strong&gt;appears nectar in the beginning, but results in poison&lt;/strong&gt;, -- that enjoyment is considered from Rajas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The actions performed under the influence of &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; (passion) are due to desires [or anger]. The results of such actions would turnout to be sorrow.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Read more &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20371/1049&quot;&gt;about Rajas here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T06:09:48.720" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T06:09:48.720" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21052" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14870" CreationDate="2017-09-25T06:28:02.530" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Lord Vishnu will take the avatar of Kalki at the end of Kali yuga when the adharma increase to an intolerable measures.  The conditions are said on &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;second chapter&lt;/a&gt; of twelfth skandha of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. I am posting some of the characteristics from the chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wealth alone will be considered most important characteristic of a person's conduct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In Kali-yuga, wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man’s good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only on the basis of one’s power. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[12.2.2]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The spirituality of a person will diminish. Rituals will be performed only for the name sake and for reputation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A person’s spiritual position will be ascertained merely according to external symbols, and on that same basis people will change from one spiritual order to the next. A person’s propriety will be seriously questioned if he does not earn a good living. And one who is very clever at juggling words will be considered a learned scholar. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[SB 12.2.4]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Purity of the people (both physically and mentally) is lost.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A person will be judged unholy if he does not have money, and hypocrisy will be accepted as virtue. Marriage will be arranged simply by verbal agreement, and a person will think he is fit to appear in public if he has merely taken a bath. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[SB 12.2.5]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Earth's population will be increased very much and most of them will be unjust and corrupt people. People with political power irrespective of their social class rule the people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As the earth thus becomes crowded with a corrupt population, whoever among any of the social classes shows himself to be the strongest will gain political power. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[SB 12.2.7]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The rulers will be no different from thieves and highway bundits. Rulers will collect excessive taxes from their people. There will be many famines. Unity between the citizens will also disappear as they quarrel among themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Losing their wives and properties to such avaricious and merciless rulers, who will behave no better than ordinary thieves, the citizens will flee to the mountains and forests. Harassed by famine and excessive taxes, people will resort to eating leaves, roots, flesh, wild honey, fruits, flowers and seeds. Struck by drought, they will become completely ruined. They will be further tormented by quarrels, hunger, thirst, disease and severe anxiety. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[SB 12.2.8-10]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The maximum life span of humans will be fifty years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The maximum duration of life for human beings in Kali-yuga will become fifty years. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[SB 12.2.11]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the Kali yuga, heinous crimes increase. Physical changes also occur and the creatures size will be greatly decreased. Religions will become atheistic.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the time the Age of Kali ends, the bodies of all creatures will be greatly reduced in size, and the religious principles of followers of varṇāśrama will be ruined. The path of the Vedas will be completely forgotten in human society, and so-called religion will be mostly atheistic. The kings will mostly be thieves, the occupations of men will be stealing, lying and needless violence, and all the social classes will be reduced to the lowest level of śūdras. Cows will be like goats, spiritual hermitages will be no different from mundane houses, and family ties will extend no further than the immediate bonds of marriage. Most plants and herbs will be tiny, and all trees will appear like dwarf śamī trees. Clouds will be full of lightning, homes will be devoid of piety, and all human beings will have become like asses. At that time, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will appear on the earth. Acting with the power of pure spiritual goodness, He will rescue eternal religion. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/2/12-16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[SB 12.2.12-16]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the conditions when Lord Viṣṇu takes the incarnation of Kalki and reestablishes eternal dharma. That will mark the beginning of the Satya Yuga. The incarnation marks the end of the Kali yuga and the beginning of Satya yuga.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-12-03T05:48:33.060" LastActivityDate="2018-12-03T05:48:33.060" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21053" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21050" CreationDate="2017-09-25T08:38:17.227" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;You are enquiring about the verse which says  “Whichever is the object/source of pleasure today, will turn later into an object/source of pain/suffering later.”&#xA;There  is a verse in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/katha-upanishad-shankara-bhashya/d/doc145173.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Katha Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  which has   the similar meaning as above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&lt;/strong&gt; – In this Upanishad there is story of small boy Nachiketa ,&#xA;who goes to Yama loka (Death god Yama’s abode) .Yama gives him three&#xA;boons.  Nachiketa tells what he wants out of two. But  for his&#xA;third boon  he asks question related to death to Yama .” what&#xA;becomes of a man after death”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Yama the god of death says to Nachiketa that “ This is closely&#xA;guarded secret and even in olden times in gods also arose similar&#xA;doubt” and tells Nachiketa to ask  something else other than answer of&#xA;this question , and    tries to tempt  him saying that “I will give&#xA;you all the pleasures  of this world ,which are very hard to get , Long&#xA;life , women , lots of sons ,gold , chariots etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Nachiketa refuses all this and says to Yama that all this&#xA;pleasures are short lived  will not remain  tomorrow , “they tend&#xA;to the decline of the vigour of all the organs of man. These nymphs&#xA;and other enjoyments only tend to harm, because they destroy virtue,&#xA;strength, intellect, vigour, fame and the rest. “&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the verse with Shankara’s Commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्वोभावा मर्त्यस्य यदन्तकैतत्सर्वेंद्रियाणां जरयंति तेजः । &lt;br&gt; अपि&#xA;सर्वं जीवितमल्पमेव तवैव वाहास्तव नृत्यगीते ||26||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śvobhāvā martyasya yadantakaitatsarveṃdriyāṇāṃ jarayaṃti tejaḥ | &lt;br&gt; api&#xA;sarvaṃ jīvitamalpameva tavaiva vāhāstava nṛtyagīte || 26 ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;26  (Nachikêtas says) Ephemeral these; Oh Death, these tend to the&#xA;decay of the fire (vigour) of all the senses in man. Even the longest&#xA;life is, indeed, short. Thine alone be the chariots, the dance and&#xA;music.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankara’s Commentary:—Though thus tempted, Nachikêtas unagitated like&#xA;a large lake, said: svôbhâvah, enjoyments whose existence the next day&#xA;is a matter of doubt; the enjoyments enumerated by you are ephemeral;&#xA;again. Oh Death, &lt;strong&gt;they tend to the decline of the vigour of all the&#xA;organs of man. These nymphs and other enjoyments only tend to harm,&#xA;because they destroy virtue, strength, intellect, vigour, fame and the&#xA;rest.&lt;/strong&gt; As for the longevity that you will give me, hear me on that&#xA;point. All life, even that of Brahmais, indeed, short. What need be&#xA;said of our longevity. Therefore, keep the chariots, etc., for thyself&#xA;alone, as also the dance and music.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although this verse is not exactly similar like &amp;quot;Todays pleasures are tomorrow's pain &amp;amp; sufferings&amp;quot; , but convey the same meaning that , all the pleasures of today in future are source of pain and suffering because they tend to  destroy virtue, strength, intellect, vigour, fame and the rest  only tend to harm.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T11:05:26.887" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21054" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21056" CreationDate="2017-09-25T08:49:01.997" Score="23" ViewCount="11220" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a famous saying in Hindi, which translates to:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In a day -- A person in Yoga (&lt;em&gt;Yogi - SAtvika&lt;/em&gt;) eats 1 time, A Consumer (&lt;em&gt;Bhogi - RAjasika&lt;/em&gt;) eats 2 times and and a Sick (&lt;em&gt;Rogi - TAmasika&lt;/em&gt;) person eats 3 times [or more]&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Probably this is a folklore.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;However, according Bhishma, a righteous person should eat twice:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Two times&lt;/strong&gt; have been appointed by the deities for human beings to take their &lt;strong&gt;food, viz., morning and evening&lt;/strong&gt;. During the interval one should not eat anything. By &lt;strong&gt;following this rule&lt;/strong&gt; about eating, one is &lt;strong&gt;said to observe a fast&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b127.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Anusasana parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do other scriptures say about total meals per day (1, 2 or more)?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Many medical practitioner &amp;amp; gym trainers promote for 6 small meals against 2 full meals for everyone -- common man or bodybuilder. Is it ok?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If twice eating is prescribed then out of breakfast, lunch and dinner, which has to be skipped?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T09:09:06.497" LastActivityDate="2022-05-01T13:19:33.200" Title="&quot;Once Yogi, Twice Bhogi, Thrice Rogi&quot; -- What should be the number of meals per day?" Tags="|scripture|belief|yoga|food|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21055" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7236" CreationDate="2017-09-25T09:23:30.670" Score="1" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शान्ताकारं भुजगशयनं पद्मनाभं सुरेशं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विश्वाधारं गगनसदृशं मेघवर्णं शुभाङ्गम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  लक्ष्मीकान्तं कमलनयनं योगिभिर्ध्यानगम्यम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वन्दे विष्णुं भवभयहरं सर्वलोकैकनाथम् ॥  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He, Who is of a calm countenance and reposes on one which moves with curves(id est snake- Lord Ananta); Who has a lotus navel(from which Brahma manifested), and Who is the Lord of all Gods; Who is the support of this World and is as vast as the Sky; and Who is of colour of a Black Cloud and has beautiful and auspicious body parts.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;He, Who is the beloved of Lakshmi and Who has eyes like lotuses; Who is always approached by Ascetics in their state of Meditation; I worship that Vishnu, Who pervades everywhere, He, Who exterminates the fear of this illusionary world, and Who is the sole Lord of all the worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T09:23:30.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21056" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21054" CreationDate="2017-09-25T10:06:12.487" Score="14" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;What do other scriptures say about total meals per day (1, 2 or more)?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For a Grihastha (Householder), Dharma Shatsras has prescribed to take food two times&lt;/strong&gt;, in Morning and in Evening. But if one has already taken excess of food in morning, he should not eat second time (in evening).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe02/sbe0236.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apastamba Dharma Sutra, PRASNA II, PATALA 1, KHANDA 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He shall eat at the two (appointed) times, (morning and evening).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/sbe07070.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Smriti, Section LXVIII&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;48&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Let him not take a third meal (over and above the two regular meals in the mornings and evenings), nor let him ever take unwholesome food. He must eat neither too early, nor too late, and he must take no food in the evening, after having fully satiated himself in the morning.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200166.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti, Chapter 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न भुञ्जीतोद्धृतस्नेहं नातिसौहित्यमाचरेत् । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  नातिप्रगे नातिसायं न सायं प्रातराशितः ॥ ६२ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He shall not eat anything from which oil has been extract ed; he shall not commit gluttony; he shall not eat very early in the morning, nor very late in the evening; nor in the evening, if he has eaten in the morning.—(62).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And for a Vanaprasthi (Hermit), Dharma Shastra has prescribed one time meal only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200576.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti, Chapter 6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नक्तं चान्नं समश्नीयाद् दिवा वाऽहृत्य शक्तितः । &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  चतुर्थकालिको वा स्यात् स्याद् वाऽप्यष्टमकालिकः ॥ १९ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having collected food to the best of his ability, he should eat it at night, or during the day; or he may do it at every fourth time, or at every eighth time.—(19).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Please check the commentary of Medhatithi for explanation of fourth time or eighth time.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/sbe07097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Smriti, Section XCV&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He must eat at night.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He may eat after having fasted entirely for one day, or for two days, or for three days.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Many medical practitioner &amp;amp; gym trainers promote for 6 small meals against 2 full &#xA;meals for everyone -- common man or bodybuilder. Is it ok?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above verses, it is clear that taking 6 small meals in a day is not OK.(This is my understanding)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;If twice eating is prescribed then out of breakfast, lunch and dinner, which has to be &#xA;skipped?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above verses, it is clear that one should only eat in Morning and Evening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T11:50:25.087" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T11:50:25.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21057" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21033" CreationDate="2017-09-25T11:45:29.527" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As with many questions, on this particular question you will get different answers, and sometimes even contradictory answers, because different Hindu traditions (sampradayas) have different explanations of those things in their systems of Vedanta. Those who follow dualistic systems of Vedanta, such as those of Vaishnavas, will say that there are two souls (atmas) in the body of each living being, namely Supersoul (paramatma) and individual self or jiva soul (jivatma). So the answer to your question is that of those two souls in our body we are only jivatma soul, but we are not the other soul called paramatma.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Vaishnava conclusion is that the individual living entity (jivatma) is eternally different from the Supreme Soul or Supersoul (paramatma) who exists as Supreme God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dvā suparṇā sayujā sakhāyā samānaṃ vṛkṣaṃ pariṣasvajāte  tayor anyaḥ&#xA;  pippalaṃ svādv atty anaśnann anyo abhicākaśīti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;The individual spirit-soul (jivatma) and the Supersoul (paramatma), are&#xA;  like &lt;strong&gt;two friendly birds&lt;/strong&gt; sitting on the same tree (body). One of the&#xA;  birds (the individual atomic jiva soul or jivatma) is eating the fruit of the&#xA;  tree (the sense-gratification afforded to the material body), and &lt;strong&gt;the&#xA;  other bird&lt;/strong&gt; (the Supersoul or paramatma) is not trying to eat these&#xA;  fruits, but is simply watching His friend (jivatma).&quot; (Svetasvatara Upanishad&#xA;  4.6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here it is clearly pronounced the difference: &quot;two friendly birds&quot; and also &quot;the other bird&quot;!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Sanskrit: dvā suparṇā -- two birds; anyaḥ -- the other.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Two birds (two souls) are never just one bird (ie they are never one and the same soul!), and also the verse clearly says &quot;the other bird&quot;! which means that the verse is also talking about the other soul and not just about one soul. Thus, the difference between the two souls is established in this verse of the Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.6.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;According to the Vaishnavas this difference between the two souls, jiva and paramatma, cannot be denied. This difference is real and eternal.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The same is also stated in the Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.1: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Two birds&lt;/strong&gt;, inseparable friends, cling to the same tree. &lt;strong&gt;One of them&#xA;  eats&lt;/strong&gt; the sweet fruit, &lt;strong&gt;the other&lt;/strong&gt; looks on &lt;strong&gt;without eating&lt;/strong&gt;.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In those verses we also see that one bird (jivatma) is eating the consequences of karma &quot;one of them eats&quot; says the verse, while the other bird (paramatma) is not participating in karmic results because the verses say &quot;&lt;strong&gt;the other&lt;/strong&gt; looks on &lt;strong&gt;without eating&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. From this we also see that there is the difference between the two souls because it would be absurd to explain those verses that they teach about only one soul, namely it would be absurd to think that one and the same soul simultaneously is affected by karma and is not affected by karma. The only logical explanation is that two different souls exist in the body, one is subject to karma, and the other is not subject to karma. Obviously we are not that other soul (paramatma) who is not subject to karma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You are just the jivatma. You are not the heart, mind, feelings, consciousness, senses and body. You are not the paramatma as well. You are the witness of your individual feelings, thoughts and body. You are the jivatma who is feeling, thinking, can see and hear, etc. But all that you can do only connected with your own body. You can not witness the feelings, thoughts, and bodies of other living beings. But paramatma can do even that, he can witness everything, all the bodies, all the thoughts, etc, of all the living beings.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Jivatma is situated only in one body, namely in his own body, but paramatma is situated in all the bodies of all the living beings.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here is the verse about one God who is paramatma dwelling in all beings, all-pervading Lord who is the witness watching over all the jivas or living beings (jivatmas) and watching over all their works or activities (karma):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;eko devaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu gūḍhaḥ sarva-vyāpī sarva-bhūtāntarātmā&#xA;  karmādhyakṣaḥ sarva-bhūtādhivāsaḥ sākṣī cetā kevalo nirguṇaś ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He is the one God, &lt;strong&gt;hidden in all beings&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;all-pervading&lt;/strong&gt;, the self&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;within all&lt;/strong&gt; beings, &lt;strong&gt;watching over all works&lt;/strong&gt;, dwelling &lt;strong&gt;in all&lt;/strong&gt; beings,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;the witness&lt;/strong&gt;, the perceiver, the only one, free from qualities.&quot;&#xA;  (Svetasvatara Upanishad 6.11)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus we know that paramatma is dwelling in all beings, and thus He is witnessing and watching over all the jivatmas. Thus He is the witness of everything, ie of all the bodies, all the thoughts, deeds, etc, of all the living beings.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T11:45:29.527" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21059" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21062" CreationDate="2017-09-25T12:20:13.240" Score="7" ViewCount="3782" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently, while searching for the information about Pravara (प्रवर​) regarding &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/13554/277&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, I found that Pravara refers to best among Rishi who are seer of Vedic hymns.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following is some useful information regarding Pravar from &lt;a href=&quot;http://gadyakosh.org/gk/%E0%A4%97%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0,_%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%B0_%E0%A4%94%E0%A4%B0_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A3_%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%AE_/_%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B7%E0%A4%BF_%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%B6_%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0_/_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A6_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%80&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the article&lt;/a&gt; (the article is in Hindi language, I'll try to provide English translation if needed) I mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13554/what-are-the-pravaras-used-at-the-time-of-sankalpam#comment59951_13554&quot;&gt;comment&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जो गोत्र के नाम से ऋषि आए हैं वही प्रवर भी कहाते हैं। ऋषि का अर्थ है वेदों के मंत्रों को समाधि द्वारा जाननेवाला। इस प्रकार प्रवर का अर्थ हुआ कि उन मन्त्रद्रष्टा ऋषियों में जो श्रेष्ठ हो। प्रवर का एक और भी अर्थ है। यज्ञ के समय अधवर्यु या होता के द्वारा ऋषियों का नाम ले कर अग्नि की प्रार्थना की जाती है। उस प्रार्थना का अभिप्राय यह है कि जैसे अमुक-अमुक ऋषि लोग बड़े ही प्रतापी और योग्य थे। अतएव उनके हवन को देवताओं ने स्वीकार किया। उसी प्रकार, हे अग्निदेव, यह यजमान भी उन्हीं का वंशज होने के नाते हवन करने योग्य है। इस प्रकार जिन ऋषियों का नाम लिया जाता है वही प्रवर कहलाते हैं। यह प्रवर किसी गोत्र के एक, किसी के दो, किसी के तीन और किसी के पाँच तक होते हैं न तो चार प्रवर किसी गोत्र के होते हैं और न पाँच से अधिक। यही परम्परा चली आती हैं। पर, मालूम नहीं कि ऐसा नियम क्यों हैं? ऐसा ही आपस्तंब आदि का वचन लिखा है। हाँ, यह अवश्य है कि किसी ऋषि के मत से सभी गोत्रों के तीन प्रवर होते हैं। जैसा कि&amp;#160;:&#xA;  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;त्रीन्वृणीते मंत्राकृतोवृणीते॥ 7॥&#xA;  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;अथैकेषामेकं वृणीते द्वौवृणीते त्रीन्वृणीते न चतुरोवृणीते न&#xA;  पंचातिवृणीते॥ 8॥&#xA;  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;जो दस गोत्र कर्ता ऋषि मूल में बताए गए हैं, उनके वंश का विस्तार बहुत हुआ और आगे चल कर जहाँ-जहाँ से एक-एक वंश की शाखा अलग होती गई वहाँ से उसी शाखा का नाम गण कहलाता है और उस शाखा के आदि ऋषि के नाम से ही वह गण बोला जाता है। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it shows three Pravara of Shandilya Gotra as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(5) शांडिल्य के &lt;strong&gt;शांडिल्य, असित, देवल&lt;/strong&gt; तीन प्रवर हैं। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Three Pravaras of Shandilya are Shandilya, Asita and Devala (sometimes also spelled Daviala i.e दैवल​).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know &lt;strong&gt;Who are Rishi Asita and Devala?&lt;/strong&gt; Is there any mention of him in Vedas (as a Mantra Drashta Rishi?) or Brahmanas of Vedas? Is there any information about him available in any Brahmanas or Puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T12:25:32.383" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T17:35:43.297" Title="Who are Rishi Asita and Devala?" Tags="|rishi|gotra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21060" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21076" CreationDate="2017-09-25T13:34:20.767" Score="4" ViewCount="640" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ashtavakra is a greatly celebrated sage and composer of Ashtavakra Geeta. His name means- Eight(Ashta) bends with(Aavakra)- One with Eight Bends or bodily defects or handicaps.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what are his Eight Handicaps?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T08:11:06.410" Title="What are the eight defects or handicaps in Ashtavakra?" Tags="|history|rishi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21061" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18105" CreationDate="2017-09-25T13:37:28.270" Score="2" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;If a beast slain in the Jyotishtoma rite will itself go to heaven&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is from the observer perspective. Beast itself doesn't get sacrificed for the sake of attaining heaven. Like how soldiers don't get martyred themselves just to go to heaven.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;[ Add on reference: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16106/1049&quot;&gt;Martyr concept in Hinduism&lt;/a&gt; ]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That means, beast (or a soldier) would be living normally. Upon its master's (country's) requirement, it will be sacrificed (martyred). This falls under action out of duty, where one acts without desire of result. Such sacrifice is termed as &lt;em&gt;SAtvika&lt;/em&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.23 - The regular obligatory action which is performed without attachment and without likes or dislikes by one who &lt;strong&gt;does not hanker for rewards&lt;/strong&gt;, that is said to be born of &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The actions performed under &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; has the heavenly happiness:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 14.9 - ... &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; attaches one to happiness,&lt;/strong&gt; ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 14.14 - When an embodied one undergoes death while mainly &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; is predominant, then they attain the taint-less plane of knower of the highest&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 14.18 - Those with &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; go higher [regions]  ...  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Why then does not the sacrificer forthwith offer his own father?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Because father will not attain heaven.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;What is the purpose of offering father?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it in their tribe or local's constitution or scripture -- NO&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Will father be useful for eating -- NO&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any other purpose for sacrificing father -- NO&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So here the sole purpose is to send father to heaven. Since it's a fruitive action, it becomes &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt; in nature.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.24 - But that action is said to be &lt;strong&gt;born of &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;, which is done by one desirous of results&lt;/strong&gt; or by one who is egotistic, and which is highly strenuous.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actions performed under &lt;em&gt;RAjasika&lt;/em&gt; would result in sin followed by sorrow.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20371/1049&quot;&gt;Sin according to Hinduism&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T13:37:28.270" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21062" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21059" CreationDate="2017-09-25T14:37:16.510" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are Rishi Asita and Devala&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its said in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/kurma-mahapurana/chapter-19/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kurma Purana -Chapter 19&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; -that sage Kashyapa performed great penance for sons and as a result of his penance &lt;strong&gt;Sage Asita&lt;/strong&gt; was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एतानुत्पादय पुत्रानस्तु प्रजसन्तानकारणात |&lt;br&gt; काश्यप: पुत्रकामस्तु&#xA;चचार सुमहत्तप ||1||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suta said :- With the desire of begetting  more sons for the increase&#xA;in the worldly population Kashyapa performed great Tapas for the&#xA;continuity of Progeny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तस्यैवन्तपतोsत्यर्थ प्रादुर्भुतो सुतविमौ | &lt;br&gt; वत्सरश्र्चसितच्स्रैव&#xA;तावुभौ ब्रह्मवादिनो ||2|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a result of his performing so severe penances , he produced two&#xA;sons namely Vatsara and Asita. Both of them were well versed in Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Rishi Asita was son of Sage Kashyapa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sage Asita has the distinction of declaring Baby Krishna as eternal    divine person&lt;/strong&gt; , as written in English Translation By Swami Gambirananda  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?ecsiva=1&amp;amp;etsiva=1&amp;amp;etpurohit=1&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;etssa=1&amp;amp;etassa=1&amp;amp;etradi=1&amp;amp;etadi=1&amp;amp;choose=1&amp;amp;&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=10&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gita  verse 10.13&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Rishi Asita is also mentioned in [**Bhagavat Purana**][3] Skandha 11 Chapter 1 – verse 12 – here its said that along with other Rishi’s sage **Asita** was  called to Vasudeva’s house to perform such auspicious religious activities.And later sent to Piṇḍāraka by Shree Krishna&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;The Sage Asita and Devala are related as **father and son** .The Kurma purana Chapter 9 -Verse 5 -contains following reference about them. &#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;आसितस्यैकपर्णायां ब्रह्मिष्ठ: समपद्यत |&lt;br&gt; नाम्ना वै देवल: पुत्रो&#xA;योगाचार्यो महातप: ||5|| &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Asita produced a son who was well versed in Vedas from his wife&#xA;Ekaparna .He was known as devala&lt;/strong&gt; ,who was great preceptor of Yoga as&#xA;well as performed great penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rishi Kashayapa Devala is the Rishi of some 20 suktas of **&lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/book/rigveda/v9.9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig-Veda 9.5 to 24** &lt;/a&gt;  ,  Asit Kashayapa  rishi  is substitute Rishi in it.He was the son of the Rishi Asti  and Ekaparna and the disciple of Ved-Vyasa .He composed deval smiriti.He is the rishi who cursed Gandharva Huhu  to become a crocodile who is the villan of the famous Gaja-grahya Yuddha .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;In The [**Mahabharata Book 9:  -Shalya Parva**  ][5]Mahabharata Book 9:  -Shalya Parva  - Section 49-50 ,we find the story of Rishi Devala &#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaishampayana said, &amp;quot;In that tirtha lived in days of yore a Rishi of&#xA;virtuous  soul, named Asita-Devala, observant of the duties of&#xA;Domesticity. Devoted to virtue, he led a life of purity and&#xA;self-restraint. Possessed of great ascetic merit, he was compassionate&#xA;unto all creatures and never injured anyone. In word, deed, and&#xA;thought, he maintained an equal behaviour towards all creatures.&#xA;Without wrath, O monarch, censure and praise were equal to him. Of&#xA;equal attitude towards the agreeable and the disagreeable, he was,&#xA;like Yama himself, thoroughly impartial. The great ascetic looked with&#xA;an equal eye upon gold and a heap of pebbles. He daily worshipped the&#xA;gods and guests, and Brahmanas (that came to him). Ever devoted to&#xA;righteousness, he always practised the vow of brahmacarya. Once upon a&#xA;time, an intelligent ascetic, O monarch, of the name of Jaigishavya,&#xA;devoted to Yoga and rapt in meditation and leading the life of a&#xA;mendicant,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Rishi Devala is also described in [**Shreemad Bhagvat Gita – 10. 13** ][6]&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; आहुस्त्वामृषयः सर्वे देवर्षिर्नारदस्तथा।&lt;br&gt; असितो देवलो व्यासः स्वयं&#xA;&gt; चैव ब्रवीषि मे।।10.13।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; āhus tvām ṛṣayaḥ sarve devarṣir nāradas tathā asito devalo vyāsaḥ&#xA;&gt; svayaṁ caiva bravīṣi me&#xA;&gt; &#xA;&gt; Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate&#xA;&gt; abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal,&#xA;&gt; transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the&#xA;&gt; great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala and Vyāsa conﬁrm this truth&#xA;&gt; about You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It’s said in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/4/3-4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagavata Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; that Rishi Devala cursed a Gandharva named HUHU and he became the crocodile of famous Gajendra-Moksha story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;योऽसौ ग्राहः स वै सद्यः परमाश्चर्यरूपधृक् ।&lt;br&gt; मुक्तो देवलशापेन&#xA;हूहूर्गन्धर्वसत्तमः ॥3॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yo 'sau grāhaḥ sa vai sadyaḥ paramāścarya-rūpa-dhṛk&lt;br&gt; mukto&#xA;devala-śāpena hūhūr gandharva-sattamaḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The best of the Gandharvas, King Huhu, having been cursed by Devala&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Muni, had become a crocodile. Now, having been delivered by the&#xA;Supreme Personality of Godhead, he assumed a very beautiful form as a&#xA;Gandharva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is What this &lt;a href=&quot;http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/59335/8/08_chapter%202.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ShodhaGanga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; article says about Rishi Devala -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OthJW.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/OthJW.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3SabH.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3SabH.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T17:35:43.297" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21063" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-25T15:28:01.503" Score="1" ViewCount="728" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Dvaita philosophy there are two selfs. One is Jeevatma and second is Paramatma. Paramatma is only a witness and has no influence whatsoever on the Jeevatma's karma. Parmatma is revered, respected and worshiped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: according to Dveta philosophy , why is Parmatma worshiped? &#xA;In what ways does Parmatma express his control over Jivatma? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T16:15:32.310" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T11:39:19.900" Title="According to Dvaita philosophy, why is Paramatma worshiped?" Tags="|atma|dvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21064" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21066" CreationDate="2017-09-25T16:14:47.347" Score="3" ViewCount="1104" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read recently in Srimad Bhagavatam (Canto 1 - Chapter 3 - Verse 1) about the creation of the sixteen principles of material action.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I am curious to know more about these but can't find any reference to any text about these sixteen principles.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Could somebody please refer me to a scripture which talks about these 16 principles?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9068" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T17:23:15.830" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T17:23:15.830" Title="Sixteen Principles of Material Creation" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21065" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-25T16:25:08.740" Score="4" ViewCount="1333" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Puranas, there is a mention of Yama and Yami, who were twins. What does Hindu philosophy/scriptures say about twin(or triplet, quadruplet, e.t.c,) births for humans?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2018-05-02T15:47:29.547" Title="What does Hinduism say about twin birth?" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21066" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21064" CreationDate="2017-09-25T17:07:18.613" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;They are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;10 Indriyas (senses) i.e 5 Jnanendriya and 5 Karmendriyas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mana (Mind)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;5 Mahabhuta i.e Prithivi, Jala, Aakash, Agni &amp;amp; Vayu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavata.org/canto1/chapter3.html#Text%201&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagvata.org&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sûta said: &amp;quot;In the beginning the Supreme Lord assumed, for the creation of the worlds, the form of the Original Person[: the integrity of the material realm] composed of the sixteen &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavata.org/glossary/e.html#Elementen&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;elements&lt;/a&gt; [of the &lt;strong&gt;ten knowing and working senses, the mind and the five elements&lt;/strong&gt;] and the cosmic intelligence&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Elements (dhâtavah): the essential parts of existence; water, fire, earth, air and ether. Also the seven essential ingredients of the body are dhâtava: skin, flesh, sinew, marrow, bone blood and fat [mentioned in 2.6: 1]. In a broader sense one also speaks of sixteen elements together with the intelligence and the ten working and perceiving s e n s e s. There are also divisions with 24 or 25 elements: the material elements, the subtle elements (the five objects of the senses: odor, color, taste, touch and sound), the ten senses of perception and action, spirit, intelligence, ego and consciousness with the element of time as the twenty-fifth element (see also P r a d h â n a and S.B.: 3-26:11-15, 6.1:50). There is also the nine t a t t v a s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also read the purpot from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedabase&lt;/a&gt; which states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Primarily this mahat-tattva is divided into sixteen parts, &lt;strong&gt;namely the five gross material elements and the eleven working instruments or senses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T17:21:27.343" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21067" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21073" CreationDate="2017-09-25T17:40:26.460" Score="10" ViewCount="5148" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is very well known that Arjuna had ape bannered chariot (Kapi dhwaja). Lord Hanuman sat on the flag post of the Arjuna in the Kurukshetra war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Hasyj.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Hasyj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It has been referred in the Mahabharata many times. The flags of other warriors are not famous. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were the flag posts of other Pandavas and Kaurava warriors? &#xA;Similarly, what were the banners of other famous warriors like Bhishma, Karna, Drona etc., &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T17:46:23.287" LastActivityDate="2021-10-05T13:21:07.643" Title="What were the banners of famous warriors from the Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|pandavas|war|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21068" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-25T17:43:46.063" Score="4" ViewCount="273" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Advaita Vedanta, Nirguna Brahman is the supreme. What does Vallabhacharya of the Pushtimarga sect say about Nirguna Brahman? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T07:54:12.923" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T07:54:12.923" Title="What does Vallabhacharya's Shuddhadvaita Vedanta say about Nirguna Brahman?" Tags="|vedanta|brahman|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21069" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19487" CreationDate="2017-09-25T18:02:55.923" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Skanda purana - volume 7- chapter 50, Lord Krishna gave veena to Sage Narada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sage Narada requests Krishna to grant him a boon, ie., He would always sing glories of Lord and His devotees. Thus being requested by Sage, Krishna grants him boon and gave him Mahati Veena which helps him in singing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लोकान्तरसुखं यत्तद्वैदिकैरेव कर्मभिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देवैः पित्र्येद्र लभ्येत तच्चाप्यस्ति हि नश्वरम् ।।५५।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नेच्छामि तदहं किञ्चित्सुखं त्चत्तः परं प्रभो ! ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वरमेकं तु याचे त्वत्स्वेप्सितं वरदर्षभात् ।।५६।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तवाथ तव भत्तानां सदैव गुणगायने ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अत्युत्सुकास्ते मे बुद्धिस्त्वयि प्रीतिविवर्धनी ।।५७।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;emsp;&amp;emsp;&amp;emsp;स्कन्द उवाच&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तथास्त्चिति प्रतिश्रुत्य कृष्णस्तेनेति याचितम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गानोपयुक्तां महतीं वीणां दत्त्वाऽब्रवीत्पुनः ।।५८।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Other worldly pleasures obtained by performing the Vedic sacrifices, regarded highly by the Devatas and Manes, are momentary. (55)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord! I do not desire to have even a little of that great happiness from you. I beseech You, the greatest bestower of boons, to grant me only one boon. (56) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let my mind be supremely enthusiastic inconstantly singing Your qualities and those of Your devotees. Let my love for You be even increasing&quot;. (57)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Skanda said:&lt;br&gt;Thus being prayed by Narada, Sri Krishna said - &quot;Let it be so&quot;, and giving him a Mahati-Veena useful for singing, told him again. (58)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rmkwy.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rmkwy.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6981" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2017-12-16T02:01:38.533" LastActivityDate="2017-12-16T02:01:38.533" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21071" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8395" CreationDate="2017-09-25T18:38:58.197" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sita Devi didn't name Vibhishana, Malyavan, Asumbanan or any other one while replying to Ravana in the Sundara Kanda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The dialogue quoted in the between Ravana and Sita Devi occurs in the Sundara Kanda chapter 20, 21. Ravana speaks in the chapter 20 and Sita devi replies in the next chapter. The original verse for which you have posted translation is from &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga21/sundarasans21.htm#Verse9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sundara Kanda sarga 21 shloka 9-10&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इह सन्तो न वा सन्ति सतो वा नानुवर्तसे || ५-२१-९ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथाहि विपरीता ते बुद्धिराचारवर्जिता |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here are there not good people? Or are you not following those who are good? It must be like that because your mind, devoid of traditions is perverse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She just meant good people during her conversation. She was not sure who were good or bad people in detail when she was talking this to Ravana. So, it is the translator who added these names while they were translating the original Sanskrit verse. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the people mentioned in the verse were of good qualities unlike the other rakshasas. They advised Ravana to make peace with Lord Rama and return Sita to Him. Here's what Vibhishana advised his elder brother Ravana regarding this issue. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even before arrows resembling thunder bolts and with a speed equal to wind, dispatched by Rama, take away the heads of chiefs of demons, give back Sita to Rama. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga14/yuddhasans14.htm#Verse4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-14-4]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even if you are protected by the sun god, or by Maruts (storm gods) nor even seated in the lap of Indra or god of Death nor if you have penetrated into the regions of heaven or under the earth you will not be spared by the arrows of Rama. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga14/yuddhasans14.htm#Verse6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-14-6]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana turned a deaf ear to his words. From Yuddha Kanda Sarga 35,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, Malyavan, maternal grandfather of Ravana also advised the same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I deem Rama of firm fortitude as Vishnu dwelling in human form. This Rama is not a mere human being, he by whom that most wonderful bridge was built across the sea. O, Ravana! &lt;strong&gt;Conclude peace with Rama, who is the king of men. Having come to know of his acts, let that which is good for the future be done after a mature understanding&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga35/yuddhasans35.htm#Verse36&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-35-36]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ravana also abuses him and turns his deaf ear. He gets ready for a war with Rama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;I couldn't find reference to Asumbanan in Ramayana. If there's a name variant, someone please let me know &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T18:38:58.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21072" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21075" CreationDate="2017-09-25T19:33:24.500" Score="5" ViewCount="914" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read it somewhere that Ravana's great-grandfather was Brahma, is that true? Are there any valid proof that proves this fact? Heard this for the first time. Got to know about this while researching about 'Shiva Tandava Stotram' which was written and sung by Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2022-01-25T10:13:20.367" Title="Ravana's great-grandfather was Brahma?" Tags="|brahma|ravana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21073" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21067" CreationDate="2017-09-25T20:08:09.673" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;The description of the Pandava and Kaurava banners has been scattered through several Parva's of Mahabharata. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The banners of the five Pandavas and their sons is given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07023.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 23&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Drona Parva&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Yudhisthira's flag is a golden moon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The standard of &lt;strong&gt;Yudhishthira&lt;/strong&gt; of great energy, bearing the device of a&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;golden moon&lt;/strong&gt; with planets around it, looked very beautiful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Bhima's is a silver lion. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And &lt;strong&gt;Bhimasena's&lt;/strong&gt; standard, bearing the device of a &lt;strong&gt;gigantic lion in&#xA;  silver&lt;/strong&gt; with its eyes made of lapis lazuli, looked exceedingly&#xA;  resplendent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Nakula's is a golden Sarabha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For terrifying the foe, we beheld that tall and fierce standard of&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Nakula&lt;/strong&gt;, placed on his car bearing the device of a &lt;strong&gt;Sarabha with its&#xA;  back made of gold.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Sahadeva's is a swan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A beautiful &lt;strong&gt;silver swan&lt;/strong&gt; with bells and banner terrible to look at and&#xA;  enhancing the grief of the foe, was seen on &lt;strong&gt;Sahadeva's&lt;/strong&gt; standard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the Upa-Pandava's banners are Dharma, Maruta, Indra and Ashvin Kumara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The standards of the &lt;strong&gt;five sons of Draupadi&lt;/strong&gt; bore on them the excellent&#xA;  images of &lt;strong&gt;Dharma, Marut, Sakra, and the twin Aswins.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Abhimanyu's is a peacock.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the car, O king, of the youthful &lt;strong&gt;Abhimanyu&lt;/strong&gt; was an excellent&#xA;  standard that bore a &lt;strong&gt;golden peacock&lt;/strong&gt;, which was bright as heated gold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Ghatotkacha's is a vulture &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On &lt;strong&gt;Ghatotkacha's&lt;/strong&gt; standard, O king, &lt;strong&gt;a vulture&lt;/strong&gt; shone brightly, and his&#xA;  steeds also were capable of going everywhere at will, like those of&#xA;  Ravana in days of yore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note: If I find any references to the banners of the other warriors in the Pandava camp I'll update my answer.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now for the Kauravas. I found references to the banners of the Kaurava warriors in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 17&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Bhishma Parva&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 101&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Drona Parva&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Bhishma's banner is a palm tree with 5 stars. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And with his large &lt;strong&gt;palmyra-standard decked with five stars, Bhishma,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  the generalissimo of the Kuru army, 1 looked like the resplendent Sun&#xA;  himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Drona's banner is a sacred altar with a kamandalu on it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The standard of &lt;strong&gt;Drona&lt;/strong&gt;, the foremost of preceptors, bore the device of&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;a golden altar decked with a water-pot and the figure of a bow.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Kripacharya's banner is a bull. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The preceptor of the Pandavas, that Brahmana, given to ascetic&#xA;  penances, viz., &lt;strong&gt;Kripa the son of Gotama&lt;/strong&gt;, had for his mark an excellent&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;bovine bull&lt;/strong&gt;. That high-souled one, O king, with that bovine bull,&#xA;  looked as resplendent, as the Destroyer of the three cities looks&#xA;  resplendent with his bull.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Ashvatthama's banner is a lion's tail. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Similarly, the &lt;strong&gt;lion-tail&lt;/strong&gt; standard-top of &lt;strong&gt;Drona's son&lt;/strong&gt;, O Bharata, we&#xA;  saw, was endued with the effulgence of the rising sun Decked with&#xA;  gold, floating in the breeze, possessed of the splendour of the&#xA;  rainbow, the standard mark of Drona's son appeared on high, inspiring&#xA;  the foremost of Kuru warriors with joy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Karna's banner is an elephant rope. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The standard of &lt;strong&gt;Adhiratha's son&lt;/strong&gt; bore the mark of an &lt;strong&gt;elephant-rope made&#xA;  of gold.&lt;/strong&gt; It seemed, O king, in battle to fill the whole welkin. The&#xA;  banner, adorned with gold and garlands, attached to the standard of&#xA;  Karna in battle, shaken by the wind, seemed to dance upon his car.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Duryodhana's banner is an elephant decorated with jewels. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the standard decked with gold, of &lt;strong&gt;king Duryodhana&lt;/strong&gt;, was &lt;strong&gt;an elephant&#xA;  adorned with gems.&lt;/strong&gt; Tinkling with the sound of a hundred bells, O king,&#xA;  that standard stood upon the excellent car of that hero. And, O king,&#xA;  thy son, that bull among the Kurus, looked resplendent, O monarch,&#xA;  with that tall standard in battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Jayadratha's banner is a silver boar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A silver boar&lt;/strong&gt; adorned the standard-top of the &lt;strong&gt;ruler of the Sindhus&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  Decked with golden chains, it was of the splendour of a white crystal.&#xA;  1 With that silver mark on his barrier, the ruler of the Sindhus&#xA;  looked as resplendent, as Surya in days of yore in the battle between&#xA;  the celestials and the Asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Salya (of Madra) banner is a goddess. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Salya, the ruler of the Madras&lt;/strong&gt;, we saw, had on his standard-top an&#xA;  image like the &lt;strong&gt;presiding goddess of corn&lt;/strong&gt;, endued with beauty and&#xA;  producing every seed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Vrishasena's banner is a peacock and a plough. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vrishasena has a peacock made of gold&lt;/strong&gt; and adorned with jewels and&#xA;  gems. And it stood on his standard, as if in the act of crowing, and&#xA;  always adorned the wan of the army. With that peacock, the car of the&#xA;  high-souled Vrishasena shone, like the car, O king, of Skanda (the&#xA;  celestial generalissimo) shining 'with &lt;strong&gt;his peacock unrivalled and&#xA;  beautiful ploughshare made of gold&lt;/strong&gt; and looking like flame of fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Bhurishrava's banner is a sacrificial stake. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The standard of &lt;strong&gt;Somadatta's son&lt;/strong&gt;, devoted to sacrifices, bore the sign&#xA;  of the &lt;strong&gt;sacrificial stake.&lt;/strong&gt; It was seen to shine like the sun or the&#xA;  moon. That sacrificial stake made of gold, O king of Somadatta's son,&#xA;  looked resplendent like the tall stake erected in the foremost of&#xA;  sacrifices called the Rajasuya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T20:08:09.673" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21074" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21067" CreationDate="2017-09-25T20:08:12.283" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The flags of Drona, Bhima, Yudhishthira, Nakula, Sahadeva, the five Upapandavas, and Ghatotkacha are described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/21067/36&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Drona Parva of the Mahabhatata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bharadwaja's son, however, O monarch, surpassed all the warriors in splendour. His standard, with a black deer-skin waving on its top and the beautiful water-pot, O monarch, that it bore, looked exceedingly beautiful. And Bhimasena's standard, bearing the device of a gigantic lion in silver with its eyes made of lapis lazuli, looked exceedingly resplendent. The standard of Yudhishthira of great energy, bearing the device of a golden moon with planets around it, looked very beautiful. Two large and beautiful kettle-drums, called Nanda and Upananda, were tied to it. Played upon by machinery, these produced excellent music that enhanced the delight of all who heard it. For terrifying the foe, we beheld that tall and fierce standard of Nakula, placed on his car bearing the device of a Sarabha with its back made of gold. A beautiful silver swan with bells and banner terrible to look at and enhancing the grief of the foe, was seen on Sahadeva's standard. The standards of the five sons of Draupadi bore on them the excellent images of Dharma, Marut, Sakra, and the twin Aswins. On the car, O king, of the youthful Abhimanyu was an excellent standard that bore a golden peacock, which was bright as heated gold. On Ghatotkacha's standard, O king, a vulture shone brightly, and his steeds also were capable of going everywhere at will, like those of Ravana in days of yore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the flags of Bhishma, Ashwatthama, Drona, Duryodhana, and Jayadratha are described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06017.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And with his large palmyra-standard decked with five stars, Bhishma, the generalissimo of the Kuru army, 1 looked like the resplendent Sun himself.... And Aswatthaman, of the complexion of the lotus, went out ready for every emergency, stationing himself at the very head of all the divisions, with his standard bearing the device of the lion's tail.... The standard of Drona, the foremost of preceptors, bore the device of a golden altar decked with a water-pot and the figure of a bow. The standard of Duryodhana guiding many hundreds and thousands of divisions bore the device of an elephant worked in gems.... On a costly car with his standard bearing the device of a bull, and guiding the very van (of his division), the ruler of the Magadhas marched against the foe.... Stationing himself in the van of his division with his beautiful standard of silver bearing the device of the boar, the famous Jayadratha looked highly resplendent. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the flags of Brihadbala and Abhimanyu are described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06116.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;another chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Bhishma Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That chastiser of foes, viz., prince Vrihadvala, bearing on his standard the device of the lion, proceeded against Subhadra's son whose standard bore the device of the Karnikara flower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the flag of Karna is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08086.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Karna Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Behold also the standard of the high-souled Karna, bearing the device of the elephant's rope, and looking like the bow of Indra himself that divides the firmament by a clear line.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, for those less familiar with archaic English, &quot;device&quot; isn't being used in the sense of &quot;electronic device&quot;, but in the sense of &quot;an emblematic or heraldic design&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T20:08:12.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21075" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21072" CreationDate="2017-09-25T20:23:49.743" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Ravana's great-grandfather is Brahma.&lt;/strong&gt;  Ravana's father is he sage Vishravas, whose father is the sage Pulastya, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/1/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pulastya begot in his wife, Havirbhū, one son of the name Agastya, who in his next birth became Dahrāgni. Besides him, Pulastya begot another very great and saintly son, whose name was Viśravā. Viśravā had two wives. The first wife was Iḍaviḍā, from whom Kuvera, the master of all Yakṣas, was born, and the next wife was named Keśinī, from whom three sons were born — Rāvaṇa, Kumbhakarṇa and Vibhīṣaṇa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Pulastya's father is Brahma, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/3/12/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;another chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmā, who was empowered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, thought of generating living entities and begot ten sons for the extension of the generations. Marīci, Atri, Aṅgirā, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Bhṛgu, Vasiṣṭha, Dakṣa, and the tenth son, Nārada, were thus born. Nārada was born from the deliberation of Brahmā, which is the best part of the body. Vasiṣṭha was born from his breathing, Dakṣa from a thumb, Bhṛgu from his touch, and Kratu from his hand. Pulastya was generated from the ears, Aṅgirā from the mouth, Atri from the eyes, Marīci from the mind and Pulaha from the navel of Brahmā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-25T20:23:49.743" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21076" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21060" CreationDate="2017-09-25T20:56:48.107" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scripture does not mention what eight parts of the body Ashtavakra was crooked in.  Here is all &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03132.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sage Uddalaka had a disciple named Kahoda of subdued passions, and entirely devoted to the service of his preceptor and who had continued his studies long. The Brahmana had served his tutor long, and his preceptor, recognising his service, gave him his own daughter, Sujata, in marriage, as well as a mastery over the Shastras. And she became with child, radiant as fire. And the embryo addressed his father while employed in reading, 'O father, thou hast been reading the whole night, but (of all that) thy reading doth not seem to me correct. Even in my fetal state I have, by thy favour, become versed in the Shastras and the Vedas with their several branches. I say, O father, that what proceeds from thy mouth, is not correct.' Thus insulted in the presence of his disciples, the great sage in anger cursed his child in the womb, saying, 'Because thou speakest thus even while in the womb, therefore thou shalt be &lt;strong&gt;crooked in eight parts of the body&lt;/strong&gt;.' The child was accordingly born crooked, and the great sage was ever after known by the name of Ashtavakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ashtavakra Gita, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ashtavakra_Gita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, doesn't shed any light on it either.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T08:11:06.410" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T08:11:06.410" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21077" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21104" CreationDate="2017-09-25T21:09:48.117" Score="10" ViewCount="982" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is Advaita moksha different from attaining Vaikuntha? If yes, why and is this why Advaita is often frowned upon by most Vaishnavas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-01-05T10:47:45.663" LastActivityDate="2018-01-05T10:47:45.663" Title="Is Advaita moksha different from attaining Vaikuntha?" Tags="|vaishnavism|moksha|advaita|vaikuntha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21078" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-25T22:57:50.473" Score="6" ViewCount="440" Body="&lt;p&gt;The traditional interpretation of the Vedas is that &lt;strong&gt;every word&lt;/strong&gt; of it is eternal, they are the &quot;blueprint&quot; of creation remembered by &lt;em&gt;Ishvara&lt;/em&gt; at the beginning of creation, and sound vibrations revealed to sages at the beginning of creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what Ramanujacharya has to say about it in his &lt;em&gt;Sri Bhashyam&lt;/em&gt; in verses 1.3.27 to 1.3.29, you can read it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48126.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but I will paraphrase each sutra's commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.3.27&lt;/strong&gt;: The gods (devatas) are positions of universal administration and not just limited to individuals with those names. So at the beginning of creation, Brahman remembers the Vedas, speaks those names, and those positions are created. When let's say one Indra dies, Brahman creates another one. Creation is based on the Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.3.28&lt;/strong&gt;: In addition to gods, this eternity also applies to Rishis like Vishvamitra, etc. The rishis aren't the authors of the verses, but just the revealers who heard it from Ishvara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.3.29&lt;/strong&gt;: Every cycle (kalpa) of creation is similar, being based on the words of the vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From these verses, it appears that the Vedas are a &quot;blue print&quot; for creation, that creation is based on the Vedas, the words of the Vedas are eternal (meaning the blue print is eternal), and that the death of the gods or creation does not mean the lack of eternity of the Vedas, since they are always known by Brahman and created again during the next cycle. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this is so, then how can the Vedas have political and historical events? From those above sutras, it makes sense for devas and rishis, but how can this be applied to political events like the Battle of 10 kings described in the Rig Veda, which gives the names of kingdoms and the names of the kings themselves? Based on the sutras above, does this also mean there will be an India every creation with those same kingdoms and kingly names?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T00:02:43.097" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:53:25.030" Title="If every word of the Veda is eternal, then how does it have historical references?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-09-29T22:33:08.627" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21079" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-25T23:16:27.160" Score="5" ViewCount="863" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/21017/2995&quot;&gt;The question&lt;/a&gt; I asked earlier on the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus#Epicurean_paradox&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Riddle of Epicurus&lt;/a&gt; was really a question on God's &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;omnipotence&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibenevolence&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;omnibenevolence&lt;/a&gt;, but here, I want to ask about God's &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omniscience&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;omniscience&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibenevolence&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;omnibenevolence&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If God is both &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omniscience&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;omniscient&lt;/a&gt; (He already knows your problems, what you want, etc.) and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibenevolence&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;omnibenevolent&lt;/a&gt; (He's ready to help even the gravest of sinners), then, why do we need to pray? In other words, why does God expect us to pray?&#xA;Why aren't prayers simply answered without praying? How can a God who expects one to pray to solve their problems be infinitely benevolent? Is He, then, limited in His compassion? Doesn't the fact that He expects a devotee to pray and only help those who pray prove that He is in fact not omnibenevolent? If however, He doesn't know anything about any devotee's problems therefore expects them to pray on a regular basis, then doesn't it prove that He is not infinitely knowledgeable?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is this still an unresolved problem in Hindu philosophy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: This is not a duplicate of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2948&quot;&gt;Why one should worship God?&lt;/a&gt; because the poster there just wants to know if there is a scriptural requirement to pray to God, if yes, what's that? Whereas, this question is about the apparent contradiction between the need to pray and God being both omniscient and omnibenevolent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-09-25T23:51:11.423" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T07:10:34.877" Title="If God is both omniscient and omnibenevolent, then, why do we need to pray?" Tags="|philosophy|gods|worship|prayer|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21080" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-25T23:23:28.103" Score="5" ViewCount="194" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21032/2995&quot;&gt;This answer&lt;/a&gt; to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus#Epicurean_paradox&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Riddle of Epicurus&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These activities do not in any way bind Me, &lt;strong&gt;because I remain detached like one unconcerned in their midst.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gita 9.9&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is, however, one exception.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whoever, being devoted to me solely, engage themselves always in contemplation and worship of Me - to such ever-steadfast devotees I ensure the procurement of all their wants (Moksha) and &lt;strong&gt;the preservation of&lt;/strong&gt; their assets (&lt;strong&gt;worldly interests&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gita 9.22&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;God helps only His devotees.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why does or Why should a devotee get a special pass to getting their prayers answered? Doesn't it negate the answerer's earlier statement that &quot;Brahman is unattached&quot;? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, is the implication here that non-devotees don't get their wishes fulfilled or their 'worldly interests' preserved?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And what does it mean when a devotee's prayers don't get answered in this context? Or that's not a possibility because the claim being made here is that a devotee's prayer will be answered at any cost?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:30:50.213" Title="If Brahman is unattached, why does It remain attached to a devotee?" Tags="|philosophy|gods|worship|brahman|prayer|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21081" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-25T23:27:33.557" Score="6" ViewCount="2373" Body="&lt;p&gt;If a devotee comes forward with a claim that his prayers were unanswered, I keep hearing one of the following reasons from the other devotees:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You are not praying hard enough.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You are not destined to reap the benefits of prayer. Your fate is sealed forever.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are the above, valid scriptural reasons/answers for a devotee whose prayers go unanswered or are these folks ('other devotees') just speculating/speaking their mind?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T07:48:47.047" Title="For what reasons do prayers go unanswered?" Tags="|worship|prayer|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21082" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16351" CreationDate="2017-09-26T00:19:57.093" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Kundalas (ear rings) are reflected the sun light or moon light to his enemy's eyes just like seeing sun  .. so karnas enemy could not hit karna with there arrows... So this tiny help from kundalas karna is impossible to win from his enemy's&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12112" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T00:19:57.093" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21084" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21107" CreationDate="2017-09-26T07:13:28.977" Score="7" ViewCount="221" Body="&lt;p&gt;Person who have not yet reached the highest, but practicing sadhana and have acquired some siddhis can intiate people? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12116" LastEditorUserId="12116" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T07:23:28.017" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T15:25:11.427" Title="Can unenlightened person initiate people?" Tags="|guru|initiation|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21085" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24480" CreationDate="2017-09-26T07:41:00.533" Score="9" ViewCount="2518" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chapter 16 – Verses 22 and 23 of Adi Parva of Mahabharata in Aastika Parva states &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विशिष्टम् बलमीप्सन्त्या पञ्चवर्षशतात् परः | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;     एवं शप्त्वा ततः पुत्रो विनितामन्तरिक्षगः || २२ ||**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अरुणो दृश्यते ब्रह्मन् प्रभातसमये सदा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    आदित्यरथमध्यास्ते सारथ्यं संकल्पयत् || २३ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which can be interpreted as ‘He should come out fully formed on his own and that will happen only after another five hundred years. Till then you have to patiently serve your sister and co-wife as her slave.” Having thus cursed Vinita, her son Aruna rose upwards and flew to the sky.  There he became the charioteer of the Sun God guiding his chariot on the daily circumambulation of the universe. And one can see the form of Aruna guiding the chariot in the dawn when the sun is of reddish hue.’ [My question arises due to the verses 22 and 23, but does not pertain thereto]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharshi Krishna Dwaipayana states in verses 16 and 17 of Chapter 16 of Aastika Parva:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अण्डाभ्यां  विनतायास्तु मिथुनं न व्यदृश्यत | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;    ततः पुत्रार्थिनी देवी &lt;strong&gt;व्रीडिता&lt;/strong&gt; च तपस्विनी || १६ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अण्डं बिभेद विनता तत्र पुत्रमपश्यत |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    पूर्वार्धकायसम्पन्नमितरेणाप्रकाशता || १७ ||**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vinita’s two eggs, however, remained unhatched. With her own hands, she broke open one of the eggs and beheld her son. He was not yet fully formed. The top portion of his body was well proportioned and complete.  He shone with the brightness and lusture of Mitra (Sun), but the bottom half of his body was unformed and just a mass of flesh. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maharshi Krishna Dwaipayana continues :   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स पुत्रः क्रोधसंरब्धः शशापैनामिति श्रुर्तिः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    योऽहमेवं कृतो नातस्त्वया लोभपरीतया || १८ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शरीरेणासमग्रेण तस्माद दासी भविष्यसि |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   पञ्चवर्षशतान्यस्या यया विस्पर्धसे सह || १९ ||**&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एष च त्वां सुतो मातर्दासीत्वान्मोचयिष्यति |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   यद्येनमपि मातस्त्वं मामिवाण्डविभेदनात् || २० ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न करिष्यस्यनङ्गं वा व्यङ्गं वापि तपस्विनम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   प्रतिपालयितव्यस्ते जन्मकालोsस्य धीरया || २१ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विशिष्टम् बलमीप्सन्त्या पञ्चवर्षशतात् परः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    एवं शप्त्वा ततः पुत्रो विनितामन्तरिक्षगः || २२ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अरुणो दृश्यते ब्रह्मन् प्रभातसमये सदा |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आदित्यरथमध्यास्ते सारथ्यं संकल्पयत् || २३ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that the son, angry at his mother’s haste in breaking his egg and bringing him forth not completely formed cursed her,  “Due to your excessive haste to be equal to your sister and co-wife Kadru, you have made me handicapped, my limbs not yet completely formed. Therefore, for which co-wife you made me deformed, I curse you to become her slave for five hundred years.  And Mother, your son in the other egg, he will liberate you from slavery, but that is possible only if you don’t break the egg and make him handicapped.  He should come out fully formed on his own and that will happen only after another five hundred years. Till then you have to patiently serve your sister and co-wife as her slave.” Having thus cursed Vinita, her son Aruna rose upwards and flew to the sky.  There he became the charioteer of the Sun God guiding his chariot on the daily circumambulation of the universe. And one can see the form of Aruna guiding the chariot in the dawn when the sun is of reddish hue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My questions are these:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(a) Did the Sun God have a charioteer before Aruna was born?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(b) If so who was he? Where can I get the story and the proper scriptural references?&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="11625" LastEditDate="2018-02-12T04:26:26.713" LastActivityDate="2018-02-19T10:48:18.520" Title="Before Aruna, who was the Sun God's charioteer?" Tags="|mahabharata|puranas|surya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21086" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21081" CreationDate="2017-09-26T07:48:47.047" Score="3" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;For what reasons do prayers go unanswered?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prayers never go unanswered.&lt;/strong&gt; In fact they are answered immediately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 4.12 - Acting desirous of success, those who &lt;strong&gt;worship the deities&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;em&gt;deva/raksha/preta/pitru&lt;/em&gt;) here in this human world, the &lt;strong&gt;success happens quickly&lt;/strong&gt; from those actions&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 7.22 - Filled with that faith, that person engages in worshipping that form, and &lt;strong&gt;gets those very desired results&lt;/strong&gt; as they are dispensed by Me alone.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;If a devotee claims that his prayers were unanswered ...&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The prayers are answered with exactly same sincerity &amp;amp; way, with which the prayers are offered.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 4.11 - &lt;strong&gt;The way they approach Me (direct or via deity), exactly in same way I serve them&lt;/strong&gt;; O Partha human beings follow My path in every way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, if a person prays: &lt;em&gt;&quot;I want to be very rich.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;, then the result of that prayer will be immediately returned with the next thought in their mind. e.g. &quot;I will purchase xyz.&quot; &quot;I will travel at abc.&quot; ...  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If person prays in imagination, then gets results in imagination too like above&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If person brings the worship for money in conscience, then the prayer&#xA;will result in planning.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If the person brings the worship in action, then the prayer will&#xA;result in hard work in a direction.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If the person brings the worship in perseverance, then the prayer may&#xA;result in actual wealth as well&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Important to note that, prayers are not limited to hands folded with eyes closed. There are various way of worshipping/praying certain aspect (deity). They are listed scattered in Gita (e.g. 4.25-4.30).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One may think, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why sometimes, even after giving enough of efforts certain goals are not achieved?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because the earlier prayers are in work! If a person has in early life or birth has prayed to evil traits even more intensely, then they would nullify the person's lighter prayers in present time.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Practising evil traits is as good as praying evil traits.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T07:48:47.047" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21087" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-26T07:49:43.933" Score="3" ViewCount="145" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Sri Rama visit Hatya Haran teertha (Prabhaskar Teertha) to purify himself of the sin of Brahma Hatya due to killing of Raavana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sthala Purana of Hatyaharan Teertha as it is popularly known in Uttar Pradesh is about 25 kms from Naimisharanya Teertha. Namisharanya in Sitapur District UP is about 150 kms from Lucknow and 180 kms from Ayodhya. The Sthala claims it to be Prabhaskar Kshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a mention of Prabhaskar Teertha in Shiva Purana. According to the story,  In SatyaYuga Shiva and His Consort came to wander around Naimisharanya. The forests were so serene and calm that Shiva sat down to meditate and Parvati wandered around the forest.  Suddenly she felt thirsty, but finding no water asked the Devas to fetch some for Her. Surya Deva appeared and offered his kamandalu to Parvati to drink and while She was drinking a few drops fell on the ground and became a tank – teerthasthala.  When Shiva and Parvati were ready to leave the place, Shiva named the Sthala as Prabhaskar Kshetra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that in Treta Yuga, after defeating and killing Raavana, on His way back to Ayodhya, Sri Rama came to Hatyaharan Teertha to wash away the sin of Brahmahathya He had incurred in slaying Raavana [if true, then Raavana was not an Asura as made out but a Brahmin]. I find no mention of this visit or Praayaschitta in Valmiki Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My questions are:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(a)   Did Sri Rama visit Hatyaharan Teertha on His way back to Ayodhya?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(b)   Is this teertha indeed the Prabhaskara Kshetra referred to in Shiva Purana?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(c)   In which scriptures / epics is the story of Sri Rama performing praayaschitta for Brahmahathya at Prabhaskara Kshetra described?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T07:57:31.343" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T07:57:31.343" Title="Did Sri Rama visit Hatya Haran teertha (Prabhaskar Teertha) to purify himself?" Tags="|scripture|temple|rama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21088" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-26T08:05:04.640" Score="2" ViewCount="243" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am interested to have an English Commentary on Kamba Ramayana with the original verses in Tamil. It may be a particular sitr, but I am interested in the same in form of a-book, priced or free.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please give links.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T08:59:26.410" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T08:59:26.410" Title="Kamba Ramayana with English Commentary" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21089" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21161" CreationDate="2017-09-26T08:43:05.827" Score="3" ViewCount="340" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Samkhya school, founded by the sage Kapila.  There are three works which are variously claimed to be the oldest surviving work of the Samkhya school: Kapila's Samkhya Sutras, Kapila's Tattva Samasa, and Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika.  Of these three, scholars consider the Samkhya Karika to be the oldest; the original defining work of the Samkhya school was composed by Kapila, but scholars believe that work is lost and that the Samkhya Sutras and Tattva Samasa are just later works attributed to Kapila.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, what is the Guru Parampara of Ishwara Krishna, the author of the Samkhya Karika?  How many generations removed is he from Kapila?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universaltheosophy.com/sacred-texts/samkhya-karika/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is all the end of the Samkhya Karika says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;etat pavitram agryam munir āsuraye anukampayā pradadau | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  āsurir api pañcaśikhāya tena bahudhākṛtaṃ tantram || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śiṣyaparamparayā gatam īśvarakṛṣṇena caitad āryābhiḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  saṃkṣiptam āryamatinā samyag vijñāya siddhāntam || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  saptatyāṃ kila ye arthās te arthāḥ kṛtsnasya ṣaṣṭitantrasya | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ākhyāyikāvirahitāḥ paravādavivarjitāścāpi ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This sacred and supreme (Knowledge), the sage (Kapila) gave to Āsuri out of compassion. Āsuri (gave it) to Pañcaśikha, who elaborated the doctrine. Handed down by tradition of disciples, this was summarised in Ārya verses by Iśvarakṛṣṇa of noble mind, having fully understood the demonstrated truth.&#xA;  The topics of these seventy verses are those of the entire Ṣaṣṭitantra; they are devoid of anecdotes and also omit discussions of rival views.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Kapila's shishya was Asuri, whose shishya was Panchashikha.  But what is the Guru Parampara between Panchashikha and Ishwara Krishna?  Do any commentaries on the Samkhya Karika shed light on this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T03:10:31.247" Title="What is the Guru Parampara of the Samkhya philosopher Ishwara Krishna?" Tags="|history|philosophy|sankhya|kapila|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21090" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20234" CreationDate="2017-09-26T09:58:28.200" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;What exactly are yakshas?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Answered here: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8337/1049&quot;&gt;Who are Yaksha-s&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Is it good or bad to worship them? Will they get angry if you stop praying to them?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's about personal liking. As mentioned in above link, &lt;em&gt;Yaksha&lt;/em&gt;-s have attachive qualities like &lt;em&gt;Raksha&lt;/em&gt; (also known as &lt;em&gt;RAkshasa&lt;/em&gt;). Hence they are prayed in mode of passion (&lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Upon stop worshipping, they will stop giving the results for whatever purpose were they being prayed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;My point is that should we worship Kubera?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yaksha&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Raksha&lt;/em&gt; necessarily don't mean &amp;quot;evil minded&amp;quot;. They have attachive quality due to &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt; involved. Hence, those who have &lt;strong&gt;desires for anything&lt;/strong&gt;, would worship in influence of &lt;em&gt;Rajas&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If one acts desirous of wealth, then it's equivalent to worshipping &lt;em&gt;Kubera&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 10.23 - ... among &lt;em&gt;Yaksa&lt;/em&gt;-s and &lt;em&gt;Raksha&lt;/em&gt;-s, I am lord of wealth (viz. Kubera) ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What is worshipping?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Often people limit the worshipping only to &amp;quot;praying with hands folded and eyes closed&amp;quot;. In reality, various worshipping ways are mentioned in Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;dhyAna-yoga (prayers)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;chanting (&lt;em&gt;japa&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;listening (&lt;em&gt;shravana&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;kriya-yoga (&lt;em&gt;Asana&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;karma-yoga (dedication)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;gyAna-yoga (illumination)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;service (&lt;em&gt;seva&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;animosity (&lt;em&gt;shatrutA&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;friendship (&lt;em&gt;mitratA&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whenever a person is desirous of wealth, he/she automatically worships Kubera, even if the person doesn't know the name. Similarly if person loves water bodies (river, ponds etc.), then he/she overall worships &lt;em&gt;Varuna&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whichever form one worships, the Self would fix one into that form. Though this way of worshipping is not methodical, it eventually leads to the supreme only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 7.21 - Whichever form [of a deity], any devotee wants to worship with faith, I strengthen only that faith of them&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 9.23 - O son of Kunti, Even those who being devoted to other deities and endowed with faith, worship [them], they also worship Me alone, following the wrong method.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence worshipping wealth (Kubera), eventually reaches to supreme. Eventually that would result in wealth. See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21086/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. Whatever attachive qualities come with money, one has to bear -- be it good or evil.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T11:45:32.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21092" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21063" CreationDate="2017-09-26T11:30:22.517" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;That what you said &lt;em&gt;Paramatma is only a witness and has no influence whatsoever on the Jeevatma's karma&lt;/em&gt; is not correct.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Paramatma is not only the witness, he is also the one who gives out karma to all the living beings, jiva souls, jivatmas. Karma are activities or deeds that jivas have done, and the results of those deeds in the form of good and evil, namely happiness and suffering. All that is under control of paramatma.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is confirmed by Lord Krishna in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad gita 7.21-23&lt;/a&gt;:   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 7.21 — &lt;strong&gt;I am in everyone’s heart as the Supersoul&lt;/strong&gt;. As soon as one&#xA;  desires to worship some demigod, I make his faith steady so that he&#xA;  can devote himself to that particular deity.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 7.22 — Endowed with&#xA;  such a faith, he endeavors to worship a particular demigod and obtains&#xA;  his desires. &lt;strong&gt;But in actuality these beneﬁts are bestowed by Me alone&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bg 7.23 — &lt;strong&gt;Men of small intelligence&lt;/strong&gt; worship the demigods, and their&#xA;  fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to&#xA;  the planets of the demigods, but &lt;strong&gt;My devotees&lt;/strong&gt; ultimately reach My&#xA;  supreme planet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is important to know about those verses is that Lord Krishna is that paramatma situated in all living beings, in their heart. We see that in verse 7.21 where Lord Krishna says &quot;I am in everyone’s heart as the Supersoul (paramatma)&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In those verses Lord Krishna is telling Arjuna that there are people who worship gods in heaven, sometimes called demigods, such as Indra, Agni, etc, expecting good results of such karmic worship in the form of good things for enjoyment, wealth, cattle, good health, etc. And when people get those good results of their pious worship, ie pious or good karma, then they think that those gods in heaven gave them those good results in the form of things for enjoyment, wealth, etc. But Lord Krishna says that it is not actually quite true that those gods in heaven gave to the people those good karmic results, but it is he alone, Lord Krishna, who is giving all those karmic results to everyone. We see that from the verse 7.22 where Lord Krishna says &quot;But &lt;strong&gt;in actuality&lt;/strong&gt; these beneﬁts are bestowed &lt;strong&gt;by Me alone&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. Of course, we can say that gods in heaven gave those karmic results, but they did that because Lord Krishna ordered them to do that. Thus in actuality those results are bestowed by Lord Krishna alone who is the Supreme controller. And because some people don't know this Vedic teaching about who is the controller of karma, in verse 7.23 the Lord says that less intelligent people think that they should worship gods in heaven and not paramatma, Lord Krishna, instead.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus we know that Lord Krishna is paramatma who is the controller of karma. And thus we know that paramatma, Lord Krishna, should be worshiped and not somebody else. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is paramatma controlling the living beings (jivas)?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is explained in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/18/61&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavad gita 18.61&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and &lt;strong&gt;is&#xA;  directing the wanderings of all living entities&lt;/strong&gt;, ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna is paramatma situated in everyone’s heart, and from within the heart he is controlling the lives of everyone. Thus He is directing everyone’s life. What is this &quot;directing&quot;? This is explained in brief in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/15/15&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;verse 15.15&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am seated in everyone’s heart, and &lt;strong&gt;from Me come remembrance,&#xA;  knowledge and forgetfulness&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In that verse the Lord says that our mental functions such as remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness are under his control. Thus we can say that being situated in our heart He is making us to remember our past desires which we had in our previous lives, and thus He is impelling us and directing us to do something in this life according to our deeds and desires from our past, even past lives.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In this verse it is also said that  knowledge or ability to know or comprehend something is under the Lord's control as well. We know that in this world some people are more capable to understand something and some people are not capable to understand much of what they want to learn about. The Lord will make some people more capable to learn something if they deserve that, and we deserve everything by our efforts, desires, and deeds in this and our previous lives. For example, some people naturally get inclination to strive for spiritual life because in their previous life they were yogis or pious people. Thus their ability to know or understand properly the Vedic wisdom and yoga in this life will be greater than the ability to understand those things of some other people who did not strive for spiritual life in the past lives. This ability is also under control of the Lord. See related: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7132/2790&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7132/2790&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, not only Dvaita but all the other Vaishnava systems of Vedanta, such as Gaudiya Vaishnava (which is my favorite), Vishishtadvaita etc, teach the same thing that there is the difference between jivatma and paramatma, and that jivas and their karma are under control of paramatma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T11:39:19.900" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T11:39:19.900" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21093" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21079" CreationDate="2017-09-26T11:56:24.363" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer as to why divine grace does not descend unless we pray or do some kind of spiritual practice is that God wants the creation to continue. If God uses His powers to help all creatures unasked then all creatures will instantaneously attain moksha and creation will end immediately after it is projected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'A man does not have to suffer any more if God, in His grace, removes&#xA;  his doubts and reveals Himself to him. But this grace descends upon&#xA;  him only after he has prayed to God with intense yearning of heart and&#xA;  practised spiritual  discipline. The mother feels compassion for her&#xA;  child when he sees him running about breathlessly. She has been hiding&#xA;  herself; now she appears before the child.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'But why should God make us run about?' thought M.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Immediately Sri Ramakrishna said: 'It is His&#xA;  will that we should run about a little. Then it is great fun. God has&#xA;  created the world in play, as it were. This is called Mahamaya, the&#xA;  Great Illusion. Therefore one must take refuge in the Divine Mother,&#xA;  the Cosmic Power Itself. It is She who has bound us with the shackles&#xA;  of illusion. The realization of God is possible only when those&#xA;  shackles are severed.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Master continued: 'One must propitiate the Divine Mother, the&#xA;  Primal Energy, in order to obtain God's grace. God Himself is&#xA;  Mahamaya, who deludes the world with Her illusion and conjures up the&#xA;  magic of creation, preservation and destruction. She has spread this&#xA;  veil of ignorance before our eyes. We can only go to the inner chamber&#xA;  only when She lets us pass through the door. Living outside, we see&#xA;  only outer objects, but not that Eternal Being,&#xA;  Exitsence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, August 24, 1882&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Brahmo  devotee: 'But sir, if She likes, She can give freedom to&#xA;  all. Why, then, has She kept us bound to the world?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna: 'That is Her will. She wants to continue playing with&#xA;  Her created beings. In a game of hide-and seek the running about soon&#xA;  stops if in the beginning all the players touch the 'granny'. If all&#xA;  touch her, then how can the game go on? That displeases her. Her&#xA;  pleasure is in continuing the game. Therefore the poet said: Out of a&#xA;  hundred thousand kites, at best but one or two break free; And thus&#xA;  dost laugh and clap Thy hands, O Mother, watching them.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, October 27, 1882&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am adding this section in answer to the question in the comment as to why God does not fulfill the wishes of a Jiva for worldly things and or moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let me first answer the question about worldly things through a concrete example. It  is entirely possible that 15 people want the promotion to a single job. God must surely have some criterion to choose between 15 people if God is to avoid the charge of being biased. Moreover, God being omniscient and omni-benevolent sees that promotion to that post would be harmful to all 15 people. So in that situation God granting the wishes of even one Jiva would be harmful. Thus God leaves it to the karma of individuals to gain worldly things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God has already through scriptures and the experience of Yogis laid down the minimum standards for attaining moksha. God will thus not just grant a Jiva moksha if he has not attained the minimum standards of overcoming lust, greed, anger etc. If god does grant a Jiva moksha without any standards then such a thing will be unfair to Jivas who are doing strenuous spiritual practice to attain minimum standards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T12:53:35.357" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T12:53:35.357" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21094" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-26T12:29:12.147" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T12:29:12.147" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:29:12.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21095" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-26T12:29:12.147" Score="0" Body="Questions related to various sins." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T12:29:12.147" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:29:12.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21096" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21080" CreationDate="2017-09-26T12:30:50.213" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The non-attachment of Brahman to creation is due to lust, greed etc. As soon as these impediments are removed God attracts man. Devotees are those Jivas who have succeeded in removing those impediments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Ramakrishna: '..But as I said just now, one must live in holy&#xA;  company and pray unceasingly. One must weep for God. When the&#xA;  impurities of the mind are thus washed away, one realizes God. The&#xA;  mind is like a needle covered with mud, and God is like a magnet. The&#xA;  needle cannot be united with the magnet unless it is free from mud.&#xA;  Tears wash away the mud, which is nothing but lust, anger, greed and&#xA;  other evil tendencies, and the inclination to worldly enjoyments as&#xA;  well. As soon as the mud is washed away, the magnet attracts the&#xA;  needle, that is to say, man realizes God. Only the pure in heart see&#xA;  God.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna April 9, 1882&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:30:50.213" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21097" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-26T12:35:26.247" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T12:35:26.247" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:35:26.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21098" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-26T12:35:26.247" Score="0" Body="Questions related to various saints and their works." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T12:35:26.247" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:35:26.247" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21099" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-26T12:39:39.260" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T12:39:39.260" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:39:39.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21100" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-26T12:39:39.260" Score="0" Body="Questions related to plants and their significance." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T12:39:39.260" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:39:39.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21101" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-26T12:44:37.727" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T12:44:37.727" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:44:37.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21102" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-26T12:44:37.727" Score="0" Body="Questions related to Tulasi." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T12:44:37.727" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:44:37.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21103" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21078" CreationDate="2017-09-26T12:53:25.030" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda has said in his various discussion of the Vedas that the spiritual laws mentioned in the Vedas are eternal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There was a time when the Vedas themselves were considered eternal in&#xA;  the sense in which the divine truths contained therein were changeless&#xA;  and permanent and were only revealed to man. At a subsequent time, it&#xA;  appears that the utterances of the Vedic hymns with the knowledge of&#xA;  its meaning was important; and it was held that the hymns themselves&#xA;  must have had a divine origin. At a still later period, the meaning of&#xA;  the hymns showed that many of them could not be of divine origin,&#xA;  because they inculcated upon mankind performance of various unholy&#xA;  acts, such as torturing animals; and we can find many ridiculous&#xA;  stories in the Vedas. The correct meaning of the statement &quot;The Vedas&#xA;  are beginningless and eternal&quot; is that the law or truth revealed by&#xA;  them to man is permanent and changeless. Logic, geometry, chemistry,&#xA;  etc., reveal also a law or truth which is permanent and changeless and&#xA;  in that sense they are also beginningless and eternal. But no truth or&#xA;  law is absent from the Vedas, and I ask any one of you to point out to&#xA;  me any truth which is not treated of in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol.5: With the Swami Vivekananda at Madura, pp.205-206)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas.&#xA;  They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. It may&#xA;  sound ludicrous to this audience [in the West] how a book can be&#xA;  without beginning or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant. They&#xA;  mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by&#xA;  different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravitation&#xA;  existed before its discovery and would exist if all humanity forgot&#xA;  it, so is it with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral,&#xA;  ethical, and spiritual relations between soul and soul and between&#xA;  individual spirits and the Father of all spirits were there before&#xA;  their discovery, and would remain even if we forget them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol.1  Paper on Hinduism, pp.6-7.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Vedic] principles have existed throughout time; and they will exist.&#xA;  They are non-created - uncreated by any laws which science teaches us&#xA;  today. They remain covered and become discovered, but are existing&#xA;  through all eternity in nature. If Newton had not been born the law of&#xA;  gravitation would have remained all the same and would have worked all&#xA;  the same. It was Newton's genius which formulated it, discovered it,&#xA;  brought it into consciousness, made it a conscious thing to the human&#xA;  race. So are these religious laws, the grand truths of spirituality.&#xA;  They are working all the time. If all the Vedas and Bibles and Korans&#xA;  did not exist at all, if seers and prophets had never been born, yet&#xA;  these laws would exist. They are only held in abeyance, and slowly but&#xA;  surely will work to raise the human race, to raise human nature. But&#xA;  they are the prophets who see them, discover them; and such prophets&#xA;  are discoverers in the field of spirituality. As Newton and Galileo&#xA;  were prophets of physical science, so are they prophets of&#xA;  spirituality. They can claim no exclusive right to any one of these&#xA;  laws; they are the common property of all nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas, as the Hindus say, are eternal. We now understand what they&#xA;  mean by their being eternal, i.e. that the laws have neither beginning&#xA;  nor end. Earth after earth, system after system, will evolve, run for&#xA;  a certain time, and then dissolve back into chaos; but the universe&#xA;  remains the same. Millions and millions of systems are being born,&#xA;  while millions are being destroyed. The universe remains the same. The&#xA;  beginning and end of time can be told as regards a certain planet;&#xA;  but, as regards the universe, time has no meaning at all. So are the&#xA;  laws of nature, the physical laws, the mental laws, the spiritual&#xA;  laws, without beginning or end; and it is within a few years,&#xA;  comparatively speaking - a few thousand years at best - that man has&#xA;  tried to reveal them. The infinite mass remains before us. Therefore&#xA;  the one great lesson that we learn from the Vedas, at the start, is&#xA;  that religion has just begun. The infinite ocean of spiritual truth&#xA;  lies before us to be worked on, to be discovered, to be brought into&#xA;  our lives. The world has seen thousands of prophets, and the world has&#xA;  yet to see millions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol.6: The Methods and Purpose of Religion, pp.8-9.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Vedas are anadi, eternal. The meaning of the statement is not, as&#xA;  is erroneously supposed by some, that the words of the Vedas are&#xA;  anadi, but that the spiritual laws inculcated by the Vedas are such.&#xA;  These laws, which are immutable and eternal, have been discovered at&#xA;  various times by great men or rishis, though some of them have been&#xA;  forgotten now, while others are preserved.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol.6: Notes Taken Down in Madras, 1892-93, p.103)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T12:53:25.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21104" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21077" CreationDate="2017-09-26T14:14:12.097" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Advaita moksha is different from both dvaita and Vishishtadvaita Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Advaita Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This school believes both in moksha while still living (Jivanmukti) and after death (krama-mukti). It is not possible to go any further since Advaita moksha is non-dual in nature. Nevertheless I am posting the following passage:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma continued [Suka said],’..By knowledge, one attains to that whither there is no occasion for grief; whither one becomes freed from&#xA;  birth and death; whither one is not subject to decrepitude; whither&#xA;  one transcends the state of conscious existence; whither is Brahma&#xA;  which is Supreme, Unmanifest, immutable, ever-existent, imperceptible,&#xA;  above the reach of pain, immortal, and transcending destruction;&#xA;  whither all become freed from the influence of all pairs of opposites&#xA;  (like pleasure and pain, etc), as also wish or purpose. Reaching that&#xA;  stage, they cast equal eyes on everything, becoming universal friends&#xA;  and devoted to the good of all the creatures.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCXLI&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dvaita Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to this school moksha is only possible after death. In ascending order, this school believes in four levels of moksha: (1) salokya, (2) samipya, (3) sarupya and (4) sayujya. ….. In salokya mukti, the departed soul goes to Ishta-loka (the abode of Vishnu) and stays there blissfully enjoying His presence. In samipya-mukti the departed soul enjoys the bliss of extreme proximity to Vishnu. In sarupya-mukti the departed soul acquires the form of Vishnu and enjoys intense bliss. In sayujya-mukti the departed soul becomes blissfully absorbed in Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishistadvaita Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The school of Qualified Non-dualism or Vishishtadvaita-vada, is a school of theism. Its main exponent was Ramanuja. According to this school, a person can have moksha only after the person’s death. Moksha means living blissfully in Vaikuntha (the abode of Vishnu) in spiritual bodies. They acquire many divine powers such as omniscience, but unlike God they cannot create, sustain, or dissolve the world. In spite of their exalted state they remain subservient to God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why do Vaishnavas frown upon Advaita moksha? The answer is that Vaishnavas think that in Soham (I am He ) He stands for Vishnu. This is because Sri Vaishnavas do not accept the concept of Nirguna Brahman as understood by Advaita.Sankara of course considers Nirguna Brahman to be real and Saguna Brahman to be unreal. Thus Advaitins reject that idea that Soham means 'I amd Vishnu'.They instead hold Soham to mean 'I am Nirguna Brahman'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T14:14:12.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21105" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21116" CreationDate="2017-09-26T14:17:05.797" Score="10" ViewCount="463" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Purva Mimamsa school doesn't accept that the names of individuals or gods in the Vedas actually refer to corporeal beings, but are limited to their etymological meaning, as explained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9382/11726&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; post. For example, &quot;Pravahani&quot; means &quot;one who carries things in an excellent manner&quot;, and does not actually refer to a person named Pravahani as the &quot;son of Pravahana&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if they don't accept Rishis, kings, and Devas as actual beings, then how does it explain their actions and behavior in the Smritis, Puranas, Mahabharata, Ramayana, etc?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T15:34:08.750" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T04:41:45.090" Title="If the Purva Mimamsa school doesn't accept the corporeality of the Devas, then how does it explain their actions?" Tags="|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21106" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-26T14:28:47.223" Score="1" ViewCount="31" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually i have seen in many references about the first god but always answer is not clear.....            I want to know that among the three supreme gods shiv vishnu brahma and also goddess durga who came first.......                             Some says its brahma who gave birth to all gods either directly or indirectly &#xA;some says shiv because he is God of gods therefore he must have been came earlier &#xA;some says vishnu as he is the protector of all and also for many problems gods visited him for solution &#xA;and some says goddess durga as she is considered as the mother of all creatures &#xA;I want to know so can you please help me? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12120" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T14:28:47.223" Title="Who came first among our supreme gods" Tags="|gods|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-09-26T14:31:31.873" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21107" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21084" CreationDate="2017-09-26T15:07:16.767" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the most ideal situation, a Guru himself should be self-realized. Because, the end-result of all forms of initiation (DikshA) is Mukti or liberation and one who himself is not self-realized can not liberate others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For proofs, we can cite the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SarvAsAmeva dikshAnAm muktih phalamakhanditam |&lt;br&gt; AvisheshAd bhavatyeshA&#xA;  prAsangikyastu bhuktayaha || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The end result of all DikshAs is liberation. And, everyone can achieve&#xA;  the same without any discrimination. However, sometimes it can result&#xA;  in Bhoga (worldly pleasures) too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Navaratneswara Tantram.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AND&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BrahmAkAram manorupam pratyaksham swatanusthitam |&lt;br&gt; Yo na jAnAti&#xA;  chAnyasysya katham moksham dadAtyasau || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How can one, who himself don't know about the existence of Brahman in&#xA;  his own body, liberate others?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 13.120&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OR&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na NarenAvarena Prokta Esha Suvigyo VahudhA ChintyamAnaha|&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ananyaprokte Gatiratra NAsyaniyAn HytharkyamanupramAnAth||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BrahmaVidya should be obtained only from a Guru who is himself&#xA;  BrahmaGyAni. &lt;strong&gt;BrahmagyAna (or the knowledge of the Self) is not&#xA;  obtained from that Guru's upadesha who himself is not self-realized.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kathopanishad 1.2.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OR&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TasmAtattva videveha mukto mochak eva cha || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who is self-realized is liberated &lt;strong&gt;and he can only liberate others&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 13.121&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, ideally a Guru should be having the knowledge of the self. But that does not mean Gurus who have not attained that highest state are not fit to be Gurus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This can be understood when we realize that there are &lt;strong&gt;different kinds and levels of initiations&lt;/strong&gt;. And not all forms of initiations &lt;strong&gt;immediately&lt;/strong&gt; bestow Mukti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They  just mark the first step (or some intermediate steps) towards liberation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, likewise, there has to be different kinds of Gurus each suitable for each steps. For example, we have the following six preliminary types of Gurus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prerakah suchakaishchava vAchako darshakas tathA |&lt;br&gt; Shikshako&#xA;  bodhakaishchava sharete guravaha smritAh ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gurus are of six kinds-- Preraka, Suchaka, VAchaka, Darshaka,&#xA;  Shikshaka and Bodhaka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 13-129.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Preraka Guru&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From the word preranA (inspiration), One who inspires the disciple into&#xA;  initiation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Suchaka Guru&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From Shuchana (indication)- One who, according to the disciples&#xA;  mentality and aptitude, indicates the correct (or suitable) path for SAdhana for the&#xA;  disciple.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Darshaka Guru&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who shows the disciple how to perform the various rituals&#xA;  associated with the particular SAdhana and also who is capable of&#xA;  explaining their underlying significance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Shikshaka Guru&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who practically teaches the disciple the various rituals associated&#xA;  with the SAdhana &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bodhaka Guru&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who inspires the disciple, and one who is capable of enlightening&#xA;  the disciple as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, understandably, &lt;strong&gt;few such Gurus can very well do without being self-realized.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, DikshA is given utmost importance in all scriptures. For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VinA dikshAm na mokshah&lt;/strong&gt; syAttaduktam shivashAsane | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Without dikshA there is no liberation&lt;/strong&gt;-- This is Shiva's order.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 14.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;OR&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Devi, &lt;strong&gt;dikshAvihinasya na siddhirna cha sadgatihi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Without DikshA, there is neither Siddhi nor Sadgati (liberation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the act of DikshA is the priority for everyone. Now, in case, we are to take Diksha from only self-realized Gurus, then that means we all are likely to remain un-initiated throughout our lives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because, the number of such self-realized Gurus in the world can be counted on fingers, if at all they are available to us and most importantly recognizable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, IMO, it is not necessary that we impose such severe conditions on our Gurus. &lt;strong&gt;As long as we can verify that he is carrying the mantra or the knowledge from Parashiva (the Adi Guru) in an unbroken chain, to us, we should be ever ready to get initiated by him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides, we should also check and test the Guru for signs (Guru Lakshanam). The Guru, in the same way, must verify some preliminary signs among the would-be-disciples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T15:25:11.427" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T15:25:11.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21108" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21054" CreationDate="2017-09-26T15:33:49.037" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Assuming standard sunrise &amp;amp; sunset at 6am &amp;amp; 6pm, the day is divided into different parts for different activities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4.24am - 6&lt;/strong&gt; - brahma muhurtham (actually 2 muhurtams, since 1 muhurtam = 48 minutes) - snanam, sandhyavandanam&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6 - 8.24&lt;/strong&gt; - pratah kalah - veda adhyanana (learning)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8.24 - 10.48&lt;/strong&gt; - sangava kala - danam (both giving &amp;amp; taking), items for puja &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;10.48 - 1.12&lt;/strong&gt; - madhyanika kala - madhyanika sandhya, tarpana, vaisvadeva, ijjai (bhagavad aradhana/neivedyam), manushya yagna (feeding athithis), finally bhojana (if no sraddham on that day)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.12 - 3.36&lt;/strong&gt; - aparahna kala - sradhham, purana adhyanana, veda adhyapana (teaching)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3.36 - 6&lt;/strong&gt; - sayam kala - snanam, sandhyavandanam&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6 - 7.24&lt;/strong&gt; - bhojana  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7.24 - 9.48&lt;/strong&gt; - bhoga  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9.48pm - 4.24am&lt;/strong&gt; - nidra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part19/chap10.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part19/chap10.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above is ideal way of living, for brahmanas. For modern days, instead of full-blown-heavy breakfast, we can have milk with jaggery, or buttermilk, or pazhayadu (previous night's left over cooked rice that was immersed in water), or fruits like banana that was offered to Bhagavan previous day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same above menu for evening 'tiffin'. This reduces the amount of cooking house ladies have to do, the utensils they have to clean, the kitchen they have to tidy up, cos its unnecessary burden on our mothers, sisters, wives  etc.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Avoid dosa, idli, chutney, upma, bhel puri, pani puri, samosa, ice cream etc. every day, unless these items replace dinner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a 4th part of that folklore:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;eka (1) bhojanam - yogi (saint)  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;dvi (2) - bhogi (enjoyer)  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;tri (3) - rogi (diseased)  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;chatvari (4) - drohi (traitor)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Eating only twice a day = you get benefits of upavaas (fasting)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Joining with wife only on prescribed days = you get benefits of brahmacharya (celibacy)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You might have heard story of Krishna and Durvasa claiming to be nitya brahmachari or nitya upavaasi. They are bhagavan and maharishi, so their actions are spiritual without material desires or attachments. But if a layman asks how they can make those claims, above two methods give shastric allowance for fasting &amp;amp; celibacy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="314" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T03:17:45.373" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T03:17:45.373" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21109" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-26T16:07:08.893" Score="1" ViewCount="905" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have read the time concept of Hinduism in Vishnu Purana, assembling all that data I have calculated the current age of earth, the calculations are as follow: &#xA;Currently we have passed 6 manavantaras that is equal to 6 x 71 x 12000 = &lt;strong&gt;1840320000&lt;/strong&gt; human years.&#xA;Also we are in kaliyuga of 27th mahayuga of 7th manavantra and 426881 human years are remaining in completetion of this current kali yuga, this means we have passed &lt;strong&gt;3893119&lt;/strong&gt; human years of this manavantra.&#xA;Adding the years of current time which has passed i.e 1840320000 + 3893119 must give us the current age of earth which is equal to &lt;strong&gt;1844213119&lt;/strong&gt; human years, approx equal to &lt;strong&gt;1.84B&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now i have read many blogs which are claiming the vedic age of earth is equal to 4.32B which is far apart from my calculations. Also according to science the age of earth is found to be 4.32B years. But if you do the correct calculations you will get the same result as i am getting according to vishnu purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is who is wrong ? Me or the vedic blogs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can google vedic age of earth to find some relevant blogs&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please correct me if i am wrong.&#xA;Also if i am correct then why there is a huge difference of age in vedas and science. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source:&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhakti-yoga-meditation.com/hinduism-age-of-the-earth.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.bhakti-yoga-meditation.com/hinduism-age-of-the-earth.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8660" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T04:03:54.943" LastActivityDate="2018-11-05T17:22:58.203" Title="Vedic age of earth" Tags="|vishnu-purana|earth|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21111" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-26T17:36:07.310" Score="1" ViewCount="189" Body="&lt;p&gt;Parmatma is not just a witness.&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/21063/according-to-dvaita-philosophy-why-is-paramatma-worshiped&quot;&gt;In my previous question&lt;/a&gt; it became apparent that the Parmatma had certain responsibilities to fulfill. Parmatma is bestower of blessings and punishment. If a person does a good job then he or she is blessed and if he does a bad job then he is punished by Parmatma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question are : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Parmatma has responsibilities to fulfill then isn't he doing Karma and therefore liable to suffer the consequences of Karma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(For example Bhagwan Vishnu had given Narada monkey face( this was Vishu's Karma) and Narada cursed Lord Vishnu that he will be seperated from his beloved ones(this was the consequence of Vishnu's Karma).) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-26T17:46:51.737" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T08:00:20.027" Title="According to Dvaita philosophy , is Parmatma involved in Karma?" Tags="|karma|atma|dvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21112" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21123" CreationDate="2017-09-26T18:07:05.923" Score="5" ViewCount="6389" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Vedas what exactly is the significance of number 7. Reason am asking this is because we have:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Saptarishi&lt;/em&gt; (7 Sages)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;7 &lt;em&gt;Chakras&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;7 Days &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;7 &lt;em&gt;Svara&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;7 colors in rainbow (Indradhanush)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;7 &lt;em&gt;pheras&lt;/em&gt; during marriage&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are so many others as listed &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhargavasarma.blogspot.ca/2012/10/saptha-number-seven-7-symbolism-and.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&#xA;Curious to understand the logic behind this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T15:26:47.067" LastActivityDate="2018-10-19T15:46:56.813" Title="Significance of number 7 as per Vedas" Tags="|vedas|numbers|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21113" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20930" CreationDate="2017-09-26T18:13:56.453" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishvedevas are the son of Dharma and Visva. They have performed great austerities to please Lord Brahma and got the boon to get the share of food in Shraaddha. This is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vayu-mahapurana/text-with-translation/vol-ii/chapter-76&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vayu Purana, Chapter 76&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दक्षस्य दुहिता ख्याता लोके विश्वेति नामतः। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;विधिना सा तु धर्मज्ञ दत्ता धर्माय धर्मतः॥ &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;तस्याः पुत्रा महात्मानो विश्वे देवा इति श्रुतिः॥ ३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Daksa's daughter became well-known in the world as “Visva' by name. By a ritual, O You knower of Dharma (Law), she was offered duly and righteously to Dharma. Her sons “ViSvedevas” were the great-souled ones. This is the traditional hearing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रख्यातास्त्रिषु लोकेषु सर्वलोकनमस्कृताः। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;समस्तास्ते महात्मानश्चेरुरुग्रं महत्तपः॥ ४॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well-known in the three worlds, they were offered obeisance to by the entire populace. All those were great-souled ones and Were performers of austere penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;हिमवच्छिखरे रम्ये देवगन्धर्वसेविते।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;सर्वाप्सरोभिश्चरितं देवगन्धर्वसेवितम्॥ ५॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the lovely peak of Himavan waited upon by Devas and Gandharvas, they moved about as such accompanied by all the Apsarsas and waited upon by Devas and Gandharvas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;महातेजा महादेवस्तपसा तैस्तु तापित:। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;तपसा तेन सुप्रीतः कं कामं विदधामि वः॥८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brahma spoke-- &amp;quot;Even highly radiant Mahadeva has been tormented by them by means of great austerity. I am well gratified by that penance. What desire of yours may I accomplish&amp;quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एवमुक्तास्तदा विश्ले ब्रह्मणा लोककर्तृणा। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;ऊचुस्ते सहिताः सर्वे ब्रह्माणं लोकभाविनम्॥९॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This way addressed by Brahma, the creator of the world, all of them spoke out simultaneously to Brahma, the recogniser of the Universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्राद्धेऽस्माकं भवेदंशो ह्येषे नः काड्क्षतो वरः। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;प्रत्युवाच ततो ब्रह्मा तान्वै त्रिदिवपूजितान्॥ १०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;May there be a share of us in Srāddha. This&#xA;is a desired boon'. Replied then Brahma to those, who were adored in the heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;भविष्यत्येवमेवेति काङ्क्षतो वो वरस्तु यः। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;पितृभिस्तु तथेत्युक्त्वा एवमेतन्न संशयः॥ ११॥ &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;सहास्माभिस्तु वो भाव्यं यत्किचित्क्रियते त्विह। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;अस्माकं कल्पिते श्राद्ध युष्मानग्रासनं ह वै॥ १२॥ &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;भविष्यति मनुष्येषु सत्यमेतद्ब्रवीमि ते।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;माल्यैर्गन्धैस्तथाऽन्नेन युष्मानाग्रेऽर्चयिष्यति॥ १३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;“This way shall happen to be. This way the boon will be granted to you'. Pitrs then said&#xA;“All right', and continued, &amp;quot;there happened to be no doubt about it. Whatever is performed here shall be for you too along with us. In the Srāddha organised by men for us, your seat shall be the frontal one. We are telling you the truth. By means of garlands, perfumes and by food, they will adore you at the outset.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vayu-mahapurana/text-with-translation/vol-ii/chapter-66&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vayu Purana, Chapter 66&lt;/a&gt; gives the ten names of Vishvedevas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विश्वे(श्व)देवास्तु विश्वाया जज़िरे दश विश्रुता:। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;क्रतुर्दक्षः श्रवः सत्यः कालः कामो धुनिस्तथा॥ ३१ ॥ &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;कुरुवान्प्रभवांश्चैव रोचमानव ते दश। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;धर्मपुत्राः स्मृता ह्येते विश्वायां जज्ञिरे शुभाः॥ ३२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ten well known Visvedevas were born of Višvā. Kratu, Daksa, Šravas, Satya, Kala, Kāma, Dhuni, Kuruvān, Prabhavān and Rocamana were the ten as such. They are all known as the ten son of Dharma. They were the auspicious sons born of Visvá.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-ii/chapter-203&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matsya Purana, Chapter 203&lt;/a&gt; also gives the ten names of Vishvedevas with slight variation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;संकल्पायाश्च संकल्पस्तथा पुत्रः प्रकीर्त्तितः। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;मुहूर्त्ताश्च मुहूर्तायाः साध्याः साध्यासुताः स्मृताः।। १० ।। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;मनो मनुश्च प्राणश्च नरोषा नोच वीर्यवान्। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;चित्तहाय्ययनश्चैव हंसो नारायणस्तथा॥ ११॥&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;विभुश्चापि प्रभुश्चैव साध्या द्वादश कीर्त्तिताः। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;विश्वायाश्च तथा पुत्रा विश्वेदेवाः प्रकीर्त्तिताः।। १२।। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;क्रतुर्दक्षो वसुः सत्यः कालकामो मुनिस्तथा। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;कुरजो मनुजो वीजो रोचमानश्च ते दश॥ १३॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankalpa gave birth to Sankalpa, Muhurtas to Mahurtas, and Sādhyas gave birth to Sādhyas. Mana, Manu, Prāņa, Naroșā, Noca, Vīryavān, Cittahärya, Ayana, Hamsa, Närāyana, Vibhu and Prabhu were the twelve Sadhyas. These were the sons of Sadhyas. Visva gave birth to Wisvedewas. Kratu, Daksa, Vasu, Satya, Kālakāma, Muni, Karaja, Manuja, Vīja, Rocamāna, were the ten Viśvedevas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-09-26T18:13:56.453" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21114" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21115" CreationDate="2017-09-26T21:34:27.850" Score="9" ViewCount="240" Body="&lt;p&gt;As described here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://mesosyn.com/myth2h-2.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://mesosyn.com/myth2h-2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've found the info that it comes from Brahmavaivarta Purana but this doesn't seem right as I've scanned through it and haven't found it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11951" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T03:13:43.537" Title="What is the origin of the story where Vishnu disguises himself as a boy and gives Indra a lesson on impermanence?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|indra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21115" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21114" CreationDate="2017-09-27T03:13:43.537" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is described in BrahmaVaivarta Purana, &lt;strong&gt;Krishna Janma khanda chapter 47.&lt;/strong&gt; Chapter is named as 'Shattering pride of Indra.' Lord Vishnu takes the form of a Brahmana boy and teaches lesson of impermanence to Indra. Some verses from that chapter are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmana said:  O Hari!, I have come to meet you after coming to know about the construction of this astonishing city and to ask you some important questions. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  What is the time schedule fixed for the construction of this city or otherwise for how long Visswakarma would be engaged in the construction work. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;No Indra has so far resorted to this type of construction.&lt;/strong&gt; No other Vishwakarma would be competent enough to carry out such a type of construction. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;On hearing the words of the boy, Indra getting arrogant&lt;/strong&gt; because of the immense riches, laughed and enquired from the boy again. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;&quot;O boy how many Indras have you seen so far or heard about them and how many type of Vishwakarma?&lt;/strong&gt; You kindly let me know in detail. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O best of the gods &lt;strong&gt;even if one is able to count particles of dust on earth in spite of that number of Indras can&amp;apos;t be counted.&lt;/strong&gt; This is the opinion of intellectuals.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  .&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Brahmana said &amp;quot;O Indra, I have created the entire group of the ants, one by one, &lt;strong&gt;all these ants had been established on a throne of Indra one by one. All of them after having been born in various yugas have currently been born as ants.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T03:13:43.537" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21116" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21105" CreationDate="2017-09-27T04:41:45.090" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Good question! Let's distinguish between a bunch of different issues:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How the Purva Mimamsa school viewed human names in the Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;: The Purva Mimamsa school believed that the Vedas never refer to the name of a specific human being, because that would contradict the eternality of the Vedas.  They thought that that seeming references to human names should be reinterpreted in their etymological sense; here's what Shabara Swami says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/KC8d&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Purvapakshin has cited the term &quot;pravahani&quot; (as a proper name occurring in the Veda, and hence proving that the Veda came after that person). - But this is not right. We do not know of any person of the name &quot;Pravahana&quot;, hence the term pravahani cannot mean &quot;the son of Pravahana&quot;; in fact the prefix &quot;pra&quot; is well-known as signifying excellence, and the root &quot;vaha&quot; as signifying the act of carrying; and we do not know of any combination of these two (pra-vahana) as signifying any common well-known word; as regards the &quot;i&quot; (in the term &quot;pravahani&quot;), it is known as signifying &quot;progeny&quot; as well as &quot;agent of an action&quot;; so that the term pravahani signifies &quot;one who carries things in an excellent manner&quot; [and it cannot mean &quot;the son of Pravahana&quot;, as we do not know of any person of the name of &quot;Pravahana&quot;]. - As far as the term &quot;babara&quot;, it is only a word imitative of sound (produced by the blowing wind). This the two words (&quot;pravahani&quot; and &quot;babara&quot;) only express the everlasting thing (&quot;the blowing wind&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shabara interprets Babara son of Pravahani, which on the surface seems to be a reference to a human named Babara who was the son of a human named Pravahana, as really a reference to the wind.  The Vedanta school, on the other hand, accepts that the Vedas refer to human names, and explains this by saying that certain names and events recur in every creation; see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10352/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  The Purva Mimamsa school, in contrast, didn't believe in the notion of multiple creations or even one creation; they thought the Earth was eternal and that the human race was eternal on the Earth!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How the Purva Mimamsa school viewed the Devas:&lt;/strong&gt; The Purva Mimamsa school was borderline agnostic/atheist on the existence of the Devas.  See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6819/36&quot;&gt;this journal paper&lt;/a&gt;, for details.  Suffice it to say that they were vague on exact what the Devas were, but they at least believed the following: that the Devas do not have bodies, that the Devas do not consume offerings made in Yagnas, that the Devas are not allowed to do Yagnas themselves, and that the only role that Devas play in Yagnas is that offerings are made with reference to them as recipients.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/HxAh&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Shabara Swami's commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras is illustrative of the Purva Mimamsa attitude towards the Devas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is one opinion that by the term 'deity' we understand those beings, Ani and the rest, who are described in Itihasas and Puranas as living in heaven.... The other opinion is that &quot;by the term 'devata' ('Deity') are meant just those to whom the name 'Deity' has been applied in the Mantra and Brahmana texts such as, - 'Agni is the Deity' - 'Vata is the Deity' - 'Surya is the Deity' - 'Chandrama is the Deity'&quot;... [Both these opinions are rejected for various reasons.] For these reasons we conclude that Deities are those who are Sukta-bhak (to whom Hymns are addressed) and Havir-bhak (Recipients of offerings).... [T]hat 'recipient of offerings' should be the 'Deity' for whose sake the offering is made. Similarly with 'Sukta-bhak'.... [T]he character of 'Deity' becomes applicable to all those beings that are spoken of as those to whom anything is offered - be they corporeal or incorporeal, sentient or insentient[.]... [T]hat being becomes the 'Deity' of an offering, by whose name the Sacrificer makes the determination 'I shall present the offering to so and so'.&#xA;  [I]t is not in its material form that the Deity helps the accomplishment of the sacrifice - it does so in its verbal form; just as the Adhvaryu helps it with his hands, the Deity helps it with the name. Just as when ... though the action bears directly upon his hands, yet it is the Hotar priest himself that is regarded as helping the sacrifice - in the same manner, even though help is rendered by the Deity through the name connected with itself, yet it is the Deity itself that is regarded as helping the sacrifice.... [T]he word is not pronounced for the purpose of bringing about the notion of the thing denoted[.]... This is what has been explained by the Vrittikara - 'The notion of the thing denoted is not preceded by the word; hence the existence of the thing has been established (as apart from the word).' ... &lt;strong&gt;Says the Opponent - &quot;In that case it is the word that becomes the Deity.&quot; Answer - This is an idea that it is not for us to refute; because such an idea, if expressed, does not militate against our view&lt;/strong&gt;; on the contrary it lends all the more strength to the view [that different names of the same god should not be substituted for one another].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Shabara Swami doesn't actually endorse that the gods are nothing but words uttered in Yagnas, but he does not feel the need to refute that view, since he doesn't think that view would undermine any of the Purva Mimamsa school's doctrines.  In contrast, the Vedanta school unequivocally supports the existence and corporeality of the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How the Purva Mimamsa school viewed events described in Hindu scripture&lt;/strong&gt;:  The Purva Mimamsa school believed that the Vedas consist primarily of two kinds of statements, Vidhi or injunctions concerning Dharma, and Arthavada or meaningless statements that just serve to glorify the actions prescribed in the Vidhis.  For example, if the Vedas said &quot;Indra performed the Agnishtoma and then defeated Vritrasura in battle. So if you want victory in battle you should perform the Agnishtoma.&quot; then the Purva Mimamsa school would say that you cannot conclude from that that a Deva named Indra actually killed an Asura named  named Vritra.  (And as I said above, they didn't even think Devas were allowed to do Yagnas!) Rather, it's just a way of encouraging people to do the Agnishtoma Yagna, because it really does lead to victory in battle.  See &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/oj4h&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Shabara Swami's commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras for details.  So bottom line, the Purva Mimamsa school believed that the Vedas provide no information whatsoever about events.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And they felt the same way about events described in Smriti.  For instance, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/iXSx&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Tantra Vartika, Kumarila Bhatta argues that the Mahabharata's description of battles is just Arthavada intended to encourage Kshatriyas to be brave.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T04:41:45.090" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21117" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T05:21:29.117" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T05:21:29.117" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T05:21:29.117" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21118" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T05:21:29.117" Score="0" Body="Questions regarding Gotra or Clan." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T05:21:29.117" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T05:21:29.117" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21119" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T05:32:41.727" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T05:32:41.727" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T05:32:41.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21120" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T05:32:41.727" Score="0" Body="Questions related to Brahmacharya or Celibacy, first of the Ashrama." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T05:32:41.727" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T05:32:41.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21121" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21044" CreationDate="2017-09-27T05:59:28.117" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't think that there are any such strict rules. As a proof, see the verse given below.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;LakshminArAyanau vAnidhAtArau &lt;strong&gt;girijAshivau&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt; Srigurum&#xA;  gurupatnincha pitarAviti chintayet ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Guru and Guru's consort (Gurupatni) should be thought of as one's own&#xA;  parents. They are to be thought of as Lakshmi-NArAyana, VAni-BrahmA,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;GirijA-Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 12.35.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that here GirijA is a name of Goddess PArvati. So, seemingly there is no such rule like we should only say Shiva-PArvati and not PArvati-Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T08:11:24.410" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T08:11:24.410" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21122" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21111" CreationDate="2017-09-27T07:37:42.983" Score="2" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; ... Parmatma had certain responsibilities to fulfill. &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;How did you get that impression from the previous Qn? I don't see anywhere such thing explained in that post.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Paramatma has no responsibility to fulfil&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Not only Paramatma (supreme self), but in fact, no being has any responsibility to fulfil. It's just a perception due to illusion. Refer:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/20242/1049&quot;&gt;How to know What is the purpose of my life?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;good job is blessed and ... bad job punished by Parmatma.&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Neither good nor bad Karma-s, reach till the supreme self.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 5.15 - &lt;strong&gt;The Omnipresent neither accepts anybody's sin nor even good deeds&lt;/strong&gt;. Knowledge remains covered by ignorance. Thus the creatures become deluded.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;isn't he doing Karma and therefore liable to suffer the consequences of Karma?  &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Though the supreme Brahman does Karma-s, they don't bind him. Because Brahman acts upon it being disinterested &amp;amp; detached. One gets consequence of something, when one is interested.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.9 - O Arjuna, those &lt;strong&gt;actions (Karma-s) don't bind Me, as &quot;I&quot; am indifferent (disinterested) &amp;amp; detached&lt;/strong&gt; to those actions  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;According to Dvaita philosophy , is Parmatma involved in Karma?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Let's assume Krishna as the earthly form of the supreme self.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;He declared during Gita that:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.22 - &lt;strong&gt;In all the three worlds, O Partha, there is no responsibility for Me to fulfil&lt;/strong&gt;; Nothing remains un-achieved or to be achieved. &lt;strong&gt;Still I continue in Karma&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T08:00:20.027" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T08:00:20.027" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21123" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21112" CreationDate="2017-09-27T08:26:42.487" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Seven is significant because during the onset of creation, seven was the number of surrounding sheaths in the Yajna (sacrifice) in which Purusha himself was the offering. And, the number of such offerings (Samit) was also 21, a multiple of 7.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The relevant mantra from the Purusha Suktam is the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SaptAsyAsan paridhayas&lt;/strong&gt; (1)&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Trih sapta samidhah&lt;/strong&gt; kritAh (2)&lt;br&gt; DevA&#xA;  yat yajnam tanvanA (3)&lt;br&gt; Abadhnan purusham pashum (4) ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Gods, giving body to yajna (3), bound Purusha, the seer (4). &lt;strong&gt;Seven were&#xA;  the surrounding sheaths (paridhi) (1), Thrice seven&lt;/strong&gt; the prepared fuels&#xA;  (samit) (2).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 10.90.15&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Rishi Aurobindo, the seven paridhis being talked about here are the seven planes of existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Three lower ones&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Matter (anna), life-energy (prana) and mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Three higher ones:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ananda (jana), conscious-force (tapa) and truth of existence (satya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The seventh plane is the link-world between the two triplets and is&#xA;  called Mahas, the plane of Vijyana or Super-mind. The twenty-one fuels&#xA;  are the three energies in each of the seven planes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as we can see the number 7 and its multiple (21) had significant roles to play during the onset of creation itself. So, that's basically why it's important.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-10-19T15:46:56.813" LastActivityDate="2018-10-19T15:46:56.813" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21124" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21079" CreationDate="2017-09-27T09:01:47.733" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are no contradictions with God being omniscient and omnibenevolent and we still needing to do our bit of effort to attract his grace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva, in the two verses given below, has nicely explained, why our efforts will be needed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;GavAm sarpih sharirastham na karotyanga poshanam |&lt;br&gt; Swakarma&#xA;  rachitam dattam punastAmeva poshayet || (78)&lt;br&gt; Evam sarva&#xA;  sharirasthA sarpivat parameswari |&lt;br&gt; VinA chopAsanAm devi na dadAti&#xA;  phalam nrinAm (79)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Cream (sarpi), as long as it lies in the body of the cow, does not&#xA;  nourish anyone. &lt;strong&gt;But when [with effort] it is collected, treated and used, it does&#xA;  promote nourishment.&lt;/strong&gt; (78) The Divine (Parameswari) &lt;strong&gt;is likewise there&#xA;  spread in each body; but without proper adoration and evocation,&#xA;  upasana, it (she) does not yield fruit to man.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram Chapter 6, Verses 78, 79.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, efforts from our side is very much needed. In case of the verses the effort is that of collecting the cream from the cow to extract and utilize the cream's nourishing power. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The purport of these verses is that just like the utility of Cow's cream (its nourishing power) is ever existing in its body but without our efforts to extract it and make it usable for practical purposes, its as good as simply non-existent, similarly God's grace, which is always existing everywhere, is unachievable without the devotee's sincere efforts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IMO, to expect things to happen automatically by God's will or grace is against the natural order of things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We need to do either Sacrifice (loosely translated as Yajna) or perform austerity (Tapas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Sacrifice&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the Purusha (of the Purusha Suktam) offered himself as the offering to ensue creation at the onset. So, creation did not happen automatically. &lt;strong&gt;It needed something and sacrifice was that thing in that case.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yat purushena havishA (1)&lt;br&gt; devA yajnam atanvata (2)&lt;br&gt; vasanto&#xA;  asyasid Ajyam (3)&lt;br&gt; grishma idhmah sharad havihi (4) ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;With Purusha as offering&lt;/strong&gt; (1) the devAs performed a sacrifice: (2) the spring was the Ajya, (3) summer the fuel (samit), and autumn (sharat)&#xA;  the offering (4).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 10.90.6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, if we study the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrojyoti.com/brahmandapurana-3.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;manifestation of Goddess LalitA&quot; episode of the Brahmanda PurAna&lt;/a&gt;, we will find that, in spite of finding the Gods and creation itself in deep trouble, Goddess did not automatically emerged and been the savior. It needed then too, a huge sacrifice where all Devas and the whole creation was offered as the Havi (oblation). &lt;strong&gt;And it is only then LalitA Paramesswari manifested out of the Homa-Kunda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maha Shambhu explained:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A. This is called as Maha Yaga. (great fire sacrifice)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;B. I am (assuming the form of Vayu) the Hota (the priest who makes the&#xA;  offerings in a Homa) in this Yaga (fire sacrifice).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;C. My Chidagni itself is the fire in this Yaga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;D. The last of the seven seas, i.e., Jala Samudra (Water Sea) has now&#xA;  dried up. The huge pit so formed itself is the Homa Kunda (fire pit&#xA;  where Homa is performed)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;E. The remaining six great oceans constitute the six drops of ghee&#xA;  which is used as offering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;F. Srishti (creation) is of five types (i) Manasa Srishti (ii)&#xA;  Jarayavee Srishti (creation-taking place through the womb.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;G. Human beings), (iii) Anda Srishti (creation taking place through&#xA;  eggs) (iv) Swedaja Srishti (creation taking place through sweat) and&#xA;  (v) Udbhijja Srishti (creation taking place by sprouting). These five&#xA;  Srishtis (creations) are the sacrifice animals in this Maya Yaga.G.&#xA;  Bhoomi (land), Parvata (mountains), Jala (water), Vayu (air) and&#xA;  Akasha (space) these five are the substances used in this fire&#xA;  sacrifice. Agni element (one of the five elements) being a part of my&#xA;  Chidagni can not be a substance to be offered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;H. At the end of this great fire sacrifice, all of you (the performers&#xA;  of the Yaga) should jump in to the Homa Kunda (fire pit). While doing&#xA;  so, you must possess absolute devotion.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I. Then, Lalita Parameshwari will manifest.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Austerity&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from sacrifice, Tapas or austerity also works and is needed to achieve anything whether it's something small or big.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.234. &lt;strong&gt;All the bliss of gods and men&lt;/strong&gt; is declared by the sages to whom the Veda was revealed, &lt;strong&gt;to have austerity for its root,&#xA;  austerity for its middle, and austerity for its end.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.237. Medicines, good health, learning, and the various divine stations are &lt;strong&gt;attained by austerities alone&lt;/strong&gt;; for austerity is the&#xA;  means of gaining them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.243. &lt;strong&gt;The lord, Pragapati, created these Institutes (of the sacred law) by his austerities alone;&lt;/strong&gt; the sages likewise obtained (the&#xA;  revelation of) the Vedas through their austerities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verses from Manu Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, even Gods can't expect things to happen on their own, they have to do their bit of UpAsana, whether in the form of Sacrifice or Austerity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the Lord of creation can not create without Tapas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With such being the Divine Law, i think its extremely unreasonable to expect God showering his grace on us without we doing anything to earn that grace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's why its being said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VinA ChopAsanAm Devi na dadAti phalam nrinAm .... DhyAtah smritah&#xA;  pujito vA stuto vA namitohapi vA..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Without worship, Devi does not give sAdhaka the fruits. One has to&#xA;  meditate upon her, remember her, worship her or please her (by recting&#xA;  stotrams) or offer prostrations to her..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T07:10:34.877" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T07:10:34.877" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21125" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T09:51:05.130" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T09:51:05.130" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T09:51:05.130" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21126" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T09:51:05.130" Score="0" Body="Questions related to Kumbha Mela." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T09:51:05.130" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T09:51:05.130" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21127" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T09:54:06.747" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T09:54:06.747" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T09:54:06.747" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21128" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T09:54:06.747" Score="0" Body="Vibhishana was the younger brother of Ravana and Kumbhakarna." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T09:54:06.747" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T09:54:06.747" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21129" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T09:56:38.150" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T09:56:38.150" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T09:56:38.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21130" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T09:56:38.150" Score="0" Body="Questions regarding Nyaya Sutra, composed by Gautama, the foundational text of Nyaya School. " OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T09:56:38.150" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T09:56:38.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21131" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:00:20.640" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:00:20.640" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:00:20.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21132" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:00:20.640" Score="0" Body="Questions regarding Shudra, the fourth Varna (social order)." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:00:20.640" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:00:20.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21133" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:02:29.040" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:02:29.040" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:02:29.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21134" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:02:29.040" Score="0" Body="Questions regarding Udhhava Gita, the conversation between Lord Krishna and Uddhava found in Shrimada Bhagavatam." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:02:29.040" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:02:29.040" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21135" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:05:00.180" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:05:00.180" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:05:00.180" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21136" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:05:00.180" Score="0" Body="Shubhadra was the sister of Lord Krishna and Balarama." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:05:00.180" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:05:00.180" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21137" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:09:29.003" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:09:29.003" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:09:29.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21138" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:09:29.003" Score="0" Body="Questions related to Shikhandi, a character of Mahabharata." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:09:29.003" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:09:29.003" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21139" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:11:02.973" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:11:02.973" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:11:02.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21140" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:11:02.973" Score="0" Body="Mandodari was the wife of Ravana." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:11:02.973" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:11:02.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21141" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:12:45.483" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:12:45.483" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:12:45.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21142" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:12:45.483" Score="0" Body="An Ayurveda text written by Charaka." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:12:45.483" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:12:45.483" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21143" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:15:49.810" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:15:49.810" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:15:49.810" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21144" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:15:49.810" Score="0" Body="Questions related to Krishna Yajurveda, a recension of Yajurveda." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:15:49.810" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:15:49.810" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21145" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:17:22.117" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:17:22.117" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:17:22.117" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21146" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:17:22.117" Score="0" Body="Kurma is one of the incarnations of lord Vishnu." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:17:22.117" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:17:22.117" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21147" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:18:46.997" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:18:46.997" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:18:46.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21148" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-09-27T10:18:46.997" Score="0" Body="Questions related to various Upapuranas." OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T10:18:46.997" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T10:18:46.997" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21149" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-27T11:15:23.850" Score="1" ViewCount="49" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Prapancha (Universe) is very very huge and ever expanding and many solar systems are there and Earth is like a dust particle compared to the Prapancha.As of now we know humans exist only in Earth. Why the God(Paramathma) has created Prapancha where he has created humans in a tiny part like Earth...Even considering the three or Fourteen logas the Prapancha is very very huge ...My observation /query is the major  part of Prapancha (Universe) is empty    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12117" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T11:15:23.850" Title="The Prapancha (Universe) is very very huge" Tags="|universe|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-09-28T03:16:59.803" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21150" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21152" CreationDate="2017-09-27T12:31:05.467" Score="-1" ViewCount="810" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagwat Gita Lord &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am in everyone’s heart as the Supersoul. As soon as one desires to&#xA;  worship some deity, I make his faith steady so that he can devote&#xA;  himself to that particular deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose I want to worship Ravana or Pret  or Pisach then will Krishna make my faith steady in those demonic forces ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes then is there any morality innate to Lord Krishna? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think there is no morality innate to Lord Krishna ( I don't want to hurt any sentiments. I have high regards for the Paramatma.) In order to clarify what I mean by that let us consider an example , suppose  I support and protect good people who pray me but I also support people who are rapists and murderers and thieves indirectly then am I a person of moral integrity? No.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorDisplayName="user17294" LastEditDate="2019-05-02T18:44:52.230" LastActivityDate="2019-05-03T00:01:27.680" Title="If I pray to Ravana or some Devil ,then will Krishna steady my faith in him?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21151" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21109" CreationDate="2017-09-27T14:08:25.183" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavata Purana also gives the same timescale as the Vishnu Purana. Michael Cremo of ISKCON has calculated according to the Bhagavatam and got the result of approximately 2 billion years old. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read about it &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.forbiddenarcheology.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As to why the age difference is about half the estimate of modern science, this could be for any reason. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Simply put, science is always changing, and when new observations come, new theories come and old ones go. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-11-05T17:22:58.203" LastActivityDate="2018-11-05T17:22:58.203" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21152" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21150" CreationDate="2017-09-27T14:19:32.610" Score="4" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; will Krishna make my faith steady in those demonic forces ?&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;. The verse 7.21 is already listed in your Qn.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Under the mode of &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;, one prays to [possibly demonic] forces such as &lt;em&gt;bhuta-preta&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;pishAcha&lt;/em&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यजन्ते सात्त्विका देवान्यक्षरक्षांसि राजसाः। &lt;strong&gt;प्रेतान्भूतगणांश्चान्ये&lt;/strong&gt; यजन्ते तामसा जनाः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 17.4 - Those with &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt;, worship the &lt;em&gt;deva&lt;/em&gt;-s; those having &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;, worship the &lt;em&gt;Yaksha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Raksha&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;rAkshasa&lt;/em&gt;); Other people &lt;strong&gt;possessed of &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;, worship ghosts and the spirits&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Based on entity being worshipped, a person is more likely to get such thoughts during death. In such case, one attains such worlds. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20378/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;If yes then is there any morality innate to Lord Krishna?  &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Krishna, whether one worships to good/bad/ugly -- whichever demigod -- is non-methodical. Though, it ultimately reaches to supreme One only.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.23 - O son of Kunti, Even those who being devoted to other deities and endowed with faith, worship [them], they also worship Me alone, following the wrong method.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People make their choices of worship according to their nature. They are helpless under &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Wise people avoid judging their faith or lack of faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T14:19:32.610" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21153" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-27T14:42:46.677" Score="5" ViewCount="341" Body="&lt;p&gt;How is the soul of a non-Hindu processed in the afterlife?  Is it as decribed in Hindu scripture, or is it as described in the scriptures of the religion that they belonged to?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="585" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-09-27T15:22:51.347" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T15:37:48.353" Title="What happens to non-Hindus in the afterlife?" Tags="|karma|other-religions|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21154" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21153" CreationDate="2017-09-27T15:37:48.353" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hardly that they are processed as described in the scriptures of the religion that they belong to.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Teachings of any tradition, be it within Hinduism or outside of it, is not true if it is not in conformity with Hindu dharma teachings.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This is stated in the Manu-smriti, chapter 12:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu12.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu12.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;94&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Veda is the eternal eye of the manes, gods, and men; the Veda-ordinance (is) both beyond the sphere of (human) power, and&#xA;  beyond the sphere of (human) comprehension; that is a certain fact.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All those traditions (smriti) and those despicable systems of philosophy, which are not based on the Veda, produce no reward after&#xA;  death; for they are declared to be founded on Darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;All those (doctrines), differing from the (Veda), which spring up and (soon) perish, are worthless and false, because they are of modern&#xA;  date.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T15:37:48.353" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21155" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-27T16:00:40.100" Score="2" ViewCount="212" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna in Bhagwat Gita says the following in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/7/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 7.9&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am the original fragrance of the earth, and I am the heat in ﬁre. I&#xA;am the life of all that lives, and I am the penances of all ascetics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However in my opinion , where there is heat there is fire and where there is fire there is heat. Heat is generated by coming together of fuel , fire and consciousness. Consciousness alone can not generate heat. Therefore in my opinion heat can not be separated from fire and in conclusion we can say that Parmatma is the fire and not just the heat of fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1.Is Parmatma the fire or the heat of the fire ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2.If Parmatma is heat of the fire then how can one separate the heat and the cause of heat?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T09:33:34.767" Title="Is Parmatma the fire or the heat of the fire?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21156" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21170" CreationDate="2017-09-27T17:34:02.787" Score="8" ViewCount="685" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, is perpetual virginity/remaining unmarried considered to be a higher state of life than marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9007" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-05-06T21:44:49.157" LastActivityDate="2023-05-06T21:44:49.157" Title="Is perpetual virginity or remaining unmarried superior to marriage?" Tags="|scripture|marriage|sex|virginity|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21157" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21165" CreationDate="2017-09-27T18:05:35.667" Score="4" ViewCount="1288" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many Hindu deities being offered meat (mainly the Goddesses) and alcohol. However, are there any Hindu deities who are offered onion and garlic? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T07:12:24.783" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T07:12:24.783" Title="Do any Hindu deities take onion and garlic?" Tags="|gods|goddess|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21158" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21156" CreationDate="2017-09-27T19:01:00.837" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, if you're willing to do it, lifelong Brahmacharya has great benefits, at least for Brahmanas.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this &lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But if (a student) desires to pass his whole life in the teacher's house, he must diligently serve him, until he is freed from this body. A Brahmana who serves his teacher till the dissolution of his body, reaches forthwith the eternal mansion of Brahma.... (A perpetual student) must, if his teacher dies, serve his son (provided he be) endowed with good qualities, or his widow, or his Sapinda, in the same manner as the teacher. Should none of these be alive, he must serve the sacred fire, standing (by day) and sitting (during the night), and thus finish his life. A Brahmana who thus passes his life as a student without breaking his vow, reaches (after death) the highest abode and will not be born again in this world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it's certainly not a required Dharma; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu03.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the next chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Manu Smriti describes the procedure for a Brahmachari to become a Grihasti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The vow (of studying) the three Vedas under a teacher must be kept for thirty-six years, or for half that time, or for a quarter, or until the (student) has perfectly learnt them. (A student) who has studied in due order the three Vedas, or two, or even one only, without breaking the (rules of) studentship, shall enter the order of householders. He who is famous for (the strict performance of) his duties and has received his heritage, the Veda, from his father, shall be honoured, sitting on a couch and adorned with a garland, with (the present of) a cow (and the honey-mixture).&#xA;   Having bathed, with the permission of his teacher, and performed according to the rule the Samavartana (the rite on returning home), a twice-born man shall marry a wife of equal caste who is endowed with auspicious (bodily) marks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-27T19:01:00.837" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21161" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21089" CreationDate="2017-09-28T03:10:31.247" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the commentaries on the Samkhya Karika, including Gaudapada's Samkhya Karika Bhashya (which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universaltheosophy.com/sacred-texts/samkhya-karika/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), Vachaspati Mishra's Samkhya Tattva Kaumudi (which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/anenglishtransla00vaacuoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), and Narayana Tirtha's Samkhya Chandrika (which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.47073&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;), don't contain any information on Ishwara Krishna's Guru Parampara.  But I found two commentaries that provide some information:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Yuktidipika, which is an ancient commentary of unknown authorship discovered in the 1930's.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800202.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/14/items/YuktidipikaVol.IIDr.ShivKumar/Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_jp2/Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_0438.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Yukti Dipika says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In brief this shastra is (handed over to us) through [gap in the manuscript] Harita, Vaddhali, Kairat, Paurika, Arshbheshvara, Panchadhikarana, Patanjali, Varsaganya, Kaundinya, Muka, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But it's unclear whether this is the Guru Parampara of Ishwara Krishna or just the Guru Parampara of the author of the Yuktidipika.  In any case, it's interesting that the Patanjali would be mentioned, considering that he's the Sutrakara of the Yoga school.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Suvarna Saptati, another ancient commentary of unknown authorship which is lost in the original Sanskrit, but exists in a Chinese translation written by the 6th century Buddhist philosopher Paramartha.  Here what &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801501.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/14/items/samkhyachinese/Suvarna%20Saptati_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Suvarna%20Saptati_jp2/Suvarna%20Saptati_0089.jp2&amp;amp;scale=16&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Paramartha's Chinese version says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That knowledge came from Kapila to Asuri, who transmitted it to Panchashikha; Panchashikha gave it to Ho-kia, Ho-kia to Uluka, Uluka to Po-po'-li, Po-po'-li to Ishvarakrishna. By that transmission Ishvarakrishna obtained the knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the names are unclear because they're Chinese equivalents of Sanskrit names, but the translator speculates that Ho-Kia refers to Gargya and Po-po'-li refers to Vrisa, which may be a short form for Varsaganya who is referenced in the Yuktidipika quote.  In any case, it's interesting that Uluka is mentioned, because that's another name for Kanada, the founder of the Vaisheshika school.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T03:10:31.247" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21164" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21155" CreationDate="2017-09-28T05:38:50.720" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bijehankurastilw tailam&lt;strong&gt;agnAvushnam&lt;/strong&gt; ravau prabhA |&lt;br&gt; Chandre&#xA;  jyotsnAhanalaha kAsthaw Pushpe gandho jale dravaha||.... Shive Shakti|.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is verse no 53, of Chapter 3 from KulArnava Tantram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purport of this verse is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just like in a seed always resides the seedling (Bija and Ankura), in&#xA;  Tila the oil, &lt;strong&gt;in fire the heat (Agni and Ushnata)&lt;/strong&gt;, in Sun its&#xA;  brightness (Surya and PrabhA), in Moon its light, in flower its&#xA;  essence, in water its liquidity, words in their meaning, similarly Paramatma (Shiva ) and his&#xA;  Shakti are inseparable and always reside in each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if we say Shiva=Paramatman, then Fire=Shiva and Heat of Fire=Shakti. Whereas, if we say Fire=Shakti then the equation is just reversed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, simply put, Paramataman can be taken as both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T06:39:50.767" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T06:39:50.767" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21165" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21157" CreationDate="2017-09-28T06:02:16.617" Score="9" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have seen many Hindu deities being offered meat (mainly the&#xA;  Goddesses) and alcohol.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You might have seen that but what you have missed seeing is that they are purified meat-alcohol. All the Pancha-Dravvyas are first purified using mostly Vedic and Agamic mantras. Only then they are considered fit to be used in rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What happens when one uses anyone of the Pancha Tattvas, without purifying them first, is mentioned in the verse given below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Asamaskritam pived&lt;/strong&gt; dravyam balAtkArena maithunam |&lt;br&gt; Swapriyena hatam&#xA;  mAmsam rauravam narakam vrajet ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who drinks unpurified Madya&lt;/strong&gt;, one who uses forcefully the&#xA;  Pancha-Dravvyas, or who kills beings for one's own use visits the hell&#xA;  called Raurava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 5-99&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The respective Mantras, which purify the 5 Dravyas are given in Agamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As regards, Madya or VAruni, it was originally pure (iT came out of the Samudra Manthana). Its only after the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kacha_(sage)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sukra-Kacha episode&lt;/a&gt; took place, that the Daitya Guru SukrAcharya cursed it to become impure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The curse removal Mantra (which ends with SudhA Devyai Namaha) is used to re-purify Madya to make it fit again to be consumed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As regards meat, the Manu Smriti says the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.36. A Brahmana must never eat (the flesh of animals&#xA;  unhallowed by Mantras; &lt;strong&gt;but, obedient to the primeval law, he may eat&#xA;  it, consecrated with Vedic texts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the same procedure of making MAmasa pure is used in Tantrik rituals (the ones that use Panacha-MakAra that is).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, coming to garlic and onion, they are not fit to be offered to any Deity. Even, if meat or fish is offered to a Deity, they are prepared without the use of garlic-onion. You can yourself verify it from the temples where you saw meat being offered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.5. Garlic, leeks and onions, mushrooms and (all plants), springing from impure (substances), are unfit to be eaten by twice-born men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T06:02:16.617" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21166" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21187" CreationDate="2017-09-28T07:57:39.040" Score="1" ViewCount="89" Body="&lt;p&gt;The ever merciful Lord Narayana (Mahavishnu) is dedicated to His true devotees. Tales abound of Him personally coming to bless, serve and / or relive his devotees of their problems.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He took on the form of a woman, to help Sant Sakkubai to fulfil her desire to visit Pandharpur, while serving her family.  He appeared before Pundalik and patiently stood on the brick pushed towards Him with His hands on the hips, while Pundalik finished serving his aged parents. He came all the way from Dwaraka to near Puri to bear witness to a transaction in which His devotee was unable to claim his rightful dues – Sakshigopal. And so many other stories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Divya Prabandham, Thiruthangal Nindra Narayana Perumal Temple near Sivakashi, Tamil Nadu, is mentioned as one of the 108 Divya Desams.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My question is apart from Divya Prabandham is the story of Nindra Narayan Perumal mentioned in any other Puranas or scriptures?And what is the full story?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T12:03:02.630" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T19:37:34.300" Title="Apart from Divya Prabandam scriptural references to Thiruthangal Nindra Narayana Perumal Temple" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21167" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21155" CreationDate="2017-09-28T09:33:34.767" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Discussing &amp;quot;heat&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;fire&amp;quot; is moot&lt;/strong&gt; here, because the translation of BG 7.9 is wrong. Hence, in past it was recommended to &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16177/1049&quot;&gt;avoid those from Prabhupada&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most others have &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=7&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=9&amp;amp;htrskd=1&amp;amp;httyn=1&amp;amp;etsiva=1&amp;amp;etpurohit=1&amp;amp;etgb=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;got it correct&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;पुण्यो गन्धः पृथिव्यां च &lt;strong&gt;तेजश्चास्मि&lt;/strong&gt; विभावसौ। जीवनं सर्वभूतेषु तपश्चास्मि तपस्विषु&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 7.9 - I am also the sweet fragrance in the earth; &lt;strong&gt;I am the brilliance in the fire&lt;/strong&gt;, and the life in all beings; and I am the austerity of the ascetics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Tejasvi&lt;/em&gt; also means, the brightness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having said that, even if we go with correct translation, avoid taking them in a literal sense. The whole chapter 10 is dedicated to various forms of God, where lord says &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;I am X among Y&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;. One of them is, &lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;I am gambling among cheaters&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many of the things were local in that time and were according to Arjuna's perspective.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Krishna means: &lt;strong&gt;whatever influences you, is actually a fragment of the &amp;quot;Self&amp;quot; (&amp;quot;Me&amp;quot;) only&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 10.41 — Whichever influential excellence(Sattva) [entity] certainly has prosperity(&lt;em&gt;Shrimad&lt;/em&gt;) or energy(&lt;em&gt;Urjita&lt;/em&gt;); those you know to be possible as part of 'My' aura only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose, if the fire &amp;amp; its light doesn't bother you then that's not something where you may find the form of supreme. However, if in a game of cricket, if Sachin Tendulkar highly influences you, then nothing wrong in calling him [form of] &amp;quot;God&amp;quot; as many Indians do (personally I don't). All the forms of god are for easy reference to remember God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 10.17 - O Yogi, &lt;strong&gt;how shall I remember You by remaining ever-engaged in meditation&lt;/strong&gt;? And through what objects, O Lord, are You to be meditated on by me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T09:33:34.767" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21168" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21017" CreationDate="2017-09-28T10:04:49.170" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;The cruelty and evil seen in the world are the results of Karmic factors of Jeevas and God can&amp;apos;t be blamed for that. It is stated in &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Sutra 2.1.34&lt;/strong&gt; as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Inequality (of dispensation) and cruelty (the Lord can) not (be reproached with), on account of his regarding (merit and demerit); for so (Scripture) declares.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While commenting on this sutra Adi Shankara first presents view of opponent as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lord, it is said, cannot be the cause of the world, because, on that hypothesis, the reproach of inequality of dispensation and cruelty would attach to him. Some beings, viz. the gods and others, &lt;strong&gt;he renders eminently happy; others, as for instance the animals, eminently unhappy; to some again, as for instance men, he allots an intermediate position. To a Lord bringing about such an unequal condition of things, passion and malice would have to be ascribed, just as to any common person acting similarly;&lt;/strong&gt; which attributes would be contrary to the essential goodness of the Lord affirmed by Sruti and Smriti. Moreover, as the infliction of pain and the final destruction of all creatures would form part of his dispensation, he &lt;strong&gt;would have to be taxed with great cruelty, a quality abhorred by low people even. For these two reasons Brahman cannot be the cause of the world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Shankara refutes the opponent view as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Lord, we reply, cannot be reproached with inequality of dispensation and cruelty, &amp;quot;because he is bound by regards.&amp;quot; If the Lord on his own account, without any extraneous regards, produced this unequal creation, he would expose himself to blame; but the fact is, that in creating he is bound by certain regards, i.e. he has to look to merit and demerit.&lt;/strong&gt; Hence the circumstance of the creation being unequal is due to the merit and demerit of the living creatures created, and is not a fault for which the Lord is to blame. *&amp;amp;The position of the Lord is to be looked on as analogous to that of Parjanya, the Giver of rain. For as Parjanya is the common cause of the production of rice, barley, and other plants, while the difference between the various species is due to the various potentialities lying hidden in the respective seeds, so the Lord is the common cause of the creation of gods, men, &amp;amp;c., while the differences between these classes of beings are due to the different merit belonging to the individual souls.** Hence the Lord, being bound by regards, cannot be reproached with inequality of dispensation and cruelty.-- And if we are asked how we come to know that the Lord, in creating this world with its various conditions, is bound by regards, we reply that Scripture declares that; compare, for instance, the two following passages, &amp;apos;For he (the Lord) makes him, whom he wishes to lead up from these worlds, do a good deed; and the same makes him, whom he wishes to lead down from these worlds, do a bad deed&amp;apos; (Kaush. Up. III, 8); and, &amp;apos;&lt;strong&gt;A man becomes good by good work, bad by bad work&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;apos; (Bri. Up. III, 2, 13). Smriti passages also declare the favour of the Lord and its opposite to depend on the different quality of the works of living beings; so, for instance, &amp;apos;I serve men in the way in which they approach me&amp;apos; (Bha. Gî. IV, 11).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Ramanujacharya also comments on it as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But the assumption of his having actually created the world would lay him open to the charge of partiality&lt;/strong&gt;, in so far as the world contains beings of high, middle, and low station--gods, men, animals, immovable beings; and to that of cruelty, in so far as he would be instrumental in making &lt;strong&gt;his creatures experience pain of the most dreadful kind.--The reply to this is &amp;apos;not so, on account of there being regard&amp;apos;; i.e. &amp;apos;on account of the inequality of creation depending on the deeds of the intelligent beings, gods, and so on, about to be created.&amp;apos;--Sruti and Smriti alike declare that the connexion of the individual souls with bodies of different kinds--divine, human, animal, and so on--depends on the karman of those souls; compare &amp;apos;He who performs good works becomes good, he who performs bad works becomes bad. He becomes pure by pure deeds, bad by bad deeds&amp;apos; (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 5).&lt;/strong&gt; In the same way the reverend Parâsara declares that what causes the difference in nature and status between gods, men, and so on, is the power of the former deeds of the souls about to enter into a new creation--&amp;apos;He (the Lord) is the operative cause only in the creation of new beings; the material cause is constituted by the potentialities of the beings to be created. The being to be embodied requires nothing but an operative cause; it is its own potentiality which leads its being into that condition of being (which it is to occupy in the new creation).&amp;apos; Potentiality here means karman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As a sidenote, there are various branches of Hinduism (like Samkhya, Mimamsa etc..) where there is not omniscient, omnipotent God at all. So, the problem of evil doesn&amp;apos;t exist in them at all.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For eg. In SlokaVartika &lt;strong&gt;Kumarila Bhatta&lt;/strong&gt; argues that omniscient being can&amp;apos;t exist:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;117&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;An omniscient person is not seen by us at the present moment; nor, is it possible to -prove (by means of Inference) that such a one ever existed before&lt;/strong&gt; as is done in the case of the negation of such a person.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kasika (sub commentary) on it states further:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Neither Sense-Perception, nor Inference can prove the existence of an omniscient person. In Inference we require a middle Term, which we cannot here in the case of omniscience. On the contrary, &lt;strong&gt;in support of the refutation of the existence of an omniscient person, we have the following inferential argument : &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;The past was without an omniscient person, because it was a point of Time, like the Present.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; &#xA;  or again, &amp;apos;Buddha was not omniscient, because he was a man like ourselves.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kumarila Bhatta also argues that scripture also can&amp;apos;t prove existence of omniscient person. For it is circular argument ie. Omniscient of that person depends on scripture and authority of scripture depends on omniscience of that person:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;118&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nor can the existence of the omniscient one be proved by Scriptures ; for in that case there would be mutual interdependence.&lt;/strong&gt; And how can one ever believe the authenticity of a Scripture composed by another man.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nor can we get at any other Scripture (save the Veda) which is eternal. If the eulogies (occurring in the Veda in praise of an Omniscient Person) were eternal, then, non-eternality would belong to the Scripture itself. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The eternality of the Scripture (Veda) having been established, all other assumptions (of an Omniscient Author and the like) become needless. For men could prove the existence of Duty by means of the same (Scripture), whereby (you seek) to prove the existence of an omniscient person. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T13:29:30.043" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T13:29:30.043" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21169" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21178" CreationDate="2017-09-28T10:05:14.953" Score="4" ViewCount="350" Body="&lt;p&gt;I mean both of them are saints devoted to spirituality both of them follow brahmacharya etc i want to ask whether both have same significance in Hindu mythology? And what are the differences between sadhus and Nagas? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12120" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-30T04:29:04.363" LastActivityDate="2020-06-30T04:29:04.363" Title="What is difference between Nagas and sadhu?" Tags="|saint|naga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21170" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21156" CreationDate="2017-09-28T10:24:04.400" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is superior. Although in Hinduism faithfully following the path of a married person is way of dharma, scripture says brahmacharya, especially lifelong celibacy, is superior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Mahanarayana Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; says (78.12):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma Hiranyagarbha considers that sannyas is the means to liberation. Hiranyagarbha is indeed the Supreme. The Supreme alone is Hiranyagarbha (although he is a personality). Certainly those austerities set forth above are inferior [other austerities listed in the preceding verses of this section]. Sannyasa [monks who have taken vows of celibacy] alone surpasses all. To him who thus knows the all-transcending excellence of sannyas precious knowledge is imparted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and at the end of his commentary on this verse, Swami Vimalananda states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Sankaracarya at Brahma Sutra III.4.20 (Available here - &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&lt;/a&gt;) refers to this passage as the conclusive authority behind the practice of sannyas. The illustrious acarya is the most outstanding prototype of a Sannyasin. His example and teachings on the monastic tradition as the pattern of sannyas to be followed by others entering the path. A very large section of Hindus believe that sannyasa represents the perfection in religious life which is attained through the gradual progress in spirituality achieved by fulfilment of the condition laid down for the other three stages of life. Sayana states that while the qualities and practices of different aspirants described in the eleven clauses from the beginning of the Section [of this section of the Mahanarayana Upanishad] were made by human beings--learned and wise though they might be--the transcendence of sannyas over all of them is a pronouncement made by Brahma himself--the first-born-- and so it is secretly guarded precious knowledge--&lt;em&gt;upanishad&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And verse 79.16 concludes with:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Aruni, having become one possessed of knowledge by realizing Him, the Supreme, through sannyasa, and with your mind fixed in the heart, do not again fall a prey to death. Because sannyasa is thus the supreme means of realization, therefore wise men declare that to be above all other means of liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sannyasa is extolled in &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; III.iv.18-20. (Link given previously) with Sankara's commentaries:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;18. Jaimini (thinks that in the texts referred to in the last Sutra there is) a mere reference (to Sannyâsa), and not injunction, because (other texts) condemn (Sannyâsa).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the text quoted in the last Sutra (Chh. 2. 23. 1) Jaimini says that as there is no word showing that Sannyâsa is enjoined on man, it is a mere reference and not an injunction. The Brihadâranyaka text quoted in the last Sutra says that some person do like that. Sruti here makes a mere statement of fact. It does not enjoin Sannyâsa. Moreover, the text here praises steadfastness in Brahman. “But only one who is firmly established in Brahman attains immortality.” Sacrifice, study, charity, austertiy, studentship, and lifelong celibacy result in the attainment of the virtuous world. But immortality is gained only by him who is firmly established in Brahman. That is what the text says. Further, there are other texts which condemn Sannyâsa. “Having brought to your teacher the wealth that he likes, do not cut off the line of progeny” (Taitt. 1. 11); “To him who is without a son (this) world does not belong” (Taitt. Br. 7. 18. 12) and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;19. Bâdarâyana (thinks that Sannyâsa or monastic life) also must be gone through, for the scriptural text (cited) refers equally; to all the four Âsramas (stages of life).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the text cited, sacrifice etc. refer to the householder’s life, penance to Vânaprastha, studentship to Brahmacharya and ‘one who is firmly established in Brahman’ to Sannyâsa. So the text equally refers to all the four stages of life. The text relating to the first three stages refers to what is enjoined elsewhere. So also does the text relating to Sannyâsa. Hence Sannyâsa also is enjoined and must be gone through by all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;20. Or rather (there is an) injunction (in this text), as in the case of the carrying (of the sacrificial fuel).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Sutra now tries to establish that there is an injunction about Sannyâsa in the Chhândogya passage cited. There is a Sruti text referring to Agnihotra performed for the manes, which runs as follows: “Let him approach, carrying the sacrificial fuel below; for above he carries it for the gods.” The last clause Jaimini interprets as an injunction, though there is no word in it to that effect, because such an injunction is nowhere else to be found in the scriptures. On account of its newness (Apurvatâ) it is an injunction. Following this argument this Sutra says that in Chh. 2. 23. 1 there is an injunction with respect to Sannyâsa, and not a mere reference, as it is not enjoined anywhere else. Moreover, there are Sruti texts which directly enjoin Sannyâsa: “Or else he may wander forth from the students’ life, or from the house, or from the forest” (Jâb. 4).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Again Jaimini himself says that even glorification, to be relevant, must be in a complimentary relation to an injunction. In the text cited steadfast devotion to Brahman is being praised, and so it has an injunctive value. Now is it possible for one engaged in sacrificial rites etc. to be wholly devoted to Brahman? Devotion to Brahman means constant meditation on It without any disturbing thought. Such a thing is impossible for a householder engaged in ritualistic work. It is possible only for a Sannyâsin who has renounced all work, and not for others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Neither is it true that Sannyâsa is prescribed only for those who are lame, blind, etc., and therefore unfit for ritualistic work. The text cited above (Jâb. 4) makes no such difference. Moreover, Sannyâsa is meant as a means to the realization of Brahman, and it is to be acquired in a regular prescribed way. “The wandering mendicant with coloured dress, shaven-headed, accepting no gifts, qualifies himself for the realization of Brahman.” Therefore Sannyâsa is prescribed by the scriptures and Knowledge, because it is enjoined on Sannyâsins, is independent of work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sankara's commentary on 18 also references scripture on life-long celibacy, not merely after taking a vow of brahmacharya or sannyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lifelong celibacy is especially extolled. In fact if you look at &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/em&gt; Chapter III, section IV contents, you will see that Adhikarana X, XI, and XII discusses those who lapse.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T12:37:25.037" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T12:37:25.037" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21171" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21017" CreationDate="2017-09-28T10:27:33.847" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the lenses of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, certain attribute is seen as &quot;good&quot; or &quot;evil&quot;. They are aspects of enjoyment or consumption by the consciousness (&lt;em&gt;purusha&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 13.22 - &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt; being situated in &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, experiences the [&lt;em&gt;sattva, rajas, tamas&lt;/em&gt;] modes born of &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. Contact with the these modes, is the cause of its births in &lt;strong&gt;good and evil wombs&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the supreme being all are treated as same, whether it's good or evil. There is no partiality:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.29 — &lt;strong&gt;I am impartial towards all beings; to Me there is none detested or none loved&lt;/strong&gt;. But those who worship Me with devotion, they exist in Me, and I too exist in them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since the supreme God is considered beyond &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;, good &amp;amp; evil are filtered out.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Because there is No &quot;evil&quot;, there is No &quot;problem of evil&quot; either.&lt;/strong&gt; :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T10:27:33.847" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21172" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21156" CreationDate="2017-09-28T10:59:16.777" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No, it can't be superior&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Brahmacharya&lt;/em&gt; attained during perpetual virginity can be equal at the most to the &lt;em&gt;Brahmacharya&lt;/em&gt; observed after marriage. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning &amp;amp; equivalence of &lt;em&gt;Brahmacharya&lt;/em&gt; is already discussed in following posts:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/20800/1049&quot;&gt;Is there any rule in Shastras for women to be kanyas even after marriage&lt;/a&gt;   &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/20701/1049&quot;&gt;What is &amp;quot;Brahm&amp;quot; in &amp;quot;Brahmacharya&amp;quot;? How does it relate to celibacy?&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In nutshell, it relates to &quot;regulated sex&quot; (&lt;em&gt;dharmic&lt;/em&gt;) and not &quot;no sex&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Why permanent virginity cannot be superior?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A person is born, when his/her parents had mated; Parents were also born in the same way, and so on. Hence a newborn is already a part of the &lt;em&gt;DhArmik&lt;/em&gt; cycle of reproduction. Breaking under normal circumstances is not &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;, as it's not self sustained.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A person usually is born with various debts (&lt;em&gt;runa&lt;/em&gt;); One of them is &lt;em&gt;pitru runa&lt;/em&gt; (debt to manes); In normal circumstances, a person is ought to fulfil that to get freed up. Refer this:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14830/1049&quot;&gt;Can I please have a scriptural reference for Pitru Runa?&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If person avoids the whole act of reproduction, then such renunciation results in &quot;ignorance&quot; (&lt;em&gt;tAmasika tyAga&lt;/em&gt;) and if given up due to fear of pain, then that's a wrong renunciation (&lt;em&gt;rajas tyAga&lt;/em&gt;):  &#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.7 - Retiring (&lt;em&gt;sannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;) from assigned duty (&lt;em&gt;niyata karma&lt;/em&gt;) is not justifiable. Giving up that through delusion is declared to be based on ignorance (&lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 18.8 - Actions given up due to pain or physical suffering, is termed as renunciation of passion (&lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt;); Results of such renunciation is not acquired  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, a person must have unavoidable reasons to remain lifelong virgin to be able to fetch the fruits of &lt;em&gt;Brahmacharya&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g. the character of Bhishma from Mahabharata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T10:59:16.777" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21173" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-28T11:42:33.213" Score="3" ViewCount="120" Body="&lt;p&gt;How the communication,food,resting place,disposal of dead, etc managed in kurukshetra war with such a huge number of warriors?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12117" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-01-17T07:37:14.090" LastActivityDate="2018-01-17T07:37:14.090" Title="Logistics in Kurukshetra war" Tags="|mahabharata|war|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21174" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21156" CreationDate="2017-09-28T11:48:53.043" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Perpetual virginity &lt;strong&gt;can not be&lt;/strong&gt; superior to married life. That is evident even from common-sense. For example, if everyone chose to remain a perpetual student (Brahmachari), then there will none here to post questions and answers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways some scriptural proofs are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.87. The student, the householder, the hermit, and the ascetic, these (constitute) four separate orders, &lt;strong&gt;which all spring from (the order&#xA;  of) householders.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.89. And in accordance with the precepts of the Veda and of the Smriti, &lt;strong&gt;the housekeeper is declared to be superior to all of them; for&#xA;  he supports the other three.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.90. As all rivers, both great and small, find a resting-place in the ocean, &lt;strong&gt;even so men of all orders find protection with householders&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verses from Manu Smriti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further proof:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Divisions of food should be made] for the departed Manes, the&#xA;  Deities, the mankind and the insects, etc. Such is the deliverance [of&#xA;  Daksha]. &lt;strong&gt;Since a householder gives daily sustenance unto the&#xA;  Deities, the human beings and the bipeds, the order of a Grihastha is,&#xA;  therefore the foremost of all A's'ramas.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The order of a householder is spoken of, as the source of the three other A's'ramas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daksha Smriti, Chapter 2 verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case someone is willing, he can opt for that path, but calling it superior would mean everyone is recommended to follow such a path,  which is obviously not the case.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T12:01:58.033" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T12:01:58.033" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21176" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21322" CreationDate="2017-09-28T12:26:46.647" Score="3" ViewCount="1517" Body="&lt;p&gt;I know it may sound foolish but I am little confused. It has been extensively said that Krishna was Parmatma. However Parmatma never takes birth nor does he die. Yet we know that Krishna took birth and he died a violent death. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion if Krishna was only a Parmatma then he should not have born and neither he should have died. But it seems to me that he was like any human being who has both the Jivatma and the Paramatma components inside him. His Jivatma died and reached to the his own abode of Parmatma to never return again. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was Krishna both Jivatma and Paramatma? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you say that Krishna was only Pramatma then how can he take birth and die?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="12047" LastEditDate="2017-09-29T05:52:42.343" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T16:20:27.897" Title="Was Krishna both Jivatma and Paramatma?" Tags="|krishna|atma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21177" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-28T14:37:08.350" Score="2" ViewCount="131" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it correct to say that it is the soul that takes the decision as to:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;where to be born?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;when to be born?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;which body to select?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;for how long to stay?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;what exactly it needs to learn in that birth?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reason am asking this is because we all sometimes have this feeling when we are going through some stressful phase in our life as to why me? what wrong have I done? Am I not a good human?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope I'm making sense?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T14:37:08.350" Title="Every decision is the decision of the soul before birth?" Tags="|atma|birth|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21178" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21169" CreationDate="2017-09-28T15:11:37.920" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sadhus:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A sadhu (IAST: sādhu (male), sādhvī (female)), also spelled saddhu, is a religious ascetic, mendicant (monk) or any holy person in Hinduism and Jainism who has renounced the worldly life. ... Although the vast majority of sādhus are yogīs, not all yogīs are sādhus. The sādhu is solely dedicated to achieving mokṣa (liberation), the fourth and final aśrama (stage of life), through meditation and contemplation of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nagas:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Naga in Sanskrit means mountain, people residing in and around mountains are known as Pahadi or Naga. &lt;strong&gt;During ancient times, Naga Sadhus were taught to fight anti-Vedic invaders ferociously.&lt;/strong&gt; Naga Sadhus were equipped with talwars, trishuls, gadas, teer dhanush and weaponry skills to protect Mandirs (मंदिर) and Maths (मठ). Naga Sadhus successfully protected Shiv Mandirs from invaders and mlecchas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Comparison:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So a Naga Sadhu is basically a Sadhu only because both need to go through similar process initially. All sadhus have a common goal: attaining moksha (liberation), but Naga Sadhu has more definite role and has to go through stringent process, the process that is so unbearable, laborious, stiff and difficult that materialistic person becoming a Naga Sadhu is almost impossible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://haribhakt.com/the-mysterious-world-of-great-naga-sadhus-revealed/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;For Naga Sadhu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadhu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sadhus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T15:11:37.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21179" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="31578" CreationDate="2017-09-28T15:14:19.010" Score="4" ViewCount="3241" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following are quotes of Srila Prabhupada regarding Vedic animal sacrifices:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lecture on BG 7.16 -- Bombay, April 7, 1971&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prabhupāda: &lt;strong&gt;There are tāmasika-purāṇas where it is recommended that if you want to eat&#xA;  flesh, then you can get a goat and sacrifice before Goddess Kālī and&#xA;  you can eat that.&lt;/strong&gt; The purpose is that if a conditioned soul has got&#xA;  the natural tendencies, then why they are mentioned in the śāstras?&#xA;  The idea is... Just like Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha, his mission was to&#xA;  stop animal killing. Ahiṁsā paramo dharmaḥ. Lord Buddha appeared,&#xA;  being compassionate with the poor animals. Sadaya-hṛdaya&#xA;  darśita-paśu-ghātam. There is a description of Lord Buddha's&#xA;  activities by a Vaiṣṇava poet, Jayadeva Gosvāmī. He says, praying to&#xA;  Lord Buddha, nindasi yajña-vidher ahaha śruti-jātaṁ sadaya-hṛdaya&#xA;  darśita-paśu-ghātam keśava dhṛta-buddha-śarīra jaya jagadīśa hare Lord&#xA;  Buddha appeared to stop this animal killing. But because in the&#xA;  Purāṇas there are sometimes regulative principle of killing animal,&#xA;  therefore he had to deny the authority of Vedas, because those who are&#xA;  after killing animals, they will find some clue that &quot;Here in the&#xA;  Vedas the animal-killing is sometimes recommended.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;But that&#xA;  animal-killing is not a, I mean to say, instigation that &quot;You go on&#xA;  killing animals.&quot; You can understand by a nice example. Just like the&#xA;  government opens liquor shop. It does not mean the government is&#xA;  encouraging to drink liquor. It is not like that. The idea is that if&#xA;  government does not allow some drunkards to drink, they will create&#xA;  havoc. They will distill illicit distillation of liquor. To check&#xA;  them, the government opens liquor shop with very, very great, high&#xA;  price. The cost... If the cost is one rupee, government excise&#xA;  department charges sixty rupees. So the idea is not to encourage, but&#xA;  to restrict. The idea is prohibition, at least in our country.&#xA;  Similarly, when there is allowance for sex life or meat-eating or&#xA;  drinking in the śāstras, they are not meant for instigating that &quot;You&#xA;  go on with this business as much as you can.&quot; No. Actually they are&#xA;  meant for restriction.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lecture on SB 1.5.14 -- New Vrindaban, June 18, 1969:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prabhupāda: &lt;strong&gt;According to Vedic śāstra, meat-eating is not allowed by &#xA;  purchasing from the slaughterhouse. No. They... There is motive. The&#xA;  marriage ceremony or the meat-eating, the so much ritualistic performances,&#xA;  there is motive. What is that motive? Motive is restriction. Just like&#xA;  the same example, marriage: the real idea is to restrict the boy and&#xA;  the girl to one woman and one man. That is the idea, main idea. If&#xA;  he's not married, then he will be just like cats and dogs. So idea is&#xA;  very good. But Nārada Muni says, &quot;After all, you're coming to the&#xA;  point of sex life. So why so much propaganda?&quot; Similarly, for&#xA;  meat-eating, there is also sanction in the śāstras, tāmasika-śāstra,&#xA;  not sāttvika. There are three divisions of śāstra-sāttvika, rājasika&#xA;  and tāmasika. Those who are meat-eaters, cannot give up meat-eating,&#xA;  for them, the prescription is, &quot;All right, you can eat meat, but you&#xA;  have to sacrifice one goat, but not cow.&quot; The... For sacrifice the&#xA;  animal is recommended: goat. So you can, I mean to say, cut throat of&#xA;  a goat in the presence of goddess Kālī and you can eat. There are so&#xA;  many prescriptions. But that is also restriction, that Kālī-worship is&#xA;  one day in a month, on the dark moon day. What is called, dark moon?&#xA;  Amāvasyā. Full moon and...? Eh? No, no, no. When there is... On that&#xA;  particular..., there is no moon in the sky.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hayagrīva(?): The dark of the moon. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prabhupāda: It is called dark moon, yes. So that Kālī-pūjā&#xA;  is recommended on the dark moon day. The... That is one day in a&#xA;  month. Similarly, according to marriage life, the sex life is also&#xA;  allowed one day in a month. The whole thing is restriction. Similarly,&#xA;  drinking wine also, there is Devī-pūjā. That is also once in a year or&#xA;  something like that. The whole point is restriction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we can see Prabhupada claims that animal sacrifices made to Goddess Kali are solely for the purpose for restricting gratifications of meat eaters. However, many people have told me that animals sacrificed to Mother Kali is for rituals and not for one's own gratification. Are both groups correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T18:23:20.257" LastActivityDate="2018-12-25T08:31:54.510" Title="Is meat offered to Goddess Kali only for restricting the sense gratification of meat-eaters as Srila Prabhupada claims?" Tags="|kali|non-vegetarian|sacrifice|prabhupada|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21180" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21185" CreationDate="2017-09-28T15:18:22.723" Score="7" ViewCount="289" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard that the yajnopavitam cannot be removed ever after once initiated. However, I have also heard Ramakrishna Paramahamsa removed his own one countless times. What do the scriptures say about the removal of the yajnopavitam after initiation? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T15:55:42.907" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T05:36:54.587" Title="Can the Yajnopavitam be ever removed after once the person has initiated?" Tags="|scripture|yagnopavitam|ramakrishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21181" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3321" CreationDate="2017-09-28T15:38:25.040" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the answer on page 337 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=kD84WlAtggkC&amp;amp;lpg=PA337&amp;amp;dq=manthara%20indra&amp;amp;pg=PA337#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In fact, most [North Indian] manuscripts replace the name of Manthara with Dirghajihva, &quot;Long-tounged&quot;[.]... Dirghajihva is a rakshasa woman known to the Mahabharata (3.276.4). There she is said to be slain by Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03290.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the relevant chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even the celestials with Indra at their head, and the Asuras have to tread in the path that is trod by thee! It was after such afflictions that the wielder of the thunderbolt, aided by the Maruts, slew Vritra, and the invincible Namuchi and &lt;strong&gt;the Rakshasi of long tongue&lt;/strong&gt;! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, the story of Indra killing the demoness Dirghajihvi is told in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902701.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/12/items/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif.zip&amp;amp;file=pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_0376.tif&amp;amp;scale=32&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Panchavimsha Brahmana of the Sama Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is the Saumitra (Saman). A (certain) female, sacrifice-destroying, Ogre, Dirghajihvi, kept here licking at the (butter of the) sacrifices.  Indra despaired of killing her by any strategies whatever.  Now Sumitra, the Kutsa, was a handsome (young man). To him he (Indra) said, &quot;Call her to thee.&quot; He called her to him. She said to him &quot;This truly is unheard by me, but it is rather pleasant to my heart.&quot; He (Sumitra) came to an understanding with her. At the trysting place they both (Indra and Sumitra) slew her.  That forsooth, had been at that moment their wish. Through this (Saman) he obtains the fulfillment of his wish. (But) an (inauspicious) voice addressed him (Sumitra) thus: &quot;Being Sumitra, thou hast done a bloody deed.&quot; Grief tormented him; he performed austerities, he saw this Saumitra (Saman).  Through it he drove away his grief. He who, in lauding, has applied this Saumitra (Saman), drives away his grief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story is told in more detail in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia902701.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/12/items/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif.zip&amp;amp;file=pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_tif/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp_0377.tif&amp;amp;scale=32&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Jaiminiya Brahmana of the Sama Veda, but warning, it's quite inappropriate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, I haven't come across any scriptures which identify Dirghajihvi as the daughter of Virochana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T15:38:25.040" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21182" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21761" CreationDate="2017-09-28T16:49:22.700" Score="7" ViewCount="4678" Body="&lt;p&gt;I see in almost all TV shows based on Ramayana or Mahabharata that royal family wears these Jewellery and other ornaments. &lt;br/&gt; Was it like that during those period? I wonder how they used to manage with all that accessories in day to day activities? &lt;br/&gt; Is there any mention about this in any of the literature?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8031" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-10-24T11:47:52.280" LastActivityDate="2022-10-12T02:12:51.477" Title="What did the royal families wear during Ramayana and Mahabharata era?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|rama|dress|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21183" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21186" CreationDate="2017-09-28T17:36:00.797" Score="7" ViewCount="211" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have one question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why was hinduism scripture written in poetry format rather than descriptive text?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="585" LastEditorUserId="585" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T16:10:34.870" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T06:25:53.403" Title="Why was Hindu scripture written in poetry format rather than descriptive text?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21184" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-28T18:03:06.690" Score="3" ViewCount="97" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Navaratri, Devi is decorated with alankara (ornaments, garlands) made of vegetables. Is the vegetable bitter gourd permitted?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8028" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-29T13:07:18.610" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T13:07:18.610" Title="Is bitter gourd permitted to be used in Devi alankar?" Tags="|devi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21185" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21180" CreationDate="2017-09-28T18:06:45.423" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;As for the first question (or the question which the title asks) the answer is NO (apparently).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A twice-born one should always wear the sacred thread&lt;/strong&gt; and tie up the&#xA;  tuft of hair on his crown. He should put on a most excellent white&#xA;  piece of cotton or silk cloth without any hole, but quite different&#xA;  from the one used before &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Usana Smriti's chapter 1 verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He should, daily&lt;/strong&gt;, study the Vedas and &lt;strong&gt;put on his sacred thread&lt;/strong&gt;. He&#xA;  should speak the truth and control his passion. [Such conduct] leads&#xA;  to the attainment of emancipation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Usana Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet another one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One must always put on the sacred thread and bind the tuft of hair on the crown :&lt;/strong&gt; what one does without having the sacred thread on or&#xA;  without binding the tuft of hair on the crown, is equal to an act not&#xA;  done.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Katyayana Smriti 4.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there are some verses, like the one given immediately below, which suggest, wearing the sacred thread, at all the times, was not a prescribed rule. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Being, commanded with &quot; Kurushwa&quot; (do it), he should, with the sacred&#xA;  thread on,* offer oblations [tthe Fire.] Wearing the sacrificial&#xA;  thread and with the Kusa in hand, one should perform the Homa. (Usana&#xA;  Smriti)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commentary on this verse is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This and similar other passages distinctly show that to put on the&#xA;  sacred thread always, was not the practice prevailing then.&lt;/strong&gt; But the&#xA;  Brahmanas used to put on the sacred thread, as a distinctive mark*&#xA;  before the performance of any particular religious rite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways, coming to Sri Ramakrishna now. You are right about the fact that he used to remove it at times, during his meditative sessions to be precise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The book &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedanta.com/store/short_life_of_Sri-Ramakrishna.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot; Short life of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Tejasananda&quot;&lt;/a&gt; , which i have a copy of (in Bengali though) mentions the story which goes like this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During the nights, after the temple used to get closed, Sri&#xA;  RAmakrishna used to go to the famous Panchabati forest and used to&#xA;  meditate upon Mother Goddess under a tree there. This was his regular&#xA;  habit. One day, as usual, after Sri RAmakrishna has gone for&#xA;  meditation, his nephew Hriday, followed him and silently entered that&#xA;  place. He was shocked by what he saw there; He saw his mAmA or Thakur&#xA;  had removed not only the sacred thread but also his clothes and was&#xA;  deeply engrossed in DhyAna in that naked condition. On seeing that&#xA;  Hriday thought to himself &quot; Mama must have gone mad! &quot; and started&#xA;  calling him. After some effort Sri RAmakrishna regained consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Hriday enquired about what he was doing there naked, Sri&#xA;  RAmakrishna replied &quot;Do you know, when one meditates one needs to&#xA;  meditate in this manner-without any bondage (Tui ki janis? Eirup&#xA;  pasamukto hoi dhyan korte hoi). &lt;strong&gt;From birth a man is bound by the eight&#xA;  pAshas viz - Ghrina, LajjA, Kula, shila, Bhaya, MAna, JAti and&#xA;  AbhimAna. Even this Yajnopavita is a pAsha because it reminds me&#xA;  always that &quot;I am Brahmin and hence i am superior&lt;/strong&gt;. This pride of birth&#xA;  is also one such hindrances. He further said &quot; When one mediates on&#xA;  the Mother one should be from all kinds of bondage and do it with single-minded concentration, otherwise one can&#xA;  not attain Her (MAke dakte hole ei sob pas phele diye ek mone dAkte&#xA;  hoi, tai esob khule rekhechi, DhyAn korA shesh hole phirbar somi AbAr&#xA;  porbo&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From Chapter 5 of the aforementioned book&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, these 8 PAshas are also widely known in the Agamas. And, the soul which is still bind with 8 of them is called the Pashu. For example, the following are the 8 pAshAs as mentioned by Lord Shiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;GhrinA shankA bhayam lajjA jugupsA cheti panchami | Kulam shilam tathA&#xA;  jAtir ashto pAshAh prakirtitA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Disgust, apprehension, fear, shame, feeling of insult, Kula-Shila-JAti (pride of family etc)&#xA;  are the eight bondages (pAshAs).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 13.90&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In realizing the ultimate goal these 8 PAshas are like major hindrances for a spiritual aspirant. And the Yajnopavita will fall under the Kula-JAti PAshA category whereas the clothes will come under the Shame-PAshA. So, that's what the purport of Sri RAmakrishna's message to his nephew is. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the Smritis don't deny the fact that a Brahmin who is devoid of the knowledge of Self but takes pride in his sacred thread is nothing but a Pashu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Vipra who does not know the true nature and being of Brahman &lt;strong&gt;but is&#xA;  always proud of his sacrificial thread, is for that sin called a Pasu&#xA;  (beast).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, do not judge an extraordinary Yogi-Saint of the order of Sri RAmakrishna from the rule books. He possibly can avoid at ease what are some must-follow rules for any other ordinary Brahmins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-09-29T05:36:54.587" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T05:36:54.587" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21186" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21183" CreationDate="2017-09-28T18:18:48.967" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu Scriptures are written in poetry format, because they can explain a lot more in fewer words. Narrating the same in descriptive text format would make the narration too lengthy and cumbersome. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there are instances of scriptures written in descriptive text form.                       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The entire Canto V of Srimad Bhagavat Mahapurana is narrated in text format and not poetry except for some prayers.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T19:29:56.320" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T19:29:56.320" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21187" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21166" CreationDate="2017-09-28T19:37:34.300" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801604.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/18/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.170212/2015.170212.1991-November-Sapthagiri_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=2015.170212.1991-November-Sapthagiri_jp2/2015.170212.1991-November-Sapthagiri_0012.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8.314194577352472&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from a journal paper says that Thiruthangal is mentioned in the Brahmanda Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The eighth chapter of kshetra kanda contained in the Brahmanda Purana has given a pen-picture of this hallowed place. Puroora Chakravarthy, a prudent and upright ruler of Bharatavarsha renounced his kingdom in favor of his sons with the avowed intention of seeking eternal bliss.  He sought guidance from the sages to the appropriate place for performing a penance.  The sapient sages rightly directed him to Thiruthangal where he conducted an austere penance.  He was rewarded with a darshan of Mahavishnu who duly granted him salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, you can read the Brahmanda Purana using the links in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/6751/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  I'm not sure what part of the Brahmanda Purana constitutes the Kshetra Kanda.  It's possible that this story is only found in some recensions of the Brahmanda Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T19:37:34.300" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21188" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21189" CreationDate="2017-09-28T19:41:25.333" Score="2" ViewCount="1659" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Samkhya school, founded by the sage Kapila. There are three works which are variously claimed to be the oldest surviving work of the Samkhya school: Kapila's Samkhya Sutras, Kapila's Tattva Samasa, and Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika. Of these three, scholars consider the Samkhya Karika to be the oldest; the original defining work of the Samkhya school was composed by Kapila, but scholars believe that work is lost and that the Samkhya Sutras and Tattva Samasa are just later works attributed to Kapila.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what commentaries on Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika are available in English?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2018-09-09T00:49:09.540" Title="What commentaries on the Samkhya Karika are available in English?" Tags="|philosophy|translation-request|sankhya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21189" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21188" CreationDate="2017-09-28T19:41:25.333" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;These are the commentaries on the Samkhya Karika I've found in English so far:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gaudapada's Samkhya Karika Bhashya, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universaltheosophy.com/sacred-texts/samkhya-karika/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vachaspati Mishra's Samkhya Tattva Kaumudi, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/anenglishtransla00vaacuoft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Narayana Tirtha's Samkhya Chandrika, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.47073&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Yukti Dipika, an ancient commentary of unknown authorship discovered in the 1930's, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://web.archive.org/web/20141217125239/http://www.dayanandbhargava.com:80/yuktideepkia-vol-i-ii-delhi-1990-1992&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Suvarna Saptati, another ancient commentary of unknown authorship lost in the original Sanskrit but available in a Chinese translation by the 6th century Buddhist philosopher Paramartha, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/samkhyachinese&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The two major commentaries that I haven't found in English are Shankara's Jayamangala and the Mathara Vritti, but you can read them in Sanskrit &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downloads.prajnaquest.fr/BookofDzyan/Sanskrit%20Hindu%20Texts/samkhya_karika_and_jayamangala_1926.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downloads.prajnaquest.fr/BookofDzyan/Sanskrit%20Hindu%20Texts/samkhya_karika_and_mathara_vrtti_1922.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Unfortunately, they're among the oldest commentaries on the Samkhya Karika, so I'm hoping someone will translate them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2018-09-09T00:49:09.540" LastActivityDate="2018-09-09T00:49:09.540" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21190" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5488" CreationDate="2017-09-28T20:19:23.133" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;A soul enters human fetus after 3rd month.  So until 90 days it does not enter but on the 91st day it does.  As i have heard from Pundits and Brahmanis who study Sanskrit scriptures. Well, let's hope they are correct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additional help for you; hope this helps your question.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnwLEMfpBMA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnwLEMfpBMA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12139" LastEditorUserId="12139" LastEditDate="2017-09-28T20:30:08.787" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T20:30:08.787" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21191" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20582" CreationDate="2017-09-28T20:26:43.140" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One hundred years of Brahma.&lt;/strong&gt;  The period between the death of the old Brahma and the birth of a new Brahma is known as a Mahapralaya or Prakritika Pralaya, and it's described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp159.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I will now, Maitreya, describe to you elemental dissolution. When by dearth and fire all the worlds and Pátálas are withered up, and the modifications of Mahat and other products of nature are by the will of Krishńa destroyed, the progress of elemental dissolution is begun. Then, first, the waters swallow up the property of earth, which is the rudiment of smell; and earth, deprived of its property, proceeds to destruction. Devoid of the rudiment of odour, the earth becomes one with water. The waters then being much augmented, roaring, and rushing along, fill up all space, whether agitated or still. When the universe is thus pervaded by the waves of the watery element, its rudimental flavour is licked up by the element of fire, and, in consequence of the destruction of their rudiments, the waters themselves are destroyed. Deprived of the essential rudiment of flavour, they become one with fire, and the universe is therefore entirely filled with flame, which drinks up the water on every side, and gradually overspreads the whole of the world. While space is enveloped in flame, above, below, and all around, the element of wind seizes upon the rudimental property, or form, which is the cause of light; and that being withdrawn, all becomes of the nature of air. The rudiment of form being destroyed, and fire deprived of its rudiment, air extinguishes fire, and spreads resistlessly over space, which is deprived of light when fire merges into air. Air then, accompanied by sound, which is the source of ether, extends every where throughout the ten regions of space, until ether seizes upon contact, its rudimental property; by the loss of which, air is destroyed, and ether remains unmodified: devoid of form, flavour, touch, and smell, it exists unembodied and vast, and pervades the whole of space. Ether, whose characteristic property and rudiment is sound, exists alone, occupying all the vacuity of space. But then the radical element egotism devours sound, and all the elements and faculties are at once merged into their original. This primary element is consciousness, combined with the property of darkness, and is itself swallowed up by Mahat, whose characteristic property is intelligence; and earth and Mahat are the inner and outer boundaries of the universe. In this manner, as in the creation were the seven forms of nature (Prakriti), reckoned from Mahat to earth, so, at the time of elemental dissolution, these seven successively reenter into each other. The egg of Brahmá is dissolved in the waters that surround it, with its seven zones, seven oceans, seven regions, and their mountains. The investure of water is drunk up by fire: the stratum of fire is absorbed by that of air: air blends itself with ether: the primary element of egotism devours the ether, and is itself taken up by intellect, which, along with all these, is seized upon by nature (Prakriti). Equilibrium of the three properties, without excess or deficiency, is called nature (Prakriti), origin (Hetu), the chief principle (Pradhańa), cause (Kárańa), supreme (Param). This Prakriti is essentially the same, whether discrete or indiscrete; only that which is discrete is finally lost or absorbed in the indiscrete. Spirit also, which is one, pure, imperishable, eternal, all-pervading, is a portion of that supreme spirit which is all things. That spirit which is other than (embodied) spirit, in which there are no attributes of name, species, or the like--which is one with all wisdom, and is to be understood as sole existence--that is Brahma, infinite glory, supreme spirit, supreme power, Vishńu, all that is; from whence the perfect sage returns no more. Nature (Prakriti), which I have described to you as being essentially both discrete and indiscrete, and spirit (which is united with body), both resolve into supreme spirit. Supreme spirit is the upholder of all things, and the ruler of all things, and is glorified in the Vedas and in the Vedanta by the name of Vishńu.... &lt;strong&gt;The period of two Parárddhas, as I have described it to you, Maitreya, is called a day of that potent Vishńu; and whilst the products of nature are merged into their source, nature into spirit, and that into the supreme, that period is termed his night, and is of equal duration with his day.&lt;/strong&gt; But, in fact, to that eternal supreme spirit there is neither day nor night, and these distinctions are only figuratively applied to the almighty.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So as you can see, the duration of a Mahapralaya is equal to two Parardhas or one Mahakalpa.  That is one hundred years in the life of Brahma, as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vishnu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Krita, Tretá, Dwápara, and Kali, constitute a great age, or aggregate of four ages: a thousand such aggregates are a day of Brahmá, and fourteen Menus reign within that term....  Of such days and nights is a year of Brahmá composed; and a hundred such years constitute his whole life. One Parárddha or half his existence, has expired[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-28T20:26:43.140" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21193" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-29T01:04:04.087" Score="7" ViewCount="147" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most people only know the story of how Shiva took an incarnation as the half-lion half-bird Sharabheshwara in order to try to subdue Vishnu's incarnation Narasimha, as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2479/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  What's not as well-known, however, is that Sharabeshwara wasn't a one-of-a-kind creature; Sharabhas are legendary animals described in Hindu scripture.  They're eight legged half-lion half-bird creatures that are the natural predators for lions.  They're mentioned in numerous places in Hindu scriptures.   For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1209.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this &lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda prohibits eating the Sharabha meat:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The man (purusha) whom they had offered up became a mock-man (kim-purusha). Those two, the horse and the ox, which they had sacrificed, became a bos gaurus and a gayal (bos gavaeus) respectively. The sheep which they had sacrificed, became a camel. The goat which they had sacrificed, became a &lt;strong&gt;sharabha&lt;/strong&gt;. For this reason one should not eat (the flesh) of these animals, for these animals are deprived of the sacrificial essence (are impure).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And here &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03134.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Eight are the bags containing a hundred fold; &lt;strong&gt;eight is the number of the legs of the Sarabha&lt;/strong&gt;, which preyeth upon lions; eight Vasus, as we hear, are amongst the celestials; and eight are the angles of yupa (stake), in all sacrificial rites.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7506/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I discuss a story told in the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata of a Rishi who transforms a dog into different animals in order to save it from the threats of leopards, elephants, lions, and Sharabhas.  And the Pandavas encountered Sharabhas on the Gandhamadana mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But obviously we don't encounter Sharabhas today.  So my question is, what is the most recent reference to wild Sharabhas still existing?  And conversely, what is the earliest reference to wild Sharabhas not existing anymore?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I don't want scientific speculation about equating Sharabha with dinosaurs and the like, I just want to know when they were known to still exist and when they were known not to exist anymore.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-29T03:21:29.630" LastActivityDate="2017-11-29T03:21:29.630" Title="What is the most recent reference to wild Sharabhas existing?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|animals|india|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21197" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21209" CreationDate="2017-09-29T04:10:31.733" Score="4" ViewCount="199" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Samkhya school, which was founded by the sage Kapila and which believes in two kinds of entities in the Universe, Purushas or souls and Prakriti or matter/energy.  According to the Samkhya school, there are multiple Purushas but only one Prakriti.  Or at least I thought that was a universal belief of the Samkhya school, but that might not be the case. Let me explain.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Haribhadra's Saddarshana Samucchaya is a Jain work which seeks to disprove the various Astika schools of Hindu philosophy.  Page 368 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=V07l6gThaV0C&amp;amp;lpg=PA368&amp;amp;dq=maulikya%20gunaratna&amp;amp;pg=PA368#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; says that one of the commentators on Haribhadra's work makes an interesting statement in regard to the Samkhya school:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gunaratna (fourteenth century), the commentator on the Saddarshana Samucchaya, mentions two schools of Samkhya, maulikya (original) and uttara (late). The former maintains that there is a prakriti (pradhana) for each soul (atman), whereas the latter, with the classic Samkhya, believes that there is but one pradhana for all individual souls[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, is Gunaratna right that there were Samkhya philosophers who believed in a different Prakriti for each Purusha?  As far as I can tell, all the Samkhya works I've read, like the five commentaries on the Samkhya Karika linked to in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21189/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, support the notion of a common Prakriti, so they'd all belong to &quot;Uttara Samkhya&quot; school as per Gunaratna.  I'm not sure who belonged to the &quot;Maulikya Samkhya&quot; school then.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, how would multiple Prakritis work?  Would each soul experience a completely different reality, or would the Prakritis link together, or what?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T15:16:49.227" Title="Did any Samkhya philosophers believe in a different Prakriti for each Purusha?" Tags="|history|philosophy|sankhya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21199" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-29T06:16:38.827" Score="6" ViewCount="1117" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Samkhya school, founded by the sage Kapila.  Verse 55 of Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika, one of the defining texts of the Samkhya school, describes the misery the soul experiences as long as it's in Samsara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tatra jarāmaraṇakṛtaṃ duḥkham prāpnoti cetanaḥ puruṣaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  liṅgasya ā vinivṛttes tasmād duḥkhaṃ svabhāvena ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There, the intelligent Spirit experiences pain due to old age and death, till the cessation of the Linga; hence misery is of the nature of things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600202.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/14/items/YuktidipikaVol.IIDr.ShivKumar/Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_jp2/Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_0410.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Yuktidipika, an ancient commentary on the Samkhya Karika of unknown authorship, gives various examples to illustrate that even the Devas and other exalted beings are subject to misery:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it is asked how the pleasure is pervaded by misery, (we reply), because of the possibility of impurity, decay and surpass ability right from the (world of) Brahma. And, because that (possibility) is the cause of misery. (It is known through the following:) because the disease of eyes is heard in case of Prajapati, because of the trouble of sexual desire in case of Indra, because of the defeat of Gautama and because of the attainment of the state of stone in case of Rambha through the curse, because of the trouble of Sarpasatra to the serpents, and &lt;strong&gt;there is the attainment of the state of elephant in case of Vaishravana on account of the curse of Yaska&lt;/strong&gt;, because of the stay in hole in case of the parents of Jaratkaru, because of banishing the Pishachas through the use of vedic chants, medicines, and auspicious things, and because the human beings and the lower animals are directly observed to be the abode of misery. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of these stories are recognizable: there's the story of Brahma losing his eye described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv06.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this Kanda&lt;/a&gt; of the Taittiriya Samhita of the Yajur Veda; there's Indra being Indra; there's the story of Vishwamitra cursing Rambha which I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18160/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;; there's the story of Janamejaya trying to kill all the snakes of the world; there's the story of the Pitris of the sage Jaratkaru described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01014.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm interested in the part in bold.  For those who don't know Vaishravana is a another name for Kubera god of wealth. So my question is, what is the story of Kubera being cursed to turn into an elephant by Yaska?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only Yaska I know of is the author of the Nirukta, a famous Sanskrit etymological text.  Is it possible that it's a translation error and that it's Yaksha rather than Yaska?  After all Kubera is the king of the Yakshas.  In any case, how did Kubera get cursed, and how did he ultimately get freed from the curse?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-29T17:46:03.537" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T17:46:03.537" Title="What is the story of Kubera being cursed to turn into an elephant?" Tags="|philosophy|sankhya|kubera|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21200" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10738" CreationDate="2017-09-29T06:17:52.783" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;In hindu philosophy (the sanskrit meaning' Turiya' the fourth) caturiya chaturtha is pure conciousness. Turiya is a background  underlies transcend the tree the common state of conciousness. To know about Turiya plz visit on &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://themodernvedic.com/life/fourth-state-mind-consciousness-turiya/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://themodernvedic.com/life/fourth-state-mind-consciousness-turiya/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12146" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T06:17:52.783" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21202" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17811" CreationDate="2017-09-29T07:09:35.743" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;God is neither light nor darkness. God can not be compared with any human experience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot; Brahman is without comparison. It is impossible to explain Brahman&#xA;  by analogy. It is between light and darkness. It is light, but not the&#xA;  light we perceive, not material light.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T07:09:35.743" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21203" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14516" CreationDate="2017-09-29T09:28:09.293" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam is one of the most widely recognised Puranas among the 18 Puranas, for its one-pointed focus on Bhakti. Thus it has been commented upon by many scholars from various schools of Vedanta, like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sridhara Svami - Advaita Sampradaya (Adi Shankara) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Veeraraghavacharya - Vishishtadvaita Sampradaya (Ramanujacharya)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vijayadhvaja Tirtha - Dvaita Sampradaya (Madhvacharya)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shukadeva - Dvaitadvaita Sampradaya (Nimbarka)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vallabhacharya, Purushottama and Giridhara - Shuddhadvaita Sampradaya (Vishnuswami)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jiva Gosvami, Vishvanatha Chakravarti - Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya (Chaitanya Mahaprabhu&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ekanatha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gangasahaya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vamshidhara Acharya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note: Out of these commentaries, the one that deviates the most from the extent version of Srimad Bhagavatam is the commentary of Vijayadhvaja Tirtha, whose version of the text contains an &lt;strong&gt;excess of slokas&lt;/strong&gt; (and many chapters as well, in the Dasama Skandha).)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Viraraghavacharya's version of the text, we find the verse quoted in the question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;trivakrāyām upaślokaḥ putraḥ kṛṣṇam anuvrataḥ | &#xA;  śiṣyas sākṣān nāradasya dadau cittam akhaṇḍitam || &#xA;  tenoktaṃ sāttvataṃ tantraṃ yat jñātvā mokṣabhāg bhavet | &#xA;  yatra strīśūdradāsānāṃ saṃskāro vaiṣṇavaḥ smṛtaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Trivakra's son Upasloka was exclusively devoted to Krsna. He was a direct disciple of Narada. He adopted the vow of life long celibacy. the Sattvata Tantra was composed by him. It laid down the Vaishnava purificatory rites for women, Sudras and slaves. By studying the Tantra, one attains liberation from Samsara.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses appear (in his version) in the 90th chapter (last chapter) of the Tenth Canto, between verses 34 and 35 of the common version of Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0YkRM.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/0YkRM.png&quot; alt=&quot;Translation of the verses 34.1 and 34.2&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Considering that this was sung about &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9493/what-is-the-story-of-upashloka&quot;&gt;by poets from Kerala in their summaries of the Bhagavatam&lt;/a&gt;, we can infer that it must occur in the Southern Recension of the Bhagavatam, which must have been the dominant version in Tamilnadu and Kerala until the advent of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu(?).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translation of Srimad Bhagavatam including all additional verses and important commentaries of the Acharyas can be downloaded from &lt;a href=&quot;http://vishnudut1926.blogspot.in/2014/11/the-bhagavata-purana-all-5-volumes-in.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this website&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3662" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2017-09-29T16:20:19.957" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T16:20:19.957" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21204" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-29T11:54:38.597" Score="4" ViewCount="505" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is karna guru and Is it compulsory to take mantra from karna guru?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorUserId="12071" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T09:30:06.190" LastActivityDate="2019-09-27T17:02:10.360" Title="What is Karna Guru?" Tags="|guru|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21205" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20599" CreationDate="2017-09-29T12:21:58.373" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Gita, I could find few relative references.&#xA;I personally believe that &amp;quot;BrahmA&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Vishnu&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Shiva&amp;quot; all are the name of the same supreme reality, which is in oneness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;BrahmA&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 13.14 - That (Knowable), which has &lt;strong&gt;hands and feet everywhere, which has eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, which has ears everywhere&lt;/strong&gt;, exists in creatures by pervading them all.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 11.15 - ... &lt;strong&gt;Brahma the ruler, sitting on a lotus seat,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 5.10 - One who acts by dedicating actions to &lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; and by renouncing attachment, he does not become polluted by sin, just as a &lt;strong&gt;lotus&lt;/strong&gt; leaf is not by water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, it's typically depicted with several heads, hands, legs, eyes &amp;amp; sitting on lotus unaffected from the &lt;em&gt;Prakruti&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zwsGtm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zwsGtm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Vishnu&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a namesake Vishnu reference, which refers to the sons of Aditi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 10.21 - Among the Adityas [viz &lt;em&gt;Dhata, Mitra, Aryama, Rudra, Varuna, Surya, Bhaga, Vivasvan, Pusa, Savita, Tvasta and Visnu&lt;/em&gt;.-Tr.] &lt;strong&gt;I am &lt;em&gt;Vishnu&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;; ...  -- translation Gambhirananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few verses in chapter-11 depicts the famous all deity form:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 11.10 - Having &lt;strong&gt;many faces and eyes, possessing many wonderful sights&lt;/strong&gt;, adorned with numerous celestial ornaments, holding many uplifted heavenly weapons;&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 11.15 - Arjuna said O God, I see in Your body &lt;strong&gt;all the gods&lt;/strong&gt; as also hosts of (various) classes of beings; Brahma the ruler, sitting on a lotus seat, and all the heavenly sages and &lt;strong&gt;serpents&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 11.16 - I see You as possessed of &lt;strong&gt;numerous arms, bellies, mouths and eyes; as having infinite forms all around&lt;/strong&gt;. O Lord of the Universe, O Cosmic Person, I see not Your limit nor the middle, nor again the beginning!&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 11.17 - I see You as wearing a diadem, &lt;strong&gt;wielding a mace&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;holding a disc&lt;/strong&gt;; a mass of brilliance glowing all around, difficult to look at from all sides, possessed of the radiance of the blazing fire and sun, and immeasurable.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 11.22 Those who are the Rudras, the Adityas, the Vasus and the Sadhyas, the Visve (-devas), the two Asvins, the Maruts and the Usmapas, and hosts of Gandharvas, Yaksas, demons and Siddhas-all of those very ones gaze at You, being indeed struck with wonder.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 11.23 - O mighty-armed One, seeing Your &lt;strong&gt;immense form with many mouths and eyes, having numerous arms, thighs and feet, with many bellies&lt;/strong&gt;, and fearful with many teeth, the creatures are struck with terror, and so am I.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/u9fc2m.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/u9fc2m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another famous depiction of Vishnu is sleeping on &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19702/1049&quot;&gt;Adi Shesha is discussed here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WiRIxm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/WiRIxm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another form depicts as of whole universe silently pervades as the Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 9.4 - This &lt;strong&gt;whole universe is pervaded by Me&lt;/strong&gt; in My unmanifested form. All beings exist in Me, but I am not contained in them!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zvOkym.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zvOkym.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;Shiva&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Shankara&amp;quot; is directly referred in Gita. Some people [mistakenly] consider &amp;quot;Shiva = Shankara&amp;quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 10.23 - Among the Rudras [Aja, Ekapada, Ahirbudhnya, Pinaki, Aparajita, Tryam-baka, Mahesvara, Vrsakapi, Sambhu, Harana and Isvara] &lt;strong&gt;I am Shankara&lt;/strong&gt;, ... -- translation Gambhirananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, this is not the Rudra Shankara. But Shiva, which is the &lt;em&gt;nirguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt;. Usually &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; is depicted in the form of &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;linga&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The &lt;em&gt;linga&lt;/em&gt; (phallus) plants the seeds as a father and the &lt;em&gt;yoni&lt;/em&gt; (womb), which accepts them as a mother to form the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 14.3 - &lt;strong&gt;My womb&lt;/strong&gt; is the great-sustainer. In that &lt;strong&gt;I place the seed&lt;/strong&gt;. From that, O scion of the Bharata dynasty, occurs the birth of all things.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;BG 14.4 - O son of Kunti, whatever forms are born from all the wombs, of them &lt;strong&gt;the great-sustainer is the womb; I am the father who deposits the seed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/f9FVXm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/f9FVXm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-02-11T12:35:56.763" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21207" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17912" CreationDate="2017-09-29T13:40:30.773" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Shankara established only 4 mutts for sure. If he did establish the fifth Kanchi mutt, the date of Shankara as claimed by them(509 to 477 BC) should be the true date of Adi Shankara. You can read my answer about date of Adi Shankara &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15603/birth-date-of-adi-shankaracharya/18573#18573&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;So, his life history clearly says he lived in 8th century AD. So, the first and foremost claim of Kanchi mutt that it was 2500 years old(!) becomes false.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The mutt claimed that a structure seen nearby the Kamakshi temple premises the tomb of Adi Shankara. But when it was investigated, we came to know that it was an old Devi temple. Immediately Kamakoti Peetam renamed it as Shankaracharya Sannadi from Shankaracharya Samadhi. As there is no tomb identified in Kanchi, so Shankara never died in Kanchi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Picture of real tomb of Shankara in Kedarnath is below. Except Kanchi mutt, all other mutts say that Adi Shankara died and has a tomb in Kedarnath.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hZMLk.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/hZMLk.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another claim of the Kanchi mutt is the Kumbakonam mutt established in 1820s was a branch of Kanchi mutt. But the fact is the kumbakonam mutt was a branch of Sringeri  mutt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The seal of the mutt is in Kannada language, and it also referred&#xA;itself as Sarada mutt. Since Sarada is worshiped only at Sringeri and&#xA;Kannada language was never used in Tamil Nadu, this mutt is of&#xA;Kannada origin. These are all prove that Kumbakonam mutt was a branch&#xA;of Sringeri mutt.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, what is the real history of Kanchi Kamakoti mutt?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kumbakonam mutt asked separation from Sringeri. It not only&#xA;denied the historical truth that Kumbakonam mutt is a branch of&#xA;Sringeri mutt, but also distorted the history by claiming that&#xA;Kumbakonam mutt is a branch of Kanchipuram mutt and increased the&#xA;antiquity of Adi Shankara over 1000 years.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then this mutt was shifted to Kanchi by using this fake story. It established a new branch in Kanchi in the early 1840s. Meanwhile, Kumbhabhisekam of Kamakshi temple was held with the permission of the British. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The headquarter of this Kanchi branch continued to be at Kumbakonam but the sannyasi head would&#xA;periodically visit Kanchi to assert his rights over the Kamakshi temple for some long years. Then only Kanchi mutt emerged as a solo mutt established by Shankara in the early 20th century AD after disintegrating it from Kumbakonam mutt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/alt_hindu_msg.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Further Reading&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-29T19:03:32.783" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T19:03:32.783" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21209" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21197" CreationDate="2017-09-29T15:16:49.227" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the answer to my question in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/VSjI&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Yukti Dipika, an ancient commentary on Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika of unknown authorship discovered in the 1930's:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Opponent: The statement that the commencement of activity is meant for the liberation of each conscious entity is wrong; because there is difference of opinion amongst the authorities. The cosmic matter attached with each conscious entity forms the objects like body, etc. (for that conscious entity). Out of them, when the magnanimous body starts functioning, the others also do so. And, when that stops activity, they also stop functioning - &lt;strong&gt;thus believes the Samkhya authority Paurika&lt;/strong&gt;. Then, without refuting it how can it be accepted that the cosmic matter is one?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Proponent : No, there is no proof (for it). It cannot be decided so through perception, because all the cosmic matters are beyond the reach of the senses. Nor is there some undoubtless probans. &lt;strong&gt;We have not accepted the person stating like this as reliable and hence we believe that it is not so.&lt;/strong&gt; Moreover, the purpose can be fulfilled with one (cosmic matter) only. Since it is not limited in magnitude, the single conscious entity only is enough to produce the bodies for all the conscious entities. Therefore, the postulation of some other serves no purpose. If it is argued that since the cosmic matter is limited in magnitude, it may be like this: if it is sai, that the cosmic matter is limited in magnitude, it is not so because it would involve the undesirable contingency of its complete destruction. In this way also arises the undesirable contingency of the destruction of that as in the case of the milk. Similarly, there arises the undesirable contingency of the complete destruciton of the world. Moreover, it involves the undesirable contingency of infinite regress. (Also) because a single yogi or Isvara attains many bodies through will, which becomes unjustifiable due to the finite nature of the cosmic matter. Or, if the cosmic matter is supposed to be different in case of each body, there arises the undesirable contingency of (the number of) cosmic matter. Since it is accepted as the cause of the body which is limited in magnitude, the postulation of some other cosmic matter serves no purpose. And, hence, this cosmic matter is one only. Therefore, it is wrong that the cosmic matters are different in case of conscious entity. As regards the statement that the others start functioning when the cosmic matter attached with the principal conscious entity starts functioning and when that ceases to funcion, the others also cease, we say: no, because there is no superiority. Just as the souls cannot activate each other due to the lack of superiority amongst them, in the same of these way, (cosmic matters) also. Or, if the superiority exists (in cosmic matters), there will arise the undesirable contingency of the un-justification (of acceptance of cosmic matter) because of the dissimilarity. Therefore, that only a single cosmic matter proceeds to act for the purpose of liberating each conscious entity, is right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So apparently the Samkhya philosopher Paurika believed in a different Prakriti for each Purusha. It's interesting that the author of the Yukti Dipika rejects the authority of Paurika, considering that &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800202.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/14/items/YuktidipikaVol.IIDr.ShivKumar/Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_jp2/Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_0438.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Yukti Dipika mentions Paurika as one of the figures in the Guru Parampara of the Samkhya school:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In brief this shastra is (handed over to us) through [gap in the manuscript] Harita, Vaddhali, Kairat, Paurika, Arshbheshvara, Panchadhikarana, Patanjali, Varsaganya, Kaundinya, Muka, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T15:16:49.227" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21210" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="45137" CreationDate="2017-09-29T19:16:10.263" Score="7" ViewCount="988" Body="&lt;p&gt;Got to read about sage Lomasa &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamyaka_Forest&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; while researching about Kamyaka Forest:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pandavas came back from the Dwaita woods to Kamyaka again for a&#xA;  2nd time. This time they lived without Arjuna who had left for&#xA;  military training in the northern Himalayas (3,36). They lived thus&#xA;  for 5 years in Kamyaka (3,50). Ghatotkacha lived with them during this&#xA;  period (7,181). Sage Vyasa and Sage Lomasa visited them then. From&#xA;  there, they set out for a pilgrimage across India, guided by Lomasa&#xA;  (3,93).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But want to know more about him, coz he belongs to the same era to which Ved Vyasa belonged. Are there any known works by him?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-11-19T21:53:11.417" LastActivityDate="2021-03-21T13:51:42.093" Title="Who was sage Lomasa?" Tags="|mahabharata|identification-request|rishi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21211" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21425" CreationDate="2017-09-29T20:39:46.193" Score="7" ViewCount="3552" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;, the previous kalpa was known as the Padma kalpa: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Currently, 50 years of Brahma have elapsed. &lt;strong&gt;The last Kalpa at the end of 50th year is called Padma Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;. We are currently in the first 'day' of the 51st year.[26] This Brahma's day, Kalpa, is named as Shveta-Varaha Kalpa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in his commentary of the Srimad Bhagavatam 2.10.47 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The present duration of a kalpa of Brahmā is called the Varāha-kalpa or Śvetavarāha-kalpa because the incarnation of the Lord as Varāha took place during the creation of Brahmā, who was born on the lotus coming out of the abdomen of Viṣṇu. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore this Varāha-kalpa is also called Pādma-kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;, and this is testified by ācāryas like Jīva Gosvāmī as well as Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in pursuance of the first commentator, Svāmī Śrīdhara. So there is no contradiction between the Varāha and the Pādma-kalpa of Brahmā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So then are the Padma Kalpa and the Svetavaraha Kalpa the same or different?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-06-04T09:12:18.130" LastActivityDate="2019-08-26T05:24:30.100" Title="Is the Svetavaraha Kalpa and the Padma Kalpa the same?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|time|varaha|prabhupada|kalpa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21212" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7187" CreationDate="2017-09-29T22:20:32.943" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arjuna is superior to Karna in battle.&lt;/strong&gt;  Here is what Indra says in a message to Yudhishthira, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03091.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Varna Parva of the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And, O bull of the Bharata race, well do I know that Karna is endued with great ardour and energy and strength and prowess that is incapable of being baffled. Well do I know that, skilled in fierce conflict, he hath not his rival in battle; that he is a mighty bowman, a hero deft in the use of fierce weapons and cased in the best of mail. Well do I know that that exalted son of Aditya resembleth the son of Maheswara himself. Well do I also know the high natural prowess of the broad-shouldered Arjuna. &lt;strong&gt;In battle Karna is not equal unto even a sixteenth part of Pritha's son.&lt;/strong&gt; And as for the fear of Karna which is in thy heart, O repressor of foes, I shall dispel when Savyasachin will have left heaven. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-29T22:20:32.943" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21213" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21222" CreationDate="2017-09-29T22:39:11.290" Score="0" ViewCount="278" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/a&gt; were compiled by Vedavyasa, and subsequent acharyas such as Ramanujacharya have written commentaries on them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But is it known if Vyasa ever wrote his own commentary on them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-30T09:53:28.670" LastActivityDate="2017-09-30T22:36:27.780" Title="Did Vedavyasa ever write his own commentary on the Brahma Sutras?" Tags="|history|vedanta|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21214" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-30T01:06:56.023" Score="3" ViewCount="194" Body="&lt;p&gt;We humans suffer a lot due to death and separation. Krishna fought many wars. Krishna had many relatives, friends and lovers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: Did Krishna ever suffer in any stage of his life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-09-30T13:34:54.020" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T04:27:19.243" Title="Did Krishna ever suffer due to separation from beloved or due to unwanted circumstances?" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21215" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-30T02:42:36.100" Score="5" ViewCount="137" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Samkhya school, founded by the sage Kapila.  Verse 53 of Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika, one of the defining texts of the Samkhya school, describes the different races of beings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aṣṭavikalpo daivas tairyagyonaśca pañcadhā bhavati | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mānuṣyaścaikavidhaḥ samāsato bhautikaḥ sargaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The divine class has eight varieties, the sub-human has five and the human has one (only). Such, in brief is this creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The eight varieties of divine beings are Brahma, Prajapati, Indra, Pitri, Gandharva, Rakshasa, and Pishacha. Now &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/nGfVAb/IMG_1244.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Yukti Dipika, an ancient commentary on the Samkhya Karika of unknown authorship discovered in the 1930's, responds to the objection that this classification scheme excludes Asuras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Objection: &quot;The demons also should be mentioned.&quot; ... Proponent: No, because they are included in the above only. The demons are included because they were the gods earlier. The demons were the gods earlier.  Moreover, because of their being Indra alternatively. &lt;strong&gt;The state of Indra is found in the shruti alternatively with reference to Dhanvi, etc.&lt;/strong&gt; Similarly, because the Yakshas are identical with the Rakshasa.  The Kinnaras and Vidhyadharas are included into Gandharvas because of the similarity of their nature. The diseased souls are included into ancestors because of their similarity in respect of having the same lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I find this reasoning somewhat tendentious, but I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, what is the story of the Asura Dhanvi attaining the position of Indra? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've heard of other Asuras taking over Swarga, like Prahlada and Mahabali, but I've never heard of Dhanvi.  What scriptures describe him?  Is he mentioned in the Vedas as the Yukti Dipika suggests?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-21T18:34:02.677" LastActivityDate="2018-02-21T18:34:02.677" Title="What is the story of the Asura Dhanvi attaining the position of Indra?" Tags="|vedas|indra|asuras|sankhya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21216" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-30T04:42:41.413" Score="1" ViewCount="66" Body="&lt;p&gt;On Vahmana incarnation of Lord Vishnu, He went to King Bali to get all lokas from him. After taking all lokas and Bali himsef from him He got pleased by Bali's comitment (vachan palana) and grant him boon that in savarni mantav&#xA;(time whose exact name don't remember right now) you will get post of my great devotee Indra. Till then you go and live in sutaka loka with your grand father (Prahlad).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not sure whether Lord Vishnu grant post of King of heaven or some other post. And what is the time when he will get that post of him. What was the exact boon that Lord Vishnu gave to King Bali?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastActivityDate="2017-09-30T04:42:41.413" Title="Will Bali become the King of heaven?" Tags="|vishnu|indra|bali|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-09-30T08:23:39.000" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21217" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10605" CreationDate="2017-09-30T05:15:16.647" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Good question!!!!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Many among the devotees who sing such Aarti don't know who is Shivanand Swami !!!!&lt;br&gt;&#xA;His actual name is &quot;Shivanand Vamdev Pandya&quot; who later became Swami Shivanand. His life span was during 14-15 th century.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;He was from Gujarat and he has written many artis in Gujarati language. Both Arti mentioned above in your question are Hindi translation of Gujarati Artis.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For more details refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://timesofindia.com/city/surat/Ma-Amba-aarti-written-by-Surti-poet/articleshow/16845786.cms&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article and the book mentioned in the same article. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12152" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-30T05:41:08.823" LastActivityDate="2017-09-30T05:41:08.823" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21220" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-30T08:35:45.407" Score="9" ViewCount="421" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is applying sindoor after marriage mandatory or just a choice? Do Hindu scripture say anything about applying sindoor after marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12155" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-30T14:18:55.337" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T15:11:37.097" Title="Is applying sindoor compulsory after marriage?" Tags="|culture|marriage|tradition|tilak|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21221" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21224" CreationDate="2017-09-30T09:05:08.040" Score="2" ViewCount="853" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to a website I saw yesterday, Goloka, the abode of Krishna is said to be mentioned in the Srimad Devi Bhagavatam. Is it really present? If yes, what does the Srimad Devi Bhagavatam say about it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-09-30T13:35:16.360" Title="Is Goloka mentioned in the Srimad Devi Bhagavatam? If yes, what does it say?" Tags="|identification-request|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21222" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21213" CreationDate="2017-09-30T09:57:51.417" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11749/5212/what-is-the-story-of-badarayana-vyasa&quot;&gt;Bādarāyaṇa Vyāsa&lt;/a&gt; did not write commentary on own work Brahma sutras. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narayana_Panditacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nārāyaṇa Panditācārya&lt;/a&gt;, a contemporary of Madhvācārya gave a list of commentators on Brahma sutras. He wrote a biography on Madhvācārya which is called &lt;em&gt;Madhva Vijaya&lt;/em&gt;. His works on Madhvācārya are considered authentic because he is the son of Trivikrama Panditacharya, a direct disciple of Madhvacharya. He &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=FVtpFMPMulcC&amp;amp;lpg=PP1&amp;amp;dq=bnk+sharma+21+commentators&amp;amp;pg=PA98&amp;amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;gave&lt;/a&gt; these names in his own commentary on Brahma sutras named &lt;em&gt;Bhāvaprakāśika&lt;/em&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The commentators who wrote commentaries on Vedānta sutras  before Madhvācārya are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhāratī Vijaya&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Saccidānanda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Śatānanda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Udvarta &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vijaya&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahmaghoṣa &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;rudrabhaṭṭa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vāmana&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yādava prakāśa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rāmānujācārya&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhartruprapancha&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dramiḍa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vṛttikāra&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vijayabhaṭṭa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bhāskara&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Piśāca&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahmadatta&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Viṣṇukrānta&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vādīndra&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mādhavadāsa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ādi Śankarācārya&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only three commentaries are available for us. They are written by Ādi Śankarācārya, Rāmānujācārya and Bhāskara. Remaining commentaries are only available in footnotes, quotes and mention in other works by them. Other commentaries are lost. As we can see, the name of Vyāsa is not there. So, he didn't write commentary on his own work. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pMOMP.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/pMOMP.png&quot; alt=&quot;Screenshot from the book.&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After the time of Madhvācārya, various commentaries were written from different philosophical point of views. For a list of commentaries written on the Vedānta sutras see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19169/which-philosophy-is-the-most-popular-in-hinduism/19170#19170&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-09-30T10:23:57.877" LastActivityDate="2017-09-30T10:23:57.877" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21223" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22299" CreationDate="2017-09-30T13:13:34.437" Score="3" ViewCount="325" Body="&lt;p&gt;Title says all, but here is some things that I want to know&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which loka will survive after maha tandav (pralaya)?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bramha will die but what about lord vishnu and shiva (and sakti)? It means both of them will never merge into supreme brahman?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Will any jivas survive who live in adobe of vishnu or somewhere else?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And the most important, what we know about past/future of maha kalpa?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Will all(&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/593/10405&quot;&gt;We have multiverse concept&lt;/a&gt;) universe destroy?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's fine if individual answer it based on scripture. And it's also fine if you put anything about maha kalpa which can help me to increase my knowledge about that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10405" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-23T17:47:40.363" Title="What are some scriptures that talk about maha kalpa?" Tags="|universe|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21224" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21221" CreationDate="2017-09-30T13:35:16.360" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there are many references in the Devi Bhagavatam to Goloka, most of them in the 9th Skandha.  Here is what the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch01.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;first chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the 9th Skandha says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This (Highest) Prakriti is recognised as five-fold. When She is engaged in the work of Creation, She appears as :-- (1) Durgâ, the Mother of Ganes’a,  (2) Râdhâ, (3) Laksmî, (4) Sarasvatî and (5) Sâvitrî.... Now I will describe to you about the Fifth S’akti, the Devî Râdhikâ. Hear. She is the Presiding Deity of the five Prânas; She Herself is the Life of all; dearer than life even to S’rî Krisna; and She is highly more beautiful and superior to all the other Prakriti Devîs. She dwells in everything; She is very proud of Her good fortune (Saubhâgyam); Her glory is infinite; and She is the wife, the left body, as it were, of S’rî Krisna and She is not in any way inferior to Him, either in quality or in the Tejas (Fiery Spirit) or in any other thing. She is higher than the Highest; the Essence of all, infinitely superior, the First of all, Eternal, of the nature of the Highest Bliss, fortunate, highly respected, and worshipped by all. She is, the Presiding Devî of the Râsa Lîlâ of S’rî Krisna. From Her has sprung the Râsa mandalam and She is the Grace and the Ornament of the Râsa mandalam (the dance in a circle in Râsa). She is the Lady of the Râsa Lîlâ, the Foremost of the Jovial, humourous (witty) persons and dwells always in Râsa. &lt;strong&gt;Her abode is in Goloka&lt;/strong&gt; and from Her have come out all the Gopîkâs. Râsa – the circular dance of Krisna and the cow-herdesses of Vrindâvana. Her nature is the Highest Bliss, the Highest Contentment, and Excessive Joy; She transcends the three Sattva, Rajo and Tamo Gunas and is Nirâkâra (without any particular form); but She dwells everywhere but unconnected with any. She is the soul of all. She is without any effort to do anything and void of Ahamkâra. She assumes forms only to show Her favour to Her Bhaktas. The intelligent learned men (Pundits) read Her Mahimâ (glories) in meditating on Her according to the Vedas. The chief of the Devas and the Munis could never see Her; Her clothings are fire-proof and She is decorated with many ornaments all over Her body. Her body looks as if the crores of moons have risen all at once; She is the Giver of Bhakti (devotion) towards Krisna, services towards Krisna; and She bestows all wealth and prosperity. In Varâha Kalpa, i.e., when the Varâha incarnation took place, She incarnated Herself as the daughter of one Gopa (cow-herd), named Vrisabhânu. And Earth was blessed by the touch of Her feet. She is such as Brahmâ and the other Devas could never perceive Her by any of their senses, yet everyone at Vrindâvan saw Her very easily. She is the Gem amongst women. And when She is seen on the breast of Krisna, it seems that lightnings flash in the blue mass of clouds in the sky. In days gone by, Brahmâ practised several austerities for sixty thousand years to purify Himself by seeing the nails of Her toe; but far from seeing that, He could not have that even in his dreams. At last He succeeded in seeing Her at Vrindâvana and became blessed. O Child Nârada! This is the fifth Prakriti and She is denominated as Râdhâ. Every female in every Universe is sprung from a part of S’rî Râdhâ or part of a part. O Nârada! Thus I have described to you the five Highest Prakritis, Durgâ and others. Now I am going to describe those that are parts of these Prakritis. Hear. The Ganges, Gangâ has sprung from the lotus feet of Visnu; Her form is fluid-like; She is eternal. And She is the veritable burning fire to burn away the sins of the sinners. She is sweet to touch in taking baths and in drinking; She gives final liberation to the Jîvas, and leads easily to &lt;strong&gt;the Goloka abode&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see more references to Goloka in other chapters of the 9th Skandha.  In any case, it's not surprising that the Devi Bhagavatam places such importance on Radha and Krishna in Goloka, as Radha-Krishna worship was popular among medieval Shaktas.  That was the milieu in which Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-30T13:35:16.360" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21225" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-09-30T15:16:05.167" Score="8" ViewCount="220" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Samkhya school, founded by the sage Kapila. Verse 55 of Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika, one of the defining texts of the Samkhya school, describes the misery the soul experiences as long as it's in Samsara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tatra jarāmaraṇakṛtaṃ duḥkham prāpnoti cetanaḥ puruṣaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  liṅgasya ā vinivṛttes tasmād duḥkhaṃ svabhāvena ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There, the intelligent Spirit experiences pain due to old age and death, till the cessation of the Linga; hence misery is of the nature of things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800202.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/14/items/YuktidipikaVol.IIDr.ShivKumar/Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_jp2/Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_0408.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Yuktidipika, an ancient commentary on the Samkhya Karika of unknown authorship, responds to the objection that this statement does not apply to the Devas, because they aren't subject to old age:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;No, because of the statement of the Smriti. Old age is that which meets decay, thus it conveys decay.  That takes place in the place of gods also.  Why? Because it is stated: In case of the beings falling from the world of gods there takes place close clinging to Rajas, deformity in the limbs of the body, and their blooming becomes fade.  There was, the decay of the body of Shakra, etc. due to the fact of mention of the disease with reference to them.  &lt;strong&gt;It is stated: It is the Tvashtriyam chant. It is not that Indra though toiling hard could not make all the beings sleep, he made them all sleep with this chant.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, what is the story of Indra putting everyone to sleep using the Tvashtriyam chant? And how does this story demonstrate that the bodies of Devas are subject to decay?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've never heard of the Tvashtriyam chant before, but it's presumably named after Tvashtri, which is another name for the divine architect Vishwakarma.  It may be related to the story described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4126.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda, which describes an occasion where Indra's body was weakened after drinking Soma stolen from Vishwakarma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now Tvashtri had a three-headed, six-eyed son. He had three mouths; and because he was thus shapen, he was called Visvarûpa ('All-shape'). One of his mouths was Soma-drinking, one spirit-drinking, and one for other food. Indra hated him, and cut off those heads of his.... Tvashtri was furious: 'Has he really slain my son?' He brought Soma juice withheld from Indra; and as that Soma-juice was, when produced, even so it remained withheld from Indra.  Indra thought within himself: 'There now, they are excluding me from Soma!' and even uninvited he consumed what pure (Soma) there was in the tub, as the stronger (would consume the food) of the weaker. But it hurt him: it flowed in all directions from (the openings of) his vital airs; only from his mouth it did not flow.... Being thus purged by Soma, he walked about as one tottering. The Asvins cured him by this (offering), and caused him to be supplied with everything, for Soma is everything. By offering he indeed became better. The gods spake, 'Aha! these two have saved him, the well-saved (sutrâta):' hence the name Sautrâmanî.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This story would certainly illustrate the bodies of Devas being subject to decay. But this passage doesn't mention either the Tvashtriyam chant or Indra putting everyone to sleep, so it may not be related.  In any case, does anyone know what scripture the Yukti Dipika is quoting?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-22T19:51:48.490" LastActivityDate="2024-03-28T03:02:25.220" Title="What is the story of Indra putting everyone to sleep?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|indra|sankhya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21226" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21283" CreationDate="2017-09-30T15:21:05.873" Score="5" ViewCount="555" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hinduism is a vast religion, and it has great philosophies of theism. Probably there might be some atheistic philosophies too.&#xA;It would be a great amusement to see if this thought of Atheism was also in Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any verses, teachings, ideas, arguments e.t.c, conveying Atheism? Here 'atheism' is being pointed to, not 'Astika-Nastika'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T01:18:28.950" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T18:15:43.147" Title="What are some atheist teachings and arguments in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|atheism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21228" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7645" CreationDate="2017-09-30T18:31:10.520" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found the answer to my question in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800804.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/26/items/38VayuPurana.Vol.2/(38)%20Vayu%20Purana.%20Vol.%202_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=(38)%20Vayu%20Purana.%20Vol.%202_jp2/(38)%20Vayu%20Purana.%20Vol.%202_0047.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Vayu Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shukra's wife named Angi was the mental daughter of the Soma-drinking Pitris and very famous.... Shukra begot four sons of her, viz. Tvashtri, Varutrin, Shanda, and Amarka. They resembled the sun and in their prowess they were equal to Brahma. Ranjana, Prithurashmi and the scholarly Brihadgiras were the sons of Varutrin. They were devoted to Brahman and became the priests of Suras. They approached Manu with the motive of spoiling sacrificial rites. On seeing Dharma being violated, Indra spoke to Manu: &quot;I would rather have the sacrifice performed through you than through these.&quot; On hearing these words of Indra, they fled from that place. When they absconded, Indra released (their) wife Chetana. Then he followed her. On seeing them come there again with the evil intention of killing Indra, he struck at them (while)  they slept in the altar of the lord of Devas on the southern side. While they were being devoured by (dogs, jackals and wolves) their heads fell down simultaneously and became dates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Indra fed Shukracharya's grandsons Ranjana, Prithurashmi, and Brihadgiras to wolves because they were trying to kill him and disrupt Yagnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, I found an interesting statement by Medhatithi on this subject in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc202227.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his commentary on the Manu Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Others, however, think that there are a people known as ‘Yatis,’ ‘Hermits,’ inhabiting the Meru mountain; as is clear from what we read regarding ‘India having made over the Yatis to the Sālāvṛkas.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I'm not sure what scriptures mention a race of Yatis living on Mount Meru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-09-30T18:31:10.520" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21229" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21241" CreationDate="2017-09-30T19:48:20.110" Score="4" ViewCount="144" Body="&lt;p&gt;Because the Brahma Sutras are almost impossible to understand without the appropriate context, and because very few people read them without the help of a commentary (like that of Ramanuja's or Shankara's), how did scholars know the meaning of each Sutra when the Sutras by themselves are vague?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, sutra 1.1.5, or the 5th sutra, in Sanskrit is &lt;em&gt;eekshaternaashabdam&lt;/em&gt;, which translated literally is: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On account of thinking, that which is not based on the Scriptures, is&#xA;  not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ramanuja takes this to mean:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On account of thinking, that which is not based on the scriptures &lt;strong&gt;[viz the Pradhana]&lt;/strong&gt; is not &lt;strong&gt;[the Sat mentioned in the scriptural text relating to the first cause]&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But how come Badarayana left out important words like &lt;em&gt;Pradhana&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Sat&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;First Cause&lt;/em&gt; from this Sutra, and left it to later Acharyas to fill in the blanks?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is why I asked &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/21213/did-vedavyasa-ever-write-his-own-commentary-on-the-brahma-sutras/21222#21222&quot;&gt;in my previous question&lt;/a&gt; if Badarayana himself ever wrote a commentary on the Brahma Sutras he compiled, but it turns out he never did.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So how does one know what each Sutra is really talking about? In the 5th Sutra above particularly, how does one know that &quot;is not&quot;, is referring to &quot;is not the &lt;em&gt;first cause&lt;/em&gt;&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2017-10-04T19:18:00.893" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T19:18:00.893" Title="How does one interpret the Brahma Sutras, when the Sutras by themselves are vague?" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21230" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21213" CreationDate="2017-09-30T21:11:15.203" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, Vyasa did not write an actual commentary on the Brahma Sutras.  However, at least Gaudiya Vaishnavas consider the Srimad Bhagavatam to be the natural commentary on the Brahma Sutras. Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chaitanya Charitamrita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives the actual meaning of the Vedānta-sūtra. The author of the Vedānta-sūtra is Vyāsadeva, and he himself has explained those aphorisms in the form of Śrīmad-Bhāgavata. 'The meaning of the Vedānta-sūtra is present in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The full purport of the Mahābhārata is also there. The commentary of the Brahma-gāyatrī is also there and fully expanded with all Vedic knowledge. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the supreme Purāṇa, and it was compiled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His incarnation as Vyāsadeva. There are twelve cantos, 335 chapters and eighteen thousand verses.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Chaitanya Charitamrita calls the Bhagavatam Vyasa's Ninja Bhashya or his own commentary on the Brahma Sutras, and it gives a quote that's apparently from the Garuda Purana to back it up.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But while the Bhagavatam may contain the knowledge contained in the Brahma Sutras, it's obviously not a verse-by-verse commentary.  However, there is the next best thing, a Vritti or commentary by Vyasa's shishya Baudhayana.  Unfortunately it's lost now, but as I discuss in my question and answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14550/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya is based on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-09-30T22:36:27.780" LastActivityDate="2017-09-30T22:36:27.780" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21232" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20938" CreationDate="2017-09-30T23:46:29.417" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Achintya Bhedabheda agrees with Visistadvaita on the meaning of the word Nirguna. Here's what &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chaitanya Charitamrita says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Vedānta philosophy, the Absolute Truth is a person. When the word ‘nirguṇa’ [‘without qualities’] is used, it is to be understood that the Lord has attributes that are totally spiritual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's also worth noting that Achintya Bhedabheda makes a distinction between Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan.  Here's what Srila Prabhupada says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/14/27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The constitution of Brahman is immortality, imperishability, eternity and happiness. Brahman is the beginning of transcendental realization. Paramātmā, the Supersoul, is the middle, the second stage in transcendental realization, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate realization of the Absolute Truth. Therefore, both Paramātmā and the impersonal Brahman are within the Supreme Person. It is explained in the Seventh Chapter that material nature is the manifestation of the inferior energy of the Supreme Lord. The Lord impregnates the inferior, material nature with fragments of the superior nature, and that is the spiritual touch in the material nature. When a living entity conditioned by this material nature begins the cultivation of spiritual knowledge, he elevates himself from the position of material existence and gradually rises up to the Brahman conception of the Supreme. This attainment of the Brahman conception of life is the ﬁrst stage in self-realization. At this stage the Brahman-realized person is transcendental to the material position, but he is not actually perfect in Brahman realization. If he wants, he can continue to stay in the Brahman position and then gradually rise up to Paramātmā realization and then to the realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T18:46:08.267" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T18:46:08.267" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21234" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14959" CreationDate="2017-10-01T02:01:20.237" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Gita, there are 3 types of gift/charity depending on 3 modes of &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Charity as part of duty&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 17.20 - That charity is referred to as born of &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sattva&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; which gift is given with the idea that it ought to be given, to one who will not serve in return, and at the (proper) place, (proper) time and to a (proper) person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Charity with desires of return&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 17.21 - But the charity which is given expecting reciprocation, or again, with a desire for its result, and which is given grudgingly,- that is considered to be born of &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;rajas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Charity wrongly done due to ignorance&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 17.22 - The charity which is made at an improper place and time, and to undeserving persons, without proper treatment and with disdain, is declared to be born of &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tamas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T02:01:20.237" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21235" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21238" CreationDate="2017-10-01T03:31:34.453" Score="5" ViewCount="904" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most schools of Vedanta accept only 3 sources of right knowledge (or &lt;em&gt;pramana&lt;/em&gt;): &lt;em&gt;Pratyaksha&lt;/em&gt; (empiricism/observation), &lt;em&gt;Anumana&lt;/em&gt; (inference/reasoning), and &lt;em&gt;Shabda&lt;/em&gt; (scriptures). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;According to Vedanta:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pratyaksha&lt;/em&gt; is known to have some inherent defects such as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Observations can be illusory (rope appears as a snake).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Confirmation bias (individual sees what they want to see).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Poor memory (individual cannot correctly recall observation).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dishonesty (individual has tendency to lie about what he observed). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Inference/reasoning&lt;/em&gt; &lt;strong&gt;by itself&lt;/strong&gt; has an unsure basis, and so reasoning must always be based on empiricism or scripture. People can make faulty inferences and you can never be sure if you're reasoning is correct without observations to back it up. Also, someone who is better at reasoning or debating can come and logically disprove your arguments. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sruti&lt;/em&gt; is verbal testimony of a recognized authority, like the Vedas, and so is considered supreme.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But given these facts, if there is a contradiction between &lt;em&gt;pratyaksha&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;sruti&lt;/em&gt;, which one takes precedence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, if Sruti said, &quot;objects don't fall down when dropped, but instead go up in the air&quot;, would scripture still be considered a valid pramana? If one wanted to continue believing in Sruti, could they say that our observations of things falling down is actually an illusion, and that the objects really go upwards?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T06:12:59.330" Title="If there is a conflict between Pratyaksha pramana and Sruti, which one takes precedence according to Vishishtadvaita Vedanta?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|vedanta|vishishtadvaita|pramana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21236" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-01T04:52:08.453" Score="5" ViewCount="1387" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said that Parmatma is within me. And it is also said that prayer to any demigod or ghosts or spirits indirectly goes to Parmatma only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is : Can I pray to myself and receive the blessings of Parmatma ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T18:16:52.123" Title="If Parmatma is within me then can I pray to myself?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|atma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21237" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21239" CreationDate="2017-10-01T05:50:15.280" Score="4" ViewCount="966" Body="&lt;p&gt;Which scriptures say that Lord Kalki will take incarnation in the current (28th) kaliyuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10405" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T06:18:33.510" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T20:38:38.163" Title="Is it not possible that Lord Kalki may have already taken incarnation in the past kaliyuga?" Tags="|kali-yuga|kalki|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21238" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21235" CreationDate="2017-10-01T06:12:59.330" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is what Ramanujacharya says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of the Sri Bhashya, in the course of refuting the Advaita belief that we should believe that duality is unreal on the basis of scripture despite it contradicting what we perceive:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In cases of Scripture conflicting with Perception, Scripture is not stronger.&lt;/strong&gt; The True cannot be known through the Untrue. With reference to the assertion (p. 24 ff.) that Perception, which depends on the view of plurality, is based on some defect and hence admits of being otherwise accounted for--whence it follows that it is sublated by Scripture; we ask you to point out what defect it is on which Perception is based and may hence be accounted for otherwise.--' The beginningless imagination of difference' we expect you to reply.--But, we ask in return, have you then come to know by some other means that this beginningless imagination of difference, acting in a manner analogous to that of certain defects of vision, is really the cause of an altogether perverse view of things?--If you reply that this is known just from the fact that Perception is in conflict with Scripture, we point out that you are reasoning in a circle: you prove the defectiveness of the imagination of plurality through the fact that Scripture tells us about a substance devoid of all difference; and at the same time you prove the latter point through the former. Moreover, if Perception gives rise to perverse cognition because it is based on the imagination of plurality, Scripture also is in no better case--for it is based on the very same view.--If against this you urge that Scripture, although based on a defect, yet sublates Perception in so far as it is the cause of a cognition which dispels all plurality apprehended through Perception, and thus is later in order than Perception; we rejoin that the defectiveness of the foundation of Scripture having once been recognised, the circumstance of its being later is of no avail. For if a man is afraid of a rope which he mistakes for a snake his fear does not come to an end because another man, whom he considers to be in error himself, tells him 'This is no snake, do not be afraid.' And that Scripture is founded on something defective is known at the very time of hearing Scripture, for the reflection (which follows on hearing) consists in repeated attempts to cognise the oneness of Brahman--a cognition which is destructive of all the plurality apprehended through the first hearing of the Veda.--We further ask, 'By what means do you arrive at the conclusion that Scripture cannot possibly be assumed to be defective in any way, while defects may be ascribed to Perception'? It is certainly not Consciousness--self-proved and absolutely devoid of all difference--which enlightens you on this point; for such Consciousness is unrelated to any objects whatever, and incapable of partiality to Scripture. Nor can sense-perception be the source of your conviction; for as it is founded on what is defective it gives perverse information. Nor again the other sources of knowledge; for they are all based on sense-perception. As thus there are no acknowledged means of knowledge to prove your view, you must give it up. But, you will perhaps say, we proceed by means of the ordinary empirical means and objects of knowledge!--What, we ask in reply, do you understand by 'empirical'?--What rests on immediate unreflective knowledge, but is found not to hold good when tested by logical reasoning!--But what is the use, we ask, of knowledge of this kind? If logical reasoning refutes something known through some means of knowledge, that means of knowledge is no longer authoritative!--Now you will possibly argue as follows: 'Scripture as well as Perception is founded on Nescience; but all the same Perception is sublated by Scripture. For as the object of Scripture, i.e. Brahman, which is one and without a second, is not seen to be sublated by any ulterior cognition, Brahman, i.e. pure non-differenced Consciousness, remains as the sole Reality.'--But here too you are wrong, since we must decide that something which rests on a defect is unreal, although it may remain unrefuted. We will illustrate this point by an analogous instance. Let us imagine a race of men afflicted with a certain special defect of vision, without being aware of this their defect, dwelling in some remote mountain caves inaccessible to all other men provided with sound eyes. As we assume all of these cave dwellers to be afflicted with the same defect of vision, they, all of them, will equally see and judge bright things, e.g. the moon, to be double. Now in the case of these people there never arises a subsequent cognition sublating their primitive cognition; but the latter is false all the same, and its object, viz., the doubleness of the moon, is false likewise; the defect of vision being the cause of a cognition not corresponding to reality.--And so it is with the cognition of Brahman also. This cognition is based on Nescience, and therefore is false, together with its object, viz. Brahman, although no sublating cognition presents itself.--This conclusion admits of various expressions in logical form. 'The Brahman under dispute is false because it is the object of knowledge which has sprung from what is affected with Nescience; as the phenomenal world is.' 'Brahman is false because it is the object of knowledge; as the world is.' 'Brahman is false because it is the object of knowledge, the rise of which has the Untrue for its cause; as the world is.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is in fact a hierarchy of Pramanas: Anumana only has authority over those things which cannot be known through Pratyaksha, and Sabda only has authority over those things which cannot be known through Pratyaksha or Anumana.  That is why in another section of the Sri Bhashya, Ramanujacharya takes time to disprove Anumana-based arguments for the existence of Brahman, because it's only if Brahman cannot be known through Pratyaksha or Anumana that the Vedic statements about Brahman can have any authority:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because Brahman, being raised above all contact with the senses, is not an object of perception and the other means of proof, but to be known through Scripture only; therefore the text 'Whence these creatures are born,' &amp;amp;c., has to be accepted as instructing us regarding the true nature of Brahman.--But, our opponent points out, Scripture cannot be the source of our knowledge of Brahman, because Brahman is to be known through other means. &lt;strong&gt;For it is an acknowledged principle that Scripture has meaning only with regard to what is not established by other sources of knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt; ... The conclusion meanwhile is that, since Brahman does not fall within the sphere of the other means of knowledge, and is the topic of Scripture only, the text 'from whence these creatures,' &amp;amp;c., does give authoritative information as to a Brahman possessing the characteristic qualities so often enumerated. Here terminates the adhikarana of 'Scripture being the source.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This hierarchy of Pramanas is, incidentally, the source of the Purva Mimamsa doctrine of Arthavadas, which I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21116/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, I wanted to address your point about the defects of perception.  According to Visistadvaita, perception is actually never wrong, i.e. you only perceives that which exists, not that which does not exist.  What we intuitively think of as &quot;wrong perception&quot; is really just &quot;limited perception&quot;, as Ramanujacharya discusses in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48029.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;yet another section&lt;/a&gt; of the Sri Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who understand the Veda hold that all cognition has for its object what is real; for.Sruti and Smriti alike teach that everything participates in the nature of everything else. In the scriptural account of creation preceded by intention on the part of the Creator it is said that each of these elements was made tripartite; and this tripartite constitution of all things is apprehended by Perception as well. The red colour in burning fire comes from (primal elementary) fire, the white colour from water, the black colour from earth--in this way Scripture explains the threefold nature of burning fire. In the same way all things are composed of elements of all things. The Vishnu Purâna, in its account of creation, makes a similar statement: &quot;The elements possessing various powers and being unconnected could not, without combination, produce living beings, not having mingled in any way. Having combined, therefore, with one another, and entering into mutual associations--beginning with the principle called Mahat, and extending down to the gross elements--they formed an egg,&quot; &amp;amp;c. (Vi. Pu. I, 2, 50; 52). This tripartiteness of the elements the Sûtrakâra also declares (Ve. Sû. III, 1, 3).... That thing is similar to another which contains within itself some part of that other thing; and Scripture itself has thus stated that in shells, &amp;amp;c., there is contained some silver, and so on. That one thing is called &quot;silver&quot; and another &quot;shell&quot; has its reason in the relative preponderance of one or the other element. We observe that shells are similar to silver; thus perception itself informs us that some elements of the latter actually exist in the former. Sometimes it happens that owing to a defect of the eye the silver-element only is apprehended, not the shell-element, and then the percipient person, desirous of silver, moves to pick up the shell. If, on the other hand, his eye is free from such defect, he apprehends the shell-element and then refrains from action. Hence the cognition of silver in the shell is a true one. In the same way the relation of one cognition being sublated by another explains itself through the preponderant element, according as the preponderance of the shell-element is apprehended partially or in its totality, and does not therefore depend on one cognition having for its object the false thing and another the true thing. The distinctions made in the practical thought and business of life thus explain themselves on the basis of everything participating in the nature of everything else.... That holy highest Brahman--while producing the entire world as an object of fruition for the individual souls, in agreement with their respective good and ill deserts--creates certain things of such a nature as to become common objects of consciousness, either pleasant or unpleasant, to all souls together, while certain other things are created in such a way as to be perceived only by particular persons, and to persist for a limited time only. &lt;strong&gt;And it is this distinction--viz. of things that are objects of general consciousness, and of things that are not so--which makes the difference between what is called 'things sublating' and 'things sublated.'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T06:12:59.330" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21239" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21237" CreationDate="2017-10-01T06:30:17.383" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, we know for a fact that Kalki will be born in the 28th Kali Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=nckrAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;pg=PA138#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Matsya Purana says, in the course of describing the various incarnations of Vishnu in the Vaivasvata Manvantara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the close of Kaliyuga there will be the Kalki mainfestation, in the house of Vishnuyasha, and the sage, Parasharya Vyasa will be the officiating priest. This will be the tenth incarnation, and Yajnavalkya will make his appearance before this coming mainfestation. This incarnation will destroy all the wicked ones and the hypocrites; and, with a large army of the Brahmanas, He will kill Sudra Kings and drive away all hypocrisy. After killing the enemies of Brahmanas and other enemies, He will march on with His army in the 28th of the Kaliyuga, and then, after purifying the Sudras, will cross the ocean, where He will destroy the sinful mixed castes and, thus fulfilling His mission, he will educate his peoples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's also worth noting that, as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8762/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vishnu has taken Kalki-like incarnations at least once before, in one of the Kali Yugas of the Swayambhuva Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T16:14:36.907" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T16:14:36.907" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21240" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-01T07:54:38.897" Score="2" ViewCount="221" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are there any verses in Valmiki Ramayana which say that Lord Rama killed Ravana in the months Of April/May and returned Ayodhya at the time of April/May only?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T03:00:55.333" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T07:20:16.190" Title="Where does the Valmiki Ramayana state that Lord Rama killed Ravana in the month of April/May?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-10-02T07:22:55.717" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21241" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21229" CreationDate="2017-10-01T08:20:22.283" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before going to actual answer let's understand what is mean by a &quot;Sutra&quot; from Hinduism point of view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A &quot;Sutra&quot; is like a theorem distilled into few words or syllables, around which teachings of ritual, philosophy, grammar, or any field of knowledge can be woven. Like a short rule.&#xA;Thus Sutra  briefly states the message while a&#xA;Shloka is a verse that conveys the complete message.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We come to know from the index that the subject of   sutras 1-11 from Adhyaya 1 Paad 1 is to show that Brahman is the ultimate cause of this universe and not the Jad Prakriti (Nature).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let's look at your doubt. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;But how come Badarayana left out important words like Pradhana, Sat, and First Cause from this Sutra&quot;&#xA;and &quot;does one know what each Sutra is really talking about? How does one know that &quot;is not&quot;, is referring to &quot;is not the first cause&quot;&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ईक्षतेर्न, अशब्दम् ॥ ५ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;īkṣaterna aśabdam || 5 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whenever the topic of creation is discussed in Upanishads  the word&#xA;  &quot;eksha&quot; which is said to  be Chetan (alive),   is used. But&#xA;  Jad-Prakriti is not alive . Brahman 'saw/deliberated/desired' and&#xA;  therefore we conclude that It is chetana vastu. So the Prakriti is not&#xA;  the primary cause of this material creation , and  also this is&#xA;  without Shruti-Pramana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So from looking at the word &quot;aśabdam&quot; ,seeing its meaning ,how it's used in other Shruti's the scholars came to know about the meaning. Also &#xA;the format of sutras is short. The word &quot;Sat and Pradhana&quot; are automatically  involved in the sutra (because Brahman is &quot;SAT&quot;). So Badrayana not left them ,as sutras are short and required other shruti pramanas to interpret.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The discussion mainly refers to the sixth chapter of the Chhândogya Upanishad. Also see Aitareya 1.1.1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T08:20:22.283" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21242" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21245" CreationDate="2017-10-01T13:15:23.843" Score="3" ViewCount="794" Body="&lt;p&gt;How Dharma, Adharma and Papa , Punya calculation is done?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why a person doesn't get his results of karma immediately?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T13:38:12.087" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T19:01:48.527" Title="How is the calculation of papa and punya is being done" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-10-02T03:51:37.650" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21243" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="14668" CreationDate="2017-10-01T14:19:34.683" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiyadigal_Kadavarkon_Nayanar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Aiyadigal Kadavarkon Nayanar&lt;/a&gt;, counted as 46th among 63 Nayanars, composed &lt;strong&gt;Kshetra Thiruvenba.&lt;/strong&gt; Kshetram means place, area. To be precise, it was composed by him when he visited different sacred places where temples of Shiva were situated. This poem said to be very big, but among them only 24 are surviving. Using this 24, Shekkizhar composed his life history in Periya Puranam. This Kshetra Thiruvenba is a part of 11th &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumurai&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thirumurai&lt;/a&gt; among other hymns sung by Karaikal Ammaiyar, Nambiyandar Nambi, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T15:47:03.257" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T15:47:03.257" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21244" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21253" CreationDate="2017-10-01T15:10:37.587" Score="2" ViewCount="119" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am not sure about exact meta branch on this question. but I ask it in Hinduism context.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every scientist does some experiement for any kind of invention in lab and writes thesis on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where are God's lab for experiment and God's own thesis written on whole universe development?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="585" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T06:13:22.920" Title="Where are God's lab and God's own thesis written on whole universe development?" Tags="|universe|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21245" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21242" CreationDate="2017-10-01T15:41:00.033" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;We can relate every  aspect of our religious views to science and environment.If one has a guilty memory or others have a knowledge of his guilty actions it affects him naturally because of forces in the environment.&#xA;These forces either arise from one's conscience or from the society.Its because of forces from society many innocents were punished in the history(the false accusations all happened) even they haven't committed any sin. And also its evident naturally in the political world sinners living a good life. Above all any punishment or reward can be given only when one is alive on the earth(to do any good to rest of the people too).And I have ruled out the concepts of heaven and hell because one ruining lives of people on earth though suffers in hell(as some people say)his suffering in hell is of no use to the living people. A sinner's suffering on this very earth will at least be useful for reducing crimes in the future.So the recordings of Papa and Punya are lying in our hands and the caring and awareness we have on the society.Actually it's all psychology and practical life.From your point of view...This society is too large for one to get the results of karma immediately...it's like a big domino...after a natural and enough flow of time one will get the result eventually... Everything takes its own time to happen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12162" LastEditorUserId="12162" LastEditDate="2017-10-01T19:01:48.527" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T19:01:48.527" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21246" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7265" CreationDate="2017-10-01T17:22:59.773" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ubhaya Bharati was appointed as a judge between Adi Shankaracharya and Pandit Mishra and as a judge she declares his knowledge to be defeated, now as a better half of the man, she demands to defeat her too as a his half in everything. Cause according to sanatan a man and a woman cohabitually complete each other. Thus, she was righteously allowed to debate with him. If it was incorrect he himself would have not debated with her. &#xA;Why do you think kama is not a part of religion and philosophy? It is not physics scholer answering about surgery, it is more like zoologist answering about botony when debate is on biology as a whole. Howmuch ever people sulk to talk about it, but it is the important part of life and should be done piously, infact vedas do talk about a man and woman relationship of kama, karma and cohabitation and devotion. Adi shankaracharya undoubtedly a great celibate, lacked in this part of human life and thus she deliberately questioned on that. as a fair competent she granted him time to learn about it and he learned it well, Undoubtedly undefeatable this time. Advait vedanta doesn't impose upon leaving behind ur duties about the souls in karmic connection with you but to embress them and still attain the self realisation or advaita. This quote is very famous, 'kamal ki phool ki tarah bano k sansar k keechad mai kheelke, gandagi na chuye' and attain ' I am that I am' (soham ham sa) ki ek din samaz aaye ki mai mai hu, mai meri wife hu, mai patthar hu mai, mai hi samandar hu, mai hi ped hu, fal hu chaya hu, jo kuch bhi nai wo bhi mai hu, mai nar hu mai hi narayan hu, mai jiv hu aur mai hi wo shiv hu. this is what is advait.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T17:22:59.773" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21248" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21236" CreationDate="2017-10-01T19:10:19.397" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I can give you the answer according to the dualistic systems of Vedanta. Those are all the Vaishnava systems of Vedanta such as Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita, Acintya bheda abheda (Gaudiya Vaishnava), etc, because they teach the difference between jiva soul (jivatma) and paramatma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you pray to the paramatma within yourself that doesn't mean that you are praying to yourself! You are not the paramatma because you are the jivatma, so when you are praying to the paramatma which is within you that doesn't mean that you are praying to yourself! That means that you are praying to him, paramatma, and not to yourself (jivatma).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I explained earlier in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21057/2790&quot; title=&quot;answer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; why is there the difference between the two, jivatma and paramatma, and why we shouldn't mistake them as just one soul.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;This difference is seen in the verses such as the Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.1: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Two birds&lt;/strong&gt;, inseparable friends, cling to the same tree. &lt;strong&gt;One of them&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  eats the sweet fruit, &lt;strong&gt;the other&lt;/strong&gt; looks on without eating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, when you pray to the paramatma within yourself that means that you are praying to him, the other &quot;bird&quot; which is paramatma, and not to yourself (jivatma). Yes, you can do that, but Vaishnavas usually pray to the Lord Vishnu or Krishna who is that paramatma situated within you. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastActivityDate="2017-10-01T19:10:19.397" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21253" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21244" CreationDate="2017-10-01T22:50:54.990" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;I personally believe that one should ask questions. Arjuna did and that's how we got &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/strong&gt;. Your question is very valid and deserves an answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I will quote two separate sources and try to summarize in the simplest way possible where to look for God's lab and his thesis :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manu-Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gZcz6.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gZcz6.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Manu Smriti Chapter 1&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even before nothing existed, there was the supreme soul ('God' as most&#xA;  of us refer him). At some point, he manifested himself into basic&#xA;  elements and properties. And with his (creative) power those elements made up&#xA;  everything that our senses can perceive and beyond.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhagavad Gita&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8WBOm.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/8WBOm.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Bhagavad Gita 1&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;However different things look, everything material and non-material&#xA;  has originated from the same supreme soul and some day will merge back&#xA;  into the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nIDSM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/nIDSM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Bhagavad Gita 2&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Coal, diamond and food we eat are all forms of carbon. This simple analogy builds the premise to understand that everything you can perceive from Stars to Flowers is some form of the supreme soul. The soul of everything (&lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;, as the scriptures call it.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where is his laboratory?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;13.5 billion light years of observable universe is one setup in his laboratory. There can be infinite more setups which we cannot perceive. (Look up 'Multiverse')&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where is his thesis?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The supreme soul himself is the scientist, the experiment, the outcomes and the thesis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T06:13:22.920" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T06:13:22.920" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21256" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21264" CreationDate="2017-10-02T04:05:30.190" Score="3" ViewCount="2895" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Mahabharata, the Kurukshetra War is seen by Sanjaya sitting in the Hastinapura Palace and he describes the proceedings to the Blind King Dhritarashtra. Sanjaya is said to be the aide and chairoteer of Dhritarashtra. I could not find much clarification about Sanjaya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who was Sanjaya? Where are the details about Sanjaya in Mahabharata and any other Shrutis or Puranas?&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Why did Sri Krishna favour Sanjaya with Divya Dirshti, when more deserving non combatants and His devotees like Vidura were overlooked?&lt;/strong&gt; &#xA;[As required the answers should be from Mahabharata, Puranas or Shrutis only]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="11625" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T05:44:54.940" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T06:44:21.600" Title="Who was Sanjaya?" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21257" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-02T06:02:23.290" Score="3" ViewCount="144" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu manifested into Mohini and gave Devas the ambrosial nectar, and rendered Daityas bereft of Amrita. Then She even cut Rahu Ketu apart.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There have always been innumerable Stutis of each Avatara of Vishnu. In some stotras of Vishnu, Mohini is sometimes collectively worshipped with other Avataras usually in Sahasra Naama Stotras of Hari.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any Stora, Stuti, Stava, et cetera for Mohini?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T06:42:10.317" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T06:42:10.317" Title="Is their any Stotra, Stava, Stuti, et cetera for Mohini?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|stotra|hymn|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21259" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-10-02T06:12:10.103" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a mythological story that you you heard or read somewhere, but don't know from where it is taken? Did you see an image of a Hindu deity and don't know the details of that deity? Did you read a beautiful verse or a shloka about a God and looking for its source? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what the &lt;code&gt;identification-request&lt;/code&gt; tag is for. Give as much as detail you could give so that other users can help you in identifying it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Use this tag for questions regarding story identification, verse identification and image identification of Hindu Gods, goddesses and characters from Hindu mythology.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What does the community expect from this question as input? :&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We do expect some background information where you have read the story/verse you are looking for along with the text of the story/verse (if possible provide a link). For image identification questions (only related to Hinduism), we expect a high quality image(s) with some info added such as where and when have you seen the image. Adding the above details makes the job of fellow users easy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T06:12:10.103" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T06:12:10.103" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21260" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-10-02T06:12:10.103" Score="0" Body="Use this tag for questions regarding story identification, verse identification from scriptures and image identification of Hindu God, goddesses and characters from Hindu mythology." OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T06:40:39.913" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T06:40:39.913" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21261" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21236" CreationDate="2017-10-02T06:17:39.010" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The lord resides in everyone's hearts, as &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;(आत्म) and hence can be prayed upon. If you pray to anyone (beings, ancestors, demons, deva-s), all worshipping reaches to the supreme one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 10.17 - [Arjuna asked] -- O Yogi, how shall I think of You by remaining ever-engaged in meditation? And through what objects, O Lord, are You to be meditated on by me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 10.20 - O Gudakesa, &lt;strong&gt;I am the Self(&lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;) residing in the hearts of all beings&lt;/strong&gt;, and I am the beginning and the middle as also the end of (all) beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Depending on what part of the self is prayed upon, one achieves it results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If I identify the &amp;quot;self&amp;quot; as my physical body, then I am worshipping a being (&lt;em&gt;bhuta&lt;/em&gt;); It happens under the influence of &lt;em&gt;tamas&lt;/em&gt; (ignorance)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If I identify the &amp;quot;self&amp;quot; as my mind &amp;amp; senses, then I am worshipping my desires; It happens under the influence of &lt;em&gt;rajas&lt;/em&gt; (passion)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If I identify the &amp;quot;self&amp;quot; as my intellect or my soul (&lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;), then I am worshipping the divinity inside me; It happens under the influence of &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If I identify the &amp;quot;self&amp;quot; as none of the above (kind of complete void), then I am worshipping the truest form of the &lt;em&gt;Atma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20378/1049&quot;&gt;[source: BG 9.25, 17.4]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T06:17:39.010" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21263" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8163" CreationDate="2017-10-02T06:37:23.073" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The deity shown in the picture is Lord Yogananda Narasimha a specific form of Narasimha, the man lion incarnation of Lord Vishnu. This form is worshipped by devotees (as a part of upasana) to attain knowledge in Yoga and to increase concentration. This is a peaceful form of Lord Narasimha. The serpent is Adi Shesha, the serpent bed of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fImU4.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fImU4.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T06:37:23.073" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21264" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21256" CreationDate="2017-10-02T06:44:21.600" Score="2" Body="&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Who was Sanjaya? &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanjaya the son of Gavalgani, was the &lt;em&gt;Saarathy&lt;/em&gt; of king DhritarAshtra. He was believed to be pious and the righteous towards his duty.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;After the fall of Bhishma, Sanjaya rushes to DhritarAshtra. Being awarded with the divine vision, various chapters of the war of Mahabharata is described by him to DhritarAshtra. He is also the narrator of the whole &quot;Bhagavad Gita&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The learned son of Gavalgana, Sanjaya, also of passions under full control, and the foremost of ministers, attained, in the Parva, to the blessed state.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Adi parva]&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Where are the details about Sanjaya in Mahabharata&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The details are scattered across the various chapters. You may refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sacred-texts.com&lt;/a&gt; to read the authentic version of Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Why did Sri Krishna favour Sanjaya with Divya Dirshti&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VyAsa gave &lt;em&gt;divya drushti&lt;/em&gt; to Sanjaya&lt;/strong&gt;. It was supposed to be given to DhritarAshtra, but he didn't want to witness the terror of the great war with his own eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dhritarashtra said,--'O best of regenerate Rishi, I like not to behold the slaughter of kinsmen. I shall, however, through thy potency hear of this battle minutely.&quot;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Vaisampayana continued.--&quot;Upon his not wishing to see the battle but wishing to hear of it, &lt;strong&gt;Vyasa&lt;/strong&gt;, that lord of boons, &lt;strong&gt;gave a boon&lt;/strong&gt; to Sanjaya. (And addressing Dhritarashtra he said),--'&lt;strong&gt;This Sanjaya, O king, will describe the battle to thee. Nothing in the whole battle will be beyond this one's eyes.&lt;/strong&gt;' Endued, O king with celestial vision, Sanjaya will narrate the battle to thee. He will have knowledge of everything. Manifest or concealed, (happening) by day or by night, even that which is thought of in the mind, Sanjaya shall know everything. &lt;strong&gt;Weapons will not cut him and exertion will not fatigue him.&lt;/strong&gt; This son of Gavalgani will come out of the battle with life.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06002.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Bhishma Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T06:44:21.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21265" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8163" CreationDate="2017-10-02T06:52:18.837" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Deity shown is is Lord Yogananda Narasimha a specific form of Narasimha, the man lion incarnation of Lord Vishnu.  The image is probably from the ruins of Vijayanagara empire.  A temple of the same Deity is placed in the precincts of Tirumala Tirupathi Temple to the right of the sanctum sanctorum. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T06:52:18.837" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21266" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-02T06:58:31.663" Score="8" ViewCount="5363" Body="&lt;p&gt;Wikipedia on “Puranas” have shown classification of the Mahapuranas on the basis of the three gunas of Sat, Rajo and Tamo with the caveat “Scholars consider the Sattva-Rajas-Tamas classification as &quot;entirely fanciful&quot; and there is nothing in each text that actually justifies this classification.” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sattva (&quot;truth&quot;) :  Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, Naradeya Purana, Garuda Purana, Padma Purana, Varaha Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rajas (&quot;passion&quot;):  Brahmanda Purana, Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Markandeya Purana, Bhavishya Purana, Vamana Purana, Brahma Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tamas (&quot;ignorance&quot;):    Matsya Purana, Kurma purana, Linga Purana, Shiva Purana, Skanda Purana, Agni Purana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;[Since Wikipedia is not the final word on our Puranas, hence this question]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My question is, “Are there any commentaries, shrutis or other scriptural references for this classification?”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-24T10:01:18.580" LastActivityDate="2022-09-11T15:10:20.823" Title="Classification of Mahapuranas on the three Gunas Sat, Rajas and Tamas" Tags="|scripture|puranas|gunas|classification|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21267" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21292" CreationDate="2017-10-02T07:13:30.263" Score="4" ViewCount="191" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why all of us do not like or pray to all the avatars or why people have belief in some avatars but not in others? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why all avatars are not equally popular or famous?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T13:30:29.340" LastActivityDate="2017-10-03T13:30:29.340" Title="Why all avatars are not equally popular and famous?" Tags="|avatars|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21268" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15676" CreationDate="2017-10-02T08:13:38.773" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 30, Dharmaranya Khanda - Brahma Khanda&lt;/strong&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-ix/chapter-30/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Skanda Mahapurana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; - Page 162 - also mentions same tithis as mentioned in &lt;strong&gt;Patala Khanda of Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama returned to Ayodhya via Pushpaka Vimana. He boarded Pushpaka Vimana on 3rd day of Sukla Paksha of Vaishaka Masam (April/May) and He was coronated on 7th day of Sukla Paksha of Vaishaka Masam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;81-85. The (test of) purity of Sitä took place on the third day.&#xA;Boons were granted by Devas. Da'aratha came (from heaven and  gave his&#xA;approval to it). After -slaying the lord of Lankä, the lord (Räma),&#xA;the elder brother of Lakshmana, took with him the meritorious daughter&#xA;of  Janaka, who had been subjected to misery by the demon and re-&#xA;turned with great pleasure. &lt;strong&gt;On the fourth day of Vaisäkha Räma&#xA;boarded the aerial chariot Pushpaka.&lt;/strong&gt; He returned by air. On the way&#xA;to the city of Ayodhyä, when the fourteen year period was complete,&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;on the fifth day of  the month of Mädhava (i.e. Vaisäkha), Räma and party camped in  the hermitage of Bhäradväja. He came to Nandigräma&#xA;by Pushpaka on the sixth day.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;86-89. &lt;strong&gt;The great scion of the family of Raghu was crowned as  the&#xA;king of Ayodhyä on the seventh day.&lt;/strong&gt;  Maithili stayed in the abode of&#xA;Rävapa separated from Räma for  a period of fourteen months and ten&#xA;days. Räma began to rule the kingdom in his forty-second year. Sitä&#xA;was then thirty-three years old.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T09:09:38.510" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21269" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21274" CreationDate="2017-10-02T08:14:03.003" Score="1" ViewCount="2849" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am still confuse about Sita's Mother and Father. I listen she born from earth, also She is the daughter of Ravan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am reaching to be around 40 years being a Hindu, still if someone asks this to me I unable answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are the real father and mother of Sita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T10:43:11.067" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T10:43:11.067" Title="Who are the real parents of Sita?" Tags="|ramayana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-10-02T11:19:58.063" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21270" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21276" CreationDate="2017-10-02T09:38:22.213" Score="1" ViewCount="335" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is there no patent system in Hinduism scriptures in specific branch like Ayurveda, Yoga etc. in ancient time?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="585" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T12:27:13.443" Title="Why is there no patent system in Hinduism Scriptures in ancient time?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-10-02T14:19:18.540" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21271" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9590" CreationDate="2017-10-02T09:49:12.813" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;This skull could be probably skull of a previous Indra. Rudra at &lt;em&gt;Prakrta Pralaya&lt;/em&gt; (dissolution after death of Creator Brahma) burns entire Universe to ashes and wears skulls of Devas as Ornaments. So, there could be a chance that this skull belongs to some previous Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/kurma-mahapurana/chapter-99/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 46&lt;/a&gt;, Uttara Bhaga of Kurma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; mentions &lt;em&gt;Prakrta Pralaya&lt;/em&gt; in detail and says Rudra wears skulls of all Gods as ornaments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स दग्ध्वा सकलं विश्वमस्त्र ब्रह्मशिरो महत्। &lt;br&gt; देवतानां शरीरेषु&#xA;क्षिपत्यखिलदाहकम्॥६॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reducing to ashes the entire universe, Mahesvara then shoots a&#xA;terrific weapon called Brahmasiras, which can even burn the bodies of&#xA;the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दग्धेष्वशेषदेवेषु देवी गिरिवरात्मजा। &lt;br&gt;एषा सा साक्षिणी&#xA;शम्भोस्तिष्ठते वैदिकी श्रुतिः॥७॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When all the gods were reduced to ashes, Parvati, the excellent&#xA;daughter of Himalaya, stands by Siva as the only witness of his&#xA;performance. This has been ordained by the Vedic Srutis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;शिरं कपालैर्देवानां कृतस्रग्वरभूषणः&lt;/strong&gt;। &lt;br&gt; आदित्यचन्द्रादिगणैः&#xA;पूरयन्व्योममण्डलम्॥८॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Siva, wears a garland of skulls of the gods, as an ornament&lt;/strong&gt;. He&#xA;fills the sky with the multitudes of suns and the moons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T10:34:41.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21273" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21275" CreationDate="2017-10-02T10:36:41.340" Score="4" ViewCount="2672" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14257/time-to-perform-sandhyavandanam/14260#14260&quot;&gt;This answer&lt;/a&gt; says if anybody missed to perform Sandhyavandanam within prescribed time, Prayaschitta Arghya should be given. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is how to give Prayaschitta Arghya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-10-03T03:18:45.047" Title="How to give Prayaschitta Arghya?" Tags="|rituals|sandhyavandanam|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21274" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21269" CreationDate="2017-10-02T10:37:06.357" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his Complete Works, V4, lecture &quot;The Ramayana&quot;, Swami Vivekananda says  (available here - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaitaashrama.org/cw/content.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.advaitaashrama.org/cw/content.php&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now, there was another king, called Janaka, and this king had a beautiful daughter named Sitâ. Sita was found in a field; she was a daughter of the Earth, and was born without parents. The word &quot;Sita&quot; in ancient Sanskrit means the furrow made by a plough. In the ancient mythology of India you will find persons born of one parent only, or persons born without parents, born of sacrificial fire, born in the field, and so on — dropped from the clouds as it were. All those sorts of miraculous birth were common in the mythological lore of India. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T10:37:06.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21275" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21273" CreationDate="2017-10-02T11:04:36.787" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This arghyam is given when we miss performing a sandhyavandanam i.e. before the sunrise in the morning, before the sun gets overhead in the evening and before the sunset in the evening. If we perform within the prescribed time, then it is not needed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We have to do praNaayaama, say sankalpam that we are giving a prayaschitta arghya. Then we have to give the arghya just like we do it before*. This is called &lt;em&gt;Kālātīta prāyaścitta arghyaṃ&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;*According to some sampradays, the arghyam offered &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.samskaaram.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=34:vadakalai&amp;amp;catid=3&amp;amp;lang=en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;is thrice&lt;/a&gt; at all the parts of the day. Whereas, in &lt;a href=&quot;http://tamilbrahmins.ucoz.org/sandyavandanam_english.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;some other&lt;/a&gt; , it is once in the morning, twice in the noon and thrice in the evening. This change is due to the shakshas and Grihya sutras they follow. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T03:18:45.047" LastActivityDate="2017-10-03T03:18:45.047" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21276" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21270" CreationDate="2017-10-02T12:13:15.110" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why is there no patent system in Hinduism scriptures in specific branch like Ayurveda, Yoga etc&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good question , simply because according to ancient Rishi’s ,Sages ,Yogi’s ,  there was no need to take the patent as they were knowing that this knowledge is eternal , they just discovered it. See Vedas from which all knowledge  of Hinduism sprung are also “Apaurusheya” that means the knowledge is eternal ,already present in the universe&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides this the core teaching and purpose  of the Veda’s  and Shastra’s is  to take care of all the creatures including Nature , and  to lead them towards moksha at the end. So the &lt;strong&gt;scriptures written from this point of view of Universal welfare. And not to gain any personal fame , fortune and for any monetary gain.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In genera way  a  patent is an exclusive right granted for an&#xA;invention / Knowledge  the patent owner has the exclusive right to&#xA;prevent or stop others from using invention /knowledge . In other&#xA;words, patent protection means that the invention cannot be publically&#xA;made, used, distributed, imported by others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purpose of Hinduism scriptures is to ensure true welfare of all beings. Both&#xA;material and spiritual. The Knowledge thus been transmitted orally through GURU-SHISHYA  tradition ,for thousands of years and thus kept intact. physical , mental  ,social and spiritual advancement of the people at large.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vedas , puranas , upanishds and the other Hinduism texts are written with this point of view only. Because the ancient sages were knowing that  material benefits are temporary and are perishable .That’s why  most traditions consider eternal moksha the ultimate goal. And the scripture is leading the masses towards it by various ways , the Sages , saints , acharyas done this without any material  gaining for themselves .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मुनय: साधु पृष्टोऽहं भवद्भिर्लोकमङ्गलम् ।&lt;br&gt; यत्कृत: कृष्णसम्प्रश्नो&#xA;येनात्मा सुप्रसीदति ॥ 5 || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;munayaḥ sādhu pṛṣṭo 'haḿ bhavadbhir loka-mańgalam&lt;br&gt; yat kṛtaḥ&#xA;kṛṣṇa-sampraśno yenātmā suprasīdati&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O sages, I have been justly questioned by you. Your questions are&#xA;worthy because they relate to Lord Krsna and &lt;strong&gt;so are of relevance to&#xA;the world’s welfare. Only questions of this sort are capable of&#xA;completely satisfying the self.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/2/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 1.2.5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;धर्मस्य ह्यापवर्ग्यस्य नार्थोऽथायोपकल्पते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;नार्थस्य धर्मैकान्तस्य कामो लाभाय हि स्मृत:&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dharmasya hy āpavargyasya nārtho ’rthāyopakalpate&lt;br&gt; nārthasya&#xA;dharmaikāntasya kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All occupational engagements are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never be performed for material gain.&#xA;Furthermore, according to sages, one who is engaged in the ultimate&#xA;occupational service should never use material gain to cultivate sense&#xA;gratification&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/2/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 1.2.9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Dnyaneshwari which is   commentary on the Bhagavad Gita&lt;/strong&gt; written by the Marathi saint and poet Dnyaneshwar in the 13th century The Pasayadan  or the nine ending verses  there is world welfare prayer written - :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;दुरितांचे तिमिर जावो । विश्व स्वधर्म सूर्यें पाहो ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;जो जे वांच्छिल तो तें लाहो । प्राणिजात ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;duritāṁce timira jāvo | viśva svadharma sūryeṁ pāho |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;jo je vāṁcchila to teṁ lāho | prāṇijāta&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May the darkness of ignorant disappear | May the Universe see the Sun&#xA;of self-consciousness&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;May whatsoever aspirations of those be fulfilled | of all living&#xA;beings.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Dnyaneshwar is praying for all -   this is also a &lt;strong&gt;kind of universal prayer&lt;/strong&gt; to supreme  lord for sake of every creature . And this is the heart and soul of Hinduism scriptures. And not to gain personal /group profit. Nor to restrict the knowledge so as to keep it just for benefit of individual or group.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ayurveda is a Veda , the  “science of life” it deals with measures for&#xA;healthy living. Besides dealing with principles of maintenance of good&#xA;health the objective of the text is to enable us to lead happy ,and&#xA;disease free life Just like the &lt;strong&gt;“world Health Organization&lt;/strong&gt; ”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion - So as we can see the ultimate purpose of the scripture is&#xA;to lead every one  towards Moksha liberation .The sages , Rishies ,&#xA;seers ,saints  and writers of Hinduism  scriptures do not took patents&#xA;of their writings or the knowledge they gained. Simply they do not&#xA;wanted any material gain from doing this. Even some of them have not&#xA;took the credit by mentioning their name. And there was no need to&#xA;take  patent  /copyright of scriptures.And the system was /is not there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T12:27:13.443" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21277" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-02T12:19:41.013" Score="3" ViewCount="292" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/03-13/editorials9941.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This blog post&lt;/a&gt; lists out verses from various Smritis that contain predictions of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The following verse is said to be from the Devi Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nama-siddhanta-sampatti &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prakashana-parayanah kvacit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri-krishna-chaitanya- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nama loke bhavishyati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Lord will again appear in this world. His name will be Sri Krishna Chaitanya and He will spread the chanting of the Lord's Holy Names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could anyone locate where in Devi Purana the above verse is found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="3662" LastEditDate="2017-10-04T06:31:46.227" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T06:36:26.207" Title="Could anyone locate where the Devi Purana contains the following verse about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu?" Tags="|identification-request|chaitanya|devi-bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21279" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-02T13:00:44.300" Score="3" ViewCount="147" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've seen conflicting views about horoscope being true by some great people like Vivekananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know how old the tradition of horoscope is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know the oldest scriptures that mentions horoscope.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also a Wiki type answer mentioning horoscope mentions in different scriptures would be good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5284" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T14:17:37.197" LastActivityDate="2017-10-03T14:20:37.640" Title="What is the oldest scripture that mentions horoscope?" Tags="|scripture|history|horoscopes|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21280" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-02T13:04:17.110" Score="6" ViewCount="1455" Body="&lt;p&gt;I mean sugreev was there because he was hiding from his brother bali, but what was hanuman doing with him? I mean how hanuman met sugreev &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12120" LastEditorUserId="12120" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T15:28:01.997" LastActivityDate="2018-06-04T06:32:11.083" Title="What was hanuman doing with sugreev on the mountain?" Tags="|ramayana|hanuman|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21281" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-02T13:59:53.933" Score="0" ViewCount="97" Body="&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is it they worship, the power inside idols.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;They use it as a point of concentration.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Only a representation.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;God is present in idol.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4th option included after reading question here. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/253/what-is-the-significance-of-murthi-pooja-idol-worship&quot;&gt;What is the significance of Murthi pooja (idol worship)?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12172" LastEditorUserId="12172" LastEditDate="2017-10-02T14:14:20.290" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T14:19:34.833" Title="What exactly is explanation of Hindus when they perform idol worship?" Tags="|practice|idols|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-10-02T17:31:26.707" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21282" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21281" CreationDate="2017-10-02T14:19:34.833" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;A partial answer to this question has been given in a previous question as pointed out in comments to the question. Nevertheless, I will add an additional answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The clearest explanation of image worship that I have come across is that of Swami Tapasyananda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…Worship of a God who is not also the Absolute is idolatry, and a mere Absolute, who is characterless and is irresponsive, is not better&#xA;  than matter. The Vedanta accepts the Supreme as both Personal and&#xA;  Impersonal. When the votary in the course of his spiritual development&#xA;  becomes de-personalized on achieving the elimination of his ego-based&#xA;  body-mind, he will be able to understand the true Impersonal. Till&#xA;  then, that is, so long as he is a person, the Impersonal and the&#xA;  Absolute can only mean for him a Personal Being who is much more than&#xA;  what he, a person, has grasped or can grasp of Him. To illustrate, the&#xA;  Impersonal-Personal Divine of the Vedanta is the ocean and the God of&#xA;  adoration of the devotee is like a big field or backwater into which&#xA;  the water of that ocean has flowed. The many deities that form the&#xA;  object of worship of Vedantism are like these tanks and backwaters in&#xA;  the analogy. They are so many manifestations of the&#xA;  Personal-Impersonal Sat-chit-ananda in the thought structures of those&#xA;  who adore Him, or are forms adopted by Him for the achievement of&#xA;  cosmic purposes in his world-play. The worship of these forms with an&#xA;  understanding of the infinitude that informs their finitude ...... is&#xA;  the only form of true worship that the human mind is capable of, so&#xA;  long as man remains a limited person. The other ideas of the Divine&#xA;  which Semitic religions hold – their so called boasted monotheism – is&#xA;  only a form of disguised idolatry; for when it is said that Jehovah is&#xA;  a jealous God, or that there is no God but Allah, it is obvious that&#xA;  the Supreme Being is being identified as an exclusive individual and&#xA;  not as an expression of an Infinite Being in terms of the human mind.&#xA;  When the link with the Infinite is forgotten, a Deity, whether it is a&#xA;  monotheistic entity or a polytheistic being becomes a mere idol. Real&#xA;  worship of the Supreme Being is possible only when the principle of&#xA;  Vedantic theism is understood – that principle being the perception of&#xA;  the Infinite Personal-Impersonal Being through a limited manifestation&#xA;  of Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Vedantic Deity is never aggressive, demanding the overthrow of other deities. But, a monotheistic Deity, always a jealous God, cannot&#xA;  tolerate another deity. As Toynbee has pointed out, the monotheistic&#xA;  Deity of the Semitics is only an apotheosis of the group or tribal&#xA;  consciousness of certain people, a sentiment that held together&#xA;  societies before nationalism took its place. Just as the nationalistic&#xA;  patriotism is eager to absorb all other countries, that form of group&#xA;  consciousness masquerading as monotheism wants to supplant all other&#xA;  religions and establish its Deity in their sanctuaries. Proselytism,&#xA;  for which many religions stand but which has no place in the Vedantic&#xA;  scheme, is the consequence of the Infinite Being but a personalisation&#xA;  of the group consciousness of a people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The principle enunciated above in regard to Deities is applicable also to worship of God in holy images, which critics, who are&#xA;  practicing real idolatry, have stigmatised as idolatry. The Vedantin’s&#xA;  God is not an individual as the Semite’s. He is the Universal Spirit&#xA;  who has manifested as All-Nature. He is one with all, and if a person&#xA;  with faith wants to see Him anywhere, He is present there. Like water&#xA;  running all through the ground, He is everywhere; and if the well of&#xA;  faith is dug, He becomes available for worship. A holy image is thus a&#xA;  point at which His real presence is available for imperfect man to&#xA;  apprehend and commune with. It is not a mere means for practising&#xA;  concentration as some apologists say. It is much more. It is a point&#xA;  of real communion with the Divine when the eye of faith reveals Him as&#xA;  accepting the worship and offering made by the devotee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Adapted from Swami Tapasyananda’s introductory remarks in ‘A Primer of Hinduism’ by D.S.Sarma]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T14:19:34.833" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21283" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21226" CreationDate="2017-10-02T15:12:57.790" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two kinds of schools of Indian philosophy, Astika and Nastika. The Astika schools are part of Hinduism, whereas the Nastika schools like Buddhism, Jainism, Charvaka, and Ajivika fall under the broader category of Dharmic faiths.  Now what the six Astika schools have in common is that they accept the authority of the Vedas.  But they differ on other issues, like the existence of God.  Four Astika schools unequivocally accept the existence of God - Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, and Vedanta.  Here's what the other two Astika schools believe:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samkhya:&lt;/strong&gt; The Samkhya school rejects the existence of God outright.  Here are the arguments against the existence of God that Kapila gives in Adhyaya 5 of Samkhya Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not because (the cause is) directed by Ishvara, (that there is) the resulting of fruits, because the production thereof takes place by means of Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because of his own benefit, (Ishvara's) superintendency (will be) like that of man.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Otherwise, (Ishvara will be) like the human lord.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Otherwise, Ishvara will be like the human lord), or nominal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Without Raga or passion, superintendence is not established, because Raga is the invariable and unconditional cause of all activity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On (the admission), again, (of) connection with Raga, (he will) not (be) eternally free.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If (you say that the condition of being Ishvara arises) through connection with the powers of Prakriti, (then there will be) the implication of (his) attachment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If (it be said that the condition of Ishvara may arise) through the mere existence (of Prakriti by the side of Purusha), (then) the condition of being Ishvara (will belong) to all (Purushas).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On account of the non-existence of evidence (there is) no proof of an eternal Ishvara.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Owing to the non-existence of the Vyapti or pervasion (there is) no inference (of Ishvara).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Shruti also (speaks of the web of creation) being the product of Prakriti.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For more details, see &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/76K30&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this PDF&lt;/a&gt; which gives the relevant portions of Aniruddha's Samkhya Sutra Vritti and Vijnanabhikshu's Samkhya Sutra Bhashya.  By the way, as I discuss in my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20922/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, Vijnanabhikshu argued that Kapila just pretended to reject the existence of God, in order to deceive people for their own benefit.  The idea is that if people believe in Ishwara, they will seek to have the Aishwarya or lordliness, i.e. the same powers that Ishwara has, and the pursuit of such powers will distract them from attaining Jnana. But Vijnanabhikshu had unusual views.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the Samkhya school at least believed in the Devas; here's what Ishwara Krishna says in verse 53 of the Samkhya Karika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;aṣṭavikalpo daivas tairyagyonaśca pañcadhā bhavati |  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  mānuṣyaścaikavidhaḥ samāsato bhautikaḥ sargaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The divine class has eight varieties, the sub-human has five and the human has one (only). Such, in brief is this creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purva Mimamsa&lt;/strong&gt;: The Purva Mimamsa school was divided on the existence of God.  But one thing they all agreed on was that God (if God even existed) was neither the creator of the Universe, nor the author of the Vedas, nor even omniscient.  In fact, they didn't even believe the Universe is ever created or destroyed! Here is what Kumarila Bhatta says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/n1W1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Shloka Vartika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And as for the fixing [of the meaning of words] at the beginning of Creation, - we do not admit of any such time (the world being eternal and as such having no beginning in time. [Objection:] &quot;But, if there be such a Person as would create the world, and then set going the processes of Dharma and Adharma, and the uses and relations of words, for the sake of the world,—then, such a fact Would not in any way vitiate the Veda.&quot; Reply: Yet this theory is as difficult to prove, as an omniscient person; hence we have not admitted it. At a time when all this did not exist, what could have been the condition of the universe? As for Prajapati himself, what could be his position? And what his form? And at that time who would know Him and explain His character to the later created persons? Without perception, how can we determine this? Then again, in what manner do you believe the world to have had a beginning in time? Since Prajapati is without a material body, etc., how could He have any desire towards creation? And if He has a body, assuredly this body could not have been created by Himself; thus then we would have to postulate another creator. If Prajapati's body be held to be eternal, then - so long as earth [has] not been produced, of what material would that body be composed? Then again, in the first place, how is it that He should have a desire to create a world which is to be fraught with all sorts of troubles to living beings? For at that time he has not got any guiding agencies, in the shape of the virtue, etc., of the living beings themselves. Nor can any creator create any thing, in the absence of means and instruments. Even the production of the spider's net is not held to be without some sort of a basis; as the saliva, which is produced out of the body of the animals eaten (by the spider).&#xA;  In the absence of objects of compassion, no Pity could be possible for Him. And if He were urged to creations by pure compassion, then He would create only happy being. If it be urged that &quot; without some pain, neither the creation nor the continuation of the world would be possible,&quot; - then when everything depends upon the mere will of the Creator Himself, what could be impossible for Him? And if He were to depend upon Laws and Agencies, then this fact would deprive Him of His independence. What is that end which He desires, and which could not be gained without creating the world? For without some end in view, even a fool does not act. Then if He were to act so, then what would be the good of his intelligence? If the activity of the Creator were due to a desire for mere amusement, then that would go against his ever-contentedness. And the great amount of work would be a source of infinite trouble to Him. And His desire to destroy the world too would be hardly explicable. And such a Creator could never be known by anybody. Even if He were known in form, the fact of His being the Creator could never be known. Because, at that time what could the living beings, appearing at the beginning of creation, understand? They could not understand where from they have been born; nor could they know the state of the world prior to creation, or the fact of Prajapati being the Creator. Nor could the idea that they would derive from His own assertion (with regard to His being the Creator), be altogether trustworthy; because even though He may not have created the world, He might speak of having done so, in order to show off His great power. In the same manner the Veda that would proceed from him would only be doubtful, and hence could not be admitted as a sure proof of His existence. And as for that which is eternal, how could it make a mention? For, if the Veda existed before the objects (created), then there can be no connection between this (Veda) and the objects created. Therefore the passages must be interpreted as praising up something else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But some Mimamsakas like Kumarila Bhatta, Laugakshi Bhaskara, and Apadeva did believe in some notion of God; see my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/16037/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, note that while it might be fair to call all followers of Samkhya and some followers of Purva Mimamsa &quot;atheists&quot;, they weren't materialistic atheists of the kind found in modern society. They still believed in the Vedas, the Atma, reincarnation, and Yagnas, they just didn't believe in God.  Modern materialistic atheism corresponds to Charvaka, which was a Nastika school of Indian philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's also worth noting that the Astika schools which do believe in God have produced detailed refutations of the arguments quoted above. Udayana's Nyaya Kusumanjali, which you can read &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/kusumnjaliorhin00bhagoog&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, is a Nyaya-Vaisheshika work which seeks to refute not just the Purva Mimamsa and Samkhya arguments given above but also the arguments against the existence of God given by Charvakas and others.  And the Vedanta school, the dominant school of Hindu philosophy today, has produced lots of refutations of such arguments.  See my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18850/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for how Vyasa refutes rival schools to Vedanta in the Brahma Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T18:15:43.147" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T18:15:43.147" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21284" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21236" CreationDate="2017-10-02T15:49:01.947" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;, ... But ask to your(??)self who is praying? Parmatma or your psycho-physical existence? If psycho-physical existence wants to pray then to whom it wants to pray? And how would you know to whom you are praying? Other than Paramatma- you have mind as well? How will you ensure to pray to Paramatma only, not to the mind since you don't have any clue how Parmatma existing in you? Where you will find him/her(?) in the body to pray??????????  So, being a psycho - physical existence you can't pray to the Parmatma residing in you. This is the reason of existence of dualistic &amp;amp; semi-dualistic hindu philosophies. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But...Yes, there is a way to pray yourself but the way is such the sentence &lt;code&gt;there is a way to pray yourself&lt;/code&gt; too become a paradox. Because then you don't pray you just exist. You do so by become pure existence alone. You will then have to shift your ontology to Parabhairava state. Then the &lt;strong&gt;I&lt;/strong&gt; is Shiva &amp;amp; the subjective feeling of the &lt;strong&gt;existence of I&lt;/strong&gt; is Shakti. Then the prayer, the one who is praying, &amp;amp; the one whom you pray all become one. Lord Krishna said this Brahman Yajna. Brahma yajna is what you are looking for. But it is difficult to practice. In any case, this is the how you can pray to yourself - called Brahman Yajna. This is very deep &amp;amp; one of the most esoteric verse of Bhagvad Geeta, I would end up with verse only without commentary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For those who are completely absorbed in God-consciousness, the oblation is Brahman, the ladle with which it is offered is Brahman, the act of offering is Brahman, and the sacrificial fire is also Brahman. Such persons, who view everything as God, easily attain him. BG-4.24&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;we say this in this way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever I take is offered to Lord Śiva. Whatever I have to offer is for Lord Śiva. Whatever I offer is itself Lord Śiva. I have to offer Lord Śiva in Lord Śiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Btw, you were not the first to ask this question. same question was asked long before, although in different ways.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The goddess said &quot;Great lord, if such is the nature of the&#xA;  Supreme Sakti, then in the admittedly established rules of&#xA;  spiritual life, &lt;strong&gt;who would be invoked in recitation and what will&#xA;  be the recitation? Who, O great lord, would be meditated on,&#xA;  who would be worshipped, who is to be gratified ? V.Bhai-143 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  To whom is oblation to be offered? For whom is sacrifice&#xA;  to be performed ?' And how is it to be accomplished? V.Bhai- 144&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually, Lord Shiva told Devi, everyone is Shiva alone, so Devi is asking then whome to worship, whom to offer etc (above questions). Which Lord Shiva answers in next verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That &lt;strong&gt;creative contemplation&lt;/strong&gt; which is practised on the highest&#xA;  Reality over and over again is in this scripture japa (recitation&#xA;  in reality). That which goes on sounding spontaneously (inside)&#xA;  in the form of a mantra  (mystic formula- &quot;&lt;strong&gt;I ParAvAk&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; ) is what the japa is&#xA;  about. V.Bhai-145  &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Worship does not mean offering of flowers, etc. It rather&#xA;  consists in setting one's heart on that highest ether of consciousness&#xA;  which is above all thought-constructs! It really means&#xA;  dissolution of self with perfect ardour (in the Supreme Consciousness&#xA;  known as Bhairava). V.Bhai- 147&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Anuttarashtika by AcharArya Abhinavgupta:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the oneness of that supreme state of anuttara what talk can there be, and &lt;strong&gt;what differentiated path of adorer, adored and adoration?&lt;/strong&gt; To whom and by what means could a progression function; or what could constitute the succession of penetrating into the Self? Wonder of wonders! Though it appears differentiated this illusion is no other than consciousness–one without a second. Everything is nothing but the pure essence of your own Self-experience, so why worry in vain!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Shiv Stotravalli of AchArya UtpAldeva :&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FR53s.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/FR53s.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-10-07T18:16:52.123" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T18:16:52.123" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21285" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-02T17:06:56.023" Score="12" ViewCount="658" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sri Vaishnavas says Vishnu is antaryami which means He is residing &lt;strong&gt;within&lt;/strong&gt; the soul. But I am unable to get this concept exactly. Do they mean In a particular part of the soul, he is residing,  like a center of mass? But what about then other parts in the soul, he is not residing in other parts of the soul? If he is residing in other parts then duality between Vishnu &amp;amp; Jiva ceases to exist. But if he doesn't reside all over the Jivatma then how he is omnipresent? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So keeping above sub queries in mind, can anyone explain what does it mean when we say Lord Vishnu is antaryami?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T06:15:43.073" LastActivityDate="2019-02-09T04:55:34.160" Title="What does Vishishtadvaitins mean when they say Lord Vishnu is antaryami?" Tags="|vishnu|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21286" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19974" CreationDate="2017-10-02T17:42:30.337" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rishya Srunga Sloka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This was recommended by Shankaracharya of Kanchi to bring rainfall.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka in English&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rishyasringaaya munaye vibhandaka sutaayaca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namah saantadhipataye satyah sadvrishti hetave&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vibhandaka sutah sreemaan saantaadhipathir akalmashaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rishyasringa itignyaataha mahaa varsham prayachathu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T17:42:30.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21287" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21291" CreationDate="2017-10-02T18:14:51.020" Score="9" ViewCount="2585" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a well known fact that the 19th century mystic saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa practiced other religions apart from Hinduism. Well known examples are Christianity and Islam (particularly Sufism). However, do any of the biographies of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa indicate that He accepted Jesus Christ as the begotten son of God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T04:58:19.490" LastActivityDate="2020-08-10T19:51:28.327" Title="Did Ramakrishna Paramahamsa accept Jesus Christ as the begotten son of God?" Tags="|other-religions|ramakrishna|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21288" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21273" CreationDate="2017-10-02T19:02:11.977" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ajay, you should have learned Sandhya Vandana from your father or acharya or local matam or ashram, soon after upanayanam was done. If you have forgotten the mantras, full details of sandhya vandana here (Sanskrit &amp;amp; Tamil.. also english)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://srivaishnavam.com/stotras/prata_sandhya.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://srivaishnavam.com/stotras/prata_sandhya.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But if none has taught you, do not self-learn.. first learn from elder, then use above as reference to refresh memory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastActivityDate="2017-10-02T19:02:11.977" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21289" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21287" CreationDate="2017-10-02T19:30:11.533" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well it's a known fact that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa practiced other religions apart from &lt;em&gt;Sanatan Dharma&lt;/em&gt; as we can read below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ramakrishna was initiated into Sanyaas or formal life of an ascetic&#xA;  during 1865 from Monk Totapuri. Totatpuri guided Ramakrishna through&#xA;  the rituals of renunciation and instructed him the teachings of&#xA;  Advaita Vedanta, Hindu philosophies dealing with non-dualism of&#xA;  spirit, and importance of Brahman. It was now that Ramakrishna&#xA;  attained his highest spiritual realization.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the subsequent years, he undertook practicing of Islam, with&#xA;  observing all the rituals of the religion in a devout manner. He even&#xA;  experienced vision of a radiant white bearded man. His tryst with&#xA;  Christianity came much later, in 1873, when a devotee read The Bible&#xA;  to him and he got immersed in the thoughts of Christ. He had a vision&#xA;  of Madonna and Child and of Jesus himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that was a very well thought out process just to make common people understand some simple things about different religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The ultimate motive:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He directed that the ultimate goal of every living soul is&#xA;  God-realization. Having practiced different facets of Hinduism as well&#xA;  of other religions like Islam and Christianity, he preached that all&#xA;  of these religions were different paths that lead up to a single goal&#xA;  – God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if you read everything clearly it never states that he accepted Jesus Christ as the son of God, because that was never the motive behind what he did.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.culturalindia.net/reformers/ramakrishna-paramhansa.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt;  and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramakrishna&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this one&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T04:12:04.810" LastActivityDate="2017-10-03T04:12:04.810" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21290" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21267" CreationDate="2017-10-03T04:53:51.250" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not all Avatars of Lord Vishnu is famous because there were particular reason behind it and these Avatars were not in the form of human.That is the main reason and Lord Vishnu have not spread &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dnyana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; in those avataras so they are not well known to people Only two Avataras are most famous these are Lord Ram, And Lord Krishna Lord Vishnu has spread so much knowledge and god Vishnu were in human Avataras so they spread lots of things about humanity and all.&#xA;But when it comes to avataras like Varah, Katchya, God were on particular task and then that avatara comes to an end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is the reason we are not so much aware of those Avataras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8467" LastActivityDate="2017-10-03T04:53:51.250" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21291" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21287" CreationDate="2017-10-03T06:19:14.473" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Sri RAmakrishna, Jesus Christ was an incarnation of God. So, an incarnation and not a son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am quoting from the Bengali version of the book &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedanta.com/store/short_life_of_Sri-Ramakrishna.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;A short life of Sri RAmakrishna&quot;.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Seven years later he had a similar realization of Christianity. In&#xA;  1874 Sri Ramakrishna came into intimate contact with Shambhu Nath&#xA;  Mallick of Calcutta, who had a garden close to the Dakshineswar Kali&#xA;  temple. Sri Ramakrishna used to spend a good deal of time in this&#xA;  garden-house of Shambhu Mallick, who came to regard the Master with&#xA;  sincere love and esteem, and after Mathur’s death gladly supplied all&#xA;  his wants. Though not a Christian, he used to read the Bible to Sri&#xA;  Ramakrishna, who thus came to know about Christ and Christianity. He&#xA;  felt a strong desire to realize the Divine Mother by this new method,&#xA;  and it was fulfilled in a strange way. One day Sri Ramakrishna was&#xA;  sitting in the parlour of a neighbouring house belonging to Jadulal&#xA;  Mallick, a devotee of the Master. On the walls were many beautiful&#xA;  portraits, one of them being of Christ. Sri Ramakrishna was looking&#xA;  attentively at the picture of the Madonna with the Divine Child and&#xA;  reflecting on the wonderful life of Christ, when he felt as though the&#xA;  picture had become animated, and that rays of light were emanating&#xA;  from the figures of Mary and Christ and entering into him, altogether&#xA;  changing his mental outlook. When he realized that his Hindu ideas&#xA;  were being pushed into a corner by this onrush of new ones, he tried&#xA;  his best to stop them and eagerly prayed to the Divine Mother, ‘What&#xA;  is it that Thou art doing to me, Mother?’ But in vain. His love and&#xA;  regard for the Hindu gods were swept away by this tidal wave, and in&#xA;  their stead a deep regard for Christ and the Christian church filled&#xA;  his heart and opened to his eyes the vision of Christian devotees&#xA;  burning incense and candles before the figure of Jesus in the churches&#xA;  and offering unto him the eager outpourings of their hearts. For three&#xA;  days those ideas held sway in his mind. On the fourth day, as he was&#xA;  walking in the Panchavati, he saw an extraordinary-looking person of&#xA;  serene aspect approaching him with his gaze intently fixed on him. He&#xA;  knew him at once to be a man of foreign extraction. Sri Ramakrishna&#xA;  was charmed and wondered who he might be. Presently the figure drew&#xA;  near, and from the inmost recesses of Sri Ramakrishna’s heart there&#xA;  went up the note: ‘This is Christ who poured out his heart’s blood for&#xA;  the redemption of mankind and suffered agonies for its sake. It is&#xA;  none else but that Master Yogi Jesus, the embodiment of Love.’ Then&#xA;  the Son of Man embraced Sri Ramakrishna and became merged in him. At&#xA;  this the Master went into Samadhi and lost all outward consciousness.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Thus was Sri Ramakrishna convinced that Jesus Christ was an Incarnation of the Lord.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From, the 17th chapter of the aforementioned book titled &quot; Practice of Christianity and the story of DAkAt BAbA&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As an additional info, Sri RAmakrishna believed that Buddha was an incarnation of God. But as far as the Jain and Sikh Gurus are concerned, then as per him, they were not God's incarnations. And, as regards the 10 Sikh Gurus, then he believed them all to be &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janaka&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;King Janaka's&lt;/a&gt; incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the same chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It will be worthwhile to note here Sri Ramakrishna’s opinion of Buddha&#xA;  and other great founders of religion. About Buddha he shared the&#xA;  general notion of the Hindus that he was an Incarnation of God. He&#xA;  used to offer him his sincere devotion and worship. Once he remarked,&#xA;  ‘There is not the least doubt about Lord Buddha’s being an&#xA;  Incarnation. There is no difference between his doctrines and those of&#xA;  the Vedic Jnanakanda.’ We have every reason to believe that he spoke&#xA;  thus because of his supernatural insight. About the Tirthankaras who&#xA;  founded the Jain religion, and the ten Sikh Gurus, Sri Ramakrishna&#xA;  heard a good deal in his later life from the lips of representatives&#xA;  of those communities and came to entertain a great regard for them. In&#xA;  his room at Dakshineswar there were a small statue of Tirthankara&#xA;  Mahavira and a portrait of Christ, before which incense was burnt&#xA;  morning and evening. Of the Sikh Gurus, he used to say that they were&#xA;  all incarnations of the saintly king Janaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T06:31:25.087" LastActivityDate="2017-10-03T06:31:25.087" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21292" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21267" CreationDate="2017-10-03T08:17:02.520" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The incarnation(avatar) who took birth from womb of a woman and lived specific age on earth, those incarnations are most popular and used to worship. Those incarnation who live with humans are popular amongs human. There are only two incarnation who live on earth and those are Rama and Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They are famous among humans because both lived with humans. During their age they did many great things which made them popular in whole world. For example: On Rama's time there were lots of things about Rama became popular:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;A stone turned into a beautiful woman when Rama touch her with his&#xA;feet.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rama broke the bow of Shiva.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rama protects the sages by killing Tadka and many other demons.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rama killed Ravana whome even Gods were enable to kill.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dharma acharan of Rama known to everyone And so on...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By these examples people started to think Rama is not an ordinary person. He must be a divine source. So popularity of Rama in whole world is not an surprise. People actully experience Rama's divinity and spread this information generation to generation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same goes to Krishna. Krishna also did many actions which make people believe that he is Lord himself. People seen miracles of Krishna by their own eyes. Here are some examples..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He lift whole mountain with his one fingure.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Killed many rakshasa in his childhood.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kalia Naag incidents was seen by everyone in Gokul.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Many was already aware of the fact that He was Lord himself and&#xA;slowly everyone becomes aware of divinity of Lord Krishna. And so on...&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So popularity of Krishna also can't be surprising since people has experienced his miracles by themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other incarnations of Lord Vishnu didn't live on earth and didn't spend time with humans that's why they are not much famous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vahmana avatar also lived with humans but he didn't perform much of divine action(except one) that can grab attention of many. Because of less Leelas of Vahmana avatar, his story was not long enough to be written like Ramayana. Hence this incarnation is not much famous because of less leelas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T08:28:44.763" LastActivityDate="2017-10-03T08:28:44.763" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21293" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-03T09:43:58.543" Score="2" ViewCount="5270" Body="&lt;p&gt;&quot;What you reap is what you sow.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally every human birth is based upon the rule of Karma. If you do good you will have good and if you do bad then you will have bad things happening in your life. Like &quot;Jaise Karni Waisi Bharni&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The life story of Lord Rama and Devi Sita is quite painful. What are the reasons they had to face these many problems in life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think it has anything to do with karma because Lord Vishnu is not going to do any sinful act. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-04T03:17:00.073" LastActivityDate="2018-06-23T08:47:12.977" Title="What were the reasons for suffering of Lord Rama and Devi Sita?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|sita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21294" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7984" CreationDate="2017-10-03T10:04:52.083" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;And the answer is &quot;no&quot; because if you go and check epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana there is nothing like even the Vayu Purana which is mentioned in Mahabharata itself means it exists in the times of Mahabharata do not supports it. It gives the creation story that among Tridevas no one created no one even lord Brahma is not created by either by lord Vishnu or lord Shiva . The second oldest Purana Matsya Purana too supports this but is kept by Padma Purana as &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Tamsik Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though the Padma Purana in this case looks interpolated although on my blog I have given a full article on that but then also it do not discriminate gods on the basis of satwa-rajas-tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's the proof:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PURANAS--THE EMBODIMENT OF SRI HARI &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Suta, all the Puranas are nothing but the mediums through&#xA;  which Sri Hari manifests himself---Brahma Purana is said to be the&#xA;  forehead of Sri Hari, Padma Purana is said to be the 'heart' of Sri&#xA;  Hari, Vishnu Purana is said to be the 'right arm' of Sri Hari. Shiva&#xA;  Purana is said to be the 'left arm' of Sri Hari. Srimad Bhagavata is&#xA;  said to be his 'thigh', Narada Purana is said to be his 'navel',&#xA;  Markendeya Purana is said to be his 'right-foot'. Agni Purana is said&#xA;  to be his 'left foot', Bhavishya Purana is said to be his 'right-knee',&#xA;  Brahma Vaivrata Purana is said to be his 'left knee'. Linga Purana is&#xA;  said to be his 'right ankle', Varaha Purana is said to be his 'left&#xA;  ankle', Skanda Purana is said to be the hair on the body of 'Sri Hari.&#xA;  Vamana Purana is said to be his skin. Kurma Purana is said to be his&#xA;  back. Matsya Purana is said to be his stomach. Garuda Purana is said&#xA;  to be his bone-marrow. Brahmanda Purana is said to be his bone. So,&#xA;  all the Puranas being manifestation of different parts of Sri Hari's&#xA;  body are very sacred and capable of bestowing salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Padma Purana book 2.5 (book 2 or book 3 but make sure it shall be swarga khanda )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?q=https://bhaktisanskar.com/padam-puran-hindi/&amp;amp;sa=U&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjH_dqT4NTWAhXJQyYKHVORASYQFggkMAU&amp;amp;usg=AOvVaw2qoWGN7zDW_Xujae-DlioE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.google.co.in/url?q=https://bhaktisanskar.com/padam-puran-hindi/&amp;amp;sa=U&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjH_dqT4NTWAhXJQyYKHVORASYQFggkMAU&amp;amp;usg=AOvVaw2qoWGN7zDW_Xujae-DlioE&lt;/a&gt; &#xA;Now the padma puran says all purans are sacred and leads to salavation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Prakasa samhita (one ofthe pancharatra samhita) states as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vārāhaṃ vaiṣṇavaṃ pādmaṃ vāyuproktaṃ ca gāruḍam /śrīmadbhāgavataṃ&#xA;  caiva sātvikānīti hi śrutiḥ // PS_1,4.32 //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“ Varaha ,Vishnu,Padma, Vayu, Garuda and the Srimad bhagavata purana&#xA;  are sattvik puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;”brahmāṇḍaṃ brahmavaivartaṃ mārkaṇḍeyaṃ ca vāmanam /bhaviṣyaṃ&#xA;  nārasiṃhaṃ ca rājasāni ṣaḍaiva hi // PS_1,4.33 //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Brahmanda, Brahmavaivarta, Markendeya,Vamana,Bhavishya and Narsimha&#xA;  purana are always rajasic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;”mātsyaṃ kaurmyaṃ tathā laiṅgyaṃ śaivaṃ skāndaṃ tathaiva ca&#xA;  /pāśupatasaṃjñikaṃ ceti tāmasāni vido viduḥ // PS_1,4.34 //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Matysa, Kurma,Linga,Siva,Skanda and the Pasupata sastra are the&#xA;  tamasic in nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well this book (Prakasa samhita) is one of the pancharatra samhita which is a angma not a puran,shastra or any thing related to puranic purans. Even angmas are both vedic and non-vedic too and besides all the Prakasa samhita is one of the pancharatra samhita which is a vaishnava text. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the proof:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Agama literature is voluminous, and includes 28 Shaiva Agamas, 77 Shakta Agamas (also called Tantras),and 108 Vaishnava Agamas (also calledPancharatraSamhitas), and numerous Upa-Agamas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80gama_(Hinduism)?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C6030012091&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80gama_(Hinduism)?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C6030012091&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;”The Garuda Purana(3.1.52) confirms:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;visnoh puranam bhagavatam puranam sattvottamam garudam cahur aryah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The Aryans declare that Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana and Garuda&#xA;  Purana the best of the Puranas in the mode of goodness.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though Matsya Purana is one of the oldest Puranas but it gives the story of Trimurti as when Brahman divided himself into Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesha the Purana which gives such equality of Trimurti can differentiate gods on the basis of nature satwa,rajas and tamas.&#xA;And the Skanda Purana which is the most interpolated Purana rest all Puranas belongs to Vaishnavism.&#xA;And just because Padma Purana contains a story type for that that's why I have given points only on Padma Purana rest every Purana contains just a verse and that is nothing but a interpolation. This is the reason why Mahabharata do not mention lord bhramha, lord vishnu and lord shiva on the basis of satwa-rajas-tamas. But all equal even in the harivamsa parva of mahabharat oldest book dedicated to lord krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;THERE ARE NOTHING LIKE MISHRIT PURANS&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is nothing like mishrit purans because logically everywhere this thing is written :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mātsyaṃ kaurmaṃ tathā laiṅgaṃ śaivaṃ skāndaṃ tathaiva ca /āgneyañ ca&#xA;  ṣaḍ etāni tāmasāni nibodha me //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Know from me that Mastya,Kurma,Linga,Shiva,so also Skanda and Agni are&#xA;  tamasa(vicious).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaiṣṇavaḥ nāradīyañ ca tathā bhāgavataṃ śubhaṃ /gāruḍañ ca tathā&#xA;  pādmaṃ vārāhaṃ śubhadarśane //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“ The Vaisnava,Naradiya,Bhagavata,Garuda,Padma,Varaha should be known&#xA;  to be sattvika and should be considered auspicious.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sāttvikāni purāṇāni vijñeyāni ca ṣaṭ pṛthak /brahmāṇḍaṃ&#xA;  brahmakaivartaṃ mārkaṇḍeyaṃ tathaiva ca //bhaviṣyad vāmanaṃ brāhmaṃ&#xA;  rājasāni ca ṣaḍvidhāḥ /&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know from me that, Brahmanda,Brahmavaivarta, Markendeya,&#xA;  Bhavishya,Vamana and Brahma are rajasa (endowed with the quality of&#xA;  passion).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Kurma Purana(2.43.49), Skanda Purana 7.1.2.87-88 and the Matsya Purana(53.68-69) together states as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sāttvikeṣu purāṇeṣu māhātmyamadhikaṃ hareḥ /rājaseṣu ca māhātmyam&#xA;  adhikaṃ brahmaṇo viduḥ //tadvadagneśca māhātmyaṃ tāmaseṣu śivasya ca &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In the Puranas in the mode of goodness, the focus is the glories&#xA;  of Lord Hari. Those in the mode of passion, the focus is on the glories&#xA;  of Lord Brahma. Similarly, those in the mode of ignorance, the focus&#xA;  is on the glories of Lord Siva and Agni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No where is written about any Purana is mishrit somewhere not in Puranas but like where here only it is written that the Puranas which gives equality to all gods are focus on goddess Saraswati or ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But all 18 major Puranas are totally divided on the basis of satwa-rajas-tamas. Nowhere is mentioned about mishrit Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it is cleared that the classification of Puranas on the basis of satwa-rajas-tamas is useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then also I have my own thinking on this topic :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tamas is sometimes referred as ignorant, but it also refers as darkness or the absolute when nothing was there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,let's move towards the Mahabharata verse to show this —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Narayana is the ultimate god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shruti declares,--Day was not. Night was not. Aught was not. Naught was not. In the beginning there was only Tamas in the form of the universe, and she is the night of Narayana of universal form. Even this is the meaning of the word Tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Section CCCXLII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then we know darkness  means tamas then see what Vedas say about it in this hymn:- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Well I am giving the full hymn as it is a good hymn:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RIG VEDA, BOOK 10, HYMN CXXIX. Creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter?&#xA;  Was water there, un-fathomed depth of water?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there,&#xA;  the day's and night's divider.That One Thing, breathless, breathed by&#xA;  its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was&#xA;  in-discriminated chaos.All that existed then was void and form less: by&#xA;  the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and&#xA;  germ of Spirit.Sages who searched with their heart's thought&#xA;  discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5 Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it&#xA;  then, and what below it?There were begetters, there were mighty&#xA;  forces, free action here and energy up yonder&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and&#xA;  whence comes this creation?The Gods are later than this&#xA;  world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or&#xA;  did not form it,Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he&#xA;  verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the Vedas say darkness was there at first and the first universal nothingness  darkness means tamas that we got from Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's see what come after that tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shvetashvatara Upanishad is one of the mukhya Upanishads.&#xA;The Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4.18 also says the glory of tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;IV-18: When ignorance is dispelled, there is neither day nor night,&#xA;  neither being nor non-being. There is only Shiva who is imperishable,&#xA;  and who is worthy of being adored by the creator. From Him has&#xA;  proceeded the ancient wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we can say that the tamas guna referred for god Rudra and the tamsik purans is referred as which gives knowledge of absolute and take away from materialistic world to the absolute truth. Or if someone do not believe this then i have already proofed the classification of Puranas on the basis of satwa-rajas-tamas is entirely useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it even does not correspond to Vedic knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the proof:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13 Glory to Gods, the mighty and the lesser glory to Gods the younger&#xA;  and the elder! Let us, if we have power, pay the God worship: no&#xA;  better prayer than this, ye Gods, acknowledge. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;—Rig Veda 1.27.13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas say to give equal respect to all gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12176" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2019-09-01T12:30:15.053" LastActivityDate="2019-09-01T12:30:15.053" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21295" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21297" CreationDate="2017-10-03T10:59:29.340" Score="15" ViewCount="1809" Body="&lt;p&gt;The name &quot;Bajaranga Bali&quot; is quite famous especially in the northern parts of India. There are popular movies made with this name, such as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajrangbali_(film)&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bajrangbali&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajrangi_Bhaijaan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bajrangi Bhaijaan&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However these names are not found [easily] in the Ramayana or Mahabharata texts.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;How has this name become quite famous?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Related: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/893/1049&quot;&gt;Why is lord Hanuman known as &amp;quot;Pavan putra Hanuman&amp;quot;?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-03T11:45:21.357" LastActivityDate="2022-03-01T09:50:57.227" Title="Why is Lord Hanuman also referred as &quot;Bajaranga Bali&quot;?" Tags="|ramayana|gods|hanuman|culture|name|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21296" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21295" CreationDate="2017-10-03T12:29:33.590" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hanuman is very well known for his physical strength. The name Bajrang is acquired by Him due to this reason. There are numerous references to this strength in Valmiki Ramayana. Bajra is a cultural variation of Vajra. Anga means a body. Vajraanga means one with a body like the Vajra. Here, Vajra can be interpreted as strong and also as strong as the thunderbolt of Indra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RamcharitManas by Gosvami Tulsidas is popular in the North Indian region.  So, this name has become people due to usage in this epic. This name also appears in famous Hanuman Chalisa which is penned by the same author.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महावीर विक्रम &lt;strong&gt;बजरंगी&lt;/strong&gt;।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कुमति निवार सुमति के संगी॥ ३ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mahāvīra vikrama &lt;strong&gt;bajarangī&lt;/strong&gt;।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kumati nivāra sumati ke sangī॥ 3 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You are the great hero, you are endowed with valour, &lt;strong&gt;your body is as strong as Indra's Vajra&lt;/strong&gt;. You are the destroyer of vile intellect, and you are the companion of one whose intellect is pure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman_Chalisa#The_Chalisa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is reference where Hanuman's body is compared with the vajra, the weapon of Indra. One in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga17/balasans17.htm#Verse16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bala kanda&lt;/a&gt; and other in Yuddha Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तम् आपतन्तम् उत्पत्य हनूमान् मारुत आत्मजः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आजघान तदा मूर्ध्नि &lt;strong&gt;वज्र वेगेन मुष्टिना&lt;/strong&gt; || ६-७०-२४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, Hanuma the foremost of monkeys, while jumping up, struck on the head of Devantaka rushing upon him with &lt;strong&gt;his fist equal to a thunder-bolt&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga70/yuddhasans70.htm#Verse24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-70-24]&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-19T15:45:40.517" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T15:45:40.517" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21297" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21295" CreationDate="2017-10-03T13:14:27.697" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read this and to me makes sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuman is called Bajrang Bali. I tried to understand why he was so&#xA;called. This name is being used mostly in Northern India and less in&#xA;Southern India, indicating Lord Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to my understanding, the original word might be&#xA;VAJRAANGABALI. If we split this word, we will get 3 words. VAJRA +&#xA;ANGA + BALI.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A) VAJRA&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt; indicates 2 meanings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It means THUNDERBOLT that we see during rainy season, indicating&#xA;great celerity, power and effectiveness. That is why the weapon of&#xA;Lord Indra is called VAJRAAYUDHA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It means a DIAMOND, indicating here the person having the strength&#xA;of diamond&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;B) ANGA means&lt;sup&gt;[2]&lt;/sup&gt; parts of body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;C) BALI means&lt;sup&gt;[3]&lt;/sup&gt; person having immense strength.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By understanding the meanings of 3 words together we will get a&#xA;different meaning, i.e., a person having immense strength, celerity&#xA;and effectiveness in his bodily parts equivalent to a THUNDERBOLT or a&#xA;DIAMOND.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This name VAJRAANGABALI of Lord Hanuman might have got corrupted in&#xA;the Eastern parts of India to Bajrang Bali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sound VA will be spelt in the Eastern parts of India as BA. For&#xA;example: the name RAVINDRANATH TAGORE will be spelt as RABINDRANATH&#xA;TAGORE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Lord-Hanuma-called-BAJARANGABALI/answer/Srimannarayana-V-Kandukuri-%E0%B0%B6%E0%B1%8D%E0%B0%B0%E0%B1%80%E0%B0%AE%E0%B0%A8%E0%B1%8D%E0%B0%A8%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%B0%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%AF%E0%B0%A3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Sanskrit Dictionary: [1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/vajra/199890/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vajra&lt;/a&gt; [2]: &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/a%E1%B9%85ga/1841/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anga&lt;/a&gt;/&lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/a%E1%B9%85ga/1839/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Amga&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;[3]: &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdictionary.com/bala/155826/1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bala&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2022-03-01T09:50:57.227" LastActivityDate="2022-03-01T09:50:57.227" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21298" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21279" CreationDate="2017-10-03T14:20:37.640" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;AtharvaVeda at least mentions names of Nakshatras as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7465/is-the-practice-of-kundalis-matching-part-of-the-core-hindu-doctrine/11716#11716&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly Valmiki Ramayana also gives horoscope of Lord Rama as I discuss in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/8414/%e0%a4%b0%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%b6%e0%a4%bfzodiac-sign-of-krishna-and-rama/11745#11745&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततो यज्ञे समाप्ते तु ऋतूनाम् षट् समत्ययुः | ततः च द्वादशे मासे चैत्रे नावमिके तिथौ || १८-८ नक्क्षत्रे अदिति दैवत्ये स्व उच्छ संस्थेषु पंचसु | ग्रहेषु कर्कटे लग्ने वाक्पता इंदुना सह || १८-९ प्रोद्यमाने जगन्नाथम् सर्व लोक नमस्कृतम् | कौसल्या अजनयत् रामम् सर्व लक्षण संयुतम् || १८-१० विष्णोः अर्धम् महाभागम् पुत्रम् ऐक्ष्वाकु नंदनम् | लोहिताक्षम् महाबाहुम् रक्त ओष्टम् दुंदुभि स्वनम् ||१८-११&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Twice six months had rolled a way since the great sacrifice was over and, in the first month of the New Year, on the ninth day of the bright fortnight, the Lord of the worlds chose to take human form and sent down half of His essence as the son of Kausalya (thenceforth to be known as Rama), the world-honored One, the crowning glory ot the grand line of Ikshwku, and the sum of all perfections. The constellation Punarvasu, of which Aditi was the regent, was chosen to preside at his birth. &lt;strong&gt;The Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn were in ascension in their respective houses. Aries, Capricornus, Cancer, Pisces and the Libra, Jupiter and the Moon were in conjunction ; the rising sign was Cancer.&lt;/strong&gt; And KausalyA, shone with unparalleled effulgence, even as Aditi when she gave birth to Indra, the lord of the Shining Ones, the Vajra-wielder.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-10-03T14:20:37.640" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21299" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-03T15:04:07.840" Score="6" ViewCount="1685" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya. My question is about the Nyaya and Vaisheshika schools.  Udayana's Nyaya Kusumanjali is a 10th century Nyaya-Vaisheshika work which seeks to logically prove the existence of God. In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EQU7i.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Nyaya Kusumanjali, Udayana tries to refutes the Purva Mimamsa belief that objects have Shaktis or inherent capacities to do things:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;[H]ow in images, etc., do such ceremonies become effectual as those for inviting to deity to take up residence therein, etc.? We hold therefore that we must admit such a thing as a capacity produced by the rite Pratishtha which can be destroyed by the touch of impure persons as the Chandala, etc., which renders an image a fit object of worship.&quot; ... The 'special causes' are the various kinds of merit in the person. The deities become conciliated in the ceremonies of consecration, and show it by coming to take up their residence, i.e. by the appropriation of the image and self-consciousness thereto; but &lt;strong&gt;by the touch of an impure person such appropriation and self-consciousness are rendered void&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who don't know, Prana Pratishtha is a ritual where you invoke the presence of a god into a statue.  My question is, what scriptures say that the presence of a god in a statue is removed if it's touched by a Chandala?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I don't want answers that comment on the nature of the caste system, untouchability, etc.  I just want a specific answer on the Praha Pratishtha point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-12-11T14:09:38.167" LastActivityDate="2020-10-15T18:49:22.383" Title="What scriptures say that Prana Pratishtha is removed by a Chandala's touch?" Tags="|gods|caste-system|idols|nyaya|untouchability|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21300" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18959" CreationDate="2017-10-03T15:17:31.770" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Okay let's consider references one by one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तौ तत्र हत्वा चतुरः महा मृगान् | वराहम् ऋश्यम् पृषतम् महा रुरुम् |&#xA;  आदाय मेध्यम् त्वरितम् बुभुक्षितौ| वासाय काले ययतुर् वनः पतिम् ||&#xA;  २-५२-१०२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having hunted there four deer, namely Varaaha, Rishya, Prisata; and&#xA;  Mahaaruru (the four principal species of deer) and taking quickly the&#xA;  portions that were pure, being hungry as they were, Rama and Lakshmana&#xA;  reached a tree to take rest in the evening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above taking the portions that were pure -&gt; does it say taking portions from the animal itself? They went hunting animals as well as food (plants/fruits) no?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ok how will you read this: &lt;em&gt;&quot;having done all his work and quickly finishing his pizza slice, Tom went off to sleep&quot;&lt;/em&gt; ... will you say Tom worked in a pizza store?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समाश्वस मुहूर्तम् तु शक्यम् वस्तुम् इह त्वया || 3-47-22 आगमिष्यति मे&#xA;  भर्ता वन्यम् आदाय पुष्कलम् | रुरून् गोधान् वराहान् च हत्वा आदाय&#xA;  अमिषान् बहु || 3-47-23&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Be comfortable for a moment, here it is possible for you to make a&#xA;  sojourn, and soon my husband will be coming on taking plentiful forest&#xA;  produce, and on killing stags, mongooses, wild boars he fetches meat,&#xA;  aplenty. [3-47-22b, 23]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Above &lt;em&gt;&quot;soon my husband will be coming on taking plentiful forest produce&quot;&lt;/em&gt; is that not referring to plants/fruits? They were killing wild animals to protect themselves as they too were living there. No? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aamisham means meat and it also means enjoyable sense object like kingdom; it also means immense sense gratification and very pleasant and dear sense objects. Why translate this word only to mean meat? Isn't it biased translation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maamsa means meat and it also means pulp of a fruit or root. Roots are quite commonly roasted in fire and eaten.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is same thing as showing a glass of water half empty to someone, some will say half empty, some will say half full and there are some who will say enough to quench my thirst. No? &lt;strong&gt;Don't go by English translations, they themselves say BUT in one way and PUT in another way.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now read this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न मांसं राघवो भुङ्क्ते न चापि मधुसेवते | वन्यं सुविहितं नित्यं&#xA;  भक्तमश्नाति पञ्चमम् || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama is not eating meat, nor indulging even in spirituous liquor.&#xA;  Everyday, in the evening, he is eating the food existing in the&#xA;  forest, well arranged for him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-01-21T01:03:03.400" LastActivityDate="2018-01-21T01:03:03.400" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21301" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-03T15:52:36.117" Score="7" ViewCount="219" Body="&lt;p&gt;Udayana's Nyaya Kusumanjali is a Nyaya-Vaisheshika work which seeks to logically prove the existence of God. In &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EQU7i.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Nyaya Kusumanjali, Udayana describes how the Prana Pratishtha ritual makes the presence of a Deva enter a statue:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The deities become conciliated in the ceremonies of consecration, and show it by coming to take up their residence, i.e. by the appropriation of the image and self-consciousness thereto; but by the touch of an impure person such appropriation and self-consciousness are rendered void.  Even on &lt;strong&gt;the Mimansaka view which disputes the intelligence of the deities&lt;/strong&gt;, we can say that it is the idea that the worship has been performed in a due manner, and that the image has been duly consecrated, - this idea also being necessarily accompanied by the absence of the touch of any impure person, - which constitutes the image's fitness as an object of worship, and the ceremony's importance lies in its contributing to produce the idea&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I asked about the &quot;impure person&quot; part in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/21299/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but now I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, is it true that the Purva Mimamsa school believed that the Devas had no intelligence, i.e. no capacity to think?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21116/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Purva Mimamsa school believed a lot a strange things about the Devas: that they don't have bodies, that they do not consume offerings made in Yagnas, that they're not allowed to do Yagnas themselves, and that the only role they play in Yagnas is that offerings are made with reference to them as recipients.  And in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21116/36&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, Shabaraswami says that it would not hurt the Purva Mimamsa position if someone said that the Devas are just words:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Says the Opponent - &quot;In that case it is the word that becomes the Deity.&quot; Answer - This is an idea that it is not for us to refute; because such an idea, if expressed, does not militate against our view; on the contrary it lends all the more strength to the view [that different names of the same Deva should not be substituted for one another].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But are there any Purva Mimamsa works which say that the Devas have no intelligence?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="489" LastEditDate="2017-10-04T18:35:22.873" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T18:35:22.873" Title="Did the Purva Mimamsa school think the Devas have no intelligence?" Tags="|philosophy|purva-mimamsa|gods|nyaya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21302" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-03T15:56:57.140" Score="3" ViewCount="114" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was listening to Chaganti Koteswara Rao's speeches about the Govindaraja Temple, Tirupati. He said that there 2 Rakshasas are kept near main idol. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why 2 Rakshasas are kept near the main idol of Govindaraja Temple, Tirupati?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12177" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-02T13:18:19.443" LastActivityDate="2018-03-02T13:18:19.443" Title="Why two Rakshasa idols are kept near the main idol of Govindaraja Temple, Tirupati?" Tags="|temple|rakshasa|tirupati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21303" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5307" CreationDate="2017-10-03T16:24:45.627" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;And the answer is &quot;no&quot; because if you go and check epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana there is nothing like even the Vayu Purana which is mentioned in Mahabharata itself means it exists in the times of Mahabharata do not supports it. It gives the creation story that among Tridevas no one created no one even lord Brahma is not created by either by lord Vishnu or lord Shiva . The second oldest Purana Matsya Purana too supports this but is kept by Padma Purana as &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Tamsik Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though the Padma Purana in this case looks interpolated although on my blog I have given a full article on that but then also it do not discriminate gods on the basis of satwa-rajas-tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's the proof:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PURANAS--THE EMBODIMENT OF SRI HARI &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Suta, all the Puranas are nothing but the mediums through&#xA;  which Sri Hari manifests himself---Brahma Purana is said to be the&#xA;  forehead of Sri Hari, Padma Purana is said to be the 'heart' of Sri&#xA;  Hari, Vishnu Purana is said to be the 'right arm' of Sri Hari. Shiva&#xA;  Purana is said to be the 'left arm' of Sri Hari. Srimad Bhagavata is&#xA;  said to be his 'thigh', Narada Purana is said to be his 'navel',&#xA;  Markendeya Purana is said to be his 'right-foot'. Agni Purana is said&#xA;  to be his 'left foot', Bhavishya Purana is said to be his 'right-knee',&#xA;  Brahma Vaivrata Purana is said to be his 'left knee'. Linga Purana is&#xA;  said to be his 'right ankle', Varaha Purana is said to be his 'left&#xA;  ankle', Skanda Purana is said to be the hair on the body of 'Sri Hari.&#xA;  Vamana Purana is said to be his skin. Kurma Purana is said to be his&#xA;  back. Matsya Purana is said to be his stomach. Garuda Purana is said&#xA;  to be his bone-marrow. Brahmanda Purana is said to be his bone. So,&#xA;  all the Puranas being manifestation of different parts of Sri Hari's&#xA;  body are very sacred and capable of bestowing salvation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;— Padma Purana book 2.5 (book 2 or book 3 but make sure it shall be swarga khanda )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?q=https://bhaktisanskar.com/padam-puran-hindi/&amp;amp;sa=U&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjH_dqT4NTWAhXJQyYKHVORASYQFggkMAU&amp;amp;usg=AOvVaw2qoWGN7zDW_Xujae-DlioE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.google.co.in/url?q=https://bhaktisanskar.com/padam-puran-hindi/&amp;amp;sa=U&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjH_dqT4NTWAhXJQyYKHVORASYQFggkMAU&amp;amp;usg=AOvVaw2qoWGN7zDW_Xujae-DlioE&lt;/a&gt; &#xA;Now the padma puran says all purans are sacred and leads to salavation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Prakasa samhita (one ofthe pancharatra samhita) states as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vārāhaṃ vaiṣṇavaṃ pādmaṃ vāyuproktaṃ ca gāruḍam /śrīmadbhāgavataṃ&#xA;  caiva sātvikānīti hi śrutiḥ // PS_1,4.32 //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“ Varaha ,Vishnu,Padma, Vayu, Garudam and the Srimad bhagavata purana&#xA;  are sattvik puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;”brahmāṇḍaṃ brahmavaivartaṃ mārkaṇḍeyaṃ ca vāmanam /bhaviṣyaṃ&#xA;  nārasiṃhaṃ ca rājasāni ṣaḍaiva hi // PS_1,4.33 //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Brahmanda, Brahmavaivarta, Markendeya,Vamana,Bhavishya and Narsimha&#xA;  purana are always rajasic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;”mātsyaṃ kaurmyaṃ tathā laiṅgyaṃ śaivaṃ skāndaṃ tathaiva ca&#xA;  /pāśupatasaṃjñikaṃ ceti tāmasāni vido viduḥ // PS_1,4.34 //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Matysa, Kurma,Linga,Siva,Skanda and the Pasupata sastra are the&#xA;  tamasic in nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well this book (Prakasa samhita) is one of the pancharatra samhita which is a angma not a puran,shastra or any thing related to puranic purans. Even angmas are both vedic and non-vedic too and besides all the Prakasa samhita is one of the pancharatra samhita which is a vaishnava text. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the proof:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Agama literature is voluminous, and includes 28 Shaiva Agamas, 77 Shakta Agamas (also called Tantras),and 108 Vaishnava Agamas (also calledPancharatraSamhitas), and numerous Upa-Agamas&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80gama_(Hinduism)?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C6030012091&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80gama_(Hinduism)?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C6030012091&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;”The Garuda Purana(3.1.52) confirms:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;visnoh puranam bhagavatam puranam sattvottamam garudam cahur aryah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The Aryans declare that Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana and Garuda&#xA;  Purana the best of the Puranas in the mode of goodness.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even though Matsya Purana is one of the oldest Puranas but it gives the story of Trimurti as when Brahman divided himself into Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesha the Purana which gives such equality of Trimurti can differentiate gods on the basis of nature satwa,rajas and tamas.&#xA;And the Skanda Purana which is the most interpolated Purana rest all Puranas belongs to Vaishnavism.&#xA;And just because Padma Purana contains a story type for that that's why I have given points only on Padma Purana rest every Purana contains just a verse and that is nothing but a interpolation. This is the reason why Mahabharata do not mention lord bhramha, lord vishnu and lord shiva on the basis of satwa-rajas-tamas. But all equal even in the harivamsa parva of mahabharat oldest book dedicated to lord krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;THERE ARE NOTHING LIKE MISHRIT PURANS&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is nothing like mishrit purans because logically everywhere this thing is written :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mātsyaṃ kaurmaṃ tathā laiṅgaṃ śaivaṃ skāndaṃ tathaiva ca /āgneyañ ca&#xA;  ṣaḍ etāni tāmasāni nibodha me //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Know from me that Mastya,Kurma,Linga,Shiva,so also Skanda and Agni are&#xA;  tamasa(vicious).&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vaiṣṇavaḥ nāradīyañ ca tathā bhāgavataṃ śubhaṃ /gāruḍañ ca tathā&#xA;  pādmaṃ vārāhaṃ śubhadarśane //&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“ The Vaisnava,Naradiya,Bhagavata,Garuda,Padma,Varaha should be known&#xA;  to be sattvika and should be considered auspicious.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sāttvikāni purāṇāni vijñeyāni ca ṣaṭ pṛthak /brahmāṇḍaṃ&#xA;  brahmakaivartaṃ mārkaṇḍeyaṃ tathaiva ca //bhaviṣyad vāmanaṃ brāhmaṃ&#xA;  rājasāni ca ṣaḍvidhāḥ /&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know from me that, Brahmanda,Brahmavaivarta, Markendeya,&#xA;  Bhavishya,Vamana and Brahma are rajasa (endowed with the quality of&#xA;  passion).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Kurma Purana(2.43.49), Skanda Purana 7.1.2.87-88 and the Matsya Purana(53.68-69) together states as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sāttvikeṣu purāṇeṣu māhātmyamadhikaṃ hareḥ /rājaseṣu ca māhātmyam&#xA;  adhikaṃ brahmaṇo viduḥ //tadvadagneśca māhātmyaṃ tāmaseṣu śivasya ca &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In the Puranas in the mode of goodness, the focus is the glories&#xA;  of Lord Hari. Those in the mode of passion, the focus is on the glories&#xA;  of Lord Brahma. Similarly, those in the mode of ignorance, the focus&#xA;  is on the glories of Lord Siva and Agni.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No where is written about any Purana is mishrit somewhere not in Puranas but like where here only it is written that the Puranas which gives equality to all gods are focus on goddess Saraswati or ancestors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But all 18 major Puranas are totally divided on the basis of satwa-rajas-tamas. Nowhere is mentioned about mishrit Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now it is cleared that the classification of Puranas on the basis of satwa-rajas-tamas is useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then also I have my own thinking on this topic :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tamas is sometimes referred as ignorant, but it also refers as darkness or the absolute when nothing was there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,let's move towards the Mahabharata verse to show this —&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Narayana is the ultimate god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shruti declares,--Day was not. Night was not. Aught was not. Naught was not. In the beginning there was only Tamas in the form of the universe, and she is the night of Narayana of universal form. Even this is the meaning of the word Tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— The Mahabharata, Book 12: Santi Parva: Section CCCXLII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then we know darkness  means tamas then see what Vedas say about it in this hymn:- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Well I am giving the full hymn as it is a good hymn:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RIG VEDA, BOOK 10, HYMN CXXIX. Creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter?&#xA;  Was water there, un-fathomed depth of water?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there,&#xA;  the day's and night's divider.That One Thing, breathless, breathed by&#xA;  its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was&#xA;  in-discriminated chaos.All that existed then was void and form less: by&#xA;  the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and&#xA;  germ of Spirit.Sages who searched with their heart's thought&#xA;  discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5 Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it&#xA;  then, and what below it?There were begetters, there were mighty&#xA;  forces, free action here and energy up yonder&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and&#xA;  whence comes this creation?The Gods are later than this&#xA;  world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or&#xA;  did not form it,Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he&#xA;  verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,the Vedas say darkness was there at first and the first universal nothingness  darkness means tamas that we got from Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's see what come after that tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Shvetashvatara Upanishad is one of the mukhya Upanishads.&#xA;The Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4.18 also says the glory of tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;IV-18: When ignorance is dispelled, there is neither day nor night,&#xA;  neither being nor non-being. There is only  shiva who is imperishable,&#xA;  and who is worthy of being adored by the creator. From Him has&#xA;  proceeded the ancient wisdom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we can say that the tamas guna referred for god Rudra and the tamsik purans is referred as which gives knowledge of absolute and take away from materialistic world to the absolute truth. Or if someone do not believe this then i have already proofed the classification of Puranas on the basis of satwa-rajas-tamas is entirely useless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it even does not correspond to Vedic knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is the proof:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13 Glory to Gods, the mighty and the lesser glory to Gods the younger&#xA;  and the elder! Let us, if we have power, pay the God worship: no&#xA;  better prayer than this, ye Gods, acknowledge. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;—Rig Veda 1.27.13&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedas say to give equal respect to all gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now on my blog i have discussed about Padma Purana,smriti,shruti,jigyasa(curiosity) etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://shivaandvishnu.blogspot.in/2017/09/clasification-of-purans-on-basis-of.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://shivaandvishnu.blogspot.in/2017/09/clasification-of-purans-on-basis-of.html?m=1&lt;/a&gt; &#xA;or &#xA; &lt;a href=&quot;http://shivaandvishnu.blogspot&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://shivaandvishnu.blogspot&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;please have a look at this :—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RUDRA AND VISHNU's EQUALITY&#xA;PROVED IN VEDAS&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://shivaandvishnu.blogspot.in/2017/09/rudra-and-vishnu-equality-proved-in.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://shivaandvishnu.blogspot.in/2017/09/rudra-and-vishnu-equality-proved-in.html?m=1&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;             —Thanks for reading—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12176" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-04T17:26:53.737" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T17:26:53.737" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21304" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21293" CreationDate="2017-10-03T19:28:35.337" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Avatar&lt;/strong&gt; is a term used in Hinduism for a material manifestation of a deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To know someone's pain , we have to undergo that pain !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To prove this statement , Lord Vishnu took avatar as Lord Ram, to undergo all the pains we humans face and to set an example for us !&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Ram had all the powers, even though he was born as a Human , but he never utilized the powers , and led his life like any normal Human. Lord Ram lived according to Dharma and he set many examples for us to follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is the beauty of Hindu principles. It is effective for all human forms. When God takes human avatar, they honor these principles (like Karma and Dharma). The very reason God takes avatar is to uphold Dharma and has to honor the Karmic effects of actions across life times. Normal humans are slaves to these effects, God bears it with pride.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once, Sukracharya was involved in meditation to get power for the&#xA;  Asuras to fight againsts the Devtas. Devtas used this opportunity to&#xA;  attack the Asuras and defeat them. When the Asuras were cornered, they&#xA;  ran to Shukracharya’s mother Kavya for shelter. With her yogic powers&#xA;  she was able to subdue the Devtas and make Asuras powerful. In order&#xA;  to save the Devtas, Lord Vishnu decapitated Kavya with his Sudarshan&#xA;  Chakra. Sage Bhrigu, father of Shukracharya and husband of Kavya, was&#xA;  heart broken and cursed Lord Vishnu that he will be born as a human 7&#xA;  times and will be separated from his wife in one of them. Lord Vishnu&#xA;  lived out his curse of separation from his wife during the Rama&#xA;  avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During the Rama avatar, he supported Sugriva (son of Surya) against&#xA;  the Bali (son of Indra). To counter this partiality he supported&#xA;  Arjuna (son of Indra) against the Karna (son of Surya) during the&#xA;  Krishna avatar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During the Rama avatar, he killed Bali from behind like an animal, as&#xA;  there was no other way of killing him due to the boons that he had&#xA;  possessed. During Krishna avatar, he destined to be killed by the Jara&#xA;  hunter, who was Bali reborn, mistaken to be a deer (like an animal).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are just some of the karmic reactions that the Lord choose to face to support Dharma. There are many many more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The very meaning of the word “avatar” mean “to fall” or “fallen”. That is, God has to fall from his place to take avatar on earth but he does so to uphold Dharma. There is no greater suffering that the God can bear than to take avatar on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Lord-Ram-was-a-Vishnu-avatar-in-human-form-Why-did-he-undergo-so-much-suffering-in-his-life-as-a-human-It-definitely-couldnt-be-bad-karma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-10-03T19:28:35.337" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21305" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21293" CreationDate="2017-10-04T00:59:22.780" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Rama never ever disowned Sita, nor did He ever want Sita to perform the fire test - Agnipariksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rama is an avatar of Vishnu. Avatars come to earth on different missions and a different plan of action. The manifold activities of the Supreme Lord during an avatar are called &quot;Leela&quot;. It signifies the Lord being completely absorbed in His role as a mortal, adhering to every earthly law, whether man-made or natural; but keeping His divinity intact. Lord Rama in the Treta Yuga is given the title of Maryada Purushottam because He displayed traits which should ideally be present in every human to the closest possible degree. Dharma would naturally and freely flourish in this manner. He was the epitome of morality, humility, versatility, sense-control, character, courageousness, fortitude, fearlessness, wisdom, gratitude and prudence. He was learned in the rules of grammar, the poetic meters and astrology. He also mastered the 4 Vedas. In addition, He was skilled in the art of warfare, ethics and was the greatest archer to ever set foot on earth. Such a person is worthy of being emulated. That is why He was born in the Treta Yuga, because since this Yuga had 3 legs of Dharma, there was room for absolute righteousness, with small 'loopholes'; for example the killing of Bali and the Agnipariksha of Sita; which people nowadays view with a belittling stance towards Rama. In this way, they fail to realize that those 'loopholes' were in no way any sort of Adharma, and many start disliking the blemishless Rama, who was the very personification of Dharma. (In a later section I will discuss why Lord Rama did such 'apparently' unfair acts). The plain reason for the dislike is that it is impossible for mundane people in Kali Yuga to understand the wide subtleties of Dharma, especially that which is subtly displayed by the Lord (Who has the perfect knowledge of Dharma). Even wise Jnanis fail to understand the subtleties which can ONLY be understood by a sincere and true Bhakta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada describes Rama in the Valmiki Ramayana as follows - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इक्ष्वाकु वंश प्रभवो रामो नाम जनैः श्रुतः |&lt;br&gt; नियत आत्मा महावीर्यो&#xA;  द्युतिमान् धृतिमान् वशी || १-१-८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;One emerged from Ikshvaku dynasty and known to people as Rama by his&#xA;  name, and he is conscientious, highly valorous, resplendent, steadfast&#xA;  and a controller of vice and vile... and his own senses, as well...&#xA;  [1-1-8]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;बुद्धिमान् नीतिमान् वाङ्ग्मी श्रीमान् शत्रु निबर्हणः |&lt;br&gt; विपुलांसो&#xA;  महाबाहुः कंबु ग्रीवो महाहनुः || १-१-९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He is an adept one, moralist, learned, propitious, and a destroyer of&#xA;  enemies. His arms are lengthy, and his neck is like a conch-shell, and&#xA;  cheekbones high... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;महोरस्को महेष्वासो गूढ जत्रुः अरिन्दमः |&lt;br&gt; आजानु बाहुः सुशिराः&#xA;  सुललाटः सुविक्रमः || १-१-१०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He is lion-chested, thick-shouldered, knee-length are his arms, and&#xA;  his is longbow, an enemy-subjugator, and his emperor's countenance is&#xA;  with a crowning-head with an ample forehead, and his pacing is&#xA;  lion-like...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;समः सम विभक्त अंगः स्निग्ध वर्णः प्रतापवान् |&lt;br&gt; पीन वक्षा विशालाक्षो&#xA;  लक्ष्मीवान् शुभ लक्षणः || १-१-११&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He is medium-sized physically, with limbs poised symmetrically,&#xA;  sinew-chested, wide-eyed, complexioned glossily... he is a prosperous&#xA;  personality with all the providential features, and thus he is&#xA;  self-resplendent...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्मज्ञः सत्य सन्धः च प्रजानाम् च हिते रतः |&lt;br&gt; यशस्वी ज्ञान संपन्नः&#xA;  शुचिः वश्यः समाधिमान् || १-१-१२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He is the knower of rectitude, bidden by the truth, also his concern&#xA;  is in the welfare of subjects, proficient in prudence, clean in his&#xA;  conduct, self-controlled and a diligent one, thus he is glorious...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रजापति समः श्रीमान् धता रिपु निषूदनः |&lt;br&gt; रक्षिता जीवलोकस्य धर्मस्य&#xA;  परि रक्षिता|| १-१-१३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He equals the Omniscient, he is an exalted one for he is the&#xA;  sustainer of all worlds, and he eliminates enemies completely, thus he&#xA;  is a guardian of all living beings and he guards probity, in its&#xA;  entirety... &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रक्षिता स्वस्य धर्मस्य स्व जनस्य च रक्षिता |&lt;br&gt; वेद वेदाङ्ग&#xA;  तत्त्वज्ञो धनुर् वेदे च निष्ठितः || १-१-१४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He is the champion of his own self-righteousness and also champions&#xA;  for adherent's welfare in the same righteousness, and he is a scholar&#xA;  in the essence of Veda-s and their ancillaries, too. He is an expert&#xA;  in dhanur Veda, the Art of Archery...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्व शास्त्र अर्थ तत्त्वज्ञो स्मृतिमान् प्रतिभानवान् |&lt;br&gt; सर्वलोक&#xA;  प्रियः साधुः अदीनाअत्मा विचक्षणः || १-१-१५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He is the knower of the meaning and essence of all the scriptures,&#xA;  excellent at memory thus brilliant, and an esteemed one in all the&#xA;  worlds, gentle, level-headed and clear-headed in discriminating and&#xA;  distinguishing...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वदा अभिगतः सद्भिः समुद्र इव सिन्धुभिः |&lt;br&gt; अर्यः सर्वसमः च एव सदैव&#xA;  प्रिय दर्शनः || १-१-१६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Like an ocean that is reached by many rivers accesbly, that&#xA;  reverential one too is always accessible and reachable by clean-minded&#xA;  ones, and he treats all equally, and ever a feast to eye...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विष्णुना सदृशो वीर्ये सोमवत् प्रिय दर्शनः | &lt;br&gt; काल अग्नि सदृशः&#xA;  क्रोधे क्षमया पृथ्वी समः || १-१-१८ &lt;br&gt; धनदेन समः त्यागे सत्ये धर्म इव&#xA;  अपरः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In valour Rama is comparable with Vishnu, and in his looks he is&#xA;  attractive like full-moon, he equals the earth in his perseverance,&#xA;  but he is matchable with the fire of Pralaya in his wrath... and in&#xA;  benevolence he is identical to Kubera, God of Wealth-Management, and&#xA;  in his candour he is like Dharma itself, the other God Probity on&#xA;  earth...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तम् एवम् गुण संपन्नम् रामम् सत्य पराक्रमम् || १-१-१९ &lt;br&gt; ज्येष्टम्&#xA;  श्रेष्ट गुणैः युक्तम् प्रियम् दशरथः सुतम् | &lt;br&gt; प्रकृतीनाम् हितैः&#xA;  युक्तम् प्रकृति प्रिय कांयया || १-१-२० &lt;br&gt; यौव राज्येन संयोक्तुम्&#xA;  ऐच्छत् प्रीत्या महीपतिः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Rama being the possessor of suchlike merits, whose truthfulness alone&#xA;  is his courage, embodied with best intrinsic values, ever involved in&#xA;  the welfare of people, besides being the dear and eldest son of&#xA;  Dasharatha, and hence the king Dasharatha affectionately intended to&#xA;  establish such a Rama as crown prince to all intents and purposes of&#xA;  country's welfare...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......... &lt;br&gt; .........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स जगाम वनम् वीरः प्रतिज्ञाम् अनुपालयन् |&lt;br&gt; पितुर् वचन निर्देशात्&#xA;  कैकेय्याः प्रिय कारणात् || १-१-२४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Such a brave one as he is, that Rama repaired to forest for the&#xA;  reason of appeasing Kaikeyi, and as directed by the verbal directive&#xA;  of his father, and to follow his father's word of honour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such a Man, Whose description exceeds far beyond the capacity of mere mortal words, Whose effulgence is brighter than the multiverse combined, Whose virtues are greater than the universe itself, how can He who is divinity manifested in flesh, ever suffer? Sita, Rama's consort, is said to be an avatar of Lakshmi, who was Vedavati before the present birth. Needless to say, they are divine spirits, they never suffer, they just appear on earth time to time and depart when their work is done. As I've said before, avatars are continually engaged in Leela, invoking various types of &quot;rasas&quot; or &quot;moods&quot; of blissful love between man and God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Agnipariksha was never an intention of Rama, albeit that had to be done because the Sita who was kidnapped by Ravana was no other than an illusory form of Sita called Maya Sita. This story, retold in Caitanya caritamrta 2.9.200 - 212, appears in Kurma Purana 2.34.111 - 140.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;111&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A chaste woman devoted to piety (dharma) shall always attain welfare and happiness. No man can, by any means, create discomfiture&#xA;  for her.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Just as in the case of Sita,1 well-known in the three worlds, as the charming and beloved wife of Rama, the son of Dasaratha, she&#xA;  conquered the king of Raksasas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Urged by Kala (Death), Ravana, the king of Raksasas, desired Sita, the wide-eyed beautiful wife of Rama.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;It is reported that by means of his Maya, he disguised himself (as) an ascetic and determined to abduct that beautiful lady while she&#xA;  was strolling (solitarily) in the tenantless forest.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The lady of pure smiles realised his intention. Remembering her husband, the son of Dasaratha, she sought refuge in the Avasathya&#xA;  (household) fire.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;With her palms joined in devotion, Rama's wife worshipped the great Yogi (the fire-god), the destroyer (scorcher) of the worlds, as&#xA;  if he was her husband Rama incarnate (and prayed): Eulogy of the&#xA;  Fire-god.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I bow unto Krsanu (fire) of the form of Kala, of great Yogic power, the greatest riddle, the destroyer of all living beings.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I take shelter in lord Pavaka (the purifying deity), the eternal deity of universal forms, the Yogin who wears the (elephant) hide, the&#xA;  lord of the goblins, the Supreme god.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I resort unto the Atman of radiant blazing body abiding in the hearts of all living beings. I seek refuge in the Lord whose form is&#xA;  the universe, the source of all that fiery, brilliant. I resort to the&#xA;  fire-god, the Lord of great Yogins, the sun, the supreme god.120. I&#xA;  seek refuge in Rudra, the great swallower (destroyer), the&#xA;  trident-bearing Lord, the fire of the Universal destruction, the Lord&#xA;  of Yogins, the dispenser of fruits (in the form) of enjoyment and&#xA;  liberation.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I resort unto you the diverse-eyed deity with the forms of Bhuh, Bhuvah and Svah}, one who is lying hidden in the golden abode, the&#xA;  great one of unmeasured splendour.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I resort to Vaisvanara abiding in all living beings, the lord who conveys Havyas and Kavyas (i.e. offerings) (to gods and Pitrs). I&#xA;  resort to Lord Vahni.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;I resort to that Supreme reality, the excellent and auspicious principle of the sun. I resort to the Agni ascending to heaven, the&#xA;  greatest splendour, the imperishable conveyor of oblations to gods.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After repeating (the prayer in) these eight (?) verses on Vahni, the famous wife of Rama mentally meditated on Rama and remained silent&#xA;  with her eyes closed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Then out of the Avasathya (household) fire, Lord Mahesvara (the great god), the bearer of sacrificial oblations, of resplendent soul&#xA;  manifested himself as if burning with his own refulgence.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Desirous of getting Ravana killed he created an illusory Sita. Taking the real Sita, the beloved of Rama, the fire-god vanished&#xA;  there.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On seeing such a Sita (i.e. the illusory one) Ravana the lord of Raksasas, took her and went to Lanka, situated within the ocean.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After killing Ravana, Rama took Sita and (came back) accompanied by Laksmana. His mind became agitated due to suspicion.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;For convincing the living beings, the illusory Sita entered the fire; immediately she was consumed by the fire.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After burning the illusory Sita, the lord fire-god of hot rays, showed the real Sita to Rama. The fire-god (the purifier) became a&#xA;  beloved of Devas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Catching hold of the feet of her husband, the daughter of Janaka, the lady of beautiful middle, made obeisance to Rama on the ground.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On seeing it Rama was delighted in mind. Surprise was evident in his eyes. After bowing to the Vahni with bent head, Raghava&#xA;  propitiated him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The lord spoke to Vahni: Was this fair-complexioned lady burned by you before, as she has been seen come to my side again?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Lord Fire-god, the scorcher of the worlds, spoke to the son of Dasaratha, telling him everything as it had happened in the presence&#xA;  of all living beings.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&quot;This beloved of yours is highly chaste as goddess Parvati. She is the greatest favourite of the goddess whom she had propitiated by&#xA;  means of penance&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This chaste lady of good conduct is endowed with the readiness to serve her husband like Bhavani in regard to Isvara. She was protected&#xA;  by me because she was desired by Ravana.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But Sita who was abducted by the lord of Raksasas was the illusory Sita created by me with a desire to get Ravana killed.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;On that account, Ravana, the wicked king of the Raksasas and the destroyer of the worlds, had been killed. The Maya has also been&#xA;  withdrawn.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&quot;Accept this pure Janaki at my instance. See lord Narayana your own self the source of origin and the place of everything&quot;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;After saying this, the fierce lord fire-god whose flames spread everywhere and who had faces on all sides was duly honoured by Raghava&#xA;  and the other people and he vanished.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus we see that Maya Sita was just an illusion who went back to Agnidev through the Agnipariksha while Agnidev himself brought out the real Sita to Rama. At that moment Rama (who definitely knew everything) was (just for a show to the common public) very happy and elated. The Agnipariksha was done for 2 major reasons. &lt;strong&gt;1&gt; Return of Maya Sita back to Agnidev, and 2&gt; A foolproof convincing of the common public that Sita was not unchaste, as a disgruntled public would not be beneficial for Ram Rajya&lt;/strong&gt; This was a risk which Rama had taken on his own honour. While its true that people were speaking ill about Sita, they all stopped in their tracks when they witnessed the apparently &quot;cruel&quot; act of Rama. Everyone’s emotions are running high. They know what they have witnessed. By this time they knew Sita was pure, even purer than fire itself. Rama had achieved his motive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you think that the motive of Rama was to prove to himself that Sita was pure then you are absolutely wrong. His motive was to prove to everyone what he already knew, it was to make people realize that a woman who stayed in other man’s custody for around a year is still as pure as Ganges, it showed everyone that Sita’s devotion to her husband is something which even a powerful king like Ravana could not challenge. Rama on the risk of being brought down from his high podium, makes sure that no one ever raises a&#xA;suspicion on his wife. Risking his own respect in society to restore his wife’s honour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following this event, they went back to Ayodhya and lived happily. What followed was the famous Ram Rajya. Then a washerman named Krodhana raised some suspicion on Sita, and Rama sends her to Valmiki’s ashram. He didn’t leave her alone in any forest as contrary to common belief, he asked Lakshmana to take her to Valmiki’s ashram and Lakshmana does exactly the same, except however Lakshmana drops her on the gates of ashram rather than taking her inside, maybe because he was too terrified to face his guru while indulging in such an act (which according to him was unjustified).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The separation had to be done to display the exemplary detachment of a &quot;dharmaraja&quot; or a just king. People argue that Sita was family, so family comes first. But they forget that Rama and Sita were not just another family of Tom Dick Harries. Rama also had a duty which was called Ram Rajya, wherein NO subject could be subject to any sort of frustration or irritation, whether bodily or mental. In governing a kingdom, or Raj Dharma, one must not be swayed by personal emotions, as it would lead to a sort of cloudiness over the otherwise rational part of the intellect - Emotions vs Logic. When emotion takes over, logic fails, which may lead to crucial errors. Be it wife, son, daughter, anything; Raj Dharma takes into consideration millions of lives in the hands of the monarch. Rama couldn't just play with their lives for His family's comfort, which would be selfish on His part. Western colonized minds do not have &quot;Bhakti&quot; and &quot;Shradhha&quot;, which is detrimental while judging Vedic characters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Rama and Sita's Leela point of view, this act of separation was done to invoke the mood of love while being separated, which is regarded as the strongest attraction between lovers. Mundane people abuse and curse Rama for such behaviour. In the process they only lower their consciousness to extreme darkness. Bhaktas on the other hand cry tears of joy and sing His Transcendental Glories and elevate themselves more and more towards the Brahmajyoti and into the Vaikuntha planets and even higher.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;God who came to earth in the form of Rama, who is supposed to be the source of inspiration for every human being doesn’t even think twice before putting himself under the sword of criticism, just for the love of his wife, for her Honour. Rama's Honour got a second blow when He (purposely) renounced His wife and sent Her to Valmiki's Ashram; an act which made people think about Sita again. In the end by putting a blemish on his persona of &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;MARYADA PURUSHOTTAM&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, Rama raises Sita above all suspicions.&#xA;This can be accounted for - &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;The greatest love. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;The greatest sacrifice.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastEditorDisplayName="user9072" LastEditDate="2018-06-23T08:47:12.977" LastActivityDate="2018-06-23T08:47:12.977" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21306" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21285" CreationDate="2017-10-04T01:19:49.187" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;To explain this you need to know that categorically, there isn't one Vishnu. The original progenitor has 3 Purusha Vishnu avataras at each level. Maha Vishnu (Karanodakshayi Vishnu) at the multiversal level, Garbhodakshayi Vishnu at the universal level and Ksheerodakshayi Vishnu at the microcosmic level. The 3 Vishnus combined is no less different than any one Vishnu or even the progenitor Itself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Chaitanya Charitāmṛit, Ādi Leela 4.8)[v5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Shree Krishna does not directly involve himself in the works of&#xA;  creating, maintaining, and dissolving the material universes.” Shree&#xA;  Krishna’s primary activity is to engage in eternal loving pastimes&#xA;  with the liberated souls in Golok, his divine abode. For the purpose&#xA;  of material creation, he expands himself as Karanodakshayi Vishnu, who&#xA;  is also called Maha Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maha Vishnu is thus the form of the Lord that presides over the&#xA;  material realm, consisting of infinite material universes. Maha Vishnu&#xA;  is also known as Pratham Puruṣh (first expansion of God in the&#xA;  material realm). He resides in the divine water of the kāraṇ (causal)&#xA;  ocean and manifests innumerable material universes from the pores of&#xA;  his body. He then expands himself to reside at the bottom of each&#xA;  universe as Garbhodakshayi Vishnu, who is called Dwitīya Puruṣh&#xA;  (second expansion of God in the material realm).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From Garbhodakshayi Vishnu, Brahma is born. He guides the process of&#xA;  creation—creating the various gross and subtle elements of the&#xA;  universe, the laws of nature, the galaxies and planetary systems, the&#xA;  forms of life residing in them, etc. Hence, Brahma is often referred&#xA;  to as the creator of the universe. However, he is actually the&#xA;  secondary creator.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Garbhodakashayi Vishnu further expands himself as Kshirodakshayi&#xA;  Vishnu, and resides at the top of each universe, in a place called&#xA;  Kṣhīra Sāgar. Kshirodakshayi Vishnu is also known as Tṛitīya Puruṣh&#xA;  (third expansion of God in the material realm). He resides at the top&#xA;  of the universe, but he also resides as the Supreme soul, in the heart&#xA;  of all living beings in the universe, noting their karmas, keeping an&#xA;  account, and giving the results at the appropriate time. He is thus&#xA;  known as the maintainer of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the three forms of Lord Vishnu mentioned here are non-different from Shree Krishna. Thus, in this verse, Shree Krishna states that all spiritual and material creation emanate from him. Shree Krishna is also called the Avatārī (the source of all the Avatārs). The Śhrīmad Bhāgvatam states: ete chāṁśha kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛiṣhṇas tu bhagavān svayam (1.3.28)[v6] “All the forms of God are the expansions, or the expansions of the expansions of Shree Krishna, who is the primordial form of God.” And so, the secondary creator Brahma prays to Shree Krishna:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yasyaikaniśhvasita kālamathāvalambya &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  jīvanti lomavilajā jagadaṇḍanāthāḥ &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  viṣhṇurmahān saihayasya kalāviśheṣho &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  govindamādi puruṣaṁ tamahaṁ bhajāmi (Brahma Samhitā 5.48) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  “Infinite universes—each having Shankar, Brahma, and Vishnu—manifest&#xA;  from the pores of Maha Vishnu’s body when he breathes in, and again&#xA;  dissolve into him when he breathes out. I worship Shree Krishna of&#xA;  whom Maha Vishnu is an expansion.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One Vishnu looks after maintenance. But when we get a closer understanding, we come to know about three purusha avatars. Normally whenever the word Vishnu is refer to that does not necessarily refer to Vishnu of spiritual world because we do not have direct contact with Vishnu of spiritual world. The Vishnu whom Brahmaji and devatas go to appeal for protection, when the earth is disturbed that is Ksheerodakshayi Vishnu. There is Maha Vishnu, who is just like the super soul of whole cosmos. The super soul of each universe is Garbhodakshayi Vishnu. The super soul of each living being is Ksheerodakshayi Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garbhodakshayi Vishnu is the source of the lotus on which Brahmaji appears. Now that same Garbhodakshayi Vishnu expands and he has his loka. Brihad Bhagvatam talks about it and Brahmaji worships that particular devata. He is the aradhaya dev. Then beyond this fourteen planetary system, above Brahma loka there is in the vicinity but further away there is ksheerasagar and in beyond that is the abode of Ksheerodakshayi Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Normally whenever the devatas are going and praying to Vishnu for protection it is that Vishnu that is being referred. That is Ksheerodakshayi Vishnu. The other forms of Vishnu are not directly accessible to us because Maha Vishnu is completely beyond the universe and even Garbhodakshayi Vishnu at the bottom and generally go at the most to the lower planets or to hell but not below then that. Therefore, in normal conversation Vishnu referred to is Ksheerodakshayi Vishnu and he functions as the maintainer. The same Ksheerodakshayi Vishnu is present in the heart also and he keeps the functioning of the heart and the body going.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T01:19:49.187" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21307" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21310" CreationDate="2017-10-04T02:48:54.363" Score="20" ViewCount="3104" Body="&lt;p&gt;Most of the Indian philosophies establish hierarchies of their interest of Gods. Like There are many Lord Vishnus ( MahaVishnu- Supreme Brahman ) &amp;amp; Similarly many Lord Shivas ( Brahman is usually called as Maheshvar, Shiva Bhattaraka, Parameshvar, PrakAshvimarsaya etc).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, there are many Lord Suns. Supreme sun is the para Brahman according to Surya. From Aditya Hridya Stotram, He is being indirectly referred as Supreme Brahman indwelling in all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;एष ब्रह्मा च विष्णुश्च शिवः स्कन्दः प्रजापतिः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महेन्द्रो धनदः कालो यमः सोमो ह्यपां पतिः॥ ॥  &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He is pervading in all viz., Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the Sustainer), Shiva (the destroyer), Skanda (the son of Siva), Prajapati (progenitor of human race), the mighty Indra (lord of senses), Kubera (the God of prosperity), Kala (eternal time), Yama (the Lord of death), Soma (the moon god that nourishes), and Varuna (God of rain).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These hierarchies maintained by different philosophical systems are not mutually contradictory If I infer from &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_Shaivism&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;KS&lt;/a&gt;, as the supreme who is being said in all philosophies is the same due to non duality, only naming differences. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, I want to ask which scriptures or Vedic hymns declare Supreme Sun as Brahman/God directly? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-10-04T12:28:11.967" LastActivityDate="2020-04-07T08:29:56.910" Title="Which scriptures or Vedic hymns declare the Sun as the Supreme God (Brahman)?" Tags="|brahman|surya|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21309" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21307" CreationDate="2017-10-04T04:53:31.357" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are several. One is the Mahanarayana Upanishad. A few verses from this Upanishad (Swami Vimalananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.2.1 The universe arose from Visvakarman through water, earth, fire, and other elements. He excelled Aditya, Indra, and other gods. The sun called Tvasta rises in the morning embodying His brilliance. In the beginning of creation the mortal world enveloped in gloom received its divine brilliance from the sun shining in the glory of the Paramatman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.2.4 Salutation to the resplendent Sun-God who is the son of Parabrahman [Nirguna Brahman], who shines for the benefit of gods, who is invoked as the beneficent leader of the gods, and who was born as the eldest among the gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.2.6 O Sun, Hri and Laksmi are Thy consorts, Thyself being Brahma, Visnu, and Siva. Day and night are Thy two sides. Asterisms in the sky are Thy own form...  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T04:53:31.357" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21310" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21307" CreationDate="2017-10-04T05:29:50.520" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following Veda Mantra describes the Divine Sun as the inner soul of all that exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chitram devAnAm udagAd anikam chakshur mitrasya varunasya agneh (1),&#xA;  AprA dyAvAprithivi antarikshma (2), &lt;strong&gt;surya AtmA jagatas&lt;/strong&gt; tasthushah cha&#xA;  (3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The wonderful face of the Gods has arisen, the eye of the Mitra,&#xA;  Varuna and Agni (1); &lt;strong&gt;The Sun has filled the Heaven and the Earth and&#xA;  the middle space (2), He, the soul of all that moves and moves not&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  (3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.115.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following Mantra describes the Sun as the highest light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Udvayam tamasas pari jyotih pashyanta uttaram (1), devam devatrA&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;suryam aganma jvotir uttamam&lt;/strong&gt; (2).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Beholding the higher Light beyond the darkness (1), We came to the&#xA;  Divine Sun in the Godhead, &lt;strong&gt;to the highest Light of all&lt;/strong&gt; (2).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 1.50.10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the following Mantra, from the Purusha Suktam, has Aditya or Sun as its Devata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hrih cha lakshmih cha patnyau (1) ahorAtre pArshve (2) nakshatrAni&#xA;  rupam (3) ashvinau vyAttam (4) ishtam manishAna (5) amum manishAna (6)&#xA;  sarvam manishana (7)||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Sun, Hri and Lakshmi are your consorts, (1) Day and night your sides&#xA;  (2), Asterisms in the sky are your form (3), The Asvins are thy mouth&#xA;  (4); Being such, grant me whatever i desire (5), (grant me) happiness&#xA;  here (6) and other objects od desire (spiritual illumination).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VAjansaneyi SamhitA 31.22&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additional commentary on the Vedic Sun (adapted from Sri Aurobindo):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Surya is the both the highest Light and the highest Truth. The light&#xA;  of the physical solar orb seen in the physical form or body of that&#xA;  Divine Sun. To the Vedic Rishis there is only one universal Deva of&#xA;  which all other names are alike forms and cosmic aspects. Surya is the&#xA;  symbol of this universal Deva. He is the soul of all that moves and&#xA;  moves not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sun inside us and the sun outside is covered by darkness, the&#xA;  forces of ignorance. When, by the force of tapas, he wakes up&#xA;  destroying the forces of ignorance. He ascends with his seven shining&#xA;  horses or energies to utter ocean of higher existence. He leads us to&#xA;  the Truth and Immortality beyond evil and darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Updating the answer (adding verses from Upanishad and passages from PurAna):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I actually missed reading (as usual) that you are asking verses from any scriptures and not just from the Vedas only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, here are a few verses from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shrisuryanarayanmandir.org/documents/SURYOPANISHAT.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Suryopanishad&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;namaste Aditya |&lt;br&gt; tvame va pratyaksam karma  kartAsi |&lt;br&gt; tvam-eva&#xA;  pratyaksam brahmAsi |&lt;br&gt; tvam-eva pratyaksam vishnurasi |&lt;br&gt; tvam-eva&#xA;  pratyaksam rudro’si |&lt;br&gt; tvam-eva pratyaksam rigasi |&lt;br&gt; tvam-eva pratyaksam&#xA;  yaju rasi |&lt;br&gt; tvam-eva pratyaksam sAmAsi |&lt;br&gt; tvam-eva pratyaksam atharvAsi&#xA;  | tvam-eva sarvam chhando’si |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I bow to  you Aditya; you are the agent   himself of  work,   the manifest    Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Rig, Yajur,  Sama,   Atharva Vedas,  as  well as all the chandas (Metres).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AND,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AdityAd vAyur jAyate |&lt;br&gt; AdityAd bhumir jAyate |&lt;br&gt; AdityAd āpo-jAyante |&#xA;  AdityAj jyotir jAyate |&lt;br&gt; AdityAd vyoma diśo  jAyante |&lt;br&gt; AdityAd devA&#xA;  jAyante |&lt;br&gt; AdityAd vedA jAyante |&lt;br&gt; Adityo vA esa etan mandala tapati|&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  asAvAdityo brahma |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From  Aditya  are born air, earth, water, fire, sky, directions,  Devas,  Vedas;  indeed  the Sun gives   warmth  to  this    sphere  (Planet) ; &lt;strong&gt;that   Sun God is  Brahman,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, as far as the PurAnas are concerned, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/bhavishya/bookview.php?chapnum=15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhavishya PurAna&lt;/a&gt; extols Surya as the Supreme Being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the beginning of Kalpa, Tri Murthis became victims of Ahamkaar&#xA;  (Self-image) and when a gigantic form of luminosity appeared on the&#xA;  Sky, they were taken aback as to how this huge illumination emerged&#xA;  from! As the Great Light approached and dazzled their vision, the&#xA;  personification of Surya Deva in a Virat Rupa (Collosal Form) got&#xA;  materialized, the Tri Murthis and Devaganas greeted it again and again&#xA;  with veneration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord BrahmA eulogized the VirAt Swarupa of Surya Deva as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namastey Deva Devesha Sahasra kiranojjvala,&lt;br&gt; Loka Deepa Namastestu&#xA;  Namastey Konavallabha&lt;br&gt; Bhaskaraaya Namo nityam Khakholkaya Namo&#xA;  Namah&lt;br&gt; Vishnavey Kaalachakraaya Somaayaamita tejasey&lt;br&gt; Namastey&#xA;  Pancha Kaalaaya Indraaya Vasuretasey&lt;br&gt; Khagaaya Lokanathaaya&#xA;  Ekachakra rathaayacha&lt;br&gt; Jadvitaya Devaaya Shivaayaamita tejasey&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tamoghnaaya Surupaaya tejasaam nidhaye namh&lt;br&gt; Arthaya Kamarupaaya&#xA;  Dharmaayaamita tejasey&lt;br&gt; Mokshaaya Moksha rupaaya Suryaaya Namo&#xA;  Namah&lt;br&gt; Krodhalobha viheenaaya lokaanaam sthith hetavey&lt;br&gt; Shubhaya&#xA;  Shubharupaaya Shubhadaaya Shubhhaatmaney&lt;br&gt; Shantaaya Shantarupaaya&#xA;  Shanatayesmaasu vai namah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Namastey Brahmarupaaya Braahmanaaya namo namah&lt;br&gt; Brahma DevaayaBrahmarupaya Brahmaney Paramaatmaney&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; Brahmanye cha&#xA;  prasaadam cha vai kuru Deva Jatpatey&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Deva Devesha! Loka Deepa! Kona Vallabha! You are the source of&#xA;  phenominal illumination to the whole World; You are all the Deities&#xA;  like Bhaskara, Vishnu, Kaalachakra, Soma, Kaala, Indra, Vasu, Agni,&#xA;  Khaga, Lokanatha rolled in one as the Ekachakri, bestowing&#xA;  propitiousness and positiveness all over; You are the Embodiment of&#xA;  Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha; You are the Personification of&#xA;  Tranquility and Peace, devoid of anger, greed, jealousy and&#xA;  partiality; &lt;strong&gt;You are the Parabrahma Himself&lt;/strong&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Afterwards, Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu also eulogized Surya Deva in similar manner. You can read their stotrams to Surya on the linked page.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-04T11:47:54.807" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T11:47:54.807" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21311" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-04T06:21:51.313" Score="2" ViewCount="1222" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/9/verse/16-17&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;In this verse 9.17&lt;/a&gt; of Bhagwat Gita , God says the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is I who am the Vedic ritual, I am the sacrifice, and I am the&#xA;oblation offered to the ancestors. I am the medicinal herb, and I am&#xA;the Vedic mantra. I am the clarified butter, I am the fire and the act&#xA;of offering. Of this universe, I am the Father; I am also the Mother,&#xA;the Sustainer, and the Grandsire. I am the purifier, the goal of&#xA;knowledge, the sacred syllable Om. I am the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, and&#xA;the Yajur Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: if Lord is the father and also the mother of this Universe ,which includes us, then why we look so different , speak so different , act so different?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-05-07T15:22:11.237" Title="If Lord Krishna is the father and mother of this Universe then why are we so different?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21313" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20894" CreationDate="2017-10-04T08:18:47.360" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes and No. It depends upon the context where it is being used. In his note to the first verse of his translation of the &lt;em&gt;Mahanarayana Upanishad&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Vimalananda writes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Upanishads name the ultimate Principle of religion and philosophy as Paramatman or Parabrahman; the first word emphasizes the immanence and the second the transcendence of that Principle. Parabrahman, when described as the cause of the universe, is called Paramesvara [Iswara or Saguna Brahman] or Prajapati. Prajapati and Parabrahman are, therefore, one and the same Reality [Saguna Brahman and Nirguna Brahman] described from two different stand-points. A person is not called a father before his marriage and the birth of a child. He becomes a father after these events. The person, however, remains the same. Parabrahman conditioned by the adjunct of the universe is Prajapati, from whom the universe is born and in whom it has its existence and absorption. The stanza points out that the same Prajapati, who sustains vast oceans, boundless worlds, and the highest heaven, enters as a seed or a spark onto the shining intellect of living creatures and becomes the jiva or the acting and enjoying agent on earth. Man is developed from an embryo. The embryo is animated by the internal instrument which is rendered efficient by the reflection or impregnation of the Spirit or Parabrahman, here designated as Prajapati. &lt;em&gt;Sukra&lt;/em&gt; in the text stands for the Parabrahman who enters the creatures as the seed and becomes their innermost Self. &lt;em&gt;Jyotimsi&lt;/em&gt; stands for the transmigrating Souls, identifying themselves with the internal organ and the instruments of knowledge and action, Paramatman ensouling the universe is called Virat and dwelling in the body is called jiva. The last foot of this verse is the same as the first line of the Atharvaveda X.4.2.13 and the Taittiriyaranyaka III.13.3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And verse 2 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That in which all this universe exists together and into which it dissolves, That in which all the gods remain enjoying their respective powers—That certainly is whatever that has been in the past and whatever indeed is to come in the future. This cause of the universe , Prajapati, is supported by His own imperishable nature described as absolute ether.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be noted also that Brahma (neuter singular) in Sanskrit is usually shown in English as Brahman; and Brahmā (masculine singular) in Sanskrit is usually shown in English as Brahma. In his footnote to verse 28, Swami Vimalananda notes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;…The four-faced Brahmā named Hiranyagarbha and the vedic lore are but expressions of the Supreme Reality which, as the impelling Spirit, influences one to do acts meritorious or otherwise. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in verse 6:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Sun, Hri and Laksmi are Thy consorts, Thyself being Brahmā, Visnu, and Siva….&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in his commentary to verse 1.3 of the &lt;em&gt;Svetasvatara Upanishad&lt;/em&gt;, Sankara says (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Or, &lt;em&gt;devatma-saktim&lt;/em&gt; means the power that is identical with the Deity, the supreme Lord, that takes the form of Brahmā, Visnu and Siva, and is the cause of the origin, continuance, and dissolution of the universe. Thus it is said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The powers of which Deity take the form of Brahmā, Visnu and Siva (Visnu Purana 1.9.56).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Brahmin, Brahmā, Visnu and Siva are the primary powers of Brahman (Visnu Purana 1..22.56).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And further on in the same commentary:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Lord Janardana (Visnu), who is indeed one, assumes different names as Brahmā, Visnu, Siva, which names) are indicative of creation, continuation and dissolution (Visnu Purana 1.22.66).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First Brahman becomes manifest as God possessed of Maya. Again, He manifests Himself with form in three ways. And through that form He undertakes activities of regulation such as creation, preservation and destruction. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In a footnote to Sankara’s commentary to &lt;em&gt;Brhadaranyaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; I.iv.1, Swami Madhavananda notes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word used here is ‘Prajapati’ which means both Hiranyagarbha and Viraj, the subtle and gross forms, respectively, of the same being. Sankara often uses these two terms almost interchangeably. This should be borne in mind to avoid confusion.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in this verse, the reference and Sankara’s extensive commentary are to the first born jiva of a cycle as Brahmā, or Viraj, or Prajapati --the creator of all creatures of a particular cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it depends upon the context, as to whether Prajapati being referenced is Iswara (Saguna Brahman) or Brahmā, the first born jiva of a cycle. This is a reason to read various commentators and not depend upon one’s own interpretations or to assume that there is an absolute or one meaning to a word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T08:18:47.360" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21314" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13597" CreationDate="2017-10-04T10:02:18.173" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Equality of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu's equality are shown not one time but many times in Mahabharata&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Tezz reply is also very good! and I like that&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;let's continue :— &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana continued,&#xA;  &quot;Phalguna then beheld him--&#xA;  Mahadeva--that god of blazing&#xA;  splendour-that wielder of the&#xA;  Pinaka-that one who had his abode&#xA;  on the mountains (of Kailasa)--&#xA;  accompanied by Uma. Bending&#xA;  down on his knee and bowing with&#xA;  his head, that conqueror of hostile&#xA;  cities-the son of Pritha worshipped&#xA;  Hara and inclined him to grace.&#xA;  And Arjuna said, 'O Kapardin, O&#xA;  chief of all gods, O destroyer of the&#xA;  eyes of Bhaga, O god of gods, O&#xA;  Mahadeva, O thou of blue throat, O&#xA;  thou of matted locks, I know thee&#xA;  as the Cause of all causes. O thou&#xA;  of three eyes, O lord of all! Thou&#xA;  art the refuge of all the gods! This&#xA;  universe hath sprung from thee.&#xA;  Thou art incapable of being&#xA;  vanquished by the three worlds of&#xA;  the celestials, the Asuras, and&#xA;  men. &lt;strong&gt;Thou art Siva in the form of&#xA;  Vishnu, and Vishnu in the form of&#xA;  Siva.&lt;/strong&gt; Thou destroyedest of old the&#xA;  great sacrifice of Daksha. O Hari, O&#xA;  Rudra, I bow to thee. Thou hast an&#xA;  eye on thy forehead. O Sarva, O&#xA;  thou that rainest objects of desire,&#xA;  O bearer of the trident, O wielder&#xA;  of the Pinaka, O Surya, O thou of&#xA;  pure body, O Creator of all, I bow&#xA;  to thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;—— &lt;strong&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 3:&#xA;Vana Parva: Kairata Parva: Section&#xA;XXXIX&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Sanjaya said, 'Then Partha, with a&#xA;  cheerful soul and joined hands and&#xA;  eyes expanded (in wonder), gazed&#xA;  at the god having the bull for his&#xA;  mark and who was the receptacle&#xA;  of every energy. &lt;strong&gt;And he beheld the&#xA;  offerings he made every night to&#xA;  Vasudeva lying by the side of the&#xA;  Three-eyed deity.&lt;/strong&gt; The son of&#xA;  Pandu then, mentally worshiping&#xA;  both Krishna and Sarva, said unto&#xA;  the latter, 'I desire (to obtain) the&#xA;  celestial weapon.' Hearing these&#xA;  words of Partha desiring the boon&#xA;  he sought, god Siva smilingly said&#xA;  unto Vasudeva and Arjuna,&#xA;  'Welcome to you, ye foremost of&#xA;  men! I know the wish cherished by&#xA;  you, and the business for which&#xA;  you have come here. I will give you&#xA;  what you wish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;—— &lt;strong&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 7:&#xA;Drona Parva: Abhimanyu-badha&#xA;Parva: Section LXXXI&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can see that there is clearly&#xA;written that Arjuna got all the&#xA;offerings in right side of Rudra that&#xA;he made to krishna every night.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu and Agni and Soma became&#xA;  (as already said) the arrow. &lt;strong&gt;The&#xA;  universe is said to consist of Agni&#xA;  and Soma. The universe is similarly&#xA;  said to consist of Vishnu. Vishnu&#xA;  is, again, the Soul of the holy&#xA;  Bhava of immeasurable energy.&#xA;  For this the touch of that bow-&#xA;  string became unbearable to the&#xA;  Asuras.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;—— &lt;strong&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 8:&#xA;Karna Parva: Section 34&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here vishnu is rudra's soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O son of Pandu, Rudra should be&#xA;  known to have always Narayana for&#xA;  his Soul. If that deity of deities,&#xA;  viz., Maheswara, be worshipped,&#xA;  then &lt;strong&gt;O Partha, is the puissant&#xA;  Narayana also worshiped. I am&#xA;  the Soul, O son of Pandu, of all&#xA;  the worlds, of all the universe.&#xA;  Rudra, again, is my Soul. It is for&#xA;  this that I always adore him.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;——&lt;strong&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 12:&#xA;Santi Parva: Section CCCXLII&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Rudra is Vishnu's soul and&#xA;Vishnu is Rudra's soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;but if you want it on a larger scale just go on my blog:— &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Equality of Lord Rudra and Lord Vishnu in&#xA;Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://shivaandvishnu.blogspot.in/2017/09/equality-of-lord-rudra-and-lord-vishnu.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://shivaandvishnu.blogspot.in/2017/09/equality-of-lord-rudra-and-lord-vishnu.html?m=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12176" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-03-03T13:29:52.757" LastActivityDate="2019-03-03T13:29:52.757" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21315" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21316" CreationDate="2017-10-04T11:12:52.107" Score="14" ViewCount="6415" Body="&lt;p&gt;We heard about saptarishi in almost every purana. They are always present in every story. As per my knowledge Saptarishi is a kind of post/designation in which candidates change from time to time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saptarishi&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;page&lt;/a&gt; of wiki different saptarishis at different time have been shown. But I want to know if Saptarishi is even present in today's time (current kali yuga) also? If yes, then where are they possibly be living? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard about seven/eight immortals in hinduism (Hanuman, Parshurama, Vibhishan etc) But Saptarishis are not present in that list of immortals. This simply means Saptarishis are not immortal I guess. Does that mean Saptarishis don't exist in Kali yuga? Because how long possibly a human can live if he is not immortal..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why in other yugas Saptarishis were there but not in current yuga? So Saptarishis really exist in current Kali yuga or not? If yes then where and if no then why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T08:43:08.707" LastActivityDate="2017-12-21T08:43:08.707" Title="Do Saptarishi exist in today's time?" Tags="|rishi|kali-yuga|saptarshi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21316" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21315" CreationDate="2017-10-04T13:21:44.200" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Saptarshis live for a period of Manvantara. So, they are alive now. They live on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursa_Major#Mythology&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;seven stars&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Sapta Rishi Mandala&lt;/em&gt;) which &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/9/16/24/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;revolve around Pole Star&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/8/13/5/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 8.13.5&lt;/a&gt; gives names of seven sages for Vaivasvara Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कश्यपोऽत्रिर्वसिष्ठश्च विश्वामित्रोऽथ गौतमः| &lt;br&gt; जमदग्निर्भरद्वाज इति&#xA;  सप्तर्षयः स्मृताः ॥ ८.१३.५ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kaśyapa, Atri, Vasiṣṭha, Viśvāmitra, Gautama, Jamadagni and Bharadvāja&#xA;  are known as the seven sages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also mentions names of Sapta rishis of &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/8/13/15-16/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Savarni Manvantara&lt;/a&gt; which is next Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गालवो दीप्तिमान्रामो द्रोणपुत्रः कृपस्तथा| &lt;br&gt; ऋष्यशृङ्गः पितास्माकं&#xA;  भगवान्बादरायणः ॥ ८.१३.१५ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इमे सप्तर्षयस्तत्र भविष्यन्ति स्वयोगतः| &lt;br&gt; इदानीमासते राजन्स्वे स्व&#xA;  आश्रममण्डले ॥ ८.१३.१६ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O King, during the eighth manvantara, the great personalities Gālava,&#xA;  Dīptimān, Paraśurāma, Aśvatthāmā, Kṛpācārya, Ṛṣyaśṛṅga and our father,&#xA;  Vyāsadeva, the incarnation of Nārāyaṇa, will be the seven sages. For&#xA;  the present, they are all residing in their respective āśramas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During onset of every Satya Yuga, Sapta Rishis come to earth and recount Dharma that is lost (by end of Kali Yuga all Dharma [hindu principles] will be lost).  This is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0ByTrbPQHgxJdZ3FCeVA0Tl9kTm8&amp;amp;export=download&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 31 Anusanga of Brahmanda Purana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;103-106. Owing to the power of the inevitable future, the Krta Yuga&#xA;  set in. When the holy Krta Yuga began to function, the subjects&#xA;  pertaining to the Krta Yuga were born of  those who survived from the&#xA;  Kali Yuga. Those Siddhas who  remained then, began to move about&#xA;  invisibly. &lt;strong&gt;They established  themselves there along with the seven&#xA;  sages.&lt;/strong&gt; The Brähmanas,  the Ksatriyas, the Vaisyas and the Südras&#xA;  were those, who  were remembered as seeds. (They were intended to be&#xA;  the  nucleus for the succeeding generation). At that time they  became&#xA;  identical with those who were born in ( the closing  stages of) Kali.&#xA;  They were devoid of any difference. &lt;strong&gt;The seven  sages recounted&#xA;  Dharma to them as well as to others&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;107.That ( Dharma) is equipped with the conduct of  life of the different varnas and stages. It is of two types : Srauta  (as laid&#xA;  down in the Vedas) and the Smarta (as laid down in  the Smrtis). The&#xA;  object in the Krta age remained thus as remained till the close of the&#xA;  Yuga for the sake of establishing  Dharma. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;109-110. &lt;strong&gt;The sages remain in authority over the whole  of the&#xA;  Manvantara&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-10-04T13:34:17.897" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T13:34:17.897" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21317" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19134" CreationDate="2017-10-04T13:45:55.313" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;Such actions can be done in following ways:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Unintentional&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One doesn't intend to harm, but due to some indirect actions, a person ends up damaging something. This doesn't result in anything as there was no purpose behind it. Some people feel sorry and some don't. Both are OK.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Qn is not about this category, so not discussing much.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Intentional&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many have the only ability to hate, they simply can't love. Hence they use this &quot;hate&quot; as a tool to worship God. If they are serious about what they are doing with single pointed steadfastness, then it's a kind of devotion (&lt;em&gt;Bhakti&lt;/em&gt;).  Which is called &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shatru Bhakti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. i.e. Worshipping god by animosity &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ultimately this hateful person either wants to kill the god or wants get killed by that god. Examples:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;ShishupAla:&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And while Sisupala was speaking thus, the exalted slayer of Madhu thought in his mind of the discus that humbleth the pride of the Asuras. ...  the chief of the Yadus, that slayer of all foes, in anger, instantly cut off the head of the ruler of Chedi by means of his discus. And the mighty-armed one fell down like a cliff struck with thunder. And, O monarch, the assembled kings then beheld a fierce energy, like unto the sun in the sky, issue out of the body of the king of Chedi, and O king, &lt;strong&gt;that energy then adored Krishna&lt;/strong&gt;, possessed of eyes like lotus leaves and worshipped by all the worlds, and &lt;strong&gt;entered his body&lt;/strong&gt;. And all the kings beholding the energy which entered that mighty-armed chief of men regarded it as wonderful.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02044.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[source]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;RAvana -- see &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20532/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, how Rama turned Ravana into nothingness&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Whichever god we love or hate, we end up merging with them. Depending on emotion, the merger would be either pleasant or despicable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Ignorance&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now some people simply deride the god to have some distorted fun.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Yes, this is also a worshipping like above, but it's not steadfast or serious. Such people get their dues exactly in the same way due to Karma.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 4.11 - &lt;strong&gt;The way they approach Me, exactly in same way I serve them&lt;/strong&gt;; O Partha, all human beings follow My path in every way.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 9.11 - Ignorant people who have taken a human body, make fun of Me, not knowing My supreme nature as the Lord of all beings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T13:45:55.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21318" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18959" CreationDate="2017-10-04T16:08:16.140" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is what one commentary called Śiromaṇi, by Vaṃśīdhara Śivasahāya on the Rāmāyaṇa &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/ecommentaries?field_commnetary_tid=10&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=2&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; on the verse in question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama seeks Kausalya’s blessings 2.20.13-34&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rama said that he was worthy of vistara or a seat made of twenty-five blades of darbha grass. The royal seat did not fascinate him. The inhabitants of the forest Dandaka, are threatened by rakshasas. “Now, I must go to the forest to free them of their fright. I pray my departure would not cause sorrow to you, to Vaidehi, and Lakshmana. Abandoning &lt;em&gt;āmiṣa&lt;/em&gt; or the objects of royal enjoyment, I will dwell in the forest leading the life of an ascetic, said Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The commentator notes that the word &lt;em&gt;āmiṣa&lt;/em&gt; here does not refer to meat. This is used in the sense of an object of enjoyment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the majority of translators and commentators do not agree with this view.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A good comparison of how different commentators interpret this verse can be found in the notes section of &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=YJGRP-otpdIC&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India. Ayodhyākāṇḍa, Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; translated by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_Shri&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma Shri&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Pollock&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sheldon I. Pollock&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15. For fourteen years I must dwell in the desolate forest, living &#xA;  on honey, fruit, and roots, giving up meat like a sage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Notes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15. &quot;giving up meat like a sage&quot; &lt;em&gt;hitvā munivad āmiṣam&lt;/em&gt;: Since Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa will later break their fast by eating boar, antelope, gazelle, and deer (46.79; they will eat meat elsewhere, 49.14, etc.), Cm, Cg are forced to interpret: like a sage, Rāma will have to give up finely prepared meats — but not plain meat. Ck, Ct suggest, &quot; 'like a sage,' that is, give up meat except at &lt;em&gt;śrāddha&lt;/em&gt; feasts&quot; (see note on 69.22), but this appears to contradict Rāma's actual behavior later on, though see note on 48.15. Cr [Śiromaṇi] and Cs try, characteristically, to obliterate the signification &quot;meat&quot; altogether.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given the above, to answer your questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is the translation wrong?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Did Rāma take meat in the forest? If so, why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes. He's a kṣatriya; he's allowed to eat meat. See &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200404.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu 5.27-5.35&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;By consuming meat, did Rāma break the promise he made to Kauśalyā?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, if you go by the Cm (Tattvadīpikā) and Cg (Bhūṣaṇa) commentaries that interpret &quot;giving up meat like a sage&quot; to mean giving up finely prepared meat but not all meat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, if you think Rāma should have stayed off of meat completely. Then why did he break his promise? Probably because he was more worried about keeping himself alive. As Medhātithi's commentary on &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc200404.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu 5.27&lt;/a&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘When his life in in danger’ — From the context it follows that what is meant is that—‘in the event of his not eating meat without worshipping the gods, and no other food being available, if there be a fear of his losing his life, either though disease of through hunger, one may eat the cow, the sheep and the goat.’ This rule is based upon the Vedic declaration that ‘one shall protect himself from everything.’ &lt;strong&gt;So that under the circumstances, if one omits to eat meat, he becomes his own murderer; and suicide has been forbidden by such text as—(a) ‘One shall protect himself from everything’;&lt;/strong&gt; (b) ‘Hence the man, expecting to live to the fullest extent of human life, shall never kill himself with a desire to proceed to heaven; as such an act would make him unfit for heaven’;—all which shows that by eating even forbidden meat to save his life, one does not incur sin. Says the Mantra also (Iśopaniṣad 3) — ‘Those who kill themselves go, after death, to those regions that are covered by blind darkness and are fit only for demons.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When there is danger to life, even the Student may eat meat; and for him his young age would necessitate the performance of the expiatory rite as prescribed in the text—‘If the Student ever eats meat and honey, etc.’ (1?.158). Vyāsa has declared that when there is tear of losing one’s life through hanger, one may eat even forbidden meat; and by the instance of the ‘dog’s thigh’ (eaten by Viśvāmitra) it is indicated that such meat may be eaten, but once only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-10-04T16:08:16.140" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21320" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11629" CreationDate="2017-10-04T17:48:02.553" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to anand ramayan,  (though it is different from valmiki ramayan) after the departure of all brothers, the sisters of sita entered fire and went to heaven (I am unable to paste the link because I have the book in pdf format but if anyone wants to read can download it - &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/HindiBookAnandRamayan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://archive.org/details/HindiBookAnandRamayan&lt;/a&gt; but I pasted the pic please see&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/1rR9y.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sNZrt.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9671" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T00:24:10.350" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T00:24:10.350" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21322" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21176" CreationDate="2017-10-04T21:33:54.973" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;That what we know about Lord Krishna supposedly took birth and died violently are actually his lilas (play, pastimes), and not real birth and violent death. Lord Krishna is just paramatma, and He is not a jivatma.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;I explained what is &lt;em&gt;lila&lt;/em&gt;, ie pastimes of the Lord in my post at &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15067/2790&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15067/2790&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That Lord Krishna and his brother Balarama were not ordinary humans or jiva souls is clearly seen in the Bhagavatam verse 1.1.20 where it is said that they were just masked to look like ordinary humans, because they were the Supreme Lord (&lt;em&gt;bhagavān&lt;/em&gt;):&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/1/20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/1/20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kṛtavān kila karmāṇi    &lt;br /&gt;&#xA;saha rāmeṇa keśavaḥ&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;atimartyāni bhagavān&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;gūḍhaḥ kapaṭa-mānuṣaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;kṛtavān — done by; kila — what; karmāṇi —&#xA;acts; saha — along with; rāmeṇa — Balarāma; keśavaḥ — Śrī Kṛṣṇa;&#xA;atimartyāni — superhuman; bhagavān — the Personality of Godhead;&#xA;gūḍhaḥ — masked as; kapaṭa — apparently; mānuṣaḥ — human being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, along with Balarāma,&#xA;played like a human being, and so masked He performed many superhuman&#xA;acts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You said:&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;If it was a Leela then everyone including Radha, Balram , Arjun , Gandhari was playing his or her role in the Leela.&lt;/code&gt; &lt;code&gt;In fact we are also playing a part in Leela but we are unaware of it.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although it is true that a jivatma can play a role in the lila, it is important to understand that it is the Lord's lila and not our own lila. The difference is that the Lord's lila is played according to his wish, and not according to our own will. If the lila would be our own, it would be played according to our own will, but this is not the case because we are not the controller of the lila. However, the Lord is the controller of the lila. So it is not correct to say that the Lord's participation in the lila is like our participation in the lila because there is a huge difference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T16:20:27.897" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21324" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-05T01:36:44.950" Score="1" ViewCount="117" Body="&lt;p&gt;We have met in the past Yuga. We are meeting again in this Yuga. We will meet again in next Yuga. And so on... Is there an end to this suffering , in general not just my own ,of taking birth and rebirth? If yes then will the next Yuga come to end forever?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: The answer seems to be No because Brahma repeats the cycle of birth and rebirth after a certain period. Note that the question was not about my birth or rebirth. Question was about our birth and rebirth. Since Brahma recreates the world there is no end to suffering in general. An individual may escape the suffering but collectively we will meet again in the next cycle. Therefore there is no end to the suffering.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="12047" LastEditDate="2017-10-06T13:18:37.803" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T13:18:37.803" Title="Is there an end to suffering?" Tags="|karma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="15" ClosedDate="2017-10-09T12:58:31.177" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21325" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13974" CreationDate="2017-10-05T02:50:03.443" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The translation doesn't fit into the narrative. Before that sentence and after it, the whole narration is about coronation. To talk about Draupadi's marriage with Karna in between that topic is absurd. It would have been either before or after the coronation topic. Even the first part of that verse talks about queens and princesses bringing various items for coronation. So, how can that be followed suddenly by marriage?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The best translation I have heard by one Telugu scholar is this, which fits in with rest of the narration:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sixth period means sixth part of the day, dusk (1.dawn, 2.morning, 3.noon, 4.afternoon, 5.evening, 6.dusk, 7.night). And dusk is considered the most auspicious time for activities like coronation. (perhaps that is the reason why Modi, being knowledgeable in such matters, took his oath as PM during that period of the day) So, Krishna was merely mentioning that Draupadi along with other queens and princesses would come to Karna's coronation. &#xA;Moreover, Krishna very well knows the reason behind her having five husbands (Lord Shiva's boon etc.). He also knows how much she loathed Karna. So Krishna suggesting that Draupadi would marry Karna is an absurd notion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12191" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T02:50:03.443" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21329" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-05T10:58:52.080" Score="0" ViewCount="2485" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want to calculate nakshatram manually.&#xA;Could you please explain me in detail?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12194" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T18:04:57.367" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T18:04:57.367" Title="How do I calculate Nakshatram manually?" Tags="|astrology|nakshatra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21330" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-05T11:05:29.897" Score="3" ViewCount="259" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sage Lagadh is the author of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanga_Jyotisha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedang Jyotish&lt;/a&gt;, which dates back to atleast 1400 BCE. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wanted to know where all, has he been mentioned in other scriptures of Sanatan Dharm and oral history.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2695" LastEditorUserId="2695" LastEditDate="2018-04-12T16:54:21.590" LastActivityDate="2018-04-12T16:54:21.590" Title="References of Sage Lagadh in scriptures and/or oral tradition" Tags="|scripture|vedas|history|astrology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21332" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21337" CreationDate="2017-10-05T12:11:01.043" Score="9" ViewCount="294" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many stories that mention the belief that Goddess Lakshmi roams on the earth on the night of Sharad Purnima, a day which is also known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/festivals/kojagara/kojagara-puja-date-time.html?year=2017&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kojagari Purnima&lt;/a&gt;. Many people make kheer or payasam and keep it exposed to moonlight before having it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any scriptural basis for the origin of this particular celebration and the rituals followed in it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T16:59:54.843" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T16:59:54.843" Title="Is there a scriptural basis for the celebration of Kojagari Purnima?" Tags="|rituals|lakshmi|chandra|poornima|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21333" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21335" CreationDate="2017-10-05T12:34:14.843" Score="6" ViewCount="2122" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मंगल भवन अमंगल हारी द्रवहु सुदसरथ अचर बिहारी&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know this is a very famous chaupai of the holy text but sadly I don't know where it is written.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12196" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T15:09:09.733" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T15:09:09.733" Title="These lines of Ramcharitmanas belong to which descent (Kanda) of the book?" Tags="|identification-request|ramcharitmanas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21334" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-05T13:06:51.503" Score="2" ViewCount="90" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divya_Desam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Divya Desam&lt;/a&gt; are the group of Vishnu sthalam that are revered by &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvars&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Azhwargal&lt;/a&gt; in their spontaneous divine poetry - the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naalayira_Divya_Prabhandham&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Naalayira Divya Prabhandam&lt;/a&gt;. This collection of poetry was collated by Nathamuni, an extraordinary Acharya, gem among gems, of the Sri Vaishnava Sampradayam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now for my question: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Which of the Divya Desam Sthala are &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;presided&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; by Perumaal in Varaha roopam? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An Exhaustive list would be greatly appreciated!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T13:06:51.503" Title="Which of the Divyadesam Sthala are presided by Vishnu's Varaha AvatAram?" Tags="|vishnu|temple|sri-vaishnava|alwar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21335" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21333" CreationDate="2017-10-05T13:11:42.613" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;These lines are found in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ramcharitmanas.iitk.ac.in/content/11112&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramacharitamanasa, Bala Kanda&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चौपाई&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  झूठेउ सत्य जाहि बिनु जानें। जिमि भुजंग बिनु रजु पहिचानें।। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  जेहि जानें जग जाइ हेराई। जागें जथा सपन भ्रम जाई।।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  बंदउँ बालरूप सोई रामू। सब सिधि सुलभ जपत जिसु नामू।। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;मंगल भवन अमंगल हारी। द्रवउ सो दसरथ अजिर बिहारी&lt;/strong&gt;।।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  करि प्रनाम रामहि त्रिपुरारी। हरषि सुधा सम गिरा उचारी।। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  धन्य धन्य गिरिराजकुमारी। तुम्ह समान नहिं कोउ उपकारी।।&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  पूँछेहु रघुपति कथा प्रसंगा। सकल लोक जग पावनि गंगा।। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  तुम्ह रघुबीर चरन अनुरागी। कीन्हहु प्रस्न जगत हित लागी।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Due to lack of knowledge about Sri Råma even the unreal passes for real, just&#xA;  as ignorance about a rope leads us to mistake it for a snake. Even so the moment we&#xA;  know Him the world of matter vanishes, just as the delusion of a dream disappears as&#xA;  soon as we wake up. Him do I reverence in the form of a Child, the repetition of whose&#xA;  Name brings all kinds of success within our easy reach. May that Home of bliss and&#xA;  Bane of woe take compassion on meóHe who sports in the courtyard of king&#xA;  Dasaratha.î After thus paying homage to Råma, the Slayer of the demon Tripura joyfully spoke in mellifluous accents as follows: ìYou are indeed blessed and worthy of applause,&#xA;  O daughter of the mountain-king; there is no such benefactor as you. You have asked&#xA;  Me to repeat the history of the Lord of Raghus, which is potent enough to sanctify all the&#xA;  spheres even as the Gangå purifies the whole world. You are full of love for the feet of&#xA;  the Hero of Raghuís race; You have put questions to Me only with an eye to the good&#xA;  of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दोहा/सोरठा&lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  रामकृपा तें पारबति सपनेहुँ तव मन माहिं। &lt;br/&gt;&#xA;  सोक मोह संदेह भ्रम मम बिचार कछु नाहिं।।112।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the blessing of Råma, O Pårvat∂, not even in dream can grief, infatuation,&#xA;  doubt or error enter your mind, so far as I can judge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T14:53:25.087" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T14:53:25.087" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21336" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21329" CreationDate="2017-10-05T14:22:06.690" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's simple. You just have to remember the following:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Each zodiac sign has a total of 9 padas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There are 12 zodiac signs. So, 12*9 = 108 padas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Each nakshatra has 4 padas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Span of each pada is 3° 20′. So, 3° 20′*4 = 13° 20′(which is the span of one nakshatra)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, start counting from Aries beginning with the nakshatra Ashwini, then Bharani and Kritika. These three nakshtaras fall in the zodiac sign Aries. 4 padas of Ashwini and Bharani and 1 pada of Kritika is in Aries (since a zodiac sign can have just 9 padas). The other 3 padas of Kritika falls in the zodiac sign Taurus.You will have to do this calculation for each sign or you can just use a vedic software which does the calculations for you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also go through the detailed analysis here : &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://horoanalysis.wordpress.com/2017/02/20/how-to-calculate-tithi-and-nakshatra-its-pada-manually-an-article-written-by-vishal-aksh/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;“How To Calculate Tithi and Nakshatra &amp;amp; its Pada Manually?”&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-calculate-Nakshatra-Pada&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T14:22:06.690" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21337" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21332" CreationDate="2017-10-05T14:37:30.177" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes there is. &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12976/5/Chapter3_1505-1584p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 124 (pg 30)&lt;/a&gt; of Volume 4 of &lt;strong&gt;Narada Purana&lt;/strong&gt; mentions various vratas performed on Full Moon days. One such is Kojagiri Purnima. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Lakshmi is worshiped on this day. Lamps are lit and milk puddings are kept in the moonlight which are then offered as prasada to the deity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A wake should be held at night enlivened with dance and songs. It is said Goddess Lakshmi visits the earth on this day and whoever she finds awake, worshiping her, she bestows with wealth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;47-48. &lt;strong&gt;The holy rite named Kojágara is to be observed on the full moon&#xA;  day in the month of Asvina.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The devotee takes the holy dip in accordance with the injunctions. &lt;strong&gt;He&#xA;  observes fast and subdues his sense-organs. A gold image of goddess&#xA;  Laksmi is placed in a pot made of copper or clay. It is covered with a&#xA;  cloth and worshipped with different kinds of Upacāras.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;49.&lt;strong&gt;In the evening when the moon has risen, he should light lamps made of gold, silver or clay after filling them with ghee.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;50-51. They should be a hundred thousands, fifty thousand, ten&#xA;  thousand, one thousand or hundred in number. &lt;strong&gt;Milk puddings are&#xA;  prepared in a huge quantity with plenty of sugar and ghee. They shall&#xA;  be kept in many vessels in the bright moonlight.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When the night has advanced by a full Yama (three hours), the devotee&#xA;  shall offer milk puddings as Naivedya to Lakşmī.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;52.With great devotion he should then feed the Brahmanas with the milk puddings. &lt;strong&gt;All of them then keep awake for the whole of the night with&#xA;  songs and auspicious instrumental music and dances.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;53-54. The next day before dawn, the devotee takes his bath and&#xA;  dedicates the gold image to the preceptor. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(It is said) that on this night goddess Mahalaksmi with the gestures&#xA;  of granting boon and fearlessness in her lotus-like hands moves over&#xA;  the Earth saying- &quot;ko jagarti&quot; (who is keeping awake) on this Earth? I&#xA;  shall give wealth to that person who keeps awake and worships me.'&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;55.&lt;strong&gt;This Vrata should be performed every year. It propitiates Laksmi. It yields prosperity in this world and bliss in the other world after&#xA;  death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T14:37:30.177" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21340" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20813" CreationDate="2017-10-05T15:12:38.730" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Hindu Gotra System – Male Lineage Identification&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Gotra is a system which associates a person with his most ancient&#xA;  or root ancestor in an unbroken male lineage. For instance if a person&#xA;  says that he belongs to the Bharadwaja Gotra then it means that he&#xA;  traces back his male ancestry to the ancient Rishi (Saint or Seer)&#xA;  Bharadwaja. So Gotra refers to the Root Person in a person’s male&#xA;  lineage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Gotra system helps one identify his male lineage and is passed&#xA;  down automatically from Father to Son. But the Gotra system does not&#xA;  get automatically passed down from Father to Daughter. Suppose a&#xA;  person with Gotra Angirasa has a Son. Now suppose the Son gets married&#xA;  to a girl whose father belongs to Gotra Kashyapa. The Gotra of the&#xA;  girl automatically is said to become Angirasa after her marriage even&#xA;  though her father belonged to Gotra Kashyapa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So the rule of the Gotra system is that the Gotra of men remains the&#xA;  same, while the Gotra of the woman becomes the Gotra of their husband&#xA;  after marriage. Now suppose a person has only daughters and no sons.&#xA;  In that case his Gotra will end with him in that lineage because his&#xA;  daughters will belong to the Gotras of their husbands after their&#xA;  marriage!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This was probably the reason why in the ancient Vedic or Hindu&#xA;  societies it was preferred to have at least one Son along with any&#xA;  number of daughters, so that the Gotra of the father could continue.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We may think that the Gotra system is a little biased as it focusses mainly on male lineages. However there's a little science behind it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Y Chromosome is the only Chromosome which gets passed down only between the men in a lineage. Women never get this Y Chromosome in their body. And hence Y Chromosome plays a crucial role in modern genetics in identifying the Genealogy ie male ancestry of a person. And the Gotra system was designed to track down the root Y Chromosome of a person quite easily. If a person belongs to Angirasa Gotra then it means that his Y Chromosome came all the way down over thousands of years of timespan from the Rishi Angirasa! And if a person belongs to a Gotra (say Bharadwaja) with Pravaras (Angirasa, Bhaarhaspatya, Bharadwaja), then it means that the person’s Y Chromosome came all the way down from Angirasa to Bhaarhaspatya to Bharadwaja to the person.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This also makes it clear why females are said to belong to the Gotra of their husbands after marriage. That is because women do not carry Y Chromosome, and their Sons will carry the Y Chromosome of the Father and hence the Gotra of a woman is said to be that of her husband after marriage. Pretty neat isn’t it?&#xA;All iz well so far, we now know the science behind the Gotra System. The ancient vedic Rishis hence very well knew the existence of the Y Chromosome and the paternal genetic material that was passed almost intact from father to Son, and hence created the Gotra system to identify their male lineages. Lord Buddha for instance belonged to Gautama Gotra which means that Buddha was a direct descendant of Rishi Gautama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't think there are any mantras to change Gotras as it means going against the nature (creation/genes) but we do have vedic mantras chanted during Kanyadan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hitxp.com/articles/veda/science-genetics-vedic-hindu-gotra-y-chromosome-male-lineage-extinction/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T17:48:57.343" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T17:48:57.343" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21341" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-05T16:56:44.790" Score="4" ViewCount="516" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, is heaven (&lt;em&gt;svarga&lt;/em&gt;) a place of extreme happiness?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, how to solve the paradox of experiencing hell (&lt;em&gt;naraka&lt;/em&gt;) in heaven? This is better explained through the following an example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Consider a wife who has devoted her entire life to the service of her husband so she attains the title &lt;em&gt;pativratā&lt;/em&gt;. Assume the husband is a notorious criminal so he's surely headed for hell after death. Let's say the husband dies first and goes to hell. Wife too passes away a little later but goes to heaven instead as result of all the &lt;em&gt;puṇya&lt;/em&gt; she's accumulated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given that and assuming heaven is a physical place much like the Earth, for the wife's soul, is there going to be any happiness in heaven if she cannot find her husband's soul there?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10491/&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; suggests the different lokas including heaven (svarga) and hell (naraka) are actually non-physical realms. Assuming that to be true, how can the wife's soul be &quot;happy&quot; in her private non-physical heaven not knowing and constantly wondering if the husband's soul is also experiencing the same? The thought &lt;em&gt;What if he's experiencing hell?&lt;/em&gt; will be a hell in itself. Isn't it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Have any Hindu philosophers attempted to solve this paradox? If yes, how?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-12-28T17:23:23.787" LastActivityDate="2018-12-05T11:07:24.010" Title="Is heaven a place of extreme happiness? If yes, how to solve the paradox of experiencing hell in heaven?" Tags="|philosophy|karma|lokas|punyam|swarga|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21342" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-05T17:36:58.513" Score="0" ViewCount="132" Body="&lt;p&gt;I strongly believe in God, and I pray and thank him from the deepest of my heart for this life and all good things he has done to me. Isn't it enough to attain him ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12199" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-10-06T08:42:30.050" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T09:17:34.993" Title="Is it necessary to practice rituals to attain God?" Tags="|rituals|practice|superstitions|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21343" PostTypeId="5" CreationDate="2017-10-05T18:17:50.733" Score="0" Body="" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-05T18:17:50.733" LastActivityDate="2017-10-05T18:17:50.733" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21344" PostTypeId="4" CreationDate="2017-10-05T18:17:50.733" Score="0" Body="This tag is for Soma, which is a drink, derived from a plant that's now unknown, that played a crucially important role in Vedic ritual; the Soma Yagna, in which Soma was offered to the gods, is extensively discussed in the Vedas and it was the chief Vedic method of worshipping the gods. Not to be confused with the [chandra] tag." OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2018-11-07T02:51:13.777" LastActivityDate="2018-11-07T02:51:13.777" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21347" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21311" CreationDate="2017-10-06T03:31:24.653" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;To answer your question: because God is everything. For example, you have a soul, and it's covering is the body. Similarly, God is the white board on which everything happens; his covering is the rocks, trees, leaves, sky, etc. He is the slate on which all is happening. The matrix is happening on God, in other words, He is supporting all of it. He supports love, hate, peace, war, etc. because he is the slate on which it occurs and he is separate from it and does not interfere in the story He wrote; humans cannot comprehend this; if you try to, you will sink by the weight of the world. As far as father and mother, you can't have one without the other and nothing can be produced without the joining of two or more things; good and bad, man and woman, tall and short, the fire and the sacrifice, the sickness and the medicinal herb, etc. It all goes together. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12200" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T03:31:24.653" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21348" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21341" CreationDate="2017-10-06T03:41:53.160" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Is heaven a place of absolute ('extreme' post-edit) happiness?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavadgita &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-9-21/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;9.21&lt;/a&gt; says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ते तं भुक्त्वा स्वर्गलोकं विशालं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  क्षीणे पुण्ये मर्त्यलोकं विशन्ति |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When they have thus enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasure and the&#xA;  results of their pious activities are exhausted, they return to this&#xA;  mortal planet again. Thus those who seek sense enjoyment by adhering&#xA;  to the principles of the three Vedas achieve only repeated birth and&#xA;  death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Garuda Purana, Preta Khanda Chapter 32 says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jn8Uk.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jn8Uk.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="4435" LastEditDate="2018-12-05T05:18:43.133" LastActivityDate="2018-12-05T05:18:43.133" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21349" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21350" CreationDate="2017-10-06T03:56:33.410" Score="10" ViewCount="3153" Body="&lt;p&gt;If any twice born student is not doing Sandhyavandanam for many days, then only he realized the importance of Sandhyavandanam, how can he get rid of his sins for not doing Sandhyavandanam for many long years? What is the atone ritual for not doing Sandhyavandanam regularly?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T06:10:32.870" Title="What is the Prayachitta for not doing Sandhyavandanam regularly?" Tags="|rituals|sandhyavandanam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21350" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21349" CreationDate="2017-10-06T05:50:26.460" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;For many years is what you have mentioned. IMHO, in such cases, it will require another initiation but i am not quite sure on that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Manu Smriti says that such persons shall be treated just like Sudras (or non-initiates) are .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na tishtathi tu yah purvA na upAste yash cha pashchimam |&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Sa sudravad&#xA;  vahishkAryah sarvasmAd dvijakarmanah&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But he who does not (worship) standing in the morning, nor sitting in&#xA;  the evening, &lt;strong&gt;shall be excluded, just like a Sudra, from all the&#xA;  duties and rights of an Aryan.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manu Smriti 2.103&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verses of similar nature are found elsewhere too:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Brahmana in particular, &lt;strong&gt;who does not perform his Sandhya&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  adorations, in the evening, morning and the noon, &lt;strong&gt;becomes in his&#xA;  lifetime like a S'udra&lt;/strong&gt;. After his death, he is born as a dog. (18)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One, who does not perform the Sandhya-adorations, is always impure,&#xA;  and is unworthy of all religious rites&lt;/strong&gt;. The fruit, of any religious&#xA;  rite that he may perform, goes not to him. (19)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daksha Smriti Chapter 2 Verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, if it is a matter of failure for just a day, then remedies are are there and they are quite easy to perform too:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He, who out of carelessness fails to perform the Sandhya once, either&#xA;  in the morning or in the evening, should, with a concentrated mind,&#xA;  recite, after bathing, the Gayatri for a thousand times. (63)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some hard-to-perform remedies (possibly for relatively more prolonged failures) are however prescribed in other Smritis like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In consequence of wilfully [neglecting the Sandhya, the foremost of&#xA;  the twice-born should perform the distressing penance [of Prajapatya&#xA;  for full one year, and should perform the Chandrayana, [if he does so]&#xA;  for livelihood. [And] by making a gift of kine, [he is] purged of [his&#xA;  sins]. (67)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If he does so, prompted by agnosticism, a twice-born person should&#xA;  perform the Prajapatya. By performing the Taptakrichha, one is purged&#xA;  off of [the sin of] acting against the Deities and preceptors. (68)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Usana Smriti's Chapter 9 verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-06T06:10:32.870" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T06:10:32.870" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21352" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-06T06:26:49.243" Score="1" ViewCount="3529" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16008.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mausala Parva: Section 8&lt;/a&gt;, Arjuna says to Vaishampayana rishi: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In my very sight, O Brahmana, thousands of Vrishni ladies were carried away by the Abhiras of the country of the five waters, who assailed us. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Taking up my bow I found myself unequal to even string it. The might that had existed in my arms seemed to have disappeared on that occasion. O great ascetic, my weapons of diverse kinds failed to make their appearance&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Soon, again, my shafts became exhausted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some other version of Mahabharath (I don't remember the book name), I read, when the robbers kidnapped the Vrishni ladies, Arjun was trying to use Sahastraastra or Parvataastra, but couldn't invoke the astras. And one among those robbers said to arjun - &quot;The new Yuga has already started and no one now fears your Gandeev, its useless!&quot; Was it true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, in one of the ways that I see, everyone who had the knowledge of Astra where either dead (like Vrishakethu) in some or the other way, or never appeared again (like Lord Parshuram, still alive). Ya I know Ashwathama is also alive and many claim to see him, but I want to know why the knowledge of astras disappeared? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it that after Sri Krishna left his human body, Arjun lost his powers? Because Arjun and Sri Krishn were Nara and Narayana, so Nara is powerless without Narayana? (But this is not my question!) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;UPDATE: My question is not about kidnapping of Sri Kirshn's wifes. My question is about Arjun losing his powers and why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8476" LastEditorUserId="8476" LastEditDate="2017-10-06T09:10:58.623" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T12:55:25.607" Title="Did Arjuna really lose his powers after departure of Shri Krishna?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|arjuna|kali-yuga|weapon|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-10-06T13:32:58.663" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21353" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8410" CreationDate="2017-10-06T06:42:47.613" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The soul reason Sri Hanuman is alive is for Sri Ram. As described &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/6Xx6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, from the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana, After Sri Ram was told by Yama the god of death that his time on earth is over, Sri Ram prepared to go into the Sarayu river along with his brothers Bharat and Shatrughna (as Lakshman was already dead). Before he did so, he gave boons to various people, and in particular this was the boon he gave to Sri Hanuman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Sri Ram] said to Hanuman: &quot;It is settled that thou shalt live forever, do thou, now observe thy promise. As long as my history shall run current in this world do thou at my command live happily.&quot; Being thus addressed by high-souled Raghav Hanuman attained to great delight and said: &quot;As long as the sacred theme shall pass current in this world I shall live here carrying out thy commands.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8476" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T06:42:47.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21354" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21352" CreationDate="2017-10-06T07:27:56.010" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, Arjuna lost his warring powers, after Krishna departed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8889/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The son of Kunti, suddenly ceasing to advance along the path, turned, with his followers, towards the place where the robbers had attacked the procession. Smiling the while, that mighty-armed warrior addressed the assailants, saying, ‘You sinful wretches, forbear, if ye love your lives. Ye will rue this when I pierce your bodies with my shafts and take your lives.’ &lt;strong&gt;Though thus addressed by that hero, they disregarded his words&lt;/strong&gt;, and though repeatedly dissuaded, they fell upon Arjuna. Then Arjuna endeavoured to string his large, indestructible, celestial bow with some effort. &lt;strong&gt;He succeeded with great difficulty in stringing it,&lt;/strong&gt; when the battle had become furious. &lt;strong&gt;He then began to think of his celestial weapons but they would not come to his mind.&lt;/strong&gt; Beholding that furious battle, the loss of the might of his arm, and the non-appearance of his celestial weapons, &lt;strong&gt;Arjuna became greatly ashamed&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The obvious reason was the departure of lord Krishna and the fulfilment of the Paandava's duties on earth.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa said, ... That high-souled one of expansive eyes, &lt;strong&gt;Krishna, having lightened the burthen of the Earth and cast off his (human) body&lt;/strong&gt;, has attained to his own high seat. By thee also, O foremost of men, with Bhima for thy helpmate and the twins, O mighty-armed hero, has the great work of the gods been accomplished. O foremost one of Kuru’s race, I regard thee and thy brothers as crowned with success, &lt;strong&gt;for ye have accomplished the great purpose of your lives. The time has come for your departure from the world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T07:27:56.010" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21355" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-06T08:23:17.793" Score="1" ViewCount="294" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/2/verse/12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;sloka 2.12&lt;/a&gt; God declares that &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these&#xA;  kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: Will I cease to exist in any state after death or moksha ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-10-06T12:00:45.873" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T12:25:30.190" Title="Will I (Psycho-Physical 'I') cease to exist after death or moksha?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|death|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="19" ClosedDate="2017-10-09T06:57:46.647" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21356" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21342" CreationDate="2017-10-06T09:17:34.993" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;No rituals are needed to attain God. What is required in a pure heart and yearning. But that does not mean that all rites should be abandoned. In the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt;, Krishna says (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.53 Neither by the Vedas, nor by penances, nor by alms-giving, nor yet by sacrifice, am I to be seen in the form in which you have now beheld Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.54 But by devotion to Me alone may I be known in this form, O Arjuna, realized truly, and entered into, O dreaded prince.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11.55 He who does My work and looks on Me as the Supreme Goal, who is devoted to Me, who is without attachment and without hatred for any creature--he comes to Me, O Pandava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and further:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18.3 Some philosophers declare that all works should be relinquished as evil; others say that works of sacrifice, gift, and austerity should not be given up.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18.4 Learn from Me, O best of the Bharatas, the truth about relinquishment; for relinquishment is declared to be of three kinds, O tiger among men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18.5 Acts of sacrifice, gift, and austerity must not be given up, but should be performed. For verily, sacrifice, gift, and austerity purify the wise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18.6 Even those works, however, should be done without attachment and desire for fruit. This, O Partha, is My conclusive and final judgement.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18.7 The renunciation of obligatory action [such as daily rites] is not proper. Its abandonment, from delusion, is declared to be of the nature of tamas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18.9 When a man performs an obligatory action only because it ought to be done, and renounces all attachment and the fruit--his renunciation, O Arjuna, is characterized by sattva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the &lt;em&gt;Mundaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (III.ii.3.) says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Atman is not to be attained by the study of the Vedas, nor by the highest intellect, nor by much learning. Whom the Atman seeks, unto him He discloses His glory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And whom does the Atman seek? The ones that yearn for Him by purifying their hearts by &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; 11.55 and 18.9 above. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The doing of rituals is not needed for the attainment of God, but should not be given upon necessarily; the fruits of those rituals and non-attachment to them is what is to be given up. The Lord sees our hearts, not our actions.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T09:17:34.993" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21357" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10057" CreationDate="2017-10-06T10:56:12.603" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aryabhatta wasn't the first to use/discover zero. It's already described in other answers as well. In the recent radioactive dating also &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakhshali_manuscript&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bakshali manuscript&lt;/a&gt; which is before Aryabhatta time clearly show use of written zero:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Bakhshali manuscript is a mathematical text written on birch bark that was found in 1881 in the British-ruled village of Bakhshali (near Mardan in present-day Pakistan). It is notable for being &quot;the oldest extant manuscript in Indian mathematics&quot;, &lt;strong&gt;with portions dated to AD 224–383. It contains the earliest known Indian use of a zero symbol.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus it's clearly before Aryabhatta. Regarding scriptual sources there are already other excellent answer. I just want to quote here from portion of Mahanirvana Tantra as described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20587/in-which-scriptures-can-we-find-the-original-stories-of-the-mahavidyas/20742#20742&quot;&gt;this answer:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just like the number 0 in itself does not have any value and can regarded as indicative of the formless infinite. So is the Parabrahmayi ParAdevi. But just as when prefixed with a 1 it (0) makes the number 10, similarly when the ParAdevi (0) conjoins with her own trigunAtmika prakriti (or 1) she appears as the 10 MahAvidyAs to fulfill the wishes of the devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T10:56:12.603" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21358" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19208" CreationDate="2017-10-06T12:14:30.320" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Satyanarayan Puja&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Satyanarayan Puja is a religious worship of the Hindu god Vishnu.&#xA;  Satya means “truth” and narayana means, “The highest being” so&#xA;  Satyanarayan means “The highest being who is an embodiment of&#xA;  Truth”.&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyanarayan_Puja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; Vrat or Puja means a religious vow, religious&#xA;  observance, or obligation. Hindus throughout [3] perform Sri&#xA;  Satyanarayan Vrat for the divine blessings of health, wealth,&#xA;  prosperity, opulence, education; relief from troubles and sickness. It&#xA;  can also be performed because of success in business or career growth;&#xA;  during social functions like marriages, house-warming ceremonies,&#xA;  naming of the children and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Satyanarayan Katha – Story Behind the Ritual&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The puja is performed from the Skanda Purana. The story is narrated by&#xA;  Sutha Puranik, a rishi, who is narrating the story to a group of&#xA;  rishis performing a thousand year yajna for the benefit of mankind.&#xA;  The rishis asked Sutha Pramanik as to how an individual with ethical&#xA;  and life-affirming desires could have his desires fulfilled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sutha further explained that this same question was also asked by&#xA;  Narada, another great rishi and the son of Lord Bramha or the creator.&#xA;  Narada is one famous character that pops up all through Vedic&#xA;  mythology as an instigator who could set everything in motion. He had&#xA;  the finest comic sense and mischief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this tale, Narada is shown travelling the entire universe before&#xA;  coming to the Earth, or Bhuloka. On earth, he found that many people&#xA;  have been suffering as they were living through their karma from the&#xA;  past life. That filled him with compassion for the ones suffering and&#xA;  he went to Lord Vishnu and asked if something could be done to help&#xA;  these people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Narada and Lord Vishnu were great friends. Vishnu, in turn, asked&#xA;  Narada for suggestion. Narada then explained that there’s a puja that&#xA;  can be performed by everyone to eliminate sufferings from their life;&#xA;  it is called the Satyanarayan puja. He also added that this puja can&#xA;  be done by everyone; it is not necessary to have a priest, at any time&#xA;  without having to wait for an auspicious moment. Apart from this,&#xA;  there are other stories as a part of the Satyanarayan Katha, which&#xA;  makes this ritual a celebration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.satyanarayanpuja.org/shri-satyanarayan-katha.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyanarayan_Puja&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T12:14:30.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21359" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21355" CreationDate="2017-10-06T12:25:30.190" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The verse BG 2.12 is related to the &lt;em&gt;Kaala chakra&lt;/em&gt; (Eternal Return).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Please refer this post:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/20415/1049&quot;&gt;When Brahma&amp;#39;s day ends and a new day starts does the previous day repeat itself?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The day/night of Brahma keeps repeating. Whichever events happen during that time, will also repeat infinitely.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can also say that, &lt;em&gt;&quot;Never was a time, when you did not ask this Qn, I didn't answer and people didn't provide good comments. Never it cease to be.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Will I cease to exist in any state after death or moksha ?  &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After death, if desires are still there then we may get rebirth. If all desires are vanished, then the Moksha is attained.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Moksha, there is no rebirth and hence the self is completely vanished to the point of no return. In other words, the self is merged with the supreme Self in oneness. Once a drop of water is poured in a sea, we cannot re-identify that drop back. It's gone.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the next cycle, everything will repeat again. But since, all the cycles are perfectly identical, you or me won't remember anything until we reach again to this moment.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/10746/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, which discusses life after Moksha &amp;amp; the cycles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T12:25:30.190" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21361" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19727" CreationDate="2017-10-06T13:57:40.407" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiva_Goswami&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jiva Goswami&lt;/a&gt; of Gaudiya Vaishnavism accepts all 10 pramanas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kkswami.com/texts/faith/Appendix-10-Sri-Tattva-sandarbha.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; website has to say:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By accepting only three of the ten pramanas Jiva Gosvami &lt;strong&gt;does not exclude the other seven&lt;/strong&gt;. He says that pratyaksa, anumana, and sabda i&lt;strong&gt;ncludes the other seven pramanas&lt;/strong&gt;. The breakdown is as follows: upamana, arthapatti, sambhava, and cesta are included in anumana; abhava is in pratyaksa; arsya and aitihya in sabda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T13:57:40.407" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21362" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21365" CreationDate="2017-10-06T13:58:51.010" Score="3" ViewCount="860" Body="&lt;p&gt;The 3 pramanas accepted in Vishishtadvaita philosophy are &lt;em&gt;Pratyaksha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Anumana&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;Shabda&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How come the others like &lt;em&gt;Upamana&lt;/em&gt; (Comparison), &lt;em&gt;Arthapatti&lt;/em&gt; (Necssary Assumption), &lt;em&gt;Anupalabdhi&lt;/em&gt; (Non-apprehension), &lt;em&gt;Aitihya&lt;/em&gt; (Tradition), &lt;em&gt;Chesta&lt;/em&gt; (Gesture), &lt;em&gt;Parishesha&lt;/em&gt; (Elimination), and &lt;em&gt;Sambhava&lt;/em&gt; (Inclusion) are not included? Could it be because these 7 just fall under the category of Anumana, which is generally logical proofs, or are they excluded for a reason?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Many scriptures like the commentaries on the Brahma Sutras use lots of logical reasoning and things like comparison, inclusion, tradition, etc to make arguments, so I am wondering. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T16:03:54.537" Title="Why are only 3 pramanas accepted in Vishishtadvaita?" Tags="|vedanta|vishishtadvaita|pramana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21363" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20945" CreationDate="2017-10-06T14:04:12.630" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs12334.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 334&lt;/a&gt;, Shanti Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/upa-purana/srimad-devibhagavatam/vol-i/chapter-19/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;19th Chapter&lt;/a&gt;, book 1 of Devi Bhagavatam&lt;/strong&gt; say Lord Shiva created &amp;quot;Chaya Shuka&amp;quot; on seeing grief of Vyasa Maharshi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shanti Parva says&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Vyasa was seated there, the auspicious god Siva, armed with Pinaka,&#xA;surrounded on all sides by many deities and Gandharvas and adored by&#xA;all the great Rishis came thither.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Consoling the Island-born Rishi who was burning with grief on account&#xA;of his son, Mahadeva said these words unto him.--Thou hadst formerly&#xA;solicited from me a son possessed of the energy of Fire, of Water, of&#xA;Wind, and of Space; Procreated by thy penances, the son that was born&#xA;unto thee was of that very kind. Proceeding from my grace, he was pure&#xA;and full of Brahma-energy. He has attained to the highest end--an end&#xA;which none can win that has not completely subjugated his senses, nor&#xA;can be won by even any of the deities. Why then, O regenerate Rishi,&#xA;dost thou grieve for that son? As long as the hills will last, as long&#xA;as the ocean will last, so long will the fame of thy son endure&#xA;undiminished!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Through my grace, O great Rishi thou shalt behold in this world a shadowy form resembling thy son, moving by the side and never&#xA;deserting thee for a single moment!--Thus favoured by the illustrious&#xA;Rudra himself, O Bharata, the Rishi beheld a shadow of his son by his&#xA;side&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devi Bhagavatam also says the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;व्यास उवाच &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;न शोको याति देवेश कि करोमि जगत्पते । 56 । &lt;br&gt; अतृप्ते लोचने मेऽद्य&#xA;पुत्रदर्शनलालसे । &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyasa Deva said: “O Lord of the Devas! O Lord of the world What am I&#xA;to do now? my grief does not quit my heart anyhow or other. My eyes&#xA;are as yet satisfied in seeing my son; they like still to see the&#xA;son.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;महादेव उवाच &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;छायां द्रक्ष्यसि पुत्रस्य पार्श्वस्थां सुमनोहराम्&lt;/strong&gt; ॥&#xA;57 ॥ &lt;br&gt; तां वीक्ष्य मुनिशार्दूल शोकं जहि परंतप । &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing these sorrowful words of Vyasa, Bhagāvan Mahādeva said: “O&#xA;Muni Śārdūla! &lt;strong&gt;I grant this boon to you that you will see the form of&#xA;your son abiding in shadow, very beautiful, by the side of you&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T14:04:12.630" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21364" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21341" CreationDate="2017-10-06T14:56:44.713" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are three kinds of happiness: Aihikam of happiness in this life, Amushmikam of happiness in Swarga, and Nihshreyasam or happiness in Moksha.  Aihikam is both mixed with sorrow and temporary, Amushmikam is unmixed with sorrow but still temporary, and Nihshreyasam is both unmixed with sorrow and eternal.  For more detail, here is what Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;dṛṣṭavadānuśravikaḥ sa hyaviśuddhi kṣayātiśayayuktaḥ ।  tadviparītaḥ śreyān vyaktāvyaktajñavijñānāt ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The [means of happiness revealed by the Vedas] is like the evident one, It is linked with impurity, &lt;strong&gt;destruction and inequality&lt;/strong&gt;. Other than that is better,—proceeding from the right cognition of the Manifest, Unmanifest and the Knower.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://redzambala.com/sankhya/samkhyakarika-with-vacaspati-misra-commentaries-1.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Vachaspati Mishra explains &amp;quot;destruction and inequality&amp;quot; in his Samkhya Karika Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though the terms decay and excess (used in the above Kārikā) really relate to the effect, here they are attributed to the means. This quality of decay in heaven is inferred as it is a positive entity and a product. Further, it is said that sacrifices like Jyotiṣṭoma are the means of attaining mere heaven, whereas sacrifices like Vājapeya etc. lead one to self-sovereignty. This inequality in the result is what constitutes excess spoken of (in the Kārikā). Verily, the superior prosperity of one man makes another of lesser prosperity sad!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Immortality denoted in the passage ‘We drank soma and became immortal’ indicates long durability. It is said elsewhere: ‘Verily, immortality is the durability extending till the final dissolution of all the elements (i.e. of the entire universe).’ Hence, the Śruti declares: ‘Neither by deeds nor by progeny nor by wealth but by renunciation alone they attained immortality; that which the hermits enter is laid beyond the heavens and yet it shines brilliantly in the heart’ (M.N.Up.12-14); and also, ‘Sages with children and desiring wealth got only death (as reward) by actions while those other sages who were wise attained immortality which is beyond all actions.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So destruction refers to fact that residence in Swarga is not eternal; after you've exhausted the fruit of your actions that brought you there, you have to be reborn again.  And inequality refers to the fact that not everyone in Swarga is of equal status.  Doing an Ashwamedha Yagna only makes you a resident of Swarga, whereas doing a Vajapeya Yagna makes you Indra, i.e. the ruler of Swarga.  So while residing in Swarga, you'll be jealous of others who have higher status than you do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also, happiness in Swarga is not as great as happiness in Moksha.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15075.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;This chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyala Upanishad analyzes this quantitatively:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a man is healthy, wealthy, and lord of others, surrounded by all human enjoyments, that is the highest blessing of men. Now a hundred of these human blessings make one blessing of the fathers who have conquered the world (of the fathers). A hundred blessings of the fathers who have conquered this world make one blessing in the Gandharva world. A hundred blessings in the Gandharva world make one blessing of the Devas by merit (work, sacrifice), who obtain their godhead by merit. A hundred blessings of the Devas by merit make one blessing of the Devas by birth, also (of) a Srotriya who is without sin, and not overcome by desire. A hundred blessings of the Devas by birth make one blessing in the world of Pragâpati, also (of) a Srotriya who is without sin, and not overcome. by desire. A hundred blessings in the world of Pragâpati make one blessing in the world of Brahman, also (of) a Srotriya who is without sin, and not overcome by desire. And this is the highest blessing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So happiness in Swarga is either 10,000 or a million times less than the highest possible happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To answer your side question, it is perfectly possible for a soul to be happy in Swarga without the presence of the spouse it had in its most recent birth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T14:56:44.713" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21365" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21362" CreationDate="2017-10-06T16:03:54.537" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Visistadvaita does not dispute the validity of other Pramanas, it just says there are three &lt;em&gt;independent&lt;/em&gt; Pramanas, namely Pratyaksha, Anumana, and Sabda, and other Pramanas are reducible to these three.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=un1i5icdpdoC&amp;amp;pg=PA73&amp;amp;dq=visistadvaita+upamana&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjNvIPEo9zWAhVi4oMKHT_fDnkQ6AEIJTAA#v=snippet&amp;amp;q=upamana&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what S.M. Srinivasachari says in his book &quot;Fundamentals of Visistadvaita Vedanta&quot;, which is based on Vedanta Desikan's Tattva Mukta Kalapa:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upamana or knowledge derived by comparison is considered as a separate Pramana both by the Mimamsakas, and Naiyayikas, though they offer different explanations. After critically examining both the views, Vedanta Desika holds that it cannot be an independent Pramana but a part of either inference or verbal testimony.... Arthapatti or presumption is the postulation of something to account for what apparently conflicts with experience and is therefore in the nature of a hypothesis.... Vedanta Desika states that this method of discovering the unknown from the known is not different from inference.... Anupalabdhi or non-apprehension is admitted as a separate Pramana by the Kumarila school of Mimamsa.... According to the Visistadvaitin Anupalabdhi is not a separate Pramana.  The same sense organs which apprehend an entity can also cognize its Abhava or the non-existence.... Aitihya refers to the statements of an elderly person about matters which are being passed on from generation to generation, their origin being shrouded in the mist of antiquity....  Vedanta Desika takes the view that such statements may be taken as valid verbal testimony provided they conform to the facts; otherwise they have to be rejected as invalid.... Sambhava or subsumption is the cognition of a part from the whole of which it is a part. Thus, when we speak of ten thousand, the number one hundred is understood to be a part of it because the former includes in it the latter..... As this is strictly a numerical inclusion and there is a definite concomitance between one hundred and ten thousand, it is a case of deductive inference and not a separate Pramana.... Chesta or gesture of hand is regarded as a source of knowledge, because by observing the sign made by a person we understand the needs of the person such as his desire for food or drink.  We infer from the sign what one wants to convey.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, quoting S.M. Srinivasachari's book brings back memories, because it's the first book I used to study Visistadvaita in detail, back when I was 14 years old.  (I didn't understand everything in it at the time; if I did I would have had fewer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/893/36&quot;&gt;misconceptions&lt;/a&gt; about Hinduism.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T16:03:54.537" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21366" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-06T16:44:39.173" Score="4" ViewCount="287" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ok, this might be very silly question but i couldn't find answer from my elders, I thought this could be right place to get my answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know the scientific reason that in the rainy or monsoon season, for good health, we can do Upavas and other Vratas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what could be possibly reason, If god does sleep on Devashayani Ekadashi and wakes up on DevUthi Ekadashi, why does our all main festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali, Navaratri lie in these four months ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12208" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-06T16:58:16.057" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T16:58:16.057" Title="Why the main festivals are in chaturmas if god is sleeping in that period?" Tags="|gods|festivals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21367" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-06T16:55:03.690" Score="4" ViewCount="723" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, is God both good and evil, because in Mahabharata Shri Krishna tells Arjuna that he is everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He says he is heaven and he is hell.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He says he has many avatars who play the role of both good and&#xA;evil.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what is the real truth about God in this picture from the Hindu point of view?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12209" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-09T15:02:26.733" LastActivityDate="2017-11-21T01:21:19.073" Title="In Hinduism, is God both good and evil?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|gods|arjuna|evil|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21368" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-06T18:03:53.867" Score="2" ViewCount="265" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Gaudiya Vaishnavism websites, the below verse is said to have spoken by Krishna in Matsya Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mundo gaurah su-dirghangas &lt;br&gt; Tri-srotas-tira-sambhavah&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; Dayaluh kirtana-grahi&lt;br&gt;Bhavisyami kalau-yuge&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meaning: In the age of Kali, I shall advent where the three rivers meet. I shall have a shaven head. I shall have a golden complexion. I will be very kind and always chant the holy name of Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Where this verse is located?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-07-04T07:57:06.350" LastActivityDate="2018-07-04T07:57:06.350" Title="Where in Matsya Purana the following verse about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu located?" Tags="|chaitanya|gaudiya-vaishnavism|matsya-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21369" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21367" CreationDate="2017-10-06T20:07:40.943" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Depends on what He is dealing with. Evil with &quot;evil&quot; and good with good. Clearly stated..&lt;em&gt;abhyudhhanam adharmasya, parithranaaya sadhoonam...  sambhavami yugay, yugay&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Godhead is &lt;em&gt;Nirguna&lt;/em&gt;, there is neither good or evil. Let me explain what I mean by &quot;evil&quot; ( in quotes) of Divine initiative. It is just His Leela. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;True devotion with Dharma has given peace and happiness to the man and God, good is well known and harmony is experienced.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However in the re-establishment of Dharmic order Lord Rama and Krishna respectively had to resort to what may at the time appear out of proper limits. To appreciate this (who are we to do that?) one has to ponder over the magnanimity of the task for which Avatars had to be assumed by the Supreme for annulment of evil. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case of Vali a boon to acquire power of his opponent during battle is quite unfair and formidable, needing to deliver a killing arrow at Vali's back by Rama. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case of Duryodhana (tacitly and dishonestly supported by father Dritharashtra) Kauravas' diabolic unfairness to share in the kingdom even smallest extent (unwilling to allot even five small towns to those who were otherwise equal royal inheritors of Hasthinapur kingdom) it became imperative (among many other strategies and initiatives by Krishna) to spread an untruth [Ashwathhama hathah( but only a kunjaraha !)] in order to demotivate an adversary's army commander Drona for further continuous participation in fierce battle Kurukshetra ...or earlier Krishna's pretending to have not even seen Duryodhana's arrival when he came to seek His support.. because in the alternative scenario when supporting un-sharing possesive evil of the Kauravas the main purpose of Krishna Avatar would have been wastefully compromised..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme spirit is ever loving. But has a purpose and self-given Dharma protection responsibility in each Avatar. In Ramavathar, Soorpanakha when out to seduce Rama, he had to arrange to have her nose cut off; in Krishnavathar even after opportunity of 100 misdemeanors was granted, a violation spree by Dusshasan led to his decapitation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not evil, it is &lt;em&gt;countering&lt;/em&gt; evil in these and many more cases. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seen in a wider context.. Self-defence in perilous times that comes instictually .. such a so-called &quot;evil&quot; is an integral part of &lt;em&gt;Swadharma.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="1182" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T05:56:09.940" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T05:56:09.940" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21370" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10606" CreationDate="2017-10-06T22:44:53.063" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;For an overview of the philosophy, please read VN Gopala Desikan's &quot;A Dialogue on Hinduism&quot; available &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/library/dialog_on_hinduism.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I you can understand Tamil, I also strongly recommend the Guru Parampara lecture series of Natteri Sri Rajagopalachariar available &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramanujamission.org/media/audio/#sec5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. It covers the hagiography of the Perumal-&gt;Ramanuja-&gt;Desika-&gt;Andavan Periyashramam sampradayam with significant time spent on Ramanuja and Desika.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10413" LastActivityDate="2017-10-06T22:44:53.063" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21372" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-07T01:08:49.847" Score="8" ViewCount="2844" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why first hair removal for kids is done at age of 1st and 3rd year and some places they do in 2nd year?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which one is more appropriate and why? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12212" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T07:25:16.537" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T07:25:16.537" Title="Why Mundan (Chudakarma) is done in first and third year of life in Hindusim?" Tags="|rituals|practice|samskara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21379" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21214" CreationDate="2017-10-07T02:06:43.827" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna suffered &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When shyamantaka mani was lost the bad name fell on him.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;When at the end of his life, Vali got his revenge (in next life) as Hunter.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In Ramavatar, he suffered due to separation from Sita. This was due to curse of Narada that he will suffer separation from wife and seeking the help of Vanaras i.e. Hanuman and other vanaras. This is because, as Lord Vishnu, he changed the face of Narada as Kapi and sent for a Swayamvara of Vishvamohini, who did penance to reach Vishnu in previous life and in Vishvamohini life, she joined Vishnu, at the Swayavamvara Mandap, where Narada appeared in Vanara face(done by Vishnu without his knowledge)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;View Vishnupuran all volumes in Youtube. These are gathered there only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12211" LastEditorDisplayName="anon" LastEditDate="2017-10-07T04:27:19.243" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T04:27:19.243" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21380" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21383" CreationDate="2017-10-07T03:15:35.230" Score="10" ViewCount="980" Body="&lt;p&gt;If someone did papa karma and got punishment for his karma on the earth. May be jailed for entire life,  or death punishment or any type of punishment, then will he be again punished for that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-07T06:45:57.943" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T08:02:39.520" Title="Will someone be punished again after death after once being already punished on the earth?" Tags="|karma|sin|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21381" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21388" CreationDate="2017-10-07T03:36:15.577" Score="13" ViewCount="10658" Body="&lt;p&gt;Generally there are various prohibitions when a child is born in a family. It goes upto several days like 11 days which is called Sutak period. There are also various community rules regarding no. of days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know which scriptures mention about Sutak dosha? Most probably it's mentioned in Smritis. What are prohibitions on it? Upto how many days does it extend ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Is Sutak dosha mentioned in Vedic sources like Samhitas, Brahmanas, Upanishads etc... ? Is it at least mentioned in Mahabharata? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2022-09-24T16:03:59.190" Title="Which scriptures mention about Sutak dosha (various prohibitions on child birth)?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|rituals|smriti|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21382" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3157" CreationDate="2017-10-07T03:48:16.393" Score="5" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/17/47&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 11.17.47&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a brāhmaṇa cannot support himself through his regular duties and is&#xA;  thus suffering, he may adopt the occupation of a merchant and overcome&#xA;  his destitute condition by buying and selling material things. &lt;strong&gt;If he&#xA;  continues to suffer extreme poverty even as a merchant, then he may&#xA;  adopt the occupation of a kṣatriya, taking sword in hand.&lt;/strong&gt; But he&#xA;  cannot in any circumstances become like a dog, accepting an ordinary&#xA;  master.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, a Brahmin can act as merchant(Vaishya) during his troublesome times. If he continues to suffer in trouble, he is allowed to act like a Kshatriya, mean he can participate in war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashurama did kill Kshatriyas and acted as a Kshatriya by indulging in war, but at the same time he was also a Guru, job of Brahmins. And stories in Ithihas and Puranas can never be our rule book.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T03:48:16.393" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21383" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21380" CreationDate="2017-10-07T04:35:57.647" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;, A person can't get punishment of same sin twice. After getting punishment of his sin, person becomes sinless. If a King punish a culprit for his sin Or he shows mercy on culprit, in either case that person will be free from his sin. But if King don't gives suitable punishment&#xA;to that culprit then King himself has to suffer from that punishment (which was needed to give to the culprit). Following &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga18/kishkindha_18_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana verse&lt;/a&gt; saying the same thing. When Rama was teaching Vali about Dharma...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राजभिः धृत दण्डाः च कृत्वा पापानि मानवाः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निर्मलाः स्वर्गम् आयान्ति सन्तः सुकृतिनो यथा || ४-१८-३१&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;maanavaaH = humans; paapaani kR^itvaa = sins, on making; raajabhiH dhR^ita daNDaaH ca = by kings, imposed, punishment, also; nirmalaaH sukR^itinaH santaH yathaa = unblemished - sinless, with good deeds, pious souled ones, as with; svargam aayaanti = to heaven, they come.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When kings impose proper punishment on the humans who have sinned, they become sinless and enter heaven as with the pious souls with good deeds.' So says one verse of Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शसनात् वा अपि मोक्षात् वा स्तेनः पापात् प्रमुच्यते |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  राजा तु अशासन् पापस्य तद् आप्नोति किल्बिषम् || ४-१८-३२&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;stenaH = a thief; shasanaat vaa api mokshaat vaa = by punishment, either, even, by releasing - by clemency, or; paapaat pramucyate = from sin, will be released; a shaasan raajaa tu = un, punishing, king, but; paapasya tat kilbiSam aapnoti = sin's, that, blot, he derives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Either by punishment or by clemency a thief will be absolved from sin, but the king who does not impose proper punishment will derive the blot of that sin.' So says the other verse of Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-07T08:02:39.520" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T08:02:39.520" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21384" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21380" CreationDate="2017-10-07T06:22:35.250" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As said in Rishabh's answer, once the King (or Government in today's time) punishes an evil-doer then he (the evil-doer) is free from the guilt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 8.318. But men who have &lt;strong&gt;committed crimes and have been&#xA;  punished by the king, go to heaven, being pure like those who&#xA;  performed meritorious deeds.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the King pardons the evil-doer, even then, it is considered that the evil-doer is freed from the guilt as said in the following verse. But in that case, it is the King who takes upon himself the guilt of the evil-doer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 8.316. Whether &lt;strong&gt;he be punished or pardoned, the thief is&#xA;  freed from the (guilt of) theft;&lt;/strong&gt; but the king, if he punishes not,&#xA;  takes upon himself the guilt of the thief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-07T06:28:08.667" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T06:28:08.667" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21385" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-07T06:48:23.740" Score="2" ViewCount="159" Body="&lt;p&gt;People say all gods are same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's a one God in different avatars, if so then why there are many differences in their beliefs, why God allowed himself to be in different scenarios if he is one. I think all religion and all god are not the same, people create them according to their belief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Explain to me how they are same or if not then how?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12209" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T06:51:31.480" Title="Are all God same fundamentally?" Tags="|gods|other-religions|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21386" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21416" CreationDate="2017-10-07T08:23:01.060" Score="9" ViewCount="299" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/n312&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;This excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Baudhayana Shrauta Sutras, a text associated with the Yajur Veda, describes an interesting story involving a war between the Devas and the Asuras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When gods and demons fought a great battle, these creatures dispersed in diverse directions; some went to gods; others to demons. Brihaspati was the priest of gods; Ushanas Kavya of demons. Gods passessed Brahman-power. Demons possessed Brahman-power, They fought many battles without decisive victory. Gandharva bearing solar lustre knew what was going to happen. Indra was the paramour of his wife. He said to her, &quot;O thou whose limbs are immortal. do thou ask the Gandharva as to why the gods of demons do not win.&quot; &quot;All right&quot; she said to him, &quot;Do thou come tomorrow.&quot; He (Gandharva) sported on the sea together with his wife in a golden ship. Indra came. He became a golden ray and stuck on a major part of the ship, Seeing that he had come, he asked him. &quot;O thou with immortal limbs, please say, why gods or demons do not become victorious,&quot; &quot;Do not speak loudly,&quot; he said. &quot;The ship has ears.&quot; &quot;Gods have Brahman-power, demons have Brahman-power,&quot; he said. Hearing it Indra took the form of a yellow parrot and flew up. Looking at him, he said, &quot;O Indra, those will win who have yellow (parrot) on their side.&quot; He (Indra) went to Aushanasa Kavya and conferred with the daughter of Jayanti and four desire-yielding cows. Instructed, he left the demons and went to the gods. Consequently the gods won the great battle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ushanas Kavya is another name for Sukracharya.  But my question is, who is the Gandharva whose wife was having an affair with Indra, and who gave Indra a prophecy aboard a golden ship?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in the Vedas the word &quot;Gandharva&quot; is most often used as a name for Surya the Sun god, rather than as a name for the race of celestial singers the term most commonly signifies now.  And the fact that the Gandharva in this passage is &quot;bearing solar lustre&quot; is more evidence that it's Surya.  But did Indra ever have an affair with one of Surya's wives?  (I discuss Surya's wives &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/545/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a side note, who is the &quot;daughter of Jayanti&quot;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T17:10:20.180" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T22:18:46.563" Title="Who did Indra receive a prophecy from in a golden ship?" Tags="|vedas|indra|yajur-veda|surya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21387" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-07T08:42:37.250" Score="4" ViewCount="153" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a story as to &lt;strong&gt;How blinking of eyes came into existence.&lt;/strong&gt; The story is of a King Nimi, father of King Janaka, Sita's father. The story is mentioned in-  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Puraanam&lt;/strong&gt;- &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/devi-bhagavata-purana/d/doc57240.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 15, Book 6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Puraanam&lt;/strong&gt;- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 5, Book 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhaagawata Puraanam&lt;/strong&gt;- &lt;a href=&quot;http://bhagavata.org/canto9/chapter13.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 13, book 9&lt;/a&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Matsya Puraanam (Chapter 61), Padma Puraanam(Chapter 22, Book 1) also mention it with a slight variation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maybe in other Scriptures too. ;)  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story in short is this-  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;King Nimi wanted to do a Yagya, so he asked his Guru Vashishtha to conduct it.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;BrahmaPutra(Vashishtha, son of Brahma) was appointed by Indra already, so he told the king to wait.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The King Nimi did not wait and conducted Yagya with Gautama and other Rishis.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When MaitraVaaruni got to know this, he cursed the king that you may become bereft of your body(i.e. you will not have any body).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The King also cursed Vashishtha that your body may also collapse.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Then Vashishtha's body(born of BrahmaDeva) gets reborn again out of semen of Mitra and Varuna(and since then Vashishtha is called &lt;em&gt;MaitraVaaruni&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The King's body also collapsed, but the sages completed the Yagya, keeping King's body preserved with Mantras, and balms and resins.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then, Devas arrived to confer boons of Yagya, so all Rishis asked them- O Immortals! give back life to King.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But Nimi asked the Devas- I do not wish to have a body, as body is receptacle of all sufferings.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So the Devas established the King Nimi as &lt;em&gt;the air in the eyes of all beings, due to which we constantly open and close our eyes&lt;/em&gt;(id est- we blink our eyes).&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this is a story How Janaka's father Nimi got established in our eyes &lt;strong&gt;to make us blink&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is interesting how some of body functions happen.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Also there is mention of how Yawning's ;O originated, mentioned in&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk06ch04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Puraanam, Book 6, Chapter 4&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Vitra and Indra fought, Vitra swallowed Indra inside his stomach.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;To save DevaRaaja, the Suras created &quot;Yawning&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Vitra, due to Yawning, yawned and when his mouth opened Indra came out and fought again.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Since then, this &quot;Yawning&quot; occurs in all beings.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, is there any mention of &lt;strong&gt;Laughter&lt;/strong&gt;? How was it created, what was its purpose et cetera? Are there other functions in body that too have these divine origins?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T17:24:09.373" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T17:24:09.373" Title="What are views on Laughter, as per Scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|body|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21388" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21381" CreationDate="2017-10-07T09:20:42.080" Score="10" Body="&lt;h1&gt;which scriptures mention about Sutak dosha?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu05.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti, Chapter 5&lt;/a&gt; declares ten days of Sutaka (impurity) for Sapinda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;77&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;A man who hears of a (Sapinda) relative's death, or of the birth of a son after the ten days (of impurity have passed), becomes pure by bathing, dressed in his garments.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/sbe07024.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Smriti, Chapter 22&lt;/a&gt; gives impurity period by each Varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The impurity of a Brâhmana caused by the birth or death of Sapindas lasts ten days.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the case of a Kshatriya (it lasts) twelve days.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the case of a Vaisya (it lasts) fifteen days.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the case of a Sûdra (it lasts) a month.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe02/sbe0278.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gautama Smriti, Chapter 14&lt;/a&gt; agree with Vishnu Smriti. It declares:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;14&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(The rules regarding impurity caused by the death of a relative apply) to the birth (of a child) also.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And then&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Sapindas become impure by the death (of a relative) during ten (days and) nights, except those who officiate as priests, who have performed the Dîkshanîyeshti (or initiatory ceremony of a Srauta sacrifice), and those who are students.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(The impurity) of a Kshatriya lasts for eleven (days and) nights,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(That) of a Vaisya twelve (days and) nights,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Or), according to some, half a month,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;(And that) of a Sûdra a whole month&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe14/sbe1407.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vashishtha Smriti, Chapter 4&lt;/a&gt; also declares the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;26&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A Brâhmana is freed from impurity (caused by a death or a birth) after ten days,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A Kshatriya after fifteen days,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A Vaisya after twenty days,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A Sûdra after a month.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/ParasharaSmriti/SriParasharaSmrithiPdf_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Parashara Smriti, Chapter 3&lt;/a&gt; allow Brahmana to be pure after three days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now I shall speak of the term of impurity resulting &#xA;  on the occurrence of a birth, or a death. Brahmans in &#xA;  three days become pure again, when a relative has died, or &#xA;  has been born.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A Kshatriya recovers purity in twelve days ; a Vaisya, when fifteen days have passed ; a Shoodra, after the lapse of a &#xA;  month ; this is conformable to what Parasara has said. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h1&gt;What are prohibitions on it?&lt;/h1&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/sbe07024.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Smriti, Chapter 22&lt;/a&gt; gives following prohibitions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;During the period of impurity oblations (to the Visvedevâs), gifts and receiving of alms, and study have to be interrupted.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other prohibitions are given in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/21381/which-scriptures-mention-about-sutak-dosha-various-prohibitions-on-child-birth/21389#21389&quot;&gt;Rickross's answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T05:50:15.067" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T05:50:15.067" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21389" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21381" CreationDate="2017-10-07T09:45:08.167" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a &lt;strong&gt;partial answer&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upto how many days does it extend ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The number of days for which the impurity is extended remains the same for both Mritaka (death) and Sutaka (birth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After a death, a ten-day period of impurity is enjoined on those&#xA;  belonging to the same ancestry (the verse is repeated in Apasthambha).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;17 Relatives up to the sixth degree, it is said, fall under the&#xA;  category of common ancestry, 18and in the case of married women, up to&#xA;  the second degree. Others should perform the funerary rites of&#xA;  married women; and such women should perform them for those people.&#xA;  20 &lt;strong&gt;The very same rule regarding impurity applies also to a birth for&#xA;  those who desire perfect purity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;21 alternatively, it applies only to the mother and the father, or,&#xA;  according to some, only to the mother, because the birth results from&#xA;  her. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;23 Now, they also quote: At a birth there is no period of impurity for&#xA;  the man, unless he comes into contact with her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Brahmin becomes pure after ten days, a Ksatriya after fifteen days,&#xA;  a Vais´ya after twenty days, and a Sudra after a month.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vashistha Dharma Sutras 4.17-38&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;.................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What are prohibitions on it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the Dvijakarmas are to be abandoned except Sandhya-rites which can still be continued with slight variations (like without reciting mantras loudly, without pranayama and reciting sankalpam):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Vipra, [on the occasion of a birth or death] &lt;strong&gt;should refrain&lt;/strong&gt;, for ten&#xA;  days, from making gifts or studying the Veda's. A Kshatriya is&#xA;  purified in twelve days ; a Vais'ya in fifteen days ; and a S'udra in&#xA;  a month. Such is the deliverance of Samvarta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A twice-born person should, daily and duly, perform- the five&#xA;  sacrifices. A Vipra, seeking his well-being, should, under no&#xA;  circumstances, abandon them. &lt;strong&gt;One should, [however,] always abandon&#xA;  them [in an impurity consequent] on birth and death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samvarta Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However one should also note the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is no sin, if any intervening impurity, consequent on a birth or&#xA;  death, takes place, in the celebration of a marriage, festivity, or a&#xA;  sacrifice, &lt;strong&gt;determined upon before&lt;/strong&gt;. So Atri has said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As regards proving the fact that Sandhya-Rites can still be performed during these Asuchi days, we can quote from the book &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjfoo2OnN7WAhVGqo8KHV_7DjIQFggnMAA&amp;amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kamakoti.org%2Fkamakoti%2Farticles%2FDharma%2520Bindu.pdf&amp;amp;usg=AOvVaw0eZP6o3ks_x7jsfchJG4X7&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sutake mritakechaiva Sandhyaakarma samaacharet &lt;br&gt; Manasocchhaarayet&#xA;  mantraan praanaayaamaadrute | &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sandhyopaasana needs to be performed both during ‘Jaataashoucha’or&#xA;  ‘Mritaashoucha’ or Ashuddhi on account of births or deaths, by maanaso&#xA;  cchaarana or recitation of mantras mentally without resorting to pranaayama, confirms Pulastya Maharshi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyaasa too states: Prakshipet sutaket arghyam Gayatreem&#xA;  samuccharan,&lt;br&gt; Datvaa pradakshi - nam kuryaat Suryam dhyaayet&#xA;  dvijottaamah,&lt;br&gt; Dasha krutastu Gayatreem manasaiva Shuchih smaret&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;During Jaataashoucha too, a Dvija could recite Gayatri and perform by&#xA;  way of Surya dhyaana pradakshinas. &lt;strong&gt;During the ten days of Ashuchi,&#xA;  Gayatri should be recited by one’s own mind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-07T09:52:38.893" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T09:52:38.893" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21390" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-07T10:38:34.883" Score="1" ViewCount="50" Body="&lt;p&gt;When I entered a temple, I saw people ringing the bell, and also Hindus keep  small  bells in their houses, which they ring during worship. What is reason behind it, and also notice about &quot;dhup&quot; ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8928" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T02:43:59.963" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T02:43:59.963" Title="Why to ring bell while entering temples?" Tags="|temple|worship|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-10-07T11:35:10.087" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21391" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11185" CreationDate="2017-10-07T11:09:46.913" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes it's of course a mythological saying that we shouldn't pluck tulsi leaves after sundown. As we go in deep ,we can see that all the mythological issues have a scientific background.&#xA;After sundown there will be disease causing mosquitoes and some other insects flying. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12217" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T11:09:46.913" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21393" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-07T19:23:57.000" Score="1" ViewCount="35" Body="&lt;p&gt;In hinduism, if someone has sinned then how can his/her sin be forgiven?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the procedures or practices to get your sin washed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And how will you know that your sin has been forgiven?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12209" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T19:23:57.000" Title="Forgiveness of SIN" Tags="|gods|karma|sin|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-10-08T04:16:07.240" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21394" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-07T22:48:27.833" Score="4" ViewCount="637" Body="&lt;p&gt;To begin with first, illusions and hallucinations are different. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusion&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;illusion&lt;/a&gt; is a:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;a distortion of the senses, revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;while a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucination&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;hallucination&lt;/a&gt; is a:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;perception in the absence of external stimulus that has qualities of&#xA;  real perception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A hallucination is basically perception of objects that do not exist.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Vishishtadvaita Vedanta believes that you cannot perceive unreal objects, but only real objects, however limited that perception might be. For example, mistaking a rope for a snake at night or thinking pearls are silver are actually illusions: perceptual distortions of real objects. A rope has &quot;snake-like&quot; qualities, and due to limited perception, you see the rope as a snake, but upon closer inspection, you see it's just a rope. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A hallucination would be experiencing a completely unreal object that cannot be explained through an illusion. For example, some people who take large doses of drugs claim they can see and talk to people who don't actually exist for the duration of the drug intoxication. They claim that while intoxicated, these people are indistinguishable from real people. They say these people aren't real because undrugged people near them say there is actually no one, and also because these fake people vanish when the drug wears off.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Vishishtadvaita Vedanta gives good reasons for why we can't perceive unreal objects. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, are these experiences actually hallucinations or elaborate illusions? If they are illusions, what real object would be mistaken for an actual person? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If they aren't illusions, then is the drug allowing them to see things that they otherwise wouldn't? Could they be seeing ghosts or spirits? They are known to cause people to see things and also have the power to change forms/shapeshift. If this is the case, why do ghosts only appear when people are intoxicated with drugs?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT:&lt;/strong&gt; Could it also be that &quot;hallucinations&quot; is actually the state between wakefulness and dreaming? The Brahma Sutras give 5 states of consciousness: waking, dream, sleep, coma, and God realization. So in these drug-induced trips, could it be that the individuals are awake, but also dreaming, and they combine their dreams with wakeful consciousness, leading to a hallucinogenic trip?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EDIT 2:&lt;/strong&gt; In Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya, this is what Ramanuja says in the Mahasiddhanta part, section 11 &lt;em&gt;All Knowledge Is of the Real&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman alone is the creator of everything in this world, be it in the waking or in the dream state. The waking state is experienced by all souls but the dream world is experienced by the dreaming individual alone as it is meant for him alone and is created by the Lord as a fruit of that particular individual's merit or demerit. &lt;strong&gt;Similarly&lt;/strong&gt; in the waking state also certain things are created by the Lord as are experienced by all, while certain &lt;strong&gt;other things are created in such a way as to be perceived only by particular persons and to last for a limited time only&lt;/strong&gt;, and it is this difference between objects of general perception and objects of perception of particular beings, which makes the difference between things sublating and things sublated. &lt;strong&gt;Thus all perceptions are real and all knowledge is real and there is nothing like unreal object or wrong knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Ramanuja hinting at hallucinations here or illusions?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2017-10-07T23:30:01.317" LastActivityDate="2017-10-07T23:30:01.317" Title="What does Vishishtadvaita Vedanta say about hallucinations?" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|vishishtadvaita|pramana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21395" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3879" CreationDate="2017-10-08T03:05:55.100" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Oh .. Its very simple.. Lord SIVA has TWO wives: &#xA;1. Goddess SHAKTI (sister of Lord VISHNU): First as Sati devi.. Later reborn as Parvati devi&#xA;2. Goddess GANGA (daughter of Lord VISHNU)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main stream Hinduism recognises only these wives.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rest all so called wives are all just various forms either Ansh or Avatar.. Of Goddess Shakti.. And &#xA;Ansh usually have corresponding Shiva Ansh as husband..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Examples:&#xA;Ansh: Chamunda-Chamundi, Chanda-Chandi, Kaal-Kaali, &#xA;All jyotirlinga n shakti peeta etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Avatar: Durga, tripura sundari etc..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ansh is piece of a God/Goddess existing etenally in that said form.&#xA;Avatar is a manifestation for some purpose.. And eventually gets back to original state..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes the main God/Goddess can take avatar as particular ansh form.. Eg: Shakti as Kaali form to kill Mahishasur.. As it yeilds the best output for chosen purpose..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12220" LastEditorUserId="12220" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T03:37:02.017" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T03:37:02.017" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21398" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21385" CreationDate="2017-10-08T06:51:31.480" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm quoting some portions from lectures and discourses of Swami Vivekananda that may be useful regarding the question and may partially answer it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/lectures_and_discourses/the_great_teachers_of_the_world.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;THE GREAT TEACHERS OF THE WORLD&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The nation goes down, and everything seems to go to pieces. Then, again, it gains strength, rises; a huge wave comes, sometimes a tidal wave — and always on the topmost crest of the wave is a shining soul, the Messenger. Creator and created by turns, he is the impetus that makes the wave rise, the nation rise: at the same time, he is created by the same forces which make the wave, acting and interacting by turns. He puts forth his tremendous power upon society; and society makes him what he is. &lt;strong&gt;These are the great world-thinkers. These are the Prophets of the world, the Messengers of life, the Incarnations of God.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The vibration of light is everywhere in this room: why cannot lie see it everywhere? You have to see it only in that lamp. &lt;strong&gt;God is an Omnipresent Principle — everywhere: but we are so constituted at present that we can see Him, feel Him, only in and through a human God.&lt;/strong&gt; And when these great Lights come, then man realises God. And &lt;strong&gt;they come in a different way from what we come.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_4/lectures_and_discourses/my_master.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;MY MASTER&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next desire that seized upon the soul of this man as to know the truth about the various religions. Up to that time he had not known any religion but his own. He wanted to understand what other religions were like. So he sought teachers of other religions. By teachers you must always remember what we mean in India, not a bookworm, but a man of realisation, one who knows truth a; first hand and not through an intermediary. He found a Mohammedan saint and placed himself under him; he underwent the disciplines prescribed by him, and to his astonishment found that when faithfully carried out, these devotional methods led him to the same goal he had already attained. He gathered similar experience from following the true religion of Jesus the Christ. He went to all the sects he could find, and whatever he took up he went into with his whole heart. He did exactly as he was told, and in every instance he arrived at the same result. &lt;strong&gt;Thus from actual experience, he came to know that the goal of every religion is the same, that each is trying to teach the same thing, the difference being largely in method and still more in language.&lt;/strong&gt; At the core, all sects and all religions have the same aim; and they were only quarrelling for their own selfish purposes — they were not anxious about the truth, but about &amp;quot;my name&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;your name&amp;quot;. Two of them preached the same truth, but one of them said, &amp;quot;That cannot be true, because I have not put upon it the seal of my name. Therefore do not listen to him.&amp;quot; And the other man said, &amp;quot;Do not hear him, although he is preaching very much the same thing, yet it is not true because he does not preach it in my name.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That is what my Master found, and he then set about to learn humility, because he had found that the one idea in all religions is, &amp;quot;not me, but Thou&amp;quot;, and he who says, &amp;quot;not me&amp;quot;, the Lord fills his heart. The less of this little &amp;quot;I&amp;quot; the more of God there is in him. That he found to be the truth in every religion in the world, and he set himself to accomplish this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, according to Vivekanada yes, fundamentally all comes from the absolute truth and when people say they're not same or fight among them are either due to politics or due to ignorance that they don't know the true meaning of Dharma and God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T06:51:31.480" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21399" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16475" CreationDate="2017-10-08T07:22:29.257" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per scriptures, it is necessary to wear an upper-garment while participating in sacred rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He shall carry a bamboo staff and a pot filled with water; wear a double&#xA;  sacrificial cord ( this verse is repeated in Apashthamba too)&#xA;  ,  a turban, &lt;strong&gt;a skin as an upper garment&lt;/strong&gt;, and shoes; carry an umbrella; maintain the sacred domestic fire; and offer the&#xA;  new-moon and full-moon sacrifices. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BD 1.5.13&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that, wearing the sacred thread (for those who are initiated) and an upper garment (for everyone) are both necessary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He should wear an upper garment during these five activities&lt;/strong&gt;: private&#xA;  vedic recitation, voiding urine and excrement, giving a gift, eating,&#xA;  and sipping water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BD 2.7.11&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the upper garment has to be worn in a particular fashion as stated in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When he is paying his respects to elders , offering sacrifices and&#xA;  softly reciting prayers;* and when he is eating, sipping water, and&#xA;  doing his private vedic recitation, &lt;strong&gt;he should wear his upper garment&#xA;  over his left shoulder and under his right arm&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AD 1.15.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ideally, the upper garments are made from skins of certain animals as stated below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Brahmin’s girdle should be made of Muñja grass, Ksatriya’s of a&#xA;  bowstring, and a Vaisya’s of hemp thread.  &lt;strong&gt;Brahmin’s upper garment&#xA;  should be the skin of a black antelope, a Ksatriya’s the skin of the&#xA;  spotted Ruru antelope,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VD 11.79&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, as a substitute for the  upper garment made from skin, using simply a cord (or any piece of cloth like a towel for example) is allowed as per the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He should always wear an upper garment or, &lt;strong&gt;in place of that garment,&#xA;  wear just a cord slung over his left shoulder and under his right arm.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AD 2.4.25&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is not that the shawl or the towel or any piece of cloth becomes the substitute for the sacred thread. &lt;strong&gt;It is simply playing the role of an upper-garment, wearing which in a particular manner is mandatory in religious rites&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the persons who are not wearing sacred threads are also allowed to participate in religious rites. But the rule of wearing the upper garment in that particular fashion still remains the same for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abbreviations used&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AD- The Dharmasutras of Apasthambha&lt;br&gt; BD- The Dharmasutras of BaudhAyana&lt;br&gt; VD- The Dharmasutras of Vashishtha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T08:01:31.917" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T08:01:31.917" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21400" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21414" CreationDate="2017-10-08T07:59:46.367" Score="3" ViewCount="435" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the famous sayings of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigamananda_Paramahansa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nigamananda Paramahansa&lt;/a&gt; was: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;''Shonkoracharyar moth Choitonyor poth''&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which roughly translates as ''Shankaracharya's teachings are Chaitanya's path''.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the teachings of Adi Shankaracharya and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu seem to differ to a great extent. What is the logic and explanation behind this saying of Nigamananda Paramahansa? Did Nigamananda himself elaborate on this saying? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-03-06T16:58:06.500" LastActivityDate="2019-03-06T16:58:06.500" Title="Why did Nigamananda Paramahansa say Adi Shankaracharya's teachings were Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's path?" Tags="|adi-shankaracharya|chaitanya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21401" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21330" CreationDate="2017-10-08T08:11:21.293" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sage Lagadha in Vedanga Jyotisha says Uttarayan was situated in in Sravistaa Nakshatra (293.20deg to 306.40deg) during his time. Currently Uttarayan is taking place in Moola Nakshatra beginning i.e 210deg. Uttarayana will stay in a nakshatra for approx 1000 years. The time of Sage Lagadha was actually 4000 to 5000 year back from now. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T08:11:21.293" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21405" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21417" CreationDate="2017-10-08T12:40:50.017" Score="5" ViewCount="1775" Body="&lt;p&gt;What was the name of the demon who said to Lord Krishna that &quot;I can finish the &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata war&lt;/strong&gt;  just in &lt;em&gt;second&lt;/em&gt;, but I need your Permissions&quot;? &amp;amp; then Lord Krishna didn't allow him to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12224" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T14:47:36.900" LastActivityDate="2017-10-09T03:24:49.443" Title="Name of the Demon who can finish the Mahabharatha in just a second?" Tags="|mahabharata|krishna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21406" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21418" CreationDate="2017-10-08T12:44:26.173" Score="7" ViewCount="2480" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2053/what-is-maya-and-why-is-it-there&quot;&gt;Refer what is Maya here&lt;/a&gt; It has acquired almost everyone in this world. Consider me as one of the worst cases. I am willing to control &quot;Maya&quot; and attain at-least consciousness. I know attaining moksha may take several seconds/minutes/hours/years etc.,  at-least I need to control it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are all the ways to control Maya and attain consciousness. I am willing to pray god regularly but due to Maya I cannot full fill my prayers, is there any mantra you would recommend? are there any practices? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4500" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-08T16:55:58.363" LastActivityDate="2018-03-07T11:50:20.970" Title="How to overcome maya?" Tags="|maya|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21407" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-08T12:47:55.940" Score="2" ViewCount="1013" Body="&lt;p&gt;By taking the year of gods i.e 360 earth years we get a huge time frame of 360*1200 = 432000 years for Kaliyuga. Are we not making God a material being by assigning such numbers which could also mean that Gods are also subject to birth and death cycle. God is supposed to be omnipresent. kindly share your thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastActivityDate="2021-12-12T13:22:32.040" Title="Why the year of the gods are taken as divine years for yuga calculations?" Tags="|gods|yuga|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21408" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21406" CreationDate="2017-10-08T15:50:17.993" Score="4" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maya is not the problem, Ignorance or wrong identification is the problem. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;There are neither any ways to control Maya nor any need. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;You want to control MAyA or &lt;code&gt;attain at-least consciousness.&lt;/code&gt; I repeat, &lt;code&gt;at-least&lt;/code&gt; , Can you tell how it is at least when it is everything.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;I want to attain consciousness&lt;/code&gt; is like saying of waves in water that they want to become water. See, if waves lose their identification of being wave, they are already water. This is the way... Liberation is never of the person, it is from the person. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are broadly three techniques for liberation in Kashmiri Shaivism namely- ShAmbhavopAye, ShAktopAye &amp;amp; AnavoppAye. Personally, I would suggest you to start from AnavopAye but herein I am summarizing ShAmbhavopAye technique just to initially theorize the fact that what we are looking for is already we are as Kabir Das said - &quot;I cry because I see fishes are thirsty.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this highest state of supreme God consciousness [anuttara] there is no need of spiritual progress, no contemplation, no art of expression, no investigation, no meditation, no concentration, no recitation, exertion or practice. Tell me then, what is the supreme and well-ascertained truth? Listen indeed to this! Neither abandon nor accept anything, enjoy everything, remain as you are! A.A-1 &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In reality there is no such thing as birth and death, so how can the question arise of bondage for living beings? There never was any such bondage for the one who is entirely free, and therefore, to struggle for liberation is useless and nothing more than delusion–like a dark shadow mistaken for a demon, or a rope seen as a snake. It is all based on deceitful perception which has no substance. Neither abandon nor accept anything, remain as you are, well established in your own Self. A.A-2. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In the oneness of that supreme state of anuttara what talk can there be, and what differentiated path of adorer, adored and adoration? To whom and by what means could a progression function; or what could constitute the succession of penetrating into the Self? Wonder of wonders! Though it appears differentiated this illusion is no other than consciousness–one without a second. Everything is nothing but the pure essence of your own Self-experience, so why worry in vain! A.A-3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T15:50:17.993" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21409" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17399" CreationDate="2017-10-08T16:08:09.973" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vedic gods like Mithra, Varuna and Indra might be found in Zoroastrianism. But it doesn't mean any plagiarism is there between these two religions as many anti-Hindus told today. I am writing this answer from the Vedic perspective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Avestan religion was formed during the political and cultural spirit happened soon after &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Ten_Kings&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the battle of ten kings&lt;/a&gt;. It resulted in the lost of a certain tribes. The losers went to west and spread there. They started Zoroastrianism. Since then everything the Aryans of India had connection with Persia were removed by the tribes who migrated to west. The reactions of the tribes were well known seen in their Avesta itself. Devas especially Indra were responsible for them to retreat of them, So, these Devas became a cheater in Zoroastrianism. But still, the older name for God, &lt;strong&gt;Asura&lt;/strong&gt;(also means omnipotent) remained a divine name in Iranian culture. This may be because Asura not only means omnipotent, but also demon in our religion. That is why their god is called as Ahura Mazda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the core religion of Zoroastrianism should be Anti-Vedic. It is a great myth that Avestan resembles Vedic religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's discuss about the similarities given by you between both religion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Both have fire and fire rituals as its core:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fire rituals are not its core. There is a concept of Yasna(Sanskrit equivalent-Yajna) in Zoroastrianism. But it is usually done using waters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deities like Soma, Mitra, Varuna etc are in both faiths&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think we already discuss about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Avestan resembles Vedic to an extent:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can even say Avestan and Sanskrit are 100% similar. But there is a main huge difference. Language used in the Vedas has no script at all. It is actually like music. Music can be learnt by anyone since there is no language used in it. It all deals with seven Swaras. By learning Swaras, anybody can learn music. Likewise in Vedas too we have 3 Swaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Both have similar customs of sacred thread:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No both of them don't have similar customs of sacred thread. The Avestan custom is that it can be worn by anyone who has crossed puberty and there is no upper limit. Along with thread, there is a shirt also worn. And finally it is more like waist string than thread.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2018-02-20T06:20:46.173" LastActivityDate="2018-02-20T06:20:46.173" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21410" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21026" CreationDate="2017-10-08T16:12:49.230" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, everything is God. Even right now, in whatever condition you are, in this condition also You are God. Supreme Shiva involves in five activities - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Emanation (Srishti).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Re- Absorption (SamhAra).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Concealment (Vilaye).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Maintenance (Sthiti).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Grace (Anugrah).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, Even after forgetting his real nature, Lord Shiva in the form of Jiva keeps doing these 5 activities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even in this condition (of the empirical&#xA;  self), he (the individual) does the five krtyas&#xA;  (deeds) like Him (i.e. like Siva). Pratyabhijna Hridyam Sutra 10. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Commentary by AchArya KshemrAj&lt;/strong&gt;: When the great Lord who is consciousness (lit. whose form&#xA;  is consciousness) entering into the sphere of the body, prana etc. on the occasion of the attention becoming external, makes&#xA;  objects like blue etc. appear in definite space, time etc. then with&#xA;  reference to appearance in definite space, time etc., &lt;strong&gt;it is His&#xA;  act of emanation (srastrta)&lt;/strong&gt;. With reference to the appearance&#xA;  of the objects in another space, time etc., &lt;strong&gt;it is His act&#xA;  of withdrawal or absorption (samhartrta)&lt;/strong&gt;. With reference&#xA;  to the actual (continuity of the) appearance of blue etc., &lt;strong&gt;it is&#xA;  His act of maintenance (sthdpakata)&lt;/strong&gt;. With reference to&#xA;  its appearance as different, &lt;strong&gt;it is His act of concealment&#xA;  (vilayakarita)&lt;/strong&gt;. With reference to the appearance of every&#xA;  thing as identical with the light (of consciousness), &lt;strong&gt;it is His&#xA;  act of grace (anugrahitrta)&lt;/strong&gt;. As to how the Lord is always&#xA;  the author of the fivefold act, I have extensively demonstrated&#xA;  in Spandasandoha. Thus this authorship of the fivefold act&#xA;  occurring within one's own personal experience, if pursued&#xA;  steadily with firm understanding, reveals the Lord's greatness&#xA;  to the devotee. Therefore, those who always ponder over this&#xA;  (fivefold act of the Lord), knowing the universe as an unfoldment&#xA;  of the essential nature (of consciousness), become&#xA;  liberated in this very life. This is what the (sacred) tradition&#xA;  maintains (ityamnatah).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T16:12:49.230" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21411" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15332" CreationDate="2017-10-08T16:24:19.460" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can try to read: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.indiadivine.org/content/files/file/461-some-missing-chapters-of-world-history-by-pn-oak-pdf/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Some Missing Chapters of World History by P.N. Oak&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't know whether this book is 100% authentic or the author creating histories as he go along. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T16:24:19.460" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21413" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21407" CreationDate="2017-10-08T17:49:23.590" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;By years of the Gods, they mean Devas. Deva, Nara and Asura are the 3 broad classes of beings. Devas are celestials. Everybody is a manifestation of GOD, but Devas are the ones whose consciousness levels are prevalent in the higher Lokas and are closer to illumination and purity, whereas humans (nara) live in the Bhur Loka where we are subject to both illumination and ignorance, hence we suffer as well as receive pleasure. Asuras on the other hand, along with Nagas, live in the Talas, which are situated below Bhur Loka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear son Nārada, know from me that there are seven lower planetary&#xA;  systems out of the total  fourteen. The first planetary system, known&#xA;  as Atala, is situated on the waist; the second, Vitala, is situated on&#xA;  the thighs; the third, Sutala, on the knees; the fourth, Talātala, on&#xA;  the shanks; the fifth, Mahātala, on the ankles; the sixth, Rasātala,&#xA;  on the upper portion of the feet; and the seventh, Pātāla, on the&#xA;  soles of the feet. Thus the virāṭ form of the Lord is full of all&#xA;  planetary systems.&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Srimad Bhagavatam 2:5:40-41)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately I could not find the citation for the Lokas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the macrocosmic level, Devas exist externally as a conscious force/vibration/energy in the universe, who can be invoked by mantras. Its these Devas whose time is taken into account while calculating divine years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T17:49:23.590" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21414" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21400" CreationDate="2017-10-08T18:04:20.713" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Technically he didn't mean Shankaracharya's teachings are Chaitanya's path. Its the error in 'wise translation'. He meant that ideally one should follow these 2 things for a full and complete spiritual progression. Knowledge is nothing without Bhakti. One should have the knowledge of Shankara and the Bhakti of Chaitanya. That's what he meant.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T18:04:20.713" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21415" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-08T18:13:49.650" Score="3" ViewCount="327" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for suitable Mata Kali Mantra for those facing tough times and surrounded by people who wish ill (and will do ill when the opportunity strikes) of my family and I.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just wish to protect from dark forces, and help me focus energies on doing positive, beneficial things (without fear of anything or anyone)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And I've been cautioned that Kali mantras are so effective that many times it may bring (temporary) turmoil in one's life. For instance, if someone is wishing for relationship to work out, Mata Kali may destroy it (and allow you to eventually get a better one).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do advise suitable Kali Mantra. As it is, I recite Maha Mrityunjaya mantra, 108 times when I awake, 108 times before I sleep. Was told this is great mantra for those who are scared of unknown things (this is me!). It is certainly relaxing, for sure!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12226" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T18:13:49.650" Title="Suitable Kali Mata Mantra for those facing tough times" Tags="|shiva|mantras|kali|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21416" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21386" CreationDate="2017-10-08T22:18:46.563" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's a three-headed Gandharva.&lt;/strong&gt; I found the story described in greater detail in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books/content?id=YmM8AAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA209&amp;amp;img=1&amp;amp;pgis=1&amp;amp;dq=&amp;quot;three-headed+gandharva&amp;quot;&amp;amp;sig=ACfU3U1ykM7KDPFPI1i2BmxTp4fyX6XaYg&amp;amp;edge=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Jaiminiya Brahmana of the Sama Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fighting for a long time, the gods and the demons achieved no deciding victory. Brihaspati was the chief priest of the gods and Ushanas Kavya the chief priest of the demons. Whatever magic was used from below, the same magic was used from above. As the magic was equal it achieved no deciding victory.  A three-headed Gandharva knew of means to achieve the deciding victory between them. He was distrustful. His palace was a ship floating on water. Indra came to know: &quot;The Three-headed one knows of a means to achieve the deciding victory.&quot; He went up to the Gandharva's wife to find out the means to achieve a deciding victory. He said to her: &quot;Ask your husband whether the gods or or the demons who have been fighting for so long, will win?&quot; While these two were talking together, the three-headed Gandharva returned home. Indra immediately transformed himself into a leech or a reed and hung on the ship's side. Then she asked her husband: &quot;The gods and the demons have been fighting for so long, - who of them will win?&quot; &quot;Not so loud&quot;, he said, &quot;the earth has ears.&quot; Therefore even nowadays people say : &quot;Not so loud, the earth has ears.&quot; &quot;Never mind,&quot; she said, &quot;tell me!&quot; He said: &quot;Both these brahmanas, Brihaspati of the gods and Ushanas Kavya of the demons, know as much as the other. Whatever they both do, produces equal results. Whatever sacrificial offerings are made by one, the same are made by the other. These sacrificial offerings meet and because there is absolute equality, they again separate and disappear. Those, on whose side one of the chief priests goes over, will win.&quot; When Indra heard this, he flew away transformed into a parrot. While he flew away, the Gandharva looked after him and said: &quot;They will win for whose benefit the green one there is flying!&quot; Indra came to Ushanas Kavya who lived with the demons. He said to him: &quot;Sage, what sort of people do you support here? You belong to us and we to you. Join us!&quot; &quot;On what conditions?&quot; he said, &quot;What have you got to offer?&quot; &quot;I have the wishing-cows of Virochana Prahladi to offer.&quot; With the words &quot;Off then,&quot; they both ran away taking the cows along. The demons followed them. They came nearer and nearer to them. Then Indra said : &quot;Sage, the demons have come quite close to us. Arrange it so that they do not overtake us.&quot; Both of them then recited the rik-stanza: &quot;The brilliant drop, well provided with arms, purifies itself, destroying bewitchments, protecting cattle, providing father of the gods, pillar of Heaven, support of the earth.&quot; With it they erected a pillar right up to heaven.  The demons could not come over it. They reached the gods along with the cows. When they had arrived, Usanas Kavya praised himself and Indra with the rik-stanza: &quot;The inspired sage, the prince of the people, a skillful Ribhu, an Ushanas in magic: he discovered the concealed, hidden, secret name of these cows.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm still not sure what the Gandharva's name is, but he has three heads so he's not Surya the Sun god as I had suspected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's also interesting that this description of the story doesn't mention Indra having an affair with the Gandhar's wife.  And this description makes clearer why Indra went to Sukracharya; it was to bring him to his side by offering him the cows of Prahlada's son Virochana.  (I'm not sure how he got Virochana's cows.) This may relate to the Rig Veda verses quoted in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3527/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; which suggest that Sukracharya was on the side of the gods at some point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-10-08T22:18:46.563" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21417" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21405" CreationDate="2017-10-09T02:40:15.057" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I hope this might be what you are looking for. It is from Wikipedia. Better citation from a specific edition of the MHB would be appreciated But I could not find it Without a few weeks of deeper research. Hope this is of help to steer you in the direction of your choice. Blessings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarika#Barbarika_.28Belarsen.29_and_his_dialog_with_Krishna&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Barbarika (Belarsen) and his dialog with Krishna&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Barbarika alias Khatushyamji Baliyadev alias Shyam was a grandson of&#xA;  Bhima (second of the Pandava brothers), and the son of Ghatotkacha.&#xA;  Ghatotkacha was the son of Bhima and Hidimbi. Even in his childhood,&#xA;  Barbarika was a very brave warrior. He learnt the art of warfare from&#xA;  his mother. The gods (ashtadeva) gave him the three infallible&#xA;  arrows.[3] Hence, Barbarika came to be known as &quot;Bearer of Three&#xA;  Arrows&quot;. When Barbarika learnt that battle between the Pandavas and&#xA;  the Kauravas had become inevitable, he wanted to witness what was to&#xA;  be the Mahābhārata War. He promised his mother that if he felt the&#xA;  urge to participate in the battle, he would join the side which would&#xA;  be losing. He rode to the field on his Blue Horse equipped with his&#xA;  three arrows and bow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Before the Mahabharata war began, Lord Krishna asked all the Pandavas&#xA;  how many days they would take to finish Mahabharata war alone. Bhishma&#xA;  answered that he would take 20 days to finish the war. Dronacharya&#xA;  replied that it would take him 25 days. When Karna was asked, he said&#xA;  he would take 24 days. Arjuna told Krishna it would take 28 days for&#xA;  him to complete the battle by himself. In this manner, Lord Krishna&#xA;  asked each warrior and received an answer.[citation needed]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Krishna disguised as a Brahmin, stopped Barbarika to examine his&#xA;  strength. When asked how many days he would take to finish the war&#xA;  alone, Barbarika answered that he could finish it in one minute.&#xA;  Krishna then asked Barbarika how he'd finish the great battle with&#xA;  just three arrows. Barbarika replied that a single arrow was enough to&#xA;  destroy all his opponents in the war, and it would then return to his&#xA;  quiver. He stated that, the first arrow is used to mark all the things&#xA;  that he wants to destroy. If he uses the second arrow, then the second&#xA;  arrow will mark all the things that he wants to save. On using the&#xA;  third arrow, it will destroy all the things that are not marked and&#xA;  then return to his quiver. In other words, with one arrow he can fix&#xA;  all his targets and with the other he can destroy them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9772" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-10-09T03:24:49.443" LastActivityDate="2017-10-09T03:24:49.443" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21418" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21406" CreationDate="2017-10-09T05:17:39.410" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;satsangatve nissangatvam &lt;br&gt; &#xA;   nissangatve nirmOhatvam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   nirmOhatve nizcala tatvam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;   nizcala tatve jIvanmuktiH&quot;&lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;-Sankaracharya in bhaja govindam. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second line in the above verse is what you are looking for. Sankara says release from attachment progresses one towards overcoming maya and such non-attachment is achieved through continuous company of the pious. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation of the whole sloka is given in the linked answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7697/1195&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/7697/1195&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-10-22T03:29:02.437" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T03:29:02.437" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21419" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-09T06:15:35.413" Score="6" ViewCount="601" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.12 - But certainly never was a time, when I did not exist, nor you, nor these rulers of men. And surely it is not that we all shall cease to exist after this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read this line &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20415/when-brahmas-day-ends-and-a-new-day-starts-does-the-previous-day-repeat-itself&quot;&gt;on this answer&lt;/a&gt; and it's stated that meaning of this line is that we all exist earlier also. This line is shown as proof that Cycle repeates same evens on each day of Brahma. Means I will be asking this same question on next day of Brahma also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is some points which are contradicting with my information. For ex. It is said in same answer that &quot;&lt;em&gt;whatever Shri Rama, Krishna, Shankara, Ganesha did during their live, exactly same things they will do in the next day of Brahma as well.&lt;/em&gt;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the above mentioned statement about Rama/Krishna/Ganesha is true then this should also be true in case of Parvati... Isn't it? Because Parvati took birth as daughter of Haimalya. So that's mean She will take birth as daughter of Himalya on next day of Brahma also. BUT One day of Brahma is equal to 2 kalplas. So that's simply mean after 2 kampas Parvati will take birth as daghter of Himalya again. And She will continue to take birth as daughter of Himalya after every 2 kalpas(One brahma's day).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is one more fact that is conflictin with this. In post &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/21030/what-is-the-lifetime-of-parvati-and-present-age-of-her&quot;&gt;What is the lifetime of parvati and present age of her?&lt;/a&gt; the asnwer given that Parvati's lifetime is &lt;strong&gt;6 months in the life of Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;. Now question here is that if Parvati will take birth as daughter of Himalya on every day of Brahma(after each 2 kalpa) then how her age can be six month of Brahma(aprox 360 kalpas)? Those two points/answers are contradicting with each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more points can be found in which this theory(same events repeat on each day of Brahma) can leave so many questions and seems fake. Like Sati incident din't happened in this kalpa. I don't know in which Kalpa but no existance of Sati now and Parvati exist instead in this kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So by the above contradiction I conclude that meaning of above mentioned line is not what claimed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20415/when-brahmas-day-ends-and-a-new-day-starts-does-the-previous-day-repeat-itself&quot;&gt;this post&lt;/a&gt;. It must be some other meaning and need to find out. The correct meaning must not contradicting with any of other fact. Brahma's one day fact is also contradicting with other fact that Moksha is permanet state. So please give your views about it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-10-09T08:01:34.550" LastActivityDate="2023-01-14T10:12:01.433" Title="Does following line states Brahma repeats same incidents everyday?" Tags="|brahma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21420" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21406" CreationDate="2017-10-09T06:22:28.203" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I am willing to pray god regularly but due to Maya I cannot full fill&#xA;  my prayers&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can not understand why is it so. We all (everyone that is) live within the clutches of MAyA but still we can offer prayers and get them fulfilled (at least some or many among us can). Then why can't you? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think you need to define exactly what you mean by MAyA in this question. Because MAyA is a scriptural term, and so if you do not define it, the answers will be based on the scriptural usages of the term.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, coming to MAyA, it is too powerful. Its like an weapon (the PashA) that ParAshakti ( the power of Parabrahman) holds in her hands. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is so powerful that everyone including Rishis, Gods and even the Trinities get deluded by it. Then who are we to overcome it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The definition of MahAmAyA is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahati chAsau mAyA cheti mahAmAyA |&lt;br&gt; BrahmA vishnu shivAdinAm&#xA;  mohajanakatvAt mahAmAyA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The MAyA that is great is called MAhAmAyA. Since it deludes even the&#xA;  Trinities- Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva, it has been so called.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another definition of MAyA:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Saiva mAyA prakritiryA sammohati shankaram |&lt;br&gt; Harim tathA&#xA;  virinchincha tathaivAnyAmshcha nirjjarAn ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Prakriti, which deludes Brahma, Vishnu and Shankara and other Gods,&#xA;  is known as MAyA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;YAmala Tantram.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if it is so powerful that even the Trinities are affected by it, how can we ordinary mortals overcome it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, there is a way. It seems very easy when we simply hear it but how much difficult it is to practically achieve it is for them to say who tried their hands at it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dve pade vandhamokshAya mameti nirmameti cha |&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Mameti vAdyate&#xA;  janturna nirmameti vimuchyate ||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mama (Mine) and Nir-Mama (Not Mine)- These two words are respectively&#xA;  the indicators of Bandhana (bondage due to illusion) and Moksha&#xA;  (liberation from bondage). The thought &quot;Mine&quot; binds the Jiva, but the&#xA;  thought &quot;Not-Mine&quot; liberates it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 1.112&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, when you think &quot; I am the owner&quot;, &quot; I am the one who enjoys/suffers&quot;, &quot;My wealth&quot;, &quot;My son&quot;, &quot;My wife&quot;, &quot;My friends&quot;  etc you are still under the clutches of MAyA. And, when you are able to do exactly the opposite of the above then you are liberated. In other words, when you are devoid of the &lt;strong&gt;I-Ahamakara&lt;/strong&gt; you are said to have successfully overcome what you call MAYA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-09T12:15:05.463" LastActivityDate="2017-10-09T12:15:05.463" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21421" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="55751" CreationDate="2017-10-09T06:40:22.950" Score="17" ViewCount="854" Body="&lt;p&gt;The festival of &lt;strong&gt;Diwali&lt;/strong&gt; is associated with many legends:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The first day of &lt;strong&gt;Dhan Trayodashi&lt;/strong&gt; is the day when Goddess Lakshmi appeared from the Samudra Manthan.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Next comes &lt;strong&gt;Narak Chaturdashi&lt;/strong&gt; is when Lord Krishna killed the demon Narkasur.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The next day of Amavasya celebrated as &lt;strong&gt;Deep-awali&lt;/strong&gt; is when Lord Rama and Sita returned to Ayodhya after defeating Ravan. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;This is followed by &lt;strong&gt;Govardhan Puja&lt;/strong&gt; or Annakut on the next day.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The final day of the festival is &lt;strong&gt;Bhai-duj&lt;/strong&gt; which is also called &lt;strong&gt;Yamadvitiya&lt;/strong&gt; since it is associated with Yama, the god of Death and his sister Yamuna the second day after new moon.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chronologically, I guess the Samudra Manthan episode could have come first followed by the Yam-Yamuna episode; then the Ramayan episode and finally the two days related to Krishna. &lt;strong&gt;My question is, which is the oldest reference to each of these celebrations?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T08:30:30.273" LastActivityDate="2023-07-14T06:55:50.697" Title="Which is the oldest scriptural reference for Diwali?" Tags="|krishna|rama|festivals|lakshmi|yama|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21422" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21434" CreationDate="2017-10-09T09:47:42.070" Score="4" ViewCount="430" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Adi Shankara, Nirguna Brahman is a God who without any attributes. According to Ramanuja and Chaitanya, it is a God without negative qualities. What is the definition of Nirguna Brahman according to the following Vaishnava acharyas?:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nimbarka, the propounder of Dvaitadvaita Vedanta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Madhva, the propounder of Dvaita Vedanta&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-12-22T16:50:55.630" LastActivityDate="2017-12-22T16:50:55.630" Title="What is the definition of Nirguna Brahman according to Dvaitadvaita &amp; Dvaita?" Tags="|vedanta|brahman|dvaita|madhvacharya|nimbarkacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21423" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-09T09:47:57.070" Score="3" ViewCount="60" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Dvaita philosophy, Jivatma reaches to Parmatma loka to attain moksha. However it is not clear what will be the duties of Jivatma towards the Parmatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After moksha,what are duties of Jivatma towards the Parmatma?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What happens to the Jivatmas in Vaikuntha when Parmatma leaves Vaikuntha to reincarnate on Earth?(for example Krishna reincarnated on Earth leaving his abode to fulfill his karma.Do the Jivatmas following Parmatma also reincarnate on Earth?)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="12047" LastEditDate="2017-10-09T10:14:59.223" LastActivityDate="2017-10-09T10:14:59.223" Title="According to Dvaita philosophy,what are the duties of Vaishnava in Vaikuntha?" Tags="|philosophy|vaishnavism|dvaita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2017-10-23T06:20:10.107" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21424" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21427" CreationDate="2017-10-09T12:32:31.930" Score="4" ViewCount="660" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding, according to Dvaita philosophy Jivatma enters the Vaikuntha Loka but the Jivatma doesn't become Paramatma. It is also known that in Vaikuntha loka the primary duty of Jivatma is to pray to the Paramatma.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/6/30&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; Paramatma says that :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never&#xA;  lost, nor is he ever lost to Me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose me and my friend enter the Vaikuntha. We both pray to the Paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Will my friend be able to see and hear me in Vaikuntha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, will my friend see and hear me as Parmatma or Jeevatma?(In other words will my friend consider me a Jeevatma or Parmatma?)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally, if my friend will be able to see and hear me in Vaikuntha Loka then can we say that Jeevatma can see and hear without the physical body?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T04:19:09.977" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T04:19:09.977" Title="According to Dvaita philosophy, how does a Jivatma view another Jivatma in Vaikuntha?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|atma|dvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21425" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21211" CreationDate="2017-10-09T12:34:31.193" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;No the two are not the same and wikipedia is actually right on this point. According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt from the Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt; they are certainly different:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the-three worlds are but one mighty ocean, Brahmá, who is one with Náráyańa, satiate with the demolition of the universe, sleeps upon his serpent-bed--contemplated, the lotus born, by the ascetic inhabitants of the Janaloka--for a night of equal duration with his day; at the close of which he creates anew. Of such days and nights is a year of Brahmá composed; and a hundred such years constitute his whole life. &lt;strong&gt;One Parárddha, or half his existence, has expired, terminating with the Mahá Kalpa called Pádma. The Kalpa termed Váráha is the first of the second period of Brahmá's existence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-09T14:53:06.933" LastActivityDate="2017-10-09T14:53:06.933" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21426" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20798" CreationDate="2017-10-09T13:41:08.890" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;You said &quot; &lt;strong&gt;Whatever I have learned so far in Advaita is that all the forms of God are illusory and that only Nirguna Brahman is the Original Brahman (I may be wrong)&lt;/strong&gt;. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes. All forms of Gods are illusory &lt;strong&gt;but only for the realized (or at absolute level)&lt;/strong&gt;, as per Advaita. When living in this world for normal jivas, world doesn't become illusion all of a sudden. For example, you can't live without eating food though  world is unreal in reality. One must do their dharma (duties) based on their respective &lt;em&gt;Varna&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;ashrama&lt;/em&gt;, when they are &lt;em&gt;sadhakas&lt;/em&gt; or in unrealized state. As per Advaita Vedanta, &lt;strong&gt;in reality&lt;/strong&gt; world is illusion but here unrealized know that &lt;strong&gt;fact&lt;/strong&gt; (world is unreal at absolute  or &lt;em&gt;paramarthika&lt;/em&gt; level) but still they feel world as real. After realization, they know or feel world as illusion including all forms of Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand in detail, read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11149/3500&quot;&gt;According to ShankarAchArya in Advaita, is the universe “unreal” or “unworthy”?&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19930/3500&quot;&gt;World is real even according to Advait Vedanta?&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;World is real at Vyavaharika level and unreal at Paramarthika level&lt;/strong&gt;, as per Adishankara Advaita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad gita 7.24 says ignorants don't know  Brahman's highest state which is immutable and unsurpassable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Adi Shankara says on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7.24&lt;/strong&gt;. The foolish regard Me as the unmanifested coming into manifestation, knowing not My higher, immutable, unsurpassed nature&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Commentary&lt;/strong&gt;: Not knowing my higher nature as the Supreme Self, the ignorant&#xA;  think that I have just now come into manifestation, having been&#xA;  unmanifested hitherto, though I am the ever luminous Lord. To what is&#xA;  their ignorance due ?—Listen&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We must also know next verse to know proper meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7.25&lt;/strong&gt;. I am not manifest to all, veiled (as I am) by Yoga-Maya. This deluded world knows not Me, unborn and imperishable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Commentary&lt;/strong&gt;: I am not manifest to all people ; that is to say, I am manifest only to a few who are my devotees. I am veiled by Yoga- Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yoga- Maya is the Maya which is none other than the Yoga or union of&#xA;  the three gunas.—Or, Yoga is the firm will of the Lord or Isvara. The&#xA;  Illusion or veil thereby spread is called Yoga-Maya.—Wherefore people&#xA;  are deluded and know Me not as unborn and imperishable. That Yoga-Maya&#xA;  by which I am veiled and on account of which people do not recognise&#xA;  Me, is Mine, i. c, subject to My control, and, as such, it cannot&#xA;  obstruct My knowledge— the knowledge of the Isvara, of the possessor&#xA;  (or wielder) of the Maya, just as the glamour (maya) caused by a&#xA;  juggler (mayavin) does not obstruct his own knowledge. .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In 7.24, Krishna (Brahman) says His highest form or unmanifest form is not known to ignorants and also He says his true devotees only knows His manifest form and deluded people don't know His highest form, in next verse. This doesn't contradict World being unreal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2020-05-13T17:13:52.557" LastActivityDate="2020-05-13T17:13:52.557" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21427" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21424" CreationDate="2017-10-09T14:44:18.950" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;After you transcend the physical realm, verbal communication becomes redundant. People communicate through thoughts, and once Vaikuntha is reached, the only language known to them is &quot;prema&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically they say that once in Vaikuntha, the soul acquires bodies of Vishnu and are with their consorts, in eternal bhakti towards the &quot;real&quot; Vishnu. Here &quot;real&quot; is within quotes because unlike Advaita, Dvaita says that jivatma and Paramatma are never same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Madhya-lila section of the Chaitanya-caritamrita (21.55-57), the spiritual planets are described as larger than we can imagine, larger than any material universe. Each planet is also made of spiritual bliss. All of the inhabitants are associates of the Supreme Lord. And, in Chapter 20 (257-258), the spiritual world is referred to as the abode of the pastimes of the eternal spiritual energy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.15.16–23)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“In those Vaikuntha planets there are many forests which are very&#xA;  auspicious. In those forests the trees are wish-fulfilling trees, and&#xA;  in all seasons they are filled with flowers and fruits because&#xA;  everything in the Vaikuntha planets is spiritual and personal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“In the Vaikuntha planets the inhabitants fly in their airplanes,&#xA;  accompanied by their wives and consorts, and eternally sing of the&#xA;  character and activities of the Lord, which are always devoid of all&#xA;  inauspicious qualities. While singing the glories of the Lord, they&#xA;  deride even the presence of the blossoming madhavi flowers, which are&#xA;  fragrant and laden with honey.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“When the king of bees hums in a high pitch, singing the glories of&#xA;  the Lord, there is a temporary lull in the noise of the pigeon, the&#xA;  cuckoo, the crane, the cakravaka, the swan, the parrot, the partridge,&#xA;  and the peacock. Such transcendental birds stop their own singing&#xA;  simply to hear the glories of the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Although flowering plants like the mandara, kunda, kurabaka, utpala,&#xA;  campaka, arna, punnaga, nagakeshara, bakula, lily, and parijata are&#xA;  full of transcendental fragrance, they are still conscious of the&#xA;  austerities performed by Tulasi, for Tulasi is given special&#xA;  preference by the Lord, who garlands Himself with Tulasi leaves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The inhabitants of Vaikuntha travel in their airplanes made of lapis&#xA;  lazuli, emerald, and gold. Although crowded by their consorts, who&#xA;  have large hips and beautiful smiling faces, the male inhabitants&#xA;  cannot be stimulated to passion by their mirth and beautiful charms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The ladies in the Vaikuntha planets are as beautiful as the goddess&#xA;  of fortune herself. Such transcendentally beautiful ladies, their&#xA;  hands playing with lotuses and their leg bangles tinkling, are&#xA;  sometimes seen sweeping the marble walls, which are bedecked at&#xA;  intervals with golden borders, in order to receive the grace of the&#xA;  Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The goddesses of fortune worship the Lord in their own gardens by&#xA;  offering Tulasi leaves on the coral-paved banks of transcendental&#xA;  reservoirs of water. While offering worship to the Lord, they can see&#xA;  on the water the reflection of their beautiful faces with raised&#xA;  noses, and it appears that they have become more beautiful because of&#xA;  the Lord’s kissing their faces.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“It is very much regrettable that unfortunate people do not discuss&#xA;  the description of the Vaikuntha planets.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this way we can understand that the spiritual realm is not some form of nothingness, as some people may imagine. It is further described that there are millions of Vaikuntha planets, each with a form or expansion of the Supreme Being who resides on it. Each resident of the spiritual world goes to whichever planet has the form of God to which he or she is most attracted. Each Vaikuntha planet is self-effulgent, and many millions of times brighter than the sun. Material time and the modes of nature have no influence in the spiritual realm. There is no birth, death, old age, or disease, and no past, present, or future. Time is conspicuous by its absence. Everything, including the homes, trees, animals, and plants, are all eternal. It is full of beauty and bliss.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So to answer your question, once you reach Vaiktuntha, you and your friend will lose the identity of you and your friend, which was there only in the material realm. This is because you'll lose all your ego, and become one with the Supreme Lord. You'll also form a sense of Oneness with every other jivatma around you, knowing yourself as nothing but a spark of the Lord's energy, which ultimately converges into the Lord Himself, knowing your true identity as the Absolute Consciousness - Brahman, who is formless, yet are all forms contained in it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;P.S. For those of you confused with my mixing of philosophies, please note that I categorize myself to be an Advaitin Vaishnava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-09T14:54:59.733" LastActivityDate="2017-10-09T14:54:59.733" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21428" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="34506" CreationDate="2017-10-09T14:44:25.047" Score="15" ViewCount="570" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'm reading the Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as I understand, in chapter 3, the importance of right action / good work is highlighted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna says something along the lines of, whatever great people do, others will follow them, so, one ought to work in order to set a good example to others:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.22 For me, Arjuna, there is nothing in all the three worlds which ought to be done, nor is there anything unacquired that ought to be acquired. Yet I go on working. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;(this translation and the next by Swami Adidevananda)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna explains to Arjuna what action &lt;em&gt;he&lt;/em&gt; should be taking earlier in the text; that's clear. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What I'm wondering about is how a person studying the text should tell what the right work for them is. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse especially troubles me, because it suggests that the right work is not necessarily the thing one happens to be good at:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.35 Better is one's own duty, though ill-done, than the duty of another well-performed. Better is death in one's own duty; the duty of another is fraught with fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, action should be taken without attachment to the fruits of action (discussed in chapter 2 also, but for the sake of keeping things contained):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3.19 Therefore do thy duty perfectly, without care for the results, for he who does his duty disinterestedly attains the Supreme. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;(translation by Sri Purohit Swami)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So considering which work is likely to have the best direct results seems unhelpful too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, how do I know what work is right for me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9250" LastActivityDate="2019-04-20T17:23:11.613" Title="How do I know what is the right kind of work for me?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21430" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20798" CreationDate="2017-10-09T16:30:35.960" Score="7" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;However, this seems that the forms of God are real.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, it doesn't mean that. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...was impersonal before and have now assumed this personality...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;says that Brahman wasn't impersonal only before, he is still impersonal i.e the assumption of personality is wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually the higher nature of Brahman is imperishable (From Kena Upanishad 2.3 to 2.8 Brahman is not the subject of/for mind, speech, eye etc. &amp;amp; from Taittariya Upanishad (2.4.1 and 2.9.1) यतो वाचो निवर्तन्ते । अप्राप्य मनसा सह ।)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anything is called Sat (सत्) only if it exist (and remains constant) in all the three periods of time (past,current &amp;amp; future) i.e त्रिकालाबाध सत्य. In Advaitin saying &quot;Brahma Satyam&quot; it also means that Brahman is not subjected to change or transformations. (Paramarthika level, GK 2.32) So, manifestation would be unreal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suggest you to read verse 8.20:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परस्तस्मात्तु भावोऽन्योऽव्यक्तोऽव्यक्तात्सनातनः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यः स सर्वेषु भूतेषु नश्यत्सु न विनश्यति।।8.20।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8.20 But distinct from that Unmanifested is the other eternal unmainfest Reality, who does not get destroyed when all beings get destroyed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-09T18:26:39.727" LastActivityDate="2017-10-09T18:26:39.727" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21431" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-09T17:10:05.407" Score="12" ViewCount="753" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Wikipedia, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Golden Rule&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;em&gt;treat others as you treat yourself&lt;/em&gt;, is common to most world religions. Here are a couple of references from Hindu scripture:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self. This, in brief, is the rule of dharma. Other behavior is due to selfish desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— Brihaspati, Mahabharata (Anusasana Parva, Section CXIII, Verse 8)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रूयतां धर्मसर्वस्वं श्रुत्वा चाप्यवधार्यताम्। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;आत्मनः प्रतिकूलानि परेषां न समाचरेत्।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the entire Dharma can be said in a few words, then it is—that which is unfavorable to us, do not do that to others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— Padmapuraana, shrushti 19/357–358&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What other/all Hindu scriptures advocate this &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Golden Rule&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is the oldest Hindu scripture to advocate it? Do the Vedas (saṃhitas) mention this rule?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T13:13:14.793" Title="What all Hindu scriptures advocate The Golden Rule? And what is the oldest Hindu scripture to advocate it?" Tags="|mahabharata|vedas|puranas|dharma|upanishads|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21432" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21435" CreationDate="2017-10-09T18:22:50.037" Score="4" ViewCount="254" Body="&lt;p&gt;I've heard the following verse before in a couple of spiritual discourses but more recently found it in &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.284245/2015.284245.The-Cultural#page/n83/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Cultural Heritage of India Volume II - Itihāsas, Purāṇas, Dharma and Other Śāstras&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; in written form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who says this verse and in what context? I'm assuming it's Vyāsa but I could be wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;THE CHARACTER OF THE MAHĀBHĀRATA&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Matthew Arnold, defining the epic form of poetry, said that the main&#xA;  story must relate to high personages and that its language and metre&#xA;  should be simple and dignified. It should contain vigorous dialogues. It&#xA;  should have interludes in the form of episodes. It must have a high and noble purpose. In the light of this definition, we can surely call the&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;Mahābhārata&lt;/em&gt; an epic &lt;em&gt;par excellence&lt;/em&gt;. The story relates to high personages&#xA;  belonging to the hallowed race of the Bharatas of high antiquity. The&#xA;  metres employed in the epic are simple, being mostly &lt;em&gt;anuṣṭubh&lt;/em&gt; and&#xA;  &lt;em&gt;triṣṭubh&lt;/em&gt; and the language used is simple, sonorous, and dignified. There are&#xA;  a number of racy dialogues here and there, and a large number of episodes.&#xA;  The moral objective Of the work is propagation of the Eternal Law,&#xA;  covering the four human values — &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;artha&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;kāma&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;mokṣa&lt;/em&gt;. Of&#xA;  these, the first is to be regarded as the most valuable treasure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In fact, the note of &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; permeates the entire poem, and is concisely expressed in the famous couplet:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ūrdhvabāhur-viraumyeṣa na ca kaścit śṛṇoti mām,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Dharmād arthaśca kāmaśca sa dharmaḥ kiṃ na sevyate?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The introductory chapter of the epic narrates in detail several other&#xA;  objectives — one of which is being an eternal source of inspiration to future&#xA;  poets; but &lt;em&gt;dharma&lt;/em&gt; is the supreme teaching of this epic, and so it is rightly&#xA;  regarded as the fifth Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T04:36:44.860" Title="Who says this verse in the Mahābhārata and in what context?" Tags="|mahabharata|dharma|shloka|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21433" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-09T19:04:42.497" Score="5" ViewCount="433" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.transliteral.org/pages/z110216211706/view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Balakanda&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Rama-Charitmanasa&lt;/strong&gt; there's this famous story of Manu and Shatarupa's penance to Vishnu (Rama). Manu asks Vishnu to be born as his son. Shatarupa asks for unending devotion to Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Doha - 148 The compassionate Lord then said, &quot;knowing that I am highly&#xA;  pleased with you and recognizing Me as a great donor, ask whatever&#xA;  boon you will.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Doha - 149 &quot;O crest -jewel of donors , O gracious lord , I tell You my&#xA;  sincere wish : I would have a son like You. I can have nothing to&#xA;  conceal from You .&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chaupala - On seeing his love and hearing his invaluable words, the&#xA;  compassionate Lord said, &quot;Amen But where shall I go find My equal?&#xA;  Myself, O king , shall be a son to you.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then seeing Satarupa with her hands still folded , He said , O good&#xA;  lady . ask whatever boon you please. &quot;O gracious Lord the boon which&#xA;  the clever king has just asked has appealed to me much. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Doha - 150 &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Grant me in Your mercy , O Lord, that very bliss, the same&#xA;  destiny, the same devotion the same attachment to Your feet, the same&#xA;  insight and the same mode of living.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chaupala - Hearing the soft, pregnant, charming and excellent speech&#xA;  of Satarupa, &lt;strong&gt;the gracious Lord gently replied, &quot;Whatever desire you&#xA;  cherish in your mind I have granted; you should have no doubt about it&#xA;  Mother , by My grace your uncommon wisdom shall never fail.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My question is which scripture is this story of Vishnu's boon to Shatarupa?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have read of Manu's penance in &lt;a href=&quot;http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12954/6/Chapter4_3183--3262p.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;UttaraKhanda (pg 39)&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana&lt;/strong&gt; and Vishnu's subsequent avatar as Rama. But which scripture describes Shatarupa's side of the story? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-10T05:37:37.687" LastActivityDate="2018-02-10T05:37:37.687" Title="What scripture describes the story of Vishnu's boon to Shatarupa?" Tags="|vishnu|padma-purana|ramcharitmanas|boon|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21434" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21422" CreationDate="2017-10-09T19:12:06.670" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dvaitadvaita gives the same explanation of Nirguna that Visistadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda give.  Here's what Roma Bose says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://preview.ibb.co/nq2y5b/IMG_1826.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from her book &quot;Doctrines of Nimbarka and his Followers&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is clear from the above that Brahman is essentially possessed of attributes.  On the one hand, he possesses an infinite number of auspicious qualities, ... and on the other hand, He is absolutely devoid of all that is inauspicious, unworthy and defective. In this sense, the Lord is possessed of a double set of characteristics, one positive, the other negative. And it is the negative aspect of the Lord, i.e. His freedom from all unworthy qualities, which sometimes leads to the description of Him as attributeless. He is thus attributeless in the sense of being free from all ordinary material and inauspicious qualities, and He is possessed of all celestial and auspicious ones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dvaita also gives the same explanation.  Here is what B.N.K. Sharma says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601904.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/8/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.128145/2015.128145.A-History-Of-The-Dvaita-School-Of-Vedanta-And-Its-Literature-Vol-ii_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=2015.128145.A-History-Of-The-Dvaita-School-Of-Vedanta-And-Its-Literature-Vol-ii_jp2/2015.128145.A-History-Of-The-Dvaita-School-Of-Vedanta-And-Its-Literature-Vol-ii_0033.jp2&amp;amp;scale=2&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his book &quot;A History of the Dvaita School of Vedanta and its Literature&quot;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Texts which predicate certain auspicious attributes of the Brahman cannot put up with any but their literal sense (niravakasha) whereas the Nirguna could be accommodated in the sense of denying material attributes and so find their fulfillment of purpose (charitartha). Vishnudasa proceeds to show that there is no irreconcilable conflict between texts like &quot;yas sarvajnah&quot; and the so-called 'Nirguna text' &quot;Kevalo Nirgunashcha&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the Dvaita philosopher Vishnudasa is using a Purva Mimamsa principle called Savakasha-Niravakasha Nyaya.  It states that if two texts seem to be in apparent conflict, one should resolve the conflict in such a way that both texts have scope.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-10-09T19:12:06.670" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21435" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21432" CreationDate="2017-10-09T19:44:54.343" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The verse occurs in the Swargarohanika Parva of the Mahabharata; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs18005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Sanskrit chapter and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m18/m18005.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the English chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ūrdhvabāhur viraumy eṣa na ca kaś cic chṛṇoti me | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dharmād arthaś ca kāmaś ca sa kimarthaṃ na sevyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With uplifted arms I am crying aloud but nobody hears me. From Righteousness is Wealth as also Pleasure. Why should not Righteousness, therefore, be courted? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The context is that Ugrashrava is describing to Shaunaka and the Rishis of the Nainisharanya forest what Vyasa told his son Shuka when he taught him the Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In former times, the great Rishi Vyasa, having composed this treatise, caused his son Suka to read it with him, along with these four Verses. —Thousands of mothers and fathers, and hundreds of sons and wives arise in the world and depart from it. Others will (arise and) similarly depart. There are thousands of occasions for joy and hundreds of occasions for fear. These affect only him that is ignorant but never him that is wise. &lt;strong&gt;With uplifted arms I am crying aloud but nobody hears me. From Righteousness is Wealth as also Pleasure. Why should not Righteousness, therefore, be courted?&lt;/strong&gt; For the sake neither of pleasure, nor of fear, nor of cupidity should any one cast off Righteousness. Indeed, for the sake of even life one should not cast off Righteousness. Righteousness is eternal. Pleasure and Pain are not eternal. Jiva is eternal. The cause, however, of Jiva’s being invested with a body is not so.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By the way, I am reminded of a line from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/apology.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apology of Socrates&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue come money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, my influence is ruinous indeed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Socrates was indeed executed for corrupting the youth with this teaching. So it seems that this teaching fell on deaf ears in Socrates' time, just as it had in Vyasa's time. Let's pray it fares better in our time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T04:36:44.860" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T04:36:44.860" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21438" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13944" CreationDate="2017-10-10T04:15:06.933" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;No Manusmriti is not altered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The fault is in the eyes of those whose views have been brainwashed&#xA;by the Abrahamic educational approach of the occidentals.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The fault is in the eyes of those who are trying to equate a pig and&#xA;a cow(trying to equate a Chandala and a Brahmana).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The fault is in the minds of those who are propounding the Western&#xA;notion that all men are born equal which is &#xA;against the Vedas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a person obtains birth in a comparatively, lower class family or a high class family, it is for his own good and not an act of unjust because he is, merely, rewarded that jati due to his good or bad deeds in his previous birth. Now, he has an opportunity to ascend to higher stages in a sequence. Short-cut methods do not work in the Vedic system. So Manusmriti is correct when it degrade low caste people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The super-imposed fraudulent notion that Manusmṛti has been&#xA;mutilated and modified a number of times is just a myth created by Arya Samaj since they can't accept the original teachings of Hindu Dharma. Before the arrival of British in India(in 18th Century AD) no Hindus ever considered&#xA;that his Vedic scriptures and texts are mutilated and modified. How can&#xA;Manusmṛti be mutilated when Bhagavad Geeta  cannot be? All verses of Geeta are,&#xA;till now, accepted as comprising the original form of the text and all 20+ &#xA;classical Sanskrit commentaries (by commentators belonging to diverse&#xA;Vedic sects) on Geeta have accepted the same version of the text despite&#xA;Gītā being written.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, &lt;strong&gt;when Manusmṛiti has more than 6 commentaries available till date and all the commentators have accepted the same version of the text and have shared same views in their interpretation with very trivial variance of opinion, it is, totally, idiotic to say that the text has undergone any mutilation.&lt;/strong&gt; After all, these commentators were highly proficient scholars in the dharma-&#xA;Shastra as trained by the Srauta and smartta traditions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T04:26:45.090" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T04:26:45.090" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21439" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21372" CreationDate="2017-10-10T05:15:22.027" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;First hair removal that is also known as Chudakarma is mostly performed either in first year or third year. But some scriptures allow to perform it in fifth year, seventh year or according to family customs. This Samskara is necessary for spiritual growth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/manu/manu02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Manu Smriti 2.35&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;35&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;According to the teaching of the revealed texts, the Kudakarman (tonsure) must be performed, for the sake of spiritual merit, by all twice-born men in the first or third year.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/sbe07029.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Smriti 27.12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;12&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The Kûdâkarana '(tonsure rite) should take place in the third year.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe30/sbe30109.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apastamba Grihya Sutra, PATALA 6, SECTION 16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the third year after his birth the Kaula (or tonsure is performed) under (the Nakshatra of) the two Punarvasus.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe29/sbe29030.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sankhayana Grihya Sutra, KHANDA 28&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After one year the Kûdâkarman (i.e. the tonsure of the child's head);&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or in the third year;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the fifth for a Kshatriya;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the seventh for a Vaisya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe29/sbe29174.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Paraskara Grihya Sutra, KÂNDA II, KANDIKÂ 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When (the son) is one year old, the Kûdâkarana (i.e. the tonsure of his head, should be performed),&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or before the lapse of the third (year).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe30/sbe30078.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hiranyakesin Grihya Sutra, PATALA 1, SECTION 6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In the third year (he performs) the Kûdâkarman (i.e. the tonsure of the child's head).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe30/sbe30021.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gobhila Grihya Sutra, KÂNDIKÂ 9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Now follows the tonsure of the child's head, in the third year.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yājñavalkya, 1.12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘Tonsure is to be performed according to family-custom.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Āśvalāyana-Gṛhyasūtrā, 1.17.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;‘Tonsure in the third year; or in accordance with the custom of the family.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T05:15:22.027" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21440" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21428" CreationDate="2017-10-10T06:06:12.047" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The confusion comes from the translation and the interpretation you are giving to the English words 'duty' and 'work'. Lets take the 2 verses in order. First 3.19. The Sanskrit word used in the text is &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt;. the part of the relevant text says '&lt;em&gt;samacara satatam karyam karma&lt;/em&gt;' - which means 'perform always the obligatory daily duty'. It refers to the duties of your station in life - your station in life being where you find yourself now - not where you 'think' you should be. For instance, if upon reading the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; and you are a soldier on a battlefield, then you don't throw down your arms - you do your duty as a soldier but do it in an unattached manner and as an offering to the Lord. See where you are now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.35 In Swami Gambhirananda's translation of &lt;em&gt;The Bhagavad Gita with the commentary of Sankaracharya&lt;/em&gt;, he notes in verse 3.35 that 'duty' refers to &quot;Customary or scripturally ordained observances of different castes and sects.&quot; The Sanskrit word in this verse is &lt;em&gt;svadharmah&lt;/em&gt;. You can see that although the English word duty is used in both verses, the Sanskrit words are different and refer to two different aspects of duty.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T06:06:12.047" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21441" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21428" CreationDate="2017-10-10T06:16:11.590" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, how do I know what work is right for me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My answer is only for this question. I have not taken into account the Bhagavad Gita verses your question contains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hinduism, one's occupation (the kind of work one is adept at) are prescribed depending on one's Varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the Brahmins (the priestly class) it is conducting sacrifices, teaching etc. For Kshatriyas (the ruler class) it is protecting people, ruling etc. For the Vaishyas (the traders) it is mainly trading. And, for the last caste, i.e the Sudras (the working class), its mainly service.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.75. Teaching, studying, sacrificing for himself, sacrificing for others, making gifts and receiving them are the six acts (prescribed)&#xA;  for a Brahmana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.79. To carry arms for striking and for throwing (is prescribed) for Kshatriyas as a means of subsistence; to trade, (to rear) cattle, and&#xA;  agriculture for Vaisyas; but their duties are liberality, the study of&#xA;  the Veda, and the performance of sacrifices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.80. Among the several occupations the most commendable are, teaching the Veda for a Brahmana, protecting (the people) for a&#xA;  Kshatriya, and trade for a Vaisya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.88. To Brahmanas he assigned teaching and studying (the Veda), sacrificing for their own benefit and for others, giving and accepting&#xA;  (of alms).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.89. The Kshatriya he commanded to protect the people, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), and to abstain from&#xA;  attaching himself to sensual pleasures;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.90. The Vaisya to tend cattle, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), to trade, to lend money, and to cultivate land.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.91. One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Sudra, to serve meekly even these (other) three castes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Manu Smriti verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the prescribed occupations in times when they are free from distress. In times of distress or emergencies, however, they are allowed to behave like the ones belonging to lower castes. That is, a Brahmin can then take jobs meant for a Kshatriya or those meant for a Vaishya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T06:50:01.747" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T06:50:01.747" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21442" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15676" CreationDate="2017-10-10T06:41:24.760" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The correct answer would be - it is hard to decide based on &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. The other scriptures quoted in answers are most likely talking about a different &lt;strong&gt;Ramayan&lt;/strong&gt; not the one that happened in the current Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Matsya Puran&lt;/strong&gt; clearly states that the Padma Puran was revealed in the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hmvp/hmvp37.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Padma Kalpa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; which was the last day of the 50th year of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/r6XAs.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/r6XAs.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Ramayan we are talking about happened in the current &lt;strong&gt;Varah Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt; or the 1st day of the 51st year of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZzzSC.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZzzSC.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Again both &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-ix/chapter-30/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Skanda Puran&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Padma Puran&lt;/strong&gt; mention that the Ramayan war lasted for 87 days with a 15 day moratorium in the midst of the battle. Nothing like that is mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sCcLG.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/sCcLG.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even if you assume the time when Ram and Lakshman were unconscious it wasn't more than couple of days at most since &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga74/yuddha_74_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hanuman rushed to get the herbs from Himalayas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and came back as quickly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;स पर्वतान्वृक्षगणान्सरांसि |&#xA;नदीस्तटाकानि पुरोत्तमानि |&#xA;स्फीताञ्जनांस्तानपि सम्प्रपश्यञ् |&#xA;जगाम वेगात्पितृतुल्यवेगः || ६-७४-५३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gazing at the hills, flocks of birds, lakes, rivers, pools and excellent towns full of people, that Hanuma with a speed equal to that of the wind-god his father, shot forth towards Himalayas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also the traditional duration of the battle has always been mentioned to be &lt;strong&gt;13 days NOT 87&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/ramayan/rama_vartak.html.&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this analysis&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; clearly talks about the dates even if we do not agree with the time period it comes up with.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So judging by all the evidence, the correct answer should be - &lt;strong&gt;based on Valmiki Ramayan, it is difficult to conclusively support or refute the belief that Shri Rama returned to Ayodhya exactly after 20 days.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T06:41:24.760" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21443" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20492" CreationDate="2017-10-10T07:22:27.800" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Long answer, as this is from the pure philosophical POV. For some of the contents, I have the verses and for some of them it's inferred. Refer below as a pre-requisite:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21205/1049&quot;&gt;Are there any scriptural references of the trinity “Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh(Shiva)” as depicted in popular culture?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;3. &quot;If Brahmdev life span is 100 years then is it true for Devi Saraswati?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lifespan is only a Day&lt;/strong&gt; for Brahma. Or &lt;strong&gt;1 iteration&lt;/strong&gt; to be precise.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;(Day = morning + night)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For self similar patterns, we may use term &quot;cycle&quot;. But for not so similar repetitive patterns, I will use word &quot;iteration&quot;. e.g. my previous birth and this birth are different. So I will call it 2 iterations of &quot;iammilind&quot; and not 2 cycles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I interpret &quot;BrahmA&quot; (or Brahma-deva) from philosophical POV, as &lt;em&gt;Saguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (whole universe). Universe as a whole can have only 1 iteration.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now like you &amp;amp; me, if we consider the whole universe or &lt;em&gt;saguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt; as a &quot;being&quot; / &lt;em&gt;Purusha&lt;/em&gt;, then it dwells in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;nitya sattva&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (continuous illumination). This term is used in BG 2.45.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; increases the longevity increases. And hence, the time between the beginning &amp;amp; liberation decreases. For example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The time between beginning &amp;amp; end of Universe is only 1 cycle. The &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; is at highest. This 1 cycle is referred as 1 day of Brahman. In this case, 1 cycle will be same as 1 iteration of universe life:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;1 human Kalpa (thousands of Yuga-1) = 1 day of Brahma&lt;/code&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The time between beginning &amp;amp; end of stars/suns would be more than 1 iteration; These are called supreme of deities (&lt;em&gt;Surya deva&lt;/em&gt; etc.)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;Centuries of human Yuga-s = 1 day of Sun&lt;/code&gt;  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The life time of earth like planets (&lt;em&gt;Bhumi devi&lt;/em&gt;) is lesser than Sun etc. and hence it takes few more iterations compared to stars&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;Several human Yuga-s = 1 day of earth&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Life times of various natural elements like rivers, land, wind, seasons etc. is now divided in even more iterations; However these are still divine compared to humans due to its &lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt; nature;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;1 human year = 1 divine day&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Life times of &lt;em&gt;pitru&lt;/em&gt; are many more iterations;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;1 human month = 1 ancestor month&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Life times of humans and equivalent animals is average. Hence they have iterations in form of several Yuga-s compared to Brahma&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;1 human day = 1 human day&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Life times of some reptiles &amp;amp; other animals are even less; Hence they would be finishing even more cycles; &lt;em&gt;Tamas&lt;/em&gt; (ignorance) beginning to show up, from here predominantly&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;1 human decade = lifetime of animals&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Life times of other small insects are lesser than these smaller animals; They take millions of iterations till Moksha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;1 human week = lifetime of these insects&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Life times of bacteria &amp;amp; virus are fractions of seconds and hence they would be finishing huge number of iterations.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;code&gt;1 human second = lifetime of insects&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16085/1049&quot;&gt;scriptural sources&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that at top and at bottom of this list, it's &quot;Me&quot; or true &quot;Self&quot;, where there is &quot;no time&quot;. i.e. already in the state of Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;2. &quot;What happens to his wife Devi Saraswati after death of Brahmdev?&quot;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Saraswati&lt;/em&gt; here is a symbol of &quot;Knowledge&quot; or illumination. Knowledge of Brahman (or Self) is revered throughout Bhagavad Gita, so not quoting them here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Knowledge of Supreme = Saraswati-Brahma  &#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of Brahma's morning. Everything merges back to the nature of the &quot;Self/Me&quot;. Hence there is neither ignorance nor Knowledge. No space, no time. It's pure nothingness. So Saraswati merges back to Brahma and meets the same end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;1. &quot;How does he die?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Die&quot; is probably a wrong word. &quot;Brahma&quot; is Not a person or body. Here we refer it as a whole universe's consciousness (&lt;em&gt;Dehi&lt;/em&gt;). The bacteria and cells on our body, has their own consciousness. But our body has a whole, its own consciousness. Similarly, the whole universe, which I called above as &lt;em&gt;Saguna Brahman&lt;/em&gt; has it's singular consciousness.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.30 - O descendant of Bharata, this embodied Self (देही)  existing in everyone's body can never be killed. Therefore you ought not to grieve for all (these) beings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the morning (or day), the consciousness merges back to the self. For the living beings, it may appear like a &lt;em&gt;Pralaya&lt;/em&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 9.7 — O son of Kunti, all elementary entities enter My nature at end of the cycle(Kalpa); Again I create them at the beginning of the cycle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;4. &quot;As there is new Brahmdev after 100 years likewise is there new Devi Saraswati.&quot;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Exactly same universe (&lt;em&gt;BrahmA&lt;/em&gt;) and its knowledge source (&lt;em&gt;Saraswati&lt;/em&gt;) would be born. No memory of previous cycle to retain the same similar pattern. Exactly same events and exactly same end. This is called &lt;em&gt;Kaala chakra&lt;/em&gt; (Eternal Return). Please refer below post:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/20415/1049&quot;&gt;When Brahma&amp;#39;s day ends and a new day starts does the previous day repeat itself?&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Note: IMK, many people don't agree to this concept. Please use your conscience before subscribing to above philosophy.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T07:22:27.800" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21444" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21419" CreationDate="2017-10-10T09:19:34.603" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;I would have refrained to answer as it contradicts so many other people's views. Since you had asked me &lt;a href=&quot;https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/66749/discussion-between-iammilind-and-rishabh&quot;&gt;in this chatroom&lt;/a&gt; to respond to this post, I am writing this answer. :-)&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Parvati will take birth as daghter of Himalya again. And She will continue to take birth as daughter of Himalya after every 2 kalpas(One brahma's day).&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes. Exactly same as: &lt;em&gt;&quot;&quot;whatever Shri Rama, Krishna, Shankara, Ganesha did during their live, exactly same things they will do in the next day of Brahma as well.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW, the Parvati post is from the mythology perspective. I can't relate to this post.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Brahma(after each 2 kalpa) then how her age can be six month of Brahma(aprox 360 kalpas)?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you are referring mythological 4 headed Brahma-deva, then we are on different lines. Regarding philosophical interpretation of &lt;em&gt;Brahma&lt;/em&gt;, I have described in following answer, that how &lt;strong&gt;Brahma's cycle is only of 1 day&lt;/strong&gt; (or 1 day &amp;amp; 1 night):&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21443/1049&quot;&gt;How do Brahma and Saraswati die?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Does following line states Brahma repeats same incidents everyday?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;, this is already answered here:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/20415/1049&quot;&gt;When Brahma&amp;#39;s day ends and a new day starts does the previous day repeat itself?&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;There are many more points can be found in which this theory(same events repeat on each day of Brahma) can leave so many questions and seems fake.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general following philosophical concepts are well founded and existent even before Mahabharata times:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_time&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wheel of Time&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;em&gt;KaalaChakra&lt;/em&gt;, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikkhism)  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Eternal Return&lt;/a&gt; (multiple cultures)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclic_model&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Oscillating Universe&lt;/a&gt; (by Albert Einstein)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They all collectively say that, all the event recur without any change. That is the only way the current existence can be possible. Hence, kindly think of this as a general theory and not my own byproduct. :-)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Either one &quot;knows&quot; this theory or one &quot;believes&quot; otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your main concern seems, if the Moksha is permanent state of not. That's answered here:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10008/1049&quot;&gt;What will happen when all atmans get moksha?&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For all practical purposes the Moksha is permanent state. The definition itself is &quot;no rebirth&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Now if you consider, multiple cycles then Moksha will not look like permanent state.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Analogy&lt;/strong&gt;: If we watch a cricket match in a TV, then certain events would be happening in that match. 1 team may win. Now how many times, we watch the repeat telecast, the same events will happen and the same team will win.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While watching the cricket match for the very first time, a viewer has certain excitement &amp;amp; uncertainty. In repeat telecast, it diminishes. But in the &lt;em&gt;mAyA&lt;/em&gt; of &lt;em&gt;Brahma&lt;/em&gt; cycles, this doesn't happen. Because the memory is not carry forwarded to the next cycle.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In other words, the viewer of &lt;em&gt;mAyA&lt;/em&gt; watches the match with same excitement &amp;amp; uncertainty. Every time is the first time, though repeating infinitely.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hope this clears some of the doubts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;So by the above contradiction &lt;strong&gt;I conclude&lt;/strong&gt; that meaning of above mentioned line is not what claimed in this post.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;IMO, this is not the right way to ask a Qn. Had you asked this in main SO, then it would have closed quickly, as you are actually not asking a real Qn. But verifying the already made opinion.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T09:56:16.060" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T09:56:16.060" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21445" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="385" CreationDate="2017-10-10T10:37:51.453" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;By doing Vrat, evil/bad qualities get destroyed and good qualities emerge. By performing Vrat one gets eligibility for Diksha/Initiation. After initiation, one will grow and progress, consequently s/he will find good faith towards Satya and ultimately such faith leads to the Satya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Shukla Yajurveda, Adhyaya 9:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्रतेन प्राप्यते दीक्षा दक्षिणा दीक्षाप्राप्यते।&lt;br&gt; &#xA;  तया च प्राप्यते श्रद्धा श्रद्धया सत्यमाप्यते॥ ३० ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;30 He gains by vow of fasting Consecration, by Consecration&#xA;  gains the priestly guerdon.&#xA;  He gains by priestly guerdon faith: by faith comes knowledge&#xA;  of the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T10:47:31.903" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T10:47:31.903" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21446" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21448" CreationDate="2017-10-10T11:29:26.490" Score="19" ViewCount="3928" Body="&lt;p&gt;While researching for an answer I came across the reference of &lt;strong&gt;Padma Puran&lt;/strong&gt; having been revealed in the &lt;strong&gt;Padma Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt; which was the last day of the 50th year of Brahma. Currently we are in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp037.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varah Kalpa&lt;/a&gt; or the 1st day of the 51st year of Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there such a mention for other Purans as well and if yes can someone share the entire list?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T11:40:46.347" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T11:54:45.117" Title="Is each of the 18 Mahapurans related to a different Kalpa?" Tags="|puranas|bhagavata-purana|brahma|shiva-purana|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21447" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21428" CreationDate="2017-10-10T11:47:26.327" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;So, how do I know what work is right for me?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You have already quoted the verses for &lt;em&gt;Swa-Dharma&lt;/em&gt; (self duty), hence not quoting them again. &lt;strong&gt;Whatever is defined in &quot;scriptures&quot; is the right work&lt;/strong&gt;. Ignoring them, is not right.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 16.23 - Ignoring the precept of the scriptures, the one who acts under the impulsion of passion -- neither attains perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme Goal.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A meaning of &quot;scriptures&quot; is &quot;Veda&quot; &amp;amp; &quot;Smritis&quot;. That's limited to Indian or Hindu culture. In general &quot;Scripture&quot; means &quot;law of land [&amp;amp; society]&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;e.g.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;If a Muslim country has imposed &quot;Sharia&quot;, then irrespective of one's&#xA;agreement or disagreement, one is ought to follow it, when applicable&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Similarly, for democratic countries, their &quot;constitutions&quot; are their&#xA;scriptures -- be it social or political. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;In ancient India, various &quot;Manu smriti&quot;-s were the followable scriptures.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suppose, if you meant &quot;right work&quot; as &quot;which profession&quot;, then that depends on your nature. Typically &lt;strong&gt;it would match your overall family lineage&lt;/strong&gt;. Even before this Qn, you will already be having skills &amp;amp; interest towards such profession. As quoted above, if one acts towards a job/work without giving way to &quot;passion&quot;, then it's right. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i.e. if fascinated by movies, I want to become an actor or being fascinated by football, I want to become a player then that mostly may Not be right choice. Even if I develop skill with hard work, it will fall under &quot;&lt;em&gt;para-dharma&lt;/em&gt;&quot; and Not &quot;&lt;em&gt;swa-dharma&lt;/em&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rule of thumb is, choose a profession where success or failure, i.e. results -- don't matter.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.9 - O Arjuna - When the usual work is performed, just because it's to be performed; Association with its result is renounced, then such is illuminated (&lt;em&gt;sattva&lt;/em&gt;) renunciation  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And also you neither love or hate such task. You do it naturally:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.23 - The action which is usual, without attachment, without liking/disliking, without aiming on results -- are said to be illuminated (&lt;em&gt;sAtvika&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T11:47:26.327" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21448" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21446" CreationDate="2017-10-10T11:54:45.117" Score="19" Body="&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11077/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, different Puranas were revealed during onset of different Kalpas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/23267/25F_Chapter_53_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 53 of Matsya Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; mentions Kalpas of all Puranas except &lt;strong&gt;Brahma and Markandeya Puranas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Padma Purana                        - Padma Kalpa (hence the name)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vishnu Purana                       - Varaha Kalpa (current Kalpa)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vayu Purana (includes Shiva Purana) - Sveta Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhagavata Purana                    - Sarsvata Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Naradiya Purana                     - Brhat Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Agni Purana                         - Isana Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhavishya Purana                    - Aghora Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahma Vaivarata Purana             - Rathantara Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Linga Purana                        - Agneya Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varaha Purana                       - Manava Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Skanda Purana                       - Satpurusha Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vamana Purana                       - Kurma Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kurma Purana                        - Lakshmi Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Matsya Purana                       - Vaivastara Manvantara of Varaha Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Brahmanda Purana                    - Future Kalpas (No specific name mentioned)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T11:54:45.117" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21449" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-10T13:03:18.960" Score="3" ViewCount="433" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sometime ago while reading one of the stories in a magazine, i came across a story narrating about a horse emerging out of a yagna, and is said to be blazing in fire and is currently under the oceans.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not sure of the magazine i came across and i am skeptical of the story that i read.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the story true by any means? If the story is true, is there a reference to the entire story and name of the horse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3703" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T14:46:17.183" Title="Name of mythical horse" Tags="|animals|yajna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21450" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23658" CreationDate="2017-10-10T13:35:57.437" Score="7" ViewCount="2793" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord tvastar is an artisan God who is praised In the Vedas and Vishwakarma is also considered An artisan God in puranas and epics. So are these the different names of the same god or are they two different Gods?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-23T06:33:58.637" LastActivityDate="2018-04-23T06:33:58.637" Title="Are Vedic Gods Tvashtar And Vishwakarma the same?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|vedic-gods|tvashtar|vishwakarma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21451" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-10T14:26:41.667" Score="1" ViewCount="166" Body="&lt;p&gt;Paramatma and Jeevatma live happily in the Vaikuntha Loka. Jeevatma is doing his karma by praying to Paramatma. Paramatma is doing his Karma by bestowing blessing on his followers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now my question is: If everything was so fine in Vaikuntha Loka, then why did Paramatma created the human body which is made up of filth and is the cause of suffering? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T03:55:08.170" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T03:55:08.170" Title="According to Dvaita theory why did the Paramatma populate the earth?" Tags="|brahman|dvaita|jiva|vaikuntha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21453" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10620" CreationDate="2017-10-10T16:55:11.987" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Was Dirghatamas the seer of hymns in any of the other Vedas, and if so is the name Keshava mentioned in those?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This may provide you with an answer to your question in regards to references to (Keshava)in the Vedas: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Rg Veda there is a Hymm from Mandala 10:136, to the Kesins: Sanskrit meaning meaning, hair or mane, Kesin without the (s) or with the (s) may be regarded as an obvious (epithet) of Keshava and the story of Dirghatamas of the Mahabharata may begin to make sense. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Below is the Rig Veda, translation, by Ralph T.H. Griffith, (1896), of HYMN CXXXVI in Roman Numerals or (10:136), dedicated to; Kesins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;HE (Keshava) with the long loose locks supports Agni, and moisture, heaven, and earth:He is all sky to look upon: he with long hair is called this light.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 The Munis, girdled with the wind, wear garments soiled of yellow hue.&#xA;  They, following the wind's swift course go where the Gods have gone before.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 Transported with our Munihood we have pressed on into the winds:&#xA;  You therefore, mortal men. behold our natural bodies and no more.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 The Muni, made associate in the holy work of every God,&#xA;  Looking upon all varied forms flies through the region of the air.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5 The Steed of Vāta, Vāyu's friend, the Muni, by the Gods impelled,&#xA;  In both the oceans hath his home, in eastern and in western sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 Treading the path of sylvan beasts, Gandharvas, and Apsarases,&#xA;  He with long locks, who knows the wish, is a sweet most delightful friend&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 Vāyu hath churned for him: for him he poundeth things most hard to bend,&#xA;  When he with long loose locks hath drunk, with Rudra, water from the cup.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Vishnu Sahasranama)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Keshava: One whose Kesa or hair is long, uncut and beautiful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;sources: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10136.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10136.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12238" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-10T18:37:07.577" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T18:37:07.577" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21454" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7492" CreationDate="2017-10-10T18:19:27.240" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna mentions in Mahabharat that the war time is not like krita, treta or Dwapara yuga but it is like kaliyuga. The below list the chapter from Udyoga parva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SECTION CXLII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sanjaya said, 'Hearing these words of Karna, Kesava, that slayer of hostile heroes, spoke unto him these words smilingly, 'Do not the means of winning an empire recommend themselves to thee. O Karna? Wishest thou not to rule over the whole earth given by me to thee? The victory of the Pandavas, therefore, is very certain. There seems to be no doubt in this. The triumphal banner of Pandu's son, with the fierce ape on it, seems to be already set up. The divine artificer, Bhaumana, hath applied such celestial illusion (in its construction) that it standeth high, displayed like Indra's banner. Various celestial creatures of terrific shape, indicating victory, are seen on that standard. Extending for a yojana upwards and all around, that beautiful standard of Arjuna, resembling fire in radiance, is never, O Karna, when set up, obstructed by hills or trees. When thou wilt behold in battle Arjuna, on his car drawn by white steeds and driven by Krishna, applying Aindra, Agneya and Maruta weapons, and when thou wilt hear the twang of Gandiva piercing the welkin like the very thunder, then all signs of the Krita, the Treta, and the Dwapara ages will disappear (but, instead, Kali embodied will be present). When thou wilt behold in battle Kunti's son, invincible Yudhishthira, devoted to Yapa and Homa and resembling the very sun in brilliance, protecting his own mighty army and burning the army of his foes, then all signs of the Krita, the Treta, and the Dwapara ages will disappear. When thou wilt behold in battle the mighty Bhimasena dancing, after having quaffed the blood of Dussasana, like a fierce elephant with rent temples after having killed a mighty antagonist, then all signs of the Krita, the Treta, and the Dwapara ages will disappear. When thou wilt behold in battle Arjuna checking Drona and Santanu's son and Kripa and king Suyodhana, and Jayadratha of Sindhu's race, all rushing fiercely to the encounter, then all signs of the Krita, the Treta and the Dwapara ages will disappear. When thou wilt behold in battle the two mighty sons of Madri,--those heroic car-warriors, capable of breaking into pieces all hostile cars,--agitating, from the very moment when weapons will begin to clash, the army of Dhritarashtra's sons like a couple of infuriated elephants, then all signs of the Krita, the Treta and the Dwapara ages will disappear. Returning hence, O Karna, say unto Drona and Santanu's son and Kripa that the present month is a delightful one, and that food, drink, and fuel are abundant now. All plants and herbs are vigorous now, all trees full of fruits, and flies there are none. The roads are free from mire, and the waters are of agreeable taste. The weather is neither very hot nor very cold and is, therefore, highly pleasant. Seven days after, will be the day of the new moon. Let the battle commence then, for that day, it hath been said, is presided over by Indra. Say also unto all the kings that have come for battling that I will fully accomplish the desire cherished by them. Indeed, all the kings and princes that are obedient to the orders of Duryodhana, obtaining death by weapons, will attain to an excellent state.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-03-19T09:31:02.623" LastActivityDate="2018-03-19T09:31:02.623" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21455" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-10T18:42:44.480" Score="0" ViewCount="66" Body="&lt;p&gt;What did Hindu's call themselves before they were referred to as 'Hindu' from other cultures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I read that it was foreigners that referred to people from India or near the Indus river as 'Hindi' or Hindu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12240" LastActivityDate="2017-10-10T22:27:34.540" Title="What did Hindu's call themselves before 'Hindu'?" Tags="|name|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-10-11T08:45:21.447" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21457" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-11T01:24:43.817" Score="4" ViewCount="2455" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard two theories about gambling by Yudhistira in Mahabaratha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1) He is addicted to gambling or has a weakness for gambling. i.e., he  had a gambling problem.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2) Kings can't decline a gambling challenge or request according to Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which is true? What does Mahabharata tell us about gambling and especially Yudhishtira's gambling?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is gambling considered not just moral but also the righteous thing to do?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do different versions of Mahabharata say different things?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5284" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T02:52:30.403" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T12:12:40.483" Title="Gambling in Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|yudhisthira|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21458" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-11T01:34:21.893" Score="12" ViewCount="8315" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is gambling considered righteous or is it a sin?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are Kshatriyas allowed to gamble?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do Kshatriyas have accept a gambling invitation compulsarily? (The Mahabaratha answer seems to say so)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is addiction to gambling righteous?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who are all the characters from different Hindu stories that gambled?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please quote different scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I already &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/21457/gambling-in-mahabharata&quot;&gt;asked a question&lt;/a&gt; on gambling in Mahabharata, but this is for all other scriptures and Hinduism in general.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5284" LastEditorUserId="5284" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T02:28:59.030" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T02:28:59.030" Title="What do Hindu scriptures say about gambling?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|sin|ethics|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21459" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-11T03:33:39.103" Score="2" ViewCount="307" Body="&lt;p&gt;First Priest give flowers to devotee. After Puja is over and priest collect Flowers with money from devotee. Why so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12243" LastActivityDate="2018-07-02T07:23:41.247" Title="Why Priest give flowers and again take them back with money?" Tags="|belief|temple|priests|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21460" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21465" CreationDate="2017-10-11T03:46:28.220" Score="5" ViewCount="624" Body="&lt;p&gt;All scholars agree that Vedas should be understood completely when you interpret Vedas with Puranas and Ithihas. Where in Vedas it is stated like that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T08:26:21.990" Title="Where in Vedas it is written that Vedas are incomplete without Ithihas and Puranas?" Tags="|mahabharata|vedas|puranas|ramayana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21461" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21458" CreationDate="2017-10-11T06:02:06.807" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gambling is a vice. It is considered as a sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as a Kshatriya king and gambling is concerned, he should avoid it carefully as one of the vices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MS 7.45. Let him carefully shun the ten vices, springing from love of&#xA;  pleasure, and the eight, proceeding from wrath, which (all) end in&#xA;  misery.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;in the above verse, &quot;He&quot; refers to a King. Now, the ten vices which are mentioned in the following verse, includes among them, gambling.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MS 7.47. Hunting, &lt;strong&gt;gambling&lt;/strong&gt;, sleeping by day, censoriousness, (excess&#xA;  with) women, drunkenness, (an inordinate love for) dancing, singing,&#xA;  and music, and useless travel are the tenfold set (of vices) springing&#xA;  from love of pleasure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gambling and betting are criminal offences too and the King should punish the offenders just like he punishes the thieves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MS 9.221. Gambling and betting let the king exclude from his realm;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;those two vices cause the destruction of the kingdoms of princes&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MS 9.222. &lt;strong&gt;Gambling and betting amount to open theft&lt;/strong&gt;; the king shall&#xA;  always exert himself in suppressing both (of them).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MS 9.224. &lt;strong&gt;Let the king corporally punish all those (persons) who&#xA;  either gamble and bet or afford (an opportunity for it)&lt;/strong&gt;, likewise&#xA;  Sudras who assume the distinctive marks of twice-born (men).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MS 9.228. On every man who addicts himself to that (vice) either&#xA;  secretly or openly, the king may inflict punishment according to his discretion&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only place where i found gambling being allowed is in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the middle of the assembly hall he should erect a gaming table,&#xA;  sprinkle it with water, and place there dice–– they should be in&#xA;  pairs, of Vibhitaka seeds,* and in adequate numbers. Aryas who are&#xA;  upright and honest may gamble there. Weapons contests, dancing,&#xA;  singing, and concerts should not be held without the presence of royal&#xA;  officials.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AD 2.26.8&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, every where else it is mentioned as immoral, a sin, not recommended etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Next, sins that make people sordid: &lt;strong&gt;gambling&lt;/strong&gt;; sorcery; living by&#xA;  gleaning on the part of a man who has not established the sacred&#xA;  fires; begging alms food by a man who has returned home from his&#xA;  teacher’s, as well as his residing at his teacher’s house for more&#xA;  than four months; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BD 2.2.24&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As an interesting side note it can be mentioned that, as per Manu Smriti, gambling arises from the third ( and the lowest) state of Rajas ( with Sattva= Goodness, Rajas= Passion or activity, Tamas=Inertia , ignorance- the Trigunas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MS 12.45. Ghallas, Mallas, Natas, men who subsist by despicable&#xA;  occupations and those addicted to gambling and drinking (form) the&#xA;  lowest (order of) conditions caused by Activity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abbreviations used:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;MS= The Manu Smriti.&lt;br&gt; AD= Apasthambha Dharmasutras.&lt;br&gt; BD= Baudhayana Dharmasutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T17:19:06.200" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T17:19:06.200" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21462" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21458" CreationDate="2017-10-11T06:21:57.763" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gambling is considered the supreme among cheaters. Hence, if &quot;cheating&quot; is a vice, then &quot;gambling&quot; could be highest among the vices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;द्यूतं छलयतामस्मि ...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 10.36 - Among cheaters I am Gambling ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same is echoed during &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02062.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sabha Parva&lt;/a&gt;, during Draupadi's insult:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vidura said,--&quot;Gambling is the root of dissensions. It bringeth about disunion. Its consequences are frightful. ... This fascination (of gambling) that thou has well-devised only leadeth to dire results.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And Vikarna ... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the prince said&lt;/a&gt; -- 'Ye kings of the earth, ye Kauravas, whether ye answer this question or not, I will say what I regard as just and proper. Ye foremost of men, it hath been said that hunting, drinking, gambling, and too much enjoyment of women, are the four vices of kings. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Gamgling = unprescribed way of taking chances&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In old times, gambling used to happen with the games of dices like &quot;&lt;em&gt;dyut&lt;/em&gt;&quot;. Apart from Yudhishtira, another example is of &quot;Nala-Damayanti&quot;, who faced dire consequences of gambling by losing kingdom.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Though it's extended in the similar forms today as well, it's not limited to it.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Some people consider short term investment in share market also as&#xA;gambling.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The &quot;Millionaire&quot; games are soft forms of gambling, where the person&#xA;goes through the mentality of taking chances, though without loosing&#xA;anything.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T07:19:31.903" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T07:19:31.903" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21463" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21467" CreationDate="2017-10-11T06:40:51.793" Score="4" ViewCount="4345" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard Parvati was born in &lt;em&gt;Varaha Kalpa&lt;/em&gt;. And Also read the current kalpa's name is &lt;em&gt;bhadrakalpa&lt;/em&gt; as shown on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_(aeon)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are following things I want to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Difference between Kalpa of Sati(also name) and current(bhadrakalpa) kalpa.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Time difference between Sati's death and Parvati's birth (just&#xA;overview, not in brief) even in eprox.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Difference between Parvati's birth Kapla and current Kalpa.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It would be &lt;strong&gt;best&lt;/strong&gt; if I got list of Kalpas from Sati's Kalpa to Present Kalpa(if possible). In &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_(aeon)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this page&lt;/a&gt; of wiki list given according to Matasya purana but from that list I couldn't grab the information about difference between Sati's and current Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T06:57:06.210" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T08:09:22.537" Title="How many kalpas ago was Sati born?" Tags="|parvati|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21464" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21460" CreationDate="2017-10-11T07:28:19.727" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chandogya Upanishad 7.1.4&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nama va rig-vedo yajur-vedah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sama-veda atharvanas&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Caturtha&#xA;  itihasa-puranah&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Pancamo vedanam vedah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indeed &lt;strong&gt;Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva&lt;/strong&gt; are the names of the &lt;strong&gt;four Vedas&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  The &lt;strong&gt;Itihasas and Puranas&lt;/strong&gt; are the &lt;strong&gt;fifth Veda&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atharva Veda 11.7.24&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rcah samani chandamsi &#xA;  Puranam yajusa saha&#xA;  Ucchistaj-jajnire sarve divi &#xA;  Deva divi-sritahpuranam yajusa saha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva became manifest from the Lord, along&#xA;  with the Puranas&lt;/strong&gt; and all the Devas residing in the heavens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T07:28:19.727" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21465" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21460" CreationDate="2017-10-11T07:36:34.063" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;Both Itihasa and Puranas are considered eternal texts as they also have appeared from The Supreme person's breath:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;O Maitreya,The Rg,yajur,sama and atharva vedas as well as the&#xA;  itihasas and the puranas all manifest from the breathing Of the Lord&quot;&#xA;  (Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad 2.4.10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;In this way,all the vedas were manifested along with kalpas,Rahasyas&#xA;  ,Brahmanas,Upanishads,Itihasas,Anvakhyatas and the puranas.&quot; (Gopatha&#xA;  Brahmana,purva 2.10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Indeed, Rg,Yajur, sama and Atharva are the names Of four vedas.The&#xA;  itihasas and puranas are the fifth veda.&quot; (Chandogya Upanishad 7.1.4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verses, and songs,and magic hymns,purana,sacrificial text.all the&#xA;  celestial Gods whose home is heaven sprang from the residue.(Atharva&#xA;  Veda book 11,hymn 7 verse 24).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T08:26:21.990" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T08:26:21.990" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21466" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21457" CreationDate="2017-10-11T07:40:49.310" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Which is true?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Both theories are true.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;1) He is addicted to gambling or has a weakness for gambling. i.e., he had a gambling problem.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Yudhishthira's addiction of Gambling&quot;, was referred as a pre-text in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01063.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janamejaya said, ... Why also did the two other sons of Pritha (Bhima and Arjuna) and the two sons of Madri (Nakula and Sahadeva), themselves injured by the wretched Kurus, follow &lt;strong&gt;Yudhishthira who was greatly addicted to the evil habit of gambling&lt;/strong&gt; Why also did Yudhishthira, that foremost of all virtuous men, the son of Dharma himself, fully acquainted with all duties, suffer that excess of affliction? ...   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Bhima also addressed Yudhishthira about having this vice during &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03052.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vana parva&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhima among them addressed Yudhishthira, saying, '... Endued with manliness, we are yet overwhelmed with calamities, in consequence of &lt;strong&gt;thy gambling vice&lt;/strong&gt;, ... O foremost of monarchs, all this is the result of &lt;strong&gt;thy addiction to gambling&lt;/strong&gt;. We are on the verge of destruction already, ...'  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Important to note that, Yudhishthira may have gambling habit, but he was not well versed with &quot;dyut&quot; (game of dice) kind of gambling; neither he was deceitful in anyways. In the same page he admits:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O holy one, summoned by cunning gamblers skilled at dice, I have been deprived of wealth and kingdom through gambling. I &lt;strong&gt;am not an adept at dice, and am unacquainted with deceit.&lt;/strong&gt; Sinful men, by unfair means, vanquished me at play.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, he was well aware of consequences of playing with Shakuni. But he had to accept it as a part of Kshatriya duty/usage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;2) Kings can't decline a gambling challenge or request according to Dharma.&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For Kshatriya-s, it was a kind of protocol to accept the gambling challenge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Arjuna hearing this, said, '... The king was summoned by the foe, and remembering the &lt;strong&gt;usage of the Kshatriyas&lt;/strong&gt;, he played at dice against his will. That is certainly conducive to our great fame. 'Bhima said,--'If I had not known, O Dhananjaya, that the &lt;strong&gt;king had acted according to Kshatriya usage&lt;/strong&gt;, then I would have, taking his hands together by sheer force, burnt them in a blazing fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira was not a foolish gambler either. But he was dragged into it, as discussed in the last section of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/19581/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... I do not desire, at the command of king Dhritarashtra to engage myself in gambling. The father always wisheth to benefit his son. Thou art our master, O Vidura. Tell me what is proper for us. Unwilling as I am to gamble, I will not do so, if the wicked Sakuni doth not summon me to it in the Sabha? If, however, he challengeth me, I will never refuse. For that, as settled, is my eternal vow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Is gambling considered not just moral but also the righteous thing to do?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21462/1049&quot;&gt;Gambling is considered the biggest among cheaters&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It seems that there is a contradiction here. Gambling is considered a vice as well as a &lt;em&gt;Kshatriya Dharma&lt;/em&gt; or usage. Hence we may interpret as following to cater both terminologies:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Deliberate &amp;amp; excess indulgence in gambling is &lt;em&gt;adharma&lt;/em&gt;. This also becomes vice, when it's beyond playfulness; e.g. using it as a tool to steal someone's belongings in deceitful way&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Since &quot;&lt;em&gt;dyut&lt;/em&gt;&quot; was a famous sport in old times, and as mentioned in above scriptures, Kshatriya-s were having a protocol to accept it; Accepting a protocol, even though seemingly bad, is still a &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a special case, where &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt; is not limited to &quot;righteousness&quot;; rather we have to consider its generalised meaning as &quot;tendency&quot;. e.g. Kshatriya-s have tendencies to indulge in certain battles &amp;amp; sports, even though they are dangerous; this may not be right overall, but right for the specific class of people.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Currently &quot;sacred-texts.com Mahabharata&quot; is a kind of ad-hoc standard for this site. Hence I would not go into what other versions says.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T12:12:40.483" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T12:12:40.483" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21467" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21463" CreationDate="2017-10-11T07:47:53.227" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/Content/Articles/PDFs/27477/62f_chapter_19_1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 19&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Prabhasa Khanda of Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, Parvati Devi was born to Himavan at end of Chakshusha  Manvantara (6th Manvantara) and beginning of Vaivasvara Manvantara in Varaha Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per this chapter, Varaha Kalpa is 31st Kalpa in 51st year of Brahma. 30th kalpa was Pitri Kalpa and Sati was born in Swayambhuva Manvantara (1st Manvantara) of Pitri Kalpa. Rudra lived without Shakti for period of 21 Manvantaras (14 in Pitri Kalpa and 7 in Varaha kalpa).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva says &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;54-56. In the second Parårdha Of Brahma, the thirtieth Kalpa was&#xA;well-known as Pitr kalpa, In the beginning of the Svåyambhuva&#xA;Manvantara therein, you were (known as) Sati. O great goddess, the&#xA;Daksa who was then your father was born  of prana, the patriarch. But&#xA;in this Manvantara, O goddess,  Daksha was born Of Pracetas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;57&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, O my beloved, Daksa Will be born Of the right  (thumb). All the Brähmanas beginning With Daksa  are born in every Yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus bereaved of you formerly, O my beloved, I was  separated from you till the Chakshusha  Manvantara Of the Varähakalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is the twenty-first Manu (i.e. beginning from  Sväyambhuva Of Pitrkalpa and ending with of Väräha Kalpa) in the Kalpa called Väråha.&#xA;O great goddess, in every Kalpa you will have a different name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this Väräha Kalpa, O goddess, you became Pärvati  obtained by Himavän through his penance, when the Cäksusa  Manvantara has passed&#xA;off.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O beautiful lady, due to the anger of Daksha you had  to be separated from me for the duration Of a day Of Brahma.  Your span of&#xA;life is the period of his six months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T08:09:22.537" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21468" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21469" CreationDate="2017-10-11T09:06:45.370" Score="6" ViewCount="691" Body="&lt;p&gt;As we know, the eldest of the Pandavas is Yudhishthira (IAST : Yudhiṣṭhira and Devanagari: युधिष्ठिर). It is said that he got his name due to his steadiness in war. This is also a famous one. From related &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yudhishthira#Etymology&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; article: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word Yudhishthira means &quot;the one who is steady in the war&quot;, from the words, yuddha (युद्ध) meaning 'war', and sthira (स्थिर) meaning 'steady'. &lt;sub&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The article doesn't provide any citations for the claim.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He is known for his steadiness in a miserable situation like Yaksha prashna where all of his brothers were lying dead in front of him. Yet he answered all the questions correctly and brought back his brothers back to life. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is an incident during the Kurukshetra where Yudhishthira lost his cool head and thought of retiring to woods. This happened after the ninth day war. Yudhishthira says the following to Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'Behold, O Krishna, the high-souled Bhishma of fierce prowess. He crusheth my troops like an elephant crushing a forest of reeds. ....... When this is the case, O Krishna, I am, through the weakness of my understanding, plunged in an ocean of grief having got Bhishma (as a foe) in battle. &lt;strong&gt;I will retire into the woods, O invincible one. My exile there would be for my benefit&lt;/strong&gt;. Battle, O Krishna, I no longer desire. Bhishma slayeth us always. As an insect, by rushing into a blazing fire meeteth only with death, even so do I rush upon Bhishma. In putting forth prowess, O thou of Vrishni's race, for the sake of my kingdom, I am, alas, led to destruction. My brave brothers have all been exceedingly afflicted with arrows. In consequence of the affection they bear to myself their (eldest) brother they had to go into the woods, deprived of kingdom. For myself alone, O slayer of Madhu, hath Krishna been sunk into such distress. &lt;strong&gt;I regard life to be of high value. Indeed, even life now seemeth to be difficult of being saved. (If I can save that life), its latter remnant will I pass in the practice of excellent virtue&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06108.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Mahabharata Bhishma Parva Chapter 18]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are the words of Yudhishthira during the Kurukshetra battle. If the etymology of his name correct, then he should be steady in the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01125.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sambhava Parva of Adi Parva&lt;/a&gt; doesn't give the reason he is named such. It simply says that he is named as Yudhishthira. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O king, after all the children were born the Rishis dwelling on the mountain of a hundred peaks uttering blessings on them and affectionately performing the first rites of birth, bestowed appellations on them. &lt;em&gt;The eldest of Kunti's children was called Yudhishthira&lt;/em&gt;, the second Bhimasena, and the third Arjuna, and of Madri's sons, the first-born of the twins was called Nakula and the next Sahadeva. And those foremost sons born at an interval of one year after one another, looked like an embodied period of five years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, my question is whether the etymology of the name Yudhishthira the same as given in the Wikipedia article or is there any other reason?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is the etymology of this name mentioned in the Mahabharata like that of &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17795/why-yudhishtira-is-called-aj%c4%81ta-%c5%9batru-%e0%a4%85%e0%a4%9c%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%a4-%e0%a4%b6%e0%a4%a4%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b0%e0%a5%81/18089#18089&quot;&gt;Ajata shatru&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T16:34:30.193" LastActivityDate="2019-11-24T18:28:32.427" Title="Is the etymology of the name Yudhishthira correct?" Tags="|mahabharata|sanskrit|name|yudhisthira|etymology|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21469" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21468" CreationDate="2017-10-11T09:26:58.127" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Etymology of &lt;code&gt;Yudhishtira = steady in war&lt;/code&gt;, is correct. Here, the war can be any kind of battle or struggle. Throughout the Mahabharata, Yudhishtira was known to behold the Dharma &amp;amp; remaining steadfast in every challenging situations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The passage you described about Yudhishtira 'wanting' to go in exile - is just part of warring frustrations. That should not be considered as a proof, as it really didn't happen.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;There is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8134/1049&quot;&gt;another example&lt;/a&gt; (read last passage in the link), when frustrated with Drona's overwhelming power &amp;amp; Arjuna's inability to stop him, Yudhishthira taunted Arjuna about forfeiting Gandiva bow &amp;amp; hearing that Arjuna wanted to literally kill his elder brother to fulfil a vow!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Such things are usual during any war. Similar exile sentiments were echoed by Arjuna during Bhagavad Gita's discourse as well. Bhima also had shown such passive sentiments against the war itself, even before it had begun. See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16118/1049&quot;&gt;Bhima's view of Kurukshetra war&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;How was he named &amp;quot;Yudhishthira&amp;quot;?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kunti begot a child by &lt;em&gt;Niyoga&lt;/em&gt; with the god of justice (&lt;em&gt;Dharma-rAjA&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And as soon as the child was born, &lt;strong&gt;an incorporeal voice (from the skies) said&lt;/strong&gt;, 'This child shall be the best of men, the foremost of those that are virtuous. Endued with great prowess and truthful in speech, he shall certainly be the ruler of the earth. &lt;strong&gt;And this first child of Pandu shall be known by the name of Yudhishthira&lt;/strong&gt;. Possessed of prowess and honesty of disposition, he shall be a famous king, known throughout the three worlds.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01124.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Adi Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T12:34:41.103" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21470" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22768" CreationDate="2017-10-11T11:39:51.253" Score="16" ViewCount="5566" Body="&lt;p&gt;I had heard stories about king performing Rajasuya Yajna and Ashwamedha Yajna from Ramayana and Mahabharata (though I don't have very good knowledge about them). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They looks similar like horse is released from king's capital and made to travel through various kingdoms and king of sub-kingdoms have to either accept the dominance of the king or can stop horse to challenge. At the end, after horse return, King who has performed considered dominant and rule over entire world/nation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, I don't know the difference between Rajasuya and Ashvamedha Yajnas. Since this belongs to Karma Kanda part of Vedas, I think it may need to have good knowledge on Brahmanas or Purva Mimansa to exactly know and understand which Yajna is performed for what purpose and what the rituals are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to know What are the differences between Rajasuya and Ashvamedha Yajnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-19T10:22:51.373" LastActivityDate="2017-12-19T10:22:51.373" Title="What is the difference between Rajasuya Yajna and Ashwamedha Yajna?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|rituals|yajna|ashwamedha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21471" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21458" CreationDate="2017-10-11T11:55:18.500" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is described in &lt;strong&gt;Rigveda&lt;/strong&gt; Mandala 10, Sukta 34. You can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10034.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;HYMN XXXIV. Dice, Etc.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting couple of verses that show the adverse effects of gambling and advice not to gamble.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जाया तप्यते कितवस्य हीना माता पुत्रस्य चरतः क्व स्वित्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ऋणावा बिभ्यद्धनमिच्छमानोऽन्येषामस्तमुप नक्तमेति॥ १०.०३४.१०&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10 The gambler's wife is left forlorn and wretched: the mother mourns the son who wanders homeless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अक्षैर्मा दीव्यः कृषिमित्कृषस्व वित्ते रमस्व बहु मन्यमानः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्र गावः कितव तत्र जाया तन्मे वि चष्टे सवितायमर्यः॥ १०.०३४.१३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13 Play not with dice: no, cultivate thy corn-land. Enjoy the gain, and deem that wealth sufficient.&#xA;  There are thy cattle there thy wife, O gambler. So this good Savitar himself hath told me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T12:01:10.563" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T12:01:10.563" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21472" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21473" CreationDate="2017-10-11T12:53:06.037" Score="4" ViewCount="390" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is known that Ram prayed to Shiva and Goddess Durga to conquer Ravana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is : did Krishna also ever prayed to another God like Brahma or Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T14:24:22.920" Title="Did Krishna ever prayed to another God like Brahma or Shiva?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2017-10-11T14:18:53.003" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21473" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21472" CreationDate="2017-10-11T13:46:02.740" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna praised Shiva for getting son, mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk04ch25.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagvatam, 4.25&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;28-29. On seeing Rukminî’s many sons, Pradyûmna and others, all qualified with diverse qualifications, His wife Jâmbavatî prayed to S’rî Krisna with humility, so that she may have also many beautiful sons. For her sake, Krisna firmly resolved to practise tapasyâ and went to the place where the great devotee of S’iva, Upamanyu, was staying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;30. Hari desiring to have sons engaged Upamanyu as His spiritual guide and obtained from him the Mantram called Pâs’upata Mantra and became a Dundee (holder of a staff) and shaved His head.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;31-32. In the first month He subsisted on fruits only and meditated on S’iva and repeated silently the S’iva mantra. Thus He practised very severe austerities. In the second month He subsisted on water only and stood on only one leg. In the third month he lived on air only and stood on the end of His great toe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;33-36. Thus time passed away. In the sixth month the God Rudra, holding Moon on His forehead, was pleased with His asceticism and devotion and appeared before Him on that spot. The God Mahâ Deva came on a bull; He was attended by Brahmâ  and Visnu, Indra and the other Devas, Yakshas and Gandarbhas and addressed thus :-- “O high minded Krisna of Yadu’s descent; I am pleased with Your severe asceticism; now ask Your desired boon; I will grant it just now. I fulfil all the desires of all my devotees;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;37-38. Vyâsa said :-- The son of Devakî was very glad to see the God S’amkara and fell prostrate at His feet. Then that eternal supreme God of the Devas began to recite hymns in praise of Him in a tone as deep as the rumbling of a cloud.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;39. Krisna said :-- O Deva of the Devas! O Lord of the world! You alone destroy the misfortunes and sorrows of all the beings. O Destroyer of Asuras! You are the Cause and Creator of this universe. I salute Thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T14:24:22.920" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T14:24:22.920" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21474" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-11T14:27:23.120" Score="1" ViewCount="1235" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding, according to Dvaita theory the desire of every being is to attain Moksha. And the only way to attain Moksha is to attain Vaikuntha Loka. On the whole according to Dvaita philosophy there are two states of existence: one is Parmatma and another is Jeevatma. The state of Paramatma can not be attained by any Jeevatma. Paramatma is the Supreme. Paramatma is special. Paramatma is absolute God. Paramatma is Vishnu. Krishna is that Paramatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However it is said that Krishna (Vishnu) &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/9986/12047&quot;&gt;prayed&lt;/a&gt; to Shiva. Furthermore, in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/9/23&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Verse 9.23&lt;/a&gt; of Bhagavad Gita Krishna (Vishnu) warns against praying to other demi gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those who are devotees of other gods and who worship them with faith&#xA;  actually worship only Me, O son of Kuntī, &lt;strong&gt;but they do so in a wrong&#xA;  way&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My questions are : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Vishnu the only real God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, then why did he pray as Krishna to another demi god when he himself had warned against it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Would Dvaitins recommend praying to Shiva?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-11T20:20:44.420" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T23:36:23.613" Title="According to Dvaita philosophy, is Vishnu the only God?" Tags="|dvaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21475" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21449" CreationDate="2017-10-11T14:46:17.183" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the &lt;strong&gt;Puranic legend&lt;/strong&gt; the name of such a mystical horse was : &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Uchchaihshravas&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The legend states that the first horse emerged from the depth of the&#xA;  ocean during the churning of the oceans. It was a horse with white&#xA;  color and had two wings. It was known by the name of Uchchaihshravas.&#xA;  The legend continues that Indra, king of the devas, took away the&#xA;  mythical horse to his celestial abode, the svarga (heaven).&#xA;  Subsequently, Indra severed the wings of the horse and presented the&#xA;  same to the mankind. The wings were severed to ensure that the horse&#xA;  would remain on the earth (prithvi) and not fly back to Indra’s&#xA;  svarga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other Legends and textual references&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Mahabharata mentions that Uchchaihshravas rose from the Samudra&#xA;  manthan (&quot;churning of the milk ocean&quot;) and Indra - the god-king of&#xA;  heaven seized it and made it his vehicle (vahana). He rose from the&#xA;  ocean along with other treasures like goddess Lakshmi - the goddess of&#xA;  fortune, taken by god Vishnu as his consort and the amrita - the&#xA;  elixir of life.&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; The legend of Uchchaihshravas, rising from the milk&#xA;  ocean also appears in the Vishnu Purana, the Ramayana, the Matsya&#xA;  Purana, the Vayu Purana etc. While various scriptures give different&#xA;  lists of treasures (ratnas) of those appeared from the churning of the&#xA;  milk ocean, most of them agree that Uchchaihshravas was one of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read more about it &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uchchaihshravas&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashva&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T14:46:17.183" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21476" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21468" CreationDate="2017-10-11T17:57:14.970" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The etymology seems right &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MW72Scan/2014/web/webtc/servepdf.php?page=0819&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;according to&lt;/a&gt; Monier-Williams dictionary.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yudhi-shṭhira, as,  m. (yudhi, loc. c. + sthira), ‘firm or steady in&#xA;  battle,’ N. of the eldest of the five reputed sons  of Pāṇḍu, (though&#xA;  nominally the son of Pāṇḍu, he  was really the child of Pṛithā or&#xA;  Kuntī, Pāṇḍu's wife, by the god Dharma or Yama, whence he is often &#xA;  called Dharma-putra or Dharma-rāja; as the eldest  of the five&#xA;  Pāṇḍavas, he ultimately succeeded Pāṇḍu  as king, first reigning over&#xA;  Indra-prastha, and afterwards, when the Kuru princes or sons of&#xA;  Dhṛitarāshṭra were defeated, at Hāstina-pura);&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Macdonell dictionary also &lt;a href=&quot;http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/macdonell_query.py?page=131&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;derives&lt;/a&gt; the meaning the same way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12) युधिष्ठिर (p. 131)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yudhi-shthira (steadfast in battle), N. of the eldest son of Pându and Kuntî (begotten by the god Dharma), and leader of the Pândavas in their war with the Kurus;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastActivityDate="2017-10-11T17:57:14.970" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21477" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21474" CreationDate="2017-10-11T18:33:41.530" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I noticed that you asked many questions about what Dvaita teaches. You should know that Dvaita is just one specific system of the philosophy of Vedanta promulgated by the Madhva (Madhvacarya or Anandatirtha) who was the leader of one Vaishnava tradition (sampradaya) in the 13th century. See the Wikipedia article on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhvacharya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Madhvacharya&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However if you are interested in Vaishnava systems of Vedanta in general you should ask your questions like &quot;According to Vaishnava philosophy ...&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Is Vishnu the only real God?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the gods are real, but among them there is one supreme god, it's Lord Krishna.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;There are no unreal gods! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;If yes, then why did he pray as Krishna to another demi god when he himself had warned against it?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He prayed to gods such as Shiva to show an example that you can pray like that, but in the Gita He explained to Arjuna that only less intelligent people think that they should worship gods in heaven and not paramatma, Lord Krishna, instead. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagavad gita 7.23 — &lt;strong&gt;Men of small intelligence&lt;/strong&gt; worship the demigods, and their&#xA;  fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to&#xA;  the planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My&#xA;  supreme planet.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And He also said in the verse 9.23 that the devotees of other gods perform worship &quot;in a wrong way&quot;, as you have quoted. Some people are not capable to worship paramatma, Lord Krishna, and they are not eligible to get liberation (moksha), and Lord Krishna showed an example to those people to worship some other gods. It is better to worship any god than not worship at all. That is why Lord Vishnu or Krishna sometimes worship some gods, just to show an example to people who are not capable to worship the Supreme God, Lord Krishna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Would Dvaitins recommend praying to Shiva?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, they would not recommend worship of anyone except paramatma, the Supreme Absolute, Brahman, Lord Krishna. In the Bhagavad gita Lord Krishna recommends worship of Lord Krishna only as the best and ultimate type of worship. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;em&gt;Their Parmatma (Vishnu) prays to another Parmatma (Shiva)...There is not one Parmatma but many.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That what you said is contrary to the teaching of Vedanta. The Upanishads say that there is only one paramatma in all the beings: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;eko devaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; sarva-bhūteṣu gūḍhaḥ sarva-vyāpī sarva-bhūtāntarātmā&#xA;karmādhyakṣaḥ sarva-bhūtādhivāsaḥ sākṣī cetā kevalo nirguṇaś ca&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;He is the &lt;strong&gt;one God&lt;/strong&gt;, hidden in all beings, all-pervading,&#xA;the self within all beings, watching over all works, dwelling in all beings, the witness, the perceiver, &lt;strong&gt;the only one&lt;/strong&gt;, free from qualities.&quot; (Svetasvatara Upanishad 6.11)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you read carefully this verse you should notice that it says there is only &quot;one God&quot; (eko devaḥ) and also &quot;the only one&quot;, who is the paramatma hidden in all beings (sarva-bhūteṣu -- in all living entities; gūḍhaḥ -- hidden), and also that He is the self (paramatma) within all beings (sarva-bhūta -- all living entities or jivatmas; antah-atma -- the Supersoul, the Self, Supreme Soul, paramatma). So, there are not many paramatmas, but there is only one paramatma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2790" LastEditorUserId="2790" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T23:36:23.613" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T23:36:23.613" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21480" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-12T03:25:56.757" Score="0" ViewCount="61" Body="&lt;p&gt;I'd like to know how Vedas explain eclipses and what they say about eclipses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How doe eclipses occur according to Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do Vedas say about Eclipses in general?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are eclipses considered inaspicious in Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please cite the sources.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5284" LastEditorUserId="5284" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T04:13:08.033" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T04:13:08.033" Title="What do vedas say about Eclipses" Tags="|scripture|vedas|eclipse|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-10-12T03:49:50.683" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21483" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21431" CreationDate="2017-10-12T08:25:07.600" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is addressed in the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; in several places. &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; 13.27-28 says (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He sees who sees the supreme Lord as existing equally in all beings, and as the Imperishable among the perishable.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Since by seeing equally God who is present alike everywhere he does not injure the Self by the Self, therefore he attains the supreme Goal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; 6.9:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He excels who has sameness of view with regard to a benefactor, a friend, a foe, a neutral, an arbiter, the hateful, a relative, good people and even sinners.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda comments on verse 13.28 above in his &lt;em&gt;Complete Works&lt;/em&gt; V3, p 425 (Available here under the heading 'Lectures from Colombo to Almora', sub-heading 'The Vedanta' - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaitaashrama.org/cw/content.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.advaitaashrama.org/cw/content.php&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the second place, Advaita and Advaita alone explains morality. Every religion preaches that the essence of all morality is to do good to others. And why? Be unselfish. And why should I? Some God has said it? He is not for me. Some texts have declared it? Let them; that is nothing to me; let them all tell it. And if they do, what is it to me? Each one for himself, and somebody take the hindermost — that is all the morality in the world, at least with many. What is the reason that I should be moral? You cannot explain it except when you come to know the truth as given in the Gita: &quot;He who sees everyone in himself, and himself in everyone, thus seeing the same God living in all, he, the sage, no more kills the Self by the self.&quot; Know through Advaita that whomsoever you hurt, you hurt yourself; they are all you. Whether you know it or not, through all hands you work, through all feet you move, you are the king enjoying in the palace, you are the beggar leading that miserable existence in the street; you are in the ignorant as well as in the learned, you are in the man who is weak, and you are in the strong; know this and be sympathetic. And that is why we must not hurt others. That is why I do not even care whether I have to starve, because there will be millions of mouths eating at the same time, and they are all mine. Therefore I should not care what becomes of me and mine, for the whole universe is mine, I am enjoying all the bliss at the same time; and who can kill me or the universe? Herein is morality. Here, in Advaita alone, is morality explained. The others teach it but cannot give you its reason. Then, so far about explanation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T10:14:26.197" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T10:14:26.197" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21484" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18046" CreationDate="2017-10-12T08:26:38.273" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The first breathe coming out of the body is the one we must look for because breathe is a unit of time measure as per the Rishis. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;The below is from Surya Siddhanth : Chapter 1 verse 12 in Phanindra Ganguly's translation.&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;12&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And sixty nadis make a sidereal day and night....&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The manuscripts without commentary insert, as the first half of&#xA;v. 11, the usual definition of the length of a respiration: &quot; the time occupied&#xA;in pronouncing ten long syllables is called a respiration. '&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The table of the divisions of sidereal time is then as follow:&#xA;10 long syllables (gurvaftshara) = 1 respiration (prana, period of four seconds);&#xA;6 respirations = 1 vinadi (period of twenty-four seconds);&#xA;60 vinadis = 1 nadi (period of twenty-four minutes);&#xA;60 nadis = 1 day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastEditorUserId="12223" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T15:55:19.347" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T15:55:19.347" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21485" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21497" CreationDate="2017-10-12T08:39:43.900" Score="7" ViewCount="1585" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard he got boon that after this life he will live in dhruv loka as king. But I have doubt on next point. As per my partial knowledge, Lord Vishnu said &quot;&lt;em&gt;You will live in dhruv loka and on time of Mahaa Pralaya, everything will be destroyed but your loka will still remain.&lt;/em&gt;&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Lord Vishnu really said same then does that mean Prahlad(as dhruv) will still be stay safe even after mahaa pralaya at the end of Kalpa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;UPDATE&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is about Dhruva. Because of temporary confusion I mixed up two different characters(don't know how since I was fully aware about both of their story individually) by thinking they are same. Now confusion got clear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-14T07:19:15.353" LastActivityDate="2017-10-14T07:19:15.353" Title="What boon did Lord Vishnu give to Dhruva?" Tags="|vishnu|dhruva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21486" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="957" CreationDate="2017-10-12T09:03:31.440" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vakya is basically a mathematical theory for calculations. Does not account for actual observations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Drik is based on actual observation but needs constant updation based on observation. Nasa data is based on actual observation because they have to land a craft in mars. Nasa revises it ephemeris every few years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However for most calendrical calculations Vakya is more than satisfactory provided the mathematical theories are rewritten taking into account certain corrections which are obtained from actual observations. This is like the French VSOP theory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As on date my honest opinion is all Jyotish related calculations are not updated and do not follow the writings of the Rishis. This is the effect of Kali when the Vedas are not quite well understood. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T09:03:31.440" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21488" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2326" CreationDate="2017-10-12T10:38:58.580" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes , animals can attain moksha. Sri vaishnavas take sharanagathi from a guru. The guru can also give sharanagati to a cow in the house of a vaishnava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Padma Purana Uttara Kanda Chapter 224 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those devotees of Visnu, having stuck to (i.e. round) their necks the garland of Tulasi or lotuses or a rosary, having the marks of conch or disc at the roots of their arms, or those having the Urdhvapundra (the vertical lines) on their foreheads, quickly purify the world. Beings are not sorry for those who pre-serve (but) do not properly carry (the mark of) the extensive disc of the lord of heaven. &lt;strong&gt;Those who carry the disc very firm(-lymarked) with (the proper) rite on their arm(s), quickly occupy, by means of their lustre, a high place in the sky. He who has at the root(s) of his arms the disc mark of Visnu, the highest soul (made) by heating (the disc) in the sacrificial fire, crosses the great ocean of the mundane existence, and goes to the pure world of the highest lord&lt;/strong&gt;. A man should make at the roots of his arms the marks with the heated discs etc. He should also get such&#xA;  marks put on (the bodies of) his wife, children, servants and&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;beasts&lt;/strong&gt; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12257" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T19:17:54.847" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T19:17:54.847" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21489" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21431" CreationDate="2017-10-12T11:12:29.700" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many places in Mahabharata where the Golden Rule is advocated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhishma’s morality&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhishma said, ‘Knowing how painful it is to himself, a person should&#xA;  never do that to others which he dislikes when done to him by others.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCLX&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on virtue&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vidura said, ‘Study of the various scriptures, asceticism, gift,&#xA;  faith, performance of sacrifices, forgiveness, sincerity of&#xA;  disposition, compassion, truth, self-restraint, these constitute&#xA;  possessions of Virtue. Do thou adopt Virtue. Let not, thy heart ever&#xA;  turn away from it. Both Virtue and Profit have their roots in these. I&#xA;  think that all these are capable of being included in one term. It is&#xA;  upon Virtue that all the worlds depend (for their existence). It is by&#xA;  Virtue that the gods attained to their position of superiority. It is&#xA;  upon Virtue that Profit or Wealth rests. Virtue, O king, is foremost&#xA;  in point of merit. Profit is said to be middling. Desire, it is said&#xA;  by the wise, is the lowest of the three. For this reason, one should&#xA;  live with restrained soul, giving his attention to virtue most. &lt;strong&gt;One&#xA;  should also behave towards all creatures as he should towards himself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CLXVII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on how to treat others&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That which is antagonistic to one’s own self, should never be applied in respect of another.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Mahabharata Udyoga Parva, Section 39]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-10-12T11:25:56.100" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T11:25:56.100" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21490" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21491" CreationDate="2017-10-12T11:42:43.640" Score="3" ViewCount="585" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are some verses In Rig veda which says Lord vishnu extols Indra deva s majesty like-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;when visnu,through thine(Indra's)energy,strode wide those three great steps of his,then thy two beautifull bay steeds carried thee on.(Rig veda 8:12:27)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;visnu,varuna,mitra sing thy (Indra's)praise: In thee the maruts' company have great delight&amp;quot;.(Rigveda8:15:9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;this majesty of his,Visnu extols and lauds,making the stalk that gives the meath flow forth with might&amp;quot;(Rigveda 10:113:2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T13:14:01.770" Title="Why Lord vishnu praises and lauds Indra deva s majesty according to Rig veda?" Tags="|vishnu|rig-veda|indra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21491" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21490" CreationDate="2017-10-12T12:08:21.020" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;This translation is provided by Griffit,an alternate translation is provided by HH wilson according to Sayana.They are -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;when thy(younger brother) Visnu by(his)strength stepped his three paces,then verily thy beloved horses bore thee.(Rig Veda 8:12:27)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following verse from Rig Veda renders the above  translation by wilson more probale.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wilson also offers alternate translation for Rig veda 10:113:2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;visnu offering the portion of soma,glorifies by his own vigor that greatness of his.Indra the Lord of wealth,with the associated gods having slain Vritra become deserving of honour.(Rig Veda 10:113:2)&#xA;The verse glorifies visnu as one who is glorified by his own strenght,while Indra become deserving of honour after having slain vritra only in assocation with other gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However visnu praising other gods need not to be taken as worship.wilson translate&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;visnu the might giver of dwellings praises thee,and mitra and varuna;the company of maruts immitates thee in exhilaration.(Rig veda 8:15:9)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;the following verses show vishnu as distuinguished from other Gods IN Rig veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;he who presents(offering) to visnu,the ancient,the creator,the recent,the self born;he who celebrates the great birth of the mighty one;he verily possessed of abundance,attains the(station)that is to be sought by(all ).(Rig Veda 1:156:2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;no being that is or that has been born,divine visnu,has attained the utmost limit of thy magnitude,by which thou hast upheld the vast and beautifull heaven,and sustained the eastern horizon of earth(Rig Veda 7:99:2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These all translations are provided by HH wilson while according to griffit Translation Lord vishnu extols  and lauds Indra deva s majesty&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T13:14:01.770" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21492" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21495" CreationDate="2017-10-12T13:40:04.177" Score="8" ViewCount="593" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Aum Tacchayora Vrneemahe&#xA;Gaathum Yajnayaa&#xA;Gaathum Yajna Pathayè.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sthirayrangayi, swastinastunaha.&#xA;Swasthir manushebyaha.&#xA;Urdhvam jigathu bheshajham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shamno asthu dwipadhe&#xA;sham chathusphathaye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Veda instructor at my (non-gurukul) school makes us chant this. However, I cannot find any reference to such a sloka online. Is this sloka a popular one? Is it found anywhere in the Vedas/Upanishads?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pardon me, I'm not too good at transliterating Devanagari to English. My Sanskrit knowledge is not that good either.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12258" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-01-05T20:25:43.607" Title="Is this a real sloka?" Tags="|shloka|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21493" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-12T15:35:45.710" Score="14" ViewCount="1231" Body="&lt;p&gt;Has anyone made a thorough research of the Mahabharata and figured out when this war actually took place with exact astronomical evidence? Are there dates in any other text for the Mahabharata war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-10-13T14:50:21.597" LastActivityDate="2022-07-03T06:57:05.290" Title="When did the Mahabharata war take place?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21494" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7611" CreationDate="2017-10-12T15:56:57.073" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;As a child I have seen few mythological series like the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ramayana&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;em&gt;Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and have heard this word 'Arya' many times but don't think it was in context to Aryan race!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Speaking of the Aryan invasion theory, it would probably be an oversimplification to say: &quot;Germans invented it, British used it,&quot; but not by much. The concept of the Aryans as a race and the associated idea of the 'Aryan nation' were very much a part of the ideology of German nationalism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Before getting to the role played by German nationalism, it is useful first to take a brief look at what the word Arya does mean.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first point to note is that the idea of the Aryans as foreigners who invaded India and destroyed the existing Harappan Civilization is a modern European invention; it receives no support whatsoever from Indian records - literary or archaeological. The same is true of the notion of the Aryans as a race; it finds no support in Indian literature or tradition. The word 'Arya' in Sanskrit means noble and never a race. In fact, the authoritative Sanskrit lexicon (c. 450 AD), the famous Amarakosa gives the following definition:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mahakula kulinarya sabhya sajjana sadhavah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An Arya is one who hails from a noble family, of gentle behavior and demeanor, good-natured and of righteous conduct And the great epic Ramayana has a singularly eloquent expression describing Rama as:    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;arya sarva samascaiva sadaiva priyadarsanah&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arya, who worked for the equality of all and was dear to everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Rigveda also uses the word Arya something like thirty six times, but never to mean a race. The nearest to a definition that one can find in the Rigveda is probably:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;praja arya jyotiragrah ... (Children of Arya are led by light)&#xA;      RV, VII. 33.17&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Julian Huxley, one of the leading biologists of the century, wrote as far back as 1939:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In 1848 the young German scholar Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900)&#xA;  settled in Oxford, where he remained for the rest of his life. ...&#xA;  About 1853 he introduced into the English language the unlucky term&#xA;  Aryan as applied to a large group of languages. ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as ancient India is concerned, one may safely say that the word Arya denoted certain spiritual and humanistic values that defined her civilization. The entire Aryan civilization - the civilization of Vedic India - was driven and sustained by these values. The whole of ancient Indian literature: from the Vedas, the Brahmanas to the Puranas to the epics like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana can be seen as a record of the struggles of an ancient people to live up to the ideals defined by these values.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us now take a final look at this famous theory. It was first a theory of Europe created by Europeans to free themselves from the Jewish heritage of Christianity. This was to lead to Hitler and Nazism. This theory was later transferred to India and got mixed up with the study of Sanskrit and European languages. Europeans, now calling themselves Indo-Europeans became the invading Aryas and the natives became the Dravidians. The British hired Max Muller to use this theory to turn the Vedas into an inferior scripture, to help turn educated Hindus into Christian collaborators. Max Muller used his position as a Vedic scholar to boost German nationalism by giving scriptural sanction to the German idea of the Arya race. Following German unification under Bismarck, British public and politicians became scared and anti-German. At this Max Muller, worried about his position in England, got cold feet and wriggled out of his predicament by denouncing his own former racial theory and turned it into a linguistic theory. In all of this, one would like to know where was the science?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More can be read in details &lt;a href=&quot;http://archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/aryan-invasion-history&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Found an interesting presentation ruling out rightly the so-called AIT. Watch here on &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/B9JbxFiLInk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;youtube&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2018-09-10T14:53:53.860" LastActivityDate="2018-09-10T14:53:53.860" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21495" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21492" CreationDate="2017-10-12T16:26:29.773" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's a Shanti Mantra that occurs in the beginning of chapter 3 of the Taittiriya Aranyaka of the Yajur Veda (as you can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskritweb.net/yajurveda/ta-find.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tacchṃyorāvṛṇīmahe | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  gātuṃ yajñāya | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  gātuṃ yajñapataye | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  daivī svastirastu naḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  svastirmānuṣebhyaḥ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ūrdhvaṃ jigātu bheṣajaṃ | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śaṃ no astu dvipade | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  śaṃ catuṣpade | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  oṃ śānti śānti śāntiḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It also occurs in a Khila Sukta in Mandala 10 of the Rig Veda, as you can see &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_veda/khilas1.html?lang=en-IN&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, it's commonly recited as a Shanti mantra before reciting the Purusha Sukta, a famous Vedic hymn in praise of Vishnu.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.stephen-knapp.com/purusha_sukta.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the meaning:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We worship and pray to the Supreme Lord for the welfare of all beings. May all miseries and shortcomings leave us forever so that we may always sing for the Lord during the holy fire ceremonies. May all medicinal herbs grow in potency so that all diseases may be cured. May the gods rain peace on us. May all the two-legged creatures be happy, and may all the four-legged creatures also be happy. May there be peace in the hearts of all beings in all realms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=rb7fL6o-Ce0C&amp;amp;lpg=PA130&amp;amp;ots=ssI7HvzjUx&amp;amp;dq=svastir%20urdhvam&amp;amp;pg=PA130#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=svastir%20urdhvam&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is the Anukramani information for this mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sage Shamyu is the seer. Shakvari is the metre. Vishvadeva or cosmic spirits are the presiding deities; for everlasting peace is this affirmation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of the sage Shamyu Barhaspatya and how he heard this mantra is told in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1237.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Shatapatha Brahmana of the Yajur Veda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereupon he pronounces the 'All-hail and blessing' (sam-yos). Now it was Samyu Bârhaspatya who perceived, in its true nature, the consummation of the sacrifice. He went to share in the world of the gods. Thereupon that (knowledge) was entirely lost to men. It then became known to the Rishis, that Samyu Bârhaspatya had perceived, in its true nature, the consummation of the sacrifice, and had gone to share in the world of the gods. By pronouncing the samyoh, they attained to that same consummation of the sacrifice which Samyu Bârhaspatya had perceived; and to that same consummation of the sacrifice, which Samyu Bârhaspatya had perceived, this (Hotri) attains by pronouncing the sam-yoh. For this reason he pronounces the 'All-hail and blessing.' He intones, 'We long for that All-hail and blessing (sam-yoh);' whereby he says, 'We long for that consummation of the sacrifice which Samyu Bârhaspatya perceived.'&#xA;  'Success to the sacrifice, success to the lord of sacrifice!' he who wishes for the consummation of the sacrifice, thereby wishes success to the sacrifice and success to the lord of sacrifice.--'Bliss (svasti) to us, bliss to men!' he thereby says, 'May we enjoy bliss among the gods, bliss among men!'--'May the means of salvation ascend on high!' he thereby says, 'May this sacrifice secure for us the world of the gods!' 'All-hail, for us, to the two-footed, all-hail to the four-footed!' for so far as the two-footed and the four-footed (extend), so far does this universe (extend). Having now attained the consummation of the sacrifice, he bids All-hail to this (sacrificer), and for this reason he says, 'All-hail, for us, to the two-footed, all-hail to the four-footed!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ritual being described, where this mantra is chanted, is known as the Shamyuvaka, and it's a Shanti ritual done during Vedic Yagnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-01-05T20:25:43.607" LastActivityDate="2018-01-05T20:25:43.607" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21496" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-12T16:46:20.990" Score="2" ViewCount="118" Body="&lt;p&gt;The generally held belief is that kaliyuga started around -3102bc. Where is the exact verse or inscription which states this? Also is there any verse which states when dwapara started or treta started? Please quote astronomical reference with planetary positions if any?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T16:46:20.990" Title="Where is the exact date of start of kaliyug mentioned?" Tags="|yuga|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21497" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21485" CreationDate="2017-10-12T18:33:12.053" Score="9" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard he got boon that after this life he will live in dhruv loka as king.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am unaware of the boon Lord Vishnu gives to Prahlada being the ruler of  polestar. There were no rulers of the Polestar before Dhruva, son of Uttānapāda. But there are other boons mentioned in the Vamana Purana. He got immortality, everlasting youth but not as Dhruva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu gave boons to Prahlada as the incarnation of Narayana, a Sadhya and son of Lord Dharma. His brother is Nara. He is also an expansion of Lord Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prahalada once waged a war with Nara and Narayana. He was unable to defeat them (Narayana particularly) even after several thousand divine years. Feeling frustrated, he prays to Lord Vishnu and asks the reason why he was not able to conquer Sage Narayana. Lord Vishnu says that Narayana is none other than himself. He advises him to defeat Narayana with devotion. Knowing this, he prostrates to Narayana and praises Him. Then sage Narayana says to Prahlada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord said - O great resolute! O Daitya! I am pleased with your prayer. O Daitya! This exclusive devotion has defeated me. [9.56]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Daitya! The defeated man is given punishment but instead of receiving any punishment from you, it is I who will bless you. Ask for anything you desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prahlada asks for the removal of his evil sin he committed by waging war with Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prahlada said - You are competent to bless me with what I ask for. Hence O Jagannatha! May the evil committed on my part by body, mind and speech in course of fighting, all that may be absolved. I pray and ask for it. Please, bless me with this boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana said -  O demon king! May it as be you wish. May your evils so committed be absolved. O demon! ask for anything more. I will render that also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He asks that all the thoughts in his mind should shelter on Lord Vishnu, for the worship and meditation on Him. Narayana grants that too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Prahlada said - O Adhokshaja! I have got everything with your  grace. May my popularity live long with your grace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana said - It shall be asked. Besides it, &lt;strong&gt;you shall be immortal, always youthful and invurnerable with my grace&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He advises Prahlada return to his abode and continue his righteous way of life and be the preceptor of the Daityas and Danavas. Prahlada takes leave from there and coronated Andhaka (son of Hiranyaksha) as the king of demons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Lord Vishnu really said same then does that mean Prahlad(as dhruv) will still be stay safe even after mahaa pralaya at the end of Kalpa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He attained the state of immortality by absorbing his interest on Lord Vishnu. He attained the purity of body through Yoga. The chapter doesn't mention him to be as a ruler of North star.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, Dhruva will remain safe even after the end of the Kalpa. Lord Vishnu gave this boon to Dhruva, son of Uttānapāda. He is the son of Śatarūpā and  Svāyambhuva Manu. From Bhagavatam,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead continued: My dear Dhruva, &lt;strong&gt;I shall award you the glowing planet known as the polestar, which will continue to exist even after the dissolution at the end of the millennium. No one has ever ruled this planet&lt;/strong&gt;, which is surrounded by all the solar systems, planets and stars. All the luminaries in the sky circumambulate this planet, just as bulls tread around a central pole for the purpose of crushing grains. Keeping the polestar to their right, all the stars inhabited by the great sages like Dharma, Agni, Kaśyapa and Śukra circumambulate this planet, which continues to exist even after the dissolution of all others. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/9/20-21&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[SB 4.9.20-21]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we look at the text in bold, we will know that there were none who ruled the  polestar before Dhruva, son of Uttānapāda. So, it is clear that Prahlada was never a king of the polestar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear son Prahlāda, all good fortune unto you. &lt;strong&gt;For the time being, please go to the place known as Sutala and there enjoy happiness with your grandson and your other relatives and friends&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/23/9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[SB 8.23.9]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear that he is still in Sutala and not in the Dhruva Kshiti (polestar).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We know from above verses of Bhagavatam that Dhruva will stay after the end of Kalpa and Prahlada is in the Sutala loka along with his grandson, friends and relatives so, it is likely that he is still the ruler of the polestar. It also says that there is no dissolution of this polestar which continues to exist even after the dissolution of all the saptarishis. So, Dhruva stays in his loka even after the end of Kalpa. Prahlada also stays due to his boon from Narayana but not as the ruler of polestar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-12T18:59:19.377" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21498" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-13T01:26:01.893" Score="0" ViewCount="83" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The one who is patient is the lord of all he surveys &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does anyone know this quotation from Mahabharatha or any other epic? What is the source of this excerpt ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does it mean ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12261" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-03T03:52:21.397" LastActivityDate="2017-11-03T17:29:28.870" Title="Excerpt from Mahabharata?" Tags="|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21500" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="32985" CreationDate="2017-10-13T03:38:04.087" Score="7" ViewCount="2373" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vaishnavas believe that only Lord Vishnu can grant Moksha. If that is the case, then how do they explain this mantra from the Rig Veda which clearly says that Lord Shiva can grant Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Om tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭivardhanam urvārukamiva&#xA;  bandhanānmṛtyormukṣīya mā'mṛtāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We worship the Three-eyed Lord&lt;/strong&gt; who is fragrant and who nourishes and&#xA;  nurtures all beings. As is the ripened cucumber freed from its bondage&#xA;  (to the creeper), &lt;strong&gt;may He liberate us from death for the sake of&#xA;  immortality.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Three-eyed Lord&quot; is a clear reference to Lord Shiva, is it not? If so, then how can one say only Lord Vishnu can grant Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T12:26:11.100" LastActivityDate="2019-02-12T22:40:35.193" Title="How do Vaishnavas interpret the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra?" Tags="|vedas|shiva|vaishnavism|moksha|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21501" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2977" CreationDate="2017-10-13T04:34:47.297" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your starting premise that Jainism and Buddhism were just sects of Hinduism is incorrect. Any non-vedic philosophy is not a Hindu philosophy by definition. Therefore Buddhism and Jainism are not and were not sects of Hinduism or branches of Hindu philosophy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Your confusion arises from the fact that they were founded by those born into the Hindu religion and borrowed heavily from  Hinduism. Buddhism for e.g., has tantric portions taken from Hindu practices. Even their tantric deities mimic Hindu deities. Another reason for the confusion is from the style in which these religions chose to propogate themselves vis-a-vis abrahamic religions. The latter were historically more militant in their propaganda. You can look up &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;crusades&lt;/a&gt;,  and several citations in the Wikipedia page of Islam, &lt;a href=&quot;http://The%20preaching%20of%20Islam:%20a%20history%20of%20the%20propagation%20of%20the%20Muslim%20faith%20By%20Sir%20Thomas%20Walker%20Arnold,%20pg.125-258&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;one of them quoted below&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and&#xA;  empires, traders and conversion to Islam by missionary activities.[28]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the softer propagation of these religions and their advocacy of ahimsa which is a Hindu concept, could lead to confusing the religions are sects of Hinduism. They never were.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In conclusion, the Q is ill-considered and, therefore, incorrect and beside the point.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-10-13T06:50:57.090" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T06:50:57.090" CommentCount="17" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21502" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-13T05:19:04.880" Score="15" ViewCount="5359" Body="&lt;p&gt;Reincarnation is a concept of Hinduism mentioned in the Upanishads, Puranas, Bhagavad Gita, but I could not find its mention in the Veda Samhitas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it mentioned in the four Vedas, that is in the Vedic Samhitas: Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda or the Atharva Veda?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T05:26:10.363" LastActivityDate="2019-05-18T10:49:44.020" Title="Is reincarnation or rebirth mentioned in the Vedas (Samhitas)?" Tags="|vedas|rebirth|samhita|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21503" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21506" CreationDate="2017-10-13T05:42:27.937" Score="0" ViewCount="286" Body="&lt;p&gt;I read that Shiva have 1008 names and also know that Krishna have also various names. My question is which one God have more than names others?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12265" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-15T07:47:16.827" LastActivityDate="2017-10-15T07:47:16.827" Title="Which one God have more maximum names? Krishna or Shiva?" Tags="|gods|name|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21505" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-13T07:39:40.427" Score="6" ViewCount="319" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;10th Canto&lt;/a&gt; of Shrimad Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana) describes the pastimes of Lord Krishna in detail. The pastimes of Lord Krishna are also summarized in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/kb&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;KṚṢṆA, The Supreme Personality of Godhead&lt;/a&gt; by Prabhupada.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question centers around the following two pastimes of the Lord:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/kb/16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Subduing of Kaliya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/kb/25&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indra's wrath on Vrindavan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna was born in Mathura in the prison house of Kamsa. Vasudev immediately after the birth of Krishna took Him to Gokul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to the atrocities of Kamsa; the inhabitants of Gokul left for Vrindavan and Krishna stayed there in a place which is today called Nandagram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So regardless of where Krishna stayed during pastime with Kaliya or Indra (He was mostly in NanagGram according to me):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nandagram to Vrindavan distance: approx 45km.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nandagram to Govardhan: approx 29km.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So when Krishna was caught by Kaliya; Yashoda and all others came running to a place which is today called Kaliya ghat and is approx 45km from Nandagram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A similar thing happened during Govardhan Lila of the lord; Govardhan is approx 29 km from Nandagram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did they travel so swiftly to such a far distance?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Considering that Krishna incarnated approximately 5000 years ago; I don't think they would have had very huge bodies or bodily abilities in comparison to us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is today's Vrindavan, the one in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, the same which is mentioned in Bhagavatam?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-06-24T14:25:04.193" LastActivityDate="2023-06-24T14:25:04.193" Title="Is Vrindavan in India the same village which is described in Bhagavatam?" Tags="|krishna|history|bhagavata-purana|geography|vrindavana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21506" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21503" CreationDate="2017-10-13T09:04:46.713" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am a follower of Shiva and sometimes when I go to temples, I see priests performing Abhisheka and chant different names of Lord Shiva. most of the time they use &lt;strong&gt;Shiva Sahasra Naama&lt;/strong&gt; book. Sahasra means thousand, so Lord Shiva at least have 1000 names and this link listed down &lt;strong&gt;1000&lt;/strong&gt; names &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.de/1000Shiva.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Saharsra Naama&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also here is another link which listed &lt;strong&gt;1000&lt;/strong&gt; names of lord &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-names/gods/lord-vishnu/1008-vishnu-names.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Vishu 1000 Names&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Looks like both have the same number of names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8228" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T09:04:46.713" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21507" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21510" CreationDate="2017-10-13T09:19:22.593" Score="6" ViewCount="297" Body="&lt;p&gt;Up till now whatever I have learnt is :-&#xA;Whatever we give to the universe, the universe will return it back in bigger form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is do we earn through universe only via giving our wealth as charity (to needy person or a monk) , or we can give gifts to our dear ones and it is considered as giving our wealth to the universe and it will benefit us in terms of merit?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-12-28T16:27:41.317" LastActivityDate="2017-12-28T16:27:41.317" Title="Merit through Charity Vs Gifts" Tags="|belief|bhagavad-gita|karma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21510" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21507" CreationDate="2017-10-13T10:09:17.347" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;, it will not only give you merits but more merits than that are acquired upon performing some other charity works. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Daksha Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What is presented as a gift to the father, to the mother, to the&#xA;  .preceptor, to a friend, to a humble person, to one who has done any&#xA;  good, to the poor, to the helpless and to distinguished persons,&#xA;  yields fruits. (15) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daksha Smriti 3-15.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From VyAsa Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By making gifts to one's parents, brothers, father-in-law,&#xA;  mother-in-law, wife, or children, one is entitled to an eternal&#xA;  residence in heaven. (29)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A gift made to one's father is hundred times more meritorious than the&#xA;  one made to an outsider, those made to one's mother and sister being&#xA;  respectively ten times greater than the latter. A- gift made to one's&#xA;  brother bears eternal fruit&lt;/strong&gt;. (30) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VyAsa Smriti, Chapter 4, Verses-29,30.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These verses from the VyAsa Smriti are also highlighted in the book called &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=1&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwivl8CG0-3WAhVEULwKHevFDGoQFggnMAA&amp;amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kamakoti.org%2Fkamakoti%2Farticles%2FDharma%2520Bindu.pdf&amp;amp;usg=AOvVaw0eZP6o3ks_x7jsfchJG4X7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt; (which is hosted by the Kamakoti.org website) in the context of emphasizing the need of making gifts to our own family members viz- parents, brothers-sisters etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maata pitrushu yadyayaad bhraatrushu shvashureshucha,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Jaayaapatyeshu yaddadyaad sonatah svarga samkramah||&lt;br&gt;Pituh&#xA;  shatagunam daanam sahasra Maaturuchyate&lt;br&gt; Bhaginyaam shata sahasram&#xA;  sodare duttamakshayam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the current times, what Veda Vyasa states is indeed applicable:&#xA;  Charity that is provided to parents, brothers and father-in- law, own&#xA;  wife and children would pave the way to heavens. If the charity that&#xA;  is given to father is hundred folded, that given to mother is thousand&#xA;  folded, to sisters it is of lakh times more and to brothers is&#xA;  countless!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BTW, i have not understood why you have tagged the question with Bhagavad Gita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-13T13:00:05.707" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T13:00:05.707" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21511" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-13T10:54:00.260" Score="2" ViewCount="58" Body="&lt;p&gt;I understand that most of the practices that are followed in the society have some or the other reasons.&#xA;Like it is very popular belief in Hindu tradition not to purchase Oil and Salt on Saturdays, not get a haircut on Thursdays and Saturdays etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any reference in our texts that support this? Like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3186/why-can-tulsi-leaves-only-be-picked-on-certain-days&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; question provides a decent explanation of not plucking Tulsi (Basil) on specific days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No intention to offend anyone, but just want to segregate knowledge from ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8207" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T10:54:00.260" Title="Is it written in our Shastras about abstinence from some acts on certain days" Tags="|scripture|practice|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21512" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21493" CreationDate="2017-10-13T12:33:03.723" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Wikipedia on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra_War&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kurukshetra War&lt;/a&gt;, 22 November 3067 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;K. Sadananda, based on translation work, states that the Kurukshetra War started on 22 November 3067 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;B. N. Achar used planetarium software to argue that the Mahabharata War took place in 3067 BCE.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;- &lt;a href=&quot;https://web.archive.org/web/20160304234232/http://www.dkprintworld.com/product-detail.php?pid=1280856795&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Singh 2010&lt;/a&gt;, p. Chapter 7, Pp. 202-252, 302&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12224" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-02-04T15:53:12.643" LastActivityDate="2021-02-04T15:53:12.643" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21513" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21502" CreationDate="2017-10-13T12:33:20.800" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is no explicit mention of reincarnation in the Vedic Samhitas. However, some people think that some verses in the Vedic Samhitas can be interpreted to mean reincarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have heard the mention of two pathways, of birth and death, the ways&#xA;  of parents, the learned and the mortals. On these two roads each&#xA;  moving creature travels. &lt;strong&gt;Each soul leaves the present parents and&#xA;  assumes new ones.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yajur Veda 19.47 translated by Devi Chand&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T12:33:20.800" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21514" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21220" CreationDate="2017-10-13T13:13:18.790" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The book &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Dharma%20Bindu.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dharma Bindu&lt;/a&gt; quotes Veda Vyasa as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyasa Maharshi gave the instructions as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Haridraamkumkumamchaiva sindhuram kajjalam tathaa&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;br&gt; Kurpaanakam&#xA;  cha taambolam mangalaabharanam shubham|&lt;br&gt; Kesha samskaara kabari&#xA;  kara karnaad bhushanam,&lt;br&gt; Bhartur aayushyami -cchanti dooshayenna&#xA;  Pativrataa|&lt;br&gt; Praatah kaaletu yaa naari dadyaadarghyam&#xA;  vivasvate,&lt;br&gt; Sapta janmaani vaidhavyaam saa naari naiva pashyati|&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those women who are interested in the longevity of their husbands&#xA;  should not to ignore the high significance of turmeric powder,&#xA;  kumkuma, eyetex, vastra, jewellery like ear studs, bangles, necklaces&#xA;  etc. As at the early mornings, women offering Arghya or water for&#xA;  worshipping Surya Deva would avoiod widow hood for seven births ahead!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, scriptures definitely talk about the importance that Sindhoor or Kumkuma has in a married Hindu woman's life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-13T15:11:37.097" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T15:11:37.097" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21515" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21518" CreationDate="2017-10-13T16:35:29.290" Score="1" ViewCount="201" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kena-upanishad/d/doc122448.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kena Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; following has been said about the Absolute:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘What sight fails to see, but what sees sight— know thou That&#xA;  alone as Brahman, and not this that people worship here.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding the meaning of the above is that Brahman is formless. Because if Brahman had any form(material or spiritual) then sight would have seen it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is: Is the Absolute Brahman formless? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-13T17:46:53.173" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T18:34:46.663" Title="According to Advaita philosophy, is the Absolute Brahman formless?" Tags="|brahman|advaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21516" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-13T17:02:35.413" Score="1" ViewCount="219" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vyuha refers to emanations of Lord Vishnu. There are 4 vyuha forms of Lord Vishnu: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vasudeva&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sankarshana &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aniruddha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pradyumna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, I have heard that each of these Vyuha forms of Lord Vishnu have their own lokas. My question: Where are these lokas located? Are the 4 Vyuha lokas a part of Vaikuntha itself or they have a separate location? Do the  Pāñcarātra Āgamas say anything about these lokas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-13T18:02:38.360" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T18:02:38.360" Title="Where are the Vyuha lokas located?" Tags="|vishnu|lokas|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21517" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16182" CreationDate="2017-10-13T17:14:45.157" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Verily,  everything is born of will.  As the Soul, so the Lord too,&#xA;  has a Will.  Only  whereas the Lord Wills out of Plenty, the Soul&#xA;  wills out of  lack thereof: Whilst the Lord creates the World, the&#xA;  Soul creates limited things. Shiv Rahasya: 6.14.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any action born out of 1st kind of will is Leela. &quot;Wills out of plenty&quot; is like explosion due to excessiveness. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-10-14T02:26:06.980" LastActivityDate="2017-10-14T02:26:06.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21518" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21515" CreationDate="2017-10-13T18:34:46.663" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Brahman is formless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Astavakra Samhita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I.5 - You do not belong to the Brahmana or any other caste or to any ashrama. You&#xA;  are not perceived by the senses. Unattached, formless and witness of all are you. Be&#xA;  happy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I.17 -  &lt;strong&gt;You are unconditioned, immutable, formless&lt;/strong&gt;, of cool disposition, of&#xA;  unfathomable intelligence and unperturbed. Desire Consciousness alone. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I.18 - Know that which has form to be unreal and the formless to be permanent.&#xA;  Through this spiritual instruction you will escape the possibility of rebirth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VII.3 - In me, the boundless ocean, is the imagination of the universe. &lt;strong&gt;I am quite tranquil and formless.&lt;/strong&gt; In this alone do I abide. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;XVIII.57 - The sense of duty, indeed, is the world of relativity. It is transcended by the&#xA;  wise who realizes himself as all-pervasive, formless, immutable, and untainted. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2017-10-13T18:34:46.663" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21519" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21523" CreationDate="2017-10-13T18:41:37.653" Score="7" ViewCount="234" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manusmriti 2.168&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;योऽनधीत्य द्विजो वेदमन्यत्र कुरुते श्रमम् । &#xA;  स जीवन्नेव शूद्रत्वमाशु गच्छति सान्वयः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The twice-born man, who, not having learnt the Veda, labors over other&#xA;  things, soon falls, along with his descendants, even while living, to&#xA;  the state of the śūdra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T17:49:57.330" Title="If my father doesn't study the Veda, does this make me ineligible to learn Vedas?" Tags="|caste-system|brahmins|manu-smriti|shudra|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21520" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21519" CreationDate="2017-10-13T20:24:56.837" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;This Shloka has nothing to do with studying of Vedas by father or son, it's wrongly interpreted above, read this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;योऽनधीत्य द्विजो वेदमन्यत्र कुरुते श्रमम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स जीवन्नेव शूद्रत्वमाशु गच्छति सान्वयः ॥ मनुस्मृति । २ । १६८ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मनु स्मृति के दूसरे अध्याय के १६८ वें श्लोक के अनुसार जिस द्विज&#xA;  ब्राह्मण ने वेद व वेदांग शास्त्र के अध्ययन के बदले धर्म निरपेक्ष व&#xA;  धर्म हीन शिक्षा ग्रहण की है वह ब्राह्मण से च्युत होकर अपने ही जीवन काल&#xA;  में , अपने वंश सहित, शूद्र वर्ण को प्राप्त करता है।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to Manu Smriti: The twice born Brahmin who instead of studying Vedas&#xA;  and Ved Shastras, studies profane or faithless material, then that&#xA;  Brahmin (along with his descendents) in the present life cycle falls&#xA;  to the state of the śūdra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;read more &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.shrinathdham.com/resources/shri-shuk-prashaadi/shudra-hindi.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; I think we should not always go by the way things have been translated in english.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some what similar meaning &lt;a href=&quot;http://aryamantavya.in/heen-karmon-se-varn-parivartan/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;३) योऽनधीत्य द्विजो वेदमन्यत्र कुरुते श्रमम् | स जीवन्नेव शुद्रत्वमाशु&#xA;  गच्छति सान्वय: || (मनुस्मृति २/१६८)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्थ-जो द्विज अर्थात् ब्राह्मण, क्षत्रिय, वैश्य वेदाध्ययन का त्याग कर&#xA;  अन्य विद्याओं में ही परिश्रम करता रहता है, वह जीते-जी अपने आश्रित&#xA;  परिजनों के सहित शूद्रता को प्राप्त हो जाता है। क्योंकि, उसका&#xA;  ब्राह्मणत्व प्रदान करने वाला वेदाध्ययन छूटने से उसके आश्रित परिजनों का&#xA;  भी छूट जाता है, अतः वह परिवार शूद्र कहलाता है।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Means: The twice born Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishaya who gives up&#xA;  studying Vedas and continues to labour in other fields, then that&#xA;  person (along with his descendents) in the present life cycle falls to&#xA;  the state of the śūdra. hence such a family is referred as śūdra&#xA;  parivaar (family)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-18T17:49:57.330" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T17:49:57.330" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21521" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21526" CreationDate="2017-10-14T01:59:10.747" Score="4" ViewCount="224" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/kena-upanishad/d/doc122448.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kena Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; following is said about the Absolute Brahman(not Atma...if Atma and Brahman are same then probably I have asked this question before. But in my opinion Absolute Brahman is a state of pure bliss. Atma merges into Brahman.):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘What speech cannot reveal, but what reveals speech—know thou That&#xA;  alone as Brahman, and not this (anything objective)that people worship&#xA;  here.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘What hearing fails to hear, but what hears hearing— know thou That&#xA;  alone as Brahman, and not this that people worship here.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘What smell does not reveal, but what reveals smell— know thou That&#xA;  alone as Brahman, and not this that people worship here.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per my understanding, the formless Absolute, although without ear, is capable hearing; although without nose, is capable of smelling; although without mouth, is capable of speech.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is: Can the formless Absolute Brahman see, speak, hear and smell without eyes, mouth, ears and nose?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-03-02T13:49:01.067" LastActivityDate="2018-03-02T13:49:01.067" Title="According Advaita philosophy, can the formless Absolute Brahman see, speak, hear and smell?" Tags="|upanishads|atma|brahman|advaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-10-17T07:26:28.223" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21522" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21527" CreationDate="2017-10-14T03:15:22.867" Score="5" ViewCount="1977" Body="&lt;p&gt;What was the pratigna (oath) and Why Bhishma took pratigna in Mahabharata? And to whom?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-14T07:22:40.027" LastActivityDate="2017-10-15T06:35:11.340" Title="For what and why Bhishma took pratigna (oath) in Mahabharata" Tags="|mahabharata|identification-request|bhishma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21523" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21519" CreationDate="2017-10-14T05:32:25.157" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;If the father is not learned in the Vedas, even then the son is allowed to study them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.136. &lt;strong&gt;If there is a father ignorant of the sacred texts&#xA;  whose son has learned one whole recension of the Veda&lt;/strong&gt; and the Angas,&#xA;  and a son ignorant of the sacred texts whose father knows an entire&#xA;  recension of the Veda and the Angas,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.137. Know that he whose father knows the Veda, is the&#xA;  more venerable one (of the two); &lt;strong&gt;yet the other one is worthy of&#xA;  honour&lt;/strong&gt;, because respect is due to the Veda (which he has learned).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In 3.137, the &lt;strong&gt;other one&lt;/strong&gt; refers to the son who is learned in the Vedas but whose father is not. Now, even such a son is worthy of respect.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, the answer to your question is no.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-14T05:38:02.403" LastActivityDate="2017-10-14T05:38:02.403" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21524" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-14T05:38:05.293" Score="6" ViewCount="6882" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Parashara Smriti, there is a verse which instructs to keep a black cat and precious stone in homes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One should keep in his house the following things : the wood for striking out a sacrificial fire, &lt;strong&gt;a black cat&lt;/strong&gt;, sandal-wood, a precious stone, ghee, sesamum seed, a skin of a black antelope and a goat. [Parashara Smriti 12.49.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Skanda Purana &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6543/what-are-some-of-the-practices-of-having-pets-as-per-hinduism/20722#20722&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; keeping some animals like dogs, cats etc., as pets is not recommended and people who keep them reach hell. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who keeps &lt;strong&gt;cats&lt;/strong&gt;, cocks and hens, dogs and birds, one who sets fire to the houses of the deaf and blind as well as grasses and grains and other things in the fields and one who sustains himself by means of stagecraft and stellar calculations(astrology) - all these men go to Vaitarani. [39.18-20]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I think Parashara is not recommending us them to keep but not as pets. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The former verses in the smriti speak about the duties of a householder and the sacrifices. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A person who preserves his sacred fire, a tawny cow, a person engaged in offering a sacrifice, a king, a religious mendicant, and the great ocean, — the very sight of these purifies one ; therefore one should constantly obtain a sight of them. [Parashara Smriti 12.46]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Observing the former verses, verse 47 might also speaking about the things required for a sacrifice or used in a sacrifice. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Wood for striking out a sacrificial fire - used for striking sacred fire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sandal wood - This is also used as firewood. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sesame seeds, Ghee - Used as offering in sacrifices. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Skin of a black antelope - Used by sages while performing meditation and used in some Yagnas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goats - They were used as an offering in sacrifices. Goats are also called as Aja. There is also &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/4067/5212&quot;&gt;another interpretation&lt;/a&gt; to the word Aja as vegetable seeds. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the above interpretations are correct, then black cats and precious stones should have some importance in Yagnas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is an Agni Purana verse &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15593/5212&quot;&gt;which says&lt;/a&gt; it is a good omen when a cat crosses one's path (from right to left) is in fact considered a good omen. (I couldn't understand why right to left is said here?!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Good Omens: Good omens while leaving house are facing white flowers, full vessels, meat, distant sounds, goat, cow, horse, elephant, fire, gold, silver, sword, umbrella, fruits, butter or curd, sugarcane, sound of thunder, lightning, dead body without anybody crying, donkey’s braying; buffallo crossing from left to right; horse, cats, donkeys, from right to left. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Agni Purana verse says cats are a good omen from right to left generally and doesn't specify black cats. Moreover, an omen is an event which happens coincidentally without our involvement.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any commentary on Parashara smriti which explain these verses about importance of a black cat and precious stones in a sacrifice or any other use for a house holder?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-17T02:52:10.023" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T20:00:13.353" Title="Why does Parashara say to keep a black cat and precious stones in home?" Tags="|animals|yajna|smriti|parashara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21525" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="51556" CreationDate="2017-10-14T06:11:43.147" Score="5" ViewCount="1427" Body="&lt;p&gt;Valmiki says Rama was born on a Shukla Navami. Distance between Sun and Moon is &amp;gt; 96 deg. He also says Sun is exalted which is in Mesha Rashi( 0 to 30 deg). The he says Moon is in Punarvasu Nakshatra which ends at 93.20 deg from beginning of Aries. So Navami and Punarvasu cannot happen as per the method our Jyotish calculations are done today. Is Valmiki wrong or the way we do jyotish math wrong. I would kindly call upon the jyotish experts on this site to throw some light on this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Added the exact shlokas from Bala Kaanda chapter 18 below with translation given at &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga18/balasans18.htm#Verse8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;valmikiramayan.net&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततो यज्ञे समाप्ते तु ऋतूनां षट्समत्ययु:।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ततश्च द्वादशे मासे चैत्रे नावमिके तिथौ।।1.18.8।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;नक्षत्रेऽदितिदैवत्ये स्वोच्चसंस्थेषु पञ्चसु।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ग्रहेषु कर्कटे लग्ने वाक्पताविन्दुना सह।।1.18.9।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रोद्यमाने जगन्नाथं सर्वलोकनमस्कृतम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कौसल्याऽजनयद्रामं सर्वलक्षणसंयुतम्।।1.18.10।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विष्णोरर्धं महाभागं पुत्रमैक्ष्वाकुवर्धनम्।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तत: then, यज्ञे when sacrifice, समाप्ते was completed, ऋतूनाम् of seasons, षट् six, समत्ययु: were spent, तत: then, द्वादशे मासे in twelfth month, चैत्रे in Chaitra month, नावमिके तिथौ on the nineth day of the rising Moon, अदितिदैवत्ये presided by Aditi as devata, नक्षत्रे when the star (Punarvasu)was in ascendent, पञ्चसु ग्रहेषु and the five planets (Sun, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus), स्वोच्चसंस्थेषु in their own exalted houses, कर्कटे लग्ने in Karkata Lagna, वाक्पतौ when Brihaspati, इन्दुना सह along with Moon, प्रोद्यमाने was rising, कौसल्या Kausalya, जगन्नाथम् lord of the entire universe, सर्वलोकनमस्कृतम् bowed to by all the worlds, सर्वलक्षणसंयुतम् adorned with all the characteristics, विष्णो: Vishnu's, अर्धम् facet, महाभागम् highly fortunate, ऐक्ष्वाकुवर्धनम् perpetuating the Ikshvaku race, रामम् Rama, पुत्रम् as his son, अजनयत् gave birth .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Six seasons (one year) passed after the completion of the sacrifice. In the twelfth month of Chaitra on the ninth day (of the bright fortnight), with Aditi as presiding deity when the star Punarvasu was in the ascendent and the five planets Sun, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus, were exalted in their own house in karkata lagna, when Brihaspati was in conjunction with the Moon, Kausalya gave birth to a son: a facet of Visnu, Lord of the entire universe who received obeisance from all the worlds and was adorned with all auspicious signs, the venerable one to perpetuate the Ikshvaku race.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastEditorUserId="12223" LastEditDate="2022-05-20T05:41:16.477" LastActivityDate="2022-05-20T19:11:28.287" Title="Anomaly in birth chart of Sri Rama? Kindly clarify" Tags="|ramayana|rama|valmiki|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21526" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21521" CreationDate="2017-10-14T07:03:42.593" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes &amp;amp; No&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Verses posted in Qn are already referred in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20954/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; from Gita: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासं&lt;/strong&gt; सर्वेन्द्रियविवर्जितम्। असक्तं सर्वभृच्चैव &lt;strong&gt;निर्गुणं&lt;/strong&gt; गुणभोक्तृ च।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 13.15 - &lt;strong&gt;Reflecting through the senses, [yet] devoid of all the senses&lt;/strong&gt;; disinterested; the sustainer of all; Without 3 modes, and the consumer of 3 modes  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Nirguna Brahman (Atman)&lt;/em&gt; which , doesn't have any senses, yet all the consumption done by our senses reaches to 'that' only -- who is devoid &amp;amp; disinterested.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-10-14T07:03:42.593" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21527" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21522" CreationDate="2017-10-14T08:43:21.777" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Oath Bhishma taken was &lt;em&gt;Brahmacharya&lt;/em&gt; (study and meditation in celibacy. He took it for the benefit of his father Santanu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The oath he took taken is explained in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01101.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 100&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Parva of Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once, King Santanu went for hunting and was attracted to a fragrance coming from an unknown direction. He follows that fragrance and finds a beautiful woman, the daughter of Fisherman chief. He desired her and holding her hand, he wanted to marry her. He asks the consent from her father but her father asks Monarch Santanu :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O king, as soon as my daughter of superior complexion was born, it was of course, understood that she should be bestowed upon a husband. But listen to the desire I have cherished all along in my heart. O sinless one, thou art truthful: if thou desirest to obtain this maiden as a gift from me, give, me then this pledge. If, indeed, thou givest the pledge, I will of course bestow my daughter upon thee for truly I can never obtain a husband for her equal to thee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Santanu asks what is his desire and the fisherman chief puts a condition,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'O king, what I ask of thee is this: the son born of this maiden shall be installed by thee on thy throne and none else shall thou make thy successor.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing this, Santanu was shocked and returns to his kingdom sorrowfully. Devavrata who has been observing his father asked the reason for his sorrow. Santanu doesn't answer him properly and doesn't narrate the incident. Intelligent Devavrata notices something is wrong and goes to an old minister and asks the reason of King's grief. When asked thus by the prince Devavrata, old minister tells him about the boon the Fisherman chief demanded. For the benefit of his father, he goes to that place along with the best Kshatriya chiefs and asked him his daughter on behalf of the king. The chief of the fishermen received him with due adorations and addressed to him&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O bull among the Bharatas, thou art the first of all wielders of weapons and the only son of Santanu. Thy power is great. But I have something to tell thee. If the bride's father was Indra himself, even then he would have to repent of rejecting such an exceedingly honourable and desirable proposal of marriage. The great man of whose seed this celebrated maiden named Satyavati was born, is, indeed, equal to you in virtue. He hath spoken to me on many occasions of the virtues of thy father and told me that, the king alone is worthy of (marrying) Satyavati. Let me tell you that I have even rejected the solicitations of that best of Brahmarshis--the celestial sage Asita--who, too, had often asked for Satyavati's hand in marriage. I have only one word to say on the part of this maiden. In the matter of the proposed marriage there is one great objection founded on the fact of a rival in the person of a co-wife's son. O oppressor of all foes, he hath no security, even if he be an Asura or a Gandharva, who hath a rival in thee. There is this only objection to the proposed marriage, and nothing else. Blest be thou! But this is all I have to say in the matter of the bestowal or otherwise, of Satyavati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Devavrata having heard these words and moved by the desire of benefiting his father, uttered these words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'O foremost of truthful men, listen to the vow I utter! The man has not been or will not be born, who will have the courage to take such a vow! I shall accomplish all that thou demandest! &lt;strong&gt;The son that may be born of this maiden shall be our king.&lt;/strong&gt;'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the fisherman puts his another doubt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus addressed, the chief of the fishermen, impelled by desire of sovereignty (for his daughter's son), to achieve the almost impossible, then said, 'O thou of virtuous soul, thou art come hither as full agent on behalf of thy father Santanu of immeasurable glory; be thou also the sole manager on my behalf in the matter of the bestowal of this my daughter. But, O amiable one, there is something else to be said, something else to be reflected upon by thee. O suppressor of foes, those that have daughters, from the very nature of their obligations, must say what I say. O thou that art devoted to truth, the promise thou hast given in the presence of these chiefs for the benefit of Satyavati, hath, indeed, been worthy of thee. &lt;strong&gt;O thou of mighty arms, I have not the least doubt of its ever being violated by thee. But I have my doubts in respect of the children thou mayst beget&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having heard the words uttered by the fisherman, Devavrata takes another terrible vow. It is this vow for which he got the name Bhishma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chief of fishermen, thou best of men, listen to what I say in the presence of these assembled kings. Ye kings, I have already relinquished my right to the throne, &lt;strong&gt;I shall now settle the matter of my children. O fisherman, from this day I adopt the vow of Brahmacharya (study and meditation in celibacy). If I die sonless, I shall yet attain to regions of perennial bliss in heaven!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Vaisampayana continued, 'Upon these words of the son of Ganga, the hair on the fisherman's body stood on end from glee, and he replied, 'I bestow my daughter!' Immediately after, the Apsaras and the gods with diverse tribes of Rishis began to rain down flowers from the firmament upon the head of Devavrata and exclaimed, '&lt;strong&gt;This one is Bhishma (the terrible)&lt;/strong&gt;.' Bhishma then, to serve his father, addressed the illustrious damsel and said, 'O mother, ascend this chariot, and let us go unto our house.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Due to his Bhishma pratigna(terrible oath), he got his popular name Bhishma which was Devavrata originally.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-15T06:35:11.340" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21529" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-14T11:30:25.410" Score="7" ViewCount="1681" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sapta Vidha Anupapatti, also called Seven Untenables is said to be an objection raised against the concept of Avidya of Advaita Vedanta.&#xA;I've some questions regarding it:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is Sapta Vidha Anupapatti or what are the seven untenables?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Though a quick search gives the list and some description of those 7 Anupapattis at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2011-May/027415.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;advaita-vedanta.org archives&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who has written the work &quot;Sapta Vidha Anupapatti&quot;?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Is the work written by Sri Ramanujacharya or Sri Vaishnava Acharya? I found one &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=QWcgAxQnSAwC&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;google book&lt;/a&gt; authored John A. Grimes. So, is the work carried out by him i.e Did he coin the term &quot;Sapta Vidha Anupapatti&quot; or has Sri Ramanujacharya used that term?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is the work based on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Bhasya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Bhashya&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satadushani&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Satadushani&lt;/a&gt;? Where Ramanujacharya mentioned those Anupapatti in his bhashya?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-14T12:10:14.183" LastActivityDate="2018-08-28T23:44:51.767" Title="What is Sapta Vidha Anupapatti? who has written that work?" Tags="|philosophy|vishishtadvaita|ramanujacharya|ignorance|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21530" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-14T11:39:09.000" Score="6" ViewCount="556" Body="&lt;p&gt;As, I've mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/21529/277&quot;&gt;previous question&lt;/a&gt;, Sapta Vidha Aupapatti, also called seven untenables are said to be an objection raised against the concept of Avidya of Advaita Vedanta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know has any Advaita Acharya or scholar resolved/answered/refuted those seven untenables?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2018-08-29T03:46:19.933" Title="Has any Advaita Acharya or scholar resolved/answered/refuted Sapta Vidha Anupapatti?" Tags="|philosophy|advaita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21531" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-14T12:06:47.923" Score="2" ViewCount="148" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading the preview of &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=QWcgAxQnSAwC&amp;amp;printsec=frontcover&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sapta Vidha Anupapatti&lt;/a&gt;, I found some scriptures are considered as authoritative as Prasthanatrayi in Vishishtadvaita, as mentioned in the book:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Visistadvaita Vedanta tradition, the Tamil hymns of the Alvars,&#xA;  the Nalavira-divya-prabandham, as well as the Vaishnava Agamas and&#xA;  some of the Puranas, are considered to be as authoritative as the prasthana-traya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here one scripture is obvious Nalayira Divya Prabandha, others are Vaishnava Agamas and some of Puranas. Now, I think Pancharatra Agama would be considered or all the Vaishnava Agamas are considered? And talking about Puranas, I think Srimad Bhagavata MahaPurana and probably Vishnu Purana would be considered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I want to what which Agamas and Puranas are considered as authoritative as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthanatrayi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prasthanatrayi&lt;/a&gt; in Vishishtadvaita?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2017-10-14T12:06:47.923" Title="Which Puranas are considered to be as authoritative as Prasthanatrayi in Vishishtadvaita?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21532" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21535" CreationDate="2017-10-14T13:37:08.960" Score="8" ViewCount="883" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is caste system only for humans? What about animals, Asuras, Devas etc. Does caste system also apply to them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-15T06:15:00.010" LastActivityDate="2021-07-23T02:33:42.587" Title="Is caste system only for humans?" Tags="|caste-system|animals|asuras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21533" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21532" CreationDate="2017-10-14T14:52:38.177" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Caste system is there at least for the Planetary-Devatas or the Navagrahas,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;21&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Castes of Grahas. Guru and Śukr are Brahmins. Sūrya and Mangal are royal Grahas, while Candr and Budh belong to commercial community. Śani rules&#xA;  the Sudras (4th caste).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 3.21.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, according to this classification, Brihaspati, Sukra are Brahmins. Surya, Mangal are Kshatriyas. Mercury (Budha) and Moon (Chandra) are Vaishyas whereas Sani is Sudra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some say that Rahu and Ketu belong to the Antyaja or the mixed caste (or out caste) category, but there are mantras which mention both of them as Sudras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Given below are the starting portions of the Dhyana Mantras (Meditative verses) of some of the planetary deities. These mantras also mention their castes explicitly:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Surya- Om &lt;strong&gt;Kshatriyam&lt;/strong&gt; Kashyapam Raktam Kalingam.....&lt;br&gt; Chandra-&#xA;  Om Samudram &lt;strong&gt;Vaishyamatreyam&lt;/strong&gt; Hastamatram Sitamavaram...&lt;br&gt; Mangal-&#xA;  Om Avantyam &lt;strong&gt;Kshatriyam&lt;/strong&gt; Raktam Meshastham Chaturangulam...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Brihaspati- Om &lt;strong&gt;Dvija&lt;/strong&gt;mangirasam Pitam Saindhavancha&#xA;  Shadangulam....&lt;br&gt; Sani- Om Saurashtram Kashyapam &lt;strong&gt;Sudram&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Suryansyam Chaturangulam...&lt;br&gt; Rahu- Om Malayajam &lt;strong&gt;Sudram&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Paithinam Dvadashangulam....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As far as Daityas, Asuras, different kinds of animals etc are concerned, they can certainly be classified according to Gunas (Satva, Rajas, Tamas) but they may not have caste- categories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, there is apparently a difference as far as caste system among humans and that among the Devatas are concerned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, as shown in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/17490/4732&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, Ketu Graha, inspite of being a Sudra still wears the sacred thread. But for a human-sudra wearing it is not allowed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;raudrō rudrapriyō rudraḥ krūrakarmā sugandhadhrik |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  palāladhūmasaṅkāśaścitra&lt;strong&gt;yajñōpavītadhrk&lt;/strong&gt; ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who is angry, he who likes Shiva, he who is fierce, He who does&#xA;  cruel deeds, He who is seen by pleasant smell, One who resembles the&#xA;  smoke of husk, &lt;strong&gt;one who is seen wearing sacred thread.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-14T15:11:54.077" LastActivityDate="2017-10-14T15:11:54.077" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21534" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-14T18:39:26.620" Score="1" ViewCount="801" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Lord Krishna stop the knowledge of Divya-astras from coming to kali-yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes, please provide the scriptural reference.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12176" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2019-08-29T06:49:42.563" LastActivityDate="2019-08-29T06:49:42.563" Title="Did Lord Krishna stop the knowledge of Divya-astras from coming to Kali-yuga?" Tags="|krishna|kali-yuga|weapon|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21535" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21532" CreationDate="2017-10-15T01:30:27.443" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahman initially projected Varna/cast in deities, Varna of deities as described in &lt;strong&gt;Brihadaranyaka&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahmin- Agni&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kshatriya- Indra, Varuna, the moon, Rudra, Parjanya, Yama, Death, and Isana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vaishya- Vasus, Rudras, Adityas, Visvadevas and Maruts&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sudra- Pushan/Earth&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I-iv-11: In the beginning this (the Kshatriya and other castes) was indeed Brahman, one only. Being one, he did not flourish. He specially projected an excellent form, the &lt;strong&gt;Kshatriya - those who are Kshatriyas among the gods: Indra, Varuna, the moon, Rudra, Parjanya, Yama, Death, and Isana.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore there is none higher than the Kshatriya. Hence the Brahmana worships the Kshatriya from a lower position in the Rajasuya sacrifice. He imparts that glory to the Kshatriya. The Brahmana is the source of the Kshatriya. Therefore, although the king attains supremacy (in the sacrifice), at the end of it he resorts to the Brahmana, his source. He who slights the Brahmana, strikes at his own source. He becomes more wicked, as one is by slighting one's superior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I-iv-12: Yet he did not flourish. &lt;strong&gt;He projected the Vaisya - those species of gods who are designated in groups: the Vasus, Rudras, Adityas, Visvadevas and Maruts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I-iv-13: He did not still flourish. &lt;strong&gt;He projected the Sudra caste - Pusan. This (earth) is Pusan.&lt;/strong&gt; For it nourishes all this that exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I-iv-15: &lt;strong&gt;(So) these (four castes were projected) - the Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra. He became a Brahmana among the gods as Fore, and among men as the Brahmana. (He became) a Kshatriya through the (divine) Kshatriyas, a Vaisya through the (divine) Vaisyas and a Sudra through the (divine) Sudra.&lt;/strong&gt; Therefore people desire to attain the results of their rites among the gods through fire, and among men as the Brahmana. For Brahman was in these two forms. If, however, anybody departs from this world without realising his own world (the Self), It, being unknown, does not protect him - as the Vedas not studied, or any other work not undertaken (do not). Even if a man who does not know It as such performs a great many meritorious acts in the world, those acts of his are surely exhausted in the end. One should meditate only upon the world of the Self. He who meditates only upon the world called the Self never has his work exhausted. From this very Self he projects whatever he wants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-07-23T02:33:42.587" LastActivityDate="2021-07-23T02:33:42.587" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21537" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3349" CreationDate="2017-10-15T06:09:16.707" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Also,this story is mentioned in Uttara Ramayana as told by Sage Durvasa to King Dasaradha when he queried about Lord Rama's future.Later this part is narrated to Lakshmana by Sumantra on being asked why Rama had to forsake Seetha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12272" LastActivityDate="2017-10-15T06:09:16.707" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21538" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-15T06:23:33.730" Score="8" ViewCount="4081" Body="&lt;p&gt;Gaudiya Math was founded by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati while his disciple Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada founded the ISKCON. Both organisations are Gaudiya Vaishnavism based. My question is whether there are any key differences regarding the philosophies, theology, practices, beliefs and teachings of Gaudiya Math &amp;amp; ISKCON.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-15T06:40:04.720" LastActivityDate="2021-08-13T15:00:20.043" Title="Are there any philosophical differences between Gaudiya Math and ISKCON?" Tags="|gaudiya-vaishnavism|prabhupada|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21540" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21548" CreationDate="2017-10-15T06:30:33.620" Score="7" ViewCount="1758" Body="&lt;p&gt;In various Puranas and Scriptures the twins Ashwini Kumaras are referred to as physicians of the Gods. It was to them Maharishi Dadhichi imparted the knowledge of the Sanjeevani Mantra to the twins with his head having been replaced with a horse's head which split into thousand pieces as cursed by Indra, and was revived by Ashwini Kumaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However Ayurveda Shastra refers to Dhanvantari as the Father of medicine. Dhanvatri came from the Kshirasagara during the churning of the ocean with the pot of ambroosia 'Amrita'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My question is &quot;If Dhanvantari is the Father of Medicine, who taught Ashwini Kumaras? In which scriptures is there mention of Ashwini Kumaras being taught the secrets of Ayurveda - the Ancient Indian Medical Science.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11625" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2020-06-30T04:30:42.200" LastActivityDate="2020-06-30T04:30:42.200" Title="Who is (are) the physician(s) of Gods / Devas?" Tags="|puranas|ayurveda|ashwini-kumaras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21541" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21608" CreationDate="2017-10-15T06:33:10.977" Score="9" ViewCount="5891" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have found several &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/hanuman-perfect-proponent-of-advaita-vishishtadvaita-dvaita&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;blogs&lt;/a&gt; where Lord Rama asks Lord Hanuman how He perceives Him. Lord Hanuman replies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देहबुद्ध्या तु दासोऽस्मि जीवबुद्ध्या त्वदंशकः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आत्मबुद्ध्या त्वमेवाहमिति मे निश्चिता मतिः॥  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Deha-Buddhyaa Tu Daso.smi Jiva-Buddhyaa Tvad-Anshakah |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Aatma-Buddhyaa Tvam-Evaaham Iti Me Nishchita Matih ||  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: “O Lord, while I identify myself with my body, I am Thy servant (Dvaita). When I consider myself as Individual Soul, I am Thy part (Vishishtadvaita). But when I look upon myself as the Spirit (Atma), I am one with Thee Thyself (Advaita).” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above verse seems to indirectly say that all the 3 Vedanta philosophies-&#xA;Advaita, Vishishtadvaita &amp;amp; Dvaita are all valid philosophies. Which scripture contains the above verse? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jai Shri Rama! Jai Bajrangbali! Hare Krishna! Jai Sriman Narayana! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-15T12:11:49.827" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T09:56:23.417" Title="In which scripture does Lord Hanuman say that Advaita, Dvaita and Vishishtadvaita are all valid philosophies?" Tags="|rama|hanuman|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21542" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21551" CreationDate="2017-10-15T08:06:03.053" Score="8" ViewCount="1727" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have seen many scriptures to portray Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, Lalita Devi and Lord Surya to be the supreme. However, I would like to know whether any scripture portrays Lord Ganesha to be the supreme. According to Adi Shankaracharya, Ganesha is the one of the 5 deities that can give liberation. Also there is a sect named Ganapatya which sees Lord Ganesh to be the supreme God. What is the basis for their claim? Apologies to anyone offended by my question including Lord Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-10-15T11:30:04.957" LastActivityDate="2024-03-05T15:30:32.867" Title="Which scriptures portray Lord Ganesha to be the supreme God?" Tags="|ganesha|identification-request|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21544" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21570" CreationDate="2017-10-15T08:56:54.093" Score="5" ViewCount="1147" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Ramayana, we call Sita a Sati Nari, I listen it from my childhood days. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I don't know what Sita was doing or having so that she call as Sati. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But  In Kaliyuga we are here up to what we understand as a Sati, how can I assume my self as a Sati Nari as I don't know it's real definitions and it's properties, also don't know what are the lakhyans of a Sati Nari. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is &quot;what are the real definitions or lakhyans of a Sati Nari in this society of Kaliyuga&quot;, comparing to which I can my self assume whether I am Sati or not. If not then I will try to follow it to be a Sati Nari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edited&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am a man, I am asking this question assuming that I am a woman because I was being asked this question by a woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorUserId="12071" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T10:11:21.157" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T10:11:21.157" Title="What is the definition of Sati Nari in kaliyug?" Tags="|women|kali-yuga|sita|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21545" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19914" CreationDate="2017-10-15T09:21:43.513" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of Vishnu worshiping Ganesha is given in &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=WcKf113gPwwC&amp;amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;amp;dq=ganesha%20purana%20upasana%20khanda&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwj5g67-7vHWAhVHNI8KHZH5AXUQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 18(pg 205)&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Ganesha Purana Upasanakhanda.&lt;/strong&gt; Since the story is a bit long I'm referencing only relevant parts of it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story begins with Madhu Kaitabha, two demons formed from Vishnu's ear wax. It follows a similar vein from various Puranas. The demons try to attack and eat Brahma who prays to Vishnu for help. Vishnu awakens from his Yoga Nidra and fights the two demons but is unable to defeat them. The battle lasts 5000 years! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A confused Vishnu goes to Lord Shiva for advice whereby the Lord tells him he wasn't able to defeat Madhu-Kaitabha because he forgot to adore Vinayaka before the battle. Vishnu asks how he can rectify his mistake. Lord Shiva initiates him in an Eka-akshari and Shoda-akshari Ganesha mantra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhirgu said, Hari then told him about the previous course of events&#xA;  concerning the two demons Hari said, Whilst I was asleep on the ocean&#xA;  of milk, Madhu and Kaitabha arose from my ear secretions and came to&#xA;  eat Brahma. Brahma eulogized Sleep, splendid Siva, and she awakened&#xA;  me. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I then engaged in battle with those two and a wrestling match ensued.&#xA;  I was unable to conquer them so I did this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now, Siva, repository of compassion, tell me the way to kill them.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Siva said, You went to the battleground without having worshipped&#xA;  Vinayaka, and so you had no strength. Consequently, you have got real&#xA;  problems.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After you have worshipped Ganesa, set out for battle, respectable god!&#xA;  With his power of illusion he will delude those two and through my&#xA;  favour you will kill those two malevolents. There is no doubt of it!&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hari said, Siva, tell me, how I should worship that god, Vinayaka? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Isvara said, There are seven myriads of Ganesa mantras which have been&#xA;  recited. &lt;strong&gt;Even amongst them there are great mantras and even amongst&#xA;  them there is a great one-syllable mantra and a six syllable one.&#xA;  Illustrious Visnu, I am going to tell you about one of these two.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, having set aside the one syllable mantra in consideration of the&#xA;  power of his discus and the Siddhari mantra, and having paid out a&#xA;  monetary debt, &lt;strong&gt;he told him that great six syllable mantra of Ganesa&#xA;  which is auspicious and grants every success. Merely by performing it&#xA;  your task will be successful. Then Visnu left quickly to perform it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu goes to Siddhiksetra and performs penance for a 100 years after which Ganesha appears before him and grants him boons. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The King said, How and where did Visnu recite that excellent mantra&#xA;  and did he obtain success? Tell me this in detail! The sage said,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;There is a celebrated place of the highest quality called Siddhiksetra&#xA;  which gives success on the earth. After going there the great Visnu&#xA;  performed a severe austerity.&lt;/strong&gt; Whilst meditating on Vinayaka he&#xA;  propitiated that god in accord with the procedure for the six-syllable&#xA;  mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After a period of one hundred years had passed, the supreme self,&#xA;  Ganadhipa, who was like a myriad of suns and fires, became visible.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Completely tranquil in heart, he spoke to Visnu, on whose banner is&#xA;  Garuda. &lt;strong&gt;Ask me for those boons that you want, Visnu. I will give them&#xA;  all because I am satisfied with your austerity. If I alone am&#xA;  worshipped first, victory will certainly be yours.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By seeing one like you I will experience success in all things, god.&#xA;  However, I am still going to tell you about one thing. At the end of&#xA;  my yogic sleep Madhu and Kaitabha sprang up from the dirt in my ears.&#xA;  These two great warriors strove to eat Brahma. &lt;strong&gt;Then I fought with them&#xA;  for many days, but because my strength is waning I have come to you&#xA;  for refuge.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So think about how I will destroy these two, as the highest renown&#xA;  exists in victory over other demons. &lt;strong&gt;Supreme Lord, give me now your&#xA;  inexhaustible devotion, through which my unmatched fame will cleanse&#xA;  the triple-world.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganesa said, Visnu, you will certainly get whatever you request. You&#xA;  will have glory, strength, the highest fame and no obstacles.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this, Vishnu establishes an idol of Ganesha at Siddhiksetra which was known as Siddhivinayaka. Today this ksetra is known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhivinayak_Temple,_Siddhatek&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Siddhateka&lt;/a&gt; which houses the famous Ashtavinayaka, Siddhivinakaya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sage said, Having said this to the great Visnu, Lord Ganesa&#xA;  disappeared from there, but Visnu was filled with joy as he considered&#xA;  these two demons to be conquered. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There he built a crystal palace which was rich with jewels, a&#xA;  glittering gold spire and four very splendid domes. Then he set up an&#xA;  image made of jewels taken from the Gandakiya river.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The gods and sages spread its fame under the title &lt;strong&gt;Siddhavinayaka,&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  since Hari obtained a splendid success there. Thereafter, it became&#xA;  famous as &lt;strong&gt;Siddhiksetra,&lt;/strong&gt; the field of success all over earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-10-15T09:21:43.513" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21546" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-15T10:47:42.303" Score="5" ViewCount="474" Body="&lt;p&gt;The legend of samudra manthan and amrita is mentioned in itihasa, puranas but the legend of samudra manthan mentioned in verses of vedas, Upanishads or brahmanas or is the drink of immortality amrita atleast mentioned in these Vedic scriptures that is vedas, Upanishads or brahmanas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-10-05T05:28:38.947" LastActivityDate="2018-10-05T05:28:38.947" Title="Is amrita or legend of samudra manthan mentioned in Vedic scriptures?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|samudra-manthan|brahmanas|amrita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21548" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21540" CreationDate="2017-10-15T11:25:18.683" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;    &lt;strong&gt;&quot;In which scriptures is there mention of Ashwini Kumaras being taught the secrets of Ayurveda - the Ancient Indian Medical Science.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; ?&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two schools of medicine one is Atreya School which is represented by Charaka and the second is the Dhanvantari School of surgery represented by Shushruta.&#xA;Brahma who is said to be the first teacher of the universe originally composed the Ayurveda. Having propounded the science of healing, brahma propagated this knowledge through Daksha Prajapati, who taught this knowledge to Ashwini Kumaras.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;But in south Rishi Agastya is credited with knowledge of Ayurveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer of  your question  is given in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/mediawiki-1.28.2/index.php?title=Deerghanjiviteeya_Adhyaya#Sanskrit_text.2C_transliteration_and_english_translation&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Charak Samhita&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; of Ayurveda. It's described in Chapter one – Sutra Sthanam – Shloka No. 4-5 that ,&lt;strong&gt;Daksha Prajapati gave this knowledge to Ashwini Kumaras.&lt;/strong&gt; In these shlokas 4-5 , Hierarchy of transformation of knowledge in Ayurveda is described .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मणा हि यथा प्रोक्तमायुर्वेदं प्रजापति: |&lt;br&gt; जग्राह&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;निखिलेनाssदावश्विनौ तु पुनस्तत:&lt;/strong&gt; ||4||&lt;br&gt; अश्विभ्याम् भगवात्रछक्र:&#xA;    प्रतिपेदेह केवलं |&lt;br&gt;  | ऋषिप्रोक्तो भरद्वाजतस्माच्छक्रमुपागमत्&#xA;  ||5||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;brahmaṇā hi yathāprōktamāyurvēdaṁ prajāpatiḥ|&lt;br&gt; jagrāha&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;nikhilēnādāvaśvinau tu punastataḥ&lt;/strong&gt;||4||&lt;br&gt; aśvibhyāṁ bhagavāñchakraḥ&#xA;  pratipēdē ha kēvalam|&lt;br&gt; r̥ṣiprōktō&#xA;  bharadvājastasmācchakramupāgamat||5||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the beginning Lord Brahma taught this knowledge which Prajapti&#xA;  Daksha fully acquired. &lt;strong&gt;From Daksha two Ashwini Kumaras acquired this&#xA;  knowledge.&lt;/strong&gt; And from Ashwini Kumaras Indra received this knowledge.&#xA;  So as to get this knowledge Rishi Bharatdwaja came to Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At first, Prajapati received Ayurveda in its entirety as recited by Brahma, from whom the Ashwins (received), and from Ashwins lord Indra received it fully. That is why Bharadwaja , as beseeched by the sages, came to Indra.[4-5]&lt;hr&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/iKZZ2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/iKZZ2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-10-15T16:40:41.983" LastActivityDate="2017-10-15T16:40:41.983" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21549" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-15T12:06:55.543" Score="6" ViewCount="986" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just like this question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/21542/which-scriptures-portray-lord-ganesha-to-be-the-supreme-god&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I would like to know whether any scripture portrays Lord Kartikeya (Murugan) to be the Supreme God. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2018-11-11T17:48:54.993" Title="Do any scripture portrays Lord Kartikeya (Murugan) to be the Supreme God?" Tags="|identification-request|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21550" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17957" CreationDate="2017-10-15T13:34:38.990" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.m.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A3%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D-_%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%83/%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%83_%E0%A5%AD%E0%A5%AC&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BrihanNaaradeeya Puraanam, PoorvaBhaaga, Chapter 76&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;- it is clearly stated Ganesha is TarpanaPriya.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दीपप्रियः कार्तवीर्यो मार्तण्डो नतिवल्लभः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्तुतिप्रियो महाविष्णुर्&lt;strong&gt;गणेशस्तर्णणप्रियः&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ ११५ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दुर्गाऽर्चनप्रिया नूनमभिषेकप्रियः शिवः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मात्तेषां प्रतोषाय विदध्यात्तत्तदादरात् ॥ ११६ ॥  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Deepa-Priyah Kaartaveeryo Maartando Nati-Vallabhah |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Stuti-Priyo MahaVishnur_&lt;strong&gt;Ganeshas_Tarpana-Priyah&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Durgaa.rchana-Priyaa Noonam_Abhisheka-Priyah Shivah |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tasmat_Teshaam Pratoshaaya Vidadhyaat_Tat_Tat_Aadaraat ||  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Kartaveerya is fond of &lt;a href=&quot;https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ5GpZ4l6rjj6O_0f6NQiFDwn-07Os19hNBgmGZTTyPijfvr1QjXFyCOs3FHA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deepa&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, Surya (Maartanda) endears &lt;a href=&quot;https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSB_fQgqgdrWFqkfoJrTBl-OXAO_eiFLWt2AOTaKjruttKVRoUG4A&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Water Offering&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;(Nati).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  MahaVishnu rejoices &lt;a href=&quot;https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRwGjy41hBIPzt9XWCajXuxvUM92JD5vjTqBvf19fY5S49zqL5Un-dY7ibm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stuti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;(Stotras et cetera or venerations done by devotees) and &lt;strong&gt;Ganesha delights with&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQogAAvvlvo2npPCNRmY_B8J_qkoRchYN4mmMrKKvPcO-hU2jG1MzQaZvQwRQ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tarpana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;(water libations).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Durga pleases with &lt;a href=&quot;https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTxjE8vGHBt4bhIiYdAXs7_Z1CYoOM_cmn_qAVE7W6QYuJveF8YwrzNAHPo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prayers&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;(Stotras et cetera, or Prayers said by Devotees) and Shiva likes being worshipped with &lt;a href=&quot;https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSDOftIf2DxofDvDIPbRYQQVzyp3Zd7OLyrlKI_RJYYezsN0jVsxheFRJTpxA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abhisheka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;(bathing the deity by pouring water, milk, honey, Ghee, scented fluids, et cetera).&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Thus, for Their satisfaction, one must fulfill Their worship with the above mentioned ways, with full respect and devotion.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T19:27:10.667" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T19:27:10.667" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21551" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21542" CreationDate="2017-10-15T13:54:15.240" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many scriptures including Puranas portray Lord Ganesha as Supreme Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-ganesha-purana/d/doc116225.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganesh Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; - Chapter 10 - Vyasa's Questions - Lord Brahma tells Shee Ved Vyasa that Shree Ganesha is supreme Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a person who has neither beginning nor end, who is the source&#xA;  of the creator the universe, who contains the universe, who is the&#xA;  controller and sustainer of the universe, including those who exist&#xA;  and the non-existent, the manifest and the eternal. He can, at any&#xA;  time, create, destroy or change anything. The demigods, led by Indra,&#xA;  are always subject to his command, and have great faith in him. He&#xA;  removes obstacles for his devotees like Vishnu, Rudra, Surya, Agni,&#xA;  Varuna and the rest, but creates obstacles for others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If you do not think of Ganesha before any pursuit, be it a spiritual&#xA;  or worldly concern, or even when entering and leaving your home, he&#xA;  creates an obstacle. Those who explain the meaning of the Sastras and&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;the Vedas speak of him as supreme bliss, as the supreme path, and as the supreme Brahman.&lt;/strong&gt; Child! Go, and respectfully take shelter of&#xA;  Dviradanana. If the illustrious Lord is kindly disposed, he will do&#xA;  whatever you wish. If not, you will not obtain your desire in a&#xA;  thousand years”. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_ganesha/gaNapatistavaH.html?lang=iast&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gaṇapatistavaḥ&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; which is said to be from &lt;strong&gt;Ganesh Purana -  upāsanā khaṇḍa adhyāya 13&lt;/strong&gt; also says following. The stotra to Gaṇapati is by Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Maheśvara as reported by brahmā. &#xA;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अजं निर्विकल्पं निराकारमॆकं निरानन्दमानंदमद्वैतपूर्णम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परं निर्गुणं निर्विशेषं निरीहं &lt;strong&gt;परब्रह्मरूपं गणेशं भजेम्&lt;/strong&gt; ॥1॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ajam nirvikalpam niraakaaramekam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Niraanandam aanandam advaita poornam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Param nirgunam nirvishesham nireeham&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Para brahma roopam Ganesham bhajema&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahmā Viṣṇu and Maheśa spoke: We should worship Gaṇeśa, Who is&#xA;  unborn, Who is free from change, Who is beyond taking forms (or&#xA;  actions), Who is unique, Who is without a support, Who is without a&#xA;  second, Who is bliss, Who is complete, &lt;strong&gt;Who is supreme,&lt;/strong&gt; Who is beyond&#xA;  qualities, Who is absolute, Who is without passion, Who is supreme,&#xA;  and Who is Brahman. - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read full Stava - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stutimandal.com/poemgen.php?id=303&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also our famous &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganapati_Atharvashirsa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganapati Atharvashirsha (Ganapati Upanishad)&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; says so. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्वमेव प्रत्यक्षं तत्त्वमसि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वमेव केवलं कर्ताऽसि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वमेव केवलं धर्ताऽसि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वमेव केवलं हर्ताऽसि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;त्वमेव सर्वं खल्विदं ब्रह्मासि&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वं साक्षादात्माऽसि नित्यम् ॥2॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tvam-Eva Pratyakssam Tattvam-Asi |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tvam-Eva Kevalam Kartaa-[A]si |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tvam-Eva Kevalam Dhartaa-[A]si |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tvam-Eva Kevalam Hartaa-[A]si |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Tvam-Eva Sarvam Khalv[u]-Idam Brahma-Asi&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Tvam Saakssaad-Aatmaa-[A]si Nityam ||2||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(O Ganapati) You indeed are the visible Tattvam (Conscious Essence&#xA;  underlying everything), (O Ganapati) You indeed are the only Creator&#xA;  (Karta) (by Whose Power the Universe is Created), (O Ganapati) You&#xA;  indeed are the only Sustainer (Dharta) (by Whose Power the Universe is&#xA;  Sustained), (O Ganapati) You indeed are the only Destroyer (Harta) (by&#xA;  Whose Power the Universe is finally Dissolved in its Conscious&#xA;  Essence),&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;(O Ganapati) You indeed are All This (The Universe); You verily are the Brahman (giving Consciousness to All),&lt;/strong&gt; (O Ganapati) You are the&#xA;  visible Atman, the Eternal (underlying Reality).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="2461" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T04:53:50.347" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T04:53:50.347" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21552" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3285" CreationDate="2017-10-15T14:16:48.133" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The one fact that is common through the ages of Hinduism and our Holy Books, is that God resides in everything that is perceivable in three dimensions for humans, but if you dive deep with the mantras and stotras the people who acquired knowledge say that anything perceptible and imperceptible in Three and higher dimensions, are nothing but an instance of God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you give it a thought, all the religions worship a common belief of God as a light or energy. In Islam and other religions they have generalized that there's only one God and I respect these beliefs.Whereas, in Hinduism every aspect of the human life either good or bad is considered as an instance of God.Hence every God has a personality or a vibe associated with it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every Hindu God has a distinctive set of features and each of them isn't limited to a human form and values, say for example, you visit a rare place in the wilderness and you find immense peace and a sense of liberation there, what you are experiencing there is Lord Shiva's calm state or Maa Saraswati's calm and serenity.Also, when you are in deep sleep or 'Yog Nidra' you don't perceive anything, you experience Lord Shiv's 'Chitta' state, where you are exposed to the realm that the 'Yogis' and 'Buddhas' were stating through the ages, that &quot;nothing is real&quot;, &quot;everything is a perfectly simulated experience&quot;, &quot;all we have to do is seek the truth and beware that we don't wander off into the circus that the human society and the mind creates, how much ever they force us to&quot;.God comes in all forms and mediums, if you watch a picture, a video, meet a person, visit a serene place, introspect and gain wisdom then you've experienced the wisdom of Lord Ganesh,Maa Saraswati,Maa Gayatri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reason us Hindus bow before entering a Temple, or in that case any positive place is to acknowledge and worship the presence of Maa Saraswati and Maa Gayatri's positivity and purity.So if you come across any place, person,object,thought that imparts knowledge or positivity or any other Godly element do bow or at least acknowledge its presence and be glad that you had a chance and the level of awareness, to experience it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One thing that is constant through the tides and ebbs of the Time and Religion, is that people have grown less conscious,intellect and aware, actually to state the truth people have just grown dumb.It sometimes saddens me to see how religion is used to do the things that it strongly condemned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Just to summarize, God is everywhere and certainly in the vibes and experiences.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Just to teach you something from Hinduism, &quot;Be Humble&quot;. Be humble to family,people,animals and their lives,be humble to nature,to environment,to the whole universe and be humble to yourself.Realize the essence of God around you and thank him for giving you the marvel of this universe called &quot;Life&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12276" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-15T17:13:22.127" LastActivityDate="2017-10-15T17:13:22.127" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21553" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21822" CreationDate="2017-10-15T16:00:46.760" Score="13" ViewCount="2263" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do the Vedas mention time eras known as Yugas; Satya, Treta, Dvapara, Kali?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or is it only found in Itihasas and Puranas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorDisplayName="user6981" LastEditDate="2018-12-30T11:08:37.977" LastActivityDate="2019-10-26T20:46:21.437" Title="Do the Vedas mention Yugas?" Tags="|vedas|yuga|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21555" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3285" CreationDate="2017-10-15T20:24:45.743" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;In all the answers above, although there is stress on God as One philosophy, there is a lack of appreciation of critical differences among different forms of God, as asked in the Question. I'd try to address that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We must understand that primary role of Major Gods like Brahma-Saraswati, Vishnu-Lakshmi, Shiv-Shakti (along with others) is to run this universe in a grand sense. These forms, therefore, are genesis of this requirement (otherwise supreme God is happy being as One only!). Having appreciated that, Can Brahma destroy this world? Perhaps No. When the Time will come to destroy this world, Brahma won't be able to do it because He is too attached to its own progeny. Therefore, the very trait of Brahma being creator inhibits the development of destroyer in Himself. I think this is very important to realise that one trait can be incompatible with other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu, not Brahma, is the taskmaster who runs this universe according to dharma. I think the analogy could be that of Guru and Parents. Why can't parents become teachers of their own children, even if they are learned? Upholding dharma requires Danda, manipulations, avatars and many more which neither the creator Brahma nor the destroyer Shiva appreciates much. Shiva, on one hand is happy to let things go on their own ways while Brahma is too lost in the beauty of its own creation. Only Vishnu can hold the destroyers of Dharma by neck and establish it again and again. Without Vishnu, creation and destruction of world will become every yuga's affair. Think about that!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva is neither concerned about how this world came into picture nor how it is being run or should be run. His only concern is people should not cross their limits so as to disturb the equilibrium of this universe else he will stamp his presence and destroy the root of the problem. He is happy to go back to his Samadhi again after the job is done. Can world be run like this? As I said before, if Vishnu is not there such destructions by Shiva will become inevitable at the end of every Yuga, when Dharma starts sharply losing its value. Can Vishnu be destroyer of this Universe? No. Perhaps Vishnu will always be involved into how to run it, and that no matter what he can always run it. Besides, Being involved with its people so much, he is also in the same situation as Brahma : too much attached to its own subjects. Therefore, only a Sanyasi Shiva is fit to become destroyer of this world, neither Vishnu nor Brahma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, we see that creation of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh by Supreme God is not by chance but by design. It is only by appreciating these different aspects of Supreme God that we will be able to understand the Supreme God as much as possible. That's why Gods like Vishnu and Shiva have sahastranaam, which describes the same God in so many different ways, each being unique and essential. Whereas God is one, it is by learning its different aspects that we get closer to Him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3881" LastEditorUserId="3881" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T08:18:22.307" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T08:18:22.307" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21556" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-15T21:50:36.830" Score="-1" ViewCount="1832" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva was involved in long battle with Krishna. Why didn't Krishna know that Shiva was the God of the DevaLoka ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10397" LastEditorUserId="10397" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T18:54:03.303" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T18:54:03.303" Title="Battle of Krishna and Shiva" Tags="|shiva|krishna|shiva-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-10-27T10:40:58.550" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21557" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21571" CreationDate="2017-10-15T22:50:41.473" Score="3" ViewCount="221" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school. But there are five other Astika or orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy: Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, and Nyaya.  My question is about the Samkhya and the Vaisheshika schools.  The Samkhya school believed that the Universe was made of Prakriti or matter/energy, whereas the Vaisheshika school believed that the Universe was made of atoms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Yukti Dipika, an ancient Samkhya work of unknown origin, argues that the atoms postulated by the Vaisheshika school cannot possible be the ultimate cause of the Universe, because these atoms would themselves have a cause.  The Yukti Dupika gives numerous reasons for why atoms must have a more fundamental cause, but &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600202.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/14/items/YuktidipikaVol.IIDr.ShivKumar/Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_jp2/Yuktidipika%20Vol.%20II%20-%20Dr.%20Shiv%20Kumar_0131.jp2&amp;amp;scale=5.572567783094099&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is one of them:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Moreover,] because of their perceptibility. Here whatever is perceptible is observed to be caused just as the pot. &lt;strong&gt;The atoms are perceptible to Yogis.&lt;/strong&gt;  They are caused.... If it is argued that [this argument] will give rise to the undesirable contingency (of being caused) in case of [Prakriti], etc., we reply no, because it is not admitted by us.  According to our [Samkhya] Scripture [Prakriti and Purusha] are not perceptible even to a Brahmin like Kapila. Therefore the argument has no force.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yukti Dipika is arguing that anything that can be known through Pratyaksha or perception has a cause, and since atoms can be perceived through Yogipratyaksha or divine vision, they too must have cause.  Whereas the Samkhya school believes Purusha and Prakriti cannot be perceived even through Yogipratyaksha, so they're not vulnerable to the same objection. But my question is, is the Yukti Dipika right that the Vaisheshika school believes that atoms can be perceived through Yogipratyaksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any Vaisheshika works that discuss this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T11:32:19.550" Title="Did the Vaisheshika school believe Yogis can see atoms?" Tags="|philosophy|sankhya|vaisheshika|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21560" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21530" CreationDate="2017-10-16T04:44:19.143" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;These are the 7 charges (&lt;em&gt;anupapatti&lt;/em&gt;) that Ramanuja leveled against the theory of Maya. They are &lt;em&gt;ashrayanpapatti&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;tirodhananupapatti&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;svarupanupapatti&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;anirvachaniyatvanupapatti&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;pramananupapatti&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;nivartakanupapatti&lt;/em&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;nivrtyanupapatti&lt;/em&gt;. Prof. Chandradhar Sharma explains and refutes the 7 charges in his book &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800804.us.archive.org/25/items/IndianPhilosophyACriticalSurvey/Indian-Philosophy-A-Critical-Survey.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy&lt;/em&gt;,&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;pp 358-361, Chapter 18, Section XV.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastEditorUserId="7234" LastEditDate="2018-08-29T03:46:19.933" LastActivityDate="2018-08-29T03:46:19.933" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21561" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-16T04:48:22.937" Score="10" ViewCount="192" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't know if this question is related on not. But why and how Diwali, a festival of lights turned into a festival of crackers? How this all started? &#xA;Is there any relation of this festival with crackers from ancient times? Loud noise.... Is this tradition wrong or right? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3287" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T05:05:30.620" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T05:05:30.620" Title="Why are crackers used on Diwali?" Tags="|festivals|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21562" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21553" CreationDate="2017-10-16T05:03:31.733" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;No,vedas don't mention yugas only smritis mention them even swami vivekananda has said-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cwsv.belurmath.org/volume_5/questions_and_answers/selections_from_the_math_diary.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Works of Swami Vivkananda, Volume 5, Q&amp;amp;A&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q. — Is the division of time into four Yugas astronomical or arbitrary calculation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A. — There is no mention of such divisions in the Vedas. They are arbitrary assumptions of Paurânika times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T05:08:01.440" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21563" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-16T05:45:26.883" Score="8" ViewCount="1136" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where in the Padma Purana are the following verses located?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Na śūdrā bhagavad-bhaktās te tu bhāgavatā matāḥ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sarva-varṇeṣu te śūdrā ye na bhaktā janārdane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A devotee should never be considered a śūdra. All the devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead should be recognized as bhāgavatas. If one is not a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, however, even if born in a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya or vaiśya family, he should be considered as a śūdra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sva-pākam iva nekṣeta loke vipram avaiṣṇavam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   vaiṣṇavo varṇo-bāhyo ’pi punāti bhuvana-trayam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If a person born in a brāhmaṇa family is not a vaiṣṇava, a non-devotee, one should not see his face, exactly as one should not look upon the face of a caṇḍāla, or dog-eater. However, a Vaiṣṇava found in varṇas other than brāhmaṇa can purify all the three worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śūdraṁ vā bhagavad-bhaktaṁ niṣādaṁ śva-pacaṁ tathā vīkṣate&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   jāti-sāmānyāt sa yāti narakaṁ dhruvam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who considers a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead who was born in a family of śūdras, niṣādas or caṇḍālas to belong to that particular caste certainly goes to hell.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: Purport section of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/antya/16/29&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; website.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-12-09T14:22:55.627" LastActivityDate="2017-12-09T14:22:55.627" Title="Where in the Padma Purana are these verses located?" Tags="|vaishnavism|caste-system|identification-request|padma-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21564" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21565" CreationDate="2017-10-16T06:36:41.493" Score="7" ViewCount="7803" Body="&lt;p&gt;What Bhagavad-Gita says about responding to those who hurt you? Do we need to stay calm and get hurt again and again untill our life ends and get the whole life spoiled because of bad people? Or else do we need to wait for the God's next incarnation? Or else leave them saying that God will punish them after death?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1239" LastEditorUserId="1239" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T06:56:45.037" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T02:26:15.813" Title="What Bhagavad-Gita says about responding to those who hurt you?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21565" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21564" CreationDate="2017-10-16T06:51:46.187" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;How to rightly act in a given situation, is part of &lt;em&gt;Dharma&lt;/em&gt;. Bhagavad Gita doesn't discuss on general Dharma in the scope of &lt;em&gt;prakruti&lt;/em&gt;. Refer:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20876/1049&quot;&gt;What is Dharma according to the Bhagavad Gita?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Gita, a person doesn't &quot;act&quot; under his own will.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 5.8, 5.9 — &quot;'I' certainly don't do anything&quot; is believed by knower of fundamentals (&lt;em&gt;tattva gyAna&lt;/em&gt;) - even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, dreaming, breathing, talking, discarding, accepting, opening, closing; -- &quot;Senses only are acting in the subjects of senses&quot; - is understood.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence this Qn may not be in the scope of Bhagavad Gita. You may want to ask from the perspective of &lt;em&gt;Dharma ShAstra&lt;/em&gt; to get the precise answer.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, for your specific Qn during Gita's discourse Krishna does ask Arjuna to fight without giving way to weakness:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 2.3 - O Partha, yield not to unmanliness. This does not befit you. O scorcher of foes, arise, giving up the petty weakness of the heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T06:51:46.187" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21566" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-16T07:06:16.150" Score="2" ViewCount="10079" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am planning to buy a lord Shiva locket to my husband. Please let me know can we wear lord Shiva locket around our neck? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12280" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T07:15:47.317" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T07:15:47.317" Title="Can we wear lord Shiva locket around our neck?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21567" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21563" CreationDate="2017-10-16T07:15:08.747" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;A partial answer and Giving source for the following verse. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śva-pākam iva nekṣeta loke vipram avaiṣṇavam &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  vaiṣṇavo varṇo-bāhyo ’pi punāti bhuvana-trayam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the world one should not look at a brāhmaṇa who is not a devotee of Viṣṇu as (one does not look at) a candala. Viṣṇu's devotee, even if he is outside the castes, purifies the three worlds. [&lt;strong&gt;Padma Purana Uttara Khanda Chapter 224 Verse 53.&lt;/strong&gt;] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It should be noted that this is said by Lord Shiva to Parvati and by Vaiṣṇava, Shiva explicitly states that a Vaiṣṇava is one who has &lt;em&gt;the markings of a conch and disc of Viṣṇu&lt;/em&gt; and not the others. So, by following this definition Vaiṣṇava is one who carries the conch and disc of Viṣṇu and one who worships Viṣṇu alone (These are words of Lord Viṣṇu himself). So, the notion of saying one who considers Viṣṇu as supreme or worships Viṣṇu alone is a Vaiṣṇava is from the scriptures itself and the words of God.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T09:09:16.660" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T09:09:16.660" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21568" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3879" CreationDate="2017-10-16T08:36:29.257" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shakti is the wife of Lord Shiva.&lt;/strong&gt; There are thousands of forms of Lord Shiva and they are accompanied by thousands of Shaktis. And these Shaktis are also the form of the same original Shakti (Uma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also during the incarnations like of Sati and Parvati it is the same Shakti taking birth again and again:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This Parvati is the wife of Shiva in every birth.&lt;/strong&gt; In every Kalpa she is the great cosmic intellect mother of wise men. (Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita chapter 33)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And not only that there are cycles of Sati and Parvati which I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10141/wouldnt-most-of-the-incarnations-of-devi-be-of-sati-not-parvati/14868#14868&quot;&gt;discuss here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;केचद्वदन्ति तां ज्येष्ठां मध्यमां चापरे शिवाम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;सर्वानन्तरजां केचित्कल्पभेदात्त्रयं च सत् ।। (Shiva Purana Rudra Samhita Chapter 14)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Some say that Shivă (Sati) was eldest of them all, some say she was the middle one, and some wise treat her as the youngest of all. All three opinions are correct, because of difference of Kalpa.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus how much time Shiva marries it doesn't count as a separate wife because it is the same Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly for the forms of Shiva like &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10524/whats-the-relation-between-lord-shiva-and-lord-shani-dev/17075#17075&quot;&gt;AshtaMurti forms&lt;/a&gt; also there are respective consorts for every form and these are Shakti only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the highest Lord Parameswara is always present with his own Shakti Uma. Kaivalya Upanishad states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;उमासहायं परमेश्वरं&lt;/strong&gt; प्रभुं त्रिलोचनं नीलकण्ठं प्रशान्तम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;ध्यात्वा मुनिर्गच्छति भूतयोनिं समस्तसाक्षिं तमसः परस्तात् ॥ 1.7॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Meditating on the &lt;strong&gt;highest Lord, allied to Uma,&lt;/strong&gt; powerful, three-eyed, blue-necked, and tranquil, the holy man reaches Him who is the source of all, the witness of all and is beyond darkness.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And similarly Lord Shiva also dwells with his consort Uma in the heart if his devotees as described in Mahanarayana Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I-70: The Supreme represented as the ocean has overflown to the whole creation. He has created at first creatures according to the deserts of their various past deeds. He is the ruler of the universe and the munificent giver of gifts to the devotees. &lt;strong&gt;He dwells together with Uma in the hearts of devotees&lt;/strong&gt; which are holier than other parts of their body (the seat of the Divine) and therefore superior and elevated like a peak and affording protection. The Jiva who is his abode grows to be infinite. He is the Lord who delights the individual souls by guiding according to their deeds and conferring on them fruits of their actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thus Shiva/Maheswara has only one consort and that is Shakti/Uma/Ambika.&lt;/strong&gt; His other thousands of forms have thousands of these portion of these Shaktis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="7984" LastEditDate="2022-12-25T18:34:07.120" LastActivityDate="2022-12-25T18:34:07.120" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21570" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21544" CreationDate="2017-10-16T10:08:55.287" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;A woman is considers as Sati if her husband meant everything for her. Who worship her husband as Lord. Who thinks her whole life is for my husband's service(sewa), those women are considered as Sati Because as per hinduism, women's greatest dharma is towards her husband more than anyone/anything else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga117/ayodhya_117_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ramayana verse&lt;/a&gt; explains the women's dharma towards their husband which told by great female ascetic(also wife of great Sage Atri) Anansuya to Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;duhshiilaH kaama vR^itto vaa dhanair vaa parivarjitaH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;striiNaam aarya svabhaavaanaam paramam daivatam patiH || 2-117-23&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;striiNaam= to women; aaryasvabhaavaanaam= of noble nature; patiH= husband; paramam= is the hightest daivatam= deity; duSiilaH= whether he is ill-behaved; kaama vR^ittovaa= or licentious; parivarjitovaa= or devoid of; dhanaiH= riches.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;To women of noble nature, the husband is the highest deity no mater whether he is ill-behaved or licentious or devoid of riches.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;na ato vishiShTam pashyaami baandhavam vimR^ishanty aham |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;sarvatra yogyam vaidehi tapaH kR^itam iva avyayam || 2-117-24&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;vaidehi= O, Seetha!; vimR^ishantii= On a reflection; na pashyaami= I perceive; na= none; vishiSTam= who is a better; baandhavam= friend; ataH= than a husband; yogyam= who protects his wife; sarvatra= in all circumstances; avyayam iva= like the imperishable fruit; kR^itam= accomplished; tapaH= of one's austerities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;O, Seetha! On a reflection, I perceive none who is a better friend than a husband, who protects his wife in all circumstances, like the imperishable fruit of one's austerities.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;na tu evam avagagcCanti guNa doSham asat striyaH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;kaama vaktavya hR^idayaa bhartR^i naathaaH caranti yaaH || 2-117-25&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;yaaH= those women; kaama vaktavya hR^idayaaH= whose hearts follow their passions; charanti= and, conduct themselves; bhartR^inaathaaH= dominating their husbands; aststriyaH= such evil women; na avagachchhanti= having no understanding; guNa doSam= of virtue and vice; evam= (do not follow him) in the aforesaid manner.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Those evil women, whose hearts follow their passions and conduct themselves dominating their husband, having no understanding of virtue and vice, do not follow him in the aforesaid manner.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;praapnuvanty ayashaH caiva dharma bhramsham ca maithili |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;akaarya vasham aapannaaH striyo yaaH khalu tad vidhaaH || 2-117-26&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;maithili= O, Seetha!; khalu= Indeed; yaaH striyaH= those women; aapannaH= who get into akaarya vasham= an improper act of authority; tadvidhaaH= in the aforesaid manner; praapnuvanti= reap; ayashashcha= infamy; dharma bhramsham= and decline of righteousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;O, Seetha! Surely, those evil women, who get into an improper act of authority over their husbands reap infamy and decline in righteousness.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tvad vidhaaH tu guNair yuktaa dR^iShTa loka para avaraaH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;striyaH svarge cariShyanti yathaa puNya kR^itaH tathaa || 2-117-27&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;striyastu= women; tvadvidhaaH= like you; yuktaaH= who are endowed; guNaiH= with virtues; dR^iSTa loka paraaparaaH= who look with detachment on prosperity and adversity in this world; yathaa tathaa= therefore; chariSyanti= dwell; svarge= in heaven; yathaa= as; dharmakR^itaH= those who performed meritorious deeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Women, like you, on the other hand who are endowed with virtues, who look with detachment on prosperity and adversity in this world, therefore dwell in heaven as those who performed meritorious deeds.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;evam vidhaaH ca pravaraaH striyo bhartR^i dR^iDha vrataaH |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;deva loke mahiiyante puNyena svena karmaNaa || 2-118-12&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;evam vidhaaH= such; pravaraaH= excellent; striyaH= women; bhartR^idriDha vrataaH= devoted to their husbands; svena= by their own; puNyena= meritorious; karmaNaa= deed; mahiiyante= are highly honoured; devaloke= in heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;Such excellent women, devoted to their husbands, and by their meritorious deeds, are highly honoured in heaven.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T10:08:55.287" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21571" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21557" CreationDate="2017-10-16T10:14:57.800" Score="6" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Did Vaisheshika school believes that atoms can be perceived&#xA;  through Yogipratyaksha?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt; the Vaisheshika school believes so. This  is described in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft#page/272/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaisheshika Sutras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  - Adhyaya 9 – Aahnika 1 – Sutras 12-15 .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It’s said in those sutras that , there are two type of yogis &lt;strong&gt;1 )&lt;/strong&gt; Yujjaana Yogies &lt;strong&gt;2)&lt;/strong&gt; Yukta Yogies.  Yujjana yogis can see the actual Atma (soul) in the meditation by concentrating their mind on soul. And other type of Yujjana yogis can see the atoms   in the meditation by concentrating their mind on Dravyas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Yukata yogis do not need even the meditation to experience both.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally atoms can't be seen through physical eyes just like Vayu , Akasha , Mind etc. Yujjaana  yogis can see them through mind (ManoYoga). The Vyakhya also tells us that nothing is impossible with Yogic practice and Yukta yogis can see and know the atoms and also their properties etc. without meditation. i.e through physical eyes also. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तथा द्रव्यान्तरेषु प्रत्यक्षम् | 9.1.12 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tatha DravyaNtareshu Praktyaksham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It’s said in this Sutra that as Yogis can see the actual Atma  in &#xA;  Yogic meditation by process of  unification of Mind and soul. They can&#xA;  also see the Atoms (Sukshma Dravyas) The previous sutra tells us&#xA;  about Atma and this sutra states that same thing happens with Atoms.&#xA;  i.e. they can  actually be seen through meditation.The difference is Yujjaana yogis can see them in Samadhi only and the Yukata do not need Samadhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It’s even said in the next sutra that not only they can see the Atoms but they can see the Guna-Karmas of those Dravyas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्समवायात् कर्मगुणेषु | 9.1.14&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TatsaMavaYaat KarmaGuneshu &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion -So the Vaisheshika  scripture seems to say  that   nothing is impossible with Yogic practice .Yukta yogis even  can see the atoms without meditation through their Yogic powers and atoms  can be perceived through Yogipratyaksha and also directly with physical eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T11:32:19.550" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T11:32:19.550" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21572" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21546" CreationDate="2017-10-16T11:10:50.720" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I could not find refernces of samudra manthan in vedas but I found refernces of amrita-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;for,wealthy waters,ye control all treasures:ye bring auspicious intellect and &lt;strong&gt;amrta ye&lt;/strong&gt; are the queens of independent riches sarasvati give full life to the singer!(Rig veda book 10 hymn 30 verse 12).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now,ye sapient ones,make ye the axes sharp wherewith ye fashion bowls to hold the &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;amrta.Knowing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; the secret places make ye ready that whereby the gods have gotten immortality(Rig Veda book 10 hymn 53 verse 10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T11:24:30.783" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21573" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21431" CreationDate="2017-10-16T12:48:23.453" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have not found any direct reference in Veda Samhita upto now. However there can be various verses which can give indirect meaning of Golden Rule. For eg. This verse from YajurVeda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यस्तु सर्वाणि भूतान्यात्मन्येवानुपश्यति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वभूतेषु चात्मानं ततो न विजुगुप्सते ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यस्मिन्सर्वाणि भूतान्यात्मैवाभूद्विजानतः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्र को मोहः कः शोक एकत्वमनुपश्यतः ॥ (Yajurveda 40.6,7)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He who sees all beings in his own self and his own self in all beings does not suffer from any repulsion by that experience. He who has known that all beings have become one with his own self, and he who has seen the oneness of existence, what sorrow and what delusion can overwhelm him?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one sees everyone as his self certainly he doesn't do that behaviour to him which he doesn't like himself. Thus, this can become indirect reference to Golden Rule from Veda Samhita itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T13:13:14.793" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T13:13:14.793" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21574" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21367" CreationDate="2017-10-16T13:21:33.570" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Brahman is beyond good and evil. Good and evil are anthropomorphic concepts, i.e. they only apply to Jiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman is beyond vidya and avidya, knowledge and ignorance. It is&#xA;  beyond maya, the illusion of duality.  The world consists of the&#xA;  illusory duality of knowledge and ignorance. It contains of knowledge&#xA;  and devotion, and also attachment to 'lust and greed'; righteousness&#xA;  and unrighteousness; good and evil. But Brahman is unattached to&#xA;  these. &lt;strong&gt;Good and evil apply to the jiva, the individual soul, as do&#xA;  righteousness and unrighteousness; but Brahman is not at all&#xA;  affected by them.&lt;/strong&gt;  One man may read the Bhagavata by the light of&#xA;  the lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light; but&#xA;  that lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well&#xA;  as on the virtuous.  You may then ask, 'How, then can one explain&#xA;  misery, and sin and unhappiness?' The answer is that these apply to&#xA;  the jiva. Brahman is unaffected by them. There is poison in a snake;&#xA;  but though others may die if bitten by it, the snake itself is not&#xA;  affected by the poison.  What Brahman is cannot be described. All&#xA;  things in the world - the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, the six&#xA;  systems of philosophy - have been defiled,like food that has been&#xA;  touched by the tongue. Only one thing has not been defiled in this&#xA;  way, and that is Brahman. No one has ever been able to say what&#xA;  Brahman is. [August 5, 1882] In Samadhi one attains the knowledge of&#xA;  Brahman - one realizes Brahman. In that state reasoning stops&#xA;  altogether, and man becomes mute. He has no power to describe the&#xA;  nature of Brahman. Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the&#xA;  ocean. It wanted to tell others how deep the water was. But this it&#xA;  could never do, for no sooner did it get into the water than it&#xA;  melted. Now who was there to report the ocean’s depth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, August 5, 1882]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T13:21:33.570" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21576" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8059" CreationDate="2017-10-16T15:09:19.190" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;The only reference I found to Sage Ganaka is on &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakotimandali.com/misc/murti.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kamakoti Website&lt;/a&gt; which ascribes the verses to &lt;strong&gt;Ganesha Yamala Tantra&lt;/strong&gt;. (Which I wasn't able to find anywhere on the internet. If anyone has this Tantra available it would be good if they could reference the verses...) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Mahaganapati, the primordial puruSha known as brahmaNaspati,&#xA;  created four kinds of universe and initiated Mahadeva, Mahavishnu and&#xA;  Brahma with fourteen gANapatya Mahavidyas. [...]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sri mahAgaNapati assumed the form of gaNaka&lt;/strong&gt; and initiated Sri Shiva into the royal path of gAnApatya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In satya yuga, 1000 gANapatya tantras were revealed by Mahadeva to&#xA;  Vishnu and Shiva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[...] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This worship of 116 mUrtis of brahmaNaspati is called mahA yAga in the&#xA;  vainAyaka tantra. Remembering these mUrtis of Bhagavan mahAgaNesha&#xA;  grants one the merit of visiting every tIrtha and kShetra on earth&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;[gaNesha yAmala, 8-96]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T15:09:19.190" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21577" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-16T16:29:04.640" Score="8" ViewCount="578" Body="&lt;p&gt;For brāhmaṇa, there is already a question here: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10634/&quot;&gt;What is the etymology of brahman/brahmin?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For śūdra, Monier Williams &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/monier/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw1085-zuSkavraNa.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt; &quot;of doubtful derivation&quot;. Apte &lt;a href=&quot;http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?p.5:233.apte&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;says&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शूद्रः [शुच्-रक् पृषो˚ चस्य दः दीर्घः  Uṇ. 2.19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm not sure what that means though.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the literal meanings and derivations of kṣatriya and vaiśya?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T16:54:53.427" LastActivityDate="2018-09-10T19:18:08.733" Title="What are the etymologies and literal meanings of the words (kṣatriya, śūdra, etc.) used to indicate one's varṇa?" Tags="|caste-system|sanskrit|etymology|varna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21578" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-16T18:10:51.277" Score="5" ViewCount="897" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavad Gita says one who worships someone other than Lord Krishna is actually indirectly worshipping Him because He resides as the Indweller (Antaryami).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Kaushitaki Upanishad also, there is a story called &quot;Indra's instruction to Pratardana&quot;, where Indra tells Pratardana to meditate on Indra as the supreme Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if Pratardana can get moksha by meditating on Indra as the supreme Brahman, why can't others? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What does Sri Vaishnavism have to say about meditating on Devatas (and not Vishnu) as the supreme Brahman to attain Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-16T20:26:14.570" LastActivityDate="2022-02-02T04:09:15.757" Title="According to Sri Vaishnavism, what happens to someone who worships someone other than Lord Vishnu as Brahman?" Tags="|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|moksha|brahman|gods|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21579" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8059" CreationDate="2017-10-16T18:17:50.220" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well found this piece about Ganesh Vidya, which has different analysis &amp;amp; meaning for the term &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'Ganaka'&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following shlokas reveal the secret of the Ganesha Mantra, “Gam”:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Ganadeen purva mucharya varnadeen stadantaram   Anusvaraha parataraha&#xA;  ardhendu lasitam tarena ruddham etattava manu svarupam   Gakarah purva&#xA;  rupam akaro madhyama rupam   Anusvaraschantya rupam binduruttara rupam&#xA;  Nadassandhanam samhita sandhihi nysha ganesha vidya ganaka rishihi&#xA;  nricchad gayatri chandaha   Sri Maha Ganapatirdevata   Om Gam&#xA;  Ganapataye Namaha”!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First come the ganas or metered syllables. Then come the Sanskrit alphabets beginning with “a” and ending with “ksha.” Then, anusvara or the nasal sound, “m,” and later the beautiful sound of half moon or half circle. After all of these comes the primordial sound, “Om”!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, first the form of the Ganesha Mantra begins with the syllable “g”. Then, you add to it in the middle the syllable “a”, and later at the end you add the syllable “m.” Thus, when you go through the process of “g+a+m”, you obtain the seed syllable “Gam”. Then when you add “Om” in front, you have “Om Gam”, which is verily the subtle form of Sri Ganesha. Thus, “Om Gam” is the subtle form of the Ganesha Mantra. This subtle form of the Ganesha Mantra is subtlest of the subtle and its effulgence is also in a subtle form. The effulgence of the “Gam” mantra is most wondrous and brilliant. When you chant the “Gam” mantra, your heart and your whole body is filled with effulgence and brightness. As your heart radiates with effulgence, the six enemies in your heart are burnt away and you are filled with supreme peace in your heart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The rishi, sage of this Ganesha vidya or knowledge, is &lt;em&gt;Ganaka&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The chandas, meter, is Ncchrud Gayatri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The devata, presiding deity, is Maha Ganapati. Read more &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.manidweepa.org/teachings/gods-and-goddesses/ganesha/ganesha-in-vedas-and-upanishads/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T18:17:50.220" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21580" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-16T20:58:51.047" Score="0" ViewCount="29" Body="&lt;p&gt;What defines the Vedanta school from other schools? Is it believing that meditating on Brahman gives moksha? Is it the acceptance of the Prasthana Trayi (Upanisashads, Vedanta Sutras, Bhagavad Gita)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastActivityDate="2017-10-16T20:58:51.047" Title="What defines the Vedanta school?" Tags="|vedas|bhagavad-gita|vedanta|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-10-17T02:20:23.593" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21581" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21524" CreationDate="2017-10-16T21:21:14.520" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE&lt;/strong&gt;:This is only a partial answer, an explanation of another viewpoint, which was too large to fit into the comments.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The translation that you may have found is for the wrong verse (Did you get it from &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/ParasharaSmriti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt; ?). It should belong to verse &lt;strong&gt;12.49&lt;/strong&gt;, not &lt;strong&gt;12.47&lt;/strong&gt;. The sanskrit verse is at the right place but the translation is at a different location.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अरणिम् कृष्णमार्जारम् चन्दनम् सुमणिम् घृतम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;तिलान् कृष्णाजिनम् छागम् गृहे चैतानि रक्षयेत् ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some thoughts:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;कृष्णमार्जारम् - This could mean a black male cat / black agati keerai (Sesbania grandiflora) / black indian almond. Based on the context, I don't expect it to be the black male cat. Sanskrit is very context based in terms of the meaning of words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;छागम् - The छाग refers to the she-goat / goat in particular. It does not have anything to do with अजः which brought in the goat vs seeds confusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would expect the कृष्णमार्जारम् to refer to the plants / seeds rather than the animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4133" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T20:00:13.353" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21582" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-17T02:09:16.900" Score="5" ViewCount="1015" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Vedic account of creation in the Upanishads, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mah%C4%81bh%C5%ABta&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabhutas&lt;/a&gt; or great elements proceed from most subtle to most gross: Akasha -&gt; Vayu -&gt; Agni -&gt; Apah -&gt; Prithvi. Meaning, Space -&gt; Air/wind -&gt; Fire/light -&gt; Water -&gt; Earth. At the same time, each corresponding element is created with a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanmatras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Tanmatra&lt;/a&gt;, or subtle element. These subtle elements are the elements of perception, hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each sensory element is associated with it's particular gross element as well as those more subtle than it, as shown in &lt;a href=&quot;https://sahajapower.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/five-elements-and-five-tanmatras.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; picture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Space&lt;/em&gt; -&gt; &lt;strong&gt;sound&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Air&lt;/em&gt; -&gt; sound and &lt;strong&gt;touch&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fire&lt;/em&gt; or light -&gt; sound, touch, and &lt;strong&gt;sight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Water&lt;/em&gt; -&gt; sound, touch sight, and &lt;strong&gt;taste&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Earth&lt;/em&gt; -&gt; sound, touch, sight, taste, and &lt;strong&gt;smell&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, my question is, what is the relationship between the subtle sense element and it's associated gross element. Particularly, how is sound a property of Akasha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In my understanding, space or Akasha is defined as the all-pervading substrate that contains the other elements. So if you remove the other four elements, you're left with just Akasha. Likewise, the four elements cannot exist without Akasha as their substrate. But then how is it associated with sound, since sound requires air (Vayu) to travel and cannot travel alone in space (Akasha)? Sound requires some reverberating medium to propagate through. If sound can truly travel without the aid of the other four elements, then it's probably due to some dark matter or something unknown. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or possibly this Akasha and Shabda are referring to not our gross plane, but a subtle one, where subtle element Shabda can travel through subtle element Akasha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyways, when I googled this, I came across &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.umassd.edu/media/umassdartmouth/centerforindicstudies/workshop2009_speakermgp5.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; article by a Mechanical Engineer at Steven's Institute of Technology, NJ, who says that according to the Vedas, the relationship between sound and space is that &lt;em&gt;only sound is affected by space&lt;/em&gt; and not any other sense perception. In other words, space qualifies sound &lt;em&gt;only&lt;/em&gt;, and no other sense perception. If you are in a closed room, and the temperature is the same, walls are made of same material, air density is the same, and lighting is the same, if you expand the walls and increase room volume while fixing other variables, the sound produced in that room changes depending on the volume (space) of the room.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, I think the relationship between the sensory elements and the gross elements is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Space affects sound only, but not touch, sight, taste, and smell.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Air affects both sound and touch, but not sight, taste, and smell. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Fire/light affects sound, touch, sight, but not taste and smell.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Water affects sound, touch, sight, and taste.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Earth affects sound, touch, sight, taste, and smell. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this the right way to relate these?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2017-10-17T12:57:51.597" LastActivityDate="2022-05-24T13:03:25.230" Title="What is relationship between Akasha (space) and Shabda (sound) according to Veda?" Tags="|vedas|creation|panchabhoota|akasha|vayu|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21583" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-17T02:12:33.723" Score="1" ViewCount="169" Body="&lt;p&gt;DhritarAshtra was physically blind and implicitly supported wrongdoing of his son Duryodhana. GAndhAri blindfolded her eyes to follow the distress of her husband &amp;amp; never objected Duryodhana.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both of these are found in scriptures. I also scarcely remember similar dialog from BRC Mahabharata, where Bhishma/Vidura tells to/for DhritarAshtra not to extend blindness in emotional matters too.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like how there is a folklore of &quot;&lt;em&gt;women can't keep secrets&lt;/em&gt;&quot; - is associated with Yudhishtira's curse. Is the term &quot;blind support&quot; also associated with Mahabharata as a folklore or in reality?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-17T14:54:11.740" LastActivityDate="2017-10-17T14:54:11.740" Title="Did the term &quot;blind support&quot; originate from Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|culture|duryodhana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21584" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21586" CreationDate="2017-10-17T02:22:28.660" Score="17" ViewCount="2467" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why is it that gods do this? Adi Shankaracharya says there are 3 people stopping one from self-realization: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;The individual himself&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Other people&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Devas&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Swami Sarvananda in his commentary on the Taittiriya Upanishad says,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This invocation is chanted because it is believed that even gods thwart the path of an aspirant striving for God-realization. So, if they are propitiated in the beginning, the course is expected to go smoother. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The invocation he is speaking of is: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanti_Mantras#Taittiriya_Upanishad&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Sam no Mitrasam Varunaha.... etc&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But why would Devas do this? Isn't it an Asuric or Raksha quality to stop people from worshipping? Throughout Smrti Asuras and Rakshasas disrupt Yajnas, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, in the Vedas we see Devas themselves teaching others how to realize God. Devas are probably self realized if they teach others about it. In the Kaushitaki Upanishad there is the conversation between Indra and Pratardana. Pratardana asks Indra to give him a boon that he wants, and Indra says to meditate on Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Bhrigu Valli of the Taittiriya Upanishad, Varuna, who is the father of Bhrigu, teaches Bhrigu about Brahman and how to meditate on him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now in the Itihasas Indra tries to stop people from gaining tapo-shakti, but this is different from attaining Brahma-Vidya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So why would Devas stop people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2017-10-17T12:56:13.060" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T14:58:48.153" Title="Why do Devas stop people from attaining Brahma Vidya?" Tags="|vedas|moksha|brahman|gods|sadhana|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21586" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21584" CreationDate="2017-10-17T03:57:15.577" Score="21" Body="&lt;p&gt;When a person gets Brahma-Vidya / Moksha then there is no rebirth for that person. And when he doesn't have birth he can't do various sacrifices and rituals for Devatas. So, Gods do not want that men should attain Brahma Vidya. It is explained in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I-iv-9: They say: Men think, &lt;strong&gt;‘Through the knowledge of Brahman we shall become all’.&lt;/strong&gt; Well, what did that Brahman know by which It became all ? &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I-iv-10: This (self) was indeed Brahman in the beginning. It knew only Itself as, ‘I am Brahman’. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore It became all. And whoever among the gods knew It also became That; and the same with sages and men.&lt;/strong&gt; The sage Vamadeva, while realising this (self) as That, knew, ‘I was Manu, and the sun’. And to this day whoever in like manner knows It as, ‘I am Brahman’, becomes all this (universe). Even the gods cannot prevail against him, for he becomes their self. While he who worships another god thinking, ‘He is one, and I am another’, does not know. &lt;strong&gt;He is like an animal to the gods. As many animals serve a man, so does each man serve the gods. Even if one animal is taken away, it causes anguish, what should one say of many animals ? Therefore it is not liked by them that men should know this.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Smriti texts also it is explained nicely. For eg. In Shiva Gita from Padma Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रामाय दण्डकारण्ये पार्वतीपतिना पुरा . &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  या प्रोक्ता शिवगीताख्या गुह्याद्गुह्यतमा हि सा [3] &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यस्याः श्रवणमात्रेण नृणां मुक्तिर्ध्रुवं भवेत . &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुरा सनत्कुमाराय स्कन्देनाभिहिता हि सा [4] &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In olden days in ‘Dandaka’ forest whatever was preached by Lord Shankara to Rama, which is a divine secret, which when implemented in life would give Salvation to human beings, that ‘Shiva Geeta’ was preached to Sanatkumara by Shanmukha (Skanda). &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सनत्कुमारः प्रोवाच व्यासाय मुनिसत्तमाः . &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मह्यं कृपातिरेकेण प्रददौ बादरायणः [5]&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Subsequently, that Sanat Kumara preached the same to Vyasa। That sage Vyasa became graceful on me and transferred that knowledge to me. &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उक्तं च तेन कस्मैचिन्न दातव्यमिदं त्वया . &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सूतपुत्रान्यथा देवाः क्षुभ्यन्ति च शपन्ति च [6] &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Suta further cautioned his disciples not to discourse this knowledge to anyone, else Devatas of heaven would become displeased and would curse!&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अथ पृष्टो मया विप्रा भगवान्बादरायणः &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भगवन्देवताः सर्वाः किं क्षुभ्यन्ति शपन्ति च [7] &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तासामत्रास्ति का हानिर्यया कुप्यन्ति देवताः &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पाराशर्योऽथ मामाह यत्पृष्टं शृणु वत्स तत [8] &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hearing this i said, “Hey Muni! how are you speaking like this? &lt;strong&gt;What harm would Gods face if someone tells this Shiva Geeta to others? Why would they become angry?&lt;/strong&gt; Why would they curse?” When i questioned him, VedaVyasa showered his affection on me and explained me like this.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नित्याग्निहोत्रिणो विप्राः संति ये गृहमेधिनः . &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त एव सर्वफलदाः सुराणां कामधेनवः [9] &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भक्ष्यं भोज्यं च पेयं च यद्यदिष्टं सुपर्वणाम &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अग्नौ हुतेन हविषा सत्सर्वं लभ्यते दिवि [10] &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नान्यदस्ति सुरेशानामिष्टसिद्धिप्रदं दिवि &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दोग्ध्री धेनुर्यथा नीता दुःखदा गृहमेधिनाम [11] &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथैव ज्ञआनवान्विप्रो देवानां दुःखदो भवेत &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्रिदशास्तेन विघ्नन्ति प्रविष्टा विषयं नृणाम [12] &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;In this world, the Brahmin who is a householder (gruhastha), doing Homams and Yagyams by dedicating food and beverages to Gods through fire; such Brahmins are like Kamadhenu to the Demi-Gods because from their Yagyas and Havans the Gods get their food. The Gods accept these offerings with pleasant heart and happiness. (In turn Gods maintain timely rains and help the earth produce grains properly). So, it’s a duty of Brahmins to regularly do the homams and yagyams and keep the Gods happy (to get food on earth in return). If Brahmins leave doing these fundamental duties to Gods and immerse themselves in Yoga and in learning about the absolute Brahman (Supreme Lord) and attain pleasure in serving him through the path of knowledge/bhakti, it makes Gods unhappy since they wouldn’t get their share of food through sacrifices.For that reason they may become unhappy and may curse. If someone else steals the milk giving cow and takes in a different direction the way its actual owner would feel uncomfortable and would want to get it back, same way these demi-gods also feel uncomfortable when some Brahmin deviates away from his path of normal duties towards the path of Salvation, and in order to get him back for their happiness they try to create disturbances in all possible ways on the devotee’s path towards salvation.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततो न जायते भक्तिः शिवे कस्यापि देहिनः . &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मादविदुषां नैव जायते शूलपाणिनः [13] &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यथाकथंचिज्जातापि मध्ये विच्छिद्यते नृणाम &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जातं वापि शिवज्ञआनं न विश्वासं भजत्यलम [14] &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That’s why Devotion for Parama Shiva doesn’t take birth in anyone, due to the Gods devotion for Shiva doesn’t remain constant. In case with a lot of efforts if someone manages to gain devotion for Lord Shiva, due to the disruption from the demi gods, the devotion gets inturrupted. But when that doesn’t happen, Love for Lord Shiva emerges out of the devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I got translation of Shiva Gita &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mahapashupatastra.com/2010/05/chapter-1-bhakti-niroopana-yoga.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;from here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-10-17T03:57:15.577" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21589" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21584" CreationDate="2017-10-17T04:29:51.963" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600306.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/3/items/AitareyataittiriyaUpanishadsWithShankaraBhashya-English/05AitareyataittiriyaUpanishadsWithShankaraBhashya-English_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=05AitareyataittiriyaUpanishadsWithShankaraBhashya-English_jp2/05AitareyataittiriyaUpanishadsWithShankaraBhashya-English_0067.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Taittiriya Upanishad Bhashya Adi Shankaracharya ties the prevention of obstacles from the Devas not to the &quot;śaṃ no mitraḥ śaṃ varuṇaḥ&quot; mantra as a whole, but only to the repetition of the word Shanti or peace at the end of the mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The word &quot;peace&quot; is thrice-repeated for the purpose of destroying the threefold obstacles to the acquisition of knowledge, viz., from one's self, from the living beings and from the Devas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These three sources of problems aren't unique to Adi Shankaracharya, here is what the first verse of Ishwara Krishna's Samkhya Karika, one of the defining texts of the Samkhya school:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;duḥkhatrayābhighātāt jijñāsā tadapaghātake hetau | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dṛṣṭe sāpārthā cen naikāntātyaṅtato abhāvāt ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On account of affliction from &lt;strong&gt;threefold misery&lt;/strong&gt;, inquiry (should be instituted) into the means for its removal. If (it be said that) it is useless because of the (existence of) evident means (then we reply—) no, because of the absence of certainty and finality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Dukhatraya or threefold misery refers to Adhyatmika misery or misery caused within yourself, like bodily diseases and mental sadness; Adhibhautika misery or misery caused by other living beings, like threats posed by wild animals and other humans; and Adhidaivika misery or misery caused by supernatural forces, like natural disasters caused by demons and the like.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as to whether and why the Devas stop people from attaining Jnana, here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15055.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;atha yo'nyāṃ devatāmupāste, anyo'sāvanyo'hamasmīti, na sa veda, yathā paśurevam sa devānām | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;   yathā ha vai bahavaḥ paśavo manuṣyam bhuñjyuḥ, evamekaikaḥ puruṣo devān bhunakti; ekasminneva paśāvādīyamāne'priyam bhavati, kiṃu bahuṣu? tasmādeṣām tanna priyam yadetanmanuṣyāvidyuḥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now if a man worships another deity, thinking the deity is one and he another, he does not know. He is like a beast for the Devas. For verily, as many beasts nourish a man, thus does every man nourish the Devas. If only one beast is taken away, it is not pleasant; how much more when many are taken! Therefore it is not pleasant to the Devas that men should know this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And since I began by quoting one commentary by Adi Shankaracharya, I might as well end by &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc117939.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;quoting another&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While he, one who is not a knower of Brahman, who worships another god, a god different from himself, approaches him in a subordinate position, offering him praises, salutations, sacrifices, presents, devotion, meditation, etc., thinking, ‘He is one, non-self, different from me, and I am another, qualified for rites, and I must serve him like a debtor’—worships him with such ideas, does not know the truth. He, this ignorant man, has not only the evil of ignorance, but is also like an animal to the gods. As a cow or other animals are utilised through their services such as carrying loads or yielding milk, so is this man of use to every one of the gods and others on account of his many services such as the performance of sacrifices. That is to say, he is therefore engaged to do all kinds of services for them.&#xA;  The scriptural rites, with or without the accompaniment of meditation, which this ignorant man, for whom the divisions of caste, order of life and so forth exist, and who is bound to those rites, performs, lead to progress beginning with human birth and ending with identity with Hiraṇyagarbha. While his natural. activities, as distinguished from those prescribed by the scriptures, lead to degradation beginning with the human birth itself and ending with identity with stationary objects. That it is so we shall explain in the latter part of this chapter beginning with, ‘There are indeed three worlds’ (I. V. 16), and continuing right up to the end. While the effect of knowledge (meditation) has been briefly shown to be identity with all. The whole of this Upaniṣad is exclusively devoted to showing the distinction between the spheres of knowledge and ignorance. We shall show that this is the import of the whole book.&#xA;  Since it is so, therefore the gods can thwart as well as help an ignorant man. This is being shown: As in the world many animals such as cows or horses serve a man, their owner and controller, so does each ignorant man, equivalent to many animals, serve the gods. This last word is suggestive of the Manes and others as well. He thinks, ‘This Indra and the other gods are different from me and are my masters. I shall worship them like a servant through praises, salutations, sacrifices, etc., and shall attain as results prosperity and liberation granted by them. Now, in the world, even if one animal of a man possessing many such is taken away, seized by a tiger, for instance, it causes great anguish. Similarly what is there to wonder at if the gods feel mortified when a man, equivalent to many animals, gets rid of the idea that he is their creature, as when a householder is robbed of many animals? Therefore it is not liked by them, these gods—what?— that men should somehow know this truth of the identity of the self and Brahman. So the revered Vyāsa writes in the Anugītā, ‘The world of the gods, O Arjuna, is filled with those who perform rites. And the gods do not like that mortals should surpass them’ (Mbh. XIV. xx. 59). Hence as men try to save animals from being seized by tigers etc., so the gods seek to prevent men from attaining the knowledge of Brahman lest they should cease to be their objects of enjoyment. Those, however, whom they wish to set free, they endow with faith and the like; while the opposite class they visit with lack of faith etc. Therefore a seeker of liberation should be devoted to worshipping the gods, have faith and devotion, be obedient (to the gods) and be alert about the attainment of knowledge or about knowledge itself. The mention of the dislike of the gods is an indirect hint at all this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-10-17T04:29:51.963" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21590" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21591" CreationDate="2017-10-17T05:30:00.867" Score="22" ViewCount="10567" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is a common belief that sudras can&quot;t learn vedas from Hindu scriptures but according to vedas itself a shudra can learn vedas-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sukla Yajurveda (XXVI. 2).&#xA;  यथेमां वाचं कल्याणीमावदानि जनेभ्यःब्रह्मराजन्याभ्यां शूद्राय चार्याय च स्वाय चारणाय॥ &#xA;  Meaning-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The way I gave this knowledge of Vedas for benefit of all humans, similarly you all also propagate the same for benefit of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Shudras, Vaishyas,&#xA;  Women and even most downtrodden. The scholars and the wealthy people should ensure that they not deviate from this message of mine.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is how Ralph T Griffith translates this verse-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That I to all the people may address this salutary speech,To priest and nobleman, Sûdra and Arya, to one of our own kin and to the stranger Dear may I be to Gods and guerdon-giver. Fulfilled be this&#xA;  my hope: be that my portion!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what swami vivekananda says about this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus says the Shukla Yajur Veda (XXVI. 2). Can you show any authority from this Veda of ours that everyone has not the right to it? The Purânas, no doubt, say that a certain caste has the right to such and such a recension of the Vedas, or a certain caste has no right to study them, or that this portion of the Vedas is for the Satya Yuga and that portion is for the Kali Yuga. But, mark you, the Veda does not say so; it is only your Puranas that do so. But can the servant dictate to the master? The Smritis, Puranas, Tantras — all these are acceptable only so far as they agree with the Vedas; and wherever they are contradictory, they are to be rejected as unreliable. But nowadays we have put the Puranas on even a higher pedestal than the Vedas! The study of the Vedas has almost disappeared from Bengal. How I wish that day will soon come when in every home the Veda will be worshipped together with Shâlagrâma, the household Deity, when the young, the old, and the women will inaugurate the worship of the Veda!( Quoting from the  complete works of swami vivekananda  volume 3 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_3/lectures_from_colombo_to_almora/the_religion_we_are_born_in.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_3/lectures_from_colombo_to_almora/the_religion_we_are_born_in.htm&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So if according to Veda a shudra can learn vedas,then why do puranas say that sudras are not allowed to learn vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="13287" LastEditDate="2018-04-12T05:55:38.020" LastActivityDate="2022-11-03T05:23:01.693" Title="Why can't sudras read vedas according to smritis?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|varna|shudra|" AnswerCount="6" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21591" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21590" CreationDate="2017-10-17T06:02:53.773" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have used this YajurVeda mantra in more than one answers of mine till date. One such answer is &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20394/4732&quot;&gt;this one&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The correct translation, word to word, is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;YathA imAm vAcham&lt;/strong&gt; kalyAnim AvadAni janebhyah (1)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BrahmarAjanyAbhyAm sudrAya cha AryAya cha (2)&lt;br&gt; SwAya cha aranAya&#xA;  cha (3)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May i speak&lt;/strong&gt; the sacred word to the masses of the people (janebhya)&#xA;  (1) to the brahmana, kshatriya, to the sudra and the Arya (2) and to&#xA;  our own men and the strangers (3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shukla Yajur Veda 26.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what it says is that the sacred words (or the Veda mantras) can be spoken to everyone, irrespective of their castes, even if he is a stranger (probably a Mleccha or one who is alien to the Vedic culture is implied by this word).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, everyone can hear Veda mantras. But it does not say anywhere that everyone can recite or learn them too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What the Smritis and the Puranas say is that a Sudra by birth does not even have a right to Gayatri initiation (which is what that makes one competent for Veda study).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, if the Vedas say that even Sudras can recite Vedas, they have right to Vedic initiation, only then contradiction between Sruti-Smriti will arise. But, as of now there are no such contradictions. Even the Agamas say that for Sudra , there is no Upanayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But, if we find verses from Smritis which say that Sudras should not hear the Vedas, then there is a clear contradiction between Sruti-Smriti and we might reject them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another thing to be taken into consideration is the fact that a huge amount of scriptures (including the Vedas) have been lost. And we can't be sure what's in those lost portions. So, we have to come to a conclusion after consulting all the scriptures that are available with us now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, not only for the Vedas, even for the Puranas, the rule is that the Sudras should not read them by themselves. The Brahmins must recite and they should only hear the recitation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So for the satisfaction of one’s own S’akti, all can read this,&#xA;  without contradicting each other. &lt;strong&gt;Never any woman nor any S’ûdra, is&#xA;  to read this herself or himself, even out of ignorance; rather they&#xA;  should hear this from the mouth of a Brâhmana&lt;/strong&gt;. This is the rule of the&#xA;  S’âstras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;From Devi Bhagavatam's last chapter.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Updating the answer:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet another relevant mantra from the Atharva Veda (AV) quite clearly mentions that the mantra (or the sacred word) can be spoken to the masses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AsvinA sAradhana mA madhunAnka shubhaspati (1) &lt;strong&gt;YathA bhargasvatim&#xA;  vAcha AvadAni janAm anu&lt;/strong&gt; (2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Asvins, Lords of light, fill me with sweetness of the bee-honey (1),&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;so may i speak the glorious Word to the masses of the people (2).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 6.69.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-01-08T17:38:04.567" LastActivityDate="2019-01-08T17:38:04.567" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21592" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19134" CreationDate="2017-10-17T06:14:55.643" Score="12" Body="&lt;p&gt;From Shiva Gita, Virodhi Bhakti too if in excess resulting into devotion, can become cause of liberation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनादरेण शाठ्येन परिहासेन मायया . शिवभक्तिरतश्चेत्स्यादन्त्यजोऽपि विमुच्यते [21] &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Anyone while doing criticism, or while disrespecting, or due to jealousy, if gets devoted or gains devotion for Shiva, he would get cleansed of all the Sins immediately.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2018-04-27T09:44:21.753" LastActivityDate="2018-04-27T09:44:21.753" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21593" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21590" CreationDate="2017-10-17T07:04:33.753" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let us see what the Yajueveda 26.2 mantra is actually saying.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;यथेमां वाचं कल्याणी मावदानि जनेभ्य:।&lt;br&gt; ब्रह्मराजन्याभ्यांSS शुद्राय&#xA;चार्याय च स्वाय चारणा य च ।&lt;br&gt; प्रियो देवानां दक्षिणायै दातुरिह&#xA;भूयासमयं मे काम: समृध्य तामुप मादो नमतु ।।२।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As we.(Mantra Drashta Rishis) have advised the meaning of the Ved-Vani&#xA;(Meaning of Vedas)  for the welfare of  Brahmana ,Kshatritas Vaishyas&#xA;,shudras ,those who are not dear &amp;amp; for all the people. O Humans you&#xA;also give good advice to others from the meaning of ved mantras to&#xA;others for their welfare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i.e. give good advice to others always. But that does not mean  that here the Mantra Drasta Rishies are saying to teach vedas or ved mantras to everyone ,and allowing study  of vedas to whom who are not eligible or for those who  are not allowed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here  the Mantra Drasta Rishis are saying  that , just like us you also give good advice from the  meaning of Vedas mantras  to others for their welfare.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i.e.they are encouraging us humans to to give good suggestions /advice to others from the meaning of  veda mantras just like they did. So that in this universe those who give Dakshina to gods for the Yajnas can also love us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lQ1N1.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/lQ1N1.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to your main question why shudras are not allowed to learn vedas? and why do puranas say that sudras are not allowed to learn vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer us given in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62931.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Brahma Sutras&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;  by Badrayana Vyasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's said that &lt;strong&gt;Purificatory ceremonies like Upanayana etc. are declared by the scriptures to be a necessary condition of the study of all kinds of knowledge or Vidyâ;&lt;/strong&gt; but these are meant only for the higher castes. &lt;strong&gt;Their absence in the case of the Sudras.&lt;/strong&gt; So they are not allowed to read vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;संस्कारपरामर्शात् तदभावाभिलापाच्च ॥ 1.3.36 ॥ &lt;br&gt;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;saṃskāraparāmarśāt     tadabhāvābhilāpācca || 36|| &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;36. Because purificatory ceremonies are mentioned (in the case of the twice-born) and their absence are declared (in the case of the&#xA;Sudras).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Not only they are allowed to read vedas but it's even said that a &lt;strong&gt;shudra should not even listen to vedas&lt;/strong&gt; while they being recited.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;श्रवणाध्ययनार्थप्रतिषेधात् स्मृतेश्च ॥ 1.3.38 ॥ &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;śravaṇādhyayanārthapratiṣedhāt smṛteśca || 38 || &lt;br&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;38&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;And because of the prohibition in the Smriti of hearing and studying (the Vedas) and knowing their meaning and performing Vedic&#xA;rites (to Sudras, they are not entitled to the knowledge of Brahman).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it's because the Upanayana ceremony or the samskaras which is not performed in case of Shudra ,they are  not allowed to read , listen or to study veda. And that's why it's not allowed in smiritis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-17T10:09:35.507" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21594" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21590" CreationDate="2017-10-17T11:08:55.350" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Literal reading of scriptures can force one to do gymnastics with the letter and spirit of the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do hereby address this salutary speech for the benefit of humanity,&#xA;the Brahmanas, the Kstariyas, the Sudras, the Vaishyas, the kinfolk&#xA;and the men of the lowest rung of society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajur Veda 26.2 translated by Devi Chand&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is obvious from the text that the message of the Vedas are for entire humanity including Sudras. It is only gymnastics to claim that the message can be heard but not read for Sudras. What is the difference between the two?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is better to see if the Smritis have talked about the nature of persons who should not be given the message of the scriptures. Smritis are not talking of Sudras in the context of caste. In fact Smritis have explained the meaning of the word Sudra in this context.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Teachings only to good persons&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These teachings are not to be imparted to persons who are wicked,&#xA;haughty, barbarous, foul in conduct, hypocritical, given to sensuous&#xA;indulgences, interested exclusively in their worldly concerns, who are&#xA;without devotion to Me or who persecute My devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagavata Purana III.32.39-40&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to say that the Vedas are not preaching hatred against the Sudras. In fact the truth is quite the opposite.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O God grant love to our holy priests, set love in our ruling chiefs.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Grant love to the Vaishyas and Shudras&lt;/strong&gt;;  give out of Thy unbounded&#xA;store of love, love unto me!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yajur Veda 18.48 translated by Devi Chand&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover this question is moot since the hereditary caste system with its rules is invalid on grounds of discrimination since it violates the guidelines of Hindu scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu scriptures have given us guidelines to follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guidelines&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything written in Hindu scripture is not valid. A scriptural statement can be invalid if it does not satisfy reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Primacy of reason&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma Said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even the words heard from an ignorant person, if in themselves they be&#xA;fraught with sense, come to be regarded as pious and wise. In days of&#xA;old, Usanas said unto the Daityas this truth, which should remove all&#xA;doubts, that &lt;strong&gt;scriptures are no scriptures if they cannot stand the&#xA;test of reason&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata Shanti Parva Section CXLII&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Acharya Shankara says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The appeal to the infallibility of the Vedic injunction is&#xA;misconceived. The infallibility in question refers only to the unseen&#xA;forces or apurva, and is admissible only in regards to matters not&#xA;confined to the sphere of direct perceptions, etc ... Even a hundred&#xA;statements of sruti to the effect that fire is cold and non-luminous&#xA;won't prove valid. If it does make such a statement, its import will&#xA;have to be interpreted differently. Otherwise, &lt;strong&gt;validity won't attach&#xA;to it. Nothing in conflict with the means of valid cognition or with&#xA;its own statements may be imputed to sruti&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;REF: Srimad Bhagavad Gita Bhasya 18.66 of Sri Sankaracarya translation by Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier, p. 629.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rejection of discriminatory verses&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any discriminatory verse in Hindu scripture is also automatically invalid according to Hindu scripture and should not be followed. This is necessary because Hinduism is not an organized dharma and does not have any central body to oversee the content of Hindu spiritual texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If a holy act is against the interest of other members of the society,&#xA;it should not be practiced.&lt;/strong&gt; It is Dharma which is the source of Artha&#xA;and even of Kama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kurma Purana I.2.54&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2022-11-03T05:23:01.693" LastActivityDate="2022-11-03T05:23:01.693" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21596" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17962" CreationDate="2017-10-17T13:27:11.587" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;On the 17th day, Arjuna and Karna are face to face. Karna uses Bhargavastra against Pandava army. Arjuna is not unable to counter this weapon. So Krishna told him to withdraw temporarily. They visited Yudhishthira who was outside the battlefield, wounded by the weapons of Karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But after insulted by Yudhishthira for retreating, Arjuna returned to the battlefield. Now both of them are face to face with each other once again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone including Devas, celestial Rishis, Apsaras, Gandharvas and all the beings in the higher realms witness this battle between two of the greatest warriors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fight started between Arjuna and Karna. Both are equally capable warriors. As the battle intensified, Arjuna pushed back Karna’s chariot 10 steps backwards every time but by the energy of the arrows. But Karna was only able to push Arjuna’s chariot 2 steps backwards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna praised Karna and admired the skill of Karna. When questioned by Arjuna, Krishna said it is impossible for any human ever to push his chariot backwards because the chariot of Arjuna contains both Hanuman and Krishna, thus holding the entire weight of the universe. Krishna said no human ever had or ever will attain this feat as it is impossible to even to shake the chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Curse of Brahmin, Parashurama and Mother Earth to Karna begin to fructify:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;During the war, suddenly Karna’s chariot wheel was trapped in the mud as a result of the curse that he had received earlier from Mother Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna still defended himself, but forget the incantations to invoke Brahmanda Astra due to the curse of his guru Parashurama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna asks Arjuna to pause as he gets down from his chariot to free the wheel. He reminds Arjuna of the etiquette of war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Krishna encourages Arjuna to attack Karna against the rules of the war. Arjuna attacked Karna when he was trying to lift the wheel of his chariot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Karna somehow defended himself and invokes Rudra Astra, hitting Arjuna on his chest. Arjuna’s bow Gandiva for the first time fell down as he loses his grip on it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following the rules of the war, Karna did not try to kill unconscious Arjuna but instead use this time to lift the wheel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Arjuna recovers and uses the Anjalika weapon against weapon. Though it is prohibited to attack a weaponless warrior or to attack an enemy from the back according to the rules of the war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the curse of Brahmin fructifies that he will be killed by his enemy when his attention is diverted in the middle of a combat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Still, Arjuna attacked weaponless Karna from the back and killed him as suggested by Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To know more about Suryaputra Karna and his death, read the complete article:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://mythgyaan.com/suryaputra-karna-death/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://mythgyaan.com/suryaputra-karna-death/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12289" LastActivityDate="2017-10-17T13:27:11.587" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21598" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13896" CreationDate="2017-10-17T13:32:23.370" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;On the 17th day, Arjuna and Karna are face to face. Karna uses Bhargavastra against Pandava army. Arjuna is not unable to counter this weapon. So Krishna told him to withdraw temporarily. They visited Yudhishthira who was outside the battlefield, wounded by the weapons of Karna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But after insulted by Yudhishthira for retreating, Arjuna returned to the battlefield. Now both of them are face to face with each other once again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To know more about Suryaputra Karna and his death, read the complete article:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://mythgyaan.com/suryaputra-karna-death/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://mythgyaan.com/suryaputra-karna-death/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12289" LastActivityDate="2017-10-17T13:32:23.370" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21599" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21601" CreationDate="2017-10-17T14:39:21.807" Score="4" ViewCount="6845" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramayana, Bali and Sugriv were two brothers, but for what reason they become enemy to each other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-17T18:20:17.987" LastActivityDate="2017-10-17T18:20:17.987" Title="How two brothers Bali and Sugriv become enemy to each other?" Tags="|ramayana|vali|sugriva|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21600" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21599" CreationDate="2017-10-17T15:22:06.210" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A tale of two brothers &amp;#8211; Bali and Sugriva (The Ramayana)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once, Bali chased a demon Mayavi after killing his brother Dundabhi.&#xA;  Mayavi entered into a cave where Bali followed him. Bali too followed&#xA;  him into the cave. But before entering he cave, he instructed Sugriva&#xA;  to wait outside for a fortnight. He also said that if he did not come&#xA;  out of the cave after fifteen days, Sugriva would understand that Bali&#xA;  had been killed. After a month, He saw blood coming out of the cave&#xA;  and assumed that Bali was dead. Sugriva returned to the kingdom as  a&#xA;  king. But Bali was alive. When he came back and saw Sugriva running&#xA;  the kingdom of Pampapuri,he became furious. He drove Sugriva out and&#xA;  enslaved his wife as well.  Sugriva was hiding in Rishiyamooka&#xA;  mountain, because of curse of Sage Matang, this place was safe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is the crux of what and why it happened, the incident that made brothers enemies. You can read more facts &lt;a href=&quot;http://ritsin.com/a-tale-of-two-brothers-bali-and-sugriva-the-ramayana.html/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-17T15:56:20.567" LastActivityDate="2017-10-17T15:56:20.567" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21601" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21599" CreationDate="2017-10-17T15:30:50.440" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story is described in Kishkindha Kanda of the Ramayana. Vali, who was king of the Vanara kingdom of Kishkindha, once went into a cave to fight the demon Mayavi, while his brother Sugriva waited for a year for him to come out of the cave.  Finally Sugriva saw blood gushing out of he cave, and thinking it was Vali's, he sealed the cave with a rock to prevent the demon from escaping.  He then returned to Kishkindha, where he was crowned king, as he thought that Vali was dead.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga9/kishkindha_9_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is how Sugriva describes the incident to Rama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That demon speedily entered an un-enterable cavity under the ground, covered with grass, and we too having reached there speedily stood at the aperture of that cavity for a while. Then Vali has gone into the enfoldment of fury on observing the entry of that demon into the hole, whereby his senses felt outraged, and he said this sentence to me. Then Vali said to me, &quot;Now you stay here on the alert, Sugreeva, at the entrance of this hole till I return on destroying the enemy in a fight on my entering this hole...&quot; On hearing those words I requested him to allow me too to come in to the hole, but he being the great tormentor of his enemies disallowed it, and he made me to swear on his feet and entered that hole. Well over a year is over after his entering into that cleavage, and to me too who stayed at the entrance of the cleavage that much time had passed away. I thought I lost him for my brother is unseen, and in all fondness towards him my mind started to doubt about some harm might have befallen on him. After a long time blood with foam gushed out that hole, and on seeing it I was deeply saddened. Sounds of screaming demon came to my ear, but the screeches of my brother who is involved in fight are unheard, in the least.&#xA;  Oh, friend, Rama... I have surmised and concluded in mind by the indications that my brother is finished, and covered the cavity's opening with a mountain similar boulder, and performed water oblations to my deceased brother with saddening pain, and then returned to Kishkindha. But the ministers have persuaded and heard from me the actual happening though I was concealing it.&#xA;  Then duly summoned by all of those ministers I was crowned[.]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then as it turned out, Vali was alive the whole time; it was Mayavi's blood that had gushed out of the cave.  So Vali returned to Kishkindha accused Sugriva of intentionally sealing the cave and usurping Vali's throne.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga10/kishkindha_10_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Vali says: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You all are aware that earlier the gigantic and rancorous demon Maayaavi invited me desiring a duel in that night. On hearing his call for a duel I went out of the royal palace, and this very hazardous brother of mine quickly followed me. And that formidable demon Maayaavi ran away as he was fraught with fear on seeing me with a second one at my side, and he speedily entered a great cavity of earth on seeing us two nearly reaching him. On knowing the demon's entry into that great precarious cavity, I said to this one, this cruel looking brother of mine. My power will not let me return from here to the capital without killing that demon, hence you wait at this cavity's entrance, till I kill that demon and come out of the cavity. Believing that he stayed at the entrance of the cavity I entered that impenetrable cavity, and then in searching for that demon there one year elapsed. I have seen that terrified enemy of mine effortlessly, and I killed him immediately along with all of his relatives. That cavity has become impassable, since it is fully filled with the gushes of blood emanaing from the mouth of that demon who fell yelling onto ground. On my killing that invading enemy easily, I could not see any exit from that cavity as its mouth was closed. Wherefore I did not get a reply though I repeatedly shouted, 'Sugreeva, oh, Sugreeva.' thereby I was very saddened. With my foot I pounded and smashed that lidded hilltop, and from there I exited that way and arrived here. As such this cruel fantasist of kingdom trammelled me in there forgetting the clannishness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And so Vali, disregarding Sugriva's explanation of what happened, banished Sugriva and stole Sugriva's wife.  And so Sugriva went to the Rishyamukha mountain, which is the one place Vali could not kill him because the sage Matanga had cursed Vali that he would turn to stone if he ever went to the Rishyamukha mountain.  It's on the Rishyamukha mountain that Rama and Lakshmana found Sugriva.  And then Rama helped Vali defeat Sugriva, leading to Sugriva once again becoming king of the Vanaras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-17T17:58:13.657" LastActivityDate="2017-10-17T17:58:13.657" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21602" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22068" CreationDate="2017-10-17T22:26:32.407" Score="3" ViewCount="206" Body="&lt;p&gt;If I am not the doer, I am in control of Triguna Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and these Gunas fashion the work I do, and if whatever I will do in my life is already predefined.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then why am I accused of my Karmas?&lt;/strong&gt; Why do I have to pay for the Punyas or Paapas of my Karma, when everything is already decided by Lord, is fashioned by the three Gunas, and when Lord is the doer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12290" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-11-11T17:00:03.200" LastActivityDate="2017-12-29T10:52:36.620" Title="Why am I being held accountable for my karma in this or next life?" Tags="|karma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21604" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-17T23:51:33.977" Score="9" ViewCount="357" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the Bhagavad Gita, a self-realized person is one who has gone beyond fear, anger, hatred, jealousy, pain and pleasure, etc. and all dualities of the material world. AKA he is situated in Brahman and not disturbed by illusion or Prakriti. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Upanishads we see Devas teaching other people how to become self-realized: Indra teaches Pratardana, Varuna teaches Bhrigu about Brahman etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Assuming Devas are self-realized, why then do they and Rishis do things that are not characteristic of those who are self-realized? Indra seduces Ahalya, attacks Vrindavan because they didn't worship him, etc. Rishis curse other people when they get angry, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I remember reading that this concern is also mentioned in the Brahma Sutras in chapter 3, but forgot where exactly. The response was that Devas and Rishis, although self-realized, act this way because they are in a position which requires them to.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2017-10-18T13:53:09.533" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T14:04:03.277" Title="If Devas and Rishis are self-realized, then why do they act contrary to it?" Tags="|brahma-sutras|rishi|smriti|gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21605" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21619" CreationDate="2017-10-18T04:12:00.977" Score="6" ViewCount="11970" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Rigveda, Indra is known to slay various demons like Vrita, Sambhar, Vala etc. Rigveda alludes one story of Namuchi Vadh where Namuchi grows very powerful and he grabs Indra in his arm-pit(similar to Bali and Ravan incident). This incident ensues in a treaty between Indra and Namuchi which is similar to the boon grant to Hiranykashypa by Brahma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra then waits for the right time and kills Namuchi during evening time with a column of foam rising from the sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The philosophical take on this incident is discussed in the below paper&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.jstor.org/stable/594098?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.jstor.org/stable/594098?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is whether the later Hindu text discuss this incident or not. Also does any one know why majority of villeins slain by Indra has name sort of hindrance like Vrita(Enclosure), Namuchi (holdfast)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T16:38:38.030" Title="Who was Namuchi?" Tags="|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21607" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-18T04:49:46.187" Score="0" ViewCount="177" Body="&lt;p&gt;For those un-familiar with indian philosophy, the Bhagavadgītā is a text that proposes a solution to the problem of rebirth. This problem of rebirth is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We are in an endless cycle of life and death, and we are in this cycle because we act, and thus create karma, thus perpetuating our cycle of rebirth. If we want to try and stop this cycle, it may seem logical to stop all action. However, this too is a kind of action, and so we have the problem that every action keeps you in this cycle, and you can't not take action.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Bhagavadgītā proposes that the solution to this problem is that we should act in a different way, not refrain from acting. Only our body and mind are in this cycle, not our true selves. We should use our lives to be devoted to the divine, and every action would be free from desire. Only then will we achieve spiritual freedom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what are some possible objections to this proposed solution from the Bhagavadgītā? How would this not help us achieve spiritual freedom? Thank you!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12294" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-18T05:19:42.837" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T20:53:56.113" Title="In the Bhagavadgītā, what are some objections to its proposed solutions to the paradox of action?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|karma|samsara|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21608" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21541" CreationDate="2017-10-18T07:01:12.070" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Initially I guessed this should be from Muktika Upanishad or Adhyatma Ramayana texts like Rama Hridayam or Rama Gita but those parts don't contain this verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2014-February/036518.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this discussion on advaita-vedanta.org&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus, Shri.Lingamurthy Garu composed a magnus opus called &lt;strong&gt;“sItArAmAnjanEya-samvAda”&lt;/strong&gt;. A beautiful work and gloss on “rAma-hridaya” which culminates in universal vision of advaita. This was said to be composed in 1760 AD. The following are the last verses. After imparting the Upanishad vidya to Shri Anjaneya, Lord ramachandra asks shri Anjaneya whether He had understood the teaching properly or not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I searched for the work sItArAmAnjanEya-samvAda but it seems in Telugu language, so, I can't check it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While searching on &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit Documents&lt;/a&gt;, I found very similar verse contained in &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_giitaa/guhagiitaa.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Guha Gita&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देहबुद्ध्या भवद्दासः जीवबुद्ध्या त्वदंशकः ।&lt;br&gt; आत्मबुद्ध्या त्वमेवाहं सद्गतोऽस्मिन् न संशयः ॥ ६.२॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By seeing the nature of Guha Gita, it seems verses are mainly  taken from different scriptures. So, others sources are needs to be checked.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some claims this seems from Adi Shankaracharya's Hanuman Pancharatna Stotram but I couldn't find in it except &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.transliteral.org/pages/z80314051822/view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this HanumanSukti&lt;/a&gt;. Hanumat Sukti is one portion of the book Sukti Sudhagar by Gitapress. You can view/get book from Internet Archive : &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/HindiBookSuktiSudhakarByGitaPress&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindi Book Sukti Sudhakar By Gita Press &lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Page no. 47 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/download/HindiBookSuktiSudhakarByGitaPress/Hindi%20Book-Sukti-Sudhakar%20by%20Gita%20Press.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;pdf&lt;/a&gt; / page no. 43 of book:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GZwxN.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GZwxN.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, let me clear that &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_hanumaana/hanumatpancha.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Adi Shankaracharya's Hanumat Pancharatnam&lt;/a&gt; doesn't contain it. This may be case or wrong/missing reference I think.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-18T09:56:23.417" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T09:56:23.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21609" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-18T07:12:20.093" Score="4" ViewCount="1119" Body="&lt;p&gt;All these were written by great sages. When one sage writes something great then how his creation is being categorized among them? Means, if he writes something then after completion, how is it decided that his newly creation will be considered as Veda, Purana, Upanishad, smritis etc.,? Who decides whether new creation will fall in which category? And also what's the difference between all these categories.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They all (Puruna, upanishads etc) provides the knowledge then why these knowledge is being categorized and on what basis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: There might be more categories also available but I remember only these for now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-18T09:44:33.563" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T09:44:33.563" Title="What's the difference between Veda, Purana, upanishad, Smritis, Granth?" Tags="|vedas|puranas|upanishads|smriti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21610" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21604" CreationDate="2017-10-18T07:18:38.470" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are no pre-defined actions for &quot;self realised&quot; person. Extremely sinful looking man also could be self realised. For example, a enlightened teacher &amp;amp; businessman &amp;amp; sportsman -- all will act differently as per their environment &amp;amp; circumstance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also clarified in Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.5 - Because, no one ever remains even for a moment without doing work. For &lt;strong&gt;all are made to work under compulsion by the &lt;em&gt;guna&lt;/em&gt;-s&lt;/strong&gt; born of Nature.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 3.33 - &lt;strong&gt;Even a man of wisdom behaves according to [his] own nature.&lt;/strong&gt; In following [own] nature, why to restraint?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 9.30 — Even if a very evil doer worships me with no other devotion, is considered saint(&lt;em&gt;SAdhu&lt;/em&gt;) only, for being situated rightly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The best example is Shri RAma &amp;amp; Shri Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also from &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/14457/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Enlightened men may differ in their behavior because of the nature of their fructifying Karma. This should not make the learned think otherwise about the truth of knowledge resulting in liberation.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Let the enlightened people behave in any way according to their fructifying Karma, but their knowledge is the same and their liberation is the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-10-18T09:36:04.177" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T09:36:04.177" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21611" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-18T10:20:17.703" Score="5" ViewCount="156" Body="&lt;p&gt;Has anyone come across any such texts/book which talk about on how to improve intelligence? Tried reading &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Swarodaya_/_Swara_Yoga&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Swarodaya&lt;/a&gt;, it was awesome. Wanted to know if there are any other similar texts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12297" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-11-11T13:53:53.180" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T13:53:53.180" Title="Are there any Vedic/Hinduism scriptures which talk about intelligence completely?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21612" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-18T12:01:47.843" Score="1" ViewCount="597" Body="&lt;p&gt;I believe that Shiv has called &lt;code&gt;HAR&lt;/code&gt; and vishnu named &lt;code&gt;HARI&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is meaning of &lt;strong&gt;HAR&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;HARI&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12265" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T12:01:47.843" Title="What is proper meaning of HAR and HARI" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21613" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21723" CreationDate="2017-10-18T12:09:44.740" Score="5" ViewCount="1609" Body="&lt;p&gt;I often hear critics use this verse to claim that the Vedas say the earth is supported by pillars. Can someone explain the real meaning of this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01160.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;HYMN CLX. Heaven and Earth.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Among the skillful Gods most skilled is he, who made the two world-halves which bring prosperity to all;&#xA;  Who with great wisdom measured both the regions out, and &lt;strong&gt;established them with pillars that shall never decay&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Extolled in song, O Heaven and Earth, bestow on us, ye mighty Pair, great glory and high lordly sway,&#xA;  Whereby we may extend ourselves ever over the folk; and send us strength that shall deserve the praise of men.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12142" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-09-28T22:12:25.853" LastActivityDate="2018-09-28T22:12:25.853" Title="Translation of Rig Veda 1.160.4 (Earth supported by pillars)" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|translation-request|science|earth|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21614" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18170" CreationDate="2017-10-18T12:25:38.363" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is so said in  ParAshara Smriti's (PS) Chapter 9.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Whatever sin a man commits attaches itself to his hair&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence he should clip his hairs to the length of two fingers' width from their&#xA;  end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PS 9.55&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Attaching a screenshot from the book:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jIv88.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/jIv88.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T12:25:38.363" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21615" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-18T13:01:29.383" Score="4" ViewCount="4051" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard several times Uma, Laxmi, Parvati. I also heard some story about who was Sati &amp;amp; who is parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Uma another wife of Shiva or just a named of Parvati or name of Shakti like Durga/Kali/Bhavani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12265" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T13:50:52.833" Title="Who is Uma Goddess ? is it name of Parvati or a different Devi like Sati" Tags="|shiva|parvati|durga|goddess|sati-goddess|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21616" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21615" CreationDate="2017-10-18T13:19:17.137" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Parvati (Sanskrit: पार्वती, IAST: Pārvatī) or Uma (IAST: Umā) is the&#xA;  Hindu goddess of fertility, love and devotion; as well as of divine&#xA;  strength and power. Known by many other names, she is the gentle and&#xA;  nurturing aspect of the Hindu goddess Shakti and one of the central&#xA;  deities of the Goddess-oriented Shakta sect. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Defined &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parvati&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Of Goddesses, one stands above all: Parvati. In certain texts she is even called the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi, and the Goddess of Learning, Saraswati, in addition to being idolized as the Goddess of power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The daughter of the snowclad mountains. The consort of Shiva. The one who is incarnation of all energy, she is A Parvati, also called Uma, Gauri, Durga, Kali and so on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Her name is said to have been given to Her by Her mother, who upon learning of Parvati's plan to practice extreme self-denial, cried out, &quot;U! Ma!&quot; which means &quot;Oh! Don't!&quot; Alternately, Uma is said to mean &quot;Light,&quot; or &quot;The Peace of Night.&quot;&#xA;more can be read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/uma.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indiaprofile.com/religion-culture/parvati.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;source&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-18T13:21:42.353" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T13:21:42.353" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21617" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21615" CreationDate="2017-10-18T13:22:14.973" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Uma is another name of Parvati as I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7591/is-parvati-mentioned-in-the-vedas/14888#14888&quot;&gt;discuss here.&lt;/a&gt; In Valmiki Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्याम् गंग इयम् अभवत् ज्येष्ठा हिमवतः सुता |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;उमा नाम&lt;/strong&gt; द्वितीया अभूत् कन्या तस्य एव राघव || १-३५-१६&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;From Mena, this Ganga is emerged as an elder &lt;strong&gt;daughter to Himavanta,&lt;/strong&gt; and a second daughter, by her name &lt;strong&gt;she is Uma,&lt;/strong&gt; is also begotten by Himavanta, oh, Raghava... [1-35-16]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उग्रेण तपसा युक्ताम् ददौ शैलवरः सुताम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रुद्राय अप्रतिरूपाय &lt;strong&gt;उमाम्&lt;/strong&gt; लोक नमस्कृताम् || १-३५-२१&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;quot;And &lt;strong&gt;that Uma&lt;/strong&gt; who is unified with her rigorous sacrament thus became a reverential to all the worlds, and that best one among mountains, &lt;strong&gt;Himavanta, gave such a daughter to Rudra,&lt;/strong&gt; an unequalled one in His aspect... [1-35-21]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly not only Parvati, Mula Shakti of Shiva/Maheswara is also called Uma as I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3879/how-many-wives-did-lord-shiva-have/21568#21568&quot;&gt;discuss here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T13:22:14.973" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21618" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21615" CreationDate="2017-10-18T13:31:37.643" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Uma is name of parvati mata,parvati mata is daughter of the Himalayas.In  Ramayana parvati mata is called daughter of himalayas by the name Uma and  Shiva s consort that is parvati mata is usually called by the name Uma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्याम् गंग इयम् अभवत् ज्येष्ठा हिमवतः सुता |&#xA;  उमा नाम द्वितीया अभूत् कन्या तस्य एव राघव || १-३५-१६&#xA;  Meaning &#xA;  From Mena, this Ganga is emerged as an elder daughter to Himavanta, and a second daughter, by her name she is &lt;strong&gt;Uma, is also begotten by Himavanta,&lt;/strong&gt; oh, Raghava... [1-35-16)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;here also uma mata is called daughter of himalayas &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या च अन्या शैल दुहिता कन्या आसीत् रघुनंदन |उग्रम् सुव्रतम् आस्थाय तपः तेपे तपोधना || १-३५-२०&#xA;  Meaning &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The other daughter of Himavanta, oh, Raghu's descendent, that unmarried &lt;strong&gt;girl namely Uma&lt;/strong&gt;, she performed a rigorous sacrament taking hold of a supreme devoutness as her ascesis itself is her wealth. [1-35-20]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here uma mata or parvati is called consort of Lord shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न लोका धारयिष्यन्ति तव तेजः सुरोत्तम |&#xA;  ब्राह्मेण तपसा युक्तो देव्या सह तपः चर || १-३६-१०त्रैलोक्य हित काम अर्थम् तेजः तेजसि धारय |&#xA;  रक्ष सर्वान् इमान् लोकान् न अलोकम् कर्तुम् अर्हसि || १-३६-११&#xA;  Meaning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Worlds cannot capably bear your offspring born out of your effulgence, oh, Supreme-God, hence you may practice yogic asceticism along with your &lt;strong&gt;consort Goddess Uma in unison with Vedic postulates&lt;/strong&gt; of Yoga, rather than progeniture, and desiring the welfare of the three worlds you may please retain your refulgent seed within your own radiance, thus protect this universe, since it will not be apt of you to render it devoid worlds with the efflux of the unmanageable potence of yours .' So said gods to Shiva. [1-36-10, 11]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in yajur Veda uma is called the consort of shiva &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;नमस्सोमाय च रुद्राय च । [YajurVeda T.S. 4.5.8]&#xA;  Salutations to him who is with Uma and who removes cry of Samsara (Shiva)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In earlier scriptures parvati mata is called by the name Uma,in the puranas she is mostly called by the name parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="11510" LastEditDate="2017-10-18T13:50:52.833" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T13:50:52.833" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21619" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21605" CreationDate="2017-10-18T14:34:02.567" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namuchi was a demon who was slayed By Indra deva  This is  how  Mahabharata discribes this incident &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09043.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vaishampayana said, &quot;Listen to that history, O ruler of men! Hear of those occurrences as they happened! Hear how Vasava, in days of yore, broke his treaty with Namuchi! The Asura Namuchi, from fear of Vasava, had entered a ray of the Sun. Indra then made friends with Namuchi and entered into a covenant with him, saying, 'O foremost of Asuras, I shall not slay thee, O foremost of Asuras, I shall not slay thee, O friend, with anything that is wet or with anything that is dry! I shall not slay thee in the night or in the day! I swear this to thee by truth. Having made this covenant, the lord Indra one day beheld a fog. He then, O king, cut off Namuchi's head, using the foam of water (as his weapon). The severed head of Namuchi thereupon pursued Indra from behind, saying unto him from a near point these words, 'O slayer of a friend, O wretch!' Urged on incessantly by that head, Indra repaired to the Grandsire and informed him, in grief, of what had occurred.(Mahabharata book 9 shalya Parva secrion 43)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even shatapata brahmana of the yajur Veda mentions this incident &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44067.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;:11. By means of the Surâ-liquor Namuki, the Asura, carried off Indra's (source of) strength, the essence of food, the Soma-drink. He (Indra) hasted up to the Asvins and Sarasvatî, crying, 'I have sworn to Namuki, saying, &quot;I will slay thee neither by day nor by night, neither with staff nor with bow, neither with the palm of my hand nor with the moist!&quot; and yet has he taken these things from me: seek ye to bring me back these things!:22. They spake, 'Let us have a share therein, and we will bring them back to thee.'--'These shall be) in common to us,' he said, 'bring them back, then!' . 3)The Asvins and Sarasvatî then poured out foam of water (to serve) as a thunderbolt, saying, 'It is neither dry nor moist;' and, when the night was clearing up, and the sun had not yet risen, Indra, thinking, 'It is neither by day nor by night,' therewith struck off the head of Namuki, the Asura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This incident is discribed in both scriptures mahabharata And shatapata brahmana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="11510" LastEditDate="2017-10-19T16:38:38.030" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T16:38:38.030" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21620" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-18T14:40:26.273" Score="9" ViewCount="770" Body="&lt;p&gt;I often see people considering a saint as their Guru who is no longer in physical plane. Many such saints lived hundreds of years ago. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When a Guru is not in physical plane, how you will get your doubts cleared or get guidance? At least when you are a newbie and have not reached a level where Guru being in a physical plane doesn't matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know whether such saints are Guru-Tulya (like Guru) but not actual Guru. Can I have multiple gurus (Guru Tulya) unless I get a guru where I get personal attention, which is not possible these days? I mean if one is inspired by the divinity and spiritual ecstasy of few saints.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12299" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T07:45:55.377" Title="Can a saint who is not in physical plane be called a Guru?" Tags="|guru|spirituality|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21621" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21625" CreationDate="2017-10-18T15:26:04.847" Score="5" ViewCount="296" Body="&lt;p&gt;Dusshera is the day the Ravana was killed by the Rama, but Hindus worship Goddess Durga instead of Rama on dusshera ? Why so? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12300" LastActivityDate="2024-01-27T09:20:32.213" Title="Why Goddess Durga was worshiped on dusshera?" Tags="|rama|festivals|durga|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21622" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21620" CreationDate="2017-10-18T15:46:53.093" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;When a Guru is not in physical plane, how you will get your doubts cleared or get guidance?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guru and disciple are like one soul living in two bodies. One is always aware of the other on the spiritual plane. External communication is no longer necessary here, because the disciple does not function on the level where he needs the guru's physical presence. He has the guru's spirit within him which illumines the dark corners of his being. What need is there to talk to him or see his face. More can be read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1980/gjuly80/whyguru.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As Kabir said, &quot;If your beloved lives abroad, do write him a letter. But if your beloved dwells within, there is no movement, no emotion, no question of even being together. Wherever we are we are always close.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What happens when the Guru drops the body?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He may retain individuality, if he takes rebirth. If he does not take rebirth, then there is no individuality, and there will be no relationship afterwards. It is like the relationship with God at that time, because they have merged with God. But if they have maintained an individuality still, then, of course, the relationship continues.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can't have a relationship with the Absolute. That is not possible, unless you yourself become the Absolute. If the Guru merges into the Absolute, then there is no relationship. You can't maintain anything. It is another way of saying that the relationship is with God Himself. But if you maintain an individuality, then the relationship will continue. Even in the next birth, it will continue. Unless there is some individuality, some personality, a relationship is not possible. You can't have a relationship with the Absolute. Only below that level a relationship is possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Can I have multiple gurus?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Guru cannot be changed. Once you accept a person as your guide, it is permanent. You cannot change the guide from time to time. Logically too it makes sense because if you follow more than one guru then your mind is bound to get confused and you will end up achieving nothing. Basically &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Confused, Scared, Directionless&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. There is a famous saying &quot;&lt;strong&gt;too many cooks spoil the broth&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;. Yes in order to master different traits you can have differnt Gurus, for instance Arjuna has Drona as guru to master weapons, he was trained in religion, science, administration and military arts by Bhishma. More details &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/ans/ans_55.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Find a guru who can guide you personally&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the seventh chapter of the Bhagavadgita, LordKrishna describes four&#xA;  types of people who worship him: men in pain, seekers of knowledge,&#xA;  seekers of wealth and seekers of enlightenment. Of them he says the&#xA;  last kind, the men of wisdom are dearest to him because they identify&#xA;  themselves with him and are forever established in him. Lord Krishna&#xA;  does not demean the first three. He calls them noble (udara), but&#xA;  considers the last group of men as the noblest.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you seek a guru for enlightenment or liberation and if you want him to initiate you in a proper manner into spiritual life, you have to choose your guru carefully, making sure that he or she is available to you on a regular basis and respond to you promptly. If you cannot reach him or if he is inaccessible, you may have problems dealing with your difficulties on the path and you may not be able to seek the guidance when you need it most. If you think your guru can communicate with you supernaturally or clairvoyantly across the oceans and continents, first check your convictions with him before you delude yourself. It is also true that sometimes the gurus deliberately ignore their most sincere followers to teach them some lessons or remove the sense of dependency and attachment. Whatever may be the nature of your relationship with your guru, you must have unflinching faith in him. Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/essays/choosingaguru.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-18T18:16:15.027" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T18:16:15.027" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21623" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-18T17:13:57.140" Score="1" ViewCount="79" Body="&lt;p&gt;If I am not doer, How should I spend my day?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Should i abandon personal goals as if I am not doer, how can I ensure action on those goals. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also if I am just witnessing actions under compulsion of Gunas, and I am not the real doer, what should I do if something obviously wrong enters my thought. How do I ensure I don’t act on it &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12290" LastEditorUserId="12290" LastEditDate="2017-10-18T18:22:32.153" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T18:22:32.153" Title="what is practical application of non doership?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21625" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21621" CreationDate="2017-10-18T18:44:53.487" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Durga Puja is also called Akalbodhan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both the words Akaal and Bodhan are Sanskrit words, which are also included in many other Indian languages, such as like Bengali and Hindi. The word Akaal means untimed (kaal=time and a=not) and the word Bodhan means worship or invocation. Thus, Akaal Bodhan means worship or invocation of Durga in an uncustomary time. It is given this name since the period of this worship differs from the conventional period, which is during the spring (Basant).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Akaal Bodhan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Ramayana, Rama goes to Lanka to rescue his abducted wife, Sita,&#xA;  from the grip of Ravana, the king of the Demons in Lanka. Before&#xA;  starting for his battle with Ravana, Rama wanted the blessings of Devi&#xA;  Durga. He came to know that the Goddess would be pleased only if she&#xA;  is worshipped with 108 Neel Kamal (blue lotuses). After travelling the&#xA;  whole world, Rama could gather only one hundred and seven of them. He&#xA;  finally decided to offer one of his eyes, which resembled blue&#xA;  lotuses. Durga, being pleased with the devotion of Rama, appeared&#xA;  before him and blessed him. The battle started on the Saptami and&#xA;  Ravana was finally killed on the Sandhikshan (i.e., the crossover&#xA;  period between Ashtami [the next day] and Navami [the day after]).&#xA;  Ravana was killed on the tenth day, Dashami. Since the period of this&#xA;  worship was different from the conventional period, this puja is also&#xA;  known as Akal-Bodhan; a worship (Bodhan) in an unconventional time&#xA;  (A-Kaal).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More details &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akaal_bodhan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T18:44:53.487" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21626" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18170" CreationDate="2017-10-18T20:26:41.143" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-xix/chapter-29/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 29&lt;/a&gt;, Prabhas Khanda of Skand Puran says so...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZKkZrl.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Iswara said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Daughter Of the Mountain, whatever sin a man commits when in straitened circumstances due to want Of Sustenance, all that sin&#xA;remains on his hairs.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12304" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T05:15:58.423" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21628" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21607" CreationDate="2017-10-18T20:53:56.113" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is my first answer and my knowledge is poor and likely incorrect :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How would you implement it practically? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Say you go today to market to buy mangoes. Obviously you “desire” to eat mangoes. How would you say you are doing actions free from desires &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So that could be a possible objection to this solution &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12290" LastActivityDate="2017-10-18T20:53:56.113" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21629" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-18T21:14:19.253" Score="1" ViewCount="256" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for the meaning of the following symbols that I found on my last trip to Bali:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BN4dw.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/BN4dw.png&quot; alt=&quot;Image with symbol in Balinese&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could anyone help me with that?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, in fact I'm only seeking for the meaning of this one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/6Da26.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Cropped part of the image]&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12306" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2019-06-30T06:03:33.233" LastActivityDate="2019-06-30T06:03:33.233" Title="Balinese Hinduism symbology" Tags="|identification-request|symbols|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21631" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-18T21:37:29.843" Score="3" ViewCount="159" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am trying to understand something about Hinduism particularly Shri Krishna. I want to understand why he would show how powerful he is. I guess I am looking at this in terms of today. If someone said they were an incarnation of Krishna and showed the powers that they had and proved it. Then people would come and ask for favors. Wouldn't it be the same then. If not why not and if so then why did he show the infinite power that he has?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12309" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-19T02:03:35.640" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T02:03:35.640" Title="Why did Shri Krishna show his power to everyone" Tags="|krishna|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21632" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21636" CreationDate="2017-10-19T03:00:52.247" Score="4" ViewCount="3120" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have found a lot of guys claiming over here, Maha Mrtyunjay Mantra is not dedicated to Lord Shiva. Is it true? I mean, are there any evidences from scriptures which clearly say the Mantra is for Lord Shiva only? Also, an enthusiastic guy was freaking here telling this Mantra is not for Moksha. Also please clear this second doubt whether the Mantra is for Moksha only or not? I mean is there any possibility of different translation of Mahamrityunjaya Mantra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2017-10-19T06:24:05.747" LastActivityDate="2017-11-07T19:45:09.343" Title="Is it true Mahamrityunjaya mantra is not dedicated to Lord Shiva?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|shiva|mantras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21633" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-19T05:02:47.543" Score="9" ViewCount="247" Body="&lt;p&gt;One of the main process of yajna is to prepare food to be offered to a particular deity which is known as &lt;em&gt;havi&lt;/em&gt;. I have read somewhere that in order to maintain balance as being immortals the Gods can not make their food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That brings humans into picture as they offer food in yajna, and since this is a reciprocal relatinship, Gods in turn give humans the riches of cattle, food and sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The reciprocal relationship stems from the following verse of Rigveda which states &lt;em&gt;Indra&lt;/em&gt; (also &lt;em&gt;Indra&lt;/em&gt; has an epithet &lt;em&gt;'yajñávr̥ddha'&lt;/em&gt;) :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;aháṃ dāṃ gr̥ṇaté pū́rvyaṃ vásu, ahám bráhma kr̥ṇavam máhyaṃ várdhanam (X, 49, 1) 'I shall give to the singer the ancient boon, I shall make prayer the means of growth for me'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, the food depends on the deity to be pleased. For example &lt;em&gt;Pusan&lt;/em&gt; loves porridge since &lt;em&gt;Rudra&lt;/em&gt; broke his teeth in one of their altercation hence barley porridge is offered to him in yajna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is that since rigveda tells about this reciprocal relationship does later texts provide any account why Gods can not make their own food? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorDisplayName="user12262" LastEditDate="2017-10-19T05:13:36.867" LastActivityDate="2017-11-22T13:33:16.177" Title="Is this true that Gods can not make their own food?" Tags="|rig-veda|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21634" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-19T05:44:28.067" Score="6" ViewCount="706" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Rigveda, Tvashta performed a Yajna to kill Indra after he got to know that his son Visvaroopa was killed by Indra. This yajna ensued birth of demon Vritra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Yajna a sacrificer recites some verse from Rigveda to please a deity. Since most of the verses are dedicated to &lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt;, I assume he pleased Indra to kill &lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt; Himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, since the episode has not happened at that time, most of the RigVedic verses that praise Indra's deeds of killing Vritra has not been revealed yet! So Tvashta has less verses to praise Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How is it possible? Does this imply that before Rigveda there were different set of texts used to perform Yajna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2018-01-03T13:10:26.613" LastActivityDate="2018-01-03T13:10:26.613" Title="How come Tvasta did a Yajna to kill Indra by praising Indra Himself?" Tags="|rig-veda|indra|yajna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21636" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21632" CreationDate="2017-10-19T06:35:04.417" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all to which deity a revealed Veda mantra is addressed to is known by looking at &amp;apos;Devata&amp;apos; of the mantra. Each revealed Veda mantra has a &amp;apos;&lt;strong&gt;Rishi&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;apos; denoting sage who heard the mantra, &amp;apos;&lt;strong&gt;Chhanda&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;apos; denoting in which meter is that mantra revealed and &amp;apos;&lt;strong&gt;Devata&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;apos; to whom deity is a mantra addressed. So, it is not that one makes up Devata with his wild imaginations, it&amp;apos;s already known through Anukramani of Veda.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And same is the case for Maha Mrityunjaya mantra too. Maha Mrityunjaya is revealed in several Vedas like Rig Veda 7.59.12, YajurVeda Vajasaneyi Samhita 3.60, Taittariya Samhita 1.8.6.i etc...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Let&amp;apos;s see in RigVeda 7.59.12&#xA;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/adUgF.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rishi: Vasistha&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Chhanda: Anushtup&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Devata: Rudra&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/9Ykz0.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, it&amp;apos;s beyond doubt that the deity of mantra is Lord Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;It&amp;apos;s further clarified through YajurVeda. Shukla YajurVeda Samhita just after describing Mahamrityunjaya Mantra features also other features of Lord Rudra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ए॒तत्ते॑ रुद्राव॒सं तेन॑ प॒रो मूज॑व॒तोऽती॑हि ।अव॑ततधन्वा॒ &lt;strong&gt;पिना॑कावस॒:कृत्ति॑वासा॒&lt;/strong&gt; अहि॑सन्नः शि॒वोऽती॑हि ॥ (Yajurveda 3.61)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  61 This, &lt;strong&gt;Rudra,&lt;/strong&gt; is thy food: with this depart beyond the Mûjavân mountain. &lt;strong&gt;With Pinaka bow&lt;/strong&gt; unstrung, with muffled staff, &lt;strong&gt;clothed in a garment made of skin,&lt;/strong&gt; gracious, not harming us, depart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the characteristic of that God Rudra is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1) Trayambakam: He is three eyed.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  2) Pinakavasa: Who wields Pinaka bow.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  3) Krittivasa: Who wears animal hide.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  4) Mujavan: Who lives beyond Mujavan mountains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is again more clear from above YajurVeda passage.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13649/what-names-of-lord-shiva-used-today-are-from-vedas/13650#13650&quot;&gt;Trayambakam&lt;/a&gt; is three eyed one as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20321/what-does-the-word-tryambakam-mean-in-vedas/20325#20325&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt; and also adressed &lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_072.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; in Harivamsha and also there is a famous Jyotirlinga called &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14404/what-is-the-story-of-trayambakeshwara-jyotirlinga/14411#14411&quot;&gt;Trayambakeshwara.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17334/what-is-the-meaning-of-hara/17337#17337&quot;&gt;Pinakapani&lt;/a&gt; is Lord Shiva.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The Rik itself is called &amp;apos;MrityuVimochini Rik&amp;apos; ie. &amp;apos;For Mukti from Death&amp;apos; ie. It is for the purpose of liberation. I also discuss it in my &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10741/i-want-to-know-the-exact-explanation-of-maha-mrityunjaya-mantra/18185#18185&quot;&gt;answer here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;And more importantly MahaMrityunjaya mantra isn&amp;apos;t the only Mantra which asks Moksha from Lord Shiva. There are several other &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/12185/which-mantras-should-be-recited-to-properly-worship-lord-rudra/16878#16878&quot;&gt;Veda mantras&lt;/a&gt; too and a mantra very similar to MahaMrityunjaya mantra is Sadyojata mantra which is from Taittariya Aranyaka of Yajurveda (10.17) and also in AtharvaVeda Parishistam which I also &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3563/who-gives-moksha/14374#14374&quot;&gt;discuss here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सद्योजातं प्रपद्यामि सद्योजाताय वै नमो नमः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भवे भवे नाति भवे भवस्व मां भवोद्भवाय नमः॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I take refuge in Sadyojata. Verily I salute Sadyojata again and again. &lt;strong&gt;O Sadyojata, do not consign me to repeated birth; lead me beyond birth, into the state of bliss and liberation.&lt;/strong&gt; I bow down to Him who is the source of transmigratory existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also as Lord Shiva is the one who is the lord of all who is in bondage (Pati of Pashu) as I &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16594/why-is-lord-shiva-called-pashupati-who-are-the-pashus/16596#16596&quot;&gt;discuss here&lt;/a&gt; so he is the one who delivers beings from bondage and MahaMrityunjaya mantra is also asking to provide liberation from bondage of death for the sake of Immortality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MahaMrityunjaya mantra is asking to liberate being from death for the sake of Immortality. It is asking from Lord Rudra who is three eyed, who holds Pinaka bow in his hand and who wears animal hides.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T06:35:04.417" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21637" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-19T06:46:40.967" Score="7" ViewCount="294" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am unable to find the exact portion in the Skanda purANa where Brahma composes the Sahasranamam for Lord Subrahmanya- It says Eswara Proktam in the Skanda Purana, but I cant find it in the Skanda Purana- Can someone help me?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12313" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-19T07:15:12.677" LastActivityDate="2019-05-03T20:12:47.507" Title="Where is Subrahmanya Sahasranamam mentioned in the Skanda Purana?" Tags="|identification-request|skanda-purana|kartikeya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21639" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21620" CreationDate="2017-10-19T07:36:11.790" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NO.&lt;/strong&gt; Not in the strict scriptural sense of the word Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In both Vedic and Agamic Dharmas, a Guru has to be someone who is alive. I too have one friend who considers Adi Shankara as his Guru. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But unless he takes DikshA from a living Guru he will be considered technically as an non initiate (Adikshita) only. Such mentally accepting someone as one's Guru may look fancy but does not really work. (Having said that, in very rare cases, one is allowed to accept Lord Shiva or Mother Goddess as their Guide-Guru but that's an exception not a rule for everyone to follow).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guru or Teacher in the Vedic Dharma:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The first birth is from the mother and the second at the tying of the&#xA;  Muñja-grass girdle. At the latter birth, the Savitri verse is his&#xA;  mother, while the teacher is said to be his father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The man who initiates a person and teaches him the entire Veda is called ‘teacher&lt;/strong&gt;’; whereas someone who teaches just a section of the&#xA;  Veda is called ‘tutor’, as also someone who teaches the Vedic&#xA;  Supplements.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VDS 3.20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, obviously, the teacher or Guru has to be alive to initiate the student and teach him (the student) the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The student, after being initiated, has a lot of duties and he has to stay along with his teacher in his (the teacher's) house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Student––&lt;strong&gt;he should serve his teacher until death&lt;/strong&gt; and, when the&#xA;  teacher dies, the sacred fire;  for it is stated, ‘The fire is your&#xA;  teacher’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12 &lt;strong&gt;He should wait upon his teacher, walking behind him if he is&#xA;  walking, standing by if he is seated, and sitting if he is lying down.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  13 He should recite his lesson only when he is called upon to do so.&#xA;  14He should announce everything he has received to the teacher and eat&#xA;  with his permission.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;VDS verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is more than obvious now that we are talking about a living Guru here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guru in the Agamic Dharma:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Agamic DikshA SamskAra too, a Guru has to be alive in order to transfer energy, consciousness, mantras etc into the disciple. The following verse defines the Guru more precisely.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EkAkshmarapradAtAram&lt;/strong&gt; yo gurunchA vamanayet |&lt;br&gt; SwAnam yoni satam gatvA chandAlatvam vApnuyAt || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who insults the Guru, &lt;strong&gt;who is the giver of ekAkshara&lt;/strong&gt; (or OM),&#xA;  gets the womb of dogs for hundred births and thereafter gets chandAla-hood (low human birth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KT 11.74.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, here the Guru is defined to be the one who gives disciple the ekAkshara or the OM. Now, obviously doing so is not possible for someone who is dead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;DikshA is actually a process where the Guru gives mantra into Shisya's ears by chanting it a particular number of times. Their nearness (sAmippya) is essential in the process. Needless to say, both have to be alive in order to participate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next verse says, that all kinds of knowledge, conducts, scriptures, mantras are successful only if they are learned from Guru's mouth. And, there is no other way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PAramparyA AgamAmnAyAm mantrAchArAdikam priye |&lt;br&gt; Sarvam &lt;strong&gt;guru&#xA;  mukhAllabdham saphalam&lt;/strong&gt; syAnna chAnyathA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ParmaparA (lineage), Agamas, AmnAya, Mantras, AchAra (conducts) are&#xA;  all fruitful if obtained from Guru's mouth ( i.e directly&#xA;  learned from a personal living Guru), and otherwise not.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KT 11.46.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further, it is stated in scriptures that just like a wife's sins get attached to her husband, likewise a Guru has to pay for his disciple's misdeeds. Hence, Guru, before initiating the disciple, has to test him in many ways. In fact, they both have to mutually test each other before the DikshA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following verse gives the amount time for which such tests are to be conducted:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;EkAvedana dvijo yogyah kshatriyo vatsara dvAt |&lt;br&gt; Vaishyo yogya&#xA;  stribhirvashairshchaturbhih shudra eva cha ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Brahmin becomes competent [for dikshA] after one year, a Kshatriya after two&#xA;  years, a Vaishya after three years and a Shudra after four years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KT 14.105.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EkAvedana in the verse means one year. So, for a Brahmin disciple, the mutual test time is one year, for Kshatriya it's two years.... and for a Shudra disciple it's four years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, obviously Guru only if he is alive can conduct such tests and can be the subject of such tests.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Can I have multiple gurus (Guru Tulya) unless I get a guru where I get&#xA;  personal attention, which is not possible these days?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, such persons have not actually become your &quot;Gurus&quot;. So, there is no harm in mentally accepting more than one such Saints as your mentors or protectors.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, even in case of actual Gurus, having more than one Gurus is allowed ( I myself have two Gurus).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;MadhuluvedhA yathA bhringah pushpAt pushAntaram vrajet |&lt;br&gt; JyAna luvdha&#xA;  stathA shishyah guro gurvantara vrajet ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just like the bee, desirous of honey, moves from one flower to the&#xA;  other, a disciple, desirous of knowledge, can likewise move from one&#xA;  Guru to another.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KT 13.132&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, similar thing has been stated in the Uddhava Gita too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there can be some exceptional kinds of Gurus. Anyone or anything who (which) teaches you something is your Guru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Dattatreya is known to have 24 such unusual Gurus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the Uddhava Gita, a song embedded in the Bhagavata Purana&#xA;  (11.7-9), Dattatreya tells King Yadu about his 24 unusual gurus:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;1. The Earth&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Earth is disrespectfully trodden on by all creatures but bears&#xA;  them all without complaint. &lt;strong&gt;So from Her, I learned to accept all of&#xA;  life’s pleasures and pains with forbearance.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;2. The Wind&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Wind is of two types, Prana refers to the internal life forces and&#xA;  Vayu refers to the external movement of air.  Prana is in all bodies&#xA;  but takes on the shape and form of the particular body it is in.  Vayu&#xA;  passes everywhere but does not remain in one place.  &lt;strong&gt;So from Prana and&#xA;  Vayu I learned to avoid attachment to any place but to adapt to&#xA;  wherever I might find myself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;3. Akasha&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Akasha is one and all-pervading.  &lt;strong&gt;From it I learned that Brahman is one&#xA;  and all-pervading.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;4. Water&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Water purifies and sanctifies.  &lt;strong&gt;From it I learned to be a source of&#xA;  purity and sanctity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;5. Fire&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fire burns things leaving only their essence. &lt;strong&gt;From it I learned that a&#xA;  yogi should see in beings not all the false opposites like rich-poor,&#xA;  old-young, high-low, but only the Atma which is the essence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;h2&gt;6. Moon&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The one and same moon appears to go through changes, waxing, waning&#xA;  etc. &lt;strong&gt;From Him I learned that the one atman only appears to go through&#xA;  changes such as birth and death.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abbreviations used:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;KT- KulArnava Tantram ( All verses in this text are spoken by Lord Shiva to his consort Sri Devi). Also, KT 1.100 means verse number 100 of chapter 1 of the text.&#xA;&lt;br&gt;VDS- The Dharma Sutras of Vashishta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Updating the answer regarding Swapna Lavdha Mantra (mantra received in dreams)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The TantrasAra quotes the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swapno lavdho mantro yadi sathgurum prApnoti tadA tata eva tanmantram&#xA;  grihniyAt nochet jalapurna kalase guroh prAnpratishthAm vidhAya&#xA;  vatapatre kumkumena likhitam mantram tat kalase prakshipya uttalya&#xA;  mantram grihniyAdityarthah..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If Sathguru is obtained through a mantra seen during dreams, then one&#xA;  has to receive that mantra once again from that Guru (in reality).&#xA;  However, if that is not possible, then the following procedure is to&#xA;  be adapted-  Install the life-energy (prAna) of the Guru in a water&#xA;  filled Kalasa, then write the received Mantra in a Pipal leave with&#xA;  Kumkuma and throw that leaf into the Kalasa. One can then take back the&#xA;  leaf out of the Kalasa and receive the Mantra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above is the procedure only if Guru (who gave the mantra in dreams) is inaccessible. If the Guru is reachable, then one has to receive the same Mantra from him yet again. Doing in that fashion one can complete his DikshA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-22T07:45:55.377" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T07:45:55.377" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21640" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-19T07:57:55.997" Score="2" ViewCount="528" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The inhabited regions of the earth will be afflicted with dearth and famine, and the highways will be filled with lustful men&#xA;  and women of evil repute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hi, according to the Mahabharata during this era the world will be filled with lustful men, and evil women. Is this suggesting that all women are evil and that all men are lustful? Clearly this isn't the case, the world is also filled with a lot of good men and women?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also is this passage describing the present, or the later part of kali yuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12315" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-19T09:25:29.513" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T10:41:44.417" Title="Kali yuga according to the Mahabaratha" Tags="|mahabharata|yuga|kali-yuga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21641" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="786" CreationDate="2017-10-19T08:01:40.957" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lakshmi means &quot;Bliss&quot; and it shows by symbol of &quot;Lotus&quot;. Which is the centre of our mind/brain. So if we want &quot;Blissful&quot; we have to awake and open the &quot;Lotus&quot; by Dhayn and Karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Saraswati represent Right part of mind/brain by this portion all &quot;Abstract Arts&quot; work. We call it &quot;Gyan&quot; or &quot;Knowing&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ganesh represent Left part of mind/brain by this portion all &quot;Practical Arts&quot; work. We call it &quot;Vigyan&quot; or &quot;doing.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So when proper Knowing and proper doing works together called &quot;Yog&quot; and it creates the &quot;Bliss&quot;.  That we must need to worship Saraswati and Ganesha together for actual worship of Goddess Lakshmi. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12316" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-19T15:23:09.140" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T15:23:09.140" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21642" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21640" CreationDate="2017-10-19T09:24:04.367" Score="3" Body="&lt;h3&gt;The passage is speaking of the end of the Kali Yuga.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The conditions at the end of the Kali Yuga were narrated by Sage Markandeya to Yudhishtira. The passage doesn't suggest that men and women are lustful. It prophesies they &lt;em&gt;will be&lt;/em&gt; lustful. So, it means that the end of the Yuga is not near. The sentence in the question is in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03189.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 189&lt;/a&gt; of Vana Parva. Sage Markandeya repeats the phrase &amp;quot;When the end of the Yuga will come&amp;quot; several times during the conversation. It is clear from the below excerpt from the chapter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O tiger among kings, &lt;strong&gt;when the end of the Yuga will come&lt;/strong&gt;, the wife will never be content with her husband, nor the husband with his wife. And the possessions of men will never be much, and people will falsely bear the marks of religion, and jealousy and malice will fill the world. And no one will, at that time, be a giver (of wealth or anything else) in respect to any one else. &lt;strong&gt;And the inhabited regions of the earth will be afflicted with dearth and famine, and the highways will be filled with lustful men and women of evil repute&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T10:41:44.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21643" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-19T10:07:04.043" Score="2" ViewCount="716" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please, could you give a practical example of how to live daily life with nishkama karma vs nishkarmata (akarma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12290" LastActivityDate="2017-12-28T15:42:43.903" Title="According to Hinduism, which is better way of living: Nishkama Karma or Nishkarmata (Akarma)?" Tags="|karma|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21645" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21295" CreationDate="2017-10-19T12:12:30.627" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Though other answers already explained why Hanuman is called Bajaranga Bali that is Hanuman's body is as strong as Indra's Vajra. So, Bajaranga stands for &quot;Vajra + Agna&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I'm here adding verse from &lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt; that declares the body of Hanumana is like Vajra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मारुतस्य औरसः श्रीमान् हनुमान् नाम वानरः |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;वज्र&lt;/strong&gt; संहननोपेतो वैनतेय समः जवे || १-१७-१६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit+Hindi translation according to Gita Press Book:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rJFDV.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/rJFDV.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sacred-texts.com&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hanúmán, best of monkey kind,&#xA;  Was son of him who breathes the wind:&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Like thunderbolt in frame was he&lt;/strong&gt;,&#xA;  And swift as Garud's 4b self could flee.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/content?language=dv&amp;amp;field_kanda_tid=1&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=17&amp;amp;field_sloka_value=15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;valmiki.iitk.ac.in&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vayu, the windgod, begot a son named Hanuman, mighty and graceful, &lt;strong&gt;having a body as hard as a diamond&lt;/strong&gt; and speed equal to Garuda's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English translation from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga17/bala_17_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;valmikiramayan.net&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The direct son of Air-god is the marvellous and adventurous Hanuma &lt;strong&gt;with an indestructible body&lt;/strong&gt;, and one identical in the speed of lady Vinata's son, namely Garuda, the divine eagle vehicle of Vishnu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T12:12:30.627" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21646" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20779" CreationDate="2017-10-19T12:35:36.880" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;These sons/daughters of other Gods/Goddesses are also worshipped : &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aiyappa&lt;/strong&gt; - son of Mohini (avatar of Lord Vishnu) and Lord Shiv&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yam&lt;/strong&gt; - son of Surya/Sun God&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yami&lt;/strong&gt; or Yamuna river - daughter of Surya/Sun God&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shani&lt;/strong&gt; - son of Surya/Sun God&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daksha&lt;/strong&gt; - son of Lord Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/hindu-goddesses/lakshmi/lakshmi-children/goddess-lakshmi-sons-names.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Goddess Laxmi's sons&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Narad&lt;/strong&gt; - son of Lord Brahma&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma's sons who are included in &lt;strong&gt;Saptarisis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hanuman&lt;/strong&gt; - son of Vayu/Wind God, however Lord Hanumanaji himself is considered as Rudravtar&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ashvins&lt;/strong&gt; or Ashwini Kumaras - sons of Surya/Sun God&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, all the sons of Lord Shiv are not worshipped: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://mdaily.bhaskar.com/news/JM-MYTH-andhaka-shiva-story-5483599-PHO.html?seq=6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Andhaka&lt;/a&gt; (son of Lord Shiv) is considered as notorious. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually posts are worshiped and so the one who hold the post. &lt;strong&gt;Ganesh&lt;/strong&gt; (Head of Ganas, also known as Ganapati) is the prominent post since beginning or Aadi kaal (hence considered as one of the Aadi Devas) and must be worshiped before any other god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even as per Ramcharitmanas, Lord Shiv and Goddess Parvati worshiped Ganesh at the time of their marriage:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मुनी अनुसासन गनपतिहि पूजेउ संभु भवानी ।&#xA;  कोउ सुनी संसय करै जानी सुर अनादि जिए जानी ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/ShivaMahaPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiv Purana (1.2.109)&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There were various Ganeshas in different Kalpas. During the period of 'Shweta-Kalp', Ganesha was born to Shiva and Parvati, when they went to Kailash mountain shortly after their marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kartikey&lt;/strong&gt; is worshiped because he became &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bhagavad-gita.us/bhagavad-gita-10-24/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;the chief commander or General&lt;/a&gt; of Gods' Army.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, sons of Surya, &lt;strong&gt;Yam&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Shani&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Ashvins&lt;/strong&gt; (or Ashwini Kumaras) are also widely worshiped because they hold prominent titles like God of Death, God of Justice and doctors of gods respectively. &lt;strong&gt;Daksha&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Narad&lt;/strong&gt;, sons of Lord Brahma who hold the title of &lt;strong&gt;Prajapati&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Devrishi&lt;/strong&gt; respectively are also worshipped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each manvantar is ruled over by a &lt;strong&gt;Manu&lt;/strong&gt; (a post not a name). In the present kalpa, six manvantaras have already passed and the names of the six Manus who ruled were Svayambhu, Svarochish, Uttam, Tamas, Raivat and Chakshush. The name of the seventh Manu, who rules over the seventh manvantar of the present kalpa, is &lt;strong&gt;Vaivasvat&lt;/strong&gt;. The titles of the seven great sages (Saptarishi) as well as the title of &lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt; change from manvantar to manvantar. In current manvantar, Indra's name is &lt;strong&gt;Puranadar&lt;/strong&gt;. In next Manvantar, these posts will be changed e.g. by the grace of Lord Vishnu, Virochan's son &lt;strong&gt;Bali&lt;/strong&gt; will occupy the throne of Indra (according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp076.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Puran&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even Bali (&lt;strong&gt;son of a Ashur&lt;/strong&gt;) will become Indra (worthy of worship) in next Manvantar. It really doesn't matter whose sons are worshipped and whose sons are not. Anyone who hold the title/post is worshipped no matter whether he is son of a mighter God or a Asura. If he doesn't hold post/title is not worshipped even he is son of a mighter God (e.g. Karna, &lt;strong&gt;son of Surya/Sun God&lt;/strong&gt;). Originally described as the chief of evil spirits in Vedic-era texts, &lt;strong&gt;Kubera&lt;/strong&gt; acquired the title 'God of Wealth' later and then people started worshiping him and he is depicted as demigod in later texts such as the Puranas and the Epics.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12304" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2017-12-05T20:02:40.873" LastActivityDate="2017-12-05T20:02:40.873" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21647" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21643" CreationDate="2017-10-19T12:52:01.430" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;As linked in comment, following explains the difference between:  &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/16190/1049&quot;&gt;NishKAma karma vs NishkarmatA (Akarma)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;NishKAma karma&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;karma yoga&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, where one does &lt;em&gt;karma&lt;/em&gt; without desires (&lt;em&gt;kAma&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;NishkarmatA&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; is &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;sannyAsa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, where one retires from various activities &amp;amp; making the choice minimal&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is Krishna's pesonal opinion:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 5.2 — Sri BhagavAna told, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt;, both are excellent do-ers&lt;/strong&gt;; but between them, &lt;em&gt;Karma Yoga&lt;/em&gt; is better than &lt;em&gt;Karma SannyAsa&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Akarma&lt;/em&gt; based).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may further read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11178/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, to know how these terms are closely interlinked. Both these terms, lead to each others&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T12:52:01.430" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21648" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13758" CreationDate="2017-10-19T13:17:15.163" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The relationship of Vedic deities and humans is reciprocal and complex. For example, a worshiper would sing songs praising the deity and offer grains, animal and the deity in turn return the favor with riches of the cattle, wealth and sons&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/vedol/60&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;tám u stuṣa índaraṃ yó vídāno  gírvāhasaṃ gīrbhír&#xA;yajñávr̥ddham  yásya dívam áti mahnā́ pr̥thivyā́ḥ&#xA;purumāyásya riricé mahitvám&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Him now I praise, Indra, who is wise,  Brought by song, by means of&#xA;songs, strengthened by worship;  Of whom -- beyond heaven in&#xA;greatness, wonderful --  The majesty exceeds the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This relationship stems from the following verse from book X of Rigveda where God Indra says to poet that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;aháṃ dāṃ gr̥ṇaté pū́rvyaṃ vásu, ahám bráhma kr̥ṇavam&#xA;máhyaṃ várdhanam (X, 49, 1)   'I shall give to the singer the&#xA;ancient boon, I shall make prayer the means of growth for me'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do not know what was the relationship with later deities&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T13:17:15.163" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21649" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13758" CreationDate="2017-10-19T14:02:42.013" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, the relationship between the Vedic Gods like Agni, Indra and the human beings is not that of a king and his subjects. The seekers or worshippers regard God Indra as their friend, father or son. This is an important aspect of the Vedas which needs to be stressed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following are few Veda mantras in support of my claim:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indra is the friend&lt;/strong&gt; who gives joy (mandayat sakham) -&lt;strong&gt;RV 1.4.7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; Indra&#xA;  , &lt;strong&gt;we are seeking your friendship&lt;/strong&gt;, we desire you alone- &lt;strong&gt;RV 10.133.6&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Indra develop in us the will power &lt;strong&gt;just as a father trains his son&lt;/strong&gt;-&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;RV 7.32.26&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt; O Indra, coming together let us converse- &lt;strong&gt;RV 1.30.6&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt; O Indra, you are superior to father or brother. You are same as&#xA;  my mother- &lt;strong&gt;RV 8.16&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, there are many mantras which treat Agni as a dear friend and father. All 14 mantras of Sukta RV 1.94, for example, stress Agni's friendship. All these mantras end with the following prayer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Samsad &lt;strong&gt;agne sakhye mA rishAma vayam tava&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Agni, &lt;strong&gt;may we not suffer separation in our friendship&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, apparently, Vedas are completely devoid of Bhakti (devotion) which is overwhelmingly present in the later day texts such as the PuranAs etc. But, on seeing closely we can still find traces of Bhakti in them too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another mantra worth noting here is the following which reiterates the relation that we share with the Vedic Deities:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Yuvoh hi nah saravyA pitrAni (1), samAno vandhuh (2), uta tasya vittam&#xA;  (3).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Between you (Gods) and us (1), there is ancestral friendship and we&#xA;  are equal as relatives&lt;/strong&gt; (2); remember and give it regard.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 7.72.2&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In this answer RV denotes Rig Veda.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T14:02:42.013" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21651" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21604" CreationDate="2017-10-19T16:18:38.237" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is all due to Maya. Maya is Supreme and it can control anyone like a magician controls puppets.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;None can overcome Maya. For some time, someone can well play pretext and cleverness and get rid of Maya, but when Time takes its sway then Maya befalls over them and all their artifices gets discovered.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why do Devas and Rishis, knower of all righteousness and realised of Brahma, act contrary to what they should- is well explained by Vyaasa to Janamejaya.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Aham-Kaara: I-ness&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Puraanam, Book 4, Chapter 7&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मायागुणैस्त्रिभिः सर्वं रचितं स्थिरजङ्गमम् ॥ ३६ ॥  &#xA;  सतृणस्तम्बपर्यन्तं का तत्र परिदेवना । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ब्रह्मा विष्णुस्तथा रुद्रस्ते चाहङ्कारमोहिताः ॥ ३७ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भ्रमन्त्यस्मिन्महागाधे संसारे नृपसत्तम । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वसिष्ठनारदाद्याश्च मुनयो ज्ञानिनः परम् ॥ ३८ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तेऽभिभूताः संसरन्ति संसारेऽस्मिन्पुनः पुनः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न कोऽप्यस्ति नृपश्रेष्ठ त्रिषु लोकेषु देहभृत् ॥ ३९ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एभिर्मायागुणैर्मुक्तः शान्त आत्मसुखे स्थितः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कामक्रोधौ तथा लोभो मोहोऽहङ्कारसम्भवः ॥ ४० ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न मुञ्चन्ति नरं सर्वं देहवन्तं नृपोत्तम ।    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Janamejaya! All this, moving and unmoving world, including even a blade of grass, are fashioned out of the three qualities of Maya. So what repentance be here?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Best of Kings! Brahma, Visnu and Rudra, even These are all rolling in this vast ocean of Sansaara(illusionary world), being bewildered and fascinated by Aham-Kaara(the I-ness, due to which we identify ourselves as &quot;I&quot;, as in &quot;I&quot; am Brahma, &quot;I&quot; am Vishnu, &quot;I&quot; am Shiva, &quot;I&quot; am male, &quot;I&quot; am young, &quot;I&quot; am old, &quot;I&quot; am.)  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The great sages like Vashishtha, Narada and the other Munis are frequently taking Their births in this Sansaara.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In these three worlds, there is not even a single embodied(who has a body and form) soul, who is entirely free from this Maya, and has become calm to be immersed in the high bliss of the Supreme Self.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Best of Kings! lust, anger, avarice, and fascination, all, arise from Aham-Kaara. These do not leave any embodied person.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Why do Gods have lust, anger, avarice, jealousy et cetera?&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Puraanam, Book 4, Chapter 12&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हरिर्ब्रह्मा शचीकान्तस्तथान्ये सुरसत्तमाः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वे छलविधौ दक्षा मनुष्याणाञ्च का कथा ॥ १० ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कामक्रोधाभिसन्तप्ता लोभोपहतचेतसः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  छले दक्षाः सुराः सर्वे मुनयश्च तपोधनाः ॥ ११ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वसिष्ठो वामदेवश्च विश्वामित्रो गुरुस्तथा । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  एते पापरताः कात्र गतिर्धर्मस्य मानद ॥ १२ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इन्द्रोऽग्निश्चन्द्रमा वेधाः परदाराभिलम्पटाः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आर्यत्वं भुवनेष्वेषु स्थितं कुत्र मुने वद ॥ १३ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वचनं कस्य मन्तव्यमुपदेशधियानघ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वे लोभाभिभूतास्ते देवाश्च मुनयस्तदा ॥ १४ ॥   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Janamejaya asks Vyaasa-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Vyaasa, Giver of Honour! &lt;strong&gt;when Bhagavaan Hari, Brahma, Indra and the other excellent Devas are so dexterous in fraud and deceit&lt;/strong&gt;, then what to speak of mortal men.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When &lt;strong&gt;all the Devas and all the great ascetic Munis, are burnt by lust and anger, and all Their intelligence is destroyed by avarice and greed, and They all are well diligent in fraud and trickery&lt;/strong&gt;.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Vashishtha, Vamadeva, Visvamitra, Brihaspati and others are &lt;strong&gt;addicted to vices and sinful acts&lt;/strong&gt;; then what fate, alas! can be expected of Dharma here.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Alas! &lt;strong&gt;lndra, Agni, Moon, and Brahma, when These become lustful to enjoy others’ wives&lt;/strong&gt;; then where is the goodness and virtuous behaviour in this whole existence, O Vyaasa Muni! tell me.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Sinless Vyaasa! to whom, then, can we look upon as our spiritual guide and our advice and law givers, when all the Devas and Munis are corrupt with avarice?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vyaasa answers-  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;व्यास उवाच।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  किं विष्णुः किं शिवो ब्रह्मा मघवा किं बृहस्पतिः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देहवान् प्रभवत्येव विकारैः संयुतस्तदा ॥ १५ ॥   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रागी विष्णुः शिवो रागी ब्रह्मापि रागसंयुतः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रागवान्किमकृत्यं वै न करोति नराधिप।   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रागवानपि चातुर्याद्विदेह इव लक्ष्यते ॥ १६ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सम्प्राप्ते संकटे सोऽपि गुणैः सम्बाध्यते किल ।   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vyaasa answers Janamejaya-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Be he Vishnu, be he Shiva, be he Brahma, Indra or Brihaspati- &lt;strong&gt;all the embodied(those having a body and a form) persons are destined to have the Vikaaras&lt;/strong&gt;- Aham-Kaara, avarice, lust, envy and anger.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O King of men! Shiva, be him Vishnu, or Brahma are attached to sensual pleasures and &lt;strong&gt;what sinful act can a person attached to sensual pleasures not do?&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A person attached to sensual pleasures, by his cleverness, pretends to be free of these attachments of body.&#xA;  But when time of difficulty arises, he also gets again caught by the bondages of body.&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;परोपदेशे विस्पष्टं शिष्टाः सर्वे भवन्ति च ॥ १९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विप्लुतिर्ह्यविशेषेण स्वकार्ये समुपस्थिते ।    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कामः क्रोधस्तथा लोभद्रोहाहङ्कारमत्सराः ॥ २० ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  देहवान्कः परित्यक्तुमीशो भवति तान्पुनः ।   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;संसारोऽयं महाराज सदैवैवंविधः स्मृतः ॥ २१ ॥   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In giving instructions and doctrines to others, all the wise personalities are very clear and diligent. But when problem arises to them in their work, they easily forget all their doctrines.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One who has got body and form, how can he give up anger, lust, avarice, greed, hatred, egotism, and envy?&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Great King! thus this world is declared to be like this only.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मात्कामादिकान्भावान्देहवान्प्रतिपद्यते ॥ ३० ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नात्र ते विस्मयः कार्यः कदाचिदपि पार्थिव ।    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;संसारोऽयं तु सन्दिग्धः कामक्रोधादिभिर्नृप ॥ ३१ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दुर्लभस्तद्विनिर्मुक्तः पुरुषः परमार्थवित् ।    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यो बिभेतीह संसारे स दारान्न करोत्यपि ॥ ३२ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विमुक्तः सर्वसङ्गेभ्यो विचरत्यविशङ्‌कितः ।    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्माद्‌बृहस्पतेर्भार्या शशिना लम्भिता पुनः ॥ ३३ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गुरूणा लम्भिता भार्या तथा भ्रातुर्यवीयसः ।    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And thus, an embodied being acquires these lust et cetera&lt;/strong&gt;, O King of men! there is no doubt to be done by You.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O King! this world is pierced by lust, anger et cetera, and very rare is there some man who is free from these qualities.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And therefore one who is afraid of this world(as world has such bad and detestable qualities) never marries, and free from all attachments roams fearlessly in the world.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This embodiment is the reason why &lt;strong&gt;the wife of Brihaspati was abducted by Chandra, and Brihaspati himself conducted courtings with the wife of His younger brother&lt;/strong&gt;.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;How Maya has deluded the great personalities&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Devi Bhagawatam, Book 4, Chapter 20, Vyaasa tells Janamejaya about how various Gods were deluded by Maya.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Puraanam, Book 4, Chapter 20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  किं चित्रं नृप देवी सा ब्रह्मविष्णुसुरानपि । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नर्तयत्यनिशं माया त्रिगुणानपरान्किमु ॥ ४ ॥   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;What wondrous is that &lt;strong&gt;Devi Maya Who makes Brahma, Vishnu, and other Devas dance incessantly&lt;/strong&gt;, so what are men who are composed of three Gunas Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विद्याविद्येति तस्या द्वे रूपे जानीहि पार्थिव ॥ १० ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विद्यया मुच्यते जन्तुर्बध्यतेऽविद्यया पुनः ।     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्मा विष्णुश्च रुद्रश्च सर्वे तस्या वशानुगाः ॥ ११ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अवताराः सर्व एव यन्त्रिता इव दामभिः ।    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Her two forms- &lt;strong&gt;Vidya frees from these bondages&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;Avidya attaches one to these bondages&lt;/strong&gt;.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and all are under Her control, and all Avataaras are controlled by Her like puppets controlled by strings.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मोहजालावृतो जन्तुर्मुच्यते न कदाचन । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मायायां विद्यमानायां मोहजालं न नश्यति ॥ २७ ॥   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उत्पित्सुकाल उत्पत्तिः सर्वेषां नृप जायते । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथैव नाशः कल्पान्ते ब्रह्मादीनां यथाक्रमम् ॥ २८ ॥   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निमित्तं यस्तु यन्नाशे स घातयति तं नृप । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नान्यथा तद्‌भवेन्नूनं विधिना निर्मितं तु यत् ॥ २९ ॥    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जन्ममृत्युजराव्याधिदुःखं वा सुखमेव वा । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्तथैव भवेत्कामं नान्यथेह विनिर्णयः ॥ ३० ॥    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sun and Moon&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वेषां सुखदौ देवौ प्रत्यक्षौ शशिभास्करौ । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न नश्यति तयोः पीडा क्वचित्तद्वैरिसम्भवा ॥ ३१ ॥    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भास्करस्य सुतो मन्दः क्षयी चन्द्रः कलङ्कवान् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पश्य राजन् विधेः सूत्रं दुर्वारं महतामपि ॥ ३२ ॥     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Never a being tangled within the web of Maya is free because when Maya exists then no web of Maya can be destroyed.&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O King! at time of creation everyone takes birth, and at the end of Kalpa, Brahma and others die as per order.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When something comes as a means of death, it kills that person for sure. O King! nothing other than this ordained by creator happens.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Birth, death, old age, diseases, sorrow or happiness are ordained to occur for sure, and no one can change them.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;See the two clearly visible Devas, Sun and Moon, Their pain caused by Rahu-Ketu cannot be destroyed, even though They(Sun and Moon) Themselves give happiness to all.&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the son of the illuminer of world(Bhaas-Kara, Sun), is Lo! Himself handicapped Shani. The Moon gets depleted continuously(waxing and waning of moon) and has a lot of spots on His face. &lt;strong&gt;So O King! you see this creator's destiny, not even great personalities are spared by it.&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;वेदकर्ता जगत्स्रष्टा बुद्धिदस्तु चतुर्मुखः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोऽपि विक्लवतां प्राप्तो दृष्ट्वा पुत्रीं सरस्वतीम् ॥ ३३ ॥    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;See Brahma the four faced creator of Vedas and the world, Who gives intelligence to all, when He saw His own daughter Saraswati, He was afflicted with passion.&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शिवस्यापि मृता भार्या सती दग्ध्वा कलेवरम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोऽभवद्दुःखसन्तप्तः कामार्तश्च जनार्तिहा ॥ ३४ ॥     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कामाग्निदग्धदेहस्तु कालिन्द्यां पतितः शिवः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सापि श्यामजला जाता तन्निदाघवशान्नृप ॥ ३५ ॥    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;कामार्तो रममाणस्तु नग्नः सोऽपि भृगोर्वनम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गतः प्राप्तोऽथ भृगुणा शप्तः कामातुरो भृशम् ॥ ३६ ॥    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पतत्वद्यैव ते लिङ्गं निर्लज्जेति भृशं किल । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पपौ चामृतवापीञ्च दानवैर्निर्मितां मुदे ॥ ३७ ॥    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;See this Shiva, on death of His wife Sati as She burnt Her body, He too was burnt with pain and lust, though He Himself is the destroyer of pains of people.&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then Shiva burning with fire of Kaama threw Himself in Yamuna, and the river got black in colour burning from the sorrows of Shiva.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;strong&gt;once when Shiva got infatuated with lust and naked copulated in forest of Bhrigu, He was cursed by Bhrigu.&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Shameless Shiva! let your penis fall right now- this curse Bhrigu expounded over Shiva. Then Shiva started to drink the water of AmritaVaapi, dug by Daanavas.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इन्द्रोऽपि च वृषो भूत्वा वाहनत्वं गतः क्षितौ ।    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indra too had to become a bull and serve as Vaahana of Kakutstha to take Him to Earth.&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vishnu&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आद्यस्य सर्वलोकस्य विष्णोरेव विवेकिनः ॥ ३८ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वज्ञत्वं गतं कुत्र प्रभुशक्तिः कुतो गता । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यद्धेममृगविज्ञानं न ज्ञातं हरिणा किल ॥ ३९ ॥   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;राजन् मायाबलं पश्य रामो हि काममोहितः ।    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रामो विरहसन्तप्तो रुरोद भृशमातुरः ॥ ४० ॥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  योऽपृच्छत्पादपान्मूढः क्व गता जनकात्मजा । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भक्षिता वा हृता केन रुदन्नुच्चतरं ततः ॥ ४१ ॥    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O! what say more! &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu, Who is the first of all worlds, and Who is such great knowledgeable; where did go that Vishnu's omniscience and where did His divinity go, when that Hari could not identify the golden deer(Maaricha).&lt;/strong&gt;     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O King! &lt;strong&gt;behold the strength of this Maya. This very Raama is now rendered bewildered with Kaama.&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;See this Raama, burning from bereavement from Seeta, wept absent minded. He, bereft of senses, was asking trees where Seeta was, and cried aloud who had eaten or abducted Her.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शरण्यः सर्वलोकानां रामः कमललोचनः । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शरणं वानराणां स गतो मायाविमोहितः ॥ ४८ ॥    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सहायान्वानरान्कृत्वा बबन्ध वरुणालयम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जघान रावणं वीरं कुम्भकर्णं महोदरम् ॥ ४९ ॥    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;आनीय च ततः सीतां रामो दिव्यमकारयत् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वज्ञोऽपि हृतां मत्वा रावणेन दुरात्मना ॥ ५० ॥    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That lotus eyed Raama, Who is refuge of all the worlds is Lo! now that Raama is taking refuge of Monkeys, under the influence Maya.&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With help of monkeys, He created bridge over the sea. Then He killed Raavana and the big bellied KumbhaKarna, who are very great warriors.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He divinely brought Seeta back. And, after having all these many troubles to bring Her back, Raama thought Seeta was polluted by evil Raavana and abandoned Her, even though Raama is knower of everything.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;किं ब्रवीमि महाराज योगमायाबलं महत् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  यया विश्वमिदं सर्वं भ्रामितं भ्रमते किल ॥ ५१ ॥    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So O Great King Janamejaya! what do I say of the extreme power of this YogaMaya, by Whom this whole world is bewildered, and rotates on and on.&lt;/strong&gt;     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Maya is everything. Avidya Maya conceals the reality of Brahma and Vidya Maya illumines this Brahma to us. None can surpass Her as She is so powerful and is playing with this world like a puppet tied with strings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-21T14:04:03.277" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T14:04:03.277" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21652" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21643" CreationDate="2017-10-19T17:17:16.133" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From Hinduism point of view &lt;strong&gt;Karma is always Superior than Akarma or inaction.&lt;/strong&gt; Hinduism scriptures encourage us to perform our actions without attacting ourselves to fruits of those actions or karmas. In Bhagvat Gita  this Karma-Yoga is described. And the scriptures  support the point of doing karma over Akarma. Actions can be performed physically, mentally, and spiritually.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Upanishds also are encouraging us to do our karmas.&#xA;Upanishads advices  us to perform our actions (karmas) without attaching to the fruits of action &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/isha-upanishad/d/doc122460.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Isha Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; giving same message to us .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's said in opening verses of this upanishad that in this world there is no options , no other road than doing our own karmas with Niskama (non-attachment) bhava (sense). And it's because of this Niskam Bhava we will be  free from the taint of actions.’ or our all our negetive actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;कुर्वन्नेवेह कर्माणि&lt;/strong&gt; जिजीविषेत् सतं समाः।&lt;br&gt; एवं त्वयि नान्यथेतोऽस्ति न कर्म लिप्यते नरे…।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;kurvanneveha karmāṇi&lt;/strong&gt; jijīviṣet sataṃ samāḥ&lt;br&gt; evaṃ tvayi nānyatheto'sti na karma lipyate nare…&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(2nd Mantra, Isha Upanishad)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘In the world, one should desire to live a hundred years, &lt;strong&gt;but only by&#xA;  performing actions.&lt;/strong&gt; Thus, and in no other way, can man be free from&#xA;  the taint of actions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Upanishad is declaring the superiority of Karma or action from Akarma or non action.You can also become free from the burden of karma by not seeking the fruit of your actions. In other words, you should perform actions without expectations and without worrying about the outcome, leaving them to God or your soul. But doing karmas alone and not by Inaction.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ईशावास्यमिदं सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां जगत् ।&lt;br&gt; तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा&#xA;  मा गृधः कस्यस्विद्धनम् ॥1।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;īśāvāsyamidaṃ sarvaṃ yatkiñca jagatyāṃ jagat | &lt;br&gt; tena tyaktena&#xA;  bhuñjīthā mā gṛdhaḥ kasyasviddhanam ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(1st Mantra, Isha-Upanishad)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘Whatever there is changeful in this ephemeral world, all that must be&#xA;  enveloped by the Lord. &lt;strong&gt;By this renunciation&lt;/strong&gt;, support yourself. Do not&#xA;  covet the wealth of anyone.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is further confirmed in Shreemad Bhagvatam Skandha 11 Chapter ,which is about Gya ,Karma and Bhakti Yoga that one should always  prefer Karma Over Akarma. Here Shree krishna  says that he himself presented three paths Gyan ,Karma &amp;amp; Bhakti for the humans to achieve perfection and there is no other way than this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भगवान उवाच &lt;br&gt; योगास्त्रयो मया प्रोक्ता नृणां श्रेयोविधित्सया।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ज्ञानं कर्म च भक्तिश्च नोपायोsन्योsस्ति कुत्रचित्।।6।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śrī-bhagavān uvāca&lt;br&gt; yogās trayo mayā proktā&lt;br&gt; nṝṇāḿ&#xA;  śreyo-vidhitsayā&lt;br&gt; jñānaḿ karma ca bhaktiś ca&lt;br&gt; nopāyo 'nyo 'sti&#xA;  kutracit&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Uddhava, because I&#xA;  desire that human beings may achieve perfection, I have presented&#xA;  three paths of advancement — the path of knowledge, the &lt;strong&gt;path of work&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  and the path of devotion. Besides these three there is absolutely no&#xA;  other means of elevation.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/20/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.20.6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He further says &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तावत् कर्माणि। कुर्वीत&lt;/strong&gt; न निर्विद्येत यावता।&lt;br&gt; मत्कथाश्रवणादौ वा श्रद्धा यावन्न जायते।।9।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tāvat karmāṇi kurvīta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; na nirvidyeta yāvatā&lt;br&gt; mat-kathā-śravaṇādau vā&lt;br&gt; śraddhā yāvan na jāyate&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As long as one is not satiated by fruitive activity and has not&#xA;  awakened his taste for devotional service by śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ,&#xA;  one has to &lt;strong&gt;act according to the regulative principles of the Vedic&#xA;  injunctions.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/20/9&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.20.9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i.e. perform actions/karmas  until Vairagya Bhava emerges in man.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt; Note-This Shloka is about general karmas (action) and not only about vaidik karmas alone&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;Here Shreemad Bhagvat Gita 2.49.is also sayings that Nishkaam Karma is far more superior and indirectly supporting the Karma over Akarma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दूरेण ह्यवरं कर्म बुद्धियोगाद्धनञ्जय ।&lt;br&gt; बुद्धौ शरणमन्विच्छ कृपणाः&#xA;  फलहेतवः ॥2.49।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dūreṇa hyavaraṃ karma&lt;br&gt; buddhiyogāddhanañjaya |&lt;br&gt; buddhau&#xA;  śaraṇamanviccha kṛpaṇāḥ phalahetavaḥ ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘Work (done with selfish desire) is far inferior, O Arjuna, to that&#xA;  done with a detached reason. Small-minded are they who are motivated&#xA;  by selfish results.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?htshg=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;etradi=1&amp;amp;&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=2&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=49&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 2.49&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion- So it's clear from the above shlokas that according to Hinduism Niskam Karma is better way of living than &lt;strong&gt;Nishkriyata.(inaction) &amp;amp; is not recommended.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Example ;In shreemad Bhagvat Gita Lord Shree Krishna advices Arjuna about carrying out his duty i.e. work , remembering him always. i.e. Working / fighting with  offering the fruits to supreme lord  (Nishkam Karma.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तस्मात्सर्वेषु कालेषु मामनुस्मर &lt;strong&gt;युध्य च&lt;/strong&gt;।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्मामेवैष्यस्यसंशयम्।।8.7।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu&lt;br&gt; mām anusmara &lt;strong&gt;yudhya ca&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; mayy&#xA;  arpita-mano-buddhir&lt;br&gt; mām evaiṣyasy asaḿśayaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is English Translation of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=8&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=7&amp;amp;etradi=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;Shree  Ramanuja's&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Sanskrit Commentary of above verse By Swami Adidevananda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-10-20T06:15:06.840" LastActivityDate="2017-10-20T06:15:06.840" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21653" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="13929" CreationDate="2017-10-19T17:20:57.673" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This story is nowhere mentioned in the Vyasa Mahabharata.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, southern versions like Perundevanar's Bharata Vemba, Pampa's Vikramarjuna Vijaya and Villiputturar's Bharatam do mention this incident. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The only source I found was &lt;a href=&quot;http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/93789/5/05_chapter%203.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata and Variations Perundevanar, Pampa and Nannayya a Comparative Study&lt;/strong&gt;(page 49)&lt;/a&gt; by Acharya Kambalur Venkatesa, a Shodhaganga research paper, as I don't think the above versions of Mahabharata have ever been translated to English. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharata Vemba gives the story thusly: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5A VI - N. KARNA PLAYS A GAME OF DICE WITH DURYODHANA’S QUEEN&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karna explains to Kunti, how such help Duryodhana has done to him.&#xA;  When he was a man without any identity Duryodhana differed him a&#xA;  crown, made him the King of a state and respected him more than his&#xA;  own brothers and many other kings.  Duryodhana loved him to such an&#xA;  extent that he ate-.How can I desert a friend who ate with me with&#xA;  love*&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Finally Karna reveals an incident which speaks volumes of the&#xA;  confidence and sincere friendship of Duryodhana for Karna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One day Karna was playing a game of dice with the queen. She lost the game. When she was about to go without paying the stake Karna&#xA;  caught hold of her sari. The bracelet of the queen gave way and the&#xA;  precious diamonds in large number fell helter skelter. Just while this&#xA;  happened King Duryodhana entered the chamber. Karma was stunned.&#xA;  Duryodhana said smiling &quot;Shall I help picking up the diamonds?&quot;.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Should Karna desert such a friend? No, he would happily die in the&#xA;  service of such a great King.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Karna's narration of the incident is there in two vembas and an&#xA;  intervening prose passage. &lt;strong&gt;The explanatory prose passage name the&#xA;  Queen as Lekshasai&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Y5Ito6ltz_bzBZaDQ1RlpWQm8/view?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pampa's Vikramarjuna Vijaya(page 103)&lt;/a&gt; gives a similar encounter (which isn't described by the author) but gives a few details that further answer your question. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6E III. BHANUMATI PLAYS A GAME OF DICE WITH KARNA&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Another beautiful variation common in Perundevanar and Pampa is the&#xA;  description of a game of dice between Karna and Duryodhana's queen&#xA;  which has already been referred to in detail in the previous chapter.&#xA;  The only difference in making use of this incident is that Karna&#xA;  narrates the incident to Krishna in Pampa, whereas it is narrated by&#xA;  Karna to Kunti in Perundevanar.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Duryodhana’s queen is a character that is almost neglected by Bhagavan&#xA;  Vyasa. He does not even mention the name of the queen of Duryodhana&#xA;  anywhere.&lt;/strong&gt; Even when something has to be said about Duryodhana's wife,&#xA;  Bhagavan generally uses expressions like Lakshmana's mother,&#xA;  Dhritarashtra's daughter-in-law or Rajaraja&quot; wife and invariably&#xA;  avoids mentioning her name. &lt;strong&gt;Especially the name of &quot;Bhanumathi” as the&#xA;  spouse of Duryodhana does not appear in Bhagavan Vyasa's text.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Perhaps Bhattanarayana is the first writer to introduce the character&#xA;  of Bhanunati and to glorify it in his drama Venisamhara. But even in&#xA;  Venisamhara we do not come across any description of the intimacy&#xA;  between Bhanumati and Karna. If it is not entirely a creation of&#xA;  Perundevanar it might have originated from ancient legend or folklore&#xA;  songs.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anyway Perundevanar is the first poet to give it an honourable place&#xA;  in the Bharata poem. The second poet to incorporate it in the Bharata&#xA;  poem is Pampa.&lt;/strong&gt; If there is no common source for both of thern Pampa&#xA;  must have copied it from Perundavanar. &lt;strong&gt;The same episode is found in&#xA;  Villi Bharatham. The description of the incident by Perundevanar Pampa&#xA;  and Villi is similar in many respect.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastActivityDate="2017-10-19T17:20:57.673" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21654" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-19T17:50:07.530" Score="7" ViewCount="796" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhagavatam describes supreme personality of godhead incarnated as Vyasa before Rama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 1.3.21&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thereafter, &lt;strong&gt;in the seventeenth incarnation of Godhead&lt;/strong&gt;, Śrī Vyāsadeva appeared in the womb of Satyavatī through Parāśara Muni, and he divided the one Veda into several branches and subbranches, seeing that the people in general were less intelligent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 1.3.22&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the eighteenth incarnation, the Lord appeared as King Rāma&lt;/strong&gt;. In order to perform some pleasing work for the demigods, He exhibited superhuman powers by controlling the Indian Ocean and then killing the atheist King Rāvaṇa, who was on the other side of the sea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why does the Bhagavata Purana say so?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-16T17:44:35.803" LastActivityDate="2020-08-28T06:14:31.917" Title="Why does the Bhagavata Purana say Vyasa incarnated before Rama?" Tags="|rama|avatars|bhagavata-purana|vyasa|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21655" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11159" CreationDate="2017-10-19T18:43:43.530" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually posts are worshipped -  &lt;strong&gt;Manu&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Saptarisis&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Vedvyas&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Ganesh or Ganapati or Mahaganapati&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Prajapati&lt;/strong&gt; are merely posts or titles (who holds the title can be found in Puranas. Few of them are given &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp076.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20779/why-sons-of-lord-shiva-devi-parvati-are-only-worshipped/21646&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesh (Head of Ganas, also known as Ganapati or Mahaganapati) is the prominent post/title since beginning or Aadi kaal (hence considered as one of the &lt;strong&gt;Aadi Devas&lt;/strong&gt;) and must be worshiped before any other god.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How Ganesha became 'the first deity to get worshipped in any ritual'?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gloriousindia.com/scriptures/puranas/shiva_purana/shiva_severs_ganeshas_head_later_given_elephant_head.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shiva Purana&lt;/a&gt;, Lord Ganesha became (got the title) Ganapati/Vighneshwar soon after his head was severed by Lord Shiva as demanded by Goddess Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gloriousindia.com/scriptures/puranas/varaha_purana/lord_ganapati.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha Purana&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma appeared and requested Lord Shiva by saying-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'You should make this divine child, who has manifested from your mouth, the lord of all these Vinayakas. Thus lord Shiva made Ganesh the lord of all the Vinayakas and blessed him- &lt;strong&gt;You will be the first deity to get worshipped in any ritual&lt;/strong&gt;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As stories are from different different Kalpas, so there are many stories related to Lord Ganesha's birth and how he became 'the first deity to get worshipped in any ritual'. But above two are most famous.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Lakshmi emerged from Samudra Manthan (Ocean-Churning) but if someone conclude from this that there was no Goddess Lakshmi before that then it's not right. Because earlier than this Goddess Lakshmi was daughter of Khyati and Bhrigu. &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After Indra showed disrespect to her (or sage Durvasa in some stories), she made her abode in the abysmal depth of the sea and later emerged during Samudra Manthan.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Maitreya says - &amp;quot;O sage! It is heard that Lakshmi was produced from Ksheersagar during the churning of the sea but you say that Lakshmi was the daughter of Bhrigu and Khyati. How is it possible?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parashar says- &amp;quot;O great Brahmin! Lakshmi who never separates from the Lord is Herself eternal like Him. But still, as you have expressed your doubt, I will narrate you the real story.&amp;quot; Read the full story from Vishnu Puran &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gloriousindia.com/scriptures/puranas/vishnu_purana/creation_of_rudra_and_lakshmi.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, Lord Ganesh is an avatar/incarnation of Mahaganapati. Few popular incarnations of Mahaganapati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/gods/devta/ganesha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MahotkataVinayak&lt;/strong&gt;- He was born in Kruta Yuga as son of Kashyap and Aditi. He killed the demons named as Devantak and Narantak.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ganesh&lt;/strong&gt;- He was born in Dvaapaara Yuga as the son of Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dhumraketu&lt;/strong&gt;- In Kali Yuga, he will be born as Dhumraketu or Dhumravarna and will destroy the Mlecchas, the sinners.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Ganapti is &lt;strong&gt;Aadi Dev&lt;/strong&gt;, he existed even before his &lt;a href=&quot;http://m.livehindustan.com/astrology/spiritual/story-shiva-parvati-wedding-ganesha-worship-1190157.amp.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;incarnation&lt;/a&gt; as son of Lord Shiv and Goddess Parvati. &lt;a href=&quot;http://creative.sulekha.com/divine-marriage-of-lord-shiva-and-maa-parvatiji-mahashivratri-23rd-feb_73885_blog&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;He is there since times immemorial&lt;/a&gt; and hence was worshiped by Lord Shiv and Goddess Parvati at the time of their marriage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This question is related with the below Question(s):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/21785/is-vinayaka-an-individual-or-a-position-like-indra&quot;&gt;Is Vinayaka an individual or a position like Indra?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/22564/which-puranas-contain-the-story-of-the-contest-between-ganesha-and-kartikeya-for&quot;&gt;Which puranas contain the story of the contest between Ganesha and Kartikeya for vighnadhipatyam?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12304" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-12-07T16:46:53.177" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21656" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21657" CreationDate="2017-10-19T19:30:59.740" Score="15" ViewCount="1180" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two kinds of schools of Indian philosophy, Astika and Nastika.  Astikas accept the authority of the Vedas, whereas Nastikas reject the authority of the Vedas.   The Astika schools are part of Hinduism, while the Nastika schools fall under the broader category of Dharmic faiths.  Now there are six Astika schools: Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva Mimamsa, and Vedanta.  (They're all dead other than the Vedanta school, which encompasses most Hindus today as I discuss here.) &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because they accept the authority of the Vedas, these schools all believe in Yagnas, the law of Karma, the existence of the soul, the afterlife, reincarnation, and Moksha.  But one thing they disagree on is how to get Moksha.  So my question is, what is the means of attaining Moksha according to each of the six Astika schools?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-10-21T00:53:07.670" LastActivityDate="2022-04-05T07:27:27.677" Title="What is the means of attaining Moksha according to the different Astika schools?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|moksha|shad-darshana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21657" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21656" CreationDate="2017-10-19T19:30:59.740" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me address each of the six Astika schools:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samkhya&lt;/strong&gt;: The Samkhya school believed that meditation on the 25 Tattvas, i.e. Purusha or soul, Prakriti or matter/energy, and the 23 evolutes of Prakriti, is what leads to knowledge of the difference between Purusha and Prakriti, which is what leads to Moksha. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universaltheosophy.com/sacred-texts/samkhya-karika/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Ishwara Krishna says in verses 64-66 of the Samkhya Karika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;evaṃ tattvābhyāsān nāsmi na me nāham ity apariśeṣam | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  aviparyayād viśuddhaṃ kevalam utpadyate jñānam || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tena nivṛttaprasavām arthavaśāt saptarūpavinivṛttām | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  prakṛtiṃ paśyati puruṣaḥ prekṣakavad avasthitaḥ svasthaḥ || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  dṛṣṭā mayetyupekṣaka eko dṛṣṭāham ityuparatānyā | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  sati saṃyoge api tayoḥ prayojanaṃ nāsti sargasya ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By practising the principles thus, there arises the knowledge, viz., ‘I am not, naught is mine, there is no Ego’, which is complete, absolute and pure, because there remains no doubt. By this knowledge, the Spirit, seated composed like a spectator, perceives the Nature which has ceased to be productive and, consequently, which has now reverted from seven forms. One (the Spirit) is indifferent like a spectator in play; one (the Nature) desists, (saying) that I have been seen. (Now), in spite of their contact, there is no motive for creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;: The Yoga school believed that practicing Ashtanga Yoga is what leads to knowledge of the difference between Purusha and Prakriti, which is what leads to Moksha.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/ysp/ysp04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Patanjali says in Adhyaya 2 Sutras 25-29 of the Yoga Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tad-abhābāt-saṁyoga-abhāvo hānaṁ taddr̥śeḥ kaivalyam || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  viveka-khyātir-aviplavā hānopāyaḥ || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tasya saptadhā prānta-bhūmiḥ prajña || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yoga-aṅga-anuṣṭhānād-aśuddhi-kṣaye jñāna-dīptir-āviveka-khyāteḥ || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  yama niyama-āsana prāṇāyāma pratyāhāra dhāraṇā dhyāna samādhayo-'ṣṭāvaṅgāni ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The bringing of this association to an end, by bringing the darkness of unwisdom to an end, is the great liberation; this is the Seer's attainment of his own pure being. A discerning which is carried on without wavering is the means of liberation. His illuminations is sevenfold, rising in successive stages. From steadfastly following after the means of Yoga, until impurity is worn away, there comes the illumination of thought up to full discernment. The eight means of Yoga are: the Commandments, the Rules, right Poise, right Control of the life-force, Withdrawal, Attention, Meditation, Contemplation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nyaya&lt;/strong&gt;:  The Nyaya school believed that knowledge of the 16 Padarthas or categories of logical reasoning and argument is what leads to Moksha.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/GautamasNyayasutras#page/n22/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Gautama says in the first Sutra of the Nyaya Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pramāṇa-prameya-saṃśaya-prayojana-dṛṣṭānta-siddhānt-avayava-tarka-nirṇaya-vāda-jalpa-vitaṇḍā-hetvābhāsa-cchala-jāti-nigrahasthānānī tattva-jñānān niśreyasa-adhigamaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is the knowledge of the real essence (or true character) of the following sixteen categories that leads to the attainment of the Highest Good - &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The means of Right Cognition&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The objects of Right Cognition &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Doubt&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Motive&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Example&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Theory&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Factors of Inference&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Cogitation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Demonstrated Truth&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Discussion&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Disputation&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Wrangling&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Fallacious Reason&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Casuistry&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Futile Rejoinders&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Clinchers&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaisheshika&lt;/strong&gt;:  The Vaisheshika school believed that knowledge of the 7 Padarthas or qualities of existence is what leads to Moksha.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia802605.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/12/items/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_jp2/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_0046.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Kanada says in the fourth Sutra of the Vaisheshika Sutras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dharma-viśeṣa-prasūtād dravya-guṇa-karma-sāmānya-viśeṣa-samavāyānāṃ padārthānāṃ sādharmaya-vaidharmyābhyāṃ tattva-jñānān niḥśreyasam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Good (results) from the knowledge, produced by a particular dharma, of the essence of the Predicables, Substance, Attribute, Action, Genus, Species, and Combination by means of their resemblances and differences.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purva Mimamsa&lt;/strong&gt;: The Purva Mimamsa school wasn't too focused on Moksha, being more concerned with the fruits obtained from Yagnas.  But those Mimamsakas that did believe in Moksha thought that knowledge of the Jivatma of individual soul is what leads to Nishkama Karma, i.e. doing your Vedic Dharma without desiring the fruit, and that Nishkama is what leads to Moksha.  Here is what Kumarila Bhatta says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/gCZR&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Shloka Vartika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The fact (as to the manner of Deliverance) is that for those that have come to know of the real character of Self,—all their past actions having been exhausted by fruition, and there being no subsequent residue (of actions),—the body is never again produced (and this is what is meant by Deliverance). It is only for the purpose of enjoying the results of our past actions that our body is produced; consequently, when there are no actions (left to bring about their results), there is no cause left for such productions (of the body).  One desiring Deliverance, therefore, would not engage in (i.e., perform) such actions as are either prohibited or are enjoined with a view to the attainment of certain (material) results. But he would continue to perform those that are enjoined as necessary (and to be performed daily), and those that are enjoined as to be performed on certain specific occasions (such as eclipses and the like),—in order to avoid the sin (accruing from | the non-performance of such actions). The effects (of the necessary sacrifices f.i.) are known to result only when they are desired by the agent ; and as such they could not accrue to one who does not desire them. And as this (aversion to results) exists in one who knows one's real self, it is in this that such knowledge comes to be of indirect use (to the attainment of Deliverance).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some Mimamsakas went further and added that the performance of Vedic Dharma should not only be desireless, but it should be done as devotional service to Brahman.  Here is what Apadeva says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/pg8a&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Mimamsa Nyaya Prakasha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And this duty, when it is performed with a view to that with a view to which it is enjoined, produces that (promist fruit). But performed with the intention to offer it to the Exalted Govinda, it produces supreme beatitude. And there is no lack of authority for performing it with the intention of offering it to Him. Because there is the traditional statement: &quot;Whatever tho doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest as oblation or givest in gifts, whatever penance thou doest, Son of Kuntï, that do as an offering to Me.&quot; And because this (statement) is valid authority, like the smriti-prescription of the Eighth-lunar-day-rite etc. This is set forth in full elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But other Mimamsakas didn't even believe in Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt;: The Vedanta school believes that meditation on Brahman using the 32 Brahmavidyas is what leads to knowledge of Brahman, which is what leads to Moksha.  Here is what Vyasa says in Adhyaya 4 Pada 1 Sutras 12-14 of the Brahma Sutras&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ā prayāṇāt tatrāpi hi dṛṣṭam || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  tadadhigama uttarapūrvāghayoraśleṣavināśau tadvyapadeśāt&#xA;  itarasyāpyevamasaṃśleṣaḥ pāte tu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Meditation is to be repeated) up till the moment of death, for it is noticed in the scriptures that it is done so even then. On the realization of That, there occur the non-attachment and destruction of the subsequent and previous sins respectively, because it is declared so. In the very same way there is no attachment of the other (ie., of virtue) as well. Liberation must follow as soon as the body falls.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But getting Moksha through meditation upon Brahman is extremely difficult, especially in the Kali Yuga, so Krishna describes an easier alternative path to Moksha in chapter 18 of the Bhagavad Gita:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja |&#xA;  ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This refers to Sharanagati or complete surrender to the lotus feet of Vishnu, as Vedanta Desikan explains in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/TU8F&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Rahasyatraya Sara.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, it's striking that all six Astika schools agree that knowledge/meditation of some kind leads to Moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2019-04-28T13:55:25.363" LastActivityDate="2019-04-28T13:55:25.363" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21658" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7682" CreationDate="2017-10-20T03:55:49.913" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I recently heard the below. Kali yuga is dominated by evil . At the end Kaliyuga when good and evil go against each other and one will come out as a winner.  To conquer evil Shiva comes up with shiva tandavam and crushes the evil. After destruction next cycle starts. While dancing shiva turns/rotates and you could see the back of Shiva's head.what do you find there ?  None other than Brahma's face and shiva is smiling. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12323" LastActivityDate="2017-10-20T03:55:49.913" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21659" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21664" CreationDate="2017-10-20T04:44:41.717" Score="4" ViewCount="469" Body="&lt;p&gt;Carvakas were one of the nastik schools of Indian philosophy. We are led to believe that  Carvakas did not believe in authority of the Vedas, and they were alien to the concept of rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I recently came across one research paper&lt;sup&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313808560_Who_were_the_Carvakas&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; which dispels the above myth. The author of the paper claims that most of Carvakas were brahmins who did not believe in rebirth and they even used Vedic verses to bolster this claim.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is what do we know about Carvakas based on Hindu texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T00:19:49.830" Title="Who were the Carvakas?" Tags="|philosophy|charvaka|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21660" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7851" CreationDate="2017-10-20T04:53:59.303" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Very much well posed question.&#xA;If we step back a few years we will see that the doubt of &quot;who will inherit the throne&quot; arose just after Duryodhana was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question no. 1: Who could question the inheritance of the King's son?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ans: He/They have to be someone holding similar power (if not less) than the king (Dhritarashtra) himself. Now, here we sense a bit of politics.&#xA;So, the threat - that someone else (obviously, Yudhishthira) was going to claim the throne in future - persisted from the very beginning. Quite naturally, Dhritarashtra, the King, and also his son Duryodhana would not like it.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question no. 2: Why couldn't the all-powerful king reject Kunti with her five juvenile sons' plea for asylum in the kingdom?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Ans: The reason is again the same. It is quite sure that a had conspiracy cropped up and the king could do nothing to check it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This answers the Question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Selection of the heir was beyond the scope of Dhritarashtra. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12325" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-21T05:22:39.007" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T05:22:39.007" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21662" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-20T05:32:44.233" Score="3" ViewCount="1407" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vidura, as the Mahabharata says, was an unwanted child. He was born to 'Dasi' so unimportant that even Vyasa did not care to mention her name. Queen Satyavati who had proposed the &lt;em&gt;Niyoga&lt;/em&gt; was not interested in Vidura because he was not born to Ambika or Ambalika. The so called Dasi too was never mentioned later on Mahabharata, probably she was sent off or even may have been punished for doing something Her Highness The Queen did not approve of.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Who then brought up Vidura? Who arranged for his education and made an important place for him in the palace?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, the most important question, WHY? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12325" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-28T00:32:26.433" LastActivityDate="2017-10-29T11:44:39.677" Title="Who brought up Vidura?" Tags="|mahabharata|vidura|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21663" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21468" CreationDate="2017-10-20T05:55:30.427" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far I have read the Mahabharata, I felt that Yudhishthira was not steady in War. He was made to be steadfast in the war, rather. Yudhishthira was a cool type person and not at all warring and arrogant. Personally he never wanted war with his relatives and he didn't even urged to be a King. But 'situations' made him to fight and literally he was &lt;strong&gt;'tied up to the war'&lt;/strong&gt; with a person &lt;strong&gt;'who was very difficult to fight with'&lt;/strong&gt;, ie Duryodhana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12325" LastActivityDate="2017-10-20T05:55:30.427" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21664" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21659" CreationDate="2017-10-20T05:58:17.730" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iep.utm.edu/indmat/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Charvakas&lt;/a&gt; : Indian Materialism&quot; refers to the school of thought within Indian philosophy that rejects supernaturalism.  It is regarded as the most radical of the Indian philosophical systems.  It rejects the existence of other worldly entities such an immaterial soul or god and the after-life.  Its primary philosophical import comes by way of a scientific and naturalistic approach to metaphysics.  Thus, it rejects ethical systems that are grounded in supernaturalistic cosmologies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Charvaka system of thought believed neither in God nor in the after life of man. Their doctrines are traced to an ancient scripture&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Charvaka' means he who grinds both vice and virtue. The Charvakas are also known as Brihaspatayas because it is believed that Brihaspathi was the author of this doctrine. Another sect which was close to the lokayatas in their thinking was the sect of the kapalikas, who believed in the practice of sex and gory rituals to gain siddhis or spiritual powers. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are similarities between  the modern day rationalism and materialism of the west.  The lokayata school of thought, believed to have been founded by Charvaka, whose history is not much available today.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here we find one shloka related to Charvakas given in &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha.by.Madhavacharya-Vidyaranya.tr.by.E.B.Cowell#page/n11/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Sarva Darsana Samgraha&lt;/strong&gt;   &lt;/a&gt; by Madhavacharya (Vidyaranya Swami)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यावज्जीवेत्सुखं जीवेत् ऋणं कृत्वा घृतं पिबेत् ।&lt;br&gt; भस्मीभूतस्य देहस्य&#xA;  पुनरागमनं कुतः ।।&lt;br&gt; त्रयोवेदस्य कर्तारौ भण्डधूर्तनिशाचराः ।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;While life is yours , live joyously : None can escape Death's&#xA;  searching eyes. When one this frame of yours they burn. How shall it&#xA;  ever again return. &lt;hr&gt; जडभूतविकारेषु चैतन्यं यत्तु दृश्यते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ताम्बूलपूगचूर्णानां योगाद् राग इवोत्थितम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jdbhutwikareshu Catnyn Ythu Drishyte.  Tambulpugcuarnanan Yogad raga&#xA;  Ivotthitam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Paan interact with prepared Betel nuts and generates the colors on&#xA;  our lips when chewed ,in the same way , these non living elements mix&#xA;  with each others to create life. By various substances the intensity&#xA;  of chetana (force of movement) increases or decreases and thus it&#xA;  proves that ,these substances are cause of life&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what &lt;a href=&quot;http://The%20Complete%20Works%20of%20Swami%20Vivekananda/Volume%207/Inspired%20Talks/Friday,%20July%205&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Swami Vivekananda&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;from&#xA;The Complete Works&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Charvakas , a very ancient sect in India, were rank materialists. They&#xA;  have died out now, and most of their books are lost. They claimed that&#xA;  the soul, being the product of the body and its forces, died with it;&#xA;  that there was no proof of its further existence. They denied&#xA;  inferential knowledge accepting only perception by the senses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We find some traces of this school in &#xA;in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga108/ayodhya_108_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Ramayana, Ayodhya kanda, chapter 108, where Jabāli tries to persuade Rāma to accept the kingdom by using nāstika arguments (but Rāma then refutes him in chapter 109):[19]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“ O, the highly wise! Arrive at a conclusion, therefore, that there is&#xA;  nothing beyond this Universe. Give precedence to that which meets the&#xA;  eye and turn your back on what is beyond our knowledge. (2.108.17)” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Charvaka Philosophy-  There is no heaven, no final liberation, nor any&#xA;  soul in another world, Nor do the actions of the four castes, etc.,&#xA;  produce any real effect. The Agnihotra, the three Vedas, the ascetic's&#xA;  three staves, and smearing one's self with ashes, Were made by Nature&#xA;  as the livelihood or those destitute of knowledge and manliness.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T00:19:49.830" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T00:19:49.830" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21665" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-20T06:15:06.220" Score="4" ViewCount="537" Body="&lt;p&gt;Varahamihira is considered one of the Navaratna's in King Vikramaditya's court.&#xA;I would like to know if anybody has authentic ancient reference to when he or King Vikramaditya lived and which year was Brihat Samhita written?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-09-05T06:27:41.780" LastActivityDate="2018-11-12T14:45:40.747" Title="In which year did Varahamihira write his Brihat Samhita?" Tags="|history|vikramaditya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21666" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-20T06:41:38.380" Score="2" ViewCount="23" Body="&lt;p&gt;I want detail explanation about Goddess Maa Chinnamastika, can anyone help me out?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9611" LastActivityDate="2017-10-20T06:41:38.380" Title="I want detail explanation about Goddess Maa Chinnamastika?" Tags="|durga|goddess|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-10-20T06:47:26.820" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21667" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-20T07:54:09.873" Score="5" ViewCount="2568" Body="&lt;p&gt;I could not find references to rebirth in Vedic samhitas i.e.,  Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur veda and Atharva veda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would like to know what happens after death according to Vedic samhitas (Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur veda or Atharva veda).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I heard that the Rig Veda describes how after death a man's eyes get merged in sun, breath in air, ashes in plants, but is this true? If not, then what exactly happens after death according to Vedic samhitas (Rig Veda, Sama veda, Yajur veda or Atharva veda)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-20T10:22:03.800" LastActivityDate="2018-06-10T02:01:57.207" Title="What happens after death according to Vedic samhitas?" Tags="|vedas|death|samhita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21669" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21667" CreationDate="2017-10-20T10:00:22.190" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is explained in &lt;em&gt;RV&lt;/em&gt; mandala X hymn 56. It is either a horse or a son of Bṛhaduktha named Vajin who died recently. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gF1so.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gF1so.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इदं त एकं पर ऊ त एकं तर्तीयेन जयोतिषा संविशस्व | idaṃ ta ekaṃ para ū&#xA;  ta ekaṃ tṛtīyena jyotiṣā saṃviśasva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;संवेशने तन्वश्चारुरेधि परियो देवानाम्परमे जनित्रे || saṃveśane&#xA;  tanvaścāruredhi priyo devānāmparame janitre ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First two verse describes how body would divide into various constituents and unities with Agni, Vayu, and light. Also, consciousness unites with the Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then in next verse, the journey of the dead into some unknown world is described followed by how dead person unites with his old body and their meeting the with &lt;em&gt;pitrs&lt;/em&gt; who have achieved godhood after death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The hymn:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 HERE is one light for thee, another yonder: enter the third and he therewith united.Uniting with a body be thou welcome, dear to the Gods&#xA;  in their sublimest birthplace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 Bearing thy body, Vajin, may thy body afford us blessing and thyself&#xA;  protection.Unswerving, stablish as it were in heaven thine own light&#xA;  as the mighty God's supporter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 Strong Steed art thou: go to the yearning Maidens with vigour,&#xA;  happily go to heaven and praises: Fly happily to the Gods with easy&#xA;  passage, according to the first and faithful statutes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 Part of their grandeur have the Fathers also gained: the Gods have&#xA;  seated mental power in them as Gods.They have embraced within&#xA;  themselves all energies, which, issuing forth, again into their bodies&#xA;  pass.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;5 They strode through all the region with victorious might,&#xA;  establishing the old immeasurable laws.They compassed in their bodies&#xA;  all existing things, and streamed forth offipring in many successive&#xA;  forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 In two ways have the sons established in his place the Asura who&#xA;  finds the light, by the third act,As fathers, they have set their&#xA;  heritage on earth, their offspring, as a thread continuously spun out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 As in a ship through billows, so through regions of air, with&#xA;  blessings, through toils and troubles, Hath Bṛhaduktha brought his&#xA;  seed with glory, and placed it here and in the realms beyond us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-21T02:07:48.450" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T02:07:48.450" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21671" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12196" CreationDate="2017-10-20T13:15:01.703" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;God is a non-doer and is unattached to the Universe and its living beings.&#xA;It's primordial nature, the shakti of Brahman, which brings forth the creation. Brahman does not interfere in the creation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Resorting to Prakrti, Nature, which is My own Power, I send forth&#xA;  again and again this multitude of beings that are without any freedom,&#xA;  owing to Nature's sway over them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 9.8&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;These activities do not in any way bind Me, &lt;strong&gt;because I remain detached&#xA;  like one unconcerned in their midst.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 9.9&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The net result of God's non-attachment is that any paapa we do, only damages us by accumulation of bad karma and destruction of our spiritual nature. God is not angry. Ishvara only distributes the fruits of our karma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there a list of our sins?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lust, anger and greed&lt;/strong&gt; - this triad leads to the destruction of man's&#xA;  spiritual nature. They form the gateway to hell; they should be&#xA;  abandoned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 16.21&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vidura on Gates of hell&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Great fear springeth from these three crimes, viz, theft of other’s&#xA;  property, outrage on other’s wives, and breach with friends. These&#xA;  three, besides, being destructive of one’s self, are the gates of&#xA;  hell, viz, &lt;strong&gt;lust, anger, and covetousness&lt;/strong&gt;. Therefore, everyone should&#xA;  renounce them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[Mahabharata, UdyogaParva, Section 33]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastActivityDate="2017-10-20T13:15:01.703" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21672" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21676" CreationDate="2017-10-20T13:52:43.740" Score="6" ViewCount="621" Body="&lt;p&gt;In medicine, a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosthesis&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Prosthesis&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part lost through trauma, disease, or congenital conditions.&#xA;prosthetics is simply replacement of missing limbs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is - In which verse of Rig-Veda there is mentioning  of prosthetics? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/S6H8h.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/S6H8h.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T04:16:39.590" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T04:16:39.590" Title="Artificial Limb Transplant ( Prothesis) in Rig-Veda?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21673" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10142" CreationDate="2017-10-20T14:08:28.937" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story goes like this. A long time ago, there was a king named Sagara. He has sixty thousand sons. One day, King Sagara decided to perform rituals for the betterment of his kingdom. There was a horse which was an integral part of the ritual and it was stolen by Devaraj Indra in jealousy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Sagara sent his 60 thousand sons all over the earth in order to find the horse. After searching everywhere, they found the horse next to a meditating sage Kapila. The horse was tied next to him by Indra. Believing that Kapila Muni (sage) has stolen the horse, they disturbed his Tapasya (meditation). Angered by this act of his sons, he cursed them and the sixty thousand sons were burnt to death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The souls of the sons of Sagara wandered as ghosts since their final rites had not been performed. For the moksha of the sons of Sagar, Anshuman (nephew of those 60,000 sons) prayed to Brahma failed. His son Dilip did the same but failed. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;King Bhagirath:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagirath was a Suryavanshi king who was one of the descendants of Sagara, son of Dilip, learned of this fate. Saddened by their fate, he wondered if there was a chance that they might live again, be reborn or attain moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He went to Kapila muni and ask him if there was any way by which his ancestors can attain moksha or reborn. Kapila Muni told him that they could be reborn only if their ashes were poured in the Ganga. For this Ganga would have to descend from heaven to earth. He then vowed that he would bring her down to Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhagirathi did Tapasya and pleaded Brahma that Ganga comes down to Earth. Brahma agreed and he ordered her to go down to Earth so that the souls of Bhagirath’s ancestors could be freed. She agreed, but she said that the force of her fall would end up destroying the Earth. Bhagirath then prayed to Lord Shiva and requested him to hold her on his head. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;She falls on the Shiva’s head and he contained the force of the Ganga in his locks and let her out in small streams. Bhagirath was able to immerse the ashes of his ancestors in the river and they were freed and reborn. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because of Bhagiratha’s efforts, Ganga descended to Earth and hence the river is known as Bhagirathi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want to know more about River Ganga, read these two articles: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://mythgyaan.com/why-ganga-is-called-bhagirathi-jahnavi/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Why Ganga is called Bhagirathi and Jahnavi?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://mythgyaan.com/why-ganga-is-considered-pure-holy-in-india/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Why Ganga River is considered pure and holy in India?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12289" LastActivityDate="2017-10-20T14:08:28.937" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21676" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21672" CreationDate="2017-10-20T14:16:39.537" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;RV 1.112, 116, 117, 118 mention of Vispala which is either a woman or a mare. She lost a limb in a war or Khela (battle or competition) and &lt;em&gt;Ashvins&lt;/em&gt; replaced the lost one with a metal leg&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NbYJW.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NbYJW.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.112 (10)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yābhirviśpalāṃ dhanasāmatharvyaṃ sahasramīḷha ājāvajinvatam | &#xA;  yābhirvaśamaśvyaṃ preṇimāvataṃ tābhir... ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Those with which you revived Viśpalā, to pursue the way, to gain the&#xA;  stakes in the contest with a thousand battle-prizes with which you&#xA;  helped Vaśa Aśvya and Preṇi [?]‌—with those forms of help come here, o&#xA;  Aśvins.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.116 (15)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;caritraṃ hi verivāchedi parṇamājā khelasya paritakmyāyām |  sadyo&#xA;  jaṅghāmāyasīṃ viśpalāyai dhane hite sartavepratyadhattam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because her foot was cut away like the wing of a bird, in the contest&#xA;  of Khela, at the decisive turn, right away you inserted a metal shank&#xA;  for Viśpalā to run, when the stake had been set.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.117 (11)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sūnormānenāśvinā ghṛṇānā vājaṃ viprāya bhuraṇā radantā |  aghastye&#xA;  brahmaṇā vāvṛdhānā saṃ viśpalāṃ nāsatyāriṇītam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Being sung by Sūnor Māna [=Agastya], o energetic Aśvins, digging out&#xA;  victory’s prize for the inspired poet, and growing strong alongside&#xA;  Agastya through his poetic formulation, you draw Viśpalā back&#xA;  together, Nāsatyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.118 (8)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yuvaṃ dhenuṃ śayave nādhitāyāpinvatamaśvinā pūrvyāya |  amuñcataṃ&#xA;  vartikāmaṃhaso niḥ prati jaṅghāṃ viśpalāyā adhattam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You swelled the cow (with milk) for Śayu of long ago, who needed help,&#xA;  o Aśvins.You released the quail-hen from tight straits, and you&#xA;  inserted a shank for Viśpalā.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorDisplayName="user12262" LastEditDate="2017-10-22T07:11:29.030" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T07:11:29.030" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21677" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19915" CreationDate="2017-10-20T14:40:46.057" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Mayavada is the philosophy which was established by Sripad Sankaracarya, in order to refute Buddhistic doctrine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mayavadis are the followers of Mayavada Philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mayavadis believe that the Supreme Truth is Brahman or spiritual energy which is unlimited, without form, qualities, or activity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Mayavada philosophy, all living entities are one with Brahman, but at present, are covered by illusion, and therefore temporarily separated from Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the illusion is gone, the living entity becomes again one with the Brahman and loses its identity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main idea is that everything is God, meaning that you too are God but somehow or other you forgot that you were God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Out of this perspective, the Mayavadis neither accept the form nor the personality of Krishna as absolute but as the creation of Maya. Therefore, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu called the Mayavadis the biggest offenders of Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference: &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrishnatemple.com/chapter21.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.harekrishnatemple.com/chapter21.html&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.harekrsna.com/philosophy/gss/sadhu/religions/mayavadi.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.harekrsna.com/philosophy/gss/sadhu/religions/mayavadi.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12289" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-21T05:49:43.210" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T05:49:43.210" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21678" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-20T15:02:18.777" Score="4" ViewCount="629" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Rig Veda, Aryaman is described as the protector of mares, and the Milky Way (&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;aryamṇáḥ pánthāḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;) is said to be his path.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryaman&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryaman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T08:47:45.637" Title="Why is the Milky Way called aryamṇáḥ pánthāḥ?" Tags="|vedas|vedic-gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21679" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="81" CreationDate="2017-10-20T15:20:07.347" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga43/bala_43_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayana&lt;/a&gt; states that Ganga is considered sacred because it came by touching Anga (Head) of Lord Shiva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्र ऋषि गण गन्धर्वा वसुधा तल वासिनः १-४३-२६ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भव अंग पतितम् तोयम् पवित्रम् इति पस्पृशुः | &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;And asserting that the water as holy, because it descended touching the body of Shiva, viz., the head of Shiva, the assemblages of sages, gandharva-s, and those that are residents on the plane of earth have sipped that water at that place.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-10-20T15:20:07.347" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21680" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21662" CreationDate="2017-10-20T16:03:24.677" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who then brought up Vidura?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maharaja Bhishma raised the three children, Dhritarastra, Pandu and Vidura, as if they were his own. As Pandu grew, he excelled all men in archery, whereas Dhritarastra excelled in personal strength, and it was soon known to everyone that there was no one equal to Vidura in devotion to Vishnu and knowledge of the dictates of morality. In due course of time Pandu became King, for Dhritarastra was blind, and Vidura was born of a maid servant. Therefore, neither of them could accept the throne. Read &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mahabharata/d/doc118372.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well Ved Vyasa was son of Satyavati &amp;amp; rishi (sage) Parashara and Bhishma regarded both of them, perhaps he was entrusted this responsibility by Satyavati herself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He was named Vidur, meaning “wise.” Satyavati gave Bheeshma the&#xA;  responsibility of raising the babies. With no other father for the&#xA;  children, Bheeshma became their father and he loved them as if they were his own. They also loved him and they called him &quot;Taat Shree&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-22T23:45:20.060" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T23:45:20.060" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21681" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21687" CreationDate="2017-10-20T16:48:02.253" Score="6" ViewCount="943" Body="&lt;p&gt;Did Ravana have knowledge about Rama being an avatar of Vishnu before the battle? If he knows that Ram is Vishnu's Avatar and will be killed by him then why didn't he change himself to save his life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-21T03:02:38.943" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T03:39:27.050" Title="Did Ravana have knowledge about Rama being an avatar of Vishnu?" Tags="|ramayana|rama|ravana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21683" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10142" CreationDate="2017-10-20T17:46:35.403" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;As already answered in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/285/why-and-when-did-the-ganga-become-a-holy-river&quot;&gt;Why and when did the Ganga become a holy river?&lt;/a&gt;, Ganga was brought by Bhagiratha on Earth by penance, so She is called Bhaagirathi.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi Puraana, Book 9, Chapter 6&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गङ्‌गे यास्यसि पश्चात्त्वमंशेन विश्वपावनी ॥ ४९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भारतं भारतीशापात्पापदाहाय पापिनाम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;भगीरथस्य तपसा तेन नीता सुकल्पिते ॥ ५० ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नाम्ना भागीरथी पूता भविष्यसि महीतले ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मदंशस्य समुद्रस्य जाया जायेर्ममाज्ञया ॥ ५१ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मत्कलांशस्य भूपस्य शन्तनोश्च सुरेश्वरि ।     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu tells Gangaa-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then, O Gangaa! You will go in some parts of yours, [49], to the BharataBhumi, due to curse of Bhaarati(Saraswati), to become the purificator of worlds and to burn the sins of sinners.       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O well armed Gangaa! by Bhagiratha's penance You will be brought down, [50], and will be known as Bhaagirathi, and will be most sanctifying on Earth.&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By my orders, You will become wife of Samudra, who is I in part incarnation. [51]. And also, You will be wife of king Shantanu, who is I manifest in part incarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-20T18:06:56.600" LastActivityDate="2017-10-20T18:06:56.600" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21684" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7682" CreationDate="2017-10-20T20:26:55.420" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;One story is of &lt;strong&gt;Baijnath Mahadev, Agar Malwa (MP): The Only Hindu Temple of Lord Shiva Built (Renovated) By a British Couple.&lt;/strong&gt; . It goes like follows &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The British ruled Indian subcontinent for hundreds of years, and built many churches and cathedrals. But in the 1880s, a Shiva temple in Agar Malwa, Madhya Pradesh, was renovated and almost rebuilt by Lt. Col. Martin as per the wish o her wife — the only Shiva temple ever made by an Englishman in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In 1879, when there was British were ruling in India, Lt. Col. Martin of Agar Malwa was leading the British army in the war against Afghanistan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Col. Martin used to regularly send messages of his well-being to his wife. The war continued for long &amp;amp; Lady Martin stopped getting messages. She was very upset in the vicinity of Malwa far away from Kabul or Afghanistan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once riding on her horse, she was to pass by the temple of Baijnath Mahadev. She was quite attracted to the sound of Conch &amp;amp; Mantra. She went inside the Temple and came to know that the Brahmanas were worshipping Lord Shiva. They saw her sad face and asked her problem. She explained everything to them. They told her that Lord Shiva listens to the prayers of devotees and takes them out of difficult situations in no time. With the advice of the Brahmanas she started the “Laghurudri Anushtthan” of the Mantra: “Om Namah Shivaya” for 11 days. She prayed to Lord Shiva that if her husband reaches home safely, then she would get the temple renovated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the last of the “Laghurudri” a messenger came and gave a letter to her. Her husband had written: “I was regularly sending messages to you from the battle grounds but suddenly the Pathan Muslims surrounded us from all sides. We were entrapped in a situation where there was no scope of escaping death. &lt;strong&gt;Suddenly, I saw a Yogi of India with long hair, carrying a Trident (weapon with three pointers- Trishul). His personality was amazing and he was manoeuvring his weapon with a magnificent style&lt;/strong&gt;. Seeing this great man, the Pathans started running back. With his grace our bad times turned into moments of victory. This was possible only because of that man of India wearing a lion skin &amp;amp; carrying a three-pointer weapon. That great Yogi told me that I should not worry and that he had come to rescue me because he was very pleased with my wife’s prayers.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Tears of joy were falling down to the eyes of Lady Martin while reading the letter. Her heart was overwhelmed with joy and reverence. She fell beneath the stone symbol (Lingam) of Lord Shiva and burst in tears.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After a few weeks Col. Martin returned. Lady Martin narrated the whole incident to him. Now both husband &amp;amp; wife became devotees of Lord Shiva. In 1883 they donated Rs. 15,000 for renovating the temple. The information engraved slab for the same is still there in the Baijnath Mahadev Temple of Agar Malwa. This is the only Hindu temple built by the British.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;Taken from here: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/hinduexistence.org/2015/01/18/the-only-hindu-temple-of-lord-shiva-rebuilt-by-a-british-couple-with-devotion/amp/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/hinduexistence.org/2015/01/18/the-only-hindu-temple-of-lord-shiva-rebuilt-by-a-british-couple-with-devotion/amp/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it is not difficult to meet Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;212&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Let no one be deceived! Twelve hundred long Divine Years lasting three hundred and&#xA;  sixty earth-years each, shall pass before I Manifest again and bring to the World a New Cosmic&#xA;  Cycle and a New Golden Age. Meanwhile, I shall appear only to My devotees. Verily, know this&#xA;  to be a matter a million times true: to My faithful devotees I shall appear any time they sincerely&#xA;  call upon Me, but not to the others. For, the others even if they saw Me, would fail to recognise&#xA;  Me - as even now they see Me but know Me not. 11 chapter SR&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-10-24T06:01:12.630" LastActivityDate="2017-10-24T06:01:12.630" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21687" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21681" CreationDate="2017-10-21T03:39:27.050" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;No, he was not aware of this fact. Some of his well wishers tried to say this but he abused them and rejected their advices saying Sri Rama was a human being. Many advised him that Sri Rama was not an ordinary human being. He ignored them too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21071/5212&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; answer, Vibhishana and Malyavan, maternal grandfather of Ravana advised Ravana to make peace with Sri Rama and restore Seetha to him. Especially, Malyavan urges him not to wage a war for the welfare of the demons. He perceived the destruction of demons. He says that he considers Sri Rama as Vishnu dwelling in a human form. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विष्णुम् मन्यामहे रामम् मानुषम् देहम् आस्थितम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;   न हि मानुष मात्रो असौ राघवो दृढ विक्रमः || ६-३५-३६&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I deem Rama of firm fortitude as Vishnu dwelling in human form. This Rama is not a mere human being&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga35/yuddhasans35.htm#Verse36&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-35-36]&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear that someone has advised Ravana that Sri Rama was an incarnation of Vishnu and not a mere Human being. Ravana put a deaf ear to those advices. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To this advice of Malyavan, Ravana arrogantly replies not to exaggerate his foe and a human being in front of him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हित बुद्ध्या यद् अहितम् वचह् परुषम् उच्यते |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पर पक्षम् प्रविज़्य एव न एतत् ज़्रोत्र गतम् मम || ६-३६-३&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I have closed my ears to the speech you have made, albeit with good intentions and even by taking sides with the enemy. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga36/yuddhasans36.htm#Verse3&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-36-3]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मानुषम् कृपणम् रामम्&lt;/strong&gt; एकम् ज़ाखा मृग आज़्रयम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  समर्थम् मन्यसे केन त्यक्तम् पित्रा वन आलयम् || ६-३६-४&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How can you hold &lt;strong&gt;Rama, who is a mere human being, a small feeble man&lt;/strong&gt;, taking help from monkeys and dwelling in a forest having been abandoned by his father, to be a competent person? &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga36/yuddhasans36.htm#Verse4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-36-4]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is clear from above verses that he considered Rama as a human being rather than Vishnu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He did it due to his arrogance and pride that he is the lord of demons and superior to the race of humans. He did it because of his pride that he has defeated celestials, other powerful demons etc.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रक्षसाम् ईज़्वरम् माम् च देवतानाम् भयम् करम् |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  हीनम् माम् मन्यसे केन;अहीनम् सर्व विक्रमैः || ६-३६-५&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;How can you hold me, the Lord of demons, terrifying celestials and possessing all powers in full, to be a weaker person? &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga36/yuddhasans36.htm#Verse6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[6-36-6]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This shows his excessive pride and his attitude towards humans. For this reason he fought the war despite of numerous advises and warnings from his well wishers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T03:39:27.050" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21688" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2604" CreationDate="2017-10-21T04:07:51.253" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Griffith's version is known for its notorious mistranslation of words whose occurrence are rare. The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;dham pūrva maghan&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; is transalated as &lt;strong&gt;*earlier domain portion (goes to Indra) *&lt;/strong&gt; by Jamison and Brereton. Here is the translation of verse 5&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;IX 97 (5)&lt;/strong&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The drop, coming here to fellowship with the gods, purifies himself in&#xA;  a thousand streams for exhilaration. Being praised by men, he has gone&#xA;  along his earlier domain, to Indra for great good portion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The domain is understood as various realms the Soma traverse from being prepared until it is consumed by the Gods. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;IX.66 (2)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From those two you rule over all, self-purifying one—from the two&#xA;  domains [=Heaven and Earth] that stand facing (each other), o Soma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rigveda mentions 7 domains beside Heaven and Earth. So by earlier domain, the poet meant that &lt;em&gt;Soma&lt;/em&gt; goes to &lt;em&gt;Indra&lt;/em&gt; in its purest form and gives vigor to &lt;em&gt;Indra&lt;/em&gt; which is known as the foremost recipients of the &lt;em&gt;Soma&lt;/em&gt; sacrifice. Also, Indra and Agni are the only two Gods that rules all the domains.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorDisplayName="user12262" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T04:36:34.377" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T04:36:34.377" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21692" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-21T07:02:57.140" Score="19" ViewCount="14738" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please  tell me  chronological timeline (in Manvantara and Mahayuga) of Lord Vishnu's various incarnations. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12336" LastEditorUserId="21895" LastEditDate="2021-11-01T22:49:33.077" LastActivityDate="2021-11-09T15:29:57.973" Title="What is chronological timeline (in Manvantara and Mahayuga) of Lord Vishnu incarnations/avatar?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|yuga|time|manvantara|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21694" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7851" CreationDate="2017-10-21T07:58:47.367" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Bharata dynasty&lt;/strong&gt; (in which Yudhishthira and Duryodhana were born), it was not necessary that only the eldest son of a king will become the next king. The one who was worthy of becoming a king used to be chosen. Even king Bharata himself &lt;a href=&quot;http://hindumythologyforgennext.blogspot.in/2012/07/mahabharatha-chapter-1-emperor-bharat.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;didn't appoint&lt;/a&gt; his eldest son as his successor:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Bharata begat upon his three wives nine sons in all. But none of them were like their father and so Bharata was not at all pleased with them...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The monarch then performed a great sacrifice and through the grace of Bharadwaja obtained a son named Bhumanyu. And then Bharata, the great descendant of Puru, regarding himself as really possessing a son, installed, O foremost one of Bharata's race, that son as his heir-apparent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;~ &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01095.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Mahabharata: Adi Parva: Sambhava Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira was best choice for Yuvaraja because Yudhishthira was more worthy of becoming a king than Duryodhan:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaisampayana continued, 'After the expiration, O king, of a year from this, Dhritarashtra, moved by kindness for the people, installed Yudhishthira, the son of Pandu, as the heir-apparent of the kingdom on account of his &lt;strong&gt;firmness&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;fortitude&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;patience&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;benevolence&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;frankness&lt;/strong&gt; and unswerving &lt;strong&gt;honesty&lt;/strong&gt; (of heart). And within a short time Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, by his good behaviour, manners and close application to business, overshadowed the deeds of his father.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;~ &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01142.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata: Adi Parva: Sambhava Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The citizens were also happy with the heir-apparent Yudhishthira and wanted to make him king:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the citizens, beholding the son of Pandu possessed of accomplishments, began, O Bharata, to speak of them in all places of public resort. And assembled in courtyards and other places of gathering, they talked of the eldest son of Pandu (Yudhishthira) as possessed of the qualifications for ruling the kingdom. And they said, 'Dhritarashtra, though possessed of the eye of knowledge, having been (born) blind, had not obtained the kingdom before. How can he (therefore) become king now? Then Bhishma, the son of Santanu, of rigid vows and devoted to truth, having formerly relinquished the sovereignty would never accept it now. &lt;strong&gt;We shall, therefore, now install (on the throne) with proper ceremonies the eldest of the Pandavas endued with youth, accomplished in battle, versed in the Vedas, and truthful and kind.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;~ &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01144.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharata, Book 1: Adi Parva: Jatugriha Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But later evil Duryodhana tried to kill Yudhishthira and his brothers in lakshagriha with their mother. And only on the false news of Yudhishthira's death in lakshagriha, Duryodhana was chosen as Yuvaraja.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By birth (direct son), neither Duryodhana nor Yudhishthira had a right on the throne because technically neither Duryodhana nor Yudhishthira was Kuruvanshi (Kaurava), &lt;strong&gt;a new name of Bharata dynasty after king Kuru&lt;/strong&gt;. Because king Shantanu had three sons Bhishma, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya; Bhishma was bhramachari and other two died before producing any child. By the grace of Vedavyasa, all three Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura were born &lt;strong&gt;after death of their father Vichitravirya&lt;/strong&gt;. However, by the grace of Gods (Dharmaraja, Indra, Vayu, Ashvinis), all 5 Pandavas were born in front of their father Pandu. By birth (direct son), only Bhishma had right on the throne because he was the only Kuruvanshi/Kaurava (direct son of Shantanu) at that time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12304" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-07-24T00:26:23.697" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21695" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21678" CreationDate="2017-10-21T08:18:29.480" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Aryaman  is one of the early Vedic deities.  Ayaman means a ‘devoted friend’ or ‘Gentleman.’  He is the third son of Aditi, the mother of the Adityas. In the RigVeda Aryaman is described as the protector of mares, and the Milky Way (aryamṇáḥ pánthāḥ) is said to be his path. Aryamans royal path is milky way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aryaman Pantha is an expression which occures in Brahmanas. According&#xA;  to Weber it's Milky Way but  according to Hillebrandt is elliptical.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;List of the Brahmana Texts which mentions Aryaman Pantha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Taitariya Brahmana i ,7,6,6&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pancavimsa Brahmana XXV 12.3&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shatapatha brahmana 5.3.1.2&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/satapatha-brahmana-english/d/doc63275.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana 5.3.1.2&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt; quote.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For to Bṛhaspati belongs that upper region, and there above lies that&#xA;  path of Aryaman (the sun).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the footnote of 5.3.2 it's said as follows &quot;Whence the back of that upper region is white, or bright.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Generally Milky Way is also very bright in the night sky.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But according to some &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=t6TVLlPvuMAC&amp;amp;pg=PA37&amp;amp;lpg=PA37&amp;amp;dq=Aryaman%20the%20Milky%20way%20in%20taittiriya%20brahmana&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=6nAefyH_6v&amp;amp;sig=w9X4tPq-pytTOfhKKQIqlcdEyj8&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjprPnCnYHXAhVEP48KHQrFDncQ6AEIJzAB#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=Aryaman%20the%20Milky%20way%20in%20taittiriya%20brahmana&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Books&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; this is referring to Milky Way ,and as the path of Aryaman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;so it's look's like from the above that the bright path of Aryaman is above Bṛhaspati's path which according to weber is Milky way. May be That's  the reason.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-10-21T08:47:45.637" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T08:47:45.637" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21696" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-21T08:26:09.080" Score="1" ViewCount="33" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can a normal sentence be powerful ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why/how a Mantra have power ? Is there any proof ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12265" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-21T09:01:10.483" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T09:01:10.483" Title="Why some sentences written in Sanskrita are called Mantra (Powerful)?" Tags="|mantras|sanskrit|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-10-21T10:32:36.790" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21697" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3869" CreationDate="2017-10-21T10:37:55.870" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, certainly Shree Ved-Vyasa is still alive. He being Chiranjeevi (immortal) is still alive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The answer is clearly given about him in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana - Skandha 8 - Chapter 13 - Shloka 15-16.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's said in those shlokas that Ved-Vyasa is still alive and living in their respective ashramas by Yog-Bala or Yogic Power.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;गालवो दीप्तिमान्रामो द्रोणपुत्रः कृपस्तथा ।&lt;br&gt; ऋष्यशृङ्गः पितास्माकं&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;भगवान्बादरायणः&lt;/strong&gt; ॥15॥&lt;br&gt; इमे सप्तर्षयस्तत्र भविष्यन्ति स्वयोगतः ।&lt;br&gt; इदानीमासते राजन् &lt;strong&gt;स्वे स्व आश्रममण्डले&lt;/strong&gt; ॥16॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;gālavo dīptimān rāmo&lt;br&gt; droṇa-putraḥ kṛpas tathā&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ṛṣyaśṛńgaḥ pitāsmākaḿ&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;bhagavān bādarāyaṇaḥ&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; ime saptarṣayas tatra&lt;br&gt; bhaviṣyanti sva-yogataḥ&lt;br&gt; idānīm āsate rājan&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;sve sva āśrama-maṇḍale&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O King, during the eighth manvantara, the great personalities Galava,&#xA;  Diptiman, Parasurama, Asvatthama, Kripacarya, Rishyasringa and our&#xA;  father, Vyasadeva, the incarnation of Narayana, will be the seven&#xA;  sages. &lt;strong&gt;For the present, they are all residing in their respective&#xA;  asramas.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/13/15-16&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 8.13.15-16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I don't that think he is visible to us  directly because it's said that these people are living in their ashramas with their yogic powers. I think we need some divine Power (Teja) to locate and to see him. But I believe that if we wish he can appear before us if we call him with  pure devotion. Since he is an Avatara of Lord Vishnu. Good Luck.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-04-23T19:55:27.747" LastActivityDate="2019-04-23T19:55:27.747" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21698" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-21T11:03:18.507" Score="2" ViewCount="75" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to SB 3.29.18:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TEXT 18&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ādhyātmikānuśravaṇān&#xA;  nāma-saṅkīrtanāc ca me&#xA;  ārjavenārya-saṅgena&#xA;  nirahaṅkriyayā tathā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TRANSLATION&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  A devotee should always try to hear about spiritual matters and should always utilize his time in chanting the holy name of the Lord. His behavior should always be straightforward and simple, and although he is not envious but friendly to everyone, he should avoid the company of persons who are not spiritually advanced.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hi, in the passage, writen by Lord Kapila, does he explictly say to avoid people who are not spiritually advanced? Because according to the english translation it says he does. If so, how do we define someone who is spiritually advanced? Also isn't being non- judgemental part of being in the spiritual path? In other words shouldn't we not avoid someone simply because he is not spiritual? He could still be a good person, and be kind and compassionate but not necessarily spiritual?&#xA;Thank you for clarifying this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12315" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-21T12:02:41.173" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T12:02:41.173" Title="Avoiding the company of persons who are not spiritually advanced" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|spirituality|kapila|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21699" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-21T12:47:12.633" Score="4" ViewCount="115" Body="&lt;p&gt;In mahabharata, adhi parva states agastya munu was advised to get married and beget children.but all of our acharayas like sankara, ramanuja and madhvacharya taken sanyasa ashrama, so which is appropriate according to scrpture.is grihastya ashrama compulsory according to advise given to agastya muni or we can move to sanayas ashram at any stage like our acharyas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10259" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T12:47:12.633" Title="Why our rishish followed grihastya ashrama but acharyas sanays asharama" Tags="|sanyasi|grihastha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21700" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21656" CreationDate="2017-10-21T12:54:52.613" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Kashmiri Shaivism, Liberation or Moksha which brings JagadAnanda wherein whole universe become one's own body is achieved by a class of techniques called &lt;strong&gt;ShAmbhavopaye&lt;/strong&gt;. Other classes of techniques which are &lt;strong&gt;ShAktopAye&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;AnavopAye&lt;/strong&gt; are just to make aspirant capable to practice ShAmbhavopAye. Why I am using the word class is because there are many techniques involved with each class of techniques which are at least 112 in numbers - mentioned all in VijnAnabhairava tantra. Since it is difficult to summarize all techniques here, I will quote AchArya Abhinavgupta's verses which explains ShAmbhavopaye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In this highest state of supreme God consciousness [anuttara] there is no need of spiritual progress, no contemplation, no art of expression, no investigation, no meditation, no concentration, no recitation, exertion or practice. Tell me then, what is the supreme and well-ascertained truth? Listen indeed to this! &lt;strong&gt;Neither abandon nor accept anything, enjoy everything, remain as you are&lt;/strong&gt;! A.A-1&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Attraction and repulsion, pleasure and pain, rising and setting, self-confidence and depression; all these states with which the universe is formed shine as mutually different but in reality they are not. &lt;strong&gt;Whenever you perceive the specificity of some thing, at that very moment you should perceive the essence of your own consciousness as one with it&lt;/strong&gt;… why not take delight in the fullness of that awareness! A.A-5 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, as you have seen, ShAmbhavopAye is &lt;strong&gt;choiceless awareness&lt;/strong&gt; - Neither rejection, nor acceptance. When one practices it, thought streams are reduced to ashes in absence of polarity which is always in form of acceptance &amp;amp; rejection. &lt;strong&gt;ShAmbhavoAye is actually highest form of surrender&lt;/strong&gt; wherein you just surrendered the struggle with duality in form of acceptance or rejection. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Besides, These techniques ... Bhakti/Devotion or Surrender to Lord Shiva has been given utmost importance. All AchArya wrote devotional hymns to Lord Shiva telling this only, E.g  Lalleshwari, like Meera, got enlightenment through Bhakti only. She said -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever work I did became worship of the Lord; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Whatever word I uttered became a prayer; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Whatever this body of mine experienced became &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  the sadhana of Saiva Tantra &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  illumining my path to Parmasiva. -138&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Lalia of Padmanpora, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Gulp by gulp Amrit who drank, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  who saw Shiva face to face everywhere: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Grant me too that boon, &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O. Lord Shiva! - 88 &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, AchArya Somananda goes one step ahead &amp;amp; declare other techniques inferior against Bhakti in Shiva Stotrvalli as (Translating by myself, if anyone can translate it better, he/she is allowed):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Lord! even if I get the highest enlightenment or experience without your devotion, it would be sour/irrelevant for me without any taste. But if I get your consistent devotion without any self realization It is everything to me. SS-1.11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ijWgh.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ijWgh.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-10-21T12:54:52.613" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21701" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-21T15:55:37.263" Score="5" ViewCount="113" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his commentary on Rig-Veda, Sayana has talked about speed of light in terms of &quot;Yojana&quot;. Historically, this term has had many different interpretations as described &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yojana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what was the value of Yojana that Sayana used? Are there any clues or contemporary references which indicate the value?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2695" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-02-21T05:31:56.757" LastActivityDate="2018-02-21T05:31:56.757" Title="Value of Yojana in Sayana's commentary on Rig Veda" Tags="|vedas|history|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21702" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-21T19:13:28.483" Score="1" ViewCount="55" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why open hands in panchakaccha and crossed hands in datti while doing gothrabhivadana? Datti is just rounding of dhoti without panchakaccha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12340" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-22T23:33:57.687" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T23:33:57.687" Title="Why namaskara with open hands in panchakaccha?" Tags="|rituals|practice|sandhyavandanam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21704" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-22T05:49:17.683" Score="5" ViewCount="236" Body="&lt;p&gt;Typically today for all Jyotish calculation a correction is added to Sayana positions of planets to arrive at the Nirayana position of planets to account for precession etc. This correction is called Ayanamsa. Now as on date there are many types of Ayanamsa being used in India. Is there any mention of the word Ayanamsa in any of the ancient texts or is it an invention of modern times having lost the ancient method of calculations?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastActivityDate="2020-09-08T08:21:17.450" Title="Who coined the word Ayanamsa?" Tags="|astrology|calendar|panchang|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21705" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21502" CreationDate="2017-10-22T06:32:57.943" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, there are several hymns in Vedas which can mention rebirth. However it depends upon &lt;strong&gt;interpretation&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've found couple of verses from Rigveda Mandala 1 of which interpretation mention rebirth according to Swami Dayananda Sarasvati, the founder of Arya Samaj. Though Ralph Griffith or Gayatri Pariwar's translation doesn't mention rebirth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting &lt;a href=&quot;http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&amp;amp;pid=sites&amp;amp;srcid=dmVkaWNncmFudGgub3JnfHd3d3xneDoxZGQ3MDUxZWU0ODYyZjA3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rigveda Bhashya of Swami Dayananda Saraswati&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SUrty.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/SUrty.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedaWww.aryamantavya.in&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;English translation&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PURPORT&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this Mantra, the doctrine of &lt;strong&gt;Re-birth&lt;/strong&gt; is enunciated. Whatever kind of actions performed by men, they got the same kind of birth and enjoyment in the next&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Rigveda Mandala 1, Sukta 24, Mantra 2:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QOSw2.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/QOSw2.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;English Translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PURPORT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O men, we certainly believe in om eternal, Immortal God who is dispense of fruit of good or bad actions done by us and according to Whose laws we get &lt;strong&gt;rebirth&lt;/strong&gt;. You must also know that one God to be giver of &lt;strong&gt;rebirth&lt;/strong&gt;, non else can do this work. It is he who gives birth to emancipated persons also through parents at the end of MahaKalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T04:10:16.813" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21706" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2429" CreationDate="2017-10-22T06:58:27.057" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Available at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedicgranth.org&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;VedicGranth.org&lt;/a&gt; (the site looks related to Arya Samaj or Dayananda Sarasvati)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As an excel Spread Sheets in &lt;code&gt;.xls&lt;/code&gt; : &lt;a href=&quot;https://sites.google.com/a/vedicgranth.org/www/what_are_vedic_granth/the-four-veda/rig-ved/RIGWebV7.zip?attredirects=0&amp;amp;d=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedicgranth.org/what_are_vedic_granth/the-four-veda/rig-ved/VedicGranth.Org%20-%20RigVed.zip?attredirects=0&amp;amp;d=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I recommend to check it once, it's very useful and in nice format.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;As MS Word  document in &lt;code&gt;.doc&lt;/code&gt; format : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedicgranth.org/what_are_vedic_granth/the-four-veda/rig-ved/RigWord2.zip?attredirects=0&amp;amp;d=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T04:12:44.693" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T04:12:44.693" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21709" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12150" CreationDate="2017-10-22T07:56:18.683" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The most accurate transaltion is provided by &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com.tw/books?id=fgzVAwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;amp;source=gbs_ge_summary_r&amp;amp;cad=0#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=agni%20do%20I%20&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jamison and Brereton&lt;/a&gt; on page 89. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अग्निमीळे पुरोहितं यज्ञस्य देवमृत्विजम् । होतारं रत्नधातमम् १&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Agni do I invoke—the one placed to the fore, god and priest of the sacrifice, the Hotar, most richly conferring treasure.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The most tricky part is to translate &lt;em&gt;puróhitam&lt;/em&gt; which earlier translator interpreted as sacrificer or priest which is now interpret as &lt;a href=&quot;https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/vedol/10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;place in front&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T07:56:18.683" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21710" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15307" CreationDate="2017-10-22T08:04:09.993" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can get word by word translation with commentary of Swami Dayanand Saraswati's RigVeda Bhashya in English at &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/RigvedaWww.aryamantavya.in&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Internet Archive&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/RigvedaWww.aryamantavya.in/Rigveda-1-of-5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/RigvedaWww.aryamantavya.in/Rigveda-2-of-5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/RigvedaWww.aryamantavya.in/Rigveda-3-of-5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/RigvedaWww.aryamantavya.in/Rigveda-4-of-5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/RigvedaWww.aryamantavya.in/Rigveda-5-of-5&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-22T15:16:58.313" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T15:16:58.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21711" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21502" CreationDate="2017-10-22T08:26:03.733" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;RV mentions reincarnation in mandala X hymn 56, however the notion of reincarnation is different from as we know it today. After a person dies his soul starts journey to some unknown world. Then the Gods transfer his soul to their domain and unites the soul with body. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/E5oPq.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/E5oPq.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the notion is similar to what ancient Egyptians had where after death soul unites with body and the person starts enjoying life again after being dead!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T08:26:03.733" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21712" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6660" CreationDate="2017-10-22T09:23:29.893" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rigveda (6/17/1 i.e 1st richa of 17th sukta of 6th mandal of Rigveda) doesn't mean what you have mentioned in your question. Here is the original richa in Sanskrit and it's translation in Hindi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cL9Jy.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/cL9Jy.png&quot; alt=&quot;Rigveda (6.17.1)&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the translation in English:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fierce Indra, glorified by us, drink that Soma, by which thou hast discovered the vast herd of cattle (cows stolen by the paNis), and, overcomer of enemies, wielder of the thunderbolt, thou hast slain, by thy strength all opposing foes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But few scholars translated this as below:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Drink Soma, Mighty One, for which, when lauded, thou breakest through the cattle-stall, O Indra; Thou who, O Bold One, armed with thunder smotest Vrtra with might, and every hostile being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now many people assume that &lt;strong&gt;breakest&lt;/strong&gt; is breakfast which is WRONG.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Far from eating them, &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2011-December/030002.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indra seems to be protecting the cows in Rigveda (6.17.1)&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Same is the case with your other sources, you are assuming that English translation is correct but original text says something else (Rigveda (10/85/13) is explained &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2011-December/030002.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please don't believe blindly in any translation specially by a person who is not master in the language from which he is translating. We shouldn't rely only on English translation, we should verify with it's original source. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12304" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T09:23:29.893" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21713" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-22T11:22:25.810" Score="3" ViewCount="81" Body="&lt;p&gt;The 10 mahavidyas are-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1)kali-The ultimate form of Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2)Tara-The Goddess as Guide and Protector&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3)tripura sundari-The Goddess Who is &quot;Beautiful in the Three Worlds&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4)Bhuvaneshwari-The Goddess as World Mother, or Whose Body is the Cosmos&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;5)bhairavi-The Fierce Goddess&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;6)chhinnamasta -The self-decapitated Goddess[5]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;7)dhumavati-the widow goddess&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;8)baglamukhi-The Goddess Who Paralyzes Enemies&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9)Matangi-the Prime Minister of Lalit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a&#xA;10)kamala-the Lotus Goddess; the &quot;Tantric lakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know that which oldest agamas,Puranas or Itihasas mention the 10 dasha mahavidyas.In Wikipedia &lt;strong&gt;Kinsley says that origin of 10 mahavidyas cannot be older than 12th century&lt;/strong&gt;,Is it true?If not then which scriptures mentions the 10 mahavidyas &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T11:22:25.810" Title="In which agamas/Puranas the 10 mahavidyas are mentioned?" Tags="|puranas|agamas|tantra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-10-22T11:43:49.620" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21714" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21692" CreationDate="2017-10-22T12:12:07.313" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please note that Lord Vishnu's incarnations are &lt;strong&gt;repetitive&lt;/strong&gt;. So you may find more than one timeline for each incarnation. To understand this, let's read the below lines:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However there are very few sources but we can't ignore the story of Kakabhushundi. &lt;strong&gt;Kakabhushundi&lt;/strong&gt; has seen &lt;strong&gt;Ramayana 11 times&lt;/strong&gt; with different outcomes and seen &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharat 16 times&lt;/strong&gt; with different results, but, after seeing Daksha Yagya twice, he did not either care to see it again or saw no point to seeing any more, as it ended the same way each time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, few people believe in this as well:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vasuki smiled and said, &amp;quot;This world we live in goes through &lt;strong&gt;cycles&lt;/strong&gt; of life and death. In Treta Yuga, Ram takes birth. Then one day his ring falls into the subterranean realm of serpents through a tunnel. A monkey follows it and Ram on earth dies. &lt;strong&gt;So it has been for hundreds of thousands of times&lt;/strong&gt;. All these rings testify to that fact.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The order of these incarnation is as below, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;this can be related with modern day evolution theory as well&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. However, Mohini Incarnation (happened soon after Kurma incarnation during Samundra-Manthan) is an exception where modern day evolution theory fails :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Sat Yuga&lt;/strong&gt; : Varaha, Koorma, Matsya (Creatures that live in water/amphibian or live on land with swimming ability)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Sat Yuga&lt;/strong&gt; : Nrisimha (The half-lion and half-human – a stage between Homo sapiens and animals; killed Hirnyakashyap)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Treta Yuga&lt;/strong&gt; : Vamana (The Homo sapiens with short stature; sent Bali (great grandson of Hirnyakashyap) to Rasatal)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Treta Yuga&lt;/strong&gt; : Parasurama (The rough and tough human - Rama with the axe; killed Kartvirya Arjun (the king of Maheshmati) and then his army/descendants many time)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Treta Yuga&lt;/strong&gt; : Rama (Rama with a bow &amp;amp; noble practices; killed Ravana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Dwapara Yuga&lt;/strong&gt; : Krishna (no explanation needed!)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few timelines are as below but &lt;strong&gt;it doesn't mean there are no other timelines&lt;/strong&gt; for these incarnations:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Varaha Incarnation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the very beginning of Svet-Vrah kalp (present kalp) i.e. 1st Sat yuga of 1st Manvantar (ruled by Swayambhu Manu). Lord Varah restored the Earth in the beginning of this kalps, hence, the present kalp is named after Vishnu's this incarnation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; this incarnation happened again to kill the asura Hirnaksh (brother of Hirnakashyap).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Koorma and Mohini Incarnation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu took these incarnation during Samundra-Manthan (not sure about yuga but most of the sources says that Samundra-Manthan happened in previous manvantra i.e in the 6th or Chakshusha Manvantar of the Svet-Vrah or present kalp).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Vishnu took Mohini form again and Aiyappa was born.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Matsya Incarnation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of 6th Manvantar (Cākṣuṣa-manvantara) or in the beginning (1st Sata yuga) of 7th Manvantar (Vaivaswata or present Manvantar) of the Svet-Vrah or present kalp. This incarnation of Vishnu saved Satayvrata from the deluge (Pralaya), who later became 7th Manu (Vaivaswata) and the current Manvantar is named after his name.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; This incarnation happened earlier as well to save Vedas from the demon Hayagrīva at the beginning of this Kalpa or at the end of previous Kalpa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parasurama and Rama Incarnation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Treta yugas of 7th Manvantar (Vaivaswata or present Manvantar) of the Svet-Vrah or present kalp.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/bTc7x.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vayu Purana&lt;/a&gt; mention that Parasurama incarnation happened in 19th Treta Yuga and Rama incarnation in 24th Trata yuga but few people consider Kalpa bheda in it. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/22939/was-valmiki-writer-of-ramayana-24th-vyasa&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is the related question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna, Krishńa Dwaipáyana and Balrama Incarnation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the 28th Dwápara yuga which is recently passed (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp077.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dwápara yuga in which Krishńa Dwaipáyana holds the title of Ved Vyash&lt;/a&gt;) of 7th Manvantar (Vaivaswata or present Manvantar) of the Svet-Vrah or present kalp.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; Same is the time line for &lt;strong&gt;Krishńa Dwaipáyana&lt;/strong&gt; (who is know as Vedvyasa, not considered in Dashavataram but in 24 incarnations) and &lt;strong&gt;Balrama&lt;/strong&gt;(few people believe Balrama as Vishnu's incarnation and few as SheshNaga's incarnation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Buddha Incarnation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the 28th Kaliyuga yuga which is going on (around 500 BCE) of 7th Manvantar (Vaivaswata or present Manvantar) of the Svet-Vrah or present kalp.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kalki Incarnation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yet to happen in 28th Kaliyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;strong&gt;Vishnu Purana - Part 3 - Chapter 1&lt;/strong&gt;, below are Lord Vishnu's avtars in past Manvantara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Yajna was born in the Swáyambhuva or First Manwantara&#xA;&#xA;Ajita was born in the Swárochisha or Second Manwantara&#xA;&#xA;Satya was born in the Auttami or Third Manwantara&#xA;&#xA;Hari was born in the Támasa or Fourth Manwantara&#xA;&#xA;Mánasa was born in the Raivata or Fifth Manwantara&#xA;&#xA;Vaikuntha was born in the Chákshusha or Sixth Manwantara&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12304" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-08-12T09:20:05.893" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21715" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21584" CreationDate="2017-10-22T14:00:17.067" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;When Brahma VidyA is attained by some he becomes knower of the Brahman. And&#xA;such a person gains sovereignty over the Gods or gains authority over&#xA;them. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, that is one more reason why the Gods would not like anyone&#xA;attaining the Brahma VidyA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rucham brAhmam janayantah (1)&lt;br&gt; DevA agre tat abruvan (2)&lt;br&gt; Yastu evam&#xA;  brAhmano vidyAt (3)&lt;br&gt; Tasya devA asan vashe (4) ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the Gods got the revelation of knowledge of Brahman (1), they&#xA;  declared the teaching about That (2). &lt;strong&gt;That sage who knows the&#xA;  Supreme as described before (3) will have sovereignty over Gods&lt;/strong&gt; (for he&#xA;  has become the Inmost Self of all) (4).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taittiriya Aranakya 3.13.5, VAjasaneyi SamhitA 31.21.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T05:40:45.533" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T05:40:45.533" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21716" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8215" CreationDate="2017-10-22T14:03:38.103" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;This picture is based on a true fact. This height is actually of the human form of Lord Shiva during the wedding ceremony with Parvati. I came to know about this fact from a video by Sadhguru posted on YouTube. As far as I can recall the title of the video, it should be &quot;Shiva Parvati's Marriage&quot; uploaded either by Sadhguru or Isha Foundation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12346" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T14:03:38.103" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21717" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20881" CreationDate="2017-10-22T15:13:44.283" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swans separating Milk from water is mentioned in &lt;a href=&quot;http://literature.awgp.org/book/yajurveda/v2.20&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shukla Yajurveda Samhita&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; - Madhyandin Shakha -Chapter 19 - Mantra 73&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अद्भ्यः क्षीरं व्यपिबत् क्रुड.डांअङ्गिरसो धिया।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ऋतेन सत्यमिन्द्रियं विपानं शुक्रमन्धसs इन्द्रस्यन्द्रि यमिदं पयोमृतं मधु ।।73।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Prana which drinks the essence (Rasa) of the body is similar to that of the Hamsa (crane) ,who seprates the milk from water by&#xA;  churning.&lt;/strong&gt; This prana gives us the truth by Rita. This prana  provide&#xA;  us the ways to drink. It also  gives us the vigor ,food , (Teja&#xA;  ,Virya) , bodily power , milk ,ananda (happyness)equal to amrita and&#xA;  sweet things.&#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DO9Dp.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/DO9Dp.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Hamsa and milk&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Prana is said to similar like a crane who seprates Milk from water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-10-22T15:26:12.097" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T15:26:12.097" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21718" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-22T16:32:25.477" Score="2" ViewCount="60" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is often said RigVeda is most ancient. And then the other 3 Vedas. And after them the rest Puraanas, Smriti et cetera come.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But is this true. Is there really something to be affiliated to scriptures that this scripture is most ancient, and this is a latter scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-10-22T16:32:25.477" Title="Which is the most ancient scripture?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ClosedDate="2017-10-23T00:18:34.483" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21720" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21613" CreationDate="2017-10-22T19:03:09.097" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The real meaning of the hymn RV1.160 (4) is like this-&#xA;' Those gods who , by removing the darkness (devanam  pasa  mapas tamo), gave birth to twin spheres/worlds ( rodasi/ dhyava- prithvi , the inherent meaning  social world and life sustaining earth) became inhabitable ( vish va sama bhuva);  they  sustained  as their kingdom (rajasi) with good deeds and producing wealth (su kratu yaya jare bhih/r) gave stability like with pillars (skambh ne bhih/r sama nriche)&#xA;But don&quot;t  blame the critics, even the ardent supporters also do not understand the hymns  usually. The key point is the words used in RigVeda should not be understood with the meaning we bestow upon them at present e.g. vishva  mentioned above . They used this word meaning the inhabited world/ surrounding as the root here is 'vis' not merely as world or universe as we mean now.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="12348" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T10:03:12.227" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T10:03:12.227" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21721" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21633" CreationDate="2017-10-22T21:22:01.093" Score="-4" Body="&lt;p&gt;From where you got the idea that god can not cook their own food ? Read RV. 6.17&#xA;(11 )Vishnu and Pusha cooked buffaloes and prepared three pots of somaras for Maruts  and Indra before Indra killed Vritra. Another hymn RV.5.29 (7)  gives the numbers  of buffaloes to be three hundred for this occasion. Later on when people started worshipping  them as gods, they offered food of the choice gods prefered in their real life in the past.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="12348" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T12:42:19.887" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T12:42:19.887" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21723" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21613" CreationDate="2017-10-23T02:44:19.350" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com.tw/books?redir_esc=y&amp;amp;id=fgzVAwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;q=draft-horse%2C#v=snippet&amp;amp;q=draft-horse%2C&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jamison and Brereton&lt;/a&gt;'s version (page 339) , the verse is translated as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.160 (4)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This one here, the best artisan of the artisans of the gods, who begat&#xA;  the two world-halves beneficial to all, who measured out the two airy&#xA;  realms with a display of his good resolve, with unaging props—he has&#xA;  been universally praised.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So you can seen here that the translation suggests the verse is used to praise a deity who has a ability to measure greatness of heaven and earth with great accuracy!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorDisplayName="user12262" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T04:01:43.997" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T04:01:43.997" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21724" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="29929" CreationDate="2017-10-23T04:35:20.680" Score="11" ViewCount="1273" Body="&lt;p&gt;How one can make any God as one's guru? What is the procedure? Provided one is unable to find/get a Guru due to many reasons. E.g, I am interested in Kashmiri Shaivism but it is very difficult to find Guru being busy in the Job. And also when I can't wait.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Any god is acceptable, I will just consider him/her Guru &amp;amp; continue my Sadhna according to Kashmiri Shaivism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2018-11-13T07:25:30.747" LastActivityDate="2018-11-13T07:38:25.903" Title="Procedure to make God(s) our Guru" Tags="|gods|guru|kashmiri-shaivism|initiation|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="21" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21725" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21728" CreationDate="2017-10-23T05:00:16.070" Score="15" ViewCount="3727" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva pervades the entire universe through various forms like that of Ekadasha Rudra, or &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16553/who-are-pancha-brahmas-lalita-devi-sits-on-and-why-are-they-called-so/16557#16557&quot;&gt;PanchaBrahma&lt;/a&gt; and also through Ashtamurti form. Lord Shiva is also called by the name Ashta Murti, for eg. In Narada Purana chapter 79, Hanuman prays Lord Shiva by saying AshtaMurti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ध्यानाय ध्यानगम्याय ध्यातृणां गुरवे नमः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;अष्टमूर्ते नमस्तुभ्यं&lt;/strong&gt; पशूनां पतये नमः ।।  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Obeisance to meditation, unto one comprehensible to meditation. Obeisance to the preceptor of meditators. &lt;strong&gt;Oh Ashtamurti obeisance to you,&lt;/strong&gt; obeisance unto Lord of Pashus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/15417/which-purana-has-shiva-ashtottara-stotram/20369#20369&quot;&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/a&gt; also Lord Vishnu tells Ashtamurti as name of Shiva while telling the names to Parvati:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;अष्टमूर्तिरनेकात्मा&lt;/strong&gt; सात्त्विकश्शुद्धविग्रहः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शाश्वतः खण्डपरशुरजः पाशविमोचकः ॥ ११॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;AshtaMurti (who has eight forms),&lt;/strong&gt; anekAtma (who manifest himself as many self), who is Sattvik, who has pure form (Shuddha Vigraha), who is eternal (Shaswat), who has mark of axe (Khanda Parashu), who doesn&amp;apos;t have birth (Aja), who is the remover of Pãshas/ bondages (Pãshavimochaka).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what are the eight forms (Ashtamurti) of Lord Shiva? Which scriptures mention about these forms? How do Vedas, Puranas, Itihasas and other scriptures describe these form? Have any saints/Acharyas of histories mentioned about these forms? What do these forms signify?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T07:18:02.910" LastActivityDate="2018-01-25T05:32:17.957" Title="What are the eight forms (Ashtamurti) of Lord Shiva?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|shiva|history|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21726" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21730" CreationDate="2017-10-23T05:10:51.023" Score="5" ViewCount="397" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was going through this post &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/112/8475&quot;&gt;&quot;Why can we eat 'living' plants but not 'living' animals?&quot;&lt;/a&gt; , and a thought came to my mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I've come across a lot of people, who though themselves are pure vegetarians in the Hindu sense, don't mind paying for the non vegetarian food habits of other people. The rationale being, they are not the ones consuming it, so it shouldn't matter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, is it fair to say someone paying for the non vegetarian food is assigned same sin as the one bringing it home?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8475" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T06:02:17.473" Title="Is someone paying for meat assigned same sin as the one bringing it home?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|food|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21727" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="11658" CreationDate="2017-10-23T05:20:52.403" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rigveda is believed to be the oldest. Since Hindu considers Vedas to be eternal and maintains that these were heard by seers. The seers only complied them. However, people who research in Rigveda or Indologist suggest that Rigveda is oldest based on the following criteria:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Language of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.omilosmeleton.gr/pdf/en/indology/Vedic_and_Avestan.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;RV and Avestan&lt;/a&gt;  hymns composed by Zarathustra bear close resemblance for eg. Avestan one can be converted into Vedic Sanskrit one by simple substitution &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://archive.org/stream/urgeschichtedera00brunuoft#page/n9/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yast 10.8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EZFVu.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/EZFVu.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Its vedic form:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dTsCL.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dTsCL.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So based on the grammatical and lexical structure of the hymns, it is suggested that RV was composed at ~ 1700 BC. This date is also corroborates with the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitanni-Aryan&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;treaty between Mitanni-Aryans and Hittie&lt;/a&gt; in ~ 1400 BC where &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.academia.edu/642020/Journal_of_Indo-European_Studies._2010._About_the_Mitanni_Aryan_gods._1-2_26-40_&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indra, Ashvins and Varuna&lt;/a&gt; are invoked as witnesses of the treaty. Also based on astronomical observation &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/alt.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Subash Kak maintains&lt;/a&gt; that Rigveda became older even in 1900 BC at that time later text like works on jyotish started to appear and he concludes that by ~3300 BC all the Vedas were complied in their final forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now within RV, various mandalas are dated depending on lexical structure. Now there are two schools of thought here one mentions that Vedic people which call themselves &lt;em&gt;Aryan&lt;/em&gt; come from outside and imposed their belief system on indigenous inhabitants so they divides the mandalas in chronological order as &lt;a href=&quot;https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/vedol/90&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;follows:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Archaic (mandala 6 and 8)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Strophic (mandala 7)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Cretic (some verse of mandala 1, 5, and 10)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Normal (mandala 2 and 3)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Popular (madala 1, 9, and 10 most verses)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The other school maintains that Aryan were indeginous of India and they went eastwards. So their chronology is as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.omilosmeleton.gr/pdf/en/indology/Vedic_and_Avestan.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;follows:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Early books 3,6 and 7&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Middle 2,4&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Late: 5, 1, 8, 9 and 10&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Atharvavedic hymns resemble in language to RV's middle period hymns so based on that all vedas are arranged in following order where RV is the oldest and YV being the youngest:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rigveda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atharvaveda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Samaveda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Yajurveda&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorDisplayName="user12262" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T06:15:24.840" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T06:15:24.840" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21728" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21725" CreationDate="2017-10-23T05:25:52.197" Score="17" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva forms the basis of creation of everything and it is also represented by his AshtaMurti or Eight Fold forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) AshtaMurti in Vedas:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;RigVeda states Lord Shiva as &amp;apos;Pururupa&amp;apos; or &amp;apos;one who has multiple forms.&amp;apos; and RigVeda also states &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17949/how-is-lord-shiva-revealed-in-the-rig-veda/17950#17950&quot;&gt;&amp;apos;Yajatam Vishwarupam&amp;apos;&lt;/a&gt; ie. Who himself is in the form of Whole world. Similarly SataRudriyam section of Yajurveda which is a hymn to Lord Shiva also states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विरुपेभ्यो नमो विश्वरुपेभ्येश्चभो नमोः &lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Salutations to him who is formless and &lt;strong&gt;whose form is the Entire Universe&lt;/strong&gt; (VishaRupam)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And the Brahmanas of Vedas give detailed explanations on what AshtaMurti represent.&amp;nbsp; In the Kaushitki Brahmana of RigVeda, origin of AshtaMurti forms take place through Lord Brahma (Prajapati);&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Prajapati made a golden bowl an arrow breadth in height and similar in breadth, in it he poured the seed, &lt;strong&gt;than arose he of thousand eyes, thousand feets and thousand fitted.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  He grasped his father Prajapati, he said to him why do you grasp me? He replied give me a name assigned for without name assigned I shall not eat food here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Prajapati goes on speaking Eight names and their significances too:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He answered, ‘You are &lt;strong&gt;Bhava.&lt;/strong&gt;’ Since the &lt;strong&gt;waters are Bhava,&lt;/strong&gt; thereby Bhava harms him not, nor his offspring, nor his cattle, nor any one claiming to be his. ..... He answered, ‘You are &lt;strong&gt;Sarva.&lt;/strong&gt;’ Since the &lt;strong&gt;Fire is Sarva,&lt;/strong&gt; thereby Sarva harms him not, not his offspring, not his cattle nor any one claiming to be his..... He answered. ‘You are &lt;strong&gt;Pashupati’&lt;/strong&gt; Since &lt;strong&gt;Air is Pashupati,&lt;/strong&gt; Pashupati harms him not, not his offspring, not his cattle, nor any one claiming to be his..... He answered, ‘You are &lt;strong&gt;Ugra&lt;/strong&gt;‘ Since the &lt;strong&gt;plants and trees are Ugra,&lt;/strong&gt; thereby Ugra harms him not, nor his offspring, nor his cattle, nor my one claiming to be his.... He answered, ‘ You are &lt;strong&gt;Mahadeva’&lt;/strong&gt; Since the &lt;strong&gt;sun is Mahadeva,&lt;/strong&gt; thereby the Mahadeva harms him not, nor his offspring, nor his cattle, nor any one claiming to he his.... He answered, ‘You are &lt;strong&gt;Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt;’ Since the &lt;strong&gt;moon is Rudra,&lt;/strong&gt; thereby Rudra harms him not, nor his offspring, nor his cattle, nor any one claiming to he his.... He answered, ‘You are &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;apos;. Since &lt;strong&gt;food is Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; thereby Ishana harms him not, nor his offspring, nor his cattle, nor any one claiming to be his.... He answered, &amp;apos;You are the &lt;strong&gt;Ashani&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;apos; Since &lt;strong&gt;Indra is the Ashani&lt;/strong&gt; thereby the Ashani harms him not, not his offspring, nor his cattle, nor any one claiming to be his..... (RigVeda Kaushitki Brahmana chapter 6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the AshtaMurti as per Kaushitki Brahmana of RigVeda are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhava ➡ Water&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sarva➡Fire&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Pashupati➡Air&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ugra➡Plant and Trees (Earth element) Mahadeva➡Sun&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Rudra➡Moon&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ishana➡Food&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ashani➡Indra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus as per Kaushitki Brahmana the Eight Forms or Astamurti are Fire, Water, Air, Food, Plants, Sun, Moon and Indra.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In the YajurVeda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4130.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana&lt;/a&gt; also Lord Shiva taking AshtaMurti form is described through his &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17278/does-the-atharvasiras-derives-this-mantra-from-yajurveda-or-quotes-from-other-ve/17495#17495&quot;&gt;Agni form.&lt;/a&gt;. Just after birth from Prajapati he cries than Prajapati begins to give name to him along with it&amp;apos;s significance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He said to him, &amp;apos;You are &lt;strong&gt;Rudra&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt; And because he gave him that name, Agni became suchlike (or, that form), for &lt;strong&gt;Rudra is Agni:&lt;/strong&gt; because he cried (rud) therefore he is Rudra..... He said to him, &amp;apos;You are &lt;strong&gt;Sarva.&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt; And because he gave the him that name, the waters became suchlike, for &lt;strong&gt;Sarva is the waters,&lt;/strong&gt; inasmuch as from the water everything here is produced... He said to him, &amp;apos;You are &lt;strong&gt;Pasupati.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;apos; And because he gave him that name, the plants became suchlike, for &lt;strong&gt;Pasupati is the plants:&lt;/strong&gt; hence when cattle (pasu) get plants, then they play the master (patîy)..... He said to him, &amp;apos;You are &lt;strong&gt;Ugra.&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt; And because he gave him that name, Vâyu (the wind) became suchlike, for &lt;strong&gt;Ugra is Air&lt;/strong&gt; hence when it blows strongly, they say &amp;apos;Ugra is blowing.&amp;apos;.... He said to him, &amp;apos;You are &lt;strong&gt;Asani.&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt; And because he gave him that name, the Vidyuta (lightning) became suchlike, for &lt;strong&gt;Asani is Vidyuta&lt;/strong&gt; hence they say of him whom the lightning strikes, &amp;apos;Asani has smitten him.&amp;apos;.... He said to him, &amp;apos;You are &lt;strong&gt;Bhava.&amp;apos;&lt;/strong&gt; And because he gave him that name, Parjanya became suchlike; for &lt;strong&gt;Bhava is Parjanya,&lt;/strong&gt; since everything here comes (bhavati) from the rain-cloud...&#xA;  He said to him, &amp;apos;You are &lt;strong&gt;MahaDeva&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;apos; And because he gave him that name, the moon became suchlike, for &lt;strong&gt;the moon is Pragâpati, and Pragâpati is Mahadeva&lt;/strong&gt; ..... He said to him, &amp;apos;You are &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt; (the Ruler).&amp;apos; And because he gave him that name, the Sun became suchlike, for &lt;strong&gt;Ishana is the Sun,&lt;/strong&gt; since the Sun rules over this All. He said, &amp;apos;So great indeed I am: give me no other name after that!&amp;apos; (YajurVeda Shatapatha Brahmana)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus AshtaMurti as per Shatapatha Brahmana are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rudra ➡Fire&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sarva➡Water&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Pashupati➡Plants&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ugra➡Air&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ashani ➡Vidyuta (Electricity/Lightning)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Bhava➡Parjanya&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  MahaDeva➡Moon, Prajapati&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ishana➡Sun&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sayana in commentary of Shatapatha Brahamana states that Parjanya denotes Yajamãna and Vidyuta denotes Aakash element:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vegetation is called ‘paśupati’ since animals derive strength from it. Or when animals ‘attain’, ‘eat’ vegetation they become lords. Those who are full of desire, they long to attain their lords. Hence the vegetation is &#xA;  the desire-fulfilling entity for the animals, it, Ośadhi, is called paśupati. &lt;strong&gt;From this, the element ‘bhūḥ’, Earth, has been stated.&lt;/strong&gt; Since the lightning happens in the ‘ākāśa’....&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;by the word ‘vidyut’, the space-form of Rudra is being stated&lt;/strong&gt; ....... The word ‘bhava’ denotes parjanya, rain. &lt;strong&gt;By this name, the ‘yajamāna’ form is stated.&lt;/strong&gt; He indeed is the one who harbors all desires and therefore ‘bhavatva’ is appropriate for him.....&amp;nbsp; (Sayana Commentary)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus AshtaMurti as per Shatapatha Brahmana are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Space, Moon, Sun, Yajamãna&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are some variations in Kaushitki Brahmana and Satapatha Brahmana but when there is variations/contradiction in Shruti both things &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17030/manu-2-14-any-examples-of-conflicts-in-vedic-texts-is-manusm%e1%b9%9bti-itself-a-vedi&quot;&gt;are accepted.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;So, the AshtaMurti represents:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fire, Water, Air, Space (Vidyuta), Earth( Plants), Food, Sun, Moon, Yajamãna (Parjanya), Prajapati, Indra&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Ashtamurti in Mahabharata:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Harivamsha Parva of Mahabharata, AshtaMurti forms of Lord Shiva are stated as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यं विधुर्भूततत्त्वज्ञं भूतेषं भूतभावनम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वामदेवं विरूपाक्षमाहुस्तत्त्वविदो जनः ॥३-८५-१७ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  महादेवं सहस्राक्षं कालमूर्तिं चतुर्भुजम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रुद्रं रोदननामानमाहुर्विश्वेश्वरम् शिवम् ॥३-८५-१८&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अप्रमेयमनाधारमाहुर्माहश्वरा जनाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नग्नं नग्नपरीतं तु नागिनम् त्वग्निवर्चसम् ।३-८५-१९&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  आहुर्विश्वेश्वरं शान्तं शिवमादिं सनातनम् । &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्य मूर्तिरिमाः सर्वा धराद्याः सकला नृप ॥३-८५-२० &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;भूमिरापोऽनलो वायुः खं सूर्यश्च तथा शशी ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अग्निश्च यजमानश्च प्रकृतिश्चैवमष्टधा ॥३-८५-२१&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The wise people, knowledgeable about the fundamental principles say that the lord is the basic principle of beings, the lord of beings, the lord who is concerned with the welfare of the beings, lord vAmadeva and the lord with the &#xA;  third eye. The great lord, the lord with thousand eyes, the lord of time, the lord with four arms, rudra and rodana, the lord of the world, the auspicious lord. The people say that the great lord is immeasurable and devoid of supports. The unconcealed lord has unconcealed followers. The lord, surrounded by serpents has the lustre of fire. He is called Vishveshvara, Tranquil, Auspicious, the Primal Ancient One. &lt;strong&gt;All that is seen in creation is His form. The earth, water, fire, wind, sky, sun as well as moon and the god of fire as the institutor of the sacrifice (yajamAna) -- These are the eight-fold natural forms of the Lord.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) AshtaMurti in Puranas:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;i) Shiva Purana:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana states of Ashtamurti forms many many times. For eg in ShatRudraSamhita 2nd chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शर्वो भवस्तथा रुद्र उग्रो भीम पशोः पति ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ईशानश्च महादेवो मूर्तयश्चाष्ट विश्रुता ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भूम्यम्भोऽग्निमरुद्वयोमक्षेत्रज्ञार्कनिशाकरा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अधितिष्ठाश्च शर्वाद्यैरष्टरुपैः शिवस्य हि ।।&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The well known eight presiding deities are Sarva, Bhava, Rudra, Ugra, Bhima, Pashupati, Ishana and Mahadeva. These eight preside over Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Sky, Soul, Sun and Moon.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;ii) Vishnu Purana:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu Purana also gives similar account like that of Shatapatha Brahamana episode: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवमुक्तः पुनः सोऽथ सप्तकृत्वो रुरोद वै। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ततोऽन्यानि ददौ तस्मै सप्त नामानि वै प्रभुः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  स्थानानि चैषामष्टानां पत्नीः पुत्रांश्च वै प्रभुः।। ५ ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भवं सर्व महेशानं तथा पशुपति द्विज। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भीममुग्रं महादेवं उवाच स पितामहः।। ६ ।। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चक्रे नामान्यथैतानि स्थानान्येषां चकार सः। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;सूर्यों जल मही वहिर्वायुराकाशमेव च। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दीक्षितो ब्राह्मणः सोम इत्येतास्तनवः क्रमात्॥७॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  (Vishnu Purana 1.8) &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  But, thus addressed, the boy [Rudra] still wept seven-times, and Brahma therefore gave to him seven other denominations; and to these eight persons, regions and wives and posterity belong. &lt;strong&gt;The eight manifestations, then, are named Rudra, Bhava, Sarva, Ishana, Pasupati, Bhima, Ugra and Mahādeva,&lt;/strong&gt; which were given to them by their great progenitor. He also assigned to them their respective stations, &lt;strong&gt;the Sun, water, ether, air, fire, earth, the ministrant Brahman, and the moon; for these are their several forms.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;iii) Markandeya Purana:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Markandeya Purana also gives similar account:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(He said): - Thou, O Deva or Bright One, shall be of the name of &lt;strong&gt;Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; Do not cry. Be patient. Thus spoken to, then he cried again and again seven times. Then to him the lord gave seven other names, and also the abodes of these eight Rudras, and their wives and sons, O thou twice-born one, (were duly assigned). The lord, the Grand-father (Brahma), spoke and gave these names, - namely &lt;strong&gt;Bhava, Sarva, similarly Ishana, likewise Pashupati, Bhima, Ugra, Mahadeva&lt;/strong&gt; and made abodes for these. &lt;strong&gt;The sun, the water, the earth, the fire, the ether, the initiated Brahman, and the moon, these became respectively their abodes.&lt;/strong&gt; [Chapter 52]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And so on in other many Puranas too similar description are found.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4) AshtaMurti Invocations in Grihya Sutras:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Invocation of AshtaMurti forms is very popular in Grihya Sutras. Baudhayana Grihya Sutra 2.7, Hiranyakeshi Grihya Sutra 2nd Patala, Agniveshya Grihya Sutra 5th chapter, Bharadvaja Grihya Sutra 2nd Prashna, Vaikhasana Grihya Sutra 4th Prashna offer to AshtaMurti forms as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भवाय देवाय स्वाहा शर्वाय देवाय स्वाहा ईशानाय देवाय स्वाहा पशुपतये देवाय स्वाहा रुद्राय देवाय स्वाहा उग्राय देवाय स्वाहा भीमाय देवाय स्वाहा महते देवाय स्वाहा इति। भवस्य देवस्य पत्न्यै स्वाहा शर्वस्य देवस्य पत्न्यै स्वाहा ईशानस्य देवास्य पत्न्यै स्वाहा पशुपतेर्देवस्य पत्न्यै स्वाहा रुद्र देवस्य पत्न्यै स्वाहा उग्रादेवस्य पत्न्यै स्वाहा भीमदेवस्य पत्न्यै स्वाहा महते देवस्य पत्न्यै स्वाहा इति। &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Offerings be to divine &lt;strong&gt;Bhava,&lt;/strong&gt; To &lt;strong&gt;Sharva,&lt;/strong&gt; To &lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt;, To &lt;strong&gt;Pashupati,&lt;/strong&gt; To &lt;strong&gt;Rudra,&lt;/strong&gt; To &lt;strong&gt;Ugra,&lt;/strong&gt; To &lt;strong&gt;Bhima,&lt;/strong&gt; To &lt;strong&gt;Mahadeva.&lt;/strong&gt; Offerings be to wife of Bhava, wife of Sharva, wife of Ishana, wife of Pashupati, wife of Rudra, wife of Ugra, wife of Bhima, wife of Mahadeva....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;5) AstaMurti Invocation in Veda Samhitas:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;AshtaMurti forms are also mentioned in Veda Samhitas like:&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/17619/in-which-worship-are-these-organs-mentioned-in-yajurveda-offered-to-lord-shiva&quot;&gt;Taittariya Samhita 1.4.36&lt;/a&gt;, Shukla YajurVeda 39th chapter, AtharvaVeda &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20184/who-is-vratya-mentioned-in-the-atharva-veda/20204#20204&quot;&gt;Vratya Sukta 15.5&lt;/a&gt; and in other places too.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;AshtaMurti description in various stotras/works:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1) Tirumular in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/18092/how-is-tirumantiram-1st-verse-by-tirumular-one-is-many-interpreted&quot;&gt;Tirumantiram:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The One is He, the Two His sweet Grace, In Three He stood, in all the Four witnessed, The Five He conquered, the Six He filled, The Seven Worlds pervades, &lt;strong&gt;manifests the Eight And so remains.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2) Kalidasa in Abhijnanasakuntalam:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May the Lord protect you, &lt;strong&gt;the Lord endowed with eight visible bodies,&lt;/strong&gt; viz., - the one that represents the first creation of the creator (&lt;strong&gt;water&lt;/strong&gt;), the one which transports materials duly offered in the fire (&lt;strong&gt;fire&lt;/strong&gt;), the one which represents the sacrificer (&lt;strong&gt;soul&lt;/strong&gt;), the two which create time (&lt;strong&gt;the Sun and the Moon&lt;/strong&gt;), the one which, being imbued the quality capable of being sensed by the ear, stands pervading the Universe (&lt;strong&gt;ether&lt;/strong&gt;), the one which the wise men declare the root cause of all elements (&lt;strong&gt;earth&lt;/strong&gt;) and the one by which living beings are animated by life (&lt;strong&gt;air&lt;/strong&gt;). [Invocation prayer]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3) Pushpadanta in Mahmina stotram:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;त्वमर्कस्त्वं सोमस्त्वमसि पवनस्त्वं हुतवहः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वमापस्त्वं व्योम त्वमु धरणिरात्मा त्वमिति च।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  परिच्छिन्नामेवं त्वयि परिणता बिभ्रति गिरं&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  न विद्मस्तत्तत्त्वं वयमिह तु यत्‌ त्वं न भवसि॥ २६॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  You are &lt;strong&gt;the sun, the moon, the air, the fire, the water, the sky&lt;/strong&gt; (ether/space), and &lt;strong&gt;the earth&lt;/strong&gt; (the five elements or `bhUtA&amp;apos;s). You are &lt;strong&gt;the Self&lt;/strong&gt; which is omnipresent . Thus people describe in words every attribute as yours . On the other hand, I do not know any fundamental principle or thing or substance, which you are not!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भवः शर्वो रुद्रः पशुपतिरथोग्रः सहमहान्‌&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथा भीमेशानाविति यदभिधानाष्टकमिदम्‌।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अमुष्मिन्‌ प्रत्येकं प्रविचरति देव श्रुतिरपि&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रियायास्मैधाम्ने प्रणिहित-नमस्योऽस्मि भवते॥ २८॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  I salute you as the dear abode of the following &lt;strong&gt;8 names: bhava, sharva, rudra, pashupati, ugra, mahadeva, bhiima, and Ishaana;&amp;nbsp; the `Vedas&amp;apos; also discusses individually about these names.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4) Adi Shankara in Dakshinamurty stotram:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;भूरम्भांस्यनलोऽनिलोऽम्बरमहर्नाथो हिमांशु पुमान्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इत्याभाति चराचरात्मकमिदं यस्यैव मूर्त्यष्टकम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नान्यत् किञ्चन विद्यते विमृशतां यस्मात्परस्माद्विभोः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मै श्रीगुरुमूर्तये नम इदं श्रीदक्षिणामूर्तये ॥९॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Space, Sun, Moon and Jiva are Verily His Eight Manifestations Shining within the Moving and the Non-Moving forms, Apart from Him there Cannot Exist anything;&lt;/strong&gt; The Yogis who Reflect (i.e. Meditate) within Discover Him as the Essence From Which Everything Originates, ... Discover Him as Existing Beyond Everything as the Eternal Essence. Salutations to Him, the Personification of Our Inner Guru Who Awakens This Knowledge through His Profound Silence; Salutation to Sri Dakshinamurthy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5) Sri Abhinavagupta in TantrasAra:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;स च अष्टधा-क्षितिजलपवनहुताशनाकाशसोमसूर्यात्मरुपासु अष्टासु मूर्तिषु मन्त्रन्यासमहिम्ना परमेश्वररुपतया भावितासु तादात्म्येन च देहे परमेश्वरसमाविष्टे शरीरादिविभागवृत्तेः चैतन्यस्यापि परमेश्वरसमावेशप्राप्ति: (12th chapter)&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Furthermore, this absorption is eightfold. By means of meditation on the very nature of Paramesvara, and &lt;strong&gt;by the power of the placement of the mantras (nyasa) in the eightfold form of Siva, i.e., the earth, water, air, fire, ether, moon, sun, and the self (atma), and in one&amp;apos;s own body by gaining identity with it. one becomes firmly absorbed in Paramesvara.&lt;/strong&gt; In this way, a limited soul, which functions differently as a body, etc., attains absorption in the Lord.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;6) Patanjali in Nataraja Stotram:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनन्तमहसं त्रिदशवन्द्य चरणं मुनि हृदन्तर वसन्तममलम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कबन्ध वियदिन्द्ववनि गन्धवह वह्निमख बन्धुरविमञ्जु वपुषम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अनन्तविभवं त्रिजगन्तर मणिं त्रिनयनं त्रिपुर खण्डन परम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सनन्द मुनि वन्दित पदं सकरुणं पर चिदम्बर नटं हृदि भज ॥ ५॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  His might endless, the gods bow down to his feet. He brings Spring to the heart of the saints. He is Perfect. &lt;strong&gt;Water, sky, moon, earth, wind, fire, Atma, sun make his lovely form.&lt;/strong&gt; His majesty is endless. He is the most precious of the three worlds. Three-eyed, he is inclined on destroying Tripura. Saint Sananda bows to his feet. He is merciful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Significance of AshtaMurti Form:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These Eight forms of Lord Shiva are also of great significance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;1) Significance in creation itself:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The creation itself became &amp;apos;Suchlike&amp;apos; or attained form due to AshtaMurti forms. It&amp;apos;s described in YajurVeda Satapatha Brahmana as;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;... &lt;strong&gt;Fire became suchlike&lt;/strong&gt; for Rudra is fire... &lt;strong&gt;Water became suchlike&lt;/strong&gt; for Sarva is water...&#xA;  Plants became suchlike for Pashupati is plants... Air became suchlike for Ugra is air.&#xA;  ... Vidyuta became &lt;strong&gt;suchlike&lt;/strong&gt; for Ashani is Vidyuta... Moon became suchlike for Mahadeva is moon... &lt;strong&gt;Sun became suchlike&lt;/strong&gt; for Ishana is sun (YajurVeda Shatapatha Brahmana 6.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus the whole creation came into existence due to manifestation of AshtaMurti forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;2) Prevention from Harm:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Realising that these AshtaMurti things belongs to Shiva is necessary so that one doesn&amp;apos;t get harmed by these things:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the waters are Bhava, &lt;strong&gt;thereby Bhava harms him not, nor his offspring, nor his cattle, nor any one claiming to be his.&lt;/strong&gt; ...Fire is Sarva, thereby Sarva harms him not, not his offspring, not his cattle nor any one claiming to be his.... Air is Pashupati, &lt;strong&gt;Pashupati harms him not, not his offspring, not his cattle, nor any one claiming to be his&lt;/strong&gt;..... Ugra harms him not.... &lt;strong&gt;sun is Mahadeva, thereby the Mahadeva harms him not, nor his offspring, nor his cattle, nor any one claiming to be his&lt;/strong&gt;... moon is Rudra, thereby Rudra harms him not....&amp;nbsp; food is Ishana thereby Ishana harms him not,.... Indra is the Ashani thereby the Ashani &lt;strong&gt;harms him not, not his offspring, nor his cattle, nor any one claiming to be his&lt;/strong&gt;..... (RigVeda Kaushitki Brahmana chapter 6)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus one should realise that these things like Sun, Moon, Air, Water, Fire etc... are Shiva so that he isn&amp;apos;t harmed by these things also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;3) Naming and name chanting:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shatapatha Brahmana episode gives extra injunction teaching (which is not present in Kaushitki Brahamana), the injunction is about name giving to a baby and Prajapati tells that giving name to a new born baby frees one from evil and after saying it he starts to pronounce AshtaMurti names.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pragâpati said to him, &amp;apos;My boy, why criest thou, when thou art born out of labour and trouble?&amp;apos; He said, &amp;apos;Nay, but I am not freed from (guarded against) evil; I have no name given me: give me a name!&amp;apos; &lt;strong&gt;Hence one should give a name to the boy that is born, for thereby one frees him from evil;&lt;/strong&gt; --even a second, even a third (name), for thereby one frees him from evil time after time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually Rudra in the [form of Agni] is born this time with the union of Prajapati and Usha, this union is sin in Gods eye. As &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe12/sbe1233.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;described here&lt;/a&gt; Rudra punished Prajapati, but this time during birth Rudra makes Prajapati pronounce his Eight names by saying as if he himself is not freed from evil and in this way Prajapati escaped from punishment of Rudra this time.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Thus it is also recommended to give AshtaMurti names to a baby. Similarly chanting of AshtaMurti names is also very fruitful because all these names are present in SataRudriya section of YajurVeda and as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/search?q=Jabala+Upanishad&quot;&gt;Jabala Upanishad&lt;/a&gt; states one gets immortality by chanting names of Sata Rudriya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;III-1. Then the discipline students (Brahmacharins of Yajnavalkya) asked him: ‘Pray, tell us, &lt;strong&gt;what is that mantra by reciting which one attains immortality ?’ He replied: ‘By (reciting) Satarudriya’. These mantras are indeed the names of (Rudra to achieve) immortality. By (reciting) these (mantras) one becomes immortal.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;4) Harming others is like Harming Shiva:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since, Shiva is present in every form of creation so, harming or insulting creation or persons is like Harming or insulting Shiva himself. Shiva Purana ShatRudra Samhita chapter 2 states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;क्रियते यस्य कस्यापि देहिनो यदी निग्रहः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अष्टमूर्तेरनिष्टं तत्कृतमेव न संशय ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अष्टमूर्त्यात्मना विश्वमअधिष्ठायास्थितं शिवम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भजस्व सर्वभावेन रुद्र परमकारणनम् ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;In case if some damage or bondage is caused by one person to another person, than he surely does harm through AshtaMurti who is the presiding form of Shiva,&lt;/strong&gt; who should always be adored because Shiva happens to be the primordial cause of all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;5) Realisation of whole Universe as Shiva:&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By contemplating on AshtaMurti forms one can realise &amp;apos;Sarva khalvidam Brahman&amp;apos; ie. &amp;apos;Whole Universe is Brahman&amp;apos; itself. Shiva Purana states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;प्रत्ययार्थं च जगतामेकस्थोऽपि दिवाकर ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ऐकोऽपि बहुदा दृष्टो जलधारादिवस्तुषु ।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  दृश्यते श्रुयते लोके यद्यत्सदसदात्मकम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तत्तत्सर्वं सुरा वित्तं परं ब्रह्म शिवात्मकम् ।। (Rudra Samhita Shristi khanda chapter 12)&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  A single sun in order to convince the world appears in several ways in pitchers filled with water. Similarly whatever is Sat and Asat in the world, O Gods, should be taken as the form of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar Vedantic truth through realisation of AshtaMurti is brought by Kalidasa in the invocation of his famous work Abhijnana Shakuntalam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;या स्रिष्टिः स्रुष्टुराद्या वहति विधिहुतम् या हविर्या च होत्री।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  ये द्वे कालम् विधत्तः श्रुतिविषय गुणाः या स्थिता व्याप्य विश्वम्।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  याम् आहुः सर्वबीजप्रकृतिरिति यया प्राणिनः प्राणवन्तः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रत्यक्षाभिः प्रपन्नस्तनुभिरवतु वस्ताभिरष्टाभिरीशः।।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  May the Lord protect you, the Lord endowed with eight visible bodies, viz., - the one that represents the first creation of the creator (water), the one which transports materials duly offered in the fire (fire), the one &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  which represents the sacrificer (soul), the two which create time (the Sun and the Moon), the one which, being imbued the quality capable of being sensed by the ear, stands pervading the Universe (ether), the one which the wise men declare the root cause of all elements (earth) and the one by which living beings are animated by life (air).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus contemplating on the AshtaMurti forms one reaches to the conclusion that &amp;apos;Sarvam Shivamayam Jagat&amp;apos; or &amp;apos;Entire Universe is Shiva.&amp;apos;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;For eg. Contemplating on a rain drop coming from sky and with respect to Shatapatha Brahamana description:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That rain drop is water which itself is AshtaMurti form of &lt;strong&gt;Sharva.&lt;/strong&gt; Fire element ie. Heat (&lt;strong&gt;Rudra&lt;/strong&gt;) present in that drop is making liquid form of water to exist. Water drop is occupying some space to exist (&lt;strong&gt;Ashani&lt;/strong&gt;). Water is made of two air molecules (&lt;strong&gt;Ugra&lt;/strong&gt;). Water molecules contains many electromagnetic forces (&lt;strong&gt;Ashani =Vidyuta&lt;/strong&gt;). There is also solidity in water molecules eg.&amp;nbsp; like in nucleus (&lt;strong&gt;Pashupati&lt;/strong&gt;). Our mind (&lt;strong&gt;Mahadeva&lt;/strong&gt;) is observing that. That water drop when strikes seeds grow plants (&lt;strong&gt;Pashupati&lt;/strong&gt;). From it comes food (&lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt;). Previously also that water came from sea (&lt;strong&gt;Sarva&lt;/strong&gt;). It was heated (&lt;strong&gt;Rudra&lt;/strong&gt;) by Sun (&lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt;). It became vapour (&lt;strong&gt;Ugra&lt;/strong&gt;), it went to sky (&lt;strong&gt;Bhima&lt;/strong&gt;). Lightning (&lt;strong&gt;Ashani&lt;/strong&gt;) came there. Rainfall (&lt;strong&gt;Parjanya = Bhava&lt;/strong&gt;) occurred there and it fell towards earth (&lt;strong&gt;Pashupati&lt;/strong&gt;). Time is continuously flowing while this event is happening and can be represented through Sun (&lt;strong&gt;Ishana&lt;/strong&gt;) and Moon (&lt;strong&gt;Mahadeva&lt;/strong&gt;)...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus contemplating on this way one can experience AshtaMurti forms of Shiva in minute minute things also. And finally &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19831/which-vedic-verses-depict-lord-shiva-rudra-as-the-brahman/19835#19835&quot;&gt;Sri Rudram&lt;/a&gt; comes which states Lord Shiva himself is every form of creation. And also comes declaration of Taittariya Aranyaka (10.24,25) of YajurVeda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सर्वो वै रुद्रस्तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु । पुरुषो वै रुद्रः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सन्महो नमो नमः । विश्वं भूतं भुवनं चित्रं बहुधा जातं जायमानं चयत् । सर्वो ह्येष रुद्रस्तस्मै रुद्राय नमो अस्तु ॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  All this verily is Rudra. To Rudra who is such we offer our salutation. We salute again and again that Being, Rudra, who is Purusha. &lt;strong&gt;The material universe the created beings and whatever there is manifoldly and profusely created in the past and in the present in the form of the world, all that is indeed this Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; Salutations be to Rudra who is such. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And finally I want to close this answer with the Eight forms mentioned in Svetasvatara Upanishad:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तदेवाग्निस्तदादित्य-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; स्तद्वायुस्तदु चन्द्रमाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तदेव शुक्रं तद् ब्रह्म&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; तदापस्तत् प्रजापतिः ॥ 4.2॥&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That Supreme Self is Agni (&lt;strong&gt;Fire&lt;/strong&gt;); It is Aditya (&lt;strong&gt;Sun&lt;/strong&gt;); It is Vayu (&lt;strong&gt;Wind&lt;/strong&gt;); It is Chandrama (&lt;strong&gt;Moon&lt;/strong&gt;). That Self is the luminous &lt;strong&gt;stars;&lt;/strong&gt; It is &lt;strong&gt;Hiranyagarbha;&lt;/strong&gt; It is &lt;strong&gt;water;&lt;/strong&gt; It is &lt;strong&gt;Virat.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastEditorUserId="5154" LastEditDate="2018-01-25T05:32:17.957" LastActivityDate="2018-01-25T05:32:17.957" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21729" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-23T05:34:45.003" Score="2" ViewCount="693" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a main rule in Hinduism with the idea that everybody is born, everybody lives and then  dies. This was the case for humans. My question is: Why did Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva follow this rule? What would be the point of following this rule when they are all seeing, all powerful and all knowing. What is the significance of following this rule?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12309" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T07:28:01.197" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T07:28:01.197" Title="Why did gods follow rule of Hinduism?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|brahma|rebirth|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21730" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21726" CreationDate="2017-10-23T05:48:26.320" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;, because he is buying it or paying for it even though he won't be eating it. One who is buying the meat and one who is eating it are both sharing equal guilt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 5.51. He who permits (the slaughter of an animal), he who&#xA;  cuts it up, he who kills it, &lt;strong&gt;he who buys or sells (meat)&lt;/strong&gt;, he who cooks&#xA;  it, he who serves it up, and he who eats it, &lt;strong&gt;(must all be considered&#xA;  as) the slayers (of the animal).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, even the persons who cook the meat and serve it are equally guilty as the person who consumes it, even though they (the cook and the one who serves) might not be eating it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T06:02:17.473" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T06:02:17.473" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21731" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21729" CreationDate="2017-10-23T06:32:14.030" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think you are mixed up in the definition of omnipotent and  omniscient. The main religious concept of whole vedic thought was rta which is a moral order or cosmic force which governs spiritual motion of human beings. Even Gods can not escape rta, violators are severely punished.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Consider a powerful rocket like Saturn V that made lunar exploration possible it would produce a thrust of &gt; 100 KN. That said the rocket still has  to follow laws of gravty. So being able to overcome gravity does not mean the law of gravity cease to exist. Same thing is hold true for Gods. As mentioned by &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/4732/rickross&quot;&gt;Rickross&lt;/a&gt; that Gods follows rule of Gods. Rule of karma does not apply on them as that is applicable for people who born on earth. However killing someone (brahmin/bystander) is a sin even for Gods and they have to atone the sins     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T06:32:14.030" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21732" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21729" CreationDate="2017-10-23T06:58:24.630" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Gods have their own rules, their own Laws. Such rules are not the ones we humans are required to follow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is mentioned in the Vedas as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DevA devAnAm anu hi vratA guh.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Gods move according to the law of workings of the Gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda 3.7.7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Commentary on this mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Even the Gods observe a law and that law is the law of Truth. For the&#xA;  Gods are themselves born of Truth, grow in Truth and live in Truth.&#xA;  They are emanated from the vast Being of the Supreme to carry out its&#xA;  Truth-Will in the manifestation. They uphold and follow the workings&#xA;  of this Will, its law of effectuation. They are both the guardians and&#xA;  functionaries of this Law.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adapted from Sri Aurobindo.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T06:58:24.630" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21733" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-23T08:22:24.297" Score="1" ViewCount="280" Body="&lt;p&gt;Previously, I purchased few Yantras of Gods and Goddesses and kept in my Puja room. Even after 20-30 years, these yantras are still there and I worship them. I have not noticed any positive change in my life though. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recently, I read a lot about Yantra and came to know that these sacred geometries are machines. A yantra needs regular meditation on it's bindu to make it work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few pandits say that these require Pran Pratistha. Now the question is how to know that pandit was successfully able to do Pran Pratistha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How to make a Yantra work? After how many days I can expect any positive result, howsoever small? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12301" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T08:22:24.297" Title="How to make a Yantra work?" Tags="|mantras|tantra|yantra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21734" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21762" CreationDate="2017-10-23T09:03:33.617" Score="4" ViewCount="86" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any merit of making charity on the name of ancestors to us?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We often do charity on our name that for sure directly gives us merit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Is there any merit to us if we do charity on the name of our ancestors?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2869" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T09:14:39.987" LastActivityDate="2017-10-24T11:46:49.427" Title="Charity For Anscestors" Tags="|belief|karma|daana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21737" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-23T09:24:24.360" Score="6" ViewCount="279" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Gondwana region of India, which stretches from Madhya Pradesh to Chhattisgarh, I read about few mysterious Goddesses in the tribal area. The tribes make use of the powers acquired by these goddesses in tantric rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few such names are: Goddess Marhi, Goddess Banjari etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I even searched these names in Devi Bhagwat and Durga Saptshati, but there are no such names. I asked few tribes and they say that Goddess Marhi is a form of Goddess Durga, but not Durga. She is one of the fierce form and has seven sisters. Goddess Banjari is one of them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Has anyone heard the names before? If yes, please let me know what is the actual names of these Goddesses in Shastras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though all forms evolved from Goddess Parvathi, but still in Tantra world, these not considered one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12301" LastActivityDate="2023-05-21T04:42:29.983" Title="What is the actual name of these mysterious goddesses?" Tags="|goddess|devi|tantra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21738" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5483" CreationDate="2017-10-23T11:02:48.343" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Partial Answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We celebrate Shiv Ratri because Lord Shiva himself recommended for sake of grace. Although he recommended even Shivratri which falls every month, he laid importance of Maha Shiva Ratri specially.Note that this is one of the Do's among the 5 do's of Shaiva or Shiva devotees (Pancha Dharma).  From Shiv Rahasya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Fasting. The abstaining from taking food once every month on the dark night that comes&#xA;  before the Moonless Day and the First Crescent of the Moon, is known as Shiva Ratri Upavasa or&#xA;  Fasting on the Holy Night of Shiva. &lt;strong&gt;But that Fast (Upavasana) which is observed before the&#xA;  Moonless Night (Amavasya) in the Month of Magha (February - March, see Commentary), is&#xA;  known as Maha Shiva Ratri&lt;/strong&gt; or the Great Fast of Shiva. &lt;strong&gt;It is the most excellent of all Fasts. I&#xA;  bestow all kinds of Blessings upon those who observe My Fast with devotion and remain&#xA;  watchful on that Holy Night.&lt;/strong&gt; For he who watches for the dawn of the First Moon, watches for the&#xA;  Dawning of My Light Eternal and his name shall be established in the Abode of the Awakened&#xA;  Ones. By the earnest practice of this Watchful Fast My devotee is cleansed of sins and his Soul&#xA;  grows ever brighter even as the New Moon grows in brightness every day. 11.46&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T11:21:00.860" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T11:21:00.860" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21739" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-23T11:32:31.517" Score="5" ViewCount="925" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rigveda alludes a story of Bhujyu who happened to be a son of king Tugra. The king got to know about some enemies planning to attack his kingdom so he sent Bhujyu along with his  few confederates on a ship/boat to neutralize the attack. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As they traveled, it turned out that the confederates were moles and they drowned/abandoned Bhujyu in the middle of sea/river. Bhujyu did not learn how to swim so he prayed to Ashvins and he was rescued by the later but he drowned so deep in the sea that Ashvins had to swim for 3 days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RV 1.182 (5-7)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fhgTu.png&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fhgTu.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Recently this story has been of interest because the verses mention of a large body of water (samudra) which has become a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/op/2002/08/20/stories/2002082000120200.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;topic of debate&lt;/a&gt; whether samudra mean ponds/ocean/river/sea. The summary of the debate can be read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.omilosmeleton.gr/english/documents/RigVedicTownandOcean.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Philosopical side also much has been written about on Bhujyus incident as people claim that this is the first instance in RV which talks about punishment given by Varuna or Mitra where sinner falls in an abyss till eternity.  However, like the story of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunahshepa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shunahshepa&lt;/a&gt; Bhujyu's sin was absolved by praying to Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is - do we know about Bhujyu's incident in details in later texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-09-13T17:28:04.907" LastActivityDate="2019-11-28T15:33:47.207" Title="Story of Bhujyu" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|sin|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21740" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-23T11:50:50.727" Score="6" ViewCount="16191" Body="&lt;p&gt;I Have been visiting Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga for a couple of times this year. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every time I visit there, it is a must for me to witness the awesome bhasma-aarti being offered to lord shiva i.e., lord Mahakal&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question here is, why we offer the bhasma ? and how that tradition got started ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it true that the bhasma (Ashes) are of human body freshly burnt in crematorium or Samshaan?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What are the significance of witnessing that bhasma-arti ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why females are not allowed to watch the bhasma being offered ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why only an Aghori brings the bhasma ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why it happens so early in the morning?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Too many question yet very few for a curious mind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Jai Mahakaal. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3274" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-24T09:05:24.573" LastActivityDate="2019-12-01T05:33:46.813" Title="Bhasma-Aarti at Mahakaleshwar temple Ujjain" Tags="|shiva|temple|jyotirlinga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21741" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21757" CreationDate="2017-10-23T11:51:55.580" Score="8" ViewCount="6668" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am searching for the correct Panchdasi mantra, rather the Moola Panchdasi mantra. I referred various sites and each site has a different one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, few variants are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;(1) क ए ई ल ह्रीं ह स क ल ह्रीं स क ल ह्रीं&#xA;(2) क ए ई ल ह्रीं ह स क ल ह्रीं स क ल ह्रीं श्रीं&#xA;(3) ह्रीं क ए ई ल ह्रीं ह स क ल ह्रीं स क ल ह्रीं&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which one is the Moola Mantra?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12301" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-26T17:15:09.663" LastActivityDate="2021-01-16T14:20:49.497" Title="Which is the correct Panchdasi mantra of Goddess Lalita?" Tags="|mantras|sri-vidya|lalita|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21742" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-23T12:11:17.120" Score="5" ViewCount="145" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Shiv Rahasya on 11th chapters Lord Shiva giving commandments to Kaliyuga people. Here is characteristics of a King.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The King shall favour peace above war. He shall not start a war without just cause. But if&#xA;  assailed by the enemy, he shall be fearless in defending himself and his realm. He shall be skilled&#xA;  in the use of the &lt;strong&gt;thirty-six kinds of weapons and in tactics of war&lt;/strong&gt;. He shall&#xA;  enter the battlefield like an elephant entering a lotus pond. He shall be brave in battle,&#xA;  magnanimous in victory and unbowed in defeat. 11.58&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know what are those 36 kinds of weapons &amp;amp; tactics of war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T12:22:00.217" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T12:22:00.217" Title="What are 36 kinds of weapons &amp; tactics of the war?" Tags="|shiva|dharma|weapon|war|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21743" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-23T12:39:04.350" Score="3" ViewCount="5242" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hi difference in Lord Vishnu and Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12336" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T15:46:14.417" Title="What is the difference between Lord Vishnu and Lord Krishna" Tags="|vishnu|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-10-24T04:11:30.593" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21744" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21769" CreationDate="2017-10-23T12:55:23.597" Score="10" ViewCount="805" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the book &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Autobiography of an Avadoota by Avadhoota Nadananda&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;, author says &lt;em&gt;Kailasa&lt;/em&gt; (mountain) literally means &lt;em&gt;Sahasrara&lt;/em&gt; (7th Chakra which has 1000 petals and hence the name). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Kundalini Yoga, Sahasrara is seat of SadaShiva and when Kundalini shakti (goddess Shakti metaphorically) unites with Sadashiva in Sahasrara, which is called as Shiva- Shakti union,  Yogi &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/13742/3500&quot;&gt;attains Kaivalya&lt;/a&gt; (liberation).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is what author says in his book:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My mind was questioning the idea of Shiva actually residing in&#xA;  Kailash. To me, Shiva is not a form but pure consciousness. &lt;strong&gt;‘Kailash’&#xA;  literally means Sahasrara.&lt;/strong&gt; I wondered of my mind that was eager to&#xA;  search for Shiva externally; but is not Shiva in the form of pure&#xA;  consciousness already dwelling in everyone’s body in their Sahasrara?&#xA;  Instead of this external journey towards Bhukailas or earthly Kailash,&#xA;  I felt that I should instead have traveled to the Kailash within me.&#xA;  To reach Shiva means to attain the pure consciousness level, which&#xA;  will give the realization of ‘what I am’ or the ‘theory of existence’.&#xA;  I had read in books that this state was known as ‘Turiya’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But according to Shakteya theory, the journey does not end there. One&#xA;  has to travel one more step to reach Shakti or ‘Turiyateeta’ or&#xA;  ‘being’. This is known as awareness, when you experience the practical&#xA;  existence. In scientific terms, Shakti is energy. The oneness of these&#xA;  two: theory and practical, Shiva and Shakti, knowing and being, is&#xA;  termed Ardha-Nareeshwara, which is Advaita Siddhi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&amp;amp;section_id=724&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;man is macrocosm&lt;/a&gt; whatever present in Universe is present in him metaphorically.  For example, Yogic or esoteric meaning of Varanasi (Kashi) is given in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15073/3500&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;. So, there must be similar esoteric meaning of Kailasa. I have searched some &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Upanishads&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yoga Upanishads&lt;/a&gt; but couldn't find any correlation between Kailasa and Sahasrara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is : &lt;strong&gt;What Scriptures describe correlation between earthly Kailasa  and Sahasrara in &lt;em&gt;Sukshma Sareera&lt;/em&gt; (subtle body)&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T07:01:25.947" LastActivityDate="2023-10-29T09:35:31.337" Title="What scriptures mention correlation between Kailasa and Sahasrara?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|yoga|chakras|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21745" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-23T13:10:42.880" Score="3" ViewCount="755" Body="&lt;p&gt;If being an Indra is just a post, what happens to Indrani(wife of Indra), after the current Indra's post is removed? Will she continue to be the wife of the next Indra too?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12358" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-23T14:52:36.993" LastActivityDate="2017-10-24T12:18:15.760" Title="What happens to Indrani?" Tags="|indra|swarga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21746" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21745" CreationDate="2017-10-23T13:53:22.010" Score="2" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shachi (Sanskrit: शची; also known as Indrani (queen of Indra), Aindri,&#xA;  Mahendri, Pulomaja and Poulomi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is said that unlike other goddesses, she possess an independent character of her own. Unlike most of the goddess wives who are known by their husband's name like Rudrani, Varuni (wife of Varun), Saranya (wife of Sun), &lt;strong&gt;Indra is probably the only god who is known to be after his wife's name as well;&lt;/strong&gt; hence he was often referred as Shachipati—meaning master of shakti/power, or ShachiVat (possessor of Shachi).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to the Rig Veda, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shachi is considered a most fortunate female for Indra granted her immortality&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. It is said that he chose her over all of the other goddesses because of Her magnetic attractions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As per the Rig Veda, Indrani is considered to be the most fortunate&#xA;  female as Lord Indra was granted immortality. ‘Among all females&#xA;  Indrani is the most fortunate; for her husband shall not at any future&#xA;  time die of old age’. Not everyone successively attains to the throne&#xA;  of Lord Indra. It is a perpetual office as Indra is immortal. Many&#xA;  kings and queens come and go, but by the very nature of Indra’s&#xA;  immortality Indrani also continues as perpetual queen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So there are two things we can conclude:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indra granted her immortality.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Since Indra is immortal (and so is Indrani) they are bound to be together forever, also because they are husband &amp;amp; wife and we marry a person not the post he/she holds.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;References &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shachi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://vedicgoddess.weebly.com/goddess-vidya-blog/goddess-indrani-by-yogi-ananda-saraswathi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-24T12:18:15.760" LastActivityDate="2017-10-24T12:18:15.760" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21747" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21743" CreationDate="2017-10-23T14:57:32.587" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fG6Fh.gif&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/fG6Fh.gif&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is no basic difference between Krishna and Vishnu. It all depends on Bhakti, and the preference of the individual, because as Rig Veda states &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning - &lt;em&gt;Truth is One; the wise call It by different names.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Advaita Vedanta is solely based on the aphorisms of non duality. The Mahavakyas are the greatest proof of this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prajñānam brahma&lt;/strong&gt; - &lt;em&gt;Prajñāna (consciousness, wisdom, intelligence/Self) is Brahman.&lt;/em&gt; (Aitareya Upanishad 3.3 of the Rig&#xA;  Veda) &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ayam ātmā brahma&lt;/strong&gt; - &lt;em&gt;This Self (Atman) is Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (Mandukya Upanishad 1.2 of the Atharva Veda) &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tat tvam asi&lt;/strong&gt; - &lt;em&gt;Thou art That&lt;/em&gt; (Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7 of the Sama Veda) &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aham brahmāsmi&lt;/strong&gt; - &lt;em&gt;I am Brahman&lt;/em&gt; (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 of the Yajur Veda)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While Vedanta seeks to resolve the metaphysical mystery of this universe, it posits the existence of 2 forms of Brahman - Saguna and Nirguna. Advaita Vedanta considers &quot;Atman&quot; or the Self, as self-existent awareness, limitless and non-dual, identical to the universal eternal Brahman, whether Saguna or Nirguna. Saguna Brahman is same as Nirguna or &quot;The Absolute&quot; and is close to the concept of immanence, the manifested divine presence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Advaita as taught by Shankara, Saguna refers to the Lord identical with his own infinite awareness. Shankara refers to him by names such as Shiva, Vishnu etc. This Saguna Brahman is eternal, undecaying and non-different from Nirguna Brahman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Vaishnavism, Saguna Brahman is given the higher preference because of the devotee's personal attraction to the manifested beauty of the Lord. The Universal Supersoul is formless yet all the forms are contained in it, as a result of the presiding Material Energy - Mahamaya, which in turn is controlled by the potency of Nirguna Brahman (Known to Vaishnavas as Krishna, Rama etc.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya Leela, Chapter 20 Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that Lord Maha Vishnu is an incarnation of Lord Krishna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya Leela 20.250&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prathemei kare Krishna Purushavatara&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Seita Purusha haye trividha prakara&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the beginning Krishna expands Himself into the Purushavataras, which are of three types&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Goswami Tulsidas - Ramcharitmanas - Opening Sloka - Balkand&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I adore Lord Hari, known  name of Rama, who is superior to all and lies &#xA;  beyond all causes, whose&#xA;  Maya holds sway over the entire universe including Gods like Brahma,&#xA;  and demons; whose presence lends positive reality to the world of&#xA;  appearances even as the false notion of a serpent is entertained with&#xA;  reference to a rope and whose feet are the only bark for those who are&#xA;  eager to cross the ocean of mundane existence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bottom Line: It all depends on the devotee/sadhak/upashak/yogi etc.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T14:57:32.587" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21748" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19067" CreationDate="2017-10-23T15:08:58.217" Score="0" Body="&lt;h3&gt;Is it true that ancient Yogis floated?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No, there is no empirical evidence to prove it. Floating mid-air (without external physical assistance of some sort) requires bending the laws of nature as we know it. Many people attempt to do this (without any assistance) but in vain and this is what Vivekananda &lt;a href=&quot;http://belurmath.org/complete_works_of_swami_vivekananda/volume_5/interviews/miracles.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; when questioned on the truthfulness of these levitation claims:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda was questioned concerning the truthfulness of the&#xA;  marvelous stories of the performance of wonderful feats of conjuring,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;levitation&lt;/strong&gt;, suspended animation, and the like in India.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vivekananda said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We do not believe in miracles at all&lt;/strong&gt; but that apparently strange&#xA;    things may be accomplished under the operation of natural laws. There&#xA;    is a vast amount of literature in India on these subjects, and the&#xA;    people there have made a study of these things.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Thought-reading and the foretelling of events are successfully&#xA;    practiced by the Hathayogis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As to levitation, I have never seen anyone overcome gravitation and&#xA;    rise by will into the air&lt;/strong&gt;, but I have seen many who were trying to do&#xA;    so. They read books published on the subject and spend years trying to&#xA;    accomplish the feat. Some of them in their efforts nearly starve&#xA;    themselves and become so thin that if one presses his finger upon&#xA;    their stomachs he can actually feel the spine.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;    &#xA;    &lt;p&gt;Some of these Hathayogis live to a great age.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;What is the method used to &quot;float&quot; in the air?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's an example of how some &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi_Pullavar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;so-called yogis&lt;/a&gt; accomplish this &quot;feat.&quot; You can read the &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/wa9R&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;full article&lt;/a&gt; (PDF) published in the Illustrated London News (Saturday, 6 June 1936), &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/wa9R&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. (Courtesy: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;The British Newspaper Archive&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZEl2M.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZEl2M.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gNcfb.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/gNcfb.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;No explanation is provided as to why the yogi (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi_Pullavar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Subbayah Pullavar&lt;/a&gt;) sets up a tent before and after the  act. Why does the yogi use a stick if not for support? Why is his stick covered in cloth? Why is the yogi himself covered in excessive clothing?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Despite the author's and photographer's assurances of &quot;total absence of any tricking&quot;, the whole act has trickery written all over it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-10-24T00:23:38.023" LastActivityDate="2017-10-24T00:23:38.023" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21750" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21743" CreationDate="2017-10-23T15:46:14.417" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is &lt;strong&gt;no difference&lt;/strong&gt; between Shree Krishna and Maha Vishnu. They are one and the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This fact is clearly stated in &lt;strong&gt;Shreemad Bhagvat Purana Skandha 10 -Chapter 89 -Shloka 58&lt;/strong&gt; .- -Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna Retrieve a Brāhmaṇa’s Sons.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is an interesting story about a Brahmana who's dead sons are brought back by &lt;strong&gt;Shree Krishna and Arjuna , when they visited Lord Maha Vishnu's abode in Kshira Sagara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shree Krishna offered homage to Maha Vishnu i.e. he himself. Then Maha Vishnu told them that he himself brought both krishna and Arjuna here so that he could see them both. And they are the Nara-Narayana Rishis .He also adviced them to follow Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ववन्द आत्मानमनन्तमच्युतो ।&lt;br&gt; जिष्णुश्च तद्दर्शनजातसाध्वस:।&lt;br&gt; तावाह&#xA;  भूमा परमेष्ठीनां प्रभु &lt;br&gt; र्बद्धान्जली सस्मितमूर्यया गिरा।।58।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vavanda ātmānam anantam acyuto&lt;br&gt; jiṣṇuś ca&#xA;  tad-darśana-jāta-sādhvasaḥ&lt;br&gt; tāv āha bhūmā parameṣṭhināḿ&#xA;  prabhur&lt;br&gt; beddhāñjalī sa-smitam ūrjayā girā&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Krsna offered homage to Himself in this boundless form&lt;/strong&gt;, and Arjuna, astonished at the sight of Lord Maha-Visnu, bowed down as&#xA;  well. Then, as the two of them stood before Him with joined palms, the&#xA;  almighty Maha-Visnu, supreme master of all rulers of the universe,&#xA;  smiled and spoke to them in a voice full of solemn authority.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/89/57&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  10.89.57&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Purport - Lord Krishna offered obeisances to His own Deity during the worship of Govardhana Hill, so now also He paid homage to His Vishnu expansion for the purpose of playing out His pastimes. The Lord is ananta, possessed of countless manifestations, and this eight-armed form is among them. He is acyuta, &quot;never falling from His position,&quot; in the sense that He never stops engaging in His humanlike pastimes as a cowherd boy of Vrindavana. Thus to safeguard the special sanctity of His humanlike pastimes as Krishna, He offered obeisances to His own plenary expansion.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this verse it is said that Shree Krishna bowed down before Maha-Vishnu ,which is he himself as leela of Bhagvanta , and that gives us the clear idea about relationships between both i.e. they are one and the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can read the full story here&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/89&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 10.89&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-10-23T15:46:14.417" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21751" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21758" CreationDate="2017-10-23T18:16:28.337" Score="10" ViewCount="2382" Body="&lt;p&gt;The first and second verses in chapter 9 are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First verse chapter nine:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supreme Lord said: My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious&#xA;  of Me, I shall impart to you this most secret wisdom, knowing which&#xA;  you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Second verse, Chapter nine:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all&#xA;  secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct&#xA;  perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of&#xA;  religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The aforementioned verses allude that the knowledge of Bhagavad Gita is supposed to be a secret knowledge. Why would it be considered a secret? Secret from whom? Wouldn't it be helpful for everyone to know this knowledge and shouldn't it be a common knowledge imparted to all?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2987" LastActivityDate="2017-10-28T12:57:42.523" Title="Why is the knowledge of Bhagavad Gita secret and confidential?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21752" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21740" CreationDate="2017-10-23T20:38:42.440" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well trying to answer some of your questions from what I have read:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhasma Aarti at Mahakaleshwar&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One of the most important rituals of Mahakaleshwar is Bhasma Aarti. The temple opens in the morning at 4 AM with a special aarti – the one of its kind Bhasma Aarti – where the aarti is performed with sacred ash – Bhasma. Since ancient times, this bhasma used to be the fresh and burning hot ash from a funeral pyre, since Lord Shiva is believed to live in and enjoy the atmosphere of a cremation ground. &lt;strong&gt;However, now, the temple has changed its ways in keeping with modern times and the aarti is now performed with bhasma made with cow dung, what we call Vibhooti.&lt;/strong&gt; Read &lt;a href=&quot;http://ritsin.com/mahakaleshwar-jyotirlinga-lord-shiva-as-mahakal.html/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why 4 AM?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The “Bhasm Aarti” is performed every day at 4:00 AM to awaken the deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why we offer the bhasma ?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maha Yogi Shiva, father of tantra, is usually depicted naked in&#xA;  sadhana, his whole body covered in bhasma. The first verse of the&#xA;  Shiva Panchakshara Stotram gives the following description:&#xA;  Naagendrahaaraaya trilochanaaya, bhasmaangaraagaaya maheshwaraaya.&#xA;  Nityaaya shuddhaaya digambaraaya – ‘Salutations to the mighty&#xA;  three-eyed Shiva, eternal and pure, wearing the king of snakes as his&#xA;  garland, naked and besmeared with sacred ash.’ Some other names given&#xA;  to Lord Shiva are Bhasmashayaaya (abode of bhasma) and Bhasmabhootaaya&#xA;  (covered with bhasma). Covering the body with ash is considered to be&#xA;  an auspicious act for discovering one’s Shiva nature. Shiva is said to&#xA;  be responsible for mahapralaya, the dissolution of the universe at the&#xA;  end of each kalpa. At this time he dances his tandava nritya, the&#xA;  dance of destruction.&#xA;   Read more &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yogamag.net/archives/2006/lnov06/bhasma.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why Shiva smears ash on body?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once Parvati asked Lord Shiva as to why His divine body is smeared&#xA;  with ashes. What is the reason behind it?Lord Shiva smiled gracefully&#xA;  and narrated a story;A Brahmin descending from Sage Bhrigu once&#xA;  performed an austere meditation. While doing so, he was not affected&#xA;  by seasonal changes such as scorching summers or stiffening winter nor&#xA;  was he disturbed by monsoons. All he was focused on was his inner&#xA;  strengths to be in meditation. When he felt hungry, he requested&#xA;  animals such deer, lion, bears and jackals to fetch him fruits. These&#xA;  animals unafraid of the Brahma served him relentlessly.The time passed&#xA;  by. He gave up feeding on fruits and only ate leaves which were called&#xA;  parna. Therefore, he was called Parnada.Years passed by. One day,&#xA;  Parnada was busy cutting some grass with a scythe. Suddenly, he got&#xA;  his middle finger sliced off. However, it didn't scare him instead he&#xA;  was amazed to find that no blood oozed out from the wounded portion.&#xA;  But a sap-like liquid, which plants unleash, came out. He wondered for&#xA;  a while and realized it was due to his long subsistence on the leaves&#xA;  he ate during the later years of his meditation. Parnada felt proud of&#xA;  his achievement and began to jump with delight. Having been observing&#xA;  Parnada, Lord Shiva decided to teach him a lesson.He disguised Himself&#xA;  as a Brahman and arrived before Parnada.&quot;Why are you so happy?&quot; asked&#xA;  Shiva.&quot;Can't you see?&quot; replied Parnada. &quot;My tapasya has been so&#xA;  successful that my blood has become like the sap of plants.&quot;&quot;This sort&#xA;  of vanity or self-important attitude destroys the fruits of all&#xA;  penances,&quot; said Shiva. &quot;What have you got to be so proud about?&quot; Your&#xA;  blood has only turned into the sap of plants. What happens when you&#xA;  burn plants? They become ashes. I Myself have performed so much&#xA;  penance that My blood has becomes ashes.&quot;Shiva sliced off his middle&#xA;  finger and ashes came out of it. Parnada was impressed. He realized&#xA;  that there was nothing that he could be proud about; here was a far&#xA;  greater hermit than he. He asked Shiva who he was. Shiva then&#xA;  displayed his true divine form to Parnada.Ever since that day, there&#xA;  have always been ashes on Shiva's body. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rudraksha-ratna.com/articles/why-shiva-smears-ash-on-body&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Refer&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why Aghoris?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I assume they are (were) required to arrange the ashes for the aarti. Aghoris are devotees of Shiva manifested as Bhairava, are monists who seek moksha from the cycle of reincarnation or saṃsāra and any cremation ground would be a holy place for an Aghori ascetic. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aghori&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Read&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why are women not being allowed into certain temples?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Should women not enter the sanctum at all? They could if they were appropriately trained for it, but it would be much more difficult to train women than men for this purpose, simply because of a few biological advantages men have in this area of life. In the very nature of female biology, occult forces can have a deeper impact upon her system.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To remove occult influences and perform exorcisms, certain energies are used that are not nice for a woman at all. Shani is not nice. But he is a part of our lives – we have to deal with him too. Because of these occult forces, women are asked not to enter the area where such things are done. It would not be good for their physical well being. Read &lt;a href=&quot;http://web.archive.org/web/20191120093120/https://www.readoo.in/2016/02/why-are-women-not-being-allowed-into-certain-temples-sadhguru-answers-brilliantly&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;more&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwZNWhnPZC0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; you can clearly see ladies witnessing Bhasma aarti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="7988" LastEditDate="2019-12-01T05:33:46.813" LastActivityDate="2019-12-01T05:33:46.813" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21754" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21807" CreationDate="2017-10-24T04:33:12.930" Score="5" ViewCount="1215" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per hinduism there are nine graha (planets) and Earth is not included in this list. Here are following nine graha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Surya (Sun)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chandra (Moon)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mangala (Mars)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Budha (Mercury)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Guru (Jupiter), the Guru (Master/Teacher) of the Devas(Gods)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shukra (Venus), the Guru of the Asura(demons)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Shani (Saturn)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Raahu (North Node/Ascending Node)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ketu (South Node/Descending Node)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Question is, all graha and earth looks same. If we see images of planets and Earth (taken by ISRO, NASA etc) then they looks same. Shape of them are same. So&#xA;it's clear that appearance is not the reason of difference between Earth (loka) and graha (planets). So What's difference between graha and loka? what's the reason Earth is considered as loka, not as graha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T13:19:37.047" Title="What's difference between graha and loka?" Tags="|lokas|navagraha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21755" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-24T05:15:54.587" Score="2" ViewCount="172" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, myths do not mean tall tales because by 20th century people realized that all the myth around the world has a secondary element of truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, there is an incident in Greek myth &lt;em&gt;Odyssey&lt;/em&gt; where Odysseus and his companions got stuck on a island. The island had a lot of cattle and they happened to be &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cattle_of_Helios&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;dearer to God Helios&lt;/a&gt;, so killing them or consuming them was strictly forbidden. His companions anyways eat them, and made Helios furious, and they all died after Helios cursed them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since consumption of cattle was not forbidden in Greek culture, scholars explained this incident as an indication in change in food habits of Greeks at that time may be because cattle became scarce.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, there are many incidents within the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata like the Agni-pariksha of Sita, various incidents of Gandharva vivaha, etc., which the writers deliberately included to maintain some kind of &lt;em&gt;status quo&lt;/em&gt; or describe some sort of social fabric? Or are these incidents simply included to justify existing &lt;a href=&quot;https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-53825-3_12&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;rituals&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Did any one do a comprehensive critical analysis of Hindu myths within the purview of social, moral and ethical framework?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-11-07T16:04:32.487" LastActivityDate="2017-11-07T16:04:32.487" Title="Are there any critical analyses of Hindu myths?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|rituals|critique|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2017-10-28T15:20:09.167" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21756" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21751" CreationDate="2017-10-24T05:24:36.623" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Why would it be considered a secret?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's &lt;strong&gt;debatable&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;The word which is translated as &quot;secret&quot; in BG 9.1-9.2 is &quot;गुह्य&quot; (&lt;em&gt;guhya&lt;/em&gt;). The most appropriate meanings seem &quot;&lt;strong&gt;mystical&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; or &quot;&lt;strong&gt;insightful&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; from &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.org/index.php?tran_input=gUhya&amp;amp;direct=se&amp;amp;script=hk&amp;amp;link=yes&amp;amp;mode=3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit dictionary&lt;/a&gt;, due to following reasons:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;This &quot;secret&quot; has to be revealed to the devotees:  &#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.68 - Those who, entertaining supreme devotion to Me, will speak of this highest secret/mystery/insight, to My devotees will without a doubt reach Me alone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&quot;secret&quot; is usually referred by &quot;गुप्त&quot; (&lt;em&gt;gupta&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Many part of Gita refers from other &lt;em&gt;VedAnta&lt;/em&gt; &amp;amp; philosophical sources, which were not top secrets either&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Secret from whom?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This knowledge should not be departed to &lt;strong&gt;those who are not interested&lt;/strong&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 18.67 - This [Knowledge] is never to be told by you to those devoid of austerities and those not devotees; also, neither those who don't devote service, nor those who objects Me&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;secret = not to be flaunted&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, how are we born are lifelong kept secrets by our parents. Though everyone knows in concept, no one knows in details.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;    &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Wouldn't it be helpful for everyone to know this knowledge and shouldn't it be a common knowledge imparted to all?&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No&lt;/strong&gt;. Gita is not useful in day to day life as it's not &lt;em&gt;Dharma ShAstra&lt;/em&gt; like &lt;em&gt;Manu smriti or AnushAsana Parva&lt;/em&gt;. Refer:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20876/1049&quot;&gt;What is Dharma according to the Bhagavad Gita?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Those who still find life as purposeful, Gita won't help. It's for those who are tending to believe &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20243/1049&quot;&gt;otherwise&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-10-24T05:24:36.623" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21757" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21741" CreationDate="2017-10-24T06:13:22.970" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all Panchadasi refers to a 15-lettered mantra. Among the three mantras that you have given only Mantra 1 is 15-lettered the others are both 16-lettered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, Mantra 2= Mantra 1+ Srim and Mantra 3= Hrim + Mantra 1.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To understand how these Sri VidyA Mantras are formed we first have to understand what is a Koota and what are the three Kootas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A Koota is a combination of Beejas (Seeds). Like the combination  &quot;Srim Hrim Klim&quot; (some say Aim Srim Hrim) is AdyA koota (It represents the Adi ParAshakti in Mantrik level). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Panchadasi is formed by adding three Kootas viz: VAgbhava Koota+ KAmRaja Koota+ Shakti Koota. With each Koota being a combination of five seeds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VAgiswari jyAna shaktir VAgbhAbe moksharupini |&lt;br&gt; KAmarAje kAmakalA&#xA;  kAmarupA kriyAtmikA ||&lt;br&gt; Shaktibije parA shaktiricchaiva shivarupini |&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Evam devi trayakshari tu mahAtripurAsundari ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the VAgbhava koota or beeja Devi resides as Moksharupini,&#xA;  VAgiswari-&lt;strong&gt;JyAnashakti&lt;/strong&gt;. In the KAmrAja koota she is KriyAtmikA&#xA;  kAmakalA- &lt;strong&gt;KriyAshakti&lt;/strong&gt;. And in the Shakti koota she is Sivarupini Supreme&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;IcchAshAkti&lt;/strong&gt;. In this way, Goddess MahAtripurasundari's [mantra] is&#xA;  Trayakshari (three-lettered, since each Koota is also considered as an&#xA;  Akshara,  Panchadasi is thus three-lettered and fifteen-lettered both)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NityAshodashikArnava Tantram 4.17,18&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus three Kootas represent the triad- JyAnashakti-KriyAshakti-IcchAshakti. They also represent the triad Sat-Chit-Ananda. ( For translation purpose- JyAna=Knowledge, KriyA=Action and IcchA=Will)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, depending on how these Kootas are combined, there are several Sri VidyAs that emerge. The mantra which start with the letter Ha is HAdi VidyA. The one which starts with Ka is KAdi and the one which starts with the letter Sa is called SAdi VidyA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A brief overview of KAdi-HAdi-SAdi Vidyas is found &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/kadihadi.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kadi - Hadi - Sadi&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Query] Please enlighten about differences between kadi, hadi and sadi&#xA;  vidyas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In essence, there is no difference between kAdi, hAdi or sAdi as all&#xA;  three refer to the same brahma vastu called srI lalitA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;kAdi was taught by Sri Manmatha [sadAshiva – nArayaNa – Hayagriva – Agastya - Shankara bhagavatpAda etc are the Gurus], hAdi by Bhagavati&#xA;  Lopamudra [Parameshwara – Parashakti – Lopamudra – Kalatapanandanatha&#xA;  etc. are the Gurus] and sAdi by Sri Krodha Bhattaraka Durvasa&#xA;  Deshikendra [Mahadeva – Rudra – Durvasa – Dharmacharya etc are the&#xA;  Gurus].&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;kAdi invokes kAmeshwarAmka sthitA kAmeshwarI, hAdi invokes kAmeshwarI vibhUshitAnko kameshwaraH and sAdi invokes kAmakAmeshwarau&#xA;  shivau. In fact, Shadanvaya Shambhavi Krama described by Acharya in&#xA;  Saundaryalahari is chiefly for sAdi upAsakas. The subtle differences&#xA;  in these three visualizations should be learnt directly from one's&#xA;  Sadguru.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;kAdi and hAdi panchadashi-s transform to laghu shodashi and maha/parA/guhya shodashi-s (in case of kAdi) and shuddha/hamsa&#xA;  shodashis (in case of hAdi). There is no shodashi in sAdi karma but&#xA;  the transformation is into saptadashI. Further, in the final step of&#xA;  karma system, all the three paths merge into aS&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Mantra 1 is the Moola Panchadashi for the KAdi school. It was practiced by God Indra, Rishis Agastya and DurvAsa, for example.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KAmrAja Akhyaya vidyAya bAgbhabhe kAmbijam tyaktA chandram dadyAt |&#xA;  KAmarAje punah shivAnte chandram...... | Tena shaktikootam&#xA;  chandrendrakAmamahAmAyAtmakam | &lt;strong&gt;VidyemindropAsitA&lt;/strong&gt; anyAt samAnam.... ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In these above verses from JyAnarnava Tantram, Lord Shiva gives the codes of how the Mantra 1 in your question is to be formed or decoded. This mantra is practiced by DevarAja Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same mantra without the Bindus (Bindu the Dot) was also practiced by MahAmuni Agastya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are several other variants of Panchadasi or Sri VidyAs which were worshipped by Moon, Manu, Kubera, Brahma, Vishnu and Shankara etc. And not all of them are exactly 15-lettered. For example the Sri VidyA that is practiced by Vishnu is having six Kootas as opposed three in regular Panchadashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, to answer your question, &lt;strong&gt;1) is the correct version (KAdi VidyA), while 2 and 3 are not correct&lt;/strong&gt;. Note that, by adding Srim Hrim beejas to the Panchadashi we can get the most powerful Shodashi mantra of Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Additionally the mantra 1 in your question has GAyatri as Chandah (meter) and Sri Anandabhairva as the Rishi (Seer).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-24T08:47:25.520" LastActivityDate="2017-10-24T08:47:25.520" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21758" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21751" CreationDate="2017-10-24T06:15:19.323" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am going to explain &quot;Why the knowledge of Gita is confidential&quot; on the basis of another similar shloka given in the 15 th chapter i.e. last Shloka of 15th chapter ,and commentaries written on this shloka by scholars including Adi Shankaracharya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two different point of views (meanings) given , with which we are going to look at your query.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now let us look at last Shloka of 15th chapter -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इति गुह्यतमं शास्त्रमिदमुक्तं मयाऽनघ।&lt;br&gt; एतद्बुद्ध्वा&#xA;  बुद्धिमान्स्यात्कृतकृत्यश्च भारत।।15.20।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;iti guhya-tamaṁ śāstram&lt;br&gt; idam uktaṁ mayānagha&lt;br&gt; etad buddhvā&#xA;  buddhimān syāt&lt;br&gt; kṛta-kṛtyaś ca bhārata&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15.20 Thus, this most secret science has been taught by Me, O sinless one; on knowing this, a man becomes wise, and all his duties are&#xA;  accomplished, O Arjuna.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=15&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=20&amp;amp;etsiva=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 15.20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Point 1- English Translation Of Sri Shankaracharya's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Gambirananda.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15.20 This guhyatamam, most secret, i.e. most mystical;- what is that?-sastram, scripture-. &lt;strong&gt;Although the Gita as a whole is spoken of&#xA;  as the scripture&lt;/strong&gt;, still this chapter itself is here referred to as&#xA;  such, and this for eulogy as is evident from the context. For, &lt;strong&gt;not&#xA;  only has the entire meaning of the scripture Gita been stated here in&#xA;  brief, but the whole purport of the Vedas also&lt;/strong&gt; has been comprehended&#xA;  here. And it has been said, '&lt;strong&gt;He who realizes it is a knower of the&#xA;  Vedas'&lt;/strong&gt; (1), 'I alone am the object to be known through all the Vedas'&#xA;  (15). (Thus, this most secret scripture)&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=15&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=20&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;BG 15.20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What Adi Shankaracharya mean is-:&#xA;Here the word &quot;Secret&quot; does not mean that this knowledge is hidden , since Shree Krishna revealed it ,but secret in the sense that the person (dvija) ,who will know this will become knower of Vedas.&#xA;It's said in the commentary that &quot;why the  knowledge of this chapter is secret&quot; It's because the entire meaning of Gita and hence the whole purport of Vedas also described here.&#xA;A dvija who knows this becames learned in Vedas ,if he is perfectly following his Dharma and living his life according to scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That's the real meaning of word secret here.&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Point -2 :&#xA;English Commentary By Swami Sivananda.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA; &#xA;The second point is why this  knowledge is Ghuya (Secret). It's because it should be to handed down to the person (dvija) who is only eligible to receive it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By using the word Anagha? also indicates that the Guru who is a knower&#xA;  of Brahman should instruct the most profound secret (the science of&#xA;  the Self) &lt;strong&gt;only to alified persons who are free from impurities of&#xA;  the heart&lt;/strong&gt; or tossing of the mind? who are calm and endowed with the&#xA;  four means of salvation. &lt;strong&gt;The man of impure mind will not be able to&#xA;  grasp the truth. The sinful man with his perverted intellect will&#xA;  distort the truth and thus pave the way for the destruction of himself&#xA;  and his followers.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=15&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=20&amp;amp;ecsiva=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BG 15.20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Conclusion - -So from these two points we can say that this knowledge&#xA;  is secret and confidential in the sense that  It's the purport of the&#xA;  entire vedas and the person who knows thus become knower of Vedas. And&#xA;  this secret knowledge only to be revealed to a eligible person , who&#xA;  is pure from heart ,sinless and perfectly following Dharma.So the&#xA;  knowledge of Gita is confidential in the senses of these two points.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-10-24T06:15:19.323" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21759" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-24T06:27:08.990" Score="17" ViewCount="528" Body="&lt;p&gt;For Kaliyuga, Lord Shiva has appointed 12 great gurus each for 500 years. Which will keep repeating till the arrival of Satyuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;213&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Therefore, henceforward twelve Great Souls shall uphold My Law upon Earth. Their noble&#xA;  names which are forever established among the Stars are: &lt;strong&gt;Duravasa, Dharmakunda, Satyapati,&#xA;  Mahakala, Adinatha (Vrishabhanatha), Ramanatha (the Buddha's Guru), Jaleshvara, Svacchanda,&#xA;  Shambhunatha, Guptanatha, Soma-Natha, and Siddhanatha&lt;/strong&gt;. They are Rays of My Own Light.&#xA;  Shining from the Land of Glory they illumine the World. Verily, for five hundred years each&#xA;  they shall proclaim My Word in this World and beyond. Thus six thousand years shall pass; and&#xA;  when they have passed away, twelve more Masters shall descend into the World. When seventy-&#xA;  two such cycles (of 6,000 years each) have passed, I Myself shall return to Earth, but not before. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: Shiva Rahasya Purana Chapter 11&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Current great Guru is Soma Nath but I am unable to get any information about him as this is 5112th year of Kaliyuga. Can anyone find something about him, any information from scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;These names might be the name of the post.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Among them ShambhunAth was the Guru of great Kashmiri Shaiva AchArya Abhinavgupta, whereas Ramnath was Ramputra, one of the Guru of Gautam Buddha. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="647" LastEditDate="2018-07-22T16:21:16.367" LastActivityDate="2018-07-22T16:21:16.367" Title="Who is Soma Natha?" Tags="|shiva|identification-request|guru|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21760" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-24T07:10:31.797" Score="7" ViewCount="141" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Vivada Chintamani is a work by the Advaita philosopher Vachaspati Mishra on the teachings of Dharma Shastras concerning law.  Vachaspati Mishra &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia600203.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/26/items/vivadachintaman00vcgoog/vivadachintaman00vcgoog_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=vivadachintaman00vcgoog_jp2/vivadachintaman00vcgoog_0117.jp2&amp;amp;scale=16&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;begins&lt;/a&gt; the Vivada Chintamani with an invocation to Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That goddess, who is the genetrix of the universe, emerging from the sea of milk, looks askance at the assembly of gods, perceives by the glances of one of them that he would wed her, and bends down her head through bashfulness.  The god, moved by love, which gave rise to the desire of embracing, holds the goddess with his perspiring hand, whereon she smiles.  May that god vouchsafe protection from destruction. Having prostrated before Narayana ... the author, Vachaspati Mishra, compiles the work Vivada Chintamani.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now clearly this is a reference to Vishnu's marriage to Lakshmi after the Churning of the Ocean.  (Or to be more technical, Vyuha Vasudeva's marriage, as opposed to Para Vasudeva who is eternally married to Sridevi.)  This story is described in many scriptures including &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/8/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Srimad Bhagavatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is, does the specific description of Vishnu and Lakshmi given by Vachaspati Mishra have a basis in Hindu scripture?  I'm talking about details like Lakshmi bending down her head in shyness, Vishnu's hand sweating, Lakshmi smiling, etc.  Or is this just poetic license on Vachaspati Mishra's part?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's perfectly possible that these details are true, as it could be one of the Lilas of Sriman Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2019-08-23T11:42:36.383" LastActivityDate="2019-08-23T11:42:36.383" Title="Does Vachaspati Mishra's depiction of Vishnu's marriage have a scriptural basis?" Tags="|vishnu|bhagavata-purana|shloka|lakshmi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21761" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21182" CreationDate="2017-10-24T10:51:13.663" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. They were many ornaments and jewellery at those times. There is a mention of the ornaments and garments wore by the royal class in the Valmiki Ramayana. They wore fine quality of silk and garments made of golden cloth. They were also adorned with different types of ornaments made of gold, pearls etc.,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Ayodhya Kanda Sarga 20,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kausalya, who was interested to practise religious vows regularly was appearing auspiciously by &lt;strong&gt;wearing a white silk sari&lt;/strong&gt; and gladly performing sacrificial ceremony in a sacred fire, by reciting vedic hymns. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga20/ayodhyasans20.htm#Verse15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[2-20-15]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Ayodhya Kanda Sarga 37,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, Seetha &lt;strong&gt;who wore silken clothing&lt;/strong&gt;, by seeing the piece of bark intended to be worne by her, felt alarming as a deer would on seeing a snare(set for entrapping)&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga37/ayodhyasans37.htm#Verse9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[2-37-9]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The garments wore by Rama, Sugreeva, Hanuman etc., were very well mentioned in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga128/yuddha_128_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Pattabhisheka sarga&lt;/a&gt; (the coronation of Rama)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From that sarga,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May you relax and wake-up too, to the sounds of an ensemble of musical instruments, the tinkling of ornaments strung with tiny bells and worn around the waist and anklets as well as sweet invocation of songs. [6-128-10]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharata, having bathed first, the mighty Lakshmana, Sugreeva the lord of monkeys and Vibhishana the king of demons took bath. Rama had his matted locks disentangled and bathed. He stood there, shining with splendour, adorned with picturesque garlands, smeared with sandal pastes of various colours and clothed in costly raiment. [6-128-14,15]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sugreeva and Hanuma, having splendour similar to that of Indra the lord of celestials, after taking their bat, wore beautiful raiment as well as sparkling ear rings and started. [6-128-21]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Endowed with all types of ornaments as well as charming ear-rings, those wives of Sugreeva together with Seetha moved out, longing as they were, to see the city. [6-128-22]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following is the description of the crown of Rama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;With which crown, long ago, Manu the emperor was adorned while he was consecrated and with which, the kings followed in his line were successively adorned while they were coronated, that crown studded with precious jewels, fashioned by Brahma at the beginning of creation and dazzling with splendour, being kept according to practice on a throne adorned with many kinds of precious stones in the council-hall, studded with gold, graced with abundant riches, decorated and shiningly made with most charming jewels of various kinds, and thereafter Rama duly adorned by that crown as well as jewels by the great souled Vasishta and other priests officiating at the coronation-ceremony. [6-128-34,35,36,37]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seetha Devi also wore a pearl necklace which she gifted to Hanuman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The black-eyed Seetha gave that pearl necklace to Hanuma. Hanuma, the foremost among the monkeys, by wearing that necklace, which was as white as a heap of moonlight-beams, shone brilliantly as a mountain silvered by a white cloud. [6-128-83]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ornaments and raiments wore by Ravana were grand. Ravana's palace was extensively mentioned in the Sundara Kanda by Sage Valmiki. He also described how the carpets are, how the beds are, how the vessels are.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Following is the description of Mandodari's couches and bed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In that house, while observing, Hanuma saw a portion of house with beds and couches, consisting of best couches equaling those in heaven, made of crystal decorated with diamonds, with wonderful parts made of ivory and gold, covered with best beds made of cat's eye gems of great value. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga10/sundarasans10.htm#Verse1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[5-10-1,2]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuma saw an excellent couch made of gold with radiance equaling that of fire, spread by garlands of Ashoka flowers. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga10/sundarasans10.htm#Verse4&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[5-10-4]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is a description of Ravana's body, ornaments wore by him in detail in the Sundara Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hanuma saw Ravana in that house, equaling a cloud, wearing earrings with a brilliant shine with red eyes and with long arms wearing gold clothes. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga10/sundarasans10.htm#Verse7&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[5-10-7]&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga10/sundarasans10.htm#Verse9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[5-10-9]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That Hanuma also saw the wealthy Ravana's arms tied with golden armlets thrown apart, resembling flag staffs raised in honor of Indra. &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga10/sundarasans10.htm#Verse15&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;[5-10-15]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The ornaments of Ravana and his physical features are also discussed in the next chapters of Sundara Kanda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-04-19T13:52:33.293" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21762" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21734" CreationDate="2017-10-24T11:46:49.427" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am slightly confused as regards what exactly you are asking but the charities that are made during the Shraddha rituals are the ones made in the names of the ancestors. And, such charities are considered as highly meritorious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As fire exists in all [pieces of] wood [in an invisible form but is&#xA;  manifested] by friction, &lt;strong&gt;so virtue is, forsooth, visible by gifts&#xA;  made at a S'raddha.&lt;/strong&gt; (356)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To make gifts at a S'raddha is undoubtedly equal to the understanding&#xA;  of the meaning of all the scriptures, bathing at the sacred places and&#xA;  the fruit of all the scriptures. (357)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Atri Smriti verses.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And some more verses from the same Smriti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Of all gifts, &lt;strong&gt;that made at a S'raddha is superior&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The gift [made] at a S'raddha is [the instrument of] purification,&#xA;  when sin equal to [the Mount] Meru [in height] is committed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-10-24T11:46:49.427" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21763" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21798" CreationDate="2017-10-24T12:18:54.077" Score="9" ViewCount="335" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Dharma Sutras of Apasthambha  (supposedly) mentions that in ancient past the Gods and human beings used to live together on the earth. But, then the Gods performed sacred rites and as a result they attained the heavens.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In ancient times gods and men used to live together in this world.&#xA;  Then the gods went to heaven by performing  rites, while men were left&#xA;  behind.*&lt;/strong&gt; Those among them who perform rites in the same manner get to&#xA;  dwell in that world together with the gods and Brahman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q1. Which was this ancient time when Gods and men used to dwell together on the earth? Do other scriptures like the Puranas etc shed any light on the issue?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q2. If Gods attained heavens by performing sacred rites then why the humans did not do the same? What stopped them from doing the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Q3. Who used to live in the heavens when the Gods lived on the earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T20:33:49.703" Title="Which was the ancient time when gods and men used to dwell together on the earth?" Tags="|scripture|gods|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21764" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-24T12:51:32.527" Score="9" ViewCount="571" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m17/m17001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Book 17: Mahaprasthanika Parva Section I&lt;/a&gt; mentions the Pandavs visiting a red-sea. This is where Arjun returned his divine bow and arrows to the Lord of the Ocean:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Setting themselves on Yoga, those high-souled ones, resolved to observe the religion of Renunciation, traversed through various countries and reached diverse rivers and seas. Yudhishthira, proceeded first. Behind him was Bhima; next walked Arjuna; after him were the twins in the order of their birth; behind them all, O foremost one of Bharata’s race, proceeded Draupadi, that first of women, possessed of great beauty, of dark complexion, and endued with eyes resembling lotus petals. While the Pandavas set out for the forest, a dog followed them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Proceeding on, those heroes reached the sea of red waters.&lt;/strong&gt; Dhananjaya had not cast off his celestial bow Gandiva, nor his couple of inexhaustible quivers, actuated, O king, by the cupidity that attaches one to things of great value. The Pandavas there beheld the deity of fire standing before them like a hill. Closing their way, the god stood there in his embodied form. The deity of seven flames then addressed the Pandavas, saying, ‘Ye heroic sons of Pandu, know me for the deity of fire. O mighty-armed Yudhishthira, O Bhimasena that art a scorcher of foes, O Arjuna, and ye twins of great courage, listen to what I say! Ye foremost ones of Kuru’s race, I am the god of fire. The forest of Khandava was burnt by me, through the puissance of Arjuna and of Narayana himself. Let your brother Phalguna proceed to the woods after casting off Gandiva, that high weapon. He has no longer any need of it..’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is &lt;strong&gt;Is it possible to identify this sea of red waters?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-12-11T09:09:54.473" Title="Which was the red sea that the Pandavs visited on their journey to attain Swarga?" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|pandavas|varuna|geography|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21765" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21764" CreationDate="2017-10-24T14:37:20.600" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's the Brahmaputra river.&lt;/strong&gt; The word used in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs17001.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;original Sanskrit&lt;/a&gt; is Lauhitya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śvā caivānuyayāv ekaḥ pāṇḍavān prasthitān vane | &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  krameṇa te yayur vīrā &lt;strong&gt;lauhityaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; salilārṇavam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Debroy's translation of the Mahabharata says in a footnote regarding this chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By Louhitya or Lohitya, one usually means the Brahmaputra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-10-24T14:37:20.600" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21766" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21819" CreationDate="2017-10-24T15:14:03.303" Score="7" ViewCount="5969" Body="&lt;p&gt;Among North Indian Hindus the marriage between brother and sister is not allowed for seven generations from father side and three generations from mother's side, but among South Indian Hindus  particularly among  Brahmins cross-cousin marriage is prevalent (i.e. a boy can marry the daughter of his maternal uncle).&#xA;What is the reason behind this? Does any Hindu  scripture illuminate on this issue ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="12348" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T15:42:27.037" LastActivityDate="2017-10-28T06:50:58.693" Title="Cross-cousin marriage and hinduism" Tags="|marriage|customs|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21767" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21788" CreationDate="2017-10-24T15:22:06.907" Score="4" ViewCount="233" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard the story about Draupadi - She called Krishna as VaikunthaVaasa(Dweller of Vaikuntha), then Krishna had to travel to Vaikuntha and come back to Draupadi. Again she called Him VrindavanaVaasa(Dweller of Vrindavana), and  Krishna had to travel to Vrindavana and come to Draupadi. Now Krishna got confused and said these words to Draupadi:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Call Me with one name, I will respond, but do not call Me with too names, I will ged confused.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12366" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-24T16:20:24.350" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T09:38:30.080" Title="Do we always worship only one god?" Tags="|belief|worship|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21768" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-24T15:52:33.870" Score="2" ViewCount="2864" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please tell the names of adityas and saptarishi for the present Manvantara i.e., Vaivasvata Manvantara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12336" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-21T17:36:48.797" LastActivityDate="2019-02-08T07:19:48.277" Title="What are the names of adityas and saptarshi?" Tags="|gods|saptarshi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21769" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21744" CreationDate="2017-10-24T17:49:25.490" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, that the SahsrAra Lotus is the abode of Lord Shiva-SadAshiva-Parashiva is mentioned in numerous Tantras and Agamas. And, by the Abode of Shiva, we  only mean KailAsha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have the KulArnava Tantram book. While, commenting on 5.107 (which talks about the Shakti Pithas besides other things) of the aforementioned Text, the editor/translator quotes from YogAsAra Tantram as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;According to YogasAra Tantram MulAdhAra is KAmarupa Pitha, AnAhata&#xA;  Chakra is Purnagiri Pitha, Visuddhachakra is JAlandhara, AjnA Chakra&#xA;  is UddyAkhyA or the UddiyAna Pitha and &lt;strong&gt;SahasrAra is KailAsha&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In JyAna BhAshya Tantram, Lord Shiva discusses about Shatchakra Nirupuanam (determination of the six-chakras). While discussing the Ajna Chakra he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AjnAnAma bhruvor madhye chakrancha dvidal param |&lt;br&gt; Hakshya dvakshara&#xA;  samyuktam nirmalam sumanoharam ||&lt;br&gt;  ItarAkhyAm mahAlingam tanmadhye&#xA;  kAnchanaprabham |&lt;br&gt; AjnA samkramanam tatra gurorAjyeti vishrutam ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;KailAsAkhyAm tadurdhe tu&lt;/strong&gt; vodhini tu tadurdhatah |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Between the eyebrows, there is two-petalled Supreme Chakra attached with the&#xA;  two letters Ha and Ksha. Within that Chakra lies the Great Linga called&#xA;  Itara whose brilliance matches that of gold. Here the transmission of&#xA;  Guru's orders (AjnA) takes place, hence the name. Above this Chakra&#xA;  lies the KailAsha (the 2nd Bindu), and above KailAsha lies the Vodhini&#xA;  Shakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentary on Vodhni Shakti is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Above Ajna Chakra lies Shiva-Swarupa 2nd Bindu (KailAsha). Above which&#xA;  lies half-mAtrA-kArA (unable to translate mAtrA) Vodhni Shakti; Above&#xA;  which lies the half-moon (crescent)-shaped NAda which is Shiva-Shakti&#xA;  combined. Above that is present AjnirupA VyApikA Shakti; above that&#xA;  Samani and even above lies the Unmani- These seven KAran Rupa are&#xA;  present in that order. Bindu, Vodhini, NAda--- These three are forms&#xA;  Bindumaya ParAshakti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, while discussing the SahsrAra Chakra, he says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SahasrAram mahApadmam nAdabindu samnvitam |&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shunya rupah Shivah&#xA;  sAkshAd&lt;/strong&gt; vrittam parama kundali ||&lt;br&gt; SArddha trivalayAkArA koti&#xA;  vidyut samaprabhA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Above Vodhini] exists the Great SahsrAra Lotus, which is comprised of NAda-Bindu.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;The void in this place is SAkshad Shiva (Shiva Himself)&lt;/strong&gt; and the circle (Vritta) is&#xA;  Supreme MahAkundali, which embraces [Shiva] in three-and-half circles and which&#xA;  shines with an electrifying brilliance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, while the first few verses say that KailAsha is above AjnA, and the second few verses say that SahsrAra is also the abode of Shiva. So, there can be two KailAsha, Subtle-Gross or something like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, in YAmala Tantram too, Lord Shiva explains this Circle and the Void further:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vrittam kundalini shaktir gunatraya samanvitA |&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shunyo bhAgo&#xA;  mahAdevi shivrupo maheswaraha&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;br&gt; SarpakArA shivam veshtya sarvadA&#xA;  tatra samstithA ||&lt;br&gt; Shiva shakyAtmako bindur bhukti mukti&#xA;  phalapradAh |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hey MahAdevi- The Circle is the MahAkundalini Shakti which comprises&#xA;  the three Gunas. &lt;strong&gt;And the Void [in the thousand-petalled Lotus of the&#xA;  SahsrAra] is Shiva-Maheswara Himself.&lt;/strong&gt; The snake-form Kundalini,&#xA;  embracing Shiva, is always present at this place. The Bindu, which is&#xA;  verily of the form of Shiva-Shakti, is the giver of both worldly pleasures and liberation&#xA;  . That Eternal Kundalini Devi when unites with the NAdarupa Shiva&#xA;  (Shiva who is of the form of NAda, Sound) becomes the Prakriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, without doubt the SahsrAra is the abode of Lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The next block quote is from the Gandharva MAlikA Tantram, which explicitly mentions the abode of Shiva as the SahsrAra. Here the verses describe not only the Abode briefly but also tell us how to meditate upon Shiva (or SadAshiva) who presides over this Abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SahasrAram shivapuram&lt;/strong&gt; ramyam dukkha vivarjitam |&lt;br&gt; sarvato&#xA;  halankritairdivyarnityapushpaphalaidrumaihi ||&lt;br&gt; SadAshivapuram ramyam&#xA;  kalpavriksham sushobhitam |&lt;br&gt; Pancha bhutAtmakam taccha guna traya&#xA;  samnvitam ||&lt;br&gt; Chaturveda chatuh shAkham nityapushpa phalAnvitam |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The SahsrAra Lotus is the abode of Shiva&lt;/strong&gt;. That place is pleasant,&#xA;  beautiful, devoid of sadness and is filled with beautiful&#xA;  fruits-flowers-full trees. The abode of SadAshiva is supremely&#xA;  pleasant. Here is present the Kalpavriksha which is of the form of the&#xA;  Trigunas as well as the form of the Pancha MahAbhutAs ( five&#xA;  elements; earth, fire etc). The four Vedas form the four branches of the Kalpa-Tree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the next few verses from the same Tantra, Lord Shiva teaches how to meditate upon Shiva who lives in the SahsrAra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;DhyAyet sadAshivam devam suddha sphatika sannibham ||&lt;br&gt; Bahu ratna&#xA;  samAkirnam dirghabAhum manoharam |&lt;br&gt; Sukha prasanna nayanam smerAsyam&#xA;  satatam priye ||&lt;br&gt; shravane kundalopetam ratna hArena shobhitam | ....&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Ashtabahum trinayanam shivam padma dale kshanam |&lt;br&gt; PAdayor nupuram&#xA;  ramyam shabda brahma mayam vapuh ||&lt;br&gt; Evam sthuula pustasya bhAvayet&#xA;  kamalekshane |..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meditate upon the pure and the crystal-like-white SadAshiva thus- He is&#xA;  decked with ornaments made of varied and many precious stones. His&#xA;  arms are long and attractive. His eyes are happy and they are shining with bliss. On his face is present a pleasant smile. In ears he is wearing&#xA;  Kundalas. The body (neck) is decked with a precious stone-made&#xA;  necklace as well as with a garland which is made of thousand lotuses. His arms&#xA;  are eight in number; His three eyes are wide resembling the&#xA;  lotus-petals. The legs are decked with beautiful Nupuras. His body is of&#xA;  the form of Shabda-Brahman- Hey lotus-eyed one! Shiva and his gross&#xA;  body is to be meditated upon thus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Shakti MAheswra Tantram, Lord Shiva teaches Kundalini Yoga. And in that context he teaches how to move the MahAkundali upwards towards ShasrAra where lives SadAshiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gacchanti brahmarandhrena bhittA granthim chaturdasha |&lt;br&gt; Shatchakra&#xA;  sandhi mArgena sushumnA vartmanA tathA ||&lt;br&gt; Hamsena manunA devim&#xA;  sahsrAram samAnayet ||&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;SadAshivo mahAdevo yatrAste parameswari&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  ||&lt;br&gt; Tatra gatvA mahAdevi Kundali paradevatA |...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bring the Kundalini-Shakti, which is travelling up towards the&#xA;  Brahmarandhra, through the Sushumna channel, by piercing the 14&#xA;  Granthis (14 Knots as explained below), by employing the Hamsa Mantra, to&#xA;  the SahsrAra Lotus. &lt;strong&gt;Where MahAdeva-SadAshiva resides&lt;/strong&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Commentary on the 14 Granthis or Knots which the Yogi has to pierce through his SAdhana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14 Knots- Three lingas (Swayambhu, BAna, Itara); ShatChakra; Pancha&#xA;  Shiva viz: BrahmA, Vishnu, Rudra, Iswara and SadAshiva)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reason for the update is the fact the question was updated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Well, what the Avadoota Yogi has realized by his practice is also supported in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, Lord Shiva says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shatchakram parameshAni sadAshivapuram samam |&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shaktipuram&#xA;  maheshAni sadAshivapuropari&lt;/strong&gt; ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Shatchakra is the abode of SadAshiva. &lt;strong&gt;Above that SadAshivapura&#xA;  lies a similar Shaktipura-the Abode of Shakti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, what this verse says is that Lord SadAshiva presides over the Shatchakra. His abode itself is the Shatchakra. And, above that lies the Shaktipuram or the Abode of Shakti. Note that its also said that Shaktipura is similar to SadAshivapura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, although Shat refers to six, by Shatchakra all the seven Chakras (from MulAdhAra to SahasrAra) are always implied, with the SahasrAra as the chief and controller of the lower Chakras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, upto SahasrAra is the Abode of Shiva, and above that lies the Abode of Shakti. I am not sure though which scriptures discuss the details of this Shaktipura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note: Since i am following all Sanskrit-Bengali books hence i sometimes find translating some of the words in the texts, in English troublesome. The Bengali translations, more often than not, simply leave the original Sanskrit in them since the same words are also used in Bengali. So, in order to find the most appropriate English words i have to consult a dictionary which becomes time consuming. That's why in my answers i often use Sanskrit as it is sometimes.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T11:47:04.903" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T11:47:04.903" CommentCount="15" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21770" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7682" CreationDate="2017-10-24T18:42:38.150" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The origin of the Maheshwari community in Northern part of India is an example of one such story. The story is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Authentic historical literature about the origin of the Maheshwari community is&#xA;not available. The sole source of information available is in the form of a&#xA;book &quot;Itihas Kalpdrum Maheshwari Kulbhushan&quot; authored by late Shivkaranji&#xA;Darak of Mundwa. Based on the book, following is the description of the origins&#xA;of the Maheshwari community:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suryawanshi King Khadgalsen of Chauhan dynasty was ruling over Khandelanagar&#xA;state. He was very kind and just king. People lived happily and peacefully in&#xA;his kingdom. He was always worried of not having a son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One day the king had invited Brahmins and paid great honour to them. The&#xA;Brahmins were very happy with the king's courtesy and asked him for a boon. The&#xA;king then expressed his desire for a son. Brahmins said, ``if you worship Lord&#xA;Shiva, you will be blessed with a very brave and adventurous son, but do not&#xA;allow him to go towards the north and take bath in the Surya-kund there until&#xA;he turns 16 years old&quot;. If the prince respects Brahmins, he will become a great&#xA;king else will be reborn in the same kingdom. Hence being blessed by the&#xA;Brahmins, the king rewarded them with fine clothes and jewelry and respectfully&#xA;saw them off. The king worshipped God Shiva and was blessed with the boon.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;King Khadgalsen had 24 queens. After some time, one of the queens, Champawati&#xA;gave birth to a baby boy. The king was very happy and named the prince as Sujan&#xA;Kunwar. The prince learned horse-riding, weaponry etc. by the age of 7 years.&#xA;When he reached the age of 12, enemies were afraid of him. The king was quite&#xA;satisfied with his work. He was careful not to let the prince go towards the&#xA;North.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once a Jain sadhu arrived and preached the prince about Jain religion luring him&#xA;into anti-Shiva beliefs and showed the faults of Brahmins. At the age of 14,&#xA;the prince opposed Shiva and started practicing Jain religion. He&#xA;campaigned the Jain religion in East, West and South and banished idol&#xA;worshipping. He harassed Brahmins and broke their sacred threads&#xA;(janoi). He forbade all religious activities including yajna&#xA;and hawan (holy fire). Out of the King's fear, he never went towards&#xA;the North direction, but who can stop the destiny.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once he went towards the North to the Suryakund with his 72 officers. There he&#xA;grew angry when he saw 6 Rishis performing a yajna. He ordered his&#xA;officers to destroy the yajna and harassed the rishis. Seeing this the&#xA;rishis cursed them to become stone. So, the prince including all his officers&#xA;and horses became stone. This news spread very quickly in all directions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The King and citizens became worried after hearing this news. King Khadgalsen&#xA;died of the shock. 16 of his queens became sati (self-immolated) with&#xA;him. With no protector of the kingdom, neighbouring enemies attacked the state.&#xA;They divided the state into many regions and merged them into their own states.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even as this happened, the prince's widow and 72 officer's widows cried and&#xA;went to the rishis. They humbly requested and begged for the lives of their&#xA;husbands. Seeing this rishi had mercy upon them. However, they said they are&#xA;not capable enough of revert the curse. They advised the ladies to go to a&#xA;nearby cave and worship lord Shiva so that the curse can be taken off. All the&#xA;ladies went to a cage and religiously meditated for appeasement of lord Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After some time, lord Shiva and Parvatiji (lord Shiva's consort) came around&#xA;the place where the prince and officers were lying in the form of stones.&#xA;Parvatiji asked what happened and lord Shiva told the whole history.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At this time the prince's wife and the officer's wives fell on the feet of&#xA;Parvatiji and expressed their plight. Seeing this, Parvatiji requested lord&#xA;Shiva of taking off the curse. Lord took off the curse and freed them of the&#xA;stone-like state giving them a new life. Everybody fell on lord's feet in&#xA;reverance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As the prince became conscious, his mind filled with lust seeing Parvatiji's&#xA;beauty. Seeing this Parvatiji cursed the prince like this: ``O evil man! you&#xA;will always beg for food and all your coming generations shall beg for food!&quot;&#xA;These people were called &quot;jaaga&quot; (bhat) later on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 72 officers said: ``O God! Now we do not have a place to live. What should&#xA;we do''? So Shivji informed them, that they quit their Kshatriya caste&#xA;in a previous birth so now they are liable to accept the Vaishya&#xA;caste. Go to the Suryakund and have a bath. As they bathed, their sword became&#xA;pen, sword-case became stick and shields became weighing balance. All officers&#xA;became Vaishya. As lord Mahesh (aka Shiva) gave them this lesson, they&#xA;were called Maheshwari Vaishya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When rishis came to know that everybody has been freed of curse, they asked&#xA;God: ``O God! how will our incomplete Yajna will be completed''? Hence God&#xA;preached to the officers that now onwards these rishis are your guru and you&#xA;accept them as such. God told the rishis that they do not have anything as of&#xA;now but when they have some occasion in their home they will give you material&#xA;things to the best of their capabilities. You should teach them to follow their&#xA;religion. Rishi accepted them as their pupils and each rishi accepted 12&#xA;pupils. Following is their description: (1) Parik from Parashar rishi (2) Dadma&#xA;from Dadhichi rishi (3) Adigol from Gautam rishi (4) Khandelwal from Kharik&#xA;rishi (5) Sukuwal from Sukumarg rishi (6) Saraswat brahmin/purohit from Sarasur&#xA;rishi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After some time of leaving Khandela all settled in Didwana. From these 72&#xA;officers, 72 nukh (clans) came into existence and from these&#xA;nukh, depending upon the business, peta-nukh (sub-clan) came&#xA;into existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This day was the ninth day of Jeth-sud month. This day is celebrated&#xA;as &quot;Mahesh Navami'' by Maheshwaris.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2987" LastActivityDate="2017-10-24T18:42:38.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21772" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21556" CreationDate="2017-10-24T19:17:53.743" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;king of devaloka is &lt;strong&gt;indra&lt;/strong&gt; lord shiva is the ultimate god and the same  ultimate god is lord narayana or krishna. But it is allright lord shiva is god of everyplace.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord krishna knows that the lord shiva is the ultimate god but the same is he. In harivamsa parva of mahabharat there are some reaons which led to this battel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In real the first time the fight&#xA;between shiva and krishna&#xA;occoured in harivamsa parva of&#xA;mahabharat first text dedicated to&#xA;krishna even before srimad&#xA;bhagwatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It says following:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;★Lord shiva helped bana to fight&#xA;  against krishna because bana done&#xA;  peance to rudra and got boon to&#xA;  become uma or godness parvati's&#xA;  son. And banasur got his thousand&#xA;  arms from starting and not by&#xA;  boon of lord shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;★Lord shiva gave boon to&#xA;  banasur when he was eager to&#xA;  fight with someone that when his&#xA;  flagstaff will be broken an unequal&#xA;  fight will be there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;★Godness parvati gave boon to&#xA;  usha that at a particular&#xA;  constelation or time the man which&#xA;  will come in her dream will&#xA;  become her husband. So,if banasur&#xA;  was wined then anirudha(who&#xA;  came in usha's dream) shall be&#xA;  killed or the usha and anirudh&#xA;  wouldn't get married.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;★Lord shiva was not made fall&#xA;  asleap by krishna he only started&#xA;  to yawn and after been encouraged&#xA;  by banasur he was again gooing to&#xA;  fight but bramha realized him that&#xA;  his soul was divided into two&#xA;  parts (of which one is krishna) and&#xA;  the fight was over lord shiva and&#xA;  lord krishna greeted each other&#xA;  and lord shiva went away and&#xA;  there was a hymn to hari-hara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;you can check it from the harivamsa parva if needed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;harivamsha in the&#xA;  mahAbharata - viShNuparva&#xA;  Chapter 116 - story of&#xA;  bANAsura&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_116.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_116.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;harivamsha in the&#xA;  mahAbharata - viShNuparva&#xA;  Chapter 117 - pArvatI blesses&#xA;  uShA with a boon&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_117.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_117.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;harivamsha in the&#xA;  mahAbharata - viShNuparva&#xA;  Chapter 125 - fighting stops&#xA;  between rudra and KR^iShNa&#xA;  and hymn to harihara&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_125.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/vishnuparva/hv_2_125.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you want a detailed with verses then go to the website. &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://shivaandvishnu.blogspot.in/2017/09/fight-between-krishna-and-shiva-from.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://shivaandvishnu.blogspot.in/2017/09/fight-between-krishna-and-shiva-from.html?m=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Okay first of all  lord narayan is not reincration of lord krishna but lord krishna is the incration of lord narayana.&#xA;  well in my answer i have written points that why battel took place then also i didn't explained it briefly now, lord krishna was fighting against bana because he has captured anirudha so,to free him lord krishna need to fight bana. Lord shiva fight with lord krishna to protect bana as he has given him boon to become his son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Your next question that Did Krishna's dwarka&#xA;  exists at the same time as the&#xA;  Puranas (Shiva's Purana ) so, the answer is that the dwarka with lord krishna  was not even present at the time when mahabharata was written or any other purana  i don't think that at the the time of puranic age or even when &lt;strong&gt;Mahabharata was written&lt;/strong&gt; dwarka existed with at least lord krishna because they are smriti text.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Because mahabharata mentions the death of material body of krishna by a hunter i.e. no body can kill god as he was in a human body which he leaved after arrow striked him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16004.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;originally purans are considred smriti(what has been remembred) no nessasory that at what time they were written things existed or taken place.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12176" LastEditorUserId="12176" LastEditDate="2017-10-26T12:00:57.610" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T12:00:57.610" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21774" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21767" CreationDate="2017-10-24T21:37:25.690" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes we always worship one god. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells Arjun &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Whatever a man may sacrifice to other gods, O son of Kunti, is really meant for Me alone, but it is offered without true understanding.&quot; &lt;strong&gt;BG 9.23&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12309" LastEditorUserId="4038" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T04:01:17.617" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T04:01:17.617" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21775" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21763" CreationDate="2017-10-24T22:23:04.270" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q1. Which was this ancient time when Gods and men used to dwell together on the earth? Do other scriptures like the Puranas etc shed any light on the issue?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;it is RigVeda which describes in detail that gods (deva) and human being (manush)lived together. It also tells us that the first god was Agni which lived with humans since beginning but they were unaware of this. Rishi Angira was the first to find this secret (ref.R.V.5.11 (6) - tvam agne Angiraso guha...also RV.1.31(1) - tvam agne prathamo Angira rishir devo devanam bhava Shiva sakha). Other Rishis found  Agni eveywhere - in water,in wood, etc. finally discovered its ulimate source 'Sun'.  RigVeda also tells us that all other gods were actually  first ancestors who brought humans a kind of social life from animal life(ref. RV.6.22. (2) - 'tamu nah purvye pitaro  navagvah sapta vipraso abhi  vaajyant.......This hymn  addresses  Indra meaning ' you are our (nah) earlier ancestor (purvye pitaro) going for battle ( abhi vaajyant) with seven Rishis of Navagva. Similar refences could be cited about Yama who is considered as head of ancestor; this is also confirmed by Avesta, a Zorastranian epic, depicting that Yama was the first king of the world.As their deeds were somewhat equalvalent to Agni i.e. betterment of human life, they were also called as deva. Some of them whose deeds were extra-ordinary, were  equated with Sun like Indra(ref. R.V.4.58 (4) - Indra ekam Surya ekam jajan Venat ekam svadhya nisht takshu). Those opposed this process were  called demons - god:demon is equivalent to arya: anarya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q2. If Gods attained heavens by performing sacred rites then why the humans did not do the same? What stopped them from doing the same?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gods found that living at highest place is good. RigVeda mentions that Indra provided abode for devas at higher hills and lower lands for humans (martya/mortals)(Ref. That's why Himalaya is called as abode of gods - the heaven.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Q3. Who used to live in the heavens when the Gods lived on the earth?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since gods created the heaven there is no question of existing heaven before gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="12348" LastEditDate="2017-10-26T20:33:49.703" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T20:33:49.703" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21776" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-25T00:44:47.827" Score="3" ViewCount="247" Body="&lt;p&gt;My questions are simple(both from advaita and dvaita point of views): &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Was there ever a time when I was not there?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If yes then how did I come into being and from what ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If no then have I lived infinite number of ignorant lives ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T05:50:26.223" Title="Was there ever a time when I was not there?" Tags="|atma|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ClosedDate="2017-10-26T03:16:31.017" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21778" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21766" CreationDate="2017-10-25T04:30:36.317" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am answering only this part: &lt;h3&gt;Does any Hindu scripture illuminate on this issue?&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the customs in Hindu families are practiced according to Dharma-Shastras and Grihya-Sutras. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe14/sbe1435.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Baudhayana Dharmasutra, PRASNA I, ADHYÂYA 1, KANDIKÂ 2&lt;/a&gt; declares that people from South India can marry with the daughter of their maternal uncle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;We will explain those (peculiar) to the south.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They are, to eat in the company of an uninitiated person, to eat in the company of one's wife, to eat stale food, &lt;strong&gt;to marry the daughter of a maternal uncle&lt;/strong&gt; or of a paternal aunt.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there is one condition that, the above practices can be followed only in prevailed country.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;5&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;He who follows (these practices) in any other country than where they prevail, commits sin.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4038" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T04:30:36.317" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21779" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-25T04:41:52.973" Score="16" ViewCount="533" Body="&lt;p&gt;When &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m17/m17003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Indra comes to take Yuddhisthira to Swarga&lt;/a&gt;, the latter refuses to go without the dog who has been accompanying him all this while:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Yudhishthira said, ‘O thou of a 1,000 eyes. O thou that art of righteous behavior, it is exceedingly difficult for one that is of righteous behavior to perpetrate an act that is unrighteous. I do not desire that union with prosperity for which I shall have to cast off one that is devoted to me.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is when Indra replies:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Indra said, ‘There is no place in Heaven for persons with dogs. &lt;strong&gt;Besides, the Krodhavasas take away all the merits of such persons. Reflecting on this, act, O king Yudhishthira the just. Do thou abandon this dog.&lt;/strong&gt; There is no cruelty in this.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is - &lt;strong&gt;What reason do the Krodhavasas (Asurik sons of Kashyap's wife Krodhavasa) have for disliking dogs or people with dogs?&lt;/strong&gt; Especially since Yama himself has two dogs that guard his abode?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="15734" LastEditDate="2018-09-09T17:20:39.317" LastActivityDate="2022-09-02T11:45:44.550" Title="Why do the Krodhavasas take away the merits of people with dogs?" Tags="|mahabharata|indra|animals|yudhisthira|swarga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21780" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-25T04:52:59.013" Score="15" ViewCount="11898" Body="&lt;p&gt;Simple google search with word &quot;Dattatreya&quot; shows many &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/search?q=dattatreya&amp;amp;source=lnms&amp;amp;tbm=isch&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwi3zv7B-orXAhULRY8KHZE1AK4Q_AUICigB&amp;amp;biw=1152&amp;amp;bih=561&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;images&lt;/a&gt; of lord Dattatreya. but 1 important point to note is in most of those images, lord Dattatreya is shown surrounded by 4 dogs and cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uUSCU.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/uUSCU.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And below,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dzfNH.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/dzfNH.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dattatreya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; Article on lord Dattatreya, the 4 dogs is a symbolism for the four Vedas and mother earth. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;he is surrounded by four dogs and a cow, which is a symbolism for the&#xA;  four Vedas and mother earth that nourishes all living beings&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The citation given in Wikipedia does not point to any scriptural reference for above point and links to &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=7PDr-QF4YmYC&amp;amp;pg=PA95&amp;amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this book&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a &lt;strong&gt;scriptural reference&lt;/strong&gt; which explains why lord Dattatreya is shown surrounded by 4 dogs and cow?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2311" LastActivityDate="2021-01-06T22:25:41.373" Title="Why Dattatreya is shown surrounded by 4 dogs and cow?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|animals|dattatreya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21781" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21776" CreationDate="2017-10-25T05:11:05.450" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Your body sure never exist before but your soul was/is/will exist. Because soul is free from Kal chakra. Soul can't be effect by time, only our body take effects of time in which he/she grow old and die.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt; Some people think everything repeats in every kalpa. For exampla: I will be giving same answer in next kalpa also. They also claim that all incarnations also repeat. For ex: Rama/Krishna/Ganesha etc will take birth in next kalpa also. But this theory is fake. Here is how...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If everything reapeats means everything(whole creation) inluding vedas, puranas, Incarnations ect. But if we will see information about previous kalpas (previous days of Brahma) then we will come to know that everything is not repeating. Just have a look on following incidents which hasn't repeat...&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I am goint to show you some examples which are not repeating&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: I said some examples that doesn't mean there is not more examples which are not repeating. It's Just 2 or 3 exampels is enough to prove this theory is fake.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Puranas are not repeating&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As par Matasya Purana explains that each Purana is being created in which Kalpa. Here is the list..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ul&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Padma Purana                        - Padma Kalpa (hence the name)&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vishnu Purana                       - Varaha Kalpa (current Kalpa)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vayu Purana (includes Shiva Purana) - Sveta Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhagavata Purana                    - Sarsvata Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Naradiya Purana                     - Brhat Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Agni Purana                         - Isana Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Bhavishya Purana                    - Aghora Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahma Vaivarata Purana             - Rathantara Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Linga Purana                        - Agneya Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Varaha Purana                       - Manava Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Skanda Purana                       - Satpurusha Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Vamana Purana                       - Kurma Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Kurma Purana                        - Lakshmi Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Matsya Purana                       - Vaivastara Manvantara of Varaha Kalpa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahmanda Purana                    - Future Kalpas (No specific name mentioned)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Brhama day and night is equal to 2 kalpas. So those Puranas are not being made in one or two kalpas. So this theory completely falls down in case of Puranas.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Reference For above statements&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/21446/is-each-of-the-18-mahapurans-related-to-a-different-kalpa&quot;&gt;Is each of the 18 Mahapurans related to a different Kalpa?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incarnations also not repeating&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's see example of Sati(incarnation of Aadi Shakti)who was incarnated in &lt;strong&gt;Pitri Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt;. After her death she didn't take incarnation for whole one day of brahma.&#xA;And after one day of Brahma Aadi Shakti took incarnation as Parvati. These information are being told by Shiva himself to Parvati..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O beautiful lady, due to the anger of Daksha you had to be separated from me for the duration Of a day Of Brahma. Your span of life is the period of his six months.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Long story short, Sati was exist in previous kalpa, not in this one. If everything repeats then there should be a Sati in this Kalpa also But we don't have. Instead we have Mata Parvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So according to above statement of Shiva (mentioned in Chapter 19, Prabhasa Khanda of Skanda Purana) Shiva told to Parvati that I was sapareted to you(from Sati's death to Parvati's birth) for whole one day of Brahma.&#xA;Shiva also told that you age as Parvati will be 6 months of Brahma. Here are following points to notice...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sati was born aprox. past day of Brahma, so where is Sati now in current day of Brahma Same goes to Parvati. Why we have Parvati now instead of Sati?&#xA;Parvati's (daughter of Himalya) age is being told 6 months of Brhama(approx 360 kalpas). If everything repeats in every kalpa then how parvati's age can be 360 kalpas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So this is how this theory again falls down badly and breaks it's teeth by saying everything will repeat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference For above statements&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/21030/what-is-the-lifetime-of-parvati-and-present-age-of-her/#answer-21039&quot;&gt;What is the lifetime of parvati and present age of her?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/21463/how-many-kalpas-ago-was-sati-born&quot;&gt;How many kalpas ago was Sati born?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Everything is not repeating is clear now. But from where this myth originated that everything will repeat?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This myth is originated from confusion of one verse of Geeta. Here is that verse...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;न त्वेवाहं जातु नासं न त्वं नेमे जनाधिपा |&#xA;  न चैव न भविष्याम: सर्वे वयमत: परम् || 12||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na tvevāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ&#xA;  na chaiva na bhaviṣhyāmaḥ sarve vayamataḥ param&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some people pointed out wrong meaning from this verse. See this whole verse word to word. And check every single word in this verse, and think where it is being said everything will repeat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Actually this verse is targeting on soul(aatma), not on body. Means Krishna said we are were present earlier as aatm because aatma never born not dies. So aatma was/will always present.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Correct meaning of verse is being explained &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14722/is-vishnu-present-in-the-current-time/#answer-14724&quot;&gt;HERE&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14722/is-vishnu-present-in-the-current-time/#answer-14723&quot;&gt;HERE&lt;/a&gt; which says we all were exist earlier and will exist after as aatma. Body dies but aatma never dies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reference for above statement&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14722/is-vishnu-present-in-the-current-time/#answer-14724&quot;&gt;Is Vishnu present in the current time?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T05:16:46.773" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T05:16:46.773" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21782" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21776" CreationDate="2017-10-25T05:50:26.223" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am putting some of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/5212/nog-shine&quot;&gt;Nog Shine's&lt;/a&gt; comments in my answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 2.12  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That means, everyone of us as this body always existed in certain period of time. However, we as this same body, did not exist before our birth and after our death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 2.27, 2.28&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to take birth again. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament. All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From Rigveda:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;सूरय्याचन्द्रमसौ धाता यथा पूर्वमकल्पयत् I दिवं च पृथ्वीं च अंतरिक्षमथो स्वः&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  The Ordainer created the sun and moon like those of previous cycles. He formed in order Heaven and Earth, the regions of the air, and light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If the Ordainer keeps creating sun, moon etc. in same way then humans like us also should be created in same way.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Don't know how are you/me born though. :-)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10330" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T05:50:26.223" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21783" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-25T06:07:47.613" Score="5" ViewCount="23" Body="&lt;p&gt;Cow is considered the most sacred animals constituting various deities. They are maintained by cowherds &amp;amp; dairy people.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;India is topmost milk producer. But now a days mostly, after when these cows stop giving milk, either they are killed or even worse they are left on the roads on their own to survive. Where they eat garbage, get infected, injured and eventually die in pathetic situation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of us are regular consumers of milk products.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Questions&lt;/strong&gt;:  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Are we responsible for protection of cows from such miserable situation? Or since we paid money for the milk, we are free from the sin?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What happens to the society as a whole for keeping harmless &amp;amp; helpful animal like cow to die a slow &amp;amp; painful death?  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T06:07:47.613" Title="Who should be responsible to protect the Cows from various atrocities?" Tags="|scripture|sin|cows|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-10-25T06:21:39.513" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21785" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21786" CreationDate="2017-10-25T08:21:09.690" Score="1" ViewCount="544" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that Indra is a position attained by different persons. Present Indra is Purandara. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8018/5212&quot;&gt;This&lt;/a&gt; answer by  explains how he attained the position of Indra. There are occasions where he lost the throne to Prahlada, Mandhata, Nahusha etc., &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But my question is  whether Vinayaka (the head of the obstacles and the removal of the obstacles) also called as Ganesha (leader of the Ganas of Shiva) a position or an individual(separate entity). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If it is a position, then is there anyway mentioned in scriptures how to become the leader of Ganas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-04T04:13:19.440" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T04:13:19.440" Title="Is Vinayaka an individual or a position like Indra?" Tags="|scripture|rituals|ganesha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21786" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21785" CreationDate="2017-10-25T08:21:09.690" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganesha or Vinayaka is a position. The reign over the obstacles is like a position. There have been various rulers of the obsttacles till now and the way they take births are also different. The son born of Shiva and Parvati was declared as the leader of the obstacles many times in the previous Manvantaras and Kalpas. So, it is not the same person. Similarly, Padma Purana also gives the story of the birth of a Vinayaka made by Parvati with the unguents in the Srishti Khanda Chapter 43. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;433b. Taking those unguents used for rubbing and cleaning&#xA;  the body, she prepared a human (shape) having an elephant's face.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;434&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The respectable lady (i.e. Parvati) while playing, once threw that human (form) into the water of the auspicious friendly Ganges. Then that (form) turned into one having a big body (i.e. increased in size).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;With his very vast body he filled the world. The respectable lady ( i .e Parvati) addressed him 'O son'; and jahnavl (i.e. Ganga) also called him 'O son'.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;That form having the face of an elephant, was worshipped by the gods as Gangeya (i.e. the son of Ganga) ; and the grandsire, &lt;strong&gt;gave him supremacy as Vinayaka, over the attendants (of Siva)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, it is clear that the position of the Ganesha (lord of the Shiva Ganas) is given to different elephant headed gods. There are multiple accounts on how they got the position. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vamana Purana gives a story where a tiger was bestowed the leadership of Ganas by Brahma on the request of Parvati. Following is an excerpt from Vamana Purana Chapter 54. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;14&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When Parvati was seated on the Penance, a tiger having sharp teeth and nails came there from an adjacent forest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He thought to pounce and eat flesh of Parvati when she will fall because she was stood on a single foot. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;That tiger stared on the face of Parvati with an imagination that soon or after, she will fall from mountain and he will satiate his hunger. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then the Goddess did penance as long as the period of hundred years. She was chanting Brahma mantra. Brahma, the master of the three worlds then appeared there. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahma said to Goddess - O Sanatani! I am glad to see you. You are absolved of sins now. Ask whatever pleases you. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kali replied - O lotus born! Please grace on this tiger. It will really be the more cause of my pleasure. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brahma bestowed that tiger the leadership of Ganas, devotion to Shankara, religion abiding and unconquered.   &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to attain the position of Vinayaka:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are two ways prescribed in the Padma Purana Srishti Khanda. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One should offer sesamum seeds to the manes on a new moon day through out the attains the position of Vinayaka. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;40&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;He, who offers sesamum to the manes on the new moon day throughout a year, &lt;strong&gt;obtains the position of Vinayaka&lt;/strong&gt;, and is honoured by all gods. [Srishti Khanda Chapter 49]&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;One who drinks the water from their parents feet becomes free from all the sins and gets the position of Vinayaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14b-15a. The sins, earned (i.e. committed) during hundreds ofcrores of existences of that son who drinks (i.e. sips) the water of (i.e. flowing from) the lotus-like feet of his parents, perish. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15b-16a. &lt;strong&gt;He is blessed in the human world, he is purified from all sins. (Such) a man obtains the status of Vinayaka&lt;/strong&gt; in (i.e. after) one existence only. [Srishti Khanda Chapter 50]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, by following above ways, one can become the leader of Ganas and the remover of the obstacles. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-04T04:13:17.713" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T04:13:17.713" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21787" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21789" CreationDate="2017-10-25T08:24:45.187" Score="6" ViewCount="366" Body="&lt;p&gt;I always have this question in mind when I read Bhagawad-Gita. In the 11th chapter of Gita when Krishna shows Vishwaroopa, this means everything originated from Him. But why this difference that Devatas enjoy and Humans are made to suffer, when both Devas and Humans are originated from Him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Mrityuloka, whoever will come, cannot escape without some or the other sin. Why animals, humans and other creatures were created?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it that humans only evolve and one day become a Devata? The present Devatas one day, some time in the past, were humans?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12301" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T10:05:32.707" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T06:20:21.747" Title="Why God (Viraat Purush) created Devatas to enjoy and Humans to suffer?" Tags="|gods|creation|human|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21788" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21767" CreationDate="2017-10-25T09:38:30.080" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;It's true that , &quot;we always worship one god&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He himself the Supreme Paramatma manifests / assumes different forms himself . We can see this truth highlighted in our ancient Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in the &lt;strong&gt;Shvetashvatara Upanishad - Adhyaya 6 - Shloka 11&lt;/strong&gt; - it's said that there is only one god , who resides in the hearts of all the creatures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एको देव&lt;/strong&gt;: सर्वभूतेषु गूढः सर्वव्यापी सर्वभूतान्तरात्मा। &#xA;  कर्माध्यक्ष: सर्वभूताधिवस: । साक्षी चेता केवलो निर्गुणश्च&#xA;  ।।6.11।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;eko devaḥ&lt;/strong&gt; sarvabhūteṣu gūḍhaḥ &lt;br&gt;sarvavyāpī sarvabhūtāntarātmā &#xA;  karmādhyakṣaḥ sarvabhūtādhivāsaḥ  sākṣī cetā kevalo nirguṇaś ca ।।&#xA;  6.11 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He is the one without a second&lt;/strong&gt;, yet he is hidden in every being. He is&#xA;  all pervasive, the Self of all. He gives to all beings the fruits of&#xA;  their actions, and he is the support of all. He is the witness,&#xA;  bestower of consciousness, without attributes and unconditioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similarly in the &lt;strong&gt;Mudgalopanishad  Khanda 3 - Shloka 1&lt;/strong&gt; - We  can clearly see the concept of One God .Here what it says-:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;एको देवो&lt;/strong&gt; बहुधा निविष्ट अजायमानो बहुधा विजायते ।।3.1।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Eko Devo Bahuda Nivishta  Ajaayamano Bahuda Vijayaye &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In this creation there is only one god&lt;/strong&gt; ,who is manifisted himself in&#xA;  different forms . He himself being unborn , assumes different forms.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4ll1I.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/4ll1I.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So no matter which god we worship, we worship only one Paramatma ,who is without second. i.e.non dual.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T09:38:30.080" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21789" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21787" CreationDate="2017-10-25T12:53:54.180" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;karma law is equal for both gods ,humans and deamons all.Gods too suffer in epics like mahabharat and ramayana and  as there are many incidents but mainly  post-vedic. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think this answer is quite simple humans who do not get immortality and do not attain the highest heaven may be those who have'nt get to their self or knowledge of self and impersnal self. &#xA;As we know &lt;strong&gt;Indra&lt;/strong&gt; spent 101 years with Prajapati uderstanding the self whereas the demon king from the first time getting an answer as the body is the self got away but indra came again and again to Prajapati after getting an answer and spend 101 years with Prajapati learning self and that's why gods are all prevalent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;CHANDOGYA UPNISHAD BOOK:VIII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEVENTH KHANDA&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prajapati said: 'The Self&#xA;  which is free from sin, free&#xA;  from old age, from death&#xA;  and grief, from hunger and&#xA;  thirst, which desires&#xA;  nothing but what it ought&#xA;  to desire, and imagines&#xA;  nothing but what it ought&#xA;  to imagine, that it is which&#xA;  we must search out, that it&#xA;  is which we must try to&#xA;  understand. He who has&#xA;  searched out that Self and&#xA;  understands it, obtains all&#xA;  worlds and all desires.'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;The Devas (gods) and&#xA;  Asuras (demons) both heard&#xA;  these words, and said :&#xA;  'Well, let us search for that&#xA;  Self by which, if one has&#xA;  searched it out, all worlds&#xA;  and all desires are&#xA;  obtained.'&#xA;  Thus saying Indra went&#xA;  from the Devas, Virokana&#xA;  from the Asuras, and both,&#xA;  without having&#xA;  communicated with each&#xA;  other, approached&#xA;  Prajapati, holding fuel in&#xA;  their hands, as is the&#xA;  custom for pupils&#xA;  approaching their master.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;They dwelt there as&#xA;  pupils for thirty-two years.&#xA;  Then Prajapati asked them:&#xA;  'For what purpose have you&#xA;  both dwelt here?'&#xA;  They replied: 'A saying of&#xA;  yours is being repeated, viz.&#xA;  &quot;the Self which is free from&#xA;  sin, free from old age, from&#xA;  death and grief, from&#xA;  hunger and thirst, which&#xA;  desires nothing but what it&#xA;  ought to desire, and&#xA;  imagines nothing but what&#xA;  it ought to imagine, that it&#xA;  is which we must search&#xA;  out, that it is which we&#xA;  must try to understand. He&#xA;  who has searched out that&#xA;  Self and understands it,&#xA;  obtains all worlds and all&#xA;  desires.&quot; Now we both have&#xA;  dwelt here because we wish&#xA;  for that Self.'&#xA;  Prajapati said to them: 'The&#xA;  person that is seen in the&#xA;  eye, that is the Self. This is&#xA;  what I have said. This is&#xA;  the immortal, the fearless,&#xA;  this is Brahman.'&#xA;  They asked: 'Sir, he who is&#xA;  perceived in the water, and&#xA;  he who is perceived in a&#xA;  mirror, who is he?'&#xA;  He replied: 'He himself&#xA;  indeed is seen in all these&#xA;  .'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EIGHTH KHANDA.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'Look at your Self in &#xA;  pan of water, and whatever&#xA;  you do not understand of&#xA;  your Self, come and tell&#xA;  me.'&#xA;  They looked in the water-&#xA;  pan. Then Prajapati said to&#xA;  them: 'What do you see?'&#xA;  They said: 'We both see the&#xA;  self thus altogether, a&#xA;  picture even to the very&#xA;  hairs and nails.'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Prajapati said to them:&#xA;  'After you have adorned&#xA;  yourselves, have put on&#xA;  your best clothes and&#xA;  cleaned yourselves, look&#xA;  again into the water-pan.&#xA;  They, after having adorned&#xA;  themselves, having put on&#xA;  their best clothes and&#xA;  cleaned themselves, looked&#xA;  into the water-pan.&#xA;  Prajapati said: 'What do&#xA;  you see?'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;They said: 'Just as we&#xA;  are, well adorned, with our&#xA;  best clothes and clean, thus&#xA;  we are both there, Sir, well&#xA;  adorned, with our best&#xA;  clothes and clean.'&#xA;  Prajapati said: 'That is the&#xA;  Self, this is the immortal,&#xA;  the fearless, this is&#xA;  Brahman.'&#xA;  Then both went away&#xA;  satisfied in their hearts.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And Prajapati, looking&#xA;  after them, said: 'They both&#xA;  go away without having&#xA;  perceived and without&#xA;  having known the Self, and&#xA;  whoever of these two,&#xA;  whether Devas or Asuras,&#xA;  will follow this doctrine&#xA;  (upanishad), will perish.'&#xA;  Now Virokana, satisfied in&#xA;  his heart, went to the&#xA;  Asuras and preached that&#xA;  doctrine to them, that the&#xA;  self (the body) alone is to&#xA;  be worshipped, that the self&#xA;  (the body) alone is to be&#xA;  served, and that he who&#xA;  worships the self and serves&#xA;  the self, gains both worlds,&#xA;  this and the next.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Therefore they call even&#xA;  now a man who does not&#xA;  give alms here, who has no&#xA;  faith, and offers no&#xA;  sacrifices, an Asura, for this&#xA;  is the doctrine (upanishad)&#xA;  of the Asuras. They deck&#xA;  out the body of the dead&#xA;  with perfumes, flowers, and&#xA;  fine raiment by way of&#xA;  ornament, and think they&#xA;  will thus conquer that&#xA;  world.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NINTH KHANDA&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But Indra, before he had&#xA;  returned to the Devas, saw&#xA;  this difficulty. As this self&#xA;  (the shadow in the water) is&#xA;  well adorned, when the&#xA;  body is well adorned, well&#xA;  dressed, when the body is&#xA;  well dressed, well cleaned,&#xA;  if the body is well cleaned,&#xA;  that self will also be blind,&#xA;  if the body is blind, lame, if&#xA;  the body is lame, crippled,&#xA;  if the body is crippled, and&#xA;  will perish in fact as soon&#xA;  as the body perishes.&#xA;  Therefore I see no good in&#xA;  this (doctrine).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Taking fuel in his hand&#xA;  he came again as a pupil to&#xA;  Prajapati. Prajapati said to&#xA;  him: 'Maghavat (Indra), as&#xA;  you went away with&#xA;  Virokana, satisfied in your&#xA;  heart, for what purpose did&#xA;  you come back?'&#xA;  He said : 'Sir, as this self&#xA;  (the shadow) is well&#xA;  adorned, when the body is&#xA;  well adorned, well dressed,&#xA;  when the body is well&#xA;  dressed, well cleaned, if the&#xA;  body is well cleaned, that&#xA;  self will also be blind, if&#xA;  the body is blind, lame, if&#xA;  the body is lame, crippled,&#xA;  if the body is crippled, and&#xA;  will perish in fact as soon&#xA;  as the body perishes.&#xA;  Therefore I see no good in&#xA;  this (doctrine).'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'So it is indeed,&#xA;  Maghavat,' replied&#xA;  Prajapati; 'but I shall&#xA;  explain him (the true Self)&#xA;  further to&#xA;  you. Live with me another&#xA;  thirty-two years.'&#xA;  He lived with him another&#xA;  thirty-two years, and then&#xA;  Pragapati said:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TENTH KHANDA&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'He who moves about&#xA;  happy in dreams, he is the&#xA;  Self, this is the immortal,&#xA;  the fearless, this is&#xA;  Brahman.'&#xA;  Then Indra went away&#xA;  satisfied in his heart. But&#xA;  before he had returned to&#xA;  the Devas, he saw this&#xA;  difficulty. Although it is&#xA;  true that that self is not&#xA;  blind, even if the body is&#xA;  blind, nor lame, if the body&#xA;  is lame, though it is true&#xA;  that that self is not&#xA;  rendered faulty by the&#xA;  faults of it (the body),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nor struck when it (the&#xA;  body) is struck, nor lamed&#xA;  when it is lamed, yet it is&#xA;  as if they struck him (the&#xA;  self) in dreams, as if they&#xA;  chased him'. He becomes&#xA;  even conscious, as it were,&#xA;  of pain, and sheds tears.&#xA;  Therefore I see no good in&#xA;  this.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Taking fuel in his hands,&#xA;  he went again as a pupil to&#xA;  Prajapati. Prajapati said&#xA;  to him: 'Maghavat, as you&#xA;  went away satisfied in your&#xA;  heart, for what purpose did&#xA;  you come back?'&#xA;  He said: 'Sir, although it is&#xA;  true that that self is not&#xA;  blind even if the body is&#xA;  blind, nor lame, if the body&#xA;  is lame, though it is true&#xA;  that that self is not&#xA;  rendered faulty by the&#xA;  faults of it (the body),&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Nor struck when it (the&#xA;  body) is struck, nor lamed&#xA;  when it is lamed, yet it is&#xA;  as if they struck him (the&#xA;  self) in dreams, as if they&#xA;  chased him. He becomes&#xA;  even conscious, as it were,&#xA;  of pain, and sheds tears.&#xA;  Therefore I see no good in&#xA;  this.'&#xA;  'So it is indeed, Maghavat,'&#xA;  replied Prajapati; 'but I&#xA;  shall explain him (the true&#xA;  Self) further to you. Live&#xA;  with me another thirty-two&#xA;  years.' He lived with him&#xA;  another thirty-two years.&#xA;  Then Prajapati said:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ELEVENTH KHANDA&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'When a man being&#xA;  asleep, reposing, and at&#xA;  perfect rest', sees no&#xA;  dreams, that is the Self, this&#xA;  is the immortal, the&#xA;  fearless, this is Brahman.'&#xA;  Then Indra went away&#xA;  satisfied.in his heart. But&#xA;  before he had returned to&#xA;  the Devas, he saw this&#xA;  difficulty. In truth he thus&#xA;  does not know himself (his&#xA;  self) that he is I, nor does&#xA;  he know anything that&#xA;  exists. He is gone to utter&#xA;  annihilation. I see no good&#xA;  in this.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Taking fuel in his hand&#xA;  he went again as a pupil to&#xA;  Prajapati. Prajapati said to&#xA;  him: 'Maghavat, as you went&#xA;  away satisfied in your heart,&#xA;  for what purpose did you&#xA;  come back?'&#xA;  He said: 'Sir, in that way he&#xA;  does not know himself (his&#xA;  self ) that he is I, nor does&#xA;  he know anything that&#xA;  exists. He is gone to utter&#xA;  annihilation. I see no good&#xA;  in this.'&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'So it is indeed,&#xA;  Maghavat,' replied Prajapati&#xA;  'but I shall explain him (the&#xA;  true Self) further to&#xA;  you, and nothing more than&#xA;  this . Live here otherfive&#xA;  years.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;'He lived there other five&#xA;  years. This made in all one&#xA;  hundred and one years, and&#xA;  therefore it is said that&#xA;  Indra Maghavat lived one&#xA;  hundred and one years as a&#xA;  pupil with Prajapati.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Prajapati said to him:&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TWELFTH KHANDA&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'Maghavat, this body is&#xA;  mortal and always held by&#xA;  death. It is the abode of&#xA;  that Self which is immortal&#xA;  and without body. When in&#xA;  the body (by thinking this&#xA;  body is I and I am this&#xA;  body) the Self is held by&#xA;  pleasure and pain. So long&#xA;  as he is in the body, he&#xA;  cannot get free from&#xA;  pleasure and pain. But&#xA;  when he is free of the body&#xA;  (when he knows himself&#xA;  different from the body),&#xA;  then neither pleasure nor&#xA;  pain touches him'.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'The wind is without&#xA;  body, the cloud, lightning,&#xA;  and thunder are without&#xA;  body (without hands, feet,&#xA;  &amp;amp;c.) Now as these, arising&#xA;  from this heavenly ether&#xA;  (space), appear in their own&#xA;  form, as soon as they have&#xA;  approached the highest&#xA;  light,&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'Thus does that serene&#xA;  being, arising from this&#xA;  body, appear in its own&#xA;  form, as soon as it has&#xA;  approached the highest&#xA;  light (the knowledge of&#xA;  Self) . He (in that state) is&#xA;  the highest person (uttama&#xA;  purusha). He moves about&#xA;  there laughing (or eating),&#xA;  playing, and rejoicing (in&#xA;  his mind), be it with&#xA;  women, carriages, or&#xA;  relatives, never minding&#xA;  that body into which he was&#xA;  born.&#xA;  'Like as a horse attached to&#xA;  a cart, so is the spirit&#xA;  (prana, pragnatman)&#xA;  attached to this body.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'Now where the sight has&#xA;  entered into the void (the&#xA;  open space, the black pupil&#xA;  of the eye), there is the&#xA;  person of the eye, the eye&#xA;  itself is the instrument of&#xA;  seeing. He who knows, let&#xA;  me smell this, he is the&#xA;  Self, the nose is the&#xA;  instrument of smelling. He&#xA;  who knows, let me say this,&#xA;  he is the Self, the tongue is&#xA;  the instrument of saying.&#xA;  He who knows, let me hear&#xA;  this, he is the Self, the ear&#xA;  is the instrument of&#xA;  hearing.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;'He who knows, let me&#xA;  think this, he is the Self,&#xA;  the mind is his divine eye .&#xA;  He, the Self, seeing these&#xA;  pleasures (which to others&#xA;  are hidden like a buried&#xA;  treasure of gold) through&#xA;  his divine eye, i. e. the&#xA;  mind, rejoices.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;'The Devas who are in the&#xA;  world of Brahman meditate&#xA;  on that Self (as taught by&#xA;  Prajapati to Indra, and by&#xA;  Indra to the Devas).&#xA;  Therefore all worlds belong&#xA;  to them, and all desires. He&#xA;  who knows that Self and&#xA;  understands it, obtains all&#xA;  worlds and all desires.'&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Thus said Prajapati, yea,&#xA;  thus said Prajapati.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;link:—&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/upanishads/chandogya.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/upanishads/chandogya.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is just my thinking you can believe in what you have got up with.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12176" LastEditorUserId="12176" LastEditDate="2017-10-26T06:20:21.747" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T06:20:21.747" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21790" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8180" CreationDate="2017-10-25T13:40:57.967" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The science behind Mantra chanting?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Every sound that we make is actually a composite of sounds — a fundamental frequency and geometric multiples of that sound, called harmonics or overtones. Harmonics can also &lt;strong&gt;improve our vocal quality, charge our brain, improve our hearing&lt;/strong&gt; and heighten our consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It can &lt;strong&gt;balance the left and right hemispheres of the brain&lt;/strong&gt;, as well as the auric field. “Om” as you know, is said to be the original, primordial tone of the universe—the original sound of creation. More &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shiftyourlife.com/the-science-behind-mantra-chanting-by-jonathan-goldman/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The effects of sound on the brain have been demonstrated in Electro Encephala Graph (EEG) charts as well as by documented &lt;strong&gt;physical changes (skin temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate among them)&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Beeja, or Bija mantras can be very helpful in &lt;strong&gt;balancing the brain hemispheres&lt;/strong&gt; as well as the chakra system. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/05/27/the-mind-blowing-power-of-mantra-yoga/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Refer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The chanting improves your voice by giving strength to your vocal&#xA;  cords and the muscles around it. This is very helpful during old age.&#xA;  The vibrations of Om open up the sinuses to clear the airways. The&#xA;  sound uuu… (U) is created by the vocal cords which benefit the thyroid&#xA;  glands and the throat. Read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wholesomeayurveda.com/2017/07/07/om-aum-meditation-science-benefits/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;it&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Suggestion:&lt;/strong&gt; Some day just relax, sit alone in a room and chant &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;AUM&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; with eyes closed, feel as if it is originating from root chakra (muldhara) and moving upwards. Feel the difference, within and outside.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-25T13:46:39.753" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T13:46:39.753" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21791" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-25T19:51:08.500" Score="3" ViewCount="464" Body="&lt;p&gt;Chapter 2 of Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya, which is his commentary on the Brahma Sutars, attempts to refute all other opposing philosophical schools that don't adhere to Vishishtadvaita Vedanta, such as Buddhism, Jainism, Advaita Vedanta, Shaivism, Shaktism, Sankhya, and Vaisheshika. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But how come he doesn't mention Islam, since Islam had entered India by the 1100s?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2020-11-01T00:25:39.820" LastActivityDate="2020-11-01T00:25:39.820" Title="How come Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya does not mention Islam?" Tags="|sri-vaishnava|brahma-sutras|other-religions|ramanujacharya|islam|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21792" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-25T20:15:11.057" Score="6" ViewCount="3844" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would want to read Sridhara Swami's commentary of the Srimad Bhagavatam online in English. Can anyone of you provide me the relevant pdf or link?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-26T01:57:00.637" LastActivityDate="2022-02-08T14:02:25.227" Title="Where can I read Sridhara Swami's commentary on the Srimad Bhagavatam online?" Tags="|bhagavata-purana|resource|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21794" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-25T21:42:23.450" Score="2" ViewCount="159" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is it the left tusk of Lord Ganesha, or could it be the right one instead. I have seen statues in which it is the right tusk the one broken, and held in the right front hand.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12378" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-26T02:02:41.317" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T02:02:41.317" Title="Ganesha's broken tusk. Is it the right or left one" Tags="|ganesha|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-10-26T03:14:41.527" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21795" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21632" CreationDate="2017-10-25T22:00:41.113" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The meaning of the word - 'trayambakam'  of RigVedic hymn RV.7.59 (12), which is often used to relate Lord Shiva  to RigVedic  Rudra , is misinterpreted purposefully . No where in the literature or in general use we find the meaning of the word - 'amb' to mean 'eye' except with the reference to Lord Shiva . On the other hand  we have wide range of words containing 'amb' which mean 'water' e.g.  ambuj (born of water), ambud (holder of water), amber (sky,air contain in water) etc. In ancient time people believed that life had initially germinated from water thus &quot; ambe'  meant mother. In RigVeda the river Sarasvati is refered as 'ambetame' - you are mother (RV.2.41 (16).  Therefore, 'trayambakam' should mean here confluence of two rivers where third one is emanating, where brightened  (suryatvachah) priests ( kavi ) are invoking Maruts to grant them immortality. &#xA; Apart from this RigVeda always  refers to Rudra in plural sense, so to Maruts, not as an individual deity. Thus, we find in RigVeda  Aditya gan, Vasu gan,Rudra gan and Marud gan and none of them as individual deity although many times they are refered as Aditya,Vasu,Rudra and Marut.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastActivityDate="2017-10-25T22:00:41.113" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21796" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-25T23:13:30.487" Score="1" ViewCount="2344" Body="&lt;p&gt;Almost all Acharyas divide the Vedas into two parts: Karma Kand (as explained by the Purva Mimamsa sutras) and the Jnana Kand (Uttara Mimamsa sutras, aka Brahma Sutras). The Samhitas and Brahmanas texts form Karma Kand, and Upanishads and Aranyakas form the Jnana Kand. The Karma Kand deals with rituals and worship of Devas, and Jnana Kand deals with Brahman and Moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But since Moksha is more important than rituals and temporary material fruits, why are the Vedas overwhelmingly focused on the Karma Kand portion? The Samhitas and Brahmanas section make up the bulk of the Vedas, and not the Aranyakas or Upanishads. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this because most traditions and lineages have retained the Karma Kand portion more rigorously than the Jnana Kand? There are only 13 or so major Upanishads that have been preserved well, and the rest of the 108 haven't. So, if the full 108 Upanishads were properly retained, would they be equal to or be larger than the Karma Kand portion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;More of the Jnana related texts are found in the Smritis: Bhagavad Gita, Vishnu Purana, and Bhagavata Purana. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-26T02:17:28.183" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T02:17:28.183" Title="Why is the Karma Kand portion of the Vedas larger than the Jnana Kand?" Tags="|vedas|upanishads|brahmanas|aranyaka|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="16" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21798" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21763" CreationDate="2017-10-26T06:42:43.347" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;The answer may be found in the Brahmanas. Here is Satapatha Brahamana verse which alludes answers to your questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4129.htm#6:1:2:11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 6:1:2:11&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And so they say, 'Pragâpati, having created these worlds, was firmly&#xA;  established on the earth. For him these plants were ripened 2 into&#xA;  food: that he ate. He became pregnant. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;From the upper vital airs he&#xA;  created the gods, and from the lower vital airs the mortal creatures&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.'&#xA;  In whatever way he created thereafter, so he created; but indeed it&#xA;  was Pragâpati who created everything here, whatsoever exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4129.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 6:1:2:36&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As to this they say, 'For what object is this fire (altar) built?&#xA;  Having become a bird, he (Agni) shall bear me to the sky!' so say&#xA;  some; but let him not think so; for by assuming that form, the vital&#xA;  airs became Pragâpati 1; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;by assuming that form, Pragâpati created the&#xA;  gods 2; by assuming that form, the gods became immortal and what&#xA;  thereby the vital airs, and Pragâpati, and the gods became, that&#xA;  indeed he (the Sacrificer)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; thereby becomes&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe26/sbe2603.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 3:1:1:1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They choose a place of worship. Let them choose (the place) which lies&#xA;  highest, and above which no other part of the ground rises 1; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;for it&#xA;  was from thence that the gods ascended to heaven, and he who is&#xA;  consecrated indeed ascends to the gods&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. He thus sacrifices on a place&#xA;  of worship frequented by the gods; but were any other part of the&#xA;  ground to rise above it, he would indeed be lowered while sacrificing:&#xA;  let them therefore choose (the place) which lies highest&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per SB, after having created heaven , earth, sky, plants, men and animals, Prajapti and Gods started to perform sacrifice. Men, animal, and plants become a mean of sacrifice out of which man was the first victim of sacrifice&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4131.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 6:2:1:2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He saw those five animals,--the Purusha (man), the horse, the bull,&#xA;  the ram, and the he-goat. Inasmuch as he saw (pas) them, they are&#xA;  (called) cattle (pasu)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe41/sbe4131.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 6:2:1:18&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A man (purusha) he slaughters first, for man is the first of animals;&#xA;  then a horse, for the horse comes after man; then a bull, for the bull&#xA;  (or cow) comes after the horse; then a ram, for the sheep comes after&#xA;  the cow; then a he-goat, for the goat comes after the sheep: thus he&#xA;  slaughters them according to their form, according to their&#xA;  excellence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And since gods knew highest point to perform sacrifice and hence they went to heaven which men do not know yet&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe26/sbe2603.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 3:1:1:1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They choose a place of worship. Let them choose (the place) which lies&#xA;  highest, and above which no other part of the ground rises 1; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;for it&#xA;  was from thence that the gods ascended to heaven, and he who is&#xA;  consecrated indeed ascends to the gods&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. He thus sacrifices on a place&#xA;  of worship frequented by the gods; but were any other part of the&#xA;  ground to rise above it, he would indeed be lowered while sacrificing:&#xA;  let them therefore choose (the place) which lies highest&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorDisplayName="user12262" LastEditDate="2017-10-26T10:04:11.143" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T10:04:11.143" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21799" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21802" CreationDate="2017-10-26T08:45:34.383" Score="8" ViewCount="1170" Body="&lt;p&gt;A married couple of male &amp;amp; female with their children is consider a &lt;strong&gt;social unit&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;A single social unit staying independently -- is called &quot;Nuclear family&quot; and when multiple such units stays together depending on each other -- is called &quot;Joint family&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15977/1049&quot;&gt;AnushAsana Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Manusmruti&lt;/em&gt;, a woman should be always protected by father during tender age, husband after marriage and children during old age.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Hence whether a family is &quot;nuclear&quot; or &quot;joint&quot; is decided based on where the man is staying. He may stay with his father &amp;amp;/or brother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What do &lt;em&gt;dharma shAstra&lt;/em&gt; talk about whether a married man should stay with and for how long?&lt;br&gt;&#xA;As that decision will eventually lead to nuclear or joint family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Note: Gita is neutral on this topic. It usually says that a person seeking liberation would be away from the crowd, physically or mentally. However, that's a special case &amp;amp; hence answers from Gita may not fit here.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T04:35:13.450" Title="Nuclear family vs Joint family" Tags="|scripture|dharma|culture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21801" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-26T10:25:22.760" Score="1" ViewCount="187" Body="&lt;p&gt;If Krishna was born in 3228 BCE , how was he present during the Puranas when he fought against Shiva due to Banasura and Anirudha's fight ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10397" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T07:40:44.797" Title="Krishna's presence in Puranas" Tags="|shiva|krishna|shiva-lingam|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21802" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21799" CreationDate="2017-10-26T10:34:22.713" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Hindu scriptures prescribe the joint family lifestyle.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To my knowledge there are no explicit verses in the Smritis which say that one must live jointly but several verses can indirectly be interpreted leading to that conclusion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.227. That trouble (and pain) which the parents undergo&#xA;  on the birth of (their) children, cannot be compensated even in a&#xA;  hundred years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.235. &lt;strong&gt;As long as those three live, so long let him not&#xA;  (independently) perform any other (meritorious acts); let him always&#xA;  serve them, rejoicing (to do what is) agreeable and beneficial (to&#xA;  them).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.236. &lt;strong&gt;He shall inform them of everything that with their&#xA;  consent he may perform in thought,&lt;/strong&gt; word, or deed for the sake of the&#xA;  next world.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These above verses are hinting towards all sons staying with parents lifelong. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 3.116. &lt;strong&gt;After&lt;/strong&gt; the Brahmanas, &lt;strong&gt;the kinsmen&lt;/strong&gt;, and the servants&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;have dined, the householder and his wife may afterwards eat what&#xA;  remains&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3.116 is saying that the husband and wife should dine only after the relatives (Svayeshu in the original text) have already dined. This is clearly talking about a joint family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Manu Smriti 2.132. &lt;strong&gt;(The feet of the) wife of one’s brother, if she&#xA;  be of the same caste (varna), must be clasped every day&lt;/strong&gt;; but (the&#xA;  feet of) wives of (other) paternal and maternal relatives need only be&#xA;  embraced on one’s return from a journey&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, clasping the feet of the wife of one's brother is possible only if the families are staying together.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedas too clearly advocate the joint family system:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the Atharva Veda (denoted by &lt;strong&gt;AV&lt;/strong&gt; in this answer), there is Concord Hymn, which talks about maintaining unity and concord in a joint family.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The union of hearts and minds, and freedom from hate i'll bring you.&#xA;  Love one another as the cow loves the calf that she has borne. &lt;strong&gt;AV&#xA;  3.30.1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Let not a brother hate a brother, nor a sister hate a sister;&#xA;  unanimous, united in aims, speak you words with friendliness. &lt;strong&gt;AV&#xA;  3.30.3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having superiors who are conscious (of their tasks), &lt;strong&gt;be not divided&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  Thriving together, &lt;strong&gt;moving on with joint wor&lt;/strong&gt;k, come speaking sweetly to&#xA;  one another; I'll make you have one aim and be of one mind. &lt;strong&gt;AV&#xA;  3.30.5&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I will make the prayer, &lt;strong&gt;for that concord among men at home&lt;/strong&gt;, by&#xA;  which devAs are not apart from them, so that none hates the other.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;AV 3.30.4&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Common be your water-store, common your share of food. I bind you together to a common yoke.&lt;/strong&gt; United, gather round Agni, the spokes&#xA;  around the nave of a wheel. &lt;strong&gt;AV 3.30.6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The bride's role in a joint family is explicitly stated in the following mantra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;samrAjnedhi svasurishu (1),&lt;br&gt; SamrAjnuta devrushu (2),&lt;br&gt; NanAndu&#xA;  samrAjnedhi (3),&lt;br&gt; SamrAjnuta svasravAha (4).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Be a queen to thy father-in-law (1), a queen to thy brothers-in-law&#xA;  (2), a queen to thy husband's sisters (3), a queen to thy&#xA;  mother-in-law (4).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 14.1.44&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that SamrAjni= Queen. So, the mantra is asking the bride to be like a Queen (means very dear) to her in-laws.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T04:35:13.450" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T04:35:13.450" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21804" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-26T11:44:50.187" Score="3" ViewCount="129" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Bhagwadgita, Krishna said to Arjun that if one worships other Devas, he will go to their Loka but who worships and surrenders unto him, will get united with him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But when I read Mahabharat, I found that Krishna advised Arjun to please Siva for Pasupatastra. Similarly, Krishna advised Arjun to take blessings of Goddess before Mahabharat war.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am a bit confused on this. When Krishna was himself with Arjun, why he needed Pasupatastra and other Astras from other Devas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12301" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T11:44:50.187" Title="Why Krishna advised Arjun to worship other Devas and attain powers?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21806" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-26T12:35:26.013" Score="1" ViewCount="800" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to 'Pradhanic rahasya' of Durgasaptasati, goddess Adi Shakti has three incarnations - Mahalakshmi, Mahakali, MahaSaraswati,but they are described to have four arms each which is a contradiction with the previous chapters of the book which describes them with 18,10 and 8 hands respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Mahalakshmi contains in her 4 hands a fruit,club,shield,goblet.For Mahakali they are respectively shield,sword,goblet,head of a man and for  Mahasaraswati rosary,harp,goad,a book. In 'veikrutik Rahasya' of the same book we find their descriptions again with 18,10 and 8 hands respectively so,my question is what would be their actual forms ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12385" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-10T08:55:33.490" LastActivityDate="2018-01-10T08:55:33.490" Title="What are the original forms of Mahakali,Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati?" Tags="|lakshmi|durga|devi|kali|saraswati|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21807" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21754" CreationDate="2017-10-26T12:41:31.260" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Graha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sanskrit word &quot;Graha&quot; is often taken as the equivalent of the&#xA;  English word planet. This is a very simplistic translation which hides&#xA;  the deeper meaning of this word. &quot;Graha&quot; refers to an entity that has&#xA;  the power to &quot;seize, lay hold of, or grasp&quot;. Therefore, Graha means&#xA;  “to grasp” meaning the planets possess, or take hold of us. This&#xA;  meaning is intimately related to the meaning of the nakshatras (also&#xA;  called lunar mansions, or a 27-fold division of the zodiac), which are&#xA;  described in similar terms. Graha therefore goes beyond the word&#xA;  planet and describes the ability of celestial events to either&#xA;  influence or predict occurrences on earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Loka&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Loka is a Sanskrit term meaning &quot;world&quot; or &quot;a particular division of&#xA;  the universe.&quot; The most frequent division of the universe in Hinduism&#xA;  is the tri-loka: Earth, heaven and atmosphere. Some sources consider&#xA;  there to be 14 worlds. These are the seven higher worlds, found above&#xA;  the Earth; and the seven lower worlds, found beneath the Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the 14 Lokas include seven higher worlds and seven lower. The earth is considered to be the lowest among the seven higher worlds. These 7 higher worlds are the 7 Vyahrtis and 7 Patalas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 7 Vyarthis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Satya-loka:Satya-loka is also known as the Brahma loka and this loka is the topmost loka in the material universe. This is the abode of truth where atmans are released from the need of rebirth.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tapa-loka: This is the abode of tapas or of other Gods and Goddesses.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jana-loka: This is the house of the sons of Lord Brahma.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahar-loka: This is the dwelling of great sages and laissez-faire beings like Markendeya and other rishis.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Svar-loka: This expanse is between the sun and the polar star. This is the heaven of Lord Indra. Indra, other Gods, Rishis, Gandharvas and Apsaras live here. This place is full of heavenly ecstasy where all the 330 million Hindu Gods (Devatas) live in along with the king of Gods, Indra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhuvar-loka or Pitri Loka: This is the place of the Sun, planets, stars and the space between earth and the Sun. It is an actual region, the atmosphere, the place of soul and essence.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhur-loka:This is the place where the Earth dwells. According to the Vishnu Purana the earth is simply one of thousands of billions of occupied worlds like itself located in the Universe.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The 7 Patalas&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atala-loka: This loka is ruled by Bala – son of Maya – who enjoys supernatural powers. By one yawn, Bala created three types of women – Svairinis – the self willed women who marry men from their own group; Kaminis – lustfull women who marry men from any group; and finally Pumscalis – those women who gave themselves fully and continue changing their partner.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vitala-loka: This Loka is ruled by the God Hara-Bhava – an incarnation of Lord Shiva. The residents of this dominion are decorated with gold from this region.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sutala-loka: Sutala is the kingdom of the virtuous demon king Mahabali.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Talatala-loka: This loka is the kingdom of the demon-architect Maya, who is well-versed in necromancy.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mahatala-loka: Mahātala is the abode of many-hooded Nagas – the sons of Kadru – lead by Krodhavasha band of Kuhaka, Taksshaka, Kaliya and Sushena.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Rasatala-loka: This is the home of the Danavas and Daityas, who are the everlasting foes of Devatas.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Patala-loka: The lowest territory of the materialistic universe is called Patala or Nagaloka. Vasuki is the rular of this Naga region. Here live quite a lot of Nagas whose hoods are decorated with a jewel and thus enlighten this realm with the lights reflected from the jewels.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If we consider the scientific approach, as you can read &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/the-earth-is-not-a-planet-for-the-same-reasons-that-pluto-is-no-longer-considered-as-one-3700289.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-is-not-round/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; The Earth is not a planet for the same reasons that Pluto is no longer considered as one. Strange but True: Earth Is Not Round&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Reference &lt;a href=&quot;http://pujajagat.com/blog/the-14-lokas-worlds-according-to-hindu-mythology-317/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theja.com.au/index.php?id=vedic_planets&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-26T13:19:37.047" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T13:19:37.047" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21808" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21801" CreationDate="2017-10-26T12:48:53.510" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The purans were created after mahabharata.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;originally purans are considred smriti(what has been remembred) no nessasory that at what time they were written things existed or taken place. take the example of samudra manthana story it took place very before than purans so,krishna was there but not at the time when Mahabharata was written down by lord ved vyasa as it discribes the departure of lord krishna from earth when striked arrow by a hunter and his material body died.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16004.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16004.htm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So,in short purans show the smritis(what has been remembred) and they are smriti  as the story of fight of banasur was there from harivamsa parva of mahabharat to puranic age carried as smriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;smriti&lt;/strong&gt;—&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smriti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smriti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12176" LastEditorUserId="12176" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T07:40:44.797" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T07:40:44.797" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21809" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21811" CreationDate="2017-10-26T14:02:37.657" Score="3" ViewCount="236" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shamno mitra sham varunaha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shamno bhavatva aryamaa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shamno indro brhspatih&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shamno vishur-urukramaha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namo brahmane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Namaste Vaayuo.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tvameva prathyaksham brahmaasi!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tvaaameva, prathyaksham brahma vaadisham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rtam vaadisham&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Satyama vaadisham.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tandmaa maavit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tad-vaktaram aavit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Aveerna! Aavid vaktaram.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this version of the famous &lt;em&gt;Samnō miṭra&lt;/em&gt; found in any of the Vedas/Upanishads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12258" LastActivityDate="2018-09-23T04:36:25.863" Title="Is this version of &quot;Samnō miṭra&quot; legitimate? What does it mean?" Tags="|mantras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21810" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-26T14:03:10.357" Score="4" ViewCount="396" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following is an excerpt from a World Bank report on &amp;quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/577801468259486686/People-with-disabilities-in-India-from-commitments-to-outcomes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;People with disabilities in India: from commitments to outcomes&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BOX 2.1: DISABILITY IN INDIAN MYTHOLOGY AND BOLLYWOOD MOVIES&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An interesting perspective on Indian attitudes to disability is two&#xA;forms of mythology: the traditional Hindu myths, which still play an&#xA;important role in shaping social norms and values, and the “modern&#xA;myth machine” of Bollywood, which has impacts on popular culture and&#xA;society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Hindu mythology, the portrayal of people with disabilities is often&#xA;negative, but it also exhibits a strong gender bias in terms of the&#xA;perceived capacities of disabled men and women.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Disabled men in the Hindu myths are in some cases powerful and capable&#xA;people, as can be seen with the visually impaired king Dritarashtra&#xA;and the orthopedically impaired Shakuni in the Mahabharata war (though&#xA;both are on the side of evil). Such images of powerful but threatening&#xA;disabled men have been reinforced by historical figures such as Taimur&#xA;Lang.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In contrast, women with disabilities in Hindu mythology are simply&#xA;irrelevant. &lt;strong&gt;A prime example comes in a story from the Karthik&#xA;Poornima, where Lord Vishnu refuses to marry the disfigured elder&#xA;sister of Lakshmi, saying that there is no place for disabled people&#xA;in heaven. The sister is instead married to a peepul tree.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Overall, there are however also positive examples of people with&#xA;disabilities in Hindu mythology and ongoing research of Sruti&#xA;Mohapatra from Swabhiman in Orissa is looking into the social and&#xA;cultural aspects of portrayal of disabled people in both Hinduism and&#xA;Islam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a scriptural basis for the above story involving Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī's elder sister?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is this elder sister, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7038/2995&quot;&gt;Alakṣmī&lt;/a&gt; or a different person?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2995" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2018-06-22T03:41:18.223" Title="Is there a scriptural basis for the story where Viṣṇu refuses to marry a disabled woman?" Tags="|vishnu|puranas|swarga|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21811" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21809" CreationDate="2017-10-26T14:17:11.310" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The following verse belongs to &lt;a href=&quot;http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/rigveda/sanskrit03/RV0301noaccent.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rigveda Mandala 1&lt;/a&gt;, Sukta 90, Mantra 9:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शं नो मित्रः शं वरुणः शं नो भवत्वर्यमा।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शं न इन्द्रो बृहस्पतिः शं नो विष्णुरुरुक्रमः॥ १.०९०.०९&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01090.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;9&lt;/a&gt;. Be Mitra gracious unto us, and Varuṇa and Aryaman:&#xA;  Indra, Bṛhaspati be kind, and Viṣṇu of the mighty stride.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The sloka you mentioned in the question is actually &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanti_Mantras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shanti Patha/Mantra&lt;/a&gt; of Taittariya Shakha of Krishna Yajurveda, You can find it in &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/tait.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Taittariya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;प्रथमा शीक्षावल्ली&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ॐ शं नो मित्रः शं वरुणः । शं नो भवत्वर्यमा ।&#xA;  शं न इन्द्रो बृहस्पतिः । शं नो विष्णुरुरुक्रमः ।&#xA;  नमो ब्रह्मणे । नमस्ते वायो । त्वमेव प्रत्यक्षं ब्रह्मासि ।&#xA;  त्वामेव प्रत्यक्षं ब्रह्म वदिष्यामि । ऋतं वदिष्यामि ।&#xA;  सत्यं वदिष्यामि । तन्मामवतु । तद्वक्तारमवतु ।&#xA;  अवतु माम् । अवतु वक्तारम् ।&#xA;  ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥ १॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इति प्रथमोऽनुवाकः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/upanishads-krishna-yajur-veda/taittiriya-upanishad/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;English translation&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I-i-1: May Mitra be blissful to us. May Varuna be blissful to us. May&#xA;     Aryaman be blissful to us. May Indra and Brihaspati be blissful to us.&#xA;     May Vishnu, of long strides, be blissful to us. Salutation to Brahman.&#xA;     Salutation to you, O Vayu. You, indeed, are the immediate Brahman. You&#xA;     alone I shall call the direct Brahman. I shall call you righteousness.&#xA;     I shall call you truth. May He protect me. May He protect the teacher.&#xA;     May He protect me. May He protect the teacher. Om, peace, peace, peace!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-09-23T04:36:25.863" LastActivityDate="2018-09-23T04:36:25.863" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21812" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21915" CreationDate="2017-10-26T14:37:58.210" Score="10" ViewCount="1831" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per Śrī Lalitā Sahasranāma Phalaśruti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[13] &amp;amp;   [14]   The supreme puṇya which results from a repetition of a&#xA;single name of the secret Sahasranāma. The accumulated sins, of him&#xA;who repeats at least a single name of this secret Sahasranāma, are all&#xA;destroyed. There is no doubt in this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[15]   All sins of omission of prescribed daily duties and commission&#xA;of prohibited actions, are surely destroyed. Why describe in so many&#xA;words? Listen, O Pot-Born one:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[16]   No person, in all the fourteen worlds, is capable of committing&#xA;a sin which cannot be removed by a single name in this Sahasranāma&#xA;which is the antidote of all sins&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoted from: &lt;a href=&quot;http://shaktisadhana.50megs.com/Newhomepage/sadhana/lallithasahasranama/phalasruti.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Phalaśruti mentioned here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per [16], if with a single name so many sins can be removed then there should not be any obstacles and suffering left in my life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is a beautiful stotra of Goddess and I really love it. I chant it daily however in almost all the stotras, the Phal that is described seems to be not working in present times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to know whether these statements are valid in Kaliyuga also. Apart from devotion and faith, is there any specific method for chanting Sahasranāma which I am not doing and therefore not getting results.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12301" LastEditorUserId="16889" LastEditDate="2021-10-28T03:01:08.550" LastActivityDate="2021-11-03T23:26:40.990" Title="Queries on Śrī Lalitā Sahasranāma Phalaśruti" Tags="|worship|agamas|lalita|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21813" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21810" CreationDate="2017-10-26T14:51:14.977" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Personification of Alakshmi:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Alakshmi represents extreme ugliness. She is depicted as an old,&#xA;  haggard, dirty, messy woman riding a donkey. Her skin is dark,&#xA;  leathery and shrivelled. Her hair is dishevelled and matted, full of&#xA;  dirt and grime. She likes to live where people are full of ego,&#xA;  vanity, and selfish mindset.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Co-existence of Lakshmi and Alakshmi:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Alakshmi is said to co-exist with Lakshmi. Where there is Lakshmi,&#xA;  there is Alakshmi. Some legends believe she is invisible in existence&#xA;  while some believe she is always near Lakshmi in the form of a owl.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And they say that Vishnu secretly keeps Saraswati in his mouth, on his tongue, hidden from Lakshmi. That is how he manages to keep Alakshmi at bay. That is why Lakshmi is always by his side.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The real story behind Alakshmi marriage can be read here&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7038/what-is-the-story-of-alakshmi/11287&quot;&gt;What is the story of Alakshmi?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;She was not disabled instead opposite side of Ma Lakshmi&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Goddess Lakshmi existed before Sagar Manthan, she just disappeared because of curse of Rishi Durvasa and later came back from Sagar Manthan. So how could he (Vishnu) have married her (Alakshmi)?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Other references &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.malakshmi.com/Alakshmi.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-26T15:12:34.023" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T15:12:34.023" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21815" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21836" CreationDate="2017-10-26T15:45:06.500" Score="4" ViewCount="922" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is the sage Narayana along with Nara who did the pancharatra yajna described in the Pancharatra texts, then there is the Narayana as parabrahman. What is the difference?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most Sri Vaishnava scholars say that Narayana is a proper noun and only refers to the ParaBrahman Narayana, so how can there be a sage Narayana who is the avatar of Vishnu?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-26T17:29:41.187" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T13:46:50.083" Title="Difference between sage Narayan and Brahman Narayana?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21816" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20810" CreationDate="2017-10-26T16:14:50.200" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;If you are able to trace back your Poorvaj, you will come to know that at one point of time they originated from any Rishi who himself originated from any Devta. In this way the Devta with whom your DNA matches, is your Kuldevta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In case you don't know Kuldevta/Kuldevi, you can simply worship them with below mantras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;|| ॐ श्री कुलदेवताभ्यो नमः ||&#xA;&#xA;|| ॐ श्री कुलदेव्यै नमः ||&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do have a more elaborate ritual which can be done once a month.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Kuldevta and Kuldevi are not known, you can offer separate prasadam in their name to your deity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Kuldevta and Kuldevi have a direct link with your DNA, they are considered more close to you as compared to other Devtas. In this way they are also your family's first line of defense against negative energies.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Regular worship and Homa of Kuldevta creates a shield around your family. These days people don't worship Kuldevta and don't know even. Therefore, the shield which protects the family weakens over time.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12301" LastEditorUserId="12301" LastEditDate="2017-10-26T16:20:10.430" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T16:20:10.430" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21817" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21737" CreationDate="2017-10-26T16:16:23.363" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Possibly you won't find such deities in authentic books because they are tribal deities.&#xA;Many tribal cultures have animal sacrifice customs too. Chhattisgarh is a very ancient tribal area dating back to as long as 5000 years ago.&#xA;They worship many local graama/sthaana devatas too which is not mentioned in traditional books.&#xA;Even in Orissa, there is quite a bit of tribal culture. There is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chausathi_Jogini_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;yogini temple&lt;/a&gt; in Orissa which is worshiped by the tribes (64 yoginis).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per the legend even &lt;a href=&quot;http://magazines.odisha.gov.in/Orissareview/june_july-2007/engpdf/Pages80-84.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord Jagannatha&lt;/a&gt; was once upon a time worshiped by the tribes of Chhattishgarh and later it arrived in Orissa and then slowly made into official temple worship.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fire is a main part of most of tribal rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further reading &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.indianetzone.com/37/religious_life_indian_tribes.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/people/opinions/4367-acknowledging-the-importance-of-nature-and-tribal-cultural-and-religious-traditions.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="22857" LastEditDate="2023-05-21T04:42:29.983" LastActivityDate="2023-05-21T04:42:29.983" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21818" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-26T16:27:34.553" Score="3" ViewCount="1003" Body="&lt;p&gt;In certain Pagan traditions in the West especially Goetia, demons are summoned by rituals mainly for material purposes. Can Asuras and Rakshasas be summoned in Hinduism by rituals? If yes, for what purposes?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-03-01T17:21:57.977" LastActivityDate="2019-03-01T17:21:57.977" Title="Can Asuras or Rakshasas be summoned by any ritual?" Tags="|rituals|asuras|rakshasa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21819" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21766" CreationDate="2017-10-26T17:38:05.813" Score="-7" Body="&lt;p&gt;In fact it is not a north-south divide among Hindus on the practice of cross-cousin marriage but a divide of RigVedic culture and a culture evolved in north India under later Hinduism. Let us understand it stepwise :-&#xA;1. Incest taboo or barring milk relation - In the ancient times Hindus of RigVeda period were, perhaps, first to bar milk relation in marriage.As, RigVeda tells us through a dialogue  between twin brother sister Yam and Yami ( ref. RV.10.10.(1-14). Here Yami wants to stick to a old tradition and asks Yam  to produce child through &#xA;her but Yam firmly denies her refering to the rule and vigilance of Asura/Varuna. While in European countries incidences of  incest relations are reported to be practiced up to recent past. However, Muslim still holds that barring milk relations code in marriage.&#xA;2. Barring blood relation - with the emergence of paternal family system, a concept of blood relations emerged  which envisages that offsprings carries blood of father and not that of mother. Thus the barring of milk relation was extended to the barring of blood relation. Here we find the origin of cross-cousin marriage. In RigVeda we don't find description of such marriages nor we should expect to find everything in it, but we certainly find a concept of lineage based on blood relation in varous hymns refered as 'tokasya tanye'. Here I assume that the cross-cousin marriage system must be a part of RigVedic culture and must be a practice  at pan-India level among Hindus.&#xA;3. My assumptions are based on both textual evidence and data generated during my field studies. Various ethnographic studies suggest that in north India a joking relationship is allowed between a man and the wife of his maternal uncle but strictly prohibited with the wife of his paternal uncle. And tradtionally  maternal uncle had a greater role in the decision making in marriage of a boy or girl.This could be a vestige trait of pre existing cross-cousin marriage. My field study, in the upper reaches of Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand state where fraternal polyandry(Draupadi vivah) is still practiced, was revealing. Not only I found some cross-cousin marriages but also learned that it was a prefential practice in the recent past. They also celebrate 'Vishu' festival which is also celebrated in Kerala with same name and same date, while in north India different&#xA;name is used. In general we find that South India still retain most of the RigVedic cultural traits viz. 'YAKSHA GAN'  of Karnataka, worship of 'INDRA DHWAJ'  before starting classical dance while innovative  North Indian Hinduism evolved new  cultural practices like  ' BURNING RAVANA'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="12348" LastEditDate="2017-10-28T06:50:58.693" LastActivityDate="2017-10-28T06:50:58.693" CommentCount="4" CommunityOwnedDate="2017-10-26T17:43:46.137" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21820" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="175" CreationDate="2017-10-26T17:53:08.160" Score="-2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 11 (eleven) genders as per Hinduism. Vedagamic scriptures talk about the lifestyle a kid/teen has to live for the gender to revealed to that being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12389" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T17:53:08.160" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21821" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="12458" CreationDate="2017-10-26T19:44:46.417" Score="16" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu carries all the tattvas in the world in the form of his weapons. Each weapon and ornament is a symbolism for each tattva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The symbolism and significance of them are described in 7 verses in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp057.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vishnu Purana Chapter 22&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The glorious Hari wears the pure soul of the world, undefiled, and void of qualities, as the Kaustubha gem. The chief principle of things (Pradhána) is seated on the eternal, as the Srivatsa mark. Intellect abides in Mádhava, in the form of his mace. The lord (Íśwara) supports egotism (Ahankára) in its twofold division, into elements and organs of sense, in the emblems of his conch-shell and his bow. In his hand Vishńu holds, in the form of his discus, the mind, whose thoughts (like the weapon) fly swifter than the winds. The necklace of the deity Vaijayantí, composed of five precious gems, is the aggregate of the five elemental rudiments. Janárddana bears, in his numerous shafts, the faculties both of action and of perception. The bright sword of Achyuta is holy wisdom, concealed at some seasons in the scabbard of ignorance. In this manner soul, nature, intellect, egotism, the elements, the senses, mind, ignorance, and wisdom, are all assembled in the person of Hrishikeśa. Hari, in a delusive form, embodies the shapeless elements of the world, as his weapons and his ornaments, for the salvation of mankind.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, each weapon or ornament corresponds to a tattva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaustubha Gem  : Soul (Purusha) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sri Vatsa mark : Pradhana Prakruti&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaumodaki Mace : Intellect (Buddhi)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sharga bow    : Egotism (Tamasa Ahankára) of elements&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Panchajanya conch : Egotism (Saatvika Ahankára) of sense organs&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sudarshana Chakra : The mind (manas). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaijayanti Mala : Five elements of rudiments (pancha bhoota)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Arrows : Sense organs &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nandaka sword : Knowledge (Gnana) &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Sheath of the sword : Ignorance (Agnana)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T19:44:46.417" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21822" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21553" CreationDate="2017-10-26T20:11:41.703" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, RigVeda mentions about 'yuga' starting with the 'asat yuga' from  which deva brought forth the 'sat yuga'. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ref. RV. 10.72 (2) - ' devana purvye yuge asat sat jayat'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And RigVeda can tell us what preceded it not of forthcoming as done by some of the finalist scriptures which tell us that 'kali yuga' is the last one and 'sat yuga' will follow it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-10-29T16:12:30.583" LastActivityDate="2017-10-29T16:12:30.583" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21823" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21780" CreationDate="2017-10-26T20:55:45.357" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Starting with Cow:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;CC Madhya 14.223&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ananta kāma-dhenu tāhāṅ phire vane vane dugdha-mātra dena, keha nā&#xA;  māge anya dhane&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“In Vṛndāvana there are cows that fulfill all desires [kāma-dhenus],&#xA;  and their number is unlimited. They graze from forest to forest and&#xA;  deliver only milk. The people want nothing else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/14/223&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Refer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmnayam dharma Thathwagnam, Bhakthe keerthi vivardhanam,&#xA;  Bhakthabeeshta pradham vande, Smarthrugaami Sanovathu.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Salutations to him who is holy and master of religion, Whose fame is&#xA;  spread by his devotees, And who fulfills all wishes of his devotees,&#xA;  Who always remember him with faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jaya Labha yasa kama, Dathur dathasya yasthavam, Bhoga moksha&#xA;  pradaasye maam, Prapathe Sakruthe bhaveth&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This prayer addressed to Dathathreya, Gives victory , profit , fame&#xA;  and desire, Happy life and salvation to the one To the one who recites&#xA;  it regularly with faith.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/strong&gt; kāma-dhenu that fulfill all desires, so does praying Dathathreya, hence cow.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. four dogs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Symbolically, dogs represent loyalty, obedience, devotion, and the Vedas. Bhairava, a fierce form of Shiva, who is worshipped in Tantra, has a dog as his vehicle. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/essays/sacred-animals-of-hinduism.asp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Refer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shvan&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shvan&lt;/a&gt;, a Sanskrit word meaning a dog, finds repeated references in Vedic and later Hindu mythologies&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The expression &quot;Vedic&quot; is derived from the Sanskrit word veda, which means knowledge, wisdom or revelation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Karpoora kanthi dehaya, Brhma moorthy daraya cha, Veda sasthra&#xA;  parignaya, Dathathreya namosthuthe.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My salutations to Dathathreya, Who has a colour of burning camphor,&#xA;  Who takes up the role of the creator, And who is master of the holy&#xA;  Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/strong&gt; Dathathreya a god in the form of a combination of the great trinity consisting of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, Brahma created Vedas, Dathathreya master of all 4 vedas &amp;amp; dog symbolic of Vedas, hence four dogs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.celextel.org/stotras/vishnu/dattakshamapanastotram.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/guru-tattvam-a-dattatreya-jayanthi-special&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-10-26T20:55:45.357" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21824" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-27T01:14:46.813" Score="0" ViewCount="115" Body="&lt;p&gt;What should one do to achieve  8-Siddhis and 9-Nidhis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12390" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T01:14:46.813" Title="How did Hanuman get the 8-Siddhis and 9-Nidhis?" Tags="|hanuman|siddhi|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-10-27T02:14:03.227" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21825" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8756" CreationDate="2017-10-27T02:24:45.787" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was hearing the discourse on Bhagwat purana by Sri Chaganti VR (in telugu) and what I came to know is that after the great war of Mahabharata, the only heir left of Pandavas was Parikshit ( Abhimanyu's son), apart from Pandavas' themselves. After ruling for sometime, Pandavas make Parikshit the king and leave the kingdom. After some time, Pandavas leave their mortal bodies and also does Lord Shri Krishna. King Parikshit is very righteous and becomes a great king who adheres to DHARMA all the time. This is towards the end of Dwapara yuga and the beginning of the Kali yuga. Kali cannot exist where there is dharma and a king like Parikshit who is a dharmatma. Arrival of Kali yuga marks the beginning of the kali yuga. Kali purusha existed before too but because of the dharma, he could not set his foot on the earth. &#xA;Please note that this is only my understanding of the events.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12391" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T02:24:45.787" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21826" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21829" CreationDate="2017-10-27T05:05:59.017" Score="12" ViewCount="3109" Body="&lt;p&gt;Why it is considered good to see ones own palms after waking up in the morning which we follow in hindu dharma also old people advise the same&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9611" LastEditorUserId="882" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T06:04:20.023" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T12:07:06.983" Title="Why it is considered good to see ones own palms after waking up in the morning?" Tags="|belief|superstitions|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21827" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7961" CreationDate="2017-10-27T05:25:07.863" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why vaishnavism,shaivism and shaiktism have their own head god?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Originally this started back from vedic period diffrent -diffrent hymns were created in the glory of its god. In rigveda there was vishnu sukta for lord vishnu In same rigveda there was devi sukta in praise of devi. Rudra suktam also was in rigveda. But the satarudriya of yajurveda is also a great hymn to god rudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But vedas also assested that these all gods are one and of no image.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This started and lord narayan in taitrayi aranyaka of yajurveda was considred as purush of vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in same taitrayi aranyaka place lord rudra was also attested to be the purush of vedas and all that exists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And we can say that apart from drivercity the vedas and taittrayi aranyaka both have given equality of lord narayan and lord rudra. Same as vedas given equality of all gods.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please read the article for further more information:—&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;RUDRA AND VISHNU's EQUALITY&#xA;PROVED IN VEDAS&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;http://shivaandvishnu.blogspot.in/2017/10/rudra-and-vishnu-equality-proved-in.html?m=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://shivaandvishnu.blogspot.in/2017/10/rudra-and-vishnu-equality-proved-in.html?m=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sameas in post-vedic texts like ramayan and mahabharat the diffrenciation was at average level although some time they show both the gods as diffrent peesnality but then showed their equality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here's the proof:—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These two, viz., Brahma and Rudra, are the foremost of all the deities, having sprung respectively from the Propitiousness and the Wrath (of Aniruddha). Acting according to Aniruddha's direction, these two deities create and destroy. Although capable of granting boons unto all creatures, they are, however, in the matter of the concerns to which they attend (viz., Creation and Destruction), . instruments in the hands of Aniruddha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;— SHANTI PARVA,SECTION CCCXLII&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is another proof:-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thou art he that hadst created from thy right side the Grandsire Brahma, the Creator of all things. Thou art he that hadst created from thy left side Vishnu for protecting the Creation. Thou art that puissant Lord who didst create Rudra when the end of the Yuga came and when the Creation was once more to be dissolved. That Rudra, who sprang from thee destroyed the Creation with all its mobile and immobile beings, assuming the form of Kala of great energy, of the cloud Samvartaka (charged with water which myriads of oceans are not capacious enough to bear), and of the all consuming fire. Verily, when the period comes for the dissolution of the universe, that Rudra stands, ready to swallow up the universe. Thou art that Mahadeva, who is the original Creator of the universe with all its mobile and immobile entities.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;— &lt;strong&gt;The Mahabharata, Book 13: Anusasana Parva: Anusasanika Parva: Section XIV&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Harivamsa parva says about this :-&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;rudrasya paramo viShNurviShNoshcha paramaH shivaH |eka eva dvidhA bhUto loke charati nityashaH ||2-125-41&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The supreme lord of rudra (shiva) is viShNu and the supreme lord of viShNu is shiva (rudra). The same lord is moving in the world always in two forms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But by the starting of puranic age gods were started to be mapped as supreme on their purans or the other god as second best. although oldest purans like vayu purana and matsya puran does not do so. As vayu puran was present at time of mahabharat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vayu Purana is mentioned in chapter 3.191 of the Mahabharata, and section 1.7 of the Harivamsa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And both vayu purana and matsya puran gives creation story as&#xA;Bhraman divided himself into bhramha,vishnu and shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;   —THANKS FOR READING—&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12176" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T06:27:49.730" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21828" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20366" CreationDate="2017-10-27T05:27:04.473" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;(1) Diksha if taken from a real Guru, who is a master in that Vidya, can do wonders because of transmission of energy. A Diksha involves three: &#xA;Disciple, Guru and Deity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Today Diksha business is running where only two are involved, Disciple and incompetent Guru. This will not work. It is mere satisfaction that you have taken Diksha but it is of no use unless you find a real Guru, which is difficult these days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(2) There is too much fear because of misinterpretation of scriptures. From the time these were written, many interpretations have taken place. Initiation (Diksha) is required because in Kaliyug, Lord Siva has locked most of the mantras (Keelit) to avoid misuse. Only a real Guru can unlock and give it to you. Regarding progeny destroyed if mantra chanted without initiation, I think it refers to the side effects of few mantras like: Baglamukhi Mantra and similar mantras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(3) Mantras like Mahavidya mantra should not be attempted without a Guru, however, other Mantras need not necessarily require Diksha. Here the only difference you may feel is that after Diksha (from a real Guru), you will progress 5x or 10x times whereas alone you can progress at a Turtle speed. Also, during recitation, if you experience something, no one can guide you. Only a real Guru can guide.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12301" LastEditorUserId="12301" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T05:34:06.993" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T05:34:06.993" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21829" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21826" CreationDate="2017-10-27T05:38:27.923" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;It has actually nothing to do with astrology (you originally tagged your question with it).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At various portions of our palms are present various Hindu Gods. That's why it's auspicious to see our palms immediately after waking up in the morning. The act is supposed to make the upcoming whole day fruitful, auspicious  etc for us.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://webstock.in/001-Epics-PDF/Nitya-Karm-Pooja-Prakash/Nitya-Karm-Pooja-Prakash.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nitya Karma PujA PrakAsh Book&lt;/a&gt; (on pp 19) mentions the following sloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GPdEO.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/GPdEO.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;KarAgre vasate lakshmih karamadhye saraswati |&lt;br&gt; Karamule stitho brahmA&#xA;  prabhAte karadarshanam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;...........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the tips of the palms resides Lakshmi, at the middle Saraswati and&#xA;  at the base of the palms resides BrahmA, that's why we need to see our&#xA;  palms at early morning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This sloka is actually from the Vishnu PurAna as shown in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/15548/4732&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T05:46:41.967" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T05:46:41.967" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21830" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-27T07:13:27.160" Score="9" ViewCount="9407" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the difference between Bhuvaneswari and Lalitha devi? Who is actually in Manidweepam? In Devi Bhagavat it is said that Bhuvaneswari resides in Mandidweepam but many say that it is Lalitha devi. Which one is correct?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12393" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-19T09:06:26.380" LastActivityDate="2021-01-03T12:41:08.233" Title="Difference between Bhuvaneswari and Lalitha devi &amp; their location" Tags="|scripture|mantras|devi-bhagavata-purana|dasha-mahavidya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21831" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="3069" CreationDate="2017-10-27T09:51:52.780" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It is not the Indra who turns into a woman&lt;/strong&gt; rather it is the sacrificer in presence of his wife becomes a woman which he does not like to be present. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com.tw/books?redir_esc=y&amp;amp;id=fgzVAwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;q=1096#v=snippet&amp;amp;q=1096&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Jamison and Brereton:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Our view of this tantalizingly opaque sequence is that it concerns the&#xA;  introduction of the Sacrificer’s Wife into the performance of solemn&#xA;  ritual, an introduction celebrated in the nearby hymn VIII.31 (see&#xA;  remarks there). But, unlike the situation in VIII.31, the poet of&#xA;  VIII.33 displays a conservative opposition to this ritual innovation,&#xA;  an innovation that he nonethe- less ascribes to Indra’s leadership&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They described it further:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In verse 16 the poet complains that an unnamed ritualist no longer&#xA;  listens to the instructions of his fellow ritualists but only to&#xA;  Indra’s. In verses 17 and 18 Indra speaks, and though he at first&#xA;  disparages women’s intellect (vs. 17), he asserts that a sacrifice&#xA;  directed by a complementary pair (mithunā́ , a word often used&#xA;  explicitly of a sexual couple) is especially successful (with implicit&#xA;  contrast to the older model without female participation)—while at the&#xA;  same time suggesting that the husband should keep the upper hand (or&#xA;  upper chariot-pole: the common metaphor of sacrifice as chariot is in&#xA;  play). The final verse is, in our view, spoken by the jaundiced poet&#xA;  himself&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com.tw/books?redir_esc=y&amp;amp;id=fgzVAwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;q=1096#v=snippet&amp;amp;q=1096&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Their translation (pp 1098):&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;16&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;[Poet:] He finds no pleasure in the instruction of you or me, (but only in that) of the other one [=Indra], the hero who led us&#xA;  hither.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Indra said just this, “the mind of woman is not to be instructed, and her will is fickle.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;[Indra, cont’d:] “(Nonetheless,) it’s the twin span, the complementary pair [/married couple], aroused to exuberance, that&#xA;  draws the chariot [=sacrifice]; but even so the chariot-pole of the&#xA;  bull [=husband] is higher.”&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;[Poet:] “ ‘Keep your eyes to yourself: look below, not above. Bring your two little feet closer together: don’t let them see your&#xA;  two little “lips” [?]‌.’ For you, a brahmin, have turned into a&#xA;  woman!”&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T09:51:52.780" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21833" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20785" CreationDate="2017-10-27T10:10:51.580" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Asur and Deva were historical figures. RigVeda described both. Asur belonged to an earlier age whose genesis is not dealt with in detail. But the genesis of Deva is more than explicit. The real problem lies in the interpretation of RigVeda and understanding the real historical themes it contains. In recent times many scholars have started to treat RigVeda  as historical document in order to describe history of ancient India often refer a historical event - &quot;the battle of ten kings&quot; (ref. RV.7.18 (1-25). But they have to go a long way to shade away the connotations held by later scripture about RigVeda which are often contradictory to RigVedic dictum.&#xA;Not only Assyria, but entire old world namely Sumer, Mesopotamia, Canaan, Persia, Greek and even Egpt seem to be inter-related and influenced by a comman single source and our RigVeda stands to be closure of that. But we have to reveal RigVeda in proper manner discarding the notion later scripture forces upon us that they are the only way to go up to RigVeda for we can not understand 'Asura' properly if we approach RigVeda with it's meaning as 'Rakshas'. To add your information, there is was a great city ' Asur' in ancient Mesopotamia.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T10:10:51.580" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21835" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-27T12:49:10.290" Score="5" ViewCount="1390" Body="&lt;p&gt;Namaste! &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there a book (pdf file) in English available for Nitya Karma and Pooja? The one I obtained is in Hindi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://webstock.in/001-Epics-PDF/Nitya-Karm-Pooja-Prakash/Nitya-Karm-Pooja-Prakash.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://webstock.in/001-Epics-PDF/Nitya-Karm-Pooja-Prakash/Nitya-Karm-Pooja-Prakash.pdf&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An English version would be of great help.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12400" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-28T06:13:53.343" LastActivityDate="2018-01-12T06:13:20.733" Title="Nitya Karma and Pooja Book" Tags="|puja|book-recommendation|resource|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21836" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21815" CreationDate="2017-10-27T13:46:50.083" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is ample description of Sage Narayana and Brahman Narayana in Shreemad Bhagvat purana and others.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's see wht they tell us about your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lord Narayanan as Supreme Brahman&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;Narayana is the Supreme God. From Vaishnavism  point of view Supreme Para Brahman and  is also known as Vishnu and Hari and is venerated as Purushottama or Supreme Purusha in Hinduism scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Narayana is the name of the Supreme God in his infinite all pervading form. He is the Supreme Purusha of Purusha Sukta. The Puranas present a seemingly divergent, but accurate description of Narayana (as an Enlightened Supreme Being). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verses of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/invoc/in_nara.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Narayana Sukta&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;, a hymn in Yajurveda, states that Narayana pervades whatever is seen or heard in this universe from inside and outside alike.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;नारायण: परं ब्रह्म&lt;/strong&gt; तत्त्वं नारायणः परः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;nārāyaṇaḥ paraṁ brahma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; tattvaṁ nārāyaṇaḥ paraḥ ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Lord Narayana is the Supreme Absolute;&lt;/strong&gt; Narayana is the Supreme Reality; &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  यच्च किञ्चिज्जगतसर्वं  दृश्यते श्रूयतेSपि वा ।&lt;br&gt; अन्तर्बहिश्च&#xA;  तत्सर्वं व्याप्तं नारायण: स्थित: ।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yacca kiñcijjagatsarvaṁ dṛśyate śrūyate'pi vā,&lt;br&gt; antarbahiśca&#xA;  tatsarvaṁ vyāpya nārāyaṇaḥ sthitaḥ.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whatever all this universe is, seen or heard of—pervading all this,&#xA;  from inside and outside alike, stands supreme the Eternal Divine Being&#xA;  (Narayana).&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another important translation of Narayana is The One who rests on Water. The waters are called narah, [for] the waters are, indeed, produced by Nara [the first Being]; as they were his first residence [ayana], he is called Narayana. &#xA;Here is the relevant  verse from Bhagvatam.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तास्ववात्सीत्स्वसृष्टासु सहस्रं परिवत्सरान् ।&lt;br&gt; तेन नारायणो नाम&#xA;  यदापः पुरुषोद्भवाः ॥2.10.11॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;tāsv avātsīt sva-sṛṣṭāsu&lt;br&gt; sahasraḿ parivatsarān&lt;br&gt; tena&#xA;  nārāyaṇo nāma&lt;br&gt; yad āpaḥ puruṣodbhavāḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That Supreme Person is not impersonal and therefore is distinctively a&#xA;  nara, or person. &lt;strong&gt;Therefore the transcendental water created from the&#xA;  Supreme Nara is known as nara. And because He lies down on that water,&#xA;  He is known as Narayana.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/10/11&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 2.10.11&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Here Narayana is Para Brahmam &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यूयं द्विजाग्रया बत भूरिभागा ।&lt;br&gt; यच्छश्वदात्मन्यखिलात्म भूतम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नारायणं देवमदेवमीश मजस्त्र भावा&lt;br&gt; भजतविवेश्य।।12.12.56।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;yūyaḿ dvijāgryā bata bhūri-bhāgā yac chaśvad ātmany akhilātma-bhūtam&#xA;  nārāyaṇaḿ devam adevam īśam ajasra-bhāvā bhajatāviveśya&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O most eminent of brahmanas, you are all indeed extremely fortunate,&#xA;  since you have already placed within your hearts Lord Sri Narayana —&#xA;  the Personality of Godhead, the supreme controller and the ultimate&#xA;  Soul of all existence — beyond whom there is no other god. You have&#xA;  undeviating love for Him, and thus I request you to worship Him.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/12/56&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB&#xA;  12.12.56&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44110.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shathapath Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;  says Purusha Narayana carried out five days sacrifice and he became everything.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Purusha Nârâyana desired, 'Would that I overpassed all beings! would that I alone were everything here (this universe)!' He beheld&#xA;  this five-days’ sacrificial performance, the Purushamedha, and took&#xA;  it , and performed offering therewith; and having performed offering&#xA;  therewith, he overpassed all beings, and became everything here.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to &lt;strong&gt;Narayana Rishi&lt;/strong&gt;. Sage Narayana is fourth incarnation of above supreme Purusha Narayana.Nara-Narayana are the twin sons of the wife of King Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्मस्य दक्षदुहितर्यजनिष्ट मुर्त्यां नारायणो नर ऋषि प्रवर: प्रशान्त:&#xA;  ।&lt;br&gt; नैष्कर्म्यलक्षणमुवाच चचार कर्म योSद्यापि चास्त&#xA;  ऋषिवर्यनिषेविताङघ्रि:।।11.4.6।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dharmasya dakṣa-duhitary ajaniṣṭa mūrtyāḿ nārāyaṇo nara&#xA;  ṛṣi-pravaraḥ praśāntaḥyo &lt;br&gt; naiṣkarmya-lakṣaṇam uvāca cacāra&#xA;  karma yo 'dyāpi cāsta ṛṣi-varya- niṣevitāńghriḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nara-Narayana Ṛsi, who is perfectly peaceful and is the best of sages,&#xA;  was born as the son of Dharma and his wife Murti, the daughter of&#xA;  Daksa.&lt;/strong&gt; Nara-Narayana Ṛsi taught the devotional service of the Lord, by&#xA;  which material work ceases, and He Himself perfectly practiced this&#xA;  knowledge. He is living even today, His lotus feet served by the&#xA;  greatest of saintly persons.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/4/6&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 11.4.6&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;hr&gt; भारतेऽपि वर्षे&#xA;  भगवान्नरनारायणाख्य ।&lt;br&gt; आकल्पान्तमुपचितधर्मज्ञानवैराग्यै।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  श्वर्योपशमोपरमात्मोपलम्भनमनुग्रहायात्मवतामनुकम्पया&#xA;  तपोऽव्यक्तगतिश्चरति।।&lt;br&gt; ॥5.19.9॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;bhārate 'pi varṣe bhagavān nara-nārāyaṇākhya  &lt;br&gt; ākalpāntam&#xA;  upacita-dharma-jñāna-vairāgyaiśvaryopaśamoparamātmopalambhanam&#xA;  anugrahāyātmavatām anukampayā tapo 'vyakta-gatiś carati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are inconceivable.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He has appeared in the form of Nara-Narayana in the land of&#xA;  Bharata-varsa, at the place known as Badarikasrama&lt;/strong&gt;, to favor His&#xA;  devotees by teaching them religion, knowledge, renunciation, spiritual&#xA;  power, sense control and freedom from false ego. He is advanced in the&#xA;  opulence of spiritual assets, and He engages in executing austerity&#xA;  until the end of this millennium. This is the process of&#xA;  self-realization.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/5/19/9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 5.19.9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  तुर्ये धर्मकलासर्गे नरनारायणावृषी ।&lt;br&gt; भूत्वाऽऽत्मोपशमोपेतमकरोद्&#xA;  दुश्चरं तप: ॥1.3.9॥ &lt;br&gt; turye dharma-kalā-sarge&lt;br&gt; nara-nārāyaṇāv&#xA;  ṛṣī &lt;br&gt; bhūtvātmopaśamopetam&lt;br&gt; akarod duścaraḿ tapaḥ&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the fourth incarnation, the Lord became Nara and Narayana, the twin&#xA;  sons of the wife of King Dharma. Thus He undertook severe and&#xA;  exemplary penances to control the senses.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/3/9&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SB 1.3.9&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Although the Names appear same ,Lord  Narayana is supreme Brahman and unborn and Sage Narayana is incarnation of this supreme Brahman which is born out of womb. SageNarayana  taught the devotional service of the Lord.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T13:46:50.083" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21837" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21830" CreationDate="2017-10-27T14:26:20.870" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Manidweepa is like an abode of goddess. Bhuvaneshwari is one of the ten mahavidyas and lalita is also considered as supreme goddess. So in both cases its true that they reside in mani dweepa. For detailed description refer lalita sahasranama. Mani dwipa literally means island of gems&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T14:26:20.870" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21838" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-27T14:43:38.317" Score="5" ViewCount="592" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Rigveda, Varun is a possessor of &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; and RV praise his &lt;em&gt;Maya&lt;/em&gt; in many of the verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv05085.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;V 85 (5-6):&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;imām ū ṣv ṛsurasya śrutasya mahīm &lt;strong&gt;māyāṃ&lt;/strong&gt; varuṇasya pra vocam | &#xA;  māneneva tasthivāṃ antarikṣe vi yo mame pṛthivīṃ sūryeṇa ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I proclaim this great &lt;strong&gt;cunning&lt;/strong&gt; of the lordly, famed Varuṇa, who,&#xA;  standing in the midspace as if with a measuring rod, measured out&#xA;  earth with the sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;imām ū nu kavitamasya &lt;strong&gt;māyām&lt;/strong&gt; mahīṃ devasya nakir ā dadharṣa |  ekaṃ yad udnā na&#xA;  pṛṇanty enīr āsiñcantīr avanayaḥ samudram ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And now no one defies this great &lt;strong&gt;cunning&lt;/strong&gt; of the foremost sage poet,&#xA;  the god: that the mottled streams, pouring out, do not fill the single&#xA;  sea with water&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in Jamison and Brereton's version, maya was translated as cunning (skill) which Varun uses to create and measure things. Also, RV mentions even some demons posses maya but here connotation is different and they must be stopped.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv10138.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;X 138 (3)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vi sūryo madhye amucad rathaṃ divo vidad dāsaya pratimānamāryaḥ | &#xA;  dṛḷāni piprorasurasya &lt;strong&gt;māyina&lt;/strong&gt; indro vyāsyaccakṛvān ṛjiśvanā ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Sun unhitched his chariot in the middle of heaven. The Ārya found&#xA;  a match for the Dāsa. The firm fortifications of the &lt;strong&gt;crafty&lt;/strong&gt; lord Pipru&#xA;  did Indra throw open, having acted together with Rjiśvan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From RV to Bhagvata Gita, the meaning changes from Skill, Power, Magic and Illusion depending on what context the maya is being used.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Can someone explain in details then what is maya? &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2053/what-is-maya-and-why-is-it-there&quot;&gt;This question was asked&lt;/a&gt; elsewhere however there OP was interested in the context of  Gita. My doubt is here why do we have so many definition of Maya because in order to overcome Maya one should understand what the Maya is.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorDisplayName="user12262" LastEditDate="2017-10-28T05:58:44.807" LastActivityDate="2017-10-28T05:58:44.807" Title="Could any one describe what is maya?" Tags="|bhagavad-gita|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21839" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21818" CreationDate="2017-10-27T14:58:20.367" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not sure if there are many but found couple of instances that sort of invoke Asura/Asuri:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Book 1 of Ṛgveda describes Savitr as an Asura who is a &quot;kind leader&quot; and help is asked from him against Rākṣasas and Yatudhanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हिरण्यहस्तो असुरः सुनीथः सुमृळीकः स्ववाँ यात्वर्वाङ् । अपसेधन्रक्षसो&#xA;  यातुधानानस्थाद्देवः प्रतिदोषं गृणानः ॥१०॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Meaning:&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;May he, gold-handed Asura, kind leader, come hither to us with his help and favor.&#xA;Driving off Rākṣasas and Yatudhanas, [he] the god is present, praised in hymns at evening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May the golden-handed, life-bestowing, well-guiding, exhilarating and affluent Savitri [Asura] be present;&#xA;for the deity, if worshipped in the evening, is at hand, driving away Raksasas and Yatudhanas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Book 7, Asuri is a powerful female with the special knowledge of herbs, who uses that knowledge to seduce Deva Indra in Atharva Veda. A hymn invokes this special power in Asuri, and this hymn is stipulated for a woman as a charm to win over the lover she wants.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I dig this Healing Herb that makes my lover look on me and weep, That&#xA;  bids the parting friend return and kindly greets him as he comes. This&#xA;  Herb wherewith the Asuri drew Indra downward from the Gods, With this&#xA;  same Herb I draw thee close that I may be most dear to thee. Thou art&#xA;  the peer of Soma, yea, thou art the equal of the Sun, The peer of all&#xA;  the Gods art thou: therefore we call thee hitherward. I am the speaker&#xA;  here, not thou: speak thou where the assembly meets. Thou shalt be&#xA;  mine and only mine, and never mention other dames. If thou art far&#xA;  away beyond the rivers, far away from men, This Herb shall seem to&#xA;  bind thee fast and bring thee back my prisoner. — A maiden's&#xA;  love-charm, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atharva Veda, Hymn 7.38&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The powers of an Asuri are projected into plants offering a remedy against leprosy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;First, before all, the strong-winged Bird was born, thou wast the gall&#xA;  thereof. Conquered in fight, the Asuri took then the shape and form of&#xA;  plants. The Asuri made, first of all, this medicine for leprosy, this&#xA;  banisher of leprosy. She banished leprosy, and gave one general colour&#xA;  to the skin. — A charm against leprosy, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Atharva Veda, Hymn 1.24&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Asura&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/athar/avbook01.asp#hym01&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T14:58:20.367" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21840" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-27T15:04:01.843" Score="6" ViewCount="408" Body="&lt;p&gt;How do Advaitins justify that Nirguna Brahman is the ultimate reality and that Saguna Brahman is illusory?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastActivityDate="2021-05-13T15:52:23.833" Title="How do Advaitins justify that Nirguna Brahman is superior to Saguna Brahman?" Tags="|brahman|advaita|brahma-sutras|adi-shankaracharya|maya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="14" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21841" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2947" CreationDate="2017-10-27T15:22:46.850" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Actually it was Griffith who speculated it be 90 steeds if you check the verse in Sanskrit it never said anywhere of 90 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv01155.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;horses&lt;/a&gt; instead it said about 4 times and 90 names!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चतुर्भिः साकं नवतिं च &lt;strong&gt;नाम&lt;/strong&gt;भिश्चक्रं न वर्त्तं वयतीन्रवीविपत |&#xA;  बर्हच्छरीरो विमिमान रक्वभिर्युवाकुमारः परत्येत्याहवम ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;caturbhiḥ sākaṃ navatiṃ ca &lt;strong&gt;nāma&lt;/strong&gt;bhiścakraṃ na vṛttaṃ vyatīnravīvipat | &#xA;  bṛhaccharīro vimimāna ṛkvabhiryuvākumāraḥ pratyetyāhavam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T15:22:46.850" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21842" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-27T16:31:13.707" Score="3" ViewCount="4249" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Adi Parva of Mahabharata describes Kaurava Army to be 11 Akshauhinis and Pandava Army to be 7 Akshauhinis. That's almost over 1.8 million soldiers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does Mahabharata give any details on the number of lives lost during the war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7442" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T17:00:17.360" Title="Number of people killed during the Mahabharata war" Tags="|mahabharata|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-10-27T17:40:44.620" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21843" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21842" CreationDate="2017-10-27T16:36:27.567" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m11/m11025.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 26&lt;/a&gt; of Stri Parva, Mahabharata,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The royal sage Dhritarashtra, however, restraining the grief that arises from folly, enquired of Yudhishthira the just, saying, ‘If, O son of Pandu, thou knowest it, tell me the number of those that have fallen in this battle, as also of those that have escaped with life!’ &quot;Yudhishthira answered, ‘One billion 660 million and 20,000 men have fallen in this battle. Of the heroes that have escaped, the number is 240,165.’  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12402" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T17:00:17.360" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T17:00:17.360" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21846" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21856" CreationDate="2017-10-27T17:42:53.743" Score="4" ViewCount="1665" Body="&lt;p&gt;Where was Ashwatthama when Pandavas spread the false news of his death? On that day, was Ashwatthama too far from his father like Arjun was when Abhimanyu died? If so then, how Dronacharya could believe that Bhim killed him and came back from that site? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, Dronacharya already knew that Ashwatthama is Chiranjeevi (Drona did many years of severe penance to please lord Shiva in order to obtain a son who possesses the same valiance as of Lord Shiva. Hence,  Ashwatthama was born immortal due to the blessing of Lord Shiva.) and can not be slain then, how he could believe the fact that Bhim killed his son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By seeing that Drona gave up his weapons and Dṛṣṭadyumna is approaching him, why nobody from Kaurvas Army revealed the truth to their Army chief?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12304" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2017-10-28T18:48:38.030" LastActivityDate="2017-12-05T18:19:50.987" Title="Where was Ashwatthama when Pandavas spread the false news of his death?" Tags="|mahabharata|dronacharya|ashwatthama|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21848" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-27T18:55:42.063" Score="7" ViewCount="263" Body="&lt;p&gt;Do six schools of Indian Philosophy accommodate each other or are they watertight compartments each to the exclusion of other?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4032" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-10-28T00:18:42.830" LastActivityDate="2017-12-31T10:55:17.487" Title="Oneness of different Indian philosophical thoughts" Tags="|philosophy|shad-darshana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2018-10-12T08:59:46.267" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21849" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21846" CreationDate="2017-10-27T18:57:37.477" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After the death of Guru Drona:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Kauravas were struck by grief and fear. Their all-conquering&#xA;  general was dead. Unable to believe it, they fled. Duryodhana, Karṇa,&#xA;  Śakuni, and the Kuru chiefs were overwhelmed by sorrow, and they ran&#xA;  along with their troops. As they rushed from the cheering Pāṇḍava&#xA;  forces, &lt;strong&gt;they encountered Aśvatthāmā moving in the opposite direction,&#xA;  like an alligator swimming against a river’s current&lt;/strong&gt;. Surprised to see&#xA;  the Kauravas retreating, he stopped Duryodhana and asked, “Why do I&#xA;  see our army flying, O King? Why are you and all of our other heroes&#xA;  running away? Surely some unthinkable calamity has befallen us.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Death news of Drona being conveyed to Aśvatthāmā by Kṛpa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Duryodhana could not tell Aśvatthāmā the news. He looked down and said&#xA;  nothing. Kṛpa came up to his side and Duryodhana said, “O son of&#xA;  Saradwata, tell Aśvatthāmā why we are fleeing.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;With tears flowing down his face, Kṛpa said, “With that foremost of&#xA;  men Droṇa at our head, we have waged a great battle with the&#xA;  Pañchālas, during which he has slain not less than fifty thousand of&#xA;  their number. Penetrating into the Pāṇḍava ranks, your father scorched&#xA;  our enemies like the Destroyer himself. None could stand before him.&#xA;  Therefore, the Pāṇḍavas decided upon an unfair means to check your&#xA;  father. Informing him that you had been slain, O child, they deprived&#xA;  him of his senses and power. Dṛṣṭadyumna, when he saw him anxious and&#xA;  desisting from the fight, flew at him with sword held high. Even as&#xA;  the preceptor sat in mystic meditation, and as many warriors shouted&#xA;  at him to stop, Drupada’s son lopped off his head. Thus did your&#xA;  father suffer death at the hands of a heartless warrior. This is why&#xA;  our troops are fleeing.” Aśvatthāmā cried out.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So Aśvatthāmā was in the battle field only when his father Drona was killed and this news was passed on to him by Kṛpa. Reference &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/mbk/2/21&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why nobody from Kauravas army revealed the truth to Dronacharya?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pāṇḍava remembered Droṇa’s own prophetic statement at the&#xA;  beginning of the war: &lt;strong&gt;that he would be overpowered at a time when he&#xA;  heard something disagreeable from a creditable source&lt;/strong&gt;. Reluctantly, Yudhiṣṭhira agreed to Kṛṣṇa’s suggestion. As the Kuru preceptor approached him, he gave him the false news. “Aśvatthāmā is dead,” he called out, adding inaudibly at the end, “the elephant,” as he could not tell an utter untruth under any circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So perhaps it was destined to have ended in this fashion, hence nobody from Kaurvas revealed the truth to Drona. Another thing is all these events happened same day and within short span.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-27T19:19:23.407" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T19:19:23.407" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21850" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21851" CreationDate="2017-10-27T19:22:24.757" Score="-1" ViewCount="3908" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any mention of attire for women/men in any ancient texts ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How was nudity treated in Hinduism ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Did other religion deeply influence the people of India ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10397" LastActivityDate="2022-10-29T17:36:34.950" Title="How was nudity treated in Hinduism" Tags="|puranas|history|dress|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21851" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21850" CreationDate="2017-10-27T20:01:23.783" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is there any mention of attire for women/men in any ancient texts ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;paṭṭa-vastra, alaṅkāre, samarpiyā sakhī-kare,&#xA;  sūkṣma-śukla-vastra-paridhāna kṛṣṇa lañā kāntā-gaṇa, kailā&#xA;  jalāvagāhana, jala-keli racilā suṭhāma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“All the gopīs entrusted their silken garments and ornaments to the&#xA;  care of their friends and then put on fine white cloth. Lord Kṛṣṇa,&#xA;  taking His beloved gopīs with Him, bathed and performed very nice&#xA;  pastimes in the water of the Yamunā. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/antya/18/83&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;paṭṭa-vastra&lt;/a&gt; — silk garments;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;suvalita hasta, pada, kamala-nayāna paṭṭa-vastra śire, paṭṭa-vastra&#xA;  paridhāna&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He had beautifully formed hands, arms and legs, and eyes like lotus&#xA;  flowers. He wore a silk cloth, with a silk turban on His head.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/5/185&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;paṭṭa-vastra&lt;/a&gt; — silk garments;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Next&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;sei mleccha-madhye eka parama gambhīra kāla vastra pare sei, — loke&#xA;  kahe ‘pīra’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Among the Muslims was a grave person who was wearing a black dress.&#xA;  People called him a saintly person. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/18/185&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;kāla vastra&lt;/a&gt; — black garments;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ṭhākurera bhāṇḍāre āra āmāra bhāṇḍāre citra-vastra-kiṅkiṇī, āra&#xA;  chatra-cāmare&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Take as many printed cloths, small bells, umbrellas and cāmaras as&#xA;  there are in my storehouse and in the Deity’s storehouse. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/14/109&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;citra-vastra&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;  — printed cloth;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How was nudity treated in Hinduism?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you refer the following instances then you can conclude that it wasn't considered as a proud moment but at the same time it has been related to as a tool to fulfill your desire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;taṁ dṛṣṭvā vrīḍitā devyo  vivastrāḥ śāpa-śaṅkitāḥ vāsāṁsi paryadhuḥ&#xA;  śīghraṁ  vivastrau naiva guhyakau&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upon seeing Nārada, the naked young girls of the demigods were very&#xA;  much ashamed. Afraid of being cursed, they covered their bodies with&#xA;  their garments. But the two sons of Kuvera did not do so; instead, not&#xA;  caring about Nārada, they remained naked. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/10/6&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;refer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tan-mātā koṭarā nāma  nagnā makta-śiroruhā puro ’vatasthe kṛṣṇasya&#xA;   putra-prāṇa-rirakṣayā&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Just then Bāṇāsura’s mother, Koṭarā, desiring to save her son’s life,&#xA;  appeared before Lord Kṛṣṇa naked and with her hair undone. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/63/20&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Refer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;yūyaṁ vivastrā yad apo dhṛta-vratā  vyagāhataitat tad u deva-helanam&#xA;  baddhvāñjaliṁ mūrdhny apanuttaye ’ṁhasaḥ  kṛtvā namo ’dho-vasanaṁ&#xA;  pragṛhyatām&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Kṛṣṇa said:] You girls bathed naked while executing your vow,&#xA;  and that is certainly an offense against the demigods. To counteract&#xA;  your sin you should offer obeisances while placing your joined palms&#xA;  above your heads. Then you should take back your lower garments. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/22/19&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Refer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tān vilokyāmbikā devī  vivāsā vrīḍitā bhṛśam bhartur aṅkāt samutthāya&#xA;   nīvīm āśv atha paryadhāt&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the goddess Ambikā saw the great saintly persons, she was very&#xA;  much ashamed because at that time she was naked. She immediately got&#xA;  up from the lap of her husband and tried to cover her breast. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/9/1/30&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Refer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Did other religion deeply influence the people of India ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;History has ample sources to prove the invasions by the Muslims rulers as well as the Britishers/Dutch/Portuguese/French and this happened for centuries, the impact is clearly visible in many states of India where they ruled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T20:01:23.783" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21852" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="10310" CreationDate="2017-10-27T20:17:00.877" Score="4" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अहिंसा परमो धर्मः धर्म हिंसा तथैव च: |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Non-violence is the ultimate dharma. So too is violence in service of Dharma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, we never attacked others but responded whenever it was required.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12304" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2017-11-11T16:38:02.673" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T16:38:02.673" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21853" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21838" CreationDate="2017-10-27T20:30:50.813" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am answering your question with taking help of different scriptures like &lt;strong&gt;Upanishads ,Puranas and works of Acharyas like Adi Shankaracharya&lt;/strong&gt; ,who in very detail described  this Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then scriptures are giving  us not only the definition of Maya ,but also telling us about it's creator and it's nature as well as ways to liberate from bonds of maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let's see one by one what some of the texts are saying  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the book &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/vivekachudamani/d/doc144554.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; Shree Sankaracharya  says that Maya is the power of the Lord. Maya  is without beginning, is made up of the three gunas and is superior to the effects as their cause. It is to be inferred by one of clear intellect only from the effects it produces. It is that which brings forth this whole universe. Maya is neither existent nor non-existent nor partaking of both characters; neither same nor different nor both; neither composed of parts nor an indivisible whole nor both. It is most wonderful and cannot be described in words.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अव्यक्तनाम्नि परमेशशक्ति -&lt;br&gt; रनाद्यविद्या त्रिगुणात्मिका परा ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कार्य्यानुमेया सुधियैव माया ।&lt;br&gt; यया जगदसर्वमिदं प्रसूयते ।।108।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;avyaktanāmnī parameśaśaktiḥ&lt;br&gt; anādyavidyā triguṇātmikā parā | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  kāryānumeyā sudhiyaiva māyā&lt;br&gt; yayā jagatsarvamidaṃ prasūyate || 108&#xA;  ||&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Avidya (Nescience) or &lt;strong&gt;Māyā, called also the Undifferentiated, is the power of the Lord. She is without beginning, is made up of the&#xA;  three Guṇas&lt;/strong&gt; and is superior to the effects (as their cause). She is&#xA;  to be inferred by one of clear intellect only from the effects She&#xA;  produces. It is She who brings forth this whole universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt; सन्नाप्यसन्नाप्युभयात्मिका नो&lt;br&gt; भिन्नाप्यभिन्नाप्युभयात्मिका नो&#xA;  । &lt;br&gt; साङ्गाप्यनङ्गा ह्युभयात्मिका नो&lt;br&gt; महाद्भुतानिर्वचनीयरूपा ॥&#xA;  109 ॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;sannāpyasannāpyubhayātmikā no&lt;br&gt; bhinnāpyabhinnāpyubhayātmikā no&#xA;  | &lt;br&gt; sāṅgāpyanaṅgā hyubhayātmikā no&lt;br&gt; mahādbhutānirvacanīyarūpā ||&#xA;  109 ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;She is neither existent nor non-existent nor partaking of both characters; neither same nor different nor both; neither composed of&#xA;  parts nor an indivisible whole nor both. She is most wonderful and&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;cannot be described in words.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.celextel.org/adisankara/mayapanchakam.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maya-Panchakam&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; here is what Shankara says. Mayapanchakam, a work consisting of five stanzas, Sri Sankara brings out how Maya makes incompatibles appear together and is adept at making the impossible happen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;निरुपमनित्यनिरंशकेऽप्यखण्डे मयि चिति&lt;br&gt; सर्वविकल्पनादिशून्ये । घटयति&#xA;  जगदीशजीवभेदं&lt;br&gt; त्वघटितघटनापटीयसी माया ॥1॥&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nirupam anithya niramaskhepya khande Mayi chithi sarva vikalpanadhi&#xA;  soonye, Ghatayathi Jagadheesa jeeva bhedham Thwagathitha ghatanaa&#xA;  patiyasi maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Maya which is adept (Very Skillful) at making the impossible happen&#xA;  superimpose on me (the atman) who am I in reality pure consciousness&#xA;  ,who am eternal partless , unlimited by space ,time &amp;amp; other objects&#xA;  ,in whome there is no differentiation whatsoever ,the distinctions in&#xA;  the form of world , god and individual soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 -: Maya, which is adept at making the impossible happen, makes even&#xA;  those who have mastered the Vedas and the Upanishads behave no better&#xA;  than four-legged animals by tempting them with wealth and possessions.&#xA;  What a pity!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3-: Maya, which is adept at making the impossible happen, makes the&#xA;  Atman which is of the nature of Bliss and pure and infinite&#xA;  Consciousness and is without a second, identify itself with the body&#xA;  made up of the elements, namely, ether, air etc., and whirl intensely&#xA;  in the ocean of transmigratory existence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4-: Maya, which is adept at making the impossible happen, creates in&#xA;  the pure Bliss-Consciousness which is devoid of attributes such as&#xA;  caste, creed and the like, the notion of 'I'-ness, of looking upon&#xA;  oneself as a Brahmana, Vaisya, etc., as well as attachment to son,&#xA;  wife and home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/HindiBook-tatva-bodha-shrimad-shankaracharya.pdf/HindiBook-tatva-bodha-shrimad-shankaracharya#page/n89/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tattva-Bodha&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; Shree Shankaracharya writes.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ब्रह्माश्रया सत्वरजस्तमोगुणात्मिका माया अस्ति ।।35।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;depending on Brahman for its existence is maya which is of the nature&#xA;  of the three gunas viz.sattva, rajas and tamas’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is Maya the question is also been answered by our Puranas. Here in  the &lt;strong&gt;Skandha 11 - Chapter 3  : Liberation from the Illusory Energy -  of Shreemad Bhagvat Purana&lt;/strong&gt; this Maya is described as&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एभिर्भूतानि भूतात्मा महभूतैर्महाभुज।&lt;br&gt; ससर्जोच्चावचान्याद्य:&#xA;  स्वमात्रात्म प्रसिद्धये।।SB 11.3..3।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ebhir bhūtāni bhūtātmā&lt;br&gt; mahā-bhūtair mahā-bhuja&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  sasarjoccāvacāny ādyaḥ&lt;br&gt; sva-mātrātma-prasiddhaye&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The power withwich  the Adi-purusha becoming the Atma(soul) of the&#xA;  universe  for material pleasures and Moksha (libration) creates the&#xA;  worlds (lokas)  which are lower &amp;amp; higher. That is called Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;url=http://estudantedavedanta.net/Svetasvatara_Upanishad%2520-%2520Swami%2520Tyagisananda%2520%25281949%2529%2520%5BSanskrit-English%5D.pdf&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwj_g6WBs5HXAhXGso8KHbejArIQFghWMAY&amp;amp;usg=AOvVaw1CzbGhx0lAcRhxfFTW3QQN&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Shvetashvatara Upanishad&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;Shvetashvatara Upanishad Chapter 4 - Verse 10 tells us that Prakriti or Nature itself is Maya. i.e. Prakriti and Maya are the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मायां तु प्रकृतिं&lt;/strong&gt; विद्यन्मायिनं तु महेश्वरम् ।&lt;br&gt; तस्यावयवभूतैस्तु&#xA;  व्याप्तं सर्वमिदं जगत् ।।10।।&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;māyāṃ tu prakṛtiṃ&lt;/strong&gt; vidyān māyinaṃ tu maheśvaraṃ / tasyāvayavabhūtais tu&#xA;  vyāptaṃ sarvaṃ idaṃ jagat ।। 4.10।। &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Know, then, that &lt;strong&gt;prakriti or nature is maya (illusion)&lt;/strong&gt; and that Great&#xA;  Lord (Mahesvara) is the mayin (the illusion-maker). The whole universe&#xA;  is filled with objects which are parts of His being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maya in Rig-Veda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10177.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Rig-Veda&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; -Mandala 10 - Hymn 177 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;पतंगमक्तमसुरस्य &lt;strong&gt;मायया&lt;/strong&gt; हर्दा पश्यन्ति मनसाविपश्चितः |  समुद्रे&#xA;  अन्तः कवयो वि चक्षते मरीचीनाम्पदमिछन्ति वेधसः ||RV - 10.177.1||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;pataṃghamaktamasurasya &lt;strong&gt;māyayā&lt;/strong&gt; hṛdā paśyanti manasāvipaścitaḥ | &#xA;  samudre antaḥ kavayo vi cakṣate marīcīnāmpadamichanti vedhasa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;THE sapient with their spirit and their mind behold the Bird adorned&#xA;  with all an &lt;strong&gt;Asura's magic might&lt;/strong&gt;. Sages observe him in the ocean's&#xA;  inmost depth: the wise disposers seek the station of his rays.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Alternate Translations &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Bird {pataṅgam} equipped (/driven) {aktam} by the Asuras' Maaya&#xA;  (magic) {asurasya māyayā} is seen {paśyanti} with the heart {hṛdā} and&#xA;  is recognized {vi paścitaḥ} with the mind {manasā}. Sages {kavayo}&#xA;  observe {vi cakṣate} it in the oceans' depth {samudre antaḥ}. The wise&#xA;  {vedhasaḥ} seek {icchanti} the locus of its rays {marīcīnām padam}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now lets look at another Verse from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv06047.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Book 6 - Hymn - 47-Mantra 18&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इन्द्रो मायाभिः पुरुरूप ईयते युक्ता हयस्य हरयःशता दश ||  युजानो हरिता&#xA;  रथे भूरि तवष्टेह राजति |  को विश्वाहा दविषतः पक्ष आसत उतासीनेषु सूरिषु&#xA;  ||18||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;18 In every figure he hath been the mode: this is his only form for us&#xA;  to look on. Indra moves &lt;strong&gt;multiform by his illusions&lt;/strong&gt;; for his Bay Steeds&#xA;  are yoked, ten times a hundred.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse says that all the universe is Indra's art. (Mayabhi) ,and he modelled it as himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So its look like In the Rig-Veda there are two meanings of Maya i.e. Some unknown Magic and  an multiform  Illusion created by supreme god.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Conclusion - Maya is the power of the Lord. It is without beginning,&#xA;  is made up of the three gunas. She is only inferred from the effects&#xA;  she produces. Maya is very skillful in making impossible to happen.&#xA;  Prakriti is also a Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-10-28T05:30:33.630" LastActivityDate="2017-10-28T05:30:33.630" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21854" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21838" CreationDate="2017-10-27T23:08:37.057" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The meaning of the term 'Maya' is almost consistent from RigVeda to Bhagvata Gita. Problem lies with the translation and the translators.The etymological meaning of ma + ya is &quot; not this&quot; , thus it can be an illusion of 'this' or it can be a similar of 'this'. The both connotations of Maya is best exemplified in RigVedic hymn RV.1.80 (7) where Mayin Vritra takes a form of dear(mriga), thus an illusion. Whereas Indra kills him with Maya (through thunder bolt), thus a similar of natural one.&#xA;The hymn quoted above RV.5.85 (5) refers to the similarity  aspect of Sun in the term Maya i.e.  the auora of Sun. Translators, unaware of the real meaning of Maya and few other terms, provides a far-fetched translation. A meaningful  translation  should be like this one - &quot; those (qualities) of Asur (Sun) we heard of, I speak by moving forward into the great auora of Varun. In the  standard view (it is) situated at the horizon ( manen eva ta asthi vam anta rikshe), yet he (Varun) is called (vi yo mame) Sun of the earth.&#xA;Similarly, in Bhagvat Gita when it is said that world is Maya, we mean that the word is the manifestation of God , not that the world is an illusion  of  God.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastActivityDate="2017-10-27T23:08:37.057" CommentCount="0" CommunityOwnedDate="2017-10-27T23:08:37.057" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21855" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21662" CreationDate="2017-10-28T01:20:21.380" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Bhishma, Vyasa and Satyavati nurtured him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Was Satyavati uninterested in Vidura?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is not mentioned in the Mahabharata that Satyavati was not interested in Vidura as he was a son of Dasi. Dasi's varna is not the reason for not mentioning the name. There's nothing wrong with the Dasi. It was Ambika's mistake that she didn't go to Vyasa for a child for the second time. It is against Shudra dharma to disobey their master or mistress. So, she acted according to her Dharma. There are many other instances (in Vedas, Puranas and also in Mahabharata itself) where even Brahmana's are also not mentioned. Who knows she was awarded by Satyavati because she has begotten a son who is well versed in the doctrines and an expert in war strategies. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01107.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;chapter 106&lt;/a&gt; of Adi Parva,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O king, the great Rishi of rigid vows, was well-pleased with her, and when he rose to go away, he addressed her and said, 'Amiable one, &lt;strong&gt;thou shalt no longer be a slave&lt;/strong&gt;. Thy child also shall be greatly fortunate and virtuous, and the foremost of all intelligent men on earth!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Considering Vyasa's words as true, her slavery was abolished after begetting Vidura.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Who raised Vidura?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The three children Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura were mainly brought up by Bhishma but Satyavati and Vyasa also had role in raising them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;strong&gt;Dhritarashtra and Pandu and Vidura of great intelligence were from their birth brought up by Bhishma, as if they were his own sons&lt;/strong&gt;. And the children, having passed through the usual rites of their order, devoted themselves to vows and study. And they grew up into fine young men skilled in the Vedas and all athletic sports. And they became well-skilled in the practice of bow, in horsemanship, in encounters with mace, sword and shield, in the management of elephants in battle, and in the science of morality. Well-read in history and the Puranas and various branches of learning, and acquainted with the truths of the Vedas and their branches they acquired knowledge, which was versatile and deep. And Pandu, possessed of great prowess, excelled all men in archery while Dhritarashtra excelled all in personal strength, while in the three worlds there was no one equal to Vidura in devotion to virtue and in the knowledge of the dictates of morality. And beholding the restoration of the extinct line of Santanu, the saying became current in all countries that among mothers of heroes, the daughters of the king of Kasi were the first; that among countries Kurujangala was the first; &lt;strong&gt;that among virtuous men, Vidura was the first&lt;/strong&gt;; that among cities Hastinapura was the first. Pandu became king, for Dhritarashtra, owing to the blindness, and Vidura, for his birth by a Sudra woman, did not obtain the kingdom. One day Bhishma, the foremost of those acquainted with the duties of a statesman and dictates of morality, properly addressing Vidura conversant with the truth of religion and virtue, said as follows.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From the above passage, it's clear that Vidura received respect in the country due to his virtue and knowledge. Vyasa and Satyavati also raised Vidura along with the other two.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma said, 'This our celebrated race, resplendent with every virtue and accomplishment, hath all along sovereignty over all other monarchs on earth. Its glory maintained and itself perpetuated by many virtuous and illustrious monarchs of old, &lt;strong&gt;the illustrious Krishna (Dwaipayana) and Satyavati and myself have raised you (three) up, in order that it may not be extinct&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He was later married to the daughter of King Devaka begotten a Sudra woman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Meanwhile the son of the ocean-going Ganga heard that king Devaka had a daughter endued with youth and beauty and begotten upon a Sudra wife. Bringing her from her father's abode, Bhishma married her to Vidura of great wisdom. And Vidura begot upon her many children like unto himself in accomplishments.'&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;Why?&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because Vidura was also born through Niyoga just like Dhritarashtra and Pandu. Satyavati, Bhishma and Vyasa never shown a difference because he was a Shudra. Bhishma raised the three like his own children without any bias. He made Vidura as the minister of Hastinapura because he was well versed in doctrines of morality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-29T11:44:39.677" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21856" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21846" CreationDate="2017-10-28T02:58:20.327" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Addressing your questions one by one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q. Where was Ashwatthama when Pandavas spread the false news of his death? On that day, was Ashwatthama too far from his father like Arjun was when Abhimanyu died?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, Ashwatthaman was far away from Drona and not at his sight. This is what gave his chance to Pandavas to plan the way to slay Drona. Ashwatthaman didn't had any idea what was happening to his father. He was in the middle of the battle. That's the reason he asked why Kaurava forces are retreating.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only Drona's son, Aswatthaman, like a huge alligator coming up against the current of a stream, rushed against his foes. A fierce battle took place between him and many warriors headed by Sikhandin and the Prabhadrakas, the Panchalas, the Chedis, and the Kaikeyas. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07190.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Section CXCIV, Drona Parva]&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That why he asked Duryodhana why Kaurava forces were retreating instead of fighting.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Proceeding towards Duryodhana, Drona's son, approaching the Kuru king, said, 'Why, O Bharata, are the troops flying away as if in fear? Although flying away, thus, O monarch, why dost thou not yet rally them in battle? &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07190.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Section CXCIV Drona Parva]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q.  If so then, how Dronacharya could believe that Bhima killed him and came back from that site?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhimasena killed an elephant named Ashwatthama from his own army and shouted that Ashwatthama is dead. Dronacharya didn't believe his words. He knows the prowess of his son and continued to fight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then the mighty-armed Bhima, O king, slew with a mace a foe-crushing, terrible and huge elephant named Aswatthaman, of his own army, belonging to Indravarman, the chief of the Malavas. Approaching Drona then in that battle with some bashfulness Bhimasena began to exclaim aloud, 'Aswatthaman hath been slain.' That elephant named Aswatthaman having been thus slain, Bhima spoke of Aswatthaman's slaughter. Keeping the true fact within his mind, he said what was untrue, Hearing those highly disagreeable words of Bhima and reflecting upon them, Drona's limbs seemed to dissolve like sands in water. Recollecting however, the prowess of his son, he soon came to regard that intelligence as false. Hearing, therefore, of his slaughter, Drona did not become unmanned. Indeed, soon recovering his senses, he became comforted, remembering that his son was incapable of being resisted by foes. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07187.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Section CXCI, Drona Parva]&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After this incident, fought with more rage. Then sages appeared at that place in their subtle forms and said that he was fighting unrighteously. They informed that time has come to end his life. Hearing their words, he has realized that his last hour has come. He became extremely cheerless and inquired Yudhishtira whether his son was slain or not. &lt;em&gt;Dronacharya firmly believed that Yudhishtira would never speak a lie&lt;/em&gt;. That was the reason he asked Yudhishtira only and ignored Bhimas's words. After making up his mind, Yudhishtira uttered loudly that Ashwatthama is dead adding indistinctly the world elephant (after the name).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing these words of their as also those spoken by Bhimasena, and beholding Dhrishtadyumna before him, Drona became exceedingly cheerless in battle. Burning with grief and exceedingly afflicted, he enquired of Kunti's son Yudhishthira as to whether his son (Aswatthaman) had been slain or not. &lt;strong&gt;Drona firmly believed that Yudhishthira would never speak an untruth even for the sake of the sovereignty of the three worlds. For this reason, that bull among Brahmanas asked Yudhishthira and not any body else&lt;/strong&gt;. He had hoped for truth from Yudhishthira from the latter's infancy. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07187.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[Section CXCI, Drona Parva]&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q.By seeing that Drona gave up his weapons and Dṛṣṭadyumna is approaching him, why nobody from Kaurvas Army revealed the truth to their Army chief?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Bhimasena said his son is no more, he didn't believe and continued his fight more vigourously. So, no one from Kaurava troops might not have revealed the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It doesn't take much time to utter a sentence that someone is dead. Drona felt distressed and renounced his weapons as soon as he heard Yudhishtira.  It is already explained above that he had firm faith in Yudhishtira that he never utters a lie. After getting that confirmation from Dharma Raja, he didn't ask anyone else. Even someone said his son is alive, he would not believe. He gave up weapons when Yudhishtira said Ashwatthama is dead. He also realised that his last hour on earth has arrived by the words of Sages. So, he never asked others confirmation or checked for his son himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-28T02:58:20.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21858" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-28T05:20:57.993" Score="4" ViewCount="348" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rigveda &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04027.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;alludes&lt;/a&gt; a story where a falcon steals Soma from the heaven and gives it the Manu/Indra for sacrificial purpose. The Soma is guarded by fortification and it is protected by an archer name Krishanu. In the process of stealing, Krishanu hits the falcon by an arrow ensuing in loss of a feather of the falcon. However, the falcon succeeds in this task.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same Krishanu fires &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01155.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;an arrow towards Indra and Vishnu&lt;/a&gt; in the famous hymn &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/2947/what-is-the-story-of-the-90-horses-of-vishnu&quot;&gt;which mentions of 90 horses of Vishnu&lt;/a&gt;. Questions:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do we know from later texts who was Krishanu?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why did he attack Indra and Vishnu?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Why did the falcon steal Soma from the heaven?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-31T17:20:56.317" LastActivityDate="2017-10-31T17:20:56.317" Title="what is the story of Krishanu the archer?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21859" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-28T06:24:54.273" Score="7" ViewCount="109" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Ramanada Sagar's adaptation of the &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ramayana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; whenever some yajna is performed, I can hear background recital of some verses which is repeated again and again. In the below video, at ~18:10 mins Vishwamitra is interuppted by Marich and Subahu when the former starts a yajna here once can hear the verse in chorus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcP-XeE3EVg&amp;amp;t=792&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/NZBB9m.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I listen it unintelligibly as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vedaputra/Devaputra samvato vrikshnatma yajaamaha Indraya vischtai ?????? Indraya putri?? sandwawa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could any tell me from which book and what verse is being recited here&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2021-02-05T15:51:32.933" LastActivityDate="2021-02-05T15:51:32.933" Title="Could anyone tell me what verse is being recited in the video?" Tags="|rig-veda|identification-request|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21861" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21987" CreationDate="2017-10-28T07:49:45.877" Score="9" ViewCount="1983" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am looking for the names of some Lord Ganesha devotees.Those names have to be mentioned in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In scriptures (like the PurAnas) we often find such names. For example, PrahlAda was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu, Dadichi, MArkendeya that of Lord Shiva ( MArkandeya was also a devotee of Lord Vishnu i think) etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-10-28T08:03:15.230" LastActivityDate="2017-11-07T12:43:29.160" Title="Who are some great devotees of Lord Ganesha from the scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|ganesha|bhakti|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21863" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15431" CreationDate="2017-10-28T12:48:54.100" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apputhi_Adigal&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Apputhi Adigal&lt;/a&gt; was one of the 63 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayanars&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nayanars&lt;/a&gt;. He was very devoted to Thirunavukkarasar, who was another Nayanar. When &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appar&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thirunavukkarasar&lt;/a&gt; went to home of Apputhi Adigal to meet Apputhi Adigal, he saw that Apputhi Adigal named his every asset as Thirunavukkarasu. Apputhi Adigal lately recognized that the person who came to his home was none other than Appar aka Thirunavukkarasar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apputhi Adigal requested him to have food at his home. When Thirunavukkarasar consented, Apputhi Adigal and his wife ordered his eldest son called Senior &#xA;Thirunavukkarasu [Out of his devotion towards Thirunavukkarasar, Apputhi Adigal named his elder son as Mootha Thirunavukkarasu(Senior Thirunavukkarasu) and his youngest son as Ilaya Thirunavukkarasu(JuniorThirunavukkarasu)] to bring banana leaves from the garden. A snake bit him in the garden while trying to pluck banana leaves. So, he died there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://thevaaram.org/thirumurai_1/songview.php?thiru=12&amp;amp;Song_idField=1225&amp;amp;padhi=72&amp;amp;startLimit=24&amp;amp;limitPerPage=1&amp;amp;sortBy=&amp;amp;sortOrder=DESC&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Periya Puranam 12.25.24&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Behold my boon! I have been plied in this Holy task by my goodly and&#xA;  righteous parents!”  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus he thought and ran to the garden. &lt;strong&gt;As he cut&#xA;  a broad and tender plantain-leaf&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A dazzling snake bit him on his palm&#xA;  Causing him to fall down in pain and giddiness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apputhi Adigal hid the corpse of the boy and tried to serve food to Thirunavukkarasar. But Thirunavukkarasar wanted to apply holy ash to the eldest son, who just died. So, he requested Apputhi Adigal to order his eldest child to come back from the garden. Apputhi said he would not be available without mentioning the son's death. Finally, Apputhi revealed the truth to Thirunavukkarasar. Appalled, Thirunavukkarasar prayed to Shiva with the hymn &lt;em&gt;Ondru Kolam Avar&lt;/em&gt; thevaram. The child was resurrected.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://thevaaram.org/thirumurai_1/songview.php?thiru=12&amp;amp;Song_idField=1225&amp;amp;padhi=72&amp;amp;startLimit=35&amp;amp;limitPerPage=1&amp;amp;sortBy=&amp;amp;sortOrder=DESC&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Periya Puranam 12.25.35&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When Navukkarasar heard the death event of his child, he exclaimed: &#xA;  “&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Great indeed is that you have wrought!  Whoever had done like unto&#xA;  you?” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then he rose up and walked to the moribund.  &lt;strong&gt;He hymned a musical song&#xA;  which in its wake&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Caused the flow of the grace of Lord;  Thus he chased the venom away from the child's body.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-11-01T07:44:25.747" LastActivityDate="2017-11-01T07:44:25.747" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21864" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21751" CreationDate="2017-10-28T12:57:42.523" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is secret &amp;amp; confidential because It can be distorted by evil-harted or deluded (As you have seen, such people after knowing these knowledge can make fun or distort). All such scriptures are faithful, reason is given by Lord Shiva in Shiv Rahasya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;300&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Verily, My Word of Truth shall be kept secret that It may not be corrupted and distorted&#xA;  by the evil-hearted and deluded. In this World, Truth has many an embittered foe. But when the&#xA;  time has come It shall be openly revealed to all. &lt;strong&gt;For when the flame is only young it is easily&#xA;  extinguished even by a child. But when it has grown in strength, the dark forest of delusion&#xA;  comes to a swift end&lt;/strong&gt;. 11 Chapter.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, I am not sure whether flame is sufficiently strong or not to impart all!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-10-28T12:57:42.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21866" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2650" CreationDate="2017-10-28T13:49:37.847" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, every act of shree Krishna has a meaning.... When the kidy god Krishna ate sand which means that he can obtain anything no matter how sinned. When he opened his mouth it meant that... The whole thing he obtains is resting on him cause he is the paramatma.... But he doesn't want this to change any of the future so he made his matha unconscious but it's also been said that the one whomever is not ready to know the high superior knowledge... Will go unconscious..... It'll take a long time to give a debriefed discribtion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12417" LastActivityDate="2017-10-28T13:49:37.847" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21867" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-28T16:48:07.490" Score="5" ViewCount="219" Body="&lt;p&gt;I found that Bauddha Darshana is considered Nastika. I want to know why it is considered as Nastika in Hindu Dharma (Sanatan Dharma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12348" LastEditorUserId="11956" LastEditDate="2017-10-29T14:25:30.307" LastActivityDate="2018-04-08T18:33:18.467" Title="Why is Bauddha Darshana considered Nastika in Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism)?" Tags="|philosophy|belief|vedas|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21869" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16386" CreationDate="2017-10-28T19:06:50.303" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, Non Hindus are allowed inside the Tirumala Veṅkaṭēśwara Temple. They need to sign a waiver that they have faith in Lord Veṅkaṭēśwara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is not a religious restriction. This was passed by the Government of Andhra Pradesh in the April 1990. This had been in vogue for several decades. It was only followed as a tradition and not a rule by only those who volunteered to give the declaration.  Now, TTD has made it compulsory for non Hindus to sign a waiver that they have faith in Veṅkaṭēśwara Temple. Preaching other religions in Tirumala especially in the temple premises is illegal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a news article from &lt;a href=&quot;http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/non-hindus-to-sign-faith-form-to-enter-tirumala-temple-in-andhra-pradesh/1/210621.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;India Today&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to TTD joint executive officer K S Srinivasa Raju, non-Hindus must necessarily sign the declaration form at the Vaikuntam queue complex before having the darshan of the Lord. Though the practice had been in vogue for several decades, it was only followed as a tradition and not a rule by only those who volunteered to give the declaration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, &lt;strong&gt;the TTD authorities have made it compulsory as per the government order (GO MS No. 311 of AP Revenue Endowments-1) under Rule no. 16&lt;/strong&gt;. &amp;quot;It is now a mandatory rule for all those belonging to various faiths other than Hinduism to sign a declaration form before entering the hill temple stating that they have faith in the presiding deity,&amp;quot; Raju said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mBNcB.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mBNcB.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Image Courtesy : &lt;a href=&quot;https://gotirupati.com/admission-of-non-hindus/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Gotirupati&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The text in the above image says that the Government order was passed on 09 April 1990. IT might have been there even before this but the devotees used to sign voluntarily.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The rule holds for the temples maintained by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams(TTD).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The waivers are available at all sub-enquiry offices, besides the Pushkar and JEO's office at Tirumala.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the convenience of devotees, the declaration forms would be available at all sub-enquiry offices, besides the Peshkar and JEO's office.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-28T19:06:50.303" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21870" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18959" CreationDate="2017-10-28T19:14:56.167" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ramayana can be confusing at times, specially from the Kaikeyi episode till Ram's return to Ayodhya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We must bear in mind all the time that It was Ram and Ram only who had to fulfill the vow of dwelling in the forest as an Ascetic. Sita and Lakshman were only supporting him but were free of any restrictions. Therefore, whereas Sita and Lakshman can sleep on bed, Ram can't. Sita and Lakshman can eat prepared food or city food, but Ram can't. Hell, Ram can't even enter a city, while Sita and Lakshman can. This is the reason Ram did not enter Sugriva's city of Kishkindha, and Ravan's city of Lanka. This conduct of Ram is subtly portrayed throughout Ramayan, and hence may sometimes sound contradictory to the behavior of Lakshman and Sita.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=4&amp;amp;language=dv&amp;amp;field_sarga_value=26&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kishkindha Kand&lt;/a&gt;, Shri Ram refuses to be part Rajyabhishek of Sugriva in accordance with his father's wishes, when requested by Hanuman&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;चतुर्दश समास्सौम्य ग्रामं वा यदि वा पुरम्4.26.9।।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;न प्रवेक्ष्यामि हनुमन्पितुर्निर्देशपालकः।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;Dear Hanuman In obedience to my father's command I should not enter any village or city for fourteen years.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Yuddhakand, Shri Ram requests Lakshman to go to Lanka and perform Rajyabhishek of Vibhishan&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zFy4c.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/zFy4c.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Yuddha Kand - Valmiki Ramayan&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Having read Hindi translation of &lt;a href=&quot;https://book.gitapress.org/product-style-5/%e0%a4%b6%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b0%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%ae%e0%a4%a6%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b5%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%ae%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%95%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%af-%e0%a4%b0%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%ae%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%af-2/!&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Valmiki Ramayan, Gita Press&lt;/a&gt; , it is nowhere claimed that Ram himself consumed the meat. Although Ram is free to hunt and bring food for Lakshman and Sita. Therefore, there is no question of Ram breaking his vow of living like an Ascetic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Sundar Kand, Valmiki ji mentions that it is a sin for any Raghuvanshi (including Ram) to consume meat or alcohol.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZSNbv.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZSNbv.png&quot; alt=&quot;Sundar Kand - Valmiki Ramayan&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;(Ram had refused to leave his Kshtriya dharma behind as an Ascetic, even after Sita urging him strongly. His idea was that Kshtriya dharma can't be taken away from him even if he has forsaken all the luxury of Rajmahal and come to live in forest. This is also the reason why he claims to Sadhus that they are His subjects and it is his duty to protect them. He later takes vow to protect them and rid Dandak van of all the demons).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3881" LastEditorUserId="3881" LastEditDate="2021-07-05T20:55:10.950" LastActivityDate="2021-07-05T20:55:10.950" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21871" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21846" CreationDate="2017-10-28T19:26:12.000" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Just adding in the accepted answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why Dronacharya believed in the fact that Bhima killed his son?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As described by &lt;em&gt;Nog Shine&lt;/em&gt;, the sages appeared at that place in their subtle forms and said that he was fighting unrighteously. They informed that time has come to end his life. Hearing their words, &lt;strong&gt;he has realized that his last hour has come&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And it's known that&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;विनाशकाले विपरीतबुद्धिःI&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When one's destruction or bad time is soon to arrive, one thinks unintelligently or negatively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dronacharya knew very well that Bhima can't kill Ashwatthama because&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ashwatthama is Chiranjeevi (nobody can kill him)&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ashwatthama had celestial weapons (like Narayanstra and Bhrahmshirastra) and Bheema didn't have such weapons&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But still he partially believed in Bheema and went to Yudhishthira. Then, &lt;strong&gt;he didn't listen the complete sentence&lt;/strong&gt; when Yudhishthira gave a reply. That clearly shows that his destruction time was soon to arrive, and he started thinking unintelligently or negatively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Let us see an instance from Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sitaji knew that there is nothing like golden deer but still She requested Lord Rama to go after it. She very well knew that Rama has killed many Rakashas, even Laxmana tried to explain her that Lord Rama can't be in danger but still she sent Laxmana for Lord Rama's help. And, Ravana succeeded in his motive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These instances shows that when one's destruction or bad time is soon to arrive, one thinks unintelligently or negatively.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12304" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-12-05T18:19:50.987" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21872" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16259" CreationDate="2017-10-28T22:30:49.313" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am bewildered why this question has been downvoted. So i took the liberty of upvoting. It's an important consideration that could easily be lost in translation. Now i need to say straight up that i am not Hindu, nor Indian, nor do i speak Sanskrit. Although I wish I was all of these things. I would like to say that, I've been studying ancient texts - especially in relation to polytheistic religions for 15 years as a hobby. I think the part of the Vedas that you are referring to, ultimately is epitomized by the saying:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He who worships ignorance, enters blind darkness. He who worships&#xA;  knowledge, enters blind darkness, as it were yet deeper. It is&#xA;  different they say for knowledge; it is different they say for&#xA;  ignorance. Or so we have heard from the wise before us. For by&#xA;  ignorance one crosses mortality, and by knowledge one crosses&#xA;  immortality&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is taken i believe from the Upanisads. I believe you're reading from: VÂGASANEYI-SAMHITÂ-UPANISHAD. A long translation of which, can be found here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01243.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;VÂGASANEYI-SAMHITÂ-UPANISHAD&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However translations like this can end up too verbose for their own good. Something more succinct I actually found more meaningful; like the penguin translation of this chapter summarised by the quote above. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I recommend the penguin translation for the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanisads and the Rig Veda. If you are missioning it through the vedas (as i did - good on you!) I recommend Ralph Griffith - not because he's a good translator, more because he dedicated his entire life to try and translate the vedas, and that must count for something - and there are few alternatives. Ralph's translation of the Sama Veda is actually very good - especially initially. The translation starts like the beginning of Shakespeare's Macbeth; which is particularly befitting of white / light-grey witchcraft of this calibre.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In relation to your references of symbolism. I'd say that Hindus, prefer to represent the philosophical concepts of Jains through symbolic representation. This may manifest itself as idols, however the idiology is only a method of abstraction to assist in remembering the hundreds of thousands of pages of text in the Vedas. This is much like almost all other religions have done, and in my view does not constitute idol worship - since it is just a psychological mechanism of helping to remember one of myriad concepts that are presented in the Vedas and the Upanisads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As an aside, my interpretation of Hinduism, is that it's a colourful devolution of Jainism. I mean no offense by this, on the contrary; i prefer Hindu methods of expression, since I believe I can remember them more clearly under Hinduism than Jainism. Now, I would say at this point that I believe Hinduism, like Jainism is a Pantheist religion; not Panantheist. That is to say that God and reality are synonymous. Or, to quote a Jain tenant:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The absolute is impersonal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In relation to your quotation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;śailī dāru-mayī lauhī lepyā lekhyā ca saikatī mano-mayī maṇi-mayī pratimāṣṭa-vidhā smṛtā [SB - 11.27.12]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I believe this means that God (the one God, as mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita as being the &quot;Poet&quot; / &quot;Creator&quot;) has various manifestations in nature. The way I think about this is in relation to the God &quot;Shiva&quot;. If you see a picture of Shiva, Shiva has many arms each holding a celestrial weapon, each weapon represents a force of nature that can destroy. In my view - not just in Hinduism, but also in religions like egyptology different Gods represent different aspects or forces of nature, in the same way that Shiva has many arms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also I'd like to take the opportunity at this point to express my interpretation of &quot;creator&quot; in the context of religions, such as Hinduism. Thanks to religions such as Christianity, we have come to accept creation as a Biblical Genesis creation of heaven and earth. Yet, when you compare this to the creation versus of the Rig Vedas, you seen interesting comparisons, and a new perspective on Genesis. See it could be that in Genesis when it says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Genesis 1New International Version (NIV) The Beginning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the&#xA;  earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the&#xA;  deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw&#xA;  that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.&#xA;  5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And&#xA;  there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate&#xA;  water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water&#xA;  under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called&#xA;  the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the&#xA;  second day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place,&#xA;  and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry&#xA;  ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw&#xA;  that it was good.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing&#xA;  plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it,&#xA;  according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced&#xA;  vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees&#xA;  bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw&#xA;  that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the&#xA;  third day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You see, my interpretation of this would be from a Solipsistic perspective. In my view this wasn't the creation of Heaven and Earth, this was the creation of consciousness of an individual. The waters were the womb, the light was the birth of a baby, the creation of various things were the eyesight of the baby extending in focal length. If you compare this interpretation to the creation versus of the Rig Veda it talks of the pillars of the Mind that support the sky and the universe, in so much as consciousness is necessary to appreciate the concept of existance, and without this concept, existance really has no meaning. Or:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Cognito ergo sum&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quite literally:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;I think, therefore [consequently] I am.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My interpretation of Descartes meaning is not so much a logical conclusion; instead i see the meaning that his [meaningful] existence is a consequence of of his thoughts. That his consciousness, in a sense brought his existence into being. And that without interpretation existence is void of meaning or presence. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indeed Arthur Schopenhauer would take it one step further and tie meaning into something more, such as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Life without pain has no meaning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However in the case of Hinduism, I think that the Poet is not the creator anything specific, but the creator of each and every moment in the now. Quite literally &quot;it&quot; is the creation of time in perpetuity. The movement of one instance of time to the next. This is crucial, there cannot be existence without time; in fact the explanation of all things, is time. This is why i believe in the Bhagavad Gita, in chapter 7 it refers to precisely one God, and all other Gods being a conduit to that one God. The poet, i believe is quite literally the God of Time and all metaphysical constructs are a derivation from this one concept. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Anyway, I am digressing...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Re the contradiction. It is my belief that the Bhagavad Gita states that God is the superlative in all aspects of existence, and exists as idealistic construct that humanity aspires to, yet never can obtain. Although a Jain tenant is that:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Through supreme effort one can become Godly.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Therefore I see no contradiction whatsoever between BG and SBP. Since this can never be idolized, and idol worship in my view is the hollow dogmatic doctrine of following a principle-less existence devoid of meaning and content - see Aristotle's philosophy about how the principles of something comes to be define the entity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12420" LastEditorUserId="12420" LastEditDate="2017-10-29T00:10:54.090" LastActivityDate="2017-10-29T00:10:54.090" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21874" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21927" CreationDate="2017-10-29T07:10:34.357" Score="6" ViewCount="2510" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the proper way to dispose the remaining ashes and sand of yagna( called hom in Bengali) of SatyaNarayan puja?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Our family priest told to buried that at the Ishan direction of our land.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9914" LastActivityDate="2017-11-02T13:41:15.287" Title="Proper way to dispose ashes of yagna" Tags="|yajna|satyanarayana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21875" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-29T08:45:37.193" Score="2" ViewCount="8981" Body="&lt;p&gt;I am clarifying my previous question again since without reading the details someone send it to duplicate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastActivityDate="2018-01-22T17:19:15.780" Title="what is the thithi, nakshatra, lunar month details of Adi Shankara's birth as documented by any mutt?" Tags="|history|adi-shankaracharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21876" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21634" CreationDate="2017-10-29T09:45:07.780" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It seems the myth of ' Trishira' and 'Vishvarupa' as born from the mind of 'Tvasta' has originated from RigVedic hymn RV.10.8 (8-9). On the other hand RV.1.32 (2) informs us that 'Tvasta' made 'Vajra' (thunder bolt) himself for Indra to kill Vritra, which is repeated in several other hymns of RigVeda as well. Thus the story of Purana is logically invalid : if Tvasta created Vritra to kill Indra then how he can make Vajra for Indra to kill Vritra. This kind of logical fallacy is often found in the imaginary stories. The hymns RV.10.8 (8-9) are misinterpreted and the words  from where the names Trishira (trishirsan)and Vishvarupa (vishvarupaysa) are drawn in story of Puranas  may denote something else if interpreted differently.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="12348" LastEditDate="2017-10-29T10:04:24.260" LastActivityDate="2017-10-29T10:04:24.260" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21877" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21874" CreationDate="2017-10-29T09:49:53.127" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;there are 2 ways to dispose ash .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dispose it in river .&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Buried in the land .&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In second option you can bury ashes anywhere but mostly it is buried between Gate and entrance door of house.&#xA;My suggestion is collect the ashes in red cloth with one lemon bury it in front of your gate so that it helps to stop negative vibes to enter into home.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12402" LastEditorUserId="12402" LastEditDate="2017-10-29T17:07:44.093" LastActivityDate="2017-10-29T17:07:44.093" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21878" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21892" CreationDate="2017-10-29T13:36:07.550" Score="10" ViewCount="22076" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does the day start at sunrise or 12:00?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For fasting and other reasons when we need to do certain tasks for 1 day. When does the day start?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12424" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-30T11:07:11.167" LastActivityDate="2017-10-31T09:17:05.470" Title="According to Hinduism, when does a day start?" Tags="|fasting|panchang|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-11-08T14:19:52.237" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21879" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21880" CreationDate="2017-10-29T13:46:03.190" Score="9" ViewCount="198" Body="&lt;p&gt;Anusasana parva of Mahabharata contains the very famous Shiva Sahasranama Stotram discovered by sage Tandi.In 36th sloka I found a name &quot;Hayagardabhi&quot;[49 th name,I think] which literally means ' one whose vehicles are both horse and ass',but i think this is not the true sense and also irrelevant.If someone knows the actual meaning please help. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12385" LastActivityDate="2017-10-29T14:35:58.120" Title="What is the meaning of the word 'Hayagarddabhi',used as a name of lord Shiva?" Tags="|shiva|name|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21880" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21879" CreationDate="2017-10-29T14:28:41.433" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=kCSKV1etgkAC&amp;amp;pg=PA11&amp;amp;lpg=PA11&amp;amp;dq=hayagardabbhi&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=RkfZgJXn48&amp;amp;sig=Uoc6Rgidv-eu_bTGPLSmODYtAjk&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiU8eGQhZbXAhWGqY8KHW4ZAcQQ6AEIJzAB#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this is what my search went for, it seems right interpretation &lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Uwtiv.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Uwtiv.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The meaning found in book name &amp;quot;The Thousands Names of Shiva&amp;quot; by Vijaya Kumar can be found on google books&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12421" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-10-29T14:35:58.120" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21881" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21897" CreationDate="2017-10-29T14:52:22.467" Score="12" ViewCount="6770" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have heard many times that if there is any funeral then probably we burn the deceased person. But in case of death of a Sannyasi we do not burn his body rather bury in the ground. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is even true for baby. If there is death of baby then we either bury it of leave it in any river.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Could somebody tell me exactly why we do this.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-10-29T15:02:44.307" LastActivityDate="2023-08-16T08:36:52.380" Title="Why do we bury dead body of a Sannyasi rather than burn it?" Tags="|rituals|death|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21882" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20976" CreationDate="2017-10-29T16:00:41.363" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a problem of translation. You are right in saying that Varuna and  Mitra belongs to Adtiya gan as described in various hymns. Rudra gan is a different group, only  Maruts are designated as Rudra. In this particular Sukta (verse) RV&#xA;5.70 only two hymns (2) and (3) mention Rudra that too in conjunction with Mitra-Varuna. In the hymn (2) -&quot;vayam te Rudra shyam&quot; may mean &quot; your (Mitra-Varun's) relation/connection with Rudra be hilarious. Similarly, the hymn (3) could be translated as - &quot;And protect as good protector  (uta trayae yatha su trata), with advent of our Rudra fighters (Patam no Rudra payu bhir). Move away robbers with their bodies (turyam dasyun tanu bhir).&#xA;I have seen many translations  commit the same mistake as pointed out by you. We have to be carefull. Any way, many words of RigVeda are obscure to us .&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastActivityDate="2017-10-29T16:00:41.363" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21883" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20976" CreationDate="2017-10-29T16:48:28.697" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The aspect of Rudra  is terror, so in this hymn the poet wanted Mitra and Varun to fill the heart of his enemies with terror and lay his vengeance upon his enemies like the Rudra would do.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;V. 70&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Since now there is help from you two, even in (its full) quantity and breadth, I have won the favor of you two, o Varuṇa and Mitra.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;We would attain you two together, o you without deception, and your refreshment for our nurture. We would be such ones, o you two&#xA;  Rudras.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Protect us, Rudras, by your protections, and rescue us, since you are good rescuers. We in our own persons would overcome the Dasyus.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;O you of undeceived will, may we in our own persons not endure (becoming) the specter of a nobody, neither in our remains nor in our&#xA;  lineage.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastActivityDate="2017-10-29T16:48:28.697" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21884" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="253" CreationDate="2017-10-29T17:04:09.433" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva gives very good arguments regarding this in chapter 10 of Shiva rahasya. Some of the arguments are - I am representing here. Note that - Here Image can have two meanings - one idol or image form another Rudra form of Lord &lt;strong&gt;Shiva BhattAraka&lt;/strong&gt; (who is ultimate reality according to Shaivism). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;243&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Now, concerning the worship of My Image, it will be said by some, Lord Shiva lives in the heart of all beings; of what avail is the worship of an Image to those who know thus? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Well, My Form is both Subtle and Gross and so shall be My Image. The Flash of Lightning is at once a mighty fire and also one that is distant. Those who are far off cannot reach it and those who are too near cannot touch it. Even so it is with My Divine Splendour. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;When wishing to make fire one takes not a flash of lightning or a whole blazing forest but the burning power is taken from the source to some combustible material by means of a firebrand. Just so My Divine Splendour cannot be brought down among the dwellers upon Earth, only an Image thereof. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If someone says, Bring me some fire, no one will seek to bring the whole fire, but only a burning twig. Likewise, the illumining power of My Divine Light is transmitted by means of artistic skill and imagination to a material likeness wherefrom it shall inspire and enlighten the devotees' mind according to every one's capacity and receptivity. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-10-29T17:04:09.433" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21886" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21878" CreationDate="2017-10-29T23:07:26.197" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is generally  considered by Hindus now-a-days that the day begins with the sun rise. But in Vedic period the day began with dawn (Usha kal) exactly when redness appear in the sky indicating the rise of Sun. This is the period which was called then as Pratah Savan for worship. RigVeda describes three Savans of a day but I could find only two of them so far -&#xA;    (1) Pratah Savan (2) Madhyan Din Savan. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(1) Pratah Savan - it seems that the Pratah Savan was devoted exclusively  to our ancient Mother Godess Aditi in earlier age as mentioned in RV. 5.69 (3) - &quot; Pratah Devim Aditi johavimi Madhyan Din udita Suryasya&quot; meaning - &quot; we recall/ remember godess  Aditi in the early morning and the rising Sun in the mid day ritual&quot;. (here ' the rising Sun may be indicative of Indra). But in another hymn RV.7.41 (1) of the verse addressed  to Godess Usha mentions many gods for Pratah Savan - &quot;Pratah Agnim Pratah Indram havamahe ....Pratah Somam ut Rudram huvem&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In order to affirm when this Pratah Savan begins, a reference to a verse addressed  to Usha RV.7.77 (1) would suffice, where Godess Usha &quot; shouting/making hassle like young girl awakes every lives of the inhabited world and directs to their respective work&quot; ( Usho ruruche yuvatih na yosha visham jeevam prasuvanti charaye&quot;. This time corresponds with the Brahma Muhurt  that later scriptures design.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="12348" LastEditDate="2017-10-31T09:17:05.470" LastActivityDate="2017-10-31T09:17:05.470" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21887" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21878" CreationDate="2017-10-30T01:41:58.703" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Day starts from sunrise. One day and night together makes an ahorAtra. For vrata and other auspicious occasion we have to consider sunrise as the.start of the day.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is advised to get up about two muhurta before the sunrise in order to finish day to day chorus and get ready for rituals like sandhyA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One muhurta as per Astrology is about 48 minutes. Let us see a passage from wikipedia to understand it better.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahma Muhūrta, approximately one and a half hours before sunrise or&#xA;  more precisely is 1Hr 36 Mins. i.e. 96 Minutes = 2 Muhūrta or 4&#xA;  Ghaṭīkā, is recommended in all practices of yoga is traditionally&#xA;  considered most apt for meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;However, it is clear from the associations of the names with specific&#xA;  constellations that the present Brahma-Muhūrta starts just before&#xA;  6:00AM during the Vernal Equinox. At present, Jīva-Amṛta and Viṣṇu&#xA;  comprise the two twilight muhūrtas prior to sunrise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sunrise and sunset times can be found in local panchAngam and newspapers&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-10-30T02:08:49.300" LastActivityDate="2017-10-30T02:08:49.300" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21888" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21878" CreationDate="2017-10-30T04:51:06.780" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;This sloka is from Pancha Siddhantika. Chapter 15. &quot;Secrets of Astronomy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Day-reckoning&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;19. Simhaacharya has declared that reckoning day-total commences at sunrise&#xA;in Lanka. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindu Siddhantas suppose Lanka to be on the equator, at the junction of the Ujjain meridian. Simhaacharya's view is that of many later siddhantas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastActivityDate="2017-10-30T04:51:06.780" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21889" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-30T05:12:09.397" Score="9" ViewCount="758" Body="&lt;p&gt;Some says after end of kalpa everything vanishes and Brahma goes to sleep for one kalpa. During his sleep, there is no existence of life left. And after one kalpa, Brahma wakes up and creates everything from beginning. So life started again by Brahma after his sleep. I also believes the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know that Dhruv got boon from Lord Vishnu that he will be safe from mahaa pralaya at the end of kalpa but what about others? There are few examples I know who reached to the next kalpa well and fine. Here are few examples..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tarakasura: He was present at time of Sati. And when on next kalpa&#xA;Pravati was born, he was present that time also. He died when&#xA;Parvati's son Kartikeya killed him. So he live for more than one&#xA;kalpa.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Ganga: She was also present since Sati's time and till now she is&#xA;well and fine. She was one more survivor.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Prajapati (Sati's father): He was also one more person who also&#xA;reached to the next kalpa with his wife.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Narada: Who was present in every story, no matter the story is of&#xA;which kalpa.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And there are many more examples can be found. Apart from those examples which are mentioned in any Purana, there must be many more which are unheard/unwritten.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Point to notice in above examples&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In above examples, it is not like that those were created again by Brahma after his sleep. For examples: Ganga, Prajapati, Tarakasura etc are those who knew about previous kalpa's incidents because they were present that time. So they all reached to next kalpa without loosing their memories. Same as we reach in next year and remembers all about what we did, think and experienced in past year. So they were not created again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here is my question&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If Brahma goes to sleep after one kalpa then how they all (above mentioned examples) lived without Brahma for one kalpa. Or may be all creation also goes in deep sleep with Brahma. Just like Brahma pressed pause button to stop a movie And when Brahma wakes up then he just resume movie instead of starting from begining. Because Sati's story (with all characters ex. Tadkasura, Prajapati, Ganga etc.) continued in next Kalpa. It's not like that Sati again commit suicide but instead Parvati born in next Kalpa and Tadkasura changed his target from Sati to Parvati in next kalpa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what's the real truth about kalpantara? Also on what reasons a person can survive to the next kalpa with all his/her experience of previous kalpa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-07T06:48:59.203" LastActivityDate="2022-04-04T22:06:05.853" Title="Is reaching to next kalpa is common for some persons?" Tags="|brahma|time|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21890" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21889" CreationDate="2017-10-30T07:40:49.667" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Krishna says in Gita 9.7-8 (Swami Nikhilananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;At the end of a cycle all beings, O son of Kunti, enter into My Prakriti, and at the beginning of a cycle I generate them again.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Controlling My own Prakriti, I send forth, again and again, all this multitude of beings, helpless under the sway of maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In one of the Puranas, Vishnu in his Boar Incarnation says to the goddess &quot;Every time I carry you this way...&quot; When a cycle repeats, all the material beings of that previous cycle go through their same actions, all the events reoccur. The jivas in those new beings are, however, different jivas from the previous cycle.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-10-30T07:40:49.667" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21892" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21878" CreationDate="2017-10-30T10:40:02.953" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;In KrishnaBhaagwatam, Book 4, Chapter 31&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;यथैव सूर्यात्प्रभवन्ति वारः&#xA;      पुनश्च तस्मिन् प्रविशन्ति काले ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भूतानि भूमौ स्थिरजङ्‌गमानि&#xA;      तथा हरावेव गुणप्रवाहः ॥ १५ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Just like days start from Sun's appearance, and again after some time end within Sun.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  The same way all the existence, moving or not moving, on living dimension, are like flow of the Gunas(Sattva, Rajas, Tamas) in Hari.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is a statement in Bhagawatam that says day start with Sun and end with Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-10-30T10:40:02.953" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21893" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-30T14:19:55.620" Score="2" ViewCount="119" Body="&lt;p&gt;The RigVedic hymn RV.7.33 (11)  seems to state that Vishvedevah had given Puskar to the sage Vashist. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;1. Is it the same  present day Puskar located in Rajasthan?&lt;br&gt; &#xA;2. Is there any memory associated with the sage Vashist exist at preset day Puskar? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;3. Do any other scripture mention about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-10-31T07:08:28.337" LastActivityDate="2017-10-31T13:54:45.820" Title="Relation of Sage Vashist with Puskar of Rajastan" Tags="|scripture|vedas|puranas|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21894" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21893" CreationDate="2017-10-30T20:24:55.813" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;उतासि मैत्रावरुणो वसिष्ठोर्वश्या बरह्मन मनसो.अधि जातः | दरप्सं सकन्नं&#xA;  बरह्मणा दैव्येन विश्वे देवाः पुष्करे तवाददन्त || &lt;br&gt;स परकेत उभयस्य&#xA;  परविद्वान सहस्रदान उत वा सदानः | यमेन ततं परिधिं वयिष्यन्नप्सरसः परि&#xA;  जज्ञे वसिष्ठः || &lt;br&gt;सत्रे ह जाताविषिता नमोभिः कुम्भे रेतः सिषिचतुः समानम&#xA;  | ततो ह मान उदियाय मध्यात ततो जातं रषिमाहुर्वसिष्ठम ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  - &lt;strong&gt;ऋग्वेद 7/33/11-13&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation in Hindi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अर्थात &quot;हे वसिष्ठ, तुम मित्र और वरुण के पुत्र हो। हे ब्रह्मण, तुम&#xA;  उर्वशी के मन से उत्पन्न हो। उस समय मित्र और वरुण का वीर्य स्खलन हुआ&#xA;  था। विश्वादेवगन ने दैव्य स्तोत्र द्वारा पुष्कर के बीच तुम्हें धारण&#xA;  किया था। यज्ञ में दीक्षित मित्र और वरुण ने स्तुति द्वारा प्रार्थित हो&#xA;  कर कुंभ के बीच एकसाथ ही रेत (वीर्य) स्खलन किया था। अनंतर मान&#xA;  (अगस्त्य)उत्पन्न हुए। लोग कहते हंस कि ऋषि वसिष्ठ उसी कुंभ से जन्मे&#xA;  थे.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation in English&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11 Born of their love for Urvasi, Vasiṣṭha thou, priest, art son of&#xA;  Varuṇa and Mitra; And as a fallen drop, in heavenly fervour, all the&#xA;  Gods laid thee on a lotus-blossorn. 12 He thinker, knower both of&#xA;  earth and heaven, endowed with many a gift, bestowing thousands,&#xA;  Destined to wear the vesture spun by Yama, sprang from the Apsaras to&#xA;  life, Vasiṣṭha. 13 Born at the sacrifice, urged by adorations, both&#xA;  with a common flow bedewed the pitcher. Then from the midst thereof&#xA;  there rose up Māna, and thence they say was born the sage Vasiṣṭha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you analyze the three translations you will conclude that in English translation there is no mention of word '&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pushkar&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;' whereas in Hindi &amp;amp; Sanskrit it is there though in Hindi it says that 'Vishwadevgana possessed you with help of godly stotra, in between/middle of Pushkar'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So your assumption &lt;em&gt;&quot;seems to state that Vishvedevah had given Puskar to the sage Vashist&quot;&lt;/em&gt; doesn't seem to be appropriate here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07033.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.ca/books?id=9704DwAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT145&amp;amp;lpg=PT145&amp;amp;dq=%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AE+%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0+%E0%A4%94%E0%A4%B0+%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A3+%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%87+%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0+%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8B&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=0_G33QALzD&amp;amp;sig=2jUbqjXh-Q2aXk5OHfjsSckvrzs&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjKsN-mgZvXAhWJz4MKHTkkAS4Q6AEIODAG#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AE%20%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%20%E0%A4%94%E0%A4%B0%20%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A3%20%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%87%20%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%20%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8B&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-31T13:54:45.820" LastActivityDate="2017-10-31T13:54:45.820" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21897" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21881" CreationDate="2017-10-31T14:17:18.897" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who is a Sannyasi  and how do the scriptures describe an ideal Sannyasi&lt;/strong&gt; can be read &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/11173/how-do-the-scriptures-describe-an-ideal-sanyasi/14787#14787&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why do we cremate?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hindus traditionally cremate their dead because a fiery dissolution of the body brings swifter, more complete release of the soul than burial, which preserves the soul's psychic connection to its just-ended earthly life. After death, the departed soul hovers close to the earth plane in its astral body, emotionally attached to the physical body and its old surroundings, still able to see this material world. The funeral rites and burning of the body signify spiritual release, notifying the soul that, in fact, death has come. Some of the funeral chants address the deceased, urging the soul to relinquish attachments and continue its spiritual journey. The Gods and devas are invoked to assist the soul in its transition. The fire severs ties to earthly life and gives momentum to the soul, granting at least momentary access to refined, heavenly realms. All attention is on a singular goal, as expressed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=5215&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; prayer from the Rig Veda: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Release him again, O Agni, to the fathers. The one offered to you now&#xA;  proceeds to his destiny. Putting on new life, let him approach the&#xA;  surviving, let him reunite with a [new] body, All-Knowing One!&quot; (10.&#xA;  16. 5).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So a person is cremated for his soul to achieve after death what a sannyasi has already achieved before death.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The sannyasin has no sacrament involving the sacred fire: he has the&#xA;  fire of knowledge (jnanagni)in him. His body is not cremated - that is&#xA;  there is no Agni-samskara for it- but interred as a matter of respect.&#xA;  Strictly speaking, it must be cut into four parts and consigned to the&#xA;  four quarters of a forest. There it will be food for birds and beasts.&#xA;  In an inhabited place the severed parts of the body would cause&#xA;  inconvenience to people. That is why they were thrown into the forest.&#xA;  There it would be food for its denizens; if buried it would be manure&#xA;  for the plants. Now over the site of the interment of a sannyasin's&#xA;  body a Brindavana is grown [or built] : this again is done out of&#xA;  respect. At such sites all that is to be done is to plant a bilva or&#xA;  asvattha tree.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part16/chap7.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Refer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the Yogi separates himself from the physical body at the time of&#xA;  death, Brahmarandhra bursts open and Prana comes out through this&#xA;  opening (Kapala Moksha). “A hundred and one are the nerves of the&#xA;  heart. Of them one (Sushumna) has gone out piercing the head; going up&#xA;  through it, one attains immortality” (Kathopanishad).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;To attain this or symbolically yogis and sanyasins after death are placed in yoga posture. Sometimes kapala moksha is made by throwing a coconut on the head. &lt;strong&gt;Then the mortal body is buried&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yoga-age.com/modern/kun4.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahmarandhra&lt;/a&gt;: When the Yogi separates himself from the physical&#xA;  body at the time of death, this Brahmarandhra bursts open and Prana&#xA;  comes out through this opening (Kapala Moksha). “A hundred and one are&#xA;  the nerves of the heart. Of them one (Sushumna) has gone out piercing&#xA;  the head; going up through it, one attains immortality”&#xA;  (Kathopanishad).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why bury children?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/random/chidrendeath.asp&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Cremation&lt;/a&gt; is the norm in Hinduism to dispose of the dead body. However, this norm does not apply to children. The bodies of young children who die within a year from the date of their birth are usually buried rather than cremated. In some instances they are consigned to rivers. In other words their bodies are offered to water or the earth, rather than fire. It is because the subtle bodies of children remain underdeveloped and hence unfit for fire sacrifice.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The final rites of a burial, in case of untimely death of a child, is rooted in Rig Veda's section &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;10.18&lt;/a&gt;, where the hymns mourn the death of the child, praying to deity Mrityu to &quot;neither harm our girls nor our boys&quot;, and pleads the earth to cover, protect the deceased child as a soft wool.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Betake thee to the Iap of Earth the Mother, of Earth far-spreading,&#xA;  very kind and gracious. Young Dame, wool-soft unto the guerdongiver,&#xA;  may she preserve thee from Destruction's bosom.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-10-31T14:30:18.007" LastActivityDate="2017-10-31T14:30:18.007" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21898" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-10-31T14:21:10.280" Score="4" ViewCount="107" Body="&lt;p&gt;'Brahmans' are the one of the earliest category of Hindu scriptures. 'Satpatha Brahman' is the most famous among them. 'Panchvinsh Brahman' belongs this category. 'Vedic Index&quot; vol.I&amp;amp;II.by Macdonell often quotes from this book. Some of the references  quoted from this book by Mcdonell are quite perturbing to me particularly about a king who murdered his priest because he insisted to worship Indra.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I want to verify this from the original text of 'Panchvinsh Brahman'. May anyone help me by suggesting it's availability online or a book form that can be purchased online or even the publisher where this book may be available.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" OwnerDisplayName="B.N. Bhaskar" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-10-31T14:43:23.677" LastActivityDate="2017-10-31T16:14:05.950" Title="Availability of 'Panchvinsh Brahman' online" Tags="|scripture|resource|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21899" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21898" CreationDate="2017-10-31T15:01:48.383" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is the book &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Pancavimsa Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; by Caland. W.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/pancavimsabrahma032052mbp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Vyiwz.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can also &lt;strong&gt;read&lt;/strong&gt; the book online through the reader provide by the site.&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;You can &lt;strong&gt;purchase&lt;/strong&gt; this book on &lt;a href=&quot;https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/B001FB1L10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;amazon.com&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt; or from Exotic India:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/pancavimsa-brahmana-brahmana-of-twenty-five-chapters-old-and-rare-book-NAH299/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/XlcTd.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-10-31T16:14:05.950" LastActivityDate="2017-10-31T16:14:05.950" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21902" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7453" CreationDate="2017-10-31T16:11:33.327" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;A Luni-solar year is 354 days consisting of 360 thitis. Depending on the location of sun and moon with respect to the nakshatras we will end up with a situation like a adhik maas. Adhik maas is basically two full moons in the same group of nakshatras which constitute a month. Chaitraa maasa is when full moon happens in either Chitra or Swati nakshtra. If two consecutive full moons happen in Chitra and then Swati  nakshatra both the months will be called Chaitra. The next month after Chaitra will be Vaishaaka Maas. We can also land up with a situation of a full moon missing both the nakshatras in a group. Then this is a kshaya or non existent maas.  Practically the calculation of moon's motion is the most complex among all grahas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastActivityDate="2017-10-31T16:11:33.327" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21903" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9547" CreationDate="2017-10-31T17:27:02.360" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The names tribes participated in the battle of ten kings are mentioned in &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;RV.7.18 (1-25) - Bhrigu,Druhyu (in hymn 6),&#xA;  pakthas,Bhalanas,Alinas,Visanin,Shivas (7)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shruta,kavasa (12)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bheda (19)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The tribes mentioned in the hymn(7) seems to belong from Nort-Western part of India (then). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-11-01T07:00:10.927" LastActivityDate="2017-11-01T07:00:10.927" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21904" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21956" CreationDate="2017-10-31T17:51:47.473" Score="8" ViewCount="3353" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is Ratri Suktam from Rig Veda &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;CXXVII&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;1.WITH all her eyes the Goddess Night looks forth approaching many a spot:&#xA;  She hath put all her glories on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;2 Immortal. she hath filled the waste, the Goddess hath filled height and depth:&#xA;  She conquers darkness(Tamas) with her light.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;3 The Goddess as she comes hath set the Dawn her Sister in her place:&#xA;  And then the darkness vanishes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4 So favour us this night, O thou whose pathways we have visited&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As birds their nest upon the tree.&#xA;  5 The villagers have sought their homes, and all that walks and all that flies,&#xA;  Even the falcons fain for prey.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 Keep off the she-wolf and the wolf, O Urmya, keep the thief away;&#xA;  Easy be thou for us to pass.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 Clearly hath she come nigh to me who decks the dark with richest hues:&#xA;  O Morning, cancel it like debts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8 These have I brought to thee like kine. O Night, thou Child of Heaven, accept&#xA;  This laud as for a conqueror.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now this is a hymn dedicated to Goddess of night Ratri devi. In this hymn She is called   the conqueror/destroyer of darkness/Tamas and She shares similar function of devi Kaali of the Agamas. So, is there a difference between two goddess or Is Ratri devi a form of Kaali maa?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-11-01T11:07:24.733" LastActivityDate="2017-11-05T05:41:27.777" Title="Who is Ratri devi? Is she same or different from Devi Kaali?" Tags="|vedas|agamas|devi|kali|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21907" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15492" CreationDate="2017-11-01T00:44:48.643" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Five primary elements appeared at the beginning of the creation, before the universe took shape. They evolved one out of the other, beginning with ether/space.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Their purpose is to carry information about a particular kind of “pleasure” so that ether enables sound and hearing, air enables movement and touch, fire enables shape and sight, water taste, and earth smell. Each element comes with corresponding “tan-matra” - the essence of sound, form etc, and a corresponding sense of perception. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hearing sound, for example indicates presence of another object and distance. Moving towards the sound is a function provided by the next element in the hierarchy - air. Seeing the object is a function of fire and so on progressively. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All our experiences, therefore, are described in terms of sense perceptions and elements that provide them. They are “real” - as anyone can attest, while things like mass and charge are imaginary imperceptible inventions put in place of actual knowledge. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mapping these five elements to our bodies is not straightforward, however - because what we perceive as our gross bodies are sensory objects already, not instruments of perception. We can see our skin, touch our ears, smell our breath etc. We can’t see our sense of hearing or a sense of sight. “Legs”, as a sense of action, karmendriya, provide movement but we can just roll in the bed, too, or pull ourselves by our arms. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In another description an atom occupies space, electrons circling around indicate presence of air. Nucleus contains energy - fire. The force that keeps it together indicates presence of water, and it’s made of subatomic particles - earth. This isn’t totally kosher but illustrates how Sankhya gives us a very different approach to understanding the world. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12435" LastActivityDate="2017-11-01T00:44:48.643" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21908" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-01T02:55:12.407" Score="9" ViewCount="548" Body="&lt;p&gt;Any reference in the Hindu scriptures (Vedas, Agamas, shastras, etc.) on why temples should remain closed during an eclipse (grahana)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12436" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2019-07-19T21:05:57.130" LastActivityDate="2019-07-19T21:05:57.130" Title="Why should temples be closed during an eclipse?" Tags="|temple|agamas|dharma-shastras|eclipse|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21909" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-01T05:07:10.247" Score="4" ViewCount="83" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per the previous birth karma's, Brahma decides what will be duration of our life or how long we will live. My question is,Brahma uses which unit to decide our life time. For example: At current time our unit is year, hours, minutes etc. If we decide to do any work with in &#xA;time limit then we decides something like this.. I will do this word in 1day/1hour/5 min. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Brahma sure(as per me) don't use to follow humans year and hours unit to decide our life's duration. So which unit he uses to decides our life duration? Some says breath is the unit. How many breath we will take in our life is use to determine by Brahma. But my doubt here is that If we hold our breath, for ex. some yogas and tapas are there in which we need to hold our breath. So by doing&#xA;this our life time will get increase since we are taking long to complete our no. of predetermined breaths. And if someone breath fast (some people usually does) or takes short breaths then he/she actually shorting his/her life?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-11-01T05:18:02.310" LastActivityDate="2017-11-01T05:18:02.310" Title="What is measurement unit of life's duration used by Brahma?" Tags="|brahma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21910" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21904" CreationDate="2017-11-01T05:18:26.180" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv10127.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Rig Veda Book 10 -  Hymn 127&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;रात्री वयख्यदायती पुरुत्रा देव्यक्षभिः | &lt;br&gt; विश्वाधि शरियो.अधित&#xA;  || &lt;br&gt; ओर्वप्रा अमर्त्या निवतो देव्युद्वतः | &lt;br&gt; जयोतिषा बाधतेतमः&#xA;  || &lt;br&gt; निरु सवसारमस्क्र्तोषसं देव्यायती | &lt;br&gt; अपेदु हासतेतमः || &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सा नो अद्य यस्या वयं नि ते यामन्न्नविक्ष्महि | &lt;br&gt; वर्क्षेन वसतिं वयः&#xA;  || &lt;br&gt; नि गरामासो अविक्षत नि पद्वन्तो नि पक्षिणः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निश्येनासश्चिदर्थिनः || &lt;br&gt; यावया वर्क्यं वर्कं यवय सतेनमूर्म्ये&#xA;  | &lt;br&gt; अथा नःसुतरा भव || &lt;br&gt; उप मा पेपिशत तमः &lt;strong&gt;कर्ष्णं&lt;/strong&gt; वयक्तमस्थित&#xA;  | &lt;br&gt; उष रणेवयातय || &lt;br&gt; उप ते गा इवाकरं वर्णीष्व दुहितर्दिवः | &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रात्रि सतोमंन जिग्युषे || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;rātrī vyakhyadāyatī purutrā&lt;br&gt; devyakṣabhiḥ | &lt;br&gt; viśvāadhi&#xA;  śriyo.adhita || &lt;br&gt; orvaprā amartyā nivato devyudvataḥ | &lt;br&gt;jyotiṣā&#xA;  bādhatetamaḥ || &lt;br&gt; niru svasāramaskṛtoṣasaṃ devyāyatī |  apedu&#xA;  hāsatetamaḥ || &lt;br&gt; sā no adya yasyā vayaṃ ni te&lt;br&gt; yāmannnavikṣmahi&#xA;  | &lt;br&gt; vṛkṣena vasatiṃ vayaḥ || &lt;br&gt; ni ghrāmāso avikṣata ni padvanto&#xA;  ni pakṣiṇaḥ | &lt;br&gt; niśyenāsaścidarthinaḥ || &lt;br&gt; yāvayā vṛkyaṃ vṛkaṃ&#xA;  yavaya stenamūrmye | &lt;br&gt; athā naḥsutarā bhava || &lt;br&gt; upa mā pepiśat&#xA;  tamaḥ &lt;strong&gt;kṛṣṇaṃ&lt;/strong&gt; vyaktamasthita | &lt;br&gt; uṣa ṛṇevayātaya || &lt;br&gt; upa te ghā&#xA;  ivākaraṃ vṛṇīṣva duhitardivaḥ | &lt;br&gt; rātri stomaṃna jighyuṣe || &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no direct relation between goddess Ratri of Rig-Veda and goddess kali of  Agama and Tantra.&lt;/strong&gt; Let's see this with some points.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here in Rig-Veda Ratri Sukta of Mandala 10-Sukta 127. goddess Ratri is depicted as &lt;strong&gt;sister of goddess usha&lt;/strong&gt; i.e. dawn - daytime. That means she is the goddess of night as usha is related to daytime. They both are personification s of day &amp;amp; night. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We can clearly see the relationship between them as day &amp;amp; night. As it's said tha Ratri devi accepted / up-coming day-time or goddess Usha as her sister.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also note that &lt;strong&gt;we can't see the word Kali in the sukta&lt;/strong&gt; , instead word Krishna (black)  is used. And it's said that  darkness or blackness falls at night time and it vanishishes after the arrival of goddess Usha (dawn , daytime). Instead the characteristic of night i.e. blackness /darkness is only described and this thing is not related to goddess Kali ,as she is completely of  different nature and characteristics  than this Ratri Devi ,darkness falls upon whose  arrival.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;We can find similarities between vedic goddess  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nir%E1%B9%9Bti&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Nirṛti - निऋती&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/a&gt; and Agamic/Tantric goddess Kali.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nirrti is a Ketu ruled nakshatra in vedic astrology, strongly&#xA;  associated with Kali in form Dhumavati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The goddess has a dark black complexion. &lt;strong&gt;Similar to Devi Kali&lt;/strong&gt;.&#xA;  Nirrhiti is also similar to Mahavidyas, Dhumavati. She is also named&#xA;  Alakshmi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion- So mostly there seems to be  no direct connection between goddess Ratri &amp;amp; goddess Kali.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Further reading - &#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=3KyfCUvoAtoC&amp;amp;pg=PP2&amp;amp;lpg=PP2&amp;amp;dq=goddess%20kali%20in%20%20agamas&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=6ScpzyIQCk&amp;amp;sig=JTxdt4swuEho20e5d2KDuK_jYwQ&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjG0MHVypvXAhUBK48KHcqFCCc4ChDoAQgpMAI#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=goddess%20kali%20in%20%20agamas&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Book of Kali&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt; &#xA;Here is Hindi Translation of Mandala 10 - Hymn 127&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UxjLY.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UxjLY.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mWluN.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/mWluN.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5620" LastEditorUserId="5620" LastEditDate="2017-11-01T08:49:44.043" LastActivityDate="2017-11-01T08:49:44.043" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21911" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9367" CreationDate="2017-11-01T06:33:38.810" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ravana was flying the Vimaana way before the Wright brothers invented one. There is nothing new under the Sun. People have not distanced themselves from all the Puranas and Vedas as hinduism.stackexchange.com is a living example of the same. Yes there is corruption in the interpretation of the Vedas as sanskrit is not the preferred language of learning, but with time this will get resolved. Yugas are a state of mind and can change for the better/worse very fast with a push in the right/wrong direction. Science can never match the visionary insights of the MahaRishis and this has been clearly answered by Bhishma to Yudhishtira in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b127.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Anusasana Parva section CXLII (162)&lt;/a&gt; of the Mahabharata as below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Vaisampayana said, 'After Krishna, the son of Devaki, had said these words, Yudhishthira once more asked Bhishma the son of Santanu, saying, 'O thou of great intelligence; O foremost of all persons conversant with duties, which, indeed, of the two, direct perception and the scriptures, is to be regarded as authority for arriving at a conclusion?'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Bhishma said, 'I think, there is no doubt in this. Listen to me, O thou of great wisdom! I shall answer thee. The question thou hast asked is certainly proper. It is easy to cherish doubt. But the solution of that doubt is difficult. Innumerable are the instances, in respect of both direct perception and audition (or the scriptures), in which doubts may arise. Certain persons, who delight in the name of logicians, verily imagining themselves to be possessed of superior wisdom, affirm that direct perception is the only authority. They assert that nothing, however true, is existent which is not directly perceivable; or, at least they doubt the existence of those objects. Indeed, such assertions involve an absurdity and they who make them are of foolish understanding, whatever may be their pride of learning. If, on the other hand, thou doubtest as to how the one (indivisible Brahman) could be the cause, I answer that one would understand it only after a long course of years and with the assistance of Yoga practised without idleness. Indeed, O Bharata, one that lives according to such means as present themselves (without, i.e., one's being wedded to this or that settled mode of life), and one that is devoted (to the solution of the question), would be capable of understanding it. None else, truly, is competent for comprehending it. When one attains to the very end of reasons (or reasoning processes), one then attains to that excellent and all comprehending knowledge--that vast mass of effulgence which illumines all the universe (called Brahma). That knowledge, O king, which is derived from reason (or inferences) can scarcely be said to be knowledge. Such knowledge should be rejected. It should be noted that it is not defined or comprehended by the word. It should, therefore, be rejected!'&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-03T04:13:18.093" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21913" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-01T09:57:28.180" Score="1" ViewCount="42" Body="&lt;p&gt;Would like to know ,what's the meaning of the below mentioned :&#xA;Jyothismatim Dwaasaadayami&#xA;Jytothishkrutam Dwaasaadayami&#xA;Jyotirvidam Dwaasaadayami&#xA;BhaaswaTim Dwaasaadayami&#xA;Jwalanthim Dwaasaadayami&#xA;Malmalaabhavantim Dwaasaadayami&#xA;Deepyamaanam Dwaasaadayami&#xA;Rochamaanam  Dwaasaadayamyajasram Dwaasaadayami&#xA;Bruhajyotisham Dwaasaadayami&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9045" LastEditorUserId="9045" LastEditDate="2017-11-01T10:04:32.037" LastActivityDate="2017-11-01T10:04:32.037" Title="What's the meaning of the mentioned mantras" Tags="|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21914" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21904" CreationDate="2017-11-01T11:02:22.037" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Apart from this verse the term 'Ratri' appears in many other hymns of RigVeda and invariably mean night.In this verse,Rishi praises night in terms of poetic personification where Usha (dawn)is called as sister (swasar) of Ratri and daughter of Day (duhitardivah).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="12348" LastEditDate="2017-11-01T16:10:38.313" LastActivityDate="2017-11-01T16:10:38.313" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21915" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21812" CreationDate="2017-11-01T17:07:05.357" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=137&amp;amp;more=1&amp;amp;c=1&amp;amp;tb=1&amp;amp;pb=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;KAmAkotimanadali page&lt;/a&gt; tries to determine &quot;lalitA sahasranAma - adhikAra nirNaya&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That means trying to determine who all are competent to recite the stotram. That means not all are competent to start with.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhagavan Hayagriva clearly mentions the qualification required for the&#xA;  recitation/practice of Sri Lalita Sahasranama in the pUrva pIThikA of&#xA;  the Sahasranama.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Qualification&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Sahasranama is never to be given to a one who is a crook, who finds pleasure in other’s misery and one who has no faith in&#xA;  Amba/Guru. Such people are not qualified to recite this Sahasranama.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, let’s say the person has overcome all these qualities. Is that sufficient? No! Bhagavan further says - shrImAtR^ibhaktiyuktAya - the&#xA;  person should be devoted to Sri Lalita. One can be a devotee of Sri&#xA;  Shiva, Sri Ganesha, Sri Vishnu or even of other forms like Sri Kali or&#xA;  Sri Durga. But a person whose chief upAsyA is Sri LalitAmbikA, he&#xA;  alone is qualified to recite this Sahasranama.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ok! We have a person who is good, and is also devoted to Sri Lalita. Is that sufficient? Not again!&lt;/strong&gt; Bhagavan says:&#xA;  shrIvidyArAjavedine - &lt;strong&gt;one who has been initiated into Srividya - he&#xA;  alone is qualified to recite this Sahasranama.&lt;/strong&gt; Some assume that&#xA;  Srividya here can be bAla, panchadashi or Shodashi, but there is no&#xA;  room for doubt here. &lt;strong&gt;Srividya here is simply Panchadashi&lt;/strong&gt;. The question&#xA;  of Shodashi does not arise at all as Shodashi includes Panchadashi in&#xA;  itself and hence holds good without a doubt. bAlA upAsakas are&#xA;  eligible to recite bAlA sahasranAma but not lalitA sahasranAma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, you have clarified to me elsewhere, in some comments,  that you are not initiated  and in particular that you do not have a Sri VidyA DikshA. So, it seems that you are not yet competent to recite the stotram. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And that's why instead of all the sincere efforts you are failing to get the benefits which the Phalasruti mentions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, that makes Goddess really concerned for you. Because you are a devotee but you are devoid of the right guidance. And, i think, that's why you got that dream where you got to know, for the first time in your life, about the Panchadashi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you ask me to interpret the dream, then i'll say, Goddess is simply asking you to take a Sri VidyA dikshA. So, that you may become competent to recite the stotram which you love so much.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, generally speaking, in all cases DikshA is the first thing to be done. It is the first step towards spiritual progress. And all the other things come after that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how Lord Shiva condemns the act of remaining uninitiated:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;AdikshitA ye kurvanti japapujAdikAh kriyAha |&lt;br&gt; Na phalanti priye&#xA;  teshAm shilAyAmupta vijavat ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Lord Shiva says to Sri Devi] Whatever a person, who is not initiated,&#xA;  does, whether it is PujA (worship) or Japa (chanting) or any other religious acts, proves abortive just like seeds sown on stones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 14.96&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That article i quoted also lists a warning for those who recite the stotram but who are not yet qualified.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Phalasruti says that a person without the said qualification, who&#xA;  recites the Sahasranama, attracts Yogini Shapa - curse from the&#xA;  Yoginis. The Sahasranama is infinitely powerful and using it without&#xA;  the said preparation blows up one’s energy network&lt;/strong&gt;. As Yoginis are&#xA;  nothing but the various energies in the body, yogini shApa means&#xA;  energy disturbances in the body which manifest as various physical,&#xA;  emotional and intellectual disorders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Although it might not be helpful for your case, still i am quoting the rules for reading the stotram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sri Lalita Sahasranama is both a Stotra and a mAlA mantra. If you&#xA;  choose to recite it as a Stotra, recite it vocally, at an even pace,&#xA;  without shaking one’s head, hands, legs or engaging in other&#xA;  activities during the recitation. If recited as a mAlA mantra, one&#xA;  needs to perform RishyAdi nyAsa, panchapUja, recite the dhyAna Shloka,&#xA;  show the relevant Mudras if directed by the Guru and then begin&#xA;  reciting the Mantra with a chant of Pranava. The recitation of Pranava&#xA;  is based on one’s varNa. This has been discussed at length by Sri&#xA;  Bhaskararaya in Saubhagya Bhaskara. When recited as a mantra, it can&#xA;  be repeated mentally. Though some perform a purashcharana of the&#xA;  Sahasranama, I don’t see any need for the same. As only Srividya&#xA;  Upasakas are permitted to recite the Sahasranama, it comes without&#xA;  saying that they have the mUla mantra which requires purashcharana and&#xA;  not the Sahasranama. There are several Sahasranamas which come with&#xA;  purashcharana instructions. But the fact that Sri Lalita Sahasranama&#xA;  does not come with any such instruction points towards the necessity&#xA;  of Upasana of Srividya mantra along with the Sahasranama for full&#xA;  result.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The three prescribed duties for a Srividya Upasaka are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chakrarajarchana&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Srividya Japa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sahasranama Japa&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But you need not worry because you already got Bhakti for Goddess. So, you will certainly get the GUru and desired results sooner or later.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhakti is already a prescribed qualification to even take up the&#xA;  recitation of the Sahasranama. Amba has not been declared&#xA;  mantravashyA, tantravashyA, yajnavashyA etc. but only as BhaktivashyA.&#xA;  The only sure way to win her infinite and unconditional grace is by&#xA;  Bhakti, which leads one to a state where the truth of Amba as the self&#xA;  is comprehended. As the Sahasranama also states - nAmapArAyaNaprItA,&#xA;  what better way to please Amba than by reciting the thousand names&#xA;  with a sense of overflowing love for the Supreme Mother of the&#xA;  universe? rAga or love for worldly objects leads to bondage. But the&#xA;  same love or anuraga, when turned towards Amba becomes Bhakti and&#xA;  leads to liberation. parAnukraktirIshware bhaktiH. Every name recited&#xA;  should be a call to Amba, lifting our arms - asking her to lift us up&#xA;  in her arms. Every name recited should be a prostration at her feet,&#xA;  surrendering the self to her. Every name recited should be an&#xA;  indication of unbearable grief due to separation from Amba. Every name&#xA;  should be an outcry of unfathomable joy arising out of her proximity&#xA;  that is felt with the recitation of every name!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, i feel the fact that you are not initiated yet and also the fact that you are not initiated into Sri VidyA yet are apparently the reasons for your perceived failures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-11-02T05:29:53.343" LastActivityDate="2017-11-02T05:29:53.343" CommentCount="18" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21916" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-01T21:25:36.323" Score="4" ViewCount="929" Body="&lt;p&gt;There have been many self proclaimed god men and mystics in India. Most claimed to have supernatural powers. I myself am an astrologer who studied Jyotisha. Why couldn’t  astrologers predict the fall of India? Many historical figures even claimed they performed penance before they went to war. But the Indian subcontinent still got invaded and conquered despite all of them god men with supernatural powers. Was it because of the unfavourable planetary forces that was unavoidable or karma, the country as a whole had to pay?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11984" LastEditorDisplayName="user1195" LastEditDate="2017-11-06T16:34:23.767" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T16:34:23.767" Title="Why did India lose to foreign invaders?" Tags="|history|karma|astrology|india|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="17" ClosedDate="2017-11-05T12:35:07.710" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21919" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="2816" CreationDate="2017-11-02T06:34:44.407" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Science itself never and can't contradict with hinduism. Only some partial (adhuri) knowledge scientist try to contradict. When knowledge of one topic is limited to someone (scientist) then they start to believe on behalf of that limited/incomplete knowledge and rejects all other (full) knowledge. Here is how...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The purpose of both science and our scriptures is just to tell truth about world. And truth is only one, it can't be different for differet field (science/hinduism). For example Earth is not alone in space, there are lot more in space is present like graha, nakshatra. Both science and our&#xA;scriptures told about them and they both also told their quantity also. And they both are right. Hence both science and scriptures only use to tell truth. And as already said Truth is one, so both of them has to show exact same views on one topic. For exaple they both shows list of planets and both are correct on their info.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So how there can be any contradict if they both tells the same truth?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If scientist and scriptures are telling something on one topic then they both must tell the same thing/answer towards that topic. And if they are telling different thing/answer about any topic then analysis of one surely gone wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Means, one of them surely misscalculate that's why they came on different conclusion, If both of their analysis were correct then they must have came up with same conclusion or answer, isn't it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So who went wrong in their analysis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;First of all let me clear one point, I said in beginning lines that they both can't and never contradict each other. And later I said, if one of them gone wrong in their calculation/analysis of finding truth about any topic (ex. no. of planets in space) then they seems to contradict with each other.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But that contradiction is only result of miscalculation of one field. That's why contradiction occurs. But that contradiction can't be from science but can be from partial knowledge scientist only. Because some scientists came up with wrong calculation that doesn't mean science gone wrong, but instead some scientists gone wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why I am saying that scientists gone wrong, why not our great Sages (who wrote scriptures) gone wrong?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because they can't gone wrong but only today's scientists can gone wrong. Come up with wrong analysis has become trend among scientists. Here are one example in which we come to know that scientists came up with wrong calculations and ended up contradict with hinduism..&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Earlier, Scientists used to believe that all planets including son use to move around Earth. But our scriptures (Rig Veda) says, &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/9102/are-there-any-references-to-gravity-in-hindu-scriptures#answer-9103&quot;&gt;all planets (Earth also) moves around son&lt;/a&gt;. Here contradict arrised...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This contradiction only arise because one was wrong in his calculation. To remove contradiction, we just need to remove the wrong calculation and then they both will say the same thing. The wrong calculation was done by scientist earlier.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Scientist used to believe everything moves around Earth &lt;strong&gt;until&lt;/strong&gt; great scientist Galileo invented Telescope. When telescope invented by Galileo then all started to analyse space with telescope and they found everything is not moving around Earth but instead Earth itself moves around Son.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So because of Galileo, calculation from science gone right and they both(science and scriptures) came up with same answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But can our scriptures went wrong like scientists went wrong some times?&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;No, it's not possible. For example, our four vedas(which contains every possible information) are created by great sages but the information stored in them are provided by Lord himself. And Lord is the creator of world. So our scriptures can't tell wrong info because it was invented by creator of world himself. I mean who can tell better that whether everything&#xA;moves around Earth or around Son except creator of Son/Earth? No one...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The thing is scientists are also human, and they also can get wrong easily. And gets wrong mostly. For example: Earlier Scientists used to belive that universe is created cause of Big Bang.&#xA;They did present Big Bang theory to tell how universe is created. We all read about Big Bang theory in 10th class/standard. People are reading this since many dacades. But after long time Scientists&#xA;came up with new conclusion that rejected their own created theory. Now, even NASA has rejected Big Bang theory which we all used to read or belive since long.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are lot more examples can be found where scientists gone wrong. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; Scientists don't only contradict with hinduism but they contradict with each other also coz of their partial/wrong knowledge. For example: some scientist says Donosour ends coz of poisons gass, some says coz of deseas, some says coz of volcano explosion starts their destruction and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Getting wrong is habit of inpatient human of today's time, and scientists are no exception of this. So one should not bother if some scientists contradict with Hinduism because doing contradiction is habit of scientists to prove himself right and other wrong. That's why they do contradict with religions and with other scientists also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-11-02T06:42:03.353" LastActivityDate="2017-11-02T06:42:03.353" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21921" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21934" CreationDate="2017-11-02T09:44:46.393" Score="10" ViewCount="18508" Body="&lt;p&gt;What does it mean to see Lord Shiva in a dream? What Hindu scriptures tell about this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12445" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-11-02T16:28:26.347" LastActivityDate="2022-04-12T15:30:05.660" Title="'Dream' of Lord Shiva" Tags="|shiva|gods|dream|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21923" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-02T11:49:31.967" Score="9" ViewCount="472" Body="&lt;p&gt;We know that Goddess Parvati is worshiped in her child or Kumari form and in north India Kanya-pujan is done at the end of Navratri as a symbolic offering to the goddess. To some extent the Brahmacharini form of Nav Durga and Bal Tripura Sundari also show the goddess as an unmarried girl. But do we have any such mention in any scripture of &lt;strong&gt;Goddess Kali as a child or a young girl?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2022-07-05T17:45:24.463" Title="Is Goddess Kali ever represented in the form of a child?" Tags="|goddess|devi|kali|devi-bhagavata-purana|dasha-mahavidya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21924" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9547" CreationDate="2017-11-02T12:42:21.543" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes the names of the ten tribes are mentioned in the Vedic verses that describe this war. According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07018.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Book 7 Verse 18 of the Rigveda&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, following are the tribes that were involved in this battle:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6 Eager for spoil was &lt;strong&gt;Turvaśa&lt;/strong&gt; Purodas, fain to win wealth, like fishes urged by hunger. The &lt;strong&gt;Bhṛgus&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;Druhyus&lt;/strong&gt; quickly listened: friend rescued friend mid the two distant peoples.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;7 Together came the &lt;strong&gt;Pakthas&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;strong&gt;Bhalanas&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;strong&gt;Alinas&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;strong&gt;Sivas&lt;/strong&gt;, the &lt;strong&gt;Visanins&lt;/strong&gt;. Yet to the Trtsus came the Ārya's Comrade, through love of spoil and heroes' war, to lead them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;8 Fools, in their folly fain to waste her waters, they parted inexhaustible Paruṣṇī.&#xA;  Lord of the Earth, he with his might repressed them: still lay the herd and the affrighted herdsman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9 As to their goal they sped to their destruction: they sought Paruṣṇī; e’en the swift returned not.&#xA;  Indra abandoned, to Sudās the manly, the swiftly flying foes, unmanly babblers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10 They went like kine unherded from the pasture, each clinging to a friend as chance directed.&#xA;  They who drive spotted steeds, sent down by Pṛśni, gave ear, the Warriors and the harnessed horses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;11 The King who scattered one-and-twenty people of both Vaikarna tribes through lust of glory-&#xA;  As the skilled priest clips grass within the chamber, so hath the Hero Indra, wrought their downfall.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12 Thou, thunder-armed, o’erwhelmedst in the waters famed ancient &lt;strong&gt;Kavasa&lt;/strong&gt; and then the Druhyu.&#xA;  Others here claiming friendship to their friendship, devoted unto thee, in thee were joyful.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;13 Indra at once with conquering might demolished all their strong places and their seven castles.&#xA;  The goods of Anu's son he gave to Trtsu. May we in sacrifice conquer scorned Pūru.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;14 The &lt;strong&gt;Anavas&lt;/strong&gt; and Druhyus, seeking booty, have slept, the sixty hundred, yea, six thousand,&#xA;  And six-and-sixty heroes. For the pious were all these mighty exploits done by Indra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These ten were aligned against the Trtsus King Sudas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;15 These &lt;strong&gt;Trtsus&lt;/strong&gt; under Indra's careful guidance came speeding like loosed waters rushing downward.&#xA;  The foemen, measuring exceeding closely, abandoned to Sudās all their provisions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are other tribes also mentioned that may be sub-tribes or alternative names of some of the above tribes since they are not mentioned in the attack narrative but towards the end:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;19 Yamuna and the Trtsus aided Indra. There he stripped Bheda bare of all his treasures.&#xA;  The &lt;strong&gt;Ajas&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;Sigrus&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;Yaksus&lt;/strong&gt; brought in to him as tribute heads of horses.&#xA;  20 Not to be scorned, but like Dawns past and recent, O Indra, are thy favours and thy riches.&#xA;  Devaka, Mānyamana's son, thou slewest, and smotest Śambara from the lofty mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some of the names may also belong to individual kings rather than tribes e.g. Bheda, Devaka, Manyamana and it is possible that the latter three also refer to individual kings.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-02-19T05:52:59.177" LastActivityDate="2018-02-19T05:52:59.177" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21925" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22258" CreationDate="2017-11-02T12:45:01.440" Score="7" ViewCount="1001" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Surdarshan Chakra is Lord vishnu's weapon mentioned in many puranas and in Itihasas. But is there any reference of  Surdarshana Chakra in Vedic literature (that is Vedas,Upanishads,Brahmans).the wikipedia says &lt;strong&gt;in the Rigveda the Chakra was Vishnu's symbol as the wheel of time&lt;/strong&gt;, so where exactly is Chakra of Lord Vishnu mentioned?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-03T03:16:49.480" LastActivityDate="2022-11-15T15:08:47.530" Title="Is Surdarshan Chakra mentioned In Vedic literature?" Tags="|vishnu|vedas|upanishads|brahmanas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21926" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21916" CreationDate="2017-11-02T13:16:55.907" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;India lost to foreign invaders because Indian rulers did not update their weapons and military tactics. Indian armies kept relying on elephants which proved unreliable against Alexander in 330 BCE. They learnt nothing from this defeat. They kept using elephants even in 1050 ce (1300 years after Alexander) against Mahmud of Gazny who used fast moving cavalry to devastating effect. Moreover Hindu rulers did not attack Mahmud in his homeland of Afghanistan but were always at the receiving end of his attacks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is not just true of Hindu rulers but also of Muslim rulers. Ibrahim Lody's army lost to Babar because Indian armies have never seen a cannon and didn't know how to handle mass cannon fire. This is not the end of the story. Mughals also did not update their weapons. Mughal military technology also did not keep pace with European technology. This caused a severe military imbalance by 1740s. A French army of 200 men routed a 10,000 man army of Nawab of Arcot in 1746. Why did the Nawab lose? His army lost because his cannons fired 1 shell every 3 minutes while the French cannons fired 20 shells every minute, i.e., Mughal cannon technology was 150 years behind European technology. Thus when the cavalry of the Nawab charged the French they were subject to 60 shells per 3 minutes when they were expecting only 1 shell in the time period. Naturally Nawab's cavalry fled. Europeans noticed this performance and after 1746 began to systematically take over India. In fact even during Auranzeb's time Mughal armies used to have English and French gunners. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Marathas rose to prominence from about 1703 because they copied Mughal tactics and in fact improved on it. They used fast moving cavalry to harass the Mughals. Baji Rao's cavalry managed to invade Delhi by 1738. Maratha Generals also had European gunners in their armies. This proved a fatal weakness when the Marathas faced the British. In some of these battles against the British the European gunners in the Maratha armies were no show against the British. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This refusal to update military technology and tactics continued even after independence from the British. It was clear as early as 1957 that Chinese were building up their military strength in Tibet. Did Nehru take any meaningful action? No, he did not take any action until late 1961 when it was too late. I must add here that this blinkered attitude is not the monopoly of Hindus. In 1940 when the Nazi Army made a massed tank assault through the Ardennes, the French Generals were advised to cut the trees of the forest to slow down the Nazi blitzkrieg. Did they listen? No they did not take that advice because the French Army General staff were confident that the superb French cavalry with their long lances and rifles could stop the Nazi assault. This refusal was in spite of the lessons learnt in World War I where the cavalry charge failed against massed machine gun and artillery fire. So what happened to the French cavalry charging the Nazi tanks. The french cavalry was found to furiously gallop back into France as soon as they came under withering machine gun fire from the Nazi tanks.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus it is clear that in the 1000 - 2000 ce period Indian rulers, Hindus, Muslims and secular Nehru, have all neglected their military and not kept pace with the advances in military technology and tactics. Naturally this led to defeats and slavery. The question raised here is if this apathy in military affairs is due to Hindu teaching. I would argue that it is not due to Hindu teaching. Recall this famous Gita shloka:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Arjuna! Whence has this loathsome stupidity come upon you in this&#xA;  crisis? It (this attitude) is unworthy of a noble personage; it is bar&#xA;  to heaven and a cause of much disrepute.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gita 2.2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna did not ask Arjuna to meditate or go to an astrologer. He asked Arjuna to fight. It is thus an obligation for Hindus to fight and obviously updating military technology and tactics is a must. Hindus did not follow the Hindu teachings and hence they were defeated in that 1000 year period.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="121" LastEditorUserId="121" LastEditDate="2017-11-02T13:37:39.217" LastActivityDate="2017-11-02T13:37:39.217" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21927" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21874" CreationDate="2017-11-02T13:35:33.673" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;As far as the sand is concerned, it can be disposed anywhere. Because it is not NirmAlya. Burying it in soil is a good idea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But as far as the ash is concerned, it's NirmAlya of the Homa. So, it should be disposed only as prescribed. I have seen people wearing some part of it as Tilaka and also keep some part of it in their Puja rooms.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As regards the direction IshAna Kona (North-East), the NirmAlyavAsni Devi (the Goddess who presides over NirmAlya) is to be worshiped in that direction only as said by Lord Shiva in the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;NirmAlyena yajed devim&lt;strong&gt;ishe nirmAlyavasinim&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;br&gt; NirmAlyam shirasA&#xA;  dhAryam sarvAnge chAnulepanam ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Worship the Goddess NirmAlyavAsini &lt;strong&gt;in the north-east corner&lt;/strong&gt;. Hold it&#xA;  over the head and rub it as paste all over the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhairavi Tantram&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, burying the ashes in the north-east corner seems to be the correct idea.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, as regards disposing NirmAlya, Lord Shiva says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Udake taru mule vA nirmAlyam tasya samtyajet ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The NirmAlya should be disposed in water or at the roots of trees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Note that Udaka means water. And Taru=Tree, Mula=Root.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, ashes can be immersed in water bodies and can also be poured in roots of trees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-11-02T13:41:15.287" LastActivityDate="2017-11-02T13:41:15.287" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21928" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21916" CreationDate="2017-11-02T14:04:24.810" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have a different opinion on this issue, I have always felt that it's the greed or ambitious nature of few of our own people that have led to the foreign invasions or in other words inner information leaked by trusted close aides to the enemies led to our downfall. Even in modern day we can find few people who even though call themselves as Indians but in exchange of money they are working for others, be it in the name of religion or something else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Citing few &lt;a href=&quot;http://mythicalindia.com/features-page/5-acts-of-indian-traitors-that-swerved-indian-history/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;examples&lt;/a&gt; below:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KING AMBHI KUMAR:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;When the mighty Alexander made his way to India, he was welcomed with&#xA;  open arms by the King of Taxila, Ambhi, who offered his submission&#xA;  just to see the ruin of his arch rivals- the kingdoms of Paurava and&#xA;  Abhisara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RAJA MANN SINGH&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In return for aiding the capture of Tatya Tope, the Raja was promised&#xA;  the return of his lost jagir (a feudal land grant) at Gwalior.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JAYAJIRAO SCINDIA:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He was among the weak rulers and the most treacherous of all Indian&#xA;  traitors who chose the wrong side in the Rebellion of 1857.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RAJA JAYACHANDRA RATHOD:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jaichand joined hands with Ghori to ensure Chauhan’s defeat.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MIR JAFAR&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mir Jafar made a deal with the British East India Company: Jafar and&#xA;  his cohorts agreed to hand over the Bengali army at the Battle of&#xA;  Plassey in exchange for control of the new puppet state.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DAULAT KHAN LODHI&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Daulat Khan Lodi (wasn't a native of India though) was the governor of&#xA;  Lahore during the reign of Ibrahim Lodi, the last ruler of the Lodi&#xA;  dynasty. Due to disaffection with Ibrahim, Daulat invited Babur to&#xA;  invade the kingdom, this led to The First Battle of Panipat (A.D.&#xA;  1526)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastEditorUserId="11875" LastEditDate="2017-11-02T17:17:01.070" LastActivityDate="2017-11-02T17:17:01.070" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21929" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-02T14:51:47.570" Score="6" ViewCount="388" Body="&lt;p&gt;Suppose I wish to attain Moksha then,according to Advaita Philosophy, what conditions I must fulfill in order to achieve Moksha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12047" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-03T16:51:39.410" LastActivityDate="2018-03-31T06:34:19.320" Title="According to Advaita philosophy,what are the conditions for attaining Moksha?" Tags="|moksha|advaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21930" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-02T15:59:51.293" Score="4" ViewCount="86" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vaishnavas say &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/5/38-40&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt; foretold the upcoming of Alwars. Likewise, any Hindu scriptures predict the upcoming of Nayanars?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who aren't familiar with &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvars&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Alwars&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayanars&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nayanars&lt;/a&gt; - they are the poet-saint devotees of Vishnu and poet-saint devotees of Shiva respectively. Together, they were 75 (12 and 63 respectively) in number. They traveled the land, spreading Bhakti through their literature and songs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9554" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-12-05T12:02:11.820" LastActivityDate="2017-12-05T12:02:11.820" Title="Were Nayanars foretold in any of the Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|scripture|puranas|shaiva-siddhanta|nayanar|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21931" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9367" CreationDate="2017-11-02T17:29:07.210" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;I dont know about technologies of Previous Kali yugas. But there is a verse in bhagavatam, which predicts about humans going to other planets by manipulation of Maya(or material elements) in this kali yuga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(S.B 2.7.37)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;deva-dviṣāṁ nigama-vartmani niṣṭhitānāṁ&#xA; pūrbhir mayena vihitābhir adṛśya-tūrbhiḥ&#xA;lokān ghnatāṁ mati-vimoham atipralobhaṁ&#xA; veṣaṁ vidhāya bahu bhāṣyata aupadharmyam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are two translations&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation 1:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When the atheists, after being well versed in the Vedic scientific knowledge, annihilate inhabitants of different planets, flying unseen in the sky on well-built rockets prepared by the great scientist Maya, the Lord will bewilder their minds by dressing Himself attractively as Buddha and will preach on subreligious principles&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Translation 2:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For those who became well informed on the path of education but envious with the divine, roam the worlds and the ether with inventions of Maya [or with modern technology], He will dress up most attractively and [as the Buddha and His representatives] by extensive discourses bewilder their minds with the use of many terms deviating from the tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="1166" LastEditDate="2017-11-02T17:43:37.793" LastActivityDate="2017-11-02T17:43:37.793" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21932" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21921" CreationDate="2017-11-02T18:55:13.947" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;States of Consciousness and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/encyclopedia/dreams.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dreams&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Modern materialistic science is not sure about the origin and nature of most psychic phenomena including dreams. This information can be found in Vedic scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 6.16.53-54, 7.7.25 or 7.15.61 describes three material states of consciousness:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;jagrata, awakened state&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;svapna, dreaming state&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;susupti, deep sleep&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dreams are created by the Supersoul to award the living entity with&#xA;  the results of insignificant karma. (Vs 3.2.1) SB 6.16.55&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Supersoul causes objects of desire to appear in dreams as they do&#xA;  in other situations (e.g. the waking state). (Vs 3.2.2) SB 11.13.32&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Dreams are features of the Supreme Lord's maya. (Vs 3.2.3) SB 11.13.33&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Some dreams are omens; sastra and experts so declare. (Vs 3.2.4) SB&#xA;  10.42.26-27&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/22/40&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;stated&lt;/a&gt; in SB 11.22.40 &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;janma tv ātmatayā puṁsaḥ  sarva-bhāvena bhūri-da viṣaya-svīkṛtiṁ&#xA;  prāhur  yathā svapna-manorathaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O most charitable Uddhava, what is called birth is simply a person’s&#xA;  total identification with a new body. One accepts the new body just as&#xA;  one completely accepts the experience of a dream or a fantasy as&#xA;  reality.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our religious scriptures contain profuse description of the dreams and their effects. In Sundar kand of Ramayana, an ogress Trijata relates her dream to her companion that in the dream, she had seen Ravan with tonsured head and going to the south riding an ass and that there was great stampede in Lanka. It is well known that within a month, her dream came true as Hanumana caused devastation by setting Lanka on fire that resulted in a great stampede &lt;a href=&quot;http://mantrashlokas-madhuri.blogspot.ca/2011/08/do-dreams-affect-human-life-by.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;there&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;TRIJATA NAAM RAKSHASI EKA, RAAM CHARAN RATI NIPUN BIBEKA ||SABANHU&#xA;  BOLI SUNAESI SAPANA, SEETAHI SEI KAREHU HIT APANA || SAPANEN BANAR&#xA;  LANKA JAARI, JAATU DHAAN SAINA SAB MAARI || KHAR AARURH NAGAN&#xA;  DASASEESA, MUNDIT SIR KHANDIT BHUJ BEESA|| EHI BIDHI SO DACHCHHIN DISI&#xA;  JAI, LANKA MANAHU VIBHISHAN PAI || NAGAR PHIRI RAGHUBIR DOHAI, TAB&#xA;  PRABHU SEETA BOLI PATHAI ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gurushakti.org.in/165/sadhna/shakti/mantra-for-lucid-dreaming&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Swapeneshwari&lt;/a&gt; Mantra is practiced for lucid dreaming at night. The mantra also helps you to know the answers of many questions of your life.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanskrit Mantra :&lt;/strong&gt; ॐ क्रीं क्रीं क्रीं ह्रीं ह्रीं स्वप्नेश्वरी ह्रीं ह्रीं क्रीं क्रीं क्रीं ॐ ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;English : Om Kreem Kreem Kreem Hreem Hreem Swapneshwaree Hreem Hreem&#xA;  Kreem Kreem Kreem Om ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dreaming about lord Shiva&lt;/strong&gt; : &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.astrobhriguvision.com/dreams.php&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Appearance&lt;/a&gt; of Lord Shiva in the dream is extremely benevolent. This also signifies end of the crisis period. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-11-02T18:55:13.947" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21934" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21921" CreationDate="2017-11-03T00:35:25.317" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is a good sign or a guidance to be followed which you decipher by yourself what it could be. More likely it seems a guidance. Lord Shiva says thus in 11th chapter of Shiv Rahasya &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;129&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;My Signs are of two kinds, those that endure and those that pass away. The enduring ones are the Sky, the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Mountains and the Sea. The passing ones are of three kinds. Things that come to pass in daily life, visions and dreams. &lt;strong&gt;Some are a guidance to be followed, some are a good tiding and some are an ill omen or a warning.&lt;/strong&gt; A human form of handsome features, &lt;strong&gt;a Radiant One (a God)&lt;/strong&gt;, a holy man, a King or Queen; the Sun's or one's own clear reflection in water, a bright cloud, a rainbow or a sky-blue light; riding upon a horse, white bull or elephant; women, children and wild beasts being kind towards each other and to oneself; dwelling in a sheltered place or a well-kept house; eating pure food, wearing pure apparel in the day and resting in a pure bed at night; flying into the bright Sky, &lt;strong&gt;being in beautiful surroundings, being in the company of good friends or Gods&lt;/strong&gt;; lying down with the head towards the South; casting a clear, unbroken and unshaken shadow; a growing plant; a running stream or lotus pond; a pleasant scent. &lt;strong&gt;These are auspicious Signs (Sulakshana)&lt;/strong&gt; to be sought whilst waking, dreaming or seeing a vision. For they all are boding well.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-11-03T00:35:25.317" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21935" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-03T09:15:02.890" Score="9" ViewCount="9248" Body="&lt;p&gt;There seems to be some confusion between different accounts of the Banasura fight - some state that Krishna killed him while others mention that he let him live when Shiva interceded on the demon's behalf. There is also the story of Devi Kumari killing Banasura but it comes from different sources.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is - &lt;strong&gt;Is there a clear scriptural reference that states both that Krishna did not kill Banasura as well as states that Devi did?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2023-04-20T20:34:31.360" Title="Who killed Banasura - Lord Krishna or Devi?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|krishna|asuras|devi|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21936" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21940" CreationDate="2017-11-03T10:51:46.950" Score="8" ViewCount="360" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was trying to find out the origin of the name of the Kedar Mountain and so, Kedarnath. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have read this : &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/14414/what-is-the-story-of-kedarnath-jyotirlinga&quot;&gt;What is the story of Kedarnath Jyotirlinga?&lt;/a&gt; : but it stops short of explaining about Kedarkhand/Kedar and it's origin ( rightly so as the thread was not about it).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On Kedarnath temple's website, they say that it was named after King Kedar of the Satya Yuga. They go on to write about his daughter, but very little about the king himself. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;a) Is there any scripture/notes that I can read to understand more about him/his birth/his rule etc ? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;b) Why would Shiva be related to the name of the king ( as Shiva assumes the name Kedarnath and rules over the KedarKhand), unless of course, the king was an incarnation of Shiva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thank you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12457" LastActivityDate="2017-11-03T16:07:36.927" Title="King Kedar of Satya Yuga" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21938" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19940" CreationDate="2017-11-03T13:07:50.843" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vrishaakapi&lt;/strong&gt; was born of water when Indra did a penance to Shiva and Vishnu, to kill Indra's enemy MahaShani.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since &lt;strong&gt;Vrishaakapi&lt;/strong&gt; killed the Asura MahaShani for ShataKratu's favour, so the two became friends.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DevaRaaja used to frequently go to Vrishaakapi's house, so Shachi thought Indra was having illegitimate meetings with some other woman. So Indra consoles Paulomi that he goes to no-one but Vrishaakapi. This was the reason why Vrishaakapi was indirectly creating problem in Indra's domestic life, due to misunderstanding of Shachi.&lt;/strong&gt;        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story is in &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.m.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A3%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D/%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%83_%E0%A5%A7%E0%A5%A8%E0%A5%AF&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma Puraana, Chapter 129&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verses which talk about &lt;strong&gt;Vrishaakapi&lt;/strong&gt; are included in latter par of this answer. First let look at story.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Here is the story in short-     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Asura Hiranya did penance and became unconquerable to all Gods.     &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He then got a son MahaShani who too was insuperable to Gods and he defeated Indra and offered Indra, along with Airaavata elephant, to his father Hiranya, and imprisoned Indra.      &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then MahaShani fought with other Devas, and when he came to fight with Varuna, He married His daughter to MahaShani.     &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then all three worlds became void of a King and asked Vishnu for advice, but Hari said He alone cannot kill the Asura. Vishnu then suggested that PaashaDhara Varuna is father in law of MahaShani, so He must ask him to free Indra.     &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then Prachetaa went to his son in law Asura and asked him to free Indra.      &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;MahaShani on his father in law's request freed ShachiKaanta and makes fun of Him by reprimanding Him thus- 'O Indra! Varun saved thee. So He is now Thy Guru. Thou understandest! Be Thou always humble to my father in law or I will put Thee again into the prison.'        &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Indra thus insulted goes to His wife Shachi and tells His sorrows to Her.    &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shachi tells Sahasraaksha- 'O Indra! with me Thou go to Dandaka forest where Ganga flows. We shall do rituals there to get what Thou desirest.'        &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then Indra, with Brihaspati and Pulomajaa, did penance to Shiva, on the banks of Ganges. When Shiva appeared, Indra tells Him the purpose of penance.       &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then ChandraDhara tells Suresha- 'O Shakra! I alone cannot kill the Asura. Thou pleasest RamaaDhava. He alone is the refuge of this world.'         &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;So Indra worships Vishnu and Hari confers blessings to Indra.       &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then by the blessing of Vishnu, Shiva and Ganga, a man emerged from waters.&lt;/strong&gt;       &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This was Vrishaakapi, He had form of both Vishnu and Shiva, He held Chakra in one hand and Trishoola in other.&lt;/strong&gt;       &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Vrishaakapi went down to &lt;a href=&quot;https://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Rasatala&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rasaatala&lt;/a&gt;(lower dimensions of existence) and killed MahaShani.&lt;/strong&gt;      &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He then became friends with Indra and was also known by name Abjaka(one born of water).&lt;/strong&gt;       &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indra, even after His re-establishment, used to frequently go and meet Vrishaakapi.&lt;/strong&gt;       &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indraani became restless thinking Indra is deceiving Her. So Shakra tells Her that He goes only to Abjaka's house and no illegitimate affairs were there.&lt;/strong&gt;       &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then Indra praises Pulomajaa- 'O beloved Shachi! only because of Thee am I now again become Indra, as Thou suggestedst me to go to Ganga and I got blessings of Shiva, Vishnu and Ganga. My friend Vrishaakapi and Thou art my best friend, other than you two, there is no beloved friend of mine.'&lt;/strong&gt;      &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;And then, Indra tells a bit more about glories of Vishnu, Shiva and Ganga, and tells about the Indra Teertha, where Indra performed the penance and Vrishaakapi emerged.     &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are the verses from &lt;a href=&quot;https://sa.m.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A3%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D/%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%83_%E0%A5%A7%E0%A5%A8%E0%A5%AF&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the very chapter&lt;/a&gt; that talk especially about Vrishaakapi, and the story is what has been explained above.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;After Indra's penance to Shiva and Vishnu, as explained above-      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तत्राभवच्छिवस्यैव गङ्गाविष्ण्वोः प्रसादतः॥ ९७ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अम्भसा पुरुषो जातः शिवविष्णुस्वरूपधृक्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  चक्रपाणिः शूलधरः स गत्वा तु रसातलम्॥ ९८ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  निजघान तदा दैत्यमिन्द्रशत्रुं महाशनिम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सखाऽभवत्स चेन्द्रस्य अब्जकः स वृषाकपिः॥ ९९ ॥        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Then by the blessings of Shiva, Ganga and Vishnu, a man born of water, appeared there.&lt;/strong&gt;      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He had form of both Shiva and Vishnu. In one hand he had Chakra, and Trishoola in the other hand, and going to the Rasaatala(a dimension of existence which exists under Earth), killed the Daitya MahaShani, the enemy of Indra.&lt;/strong&gt;       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He then became friends with Indra and became known as Abjaka and Vrishaakapi.&lt;/strong&gt;       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Problem in Indra's domestic life, due to misunderstanding of Shachi-&lt;/em&gt;      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दिविस्थोऽपि सदा चेन्द्रस्तमन्वेति वृषाकपिम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कुपिता प्रणयेनाभूदन्यासक्तं विलोक्य तम्॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शचीं तां सान्त्वयन्नाह शतमन्युर्हसन्निदम्॥ १०० ॥      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Even after Indra was again established in the Heavens, He used to always visit Vrishaakapi.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;This made Indraani contemptuous due to amorous affectionate infatuation, when She used to see Him go frequently and thought He is in love with someone else.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Then Shatamanyu Indra, consoling Her, tells Shachi smilingly this-      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इन्द्र उवाच।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नाहमिन्द्राणि शरणमृते सख्युर्वृषाकपेः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वारि वाऽपि हविर्यस्य अग्नेः प्रियकरं सदा॥ १०१ ॥&#xA;  नाहमन्यत्र गन्ताऽस्मि प्रिये चाङ्गेन ते शपे।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मान्नार्हसि मां वक्तुं शङ्कयाऽन्यत्र भामिनि॥ १०२ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पतिव्रता प्रिया मे त्वं धर्मे मन्त्रे सहायिनी।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सापत्या च कुलीना च त्वत्तोऽन्या का प्रिया मम॥ १०३ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मात्तवोपदेशेन गङ्गां प्राप्य महानदीम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रसादाद्देवदेवस्य विष्णोर्वै चक्रपाणिनः॥ १०४ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथा शिवस्य देवस्य प्रसादाच्च वृषाकपेः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जलोद्‌भवाच्च मे मित्रादब्जकाल्लोकविश्रुतात्॥ १०५ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  उत्तीर्णदुःखः सुभग इत इन्द्रोऽहमच्युतः।      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indra tells Shachi-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  O Indraani! I do not go to anyone except for my friend &lt;strong&gt;Vrishaakapi&lt;/strong&gt;. Water too always benefits Agni of Havish(Yagya). So do I also oath that I go to nowhere else other than Thee, O Beloved! Thus O my Lover! Thou art not to suspect me of going other places.         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thou art devoted to me, art my beloved, assistest me in Dharma and advicest me right things, Thou hast good progeny, art from good family, so who other than Thee is my beloved?       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is only by Thy advice I went to the great river Ganges, and got blessings of the Vishnu,Who holds Chakra in His hands and Who is Lord of Gods; and I got blessing of Lord Shiva. &lt;strong&gt;And by thier blessings my friend Vrishaakapi, Who is born of water and is renowned in all worlds as Abjaka, liberated me from my sorrows, and O Prosperous Shachi! now I am Indra again and will not fall from this position. It is all because of Thee.&lt;/strong&gt;         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Now Indra explains glories of Vishnu, Shiva and Ganga-&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  गङ्गायाः सदृशं नास्ति श्रुणु चान्यद्वरानने॥ १११ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धर्मार्थकाममोक्षाणां प्राप्तये पापमुक्तये।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शिवविष्ण्वोरनन्यत्वज्ञानान्नास्त्यत्र मुक्तये॥ ११२ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मात्तव धिया साध्वि सर्वमेतन्मनोगतम्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अवाप्तं च शिवाद्विष्णोर्गङ्गायाश्च प्रसादतः॥ ११३ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  इन्द्रत्वं मे स्थिरं चेतो मन्ये मित्रबालात्पुनः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वृषाकपिर्मम सखा यो जातस्त्वप्सु भामिनि॥ ११४ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वं च प्रियसखी नित्यं नान्यत्प्रियतरं मम।       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Beautiful-faced Shachi! listen, there is no other place like Gangaa which can confer Dharma, Artha, Kaama, Moksha, and liberate one from sins, and there is no other means of liberation other than the knowledge of non-difference between Shiva and Vishnu. This all things O Virtuous One! is to be established by Thee in Thy mind by Thy intelligence.       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By the blessings of These very three Gods- Shiva, Vishnu and Ganga, that I thus attained again this stable position of Indra by the power of my friend.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;O Beautiful Shachi! Vrishaakapi is my friend and He is born of water, and Thou also art always my beloved friend, and no one other than you two is beloved of me.&lt;/strong&gt;        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तीर्थानां गौतमी गङ्गा देवानां हरिशंकरौ॥ ११५ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तस्मादेभ्यः प्रसादेन सर्वं चेप्सितमाप्तवान्।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  मम प्रीतिकरं चेदं तीर्थं त्रैलोक्यविश्रुतम्॥ ११६ ॥      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Gautami Gangaa is best of Teerthas(pilgrimage places) and Hari and Shankara are best of Gods. By grace of These, all desired things are obtained. So is this IndraTeertha renowned in the three worlds and is very dear to me.         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[Note- this IndraTeertha is at bank of Ganges where all this episode of incarnation of Vrishaakapi happened. This Teertha is also called Abjaka and Vrishakapa, and Shiva, Indra, Vishnu, Ganga reside there. This is explained in the very chapter]         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अत्र तु स्नानमात्रेण सर्वे ते मुक्तिमाप्नुयुः।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पापिष्ठाः पापतो मुक्तिमाप्नुयुर्ये च धर्मिणः॥ १२० ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तेषां तु परमा मुक्तिः पितृभिः पञ्चपञ्चभिः।       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By mere bathing in this Teertha all get liberation. Even the best of sinners get freedom from sins, and those people who are religious they get the supreme state of liberation and are freed from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;url=https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/16242/should-parents-be-worshipped-before-gods/16243%2316243&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwjJy6v5q6TXAhUHP48KHUHoDowQFggnMAA&amp;amp;usg=AOvVaw0_BApYVKNer7O7doOxs0FB&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;the debt of forefathers(Pitri) and from the other five debts.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-11-04T07:12:19.047" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T07:12:19.047" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21939" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21929" CreationDate="2017-11-03T14:57:38.650" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;Moksha is not attained. The &lt;em&gt;Mundaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; (III.ii.3) says (Swami Gambhirananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This Atman is not attained through study [of the Vedas and scriptures], nor through the intellect (intelligence), nor through much hearing [learning]. By the very fact that he (i.e. the aspirant) seeks for It, does It become attainable; of him this Self [Atman, Brahman] reveals Its own nature.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And Sankarcharya says in his commentary on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yam eva&lt;/em&gt;, that very entity, the supreme Self, which; &lt;em&gt;esah&lt;/em&gt;, this one, the man of knowledge; &lt;em&gt;vrnute&lt;/em&gt;, seeks to reach; &lt;em&gt;tena&lt;/em&gt;, by that fact of hankering; (&lt;em&gt;esah&lt;/em&gt;, this, the supreme Self); &lt;em&gt;labhyah&lt;/em&gt;, is attainable; but not through any other spiritual effort, for It is by Its very nature ever attained.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So by hankering alone is It attained. How to get this hankering for moksha? The  &lt;em&gt;Mundaka Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; I.ii.13 says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To him who approaches duly [an enlightened teacher], whose heart is calm and whose outer organs are under control [by making his mind pure], that man of enlightenment should adequately impart that knowledge of Brahman by which one realizes the true and immutable Purusha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, the three steps to realize Brahman are: hearing (sravanam); reflecting (mananam); and meditating (nididhyasanam). In his &lt;em&gt;Aparoksanubhuti&lt;/em&gt;, Sankaracharya says verses 6-10 (Swami Vimuktananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Abandonment of desires at all times is called Shama and restraint of the external functions of the organs is called Dama.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Turning away completely from all sense-objects is the height of Uparati, and patient endurance of all sorrow or pain is known as Titiksha which is conducive to happiness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Implicit faith in the words of the Vedas and the teachers (who interpret them) is known as Sraddha and concentration of the mind on the only object Sat (i.e. Brahman) is regarded as Samadhana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;When and how shall I, O Lord, be free from the bonds of this world (i.e. births and deaths)--such a burning desire is called Mumukshuta.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Only that person who is in possession of the said qualifications (as a means to Knowledge) should constantly reflect with a view to attaining Knowledge, desiring his own good.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in his &lt;em&gt;Vivekachudamani&lt;/em&gt;, Sankaracharya says (verses 313-316), Swami Madhavananda translator:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Through the increase of desires selfish work increases, and when there is an increase in selfish work there is an increase of desire also. And man's transmigration is never at an end.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the sake of breaking the chain of transmigration, the Sannyasin should burn to ashes those two, for thinking of sense-objects and doing selfish acts lead to an increase of desires.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Augmented by these two, desires produce one's transmigration. The way to destroy these three, however, lies in looking upon everything, under all circumstances, always, everywhere and in all respects, as Brahman and Brahman alone. Through the strengthening of the longing to be one with Brahman those three are annihilated.   &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;By constantly trying to think of Brahman alone the heart and mind become purified. When the heart and mind become purified, the Atman reveals Itself. Swami Vivekananda says (Complete Works Vol II, p 411):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You must remember the qualification that is required: the desire to know this Self by turning the eyes inward. ..We must learn to turn the eyes inward…How can we see the Self? This going outwards must be stopped. This is what is meant by turning the eyes inwards, and then alone the glory of the Lord within will be seen. [see also &lt;em&gt;Katha Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; II.i.1]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally the &lt;em&gt;Astavakra Samhita&lt;/em&gt; I.11 says (Swami Nityaswarupananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He who considers himself free is free indeed, and he who considers himself bound remains bound. 'As one thinks, so one becomes' is a popular saying in this world, and it is quite true.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-11-03T14:57:38.650" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21940" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21936" CreationDate="2017-11-03T16:07:36.927" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of King Kedara and his daughter Vrinda is not at all related to Kedaranath Jyotirlinga or the mountain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That story occurs in  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/brahmavaivarta-purana/vol-ii/chapter-86/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 86&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Krishna-Janma-Khanda&lt;/strong&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Brahma-Vaivarta Purana&lt;/strong&gt; and speaks about the creation of the forest of Vrindavana which is where Krishna and Radha enacted their Raas-lila.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/brahmavaivarta-purana/vol-ii/chapter-17/topic-3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 17&lt;/a&gt; of the same Khanda has the story of Vishwakarma, the deva-architect, building houses and rasamandala for the cowherds of Vrindavana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now to answer your question.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The creation of Kedara is highlighted in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-xvii/chapter-122/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 122&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Nagara Khanda&lt;/strong&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra performs penance to Lord Shiva for the destruction of the Danavas in Himachala. Lord Shiva assumes the form of a buffalo and appears before Indra. Indra asks the Lord to destroy the Danavas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Formerly, in the beginning of the Manvantara of the first Manu named Svāyambhuva, there was Hiraņyākşa, a Daitya of inordinate&#xA;strength. He was of great lustre and possessed the power of penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;He (and his associates) encompassed the whole world. After ousting the overlord of Devas they appropriated the shares of Devas in Yajnas&#xA;by means of their valour.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thereupon, Sakra took refuge in Gangadvara along with the Suras.&lt;/strong&gt; In his excessive distress due to the loss of royal glory, he performed a&#xA;great penance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;10-11. &lt;strong&gt;Even as the noble-souled one performed the severe penance thus,&#xA;Mahādeva himself assumed the form of a buffalo and came out of the&#xA;surface of the earth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He then said to Sakra: &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Whom should I tear off (ke=kan, darayami) from the entire hosts of the Daityas by means of this form?&lt;/strong&gt; O Vasava, O most excellent one among Suras, tell me quickly.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra Said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;12.. O Lord, tear asunder these five Danavas, namely Hiranyaksa the great Daitya, Subahu, Vakrakandhara, TriSringa and Lohitaksa. If these&#xA;are killed, undoubtedly all the Danavas are annihilated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After killing the Danavas, Indra request Lord Shiva to stay on the mountain (of Himachala) for the salvation of the devotees.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On hearing those words, the Lord hastened to that place where the&#xA;important Danava, the extremely powerful Hiranyaksa, was present.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;14. All those Danavas saw from a distance the buffalo comparable to a mountain coming on in a frightening form.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;19&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Danavas struck with great effort and their aim was perfect. &lt;strong&gt;Yet none of the weapons had any serious effect at all on the body of&#xA;the Lord.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;After killing the five important Daityas thus, Mahesvara once again went to the place where Sakra was waiting. With great delight in&#xA;his mind, he spoke to Sakra fully equipped with the power of penance:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;21-22. &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Those five Danavas mentioned by you have been killed by me.&#xA;Hence enjoy once again the kingdom of the three worlds. O Lord of&#xA;Devas, do choose from me another boon too that is desired by you so&#xA;that I can hurry back to the peak of Kailäsa.&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra Said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;23&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Sankara, do stay here in this very form to accomplish protection to the three worlds and preservation of virtue and welfare.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Śrī Bhagavān said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;24&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;O Sakra, this form was assumed by me in order to slay him (Hiranyaksa) since he could not be killed by other living beings. He&#xA;has now been killed by me.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence, at your instance, O most excellent one among Suras, I shall stay here along with this very form accordingly,for giving salvation&#xA;unto all embodied ones.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since Lord Shiva said, &amp;quot;Ke Darayami&amp;quot; when he was in the form of the buffalo, the place came to be known as Kedara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;॥ इन्द्र उवाच ॥ ॥ अहमागत्य नित्यं त्वां स्वर्गाद्वृषभवाहन ॥ अत्रस्थं&#xA;पूजयिष्यामि पास्यामि च तथोदकम् ॥ ३१ ॥ &lt;strong&gt;के दारयामि यत्प्रोक्तं त्वया&#xA;महिषरूपिणा ॥ केदार इति नाम्ना त्वं ततः ख्यातो भविष्यसि ॥ ३२ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Indra said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;31&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;O Bull-vehicled One, always (everyday) I shall come from heaven and worship you stationed here. I shall also drink the holy water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Since you said when you were in the form of a buffalo, “ke dārayāmī&amp;quot; (vv. 10, 11), you shall become well-known by the name Kedara.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[Note: There are two stories told to the sages, one of the Kedara in Himachala and another of the spot where the Lord relocates during the winter. I've only highlighted the former.]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-09-22T08:09:21.743" LastActivityDate="2017-11-03T16:07:36.927" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21941" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21929" CreationDate="2017-11-03T17:02:04.813" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is a poetic translation of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashtavakra&lt;/a&gt; Geeta, I recommend you to read. Janaka asked similar question &amp;amp; Ashtavakra, the great sage replies which is a long conversation. Will limit my words here, you read rest of the Geeta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Janaka said&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  1.1&#xA;  Master,&#xA;  how is Knowledge to be achieved,&#xA;  detachment acquired,&#xA;  liberation attained? &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;Ashtavakra said&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  1.2&#xA;  To be free,&#xA;  shun the experiences of the senses&#xA;  like poison.&#xA;  Turn your attention to&#xA;  forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, simplicity, truth. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  1.3&#xA;  You are not earth, water, fire or air.&#xA;  Nor are you empty space.&#xA;  Liberation is to know yourself&#xA;  as Awareness alone—&#xA;  the Witness of these. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  1.4&#xA;  Abide in Awareness&#xA;  with no illusion of person.&#xA;  You will be instantly free and at peace. &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  1.5&#xA;  You have no caste or duties.&#xA;  You are invisible, unattached, formless.&#xA;  You are the Witness of all things.&#xA;  Be happy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&#xA;From chapter 8 of Ashtavakra Geeta we find a direct method/conditions of liberation supported by both Advait Vedanta &amp;amp; Kashmiri Shaivism (Shambhovapaye)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ashtavakra said: 8.1 When the mind desires or  grieves  things, accepts  or  rejects  things, is pleased or displeased by  things-- this is bondage.  &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  8.2 When the mind does not desire or grieve, accept or reject, become pleased or displeased, liberation is at hand. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  8.3 If the mind is attached to any experience, this is bondage. When the mind is detached from all experience, this is liberation. &lt;BR&gt;&#xA;  8.4 When there is no “I” there is only liberation. When “I” appears bondage appears with it. Knowing  this, it is effortless to refrain from accepting and rejecting. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2018-03-31T06:34:19.320" LastActivityDate="2018-03-31T06:34:19.320" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21942" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21498" CreationDate="2017-11-03T17:29:28.870" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well couldn't find exactly same but something that is close to it. First read this:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/11/21/27&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 11.21.27&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Lord Kṛṣṇa states in Bhagavad-gītā (15.15), vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva&#xA;  vedyaḥ: all Vedic knowledge is actually meant to lead one to pure love&#xA;  of Godhead. Lord Kṛṣṇa is certainly the Absolute Truth, and to love&#xA;  Him is the ultimate purpose of our existence. &lt;strong&gt;The Vedic knowledge&#xA;  patiently tries to bring the conditioned soul to this perfection of&#xA;  pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/29/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 4.29.5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;He thinks, “I am the monarch of all I survey.” This is ignorance.&#xA;  Janasya moho ’yam ahaṁ mameti. This is called illusion. Nothing&#xA;  belongs to the living entity, but he claims that everything belongs to&#xA;  him. When the mirror of intelligence is polished, the real activities&#xA;  of the living entity begin. This means that when a person comes to the&#xA;  platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, his real intelligence acts. At that&#xA;  time he knows that everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa and nothing belongs to&#xA;  him. &lt;strong&gt;As long as one thinks that everything belongs to him, he is in&#xA;  material consciousness, and when he knows perfectly that everything&#xA;  belongs to Kṛṣṇa, he is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/madhya/24/174&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;CC Madhya 24.174&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘ātmā’-śabde ‘dhṛti’ kahe, — dhairye yei rame dhairyavanta eva hañā&#xA;  karaya bhajane&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“Another meaning of ‘ātmā’ is dhṛti, or endurance. A person who&#xA;  endeavors with endurance is ātmārāma. With endurance, such a person&#xA;  engages in devotional service.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/1/14/4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;SB 1.14.4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the conditioned state the living being is not satisfied even if he&#xA;  actually &lt;strong&gt;becomes the lord of all that he surveys&lt;/strong&gt;, which he never&#xA;  becomes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So the crux is that a living being can not become the lord of all that he surveys, because everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa and nothing belongs to him. But vedic knowledge patiently tries to bring the conditioned soul to this perfection of pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11875" LastActivityDate="2017-11-03T17:29:28.870" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21943" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23276" CreationDate="2017-11-03T18:25:16.703" Score="5" ViewCount="3175" Body="&lt;p&gt;I would like to begin reading the Pancharatra Agamas in English. Can anybody provide me the relevant links or PDFs for them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-03-11T17:57:25.603" LastActivityDate="2019-03-11T17:57:25.603" Title="Where can I read the Pancharatra Agamas online in English?" Tags="|vaishnavism|agamas|resource|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21944" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="791" CreationDate="2017-11-03T19:26:00.377" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can find the whole Padma Purana in English &lt;a href=&quot;http://download1591.mediafire.com/e57jb5qsa3tg/a173i1g42f5f15t/Purana+-+Padma+Purana+-+Eng.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-01-28T14:25:17.793" LastActivityDate="2019-01-28T14:25:17.793" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21946" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9111" CreationDate="2017-11-04T01:45:05.013" Score="-3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Indra is the supreme god in Rig Vedas. Vajra was specifically made as the supreme of all weapons for this lord of gods to use. Indra is the actual Mahendra and Maheswara. Sudarshana and Trishula are just some other weapons made using Vajra material. Maybe later day additions. Like many attributes of Indra went to these two gods namely Vishnu and Shiva, their followers have attributed the strength of Vajra to both these weapons. Vajra is indeed the chief of all weapons and Indra is the chief of all gods ( including the trinity )&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12461" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T01:45:05.013" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21947" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-04T03:49:15.977" Score="9" ViewCount="4670" Body="&lt;p&gt;Now I am interested to visit Lord Jagannath temple in Puri after reading &#xA; following facts about it &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/eight-miracles-at-puri-jagannath-temple/m-lite&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(source)&lt;/a&gt;. Are these claims true?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The flag always flaps in a direction opposite to the direction in which the wind is blowing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gaze from any place in Puri, and you will always find the Sudarshan Charka (charka at the top of the temple) always facing you.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Normally during day-time, the wind blows from the sea to the land and in the evening, the opposite happens. But in Puri, the opposite happens.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Birds or planes do not fly above the temple.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The shadow of the main dome is invisible at any time of day.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The quantity of cooked food inside the temple remains same the entire year. And the same prasadam can feed whatever be the number of devotees - a few thousand people or 20 lakh people. It never gets wasted.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the temple kitchen, seven pots are kept on top of each other and cooked on firewood. In this process, the contents in the top pot get cooked first, lastly, the bottommost one!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;On entering from Singhadwara, as one takes the first step inside the Temple, you can’t hear any sound produced by the ocean. But when you cross the same step outside the Temple, you can hear it. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2018-05-09T18:01:54.867" LastActivityDate="2018-05-16T01:54:35.617" Title="Are these claims about Puri Jagannath Temple really true?" Tags="|belief|temple|jagan-natha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21948" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20368" CreationDate="2017-11-04T05:38:25.547" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;From the direct inference from the verse which I am gonna post below, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sin&lt;/strong&gt; is the opposite of Yoga. Any act which breaks the bond of unity with the fellow creatures or the creator or the ultimate reality is sin. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From ShivRahasya chapter 11.I have answered on another answer about Explanations on the laws of unity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;51&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Verily, My Love for man manifests itself in that I give him life of my Own Life and that I offer him sustenance, guidance and protection. And man's love of Me shall be seen in his following of My Law. By the following thereof he abides in Unity with Me. Therefore, he who desires a long and happy life in this World and the next, shall ever abide by the Law of Unity. &lt;strong&gt;He who abides not thereby goes the Path of Separation which is the Path of Sin and Discord&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T05:38:25.547" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21950" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-04T07:34:07.750" Score="1" ViewCount="57" Body="&lt;p&gt;i think we should worship Brahma as he created the universe and if universe would have not been created then there would be no human. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12464" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T07:34:07.750" Title="why do we not worship Brahma, the creator of the universe" Tags="|brahma|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-11-04T07:38:27.410" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21951" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-04T08:23:44.577" Score="18" ViewCount="1112" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two kinds of schools of Indian philosophy, Astika and Nastika. Astikas accept the authority of the Vedas, whereas Nastikas reject the authority of the Vedas.  The Astika schools are part of Hinduism, and there are six main ones: Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva Mimamsa, and Vedanta.  The Nastika schools are outside of Hinduism, and they include Buddhist, Jains, Charvakas, and Ajivikas.  But what both Astika schools and Nastika schools have in common is that they're all indigenous to India.  Religions and philosophies which are foreign to India, like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc. are classified as Mleccha (although they technically they're also Nastikas).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Astika schools of Hindu philosophy have attempted vigorous refutations both of competing Astika schools along with the Nastika schools  (For instance, see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/18850/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for how the Vedanta school refutes various Astika and Nastika schools.) But my question is, what is the earliest Hindu work which contains a refutation of a Mleccha religion or philosophy?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So far the earliest I've found is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/cc/adi/17/chapter-view&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Chaitanya Charitamrita, where the Gaudiya Vaishnava Acharya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says this about Islam:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You drink cows’ milk; therefore the cow is your mother. And the bull produces grains for your maintenance; therefore he is your father. Since the bull and cow are your father and mother, how can you kill and eat them? What kind of religious principle is this? On what strength are you so daring that you commit such sinful activities? ... Since you Muslims cannot bring killed cows back to life, you are responsible for killing them. Therefore you are going to hell; there is no way for your deliverance. Cow-killers are condemned to rot in hellish life for as many thousands of years as there are hairs on the body of the cow. There are many mistakes and illusions in your scriptures. Their compilers, not knowing the essence of knowledge, gave orders that were against reason and argument.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I think part of the reason why I'm finding so few examples is that Mlecchas may not have been very involved in the intellectual debate in ancient/medieval India. For instance, I'm of course aware of violent conflicts between Hindus and Muslims, but I'm not aware of many philosophical debates between Hindus and Muslims earlier than a century or two ago.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that I'm not looking for works discussing religious unity and the like; I'm specifically looking for things like a Vedantic refutation of Christianity, a Nyaya refutation of Islam, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-01-14T10:16:18.267" LastActivityDate="2019-07-25T13:05:28.693" Title="What is the earliest Hindu work refuting Mleccha religions or philosophies?" Tags="|history|philosophy|other-religions|shad-darshana|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21953" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21768" CreationDate="2017-11-04T10:21:28.297" Score="4" Body="&lt;h3&gt;The Saptarshis of the Vaivasvata Manvantara (According to Brahma Purana) are&amp;quot;&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(From Chapter 3, Manvantaras)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Atri&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vaśiṣṭa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Kaśyapa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Gautama&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bharadvāja&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Viśvāmitra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Jamadagni&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;h3&gt;There are 12 Ādityas ruling for 12 months.&lt;/h3&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Dhātā - Caitra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aryamā - Vaiśākha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Mitra - Jyaiṣṭha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Varuṇa   - Āṣāḍha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Indra    - Śrāvaṇa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vivasvān - Bhādra&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Pūṣā - Māgha&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Parjanya - Phālguna&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Aṁśu - Mārgaśīrṣa&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bhaga - Puṣya&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Tvaṣṭā - Āśvina&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Viṣṇu  - Kārttika&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Thus, throughout the twelve months, the lord of the sun travels in all directions with his six types of associates, disseminating among the inhabitants of this universe purity of consciousness for both this life and the next.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/11/46&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;[12.11.46]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/11&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Canto 12 Chapter 11 shlokas 33 to  for more information&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-02-08T07:19:48.277" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21954" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21955" CreationDate="2017-11-04T13:04:41.403" Score="9" ViewCount="29266" Body="&lt;p&gt;What's the philosophy of &lt;em&gt;&quot;yogakshemam vahamyaham&quot;&lt;/em&gt;  &amp;amp; how is it relevant to LIC (Life Insurance Corporation of India)?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अनन्याश्चिन्तयन्तो मां ये जना: पर्युपासते | तेषां नित्याभियुक्तानां योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम्&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  BG 9.22 - Those persons who, becoming non-different from Me and meditative, worship Me everywhere, for them, who are ever attached (to Me), I arrange for securing what they lack and preserving what they have.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2018-02-07T13:48:15.693" LastActivityDate="2018-02-07T13:48:15.693" Title="What's the meaning &amp; relevance of LIC logo &quot;yogakshemam vahamyaham&quot;?" Tags="|scripture|philosophy|identification-request|sanskrit|terminology|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ClosedDate="2017-11-12T09:07:51.573" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21955" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21954" CreationDate="2017-11-04T13:11:42.367" Score="14" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;What's the source and meaning of this verse?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Srimad Bhagavad Gita is the source of this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अनन्याश्चिन्तयन्तो मां ये जनाः पर्युपासते।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;तेषां नित्याभियुक्तानां &lt;strong&gt;योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम्&lt;/strong&gt;।।9.22।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&amp;amp;field_chapter_value=9&amp;amp;field_nsutra_value=22&amp;amp;ecsiva=1&amp;amp;etsiva=1&amp;amp;etpurohit=1&amp;amp;etgb=1&amp;amp;setgb=1&amp;amp;etssa=1&amp;amp;etassa=1&amp;amp;etradi=1&amp;amp;etadi=1&amp;amp;choose=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here are some useful translations&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;English Translation By Swami Adidevananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9.22 There are those who, excluding all else, think of Me and worship Me, aspiring after eternal union with Me. &lt;strong&gt;Their prosperity and welfare (Yoga and Ksema) are looked after by Me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;English Translation By Swami Gambirananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9.22 Those persons who, becoming non-different from Me and meditative, worship Me everywhere, for them, who are ever attached (to Me), &lt;strong&gt;I arrange for securing what they lack and preserving what they have.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;English Translation By Swami Sivananda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;9.22 For those men who worship Me alone, thinking of no other, for those ever-united, &lt;strong&gt;I secure what is not already possessed and preserve what they already possess.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For deep interpretation you may go with commentaries of Shankara, Ramanuja etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, taking about &amp;quot;how is it relevant with LIC&amp;quot; sounds partially off-topic or opinion-based. Though it is obvious that it should be analogous like:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG: For those men who worship Me alone, thinking of no other, for those ever-united&lt;br&gt;&#xA;LIC: Those who regularly pay instalments/premium!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yogakshemam Vahamyaham:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG: I secure what is not already possessed and preserve what they already possess.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;LIC: We Secure the value of paid instalments/premium and &lt;em&gt;equivalent value of your life&lt;/em&gt; after the life!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T15:40:07.607" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21956" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21904" CreationDate="2017-11-04T13:34:48.197" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;You must be knowing about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi_Mahatmya&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri Chandi&lt;/a&gt;, which is also known as the DurgA Saptashati or the Devi MAhatyam and which is a part of the MArkandeya PurAna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, a Chandi PAtha is considered to be flawed or incomplete if all the Shad-Angas ( the Kavachas, the Rahasya Trayas etc) are also not chanted along with. So, chanting simply the slokas of Sri Chandi is not enough. One who does so is said to be cursed by Devi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, it is also mandatory to chant two Suktas from Rig Veda as an allied part viz- the Rig Vedokta Devi Suktam (which is discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20284/4732&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; to your another question) and the RAtri Suktam ( Rig Veda Mandala 10, Sukta 127).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A correct Chandi recital actually comprises of the following (in that order):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sankalpa, Chandi PujA, Chandi Book PujA , NavAkshara Mantra japa&#xA;  (the ChAmundAyai Vicce one or the Tantrik 9-lettered mantra which is comprised entirely of&#xA;  Beejas), Argala stotra recital ( Jaya tvam devi ChAmunde etc), Kilaka&#xA;  recital, Devi Kavacham recital, RAtri Suktam recital, Devi Suktam&#xA;  recital (Om Aham rudrevir..).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Only thereafter Sri Chandi is to be recited. Now, all these allied recitals are Devi related. So, without any doubt the RAtri Suktam is Devi related and Goddess RAtri is an aspect of JaganmAtA , the Mother of the universe, who is praised in the Chandi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Sankalpa Mantra for the recital of RAtri Suktam, as a part of the Sri Chandi recital, is as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;RAtriti suktasya kushika rishih, rAtrir devatA, gAyatri chandaha, sri&#xA;  jagadambA prityArthe saptashati pAthAdau jape viniyogah |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For the RAtri Sukta, seer is Kushika, deity is RAtri, meter is&#xA;  GAyatri and, it is recited before reciting Saptashati, for pleasing the Mother of the universe (or Goddess&#xA;  DurgA).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, in the following mantra from the RAtri Sukta, there is no difference between Goddess RAtri and ParAshakti :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ovarvapra amartyA nivato devyudvatah | JyotishA vAdhate tamah ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Eternal Goddess RAtri (or mahAmAyA) pervaded the whole creation,&#xA;  the small herbs and the tall trees with her Consciousness. And&#xA;  destroyed the  ignorance (Tamah) by her illumination (JyotishA).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, in these Mantras at one place, Goddess RAtri is described as having a sister called UshA and at another place she is said to be daughter of Supreme-Ether (ParamAtman).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Niru &lt;strong&gt;swasAram&lt;/strong&gt;askritoshasam devyAyati | ApeduhAsate tamah || &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Goddess RAtri destroys the enveloping-power (avidyA) &lt;strong&gt;of her sister&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  UshA ( swasAram=own sister). And in such a state of UshA, the veil of&#xA;  ignorance falls apart.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Upa te gA ivAkaram vrinishu &lt;strong&gt;duhitarddivah&lt;/strong&gt; | RAtri stomam na jigyushe&#xA;  ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;......&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Goddess RAtri, Just like a milk cow (gA iva), i have appeased you,&#xA;  [by stuti-japa] (Akaram). &lt;strong&gt;You are the daughter (duhita) of&#xA;  ParamAkasha-ParamatmA (Duhitardivah)&lt;/strong&gt;. By your grace and blessings we&#xA;  will defeat our enemies like lust etc. Be pleased with our Hymns and&#xA;  Havi (offerings).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Goddess KAli of the Tantras is the Supreme Parabrahman who does not have any sister and who obviously is the Eternal and the Primordial ( AdyA) one. So, she can not be born of something/someone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the contrary, it's from her, numerous universes take birth. Even the Trinities were born from her.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The same is stated by Lord SadAshiva to Sri AdyA in the MahAnirvAna Tantram:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tvatto jyAtam jagat sarvam tvam jagajjanani shive ||&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  MahadAdyanuparyantam yadetat sacharAcharam |&lt;br&gt; tvayivotpaditam&#xA;  bhadre tvadadhinamidam jagat ||&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;tvamAdyA sarvavidyanam&#xA;  asmAkamapi janmabhuh&lt;/strong&gt; |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The whole creation has evolved out of you. O Shive! You are the Mother of&#xA;  the universe. O Bhadre! From Mahat-Tattva till the atoms, the&#xA;  subtle-gross, the mobile-immobile-universe was created by you. The&#xA;  universe is under your supreme control and you are the primordial.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;All forms of knowledge and we all are created from you.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MahAnirvAna Tantram 4.10-12.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we can not really map the Vedic Goddess RAtri to the Supreme Goddess KAli of the Agamas. But we can reconcile. And in the following way:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is well known that, Mother Goddess is also known by the name MahAmAya. Now, this MahAmAya can be of two types as said in the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SA mahAmAyA dvividA vidyAhavidyA cha |&lt;br&gt; YA mahAmAyA mukterhetubhutA&#xA;  sA vidyA |&lt;br&gt; YA samsArabandhanahetubhutA sAhavidyA ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;VidyA (Knowledge) and AvidyA (Ignorance) are the two forms of&#xA;  MahAmAya. The aspect which is the reason of liberation is VidyA and the&#xA;  one which causes worldly bondage is AvidyA.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, we can map the VidyA aspect of Mother Goddess to the Vedic Goddess RAtri. Just like the opposites Alakshami-Lakshmi (viz-the Sri Suktam) are sisters so are VidyA-AvidyA and both of them are born of Sri AdyA (who is KAli, DurgA or Chandi etc). So, RAtri having a sister as well as being born, both facts are thus reconciled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The MArkandeya PurAna also states the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;SA vidyA paramA mukterhetubhutA sanAtani |&lt;br&gt; SamsArabandhahetushcha&#xA;  saiva sarveshareswari ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.....&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Eternal VidyA is Supreme. She is the mother of liberation as well as being&#xA;   the reason for worldly bondage (SamsArabandhana). And she is the Supreme&#xA;  controller of all the Godheads.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, BTW, there is also another RAtri Suktam from the BrAhmanas. The Mantras from this Suktam alludes to a few more-known attributes of the Mother Goddess (like She is holding the PAsha, She being a Yuvati etc):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;OM rAtrim prapadye punarbhum mayobhum kanyAm |&lt;br&gt; Shikhandinim&#xA;  pAshAhastAm yuvatim kumArini mAdityah ||&lt;br&gt; Srichakshashe vAntah&#xA;  prAnAya somo gandhAya Apah |&lt;br&gt; SnehAya manah anujyAya prithivai&#xA;  shariram ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;........&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The MahAmAyA Goddess (RAtri Devi), who appears again and again&#xA;  (Punarbhum)[for the destruction of the Demonic forces], who is the&#xA;  giver of bliss-happiness to all beings, who is Shikhandini ( wearing a&#xA;  an ornament made of peacock feathers), who holds the weapon PAsha, who&#xA;  is Yuvati ( denotes the fact that she is devoid of childhood and old&#xA;  age and thus denotes her eternal nature) and who is the sum total of&#xA;  all KumAri etc Shaktis; I seek refuge in (prapadye) such Goddess&#xA;  RAtri. Let, by her grace, the Sun God protect my eyes (or beautify&#xA;  them) always, the God VAyu protect my five prAnas, the God Soma&#xA;  protect my sense of smell, the God Varuna protect all the fatty&#xA;  elements in me, the Moon God protect my mind and the Earth God protect&#xA;  my body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SAmavidhAna BrAhmana, 3rd Mandala, 8th AnuvAka, 2nd Sukta.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This RAtri Suktam#2 is also chanted as an Anga of the Sri Chandi recital.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-11-05T05:41:27.777" LastActivityDate="2017-11-05T05:41:27.777" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21957" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21958" CreationDate="2017-11-04T13:55:49.363" Score="5" ViewCount="1383" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there a complete English translation of the Narasimha Tapaniya Upanishad available online?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-05T02:00:00.080" LastActivityDate="2018-09-22T08:56:49.693" Title="Does there exist a complete English translation of Narasimha Tapaniya Upanishad?" Tags="|upanishads|translation-request|resource|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21958" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21957" CreationDate="2017-11-04T15:23:21.670" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;You can find English translation of all the 108 Upanishads at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/upanishads/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedanta Spiritual Library&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Nrisimha Tapini Upanishad belongs to Atharva Veda, here are links to the related Upanishads you might be looking for:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/upanishads-atharva-veda/nrisimha-poorva-tapaniya-upanishad/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nrisimha Poorva Tapaniya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shastras.com/upanishads-atharva-veda/nrisimha-uttara-tapaniya-upanishad/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nrisimha Uttara Tapaniya Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_niu9hGiD5QbUpXSzJEUGRhLUk/view&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;get/download&lt;/a&gt; all the Upanishads related to AtharvaVeda in a portable document format.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You may also find it on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vedarahasya.net/nrisimha.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;vedarahasya.net&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-09-22T08:56:49.693" LastActivityDate="2018-09-22T08:56:49.693" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21959" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21957" CreationDate="2017-11-04T15:34:07.047" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=XYepeIGUY0gC&amp;amp;pg=PA825&amp;amp;lpg=PA825&amp;amp;dq=This+syllable+is+the+whole+world.+Its+explanation+is+as+follows:+The+past,+the+present+and+the+future,+all+this+is+the+sound+Om.+And+besides,+what+still+lies+beyond+the+three+times,&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=TKiU0ORc0o&amp;amp;sig=nlmB_Oc4uexlK_kQpPA0f2yBT1Y&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwizzsLwnKXXAhVTQLwKHcTODVoQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=This%20syllable%20is%20the%20whole%20world.%20Its%20explanation%20is%20as%20follows%3A%20The%20past%2C%20the%20present%20and%20the%20future%2C%20all%20this%20is%20the%20sound%20Om.%20And%20besides%2C%20what%20still%20lies%20beyond%20the%20three%20times%2C&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Google book on Uttara and Poorva Nrisimha Tapaniya Upanishats&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;             &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation of Nrisimha Tapaniya Upanishat Uttara and Purva both on this website- &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduwebsite.com/vedicsection/upanishads/nrisimhapurva.asp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nrisimha Uttara and Purva Tapaneeya Upanishat&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T15:34:07.047" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21961" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18545" CreationDate="2017-11-04T18:37:14.780" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayappa_swami&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Malayappa Swami&lt;/a&gt; is swayambhu or self manifest. Malayappa swami is also known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deities_in_Tirumala_Venkateswara_Temple#Utsava_Beram&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Utsava Beram&lt;/a&gt; because he is the processional deity of Tirumala. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Malayappa swamy was discovered in a hill which is now named as Malayappa kona. Th legend goes like this. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On one occasion, there was a time when fore broke out during Brahmotsavam in Tirumala. The reason was not known to the priests and the devotees didn't know the reason for this. After sincere prayers were performed, Lord spoke through a person. He said that the times had changed and ordered that &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugra_Srinivasa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ugra Srinivasa Murti&lt;/a&gt; should be no longer used as processional deity, and in the mountains another murti will be found. He ordered to use that murti only for this purpose(for Brahmotsavam, processions). After searching in hillside, new processional deity along with his consorts was found. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This happened in the 14&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century A.D. This is evident from the inscription by the King Ranganatha Yadavaraya from 1339 A.D. The original name of this murti is Malay Kuniya Ninra Perumal (Lord stood on the hill which bowed low to Him). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sources: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.162281/2015.162281.The-Tirumala-Temple_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Tirumala Temple by Dr.Ramesan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=rntPBAAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PA145&amp;amp;lpg=PA145&amp;amp;dq=malayappa++idol+history&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=tTtbY3MfqP&amp;amp;sig=3V8rhXiNpPpxOa7uaQ3pKhC4pzY&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwiHw_Svv6XXAhUJlJQKHeIwCJ4Q6AEIXzAM#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Lord of Vengadam&lt;/a&gt; [See Page 144, 145,146]. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-04T18:42:18.480" LastActivityDate="2017-11-04T18:42:18.480" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21962" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18360" CreationDate="2017-11-04T21:36:14.567" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes he (Karna) is. Many people degraded Karna.&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Bhisma &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05169.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;considered&lt;/a&gt; Karna weak.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As regards this thy ever dear friend, this one who is always boastful of his skill in battle, this one who always urgeth thee, O king, to fight with the Pandavas, this vile braggart, Karna, the son of Surya, this one who is thy counsellor, guide, and friend, this vain wight who is destitute of sense, this Karna, is neither a Ratha nor an Atiratha. Without sense, this one hath been deprived of his natural coat of mail. Always kind, he hath also been deprived of his celestial ear-rings. In consequence of the curse of Rama (his preceptor in arms) as also of the words of a Brahmana (who cursed him on another occasion), owing also to his deprivation of the accoutrements of battle, he, in my judgment, is only half a Ratha. Having approached Falguni (in battle), he will not certainly escape with life!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Drona considered Karna weak.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hearing this, Drona, that foremost of all wielders of weapons, said, 'It is even so as thou hast said. That is not untrue! He boasteth on the eve of every battle, but yet he is seen to retreat from every engagement. Kind (out of season) and blundering, it is for this that Karna, in my judgment, is only half a Ratha!'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Krishna considered Karna weak.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Suta's son Karna, a lesser warrior, encountering Partha, came to his end on the second day, like an insect encountering a blazing fire. After the fall of Karna, the Kauravas became dispirited but lost all weakness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everyone should know this by now.&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UETrM.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/UETrM.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Source&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05169.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05169.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10324" LastEditorUserId="10324" LastEditDate="2017-11-05T13:47:48.317" LastActivityDate="2017-11-05T13:47:48.317" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21963" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9156" CreationDate="2017-11-04T22:07:06.587" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes karna did indeed suffer quite a few defeats. I can't give you all of them because it will become a boring answer then.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Against Drupada (Adi Parva)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Drupada was attacking Karna too fast for him to see properly. It was as if their were hundreds of Drupadas instead of just one Drupada on them. Also the citizens of the Pancala kingdom attacked karna and his comrades too.&#xA;  Karna was not alone. Other people were also fighting along his side. Duryodhana, Duhsasana, Yuyutsu, Vikarna, Chitrasena (Kaurava brother), Durmukha, Dussaha, Durmasana &amp;amp; other students of Drona.&#xA;  What is most surprising about this incident is not just the fact that Karna lost this fight even though he had the support of 101 Kuru brothers/princes, several other warriors and his armor/ear-rings. It is not even that Panchala citizens wounded Karna, but the fact that Karna actually cried and wailed to the Pandavas. Look up the definitions of the word &quot;wailing&quot;, that is the most astonishing incident in this chapter. &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/VSYK4.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/VSYK4.png&quot; alt=&quot;Screenshot in Devanagari&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Against Bhima (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02029.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rajasuya Yajna&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And making the earth tremble by means of his troops consisting of the four kinds of forces, the foremost of the Pandavas then encountered Karna that slayer of foes. &quot;Thereupon, O king, taking the blazing dagger, Bhima began to peel off Karna's natural mail. And beholding Bhima punching his own body, the entire host of Anga set up a leonine roar. And beholding that hero among men thus cutting Karna's body with an weapon, smiling ever and anon, celestial kettle-drums began to be played upon and celestial flowers began to be showered on Bhima.&quot; And, O Bharata, having subjugated Karna and brought him under his sway, the mighty hero then vanquished the powerful king of the mountainous regions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Another defeat against Bhima - &lt;a href=&quot;http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07151.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Drona Parva&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Against Gandharva's &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03239.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vana Parva SECTION CCXXXIX&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Indeed, Duryodhana and Karna and Sakuni, the son of Suvala, all fought with the Gandharvas, although every one of them was much wounded and mangled in the encounter. All the Gandharvas then, desirous of slaying Karna, rushed together by hundreds and thousands towards Karna. And those mighty warriors, desirous of slaying the Suta's son, surrounded him on all sides, with swords and battle-axes and spears. And some cut down the yoke of his car, and some his flagstaff, and some the shaft of his car, and some his horses, and some his charioteer. And some cut down his umbrella and some the wooden fender round his car and some the joints of his car. It was thus that many thousands of Gandharvas, together attacking his car, broke it into minute fragments. And while his car was thus attacked, Karna leaped therefrom with sword and shield in hand, and mounting on Vikarna's car, urged the steeds for saving himself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Against Krishna (when Karna tried to capture him)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;'O &lt;strong&gt;Radheya&lt;/strong&gt;, listen now to these words of mine. At the gates of Champa, &lt;strong&gt;you the foremost of sutas, known by the name of Karna&lt;/strong&gt;, covered Kesava with a mighty shower of spears. Desirous of seizing Madhava by putting forth all his prowess and exertion, &lt;strong&gt;you did not yet succeed in seizing him&lt;/strong&gt;. Seekest thou to apprehend that Kesava by force? When Sauri went to Pragjyotisha, Naraka with all the Danavas succeeded not in seizing him there. Seekest thou to seize him by force? Slaying that Naraka in battle, he brought away (from his city) a thousand damsels and married them all, according to the ordinance. In the city of Nirmochana, six thousand mighty Asuras failed to seize him with their nooses. Seekest thou to seize that Kesava by force? In seeking to use violence towards Krishna, endued with mighty arms and unwearied by exertion, thou wilt, with all thy followers, perish like an insect failing into fire.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Against Abhimanyu &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, the son of Subhadra, causing Karna by means of his arrows to turn away from the field, quickly rushed against the other great bowmen. Then Abhimanyu of fierce energy and great fame, filled with wrath, broke that host of diverse forces abounding with elephants and steeds and cars and infantry. As regards Karna, afflicted by Abhimanyu with countless shafts, he fled away from the field borne by swift steeds. &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/l53Bj.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/l53Bj.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Abhimanyu with the famous wheel of karna&amp;#39;s chariot, the same wheel that Karna failed to lift out of the ground on the 17th day.&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Against Rakshasas &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07152.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Drona Parva SECTION CLV&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then, &lt;strong&gt;thrown by the Rakshasas&lt;/strong&gt; who had become more powerful in consequence of the night, there &lt;strong&gt;began to fall on the field of battle a thick shower of stones&lt;/strong&gt;. And a ceaseless shower of iron wheels and Bhundis and darts and lances and spears and Sataghnis and axes also fell there. Beholding that fierce and awful battle, the kings, thy sons, and &lt;strong&gt;Karna, also exceedingly pained, fled away&lt;/strong&gt;. Only the proud son of Drona, ever boastful of his might in arms, stood fearlessly. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10324" LastEditorUserId="10324" LastEditDate="2018-02-18T13:28:08.323" LastActivityDate="2018-02-18T13:28:08.323" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21964" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-05T06:43:58.670" Score="1" ViewCount="744" Body="&lt;p&gt;I stay next to a Hindu temple dedicated to goddess Kali. On its rooftop, there is a gigantic bell. The bell is rang every morning at 8am, at noon time and around 6pm. Each session lasting a good 12 minutes. Is there a good reason for such loud and long lasting chime? I need to know the background behind the din because it affects the tranquility of my neighborhood and I wanted to talk to the temple people to seek a peaceful resolution.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12471" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T06:49:02.463" Title="Why does my Hindu Temple ring its bell so loud for so long?" Tags="|temple|kali|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21965" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16921" CreationDate="2017-11-05T16:29:34.777" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I was reading the question and some of the answers by others it occurred to me that I and you are not the doer as God is not the doer. I was reminded of the Gita where it says that actions are performed by the gunas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BG 3.27 — All actions (karma-s) are enacted in Prakruti by [3] modes (guna-s). Bewildered with identity, the self(Atma) believes &quot;'I' am the doer&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna (who is our innermost Self) says the gunas come out from him but he is not in them. Our Self is the witness of actions. I think it is like watching a movie and we get so absorbed in it we think the movie is reality and we are actually the character we are watching. We are caught up in a illusion but when we figure it out and realize that this is all just a trick we can then let go and be at peace. We then know that all of this is just part of the process of awakening.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12474" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-11-06T01:04:54.637" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T01:04:54.637" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21967" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21964" CreationDate="2017-11-06T06:49:02.463" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ringing a bell produces auspicious sound which cancels the negative vibrations around us, if present.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also used to match our body's natural frequency and the specific vibration in the Sun's Coronal loops (found by human race till now scientifically.  Should be present everywhere).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-NASA-has-recently-found-that-the-sound-from-the-sun-resembles-the-Vedic-mantra-Om][1]]&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-NASA-has-recently-found-that-the-sound-from-the-sun-resembles-the-Vedic-mantra-Om][1]]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also during Aarti, the bell, drum and conch are sounded to drown other worldly disturbances, calm one’s thoughts and to facilitate one’s senses and mind to focus on god. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The unique sound of bell removes tension and negativity from our mind and creates unity of our left and right brain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bell produces sharp echo sound which activates seven healing centres or chakras in your body as it does during meditation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It produces sound of “OM” which is actually the sound of universe. This attract all positive cosmic energies from the atmosphere which will help us live better.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12419" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T06:49:02.463" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21968" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-06T06:51:00.437" Score="4" ViewCount="1237" Body="&lt;p&gt;What are the similarities and differences between &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purushamedha&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purushamedha Yagna&lt;/a&gt; and Sarvamedha Yagna?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am interested in answers that directly quote the relevant verses from the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-11-06T16:19:22.500" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T16:19:22.500" Title="What are the similarities and differences between Purushamedha Yagna and Sarvamedha Yagna?" Tags="|vedas|yajna|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21969" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-06T11:14:56.740" Score="3" ViewCount="102" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yudhisthira Saka is used in many historical texts. Can anyone tell what is the context behind this Saka and the start of the Saka with respect to Mahabharata war? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-12-11T04:23:04.397" LastActivityDate="2017-12-11T04:23:04.397" Title="What is the definition of Yudhishtira Saka and when does it start with respect to the Mahabharata war?" Tags="|mahabharata|history|yudhisthira|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21970" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-06T11:47:25.130" Score="8" ViewCount="5306" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the Ramayan, Hanuman and other Vanars come across &lt;strong&gt;Swayamprabha&lt;/strong&gt; residing in a magical cave while searching for Sita. I wanted to know who this lady was and what was her ancestry. Another online source states that Garuḍa had once offended her and lost his wings by her curse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who is this lady and are there any other stories related to her in any other scripture?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastActivityDate="2020-05-30T11:11:54.627" Title="Who was Swayamprabha?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|hanuman|sita|garuda|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21971" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21947" CreationDate="2017-11-06T13:32:46.723" Score="5" Body="&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;2) False&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.iskconbangalore.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/08.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter link description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;4) Birds no; but &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/1140717/jsp/odisha/story_18621718.jsp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;planes WILL fly&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bhubaneswar, July 16: The director-general of civil aviation has turned down a proposal to make no-flying zone over the Sri Jagannath Temple in Puri.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“The ministry of civil aviation has taken a policy decision that no-flying zones are not to be created as they affect the safety and efficiency of flight operations,” &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;5) The shadow of the main dome always falls on the building itself and that's why invisible at any time&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://www.iskconbangalore.org/blog//wp-content/uploads/2015/07/041.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;image&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;7) True, I've seen it&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;8) true&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12477" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-05-16T01:54:35.617" LastActivityDate="2018-05-16T01:54:35.617" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21972" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21848" CreationDate="2017-11-06T14:10:33.557" Score="-1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Historically, Indians had always accepted a diversity of traditions. Unfortunately, in the Kali Yug, tolerance is at it's end. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example, let's us take the issue of Beef eating:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Vedic Age: Male Cows were sacrificed and eaten as Prasadam -&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/textswhiteyajur00grifgoog&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://archive.org/details/textswhiteyajur00grifgoog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;300 BC: Emperor Ashok published edict not to eat Cows&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;1st millenium AD: Defying Vedic scripture, a new caste was created specifically for beef eaters, hunters, butchers, executioners &amp;amp; fishermen:   Asprasya (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untouchability&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Untouchables&lt;/a&gt;) -&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.pahujalawacademy.com/lectures-of-history/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.pahujalawacademy.com/lectures-of-history/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;British Raj: Asprasya were discriminated against, and named as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dalit&lt;/a&gt;. -&lt;a href=&quot;http://ijmsrr.com/downloads/1704201665.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://ijmsrr.com/downloads/1704201665.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;2017 AD: People are murdered for being suspected of killing a Cow. -&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_vigilante_violence_in_India_since_2014&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_vigilante_violence_in_India_since_2014&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &quot;watertight compartments&quot; are not philosophical barriers, but the modern definition of Castes and Sub-Castes(Jats).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12477" LastEditorUserId="12477" LastEditDate="2017-12-31T10:55:17.487" LastActivityDate="2017-12-31T10:55:17.487" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21973" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8980" CreationDate="2017-11-06T15:54:57.973" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to Coomaraswamy, &quot;Each Manvantara is followed by a Deluge, which destroys the existings continents and swallows up all living beings, except the few who are preserved for the repeopling of the earth.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A single Manvantar is approximately 71 maha-yugs.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This implies that at the end of every 71 four-Yug cycle there will be a Great flood. I think this Great Flood may refer to the end of Ice Age, Deglaciation period. Note that the ancient city of Dwarka was submerged at the end of Dwapara Yug.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gb643.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gb643.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But then that would mean there are 71 maha-yugs for every cycle of ice age ?&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/umnCn.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/umnCn.png&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12477" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T15:54:57.973" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21974" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21968" CreationDate="2017-11-06T16:10:52.707" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;PurushMedha Yajna is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44110.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shatapatha Brahmana of YajurVeda and Sarvamedha Yajna is described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44112.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt;. As per Shatapatha Brahmana both PurushMedha and SarvaMedha can give capacity of encompassing all beings of universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44110.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;same chapter&lt;/a&gt; of Shatapatha Brahamana, Narayana did PurushaMedha Yajna and encompassed all beings:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Purusha Nârâyana desired, 'Would that I overpassed all beings! would that I alone were everything here (this universe)!' He beheld this five-days’ sacrificial performance, the Purushamedha, and took it , and performed offering therewith; and having performed offering therewith, &lt;strong&gt;he overpassed all beings, and became everything here. And, verily, he who, knowing this, performs the Purushamedha, or who even knows this, overpasses all beings, and becomes everything here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PurushaMedha is five days sacrifice and significance of each days is described in same chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;7&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now this Purushamedha is a five-days’ sacrificial performance--&lt;/strong&gt; the sacrifice is fivefold, the victim is fivefold, and five seasons are a year: whatsoever of five kinds there is, either concerning the deity or the self (body), all that he thereby obtains.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;While SarvaMedha refers to giving one's self in the Yajna and projecting oneself as Lord of all and encompassing all beings as all beings are his self. Lord Brahma did SarvaMedha Yajna and encompassed all beings as described in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44112.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;same chapter:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Brahman Svayambhu (the self-existent, n.) was performing austerities 3. He said this much,-  'Verily, there is no perpetuity in austerities; well, then, &lt;strong&gt;I will offer up mine own self in the creatures, and the creatures in mine own self.'&lt;/strong&gt; And, accordingly, by offering up his own self in the creatures, and the creatures in his own self, &lt;strong&gt;he compassed the supremacy, the sovereignty, and the lordship over all creatures; and in like manner does the Sacrificer, by thus offering all sacrificial essences in the Sarvamedha, compass all beings, and supremacy, sovereignty, and lordship.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;SarvaMedha is a 10 days sacrifice and significance of each day is described in same chapter:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now this Sarvamedha is a ten-days’ (Soma-) sacrifice,&lt;/strong&gt; for the sake of his gaining and winning every kind of food, for the Virâg consists of ten syllables, and the Virâg is all food. At this (sacrifice) he builds the greatest possible fire-altar, for this--to wit, the Sarvamedha--is supreme amongst all sacrificial performances: by means of the supreme (sacrifice) he thus causes him (the Sacrificer) to attain supremacy.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in the sixth day of SarvaMedha, PurushaMedha is also done:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;8&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The sixth day is a central Paurushamedhika one: at this (sacrifice) he seizes men meet for sacrifice, for the sake of his gaining the sacrificial essence of man.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5154" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T16:10:52.707" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21975" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21976" CreationDate="2017-11-06T18:19:37.433" Score="7" ViewCount="596" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two kinds of schools of Indian philosophy, Astika and Nastika.  Astikas accept the authority of the Vedas, whereas Nastikas reject the authority of the Vedas.   The Astika schools are part of Hinduism, while the Nastika schools fall under the broader category of Dharmic faiths.  Now there are six Astika schools: Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva Mimamsa, and Vedanta.  (They're all dead other than the Vedanta school, which encompasses most Hindus today as I discuss here.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Because they accept the authority of the Vedas, these schools all believe in Yagnas, the law of Karma, the existence of the soul, the afterlife, reincarnation, and Moksha.  But one thing they disagree on is on the existence of God and how to prove it.  Two Astika schools are atheist or agnostic on the existence of God: Samkhya and Purva Mimamsa.  I discuss their arguments on the subject &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21283/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  The other four Astika schools, namely Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, and Vedanta, accept the existence of God.  My question is, how do each of these four schools prove the existence of God?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T18:19:37.433" Title="How do different Astika schools prove the existence of God?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|brahman|shad-darshana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21976" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21975" CreationDate="2017-11-06T18:19:37.433" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me address each of the four Astika schools which unequivocally accept the existence of God:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;: Here is what Vyasa says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801406.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/16/items/yogadaranasutra00patagoog/yogadaranasutra00patagoog_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=yogadaranasutra00patagoog_jp2/yogadaranasutra00patagoog_0046.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Yoga Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This seed of omniscience is the cognition of the [smallness] or [largeness] of the perception of supersensorious objects past, present, and future, individually as well as collectively.  And that person is omniscient in whom this seed has grown to its utmost extent.  There is a gradual progress of the seed of omniscience because it has various degrees like Dimension.  That person in whom wisdom attains its limit, is omniscient; and this is a particular spirit. The above inference, ending in only a general conclusion, is not capable of denoting any particular being; consequently, the knowledge of particular names is to be looked for in the scripture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This reminds of me of Aquinas' &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_degree&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Fourth Way&lt;/a&gt;.  In any case, as the end of the quote makes clear, the Yoga school thought that the only the existence of God can be proved through Anumana or inference; the qualities of God are known through Sabda Pramana.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nyaya&lt;/strong&gt;: Here is what Gautama says in Adhyaya 4 Pada 1 of the Nyaya Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;19&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;īśvaraḥ kāraṇaṁ puruṣakarmāphalyadarśanāt &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  God is the cause; because we find fruitlessness in the actions of Men. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;na puruṣakarmābhāve phalāniṣpatteḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  It is not so; because as a matter of fact, no fruit appears without man's action. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;tatkāritatvādahetuḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Inasmuch as it is influenced by Him, there is no force in the reason (put forward).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/GautamasNyayasutras#page/n439/mode/2up&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Vatsyayana says in the Nyaya Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As a matter of fact, we find that Man, desiring a certain thing, does not always obtain the fruit of his desire; hence it is inferred that Man's acquisition of the fruits of his actions is dependent upon some other person; and that person upon whom it is dependent is God; hence it follows that God is the Cause[.]... &quot;If the appearance of fruits were dependent on God, then such fruits could be accomplished even without the desire of man.&quot; ... As a matter of fact, God helps the effort of Man; i.e., when Man is trying to obtain a particular fruit, it is God that accomplishes that fruit for him; when God does not accomplish it, Man's action becomes fruitless; hence since things are thus influenced by God, what has been urged to the effect that - &quot;as a matter of fact no fruit appears without Man's action&quot; - is no reason at all.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It's also worth noting that the Nyaya and Vaisheshika schools eventually merged into a single school known as Navyanyaya.  This process started with the 10th century philosopher Udayana, who composed a Nyaya-Vaisheshika work called the Nyaya Kusumanjali which gives 9 arguments, mostly based on Anumana or inference, for the existence of God.  You can read it &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/kusumnjaliorhin00bhagoog&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaisheshika&lt;/strong&gt;: Here is what Kanada says in Adhyaya 2 Pada 1 of the Vaisheshika Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;18&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;saṃjñākarma tvasmadviśiṣṭānāṃ liṅgam&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But name and effect are the mark (of the existence) of beings distinguished from ourselves.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;19&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;pratyakṣapravṛttatvāt saṃjñākarmaṇaḥ&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Because name and effect follow from perception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Shankara Mishra says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia802605.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/12/items/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_jp2/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_0103.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; from the Upaskara:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[H]e only is competent to give the names &quot;Heaven,&quot; &quot;Apurva&quot;, etc., with whom &quot;Heaven,&quot; &quot;Apurva&quot;, etc. are objects of sense-perception[.]... Similarly, the application of the names &quot;pot,&quot; &quot;cloth,&quot; etc., is only under tho direction of Ishvara. The word which has been directed by Ishvara in a particular place, the same is appropriate there; e.g., &quot;all those herbs which have been touched by the edge of the mongoose's tooth, counteract the venom of the snake.&quot; Such direction is the mark, i.e., the means of inference, of beings distinguished from ourselves. And the name, &quot;Maitra&quot; etc., which the father gives to the son, that also is surely directed by Ishvara by such rules as &quot;The father should give a name (to the son) on the twelfth day.&quot; Thus it is proved that naming is a mark of the existence of Ishvara. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In like manner action, i.e., effect, also is a mark of the existence of &#xA;  Ishvara ; for, thus, Earth, etc., must have a creator, because they are effects like a pot, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The part at the end is known in Western philosophy as the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_argument&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;cosmological argument&lt;/a&gt;. This argument is spelled out in a bit more detail in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia800808.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/30/items/prashastapadabhashya/7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_jp2/7B%20132%20.V2P7%20.J4%20%20Acc.5904_0064.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8.78048780487805&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from Sridhara's Nyaya Kandali:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The four Great Elementary Substances are preceded by someone having knowledge of them, because they are effects, - anything that is an effect is preceded by one having a cognition of it, as for instance, the jar (which is always preceded by the potter), - and the four Great Elementary Substances are effects, hence they must be preceded by one having knowledge of them.... &quot;The premise of this inference is not duly cognized by any means of right motion, - f.i. the fact of the Earth being an effects cannot be regarded as duly established.&quot; ... This is not right; as the Earth etc. made up of parts; and everything made up of parts is an effect, as for instance the jar; the Earth etc. have parts, - hence they must be effects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt; Here is what Vyasa says in the Brahma Sutras: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;athāto brahmajijñāsā &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Hence (is to be undertaken) thereafter a deliberation on Brahma. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;janmādyasya yataḥ &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  That (is Brahman) from which (are derived) the birth etc., of this (universe).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;śāstrayonitvāt&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(Brahman is not known from any other source), since the scriptures are the valid means of Its knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;4&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;tat tu samanvayāt &lt;br&gt; &#xA;  But that Brahman (is known from the Upanishads), (It) being the object of their fullest import.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Vedanta school approaches proving the existence of God in a very different manner than the other Astika schools.  In contrast to the other Astika schools which use Anumana to argue for the existence of God and then try to show that God is the author of the Vedas, the Vedanta school uses the Vedas to prove the existence of God.  There are many objections that might be made to this approach, but the Vedanta school refutes them all.  First of all how do we know that the Vedas are authoritative?  The Pramanya (authoritativeness) and Apaurusheyatva (authorlessness) of the Vedas is proved in Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras.  All right, the Vedas are authoritative, but how can they be authoritative concerning Brahman, if Brahman's existence can already be proven using Anumana?  That's where Sutra 3 comes in.  The Vedanta school shows that all attempts to prove the existence of Brahman through Anumana are invalid.  For instance, see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11118/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for Ramanujacharya's refutation of the cosmological argument for the existence of God.  All right, the Vedas are authoritative and no other Pramana can prove the existence of God, but still how can the Vedas be authoritative concerning Brahman, if as the Purva Mimamsa school says action is the only purport of the Vedas? That's where Sutras 4 comes in.  The Vedanta school shows that action is not the only purport of the Vedas, and that the Vedas are authoritative concerning Brahman.  See the commentaries on the Brahma Sutras for details.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T18:19:37.433" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21978" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21970" CreationDate="2017-11-06T20:06:41.980" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swayamprabha was the acetic who teleported hanuman and his vaanar army to the southern part of India - the vindhyas (prasravana). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12480" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T20:06:41.980" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21979" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="18646" CreationDate="2017-11-06T23:56:19.203" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Garuda Purana describes about important gemstones :&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vajra - Diamond&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Mukta – Moti&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PadmaRaag – Ruby&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Markat Mani – Emerald&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;IndraneelMani (IndraNeelam) – Blue Sapphire&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vaidooryam Mani – Cat's Eye&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;PushpraagMani – Yellow Sapphire&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Vishnu Purana and Shrimad Bhagwat Mahapurana, Bali, the grandson of Prahlad was a great king of the demons. With a resolution of dethroning Indra as the king of heaven, Bali organized a hundred Ashwamedha Yagyas. On the appeal of Indra, Lord Vishnu decided to stop the hundredth Ashwamedha Yagya of Bali and arrived there in the guise of Vamana (a dwarf Brahmin) and begged him to donate land measuring three steps. In two steps, Lord measures entire earth and heaven. Since there was not room than to put the third step, Bali offered his head for the Lord to put his third step. Thus, Lord Vishnu sent Bali direct to the Paatal &amp;amp; offered him to rule the Whole nether World. With the touch of the Lord's foot, Bali's earthly body converted into Gem stones.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bali body parts converted into different kinds of minerals and felt all over at different landmasses, sea, and mountains.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vajra or Heera or Diamond: It originated from the pieces of Bali's brain.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are different kinds of diamonds on basis of colors like Green, white, yellow, black, purple, pink, brown. These colored diamonds contain impurities that cause their color. A pure diamond that contains very fewer impurities is often transparent.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;According to Garuda Purana, diamonds with crack or a broken diamond, which contains spot in center and opaque, are not favorable to be used as a gemstone since they bring bad luck and misfortunes to the wearer. Diamond is a stone of planet Venus. There are many shreds of evidence in the history that shows the diamond have positive and adverse effects on humans. Manu diamonds like Kohinoor, Cullinan, King Oiroff are very famous in human history. As per Vedic astrology, people with Ascendant house Aries should wear coral, those with Ascendant house Taurus should wear diamond. It will be beneficial for the people with Taurus as their ascendant house to wear diamond. People with Ascendant house Aries should not wear diamond and emerald. Many experts forbid even blue sapphire for these people. But they believe that if the position of Saturn is strong in the horoscope, such people can safely wear blue sapphire.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Diamond, blue sapphire, and pearl are strictly forbidden for the people with Leo as the ascendant house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Read complete article &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gemsratna.com/gemstones-garuda-purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;GEMSTONES: GARUDA PURANA AND GEMSTONES&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9262" LastActivityDate="2017-11-06T23:56:19.203" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21980" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21970" CreationDate="2017-11-07T01:30:31.453" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swayamprabha describes who she is and how she became the caretaker of the cave in &lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga51/kishkindha_51_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;this chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Kishkindha Kanda of the Ramayana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A marvellous fantasist by name Maya was there, a bullish demon of wizardry and by him with his phenomenal expertise all this golden woodland is constructed.... Once he was the Universal Craftsman to the lords of demons by whom this divinely golden and superb mansion was constructed. But he on practising ascesis for thousands of years in this horrendous forest, obtained a boon from Brahma, the Forefather, which entails acquirement of entire wealth of Sage Shukra. That dynamic one methodised everything and then resided comfortably in this great forest for some time, privileged with all his wishes. Indra, the Administrator of Worlds and destroyer of enemy citadels, on taking His Thunderbolt eliminated Maya, when that eminent demon was engaged with an apsara, a paradisiacal nymph, called Hema. This marvellous woodland, these everlasting wish-fulfillers, and this golden mansion, are beneficed by Brahma for Hema. &lt;strong&gt;I am the daughter of Merusaavarni, oh, best monkey, named Swayamprabha and I am safeguarding this mansion of her, that apsara Hema.&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  Hema is a virtuoso in dance and music and my dearest nymphean-friend, and she bestowed a boon upon me [by which none can dishonour me, and thus] I am safeguarding this superb mansion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So she is the daughter of the sage Merusavarni, who lived somewhere west of India as described in an &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.valmikiramayan.net/kishkindha/sarga42/kishkindha_42_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;earlier chapter&lt;/a&gt; of the Kishkindha Kanda:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In between Mt. Meru and Mt. Astaadri there is a gigantic ten-leaved Date-palm-tree, which is completely golden and shines forth with a marvellous podium. This is where the virtue-knower, an enlightened one by his own asceticism, a selfsame personality to Brahma and one renowned as Sage Merusaavarni indeed resides. And that sage Merusaavarni who is Sun-similar in his shine can be asked, only on your prostration before him in veneration, about the tidings of Maithili, and her whereabouts. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And she is taking caring of the cave on behalf of the Apsara Hema, paramour of the Asura architect Maya.  Note that he's different from the Asura architect Maya who built Indraprastha; see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/8951/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  It's also interesting to note that Maya and Hema were the adopted parents of Ravana's wife Mandodari, so Hanuman and other Vanaras were trapped in Ravana's in-laws' house while trying to find Ravana!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-11-07T01:30:31.453" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21981" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-07T04:52:17.883" Score="9" ViewCount="502" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is the common knowledge that, it was Prabhas (&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyaus_Pita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Dyaus&lt;/a&gt;), one of the Vasus, incarnated as Bhishma due to curse. Following passage from the Mahabharata supports it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01100.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; chapter of Sambhava Parva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But he for whose deed ye have been cursed by me he, viz., Dyu, shall for his sinful act, have to dwell on earth for a length of time. I shall not make futile the words I have uttered in wrath.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But in one of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01097.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;later chapters&lt;/a&gt;, the Vasus make another statement that, 1/8&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; of all eight Vasus become Bhishma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;We shall each contribute an eighth part of our respective energies With the sum thereof, thou shall have one son according to thy and his wishes. But this son shall not begat any children on earth. Therefore, that son of thine endued with great energy, shall be childless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01124.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another occasion&lt;/a&gt; , during birth of Arjuna , Mahabharata explicitely mentions that , all 8 Vasus were there&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And the twin Aswins, the eight Vasus, the mighty Maruts, the&#xA;  Viswedevas, and the Sadhyas, also came there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So which one is right?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1166" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-10T06:53:17.633" LastActivityDate="2017-11-10T06:53:17.633" Title="Was Bhishma Dyaus-incarnate or 1/8th of all Vasus?" Tags="|mahabharata|bhishma|vasu|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21982" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="21990" CreationDate="2017-11-07T05:35:54.903" Score="11" ViewCount="1211" Body="&lt;p&gt;This &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Svayamprabh%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Hindupedia information page&lt;/a&gt; states that Garuda once lost his wings due to a curse by Swayamprabha, the female ascetic that Hanuman and other Vanars met while looking for Sita. Can anyone shed light on why did this lady curse Garuda to begin with and what prayers did he perform to get them back?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-11-07T09:43:28.243" LastActivityDate="2017-11-07T22:40:53.460" Title="Why was Garuda cursed by Swayamprabha to lose his wings?" Tags="|scripture|ramayana|curse|garuda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21983" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-07T07:46:47.717" Score="3" ViewCount="5194" Body="&lt;p&gt;I noticed that there are 2 queues for darshan at bhavan, but after entering the cave in one queue I did not see the other queue anywhere till exit. But my friends who were in the other queue also had Darshan of Pindi. So I am confused whether there are 2 sets of Pindi's for darshan - one for each queue? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or if there's only single Pindi darshan, then how do they manage both queue's because I did not see the other queue anywhere till exit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12483" LastActivityDate="2018-08-27T08:44:50.667" Title="Are there 2 pindi's in vaishno devi for darshan?" Tags="|temple|darshan|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21984" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9520" CreationDate="2017-11-07T09:42:29.713" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The origins of this festival are not clear but it seems to be related to the Surya Upasana that the eldest Pandav Yuddhishthir performed. The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03003.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Section 3 of the Aranyaka Parva of the Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; mentions the episode:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vaisampayana continued, 'Having heard from Dhaumya these words suitable to the occasion, Yudhishthira the just, with heart concentrated within itself and purifying it duly, became engaged in austere meditation, moved by the desire of supporting the Brahmanas. And worshipping the maker of day with offerings of flowers and other articles, the king performed his ablutions. &lt;strong&gt;And standing in the stream, he turned his face towards the god of day. And touching the water of the Ganges the virtuous Yudhishthira with senses under complete control and depending upon air alone for his sustenance, stood there with rapt soul engaged in pranayama.&lt;/strong&gt; And having purified himself and restrained his speech, he began to sing the hymn of praise (to the sun).'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is because of this ritual that Surya Dev apears and gifts him the copper vessel called &lt;strong&gt;Akshay Patra&lt;/strong&gt; that provides unlimited food till Draupadi has eaten. The entire ceremony being performed while standing in water is quite suggestive of the Chhat ritual&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Vaisampayana continued, 'Having obtained the boon, the virtuous son of Kunti, &lt;strong&gt;rising from the water,&lt;/strong&gt; took hold of Dhaumya's feet and then embraced his brother's. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The terms &lt;strong&gt;Chhat&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;strong&gt;Chhati&lt;/strong&gt; are colloquial terms derived from &lt;strong&gt;Shashti&lt;/strong&gt; since this festival is celebrated on the 6th day of the Kartik month or the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/festivals/chhath-puja/chhath-puja-date-time.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Kartik Shukla Shashti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Even though the festival is four days long but Chhat proper is on the 6th day which is also known as &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prokerala.com/festivals/chhath-puja.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Surya Shashti&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This can be corroborated with the same term being used for the festival when it falls in the month of Chaitra and is known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://translate.google.co.in/translate?hl=en&amp;amp;sl=hi&amp;amp;u=https://khabar.ndtv.com/news/faith/chhath-puja-2017-date-muhurat-timings-significance-puja-vidhi-and-feast-1762527&amp;amp;prev=search&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chaiti Chhati&lt;/a&gt;. This day forms a part of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/navratri/chaitra-vasant-navratri-dates.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chaitra Navratri&lt;/a&gt; falling on the 6th day and is also known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drikpanchang.com/festivals/yamuna-chhath/yamuna-chhath-date-time.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yamuna Chhath&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As regard Chhati Maiya, this is just a conjecture from my part but it could be either &lt;strong&gt;Katyayini&lt;/strong&gt; the goddess worshiped on the 6th day of Navratri or the &lt;strong&gt;Vedic Goddess Usha&lt;/strong&gt; who is closely associated with the Sun and has numerous hymns dedicated to her in the Vedas. Going by the association of the festival with Sun-worship the latter seems to be more probable. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-11-08T05:30:46.160" LastActivityDate="2017-11-08T05:30:46.160" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21985" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-07T11:22:33.617" Score="4" ViewCount="348" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does the sloka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;neelaanjana samaabhaasam raviputram yama-agrajam&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  chaayaa maartaanda sambhootam&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;end with&#xA;&lt;em&gt;tvam namaami shainaishcharam&lt;/em&gt;&#xA;or with &lt;em&gt;tam shanim pranamaamyaham&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I found the first version on web, the second version in a book, so I'm confused.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12487" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-08T04:21:22.707" LastActivityDate="2017-11-10T11:42:42.523" Title="What is the correct ending of this Shani Sloka?" Tags="|shloka|shani|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21986" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5468" CreationDate="2017-11-07T11:27:07.427" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahma Vidya&lt;/strong&gt; is the knowledge of God and spirituality (hence a form of Gyan Yoga) that helps the practitioner in attaining Moksha. Janak was a Raj-rishi and had the good sense and fortune to have a lot of spiritual stalwarts to guide him and I shall enumerate them here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;FIRST and foremost, his celebrated priest was &lt;strong&gt;Shatananda&lt;/strong&gt; the son of Maharishi Gautam as mentioned in the following verse from the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga50/bala_50_frame.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Baal-Kand of Valmiki Ramayan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;शतानंदम् पुरस्कृत्य पुरोहितम् अनिन्दितम् || १-५०-६&#xA;  प्रति उज्जगाम सहसा विनयेन समन्वितः |&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On hearing that Vishvamitra has arrived in Mithila, then the best king Janaka instantly forged ahead towards Vishvamitra, keeping his unreprovable priest Shataananda afore of the team, in deference to Vishvamitra. [1-50-6, 7a]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the more likely candidate could be &lt;strong&gt;Ashtavakra&lt;/strong&gt; our SECOND candidate and the author of the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=Twz74MjKOWIC&amp;amp;redir_esc=y&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ashtavakra Geeta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; which is written in the form of a conversation between him and Janak. It is a celebrated book pertaining to the Advaita Vedanta system of philosophy and deals extensively with soul, liberation and Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The story of how Ashtavakra came to King Janak's court is detailed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03132.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat, Book 3: Vana Parva: Tirtha-yatra Parva:Section CXXXII-CXXIV&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And when Ashtavakra was in his twelfth year, Swetaketu one day saw the former seated on his father's lap. And thereat he pulled him by the hand, and on Ashtavakra's beginning to cry, he told him, 'It is not the lap of thy father.' This cruel communication went direct into Ashtavakra's heart and it pained him sorely. And he went home and asked his mother saying, 'Where is my father?' Thereupon Sujata who was greatly afflicted (by his question), and apprehending a curse told him all that had happened. And having heard all, the Brahmana at night said unto his uncle Swetaketu, 'Let us go unto the sacrifice of king Janaka, wherein many wonderful things are to be seen. There we shall listen to the controversy between the Brahmanas and shall partake of excellent food. Our knowledge also will increase. The recitation of the sacred Vedas is sweet to hear and is fraught with blessings.' Then they both--uncle and nephew--went unto the splendid sacrifice of king Janaka. And on being driven from the entrance, Ashtavakra met the king and addressed him in the following words.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The young boy challenges Vandin, the chief contender in a battle of wits who avails himself of various system of Philosophy to combat his opponent but is ultimately defeated. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.celextel.org/othervedantabooks/astavakragita.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Some verses from the Ashtavakra Geeta&lt;/a&gt; are given here:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Janaka said: How is knowledge to be acquired? How is liberation to be attained? And how is dispassion to be reached? Tell me this, sir.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ashtavakra said: If you are seeking liberation, my dearest one, shun the objects of the senses like poison. Draught the nectar of tolerance, sincerity, compassion, contentment and truthfulness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;You are neither earth, water, fire, air or even ether. For liberation know yourself as consisting of consciousness, the witness of these five.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If only you will remain resting in consciousness, seeing yourself as distinct from the body, then even now you will become happy, peaceful and free from bonds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;You do not belong to the Brahmin or warrior or any other caste, you are not at any stage, nor are you anything that the eye can see. You are unattached and formless, the witness of everything - now be happy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Righteousness and unrighteousness, pleasure and pain are purely of the mind and are no concern of yours. You are neither the doer nor the reaper of the consequences; you are always free.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;You are the one witness of everything, and are always totally free. The cause of bondage is that one sees the witness as something other than this.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since you have been bitten by that black snake of self-opinion - thinking foolishly that 'I am the doer,' now drink the nectar in the fact that &quot;I am not the doer&quot;, and now be happy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Burn down the forest of ignorance with the fire of understanding. Know 'I am the one pure awareness.' With such ashes now be happy, free from distress.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;That in which all this appears is but imagined like the snake in a rope; that joy, supreme knowledge and awareness is what you are; now be happy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The THIRD candidate of course is the learned rishi &lt;strong&gt;Yajnavalkya&lt;/strong&gt; who was a regular at Janak's court. The conversations between him &amp;amp; the King are mentioned in the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita-philosophy.info/upanishads/Brihadaranyaka_Upanishad_Chapter_Four.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brihadaranyak Upanishad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; and cover many topics related to the nature of soul and Brahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;4.1.5   'Let me hear whatever any one may have told you. ''Gardabhiviplta, of the line of Bharadvaja, has told me that the ear (the quarters) is Brahman. 'As one who has a mother, father and teacher should say, so has the descendant of Bharadvaja said this that the ear is Brahman, for what can a person have who cannot hear? But did he tell you about its abode and support?' 'No, he did not. 'This, Brahman is only one footed, O Emperor.' 'Then you tell us, Yajnavalkya.' 'The ear is its abode, and the ether (the Undifferentiated) its support. It should be meditated upon as infinite. 'What is infinity, Yajnavalkya ''the quarters themselves, O Emperor,' said Yajnavalkya, 'therefore, O Emperor, to whatever direction one may go, one never reaches its end. (Hence) the quarters are infinite. The quarters, O Emperor, are the ear, and the ear, O Emperor, is the Supreme Brahman. The ear never leaves him who knowing thus meditates upon it; all beings eagerly come to him; and being a god, he attains the gods. 'I give you a thousand cows with a bull like an elephant,' said Emperor Janaka. Yajnavalkya replied, 'My father was of opinion that one should not accept (wealth) from a disciple without fully instructing him.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Since the Brihadaranyak Upanishad is the older scripture I would put my faith more in Yajnavalkya&lt;/strong&gt; but judging by the contents of these two scriptures, either of the authors could actually fit the bill.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-13T07:12:35.810" LastActivityDate="2017-12-13T07:12:35.810" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21987" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21861" CreationDate="2017-11-07T12:36:11.330" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ganesha Purana and some Ganesha-centric scriptures mention few great devotees of Sri Ganesha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Since i don't have complete Ganesha Purana, i will cite &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Puranic Encyclopedia&lt;/a&gt; by Vettam mani&lt;/strong&gt; as reference. I will update exact references as soon as possible.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here are some list of devotees:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ballala was a son of Vaishya and Lord Ganesha Himself manifests at his worship place pleased by his devotion.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ballala&lt;/strong&gt;: Son of a Vaisya named Kalyana. From childhood Ballala was an ardent devotee of Ganapati.  When he was a child he used to gather&#xA;  pebbles and  make a heap and then worship it, imagining it to be&#xA;  GaneSa (Ganapati). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;His parents did not like this. They tried their best to dissuade him&#xA;  from this habit. Once they tied him to a tree and gave him severe&#xA;  cuts. But their attempts  were futile. One day an image of Ganapati&#xA;  arose in  the place where the child used to worship. &lt;strong&gt;(GaneSa Purana&#xA;  1 : 2)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was fisherman named Brusundi who was evil and at a suggestion of sage, he did  sever tapasya on Ganesha and he developed a trunk like Ganesha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bhrusundi&lt;/strong&gt;. A fisherman. He used to earn his living  by theft. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Once when the Maharsi Mudgala was passing through a forest , Bhrsundi&#xA;  stopped him. But in the presence of the Brahmanic effulgence of the&#xA;  Maharsi, the fisherman was dazed. Mudgala took pity on Bhrsundi and&#xA;  advised him to worship Lord Ganesa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;From that time Bhrsundi gave up his evil ways, and accepting the&#xA;  advice of Mudgala, started the worship of Ganesa with single-minded&#xA;  devotion. As a result of it, an elephant's trunk began to grow from&#xA;  the middle of his forehead. Bhrsundi who thus acquired a shape closely&#xA;  resembling Ganesa, was visited by Indra, mistaking him for Ganapati.&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;(Ganesa : 1.67)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There's story of another devotee of Ganesha called &lt;strong&gt;Mankana&lt;/strong&gt; which is bit surprising. Shiva decides to burn his favorite city Kasi  and Ganesha helps in that ploy. Maybe we can know exact context when we read complete chapter or preceding chapters. Puranic encyclopedia gives Vayu Purana and Brahmanda Purana references which i couldn't verify with &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/9095/3500&quot;&gt;Motilal editions of Puranas&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MANKANA&lt;/strong&gt;: A barber of VaranasI  who was a great devotee of Ganesa. During the time of  King Divodasa. Siva wanted to destroy the city&#xA;  of  KasI and deputed his son Ganesa (Nikumbha) for the  same. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ganesa came to Kasi and appearing in person before  his devotee&#xA;  Mankana, asked him to build a temple on  the outskirts of Kasi. Mankana&#xA;  completed the temple  and Ganesa (Nikumbha) installed himself in that &#xA;  temple getting for it the name Nikumbhamandira.  Devotees began to&#xA;  flow into the temple and Nikumbha  sitting there answered the prayers&#xA;  of all. But he never  fulfilled the prayer of the King to have a son.&#xA;  This  annoyed Divodasa and he destroyed the temple and  then Nikumbha&#xA;  cursed that the city of Kasi would  become desolate. Siva's desire&#xA;  thus became fulfilled.  &lt;strong&gt;(92. 33, Vayu Purana and 3; 67, 43. Brahmanda &#xA;  Purana)&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-11-07T12:43:29.160" LastActivityDate="2017-11-07T12:43:29.160" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21988" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-07T12:56:14.750" Score="4" ViewCount="8440" Body="&lt;p&gt;I have certain question related to Parayan.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;What does Parayan(पारायण) mean? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any ritual to do before &amp;amp; after Parayan?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Importance &amp;amp; Use of Parayan.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Is there any reference for Parayan?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10089" LastEditorUserId="10089" LastEditDate="2017-11-09T02:28:56.953" LastActivityDate="2019-05-20T17:23:29.230" Title="What does Parayan(पारायण) mean? and how to do it?" Tags="|sadhana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21990" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21982" CreationDate="2017-11-07T14:19:32.367" Score="11" Body="&lt;p&gt;The story of the loss of Garuda's wings is narrated in &lt;a href=&quot;https://drive.google.com/file/d/12dsV_OXOwS7p5neER2URV31iR6rRvrkB/view?usp=sharing&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 81&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;strong&gt;Nagara Khanda of Skanda Purana.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once Garuda visited Lord Vishnu with a marriage alliance to help a Brahmana friend of his. [This is kind of a story within a story so I'm going to omit some details] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;That time he notices an old ascetic woman sitting near Vishnu. He asks about her. Vishnu tells him the woman is Sandili (Hindupedia says Swayamprabha was Sandilya's daughter so this must be the same woman) a venerated ascetic lady. And Scriptural reference to Swayamprabha  being Shaandili is this-     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Mahabharata Bheeshma Parva Chapter 8&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सर्वरत्नमयं चैकं भवनैरुपशोभितम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;तत्र स्वयंप्रभा देवी नित्यं वसति शाण्डिली&lt;/strong&gt; ॥ verse 9 ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  Sanjaya tells DhritaRaastra-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  In that one mountain, which is full of all gems and is beautified with Palaces,&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  there &lt;strong&gt;Devi SwayamPrabhaa who is Shaandili (id est Daughter of Shandilya),&lt;/strong&gt; always dwells.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is story how Garuda was cursed by SwayamPrabhaa.        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;26.At the close of the narration, Garuda looked at the aged lady endowed with refulgence and spoke to Purusottama:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;27.“O Jamārdana, O most excellent one among Suras, this elderly lady sitting near you seems to be someone not seen before. Do tell me who&#xA;  she is. Where has she come from? Why has she come?”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Bhagavān said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;28-29. O most excellent one among birds, this is the elderly maiden&#xA;  well-known in this world by the name Šāņdilī. She is omniscient and&#xA;  strictly adhering to celibacy. She is endowed with the power of&#xA;  penance. She is venerated by all the Devas. O leading bird, there is&#xA;  no woman like her in all the three worlds&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Garuda seems incredulous at the prospect of a woman being a celibate ascetic and makes various assumptions about womenfolk. His speech angers Sandili and she with her ascetic power causes Garuda's wings to become deformed and then he cannot move. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suta said:&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;30. On hearing his words, O Brahmanas, the Lord of the birds looked at her for a long time, then laughed and ultimately spoke to Vasudeva:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Garuda said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;31-32. It is not unusual that a very great penance is performed.&#xA;  Similarly if gifts are made it is not a wonder. Further if a battle is&#xA;  fought by able warriors, what is surprising in that? &lt;strong&gt;But, O&#xA;  Purusottama, this is unusual that one maintains celibacy especially&#xA;  during the prime of youth.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;33-35. &lt;strong&gt;More so in the case of women. I do not have any faith in this&#xA;  respect.&lt;/strong&gt; Emotional outlet is essential in the case of lower animals.&#xA;  Youth is not for suppression of rights. If women do not get access to&#xA;  men anywhere, they will indulge in mutual sexual alliance when&#xA;  afflicted by the arrows of Kama. In the absence of suitable men, they&#xA;  will consider a leper, a sick one, and an old man and one short of a&#xA;  limb or two on a par with the Five arrowed One (Kāma).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;37.If women keep a limit, it is not due to the fear of the other world. Except the fear of the king or that of the elders (there is  nothing to restrain them).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Süta said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;38.On hearing these words of his, Sandili, the celibate woman, had in her heart the surging emotion of anger, although she was under the vow of silence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;39.In the meantime both the wings of the Lord of the birds got destroyed and he became mutilated in shape.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;40.Though he was really ferocious and devoid of all ailments, he could not go ahead even a step. He was no better than a mass of flesh.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu asks Sandili why she did it and also asks for a means of atonement. Sandili directs Garuda to worship Lord Shiva. After installing a Shivalinga and worshiping the Lord, Garuda regains his wings, stronger than before. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Bhagavān said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;6.O highly esteemed one, only a general statement was made by him about all the women. So, why was he made thus by you?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sandili said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7.O Janardana, he looked at my face and smiled. O preceptor of the universe, a censure of woman-folk was also made by him wantonly.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8.It is for this reason that he has been thus chastised by me.&lt;/strong&gt; O Kesava, it is not mental, verbal or physical attack.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Šī Bhagavān said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;9.Still, O sinless one, O auspicious lady, if you honour me, do a favour unto this fellow at my instance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Sandili said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.O Lord, whatever is conceived by me in my mind, good or otherwise cannot become otherwise, especially if my anger is aroused.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;11.Hence at my behest, let him propitiate Sankara for the restoration of the wings. No one else has enough competence vested in him to grant&#xA;  him (the wings).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;12.Otherwise, O Lotus-eyed One, he will have to go permanently like this in the world. I am telling you the truth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Suta said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;17.&lt;strong&gt;On hearing it, Garuda immediately adopted Pāśupata Vrata after installing Lord Isana&lt;/strong&gt; and then propitiated him. He thereby caused&#xA;  delight to him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;21.Thus he continued performing the Vrata rites, Japa and Puja. Then at the end of a thousand years Mahesvara became pleased. He said, &quot;O&#xA;  most excellent bird, I shall grant boons. Choose whatever is desired.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Garuda said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;22-23. See my plight, O Isana, brought about by Sandili. My wings have&#xA;  been caused to fall down. This is what I request you further, O Hara,&#xA;  that you should stay here always in the Linga at my instance,&#xA;  unhesitatingly, if you are to grant me what is desired by me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Śrī Bhagavān said:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;24-25. From today onwards my stay shall be here in this Linga. You&#xA;  will also be endowed with that original form,&lt;/strong&gt; particularly possessing&#xA;  special strength and speed. This shall undoubtedly take place with my&#xA;  favour, O bird. &lt;strong&gt;After saying this to him, the Lord himself touched him&#xA;  with his hand.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&gt; 26.At the very instant beautiful wings grew. So also divine hairs comparable to gold appeared thereon.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;27.Then the delighted bird bowed down to the Lord. Afterwards he took leave of Mahesvara and went to his abode.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;34.Hence particularly in Kali age, the Lord named Suparņa (Suparnakhya) should be visited by persons endowed with faith with all efforts.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The deity is known as Suparneshwar. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A similar story is depicted in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05113.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 113&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;strong&gt;Udyoga Parva of Mahabharata.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Garuda doesn't have to worship Shiva and even the reasons why he lost his wings are different. It is Sandili herself who grants his wings back to him. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Narada said, &lt;strong&gt;'Alighting then on the peak of the Rishabha, the&#xA;  Brahmana and the Bird beheld a Brahmana lady of the name of Sandili,&#xA;  engaged there on ascetic penances.&lt;/strong&gt; And Galava and Garuda both saluted&#xA;  her by bending their heads, and worshipped her. [...]&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And Garuda, from desire of leaving that place, upon awakening, found&#xA;  that his wings, had fallen off. Indeed, he had become like a ball of&#xA;  flesh, with only his head and legs.&lt;/strong&gt; And beholding him come to that&#xA;  plight, Galava sorrowfully enquired, saying, 'What is this condition&#xA;  that has overtaken thee as the consequence of thy sojourn here? Alas,&#xA;  how long shall we have to reside here? Hadst thou harboured any evil&#xA;  and sinful thought in thy mind? It cannot, I am sure, be any trivial&#xA;  sin of which thou hast been guilty.' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus addressed, Garuda replied unto the Brahmana, saying, &lt;strong&gt;'Indeed, O&#xA;  regenerate one, I entertained the thought of carrying away this lady&#xA;  crowned with ascetic success from this spot to where the Creator&#xA;  himself, the divine Mahadeva, the eternal Vishnu, and both Virtue and&#xA;  Sacrifice personified, live together, for as I thought this lady&#xA;  should live there.&lt;/strong&gt; I shall now, from desire of doing myself good,&#xA;  prostrate myself before this holy lady, and pray unto her,&#xA;  saying,--with a heart full of pity, I had, indeed, entertained such a&#xA;  thought. Whether I acted rightly or wrongly, even this was the wish,&#xA;  evidently against thy own, that was cherished by me from my respect&#xA;  for thee. &lt;strong&gt;It behoveth thee, therefore, to grant me forgiveness, from&#xA;  the nobility of thy heart.&lt;/strong&gt;' &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That lady became gratified with that prince of birds&lt;/strong&gt; and that bull of&#xA;  Brahmanas. And addressing Garuda, she said, &lt;strong&gt;'Fear not, O thou of&#xA;  beautiful feathers. Resume thy wings, and cast off thy fears. I was&#xA;  contempted by thee, but know that I do not pardon contempt.&lt;/strong&gt; That&#xA;  sinful being who entertains contempt for me, would speedily fall away&#xA;  from all blissful regions. Without a single inauspicious indication&#xA;  about me, and perfectly blameless as I am, I have, in consequence of&#xA;  the purity of my conduct, attained to high ascetic success. [...] &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Go thou, O blessed prince of birds, whithersoever thou wishest, from&#xA;  this place.&lt;/strong&gt; Never entertain contempt for me, and take care that thou&#xA;  dost not contempt women that may even be truly blamable. &lt;strong&gt;Thou shalt&#xA;  again be, as before, invested with both strength and energy.'&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;At these words of that lady Garuda had his wings again, and they&#xA;  became even stronger than before.&lt;/strong&gt; And then with Sandili's leave,&#xA;  Garuda with Galava on his back took his departure.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[Note: Galava is a friend of Garuda, who was in search of 1000 horses with white body but one black ear. This was asked by Vishwamitra, who was Galava's guru.]&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7075" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-11-07T22:40:53.460" LastActivityDate="2017-11-07T22:40:53.460" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21991" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-07T15:10:29.437" Score="2" ViewCount="1202" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna is only supreme God in Bhagavatam, but Lord Narayana is supreme in the Vedas. Why? Is Lord Krishna only supreme God and not Lord Narayana?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12336" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2017-11-08T17:49:22.047" LastActivityDate="2017-11-08T17:49:22.047" Title="Lord Krishna is the only supreme God in the Srimad Bhagavatam but in the Vedas Lord Narayana is supreme. Why?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|gods|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="8" ClosedDate="2017-11-08T18:51:14.550" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21992" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19860" CreationDate="2017-11-07T16:13:16.543" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;The reason Lord Tvastar created vajra for Indra is discribed  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;  in tattireya samhita of yajur veda kanda 2.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4.12&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Tvastr, his son slain, offered Soma excluding Indra. Indra desired an invitation to the rite, but he did not invite him, (saying), 'Thou hast slain my son.' He made a disturbance of the sacrifice, and forcibly drank the Soma. The remains of it Tvastr cast upon the Ahavaniya (fire), saying, 'Hail! wax great, Indra's foe. While (the fire) was flaming upwards to strike, just then of itself it stayed; whether so much was before &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv02.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;, or so much was over the fire, be sprang up alive and came into union with Agni and Soma. He grew on all sides an arrow(shot), he enveloped these worlds. Because he enveloped these worlds, therefore is Vrtra, Vrtra. &lt;strong&gt;Indra feared him, and Tvastr too;  Tvastr dipped his bolt for him;t&lt;/strong&gt;he bolt was fervour; he could not restrain it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This hymn discribes Onces Tvastar deva  offered soma to devas but he excluded Indra deva cause he had slain his son Visvarupa,But still Indra entered the sacrifice and drank the soma and then Tvastar created vritra but he became so strong that  not only Indra his father Tvastar even become afraid of him!so he created Thunderbolt For Indra deva to kill Vritra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastActivityDate="2017-11-07T16:13:16.543" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21994" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-07T17:34:36.787" Score="3" ViewCount="571" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Yogis and many books like those of Sivananda swami say that practicing pranayam and meditation, one can become more ojasvi day by day. Coming to meditation, what and how should it be done ? There are many ways of meditations, but which is beneficial and best in achieving this state ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, is kriya yoga to be considered meditation or pranayam and how to observe kriya yoga for a total beginner ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12494" LastActivityDate="2018-03-31T09:42:20.170" Title="How to practice meditation to increase Ojas capacity?" Tags="|yoga|meditation|yoga-sutras|bramhacharya|kriyayoga|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="21996" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21692" CreationDate="2017-11-07T18:34:35.897" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Lord Vishnu's incarnations are innumerable, as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/14913/3500&quot;&gt;time is cyclic&lt;/a&gt;. However, we know some incarnations such as &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19956/3500&quot;&gt;24 incarnations&lt;/a&gt; mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam or &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11209/3500&quot;&gt;famous Dasavatara&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-47&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 47&lt;/a&gt; of Matsya Purana&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vayu-mahapurana/text-with-translation/vol-ii/chapter-98/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 36&lt;/a&gt; Part 2 of Vayu Purana&lt;/strong&gt;,  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/skanda-purana/vol-xix/chapter-19/topic-2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 19&lt;/a&gt; of Prabhasa Khanda of Skanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Chapter 73 Upodgatapada of Brahmanda Purana&lt;/strong&gt; mention timeline of  Lord's some Avataras in Chronological order. These four Puranas mention same timeline. I will also mention from &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavata Purana&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Beginning of Sweta Varaha Kalpa and at end of previous Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt; -&#xA;Matsya Avatara to save Vedas from demon Hayagriva. (&lt;strong&gt;Srimad&#xA;Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/8/24/7/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;8.24.7&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/8/24/8/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;8.24.8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;Sweta Varaha Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt; (current Kalpa)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;At beginning of Varaha Kalpa&lt;/strong&gt; - Varaha Avatara. (Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/3/13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;3.13&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;End of Chakshvaku Manvanatara and beginning of Vaisvasvara Manvantara&lt;/strong&gt; - Narayana incarnated as son of Dharma and as Matsya.&#xA;(&lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam &lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/8/24&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;8.24&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/matsya-mahapurana/vol-i/chapter-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt; of Matsya&#xA;Purana&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4th Treta Yuga of Vaivasvara Manvanatra&lt;/strong&gt; - Narasimha Avatara to kill Hiranyakashipu (&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chapter 47 of Matsya Purana and Chapter 36 of Vayu Purana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7th Treta Yuga of Vaivasvara Manvantara&lt;/strong&gt; - Vamana who appeared as Dwarf and seized Asuras with Bali to nether worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;10th Treta Yuga of Vaivasvara Manvantara&lt;/strong&gt; - Dattatreya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;15th Treta Yuga of Vaivasra Manvantara&lt;/strong&gt; - King Mandhata&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;19th Treta yuga of Vaivasvara&lt;/strong&gt; -  Parasurama to destroy evil Kshatriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;24th Treta Yuga of Vaivasvara&lt;/strong&gt; - Ayodhya Rama to kill Ravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;28th Dwapara yuga of Vaivasvara&lt;/strong&gt; - Sri Krishna and Vedavyasa&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;28th Kali yuga of Vaivasvara&lt;/strong&gt; - Buddha&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;End of 28th Kali Yuga of Vaivasvara&lt;/strong&gt; - Kalki&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kurma and Varaha Purana&lt;/strong&gt; don't mention exact times for Kurma and Varaha incarnations.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2021-11-09T15:29:57.973" LastActivityDate="2021-11-09T15:29:57.973" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="21999" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-07T21:20:46.720" Score="8" ViewCount="1340" Body="&lt;p&gt;It is said Shiva is easily pleased as is also His name- &quot;AshuTosha&quot; or &quot;Quickly (Aashu) Satisfied (Tosha)&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But which Scriptures specifically mention that He is the easiest to please or easily pleased than rest of Gods&lt;/strong&gt;. Such lines are there in each Purana of other Gods too saying that the particular deity of Puraana is easily pleased. So why is it said &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'Shiva is easiest to please than others and rest of Gods'.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-11-11T16:12:42.710" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T15:04:51.407" Title="Which Scriptures say Shiva is easily pleased than rest of Gods?" Tags="|scripture|shiva|belief|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22000" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-07T22:39:51.910" Score="1" ViewCount="35" Body="&lt;p&gt;Unlike Vishnu Lord Shiva had no incarnations ? If he did then apart from the Rudra in the form of Hanuman what other forms did Lord Shiva incarnate as ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10397" LastActivityDate="2017-11-07T22:39:51.910" Title="Is it true Lord Shiva had incarnations too?" Tags="|vishnu|shiva|shiva-purana|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ClosedDate="2017-11-08T03:48:37.803" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22003" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22007" CreationDate="2017-11-08T01:01:32.827" Score="6" ViewCount="344" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Sutras&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; page on Brahma Sutras says there are 555 verses. In the book that I have, &lt;em&gt;Brahma Sutras According to Sri Ramanuja, by Swami Vireswarananda and Swami Adidevananda, published by Advaita Ashrama&lt;/em&gt;, it says there are 544 verses. This &lt;a href=&quot;https://ruthaavaree.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/pancharatra-narayachar-annualdinner.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;summary&lt;/a&gt; of pancharatra agamas says there are 565. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, how many Brahma Sutras are there, and do some people consider a different amount because of lost verses?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-08T05:27:52.613" LastActivityDate="2017-11-08T05:27:52.613" Title="How many Brahma Sutras are there?" Tags="|scripture|vedanta|sri-vaishnava|brahma-sutras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22004" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21991" CreationDate="2017-11-08T04:55:39.223" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;Both names refer to the same Divine Person. In the &lt;em&gt;Mahanarayana Upanishad&lt;/em&gt; 1.29 it says (Swami Vimalananda translator):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;May we know Narayana. For that, may we meditate on Vasudeva. May Visnu impel us towards it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and Vimalananda's commentary on this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;the Highest Person here is supplicated as Narayana, Vasudeva, and Visnu. Until and unless He impels the individual Soul, it cannot contemplate Him, and without contemplation on Him, His true nature cannot be understood. the etymological meanings of the three epithets, are given at length in the &lt;em&gt;bhasyas&lt;/em&gt; on the &lt;em&gt;Gita&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Visnusahasranama&lt;/em&gt;. Bhattabhaskara's explanation of these words in the Visnugayatri is noteworthy. He derives &lt;em&gt;Narayana&lt;/em&gt; thus: The term Nara, being derived from the root &lt;em&gt;nr&lt;/em&gt; to lead, means the leader of all creation. Nara derived from the above word denotes his offsprings. Narayana therefore, is the effective cause of all creatures. Thus Narayana is Paramatman. He is called Vasudeva in his immanent aspect, i.e., dwelling in all creatures as Antaryamin. The term Visnu implies His all-pervasiveness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;various are Thy names, O Lord, in each and every name Thy power resides...&quot; - Sri Chaitanya  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-11-08T04:55:39.223" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22006" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-08T05:13:05.047" Score="10" ViewCount="521" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vayu-mahapurana/text-with-translation/vol-ii/chapter-71/topic-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vayu Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; mentions Parvati as having four sisters:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;मैनाकचैव दौहित्रो दौहित्री च तथा ह्युमा ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;एकपर्णा तथा चैव तथा या चैकपाटला ॥  ४ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;गङ्गा चैव सरिच्छ्रेष्ठा सर्वासां पूर्वजा तथा ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;पूर्वमेव मयोद्दिष्टं शृणुत्वं मम सर्वशः ॥ ५ ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;(Who are the Pitrs) whose grandson was Maināka and whose grand-daughters were Umā, Ekaparnā, Ekapātala and Gargā, the excellent among all rivers and the ancestral domain of all? As enunciated by me earlier, you may know that all (again).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also came across the following passage in the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/TheMahabharata_201707/TheMahabharata_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harivamsha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The king of the mountains had three daughters through Mena: Aparna, Ekaparna and Ekapatala as the third. These three performed austerities that were extremely difficult even for the gods and the danavas. They thus&#xA;tormented the worlds, with their mobile and immobile objects. &lt;strong&gt;Ekaparna&lt;/strong&gt; had only a single leaf for food. &lt;strong&gt;Ekapatala&lt;/strong&gt; only ate a single patala flower. One of them ate nothing at all. Miserable and driven by maternal affection, her mother said, “Uma” and tried to restrain her. The goddess, the performer of extremely difficult austerities, was thus addressed by her mother. In the three worlds, the beautiful one came to be known as Uma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The great-souled and intelligent Asita-Devala was a great brahmana and a preceptor of yoga. Ekaparna was given to him as a wife.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Know that, in a similar way, Ekapatala was bestowed on Jaigishavya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We know enough stories about Ganga but does any other scripture mention any details about the other two sisters of Uma and their spouses?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="29157" LastEditDate="2023-05-13T14:56:34.253" LastActivityDate="2023-05-30T18:49:45.517" Title="What do we know of the lives of Parvati's sisters Ekaparna &amp; Ekapatala?" Tags="|rishi|parvati|goddess|devi|harivamsa|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22007" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22003" CreationDate="2017-11-08T05:18:41.057" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;In his &lt;em&gt;Introduction&lt;/em&gt; to his translation of Ramanuja's &lt;em&gt;Sri Bhasya&lt;/em&gt;, Swami Vireswarananda writes (p xxviii):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It has already been stated that the &lt;em&gt;Sutra&lt;/em&gt; literature, owing to its extreme brevity of thought, is unintelligible. This difficulty becomes greatly enhanced in the absence of an unbroken tradition. While there is an accepted tradition as regards the the division into Chapters (Adhyayas) and Sections (Padas), there is no such tradition as regards the division into topics (Adhikaranas), nor as regards the texts of the Scriptures (Sruti) that are discussed therein. Again, the same &lt;em&gt;Sutra&lt;/em&gt; sometimes yields just the opposite meaning by a mere shifting of the stops, e.g., Sankara's and Ramanuja's commentaries on III.ii.11. The total number of &lt;em&gt;Sutras&lt;/em&gt;, too, differs in the various commentaries, and sometimes a single &lt;em&gt;Sutra&lt;/em&gt; is split into two, or two &lt;em&gt;Sutras&lt;/em&gt; are combined into one, or a &lt;em&gt;Sutra&lt;/em&gt; is dropped, or a new one added. The readings of the &lt;em&gt;Sutras&lt;/em&gt; also differ in the various commentaries and the addition of a single [Sanskrit] letter like (but), (and), or (the negative) makes the meaning completely different. Some of the words, too, used in the &lt;em&gt;Sutras&lt;/em&gt; are very ambiguous, for in the Upanishads themselves they convey different meanings in different places. All this gives the commentaries freedom to interpret the &lt;em&gt;Sutras&lt;/em&gt; according to their predilections.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-11-08T05:18:41.057" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22010" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22024" CreationDate="2017-11-08T13:34:45.883" Score="8" ViewCount="14145" Body="&lt;p&gt;I heard a supposedly Puranic story that &lt;strong&gt;onions and garlic&lt;/strong&gt; originated from meat and bone of a cow respectively after her death. For this reason, onions and garlic are therefore considered as non vegetarian food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I couldn't get the full story from some of my villagers from whom I heard this from.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I wish to know the full story. It might be written in some Purana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12071" LastEditorUserId="12071" LastEditDate="2017-11-17T23:54:57.133" LastActivityDate="2017-11-17T23:54:57.133" Title="How are onions and garlic to be considered as non vegetarian food?" Tags="|puranas|non-vegetarian|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22012" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="5482" CreationDate="2017-11-08T15:03:45.547" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The existence of the Universe consists of 3 equal parts, namely, Pradhama Parardha (First period of activity), Kshaya Kalpa (Great delusion) and Dviteeya Parardha (Second period of activity). It is 2 days and one night --- all three are of equal duration of 4.32 billion years. Kshaya kalpa and Dviteeya Parardha is called Sveta Varaha Kalpa. Thu, the existence of the Universe is 12.96 billion years and the science starting with a modest figure of 4.5 billion ears went up to 15 billion years and finally came down to about 13 billion years, a figure very close to the value of 12.96 bn years of Hindu cosmology. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12508" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-11-08T16:01:30.437" LastActivityDate="2017-11-08T16:01:30.437" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22013" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-08T15:35:40.100" Score="4" ViewCount="1049" Body="&lt;p&gt;The three eye God is famous for his penance most. At time of penance his eyes remain close and time duration of his penance is also extremely long. But I heard an incident in which Parvati asked Shiva to close his eyes. Then whole universe turned dark. Even Sun's light turned off. Then Shiva did open his third eye and all universe become light up again. He didn't open his two eyes because Paravati asked to close them but didn't say anything about third eye so Shiva opened that eye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then Parvati was also suprised by seeing that Shiva opened his third eye. She asked to open his eyes again. Then he closed his third eye only after open his primary two eyes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Parvati asked to Shiva, Why you open your third eye? What was need to open it? Then Shiva told, It can never happen when I close my all eyes from this world. I have to always keep one eye open to see the world. I can't turn my eye off from this world. If in any case I have to close my eyes for some reason then its becomes mandatory to open my third eye.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this is really true then what about time of penance? On penance he sure remains close his two eyes but is third eye remain open when Shiva does penance? Do scriptures says something about his third eye? Is it true Shiva keep one eye open even in penance? Or penance is exception?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="9681" LastEditorUserId="9681" LastEditDate="2017-11-11T15:17:10.653" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T15:17:10.653" Title="Does one eye of Lord Shiva always remain open?" Tags="|shiva|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22014" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22015" CreationDate="2017-11-08T16:00:13.483" Score="1" ViewCount="323" Body="&lt;p&gt;The school of Dvaita philosophy of Madhvacharya believes that Brahman is not the material cause of the universe, but only the efficient cause. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But at the end of chapter 2, section 2, the Brahma Sutras refute the Pasupata school partly on the grounds that it rejects Brahman as being the material cause of the universe. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If this is the case, how can the Dvaita school support the Brahma Sutras? In other words, how do they interpret the sutras where it suggests Brahman being the material cause?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2017-11-08T16:04:21.880" LastActivityDate="2017-11-08T17:04:54.977" Title="How do Dvaitins interpret the Brahma Sutras where it says Brahman is the material cause of the universe?" Tags="|vedas|vedanta|brahma-sutras|dvaita|madhvacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22015" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22014" CreationDate="2017-11-08T16:03:18.410" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here is how the Dvaita philosopher Madhvacharya interprets various parts of the Brahma Sutras which other commentators interpret as saying that Brahman rather than Prakriti is the material cause of the Universe:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most commentators interpret Adhyaya 1 Pada 1 Sutra 5 as rejecting the view that Prakriti is the material cause of the Universe spoken of as Brahman in the Upanishads:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;īkṣaterna aśabdam&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Pradhana of the Samkhyas is not the cause of the universe, because it is not mentioned in the Upanishads, which fact is clear from the fact of seeing (or thinking).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now Madhvacharya would agree that Prakriti is not the one referred to as Brahman in the Upanishads, but he also believed that Prakriti is the material cause of the Universe.  In any case, he interprets the Sutra completely differently than others; he &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/9/items/BrahmasutraMadhvaEnglish/Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_jp2/Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_0081.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;thinks&lt;/a&gt; it's saying that Brahman is perceptible:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;He (by virtue of the initiation received) from the most exalted of souls sees the perfect Being, the Lord of lords pervading all bodies.  He shall find the Lord within himself.  Having received a clear notion from the preceptor or by means of Scripture, he shall endeavor after direct realisation.&quot; From these and like statements, it being declared as perceptible, is positively declared by the word. Since it is a thing revealed by the Upanishads, it's perception cannot arise by means other than words.... The statement that Brahman is indescribable, etc., however proceeds from the absence of thorough comprehension of Brahman.... &lt;strong&gt;The interpretation put by other (commentators) upon the word Asabda in this Sutra cannot be justified.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most commentators consider Adhyaya 1 Pada 4 Sutra 23 as saying that Brahman is the material cause of the Universe:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;prakṛtiśca pratijñādṛṣṭāntānuparodhāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brahman must be the material cause as well, so as not to contradict the proposition and the illustration.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Madhvacharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/9/items/BrahmasutraMadhvaEnglish/Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_jp2/Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_0150.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;interprets&lt;/a&gt; this Sutra as saying the word Prakriti is a name of Brahman (in addition to being a name of the entity posited by the Samkhya school):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That also the words denoting feminine things primarily declare the Lord only, the Sutrakara says[.]... &quot;Verily this person alone all the names declare; just as all the rivers going to the sea, flow towards and enter it, so do all names enter and declare the Perfect Being.&quot; Thus agreeably to the argument and illustration given, the same Lord is necessarily denoted by the word Prakriti also.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most commentators interpret Adhyaya 2 Pada 1 Sutra 1 as saying that the view that Brahman is the material cause should not be rejected just to avoid contradicting the Smritis of the Samkhya school, because that rejecting that view would require contradicting other Smritis:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;smṛtyanavakāśadoṣaprasaṅga iti cet na anyasmṛtyanavakāśadoṣaprasaṅgāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If it be argued (that from the acceptance of Brahman as the cause of the universe) arises the defect of the (Samkhya) Smritis being left without any scope, then not so, for otherwise will arise the defect of other Smritis losing their scope.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Madhvacharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/9/items/BrahmasutraMadhvaEnglish/Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_jp2/Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_0154.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;interprets&lt;/a&gt; this Sutra as saying that the Vedas should not be rejected just because they contradict Smritis composed by Shiva, instead the Vedas should be accepted because they're consistent with the Smritis composed by Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;(It may be stated that) Rudra and others are known to be perfectly wise; hence being contradictory to their statements, Scriptures should lose its authoritativeness. But this cannot be, because there are other Smritis derived from Vishnu and others who are absolutely perfect in wisdom; hence the superiority of Scripture becomes settled.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most commentators interpret Adhyaya 2 Pada 1 Sutra 3 as saying that the Yoga school is wrong because just like the Samkhya school, it thinks that Prakriti is the material cause of the Universe:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;etena yogaḥ pratyuktaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hereby is refuted Yoga.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Madhvacharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/9/items/BrahmasutraMadhvaEnglish/Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_jp2/Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_0155.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;interprets&lt;/a&gt; it as saying that the Yoga school is wrong because just like the Smritis composed by Shiva, it promises results which do not materialize in the time promised:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is not to be supposed that the fruit of Yoga practice is in actual experience; for though the practice is made according to injunctions, the effect is not realised exactly in the declared periods of time&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most commentators interpret Adhyaya 2 Pada 1 Sutra 6 as saying that the fact that Brahman and the world are dissimilar does not imply that Brahman cannot be the material cause of the world, because we see other examples where the material cause is dissimilar from its effect:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;dṛśyate tu&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But it is seen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But Madhvacharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/9/items/BrahmasutraMadhvaEnglish/Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_jp2/Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_0156.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;interprets&lt;/a&gt; this Sutra as saying that the powers of the Devas are seen by Rishis:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Their superior power is seen by the Great. Also in the Bhavishya Purana, it is said, &quot;the Deities presiding over the Earth, etc., are of great powers, which are conceivable, and as such, they are (actually) seen by sages. And they who are present everywhere, eternally depend on Vasudeva.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most commentators interpret Adhyaya 2 Pada 2 Sutra 41 as saying that the worldview of the Shaiva Agamas is wrong because by saying that Shiva is the efficient cause but not the material cause of the Universe, it would either imply that Shiva is mortal or that Shiva is not omniscient:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;antavattvamasarvajñatā vā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;God will be subject to finitude or loss of omniscience.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Surprisingly, Madhvacharya &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia601606.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/9/items/BrahmasutraMadhvaEnglish/Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_jp2/Brahmasutra%20Madhva%20English_0189.jp2&amp;amp;scale=8&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;interprets&lt;/a&gt; the Sutra the same way, but he thinks that this objection does not apply if Shiva is replaced by Vishnu:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For if he should have a body, then his existence would also be limited as that of Yagnadatta.  If not, there would result the absence of knowledge. For observation shows that endowed with a body and organs acquires knowledge.  But in the case of Vishnu all objections and difficulties are removed by scripture itself as follows: &quot;Of what is the glorious Lord made?  (Of that) His form is made for of what is the Lord made? He consists of intelligence and glorious power.&quot; &quot;We now tell you of the Lord's being endowed with knowledge, mind, body, and limbs; He is of imperishable body; He is fragrance; He is radiant with knowledge; He is of unthwarted prowess, of immense wisdom, of immense bliss; He is the Lord Vishnu, supreme and imperishable&quot;, and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These are just a representative sample of the Sutras that assert that Brahman is the material cause.  Bottom line, the way Madhvacharya can claim consistency with the Vedanta school is by interpreting the Sutras of the Brahma Sutras dramatically differently than other commentators, to the point where all other commentators think a Sutra is about one topic but Madhvacharya thinks it's about a totally unrelated topic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-08T17:04:54.977" LastActivityDate="2017-11-08T17:04:54.977" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22016" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-08T16:12:57.863" Score="6" ViewCount="393" Body="&lt;p&gt;As I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;this question&lt;/a&gt;, by far the most popular school of Hindu philosophy is the Vedanta school, which bases its tenets on the doctrines laid out in the Brahma Sutras, a work by the sage Vyasa that summarizes and systematizes the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads. You can read the Brahma Sutras &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. In any case, in Adhyaya 3 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras, Vyasa says &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3797/36&quot;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;53&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;eka ātmanaḥ śarīre bhāvāt  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some deny the existence of the soul, its existence being dependent on the existence of the body.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;54&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;vyatirekastadbhāvabhāvitvānna tūpalabdhivat  &lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But this is not so; there is a distinction (between the soul and the body) because consciousness may not exist even when the body exists, as it is in the case of perception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This translation is written from the viewpoint of the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, who believed that Sutra 53 is presenting the view of the Charvaka school that the soul is the same as the body, and that Sutra 54 is presenting a logical argument that there exists a soul which is different from the body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But most commentators on the Brahma Sutras do not think that these Sutras have anything to do with the soul being different from the body.  For instance Ramanujacharya thinks that these Sutras are about the fact that during meditation, one must conceive of one's own soul in its released state, not its state while inhabiting a body; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48435.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya.  And Nimbarka and Srikantha Sivacharya agree with him, as you can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/UoVa&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/yfYmr.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is, how do Vedantic philosophies other than Advaita, like Dvaita, Visistadvaita, Achintya Bhedabheda, etc. prove that there exists a soul different from the body?  I'm particularly interested in whether they think Anumana or inference is sufficient to prove it, or whether Sabda Pramana or scriptural testimony is required.  Most of the Astika schools other than the Vedanta school believe it can be proven through Anumana as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/22288/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Now as I discuss in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21976/36&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, the Vedanta school believes that the existence of Brahman cannot be proven through Anumana, but only through Sabda Pramana.  But it may be that the existence of the Jivatma requires different means of proof than the existence of Brahman.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-23T05:54:05.907" Title="How do different Vedantic philosophies prove the existence of the soul?" Tags="|philosophy|vedanta|atma|brahma-sutras|jiva|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22017" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-08T16:52:58.183" Score="3" ViewCount="2147" Body="&lt;p&gt;Madhvacharya is the proponent of the Dvaita school of Vedanta philosophy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This school, unlike the other schools of Vedanta, believes:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;God, souls, and the universe are all eternally distinct and&#xA;separate.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Souls can be trapped in hell for eternity.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Souls have their own nature. There are &quot;good souls&quot;, &quot;ok souls&quot;, and&#xA;&quot;bad souls&quot; that God creates. These souls are destined to heaven,&#xA;eternal transmigration, or eternal hell, respectively.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;These beliefs are almost identical to the Abrahamic religions, with a slight Vedantic twist. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Madhvacharya lived from 1238 to 1317, when Islam started making its way into south India and started converting people. Is it possible that he tweaked Vedantic teachings to cater towards converts to Islam, in the hopes that they return to Vedanta?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is similar to the commonly held belief by most previous Acharyas (Ramanujacharya, etc) that Shankaracharya of the Advaita Vedanta school, who lived when Buddhism was very popular, was preaching Vedanta that was very similar to Buddhism, leading people of later times to think that he was doing so in order to bring followers of Buddhism back to Vedanta. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is also similar to a much more recent claim, that Swami Vivekananda was preaching a form of Vedanta that was highly politicized and fitting for its time (early 1900s India), with claims like &quot;all religions are the same&quot;, &quot;castes are discriminatory so abolish it&quot;, &quot;Hinduism is pro women&quot;, &quot;Yugas and kalpas aren't true&quot; (because it conflicted with Darwinism).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, is it possible that Madhvacharya was influenced by Islam, or at least took into consideration?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there any works in which Madhvacharya speaks about Islam? Or did he arrive at his Vedantic conclusions solely through an independent study of the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE&lt;/strong&gt;: I am not disparaging Madhvacharya. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastActivityDate="2023-02-20T02:51:39.133" Title="Was Madhvacharya influenced by Islam or another Abrahamic religion?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|vedanta|dvaita|madhvacharya|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22019" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22022" CreationDate="2017-11-08T17:17:29.377" Score="4" ViewCount="480" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%ABm%C4%81%E1%B9%83s%C4%81&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Purva Mimamsa&lt;/a&gt; was a school of Hindu philosophy that accepted the authority of the Vedas, but believed that following Dharma and doing rituals was the goal of life, and not gaining knowledge and meditating on Brahman to attain Moksha. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I know they considered anything other than injunctions to perform rituals as useless statements or as statements motivating you to perform the rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But did they believe that Brahman actually exists? What was their view on Brahman?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-09T09:19:56.103" LastActivityDate="2018-03-12T08:04:04.473" Title="Did the Purva Mimamsa school believe that Brahman exists?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|brahman|purva-mimamsa|shad-darshana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22020" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9520" CreationDate="2017-11-08T17:29:11.907" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is also a tradition in Bihar which is called Chhati in which the birth of a child is celebrated after six days of birth.There are various folk-songs in Maithili, Angika, Bhojpuri and Maghadhi which clearly indicate that the Chhat is the celebration of the birth of Sun and most of women folk bear the great hardship of this Vrat for the well being of their children. And they wish their children should be like this Sun. This is the most popular festival celebrated with great sanctity by people and in this brahmin/priest or scripture have no role to play. It is played by a very ancient folk memory. The question arises from which period this memory comes in and why this memory is confined to the ancient Ang and Maghadh only.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The first question could be answered with the help of Rigveda in which great gods like Varuna, Yama and Indra were equated with Sun. Particularly Indra was worshiped as Sun (ref. RV.8.1(29). whose birth as Sun can be traced after his slaying of the most powerfull Vritra and establishing virtuous rule and rulership for society. Thus the festival of Diwali could be assumed as the victory of Indra over Vritra which is the day of birth of Sun (Indra) and the Chhat is the celebration of his birth exactly after six days. Later Hinduism forgot Indra and replaced his name with the avatara of Vishnu. But Diwali being a RigVedic tradition is celebrated by Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs as well.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second question why only Ang and Maghadh retained those memory- because Indra belonged to Magh tribe of RigVeda and greatly helped by Ang. Many would raise question if Magh and Ang were really RigVedic tribes. I would raise and answer this question seperately soon&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastActivityDate="2017-11-08T17:29:11.907" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22021" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-08T17:35:16.577" Score="2" ViewCount="1053" Body="&lt;p&gt;Advaitins Sanyasis are usually eka-dandi sanyasis while Vaishnava Sanyasis (including Gaudiya Vaishnava Sanyasis) are usually tri-dandi sanyasis. However, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a Gaudiya Vaishnava and like most Vaishnavas, an opponent of Advaita Vedanta. However, He was an eka-dandi Sanyasi. What is the reason for this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-11-08T17:35:16.577" Title="Why was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu an eka-dandi sanyasi despite being a Gaudiya Vaishnava?" Tags="|advaita|chaitanya|gaudiya-vaishnavism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22022" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22019" CreationDate="2017-11-08T18:47:44.673" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Purva Mimamsa school was divided on the existence of Brahman. But one thing they all agreed on was tha Brahman (if Brahman even existed) was neither the creator of the Universe, nor the author of the Vedas, nor even omniscient. In fact, they didn't even believe the Universe is ever created or destroyed! Here is what the Purva Mimamsa philosopher Kumarila Bhatta says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/n1W1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Shloka Vartika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And as for the fixing [of the meaning of words] at the beginning of Creation, - we do not admit of any such time (the world being eternal and as such having no beginning in time). [Objection:] &quot;But, if there be such a Person as would create the world, and then set going the processes of Dharma and Adharma, and the uses and relations of words, for the sake of the world,—then, such a fact Would not in any way vitiate the Veda.&quot; Reply: Yet this theory is as difficult to prove, as an omniscient person; hence we have not admitted it. At a time when all this did not exist, what could have been the condition of the universe? As for Prajapati himself, what could be his position? And what his form? And at that time who would know Him and explain His character to the later created persons? Without perception, how can we determine this? Then again, in what manner do you believe the world to have had a beginning in time? Since Prajapati is without a material body, etc., how could He have any desire towards creation? And if He has a body, assuredly this body could not have been created by Himself; thus then we would have to postulate another creator. If Prajapati's body be held to be eternal, then - so long as earth [has] not been produced, of what material would that body be composed? Then again, in the first place, how is it that He should have a desire to create a world which is to be fraught with all sorts of troubles to living beings? For at that time he has not got any guiding agencies, in the shape of the virtue, etc., of the living beings themselves. Nor can any creator create any thing, in the absence of means and instruments. Even the production of the spider's net is not held to be without some sort of a basis; as the saliva, which is produced out of the body of the animals eaten (by the spider). In the absence of objects of compassion, no Pity could be possible for Him. And if He were urged to creations by pure compassion, then He would create only happy being. If it be urged that &quot; without some pain, neither the creation nor the continuation of the world would be possible,&quot; - then when everything depends upon the mere will of the Creator Himself, what could be impossible for Him? And if He were to depend upon Laws and Agencies, then this fact would deprive Him of His independence. What is that end which He desires, and which could not be gained without creating the world? For without some end in view, even a fool does not act. Then if He were to act so, then what would be the good of his intelligence? If the activity of the Creator were due to a desire for mere amusement, then that would go against his ever-contentedness. And the great amount of work would be a source of infinite trouble to Him. And His desire to destroy the world too would be hardly explicable. And such a Creator could never be known by anybody. Even if He were known in form, the fact of His being the Creator could never be known. Because, at that time what could the living beings, appearing at the beginning of creation, understand? They could not understand where from they have been born; nor could they know the state of the world prior to creation, or the fact of Prajapati being the Creator. Nor could the idea that they would derive from His own assertion (with regard to His being the Creator), be altogether trustworthy; because even though He may not have created the world, He might speak of having done so, in order to show off His great power. In the same manner the Veda that would proceed from him would only be doubtful, and hence could not be admitted as a sure proof of His existence. And as for that which is eternal, how could it make a mention? For, if the Veda existed before the objects (created), then there can be no connection between this (Veda) and the objects created. Therefore the passages must be interpreted as praising up something else.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But some Mimamsakas like Kumarila Bhatta, Laugakshi Bhaskara, and Apadeva did believe in some notion of Brahman.  For instance in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/XByD&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Tantra Vartika, Kumarila Bhatta connects Moksha to the attainment of Brahman:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As for the knowledge of Self; both by Conjunction and Disjunction it is found to help the sacrifice as well as the Person; because unless are knows his self (to be something other than the body that perishes) he would never undertake the sacrifices whose results are said to accrue to the man in another birth. And then again, such passages as - &quot;the Self free from all evil...is to be sought after, etc.,&quot; &quot;one should worship the Self&quot; - lay down the knowledge of Self as accomplished by a process accompanied by due reflection, etc.; and then from such knowledge, we find that there accrues to the agents both kinds of result - Happiness as well as final Deliverance, as is shown by the following passages: - &quot;He obtains all worlds and all desires, passes beyond all sorrow, etc., etc.,&quot; - which speaks of all the eight perfections of Yoga accruing to the person knowing the self; and the passage - &quot;passing his life thus he, after death, reaches the regions of Brahma, and from there he never returns&quot; - &lt;strong&gt;which points to the attainment of the Supreme Self (Final Deliverance) also as following from a due knowledge of the Self&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/vUSi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;another excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from the Tantra Vartika, Kumarila Bhatta says that Brahman is the soul of the Vedas:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Or again, the &quot;Intention&quot; or &quot;Non-intention&quot; spoken of might refer to the Intelligences ensouling the various Vedic collections, Rigveda and the rest[.]... &lt;strong&gt;And the Veda also, which is spoken of the &quot;Sabda-Brahma&quot;, is ensouled by a single Great Soul&lt;/strong&gt;; and hence the Rigveda etc., which are spoken of separately, all belong to the soul, and are endowed with conscious intelligence.... In this manner, it is quite possible to attribute, on the strength of the potency of the injunctive, the said &quot;Intention&quot; and &quot;Non-intention&quot; to the soul of &quot;Sabda-Brahma&quot;, which pervades all the Vedas; and there is nothing incongruous in speaking of &quot;Intention&quot; and &quot;Non-intention&quot;, even in the direct sense of these words, with reference to the Veda, which is beginningless and endless.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word being translated as &quot;Great Soul&quot; is Paramatma.  In any case, the Purva Mimamsa philosophers Laugakshi Bhaskara and Apadeva, who were followers of Kumarila Bhatta, ascribe one more role to Brahman: namely, they think that devotional service to Brahman leads to Moksha.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/iEmB&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Laugakshi Bhaskara says in the end of his Artha Sangraha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus we have established that the entire veda which consists of sentences like &quot;he whe is desirous of paradise is to sacrifice etc.&quot; immediately or mediately effects duty (dharma) consisting in sacrifices etc. Such (acts of) duty if done with a view to that (result) with a view to which they are enjoined are the cause of that particular result; if done with the intention of making of them an offer ing to God (ishvara) they aro the cause of the highest beatitude. Nor can it be said that there is no authority for performing such acts with the intention of making of them an offering to God; for the following passage of the Bhagavadgita furnishes the required authority &quot;whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you sacrifice, whatever you give, whatever you do in way of penance, Kaunntaya, do it all as an offering to me.&quot; And the authoritativeness of Smriti is established in the pada treating of Smriti (I. 3.) by the argument of its boing based on Shruti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/pg8a&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; is what Apadeva says in the end of his Mimamsa Nyaya Prakasha:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And this duty, when it is performed with a view to that with a view to which it is enjoined, produces that (promist fruit). But performed with the intention to offer it to the Exalted Govinda, it produces supreme beatitude. And there is no lack of authority for performing it with the intention of offering it to Him. Because there is the traditional statement: &quot;Whatever tho doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest as oblation or givest in gifts, whatever penance thou doest, Son of Kuntï, that do as an offering to Me.&quot; And because this (statement) is valid authority, like the smriti-prescription of the Eighth-lunar-day-rite etc. This is set forth in full elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the related topic of how the Purva Mimamsa school viewed the Devas, see my answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21116/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; as well as &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/HxAh&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this journal paper&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-03-12T08:04:04.473" LastActivityDate="2018-03-12T08:04:04.473" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22023" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-08T18:56:25.413" Score="3" ViewCount="88" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are various tribes of RigVeda is described in later scriptures but none of them mentions Ang and Magh as RigVedic tribe. Most of the scriptures mentions Maghadh (whose inhabitants are called Magh) and Ang as area/ country located in present Bihar,but not recognised as RigVedic. Even in AtharvaVeda Maghadh is considered to be outside of RigVedic Aryan sphere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But RigVeda is a text of very ancient origin and consisting of a language from which classical Sanskrit emerged.Yet Sanskrit helps us only in a limited way to understand RigVedic language because it contains a large number of archaic words and uses. The best way to understand RigVeda is to derive the meaning of words from the internal structure of its corpus. Many words are repeated at several places and it gives us an opportunity to extract a viable meaning by extrapolating the contexts. Magh and Ang are two words here which appears quite frequently in RigVeda and mostly meaning as tribes of great importance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question here is - Can it be proved or disproved that Magh and Ang are tribes from the facts described in Rigveda only?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastActivityDate="2017-11-08T18:56:25.413" Title="Are 'Magh' and 'Ang' tribes of RigVeda?" Tags="|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22024" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22010" CreationDate="2017-11-09T00:32:42.603" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://premabhakti.wordpress.com/2011/05/01/why-no-onion-and-garlic/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Why No Onion and No Garlic in Goodness Diet?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Once, in Satya Yuga the rishis were performing gomedha and asvamedha sacrifices for the welfare of the whole universe. A cow or a horse would be cut into pieces and placed in the fire. Afterwards the rishis would utter mantras and the same animal would come alive in a beautiful young body. One time the rishi who was about to perform a gomedha sacrifice, his wife was pregnant. She had a very strong desire to eat and she had heard that if, during pregnancy one has a desire to eat and does not fulfill this, then the baby that will be born will always have saliva coming from its mouth. Very strangely, she desired strongly to eat meat, thus she decided to keep one piece of meat of the cow’s body that was offered in sacrifice. She hid it and was making a plan to eat it very soon. At that time the rishi was finishing the sacrifice and uttered all the mantras for the new young cow tocome to life. However when he saw the new cow, he noticed that there was a little part missing from her left side. He went into meditation and realized that his wife had taken away a piece of meat during the sacrifice. Now his wife also understood what happened and quickly threw the meat far away in a field. Due to the effect of the mantras uttered by the rishi there was now life in this piece of meat. Then the bones in that piece of meat became garlic and the meat became onions in that field. Thus these foods are never taken by any Vaishnava devotee because it is not vegetarian. Plus it is in the mode of ignorance.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Don't know which purana it is from.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From practical/scientific standpoint, they are considered non-vegetarian because they have similar effect on body - they incite nervous system &amp;amp; stimulate sexual desires. In fact, garlic is prescribed as medication for men for sexual imbalances.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4435" LastEditorUserId="11648" LastEditDate="2017-11-09T03:26:21.817" LastActivityDate="2017-11-09T03:26:21.817" CommentCount="20" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22025" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22010" CreationDate="2017-11-09T04:08:53.583" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Just answering the title Qn. Not sure about any other stories.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Onion&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Garlic&lt;/a&gt; are &lt;strong&gt;vegetarian food&lt;/strong&gt;, even more than milk &amp;amp; honey, which are animal byproducts. Onion-Garlic are vegetables &amp;amp; also biologically related to each other. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Vegetarian food = Food derived from vegetation&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;hr&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, onion and garlic in their row forms are &lt;strong&gt;not considered &lt;em&gt;sAtvika&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. Hence, they are not offered to god's idol during worshipping. As discussed in &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/20304/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt;, they can be termed as &lt;em&gt;rAjasika&lt;/em&gt; foods due to strong taste &amp;amp; smell; which also boosts certain emotion in the body.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Anything stale (veg or non-veg) can be termed as &lt;em&gt;tAmasika&lt;/em&gt; food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-11-09T04:08:53.583" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22026" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22010" CreationDate="2017-11-09T05:51:40.553" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Please find the link &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-17-07.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, which describes the food which is we need to accept and description from the link says as Onion and Garlic are very pungent. So they are not considered as satwik food. But they are vegetables.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;--Jai Jagannath&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12511" LastEditorUserId="12511" LastEditDate="2017-11-10T07:10:08.093" LastActivityDate="2017-11-10T07:10:08.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22027" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22010" CreationDate="2017-11-09T06:20:33.917" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, there are certain food items which are considered as &lt;code&gt;Amisha&lt;/code&gt; Dravya. They are prohibited to be consumed during Vratas or while performing Purascharana or during Asaucha (birth-death impurity) period or on the day before a fast or other similar times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, there are certain food items called &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.org/index.php?mode=3&amp;amp;script=hk&amp;amp;tran_input=havishya&amp;amp;direct=au&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;code&gt;Havisya&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Dravya which are just the opposite of Amisha and which are fit to be consumed during the aforementioned times.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have the book &quot;Nitya Karma PujA Paddhati&quot; (similar to the Hindi book Nitya Karma PujA PrakAsh) which describes &quot;Amisha Dravya Nirupanam&quot; (Determination of Amisha substances) as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Meat, fish, betel leaves, onion, garlic, red spinach, a kind of lemon&#xA;  and all smoked/burnt food items are considered Amisha for Hindu purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Few Havishya Dravyas, on the other hand, are:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Rice (the &quot;Atap&quot; variety). ghee, cow's milk, curd, barley, certain&#xA;  root vegetables, mango, sugarcane, amlaki, haritaki, banana, red salt&#xA;  etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the problem will arise if you translate &lt;a href=&quot;http://spokensanskrit.org/index.php?mode=3&amp;amp;script=hk&amp;amp;tran_input=amisha&amp;amp;direct=au&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Amisha&quot;&lt;/a&gt; as non-vegetarian. Clearly, for example, betel leaf is not non-vegetarian by the definition of the English words, but it is still considered as Amisha substance for Hindu purposes. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;NOte- This is only a partial answer.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-11-09T07:13:02.027" LastActivityDate="2017-11-09T07:13:02.027" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22028" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="8980" CreationDate="2017-11-09T07:12:00.147" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yuga's are counted in Divine Years. Anything Divine is within you. The basis of time starts with a breathe and ends when there is no breathe as far as a human life is concerned.  If the divine within you is strong you live longer otherwise it is not so.  The concept of Yuga is clearly explained by Bhishma Pitamahan in his discussion with Yudhistra and also by Sri Krishna  before the war. Generally I see people in this forum commenting on all kind of concepts without any grounding in Jyotish. Jyotish is the eye of the Vedas. 99% of Vedas is Jyotish. The Itihaas and Puranas are a way of putting a context into jyotish for learning. When people read and interpret  Itihaas and Puranas without studying Jyotish we end up creating more perception than reality. The planetary motion decides the yuga and can change from time to time and at the time scale specified for the specific type of being. People who understand Jyotish will get this point. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma's quote below from SECTION CXLI of Mahabharata:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Bhishma said, 'O mighty-armed one, the peace and prosperity of&#xA;  subjects,[425] sufficiency and seasonableness of rain, disease, death&#xA;  and other fears, are all dependent on the king.[426] I have no doubt&#xA;  also in this. O bull of Bharata's race, that Krita, Treta, Dwapara,&#xA;  and Kali, as regards their setting in, are all dependent on the king's&#xA;  conduct.When such a season of misery as has been described by thee&#xA;  sets in, the righteous should support life by the aid of judgment. In&#xA;  this connection is cited the old story of the discourse between&#xA;  Viswamitra and the Chandala in a hamlet inhabited by Chandalas.&#xA;  Towards the end of Treta and the beginning of Dwapara, a frightful&#xA;  drought occurred, extending over twelve years, in consequence of what&#xA;  the gods had ordained. At that time which was the end of Treta and the&#xA;  commencement of Dwapara, when the period came for many creatures&#xA;  superannuated by age to lay down p. 315 their lives, the thousand-eyed&#xA;  deity of heaven poured no rain. The planet Vrihaspati began to move in&#xA;  a retrograde course, and Soma abandoning his own orbit, receded&#xA;  towards the south.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastActivityDate="2017-11-09T07:12:00.147" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22031" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-09T11:03:06.523" Score="5" ViewCount="573" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gloriousindia.com/scriptures/puranas/markandeya_purana/chakshush_manvantar.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Markandeya Purana&lt;/a&gt; Chakshush, the Manu for the previous Manvantar was born to Anmitra and Giribhadra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chakshush had manifested from the eye (Chakshu) of Lord Brahma in his previous birth. For this reason, he was known as Chakshush. Chakshush was born to Anmitra and Giribhadra. After taking birth, he was abducted by Jatharini and exchanged with the son of King Vikrant who was sleeping besides his mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/TheMahabharata_201707/TheMahabharata_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harivamsa&lt;/a&gt; states that he was born in the lineage of Dhruva:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Dhruva’s wife, Shambhu, gave birth to sons named Shlishti and Manya. Shlishti’s wife, Succhaya, gave birth to five unblemished sons — Ripu, Ripunjaya, Vipra, Vrikala and Vrikatejasa. Ripu’s wife, Brihati, gave birth to Chakshusha and he possessed every kind of energy. Through Pushkarini, Virana’s daughter, Chakshusha had a son named Chakshusha Manu. This great-souled Prajapati was thus descended from Virana’s lineage.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have found a third story from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/devi-bhagavata-purana/d/doc57373.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Devi Bhagwat Puran&lt;/a&gt; which states:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;O Nārada! I will now narrate the supreme glories of the Devī and the anecdote how Manu, the son of Anga, obtained excellent kingdom by worshipping the Devī Bhagavatī. The son of the king Anga, named Cākṣuṣa became the Sixth Manu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which of these stories regarding the origin of the 6th Manu is actually correct?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Please refrain from the Kalpa Bheda logic I am looking for at least one of the references getting some mention in a different scripture than the ones quoted.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2023-02-20T09:03:46.270" LastActivityDate="2023-02-20T09:03:46.270" Title="What is the correct birth story of Chakshush Manu of the 6th Manvantar?" Tags="|puranas|manu|harivamsa|manvantara|markandeya-purana|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22032" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="23297" CreationDate="2017-11-09T11:31:09.923" Score="9" ViewCount="4303" Body="&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/TheMahabharata_201707/TheMahabharata_djvu.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Harivamsha&lt;/a&gt; states that Brihaspati’s sister was a beautiful lady who became the wife of the eighth Vasu, Prabhas &amp;amp; Vishvakarma was born from her!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Brihaspati’s sister was a beautiful lady who practised brahmacharya. She became successful through yoga and roamed around the entire universe, bereft of attachment. She became the wife of the eighth Vasu, Prabhasa. The immensely fortunate Prajapati Vishvakarma was born from her. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Remembering another story, Prabhas was also the Vasu who got cursed by Vasishth to be born on earth because of his wife's insistence on him stealing the Brahmarishi's cow so this lady could be the one behind that prank.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So my question is - &lt;strong&gt;Who is this lady &amp;amp; is she really the mother of Vishwakarma?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-04-23T06:35:04.427" LastActivityDate="2018-04-23T06:35:04.427" Title="Who is the wife of Prabhas &amp; the mother of Vishwakarma?" Tags="|scripture|harivamsa|brihaspati|vasu|vishwakarma|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="9" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22033" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-09T14:06:12.140" Score="15" ViewCount="517" Body="&lt;p&gt;Recently while reading Prasthana Bheda of Madhusudan Sarasvati, I found he mentioned four forms of Vishnu according to Pancharatra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quoting from &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/snsastri/PrasthAnabheda-Engl.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;sanskritdocuments.org&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;एवं वैष्णवं नारदादिभिः कृतं &lt;strong&gt;पञ्चरात्रम्&lt;/strong&gt; । तत्र&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;वासुदेवसंकर्षणप्रद्युम्नानिरुद्धाश्चत्वारः पदार्था निरूपिताः&lt;/strong&gt; ।&#xA;  भगवान्वासुदेवः सर्वकारणं परमेश्वरः । तस्मादुत्पद्यते&#xA;  संकर्षणाख्यो जीवः । तस्मान्मनः प्रद्युम्नस्तस्मादनिरुद्धोऽहंकारः ।&#xA;  सर्वे चैते भगवतो वासुदेवस्यैवांशभूताः । तदभिन्ना&#xA;  एवेति भगवतो वासुदेवस्य मनोवाक्कायवृत्तिभिराराधनं कृत्वा&#xA;  कृतकृत्यो भवतीत्यादि च निरूपितम् ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;pancarAtram&lt;/strong&gt;,  the  vaiShNava  shAstram,  was  composed  by  nArada  and &#xA;  others. In   it &lt;strong&gt;four   entities,   vAsudeva,   sankarShaNa,   pradyumna   and aniruddha  are  mentioned&lt;/strong&gt;.  bhagavAn  vAsudeva  is  the  supreme  Lord  and &#xA;  the   cause   of   everything.   From   Him   emanates   the   jIva   known   as sankarShaNa.   From   him   pradyumna,   the   mind.   From   him  emanates ahamkAra  known as  aniruddha. All  these    are  part - incarnations  of  Lord vAsudeva  Himself  and  non - different  from  Him  and  so  it  is  said  that  one becomes fulfilled by devoting the mind, speech and body to the worship of bhagavAn vAsudeva.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Though the work of Madhusudana Sarasvati describe a bit what those four forms are, I want to know and understand from the Pancharatra texts. Besides, while discussing with Keshav Srinivasan, I found that the four forms mentioned by Madhusudana Sarasvati are actually part of one category of forms called &lt;strong&gt;Vyuha&lt;/strong&gt; and the other categories of forms are &lt;strong&gt;Para, Vibhava, Antaryami, and Archa.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, I want to know what are the various forms of Vishnu according to Pancharatra? (Quote Pancharatra texts in your answer)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-10T05:40:14.060" LastActivityDate="2023-02-16T13:53:24.590" Title="What are the various forms of Vishnu according to Pancharatra?" Tags="|vishnu|philosophy|pancharatra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22034" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-09T16:35:30.443" Score="8" ViewCount="442" Body="&lt;p&gt;Can anyone tell what is pratyaksha pramANa? What does it include? Only 5 sense organs or even intellect or mind also? Can apprehension power be termed as Direct Perception aka Pratyaksha pramANa? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastActivityDate="2017-11-10T17:54:10.390" Title="What is Pratyaksha PramANa to be precise?" Tags="|pramana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22035" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22040" CreationDate="2017-11-09T16:47:13.443" Score="0" ViewCount="113" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a famous hymn sung by Lord Indra to Mother Lakshmi in the Vishnu Purana (Book 1, Chapter 9) after the Devas had regained immortality. Could anyone provide me the English &lt;s&gt;translation&lt;/s&gt; &lt;strong&gt;transliteration&lt;/strong&gt; of the hymn? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-11-09T17:08:40.427" LastActivityDate="2017-11-09T18:03:01.390" Title="Can anyone provide me the English transliteration of the famous hymn sung by Lord Indra to Mother Lakshmi in the Vishnu Purana?" Tags="|indra|lakshmi|vishnu-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ClosedDate="2018-11-19T22:03:51.097" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22036" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22048" CreationDate="2017-11-09T16:56:04.330" Score="3" ViewCount="4073" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any prayaschitta in the scriptures for people who have physically hurt  their parents? &lt;strong&gt;(Please do not assume things. I am asking this for a particular individual.)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastActivityDate="2017-11-10T07:54:38.333" Title="Any prayaschitta for people who have beaten up their parents?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22037" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22044" CreationDate="2017-11-09T17:02:47.280" Score="12" ViewCount="1957" Body="&lt;p&gt;According to my parents, Shalagrama worship is forbidden to non-Brahmins. Is this true? There is also a possibility that people who are not initiated with the Yajnopavita are forbidden to worship Shalagrama since only Brahmins in Bengal initiate. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-09T19:02:44.313" LastActivityDate="2023-07-10T12:40:06.467" Title="Is Shalagram worship forbidden to non-Brahmins?" Tags="|worship|brahmins|shaligrama|" AnswerCount="4" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22040" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22035" CreationDate="2017-11-09T17:35:41.300" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;English Transliteration of Lakshmi Stotra sung by Indra in Vishnu Puranam Book 1, Chapter 9, is thus-            &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_devii/mahaalaxmiistotra.html?lang=en-IN&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lakshmi Stotra in English Transliteration&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And ITX - &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_devii/mahaalaxmiistotra.itx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lakshmi Stotras&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-11-09T18:03:01.390" LastActivityDate="2017-11-09T18:03:01.390" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22041" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22042" CreationDate="2017-11-09T17:36:09.490" Score="8" ViewCount="1588" Body="&lt;p&gt;The famous mantra is&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;मङ्गलम् भगवान विष्णुः, मङ्गलम् गरुणध्वजः।&#xA;  मङ्गलम् पुण्डरी काक्षः, मङ्गलाय तनो हरिः॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is famous mantra Of Lord vishnu composed in weddings,so I want to know in which scripture/text this mantra is found?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-09T17:51:41.420" LastActivityDate="2017-11-09T19:02:55.763" Title="In which text Om mangalam Bhagavan vishnu mantra is found?" Tags="|vishnu|mantras|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22042" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22041" CreationDate="2017-11-09T17:49:29.723" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;In Garuda Puraana PretaKaanda (also called DharmaKaanda), chapter 47      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;लाभस्तेषां जयस्तेषां कुतस्तेषां पराजयः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येषामिन्दीवरश्यामो हृदयस्थो जनार्दनः ॥ ४५ ॥       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;धर्मो जयति नाधर्मः सत्यं जयति नानृतम् ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  क्षमा जयति न क्रोधो विष्णुर्जयति नासुराः ॥ ४६ ॥        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;विष्णुर्माता पिता विष्णुर्विष्णुः स्वजनबान्धवाः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  येषामेव स्थिरा बुद्धिर्न तेषां दुर्गतिर्भवेत् ॥ ४७ ॥        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;मङ्गलं भगवान्विष्णुर्मङ्गलं गरुडध्वजः ।&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;मङ्गलं पुण्डरीकाक्षो मङ्गलायतनं हरिः ॥ ४८ ॥&lt;/strong&gt;        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;हरिर्भागीरथी विप्रा विप्रा भागीरथी हरिः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भागीरथी हरिर्विप्राः सारमेतज्जगत्त्रये ॥ ४९ ॥         &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;They get profits, they get victory, and where is their defeat, in whose heart is situated Janaardana Hari Who is black like the blue lotus. 45.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Always Dharma Righteousness wineth, never wineth Adharma Unrighteousness. Always Truth wineth and never wineth Falsehood. Always Forgiveness wineth, wineth not Anger. So doth always Vishnu(the God in our heart) win, and never win the Asuraas(the demons of bad qualities in us). 46.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Vishnu is Mother, Vishnu is Father, and Vishnu alone is the relatives and friends- in whom this knowledge is established, they never go to misfortune. 47.        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;He, Who is possessor of immense fortunes and Who pervadeth everything, is Auspiciousness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He Whose emblem is Garuda, is Auspiciousness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He Whose eyes are like lotus, is Auspiciousness.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;He Who shineth exuberantly, is the Receptacle of all Auspiciousness. 48.&lt;/strong&gt;      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Sages! Hari is the River Ganges, and O Sages! the River Ganges is Hari. Ganges is Hari, O Sages! Know this all as the essence in the three world. 49.        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-11-09T19:02:55.763" LastActivityDate="2017-11-09T19:02:55.763" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22043" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-09T18:07:59.393" Score="7" ViewCount="172" Body="&lt;p&gt;So pleased with Hanuman at a certain time in Ramayana Lord Rama declares that by dint of his love and Bhakthi Hanuman has become in fact even more powerful than himself (Rama)... a sort of win-over. Can someone cite this sloka or passage? I heard it a long time ago, but not the yathra yathra Raghunatha Samkirthanam one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1182" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2018-10-24T11:16:35.897" LastActivityDate="2018-10-24T11:16:35.897" Title="Looking for that passage or verse from Ramayana where Rama acknowldeges the power of Bhakti" Tags="|ramayana|rama|identification-request|hanuman|bhakti|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22044" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22037" CreationDate="2017-11-09T19:02:03.583" Score="15" Body="&lt;p&gt;No. It is not forbidden. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The importance of Gandaki river is explained in chapter 20 of Patala Khanda of Padma Purana. In that chapter, the importance of śālagrāma is also said.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;21&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;The disc born (i.e. found) in Dvaravati and the stone born (i.e. found) in Gandaki, destroy in a moment men's sins earned during a hundred existences. Even if a man would have committed a thousand sins, he would be purified by drinking the water of (i.e. flowing from) a śālagrāma. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ब्राह्मणः क्षत्रियो वैश्यः शूद्रो वेदपतिस्तथा&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  शालग्रामं पूजयित्वा गृहस्थो मोक्षमाप्नुयात् ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A brahmana, ksatriya, vaiśya or śudra householder, who is on the path of the Vedas (i.e. behaves according to the Vedic injunctions)&lt;/strong&gt;, would obtain salvation on worshipping a śālagrāma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, the worship of śālagrāma is mostly done by those who have a tradition of worship among them. We should be of good conduct and very pious while worshipping a śālagrāma because it is considered form of Lord Viṣṇu. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="5212" LastEditorDisplayName="user9392" LastEditDate="2017-11-09T19:24:14.347" LastActivityDate="2017-11-09T19:24:14.347" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22045" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="9285" CreationDate="2017-11-10T05:23:30.717" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;There seems to be some mix up between Yama and Dharma which has been discussed in other questions as well. However coming to this specific one, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/SrimadBhagavataPurana.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Srimad Bhagvatam&lt;/a&gt; in Section 1.6.3 Birth of Daksh from Prachetas&lt;/strong&gt; mentions the ten ladies you have named in your question as the wives of Dharma:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shukdev says, &quot;Parikshit the names of Dharma's ten wives were Bhanu, Lamba, Kakubhi, Jami, Vishwas, Sadhya, Marutvati, Vasu, Muhurta and Sankalpa. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Brahma_purana&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma Puran&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; also mentions a similar list with Marutvati as one of Dharma's wives:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The ten daughters who were married to the god Dharma were named Arundhati, Vasu, Yami, Lamba, Bhanu, Marutvati, Sankalpa, Muhurta, Sadhya and Vishva.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=iifBDQAAQBAJ&amp;amp;pg=PT455&amp;amp;lpg=PT455&amp;amp;dq=names%20of%20Dharma%27s%20ten%20wives%20were%20Bhanu,%20Lamba,%20Kakubhi,%20Jami,%20Vishwas,%20Sadhya,%20Marutvati,%20Vasu,%20Muhurta%20and%20Sankalpa.&amp;amp;source=bl&amp;amp;ots=pfD3zWUQ6H&amp;amp;sig=-TyK4eCBKN6qtlLpptYi_PLDL7w&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;sa=X&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwi628yWrLPXAhUL3o8KHaM6AdcQ6AEIJTAA#v=onepage&amp;amp;q=marutvati&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brahma-Vaivarta Puran&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; gives the same list:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wQtQX.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/wQtQX.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Garud Puran also mentions the same:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/aXoAT.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/aXoAT.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;enter image description here&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, there is another list in the Bhagvatam that gives them different names: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shraddha, Maitri, Daya, Shanti, Tushti, Pushti, Kriya, Unnati, Buddhi, Medha, Titiksha, Hree and Murti are the wives of Dharma. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As regard the mention of Vishnu's incarnation, that is explained by the list of Dharma's progeny. Following the order observed in the list of Dharma's wives, their children are, Rita (truth), Prasáda (favour), Abhaya (fearlessness), Sukha, Muda (pleasure), Smaya (wonder), Yoga (devotion), Darpa, Artha (meaning), Smriti (memory), Kshema, Prasraya (affection), and the two saints &lt;strong&gt;Nara and Náráyańa, the sons of Dharma by Múrtti.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Both Nar and Narayan are mentioned as Lord Vishnu's incarnations in the Puraans which is also confirmed in &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12c042.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Mahabharat&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In days of yore, O Partha, I was, for some reason, born as the son of Dharma, O chief of Kuru's race, and in consequence of such birth of mine I was celebrated under the name of Dharmaja. I took birth in two forms, viz., as Nara and Narayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence the sentence you have quoted in your question may actually be referring to this relationship and this &lt;strong&gt;Jayanta is most likely the name of Nara or Narayan&lt;/strong&gt; born of Murti/Marutvati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2018-01-23T05:03:05.037" LastActivityDate="2018-01-23T05:03:05.037" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22047" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21935" CreationDate="2017-11-10T07:21:15.850" Score="8" Body="&lt;p&gt;As per &lt;em&gt;Chapter 55, Rudra Samhita (Yuddha Khanda) of Shiva Purana&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Chapter 63, Book 10 of  Srimad Bhagvatam&lt;/em&gt;, Sri Krishna only cut hands of Banasura. But &lt;em&gt;Chapter 12, Part 1 of Agni Purana&lt;/em&gt; doesn't mention cutting of arms . &lt;em&gt;Chapter 56, Rudra Samhita (Yuddha Khanda) of Shiva Purana&lt;/em&gt;  also says Bana acquired position of a Gana in Kailasa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;As per Shiva Purana, Banasura did tapasya to Shiva to get rid of his extra arms which was aquired by Tapasya previously. Lord Shiva says his arms will be cut by a person  who is equal in valor to Him (Shiva).  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chapter 55 of Yuddha Khanda&lt;/em&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततः सुदर्शनेनाशु कृष्णो बाणभुजान्बहून्। &lt;br&gt; चिच्छेद&#xA;  भगवाञ्शम्भुशासनात्परवीरहा॥ ३०॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then lord Krsna, the destroyer of heroic armies, at the bidding of&#xA;  Siva, suddenly cut off many arms of Banasura, with the Sudarsana&#xA;  cakra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;अवशिष्टा भुजास्तस्य चत्वारोऽतीव सुन्दराः। &lt;br&gt; गतव्यथो बभूवाशु&#xA;  शङ्करस्य प्रसादतः॥ ३१॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the grace of Siva, only four beautiful arms were left out and soon&#xA;  his misery was over. &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/10/63/48/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 10.63&lt;/a&gt; of Bhagavatam&lt;/em&gt; also says the same with slight variation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;दर्पोपशमनायास्य प्रवृक्णा बाहवो मया &lt;br&gt; सूदितं च बलं भूरि यच्च&#xA;  भारायितं भुवः ॥ १०.६३.४८ ॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It was to subdue Bāṇāsura’s false pride that I severed his arms. And I&#xA;  slew his mighty army because it had become a burden upon the earth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chapter 56 Yuddha Khanda (Rudra Samhita) of Shiva Purana&lt;/em&gt; says Shiva bestowed him position of Gana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;इति श्रुत्वा स्वभक्तस्य बाणस्य भगवान्भवः। &lt;br&gt; सर्वं&#xA;  लभिष्यसीत्युक्त्वा तत्रैवान्तरधीयत॥ ३२॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Thus listening to the prayer of Banasura, lord Siva said, “You will be&#xA;  benefited enormously.” Thus speaking he disappeared from the scene.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततः शम्भोः प्रसादेन महाकालत्वमागतः। &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;रुद्रस्यानुचरो बाणो&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  महाप्रमुदितोऽभवत्॥ ३३॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then with the grace of lord Siva, Bana attained the immortality of the&#xA;  eternal times and &lt;strong&gt;became one of the gana of Siva&lt;/strong&gt;, with delight.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But &lt;em&gt;Chapter 11 Rudra Samhita (Kumara Khanda) of Shiva Purana&lt;/em&gt; and Gaguli's edition of &lt;em&gt;Chapter 46, Salya Parva of Mahabharata&lt;/em&gt; say Kartikeya (Kumara) killed Banasura. But BORI edition of Mahabharata omits this line.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;After Killing of Tarakasura, Kumara swamy was on rage and he started killing all daityas on earth with &lt;em&gt;Shakti&lt;/em&gt; weapon to reduce burden on earth. Bana, son of Mahabali, in fear hid into Krauncha mountain and Kumara shattered the mountain with his javelin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva Purana says Krauncha mountain prayed to Kartikeya to relieve him from Banasura while Mahabharata doesn't mention any prayer.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chapter 11, Rudra Samhita (Kumara Khanda) of Shiva MahaPurana&lt;/em&gt; says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;चिक्षेप तां समुद्दिश्य स बाणं शङ्करात्मजः। &lt;br&gt; महाशब्दो बभूवाथ&#xA;  जज्वलुश्च दिशो नभः।। ९ ।। &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Then the son of Siva, shot the Sakti over Banasura creating enormous&#xA;  sound, as a result of which the sky with all the ten directions&#xA;  started burning, creating the thundering sound.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;सबलं भस्मसात्कृत्वाऽसुरं&lt;/strong&gt; तं क्षणमात्रतः। &lt;br&gt; गुहोपकण्ठं शक्तिः सा जगाम परमा मुने!।॥ १०॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Sage, the Sakti shot by Kumāra,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;reducing Banasura and his army to ashes in a moment&lt;/strong&gt;, it then returned to Kumara.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ततः कुमार प्रोवाच क्रौञ्चं गिरिवरं प्रभुः। &lt;br&gt; निर्भयः स्वगृहं गच्छ&#xA;  नष्टः स सबलोऽसुरः॥ ११॥ &lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Kumara then said to the excellent Kraufica, &quot;Now you should go back to&#xA;  your home fearlessly, because the &lt;strong&gt;demon has been destroyed with his&#xA;  army&lt;/strong&gt;.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m09/m09046.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ganguli Edition&lt;/a&gt; describes the incident as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Bali's son Vana of great might, getting upon the Kraunca mountain,&#xA;  battled with the celestial host. Possessed of great intelligence, the&#xA;  great generalissimo Skanda rushed against that foe of the gods. From&#xA;  fear of Kartikeya, he took shelter within the Kraunca mountain.&#xA;  Inflamed with rage, the adorable Kartikeya then pierced that mountain&#xA;  with that dart given him by Agni. The mountain was called Kraunca&#xA;  (crane) because of the sound it always produced resembled the cry of a&#xA;  crane. That mountain was variegated with shala trees. The apes and&#xA;  elephants on it were affrighted. The birds that had their abode on it&#xA;  rose up and wheeled around in the welkin. The snakes began to dart&#xA;  down its sides. It resounded also with the cries of leopards and bears&#xA;  in large numbers that ran hither and thither in fear. Other forests on&#xA;  it rang with the cries of hundreds upon hundreds of animals. Sharabhas&#xA;  and lions suddenly ran out. In consequence of all this that mountain,&#xA;  though it was reduced to a very pitiable plight, still assumed a very&#xA;  beautiful aspect. The vidyadharas dwelling on its summits soared into&#xA;  the air. The kinnaras also became very anxious, distracted by the fear&#xA;  caused by the fall of Skanda's dart. The daityas then, by hundreds and&#xA;  thousands, came out of that blazing mountain, all clad in beautiful&#xA;  ornaments and garlands.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The followers of Kumara, prevailing over them in battle, slew them&#xA;  all. The adorable Skanda, inflamed with rage, quickly slew the son of&#xA;  daitya chief (Bali) along with his younger brother, even as Indra had&#xA;  slain Vritra (in days before). The slayer of hostile heroes, Agni's&#xA;  son, pierced with his dart the Kraunca mountain,&lt;/strong&gt; dividing his own self&#xA;  sometimes into many and sometimes uniting all his portions into one.&#xA;  Repeatedly hurled from his hand, the dart repeatedly came back to him.&#xA;  Even such was the might and glory of the adorable son of Agni. With&#xA;  redoubled heroism, and energy and fame and success, the god pierced&#xA;  the mountain and slew hundreds of daityas. The adorable god, having&#xA;  thus slain the enemies of the celestials, was worshipped and honoured&#xA;  by the latter and obtained great joy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This is how BORI edition (&lt;em&gt;Chapter 45&lt;/em&gt; in BORI critical edition) of Mahabharata describes this event. Bibek Debroy translates it as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The kinnaras were anxious, because they&#xA;  were struck by the descent of the javelin. Hundreds and thousands of&#xA;  daityas were crushed. They emerged from that blazing mountain, attired&#xA;  in excellent and colourful ornaments and garlands. &lt;strong&gt;Kumara’s followers&#xA;  proved to be superior and killed them in the battle. Pavaka’s son (Agni's son i.e Kumara), the&#xA;  destroyer of enemy heroes, shattered Krouncha with the javelin.&lt;/strong&gt; The&#xA;  great-souled one divided himself into one, and also many forms. In the&#xA;  encounter, he repeatedly hurled the javelin from his hands. Thus, did&#xA;  Pavaka’s son repeatedly show his powers. He shattered Krouncha and&#xA;  killed hundreds of daityas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3500" LastEditorUserId="3500" LastEditDate="2017-11-10T08:56:30.960" LastActivityDate="2017-11-10T08:56:30.960" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22048" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22036" CreationDate="2017-11-10T07:54:38.333" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me tell you a story. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharavi is a classical Sanskrit poet and literary genius. &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharavi&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;(My information says he was from Kerala).&lt;/a&gt; He was a child prodigy who was routinely praised by everyone who knew him/ knew of him. People praised him effusively to his parents. However, every time his father heard his son's praises he used to brush it off and negate it with a &quot;oh he is just a kid; he is definitely not all that;has a long way to go&quot; etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This went on for a long time. Bharavi grew extremely resentful of his father. He failed to understand why his father was casting a shadow on his genius and impeding his progress and reducing his glory. The resentment grew so much that he could not bear it any more and decided to eliminate impediments to his fame (i.e., he decided to take his father's life). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One afternoon, he lay in wait on the loft above his father's cot where the father usually came to nap after lunch. He had a big boulder with him and was going to drop it on his father's head when the old man drifted off to sleep. Soon, lunch was over and father came to lie on the cot. Mother came to him and sat on the cot and offered him tamboolam. She started talking (Bharavi was obviously listening). She said &quot; Why do you disparage our son. How can you not see his genius when everyone else is able to. Why do you insist on hurting him and making him feel small&quot;. Father replied &quot; Dear, how can you not know that our son's progress is a matter of pride and achievement for me. However, do you also not know that elders praising children results in shortening of their lifespans (AyuHkShINam)? I cannot bear for my son to suffer thus. All the elders praising him pains me for this reason. I want our son to have a long life and for his genius to further increase and for his fame and glory to spread much further. This is why I try to counter the negative effects of all the elders' praises.&quot; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharavi is listened silently and could not stop weeping. He immediately  came down and fell at his father feet. He confessed his intent to kill his father and begged for his forgiveness and reparations. Father felt very sad. He went silent for a minute, opened his eyes and said to Bharavi &quot;Go to your father-in-law's house. Live there for a whole year. Do not leave their house under any circumstances&quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharavi took his parents' blessings and set off. He was received with great joy and respect. He was treated like a king for the first week. Gradually as they saw no signs of his leaving, they slacked off with the adoration and waiting hand-and-foot. Weeks turned to months. Not only was there no good treatment, he was put to work in the house like a member of the family and later like a servant. The situation deteriorated to such an extent that he was finally made to work in the cowshed cleaning up animal leavings inter alia. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bharavi stoically bore all this ill-treatment, introspected, cleansed his soul of the dushkarma  and during this period in the cowshed produced one of the 5 mahakaavyas in Sanskrit, viz, &quot;kirAtArjunIyam&quot;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moral of the story - the person must ask the parents for suitable punishment. Bharavi's punishment broke his ego(which caused the dushkarma) to such an extent that there was no other way but to give birth to a pure, cleansed being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user1195" LastActivityDate="2017-11-10T07:54:38.333" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22049" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22773" CreationDate="2017-11-10T09:07:19.627" Score="7" ViewCount="1205" Body="&lt;p&gt;This excerpt from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=nckrAAAAMAAJ&amp;amp;dq=%2224th%20treta%22&amp;amp;pg=PA138&amp;amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Matsya Puran&lt;/a&gt; mentions a certain rishi Jatukarnya as the priest designated for Vedvyas incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The same list has been shared in a &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7192/why-does-each-incarnation-of-vishnu-need-an-officiating-priest&quot;&gt;different question&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For a person to be the officiating priest of the compiler of Vedas, he has to be exceptionally gifted! I want to know &lt;strong&gt;who this rishi is and if there are any details mentioned about his genealogy or life in any scripture.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10481" LastEditorUserId="10481" LastEditDate="2017-12-13T06:43:46.277" LastActivityDate="2019-11-17T13:10:51.880" Title="Who is Jatukarnya the officiating priest for Vyasa?" Tags="|vishnu|avatars|rishi|vyasa|matsya-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22050" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21985" CreationDate="2017-11-10T11:02:55.520" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Before start answer, I want to clarify that I am not an with mantras or such rituals. I do not practice regularly such rituals nor with the mantras. So I cannot give an authoritative answer.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, this stotra is in sanskrit and I am acquainted with that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;tam = To that  &#xA;namami = I bow down   &#xA;shanaishcaram = slow mover&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it translates to &quot;I bow down to that slow mover(Lord Shani).&quot; This makes sense grammatically because 'tam' has a accusative form. It means preposition 'to' is part of the form. Here, 'tam' becomes a predicate in the sentence. And 'namami' implies subject to be 'aham'(means 'I' in english), even though it is not explicitly mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;tvam = you&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it will translate to &quot;I bow down you slow mover(Lord Shani).&quot; Here, 'tvam' has nominative form. 'Tvam' would become the subject and hence makes it grammatically incorrect since 'tvam' is second person and 'namami' is in first person. Hence grammatically, 'tvam' should be the word.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;shanim = to (Lord) Shani&#xA;pranamyaham = pranami + aham (by sandhi rules)&#xA;pranami = I bow down&#xA;aham = I&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;it translates to 'I bow down to that Lord Shani'. Grammatically, this it is sound. here 'aham' is the subject in first person. 'Pranami' verb is also in first person. Hence they match. Similarly, 'tam' and 'shanim' also match as they are in accusative form.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The entire stotra is describing Lord Shani and has descriptive clauses. This may have been a poetic gesture. And hence it justifies demonstrative form, 'tam'.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Comment sections have suggestion 'tam namami shanaishcharam' which is grammatically correct. But, the question has only 2 options&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;tvam namami shanaishcharam&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;or&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;tam shanim pranamyaham&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I would choose the second option based on Sanskrit grammar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12525" LastEditorUserId="12525" LastEditDate="2017-11-10T11:42:42.523" LastActivityDate="2017-11-10T11:42:42.523" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22053" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20252" CreationDate="2017-11-10T16:45:54.757" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was able to visit the Thiruvalaventhai temple in that India trip, and this is what I learned from the priest (who is also a priest at the Sthalasayana Perumal temple).  The Pallava king Harikeshava was a devotee of Vishnu who used to visit the Lakshmi Varaha temple in Thiruvidanthai, which I discuss in my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/5240/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Everyday he would go back and forth between Thiruvidanthai and his capitol of Mahabalipuram, where he would give food to large numbers of Vaishnavas on a daily basis.  As a reward for his Bhakti and Bhagavata Kainkaryam, Vishnu appeared before Harikeshava as Lakshmi Varaha in Mahabalipuram itself, that way he wouldn't have to keep going to Thiruvidanthai.  That is the origin of the statue in the Thiruvalaventhai temple.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also asked the priest why the Lakshmi deity is sitting on Varaha's right side, which is the strange feature of the Thiruvalaventhai temple.  He explained that if you look at the story of the Thiruvidanthai temple, sage Galava's daughter Komalavalli was a young girl at the time Varaha married her, and young girls sit on the right side.  And so the Thiruvalaventhai temple, since it depicts the same Lakshmi deity shown in the Thiruvidanthai temple, shows Komalavalli on the right side. The priest turned the question around on me: the strange thing is not why Komalavalli is sitting on the right side in Thiruvalaventhai, but why she is sitting on the left side in Thiruvidanthai!&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I also found out that the reason why it's so hard to visit the Thiruvalaventhai temple is that regular rituals are not done in the temple.  That's because it's an ancient cave temple, in fact it's commonly known as the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varaha_Cave_Temple&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Varaha cave temple&lt;/a&gt;, and it's a UNESCO world heritage site.  So they're afraid that daily rituals would damage the ancient rock carvings in the cave.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In any case, &lt;a href=&quot;http://anudinam.org/2017/06/13/sri-varaha-perumal-mahabalipuram/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; from Anudinam confirms the basic story of Harikeshava that the priest told me:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A Pallava King made a daily trip to the Varaha Perumal temple at Thiru Vidanthai (15kms north of here on the East Coast Road). He would have his morning food only after this darshan. Also, it was his practice to feed a 1000people each day after coming back from Thiru Vidanthai. Lord Vishnu decided to put his devotion to test. One morning he appeared before the king as a hungry Brahmin carrying along with a child (Goddess in disguise). The king requested if he could first make his daily trip to Thiru Vidanthai and then offer them food as that was his practice. The Lord in disguise rejected this suggestion stating that he was dying of hunger and that it may be too late for the child by the time the king returned. Invoking the blessings of Varaha Perumal of Thiru Vidanthai, the king decided that feeding a hungry child was more important than his trip. Pleased with the king’s true devotion, the disguised Lord provided darshan to the king at the same place as Varaha Perumal with Agilavalli Thaayar on his right side (at Thiru Vidanthai, Goddess is seen to the left of the Lord).&#xA;  At this cave temple, the moolavar Varna Kala moorthy Aadhi Varaha Perumal is sculpted on the rock with his left leg placed on a Naga King and Queen and with his left hand on Thaayar’s lap.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2017-11-10T16:45:54.757" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22054" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20382" CreationDate="2017-11-10T17:43:06.490" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The question does not mention Mandala and Verse of RigVeda from where these two hymns are taken. However the name of Danu as mother of Vritra appears only in the Verse 32 of Mandala 1, it was easy to locate.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This Verse gives a detailed description of killing Vritra by Indra. The name of Danu appears only in the hymn (9)and it does not mention the killing of Danu. Let us examine the meaning of this hymn in detail which is not too difficult -&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'nicha avaya abhavat Vritra putra' (happened to be laid down son Vritra}&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Indro asya ava Vadhir jabhar' {Indra has killed him, knowing}&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'uttara surdharah putra aasit Danu'{ the left side of mighty son, came Danu}&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'shaye sah vatsa na dhenu' { slept like cow over calf}&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This kind of sentence stucture is typical of RigVeda which also continued in later scriptues{eg. Valmiki Ramayan} to some extant. And it gives a problem for translators, but it is difficult to understand which word is indicating 'deadly bolt' to translator. Any how, the couplet 'aasit Danu' clearly mean 'Danu came' and slept by the left side{uttara} of the dead body ofher son. The next hymn {10} clearifies where the dead body was placed - 'kasttana madhye nihitam shariram' {body was place in the midst of wood}.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The second question that danava were sons of Danu is a myth spread by some of the later scripture. RigVeda gives a different meaning of the term'danava'. a word &quot;jir danum' appears quite frequently in RigVeda.{ref. RV.1.165.15 also RV.5.62.3} where it is used in the context of various gods like Indra, Varuna, Mitra and Maruts thereby meaning 'quick giver'. One can find the similar meaning in the dictionary of Spokensanskrit.org/. available on net.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The main problem is understanding RigVedic text and it usually arises when we try to explain through meaning provided by later scriptures which often contains symbolic meaning and we often take them literally. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="12348" LastEditDate="2017-11-11T08:31:17.377" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T08:31:17.377" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22055" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22034" CreationDate="2017-11-10T17:54:10.390" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Well, there are different types of pramana like anumana, upamana,sabdha, pratyaksha e.t.c. All these different pramana will help you gain knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pratyaksha pramana is a one form of knowledge (or rather source of knowledge) which can be gathered through perception.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Pratyaksha means direct, live (e.g. live cricket match). Pramana means proof. Your sense organ is the most important part in pratyaksha pramana because anything you touch or taste or hear will be perceived by your senses and that is how you will gain knowledge about that particular object or thing. These are external perception. &#xA;However, everytime you perceive something your mind is what makes a distinction. Without your mind you perception won't make much of a difference. So, senses and mind both are included in this pramana&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sometime, this perception may give you false results. &#xA;Let's say at night time you see a small piece of rope and compare it with a snake. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10303" LastActivityDate="2017-11-10T17:54:10.390" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22056" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22013" CreationDate="2017-11-10T18:52:36.813" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I don't understand the question as well. I assume you are talking about  meditation or yogic posture. Well, I think Lord Shiva never close his eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most of the time, when people think of meditation, they think of closing their eyes and after some time they create random imaginations which keeps on shifting from one position to another. Meditation means not to be affected by outside world. It does not want us to be blind. When you close your eyes then you will probably start visualizing. This visualization looks very nice (full of bright colors). This visualization is nothing but an imagination. You are making yourself blind and getting into a state of hibernation (sleep).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meditation or penance is done by opened eyes or half-opened eyes. You should meditate by becoming fully awake. To do this, you half-close your eyes and look at the tip of your nose. After that you don't move your eyes, your eye balls e.t.c.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even In &lt;strong&gt;Bhagavat Gita&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Krishna Says In Chapter VI Verse 12-13, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;तत्रैकाग्रं मन: कृत्वा यतचित्तेन्द्रियक्रिय: |&#xA;उपविश्यासने युञ्ज्याद्योगमात्मविशुद्धये || 12||&#xA;समं कायशिरोग्रीवं धारयन्नचलं स्थिर: |&#xA;सम्प्रेक्ष्य नासिकाग्रं स्वं दिशश्चानवलोकयन् || 13||&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Seated firmly on it, the yogi should strive to purify the mind by focusing it in meditation with one pointed concentration, controlling all thoughts and activities. He must hold the body, neck, and head firmly in a straight line, and gaze at the tip of the nose, without allowing the eyes to wander.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/6/verse/12-13&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/6/verse/12-13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Similar interpretation from other site,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sloka&#xA;6.13&lt;br&gt;&#xA;Let him firmly hold his body, head and neck erect and still, (with the eye-balls fixed, as if) gazing at the tip of his nose, and not looking around. 13&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="10303" LastActivityDate="2017-11-10T18:52:36.813" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22059" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-10T22:13:30.897" Score="5" ViewCount="382" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yesterday I was listening to an American political radio show, and I was surprised to hear a reference to Hinduism.  An African American activist who was being interviewed said the following: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In an Indian spiritual text called the Mahabharata, someone asked a question &quot;When is peace not peace?&quot; And Arjuna answered &quot;When it is tyranny.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The activist was using the quote to make a point about relations between blacks and whites in America, but my question is, does any such quote occur in the Mahabharata?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I can imagine Arjuna saying that peace is not peace when it is tyranny, to describe why it is necessary to fight the Kauravas rather than just living in peace under the rule of the Kauravas. I can also imagine something like this occurring in a dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna (inside or outside the Bhagavad Gita) with Arjuna asking the question and Krishna answering it, and the activist might have misremembered it as Arjuna answering.  Or this quote could have no scriptural basis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-11T02:09:13.353" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T02:09:13.353" Title="Does the Mahabharata contain the quote &quot;When is peace not peace?&quot;" Tags="|mahabharata|arjuna|identification-request|war|ahimsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22061" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22062" CreationDate="2017-11-11T00:26:17.027" Score="12" ViewCount="1755" Body="&lt;p&gt;Are the 3 gunas, namely, sattva, rajas, tamas mentioned in the Vedas? I know they are mentioned throughout the Smrtis, notably the Puranas, Bhagavad Gita, and the Sankhya Smriti. In fact, the 3 gunas concept is closely linked with the Sankhya school.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But is there any mention of them in the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastActivityDate="2020-04-23T12:39:34.177" Title="Are the 3 gunas mentioned in the Vedas?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|upanishads|gunas|sruti|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22062" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22061" CreationDate="2017-11-11T05:16:00.663" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes The three gunas is mentioned in Maitri upanishad &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe15/sbe15116.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt; here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Fifth Prapathaka&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In the beginning 5 darkness (tamas) alone was this. It was in the Highest, and, moved by the Highest, it becomes uneven Thus it becomes obscurity ragas) . Then this obscurity, being moved, becomes uneven. Thus it becomes goodness sattva). Then this goodness, being moved, the essence flowed forth . This is that part (or state of Self) which is entirely intelligent, reflected in man (as the sun is in different vessels of water) knowing the body (kshetragña), attested by his conceiving, willing, and believing, it is Pragâpati, called Visva. His manifestations have been declared before &lt;strong&gt;3. Now that part of him which belongs to darkness(Tamas), that, O students , is he who is called Rudra.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;That part of him which belongs to Obsucurity(rajas) , that, students, is he who is called Brahmâ.&lt;/strong&gt; That part of him which &lt;strong&gt;belongs to Goodness(sattva) , that, O students, is he who is called Vishnu.He being one, becomes three, becomes&lt;/strong&gt; eight , becomes eleven , becomes twelve, becomes infinite. Because  he thus came to be, he is the Being (neut.), he moves about, having entered all beings, he has become the Lord of all beings. He is the Self within and without, yes, within and without&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This gunas are mentioned in maitri  upanishad I don't think these are mentioned in samhitas but I will look for refernces.&#xA;The words goodness,absucurity,Goodness means rajasnTamas,sattva in sanskrit.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanskrit verse can be found in last verse of forth prapathaka &lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/maitri.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; instead of beginning of fifth prapathaka as sacred-texts translation says. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;तमो वा इदमेकमास तत्पश्चात्परेणेरितं विषयत्वं&#xA;  प्रयात्येतद्वै रजसो रूपं तद्रजः खल्वीरितं विषमत्वं&#xA;  प्रयात्येतद्वै तमसो रूपं तत्तमः खल्वीरितं तमसः&#xA;  सम्प्रास्रवत्येतद्वै सत्त्वस्य रूपं तत्सत्त्वमेवेरितं&#xA;  तत्सत्त्वात्सम्प्रास्रवत्सोंऽशोऽयं यश्चेतनमात्रः&#xA;  प्रतिपुरुषं क्षेत्रज्ञः सङ्कल्पाध्यवसायाभिमानलिङ्गः&#xA;  प्रजापतिस्तस्य प्रोक्ता अग्र्यास्तनवो ब्रह्मा रुद्रो विष्णुरित्यथ&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;यो ह खलु वावास्य राजसोंऽशोऽसौ स योऽयं ब्रह्माथ यो ह&#xA;  खलु वावास्य तामसोंऽशोऽसौ स योऽयं रुद्रोऽथ यो ह&#xA;  खलु वावास्य सात्विकोंऽशोऽसौ स एवं विष्णुः स वा एष&lt;/strong&gt;&#xA;  एकस्त्रिधाभूतोऽष्टधैकादशधा द्वादशधापरिमितधा&#xA;  चोद्भूत उद्भूतत्वाद्भूतेषु चरति प्रतिष्ठा&#xA;  सर्वभूतानामधिपतिर्बभूवेत्यसावात्मान्तर्बहिश्चान्तर्बहिस्&#xA;  ह्च ॥ ५॥ चतुर्थः प्रपाठकः ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="6830" LastEditDate="2017-11-11T12:07:26.290" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T12:07:26.290" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22063" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22061" CreationDate="2017-11-11T05:56:22.293" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there is reference to the Tri GunAs in the Vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See the following Mantra from Atharva Veda (AV):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Pundarikam navadwAram (1)&lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Tribhir gunebhir&lt;/strong&gt;Avritam (2)&lt;br&gt; Tasmin yad&#xA;  yakshamAtmanvat (3)&lt;br&gt; Tad vai brahmavido viduhu (4).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is a nine-gated lotus (1), covered under &lt;strong&gt;three bands of GunAs&#xA;  (tribhir gunebhi)&lt;/strong&gt; (2), in which lives the Spirit with the Atman within&#xA;  (3), that the Veda-knowers know (4).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AV 10.8.43&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above Mantra is a direct reference to the three GunAs or the three qualities which came to be well known later as Tamas (inertia), Rajas (activity partially controlled or uncontrolled by discrimination) and Sattwa (balanced dynamism).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, this is probably the earliest reference to Tri-GunAs in Hindu scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-11-11T08:50:55.390" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T08:50:55.390" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22064" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="24794" CreationDate="2017-11-11T06:58:24.897" Score="10" ViewCount="1645" Body="&lt;p&gt;Has Scriptures contain anything about &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suhag_Raat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Suhagraat&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; honeymoon? If yes, what they talk about these rituals? And were these ritual even followed before Kaliyuga?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2018-03-02T09:55:47.173" LastActivityDate="2018-03-03T08:32:44.803" Title="Has Suhagraat (1st consummation of husband &amp; wife) &amp; honeymoon been mentioned in the sciprtures?" Tags="|rituals|marriage|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22065" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21875" CreationDate="2017-11-11T12:38:50.890" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Following are the details available from Sringeri Sharda Peetha's official site, on the article &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sringeri.net/history/sri-adi-shankaracharya/biography/abridged-madhaviya-shankara-digvijayam/part-1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Shankara Digvijaya – Part 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shankara was born to Aryamba and Shivaguru, a Nambudri Brahmana who belonged to the Vedic branch of Krishna Yajur Veda. Shankara’s birthplace was Kalady in Kerala, on the banks of the Poorna river. Kalady is situated a few miles from Tiru Shiva Perur (present-day Trichur), which contains the Shiva mound Vrischachala where Shivaguru and Aryamba prayed and were blessed with the divine child. **This event of the birth of Sri Shankara in 788 A.D that marked the beginning of the revival of the Vedic system is described thus in the Madhaviya Shankara Vijayam – ‘Just as the Divine Mother, Parvati begot Sri Subrahmanya, the virtuous Aryamba begot Sri Shankara on the auspicious Vaisaka sukla panchami (fifth day of the waxing moon during April-May) in the year 788 A.D, when the star attributed to Lord Shiva, Arudra was in ascendance with the Sun, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in exaltation.’ –&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;लग्नेशुभे शुभयुते सुषुवे कुमारं&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;श्री पार्वतीव सुखिनी शुभवीक्षिते च ।&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;जाया सती शिवगुरोः निजतुङ्ग संस्ते&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;सूर्येकुजे रविसुते च गुरौचकेन्द्रे ॥&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You can read &lt;strong&gt;Madhaviya Shankara Digvijayam&lt;/strong&gt; at &lt;a href=&quot;http://estudantedavedanta.net/Sankara-Digvijaya.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;Quoting the text related to the mentioned verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;71-82)&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;At the birth of the baby the planetary position was as follows&lt;/strong&gt;:&#xA;The Lagna was fully aspecled by the benign planets like Guru Mars, Sun&#xA;and Saturn were exalted and Guru was at the zenith. It was an easy delivery, as if Parvathi were giving birth to Skanda. At the sight of his son's face, Sivaguru was drowned in a sea of joy. Somehow controlling himself, he proceeded to bathe for performing the post-natal rituals, and bestowed much wealth as Dakshina on pious Brahmanas as part of those rites.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="277" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T17:39:04.657" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22067" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21999" CreationDate="2017-11-11T12:59:58.450" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Which Scriptures say Shiva is easily pleased than rest of Gods in Trinity?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/10/88&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 10 of Bhagavata Purana&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gloriousindia.com/scriptures/puranas/vishnu_purana/release_of_shiva_from_crisis.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Part 5 of Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva can each bestow or withhold favors, but whereas Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva are satisfied or angered very quickly (specially Lord Shiva), Lord Vishnu is not. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In this regard the Pauranik literature relates the following account: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A snap from 88th Chapter (Release of Lord Shiva from crisis) of part 10 of Bhagavata Purana:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3HKA8.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://i.stack.imgur.com/3HKA8.png&quot; alt=&quot;Why Shiva is Ashutosh&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation in English : &lt;strong&gt;Once the demon Vrakasura asked Narada which god was most quickly pleased, and Narada answered that Lord Shiva was.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Why is it said that other Gods are easy to please (specially Shiva) and not Vishnu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Krishna had said in Bhagavata Purana: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&quot;O Yudhisthira, I take away all the wealth from those whom I bestow my grace. When they are poor, their relatives desert them. I even render their efforts useless when they try to earn money. Thus being unsuccessful repeatedly, the people develop an attitude of indifference for wealth. Then they begin to take shelter as my devotee and mingle with me. Only then, I bestow my full grace on them and they receive me as Sachchidanand Parabrahma. &lt;strong&gt;Thus, pleasing me through my worship is extremely difficult&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Hence, ordinary people give me up and worship other deities, which are in fact different forms of me.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Lord Shiva is &lt;strong&gt;Ashutosh&lt;/strong&gt; and bestows his devotees quickly with grace. He gives wealth and other riches to his devotees. But once they get wealth, the devotees become despotic and even forget the God who had blessed them.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Such lines are there in each Purana of other Gods too&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yes, because most of the Puranas tell the conversation between two sages. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;So, it depends on the faith, devotion and belief of a sage who tells the story.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For instance, take these lines from Ramcharitmanas by Goswami Tulasidasji:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;जो संपति सिव रावनहि दीन्हि दिएँ दस माथ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  सोइ संपदा बिभीषनहि सकुचि दीन्ह रघुनाथ।।       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Translation in English: This wealth was granted by Lord Shiva to Ravana after Ravana offered in sacrifice his own ten heads (i.e. had committed to serve Lord Shiva with all five sense organs and five organs of actions as preferred deity) and the same belonged to Vibhishana now which Raghunatha Shri Rama handed him with slight hesitation that it is not a sufficient reward for the divine virtues possessed by Vibhishana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12304" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2017-11-13T15:04:51.407" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T15:04:51.407" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22068" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21602" CreationDate="2017-11-11T16:18:39.650" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Non attachment is very difficult to achieve. A lot of tapasya is required. Mind and sense control are not very easy. In Kaliyug it is very difficult to do and a good starting point is always doing fasting, doing japa and trying to lead a good life. That is why we always say 'narayanayeti samarpayami' in order to remind us not to develop ego or any other emotion whether negative or positive. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12531" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T16:18:39.650" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22069" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22074" CreationDate="2017-11-11T16:23:11.330" Score="7" ViewCount="459" Body="&lt;p&gt;Although Ramayan and Mahabharat are historical, are they most likely paraboles which have spiritual meanings attached to them? (A ‘parabole’ is a ‘casting/setting side by side’—using Latin-derived morphs an ‘apposition’ or ‘adjacency’. In rhetoric, it is a comparison, which sets two terms side-by-side; later it denotes a fiction which is ‘set beside’ and parallels (‘lies next to’) reality.) P.S. A humble request can people please not edit my question as it chances the meaning? I meant parabole and not parable. Thank you.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12531" LastEditorUserId="12531" LastEditDate="2017-11-14T17:38:51.830" LastActivityDate="2022-01-28T12:00:36.080" Title="Are Ramayan and Mahabharat parabols?" Tags="|mahabharata|ramayana|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22070" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22069" CreationDate="2017-11-11T16:33:49.980" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;This question's answer might not have citations or quotations. It is purely based on the belief of the individual. Although the stories had Avatars as protagonists, they calculated their life perfectly according to Dharmic standards and actions which would leave a meaningful imprint or lessons for people to follow. An avatar's actions are termed Leelas. Leelas have multiple spiritual meanings attached to them, for any type of Sadhaka. But considering the literal aspect, it wouldn't be a harm to believe either. Personally I believe they did happen.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9072" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T16:33:49.980" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22072" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22164" CreationDate="2017-11-11T17:11:41.727" Score="1" ViewCount="938" Body="&lt;p&gt;It seems there is various versions of Yudhistir's coronation. One before the war. One after the war. Which of these is authentic and when did the coronation take place w.r.t war?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastActivityDate="2017-11-17T04:37:00.687" Title="How many times Yudhistir's coronation happened and when in the Mahabharata?" Tags="|mahabharata|yudhisthira|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22073" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15603" CreationDate="2017-11-11T17:12:48.573" Score="0" Body="&lt;p&gt;The time of adi Shankara is generally given as 788 to 820 AD,&#xA;As per Archaeological Survey of India first Hindu temple came up in Badami in 6th century AD, had no idle inside. First temple with Idle came up first in 7th century AD in Nagarjuna.&#xA;Adi Shankara did is analysis of reason for decline of Hinduism sitting on to of a hillock in Srinagar, set up all the four Mats and his grand plan of revival of Hinduism in Badrinath. If you go there, you can read  the division of responsibility is spelled out for all the mathadicaries,.&#xA;Kedarnath temple is suspected to be Buddhist Monistry. There is enough evidence to conclude he died there.&#xA;THe rest of the speculation id left to the Knowledgeable experts and historians, defiantly not religious experts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12532" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T17:12:48.573" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22074" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22069" CreationDate="2017-11-11T17:43:04.813" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Swami Vivekananda explained the life cycle of people by giving the example of Ramayana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Complete Works/Volume 5/&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_5/Sayings_and_Utterances&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sayings and Utterances&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Shri Râma was the Paramâtman and that Sitâ was the Jivâtman, and each man's&#xA;  or woman's body was the Lanka (Ceylon). The Jivatman which was enclosed in&#xA;  the body, or captured in the island of Lankâ, always desired to be in affinity&#xA;  with the Paramatman, or Shri Rama. But the Râkshasas would not allow it, and &#xA;  Rakshasas represented certain traits of character. For instance, Vibhishana&#xA;  represented Sattva Guna; Râvana, Rajas; and Kumbhakarna, Tamas. Sattva&#xA;  Guna means goodness; Rajas means lust and passions, and Tamas darkness,&#xA;  stupor, avarice, malice, and its concomitants. These Gunas keep back Sita, or&#xA;  Jivatman, which is in the body, or Lanka, from joining Paramatman, or Rama.&#xA;  Sita, thus imprisoned and trying to unite with her Lord, receives a visit from&#xA;  Hanumân, the Guru or divine teacher, who shows her the Lord's ring, which is&#xA;  Brahma-Jnâna, the supreme wisdom that destroys all illusions; and thus Sita&#xA;  finds the way to be at one with Shri Rama, or, in other words, the Jivatman finds itself one with the Paramatman. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="3872" LastActivityDate="2017-11-11T17:43:04.813" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22076" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="15617" CreationDate="2017-11-11T19:04:19.650" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt; for this annswer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Chapter 1 of &lt;a href=&quot;https://samskritabharati.in/correspondence&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Samskrita Bharati Pravesha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=qRwJAAAAQAAJ&amp;amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;amp;source=gbs_ge_summary_r&amp;amp;cad=0#v=onepage&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Chapter 1&lt;/a&gt; of A Practical Grammar of the Sanskrit Language&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Consonants section under &lt;strong&gt;Devanagari transliteration&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devanagari_transliteration#Consonants&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;wiki article&lt;/a&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Devanāgarī standalone consonant letters are followed by an implicit shwa (/Ə/). In all of the transliteration systems, that /Ə/ must be represented explicitly using an 'a' or any equivalent of shwa.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In DevaNagari languages (such as Sanskrit and Hindi), each &lt;em&gt;full-form&lt;/em&gt; constant is a combination of &lt;em&gt;half-form&lt;/em&gt; constant and a vowel.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;i.e.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;full-form&lt;/em&gt; constant = &lt;em&gt;half-form&lt;/em&gt; constant + vowel&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;म (ma) = म् (m) + अ (a)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hence, all words have to be ended by a &lt;strong&gt;vowel&lt;/strong&gt; but not necessarily by 'a'. For example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Vishnu (विष्णु)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Manu (मनु)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yayati (ययाति)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Draupadi (द्रौपदी)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, when there is no need of a vowel in &lt;strong&gt;pronunciation&lt;/strong&gt; (most of the case if word referers to a &lt;strong&gt;Masculine noun&lt;/strong&gt;), then we use 'a'. For example:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Raama &amp;gt; Rama (राम)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma (भीष्म)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Drona (द्रोण)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Raavana &amp;gt; Ravana (रावण)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ganesha (गणेश)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shiva (शिव) 1&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishna (कृष्ण) 2&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But most of the time, for simplicity we use 'a' instead of 'aa' (for example, we write Aarati (आरती) as Arati) and that should be pronounced (most of the case if word referers to a &lt;strong&gt;Feminine noun&lt;/strong&gt;). For example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sitaa -&amp;gt; Sita(सीता)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shivaa -&amp;gt; Shiva (शिवा) 3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Krishnaa -&amp;gt; Krishna (कृष्णा) 4&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Footnotes:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;1 Shiva (शिव) : Masculine noun for one who is auspicious. Example: name of Lord Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;3 Shivaa -&amp;gt; Shiva (शिवा) : Feminine noun for one who is auspicious or Feminine noun for one who is consort of Shiva. Example: name of Goddess Parvati&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;2 Krishna (कृष्ण) : Masculine noun for one whose complexion is dark. Example: name of Lord Krishna, Arjuna &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;4 Krishnaa -&amp;gt; Krishna (कृष्णा) : Feminine noun for one whose complexion is dark. Example: name of Draupadi &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12304" LastEditorUserId="12304" LastEditDate="2024-01-10T05:45:03.150" LastActivityDate="2024-01-10T05:45:03.150" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22077" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-11T23:27:58.197" Score="4" ViewCount="300" Body="&lt;p&gt;Madhvacharya is the proponent of the Dvaita school of Vedanta because he doesn't believe that Brahman is the material cause of Jivatmas and Prakriti.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But what is his main argument against it?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2017-11-12T01:25:43.540" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T01:25:43.540" Title="What is Madhvacharya's argument against Brahman being the material cause of the universe?" Tags="|vedanta|atma|brahman|dvaita|madhvacharya|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22079" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22080" CreationDate="2017-11-12T05:11:03.447" Score="5" ViewCount="663" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two kinds of schools of Indian philosophy, Astika and Nastika. Astikas accept the authority of the Vedas, whereas Nastikas reject the authority of the Vedas. The Astika schools are part of Hinduism, while the Nastika schools fall under the broader category of Dharmic faiths. Now there are six Astika schools:   , Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva Mimamsa, and Vedanta. (They're all dead other than the Vedanta school, which encompasses most Hindus today as I discuss here.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now the Astika schools don't agree on much beyond the authority of the Vedas, but one thing they do agree on is the existence of the soul and the fact that it's different from the body.  But my question is, what is the size of the soul according to the different Astika schools?  Do they think it's atomic in size, or the same size as the body, or omnipresent, or what?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: To be clear, I am talking about the size of the Jivatma.  I am not talking about the size of Paramatma, although of course Advaitins think they're one and the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;EDIT 2: My question is not a duplicate, because it's about the views of the different Astika schools.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-15T19:39:45.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-23T05:34:07.360" Title="What is the size of the soul according to the different Astika schools?" Tags="|philosophy|atma|jiva|shad-darshana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22080" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22079" CreationDate="2017-11-12T05:11:03.447" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Non-Vedantic Astika schools think the soul is omnipresent, whereas most Vedantins think it's atomic in size.&lt;/strong&gt;. Let me address each of the six Astika schools:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samkhya&lt;/strong&gt;: The Samkhya school believed that the soul is omnipresent.  Here is what Kapila says in Adhyaya 1 Sutra 50 of the Samkhya Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;mūrttatvādghaṭādivat samānadharmāpattāvapāsiddhāntaḥ&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;If the Purusha were сотрогеаl (апd, therefore, limited or finite), like the water-pot, etc., then he would possess properties similar to those of the latter, and hence the reverse collclusion (would follow).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/gwr4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Aniruddha says about this Sutra in his Samkhya Sutra Vritti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Corporeal or finite things, the water-pot, etc., undergo change. If the Purusha possess a like property, he would also perish. But the mortality of the Purusha is the reverse of truth. Moreover, in the course of migration into different births, the Purusha would have, according to the supposition of his having finite size, to adapt himself to the size of the body of the slophant and the worm. If he this undergoes contraction and expansion, he must be a whole made up of parts, and therefore, non-eternal, (which also is the reverse of truth).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yoga&lt;/strong&gt;: So far as I can tell, neither Patanjali's Yoga Sutras nor Vyasa's Yoga Bhashya discuss the size of the soul. But the Samkhya and Yoga schools agreed in all their philosophical views except for the existence of God, so that means the Yoga school also believed that the soul is omnipresent.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nyaya&lt;/strong&gt;: The Nyaya school also believed that the soul is omnipresent.  Here is what Vatsyayana says in &lt;a href=&quot;https://ia801903.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/34/items/GautamasNyayasutras/GautamasNyayasutras_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=GautamasNyayasutras_jp2/GautamasNyayasutras_0374.jp2&amp;amp;scale=1.1068580542264752&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his Nyaya Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;&lt;strong&gt;The Soul, being all-pervading&lt;/strong&gt;, would be in contact with all the Sense-organs at one and the same time; so that there would be a possibility of several Cognitions appearing simultaneously.&quot; ... In the cognition of Odour, etc., the contact of the Sense-organs with the Mind is as much a necessary cause as the contact of the Sense-organs with the objects; and inasmuch as the Mind is atomic, it is not possible for its contact with all the Sense-organs to appear at one and the same time.  And by the reason of the non-simultaneity of this contact (of the Mind), it is not possible for several cognitions to appear simultaneously, even though they are the qualities of the (all-pervading) Soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaisheshika&lt;/strong&gt;: The Vaisheshika school also believed that the soul is omnipresent.  Here is what Kanada says in the Vaisheshika Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;vibhavānmahānākāśastathā cātmā&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Ether, in consequence of its vast expansion, is infinitely large.  So also is the Soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ia802605.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/12/items/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_jp2.zip&amp;amp;file=thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_jp2/thevaiasesikasut00kanauoft_0249.jp2&amp;amp;scale=4&amp;amp;rotate=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is what Shankara Mishra says in his commentary on this Sutra:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;As Ether is immensely vast, since it possesses universal pervasion, that is, the characteristic of being in conjunction with all dense bodies, so is also the Soul immensely vast. Did not the characteristic being in conjunction with all dense bodies belong to Soul, then action would not be produced in the respective dense bodies, as a result of conjunction of the Soul carrying its Adrishtam or destiny, inasmuch as Adrishtam, being present in a different substratum, is de,pendent upon or stands in need of, &quot;proximity,&quot; (or a common platform), in order that it may be productive of action; and that &quot;proximity&quot; is nothing but conjunction of the Soul carrying its Adrishtam.  Likewise, as the body moves on, the production of knowledge, pleasure, etc., in particular situations, is impossible or incapable of proof except on the theory of the universal pervasion of the Soul.  Consequently, the Soul also is all-pervasive.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purva Mimamsa&lt;/strong&gt;: The Purva Mimamsa school (you guessed it) also believed that the soul is omnipresent.  Here is what Shabara Swami says in &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/Pjr7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this excerpt&lt;/a&gt; from his commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;[A]s a matter of fact, that alone is called an &quot;act&quot; which transposes its substratum from one place to another; and no such transposition is possible for the Soul, - because the Soul is omnipresent; that the Soul is present in all places is indicated by the fact that its functioning (in the shape of experiencing pleasure, pain, etc.) is found  everywhere. &quot;That same fact may be a sign of it's going from one place to another.&quot; [W]e perceive no incongruity in the view that the Soul does not move from place to place [while there are several incongruities in the view that it does so move].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;See my question &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/19327/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for more details about the Purva Mimamsa arguments concerning this subject.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vedanta&lt;/strong&gt;: Finally, a different view! Here is what Vyasa says in Adhyaya 2 Pada 3 of the Brahma Sutras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;19&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(The individual soul must be atomic in dimension owing to the mention in the Vedas) of its departure from the body, going (to the next world by following a course) and coming back (from there).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(The soul’s atomicity stands confirmed) owing to the relation of one’s own soul with the latter two facts (viz., following of a course and coming back).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If it be objected that the soul is not atomic because its size is heard of as not being so, we reply, no, since that context relates to the other (i.e., the supreme Self).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And the individual soul is atomic because of the direct Upanishadic use of the word as well as mention of infinitesimality.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(The soul’s atomicity and its feeling over the whole body involve) no contradiction, just as in the case (of a drop) of sandal paste.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;If it be objected that (the argument holds good in the case of sandal paste) owing to its peculiarity of position, (but that is not evident in the case of the soul), then we say, no, (a peculiar location) for the soul is admitted in the Upanishads, for it exists in the heart.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Or on the analogy of what is seen in the world, (the soul may pervade the whole body) through its attribute (of sentience).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(The quality of sentience can have) separate existence like smell.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And the Upanishad also show this.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;(The soul and its intelligence are separate), since they are taught separately (in the Upanishads).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;But the soul comes to have such appellations because of the dominance of the modes of that intellect; this is just as in the case of the supreme Self.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And because the contact between the soul and the intellect persists so long as the worldly state of the soul continues, there can be no defect, for this is what is met with in the scriptures.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Rather because that contact (with the intellect etc.,) which remains latent (in sleep and dissolution) can become manifest (during waking and creation) like manhood etc., (from boyhood etc.,).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Else (if the existence of the internal organ be not admitted) there will be the possibility of either constant perception or non-perception or it will have to be admitted that either of the powers (of the soul or of the organs) becomes (suddenly) debarred (or delimited or lost).&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that this translation is written from the viewpoint of the Advaita philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, who believed as the non-Vedantic Astika schools do that that the soul is omnipresent.  He believed this because he thought that the Jivatma is the same as Brahman, whom everyone agrees is omnipresent; see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe38/sbe38030.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of his Brahma Sutra Bhashya:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The soul is not of atomic size, since scripture does not declare it to have had an origin. On the contrary, as scripture speaks of the highest Brahman entering into the elements and teaches that it is their Self, the soul is nothing else but the highest Brahman. And if the soul is the highest Brahman, it must be of the same extent as Brahman. Now scripture states Brahman to be all-pervading. Therefore the soul also is all-pervading.--On that view all the statements about the all-pervadingness of the soul made in Sruti and Smriti are justified, so, for instance, the passage, 'He is that great unborn Self who consists of knowledge, is surrounded by the prânas &amp;amp;c.' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 22). Nor again could the soul, if it were of atomic size, experience sensations extending over the whole body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But most other commentators on the Brahma Sutras interpret these Sutras as saying that the soul is atomic in size.  I could quote almost any commentary on the Brahma Sutra, but let me quote &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48266.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this section&lt;/a&gt; of Ramanujacharya's Sri Bhashya as a good representative:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Self is not omnipresent, but on the contrary, of atomic size (anu).--How is this known?--Since Scripture says that it passes out, goes and returns. Its passing out is described in the following passage 'by that light this Self departs, either through the eye, or through the skull, or through other parts of the body' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 2). Its going in the following text 'all those who pass away out of this world go to the moon,' and its returning in the text 'from that world he comes again into this world, for action.' All this going, and so on, cannot be reconciled with the soul being present everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2017-11-22T20:11:25.173" LastActivityDate="2017-11-22T20:11:25.173" CommentCount="13" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22082" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-12T07:01:29.377" Score="7" ViewCount="259" Body="&lt;p&gt;While reading the article &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=1369&amp;amp;more=1&amp;amp;c=1&amp;amp;tb=1&amp;amp;pb=1&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&quot;Ahimsha and Vegetarianism in Kashmir Shaivaism&quot;&lt;/a&gt; on the Kamakotimandali, i came across the concept of &quot;Shadjanma Pashu&quot; ( Shad=six; Janma=birth; Pashu=an animal).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is referring to an animal which is sacrificing it's life for six successive lives to attain God Consciousness. Such is it's heroism it's also called by the name of &quot;Vira Pashu&quot; or &quot;the Heroic animal&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am quoting some parts from the article below which is relevant to my question here and also some extra parts which provide the context of the discussion:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And that sheep must be very strong, healthy, young; not an old male&#xA;  sheep. He must be young and healthy because he is being sentenced to&#xA;  god-consciousness.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;parokṣe.api paśāvevaṃ vidhiḥ syādyojanaṃ prayi | praveśito yāgabhuvi&#xA;  hatastatraiva sādhitaḥ | cakrajuṣṭaśca tatraiva sa vīrapaśurucyate ||&#xA;  (Tantrāloka 16:52)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘In previous births also, this sacrifice has been done by this paśu.&#xA;  But the master has to see in his samādhi, that he is a vīrapaśu&#xA;  (heroic sheep). Then, when the vīrapaśu enters the maṇḍala, he is&#xA;  slaughtered there without any botheration. He does not cry, he does&#xA;  not jump, he does not want to move. He just welcomes this treatment’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This elevating of the sheep is done through the subtle transfer of&#xA;  prāṇa, and this can only be done by an elevated master. Outside of&#xA;  this, the taking of meat for the purpose of sense gratification or&#xA;  taste is strictly prohibited.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;................................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Agniṣṭomīya is the vedic sacrifice where sheep are slaughtered, but&#xA;  that is not an act of butchery. This is a divine act which is not sin.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;On the contrary,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;na haṭhena paśuṃ hanyānnārtibhāve kadācana | nacodeśena subhage&#xA;  yagapūrvaṃ vidhānavit ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Such slaughter is allowed only on the occasion of Putraka Dīkṣā in the&#xA;  context of Kashmir Shaivism. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............................&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Having accepted Abhinavagupta’s point on the sacredness of rituals,&#xA;  Jayaratha raises the question concerning the position of the sheep&#xA;  that is to be slaughtered.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘Now we have accepted that paśu yāga (animal sacrifice) on this&#xA;  occasion is divine, but still, to cut the throat of a paśu on that&#xA;  occasion is always disliked by the sheep. He will not like it since&#xA;  cutting his throat is not a joke’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To this objection, Abhinavagupta puts forth this answer:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘This is great blessing and great help that you cut his throat on this&#xA;  occasion. This is a great service to this paśu. No matter if he will&#xA;  not like it at the time of slaughtering, it will not be appreciated by&#xA;  that sheep’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;To clarify, Abhinavagupta gives the following example. When you are&#xA;  overwhelmed with some peculiar disease, the doctor prescribes a&#xA;  mixture and fasting; but fasting you don’t appreciate, mixture also&#xA;  you don’t appreciate because it is not sweet, it is sour. But this is&#xA;  a great service to that diseased being. So this is a kind of drug we&#xA;  are giving the sheep, and this drug is a terrible mixture for getting&#xA;  rid of the disease of rebirths - birth and death, birth and death, in&#xA;  continuity.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jayaratha then raises the following objection:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“If it is true that by cutting his throat he will be liberated, then&#xA;  what is the purpose, what is the sense, what is the meaning in&#xA;  initiation then? You just cut his throat and he will be liberated. Why&#xA;  undergo all these cycles of procedures of rituals, just cut his throat&#xA;  and he will be liberated’.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;In answer to this objection, Abhinavagupta quotes from the śāstras:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;‘In Mṛtyuñjaya Tantra (Netra Tantra), in the section of pāśaccheda it&#xA;  is said by Lord Shiva - when you cut the bindings of an individual to&#xA;  liberate him from repeated births and deaths, at that precious moment,&#xA;  āṇava, māyīya and kārma malas are also removed along with his body.&#xA;  So, he will not come into this wretched cycle of existence again, he&#xA;  will not be born again - because when both good and bad karma are&#xA;  exhausted, then there is no question of birth again. So this is not&#xA;  slaughtering the sheep, we are initiating the sheep, this is one way&#xA;  of dīkṣā.’&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;And this is a kind of initiation for duffers who cannot understand.&#xA;  For instance, if I teach a sheep to breath in and out, in and out, and&#xA;  watch the center of this cycle, will he understand? So, this is the&#xA;  way to teach him. Gross slaughtering is when you simply cut the throat&#xA;  of a sheep, or any being - in this case āṇava, māyīya and kārma mala&#xA;  are still there, you commit a sin there.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;But when you cut the throat and there are no malas left, that is&#xA;  initiation, that is upliftment, that is divine way of initiation. This&#xA;  is where you sentence him to higher worlds, higher elevated cycles of&#xA;  the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Now Abhinavagupta says that the master has to understand in which&#xA;  incarnation the sheep is residing.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When he is initially slaughtered and offered through havana, then he&#xA;  has again come back in birth and six times he is offered. That sheep,&#xA;  in the sixth cycle of his birth is called ṣadjanmā. And adepts can&#xA;  calculate and understand through meditation that this paśu who is&#xA;  grazing grass is ṣadjanmā paśu, and that is called vīrapaśu’.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once again it is emphasized that the fate of this vīrapaśu is&#xA;  liberation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My question- Which scriptures (possibly the Agamas will) describe about this heroic animal called the Shad Janma Pashu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Basically, i want to know more about this heroic animal.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-11-12T07:35:41.160" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T07:35:41.160" Title="Which scriptures describe the concept of &quot;Shadjanma Pashu&quot;?" Tags="|shaivism|animals|agamas|sacrifice|kashmiri-shaivism|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22083" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-12T09:36:16.993" Score="6" ViewCount="797" Body="&lt;p&gt;Vishnu Purana is one of the primary texts of Vaishnavism. It's the authority over Vaishnavism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Does it talk about Vaikutha? If not what it says regarding the highest abode of Vishnu? Does it uphold the Advaitik abode of Vishnu that is formless and not perceptible or Vaikuntha?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6990" LastEditorDisplayName="user6990" LastEditDate="2017-11-12T12:51:15.963" LastActivityDate="2017-12-14T11:11:14.383" Title="Is Vaikuntha or Brahman the supreme abode of Vishnu per Vishnu Purana?" Tags="|vishnu|vaishnavism|advaita|vishnu-purana|vaikuntha|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22084" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22083" CreationDate="2017-11-12T09:47:49.413" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;The supreme abode of Vishnu is &lt;em&gt;non-dualistic&lt;/em&gt; in nature as mentioned in Vishnu Purana. In my reading, I found that Vaikuntha word is absent in Vishnu Purana. And while reading it I came across this verse.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;यत्तदव्यक्तमजरमचिन्त्यमजमव्ययम् । अनिर्देश्यमरूपं च पाणिपादाद्यसंयुतम् ॥६६॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  विभुः सर्वगतं नित्यं भूतयोनिरकारणम् । व्याप्यव्याप्तं यतः सर्वं यद्वै पश्यन्ति सूरयः ॥६७॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तद्ब्रह्मतत्परं धाम तद्धयेयं मोक्षकाङ्क्षभिः। श्रुतिवाक्योदितं सूक्ष्मं तद्विष्णोः परमं पदम् ॥६८॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;That which is&#xA;  imperceptible, undecaying, inconceivable, unborn, inexhaustible,&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;indescribable&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;; &lt;strong&gt;which has neither form&lt;/strong&gt;, nor hands, nor feet; which is&#xA;  almighty, &lt;strong&gt;omnipresent&lt;/strong&gt;, eternal; the cause of all things, and without&#xA;  cause; permeating all, itself unpenetrated, and from which all things&#xA;  proceed; that is the object which the wise behold, &lt;em&gt;that is Brahman&lt;/em&gt;,&#xA;  that is the supreme state, that is the subject of contemplation to&#xA;  those who desire liberation, that is the thing spoken of by the Vedas,&#xA;  the infinitely subtle, supreme abode of Vishnu (तद्विष्णो: परमं पदं)-- &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vishnu Purana - 6.5.66-68&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse is quite explicit and it leaves no doubt that formless Brahman is the supreme abode or state of Vishnu.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The above translation is based on &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/puran_vishnu/Vishnu#page/n440/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sanskrit-Hindi Vishnu Purana&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp160.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;English translation&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6990" LastEditorDisplayName="user6990" LastEditDate="2017-11-12T15:47:22.910" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T15:47:22.910" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22085" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-12T13:18:06.183" Score="6" ViewCount="951" Body="&lt;p&gt;This is the Arya Durga Ashtakam-          &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_devii/AryAdurgAShTakam.html?lang=sa&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Arya Durga Ashtakam&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;          &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Kindly give its translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T13:18:06.183" Title="Can someone give translation to Arya Durga Ashtakam?" Tags="|translation-request|durga|shakti|stotra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" FavoriteCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22086" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21584" CreationDate="2017-11-12T14:58:48.153" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The way I understand it, the meaning of devas/devis is divine powers or siddhis. These are attained by doing intense tapasya. Actions done after attaining these siddhis or divine powers also bind one in maya even though these karmas are sattvic. This could act as the obstacle or going to the next stage of spiritual development which is Brahma Vidya. This is not merely theoretical knowledge which can be read by all, (just the way many read books today). Example being Nachiketa who rejected all pleasures of the world offered by Yama, and chose Brahma Vidya, the practice of which can take one to moksha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12531" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T14:58:48.153" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22088" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="6676" CreationDate="2017-11-12T15:19:57.127" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;The flute is symbolic of the spine which has apertures. On activation of all the chakras, the vayu blows through this spine in the sukshma sharira and enables the tapasvi to do sattvic karmas and other high class siddhis. Swami Sivananda had written that on reaching closer to the inner divine a tapasvi hears the sound of the flute and bell inside his head. (not like a hallucination).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Peacock feathers have crystals which enhance the powers of the pineal gland which too have similar crystals. The colours of the peacock feather are the same as that of the sun seen in NASA photos, and the surya bija mantra '”Om Hraam Hreem Hraum Sah Suryay Namah” activates shaktis as described in Ram and Krushna Leelas. Peacock is also vahan of Kartikeya who is metaphorical 'son' of Siva, or the divine powers produced by meditation on Siva. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12531" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-13T04:10:38.670" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T04:10:38.670" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22089" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21179" CreationDate="2017-11-12T15:28:17.417" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;Ancient history is full of ice ages, earthquakes, tsunamis and other calamities, natural and man-made such as wars. During that time it would be difficult to find fruits, vegetables or grow grains. For survival people would have had to eat meat. But this would have been difficult for vegetarians and so they would have offered it to Kali first and said mantras to reduce their karmic debt. Since many famines used to last for years, children born during this time would have grown up eating meat. Then, acharyas such as all the Shankracharyas and all Buddhas would go on missions to teach people the correct way, and stop meat eating. But since people are born with their prarabdhas and vasanas, chances are that many would prefer to actively eat meat. But it would be incorrect to make sweeping statements (like some people do), that Buddhism was a reform movement that taught Hindus to stop eating meat. Many tantric practices include meat eating. This too is a result of misunderstanding and misinterpretations. This is because divine power activates only after doing intense tapasya and tyaga. A true renunciate eventually gives up all sorts of food so why would he eat meat?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12531" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T15:28:17.417" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22090" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="20050" CreationDate="2017-11-12T15:53:27.733" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;I feel people have misunderstood role of dhobi in ancient Vedic society. Meaning of agni parixa is not about chastity the way it is understood today but about a tapasvi's test. Ramayan is another version of the more ancient story in which Sati metaphorically burns her gross body desires in agni of tapas. Sita's agni parixa is the same. It is not about actually sitting in a real fire. Sita, like many others was a Mahisi who are main participants in yagyas. They had to do mantra siddhis which involved intense tapasya and so celibacy. Sita and Ram were not 'married' as we understand today. But paired up as ideal Mahisa and Mahisi. Mahisa were also defenders and fought when required. The two were the yin and yang and had to have perfect balance when doing yagyas. Pati meant leader and not husband like it does today. Sita had become highly advanced in tapasya and so it was decided that she would advance as a rushi, which too is for benefit for society. This is why she goes to ashram which was not orphanage. In those days there were no orphans since all children went to residential gurukuls together and were trained by rushis (without any prejudice). Later they were given posting (like in army) and mentored by seniors. Later even adults went for further education. Sita later took samadhi in pruthvi and this is only possible if a person is advanced tapasvi. Story makes sense if read as a case study of Sanatan Dharma and Yoga. Ancient Arya society was cashless and martial. Even dhobis were part of the govt. as mentioned in Mahabharat, and so carried weight. They were not merely servants. Nor was Manthara. Just like how a prime minister will employ highly educated advisors, not illiterate, dumb servants.&#xA;For example, Asvamedha was not about horses but about being done with the speed of a horse. Asva has been translated as sun, or Asvinau who were scientists and highly knowledgeable. Medha means essence, while Medhaa means wisdom. So yagya was about spreading wisdom and knowledge and entire nation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12531" LastEditorUserId="12531" LastEditDate="2017-11-13T18:30:06.220" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T18:30:06.220" CommentCount="19" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22092" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-12T18:00:42.823" Score="6" ViewCount="800" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are six Vedangas or supplements to the Vedas: Siksha or prounciation, Chandas or poetic meter, Vyakarana or grammar, Nirukta or etymology, Kalpa or rituals, and Jyotisha or astrology.  My question is about Kalpa.  There are three types of Kalpa Sutras or guides to Vedic rituals: Shrauta Sutras, which tell you how to do large public Yagnas; Grihya Sutras, which tell you how to do household rituals; and Shulba Sutras, which describe the geometry of altars for Vedic rituals.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now as you can see in my Meta answer &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/734/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, I've read many Grihya Sutra texts: the Shankhayana Grihya Sutras, the Ashvalayana Grihya Sutras, the Paraskara Grihya Sutras, the Khadira Grihya Sutras, the Gobhila Grihya Sutras, the Hiranyakeshi Grihya Sutras, the Apastamba Grihya Sutras, and the Vaikhanasa Grihya Sutras.  Almost all of these are available in English on sacred-texts.com &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe29/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe30/index.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, except for the Vaikhanasa Grihya Sutras which I've uploaded to Google Drive &lt;a href=&quot;http://gdurl.com/dQOe/download&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But there's one Grihya Sutra text I haven't read yet: the Baudhayana Grihya Sutras, which are associated with the Krishna Yajur Veda.  My question is, have the Baudhayana Grihya Sutras ever been translated into English? You can read it in Sanskrit &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hinduonline.co/vedicreserve/kalpa/grihya/bodhayana_grihya_sutram.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, but I can't seem to find an English translation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastActivityDate="2020-04-19T06:01:35.157" Title="Have the Baudhayana Grihya Sutras ever been translated into English?" Tags="|vedas|rituals|translation-request|yajur-veda|grihya-sutra|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22093" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22094" CreationDate="2017-11-12T18:36:24.660" Score="26" ViewCount="4163" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are many verses in the Srimad Bhagavatam and the Brahma-Vaivarta Purana which are used by Krishna-centric Vaishnava traditions to show that Lord Krishna is the source of all incarnations, including of Lord Vishnu. Some of such verses are: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ &lt;strong&gt;kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam&lt;/strong&gt; indrāri-vyākulaṁ&#xA;  lokaṁ mṛḍayanti yuge yuge&lt;/em&gt; (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.28)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, &lt;strong&gt;but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead&lt;/strong&gt;. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;narayanas tvam na hi sarva-dehinam&#xA;  atmasy adhisakhila-loka-saksi&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;narayano ’ngam&lt;/strong&gt; nara-bhu-jalayanat&#xA;  tac capi satyam na tavaiva maya&lt;/em&gt; (Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14.14)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: Are You not the original Narayana, O supreme controller, since You are the Soul of every embodied being and the eternal witness of all created realms? Indeed, &lt;strong&gt;Lord Narayana is Your expansion&lt;/strong&gt;, and He is called Narayana because He is the generating source of the primeval water of the universe. He is real, not a product of Your illusory Maya.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not mentioning the verses from the Brahma-Vaivarta Purana as there are too many to quote. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In addition to the these two Puranas, Gaudiya Vaishnavas use the Brahma Samhita, the famous text containing Lord Brahma's prayers to Lord Krishna that was discovered by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Adi-Keshava Temple, to reiterate their point of Lord Krishna to be the Original Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So are there any scriptures which say Lord Rama is the source of all incarnations? I have heard that Ramanandi Vaishnavas believe Lord Rama to be the source of all incarnations. Do they have any scriptural evidence to support their view?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2018-12-23T17:40:26.860" LastActivityDate="2023-03-08T16:26:22.390" Title="Are there any scriptures that portray Lord Rama to be the source of all incarnations including Lord Vishnu?" Tags="|scripture|rama|avatars|identification-request|" AnswerCount="8" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22094" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22093" CreationDate="2017-11-12T18:36:24.660" Score="25" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes, there are scriptures that are used by Ramanandi Vaishnavas to support their claim of Lord Rama being the Original Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;raghavasya guno divyo mahavisnuh svarupavana&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;vasudevo ghanibhutastanutejah sadasivah&lt;/em&gt; ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;matsyasca ramahrdayam yogarupi janardanah&lt;/em&gt; ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;kurmascadharasaktisca varaho bhujayorbalam&lt;/em&gt; ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;narasimho mahakopo vamanah katimekhala&lt;/em&gt; ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bhargavo jamnghayorjato balaramasca prsthatah&lt;/em&gt; ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;bauddhastu karuna saksat kalkiscittasya harsatah&lt;/em&gt; ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;krsnah srrngararupasca vrndavanavibhusanah&lt;/em&gt; ।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;aite camsakalah sarve ramo brahma santanah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; । (&lt;strong&gt;Sudarshana Samhita 1-5&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;strong&gt;When the infinite divine auspicious qualities of Lord Rama takes form, He becomes MahaVishnu&lt;/strong&gt;. Shri Rama's auspicious condensed divine splendour is Lord Vasudeva. Matsya avatara appeared from Shri Rama's heart, Kurma avatara is the manifestation of His support-power. Varaha is the manifestation of His arm's strength. Lord Narasimha appears from His anger, Lord Vamana from His waist, Lord Parashurama appears from His thigh, Buddha from His compassion, Kalki appears from His delight and the Vrindavana-Vihari Shri Krishna Himself is His Shringaar Swaroopa. &lt;strong&gt;Thus, all these incarnations are are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of Lord Rama and Lord Rama is the origin, the eternal Brahman and the original Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;yatha sarvavataranamavatari raghuttamah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;tatha strotasam saumya pavini sarayu sarita&lt;/em&gt; ।। (&lt;strong&gt;Agastya Samhita, Uttara-Khanda&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Meaning&lt;/strong&gt;: Shri Rama, the best among the Raghus, &lt;strong&gt;is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, among all the incarnations&lt;/strong&gt;; in the same way as the divine river Sarayu is the greatest among all rivers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;avatarastu bahavah kala amsavibhutayah ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;ramodhanurdharah saksat sarveso bhagavan svayam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; ।। (&lt;strong&gt;Shiva Samhita&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: Various incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, &lt;strong&gt;but Lord Rama who wields the bow is the God of all Gods and the original Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;purnopurnavatarasca syamoramoraghuttamah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; ।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;amsanrsimhakrsnadyah raghavobhagavansvayam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; ।। (&lt;strong&gt;Yajnavalkya Samhita&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;strong&gt;Lord Rama is the best among the Raghus is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead and also a complete incarnation. Narasimha, Krishna and others the plenary portions of Raghava, the original Supreme Personality of Godhead.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;hr&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;nārāyaṇō'pirāmāṃśaḥ-śaṅkhacakragadādharaḥ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;॥ (&lt;strong&gt;Varaha Samhita&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;English Translation:&lt;/strong&gt; Lord Narayana, the wielder of Shankha, Chakra, Gada and Padma &lt;strong&gt;is the first manifestation of Bhagavan Shri Rama.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;http://lordrama.co.in&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;http://lordrama.co.in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2020-03-09T15:39:49.010" LastActivityDate="2020-03-09T15:39:49.010" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22095" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-12T19:10:13.170" Score="2" ViewCount="203" Body="&lt;p&gt;What Bhagavata Purana text mentions apropos this question? Is Bhagavan Krishna the source of all incarnations or Bhagavan Vishnu as traditionally believed?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6990" LastEditorDisplayName="user6990" LastEditDate="2017-11-13T02:37:55.083" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T02:37:55.083" Title="Is Krishna the source of Vishnu or other way round?" Tags="|vishnu|krishna|avatars|vaishnavism|bhagavata-purana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ClosedDate="2017-11-12T19:23:43.713" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22096" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22117" CreationDate="2017-11-12T19:18:52.143" Score="6" ViewCount="3602" Body="&lt;p&gt;I was going through the Wikipedia article on &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succubus&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;succubus&lt;/a&gt; where I found Yakshinis being referred to be succubi in Hindu tradition:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In India, the succubus is referred to as Yakshini and are mythical beings within Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain mythology. Yakshinis are the female counterpart of the male Yaksha, and they are attendees of Kubera, the Hindu god of wealth who rules in the mythical Himalayan kingdom of Alaka. They are the guardians of the treasure hidden in the earth and resemble fairies. Yakshinis are often depicted as beautiful and voluptuous, with wide hips, narrow waists, broad shoulders, and exaggerated, spherical breasts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is Wikipedia correct in saying that Yakshinis are succubi? I am asking this because I have found Wikipedia to be a not very reliable source in the past.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: For those of you who are not aware of what a succubus is, it is a supernatural entity in Western esoteric traditions, that takes form of a woman to seduce men, usually through sexual activity. Also keep in mind that Succubi is the plural of succubus.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9969" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2021-04-07T11:21:28.983" Title="Are Yakshinis succubi?" Tags="|other-religions|yakshas|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22097" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22095" CreationDate="2017-11-12T19:20:24.773" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;एतौ भगवतः साक्षात् हरेर्नारायणस्य हि ।  अवतीर्णाविहांशेन वसुदेवस्य&#xA;वेश्मनि ॥ Bhagavatam 10.43.23 ॥&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: &lt;em&gt;These two brothers are Avataras of rays of the almighty Hari whose Abode is cosmic waters, descended on the earth in the home of&#xA;Vasudeva.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अप्यद्य विष्णोर्मनुजत्वमीयुषो  भारावताराय भुवो निजेच्छया ।Bhagavatam&#xA;10.38.10&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: &lt;em&gt;..Lord Viṣṇu, the Abode of beauty and excellence, who by His own will&#xA;has incarnated as a human being (Krishna) for lightening the burden of the earth.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;प्रधानपुरुषावाद्यौ जगद्धेतू जगत्पती ।  अवतीर्णौ जगत्यर्थे स्वांशेन&#xA;बलकेशवौ ॥ ३२ ॥ &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Meaning: &lt;em&gt;They (Purusha and Prakriti) had descended on the earth in their Amshas as Balarama and Krishna for the good of the world.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/BhagavataPuranaMotilalEnglish/Bhagavata%20Purana%20-%20Motilal%20-%20English%20-%20Parts%201%20-%205#page/n1535/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata Purana 10.43.23&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/BhagavataPuranaMotilalEnglish/Bhagavata%20Purana%20-%20Motilal%20-%20English%20-%20Parts%201%20-%205#page/n1504/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata Purana 10.38.10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/BhagavataPuranaMotilalEnglish/Bhagavata%20Purana%20-%20Motilal%20-%20English%20-%20Parts%201%20-%205#page/n1507/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata Purana 10.38.32&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6990" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user6990" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T21:25:17.160" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22098" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="16893" CreationDate="2017-11-12T20:03:22.053" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;IMO Rickross's answer above is correct, Varna is based on birth and samskaras, with guna being only something that each Varna should strive for, and also the consequential behaviors of each varna due to their samskaaras, and not the defining feature of somebody's varna.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Most people quote Bhagavad Gita verses 18.41 to 18.44 in support of the Guna-based varna theory.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For example,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;18.41:&lt;/strong&gt; Brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras are distinguished by the qualities born of their own natures in accordance with the material modes, O chastiser of the enemy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This verse is not advocating guna-based varna theory. It is saying that members of these varnas have these (or should have) these qualities, and not that people's varnas are defined by these qualities. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note that this verse uses Sanskrit words like &quot;Karmaani&quot; (actions and impressions of previous lives) and &quot;Svabhaava&quot; (inherent nature). The body that you are born into is dependent on your karma and impressions from previous lives; you didn't randomly get this body, but got it to experience the fruits associated with the birth. One who is born as a human has different karma than a king, than a deva, than an insect, than a plant, etc. Thus, your birth into a family, upbringing by parents, and contact with members of society close to you influences your actions and work (karmaani) and nature (guna or svabhaava). It is also true that genetics and ancestry has a huge influence on your nature. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guna-based varna system doesn't work, because for example, let's take this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;18.42:&lt;/strong&gt; Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge, wisdom and religiousness – these are the natural qualities by which the brāhmaṇas work.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;and also this verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;18.43:&lt;/strong&gt; Heroism, power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle, generosity and leadership are the natural qualities of work for the kṣatriyas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A lot of non-Hindu people have these qualities, Mlecchas (non-Vedic) and atheists can also exhibit these qualities, this doesn't mean they are Brahmins, etc. A Muslim soldier can exhibit these qualities that are associated with a kshatriya, but this doesn't qualify him to be part of the kshatriya-varna. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Moreover, how can you guarantee somebody has these qualities? From birth to the time of around 25 years of age most people go through phases and exhibit all sorts of qualities. It's not practical to determine somebody's varna after 25 years; that's 25 years gone to waste. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;People also exhibit different qualities at different times. Sometimes I'm calm, serene, tolerant, self-controlled, and sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I'm courageous and heroic. Does that mean I'm temporarily a Brahmin for the duration of having those qualities, and immediately non-Brahmin and a Kshatriya when I don't have those qualities? Most of the Saptarishis are Brahmins and sometimes they get angry/desirous, does this mean they are not Brahmins for the duration of their lapse of self-control?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, one can have qualities of both brahmins and kshatriyas, meaning he can be self-controlled, tolerant, and also determined, heroic, courageous, etc. A soldier can exhibit qualities like self-control and austerity. Does that mean he's both a Brahmin and Kshatriya? The answer is no to this and the last question due to the absurdity. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It is also difficult to determine if somebody has certain qualities because it can come down to opinion. One person can think an individual is generous, while another person doesn't think he's generous, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Guna-based varna system also contradicts Manu smriti as Rickross points out, since a Brahmin must get his sacred thread at the age of 8, before he has developed any sort of consistent personality.  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;due to all these difficulties pointed out, the guna-based varna system is impractical and an impossibility.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;What is objective is determining somebody's varna based on his birth&lt;/strong&gt; (and this is acceptable for the reasons given above), and the Manusmriti gives all sorts of cases when the mom and dad are of a different caste, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But again as Rickross mentioned, &lt;strong&gt;birth isn't the &lt;em&gt;only&lt;/em&gt; qualification, because it must be backed up with work, behavior, and following dharma&lt;/strong&gt;. A Brahman who drinks alcohol and visits prostitutes loses his Brahmin-hood. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So, &lt;strong&gt;varna is determined by birth, samskaras, &lt;em&gt;AND&lt;/em&gt; guna.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, it is important to note that this is just the &lt;em&gt;norm&lt;/em&gt; and that there are certain exceptions, but these are just exceptions do not refute the norm. For example, Vishvamitra was a Kshatriya but he displayed Brahminical qualities, and Parashurama was the son of Jamadagni (Brahmin) but he was a notoriously famous warrior. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Sruti or Smrti does not give any example of someone upgrading their varna during their lifetime.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;With all this said, if a Sudra has sattvic qualities and desires Moksha, he is certainly qualified&lt;/strong&gt;, at least according to Sri Vaishnavism, because he can do Sharanagati, chant the Ashtaksharam mantra, read the Bhagavad Gita, and other Smritis, and do Pancharatra rituals. &lt;em&gt;His only prohibition&lt;/em&gt; is that he cannot study the Vedas. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastEditorUserId="11726" LastEditDate="2017-11-12T20:39:22.957" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T20:39:22.957" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22099" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22096" CreationDate="2017-11-12T20:54:01.767" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;As you mentioned in your question that yaksha as a species is widely mentioned in hindu, buddhist, and jain religions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In some way it is referrered as succubus or something related to it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In jain tradition yaksha means protector deity. Ganesha, for example is a yaksha as per jain belief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Buddhism there are species similar to yaksha and they have dakinis too which is different from hindu belief.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Like gandharvas and kinnaras there are yaksha. And yakshini are invoked for various purposes. Most of which are materialist enjoyment.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, we have legends of yakshinis making relations with humans and there are.also procedures where she is worshipped as a mother.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So it.ultimately depends.on the doer and his.inner intentions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So in a way its true but for everyone.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-11-12T20:54:01.767" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22100" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22093" CreationDate="2017-11-12T21:07:06.420" Score="18" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes. Other scriptures too mention Rama as source of incarnation. What say more, the Supreme Empress of Universe Mother Durga Herself reminded the Supreme Eternal Shri Raama of His prowess and infinite strength.       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;When Shri Hari along with Lakshmana performed the NavaRatri Vratam to get victory over Ravana and to get back the Supreme Goddess of Universe Mother Sita, then His sister Parameshvari Durga came and blessed Him that His desires would be completed.          &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On the eight day of Navaratri Vrata, Mother Paraambika came to the Supreme Lord Parameshvara Shri Raama and told Him thus:       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Devi Puraana, Book 3, Chapter 30&lt;/strong&gt;       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;देव्युवाच ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  राम राम महाबाहो तुष्टाऽस्म्यद्य व्रतेन ते ॥ ४६ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रार्थयस्व वरं कामं यत्ते मनसि वर्तते ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नारायणांशसम्भूतस्त्वं वंशे मानवेऽनघे ॥ ४७ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  रावणस्य वधायैव प्रार्थितस्त्वमरैरसि ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  पुरा मत्स्यतनुं कृत्वा हत्वा घोरञ्च राक्षसम् ॥ ४८ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  त्वया वै रक्षिता वेदाः सुराणां हितमिच्छता ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भूत्वा कच्छपरूपस्तु धृतवान्मन्दरं गिरिम् ॥ ४९ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  अकूपारं प्रमन्थानं कृत्वा देवानपोषयः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कोलरूपं परं कृत्वा दशनाग्रेण मेदिनीम् ॥ ५० ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  धृतवानसि यद्‌राम हिरण्याक्षं जघान च ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  नारसिंहीं तनुं कृत्वा हिरण्यकशिपुं पुरा ॥ ५१ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रह्लादं राम रक्षित्वा हतवानसि राघव ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  वामनं वपुरास्थाय पुरा छलितवान्बलिम् ॥ ५२ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  भूत्वेन्द्रस्यानुजः कामं देवकार्यप्रसाधकः ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  जमदग्निसुतस्त्वं मे विष्णोरंशेन सङ्गतः ॥ ५३ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  कृत्वान्तं क्षत्रियाणां तु दानं भूमेरदाद्‌द्विजे ।&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  तथेदानीं तु काकुत्स्थ जातो दशरथात्मज ॥ ५४ ॥&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  प्रार्थितस्तु सुरैः सर्वै रावणेनातिपीडितैः ।       &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Devi said-&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  &lt;strong&gt;O Rama! O Rama with great strength! Today I am satisfied with Thy Vrata. Do ask Me the desired wish which existeth in Thy mind.&lt;/strong&gt; 46.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Rama! By taking part from Narayana Thou manifestedst Thyself in the sinless clan of Manu. And Thou art prayed by all Immortal Devas for slaying of Raavana.&lt;/strong&gt; 47.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It was Thou Who in ancient times tooketh body of fish and killing the terrible Rakshasa Hayagriva only by Thee the Vedas were saved for welfare of Suras.&lt;/strong&gt; 48.        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It was Thou Who incarnatedth in form of tortoise and heldeth aloft the Mandara mountain, churnedth the ocean and nourishedth the Devas.&lt;/strong&gt; 49.        &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;O Rama! Thou tookest Supreme form of Boar and &#xA;  heldest aloft the Earth on the front of Thy teeth, and annihilatedst Hiranyaksha.&lt;/strong&gt; 50.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thou assuming the form of a Man-Lion and preserving Prahlaada, O Rama Who art Descent of Raghu! annihilatedst HiranyaKashipu, in ancient times.&lt;/strong&gt; 51.    &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It was Thou Who in ancient times becameth the younger brother to Indra and manifesting as a dwarf body deceitfully cheatedth Bali, for well conferring favour to the Devas.&lt;/strong&gt; 52.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thou by the combination of My and Vishnu's part, incarnatedst as the Son of Jamadagni, extirpatedst the lines of Ksattriya kings and gavest over this whole earth to Bhagavan Kashyapa Risi.&lt;/strong&gt; 53.     &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So Thou art now born as the son of Dasarath in clan of Kakutstha, being prayed by all the Devas as they are much harassed by Ravana.&lt;/strong&gt; 54.      &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user9392" LastEditorDisplayName="user9969" LastEditDate="2019-02-07T09:37:09.347" LastActivityDate="2019-02-07T09:37:09.347" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22101" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-12T21:52:55.700" Score="2" ViewCount="72" Body="&lt;p&gt;These days if you see people are always greedy about others' money. The theives &amp;amp; beggars in the society are increasing. Some common examples include &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One borrowss money from others and will not show intent to repay it. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Being thankless even after being helped.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Bus conductor takes money to give ticket but will not repay the change.  &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One friend always looks who gives party in college but he will never give to others :). &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;One growsup with the help of their parents but will not care about them in their old ages. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Even the education system became highly expensive. &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many more examples apart from above. Corruption increased everywhere in society because of greed.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What did various scriptures say about greed and what will be the punishment to these people?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1239" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-11-13T01:16:04.857" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T01:16:04.857" Title="What do scriptures say about greed &amp; corruption?" Tags="|scripture|dharma|sin|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ClosedDate="2017-11-13T09:39:44.687" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22102" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22191" CreationDate="2017-11-13T02:25:36.953" Score="8" ViewCount="235" Body="&lt;p&gt;Does scripture say to maintain secrecy in spiritual practices? Are we not recommended to speak about our Ishta Deva, spiritual practices or devotion?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8696" LastEditorUserId="8696" LastEditDate="2017-11-13T02:31:50.790" LastActivityDate="2018-07-06T06:16:40.710" Title="Are there any reasons to maintain spiritual practices very secret?" Tags="|scripture|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22103" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-13T03:41:06.400" Score="9" ViewCount="905" Body="&lt;p&gt;This verse 12.5.11-12 is found in the final teachings of Sukadeva Goswami. It seems Advaitic in its meaning and essence.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Suka instructs King Parikshit:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अहं ब्रह्म परं धाम ब्रह्माहं परं पदम् एवं समीक्ष्य चात्मानमात्मन्याधाय निष्कले।।&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I am Brahman. I'm the supreme abode. Brahman, the highest goal, is I myself&amp;quot; having realized this and absorbing yourself in the self (supreme self), which is beyond the limits, you will see neither Takshaka snake nor your body nor the world as being distinct and different from your own Atman&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/stream/BhagavataPuranaMotilalEnglish/Bhagavata%20Purana%20-%20Motilal%20-%20English%20-%20Parts%201%20-%205#page/n2176/mode/1up&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Bhagavata Purana 12.5.11-12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6990" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user16618" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-03-01T06:00:19.820" Title="How do non-advaitians interpret Bhagavata Purana 12.5.11?" Tags="|vedanta|bhagavata-purana|advaita|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22104" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-13T05:02:58.270" Score="4" ViewCount="155" Body="&lt;p&gt;Sometimes while a flight takes off, I become nervous. I would like to know which &lt;em&gt;mantra&lt;/em&gt; to recite or which deity to invoke.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;I know to remove fear of water while travelling in water one may chant &lt;code&gt;शं नो वरुणः&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastEditorUserId="1049" LastEditDate="2017-11-13T05:44:50.403" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T05:44:50.403" Title="Which deity should be prayed or which mantra can be recited, while flying in an aircraft?" Tags="|gods|mantras|culture|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22105" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-13T05:54:13.737" Score="4" ViewCount="242" Body="&lt;p&gt;In today's times, for every aspect of life, there is an award -- be it films, companies, schools, science, literature, arts, sports, competition, talent and so on ...&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In ancient times, according to &lt;em&gt;Dharma-shAstra&lt;/em&gt;-s a king or a master should &quot;&lt;strong&gt;reward&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; someone inferior to them for good work &amp;amp; punish for bad.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;However, was there any &quot;&lt;strong&gt;Award&lt;/strong&gt;&quot; system to motivate the various people of society?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Award = Memento / Recognition / Certificate (i.e. anything non-monitory rewards)&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Add-on: Since a person is merely utilising own skills for own good, is award-giving considered DhArmik? Or there is no Qn of Dharma involved at all?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T18:03:00.450" Title="Were there &quot;Awards&quot; during ancient times?" Tags="|history|culture|dharma-shastras|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="6" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22106" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22093" CreationDate="2017-11-13T06:17:26.967" Score="14" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yes there are verses in scriptures which Declare Lord Rama as source of all Incartions.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Salutations to that Rama who is most superior, the primal Lord of Universe and free from all the vices. Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh who are sustainer of the world are just parts of Lord Rama.&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;strong&gt;Skanda Purana, Uttara kanda, Ramayana Mahatmya 1.3&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The renowned Rama is capable of totally destroying all the worlds together with its five elements, along with its animate and inanimate things and also to create yet again all the worlds in like manner as before.&amp;quot; (&lt;strong&gt;Valmiki Ramayana 5.51.39&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Killing of demons with bow and arrows, or building a bridge over the ocean does not constitute the factual Glory of the Supreme Personality Of Godhead, Lord Rama,whose spiritual body is always engaded in various past times. There is no one equal to Lord Rama and therefore he had no need to take help from the monkeys to gain victory over demon Ravana. (&lt;strong&gt;Srimad Bhagavatam 9-11-20&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Shri Hanuman says- I worship all times Lord Rama, who is eternal and who is very form sat existence and Amanda bliss. Shri Rama is expert in the rasaleela, His parts are Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh who are sustainers of the world.(&lt;strong&gt;Hanuman Samhita&lt;/strong&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Aadi-Ramayana, Lord Hanuman says to Garuda&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I do not know any other supreme being, the God of all gods. All the &lt;strong&gt;innumerable incarnations have originated from Lord Rama alone.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In Valmiki Ramayana Lord Rama is discribed as powerful as Lord Shiva&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;अब्रवीच्च तदा रामः सुग्रीवं प्रत्यनन्तरम् | विभीषणं च धर्मात्मा हनूमन्तं च वानरम् || ९३-६-३७ जाम्बवन्तं हरिश्रेष्ठं मैन्दं द्विविदमेव च | एतदस्त्रबलन् दिव्यं मम वा त्र्यम्बकस्य वा || ९३-६-३८&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then, the virtuous Rama spoke also to the Sugreeva, Vibhishana, Hanuman the monkey, Jambavan, Mainda the foremost of monkeys and even Dvivida, who were in close proximity to him as follows &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Such wonderful power of this missile exists either with me or with the three-eyed Rudra the Lord of destruction&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2019-02-06T20:25:01.847" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22107" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17381" CreationDate="2017-11-13T06:47:09.360" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;The below quote of Vivekananda is very clear that Swami Vivekananda knew that there is truth in astrology but he did not believe that the so called practitioners had truth in them. Vivekananda has not rubbished the science behind astrology but he made a wise choice and a wise advice to stay away from astrologers who have no clue even today of the science behind Jyotish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;His quote from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda by Swami Vivekananda Volume 8,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;It is always a manifestation of strength, and all these ideas such as&#xA;  astrology, although there may be a grain of truth in them, should be&#xA;  avoided.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;There is an old story of an astrologer who came to a king and said,&#xA;  &quot;You are going to die in six months.&quot; The king was frightened out of&#xA;  his wits and was almost about to die then and there from fear. But his&#xA;  minister was a clever man, and this man told the king that these&#xA;  astrologers were fools. The king would not believe him. So the&#xA;  minister saw no other way to make the king see that they were fools&#xA;  but to invite the astrologer to the palace again. There he asked him&#xA;  if his calculations were correct. The astrologer said that there could&#xA;  not be a mistake, but to satisfy him he went through the whole of the&#xA;  calculations again and then said that they were perfectly correct. The&#xA;  king's face became livid. The minister said to the astrologer, &quot;And&#xA;  when do you think that you will die?&quot; &quot;In twelve years&quot;, was the&#xA;  reply. The minister quickly drew his sword and separated the&#xA;  astrologer's head from the body and said to the king, &quot;Do you see this&#xA;  liar? He is dead this moment.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;You will not find a more humbler person than Swami Vivekananda. Here is another quote from vol 6 of the complete works.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Veda means the sum total of eternal truths; the Vedic Rishis&#xA;  experienced those truths; they can be experienced only by seers of the&#xA;  supersensuous and not by common men like us. That is why in the Vedas&#xA;  the term Rishi means &quot;the seer of the truth of the Mantras&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastEditorUserId="12223" LastEditDate="2017-11-14T04:58:41.363" LastActivityDate="2017-11-14T04:58:41.363" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22108" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22116" CreationDate="2017-11-13T07:22:46.133" Score="12" ViewCount="317" Body="&lt;p&gt;Since childhood I am a big fan of SwAmi VivekAnanda and I used to read (and still do) a lot of books written by him.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, when I have grown up, I have the understanding that although they are important books on the topics they deal with, but they are not scriptures. I know that they can't be called so. But I want to know the reason why?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Do the scriptures (Vedas, Smritis, PurAnas, Agamas, Tantras etc) define the term ShAstra? If yes what is the definition?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-11-14T04:09:34.953" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T06:08:27.437" Title="What is the scriptural definition of scripture (shAshtra)?" Tags="|scripture|etymology|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22111" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22093" CreationDate="2017-11-13T08:25:53.090" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;The 33 Vishwedevas are the supreme beings which form the divine forces of the universe. These are the 8 vasus, 11 Rudras, 12 Adityas, Prajapati and Brihaspati.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Rama was born under Punarvasu Nakshatra whose reiging deity is Aditi-Devata.  Aditi-Devata is considered the mother of 12 Nakshatra's which formed during creation of a new manvantara from the 12 Adityas. One among this is Vishnu( Vamana) or commonly known as Sravana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sri Krishna was born under Rohini nakshtra. The reigning deity of Rohini is Prajapati who is considered to be the creative force behind the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The following is from the Mahabharata which gives what is first, taken from Aswamedha Parva: Anugita Parva: Section XLIV. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&quot;Brahmana said, 'I shall now tell you truly about all that which has a&#xA;  beginning, middle, and end, and which is endued with name and&#xA;  characteristics, together with the means of apprehension. It has been&#xA;  said that the Day was first, Then arose Night. The Months are said to&#xA;  have the lighted fortnights first. The constellations have Sravana for&#xA;  their first; the Seasons have that of dews (viz., Winter) for their&#xA;  first. Earth is the source of all smells; and Water of all tastes. The&#xA;  solar light is the source of all colours: the Wind of all sensations&#xA;  of touch. Likewise, of sound the source is space (or Ether). These are&#xA;  the qualities of elements. I shall, after this, declare that which is&#xA;  the first and the highest of all entities. The sun is the first of all&#xA;  lighted bodies. Fire is said to be the first of all the elements.&#xA;  Savitri is the first of all branches of learning. Prajapati is the&#xA;  first of all the deities. The syllable Om is the first of all the&#xA;  Vedas, and the life-wind Prana is the first of all winds. All that is&#xA;  called Savitri which is prescribed in this world. The Gayatri is the&#xA;  first of all metres; of all (sacrificial) animals the first is the&#xA;  goat. Kine are the first of all quadrupeds. The twiceborn ones are the&#xA;  first of all human beings. The hawk is the first of all birds. Of&#xA;  sacrifices the first is the pouring of clarified butter on the fire.&#xA;  Of all reptiles the first, O foremost of regenerate ones, is the&#xA;  snake. The Krita is the first of all the Yugas; there is no doubt in&#xA;  this. Gold is the first of all precious things. Barley is the first of&#xA;  all plants. Food is the first of all things to be eaten or swallowed.&#xA;  Of all liquid substances to be drunk, water is the foremost. Of all&#xA;  immobile entities without distinction, Plaksha is said to be the&#xA;  first, that ever holy field of Brahman. Of all the Prajapatis I am the&#xA;  first. There is no doubt in this. Of inconceivable soul, the&#xA;  self-existent Vishnu is said to be my superior. 2 Of all the mountains&#xA;  the great Meru is said to be the first-born. Of all the cardinal and&#xA;  subsidiary points of the horizon, the eastern is said to be the&#xA;  foremost and first-born. Ganga of three courses is said to be the&#xA;  firstborn of all rivers. Likewise, of all wells and reservoirs of&#xA;  waters, the ocean is said to be the first-born. Iswara is the supreme&#xA;  Lord of all the deities and Danavas and ghostly beings and Pisachas,&#xA;  and snakes and Makshasas and human beings and Kinnaras and Yakshas.&#xA;  The great Vishnu, who is full of Brahma, than whom there is no higher&#xA;  being in the three worlds, is the first of all the universe. Of all&#xA;  the modes of life, that of the householder is the first. Of this there&#xA;  is no doubt. The Unmanifest is the source of all the worlds as,&#xA;  indeed, that is the end of every thing. Days end with the sun's&#xA;  setting and Nights with the sun's rising. The end of pleasure is&#xA;  always sorrow, and the end of sorrow is always pleasure. All&#xA;  accumulations have exhaustion for their end, and all ascent have falls&#xA;  for their end. All associations have dissociations for their end, and&#xA;  life has death for its end. All action ends in destruction, and all&#xA;  that is born is certain to meet with death. Every mobile and immobile&#xA;  thing in this world is transient. Sacrifice, gift, penances, study,&#xA;  vows, observances,--all these have destruction for their end. Of&#xA;  Knowledge, there is no end. Hence, one that is possessed of a tranquil&#xA;  soul, that has subjugated his senses, that is freed from the sense of&#xA;  meum, that is devoid of egoism, is released from all sins by pure&#xA;  knowledge.'&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastEditorUserId="12223" LastEditDate="2017-11-14T10:26:22.213" LastActivityDate="2017-11-14T10:26:22.213" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22112" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-13T09:46:36.153" Score="-1" ViewCount="203" Body="&lt;p&gt;RigVeda is a single source of our great antiquity and still it is not fully revealed. We often quote from it as authentic as we have a complete understanding of RigVeda. But truth is that we have only partial understanding exactly like those six blind persons who were engaged in identifying an elephant and every one touching the different body parts of the elephant: each claimed he has an authentic perception of the elephant, but differently. However, for the last 100 years or so we have a great dig at RigVeda, the area  which was preserve  for few earlier. And we have come to some conclusions to which have a broader consensus among most of the scholars.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was no caste system in RigVedic period. The famous Purush Sukta is discredited as later inclusion by linguistic evidences (shabda pramana). Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism don't believe in it as well. Why should Sanatana Dharma continue this practice?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is no concept of Astika-Nastika, Avatara or of Ishwara (the Supreme Lord) in RigVeda. A position to which Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu have equal claim as different Puranas and other scriptures tell us. Buddism and other revolted against it and consequently termed as Nastika. But they heavily draw from RigVeda.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My contention here is not to respect alone but to integrate as well. If possible Hinduism would be a force in the world to reckon with. Would the divisionary forces within Hinduism allow to happen this- a broader concept of Hinduism.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-05-30T05:59:13.277" LastActivityDate="2018-05-30T05:59:13.277" Title="Is it possible to present an unified form of hinduism keeping RigVeda as a single source?" Tags="|rig-veda|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="12" ClosedDate="2017-11-14T04:12:24.050" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22113" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22112" CreationDate="2017-11-13T11:40:15.300" Score="6" Body="&lt;p&gt;Yeah, it is possible to present Riga Veda as a single source of Hinduism but it is not necessary. As I can see, Puranik tradition is the continuation of the early Vedic tradition. It was not founded to oppose Veda but to expound Veda. Hinduism, as mentioned in Puranas, is ever evolving according to the four ages.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was no caste system in RigVedic period. The famous Purush Sukta&#xA;is discredited as later inclusion by linguistic evidences (shabda&#xA;pramana). Buddhism,Jainism and Sikhism don't believe in it as well.&#xA;Why should Sanatan Sharma continue this practice?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Why should Sanatan Sharma continue this caste practice? Well because it's there in Rig Veda. Mandals 2-7 are regarded as the oldest books according to your linguistic scholars. So let me post one verse from the 4th book of Rigveda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Sa ItkshEti sudhita Okasi sE tvasmA iLA pinvatE vishwadAnIm&#xA;tasmai vishaha swayamEvA namantE yasmin BrahmA rAjaniPUrvayEti&#xA;Rigveda 4.50.8-9&#xA;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ralph T.H. Griffith's translation:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In his own house he dwells in peace and comfort: to him for ever holy food flows richly. To him the people with free will pay homage-the&#xA;King with whom the &lt;strong&gt;Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; hath precedence.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;He, unopposed, is master of the riches of his own subjects and of hostile people. The Gods uphold that King with their protection &lt;strong&gt;who&#xA;helps the Brahman&lt;/strong&gt; when he seeks his favour.&lt;/em&gt; -- Rigveda 4.50.9&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(SAyaNa's translation of Rigveda 4.50.8):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verily he abides prosperous in his own abode; for that King, the earth bears fruit in all seasons; to him his subjects (the third&#xA;class) willingly pay homage; to whom the Brahmana repairs with&#xA;reverence.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;So the claim that there's absence of caste system in Rig Veda is superficial, considering the evidences.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv04050.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Rig Veda 4.50.8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user6990" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditorDisplayName="user6990" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T14:53:09.900" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22114" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22108" CreationDate="2017-11-13T11:53:42.347" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;Once again, translation. There is no one-to-one translation of the word 'scripture'. A more exact translation of &lt;em&gt;shastra&lt;/em&gt; is 'text'. The six systems of philosophy are referred to as the six shastras - the six texts. The six shastras being the six philosophies considered 'orthodox' - the six systems that accepted the authority of the vedas - the Nyaya, Vaisesika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa, and Uttara Mimamsa (Vedanta). (See Vireswarananda's Introduction p iii - &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html&lt;/a&gt;). See also Sri Sankaraacarya's &lt;em&gt;Vivekacudamani&lt;/em&gt; verse 78 translated by Swami Madhavananda. Sankara says &quot;...even though he be versed in all the six &lt;em&gt;sastras&lt;/em&gt;.&quot; The footnote to this verse says he is referring to the six schools of Indian philosophy. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The texts - shastras - that they all follow are the vedas. Hence, the use of the English word scripture as a translation of the word shastra. Swami Vivekananda says at the start of his article entitled &quot;Krishna&quot; (Complete Works, Vol. 6):&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;By the words &quot;Shastras&quot; the Vedas without beginning and end are meant. In matters of religious duties the Vedas are the only capable authority. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Puranas and other religious scriptures are all denoted by the word 'Smriti'. And their authority goes so far as they follow the Vedas and do not contradict them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So shastra is often translated as scripture which is a referral to sruti - the vedas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="882" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T11:53:42.347" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22116" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22108" CreationDate="2017-11-13T15:09:10.123" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Self answering.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Etymologically, the word ShAstra seems to be derived from the root word &quot;ShAsana&quot; meaning &quot;to rule&quot;. So, &quot;that which rules&quot; is ShAstra. Also the &quot;Tra&quot; is derived from the word &quot;TrAna&quot; which means &quot; to protect&quot;. So. &quot;That which rules and at the same time protect&quot; is ShAstra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It rules by the fear of punishment (like-if you do this, this is the sort of punishment that you will get). And, it protects us from all demerits by giving us the knowledge which help us differentiating righteous conduct from unrighteous one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the last chapter of the KulArnava Tantram, Mother Goddess asks Lord Shiva to clarify the Artha BhAvana-s ( description of meanings) of various terminologies which are widely used in Tantra and in particular the ones that are used in the text itself.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the word ShAstra, Lord Shiva gives the following Nirukti:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;ShAsanAdanisham devi varnAshramanivAsinAm |&lt;br&gt; TAranAt sarva&#xA;  pApebhyoh ShAstra mityabhidhiyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;..............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;O Devi! Because it constantly rules (ShAsana) all dwellers of all the&#xA;  orders of life, and because it protects (TArana or TrAna) from all&#xA;  kinds of demerits, it is called ShAstra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;KulArnava Tantram 17.40.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaskararaya&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sri VidyA AchArya BhAshkara RAya&lt;/a&gt;, while commenting on &lt;strong&gt;NityAshodashikArnava Tantram 1.14-22&lt;/strong&gt;, in his treatise  &quot;Setubandha&quot;, also says &quot; that which rules is ShAstra&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And, as a definition of ShAstra, he produces the following verse:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;PravirtirvA nivritirvA nityena kritakena vA |&lt;br&gt; PumsAm&#xA;  yenopadishyeta tat shAstram bhidhiyate ||&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;.............&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The eternal ( or Nitya; referring to the Vedas) and the created (or Kritakena;&#xA;  referring to the Smritis and other such texts) [works or texts] that&#xA;  instruct men into the paths of Nivrirti and Pravirti are ShAstra-s.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;He further adds that, since Tantras are orders of God himself ( he uses- SAkshAt Bhagavada AjnA), Tantras's ShAstra-hood is already established.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I am not sure though from where he is quoting that verse because nothing is mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-11-15T06:08:27.437" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T06:08:27.437" CommentCount="10" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22117" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22096" CreationDate="2017-11-13T15:59:48.697" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;I think wikipedia is wrong in this case. Let me explain:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The closest archetype in Hinduism to the western concept of Succubus seems to be Apsaras or Water-Nymphs. Scriptures abound with examples of Apsaras distracting Rishis in their tapas by employing sexual tactics&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;. An example that springs to mind is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01073.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Viswamitra-Menaka encounter&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;1. Many a time they are sent by Gods such as Indra who fear the power/release mortals gain via Tapasya&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-11-13T16:20:49.413" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T16:20:49.413" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22118" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22105" CreationDate="2017-11-13T18:03:00.450" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;There must have been awards in competitions. From what I know there were distinctions and ranks in the army and such ranks had to be earned so one might say those were in a way a kind of awards.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Chariot warriors were given distinctions like&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;- MahiMahaRathi:&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A warrior capable of fighting 24 Atimaharathi's simultaneously.&#xA; Lord Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Kartikeya and Ganesha are Mahamaharathi's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;- AtiMahaRathi&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A warrior capable of fighting 12 Maharathi warriors simultaneously. Only Indrajit (son of Ravana) is considered as a Atimaharathi. Indrajit (Meghnad) the son of Ravana, Lord Parashurama are believed to be the only humans who ever possessed the three ultimate weapons of the trinity. At a very young age, Indrajit (Meghnada) became the possessor of several supreme celestial weapons, including Brahmanda astra, Pashupatastra and Vaishnavastra, under the guidance of Shukracharya, the Guru of the Daityas (demons). Shukracharya was a disciple of Lord Shiva. In some literature, it is said Parashuram was also a AtiMahaRathi but such claims have not really been proven as Parashuram could not defeat Bhishma&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;- MahaRathi&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A warrior capable of fighting 12 Atirathi class warriors or 720,000[citation needed] warriors simultaneously, circumspect in his mastery of all forms of weapons and combat skills. Vrishasena, Kartavirya, Bhishma, Arjuna, Abhimanyu, Lord Parashurama, Lord Krishna, Ravana, Bhagadatta, Karna, Narakasura, Guru Drona, Ashwathama, Jarasandha, Dhrishtaketu, Indra and Surya were Maharathis.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;- AtiRathi&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A warrior capable of fighting with 12 Rathi class warriors or 60,000[citation needed] warriors simultaneously. Kritavarma, Shalya, Kripacharya, Bhurisravas, Shishupala, Akampan, the Upapandavas, Satyaki, Dhrishtadyumna, Virata, Bhima, Kuntibhoja, Duryodhana, Prahasta, Angada, Somadatta and Pradyumna were Atirathi's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;- Rathi&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;warrior capable of attacking 5,000 warriors simultaneously. Sudhakshina, Jayadratha, Dussasana, Vikarna, all 97 brothers of Duryodhana, Shakuni, Yudhishtir, Bhima, Nakula, Sahadeva, Uttar, Shikhandi, Uttamaujas, etc. were Rathi's.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12546" LastActivityDate="2017-11-13T18:03:00.450" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22119" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-14T00:51:24.010" Score="1" ViewCount="146" Body="&lt;p&gt;Not all Purva Mimamsa followers believed in the existence of Brahman, but they all believed in the Jivatma.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;They also believed the verses in the Upanishads that speak of Brahman actually refer to the soul.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, the word &quot;Brahmana&quot; means 'one who knows Brahman,' but since they believed Brahman refers to the Jivatma, does this mean they thought &quot;Brahmana&quot; means one who knows the &lt;em&gt;Jivatma&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But they didn't consider self knowledge all that important, so how did this etymology affect their views?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Or perhaps there is another valid etymology of &quot;Brahmana&quot; ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastActivityDate="2017-11-14T00:51:24.010" Title="How do Purva Mimamsa followers explain the etymology of the caste word &quot;Brahmana&quot;?" Tags="|dharma|brahman|brahma-sutras|brahmins|purva-mimamsa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22120" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="45196" CreationDate="2017-11-14T00:53:53.850" Score="4" ViewCount="910" Body="&lt;p&gt;Traditionally, Chandalas and I believe even Sudras were not allowed in temples. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What was the justification for this and is it based on scriptures?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastActivityDate="2021-06-03T08:39:16.107" Title="What was the traditional justification for why Chandalas were not allowed in temples?" Tags="|temple|caste-system|varna|untouchability|shudra|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22121" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-14T04:15:51.470" Score="5" ViewCount="227" Body="&lt;p&gt;Many of us are familiar with the story of Bhagavan Krishna's birth. Specifically, when Kamsa finally arrives to kill the eighth child of Vasudeva and Devaki, the child who has taken Krishna's place, in ethereal voice, proclaims the safe arrival of Bhagavan Vishnu as Krishna avatara on Earth and announces the doom that is to befall Kamsa and then disappears.  Puranas attest that this child is none other than incarnate of Vishnu's YogamAyA. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;According to SriVaishnavam&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, Is YogamAyA identified as a Nityasuri? If not, what is the relation to Bhagavan Vishnu? Sometimes, YogamAyA is also referred to as VishnuDurga, what is the reason behind this?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note: Nityasuris are the attendants of srimannArAyaNa. They are jivAtmas like any other mukta in Paramapadam except that they have been in Moksha eternally. Some famous examples include srimannArAyaNa's weapons like ChakrathAzhwar &amp;amp; ShankAzhwar, his general Viswaksenar or SenaiMudaliar and his eternal serpent couch SheshAzhwar.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-11-14T09:32:28.107" LastActivityDate="2017-11-14T09:32:28.107" Title="Is Bhagavan Krishna's sister a Nityasuri?" Tags="|krishna|vaishnavism|sri-vaishnava|vishishtadvaita|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22122" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22103" CreationDate="2017-11-14T04:30:38.423" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/12/5&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Here&lt;/a&gt; is a chapter that you have referred; with the translation from Gaudiya vaishnav perspective.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now before i answer the main question I would like to mention that words such as:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Self, I, Atma&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are used in vedic texts to address not only individual self but also highest absolute self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are many advaita sounding verses in pancharatric texts as well, one of them is referred &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/7770/how-do-dvaitins-interpret-the-advaita-sounding-prayer-of-prahlada&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here is what Shukadev Goswami says to King Parikshit&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;My dear King, by constantly meditating upon the Supreme Lord,&#xA;  Vāsudeva, and by applying clear and logical intelligence, you should&#xA;  carefully consider your true self and how it is situated within the&#xA;  material body.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The snake-bird Takṣaka, sent by the curse of the brāhmaṇa, will not&#xA;  burn your true self. The agents of death will never burn such a master&#xA;  of the self as you, for you have already conquered all dangers on your&#xA;  path back to Godhead.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You should consider, “I am nondifferent from the Absolute Truth, the&#xA;  supreme abode, and that Absolute Truth, the supreme destination, is&#xA;  nondifferent from me.” Thus resigning yourself to the Supreme Soul,&#xA;  who is free from all material misidentifications, you will not even&#xA;  notice the snake-bird Takṣaka when he approaches with his&#xA;  poison-filled fangs and bites your foot. Nor will you see your dying&#xA;  body or the material world around you, because you will have realized&#xA;  yourself to be separate from them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The verse you have addressed in your question is in bold.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I have mentioned previous two verses to get the context. Where Sukadev Goswami establishes that soul and supersoul is distinct.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The 1st part of verse says:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;“I am nondifferent from the Absolute Truth, the supreme abode, and&#xA;  that Absolute Truth, the supreme destination, is nondifferent from&#xA;  me.”&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This part conveys that the individual self and supreme self is identical in quality.i.e. their nature is essentially the same.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;ex. A drop in ocean and ocean itself is identical in quality in a way that they both are salty and made up of water. Drop is water and ocean is also water. But they are not identical in all respects.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There is clear distinction of individual and supreme self in this verse by using the words &lt;strong&gt;&quot;ātmānam ātmany&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;(Self in Supreme self).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now coming to the second part&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Nor will you see your dying body or the material world around you,&#xA;  because you will have realized yourself to be separate from them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here the distinction is made between individual soul from the Prakriti or material. The word &quot; ātmanaḥ&quot; here refers to individual self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This translation thus preserves the vedic authority and must be accepted as authentic.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But even if someone is not willing to accept this and says that correct translation should have been:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;You will see neither Takshaka snake nor your body nor the world as&#xA;  being distinct and different from your self.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Then I reply NO, this translation is not correct because such a notion is already opposed in previous two verses.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But again if some one is reluctant to accept this then to preserve the meaning of the verse it must be understood that &quot;Self&quot; here refers to Supreme self and not individual self who is not different from prkriti and individual self in quality i.e. Brahman is a substance from which individual soul as well as matter is made; just like a drop is made up of water.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="2859" LastEditorUserId="2859" LastEditDate="2017-11-16T04:26:28.153" LastActivityDate="2017-11-16T04:26:28.153" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22126" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-14T10:46:15.010" Score="5" ViewCount="126" Body="&lt;p&gt;What is the role of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grief&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Grief&lt;/a&gt; acc. to scriptures? How is it categorised and on what basis?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do the Vedas mention any definitive relationship between the processing of grief and its consequent culminating in wisdom? If so, what do they have to say? &lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;On a related note, which vedic deities are associated with Grieving/Grief?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2017-11-14T14:07:54.107" LastActivityDate="2017-11-14T14:07:54.107" Title="What is the role of Grief according to Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|vedas|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22128" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22143" CreationDate="2017-11-14T12:21:43.387" Score="16" ViewCount="4712" Body="&lt;p&gt;The Danavas and Daityas are referred to as Asuras in the Puranas but in The Vedas many Devas are also referred as Asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;May the golden-handed, life-bestowing, well-guiding, exhilarating and affluent &lt;strong&gt;Savitri [Asura]&lt;/strong&gt; be present;&#xA;for the deity, if worshipped in &#xA;the evening, is at hand, driving away Rakshasas and Yatudhanas.(Rig Veda 1.135.10)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even Devas like Indra, Agni, Varuna, Rudra (Shiva) are often called Asuras in the Vedas especially in Rig Veda.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;So what does the word Asura mean in the Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="19001" LastEditDate="2021-08-13T10:25:51.110" LastActivityDate="2021-08-13T10:25:51.110" Title="What does the word 'Asura' mean in the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|rig-veda|asuras|vedic-gods|etymology|" AnswerCount="5" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22130" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="19713" CreationDate="2017-11-14T14:35:54.093" Score="3" Body="&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Are there reference and details of Sanat Kumaras other than the Puranas?&#xA;I can answer this part&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Sanat Kumaras are mentioned in chandogya upanishad &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01135.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;  here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nârada approached Sanatkumâra and said, 'Teach me, Sir!' Sanatkumâra said to him: 'Please to tell me what you&lt;/strong&gt; know; afterward I shall tell you what is beyond.'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;ol start=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Nârada said: 'I know the Rig-veda, Sir, the Yagur-veda, the Sâma-veda, as the fourth the Âtharvana, as the fifth the Itihâsa-purâna (the Bhârata); the Veda of the Vedas grammar); the Pitrya (the rules for the sacrifices for the ancestors); the Râsi (the science of numbers); the Daiva (the science of portents); the Nidhi (the science of time); the Vâkovâkya (logic); the Ekâyana (ethics); the Deva-vidyâ (etymology); the Brahma-vidyâ (pronunciation, sikshâ, ceremonial, kalpa, prosody, khandas); the Bhûta-vidyâ (the science of demons); the Kshatra-vidyâ&#xA;the science of weapons); the Nakshatra-vidyâ (astronomy); the Sarpa and Devagana-vidyâ (the science of serpents or poisons, and the sciences of the genii, such as the making of perfumes, dancing, singing, playing, and other fine arts) 1. All this I know, Sir.But, Sir, with all this I know the Mantras only, the sacred books, I do not know the Self. I have heard from men like you, that he who knows the Self overcomes grief. I am in grief. Do, Sir, help me over this grief of mine.'&lt;strong&gt;Sanatkumâra, said to him: 'Whatever you have read, is only a&lt;/strong&gt; name.. 'A name is the Rig-veda, Yagur-veda, Sâma-veda, and as the fourth the Âtharvana, as the fifth the Itihâsa-purâna, the Veda of the Vedas, the Pitrya, the Râsi, the Daiva, the Nidhi, the Vâkovâkya, the Ekâyana, the Deva-vidyâ, the Brahma-vidyâ, the Bhûta-vidyâ, the Kshatra-vidyâ, the Nakshatra-vidyâ, the Sarpa and Devagana-vidyâ. All these are a name only. Meditate on the name.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-14T14:35:54.093" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22132" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22153" CreationDate="2017-11-15T00:53:00.893" Score="9" ViewCount="245" Body="&lt;p&gt;Is there any way the Guru makes sure a student can properly pronounce the Vedas, has committed it to memory, and understands the concepts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Today, you will get a diploma from an accredited university, which means that you are qualified in the subject and recognized by the professors. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is there any similar concept in the traditional Vedic schooling?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Also, what does the Guru do about a student who has a speech impairment, is dyslexic, or is unable to grasp Vedic concepts or cannot memorize easily?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11726" LastActivityDate="2018-05-02T06:21:00.060" Title="Are there exams after studying the Vedas? Does the Guru make sure the student can properly pronounce the Vedas?" Tags="|vedas|philosophy|guru|teaching|" AnswerCount="2" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22133" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22139" CreationDate="2017-11-15T05:04:09.700" Score="11" ViewCount="2600" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are 4 classes in descending order: &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;BrAhmaNa&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vaishya&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Shudra&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a man of class X mates with a woman of class X, then definitely the child will inherit the class X.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;How the intermixing of 2 classes (X &amp;amp; Y) works with respect to the child's class &amp;amp; duties?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;/questions/tagged/caste-system&quot; class=&quot;post-tag&quot; title=&quot;show questions tagged &amp;#39;caste-system&amp;#39;&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;caste-system&lt;/a&gt; is not appropriate for this Qn, as we are discussing about &quot;classes&quot; and not the &quot;castes&quot;. &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/952/1049&quot;&gt;See this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update&lt;/strong&gt;: Some people may get offended due to wrong tagging in our site, so I will make a clarification here. There is a big difference between &quot;caste-system&quot; (tag available) and &quot;class-system&quot; (tag rejected). See &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11246/1049&quot;&gt;this answer&lt;/a&gt; for a detailed reference.&lt;br&gt;&#xA;In short, if we consider &quot;Bill Gates&quot; and &quot;Bill Clinton&quot; as head of their family trees, then &quot;Gates&quot; &amp;amp; &quot;Clinton&quot; are castes, however &quot;businessman&quot; and &quot;politician&quot; are classes. Some may find former as racist, however this Qn intends to discuss about the latter.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2018-04-17T07:37:48.480" LastActivityDate="2023-05-13T05:56:56.710" Title="What are the order &amp; duties of the children born from intermixing/hybridisation of 4 classes?" Tags="|caste-system|dharma-shastras|varna|children|classification|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22134" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22133" CreationDate="2017-11-15T05:29:40.673" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Note: Actually it's better, if I make a chart of all the intermixed children names &amp;amp; duties. However, I am posting this answer to make a reference elsewhere. Later depending on time &amp;amp; interest, I will be creating a chart and posting here.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The names in &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;bold&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; are the different castes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m13/m13b013.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;AnusAsana Parva&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Yudhishthira said, 'Through inducements offered by wealth, or through mere lust, or through ignorance of the true order of birth (of both males and females), or through folly, intermixture happens of the several order What, O grandsire, are the duties of persons that are born in the mixed classes and what are the acts laid down for them?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Bhishma said, 'In the beginning, the Lord of all creatures created the four orders and laid down their respective acts or duties, for the sake of sacrifice.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;The &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brahmana&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; may take four wives, one from each of the four orders. In two of them (viz., the wife taken from his own order and that taken from the one next below), he takes birth himself (the children begotten upon them being regarded as invested with the same status as his own). Those sons, however, that are begotten by him on the two spouses that belong to the next two orders (viz., Vaisya and Sudra), are inferior, their status being determined not by that of their father but by that of their mothers. The son that is begotten by a Brahmana upon a Sudra wife is called &lt;strong&gt;Parasara&lt;/strong&gt;, implying one born of a corpse, for the Sudra woman's body is as inauspicious as a corpse. He should serve the persons of his (father's) race. Indeed, it is not proper for him to give up the duty of service that has been laid down for him. Adopting all means in his power, he should uphold the burden of his family. Even if he happens to be elder in age, he should still dutifully serve the other children of his father who may be younger to him in years, and bestow upon them whatever he may succeed in earning.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kshatriya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; may take three wives. In two of them (viz., the one taken from his own order and the other that is taken from the order immediately below), he takes birth himself (so that those children are invested with the status of his own order). His third wife being of the Sudra order is regarded as very inferior. The son that he begets upon her comes to be called as an &lt;strong&gt;Ugra&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vaisya&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; may take two spouses. In both of them (viz., the one taken from his own order, and the other from the lowest of the four pure orders), he takes birth himself (so that those children become invested with the status of his own order).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sudra&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; can take only one wife, viz., she that is taken from his own order. The son begotten by him upon her becomes a Sudra.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A son that takes birth under circumstances other than those mentioned above, comes to be looked upon as a very inferior one If a person of a lower order begets a son upon a woman of a superior order&lt;/strong&gt;, such a son is regarded as outside the pale of the four pure orders. Indeed, such a son becomes on object of censure with the four principal orders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a Kshatriya begets a son upon a Brahmana woman, such a son, without being included in any of the four pure orders, comes to be regarded as a &lt;strong&gt;Suta&lt;/strong&gt; The duties of a Suta are all connected with the reciting of eulogies and encomiums of kings and other great men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The son begotten by a Vaisya upon a woman of the Brahmana order comes to be regarded as a &lt;strong&gt;Vaidehaka&lt;/strong&gt;. The duties assigned to him are the charge of bars and bolts for protecting the privacy of women of respectable households. Such sons have no cleansing rites laid down for them.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a Sudra unites with a woman belonging to the foremost of the four orders, the son that is begotten is called a &lt;strong&gt;Chandala&lt;/strong&gt;. Endued with a fierce disposition, he must live in the outskirts of cities and towns and the duty assigned to him is that of the public executioner. Such sons are always regarded as wretches of their race. These, O foremost of intelligent persons, are the offspring of intermixed orders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The son begotten by a Vaisya upon a Kshatriya woman becomes a &lt;strong&gt;Vandi or Magadha&lt;/strong&gt;. The duties assigned to him are eloquent recitations of praise.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The son begotten through transgression, by a Sudra upon a Kshatriya women, becomes a &lt;strong&gt;Nishada&lt;/strong&gt; and the duties assigned to him have reference to the catching of fish.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a Sudra happens to have intercourse with a Vaisya woman, the son begotten upon her comes to be called &lt;strong&gt;Ayogava&lt;/strong&gt;. The duty assigned to such a person are those of a Takshan (carpenter). They that are Brahmanas should never accept gifts from such a person. They are not entitled to possess any kind of wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Persons belonging to the mixed castes beget upon spouses taken from their own castes children invested with the status that is their own. When they beget children in women taken from castes that are inferior to theirs, such children become inferior to their fathers, for they become invested with the status that belongs to their mothers Thus as regards the four pure orders, persons beget children invested with their own status upon spouses taken from their own orders as also upon them that are taken from the orders immediately below their own. When, however, offspring are begotten upon other spouses, they come to be regarded as invested with a status that is, principally, outside the pale of the four pure orders. When such children beget sons in women taken from their own classes, those sons take the status of their sires. It is only when they take spouse from castes other than their own, that the children they beget become invested with inferior status. As an example of this it may be said that a Sudra begets upon a woman belonging to the most superior order a son that is outside the pale of the four orders (for such a son comes to be regarded as a Chandala who is much inferior). The son that is outside the pale of the four orders by uniting with women belonging to the four principal orders, begets offspring that are further degraded in point of status. From those outside the pale of the four orders and those again that are further outside that pale, children multiply in consequence of the union of persons with women of classes superior to their own. In this way, from persons of inferior status classes spring up, &lt;strong&gt;altogether fifteen in number, that are equally low or still lower in status&lt;/strong&gt;. It is only from sexual union of women with persons who should not have such union with them that mixed classes spring up. Among the classes that are thus outside the pale of the four principal or pure orders, children are begotten upon women belonging to the class called &lt;strong&gt;Sairindhri&lt;/strong&gt; by men of the class called Magadha. The occupation of such offspring is the adornment of the bodies of kinds and others. They are well-acquainted with the preparation of unguents, the making of wreaths, and the manufacture of articles used for the decoration of the person. Though free by the status that attaches to them by birth, they should yet lead a life of service. From the union of Magadhas of a certain class with women of the caste called Sairindhri, there springs up another caste called &lt;strong&gt;Ayogava&lt;/strong&gt;. Their occupation consists in the making of nets (for catching fish and fowl and animals of the chase). Vaidehas, by uniting themselves with women of the Sairindhri caste, beget children called &lt;strong&gt;Maireyakas&lt;/strong&gt; whose occupation consists in the manufacture of wines and spirits. From the Nishadas spring a caste called &lt;strong&gt;Madgura&lt;/strong&gt; and another known by the name of &lt;strong&gt;Dasas&lt;/strong&gt; whose occupation consists in plying boats. From the Chandala springs a race called &lt;strong&gt;Swapaka&lt;/strong&gt; whose occupation consists in keeping guard over the dead. The women of the Magadhi caste, by union with these four castes of wicked dispositions produce four others who live by practising deceit. These are &lt;strong&gt;Mansa, Swadukara, Kshaudra, and Saugandha&lt;/strong&gt;. From the Vaideha springs up a cruel and sinful caste that lives by practising deception. From the Nishadas again springs up the &lt;strong&gt;Madranabha&lt;/strong&gt; caste whose members are seen to ride on cars drawn by asses. From the Chandalas springs up the caste called Pukkasa whose members are seen to eat the flesh of asses, horses and elephants. These cover themselves with the garments obtained by stripping human corpses. They are again seen to eat from broken earthenware These three castes of very low status are born of women of the Ayogava caste (by fathers taken from different castes). The caste called Kshudra springs from the Vaidehaka. The caste called Andhra which takes up its residence in the outskirts of towns and cities, also springs up (from the Vaidehakas). Then again the &lt;strong&gt;Charmakara&lt;/strong&gt;, uniting himself with a woman of Nishada caste, begets the class called &lt;strong&gt;Karavara&lt;/strong&gt;. From the Chandala again springs up the caste known by the name of &lt;strong&gt;Pandusaupaka&lt;/strong&gt; whose occupation consists in making baskets and other things with cleft bamboos. From the union of the Nishada with a woman of the Vaidehi caste springs one who is called by the name of &lt;strong&gt;Ahindaka&lt;/strong&gt;. The Chandala begets upon a Saupaka woman, a son that does not differ from the Chandala in status or occupation. A Nishada woman, by union with a Chandala, brings forth a son who lives in the outskirts of villages and towns. Indeed, the members of such a caste live in crematoria and are regarded by the very lowest orders as incapable of being numbered among them. Thus to these mixed castes spring up from improper and sinful union of fathers and mothers belonging to different castes. Whether they live in concealment or openly, they should be known by their occupations. &lt;strong&gt;The duties have been laid down in the scriptures for only the four principal orders. As regards the others the scriptures are entirely silent.&lt;/strong&gt; Among all the orders, the members of those castes that have no duties assigned to them by the scriptures, need have no fears as to what they do (to earn their livelihood).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Overall it's recommended Not to let the marriage happen among unauthorised combination for the good of society.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T05:46:56.217" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22135" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22128" CreationDate="2017-11-15T05:54:12.537" Score="13" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C4%81ska&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Yāska&lt;/a&gt; in 7th century BCE analysed/interpreted the Vedas. He is the first known grammarian which traced the meaning of Vedic words. He provided various meaning of Asura in his work &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/nighantuniruktao00yaskuoft&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Nirukta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. &lt;em&gt;a-su-rata&lt;/em&gt; &gt; &lt;em&gt;a (na) su (susthu) ra (rata) sthanesu&lt;/em&gt; 'not fixed at one place' or 'not very happy'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. &lt;em&gt;as&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(√as 'to throw')&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;-u-ra&lt;/em&gt; 'thrown out or striped out from their place'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. &lt;em&gt;asu + ra&lt;/em&gt; 'possessed of breath'&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. &lt;em&gt;a (na) - su (good) -ra&lt;/em&gt; 'born out of evil'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5. &lt;em&gt;(v)-asurtva &gt; vasurtva&lt;/em&gt; 'possessor of water/wealth'&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Outside samhita text Asura only has negative connotation. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T05:54:12.537" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22136" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="7093" CreationDate="2017-11-15T05:56:14.087" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;One must understand that the created world cannot be in a singular state. There are multiple cycles within cycles. The larger cycles are with respect to the divine and determines how much of percentage of the divine can one be born with which will also determine how much one can understand the divine. The smaller cycles will determine the type of environment or mind space one gets to experience. For example, if you are in a war zone it is Kali yuga, if you are sitting in a temple you are in Treta Yuga. If you are quietly meditating you are definitely  in Satya Yuga. If you blame others for your follies you are in Kali Yuga. If you take responsibility and understand that the solution to your problems lies within you are in satya yuga. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In the below link Bhishma Pitamahan is explaing to Yudishtir about the Yuga.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/22028/12223&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/22028/12223&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The below link gives what Sri Krishna explains yuga during Mahabharata war.&#xA;&lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21454/12223&quot;&gt;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/21454/12223&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12223" LastEditorUserId="277" LastEditDate="2019-02-24T12:44:18.940" LastActivityDate="2019-02-24T12:44:18.940" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22137" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-15T05:59:35.507" Score="8" ViewCount="4555" Body="&lt;p&gt;There is a popular &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/bIl3MQ2tOns?t=70&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Zee News video circulated around&lt;/a&gt; claiming that burning bamboo sticks are prohibited in Hindu religion. That video also shows how harmful it can be for the environment inside the house.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;But I want to know which scripture said that? And does that scripture mention any reason for it? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="76" LastEditorUserId="76" LastEditDate="2019-02-21T18:19:23.940" LastActivityDate="2021-08-20T07:01:20.123" Title="Is burning bamboo sticks really prohibited in Hinduism?" Tags="|scripture|rituals|puja|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22138" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="21299" CreationDate="2017-11-15T06:07:42.587" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;, it's likely to be true.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Short answer&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;em&gt;ChAndAla&lt;/em&gt;-s are not allowed within the city limit, let alone the temples.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;&lt;strong&gt;Note&lt;/strong&gt;: We are talking about god's idol here and Not god. Refer the analogy for better interpretation.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Ancient Indian culture was highly relying on vibes and aura, based on which Certain things are auspicious &amp;amp; inauspicious.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;ChAndAla &amp;amp; their social role&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Refer this post: &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/22133/1049&quot;&gt;What are the order &amp;amp; duties of the children born from intermixing/hybridisation of 4 classes?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If a &lt;strong&gt;Sudra unites with a [Brahmana] woman&lt;/strong&gt; belonging to the foremost of the four orders, the son that is begotten is called a &lt;strong&gt;Chandala&lt;/strong&gt;. Endued with a fierce disposition, &lt;strong&gt;he must live in the outskirts of cities and towns and the duty assigned to him is that of the public executioner&lt;/strong&gt;. Such sons are &lt;strong&gt;always regarded as wretches&lt;/strong&gt; of their race. These, O foremost of intelligent persons, are the offspring of intermixed orders.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From above, it's clear that ChAndAla-s are usually outcasted from soceity (if not outlawed) &amp;amp; mostly they are not welcomed within the town limit itself.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;If temple's idol is revered by several society people then certainly when a &lt;em&gt;ChAndAla&lt;/em&gt; touches it, it's more likely to bring those inauspicious vibes he/she carries along. The idol may loose its original auspicious aura in front of devotees [once they know].&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;hr /&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Analogy&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If one earns a degree from a reputed institute, then he/she may not want to give that certificate paper in a dirty/careless hands. The memento of that degree in form of certificate, means a lot for the achiever.&lt;br /&gt;&#xA;However, suppose if the certificate is lost or got dirty, even then the education earned by that person will remain intact.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A realised person (including the lord) doesn't differentiate among various subjects of society:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;BG 5.18 - The learned ones look with equality on a Brahmana endowed with learning and humility, a cow, an elephant and even a dog as well as ChAndAla.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="1049" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T11:25:26.197" CommentCount="4" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22139" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22133" CreationDate="2017-11-15T06:31:38.003" Score="9" Body="&lt;p&gt;First of all, the sons who are born out of proscribed marriages will not belong to any of the 4 castes (varna-s). As there is no 5th caste, they all will belong to the unknown caste or the out-cast. But they have different names so that they can be differentiated.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.4. Brahmana, the Kshatriya, and the Vaisya castes (varna) are the twice-born ones, but the fourth, the Sudra, has one birth only; there&#xA;  is no fifth (caste).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Secondly, this topic is already dealt with in great detail in the Manu Smriti. See the following collection of verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.8. From a Brahmana a with the daughter of a Vaisya is born (a son) called an Ambashtha, with the daughter of a sudra a Nishada, who is&#xA;  also called Parasava.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.9. From a Kshatriya and the daughter of a Sudra springs a being, called Ugra, resembling both a Kshatriya and a Sudra, ferocious in his&#xA;  manners, and delighting in cruelty&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.10. Children of a Brahmana by (women of) the three (lower) castes, of a Kshatriya by (wives of) the two (lower) castes, and of a Vaisya&#xA;  by (a wife of) the one caste (below him) are all six called base-born&#xA;  (apasada).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.11. From a Kshatriya by the daughter of a Brahmana is born (a son called) according to his caste (gati) a Suta; from a Vaisya by females&#xA;  of the royal and the Brahmana (castes) spring a Magadha and a Vaideha.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.12. From a Sudra are born an Ayogava, a Kshattri, and a Kandala, the lowest of men, by Vaisya, Kshatriya, and Brahmana) females, (sons&#xA;  who owe their origin to) a confusion of the castes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.13. As an Ambashtha and an Ugra, (begotten) in the direct order on (women) one degree lower (than their husbands) are declared (to be),&#xA;  even so are a Kshattri and a Vaidehaka, though they were born in the&#xA;  inverse order of the castes (from mothers one degree higher than the&#xA;  fathers).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.14. Those sons of the twice-born, begotten on wives of the next lower castes, who have been enumerated in due order, they call by the&#xA;  name Anantaras (belonging to the next lower caste), on account of the&#xA;  blemish (inherent) in their mothers.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.15. A Brahmana begets on the daughter of an Ugra an Avrita, on the daughter of an Ambashtha an Abhira, but on a female of the Ayogava&#xA;  (caste) a Dhigvana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.16. From a Sudra spring in the inverse order (by females of the higher castes) three base-born (sons, apasada), an Ayogava, a&#xA;  Kshattri, and a Kandala, the lowest of men;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.17. From a Vaisya are born in the inverse order of the castes a Magadha and a Vaideha, but from a Kshatriya a Suta only; these are&#xA;  three other base-born ones (apasada).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.18. The son of a Nishada by a Sudra female becomes a Pukkasa by caste (jati), but the son of a Sudra by a Nishada female is declared&#xA;  to be a Kukkutaka.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.19. Moreover, the son of by Kshattri by an Ugra female is called a Svapaka; but one begotten by a Vaidehaka on an Ambashtha female is&#xA;  named a Vena.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Some occupations are mentioned in the following verses:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.32. A Dasyu begets on an Ayogava (woman) a Sairandhra, who is skilled in adorning and attending (his master), who, (though) not a&#xA;  slave, lives like a slave, (or) subsists by snaring (animals).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.33. A Vaideha produces (with the same) a sweet-voiced Maitreyaka, who, ringing a bell at the appearance of dawn, continually. praises&#xA;  (great) men.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.34. A Nishada begets (on the same) a Margava (or) Dasa, who subsists by working as a boatman, (and) whom the inhabitants of&#xA;  Aryavarta call a Kaivarta.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.35. Those three base-born ones are severally begot on Ayogava women, who wear the clothes of the dead, are wicked, and eat&#xA;  reprehensible food.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;In general, for all practical purposes, they can be treated as a Sudra. So, they can betake the jobs which are prescribed for the Sudras in the scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;10.41. Six sons, begotten (by Aryans) on women of equal and the next lower castes (Anantara), have the duties of twice-born men; &lt;strong&gt;but all&#xA;  those born in consequence of a violation (of the law) are, as regards&#xA;  their duties, equal to Sudras.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;All verses are from the Manu Smriti.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-11-15T06:39:26.593" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T06:39:26.593" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22140" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22145" CreationDate="2017-11-15T08:24:35.200" Score="4" ViewCount="2133" Body="&lt;p&gt;Here, by &quot; Atheist&quot; i mean a person who does not have faith in God or one who does not even believe in his existence. One who does not care for religious instructions, religious scriptures etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My own horoscope have some combination, for example, which is supposed to make me an &quot;Adrishta VAdi&quot; or &quot;one who believes in Destiny as an all-powerful entity&quot;. And, i am exactly like that.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Likewise, i want to know:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question: What are the astrological combinations in a horoscope that predict that the subject (jAtaka) will be atheistically inclined?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note 1) I am looking for planetary combinations along with their names (for eg- Kemadruma, BudhAditya, Gajakesari etc are some names of such combinations).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Looking for, some placements or combinations like malefics placed or aspecting the 5th house (known as the place of mind), the 9th house (known as the Dharma SthAna, the place of Dharma) etc. Or the RAhu-Ketu axis being placed on 1-7 houses, or 5-11 or 3-9 houses etc.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Note 2) I am looking for answers citing some authoritative Jyotisha scriptures only. I am &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; looking for answers that quote from random blog-spots.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My purpose here is- If we can get to the root of the problem beforehand, then may be we can tackle it by using the remedy-tools that Jyotisha prescribe.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="2995" LastEditDate="2017-11-15T15:59:22.977" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T22:28:53.300" Title="What are the astrological combinations in a horoscope that predict the subject will be atheistically inclined?" Tags="|astrology|atheism|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22141" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22128" CreationDate="2017-11-15T11:17:18.880" Score="4" Body="&lt;p&gt;' mahat devanam asuratva ekam' is a couplet repeated at the end of every hymn of the verse RV.3.55.(1-22). The entire verse is devoted to Agni.At first I could not understand why Rishi is refering to Deva and Asur. Then the concept of poetic analysis came to my mind,according to which a poet wants to emphasise the main theme by repeating. And in this sense it becomes clear what Rishi wants to tell us - Agni is known as Deva by many names such as Apam Napat, Matrishwa, Vaishwanar etc, but as Asura he is only one i.e. Sun. Thus the meaning of Asura here is Sun. In the hymn RV.3.29(14) Agni is said to be born from the abdomen of Asura (yat Asurasya jattarat ajayat).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One more verse of Rig Veda RV.10.92.6 indicates that the term Asura mean 'Sun'- &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;krAnA rudrA maruto vishva kristyo divah shyanAso asursya nilayah&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;meaning-  RudrA Maruts speedly reach to the farmers of the world, as the eagles move in the blue sky of Asura i.e. Sun.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The epithet of Sun is given to important gods like Yama, Varuna and Indra etc. For example Indra is compared with Sun at many places in RigVeda but in the hymn RV.1.131(1) he is called Asura of this world (Indraya hi dhyo Asura). Asura as Sun is also described in the hymn RV.1.35 (7) &quot; vi suparno antrikshanya akhyad gabhir vepa Asurah sunithah&quot; (there at the horizon speaking with serious quiver/vibration Sun with golden wings (suparno Ashura) gives good guidance).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was a cult of Sun worshiping before the emergence of 'fire cult' and followers of earlier cult were called as Asura. This distinction can be seen in RigVeda itself in the hymn RV.1.123(3) &quot;devo no atra Savita damuna anagaso vochati Surya&quot; (our god here is Savita (Sun) in villages Nagas  call it Surya).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There was some historical development which changed the meaning of Asura in the later scripture. However the traces of brilliant craftmanship of Asura we find even in Mahabharata e.g. Mayasur.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12348" LastEditorUserId="12348" LastEditDate="2018-10-13T15:52:28.540" LastActivityDate="2018-10-13T15:52:28.540" CommentCount="5" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 4.0" />
  <row Id="22142" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-15T11:24:14.657" Score="4" ViewCount="657" Body="&lt;p&gt;We all know that Kripa is a chiranjevi.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;From a famous preacher I heard that Kripa exists in Himalayas and is known to many people. Is it true?  &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Any evidence regarding this from Hindu texts?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="661" LastEditorUserId="661" LastEditDate="2021-06-19T16:33:25.923" LastActivityDate="2021-06-19T16:33:25.923" Title="Is it true that Kripa is in Himalayas?" Tags="|mahabharata|kripa|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22143" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22128" CreationDate="2017-11-15T12:42:37.183" Score="10" Body="&lt;p&gt;The word Asura has  2 meanings in the text Rig Veda &#xA;In positive sense and negative sense.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The word asa means breath and the word Asura would mean who has his strength in the breath or who is the possessed of breath (the meaning given by yaksha nirukta).That means an asura is someone who is posser of breath that he could perform Great actions by his power or a very powerful supreme Being.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;For they are &lt;strong&gt;Asuras&lt;/strong&gt; of Gods, the friendly make, both of you, our lands exceeding fruitful.(Rig Veda 7.65.2)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Varuna Mirta as called asuras as they are very powerful beings and similiarly powerful  deities like Rudra(Shiva),Indra,Agni have been called asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Asuras in negative sense is also discribed in vedas like yajur Veda tattireya samhita kanda 2 Prapathaka 4.3&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;gods&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;Asuras&lt;/strong&gt; were in conflict; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Gods means devas and yajurveda provides further detail of the fight between devas and asuras.also in Rigveda asuras have negative meaning like&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;BRING song and hymn to Agni, &lt;strong&gt;Asura-slayer, enlightener of all and thought&lt;/strong&gt;-bestower.(Rig Veda 7.13.1)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Agni deva has called the asuravan which means asura slayer &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;This prelude of my speech I now will utter, whereby we Gods may quell our &lt;strong&gt;Asura foemen.&lt;/strong&gt;(Rig Veda 10.53.4)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Agni deva says that may we defeat our foeman that is the asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Radiant, as high Truth, cherished, best at winning strength, Truth based upon the statute that supports the heavens,&#xA;  He rose, a light, that kills Vṛtras &lt;strong&gt;and enemies, best slayer of the Dasyus, Asuras, and foes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Here Surya deva has said to slay the Asuras.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Finally,the word 'Asura' in the Vedas means possessed of breath or  very powerfull beings and it also means the diffearent class of beings who quarell with the Devas as discribed in Brahmans and Puranas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="11510" LastEditorDisplayName="user9554" LastEditDate="2017-11-15T13:36:12.940" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T13:36:12.940" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22144" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22151" CreationDate="2017-11-15T15:01:27.087" Score="3" ViewCount="162" Body="&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUf6LeJS6ao&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; the boy is performing the act of Achamanam while sitting in a particular posture.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What is this Yogic posture called?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Is it the MridvAsana? (Sandhi: Mridu+Asana; with Mridu meaning soft). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;NOTE: I have found mention of MridvAsana in scriptures.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4732" LastEditorUserId="4732" LastEditDate="2017-11-16T05:25:14.357" LastActivityDate="2017-11-16T05:25:14.357" Title="What is this (Yogic) posture called?" Tags="|yoga|identification-request|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="11" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22145" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22140" CreationDate="2017-11-15T15:35:59.447" Score="1" Body="&lt;p&gt;Usually afflictions guru with rahu like guru chAnDAla yoga can make a person atheists.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;It could be partial or full atheism. I would add references in upcoming days.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Whenever you consider about Guru chandala Yoga always take notice of&#xA;  the condition of the fifth and ninth house. If that is not bad then&#xA;  Guru chandala loses much of its strength and maleficity. Also Jupiter&#xA;  in nodal axis always cannot be regarded as bad. It can mean host of&#xA;  things. Say, untraditional approach towards spiritual matters or a&#xA;  person who does not believe in spirituality blindly he has strong&#xA;  scientific bent of mind in every matter. Rahu defines hidden things&#xA;  and Jupiter spirituality combine the both and you may get the complete&#xA;  different meaning of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.lightonvedicastrology.com/wordpress/phpBB_3.1/viewtopic.php?f=4&amp;amp;t=1538&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;guru chandala yoga.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Jupiter and Rahu Every planet has both positive and negative traits.&#xA;  Here the positive traits of Rahu when combined with Jupiter may make a&#xA;  person interested in ancient philosophical lore, occultism etc. and&#xA;  may make him follow all the external religious customs and duties. The&#xA;  negative traits may make him a Kshudra Mantrika or he may become&#xA;  addicted to vices. The native may become even a Naastika&#xA;  (&lt;strong&gt;atheist&lt;/strong&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The results of Guru Chandala Yoga are given in most texts. The name of&#xA;  the Yoga itself suggests that the native will be a Chandala or a&#xA;  Neechakrit which mean that he will be an outcaste and will do very&#xA;  mean acts. In my experience, Guru Chandala Yoga is found to show the&#xA;  following results :&#xA;  1. The native may became an agnostic or an atheist denying the existence of God.&#xA;  2. The native may become a religious bigot hating other religions and extremely orthodox as far as his own religion is concerned.&#xA;  3. The native may become interested in Kshudra Mantras and thereby earn money by black magic and other unorthodox means.&#xA;  4. The native may be well versed in Vedas and Mantra Sastra and also religiously inclined, but he may be addicted to smoking, alcohol and&#xA;  other vices.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://gururajeshkotekal.blogspot.ca/2016/06/this-was-probably-my-first-article.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="7853" LastEditDate="2017-11-15T22:28:53.300" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T22:28:53.300" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22146" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22161" CreationDate="2017-11-15T16:37:04.843" Score="5" ViewCount="749" Body="&lt;p&gt;Rigveda I.32 gives a detailed account of famous Indra and Vritra battle. After killing Vritra and his mother Danu, however, Indra flees the battle scene.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I.32&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;14&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Whom did you see, Indra, as the avenger of the serpent when fear came&#xA;  into your heart after you smashed him, and when you crossed over the&#xA;  ninety-nine flowing rivers, like a frightened falcon through the airy&#xA;  realms?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now, IV.18 might give one hint why did he flee because after he &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/19847/did-indra-kill-his-father-by-throwing-him-down-from-heaven&quot;&gt;killed his father&lt;/a&gt; someone was about to dishonor his mother&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;IV.18&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;ol start=&quot;11&quot;&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;And his mother followed the track of the buffalo, (thinking,) “Yonder gods are abandoning you, my son.” Then Indra said as he was&#xA;  about to smash Vritra: “Viṣṇu, my companion, stride out widely.”&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;Who made your mother a widow? Who tried to smash you as you lay, as you wandered? What god was merciful toward you when you destroyed&#xA;  your father, having grasped him by the foot?&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;li&gt;[Indra:] Out of need I cooked for myself the entrails of a dog. I found none who was merciful among the gods. I saw his wife being&#xA;  dishonored. Then the falcon carried the honey here to me.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;  &lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I suppose, Indra became weak and started to lose his strength that's why he cooked dog meat. He gained strength after drinking the Soma stolen by the falcon from the heaven which I asked &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/21858/what-is-the-story-of-krishanu-the-archer&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Now here is what I want to ask if we have puranic accounts of:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Do we know in details what made Indra fleed the battle scene since he was a winner&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;Out of need, why did he cook dog meat. Is there any significance here.&lt;/li&gt;&#xA;&lt;/ol&gt;&#xA;" OwnerDisplayName="user12262" LastActivityDate="2018-06-09T02:13:53.420" Title="Why did Indra flee after slaying Vritra and why did he cook dog meat?" Tags="|rig-veda|indra|" AnswerCount="3" CommentCount="3" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22147" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="574" CreationDate="2017-11-15T17:21:48.393" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;I feel that these ancient tales had numerous metaphors. And so asking for thumb is not about literal thumb. Symbolically the thumb represents the ego and also agni tattva which Ekalavya was exhibiting in excess. This is why Drona, a very high calibre guru metaphorically 'cut' it. In those days there was varnashram which is very different from caste system of our kali yug times. Just because we have been taught to say that everyone related to Kauravas is 'villain' does not mean we have to take this literally. Their calibre was to high for us to even imagine today as our lifestyles are not remotely similar. &#xA;In those days, everyone lived in vanas, which cannot be translated as wild jungle all the time. We live in cities which too have certain safe and certain danger areas. They preferred to wisely preserve their ecology and oshadhi vanas. These obviously required constant protection and care. Those selected to do so were known as Nishad (among others like Shabar). Kshatriyas meant being leaders of warriors(given in dictionary). Arjuna etc. were leaders, Ekalavya etc. were junior warriors so not authorised to do certain tasks. This are intricacies of their law, that we cannot possibly understand today. It was not about Arjun's jealously or caste discrimination. Even today there are rules everywhere that juniors cannot do certain things in their organisation even if they are talented. We cannot get access to senior managers' passwords, files etc. even if we are also educated. That is not discrimination. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="12531" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T17:21:48.393" CommentCount="12" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22149" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-15T18:51:56.350" Score="1" ViewCount="156" Body="&lt;p&gt;A category of experiments called &lt;a href=&quot;https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thought-experiment/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thought Experiments&lt;/a&gt; are considered doyens among the pillars that support and exemplify process of Enquiry. Some of the examples include &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Schrodinger's Cat in a box&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno%27s_paradoxes#Achilles_and_the_tortoise&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Zeno's paradox&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/Chasing_final.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Einstein's Chasing a beam of light&lt;/a&gt; and some lesser known ones such as &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demon&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Maxwell's Demon&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_in_a_vat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Brain-in-a-vat&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Ship of Theseus&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Prisoner's Dilemma&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;This leads to the obvious question: What are some of the exemplars of specific thought experiments that have been devised historically &lt;strong&gt;within Hinduism&lt;/strong&gt; that unequivocally reveal and/or justify specific ideas of Vedas?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="8635" LastEditorUserId="8635" LastEditDate="2017-11-17T12:05:52.057" LastActivityDate="2017-11-17T12:05:52.057" Title="What are some early exemplars of thought experiments in Hindu scriptures?" Tags="|vedas|meditation|" AnswerCount="0" CommentCount="8" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22151" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22144" CreationDate="2017-11-15T21:49:19.483" Score="3" Body="&lt;p&gt;They call it the Kukkuta-Asana which is used while sipping the water. However, I feel that it is some kind of modification of that asana or a variant. Actual kukkutAsana is little difficult to do and both arms are engaged while doing it. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Quotes from ParamAchArya lecture, &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;Achamana should always  be performed  sitting on the  clean ground .&#xA;  The posture  unlike other rituals  is not on the lotus pose  but&#xA;  Kukkuta (cock pose) , i.e  sitting down  on the  soles of the feet .It&#xA;  is done always facing  the north   or east., The hands of   the person&#xA;  doing it should  be in between his knees. The water   taken in the&#xA;  hand should be pure, should not be hot nor scented and should not have&#xA;  been touched  by hands. The right hand should be kept in such a way&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  that  forefinger  , middle finger  and  ring finger   are together&lt;br&gt;&#xA;  and slightly bent upwards. The little finger and thumb should be&#xA;  separated from these  three  fingers. Using the sacrificial spoon &#xA;  (Udharani)   water should be taken by the   left hand and poured  in&#xA;  the right hand. The water  thus poured should be held just  below the&#xA;  thumb.&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://brahminrituals.blogspot.ca/2016/06/achamanam-procedure-of-purification.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;Reference&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T21:49:19.483" CommentCount="2" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22152" PostTypeId="1" CreationDate="2017-11-15T21:58:18.623" Score="6" ViewCount="914" Body="&lt;p&gt;Regarding the vaishnava philosopher rAmAnuja and his life, we find some stories,&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We find that he had conflicting views with his wife in some areas. But were they so severe enough to abandon his wife? &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On what grounds did he actually abandon his wife? (as per his biography)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is it a righteous deed as per dharma?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;What were the other reasons (if any) ?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastEditorUserId="5212" LastEditDate="2017-11-18T04:40:19.003" LastActivityDate="2017-11-18T19:39:12.507" Title="Did Rāmānuja abandon his wife? If yes, on what grounds?" Tags="|dharma|sri-vaishnava|ramanujacharya|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="7" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22153" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22132" CreationDate="2017-11-15T22:15:45.277" Score="5" Body="&lt;p&gt;In the gurukulam i.e Vedic pAthashAla in this case, there is a sequential method of learning vedas. The focus is mainly on chanting/reciting them as per the proper siksha (part of vedAnga). &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Periodical exams are conducted at the paathashaala in order to ascertain the progress of students. After checking the fluency in chanting they are promoted to the next level of chanting and so on. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The various pathas or recitation styles are designed to allow the&#xA;  complete and perfect memorization of the text and its pronunciation,&#xA;  including the Vedic pitch accent. Eleven such ways of reciting the&#xA;  &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_chant&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Vedas&lt;/a&gt; were designed - &lt;strong&gt;Samhita, Pada, Krama, Jata, Maalaa, Sikha,&#xA;  Rekha, Dhwaja, Danda, Rathaa, Ghana, of which Ghana is usually&#xA;  considered the most difficult.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The students are first taught to memorize the Vedas using simpler&#xA;  methods like continuous recitation (samhita patha), word by word&#xA;  recitation (pada patha) in which compounds (sandhi) are dissolved and&#xA;  krama patha (words are arranged in the pattern of ab bc cd ...);&#xA;  before teaching them the eight complex recitation styles.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;A pathin is a scholar who has mastered the pathas. Thus, a&#xA;  ghanapaathin has learnt the chanting of the scripture up to the&#xA;  advanced stage of ghana. The Ghanapatha  mode of chanting is so called&#xA;  because the words are repeated back and forth in a bell shape. The&#xA;  sonority natural to Vedic chanting is enhanced in Ghana. In Jatapatha,&#xA;  the words are braided together, so to speak, and recited back and&#xA;  forth.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The samhita, pada and krama pathas can be described as the natural&#xA;  recitation styles or prakrutipathas. The remaining 8 modes of chanting&#xA;  are classified as complex recitation styles or Vikrutipathas as they&#xA;  involve reversing of the word order. The backward chanting of words&#xA;  does not alter the meanings in the Vedic (Sanskrit) language.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Apart from this they also have other lessons like purAnas and vedAngas including vyakarana (grammar). So those not able to chant vedas could learn other shastras where chanting is not necessary. &lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Even today the vedic gurukulas have exams and they have topper (gold medalist) etc. I know a person in Bombay who was topper in his class while learning samhita. After completing the studies they are awarded the respective certificates.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="7853" LastActivityDate="2017-11-15T22:15:45.277" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22154" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="17498" CreationDate="2017-11-16T04:19:25.450" Score="2" Body="&lt;p&gt;A mantra should be taken from a Guru. If you read it and started chanting is good but dont stop there. Keep chanting it  but meanwhile seek some good Guru who can give you an authentic diksha of this mantra. There are rules of place, hygiene time etc. for japa on a rosary but there are no rules for mansik japa(reciting mantra in mind only without using a rosary). A japa is compared to a Yagya(sacred fire). God says in Geeta that '&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;'Yagyanam japayagyo asmi'&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Japa is a Yagya where the one who chants burns his Agyana and Papa Karmas.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;If you wish to experience the effects of japa do an Anushthana. Multiply the number of letters in a mantra by 1 lac. You will get a number. Chanting the mantra for that much time completes the Anushthana.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;One should take a saltless diet during an Anushthana ,must sleep on a floor, observe silence and follow celibacy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Hope this helps. May lord Vishnu bless us! :)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="4103" LastEditorUserId="-1" LastEditDate="2020-06-17T08:59:28.163" LastActivityDate="2017-11-17T14:14:10.333" CommentCount="0" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22155" PostTypeId="1" AcceptedAnswerId="22156" CreationDate="2017-11-16T05:20:17.107" Score="5" ViewCount="360" Body="&lt;p&gt;There are two kinds of schools of Indian philosophy, Astika and Nastika. Astikas accept the authority of the Vedas, whereas Nastikas reject the authority of the Vedas. The Astika schools are part of Hinduism, while the Nastika schools fall under the broader category of Dharmic faiths. Now there are six Astika schools: Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva Mimamsa, and Vedanta. (They're all dead other than the Vedanta school, which encompasses most Hindus today as I discuss &lt;a href=&quot;https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3193/36&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;My question is, what is the material cause of the Universe according to the different Astika schools?  For those who don't know, the material cause of something is the substance it's made of.  For instance, the material cause of a clay pot is clay.  So what do the different Astika schools think the Universe is made of?&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;" OwnerUserId="36" LastEditorUserId="36" LastEditDate="2018-01-18T21:57:44.297" LastActivityDate="2018-01-18T21:57:44.297" Title="What do the different Astika schools think the Universe is made of?" Tags="|philosophy|brahman|shad-darshana|" AnswerCount="1" CommentCount="1" ContentLicense="CC BY-SA 3.0" />
  <row Id="22156" PostTypeId="2" ParentId="22155" CreationDate="2017-11-16T05:20:17.107" Score="7" Body="&lt;p&gt;Let me address each of the six Astika schools:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;ol&gt;&#xA;&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samkhya&lt;/strong&gt;: The Samkhya school believed that an unintelligent substance called Prakriti is the material cause of the Universe.   Here is what Ishwara Krishna says in verse 16 of the Samkhya Karika:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA;  &lt;p&gt;kāraṇam asti avyaktaṃ pravartate triguṇataḥ samudayāt ca &lt;br&gt;&#xA;  pariṇāmataḥ salilavat pratiprattiguṇāśrayaviśeṣāt&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;  &#xA;  &lt;p&gt;The Unmanifest as the cause does exist. It functions through the three Attributes by combining and by modification, like water, due to the particular characteristics of the abode of each of the Attributes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;And &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.universaltheosophy.com/sacred-texts/samkhya-karika/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;here